The Atlas crew has been torn apart. Most have ETS'd or left the military due to injuries incurred in line of duty. Of the original crew, only a handful remain. Trauma and shared pain have begun to drive apart the surviving members of Echo-Five-Actual. The Atlas Crew, mostly wiped out in a deadly explosion the year before, is fragmenting as promotions, replacements, and drop on requests have left the crew with more new faces than old. Those who remain of Echo-Five-Actual have been split into different work crews, promoted, ETS's, left due to injuries, or died.
Accidents and a coordinated strike by the KGB have wreaked havoc on III CosCom, VII Corps and V Corps ability to wage war if the Soviet Union decides to invade Western Europe, and this has hit 2/19th hard. With most of the effective and experienced members dead, missing, or in the hospital, 2/19th's chain of command is shattered and people have slipped through the cracks.
Including Stillwater, who is trapped, alone, on the mountain. And Cromwell, who is locked in the War Fighter Tunnels with 18 women, 7 of them pregnant, three infants, and two male soldiers undergoing chapters to put them out of the military.
Bomber and Nagle are hospitalized, having barely survived the attacks that killed many other members of the unit. Bomber is comatose, the bullet meant to kill him trapping him in memories and dreams of the past. Nagle is in ICU, unable to speak after having been shot through the throat.
Now, they don't even have each other.
And nobody is coming to the rescue.
Author's Note: Thanks to Twitter user @tikibomber for providing me with a Gaelic/English dictionary. http://www.focloir.ie/All Rights Reserved