Chapter 231: The Command Center - II

"Command Adjutant?"

"Yes, Commander."

Dianne Santiago stopped a short distance in front of him while the rest of the headquarters staff continued working around them.

"All right. How does this work in practice?"

"I keep track of what needs your attention, what can be handled below you and anything you’ve left pending. I also maintain your schedule and prepare whatever you need before meetings or briefings."

Hans considered that.

"In a less complicated way, my secretary."

"...Yes."

The staff themselves raised another question.

"You’re all physical?"

"Yes, Commander."

Hans looked between her and the nearest workstations.

"What happens if you die?"

A System panel appeared before Dianne could answer.

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[ Facility Personnel Replacement ]

[ Command Adjutant and Headquarters Staff ]

Personnel losses are permanent.

Vacant facility positions may be replaced through the nearest available operational Barracks. Replacement Gold is deducted when training is queued.

[ Automatic Staff Replacement ]

Currently Disabled. May be enabled by Commander authorization.

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Hans stared at the last part.

"So if I turn that on, you’ll spend my Gold without asking me every time?"

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[ Within authorized replacement requirements. ]

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He left it disabled for now.

Replacing headquarters personnel automatically would probably become useful once he had several Command Centers spread across different regions, but he was not authorizing automatic spending before seeing what those replacements actually cost.

Another possibility occurred to him.

"What about civilians? Could I eventually put normal people in these positions?"

Dianne answered this time.

"Authenticated non-System personnel may enter authorized sections of the Command Center if you grant them access. Registered headquarters staffing is currently restricted."

The System added the rest.

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[ Non-System Headquarters Staffing ]

[ Currently locked. ]

[ Alternative Personnel Source unavailable. ]

[ Requirement information unavailable. ]

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Hans waited for another line but nothing appeared.

"Yeah, that’s a very comprehensive requirement. Thanks."

He closed the panel.

Whatever the missing requirement was, the System apparently had no intention of explaining it yet.

Dianne turned toward the deeper section of the building.

"Your initial headquarters briefing is ready, Commander. The five newly commissioned officers are also waiting to report once you’ve completed your inspection."

That saved him another question.

"Lead the way."

The Command Center felt considerably busier once Hans stopped treating the people inside as background staff.

The main level divided around several broad corridors, although access was not equally open between them. Cameras and sensor panels covered the entrances to restricted sections, and several reinforced doors remained closed even while personnel moved freely through the surrounding workspaces.

Communications occupied one side of the building. Logistics and readiness sections filled another, while briefing rooms, liaison offices and intelligence-processing spaces surrounded the deeper command areas. Protected stairs descended toward the lower data and archive level.

Dianne did not explain every room they passed.

Hans knew what a communications section looked like, and the personnel working around the displays made the purpose of most other rooms obvious enough.

What stood out was how little improvisation remained.

There were no cables running between borrowed desks, no radios stacked wherever somebody had found enough space and no piles of reports waiting for someone to decide which office they belonged to.

Most of the command posts Hans had used around Grefort became headquarters because soldiers and Engineers forced ordinary buildings to serve as one.

Another set of reinforced doors opened ahead of them.

The Master Command Room was windowless.

A large tactical table occupied the center while System displays covered much of the surrounding walls. Dedicated stations handled communications, readiness, intelligence and the different military branches without separating any of them from the central picture.

Grefort appeared across the largest display.

The western base network sat beyond the city, followed by Route One and Site Three. Ironford and the northern routes extended farther out, with the Nuclear Power Station and Saicine appearing near the edge of the current regional picture.

Hans moved closer.

His army no longer filled the display with thousands of individual names.

Companies appeared as formations first.

Each one showed its commander, current position and mission alongside readiness, casualties, attachments and replacement status. Hans could still open the individual platoons, squads, vehicles and personnel underneath them, but the System no longer treated every Army Soldier as equally important to the first screen he saw.

Armor, Air, Naval forces, special operations and the Rear Establishment occupied their own sections around the formation picture.

That much resembled the interface he had received after reaching Rank Four.

Dianne stopped beside one of the central command stations.

"This is your full Commander view. I can prepare the same information as a complete briefing or reduce it to unresolved matters requiring your attention."

Hans glanced across several screens already filled with reports.

"Keep it unresolved unless I ask for everything."

"Understood."

Several routine sections collapsed almost immediately.

The amount of information did not disappear, but rather, it stopped competing for his attention.

Engineering requests remained tied to the places that actually needed the work. Damaged roads, unstable blocks, utilities awaiting inspection and sections of water or power infrastructure were marked directly against the districts they affected rather than appearing as a separate stack of reports.

Recovery had its own layer.

Bank vaults, corporate storage, government offices, underground commercial areas, transit facilities and data rooms were separated by location and current status. Areas around the Core remained restricted, with the unidentified underground structures still kept apart from ordinary recovery work.

Company positions sat against the roads and districts they currently controlled.

Checkpoints that no longer needed the same military presence could be compared directly against civilian access requests. Road restrictions appeared beside the formations maintaining them. Areas where survivors were already returning could be checked against Engineering reports before anyone reopened another unsafe block.

Infrastructure filled in the rest: district power and water service, passable roads, unsafe structures and areas where military restrictions remained in place despite the disappearance of the infected.

A restoration request could be checked against the Company holding the district, the route Recovery needed, Engineering’s latest inspection and whatever civilian access had already been approved.

And if none of it required his decision, Dianne and the headquarters staff could keep it off the top of his briefing.

Hans stared at the display.

"Well, I’d be damned."

Dianne remained beside the command station.

Grefort had only made the problem worse. Clearing the city had replaced infected concentrations with roads, utilities, recovery work, civilian access and military positions that all depended on one another.

The Command Center did not make those decisions for him. It made sure he only had to make the ones that were actually his.

Hans finished looking over the display.

"Bring the five officers in."

"Yes, Commander."

A door on the far side of the room opened shortly afterward.

Five officers entered while the headquarters personnel around the command stations continued working.

Three were men and two were women. The System placed their records beside them as they approached.

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[ Founding Command Personnel ]

Joseph Brandon - Infantry Commander

Marianne Krile - Infantry Commander

Dietrich Vanderson - Armored Commander

Elise Marhiel Omikov - Air Commander

Conrad Halestar - Naval Commander

[ Command Grade ]

Company Command Qualified

[ Current Appointment ]

Unassigned

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All five saluted.

Joseph Brandon spoke for the group.

"Commander. Founding command personnel reporting. All five officers are awaiting assignment."

Hans looked across them. Their permanent assignments could wait.

Dianne brought the Grefort overview back to the center of the display, with the unresolved military, recovery and infrastructure items remaining visible around it.

Hans looked over the city once more. There was certainly no shortage of work waiting for them.

"Then let’s start with this city."