Having barely survived the attack by the unknown Axe Man, John Bomber and Nancy Nagle are sent back to the barracks to help rebuild the damage they caused. Carter and Hernandez are sent to Graf with the rest of the unit. At first nothing more than repairs and boredom take place, with Stillwater, Bomber, and Nagle slowly healing from their injuries.

This story introduces Foster, Stokes, Aine McCullen. Stillwater is still the narrator and primary protagonist of the story.

Foster is Stillwater's radioman. A laconic man of few words, his speech is characterized by the usual radioman's cadence, often sounding like he's talking into the radio even when he is not.

Stokes is a Field Warfare Specialist, like Nagle, Bomber, and Stillwater. A massive woman at 6' 4", she's friendly, loving, and fun to be around. An expert at hand to hand combat and a former US Army medic, she bonds with the others as the story progresses.

Aine is initially presented as an antagonist to Stillwater. A menace from his past that has arrived to claim his very soul. At the end of the story she has changed.

During the course of the story first a group arrives, claiming to be SEAL Team 3, which Stillwater knows are mainly assigned to the Middle East, and who he gave a briefing to earlier in the year. John Bomber is suspicious as his uncle was a Navy SEAL and these men do not have the same attitude. Aine comments that they smell of "lies and stupidity" at one point.

The "SEALs" attempt to take the Rear Detachment prisoner, executing two members of Rear-D. Stillwater and his friends counter-attack, killing the fake SEALs in several short sharp fights. During the fights and interrogations it's revealed that the men are largely mercenaries in the employ of the CIA with two CIA agents in charge of the operation.

Bomber and Stillwater deduce that the CIA Agents are "cashing out" by selling the unit data to the Soviet Union. This includes technical specs and maintenance manuals for advanced tactical nuclear weapon designs.

Unfortunately for the 2/19th SWG Rear-D, Soviet Union Vympel, who are there to take possession of data that was to be sold to them, attack with the intention of killing Rear-D and securing the data.

At this time the War-Fighter Tunnels are revealed. This is a hardened underground facility below the barracks in the mountain designed to allow the members of 2/19th to ride out a nuclear detonation. The group retreats to the War Fighting Tunnels, but Stillwater and select people stay outside to destroy the unit data. They keep the designation of Echo-Five-Actual, and set out to destroy the data.

They manage to destroy the unit's classified data and secure items, but come under heavy attack. As Echo-Five-Actual has destroyed all the other buildings that the Vympel could use to ride out the blizzard, the Vympel have no choice but take the barracks and kill Echo-Five-Actual before they can destroy the secure data and items, as well as make the barracks uninhabitable.

Echo-Five-Actual succeeds despite overwhelming odds, retreating to the War-Fighter tunnels and relegating any surviving Vympel to slow death outside.