Chapter 34: The Final Straw

                                    

                                          
Winter Pov
Atlas
5:00 PM

Walking through the halls of Atlas academy, I kept my head down and my mouth shut. Having heard his threat, I didn't know if he would actually follow through. I thought no, he wouldn't. It would betray everything that he, as a Huntsman, stood for. That, and he'd be committing a act of genocide. Fault me for hoping that he wouldn't actually cross that line. 
The halls were empty. Most of the other officers were wounded in battle. A majority of them without life threatening wounds, but still in a bad way. Most of the major casualties were the lower enlisted and the conscripted students. First and second years took relatively few casualties, but most of the injuries are psychological rather than physical. Team FNKI survived with a single casualty. Neon was injured, but it was minor. She'll be out of the hospital in a few hours. 
The most amount of casualties came from the third years... Only twenty-two survived, and the few that did only did so with grave injuries. The working theory is that they were trying to protect the younger students during the battle. My heart hurt to know that so many students lost their lives, but found some comfort in knowing that they died as Huntsmen rather than just students. FNKI gave a first hand account of the valor they showed and the impact the 
upper-class had on the battle. 
The few officers that there were gave Ironwood a wide berth. After the announcement, there were a few that refused to solute him. The ones that did had to look at the ground as they did so. Morale and faith in the General had been continuously dropping throughout the day, but it seems that the casualties that were reported in the battle and announcement was the breaking point.
Case in point, a lieutenant colonel and her aide walked through the door ahead of us. The second they saw Ironwood, they both stepped to the side and saluted. The aide had his eyes glued the the ground while the lieutenant colonel looked at me as she saluted, rather than the general. In military culture, the lower ranks solute the higher ranks, not the other way around. 
The fact that she made sure that we saw that she was saluting me, a first lieutenant rather than the General, spoke to how lowly she thought of him now. I can only imagine what the enlisted men think of him. Most of them have family in Mantle that he had just threatened to kill should the kids not comply. Executing decenters on the spot wasn't exactly winning people over either. Everything the General has done today has only increased discontent among the ranks. I was among them, but I held onto hope that maybe it will all turn out ok...
We continued through the door, passing by the two officers. On the other side of the door to our right was the Ace Ops. As they noticed us, they stood at attention, awaiting orders. I could already see that Marrow was about to lose it. After everything that's happened over the last couple days and especially today, I had been watching the cracks form. It seemed that the threat to Mantle was what was going to drive him over the edge. Harriett was the first to notice and called us out as she snapped to attention. 
Harriett: Sir!
Ironwood: Good, you're here. I need a squad of drones on standby to drop the payload. 
Winter: ...Sir... What for...?
Ironwood: I believe I made myself clear in the broadcast. If they give me a reason, I will remove Mantle from the equation. This is how we save Atlas. 
I felt myself go cold. Just a few minutes ago, I had thought that maybe he wouldn't go that far. That he was bluffing. That he wouldn't cross that line. Yet here he was giving the order for us to get ready to follow through with his threat. I couldn't take my eyes off of him. I justified a lot of the things he did today, even the killing of the council, no matter how heinous it was.