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1.

The wooden shipping crate had been removed from the eighteen wheeler and placed of to the end of the receiving dock.  It's milspec packaging was old, at least three decades, maybe four.  Rusty steel bands anchored it to a pallet that had seen better days.

Jake directed Tom to set it off to the side to make room while they sorted out the last shipment of the day that had arrived on the truck.

"Old, out of date, obsolete, obsolete,  out of date."  Jake droned as he went through the bill of laden and pointed out various pallets for disposal,recycling, or storage. Tom dutifully used the forklift to move everything into orderly piles for later sorting.

Jake looked closely at the yellow copy of the bill of lading and one of the larger boxes and called out.

"Tom!"

"What?" Tom replied as he continued setting pallets along the dock.

"We have another one."

"Another what?" Tom answered hesitantly, remembering the events of the previous year.

"Marbles." Jake answered, "Mellow out Tom.  If I see another one of those things come in, you'll be the first to know."

" I thought you were kidding about the marbles.  What does the army use them for?"

"Not a clue.  All I know is that we get a crate of them in every year or so."  Jake said and thought for a second, "If you want, grab a load for your little brother.  It's going to cost us more to dispose of them then they're worth.".

Jake continued reading down the bill of lading.  He found the entry for the crate at the end of the dock and read through it.

"Tom. Remember what I said about mellowing out?".

"Yes."

"Forget it.  We have another barrel." he said flatly. "Spot me your cell phone."

2.

The General adjusted the seatbelt in the humvee as they approached the guard post to Jurvis Army base.  They were expected.  A group of security vehicles, lights flashing, had blocked off all the inbound lanes and were only allowing vehicles to leave.

"Your expected." The gate guard said when they showed their identification. The guard pointed out a lone security vehicle with it's hazard lights flashing on the side road that led to the warehousing section of the base. "Form up behind behind him and he'll take you right in.".

Forty years, the General thought to himself, and one of the biggest easter egg hunts that no one outside of a few small circles knew about.  Forty years of chasing nightmares because a supply clerk filled out some paperwork wrong and accidentally put the eggs into the military supply system. Repeatedly mislabeled, they were shipped from warehouse to warehouse where they would be mislabeled again.

Twelve more eggs or three more years,whichever came first, and he could retire and be done with it.

"Twelve more eggs." he said under his breath.  He knew he wouldn't enjoy retirement if this egg hunt was not finished by then.  He had helped clean up the mess in Jersey when he was a much younger man.  That one was caused by some clerk excessing the eggs as anatomical specimens to a medical supply company.  A low yield nuclear artillery round, also nicknamed an egg, was required to fix that fiasco.

His convoy formed up behind the security vehicle and started towards their destination.

The omega warehouse.

The name sounded more ominous than the reality.  Warehouse six had gotten the nickname over the years because of it's role in the military supply system.  Strange or misplaced inventory in the system that no one knew what to do with but was judged too valuable to throw away would eventually migrate here or to one of the other omega warehouses scattered throughout the nation.

And the strangest inventory of all seemed to migrate to this one warehouse more often than any other of the omegas.

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