The Mushroom Cloud Chronicles – Apocalypse - A JAG-Sims3 Story

Author: Haruo Chikamori
Rating: M
Classification: Angst, Romance.
Spoilers: N/A

Summary: Continuity of Government (COG) – I seem to have this fascination with apocalyptic stories. I don't know what it is, but here goes.

DISCLAIMER: The characters Harm Rabb, Jr., Sarah "Mac" Mackenzie, Meg Austin, AJ Chegwidden, et al. belong (in concept if not name) to CBS/Bellisarius. Animal and all OC characters are the property of Heather and Hugo Chikamori. No profit is being made from this story, nor is any infringement intended.

The Sims 3 is an EA computer life simulation - and all computer coding for characters are owned by Electronic Arts. For those who want to read the story with pictures…the story is by Nikkei_Simmer…at Nikkei Simmer Sims – yes, that's me…

Pentagon, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington, DC, 1100 ZULU

"Come in..." the admiral stated as he looked casually in response towards the knock at the closed door. Admiral James Pointer, former Commander, Naval Forces Pacific and now Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was not liking that he had to tell his former shipmate and subordinate flag officer about the way that the situation involving several Pacific Rim countries was shaping up. It all pointed to a nasty mess that could potentially touch off a conflagration in short order.

"You asked me to come see you, sir." Vice-Admiral Toshio "Animal" Nakamura stated as he stepped towards the desk; a worried look of question written all over his face.

Admiral Pointer looked up at the worried admiral with a sigh. "Have you seen the latest intel report? Animal, it's not looking good." Those four words sent a spear of ice through the vice-admiral.

"Did you hear about the situation?" a casually asked question couched in non-inflammatory words opened up the conversation as Admiral James Pointer looked over at Vice-Admiral Toshio "Animal" Nakamura.

"To be honest, I haven't been watching anything on the boob-tube lately" was his response. "There's nothing on TV other than Big Brother and it's not the thing that I want to watch." Animal's tone was dismissive of the trash that was on TV. Nothing worthwhile was ever found watching the TV. Most of it was escapist baloney.

Admiral Pointer got to the point quickly, "To make a long conversation short, Animal, I was just notified by the President himself via com that we're at DEFCON2. The whole situation in Asia has just blown up big time and our peckers are in the wood-fire. All we need now is for the Chinese and the Russians to jump in. The Japanese are screaming at us to do something and there's nothing that we can do? If we twitch, the Sovs are going to blow us off the face of the earth." the admiral sounded frustrated. Animal understood immediately the gravity of the situation.

The admiral pushed back his chair, stood up and walked over to Animal who was standing at ease. When the admiral stood next to him, he said, "No time for niceties...or formality. I need to make sure that none of this information goes outside these four walls. Do you understand the gravity of the matter?

The situation calls for unprecedented measures to preserve the continuity of government. I'm sure you're aware of the term?"

That pronouncement made Animal's hair on the back of his neck rise. He felt a prickle of sweat at his hairline as he stood at ease in front of the admiral's desk. "I am aware of the term, sir."

"Animal, I don't know if we're going to see the other end of this mess." Pointer replied; he looked as though the entire weight of the world rested on his shoulders. "It's a hard decision of who gets to live and who doesn't...who will be important to the rebuilding process. It's the kind of decision that is hard to fathom even contemplating, let alone having to make."

Animal understood all too well the process of making combat decisions and deciding what was considered acceptable risk in war-time. However it was sailors to whom he was responsible for and the lives of those who served under his command rested on his shoulders - whether they lived or died was based on his decision making. In a nuclear war, those at risk were everyone.

"We are in a grave situation where what happens next is what will determine the fate of mankind." It wasn't hyperbole. When it came down to a bunch of hairless apes tossing explosive projectiles at each other, things could rapidly go to hell in a handbasket really quickly. " Admiral James Pointer stated, gauging Animal's reaction to the news that he'd dropped on him earlier. "COMSEVENTHFLT just sent me the latest intel that says that the Task Force 82 has been sent into the Sea of Japan enroute to the China Sea to patrol the area and keep the tensions down." The Admiral looked towards the far wall in contemplation. "Right now the Chinese are at odds with the Japanese over the Senkaku Islands and with Taiwan trying its best to break away from China entirely exerting its sovereignty, it's a major hot-spot." Pointer cautioned. "If any spats are going to break out, it's going to be there. Xi-Jin Ping has been posturing at Taiwan and at Japan going so far as to send his missile boats to harass Japanese patrols of the area. They haven't fired anything but it's only a matter of time."

Animal stood silent, he was weighing his odds of survival at this point.

Admiral Pointer stared at Animal gauging Animal's competence for the duties that he was going to assign to him, "The likelihood of Japan and China going to war is around eighty-five percent at this point." That was no shocker at any rate. The Chinese and the Japanese didn't like each other after the events of the Second World War in Nanjing and the Chinese were looking for any excuse to pummel the Japanese back into the Stone Age. "China is holding the nuclear sword of Damocles over the Japanese...if they even attempt to land on Senkaku and establish a beach-head there to exert their sovereignty and the Japanese are going to defend the islands there...with everything they've got; especially now that there's the possibility of oil there. And that is the reason why that area is so hotly contested. I don't like the looks of it, Animal... and this one seriously looks as though it's going to get out of hand." The admiral said soberly. "...and if that happens... ...God help us all..."

Outside the Naval Intelligence Headquarters, Norfolk, VA 0328 ZULU

"I am standing outside the Headquarters of the Naval Intelligence...where inside many personnel are trying to determine carefully what the next move of Russian President Vladimir Putin after the leader stated that Russia would not back down from any aggression by the West." A drenching downpour from the storm system that had opened the skies up above Norfolk had made the reporter from ZNN soaked from her head to her toes. It had been a sunny day up to that point and the sudden change in the weather plotted an ill-portent of events to come. But she pushed her way through her editorial in hopes that she could get the hell out of the rain and dry off.

"So we are no clearer on the situation at hand and while the Crimean Peninsula dissolves into a firestorm, China has been threatening Japan with retaliation should they set foot on the Senkaku Islands." Raising her hands so that she could show the viewers just how frustrating and tenuous the situation was – all it really showed was that she was soaked to the skin. It really only was a concern to the politicians who made the rules and governed foreign relations which most were so incompetent it was a wonder that the planet was still intact in the end.

"With four countries waging a war of words at this point on who is at fault, it is uncertain that anything will get resolved any time soon. Rebecca Landon, ZNN News, Norfolk..."

The newscamera crew ran his hand across his throat to denote that the news broadcast had cut off. "OK, Jonesy, get me out of this damned rain, will you. I'm dripping wet." Rebecca was surly; she hated broadcasting bad news and this one looked as though it was going to get much worse.

JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 0330 ZULU

"We have been hearing the inflammatory words from the West; that they seek to exert their will on the Pacific. They have told us in no uncertain terms that they are prepared to resort to force to achieve their goals.

These bombastic words from the West are nothing new. We have heard it for many decades. And we have not gone to war for it. But Russia needs not heed what the West says in exerting our own sovereignty over our territorial waters or our own land. In short Russia does not need to heed these words from the West, but the West should heed the words coming from all those who oppose her.

Russia seeks not to strike the first blow, but rest assured, if met with force; Russia will do whatever it deems necessary to preserve its sovereignty and its people." The broadcast from the Kremlin was met with a lot of scepticism from the JAG office bullpen. At first there was silence in the bullpen as the officers watched the screen then there was incredulous gasps of amazement at the audacity of Putin but they of all people understood the enormity of the situation. The rhetoric being tossed about by both world leaders could potentially lead to an incendiary conflict that could wipe humanity off the face of the planet if they weren't careful. But they were only JAG officers and what could they really do? Shuffling legal papers around and determining what actions were legal on the battlefield was their forte. It wasn't exactly within their pay-grade to ascertain what could or couldn't be done in the field of international relations. Other than the minutiae of legal ramifications, the government politicians were the ones that negotiated foreign relations and all that the legal beagles could do were to let the politicians know what exactly was legal and what could constitute sedition.

"Isn't that just like them..." muttered RADM AJ Chegwidden as he glowered at the TV screen. "You give them an inch; they'll try to take a mile. Never liked working with them when they were friendly."

"I don't trust them, sir." Harm said, with no small amount of venom. He still had issues from when his father had been held in Russia and eventually died there. "It seems like they're back to the Cold War posture."

"Understandable, Captain, they've got an old KGB guy holding the reins." Chegwidden stated, matter of fact. "Naturally, they're a suspicious bunch and no wonder they're trying to freeze us out. You saw what happened in Crimea."

"They trained us up to fight them..." Mac interjected making a face, "Then they told us to be friendly to them. I expected that they'd turn on us. I don't trust them either. That line of drivel coming out of Putin's mouth..."

"OH MY GOD!" interjected Captain Liandra Gracen who was still staring at the television screens. "Oh...dear God...help us..." When the entire staff turned to look at her at her horrified exclamation, she pointed at the television screen, "On the screen!" Lia motioned to her colleagues. "Oh my god...China just started a shooting war..." Dead silence reigned among her colleagues as they all stared at the television screens in dumbstruck horror.

On the screen were horrific scenes of destruction as ZNN scrolled news feed minute by minute of the impending devastation. Chinese attack Japanese airfields scrolled one, while on another monitor First Wave of Missile Attacks on Hakodate and a third: USS Monaghan struck by Air to Sea missiles.

There were no words to be said, They all knew what a shooting war meant in the Pacific.

White House Press Conference Room, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC, 0553 ZULU

"My fellow Americans, there is no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to come out and say it succinctly. We are at war." President Barack Obama stood at the dais, an expression on his face that could only be described as shock that hadn't set in yet; frankly it was as if he was operating on autopilot, an automaton reading out lines on a teleprompter.

"Earlier today, the USS Monaghan was patrolling in the Sea of Japan when it took a direct hit from several air to surface missiles launched from a Chinese Bear. Since the warhead was so large and so many hits were sustained by the cruiser, she went to the bottom with all hands on board. We know that it was the Chinese because they have been stating that they will defend their territory against any incursion by foreign powers: meaning us." Obama seemed to come alive at that statement he read out and gesticulated with a raised finger.

"We will not take the loss of our US Navy ship lightly nor will we allow them to carry on attacking other ships with impunity. This attack on our naval asset requires the most severe of retributive action." His tone changed from resigned to determined.

We will not forget those who sacrificed their lives protecting our nation and we will avenge their loss."

JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 0610 ZULU

It was a subdued crowd gathered around the TV monitors, as they listened to the speech from the White House. Wide eyes, hitched breaths, and a solemn gathering pervaded over the bullpen as the broadcast from the White House ended. There was nothing more to be said.

Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), National Maritime Intelligence Center, Suitland, MD

Captain Bruce Carmichael sat in his office contemplating the events of the day. He'd never thought the Chinese had the gumption to do what they just did. After having advised the President that there had been no possible way that the Chinese would attack under any circumstance due to the possibility of US intervention, he had been mistaken and the lives of 473 men onboard the USS Monaghan, as a result, had been lost. Such was the gamble of diplomacy and the inner workings of the steps taken to maintain it - a finely tuned game of chess. Such a game was not for the faint of heart as the ramifications of this game had global implications.

Bruce was no shrinking violet with regards to the tough matter in life, but nothing scared him more than the threat of nuclear war. When both sides of the six-legged nuclear table were rock-solidly planted on the ground, there was nothing to fear; but when one of the legs was kicked out from under the table, then that stability was no longer there.

The game of intelligence was a game of cat and mouse and he had done things that he'd regretted. He'd frozen out his Academy classmate from learning things that would have protected his legal partner about a potential assassination plot that had occurred during the course of a Summit meeting on U.S. soil and he'd pretty much lost that friendship. And that particular friend was shot in the head. She had survived the incident, albeit with some memory loss of that particular traumatic event, but Harm had never forgiven him for that. Of course, irony had it that that former legal partner of Harm's had now been working for the better part of several decades in Naval Intelligence herself.

But with an impending war; he felt he needed to do the right thing. As much as he needed her assistance in sorting out this mess of information, he had to make sure that she was protected.

The Chinese had attacked the mainland with conventional weapons but Bruce had no doubt in his mind that the entire globe would be embroiled in nuclear conflict within a matter of weeks. In a global war situation, the first side that cracked open the nuclear genie would start a cascade of events that would eventually end with total annihilation of the human race. That was the stark reality of what had transpired at Alamagordo Bombing and Test Range on July 16, 1945 when J. Robert Oppenheimer had uttered the prophetic words, "We knew the world would not be the same, A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu Scripture, the Bhaghavad-Gita, Vishnu trying to persuade the Prince; he should do his duty and to impress him, he had taken on his multi-armed form, and says, "Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds..."

From the moment that any country decided to pick up a weapon and started a shooting war, a timer to nuclear annihilation was started. When tempers were short, those who had access to the missile triggers had to be of sound mind to determine a lawful order to launch from one that wasn't. And if a country had a hot-head in charge of the nuclear launch codes, then peace was tenuous. Everyone in the world relied on the fact that the other side wouldn't be the first to lose their temper and initiate the destruction of the world.

Those in the intelligence community knew just how little it took to initiate a conflict; it could be an assassination, a disagreement over a border-line or even as little as a few rash words. Bruce had seen regional conflicts flare up as a result of differences in religious faith so he had no faith in the stability of world leaders to keep the peace and so...as the world spiralled out of control, he sat staring silently at the wall in contemplation of what he had to do. to protect those he cared about.

The matter of peace was out of his hands - he didn't have the control to those reins; his only means of control was knowing more about the other side's moves than his counterpart on the other-side knew about his. If the world came to an end, it would be a harsh and unforgiving climate, if there was any reason to survive at all. He had read the studies on environmental consequences of nuclear war coming from the esteemed professors in research at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Rutgers and the University of California and it was bleak. And that was a best-case scenario if anyone survived at all. If there was any reason to survive.

Bruce knew that he would rather eat the muzzle of his service weapon than have to survive in the wasteland post-nuclear apocalypse. After all, he'd been living in a personal hell of his own for the past eight years. Everything that made life worth living had gone one day eight years ago. Nuclear war would be the final straw.

A knock at the door interrupted his morbid train of thought.

"Come in...", Bruce stated, he'd called to ask to speak to her. As she strode in; a tall 5 foot 11 statuesque blonde, he knew just what Harm saw in her. She was keenly intelligent (as demonstrated over the decades that she'd worked with him) and she was beautiful, a rare combination. But Bruce was bent on setting things right and he just casually nodded to her as she stepped into his office.

"You asked to see me, sir?" Even though they were of equal rank, Captain Meg Austin deferred to him as he was many days her senior (he had been in that rank a lot longer than she had).

"You are aware of the document Pinnacle?"

"Only in passing, sir." was Meg's reply. She looked rather confused as to why she was being asked this, but that was only a short moment of confusion as Bruce clarified in his next sentence the reasoning behind the question.

"Let me give you a brief rundown. In 1953, when President Eisenhower first entered office, he issued an executive order consolidating a plan for the continuity of government in the case of a national emergency - that national emergency being the initiation of total nuclear war and the imminent destruction of the United States of America."

As a military officer, Meg realized the implications of this...and with great effort managed to confine her reaction to just a brief exhale of breath. "Sir?"

"In the case of a conflict that threatens to escalate into nuclear war, the President has the authorization to initiate Pinnacle...and the JCS has just received that authorization with the proper authentication codes attached. The President of the United States has just initiated Pinnacle."

"I've been asked by the commanding officer of Naval Intelligence to provide a list of those within our infrastructure critical to the intelligence community who are to be transported to the safe facility. Meg, you...are on that list."

"...but what about you, Bruce?" This was a time to break military formality if Meg ever knew. Bruce sighed, as he got up out of his chair and went to look out at the window.

Bruce Carmichael didn't bother answering the question, "The world is a beautiful place, Meg. I thought it was something that you could count on to always be there; the trees, the flowers, the lakes..." his tone was pensive. "...at least I thought that when I was growing up..." he stated softly. "That was before I entered the Navy and saw the evil in the world. There's so much beauty on the earth, yet there are people who seek to destroy all that. When nuclear war happens...and I'm not saying if, Meg, I'm saying when, because I know for a fact that if Russia gets involved this war will go hot, this world will no longer be a place worth living, but for only the hardiest; the most mentally strong. If you had asked me that question, nine years ago, I would have probably told you a different answer; I lost that will...eight years ago, Meg, ...there's nothing left for me...other than my work...and once that is finished...then..." he left the sentence unfinished.

"Sharon?" was Meg's only question.

Bruce's silence was her only answer, but she knew that when Sharon had died, a part of Bruce had gone with her. Seeing him take very little time off while she was undergoing chemo treatments; the pained look on his face everytime he came into work, as she had wasted away...the devastation on his face when he realized that the treatments were no longer holding back that cancer that was eating away at her...and then the utterly broken man that he became when she had finally died.

There was nothing else to be said. But when Bruce suddenly turned away from the window and strode towards her, it startled her because she hadn't been expecting that sudden motion and the grim determination in his eyes scared her. "Meg..." he said, "You have something to live for." he said, his voice firm and a tone of command in his voice, "You...are being selected because your work is crucial...to the survival of everyone in the bunker that you are assigned to."

"You have to carry on...the legacy of the human race...along with those chosen to survive." His voice held a hint of madness, of desperation. "Carry on, Meg…You need to…for humanity's future. I don't know what the situation will be like, Meg...up top after that bombs fall and there is no telling what will happen, the only thing that I'm thankful for if this goes down is that maybe there is a God...and maybe He'll be forgiving enough for all the sins that I've done, to allow me to be with Sharon for eternity."

"I'm sorry, Bruce..." was all that Meg could say. She would gratefully accept any chance to live, but her heart mourned for the Captain who had lost so much. "I guess this is it..."

Bruce looked down at his feet, "I did wrong by Harm in not telling you about Hemlock which ultimately got you shot...and I've had to live with that for over fifteen years, Meg. I pulled some strings and tried to find out if Harm was being assigned to a bunker. He was...and then I pulled some further strings to get you to THAT bunker. It's my way of penance. May good fortune travel with you...Meg, whereever the events of this world may take you." Bruce stated. "Fair Winds…and Following Seas, shipmate…"

The lumps in both their throats were too big for them to speak further.