Chuck vs A New Day

by WillieGarvin

A/U story. What if Chuck and Sarah were a couple from the very beginning? How would that change the evolution of the stories? Here's my take on answering those questions. This story is, internally, broken up into arcs which (sort of, mostly) conform to episodes of the show. There's a rough table of contents on my profile page. Reading them in order is suggested.

146. Chapter 146

A/N: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't own Chuck. Now let's get to the story. This one is going to be a bit fast paced. You'll have to slog through a few A/N's first though. Don't want anyone confused by the upcoming events, so here we go.

A/N2: In the military they often use Coordinated Universal Time "UTC" (which is actually the replacement designation for Greenwich Mean Time, the time in Greenwich, England). Using it avoids the complications of figuring out all kinds of time differences. If you get a message from Dubai to be received in Florida and Manilla and the message says "conference call at noon," which 'noon' are they talking about? There are three separate time zones to consider. Well, if everything is dealt with in one time zone, UTC, it is a lot easier to understand. We will be bouncing around between London, Omaha, Washington, DC, and California, so I'm marking the scenes with UTC times to keep us all on the same timeline and following the flow of events. Frankly, in this one, local time isn't going to be worth a damn.

A/N3: COBRA Committee. An informal designation for a crisis level committee of the British government. The chair and participants would vary with the crisis. In this case, the crisis is severe enough that the committee is chaired by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and attended by his senior advisors.

A/N4: Operation Burnt Frost took place in February of 2008. This story arc is set in early June of 2008. Tom Sawyer aired in October of 2008, so was probably written at least two or three months earlier. Operation Burnt Frost was a military operation wherein the United States launched an anti-satellite missile from the USS Lake Eire to destroy an errant reconnaissance satellite designated USA-193. The launch and interception were a success. However, the adverse diplomatic fallout from the operation cannot be overstated. The Russians and the Chinese were furious that the United States had (apparently) decided to test an anti-satellite missile and were getting a jump on an arms race for that sort of weapon. The international repercussions were so serious that the United States was compelled to dismantle the modifications for future deployment of similar missiles. But not by the time this story is set.

A/N5: Cast of characters (the real people, not the ones I made up):

POTUS George W. Bush

VPOTUS Dick Cheney

Secretary of Defense Bob Gates

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley

White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown

President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev

President of China Hu Jintao

A/N6: The rack room in a radio station is the room with all the electronics, computers and engineering gear needed to broadcast. Chuck would be right at home.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

White House, Washington, DC, about 18:00 hours UTC

The President was in the middle of a meeting with a Boy Scout Troop from Kansas City, Kansas. "So which exhibit at the Air and Space Museum did you like the best?" he asked.

A teenage Eagle Scout was just beginning to answer when the Chief of Staff entered the room and interrupted the conversation.

"I'm afraid we have to wrap up a little early, Sir," he said.

After a hard poker-faced look to the COS, the President said, "Well, that's too bad. We were just getting started. Great meeting you fellas. Here, let's do some pictures." The photographer busied himself taking pictures of the President with the boys. "Enjoy the rest of your stay here in DC. Thanks for coming in to visit with me." He was jovial and friendly to the boys as the Chief of Staff looked on impatiently.

Once the boys had left the President said, "What's up, Josh?"

The COS took him and began to lead him to the Situation Room.

"We have a terrorist incident ongoing in Bakersfield, California."

"Ongoing?" asked the President.

"Yes, Sir."

"Hostages?"

"Yes...Los Angeles."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Bakersfield, California, Radio Station KPFG, 18.07 UTC

Captain Day, Bakersfield Police Department SWAT commander, said, "Clear this out. Set a perimeter. And get me the FBI. These assholes have federal demands."

Generally, Day hated having the feds around, but in this case, he welcomed it. These hostage takers had some pretty serious stuff to say. Stuff way above his paygrade.

XXXXXXXXXXX

White House Situation Room, Washington, DC, 18:10 UTC

"What do we know?" asked the President, as he motioned for everyone to sit down.

Director John Malone, Director of National Intelligence, said "Sir, terrorists have taken control of KPFG radio station in Bakersfield, California. It has the most powerful radio transmitter on the west coast, almost two megawatts. We believe there are upwards of thirty hostages in the building, but that's not the problem. Somehow, they are using the station's transmitter to control an old British satellite. It was probably mothballed, but still flying around up there. Sir, it has nuclear bombs aboard."

"What the hell? Nukes in space? I thought there's a treaty to prevent that, right?" he asked, stunned by the news.

The DNI responded, "Yes, Sir. Signed by the UK in 1967. Seems the Brits put this bird up in the 60's before the treaty was signed and never told anyone. We didn't even know what it was until today."

"Why not?"

"Nuclear coordination between the countries sucked at the time, Sir. We were each doing stuff without telling the other guys."

"OK. Problem for a different day. What do the terrorists want?"

"They want us to release all the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay or they will drop the entire payload of the satellite on Los Angeles," said Malone.

"How long do we have before...?" asked the President.

"Sir, the British inform us these are gravity bombs. They would be dropped at a point off the coast and freefall onto the target or targets. The satellite is moving west to east, so the later they release, the farther east the bombs land."

"And?" asked the President, impatient, flapping his hand for the DNI to get to the bottom line.

"And, given the altitude of the satellite, the first time they may be in a position to drop on the city is about four hours from now, Sir."

The Secretary of Defense spoke up, "Sir, slightly earlier than that maybe. If one of the options is to shoot it down, like we did with 193 a few months ago, we'd have to do it sooner than that or the debris, including uranium, would fall on land. Say maybe five minutes earlier at latest. It would still fall off the coast, but we could re-direct shipping and whatnot if we had to. Obviously the earlier we were to do it, the farther from the coast the debris would fall."

"Thanks, Bob," said the President.

The National Security Advisor said, "But the environmentalists would freak if we dropped uranium into the waters off LA."

"Not if they understand the alternative, Steve," said the Secretary of State.

"Ok," said the President. "Let's think about our choices. Who's running it on the ground in Bakersfield? Homeland Security?"

"No, Sir. FBI," said Malone.

"Ok. Get an FBI guy in here then. In the meantime, Condi, get Gordon on the phone. It's going to be messy soon. And where's Dick?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

COBRA Meeting Room, London, 18:22 UTC (3 hours, 45 minutes from shootdown)

"Very sorry, George. Even I didn't know about this damn thing until an hour ago."

"Can you get it back under control?"

"No. We've been trying pretty frantically. We're locked out. We can't even trigger the self-destruct device."

The President sighed heavily. "We may have to knock it down."

The Prime Minister responded, "I hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does you have our blessing and support."

"We'll both catch a whole world of shit, Gordon. Us for another antisatellite launch and you guys for putting this shit up there to begin with."

"I know, but you may not have a choice. You can't lose a city."

"Amen to that."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

White House Situation Room, Washington, DC, 18:31 UTC (3 hours, 36 minutes from shootdown)

"We can't knock it down, Sir. We are still facing the fallout from the Russians and Chinese because they think the knockdown of 193 was a test of an anti-satellite weapon. That was only February. If we knock this one down too, they will freak out," said the Secretary of State.

"Well. Condi, I'm not letting Los Angeles be hit because I'm worried about the Russians and the Chinese being pissed off at me. Get ready to get Dmitry and Hu on the phone for me. I'll just explain things."

"Yes, Sir," said the Secretary of State.

"Bob, get your boys ready to knock this thing out. I hope we can come up with something else, but in the meantime, that's the last resort."

"Yes, Sir."

"Can you do it, Bob? Can you really knock this down?"

"We think we can, Sir. But this isn't something we do every day."

"But we just did it," said the National Security Advisor.

"We did. And we were pretty proud of ourselves that it worked in February. It was tough to pull off. We don't have another missile from the Navy available and have to go with an Air Force weapon on an F-15. We haven't fired one of those in twenty years."

"You mean it might not work?" asked the NSA, somewhat aghast.

"Yeah, Steve, it might not work. We might miss. The missile might fail. We might hit and not damage it enough to stop the launch. A hundred things could go wrong."

"Should we evacuate Los Angeles?" asked the Secretary of State.

"No, Condi," said the President. "Four hours? We wouldn't even make a dent. And the public panic would cause a loss of life even if we managed to stop these bastards."

"I think that's right, Sir. We'll get ready for the shootdown and hope for the best," said the Secretary of Defense.

"Thanks, Bob. Have all the shipping off the coast of California redirected away from any splashdown area while you're at it. And while that is in the works," said the President, "can you guys in the NSA figure out how to get control again? I don't know? Break the code or something?"

"Working on it, Sir," said General Beckman.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Castle, Los Angeles, California, 18:47 UTC (3 hours and 20 minutes from shootdown)

Chuck rolled back and forth between the active screens he was working on.

He pressed a button on his keyboard and said, "Director, we are into the station's computer systems. I've got their security camera feeds from inside the building."

"Good, Chuck. Get them to me," said DNI Malone.

"Yes, Sir," said Chuck transferring the link to the feed from the security cameras to Malone's people in the Situation Room.

"And Bakersfield SWAT," growled Casey.

"Yes, good idea, Major," said Director Malone

While Chuck worked frantically and Casey and Sarah manned other computer stations in Castle, Fitz and his men stood around looking tense.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, Nebraska; United States Strategic Command; 18:59 UTC (3 hours and 8 minutes from shootdown)

General Bradley, USAF, said, "Ok, guys. You heard the man. Fire up an F-15 out of Nellis with a 135 ASAT and get it out over the water past LA. Oh, and get the guy a gas station. He might be there for a while."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Edwards Air Force Base, Kern County, California, 19:19 UTC (2 hours and 48 minutes from shootdown)

Major Browning glanced at his co-pilot, Major Penner. She nodded once. With that assurance, he pressed the throttles forward, calling for maximum thrust from the four F-108-CF-108 turbofan engines. They were pushed back into their seats as the huge KC-135R tanker roared down the runway with a full load of aviation fuel. Shortly, they would be on station off the coast of Los Angeles at 40,000 feet. They'd been told to expect an F-15 on a special mission. Once airborne, they steered a direct line across Los Angeles. Civilian Air Traffic Control had been alerted and cleared an emergency flight corridor for them, diverting all other traffic for the time being.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Nellis Air Force Base, Las Vegas Nevada, 19:25 UTC (2 hours and 42 minutes from shootdown)

Major Carmela Garcia, callsign Demon, watched as the ground crew loaded a special missile onto her F-15 Eagle aircraft. The ASM 135 ASAT was certainly a special missile. Eighteen feet long and 2600 pounds, it was pretty serious. Shit. She was going to knock down a satellite. This was kind of a big deal. Not at all what she'd planned for her day.

As a fighter pilot, though, she had been trained to present to the world a calm face and she did. But inside? Holy shit.

Once she was satisfied that the missile was secure, she climbed the ladder to her cockpit. Sgt. Garcia, no relation, said, from the ground, "Give 'em hell, Demon."

She grinned at her friend and returned his salute.

As she taxied to the active runway at Nellis, she thought about her orders. Fly to these coordinates over the Pacific off Los Angeles. Meet the gas station at 40,000 feet. Gas up and head to altitude, get a lock on the target, wait for confirmation from Offutt, point the nose at the sky and launch. Ok.

Upon receiving clearance for takeoff, she fired her bird into the skies and ripped a hole to the Pacific.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

White House Situation Room, Washington, DC, 19:37 UTC (2 hours and 30 minutes from shootdown)

"Why can't we just destroy the transmitter? Blow up the building?" asked the Vice President from the speaker phone. He was on Air Force Two and on his way back to Washington from Colorado.

"We'd kill everyone inside," said the National Security Advisor.

"Do the math, Steve," growled the Vice President. "Thirty something versus millions."

"Won't work, Mr. Vice President," said the Secretary of Defense. "The last instructions received by the satellite will stand if we do that, including the instructions to nuke LA."

"Can the bombs really do it? They are pretty old. Will they work after all this time?" asked the Secretary of State.

"Maybe. They are old all right, but we can't really take the chance that they do," said the National Security Advisor.

"Damn," said the President. "Still no joy on getting back control of this thing?"

"No, Sir," said the DNI.

"No, Sir," said the Secretary of Defense.

"Alright," said the President. He let out a long sigh. "Josh, get me the Congressional leadership. I'm going to have to brief them."

"Yes, Sir," replied the COS.

"Oh, and set up calls with Senators McCain and Obama. I guess Senator Clinton too. Not that it looks like she has a shot anymore. One of them is going to inherit this mess if we create it today."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Demon's F-15, over southern California, 20.01 UTC (2 hours and 6 minutes from shootdown)

She was punching it hard to get to her assigned area asap. She flew down the emergency corridor Air Traffic Control had created for her to traverse the city. They were redirecting civilian traffic off the coast.

Demon already had the tanker on radar and switched frequencies to coordinate the refueling. She knew the KC-135R would loiter in the area to refuel her again on the way home.

Offutt had ordered her to loiter until the target came into view over the horizon and her strike order was confirmed.

For the hundredth time since receiving the mission she wondered, 'What the hell was going on?'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

White House Situation Room, Washington, DC, 20:14 UTC. (1 hour and 53 minutes from shootdown)

The Vice President barked from the speaker phone, "Bob, Diane, are you telling me you still can't get into the system. It's fifty years old, for God's sake."

"No, Mr. Vice President. We are still working, but not so far. There doesn't seem to be any place we can get a handle to decrypt. The age of the tech is actually working against us, Sir," said the Secretary of Defense.

DNI Malone turned to one of the technical men behind him and said, quietly, "Get me Castle."

Moments later, Chuck said, "Yes, Director."

Speaking quietly, the Director of National Intelligence asked, "Chuck, can you get in? We have less than two hours."

"No, Director. The satellite itself is ancient tech and there's just not much I can do with it directly. I've tried a dozen different ways into the control computer, but none of the computers at the station that I can access from here are running that satellite. And I'm into everything in there, Sir, and I own them all. All except one. There's a bad guy in the rack room of the station. I can see him on the surveillance cameras. The laptop he's using must be air-gapped and inaccessible to me or anyone else offsite. I'm sorry, Sir, there's only one choice left."

Chuck's eyes flicked up to catch Sarah's. She nodded. Then Casey's. He nodded.

"What's that, son?"

"My team and I have to get inside. Get me in front of that air-gapped computer the guy is using."

Malone was shocked and started in surprise. "That's a building full of heavily armed terrorists. It's suicide," He paused, thinking of what he knew about Team B. "Ok. Ok. Can you do it? Can you really do it?" he asked.

"Yes, Sir."

Malone paused for a few moments, then spoke decisively. "Ok, you and your team go for it, Chuck. I'll inform the President."

XXXXX

A/N7: I have no idea and it's reckless to speculate, but I'm going to do it anyway. I think jackcarter3103 might actually be one of our retired former Presidents. He is just so damn knowledgeable about the ways the government operates and how the military works. I can't thank him enough for all the help he gave me in helping to set up this story. He rocks. (Damn, I don't even know if he's really a guy behind the penname.) Dude (?), thanks for your help. Come back soon. I miss TAO.

A/N8: Differences from canon. Yeah. One of the biggest problems with the canon episode was the Japanese involvement. I understand the reason. They needed Chuck to save the world by playing a video game and that brings in the Japanese video game industry. I understand, but the idea of the Japanese military putting nuclear weapons in space is as absurd as ...well, a computer in a guy's head. Both by treaty and by policy (and by public sentiment), Japan is fervently opposed to nuclear weapons (for obvious reasons). For that reason, Japan has nothing to do with this arc.

A/N9: So, here we go. Los Angeles is at risk. The entire US government is mobilized. The President is watching. Team B is ready to intervene, but they aren't at all alone on this one. I don't know about you guys, but I really want to know what happens next. Reviews appreciated.