Chapter 15 - The Return of Gobias Koffi

The Mushroom Cloud Chronicles (Reboot)
A JAG-Sims3 Story
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Chapter 15 - The Return of Gobias Koffi
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It was about six days into the training schedule when there was a communication from an inbound helo asking for clearance to land on the roof helipad. It was a gruff no-nonsense voice, the voice one could easily recognize of a Marine Devildog; there was no two ways about it. The Vice-Admiral wasted no time in clearing the helo in. And Tom Boone and the Vice-Admiral headed up topside to greet the visitor.

"Sir..." the fatigue trouser, olive drab tee-shirt clad officer climbed out of the helo and walked over to VADM Nakamura. "Major General Gobias Koffi, US Third Marine Division at your service, sir."

"Good to see you, Gobs..." VADM Nakamura said, "Been a while since Afghanistan..."

"Two years, sir. Thanks for pulling our fat out of the fire. That air-strike that your guys from CVW-8 and BATGRP2 did on the bad guys position really kept us from taking casualties that we would have taken otherwise. They had us pinned pretty good. Good to see you're around, Tom." MGEN Koffi acknowledged Rear Admiral Thomas Boone. "So you guys were holed up in here when the balloon went up."

The men talked amongst themselves as they headed to the elevator that would take them back into the bunker proper.

"Didn't realize that they'd send you to my old home-town. By any chance, did my ne'er-do-well brother survive the balloon going up?"

Tom and Tosh looked at each other... "I think we need to talk in the command office."

When Gobias stepped into the office, he saw the head of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral James Pointer and the Secretary of Defense sitting in the chairs beside the desk. Gobias concealed his surprise, after all, he was a Marine and he didn't have any problems with dealing with high ranking officials. He was just interested in how the whole situation had gone down. "Sirs " he acknowledged Admiral Pointer and SECDEF Sheffield, "I'm suprised and gratified to see that you're both alive after this."

"You may be wondering why we're holed up in your old hometown, Gobby..." Pointer stated, "Well, that was the President's idea. After Pinnacle was instituted, we dispersed as many of the Line of Succession out in as remote areas as we could find. If the President had been killed, at least we would have saved one or more of the Line of Succession so that they could take charge of the day to day running of the country. As it stands there has been no communications inbound or outbound from this facility. We do not know if any of the other bunkers have survived."

"I saw a lot of devastation flying in from the East Coast, sir...and I had to land at places that hadn't been touched by radiation or damage from the nuclear weapons. We were just lucky that the Sovs hadn't decided to do a scorched earth launch."

"Do you think there's any left that they could be holding in reserve?" Tosh asked Gobias.

"Hard to tell, but then again, my gut hunch is that they launched a hail Mary attack and used every strategic nuke that they have. If they have anything left, it's probably all tactical small yield between the tens to about 100 kilotons. What I think we need to worry about is whether they've salted any of their tactical nukes with cobalt for territorial denial tactics."

"Gobby, I do have bad news for you." Tosh stated looking him square in the eyes; he hated having to tell Gobs about his family; in this case his only living brother, "There was a guy going around saying that his name was Gobias Koffi, evidently he'd sold off his shack and moved into your house. The thing was that he looked exactly like you. And considering how fishy that looked, I wasn't about to say anything to the guy since I knew you were serving abroad."

"I knew he was a ne'er-do-well...Admiral, but I didn't think that he'd stoop to doing this." Grief warred with anger in the timbre of Gobias Koffi's voice, "Tobias never did an honest day's work in his life. I went into the Marine Corps, he went to college, flunked out from USC even though he had a 4.0 GPA in high-school, somehow managed to get a job, but never reached the heights he should have. I presume he never was one of the selectees for the bunker."

"No...Gobby, It was a tough choice and as much as we would have liked to have saved all of them, we just didn't have the supplies."

"Understandable, Admiral, we all have to make tough choices in war and the ones who have a future and full life to live for, should be the ones that were saved just as you have done."

"Thank you for doing what you could to save the majority of the future of Sunset Valley, sir."

Having to tell someone that there was no body to bury because the victim had been completely immolated in a nuclear conflagration. There were times when life really truly stunk.

Chapter 14 - The Realization Sets In

The Mushroom Cloud Chronicles (Reboot)
A JAG-Sims3 Story
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Chapter 14 - The Realization Sinks In
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It was certain that the breaking of the recruits the day before had left an impression on them. Since all of the men in the ranks appeared in formation wearing high and tights (in other words their hair was gone) dress fatigue bottoms and OD green t-shirts the next morning, standing at parade rest. Master Guns Stacker was standing in front in the squad leader's position and Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs was standing beside him, one pace to the rear. Normally in a USMC drill instructor's (or in USMC parlance: D.I.'s) cadre there would be two staff sergeants and the head DI was a gunnery sergeant. However in this case there was only one head drill instructor and a secondary drill instructor.

And due to the lack of military experience, the only person available to be the head drill instructor for the women's platoon was Staff Sergeant Erin Kennedy, who with her military experience in the Air Force, was the only one who was allowed under regulations to teach drill to the female recruits. At least until someone from the ranks stepped up to take the rank of Sergeant and was able to assist her.

It appeared as though Master Guns had verbally cowed both platoons with his razor-sharp admonishments and all of them had their rear-ends squared away because there wasn't a crack of a smile or a smirk amongst the lot of them. And even to Vice-Admiral Nakamura, MGSGT Stacker was an intimidating presence. If the scowl on his rugged face didn't make one think twice about opening their mouth, his ribbon rack would. In fact out of all the officers and enlisted, Stacker's been there-done that-got-recognized-for-it outnumbered all of them. Outside of the two MOHs in the room, Stacker was the most highly decorated one in the room in sheer number of awards and decorations.

When the formalities of morning formation were done, Master Guns Stacker looked over at his assembled platoon. "Ladies, you and I are going to have some fun times. I expect you to work hard to become Marines: to learn from my guidance and my experiences. I've served twenty six years in the Corps, at least five of them in combat and thanks to this conflict, I will probably live to die of old age in this uniform because the Red and Gold isn't going to let me retire after this one. I've seen my buddies leave bits and pieces of themselves all over Croatia, Iraq and Afghanistan because they made a mistake that cost them their lives; they were inattentive and an IED got them or somebody decided to take a shot at them and took their head clean off. So you'd better listen and you'd better listen good. When I say something, the only thing that should pass through your lips is How high? Master Guns. You will refer to me as Master Guns; you will refer to Gibbs here as Gunnery Sergeant or Gunny. I will not answer to sir. Why? Because I bloody well work for a living! I'm not an ossifer."

He deliberately timed that mispronunciation of officer - and if one looked at the dictionary, one could see that the drill instructor cadre sometimes thought of those who wore rank pins instead of rank stripes as bone-heads.

"Gunny Gibbs and I will be working with you daily. And there will be classroom work as well because you need to learn the manual for your sidearms and your rifle. You will get to the point where you can field-strip your weapon and reassemble it in less than one minute and thirty seconds. If you don't maybe some bad guy will try to blow your head off so you need to get to know your way around your rifle.

The Marine Corps had a motto, the few, the proud...so you'd best get to work. We have a long and storied history and every Marine respects that history...you serve with pride and dedication; Semper Fi, Always Faithful. You have to be dedicated to your fellow Marine because when the you-know-what hits the fan, your buddies are all you got. The Marine Corps First Operating Principle is "Leave No One Behind, No Matter the Cost, human or otherwise, of Bringing Them Out"; the second is "Don't Quit." You may be outnumbered on the battlefield, surrounded on all sides, but keep one thing in mind. Marines don't quit; you fight with your weapon, you run out of five point five six, you switch to your Kabar, if your Kabar gets stuck in your enemy's rib and you can't pull it back out, you switch to hand to hand, but you don't quit. You keep fighting. As far as the Kabar is concerned, you can go collect it after you've finished your job of eliminating the enemy."

Once formation was over, the troops were dismissed and were sent upstairs for chow. Since there really was no organization yet, they all sat where-ever. It was essentially their last reprieve before the full training began. Chow during training was basically a breather between stints of having the drill instructors bellowing in your ear.

Yup...Basic training was not going to be easy for those new recruits. And poor Pride was definitely feeling the agony in his legs from running eighteen laps around the drill field. Because of the radiation in the surrounding area, it still wasn't wise to go out doors or up to the hangar to do the running up there.

But that was to be par for the course for the next six weeks.

Chapter 13 - Life Throws Monkey Wrenches

The Mushroom Cloud Chronicles (Reboot)
A JAG-Sims3 Story

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

Summary: Continuity of Government (COG) – a stark term for starting over after a holocaust the likes of which is hoped will never ever happen. This is a what-could-happen if the button was ever pressed.

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.

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Chapter 13 - Life Throws Monkey Wrenches
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Admiral Jim Pointer was also present since the whole contingent of senior officers had descended on the bunker and thus he was the next to speak after the bunker commanding officer. "There's nothing more that I can add to what Vice Admiral Nakamura has stated. As the ranking officer in charge of the bunker, he has command authority over the entire facility. Even though I am one rank higher, I still technically answer to his authority. So in this facility his word is that of God meaning he is to be obeyed. Am I clear?"

The answer was a resounding "OOHRAH!!!" The time-honored bark of assent of Marines.

Admiral Pointer continued. "I can be like a priest to you if you have problems with high-command, an intercessionary. I can be your sounding board to take up any concerns with them, however, I cannot and will not intercede with a morally lawful order given. As Marines, every one of you will follow orders, no matter whether you like them or not, that does not contravene moral ethics during a time of war. And let me make it clear, ladies and gentlemen, we are at WAR!"

"I served with the man in the Persian Gulf on patrols over Iraq during Desert Storm and Gulf War 2. I was his battle-group commander when he received the Medal of Honor for actions in Korea; in fact, I was the one who recommended him for the blue button. I can tell you this: there is no other person whom I'd follow through the gates of Hell and trust in him to bring us through unscathed. You all are fortunate to have him as a leader in this time." The men looked over at Admiral Pointer as he spoke and their eyes widened as they saw the blue button on Pointer's rack as well.

These were well-decorated men of war; though the last thing that they ever wanted to do was to pick up arms in anger. They still knew their occupation well. Just like a certain Marine Corps major general in command of 1st Marine Division and later promoted to four star general and Commandant once said to the Iraqi leadership during the invasion of Iraq. "I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you mess with me, I’ll eliminate you with due prejudice." The two in front of them were more than capable of doing so to any enemy that chose to stick their heads up out of the sand.

"Your squad leaders and your bunker leadership are your family...believe in them, trust them with your life...and they will not steer you wrong. They have the experience of years in uniform." Admiral Pointer indicated with a nod of the head to Erin Kennedy and Master Gunnery Sergeant Stacker.

At this, Master Guns Stacker growled in his sandpaper voice, "Anybody calls me Grandpa ain't gonna live long enough to regret it..."

As ranking Marine Colonel, Mac barked out, "Squads, make ready to stand inspection. ATTENTION!!!"

Colonel Sarah "Mac" Mackenzie and Vice Admiral Toshio Nakamura did the honors, going around and inspecting each and every Marine recruit personally. When Tosh got to Thornton Wolff, he looked him up and down with an expression as if he'd stepped in a dog-turd, "What do you call those? Maggot."

"Sir, they're side-burns..." Wolff said.

"I know what they are, maggot, and I don't want to see them in my building. Get rid of them as well as that unruly mop that you call your hair. You see Cadet Keaton? I want to see a high and tight on top of that neck by 0600 hrs tomorrow morning. AM I CLEAR!!!?" barked the vice-admiral as he looked over at Cadet Keaton and then back at Wolff.

When he got to Cadet Stiles Morris, the admiral looked as though he was about to go nuclear. "Make a note. Tell the commissary that there's going to be a run on razors. Cadet Morris, Get that miserable caterpillar off your face, you look like you have a nasty case of mange." after snapping at Morris, the vice-admiral looked over at Hank Goddard. "Goddard, did the Sunset Valley Police Academy not teach you how to get a proper haircut - it looks like a rat's nest? High and Tight... Mr. Goddard, Get one before fall-in 0600. Oh...and lose the earring!"

"Well, well, well...what do we have here. You think you're still a greaser from the fifties?" Vice-Admiral Nakamura growled as he aimed a Paveway tracking laser directly at the point right between Jared Frio's eyes. "I bet you listen to Elvis Presley and Rick Nelson every night before you go to sleep. You break into doowop in my formation and I'm going to have Master Guns make you do pushups till you dry-heave. Just so you know, Mr. Frio, the King is dead. Get rid of those side-burns and get a high and tight by next morning. Read me loud and clear?"

Cadet Frio didn't look like he liked the idea of losing his hair, "Don't like that you're going to be air-conditioned up top, Mr. Frio? The loss of hair might give your lonely braincell the air it needs to breathe" The vice-admiral glared at Jared, "Well let me enlighten you on something, Mr. Frio, you are now a United States Marine. The bombs have fallen and you're out of luck. You follow orders and if you don't you'll be spending time picking your nose in the brig. Do you follow or do I have to make it even more clear for you?"

"Just give me an excuse to ride your six, Mr. Frio," Mac snapped, "I suggest you get your brain housing group, your nuts and your wang in formation and follow orders, or I'll be more than happy to shove your rear end in a 185mm howitzer and fire your sorry carcass over Sunset Valley into what remains of the hangar at Gnome AFB, are you reading me loud and clear?"

Jared, enlightened by the one hundred and sixty decibel brow-beating he took from both the vice-admiral and the Marine Colonel and decided that discretion was the better part of valor, barely able to squeak out a "Sir, Yes, Sir, Ma'am, Yes, Ma'am!"

With one last snort of disgust, the vice-admiral turned to Colonel Mackenzie and growled...

"If he's not in a high and tight with these scrawny caterpillars that he calls sideburns vanished, he can lick the windows in his cell in the brig for all I care. And draw him up for an Article 92. I'd suggest you read out to him the punishment allowed under Article 92, Dereliction of Duty (Failure to Follow Orders) in a time of war."

Chapter 12 - Morale

The Mushroom Cloud Chronicles (Reboot)
A JAG-Sims3 Story

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

Summary: Continuity of Government (COG) – a stark term for starting over after a holocaust the likes of which is hoped will never ever happen. This is a what-could-happen if the button was ever pressed.

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.

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Chapter 12 - Morale
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One of the unfortunate things about being in a confined location for a long period of time is that it tends to wear on a person's sanity, especially being in close quarters with others. There is very little expectation of privacy in a bunker and most people are expected to be social, interacting with each other for long periods of time, with food preparation and other activities. It behooves the bunker designer to create a bunker with places to go for those who aren't as social as the others. For those who just need time away from others to decompress and unwind.

Phil was not one of those social people. As a loner; an introvert. Being stuck in a social situation with no way of retreating to recharge was majorly tripping off his PTSD and being stuck in a section of bunker to wait out the radiation levels was making him loco.

Yeah, he was pretty much unstable already, but the pressures of being in close quarters with people he was unfamiliar with (he really only knew the people he had served with in the Navy) really triggered him.

But the bunker leadership had to be certain of whether or not the hostilities were really over and that there wasn't going to be a late push with another nuclear attack or whether everyone had depleted their entire nuclear stockpile with the initial attack and reprisal.

A morale boost was needed and thus the adults gathered to hear what their commander had to say. What could be said. They had survived the worst of the tribulation that was heaped on them. They were to remain in the bunker for as long as it took to make sure that the radiation levels had gone down. They would work at inventing to see if there was any way of making the MV-22s airworthy again; they would also improve their skills in order to make life on the outside of the bunker easier and they would pass on their survival instincts to their children to ensure their being able to homestead.

They would be back to the pioneer days, but unlike the pioneers they would have large areas of uninhabitable land to contend with and not just the wide open spaces with lots of animals (which had, in their case, pretty much been vaporized off the planet). Life was going to be harsh, the land inhospitable, and gangs of roving survivors would have turned into bandits to survive. It was going to be an unforgiving environment they would be going into. Sort of like a dystopian Wild West with lots of criminal elements and lots of guns.

...and the vice-admiral tried to touch on each of these key points in his speech to his men and women who would be the future of civilization. Darwinian selection had prevailed. The toughest had survived the calamity. Whether or not they would be the brightest selected remained to be seen.

But the civilians saved from the apocalyptic nuclear hellfire had to still be turned from civilian rabble to disciplined, military personnel who would be able to cause major hardship for anyone who attacked them enroute to their new home and that would be their next task for the next eight weeks. Turning civilians into Marines who could shoot and hit their target; The lowest part of the bunker would be turned into the firing range in order for the men and women to be able to target practice with M4s to turn them into sharp-shooters. They had two Marines officers, Colonel Sarah Mackenzie and Lieutenant Colonel Jack Bunch as well as two other Marine senior non-coms (non-commissioned officers) Master Gunnery Sergeant Elmo Stacker and Gunnery Sergeant Leroy Jethro Gibbs (who had asked to be placed back into uniform - there was no need for NCIS any more) But poor Dwayne Pride who ended up in uniform for the very first time after being a civilian from the very start was not enjoying this new turn of events.

Why did the Navy officers in the leadership cadre choose to create Marines rather than more Naval personnel? Well the answer to that was simple? The Marines were an amphibious land assault force; able to strike with aggression pure and simple. They were also mentally conditioned to be relentless in their ability to prosecute a target. The Marine mentality was "every man and woman a rifleman"; no matter what their military occupational specialty (MOS) was, whether they were an artillery, an airman or whatever; their first capability needed to be the ability to use a rifle and fight; no matter what. To a Marine, if they were a fighter pilot flying F/A-18s; if they were shot down, they picked up a rifle and became an infantry rifleman. There was no two ways about it. Every man qualified with an M-16. And that was the type of soldier that they needed in this post-apocalyptic world.

And that was what the vice-admiral stressed to his men and women as to why the decision to make every single man and woman dedicated to the defense of their bunker United States Marines.

"There is no way to quantify the hell that we have gone through, ladies and gentlemen"...Tosh stated. "But the understanding from here on in is the main objective of every single man and woman standing before me. The main objective is survival of every single man, woman and child in this bunker. That is my goal as the primary leadership; to provide you with the necessary mental tools to survive. We are in this together and together we will provide for our children and grandchildren; the seed for our civilization's survival as a species. Not only are you tasked with ensuring the survival of the human race, but you are also tasked with ensuring that we thrive."

"Make no mistake, it will be hard - sometimes the odds will seem impossible. But in every statement of it's impossible...there is a seed of possibility. Your goal is to make that possibility grow. And we will. You are all a part of the military, there is no other way to give everyone the discipline and the stamina to persevere in this new world that we live in. You will need the new tools that we give you to survive and thrive. And survive and thrive, we shall..."

The men and women stood at parade rest as the vice-admiral spoke; each lost in their thoughts as to the events that had happened three months earlier. They had survived but unlike the five who had gone out to see what was up-top, they had no idea as to the extent of the devastation and so they wondered.

As Erin Kennedy had previous military experience with the Sunset Valley USAF base as an E-7 Master Sergeant in the USAF so she crossed over to the USMC as an E-6 Staff Sergeant. Getting the uniforms together for those would be another task for the outfitters who had to learn on the fly how to sew insignia and put together decorations.

Tosh gave over the podium to the Secretary of Defense, Edward Sheffield, who simply stated, "There's not much that I can add on to what the vice-admiral stated, other than the fact that we are no longer a unified country; all of our bunkers have split into nation-states ruled by defacto leaders only concerned with their territories and what they can get from around their surrounding areas; after all, what sort of connectivity can any of these bunkers have especially when they have no way of communicating? Your loyalty should be to those around you, for these are the people who will help you survive. It is an unknown world that generations beyond ours will go out into. We will do our part to help them survive that unknown; to defend themselves if necessary and to do whatever they have to in order to eke out their very existence in a world that has turned into what most would consider a nightmare."

The camera passed along the faces of the senior officers who were staring out at the assembled group.

...stern, proud examples of military men and women who had volunteered to serve their country and were now tasked with the herculean task of bringing civilization back from the brink of extinction. And the military men and women were there as examples for the civilians who had now been placed in the military to follow.

Life would no longer be the same.