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.