Chapter 6 - Decisions that Challenge the Soul

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.

------------------------------------------------
Chapter 6 - Decisions that Challenge the Soul
------------------------------------------------

"Gentlemen..." VADM Toshio Nakamura, Captain Harmon Rabb Jr, and MGSGT Elmo Stacker stood on the roof of the hangar on top of the roof of the bunker. "There is a reason why you are up here on this roof with me in full battle-rattle. I wanted to stress a point and make that crystal clear...are you reading me on this?"

"Aye-aye, sir."

"Oorah, sir!"

"Do you think that we are in a friendly zone?" the response was uncertain as if the men were puzzled as to the question.

"The captain doesn't understand, sir." Harm said, a clear look of confusion in his eyes. There was a light of understanding in the Master Gunnery Sergeant's eyes. Such was the difference between a rear-echelon pencil-pusher and a Combat Marine. The combat Marine's mental gears were consistently in motion.

"I see, sir." the Marine Master Guns replied.

"Correct, Master Guns." VADM Tosh Nakamura had a grim look on his face. "We are in a war. When the Chinese dropped explosives on the USS Monaghan; we were instantly at war. In this kind of war, there is no friendlies. You do not know where the attack is coming from. You may think that this is home field, that kind of thinking kills. Unless it is someone who lives in this bunker, you do not trust anyone. From now on, when you step outside the bunker to collect supplies, you dress in play-clothes. Full kit, magazines of ammo, frag grenades, M4 and above all, collect your brain from your nightstand and stick it in your cranium, Is that understood?"

"Aye-aye, sir."

"Oorah, sir!" Master Guns Stacker replied, thought a moment and then stated jocularly, "Sir, we go totin' M4s around outside the wire and the cage kickers will pee themselves."

"Well, Master Guns, just make sure you tell them we're friendly." All three men nearly bent over laughing, partly at the ludicrousness of the statement.

Just then a sudden motion caught the men's attention... "Movement, sir!" Harm barked.

"Terry in the wire, sir...looks like he's scouting our position. I heard that there were cells in the area. There was some intel from one of the Air Force guys that they've been eyeing our location." Master Guns Stacker stated as he looked over the fence on the roof, holding his M4 carbine.

VADM Nakamura looked through the binoculars at the insurgent standing out in the field and asked for verification, "How close is he to the perimeter? Master Guns?"

"I'd say about five hundred feet, sir."

"Take him out, Master Guns."

"Oorah, sir." Sighting in his scope, Stacker took the shot; and the insurgent was hit several times...

The tracer rounds (one every fourth round from the 5.56×45mm NATO round (which meant three bullets along with one tracer ended up firing. Master Guns fired for effect with his M4 carbine when all of a sudden, the terrorist blew up.

"Holy FUCK!" was the exclamation coming from three dropped mouths as the pressure wave from the explosion rattled the equipment around them. "Fucking Jesus Christ! Johnny Jihad blew himself to shit..." Master Guns exclaimed as the fireball rose into the air.

"Fucking hell! We were fucking lucky this time. From now on, no hesitation; Master Guns, our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq face this decision every single day. If we let him get too darned close, he could potentially damage the structural integrity of our wall and with the world situation as it stands, we don't have the time to question the motive. We don't have the time to repair the wall if the balloon goes up." the vice-admiral said. "The lives of our men and women would be in danger, gentlemen. From now on, you see the shot, you take it, that's an order. I don't care if it looks like a friendly. If he doesn't look familiar and doesn't answer the challenge...you drop him, is that understood?"

"Sir, Yes, Sir." Stacker understood all too well, having served in Afghanistan. Too many situations like this required him to take matters into his own hands where if a truck wasn't stopping at the checkpoint, he emptied the magazine into the truck. No amount of lives were worth the lives of his men and he saw that his former charge, now commanding officer, saw the very same thing. Certainly it was horrible, repugnant even to those who have never been in combat, but if a person was loaded up with explosives intent on taking you out, better that you got him before he got you. Too many of his men had to make that same decision in the heat of battle and sometimes they got it wrong, but those who were back in the world, were able to see the results of those decisions and play armchair quarterback critique but were loathe to don uniform, pick up a rifle and stand a post.

William Tecumseh Sherman said it best; I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here.

Suppress it! You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is Hell!

Turning to Harm, the vice-admiral growled, "Any objections, sea-lawyer?"

"None, sir." Harm looked like he'd been pole-axed, he'd taken his share of lives, but a clinical killing from a distance at this range was certainly a different story, but when Tosh put it this way, he had a point.

"If we can get terror cells in the United States, we can get them anywhere. This is not friendly territory, gentlemen, not here; not anywhere...and it's going to get worse when the balloon goes up, because we'll get home grown ones on top of the ones comin' over." barked the vice-admiral, "As of now we have orders from the President of the United States, any terrorist; foreign or home-grown, we drop on sight. Is that understood?!"

"Aye-aye, sir."

"Oorah, sir!"

Meanwhile, River McIrish was trying her best to learn how to cook. One of the things that the kids needed to learn to do was to ensure that their skills revolved around keeping food in the fridge for the men and women to eat and later that night MGSGT Stacker found himself an alien skulking around the bunker. Evidently, he managed to capture said alien and bring her into the bunker. Evidently in her planet, abducting males and impregnating them with their babies was common-place. But Stacker stated in no uncertain terms that if anyone was doing any baby-making it was going to be that alien...and not him under any circumstances - go fish.

...and life resumed it's usual pace within the bunker.