Chapter 10 - Doom Descends Upon Sunset Valley

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 10 - Doom Descends Upon Sunset Valley
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It appeared as though President Obama had sent a number of his staff from the bunker in Washington DC to Sunset Valley in order to eliminate the threat of having nukes eliminate their entire line of succession. The SECDEF (Edward Sheffield) was sent to Sunset Valley to be protected as others in the line of succession had been sent to other bunkers to disperse the line of succession to make certain that even if half the bunkers were targeted and were obliterated, the line of succession would still have one member at least alive. The President, himself, had already been sent to Raven Rock and was conducting affairs of state from that location.

As a military town and one that conducted space operations, Sunset Valley was a key target for Russian and Chinese missiles either launched from land-based silos or missile trucks or from submarines and surface combatant cruise missiles. And that was a key factor in making sure that the base was hardened to at least 2MT direct impact status. But that pretty much was about it. The pressures of the blast and the intense heat of a 5MT blast made the survival of most man-made structures impossible. In order to survive such a blast, one would have to carve out a bunker in the side of a mountain. A typical hardened shelter on a standard lot was not designed for that.

Tosh considered that the base would be the primary target and the Chinese would drop at least a 5MT or potentially get the Russians to drop one of theirs on it. The Chinese only had about 26 of the missiles that actually carried 5 MT so they'd save them for the targets that they wanted gone completely eliminating threats entirely to their country; namely targeting missile silos and conducting a decapitation strike (meaning striking at targets within the Washington DC center, thus eliminating the US leadership.

250 miles south of Ya'an
Somewhere in China
0235ZULU

The DF-12B missiles were launched in a major attack against airfields in Japan in a diversionary attack to make sure that the US's attention was diverted. If all of the forces were diverted, they wouldn't be able to absorb any new information as the constant battle traffic would be jamming the satellite com-links. Then as the battle waged on; in the evening then China would launch its missiles at the US Mainland.

When the American fleets were thus engaged, the Russians and the Chinese would launch their missiles in concert; thus overwhelming the ABM missile defenses that the United States had. The entire US mainland would be covered in nuclear explosions making the entire area uninhabitable for the near future.

The Russian and Chinese generals had ascertained that a nuclear strike just as the populace was going to work would be the best way to get as many casualties as possible. This was known as the doctrine of attrition. A devastating strike on a city center that killed as many people as possible; a side-effect being the demoralization of the populace and thus an invasion could be instigated to bring the populace under heel.

Catching the US air defences unawares was key to this. This was the primary reason behind the Russians and Chinese developing hypersonic inter-continental ballistic missiles such as the RS-28 Sarmat (SATAN-2). They had targeted their RS-28 loaded with multiple 500kt warheads with two of the 10 warheads targeted on Sunset Valley. One to destroy the airbase, the other to knock out the city-hall.

No-one outside the bunker knew and even the ones inside the bunker didn't even know of the hideous doom that would descend from the heavens that morning. It all started off with everyone getting up in the morning and preparing for work. After all, it was a work-week and people had to earn money to live.

As the sun rose higher on the horizon, the traffic on the roads grew more heavy as everyone was heading out the door to commute to work.

Everyone in the bunker remained inside the bunker at the lowest level because they didn't know what to expect...and they were correct to do so. Tosh had on the stereo tuned to a news channel to make sure that he knew what was going on when they heard the Emergency Action Message coming over the airwaves. Most everyone on the outside was unsure of what was going on and went about their business as if nothing was going on. Beau decided that he was going to have a barbecue and Nancy Landgraab decided that she would sit down outside the grocery store. And of course Gobias Koffi had to sit down outside the bookstore. The Clavells went to the library...it would be the last things that they would ever do.

The first warhead detonated at its target thirty-six minutes after launch. If anyone had any sight left after the detonation of the second warhead directly over the cupola of the city hall...their retinas seared to a crisp; before being flashburned by the fireball and having their eyeballs melted into goo running out of their empty eye-sockets.

Paint bubbled and blistered, skin melted off the bones as meat seared and charred and then vaporized. If any structure was strong enough to remain standing after the blast wave, the only thing that would be left would be a human sized shadow burned permanently into the wall.

As the mushroom clouds rose into the air, there was no-one left alive to see the fiery plumes that topped out thousands of feet into the air...raising their mantle of death and destruction over what used to be a fair and thriving city.

...and the firestorms that raged went unabated as there was no one to put them out. The skies blackened with soot from the out of control fires.

The only thing that the occupants of the bunker could do was hope and pray that they would survive to see the remainder of what was left of their world.