Chapter Three - Part Two
Conflicts in the Pacific
Things were degenerating in the Pacific as Tosh realized from the reports that he was getting from the Pentagon. Chinese and Russian fleets were patrolling sections of both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and that had both the Sixth and Seventh Fleets of the US Navy on high alert. Skirmishes were taking place when elements of task forces met. As of current there were no escalations to tactical nuclear weapons but it only took one hot-headed commander to free up "specials" and everything would go to hell in a handbasket.
Of course everything seemed to be business as usual in the bunker with no-one other than the command staff wiser to the outside events that seemed to be precipitating them towards inevitable destruction. Harm was increasing his knowledge base as far as robotics was concerned. After consultation with command staff, Harm knew that his knowledge of robotics would stand them in good stead as far as making a team for post-nuclear reconnaissance of the area and any recordings from the plumbot recon team would allow the bunker occupants to see what threats the environment posed to their health.
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The rest of the staff worked at their individual tasks. The science stations, alchemy and potion tables were always manned and Haruo went up and fished so that they all had fresh meat. And as those who worked on their sciences skilled up they could try their hand at cloning the roasts and links so that they would always be able to have fresh meat. If one didn't have meat, they'd be running the risk of health problems down the road with lack of protein.
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The Bunker was well-stocked with activities that improved one's skills. The Robotics station was always manned by Harm and the science stations were always being used by those who wanted to increase their science skill to help with cloning experiments. A lot of DNA samples would be useful to be frozen then stored so that they wouldn't be affected by radiation seepage and by manipulation could increase that variance of genetic sequencing to effectively create new genetic lines of individuals.
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Phil, on the other hand, was spending his time banging away with hammers on metal scrap trying to see if he could fashion something that was potentially useful. Occasionally though he'd get a bit to adventurous with his creations and they would explode on him leaving him singed and rather worse for wear; but nothing that a shower wouldn't take care of.
And of course, Tosh headed out with the Stryker APC to go get some more meat to stock the freezers with in preparation for the apocalypse.
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Kimber joined Phil at the inventing table and Harm continued his research on nanites and trait chips. These would certainly help with the limitations that would be imposed by the fall-out. If their plumbots could go out in the radiation and see what the environment was like bringing back recordings, they would be able to determine the half-life of the radioactive elements that were within the environment. Decontamination of the plumbots would be crucial so that they wouldn't be bringing in trace elements of lethal radiation into the bunker itself.
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Everyone had their set tasks to accomplish, but no-one was riding anyone else's back telling them that they had to do that. Everyone had their own sense of urgency for they knew that time was fleeting and that time was of the essence for none of them knew exactly when this whole thing was going to kick-off. And the only people that they could look towards in terms of were Meg and Animal. It was their leadership that was going to guide them through the worst of what was to come.
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And all Tosh could do was to continue to stock the freezer with as much meat as he could possibly get down at the grocery store and shuttle back up to the bunker.
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With the somber news that the war wasn't going the way that they wanted, dinner the night of the full-moon was subdued.
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Tosh and Meg went into Tosh's room and had a good long conversation about what was going on and the reports that he was getting from the Pentagon. He had a good idea of when they would have to lock down and it wasn't going to be far off down the road.
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"Task Force 62 got into a tussle with Chinese subs. Meg, we have two destroyers at the bottom of the ocean and the Chinese lost six of their subs. It's not looking good at all, Meg. We don't know who's going to escalate first to tactical specials but all I know is that we're not looking at a good outcome."
Meg nodded in response. She knew that time was running short and the Pentagon was not responding to the requests that they had put in for medical staff. They may be going on their own for the time being. Which meant that they would have to work from within to create medical staffers as necessary to keep the health of the bunker personnel in mind.
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It wasn't good news that she had for Tosh, but between the two of them they would improvise and make the best of what they had.
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...and it was a sobering look that Tosh gave Meg...as they pondered on the ramifications and a chill ran down Meg's spine as Tosh uttered:
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..."May God help us all..."
