Chapter Three - Part Four The Final Battleground (cont.)For Harm, taking the "Young Again" potion was an invigorating prospect. For nine years, Mac and he had run around each other trying to feel each other out and see if pursuing a relationship was worth the effort for the nine years they had wasted. Then they had wasted yet another nine years of their life trying to make their time-schedules fit in order to get married, which ultimately was a doomed affair.
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...so ultimately, Harm had come to the conclusion that there were many prospective members of the female human species that he could potentially be partners with in the romantic sense of the word. And frankly that made more sense than pursuing one Sarah Mackenzie who appeared that she wasn't sure of what she wanted in life. After all, if there was a Young Again potion, why not experience everything of what life had to offer?
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After all, wasn't that what life was all about: the joy of the experiences? If you wanted to do something that took a younger man's physical energy to accomplish, just drink a Young Again potion and have the stamina to do whatever was required, whether it was moving fridges by oneself or building a house with a couple of friends. No more did time put a time-limit of one's abilities. He could do anything he wanted in life; have several go-arounds if he wanted. Nothing was out of his limit.
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Harm revelled in the new found feeling of his youth yet again. He felt physically the same as if he was back to being a plebe in his freshman year at the Naval Academy. He felt that physically good. The aches and pains of ejections, of his ramp-strike were gone...and he felt better than he had felt for a long time. No more physical wear and tear on his body that he'd earned in fifty plus years of living. In short he felt his youth again and that felt good.
Then he saw his old RAG instructor who had taken his Young Again potion. Bulging muscles and back to being a young buck but with all the mental experience of his 62 years of life and 40 years of Naval Service coming to bear in a young 20 year old frame. Animal still carried himself like an fleet admiral. It would take a lot to take that out of him. "Good morning, sir." Harm stated as he looked over at Tosh.
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"Morning, Captain, I see you took your young-again potion that Coates created." Tosh grinned at him.
Harm grinned, "Yes, sir, I did."
"Makes you feel young again, doesn't it?" Tosh grinned shrugging his shoulders, the bulging pectoral muscles could be seen under his Hornets Suck; Fly Tomcats t-shirt which served to piss off Hornet drivers off all the time (which was the main reason why he wore it.
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"Feel like I could take up a F-14 and go one vs unknowns with an adversary squadron for a coupla hours." Animal grinned as he shot down one hand with the other in an imitation of what fighter pilots did when they recounted a great dogfight they had where they'd gotten the better of some other hapless schmuck.
"No doubt, sir." Harm replied. He felt the same way.
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It was at about that point that Harm noticed Meg had come out of the women's washroom just barely dressed in a tie-dyed nightie. His eyes widened as he ogled her. Meg just raised one eyebrow as if to tell him to keep it "in his pants". "Hi Meg..." Harm grinned at her.
"Hiya Harm." her tone seemed preoccupied and she barely gave him a cursory inspection. After all, she was a higher-ranking officer and one of the command.
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...and the perfunctory look that she gave Harm versus the tender, knowing look that she gave Animal told Harm that he wasn't even on Meg's radar. Her eyes were all on Animal.
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...and Harm realized just how enamored Meg was of Animal when she raised a hand to stroke Animal's cheek...whispering softly, "Good morning..." to him. And that spoke volumes that Animal and Meg had during the night gotten to know each other far more than he knew. Which was even more apparent when Meg lip-locked Animal, right in front of Harm, himself.
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Yes, folks, Meg was out of Harm's league and as a vice-admiral had more in common with Animal than she had with Harm and Harm knew it all too well. It didn't mean that it didn't sting though, considering that at one point, Meg had been a Lieutenant JG and his legal investigation partner when Harm, himself, was a Lieutenant Commander. But he'd fumbled and he'd fumbled badly and now Meg Austin, Vice Admiral, United States Navy outranked him and she had bigger fish to fry or...well...do things with that were best left out of polite company.
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But losing the ability to have a relationship with Meg wasn't so bad when one considered the other options in the bunker.
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Captain Kimber Benton, naval aviator, USN was a viable alternative to Colonel Sarah Mackenzie, if all things considered, she would give him the time of day. She'd been Animal's wingman throughout the years flying combat missions over Bosnia and the Baltics. And she was hard-nosed with a Navy Cross to boot, a much higher decoration than his Silver Star.
But the tantalizing picture of one VADM Megan Renee Austin never seemed to go away and teased him...endlessly...torturously...knowing that his former investigative partner was sleeping with his former Reserve Air Group F-14 instructor.
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But all the tomfoolery came to a halt late that afternoon when Tosh received a phone call, direct from the Pentagon. Four words from the Secretary of Defense that would scare the living daylights out of anyone who knew what they meant: "Lock down; Pinnacle Imminent..." Tosh's reply was four words back. "Aye, sir. Message Received."
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It was at that point that Tosh knew that he needed to get everybody to the lowest part of the bunker and lock down so that they would be safe. Atlas, Franz and Scooter were also home resting and it was just a quick job of getting them down the steps to safety.
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 with others aimed towards neighboring countries.
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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 800kt warheads with two of the 10 warheads targeted on Sunset Valley. One to destroy the airbase, the other to knock out the city-hall.
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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.
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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.
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The first warhead detonated at 0943hrs at its target over CFB Gnome thirty-six minutes after launch.
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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, they would have seen the fireball and mushroom cloud rising from the first detonation of the nuclear weapon over CFB Gnome.
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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.
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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.
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...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.
