Part 6: Jericho - Part 3.

(Aftermath - Chapter 5!)

Jericho - Part 3.

25th of October 2077 - Mariposa Military Base:

It was noon on the second day after the Great War, and Kaidan was going to the Mariposa Military Base to meet Roger as requested. With him was Anna May, Benitez and some of his best men and some medical staff. They were taking a few transport Vertibirds, to help transport the people and anything that Maxson and his people want to take with them. Kaidan was hoping that he could persuade the Captain and his people to come to Jericho with them, as they needed every able body to help with what was to come over the following weeks, months and years. But only time will tell.

Kaidan left Jericho after leaving orders to make sure that the Spectre worked on dealing with the underground facility so that they would have a place to stay for when the rain comes soon. He just hoped that it wouldn’t come too soon. As for the townspeople, seeing that there was not much they could help with right now, he had them go to the homes that were now empty because the owners were dead or presumed dead because they haven’t returned to town, and gather any clothes and food and bring them to the town hall. They are also told to report to Heather anything like beds and other furniture to her so that they can arrange for it to be picked up later on.

The townspeople weren’t happy with that, seeing how they believed that the owners of these people could return at any time and want their homes and things back when they do. But Kaidan told them it was highly unlikely that they would return, but if they do, they’ll deal with it when the time comes. For now, they need everything that they can get to help them out, seeing how food, clothes and furniture would be hard to get from now on until they knew what was going on in towns and cities.

More importantly, they would need all the furniture that they can get for when they move down into the underground facility. So not only will they be gathering the furniture from the empty homes, but also their homes too, so that they’ll have beds and other things down there, seeing how they’ll be spending a lot of time down there. The townspeople didn’t like the idea of it, but seeing how they didn’t want to upset the Spectre Commander and knowing, at least deep down, that he was right, they agreed to do this.

He also had people using the radios to keep sending a message to any survivors, if they can to come to them and if not, try to hide in the underground metros and set up a settlement there. If that wasn’t possible, then they should set up somewhere like undamaged malls and the like and fortify them, then set them up as a settlement. As a last resort, if all else fails and they can’t find somewhere like above, they should find abandoned homes with basements and set up a small base there, fortifying it to make it safe for them. Whatever place they use, they should make sure it’s safe from threats and from the radioactive rain that will come.

The last thing he wanted his people to inform the rest of the country about, is that if they had to go out for any reason, they should only do so if they have no other option to do so. And if they go outside, they should go out well covered and if possible wear a mask or at the very least make sure they cover their mouth and nose so that they don’t breathe too much bad air. Lastly, if they go out, make sure that they don’t go out for too long and be careful, so as to lower any risk.

Once he had sorted what he could that morning, he and the rest of his team left Jericho Mariposa Military Base. The main problem that they have right now is the darkness. While there was some light coming from the soot clouds, it was still hard to see what was going on down on the ground. If it wasn’t for the fires on the ground, seeing this, Kaidan was worried about how the survivors were doing. It would be hard for them, they would be prey for criminals and those who mean others harm. He wished he could do something to help them, but knew that he couldn’t other than what he had done so far. He hoped it was enough.

It was about one o’clock when they finally got to Mariposa Military Base. they landed in front of the mountain that the base was built in. Outside were four people, two were wearing normal power armour and another two were in the new type of power armour known as Mecha, a huge robot that is driven by people. The Mechas that Kaidan was standing in front of were called Big Man.

The Big Man was designed after the T-60 Power Armour, but other than the size, there were two differences. The most offensive difference is that instead of wearing the armour, the person controls the Mecha in a cockpit which is located in the chest area. The other change is that instead of a left hand, the Mecha had a gauss minigun in its place. Now it had one other weapon, an axe which was on its side.

Now the Mechas were created because the Military had heard that China had built their own Mechas and was planning to use them against the USA. To counter this, the USA created their own basic Mechas to fight against China’s version should they decide to use them.

“Halt, who goes there?” asked one of the men in the T-60 Power Armour, as they pointed an assault rifle at Kaidan and his team.

“I’m Commander Alenko of the Spectre,” Kaidan introduced himself, “and this is my team. I’m here as Captain Roger Maxson asked for our help last night.”

“We haven’t been informed about this, I’ll go and see the Captain and see if this is true or not.” said one of the men in power armour, as he left and entered the mountain base. Leaving Kaidan and his people with the rest of the soldiers.

So for the next half an hour, nothing was really said, they stood there waiting for Manson to arrive so that they could move on. As they had much to do. All that was said was between Kaidan and Benitez, who talked about what should happen within the underground facility, what sort of security should be there. Benitez wanted a small brig to hold any trouble makers/criminals that might appear over the years, to hold them until they can decide what to do with them.

As they couldn’t keep any continuing trouble makers/criminals for too long in the facility, seeing how they didn’t know how long they’ll be living there. Not only would it cause trouble for them down the line, but it could cause morale problems, which couldn’t happen, as it could ruin everything that Kaidan was trying to do. Kaidan knew that Benitez was right about this, but at the same time he didn’t like the idea of throwing people out of the facility before everything was settled in the next five to twenty-odd years, it would be a death sentence.

Who knows what they would face, they would have no food and could face a number of monsters if the outcome of this war came true. But at the same time though, he knew that he would have no option but to do this, as he would have to keep things calm and easy in the facility if they wanted to stay alive. As much as Kaidan hated the thought, he knew that he would have to deal with many difficult choices over the years to come, many of which people will hate him for, but if he wanted everyone to survive what’s to come, he would have to make these choices.

Before he could think more about this, the man in the power armour returned with a tall man in his late twenties, with short dark brown hair and blue eyes. “I’m Captain Roger Manson.”

“And I’m Commander Kaidan.”

“So you’re the Spectres Commander, I was expecting someone older and more experienced.” said Roger.

Don’t get him wrong, Roger knew that in the military, as long as they took the time to do the work, they could go up in ranks in no time. But he wouldn’t respect them for it though, for him, they should gain the experience that comes with such roles. Those who don’t earn the experience to go with the role could make mistakes when the time comes and so people could die.

He joined the army when he was eighteen and at twenty-seven year old, he became a captain in the last two years. It took hard work and proving that he was meant to have the rank by doing missions and tasks that made a good captain. Sure he could have been made a captain sooner with the war going on, like a few people he knew did, but he couldn’t, as he didn’t have the experience. He knew if he took the rank of captain before he earned it, he could have led his team in danger that he couldn’t lead them out of and get them killed, he couldn’t allow that. So he took his time and earned the role first. To him, people came first and should be protected, it didn’t matter if they were in the military or if they were civilians. He would do whatever he had to, to protect both of them and try to keep deaths as low as possible if possible. He knew deaths happened, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t try and prevent them if he could.

Now as for the Spectre Commander, whilst he didn’t know how their ranking system worked, but he did know that the rank Commander was the highest rank there was in the Spectres. He runs the whole organisation. Just beneath was the Council who helps the Commander to run things, and if the whole Council voted for it, they were the only one able to remove the Commander from their post. So when he thought of the Spectre Commander, Roger imagined an older person with someone who had an air of great power and experience, someone who if you just look at, shouts out Commander. This person didn’t have it and so feared if he was someone who could lead things as they were now.

“I understand what you mean,” said Kaidan, understanding ere the man was coming from, as he too felt he was too young for the job, “it a long story, but long story short, the former Commander was killed and the higher ranks are either dead or M.I.A. So because it seems that the former Commander had plans of training me to be his replacement and no one to take over, I was placed as the new Commander.”

Roger could understand where Kaidan was coming from. His commanding officer killed himself once he learned what happened here at the base, so he was forced as the next in command to take over. Kaidan was forced to take command because the former Commander was planning to train him and with no one to take over, people looked to him to do the job. They were both in the same boat, taking command when they weren’t ready for nor wanted it.

“Either way, I was informed that you wanted our help for evac.” said Kaidan.

“That’s right,” acknowledged Roger, “we need some help to get to the southeastern part of the Central Valley. There is a small Military Base there that has a hidden underground security bunker. We’re planning to use it as our base of operations, for now, so we can decide what we can do next.”

“I have no problems helping you to get there,” Kaidan informed the captain, “but I have an offer for you. I was wondering if I can convince you to return with us to Jericho, as we have our own underground facility that we’re sorting out to make our settlement. I would like it if you could come, as more men would be very useful for the future.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I think it’s best for us to go to Central Valley,” Roger said thoughtfully as he thought over the idea, “right now, a lot has happened and we want time to think things over. To think about who we can trust and what to do next. No offence to you, we would like to decide what to do without people trying to convince us what to do with looks and shuttle words and such.”

Whilst Kaidan would like nothing more but to have Manson and his people come with him back to Jericho, he could understand where he was coming from. If he was in Manson’s shoes, he too would want a place for him and his people to think without others trying to persuade him to do otherwise. That didn’t mean that they couldn’t help each other out in the future. It is going to be a long few years, so helping each other out would be useful.

“No offence taken, I would do the same if I was in your shoes,” Kaidan told the captain of his thoughts, “but if you need any help in the future, I’m more than willing to help you. As with the years to come, we all need to help each other where we can, as we’ll be limited to what we can get and as such we might have something that the other might need.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that.” Roger told the new Commander, “To be truthful, I’m glad that you answered our call for help. I’ve been trying to get in contact with the military and the government about what I have learned recently, trying to get answers and what to do.”

“Sorry to inform you, but I don’t think you would like answers from either of them.” Kaidan informed the younger man, “If it wasn’t for the war heating up from the last few weeks to get to this point, if the military answered, they would have told you to keep your nose down and let scientists do their job as they were creating new weapons to fight against China. As for the government, I would be surprised if they would get back to you at all, as I learned recently that there hasn’t been one for the last six months or so.”

“What!?” Roger cried out in shock. For the military he already figured that they would more than likely have him do nothing, that’s why he was trying to get in contact with someone in the government. But to hear that there hasn’t been a government for so long, that surprised him and his men there.

“If there’s no government for the last few months, who has been running the country?” asked one of Roger’s men, “Better yet, who has been running the military? The President is the Commander in Chief of the armed forces, so who is in control of that?”

“All honesty I don’t know,” admitted Kaidan, “but if I have to guess, I say no one. As that’s the only reason why I believe everything has gone to hell recently. We only see or hear from President Trump rarely these days. If I have to guess, the person we see isn’t Trump but a double of him. Just to show that everything is fine and dandy, whilst the real President and his people are hiding, somewhere safe.”

“Thanks for the information, at least I now know what’s going on.” was all Roger said with a sigh, to be honest, he didn’t know how to react to this, he needed time to think about it all. “For now, let’s get things moving and let’s get out of here. I feel really uneasy with everything that I know about the place.”

“I know what you mean.” admitted Kaidan, he only heard stories about the place and he didn’t want to spend much time here. Then a thought occurred to him and so he asked, “Before we do anything, I have one question, has any of the F.E.V left this base recently?”

“Actually, there have been at least six vans that I know of, full of metal shipping barrel dumbs.” Roger informed the Commander, “From what I overheard once, each van had about twenty barrels of F.E.V, to be sent to other sites for different tests. In fact, before I took over this place, I heard that there meant to be a delivery here. Two new versions of the F.E.V.”

“New version?” asked Kaidan, not liking the sound of this at all.

“I’m not too sure what they are, but one meant to have some form of magic in it to make it so that the subjects could have magic or special abilities when transformed.” Mansion explained to the Spectre. Hearing this, Kaidan and the other Spectres knew this was bad news if this were true, who knew the problems that they could face in the future. “As the second version was meant to be a better version of the first one.”

“What do you mean better?” asked Benitez, as he thought about the risks and trying to find a counter to defend people.

“With the first version, people were twisted into tall muscle-bound green mutants,” explained Roger, “They all look the same, meaning that what makes them male or female are removed, although sexual characteristics, such as the penis and testicles in males and the uterus and ovaries in females seemed to be unaffected. Although I for one never checked to make sure, mind you. But from what I heard, if true, they are all sterile and so unable to birth new mutants, they need to be created. They were mindless beasts whose main thoughts are to fight and eat. However, this new version meant to remove these side-effects, allowing them to look male and female and instead of creating new ones they can have the females birth new ones. From what I heard, they wanted to test how fast the birthing circle was and see if they could shorten it so that it would take less time for the child to be born than a human child, they were hoping to test how fast it would grow too and alter that too.”

This worried Kaidan and Benitez who was thinking the same thing: mindless beasts who only think about fighting and eating was bad enough, but at least they were sterile. But if they were given the ability to have children, they feared the consequence of this, as if they were mindless, the male mutants would go out to rape women to have children.

And if the magical version was like the old version where they were sterile, but gets mixed with the new version somehow or altered later on, then they would have more problems.

“Do you know when the new versions are meant to arrive here?” asked Benitez, worried that they were hit in the bombing, “And do you know if the vans from here got to where they meant to?”

“Sadly I don’t know the answers to either of these questions.” Roger informed Benitez.

“So we have an unknown number of barrels of F.E.V out there in vans that might have been hit by the bombs.” Kaidan said as he let his thoughts out there. This made everyone there piled, more so Roger and his men as they knew what the F.E.V could do. What Kaidan didn’t let known were his fears that instead of going where they meant to, they could be in public areas set up to expose the public and animal life to it, to see what happens.

“So we might be facing mutated animals and people in the upcoming years?” Roger said as he realized what Kaidan was getting at.

“Yeah, there are theories that the animal life that doesn’t get killed, will be altered by the radiation from the bombing. But now that we have the possible F.E.V to deal with, who knows what we’ll face in the future.” Kaidan informed them of his worries.

“As if our future wasn’t bleak enough, now we might have to deal with those affected by the F.E.V.” one of Roger’s men said darkly as he aired what everyone was thinking in one form or another, “Just shows how fucked up the world has become because of man meddling with things that we shouldn’t be.”

There wasn’t much they could say to this seeing how it was true, mankind often sticks its noses in places that they don’t belong and create or visit places that they shouldn’t. That’s one reason why the world is how it is now because one man by the name of Albert Einstein who’s research created the atom that would later create the atomic bomb. If it wasn’t for that one moment, the world might not have ended now.

“Less doom and gloom talk, for now, we should get things moving before the little sun we have goes.” said Kaidan.

“You’re right Commander, we should hurry before it gets dark.” said Roger, “Please follow me.”

“Okay,” Kaidan said with a bow of his head, “do any of your people need medical treatment? I have brought some doctors just in case you needed someone.”

“Matter of fact, we have a few injuries that I would like your people to look at.” admitted Roger, “We also have a few pregnant I would like you to look over too.”

“No problem.” was all Kaidan said, as he told Benitez and his people to keep guard of the outside, whilst he, Anna May and the doctors entered the base.

During the next two hours, as the medical staff was looking over Roger’s people, Roger and his men were helping Kaidan load the transport Vertibirds with power armour, ammo, food and other supplies that they might need at the bunker Roger was planning to go to. It didn’t take them long to get to this bunker and unload the Vertibirds. Kaidan didn’t want to stay, as he wanted to return to Jericho to make sure everything was alright, something Roger could understand.

Before leaving though, Roger thanked them for their help, as without them he feared that he might have lost many good people getting here, even his wife and his teenage son. So he was truly thankful for their help and hopes that they can help each other out in the future.

o0OoO0o

25th of October 2077 - Jericho:

When Kaidan and his team returned to Jericho, the little sunlight that they had was disappearing fast. But that wasn’t Kaidan’s only problem, as the moment that Kaidan’s Vertibird landed, Heather came running towards him and said, “Commander, we have an emergency, about ten minutes ago, I got news that it started to rain at Denver and it was heading towards us.”

“Damn it, this is too soon.” cursed Kaidan, he had hoped that he would have more time to sort things out and have a place that was safe for everyone. “How much time do we have?”

“I don’t know, I was about to ask the mayor but I saw your Vertibird and thought you would want to know this ASAP.” the young Lau informed the Commander.

“So let’s do this, as we might not have much time to deal with this.” said Kaidan as he ran towards the police station, with Heather and Anna May.

Once there, Kaidan saw a group of there talking about what was happening, it would seem that they too heard about the news of the rain, as he heard Mayor Green say as he was looking at a map of the town, “Okay, we have to divide the town into two, the south side of the two well take the shelter at the Town Hall, whilst those on the north side will go to the shelter at the clinic.”

“We’ll get the word out, Dad.” said Eric.

Before any of them could say or do anything, Kaidan said, “Do you know what you’re doing? I don’t think that these shelters would hold everyone here. Not only that but do you know how long before the rain gets here.”

“Commander Kaidan, I’m glad that you’re back,” said Johnston, “we’re just sorting things out now. Mr. Hawkins here,” pointing to a black who looked like he was in his late forties, “give us a few ideas of what we should do.” Here the mayor informs Kaidan how Hawkins informed them how those who can’t get into shelters, could protect themselves at home by sealing their home by using Duct Tape, plastic sheeting, just anything that they can get their hands on and hide in their basement and storm cellars like Gray suggested.

Here Kaidan looked at Hawkins with suspicion, no normal civilian should know about such things about protecting homes like this. Sure a normal civilian would know about the bunkers to hide in, but using duct Tape, plastic sheeting, that’s not many people know about, only certain groups would know this.

“Mr. Hawkins, how do you know so much about protection against radiation?” asked Kaidan, wanting to know how this man knew so much about it.

“I used to be in the military before I was in battle a few years back, where I was gravely injured where I lost my right leg and some injuries that prevent me from returning to the field.” said Hawkins as he pulled up his right leg of his jeans, revealing that his leg was replaced with a metal one, “During my time in the military, my company were trained to use such skills should we find ourselves in situations where we were in nuclear areas or places that were hit by dirty bombs.”

“A name for a weaker bomb that has radioactive material in it,” explained Hawkins, “it’s something military that the communist might create and use against us. As it can destroy buildings a few blocks around it, or it can destroy a whole city depending on how powerful they make it. Whilst not as powerful as a nuclear bomb, it’s still as dangerous because of the radiation. Depending on how much they can use, it could spread all over the city. Because of this, some of the soldiers in the military are trained to deal with this so that they can create safe-houses outside the hotspots as they search for survivors in the bombing.”

“I see.” said Kaidan, he did hear that the military was working on such things, as they were worried what the communist would do, and feared that this could be one such thing.”So, anyone got any idea how long before the rain gets here?”

“Don’t look at me, I just moved to the town with my family,” Hawkins informed them, “I have no idea how long does it normally take a storm to get here from Denver.”

“It’s normally between two to three hours, depending on the wind.” said Gray, the man who Kaidan knew might become a problem later on, he was the type who would use such events to get what he wants. “But if the wind is stronger than normal, the storm could get here sooner.”

“Two hours? We can’t do that! There’s not enough time!” this came from various people in the crowd, worried about what was going to happen.

This wasn’t good, Kaidan knew that the crowd was right, they didn’t have enough time, less time if the wind was strong today. Before he could think of what to do next, he had to gather more information, “Mayor Green, you said that you have two shelters in town. How many can they hold?”

“Hmm, the one under the City Hall can hold between three hundred to three hundred and fifty people,” Johnston said thoughtfully as he was remembering the numbers, “as for the one under the clinic? Sadly, that only holds no more than fifty people.”

“You do know that there are almost five thousand people in this town.” Gray reminded the mayor, then added with a slide remark, “And that’s without all these Spectres and the survivors that they are bringing into town.”

Here people started to whisper that Gray was right, wondering what the mayor was thinking and such. That they should kick out the Spectres and the survivors.

“Unless you want to be left outside when the rain gets here, shut the hell up, I’m trying to think here!” Kaidan shouted mainly at Gray, he didn’t have time to deal with his remarks, nor trying to make himself look good to the people of this town. He also shouted at the crowd, this was so he could shut them up and think about what to do to save everyone. So much to do, very little time to do it all.

As he thought there wasn’t much he could do and that people were going to die, he saw someone out of the window that he was glad to see, a black man Spectre known as Gaara. He was the leader of the team known as Geo-Force, they were all Earth L’Cies. They specialised in rescue work, using their powers to rescue people and creating temporary bases and shelters made of earth. Kaidan had worked with Gaara a few times, so he was happy to see him.

Seeing him, Kaidan ran to the door and called out, “Spectre Gaara, please come over here please.”

“Spectre Network, or should I call you Commander Network, how is it going?” said Gaara with a smile, as he saw a friend.

“First off, it’s Commander Kaidan, I’ve had people drop their code-names seeing how that wouldn’t make a difference now with how things are now.” Kaidan informed the other Spectre.

“I see, then call me Markus,” Markus informed the Commander, “so what can I do for you, Commander?”

“I would like to know if you have your full team with you?” asked Kaidan, as the people behind him were whispering what he was up to. Things had to be done and quickly and he was talking to this person out of the blue for no reason.

Here, Markus looked grim as he thought about it, he then went on to say, “Sadly, only me and two others have survived, Spectre Terra and Gaia.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Kaidan said respectfully, as he bowed his head, he knew the team had ten people in it, to lose seven of them was awful. Kaidan would like to give the man time to moan for his fallen companions, but he couldn’t, he needed the Earth Spectre for what he had planned. “Now whilst I would like to give you time to mourn for your loss, I can’t right now, I need your help, as well as Terra and Gaia.”

“What can we do to help you Commander?” asked Markus. He was thankful that the new commander was willing to give him time to mourn for his fallen companions, he knew how things were now, like the new commander, this wasn’t the time to do so. They have to make sure everyone was safe first, then there would be time to moan for the fallen.

“Come with me.” said Kaidan as he led Markus back into the police station. Once in the station and back at the desk, he introduced Markus to everyone, “Everyone, this is Spectre Markus, he is the leader of one of our groups known as Geo-Force. I’m hoping he can help us with protecting everyone from the rain that’s coming.” Then looking at the map of the town that was on the desk, Kaidan asked as he pointed to two areas - the Town Hall and the clinic, “Markus, I need to know, can you along with Terra and Gaia can you create an earth-like dome in these two areas in under an hour?”

Looking at the areas that Kaidan looked at, which now Kaidan had drawn an outline of where the domes meant to go, “Sadly, without my full team, we can only do one of these areas in your time limit.” explained the Earth L’Cie, “Not only that, but we’ll have to remove some of the buildings for the dome.”

“What!?” many shouted in shock and anger, with Gray continuing by saying, “You can’t do this, many of the townspeople will not accept this.” many there was agreeing with him, even the mayor looked unsure about this