Chapter 26
The Perfect Storm
Journal Entry - March 19th 2094
Julia A Scott
As the Head Elder I was doing my best to prepare for our guest. My preparation were divided into two camps, preserving the files and history of our community and then prepare ourselves for… Change. We were going to have to try and transport the best of what we have and yet be able to change into what we needed to be. That was a strange concept, but it has been how we have survived this long. We have always transported the best that we had to a new locations and yet maintained the social foundation that created it. It would be not different now, I hope.
The first part was accomplished in two visits, the first, to the archives held in the solitary confinement areas of this building and second, a visit to the Hall of Heros out in Graham. My next task was to address the council and heads of families. Each would be tasked with preparing their arenas of responsibility for organizing what would come, how it would be packed and what would be left to maintain those staying behind. With that done, I then dove into the treasure trove of historical files that Jordy had on a memory storage device. Due to our isolation we were spared some of the horrific declines in humanity and its fallout. We also had little to no knowledge of what happened and why we were left alone for the past eight decades.
The Shortened version for the decline and almost extinction of the human race is as follows. It is organized by country or zone and not chronological:
The world’s economy declined and due to global warming vast selection of our agricultural lands became too arid to grow food, even in America, so smaller countries went bankrupt trying to buy food from other countries, but banks stopped lending and the larger counties ended up supporting the lesser. The burden of trying to keep millions of people from starving and unrest from spreading was insurmountable.
In Mexico and Central America, the drug cartels got more aggressive as money from Mainland America started drying up. The Armies of the Central American nations had to be called on to try and hold back the drug lords from taking what food was available. The conflicts were bloody and took a huge toll on the civilian population caught in the middle.
America was called upon to send troops to keep order in twenty South American and African nations. The Navy had almost every Aircraft Carrier deployed on these mission with exception of the Pacific fleet. The Pacific Fleet had its hands full just trying to maintain the naval blockade against China’s expansion into the Southern Pacific. China was making a desperate attempt to seize fishing grounds as the South China Sea was devoid of eatable fish. So the Pacific Fleets job was to keep the trolers and naval ships from encroaching on other countries fishing grounds. Six of China’s massive trolers/fish factories could strip an area of the sea of fish in a matter of days, so most counties have take to shooting or even torpedoing these ships when they see them. The US navy is trying to keep the peace by providing a wall that the Chinese were not allowed to crawl over. They could and did travel to other areas of the pacific, however they were continuously chased out of other countries territorial waters as fish became more and more scares.
Even though our navy was all over the world, it created an even harder set of circumstances for the US Air Force. Due to attrition and the fight with Russia, they had few pilots and the planes were in less than pristine shape. Most were being flow well beyond their maintenance cycles and those that could not fly were being cannibalized for parts. Nearly thirty percent of the aircraft would never fly again due to this process. It was only a matter of time before what they did have would fail either on the ground or in flight.
The Army was involved but not to the extreme of the other two services. They were boots on the ground for security and supply movements, but the majority of the fighting forces were kept in reserve. Even with the troops supporting the Central American forces, the army still possessed more than eighty percent of it forces on American soil.
In China’s interior unemployment rose sharply as the global economy tanked and took most of the market for its exports. Like many countries, China was in debt and its agricultural programs were failing. As a matter of fact, over 38 percent of their agricultural lands could no longer grow food and they were still losing as much as 9.6 percent a year from bad farming practices. The nation was increasingly dependent of the ocean to feed its population. This shift in labor convinced millions of farmers and farm workers started migrating to cities for jobs, but they were met with resistance as there were no jobs. In no time overcrowding and filth was beginning to choke the inner cities. The government started rounding up men and women that left the rural areas and started to put them in refugee camps, however poor conditions, frequent thief of food and young men roaming the camps to killing, stealing and raping women made it difficult to keep the people in the camps. After a riot in one of the camps lead to the deaths of almost a four thousand men, women and children the government started deporting those put in the camps back to central China. This made the governors of the local regions deal with the issues. With no help from outsiders, because the central government did not want the world to know they were in such peril of economic collapse, the local governors had little choice but to ask the refugee to commit suicide. The Adults were promised that their children would be taken care of by the state if they ended their lives. Close to one hundred thousand did so with assurances that the government would reward them, instead the children were executed as well.
An army general that was on maneuvers witnessed the mass killings that were taking place and stopped them. After learning that the action was sanctioned by the Central Government he started a plan to remove the Communist Central Government. The General managed to enlist the help of 2/3rd of the army’s top brass, however they failed to gain access to the nuclear weapons and the central government used these nuclear devices to push their rogue armies back from Chiang Mai.
The unintended consequence of an unannounced launch of nuclear weapons prompted the Russians to do the same even though none of the Chinese missiles ever left their air space. The Russian missile response was automatic and seventeen missiles were launched which delivering ten warheads each. Out of the seventeen warheads, six responded to their autodestruct signals and failed to reach their targets, but the ones that did devastated China. Between the Chinese warheads and the Russian, it was estimated that 95% of China’s population was exterminated and the radioactive fallout spread to all of its neighbors and up into Alaska. Taiwan, Japan, Both Koreas, Northern Vietnam and Northern Laos were uninhabitable. As the radioactive cloud made its way across the ocean the rains removed much of it and it fell into the Pacific Ocean killing what was left of the fish in the area. Eventually the ocean in its massiveness would dissipate the radiation to less than lethal levels. The Chinese fleet tried to make its way South and was intercepted by the US fleet. The battle that followed devastated the American fleet, but removed the Chinese fleet from existence.
The Russians were under tremendous pressure from NATO and Europe and they tried to explain to the world that the warheads aimed at China were of a vintage type and did not responded to their recall commands. The world would not listen, thus deepening Russia’s own issues with the decline in the global economy, the lack of food had reduced the number of people to the lowest point prior to World War Two. It didn’t help that corrupt government officials made it almost impossible for shipments of food to make it to market, and the black market was so expensive that only the most affluent were able to afford food. With greed running the show much of the food went to waste as the rich only took a portion of what was available and with the bank accounts full and bellies full of vodka, the rest of the food rotted where it sat. The Russian military was suffering its own shortages of materials and leadership so they did little to help and at least two uprisings were put down by local police with military style tactics. Even so the military was not excluded from the uprising as one base was attacked for its supplies, the result was almost twelve hundred dead. Kurdish forces took advantage of the unrest and snuck in the Southern Russia via the Iran and Azerbaijan. Refineries and Storage tanks were burned or blown open, spilling all that fuel into the rivers that fed into both the Black and Caspian Seas. On top of the natural disaster the fuel rationing that followed meant the many homes would not be heated and the central plants had to curtail heating homes and apartments in the outlying areas. The inner cities were flooded with people trying to find shelter from the harsh Russian winters. Many apartments had as many as 30 people in them, when they were slated to only house 5-8. These conditions led to the outbreak of disease as sewage system were over loaded. Hospitals could not accept any more patients and hundreds of people died each day. The Army was eventually called in to remove the dead bodies and eventually many of the service members became sick themselves.
With these issues keeping the officials of Russia busy the members of Al Qaeda and ISIS made moves on the oil reserves of the Ukraine. They quickly overpowered the forces in the area and burned the oil wells. Over six hundred and fifty wells were set on fire and the smoke could be seen from orbit. If anyone was left in China, they would complain of the clouds of smoke obscuring the sun.
With further losses to its oil supplies Russia descended on Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. With no intention of sparing lives they carpet bomb and incinerated anything that got in its way. They were already in Syrah and took control of the country with little or no resistance. The US government could do little to stop the intensity of the attack as Russia was using there new killing machines. Robots and robotic suits that could enhance a soldier's capacity to an unreal level. The units were small, but so deadly that they swept everything from their path. The only thing that could stop them were the new energy weapons, as the Russian robots were using conventional weapons with limited range. Whereas our energy weapons and railguns could take out targets at twice the range, we just didn’t have enough of them to overcome the Russian invasion. We were in a tactical retreat to the golf and out into the Indian Ocean. Much of the Russian Air Force, both bombers, fighters and drones were destroyed in the skirmishes with the American forces, however the sheer numbers made it impossible for our beleaguered Air Force to stay in the fight. It was a war of attrition and with American forces already stretched thin we relinquished the Middle East. Even the caves, that hid the militant forces in the first Afghanistan war were scored and made uninhabitable. Iran launch its nuclear weapons toward Russia, but there were so few and Russia’s anti missile defense systems quick destroyed them all, All of the middle Eastern countries fell, but the price was high. The Russian army was reduced to 25% of its former self and despite the ferocity of its attaches small pockets of Muslim fighters were left and they whittled away at the Russian at every turn. Still the Russians managed to stopped all shipments of oil from traveling from the Middle East to Europe. Europe was forced to turn to South America for it soul source of fuel, but the supply was limited and its value was overly inflated.
In America the media was gorging on the world’s calamity, but one by one the countries kicked out or killed these reporters and the flow of information was reduced to a trickle. The Media turned to the riots and criminal activities in America and made outrageous claims about the motivation of politician, conglomerates and religious organizations. It didn’t matter if there were any facts to back up the claims, it was a feeding frenzy and no one was exempt. Riots formed to protest lies or lack of food and water. Gang activity also increase so much so that the inner cities pleaded with the governors to call out the national guard members to help keep the situation from growing. After two months of killing and dying many of the guard members deserted their posts and Army reserves were called up and sworn in as guard members as the Federal Government was maintaining the stance that the stale and local authorities needed to handle their own affairs, this brought a little more equipment and resources to the fight, but the Feds kept it limited for fear of not being able to meet other obligations. Things were getting back to some sense of normalcy when the media broke the news story that the financially affluent one percenters were stockpiling supplies in compounds in all over the world and that corrupt government officials in the US and NATO countries were allowing certain activities like mass killings and looting amongst the millions of refugees that had to flee Asia. Protest started gaining strength and members of radical groups rose up and staged attacks against other groups. The KKK sterilized and entire town in Georgia of its African American population. The Aryan nations moved North and laid claim to most of Detroit and Chicago, but their numbers were limited as compared to the minority populations in the area that were backed by the State Guard and Reserve units. The Aryan’s were eventually driven back, however Detroit was a total loss and Chicago was almost burnt to the ground. In every major city there were skirmishes between the religions as well. Christian groups claimed that they were just defending themselves against Muslim extremism, but both groups were burning churches and temples and it wasn’t safe to be associated with any religion. Most people met in small groups and kept guards to ensure they would not be targeted. The Jewish community tried to remain neutral, however they were drawn into the fighting and eventually sided with the Christian community.
Despite all the turmoil that the media was showing, many small communities remained calm and orderly as they implemented nightly curfew and martial law. Food was scarce but many had private gardens and means to preserve food. They still believed that the Federal Government would bring thing back from this turmoil. However, the Last Straw occurred when the press found twenty seven Republican and Democratic members of congress at a resort in the Bahamas enjoying the island, local spirits and women all at the expense of the Mega Corp PRUDESCO. Seventeen of these representatives were members of the Ways and Means committee, the most powerful policy making boards in congress. This would have been bad all by itself, but in true ratings grabbing style an internet security breach revealed that almost half of the Senate was receiving funds or kickbacks from the big five corporations and many of these electected representatives were supporting the passage of a corporate welfare bills aimed at allowing the corporation to get tax breaks while backing off restrictions on sending jobs to third world nations that had cheaper labor.
The president of the US was in favor of this bill and when the greedy details were exposed he tried to backpedal, but his endorsement kept him tied to the bill and overall confidence in the government dropped to less than 10%. The intent of the bill was to bolster up many of the third world nations that we were already dumping billions of dollars worth of aid into, but once the corporate lawyers got their claws into it, it was transformed into a union busting corporate money grab. Monetary velocity fell so fast as the middle class stopped spending to save for the inevitable loss of work which, in turn helped the stock market fall, first to recession status, then depression, then it fell apart altogether. All confidence in American money fell apart as it was the last major country that was not in a direct conflict. At least not at the moment or from an outside source.
Inner cities were not safe at night and were barely safe during the day. Unemployment rose to 47% and was not getting any better. Robberies and theft from store got so bad that many store owners just walked away and left the doors unlocked. Many Walmart managers gave up all together and most told their employees to steal as much as they could carry on their way out as they would not open the next day. This was repeated by many retail stores like Target, the hardware stores and most grocery stores.
Airlines kept flying, however the number dropped to just three.
The Army petitioned the Federal Government to give them permission to stabilize the situation, but the Federal Government refused to make a decision. In Washington State a few colonials at Joint Base Lewis McChord rolled their striker tanks and troops into the streets of Tacoma, Seattle and Olympia in support of the Governor. The mutineers were said to have stolen some tactical nuclear devices so the mutiny was met with overwhelming actions from what was left of JBLM. The fight turned brutal as the mobility air wings moved South and attack aircraft were called in to put down this mutiny. Due to the intel on the nukes, unknown thousands of civilians were caught in the crossfire. The Air Force was ordered to carpet bombed all the major thoroughfares in an attempt to contain the mutineers. Later it was discovered that the intel on the Tactical Nukes was just a lie to get the Air Force to fire on the mutineers despite the civilians in their path. This started a rift between the Army and Air Force. Other joint bases made attempts to secure their air forces, but many slipped away to bases strictly controlled by the Air Force. This Rift rose all the way to the pentagon splinting the armed forces as the Army was trying to stabilize unrest on American soil and the Air Forces were supporting the Federal Government. The Federal Government charged the army generals for treason, but did not have the manpower to enforce it. At one point the army generals petitioned the navy to join them in a military coup to taking over America stating that they were just trying to uphold the constitution and rescuing it from the hands of the corrupt government and the corporations that seemed to be in control. The navy admirals were split. It only took a misstep by an Air Force lieutenant to set off a series of skirmishes that lead to all-out war between the military forces. The Air Force concentrated on destroying the armies’ tanks and helicopters. The army was not winning the engagements so it turned its attention to destroying the Air Forces fuel supplies, plane can’t fly without fuel. 95% of America’s fuel storage and processing plants were destroyed within the first two weeks. Within a month, using what resources they had, the air forces of both the Naval and Air Force squadrons destroyed every tank, truck and vehicle the army had, but the attrition on the air forces reduced the fighting air wings to two, so they retreated to the East coast to be close to what was left of the US government. These forces congregated in the states around Washington DC. Of the Naval Forces left only the Nimitz, Ronald Reagan and the Abraham Lincoln survived, however the air wings were all but decimated. What aircraft that managed to return would be difficult to get back in the air. Of the support ships and escorts only about 15% survived or were scuttled because of a lack of fuel. The Submarines were not left out of the fight. Many of the missile subs were taken out by the attack subs, but even they were split and they battled each other in the open oceans. It was not uncommon to see one of these subs adrift as they ran out of fuel or supplies and the crew abandoned them. Most were scuttled to keep them from falling into enemies hands. At this point no one really knew who was the enemy and who was friend. The Canadian forces were brought into the fight by trying to keep American forces out of Canada. They were decimated by both sides of the American conflict. Mexico was not spared either.
Of the world’s military might, no one was spared, NATO took on the Russians and the conflict wiped out most of their supplies and vehicles, what was left was ill prepared for the civilian population that turn on them.
In America the Governors that remained turned to militias to protect and keep order. Many were ruthless and did more harm than good. Eventually they were overrun by the civilians and pushed out of the cities. Gangs and thugs took over most cities and promptly depleted most of the materials and food.
It was the perfect storm of government corruption, corporate greed, the economic collapse of smaller nations. In the vacuum of power, criminal organizations and cartels fought each other over territories. The country ceased to exists and yet with the total devastation abroad, there was no one to overtake what was left. Individual men tried to stand up and organize resistance to these ruthless thugs, but most did not have the constitution to fight, so these few men found themselves isolated and quickly destroyed. As the old saying goes, the sheep scattered and the wolves picked them clean.
Japan was all but wiped out by the nuclear fallout from both the Chinese and Russian nuclear missiles. Even nature was poised against us as a large asteroid fell from the sky and stuck the Pacific ocean 150 kilometers off the Hawaiian coast. The tidal wave reached almost twenty miles inland and wiped all lives from the coast of the Pacific rim. Then the sun basically went out. The cloud of steam and debris from the asteroid filled the skies and reduced the temperatures to near winter conditions for almost two months. This also answered the question about the millions of people living North of Seattle. The title surge swept down the Straits and engulfing the coastal area as far south as Renton The surge was almost a hundred and twenty feet high and went in twenty three miles. Just about every island in the Puget Sound was devoid of life as the surge and its debris push south so hard that the Narrows bridges were ripped from their granite footings. Due to browns point, Tacoma was protected from the main surge and only saw a title surge of about 40 feet. In the Puget sound area more than 4.8 million people perished. The ensuing darkness and lack of food drove people south.
All total, over 1.85 billion people perished, but it was not over. Of the few governments that survived only two had any military forces. They were employed to keep what recourse they could get their hands on. The American forces relocated to the gulf of Mexico and captured the oil fields of Texas. They still had the naval group and the F-35 from the Air Force were converted to operate off the Carrier. They were in no shape to take on a real army, but under the circumstances no one had the resources to resist. This made our small military the most powerful force on the planet. The Admiral of the Fleet consolidated power to himself and was able to keep the air wings in check as they had nowhere else to turn. Power was not worth having if you did not have an objective. That’s where Mr. Monroe came in. Being the CEO of the now One World corporation, he had a vision that they could get behind. So, with absolute prejudice they sent the cartels packing and claimed the territories near the Panama canal. This way they would have easy access to both the Pacific and the Atlantic once the Pacific side was repaired from damage caused by the Tsunami. It took almost a year, but the Fleet was then divided into two ocean groups with a third group of smaller ships being kept on the Lake Gatun at Gamboa, which was a facility the channel dredgers operated out of. The other significant thing about Gamboa was that it was at the mouth of the Rio Chagres and the biggest hydro-electric dams in the area. This dam would provide power to the new capital that would be build for the scientist and researchers.
Looking at the planet from a human population perspective all of the Pacific Islands were swept clean of human life, Australia had less than ten thousand, Africa was filled with tribes killing each other for food, land or women, which made its population somewhat speculative. South Africa was trying to take advantage of the lack of unity and was pushing its borders North. Until the Egyptians fired nuclear missiles at them fearing the amount of power they might gain. They delivered ten, fifty megaton warheads on the advancing troops and the major cities of South Africa. As the dust settled a Muslim cleric started another jihad war and marched across North Africa and purged all those that would not convert to their philosophy. It was the Egyptians that stopped them with yet another nuclear device. This was a major mistake as the radiation was leaking into Egypt killing all of the inhabitants on the Western border. The surviving Jihad moved south into Somalia and Uganda. The forces were not able to keep them from destroying all influences of Christianity and local witch craft. They then moved south and West across the central African planes. They were spread very thin as they believed that Allah would protect their mission. He did not. The battle with the African tribes of central Africa ended their Jihad. All total with nuclear detonations and Jihad religious purging over 657 million dead and most governments gone. Warlords and tribal leaders rose up to try and grab as much as they could. These disputes killed another 30 million, disease and starvation took another 250 million. The total number of Africans could not fill a major city.
Europe’s military was thrown at the Russians and all but destroyed what was left, but not before losing most of it might. The Air force had less than two squadrons, but no fuel to run them. The Middle East was thrown into its own belief war and Millions were dead. The oil fields were ablaze as forces struggled to maintain control. Religious forces in Europe killed each other and tried to remove all influences of the other. The German armies tried to put down the unrest but militia forces from Britain, France and Spain fearing a Fourth Reich joined forces to fight the Germans. Neighbors fought neighbors and armies fought armies, it was the same story all over again. Nothing seemed to be able to stop the slaughter. Only a few million survivors managed to make it down to Italy only to be put in camps and left to rout. Eventually the government sent them back North. They revolted, the predominantly Christians headed North again, while the Muslims headed south. The Muslims were butchered in Turkey and the Christians in Eastern France. The Russian front was collapsing, and the premiere ordered a limited nuclear strike which enticed a response. Europe was gone, only a few thousand survived the attacks, radiation, starvation and disease, those that could, moved South, to the coast of the Mediterranean. Pirates and warlords arose from the survivors and it was bad for all but a few. The Russian government was all but gone and only a few military leaders survived. They moved Northeast to avoid the radiation fallout. It was difficult to find a place that was survivable. Norway and Sweden accepted many refugees, but resources were limited and thousands starved. The fallout from Britain and Mainland Europe spread across the Ukrainian counties and contaminated 80% of what was left of Europe. The Ports of Portugal and Spain were nuked by Russia and the radiation spread across the country making most of it uninhabitable. Its inhabitants try to flee East, but radiation quickly overtook them and they died, those that made it to the Mediterranean were brutalized and robbed of food and supplies.
Then I ran across this piece of news. Since we told Jordy of our colony and how it was started, One World had already incorporated us into their history book. Not a great deal of detail, but enough. It almost gave me goose bumps as I read about us.
Due to the asteroid the winter was long and harsh, starvation was killing thousands each day. Mankind was literally on the verge of extinction. Small groups manage to stay hidden with supplies that would last for a year if they were managed correctly. Graham Heights was one such location. It was a loose group of six sites that had food, water and shelter for its inhabitants for almost nine months. They were capable of generating power from a small river that flowed near one of the settlements. They had secured two dozen containers for hydroponic activities, which allowed them to grow what was necessary to sustain life. Since the military pulled out of the area after the battle of JBLM, there was little left that could fight and most major roads were destroyed. Much of this occurred when the Air Forced engaged the Tanks in the cities. In less than a week of fighting all the mutineers were destroyed and the military pulled out never to be seen again. After the first long winter, our settlement enjoyed mostly fair weather and on occasion we would have to shelter ourselves from radiation laddered rain. However, the levels were low, very low and it usually dissipated within a day or so.
We rebuilt and protected what we had. We added on when we could and built other settlements. We kept things small and tightly organized. It was the only way to keep outsiders from infiltrating our organization with the intent of destroying what we have put together. We were not intentionally brutal, but if you tried to oppose us, we had the ability to destroy anything you sent at us. As I record this, it sounds so barbaric. However, we don’t go out of our way to acquire lands or resources that are being used by others. We negotiate and try to set up a mutually beneficial set of circumstances. We have an the ability to transform any settlement into something far better than it currently was. It was actually our pleasure to help, if they accepted our leadership and philosophy. The leadership was in the form of setting up and training representatives from their settlement and the philosophy was our moral code and the judicial system that went with it. Most accepted the leadership, education and benefits, however there were a few holdouts. Two of which we have basically plowed around and left alone. They have kept to themselves and we will do the same. Eventually they’ll be surrounded and have to relinquish their stubbornness or parish by attrition. Either way as long as they are not militant toward us we will leave them alone. The Rainier Colony consists of twelve settlements; Graham Heights, Fort Lance, North Home, South Tacoma, Island Capital, The Puyallup Valley, The Nisqually Valley, Western Cove, Old Steilacoom, Southern Lake Home, Lake Tapps and Eatonville.
As you know this blog contains two books of the Remnant Series. Graham Heights is book 3 of the series. Below is more.
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R. A. Legg
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