Chapter Twelve…

(Aftermath - Chapter 4!)

Jericho - Part 2.

24th of October 2077 - Jericho, Jericho High School, School Gym:

It was afternoon and Mayor Green had called a town meeting at the local town school to let everyone know what was going on. He asked Kaidan and those Kaidan thought would be useful to be there, so that they could answer any questions that the Mayor himself could not answer. So Kaidan, Anna May Wong, Roy Benitez, Doctor Jessica Kandel, Faye and Heather Lau attended the meeting too. They would be the key players in town for a while and understood that the townspeople should know who they were and what their roles were going to be.

Once everyone was at the School Gym, or everyone that Mayor Green knew would be coming, Johnston Green started the meeting. "Ladies and gentlemen thank you all for coming today," the mayor greeted the people. "Now I'm not going to make any fancy speeches today. No, today we get right to the point. Now yesterday, we all went to our fallout shelters because of reports of our country being bombed. Some of you are wondering if this was some kind of prank or trial run without prior warning. The truth is it was neither. Our country was attacked yesterday with nukes."

"Who attacked us? Was it those damn communists?" a female called out. There was some mumbling at this, as others wondered about this themselves.

"I don't know Ann," Johnston informed the woman and everyone else in the gym. "Without the TV or radios working, I've been trying since yesterday to contact our governor, or anyone in government to find out what is going on and who attacked us. So far I have been unable to reach anyone, so I don't know who attacked us. It is highly likely China pulled off the bombing in retaliation, as they might believe we launched the first few nukes and so launched back in response."

There were many people that mumbled about this, wondering what was going on. Wondering if the communists had attacked them first or, as their mayor had just suggested, the Chinese believed that they were attacked first and so retaliated. Whatever the case, one of the male townsmen asked, "Who are those people behind you?" He pointed to the group of people seated behind the mayor, "Why are there three comm -" Seeing a dark look that promised a world of pain from Kaidan, he stopped in his tracks. Deciding on a different tack he asked "what are these Chinese women here for? How do we know that they were not part of these bombings?"

Before Johnston could say anything, Kaidan stood up and said, "Mayor Green, please let me deal with this."

"Of course Commander Alenko." the mayor acknowledged the man, using Kaidan's new title so that people would notice. This did the trick, as people began to mutter about this, and some seemed to worry about it.

As Kaidan walked to the podium, he stood up straight and said, "Okay, before I begin, let's get the introduction out of the way., As Mayor Green said, I am Commander Alenko. In fact, my full name is Kaidan Alenko, and unless you piss me off or you're working under me in some way, I would prefer you to call me Kaidan. I ask this as until further notice, we'll be spending a lot of time together, so I would like us all to get along with each other. Now those behind me, they'll be key people that you'll be seeing a lot of. They are Anna May, Roy Benitez, Doctor Jessica Kandel, Faye Lau and Faye's sister, Heather." With each name he called, the individuals stood up for a few moments before sitting back down as the next person stood up.

"But who are you lot?" called out one of the townspeople.

"You might have heard rumours about Spectres being in your town, but let me confirm it for you. Other than Doctor Jessica Kandel and Heather Lau, the rest of us are Spectres." Alenko informed them all. "So you should all think about not pissing us off with the communist's remarks. Most of us have been trained to deal with what you lot can only dream of in nightmares. Whilst we wouldn't normally hurt civilians: that doesn't mean that we won't."

Here many mumbled in fear, worried about what could happen to them. "Now I don't say this to make you afraid us. I say this so that you know we aren't people to be pushed around." the Commander informed them all. "As Spectres, colour, race, they mean nothing to us. We all fight on the same side, fighting to protect people from those who mean you harm. So disrespecting one of us because they are a so-called communist, or a child of one, will not go well with us. We protect each other no matter who might mean us harm. So be careful what you say around us. You might not like us and that's your prerogative, but all we ask for is your respect, especially seeing that we'll all be here for many years to come."

"Why are you here in the first place?" a man demanded. Kaidan saw it was the same man as the night before, Gray Anderson. The mayor had told Kaidan a bit about Anderson the night before, to warn him about what he was like. Anderson was ambitious, arrogant, impulsive and a person who could incite a riot with a few words. Because he wanted the best for the town, he often attempted to undermine everyone else's authority., Not only did he believe he knew better, he also wanted power and control. There were a few who believed he was not a good leader.

Kaidan knew then that he had to do something so that Gray, or those like him, wouldn't try and undermine him and the rest of his team. He and the Spectres were there not only to help the town but any other survivors that they might find. So he said, "Now before I tell you this, I believe I have to tell you a bit about me and the kind of person that I am. Until yesterday, I was a normal Spectre who worked out in the field to protect this country from the shadows. But for one reason or another, I was named Commander of the Spectres."

There were many mumbles here, and Gray asked, "So you have no experience in commanding? Why would we have to even listen to you? I bet I can do a better job than you."

"You might just be able to, but you're not a Spectre and you won't even be nominated to be the next Commander." the Technomage told him darkly. He did not like the man for trying to undermine him. "So you know, before the last Commander was killed, I was told he was going to train me to take over his place should the worst happen. And seeing that most of the higher-ups who qualified to take his place are either missing or dead, I took his place as Commander. So I'll be learning on the job, and until then, I'll act as if I am out in the field on a mission."

"Meaning?" asked someone.

"Brief and to the point." Kaidan told them simply, "Normally I'm calm and easy going. You can come up to me, have a drink, have fun, conversation or ask for help. On a mission I'm a different person. Whilst I'm on a mission, should you try to undermine me, piss me off, tell me how to do my job or don't follow my orders, unless you have a good damn reason for doing so, I'll make your life a living hell or treat you hostilely to get my way. One of your own store keepers, someone named Gracie Leigh, incurred my wrath when she didn't agree to give her stock to my men to be sorted."

"What did you do to her?" asked someone else.

"I threatened her that if she didn't do what the other stores are doing, she wouldn't be getting my help and would have to look out for herself." Kaidan informed them. "But the thing is, as long as you help and don't piss me off, I can be a great guy to know, and someone you would want on your side should something go wrong." Then in a more friendly tone of voice he added, "Now to Gray's question. Why am I and the Spectres here? To set up a shelter for you and any other survivors we might be able to find in the next few days."

"What do you mean a shelter?" someone asked with fear and respect. "We have a town that we can live in. Or do you mean to make this town into a shelter for those outside of it."

"Whilst I'm having L'Cies with Earth powers creating walls around the town, that's only for basic protection until I have sorted out the real shelter. Living in town will be too dangerous." the Commander informed the townspeople, which started to make them whisper and wonder what he was talking about.

Because of the confusion, one of the townspeople asked, "What do you mean that making the town into a shelter is unsafe? And if that's the case, where is this shelter going to be?"

"First off, the reason that it's unsafe to make the town into a shelter is because of the fallout following the bombing." Kaidan explained to the people. "Because of the thousands of nukes that went off today, there'll be a few consequences, some known and some unknown. The first consequence of the bombings should happen in the next few days in the form of radioactive rain. You see, with all of the radiation out there, it'll evaporate in the earth's atmosphere and over the next few days it'll begin to rain for who knows how long. Anyone caught in it will die a slow and painful death, so it'll be best to get into a shelter where you'll be freely able to walk around and not be stuck in your homes for days."

"Where would such a shelter be?" asked Gray in an unfriendly manner. It was clear he didn't like Kaidan one bit. "We don't have a big shelter like that and even if you're thinking of creating one, it would take longer than a few days to do so given how many people you're wanting it to accommodate." This got people mumbling in agreement. Sure they wanted somewhere safe to be and not be stuck indoors when the rain came, but as Gray said, it would take a long time to build.

"That is why we Spectres came to this town," explained Kaidan. "I learned yesterday that there is an underground facility here in this town. So we came here to see if it's safe to make into our shelter. If it isn't, then we will make it safe."

"Oh I think I know the one you're talking about." this came from Mayor Green.

"Oh, and how do you know about this?" asked the Commander, wondering how the mayor might know about this when they knew little. Even the townspeople seemed to whisper about this, wondering what their mayor knew.

"It was over twenty years ago, back when my father was the mayor of the town and I was working in the fire department." explained Johnston. "One day a black haired man calling himself Harry Potter came running up saying he escaped some underground facility. He told us where to look for it. Before anyone could do anything, a group of people in white coats came along and took him away. They gave some story that they were transporting him to another asylum, a high-security asylum for the insane. They said he believed that there were people after him and trying to kill him, and he was often violent to get away from these imaginary people. It had gotten so bad that they were forced to take him somewhere safe, somewhere he couldn't hurt himself or others."

The new Commander thought this was interesting, but the thing was why no one within the Spectres had heard of this before. The Council and the old Commander knew that Patient Zero had been here and that the facility was here, but yet it seemed that they did little to get more information about it all. Or did they? Kaidan realized he would have to ask Alice about this later on.

As for the people of the town, apart for the odd few, were shocked to hear this. This was all news to them, and again they began whispering amongst themselves. Gray seemed to have a thoughtful look, one that Kaidan knew all too well. It was a look where the person was thinking about how to use the information for his own benefit.

Either way, he would be interested to learn more, so Kaidan asked, "So what happened then? I don't think you would know about this if you didn't do something."

"You're right, we did something," admitted the mayor. "Now whilst most of this village believed the story that the men gave, my father and I didn't. It didn't feel right, so he had me and a small handful of people check to see if this facility was real or not. To our surprise it was. We looked around the first floor of the facility but found that we couldn't get any further, as the entrances were blocked or locked. So we looked around the first floor. Whilst it was only one floor, we were there for a few days searching the place."

"What did you find?" this came from Faye.

"Not as much as we would have liked to be honest," Johnston told everyone. "We found many dead bodies sadly. Any information that there was seemed to have been destroyed. Any paperwork that we were able to find we couldn't understand fully as either it was partly destroyed or pages were missing. And any computers or equipment that might have been able to give us any information were broken beyond repair. So my father decided that we should give the dead a proper burial and block the entrances so no one else could find them.

"Not only that, it was decided that we would not tell anyone else what we found, as there was nothing that they could have done anyway. If people knew about it, they would try and look further into the place and could find something that could not only harm them but the rest of the town too. So until we could find a way to fix either the computers or the equipment within the facility we didn't tell anyone. Over time we were unable to find the tech to fix what we found and those who knew about the place just forgot about it. I only remembered about it thanks to you reminding me."

Here many whispered about what they had now learned, but Kaidan had to get things back on track. He told them "either way, we're here to make this facility into a shelter and home for everyone we can help. For this reason, we'll need your help when the time comes to clean the place up and make it as homely as possible. These people behind me will be helping to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. If you need anything, or if there are any problems that arise, you go to Heather Lau."

"But she's only a teenage comm - Chinese woman, why would you trust someone like that?" someone called out, changing communist to Chinese with the dark look the Commander was giving them.

"She might be a communist as you would call her and a teenager, but right now she's one of the few people that I trust," the Commander informed everyone who didn't know this yet, "Because of this, I made her my assistant, she'll be the one you come to if you need anything, even getting me if you really need me. Now her sister will be the one who'll go out of town and get anything we might need. I really don't want people going out there unless necessary. Benitez will be heading up security. He'll be making sure you're all safe. Lastly Doctor Kandel will be heading up the medical side of things. So you know, each of them has my trust, and if I hear any of you mistreating them or giving them problems, you'll be answering to me."

Just then it was as if someone walked over everyone's grave, as the townspeople felt a chill running down their spines. The people in the town were like any other small town people, everyone knows everyone else, there was no real crime, and no real threat. More importantly, there was no one like Kaidan who could destroy them with ease if you pissed him off. So they quickly realized that they had to be careful about what they said and did around him, and make sure they didn't hurt those he trusted or were under his care. Sure they had problems with communists, how could they not, ; their country had been at war with them for years so sure they had problems. They didn't know if there were spies or sleeper agents just waiting for orders to act, they just didn't know who to trust.

They could see that Heather and her sister were Chinese-American. They had the mark on their foreheads that meant that one of their parents was an American and they had acknowledged them as their child. Despite that, many thought that it didn't mean they could be trusted. For all they knew the communists could have made them into sleeper agents at a young age, using their freedom to get into places they couldn't normally get to and when the time was right, have them turn on America.

"I know you have many questions, but sadly right now I haven't got the time to answer them and even if I did have the time, I most likely don't have the answers that you want," Kaidan told them all. "As I told you, I have just been made the Commander, and as I said, I've been in the field. So I'm finding my feet and learning on the job. It'll take time before I can answer any questions you might have. For now, though, I'm dealing with the facility and making it homely. So I want everyone who is able to help, as there'll be no free rides here. You don't help, you don't get in."

Here there were many outcries about this, many shouting out that he had no right to do this. But Kaidan called out to them all to be silent. He told them, "Listen, you might not like it, but I don't care. I don't know how much space we'll have in the facility, and we're hoping to bring as many survivors as we can here. If we don't have much space I'll have to make room for them. So to make room if we need it, I'll be kicking out those who don't help out or don't pull their weight. I don't like it, but I'll do what I must. To make sure we have a future I'll need those who can pull their weight and help out, I don't want those who just want to lay back and do nothing. Understand this, the future is bleak, and I'll do what I must so that we survive what's to come."

"How dare you say who can and cannot enter this shelter of yours?" Gray asked the Spectre Commander darkly, "This is our town that that facility is built under; we have more say about this than those from outside of this town." Many agreed with the man, believing that they had more right to be in this facility than anyone else.

"Says who? Did you pay for or build the place?" the Commander asked simply. When no one answered yes to this, he went on to say, "Exactly. You have no right, but I'm trying to use the place to help as many survivors as we can. So that when things settle down, we can try and rebuild things as best as we can. You may not want to hear this, but our country went from a population of around four hundred million to less than two hundred million, and over the next few months that number will drastically drop. We will be lucky if by the end, when things are sorted out, our country's population is between a million to ten million. Because of this, I'm trying to gather up everyone that I can to save them. But I want those who are willing to work, as those who aren't will more than likely hinder our future."

The townspeople paled at the thought of these numbers. None of them realized that it could become that bad in the coming months. They believed that in a few months or so, things would slowly get better and they would go on with their everyday lives as if nothing had happened. But now they realized that that wasn't the case.

As people mumbled in fear about this, Kaidan went on to say, "Now onto things that'll help us. I want to know if there are any farmers here?"

Here a man with short reddish brown hair stood up. Kaidan asked, "And you are?"

"Stanley Richmond," Stanley informed the Commander, "I am one of two farmers in this town."

"And where is the other one?" asked Kaidan.

"He went into the city a few days ago to see his bank manager as he had a few problems with payments on his farm." explained Stanley.

"I see." Kaidan said simply. There was no need to say more about that. More than likely the other man died during the bombing. "So what did you two grow?"

"I grow corn and wild mushrooms, whilst Tim grows carrots." Stanley informed Kaidan.

"In that case I want you and anyone you can get to help you to harvest everything that you can." Kaidan told the farmer.

"What? That is impossible," the farmer told Kaidan. "The veg needs a few more weeks to grow."

"I can understand that, but I need you to see what you can harvest in the next day or so." the Spectre told the man, "because as I said, within the next week when it rains, it'll be radioactive and we suspect that it'll last for between a day to a week. During that time anything that the rain touches will either be destroyed or killed, be it plant life, wildlife or human life. These vegetables of yours can be the very last of their kind to be grown in the fields."

"I'm an Earth L'Cie, can't I just dig up the radioactive soil?" asked the farmer. Everyone was listening with interest and mumbling agreement to this, "I heard that as long as I dig up at least about eighteen or so inches of the radioactive soil it should be fine to use again."

"If it was a one - time deal, you might be able to get away with it," Kaidan acknowledged this fact before he went on to say, "But this radioactive rain won't be a one-time deal. At this time, we have no idea where the bombs hit, but it is highly likely that the bombs hit some of the Sentinel Sites to stop them from countering the bombing. That could explain why we were hit so bad."

"What do you mean? What are these Sentinel Sites?" asked someone in the crowd.

"Sentinel Sites are sites where they have anti-ballistic missiles to counter any attacks we might have. The sites are also used to dispose of bombs too." explained Kaidan. "Some of these sites had nukes that were going to be disposed of. Some of these sites had hundreds of them. Either way, depending on where the bombs hit, if they hit one of the sites that was full of nukes, it could create a site that would be radioactive for years to come, even hundreds of years from now. If the bombs hit somewhere that certain companies dispose of their nuclear waste illegally, that could cause problems too."

Many there realized what Kaidan was saying. Water vapourized into the atmosphere before over time forming rain. It was bad enough that the radiation from the war would be in the air now, but if the bombs hit one of the areas with loads of nukes or areas that had illegally dumped nuclear waste, things could become much worse. So growing the new crop from the soil they had now would be impossible. They would have to set up another way to grow crops.

Because of this, Kaidan told Stanley once again he should get whoever he could to help harvest the fields and store them in one of the houses until they knew that the facility was safe to be used. Here they left the rest of the meeting to the mayor of the town, as Kaidan and a select few went to the facility to check it out. One such person was the mayor's eldest son Johnston Jacob "Jake" Green, Jr, who volunteered to help. He informed them that he used to be a specialized contractor, for a Government Company known as Jennings & Rall.

Jake informed them that working for J&R, as Jennings & Rall was commonly known as, he was trained in different skills so that when he was in an area where it was dangerous, he could handle it and get out safely. He had learned the basics of bomb defusing, driving a truck and flying small planes and helicopters. He had also learned how to fight. Not only that, but he was also a L'Cie too with Reactive Adaptation powers, meaning his body adapted to his needs. He was the type of person that Kaidan wanted on his side, as his powers made him one of the few that could be an issue, as his body could adapt to something that could defeat you. So Kaidan accepted his offer of help.

o0OoO0o

24th of October 2077 - Jericho, Town Hall, Mayor's Office, Evening:

It was a few hours since Kaidan and his team had left the town meeting and gone to the underground facility. Now Kaidan had returned and was sitting in the Mayor's Office thinking about what they had found at the facility. He was writing a report up.

They arrived at the loading area of the facility; it was the best place for them to enter the place, as it would allow them to bring in their equipment much easier. But the problem was that when they opened the entrance, a strange huge sand storm blew out of the entrance. Squirrels and toads from two foot to five foot tall ran out of the place too. Some of them thought that they should go after them and capture them, but Kaidan put a stop to that. He said that with high radiation already out there and radioactive rain yet to come, it was highly unlikely that any of them would survive for long. If by some chance they did survive, and they got any news of them, they would deal with them then. For now though, they had more important things to worry about, like seeing if the facility was safe for survivors to live in.

Once they were in the facility they found that, as Mayor Green told them, the entrances were blocked somehow or locked and needed a password to open them. As for the computers or equipment that might have any information, they were indeed broken. Kaidan sighed as he thought about this. He had to give the computers or equipment to his Teac-Team to see if they would be able to recover anything useful from them. It would seem that the first floor was the main office space where all the paperwork was done and where some of the meetings were held.

Searching the first floor wasn't as easy as they hoped. First off there were areas that seemed to have been turned into either swamp or desert terrain. They weren't sure what created these areas, but they carefully made their way through the first floor. It didn't help that in the desert areas they faced either giant squirrels or toads and in the swamp areas, toads, the same type that had escaped earlier. Those in the desert areas used sand to attack, or the toads used their long tongues. As for the toads in the swamp areas, they mainly spat out poison at them or used their tongues to attack them.

Because of this Kaidan didn't use his powers as a Technomage to open the electrical doors or have the rest of them clear the doorways that were blocked by rocks and soil. After facing these mutated squirrels or toads, he wasn't sure what else could be down in the rest of the facility. There could be nothing or something much worse waiting for them. Kaidan wanted a bigger team searching the rest of the facility, so that if there was something worse facing them, they had the numbers backing them up.

Whilst they might be Spectres, they had no idea what they would be facing and with how things were at the moment, he didn't want to send people into the unknown without backup. Sure they had been sent into the unknown many times before, but right now, after the Great War, Kaidan didn't want to send any off without backup. Too many people had died since yesterday and he didn't want to lose any more if he could help it. He decided to wait until those who he had sent off on missions returned so that they could help in clearing the facility. Those who he had right now were clearing out the first floor of the facility and searching for how the squirrels and toads had got onto the floor as the mayor hadn't mention them earlier. Someone also had to stand guard to make sure no more came onto the floor.

Kaidan sighed once more. It was not because of what he found in the facility, in fact, he would prefer to be there now rather than what he was doing right now: paperwork. That's what he hated the most about being the new Commander of the Spectres, all of the paperwork. In the past he had Anna May do all the reports and he would read them over to make sure she didn't miss anything and he would sign them off. But now he couldn't do that. Sure he had Heather Lau doing most of the paperwork now, but he still had to read all of them and it would seem there were a hell of a lot of them - people sending complaints or requests that he needed to read and sign off on.

Kaidan thought to himself, 'Only been the Commander for a day and I already miss being in the field.' In the field he only had to worry about himself and Anna May and worry about one report, which Anna May did and he looked over. But now he had to worry about a shit load of people and had to look over a shit load of paperwork. He had to wonder how Commander Ironside had dealt with all this.

Now, having returned to the Town Hall, he learned that those who he had sent to check on the train with the town's latest supplies had returned. It seemed that they hit the mother-load. Whilst they didn't know everything that was on the train, they had found food and drink that could last them for a few months, longer if they rationed it well enough. Not only did they find food and drink, but they also found weapons and ammo, something Kaidan believed would be needed in the future. The rest of the supplies would need to be sorted. The food, drink, weapons and ammo were placed in the empty homes that once belonged to those who went to the city to work. Kaidan had guards placed at these homes so that no one in the village or outside the village could get to them without being noticed.

Kaidan wasn't too worried about those outside of the town, as the Earth L'Cies had almost finished creating the wall around the town. There were a few spots with holes, so they had extra guards placed there for the night. He was told that these spots would be sorted by the end of tomorrow. So he wasn't too worried, seeing that everyone else had their own problems to deal with for now.

As he was thinking about all this, someone knocked on the office door. With another sigh, Kaidan called out, "Come in." Kaidan saw that it was Alice, and asked, "Oh, Alice, how can I help you?"

"Commander, I have just gotten off the radio with Roger Maxson, a captain in the United States Army. He is requesting help with evac from Mariposa Military Base," explained Alice.

"Not that I mind, but why come to me with this? This is something that Heather could handle." Kaidan told her.

"I understand that, but there's a slight problem," the Spectre informed her Commander. "The information that the captain gave me, is 'need to know' information, and I'm afraid that Heather hasn't got the clearance for this."

That piqued Kaidan's interest, and he asked, "So what is this information?"

"Have you heard of Forced Evolutionary Virus or F.E.V for short?" asked the Grim Reaper L'Cie.

"I've heard rumours about it," Kaidan admitted. "I believe it used to be known as Pan-Immunity Virion Project or P.V.P for short. It was meant to be some sort of immunity drug to fight against any biological attacks that the Chinese might attempt against us, designed by West Tek. There were some side effects to the P.V.P, transforming the person using it, their skin being tougher, them getting stronger and such. So seeing the potential military applications of these unexpected results, the U.S. Army sent its own military scientists into the facility to secure the project and renamed the virus to the Forced Evolutionary Virus. But other than that, I don't know."

"That's because it was said that the Army took precautions to stop leaks coming out of their base." Alice informed him, "True or not I don't know. If it wasn't, only Ironside and the Counselors higher-up would know for sure, but they are either dead or we can't get hold of them. Either way, from what Captain Maxson told me…" here Alice told Kaidan what Maxson had shared.

The West-Tek scientists that were working with the Army at Mariposa were using military prisoners as unwilling test subjects for their genetically engineered F.E.V. Because of this, the morale at the base quickly collapsed. The soldiers, led by Colonel Spindel, who were there to protect the scientists, didn't agree with what was going on. The prisoners were being turned into mutants, and whilst some of them became mindless from their transformation, there were those who didn't and the scientists performed awful experiments on them, driving them mad. The soldiers knew that whilst the prisoners were criminals, they still had rights, and what the damn scientists were doing to them was wrong.

For a while, nothing was done about it as orders were orders, and the Colonel was a man who followed orders. But in time though, it was too much for Spindel and he suffered a mental breakdown, eventually committing suicide five days later.

Maxson informed Alice that in the midst of the crisis, his men turned to him for leadership. Now Captain Maxson wasn't a weak-willed man. Whilst he followed the chain of command, he wasn't one to lay back and do nothing if he had the power to do something about it. Now that he was in command he wasn't going to allow these crimes to continue. He proceeded to interrogate Robert Anderson, the chief scientist of the West-Tek research team stationed at Mariposa, learning the extent of their experiments.

They learned that they were trying to create Super Soldiers, a group of soldiers who could be sent to China to fight the Chinese. These soldiers would be super strong and smart and have resistance to any biological attacks China might launch against them. They were given permission to do whatever it took to create these Super Soldiers. Hearing what they did, Maxson had Anderson, along with most of his research team, executed for their crimes.

For the last few days, being in control of the base, Maxson declared his and his men's desertion from the United States Army via radio on October 20th. They couldn't be part of a country that would allow such things to happen. To his confusion, he received no response from the chain-of-command for some reason. Alice informed him that this was because the U.S. Army was currently focused on the escalating conflict with the Chinese.

Maxson also informed her that he had ordered that the families, including his, be brought inside the base to protect them. He was thankful for doing so, as a few days later both nations launched their entire nuclear arsenals at each other. They had no idea what the world was like now, as they didn't know what the atmosphere was like, all they knew was that it was deadly. Alice informed him that apart for certain areas, their country was reduced to a radioactive wasteland.

The Captain told Alice that whilst the Mariposa Military Base survived the onslaught, the F.E.V had somehow been accidentally released through the pipes and it was now seeping into the new-born wasteland. Hearing this, Kaidan was worried what would happen. With this F.E.V and the magical version of it that made Anna May the way she was now out there somewhere, he feared what might happen in the days, months and years to come.

Either way, Alice went on to finish by saying that if Captain Maxson didn't hear something from someone soon, he was going to send one man outside in protective power armour to scout the area and gather readings on the atmosphere. If they found that no significant amounts of radiation were in the surrounding area, they were going to bury the bodies of Anderson and his executed staff members. After that, Maxson and his men were going to raid the base for various supplies and weapons schematics, before heading out to Lost Hill, where a government fallout shelter could be found.

"I told them I would talk to you about helping them out…" Alice finished her report.

"Of course we'll help him," the Commander told her. "If we don't and they go to this shelter themselves, who knows who'll die during their journey. With their family and any injured that they might have, what should be a few hours to three day journey, depending on how they are getting to the shelter, could end up being a week-long journey or longer. So many could die from either injury, radiation poisoning or from any threats that they might face. No, it would be better if we can help them out. In fact, I'll come with you when you do."

"But Commander, you're now the Commander of the Spectres and as such your life is important, more so now than ever before." Alice told her Commander. "Whilst you're new and inexperienced, you are a symbol; people will look up to you, not only for leadership but hope for the future. Having another Commander die so soon will break what is left of the Spectres, something that can't happen right now."

"I understand that Alice, really I do," Kaidan acknowledged Alice's fears before he went on to say, "but you need to understand that until yesterday I was a Field Agent and I'm used to being hands-on with my missions. So if you think I'll just stop doing that just like that, then you are sorely mistaken other than missions where I know that my life is at risk. I'll be doing these small missions and only doing the risky ones if I have no other option or they need me there as the Commander. So if you need to send extra people to guard me then do so, but I'll be going to meet this Captain Maxson. I also want to go to see if I can persuade him to come here instead of Lost Hills. His men could be useful in helping to rebuild when the time comes."

"I understand Commander," Alice told Kaidan and she did, she knew that he was new to this job and was only just finding his feet as the Commander. But it was her job to inform him about these risks too. Sure, like Commander Ironside he would ignore what she said and go on the missions anyway, but she wouldn't be doing her job if she said nothing. She also had to admit that having Maxson here would help when they started to rebuild. It would also be better if the request for them to come here came from the Commander rather than some underling.

"In that case please radio him and tell him that seeing that it's getting dark, we'll come and pick him up tomorrow." Kaidan ordered Alice. "I really don't want to go whilst it's dark, as we don't know what we might face. It would be better to wait 'til morning, so we won't face too many surprises."

"Understood Commander. If there's nothing else, I'll let the Captain know what is going on." Alice told him.

"Other than asking the Captain if he could give us any copies of any research or reports, there's nothing else." Kaidan informed the Spectre.

"In that case goodnight Commander." said Alice, and left Kaidan as he said goodnight back.

Once Alice left, Kaidan returned to his paperwork for a few more hours, before going to find Anna May, and going to bed for the night.

To be Continued!

Author's Note - PLEASE READ TO THE END: Here's the end of the next chapter of Magical Fallout, I hope you are enjoying the story as much as I am writing it. I would like to once again apologize for the late update, but other than working on my other stories, I had writer's block which stopped me from writing for a bit.

I wish for your help, I'm looking for a town/city/village that could be flooded. As I'm planning to do a big time skip later on, and I want Kaidan to visit a place that is flooded. So if you can think of somewhere, I would like to hear any of your thoughts. But I also want a reason as to why the place was flooded.

Lastly, as I said before I'm creating groups and I want your thoughts on them, how could I improve them and if there's any other groups I could add.

Scavengers: A group who'll look for anything of value to salvage and sell, be it food medicine or robot parts, anything that can be useful, they'll try and find and use.

Beast Masters/Tamers: A group who trains animals to defend and attack others.

Huntsman: A group that go out and hunt for food, be it animals, fish or berries, anything that can be eaten they find and return to the settlement. They'll also return with fur and other parts of the animal.

Hunters: This group hunts the most dangerous of beasts, they'll either keep what they kill, either for food, or to create better equipment. Anything they don't keep they sell. They also can be hired by settlements to deal with beasts that the settlement can't handle.