(S) Fallout: Banana Pancakes.

New York, 2012, 1800hrs; In an infirmary ward; south-wing of the Charlie Dome hospital.

A pale form laid on the ward bed, a scruffy blanket was pulled up to its waist. Its lustrous jet black hair, illuminated by the commonplace fluorescent lamp, gently cradled its head. It was asleep.


Jinx and Maxell stood by the bed, on either side, whilst the rest of the Skull squad stood watch at the doorway. A dazzling array of flowers filled the adjacent tables, scattered amongst them were well-wishes and congratulatory cards. Jinx was fiddling with the flower of one bouquet when Maxell called out.

“She’s waking up.” he observed, almost to himself.

Jinx abandoned his little biology trip and turned to the matter at hand; he did a quick run over at the figure on the bed, no major wounds or bandages, just several scratches. He did notice however, a drip attached to her hand. Her eyes were moving about under her eyelids, a good indicator of consciousness. Her face was unblemished and her features bore the striking look of a Filipino. Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing gorgeous brown eyes.

“You’re finally up, we were starting to get worried.”

“Where am I?” she asked, looking at Jinx. “I thought I was going to die.”

“Yea you did, welcome to heaven.” said Jinx, with a look of pure sombreness on his face. All traces of humour were kept tightly concealed behind his current facade.

Maxell gave a disapproving look and then broke out in a grin at Jinx.

“Ignore him. Welcome to the Charlie Dome Hospital, the final stop before nirvana, the last oasis of pleasure, the bastion of heaven, the gathering of angels; well at least that’s what my men say about the women working here.” he ended his overdone speech with a flourish of his hand and a bow.

“Womanizer.” muttered Jinx.

“I called an artillery strike on my location, there was no way I could have survived.” “You’re right; the destruction spread through a 6 block radius. Nothing stands there now.”

“So how is it I survived?” queried the woman.

“Well, truth be told, Officer Diana. The Skull squadron so happened to be in the area. I guess you got lucky. And before you ask, it’s those guys over there, plus Lance Corporal Jinx right here.”

Jinx looked around the room, everywhere, anywhere except at Diana, in an attempt to look modest.


“You have my thanks, but surely there’s more to this then just being a purely social visit?” she pierced right to the intentions of the men.

“How perceptive, as expected from the best copter pilot in the States. We need info; mainly that of the layout of enemy fortifications in Atlantic City and Oceanic City, further down New Jersey.

“It’s all in my report, I saved it into the log files of the Tiger UHT before setting off for Jersey City, dint you get....Oh. The copter blew up dint it.”

“Bingo yet again, Officer Diana, we’re gonna launch an offensive to retake New Jersey. High Command’s coming down to dredge out the information later on. We decided to get here earlier so that we can get a head start on our own offensive planning. My squad’s in Special Forces now, we won’t be joining the main assault group so we need the information to plan our route.”

“...I see. Alright, this is what I found out. In Atlantic, due to the geological instability of the land, the city has sunk and has been largely reclaimed by the ocean. USSR forces have set up bunkers on all ends of the city, they consist of several rooftops in a chain. All are located near the main streets joining the city together. Their command centre’s in the middle, obviously, and due to the nature of their bunkers, reinforcements can traverse the main streets via boats to bolster the forces on either sides of the city. AA guns and submerged mines litter the spaces in between. The only safe, or should I say safer, way in, is through the bunkers themselves. This of course, is heavily guarded. Couldn’t get a good estimate due everyone down there shooting at me, but I’d say there are around 50 of them each bunker. Good luck boys, you’re going to need it.”

“Interesting, and what of Oceanic City?”

“It’s relatively unguarded, a few AA guns and outposts scattered here and there, an ammo dump has been set up on the shore end of the city, that’s where most of their forces are concentrated. But they’re mainly science geeks running the base as a restock operation.”

“Good, then my squad will strike there first.”

“Hold it Lance Corp. Jinx, I’m not done. The few ways to get to Oceanic is via the sea, or through Atlantic and down to Oceanic. Seeing that the sea is cut off by their navy, your only way in is through Atlantic. This basically implies that you might as well take it down on your way over.”

“You heard that men?” hollered Jinx, towards the doorway. “We’re swimming the mine fields.”

“Thanks for the head up, Officer Diana. I’m glad that we found you when we did. We’ll be on our way now if it’s fine with you, things to do, people to see.” chortled Jinx.

“Glad to oblige. Even gladder to be alive.” grinned Diana.

New York, 2012, 1930hrs; Beta Dome; Private Quarters.

“Alright guys, you heard what Officer Diana had to say, so what are your views on this?”

Brad and Kasper just nodded in reply. Hunter stood with his arms folded, a look of consternation on his face.

“What’s up Hunter?”

“I’ve got no qualms about this, just uneasy about the mines I guess.”

“Alright, you’ve got two choices, negotiate through the mine fields slowly, or leapfrog on rooftops past the bunker; unless you wanna take down 200 men at the same time.”

“I’ll swim the mines.”

“Alright guys, we won’t be following the main assault which will spearhead the east entrance to the city. Colonel Lincoln’s given the green for Maxell to back us up on the northern entrance, so he’ll be with his company two clicks back, when we’ve undermined the defences, call them in. They’ll take over from there to move to the eastern bunker wherein the USSR would be caught in a pincer. When we’re through with the north, we’ve been ordered to head straight to their command post and see what we can obtain regarding the fortifications of other USSR strongholds along the coast.”

“Alright, by the way, did you see our new insignia guys? That’s what I call imposing.” grinned Brad.

Jinx’s face darkened.

“If that’s all, you’re dismissed, we move out at 2100hrs.

New Jersey, 2012, 0100hrs; Outskirts of Atlantic City.

The Atlantic City buildings showed up as a black silhouette against the night-vision sky, occasional globules of water landed on his goggles; a light rain had begun to fall. He looked around, scanning the vicinity – there were no signs of activity, the coast was clear. Jinx turned back to his comrades and motioned forward with his hand.

Brad Forst, stationed at the rear of the craft throttled the engine - At 7km per hour, the Zodiac slowly inched forward.


~~ ~~

In 2007, Jake Lewis- a geologist researching fault lines in continental plates across the world- discovered a major fault line running the borders of Atlantic City, neatly dividing the sprawling metropolis from the continent. Having the nation’s interest in mind, he informed the relevant authorities and the media. However the usual critics were quick to disagree, for in their stereotypical mind-set such a neat divide and subsequent ‘disaster’ was highly unlikely, citing the fact that Washington had a fault line running through it yet nothing had happened. The state government was also inclined towards the critics’ line of questioning.

In 2009, an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale thundered through South America and on towards the eastern United States. Jake Lewis calmly watched the land mass around Atlantic City rip apart and the denizens, much to their surprise, found the city taking on water at an alarming rate. Atlantis was sinking.

For a few days after the earthquake, looting and traffic jams coexisted as desperation took a firm grip in the city. All was in an uproar as throngs of citizens made their way inland, towards other states. The docksides were out of commission, having already been claimed by the ocean mere hours after the earthquake.

4 days after, a statement was issued. After more research, geologists had discovered that Atlantic would only sink for 40 metres before the dislodged plate stabilized on the magma fields below the crust.

In short, the city was still habitable, much to the delight of those families that had yet to leave. After the calamity, it was discovered that only 30 percent of the city could be used and those areas were generally landwards – this left more than half of the city deserted and powered down. As anticlimactic as it seemed, many residents were forced out of Atlantic yet again.

~~ ~~

The Zodiac rocked gently as a gentle breeze stirred the waters.

Brad had stopped at a signal from Jinx.

Again Jinx motioned forward, but this time with two front fingers ahead of his clenched fist, as if his hand was a gun. He was aiming between two office buildings; their vicinity towards each other formed a neat alley for which they could commence their operations.

Brad eased the craft forward.

The pale moon had pervaded since 2200, however the recent arrival of cloud cover had effectively limited human visibility, but not for the Skull Squad. In light of this, it had made transport in the Zodiac threefold more secure, as the choppy waves stirred by the rotor of the craft could not be discerned by any but the most vigilant USSR lookout on this cold and sleepy night.

It was only after they entered the alcove did Jinx dare to speak out loud.

“At 0500, the main force will lay siege to the east bunkers; they will then move on to the south ones and strike from both directions at the west. We are expected to have disabled the northern bunker quickly and silently by 0300. Our primary objectives for the north bunker are to take out any form of transport as well as their communications relay. As such, we’ll have to swim to them.”

He stopped then, staring firstly at Brad, then at Hunter and finally, Kasper, his emerald green eyes cutting out of the goggle of his mask.

Taking a deep breath, he carried on again.

“After we’re done up top, our next target is the main comms. centre which, according to Officer Diana, is relatively less guarded when she did her recon. Again, disable any comms. systems to prevent the deployment of reinforcements from other USSR landing sites. However, the tricky part to this is that we have to do it right as the assault force attacks the east. If not we risk drawing the attention of the west and south bunkers and end up with more than we can handle. ”

“Yessir,” breathed Brad. Hunter and Kasper merely nodded.

“Alright, get me a channel, we’re commencing.”

Hunter, carrying the SEPTAL –Self-Encrypting Portable Transmission Line–, brought it to bear. The SEPTAL, initially developed by China, was able to encrypt any message in a 64-tiered algorithm and transmit it in short bursts. These messages were like tiny capsules, enveloped in electro-negative charges, and could last for small pockets of time in the atmosphere before it was picked up by a fixed line that was tuned in to its frequency; eleven times lower than that of any recorded human voice.

For fear of being picked up, however unlikely that might be, he spoke in code, hoping that those back at base already had an attentive ear fixed on the set frequency.

“The Waves are running up the Beach, ready before the Tide turns, over.”

The secure line shot out bursts of messages, covered by heavy static.

Jinx leaned back against the Zodiac, waiting for the response. He dint have to, for almost immediately a message was picked up.

“The Ocean will meet the Waves when the Tide turns, flow smoothly, Godspeed.” Came the response.

Without a word, the squad of four stood up in unison, resulting in minimal disturbance in the balance of the boat. Brad calmly tied a strong loop around a pillar in the adjacent building, holding the boat fast but was it easy enough to undo if they needed to leave in a hurry. The rest quietly geared up in their diving equipment. Oxygen tanks and flippers quickly went on and everyone was ready in less than ten seconds.

Jinx stepped into the adjacent building, flippers resounding in the emptiness of the many stories and against the wet flooring of the office. He flipped/walked over to the other end of the room and stared out of the glassless windows.

Not too far away was a hospital, and unlike the other buildings in the precinct, this one had lights in several of its top floors. Six floors below the roof was the maximum depth anyone could travel on foot, any lower had been claimed by the sea. Floodlights had been set up facing outwards on all corners of the wide roof. It was obviously one of the USSR bunkers, judging from the amount of activity that could be heard over the stretch of water. Lining the sides of the hospital roof were layers of sandbags, piled up and over each other, serving as an effective barricade. Several patrols could also be seen on the lower floors, mainly in the east wing.

Also connected to the east wing through the open window on the lowest floor, were poorly constructed gang planks that connected a small dock to the hospital. The tiny flotilla consisted of seven speedboats, each modified to fit two anti-personnel machine guns on the front and the back, three amphibious unit transports and one heavy duty Akipdeo; a tank that instead of running on tracks, was built upon and developed with hovercraft technology in mind.

It too, surprisingly, was mildly guarded. Did the USSR really underestimate the US that much?

Brad, being the explosives expert, was going to have a lot of fun. Jinx smirked to himself at that thought.