Duck and Cover! An American Spinoff of Protect and Survive.

Though the more the story....stories...progress, we need an authority to give us some guidelines on the level of destruction. And that is you, Macragge. ;-) Without that guidance, we won't have the coherent picture that we, so I think, all look for by adopting the "Protect and Survive"-trademark.

I think that we had a good debate concerning the number of British survivors. If you act as a referee on debates of this kind, I think we can create a great deal of clarity wihout having to put everything into the bits of the superb stories.



I second the motion.
 
I was thinking Texas A&M, too, but then I figured..."nah, gotta be West Point"

Hullabaloo, Caneck, Caneck!
Hullabaloo, Caneck, Caneck!
 
I figured A & M survived when Bryan wasn't on the list of cities hit in Texas (and neither are Tyler or Beaumont, so East Texas will fare better postwar, as I pointed out in Protect and Survive, after the fallout from Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Longview, and Marshall has settled, plus it has the East Texas Oil Field and other natural gas supplies (I think)).

Good so far.
 
So Cleveland might be the new Capitol? Weird. I would be living about 7 miles from the Capitol.
 
So Cleveland might be the new Capitol? Weird. I would be living about 7 miles from the Capitol.


I don't intend it to be, a city in Washington or Oregon is more likely. Does anyone have a good idea as to which city it should be?
 
There are several options including Baltimore , Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, Tuscon, Madison, Eugene & Topeka.
Of them all, I’d say Eugene, Oregon is a decent candidate for your city on the west coast, but for a more central location to make reconstruction & administration easier, I’d say probably Oklahoma City or Tuscon.

Also, really enjoying it - keep up the good work!
 
Author’s Note: From here on about one day a week I will update a different character’s story, this week we are starting with the FEMA team.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Part III: The Sounds of Silence

Armageddon + 72hr

Operation Phoenix [1]:

*The Assistant and the Radioman had worked together for hours gathering data for the report she was now typing,gathering data from anyone with a radio. Having come to a consensus, the Assistant and the Radioman had put their thoughts down on paper. But now the Assistant was typing frantically on the electric typewriter. They were going to leave the bunker soon, and she wanted to get the paper done before they flew to Washington.

FEMA Situation Report: February 24, 1984

Across the United States, the popular consensus is that there is no United States. With the disappearance of POTUS and the deaths of most of Congress and VPOTUS in the direct hits on the NORAD facility, there remains no continuity of government above the County level in most areas. Contact has been made with other regional FEMA commissioners, however most are in no situation to attempt to take control of their regions. Most have had no visible presence with the populous and without military backing, 90% will go nowhere in controlling their regions. We are a national organization with no nation in which to work. Without the backing of POTUS we too will find a hard time convincing people that we are the legitimate United States government.

However, we have made great strides cobbling together a military presence for our arrival. The only surviving Aircraft carriers CVN-86, the USS Nimitz has dispatched fighters for our escort to Washington. This escort comes directly from the General’s close personal relationship with the Admiral in charge of the Nimitz. The remnants of the Navy have received from us a daring mission in the past three days. The Navy has undertaken itself rescue every possible person from the US embassy in every country they can get to. The success of this mission is still to be determined.

As for land military forces we have had less success that with the navy. Most deployed units in Germany cannot be reached at this time, and our forces in the United States themselves have collapsed. The Army situation looks grim. Forces from the Washington and Oregon National Guard are the only units at our disposal.

On the governmental front, things are looking positive from the initial problems. The Postmaster general had been located as with most absent members of congress. We are currently coordinating some kind of rescue mission (possibly using Navy helicopters) though the success of this mission is in the face of great odds. In other good news the Assistant Governor of Washington was on a skiing trip with his family when the bombs fell, and the Washington state government is quickly rebuilding around him. The new Governor recognizes us as the legal successors to the United States government, and is “more than happy” to host us. We have been asked to land at one of the three airports we discussed before and he will be there to meet us.

Food is a problem, without good national data, and the attack happening during winter the food situation looks grim. Food is scarce and will get worse as the months go on. Food must be our top priority. Local warehouses have been scouted and pose good option.

Here we will go into rumors:

In Georgia, Marine Corps II has supposedly crashed and there were survivors, who they are and what in what condition they are has yet to be determined.

There also appears to be only one strike in Nevada, Reno, and their government has moved to Los Vegas. Food is in absolute shortage there and the government is not expected to last long.

There is talk of a government in Nebraska, as well as landings of Soviet Special Forces; both are likely to be false.

Other rumors include the survival of Texas A&M University and a continuous government there.

Cleveland appears to have survived intact, and we will be stopping there to refuel.

Besides what we know most of the country is a communication black zone, and contact has yet to be made.


*The paper was being passed around on the plane. They were nearing Cleveland now and the plane was beginning to land. From there they would fly to Washington and a new day.
 
Last edited:
I was just thinking. In this TL, "No Pass, No Play" in Texas is probably delayed because of the buildup to war.

And guess who Governor White might pick up to head his civil defense committee?

None other than H. Ross Perot (say what you will, but he just strikes me as someone who might be a pick for the job in the Protect and Survive TL and he has contacts in Washington at this time period who might help him with civil defense).

This would be...interesting.
 
However, we have made great strides cobbling together a military presence for our arrival. The only surviving Aircraft carriers CVN-86, the USS Nimitz has dispatched fighters for our escort to Washington. This escort comes directly from the General’s close personal relationship with the Admiral in charge of that ship. The remnants of the Navy have received from us a daring mission in the past three days. The Navy has undertaken itself rescue every possible person from the US embassy in every country they can get to. The success of this mission is still to be determined.

They better pray a Soviet sub doesn't find the Nimitz before it can reach a surviving port...

There also appears to be only one strike in Nevada, Reno, and their government has moved to Los Alamos. Food is in absolute shortage there and the government is not expected to last long.

1. Why would the Nevada state government move to a settlement in New Mexico?
2. What happened to Los Vegas?
3. Los Alamos (which contains a major US federal government research facility) survived?!
 
They better pray a Soviet sub doesn't find the Nimitz before it can reach a surviving port...



1. Why would the Nevada state government move to a settlement in New Mexico?
2. What happened to Los Vegas?
3. Los Alamos (which contains a major US federal government research facility) survived?!


Typo: I Ment Los Vegas! (Whoops!)
 
Las Vegas would have suffered destruction from the strike on Nellis air force base.Its plausible some air force bases survived but Nellis no way it would receive multiple strikes even with a failure rate of 50% some would have hit it.And Los Alamos would have also received multiple strikes lets be serious here.A few revisions are in order.Nothing personal but Nellis AFB would be wiped out.Also certain strikes took place agains the Area 51 region.While intel about what is going on there would be limited the soviets surely knew something was there and its better to wipe it out.Again a few revisions are in order.:p
 
Las Vegas would have suffered destruction from the strike on Nellis air force base.Its plausible some air force bases survived but Nellis no way it would receive multiple strikes even with a failure rate of 50% some would have hit it.And Los Alamos would have also received multiple strikes lets be serious here.A few revisions are in order.Nothing personal but Nellis AFB would be wiped out.Also certain strikes took place agains the Area 51 region.While intel about what is going on there would be limited the soviets surely knew something was there and its better to wipe it out.Again a few revisions are in order.:p

Depends on the yield of the bombs. Sunrise Manor & North LV might be wiped out, but unless it's at least a 4 or 5 mt, you likely won't see much on the way of blast damage in Vegas itself, and even less heat damage.
 
Maybe not downtown Las Vegas but fires would spread quickly and in the chaos following the strikes its unlikely any surviving firemen would intervene.There would be a lot of what zones are radiation free and what zones are safe in the absence of clear data it would be hard to do anything.
 
Top