				
			    MEDCCG01 - ARMAGEDDON
				
				7 August 1991
				
			     brought to you by
				
			Chuck Rouhier & Gary Miller

	Captain John Mosby Lockwood, skipper of the U.S.S Grayling, a Sturgeon
	class sub, was currently in his quarters trying to get some sleep.
	He had been up for two days now checking every conceivable contact.
	Two days ago the world just seemed to quit.  Two days ago they had
	quit receiving any type of communications, except for the coded
	messages being sent over the sonobuoys periodically being dropped in
	their general area by the Lamps helo's.  All he could do was listen.
	Responding was out of the question.  It would only give away his
	position.  As it was the sonobuoys were a big enough risk, but he
	needed the information.  God he was tired.  Two days of chasing down
	a plethora of false contacts.  He would be glad when this was all
	over.  He only had another month in this assignment and then would
	be reporting to the Naval shipyards at Norfolk where he would see
	to the final build stages of the latest Seawolf to come down the
	ways.  The U.S.S. Wahoo.  Named in honor of Mush Morton's boat which
	had gone down in the Sea of Japan late in WWII.  Mush had been one
	of the greatest sub skippers during the war.  The thought of taking
	over Mush's namesake charged him with an excitement and energy he could
	barely contain.
	
	He also thought of his two friends Captain Nathanial J. Brickley
	skipper of the U.S.S Leyte Gulf and Captain Richard Kincaid, skipper
	of U.S.S. Eisenhower.  They had been best friends at the Academy and
	had remained that way even though they had each chosen different
	branches of the Navy.  He thought of the party that Nat had thrown a
	month ago in honor of their respective promotions.  Nat really knew
	how to throw a party he thought.  The place had been overflowing with
	booze, music and women.  He had awaken sometime the following
	afternoon with a hell of a hangover, in the bed of and in the
	apartment of an Army Lt. that he barely remembered meeting.  What
	was worse was he didn't even remember what, if anything had happened
	during most of the night, but he definitely remembered what happened
	next.  The stories that had been spreading like wildfire ever since
	made him cringe.  But then the submarine service had a tradition to
	up hold.  Life was indeed very sweet he thought as he finally fell
	asleep.
	
	He awoke with a start as his yeoman shook him awake.  His yeoman
	informed him that a message had been received from topside and that
	he was wanted in the bridge.  He felt like he and just lain down, but
	the clock said he had been asleep for four hours.
	 
From: CO TF 38.1 (the Eastern most SAG)
To: CO USS GRAYLING

"DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT.  DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT."

1. Retrans

"ALDODACT DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT.  DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT.
This is a nuclear release authentication message.
Authentication: TANGO TANGO CHARLIE HOTEL FIVE ALPHA KILO.
repeat: TANGO TANGO CHARLIE HOTEL FIVE ALPHA KILO.
Nuclear hostilities have commenced against the United States.  Extent of
damage unknown at this time.  Individual commanders of flag rank are hereby
granted nuclear release authority, and operational command of their
subordinate units.
JCS OPLAN 4102-91 in effect.
Repeat JCS OPLAN 4102-91 in effect.
Good luck.  God bless the United States of America.
By the Authority of: Sherman K. Leiman, Secretary of Commerce,
President of the United States/Commander in Chief
Official:  Elliot G. Hardcastle, ADM, USNR, Acting CNO"

2. Current orders amended as follows:
   
3. Rendezvous with TF37 (the carrier group) at 34deg 54min N, 18deg 17min E.

4. Proceed to Syria and eliminate Syrian sea, land and air assets.

5. T.F. 38.4 (the most western SAG) will eliminate Libyan sea, land and
   air assets.

6. Air assets at Brindisi to provide air cover for T.F. 38.1 and 38.4.

7. Assume all contacts hostile. Destroy on contact.

8. End transmission

	Everyone just sort of look at each other.  Nobody could believe
	what they had just read.  Everyone new that only a few units in the
	Med carried nukes.  The subs carried a few and the carriers had the
	others.  None of the other units carried any.  This could be pretty
	one sided John thought.  Everyone was going to have be on their toes
	if they were going survive this one.  And he had thought he was tired
	before.

Here's the premise for the scenario. Unknown to the Americans and NATO
the Soviets have managed to orbit numerous ASAT weapons and about a dozen
or so nuclear devices which generate massive amounts of EMP.  On the morning
when all of this took place an extremely well executed coup in the USSR put
a violently anti-American KGB general into power.  That afternoon two deeply
planted moles were activated.  The first one at NORAD headquarters sabotaged
a $20,000 piece of electronic equipment vital to the NORAD computers.  A
piece that some bean counter decided was too expensive to have a backup
online in case of failure.  It took the technicians eight minutes to replace
it.  At the same time a second mole was at Offut AFB in Omaha.  As the next
"Looking Glass" was taxiing to takeoff the #3 engine disintegrated and
exploded leaving the C-135 command post a smoking ruin on the taxi-way, the
result of metal filing dumped into the oil tank.  The returning "Looking Glass"
was eight minutes from touchdown.  Simultaneously, the ASAT and nukes in space
were activated.  One ASAT malfunctioned and burned up in the atmosphere,
missing it's target.  Fifteen seconds later numerous launches took place
throughout the Soviet Union.  Pity no one was home to see it.  Two seconds after
NORAD came back on-line everyone stared in horror.  One message got out in the
ensuing thirteen seconds, but nobody could hear it anyway.  NORAD and Cheyene
Mountain were turned into a pile of molten rock.  The "Looking Glass" had
just touched down when they disappeared, along with Offut and Omaha.  Every
ICBM site was obliterated.  In Washington, the Congress and the Senate were in
session.  Most of the Congressmen and Senators were present debating various
items on the agenda.  Next year was an election year after all.  The
President, Vice-President, the cabinet, most of the Secretaries and various
VIPs were at a luncheon on the White House Lawn.  All of the JCS were at the
Pentagon or CIA or NSA trying to make sense of what little information they
were getting from the USSR.  The President had not yet been told.  It didn't
matter.  Washington was vaporized.  The Secretary of Commerce was the
highest ranking member in the government to survive.  He was in Mexico City
concluding an important trade agreement.  It took two days to find him.


Game Notes:

This is a very large scenario, about 560K estimated. We suggest that you
turn off all animations and free up as much memory as possible.  Let us
know if you get a memory handle condition that you can't recover from.

In order to simulate the effects of EMP produced by the nukes detonated in
near Earth orbit on the radar and electronics of the various units, the
following is simulated:

Day one.

The E-2C's on the carrier have been replaced by F/A-18's. Do not use
them as weapon platforms.  Leave them in tanker mode throughout the game.

Do not use either the air or surface radar on any other platform.  Only the
E-2's and designated F/A-18's can use radar.

Day two.

At this point the radars can be used in intermittent mode with 30 minute
delays and 5 minute variance.  It doesn't get any better than this for the
rest of the game.

I realize that you're on your honor to follow these restrictions.  But then
I think I'm being nice.  The theory, at least as We understand it, behind
the electromagnetic pulse produced by detonating a nuke in orbit, is that it
either fries or renders useless any electronic device in the affected area,
unless it has been specially hardened to withstand it.  The Soviets did it
for everything.  The US only for some. We decided that the scenario takes
place far enough away from the US that the devices were only affected, not
fried.  Otherwise, who knows how many of your air units would have just
fallen into the sea.  Or which subs simply dove to the bottom.  Or how many
ships just floundered.

		Who said things always get better?

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