End of Days - Prologue

This is a prologue for my previous story END OF DAYS that was published in the Group Section. Rather than try to link the two stories as a series which would require first deleting then republishing the first story in the Loving Wives section, I will just urge interested readers to look it up.

A prologue will follow.

In the Pacific off the Coast of California...

Bill Portals sat in his command chair on the open air weather bridge of his favorite yacht, savoring the wonderful weather. Given the circumstances, it might have been advisable for him to be on the main bridge one deck lower. However; the temperature was warm but not uncomfortably hot. There were no clouds in the sky to obscure the setting sun. A quick glance at the radiation meter confirmed that there was negligible fallout today. Those brushfire nuclear wars had occurred thousands of miles away and many months ago. As everyone who was anyone and actually knew anything had expected, the radioactivity of the global fallout had been minimal and had declined quite precipitously.

The only obstructions to Bill's view were the struts that supported the sensors and other systems above and just aft of the conn. Thinking about the advanced, phased array radar ring drew his attention to the monitor again. Except for a lone, military cargo plane or far less likely an airliner ascending from Los Angeles International airport, there were no aircraft or ships that were above the horizon within a hundred miles.

Bill was confident that there was no one lurking nearby. The two meter diameter, phased array radar ring above him was more advanced, more powerful, and far more capable than the radar systems of most warships. The advanced Gallium nitride semiconductor technology enabled much higher power densities and efficiency than the current radar systems that utilized gallium arsenide technology. He had only reluctantly begun marketing the systems to the United States Navy, just to keep up appearances.

Bill glanced up at the two meter diameter sphere that was nestled just above his radar ring. Ostensibly; the "disco ball" was the housing for Bill's "telescope." Bill had regaled many customs inspectors and other overly inquisitive bureaucrats with details about his advanced optical interferometer.

In truth, Bill's Disco Ball did house an optical interferometer. He had on occasion actually utilized it for star gazing. However; his Disco Ball also housed an optical interferometer that was designed to transmit rather than receive light. Bill's Disco Ball housed a phased array laser.

Only a few nations were experimenting with laser weapons. At best, the power output of these military lasers was only a few hundred kilowatts. The power of Bill's laser was measured in Megawats! The larger optical diameter enabled a much tighter focus resulting in far greater power density and effective range. Bill hadn't sold this technology to any nation state. He had gifted only a few systems to some of his more valued vassals.

While Bill was justifiably proud of his Disco Ball laser system, he was reassured by the sight of the gun turret just below and forward of the main bridge but aft of the helipad at the bow. The Rheinmentall Oerlikon Millennium Gun turret was indisputably one of the best short range air defense weapons in the world. He had covertly acquired the thirty-five millimeter, rapid fire cannon system before the war in Ukraine went nuclear. However; he hadn't been willing to provoke unwanted attention by installing the turret until after the brushfire nuclear wars in the Middle East and far East began. Now that the golden age of Pax Americana was over, only the insane would sail far from their home waters unless their ships were well armed.

The radar alerted Bill to an approaching aircraft. Bill watched intently as a helicopter approached. Fortunately; it was one of his own helicopters. The helicopter was bringing in the last group of his guests.

The helicopter landed on the main helipad two decks below and aft of the bridge rather than on the smaller helipad on the bow. Deck hands rushed to secure the aircraft to the mobile landing platform. Although his trimaran yacht was exceptionally stable, he didn't want to take chances. Only when the helicopter was secured to the mobile landing platform did the pilot shut down the engines.

As the passengers disembarked, Bill appraised them. His guests were all merely millionaires rather than billionaires like himself. However; they were at least double if not triple digit millionaires. While they might consider themselves to be wealthy, they were mere paupers by the standards of the high technology cognoscenti like Bill and his peers.

Bill's guests imagined themselves to be his valued vassals rather than merely his pawns. The only people who should consider themselves to be Bill's vassals were lessor, double digit billionaires. However; Bill's pawns had useful skills just like some of his peons.

Of course even some of the billions of useless breeders who overpopulated the planet also had seemingly useful skills. However; their skills would not be so useful if the world wasn't so overpopulated with useless breeders like themselves. Unlike the hoards of useless breeders, the lives of these pawns might be worth preserving.

Aside from having useful skills, the pawns were accompanied by their trophy wives. The trophy wives had packed extravagantly for the cruise. They asserted their imagined status by needlessly harassing the deckhands who were unloading their luggage. Unlike the trophy wives, the deckhands knew their business and understood their true status.

The trophy wives were all appropriately dressed for an informal pool party at sea. They were obviously hoping if not confident that this was just another false alarm. Thanks to their somewhat scandalous attire, the trophy wives were all obviously much younger than their husbands and very nubile.

Bill had hired hackers as well as private investigators to illegally invade the medical privacy of the trophy wives. He had invited only those pawns whose trophy wives were not just presumably fertile. Although none had yet borne children, the fact that they were all on the pill or other forms of contraception attested to their fertility. They all remained capable of conceiving. Even better, none had felt the need to get cosmetic surgery that would compromise their ability to nurse a baby. They'd no longer be on contraception soon enough.

Even if the pawns were uncooperative, their trophy wives lives at least would be worth preserving. However; the trophy wives lives would be worth preserving only if they were cooperative. Feeding a few of their husbands to the sharks would probably motivate the trophy wives and surviving pawns to be cooperative.

Bill already had four dozen guests on his yacht and twice as many crew. Most of the crew were not only female but like the trophy wives, they were young and nubile. His estranged, former wife Melinda was not among his guests. Not only was she no longer young or nubile, Melinda was a bitch. However; their daughter as well as a few of the progeny that had resulted from his many indiscretions were on board. Their lives were definitely worth preserving.

The deck hands finished unloading the luggage. Others would be distributing the luggage to the various staterooms. The rotor blades of the helicopter were folded. The landing platform then slid forward on rails to transfer the helicopter from the helipad to the hanger where Bill's other helicopter already resided. Furniture was brought out and set up on the spacious helipad. Then the helipad was split down the middle as the two halves slid aside to reveal the swimming pool beneath. Bill's many guests gravitated to the pool deck and the two halves of the helipad, expecting a leisurely, evening cocktail party.

Bill's guests needed the reprieve from the chaos and violence. The last half dozen years of incessant, intentional, government enabled anarchy had been bad enough. Now the deplorables were finally revolting. Cancelling the twenty-twenty-four elections had provoked a an insurrection. Assassinating the deplorables' favored candidate along with his Secret Service detail had truly triggered the deplorables.

Unlike the January sixth protestors, the deplorables had finally taken up arms. Many of the deplorables were veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Unlike most common criminals, they actually favored assault rifles and they knew how to shoot.

Vigilantes now reigned in most of America. Criminals were being lynched. Politicians and the journalists who had been gas lighting the people were being assassinated. Judges who had enabled vicious thugs to run at large were being subjected to public stonings. The hoards of illegal aliens who had invaded in recent years were now making another run for the border to escape the targeted violence and chaos.

The police who had been demonized and defunded had all either changed sides or caught the Blue Flue. Not even Bill's corporate compounds with private security were completely safe. Partying on Bill's yacht was always a welcome reprieve from the now incessant, low intensity, civil war that was wracking America.

Bill didn't join his guests. He remained on the weather bridge. He had promises to keep.

At a seemingly casual gesture from Bill, one of the nubile young women who were standing by with solid Platinum serving trays stepped up to offer him a canapé as well as a glass of champagne. The serving women were all nude except for a narrow loin cloth. The slender strips of cloth might have offered at least a token concession to modesty if not for the fact that the fabric was so sheer. The fabric strips were billowing in the ocean breeze so that they concealed nothing anyway. At his command, none of the serving wenches had shaved their dark pubic hair. He didn't like to be reminded of some of his past transgressions on Epstein Island.

The serving wenches no longer complained about their chronic nudity. They were in no position to object. They were all sabras, refugees from the still somewhat radioactive remnants of Israel. They were among the few that had somehow survived the Second Holocaust. While all of them might resemble Gul Gadot, none of them were Wonder Woman. His guards had beaten them often enough and just severely enough to subjugate them.

Bill's yacht had been seemingly innocently cruising off the coast of Israel on that Purim when the nukes detonated over Haifa, Tel Aviv-Yafo, and Ashkelon as well as the Israeli nuclear complex near Dimona. The Israelis had been smart enough to deploy missile defenses. Unfortunately; their radar had been focused, really fixated towards the East, vigilant for an attack from Iran. They'd foolishly paid no mind to Bill's yacht. Turkey had not yet become so belligerent as to provoke vigilance much less alarm. Only three nukes detonated over Tel Aviv, Haifa and Ashkelon had been needed to ravage Israel's population. The destruction of the Dimona reactor complex had greatly enhanced the radioactive fallout.

A two state solution had been imposed on the Israelis. No one cared that the terrorist attack on the anniversary of the Yom Kapoor War had demonstrated just how vulnerable Israel had been even within its previous borders. Salvos of precision guided, short ranged rockets provided by Iran but launched from the newly established Palestinian states on the West Bank and Gaza Strip had emasculated Israel's much vaunted air force.

With their major population centers and power plants destroyed and intensely radioactive fallout blanketing the entire country, the Israelis had been unable to rally their reserves. Only those who had been smart enough to have bunkers to shelter in had survived. These survivors had been smart enough to remain in their bunkers for the next several days or weeks while the radioactivity waned to survivable levels.

Unfortunately; at least for the Israelis, generations of propagandizing had conditioned the Israelis to eschew private ownership of firearms. Although almost all Jews celebrated Purim, few seemed to have actually read the book of Esther. The Jews had rendered themselves defenseless to their enemies. Biden's embargo against exporting small arms had prevented the Israelis from rearming themselves during the months after the October seventh massacre enlightened them. The excuse had been to prevent "settler violence."

The Israelis had only belatedly realized that the United States had once before been complicit in Jewish genocide. They had forgotten about the MS St. Louis. That had been only the most famous example. The Jews who had fled Germany to escape the coming Holocaust had been denied entry to America. The same political party that had been in power in nineteen-thirty-nine had once again rejected the Jews. The United States had done nothing as hoards of Jihadists were pouring over their borders from Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt to murder, ravage and rape them.

The jihadists had been to stupid and ignorant to understand that the radiation from the fallout was killing them. They had been to intent on capturing Israeli women to think. With few exceptions, the only survivors from the destruction of Israel had been the nubile young women who'd been captured and carried off rather than murdered. Those prisoners that hadn't been promptly beaten or gang raped to death had become sex slaves to their Islamic masters during the remainder of their radiation abbreviated lives.

Only a few survivors of the conquest of Israel had been able to escape by putting out to sea. Bill had been eager to rescue refugees. However; only the most nubile young women who were sufficiently compliant had been permitted to survive.

Some of Israel's submarines had been out at sea. Only one had survived the belated, insane intervention, truly yet another betrayal, by the United States Navy. The President had decreed that no retaliation for the second Holocaust would be permitted.

The Israeli's lone surviving submarine had retaliated against Israel's presumptive attacker of course. As everyone had reasonably presumed, Israel's Jericho and cruise missiles had been armed with nuclear warheads. However; Iran's defenses had intercepted some of the missiles. However; Israel's nuclear retaliation had been devastating, but it hadn't been Armageddon. It hadn't been Armageddon even for Iran. Israel's retaliation hadn't been even a pyric vengeance. It had not exceeded the price that the insane mullahs who truly ruled Iran had been willing to pay to see the Jewish entity destroyed.

Examining the radar display then the satellite feed, Bill noted the many icons amongst the somewhat normal traffic of cargo ships, fishing vessels and lessor pleasure craft. Americans had belatedly realized that life could go on in the aftermath of the first brushfire nuclear war. America had survived the Second, Third and Fourth brushfire Nuclear Wars as well. The aggregate yields of all of the nukes that had been detonated had been barely a thousand Megatons. Although half a billion people had been promptly killed, the fallout from the brushfire nuclear wars wasn't much worse than the fallout from the above ground nuclear tests of the nineteen-forties, fifties and sixties. Some four-hundred-and-fifty Megatons had been detonated during those decades. However; those nuclear tests had occurred over a period of a few decades, not just a few weeks.

Americans, especially the deplorables, had eventually realized that America had plenty of food and adequate fuel of her own. Unlike the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America, Americans could survive. All that was necessary was for the various governments, especially the Federal government, to sit down, shut the fuck up, and get the Hell out of the way.

Of far more concern to Americans was the ongoing civil war. After enduring the ravages and abuses by the criminal class that was aided and abetted by their own government, the deplorables were revolting. Even worse, the deplorables were winning, and not just in flyover country. Many of the urbane and sophisticated urbanites who had been obsessed with demonstrating how enlightened they were by voting so insanely had experienced an epiphany. They'd joined forces with the deplorables.

While America was surviving, things were far from normal. Gasoline was still scarce and therefore expensive. The energy independence that had been achieved during the Trump administration had been squandered by his successor. Most states in flyover country had finally told the Federal government to go fuck itself. They now enabled rather than hobbled the fracking industry. They'd even brought coal fired power plants back on line!

While America was regaining her energy independence, the global supply chains that had enabled the self anointed elites to export America's jobs had been ravaged. America was struggling to reconstitute her industrial base and manufacturing industries. Building the machines to build the machines that could manufacture consumer goods had to take priority over manufacturing consumer goods.

Life was far from normal. Most people were compelled to risk taking public transit or walk to work. Local weather forecasts were routinely predicting likely fallout as well as temperature and precipitation. Bill had multiplied his vast fortune by selling Iodine tablets and radiation meters. He had resisted the temptation to make even more money by marketing prefabricated bunkers. That would give people ideas. Unfortunately; many of the hardcore deplorables already had bunkers. Some of the deplorables were even building their fortunes by marketing prefabricated bunkers to the general public!

Bill once again turned his attention to the radar display. Most of the other billionaires like Bill had their own megayachts. Their megayachts had the range and the endurance to cross oceans rather than just tour the Mediterranean sea or the Caribbean. The most recent, escalating political crisis had motivated them to once again seek safety at sea. They too were well prepared to ride out the coming storm. Many lesser craft that lacked the range and the endurance to flee had joined them. While these lesser craft might be safe from the immediate effects of a nuclear attack, they had only a forlorn hope of long term survival.

A few of the icons were glowing red. Not all of the billionaires were truly, fully cognoscenti. Only a select few were actual conspirators. Some of the ships that were loitering off the coasts of America weren't just waiting to ride out the coming storm. They were waiting to bring on the storm.

With his helicopter was secured in the hanger, Bill gave orders to the Captain. The yacht turned to the West and accelerated to barely twenty knots. That was merely two-thirds of full speed much less flank speed. Only one pair of the quartet of MTU Friedrichshafe, twenty cylinder, diesel engines were on line. These engines were thirsty beasts. However; they weren't as thirsty as the gas turbines of the CODAG system that Bill had been so tempted to have installed on his yacht. Gas turbines would have gulped fuel far more prodigiously than his quartet of diesels. His yacht could outpace most warships anyway.

Although one of Bill's shell corporations owned a tanker that was ostensibly in route to Hawaii, he needed to be mindful of fuel until the rendezvous. He along with his vassals would soon be embarking on a long journey. More importantly, he was reluctant to attract attention to his yacht by displaying her true speed.

Not for the first time, Bill was amused by the irony. The legions of useless idiots who had embraced Anthropogenic Global Warming Theology were blind to the utter hypocrisy of the high technology gurus whom they idolized. Bills yacht along with his private jets could burn more fuel in an hour than a typical family of deplorable breeders with their politically incorrect three or more children, sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks as well as frequent flights on commercial airlines might burn in a year. Yet the legions of useless idiots who'd rioted, looted and burned at his command to support various idiotic causes worshipped him and his fellow cognoscenti as saviors of the planet.