6 hours after Nuclear launch.

In the skies over the pacific, several planes flew in a close but lose formation. Several of them were commercial aircraft with civilians inside. No one knew what happened, all they got was nuclear detonations on radio and radar. Other than that, nothing. They had no news or anyone anything to get in contact with them. While it was unrealistic to get some kind of communication if WW3 had started, they only thought it was just tests. No indication WW3 started

"What the hell is going on?" muttered one officer as he used the radio getting nothing but static.

"No clue," said another who was monitoring a radar.

The inside of an EC-130H aircraft was busy as what was left of the US air force tried to figure out what happened. But there was little they could do other than call other nearby aircraft into their little group. There was one problem however, they had no landing area for when they would need to land. This was a problem as some of the smaller planes were running on fumes. Something had to happen, and soon.

"CONTACT!" the radar officer then called. "Four bogies coming in fast,"

Tracer, Joker, Fox and Wolf flew alongside the air group matching the speed as best they can.

"Wow," Joker muttered. "How many are there?" he asked looking at them.

"I count 10," Tracer said.

"They must be running scared," Fox muttered while Wolf just grunted in agreement.

"Ok then, let's get them towards one of the FOB's," Tracer said before turning her radio on. "Echo Sierra 295 come in; this is Delta Delta Tango 01. Please respond,"

"Delta Delta Tango 01, this is Echo Sierra 295 responding. State your intentions over," a voice replied making Tracer sigh with relief.

"Nice to hear a voice who's not threatening us," she smiled. "We're part of a PMC called Diamond Dogs, we have orders to escort all aircraft and ships back to one of our bases. You may have already guessed, but the USA and USSR launched nukes 6 hours ago. Neither are left,"

Silence fell for a few moments before the same man responded. "We summarised as much, but wanted to confirm," there was a sigh as the man on the other end realised what the flashes and nuclear detonations meant. "We have several commercial airliners who are running on fumes. We may need to make landings,"

"Understood, we have a fleet of ships ready in case any flight needs to become a boat," Tracer said as Joker, Fox and Wolf began to move into a formation. "We'll escort you to the nearest FOB,"

"Understood, we'll contact the other planes,"

A few moments later the air group began to turn and follow the fighters.

3 days after Nuclear launch.

Echo base was in chaos as people moved around as quickly as they could. Over the past few days refugees from area's all-around Africa had been flocking to Echo base, which was out of range of any nuclear detonation. Military and civilians moved into the base forcing the Diamond Dog troopers to accommodate as best as they could. But with the connection to Mother Base cut, they had to rely on their Commander. John Bradford, more commonly known as Central, had years of experience with command. Mostly in Vietnam where he commanded a base and several units with respect and trust.

Here he was doing the same. Commanding a force, the best he can, but this time more drastic measured were needed. He ordered for triage protocol's to be put into effect. Anyone who couldn't be saved was to be euthanised and their body burned. A quick death was better than falling to radiation sickness. People didn't like it, but they were allowed to say goodbye before they got a quick end.

After that their bodies would be burned to ensure nothing would happen to the living. This was the only real choice given the situation. Other than that, he was very fair, if you didn't work, you didn't get rations and so one. While some people did try to bribe DD soldiers, they were disciplined enough not to accept it. This was mostly due to being around the Mother base refugees. A few of them had tired to offer their bodies and other things, but due to the strict rules and instant dismissal for any inappropriate behaviour.

They knew how to act. While there were a few fights due to some of the refuges not liking the fact some of the soldiers were female, and tried to have their way with them. That didn't last long, as one guy got his balls busted by one of them. That taught the refugees to keep their hands to themselves.

John walked across the camp as people got to work making the place liveable. It wasn't perfect, but it was all they could do for now. No one knew what happened, but with the large amount of radiation around the area, it wasn't hard to guess what happened. Someone started the end of the world. But with the lack of long-range communication, it was difficult to confirm. All they had was guesswork at this point.

As he walked, the sound of helicopter blades met his ears. Someone was coming, he ran over to the helipad as a soldier ran up to him.

"Sir, we detected 4 chinooks and 6 blackfoot helicopters are heading this way," he said.

"Any identification?" John asked.

"Yes, American army," the soldier said with John only nodding in response.

Soon enough the helicopters came in and landed with the help of aircraft marshals. After the first aircraft landed, an officer emerged and John ran up to him.

"You ok?" he yelled over the sound of the helicopter blades.

"I'm good," the officer said as the two made their way from the sound of the aircraft. "I'm Captain Sky, 7th infantry,"

"Commander John Central, Diamond dogs 5th Garrison Group," John replied as the two shook hands. "What's your situation?"

"I only have 150 troops, most of them have radiation sickness. We need treatment," Sky said. "I also need to use your radio and get in contact with American command,"

"We can help with your troopers, but we cannot raise anyone," John replied his volume returning to normal as the sound of the helicopters died down. "Our radio is down, we think it's because of an EMP blast, my engineers are tying to fix it,"

"My engineers can help," Sky offered hoping to get on the commander's good side.

"Sounds good, also I should point out if your men are too far gone…" John let that hang in the air.

Sky only nodded in response. "I understand, I also assume that you want out guns?"

"Yes, at the moment no one seems to know what's going on. Order is something I need to maintain, and if an army come in here with their own weapons… that becomes counterproductive,"

"I understand, I'll see what I can do," Sky said before walking back over to his troops to tell them what's going on.

As he left, Central looked up into the sky. Until they could get in contact with Mother base, this was going to be complicated.

OOOOO

Snake walked into the medical bay and over to Quiet's bed. She looked horrible; her skin was a greyish white with black spots dotting over her body. Her breathing was sallow and the only thing normal was her heart rate. Grabbing a chair, Snake sat next to her and took her hand in his. It was cold, colder than he expected. He was expecting her to be warmer. A tear fell from his good eye as he never expected her to be this bad.

DD came up on the other side of the bed and licked her before letting out a soft whine.

"I know boy," Snake muttered. "I know,"

As he said this Code talker moved up and looked over the three. "We are keeping her as stable as we can," he said but Snake didn't look to him. "She's strong, willed enough to not die without a fight. But she has been dealing with this for years now, her will is eroding,"

"Just do what you can," Snake said and Code talker just nodded.

He stood before one of the botanists spoke up. "This can't be right," she muttered making Code talker and Snake look to her.

"Something wrong?" Snake asked with interest as he and Code walked up to her.

"Sorry sir, but this plant… I think this may hold a cure to the VCP," she said.

Code got out of his chair; he was helped by the woman as he looked into the microscope. He pulled away for a moment before looking again.

"Where did this plant come from?" he asked.

"The new island we discovered, I also found that several plants had similar properties," the botanist said.

"Interesting, with this we can eliminate the parasite inside everyone for good," he muttered.

"Does this mean," Snake said glancing over to Quiet.

"We can cure you, her and everyone with the VCP," Code said with a slight smile.

"I will get you all the burgers you want if you can cure VCP. But you have to start with me being Patient zero," all snake got was a nod in agreement.

OOOOO Mother Base supply platform.

Mei-Ling Zhou snored loudly as another officer walked in and turned the lights. She woke up with a start.

"Huh wha.." she then spoke in Chinese before her eyes fell on the officer. "S.. sir," she muttered.

"Sleeping at your desk again?" Chun li asked with a smile. "Mei, I know you like your job but this is overkill,"

"I know, but given the situation… we cannot back down now. The whole of the human race maybe at stake here," Mei said as she adjusted her glasses. "I'm a meteorologist, but no one can crunch numbers like me. Resources, food, water, all of it has to be accounted for and checked. If we don't,"

Chun nodded in agreement as she sat down next to Mei. "I understand, but that doesn't mean you should try to kill yourself trying to solve the problems of the world. We're all in this together. If you need help just ask,"

Mei smiled and nodded before picking up a sheet of paper and looking at it. "Yeah, but when the numbers are like this, it doesn't give one much hope," she then handed it to Chun li who took a look at it.

Her face became grim as she read the numbers. "This…" she muttered.

"Even with our rationing procedures, we cannot feed everyone nor supply ourselves with enough ammo or have enough fuel to support ourselves for more than 4 months. We need to find the supplies,"

Chun li nodded, the situation was grim.