Re: Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Once everyone was settled, one of the local Project Command Group brought the briefing to order. He had a rumpled, scholarly look despite his Project fatigues.
"Good morning everyone. Sorry for the early hour. Ah, ok." He poured himself an instant coffee. "We should have greenhouses set up by next summer to grow vegetables, fruits, and yes, coffee. But we have more pressing matters and the new arrivals need to be brought up to speed, but some of you will be familiar with this information already so my apologies. First, I am Darryl Weaver, part of the local Group Command Team."
There was a map easel and pull-down screen in front of a chalkboard.
"Speaking of them, welcome to our new arrivals from Regional Recon Team P-44. The short story about the Project is there was a decapitation strike shortly after the war by a postwar faction known as the "Warriors of Krell" that took Prime out of commission for a very long time. The Phoenix Team (a kind of fail-safe backup command group) has been able to reactivate Prime and begin sending the recall codes for teams. It's a difficult process due to massive information infrastructure damage. Pretty much the entire database needs to be reconstructed from scratch. As of now we estimate most of the Project is still intact but inactive (sleeping). Teams have been activated here and there, sometimes by accident and sometimes by recall code. Regions and local Groups are slowly being brought on-line and our command structure reconstituted.
"The local Project group, Combined Group Seattle, has been successfully activated with about 50% of Project assets accounted for. That's the good news."
For the benefit of the newly activated team, Weaver sketched out the course of the Third World War. In November 1989 the Cold War seemed to be ending on an uncertain tone, with unrest in Poland and East Germany and Russia seeming unwilling to enforce the Brezhnev Doctrine.
"There was an accidental US first strike during a readiness exercise, and a Soviet second strike, despite the best efforts of President Bush (who some of you may remember as formerly Reagan's Vice President) and Premier Gorbachev (as you may recall a would-be reformer) to prevent retaliation. They failed and the Soviet response included not just wide-spread nuclear strikes but an invasion of Western Europe, the Middle East, and the USA (both Alaska and Continental) supported by chemical and biological weapons on a massive scale. The details and reasons for the latter is actually quite interesting but not important for the moment, other than this is why there seem to be so many Russians around here. For the last 150 years the local American-descended "Rebels" had been fighting a war of liberation while the "Soviets" have been trying to survive. After a lot of effort everyone seems to be getting along right now, and slavery (widespread now and practiced by the Rebels) was abolished, other hostile groups fought off. We have managed to form a city government of sorts and a regional council. These are great strides."
Locally, things seemed to be progressing positively. However, one of the reasons the US military collapsed in the Puget Sound is that soon after the war Mt. Rainier erupted and deposited several feet of ash on the entire area. It continued to erupt every decade or so, with other occasional eruptions by Mt. St. Helen's, Mt. Baker and Mt. Garibaldi up in Canada. It looked like Rainier was building up to another eruption, and soon. Indications were there will be a major eruption in less than a month. The Project and the communities in and around Seattle were now as well-prepared as possible. They were now able to devote personnel, time and resources to locating and evacuating everyone in the potentially affected area.
"This is taking up most of our time and attention. However, there are other problems brewing. Remember the Krell? They are based in the midwest but we have evidence they were sending reconnaissance parties all the way here for some reason. We know they are interested in Project facilities, teams, supply caches and seek them out to loot them. We think we may know what they are looking for."
Two days ago a fishing boat belonging to a family of Whale Worshippers (aka "Fishers") stopped by to trade in Maryville. They said that something they called the "Cave of the War Whale" had been found. A shrine had been established and that the next major whaling party would be stopping there to ask for good luck at the next full moon before they began their hunt. The site was a small offshore island near the prewar town of La Push on the Pacific side of the Olympic Peninsula.
"Fragmentary prewar records indicate that a network of top secret sub pens were built in the mid-80's throughout the Pacific to shelter and rearm surviving Trident ballistic missile submarines of the Pacific Fleet in the likelihood that SWFPAC at Bangor was hit during a nuclear war. It's not known how many of these fallback shelters were built or where. Satellite imagery of the site has been hampered by bad weather and technical issues.
"It goes without saying if this is some kind of beached nuclear ballistic submarine, like an Ohio-class, or even a Los Angeles attack submarine, it could be very dangerous. Radiation hazards, toxic chemicals, you name it. We were unable to test anyone who actually visited the shrine so we couldn't take radiation readings. Dozens or more lives are at risk here.
"We would prefer to wait until better weather in the spring and the Rainier situation is resolved to have a closer look, but the next full moon is in 15 days. Despite the fact we are stretched very thin we are sending you as a composite team to investigate. Fortunately the Whale Worshippers are intelligent folk. Religiously-speaking they are Christian, in fact, but their culture and society has evolved and adapted to be centred around the sea and the whales they hunt. They will listen to reason; some of they have joined the Project. If we have proof they will listen."
He paused, reflecting on his good friend Raven, then continued.
"It should take 10 days of overland travel by vehicle to reach the former site of La Push. Conduct a preliminary investigation, then report your findings via radio. We'll take it from there."
This message was last edited by the player at 10:27, Thu 24 Aug 2017.