Dawn broke, revealing a cold bleak day. A light snow continued to fall on the island, ocean, long beach and forested shore. The predicted winter storm would hit later that day or that night.

The ship was secure. Still taking on water as the pumps couldn't quite keep up but only slowly. The Sassy Lass towed it up the mouth of the Quillayute River, which was somewhat protected by the remains of a prewar artificial breakwater constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers. If it sank at least it would be in the shallow water of the lower Quillayute.

There was not a lot of mopping up to do on the island as all personnel were accounted for. The four Krell advisors were almost all killed in the attack or expired soon after. One was alive but unconscious. Eight of the mercenaries also survived. There were over twenty prisoners still alive. Some were showing signs of radiation sickness.

The prisoners said they were from New Portland, Oregon. It was a noted seaport/riverport on the Columbia River at the location of prewar Portland. This was where the Krell (who's origin was far away, back east in the Old America Midwest) had hired the ship and mercenaries. Some of the slaves had been purchased from the Slaver's Guild HQ in Taos, New Mexico, then transported by wagon to New Portland. Others had been purchased at the local Slaver's Guild hall in Vancouver, across the river from New Portland. From there they'd all been transported by ship up the coast. The slaves were all locked into what had once been a large central freezer in the hull of the ship. The vessel and slave salvage crew had arrived a week prior and had set up camp, then breached the facility using the hole created by a section of collapsed roof.

This unwilling workforce had salvaged one UGM-96 (C4) Trident I missile and warhead from the "Tomb of the War Whale". The prisoners who worked on this phase got sick, obviously from radiation being given off by the Plutonium "pit" of the fission bomb. The plan was presumably load up one of more salvaged rockets and warheads, then head back to Portland and presumably east overland to Krell-held territory. The Krell had captured a considerable amount of Project assets, including some fusion-powered Morrow Project Vehicles (MPVs) so range was assumed to not be a factor.

The Krell noted there were twenty-four Trident I missiles remaining in the sub's missile tubes. Either this sub never fired it's complement of missiles or it had reloaded at the facility. There were nineteen more missiles in sealed containers on storage racks in the facility. From documents found in the camp the "Tomb" was identified as "DWSA (Detached Weapons Storage Area) Reload Base Tango," presumably part of SWFPAC (Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific) Bangor. An old ship's log, emblazoned with "USS Nevada (ID SSBN-749 )", was also recovered.

Project command identified several areas of concern: securing any nuclear material, evacuating the freed slaves, securing any prisoners and keeping the ship afloat.

With the storm coming in, the plan was to have the Sassy Lass remain on station by James Island or at the mouth of the Quillayute river. The recovered nuclear warhead could remain on site (along with the several dozen other warheads) until a larger effort could be organised in the upcoming weeks. The sick and wounded would be evacuated to Project Base Tukwila by air transport. This was very unusual; as far as they knew, Combined Group Seattle only had a few 2-person Airscout auto-gyros available as none of the Project's other local air assets had been located and activated. (It was possible that Prime Base had some C-130s available but it seemed unlikely they'd be used.) If the Airscouts were to be used, then there would need to be a number of ferry flights. In the mean time, the local native tribe who had helped them agreed to take in the freed slaves who would be staying for at least a few weeks. Supplies and camping gear, including portable fusion power units, would be dropped off by the medevac unit. While the ship's crew wanted to cooperate (and fix their vessel) it was unclear what would happen to the captured mercenaries. At some point they would be taken to Tukwila, interrogated, and probably released. Any who'd committed serious crimes (against the slaves) would be tried and punished.

In the mean time, a landing strip needed to be marked on Second Beach to the SE of James Island. This was where the Autogyros had delivered Ralph and Flash and the wide kilometres of packed sand beach was an ideal impromptu landing strip.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:29, Mon 18 Sept 2023.

Through the morning prisoners and freed slaves got sorted out. Some of the mercs and the ship's crew decided to stay. There was a minimal risk of them escaping back into the wilderness

The snow continued on and off. They prepped a landing strip on the nearby beach. The remaining prisoners and badly injured wounded, Flash and Ralph, plus the one recovered nuclear warhead, were shuttled from the island for pickup by air transport. Around noon the weather had improved. Still overcast but the snow had stopped. On cue the personnel waiting on the beach heard the buzzing sound of an aircraft. Skirting around the bank of clouds shrouding Mt. Olympus was an aircraft. It was larger than an Airscout but smaller than a large transport like a C-130.

As the plane flew by it resolved itself as a Soviet An-2, an enclosed biplane, painted white with Morrow Project markings and an American flag on the tail (but no registration number). Rugged and with practically no stall speed and an ability to operate off almost any runway, this was an ideal light transport. It was a mystery where it originated, because by the last Project-wide update in 1987 Russian designs were not available for licenced production. Most Project air assets were the small 2-seat Airscout autogyros, some DeHavilland Twin Otters and Hercules C-130s. However, the Soviet troops who invaded Puget Sound and ended up occupying their drop zone at SEATAC airport had squirrelled away a small number of intact vehicles and equipment that still had spare parts but not fuel, which they lacked the most. If an existing engine could be fabricated or repaired using advanced Project automatic CAD-CAM machinery, or adapted from an existing Project-issue engine. Either way, it was here!

The ancient biplane drifted down and landed like a feather. As it was landing into the wind it only needed less than a hundred feet or so from touchdown to roll out. As it looked like a number of people were going to stay, several hundred kilos of survival equipment food and medical supplies were offloaded, including a portable fusion backpack generator. As well, some underwater welding equipment to allow the crew of the freighter Cartaghena to replace their rudder and seal the hole in their hull using the SCUBA gear that was left for this purpose. A new rudder and metal plating had been quickly fabbed using the CAD-CAM setup at the Project base. All that was offloaded, then everyone returning to base piled in and the cargo was loaded up. The reflagged Antonov "Colt" easily pulled up from the beach and disappeared into the overcast, flying north before turning east, following the course plotted through terrain on the Autonav.

For the rest of the day the team got the camp back in order, burying the dead mercenaries an Krell special operatives. Tents were set up again, backpack generator turned on. Snow started to fall again. According to the forecast the storm would soon arrive, and they wanted to be ready. The Sassy Lass towed the freighter into the mouth of the Quillayute behind the breakwater and in the afternoon dive party patched up the hole in the rear hull of the freighter. Replacing the rudder would take more time and effort but would be accomplished by the end of the week. At that point the freed prisoners could be returned south or resettled in Puget Sound.