Who got woke first?
 

What happened to other teams who work up before the team woke up?

It's mentioned in a few scenarios that there are here and there the remenants of other teams that woke up, usually getting wiped out.

But what happened to other teams that maybe woke up and survived? But weren't able to find Prime Base or get the project working overall?

A few thoughts.

The project would probably have emergency protocols for Prime base going off line. And whilst it might be ok for individual Recon teams and MARS units to identify themselves as Morrow. Something like a field hospital or agricultural project might be ordered to start operations, but wait for communication before identifying themselves as Morrow.

One project might be an agricultural one like the one mentioned in Fallback. Maybe if they've been awake for 50 years, they've started producing stuff to generally make life better. Fertilisers, high nutrition food stuffs, basic medicines and started educating folks in more advanced agriculture techniques?

Whilst maybe a MARS unit after decades of fighting the good fight against impossible odds, with no word from command. May have become more like Ronin with their memory of orders becoming fainter every day.

I always assumed that earlier Teams woke up, tried to do their mission, but either got wiped out or else were only ever able to progress on a small scale. A lone Team, even a facility, is quite vulnerable, so I don't think it implausible that the few Teams that were awakened simply got destroyed or just died out, perhaps leaving behind some legacy.

A village that provides food for a wide region, staving off destruction using the handful of remaining small arms and a dismounted V-150 turret hand-cranked to cover the village gate.

A hospital that cares for everyone who comes to it, lead by the last member of a Science Medical Team and aided by the children and disciples of his old teammates.

A guerilla unit trying to hold back the KFS, wearing the uniforms and carrying the equipment of the Team that trained them decades earlier before dying valiantly under the superior firepower of the Free State.

As the players travel, they should see and learn from the remains of the Teams that came before.

And I absolutely agree that there should be protocols for taking progressively higher command. A Team might lose its leadership in the field, and the new TL might need to use official resources in that capacity without the intervention of Prime Base, so perhaps the supply base in Starnaman can give temporary command at level X so long as they have 3 other people at level X-1 willing to authorize it. Or perhaps there is a special comms channel where someone can assert command authority and wait for someone higher to reject it. But there should be something.

The component that is missing is something like this document:

http://www.hqmc.marines.mil/Portals/...R%202012).docx

Surely TMP has some kind of COOP that should be followed in cases where the command structure is disrupted. The COOP should support the mission of: Help the survivors, Reconnect with other teams and Survive. The mission alone is inadequate for continued operations and my players see that as well, though they are making the best of it.

TMP has an issue that the current military doesn't need to deal with: fully automated systems that recognize command authority. If the COOP is going to be worthwhile it needs to account for how lower-level units will access automated resources when higher-level command is destroyed (or out of contact, which is effectively the same thing, temporarily).

For example: Communications with Regional and higher commands is cut off using local comms sources, the Team Commander is dead, and the only way to contact Regional or Prime is using a nearby automated communications station... which will only grant access to someone at the Team Command level or above. So are they just screwed, or does the comms station have a protocol whereby a temporary Team Commander can be designated until comms are restored and Regional or Prime can send official confirmation.

Agreed, the automated systems do present a challenge, but not one that cannot be mitigated for this type of situation. My concept for the Morrow Project ID handles this in a nice way. My IDs are just like your chip and pin credit card. The chip contains a great deal of information: your profile, your authorization level and 4-6 PKI encryption keys. There is still space for a small number of one-time use authentication codes. The codes would allow a one-time elevation of privilege when used with your personal passcode. Once the automated facility verifies the code using its private key, the one-time code is marked as used at the facility and the person can use the facility for a period of time, be it a number of hours, days, minutes. The duration would be determined by the anticipated time it would take for someone of appropriate command level to either take charge or grant privileges to the person(s) there.

Why one-time, and what is the appropriate amount of time?

The reason for one-time is simple, it minimizes the exposure of the automated system from abuse by rogue agents. The use of one-time authorization codes means they can only use it once.

As for the time the elevated privilege lasts would depend on the system. The assumption I am working from and what seems to be the question is that access to the automated system is restricted for a reason. Maybe it contains code books, restricted materials or so on. The time should be long enough for a legitimate need for elevated access to do what needs to be done or for someone of sufficient access to arrive and take control of the facility. It should not be so long that someone can abuse the system for nefarious purposes. That should be different for different assets so protected.