[helbent4]

Nate,

Glad you were able to participate and liked the game!

Some of my thoughts are as follows. Bear in mind I like the canon background, so I try to keep things similar if not exactly the same.

Prime: set up poorly in many respects, but maybe there were factors we don't understand. Like, according to TM 1-1 Morrow traveled to the future at least once to check up on the Project and bring back future tech. Maybe he saw an unforseen need to centralise the Project to such a ridiculous extent?

Either way, there are supposed to be up to ten permanent depots (Tm 1-1, pg. 34). These would make excellent regional facilities!

"The second type of installation [after Prime Base] is that of a permanent depot/base... A purpose of such bases is to resupply and support the Morrow Project teams as needed. They carry complete stocks of materials and equipment. The stocks included the materials to help start man back on the road to civilisation and include construction equipment as well as full libraries on microfilm. The MARS-ONE vehicles are stationed in such bases and include very large arsenals of weapons and ammunition..."

Added: These installations could be either manned or unmanned. I would think these depots could be a mix. That is, parts are manned while there are automated industrial facilities as an ultimate fall-back in case the nation's industrial infrastructure was completely destroyed (which is, in fact, what happens).

I've also thought about a Soviet version of the Morrow Project, manned by KGB mobile divisions to make certain the survival of the Communist Party and Soviet Union. It would be called "Proyekta Beliy Medved" ("Project Polar Bear") and be made up of two main installations, one in the Caucases and the other located in the Urals and manned by Red Army troops transferred to KGB control:

"In 1990, several army divisions were transferred to the KGB: the 103rd Vitebsk Guards Paratrooper Division, the Seventy-Fifth Nakhichevan Motor Rifle Division, the Forty-Eighth Motor Rifle Division and the Twenty-Seventh Motor Rifle Brigade numbering a total of 23,767 officers, sergeants and soldiers." - KGB: The State Within the State. Obviously a little late for our purposes but if even two such divisions were relocated to Beliy Medved facilities that would suffice for some kind of post-war political control.

The cryotube technology was stolen by KBG moles within the Morrow Project (called "Morzhi" or "walruses", after the people who like swimming in ice holes). These post-war control installations were destroyed in a Russian civil war after WWIII thus cutting off control of KGB agents in North American and the Project. Krell is one such agent, now waging a one-man war to destroy the Morrow Project and gain control the USA (although this is more of a secondary goal).

Tony