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#1
12-05-2009, 04:49 PM
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twilight 1964
Does anyone remember this website alternate for twilight or have it archived?
My archive hardrive crashed realy bad and no longer have my archived copy or the info that was on it. If you have it archived I would very much like to get it again, since the original website is down. 
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#2
12-05-2009, 07:51 PM
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Here's a dead link to the place that maybe you are thinking of, unfortunately it's a geocities site and I have no idea if the owner transported it to another site.
http://www.geocities.com/nmdecke/Twilight1964.html I believe Decke was the persons last name
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#4
12-05-2009, 09:06 PM
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I didn't know about this one-- is it an alternate timeline wherein the Cuban Missile Crisis went wrong?
__________________
My Twilight claim to fame: I ran "Allegheny Uprising" at Allegheny College, spring of 1988.
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#5
12-06-2009, 09:29 PM
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Quote:
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#6
12-07-2009, 09:31 AM
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__________________
The Big Book of War - Twilight 2000 Filedump Site Guns don't kill people,apes with guns do. 
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#7
12-12-2009, 07:47 PM
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I found mine archived on a memory stick. While looking for something completely different.
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#8
12-12-2009, 07:53 PM
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The file size is approximately 2.4 meg by the way. If some one wants to archive it also. Let me know how to send it too ya.
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#9
12-12-2009, 07:54 PM
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#11
12-13-2009, 11:00 PM
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Absolutely! Love to see it.
__________________
If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives. Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect" Mors ante pudorem
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#12
12-14-2009, 03:08 AM
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Cheers
__________________
Author of the unofficial and strictly non canon Alternative Survivors Guide to the United Kingdom
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#13
12-14-2009, 08:55 PM
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Here we go with Nathan's work. Its very long but a great read. Just think that he actually became ashamed of it in the end as nobody seemed interested in it.
TWILIGHT: 1964 An alternate history expansion module for Twilight: 2000, that excellent game of post-apocalypse role playing in the aftermath of a nuclear WWIII. A special note about blatant plagiarism, intellectual property and copyright thievery: While most of what follows is my own imagination, there is much that is not. As you read this you will see that in some places I have out-and-out stolen ideas, names, whole sentences, and everything in between from a variety of sources. These include a lot of websites, literally hundreds of books, movies, and articles. As this is all based on Twilight: 2000, I have of course robbed from the modules with reckless abandon. Why, you ask? Because there is such a wealth of good post-nuke stuff out there on the net and in the media that it would be a shame not to use it. The challenge is adapting it all to my 1964 timeframe, and good lord what a challenge that has been. If I tried to footnote and document every stolen concept and co-opted idea this project would be totally unreadable. Therefore, if you read something in here and say, "Hey, what the hell!!!! That's my idea!!!!" then please don't sue me. In fact, if you have any other ideas to add, let me know and I'll work them in. Thanks for not bankrupting me. PROLOGUE The premise here is that the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 went terribly, terribly wrong. Russia nuked us, we nuked them and the whole world fell apart. The game time is late October of 1964, near exactly two years since the bombs fell. The last two years in the USA have seen the collapse of the government and social structure, a schism between the military and the civilian governments and invasion on two fronts, and it will be many decades (if ever) before America is anywhere near normal again. Not as many nukes hit America as you might expect, nothing like the tens of thousands of warheads in a 1980s-era exchange, but they were certainly enough to devastate the nation. The projected nuclear winter, blessedly, turned out to be more of a nuclear autumn and the skies cleared rapidly and the radiation was soon contained to the immediate craters. While the nuclear bombs and the two terrible winters that followed killed off approximately 65% of the population of America, the War had a deleterious effect upon modern society far beyond the already unimaginable annihilation of millions and destruction of property. Following the collapse of civil authority, widespread violence swept through the land in a dog-eat-dog frenzy of looting, rape, theft, and murder. With the availability of firearms and general decline in order, large parts of the nation are positively chaotic and there are areas that are completely lost. There are many areas that are still functioning, though at very different levels than before the war. Nearly everything can be had-for a price, though currency is of limited use with barter being carried out with food, ammunition, gold nuggets, drugs and fuel. To cope with this disaster, local strong men and women, sometimes someone with pre-existing authority like a mayor, a police chief, or the commander of an army post, and sometimes just a person of natural authority would take charge of an area. Organizing, protecting, and controlling food supplies was the key to an area's success or failure and from those group who succeeded came the new social and political entities that dominate the post-nuclear world of 1964. These nuclei take many forms: military governments, local strong man dictatorships, small local democracies, slave-owning aristocracies, and even criminal and biker gangs. Groups with pre-existing social cohesion, such as the Mormons and other religious groups, those with popular leaders, and military bases that were not attacked, all have a considerable edge in survival. Early attempts to consolidate the United States failed due to poor communications, total discrediting of the federal government that fought the war and the lack of a leader with political legitimacy. As the nation's power bases split themselves between the civilian government and military leadership camps, endemic warfare between them began as they jockeyed for scarce resources. This cycle of small-scale warfare and needless destruction helped continue the downward slide of population levels and the loss of technological and economic capabilities. Much like a hundred years ago, the individual states wield the most power in the remaining cities and the relationship between federal and state parliaments is one more of mutual distrust than cooperation. However, the federal government still largely controls the armed forces and communications so they have an advantage over the states. The Road Warrior is a bad analogy; things are only that bad out in the hinterlands. The rest of the nation is a mix of The Day After and Whitley Streiber's War Day. Watch the British movie Threads from the mid-eighties, it will put you in the right mood. But that doesn’t do it justice, either, you'll just have to form your own vision in your mind after you begin reading all this. GET IN THERE This gazetteer is organized into nine generalized geographic regions, with some helpful appendices at the end. The exclusion of a city from these state-by-state lists does not mean that it is intact. Civil unrest, hostile military action, and other factors have caused severe damage in regions otherwise untouched by the war. There are many open-ended descriptions and entire cities and areas left blank to allow you to use your imagination. This is exclusively a "where to go, things to see, people to kill" sort of document, basically selected plot ideas within a general framework. It is not an attempt to explore the social dynamics of the world or the politics of those in control; it is just a travel guide, pure and simple. I won't go into the details and philosophy of such common post-apocalyptic terms such as marauders, radiation, air bursts and the like…if you don't already know them then you are reading the wrong document. Go read Jane Austin. For the rest of you, enjoy…
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#14
12-14-2009, 09:00 PM
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HISTORY REDUX
Nikita put missiles in Cuba in 1962 to give us a taste of our own medicine, and things took on a life of their own. First the word of the missiles, the speech by Kennedy, all those meetings by the UN. The U-2 photos and the blockade around Cuba. Troops being sent south to Florida and reserve units activated. A very scary time. Then, on October 27, Cuba shoots down one of our U-2s. Kennedy had several days earlier made plans to retaliate with air strikes against any SAM site that fired on a US plane. However, diplomacy was working by this time and Kennedy sought to resend that retaliation order to preserve the chance for peace. A call was placed to Air Force General Curtis "bomb them back to the stone age" LeMay to ensure that his planes would not attack Cuba without a direct order from the President. But General LeMay had other ideas and his own hawkish views of America's place in the world. Over the president's wishes, he ordered his planes to attack the SAM site, along with several others. The ball started rolling. Kennedy burned the midnight oil to get a cease-fire, but it was to no avail, the invasion was on. By the next day, the Marines were storming ashore in the biggest amphibious operation since Inchon, and the units of the 82nd and 101st Airborne were dropping in and around Havana, trying to secure airfields. Bombs were being dropped on the Cuban missile sites and our blockade fleet started sinking the Soviet subs that had been shadowing the blockade line. Total victory over the Cubans was projected to take only a few days. Surprise! The Cubans put up a ferocious fight, and even had some small-scale tactical nukes on Frog missiles, which they used on our landing forces and navy support vessels, inflicting horrific casualties. Once the Frogs let go then hell came for a visit in that October. As soon as the nuclear genie was released in Cuba, our SAC began a response against selected military targets in the Soviet Union in retaliation for the Frogs. Our naval forces in the Mediterranean clashed with Soviet ships and Soviet troops marched into West Berlin. Cuba was in chaos, with no real news coming out of that burning island. Kennedy was on the air continuously, speaking to the nation and the world. He was offering an immediate armistice and stand-down, a summit meeting, trade concessions, anything and everything to stop the war, to stop the war from hitting America. But it was too late. FULL SCALE ATTACK Russia had decided that a massive first strike was the only way to survive the rapidly coming global war and late on October 28, Nikita pushed the button. At least a dozen of the medium range missiles in Cuba had become operational and were flying north towards America. Soviet nuclear-armed bombers took to the air and headed over the pole. Soviet submarines began firing SLBMs at coastal cities and ICBMs began blasting off from pads all over Russia. With our nation under attack, SAC engaged in a full, retaliatory response on civilian targets in the Soviet Union. Then a nuclear missile found the White House in Washington DC and the civilian government was destroyed. As acting chairman of the Military Joint Chiefs, General LeMay stepped into the power void and led the nation out of the dark. Despite the little known fact that he started the war by disobeying Kennedy, LeMay to his credit ended the war quickly by launching every bomber, ICBM and SLBM we had and utterly destroying the Soviet Union with thousands of nuclear warheads and bombs, some 30,000,000,000 tons of TNT all told. The so-called "missile gap" was a myth (see Appendix 2) and the Russian first strike was barely an eighth of the US counterattack. Nuclear weapons, and especially missile technology, of the early 1960s was a science in its infancy. Many rockets malfunctioned as soon as they were launched, others landed hundreds of miles off course, and still others failed to explode with the expected force or even were duds. But enough worked as designed to ruin our nation (see Appendix 1). The fledgling ABM systems were proven to be utterly useless in anything less than perfect laboratory conditions and the conventional air defense network relied too heavily on fragile radars and vulnerable electronics. With the first few nuclear explosions over the nation, both from Russian attacks and from US nuclear ABM and anti-aircraft weapons, the majority of the radar networks collapsed. With the Air Force virtually blind, the waves of over-the-pole Russian bombers found the going much easier than they had dreamed possible. USAF and Canadian interceptors took a heavy toll on the bombers, but on many occasions were having to hunt for their targets visually, and many Russian planes escaped. For days after the start of the exchanges, individual Mi-4 Bisons and Tu-95 Bears managed to slip into cracks in the failing radar coverage and drop their atomic bombs on targets. The Russians had a number of ballistic missile submarines, several of them even lurking off the coast of Cuba, and these were responsible for much of damage to the coastal areas of the country. In many cases, their strikes came days after the ICBM and bomber raids, as it took longer for them to get into position. As the exchanges wound down by the last day of October, General LeMay ordered the US Navy to pull the remnants of the invasion force off the beaches and brought hundreds of them home. LeMay then assumed control of the US government "until such time as a lawful civilian government could be reconvened", though he perhaps knew that such a time might not come again in his lifetime. In Europe and the Far East, WWIII was in full swing. Despite the desperate conditions here at home, numerous US military units (both regular army and National Guard) were shipped overseas to shore up the fronts in Europe and Korea. For nearly sixteen months the NATO countries in Europe waging a nasty, brutal war to liberate the former Warsaw Pact nations from the remaining Soviet forces. THE BOTTOM LINE The missiles and bombs came quick, but their effects last until today. The physical damage to the nuclear target sites was horrific and the initial loss of life was shocking, but it was the epidemics, famines and the social disruption that by far has claimed the most lives in the last two years. Total casualties since 1962 are 124.2 million, or 70% of the population of the United States in 1962. Again, this includes both initial fatalities and subsequent deaths from injuries, in addition to deaths from disease, starvation, and civil unrest up to the winter of 1964. Over the next thirty years, cancer and leukaemia cases in the United States will increase by over 2,500%. There will also be a dramatic increase in deformities at birth and failed pregnancies. Not a pleasant place to live. There will not be, however, any radiation-spawned mutants or forty-foot tall spiders running around. This is not science fiction, this is science fact. LEADERSHIP IN DOUBT With its government left powerless and its economy destroyed, America quickly slipped into chaos. In late 1962, the surviving civilian leadership attempted to regain control, the military wouldn't give it up. There has, therefore, been a schism at the federal government level, with the remains of the elected civilian government (CivGov) and the military hierarchy (MilGov) both claiming rightful authority. Roughly speaking, CivGov controls most of the Northeast and the Great Lakes states from the new capital at Mount Weather and MilGov controls the rest from their new capital at Colorado Springs. Some state governments often were left on their own and have done well, but most quickly collapsed under the burden. It can generally be said that "government" of any form in America exists only as far as a bullet will travel. Outside of that, everyone is on their own in this brave new world. BE ALL YOU CAN BE IN THE ARMY The only cohesive force on the entire continent anymore is the US military and it is rare that any large organized survivor community is not connected with the army somehow. The military took over after the collapse of society, as the strong and well-armed often do, though ostensibly the military was there to serve and protect the citizens. The army filled the vacuum of power and became the de facto government in most areas and this state of affairs still largely exists today. Troops established cantonments in strategic areas and regulated food production and distribution inside their cantonments but abandoned the regions outside. Even with the Cold War build-up of the early 1960s, there were still only about twenty active US Army divisions which were in full strength, spread all over the world. While many other Reserve and National Guard divisions were raised following the start of the war, these new units frequently were pitifully short of men and material from the start. Soon after the war started, LeMay ordered all National Guard units mobilized, both for homeland security and to be sent overseas to fight WWIII. Quickly seeing what a meat grinder the war in Europe was shaping up to be, many states refused to let their troops leave their states where they were needed. As well, in many areas mobilization was not even possible due to the chaos and destruction of the nuclear attacks. Rates of desertion have been high, especially amongst those National Guard and Reserve units that were organized after the war started, as soldiers drifted off to find family and loved ones. Many others, sometimes entire units, turned marauder and lived on banditry. Central control is virtually nonexistent with most units, especially those in isolated or rural areas, largely operating on their own. By the fall of 1964, most military units are practicing extensive local recruiting in an attempt to keep up to strength, and stragglers are often incorporated into units regardless of past record. Nominal titles of units (brigades, divisions, etc.), too, have little bearing on the actual size of the unit. Most large units are down to approximately 15-30% of pre-wartime strengths. Most intact divisions are still clinging to their pre-war TOE's, and are probably down to 2-3 battalions per division, and 3 companies per battalion. Usually it was at the battalion level that the units were consolidated, so that you would still have standard sized companies and platoons, but it could also likely that the battalions are under staffed. As troops settle into areas and begin farming and small-scale manufacturing to meet their supply requirements, local civilians are hired to farm and carry out many administrative functions in return for security from the increasing numbers of marauders roaming the countryside. In other areas, the security the military unit provides to its civilians is from the unit itself, a post-nuclear version of the ancient "protection" racket. Most smaller military bases have been abandoned in favor of concentrating forces in more strategically placed areas and many of these bases today are virtually Medieval castles. SEE THE WORLD IN THE NAVY The US Navy in 1964 is still strong, despite having taken horrifying losses during the battles in Europe and by tactical nuclear weapons at sea. While Russia's war machine took a large toll on the navy, it has been the lack of fuel and maintenance that has done in the navy. Most ships still in existence by 1964 are not at all fully operational, but most are at least afloat and capable of generating internal power. As many of the nation's naval bases were nuked, there is a critical shortage of electronics spares, missile reloads, and dry docks for repairs. The lack of necessity for a large navy is also apparent now with the Russians destroyed. Men that might otherwise be on ships are needed ashore in reconstruction and recovery efforts. In most harbors there are any number of warships and auxiliaries rusting at anchor with the barest of skeleton crews. AIM HIGH IN THE AIRFORCE World War III saw incredibly high attrition rates amongst US Air Force units. The Russian Frontal Aviation in Eastern Europe was qualitatively a match for Western air forces and quantitatively far more than a match. By the end of the war in April of 1963, most USAF and Air National Guard units available had been thrown into the fire in Europe. Today, though there are a lot of remaining aircraft in America that are capable of flight operations, in many cases the lack of regular maintenance has degraded radar and electronics to the point that they are dangerous to fly. For example, the F-4 Phantom II jet fighter (typical of USAF jets) is a very complex, maintenance-intensive aircraft, requiring 135 man-hours of maintenance in the shop for each hour in the air. The lack of spare parts caused by the collapsed transportation and manufacturing systems, the horrible attrition in battle, plus the general lack of adequate numbers of trained maintenance personnel make keeping sophisticated airplanes flying almost impossible. Jets can't run on alcohol fuel, so aviation fuel is a vital commodity, severely limiting flying operations. Most airbases in America have numbers of stranded jets rusting away on aprons and in hangers. In addition, the USAF is woefully short of missile reloads and guided munitions for the aircraft, another result of the war in Europe, but retains a steady supply of crude iron bombs and cannon reloads for those planes still airworthy. Over the past year, several of the Air Force ICBM missiles that were offline or damaged during the nuclear strikes have been reactivated by MilGov. GOING HOME The continental forces have been augmented by the withdrawal of most (though not all) US forces from Europe early in 1964. With WWIII winding down in Europe and the obvious need for troops at home for reconstruction, the choice was clear for General LeMay, despite the protests of his NATO allies. Operation Omega was conducted to bring them home, mostly landing them at Savannah, Georgia on May 20, 1964. Task Force 34 was formed of what was left of the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet, a few dozen ships at best, and thirty or forty assorted merchant ships--mostly the remnants of the West German Merchant fleet--that were scraped together and used to evacuate US military assets from Europe and given to the US in exchange for most of the units' armor and heavy weapons. Most of the forces evacuated from Europe were released from service upon arrival in the US. However, at least 30% of the returnees opted to remain in US service, many being career soldiers without any place to go. As well, most surviving US naval and air assets in Europe were withdrawn with the ground forces, helping to rearm America. As nearly all the overseas units were strongly MilGov (as the evacuation was ordered by LeMay) this influx of men and material will surely shift the balance of power firmly to Colorado Springs in the coming years. A similar, but less organized, plan has been ongoing to bring men back from Korea and other Far East and Middle East theatres. HOW MUCH A GALLON? One of the most crippling effects of the 1962 attack was the destruction of over 70% of the country's oil refining capacity. This, in combination with the EMP bursts, effectively eliminated electrical power generation and all but the most crude industrial facilities. Without fuel and lubrication, the modern mechanical age ground to a halt. Oil facilities not affected by the nuclear strikes or conventional military attacks were fought over by numerous rivals (former national governments, marauders, "new" national governments, and tin-pot local dictators). Those lucky enough to avoid the ravages of war suffered from the forces of nature--workers don't tend to shut things up properly when fleeing for their lives. Dirt, wind, rain, and rust are finishing the job started by plutonium and TNT. Petroleum is available in some areas due to operating oil wells, which are mostly closely guarded by the military. Refinery capability, however, is limited and transport of oil by road is subject to attack and is not often carried out. The main limiting factor for the US military currently is this lack of fuel. Many vehicles have been converted to grain alcohol and the wood-burning still has become a common sight in army enclaves as units seek to keep their armored vehicles operating. Aircraft, however, cannot run on alcohol and by 1964 they are mostly grounded or used only sparingly. The same goes for fuel oil for the navy, and while strong US Navy forces still exist, they are often unable to leave port. FEED ME! As the smoke from the bombs rose into the atmosphere, impairing sunlight, a limited nuclear winter affected the climate throughout the northern hemisphere to this day, although the climactic changes were not as calamitous as some scientists had feared. These problems are further increased by lingering radiation, the lack of fuel, spare parts for farm machinery, and fertilizer, all of which are required by the heavily mechanized farming practiced in North America. Those farms that were once heavily specialized, such as poultry or beef, now must produce their own feed, thus reducing their output. Those farming communities that have managed to retain enough production to support themselves face even more problems. The massive numbers of refugees from the abandoned cities demanded a share of the meagre supplies of food. These refugees tended to be armed, and they often appeared in sufficient numbers to overwhelm the farmers defending their food stocks. Some farmers have had all their crops stolen, including the seeds, and their livestock slaughtered, preventing them from rebuilding their farms. The net result is that by 1964 most farming communities are hostile to outsiders, refusing entry to even small bands of starving refugees. Some farming towns have had to accept rule by larger bands of refugees and marauders, or even the US military, paying for protection with food. The farmers may suffer under this overlordship, but at least they are relatively safe from outside attacks. Most of the nation's transportation network collapsed immediately after the bombs fell. Modern civilization requires food to be moved from areas of production to areas of consumption, and with the railroad hubs destroyed, roads and bridges rendered unusable, and ports flattened, some areas had massive stocks of food, while most went short. Roads between major cities are often kept open but travel is hazardous at best. The especially cold winters of 1962 and 63, the radiation, the famines, the marauders, the epidemics, and the invasions all reduced the number of mouths to feed to the point that by 1964 the food situation has stabilized and people are eating well again in most areas. Since you can't grow crops in urban areas that well, most of the larger cities have been abandoned to the scum and scavengers. It's all about food. The drought in the eastern half of the nation is growing worse by the day and its long term effects won't be known until next planting season. COVER YOUR MOUTH Disease is perhaps the biggest and most deadly problem in America today. Most of the dead were left unburied during that first winter and began to decompose when the snow melted, leading to an immediate outbreak of cholera and typhoid and even a resurgence of black plague in many areas. The breakdown of a central medical system and the loss of many public services only fuelled the fire. In some areas, especially in urban areas and in the deep south, the epidemics killed off tens of thousands each month, drastically thinning the population of the nation like nothing ever before. Most of the worst epidemics have burned themselves out by 1964, but medical supplies and personnel are extremely rare and thus valuable today. EMP Even in the areas not directly affected by the attack, there was severe consequences. EMP effects from high-altitude airbursts ruined electricity supplies and normal communication lines for some time, although some areas--particularly in the central and northeastern United States--largely escaped this disruption. EMP proved to be more powerful than the most conservative pre-war estimates, affecting even the supposedly shielded military and government equipment. Enough was on standby, and enough adequately shielded, to enable the Joint Chiefs of Staff to remain in touch with their scattered forces (for a time). THE BLIGHT Between late 1962 and the middle of 1963, close to a thousand nuclear weapons of various sizes were detonated by various warring sides in WWIII. Beyond the tangible destruction of the blasts, scientists warned of more far-reaching effects, such as the postulated "nuclear winter" or fatal damage to the ozone layer. Speaking specifically of North America, in the immediate aftermath, the "nuclear winter" turned out to be more of a "nuclear autumn", with nationwide temperature variation, but nothing like the deep-freeze conditions expected. The ozone layer has been damaged, but it is assumed that its own natural ability to reassemble with render that problem harmless in a decade or so. Until then an increased likelihood of skin cancers should be expected. And then 1964 came. Beginning in this year, noticeable discrepancies in aggregate rainfall have been noted throughout North America. These events are difficult to measure and their ramifications are difficult to predict because of a lack of data and a dearth of experts and equipment. However, it has become apparent that there has been a definite shift in rainfall patterns, and a very dry spring of 1964 was experienced in those areas. From the data that can be gathered and assimilated, several remaining meteorologists agree that the jet stream has shifted out of its normal position. This, combined with a slight increase in certain particulate atmospheric contaminants, has caused the small-scale shift in rain fall patterns in the USA. It will perhaps take up to a decade for the jet stream to drift back to its original position.
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#15
12-14-2009, 09:02 PM
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INVASION USA: NORTH
Following the collapse of national authority, there was a period where the borders became porous, and for the first time since 1812, foreign powers were on the soil of America. In early 1963, the Russians invaded Alaska from the sea. This was not anywhere near a WWII-style amphibious operation, but rather a piecemeal landing of scratched-together troops and scavenged equipment. The reason for the Russian push was more to escape the radioactive devastation of the Pacific coast of Russia than any grand military planning. The invasion went well initially, with the Russians capturing Juneau and Anchorage and driving towards Vancouver, before the Americans could counterattack. By late 1963, the invaders had been stopped and isolated in small enclaves throughout the state. Over time, the Russians gave up their plans of conquest and settled down to find wives and raise crops. Other than these paragraphs, I will make no attempt to detail the two (north and south) invasions any further. What happened and why are beyond the scope of this document, having taken place in the past, and only the present consequences of the invasions need be included. The GM is free to flesh the invasions out to his liking. INVASION USA: SOUTH On the southern borders came another enemy, the Mexicans. Egged on by Marxist elements in the Mexican government, the Mexican army stormed across the border in the first day of May, 1964, just six months before game-time, aiming to reclaim the territory lost to America in the Mexican-American war in the 19th century. In retrospect, the invasion had more to do with the horrible conditions in Mexico in 1964 than any dreams of renewing Mexico's glory years. The Mexican economy collapsed when the US did, leaving the nation full of starving refugees and seething discord. The best way to keep the nation from dissolving into civil war was to focus efforts to the north. A four-pronged effort was mounted, one into each of the border states. Forget visions of grand armies marching north, the Mexican drive was more shotgun-toting peasants in trucks and VW Beetles led by ill-armed and ill-trained army units. There were initial successes, perhaps mainly because the lingering EMP effects over the US continued to severely limit US troop’s ability to coordinate large-scale defenses and communicate with the front. The US military was tied down with transportation problems, ammunition, equipment, troop shortages, and home industry in ruins, and disaster relief. The southern border is quite long and units and towns are naturally quite isolated. Even with the limited mobility of the Mexican Army, many American units and militias were easily flanked and had a hard time getting the word of the invasion through to the command structures. The Mexican army had no idea what they were doing and as soon as the Americans got over the shock of being invaded and mounted counterattacks, the drives quickly stalled and the front stagnated. The Mexicans had strategic surprise but no real strategic goal. They wanted to capture the food-growing areas of the American Southwest but had no defined stop-line. The invasion was more a political device to unite the country--from that standpoint, the move worked, at least for a time. But the Mexicans never had a good shot at capturing the Central Valley in California--the richest prizes were either heavily defended by the Americans or sabotaged (like the water supply for the Imperial Valley). Aside from a few well-watered areas in Texas and in mountain valleys throughout the Southwest, the Mexicans have found themselves in charge of a lot of useless desert. In California, they reached as far as Los Angeles before stopping. In Arizona, they managed only Tucson. In New Mexico they were smashed south of Albuquerque and nearly driven out of the state. In Texas they fared better where the open plains and the large numbers of sympathetic Hispanic civilians helped the drive. They were aided by the Division Cuba, a unit of Cuban and Russian soldiers from Cuba. The push finally was stopped along a Lubbock-Waco-Houston line, in part due to the use of tactical nuclear weapons by the US Army. Back home, the pressures of mounting such an extensive military operation taxed the feeble Mexican economy and infrastructure past the breaking point and Mexico slid into civil war by the end of the fall of 1964. Several factions rose up claiming power in Mexico, and the scattered military units in America chose one or the other to follow, or just gave up and went marauder. By today, the Mexicans are still strong in south Texas and southern California, but are really just trying to survive more than anything. The main result of these two invasions was that Army units that were once keeping civil order throughout the country were sent to the front lines to fight. Without their authority and security, many areas left behind quickly descended further into chaos and anarchy. THE KLAN GOES POLITITCAL Maybe one of the most disturbing aspects of the collapse of civil society is that the racists and bigots of the nation were now free to act without fear of legal prosecution. Across much of the south, and really in every state, the KKK has been reborn as a frighteningly effective and powerful force. Calling themselves "New Americans", the Klan leadership has reorganized into cells and has spread across the nation with the goal of taking it over. In some areas--Northern Arkansas, West Virginia, Tampa etc…---the NA cells have complete control over the population. The remaining governments and the military have been pressed to deal with these flare-ups but so far attempts have been largely unsuccessful, often due to a sympathetic military. In the next decade or so, unless something is done to prevent it, New America might just turn the clock back to 1864. THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN The rest of the world? Who cares? Just know that there is no one left strong enough or stupid enough to try and invade us anymore, so don't worry about it. Over most of Europe, World War III still smoulders. NATO, led by West Germany and Britain stormed across the borders to "liberate the oppressed citizens" of the former Warsaw Pact block. The Soviet forces left in these nations, with no home to return to, fought savagely and reduced nearly all of Europe to a horrible wreck. Russia might have been short of strategic nuclear weapons, but they had thousands of small tactical nukes that devastated the cities of Europe. General LeMay finally broke the Russians by sending every available SAC bomber to nuke Eastern Europe into the dark ages once again. On April 6, 1964, LeMay announced to the world that he had managed to reach an armistice agreement with Marshal Sergei Lavenkov of the Strategic Rocket Forces, the highest surviving authority--either civilian or military--left alive in the ruins of Russia. World War III was officially over and the troops could finally come home. Since the end of active hostilities in Europe, nearly all the Americans overseas, civilians and military alike, who wanted to come home have and brought everything they could carry with them. The largest military evacuation was in early 1964 in Operation Omega. International trade and travel is a thing of the past and the radio is generally your only link to the outside world, but there are interesting things afoot on other continents. In North America, Canada is still our ally, but unable to help much because of their own problems feeding their people. Cuba is a radioactive heap and Mexico has dissolved into civil war following their ill-fated invasion of us. Perhaps at a later date I'll try to detail some other parts of the world. Rough Timeline: October 27, 1962--The branch point. US planes bomb a SAM site in Cuba in the evening after it shot down a U-2 that morning. October 28, 1962--Black Sunday. US forces invade Cuba and are repulsed by the use of nuclear weaponry. Late that evening, the first ICBMs lift off from Russia bound for the USA. November 1, 1962--By this day the nuclear exchanges are over and the world is demolished. January 3, 1963--First Russian troops invade Alaska The last two months of 1962, all of 1963, and the first third of 1964--The world rages with WWIII. US troops are fed into the war and are destroyed at alarming rates. At home, the fabric of society collapses and violence is the order of the day in most areas. April 6, 1964--WWIII is official ended by an armistice. May 1, 1964--The Mexican Army storms across the southern border. May 20, 1964--Operation Omega brings the troops home from Europe. October 28, 1964--Game time.
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#16
12-14-2009, 09:06 PM
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Appendix 1--Nuclear targets in America hit in the 1962 exchanges.
Location Weapon(s) type Target type Mobile, AL 3xSS-4 MRBMs (All duds) Port facilities Admiralty Island, AK 5 mT bomb (Missed) (aimed at Juneau) Barrow, AK SS-4 MRBM (Missed, dud) DEW Line Radar HQ Tucson, AZ SS-N-4 Davis-Monthan AFB Eaker AFB, AR SS-7 SAC bomber base San Francisco, CA SS-N-4 Port facilities Los Angeles, CA SS-7 Port facilities San Diego, CA SS-N-4, SS-6 Port facilities and military bases Vandenburg AFB, CA AS-3 ALCM Satellite launching base Dorris, CA 5 mT bomb Unknown Denver, CO 2xSS-7s Industry and capital facilities Punkin Center, CO SS-7 (Overshot) (aimed at Fort Carson) Washington, DC Frog White House Key West NAS, FL 2xSS-4 MRBMs (Both duds) Area command center Homestead AFB, FL SS-4 MRBM (Dud) SAC bomber base Orlando, FL SS-6 McCoy AFB Tampa, FL SS-4 MRBM MacDill AFB Cape Canaveral, FL SS-7 (Missed) Space Center Atlanta, GA SS-7 Industry and capital facilities Honolulu, HI SS-N-4 Pacific Command HQ Near Arco, ID Atlas F Missfire Chicago, IL 2xSS-7 Industry and capital facilities Kannapolis, KS Atlas F Missfire Fort Knox, KY 1 mT bomb US gold reserves Fredrick, MD SS-N-4 (Overshot) (aimed at Washington DC) Biloxi, MS SS-N-4 Keesler AFB Saint Louis, MO SS-7 Industry Kansas City, MO AS-3 ALCM Industry Offutt AFB, NE SS-6 SAC HQ Albuquerque, NM SS-7 Kirtland AFB New York City, NY 5 mT bomb, 2xSS-N-4s Port and industrial facilities Toledo, OH 1 mT bomb Industrial and oil facilities Lima, OH 1 mT bomb Industrial and oil facilities Philadelphia, PA SS-7 Port facilities Pittsburgh, PA 1 mT bomb Industry Charleston, SC SS-7 SSBN support base Hot Springs, SD SS-7 (Overshot) (aimed at Ellsworth AFB) Fort Campbell, TN 1 mT bomb Army staging base Dallas, TX SS-7 Industry Houston, TX SS-7 Port and oil facilities San Antonio, TX SS-7 Randolph AFB Corpus Christi, TX SS-4 MRBM Port and oil facilities Salt Lake City, UT SS-7 Industry and capital facilities Norfolk, VA SS-7 Atlantic Command HQ Seattle, WA SS-N-4 Port facilities Lake Geneva, WI SS-7 (Overshot) (aimed at Chicago) FE Warren AFB, WY SS-7 SAC base Bridger Peak, WY SS-7 (Overshot) (aimed at FE Warren AFB) Jackson Hole, WY SS-7 (Overshot) (aimed at FE Warren AFB) Appendix--2 Total nuclear forces available on October 28, 1962. USA 30-- 1.4 mT Atlas D ICBMs 27-- 4 mT Atlas E ICBMs 60-- 4 mT Atlas F ICBMs 54-- 4 mT Titan I ICBMs 8-- SSBNs carrying 128-- 600 kT Polaris SLBMs 675-- B-47 Stratojets 36-- B-58 Hustlers 555-- B-52 Stratofortresses carrying some 2,920 nuclear bombs of varying yields Uncounted numbers of tactical weapons USSR 4-- 3 mT SS-6 Sapwood ICBMs 32-- 6 mT SS-7 Saddler ICBMs 2-- SSBNs carrying 6--1 mT SS-N-4 Sark SLBMs 28--SSBs carrying 57--1 mT SS-N-4 Sark SLBMs and 21--100 kT SS-1b Scub SLBMs 80--Tu-95M Bear A 15--Tu-95K-20 Bear B 24--Mi-4 Bison A 56--Mi-4-3M Bison B carrying some 392 nuclear bombs of varying yields Uncounted numbers of tactical weapons Some 500 assorted IRBMs and MRBMs in Russia In addition, in Cuba there were 36--1.2 mT SS-4 Sandal MRBMs 6--IL-28 bombers with 6 12 kT nuclear bombs 12--2 kT Frog rockets 36--12 kT Sopka cruise missiles Appendix--3 Nuclear forces as of late 1964 USA While America's once massive nuclear arsenal has been drastically reduced, it is still formidable by 1964 standards. There still remains about a half dozen operational ICBMs, mostly ones that suffered mechanical failures in 1962 and have been since repaired. In most cases, however, the warheads have been removed and shipped to Colorado Springs for safe keeping. A few Polaris missile submarines are still around, but most of their SLBMs have been expended. The Strategic Air Command suffered horrendous losses in World War III, but much to General LeMay's pride, they succeeded in pounding Russia into the Stone Age. Today, all the remaining serviceable bombers are based at Colorado Springs, along with what atomic bombs are left. As huge multi-engined bombers drink so much fuel, flying one is out of the question for the time being. There are a number of tactical nuclear weapons around, though most are securely in the hands of the US military. USSR Virtually nothing remains of Russia's nuclear arsenal now. What wasn't expended during the war has long since rusted away or been lost under the snows. All the available ICBMs were launched, all the submarines accounted for by ASW forces and nearly every one of the strategic bombers shot down or destroyed on the ground. There are probably some atomic air-dropped bombs still sitting in a hanger somewhere but there are certainly no planes capable of handling them left in flying condition. Some of smaller tactical weapons certainly survived and may even still be operational, but again, there is no value in using them. Perhaps in a decade or so Russia can think again about being a nuclear power.
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#17
12-14-2009, 09:07 PM
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Appendix--4 Locations of major US Army units in late 1964
1st Marine Division--Anchorage, Alaska (2025 men, 4 AFVs) ------2/1st Marine Regiment--North Carolina (370 men, 12 AFVs) 2nd Marine Division--Bialogard, Poland (3400 men, 14 AFVs) 3rd Marine Division--Iraq (4000 men, 5 AFVs) 4th Marine Division ------16th Regiment--Okinawa (300 men, 3 AFVs) ------23rd Regiment--Inchon, South Korea (700 men, 7 AFVs) 5th Marine Division--Kaesong, South Korea (2000 men, 9 AFVs) 6th Marine Division--Weijei, North Korea (600 men, 4 AFVs) 7th Marines Cavalry--Fort Meade, Maryland (450 men) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1st Infantry Division--Savannah, Georgia (5000 men) 2nd Infantry Division--Seoul, South Korea (200 men, 4 AFVs) 3rd Infantry Division--Savannah, Georgia (5000 men) 4th Infantry Division--Phoenix, Arizona (4000 men, 19 AFVs) 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized)--Colorado (10530 men, 112 AFVs) ------3/70th Armored --Camp Pendleton, California (900 men, 8 AFVs) 6th Infantry Division--Fort Ord, California (2,200 men, 8 AFVs) 7th Infantry Division--North Korea (500 men) 8th Infantry Division--Riga, Latvia (1000 men, 14 AFVs) 9th Infantry Division--Albuquerque, New Mexico (3475 men, 34 AFVs) 24th Infantry Division--Germany (2000 men, 9 AFVs) 25th Infantry Division--Northern California (6725 men, 95 AFVs) 26th Infantry Division--Boston, Massachusetts (2000 men) 28th Infantry Division ------2nd Brigade--Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (1550 men, 6 AFVs) ------55th Brigade--Central Pennsylvania (865 men, 6 AFVs) ------56th Brigade--Eastern Pennsylvania (450 men) 29th Infantry Division--Virginia (3200 men, 40 AFVs) 31st Infantry Division--? 32nd Infantry Division--Destroyed in Europe 33rd Infantry Division--Southern Illinois (3625 men, 74 AFVs) 35th Infantry Division ------134th Infantry Regiment--Omaha, Nebraska (600 men) ------35th Engineer Brigade--Missouri (825 men) 36th Infantry Division--North Texas (1195 men, 8 AFVs) 37th Infantry Division--Central Ohio (1656 men, 6 AFVs) 38th Infantry Division--Indiana (5600 men, 23 AFVs) 39th Infantry Division--NE Louisiana (2000 men, 24 AFVs) 41st Infantry Division--Destroyed in Europe ------161st Infantry Regiment--Western Washington (4135 men, 40 AFVs) 42nd Infantry Division--Split, Yugoslavia (3000 men, 6 AFVs) 43rd Infantry Division--Bremerhaven, Germany (1000 men, 7 AFVs) 45th Infantry Division--Oregon (850 men, 2 AFVs) 46th Infantry Division--Destroyed in Europe 47th Infantry Division--Destroyed in Europe 49th Infantry Division--? 51st Infantry Division--Jacksonville, Florida (300 men) 63rd Division (Training)--Destroyed in Los Angeles 70th Infantry Division--Detroit, Michigan (3000 men, 5 AFVs) 75th Maneuver Area Command (Training Support)--Destroyed in Houston, Texas 76th Infantry Division--Titograd, Yugoslavia (1000 men) 77th Infantry Division--Fort Dix, New Jersey (1050 men, 11 AFVs) 78th Division (Training)--destroyed in New Jersey 79th Division (Training)--? 80th Infantry Division--Split, Yugoslavia (3000 men) 81st Infantry Division--? 85th Division (Training)--Destroyed in Chicago 84th Infantry Division--LaCrosse, Wisconsin (2500 men, 20 AFVs) 87th Maneuver Area Command (Training Support)--? 89th Infantry Division--Wichita, Kansas (4000 men, 24 AFVs) 90th Division (Training)--? 91st Division (Training)--Destroyed in San Francisco 94th Division (Training)--? 95th Division (Training)--Muskogee, Oklahoma (1160 men, 12 AFVs) 96th Division (Training)--? 98th Division (Training)--? 100th Division (Training)--Fort Smith, Arkansas (300 men, 23 AFVs) 102nd Division (Training)--? 103rd Division (Training)--? 104th Division (Training)--Portland, Oregon (4695 men, 4 AFVs) 108th Division (Training)--? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1st Armored Division--Atlanta, Georgia (8000 men, 72 AFVs) 2nd Armored Division--Destroyed in Europe 3rd Armored Division--Savannah, Georgia (2500 men) 4th Armored Division--? 27th Armored Division--Buffalo, New York (2100 men, 30 AFVs) 30th Armored Division--Tennessee (1950 men, 13 AFVs) 40th Armored Division--Bakersfield, California (6000 men, 46 AFVs) 44th Armored Division--Savannah, Georgia (2000 men) 48th Armored Division--Destroyed in Europe 49th Armored Division--Sherman, Texas (1200 men, 16 AFVs) 50th Armored Division--Kolobrzeg, Poland (2000 men, 33 AFVs) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1st Cavalry Division--Korea (3000 men, 48 AFVs) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 82nd Airborne Division--Iran (3000 men, 5 AFVs) 101st Airborne Division--Iran (4000 men) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 29th Infantry Brigade--Hawaii (3500 men, 20 AFVs) 193rd Infantry Brigade--Fort Amador, Panama (1000 men, 6 AFVs) 197th Infantry Brigade--Fort Benning, Georgia (1500 men, 4 AFVs) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment--Savannah, Georgia (100 men) 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment--Weilheim, Germany (100 men, 1 AFV) 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment--Fulda, Germany (500 men, 4 AFVs) 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment--Cleveland, Ohio (1050 men) 108th Armored Cavalry Regiment--Middle East? 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment--Idaho (800 men, 8 AFVs) 150th Armored Cavalry Regiment--Destroyed in Europe 163rd Armored Cavalry Regiment--South Korea (300 men, 4 AFVs) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 111th Military Police Brigade--Fort Huachuca, Arizona (635 men) 221st Military Police Brigade--Stockton, California (400 men, 5 AFV) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 59th Ordinance Brigade--Huntsville, Alabama (1060 men, 15 AFVs) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cadet Brigade--Colorado Springs, Colorado (800 men, 20 AFVs) School Brigade--Hays, Kansas (550 men, 12 AFVs) "First Cavalry Division"--Texas (425 men)
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#18
12-14-2009, 09:16 PM
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SECTION ONE: The Pacific Coast (Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California)
ALASKA 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date----Type----Target---Notes 10/29/62---Aerial Bomb---Admiralty Island 10/29/62---SS-4---Barrow---Dud 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES 1st Marine Division--Anchorage (2000 men, 4 AFVs) ---315th Marine Force Recon Company--Fort Wainwright (25 men) 2nd Battalion/9th Infantry Regiment--North Slope area (100 men) 297th Infantry Regiment--Juneau (600 men, 6 AFVs) Total Russian forces in Mat-Su enclave/Valdez area (245 men) 6th Guards Air Assault Division--Alaska Peninsula (150 men) 14th Motorized Rifle Division--Petersburg (150 men) 41st Motorized Rifle Division--Angoon (100 men, 1 AFV) 76th Tank Division--Prince of Wales Island (250 men, 3 AFVs) 2301st Special Air Landing Brigade--Nome (217 men) 3) ANCHORAGE War, chaos and invasion: The state's largest city was occupied by the Russians in early 1963, then changed hands several times during the American counterattack in late 1963 before finally being retaken for good in early 1964. The first Russian soldier stepped foot on American soil on January 3rd, 1963. As it became clear that the Russians were going to land in Alaska, despite the US military's efforts, the population of Anchorage panicked and civil control was lost. Nearly 75,000 people poured out of the city, many headed south on the Seward Highway. A massive traffic accident near Whittier caused a traffic jam that stretched all the way back into Anchorage, further panicking the civilians. During the first hours of the Russian invasion, the Mayor ordered the thirteen civilian airliners still at the Anchorage International Airport fuelled, taxied onto the runways and terminal approaches, and set ablaze to deny the enemy the use of the airfield. He also decided to dynamite the dam across the Campbell Creek in downtown Anchorage to deny its crossing to the Russians. In retrospect, he went too far, and these two acts only served to further impede the flow of civilians out of the city. The city was further cut off when the adventurous Soviet Romeo class submarine S-34 crept into Cook Inlet and sank two large car ferries in shallow water, blocking access out by sea. With virtually no way out of the city, and whipped into a frenzy by fear, the citizens of Anchorage turned on themselves in an orgy of bloodletting and destruction. By the time the Russians did arrive in the city, much of it was in flames. Anchorage now: Severely damaged by riots and conventional fighting, the city is a ruin today. About 10,000 civilians still live in and around Anchorage, with the majority of them involved in farming or scavenging. The Loopers: During the Russian occupation there sprang up a religious sect of Fundamentalist Christians with a rather Puritan strain known as the "Loopers", who offered passive resistance to the Russians. Their leader, the True Pastor Philip McGrath, an authoritarian ex-military person, has kept his tightly-knit community together with an iron hand and they have survived. After the US military returned and the Russians evacuated to the more fertile areas to the east, the Loopers attempted to take control of the Anchorage bowl from the rest of the riffraff and thugs that the Russians left behind. In a low-grade war of attrition, the Loopers are still working towards that, and now control a large area of the city. Their territory encompasses the two military bases (Fort Richardson and Elmendorf Air Force Base), Russian Jack Spring Park, the University of Alaska-Anchorage campus, the length of Ship Creek, the railroad yards, and Government Hill. Local actions still occur between the Loopers, local gangs, hold-out Russians and US Marines as they all try to secure the limited food growing areas. The Prevoites: The other large competing power in Anchorage is the "Prevoites", a Baptist militant group formed in late 1963 by Jerry Prevo. They have the backing of several of the leaders of the 1st Marine Division and have begun to reclaim sections of the western part of the city with Marine support. This has brought them the ire of the Loopers and conflict is brewing. The US Marine Corps: Anchorage is currently home to the US 1st Marine Division (2,000 troops, and four M50 Ontos tank destroyers). On paper this unit seems powerful, but they pretty much keep to their cantonments in the southern part of the city and are more worried about eating than anything. This division was in fierce combat in Korea and northern China until late 1963, when it was pulled out and sent to Alaska. This was not what the marines had in mind when they left the Far East, they all wanted to go back home at that point, and few are happy to be here. The marines were able to recapture Anchorage more than anything else because the Russians were ready to leave it anyway. The rigors of life in Alaska have broken the division into a number of local defensive militias and petty dictatorships. The unit has effectively ceased to exist as a federal division and growing number of its strength now consists of local civilian recruits. A small number of its veterans are former Russian soldiers who have been taken in because of their skills. 4) SOUTHERN ALASKA The densely forested Kenai Peninsula lies to the south of Anchorage. The oil storage and shipping facilities at the southern terminus of the Alaska Pipeline at the Cook Inlet and along the Valdez Bay were rendered unusable during the Soviet invasion of Alaska and are still rusting today. Hold-outs: The small Alaska native towns of Sand Point, King Cove and Cold Bay on the tip of the Alaska Peninsula are all controlled by several random companies of the Soviet 6th Guards Air Assault Division (about 150 total men) which landed here about a year and a half ago. Their heaviest weapons are machine guns. Seward: Flattened by the Russians during the invasion, Seward attracts little attention from the unsavory elements that still pass through the area. However, hidden and protected by switchback roads that teeter over deep ravines is an old ski lodge built into the overhanging mountainside. It is now occupied by four families who survive by remaining unseen. They loot Seward's remains at night, farm small gardens, and tend a handful of domesticated animals. Whittier: Home to the huge Liberty lumber and paper complex, with ovens, sawmills, and all manner of auxiliary industries around the town. A cement factory supported local construction and two coal-fired power plants were in operation, one dedicated just to the logging and processing operations. Russia had sparse air assets by the time Whittier became a viable target, so only the power plants received detailed attention, while the vast Liberty complex was only slightly damaged by misguided ordnance. With their power source heavily damaged, the plants and mills ground to a halt. Casualties from the bombings were relatively light, but disease and malnutrition took its toll, especially among the very young and old. Whittier was occupied by a Soviet engineer company for a short time in March 1963, but they only stayed a few weeks before pulling out for safer areas. By 1964, only 5,000 civilians live within a fifteen mile radius of Whittier. While most of them are local skilled workers from the paper industries, most now work as farmers in the local fields. Kodiak: Offshore is Kodiak Island, and the town of Kodiak today is a trading center known for its bars and overactive Kodiak Militia (KOM). There is an airfield here with a number of rusting floatplanes waiting for fuel and repairs. An antique arms museum in Fort Abercrombie State Park was emptied by the locals, and some of the operational long rifles now are militia weapons. The old fortress now houses some 400 KOM militiamen. Five thousand civilians live in and around the Kodiak, their efforts making the town self-sufficient in most daily needs. The town's control extends down to the village of Old Harbor, now abandoned save for 50 militiamen. The rest of the island is a no-man's-land which is mostly barren of human life. Aleutian Chain: The Aleutian chain is mostly abandoned, having been hastily evacuated ahead of the Russian invasion. Adak Island Naval Station was a major US naval base, boasting underground submarine pens and complexes, an airfield and a heliport, and also extensive coastal and antiaircraft batteries. The base was the target of repeated Russian air and conventional ballistic missile strikes during the early stages of World War III. While it survived the attack, the base was abandoned after the Russians landed on the mainland. The Americans booby trapped everything they couldn't take with them, making the island an extremely unattractive place to go souvenir hunting. The once bustling airfield is dark and disused with a few piles of wreckage that were once aircraft and helicopters. At the old refueling strip at Cold Bay there is just one soldier left alive. Left behind when the strip was evacuated in 1963, this sad old man still patrols the island and keeps the flames going. The Mat-su enclave: In late 1963, the Russians evacuating from Anchorage ahead of the US counterattack set up an enclave in the Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Site to the east of the city, centering on the port town of Valdez. Valdez was occupied very early in the invasion by the Russians, too quickly to be really damaged. The subsequent bombing by the US Air Force also caused some damage, but the worst destruction was caused by the civilian population panicking when the Russians stormed into the town. The town's courthouse is now the headquarters of the Russian Alaskan Landing Command with nominal control over all Russian forces in North America. Russian power in the Mat-su enclave includes the combined remnants of numerous units, many reduced to just handfuls of soldiers, and any official pre-war unit designations are virtually meaningless. Nonetheless, the units represented here include the 1st Arctic Mechanized Brigade (20 men), the 2nd Arctic Mechanized Brigade (25 men), the 1st Naval Infantry Brigade (75 men), the 7th Motorized Rifle Division (75 men), the 113th Motorized Rifle Division (50 men), and some remnants of the HQ staff of the 18th Hovercraft Transport Regiment. They are mostly still heavily armed and also have a few surviving BTR-60s. Without support from home, however, the Russian invaders still in Alaska are slowly being assimilated into the local population to survive. The Russian leadership in Valdez is mixed on their opinion of what to do in the coming spring. Some of the men are wanting to "switch sides" and are probably looking to find a place to settle down. Others are steadfastly loyal to Mother Russia and either want to get home, or want to accomplish what they were sent there to do and drive on to Seattle. The possibility of internal revolt in the invader's camp is strong and the spring thaw will be very telling. Perhaps 2,000 civilians (farmers, fishermen and their families) live in the Mat-Su valley with the Russians. Clustered in small farms of three or four families each, they raise grain and vegetables or harvest fish from the lakes and rivers. They are apolitical and are merely trying to survive these hard times, even if it means feeding the Russians from time to time. 5) LOWER ALASKA The chain of islands and strip of land along the coast of British Columbia, including the former capital of Juneau, were the sight of some fierce conventional action during the war. Today, remnants of the aborted Russian invasion force that was stopped north of Vancouver is still rumbling around the area south of Juneau. The Alexander Archipelago has also been the scene of numerous marauder attacks. Tenakee Springs, for example, was burnt to the ground just this year by the pirate band the "Great Humongous' Sea Rovers." Juneau: A medium-range Tu-16 Badger carrying an atomic payload meant for Juneau was intercepted over the North Pacific by US Navy fighters on October 29, 1962. On fire and doomed, the bomber dropped its 5 megaton bomb on Admiralty Island, sparing the city. The Soviet mechanized ground offensive, however, came through here in early 1963 and caused enough destruction even without any nukes. The Russians captured the city, but abandoned it soon after, choosing instead to march south on Vancouver and Seattle. Although severely damaged by street fighting in 1963 (destroying a third of the city), Juneau now serves as the center of what is left of the Alaskan state government, which actually controls little beyond the valley around the city. The current population of the city and surrounding foothills numbers roughly 25,000. Juneau is prospering these days and lacks the usual filth associated with surviving towns of the postwar era. Except for the blockhouses at entrance points, the city does not sport the fortifications and mobs of armed troops which sprawl everywhere else. While Juneau is an "open city", outsiders will be noticed, politely questioned by the militia, and subjected to a moderate degree of scrutiny and interrogation. Operating industries include a large steel mill and a dozen factories that were only lightly damaged during the war. However, shortages of everything prevent any sort of decent production levels and most of the skilled workers' time is spent keeping the machines from falling apart rather than manufacturing or repairing anything new. Juneau was the transportation hub of lower Alaska, with a single-track, standard-gauge railroad (built in 1848) that ran from Juneau north to Anchorage, then south through Vancouver all the way to Seattle. The majority of rolling stock and engines were obliterated during the Soviet march through the area and those remaining are slowly rusting in various towns in the region, unable to move on the shattered lines. Though no engines remain, some rolling stock has been converted into horse-drawn vehicles to form a trolley of sorts to run along the line in sections. The road system and most of the bridges in the city remain in excellent shape (for 1964), though their primary traffic is horse-drawn due to a lack of gasoline for civilian autos. The city is mostly self-sufficient in food and energy, and have even taken in numerous Soviet refugees from the invasion force who wished to defect. The city garrison consists of 800 militiamen (serving part time and spending most of their time engaged in reconstruction work or guarding warehouses and silos) and the 297th Infantry Regiment. Previously an Alaska National Guard regiment, this unit is made up of mostly Alaska Natives and is known for their prowess in battle. The 297th now has 600 men and six M47 tanks, as well as eight towed 155mm howitzers, though with little ammunition either the tanks or the artillery. Recently, the militia has been raiding nearby British Columbian towns, stealing equipment and food. The harbor is still active with trade, though apart from 30 small coastal sailboats (all under 75 tons) only five large (250 to 400-ton) merchant steamers are available to the city. These are all jury-rigged coal-fired and rigged with at least one sail mast. A US Navy destroyer, torpedoed early in the war, is still beached south of the docks and there is talk of trying to refloat her next spring. Norstad Field is now jammed with aircraft flown here from all over the region, though only a few are still operational. These include a few fighters and delta-wing interceptors, and even fewer bombers, old B-47 Stratojets, a tangle of civilian airplanes, small amphibians, light-planes, old prop-jet transports and airliners. The only craft that still fly on any regular basis are a single helicopter and a Boeing 707 airliner. The Boeing, formerly of Great Alaskan Airlines, now runs shuttle service to Seattle with USAF stars painted on the wings and fuselage. Sitka: Sitka was originally a fishing village converted to a luxury "hotel community" in the 1950s. Throughout the war it was held in turn by the US Army, refugees from Juneau, marauders and Russians. The last group, who had been using the historic Baranof Castle as a hospital and rear-area headquarters, were massacred in late 1963 by guerrillas. History has come full circle now, and Sitka is once again a home to fishermen. Some 300 live in the town, along with their families. Each night their two dozen sailboats are anchored in the bay, just off the sandy beaches. The Baranof Castle is now guarded only by a militia unit. Though still picturesque from a distance with its hewn-log roofs and old gray stone, Sitka now exists in a medievalesque squalor of chimney smoke, trash and stench. Angoon: The Russian 41st Motorized Rifle Division (100 men and one tank) is wintering in the small Alaska Native community of Angoon. This unit, realizing that they were deep in enemy territory, ill-prepared for the type of fighting, and realizing that further pushes by the Americans would probably wipe them out, they have recently defected and have expressed their desire to join the American forces in the area. They are currently making offers to the Juneau government to trade their experience and weaponry for citizenship in the city. Prince of Wales Island: The loyal Russian 76th Tank Division (250 men and three tanks) has relocated to the southern part of Prince of Wales Island for the winter, utilizing several small Alaska Native communities as cantonments. The towns currently under Russian influence are Hydeburg, Craig, Klawock, Thorne Bay, and Kasaan. Petersburg: This large town at the head of Lynn Canal was overrun by Russian forces after fierce fighting and the native Aleuts and Americans were driven out. The loyal 14th Motorized Rifle Division (150 men along with a few dozen irregular militia and partisans) is in winter cantonment here. The partisans come from the "Red Maple" organization, a militant arm of the Canadian Communist Party who trekked up here to join their "comrades". Though there are strong picket posts of Russian troops all around Petersburg, the town has no walls or large fortifications as it is too spread out. Ketchikan: During the Russian invasion in early 1963, the local naval base and airfield were destroyed by the Russian 41st Motorized Rifle Division. Much of the town was comprised of ancient buildings, already weakened by a 1949 earthquake, and they crumbled when the token resistance to the Russian landing was crushed. Most of the population of 8,000 perished in the sudden attack. The Russians only stayed here a few days, before pulling out and heading south on their disastrous march on Vancouver. Currently, the only life in the area is a small militia garrison in an old lighthouse overlooking the bay. The garrison is armed with Russian small arms, acquired when some Russian units retreated back to this area and dissolved in late 1963. Other mementos of the collapse are the hulks of army vehicles on the roadsides and several vessels sunk in the harbor, visible from the bay's heights. Further out toward the straits where the fishing is better, there is a Russian merchantman capsized on the north side of the channel, one of the landing ships that was sunk by Canadian Air Force bombers during the landing. Laying in only five fathoms of water, it's hull acts as an artificial island. The locals have already cut holes in the plating and salvaged what they can. 6) THE GREAT WHITE NORTH The northern and central parts of the state are great stretches of evergreen forests, snow and ice, sprinkled with native Inuit settlements and Kodiak bears. The vast forests have not yet been hunted to near-depletion like those of the lower 48, and many small towns still survive. The Alaska Pipeline and most of the oil storage facilities along the North Slope were damaged during the Russian invasion of Alaska, and are currently inoperable, even though they were not targets of nuclear bombs. As the Russians invaded, the overtaxed US military pulled out of the North Slope, leaving the civilians to fend for themselves. While they have retaken Anchorage, the Americans have still not made any moves towards the isolated Russians in the north of the state. The only American forces in the area are the remains of the all-Eskimo Alaskan National Guard 2nd Battalion/9th Infantry Regiment (100 men), currently in the North Slope trying to survive the winter. Fairbanks: Both the small power plant was located to the west of the town and the major airport/airfield to the southwest were targets of Russian air strikes during the invasion and all both destroyed. Fires burned for months afterward, and the local casualty rate ran close to 30%. With the loss of electrical power, the US military evacuated the area and headed south to Anchorage and east into British Columbia. Fairbanks is now unpopulated, but scavengers still comb the rubble for useful equipment and material. Fort Wainwright Military Reservation: This abandoned, picked over and looted military reservation is now home of the 315th Marine Force Recon Company. The 315th is the remains of the 1st Marine Division's MFR unit that merged with a mangled Alaskan National Guard recon platoon two months ago. In addition to the three NCOs and fifteen troopers of the NG unit, there are seven Marines and three Inuit guides in the company. The 315th is now doing recon work for the division staff, looking for usable salvage and watching for Russian incursions. Fort Greely Military Reservation: Now abandoned, this installation was incinerated with air/fuel munitions by the Russian Air Force early in the invasion. Bits and pieces of salvage can still be picked up from these ruins, provided one is wary of dogs and the occasional marauder. Barrow: On October 29, 1962, a 1.2 megaton SS-4 MRBM was fired from a Russian base on the Kamchatka Peninsula at the DEW line HQ at Barrow. It both missed badly and was a dud that shattered on impact, forty miles to the west along the coast, leaving a just a small crater and some twisted metal. Two days later, a damaged B-52 returning from a raid on Russia crash landed here. The townspeople, already enraged by the war, killed the crew in horrible ways, leaving only the plane's navigator alive. This airman proved that he could make explosives and has been kept prisoner since then, although he is basically a member of the community by 1964. The current population of 800 civilians is busy salvaging machines and parts from the local oil refineries, none of which are operational. The DEW line: Few of the individual Distant Early Warning stations, spread about the state, were hit by any weapons. Once the exchanges were over, the remaining Air Force personnel based at the stations evacuated south. Those that made the trek to Barrow were most likely killed by the locals. The other crews who ended up in Fairbanks or Anchorage, were soon given rifles and sent to defend the lines against the Russian invasion and were scattered. Today, the DEW line stations sit empty, full of expensive radar and communications equipment that would be a boon to anyone who want to go to the effort to salvage them. 7) SEWARD PENINSULA This region is currently home to a band of Communist renegades. Due to the poor condition of the roads and general lack of inhabitants in the area, this area is infrequently traveled and is perfect for a band of marauders. Forty of them call the tundra home and live in relative splendor on what they loot from ruins along the roads. Typical of the bands that plague the mountains like gnats, these people are vicious but less than competent. Some were former Russian Cossack soldiers, but most are displaced refugees. The marauders are heavily armed with a bizarre collection of small arms, each walks around festooned with pistols, grenades, crossbows and pairs of rifles or light machineguns. This habit had caused some casualties in the past, through accidents and duels. These marauders have 30 horses, mules and donkeys, as well as three civilian trucks converted to run on alcohol. They also have five stills, half a dozen captives from a merchant caravan they ambushed some time ago, and a nice 50/500km radio that they use to spout Communist propaganda to anyone listening. Point Hope: Typical of the villages on the Arctic coast where all the white people left after the war, leaving only the native Inuits to revert to their old ways, including whaling. Point Hope hosts some 3,000 residents, mostly fishermen, ship-builders and their families. Nome: The only area of stability in the region is now the town of Nome, which is occupied by the Russian 2301st Special Air Landing Brigade (217 men). Equipment includes one towed 23mm anti-aircraft gun, one BTR-50 APC, one BTR-152 halftrack, and one 5 ton truck. The unit has relied extensively on skis and dog sleds for perimeter patrols, saving what fuel they have for emergencies. The Russians also have two captured aircraft at the small airport; an ancient bush Piper seaplane and a Fokker corporate turboprop owned by Shell Oil that was there refueling when the Soviets landed. Nome was home to oilfields, including wells, a pipeline, storage tanks, and a small power plant. All were targets of conventional air strikes ahead of the Soviet landing and were largely destroyed. The remaining civilian population is surly and only half-subdued. New America even had a cell operating in Nome, but it was found out by the Russians and destroyed in late 1963, though scattered sympathizers still roam the mountains. The leadership of the brigade has grand plans for their corner of North America and have even proclaimed the annexation of all of Alaska and named it the "Socialist Soviet Republic of Bering
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#19
12-14-2009, 09:20 PM
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HAWAII
This tropical island paradise is anything but in 1964, but it shows signs of a faster recovery than most other states due to its isolation. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date----Type----Target---Notes 10/31/62 SS-N-4 Honolulu 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES As noted below, the bulk of the US military on Oahu was evacuated to the mainland, leaving only the Hawaii National Guard to maintain order in the state. 29th Infantry Brigade--Hawaii (3000 men, 16 AFVs) ---443rd Oahu Battalion--Pearl Harbor (500 men, 4 AFVs) 3) THE ISLANDS Oahu nuked: The main island of Oahu was touched by the horrors of atomic war when the Pacific Command Headquarters at Fort DeRussy Military Reservation in downtown Honolulu was nuked by a 1 megaton SS-N-4 SLBM ground burst. The hit came on October 31, 1962, one of the last of the war, fired by the Russian Golf I class ballistic missile submarine B-113. From the Kamehameha Highway all the way to Diamond Head, the city is flattened and charred and everything south of Highway 1 is tangled rubble and burnt-out buildings. Melted skyscrapers lean over a wide fused sheet of glass where the sandy beaches used to be. The international airport is a gutted shell, littered with the burnt skeletons of airliners. Oahu since: In the chaos following the nuking of Honolulu, a large group of the mostly-native Hawaiian National Guard on Oahu rebelled and tried to take over. In the end, they just sparked a civil war of sorts with the mainly off-island military forces stationed here (principally the 25th Infantry Division). By January 1, 1963, the rebellion was brutally crushed and the US military was firmly back in control. For the next year or so, Hawaii served as a staging point for the war in China and Korea until the fighting died out. In the spring of 1963, as food and fuel dwindled, it was decided that to keep valuable personnel and equipment out on an island far away from anything was a waste of resources. As such, the majority of the remaining men and material here were freighted back to the mainland or to Japan and Korea, leaving only some token forces behind. The 25th ID, the largest unit in the islands, was shipped to San Francisco to form the core of MilGov's west coast operations (see that city). Left behind was the Hawaiian National Guard 29th Infantry Brigade, who assumed control of the state's functions. Pearl Harbor: While Pearl Harbor Naval Base and environs are technically still open, it has been looted extensively by locals since the Navy pulled out. The token garrison contingent is the 443rd Oahu Battalion with 500 men, a few APCs and four old M41 Walker Bulldog tanks. This battalion was formed by volunteers from the 25th ID and US Navy personnel who wanted to stay in Hawaii and is subornate to the 29th Infantry Brigade HQ at Hilo. They are occasionally menaced by members of the local Tau Fin tribe and largely keep to the base. There are a few operational American warships and merchantmen still in Pearl Harbor, officially there to keep an eye on things, but really lacking fuel to go anywhere else. These include the John C. Butler class DE-532 Tweedy, the stubby, rust-covered amphibious ship LST-1164 Walworth County, three LCMs and three PT boats. The Big Island: The remaining local power in the chain is on the big Island of Hawaii, with the new state capitol at Hilo. The 29th Infantry Brigade (HI NG) with 3,000 men, including 1,000 local levies, and sixteen M48A2 Patton tanks, keeps the trains running on time in the city. They also have two aging DC-3 cargo planes that flew out here from Los Angeles in 1962 that they use to keep tabs on the rest of the islands. Mostly loyal to the military government in Colorado Springs but still suspect after the rebellion of 1962, the 29th IB pretty much serves as the de facto government of Hawaii. Other islands: Despite Hilo's efforts, the other islands in the chain are not under any centralized control and often ruled by various criminal factions. Many natives have reverted back to tribal customs and turned to slave-ownership and banditry, both ancient Hawaiian trades. Kauai: Ruled by a man named John Dodge. He has about 200 armed men and many slaves working a large cattle ranch. His prize is a 41-foot long sail sloop called the Short But Happy, which he keeps as an escape option. Molokai: Held by a gang led by a former US military lieutenant. In 1962, he was caught selling secrets to Russia, but before he could be sentenced the war erupted and he escaped when Honolulu was nuked. At the one airport, there are numerous dilapidated planes all with flat tires and other problems but mostly repairable. The hangers are unused and the control tower is a windowless shell. It is here that the gang is staking it's future on as it tries to repair some of the planes to possibly get back to the mainland. Lanai: In Lanai City there is a largish refugee population with all the problems associated with that. The three or four hundred survivors here are suffering from bandits, pirates, adventurers and the like. Maui: Maui is a haven for thugs and slavers, with the West Maui Forest Reserve especially infested. Midway: This former strategic island is now the private domain of a man named Roger Cavanaugh. The harbor is mostly empty, with just a few rusty fishing craft here, including a sailboat that he uses to trade with other islands.
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#20
12-14-2009, 09:26 PM
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WASHINGTON
1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date----Type----Target---Notes 10/28/62 SS-N-4 Seattle 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES 41st Infantry Division ---2nd Battalion/161st Infantry Regiment--Seattle area (4000 men, 40 AFVs) ------Able Company--Bellingham (110 men) ---------1st Alternative Cavalry Platoon--Bellingham (25 men) ---------Platoon 3 (Rogues)--Richland (100 men) 31st Provisional Marine Battalion--Bremerton (500 men) 3) PUGET SOUND AREA Stretching from the Seattle metroplex south and west to the state capital at Olympia, the Puget Sound area was and still is the economic hub of Washington and the Pacific Northwest. This area has suffered greatly but is also seen by most as the hope of the future. The war: Late in the night of October 28, 1962, the Russian Golf I class ballistic missile submarine B-109 snuck past ASW screens and fired her two nuclear missiles at the city. The first SS-N-4 was intercepted by a Nike guided missile over Vancouver Island and destroyed. This, incidentally, was one of the extremely rare occasions that the Nike ABM system actually worked as advertised. The second Russian missile made it through to the city, despite being chased all the way there by several more Nikes. The 1 megaton warhead, aimed at the port facilities, missed a little and high-air burst above Lake Sammamish in the eastern suburb of Bellevue. Eastern Seattle along Lake Washington was badly damaged by the blast and firestorms, with bricks and mortar from blown-down buildings spilling over into the lake. The city today: Much of the infrastructure of western and southern Seattle is still intact and it is in these areas that the bulk of the activity and population still exist. The city today is run today by military-supported granola collectivists who are busy collectivizing the city. Unfortunately, while they have the right idea at heart, they are just as greedy as the bourgeois capitalists that they claim they are seeking to replace. They are beginning an ambitious project to harvest kelp in Puget Sound to feed a growing population. Other parts of the city are not as organized. Large areas of the northern part of the city, especially in the Lake Forest Park area, have been abandoned to scavengers and roving packs of feral canines. In the downtown Seattle area, the 74-acre Seattle Center was abandoned, most of the buildings extensively damaged by the elements and neglect. In the middle of the Center the Space Needle, pride of the city, is rusting and tilting several degrees to the west, having been damaged by the pressure wave. No one lives in Bellevue today and the area is still considered off limits. Not even rats live in the rubble zone and nature is fast reclaiming the ruins. The Army in Seattle: The MilGov forces in the Seattle area consist of the main bulk of the Washington National Guard 2nd Battalion/161st Infantry Regiment of the 41st Infantry Division. The 41st ID, with units in both Washington and Oregon, was mobilized in late 1962 and a number of components were trucked to ports along the coast and shipped to Europe. This battalion was not shipped off with its parent division in 1963 due to the horrible condition of the state at the time and the need to secure the Seattle area's vital ports and airfields to conduct the war in the Far East. At the same time, the 4th Infantry Division was also in the city, quartered at Fort Lewis. This division was moved at great expense to Utah in 1963, leaving the Washington National Guard to care for the city, causing much complaint with the men who wanted to go home. The 2/161st Infantry is now part of the reconstituted 5th Army (headquartered in San Jose, California), and the northernmost unit of that Army. Total strength is about 4,000 troops, which includes numerous local recruits, large numbers of soldiers left behind when the 4th Infantry Division moved out, and former Air Force and Navy personnel. Equipment includes forty tanks and twenty APCs, as well as numerous trucks and jeeps, many of which are armed, or can be armed, with machineguns to provide internal security. The 2/161st Infantry has devoted itself to providing security to the region, as well as salvaging high-tech equipment from the various laboratories in the Seattle area. They also run frequent convoys north to Bellingham and south to the Portland-area Army enclaves and provide security on the roads between the two. The 2/161st Infantry has had it's troubles, however, many of them internal. Late last year the battalion's commander severed ties with MilGov, held a purge of uncooperative officers, and declared himself to be the "Proconsul of the Northwest". Within a few weeks, however, when it became obvious that the self-proclaimed "Proconsul" had gone quite mad, the battalion's command staff personnel overthrew him, elected a new CO and repledged loyalty to MilGov. 5th Army HQ has not forgotten this incident and still keeps a wary eye on the unit. The Navy in Seattle: Seattle is now home to a displaced force of US Navy ships, most of them remnants of the Seventh Fleet, and all docked at Bremerton. Operational vessels include: George Washington class ballistic missile submarine SSBN-602 Abraham Lincoln Nautilus class attack submarine SSN-571 Nautilus Skate class attack submarine SSN-584 Seadragon Forrest Sherman class destroyer DD-933 Barry John C. Butler class escort DE-359 Woodson One minesweeper Five LCMs Eight PT boats All these vessels are handicapped by a scarcity of fuel and regular maintenance, but occasionally one will make the long trip south to the San Francisco area to exchange vital supplies. The Barry still goes to sea on a restricted basis, and has often patrolled Western British Columbia at the request of the Canadian Pacific Command to deal with captured coastal shipping being used by the Russians (her 5" guns rip up such ships very easily). As well, the Nautilus has gone on missions to recover friendly and enemy equipment and personnel in the Russian Far East and other locations. The 31st Provisional Marine Battalion (500 men) provides security to the Bremerton naval base and the area is relatively safe with the marines patrolling the streets even at night. The Navy has placed a large number of mines outside the shipping lanes into the port of Seattle, to keep any remaining Russian ships or subs out of the area. The Air Force in Seattle: The enclave also has about thirty operational airplanes, all based at McChord Air Force Base in the southern suburb of Tacoma. These assets include three former Canadian Air Force planes (two fighters and an old B-17G bomber), four F-4 Phantom II jet fighters, a few private jets, a C-119 Flying Boxcar transport, an old T-6 trainer, and a dozen CH-47 Chinook helicopters. The 62nd Troop Carrier Wing was based at McChord before the war, and many of the staff and support personnel are still here helping to keep the planes flying. A number of pilots have been gathered, some Army, a lot of Air Force and even a few Marines. Until just this summer, the T-6 pilot was a former US Navy pilot from VMF-611 from the carrier Forrestal. As well, NAS Whidbey Island still operates a few A-1 Skyraiders, which are the remains of two PACFLT replacement training squadrons, who were pressed into flying combat missions against the Russian invasion Alaska and British Columbia. The bad side: Beneath this veneer of civilization there is an undercurrent of violence in Seattle and there are several large groups of armed people who oppose the way things are run. The largest gang is called the "Sharks" and they are in tacit control of a large part of the city east of I-5 and south of Lake Union. They have about 325 effectives and are based out of the old Seattle Arboretum. The northeastern Seattle suburbs are home to the "Razorbacks" marauder gang, composed of ex-convicts who broke out of the Matsqui Penitentiary near Vancouver and thugs recruited since they came to Seattle. Tom "Fang" Strakes is the maniacal leader and those in his inner circle are all fellow escaped cons, while most of the lower ranking members are recent additions. The Razorbacks have adopted as their standard a blood-soaked, inverted British Columbia provincial flag as a symbol of their incarceration by the Canadian government. Including their leaders, the gang boasts some 130 members and are armed with a wide assortment of civilian and police weapons (sporting rifles, shotguns, revolvers, a few assault rifles and automatic pistols). A few members (Fang among them) have police-issue body armor. Most wear civilian clothes, although some take a sick pride in still wearing their old prison uniforms. Not all the trouble in Seattle is from gangs of civilians, however. Since last week, a food warehouse in Tacoma is currently under the control of a platoon of Army soldiers with half-a-dozen AFVs who have mutinied from Fort Lewis. Bellingham: Large tracts of Bellingham were razed during the refugee migrations in late 1962 and early 1963. The northern parts of the town, including the airport, were spared because the citizens there fought the refugees to a standstill more than once in running battles. They were eventually saved by the arrival of a US Army unit from Seattle. Now, about 1,000 people live in Bellingham's eastern quarter in and around the Army's cantonment. They conduct trade with other coastal towns and with the few traveling merchants brave enough to wander the Seattle-to-Vancouver route. Bellingham's northern reaches are home to the detached Able Company of the 2/161st Infantry Regiment from Seattle (110 men). This unit is detailed to watch for any southern moves by the scattered Russian Army forces in British Columbia and protect the trade routes from marauders. The company has recently formed the "1st Alternative Cavalry Platoon" with 25 men and three Indian elephants. The elephants, originally belonging to the Bishop Brothers Circus, were set free in Bellingham in late 1962 when the crew and performers fled into the countryside. The town counsel is not entirely sure that the Army here is going to stay long and they have been making plans to protect themselves in that event. Based at the Bellingham airport is a functioning DNC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, along with 500 gallons of avgas, and pilots, parts and mechanics to maintain and fly it. They have dynamite, grenades, and Molotov cocktails stocked up to drop as bombs. The citizens will use their secret weapon only as a last resource to save their enclave, and fearing that they will requisition it, they have kept it secret from the Army unit in the town. Russians: Elements of the Russian invasion force are still to be found in Washington state. While they were stopped far short of the border, a few small groups have managed to penetrate as south as Tacoma and can still be found in the area. These forces are little more than recon elements which are more concerned with survival than war. 4) OLYMPIC PENINSULA/WESTERN WASHINGTON Though heavily depopulated, the small scattered communities on this rugged peninsula are surviving in these difficult times by the independent spirit that they are known for. The ample game in the forests provide enough food to assure their making it through this winter. Forks: Forks is home to the largest survivor community in the area. A mixture of whites and Indians working together have turned the town into a fort. The 100-man Forks Militia is composed of civilians led by a small number of State Policemen and they maintain vigorous patrols of the nearby countryside. Militia members are armed with a variety of civilian and police small arms. They control the area up to and including Sappho to the northeast and they have a small airfield that they have maintained in the hope that someday it might be needed. Port Angeles: The winter home of a large survivalist/marauder group called "Whitman's Raiders". They have recently found at Cape Flattery a secret cache of weapons placed in the 1950s by Communist Party agents for use by Russian commando units during a potential war. Tree houses: A group of survivalists have formed a commune in the upper reaches of the Redwood forest, a village of rope bridges and Tarzan swings. 5) CENTRAL WASHINGTON The central plateaus of Washington are notable for wide-open deserts and scattered survivor communities. Lice-type typhus is breaking out in the central highlands near the Canadian border. Richland: Richland is now home of the secessionist-minded "Republic of Hanford", led by Sergeant DeHaven and his collection of turncoat National Guardsmen, survivalists and rogues. In the days after the nuclear strikes, DeHaven, as commander of the town's NG unit (Platoon 3 of the Able Company of the 2nd Battalion/161st Infantry Regiment) assumed almost dictatorial powers and organized the citizens into an effective militia using his National Guard platoon as a cadre. When the sea of refugees from Seattle arrived, they were faced by strong obstacles patrolled by armed guards. After trying unsuccessfully to bulldoze into the town by sheer numbers, they went around it and the town was saved. Now Richland has a shaky trading system established with other towns in the state, and the militia will allow small groups of people inside to conduct business. About 1,800 people now live in Richland and the NG platoon has expanded to about 100 men. Sergeant DeHaven legitimizes his power by claiming he is the "Washington State Government in Exile", and as such has the legal right to loot and pillage the countryside. His militiamen operate along the rugged, mountainous frontier of the Cascades, launching small scale raids, often hard to distinguish from the small bands of slavers and bandits that infest the frontier. They have recently set up an outpost in Ephrata, with some 40 impressed citizen militiamen here and have strung together the buildings on the outskirts to create a wall of sorts. Hanford Site: To the northwest of Richland is the US Department of Energy's Hanford Site, now almost completely abandoned. This huge government reserve is rumored to be the home of a secret underground complex. There have been rumors circulating the region that President Kennedy himself has been seen at the base in recent months, though few believe it to be true. Moses Lake: This town rests on the Wanatachee River and recently a strange violet algae has been spreading in the Potholes Reservoir that provides the town's water. The citizens are nervous because the gunk is spreading upriver and the fish have begun to disappear. There is much speculation that the old Hanford Site, roughly two days travel south from the reservoir, is causing the problems. Larson Air Force Base: This air base near Moses Lake was obliterated by the masses of refugees which flowed over the valley in 1962 and 1963, looking for food and guns. Many of the building were gutted by fire and many more are simply abandoned. The sole occupant of Larson AFB is Willie, a friendly but half-crazed old hermit. Located in the woods around the air base are three empty Titan I missile silos. These ICBMs were launched at Russian targets and their silos abandoned soon after. 6) EASTERN WASHINGTON Spokane: This small city has never had it easy. It was devastated by the hordes of refugees streaming east after the nuclear attack on Seattle in 1962. Looting, rape and murder drove out the inhabitants who survived, and the city is now almost completely abandoned. A small settlement in the Morgan Acres area of northeast Spokane has so far been able to fend off the ravages of the refugees and marauders. Approximately 600 people still live in this enclave, though their numbers are dwindling. Spokane is suffered horribly from the recent droughts and it is possible that by the new year the city will be largely abandoned to the scavengers. Fairchild Air Force Base, just west of Spokane, is now a mess. There are, however, some as yet undiscovered underground bunkers here containing thousands and thousands of cases of MREs, winter clothing encased in heavy plastic bags, M2 carbines, .30 cals and ammo, all for the taking. The empty Atlas E ICBM silos of the Fairchild Complex are spread about the countryside surrounding the city. The silos, abandoned after their missiles were launched in 1962, are located in the towns of Deer Park, Newman Lake, Rockford, Croskey, Lamona, Bluestem, Wilbur, Egypt and Crescent.
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#21
12-14-2009, 09:30 PM
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OREGON
Oregon is under MilGov control and, unlike most of Washington and Idaho, is actually getting a little too much rain. This is causing poor quality crops, but not nearly as desperate a situation as elsewhere. Combined with a terrain that discourages outside invasion, and a fairly well-armed populace, people out here should make it. The MilGov 5th Army (headquartered in San Jose, California) has garrisons scattered about the state at strategic places. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS None. 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES Most of the state's 41st Infantry Division was shipped to Europe to be mauled in 1963, leaving a void in the state's defenses. The 104th ID has since taken over the majority of protection and security duties in the Portland area, buttressed with some manpower returned from Korea. 104th Infantry Division--Portland (4000 men, 23 AFVs) 41st Infantry Division (units left behind when parent division shipped out) ------Baker Company, 1st Battalion/186th Infantry Regiment--Klamath Falls (130 men) ------201st Military Intelligence Company--Umatilla (75 men) ------141st Support Battalion--Astoria (490 men, 4 AFVs) 45th Infantry Division--Hood River (750 men, 2 AFVs) ------1st Battalion/179th Infantry Regiment--Burns (100 men) Able Company, 1249th Engineer Battalion--Bend (60 men) 3) WESTERN OREGON More fertile than before, thanks to the changed climate, the area is teaming with life and the problems that come with it. At the north end is the US Army and peaceful enclaves around Portland, Salem and Corvallis, while at the southern end are the marauders and survivalists who have their own claim to "civilization". Linking them both is I-5, in places a major trade route thick with caravans and vehicles, and for other long stretches a hobo's highway, a migration route for the homeless and hopeless and the road bandits who prey on them. Portland: Portland is one of the largest west coast cities still functioning near pre-war levels, a healthy companion to Seattle and San Jose. The current population of the Portland area is around 208,000. The US military is strong in this area, comprising units of the reconstituted 5th Army. Despite it's relative prosperity today, Portland has suffered much in the last two years from massive riots and the near collapse of city infrastructure following the nuclear strikes. Open street fighting took place between the police and units of the National Guard in those first terrible winter months. A quarter of the city was burned and significant marauders, looters, rioters and refugees have caused additional damages since. Today, most of the population of the city lives in the Old Town region, the original center of the city on the west side of the Willamette River, and in a wide band along the east bank. The main US Army unit in the city is the 4,000-man 104th Infantry Division. In early 1963, to fill in the gap caused by the departure of the 41st ID, the 104th Infantry Division was formed by redesignating the 104th Division (Training) which was barracked in Vancouver, Washington, across the river from Portland. The new division was originally tasked to support 8th Army in Korea following its conversing from a training unit, but a shortage of transportation fortunately delayed and eventually cancelled deployment. The division was then made responsible for a variety of internal security and civic action roles in the Oregon area. Currently the unit has five companies of M57 APCs, three M60 tanks, twelve M48A2 Patton tanks, six old Sherman tanks, nine M-8 armored cars, three rocket-launcher trucks, two M-42 Duster AA tanks, and numerous transports. They run frequent convoys north to the Seattle enclave and provide security on the roads between the two, as well as supply and humanitarian convoys south to the Salem and Corvallis areas. They also keep in relatively close contact with the Hood River garrison via a train system, but less so with the other enclaves in the state due to the distances. Recently two big freighters from Japan have been making fairly regular runs from Asia to Portland delivering manufactured articles from factories in Japan and China. The main opposition to the military's rule in the city is "The Green People", a criminal gang mostly consisting of the poorer class of Portland, radical environmentalist types, and socialist scum. China Town on the water front is a major provider of weapons and heroin to the group and a constant source of trouble for the military. Astoria: Near Astoria is "Fort Stevens", an Army base recently built to help control traffic at the mouth of the Columbia River and regulate trade and travel into Portland. The garrison includes the 141st Support Battalion, a unit of the 41st Infantry Division that remained behind when the unit was shipped overseas in 1963, detailed with salvaging machinery and vehicles from around the Portland area. The 141st nominally takes orders from the 104th ID staff, but considers itself still loyal to the 41st ID. A large repair yard has been built east of Astoria, defended by a 40mm AA gun and a quad .50 cal AA gun and ringed by a minefield to keep the scavenging refugees out more than the enemy. The unit currently has 490 men and a wide variety of repair equipment including 24 six-wheel trucks, twelve trailers fitted out as mobile workshops, two eight-wheel trucks fitted out as mobile radar/radio repair shops, two more eight-wheel trucks fitted out as mobile 20-ton cranes, six six-wheel trucks fitted with comprehensive gas and arc welding kits, three M59 APC conversions for medium recovery work, two Sherman ARVs for larger wrecks, and two old surplus M3 Lees fitted with heavy mortars and bulldozer blades for demolition work. They are currently on a program of refurbishing as many semi trucks and commercial construction equipment as possible for anticipated trade and reconstruction plans. Salem: Though Portland is the economic hub of the state, the state government and the Oregon National Guard's headquarters is still in Salem. The city and its defenses are now under the control of Colonel Weintritt, who was the organization's SACO and safety officer. Only through attrition was he able to rise to the rank of Colonel and eventual command of the ONG. He has great experience in organization, but he is not overly bright nor imaginative and often looks to the staff of the 104th ID for advice. In Salem he has some 670 assorted troops gathered from all over the state. As well, personnel from the Oregon Justice Academy and the Oregon Military Institute in nearby Monmouth have been integrated into the city defenses. Corvallis: Due to the wonderful climate and relative peace, there are numerous prosperous trading towns along the I-5 corridor. At the southern end, Corvallis is a relative well-off city that is the center of learning and trade for the northern Willamette Valley. Like many other areas, the strength of the city is the university (OSU), and their smarts to go along with the brawn of the people. Corvallis and environs are divided into independent boroughs, each supporting about four or five hundred people. All the land around here is cultivated or ranched and they have electricity in most public areas. Frequent supply convoys arrive and leave for Portland and the city's security forces are supported by 5th Army advisors. Eugene: While Corvallis is prospering, however, her sister city of Eugene is a charred and rat-infested ruin. Throughout the winter of 1962, led by an unlikely alliance of college students and country rednecks, Eugene held out against the wave of looters from Portland much better than anyone expected. Then the refugees got organized (helped by US Army deserters with knowledge of explosives) and blew the Fall Creek and Lookout Point dams, draining those reservoirs and cutting off power and potable water as well as sending a torrential flood sweeping through the city. Fires then took care of what the flood missed. Eugene is now largely deserted except for salvage parties from Corvallis and bandits. The rains have long since washed away the fire stains and the streets are still covered with flood-born mud now being overgrown with trees and vines. 4) EASTERN OREGON The relative security of provided by scattered military enclaves and the wide open spaces have helped numerous survivor enclaves in the eastern part of the state survive. Enterprise: Home to a burgeoning White Supremacy enclave under control of, or at least sympathetic to the New American Movement. Hood River: Along the Columbia River, the town of Hood River is now home of "Camp Clark", a US Army fort constructed last year to help watch traffic on the river into Portland. The main garrison here is the shattered remains of the 45th Infantry Division (750 men). This division was called up and sent to Korea when the war started and was heavily engaged in the Second Korean War. Once that war ground to a stop in late 1963, the unit was evacuated from Korea when it was deemed pointless to defend it any more. The 45th was mangled in Korea and the survivors of the component battalions were consolidated and shipped to Portland in January of 1964 to join the new 5th Army. They were assigned duties in the state, despite the division commander's desire to let his men go back home to Oklahoma. There were many desertions in Portland, but the rest of the division was trucked west to Hood River to garrison that town. The men are mostly National Guardsmen from Oklahoma and war-weary veterans, some of the most seasoned soldiers on the west coast. As with most units in these times, the manpower mix includes a few Marines, sailors and even civilians, and even the divisional second-in-command is a US Navy Commander. In Hood River they have set up several fuel dumps, dug mortar pits, and gathered some M101 105mm and 155mm howitzers and .50 caliber machine guns to provide a potent deterrence for marauder bands. They also have two M-8 armored cars and some truck transport. The town has a dawn-to-dusk curfew imposed on it, but it is still a miserable place. Gangs rove the streets at night and the military has to sometimes go in and clean the streets up. Because of the isolated nature of the town, morale in the 45th ID is currently at an all-time low, and the few overworked MP's are caching more and more deserters. There is a railhead west of Hood River and several old steam locomotives are being used to move troops and supplies between here and Portland. The Dalles: Held by a group of survivalists and granola-crunchers called the "Columbia Coalition", led by an ex-con named an Greely. The Warm Springs Indian band is also active in The Dalles area, raiding on horseback as far as Hood River. Bend: In the center of the state, Bend is a refugee relocation center with severe shortages of just about everything. They are especially in dire need of medicines and food and think that the local Army garrison is hoarding it all. Home of "Camp Grey", stockade built to house the garrison. The garrison troops are all Oregon National Guardsmen of Able Company of the 1249th Engineer Battalion (60 men), led by Major J.E.B. Collingwood. They are understaffed, under-equipped, trained for something completely different, and have no clear idea what they are supposed to do here. They have half-a-dozen halftracks, some armored jeeps, .50 cal HMGs, and flame throwers, but the tracked vehicles are useless in the thick forests. Umatilla Army Depot: Current home of the 201st Military Intelligence Company (75 men), a unit of the 41st Infantry Division that was never shipped overseas. The 201st has several M59s APCs and some truck transport, but most of it is kept parked at the depot. All the chemical weapons were moved out of the depot to Portland in 1963. An interesting note is that just last month, the 201st guys went in force to the nearby town of Pendleton and brought something back to the depot on an old railway maintenance car. Nobody knows what it was, but rumors are that it was either full of nukes or dead alien bodies. There is also some suspicion that the 201st is planning on going marauder soon as several of its NCOs are avowed neo-Nazis with ties to the Aryan enclaves in Idaho. Burns: In the extreme eastern part of the state, Burns has prospered somewhat since the war, when survivors from the areas towns and farms came together under the leadership of Father Joseph Bozeinski to preserve their town. Some 5,400 residents live here now and more are moving into the area each month. Burns is also home of "Camp Lewis", a US Army base just built this summer to monitor travel along Highways 20 and 395. The garrison is a detachment of the 45 ID at Hood River, the 1st Battalion of the 179th Infantry Regiment (100 men), led by Lt. Colonel Unger. Much like their mates at Hood River, these Oklahomans are not happy with being out in the middle of nowhere so far from home, and desertions are increasing as the men seek to make their way east back home. They are largely on their own these days, with the long distances almost precluding any close contact with other units in the state. East of the Cascade Mountain range: The "John Day Indians" are the most notorious group of people living along the Cascade frontier. Named after a river in the area, their stomping grounds stretch throughout central and eastern Oregon, where they make their living by small-scale farming and nomadic herding, heavily supplemented by pillaging frontier settlements and striking convoys. They have also been known to sell female captives to the biker gangs across the Rockies to the east. They live in small bands, traveling constantly to avoid attacks by the military troops and at most are several hundred strong in well-organized companies. Interestingly, the John Days are not properly an Indian tribe at all. Instead, they are a mixture of outlaw biker and bandit gangs that coalesced around a charismatic survivalist leader known to his followers as "Old Buffalo Breath" sometime in early 1963. Buffalo claimed that the only way to survive in the post-apocalyptic world was to follow the ways used by earlier men, in his case what he felt the pre-Columbian Indian ways. To this basic concept, he added Social Darwinian ideas that helped reinforce the ruthless patriarchy of his rule. 5) SOUTHERN OREGON Grants Pass: The scenically beautiful Rogue River valley has always been a wild and wooly place known for independent people and well-armed survivalist groups. Beginning last spring, many of the smaller groups have banded together to form one large survivalist enclave, about 1,500 to 2,000 strong, centered around Grants Pass. Once they chose Grants Pass, they disarmed the remaining populace and set up a little kingdom of their own, renaming the city "The Province" and their organization the "New American People's Alliance". There are about 4,000 civilians still here and they are seething with resentment. They have pillaged a National Guard armory somewhere down the line and have amassed supplies in the town, including thousands of MREs, clothing, weapons and ammo and have done a good job of fortifying the town. Medford: The Grants Pass enclave is only loosely associated with another group of survivalists holed up further east in Medford. These burgeoning patriots have proclaimed the city the new capital of a Northern California/Oregon separatist movement calling itself "Jefferson". The Jefferson State movement started in the 1910s and was an effort by southern Oregonians and northern Californians--both disgruntled with the way the more populous other ends of their states dominated politics--to separate and form a new one. The security and relative peace the Jeffersonians have brought has swelled the population of Medford to around 43,000. Competing for power in this town is a neo-Nazi fascist group called the "American Knight Movement", but they fall into the thug category rather than the survivalist. Wiccans: The forests of extreme southern Oregon are home to the "Realm of Wicca", an organization of neo-pagans and riffraff with roots that go back into the nineteenth century. Recently, their chief priestess declared that they need to pilgrimage south en masse to build a Stonehenge in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Plans are currently being laid to do so with the spring thaws. Klamath Falls: At Kingsley Field Airport near Klamath Falls, a US Army base has been built to watch the southern approaches to the state. The current garrison is the 130 men of Baker Company of the 1st Battalion/186th Infantry Regiment (OR NG), another component unit of the 41st Infantry Division. The company is led by Colonel Brandon, a Reservist called up into the Oregon National Guard in 1962 and given command of the garrison this summer. The compound is ringed by barbed wire barriers and patrol regularly to keep the bandits at bay. Air assets at the airport consist of a scrubby collection of Oregon Air National Guard trainers and two Cessna crop dusters. Up until a few months ago, the garrison was in contact with the Northern California MilGov garrisons strung along the Sacramento Valley, but marauder attacks along the roads have stopped this. Klamath Falls itself is the stopping point for trade caravans on their way to the villages out in the hinterlands, and serves as a place where members of those towns can come and exchange information, goods, and news about the larger world. Around 2,000 civilians still live in Klamath Falls, making a good living through trade and lodging. Recently, a few cases of anthrax have cropped up and there is some worry as there is little serum available. Diamond Lake: The summer retirement home of former General Robinson and his wife. The general's wife was here when the war started and the General was in Washington on business. He returned with some of his staff and has been building up a little empire here on the slopes of the Cascades north of Crater Lake. He has a local oil well operating and has carved out a rough airfield. His plans for the future of the nation are grand but so far he only has a few men and limited power beyond his own front porch. Southwestern coast: This area is know home to a growing trading network. As the chaos reigned in 1962, three small port towns (New Gale Port, Gold Beach and Cape Blanco) banded together for mutual survival in a stockade policy of keeping everyone out who didn't originally live there. Today, they have an international trade business going with ships from as far away as Japan frequenting the ports to trade for salmon and timber. Currently a Japanese Provisional Government trade office is set up in a warehouse in Gold Beach. The Japanese have rented a dock and have a torpedo boat and three armed merchantmen (the Kukuahima Maru, the Suttsu Maru, and the Matsue Maru) based here, running the Japan-to-Oregon route. There are survivalists in the woods who have raided the towns for food, but they have never been a major problem, and the presence of the armed Japanese have kept them honest.
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12-14-2009, 09:51 PM
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CALIFORNIA
California can be easily divided into two regions. The large industrial and technological base and vast agricultural potential of Northern California is mostly intact, so much so that the region is MilGov's main hope for reconstruction in the future. As such, the military presence in NoCal is strong. The 5th Army Headquarters has been reformed in the state, centered in the southern Bay area and the Stockton/Sacramento area. North of the cities and away from the interstates, the land is held only tenuously in the federal grasp, limited to a chain of garrisons in a few small towns in the Sacramento Valley floor. Southern California is a mix of trashed, radiation poisoned urban areas and the wild deserts. The land in between is a no-man's-land guarded by military units trying to keep travel north and south to a minimum. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date----Type----Target---Notes 10/28/62 SS-7 Los Angeles 10/28/62 SS-6 San Diego 10/28/62 SS-N-4 San Diego 10/29/62 SS-N-4 San Francisco 10/29/62 5 mT bomb Dorris 10/31/62 AS-3 Vandenburg AFB 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES The 91st and 63rd Training Divisions were both destroyed in the nukings of the large cities, with only scattered men making their way into other units. The California National Guard was federalized in November of 1962 and numerous units were sent to the Far East. The largest, however, the 40th AD, was kept in the state to aid in recovery. Today the state is thick with military men. In the south are hold-out Marines and Mexican Army enclaves and in the north are the reconstituted 5th Army based in the Bay area. 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) ------3rd Battalion/70th Armored Regiment--Camp Pendleton (900 men, 8 AFVs) 6th Infantry Division--Fort Ord (2,200 men, 8 AFVs) 25th Infantry Division ------HQ, DISCOM, 1st Battalion/14th Infantry--San Francisco (3000 men, 48 AFVs) ------2nd Battalion/19th Infantry--Sacramento (1000 men, 20 AFVs) ------------Platoon 1, Able Company--Davis (40 men) ------1st Battalion/27th Infantry--Redding (575 men, 11 AFVs) ------1st Battalion/35th Infantry ------------Able Company--Yreka (100 men, 6 AFVs) ------------Baker Company--Red Bluff (100 men) ------------Charlie Company--Chico (60 men) ------2nd Battalion/21st Infantry--Herlong (250 men, 2 AFVs) ------3rd Battalion/69th Armor--Madera (600 men, 4 AFVs) ------32nd Marine Battalion (Provisional)--San Francisco (900 men) ------221st Military Police Brigade--Stockton (400 men, 5 AFV) 40th Armored Division--Bakersfield (6000 men, 78 AFVs) 316th Engineer Combat Battalion--Camp Pendleton (300 men) 33rd Marine Battalion (Provisional)--Camp Pendleton (800 men) 899th Infantry Battalion--Travis AFB (300 men) 900th Infantry Battalion--Yuba City (320 men) Mexican 2nd Army ---1st Brigada (Mechanized)--Ventura (700 men, 2 AFVs) ---2nd Regimento Caballeria--Santa Clarita (1000 men, 8 AFVs) ---La Paz Brigade--Escondido (1200 men, 2 AFVs) ---Ensenada Brigade--San Diego (800 men) ---Tepic Brigade--Pine Valley (2000 men, 1 AFV) ---Regimento Infanteria Activo Tijuana--Twenty-nine Palms (1000 men) ---Hermosillo Brigade--Mojave (1400 men, 2 AFVs) 3) NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Northern California has stabilized somewhat under MilGov control, and the weather pattern has made this region fertile again. The larger central valley towns are all under titular federal rule, but beyond that, the large areas of national parks and Indian reservations are dotted with small communities which live in almost total isolation. Cut off by easily blocked mountain roads and sheer distance, most small towns have seen few refugees and bandits, while those near major highways tend to be more defensive, since they see more traffic. Many communities have seen little or no outside contact since the bombs fell, and prefer it that way. The mountain population tends to be independent-minded, with little patience for urban life or central authority, and many have sympathies for the various "Mountain Confederacy" groups, in much the same way the Old South viewed itself in the Civil War. As a result, federal authority generally extends no further than line of sight in the mountains. A vicious war is brewing in the stunning forests of Northern California, as separatists of several stripes have acted to throw off any degree of federal control. The Bear Republic: Most of these bands support a movement called the "Bear Republic", aiming towards independence for northern California. The "Bear Republic" is the name given to the diffuse network of militia groups that sprang up during the early Cold War era. After the nuclear attacks these militias stepped in to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of civil authority. These militias follow diverse leaders and particular ideologies, but all are devoted to the idea of an independent state of Northern California. Bear Republic militias tend to know their territory very well, and make use of ambushes, but will try to avoid stand-up fights or attacks against well-defended targets. They are generally well behaved towards the locals in their territories, relying on sympathizers for provisions and information. Support for the Bear Republic tends to be strongest in mountain country, away from farmland or towns. In these areas, the militias are able to move with impunity. A typical Bear Republic militia group might claim sovereignty over a single county, and will name itself after that area. It will usually consist of 50-200 fighters, with an equal number of family members and noncombatant supporters, with well-concealed encampments in a mountain valley, often near one of the myriad abandoned mines or caves of Northern California. Equipment is mainly civilian hunting gear, usually limited to sporting arms, police equipment, and the occasional bit of captured Army equipment. They rarely have a uniform or body armor, though many of the larger units have adopted a standard camouflage pattern or even patches and distinctive headgear. The NAF:The truly dangerous people, however, are part of the growing White Separatist movement, the same which infests many parts of rural North America. The New Aryan Front (NAF) in Northern California is a Christian Identity paramilitary organization, a large, well-coordinated faction which has embraced Wotanism (the worship of Norse gods such as Thor, Odin, and so forth) in the years since the nukes. Like their KKK predecessors, the NAF is virulently racist and hateful and has rejected modernity entirely, following a creed of strength over all. They are not interested in creating an independent state, instead, they wallow in the chaos, believing that humans are better unfettered and unweakened by civilization. Those inclined towards intellectualism read the works of Nietzsche, Hitler, Franklin Hart, and others. In many ways, the NAF is more of a cult than a paramilitary faction. The code they follow is more Viking than anything else, but it makes them individually fierce fighters. NAF groups are usually known as "war bands", a typical war band will consist of 20-50 fighters, with a lesser number of dependents, slaves, or support personnel. They usually camp in mines or take over small towns in mountain valleys, and live by exacting tributes from surrounding communities. A few smaller bands are nomadic. An individual fighter is often an experienced fighter, well-trained in close combat, and equipped with light body armor and well-maintained military and civilian gear. Fighters in a war band tend to adopt similar camouflage patterns, favoring "tiger stripe" or old Nazi camouflage obtained from various sources. Interestingly, a few war bands have moved away from racialist ideology to focus more on the philosophical aspects of the warrior lifestyle. These groups are even more ferocious combatants, but tend to respect strength in their enemies, so even a black enemy might be considered honorable, but not an equal. The stereotypical image of an NAF fighter, however, is still a white man in a ghillie suit with a long knife. The wayward nuke: Even in this area of isolation, the nuclear war came home. Late on October 29, 1962, a Tu-95M Bear A bomber flew in at 30,000 feet and dropped a 5 megaton nuclear bomb over northern California. The target is still unknown but may have been due to an accidental drop or a moral change of heart on the crew's part. Set upon by interceptors, the damaged Bear crashed mostly intact south of Red Bluff where locals captured one crewman alive. The bomb smashed into the ground and exploded, along Route 97 directly on the tiny town of Dorris right on the Oregon border. The crater formed is about two miles across, and in all directions radiate stands of fallen, charred timber and rubbled plateaus. The fallout cloud spread southwest, forcing towns from Macdoel, to Weed and as far south as Mount Shasta to be abandoned. The Army in the northern Sacramento Valley: In 1964, the US Army has adopted a strategy of controlling the remaining infrastructure, the roads, the rails, and the airfields in the Sacramento Valley, and virtually abandoning everything else. The nearby mountain ranges and national parks are claimed by several NAF warbands, and federal forces rarely patrol beyond the major roadways. Nighttime travel is especially dangerous beyond the valley floor, and the locals claim to have an unusually bad problem with wolves. The valley is now home to three battalions of the 25th Infantry Division, detached from the main body this summer and spread out in the Sacramento Valley. The 1st Battlion/27th Infantry Regiment is in Redding, the 1st Battlion/35th Infantry Regiment has detached companies in camps in other towns, and the 2nd Battalion/21st Infantry Regiment has been sent to Herlong. Garrisons are set up in towns on vital road junctures, patrols are sent out along the main roads, and large forces are maintained only where necessary. Operations in the region are technically managed from the 5th Army's HQ in San Jose through the Regional HQ at Redding, but by and large the individual garrisons are left to their own devices unless in trouble. Because of the security they offer, the garrison towns have absorbed large refugee populations and have remained stable, but they still suffer predation by marauders on occasion. Most communities now turn away outsiders at gunpoint, federal troops or not, and few refugees try anymore. Interstate 5 and Highway 99 are used daily to run supplies and men from the northern garrisons, south to Sacramento and both are maintained very well by engineers and maintenance crews. Up until a few months ago, the string of garrison towns extended up into Oregon to Klamath Falls, but marauder attacks along the roads have stopped this. In many ways, the situation is more akin to the early 19th Century than the 21st Century...and away from the main roads, the situation is frankly more like the 8th or 9th Century. Redding: The center of federal operations in Northern California, "Fort Redding" is formerly the Redding Municipal Airport. It is now home to three battalions of the 25th Infantry Division, detached from the main body this summer and spread out in the Sacramento Valley. The 1st Battalion/27th Infantry Regiment is garrisoned here. Manpower for this over-strength battalion is about 575 troops and recruits from the Redding population. Virtually all of the battalion's heavy equipment is obsolete 1940's vintage equipment stripped from depots and military museums around Northern California. The AFVs stationed in Redding include three M4 Shermans, an M5A1 Stuart, and seven M3 halftrack variants (AT, AA, etc). A newly-formed Artillery Platoon has seven guns, all towed and a mix of 155mm, 105mm, and 75mm. As well, there is the "Dragoon Company", composed of four "troops" of forty soldiers each mounted on police- and cavalry-trained horses with old Army Garand rifles. It is deployed in the mountains around the Central Valley, conducting patrols and ambushes against the numerous marauder and guerilla bands. Additionally, there are about 200 militiamen of one sort or another, armed with small arms and some rifle grenades, most of which are involved in transporting food and resources which are collected at the various points further south. Fort Redding has a fairly good medical facility and ample alcohol fuel for it's vehicles. Unfortunately, the population of Redding is restless and chafes under the presence of the Army and militia, and sabotage and outright guerilla attacks are a problem. There are some 14,000 civilians still in town, led by Mayor Harris. Yreka: Yreka has about 12,000 civilians living here now. Led by a man known simply as Chuck, they are organized, and have a clinic, schools, some electricity, and water and sewer service back online. The US Army unit here is Able Company of the 1st Battalion/35th Infantry Regiment. It has 100 men with four M103 heavy tanks and two M48A2 Patton medium tanks. The unit has recently been showing signs of turning marauder, having been influenced by local survivalists. Red Bluff: Further south, Red Bluff is a small town on the Sacramento River, at the junction of I-5 and State Hwy 99, the two north-south corridors through the region. Location alone makes it important and roughly 100 soldiers and some impressed former California Highway Patrolmen from Baker Company of the 1st Battlion/35th Infantry Regiment, are encamped at the "Idlewheels" RV campsite. The garrison has fifteen trucks and a single 105mm mortar to control the groves to the south as well as the approaches to the town, which they use in lieu of extensive patrols. Most of the opposition that the garrison faces comes from Bear Republic militias, though a single warband of NAF fighters is believed to be in the area. Chico: Along the Highway 99 route, Chico is now a large fortress town of 9,000 citizens who walled off their city from refugees early on. "Camp Chico" is dug in on the campus of CSU-Chico, and consists of a garrison of about 60 soldiers from Charlie Company of the 1st Battlion/35th Infantry Regiment, plus a number of local recruits. The garrison has fifteen trucks, two 81mm mortars and two M101 105mm pack howitzers, all of which make their position quite secure. The population is a bit friendlier to the federals than other areas, and Chico can be considered fairly safe. The countryside to the east of Chico is infested with Bear Republic militia groups, however, and more than a few small marauder gangs. The main Bear Republic cell in the area has undergone a major leadership change in the past few months. The moderate leader was killed by a homicidal maniac that has began to attack the more isolated towns in the area, burning and pillaging them. So far they have completely razed several towns, including Graeagle, Cloverdale, and Quincy. The Army in Chico is making plans to hunt them down, something that no one feels like doing. Yuba City: Yuba City itself has a lot of refugees, and the 320 troops of the 900th Infantry Battalion here spend a lot of time holed up in their impromptu fortress. This battalion was formed from excess personnel from Travis, Beale and McClellan Air Force Bases and are responsible for local security and escort for convoys. This group has had several skirmishes with marauders lately, though the marauders are of a more random sort than normal, mostly desperate refugees, escapee gangs, and so forth rather than the guerillas found elsewhere. Many of these marauders are escapees from Folsom and New Folsom Prisons, both located near Sacramento. About twelve miles east of Yuba is the ruins of Beale Air Force Base. This was formerly an ICBM and B-52 SAC base, though now it is mostly abandoned and in a state of disrepair, picked over a thousand times over the years. The empty Titan I ICBM silos are located three each near the towns of Lincoln and Chico and in the Sutter Buttes near Live Oak. The silo crews abandoned them soon after they fired their missiles. Williams: To the west of Yuba, located at the crossing of I-5 and Hwy 20, the small agricultural town of Williams is garrisoned by about 20 soldiers rotated from Redding who are charged with protecting traffic on the interstate. This garrison is unusually busy, thanks to the proximity of the Mendocino National Forest and the numerous militia groups that reside there. The farm communities either sympathize or are frequently raided, so the garrison is often in action. The main asset available to them are three two-seater ultralights piloted by friendly local aviators. This allows them to scout and patrol the large expanses of open land. "Camp Williams", despite being fairly small, is very heavily fortified, built in a small business park along the side of the highway. South of the town is a large abandoned area where militia troops turned back a large refugee mob that tried to ambush a MilGov convoy a month ago, at heavy cost. Bones still lie by the roadside, as no locals will go there. Lakeport: Lakeport is one of the most remote of the various MilGov outposts in the region. Lakeport is mainly used as a staging area for operations along State Hwy 101 and into the coastal mountain range. It doesn't control a particularly valuable agricultural area, though the lake is good fishing, it's purpose is solely strategic. There are 30 soldiers here rotated from Redding, including a squad of Rangers. The local populace is at best sympathetic to the Bear Republic, so the area is beautiful but hazardous. The garrison has a single UH-1 helicopter, and a large number of small mortars that they have to use more frequently than they'd like. The UH-1 is used mostly to deliver the Ranger squad to assault sites. Herlong: This garrison is outside of the Sacramento Valley, on the east side of the Sierra Nevada chain even, but vital because of the Sierra Army Munitions Depot located here. The garrison is the 250 men of the 2nd Battalion/21st Infantry Regiment enclaved in "Firebase Nicholson". The 2/21st has three five-ton cargo trucks, an M3 halftrack gun truck with a bad motor, a few jeeps and LWB Land Rovers, and one "throw together" howitzer-on-a-farm-truck fire support vehicle (but despite all the tons of ammunition at the depot, only one shell for it). The battalion commander is Captain Richard Sutherling. Being a competent leader, Sutherling was transferred to the 2/21st when the former CO was killed when his jeep was ambushed near Genesee. In addition to the troops of the 2/21st, the town is populated by 500 civilians, mostly farmers and their families. It is rumored that there are still some stocks of chemical and biological weapons at the depot, and most see this as the reason for the garrison. They are now patrolling Highway 395 north to Alturas in an attempt to encourage more trade and travel. Alturas, however, is not willing to risk it as the area is thick with bandits. Donner Pass: This high mountain pass east of Lake Tahoe (which is really beautiful and is a survivalist’s dreamland) is defended by a powerful farmer's militia, often patrolling a hundred miles into the desert to keep marauders at bay. A single-engine prop plane is used sporadically to patrol the vast swaths of desert, communicating with termination squads on the ground. Sacramento: Sacramento is still the official capital of the state, with about 40% of the original population having returned and now living and trading within its defended walls. A state government council convenes here weekly to pass whatever legislation it can. In reality, of course, the Army has a final say in everything, although it is not uncommon for the two organizations' goals to be similar, creating an air of co-operation. The city is dirtier and emptier than it once was, and a slow process of decay is happening, creating large slum areas which both the Army and local police are having difficulty controlling. Sacramento's northern neighborhoods were the most badly damaged in the chaos, and a concentrated but slow process of rebuilding is taking place here. Sacramento has also tended to avoid the problems other cities experience in this post-war world due to the presence of constant trade, active political control and a large military body keeping the trouble to a minimum. The intelligent men on the staff of Sacramento State University are working with the local leaders to improve crop yields. The Sacramento area is protected by the bulk of the 2nd Battalion/19th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division. The battalion has around 1,000 men and is heavily mechanized with twenty M48A2 Patton tanks, two M75 APCs, twenty M59A1 APCs, four M20 armored cars and some mortar carriers. The battalion is commanded by Colonel John Callister, a former California National Guardsmen from the Bay area, who often sends his men out to look for missing members of his family. The city is the southern end of the supply chain supporting the garrisons up along the Sacramento Valley and is busy in this activity. Davis: Garrisoned at the trashed campus of UC-Davis is the 40 men of Platoon 1, Able Company, 2/19th Infantry from Sacramento. They are currently overseeing the salvaging of the campus buildings. Stockton: This agricultural city's large pre-war population suffered heavily from fallout from the San Francisco area strike. With losses replaced by refugees fleeing both San Francisco and Sacramento, Stockton has remained at about the same number since. The city is ruled by the US military, who have a strong presence here in the 400 California National Guardsmen of the 221st Military Police Brigade, which recently absorbed the remnants of the 63rd Infantry Division and is responsible for security and the distribution of foodstuffs in the area. This brigade is now attached to 25th ID HQ in San Francisco and takes it's orders from there. The unit's HQ is currently at the FMC fabrication plant, once known for building M113 personnel carriers. The 63rd ID was a Reserve unit originally from the Los Angeles area. When the nuke hit that city, the division tried to mobilize and assist in evacuating the civilians, but the chaos was too much and the division was crushed under the flood of refugees. A few dozen men of the unit made their way north and reorganized in Stockton. When the 221st MPB was moved to Stockton from San Francisco in late 1962, there were no armored vehicles to be had anywhere for the brigade other than one training tank, with no turret, from nearby Sharpe Army Depot. After realizing that there was no immediate need for all of the banks in Stockton or the armored cars that carried their money from place to place, the brigade CO ordered that enough armored cars be commandeered from the civilian sector to equip the brigade. The armored cars were then modified by the army engineers and turned into armored personnel carriers. The weird APC's are dubbed "Brinksmobiles" by the men of the brigade, and the other troops in the area call the men the "Golden Boys" because of their vehicles. The training tank has been armed with a 120mm mortar as well. The poor vehicle situation was alleviated somewhat when the 25th Infantry Division arrived in San Francisco in 1963. The 25th supplied the Stockton garrison with much equipment, including one M60 tank, one M48A2 Patton tank, two M41 light tanks, two M8 armored cars, one M113 APC, two 5 ton trucks, and four deuce-and-a-half trucks. Air assets at Stockton's modern airport include the 144th Fighter Wing with six F-86L Saber jet fighters and two C-123 Provider transports. The 144th FW was originally a California Air National Guard unit responsible for regional air defense. Activated following the nuclear strikes, the F-86s of the unit provided CAP for much of the west coast from San Diego to the Canadian border. As loses mounted in the war in Korea, many aircrew and aircraft were siphoned off to other units abroad. When the Mexican Army invaded in 1964, the 144th FW tangled with the small but rested Mexican Air Force. Upon achieving air superiority, the unit changed missions to provide interdiction strikes and close air support for the local garrisons until the fuel and targets became scarce. Most of Stockton's population lives in the crowded and dirty tent cities which surround the town, with food and water trucked in by the military. Large numbers of sick and radiation-scarred people can be found here, and mass graves and crematory pits dot the countryside. The MPs are no saints in these refugee slums. Called "white mice" for their white helmets, the refugees chafe at their heavy-handed rule. Known for their hoarding of resources and lack of regard for civilians, are just as hated in the city as the marauders and Mexicans are. Many believe that Stockton is only kept "online" because it keeps the refugees from overflowing into the valleys to the south. South of Stockton is a control zone, which is being mined and fortified, to prevent refugees from moving south without army permission. Santa Rosa: A major refugee camp still filled with survivors from the San Francisco area. Just this fall the authorities are releasing large numbers of refugees from the camps. They say it is because the countryside is safer now, but the rumor is that the supplies have dried up and the town's leaders are afraid of the refugees rioting. People with homes in Santa Rosa have been making them into little forts with whatever they can find. The town is under martial law and everyone carries a gun.
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12-14-2009, 10:04 PM
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4) SAN FRANCISCO/ WESTERN SIDE OF THE BAY
The mountainous spine of the San Francisco peninsula, stretching from the Golden Gate bridge in the north to San Jose in the south, is a mixed bag of ruin and rebirth. The military has returned and has built up a strong enclave as a power base for reclaiming all of California. Scattered throughout the western side of the bay are numerous groups of hold-outs and survivors, some good and some not so good. The nuke: Late in the chilly night of October 29, 1962, central San Francisco took a SS-N-4 SLBM fired from the Soviet Golf I class ballistic missile submarine B-93 (who the night before had nuked Tucson). The 1 megaton warhead ground burst south of Market Street and left nearly the entire city in tatters. Most of the survivors on the mainland side of the bay fled into the surrounding countryside and much of the area was nearly completely burned to the ground in the chaos and riots that followed. The city today: The zone of total destruction caused by the nuclear hit was massive. East to west from 3rd Street to Great Highway and north to south from Market Street to far down the peninsula to Pacifica and San Bruno there is nothing but charred stumps and scorched foundations, thanks to the firestorm. Most all of the city south of Golden Gate Park and Market Street lies in ruins, with few buildings over three stories high poking up out of the rubble field. Most of the streets in the city are impassable to all but foot traffic, but north of Market Street the situation is much better. While the tall buildings are gone--the TransAmerica Pyramid is little more than a skeleton sans glass--many of the smaller buildings remain. Many were knocked down, though, and the streets are no more passable here than further south, being little better than cow paths between busted-down buildings. Golden Gate Park, Lincoln Park and similar places went up like dry tinder, spawning mini-forest fires all over the city, adding their destructive power to the atomic firestorm. The small communities on the south side of the peninsula were spared both blast and radiation, but were quickly overwhelmed by refugees. Route 101 and I-280 heading south out of the city are both choked with burnt and abandoned cars and are impassible for large stretches. The San Mateo and Dumbarton Bay Bridges are still up, and are controlled at both ends by the Army. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, however, is down in the water, blocking most ship traffic into the southern arm of the Bay. Both Naval Station Treasure Island and Hunters Point NAS were mostly destroyed by the blast over the peninsula in 1962 and are now abandoned. The Army: The military initially tried to help in the chaos, and for about a year things were looking up. But in 1963, the first major outbreak of bubonic plague occurred in the San Francisco area, pushing many of the survivor communities over the edge. Faced with something they couldn't handle, the remaining military pulled out to save itself, heading south and east to regroup. By late summer 1963, the epidemic had burned itself out and the 5th Army HQ returned to the Bay area. San Jose was still relatively intact and provided a large base of industry and manpower, and Moffitt Field became the HQ. This is part of the massive MilGov plan to make northern California the center of reconstruction. The Moffett Field garrison comprises the HQ, DISCOM and the entire 1st Battalion/14th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division (some 3,000 men all total), which was stationed on Hawaii when the war came and was shipped here when those islands were abandoned in the spring of 1963. Four of the division's battalions have been assigned to other locations in northern California for garrison duty while the 1/14 is kept in the Bay Area as a strategic reserve of sorts. The division was able to load up virtually every running vehicle on Oahu and take them with them to California, where most have been kept with the 1/14 in San Francisco. The San Jose garrison's equipment includes some 90 vehicles with four dozen Patton tanks and even an M65 280mm "Atomic Annie" howitzer, an enormous 85-ton monster designed to fire tactical nuclear shells and one of only twenty originally produced in the 1950s. Much other equipment has been given to other local garrisons and sent to Fort Ord to help equip the newly raised 6th Infantry Division (see below). Other units in the Bay area include the 900-man 32nd Marine Battalion (Provisional). This battalion was formed from several Marine Corps and Navy support units based in Hawaii, as well as from several Marine Corps and Navy bases in the Northern California region. As attrition mounted and supplies dwindled, specialized support units were no longer needed. As an expedient measure, all excess personnel assisted federal and local law enforcement agencies in riot control and security. Once they islands were evacuated, Fleet command authorized the use of all excess personnel in Hawaii to augment Army troops once they got to San Francisco. Detachments now provide security in the Bay area at the various naval anchorages and the roads between them and San Jose while the bulk of this battalion is involved in anti-piracy work throughout the region. Also in the area are the remnants of the 1st Special Forces Group (50 men). The 1st SFG is a United States Army Reserve unit activated in Okinawa in1957, mangled in China and Korea during the war and then shipped to Hawaii and then on to the states with the 5th Army in 1964. The Air Force: Based at Moffitt Field are some operational aircraft collected from around the Bay, including fifteen A-4 Skyhawk ground attack jets, two F-4D Skyrays, six P-2 Neptunes, one old TBM torpedo bomber, and twenty assorted transport helicopters including two CH-37 Mojaves. Moffitt is a rather active airbase for 1964, with some small refineries operating in central California, there is fuel to fly aircraft on a semi-regular basis, even if the Mexicans have few targets worth hitting. With aviation fuel in short supply, and the need for high-tech planes lessened, the enclave has been experimenting with other forms of air support. They currently have a squadron of ultralights and a small blimp corps of three blimps for patrolling the sea lanes. The ultralights have been hardened to carry bombs and are capable of a pilot and a maximum 200lb bomb load. The blimps are restored airships from the blimp museum at Moffett Field and confiscated commercial blimps. They are currently being fitted with contact bombs, contact torpedoes, depth charges, and even anti-tank missiles. They are also being modified to carry small auto cannons and machineguns. The Navy: The Bay area also hosts a considerable naval group, based mostly at the naval bases at the northern end of the bay that are still assessable. The southern arms of the bay are a maze of downed bridges and sunken hulks, they are not accessible to large ships. Most of these vessels here are the remains of the Seventh Fleet, which was thrashed during the war, it's carrier groups nuked hard by medium ranged ballistic missiles. With the abandonment of Hawaii, the remaining units of the Fleet have moved here. There is some talk amongst the command structure of converting some of the oil burning ships to coal burning, and several trials have been made this fall, though it is probably impractical for the larger vessels. A list of operational vessels based in the Bay area follows, but note that the bay is also filled with uncounted non-operational ships rusting at anchor for lack of fuel and need. The following are those ships that are still kept at a state of readiness in the event that they are needed: Kitty Hawk class carrier ------CVA-63 Kitty Hawk (Seventh Fleet flagship) 1 Essex class carrier ------CVS-12 Hornet 2 Skipjack class attack sub ------SSN-591 Shark 3 George Washington class ballistic missile sub ------SSBN-601 Robert E. Lee 4 Baltimore class cruiser ------CG-11 Chicago Cleveland class cruiser ------CLG-8 Topeka Leahy class destroyer leader ------DLG-23 Halsey 5 Charles F. Adams class destroyer ------DDG-3 John King 6 Mitscher class destroyer leaders ------DL-4 Willis A. Lee ------DL-3 John S. McCain Farragut class destroyers ------DLG-13 William V. Pratt ------DLG-8 MacDonough John C. Butler class escort ------DE-358 Mack Escambia class oiler ------AO-134 Mission Santa Ynez Suamico class oiler ------AO-79 Cowanesque Seven minesweepers Four LCMs Eleven PT boats Notes: 1 The two carriers are technically operational, but in reality these fuel hogs will probably never leave the Bay again. Their remaining air wings have been dispersed to shore installations and their fuel bunkers are bone-dry empty, having been emptied to feed smaller ships. Out of habit alone, the Seventh Fleet flag is still kept aboard the Kitty Hawk, and the Admiral and his staff still hold daily meetings in the wardroom of the virtually empty carrier. 2 The Hornet's captain and the 25th ID CO have recently decided to moor the Hornet in the center of the San Francisco Bay--a better means of being able to use the vessel in the future should excess fuel become available. She now acts as a floating fortress of sorts, having a 360 degree field of fire and view. The flight deck can be used as a gun platform and even a massed mortar platform. 3 The Shark, being nuclear powered, is the only vessel here that has a worthwhile radius of action and as such is kept in very good repair. 4 The Robert E. Lee returned from patrol some months after the war ended and has been immobile in the Bay ever since, her reactor offline for repairs that may never come. All her SLBMs have been fired and she has only torpedoes left. 5 The Halsey was fitting out in the Bay in 1962 and was badly damaged by the nuke over the city. Most of her electronic equipment and weapons were trashed and the hull was badly damaged. The Navy has recently been using the destroyer as a coastal transport ship, with all of her equipment removed and every possible space converted into cargo holds. Her maximum speed is now just eight knots and thus the ship cannot operate during high sea states. 6 The John King was also damaged by the nuclear blast while docked off the Hyde Street pier. Most of her external arrays were either torn off by the blast or melted by the temperature (she looks like there was a fire on board) as the ground zero was only four miles away from the destroyer, and no one really knows how she survived. However, while the external damage is massive, most of internal facilities are still in quite good condition and the ship is still able to operate. Like the Halsey, this ship is used as a costal transport between the Bay area and other ports and only when weather conditions are good. With total control of the sea lanes, the enclave has begun to engage in trade with Canada, South and Central America and even receives a few ships from Asia, mostly Chinese and the odd tramp steamer from Japan. Padre's enclave: A large civilian survivor enclave exists on the northern end of the peninsula, where the quirks of the blast damage left a strip along the waterfront semi-intact. They are about 200 strong and are centered around the waterfront, from the Municipal Pier to the Trans Bay Tube, the North Beach neighborhood and Telegraph Hill Park. The militia is about 20 strong with their HQ at a former seafood restaurant in Fisherman's Wharf. The enclave has many intelligent leaders who have worked hard to rebuild their little corner of the world, foremost a man called "Padre" who first organized a resistance out of the chaos. Padre is really George Fisher, an Episcopalian priest from Nob Hill and a former US Army surgeon. A seagoing tugboat has been tied up to the Pier 43 and it's generators have been hot-wired to keep the lights burning in the Fisherman's Wharf area. They also have a windmill from a museum exhibit on alternative energy set up on the Hyde Street Pier to supply backup power and to provide some running water from pumps. In the boardwalk of warehouses, the survivors found a supply of canned food and they now have a large store of food and supplies locked up in the west end of the BART tunnel. They can't really defend it but they have made it known to all that they will dynamite the tunnel if it is attacked, and that threat has kept it safe for now. They have a hospital of sorts in the Coit Tower building in Telegraph Hill and the Padre often operates on patients himself. Their prize possession, no doubt, is the Priscilla, an old 1888 oyster schooner that was a tourist attraction in the wharf area before the war and is now being refitted for sea. How this wooden ship survived is a mystery, as the blast wave played havoc with the shipping at the docks along the northeast edge of the city. The whole area is still choked with ships broken in half or shoved under the bay by falling debris, their mangled, burnt superstructures barely sticking out of the water. Due to a difference in opinion on relocation, the Padre's group receives very little support and even less concern from the large US military forces in the Bay area. This has left them resentful of the Army and pretty much on their own, thus the desire to get the schooner up and running. They are under pressure from rival bands of survivors on the peninsula but are holding them off for now. Barbarossa's gang: Their main rivals are a large gang based to the west in the Golden Gate National Park area. The park is now just open scrub land dominated by burnt, dead trees and thick weeds, bordered on the southern edge by a dead zone of crushed buildings. They number hundreds of effectives and their leader is a man calling himself "Barbarossa". He is efficient, if crazy, and very dangerous, a former fundamentalist preacher who has become crazy from radiation poisoning and now fancies himself as a cross between Charles Manson and Napoleon. He has looted several firearms stores and has set up a medieval-style rule in his territory. His followers are armed mostly with shotguns and handguns and have a handful of motorcycles, Barbarossa himself drives around in a 1961 Mercury convertible. They are mostly based in the ruins of the Presidio Military Reservation, which was totally destroyed by fires following the nuclear blast. They also control the southern half of the remains of the Golden Gate Bridge, which remarkably is partially intact, although just barely. One of its twin trestles has collapsed across the roadway, which cants perilously to one side and it is fit only for foot travel by the brave at heart. The northern half of the bridge is more intact and allows for ships to sail under it into the bay. They have wisely refrained from trying to stop this travel or firing on the Navy ships and often hang from the bridge watching the ships go by. The White Shirts: To the south is another survivor group known as the "White Shirts", more or less a loosely organize gang of looters and gleaners eking out a living at the edges of ground zero. Their HQ is in the old Greyhound bus depot on Mission and Seventh Street, south of Market Street. The depot is a battered concrete hulk with the upper reaches eaten away by the firestorm but the lower levels are stable enough to provide safety. They have untold numbers but are so unorganized that they pose less danger than expected to the Padre's enclave and kill each other more than anything. Starving artists: There is also a population of former starving artists, disenchanted people from various places, and some ex-military personnel that have taken over an old oil tanker still floating in the Bay. They will usually trade expertise for goods, although they prefer to be left alone. Hubologists: Another group, which does not seek contact at all, is a religious community called the "Hubologists", led by a man called "Blind Sunflower Jim". They are obsessed with an old B-17 bomber they found parked at the ruins of the San Francisco International Airport. They are attempting to make it fly again, so they can join their "gods" in the heavens above. Japanese: Half Moon Bay on the western coast of the peninsula is now home to a small population of Japanese, survivors of a Japanese Navy submarine, damaged in battle in 1963, which drifted east until it landed on the west coast of America. They call themselves the "Shi", and have are working to contact their government without dealing directly with the US military, who they distrust. Russians: Along the southwestern edge of the blast area the murky waters of Lake Merced still provide some fish and fresh water. A group of Russian-American immigrants has recently settled here, obviously keeping a very low profile due to the political climate. They number about 70 total and are led by Sergei Yusupov. About a dozen of their members have some military training from when they were in Russia and they have kept them safe so far. Arabs: Broadmoor, south of Lake Merced, is home base of a small group of about 50 Iranian and Syrian Islamic fundamentalists, mostly former students from San Francisco State University and their families, who are becoming increasingly more militant and desperate as the food runs out. They haven't made any hostile moves yet, but it is just a matter of time now. They have been raiding unlooted sporting goods and gun stores for weaponry and have now amassed a considerable cache of small arms. They are led by Mohammed Yahzdi, a former Iranian fishpacker-turned-leader. It is his virulent Sunni Muslim rhetoric above all else that will push the enclave into action. Gays: Daly City is home to the "West Coast Gay Alliance", survivors of the Bay area's once-thriving gay population. They are led by a man named Francis Pelf, a former corporal and tank mechanic in the US Army. Blacks: Fort Baker Military Reservation, at the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, is now held by an all-black gang known as the "Natty Bumpo Brigade". Their leader is a man named Norman, originally a doctor from Sausalito. Although they nominally control the northern part of the bridge, they are aware that Barbarossa has plans to take it all from them. Burlingame: Now an outpost of the military, and a growing induction and training center for recruits "volunteered" from the local refugee population. Most of the recruits are being used for reconstruction and salvage teams. Belmont: A farmer has just recently found a missile in his field while plowing, buried under a thin layer of soil where it crashed back in 1962. It is a nuclear-armed Nike anti-aircraft missile that misfired and burrowed into his corn field. The farmer is selling of the components for a penny a piece, there are thousands in the guidance system alone, but doesn't realize yet that he has a nuclear warhead in his barn that is slowly poisoning him and his family. 5) EASTERN SIDE OF THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY Horror story: The eastern suburbs of the Bay area have all been badly damaged by the chaos. The nuke over the peninsula set the population to panic and it quickly got out of control. As the radioactive fallout fell in a swath directly on Oakland and Berkeley, civil authority melted away and the scared residents fled their homes, burning and looting everything in their way out of town. Riots and famine raged through the area and by the winter, most of the area was abandoned to the unburied dead. Once the situation stabilized in the middle of 1963, the eastern fringes were slowly repopulated and the area now supports a modest population of salvagers and squatters. The thick urban zones along the shore of the bay still remain mostly abandoned, save for a few isolated communities of refugees who have found pockets to stay in, gleaning the ample salvage. The various MilGov enclaves avoid the area when moving convoys and rarely venture into the worst parts of the destruction. Oakland: Devastated by fires all the way to the Berkeley Hills and nearly depopulated. Around the area of the City of Oakland ferry pier there is an enclave of refugees, numbering some 100. They survive on fishing the Bay and catching rats in the city ruins. Alameda Naval Air Station: Badly damaged by the nuke blast in 1962 and now abandoned. Hamilton Air Force Base: Salvage teams from the 25th ID have recently been combing the ruins of this airbase. They are looking for a suspected cache of small observation blimps that were stored here before the war. The Governor: California Governor Jerry Brown was on a campaign tour in Oakland when the nuke fell, spending the night in a hotel near the shore. The following morning he tried to get back to Sacramento as the city burned around him. His motorcade was unable to get trough Oakland's streets and was stopped by a group of policemen who demanded that he give up his car to them. Brown has not been seen since, though there are consistent rumors that he is still alive and living somewhere in the Oakland area. Travis Air Force Base: From 1963 on, the MilGov enclave at Travis AFB northeast of the Bay area has been the companion to the Moffitt base in controlling refugees in the area. The garrison is the 300-man 899th Infantry Battalion. This unit was formed from surviving Air Force personnel from Vandenburg, Los Angeles, March and Edwards Air Force Bases, as well as local facilities, formed into an infantry battalion in mid-1963. They mostly serve a military police function and also provide security for remaining aircraft at the base. As most of the personnel have technical backgrounds, contingents can be found throughout the Silicon Valley area, helping in salvage operations. Operational air assets currently based at Travis include a single F-4 Phantom II fighter bomber, six C-130 transports, four C-135 transports, a C-141 heavy-lift transport, four KC-135A tankers, a KC-10 tanker, and six H-25A Army Mule light cargo helicopters. Fuel is available but limited, and the big, thirsty transport planes only fly when absolutely necessary. 6) SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY The San Joaquin valley is mostly uncontested and heavily patrolled by MilGov forces, who keep open the vital trade and travel routes between Bakersfield and Stockton. Interstate 5 is the main convoy route, Highway 99 is used but you have to bypass the mess that is Fresno. Madera: A small oil field and refinery complex here is occupied by a strong MilGov garrison. The garrison is the 3rd Battalion/69th Armor Regiment, detached from the 25th ID in San Francisco, tasked with protecting the refinery from the roving gangs in Fresno. They are based at "Camp Stewart Udall", a collection of liberated house trailers and tents in a fortified ring around the refinery. The battalion has about 600 soldiers total, with a dozen or so M3A1 White scout cars, numerous assorted trucks, jeeps, and cars, but despite being an armored unit, has only four old M41 Walker Bulldog tanks. The battalion commander drives around in an old German Kubelwagen jeep. The oil pumped and refined from here is shipped north along Highway 99 to Stockton where it is distributed further and is a major reason why the vehicles up north keep running. Just this month the 3/69th leadership has been informed by MilGov command in Colorado Springs to prepare for possible action against the 40th AD to the south in Bakersfield (see below). As they are aware that they cannot compete with the 40th in battle, this news has the men of the battalion very worried. Fresno: Fresno was the scene of some of the nation's worst race and food riots following the nukings. For months, Hispanics and whites fought it out in the streets, with police and local military units helpless to stop it, and in some cases actively participating on one side or the other. Years later, the city is still largely a rubbled wreck and the few less-spoiled parts are controlled by several large, well-armed Chicano gangs. While not much on discipline or organization, they have a high number of hard-core criminals and deserters from both US and Mexican Armies who brought their weapons, including some machineguns, mortars and bazookas. The main gang leader is a man named Victor Sama and the city under his rule has been even more trashed and looted. Most of the surviving white residents fled north or south or moved into the northeastern suburb of Clovis where they have a small fortified enclave. MilGov has largely bypassed the city and convoys passing by the city have to swing wide to the west on Highways 198 and 145 to avoid the mess. Mystery: At a small private airfield at North Fork, about 30 miles northeast of Fresno, up in the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains, sits an intact B-52 strategic bomber. On October 30, 1962 this plane left March AFB headed for targets in Siberia, but massive engine trouble forced it into an emergency landing at this airstrip. The crew tried to get a repair team up to them, but the poor state of communications and the general chaos throughout California thwarted their efforts. Soon, they just wandered back south to find their families and disappeared. The plane is still intact, though still with three bad engines. The real prize is the four nuclear bombs she still has inside. The plane captain took the detonating fuses with him when he left but the weapons are still intact and just waiting to be found. Emptiness: Between Fresno and Bakersfield there is nothing, towns such as Tulare, Delano and Calico are long-ago deserted and looted. As well, the nearby Lemoore Naval Air Station is abandoned and looted. MilGov convoys who run up and down Highway 99 barely notice the dusty ruins alongside. 7) BAKERSFIELD The city: A large and strong survivor enclave at the southern end of the valley, Bakersfield is a thriving city and the hotbed of southern independence talk. Southern California had the most population, but the effort to evacuate these survivors was met with strong resistance from central California cities like Bakersfield. The local National Guardsmen were called on to keep the migrations manageable and they have stayed ever since. Due to the security and economic stimulus of the Army, people have been flocking to Bakersfield and today the population hovers around 160,000, a virtual megalopolis by 1964 standards. 40th Armored Division: The California National Guard's 40th Armored Division, one of the best equipped and well-trained NG divisions in the nation, was gathered in Bakersfield by the end of 1962 and quickly began to seal the borders. In 1964, division has some 6,000 men under arms, with many more making up a well-armed militia. Divisional equipment includes ten M60 tanks, thirty M48A2 Patton tanks, fourteen M41 Walker Bulldog light tanks, eight M40 155mm SPGs, and sixteen M88 ARVs along with numerous support and transport vehicles. There are several oil fields in the area, located in Taft, Buttonwillow and McKettrick, all vital in keeping the division's vehicles running. The 40th AD's commander is General Lake, a decorated veteran and bonafide war hero. Also here with the unit are a large number of technical experts from the Fort Irwin Field Training Equipment Concentration Site. The 40th AD has a good deal of equipment with which the Irwin folks are intimately familiar and they have found very gainful employment with 5th Army since being forced out of the Barstow area. Governor Lake: General Lake is intelligent, insightful, a brilliant tactician, and very independent. He is also a power-hunger bigot with big plans, and as commander of the city's defense force, he has probably more power than anyone in the city. Lake, who has begun to call himself "Governor" behind closed doors, has began a ruthless consolidation of power within the civilian leadership in Bakersfield. Lake is very much an "end justifies the means" sort of person, believing the United States needs to become one again, and the only sure way to do it is militarily and he is just the man to carry it out. There is a lot of concern amongst the MilGov leadership in Colorado Springs that Lake is going to turn independent soon, but they are afraid to remove him because his troops are fiercely loyal to him, and perhaps aware that if it came to it, Lake's division could probably defeat anything they can throw at them. On the surface, Lake continues to pay lip-service to MilGov, and keeps his supplies of oil and food running north, but everyone knows this won’t last. Independence Day: Lake is upset with Colorado Springs and considering going independent because of what he sees as General LeMay's favoritism towards fellow Air Force generals. In recent months, LeMay has made it known that he "trusts more" the men from his own pre-war branch. He is slowly replacing Army generals with Air Force generals, even in command of field units, whether or not they have any experience with ground units or not. In September of this year Lake was told by an informant in Colorado Springs that LeMay was going to replace him before the year was out for "insubornation". This has only fuelled Lake's ambitions of setting up an independent state in Bakersfield. Plans and schemes: General LeMay is now aware that Lake knows of his plan to replace him and is deeply afraid that Lake with take his division with him. LeMay needs the 40th AD, both as a check on Mexican expansion and because he eventually would like to use it to push the Mexicans out of California altogether. To assure that it remains loyal to the MilGov goals, LeMay has been quietly laying plans to take out Lake by force. He has sent in several hit-teams and is preparing other Army units in California for the prospect that they might have to fight the 40th if that fails. The 6th Infantry Division is being hastily reformed at Fort Ord right now, and they will probably march towards Bakersfield before the year ends. Hidden dagger: General Lake has an ace in the hole, however, one that he hopes to use against LeMay if he decides to go independent. Lake has an intact 1.4 megaton W-49 warhead from a malfunctioned Atlas-D ICBM. The warhead, recovered by Lake's agents amongst the ruins of nearby Vandenburg Air Force Base, is not active, and in fact is inert, that's why it was left at the base to begin with. Lake knows that it is a paper weight, but has kept it a secret and just the potential of the weapon might be enough to deter any moves against him. Bakersfield Militia: In a city this large, finding enough able-bodied men to serve in a militia is not hard, especially when the militiamen know that the Army will bail them out if they get into trouble. As such, the city's militia now stands at about 1,600 members, with many tending to be young and inexperienced, but there are a large number of experienced older soldiers who retirement ended when the militia was formed. They are officially known as the "Voluntary Police", to lend an air of civil service to them. General Lake has recognized the importance of the militia, both to help in securing the city and as possible allies if LeMay decides to attack the city to get at him. He has instituted a rigorous training program for the militia and NCOs and specialists from the division rotate monthly into advisor positions with the citizens. In theory, the militia is not under General Lake's direct control, but in reality, Lake tends to get his way in matters which concern defense. More importantly, Lake has armed the militia from his own stocks, further strengthening the militia's loyalty to him. Along with quantities of M14 and M1 rifles, he has provided them with a dozen trucks and an M75 APC to act as a command post for the militia leader. He also turned over twelve tanks that were in the back lot of a National Guard motor pool in Bakersfield. These tanks are all at least twenty years old (five M4A3 Shermans, four M5A1 Stuarts and three M3 Stuarts) and only one of them (an M3) can be considered fully operational. The other tanks have been dug into the ground along the entrances to the city as pill boxes, manned by militiamen. It has not been lost on these men that General Lake ordered seven of the tanks dug in on the northern approaches to the city, away from the Mexicans but towards the other MilGov enclaves. Mexican concerns: The remains of the Mexican 2nd Army are strung along the southern limits of the 40th Armored Division's patrol range, waiting and watching for any moves. Much like the situation to the south at Camp Pendleton (see below), it is quite obvious that General Lake could easily roll over the Mexican Army elements at anytime he wished. The reasons for not doing so are simple--Lake knows that the Mexicans will never try and engage him in open fighting and they provide a vital buffer for marauders and refugees that would otherwise be a burden on Bakersfield. As such, as long as the Mexicans don't try anything funny, Lake is content to coexist with them until such time as it becomes necessary to take action. The Mexican do have spies in the city, however, and they have learned that Lake is thinking about going independent. Monkey Wrench: There are many other players in the Bakersfield area. Glenn Anderson, the former California Lieutenant Governor, is also in the city and has own hopes of setting himself up as the co-emperor of a new California that Lake creates. Anderson fled Sacramento during the chaos, shirking his duties and removing any chance he had to return to power legally, and has been living in Bakersfield ever since. His deep, dark secret is that he is really a member of the Communist Party and a sleeper agent for the KGB. Anderson now has a secret weapon at his disposal, a squad of fanatical Russian-American Communist Party commandoes, who were on the way to blow up the Japanese embassy in Sacramento when the nukes fell and have been with him ever since.
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12-14-2009, 10:15 PM
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8) SOUTHERN PACIFIC COAST
Monterrey peninsula: On the Monterey peninsula, most of the lovely old towns have been burned and looted by refugees from the San Francisco area. The plaid waters of Monterey Bay are now home to the "Sea Gypsies", a collection of private boat and yacht owners from the coastal areas working together for mutual survival. Hunter Ligget Military Reservation: Abandoned in 1963 as unneeded by 5th Army Command, with everything that wasn't welded down moved north to Fort Ord. The base is now held by a mixed bag of petty thieves and squatters. Fort Ord Military Reservation: This former basic training center is now a major link on the chain of MilGov enclaves stretching down the coast of California. Just this year, Fort Ord has become the home of the new 6th Infantry Division (2,200 men). The old 6th ID was deactivated here in 1956 and reactivated in late 1963, though it is an Infantry Division in name only. In reality, it is no more than regimental or even battalion strength, composed largely of administrative MOS soldiers, trainees, and service troops reinforced by local militia units impressed into federal service. Vehicles are in very short supply, almost all of them have been transferred from the San Francisco garrisons to give the new division some level of mobility. Currently the 6th ID has four M48A2 Patton tanks, two M41 Walker Bulldog light tanks, two M88 ARVs, one M8 armored car, one M113 APC, eight M75 APCs, one M559 ammunition carrier, two towed M101 105mm howitzers and a towed 20mm anti-aircraft gun. The majority of the troops will be transported in 25 5-ton trucks and eleven deuce-and-a-halves, and commandeered civilian vehicles not suitable for entering a combat zone but sufficient to get the men close to where they need to be. The unit commander is Major General Gerald Plaspohl, who is trying hard to build an effective fighting force but feels like he is not getting much support from the main enclave in San Jose. Recent actions with marauders in the mountains have caused casualties, but the bandits are poor fighters and the soldiers have always came out on top. The division has just this month received orders to being preparing to move south towards Bakersfield. General LeMay in Colorado Springs has personally contacted General Plaspohl and warned him that perhaps one day soon the 6th ID might be called upon to contain the 40th AD if it leaves the MilGov fold. General Plaspohl has already heard that Lake in Bakersfield is thinking about going independent, but he finds it hard to believe that it will come to Americans fighting Americans. Vandenburg Air Force Base: The massive satellite launching facilities at Vandenburg AFB were nuked by a AS-3 Kangaroo cruise missile fired from a Tu-95K-20 Bear B strategic bomber that came over the Pacific from Siberia, avoiding much of the radar cover by swinging so far out to sea. The hit came on October 31, 1962, three days after most of the strikes, surprising everyone who thought that by that time Russia was out of bombers. The 800 kiloton warhead ground-burst almost dead on top of SPACECOM's hardened command center, causing extremely localized heavy damage and wildly indiscriminate fallout. Vandenburg also had a secondary ICBM role, but the three Atlas D ICBM launchers were caught still on the ground and destroyed. Local damage was severe and towns as far away as Ventura, Santa Barbara and Santa Maria were damaged by the resulting forest fires that swept through the area. There are today just a handful of personnel still left at the base working to salvage what is left. The real treasure here has yet to be uncovered. It is a cache of some 20 nuclear artillery shells that were stockpiled at the facility awaiting retirement. All 20 are Mk-9 15 kiloton warheads for the Army's M65 280mm howitzers. The shells stand about 5 feet high and weigh about 800 pounds each, so moving them any distance would take an organized effort. This is a potentially power-swinging find. Considering that General Lake already has one nuke from Vandenburg, it is safe to say that he would be interested in having these as well. Castle: Along the coast, west of San Miguel, is San Simeon, a ruined town now home to about 165 marauders and bikers called the "New Brotherhood Army" who occupy the former palace of William Randolph Hearst. They are led by a former captain in the California State Police and a Black Muslim civil rights leader from Los Angeles named Alim Nassor, and they claim to be the legitimate government of California. They lead a very difficult life and suspicion is that they have resorted to cannibalism for food. San Miguel itself is home of the "Free Love" group, beatniks who have so far avoided being killed by the bikers in the castle. 9) LOS PADRES NATIONAL FOREST In the rolling hills and valleys of this pine forest north of LA, there are numerous isolated survivor enclaves, living off the plentiful game and fish to be had. The larger towns in the forest have mostly been abandoned as being to vulnerable to marauder attacks and fires. Neither the US Army to the north nor the Mexican Army to the south send patrols too deeply into the forest--they most likely won't come back alive. Santa Barbara: This coastal town is now held by three separate outlaw gangs, all of which hate each other. The north of the city is held by the "Bandits", a couple hundred strong. The center is held by the "Rats", who require you to eat a rat to gain entrance, and the south is held by the "Dinks", who are known for stringing up victims around their territory as a warning to others. Around them they have little but ruins to fight over and this winter will probably kill them all off. Ventura: This coastal town along the southern edge of the forest is now a cantonment of the Constitutionalist Mexican 2nd Army (all of the Mexican Army units in the state are loyal to the Constitutionalist faction). The unit is the 1st Brigada (Mechanized), detailed to watch for incursions from the US military in central California down Highway 101, and to pretty much ignore anything to the south. They have heavily fortified the northern approaches to the ruins of the city and concentrate their firepower there. Manpower is 700 men, with six M8 armored cars, three M2A1 halftracks, one M8 self-propelled howitzer and four towed 75mm howitzers. They receive very infrequent supply ship traffic from Mexico, but keep part of the docks open nevertheless. Ventura under Mexican rule has a squalid, Third World feel to it. Power is erratic, fresh water and food are hard to come by, and order is fragile, but most people make do anyhow. Crime is rampant, and at night, gunfights are prone to erupt without warning. Because the "lights have stayed on", people are beginning to return to Ventura, which only adds to the problems of the struggling Mexican garrison. Santa Clarita: The 2nd Regimento Caballeria, the largest Mexican Army unit in the area, is enclaved in this city along I-5 north of Los Angeles, detailed to watch for incursions from the US military to the north. The regiment currently has some 1,000 men, with two M4 Sherman tanks, eight M8 armored cars, four M2A1 halftracks, two M3A1 White scout cars, twenty-five jeeps and numerous civilian vehicles. With such a large mechanized potential, this regiment is also used as an emergency reserve to rescue any threatened Mexican unit. The Channel Islands: Just 25 miles offshore from Ventura is Anacapa Island, the easternmost of the Channel Islands. In 1962, immediately upon news of the first nuclear strikes, the crew of an Amsterdam-flagged oil freighter off Oxnard moved out to Anacapa Island to wait out the war, finding a little spot nestled away to anchor. Taking a vote, the crew decided that they would go ashore and the 20-man crew dispersed, leaving their ship to rust at anchor. This tanker is still afloat two years later and 75% full of crude oil, constituting a big asset to whoever finds it first. The Mexicans at Ventura are beginning to use local fishing boats to feed their troops and it is just a matter of time before one of them spots the tanker. 10) SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA From the Mexican border to Bakersfield the state is occupied by the Mexicans, a few marauder gangs, scattered small farms and farming communities and wild animals. Heavily effected by the nuclear exchanges, the southern half of the state melted in upon itself. Southern California was then invaded by the Mexican Army in 1964, adding to the misery. Refugees coming to the state looking for food and better conditions turn north to Sacramento. Food and fuel shortages across the western states have caused erroneous rumors about the lack of such shortages in southern California. Civilians are moving back into the LA area looking for food, not knowing the deplorable situation there. Currently, you have a cantonment system, with the Mexicans holding all of Southern California except for a pocket centered on Camp Pendleton and the northern heights above Mission Valley. The Mexican 2nd Army in southern California is in poor condition with very low troop densities due to the limited number of units in the area vis-*-vis the tremendous acreage they have to control. They have settled into their own cantonments across SoCal. Too many hungry mouths:Lack of food is the biggest problem in the region today. Without irrigation, agriculture is a tough prospect here. Southern California, and most of the Southwest in general, has suffered a higher loss of its population than wetter places in the country, 60-75% casualties by 1964 are not unreasonable. Some locales (like San Diego) have even higher losses, while a few rainy locations in the mountains are still able to support most of their pre-war population. Depending on location and the water situation, perhaps 50-75% of the surviving population is now working in agriculture year-round. This doesn’t leave a lot of excess labor for supporting the machines of war, even if all the local labor is turned to supporting the Mexican Army units in the cantonments. As well, the Americans pressed into servicing the Mexican vehicles and equipment often inflict high sabotage losses on the Mexicans. Beyond the confines of the fire-bombed cities only a few hardy farmers and small-town dwellers have stayed to keep their land. Most of the refugees from the fires, famines and deaths of LA and San Diego fled north to the less-heavily hit areas of San Francisco and Sacramento where government aid was more accessible. Those farmers that stayed armed themselves and set about wresting food from the soil without the aid of pesticides, fertilizers and the other assistances of techno-farming. The farmers did well enough to feed themselves and poorly enough to dissuade the government from trying to redistribute their crops. This self-reliance lasted until the summer of 1964 when the weather turned dry and the Mexicans invaded. What crops were grown in the areas invaded were then "requisitioned" by the Mexicans. By the fall of 1964, the military situation stabilized into a stalemate with the Mexican and US forces firmly entrenched in their respective bases, glowering at each other across central California. Both sides patrol and raid, engaging each other on a sporadic basis. The Mexican invasion provided the farms and the still-settled communities with the one commodity that they needed to survive--guns. When military engagements were over, the townsfolk would scavenge the battlefield to find weapons and ammunition. Eventually those farms that acquired enough firepower to repulse raiders survived, those that didn’t were destroyed. 11) LOS ANGELES On October 28, 1962 a Russian SS-7 Saddler ICBM dropped in western Los Angeles in the area between Inglewood and Venice. The flash was seen as far north as Ventura and as far south as Newport. The 6 megaton warhead airburst relatively high, causing massive firestorms and destruction but leaving many outlying hard structures such as warehouses, some freeway infrastructure, and massive amounts of rail and railways intact. Within seconds, millions of tons of stored petroleum products in Torrance, Carson, El Segundo and Wilmington and elsewhere burst into flame. Fuel lines leading to offshore oil rigs snapped, setting the floating crude aflame. The results were predictable, within minutes the city burned with uncontrollable fires as the surviving residents fled the metropolis for higher and safer ground. The survivors ranged out into the countryside, where they threatened to overwhelm the smaller rural communities. The situation hopeless, the remaining US military forces (except for the garrison at Camp Pendleton) were pulled out of the area and shipped north and west. The city was left to the scavengers. When the fires burned out many of the citizens returned to salvage what they could, and some of these stayed in the ruined city, having no where else to go. Despite the lack of utilities of any sort, people survived, improvising for sustenance. The state and federal governments initially tried to sent aid and help in cleaning up the damage. They barricaded the areas most heavily hit, mostly to keep down on radiation related deaths. The abnormally cold winter of 1962 (it snowed four times in southern California that first winter) and the lack of proper food killed off many of the aged and infirmed. The following summer of 1963, plague and disease swept the city, killing off people trying to rebuild the industry and population. When the Mexicans moved north from the border in the summer of 1964, the city was a ghost town that they could ignore, its reputation as a plague-nest motivated both sides to avoid it. LA did not die entirely, however. A few souls stayed in it, unwilling to move elsewhere. For the brave, the city still holds treasures of technology--weapons, working machinery, undamaged circuitry, preserved food and other remnants of the golden age of America. The unearthed resources are often traded with outlying communities for food and water, two of the rarest items in all of LA. Some stayed to loot the city, others came to raid the looters, taking their finds and paying for them with violence. The gangs, which LA was famous for, that stayed in the concrete canyons fought amongst themselves for the best areas and the newest finds. With law and order vanished from the streets, the gangs armed themselves and established their own areas of the city where none dared enter without their permission. Outside of the gang areas only the crazed or daring roam. The city today: The problems of the city in 1964 are symptomatic of the conditions of the rest of the country--lack of food, lack of order, barbarism, and deterioration of technology. The situation is worsened in LA by the radioactive dust which still coats parts of the city. There is much irradiated metal in the blast area and the dust is still fallout-tainted enough that everyone in the city has elevated radiation levels of some sort. The city is characterized by the burnt-out remains of its once proud buildings. The nuclear blasts that hit the west side only started the damage, unfought fires did the rest. Under the hypocenter, the area from Inglewood to Venice on the coast is completely demolished, a desolate rubbled wasteland of no buildings or hills. Most of the remaining inhabitants acquire water from the rivers and the reservoirs in and outside of the city, though drinking reservoir water is not safe due to the level of pollution in it. The only food left in the city is preserved canned goods and the feral animals (mostly rats) that still live in the city. LA in 1964 is a crazy, violent and exciting place to be. The city is now divided between dozens of armed factions, each organized along racial, cultural, or ethnic lines. Many were built around a core membership of former street gangs. Estimates of total population hover around the 35 to 50,000 range, which seems large but it is spread out. The gangs of LA: The social order in LA is now very violent, feudal, and barbaric. There are about 150 or 175 gangs in currently the LA basin, ranging in size from 5 to 50 or more people, but that number changes almost weekly. Most are unfriendly with each other and fights over turf and spoils are common. Weirds: Perhaps the largest of the gangs is the "Great California Weirds". Survivors of both the nuclear attack and the collapse of society that followed it, the Weirds have developed a peculiar lifestyle of scavenging and predation. There are perhaps 1,000 members who claim to be Weirds, though that number is fluid, and they can be found all over the metroplex. Although they will fight ferociously when cornered, as a rule, Weirds avoid direct confrontation with outsiders, and thus live a very isolated and timid existence. To supplement their diet of passing strangers, they grow small vegetable gardens in isolated plots scattered about the ruins. They also hunt rats, coyotes, pigeons, and other wildlife that inhabit the ruins ecosystem. Despite this precarious-sounding lifestyle, the Weird population is actually growing. In the last year, they have increasing turned to trade, exchanging scavenged items for food and clothing with their neighbors. People on the run, such as military deserters and criminals, find that the Weirds are willing to take in strangers who prove themselves useful, though these people usually have to perform an apprenticeship as a near slave for a number of months before being fully accepted. Who?: Any attempts at listing of the resident gangs of the city are formidable and maybe useless, but here are some of the more prominent ones. Rich leads the 500-strong "Dukes", Chico leads the "Swords", Manuel runs the "Mayans", Bull leads the "Busters", Hal leads the "Fifth Street Lords", Dicky runs the "Blades", Sally runs the "Mixers", Josh runs the "Angels", Ruth runs the "Macys", Chang runs the "Tokyos", Fang runs the "Hill Street Avengers", Brute runs the mostly gay "White Men", Leroy runs one of the larger all-black gangs, the "New Africans", Carmine runs the mostly lesbian "Women", Cash runs the "Surfers", Jimmy runs the "Indios", Stan runs the "Flat Rocks", Bobby runs the "Ponys", DeeDee runs the "Pocos", Ishmal runs the "Boogies", and Junkyard runs the "Skulls". After the Mexican invasion several street gangs banded together to fight the invaders, some fighting for patriotism, some fighting because they found the Mexican army intolerant of non-Mexicans. By late 1964, the Mexican Army is attempting to gain a loose control over greater Los Angeles through a series of feudal agreements with local warlords sympathetic to them. Time will tell how smart this is. The suburbs are all different in terms of physical condition and the numbers and attitudes of their inhabitants. Below are a few of the more notable suburbs, focusing on the people who live in that particular part of the city. San Bernardino: The city of San Bernardino was ravaged by food riots and panic during the weeks after the chaos, and it shows clearly in the number of wrecked buildings, burned-out skyscrapers, and highways leading in and out cluttered with column upon column of old abandoned cars, trucks, and other vehicles left to rust and disintegrate under the ugly yellow sun. Despite the eerie appearance of this lost ruin and the horrific sight of its crowded, congested roads, San Bernardino has become a major outpost of the trade. The city is now home to the "West Side Posse" (300 men). This group was formed from the remnants of several Southern California street gangs, and operates in Mexican-held territory from San Bernardino in the east to Long Beach in the west and from San Fernando in the north to San Diego in the south. Several members of this group are Mexican-American and have put their language skills to good use the actions against the Mexican Army. San Bernardino is also home of the 100-man "Raiders", which has formed an alliance with the Mexican army. This group exists for more base reasons than the West Side Posse, power, food and shelter. They and the West Side Posse are blood rivals and when one side encounters the other, no quarter is given. The Raiders serve as scouts and advance warning of a U.S. attack. The Raiders patrol I-15 through the San Bernardino National Forest, ambushing the weak and shadowing the strong. They have many Mexican-supplied rifles and even a 75mm recoilless rifle mounted on a pick-up. This support has made them greedy and they have great dreams of uniting all of SoCal under their rule. Hollywood: In the Hollywood area is the "Hollywooder" gang operating out of the old studios and silent-film stages of the Paramount complex. They have 60 members and are strong enough to resist aggression from other gangs and mobile enough to raid for food and fuel. The Hollywooders do everything in style, preferring extravagant dress and flashy vehicles (meaning the rust spots are painted over). Hollywood itself is a shambles with many of the larger buildings crumpled by the blast wave and fires played havoc with the wooden sets. Compton, Lynwood, Carson, Torrance and Lomita: These suburbs were all burned badly in the fires after the nuclear strike in 1962. Few people still live in these areas and reconstruction is a distant dream. Santa Ana: Santa Ana is home to the "Brighton River Reavers", a strong but localized gang. They have a peculiar fondness for using motorboats and rowboats to voyage up the Santa Ana River on their raids. Reaver armaments are typical of other LA gangs, consisting of improvised bombs, melee weapons and a few firearms. Sunset Beach: The "Sunset Beach Boys" are an all-male gang who make their livelihood fishing from the beach and spend most of their free time surfing and sunning. They live relatively well, scavenging the ruins and bothered by few other gangs. Seal Beach: The "Seal Beach Girls" are a all-female gang holing up inside the old Rockwell Intelligence Facility outside the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. They survive by hunting the wildlife that still occupies the wildlife refugee next to them. South Gate: Badly burned by the fires in 1962, South Gate is home to a struggling survivor enclave known as "Dogtown" because of the numerous packs of wild dogs in the area. Downtown: The LA Zoo is a mess, the pens full of skeletons. Man's Chinese Theatre is in ruins. Thugs occupy the City Hall. Dodge Stadium is littered with trash and skeletons. Little Tokyo is a field of cinders from a fire tow years ago. The University of Southern California campus is wrecked. A religious sect called the "Followers" live in the ruins of the main branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. El Toro US Marine Corps Airfield: Used for evacuating refugees and the temporary local military HQ during the crazy last months of 1962, this large airfield is now abandoned and littered with junk. Disneyland:This old amusement park is held by insurgents, who have some old WWII artillery. Irvine: Irvine is home to the "Holy City" of the Reverend Norton Jaybush and his "Church of the Resurrected Republic", who demand cannibal sacrifices of their followers. Anaheim: The suburb of Anaheim is still home to some 10,000 people, mostly in the northern part of the city as the southern half has been heavily burned. Garden Grove: Just a few people are still living in the ruins of the suburb of Garden Grove. Ontario: The big airport at Ontario is destroyed. Signal Hill: This area was home to numerous oil refineries which burned and devastated the whole area. Los Angeles Harbor: The harbor is a mess, though not as bad as expected. The half-sunken remains of a Navy destroyer, a freighter and several smaller ships are still visible, as well as a large passenger liner still lying on her side. A tug boat is up on the waterfront, clear in the middle of a street, pushed there by a storm this summer. The famed liner Queen Mary sits in the silty mud off the mouth of Los Angeles River in Long Beach, where she was beached following the nuclear attack on LA that damaged her. She is slowly being broken by wave action and the eroding of the sand, soon the vessel will snap under her own weight. March Air Force Base:This former SAC base is completely abandoned, having been looted to the extreme over the years. The desert has done a good job of reclaiming the airbase, and stubby cactus, pinion, and scrub brush have taken over the runways. Scattered across the base are a number of derelict, weather-beaten aircraft, including an F-104A Starfighter and several dozen four-engined bombers. The only planes that might even remotely be salvaged are three C-123B Provider transport planes which have been protected from the elements in hangers. Catalina Island: Some 20 miles off of the coast of Los Angeles, Catalina was far enough away from the Los Angeles-area strike to be unaffected by the blast effects, and the steady onshore breeze protected it from any fallout. The residents of Catalina have survived largely by fishing the surrounding waters and farming some of the nearby islands. What the islanders can't produce is acquired through selective (and clandestine) looting of the nearby city. The islanders’ fishing fleet consists of sixteen small sailboats, nine small motorboats, and eleven medium motorboats, all of which use alcohol fuel. The island is protected by the "Avalon Naval Guard", which is commanded by retired Navy Admiral John Dumas and composed largely of former Navy and Coast Guard personnel who had been living on Catalina. With the war, the military veterans living in Avalon and Two Harbors gravitated towards Dumas’ leadership. Although Dumas refused to take charge of the communities, he did agree to assume leadership of the hastily-raised militia that maintained order on the island and protected it from the few mainlander attacks that occurred. He also organized the salvage teams that brought back much-needed items from the mainland, including specially selected animals and the heavy weaponry used to defend the island. Admiral Dumas is now 72 years old, although he appears to be in his mid to late 40s due to his active outdoors lifestyle. He is a tall, rangy man who can often be found riding along with one of the horse-mounted beach patrols. Although he favors MilGov, Dumas has agreed with the Avalon City Council that the island should remain neutral and keep a low profile. The backbone of the Naval Guard is a five-vessel “flotilla”. The primary patrol craft are the gunboats Taurus and Sea King, both medium motorboats each armed with a .50-caliber machine gun and manned by a crew of six. The Taurus is based out of Avalon, while the Sea King is based out of Two Harbors. The gunboats are backed-up as necessary by the 12-man crew of the USCGC Point Francis, an 82-foot long Coast Guard patrol boat that had been visiting Avalon when the war occurred and now serves as the flagship of the Avalon Naval Guard. Another pair of medium motorboats (the Lady Macbeth and the Freeloader) that have been stripped down to the bare minimum are used primarily to bring back salvage from Los Angeles. These cargo vessels themselves are unarmed, but the 4-man crews are armed with revolvers and assault rifles. Both vessels are based out of Avalon, and are usually deployed together under the protection of the Taurus. Admiral Dumas has been showing some recent interest in the wreck of the liner SS Queen Mary, though he is keeping his plans a secret. The Mexican Army forces occupying Los Angeles do not possess any significant naval capability, so the Mexicans have been more-or-less ignoring (if they have not completely forgotten about) Catalina Island. 12) BETWEEN THE METROPLEXES Between the metroplexes of LA and San Diego are rolling, forested hills and farms. There are numerous survivor enclaves in this area. Lately the Indians on the LaJolla Indian Reservation have been moving out into the Cleveland National Forest to the north, claiming the land as their own. Palm Springs: A strong survivor enclave, this desert resort town survives because of the wealth of its mostly affluent residents. Soon after the chaos started, the town formed a militia to aid the police and barbed wire barricades and pit bunkers were erected along the roads leading into the town to discourage marauders and violent refugees. The Mexican invasion curiously bypassed Palm Springs, probably because the current mayor is Hispanic and has expressed a desire to live in peace with both nations. The town now has 50 full-time police officers and some 100 part-time militiamen who drill once a week and keep themselves armed and ready. Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base: The dominant feature of this area has to be this huge base. When the Mexicans invaded in 1964, the US military pulled back to the mountainous terrain of this base and dug in. During their initial push across the border the Mexicans wisely bypassed the enclave, realizing that it would be suicide to try and crack that nut. From the beginning, the units here could have easily moved north, but their position was so secure and homey that they have chosen to stay. MilGov Command in Northern California is content to keep them here, sure that one day they will link up with them when they finally decide to kick the Mexicans out. US Military at the camp: The main combat unit is the 3rd Battalion/70th Armored Regiment (900 men, eight M60 tanks and four M57 APCs). This was one of the 5th Infantry Division's tank battalions which was stationed at Fort Irwin supporting the Combat Developments Command's test and evaluation programs and formed the OPFOR training cadre at Fort Irwin Field Training Equipment Concentration Site, where it was known as the “60th Guards Motorized Division”. Much of the battalion stock was siphoned off as vehicle replacements for active units during 1963 and the unit hade to make do with trucks, jeeps and other vehicles. On May 1, 1964, the battalion received frantic orders to deploy to Chula Vista and hold San Diego against the advancing Mexican Army. The battalion never made it there in time, but did manage to meet the Mexican thrust just north of San Diego. They performed well despite a lack of heavy weapons and superior numbers of the Mexican Army. It held for a week, enabling significant numbers of civilians to flee northwards. The battalion then retreated to Camp Pendleton in a series of skillful rearguard actions. Here they took in the armored vehicles that were pooled at the base, distributing them between the battalion 's component companies. These included the tanks and APCs, along with dozens of Marine Corps Amtrak's and some 105mm artillery pieces. It prefers to be referred to as the 60th Guards Motorized Division, a title that the men are strangely proud of. Along with the armor, the forces here have a lot of wheeled transport and mobility is possible through a carefully husbanded supply of gasoline at the base. Other units "stranded" here include the 300-man 316th Engineer Battalion (Combat), which was providing relief to the Los Angeles area when the Mexican invasion occurred. Also here is the 33rd Marine Battalion (Provisional) (800 men), which was formed with excess personnel from several Marine Corps and Navy support units based at Camp Pendleton, as well as personnel from the former Marine Corps and Navy bases in the San Diego area that were evacuated here following the Mexican invasion. Operational air assets at Pendleton MCAS are limited to seven planes (three F-3D Skyknights, one F-9 Panther, three A-1 Skyraiders, and a small Caribou transport plane) and eleven helicopters (six UH-1s, three CH-43s and four CH-47s). Avgas is strictly rationed and only the Caribou and the helicopters fly on any regular basis. The garrison was augmented in late summer 1964 by troops from the Naval Training Center and Twenty-nine Palms base, who the Mexicans coming west through Arizona pushed back towards Los Angeles. The Marines and NTC troops managed to fight a very long, very bloody withdrawal south to Orange County, eventually reaching the Pendleton enclave. At the base's docks are three ships, one of them a LST, which sometimes make resupply runs north to San Francisco. Water is scarce, but rationing works, there are creeks in the mountains, and the Marine engineers eventually got the San Onofre power plant back online and their first customer was their desalination facilities. Much like the situation to the north at Bakersfield, it is quite obvious that the base's troops could easily roll over the Mexican Army elements attempting to siege them at anytime they wished. They choose not to because there is really no need to as yet. Escondido: Home of the Mexican 2nd Army's La Paz Brigade, tasked with watching and nominally besieging the Camp Pendleton base. The commander is Commandante Jorge Vasquez and he is under no pretenses who is besieging who. Manpower is 1,200 men, with one captured M41 Walker Bulldog light tank, three M8 armored cars, three M2A1 halftracks, six jeeps and numerous civilian vehicles. 13) SAN DIEGO The war: This vital port city and US military town was hit by two nuclear weapons during the night of October 28, 1962. The first came from the Russian Golf I class ballistic missile submarine B-103. The 1 megaton SS-N-4 SLBM targeted at the naval installations missed a little to the south and detonated in an airburst just offshore of Imperial Beach. The resulting shockwave pummeled Coronado, the Silver Strand State Beach, and miles of beachfront into radioactive dust before the angry waters of the Pacific, foaming in superheated steam, rushed in to fill the crater. A few hours later, a SS-6 ICBM came flying in from central Russia. The 3 megaton warhead ground burst inland, glassing over San Diego's East County into a broad, curving plain of smooth-cooled rock. Flash-lit grass fires and bursting natural gas lines devastated large portions of the north side of the city and from Imperial Beach, north to the Soledad Freeway, and from the Pacific east to the Sweetwater River, all was charred into rubble by the firestorms. Today: The eastern part of the city from La Mesa down through Lemon Grove to Chula Vista is a vast stretch of urban ruins and broken radioactive terrain with entire ranges of hills and small mountains that once characterized the region swept clean. What remains is slowly being reclaimed by nature, either as tangled mutant forests or vast tracts of blowing sand and ash. The actual bomb crater is still there, now half-filled with stagnant, radioactive water. Food and water are both fairly scarce, and the city's population has dwindled to about 12,000. Central San Diego, below Balboa Park is a confused mix of semi-ruined buildings, burnt-out shells, and vast rubble fields. Some of the old San Diego street grid remains, and desperate squatters still live in the shattered tenements atop Kyu-Do Hill. The twisted remains of humanity and life exist on a day to day basis here--ragged refugees farming open plots and scavenging the ruins for canned food. Ruthless downtown gangs, most armed only with hammers and crude spears, make this area their hunting ground, culling the weak. More refugees hide underneath the streets, finding its warrens of abandoned sewers and buried city sections a haven from the bandits and Mexican Army patrols. The West Mission Bay Causeway is down, blocking the entrance to Mission Bay and sometimes, when the tide is low, the twisted and forlorn arch of the Coronado Bay Bridge is visible, awash in currents of refuse and dead seabirds. The rest of Coronado and the bridge's onramps are completely submerged as far south as the amphibious base where the Mexican garrison is. The world-renown San Diego Zoo is now animal-free, the exhibits having become dinner for hungry survivors, and the empty buildings and paddocks are now home to refugees and bandits. At the city’s old heart, huge steel towers of former dockyards rise right from the waters like drowned skeletal giants. The Imperial Beach nuke played havoc with the Navy Fleet based here, and today the harbor is choked with the half-exposed, grounded remains of rusted and burned-out transports and warships and even two nuclear submarines. Tidal changes often reveal the presence of unexploded but leaking nuclear warheads from sunken Navy ships still submerged off the coast and throughout the city’s harbor. Invasion and occupation: If twin nuclear attacks weren't enough, in 1964, the Mexican 2nd Army crossed the border almost without a shot fired and occupied the city ruins. "Aztlan" rebels (Chicano nationalist gangs) in the southern suburbs took to the streets, attacking the remaining local police and other authorities, and welcomed the Mexican forces across the border The Mexican Army for a time tried to clean up the city before giving up. They collected untold thousands of the dead and disposed of them to cut down on disease, trucking them to a huge dumping ground south of Spring Valley and north of the reservoir and let the rats eat them. The area is still infested and the reservoir still provides water to many in the city, furthering the disease problem. The Aztlan gangs still control the southern edges of the city. They are armed with rifles, pistols, shotguns, grenades, and machine guns. They also have some artillery, and many shells looted from the military bases, but they don't know how to use them and the Mexican Army wisely won't teach them. Mexican enclave: Today, the bulk of the Mexican troops are holed up on Coronado Island at the old USN amphibious base. The main unit here is the Ensenada Brigade (800 men). The brigade has recently renamed itself the "Peoples' Army" in light of their new conversion to the cause of Hispanic justice, though only the officers are committed to the cause. The soldiers here are deathly afraid of the looming mass of the city to the east. Any day now, they are sure, the rabble hiding in the ruins will band together and swarm the island with their rakes and clubs and kill them all. They are a motley bunch, with mismatched uniforms and ancient Springfield carbines and they have just six large military trucks for transport. Despite their weaknesses, they have tried as best they could to repair the fences around the base and have dug in emplacements to guard the approaches. They operate an old former LST renamed the Spirit of May 5, and they use it occasionally to move supplies around. At North Island Naval Air Station is one surviving F-3H Demon fighter jet of VF-213 "Blacklions" squadron, now owned by the Mexican Army. There is ample fuel for the jet but it rarely flies anymore, the one qualified pilot refusing to fly for the Mexicans unless bribed with women and booze. Recently, some Russians have made their way across the Southwest and are looking for transport across the Pacific. 14) MOJAVE DESERT From the Sierra Nevadas south to the Mexican border, the arid Mojave desert of southeastern California is nearly empty today. Most of the smaller towns have been deserted and looted with the surviving residents moved into the larger towns along the rivers. Pine Valley: The Mexican Army operates several cantonments in the mountains west of San Diego. The biggest is here at Pine Valley, home of the Tepic Brigade (2,000 men and one M-8 armored car), formerly a component unit of the Mexican 2nd Army. In late August, the commander was murdered by a group of mutineers who support the Nationalist faction of the Mexican government. They have started to plan a move back to Mexico City to take control. The unit is a motley crew, even by 1964 standards--Cavalrymen ride with loot strapped to their saddles, captured Studebakers and Dodges tow light field guns, open Chevrolets hold tarp-covered mortars in their beds, and farm tractors haul great howitzers. Disciple has collapsed in the wake of the mutiny and former Tepic Brigade soldiers-turned-marauders can be found ranging from San Diego down to Baja and as far east as Las Vegas. Mount Palomar Observatory: Following the nukes, the facility was looted and trashed by punks, with the museum burnt and the telescope sadly riddled with bullet holes. The mountaintop complex is now the home of a survivor commune known as the "Stronghold". The area has become a fortified enclave of safety through the works of California State Senator Jellison and his staff, who were instrumental in pulling together the right people during the chaos and moving out to the observatory. They have cleared fields for food and control their boundaries well. They have a well-stocked armory that includes two field artillery pieces (though with no ammunition for them) looted from a National Guard training center. Their main goal for now is to be left alone to grow and prosper. Twenty-nine Palms Marine Corps Base: The 1,000-man Regimento Infanteria Activo Tijuana of the Mexican 2nd Army has occupied the base since late summer. The unit arrived here in June of this year, finding it abandoned, the American troops here having evacuated west for the Camp Pendleton enclave. The base, a graveyard of outdated military vehicles, equipment, and discarded wrecks, is fast becoming a trade city of sorts in the region, lying as it does along the routes to the west and east. The Mexicans have repaired the base's water-treatment plant and fortified the perimeter. Enough electric power has been restored to power the watchtowers and searchlights to guard the approaches, and fences of barbed wire, burned-out cars, sandbags, and even old crates and concrete road blocks surround the base buildings in an improved perimeter. The Mexicans sell off minor military items (old web gear, helmets, body armor, and sometimes arms and munitions) in exchange for water, foodstuffs, and other goods not readily available among the junk heaps. They also possesses a small fleet of refurbished jeeps and cars and have two old USMC World War II-vintage F4U Corsair fighters still in flying condition. Needles: Needles is a small town that has big problems. With almost no goods to trade, Needles is little more than a small tribal community, although one that believes in the high ideals of pre-War America. About 2,000 people still call Needles home. Recently they have been under siege by a large motorized gang known as "Red Horse". The gang is large but swift with a variety of vehicles and they sport some serious weaponry. Blythe: A town of 5,000 under the control of a 250-strong marauder gang called the "Patriots", holed up in an abandoned subdivision. Led by a Colonel "Texas Jim" Holland, formerly of the US Army Reserves, the gang is armed with assault rifles, grenades, and light mortars. Mojave: Home of the Mexican 2nd Army's Hermosillo Brigade which patrols I-40 east to Barstow and maintains a defensive line along the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The vehicles available to the brigade are spread thin and mostly concentrated on the eastern approaches to confront the US forces in Bakersfield. Manpower is 1,400 men, with two M8 armored cars, five M2A1 halftracks, six jeeps, and numerous civilian vehicles and unarmored trucks. Things are a little better around Mojave, mostly because of the protection of the Mexican military. There is some trade going on and Mojave still receives water from the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The town "officially" belongs to the Mexican Army, and pays taxes to it. This irks the townspeople to no end, but those taxes "pay" for the water that the Mexicans assure arrives, so nothing is done about it. Many farmers distrust any water coming down from what is left of the Aqueduct, since at one time it was heavily contaminated from nuclear fallout. The town is very organized and relatively populous because the local farmers have access to farm equipment, fertilizers, and pesticides. Barstow: To the east of Mojave is the town of Barstow. Local residents have started to call their town "The Hub", as Barstow has become the hub of trade in the area. A large community of traders, barterers, gamblers, and other interesting scum, Barstow is a stop-off point for caravans north to central valley enclaves, east to Las Vegas, and south to Los Angeles. At any time there are around 12,000 to 14,000 people in town. Police presence isn't strong, and the wide variety of people passing through ensures that there is always something interesting going on. The rail lines through town are somewhat preserved, but would require a great deal of maintenance and repair before they would ever pass rail traffic again. Desert training areas: Located north of Barstow, Fort Irwin Field Training Equipment Concentration Site and China Lake Naval Weapons Station are now just empty, barren lands. These large areas were used to train troops, but there is little evidence left that such took place. Most military hardware was parceled out by the US Army a year ago and the remaining forces shipped to the Camp Pendleton enclave ahead of the Mexican invasion. However, there are still some rusted-out tanks and armored personnel carriers, plus twisted wreckage of unknown origin to be found on both bases. Edwards AFB: Out amongst the dummy target tanks of the desert gunnery training area of the base there is a small enclave of survivors. They are New Age proto-hippies from Texas called the "Dreamers' Collective" who have settled in the area to practice their alternative drug culture. "The Lost Brigade": This group was originally comprised of US Army personnel cut off from their parent organization, the 91st Training Division, but now includes marauders, Mexican Army deserters and others with a total number near 300. This unit lives a semi-marauder existence, having lately fought both the Mexican Army and US government forces, but preferring to stay out of hostilities. Located mainly in the southeastern part of the state, small raiding parties can be found attempting to infiltrate into central California.
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#26
12-15-2009, 09:24 AM
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SECTION TWO: The Rocky Mountains (Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona)
IDAHO Idaho in 1964 is a wild frontier of valley cities, sleepy mountain towns, disorganized marauders and organized survivalist enclaves, really no more than bandits seeking fresh loot and plunder. The changing weather patterns over the past two years have made Idaho warmer but dryer, prompting many civilians to leave the area in search of more stable food supplies. Most of the federal military and civilian leadership went also, leaving the residents to fend for themselves. Today, many areas are populated only by scavengers and die-hard farmers and ranchers. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date----Type----Target---Notes 10/28/62 Atlas-F Little Lost River valley Missfire 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES 116th Armored Calvary Regiment--Twin Falls (800 men, 8 AFVs) ---2nd Battalion--Twin Falls ------Baker Company--Big Lost River valley (85 men, 3 AFVs) 3) THE SNAKE RIVER VALLEY Boise: Boise is still the capital of post-nuclear Idaho, with the highest population density and more businesses (legal or illegal) than any other city in the region. A bulk of the remaining Idaho National Guard is here, making the city secure and keeping the marauders out. The military here works closely with the men in Twin Falls to help patrol and clear out the Snake River valley. On the outskirts of Boise lies the old industrial district where before the war, large companies produced nearly everything from Coca Cola bottles to high-tech electronics in the now abandoned and run-down factories. The industrial district is inhabited by dozens of small looter gangs, ghouls and everybody who isn't accepted by the government of Boise. Neither law nor order are being enforced out here, giving everybody the freedom they want--if they can survive. Nampa/Caldwell: To the west of Boise, the Caldwell and Nampa areas are now in ruins and the domain of looters and gleaners from Boise. Bits and pieces of useful salvage can be found in the remains of these cities, as well as scattered diehards who refused to become refugees and the occasional militia patrol from Boise. Just this fall, a survivalist group from Oregon, known only as the "Fighting 655th", moved into Nampa. Mountain Home: Further down I-84, Mountain Home is now home of an outlaw gang called the "White Aryan Brotherhood" (locally known as the "Wabbies") who control everything in a twenty-mile wide circle, including the scant trade and travel along I-84. They are in conflict with the Boise defenders, but so far it has been a stalemate. The Wabbies have enslaved most of the locals who were still in Mountain Home to work the fields for them. To the west, the abandoned Mountain Home Air Force Base was once home to a complex of Titan I ICBMs. These missiles have long ago been sent on their way to targets in Russia and the empty silos are located in Bruneau, Oreana, and up near Boise. Rupert: Rupert is held by a survivalist group called the "Starfighters", most of whom are the remains of a pre-war militant gay commune that was in the area. They now patrol everything for a ten-mile circle and strictly control the food-producing fields in their area. Burley: Under control of a small marauder gang called the "Hellraisers". They are in a verbal war with the Starfighters in Rupert, who they consider to be subhuman. Twin Falls: Currently a mostly empty, heavily looted city known for holding a eastern cantonment of Idaho National Guardsmen. The remnants of the 116th Armored Calvary Regiment (800 men, 8 AFVs), headquartered before the war in Twin Falls, have made the camp a fortified enclave. They are working with the Boise government to clear the Snake River valley of bandits and marauders. To this end, a winter offensive has been mounted against a particularly worrisome band of marauders to the north. The regiment's Baker Company of the 2nd Battalion has moved north to set up defensive positions. See below. Challis National Forrest: The marauder band in question is called the "First Idaho Brigade", which is either a band of patriotic freedom fighters or a gang of cutthroat bandits, depending on your point of view. They are currently holed up in the dense woods around Borah Peak in the Lost River Mountain Range. They number some 300 effectives and include crack woodsmen, frank American Nazis, Republican farmers, meeting house fundamentalists, and radical libertarians along with opportunists and plain ol' thugs. They are led by Benedict Arnez, a WWII veteran and dreamer. They are well armed for a marauder band, having hit several armories and supply convoys over the last year, collecting several bazookas and light antitank weapons. They are aware of the Idaho National Guard's efforts to catch them, but are not too worried as they know the land and have the upper hand. The Hunters: Baker Company, 2/116th ACR (85 men, three AFVs) is currently spread along Highway 93, roughly from Mackay Dam north to Milner. They are preparing to more east once they have established winter bases in the Big Lost River valley. The Mackay Dam garrison is just a squad of nine soldiers and a single M113 APC. The Milner garrison is the bulk of the company with forty men and two M41 Walker Bulldog light tanks and two armored personnel carriers. The regiment's Aviation Company is based in Chilly, providing air support and rapid troop transport with the limited fuel stocks available. Current strength is four CH-21 Shawnee assault helicopters, and the Chilly base is defended by a security platoon with 26 men, an M41 Duster antiaircraft tank, a jeep and a truck. Compared to other areas of the country, however, aviation fuel is plentiful and these helicopters will prove to be the best weapon for hunting the marauders in the thick forests. 4) NORTHERN IDAHO In the rugged mountains of central and northern Idaho, the land is owned by a variety of survivalist and racist anti-government bands, mixed with hold-out ranchers and isolated Native American groups. There are also smaller out-of-state outlaw gangs wintering in and around the northern towns of Coeur d'Alene and Lewiston. Ketchum: Home to a platoon of 38 Idaho National Guardsmen from Boise which is up here searching for raiders. They are planning on leaving the area soon and returning to Boise before the weather turns bad. Own goal: On the night of October 28, 1962, a USAF Atlas-F ICBM was speeding northwest from the Lincoln missile complex in Nebraska towards Russia. Over Idaho the missile lost altitude control at 22,000 feet and began tumbling downwards. It impacted in the Salmon National Forest in the Little Lost River valley northeast of Arco, exploding in a 4 megaton atomic fireball, shattering the tops of many nearby mountains and setting the forest ablaze. As an effect of this wayward nuke, a survivalist compound burrowed into the crest of Blue Dome Mountain to the southeast was badly damaged. Fallout seeped in and killed off all the survivors, leaving a huge cache of food and weaponry for someone to one day find.
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#27
12-15-2009, 09:29 AM
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NEVADA
Nevada, never very populous before the war, is now even more empty. Irrigation once made semi-arid south Nevada fertile, but without water the land is rapidly returning to desert. The cities have largely been abandoned due to lack of food and clean water. The mountain ranges were home to ranches and drifters, and those that remain are secluded and fortified. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS None. 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES 777th Engineer Utility Company--Warms Springs (45 men) 3) LAS VEGAS The war: Once the glittering jewel of the desert, this city is now demolished. After EMP knocked out electricity for pumping water, and the chaos removed any chance of it being fixed, Vegas was doomed. The city’s economy wasn’t based on anything useful, and few people were likely to put any resources into keeping the place going. Everybody who could, jumped in their cars and headed out into the desert, where many of them perished in short order as they ran into huge traffic jams out in the middle of nowhere. Those who remained in the city faced the threat of neither food nor water for an extended effort at survival. Once the water ran out in the middle of the hot summer of 1963, the last remains of civil authority pulled out west, leaving the city to the scavengers and die-hards. The Mafia: The mobsters, rich with material and money, wisely evacuated Las Vegas as the chaos blossomed and moved south to where the water supply was more secure. By late 1962, most of the mobsters and their followers were out of the city. Today, they control the fertile area from Lake Mead down to Lake Mojave and Bullhead City, running it like a feudal state. Those left behind: After the police with their guns and the Mafia with their money and leadership pulled out, the city was quickly looted by the scavengers. Whiskey and money being the first to go, despite the fact that money was then worthless. The looters wrecked the place in the process, with lots of infighting amongst the rival scavenging groups. The remaining power in the ruins of Las Vegas now is "Sheik" Abdullah X. Shabazz. The Sheik was once a low-level thug in a Vegas crime family. When the mobsters pulled out, he was left to fill the power vacuum. Consolidating all the criminal elements left in the city, he quickly took over, kicked out the scavengers and now rules with a firm if benevolent hand. He has dreams of reopening the casinos one day for the crowds of tourists that he is sure will return. His second-in-command, Randall Flagg, was once his boss, the head of the family that the Sheik worked for. Now he is bitter and plotting revenge against the Sheik. The Sheik has formed a militia of a rag-tag bunch of former Hispanic dish washers and janitors turned soldiers. Most of his soldiers are teenagers, all full of wonder and awe at having the run of this once fabled city. Their weapons are mainly old small arms, civilian mostly, with a few M-14s, one handmade mortar and one .30 cal LMG mounted on a beat-up old civie pickup truck. Shabazz's hangers-on included some smarter types and they have helped him restore some limited electrical power to his palace in the Desert Mirage hotel. The motel is surrounded by sandbags and barbed wire. Frank Sinatra is still in town and he still gives two shows a week at the Stardust, vocal only, of course, but the locals still flock to see him. Despite his best efforts, however, with the lack of steady water and the dwindling supply of food, there is little hope for Shabazz's kingdom. I-15, running through Las Vegas and across the state's lower point, is now a derelict-choked shooting gallery. Gangs of outlaws prey on the scant traffic on the road, avoiding only the areas controlled by the local powers. The largest gang, called the "Nine Hells" and led by a warlord named "Caliban" has been looking to clear out the area of competitors to make way for expansion of "the chosen". Nellis Air Force Base: The Sheik's followers have also taken over the abandoned Nellis AFB to the north of the city and are currently trying to refurbish some aircraft that were left behind by the military when they left. These include three helicopters--two Huey gunships and a Navy Sea King--and three Nevada Air National Guard A-4 Skyhawks. They have had some success with restoring the planes, but only have one qualified jet pilot in the city. This man, a former Marine and PanAm pilot, is aware of his value to the Sheik and is maneuvering his way into a position of power within the Vegas scene. There are an estimated 150 to 200 of the Sheik's soldiers here now guarding his prizes. To the north of the base, the abandoned underground base beneath Nellis is now home to a group of Neoluddites who have renamed the base "Earthwomb". They basically just sit around and do drugs and wait for the spaceship to return for them. 4) REST OF THE STATE To the northwest, towards the capital of Carson City and Reno, things are a little better than they are in Vegas. In the wild high desert scrub lands that make up about 90% of the state, most towns, like Ely and Wells, are deserted and looted. Indian Springs Air Force Base: Abandoned and utterly stripped and looted, having been swamped by refugees and marauders that overran the remaining guards in 1963. Nellis AFB Test and Bombing Range: Now home to only one soldier, the rest having fallen prey to a rat-borne plague. Reno: Reno, with some 16,000 people, is a gambling city still run by gangsters and drug dealers. Four crime families control Reno today--the Mordinos, the Wrights, the Bishops, and the Salvatores. The Salvatores control the illegal weapons trade, the Mordinos control drugs, the Bishops deal with prostitution and the pornography industry, while the Wrights try to grab whatever is left. The street violence can be severe in a place like this and lot of the buildings have been burnt down or blasted. The main drag is pretty well cleared of rubble and garbage to allow some peaceful trade. It also serves as a base for the "Slavers Guild", a group that deals in Hispanic slave laborers. Without any police at all, Reno exists in a state of near anarchy, although a street-smart person could do very well here, especially if they found work with one of the crime families. Jackpot: Jackpot, on the Idaho border, was once a gamblers paradise. Many nature lovers would visit here to experience nature at its best and have a chance to win it big in the casinos. After the bombing stopped, the survivors, the majority of them being citizens of Jackpot, dug in for a long winter. Now Jackpot is a thriving community with a solid work force of 3,000 and plenty of food. Jackpot has survived as a thriving community mainly due to the Sawtooth National Forest (found in Idaho), located fifteen miles east of Jackpot, which is rich in wildlife and has a few clean fresh water streams still running. Ruth: Home to a growing “pseudo-society” of nearly 1,000 refugees, raiders, and slavers, all from a number of now-emptied towns and cities all over the state. The indistinct leadership of the town is currently converting a massive copper strip-mine on the town’s outskirts (almost five miles wide at its largest point) into a huge, open-air “tent city” for incoming refugees. The copper pit itself lies in the shadow of a great mountain, surrounded by old walls of stucco reinforced with metal plate, razor wire, and even the odd mine or two to keep out marauders. Nevada Nuclear Test Site: Well-known among the local survivors in southern Nevada are the so-called “Mercury Caves ”, located near Mercury in the heart of the nuclear test site. The caves are said to cover hundreds of miles underground beneath otherwise unassuming desert country. Wild stories abound of hideous, super-powerful creatures with batteries of mutations caused by the radiation of the tests that every now and again find their way out of the caves and into the desert to prey on outlying communities. Dust Devils: The central Nevada towns of Battle Mountain, Austin and Winnemucca have been recently overrun by a largish marauder gang called the "Dust Devils". This has resulted in large numbers of refugees immigrating eastward to the towns of Elko and Wendover. Population levels in these towns have reached dangerous levels. Warm Springs Prison: On the same day that the US and Russia were attempting to extinguish each other, the Nevada National Guard 777th Engineer Utility Company was in the southwestern Nevada deserts building transportation bridges over dry river beds. They worked deep in the inhospitable desert valleys, surrounded by a number of survivalist communities. Located directly north of their position on that day was a newly constructed federal prison at Warm Springs. In addition to housing many of the nation's criminals condemned to death, the prison contained light industrial manufacturing facilities. Shortly after the nuclear attack began, the Engineers, seeking shelter, took over the federal prison and expelled the prisoners into the desolate desert to complete their sentences. As the weeks passed, and it became obvious that they were on their own, they invited the nearby survivalist communities down from the mountains to join them and to help them build a new society. Because of each community's suspicions towards one another, times were difficult at first. As time nurtured trust, however, this settlement--which has come to be known as "Ranger Center"--grew to be one of the civilized strongest outposts in the state. Ranger Center even proved powerful enough to repel the bands of rancorous criminals who repeatedly attacked in attempts to reclaim what was once "rightfully theirs." The citizens of Ranger Center, after first believing that they were the only ones who survived the nuclear maelstrom, soon realized that communities beyond the desert's grip had also survived. Because they had such success in constructing a new community, they felt that for the time being it would be unsafe to seek contact with other survivors for fear of loosing what they have built. There are now only 45 members of the company still alive, but there are five times that many residents of the enclave. The base commander is named Whittington.
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#28
12-15-2009, 09:34 AM
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MONTANA
Wide open and traditionally wild, Montana missed out on most of the rampaging refugee of the chaos times but still suffered pains of famine and strife. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS None. 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES None. 3) NORTHCENTRAL MONTANA Great Falls: The largest city in the area, Great Falls is now home to about 7,500 people. The Great Falls International Airport is strangely in good shape, though not functioning, and there are half-a-dozen 35-passenger commercial airliners here rusting but in flyable condition. Northeast of the city is Malmstrom Air Force Base. Groundbreaking for the base's Minuteman I ICBM complex was in March of 1961, and some work was done on the silos and command bunkers before the exchanges in October. No missiles were ever at the base, but a lot of valuable support equipment is still here. Some of these concrete holes are now used as food bunkers and shelters by locals and Indians. Malone's marauders: The rugged foothills and wide plains of the Marias River valley north of Great Falls are the home range of a large band of White Supremacy survivalists, augmented with biker scum and mercenaries, led by a man named Malone. Malone was a former writer of pulp adventure books, mostly thinly veiled racist rantings, who had a vacation home up in these Montana hills. His fame, fortune and assumed skill made him flypaper for the dregs of humanity once the chaos came and he was quick to grow an army. Their HQ is in Conrad, with outposts stretching in a line from Fort Benton to the south, up to Harve, through Chester, Big Sandy and Box Elder to the east, Shelby to the north, and to Cut Bank to the west. Their numbers fluctuate but there are roughly 3,000 of them in various degrees of effectiveness. They are well-armed but have no heavy weapons save .50 caliber HMGs and light mortars. They are in constant conflict with local communities, the Great Falls militia and with encroaching Canadian forces from across the Saskatchewan border. 4) EASTERN HALF OF MONTANA The plains of the east have always been dry, and the drought has made it even more so. Nevertheless, population pressures have stabilized and food supplies remain fairly secure for the time being. Several towns in this huge expanse of rolling prairies and river valleys are home to burgeoning White Supremacy enclaves, the most notable at Glendive in the far east. There are, however, long stretches where there is absolutely no human life and every town is deserted and looted. There are small survivor communities scattered about, such as Harlowton, home to a few hundred survivors, and Lewistown, home to a rabble of scavengers and refugees about 2,000 strong and armed with hunting rifles and pistols. Jordan: Of special note in this area is the isolated town of Jordan, the site of a crash-landed but relatively intact B-52 strategic bomber and a repairable Beechcraft 18 light plane. The locals are in conflict with a local biker gang, and they are working to get the Beechcraft flyable, planning on loading the tail Vulcan cannon from the B-52, and smash the bikers from the air. The bikers go by the curious name of the "Road Knights for Jesus" and are led by the "Reverend" Peter Plitt. Needless to say, the group's actions are far from those of Christians. Billings: The largest concentration of survivors in the eastern half of the state is at Billings. Today the town supports some 8,000 people and have formed a militia called the "Montana People's Protective Association" to defend the surrounding ranch land from interlopers and refugees. Recently there has been conflict with another band of wandering city refugees who used to live in the area who want to return but are apparently carrying the plague. Canuck invasion: In recent months, the Canadians, mostly using relayed rail track, have been pushing into the northern edge of Montana as far south as Route 2. These cavalry troops are mostly from the Toronto Scottish Regiment based in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Their main purpose is to acquire food producing areas and loot. As they go, the isolated survivor communities along the border are given the choice of tribute or being "removed". Most have joined, but scattered anti-Canadian guerilla forces have started to spring up. 5) BITTEROOT MOUNTAINS This rugged forest of towering peaks and lush valleys is now a veritable garden of Eden populated by bears, survivalists and Native Americans. As early as 1963, the Flathead Indian tribe, the largest and most militant in the state, decided to expand from their reservations and take over territory in the western half of the state lost to the white man in the last century. Most of the whites in the area either fled east or were killed, though there are still pockets of them throughout the area. Today, the Flatheads occupy and maintain a virtual empire stretching north-south from border to border. This border is vastly undefined, however, and real control only extends to line-of-sight. Kalispell: Though they have abandoned the larger "white man's cities" within their territory, and they are mostly falling into disrepair, they have chosen Kalispell as their "capital". Abandoned during the post-chaos days, and then reoccupied from the south, the city is now home to some 6,000 Indians who hunt and farm the surrounding land and fish the large Flathead Lake to the south. Anaconda: One of the scattered white enclaves is Anaconda, where a marauder band called the "Sons of Hayduke", led by a Pete Jones from Dallas, Texas is barely holding on, having gathered together a collection of several hundred bikers, outlaws and vagrants who just wouldn’t leave. Butte: Another white enclave, where a wealthy Wyoming doctor has set up a clinic here in the ruins of the city. Despite him being white, this oasis is protected by all the surrounding villages and clans as the man is known for his sensitivity to the Indian peoples. The doctor pilots a World War I biplane. Glacier National Park: The Indians have long ago given up this area at the northern edge of their territory to the survivalists and it is now held by a collection of White Supremacy nuts and punks. Numbers are about 2,000, with about half of them being true die-head hardcore militant racists and the rest just hangers-on looking for food. They have complete control over the park, having driven everyone else out and they have the guns to back their claim up. The old park ranger's visitor center off Highway 2 is their fortified HQ and the various luxury ski lodges and hotels scattered throughout the park are local centers of power, each fortified and well-stocked. The Prince of Wales hotel is one, the Many Glaciers hotel (held by 70 men) is another. The Granite Park Chalet was once only accessible by horse or foot, but the survivalists have cut a road up to it. Other survivalist outposts include the towns of Essex, Polebridge, and the Logan Pass visitor center in the center of the park. As well, they have some 800 prisoners, half women and kids, from the surrounding areas under guard working fields and providing labor. With the Flathead Indian capital of Kalispell being only 30 miles or so from the park, the survivalists are anxious to eliminate this threat.
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#29
12-15-2009, 09:43 AM
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WYOMING
This state was strangely one of the most heavily nuked, having seen four mushroom clouds. The missile fields in the Cheyenne area were actual targets, but do to a quirk of Soviet technology, most of the ICBMs missed to the west. Today, Wyoming is nominally under MilGov influence, but really a wild-west throwback of outlaws and ranchers. The changing weather pattern has made parts of this region fertile again. About a quarter of the state is under direct MilGov control, but most of the controlled communities are fortified mines and facilities for the extraction of fuel from the local oil-shale. Not all of the facilities are complete by late 1964, but a small quantity of fuel is being produced and fed to the Colorado enclaves. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date Type Target 10/28/62 SS-7 Cheyenne 10/28/62 SS-7 Jackson Hole 10/28/62 SS-7 Bridger Peak area 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES The state's National Guard headquarters and nearly the entire command structure was in Cheyenne and was obliterated by the nuke hit there. As such, the state's military resources were slow to mobilize and most units were forced to rely on local control. Many units were consolidated and others disbanded, and others just melted away in the harsh winter of 1962 and the resulting epidemics. By 1964, the only remains of the Wyoming National Guard are a few scattered groups of artillerymen and construction engineers still maintaining the peace in isolated towns. These units are basically only loyal to the towns they live in and have little interest in the politics of the outside world. There are a also few MilGov advisors in Casper working with the government there, and a few small survey teams scouring the oil lands, but nothing coming close to an organized federal unit. Battery B, 3rd Battalion/49th Artillery Regiment--Casper (175 men) 3) SOUTHEASTERN WYOMING Cheyenne: The entire city of Cheyenne was essentially destroyed in the first few seconds of the war. Three Russian SS-7 ICBMs were targeted at the Atlas E ICBM fields surrounding the city on October 28, 1962. The 4th Air Division Headquarters at Francis E Warren Air Force Base to the NW was blasted by the first 6 megaton ground burst. The other two other SS-7s, targeted at the command bunkers for the silo groups in the area, each went awry due to guidance system failures, or perhaps caused by EMP interference from the first strike. One took the top off of Bridger Peak, (making the remainder still glow today), and the other fell on the "Hollywood of the Rockies", Jackson Hole. The damage to the AFB spilled over into Cheyenne and beyond. The destruction was absolute, nothing lives here, even after two years, and all is now just charred rubble, a belt of built-up, soot-blackened ruins, the land scoured and scorched. The ruins of the city itself are buried under a thin layer of black glass into which the silicates in the topsoil have been melted and the crater has through erosion and time created a large radioactive lake. The secondary effect of this was to poison the water supply for the entire area, further depopulating this corner of the state. Most of the small towns in the area were abandoned due to fallout from the strikes and the handful of survivors still living in the outlying areas have posted quarantine signs and are quietly waiting to die. An area roughly 120 miles in area has been declared dead land. The ICBM silos, saved being nuked but empty, are located at Chugwater, Lagrange, and Pine Bluffs. As well, one Atlas E launcher was located in Nebraska and five launchers were placed in Colorado at Grover, Briggsdale, Nunn, Greely, and Fort Collins. It is rumored that several of these missiles misfired and still sit in their silos, but one would assume that MilGov scouts have already checked this out. Laramie: Between plague zones to the south, the blasted radioactive wasteland to the east, ravagers and hostile groups of marauders of all types, Laramie is a very dangerous place. Due to its nature and layout, it is not easily defended and many groups have controlled it over the past two years. The slow exodus of people trying to escape this mess has made Laramie into a virtual ghost town. At this time it is home to several hundred weary survivors, under almost daily attack by gangs and bikers looking for loot and slaves. They are led mayor Brookerman, a former biology professor at the University of Colorado. He organized the survivors and got them up and farming and rounding up animals so they could feed themselves. Some help has recently arrived from the MilGov-supported enclave at Casper (see below). The Wyoming Territorial Prison in the city is currently a garrison building for a detachment of Casper Confederation troops detailed to help secure the area. Structurally sound, it serves as a haven for weary and often hotly pursued survivors. The troopers inside render as much aid as is possible, given the circumstances. The Laramie County Community College, though looted and trashed, still holds many books of value and over the last few months there has been an initiative to transfer books and other education material to the Casper State College. It has met with varying degrees of success as MilGov would prefer that Casper concentrate on oil and guns. Rawlins: To the west of Laramie, Rawlins is a haven for a large outlaw gang that terrorizes the southern part of the state. Led by "His Majesty Tybalt I, King of the Cats", they are several hundred strong and are armed with everything including mortars stolen from NG armories. They keep their slaves and women in the old 1903 prison in town. Saratoga: A town on the edge of the North Platte oil fields. Though the wells are no longer producing and the local refineries have been gutted and stripped, MilGov agents are here now working to reopen some. The marauders in Rawlins are being closely watched for interference. 4) WESTERN WYOMING The wild and rugged mountains are characterized by the strong will of the people still living here. Many small isolated mountain towns of hearty ranchers and mountain folk have banded together to keep secure and have collectivized all the surrounding ranches for the common good. People that live here are used to being on their own, and to making due with what they have. With time, patience, and a spirit of innovation, the people of this area have built new lives. Jackson: The wayward 6 megaton nuke that ground burst just outside Jackson Hole sufficed to effectively kill the entire populace of that resort town. Due to the nature of the mountains and the detonation characteristics of the warhead, however, there was very little actual physical damage done. Yellowstone National Park: The Catholic Cardinal for Denver was vacationing here when the bombs fell and was trapped deep in the backcountry. He has since founded "New Rome" in Yellowstone with a small Catholic survivor enclave. The Hot Spring still flows and is a needed source of natural clean water--the Catholics consider the water to be holy. The Cardinal believes he is holding the Christian faith in trust until communication can be re-established with Mother Rome and the Pope. 5) NORTHERN WYOMING The isolated plains of Northern Wyoming have given rise to several anti-social groups. White Action!: To the west of Meeteetse, up in the Absaroka Mountains, is the camp of a White Supremacy group called "White Action!". Counting dependents there are about 80-100 survivalist holed up here. They are all well-armed and train diligently to protect their claim. Buffalo: Buffalo has almost completely reverted to an Old West atmosphere and way of life. This change didn’t happen gradually, it was almost overnight. The 500 or so civilians still here are currently being held hostage by the "Sisters of Lesbos", an all lesbian biker gang. The bikers have several WWII-vintage Mk 19 mortars, some MGs and enough ammo to last through the winter. Sheridan: Approximately 75% of the original population of Sheridan has either died or left to seek relatives or other fortunes. Today it is the home base of a very strong White Supremacy-leaning marauder/biker group led by a man who calls himself "Satan". They number about 1,250, and the men and women share equal duties as fighters. The HQ is at a fortified ranch house to the north of the town, where there are always 50 to 75 of the most trained marauders acting as bodyguards for Satan. In the town are several hundred slaves. Casper: The breakdown in social order with its accompanying looting and chaos, just didn’t happen in Casper. These people were tough, they quietly took stock of their situation and started over. Once it was clear to the civic leaders that the world had been destroyed and they were on their own, they made their own plans to survive. The town was home to the Wyoming National Guard's Battery B of the 3rd Battalion/49th Artillery Regiment with it's accompanying armory, and these men helped keep the peace and security in the early days of the chaos. Organized by the NG leaders, a large number of vehicles were mustered together for a trip to Camp Guernsey Military Reservation to the west at Guernsey. As the largest ammo and equipment store house of military equipment in the area, it was the logical first move. After ferrying over as much as they could, they began “enlisting” the remaining staff of Camp Guernsey to come to Casper to help them. Today, the Battery has some 175 men under arms and the command structure works closely with the civic leaders to keep the area safe. Thankfully they didn’t have much refugee traffic come through during that first winter, the radioactive band at Cheyenne kept refugees from the Denver area away. The city began to gather the small towns surrounding it into a protective association, building anti-marauder outposts in a picket ring around the city. Sometime in 1963, the locals started calling it the "Casper Confederation" and the name stuck. Today, Casper is a little known paradise on the plains. Surrounded by empty lands on all points of the compass, most trading is done within a hundred mile radius and as such costs of goods are very reasonable. MilGov agents from Colorado Springs realized early that Casper's strength would be invaluable to any attempt to reclaim the state. A flow of arms and material to the militia here began in early 1964, and Casper returns the favor by helping MilGov to reopen the coal and shale oil fields in it's area. Wind River Indian Reservation: Now completely deserted. The reasons for this are unknown to those non-Indians in the area. There are any number of theories, but no actual proof. On the rare occasions that the Casper Confederation or others have attempted to learn the reason, their spies haven’t returned.
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#30
12-15-2009, 09:52 AM
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UTAH
Salt Lake City had no real military value and the ICBM hit came as something as a surprise to the residents of the state. There is a general feeling amongst the most pious that the nuclear strike was God's wake-up call to the Mormons, a visible show of His displeasure with the secular way the faith had been turning in the 20th century. Despite the horrendous damage and loss of life, many will tell you that the nuke solidified the faithful into the dominant power that they are today. With their largest city in flames, Utah has become a virtual religious police state to survive. The true power in Utah is and always has been the Mormon church. They were amongst the best set up of all of America's social groups, since are a hostile, paranoid lot that are determined to survive, and part of their doctrine called for each member to keep a year's supply of food on hand. The Church organized the citizens quickly following the destruction of Salt Lake City, and began setting up local militias and food distribution centers throughout the state. All remaining federal offices, property, power-generating facilities, mines, and other industrial facilities have been taken over by the state government until the present emergency is over (if ever). Food, clothing, electrical power and petroleum are strictly rationed, with the lion's share going to native Mormons. Most of the elected officials in Utah were church members, and slowly the state government was replaced by the church elders. Acting on tacit approval of Governor George Dewey Clyde, the President and Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints declared the former state of Utah the "Holy Mormon State of Deseret" in an official ceremony in 1963. Strong pressure was put on the remaining gentile population of the area to convert or emigrate. Utah has become a militant theocracy, with a strict set of rules based on the Book of Mormon similar to that of Brigham Young in the early days. Alcohol and tobacco are forbidden, but polygamy is making a comeback. Outsiders are welcome, but only if they adhere to the religious laws that govern the area. Utah has a strong military, but so far have shown no interest in expanding their territory. Utah recognizes the authority of the military government in Colorado Springs but acts under it's own agenda nearly all of the time. MilGov has made assisting Utah’s government to recover a top priority for 1964. Despite what MilGov thinks, however, Utah doesn’t need their help at all. With their high level of organization, security and forward thinking, even a blind man can tell that the "Mormon Nation" will most likely survive better than any other group in the country. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date Type Target 10/28/62 SS-7 Salt Lake City 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES None, though in reality the entire Mormon Nation is an organized military force, armed well enough to keep virtually any army at bay. 3) SALT LAKE CITY/PROVO/OGDEN The fist of God: Late on October 28, 1962, Salt Lake City was nuked by a Russian SS-7 ICBM. The 6 megaton warhead was a low-air burst which blossomed above North Temple Street in the northern part, obliterated the airport, the monorail interchange, and most buildings almost to the Salt Palace and the State Capitol. Today the northern half of the city is a devastated graveyard. Fire-blackened, twisted metal skeletons that had once been skyscrapers rise like ghosts, and interspersed between them are the ragged stumps of what were smaller buildings. Vehicles of every description litter the highways and roads throughout the urban area. The earth surrounding the actual crater has been melted and fused to glass and is visible from the air. Despite the damage from the nuke, the area is still home to some 1,000,000 citizens spread out across the northern third of the state from Provo to Logan. Much damage has since been repaired through prayer and twelve-hour shifts by Mormon workers. The northern ruins are now prowled by a number of gangs, including an ultra-violent one led by a man called "Dead Head", because of his badly scarred face, a result of radiation. Overflow: The nuke-damaged northern areas of the city are slowly becoming inundated by a greatly expanded Great Salt Lake that has risen far out of it's normal lake bed due to the nuclear autumn and the heavier than normal snowfall in the Wasatch Mountains and is on it's way to filling the prehistoric lake bed of Great Lake Bonneville. Jagged skyscrapers jut out of the salty water and the Salt Palace is half-inundated. The golden treasures salvaged from the Palace have been moved into undisclosed safe places in the mountains. Leadership: As noted, the leaders of the church are in complete control over most of the state's population and resources. The "Deseret White House", the HQ of the Mormon Nation's leadership, is located deep beneath the Wasatch Mountains near Granite in the eastern suburbs of Salt Lake City. The massive repository of Mormon genealogical records buried in a vault in Big Cottonwood Canyon is just as important in light of the religion's emphasis on genealogy. Army: The urban area was also home of a large MilGov enclave centered on the 4th Infantry Division, which was moved down here in mid-1963 from Seattle with the difficult mission to re-establish relations with the Utah state government. After almost a year of trying, it was obvious that MilGov wasn't going to have much luck here and the unit was pulled out and moved south to Phoenix (see that state). Natives: To the east and north of the cities are a couple of small Indian tribes trying to eke an existence out of hunting, primitive farming and trading. Mormon townsfolk trade the Indians medicine, technological trinkets, ammo, metals for produce and meats. Relations are good, both sides trust each other and there are even some intermarriages--much to concern of the Mormon church. Essentially, townsfolk pity the Indians a little for their hard and primitive lifestyle, and the Indians are amused at townsfolk trying to survive in the cities, but neither side is hostile to each other. Baptism: There is a rumor going around the western United States (and soon the rest of the nation) that the salty waters of the Great Salt Lake can wash away the keliods and scarring of radiation burns. While this is totally untrue, it has been a beacon of hope for so many people. For the better part of a year now, trickles of radiation-poisoned refugees, mostly terminal cases, have been coming into the state to cure themselves beneath the waters. The Mormons, always forgiving people, have set aside the northeast shore of the expanding lake as a refuge for these people. Although the Utah government officially is not helping them in any organized way, many altruistic Mormons are doing what they can to ease their suffering. 4) NORTHEASTERN UTAH The Last Resort: This huge ski resort, located in the Ashley National Forest north of Vernal, is now the home of a growing number of Utah's anti-Mormon thugs and criminals. These punks were driven out of the cities and have found a home up here in the mountains. They are led by a quadriplegic dwarf named the "Poet", an escaped ex-insane asylum inmate who is a genius at organization and leadership. His real name is Ezekiel Sherman Dustan, from Pennsylvania, who was on the western leg of a multi-state crime spree when the bombs fell. The resort has limited electrical power, thanks to several alcohol-burning generators that the Poet has rigged up. He has gathered a considerable army of former street criminals and thieves, about 1,000 by now, and more are straggling in every week. Fortunately, they are more concerned with drinking and killing each other in duels than causing any trouble for the Mormons. 5) SOUTHWESTERN UTAH The Saint George-Washington-Hurricane area is now ruled by an ultra-fundamentalist Mormon sect under the watchful eye of Prophet Malcolm Briggs. His lieutenants rule over the individual towns in his name, but overall command is in Briggs' hands. Life under the fanatical religious rule is tough and brutal, civil rights are unknown, the citizens being treated as slaves, even the professing Mormon ones are subject to arrest. Oppression and suppression are common facts of life as Briggs tries to "purify" the populace of secular thoughts. Naturally, many resisted at first. Brutal actions soon stopped such resistance, and now the people live in constant fear. Only a few continue to resist, under the banner of the "Southern Utah Liberation Front", but they are hampered by the size of the Prophet's forces and by their lack of equipment and training. The Mormon leadership in Salt Lake City is aware of Prophet Briggs' actions, but as long as he stays away from the cities and keeps proclaiming the faith (now matter how twisted his interpretation may be) they are closing their eyes. Cedar City: Now a small, wretched, dirty, rubble-laden pest-hole full of bitter, frightened people. Its seeming abundance of junk piles and ruins, as well as a huge junkyard set against its northern wall has earned Cedar City the nickname "The Heap" by it's inhabitants.
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