How was the project supposed to work?

[kato13]

I think the greatest amount of information on how the project was supposed to work can be found in the prime base module, but there are still huge holes in exactly how the wakeup and recovery was expected to work.

We know there is the "5 year" plan, but what flexibility is there on this.

Do agricultural teams wake in the spring?

Have recon teams been awake for a while before a majority of specialty teams would be awoken? Are the recon/mars teams supposed to provide escorts to specialty teams.

Would the C-130s at Prime be used for strategic recon before a majority of teams or even the regional bases are awoken?

Do regional bases make local assessments as to what teams they need and are these relayed to prime for wakeup orders?

These are just a few of the questions I have.

Has anyone come up with a plan or timeline for if things actually worked?

[mikeo80]

How I read about Morrow Project start up activities comes mostly from the Prime Base Module. IIRC, about 2 years after The Day, (apologies to Alas Babylon) Prime sent a few recon teams out into the surrounding area. Then, once apprised of what was happening, decided to build the "model" for other teams to learn from and adjust accordingly.

1) What the HELL where they thinking??? This is Prime!! You are uncovering THE most critical part of the Project.

2) The idea did seem to work at first.

3) Krell operatives wandered in. NOT GOOD. See point 1.

4) We all know what happened next. Not just a tactical nuke nearby, but a BIO weapon that destroyed PRIME.

Most games I have been in or have run, the team builds very slow. AND AWAY FROM SUPPLIES!!! Who is going to notice that one or two of the team are not there TODAY??? If they are missed, then a quick "white lie" will work. Checking out nearby water/farming area/raw materials/etc.

If I had been in charge, Yes a model community is a good idea. But NOT on the Prime doorstep!!! Very easily could have been 20-30 clicks THAT WAY. I also would have made the contact ONE WAY. From Prime to colony. No return to base just in case of illness. Who knows what has mutated and how.

As far as the C130's....

I really am of two minds. (at least :D)

Yes, a strategic air reserve can be used for so many things.

No, not at Prime. Somewhere else. Prime has too many other duties.

I am going to get off of the soap box for now. I need to find my copy of Prime Base. When I first read it, I had QUESTIONS!!!!! I will air more questions later.

My $0.02

Mike

[ArmySGT.]

I am with Mike080.........

Opening Prime and starting an experimental survivors community right on their front porch was monumentally stupid.

Not the oops I locked my keys in the car kind of stupid but, the go sit in the corner, you are not allowed sharp or pointy things kinda stupid.

I would have expected that Prime would be running on going, round the clock, sig int and Elint operations from listening posts situated around the areas they wished to rebuild first. At Day + 2 years the Morrowsat would have been brought online as the ash, dust, and smoke should have relatively cleared. Then a worldwide recon mission would have begun listening for transmissions and looking for pockets of artificial light or agricultural activity.

At Day + 5 years I would expect the Recon elements and Combined Group Leaders would have been awakened to make local on the ground assessments of infrastructure and survivors. Comms would be by radio or data burst transmission.

At Day + 6 years the Recons and the Combined Group Leaders have made their assessments and have used some or all of the Caches for the food and expendable assets like tires and petrol products. The Combined Group Leader may at their discretion have accessed an Automated Depot for resupply and held the caches as reserve. The Combined Group Leader then begins bringing their Groups out of cold sleep en mass. Individual teams may have been awakened by the Group Leader as operational necessity dictates such as a Medical Team to assess biowarfare plagues or an Engineering Team to safely idle a nuclear power plant and keep the cooling pond functioning.

At Day + 6 years the Regional bases are awakened from cold sleep by a signal from Prime that the Combined Groups in their region have awakened. The Regional Base uses their own MARS and Recon for the area surrounding themselves and the Base engineers prepare and airfield for C-130s and begins the repair of roads and bridges to the Regional base. Pre-fabricated structures are assembled outside the regional base where supplies brought from the base are staged, assembled, and packed for distribution on pallets for delivery where these are needed. Dedicated PsyOps/Civil Affairs/Liaison teams depart region bases with dedicated comms teams to begin the integration with surviving civil government.

[mikeo80]

The only thing I would differ from Army Sgt. is at Day + 2 years IF there are clear areas, get A recon team into the area to look it over. IF the area is viable, THEN consider releasing other assets. Other wise, move to next area.

Let's be cynical about this for a moment. At Day + 5 years, my view is 1% of the original population is still alive. At Best. One of the original ideas of TMP was to save as much pre war knowledge as possible. IMHO, getting to that professor of nuclear science at Day + 2 years is a lot more helpful then him/her dead at Day + 3 years. Also, the sooner you can get teams into libraries, the more knowledge you save. Computer systems, especially the farther out you push The Day, are more and more fragile as far as EMP. BUT maybe some of the more secure data farms MIGHT be usable. More Knowledge. TMP is more likely to run into surviving USA military resources. TMP NEEDS all the help it can get. So do the surviving resources. Possible synergy of effort.

Let's look at food. Any where near blast zones, canned food is probably contaminated. But there are ware houses in areas that are not radiated. YES, some will be empty/burned/whatever during the survival frenzy. The more you can salvage now, the more you can save later. The same applies to medical supplies, water supplies, oil/gas/kerosene, clothing, etc..... The more you get now, the better tomorrow looks.

Any surviving industrial capacity SHOULD be investigated and categorized for preservation. A working (very slowly) oil well in Northeastern Pennsylvania is worth a lot NOW!! A surviving nail manufactoring plant WILL be needed for future development, but maybe not right now. Can we (TMP) mothball this factory? Who do we have on staff that knows about nails and how to make them?

Time to get off soap box again. I'll be back with more thoughts.

My $0.02

Mike

[stormlion1]

I think if you look there is probably a Cold war era Oplan for all of this we could find and modify to fit a Morrow Project Campaign. There were Oplans for pretty much every scenario I would think.

[ArmySGT.]

I think 5 years is in order to let the biowarfare plagues die out. I am not a believer in "universal antidote" though I do understand the in game necessity for it. Any Project Member that came out of cryosleep would be dead within weeks when they encounter a carrier.

Actually, canned food is good to go. The alpha and beta particles will decay in a few days and gamma won't do anything to the contents. Just wash with warm soapy water. :)

I would think that the Project isn't counting on Libraries and Universities being intact within large and medium urban areas. Probably best to relocate survivors to very rural locations and give aid to community colleges and state colleges.

All those supplies can't be counted on. Sure it would be a major boon but, a few years with fire departments and most is probably lost to enormous fires that sweep through.

[ArmySGT.]

What to do with the refugees?

If I was planning for the Project............

I would have a premade support facility buried and with a staff in cryosleep. Someplace rural but not an arduous journey from a civilian population center.

This would be like the cylinders for Prime Base. Just one cylinder though. The staff would not be large (20-30 max) and would be responsible for power generation, sanitation, and medical care. The staff would bring to the surface modular huts (quonsets?) and would emplace the utilities to make a habitable small town. Bring the people to the resources by rail, by bus, and advertise by AM radio, finally with recon emplacing road signs that lead to the "Morrow Village".