Thread: Project Bases
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Old 06-27-2017, 07:56 PM
dragoon500ly dragoon500ly is offline
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Default Agriculture Base TA-14

Agriculture Base TA-14, from Fall Back!
By John Duke, a Morrow Project Module from Timeline.

Agriculture Team A-60 has seven members. The team has a veterinarian, a botanist, a historian, a biologist, and ecologist, a zoologist and an agronomist. The veterinarian doubles as the team’s medic. Their assigned vehicle is the Ranger MPV.

Agriculture teams have specialized bases for their use. These bases were essentially large warehouses, full of farming materials such as sacks of uncontaminated grain and seeds, stocks of scratch plows and other nineteenth century farming tools, fusion powered heavy equipment, fertilizers, insecticides, home canning supplies, books on farming, decontamination, food preservation, and more. The unique thing about an Ag base is the fact that it has farm animals, in hibernation.

The entire base is buried underground, built under the cover of digging up and decontaminating an old chemical waste dump. If it were above ground the base would be as tall as a three-story building. The ceilings in the rooms are five meters high and the ceilings in the bays are ten meters high, with doors that reach the ceiling. The ceiling in the bays are equipped with a series of mobile cranes and tracks running throughout the fodder bay, the vehicle bay and the freeze tube bay.

FACILITY LAYOUT

A. FODDER AND FEED BAY: this room opens into the vehicle bay and contains six months of feed for the frozen animals. Corn, hay, soybeans, and alfalfa are all stored for the long term. The supplies are stored in 20kg bags, packed in air-tight bins filled with nitrogen gas. These bins can be loaded onto and transported by either the dump trucks or the 2.5-ton trucks. These trucks are located in the vehicle bay. Each truck can hold three bins.

B. FERTILIZER BINS: The room next to the fodder bay contains bins of various fertilizers. The majority of the bins contain calcium (in the form of lime), nitrogen (in the form of urea), phosphorous (in the form of ammonium phosphate) and potassium (in the form of potash). All of these substances are solid granules, can be spread on a field using common farm machinery.
The other bins contain smaller amounts of commercial fertilizers such as sulfur, magnesium, iron, zinc, boron, molybdenum and chlorine. These are used in small amounts compared to nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous and calcium. These are also stored in sacks of granules.

C. GRAIN BINS: This room opens into the vehicle bay. It is the grain bin storeroom. The bins contain sacks of wheat, corn, alfalfa, soy, grass and peanuts, all ready to be planted. There are also a smaller number of bins full of vegetable and fruit seeds.

D. HAND TOOLS: These are the stocks of tools to be given out to civilians for subsistence agriculture. There are hundreds of shovels, hoes, spades, rakes, sickles, scratch plows, harness kits, axes, home canning supplies, churns, spinning wheels and other farm tools. Subsistence agriculture is very labor intensive, but these tools would make it easier and would fill the gaps left by the loss of large-scale machinery.

E. BOOKS: Boxes of “how-to” books on farming, gardening, decontamination and homesteading ready to be given out.

F. INSECTIDES: These chemicals are stored as solids, but must be made into liquids before spraying. Each compound is species-specific for one of the insects that prey on common crops in this area. Each of these poisons is as safe for the environment as possible. The members of A-60 have had training in the safest means of applying them.

On modern farms, insect control is vital. Without some form of pest control, food harvests could be expected to drop anywhere from 20-60%. In addition, there may be times when an entire crop is in danger of destruction if the insects are not controlled by any means possible. In the worlds envisioned by the Council of Tomorrow, every harvest would be needed to combat starvation.

Chemicals like DDT, which have given insecticides a bad name, were not stocked. Only the safest, most ecologically sound pesticides were stores, with instructions to use them only if absolutely necessary.

The Agriculture teams are all knowledgeable about other, more organic methods of insect control, but the planners knew there would be times when there was no other option to chemical spraying.

G. WATER TANK: Although the base has a well underneath, this tank was filled with several thousand gallons of pure water, just in case. It is connected to the plumbing system. There is a water treatment system in the utility room. The treatment system is fusion powered and operates independently from the base’s power supply. The unit can be disconnected from the plumbing system.

H. RAMP: A gentle ramp to the second floor.

I. VEHICLE BAY: While the animals in freeze tubes take up a lot of room, they are only a small part of TA-14. The vehicle garage is the largest part of the base. Not many vehicles are here, but they are all large machines, larger than a V-150. There are 2 combines, 2 planters, 2 8-row cultivators, 2 tractors, 2 large dump trucks, 2 DED earthmovers (for use as forklifts among other things), 2 specialized scrapers and 2 2.5-ton trucks. All of these vehicles are fusion powered versions of commercial designs. Also included are 10 flatbed wagons. These are the standard 4-wheel flatbed wagon with stave sideboards used by farmers throughout the U.S.

The combines are harvesting machines set up to harvest most grain and seed crops, such as wheat, soybeans and alfalfa. A combine can even harvest corn, remove the husks and shell the gain from the bobs all in one process. The planters are designed to handle a variety of seeds and can plant them at any desired depth and spacing. A planter is essential for efficient use of seed, sine it puts the seed at just the right place, allowing nearly all of them to be grown and harvested. A cultivator is a large machine used for weeding huge areas of land at one time. The tractors are all-purpose machines which can be used to pull and power a large variety of farm implements including gang plows, mowers, hay balers, harrows and sprayers. Two of each of these attachments are stored in the vehicle bay. It was expected that other attachments could be salvaged from among civilian equipment. The two large scrapers operate by scrapping off and removing a preset amount of topsoil, grinding it up and throwing it into a dump truck. This was included to remove any soil that was heavily contaminated with fallout or bio-weapons. Decontamination teams have similar equipment and the means of separating the radioactive particles from the rest of the soil, and for sterilizing the bio-weapons. The 2.5-ton trucks are essentially the same as the trucks in Riverton. These trucks are armed with a .50-caliber machinegun.

There aren’t very many of these machines for the area that A-60 was supposed to cover, so 100 IC-to-fusion conversion kits were stored. These kits include vehicular fusion packs of several sizes and the power systems required to convert a civilian internal combustion engine to fusion. It was assumed that large numbers of civilian farm machines would be converted to fusion, in order to make the farmers more self-sufficient and efficient. There are also 300 kits for converting gasoline engines to run on ethanol or methanol.

The vehicles here are high-capacity machines, capable of working a large amount of acreage per day, ten or twenty times faster than a human being using hand tools. It was intended that the Ag team, while the process of converting civilian equipment, would travel from farm to farm using these machines on as large an area as possible, as quickly as possible, and then move onto the next.

J. ANIMAL FREEZE TUBE BAYS: The Council of Tomorrow expected that after a war, and the attendant fallout and food shortages, many farm animals would have perished. Whether due to the fact that they would be grazing on fallout contaminated fields, killed for food by starving people, succumb to biological weapons, or perish from a lack of food in a world that would have little to spare, the Council assumed that five to ten years after a war, most farms would have lost most of their animals.

Animals are essential to a self-sufficient farm. Cows provide milk, cheese, meat, leather and fertilizer. Horses are draft animals capable of plowing a field or being used for transportation without petroleum. Pigs are essential for recycling food waste into fertilizer and meat. Chickens provide eggs and meat. Sheep provide wool and mutton. Cats eat rats. Dogs guard flocks from wolves, coyotes, weasels, men and other assorted carnivores. Without farm animals, the survivors would find subsistence farming nearly impossible.
As it turned out, the Council of Tomorrow was correct. Very few animals survived the first decade after the War. Even 150 years after the War, areas that should be very productive agriculture regions are on the edge of starvation and poverty, largely due to the scarcity of domesticated animals.

Since the early prototypes of the freeze tubes were developed using animals as subjects, it wasn’t difficult to freeze farm animals. The first successful hibernation and awakening was performed on a dog. In 1963, Morrow scientists were more confident about to awaken a cow than a human. As time passed, of course, the process was perfected. A large number of the most common and useful domesticated animals were put into cold-sleep and stored in Agriculture bases. Ninety percent of these animals were female, for obvious reasons. To supplement the animals, frozen sperm and artificial insemination equipment were stored. The plan was to have the Ag teams give out animals to as many different farms as possible, get them all pregnant by artificial insemination, and start producing a healthy next generation as soon as possible. With any luck at all, the animals would be able to continue reproducing themselves and reestablish the populations within a short time. Beyond the fact that stored sperm eliminated the need for freezing male animals, it also allowed for a larger genetic base than would have been possible using only the small population of animals frozen.
Since it was possible that the high radiation levels immediately following the War might sterilize or damage the genetic material of surviving local farm animals, Morrow planners recommended using only the stored sperm for reproduction.

There are 50 cows, 50 horses, 100 pigs, 100 sheep, and 100 chickens. The freeze tubes are stored on racks reaching the ceiling. One of the mobile cranes is required to bring the freeze tube down in order to wake the animal. There is an emergency personnel exit in this room, similar to those found in MP bolt-holes.

K. FODDER BAY OVERHEAD: All overhead areas have tracks for the mobile cranes.

L. BUNK ROOM: The living quarters of the base. Since TA-14 was essentially a warehouse, the living quarters are very spartan. Two bunk rooms with four bunks each. The base is not as uncomfortable as Delta Base, but neither is it all that pleasant. For one thing, the base is unheated, and is kept at nearly 60F year around. The living quarters have the bare minimal of furnishings and equipment.

M. BUNK ROOM: The same as L. except it contains a hidden door that accesses the corridor leading to A-60’s bolt hole.

N. KITCHEN: A small kitchen adequate for producing simple meals. Contains a refrigerator, stove, sink, counter and cabinets.

O. DAY ROOM: Contains a small table and 4 chairs.

P. LATRINE: Here is a small bathroom with sink, toilet and shower.

Q. MISSION COMMAND: There are two desks, one with a computer terminal and one with a radio. Both desks have drawers with common office supplies. The radio has an encoder for raising C-13, A-60 or any other team, if the designation and code signal is known. The computer has a complete list of inventory. The computer can run other programs when they are loaded. There disk drives that will accept 5.25in, 3.5in or Morrow vehicular tapes. A huge number of agriculture-related reference books are stored on disk and kept in the office. The chairs are fairly comfortable office chairs. There is an empty set of shelves on one wall. This office was intended to be used until the warehouse was empty.

R. GENERAL STORES: Equipment and supplies for the living quarters and office as well as spare parts for base equipment.

S. MICROBIOLOGICAL AND LAB STORES: Rhizobium, semen, germ plasma, algae, fungi, agar and other types of important microbiological cultures were freeze-dried and stored here. The cultures were flash-frozen and dehydrated and stored in vacuum -sealed air-tight containers, allowing to be stored indefinitely. Nearly all the cultures are still viable, and can be utilized again by the addition of water. The bacteria and fungi samples can be growth cultured to increase stocks and they will grow very quickly in nutrient broth or agar, providing nearly unlimited amounts of these important cultures.

There are also a large stock of important lab equipment, chemicals and other supplies for the labs in this room.

T & U. LABS: These two rooms are small laboratories, one for plants and microorganisms, one for animals and fish. Primarily for use by the Ag team, the labs have everything needed for soil and water sample analysis, biological, microbiological or botanical investigations, animal research, development of hybrids and applied work on eradication of blights and diseases, but the labs can also be used for other purposes. For instance, part of one lab is set up to do biopsies of dead animals, but can be used for surgery on humans or animals. There are enough standard chemicals and pieces of equipment to do chemical analysis and limited production. The rows of tanks and lights can be used to grow a garden for food or research. The refrigerators can be used to keep all sorts of things cold, just as the incubators can keep all sorts of things warm. Among other things, each lab has a Science computer (described in Lonestar), refrigerators, ovens, incubators, microscopes, centrifuges, spectroscopes, autoclaves, an electron microscope and an Expanded CBR Kit.

V. UTILITY ROOM: Contains the heavy equipment for the base environment. The water treatment plant, the fusion power plant, electrical relays, water pipes, air ducts and filters, internal environment monitors, air tanks and laundry machines can be found here. There is also an emergency personnel exit here.

AA. CORRIDOR: Corridor leading to A-60’s bolt-hole. Has a hidden door at one end leading into Bunk Room M. The other end opens into the team’s bolt hole.

AB. BOLT-HOLE: This is A-60’s bolt-hole. This room contains only freeze tubes and associated support machinery.

Can't include the map as my scanner is kaput, but this will give you idea of the concept.
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The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
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