twilight 1964

[RN7]

COLORADO

Despite the nuking of Denver, overall damage from radiation and famine was not as severe as other areas, and the state still has about 70 percent of its pre-war population. The rich mineral wealth of the Rocky Mountains, combined with a good agricultural base in both grain and livestock, has made Colorado a keystone for MilGov's recovery plans. As previously mentioned, the capital of MilGov is at Colorado Springs. Petroleum is available from the Wyoming shale deposits, minerals and coal are available in western Colorado, and agricultural land is available in eastern Colorado. Ranching land abounds for the remaining sheep and cattle, machine shops and other manufacturing facilities exist in the Colorado Springs-Pueblo protected area. With such a large population base, Colorado can provide recruits for the Army and specialists for many skilled tasks of the reconstruction effort.

1) NUCLEAR TARGETS
Date Type Target
10/28/62 SS-7 Punkin Center
10/28/62 SS-7 Denver
10/28/62 SS-7 Denver

2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES
5th Infantry Division (Mechanized)--Colorado Springs (9,770 men, 112 AFVs)
------1st Brigade (BDE HQ and rest of unit in Colorado Springs)
------------1st Battalion/11th Infantry Regiment--Louisville (400 men)
------------52nd Engineer Battalion--Louisville (200 men)
------------140th Signal Battalion--Louisville (45 men)
------------759th Military Police Battalion--Louisville (50 men)
------Cadet Brigade--Colorado Springs (800 men, 20 AFVs)
------Charlie Company, 5th Battlion/9th Special Forces Group (Training)--Colorado Springs (65 men)
Battery P, 5/14th Marine Regiment--Lowry AFB (60 men)
143rd Signal Company--Grand Junction (100 men)

3) NORTHERN ROCKY MOUNTAINS
Nearly two years of neglect, rain, snow and ice, and minor earth tremors have taken their toll on Interstate 70 west of Denver and the small towns and resorts located in this stretch of the Rockies. In many areas, the Interstate is buried below tons of rock and gravel from avalanches and rock slides, and in other areas the road is so badly cracked and broken it is all but impassable. Still, the interstate is in good condition for long stretches and is the artery that pumps trade into the area. Many of the small towns and resorts along the interstate are simply gone. Many were lost due to natural causes, such as mentioned above. Many more were destroyed during that first terrible year, as people fought each other and stripped the towns of everything useful. Many more of the towns did survive, these people shot first and asked questions later and strangers were not even given a chance to explain themselves.
The People's Freedom Movement: Northern Colorado has always been known for large groups of well-armed citizens militia and survivalists. After the nukes fell, one of the most organized of these survivalist groups, known as the "People's Freedom Movement", began to mark off a section of the mountains of northern Colorado as their own territory. Today, the PFM's holdings cover an area roughly rectangular starting from the ruins of Kremmling at the intersection of highways 40 and 9, east to the ruins of Silver Creek which is at the intersection of Highways 40 and 125, then south east to Interstate 70, west along I-70 to the ruins of Dillon and Silverthrone at the intersection of I-70 and Highway 9, and finally all the way up Highway 9 back to Kremmling, completing the rectangle. They also control the Argo Mills mining site, just to the southeast of the intersection of I-70 and Highway 125. Because the Eisenhower Tunnel has long since collapsed (see below), the survivalists have found an alternate route on the old highway to the south of the tunnel. They patrol this area on a regular basis, usually on horseback. By 1964, the total number of survivalists in this area has grown to just over 2,500 men, women and children. Since the situation has stabilized, the PFM have begun to hire out their guns for a fee for hunting purposes, trader convoy escort, and as body guards. On top of this, many of the survivalists have become bounty hunters, traveling all over Colorado and the surrounding states, bringing criminals, murderers, thieves, rapists, and other scum to justice or death, with the MilGov enclaves offering much of the bounty. The PFM have built quite a reputation for themselves as being not only tough, but highly dependable and trustworthy.
The Eisenhower Tunnel: Seismic events following the bombing of Denver caused rockslides to block off both ends of the Eisenhower Tunnel, trapping several hundred fleeing motorists inside. Once they calmed down and dug a way out, they realized that the tunnel provided a strong defensible home in a newly unsafe world. The motorists were from all walks of life and the combination helped to form a core of strong leaders. Today the "tunnel community" is vibrant and growing, and they jealously guard their secrecy.

4) CENTRAL ROCKY MOUNTAINS
To the south of the area controlled by the survivalists, there is only violence and death. Many of the scattered mountain towns that run down the spine of the Rocky Mountains are either deserted and looted or under marauder control. The extremely rugged mountains and rocky ravines of the area help preserve the isolation of most of the surviving communities.
Buena Vista: Home to a hundred or so marauder bikers armed with handguns and rifles. They have many slaves held here and the municipal airport nearby has been looted, and the few planes left in the hangers destroyed.
Aspen: An island of safety here, the former ski Mecca of Aspen is home now to an isolationist community that has posted the roads into town as dangerous for strangers and have the armed muscle to back up the threats. The militia is led by Colonel Wheelock of the Colorado National Guard. There are roving bands of marauder scum in these parts and they have attacked the town six times already this year. These renegades are not well-armed and mostly horse-mounted.

5) DENVER
The War: During the night of October 28, 1962, the once lovely city of Denver was pounded into ashes by two 6 megaton warheads atop two Russian SS-7 ICBMs fired from the same complex in Siberia. The first was aimed at the state capital building but low-air burst over Commerce City in the northern part of the metroplex, obliterating a large swath of the area and laying a heavy pall of fallout over the eastern part of the city. The second missile aimed at Lowry Air Force Base missed and ground burst on the Cherry Creek Dam in the southeast part of the city. In a microsecond, hundreds of thousands of lives were snuffed out. The city was pretty well rubbled by the twin firestorms and shocks as far south as Littleton and Southwood. The blast-mirror effects of the mountains to the west hadn't helped matters any. Moreover, it had been raining on the night of the strikes and the bombs had gone off under the clouds, which meant that the thermal flashes had been intensified, though there had been fewer fires with the rain. The strong winds served to spread the fallout around, blowing most of it in a wide rooster tail extending east-southeast away from the city. About a million people were dead within two weeks.
Denver today: The inner core is still deserted except for scattered scavengers digging out canned foods and killing each other over them and the area is rife with cholera, typhus, and plague. Some suburbs are better off, having some degree of stability and protection from Army units, while others are dangerous and violent. The Cherry Creek crater is still a yawning blackness of vitrified slag a thousand feet across and two hundred feet deep.
The US military in Denver: Since returning to the city in force in late 1963, the military has done a number of small things, and is planning in the next year to do great things, including reopening the Federal Mint, working on radiation cleanup, and opening at least three new power plants (mostly burning trash) to allow surviving factories in the Denver area to began to put out limited products again. At this time, however, the military presence in the city is limited to enclaves in Louisville and at Lowry AFB.
Downtown Denver: A group of some 300 former citizens have reoccupied the old State Capital building and are beginning the arduous task of rebuilding their shattered city on their own. They might not survive the winter.
Northern Denver suburbs: The northern suburb of Louisville is now home of a US Army enclave called "Fort Gamble". The main muscle of the garrison is the 400 men of the 1st Battalion/11th Infantry Regiment, detached from the 5th Infantry Division's 1st Brigade. Other units here include the 52nd Engineer Battalion (200 men), the 140th Signal Battalion (45 men), and the 759th Military Police Battalion (50 men), all subornate to the 1st Brigade's HQ in Colorado Springs.
Eastern Denver suburbs: In Aurora, the scavengers are actively fighting each other over salvage rights with firearms and homemade bombs. At Lowry Air Force Base in eastern Aurora are some US Air Force specialists salvaging the airbase. They are protected by the 60 men of Battery P of the 5th Battalion/14th Marine Regiment. These are the only US Marine Corps soldiers in Colorado and there is a lot of curiosity why they are here in the blasted suburbs of Denver and not south in Colorado Springs. General LeMay has a well-known anti-Marine bias. The Air Force personnel here are currently refitting a civilian Starliner airliner that was recovered intact from Lowry, scavenging parts from other wrecked planes and cutting out the windows to mount machine guns. Wrecked planes are plentiful at the AFB, row after row of them sit rusting, victims of EMP and radioactive fallout. Lowry's long-empty Titan I missile complex is located approximately 15 miles southeast of Denver, in Arapahoe County. These silos are next to be stripped.
Western Denver suburbs: In Lakewood is the huge Denver Federal Center, now occupied by the zealots of the "Church of the New Dispensation", who took over the abandoned building in early 1963. There is no electricity, with light in the complex coming from kerosene lamps, and the treatment plants are all gone but there is water from reservoirs and a food stockpile. The several hundred zealots here are earnestly, if ominously, working to help the sick and hungry and spread the faith to all in western Denver. Led by missionary shock troops called the "Brothers of Mercy", they have some military trucks and Wells Fargo armored cars to move around in. There are rumors that agents of the zealots have looted some mustard gas canisters from the ruins of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal for whatever reason.

6) NORTHERN COLORADO CITIES
The scattered cities north of Denver, stretching up towards the hard-nuked Cheyenne area, were ravaged during the chaos and coated with radioactive fallout. There are empty and abandoned Atlas E silos in Fort Collins, Greely, Briggsdale, Grover and Nunn. These silos have yet to be looted extensively.
Fort Collins: Fort Collins received heavy fallout from the Cheyenne blasts and was severely depopulated. By 1963, the city had been claimed by a group of 2,000 survivors, many Vietnamese refugees who were willing to trade the increased health risks for the opportunity to stake a claim. They are mostly with salvagers, a dusty and sore-covered lot willing to root around in irradiated lands for treasures from the past.
Greely: Now home to a large band of marauder crud led by an ex-con thug named Gene Booker. They are about 400 strong and are armed with everything including M-14s, Thompson's and Sten guns.
Loveland: 1,000 determined survivors here have turned the town into a fortress against the marauder gang from Greely. They are led by Jon Anderson, a former Colorado state government official.

7) COLORADO SPRINGS
Dodging a bullet: On October 28, 1962, the Russian 6 megaton SS-7 ICBM aimed at Fort Carson military reservation suffered an error (how and why can been argued forever), instead of striking it's primary target it instead overshot and obliterated the tiny town of Punkin Center out on the southern plains. Thanks to this fortunate turn, the Colorado Springs area is today one of the most secure and prosperous in America. In the time of chaos, much of the city of Colorado Springs had been affected. Many of the civilians, together with everything that could be moved, gathered at the massive half-built military complex at Cheyenne Mountain. It was felt that the underground base would be opened up for them as a fall-out shelter, but they were wrong. The Air Police unit guarding the complex refused to let anyone in and a bloodbath looked to be brewing. However, the valiant sacrifice of a few Colorado National Guardsmen and the desperate efforts by police and volunteers prevented the wholesale massacre of this group, and also gave the more scattered survivors something to head toward. Despite their advantages, in the two years that followed, hunger and disease took their toll and the city's population fell by 20%. The base has been fortified crudely but successfully, some basic manufacturing is taking place, and food production has finally risen to meet the falling population.
New Home: With the nuke missing, the major facilities here are still intact with a large reservoir of military personnel and civilians to draw from--a prime area for relocating to. In late 1962, after the split with the civilian government, General LeMay ordered the Alternate National Military Command Center moved from Mount Weather to Colorado Springs. With him came a large number of troops and most of the surviving strategic nuclear capability of the nation. With the military presence the civilians are starting to return and the very presence of this many soldiers is instrumental in maintaining law and order. The troops quickly expanded out from Colorado Springs and by the fall of 1964 they control large parts of Denver and Pueblo and all roads in between. The sphere of direct influence is the I-25 corridor north to Denver and environs and a rough triangle from Colorado Springs to Pueblo to Canon City. All the areas under their control are virtually trouble free and probably the safest places in the world in 1964 and the people living in the Colorado Springs area are some of the most contented in America. Though the Army's long term goal is to reunite the USA, at the present, it's aims are less ambitious--keep the population fed, secure the immediate area from external (and internal) attack, proceed with reconstruction and recovery, and to keep CivGov contained to the east.
The President and the General: They have a veneer of political authority here with what MilGov believes to be the legitimate President--the former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Abraham A. Ribicoff, who was in Colorado Springs vacationing when the bombs fell. He is now the Acting Chief Executive and makes frequent radio and TV announcements as such from the newly named Civil Defense Headquarters in Colorado Springs. He is, of course, a figurehead, a tool used to convince the populace that the military junta is working for their benefit. The real power, however, continues to be General Curtis LeMay, who rules with all authority and the total loyalty of his men.
NORAD: The massive Cheyenne Mountain NORAD complex is more of a trophy than an actual facility of use. Groundbreaking on the mountain complex began in May of 1961, and by the time of the exchanges, a large volume of rock had been removed from the mountain's interior. While this was little more than a huge man-made cavern at this point, MilGov has found valuable use for these caverns as ultra-secure storage points for nuclear weapons and other valuables. The excavations at the facility were carried out by highly skilled American and Canadian engineers and workers, many of whom stayed in the area for safety. These personnel are valued for their knowledge as well as technical abilities and this pool of manpower was snatched up by MilGov when they moved into the area, giving them an immediate edge on personnel and capabilities.
The 7th Army: The headquarters of the 7th US Army is here now, comprising some 2,000 staff personnel, operating out of Fort Carson Military Reservation. The main unit here currently is the 5th Mechanized Infantry Division (9,770 men including 4,000 local militia, and a whopping 112 assorted AFVs collected from around the nation). This division was formally reactivated on February 19, 1962, as the Army's first mechanized infantry division to be organized under the "ROAD" (Reorganization Objectives Army Division) concept. Under command of General Herbert Welsh, the 5th ID is currently in charge of internal and logistics security in the area, and also provides honor guards for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Other units here include the "Cadet Brigade" (800 men and twenty AFVs) and the 65 men of Able Company of the 10th Special Forces Group (Training). The Cadet Brigade is technically Air Force, but in practice there is no difference between it and other MilGov ground units. Until just recently, the 9th Infantry Division was also in Colorado Springs, but it was moved south to Albuquerque to stop the Mexican drive there. This has helped ease the logistics and food supply nightmare of the area.
Eagles: Strong air assets are based at Ent and Peterson Air Force Bases and at Flacon Field on the grounds of the Academy. Commands include the Air Force Space Command as well as several Colorado Air National Guard headquarters including those of the 140th Fighter Wing and the 302nd Troop Carrier Wing. Operational air assets at Peterson AFB include six B-52 Stratoforts, four B-47E Stratojets, ten F-102C Delta Daggers, eight F-84 Thunderjets, one U-2 spy plane, four C-130 Hercules, ten C-119 Flying Boxcars, and six KC-135A tankers. At Ent Air Force Base are at least a dozen F-104A Starfighters, some Colorado Air National Guard Sabres, a few Air Force Voodoos, and six big B-52 Stratoforts. At Falcon Field are based a number of active strategic aircraft, including some fourteen B-52 Stratoforts with air-to-ground missiles, a civilian 707 airliner, and a lumbering Air Force C-54 Skymaster transport used to ferry personnel to Denver. The various strategic bombers and the tankers, along with the remaining stocks of nuclear bombs stored in various places, provide MilGov with a powerful nuclear deterrence. These planes are kept active mostly through the cannibalization of the hundreds of inoperable aircraft that are stacked in rows all over the area, having been flown here from all over the nation.
Mystery: Currently there is an ongoing research effort under the name "Project: Looking Glass" at Falcon Air Force Base, security there has been stepped up and a number of non-military personnel have been sighted in barracks there. The project is tentatively under the control of the Air Force 18th Intelligence Squadron.
Pueblo: Forming the southern arm of the MilGov enclave security zone, Pueblo is home to many civilians and a strong garrison. The Pueblo Army Depot is being used to store some of the enclave's weaponry. Bunkered here are tons of mustard gas canisters, seven Nike anti-missile systems and ten Redstone medium range tactical missiles. The nuclear warheads for the Redstones are stored up north in Colorado Springs for safe keeping. The main assembly building at the depot has been converted into a fortress, detailed to guard the southern approaches to Colorado Springs. The large brick building has been fortified and, in a cleared circle around it, eight old tanks have been buried hull-down, their fields of fire overlapping. Some 1,000 armed troops are in Pueblo at any time, cycled in four month rotations from the Colorado Springs garrisons.

8) SOUTHEASTERN COLORADO
Home range of a strong local protection group with their HQ in Trinidad. They are basically armed ranchers and farmers on horseback, but since they serve as valuable pickets for the Colorado Springs area, they are funded and armed by MilGov. They are waging a continuous battle with marauders and have outposts out as far as Raton, NM to the south, east to La Junta, and to Springfield to the southeast.
La Junta: The La Junta garrison (some 100 horsemen) is led by Curtis Redfeather, a Pawnee and Korean war veteran who has worked many of his Pawnee brothers into the garrison's command structure. The town itself is a fortified enclave of 1,000 people once little more than one of so many communities struggling to stave off the raiders. Though nominally open to all comers, La Junta is slipping slowly towards martial law. Visitors are welcomed only with a suspicious stare from Redfeather's militiamen (armed to the teeth with automatic rifles and grenades) from nearly every makeshift tower and stretch of wall. Lone travelers, often suspected as spies, are subject to interrogation before even allowed entrance into town. And once inside, one can definitely feel the effect a heavy-handed militia presence has.

9) SAN LUIS VALLEY
This part of south-central Colorado is controlled and patrolled by the "Northern Rio Grande Federation", a collection of armed ranchers and farmers which has been working to form a central authority in the valley. They have outposts to the south at the La Veta Pass on Highway 160, and to the north at Poncha Pass on Highway 285, controlling entrance into the valley. The valley is also the home of a survivalist commune called "The Freehold", a proprietary community of 150 households living on the west side of the valley, just south of the Garitas Mountains in a cluster of mostly subterranean adobe dwellings. They are armed with automatic weapons and well trained to use them. The Freeholders have a small airfield and a hanger containing a small state-of-the-art five-seat Cessna canard prop plane with a backwards propeller and swept forward wings, a gift from a wealthy benefactor. They have named it the Sparrowhawk and retrofitted it with two Browning M-1919A4 .30-caliber machineguns to act as a fighter. They have been recently pressured by the Northern Rio Grande Federation to share the wealth. North of the Freehold in the valley is a cluster of other smaller survivalist compounds, the largest being a band led by an ex-Minuteman colonel. Many of them disagree with the Freehold's politics but they treat each other civilly, even helping from time to time. Occasionally roving bands of road gypsies and bikers harass the people in the valley. Alamosa, in the southern part of the valley has been completely depopulated by a viral plague and is a virtual ghost town. This is scaring the valley.

10) WESTERN COLORADO
Grand Junction: Grand Junction is the home of the Colorado National Guard's 143rd Signal Company, mostly made up pre-war residents of Grand Junction. Whether or not this unit has gone rogue is debatable, but it is doing some odd things for sure. The unit was in training exercises at Camp Williams in central Utah when the war came and has relocated back to Grand Junction at the end of 1962 after a vote was taken by the men to return to their homes. Troop strength is now around 100 effectives with .50 cal HMGs, mortars, four 75mm recoilless rifles and even a few flamethrowers. They have a large number of vehicles at their disposal, including twenty jeeps, many trucks, a dozen prime movers, and six towed 155mm howitzers left behind in a local armory. The leader is General George Patton II, the son of the famous WW II general of the same name. Patton is a little demented but confidant in his plans to rid western Colorado of thugs and bandits. General Patton, however, is not what he seems. His eventual goal is not only to drive off the criminals, but also all those who he considers to be inferior--minorities, Native Americans, Hispanics. He has a bigger secret as well, the General is in fact no relation to the famous Patton at all, just a Captain in the Utah NG who was slick enough to step into the confusion of the post-nuke months at Camp Williams and assume command of the Signal Company by pulling rank. He did, however, lead them out of the wilderness and back here to Grand Junction mostly intact and as such gained the loyalty of his men. In Grand Junction, Patton has built a strong fortified camp and has a field hospital set up to help the locals. In the coming spring, he is planning on moving against a large marauder camp at Glenwood Springs that has been a thorn in his side. What he is forgetting perhaps is that his men are mostly artillery soldiers with little training in actual combat and the last two years of inactivity in Grand Junction has made them soft.
Glenwood Springs: Unbeknownst to Patton, this marauder group is quite large and powerful and would be a serious challenge for him to take on. It is known as the "Army of Excellence" and is led by a Colonel Macklin. Macklin is a former USAF pilot, a Korean war vet and POW and more than a bit crazy. His troops, mostly rabble and refugees gathered from eastern Utah and western Colorado, follow him religiously because he provides them with food and loot from raiding area towns. They have many trucks and cars and a large supply of looted gas and diesel and Macklin has an Airstream command trailer from which he issues orders. His troops number in the thousands, all of them linked by Macklin's leadership and their want for food and shelter.