Omnicron Base, the Project's secondary command base

[dragoon500ly]

I've been working on the proposed secondary base, here is the introduction. As always comments and flames are cheerfully accepted...

Personal Journal of Elizabeth Morrow, February 14th, 1983

It has been three years since the completion of Prime Base and I have finally convinced the Council of the dire necessity for a backup command base. The Council’s primary concern has been the tremendous financial outlay and the almost sixteen years of construction time necessary for its unusual construction.

The location selected for the proposed Omnicron Base is near the Morrow Industries Ozark rail yard (MIORY) facility located just south of Springfield, Missouri. This facility handles storage and refurbishment of over 100,000 shipping containers yearly as they are moved along the primary E-W and N-S rail lines. Needless to say, an excellent cover for the transshipment of equipment, supplies and personnel for the new base.

The facility enjoys another advantage, its location abutting the northern edge of the Ozark Plateau has had extensive mining over several decades for lead, coal and salt, almost all of which have closed due to lack of minerals and leaving the tunnels available for reuse by Morrow Industries.

Located some two kilometers due south of the MIORY site is a 1,250 foot hill with the remains of a coal mine opened in 1857 and closed and abandoned in 1871. The mine has been surveyed and only commercially unviable amounts of coal have been found. The mine consists of three roughly parallel horizontal shafts running some 600 yards into the hill. Vertically, there are three levels with each of the lower levels consisting of twin shafts stretching 500 yards, end to end, with the lowest level approximately 100 to 140 feet deep.

Initial design of the proposed Omnicron Base envisions three levels, each of three parallel tunnels with three additions intended as warehouses and support equipment as well as a vertical shaft rising from the top level and then splitting into four horizontal shafts that run almost to the surface of the hill. These are two shafts are intended for communication facilities and two as personnel exits. A further shaft is intended to run due west from the second level and connecting with a small chamber that will be a vehicle storage area, with controlled access to the surface.

Anticipated ground breaking will be on August 17, 1984, with a “hopeful” completion date of October, 1993.