Morrow Project Play-by-Skype

[helbent4]

Late Afternoon, 31 October 2016

Further investigation on the mountainside revealed the access hatch to the presumed ventilation shaft was not alarmed. Although it was secured from the inside by a simple sliding metal bolt there was no padlock or other sophisticated lock. The bolt brackets were heavily corroded and could probably be forced open using a pry bar. Covered ventilation ducts next to the hatch seemed to still be active, indicating air was being drawn down the ventilation shaft and expelled from other vents nearby.

Having found a potential way in, it was decided to move the team up.

There was a concern that the vehicles could meet some kind of Breeder patrol. But their own recce element had not seen footprints on the track leading to the underground base, only tire prints. They surmised it was unlikely the Breeders would send out a foot patrol, maybe due to it being later in the year and the cool temperatures. They would have easily heard a vehicle motor echoing in the quiet mountains if a vehicle had been sent out. Ergo they thought it was safe to move up the XR311s, without meeting someone on the track once their own foot patrol moved down to where they could keep an eye on the entrance.

Meanwhile, the main body of the team contacted Prime and got ready to move. One of them noticed a squirrel was missing its tail. This could have been evidence of an accident, but a second one was seen at the same time. Definitely a mutation, much like the enlarged grizzly. Still, the significance was difficult to gauge. Prime advised them that there was a backup element en route that could be there that night. They packed up and set out on the trail, hoping to link up with their forward element.

The XR311s made their bounds without incident, pulling of the track 1.5 kilometres from the tunnel entrance. They covered their tracks in the snow by dragging branches and and camouflaged the vehicles in the woods using camo nets. Further observation from within the treeline revealed remote CCTV cameras mounted above and to both sides of the large mountainside entrance. It was unclear if these were operational or not. There also seemed to be some kind of telephone or communications cable leading from the tunnel to the blockhouse.

Generally, the plan was to infiltrate the facility via the ventilation/escape shaft near the top of the mountain, locate the captured Morrow Project personnel and others, then exfiltrate via the same route. To incapacitate the occupants of the facility, a case of M7A3 CS gas canisters would be taken and deployed into the base's ventilation system. the ventilation shaft would likely have some kind of blast valves that might make passage difficult if they were intact but it was possible these systems had been removed.

It was difficult to say what they would find underground. The presence of dual open horizontal access tunnels (albeit one being collapsed) suggested this facility was hardened against nuclear attack. The usual layout for such underground hardened facilities was for there to be a hollowed-out chamber inside the mountain, within it (possibly mounted on shock absorbers) would be a secondary structure, essentially a small skyscraper built inside this chamber. But the layout would be inverted compared to the aboveground kind with the most important levels being the lowest ones. Usually, garages, mechanical (HVAC, filtration, water, power) and storage areas would be on the lower levels and basement but here they would make up the top levels. The top level was also where the horizontal access tunnel from outside would connect to the base. Next would be living quarters and administration/offices. The most secure and sensitive areas, in this case involving medical experiments, would be on the lowest level(s). That's also where the prisoners would be kept.

The horizontal access tunnel leading outside would not be a straight shaft leading from outside to the base like a mining tunnel. Instead, the tunnel would be more like a "T", with the top "arm" being the tunnel to the outside with two entrances on different sides of the mountain, with no doors sealing them. The access tunnel to the installation itself would be in the side of this tunnel (forming the base of the "T") and sealed by blast doors. The theory was that while a door in the side of the mountain might be blown in by the brute force of a blast, any shockwave would simply pass along through the open tunnel from one end to the other, without impacting the blast doors directly. The recce element had seen such an open tunnel mouth and another, collapsed, one a ways off and this configuration led them to believe this was a hardened facility. Without going inside the actual layout was a mystery but it was all they had to go on.

Optimally, they would send one team down the ventilation shaft to effect the rescue while another conducted some kind of distraction to draw out guards/security personnel to, say, the blockhouse out front. Or assault the blockhouse and take it to secure the main access tunnel as a secondary escape route. But they only had 4 personnel, and all would go in through the top. If that route proved impassible they would then try the front entrance and deal with the CCTV cameras and blockhouse as they saw fit.

"Go" time was set at 0215 local time. At 0245 they would reach the top of the mountain and the ventilation shaft, and by 0300 they would be inside to deploy the gas and enter the facility proper from the shaft. Prime approved of the timetable, advising the team (call sign FOXTROT 1 & 2) that the support element (VIPER 1 & 2) would stand by until the rescue was completed and take the prisoners off the team's hands for transport and treatment. Afterwards, FW-11S would make its way north-northwest back towards Boise and await new orders.