The Big Picture

[tsofian]

A number of threads cover aspects of the big picture of the Morrow Project. I want to tie some of these together and look at the bigger picture

To be effective and anywhere near canon the Project will break a large number of laws, Federal, State and Local. These vary from possession of controlled substances and equipment, performing unauthorized medical procedures, failure to perform Environmental impact statements to things like zoning and taxes. The list is really substantial.

Discovery of the Project by any level of law enforcement and subsequent prosecution would reveal the Project and destroy it. An investigative reporter could do the same. 60 Minutes revealing the project on National Television would be a death blow.

This never happened, there was no news reporting, no Grand Jury.

From canon it is apparent that at least three large organization knew about the Project before the war. Two of these appear to be private groups, Krell and The Rich Five. These groups had very similar risks to Morrow Project in terms of legal issues. From canon descriptions of their pre-war activities both were operating well outside the boundaries of the law. Both these groups are actively hostile to The Project, and both seem to have substantial inside information about project technology, structure, mission and resources.

The third entity is the United States Government. Strangely the Government is not overtly hostile to the project, even though it certainly has every reason to be concerned and to seek the immediate cessation of the Project. Instead the government chooses to launch its own covert program to wake up after the war and watch MP.

This leads me to some conclusions:
MP has the tacit approval of the US Federal Government. They are actively shielding the Project from being revealed, although they are investigating it from numerous angles.

Project Opsec was not as effective as could be hoped. At least two group, both of whom are diametrically opposed to Project goals and missions, probably got away with at least part of the crown jewels, fusion and cryogenic storage. It also seems like Krell had a ball park idea of where Prime Base was to be located. In terms of breaches I can't see anything worse than this. Probably the only reason these two organizations didn't out MP was because they didn't want to get caught up in the ensuing investigations.

To me this means that any plot line that requires Krell or the Rich Five to have penetrated MP security isn't a stretch at all. If they were in deep enough to get what they got they were in very deep indeed. To have them doctor the Project's supply of Small Pox vaccine seems small potatoes compared to the security breaches that are in canon.

Now the US government response is far more puzzling. It's obvious that DoD and probably other agencies such as FBI, knew a lot about the Project and that it either had penetrated the Project's security to the extent it grab cryogenic technology or an ARPA/DARPA team developed a process in parallel. If fusion was uncovered it was not deployed for some reason, although I don't see why there aren't a number of small nuclear fission plants available to be started up post war (things like a more advanced SL-1).

The question stands though: Why did the US Government react the way it did? I think the most obvious answer is the MP is doing what the government wants done. The Government may see the Project as being a way to preposition a lot of resources for post war without having to budget for them. I am willing to bet there is a Federal order to seize all Morrow Project assets signed and ready in numerous locations. There may also be an order drafting all Morrow Project team members. Any ex military members may well be recalled by name, depending upon how much the government knew about the project's personnel roster.

So where does this leave things?
The US Government knows about the Project. They either have gotten some of their technology or developed parallel research that has produced similar systems.

The Rich Five have penetrated the Project and have stolen or reverse engineered freeze technology. They also have some really great power supply that allows them to run these cryotubes.

Krell has a similar nose in the Project tent and has additional intelligence that would seem to include knowledge of where at least two MPO bases are located. They for certain have a base that had freeze tubes, since in canon Krell has himself frozen from time to time. Additionally Krell has at least an idea where Prime is, although not the GPS coordinates of the front door.

[tsofian]

It dawns on me that The Rich 5 and Krell may well be why the Project has never been uncovered by the media. Since these two groups are at best living in the same set of shadows that MP is hiding and at worst are actually parasites off MP they have a vested interest in ensuring no lights are shone into that particular corner. Both groups are absolutely willing to kill to achieve their goals, and kill in cold blood and in large quantities. Perhaps MP has been unwittingly protected by some very very bad people.

[Project_Sardonicus]

If one goes with the latest edition of the MP then armageddon is not only inevitable, but it gets worse.
Sort of like the classic Butterfly effect scifi scenario.

Appalling nuclear war averted?

Fate gives you appalling nuclear war plus a planet killer meteorite.

So who ever knew about this dark fate would simply make their own plans and not try and either avert the apocalypse or for that matter the Project.

The Snake Eaters may have been an example of a poorly thought out government plan, to simply take over the project when it woke up. Krell perhaps a privately more organised and better thought through attempt.

The project may have been puttering around, getting ready for the apocalypse unaware or at some level unbothered it was very much a known quantity.