The lights dimmed slightly as a smart display activated at the end of the table. A voice sounded from a series of speakers embedded in the center of a table that was nearly as long as the room was. “This meeting of the forum and general staff is called to order,” the feminine voice said, “General David Rensmor, you have the floor”.
A man, well dressed in an impeccable military uniform stood, light reflecting off of the three stars on each of his shoulders. He dipped his head to the unseen voice, “thank you Emma”, he said before turning and facing down the table.
He gave a slight bow to the group at the far end of the table, “I would also like to thank the forum members for taking some time from their busy schedules for this meeting, as well as my fellow generals” he stated.
Straightening up, he stepped to the side of the smart display and a map of the eastern seaboard of the United States appeared. “Emma, please highlight and expand grid area 17-Sierra.” he said, and the smart display immediately responded, placing a bright rectangle over a vast region of land, stretching from southern Ohio, nearly to the Georgia-Florida state line, and including large chunks of several states in between.
“As you can see, this is a vast area of land, and to our best knowledge, devoid of any kind of civilization.” David said. “During the opening stages of phase one, we performed several high altitude flyovers of this region for initial reconnaissance,” he paused as still images taken from a high altitude began appearing to the side of the zoomed in map, “and what we saw gave little hope towards anything of immediate use to us.”
A woman in a similar uniform, albeit bearing a single star on her shoulders, raised a hand. David looked to her and said “General Elthrens, you have a question?”.
“Yeah,” she said, “if there's nothing of use there, then what did you and your little watchers find that's got you all hot and bothered”.
Several people around the table chucked at that. David sighed as he pitched at the bridge of his nose, “What i am getting to, and was providing some background information regarding the region for,” he paused, his eyes sweeping over the gathered personnel, “is that several days ago, one of my officers discover an anomaly in 17-Sierra.”
Taking a deep breath, David continued “Approximately seven days ago, an emergency shelter’s locator beacon became active. After confirming that this type cannot be accidentally activated by a simple power surge, I directed the discovering officer to begin gathering all pertinent information regarding its location”
The smart display changed once again, splitting into three images, side by side. To the left was a map, zoomed in on the northern area of Georgia, with a bright point of light along the old US Highway 20. The center image was an aerial shot of a ruined military base, overrun with plants. The right side image was a picture from further out, showing bits of the decayed highway and what appeared to be a couple of human settlements. The ruined base could barely be seen at the top of the image.
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is Army Depot 155”, David said. “Built during the second world war for ammunition storage, repurposed during the cold war in the nineteen fifties to house three nuclear launch silos and then once again in the early two thousands when the silos were decommissioned to house personnel files in long term storage in the ammunition bunkers.”
Continuing on, “Quite a storied career for a base, but its story doesn't end there.”
Stolen novel; please report.
“Wait, are we just gonna ignore what looks like human towns there” General Elthrens interjected. “That's a black level death zone, practically hell on earth from all the presents our ancestors left for us”
“I was getting to that Sara, please have patience” David said in a strained voice. Sara just nodded and leaned back in her seat, motioning him to continue.
“As I was saying,” he said with a pointed glare at General Elthrens, “the base was repurposed once more in the twenty thirties. On paper it was still a storage facility, but in reality it was site Gamma, a research and development facility between the military and several defense corporations.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at one of the branch sites responsible for the world we live in today.” David said, and discussion immediately broke out around the table. This was an exceptional find, if the technologies being developed there, or even the notes on what they were working on could be found relatively intact, it could push their own progress forward by years, decades even.
Clearing his throat loudly to get everyone's attention, David continued “Yes, this is a spectacular find, but, as Sara pointed out, this is a Black level death zone, and while we do have confirmation of human, or as close to human as we can discover, settlements, it is still an extremely hazardous region.”
Looking around the table, he continued “We do not know who or what may have activated one of the emergency shelters, but we do know that they require activation codes.” With a shrug to emphasize his point, “we could be dealing with anything, from a cryostasis bunker waking up, to some salvager exploring some ruins and playing with things they don’t understand, and with the close proximity of what appear to be settlements, human or otherwise, my analysis team and I agree it is more likely the latter than the former.”
One of the members of the forum, who had mostly just watched and listened to the briefing, raised a hand. David dipped his head in acknowledgement, “Mr. Pelkarmen, you have a question?”
The forum member stood and spoke, “In light of this discovery, what is your recommendation on a course of action General?”
“My recommendation sir, for the time being is further observation” David replied, and cast a glance at General Elthrens, “and to begin drawing up preliminary plans for a reconnaissance mission to the base and perhaps the surrounding area.”
Seemingly satisfied with the answer, the forum member sat and discussion once again broke out. Opinion seemed split, the dangers of that area warring against the desire for access to more advanced technology from before the war.
The possibility of securing more human survivors was an additional draw, but also carried great risk. While they had gotten lucky with Sara’s people when they first made their presence known on the surface, David was well aware that petty warlords, raiders and other vicious elements ruled vast areas of the world. They would have to tread carefully.
As the discussion began to wind down, the forum members all stood as one, and their current leader, an older man in his fifties stepped forward and gave a polite bow to the gathered generals before speaking, “General Rensmor, the forum thanks you for bringing this matter of importance to our attention, and approve of further surveillance of this anomaly, but nothing more for now.” he paused before continuing, “we will however reconvene in one months time to discuss your further findings and discuss the possibility of more direct action”
With that, the forum members departed, followed shortly by all but two of the Generals.
Sara flashed a feral grin at David, “I could have a patrol cut loose in on their way within an hour” she said.
David just shook his head. “No,” he said, “the extra time to study the archives regarding site Gamma, as well as drone recon flights over that region will help us prepare a solid game plan for when we do move on it in force.”
Letting out a sigh of disappointment, Sara shook her head and turned to leave. She stopped at the door as David spoke, “When we do move on that base, and we will; I want you and your people leading point.”
Sara let out a small laugh as she strode out of the room and into the vast underground labyrinth of the base. Finally she thought, something exciting. She had been cooped up far too long.
Far to the south:
A raccoon and a man discussed a world that was and a world that is, before a quite rude and uninvited guest ruined the brunch.