MISSOURI

For over a century now, Missouri has been a buffer zone between the brutal Krell Empire to the west and the only less so brutal Kentucky Free State to the east. As such, the Show Me State has seen a lot of conflict and a lot of confusion. Currently, the state is in a 5-year lull in overt aggression by either side, allowing the communities caught in the middle a chance to regroup and rebuild. Even in the midst of all this danger, there are a number of communities that have grown steadily stronger, brought together by the enemies on either side.

1) NUCLEAR TARGETS

Kansas City, SS-N-17
St. Louis, SS-N-17
Jefferson City, SS-17
Lake City Ammunition Plant, SS-17
Whiteman AFB (Minuteman Base), Warrensburg, 10 SS-18M2

Discretionary nuclear target:
Fort Leonard Wood, SS-19

2) MORROW PROJECT ASSETS

Alternate Prime Base: Buried in the soft limestone of Missouri, about 2 miles due west of Cole Junction, this facility is identical to Prime Base in equipment and supply. Originally designed as a continuation of project facility to be activated 50 years after Project activation, with all 340 personnel frozen as a failsafe. If not needed, personnel are reserve troops for the project, and base becomes the final Regional Command Base (Midwest).
Regional Supply Base Beta: Located in Fantastic Caverns about 25 miles southwest of Springfield. The cave was advertised to tourists as the only drive-through cave in the America. Morrow Industries invested in the struggling tourist trap in the late 1970s and while investing in "improvements" in the cave installed the supply base. It was intended to assist Morrow teams to build a civilization among the rugged Ozark Mountain folk who were judged to have a decent chance to survive the war in good shape (as indeed they did).
CT-9 Combined Recon\MARS: Bolthole location unknown. 14 members, with one Commando V-150 with 20mm, one Commando V-350, one Humvee with Mark 19 AGL, and one FAV with TOW/M60 MG.
Mars Force MO-1: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in central Missouri. 10 members, with one Commando V-350, one Commando Scout, and one Fire Support Humvee.
MARS team M-11S: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in south-central Missouri.
Recon Team H-9: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in southern Missouri. 6 members, with one Commando V-150 Mortar Carrier and one Commando Scout.
Recon Team MO-1: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in southern Missouri. 5 members, with one Troop Carrier Humvee. Team also has a Pathfinder assigned to it, who is authorized to conduct sole missions on his own discretion.
Recon Team MO-3: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in central Missouri. 4 members, with one Commando V-150 with 20mm.
Recon Team MO-4: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in southern Missouri. 4 members with one Commando V-150 with 20mm.
Science Team MO-2: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in central Missouri. 10 members with two Commando Rangers with M2HB .50 cal.
Recon Team MR-MO-P2: Bolthole location unknown.
Unnamed MP bolthole: 12 miles south of Lebanon in central Missouri.
Unnamed MP bolthole: In a cave or a mine near the town of Cameron, northeast of Kansas City.
Unnamed MP bolthole: Somewhere in the Saint Francis Mountains between Saint Louis and New Madrid.
Unnamed MP bolthole: Near the back service entrance to Worlds of Fun Amusement Park in the northeast suburbs of Kansas City.

3) SAINT LOUIS

Situation, pre-war: Saint Louis was a bustling river city, full of industry and commerce, the Gateway to the West.

Situation, the war: The northern half of the city was nuked by three SS-N-17 low-air bursts in 1989. The triple blasts destroyed a wide swath of industrial and residential property, Lambert Airport and thousands of commuters on I-70. Every man-made structure with a six or seven-mile wide triangle was instantly disintegrated by the blast waves or the hurricane firestorms. One of the MIRV warheads dropped squarely in the Mississippi. Besides generating a glowing rain to the east, the blast sent a wall of water down the river destroying everything as far south as Chester. 150 years later, this northern wedge of the city is still highly radioactive.

Situation, today: Saint Louis is a study in desolation and ruin. 150 harsh winters and hot summers, general neglect and out of control wild fire, along with assorted vandals and scavengers have turned this once beautiful river city into a wasteland.

Downtown: This area has suffered some of the worst deterioration. The roof of the baseball stadium collapsed a century ago, City Hall looks like it was hit with a giant spatula. Most of the older brick and wood buildings have collapsed into rubble, leaving just a handful of the more modern concrete towers still standing. The Gateway Arch was blown into the Mississippi River by the blast wave and now sticks up like a giant, twisted rusting pretzel. Boaters on the river have to be careful not to hit it, and are helped by bouys anchored to the remains. The zoo was emptied after the war and there are still a number of species of exotic wild animals to be found in the city's ruins, though few carnivores. There are very few independent, peaceful people in the downtown area; most of the residents are thugs and scavenger clans who delight in hunting and killing each other as much as finding loot.

Suburbs: The southern suburban quarter of the city is now the only part supporting any sort of population. Many neighborhoods were burnt completely, but enough housing survives to form small enclaves were people are protected from the elements and predators. Along the banks of the Mississippi River are some of the more active settlements.

Jefferson: "Jefferson" is a community of river traders and technology-collectors whose world revolves around the ownership, use and protection of the remains of the Jefferson Barracks Bridge, the only Saint Louis bridge across the Mississippi River still standing. While damaged enough by the lack of maintenance to preclude its use by heavier vehicles, it is strong enough to support horse and foot traffic, along with the occasional Gypsy Trucker. There are about 625 people here. Most of the men of age serve in a militia unit that has kept the scavenger clans away from the bridge for generations. They have a small quantity of old military weapons, all of them hand-me-downs from the Missouri National Guard's 35th Engineer Brigade, which was based in the city before the war. They trade up and down the river for things they need and have farmed the Jefferson Barracks Park and several small plots across the river in Illinois. The Park is now just open scrub land tilled and planted, bordered on the northern edge by a dead zone of burned and collapsed residential buildings.

Other groups: Other than the isolated scavenger groups, there are three notable groups of people who are currently vying for control of the rest of ruined city. The largest is a bandit clan called the "Road Scorpions", a 300-strong gang that controls the area around the ruins of the St. Louis Galleria in Clayton. The second is a growing population of Maggots based in the ruins of Union Station and the tram tunnels beneath. There are an unknown number of Maggots, but at times it seems like there are millions of them down there. The last is a smallish but well-organized slaver clan who is based out of the old campus of Webster University in Webster Groves. There are just 40 members of this enclave, but they are by far the best armed and most cunning of all the Saint Louis residents. This group is the biggest threat to the Jefferson settlement, as the slavers often capture stray townspeople and sell them to middleman operating for the KFS.

4) KANSAS CITY

The war: During the terrible nuclear exchanges, an SS-N-8 popped over Kansas City, Kansas, followed by two more missiles on the Missouri side of the city. The Kansas missile impacted nearly on top of the Interstate 635 bridge across the Missouri River. The blast generated only about 100 kilotons, far less than designed due to a design flaw in the warhead, but still wiped out about a quarter of the metropolis. The Missouri side was pummeled by seven MIRV warheads which pulverized about three-fourths of the total metropolitan area. Around seven hundred thousand people were dead by night's end. Thanks to a strong storm front and the prevailing winds that day, most of the fallout from the strikes was carried northeast away from the relatively unscathed southwestern suburbs.

The Warriors of Krell: Kansas City is the largest urban city that is controlled by the Warriors of Krell, though there is not much left of it to really brag about. The southwestern suburbs, Olathe, Shawnee, Lenexa and Overland Park, are the only areas populated now. Along with a considerable number of administrators, slavers and tax collectors, the city houses a large army of Warriors. The number of Warriors in the city range from about 1,000 to 6,000 or more depending on the season and what raiding expeditions are in operation. When all the Warriors are in town, it can be a dangerous and violent place.

Training grounds: The southcentral areas formerly known as Raytown and Grandview were never the nicest places to live even before the war. For many decades now, this area of shattered houses and charred radioactive rubble has served as a training ground of sorts for the Krell soldiers. The rugged territory offers training in urban warfare and stealth for special units, skills not often associated with the rank and file Krell army. Often slaves or other undesirables are let loose in the area, and squads of elite Warriors compete to see who can find and kill them first. In years past, even captured Morrow Project personnel were killed this way, before the Krell leadership realized how valuable they were alive.

Swamp: The fizzled nuke over the Kansas side blocked the Missouri River off completely with rubble. The river flowed southeast through low-lying areas of the blasted city. Today, everything east of about 27th Street is still a swampy bog, flooded every spring. There are numerous mutant fish and reptiles supposedly living in this swamp, the high radiation count of the water causing them to grow to frightful numbers.

Mystery: In the northern suburb of Gladstone are the remains of a Nike-Hercules missile battery. There are rumors that the underground missile magazine at the base hides an intact nuclear warhead. It is buried under tons of rubble at the moment, and the Krell leadership has yet to try and dig it out. Perhaps they know something others do not.

5) NORTHERN MISSOURI

Between the two Kansas City and Saint Louis was once a land of open farmland and rolling fields of corn and wheat. 150 years of refugee rampages, disease, fallout and brutal droughts have severely depopulated the area. Current populations of the scattered survivor enclaves range from just a handful, like in Trenton and Princeton, to over a hundred in Kirksville. Entire counties west of Highway 65 have virtually zero population during the periodic Krell raids. As the Krell begin to assert themselves more and more in Missouri, even these scattered folks will be pushed east or killed off. The city of Columbia, midway between the two cities, is the lone fortress of safety in the state.

Columbia: The rebuilt town of Columbia is a struggling settlement living under the constant fear of the Krell to the west. Despite sitting at the intersection of several major strategic roads, trade is minimal as there are just not that many areas nearby to trade with anymore. The population has remained constant at around 3,000 as people coming in from the west and north replace those leaving for the east and south. Columbia is fed by farms to the north and northeast near Mexico and Moberly. Frequent armed convoys carrying laborers and food can be found on the roads between the three towns.

The Tigers: The Columbia area is protected by the "Tiger Battalion", a descendent of the city's National Guard garrison. The Tigers now have 280 full-time soldiers and, while short on modern weaponry, they boast a number of repaired machineguns. Last-ditch security is provided by four part-time locally-raised "Emergency Companies" that can be raised from the area population. These are farmers and townies who train just a few weeks out of the year and all their equipment and weapons are kept in a central armory. Not once in the last fifty years has the city had to call up these Emergency Companies, a testament to the effectiveness of the Tiger Battalion. The Mayor's mansion is in Jesse Hall on the University of Missouri campus, which is also home of the Battalion's HQ. Barbwire and pit trenches encircle the whole area, known as the "Red campus" for its historic red brick buildings. Watchtowers and sentry posts, some with searchlights and others with riflemen, are at regular intervals around the perimeter. A single US Army 75mm howitzer, still operational despite being 170 years old, is kept here along with seven homemade armored wagons that can be moved by horse trains to prepared positions.

Against the Krell: Pressure from the Krell is mounting slowly on Columbia, thanks to the seemingly inexhaustible supply of Krell Warriors and guns. Two separate Krell columns have been beaten back in the last fifteen years, both of them ambushed on I-70 and crushed by the Tigers. The Krell forces in Kansas City are planning a better way to get to the city. The western frontier has been well-scouted by troops from Columbia, and they have long ago made sure all the river bridges along I-70, US-54 and US-24 were blown. Nothing can be done, however, about the wide open plains to the north of the city.

Pack your bags: Knowing that time is not on their side, Columbia's current leadership is exploring options to move the entire population northeast to a more-defensible location across the Mississippi River. They have scouts in the Hannibal area, and across the river at Quincy. One can only imagine the logistical nightmare that would result from such a large-scale move.

Hannibal: Typical of survivor communities on the eastern edges of the state along the banks of the Mississippi River. They survive by hunting the woods and sporadic trade with other towns. They have been known to waylay travelers and ship traffic on the river and raid surrounding villages when food is short and have as such garnered a reputation as a dangerous place for strangers to visit. This might change in a hurry if Columbia decides to come here.

Whiteman Air Force Base: Nuked out of existence, an area to be avoided at all costs.

Saint Joseph: Once a fair sized town, now strikingly devoid of human life except for a few stragglers combing the ruins for salvageable materials. It is fully within the Krell Empire lands and as such is particularly devastated, with nearly everything that can be pulled up taken away or burned down. A sizeable Krell Army unit is barracked just north of the ruins, preparing at the moment for a spring raiding expedition into northern Missouri.

Unionville: Holed up in the old high school campus here is a group of more than a hundred wandering nomads, most from Nebraska, who recently fled the Krell. They are planning a move further east in a few weeks.

6) SOUTHERN MISSOURI

The rugged mountains and valleys of the southern half of the state are known today for a well-armed local populace and beautiful scenery. Hiding in the forests are groups ranging from rural moonshiners and dope farmers to slave camps and cult religions (such as snake-handlers and tree-worshipping Satanists).

Mark Twain National Forest: With clear-running streams and plentiful game, there are many settlements scattered through the forest, most of them doing quite well without venturing too far out of their forest.

The ruins of Jefferson City: Nuked hard during the war, the small city of Jefferson City was nearly obliterated. A wicked bout of typhoid swept through the hill country south and west of Jefferson City this past summer, taking away many of the people who had returned to the area generations ago. Few people choose to come to this area anymore.

Rolla: Despite the relative lack of outside influences, this town of 450 farmers and merchants is slowly collapsing in upon itself. The town is currently ruled by the "Town Council" which is lead by the "Grand Mayor", himself answering to his addiction to cross dressing. Every one of the town officials is corrupt and easily swayed by women and alcohol, making any effective governing difficult. Fueled by the Council's inflated views of their place in the universe, the citizens view themselves as the eventual rulers of America and daily plan their conquest of the "savage lands". When the Council makes laws, they apply them to all of North America even though the rest of North America might not be aware of this. Their militia armory contains mostly bows and shotguns, and infighting amongst the two militia co-leaders has left it a paper tiger. Any strong move by any enemy would crush the town.

Mystery: The research nuclear reactor at the University of Missouri at Rolla was contracted by Morrow Industries to study ways of refining RTG cells. On the night of the war, six visiting representatives of MI were seen fleeing west (oddly towards the nuked Fort Wood) in a van. The van was found a month later by a scouting party from the town, abandoned outside the entrance to a small cave off I-44. The van was intact, without signs of violence, and even had a half tank of gas. It was driven back to Rolla where it was used by a number of people for nearly 20 years before the axle broke.

Fort Leonard Wood Military Reservation: Despite being nuked, this large, multi-county engineering base did not die. The surviving soldiers rallied together and survived for a year after the nuclear strikes on stockpiles assembled at the base. By then they had a strong agriculture base, supplemented by hunting with the ample firearms available to them. Once the food situation was solved, they turned to matters of security. They rounded up a number of howitzers and mortars and a huge stockpile of shells for them, and positioned them to cover all avenues of approach to the enclave. They also dug in a number of tanks and turned them into pillboxes. For the first few decades, the post was in constant danger of being taken by various warlords and marauder armies, but some brilliant use of artillery and prepared ambush positions, as well as some fast talking, has kept the base secure. 150 years later, Fort Wood exists as a power in the region. Over the generations, they lost their military identity, but have remained a strong cohesive community. Trade is conducted over a large area, taking advantage of I-44. The territory that they actively patrol and commerce with extends from the ruins of Jefferson City south to nearly the Arkansas border, and from Springfield in the west to Rolla in the east. The people of the Fort work hard to keep their town in good shape--vandalizing carries a stiff fine with a possible year in a labor camp. Fort Wood specializes in medicine, and doctors trained here are in high demand. Located in the less-developed area of the Fort is a poorer section that is kept hidden to most visitors, in it contains almost anything money can buy. The Krell to the west are aware of the strength of the fort, and it is only a matter of time before they come for their artillery.

Bolivar: This small town's center is surrounded by a high wall of earth and junked cars, and the 200 xenophobic locals greet strangers with hostility (if not outright gunfire), a byproduct of Krell raids and bad memories of worse times. They will tolerate only a few merchants, those from neighboring counties only, and even these are not welcomed warmly.

Springfield: Though still home to some 600 survivors, civic organization is severely lacking, and a crazy (literally) strongman has taken power recently. He has began issuing orders that make no sense, like demanding that everyone wash only their left hands, or nobody is allowed to wear anything yellow on Tuesdays. As his devoted followers have all the guns, the people have little choice but to comply. Some small bands of people have splintered off, and there has been some fighting between them and the strongman's troops.

Branson: Thanks to the nearby theme park Silver Dollar City, the residents here were ideally suited to survive in an ago of no electricity or modern conveniences. The many low-tech, easy to learn skills and technologies at the park were soon found to be the most efficient way to maintain a standard of living. As such, a healthy, if small, population has existed here for the last 150 years. Contact has recently been established with the Frozen Chosen in Arkansas, and an agreement of trade is in the works.

Ava: The latest incarnation of the Aryan Brotherhood is around the Ava area, deep in the backwoods of Douglas County. This group is very dangerous and will pose one hell of a threat to the Project's goal of rebuilding the nation. They tend to wear all-white sheets, and they have a swastika tattooed somewhere on their body or they wear it on an arm band. There is currently a large community of some 275 followers here, armed with everything from melee weapons to firearms. They mostly use horses but have a managed to keep a few patchwork automobiles running. Having heard of the crazy madman in Springfield, the current leader is thinking about leading his men on a large raid of that city. His plan is to take as many women and guns as he can, taking advantage of the city's troubles. There are some in the Ava camp, however, who fear that this might be a mistake and the weakness of the Springfield forces have been exaggerated.

7) THE BOOT HEEL

This swampy patch of land was severely depopulated by disease and refugee migrations after the war and has never really recovered. There are a few towns, but most people live in small family units scattered through the hills and creek valleys.

Poplar Bluff: Home to a group of farmers and townspeople numbering near 350, known locally as the "Bluffers". They have a number of repaired farm trucks and make their own alcohol fuel. They run a small trade bazaar on the grounds of the local community college that brings in the hill folk several times a year.

Campbell: Run by a local autocratic force calling itself the "True Path". Their leader, known simply as the "Prophet", has organized the town into one large labor camp for his own purposes. His troops number about 30, which is easily enough to control the 100 or so citizens.

Mingo National Wildlife Reserve: Home to 5 thugs who are terrorizing the area on horseback. The gang was founded a year ago by a man named Lee Richardson, a former snake-oil salesman from Arkansas. Richardson saw a shooting star one night and in a haze of dope and woodgrain alcohol, interpreted it as a sign from God that he was destined to rule the nation. So far he has managed to rule a two-story farmhouse and a barn...

Caruthersville: An island of safety and an active river trading town on the banks of the Mississippi River. There are close to 500 people here now and they are living quite well on trade with communities further down the river.

People who have contributed to this entry:
John Raner
C. Robert Grier
Don Harden
Karl Zohler