Nevada, never very populous before the war, is now even emptier. Extensive irrigation projects once made arid areas fertile, but without water the land rapidly returned to desert. The few cities that were not nuked have largely been abandoned due to lack of food and clean water. The mountain ranges were home to ranches and farms, and those that remain are secluded and fortified.
Carson City, SS-19
Hoover Hydroelectric Dam, SS-17
Discretionary Nuclear Targets:
Indian Springs Air Force Base, SS-N-17
Nellis Air Force Base, SS-19
Groom Lake Test Site, SS-18M2
Prime Base: Located 50 miles from the
western edge and 25 miles south of the state lines in the northwest corner of
Nevada, built in a geographic feature known as the White Rock Canyon in the
Black Rock Mountain Range. Built over a long time, from the late 1960s to 1980
with absolute secrecy. Manned by 407 Morrow personnel and dependents at the time
of the war.
Phoenix Team: Currently frozen at Prime
Base. The Phoenix Team is the ultimate problem-solver team, kept in reserve in
case of catastrophic disaster. There are 47 members sleeping away in Prime Base.
MP Power Stations: Every high tech
industry needs power: electricity, the lifeblood of civilization. The chances of
any major power source surviving the war were slim. For this reason, The Morrow
Project designed its own, protected power sources: the MP power station. Each
was carefully sited, placed away from all likely targets, but usually within one
hour's journey by car from a major population center. This distance was
necessary to keep the stations safe from rioters, blast and radiation effects
and from the damage expected from the near misses of MIRV warheads. These
stations, powerful enough to easily power a city, were to become the nuclei of
small, newly built communities. The hydroelectric plants were rarely finished
systems, rather they were a collection of parts and materials designed and
situated so that a plant could be thrown together quickly after the war. Fusion
plants were less common and more remote. They were necessarily completed prior
to the war, as they were too complex to assemble afterwards. They were also more
flexible in where they could be located. These power stations were considered
vital to the Morrow Project plan.
Morrow Project Facility TN-6: A water
pumping station, located 1.2 miles northwest of Rachel.
Morrow Project Facility TN-7: A fusion power
station, a very late model designed in 1985, revamped during construction in
1987 and completed in early 1989. Its cover was an automated Desert Water
Monitoring Facility, designed, owned, and operated by Deltronics Ltd., a dummy
company run by Morrow Industries. Located 5 miles due west of TN-6 near the town
of Eden and 8 miles northwest of Rachel. Disguised as an old, uninhabited,
ramshackle, ghost town.
Commo Base Kilo Echo: Built in 1973, a manned communications station located near Recon V-3's bolthole in the slopes of the Schell Creek Range in White Pine County. The six-man Operations Team awoke in 2094, for no apparent reason, to find the world gone. Over time, the base shut down as the fusion reactor ran out of fuel. 47 years later, only one man survives, now just a 75-year old grandfather living amongst the Goshute Indians near the base.
Combined Group N: Combined Group N was
created to serve as a force capable of protecting and assisting in the operation
of Morrow Project Power Station TN-7. It was subdivided into four smaller teams,
detailed to support the base. Although the teams themselves have no knowledge of
the actual layout or workings of the station itself (it hadn't even been built
at the time the teams were frozen), they are aware of its (planned) existence
and have been briefed on their mission to protect it.
N-1 MARS: The command team, has 8 men and a
V-150 with 90mm and a FAV w/ M2HB and a FAV w/ MAG.
N-2 Recon: Has a V-150 with TOW and 2 FAVs
N-3 Science, Service and Support: Has 12 men
with a Ranger MPV, a Gamma Goat support truck and 2
SPAD's.
N-4 MARS: Has 8 men with 4 FAVs
Recon Team V-1: Bolthole location
unknown. Presumably in Western Nevada
Recon Team V-2: Bolthole location unknown.
Presumably in Central Nevada
Recon Team V-3: 6 men with a FAV w/M2HB, a
FAV w/MAG, and a FAV w/Mk19.
Recon Team V-4: Emplaced and frozen on May
11, 1987 in a bolthole in the slopes of the Schell Creek Range south of Lages
Station, in White Pine County. It has 6 men with a V150 w/ 20mm and a XR311 with
a MAG. Its six caches are spread along Interstate 93.
The Site: The area chosen for the site of Prime Base was a ridge surrounded by wild, barren steep-walled canyons. When Prime Base was built, White Rock Canyon was a typical, unappealing desert canyon with a permanent (if unappetizing) creek running through it. The promontory Prime Base was built into was at the tip of a north-south ridgeline which separated White Rock Canyon from nearby Soldier Creek and overlooked the open area of Soldier Meadow to the southwest. The Black Rock Range to the east and the Calico mountains to the west were enough higher than the valley that they sheltered the entire area. The White Rock Canyon-Soldier Meadow area was a bowl like valley with the unnamed ridge where Prime Base was located cutting through it. The engineers of Prime Base had to go quite deep into the surrounding rock to reach firm bedrock on which they could anchor Prime Base.
Prime destroyed: Prime base was knocked out of commission by a nuclear weapon and a bio-agent two years or so after the war by agents of Krell. The nuclear detonation and the bio-weapon which destroyed Prime Base radically changed the area. A series of earthquakes triggered by the nuclear explosion set off 10,000 years worth of landslides in the space of a few months. Hot springs, mud pots and sulfur pools burst into life throughout the region as the force and heat of the explosion stoked the cooling geothermal fires. A pair of volcanic cones 25 miles north of Soldier Meadow began a series of eruptions which blanketed the entire area with a black snow of ash. The bio agent released into the area caused a plague which effectively killed all mammals in the area. The biological agent eventually died off for lack of victims but its effect and the viral mutations which followed it changed the fauna of the area forever.
NEW!!! A companion sourcebook for the area from Tahoe to Oasis on the Coast Road.
Fallon: Fallon, with some 500 people, is an oasis in the desert. Trade is done at a huge open air market, where you can buy virtually anything from a gross of pencils to a batch of Indian slave girls. The Slavers from Tahoe have a presence here, bartering in slaves and weapons, many of them from the Farkas farm.
The ruins of Carson City: A barren field of rubble and mutant grass. Do not go here.
Sulphur: The breakdown in society and the famines that occurred after the War left this town nearly empty. The survivors streamed northward towards Idaho and Washington hoping to find better areas that might support them. They did indeed find help, though not as they expected it. They met up with recon elements from Prime Base. Told of a settlement being formed west of them at Pahute Place. There they found the colony set up by Prime Base and were more than happy to work hard to earn food and a chance of a better life.
With the Krell agitators came dissent. Many of the Sulphur group wished to stay but 15 of the 29 decided to return to Sulphur, feeling that with some of the supplies and knowledge they had gained they might now make something of their old home town. At the end when the Krell nuke was detonated, the remaining Sulphur folk had come across two of the rescue team, badly injured and dying. Working heroically they patched their wounds and tried to get them outside the colony. It was there that they saw the nuke go off, blinding a couple of the group. They too headed west and back to Sulphur. The two surviving Morrow folk when better tried to get back to Prime Base, but found the area radioactive and a massive rock slide where the entrance had once been. They concluded that the base had been destroyed. With no equipment apart from what they took with them, they decided to help Sulphur and perhaps start a new Project from there. Sadly their efforts were in vain. The area was hard and it took a lot of toil just to keep everyone else alive. After many years the original folk from Sulphur had all died and left the town to their children.
Now 150 years later the stories of Pahute Place, the War, and the nuke are all built into a great legend handed down from parent to child. They still speak of the great Project ideals, yet they are only words as their time is always taken up with just staying alive. The only testaments to the original story are the weapons of the Morrow folk (an M16 and an Uzi), their Project ID cards, and a huge mural of the nuclear explosion at Pahute Place.
NEW!!! An adventure along Highway 447 in the northwest corner of the state.
The wayward nukes: The SS-18M2 aimed at the Groom Lake Test Facility deployed early, shedding its ten MIRVs out in a line through central Nevada. The 2 megaton blasts destroyed the town of Eureka, the junctions of Highways 50 and 278, and the entire area around Pinto Summit, leaving it an no-mans-land of residual radiation.
The Syen: Descendents of pre-war genetic scientists, these barbaric people call themselves "Syen" (a corruption of "Scientist"). They were originally from a secret, experimental laboratory called Area 27 in northern Colorado (see that state for an explanation), but were cast out after an internal fight over a hundred years ago. They ended up in Nevada, where they have long ago restarted their research. Their main base is now near Austin in the Toiyabe Range and they are similar to the Breeders from further east. They have lost almost all of the knowledge their ancestors had about genetics. Now they do "experiments" that are nothing more than rituals (or as a MP team would put it, atrocities) that symbolize their idea of a super-race emerging from Chaos. They are in no way scientists of any sort, more like religious fanatics, with some semi-scientific overtones. They roam the Central Nevada wastes looking for "pure genetic stock" for their experiments. They want to take people alive, but will kill if they think a captive would be too troublesome to handle. The Syen are variously equipped with pre-war weapons of every conceivable type, though most are civilian type rifles and shotguns. Handguns are not common but there are a few in the group. These weapons are old, misunderstood and poorly maintained. There are a few old M16A1s in the group and these are prized possessions. They do not have stockpiles or reserves of either ammunition or weapons.
Austin: The headquarters of the Syen. There are nearly 200 Syen altogether spread out in farms and small craft centers around the town where the stock is kept.
Slaves: The Syen have been trying to expand their holdings and they have found slave labor a valuable tool. Roughly 1,000 slaves now work on or near the Austin base. More slaves are needed to fuel their expansionist dreams, as well as those required for the "laboratories". As such, they have entered into an uneasy alliance with the Slavers from Tahoe. It is a marriage of convenience; the Slavers know more about the outside world, but don't have the resources needed to explore unknown regions. The Syen see the Slavers as trash, taking people at random, without any knowledge of the "right kind". The Slavers in turn see the Syen as religious fanatics who waste perfectly good merchandise if they are deemed "genetically polluted". They need each other and although they occasionally argue, under normal circumstances they will not fight.
NEW! A very short adventure idea, set in northern Nevada. Wild Horse.
The "93 Territory": The area stretching from Ely in the north to Ely in the south is known as the "93 Territory". Some 2,000 people live here, spread up and down what was once Interstate 93. Life here is hard, but not without its rewards. Technology levels are late wood-burning steam-engine technology. The Territory is fairly self-sufficient, they have enough water to survive, enough food to have an occasional surplus, and a manufacturing base large enough to provide not only for themselves, but also some outside trade as well. Most people are descendents of the pre-war population, with a number from a group of rodeo cowboys that arrived here after the war and settled down.
Ely: The "county seat" of the Territory, and the biggest town, home to 250 people. Farms around the town supply the people with food. The US Marshall is still based here, as is the Territorial mint. Ely also produces the famous "Ely rifle", which is found throughout the area. An occasional Gypsy Trucker or a Mailman is always a welcome site here.
The train: An ancient steam locomotive runs between Ely and Oasis, providing passenger and freight service. The train was salvaged from the Northern Nevada Railway Museum in Ely and now has a tender car, three coaches and a flatbed car, all circa 1890 in construction and style.
"Oasis": A thriving and dangerous Trade Town, built out of the rubble of the old pre-war town of Oasis, some 14 miles to the northwest. It is the eastern terminus of the I-80 Coast Road and as such is a mecca for traders and merchants. Home to Traders, Wanderers, Mailmen, Ranchers, Townies, Amerinds, Slavers, and Gypsy Truckers. Even the Krell have representatives here.
NEW!!! A companion sourcebook for the area from Oasis to Tahoe on the Coast Road.
The Goshute Indians: A large tribe located along the shores of the Inland Sea, having spread out from the Goshute Indian Reservation following the war. They now occupy the land east of the Antelope Valley. They are not hostile to the whites but are not willing to integrate with them either. They are very territorial and everyone knows not to enter "Indian Land" without permission. The Goshutes are traders, and even maintain a presence up in Oasis. They trade the huge mutant brine shrimp from the Inland Sea, as well as plants taken from the shoreline.
The Shoshone Indians: A large tribe living to the west of the 93 Territory, having expanded out from the South Fork Indian Reservation following the war. They occupy Butte Valley and Cherry Creek Range. The Shoshone are insular.
Lehman Caves: A place of mystery, the Lehman caves are a well-known geologic feature located in the Snake Range near Baker along the border with Utah. The vast cavern system was never fully explored and mapped before the war, and rumors of strange and deadly creatures abounded even then. Today, the caves are a fabled den of hideous mutants and fifty-foot long rattlesnakes. It is the place where mothers tell their children they will be sent if they don't behave and eat their carrots.
The People of the Land: The people of Southern Nevada are, for the most part, Amerinds from the old reservations. For the most part, they are concentrated around the old reservations, but have made some large expansions in "white man's" land as well. Good people to have on your side, but some of the worst enemies you could find. A number of Anglos do live in and near the desert, but their numbers are (and always have been) small. Made up mostly of small communities rarely numbering more then 150-200 in size, they exist in and near old ruins, particularly those near water. Although Las Vegas is abandoned, several small towns along the Colorado River are still inhabited, though it is doubtful that anyone would actually recognize them from their pre-war days. Technology here has taken a great slip backwards and these people are surviving each year only by being tough and ruthless; if the desert doesn't get you, the guys in the next town might. They occasionally make expeditions into Las Vegas, to explore and rummage through the ruins of this once great city, looking for anything that might be of value; scrap metal, books, wood, repair parts for the last few operational machines they have, weapons and ammunition.
The ruins of Las Vegas: One of the four MIRVs aimed at Nellis AFB to the north landed in the northeastern suburbs of the city, but thankfully was a dud. It is still lying there, broken open and radioactive. Las Vegas managed to get away with only relatively minor damaged from the flashes and shock waves. As such, Las Vegas physically survived the war but not the months that followed it. The destruction of nearby Nellis AFB and Hoover Dam killed the city. With hundreds killed outright, electrical power gone, the flood of water from Lake Mead, and lack of local governmental control, the area was shortly in chaos. Rioters soon damaged large portions of Las Vegas. They destroyed the airport and went on a rampage through the city that left it wrecked and burning. Survivors fled the doomed city; they left in panic, streaming out onto the roads and highways. Looking for "someplace else" to go. Now, a 150 years later, it is a crumbling ruin of rubble-clogged streets and decaying, unsafe high-rise buildings and towers that occasionally collapse under their own weight, falling with a roar like thunder. The great, ghost town, with its fallen towers, rubble heaps, and ever present dangers is definitely dead. No one lives here anymore, as there is no water. People still travel to "Vegas"; not for fun, for relics. A team trying to scout the city would find it a most depressing and somewhat dangerous place to stay.
Nellis Air Force Base: A missile scattered its MIRVs over this airbase in a line ending just six miles from downtown Las Vegas. Two of the other warheads landed on Nellis, the last one falling in the Sunrise Mountain Natural Area. Nuked and abandoned, Nellis has been reclaimed by the desert. The nuclear strike on Nellis AFB was far enough away from the city to not do much physical damage, though flash fires set alight a northern portion of Las Vegas.
NEW!!! MD49, a short mutant adventure hook set north of the ruins of Las Vegas.
Hoover Dam: The four MIRVs impacted just downriver of the dam, destroying it, and the attendant hydroelectric plant and Boulder City, as well.
Groom Lake Test Facility: The SS-18M2 targeted at this secret test area deployed early, scattering its MIRVS out to land over 150 miles north of the area. In the wake of the attacks, the base shut down. Sensitive materials were destroyed or else removed for safekeeping, and the military staff and civilian personnel left the base to try and find their families. Little of it remains today.
Nevada Nuclear Test Site: Long after the nuclear tests, this rugged area is safe to travel in, though high background radiation levels will be detected.
Rachel (Spencer): This small town is typical of similar communities in the region. Being located in such an unpopulated area, away from any targets, Rachel survived the war untouched. But a lack of a future caused people here to flee anyway, and Rachel became a ghost town within two months of the war. Rachel today is a decaying ruin, a ghost town. A number of relics remain: a lot of valuable scrap metal, and enough used bricks and stone to construct some fine houses. But nobody lives in (or anywhere near) Rachel.
Amerinds: The southern horn of Nevada was home to a number of Indian tribes, some of who still live in the area. These small independent tribes have managed to stay alive in this harsh land by keeping to themselves. These include the Moapa River Indians near Moapa on I-15 to the northeast of Las Vegas and the Shiwit Indians further to the northeast along the old interstate. There are also some Fort Mojave Indians down along the very tip of the state and some Chemehuevi Indians who live around the shores of Lake Havasu.
The War and aftermath: The SS-17 missile targeted for the Hawthorne Plant suffered a freak mid-air collision on War Day. The missile collided with a Minuteman II missile headed for Kaluga, both weapons broke up and crashed above the Arctic Circle. As the technicians, armorers, and specialists were almost all civilians or retired military that lived in the immediate area (the plant had been manned and run by civilian personnel since 1978) there were onl y a dozen military liaison personnel at the facility on War Day. The decision was made to lock down the entire facility until contact could be made with higher command, as all communications were interrupted by EMP from the Nellis blasts. The liaison team leader decided to take two security vehicles and drive across the California border to the China Lakes Naval Station to report and debrief. Unfortunately, the team was vaporized when that base was destroyed that evening as they were clearing security at the front gate.
In the months that followed, the town awaited the return of the liaison team, prepared defenses for the town, and organized. Over time, they received a few dozen survivors from Las Vegas and the surrounding area. Among them were Dr. James Wittington and his team of Cal Tech graduate students who were working in the desert on a revolutionary new high-output solar power generation system utilizing common materials. Their work would become the cornersto ne of survival for Hawthorne.
Not alone for long: Three years after the War, the newly formed Republic of California (centered at Bakersfield) called upon the base. Utilizing proper documentation endorsed by one Lt. General Nicholas Avery, a monthly schedule was ratified wherein 10,000 rounds of small arms ammo and 1,000 rounds of howitzer and cannon ammunition would be shipped to Bakersfield in exchange for clothing, shoes and some seed stock. This arrangement worked well for about 15 years. Then one day in 2009, the monthly road convoy approached Hawthorne for their standard munitions pick up, but it was soon realized that the trucks were full of RoC military personnel and dependents looking for sanctuary away from the rapidly-collapsing Bakersfield government. The town welcomed the servicemen with open arms, realizing what effect 250 professional soldiers would have toward defending their oasis in the wilderness. The soldiers quickly re-organized the town defenses, emplaced more howitzer revetments in over-watch positions guarding the two southern highways coming into town, and closed the northern pass with munitions from the base stocks.
They then signed treaty's with the rising California State Republic to the west and the newly-formed Hispanic Azatlan hegemony to the south. In exchange for a tribute of 10,000 rounds a year to each, they would be left alone. The the California State Republic government was irate at this perceived treachery in dealing with a "foreign invader", but quickly realized the tactical disadvantage they faced in any invasion from the south and accepted the reality of the situation. The Azatlan government, however, was not so realistic.
In 2013, Azatlan sent an invasion force of 5,000 troops and 20 tanks north to commandeer the base and capture all of its goods. Due to the nature of the road system, they had to travel in company-sized elements up the narrow pass. With pre-registered, interlocking fields of fire, and with HE, ICM, ICM-DP, FASCAM and WP shells falling in the pass, the invaders were annihilated. The 187 survivors returned to Azatlan lines in Southern California and a formal peace treaty was signed the following spring.
Hawthorne today: Presently the town is controlled by a representative body called "The Council for Tomorrow". The Spokesman is Reginald Wittington (great grandson) and he is wise beyond his 32 years and a shrewd manager. The town boasts five 1.46 megawatt solar stations, 17 irrigation pumping stations, a fairly modern sewer system and a water purification plant for drinking water. The hospital is small, but effective, and there are two churches, three combination primary/technical schools, and two bars in town.
The town is HEAVILY defended with 18 direct-fire 155mm howitzers (of which only ten are operational, a closely guarded secret) built into revetments on the ridges surrounding the valley, as well as a militia of 200. All citizens aged 14 and above must certify with the M-1 Garand rifle within a year, and practice training occurs semi-annually. Life in town revolves around training, food production, weapon smithing and technological innovation. The myriad number of machine shops and forges operated by the Technical School graduates construct the highest quality Post-War weapons and equipment to be found west of the Mississippi River. Pre-War quality M1911 Colt pistols and repeating rifles (rivaling the Ely rifles from further east in Nevada in quantity if not outright quality), new and reloaded ammunition, as well as fresh-charged Truck batteries, are traded with the Gypsy Truckers network in exchange for electronic components, metal stock, and other raw industrial materials.
Larger military systems like towed 75mm and some 105mm howitzers, as well as 30 self-propelled 175mm and 203mm howitzers are stored on the base, along with the remaining inventory stocks of ammunition for these obsolete systems. Stockpiled in the many bunkers are also over 4,000 M-1 Garand rifles (not including the 300 or so requisitioned by the town militia) as well as about 4,000,000 rounds of 30-06 ammunition. On War Day, there were several hundred thousand refurbished rounds of modern tank and howitzer ammunition in the bunkers, as well as seven bunkers full of modern small arms ammo that was awaiting shipment to various military units around the world. Most of that, however, was shipped off to the Republic of California in the first few years after the War.
People who have contributed to this entry:
John Raner
Karl Zohler
Peter McNae