Encounter Group #24 Snake Eaters

[ArmySGT.]

Name: Snake Eaters
Geographical Location: Anywhere
H&M Average:12
H&M Range 8-16
Number found : 2-12
Tech Level: A
Power / Resources : A smaller version of the Project backed by the U.S. Military.
Weapons: Any modern weapons including a possible laser.
Special Attributes: Especially interested in the Morrow Project.

Special Forces teams of American Green Berets and Canadian Commandos. Frozen before the war with the express purpose to find out what the Morrow Project is. They were triggered to wake up on the release of a Morrow wake up signal. Reasonable men but, fast and vicious when necessary. They can be fiercely loyal, talk fast or else. Experts in all forms of warfare.

[mikeo80]

We have been talking about the GB in other part of Morrow Forum.

But one thing to keep in mind, read what a single A Team did in the module "Ruins of Chicago". 12 men built and still maintain a working outpost near Chicago. Yes, they have had losses. But the survivors are still working, still surviving. AND they have a sense of humor. Fort Morrow indeed!!!

And there is also the other side of the GB. Their motto. They live it, they breath it. They will DIE for it.

So if you have that odd Morrow team who wants to take what is NOT theirs...

The Green Berets will make it right..... Count on it.

My $0.02

Mike

[Gelrir]

From TM 1-1:

"Frozen before the war with the express purpose to find out what the Morrow Project is. They were triggered to wake up on the release of a Morrow wake up signal."

From "The Ruins of Chicago", mostly around pg. 12-14:

" ... ordered only to find out about the Morrow Project."

" ... drawn from volunteers at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center in June of 1985. The Federal Government was very curious about something going on known only as "The Morrow Project". Vague rumours were all they had to go on, but some SF A-teams, made up of volunteers with few family ties, were frozen in order to find out what they could. No one suspected the true nature and duration of The Morrow Project. So, as usual, the A-teams were "left hanging".

"(Captain Bauer) familiarized with his team for six months and they were frozen in 1985."

So freezing was presumably in December of 1985. Note the scenario was published in 1983.

Page 24 mentions a cache; pg. 25 lists some equipment that was presumably stashed with the frozen team.

They don't seem to have any anachronistic equipment in Chicago; their cryogenic capsules and power supply are presumably at Woodstock (about 50 miles from Chicago).

From "Damocles", pg11:

"Construction of Damocles began in 1980 and was scheduled to take 7 years to complete."

Note the scenario was published in 1982.

pg. 29:

"U.S. government research teams broke the fusion power deadlock in 1985. In this room one of the first fusion reactors furnished power for the Damocles complex."

The reactor is 18 cubic meters in volume, and "has sufficient fuel to operate until the year 2300."

So: deductions.

• Snake Eater teams have a bulky fusion reactor in their boltholes, along with a good supply of weaponry either in the bolthole, or in caches. Their reactors are too big to be used as a power supply for any reasonable "overland" vehicle.
• the 20 year fuel supply for Project reactors is a lot less than the 300 year supply for Army reactors; of course, most Project reactors have already been operating for 150+ years, the 'fuel supply' description might be just a simplification of the different amount of fuel remaining.
• The Rich Five and Frozen Chosen might have just as easily gotten their technical assistance from Federal programs. If the Department of Energy reactors are much bulkier than Project reactors, that might explain why no Rich Five/KFS or Frozen Chosen fusion-powered vehicles are described in the published material.
• given the late-Seventies date of the original game, it's possible that Dockery, Sadler and Tucholka expected fusion power to be available in a general way by 1989 -- not secret, just very expensive. Sort of like space travel, say, or supersonic aircraft.
• the Federal Government didn't know where many (any) Morrow Project teams were located; the sample team in Ruins of Chicago certainly didn't.

If I ever have Snake Eaters meet up with MP characters, I'd really want to work up more about those "vague rumors", to make Snake Eater reactions more interesting.

I mean: if the rumor was "the Project is going to wake up after a nuclear war", would the Snake Eaters be the proper response The rumors have to result in freezing Special Forces teams as (part of) the most rational response. The rumors should not be something that paints the Project as a James Bond villain group from the start (like "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker", say).

We also don't know that "Operation Freeze-An-A-Team" was the only response by the Federal government ... just the part that's still around to make a difference in 2139.

Heh, TM 1-1 doesn't actually say that Morrow Industries didn't introduce fusion power publicly ... or that it remained a "secret known only to the Project". The secret nature of fusion power is a reasonable assumption from the published game, but it's not made an explicit condition.

Anyone had any good thoughts on what the United States government might have learned (or mistakenly assumed) about the Project

--
Michael B.

[RandyT0001]

From "Ruins of Chicago":

The team was activated some four years ago, presumably by a Morrow signal meant for some other team.

IIRC, in the Prime Base module it stated that due to the (Krell) attack the computers were damaged. Instead of sending out scores of signals a day to activate teams only one activation signal per day (or week) is sent out. (I have not been able to find any of my old copies of the modules except RoC.) In another module (maybe in PB as well) there was a statement that the Feds knew some of the activation signals but not all. The Feds then used these few known signals to activate their frozen SF teams. The SF and MP teams were not always in close proximity to each other.

It is my impression that Feds didn't find out about MP until 1984-1985. Their response was to freeze a few SF teams per year, under secret CIA budgets, using newly discovered cyro tube technology (still somewhat "experimental"). The Feds knew that MP was involved in a upcoming nuclear world war within a few years time but didn't know exactly when, therefore, each year, a few SF teams were frozen using the latest advance in cyro tube tech.

I don't think that the SF or MP boltholes "officially" used fusion power for energy requirements. I think it was left unanswered because they were only supposed to be frozen five years and if MP fusion packs only last 20 years then how would you explain the survival of the MP teams after 150 years Remember that alot of things are driven by plot necessities, somewhat independent to reality or "predicted reality" like Damocles 300+ year fusion power supply.

[Gelrir]

I think the best assumption about the Project reactors is that 20 years is how long they can continue to produce power at full power. Running a few hundred watts or so in the bolthole doesn't use up much of their nuclear fuel.

The question I'm really asking in my previous post is, "What does the Federal government think the Morrow Project is" If the answer is only, "Involved in an upcoming nuclear war in a few years," I think that landing on Morrow Industries with both feet might be more appropriate.

Imagine this as a high-level government briefing circa 1984:

"Sir, it's backed by at least one of the major defense contractors. They fully expect that a nuclear war will occur within the next decade, and apparently they are preparing some sort of secure communications system, to be activated and operated within the United States after the war. Who would be communicating, about what, from where and to whom, we don't know. We do have a lot of samples of their encrypted broadcasts, probably test transmissions; we haven't been able to extract any useful intelligence out of them."

"So Morrow Industries is part of this ... project And Bruce Morrow If this outfit are using the name 'Morrow Project' he's got to be deep in it."

"Well, there are some odd gaps in our records on him, sir -- apparently he just vanished for several years before 1979. Even now, long periods of time -- months -- go by during which we have no clue about his location."

"Is there any chance he's a Soviet agent, preparing some sort of strategic network inside the U.S. Or some kind of double, returned in 1979 Some kind of 'Manchurian Candidate' thing"

"We can't rule it out, sir, although we haven't found any links to the Soviets or Chinese."

"What do you recommend Should the FBI pick Morrow up for questioning"

"He's fairly high-profile sir, and we haven't got anything solid on what he's up to. Plus, as I said, he's often in hiding; our guess is he may have some sort of bunker or shelter. But we can try, if that's what you want."

"Why do they expect a war to occur Are they planning to cause a war"

"We don't know, sir."

So: given that, what else would be appropriate for the U.S. government to know, so that freezing a bunch of Green Berets seems like the best way to investigate Whatever it is, it can't have made the Government believe the Morrow Project was part of the cause of a war -- or the Government would have been pulling in everyone who ever worked for Morrow Industries for questioning. "Vague rumors" have to be more substantial than "I heard in a bar" ...

I've got the "Rogue 417" CD; the articles and stories on there depict the U.S. government finding out about the Project, though perhaps only as something Bruce Morrow was up to ("Morrow built some sort of fortress"), three months before the War. An FBI agent infiltrates a Morrow base in South Dakota, and the National Science Advisor got a report from the infiltrator literally on the day of the Atomic War. Clearly not enough time to set up a bunch of cryogenically frozen soldiers to investigate "The Morrow Project" -- well, not enough time to recruit the volunteers and give them special training. The information on that CD isn't canon, but it gives some idea of what Robert Sadler and Richard Tucholka had in mind. Copyright dates are 1973 to 1975.

A possible premise (though it contradicts the background in "Ruins of Chicago"): if the government had various secret bunkers in existence, with cryogenic berths and possibly fusion reactors -- intended as backups to Damocles, or for whatever other purpose -- and if the government only has hours, days or a week's warning about "Morrow is gonna shut himself away on X date" -- it might explain a relatively "quick and expedient" Snake Eater project. "We have some cryogenic berths prepared in the bunker at Greenbrier; get a team in there just in case, and tell them ... well, they'll know if Morrow's prediction is correct." This would require the Feds to only "catch on" about the Project just before the War, and would partly explain why they don't have much information, and didn't do anything during the 1980s.

--
Michael B.

[Gelrir]

After talking with some friends: the physical outcome (soldiers frozen by the Government, to investigate the Morrow Project), and the encounter text, are already determined canonically. What would be useful to know is what the Snake Eaters have been told about the Project. You get very different reactions from these briefings, for example:

"Idealistic scientists hoping to rebuild America after a nuclear war."

and

"Soviet agents preparing for a possible nuclear attack."

Or even:

"Bruce Morrow is one of half-a-dozen right-wing industrialists who are preparing shelters and bunkers, with cryogenic capsules and fusion reactors, to survive and re-emerge after a possible nuclear war. They are gathering hundreds or even thousands of followers, and have access to modern military equipment."

After all, to the Federal government in the Eighties, there might not have been any perceptible difference between the Morrow Project and the Rich Five. Depending on your view of where the Rich Five got their cryogenic equipment, there may not have been as much difference as the Project would hope.


--
Michael B.

[ArmySGT.]

The answer to these questions is located on this CD-ROM from Tri Tac Games.... One of the original stories to go with 1st edition Morrow Project.
Fringeworthy Classic

The supplemental games "Rogue 417" and "Invasion USA" were possible alternates for the disaster that crushes civilization instead of a nuclear showdown. There also there as Soviets you can reuse in Morrow Project or if you want to game as a team that does actually wake up 5 years after.

[ArmySGT.]

There is no reason subsidiaries of Morrow Industries or the Council of Tomorrow were not consultants to or subcontractors to National Labs like Sandia.

Therefore, technologies can have "breakthroughs". In this way the Project can leak fusion and cryogenics to the FedGov. So NASA has a cryogenics breakthrough for the manned mission to Mars. The Dept of Energy has a break through in fusion power at the facility sized scale or shipboard scale. Department of Health and Human services has many breakthroughs in treatments for infectious diseases, chelation of radioactive isotopes, burn unit care, etc.

[Gelrir]

But the information presented in the Very Old Timeline Stuff (on the 'Rogue 417' CD) don't lead to the Snake Eaters presented in TM 1-1.

In the story presented as "what the Feds know about the Project", they only know (at the Cabinet level) about the Project literally minutes before the Atomic War; AND all they know is that the Project are idealistic, good-guy scientists. If that's the case, then the Snake Eaters aren't going to be frozen to discover what the Project is up to -- the government knows what the Project is up to, but doesn't have much reason to freeze Green Berets to watch it; and not much time to do so.

They might freeze Green Berets -- or whoever else is on hand -- to re-emerge after the Atomic War; but there would be no reason to synchronize the wake-up to the Morrow Project's signals.

--
Michael B.

[stormlion1]

They could "know" there "idealistic, good-guy scientists" all they want, but in the end there NOT the US Government. Do you really think they would leave the rebuilding to a group that wasn't affiliated with the US Government no matter how good there intentions They don't know who the teams are, there history or the Projects long term goals and plans. So putting some Green Berets under to keep an eye on the Morrow Teams would be a plan and probably one of several but the only one that got further than the planning stages.
As for using the Morrow Teams wake up signals it makes kind of sense, the US Government may not know when the Morrow Teams plan to wake up, just that they do so using the Teams signal solves two problems, the US Government doesn't have to come up with there own timetable, they just piggyback on the Morrow timetable and they don't have to develop a system to check to see if the Morrow Teams are awake or not.

[Gelrir]

Well, two issues with that:

• If we believe the Project is all about rebuilding ... why aren't we burying our own rebuildy-ness stuff Though yes, if they only have a very short warning (not enough time to dig more bunkers) the government response might be just a few Special Forces guys. But canonically they have five years ...
  
• Why use (only) the Project wake-up signal The government should be able to detect the apocalypse. If only there were some big computer, in a super-secret bunker, with super-hardened communication links, hidden deep in the wilds of Michigan!

As an aspect of strategic planning, you'd think Damocles would be told about the Morrow Project and the Snake Eaters. "Uh, yes, Damocles, we're pretty much convinced that an atomic war will occur within five years or so. Keep an eye on these types of transmissions, they'll probably get very busy just before or after the war. And once the war has happened, if you haven't heard otherwise, send out signals like this to wake up some teams of Special Forces soldiers."

Which actually fits with canon -- after all, plenty of Morrow teams are depicted as being activated by Damocles. Why not some Snake Eaters, as well, with perhaps a more informative stream of information from the big ol' computer Although, it's stated in the "Damocles" scenario that his knowledge of the Morrow Project is erased if he's restarted ... apparently he has very volatile memory! Probably just as well for the members of the Morrow teams -- otherwise within a few weeks or months after "getting into" the Damocles complex, teams of Snake Eaters would be arriving to ( a ) grab them and ( b ) restore Damocles to Federal control.

If you believe "nuclear war is inevitable within as little as five years", plenty of other actions are possible -- most of which don't affect the published game. Reviving the Civil Defense shelter programs; arms treaties with the Soviet Union; strategic missile defense systems; big ol' supercomputer in Michigan ...

--
Michael B.

[Gelrir]

Pondering it a bit: Damocles may have considered the canonical "Snake Eaters" as the last reserve to investigate the Morrow Project. For all we know, hundreds or thousands of people were frozen by the government ... in much the same manner as the Rich Five ... and then woke up a year, or five years, or ten years after the War. Without Morrow Industries Magic, their efforts to rebuild America were doomed ... or they turned into warlords, or were suborned by the Rich Five (whose companies may well have been building the government's cryogenic capsules, for example).

Thus, Damocles may have been "saving" a last few Snake Eater teams for the Morrow Project. Their original orders (when they were awake) may not have mentioned much about the Project -- one among a multitude of important things to do after the apocalypse; but when they awaken, Damocles says "check out the MP".

Which all leads to: why aren't there Snake Eater teams looking into the Rich Five, or the Frozen Chosen The Rich Five are, within an order of magnitude, about the same size as the Morrow Project. Of course, nothing says there weren't such Snake Eater teams; or that the Rich Five aren't on the general Snake Eater target list.

"Hmm, who to chase after: idealistic scientists dedicating to rebuilding America ... or, a bunch of neo-fascists who've built up a slave empire Sergeant, plot us a route to Kentucky!"

--
Michael B

[mikeo80]

why aren't there Snake Eater teams looking into the Rich Five, or the Frozen Chosen The Rich Five are, within an order of magnitude, about the same size as the Morrow Project.

There was a (one) Snake Eater mentioned in Fallback. He was working with TMP. Once the MARS team woke up to support the Ag team, the SE was a great way to throw monkey wrenches into the MARS smugness that too many players portray. He wants to know EXACTLY How, When, Where the MARS team is going to hit the KFS troops that are POURING into the area. He wants to know EXACTLY where the backup is, where are the supplies, where is the rally point, where do we go if SNAFU hits. Granted no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Murphy is ALIVE and well. but still you have to try and out plan or have an idea what the hell you are going to do when Murphy comes calling. And he will!!!!

In my mind a GREAT plot device. The Snake Eater should be run by the GM. OR by someone who was a SF person.

My $0.02

Mike

[stormlion1]

Its entirely possible the US Government started to create more in the way of a Fallback position for its own rebuilding, but priority's were made and certain projects went to the top of the list. Its entirely possible that the President, Congress, Joint Chiefs, and several other agency's also had Bolt Holes built for them. The difference is those people who would occupy them wouldn't go into the freeze until the end was nigh, while Snake Eaters (they would want the best), and maybe some other military personnel could be approached and volunteer and then enter cryo ahead of time. There might be bunkers empty except for supply's and unused Cryotubes all around the continental United States set up for so-called important government personnel that were never used because the people who were to use them got caught in the attacks and ended up living or dying in the aftermath.
It might be interesting to come up with a operational US Government Plan to deal with the aftermath of a known nuclear attack with the use of usable cryo tech. I could easily see the planners giving importance to getting people into safety who would be useless in a rebuilding period, storing equipment and tools in salt mines, and then putting in equipment for security after the fact. And then when the event happens nothing being ready but the stuff that was easiest to set up and the stuff that took the least amount of effort.

[ArmySGT.]

The Snake Eaters can be a minimalist effort by the DoD to follow orders but, not really follow orders. This is a period before SOCCOM and the 4 Stars in charge don't really like the SOF community.

The Civil Defense would of course be FEMA, which already has facilities at Raven Rock, Mt. Weather EOC and others........ So what they got was folded into their national facility or rolled into one of the regionals.

Not to mention Senators and Congressmen diverting funds or effort for themselves or to their constituencies.

The hubris of politicians and bureaucrats probably prevented alot of pre-war freeze. These people expected to be there leading and managing the situation. So they died along with everyone else.

If you want this can explain cryotubes and other assets in the hands of the "New Presidencies".

Snake Eaters makes for some highly trained and motivated people the big Army generals won't miss.