Go back to the Morrow Project Travel Guide index to get to the other regional entries.
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SECTION EIGHT: The East Coast (New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, District of Columbia, Delaware)
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NEW YORK
New York, as expected, has suffered greatly in the past 150 years. With NYC nuked, literally millions of panicked people streamed out of the city and stormed upstate. These mobs of refugees totally swamped and buried the once-peaceful northern half of the state under a tidal wave of violence and desperation. Cities and towns burned as hungry people fought each other for food and transport further west. Further west turned out to be almost as bad, as the cities of Upstate New York were mostly smoking craters. In the end, only the strong and lucky survived to rebuild. Along the Hudson River, civilization returned more quickly than expected, leading to a renaissance of culture and security.
1) NUCLEAR TARGETS
New York City, SS-18M2
Buffalo, SS-N-8
Rochester, SS-18M1
Niagara Falls, SS-19
Syracuse, SS-N-17
Utica, SS-17
Yonkers, SS-N-17
Albany, SS-N-17
Yaphanik, SS-18M1b
Plattsburgh, SS-17
Schenectady Army Depot, SS-18M2
Seneca Army Depot, Romulus, SS-N-17
West Point military academy, SS-N-8
Watervliet Army Depot, SS-N-8
Griffiss AFB, Hampstead, SS-17
Robert Moses Hydroelectric dam, Niagara Falls, SS-18M1
Indian Point 2 nuclear reactor, Buchanan, SS-17
Indian Point 3 nuclear reactor, Peekskill, SS-N-17
Fitzpatrick nuclear reactor, Oswego, SS-17
Discretionary nuclear targets:
Fort Drum, SS-17
Troy, SS-N-8
Bronx, SS-19
3) MORROW PROJECT ASSETS
Theta Base: Location unknown, but somewhere in northern New
York. Vehicles include one Pave Low V, two Pave Hawks III, one
Bell Boeing 609, one Mark-V Special Operations Watercraft, one
Up-Armored Hummvee, and twelve CRRCs.
Mars Force M-66C: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in
northern New York. 8 members, with one Up Armored HMMV, one
Armored Land Rover, one Armored Suburban, eight Grizzly
Quadrunners, and one Chenoworth FAV. The commander of M-66C has
Military and Security Override Authority in the area of
operations. An emergency cache, which is exclusive to M-66C, is
located near Elizabethtown. One of the six caches is located near
Stark Mountain.
MARS Force M-56: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in
central New York. 10 members, with two MPG-90s.
Recon Team R-16: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in
northern New York. 4 members, with two Commando Scouts.
Recon Team R-26: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in
northern New York. 2 members, with one Commando Scout.
Recon Team R-36: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in
central New York. 4 members, with one Commando V-150.
Science Team S-46:
Bolthole location unknown, but
somewhere in northern New York. 6 members, with one Commando
Ranger.
Omega Team: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in
upstate New York near Albany, just off the New York Turnpike. 10
members, with two VBL with 50 cal MG, one VBL with TOW, one Alvis
Stalwart with log boom. One of several teams that were 3/4
complete and beginning their first cryo-tests when the war
started. These teams never received their final indoctrination or
area briefings and the team selection process was skipped. A team
with scratch gear, anything the training base had available to
equip a team at last notice There are no caches, everything being
stowed in one big bolthole which was designed to be a Science-1
or Mars-1 hole. (Thanks, Ken Portz)
Unnamed MP
bolthole: Somewhere in the
Adirondack Mountains near the town of Elizabethtown.
4) NEW YORK CITY
The Big Apple was the premier city in America before the war, the
nation's financial center and the home of the J-E-T-S, Jets,
Jets, Jets. As such, it was atomized into quarks by the Soviets.
Ten MIRVs popped over Manhattan, ten over Jersey City, six over
the Bronx, three over Yonkers, three over Newark, and one each
over Elizabeth, Clifton and Paterson. Needless to say, nothing
remains of New York City today. It is now a monstrous moonscape
of pulverized concrete and melted rocks, a place where radiation
is still high enough in spots to kill instantly any who dare to
approach. For nearly forty miles in every direction from
Manhattan, there is no human life. There are, however,
cockroaches and the occasional mutant Blue Undead. The Hudson is
still navigable, and ships from the north often pass through the
eerie ruins.
The Nonnewaug: A tribe of Amerinds living in the northwestern suburbs of the ruins of New York City. They have, at best, 1,000 people in the tribe, about 60% of whom are combatants. The Nonnewaug use mostly 19th century-style firearms, and some older military weapons, with very little heavy stuff apart from a platoon or two of mortars and an ancient M60 LMG. Both food and water are in good supply. (Thanks, James Barnwell)
5) THE CHAMPLAIN NATION
This nation has grown up around the wide and cold waters of Lake
Champlain and the long Hudson River valley. With humble
beginnings as a loose association of small towns pooling their
food and guns, the Nation has slowly but steadily matured into a
regional empire. Citizens of this nation refer to themselves as
"Champlainers" or more commonly "Champs", and
they are fiercely proud of their success. Currently the Nation's
influence extends from the Saint Lawrence Seaway in the north to
the ruins of New York City in the south, following the courses of
the Richelieu and Hudson Rivers. Areas of population and commerce
are centered around the shores of Lake Champlain, with smaller
communities along the rivers north and south. Total population of
the Nation is about 500,000 people and technology is currently
around the early 1900s. In the river valleys, fertile lowlands
and a high water table have allowed farms to survive and prosper.
The Adirondacks and Catskills still offer good fishing and
hunting opportunities, which ensures that no one starves. The
capitol is at Glens Falls, which is the largest city in the
Nation. For this document, the southern part of Quebec and a bit
of the western border of Vermont will be included in this section
on New York.
Government: The government of the Champlain Nation is based on the old New York State assembly, elected by the landowners and merchants and led by a President. Glen Falls is the capitol, with all important political institutions based here. The rank and file governmental officials wear red armbands, while the upper echelon senators wear red and black bands. The President wears red and black with a bright blue sash when giving public speeches or when traveling.
President Michael Evans: The current President of the Nation, having been elected three years ago by a landslide. Evans is easily recognizable with his exceptionally long hair and trademark white-streaked beard. He is a fanatical defender of the middle class who has done much to increase standards of living within the Nation. The capitol building is in the center of town, formerly the city hall of Glen Falls. Electricity powers lights and machines inside and it is a marvel of recovered and restored 20th century technology.
Relations with neighbors: Due to a relative isolation from other empires in the nation, the Champlainers have been at peace for the better part of the last century. This lack of extreme threat, combined with a higher standard of living brought on by a good economy, sufficient agriculture and good government, have made this area very pleasant to live and work in. Contact with the USA in northern Virginia is occasionally made, and a few Soviets have been met in the southern reaches, but currently no trade agreements or treaties exist between the Champlainers and any other nation state.
The Champlain Army: Without an active external threat, the armed forces of the Champlain Nation have necessarily been reduced over the years. The cost of maintaining a large standing army without any enemies to speak of was deemed to be too high. Over the years, the army morphed into a series of town militias linked by a "Central Command" in Glens Falls. Equipment is late 1800s for the most part, and training and upkeep are at frighteningly low levels. The militia is voluntary, and in many towns there are barely enough young men in the service to make an effective fighting force. Weapons often rust in isolated armories, unused for decades, and even “borrowed” by local citizens for hunting. In some towns there is more pride and sense of duty and the militia is more effective, but the norm is pretty sad. Perhaps the main problem is the culture of peace that has developed over the last few generations, which has relegated the conduct of war and defense to something that only "savages" do. If faced with any sort of organized threat, the Champlain Nation would be overrun in short order.
The towns of the Nation: Each of the following towns has its own unique flavor and identity, though they are all linked by a common desire to see the Champlain Nation thrive and grow. Nearly everyone lives either on the river or within a few dozen miles of it. Area of direct control can be said to a continuous strip about twenty miles wide running north to south. The largest towns are listed below.
Tracy, Quebec: The northernmost outpost of the Nation, situated on the banks of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. All traffic starting up the Richelieu River must be inspected and taxed here. The townspeople mostly speak French and it is often hard to find a reference to the far away Champlain Nation heartland.
Swanton, Vermont: A river town, known mostly for growing corn for the legal trade and dope for the black market. The distance from the capitol at Glens Falls makes the latter the more profitable enterprise.
The ruins of Burlington, Vermont: This hulking ruin is avoided, as the radiation and the Blue Undead make scavenging suicide. (see Vermont for more info)
The ruins of Plattsburgh: The city of Plattsburgh was nuked during the war, the spillover effects demolishing the nearby Plattsburgh Air Force Base as well. The AFB is completely unapproachable due to high radiation count.
Port Kent: The main activity in this river town is building lake-going ships for trade merchants. The level of technology and sophistication has increased over the years and now these sailing cutters and ferries are as stout and sturdy as you will find anywhere. The frequent storms in the winter rarely sink these "modern" vessels anymore, a testament to their quality hulls. There is some talk of maybe one day producing ocean-going ships to sail the Atlantic. The problem is finding a shipyard close enough to the ocean to make it possible (see Newburgh below).
Essex: A well-managed and thriving river community home to some 3,000 people, run by a Town Council and an elected mayor. Essex has an excellent reputation within the Champlain Nation for quality products and honest trade deals. They have a coal-fired power plant that powers several large factories, as well as civic buildings. Essex is also known for a yummy variety of squash that has become one of the hottest trade items in the Hudson Valley.
The Champlain Canal: This shipping canal has remained the vital link between the two rivers, connecting Lake Champlain with the Atlantic Ocean. It has silted-in a bit over the years, but is still open for traffic. Vessels of all sizes routinely travel through the canal, and guideposts and distance markers have been set up to aid the pilots. The town of Whitehall is at the northern end of the Champlain Canal, with the large city of Glens Falls at the southern terminus.
Glens Falls: The capitol of the Champlain Nation, a prosperous city, with lots of political intrigue. The security of location provides growth and the ancillary people to maintain a thriving population now approaching 15,000 in the county. Internal security in the city is several units composed of groups of young militiamen. Most of them are between 16 and 18 years old and many are still too small to lift an ammunition box. The trade market in Glens Falls is the best place to buy virtually anything. It is a combination of several city blocks jammed with stalls and stores, accessible by winding alleys and convoluted passageways. Anything you can name is for sale, including food delicacies and treasures looted from rich people. The Champlain Clothing Company has its factory on the city’s south side, combining a group of cottage industries and cheap labor to corner the market on finished textiles. Finished clothing with "Made in Glens Falls" tags are highly sought after.
The French: Glens Falls, and the Nation as a whole, is home to a sizable French-speaking population. These are descendents of refugees from Quebec, who came down the valley following the war. The “Frenchmen”, as they are called, here are businessmen, first, last and always. Samuel Gerard is the primary French leader in Glens Falls, running a river barge conglomerate, his own shipbuilding company, plus a number of shady businesses dealing in black market goods. He heads sort of a family empire, in many ways more powerful than the official government, especially in Glens Falls. He has a son named Jacques who is his first assistant and runs the day-to-day details of the family business. As Samuel is now 68-years old, his son will soon be the head of the family.
The ruins of Albany: The entire Schenectady-Albany-Troy area was pounded into dust by no less than fifteen warheads. The devastation was 100% complete and the fires raged for weeks through the fields and forests. Massive amounts of rubble blocked the Mohawk River, forcing it back into a large lake that formed, inundating much of the ruins before it pushed its way around. The Hudson River was not blocked as much, however, and while the course has widened with years of flooding, the river is still navigable through the region. Passengers on boats are advised to stay below decks when passing through the ruins as the radiation is still detectable.
Catskill: A large river town with perhaps the most effective militia in the Nation outside of the capitol. Some 250 young men take extreme pride in serving, parading three times a year through the town and wearing their uniforms daily. There have been efforts over the years to have the Catskill militiamen train other towns' militias, but those efforts have usually been met with resistance from pacifist townspeople who are afraid that an active militia might try and fight someone and get their sons killed. The Champlain Nation Army command structure is working on a plan to rotate units from other towns to Catskill for training.
Poughkeepsie: Now home to some 4,500 people. It is run by "Emperor" Brian Williams, an elected Champlain official. Some years ago, Williams fell sick to a bout of flu which laid him up for a month. While he recovered, he was never the same and began to run the town like a monarchy. So much so that in a few years he had taken the title of Emperor and was calling everyone his "loyal subjects". He is an efficient organizer, pays his taxes to the Champlainer capitol on time, and is very good to his people, so the citizens of Poughkeepsie just play along, even taking some pride in their status. President Evans in Glens Falls is not as amused.
Newburgh: A river trading center nestled in a protected section of the old urban ruins. As the closest port to the mouth of the Hudson River, Newburgh has been suggested as the best place to build a shipyard to produce ocean-going vessels. Currently, officials from the government and the shipping industry are talking with the people of Newburgh about this project. As it would be an economic boon to the town, the Newburghers are sure to support it. It is a forgone conclusion that Gerard’s ship building company from Glens Falls will run the show down here.
Indian Point 3 Nuclear Reactor: The Champlain Nation's best hope for the future right now might be the old Indian Point 3 nuclear reactor in Westchester County near Peekskill. The plant had been quickly taken offline once the nukes started to fly, and the SLBM targeted here was damaged by EMP and fell into Canada. For some 120 years the plant sat relatively intact but empty, slowly being broken down by the elements and wandering looters. The Champlainers took a look at the plant when they first came through this area, but at the time wrote it off as hopelessly damaged by the weather and time. About 30 years ago, however, their science had advanced enough to the point where they could consider investigating the plant again. It turned out that Indian Point 3 was not in as bad a condition as they first thought. While they are a long, long way from being able to bring it back on line, they have done a good job of cleaning up the facility and repairing what burst pipes and broken conduits they could find. The plant still needs some major repairs to the turbines and generators, and nearly all the control circuitry will have to be replaced, but if someone with a better understanding of the process and the tools to do it were to come along…
The ruins of New York City: The access to the Atlantic Ocean from the Hudson River is still used frequently. The scenic trip past the legendary ruins is something everyone has to do once in their lives just to understand what horrors the ancients wrought upon themselves.
The Adirondacks: Once a popular vacation area, the war brought disease and rioting to normally peaceful towns and resorts. Now the forest is busy taking the towns, the roads and everything else man-made back into itself. Many of the larger towns in the Adirondacks region, such as Tupper Lake, Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, are hard to find through the trees, uninhabited except for a few transient families combing the ruins for salvage. The flu came back through this area last winter, further weakening the scattered populations of hunters and gatherers. Limited Champlain Nation influence extends through this area, with trade caravans visiting the few communities in the eastern fringe of the forests.
7) CENTRAL NEW YORK
Fort Drum Military Reservation: Nuked and abandoned for over a century. A rumor amongst the locals is that the ruined place is haunted, a place of death, shunned even by animals.
The ruins of Syracuse: In 1989, three SS-N-17 MIRVs fell from the sky over Syracuse. The warheads detonated in a pattern above the downtown area, instantly killing nearly everyone in the city. Wind-driven fires consumed most everything within the blast zone and raged through the nearby fields and forests. The area of total destruction extends to the city limits. Virtually no humans live for many miles in any direction, save the occasional hunter camp.
The "Herkimer Monster": The famous Herkimer diamond mine in Herkimer County has been avoided for the last century by the locals. Reports of a huge multi-armed monster lurking in the depths of the mine have been passed around for as long as people can remember.
Elmira: Following the end of the nuclear autumn, a unique settlement sprung up around Elmira-Corning Regional Airport. The airport has become the home base of a large group of "Ballooners". Much like the founding group of Ballooners in Wyoming (see that state), this group was formed by a batch of lighter-than-air pilots who were having a rally near Elmira when the bombs began to fall and managed to survive WWIII. They found that by having the only aircraft still in flying condition they could become profitable traders in the harsh new world. They fortified the airport and gathering weapons, spare parts and followers. Over the next 130 years, the ballooners suffered hard times and boon times, and currently are on the upswing. For the most part, Ballooners are friendly traders, but if they are attacked or find that they have been cheated, the offending community or group can expect to be bombed from the air. The airfield is still in excellent condition and it is well-defended. It carries on trade with numerous local communities, who have become dependant on the Ballooners themselves. Trucks and wagons come and go everyday as the airport trades technological goods for foodstuffs. There has been contact over the years with the "Western Ballooners" as they are called, but the sheer distance has kept the two societies evolving separately.
Binghamton: The largest pocket of civilization in the region and the home to some 4,000 people. Binghamton has maintained a trickle of natural gas production over the years, which provides for some basic electricity and water pumping. This gas supply is heavily guarded by the "Bearcats"--a combination of a strong municipal militia recently augmented by ten Soviet mercenaries from Pennsylvania. The gas will be tapped out in another few decades or so, but for now it keeps the city alive and worth living in as well as giving them something of value to trade. The I-81 bridge across the Chenango River collapsed several years ago, but a plank and rope bridge has been fashioned using the existing pillars to allow for people to cross.
Griffiss Air Force Base: The SS-17 aimed here fell short, atomizing a rural area in Lewis County. For about ten years, Griffiss operated as a functional military airbase, one of the very few on the east coast. Over time, however, the lack of food and the failing command structure led to the decline and eventual abandonment of the airbase. Over the next century, several groups of people occupied the area, with the Ballooners staying the longest. For the last thirty years or so, Griffiss has been the home of just a small group of farmers and hunters.
The lost treasure: 150 years ago, in the hours before the mobs came, much of the fissionable materials from the AEC laboratories at Oak Ridge, Tennessee were crated up and shipped by air north here to Griffiss AFB where they remained for some years. When the airbase personnel finally abandoned the site, the location of the material was lost to history.
Ithaca: A small farming enclave centered on the Cornell University campus, led by "Commander" Mathew Fox. Commander Fox is an interesting character. He was part of a Morrow Project Medical Team, and was frozen in Missouri in 1984. He woke up four years ago to a country devastated by the nuclear war. His team was all dead in cyrosleep, victims of faulty cyrotubes. Fox then wandered around with no sense of purpose and just sort of ended up in New York. Very soon, he had used his project skills to work his way into a position of power within the struggling settlement in Ithaca. Ithaca had been suffering greatly from poor crops and marauder raids for nearly a decade before Fox arrived, but he was able to whip them into shape and protect what was left. His medical training, as well as a background in farming, allowed him to stabilize their food and health situation and then allow for steady growth. Fox now runs the settlement as Mayor, which has absorbed most of the remaining population of the county, with the help of a council of academics. He has set up a hygiene program and reorganized food production to meet demands. In most ways, he is doing what the Morrow Project trained him to do, just not where he was originally assigned.
Seneca Army Depot: There are rumors that there are mysterious, green-garbed soldiers occupying this nuked military weapons depot near Romulus. One of the three MIRV nukes was a fizzle that barely broke 1 kiloton, so a portion of the sprawling depot would probably have survived.
8) WESTERN NEW YORK
Western New York state was hit hard during the war. Most of the
large cities were nuked and a large percentage of the population
died within a few months. Only in the hilly rural area are there
settlements now, usually along rivers or in fertile cropland
areas.
The ruins of Buffalo: Nuked, this city is just a radioactive heap. The entire area west of the I-290 loop is a tangled mass of rubble and poisonous pools of chemicals where no one dares to live. The far eastern suburbs are roamed by a group of thirty bandits from Ontario under the sadistic leadership of Guy LeBeauff. They are currently holed up in the old Eastern Hills Mall, which they have filled with the choicest loot from the city and waylaid from travelers passing through the area. They also take pleasure in hunting the few remaining scavengers and the occasional Blue Undead in the area.
The ruins of Niagara Falls: Blasted by seven nuclear warheads, including a massive 25 megaton SS-18M1 on the hydroelectric dam, Niagara Falls is now nothing more than a barren field of overgrown rubble. The Niagara River has flooded over much of the ruins, flowing around the large blockage caused by the hit on the dam. Radiation levels are still high enough to kill if you spend more than a few hours in the area.
The ruins of Rochester: The 25 megaton ICBM targeted on Rochester exploded over the downtown area, sending a huge pressure wave out to flatten the city to the furthest suburbs. 200,000 people died that first night, countless more over the next week. Nearly every single building in the city was scraped off the earth, pulverized and dropped back down as melted rubble. 150 years later, Lake Ontario has creeped in and filled the crater, flooding out a good sized portion of the ruins. The Shipmen on Lake Ontario usually avoid the ruins, though they have been known to stop here to ride out sudden storms. In these cases, the sailors always stay aboard their ships.
The Port Rowan: Currently in Rochester’s harbor is the Shipman merchantman the Port Rowan. This steel-hulled ship is a medium-sized oil tanker, built in Finland in 1981 and owned by a Quebec shipping company before the war. Found wandering in Lake Ontario at the end of the nuclear autumn, the ship was taken in by the Shipmen in their formative years and refurbished as a mobile trading bazaar. The boilers have long ago been converted to run on coal and huge sails rigged on the wide deck. The Port Rowan’s single working drive shaft finally blew out it’s last bearings last week, stranding the ship off Rochester. The crew is waiting for other Shipmen to come to their aid, holed up aboard casting fearful glances towards the ruins. They would be most glad if someone would help them sooner.
Yorkshire: This small town has seen numerous ups and downs over the years. The citizens recently came up with an interesting solution to a nagging bandit problem. They have hired the bandits as mercenaries and have begun using them to take over some of the other villages to the south. This band of bandits turned mercenaries is 50 strong and led by a fifteen-year old boy named "Smokey Joe". Smokey Joe has survived by his cunning and woodsmanship and, despite his age, is followed religiously by the older members of his gang. They have also been given power of "tax enforcement" on the surrounding villages and farms. They are often brutal in performing their duties and few towns miss their quota.
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NEW JERSEY
Heavily polluted by fallout and chemical spills, New Jersey is an inhospitable wasteland populated only by the brave or the foolish. The northern half of the state is still virtually unlivable and might be for centuries to come. There are some viable settlements in the state, mostly along the southeastern coast.
1) NUCLEAR TARGETS
Jersey City, SS-18M2
Newark, SS-N-17
Elizabeth, SS-N-8
Paterson, SS-N-8
Trenton, SS-18M1
Fort Dix, SS-16
Pickatinny Arsenal, Earle, SS-N-17
Lakehurst NAS, SS-N-17
Salem 1 nuclear reactor, Salem, SS-N-17
McGuire AFB, SS-N-17
Discretionary nuclear targets:
Camden, SS-18M1
Clifton, SS-N-8
Oyster Creek nuclear reactor, Tom's River SS-17
2) MORROW PROJECT ASSETS
Medical Trauma
Team NJR-1: NJR-1 is the advance
team for a specialized set of teams organized to address the
horror that would be the New York Metropolitan area following the
holocaust. NJR-1 was to activate first and assess the situation.
Based on their assessment, the other teams NJM-1, a mobile
Medical Trauma team with expertise in treating radiation and
related conditions, and NJM-2, a MARS team in the event of
hostilities beyond NJR-1’s abilities, could be activated.
Team NJR-1 was frozen on July 30th, 1989, just four months before
the war started. NJR-1 is a standard six-person Recon team that
has been trained in NBC operations in preparation for their
exposure to the hostile environment. They are equipped with
hostile environment suits as well as the Individual Protection
Suits and the normal camouflage coveralls issued to later Morrow
Teams. Their vehicle is a modified LAV MECSS.
Mars Team NJM-2: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere within
New Jersey.
3) NORTHERN NEW JERSEY (Thanks, Joab Ben Stieglitz)
Situation, pre-war: Like most areas just outside the suburban sprawl, western Morris, Sussex, Warren and northern Hunterdon counties were largely farming communities supporting corn, soybeans, hay, wheat, dairy cattle and other agricultural products. The quaint small-town atmosphere was present, augmented by a satellite dish here and a convenience store there. The open spaces, green hills and dense forest supported a population of approximately 500,000 in the 1,500 square mile region.
Traffic from the already over-concentrated suburbs to the east made the commute into the urban areas slow and frustrating. As a result, there was reluctance to move westward until an increasing number of businesses moved into the I-287 corridor that split Morris County into eastern and western sections. With this recent development, the townhouses were beginning to spread into the western portion of the Garden State, primarily along Interstates 78, 80 and 287, when the bombs fell.
Situation, the war: The bombs fell on November 18th, 1989, mushrooming all across the world in a spasm of nuclear fire. Fortunately, the missiles landed just as the tail end of a massive storm front was passing over New Jersey and Long Island. The high winds pulled the fallout rooster tails east out to sea, polluting a large swath of the state but saving the northwestern corner from the bulk of the heavy fallout.
The vast population, industrial capacity, and economic resources of the New York metropolitan area were blanketed with nuclear weapons. The concentrated effects of the warheads striking Paterson, Newark, Jersey City and Elizabeth, combined with that multiple warheads striking New York City, and Yonkers vaporized 20 million people and turned the once sprawling metropolis into a radioactive desert. The missile targeted for Lakehurst Naval Air Station was knocked off course and landed instead 50 miles north, in South River, New Jersey. This impact combined with the weapons targeted for Trenton, McGuire Air Force Base and Fort Dix extended the desert from Ridgewood in the north to Lakehurst in the south.
Situation, post-war: Physically, northwestern New Jersey survived the holocaust intact. The blizzard and terrain contained most of the effects of the Picatinny blast, and most of the fallout was swept eastward. However, fear of inevitable after-effects prompted most people to pack up their belongings and head west into Pennsylvania, where the impact of the nuclear exchange was concentrated in a few distinct areas.
The survivors that trickled through in the weeks and months that followed further encouraged this. Many were horribly burned and mangled, while others fled westward in a panic, stripping the region of anything of value in their path. The injured flooded the area hospitals, where fighting for the scarce resources occurred frequently. Few survived the particularly cold and snowy winter.
With the coming of spring, adventurous souls explored the wastes to the east and south. Many failed to return. The rare survivors told of the sea of dust and radiation that lay beyond the hills to the east. Indeed, the former New York metropolis, wrapping around the hills into the Trenton blast zone, was reduced to mile upon mile of dust, now known as the “Jersey Desert”. Over the years, weather and nature turned the area into a proper desert where only scrub plants grow and unimpeded winds gust to 50mph. Hearty (or fool hearty) souls venture into the Jersey Desert in search of relics. Occasionally finds of old technology are uncovered by the elements, usually in underground structures that newly exposed by storms. The environment is generally inhospitable to humans, with some radioactive hot spots.
Many of the waterways in the now desert region that feed the Hudson were poisoned by the radiation still flowing from the ruins of the Indian River nuclear plants up river. Mutant plant life grows along the banks. These oases in the vast waste lure unwary travelers to their toxic shores, where the acidic waters can dissolve a carcass in a few hours. Those who avoid this hazard often find themselves prey to the scavengers that have adapted to the harsh environment.
Several small communities of farmers and hunters now live in the Kitatinny Mountains and along the winding Rockaway and Wallkill River valleys, areas relatively untouched by the fallout. In total, there are perhaps 300 people in this area, spread out between three settlements and numerous family farms. Population densities are low enough that the tilled fields and oak forests provide enough crops and game for the summer months, and even enough for surpluses in the colder months. These people mostly keep to themselves, with only occasional out-of-state trade with similar settlements in southern New York and eastern Pennsylvania. Salvage trips to the ruins of New York City and down the Delaware to the Philadelphia area are made at least once per spring, but less and less of value is brought back each time.
The ruins of New York City (see New York entry for more information): A still-devastated wasteland of melted rubble and barren fields of bare dirt. The huge New York City metroplex was nuked heavily, the firestorms racing into and through the suburbs in the state, burning everything in their path. Essentially everything east of the Ramapo and Passaic Rivers has been destroyed and is uninhabited. In the rolling hills to the west of that arbitrary line, there are a few scattered settlements of hunters and trappers, but nothing larger than a dozen people during the warmer months.
4) CENTRAL NEW JERSEY
The eastern part of this region suffered severely during the
nuclear attacks on Philadelphia and the Trenton/Camden area,
where fires and shockwaves helped to destroy most everything west
of the New Jersey Turnpike. The great Jersey Desert butts up
almost to the poisoned Delaware River now, an arid waste
difficult to travel through and near impossible to live in. A
great deal of salvage lies untapped, too radiated to safely be
recovered at this time.
Fort Dix: First blasted by four nukes, this large base was then blanketed with massive fallout clouds that killed off everyone still alive in a week. Under the shifting sands of the desert lie great treasures waiting to be excavated.
5) SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY
The southern third of the state was mostly agrarian,
characterized by thick pine forests and wandering creeks. In
South Jersey, the multiple explosions in Philadelphia,
Wilmington, and at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant destroyed all
passages across the Delaware River and made those regions
impassable. Radiation from these targets, fueled by the eastward
moving storm front, swept across the flat expanse of the Pine
Barrens of southern New Jersey, killing most of the population
and leaving the region a radioactive wasteland. Refugees flooded
the small rural communities, looking for safety where there was
none. Within a year, the refugees were all dead and most of the
locals were dead along with them.
The area beyond the Jersey Desert to the south has now become a different kind of horror. The slow seeping radiation of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Salem explosions was absorbed into the once-fertile farming lands and waterways of the central and southern peninsula. Mutated plants, animals and people have evolved, and the previously rural region has turned wild and dangerous.
Over the long decades, a few small populations struggled to survive, farming small glens and clutching to the Atlantic beaches. Today, the southeastern coastal plain supports a tiny, and totally isolated, population of fishermen and small-plot farmers. The changed weather patterns have altered the pre-war coastlines considerably, in some areas eroding dozens of miles inland, creating wide bays and inlets. Therefore, the communities listed below, while some distance inland in 1989, are now coastal.
"Corbin": Formerly Corbin City on the Tuckahoe River. Now the largest community in South Jersey, home to some 150 people. They are generally friendly to the few visitors that come by, even providing guides along the coast upon occasion. They are currently trying to build better boats, strong enough to brave the open waters to reach the prime fishing grounds further out in the Atlantic.
"Englishtown": Formerly English Creek on the wide mouth of the Great Egg River. Home to some 20 farmers, herdsmen, and their families. These people often make the trek to Corbin to sell their goods, often with the entire community packing up and staying in Corbin for a month or longer before returning to Englishtown.
Mays Landing: Home to some 30 farmers and fishermen who cling to the southernmost tip of the peninsula. They are probably the least friendly of the settlements, having several bad experiences with pirate raids in the last few dozen years. These pirates came from North Carolina and rode in boats larger than anything these people have seen before or since.
The ruins of Atlantic City: The vacation capital of the east coast is now mostly underwater. The shifting sands and 150 years of storms and erosion have left nearly all the ritzy casinos and hotels either completely submerged or just barely sticking up out of the marshes. The area has been a Mecca of sorts for the last 100 years, since the ruins were rediscovered by adventurers from the south. Local men who are looking for a quest to prove their manhood to their fathers and girlfriends often travel here to explore the ruins of the gilded casinos. They bring back trinkets, chips, game tokens, anything that can prove that they braved the wilds to reach the fabled place.
The Pine Barrens: The large pine forest was burned in great quantity in the years after the war, and regrowth was stunted by the thick blanket of radioactive fallout. Only along the southern edges has it recovered even a little bit, the vast majority of the once teeming forest now the southern zone of the great Jersey Desert. A few settlements surely exist in the narrow band of forest, but few people ever venture in to find out for sure.
Scraggers: The truth is almost as strange as the fiction. The “new” Pine Barrens, in parts of the pre-war counties of Atlantic and Cape May, hide a population of Scraggers. A Scragger is a "throwback" human to the level of the prehistoric era, a people much like a modern Neanderthal except that their bodies are covered with hair. Scraggers dislike normal humans and will attack any lone individuals or small groups they encounter, though it has been decades since they had any direct contact with the people along the coast. They are wise enough to use the legend of the Jersey Devil to keep people away from their homes and forage lands. However, not all the strange sightings and deaths can be attributed to the xenophobic Scraggers...
The Jersey Devil: The legendary "Jersey Devil", part devil, part man, has been a common resident of the Pine Barrens for five hundred years. It is fitting that since the nuclear war, the Jersey Devil has been particularly active. Nearly everyone living in the area, or just traveling through, seems to have a story about when they saw, heard, smelled, sensed or were actually attacked by the Devil. One wonders if the sophisticated weaponry of the Project would be enough to end this threat…
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PENNSYLVANIA
Pennsylvania was badly damaged in the war, with most of its larger cities taking nuclear hits. Many of those who survived the war didn't survive the aftermath of violence and chaos. In the chilly mountains, hundreds of thousands died each month, and everything that was edible was snatched up. By a year after the war, the population of the state was down to a tenth of pre-war levels and dropping fast. No organized governmental structure survived that first year, leading to state-wide anarchy. The situation was made worse by the arrival of a Soviet military unit, who quickly stepped into the power vacuum in parts of the state. The Soviets are still enclaved in west central Pennsylvania, farming and hunting the thick woods. The rest of the state has stabilized somewhat, with the rugged terrain and numerous rivers providing places for settlements to thrive.
1) NUCLEAR TARGETS
Philadelphia, SS-18M1
Pittsburgh, SS-19
Allentown, SS-17
Eire, SS-17
Harrisburg, SS-17
Scranton, SS-19
Frankford Arsenal, Philadelphia, SS-N-17
Letterkenny Army Depot, Culburston, SS-N-17
New Cumberland Army Depot, SS-17
Scranton Ammunition Plant, SS-N-8
Tobyhanna Army Depot, SS-16
Peach Bottom 2, 3 Nuclear Reactors, York County, SS-18M2
3 Mile Island Nuclear Reactor, Dauphin County, SS-18M1
Beaver Valley 1 Nuclear Reactor, Shippingport, SS-19
Discretionary nuclear targets:
Reading, SS-17
Wilkes-Barre, SS-19
Lancaster, SS-17
2) MORROW PROJECT ASSETS
Supply Base: Located on Three Mile Island.
Supply Base: Located on Long Island at the nuclear power plant
that never went online.
Frozen Watch 89: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in
north-central Pennsylvania. Ten cryo-tubes, but only three are
filled due to the hasty freezing as the nuclear war raged.
Mars Team E-13: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in
northwestern Pennsylvania. Team awoke many years ago, and have
been active in the Erie area doing the Project’s work.
Unnamed Mars Team: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in
northeast Pennsylvania in the coal region. 4-6 members, with two
heavy load-out V300s.
Recon Team E-15: Bolthole location unknown, but somewhere in
northwestern Pennsylvania.
Recon Team PA-7 R: Bolthole located near Nesquehoning in Carbon
County, in a reclaimed coal pit. the area has been cleared of
over the last 5-10 years and this area provides an excellent
place to bury a team. This is the only Recon team implanted here
since the project wrote this area off in it's initial assessment.
Unnamed
Engineering Team: Bolthole
location unknown, but somewhere in northeast Pennsylvania in the
coal region. 5 members, with one Hemett truck.
Unnamed
Medical/Science Team: Bolthole
location unknown, but somewhere in northeast Pennsylvania in the
coal region. 7-9 members, with two Hemett trucks.
Unnamed MP
bolthole: About a mile and a half
into a cave in the first range of the Allegheny Mountains about
fifty miles south of Pittsburgh.
3) EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA
The ruins of Philadelphia: Four nukes, including a 25 megaton monster ground burst, effectively demolished the Philadelphia area. The Delaware River is still on fire as recently as thirty years ago as the nuked oil refineries along the west bank still burned out of control, the black cloud of oil soot stretching for hundreds of miles. Even with huge expanses flattened or burnt, several sections in the southern reaches of the city around the airport and Prospect Park are still standing, though mostly empty. Salvage is more abundant here in the south, primarily in the industrial neighborhoods west of the Schuylkill River. This has not been tapped much by salvagers, however, as the area is isolated by miles of rubble, long stretches of radioactive and chemical contamination, and legends of mutants and cannibal zombies. There are only a few settlements in the Philly area, the largest in the Valley Forge National Historic Park. Another group of people is currently scratching out a living around the old Boeing-Vertol helicopter factory located on Route 291 along the Delaware River south of the city.
Other eastern cities: The area of industrial cities north and west of Philadelphia between the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers was hit by numerous nukes and rampaged over by swarms of refugees. The cities of Lancaster, Allentown, Reading, Wilkes-Barre, and Scranton were all blasted by nuclear weapons and are still devastated. Settlements are often rare in this area, with most people tending to stay in small family units. The exception to this is a large enclave in Carbon County.
Delaware State Forest: This wild, wooded forest stretches for many miles along the west side of the Delaware River in the northeast corner of the state. Today, probably 2,000 people total live in the forest, despite the cold winters, wandering bandits, and virtual lack of trade and commerce. They are mostly spread out in the forest in groups and clans no larger than 50.
The ruins of Allentown: After being nuked, Allentown found itself thrown back into the Stone Age. 150 years later, about 60 people still live in the shells of warehouses and factories, scavenging and catching rats.
Easton: Easton has become an almost totally agrarian town, with fields and farms where there once was concrete and brick. Some 600 people live in the area and they do well for themselves most years.
Pottstown: At one time a quiet farming settlement, hit by a largish bandit clan four years ago. During the raid, the local militia, which had been reasonably successful at holding out before then, was caught out in the open while constructing earthworks. They fought while their ammo lasted, but were cut off and the bandits ran rampant through town. Today, just some 30 people still live here.
The ruins of Reading: The factory town of Reading was hit by a nuclear strike, demolishing about 90% of the city's buildings. Its current population is less than 80, most of who hide from each other as well as any outsiders. Further up the Schuylkill River is a little oil reclamation company known as Berks Associates, which recycled various petroleum products. While inoperable, the stocks of oil and gas here have degraded to the point of being useless, but the facility itself is of immeasurable value.
Lebanon: The area is sparsely populated, with about 200 people left in the ruins of Lebanon itself, though there are as many living outside on small farms. Lebanon contains much valuable salvage, which often brings travelers from far away to root in the ruins.
The ruins of Lancaster: Nuked during the war, this city was mostly destroyed. Maggot activity is a real problem in this area now with several dozen holed up under the ruined northern suburbs.
Stroudsburg: Once a vibrant farming enclave, Stroudsburg was destroyed last month by a terrible F-5 tornado, leaving houses and corpses scattered everywhere.
Raven Rock/Site-R: This was the underground Pentagon, operational since 1953, but largely forgotten about in the years following the atomic strikes. It’s located near Waynesboro just north of the Maryland state line. As the staff of the Pentagon was mostly killed in the strike on Washington in 1989, alternate national command was never transferred to Raven Rock. For about a 100 years, just a caretaker force kept the fires burning. Then a bandit clan came through the area a burned the defenders out in a swift strike, killing everyone inside. It has been abandoned since then and its condition is unknown.
The Buffalo Soldiers: A strip of valuable land in extreme southeastern Pennsylvania has been held by a society of bikers since the war. They are known as the Buffalo Soldiers, descendents of a pre-war motorcycle club chapter that survived the chaos and uncertainty of the 1990s by banding together and helping the local populace survive. Over the years they had to fight hard to maintain their territory and preserve their society, but have always managed to do so.
The territory nominally under the “Buff’s” control stretches from the ruins of Philadelphia in the east to York on the west, and from about Interstate 76 in the north and south nearly to Interstate 95 in Maryland. To keep their old bikes running, and to build new ones, they have long ago reopened the Harley Davidson plant in York. They have also scoured the local area for machinery and equipment, including nearly the entire contents of the Mack truck factory in Hagerstown, Maryland, to help rebuild and refurbish other vehicles.
A typical troop consists of 20-30 riders on single-cylinder alcohol-powered motorcycles. Each trooper is armed with semi-automatic rifle patterned after the SKS, plus they all carry a saber as a symbol of old days. Each troop has four diesel-engined trucks as a supply train, carrying kits and ammo. They also haul the fuel trailers for the bikes. (Thanks, Ken Portz)
4) CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA (Thanks, Ken Portz)
Situation, pre-war: The Carbon County area was filled with typical bedroom communities for people working in the Lehigh Valley or in New Jersey. Local industries included farming, dairy cows, coal mining, fire truck manufacturing and explosives. The 59,000 or so people in the County lived in small cities and rural towns. There was a nuclear power plant here, as well. People were generally prepared for trouble, and most people had at least one firearm in their house.
Situation, the war: The nuclear war came to Pennsylvania with a vengeance. Carbon County did not see any nuke hits, but was swamped by hundreds of thousands of refugees from New York City and Philadelphia. Disease epidemics and violence killed off most within a few years. Those refugees that survived formed ethnic enclaves within the Carbon County region.
Situation, post-war: Thanks to an active defense by state National Guard units and Pennsylvania State Police, Carbon County was able to cleanse most of the dangerous refugees out of the area. The locals, known as “Dutchies”, survived quite well and raided the nearby cities for goods and tools to build up a good industrial base. By the end of the century, people began to settled down to the business of survival and rebuilding.
Carbon County today: 150 years after the war, this area has become a regional powerhouse. Population is now 75,000 people in "Uphome", a term used to describe the residents of Carbon County, and another 50,000 in ghettos outside regional borders.
Ethnic enclaves: With so many city people coming to this area after the war, it was natural that they gathered into ethnic groupings. ghettos get formed outside the towns but within the borders of the protected region. There is a Jewish Town and a small Muslim Town, which share a common border and have a common defense force. There is also a largish Black Puerto Rican Town, an African town, and a multi-ethnic Asian Ville. The races get along well for the most part.
Economy: The key to the area's continued prosperity is their ability to generated a steady supply of electricity. Two cogeneration plants are set up to burn old coal stripping called culm, and can burn any other form of coal, providing a good electrical supply. The regional electric company has an outpost in Schuylkill County and the knowledge to split the grid so that only local customers can receive power. They also set up the grid to interconnect the two cogens and the one surviving nuclear plant at Berwick.
The region is very self-sufficient in most things. Food, medicine, weapons and clothing are produced in quantity. The most common local industries are coal, steel, vehicles, and weapons. The oldest brewery in America still makes its beer and sends it to all points. Civilian vehicles are mostly small trucks and vans for delivery and transport. A large part of the region is farmed heavily to feed to growing population, and most farmers still keep oxen teams for pulling and plowing. A railroad operates in the area, running as far west as the Schuylkill River and as far south as the shores of Chesapeake Bay. They haul food out and steel and metal scrap in.
The telegraph is widely used for long distance communications. Local radio keeps the towns informed daily, and a weekly paper is widely read. And, of course, the train brings info with each trip.
Military: Carbon County’s military force consists of one Heavy Armor company, one Light Armor company, and three Mechanized Infantry Companies. Equipment for these units was taken from PANG armories. Wheeled gun carriers serve as tanks and metal-clad trucks as APCs. They all run on diesel. The Military has companies in all of the towns with more than 1,000 population. Each of these companies has 75 men and is divided into one tank platoon and three infantry platoons. Everyone must serve at least two years in the Military, after which you may join fulltime.
Roamers: The people of Carbon County have created a “roaming guard”, people empowered with a mix of police power and lawyer skill to settle disputes. Two-man teams are randomly chosen each day and sent in a random direction on foot. They “Roamers” are trained in civil disputes and can act as a judges when needed. Their judgments are made as naive youths and can be contested, but if the aggrieved parties are found against they must pay for the court’s time. The Roamers also serve as a catalyst to keep everyone on the same page, as a roamer they may go anywhere and talk to anyone, and as such the culture is spread around.
Mutant Puff Balls: The forested hills and valleys of Carbon County are home to giant mutant Puff Balls. These plants can sense body heat and will spray their spores at a passerby. The immediate effects are a sense of calm, then sleep for 20-30 hours. During that time the spores get processed through the digestive tract, which the spores need to crack the outer shell. After waking, the victim has a great desire to urinate frequently but only can pass small amounts of urine. Local people seek out the Puff Balls to eat as they are quite tasty. They can be found only in forests and only in the late summer and early fall.
Mega Skunk: This area is also known for pony-sized Giant Mutant Skunks. V These animals are very aggressive and are rabid half the time. They will spray a person at the least frightening motion. The spray acts as a deadly toxin a small percentage of the time, but the rest of the time will just knock a person unconscious for a few hours. The smell will keep anyone away for close to a week. It can eventually be washed off, but the essence remains. This becomes a powerful pheromone and causes anyone nearby to become attracted and aroused. This is determined by the gender of the skunk, i.e. if a female skunk sprays a male target, then male humans become aroused. The effect lasts up to two weeks or more.
5) CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA
The wide and cold Susquehanna River cuts north-south through the
center of the state, providing a transportation route as well as
a steady source of irrigation. The hills and forests teem with
game, providing hunters a good catch most seasons.
Lewisburg: Perhaps half of the 1,200 people living in Lewisburg live in a walled settlement built on the grounds of Bucknell University, farming the extensive open greens of the university. The rest are spread out on small farms around the county.
The ruins of Harrisburg: Pennsylvania’s state capitol was atomized by nuclear weapons during the war. Virtually nothing remains standing and no one lives here. Travel along the Susquehanna is treacherous, with many submerged obstacles.
York: York was the scene of some severe food riots in the months after the war, reducing large areas to ruin. 150 years later, there is a stabile community of farmers living in the city. The ruins of the Harley Davison motorcycle museum have been converted into a citadel of sorts, with heavy concrete barriers set up to discourage attacks, and guard posts atop the building. They trade mostly to the south with the USA in Virginia and with local communities across Pennsylvania.
Depot: Southwest of York are the ruins of the Letterkenny Army Depot. While mostly vaporized by nukes, there are surely some a few underground storage pits still intact. These contain vehicles, explosives, missile components, ammunition, refurbished artillery, tools, food, and lots of other good things waiting to be plundered.
6) THE SOVIETS IN PENNSYLVANIA
Invaders: These Soviets were air landed in division strength into the western New York area. Their original mission was to secure the Niagara Falls/Buffalo area and await reinforcements from Russia. No further troops were to come, however, and the Soviet paratroopers found themselves alone. Fighting with remnant US Army units was fierce and casualties were taken. For a time it was feared that the unit would fragment, but several highly motivated commanders kept the morale up and the guns clean until the fighting ebbed. After reforming, the unit moved south into Pennsylvania and began to take over the scattered survivor enclaves. As the only well-armed and disciplined force left in the area, they usually had no trouble storming a town and taking it over. At one time in the early decades of this century, the Soviets controlled a large swath of Central Pennsylvania. Their zone of control extended over most of the cities east of the ruins of Pittsburgh, west of the Susquehanna River and virtually from border to border north and south. This was obviously too large an area for such an occupation to succeed, and the Soviet leadership wisely chose one area to concentrate their forces. They chose the Juniata River valley southeast of Altoona, where the wide and fertile Raystown Lake provided a great place to farm and fish. All the troops were ordered into this valley in 2021, taking with them their families and children and everything they could carry. Here, they settled down to become farmers and make babies. 120 years later, they are still there.
The Great Harvest: At first, relations with their neighbors were strained. Fights and sabotage was common and peace was a dream. The leaders of the division had to do something drastic to convince the people that they could all live together. The option of a crushing, violent crackdown was quickly dropped, that would only make the situation worse. Instead, the Soviets decided to share their harvests and wealth with the locals in a grand show of cooperation. One summer, soon after they arrived in the valley, the Soviets announced that they would be giving away food and free medical attention to anyone who came to the valley in peace. Most people thought it was a trap and avoided it, just a few hundred of the more desperate people came. Despite the small turnout, the Soviets were true to their word, handing out sacks of food and goods, and nearly every one of people visited the three remaining doctors that the Soviets had available. The effort seemed to be a bust until in the next morning a small party of men arrived carrying two sick little girls in a horse-drawn cart. The girls were the daughters of the leader of the Amish church in the area, a very influential man who was much respected by the people. When his daughters came up sick, he took a chance, and over the wishes of the rest of his people, took them to the Soviet doctors. His reasons, while against the Amish ideals, were based in the practical need to keep as many of his Amish healthy if they were to survive in this new world. In a perfect story the little girls would have survived and all would be joyous. In fact, the cholera ravaging their little bodies was too advanced and both died painful deaths within a few days. The father, while grieving greatly, was much impressed by the doctors' willingness to spend time and invaluable medicine on his terminal children. He left with a new appreciation for the Soviets and worked hard in the coming months to convince his Amish brothers and sisters to accept the new order of things and cooperated with the Soviets. Very soon, the Amish began to trade with the Soviets, even come to live with them and teach them their low-tech methods. Soon, non-Amish began to come into the fold, encouraged by the fair and honest treatment the Amish were receiving. Times occasionally called for violence, but by and large, the Americans and the Soviets got along better than could have been hoped before the war.
The Soviets today: The farmlands of the valley bring in a fairly substantial crop during the autumn harvests, ensuring that the large populations still here always have something to eat. This, combined with the productive fishing industry, have kept the Soviets happy and well-fed. They have long ago named this area the "Soviet Socialist Republic of Pennsylvania", but have worked hard to become a part of the local society. The languages heard on the street are a mix of Russian dialects, traditional Amish High German and Pennsylvania Dutch, and English. The fusion would be terribly difficult to understand for a modern-day visitor (or a MP team). Official government documents are usually all in Russian, but when posted for public display, they are often translated into two copies, one in the common "Russlish" and another in German for the Amish population.
Neo-Communism: While a traditional communist system was originally imposed by the Soviet Brigade leaders, it was quickly found to be unworkable in America. Over a few decades, it morphed into a weird combination of Communistic centralized land and resource control and free market trade and price control. Soviet farmers produce excellent crops and their produce is widely regarded as the best in the region. Several large farmers markets are operated in the Valley, open to all comers. All land and machinery are owned and distributed by various Soviet councils. The Soviet decides each year how much land will be used by each farmer. The farmer then plants what he thinks is needed and works the land as if it were his own. A small percentage of the crop is turned over to the Soviet but the rest of the crop is the farmers to do with as he pleases. Each Soviet maintains an agricultural motor pool consisting of tractors and other large agricultural equipment. Every farmer is entitled to borrow and use this equipment to work the land. Many farmers have maintained their own equipment since the Soviet’s equipment may not always be available (i.e. another farmer is using it). Food storage houses are maintained in every farmstead, assuring a reserve in times of war or famine. Private property exists but is limited to physical possessions. While one can own almost anything privately, one can not own the land as that is the property of the Soviet. The Amish, due to the fact that they produce the most food in the region per person, are given favorable status in this system. Their food quotas are larger than other groups and they are often given the best plots of land to farm.
The Red Army: The Soviets were originally members of the 76th Guards Air Assault Division, based in the Pskov area before the war. They landed with very few vehicles or heavy weapons, but captured and used a considerable amount of US Army equipment once on the ground. Due to an obvious lack of spare parts, nearly all the Soviet-built equipment has either long ago broken down and been abandoned, or has been heavily modified with locally-produced replacement parts. The captured stuff lasted longer, however, and there are still a number of vehicles and heavy guns still operational in the Soviet sphere. The "Red Army" as it is still called locally, has by now been downsized to a more manageable Brigade-sized unit. Total manpower trained and armed is around 2,300 effectives. Support weapons include some three dozen assorted artillery pieces, ranging from what is perhaps the very last Soviet D-30 towed 122mm howitzer on the continent, to several former US Army 105mm guns, to locally-produced black powder cannons. Vehicles still nominally operational include a single M1A1 Abrams tank, six M60 model tanks (only half of the M60s even have a chance of running), one M109 SPG, and one Soviet ASU-85 SP gun. There are also a number of armored personnel carriers, including a few BMD-2 tracked troop carriers. The Soviet vehicles were air-dropped with the division in 1989 and have survived by having worn parts replaced with handmade copies, giving them a Frankenstein look. Personal weapons are a mix of modern and old world. The Red Army has ample stocks of ammunition for most of their weapons, thanks to a small ammunition reloading plant in Smithfield and stocks salvaged from the ruins of depots and arsenals across Pennsylvania. The once-common AK-74Ds are a rarity anymore, as they take specialized ammunition that is not interchangable with American weapons. A few are still found in the unit armories, as are small quantities of M-16s, M-14s and other captured pre-war American military weapons. By far the most common firearm found these days is a locally-built copy of the M3 Grease Gun. The plant in Smithfield is capable of producing a limited quantity of these, using as prototypes a number of original M3s found in National Guard armories in the area. It is favored because it uses a fairly common .45 caliber round, is a much hardier weapon then the M16 or M14, and is simpler to repair and build. The Brigade's headquarters is in Smithfield, a mile from Huntingdon, and its component units are spread across the area in strategic garrison posts. The Smithfield HQ is circled by a wide ditch and a five-foot tall wall of earth and timbers. Sandbagged observation towers are at the compass points, with mortar bunkers evenly spaced between them. The ditch was filled with sharpened stakes, and the top of the wall was strung with barbed wire. All these defenses were built back when there was an actually need for them and they have fallen into disrepair lately. There is a civilian workforce in Smithfield numbering about 200 men, and a training company that accepts recruits and runs them through Basic Training.
The People's Militia: The Juniata Valley is also defended by a citizen's militia, trained and led by Red Army officers. This "People's Militia" is used for internal policing and patrolling, freeing regular soldiers to guard the frontiers and make raids. Huntingdon is home to the Soviet's armory, housing a large collection of small arms for the militia. The militia is organized into six separate Regiments, each assigned an area to police. Each Regiment has about 150 militiamen with ten Army officers. They are mostly armed with melee weapons and black powder rifles, while the officers all have modern weapons. The 1st Regiment and 6th Regiment both assigned to security duty north of the Valley along the Highway 22 trade route, patrolling as far north as the old Rothrock State Forest. The 4th Regiment and the 5th Regiment are both assigned to internal duties in the immediate area of the Lake. The 3rd Regiment patrols to the south to nearly the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The 2nd Regiment is currently to the west, patrolling the area east of Altoona. The Amish are exempt from serving in the militia as it violates their religion. It has caused some animosity with the other peoples living in the area, and who are required to serve in the militia.
Relations with neighbors: Despite the fact that they were originally "invaders", the Soviets have been quite good neighbors for the last century. As detailed above, once the local populace began to trade and deal with them, even though acceptance took a while longer, the Soviets became valuable members of the community of survivors. As such, the Soviet troops are counted on by local towns to help them with emergencies and bandit problems and are widely regarded as efficient and courteous to the locals. It is very rare that anyone fears the arrival of a Red Army unit in their area, as the Soviets have been seen as protectors and stabilizers in the region for generations. Overland trade is conducted with the Republic of Cleveland, which is the Soviet's main trading partner.
Huntingdon: The "capitol" of the Soviet “empire”. Huntingdon has grown into a small city and is the economic and administrative center of the area. Once the fighting died down and the locals began to accept the benefits of their presence, people started to flock into the area. Smithfield, Ardenheim and several other nearby towns have also prospered due to their proximity to Huntingdon. Currently, 40,000 residents reside in a 10-mile radius around Huntingdon, stretching to Alexandria to the west, east to Mill Creek and south to McConnellstown. A goodly number of these people are Amish, still living their traditional lives in farms often adjacent to Soviet-run farms.
Juniata College: Juniata College in Huntingdon has become the center of learning in the Soviet sphere, and home of the Red Army War College. It is here that much of the teaching of farming and animal husbandry is done by professors born and raised in the college system. They have everything they might need; books, their own power plant, educational resources, educated personnel, and scientific equipment and supplies looted from other universities. In the first few years of operation, the college attempted to teach a strict Communist doctrine. That lasted about a year before it became apparent that to survive in America, the inflammatory and often unworkable Communist teachings of Marx and Lenin would have to be diluted.
The ruins of Altoona: The former steel town of Altoona was dusted by fallout from the Pittsburgh strikes and flooded with refugees who burned the town down. Today, the majority of the town's population, some still 2,000, live in rebuilt houses along the Kettle River just north of the ruined town. The center of Altoona is mostly destroyed and offers very little shelter or salvage anymore. There are usually 100 militiamen on duty at any given time, trained and often led by Red Army officers. Many of the militiamen are armed with weapons looted long ago from a New York State Police armory.
The ruins of Johnstown: Johnstown was one of the few places to actively resist the Soviet occupation in the 1990s. In a series of sharp clashes, several dozen Soviets were killed. The Brigade commander retaliated by napalming the town and shelling it with chemical mortar bombs. 150 years later, the ruins of Johnstown are still deserted.
State College: Groups of citizens live in various enclaves around the city, in parks and in residential and industrial neighborhoods. In total, there are about 1,850 people city-wide. Once controlled by the Soviets, State College has been free of their direct rule since the 2020s. The Soviets, however, are still a common sight here, as they have developed into vital trading partners. Penn State University functions as a community school now, with much of the high-tech lab equipment and books being taken by the Soviets when they moved south or burned by them. The local militia patrols the region daily. They have emplaced a couple of pieces of medium black powder artillery sited atop Nittany Mountain which are able to dominate quite a bit of territory.
7) SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
The ruins of Pittsburgh: On November 18, 1989, six Soviet MIRV warheads ravaged the city. The devastation was horrific and today a uniform level of rubble spans across the area. Only a few major streets are still faintly visible, headed towards the six hypocenters, where rain has turned some of the craters into poisonous lakes. The interior of the city is teeming with Blue Undead, huge mutant rats and ferocious feral dogs, along with billions of cockroaches, and no humans live here anymore. Depopulated and then repopulated by generations of refugees and scavengers, the extreme edges of the city have survived.
Bethel Park: This southwestern suburb is now home to the largest settlement in the Pittsburgh area. Due to the hilly terrain of the city's south side, many of the southern suburbs escaped much of the direct blast and heat effects of the bombs. It is in these areas that life struggles on today. The Bethel Park settlement numbers some 800 people, by far the largest of the local towns. The town is led by "The Steel Man", a powerful Overlord. The Steel Man's fiercely-loyal militia is armed with a variety of arms, including M-16s, a few M60 LMGs, grenades and such from a National Guard armory that he dug up. Power and wealth is provided by the huge coal mines that line the Monongahela River, the same mines that made Pittsburgh the city it was before the war. The largest of these is now in Bethel Park, where slave labor is used to chip the coal rock and pull the carts under armed guards. Conditions are deadly and the miners are fomenting rebellion daily. The main trading partner for this coal is the Republic of Cleveland in Ohio, and coal caravans leave twice a week. Relations with the Soviets to the east have always been strained, and that might get worse soon.
Oakmont: On the opposite side of the ruins from Bethel Park, this small settlement of 450 people thrives as a center of farming and hunting. Oakmont is well-defended and organized, with a school and trade market. They are occasionally raided by militiamen from Bethel Park who are looking for spoils and slaves.
West Mifflin: In this ruined Pittsburgh suburb is the remains of the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, which once designed, built and tested prototype nuclear reactors for the US military. In the late 1980s, the US government invented fusion power, and most of the design work was done here at Bettis. The above-ground structures were almost all wiped out by the nuclear strikes, but the subbasements of some of the buildings have survived. Still buried in the collapsed basement of Reactor Assembly Building #2 are two working fusion power plants. These are small prototype units, designed to run small ships and submarines, and with monumental effort (and a lot of luck) they could be used to power a small city.
Red hammer: The Steel Man's days might be numbered. The Soviet empire to the east has had cordial trading relations with several communities in the area, treaties often a century old. When the Steel Man came to power in recent times, his ruthless policy of expansion and violence upset the applecart. The last straw came when the Steel Man stopped and robbed a Soviet delegation outside of Oakmont. An expedition to liberate the "oppressed proletariat" of Pittsburgh is currently being organized.
Ruff Creek: At this small town on the old ribbon of I-79 is forming a local rebel movement. Right now it is just a collection of men and women, former coalmine slaves, ex-bandits, and such, and going by the name of the "Citizen's Liberation Group." They have plans to eventually liberate Pittsburgh from The Steel Man's grip. They have asked for and received some support from the Soviets, including a few weapons and intelligence.
Uniontown: Uniontown's current population is about 600, with another 200 living on a couple dozen farms within a seven mile circle. Its militia numbers about 30 men and is armed with a variety of black powder weapons and two old M14s. This militia has fought a number of skirmishes with the bandits over the past month and has held them off, but needs to keep part of its strength guarding the town from other directions. As such, they seldom venture out to protect outlying farms.
8) NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
Outside of Erie (see below), this is a fairly quiet region today
as most of the excitement in western Pennsylvania is centered
further south and along the coast. There are only a few bandits
about and a number of large farming towns have managed to carve
out nice lives. There is little central government, though much
of the area is under titular rule of the Republic of Cleveland
(see Ohio). This authority really just extends to the road
network and the coal mines. The Republic has little interest in
anything other than the area's natural resources, though it
treats the people well enough.
Allegheny National Forest: The expansive Allegheny National Forest is a large hardwood forest preserve that has steadily grown thicker and larger over the last 150 years. There are numerous people in the forest, though only a few settlements of any size. Generally the forest dwellers are isolated family units who rarely have need for other people. This has often produced some nasty side effects of generations of inbreeding in small gene pools. Rumors of mutant children with “special powers” are hopefully just rumors…
Kellettville: The home base of the “Razin’ Hell” gang. Apart from the gang members, there are currently 70 other people living here, mostly women and children.
Titusville: There are 307 people living here, with 50 of them in a militia. The Pennzoil refinery operates at limited capacity, and the associated oil wells and machining facilities make this town prosperous. There are road blocks on all roads leading into town, an a toll is charged equal to a quarter-pound of black powder.
Warren: There are 569 people living here, with 60 of them in a militia. The area is known for farming, herding, machining, distilled spirits, light industry, and limited capacity oil refining, the last thanks to the United Refinery.
Tidioute: There are 40 people living here, though there is no organized militia. The area is known for fishing, farming, herding, and lumber. Two of the more noteworthy citizens include Old Man Watkins, distiller of not so fine spirits, and Jeremiah the leatherworker. (Thanks, Monty Pommer)
New Castle: New Castle is home to a very large farming community, numbering around 6,000. It is a trade center for the Republic of Cleveland and therefore in relatively good condition. Coal from the hills to the east is shipped through the town daily, with the residents growing rich on the service of the caravans. In New Castle, the coal has also provided some basic electric service and few go cold in the winter. There is some manufacturing going on, but it is geared mostly to mining and agricultural needs. Large parts of the city have been cleared for planting crops, and irrigation is provided by the Shenango and Neshannock Rivers.
Sharon: Sharon is another Republic of Cleveland town, home to some 3,000 people. It serves the same purpose as New Castle, though Sharon is known region-wide for its production of swords. Some of the finest sabers are made here and they are prized by wealthy men as far away as the Kentucky Free State.
Butler: The life of this town changed when the nuclear inferno swept over Pittsburgh, spawning chaos and anarchy throughout the area. The local National Guard unit that had been stationed in Butler was able to defend the community with the help of citizen militias and much of the community survived that first horrible winter into the spring. When the chaos finally settled down after a few years, they realized there was a way that they could help themselves and other settlements nearby. They repaired and then started expanding as they grew ever so slowly. Rudimentary production lines were set up and slowly began producing and reloading ammunition. The community started exchanging this valuable commodity with other settlements for food or other necessities, and found a lot of customers. 150 years later, some 4,500 people live in the immediate area of Butler, and guns and ammo are still the main commodity. Both the Republic of Cleveland and the Soviets to the east both do business with the arms merchants here. Butler is also the site of an old IRS underground storage bunker holding duplicate tax and social security records, and the arms merchants use it to store their wares.
9) ERIE (Thanks, Monty
Pommer)
The SS-17 ICBM aimed for Erie was knocked off target by the
effects of earlier missiles. The warhead detonated underwater in
Lake Erie approximately 60 miles north-northeast of Cleveland,
Ohio and 40 miles due west of Erie. The inhabitants of Erie
survived the war intact, but did not fair as well from the
refugees and civil unrest. 150 years later, Erie has fragmented
into a number of enclaves. All these people live and work in the
city, forming alliances and treaties with each other when needed.
In total there are probably 6,800 people living within the city
of Eire today. The enclaves are listed below, divided up into
geographical areas.
West Side of Erie:
Colonial Colony: Located in the area of West 26th Street and Colonial Avenue. There are 300 people living here, with 30 of them in a militia. The area is known for trade, farming, lumber, furs, plastics, and electronics salvaged from Erie Airport and the surrounding industries.
Furnace: Located in the area of West 20th Street and Pittsburgh Avenue. There are 200 people living here, with 20 of them in a militia. Known for processed metals, machining facilities, and plastics processing. Operational facilities include the Lakeview Forge and Steel, Plastex, and AMSCO. Much trade is conducted with Dobbins.
Grover Cleveland area: Located in the area around Grover Cleveland School. There are 300 people living here.
North Side of Erie:
Dobbins: Located in the area around Dobbins Landing at the foot of State Street. There are 2,000 people living here now. The militia has 100 active members, 50 reserves, and 50 mercenaries. The area is known for ship and boat building and repair, medicine and medical products, salvage, fishing, and Great Lakes trade. Operating facilities include the Hamot Hospital, City hall, county and federal court houses, Blasco library main branch, the very large Litton Shipyard dry dock and machining facilities, Erie sand and gravel with two dredging ships, GAF which makes asphalt shingles, and Gannon University. In Dobbins there are seven taverns, two schools and a theater.
Frontier: Located in the area of Frontier Park. There are 300 people living here, with 25 of them in a militia. This is a farming community which does some salvaging from nearby shops and homes.
McKinley Park: Located in the area of McKinley Park. There are 200 people living here, with no organized militia to protect them. The area is known for salvage and some farming.
Union Station: Located in the area of West 14th Street and Peach Street. There are 100 people living here, with 10 of them in a militia. They have a defense agreement with Dobbins.
The Hood: Located in the area bounded by 19th to 26th Streets and between Parade and French Streets. There are about 150 people living here, with about 40 of them being raiders.
Perry: Located in the area of Perry Monument in the Presque Isle State Park. There are 50 people living here, with about 10 of them in a militia. The area is known for fishing, limited farming, and lumber.
South Side of Erie:
Mall: Located in the area of the Millcreek mall. There are 100 people living here, with 15 of them in a militia. Resources: The area is known for having limited pre-war goods from the mall shops, farming, herding, and lumber.
Mercyhurst: Located in the area of Mercyhurst College. There are currently 100 permanent resident here, plus many students and transients. The militia has 40 members. Several of the citizens are the descendants of MARS Team E-13, which awoke many years ago. E-13, realizing something was amiss with the Project, restarted the college in an effort to pass on as much as they could. They have left the enclave an operational V-150 (20mm) and modern weapons as well as training. The last surviving member of E-13 is Brother John (John Siedhoff, age 76 as of 2123) team deputy CO.
Glenwood Park (GULP): Located in the area of Glenwood Park. There are 1,000 people living here, with 100 militiamen on active duty. The militia boasts one 60mm mortar. The area is known for farming, lumber, furs, and minor machining facilities. Home of Trader and sage Daniel and his smelly feet.
East Side of Erie:
General Electric: Located near the General Electric Co., railhead and surrounding area (East 12th Street and Franklin Avenue). There are 1,500 people living here now. The militia is large and effective, with 150 active members, 50 reservists, 5 tanks, and 2 artillery pieces. The area is known for machining facilities, finished foods, and military arms. The light tanks are locally made and not for trade. They have a crew of four and are armed with a 50mm cannon and two .30 caliber machineguns. The 75mm artillery piece is also locally produced and not for trade. They produce three types of small arms. These are the GE rifle (similar to the Springfield), the GE SMG (similar to the M3A1 Grease gun, not for trade), and the GE pistol (similar to the M1911A1). They also produce ammunition for all the above weapons, fragmentation grenades, and demolition charges.
Harbor Homes: Located in the area of Dowling Avenue and Buffalo Road. There are 300 people living here now, with about 50 forming an irregular militia. The area is known for farming, iron, and food processing.
Other groups in Erie:
There are other groups in the Erie area. These include about 130 pirates living in various small bands around the area, 40-60 Ghouls living in the area near Pittsburgh Avenue and West Grandview Boulevard, 30-50 Slavers wandering Interstate 90, and about 500 tribe members and wanderers.
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MARYLAND
Heavily damaged from numerous strikes and polluted by fallout, much of Maryland remains an intolerably bad place to live. A number of unique groups can be found in the state. There is a large Children of the Night colony in northern Maryland, victims of the nuking of the US Army Biological Warfare center in Fredrick. There are a few fishing settlements in the south along the shores of Chesapeake Bay, as well as a small pocket of Soviets. The USA is the strongest influence in the western half of the state.
1) NUCLEAR TARGETS
Baltimore, SS-17
Annapolis, SS-N-17
Aberdeen Proving Grounds, SS-17
Fort Detrick, Fredrick, SS-17
Edgewood Arsenal, Edgewood, SS-17
Fort George Meade, SS-N-17
US Naval academy, Annapolis, SS-N-17
Calvert Cliffs 1, 2 nuclear reactors, Lusby, SS-18M2
Discretionary nuclear targets:
Andrews AFB, SS-17
Dundalk Marine Terminal, SS-N-8
Fort Ritchie, SS-19
2) MORROW PROJECT ASSETS
Gamma Base: Regional Command Base. Location unknown, but
somewhere in the woods in the extreme northeast corner of the
state. The Command team frozen with the facility is Area Command Team VMDC-1 . 10 members, with two Humvees, one Huey
helo, and one FAV. The Command team awoke close to 50 years ago
and has had a very rough time of it, loosing nine men and nearly
all the vehicles and supplies over the years with very little to
show for it. The lone survivor is now Thomas Van Rodden, the
Regional Commander of the Maryland/DC/Eastern Virginia/Delaware
region. Radden is now just an old crippled 85-year old man in a
wheelchair. He is cared for by the children and grandchildren of
his former Project members, who all still live in the underground
facility. All of their caches have been long ago emptied, and
there is little left in the facility itself. (Thanks, James Barnwell)
Morrow Sea Assets:
The mid 1980's found the Project
in need of mobile regional command and control centers . Bruce
Morrow appropriated the rights to the HSV design prototypes for
future use as floating bases. They were outfitted as highly
mobile offshore support bases that could range up and down the
coast where needed, offering support for teams ashore. The
800-ton fusion-powered HSV was heavily armed itself, but was
emplaced with two smaller 250-ton hydrofoil patrol boats which
could act as a defensive screen and as recon boats. The very
large bolthole located beneath a Morrow Industries tidal electric
powerplant near Leonardtown, on Breton Bay near the mouth of the
Potomac River. The 71 men of the HSV crew and the 16 men of the
PHM crews were all placed in one cryo-facility, while teams
assigned to be embarked were froze as individuals in the region. (Thanks,
Ken Portz)
3) EASTERN MARYLAND
The large urban areas in the eastern half of the state were
horribly effected by the war. Nuke hits, radiation clouds,
firestorms and rampaging refugees devastated the area completely.
Even though radiation levels have dropped in the rural areas, few
settlements of any size exist here. The most common human
encounter might be salvage parties from surrounding territories
gleaning the ruins for lost technology.
Interstate-95: Cluttered and weed-grown, yet passable in segments.
The ruins of Fredrick: Destroyed utterly in the war. The US Army's Biowar facility at Fort Detrick was the main target, and the stocks of biological weapons were released by the blasts into the air. Down wind, the Children of the Night were born (see below).
The ruins of Baltimore: Hit by five nukes, large parts of the central and eastern sections of the city were completely scoured from the ground. The entire harbor area was burned to a crisp by the nuking of Dundalk Marine Terminal. The area of total destruction extends from the waterfront west to nearly the I-695 loop. The harbor is full of sunken wrecks and hulks burned to the waterlines, preventing any deep-draft vessels from approaching the docks.
The ruins of Annapolis: Annapolis has largely ceased to exist. The Severn River has flooded much of the nuked peninsula, creating a marshy swamp filled with mutant plants.
The ruins of Fort George G. Meade: Along with much of the Washington-Baltimore corridor, this fort was nuked hard. The cavernous subterranean expanses beneath the National Security Agency's headquarters were presumably abandoned following the nuclear war. Rumors continue to exist, however, of fantastic finds to still be had.
Olney FEMA base: Located off the crumbling remains of Route 108 between Olney and Laytonsville is a former FEMA underground facility. It was at least 10-levels deep but its present condition is unknown.
The Virginia Resistance: A well-organized band of locals, led by “Duchess Ona”, a young woman of great beauty and commanding presence. Her name is actually Elizabeth Keliman, the Duchess Ona bit is to help her in negotiations with other local leaders. She has about 110 people in her group, about 50 of whom are combat effective. They are currently occupying a former a secret biological research station known as HLV-17, located in extreme northeast Maryland. This facility was abandoned for a century before they found it. (Thanks, James Barnwell)
4) THE CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT
The nuclear strike on the Germ Warfare Labs in Fredrick released
a deadly mixture of gasses and microbes into the air. While most
of these were short-lived, or mutated beyond danger by the
radiation, a certain percentage of the population downwind were
infected with various strains. There were many vile and nasty
deaths in refugee crowds from Washington to Philadelphia, killing
thousands of already brutalized people. Most of these deaths were
relatively instantaneous, but in one case, the affects are still
being felt by the victims 150 years later.
Claggettsville: In this tiny town, just a dozen miles east of Fredrick, a cloud of microbes from the destroyed labs settled in the thick air over the town. The effects varied, with about half the people dying a horrible death of frothing blood and dissolving internal organs. The other half would come to wish that they had been so lucky. For whatever reason, the microbes turned about 150 people into blood sucking vampires. They were not immortal, and could breed and grow, but they were no longer human in the traditional sense. These people are slightly empathic and telepathic, and as such were drawn to each other. They are light sensitive, and generally keep to the night, which has led to their being called "The Children of the Night". They can only ingest fresh blood, which is seemingly enough to sustain them. They can infect anyone they come into direct contact with, turning them into Children.
Karel, Queen of the Night: One of the first people infected was a young high school girl named Karel. The Children colony in Claggettsville might have died out on its own had it not been for this girl. Infected and slowly coming to terms with her affliction, Karel rallied the other infected people together and fortified the town. The first year was brutal, with refugees swarming and violence and bloodshed common. It was Karel who organized the defenses, whipping the Children into a frenzy of isolationism and xenophobia. To her, their affliction was a good thing, a positive human evolution towards a higher state. Filled with a sense of the "New Humans against the unwashed heathens", the Children fought in the darkness, killing and converting anyone who came into their town. Their power and numbers grew that first winter, as people infected seemed strangely more resistant to the normal diseases and radiation that were killing off people by the thousands all around them. By a year later, there were some 500 Children in Claggettsville. Karel was still in charge, by now elevated to Queenly status. In this role, she excelled, keeping the community together and focused on survival. She herself took the freshest kills, favoring particularly the blood of young girls, and demanded the choicest of loot. Her megalomania grew, but the Children still followed her every order.
Expansion: Within a few years, however, there was simply not enough fresh blood to feed them all anymore. The refugees had all died off or had left for other areas, and the infected were facing a looming food crisis. From their nexus in Claggettsville, the Children of the Night spread slowly out into the surrounding countryside, looking for more victims to feed upon. As this area had been hard hit by the war, victims were rather scarce, and they had to travel even further afield to quench their thirst. Soon, they established small bases in outlying areas, from which to expand out even further.
Death of the Queen: Karel, First Queen of the Children, died in 2031 from a riding accident. A ripple of empathic energy spread through the Children, reaching everyone no matter how far away they were. Instead of stopping their expansion, the death of their Queen only drove them to expand more. By today, 150 years after the initial infection, the Children of the Night have traveled across most of the nation, and can be found in most states. In the last 50 years, they have mostly moved out west, where the number of people is greatest. Despite their beginnings in Maryland, there are just a few Children colonies to be found east of the Mississippi River today.
5) SOUTHERN MARYLAND
The swampy coastline of the Chesapeake Bay is home to a
scattering of fishing settlements and a few unique groups.
The Hounds of God: A small band of religious zealots roaming the southern part of the state. They are attempting to obliterate anything the Bible outlaws, but since they number just ten men, they have not had much luck. (Thanks, James Barnwell)
Patuxent River Naval Air Warfare Center: This old experimental and training facility has been the home of a group of Soviets for some 140 years now. There are about 100 people here, all descendants of a Soviet Commando unit that was landed by submarine off the Virginia coast in the years after the nuclear exchanges. Tasked with destroying military assets surviving in the area, the team wandered around Virginia and Maryland for ten years, killing a few hold-out soldiers and destroying a few old tanks and planes stranded on airfields. They then decided to find a place to set up a permanent base to conduct further operations from. Settling on the abandoned Patuxent River site, they moved in and ran off the few remaining survivors. While long ago assimilated with American girls, these Soviets are still loyal to the "Motherland" and still believe they are at war with America. At the base, the Soviets, have gathered an impressive amount of naval weaponry from raiding the surrounding military installations over the last 150 years. This treasure includes small arms, machineguns and support weapons and the like. There are some ageing ships still here as well, though they rarely sail anymore except to occasionally scout the coastal areas. Relations with the USA are understandably strained, though outright conflict has been avoided so far. The Soviets realize that they cannot compete against the US Army, and are looking for ways to event the odds.
Salisbury: Now home to the "Order of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary", a religious group based in an old Catholic Cathedral. This group of a dozen Monks has for 100 years kept the flame of knowledge alive, hoarding books and technical information deep within the Cathedral. Salisbury is also a thriving trading center, with a reasonably defensible perimeter enclosing about 30 homes and other buildings with a total of nearly 250 residents. About 30 of the locals are organized into a militia under arms. A few times a decade, the Soviets from across the Chesapeake Bay come to raid, but they rarely have much success.
6) WESTERN MARYLAND
Along the western arm of the state, there are just a few
settlements. This area was flooded with refugees after the war
and most of the small rural towns were burnt down when the food
ran out. Over the years, people have returned in small numbers.
The new United States Government in Virginia (see that state) is
active in the region, trading with and monitoring the towns. Most
people live on family farms or in small towns along the rivers.
Regional government is nonexistent, and most people consider
themselves part of the USA anyway.
Cumberland: The current population is around 400 people, mostly farmers and traders taking advantage of the river. The militia has been trained and organized by advisors from the USA in Virginia and is capable of defending the town. Several ferries operate here, taking passengers and small vehicles across the Potomac River in exchange for food and barter.
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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
1) NUCLEAR TARGETS
The District, SS-18M1
Discretionary nuclear targets:
Walter Reed Army Hospital, SS-N-8
Bolling AFB, SS-17
Fort McNair, SS-17
2) MORROW PROJECT ASSETS
Later…
3) THE DISTRICT AT LARGE
Ten weapons fell on the nation's capitol, including a 25 megaton
monster that burst some 800 feet above the White House.
Additionally, the city was bracketed by nuclear strikes in
Arlington, Virginia and at military bases across the Maryland
border. With that much megatonnage dropped on a city of that
size, there is understandably very little left standing. Blue
Undead and mutant cockroaches are all you will find east of the
Potomac River.
President George H. Bush: The intended effect was to decapitate the US government--particularly the president and his staff--and it worked to perfection. The evening of the war, President Bush and his wife Barbara were sleeping peacefully. As soon as word came in of the attack, the Secret Service kicked the door down and dragged the President and the First Lady out of the White House and into a waiting helicopter. As the first stick of MIRVs was falling through the stratosphere, the helicopter took off, angled northwest, opened up the throttles and was never seen again. What happened to the President was never established, though Elvis-like legends of sightings were common for the next decade. Since he never appeared to try and lead the nation again, it is assumed that he was killed, but nothing is certain.
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DELAWARE
Severely damaged by nuclear strikes, fallout and rampaging refugees, Delaware has yet to recover. Perhaps 80% of the northern half of the state is still uninhabited and the land is very dangerous to cross. There are a few settlements in the southern half of Delaware, fishing the Atlantic and living the best they can.
1) NUCLEAR TARGETS
Dover, SS-18M2
Wilmington, SS-18M2
Discretionary nuclear target:
Dover AFB, SS-N-8
2) MORROW PROJECT ASSETS
Later...
3) COASTAL LOWLANDS
The seacoast of Delaware is creeping slowly inland. Flooding and
intensified summer storms in the Atlantic have caused the shore
of Delaware Bay to recede by as much as three miles in some
places, and often more in areas of pre-war swampland. Almost all
of the shoreline islands have been washed away, with only a few
lonely sandbars remaining of the biggest islands.
4) NORTHERN DELAWARE
The war was unkind to northern Delaware, and nearly everything
north of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was rubbled or burned
flat. The former state capital of Dover was hit by eleven nuclear
warheads and almost completely wiped off the planet, leaving only
eroded water-filled craters and slag heaps. The area north of
roughly the east-west Highway 12, encompassing all the major
cities of the state, is still mostly barren. Massive amounts of
residual radiation have made most of it unlivable, and the few
brave (or dumb) travelers keep to routes along the shifting
coastline. With such levels of radiation, mutated animals
(including a surprisingly high number of Blue Undead) are often
encountered, fueling local mythology about the area.
5) SOUTHERN DELAWARE
In the southern part of the state, where the land still remains
tillable and the rains keep the creeks and rivers flowing, there
remains a steady population. In the first decade following the
war, a local strongman set up shop in a mansion, declaring it to
be his "castle". As more areas coalesced into small
feudal-style communities, leaders often looked to have their own
castles to match those of rival barons. Most of them were simply
large domestic estates, but several were massive historic
landmarks and public works projects. This fueled a building and
improving boom that often sapped the economic strength of a
community to the point where rebellion and invasion collapsed it.
Over the last 150 years, most of these structures (and the
surrounding communities) have changed hands several times. Trade
is conducted sporadically with the small Maryland enclaves,
chiefly Salisbury, and down the coast to the Virginia fishing
communities.
Currently, there exists four large "castles" and a dozen or so much smaller keeps. Populations are relatively small, but steady, and life has settled down into very much a medieval type of existence, with tilled farms surrounding the castles, which are used as emergency refuges as well as centers of commerce and government. The prewar structures have all been extensively fortified and often walled, and visitors from before the war would be hard pressed to recognize the buildings.
The four main castles are:
1) "Fort Cannon":
Located on the grounds of the old L. Cannon Museum near Milton.
By far the largest fortified community in the state, with some
275 full-time residents and a healthy population of seasonal
agriculture workers. With its proximity to the waters of the
Delaware Bay, Fort Cannon is noted for funding a large fishing
fleet.
2) "Rosstown": Located on the extensive grounds
of the Governor Ross Mansion near Seaford. Perhaps the most
unstable of the four, with a particularly autocratic leader
currently making life difficult for the 180 or so citizens.
Rosstown will surely be the next castle to see rebellion if
conditions do not improve.
3) "Castle Parsons": Located in the historic
Parsons Home Mansion near Milford. Population varies with the
seasons, but during harvest times there are often upwards of 150
people here.
4) "Castle Ebbers": Located in the former
mansion of a CEO in the southern suburbs of Georgetown. The
smallest of the four, with a population of around 80 people. They
are cautiously friendly with anyone who isn't obviously hostile,
and will trade with outsiders.
Smaller communities, usually less than 40 strong, are scattered about the region, mostly along trade routes between the larger communities.
Mystery: It is rumored in the area that there is a hidden cave entrance somewhere on the east coast of Delaware Bay. A water-filled passage winds for a few miles inland until reaching a "secret city". It is also rumored that a few fishermen from the Fort Cannon community know of its location.