Greetings soldier!
Now that the convoy has entered Dinosaur Swamp, it's time to disclose further details about the Bostock Expedition's game plan. Golden Age Salvage has undoubtedly provided an overview of the expedition's "plan of attack" for Dinosaur Swamp, and you may have heard mention of some of the locations that you'll be visiting in the coming days. The members of Golden Age Salvage already know the score, but salvage operations are probably an entirely new experience for some of the subcontractors. As such, this brief will serve to explain the expedition's itinerary for the next year. In other words, we'll discuss the expedition's intended route through Dinosaur Swamp, and what Golden Age Salvage looks for in a salvage site.
Now that the convoy has entered Dinosaur Swamp, it's time to disclose further details about the Bostock Expedition's game plan. Golden Age Salvage has undoubtedly provided an overview of the expedition's "plan of attack" for Dinosaur Swamp, and you may have heard mention of some of the locations that you'll be visiting in the coming days. The members of Golden Age Salvage already know the score, but salvage operations are probably an entirely new experience for some of the subcontractors. As such, this brief will serve to explain the expedition's itinerary for the next year. In other words, we'll discuss the expedition's intended route through Dinosaur Swamp, and what Golden Age Salvage looks for in a salvage site.
Ingram Bostock, Lionel Hudson, and others have developed this itinerary based on months of painstaking research. Using a number of recovered pre-Rifts documents such as maps, travel guides, and encyclopedias, Golden Age Salvage has been able to piece together a reasonable idea of the region's layout prior to the Coming of the Rifts. Despite the major changes in geography caused by the Great Cataclysm, they've been able to determine the approximate locations of various pre-Rifts population centers and installations that could potentially yield some finds. They've also identified locations that likely had a high degree of military, scientific, or academic value during the Golden Age.
A significant and unavoidable part of salvage work involves trial and error. Some leads just don't pan out and some sites just don't have anything to offer. Perhaps others got to the site first and cleaned it out, or the salvage that was recovered was simply too damaged to be of value. Maybe there wasn't anything of value at the site to begin with. Whatever the case, it's important to accept that locating salvageable goods is not an exact science. Mistakes will be made. The most one can do is to try and minimize the amount of time and resources spent on ill-fated ventures. Much of the time it comes down to educated guesses. After all, you never really know what you'll find till you start digging.
The ruins of densely or highly populated settlements, such as big towns and cities, are primary targets for the expedition. This is because these locales have a little of everything: commercial districts, manufacturing districts, power generation stations, hospitals, banks, academic institutions, museums, and more. Particularly in the ruins of big metropolises, one can find salvage of nearly every variety, all located within the same geographic area.
The sheer size of some urban centers, however, is a problem as well as a boon. Many pre-Rifts cities in the Southeast exceeded a hundred and fifty square miles in land area, though much of this consisted of sprawling suburban sections. Consequently, while big population centers have tremendous salvage potential, they also require the most time and resources to carefully explore. A single salvage crew can spend weeks investigating the ruins of a city and still not come close to locating its valuables. Furthermore, large ruins almost always contain nests or lairs of dangerous local wildlife, not to mention hideouts for bandits and squatters. Also don't forget that big population centers experienced higher rates of death during the Great Cataclysm than most other places, and more deaths equals a greater likelihood of spirit activity. There's a reason that many people stay away from ruins; it's because most ruins are infested with ghosts. That's why your contract specifically has a proviso about possession under the medical clause.
Those inexperienced in the salvage industry will sometimes suggest searching ruins by using corresponding pre-Rifts municipal maps. In theory, such a map could help identify and pinpoint specific sites of import within the ruins, which would cut down on search time. While it's true that maps for Southeast cities do exist, we find that, more of than not, they're worthless. In the upheaval of the Great Cataclysm, whole portions of cities and towns were swallowed up by the earth, burned down, relocated with the shifting topography, or radically changed in some other way. Assuming that you could even actually find and acquire a legible pre-Rifts map matching the particular ruins that you're working in, you'd still have to figure out how to apply it to your surroundings. Most of the frames of reference you'd need to locate a particular site in the ruins are probably no longer recognizable. Trying to identify a pre-Rifts street or landmark amidst centuries of rubble and plant growth is much more challenging than it sounds.
In truth, you're better off finding what roughly constitutes the center of the ruins, since this most likely represents what was once the city's "downtown" section. Alternately, go to wherever there are remnants of tall buildings (or where debris piles are highest), as the tallest structures were usually located in the downtown area. A municipality's downtown frequently contained a financial district, major businesses, government buildings, and other sites of potential salvage. From there, your search pattern should radiate outward.
Expedition Route
The Bostock Expedition will be entering Dinosaur Swamp from the northwest - crossing from Tennessee through the perilous D-Shifting Wilderness of the Eastern Wall, and into the region once known as North Carolina. Originally, the expedition was to travel the northernmost section of the Horror Forest and hit a few sites before stopping at Char. However, recent events with the Shemarrians have forced the convoy to skip ahead to Char until the situation is properly evaluated. Assuming the Shemarrian problem gets resolved, the expedition will backtrack westward to the ruins of Gastonia, then continue northeast to dig at a a couple of large sites (Winston-Salem & Greensboro). Subsequently, the expedition goes eastward into the Eastern Carolina Marshes in order to excavate a number of important sites in a place known before the rifts as the Research Triangle (Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh). Raleigh, the former capital city of North Carolina, will get some extra attention. Then, the expedition turns south to Fayetteville, Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base along the coast.
Afterwards, the expedition will head into South Carolina and perform salvage ops at a few ruins along the way (Florence, Sumter, and Shaw Air Force Base) before veering west and re-entering the Horror Forest. While there, the expedition will dig at the ruins of Columbia (the capital of old South Carolina), followed by several westward stops scattered throughout the area (Fort Jackson, Spartanburg and Greenville) before taking a sharp turn south to Georgia.
Once in Georgia, the expedition goes directly to the ruins of Augusta, and then onward to the ruins of Atlanta in the west. As the capital of Georgia and the largest former city in the region, a month or more will be dedicated to these ruins alone. Then, the expedition moves south to Fort McPherson, and then further south to Macon. The ruins of Macon will be followed by a brief stop at Fort Hawkins to resupply. This will be succeeded by salvage operations at several military bases in lower Georgia (Robins AFB, Fort Benning, & Moody AFB), and then directly westward to Tallahassee, Florida.
After working the ruins of Tallahassee, the expedition goes southeast to the Cape. The ruins of the Cape are submerged, and due to the complexity of underwater salvage ops, it's likely that a month or more will be spent in this area. Afterwards, the expedition travels west to Orlando, finally terminating at the so-called "Magic Kingdom," as described in Deearn Neenok's book.
Once all salvage sites have been accounted for, the convoy will return northwest at full speed to the Domain of Man and Ishpeming.
A significant and unavoidable part of salvage work involves trial and error. Some leads just don't pan out and some sites just don't have anything to offer. Perhaps others got to the site first and cleaned it out, or the salvage that was recovered was simply too damaged to be of value. Maybe there wasn't anything of value at the site to begin with. Whatever the case, it's important to accept that locating salvageable goods is not an exact science. Mistakes will be made. The most one can do is to try and minimize the amount of time and resources spent on ill-fated ventures. Much of the time it comes down to educated guesses. After all, you never really know what you'll find till you start digging.
The ruins of densely or highly populated settlements, such as big towns and cities, are primary targets for the expedition. This is because these locales have a little of everything: commercial districts, manufacturing districts, power generation stations, hospitals, banks, academic institutions, museums, and more. Particularly in the ruins of big metropolises, one can find salvage of nearly every variety, all located within the same geographic area.
The sheer size of some urban centers, however, is a problem as well as a boon. Many pre-Rifts cities in the Southeast exceeded a hundred and fifty square miles in land area, though much of this consisted of sprawling suburban sections. Consequently, while big population centers have tremendous salvage potential, they also require the most time and resources to carefully explore. A single salvage crew can spend weeks investigating the ruins of a city and still not come close to locating its valuables. Furthermore, large ruins almost always contain nests or lairs of dangerous local wildlife, not to mention hideouts for bandits and squatters. Also don't forget that big population centers experienced higher rates of death during the Great Cataclysm than most other places, and more deaths equals a greater likelihood of spirit activity. There's a reason that many people stay away from ruins; it's because most ruins are infested with ghosts. That's why your contract specifically has a proviso about possession under the medical clause.
Those inexperienced in the salvage industry will sometimes suggest searching ruins by using corresponding pre-Rifts municipal maps. In theory, such a map could help identify and pinpoint specific sites of import within the ruins, which would cut down on search time. While it's true that maps for Southeast cities do exist, we find that, more of than not, they're worthless. In the upheaval of the Great Cataclysm, whole portions of cities and towns were swallowed up by the earth, burned down, relocated with the shifting topography, or radically changed in some other way. Assuming that you could even actually find and acquire a legible pre-Rifts map matching the particular ruins that you're working in, you'd still have to figure out how to apply it to your surroundings. Most of the frames of reference you'd need to locate a particular site in the ruins are probably no longer recognizable. Trying to identify a pre-Rifts street or landmark amidst centuries of rubble and plant growth is much more challenging than it sounds.
In truth, you're better off finding what roughly constitutes the center of the ruins, since this most likely represents what was once the city's "downtown" section. Alternately, go to wherever there are remnants of tall buildings (or where debris piles are highest), as the tallest structures were usually located in the downtown area. A municipality's downtown frequently contained a financial district, major businesses, government buildings, and other sites of potential salvage. From there, your search pattern should radiate outward.
Expedition Route
The Bostock Expedition will be entering Dinosaur Swamp from the northwest - crossing from Tennessee through the perilous D-Shifting Wilderness of the Eastern Wall, and into the region once known as North Carolina. Originally, the expedition was to travel the northernmost section of the Horror Forest and hit a few sites before stopping at Char. However, recent events with the Shemarrians have forced the convoy to skip ahead to Char until the situation is properly evaluated. Assuming the Shemarrian problem gets resolved, the expedition will backtrack westward to the ruins of Gastonia, then continue northeast to dig at a a couple of large sites (Winston-Salem & Greensboro). Subsequently, the expedition goes eastward into the Eastern Carolina Marshes in order to excavate a number of important sites in a place known before the rifts as the Research Triangle (Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh). Raleigh, the former capital city of North Carolina, will get some extra attention. Then, the expedition turns south to Fayetteville, Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base along the coast.
Afterwards, the expedition will head into South Carolina and perform salvage ops at a few ruins along the way (Florence, Sumter, and Shaw Air Force Base) before veering west and re-entering the Horror Forest. While there, the expedition will dig at the ruins of Columbia (the capital of old South Carolina), followed by several westward stops scattered throughout the area (Fort Jackson, Spartanburg and Greenville) before taking a sharp turn south to Georgia.
Once in Georgia, the expedition goes directly to the ruins of Augusta, and then onward to the ruins of Atlanta in the west. As the capital of Georgia and the largest former city in the region, a month or more will be dedicated to these ruins alone. Then, the expedition moves south to Fort McPherson, and then further south to Macon. The ruins of Macon will be followed by a brief stop at Fort Hawkins to resupply. This will be succeeded by salvage operations at several military bases in lower Georgia (Robins AFB, Fort Benning, & Moody AFB), and then directly westward to Tallahassee, Florida.
After working the ruins of Tallahassee, the expedition goes southeast to the Cape. The ruins of the Cape are submerged, and due to the complexity of underwater salvage ops, it's likely that a month or more will be spent in this area. Afterwards, the expedition travels west to Orlando, finally terminating at the so-called "Magic Kingdom," as described in Deearn Neenok's book.
Once all salvage sites have been accounted for, the convoy will return northwest at full speed to the Domain of Man and Ishpeming.
Map Key North Carolina 1. Gastonia . 2. Winston-Salem . . 3. Greensboro > 4. Durham . 5. Chapel Hill . 6. Raleigh , . 7. Fayetteville, Fort Bragg & Pope Air Force Base South Carolina 8. Florence 9. Sumter & Shaw Air Force Base 10. Columbia & Fort Jackson 11. Spartanburg 12. Greenville | Georgia 13. Augusta 14. Atlanta 15. Fort McPherson 16. Macon 17. Robins Air Force Base 18. Fort Benning 19. Moody Air Force Base Florida 20. Tallahassee 21. The Cape 22. Orlando ("The Magic Kingdom") |
Types of Salvage Sites
The Bostock Expedition is focusing on nine types of salvage sites: financial institutions, military installations, medical facilities, businesses/commercial zones, corporate facilities, manufacturing/industrial facilities, academic/research institutions, cultural institutions, and power stations.
Financial Institutions: Commercial banks, investment banks, bullion depositories, brokerages, insurance companies, and other establishments related to finance fall into this category. In the Old American Empire, the legal tender was paper currency and copper/nickel coins with images of past leaders' faces on them; this eventually shifted to the global system of digital currency upon which today's Universal Credit system is based. Pre-Rifts paper money is, in and of itself, worthless, except perhaps to collectors and historians. However, major banks, brokerages, and Federal Reserve Branches also carried gold and silver bullion, not to mention that customers sometimes kept diamonds, jewelry, and other valuables in "safe deposit boxes" within banks. As such, financial institutions are good sources of precious metals and stones. Furthermore, the fact that these places were constructed with security and durability in mind (e.g., heavy-duty safes, fireproof and waterproof vaults, thick duracrete walls, etc.) means that the valuables within are less likely to have been looted or severely damaged over the centuries.
Military Installations: This includes military bases, as well as supply depots, training facilities, storage bunkers, testing grounds, and "Department of Defense" buildings (the DoD was an organization within the government of the Old American Empire). Pre-Rifts military installations are potential goldmines for salvage crews, for they hold the possibility of Golden Age military-grade weapons, armor, vehicles, equipment and more. Such finds, by far, garner the best pay from clients and buyers.
Military installations, however, usually tend to be disappointments rather than jackpots, often consisting of nothing but empty ruins. During the Dark Age, a vast majority of military bases were picked clean by looters and scavengers, or even robbed by their own personnel as soldiers started going AWOL. This isn't really surprising, since anyone back then with half a brain would've understood the value of having weapons to protect one's self. Other bases were destroyed in epic battles between the American military and creatures from the rifts. Furthermore, it appears that most of the military installations built in the Southeast were located near the coastline. As such, these installations were completely washed away during the Great Cataclysm, either by tidal waves or the sudden rise in ocean level. That said, the Southeast does have a few bases that were situated far enough inland to survive the wrath of the Atlantic Ocean - the largest of which is Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
Medical Facilities: The ruins of pre-Rifts hospitals, clinics, psych wards, and human augmentation providers can be treasure troves of salvage, sometimes containing Golden Age medical equipment, medicines, wonder drugs, laboratory equipment, and cybernetics, as well as stores of information related to medical science, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and human enhancement. Like many other sites, hospitals and similar facilities were targeted by early scavengers, mostly for their medicines, drugs, and medical supplies. Thus, they often don't carry much for salvors. This is also on top of the fact that, even before the Great Cataclysm, hospitals were places chock full of death. As such, they now typically attract spirits, ghouls, and Necromancers.
The only med-tech that tends to remain in hospitals are the large and specialized pieces of medical equipment. These are the kinds of devices that would have served no realistic use for survivors, or required special training to operate, such as medical imaging machines, bio-beds, life support and diagnostic computers, gene analyzers, etc. However, given the highly sensitive nature of medical and lab equipment, most of this remaining technology inevitably gets damaged beyond repair due to centuries of exposure and neglect. Still, sometimes one can luck out and recover salvageable med-tech. Even just one piece of equipment can prove to be a good haul since such technology earns a nice premium among clients and buyers, particularly anything pertaining to human augmentation.
Businesses/Commercial Zones: All cities and towns had a commercial district that contained small businesses, offices, theaters, restaurants, malls, etc. Generally, these types of sites don't offer much in the way of major finds. The main reason is that small shops and stores were the first places to be looted during the Dark Age, as they often carried the practical, everyday items (e.g., food, clothing, medicine, tools, etc.) that survivors desperately needed. The most profitable types of small businesses to salvage from, such as gun stores or drug stores, are nearly always looted down to the last shell or pill. Any remaining stock is often destroyed or otherwise unsalvageable. Therefore, aside from some bits of minor technology, these places are quite barren.
Still, big companies such as Northern Gun (which makes pretty much everything) may be willing to pay for samples of Golden Age minutiae that it doesn't already have, since it's scientists can study and reverse engineer such items. Things as seemingly trivial as basic electronics (appliances, music players, cell phones, etc.) or over-the-counter drugs might net you a few credits. There are mundane pieces of daily life from the Golden Age that have yet to be rediscovered, so it pays to look.
Corporate Facilities: Before the Coming of the Rifts, private corporations were responsible for a great many of the techno-logical breakthroughs that birthed the advanced tech and super science of the Golden Age. Chemical augmentation, Glitter Boys (and Boom Guns), Mind-Over-Matter implants, hover crafts, cybernetics/bionics, and much more, were the brainchildren of powerful, multi-national companies. As such, it makes sense that the expedition should target the facilities of these companies in search of salvage. Along with actual samples of technology, you'll be expected to try and recover as much information and research as possible. It's believed that each of these corporations had projects and products in development that never saw the light of day due to the abrupt intercession of the Great Cataclysm. Therefore, you could be the one who discovers the formula for a new type of superhuman, or the blueprints for a never-before-seen Golden Age weapon. Wealth and prestige would be the tip of the iceberg.
Golden Age Salvage is primarily looking to dig in the remains of high-tech companies that were involved in biotechnology, medical research, pharmaceuticals, weapon design, power armor design, robotics, metallurgy, nanotechnology, quantum computing, materials engineering, and aerospace technologies. From what we can tell, there were a number of large corporations that were based in the Southeast, or had research, manufacturing, or distribution facilities in the region. Prominent among these is the KLS Corporation (military subcontractors supposedly responsible for developing the Glitter Boy power armor) and the Cyberworks Aerospace Network (experts in space travel and off-planet colonization). Both of these companies were headquartered somewhere in the Southeast. Likewise, we have reason to suspect that the Juicer conversion was invented here, as well. Consequently, you'll be traveling to the heart of were these various technologies were born.
Manufacturing/Industrial Facilities: Sites that were used in the production of Golden Age goods and services are high on the list of places with great salvage potential. This is a broad category that includes factories of almost any variety: automotive, hover craft, electronics, steel, synthetic fibers, aircraft components, polymers, munitions, appliances, construction materials, and more. Also included are processing plants, which created or separated substances via chemical or biological transformation on an industrial scale, such as chemical plants, ore processing plants, pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, and fuel refineries. Golden Age Salvage prefers to look for factories that produced things on the high-tech end of the spectrum; from those that made discrete products, to those that specialized in parts and sub-assemblies (which were then made into final products elsewhere). Facilities used in light or heavy industry were generally located in what were known as "industrial parks," areas of a city or town that were zoned for industrial development.
Manufacturing/industrial facilities may have millions of credits worth of salvageable pre-Rifts technology. Along with the main production facility and the machinery within, these places were also frequently equipped with on-site warehouses, loading equipment, and fleets of vehicles. In addition, these sites often provide a wealth of information (in the form of printed manuals and computer databases) about Golden Age industrial processes, technologies, and manufacturing techniques. And even if there is no salvageable tech or data, there may still be tons of leftover raw material that can turn a profit.
However, salvaging equipment from a factory can be complicated and time-consuming, since the equipment is often quite large, heavy and not designed for portability, or may be a fixed part of the entire structure. Consequently, a good deal of careful disassembly is usually required to salvage and transport such finds. As with many other types of sites, factories were heavily looted during the Dark Age; their machinery repurposed, sold, or used for scrap metal. Yet many industrial facilities contained equipment too heavy for ill-prepared looters to move, or too specialized and complicated to serve any practical use for survivors. As such, it's not uncommon to find these places still housing a surprising amount of worthwhile salvage.
Academic/Research Institutions: Prior to the Great Cataclysm, the Southeast had its share of large universities, schools, and research establishments. Educational and scientific institutions are potentially profitable in that they can sometimes yield vast stores of information, available in book and/or digital form. Such information can be worth a great deal, especially if it has practical applications. Data pertaining to biotechnology, computer programming, blueprints for new weapon and vehicle designs, materials science, and robotics all fetch top credit. Understanding the secrets of the Golden Age calls for the recovery of lost information as much as it does lost technology. In fact, information can prove to be more valuable since it provides the knowledge base needed to repair and improve current technologies, or create brand new ones.
Cultural Institutions: This refers to museums, public libraries, art galleries, archives, and churches. These places are often found within urban centers, though can also be located in isolation. Along with information of a less practical nature, such locales yield cultural and historical artifacts. Compared to other types of salvage sites, the finds recovered from cultural institutions earn the least amount of credits. However, there are a growing number of people - rogue scholars, private collectors, historians, legacy scouts, etc. - who will pay handsomely for authentic books, artwork, and other items from before the Great Cataclysm. Pre-Rifts Earth holds a certain fascination for many humans. Consequently, it doesn't hurt to keep an eye out for some of these places.
Power Stations: These are pre-Rifts facilities that were designed to generate electric power. This includes renewable energy facilities such as hydroelectric stations, solar panel arrays, wind turbines, and geothermal plants, as well as fossil fuel plants, nuclear fission plants, and even nuclear fusion plants. Most power stations, given their size and fragility, were obliterated during the Great Cataclysm. Of those still standing, most have been thoroughly scavenged or rendered unsalvageable from centuries of environmental damage and neglect (or are inaccessible due to high levels of radiation from leaking reactors). Still, technology and knowledge pertaining to Golden Age forms of power generation, storage and distribution are extremely valuable, which makes these sites worth investigating. Salvaging useful technology or information from a power station is considered a major find.