[IW/T] Merlin CIA in Homeline?

[DaltonS]

Here's my take on the whole "Merlin CIA on Homeline" issue.

While the detection of Infinity's Penetration of the Merlin-1 timeline by their US government intelligence agencies was almost inevitable given their magical resources, their CIA's response of sending agents to infiltrate Homeline was truly an amazing feat. Let's look at this step by step;

Planar travel magic was first demonstrated by Dr. Stephen Hawking in 1984 (Technomancer p.6), but the spell formulas were "officially" lost when he disappeared. Fortunately, the government had been closely monitoring his experiments due to their national security implications and had copies of most of his preliminary calculations. Thus the Reagan administration was totally aware of the threat of an extra-dimensional incursion, and quickly modified their DSP (Defense Sorcery Program) satellites to look for evidence of such an event. As part of operation TRIPWIRE, both Hellstorms and their associated high-mana areas are considered high risk areas and are kept under constant surveillance. It was no accident that both DSP and NRO satellites were scanning the Albuquerque area when the I-Cops arrived in 1992. (GURPS Wizards p.115)

At the same time, the CIA was assigned the task of developing planar travel magic into a reliable strategic resource. By 1992, operation SIDESTEP had created Planar Summons, Visit, Shift and Shift other spells for several worlds, including Merlin (which they called Homebase) and the Astral Plane. (Other worlds are <fnord>, <fnord>, <fnord> and <not at your clearance level> with discussion of the last being absolutely forbidden by Presidential Executive Order # <FNORD!>.) They were ready to handle any "uninvited guests" ... or so they thought.

(to be continued...)

Dalton "who hopes this will start some discussion on the topic" Spence

[Rowan]

Originally Posted by DaltonS

Here's my take on the whole "Merlin CIA on Homeline" issue.

While the detection of Infinity's Penetration of the Merlin-1 timeline by their US government intelligence agencies was almost inevitable given their magical resources, their CIA's response of sending agents to infiltrate Homeline was truly an amazing feat. Let's look at this step by step;

Planar travel magic was first demonstrated by Dr. Stephen Hawking in 1984 (Technomancer p.6), but the spell formulas were "officially" lost when he disappeared. Fortunately, the government had been closely monitoring his experiments due to their national security implications and had copies of most of his preliminary calculations. Thus the Reagan administration was totally aware of the threat of an extra-dimensional incursion, and quickly modified their DSP (Defense Sorcery Program) satellites to look for evidence of such an event. As part of operation TRIPWIRE, both Hellstorms and their associated high-mana areas are considered high risk areas and are kept under constant surveillance. It was no accident that both DSP and NRO satellites were scanning the Albuquerque area when the I-Cops arrived in 1992. (GURPS Wizards p.115)

At the same time, the CIA was assigned the task of developing planar travel magic into a reliable strategic resource. By 1992, operation SIDESTEP had created Planar Summons, Visit, Shift and Shift other spells for several worlds, including Merlin (which they called Homebase) and the Astral Plane. (Other worlds are <fnord>, <fnord>, <fnord> and <not at your clearance level> with discussion of the last being absolutely forbidden by Presidential Executive Order # <FNORD!>.) They were ready to handle any "uninvited guests" ... or so they thought.

(to be continued...)

Dalton "who hopes this will start some discussion on the topic" Spence

I believe that the R-5 guys have been dipping their fingers into Merlin's territory too if I'm not mistaken. If that's true, then Merlin is ripe for a game of cat and mouse with the R-5 world line on their home quantum 3.

We could designate the worlds in question as Merlin-2 and 3, and Fredrick. Fredrick and the discovery of these R-5 jokers there as well as on 'Homebase' might invariably lead them to backtrack to the R-5 world line which is the one that's so secret you need clearance to discuss it.

Hey R-5 freaks Infinity the hell out, no reason it wouldn't do the same to the guys from the Merlin World line.

[DaltonS]

(Continued from first post)

As far as the public on Merlin goes, this is the official story:

Things came to a head in 1991*, when a serious industrial accident and fire occurred at Necrotech's Albuquerque laboratory. Sadly, both Andrew Bleys and Dr. Johnson were lost as a result. After the accident, an investigation uncovered serious health and safety violations regarding the improper storage of necromantic waste, and the site was (and remains) sealed off by the CDC.

Technomancer p.116

* typo, was 1992

There were the inevitable rumours of course, but all hearings on the matter were closed because of "national security issues".

The Necrotech incident left everyone stymied at first. The basic assumption had been that any extradimensional visitation would involve magic of some kind, but according to the FBI investigation the UNSUBs (unknown subjects) not only avoided the use of any magic, but had seemed totally unfamiliar with it. This was confirmed when a search of Dr. Henry William Johnson's home discovered a personal awakened computer with a hidden directory containing automated backups of files from his lab computer. These files, when decrypted by the NSA, included notes on a Necromantic Planar Summons spell of his own invention, a detailed analysis of the technological planar-travel machine that this spell had captured (this included a digital video of the event) and digital footage from the lab's security cameras of the invasion of the lab by off-world agents sent to destroy the machine. The lack of any magical talents displayed by the agents or the machine indicated a disturbing possibility; their home dimension might have little or no mana, making any sort of magical operations there difficult if not impossible.

They got their first break three months later, when Sergeant Bethlehem Jones (TTA sb.92-93) of the Albuquerque PD SWAT (Special Wizardry and Tactics) unit returned from a "religious retreat". (Her Rachelite friends had refused to answer any questions about her whereabouts at the time, saying only that she was answering the call of her "vision".) Although she had debriefed by her superiors and federal agents immediately following the incident, none of her interviewers had been aware of (or cleared for) the TRIPWIRE alert. While her answers to questions about her actions during the case appeared to be honest and complete, her FBI interviewer was convinced that she was holding something back.

Immediately upon her return, she was placed under close surveillance by a special FBI WATCHDOG unit. While she was an excellent police officer she wasn't trained as a spy and so didn't suspect that the observers she periodically spotted were anything more than local underworld types curious about her current cases. After about a month of recording routine arrests and the occassional close call, the unit's efforts were rewarded; Sergeant Jones was observed making contact with various individuals that FBI seers were able to determine were "not of this world". By the end of January 1993, all of the outworld agents in Albuquerque and their contacts had been tentatively identified and serious investigation of their origins (Operation BACKTRACK) had begun.

(to be continued...)

Dalton "who likes the idea of Merlin having one-up on Infinity" Spence