Operation Trinitite

Part of a series on
China
Politics
Chairman Cheng · Communism · Sino-American War
Military
People's Liberation Army (Iron Army, Crimson Dragoons, "Ghost Fleet") · People's Republic of America · Chinese remnants · Operation Trinitite
Technology
Stealth technology (Stealth armor) · Liberator · Yangtze-class submarine · Warmachine
Other
Military vehicles
v · d · e

Operation Trinitite was a covert mission to infiltrate Appalachian production centers carried out by Chinese infiltrators to find information on alleged Appalachian factory cities and automated silos.^[1]

Background[]

Beginning[]

Operation Trinitite began with the establishment of Fujiniya Intelligence Base, concealed under Mama Dolce's Food Processing factory in Morgantown. When the base came online, robotics researchers commenced development of Liberators, while Chinese operatives focused on verifying intelligence and maps provided by the party. Preliminary surveys showed the coordinates were off as to the actual location of the silos, while intel suggesting the AALS silos were actually massive factories were unfounded: They seemed far less advanced than the ones on the West Coast.^[2]

Direct surveillance of the sites soon showed that foot traffic to the sites was infrequent, leading the operatives to believe that the silos were mothballed or simply decoys. Clearance was soon granted to change the approach: Instead of focusing on remaining undetected, the Fujiniya crew started building an intelligence network among the Appalachian community to verify the station chief's suspicions.^[3]

Eventually, an informant was found, confirming that the rumors of "Appalachian factory cities" were false, likely referring to Watoga, which was a city automated to an unprecedented degree. The station chief requested and was apparently cleared to shift resources towards exploration of Appalachia, scouring it for technological advances to benefit the party. One item of interest did appear in the course of their efforts: the encryption method for nuclear launch codes. AALS was running a pilot program, where the launch codes were broken up into multiple parts, pairing letters to numbers, making up a keyword that is then encrypted with a separate cipher.^[1]

The source was extremely useful, as they were able to acquire documentation for the encryption from Sugar Grove archives, revealing how the keyword was chosen for the cipher. However, they also learned that the silos were very much active and protected by a mechanized army that couldn't be matched by the resources Fujiniya had at its disposal, forcing the plan to be put on hold.^[4]

Shifting priorities[]

The facility continued operation, focusing on improving stealth technology further and refining the Liberators. Progress on the first project was slow, as Trinitite ranked low on priority for resupply and reinforcement, and operated in extremely hostile circumstances. This resulted in a constant shortage of components necessary to work with such advanced technologies. The director blamed the primitiveness of the United States, but the main problem were the pressures of the war: The PLA prioritized the Anchorage front, and did not allocate either a spare stealth armor suit or schematics to construct one to the facility. Worse yet, the soldiers assigned to the facility were zealous in enforcing security and on at least one occassion killed half the reinforcements that entered Fujiniya due to a lack of proper credentials. As such, a combination of unrealistic targets, lack of support, major technological barriers, and the secretive nature of the base that limited testing possibilities resulted in them failing to meet the yearly plans. The director arranged for Chief Scientist Quao to assume responsibility, to avoid collective punishment of the entire research team, sarcastically remarking about thriving in the aforementioned circumstances.^[5]

The Liberator program was more successful. Over the same year that failed to yield much fruit with stealth tech, the robotic researchers managed to address multiple shortcomings, including issues with its capture avoidance systems, limited offensive capabilities, and even experimented with making it able to deploy into an autonomous turret on any surface, though had to put that functionality on hold. Together with an intimidating paintjob and a propaganda speaker, the Liberator was improved enough for the director to suggest using it as a vanguard for the invasion of the American mainland, or at least secure funding for further research.^[6]

Nuclear war and aftermath[]

On the day of the Great War, the Fujiniya crew was blindsided by the nuclear attack. As a new round of testing with the Liberator launch bays commenced, the first nuclear bomb exploded about two kilometers to the south of Morgantown. After filing a final message to the research director, the station chief issued orders to abandon post and blend in with the local population, to continue the mission.^[7]

The director returned to the facility in order to try and rally the researchers, reasoning that the lack of advance warning meant all party leaders were dead and the whole Virginia operation was independent. Dismissing concerns that the fight was over and reprimanding them for a lack of faith in the cause, the director tried to persuade his staff to remain put and continue their work: If the leadership was truly dead, then return home was impossible. If they weren't they might reach out and arrange for a proper evacuation, which was only possible if the team stayed put.^[8] Some of the research team remained, those who refused to cooperate abandoned their posts with no resistance from the Director. Those who left were lucky, as the Enclave under Thomas Eckhart, determined to continue the war against China and communism, located the facility around June 2079. Jefferson Grey's team secured the facility, killing the holdouts who refused to let themselves be captured. The research leg of Operation Trinitite was captured by the Enclave, which used the technology to deploy the Liberators as a fake invasion force in an attempt to game the AALS' DEFCON system and reactivate the silos, and create a superior Stealth Boy Mk III.^[9][10] However, the Liberator bots proved impossible to control and the Enclave team eventually abandoned the facility, unable to either salvage the nuclear launch code encryption data, restore the facility to functionality, and plagued by constant attacks from the aforementioned robots.^[11]

Years later, the constant stream of Liberators led to Mama Dolce's being associated with "communist killer robots," about the only trace of Operation Trinitite known to the general public.^[12] Most remained unaware of the other remnant of the Operation, namely the Motherlode Acquisition Facility set up in The Deep near The Whitespring Resort. The ghoulified survivors, led by commanders in captured T-60 power armor, continued operations to acquire the Motherlode. As of 2103, they succeeded in attracting and establishing a measure of control over the semi-sentient machine, setting up a network of four tunnels across the Savage Divide and near the Mire, with a fifth, secret dig leading to an unknown location.^[13] Most of the records of the operation were lost in a major data wipe initiated when unspecified American infiltrators reached the facility, leading to Operation Piercing Viper.^[14]

Other remnants appear to have been rallied by a mysterious communist loyalist, a pre-War asset of the PLA, who rounded up deserters and stragglers to continue the war against the United States.^[15] A potentially related group of communist soldiers, militants, and regulars turned felar, led by communist commissars, has also launched operations in numerous locations in Appalachia, using Trinitite's Liberators as support.^[16]

Organization[]

The operation was organized according to standard military procedures, with an elaborate cover operation set up at the food processing plant above. The factory was fully operational, with the smoke stacks doubling as launch ramps for Liberator bots. Mama Dolce's leaned heavily on patriotism, proudly proclaiming it to be an "All-American Business" striving to "uphold the values and traditions of this great American society at all costs," especially the "generous civilians of the American city of Morgantown." New employee orientation was even more on the nose, stating that "productivity is the key to success and individual wealth" and "in this American capitalist society, we work long hours for no overtime pay in order to bring prosperity to our great company," while reminding employees of the strict hierarchical organization, prohibiting asking questions or question the leadership of the managers, as they might question the employee's loyalty. Of course, any tampering with the infrastructure disguising the facility below was grounds for immediate termination.^[17]

Despite the crude language in official materials, Mama Dolce's avoided detection. Only two things aroused suspicion. First, the volume of shipments from the factory, which seemed conspicuous to the Charleston Trainyard foreman, as he expected the bulk to be military shipments.^[18] Second, and much more severe, were overseas money transfers. The operation was bankrolled from China, using shell companies set up all around the world, and eventually Sugar Grove SigInt detected strange wire transfers from overseas. With the aid of Washington analysts, the money was traced to the source, leading to a formal request to Commander Whitney Gould for full surveillance in the interest of national security on August 9, 2077.^[19]

The facility was not raided for over two months. The reasons are unclear and may be related to the actions of Trinitite's informant at Sugar Grove or due to strict secrecy enforced with summary execution for any and all breach of security.^[20] This included failure to diplay a facility ID badge at all times, any unathorized exit, entry, or even access attempt to and from the facility (requiring explicit permission for any such action), and even possession of unathorized contraband, should any be found during searches of personnel or personal effects. Security personnel were theoretically supposed to detain and interrogate for the purposes of counterintelligence, with execution after no more than 12 hours from capture.^[21] In practice, the guards were zealous and on at least one occasion, incoming reinforcements were reduced in number by half, as the security team opened fire when they failed to provide the proper credentials upon entry.^[5]

The arsenal of the base was standard fare, though the lack of priority meant most shipments were delayed. The last arsenal resupply request asked for 75 Type 93 assault rifles, 1,200 24-round magazines of 5.56mm ammunition (16 per rifle, for 28,800 rounds total), 30 officer's swords, and one stealth armor for research. Out of this request only three swords were delivered before the Great War.^[22]

Members[]

Named[]

• Station Chief Xi
• Agent Mochou (former Crimson Dragoon)

Generic[]

• Communists
• Communist commanders
• Communist commissars

Behind the scenes[]

Trinitite is the glass produced by the detonations of the Trinity Bomb tests.

References[]