At the same time as this meeting, another meeting at the White House was going on down in the situation room. In attendance were the usual suspects, the President, Secretary of Defense, Chair of the Joint Chiefs, Head of the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Advisor, etc. "So let me get this straight, a covert program run as far off book and black budget as possible created a race of super soldiers and trained them in secret for ostensibly the purpose of limiting casualties and increasing success of special and covert operations? Then some of them escaped the program, as children, and have been on the run for more than 10 years? Now the projects cover was blown by these same children, and some bureaucratic genius thought burning the program down and eliminating the evidence was a good ass-covering decision?" The President rubbed his temples, thinking if this headache was going to grow, he was going to start spreading it around right now. Then a random traffic incident led to a hostage stand off that agents supposedly from the FBI tried to turn into a shoot out, which led to the whole group of them being surrounded in a toxic spill disaster area that no one can enter."
"That's the short of it Mr. President," said the Secretary of Defense. "There is also this complication with the news of this strange breeding cult that apparently also infiltrated the program as well as other institutions. Intelligence suggests that they are planning some sort of new apocalypse and to set themselves up as the master race over whatever is left of humanity."
"Approximately how many of these soldiers are out there? Who is their leader? Is anyone who knows any of them still available to us?" asked the National security advisor.
"Upwards of 800 are in the Seattle strong hold, sir. Some very experienced soldiers, some kids, at least a few pregnant women, and some of the strange looking ones. We don't know have any idea how many total. The leader there, or at least the spokesperson, who is in contact with the Seattle authorities to keep the situation calm is known as Max or 452. They seem to be friendly with the cyber-journalist hacker known as The Eyes Only Informant Net, also. My suspicion is that at least one of the 09 escapee's was doing leg work for the group's corruption investigations." (CIA director)
"Most of the people involved with program are dead or in deep hiding. There is one person who might be able to help us, a Colonel Lydeker. He's a retired ranger who was the training and operations director, until the project director tried to assassinate him. He was working alongside those who blew the project's cover, though we don't know how to contact him," added the Secretary of Defense.
"Well, what do we need to decide on today? The situation seems pretty stable in Seattle, though if they run short on supplies we might have some trouble. I suppose we could send in some food and medical supplies while we figure out what to do. A blood bath of any kind would not look good, and probably not solve the problem." The Vice President was pacing along the conference table, clearly trying to get a grip on the politics of this situation as well. "800 in Seattle. That's about the size of an infantry battalion. Let them choose the organization and all, but put them under the DOD and give them some work to do. I don't suppose there are any service records for any of them?" The Vice President wonders, "Or maybe sign them up as contractors, I'm sure they'd provide good value for whatever the various security and intelligence agencies would pay them."
"I like that, defense contractors/consultants. This would give us access to what appear to be some very gifted special ops specialist, as well as let them decide just how involved with us they want to get. I'm quite sure there are plenty of the who would live to tell us to shove it where the sun don't shine," mused the CIA director. "As far as records, we don't have anything like personnel records, but I can get a list of operations done for the CIA, DIA, and NSA that included Manticore involvement. I've read a few of them and it's like reading a novelized comic book."
"All right, here's the short term. Someone get on the phone to Seattle and tell them we will be providing some material assistance to the transgenics holed up while we negotiate what their status should be moving forward. My gut take is they should be given identification and enrolled as citizens, though I do realize verifying age might be a challenge and might be something we ignore. I want the intelligence agencies to come up with a method for how we might bring them in as contractors for their specialities."