[06th March 2011]
[Secure Meeting Room, The Pentagon, Washington DC, Arlington County, Virginia]
"The experimental weapons were significantly more effective than conventional variants in engaging the entity, though it is difficult to judge to what extent exactly owing to the presence of numerous meta-humans, and aliens upon the battlefield"
Amanda Waller nodded, tapping her pen off the table at General Lane's words "Meaning they actually inflicted damage on the creature rather than merely irritate it"
"Yes Ma'am, though I would stress conventional munitions did clearly have some impact, albeit less than would be desired"
"Maybe, but all the combined military forces in the region did was weaken the damned thing till the flying bricks and the aliens had to come to the rescue..." she stated holding back the unhappiness and distain from her voice at the failure to deal with this 'Tiamat' despite the resources invested "...and we do not have large stockpiles of those weapons, nor easy methods of swift production of replacements. Something we need with the various problems cropping up of late"
It was one of the more frustrating things about her new operational purview, much like the usual problem with high-end prototype weapons; it was largely a craft industry, or deeply individual 'inventor' orientated in its design and production methodology. That it, like a number of the very expensive energy weapons projects, had proven effective at times was just more frustrating as it wasn't under her full control, nor America's, and yet again it was small numbers of returns for the time investment. At least for the best quality modifications apparently; and that's what she wanted, the best of the best.
Unfortunately the revelation of this 'shadow' world in the wake of the various world crises had come with a number of problems. Problems that had been concealed from the eyes of the intelligence services and police for generations, and were now taking advantage of the continued chaos across the country; knowing how, and where, to look had revealed far more than expected. More than would have been desired in any sane world. What was worse a number of villains had clearly been made aware of many of these sleeping horrors as well, as the continuing disaster in Biayla had shown, and the idiots kept poking to see what came out.
"Gotham" Hardcastle said, stating the obvious as ever. Still he had his uses, so she nodded.
"For one problem at least, Gotham" she answered tapping the pen again "...though the problem extends to Bludhaven as well. New information has come to light through our contacts in the British and Irish SHIELD grouping, that we had been suspected in the regards the...vampire problem...has been proven through. Largely through the *stupidity* of clearly untrained civilians taking the law into their own hands"
Hardcastle made a face, hands spread out in front of him in a helpless gesture "Forces on the ground are doing their best, their even cooperating with that blasted masked weirdo and his spandex clad buddies. They've equally tried to corral these 'hunters' as best they can, but resources are stretched thin across the country, and that's without all the masked freaks running about since the invasion"
Lane nodded, calm and stoic as ever "I would agree with the statement Ma'am, the Army is badly stretched and all the increased funding will do is address growth down the line. Resources are not sufficient right now, nor, to be entirely honest based on recent experiences, are most of our Army units, let alone National Guardsmen, ready for taking these dangers without taking losses. Those reports from the Great Lakes region we received yesterday, and the deaths of the seven Guardsmen sent in to investigate the missing hikers"
"The Wendigo thing?"
"Yes Ma'am, at least the evidence supports the theory offered, and there have been deaths on the Canadian side of the border as well..." Lane replied to her query, even if she already knew the answer "...but now we know what to look for I believe it's clear we need to consolidate our forces and concentrate on the more serious problems first...such as Gotham. It would also allow us train up cadres for dealing with future problems...with the heavy losses our analysts are projecting"
She hummed in thought a moment, shaking her head a little "I'm unhappy with allowing further access for our allies, nor overly enthused about the UN supported, or backed or whatever, nature of several of these proposals but they urgency is there I admit. It is the Mobile Task Force proposal you discussed with your British counterparts during the dimensional mission, and Biayla, you're referring too I presume?"
It was easier just to ignore the Nightclub in Los Angeles and the Greek Gods incident for the moment...
"It would be a good testing ground for ideas Director..." Doctor Hamilton volunteered before Lane or Hardcastle could say anymore "...as while this...arcane, magic...whatever you wish to call it is proving difficult to understand, results are provable through testing. And, more notably, is capable of being merged with some of our prototype systems. While we cannot produce more than a few units it would be enough to outfit a small unit of Special Forces and help enable effective engagement of these Elder Vampires by our soldiers, or any of these other creatures appearing. I've seen the reports...our allies had done such with obsolete equipment, we could do so much better"
General Lane nodded "Yes that, and more importantly it would give us an organisational structure to corral some of these hunter and magical organisations operating within our borders already. It's a mess Ma'am, and Canadians and Mexicans are looking to us as they are having similar difficulties. We *all* need to be able to deal with these threats, and a small multinational force is something we can easily deal with. After all we learned to deal with the Justice League, and we're *finally* getting to stage where we can deploy weapons capable to handling threats without the President begging them to help deal with them. It is certainly better than the mini-warlords that we have to deal with in the worst affected areas"
"I will consider it gentlemen, General Lane, Doctor Hamilton, forward on a detailed proposal on this SHIELD Mobile Task Force of yours..."
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[07th March 2011]
[Extract from; JusticeForumsInternational/Boards/News/Events/North-America]
[Page 02 of 11]
VioletSky
Replied 6th March 2011
So, Vampires? Turns out their real, and have invaded Gotham and Bludhaven. Whodda thunk it?
xxxSweetJonnyxxx
Replied 6th March 2011
I knew it! He dresses like a Bat, only comes out at Night! The Batman is a Vampire!
DiggerFromDownUnder
Replied 6th March 2011
@xxxSweetJonnyxxx
The bleedin Batman ain't no bleedin Vampire. Yous must be legless to think that! Sur him and coppers been out an about during the daylight lots ah times. I should know. No turns out all the daft stuff is real, and horrifying, and makes we want get a frothy just thinking about it. So, glad to see the coppers givin' fair warnin ta folks about these things and what to watch fer.
LittlePixie562
Replied 6th March 2011
Well, there goes any plans of my family moving back to Gotham. Ever. It was bad enough with all the caped crazies, but with the Joker dead everyone thought it'd be better. Now we've vampires there apparently fighting the army and the bat. Great, just great. First I've got to tell my daughter fairies are both really, and evil [because of course they are] and now I've to go buy crucifixes and holy water because the horror movie is real.
Local322Docks
Replied 6th March 2011
@LittlePixie562
Hey, better warned and safe than not warned and hurt, or dead. The press conference was very informative, and turns out there's a science to it. Sort of, though I'd always thought it was just meta-humans who'd gone a bit loopy till now. No, just sounds like people were just labelling things they didn't understand willy-nilly and lumping it all together as magic.
Now the government is stepping in at last and getting things organised. About time I say, after those damned starfish the country has been going down the drain and all these nutters and monsters need to be put down so ordinary decent folk can get back to work.
VioletSky
Replied 7th March 2011
Yeah I'll admit it was unusually useful. But pretty sure they just copied the Canucks, who copied the Brits when they brought out those PSA's about magic after the Children's Crisis. There's hours of videos been uploaded by SHIELD over there, hell, I'd expect to see the stuff recycled over here. Though the Vampire thing surprised me, does that mean werewolves are too? May go back and see what they've put up since I last looked before Thanksgiving.
DiggerFromDownUnder
Replied 7th March 2011
@VioletSky
Ya should, good blokes even if they're coppers and scary buggers. Turns out lot that stuff be real...
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