Vladivostok was one of the largest Soviet cities on the Pacific coast. Over the past few years, it has also become a special economic zone for investors from capitalist countries, as well as a window for Soviet businesses looking to spend their available dollars. As a result, very few people were surprised when the Hero himself arrived in Vladivostok. Not only did he need to pick up a large cargo of titanium for his own use, but he was also willing to meet to discuss some political issues.
You brought Invincible with you to this meeting, hoping that she would finally accept her role as head of the Soviet Protectorate. She lacked the experience and willingness to argue with someone like the Tetrarchy, for she understood her lack of similar competence and experience.
"I tested the samples of materials. The quality is excellent. If I ever need unobtanium, I will contact you immediately."
Of course, who else could he turn to? The workings of the Soviet bureaucracy may be too slow and its work downright clumsy and redundant, but if you are on the right side of the process, you can get almost anything, and for free.
"We still have one more issue on our agenda. Indonesia," you remind, sipping from your mug of tea. The hero tried for a long time to find decent coffee in the USSR, but in the end, he was forced to agree to your proposal for tea. Unfortunately for the Americans, the USSR was one of the world leaders in tea consumption.
"Yes, exactly. Why didn't you stay in Jakarta after Behemoth? There are also a huge number of people who need our help," and the worst thing is that the young woman did not try to use pity to put pressure on her interlocutor.
She said this quite sincerely, which was even worse. "They are now dying of disease and hunger in the streets, and even our help cannot save everyone."
You couldn't see Hero's face behind his mask, but you could still see how he grimaced.
"PRT does not have the resources for such activities," you chime in, "Unfortunately, they would need to pay for such operations, and their finances are far from infinite. One of the small advantages of living in a socialist country."
Of course, you greatly distorted these details, but the PRT really did not have the resources to coordinate a large-scale humanitarian mission within a few days. Unlike your ministry.
"It's not just a question of resources," the American shrugs, "The problem remains Indonesia's willingness to accept help. We could propose to Indonesia that they send the Marine Corps to maintain order. But this would only make the US a party to Indonesia's internal problems. Some groups will strongly protest against this. Others will use us to turn the city ruins into a fortress," he smiled, "Although I did suggest that Eidolon take the Master's ability set and force their entire leadership to lay down their arms."
Here even Invincible grinned at how naive it sounded. Yes, of course, it would be very nice if all your problems with parahumans could be solved using similar methods.
*****
Reconstruction of the Red Gate HQ [109/125]
"Paper is the most reliable source of information simply because our responsibilities include preserving information for years to come. The development of scanners and printers also makes it easy to duplicate information. Magnetic tape has appeared recently and has already been replaced by floppy disks, and now laser discs are gaining popularity. Computers change too quickly for any method of digitizing information to be considered reliable. We can easily read documents from 1900. If we now create databases on the notorious floppy disks, who among those present is ready to guarantee that in 2100 there will be equipment and methods for reading information from floppy disks?" From the speech of Dmitry Zakharov, head of the document flow department and secretariat of the MPA.
Over the past months, construction has not stopped, but rather even increased its pace. The main premises from the third to the seventeenth floor were introduced, apartments were prepared and additional work was carried out to install modern communications. Most of the employees currently work from the main office building with several auxiliary premises throughout Moscow.
The main problems were the first two floors and the issue of archival storage of information. In the first situation, the question arose due to the purpose of the premises. The huge, massive halls with large lecture halls and large open spaces were not well suited to be converted into offices, but after some consideration, they were redesigned as a museum and exhibition hall project for your new Ministry. You are expecting a certain number of foreign tourists, and for many Soviet tourists, it would be desirable to have separate premises.
The second question is much more difficult. Archival work in the USSR is a separate service, but it bears a large trace of the special services, which during the time of Beria took over this area, as well as sectoral fragmentation. Your part in this is also complicated by the fact that you are forming an industry from scratch, and therefore could afford to innovate. The archival systems of the USSR recognize only paper and microfilmed copies as things that, if properly stored, can live for a couple of hundred years, which cannot be said about floppy disks and magnetic film. On the other hand, digitization of archives and file cabinets would significantly increase the speed of working with documents and the speed of information analysis. Due to the disputes concerning the usage of the few imported computers, the purchase issue itself was not agreed upon, which will require resources and time already in the new year.
Organization of the HR department [120/100]
"I loved working in the bunker. I literally drove to the metro station, and then opened the service door with the key, and found myself in the office. It all felt like a spy film, where we secretly worked ten meters from ordinary civilians as if we were Stirlitz in the dungeons of the Berlin metro, and not Moscow clerks." From the deciphered wiretapped dialogue of employee A and employee E.
Your HR department has secured enough staff positions to be sustainable. There is still turnover and still less than a third of employees undergo a probationary period, but at the moment it is an established system that has both an understanding of its tasks and a desire to work. Actually, this was what you needed from the very beginning, a fast and efficient system that will not fail due to laziness or ideological stupidity.
Speaking of more everyday things, you actively requisitioned army property in Moscow for the needs of the Ministry. Around the 1960s, the threat of a nuclear attack on Moscow changed from an air threat to a missile threat, and therefore this was followed by a reassessment of the capabilities for protecting the capital from nuclear fire. Instead of the planned control and coordination centers in the capital, new facilities were moved outside the city, and the metro was turned into a rapid evacuation system. When Scion demonstrated the futility of modern nuclear missiles in the mid-1980s, it became clear that there was no point in maintaining old air defense and missile forces facilities.
At the moment, you have received an object at the Taganskaya, and Belorusskaya metro stations, directly below your headquarters. The last room was the smallest and oldest, having been caught by Nazi bombers. The Red Army paid a lot of attention to the defense of large cities from enemy strategic aviation, probably a legacy of ideas about the fight against Britain as the main enemy in the 20s and early 30s. You got a little distracted, but the general idea remained the same. Your HR department has gone through the dungeons of Moscow and moved to new premises. The department is efficient and will significantly reduce the cost of hiring and supporting new employees, especially outside of Moscow, where your authority is not so noticeable. The only thing left to think about is -what to do with the bunkers.
Establishment of the Protectorate HQ [50/50] [54/100]
"Under the sun, Uncle Stepa stands tall,
A giant among men, towering over all.
On the site, his mighty arms swing,
Replacing the tower crane, a human machine."
Reworking Mikhalkov's poems
As part of the transfer of ownership from the army to the city, you received a very specific object. So much so that the Moscow City Committee happily gave up an entire metro station just to give this place to you. The reason is banal - this is one of the most difficult and protracted construction projects in Moscow. The place you were planning to turn into the new headquarters of the Protectorate.
Directly behind the massive building of another Stalinist skyscraper, Moscow State University, for many years there was an empty field. There were many rumors and ideas about the reasons for the existence of this field, but if in the 50s this place did not stand out, because it was the outskirts of the city with a massive building, then by the 80s the city territory expanded and a huge elite Academichesky district arose around it, largely tied to MSU itself. The field has not gone away, representing a thorn among tall new buildings and alleys.
So, you have answered another question from your student youth. As part of the plans above, it was planned to move the control bunkers from the center of Moscow to the outskirts. In the 50s this area was perfect. Moscow State University is located on the banks of the Moscow River, on a series of hills that form the highest natural point in the capital, making the massive building look even larger. The current civilian version of the metro crosses the river on a bridge and goes up the hill to serve the huge university.
Crazy military engineers continued an alternative subway line more than 120 meters below the surface, making the site capable of surviving a nuclear bomb. There was a plan for a massive bunker to run the country, with an entire government quarter at the top. But by 1957, Khrushchev finally removed Bulganin from "co-government" and all these plans for new gigantic construction projects were canceled in favor of the construction of residential areas.
So you've decided to go back to the plans of the 50s. In general, it would be impossible to begin a massive construction project at the pace that you began without the availability of communications prepared for the government and the help of parahumans. You have formed a whole squad of builders led by Colossus. A massive 30-meter body that was digging a site for the foundation of a new building with the largest shovel in the world - this was the main news of Soviet and even some foreign newspapers. Someone even wrote poems about him in your local ministry newspaper. At the moment, the construction has passed the foundation stage, but the architects are arguing about how exactly to use the rather massive territory and the equally large unfinished bunker underneath.
Border Security [24/50]
"You will not go further until you receive the papers." A common phrase at security checkpoints.
It's unpleasant to say, but you are not an all-powerful woman. You have good experience working with very diverse and politically heterogeneous masses of people, you are a shrewd and intelligent official, and you have a great scientific education both in sociology and in the practical study of parahumans. The organization of the border patrol service is not within your competence. And, what is even more regrettable to say, you do not have military specialists who could easily take on such tasks. Historically, border security is the job of the KGB, and therefore they are not very willing to let you into their resources. Under pressure from the Council of Ministers, the process is proceeding, but at the speed of the usual Soviet bureaucracy. The process of simply approving passes and access to classified information for parahumans took three months and could take even longer. But it cannot be said that the KGB is directly antagonistic to you, they are simply not very keen on cooperation.
Help for Afghan comrades [75/75] [8/75]
"Sabotage behind enemy lines is not only about destroying a target. It is sending a message of vulnerability that hits the enemy leadership much harder and more powerful than the most powerful explosive charge." Mikhail Petrov, representative of the first department of the IPA, in a personal conversation regarding "random explosions at the border."
Your foreign policy work continues. Significant success in unblocking three large cities, including the capital, cannot remain without additional assistance. This time, the activities of your Ministry were aimed at reconnaissance and collection of information, as well as solving the issue of parahumans for Afghanistan. At least five different parahuman groups have been observed using them, and information has been received that at least one city has been taken over by a parahuman warlord. It was your job to find and justify ways to eliminate these parahumans. No matter how strange it may sound, the high-precision ballistic missiles "left behind" by the Afghan group coped well with the task. If we leave the question of "collateral casualties" aside, we can point out the high effectiveness of the use of modern weapons against powerful para-threats. It's not always really effective, but in nine out of ten cases, a ballistic missile with a hundred kilograms of explosives solves the problem without a potential answer. All that remains is guidance and coordination, which is what your task force did in Afghanistan.
A more complex and ambiguous issue is the indirect confirmation of the existence of a liquidation detachment at the KGB. You were not included in this spectrum of discussions, and therefore you can only guess, but most likely it formed from KGB special forces together with militarized parahumans. After the problems began in the PRC, the supply of weapons to the Muslim opposition decreased but did not stop. We can only guess, but there were probably several skirmishes between Soviet special forces and parahumans and Chinese military and parahumans. The exact data is classified, but we definitely can say that the PRC is forming a parahuman army structure, and the KGB has its own and more effective one. Several shipments of weapons "disappeared" and did not reach the Mujahideen.
In a combination of good circumstances, the Afghan leadership began to rely more on "militia" with local parahuman forces, since their loyalty was easy to buy. This made it possible to sharply increase pressure and recapture several local cities, returning partial control over the western and northwestern regions of the country.
Rapid Reaction Troops (Center) [11/50]
"You cannot be allowed into the territory around the 30-kilometer zone around this military facility. The reasons for this are described in the resolution of the military district leadership. Unfortunately, this decree is secret, and therefore you can only read it under supervision in a prepared room without recording or photographing equipment. The room is located on the territory of the facility." One of many examples of Soviet bureaucracy.
Similar to the problems with the Border Patrol, conflicts over secrecy and gaining access to radio communications, restricted sites, and frequencies became a key coordination issue. In this case, the branch "branches" controlling the police and internal troops were completely unwilling to show any coordination with you. In fact, it will be easier for you to create your own equipment and communication systems from scratch than to try to get something from your "colleagues".
Socialist comradely aid with the parahuman sphere [65/50]
"Parahuman knowledge will free you from the shackles of slavery!" One of the slogans on the banners.
Delegations from Bulgaria and Romania were quickly brought up to date. Previously, countries communicated on the topic of parathreats, largely due to changes in the countries' policies due to the loss of nuclear weapons as a deterrent. Now the question concerned more simple and prosaic threats, namely control over parahuman crime, as well as the formation of systems that counteract the seizure of power. Zarnitsa has already shown several plans for the formation of a reliable system of mutual testing of officials for "hypnosis" and "mind control", however, these systems are mostly theoretical.
The DPRK was much less willing to make contact on this issue, but the lack of Chinese industrial assistance and the shortage of fertilizers pushed the country into Soviet hands. Preliminary agreements were reached on the status of official Soviet parahumans, agreements on assistance in natural and parahuman disasters, and a rapid communication system was established.
Also, almost all countries of the former Warsaw Pact, except for Poland, have shown interest in forming their own official authorities to control parahumans at the state level. It is likely that within a few years, countries will try to join the Protectorate or at least agree to some formal agreements with the organization.
Retraining of politically unreliable capes [81/105]
"Surprisingly, Zarnitsa turned out to be a man who manipulated society with monstrous ease. It was through his efforts that the forces opposing the Communist Party were fragmented and disunited. What's more impressive is that they don't even seem to understand the reason for this. It feels like he is better at creating chaos and discord than creating order. However, each person has his own talents." From your personal diary.
Political ideology has never been a simple subject, and you decided to intensify the discussions exponentially as you began to work on a broader level. You weren't interested in a simple punishment system that stopped your parahumans from saying what you liked. They will still say nasty things, just anonymously or in kitchens. No, you worked based on your own experience and Zarnitsa's forecasts.
You added information, changed meanings, started discussions, and pushed your parahumans to think. Conducted personal conversations and directed their minds in search of answers, so that they only found more questions. Questions that were difficult or impossible to answer. These were largely banal things, which, however, destroyed the naive idealism of many citizens or sent them into secondary political discussions, the final meaning of which did not change anything.
It wasn't a quick process, but you managed to start endless and rather useless political discussions of "Do parahumans need union representation as members of a certain profession or cultural representation as another professional-cultural group?" Essentially a pointless question with no important answer, but now people actually care. It is not a question of the country being run by the Communist Party, or shortages in stores, or the unconstitutionality of the massive administrative apparatus of the Politburo. No, they are actually still concerned about the issue of trade unions.
Now you just need to put more effort into making this system work consistently, shaping the narrative and discussion of topics in a way that benefits you. Every final opinion on an issue is beneficial to you because people don't ask really important questions. Maybe in a decade or two, this will cause new problems of people being disconnected from the real world, but these are problems of the future.
Preparation of parahuman training camps [194/125] (50% of excess above the required minimum is sent to Retraining of politically unreliable capes)
"Stay away from the authorities and closer to the kitchen." Soldier's wisdom
At this point, you have training fields set up to use the most destructive superpowers that can be found in the databases and observations of parahumans, except maybe Eidolon and Behemoth, as well as a place to train and monitor three hundred people. Quite comfortable accommodation in communal apartments, training classes on various topics, prepared teaching aids and teachers, as well as a certain amount of military and military equipment to prepare parahumans for a collision with weapons and armored vehicles. Small observation positions are equipped with high-speed cameras and a large number of sensors to better understand the limits and capabilities of each parahuman. There's even a local costume workshop and a small Tinkertech lab. Considering the resources involved, this is a great base model from which you can start working on the Protectorate training system. However, it is unlikely that you could start, given that the most experienced and trained personnel have left for Jakarta.
Organization of costume production [28/75]
"You can get fabric from any material, as long as the fabric is Central Asian cotton. We do not produce other fabrics." Response to a request for new forms of woven fabric from the industrial association of the city of Ivanovo.
Despite the planned economy, the USSR had its own local ateliers and, in general, elements of light industry that sewed clothes to order. The main problem was the presence of a fairly limited range of fabric types, as well as the almost complete absence of modern fittings, primarily zippers, Velcro and laces. This required a large investment in both building a purchasing department for your needs and finding international suppliers.
With the beginning of Perestroika and under pressure from Zarnitsa's forecasts, two special economic zones were opened in Vladivostok and Leningrad, which had free currency conversion and other rules for conducting foreign business. This was a radical step that still hit the USSR economy quite hard. The reason for this is simple - the closed currency itself formed the unequal status of foreign currencies. Your budget on the US side and on the USSR side is ridiculously different. Speaking approximately, the difference is 14 to 25 times, depending on how you count, and the question is only a matter of currency, while you often receive many resources within the USSR without a full exchange of funds, such as the transfer of city property into your hands. However, the value of one Soviet ruble does not even come close to the exchange rate on the black market. The official dollar in your hands is incredibly valuable for a simple reason. Any factory, any ministry and committee dreams of reliable foreign currencies with high purchasing power, because this means that they can go to the Western or Eastern economic zones, after which they simply need to buy equipment, from computers to machine tools. No approvals, struggle for budgets and coordination of spending with the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Maximum signing of some documents in the name of management.
So, even with these funds, you had to think about how to organize easily accessible and fairly cheap workshops for sewing high-quality clothes for parahumans. You know these people, they tear and break things all the time. The somewhat "punk" style allows you to take more liberties, but even so, you still need to maintain more than just aesthetics and durability. It takes considerable insight and technological initiative to replicate one common "design code" while maintaining adaptability for each individual. As a result, a considerable part of the funds and political influence, and even more so time, was spent not on the purchase of goods, but on the integration of your Ministry into the intersectoral research and production committee "Textiles". This was strongly resisted in this huge R&D organization, because, in their opinion, there was no place for a "costume studio" in their organization.
Studying methods of keeping parahumans in custody [173/150]
"The area has been surveyed. In the southern territories, there is a shortage or absence of large animals, trees, and birds. In the northern territories, there is a lack of any life, in some places even bacterial." From an oral report on the Vasyugan swamps.
Researching and finding sites for a potential super-prison has not been easy. Even taking into account the onset of frosts and the winter season, many locations were difficult to access even after the onset of frosts. And yet, geologists and cartographers set off, and local specialists worked with archival information on the geology of the regions. Taking into account additional funding and time, we were able to select several more locations than you expected. The requirements were still the same: distance from large cities, mortal danger to the environment, and opportunities for the construction of nuclear power plants.
1. Vasyugan swamps. A huge territory in the northern part of Western Siberia, where huge endless swamps have formed a multimeter layer of moss and plants into a single slab. Together with the minimum number of inhabitants, this is one of the most sterile places in the USSR. There are no trees, bushes, or small animals, in some places even insects disappear and the number of bacteria decreases. Tens of kilometers of water and swamps in very cold terrain, where one wrong step will send you into icy lifeless water. A place where there is not even land, just hundreds of kilometers of plant islands in the middle of a water lens in one of the most tectonically stable places on the planet.
(Pros: Lifelessness, remoteness from large cities, visibility of any escapes from the air, tectonic stability. Cons: Difficulties in construction and supply, lack of infrastructure, remoteness from everything.)
2. Novaya Zemlya. After the closure of the nuclear test site in Kazakhstan, this polar territory became virtually a nuclear wasteland for the army. The large island is the size of a small European country and is covered in mountains, snow, and military installations. Every resident is taken into account, and every route is agreed upon. There are no extra people and no random passers-by. Essentially, the impossibility of secret entry or escape through the existing infrastructure.
(Pros: Many military bases, lack of civilian population, the ocean around the island, icy wastelands, nuclear deterrent option, presence of a nuclear waste site. Cons: Need for coordination with the military, lack of infrastructure, potential threat of submarines)
3. Kamchatka. At first, you thought it was a joke, but one of your Tinkers has a specialization aimed at working with molten environments. Volcanic lava fits. You are provided with the calculations and logistics for the concept of using a base integrated into the island's violent volcanic system, both for the purpose of providing an independent and almost indestructible source of energy and for more unfortunate purposes. Despite the large population of the peninsula compared to other locations, the island is fairly well-controlled, and most of the population lives in cities. In addition, the cold, climate and the largest population of brown bears do not make the peninsula the best place to live.
(Pros: Large port to work in, labor and infrastructure for construction, lack of nuclear power plants, proximity to the US, the possibility of making a prison destruction system through flooding in magma. Cons: Tectonic instability, potentially habitable terrain, presence of shelters in the wild, potential submarine threat)
4. Vorkuta. Probably the most moderate project proposed to you is where you place a prison in a populated area. This is a large industrial center of the Soviet Union, which turned out to be completely unprofitable and is now going through its own hard times. A huge population for such a territory in the absence of any career prospects. Everyone who can has already fled from here. However, we could try to breathe new life into this city by providing it with a source of employment.
(Pros: Proximity to the logistics system of the USSR, benefits for the economy of a dying city, availability of infrastructure, distance from the sea, tectonic stability: Cons: proximity to the logistics system of the USSR, presence of a large civilian population without careful accounting, possibility of escape to the countryside)
Centralization of Tinker applications [141/100]
"Do you need artificial sapphires in any form? Well, we have some scraps and failed samples in our warehouse, but not much. We can provide no more than five tons. Seven if you take it yourself. But why do you need this garbage?" From negotiations with the supplier plant.
Parahumans are not very eager to work in a team, and even less so are Tinkers. This is formed both by personal ambitions and behavioral characteristics and in general by problems of specialization and individual characteristics of production. And yet you have found the keys to some centralization of work - resources. To produce things, these parahumans need resources, which are usually quite scarce. In most countries, they, independently or through the government, will organize the purchase of these products in the markets... but not in the USSR. Due to your high political authority and taking into account the "special" attitude of Shevardnadze, you were able to obtain a "special" quota for resources, from 0.1 to 0.5% of the production of some mines of the USSR, which they are obliged to sell to you at a planned, not market value.
Which has unexpectedly placed you in the position of one of the largest corporations selling rare earth metals and jewelry. Nickel, aluminum, palladium, iridium, diamonds, and rubies are all now available to your parahumans... if they are willing to work in a group. In the end, collective applications have many times higher priority than personal ones. Moreover, large quantities of titanium have attracted the attention of even Americans. You already have some contacts, and once a Hero even flew to Vladivostok intending to obtain ten tons of titanium. Some clauses in your quotas allow you to also sell purchased resources to "friendly parahumans", a clause designed more for Mongolia than the US. However, it is unlikely that anyone will stop you from getting some more green dollars, aside from, perhaps, slightly dissatisfied representatives of the mining industry.
Parahuman Migrants and Refugees Act [140/100]
"Parahumans will be the most important achievement of the 21st century. Their ability to violate the very laws of reality requires us to behave accordingly. In the new world, it is people who will become the resource, no matter how it sounds. Therefore, we must take any action to increase this wealth." From the radical speech of the people's deputy.
As can be seen on the world map at the present moment, individual countries are experiencing huge problems with stability, and parahuman military groups are emerging in them, participating in the struggle for power. For parahumans, participation in such hostilities, oddly enough, means, although certain risks, but also the opportunity to secure a better future for themselves. You decided to provide such parahumans with an alternative opportunity.
After agreement with the Politburo and the Supreme Council, an act was introduced that gives the leadership of foreign military bases of the USSR, diplomatic staff of embassies, the leadership of the Soviet Protectorate, and simply the border service the ability to issue Soviet visas in the field for permanent migration and provide the right to asylum to willing parahumans and their loved ones relatives. Of course, in exchange for a commitment to join the MPA.
At the moment, this is still a fairly little-known procedure. The only people who took advantage of this offer were a number of parahuman refugees from Afghanistan and Iran who approached your border forces. However, as your overseas activities increase, more parahumans from different regions of the world will become aware of such a program.
The rumors about the Soviet Union might not be very complimentary, especially in capitalist countries. But when your place of residence is destroyed by the Behemoth, a stable job in the Land of The Soviets might be a good alternative to surviving among the ruins? You think you know the answer to this.
UN agreement on parahuman crises [89/100]
"Why can't we just pretend that Taiwan is the only true China? It would make everything so much easier." Parahuman Vitaly Volkov, part of the security of the Soviet UN delegation. After this incident with him, a preventive conversation was held regarding radical statements.
An attempt to ensure the approval at the international level of legislation on freedom of movement in the event of parahuman crises became a stumbling block at the UN, even in a situation where both the USSR and the USA took a joint position. In fact, your main opponent was China, which demanded a certain degree of oversight over the implementation of this right, wanting guarantees that only those who would actually perform such a role would take advantage of such a right.
As a result, your document ended up in the bureaucratic hell of international coordination, and this continued until the attack on Jakarta. After that, your UN representative could simply present maps of your transport plane's movements and say that your parahumans could arrive at their destination several hours earlier if they had the right to free movement through the airspace of any country.
After this, even China had to retreat from blocking this initiative. As a result, in the coming months, this initiative will be approved in any case, even without your own participation. Your only regret is that you did not have time to do this before the attack on Jakarta.
*****
No voting this time, but I think the update turned out to be pretty solid.
