Chicago Containment Zone

I don't know what you've all heard about what's going on in Chicago, but I've heard some messed up drek. In the short time since the quarantine went into effect, the military has now created an improvised wall around the whole zone. By improvised I mean that they've blasted buildings to the ground and used them to create a barrier of debris around the entire affected area. This ain't no simple roadblock chummers. I don't think my sources would lie about this sort of thing... but given the seriousness of VITAS I'm not even sure if I think the measures are extreme.

Even so, I heard that after the wall went up the UCAS started airlifting food and provisions into the containment zone. So there HAS to be survivors in there. Maybe they just need time to work on a vaccine for the new strain.

OK. That's super scary. If it can happen in Chicago it can happen anywhere. Time to create my the-whole-city-has-been-quarantiened plan to go right next to my zomie-apocalyps plan. I think I need to increase my stores of food and environmental protection suits.

Drifter wrote:OK. That's super scary. If it can happen in Chicago it can happen anywhere. Time to create my the-whole-city-has-been-quarantiened plan to go right next to my zomie-apocalyps plan. I think I need to increase my stores of food and environmental protection suits.

Seriously? Do you think everyone needs to have a Hazmat Suit?
I mean come on I know it's good to be prepared for the worst but should fear of a possible (but unlikely) future come at the cost of the present?

Life is dangerous, and no one comes out of it alive, but that is no reason to live in fear.

Miranda wrote:

Drifter wrote:OK. That's super scary. If it can happen in Chicago it can happen anywhere. Time to create my the-whole-city-has-been-quarantiened plan to go right next to my zomie-apocalyps plan. I think I need to increase my stores of food and environmental protection suits.

Seriously? Do you think everyone needs to have a Hazmat Suit?
I mean come on I know it's good to be prepared for the worst but should fear of a possible (but unlikely) future come at the cost of the present?

Life is dangerous, and no one comes out of it alive, but that is no reason to live in fear.

A bit o caution is good Drifer, but I'm with Miranda on her point. A life lived in fear is a life hardly lived.

Out of of curiosity, what sort of supplies were they dropping off in Chicago? We might be able to get a better idea of the siuations if we knew the types of stuff.

I have always been told to learn from the lessons of the past. I think drifter is right to be concerned I also agree that we should try to find out more about this situation because it could very easily happen here. There is a lot of crazy drek going on and honestly i would like to start putting it all together

Hey, I'm not living in fear. I still go out and eat, drink and breath. I'm just talking about being prepared. How many people in Chicago would be better off right now if they had some canned food supplies and a way to go out and get more without dying? Having this stuff ready doesn't keep me from living but it may keep me living with no real down side.

Be ready is all I'm saying.

Macushla wrote:

Out of of curiosity, what sort of supplies were they dropping off in Chicago? We might be able to get a better idea of the siuations if we knew the types of stuff.

I've done some digging, and the majority is just what they say: food, clothing, medicines, you know, the essentials for basic survival. So at least that part of the story holds.

However, there are rumors of some drops that contain weapons. Heavy ordinance in addition to small arms. It's possible that someone could be furnishing a small army in there. Maybe someone is thinking riot containment?

NightFire wrote:It's possible that someone could be furnishing a small army in there.

This is something that I've found altogether foolish about the whole situation. History has shown that, while it never seems to be eradicated completely, VITAS effectiveness (and its consequent death toll) has declined steadily since the initial outbreak. Misinformation, media attention, and general public uncertainty regarding the 'quarentine zone' are more than enough to cast a heavy veil over any operations one might wish to relocate within the zone itself.

I'm honestly more surprised that no one has sought information from the shadows on this one; it seems like a gainful prospect.

Who wants to work in a quarantine zone?

I mean running in a bio Hazmat suit seems to be asking for a bit more trouble than your average run.

Getting hurt on a run is one thing but getting VITAS on a run... I don't know if you pay me enough to risk it...

Any one know if they've come up with a vaccine for the new string of VITAS?

Hey... I've been checking into the old links to the Chicago Matrix and, well... they just aren't THERE anymore. It's as if someone has physically CUT the links to the Chicago grid. Why would someone do that? I mean... it's infected with a virus... it's not as if Vitas can be transmitted via the Matrix. There's no need to cut the lines of communication.

Holy Tron Batman!

What if Vitas mutated and CAN travel over the Matrix!?! What if it turned into a... COMPUTER VIRUS!

Next thing you know, the VITAS is gonna evolve it's own intelligence and learn how to digitize people then force them to compete in gladiatorial games involving glowing throwing discs and motorcycles made of light!

Or what if the new computer virus learns how to "rewrite" human programming and then we'll all be mindless zombie slaves of the new digital overlord!

*Sigh* If comedy hour is over...

I had another thought: Anyone read about the Cabrini Ghoul refuge? It's a partitioned low-income-housing-turned-refuge in Chicago which was a huge point of controversy when in opened in Nov of 2053. The infamous Special order 162 marked the first time since the Awakening that the UCAS gov recognized the rights of ghouls and afforded that race legal protection. First it was a big PR thing for metahuman rights and the refuge protected under contract by Knight Errant. Over time, things got ugly. Humanis extremists attacked the compound in force, with automatic weapons and even rockets. The ghouls were ready though. They hid out underground while the extremists entered, were overpowered and eaten. The legal beagles ruled that the residents were within their rights to eat trespassers.

In January of 2054, Knight Errant decided to not renew it's contract. Riots broke out around the refuge, several hundred people died. In the end the refuge was left to fend for itself.

The point of this little history lesson is, there is still a substantial ghoul population in Chicago, and ghouls are immune to Vitas. That means it is POSSIBLE that in the confusion, we could have unchecked ghouls on our hands as well as a killer virus.

I had no idea that ghouls were immune to the VITAS that creates and interesting idea for a last ditch attempt to cling to life once you have contracted VITAS. Although many would rather die than become a ghoul there are sentient ghouls out there and think i might take the risk in order to stay alive.

On the note of unchecked ghouls I think it would be strange if they attempted to do anything. Right now they have locked down the city and cut off all communication and sent in a reasonable number of arms and explosives. I think that the ghouls are anything but unchecked right now and honestly they will probably leave well enough alone unless provoked.

I am no expert on the matirix but i would assume that the possiblity of a biological virus becoming an online threat is exactly 0. The reason that communication is cut off is obviously so that no one from inside can call for help and that no one sees exactly what is going on in there. I am sure it isn't pretty no matter what is going on even if it is just a quarntine the government wouldn't want pictures of the sick and dying individuals to flood the matrix and spread undue panic.

Of course it is difficult for me to trust a government to act honestly in a situation in which no one can see what they are doing and they wont be held accountable for any loss of life that occurs in the area.

NightFire wrote: there is still a substantial ghoul population in Chicago, and ghouls are immune to Vitas.

Wonderful! Herd immunity's ability to stop epidemics kicks in at 70% immune in the population so the worst that can happen is Chicago ends up with 70% ghoul population and the epidemic fizzles out on it's own.

Wait. What's my point.

Miranda wrote:Seriously? Do you think everyone needs to have a Hazmat Suit?
I mean come on I know it's good to be prepared for the worst but should fear of a possible (but unlikely) future come at the cost of the present?

I was considering the possibility that the outbreak wasn't an accident. Things that aren't accidents have a tendancy to happen in other dense population centers. If someone has the means and the will to do then this that 'unlikely' turns to 'probable'.

And if you want to know who might benefit from something like this ask those intellegent immune ghouls we've been talking about.

Longinuss wrote:So any news on how tight the quarantine is?
No fly over? Fly ok, no foot or vehicle access? Entry permitted, exit not so much? Or is it just called quarantined but still has it's Disneyland turn-style out front?

I've done some more digging and what I've found is bone chilling.

Knight Errant has teamed up with the UCAS military. They've set up guard towers evenly spaced along the border of the containment zone. On the lakeside they have the coast guard doing sweeps. they have astral patrols along the entire perimeter and helicopters doing fly overs. No civilian access is permitted and they are using deadly force to keep it that way. No body goes in or out. The Military does food drops but no one not even the Military or Knight Errant is actually entering or leaving the area.

What's more all lines of communication have been cut to the area in addition, to the best of my knowledge the containment zone has become a dead zone for cell phones.

honestly getting into chicago shouldn't be that difficult especially if you have someone who has experience running magical blockades. I think the hard part will be getting back out. There is really no telling what all lies beyond the "safety" zone.

Most 'walls' do have upper and lower limits. The most suitable points for infiltration are often at these extremes. Below, the series of sewer tunnels would help a lone operative or even a small group gain access to the city. Above, any adequately-equipped parachutist can easily drop from a higher altitude than the helicopter surveillance, and be incredibly difficult to detect via radar. Then, of course, there's the direct deception method - the larger the garrison (and the larger the expected enemy), the easier it is to sneak in in small numbers.

I'm sure the military is less concerned over what a few individuals are able to accomplish within the quarentine zone, and much more worried about... whatever is building up in there. That said, I'm not sure I care to know the latter by attempting the former... But someone must be daft enough to do so.

Tunnels might be good. If they're as competent as they seem they probably have some measure isolating the city there too. I'd suspect it's less guarded...if not because of the unplesant conditions then because of the funnel properties of tunnels that that make them ideal for automated motion sensing turrets. Probably wouldn't be to hard to blast through...I would hope.

Alternatly, anyone know where and/or how they load the supply drops?

Hey chums, I just had a weird thought. What if they're just calling it VITAS but in reality it's something else like really big rats w/ huge teeth or anything else the governors wouldn't want the rest of us in on.

What could possibly be so much more panic inducing than a VITIS outbreak that the government would think announcing the plague had hit a major metropolitan area was better? It makes no sense. "Hey, we don't want to cause a panic so let’s announce something that will cause a panic!" Honestly, wouldn't it be better if we were panicking over the thing that was the actual problem?

If there were an attack of giant bugs I think it would be better if we were panicking and cleaning out exterminators of their stock of industrial bug killer.

If there were an attack of giant bugs and we were instead panicking over a fictitious highly lethal contagious disease I just don't see how that helps anyone.

So I say, why limit yourself. Let's go for giant insect attack and VITIS outbreak. The government is known for not telling the whole truth but I don't see how they could come out ahead with a complete lie.

Better yet. How about the governement purposely releasing VITIS in order to combat a giant bug attack!

I think that the government may be weaker than it appears and it is showing with this incident. Whatever is happening inside the containment zone is obviously a problem that they can do nothing but contain. Which means eventually they wont even be able to do that.

New reports on the Chicago containment zone say that Knight Errant troops have arrived on the scene to aid UCAS military in maintaining the zone. It is unclear whether KE has been working with the army before now; but they have definitely sent reinforcements.

Rumors persist that at least one Knight Errant squad was trapped inside the zone BEFORE the wall went up. Though that would not be overly surprising since Ares maintained offices within Chicago.

NightFire wrote:Rumors persist that at least one Knight Errant squad was trapped inside the zone BEFORE the wall went up. Though that would not be overly surprising since Ares maintained offices within Chicago.

That seems an appropriate place to begin looking, if anyone wanted them rescued... or kept silent.