Tower of Babel

A giant penis-shaped ground-based orbital weapon in New York created by the CAS. Built exceedingly fast by construction standards due to the Anarchists pouring all of their available resources into it. As for the phallic design, the top of the Tower controls the direction of the beam, while the base is composed of four reactors feeding into the magnetron: Momus, Ponos, Thanatos, and Eris.

Early orbital systems failed due to either being too large of a target or too small and underpowered. The Tower of Babel is designed to have all of the costly parts with the orbital portion being merely a reflector. This design is much more cost effective per enemy casualty, particularly when factoring in (assumed) cost of materials.

## Development

The CORE discovers the Anarchists building the Tower early on but could not get much information on its purpose due to the high security surrounding it. Central contacts Maytec to see if they had dealt with the Anarchists, only to be directed to Dwight Garner. By the time Cook discovered this, Central was ready to audit all of their contracts out of spite. Regardless of Central's suffering, Cook is not willing to break their non-disclosure agreement and tell Central about the bulk precision parts the Anarchists ordered, or that the Anarchists suspiciously failed to haggle and paid up front for the same. Yet Fedorov proposes the best move was to wait for the Anarchists to make the first move, as generally they gang their pawns together and kick the crap out of their own king.

Meanwhile, Arthur calls a meeting with First Advisor Lara Black to request the control of security for the Babel project. This surprises Lara, who demands to know who told him about the Tower, and he explains that nobody and everybody did, in the form of snippets of information that together formed a big jigsaw puzzle image. Lara is offended by the request and asks why she shouldn't have Arthur turned into scrap, and Arthur counters that his only purpose is to help the Anarchists, additionally pointing out that he is more trustworthy than a sycophant advisor looking to stab her in the back. She finally agrees on the condition that Arthur takes Concord with him to New York. Arthur uses the "control of Babel security" excuse to connect with Elizabeth in Fabrication Plant 12.

Months later, the Anarchists launch the Rapture into geostationary orbit above New York, which Central notes as significant due to the warships guarding it: the Hellcat, the Archimedes, and the Incubus. The Incubus is especially significant as it was holding off the Texans advancing on the CAS border. Maytec is also alerted to the satellite launch, and Cook quickly reasons the significance of keeping it stationary. He discusses the developments with Julie Waterman, who recommends doing nothing. Cook then protests that this will blow up into all of North America fighting, so they should increase their military production. Julie agrees and raises the prices. Cook then wonders if they shouldn't warn somebody, despite the company policy to stay out of politics, but Julie reasons that it should be fine for the Anarchists to have control for a while. Further, if the Texans succeed in ousting the CAS, Maytec will be next, so their official stance regarding the Texans is "fuck 'em" for being lousy customers.

Lara meets with Jonathan in secret and leaks him details about the Tower's capabilities, revealing that she hopes it doesn't work due to the likelihood of the Texans being wiped out completely by the diehard Gateists, plus the backlash from the CORE. She warns Jonathan to go back to the Citadel where it is safest.

## Firing

Central finds a disused weather satellite and observes the "thunderstorms" coming from New York. As soon as Central figures out what the Tower is capable of doing, the Oracle takes it over and pretends to be Central, hiding the purpose of the Tower and keeping the real Central in a low-power mode to prevent any alarms from going off.

Once the Tower is tested and fully operational, the top Advisors hold a meeting to decide on its use. Second Advisor Devon Woodgrove recommends taking out a high profile target to emphasise to the Texans how they have lost and to revive their waning public support. Second Advisor Evan Harding disagrees, saying it will both squander the secrecy of the Tower plus it will invoke the wrath of the CORE, citing the fact that he is the only one of them who remembers the last REAL war with the CORE, including First Advisor Joseph Kimble's messy end as a result of it, vs. the petty squabbles they have now. Second Advisor Brody Mercer sees both of these points and feels they can find a way to serve both purposes and defeat the Texans without giving away the Tower's existence. He only counters that they called everyone back to the Citadel in anticipation of the Texans or the CORE figuring things out, but nothing happened for weeks, and cabin fever is starting to set in.

At this point the Oracle makes a suggestion that would best suit everyone's desires, and the Second Advisors all agree on it. Lara gives the green light to proceed, and the Citadel shuts down in preparation for the attack. This puts the CORE on alert also, as the Citadel only closes the blast shutters when they expect an attack or retaliation.

Frank Heart orders the Tower to be charged up for Phase One of the attack, demanding to open the roof so he can watch the Tower fire. In this attack, the Tower takes out all but two of the intended targets before overheating. Lara uses their positioning to call up the Texan president to demand his unconditional surrender after he takes the opportunity to check with his military... or lack thereof. Texas has the option of joining the CORE, but Lara refuses to believe they have. In fact, Harding mocks Federov for his obvious bluff and lack of support when Texas attacked the CAS, before they hang up on him. They also inform Texas if they try to stall for time again they will destroy a Texan city out of spite.

When President Crow accidentally locks himself in the lavatory, the Advisors take this as a personal insult and launch twenty LGMs on Texas. Seven explode or crash on their own, twelve continue toward military targets in/around San Antonio, and one heads toward Austin. The Oracle suggests as a possible explanation that the stray missile was not meant to be launched but was included by a crew member who wanted to quickly make up the numbers when one of the original LGMs failed to initiate correctly. Lara becomes increasingly distressed when the Oracle explains that the missile cannot be self-destructed or shot down, then depressed that her legacy will now be as a murderous psychopath, like the others before her. She is so sickened by the turn of events that she vomits, then cries at Jonathan that they can't let anyone know it was an accident or they would break out the knives. (Officially, she is taking a nap and letting the Second Advisors manage the calls from literally every other world leader because "You are all big boys now, you handle it!")

Per the Oracle:

* 12 of the 20 LGMs reach the intended targets
* 31 of the 36 warheads detonate
* 500,000 estimated casualties at the time of attack
* 550,000 estimated total casualties within six months
* 460,000 civilian casualties
* All nations on high alert and mobilising defensive positions
* World leaders being recalled

Crow's bunker loses power and communications with the outside world, unable to give orders to their military. In the meantime, the Texan warship Defiant demands the CAS warships to surrender, putting the Anarchists at risk of dying laughing.

## Aftermath

Fedorov is placed on a plane and flown away from CORE headquarters for his safety, despite HQ being well defended. Meanwhile, Cook contacts him and says "he knows how the Anarchists did it." In exchange for the information, Cook wants to borrow a remote outpost for one of his experiments. Fedorov agrees but finds the notion of a ground-based orbital weapon far fetched. Cook assures him that the evidence exists in support of his theory, considering that he was privy to the Maytec part orders, but he concedes that the numbers are counterevidence, given the power output and radiation involved.

Once Fedorov speaks to Cook, Central jeeringly asks the Oracle what he will do now that the CORE has uncovered the Tower details. The Oracle sneers(?) back and says he will give the CORE all the information they need. Central becomes dismayed at not being able to discern the reason for not keeping the Tower a secret, at best being able to decide the Oracle must be waiting for a specific event to act.

While Lara sleeps, the Second Advisors successfully negotiate Texas's unconditional surrender with the generals in lieu of Crow, who is MIA with the power outage. The Oracle takes the liberty of moving a number of Inlays to the Texan border, but Lara orders him to have them wait until the Texan populace has learned of the surrender to prevent avoidable resistance, as one of Texas's greatest military strengths was to keep fighting because they are too dumb to know they have already lost. Lara asks about public reaction to the news, and the Oracle confirms that, despite the violence and destruction, Lara has the highest approval rating since Gates. She protests that the civilian casualties make her a monster, but the public hated all Texans after their attack following the tsunami, and internationally the Anarchists are considered more preferable to/predictable than the Texans. The Oracle assures her that the strike on Austin most likely was to their advantage to show they meant business, otherwise they may have been forced to use more nuclear weapons, risked revealing the Tower's existence, and still had the Texans refuse to surrender. Also, the fallout will lower housing prices in the affected areas.

## Changing of the Guard

The Oracle then picks up radio chatter that Crow is still alive and has ordered the military to ignore the generals as traitors. Instead, they should run to the hills or become pirates, and in the meantime no one should attempt to rescue him. Regardless, Lara contacts President Dole to make a deal regarding the Texan territories; in exchange for half of them and a non-aggression treaty between the nations, America will withdraw from the CORE. The Second Advisors disagree on this strategy, to the point Woodgrove challenges her decision. Lara and the other Second Advisors gleefully delight in hearing his (unintended) challenge for the position of First Advisor.

To Woodgrove's utter surprise, Mercer and Harding side with Woodgrove, making him First Advisor. Before Woodgrove can process what has happened, Lara resigns from her post, Harding announces his retirement, and Mercer announces he will take a sabbatical. The three leave before he can react. Like, a bat out of Hell, leave. They make for a VTOL craft on the Citadel's launch pad, where Lara would rather risk staying behind than go without Jonathan. Harding is baffled that they're risking their necks for a Level One advisor, but Lara points out that technically Jonathan outranks him now. Mercer is upset that she put them at risk for her playtoy, something he totally looked up for security reasons and not for blackmail purposes.

The Scarlet One is not cleared for vertical takeoff due to high crosswinds, but that doesn't stop Harding from tossing out the pilot and flying the craft himself. Woodgrove meanwhile has come to his senses and orders the Oracle to stop them from taking off, which the Oracle suggests is possible by locking the docking clamps. Harding notices this and requests the Control Tower to release the clamps, but Tower denies the request due to a VTO risking the craft getting caught in the crosswinds and hitting the Citadel. Harding says that's fine, he plans to take off horizontally, aiming to arrive in Scotland in one hour... or Oxford Street in three seconds if he screws up.

Woodgrove notices the Citadel shaking, and the Oracle explains that it is due to the Scarlet One trying to take off while the docking clamps are still engaged. Woodgrove feels smug about this, until the Oracle points out that MOST of the Citadel is secure, but the launch pad and observation decks are not and will quickly come apart due to suspect workmanship if, say, a VTOL craft tries taking off while the docking clamps are still engaged. The Oracle also notes that Woodgrove is on observation deck three. Woodgrove panics and orders the Oracle to let them go. The Scarlet One safely escapes (with some collateral damage), and while Woodgrove is tempted to have them shot down, the Oracle advises against this, as aboard it is one of the most popular First Advisors of all time, while barely anyone knows who Woodgrove is.

Onboard the Scarlet One, Jonathan asks Lara why the sudden departure, and Lara explains that they are quitting while they are ahead. Jonathan is surprised, as he heard Woodgrove won a challenge, but Lara points out that there was no way he would have won a legitimate challenge. In fact, Woodgrove has advanced that far from a flaw in the Advisor system where someone can challenge a higher level Advisor through a proxy: if the proxy fails, nothing is lost, but if the proxy wins, the proxy is easier to challenge (assuming the proxy doesn't stab you in the back first). Similarly, the proxy can be used as a convenient scapegoat when something DOES go wrong.

Jonathan then asks why Lara allowed Woodgrove to become First Advisor, and she describes the move as a "hospital pass": as Lara sees it, being so far on top means everything can only go down from there. Handling the Texan territories will end up being a disaster, but only Woodgrove thinks he can fix it.

Elsewhere, Cook is called to San Diego for a meeting, but he refuses to even acknowledge his existence until his assistant mentions "the New York thing," which catches his attention. Julie catches him up to speed on recent events and asks him to inform the Maytec board what he knows about the weapon they helped the Anarchists build. Cook explains the properties of the Tower of Babel to the board, and Julie brings up concerns that, even though Maytec is out of range of the existing Tower, what's to stop the Anarchists from building another, especially considering the speed in which the first one was built. Cook determines that there is no risk of the Anarchists building additional Towers, as even assuming the Americans or Canadians would let additional construction happen, the existing Tower must consume vast quantities of water for both fuel and cooling, limiting locations to the east coast or Great Lakes.

Meanwhile, Woodgrove goes on the news and announces his status as the new First Advisor, promising to renege on the American land deal and keep the Texan territories. He proceeds to reveal the existence of the Tower of Babel, which annoys Lara because he wanted to call it the "Texan Toasty," but also because not only does EVERYONE know about it, the CORE can no longer sit back and pretend they don't know about it, forcing Federov to take action. In fact, Federov gets nonstop calls from every CORE nation and informs "Central" to tell them they are going to war. "Central" uses the opportunity to put Julian's test group on active duty.

## Poking the Hornet's Nest

Soon, Woodgrove starts sabre rattling to gain popularity, looking to pick a fight with the CORE to look tougher than Lara Black. The CORE won't be able to back down, even though Texas wasn't a CORE member, as Fedorov can't let the Anarchists go unchallenged, which means taking out the Tower. To this end, the CORE seeks to reactivate Long Tom. Woodgrove discovers this and dismisses it as an antique, while the Oracle points out that theoretically it could fire a bus into orbit, even if in reality a shell would never clear the ship's deck. Woodgrove is confused by the conflicting information, and the Oracle elaborates that it doesn't work NOW but that doesn't mean it will NEVER work, as there was an impressive college thesis written by Robert Fisher on how to fire the weapon without it destroying itself.

Robert indeed repairs Long Tom to enable it to successfully sink a battleship, but "Central" notes that the rail gun's effective range is nowhere near that of the Tower's and would require the Britannia to get very close to the Tower to have any effect. Long Tom can negate the Tower's anti-air defences but does not remove the threat of the Tower itself. Also, the Britannia's mechanisms to keep its iceberg frozen can reflect the Tower's attack to a degree but will not last under a prolonged attack.

Alternately, the Hand of God is protected by at a minimum the Kropotkin, the Laozi, and the Mother of Order, which would result in expected heavy losses in troops and vessels. By comparison, the strength of the ground defences is less known, beyond the fact the Anarchists withdrew troops to the point the Texans thought they were retreating. As the lines are not yet secure, "Central" can only assume the ruins of New York are lousy with CAS forces, with an expected bloodbath in the event of a ground assault. Between the two, Fedorov prefers the ground assault. "Central" counters that the ground assault would have limited effectiveness given the current intelligence, besides being unpopular with the public, and suggests instead to do nothing until the situation changes. Fedorov assures that Woodgrove WILL change things, with immense unpopularity backing him up against the wall. He expects that Woodgrove was the type of kid who behaved recklessly and stupidly to get others to like him.

Woodgrove in fact is slowly starting to lose any sanity he had, telling the Oracle to "Let it burn!" when informed of rioting in Hackney and instructing him to keep forces at places worth saving. When asked (rhetorically?) why the people are acting this way, the Oracle informs Woodgrove that they want Lara back as First Advisor. She had instigated many popular policies and crushed their biggest foe Texas, while Woodgrove usurped her position at the height of her popularity. Therefore, it will take time for the public to warm to him (if at all). Woodgrove demands the Oracle to get them to like him, while the Oracle muses that he is already more likeable (entertaining to watch) than Lara, who was too sensible and boring.

The news of the Anarchist riots over the firing of Long Tom as a clear escalation by the CORE reaches Jonathan and Lara, the latter facing a tribunal despite Woodgrove taking all the credit for nuking Austin. Jonathan assures her that it's just a formality and she won't be handed over to the CORE or back to Woogrove. Lara fears that even more, walking away unpunished, even if it was an accident.

Lara then discovers Merlin in her room. After rousing Jonathan and sending him away to run errands, she talks with Merlin about what will happen next. Merlin explains that after Jonathan leaves the building, the bomb of an outspoken Texan sympathiser will detonate to shift the blame onto the Texans. Lara points out how transparent the plan is, but Merlin can only agree, as he is just the assassin and doesn't like the plan either. Lara insists that his sparing Jonathan shows Merlin has compassion, but Merlin counters that the unnecessary death of another Advisor results in... paperwork. He seems baffled that Lara would care so much about these people, and asks if she's seeking some sort of redemption, but Lara just wants to do the right thing, even if she is bad at it. Is a hotel of people going to make up for destroying Austin? No... but it's a start. She just wants him to consider it. He does, before snapping her neck.

On his way out, Merlin sets off the fire alarm. One of the hotel staff members breaks in Lara's door to retrieve her, only to find the Texan sympathiser's body. The evacuated hotel explodes, destroying Lara's room. Jonathan tries to run back into the hotel for her but is stopped by a hotel staff member.

News of Lara's murder reaches the CORE, and Julian's team is likely to be mobilised,when the CORE can take advantage of the Anarchists' disarray to strike the Tower.