In the late 2050’s the military leadership of the United States found a hole in the defenses of the country as it existed at that time. The hole was created by the new generation of weapons that were being developed by numerous countries around the world. Fast power armor, hover tanks and other heavy combat vehicles could sweep into the country and take large sections of land before the military could respond. With a ‘beach head’ established it would be hard for even the military to respond without putting the civilians in the area at extreme risk.

The problem facing the U.S. at that time was, how to attack a force holding your territory without having to roll in with a large force and level the area. Even into the 2080’s with the advances in air transport it would take more time than practical to shift forces and logistics. A way to help support troops was already in place in NATO countries in Europe. A series of caches designated POMPCUS, were in place to be retrieved by Special Forces troops in the event that the Soviets ever invaded Western Europe.

The ARC (Adaptable Recovery Cache) Project was founded as a system of equipment caches that could be accessed by a group of soldiers or guerilla fighters in the occupied area. The original secondary purpose was to make individual soldiers or units more self-supporting. Caches would be constructed underground in caves or artificial structures built for this purpose.

From 2057 to 2065 over 150 type S through type S2 and 1500 type ES caches where established with at least 100 type S through type M2 and 1000 type ES in the works. The largest of the caches that was to be constructed (S2) was started in yearly 2060 in the interior of Alaska.

In 2067 a budget cut caused the systems expansion to become jeopardized. The Pentagon reacted by teaming with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). This alliance saved the program but had the side effect of changing the mission slightly. Instead of moving the newest equipment into the caches a system of refitting older vehicles and weapons for the caches was started. This lowered the setup cost and made it possible to build even more caches. The use of the system by FEMA would be as a pre-staged civil defense system. Soldiers where given the locations of a limited number of caches in the areas they were in and told to use the contents in the even of a catastrophic disaster to help the people in the area. The system was perfect for rolling out equipment and supplies to help many people survive everything from floods and earthquakes to eruption of the magic field of the earth. This changed the focus of the program from equipping soldiers to providing equipment to the locals in the event of a major emergency while still proving equipment to the military.

The facilities were equipped with older training equipment and information on tactics. Basic and even advanced manufacturing and repair facilities where added to some of the caches as well.

In 2090 the system was again in an upgrade phase, with the caches receiving new stocks of both the M-160 and the LAWS-3 mini-missile launcher. The turmoil in Central America had caused focus to once again shift to the armed forces of the United States and restarted the program. New equipment stocks were placed in a good portion of the caches including the new SAMAS units. Several of large combat robots were stored in a cache near Chicago, IL. The caches were stocked with newer equipment including hover tanks, power armor and robots while others were still stocked with equipment that was 3 generations out of date. During this time the systems use once again changed with a new classes of caches being added. These Caches where intended to allow officers Senior NCOs and former military borgs to reactivate themselves to combat status and join any fight that was going on. This group of caches provided more in the way of gear than most of the older setups.

All of the caches where equipped with computer systems and 100 year power supplies. Left in mothball mode the system was rated at 568 years before the power system would need to be recharged. The computer systems would act as a guide for whoever opened the cache, teaching them to use, repair and sometimes manufacture equipment. The smallest installations had what was basically an advanced Palm Pilot while the larger installations had computers that are the predecessor to the ARCHIE systems.

Security on the mid to large installations was handled through a passive DNA scanner that checked the DNA of the person trying to open the cache against the national DNA database. The system provided for the chance that it would be the child of someone in the database that would be trying to open the cache as well. The smaller caches relied more on stealth than scanners and computers for their security.

Several of the larger caches were installed in places that no one would suspect, like the cache in Yellow Stone National Park and Death Valley. This was done so that people using the equipment would be out of the way in the event of invasion or natural disaster.

From what we have gathered the heaviest concentrations of caches are in the “Rocky Corridor” parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. The inaccessibility of most of this area made it their choice for storage of equipment.

Several of the larger caches were on the Canadian border. Because of the budget cut backs it was felt that the Canadians might not be able to stop a force from entering the US. One of the largest caches was in Michigan; it had manufacturing facilities for several older power armor types and could serve as a base for a large group of people. The largest cache was the main Alaskan cache. Being so far from reinforcements the Alaska cache held enough equipment for a type A group army. That cache, however, was mostly older equipment (Bradley’s, M1A2’s, HMMWV’s, M-20’s) as well as amphibious assets.

As America lessened its need and use of its ICBM fleet, the silos were converted to caches. They where smaller than average (type S) but they provided a very good opportunity to hide in plain sight. Unlike standard type S caches they where designed to be a long-term bases of operation and were more heavily stocked with food and fuel. At the time several silos were equipped with emergency evacuation pods for the president in case he needed to evacuate to one of the space stations or to the moon base. The HK (Hunter Killer) satellites in orbit were programmed to protect these pods at all cost.

The caches range in size from the type a group army site in Alaska to a single HMMWV with weapons and food for 4 people. Most of the larger caches are located in the mountains regions of the Eastern, Central and Western areas of the former United States. The smallest caches are evenly spread through out the country.

There is very little known about the current disposition of the system. We know that hundreds of these sites where built but the disposition of most is unknown. The location records of the smallest caches are sketchy at best while the locations of the larger caches are very heavily guarded. Our best estimate is that only 43 to 54% of the caches have been found. One problem we have had gathering information is the lack of records from the several years after the initial cataclysm. This is what we have been able to find out over the last several years.

Alaska
S2 - Unknown
MA - 10 of these scattered around the state
M - 25 set up for winter quarters
S - Strangely only 4 of these are known to have been built. It could have been due to the isolation factor

Arkansas
MA – destroyed by the F.O.M.

Illinois
L – Suspected found near old Chicago, might have been the great library that the leaders of Chi town controlled prior to the Coalition.

Kentucky
XL – Believed destroyed by the F.O.M.

Nevada
M2 – Believed to be vaunted area 51 but unknown
LA - 3 of this size around the state
M - 20 of these
S - 100 of these mostly around the Reno, Elko and Las Vegas area

Oregon
L – Found by Locals from Oakridge, Oregon
M – Found near Lakeview Oregon
S - 30

Texas
M2 – Unknown believed to be located in a salt mine in central Texas
LA – Unknown
L – Unknown
S - Found by locals in the NW corner of the state and 200 others

Utah
XL – Unknown
M2 – Unknown
M2 – Unknown
LA – Unknown
S - 100

Cache sizes-
All caches contain clothing and other basic items that may be needed. These are basic listings of the contents of the caches by size. Some contained fully modern equipment including Glitterboys and SAMAS units, while most captained older equipment. Over 60% of the older equipment has been modernized with nuclear power plants and MDC plating.

GM's Section

Here are some ideas for implementing this write up in your game.

Chaos Earth:
1. Players is an off duty or retired military person who knows where there is a cache, allowing them to equip themselves or others for the fight ahead. Larger caches could lead to a base set up.
2. Players find a wrecked cache in an abandoned building or just in the nick of time as ammo is running low.
3. Seeking shelter from the ash cloud the group finds more than they bargained for.

Rifts Earth:
1. Players low on ammo or with out transportation find a cache.
2. Use these as starting points for Merc groups
3. Use them as rewards for player groups. Extra equipment is way better than credits.
4. Have your Coalition squadies find one of these and get a little weirded out by the ancient matching equipment to theirs.
5. Use as part of a grand scheme working your way up to having an army and clearing out North America for human habitation.