Mercer, Maine
AGRICULTURAL TEAM DT-F31 CAMPAIGN
SESSION ONE-->
LEAVE BOLT-HOLE
    supplies
hmmwv with heavy machine gun
3 M35 2.5 ton trucks with medium cargo trailers
1 cargo trailer serves as a mobile laboratory

After determining where to assist, an agricultural team has six large caches to employ
"The caches are semi-cylindrical tunnels, 7 meters in diameter and 50 meters long behind their entrance doors. They are built with a 3 meter wide central vehicle 'lane', and storage areas on each side, 1.2 meters higher than the central floor. The fusion generator and cooling system are located at the back of the cache. The doors can be closed after opening, but the nitrogen atmosphere can't fully be replaced.”

"three Alpha caches:  a Fusion Generator Mk 1, nitrogen atmosphere, cooling system to keep conditions at 7 degrees Celsius (with a deep heat exchanger to the water table), 5 fusion-powered articulated wheeled tractors, 5 two-wheel platform trailers (to tow behind the tractors), one fusion-powered MW24C scoop loader, drill rig trailer, drill rig casing pipe trailer, several bales of PVC well casing pipe (each pipe is 30 kg, 12.7 cm diameter, 6 meters long; 20 pipes per bale) and minor fittings to connect to pumps, 5 large electric water pumps (250 liters per minute at a 25 meter head, 34 kg each, discharge into 3.7 cm pipe), 110 rolls of black plastic sheeting (about 2 tons), 80 tons of seeds in bags, 500 kg of crop treatment chemicals, 750 kg of pesticides, a couple hundred shovels and other hand tools for field workers. Seeds and pesticides mostly come in 23 kg sacks. We'll call seed, treatment and pesticide requirement about 150 kg per hectare, over the whole variety of field crops.”

"three Bravo caches:  a Fusion Generator Mk 1, nitrogen atmosphere, cooling system to provide 7 degrees Celsius conditions, frozen fruit and nut tree seeds (these are in insulated vaults at -40 Celsius conditions), lots more field crop seeds and fertilizer, veterinary supplies (antibiotics, dewormers, vaccines and other pharmaceuticals mostly), frozen semen (also in the -40 Celsius vaults), etc. The placement location of these caches are more limited, since they need substantial amounts of water for their cooling system to operate covertly.”

"The agriculture teams expect no better than a 75% seed germination rate in 1995, due to the preservation process. After 12 years of storage, germination rate drops off steeply, reaching 50% at 25 years (the longest the Project had tested). Maximum viability for wheat is about 30 years, even stored in these caches.
     The team will either work around existing communities, or an Engineering team will build a camp. The Project aims to provide a tractor (wheel or crawler type) per 50 hectares of arable land; and expects to need about 0.25 hectares per person. A lot of agricultural machinery and tools (pipe, electrical wire, trailers, sheds, chicken coops, wire fencing, etc.) is expected to still exist after the War.
     Thus the 1000-person "support center" envisioned by Depot Alpha would need 250 hectares of arable land, 5 tractors, 36 tons of seeds, and 750 kg of pesticide -- if a reasonably good yield is expected. An Agricultural team can in turn provide materials for three support centers.


     Of course, Project characters of the year 2139 will be well aware that their stored seeds probably won't germinate”

Almost none of these seeds stand a chance of germinating.
Location of first encounter--> Mercer, Maine
Radio-operator will receive old transmission from the leader of a recon team previously stationed in Mercer, Maine. They are given coordinates and instructions to make it to a mile before that point before putting the radio off of the MP frequency and back onto the public waves.
This should be done,
The public waves will be mainly empty, except for the AM 4190 channel, which will be chattering with overlapping voices, who are a conglomeration of gypsy truckers and ballooners.
One of the truckers will mention the MP on the radio, in half sympathetic tones. They’ll talk about a couple of improvements that were made and about how it’s unlikely to happen again. The kids just didn’t understand what Mercer was all about, or the limits of a closed community.
It becomes obvious that the ballooners abhor mercer completely.