This post will detail one of the most important facilities that appear in the Tales of the Quantum Corps stories…the Quartier-General in Paris.  The QG is home and headquarters for UNIFORCE, the security and mandate enforcement arm of the United Nations.

1.     QG is located in Paris’ 5^th arrondisement (district), near the Luxembourg Gardens and just off the Boulevard St-Michel. 

 

2.     The building and complex itself is a 75-story tower of a unique flower petal ‘opening’ design. 

3.     As UNIFORCE Headquarters, there are many staff functions located at the QG.  They fall into the following categories

a.     UN treaty and mandate enforcement

b.     Operations (including a 24-hr Watch Center)

c.     Intelligence/Surveillance (all domains: land, air, sea, space, cyberspace and nanospace)

d.     Logistics

e.     Personnel

f.      Planning and Strategy (UNSAC General Staff)

 

5.     UNIFORCE incorporates more than just Quantum Corps.  Other UNIFORCE enforcement organizations include Cyber Corps, and the various Security Corps (UNILAND, UNISEA, and Frontier Corps…once called UNISPACE).  Each of these commands has UN enforcement and security responsibilities for its associated domain. 

6.     UNIFORCE Staff and Departments

a.     Office of UNSAC (the UN Commissioner of Security Affairs; reports to Security Council directly).  UNSAC has overall oversight, command and management responsibility for UNIFORCE security operations and mandate enforcement.

b.     Office of the Director-General (the DG is head of the General Staff and UNSAC’s principle advisor)(also main liaison between Corps-level commands and UNSAC)

7.     Corps-level Commands and Missions (UNQC, Cyber Corps, Frontier Corps, etc)

8.     The QG has some unique facilities that UNIFORCE uses to execute its responsibilities.  Among them are:

a.     Containment vaults – secure isolation facilities for containing, operating, experimenting with and analyzing nanoscale robotic devices and systems.  ANAD-style nanobots and adversary systems can be safely housed in the QG’s containment center.  There are similarities with CDC’s Level 4 Biosafety protocols at this facility.  If the worst happens, the containment vaults contain multiple layers of defense systems: electron-beam injectors, High-Energy Radio Frequency beams (HERF) and magnetic impulse projectors to make sure nothing really nasty escapes containment.  But what could possibly go wrong….?

b.     Memory tracing/interrogation center – one of the not-very-nice developments that ANAD technology has made possible is the ability to insert a small bot into your brain (you’re under anesthetic hopefully) and direct ANAD to sniff out chemical pathways of glutamate concentration in your brain.  Glutamate is a key neurotransmitter involved in memory formation.  When this parlor trick works right, ANAD can re-construct crude renditions of the visual, auditory or haptic stimuli that created the pathway…in another words, the device can reconstruct a memory trace.  While questionable legally and ethically, there are times in the Tales of the Quantum Corps that this technique becomes useful and necessary.  Again, what could possibly go wrong….?  The QG has all the facilities and technicians needed to do this. 

c.     The brig (a MOB center) – individuals who must be incarcerated (awaiting trials, memory tracing or other forms of questioning and those awaiting transport to other facilities) are held in the QG brig.  It’s not like a county jail.  Each cell is secured with a mobility obstruction barrier (MOB) in addition to the standard jail-type barriers.  The MOB system is a mesh of active nanobotic elements that can be commanded to form any type of enclosure, to restrict mobility and prevent escape.  Brig cells are enclosed and have doors and bars, just like any prison cell, but they are also loaded with active MOB, which can be used to secure any recalcitrant prisoner into any position, even down to fetal position or coffin-sized shapes, when so commanded.  The prison cell is almost like a living thing; make any unauthorized movements or actions and the MOB system acts to prevent anything further.  You can find yourself secured inside a suffocating cocoon. 

d.     The QG also houses an underground geoplane transit station and tunnel from QG Paris to the Atlantic coast (near site of WWII St Nazaire U-boat pens).  This station permits personnel, notably UNSAC and senior command staff, to board a geoplane for underground routing and covert transport to Haven-One, the seabed alternate command post located on the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean a few hundred kilometers south of the Azores.  Of course, geoplanes can transport personnel and cargo to any place on Earth, given enough time, but usually they’re used for short-range trips.  It’s a bit slow, pile-driving through solid rock with a nanobotic borer head at the front end.  Geoplanes can operate at several thousand meters depth into the Earth’s crust and show up in several stories of Tales of the Quantum Corps.  The Quartier General has a geoplane station and garage for use by command staff and designated personnel, in the event UNIFORCE headquarters is compromised in any way. 

9.     This concludes our short look at the Quartier-General, headquarters of UNIFORCE in Paris.

 

The next post, coming in early January 2016, will detail one of the more intriguing pieces of gear used by nanotroopers of the Quantum Corps…their boosted, armored exoskeleton suits known as hypersuits.

I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season this December and I’ll see you in the new year.