No longer confronted by the threat of fascism, the superpowers of America and Russia- Capitalist and Communist states respectfully- began to suspect one another of being that domino that would topple the world into its next ruinous global conflict, and slowly but steadily began to turn against each other.
As early as the Potsdam Conference (1945), held between the British, American and Russian powers, connections between the allies were beginning to crumble: Truman had shown great ire towards the Red Army’s growing influence in Poland, in which there was now a Communist government, and Stalin- Russia’s dictator- demanded greater reparations from the German people, as the war had been particularly calamitous to Russia as a whole.
Furthermore, America had secretly manufactured its first atomic bomb, under the title “The Manhattan Project”- Which would, later that year, play a key part in initiating Japan’s surrender- but withheld the information from the Russians.
Stalin, however, was painfully aware of the weapon’s presence- having monitored its creation with his own network of sleeper agents- and the fact the USA had not alerted him to it, despite their alliance, gravely irritated him.
Not the US, the USSR nor the UK left satisfied.
What followed only proved to further escalate tensions, however.
One thing that had been agreed upon was the division of Germany amongst the powers.
Northern, Southern and Western Germany were shared amongst the Western allies- Even France, whom had been notably absent from the Potsdam conference- not for the purpose of occupation, but instead for rebuilding.
A democratic system was to be reintroduced to the country, once it was ready, with a strict “no extremist parties” policy, and the currency was to be replaced with the ‘deutschmark’ in the hopes of restabilising Germany’s shattered wartime economy.
The Soviets, however- Whom had been given Eastern Germany, and torn it asunder in an act of vengeance- had different ideas.
Politically, Eastern Germany was made to appear as if it was a democratic state, but in reality this was only an illusion intended to keep the West from applying any further pressure to Russia.
Walter Ulbricht, a German brought in from his exile in Moscow to serve as a political figurehead, is quoted as having said “It has to look democratic, but we must have everything in our [The Communists’] hand.”
They also refused to partake in the currency of Western Germany, and as a result, The Soviet Occupation Zone suffered a severely slow economic recovery.
Attempts to reunify the German states failed, as a reasonable agreement could not be made between the allies.
The Communists insisted that they needed Eastern Germany (As well as Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia) to serve as a ‘buffer zone’ in case another war broke out- As, having witnessed such destruction, they could no longer trust the Germans- but the US feared that the true intentions behind Russia’s occupation of these countries was purely to spread the message of Communism, an idea that startled them greatly.
Their paranoia lead to the creation of two separate states: Western Germany (The FRD) was within the control of the Western allies, and saw the benefits of their Trizone (a united economy.)
The East (GDR) was controlled solely by the Soviets, save for Berlin, which- despite the entire city being encapsulated in Soviet territory- still belonged, in half, to the allies (West Berlin.)
On the 29th of August, 1949- Four years after the US’ completion of The Manhattan Project- The Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb.
It was from this point onwards that things truly began to grow heated between the allies.
Between the years 1949 and 1950, both the nations of China and North Korea identified themselves as Communist nations.
When North Korea went to war with the South, it found itself backed by the forces of Russia and China: These Communist titans were then pitted against the forces of the UN, most notably the USA.
The war ended on a ceasefire (1953), and America became certain that the USSR was working to spread its influences.
From here, the pressure only built.
As the 50s pass on, horror stories of the failed revolutions in Eastern Germany and Hungary crawled towards the West, and as of 1956, the British and French forces began receiving threats of Nuclear war in response to their occupation of Egypt.
But things didn’t truly peak until the early 60s.
In 1961, the Berlin Wall began its construction, effectively choking Western Berlin’s supply routes and sealing it off from the rest of The Soviet Occupation Zone.
It made delivering supplies from the ground impossible, which meant the Trizone would be forced to deliver them by air instead.
Then in 1962, things saw their worst during The Cuban Missile Crisis.
When the Soviet Union positioned some of their nuclear missiles within the Communist state of Cuba, the US threatened nuclear retaliation.
Both the Eastern and Western blocs concurred that their hands hovered firmly over the buttons that would decide Earth’s fate: The world was threatened with nuclear annihilation for days.
That is when Project Deimos was founded.
Following The Cuban Missile Crisis, the Western allies- Britain, the USA and France- concurred that they could no longer continue to risk the breakout of a nuclear war.
But be it nuclear or otherwise, a war was brewing, and if they had any hope of preventing it, they needed to “choke the Soviet Child whilst it was still in the cradle.”
The Russians had proven to be adept at the arts of subterfuge- having monitored the USA for countless years, pre and post-WWII- but hadn’t been quite as observant as they, perhaps, should have been.
From as early as 1921, British spies had infiltrated the USSR, and had been sharing vital intelligence with the allied forces of Britain and France.
Amongst these items of interest was the Russian project “снег ястреб” (Sneg Yastreb – Snow Hawk), in which Stalin had- Prior to his death in 1953- ordered the creation of an “elitnaya komanda” (Elite Team) of operatives who “expressed some manner of supernatural power,” in order to prepare for the possibility of all-out war with the US.
Komanda Sneg Yastreb had been behind the brutal crushing of the Eastern German revolution, and had played a similar role in the horrors of the Hungarian revolution (off of the record, naturally.)
Terrified- and simultaneously intrigued- by the realities of the ‘Soviet War Machine’, the allies agreed that a similar project needed to be instituted amongst their own ranks, or else the brewing war would almost certainly be won by The Red Army.
And so, Project Deimos came into existence.
Utilizing a vast series of British connections- bound together by the might and seeming perpetuity of The Empire- the allied forces began to seek out any and all individuals whom presented traces of some unnatural ability.
Although, obviously, there wasn’t a single man of whom was truly a ‘one man army’, they came across many whom presented rare and unique powers- referred to by the British recruiting agents as “Lassus powers”- and offered them each an invitation, which explained simply that their powers were called upon by Her Majesty the Queen of England, if they were willing to lend them.
If agreeable, they were then taken to the US to be researched and trained to use their powers to the benefits of the allied armies and UN: If not, then they had their memories of the encounter wiped (because, quite fortunately, the woman whom possessed the ability had said yes.)
For the next thirty years, Project Deimos would persist in growing, and each of the project’s participants would be honed into perfect, gifted soldiers to fight in the inevitable war against the Eastern bloc.
Except the war wasn’t inevitable… and it never came.
During the 70s and 80s, the Soviet economy began to collapse in on itself, in parts due to an increasingly costly arms race with the West, and a failed war campaign in Afghanistan.
Then, In ’85, Gorbachev found himself in power, and the Cold War drew to a close in ’91 when he initiated massive political reforms and an agreement with the US to concede the arms race.
The Cold War had ended without so much as a bullet being fired, despite both the Eastern and Western Blocs building such mighty tools of destruction.
But then the question remained… what would the UN do with those who’d agreed to be part of Project Deimos? Some had given up as many as thirty years of their life, and others had fled their home countries or- worse yet- defected from the enemy in order to join them.
But neither France nor Britain could house them- As they were now suffering from major political reforms themselves- and allowing them to live with the general populous of the US left them open to the machinations of any sleeper agent still poised to strike.
So just where, then, could they put them?
Teplee (Tep·Lay) is a modestly sized (read: small) town located in far North-Western Alaska, within the valley of the ‘Burns’ Range, a series of modestly tall (and notoriously difficult to climb) mountains.
Founded in 1830 by a small group of Russians whom represented ‘Russkaya Amerika’, the town was incredibly obscure and appeared on very few maps.
In the modern day, however, it appears on none.
Teplee had the bad fortune of being abandoned by its original occupants in the second half of the 19th century due in part to the near-constant snow fall (Which actually saw the town buried until it was rediscovered in 1920 by a Russian spy drone), and a lack of communication methods with the outside world.
In the 1940s, the American government refurbished the town in the hopes of housing retired war veterans: However, the town proved to be far too small to even start considering it as a possibility, and so it was instead placed on the public market for a short spell.
In that time, it developed some popularity amongst the more outdoor-inclined breed of Americans, but was still grossly undernourished in terms of population.
By the 60s, it’d been removed from the market by the request of its citizens, whom preferred their quiet existence.
Despite this, however, by 1991 the town boasted a small collection of shops and businesses, all of which made worthy living despite Teplee having a population that barely scraped 100.
Frankly, the town was perfect for what remained of Project Deimos: Barely one hundred agents made up their numbers, and Teplee housed many empty homes.
In return for a hefty yearly salary, the town’s general population agreed to keep the operation a secret, and welcomed the ‘Lassus Soldiers’ with opened arms.
Teplee, so secluded and cosy, made a perfect home for them.
The year is now 1998, seven years after the relocation of the Cold War agents.
Teplee remains anaemic compared to other, larger settlements: Accommodating only one infirmary- staffed by a single doctor and only a trio of nurses- only one coffee shop of note (“The Bean’n’Gone” being one of the only places in town to acquire a cup of coffee anything near the grade one might see in the rest of the states), and a series of small business as opposed to the “superstores” that are now taking the nation by storm.
Regardless, the people here are generally contented with their simple lives.
True it snows near constantly, but that’s all the more reason to wrap up warm in the local coffee shop.
And true, there are barely any cars in the town, but who could ever hope to drive them with all of the snow?
The one thing Teplee possesses that most places no longer do is the fact that everybody knows one another: There is a sense of community about the place, be it because of a comradeship or a mutual distrust of the Russians living amongst them.
So welcome to Teplee, agent…
How do you take your coffee?
[Agent’s Profile]
Although we trust our agents sincerely, the Cold War isn’t long behind us, and it never hurts to keep tabs on those of a superhuman persuasion.
Agent Name:
Agent Country of Origin:
D.O.B:
ID No.: [This is a semantic detail, give any 7-digit number]
D.O.D: (Date of Defection)
Prior (Cold War) Employment: [If any]
Current Employment: [If any]
Agent Biography: [Starting from around the time said agent became worth monitoring]
Psych Evaluation: [A brief description of personality and mental state]
Physical features: [Give a brief description of appearance here]
‘Lassus’ Power: [Any ability that transcends the norm, but isn’t ‘drastically’ superhuman, such as flying or throwing fireballs would be]
Purposes this ability served during wartime: [Hypothetical position that would’ve been filled after war escalated]
Notes: [Any extra information about agent not covered in profile]
Keep these profiles updated should anything change in our Agents’ statuses.
Project Deimos is of paramount importance, all records must be kept up-to-date until the project’s participants are deceased.
