US Intel Building Beneath Walmart

Discussion in 'Setting Development' started by Hubardo, Dec 26, 2015.

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  1. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I think that in this case a very heavy degree of reality bending is going to be de rigueur. I can steer your to a certain extent as regards reality, but there quickly comes a point where I have to shut up because that's the nature of the job (fact is, I've pretty much reached that point already). I cannot tell you what I did or how I did it. Anyone who does tell you from honest experience risks very serious repercussions. To this day there are words and terms that I occasionally whisper to myself when no one is around, in the most hushed voice I can manage, simply for the thrill of saying those words, because.... verboten. Naturally, this dynamic makes for a very fantastical representation of the job I did in books and cinema.

    It's kinda' like hospital dramas. Ask any person who has real-world experience (@GingerCoffee for example) and I am sure they will tell you that nearly every minute of a Grey's Anatomy episode is cringeworthy, wrong, unrealistic, fantastical, etc. It just doesn't play out that way in real life. No one just wakes up from a year-long coma looking like they simply had a restful night's sleep and hops out of bed to be discharged half an hour later. But for those who love such dramas, that doesn't really matter. Grey's Anatomy was a very successful show.
     
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  2. Sack-a-Doo!

    Sack-a-Doo! Contributor Contributor

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    It seems plausible enough to me. A WalMart is built on a gigantic concrete pad and, as long as they only work at night and make sure to shore things up properly, the NSA could build their underground lair under a working store... and no one need be the wiser.

    Or course, I wouldn't be surprised by any convert activities of a secretive agency. ;)
     
  3. Commandante Lemming

    Commandante Lemming Contributor Contributor

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    Haven't read the read the rest of the thread but actually your premise sounds cool and potentially hilarious. Not a bad idea at all.
     
  4. Matt E

    Matt E Ruler of the planet Omicron Persei 8 Contributor

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    What are they using the facility for?

    For most programs, the government would prefer to have barbed wire fences and what not, which would prevent anyone without proper authorization from entering the area. It's also important to protect the facility from hackers, so if the facility is designed to store information that was collected, it would have what's called a data diode, which only allows data to flow into the facility, and not out.

    A datacenter located beneath a walmart would not be very good at protecting itself against the Russians, for example. The russians would have difficulty slipping a spy onto a US military base, when compared to a walmart. However, hiding your datacenter beneath a walmart would hide the datacenter from other elements of the federal government. I'd expect a facility so well hidden would not be hidden from foreign powers, but from higher ups within the agency. It would be so secret that it would have to rely on its location for security.

    When something has to be absolutely secret, you can't station a company of marines around it, otherwise its presence would be known. You instead have to hide it, which is why a walmart would be useful (or an abandoned warehouse). A walmart would be better for hiding the fact that people are coming and going in plain sight. An abandoned warehouse would be better for keeping the facility far away from prying eyes. Both have their pros and cons.

    For constructing it: it would be best to pick a building that already has a basement, then build a walmart inside the upper level. That way, the digging is already done.

    So, overall, I think the idea works if the secrets are being hidden from other elements in the government, or from a foreign power that has its spies very deeply embedded into the intelligence community.
     
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