Manhattan Project
Probably no more than a few dozen men in the entire country knew the full meaning of the Manhattan Project, and perhaps only a thousand others even were aware that work on atoms was involved." More than 100,000 others employed with the project "worked like moles in the dark". Warned that disclosing the project's secrets was punishable by 10 years in prison or a $10,000 ($129,000 today fine, they saw enormous quantities of raw materials enter factories with nothing coming out, and monitored "dials and switches while behind thick concrete walls mysterious reactions took place" without knowing the purpose of their jobs. The result amazed them as much as the rest of the world. ~ Life Magazine
It was a miracle of science and engineering. Most other countries had already given up, considering the fundamental forces of reality beyond their control. Yet under Major General Leslie Groves the Manhattan Project carried on.
In the end it cost less then two billion dollars, a bargain, less then ten days of wartime spending. One hundred and thirty thousand personal were required, a minute fraction of the sixteen million deployed in the war effort.
With these small tools, a few scribbled theories, imagination, hope and desperation the world was forever changed.
Trinity Test
Why I chose the name is not clear, but I know what thoughts were in my mind. There is a poem of John Donne, written just before his death, which I know and love. From it a quotation: "As West and East / In all flatt Maps—and I am one—are one, / So death doth touch the Resurrection." ~ J. Robert Oppenheimer
Trinity New Mexico, a base constructed from scratch for the sole purpose of testing the first nuclear bomb, known informally as the 'Gadget'.
At 05:29:21 Mountain War Time, the bomb exploded with an energy equivalent to around 20 kilotons of TNT. It left a crater of radioactive glass in the desert 10 feet deep and 1,100 feet wide.
At the time of detonation, the surrounding mountains were illuminated "brighter than daytime" for one to two seconds, and the heat was reported as "being as hot as an oven" at the base camp. The observed colors of the illumination ranged from purple to green and eventually to white. The shock wave was felt over 100 miles away, and the mushroom cloud reached 7.5 miles into the sky.
It was in these moments a new Pantheon was born. The atomic door had been opened, irreversibly and it could never be closed. The modern age had arrived and its leader born in thermonuclear fire.
Life
Her existence was at first classified under the 'Born Secret' doctrine, and she was six years old before she even had a name. Eventually Lara Kelly was selected, after much bureaucratic scuffling over every pointless matter possible.
Eventually the American super-solider Captain Patriot was given control over her upbringing, as part of his overall command over american supers in the military. Ensuring she was treated with respect in a time of growing fear and paranoia over super humans, and in-steeling in her the moral values and strength of character that have come to characterize her ever sense.
Over the course of decades she fought in every war declared by the United States, and some undeclared wars. She took a personal interest in reducing crime, and begin a half a century battle against criminal activity. Together with her allies, or alone, she has fought several alien invasions to a standstill and then turned them back to where they came.
She has grappled with the old gods, smote an entire race into ash, clashed with intergalactic law enforcement, traveled to the end of time, and dragged the sun back into place.
[[ Work in progress! Just wanted to get the basics of CVNU Liberty down so I can RP lol. ]]
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