Broken Arrow: An international program

[anonymous]

 

We often perceive Broken Arrow as something that falls under the American government, and thereby view cases in which the organization is involved from an American point of view. How could they have gained access to China, an enemy of the US? Did they acquired the mining town at "Buried" via supporting the anti-communist UNITA rebels in Angola? Why is there Russian influence in Tranzit? These are all issues that we may view differently, upon reading the following document:

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29th October 1963

Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense

Subject: Preliminary Review of Broken Arrow Initiative

 

1. The Joint Chiefs of Staff have considered the Broken Arrow Initiative in the context that it was requested and have approved further action at this time. The request was to foster the creation of an International Alliance, starting with the United States and Cuba. The potential for a truce is of great interest, considering the evidence submitted with the Proposal. The Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend two phases be initiated simultaniously to achieve success in this operation.

2. PHASE A: A diplomatic engagement between the President of the United States and the President of Cuba has been approved. If an agreement can be reached during this meeting and a treaty signed, we will then proceed to Stage 2: An assembly with Allied Nations. If they approve of the arrangement at the specifications we request, we will then proceed to Stage 3: An Assembly with the USSR. This is to be handled with utmost care and delicacy. If this new threat is to be defeated we need as many allies as we can.

3. PHASE B: The 115 Operations being run by the Departement of Defense in Washington and by the Central Intelligence Agency in Groom Lake, Nevada must aligned as a singular endeavor. This operation part of the Broken Arrow Initiative, will be ground zero through which all Element 115 Projects are filtered through. For the immediate future all experiments must focus on the weaponization of the Element to combat the threat. All secondary projects are to be put on hold.

4. Once success has been achieved with Phase A and B, the Initiative is to operate infefinitely at the highest level of secrecy. For it to become public knowledge would be both catastrophic and world-altering. The Initiative is to operate as a separate entity from the world's governing bodies, though a close eye must always be kept. Operatives must act with the utmost discretion.

 

Truth is, Broken Arrow never fell under the American government. It was an initiative by the Pentagon, yes, but the program itself was fully independant with 'Cooperation' as it's mission. Initially the Pentagon's "Zombie Labs" would be folded into the same program with Groom Lake, and after that: an International Coalition. What is interesting is that it is noted that this initiative should be operate as a separate entity, apart from any nation's government. Not only that, but the program should operate at the highest level of secrecy, without most politicians even knowing about it. See it like some kind of Majistic-12, Illuminati or Man in Black, but entirely devoted to the research of Element 115, extraterrestials and the 'Samantha entity'.

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"You're welcome to join the organization, but it'll mean swearing loyalty to Broken Arrow before the United States. Company over country." - Pernell

 

"Not a word of this to anyone outside the company. Not the CIA, not the DOD. Broken Arrow eyes only." - Pernell

From the moment of it's foundation, the Broken Arrow Program had the ambition to become a international coalition. Whilst the intention was to make it a global one, I imagine some countries were harder to include than others. After the events of Five, Cuba was likely the first nation to follow and deliver it's 115-related research and facilities to Broken Arrow. After this the Allied Nations from NATO would have likely followed, resulting in the discovery of Excavation Site 64 in France and the foundation of the London Office. After all, it is likely that these European colonial powers had came in contact with 115 elsewhere on the world or perhaps in the zones of the divided West-Germany.

 

But it didn't remain with that, as we can see on the worldmap in Camp Edward. While stage three (assembly with the USSR) was likely put on a halt due to the Cold War, Soviet denial of Samantha's existence or who know what, it appears that China was already included before 1968 (the year of the abandoning of Camp Edward). This I find espessially interesting, as China was at that time one of the three Cold War superpowers, hostile to both the Soviet Union and the United States. But they acted clever: While the Soviet scientists refused membership of Broken Arrow because they had a ton of research and knowledge theirselves, China was rather new to the expertise of 115. They might've seen access to Broken Arrow as a chance to learn more about the mysterious element 115 and alien artifacts they found in the Bayan Har mountains and at Nandan. As Shangri-La is also noted on the '68 Broken Arrow worldmap, and we find Chinese and Vietnamese crates here, I presume that membership of China was also Broken Arrow's doorstep to Shangri-La. Which brings me to the following:

This warehouse is likely based on Area 51 as we encounter it in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull (as there are many other things in Black Ops I based on features from that movie). We see crates of China, Cuba, USSR and Vietnam here; could this be a Broken Arrow facility storing their research? Would kinda fit if it would be a hangar in Groom Lake, the roots of the whole Broken Arrow Program.

 

Concerning the USSR: They are having a hard time. By the start of 1964, they have lost both the Ascension Cosmodrome and the Siberian Outpost, as well as many scientists in the process. At some moment, they had no choice but to go for Broken Arrow, meaning that all research that was being done now was being done independant of the Soviet government. I could see that after the loss of the two primary facilities, many scientists moved to the United States to resume research (as this had now become the sole nation with an excess of both 115 supply and knowledge). This would explain the Russian words in Tranzit, as well as the crates with the Soviet State Quality Mark found in that map:

Pulling this further, it may also explain the Russian words in Griffin Station and Die Rise. There had happened some kind of 'Operation Stapler', but this time it involved the mass immigration of scientists from Russia.

 

The Broken Arrow Program was global now. With many years passing since Pernell's demise, the company was not only independant from the world's governments, it also began to forget it's main task: Protect Earth. The research group began to commercialize and started the involve businessmen, selling gadgets and weapons to anyone who had too much money and knew of the existence of this secretive group. The hotel in Die Rise has been theorized to be part of some kind of 'market' where people could buy 115-related things like the Sliquifier or your own Jumping Jack as a pet. Meanwhile, the people could stay in the luxeous hotel where the map partly takes place in, and go to the 'International Zombies Center' for when the market starts. Of course is this all debatable, but I liked the idea.

 

Anyways, that's about how far I wanted to take this thread. Do you have any additions? Or speculations what the potential would be of a global 'Group 935' like Broken Arrow? 

[clueless]

The initiative was corrupt from the get-go, Pernell just hit the right chords with the Pentagon at a good moment to propose the initiative. He's wanted to take Sam's power for his own needs (albeit at first for a good cause, something something good intentions) and tried keeping the US government and DoD as far out of his work as possible because of their less-than-desirable actions would mostly be denied by them or be repossesed if abused (killing soldiers to power the APD in the former, taking the Elemental Shard in the latter). It only grew more corrupt as Pernell himself was more afflicted by exposure to the vast amount of the element, and spiraled from there as you point out.

(Also, I'm copying the Broken Arrow worldmap here for those who don't want to / can't click the link for whatever reason.) 

It's very possible Broken Arrow snuck into other countries to set up bases of operations in each, using the Great Leap Forward and Resolution 1295 as ways to get access to Shanghai and Angola (Die Rise and Buried). There may even be more Broken Arrow operation locations unaccounted for, given the map was from before the incident in the 60's and Broken Arrow was still operational until shortly after Richtofen's Grand Scheme.

[anonymous]

Thanks for putting the map image here! Perhaps Pernells initial idea for making Broken Arrow completely government-independant was for his own need, but it caused the company to stay that independant after his demise. It's like Group 935 without a main funder, or perhaps with the private sector (rich folks and other companies) as the main funders, rather than any state. I think it is sure that Broken Arrow gained much more facilities and stations after the 60's, and the company might've gone totally foot-lose and rough without any governmental check on it (perhaps hence the unethical experiments in Hanford and China?). Perhaps large-scale sciencific facilities like CERN in France, MVRC in Moscow and HAARP in Alaska have Broken Arrow involvement, fun to think about that.