The Hail Mary is a salvage and recovery boat based out of Homer, Alaska.  Its captain Jeffery Tulley and first mate Oberlin St. Clair are both former employees of a well regarded exploration team named Historical Explorations that specialized in treasure hunting and archeological expeditions.  Due to irreconcilable differences between Capt. Tulley and the leader of Historical Explorations, he and Oberlin St. Clair started their own operation in 2005.

The dispute with Historical Explorations left Tulley with little start-up capital and forced him to buy a run down fishing trawler boat from a government seized auction.  In order to fund the purchase of his treasure hunting tools, Tulley obtained a $250,000 loan from the Japanese Yakuza.  He hoped to use his detailed knowledge of the Elando Cortez, a Spanish galleon containing millions of dollars in silver bullion, to pay back the loan.  As of this writing, the loan is still outstanding and the Elando Cortez remains undiscovered.

The Hail Mary is 71 feet in length and has a maximum speed of 37 mph.  It possesses one mini sub (maximum depth 8,000 feet), one remote operated vehicle (R.O.V) with a 10,000 foot tether, extensive scuba diving and recovery gear and a side sweeping sonar array.  At no time has all of the Hail Mary’s equipment been functional simultaneously.

The Blackdoor Group is a clandestine agency within the CIA that operates autonomously from any central command chain at the highest level of national secrecy.  The group was created almost 70 years ago at the end of World War II to defend and protect American interests both domestically and abroad against threats outside the scope of traditional law enforcement.  Twenty Groups, or ‘Doors’ were established.  Each Door was originally given a specific area of expertise on which to focus such as surveillance, infiltration, assassination, medical research etc...  But because of the group’s secretive nature, only the President, Harry S Truman and the Secretary of State James Francis Byrnes were aware of its creation.  In order to escape any Congressional oversight after the initial funding of the initiative, Blackdoor was expected to fund itself through its own ‘initiatives’ using whatever means necessary.

Most of what is known about Blackdoor today has been gleaned through rumor and hearsay.   One report states that as time went on, the specific directives of the groups became diluted and the purvey of one Door frequently overlapped with the jurisdiction of another Door.  The actual name ‘Blackdoor’ originates from the central hallway deep within the Langley, Virginia headquarters that features 20 sets of black doors behind which each of the different groups maintains its headquarters.  It is said that each Door is unaware of the activities or nature of the operations conducted by any of the other Doors.

The one area in which all Doors within Blackdoor had traditionally cooperated was within Acheron, the off-site group headquarters located within an abandoned nuclear testing site deep below Baker Island in the Central Pacific.  Acheron traditionally served a research and development platform for each Door to conduct work that would have been illegal or unethical on U.S. ground.  While still maintaining the secrecy of their individual directives, each Door shared common resources (satellite intel, supercomputer mainframe access, intercepted telecommunications data, etc…).  Acheron was, in short, a place to put aside differences and use the incredible technology at their disposal towards a greater common good.

The Blackdoor Group falls within Plausible Deniability Patriot Act established in secret in March 1949.  The Act stipulates that each incoming President is not made aware of the Blackdoor Group unless a specific formal request is made the Central Intelligence Agency’s chief director to verify its existence.  Only the chief director is fully aware of Blackdoor existence and even he or she does not possess the power to dissolve any of the Doors.  Only by a 19-vote super majority by the other Doors can a single Door by eliminated.  This is done by each Door entering a special code within Acheron that will remotely lock and shut down the physical door within the Blackdoor Hallway.  All associated computer files are destroyed remotely as well.

The Hei Ten Shi is an advanced underwater submarine constructed by Nankatsu Industries utilizing technology provided by The Blackdoor Group.  It is comprised of three distinct components: (from top to bottom) the ballast, the control module, and the cargo component.  The primary purpose of the Hei Ten Shi is the underwater transport of its Starstone cargo.  Because of the enormous density of Starstone material, the Hei Ten Shi was built to resemble an underwater “blimp” where the enormous ballast component at the top of the craft effectively serves as a massive lift bag to offset the weight of the Starstone.   Because the ship utilizes technology mysteriously obtained by Blackdoor, its maximum operating depth stands at 19,000 feet, thousands of feet deeper than any modern military submarine is existence today.

The Hei Ten Shi utilizes two unique forms of propulsion.  The primary means of propulsion is the induction hydrojets which allow for extraordinarily silent, albeit slower, running.  To assist with the ship’s mission of Starstone delivery, the Hei Ten Shi has also been constructed with an experimental Ionic Turbine Engine which allows for tremendous speed to be achieved at the loss of stealth.  The express purpose of the Ionic Turbines is to enable a rapid getaway after cargo deployment to distance the Hei Ten Shi from its release point underwater.

At time of cargo delivery, a complex separation sequence is initiated in which the cargo component containing the Starstone is released simultaneously with the ballast.  This procedure is highly dangerous because of the inherent risk of any malfunction.  If the ballast failed to disconnect simultaneously with the cargo, the Hei Ten Shi would be violently pulled to the surface compromising its structural integrity.  If the cargo failed to disconnect simultaneously with the ballast, then the ship would be instantly pulled down into the abyss of the deep ocean and subject to catastrophic pressures.

Keyholes are interdimensional portals that allow for near instantaneous travel between two points in spacetime.   They are created, powered, and imprinted utilizing used remnants of Starstone particles.  The portals themselves generally resemble sarcophagi and are constructed in various shapes and sizes.  One opens the sarcophagus, walks though the portal and exits through the matching sarcophagus at another point on Earth.  Nausea is a common side effect to those unaccustomed to dimensional travel.  Only two sarcophagi may be paired together and once constructed, cannot be re-imprinted with a different location.  The two Keyholes are effectively forever linked.  The majority of the Keyhole Network was originally established in the early 12^th Century shortly after the construction of Leviathan City.  In designing Leviathan, the Soraxian aliens realized that Evangeline and her disciples would need a means to quickly traverse the vast distance between their underwater sanctuary and the surface world of mortals.  They provided her with a fixed number of Keyholes pairs to distribute as she saw fit.  Evangeline herself does not possess the technology to create new Keyholes but she has been able to place the existing portals in various locations around the globe to facilitate instant travel and an effective means of fulfilling the agenda of the Eden Initiative.

Approximately one-third of the Keyholes within Leviathan were stolen during the Rebellion Incident.

Starstone technology is at the crux of Soraxian technology.  Harvested from elements formed just beyond the event horizon of Milky Way’s galactic core, their vast power can be utilized for a variety of functions (including propulsion, life support, spacetime warp field initiation, communication etc…But most of all, Starstone technology is what allows the Soraxian civilization to achieve faster-than-light travel.

Starstones come in a great variety of shapes, sizes and strength.  Because of the incredibly dense nature of the raw materials used in creating an active Starstone, they tend to be extremely heavy.  The technology involved in converting the raw material of Starstone elements into usable technology is not known.

Starstones are periodically delivered to Leviathan from Sorax.  The aliens that were rescued by Evangeline placed a genetic lock on all Earthbound Starstones rendering them inert until they are “unlocked” by Evangeline’s genetic code.  Only Evangeline possesses the ability to commune with Starstones and transfer their energy into the cells of other immortal beings thereby “re-energizing” the DNA and perpetuating their life spans.  Without the periodic delivery of Starstones, the immortal community would perish.

The Condor is the most advanced aircraft ever designed by the Leviathan Group.  Based on a sleek Delta wing pattern, the amphibious ship has two primary modes.  In basic flight mode, the Condor can achieve speeds over Mach 4 utilizing scram jet technology and achieve an operating ceiling of 300,000 feet.  Several suborbital tests were performed on the Condor but it was found that the ship’s photocloak cells allowed an unacceptable level of solar radiation to penetrate the fuselage.

The Condor can also operate in HyrdoScram mode in which the ship can descend to a depth no greater than 100 feet below sea level and accelerate to a maximum speed of 90 mph.  The conversion to HydroScram mode takes approximately 5 minutes.  In order to prepare for HydroScram mode, the cockpit component of the Condor actually retreats into the primary fuselage of the ship allowing a protective sheath to slide forward covering the area.  The cockpit windows are replaced by high-resolution video monitors that provide a 270-degree field of vision of the ship’s underwater environment.  The protective sheath shields the occupants from the substantial pressure of moving through the water so quickly.

A series of three massive hoverfans are located under each wing and the nose of the Condor allowing the ship to perform VTOL maneuvers and actually hover over water or land for extended periods of time.  The hoverfans can also be reversed thereby rapidly pulling the Condor back to Earth in a complex aeronautical maneuver called Descentglide in which the primary engines are shut down and the Condor enters a modified flat spin designed to dramatically increase the downforce on the ship.  This allows the Condor to achieve a descent rate of over 1,500 feet per second with no apparent heat signature.  If the Condor were ever to be tracked, Descentglide allows the ship to literally disappear from the face of any tracking device and vanish into the ocean.  Specially modified flight suits allow the immortal pilots to remain conscious during this dangerous maneuver.

Originally developed by the Leviathan Defense Group as a prototype, the most sophisticated feature of the Condor is its photocloak system.  Utilizing specialized photoreactive cells (similar in technology to the Lumoflora installed on the roof of Leviathan City), the Condor’s central computer takes a statistical average of the light spectrum surrounding the ship and can alter the Condor’s surface appearance and color to match its environment.  While this is not an “invisibility cloak”, it does allow a much greater degree of camouflage for the making the Condor difficult to see at a distance and all but undetectable for satellite imaging.

The Condor was stolen from Leviathan during the Rebellion Incident.

The Aqua Scooters are small one-man underwater craft used for extra-vehicular excursions from the Condor (see above, Condor) while in HydroScram mode.  The ship contains 4 Aqua Scooters along with accompanying electric thermodynamic wetsuits which are capable of maintaining an internal temperature of 83 degrees without any signature heat leakage   Each aqua scooter possesses its own internal breathing gas supply to provide the pilot with “on-the-fly” mixes of air, nitrox, heliox, trimix or liquid flurocarbon to enable underwater respiration and decompression.  A uranium trioxide battery powers the ship’s primary functions while propulsion is driven compressed hydrogen gas turbine enabling silent running for over 3 hours.  The small craft contains no armament and can travel to maximum speed of 45 mph.  The Aqua Scooters are not intended for operation below 660 feet.

Leviathan City (commonly referred to as simply ‘Leviathan’) is the underwater settlement established by Evangeline Leifreik to serve as the headquarters to the immortal community.  Established in the late 11^th Century with the assistance of Soraxian technology, Leviathan is located in a small cul-de-sac at the basin of the Mariana Trench at a depth of over 36,000 feet. The entrance to Leviathan is accessed through the top of a giant cathedral carved out of the actual wall of the trench.  Once inside, a vertical airlock descends several hundred feet to the bottom of the Cathedral which opens into a massive airtight cavern in which the actual city is located.

In addition, the city can be accessed from the surface using the Keyhole Network (see above Keyhole).  However, the network has been largely disabled since the Rebellion Incident over 70 years ago.  Surface and non-military underwater excursions also can be facilitated through Zephyr class transport vessels.

The Great Cavern that houses Leviathan is approximately two miles in length and just over one mile wide. However, the Cavern is continually being expanded (mostly in the Eastern Quadrant) in an area known as the Genesis Zone by the city’s fleet of Cave Hogs.  A special exploratory team known as DeepEye has been formed within Leviathan to specialize in intra-Earth expeditions as new cave arteries are discovered off the main cavern of Leviathan.

The city itself contains housing elements from every major period of human development since the 11^th Century  It is not unusual to see a modest Victorian manor next to an adobe style dwelling or modern glass apartment building.  Shinto temples abut Toltec pyramids and synagogues.  In short, diversity is celebrated and encouraged.

Evangeline Leifreik designed Leviathan to be a living laboratory for The Eden Initiative; an experiment conceived by her almost a millennia ago to test the essential nature of man.  She believed that by creating a space free of want by providing the inhabitants of Leviathan with not just food, shelter and material goods but also the gift of immortality, that the Leviathan inhabitants could advance the human race further and faster than their mortal brethren on the surface.

The Leviathan City Flag waves proudly on two massive flagpoles that stand sentry outside Leviathan Cathedral within the Great Cavern.  The flag depicts two serpentine sea dragons protecting a crest containing the original Starstone that gave life to the immortal community.  The top of the flag is red symbolizing the planet Sorax (rumored to be red in color similar to Mars) and pays homage to the connection of friendship between the two worlds.  The bottom of the flag is cobalt blue which represents the deep ocean trench where Leviathan City is located.  The flag is displayed prominently within the Cathedral, the War Room and emblazoned on the uniforms of the Leviathan Defense Unit.

The Salty Squid is one of the oldest taverns in Leviathan City having been established in 1536 by its owner Angus McCay.  The bar used to be well known within the immortal community as it was considered a badge of honor to have a personal trinket hanging from the ceiling of the bar (a practice that eternally annoyed the proprietor).  However, ever since the third major redistricting of Leviathan in which the city streets were reconstructed on a grid system to accommodate the growing population, the Salty Squid’s isolated location off a secluded alleyway has resulted in a substantial drop in its patronage.  The bar features an astonishing array of liquors not limited to wine, beer, tequila, mead, vodka, sake, shochu, absinthe, cognac, rum, cava, champagne and several scotches that are several centuries old.  But the real specialty of the house is Angus McCay’s personal blend of Venoshus, an ambrosial liquor unique to Leviathan.

The bar is also known for its homemade spicy squid chips favored by McCay, but rarely finds any takers due the extreme heat derived from the chip’s chile based relish.

Zephyr class submersible transport vessels fill a variety of roles within Leviathan.  Their primary purpose is personnel transport between Leviathan and surface destinations as well as other underwater stations.  In its standard configuration, a Zephyr can seat 14 people in addition to a pilot and co-pilot.  However, special configurations have been implemented on the Zephyr platform including search and rescue mode, scientific research and of course paramilitary operations. Indeed, it was a Zephyr class vessel that made the discovery of subterranean cave system extending from Milwaukee Deep in the Puerto Rican Trench to the La Samana Cave network in the Dominican Republic.  It is considered the “workhorse” of the Leviathan fleet.

While far slower than a Vesper class ship, Zephyr vessels have a far greater stealth profile due to their capacity to contain a detection field disruptor that would be weight prohibitive on other craft.  As such, it is standard procedure for many Zephyr class vehicles to be hidden in various oceanic locations around the globe to facilitate a quick getaway for Leviathan citizens in need of immediate transport.  All Zephyrs are designed to be negatively buoyant so that in an emergency situation, the vessel will descend to the ocean floor reducing any risk of discovery by the mortal community.   Lastly, the Zephyr fleet within Leviathan was substantially depleted during the Rebellion Incident in which over 75 vessels were stolen.  Since then, the fleet has been almost completely replenished.

Vesper class assault craft are the mainstay of offensive capabilities in the Leviathan Defense Unit.  Inspired by the anatomy of angel fish, these sleek agile craft can be configured in both one-pilot or two-pilot formats, depending on the mission.  Each Vesper is armed with a compliment of tungsten rod projectile missiles and dynamic liquid oxygen depth charges.  Maximum speed is over 60 knots underwater.

Unlike the heavy duty Zephyr class vessels that are constructed from pressure resistant terramite, Vesper class vessels utilize Projective Irradiation Fields to deal with the extreme undersea pressures of the hadopelagic zone that can reach over 16,000 pounds per square inch.  The field generator is far lighter than a terramite armor allowing the Vespers to excel at missions requiring speed and agility.  Because their energy needs are so great, the operational range of Vesper ships is limited at approximately 5 hours at cruising speed (although this can be extended through use of a modified Zephyr class vessel for re-fueling).  Failure to recharge before the energy reserve is depleted will cause the Irradiation Field to collapse exposing the Vesper to the deadly deep sea environment, thus destroying the craft.

Cave Hog is the nickname given to the Amphibious All-Terrain Mining Vehicles that are utilized in the excavation of the Great Cavern which houses Leviathan City.  In addition to expanding and terra-forming the Cavern for hospitable uses, Cave Hogs are also used for the mining of terramite.  Terramite is rare mineral found in subterranean lava tubes in the deep ocean and can only be formed under tremendous pressure, like those found in the Mariana Trench.  When bonded with a proprietary titanium alloy under extreme heat, the terramite forms a low weight substance well suited to resisting ocean pressure at depths over 35,000 feet.  Because of the severe abrasion experienced by Cave Hogs during their mining and deep ocean tasks, a thick coat of terramite armor covers the hull of the vessels granting a resemblance to sea turtles.  Four heavy-duty diamond tipped grinder balls, capable of spinning at over 30,000 RPM, adorn the front of each Cave Hog allowing each vessel to tear through almost every form of rock or seabed.  But despite their invulnerability, Cave Hogs are notoriously prone to overheating if their coolant pumps fail or their water intake valves become clogged with detritus.  For that reason, it is standard safety protocol that two sets of emergency exposure suits are always equipped in each Cave Hog to enable a manual escape if necessary.

Vigil Assault Armor is a powerful exoskeleton combat suit designed to enhance the pilot’s strength, speed and durability.  Each suit possesses twin 50-caliber carbine cannons mounted on each shoulder pad directed by a streaming retinal scan of the pilot’s eyes.  A layer of compression fluid surrounds the outside of the pilot’s inner chamber providing inertial protection from sudden impact.  Additionally, the suits are pressure resistant to 200 meters and can operate in a wide range of temperatures.  Vigil armor can be modified for several mission specific purposes including aerial assault which features an integrated fabric stealth glider into the cargo chamber in the back of the suit along with a more aerodynamic body design.

Not only was the suit designed by Seasnake, a skunk works laboratory operated under the auspices of the Leviathan Defense Unit, but schematics have also been discovered for a manufacturing plant to construct hundreds of thousands of Vigils in a short period of time.  Strangely, this number of suits would vastly outnumber the entire population of Leviathan.