Operation: Home Front, Reportin' In

      by Commander Jen Burdoo, TRES Corps.

      Manhattan, KS (AP) --

      Two AWOL infantrymen from nearby Fort Riley appeared this morning,
 according to Military Police sources. The soldiers, Spec/4 John Kilroy and
 Spec/4 Wilson Rogerbury of the 1st Mechanized Infantry Division, were
 reported in stable condition at the Ft. Riley medical center. Both were
 described as having amnesia, reaching back as much as two weeks.
      Sgt. Will Roberts, spokesperson for Fort Riley, said that the two men
 had been reported AWOL ten days ago after going on a 72-hour leave to
 Kansas City. Relatives in that city reported no sign of the men, and a
 search in the KC area was instituted.
      "We had no idea they were still nearby," said Roberts. "We found them
 near Tuttle Creek Dam, groggy and wandering with no idea of where they
 were. We don't know what they were doing out there, and we may never find
 out."

      From: Cmdr. Burdoo, TRES Corps, Manhattan, KS
      To: TRES Corps RBNMA Task Force Information Collation
      CC: RBNMA Task Force

      Msg: Sir,
      At 0800 hrs this morning, I discovered the local Array element,
 emplaced in the bank of Tuttle Creek near Tuttle Creek Dam. I incapacitated
 two spongin and entered, then destroyed the element. I found electronic
 files and two pamphlets of information on the array (appended). To wit:
      Elements of the Real Big Nice-Making Array are self- activating.
 According to my sources, as an active field touches another element, that
 element is automatically switched on. Fields spread with increasing speed
 as they widen, slowing upon contact with another field. All fields have a
 general radius of 100-250 miles.
      Included among the electronic files was a message apparently sent from
 the coordination center for this effort. Attempts to decode path
 information failed, but other information was gained. Message inserted:

      From:(Suppressed)
      To:(Encoded)
      Path:(Suppressed)
      X-Sender:(Suppressed)
      Date/Time:(Encoded)
      Subject: Re: Microprocessor

      Your jury-rigged microprocessor will be adequate.

      However, there are some software changes that will need to be made to
 account for the low clock speed.

      The Element in Wamego will activate ~4*10^-5 s after yours in
 Manhattan, and the Element in Westmoreland ~7*10^-5 s after yours.

      Previously, these would have occurred on recognizeably different clock
 ticks. Now, Wamego will activate on the same clock tick as yours, and
 Westmoreland on a later tick, and both will disagree with your own.
 Attached find the necessary bug fix. The program is self-extracting -
 delete it immediately after use.

      Hail Barney, the Lovable One

      Signature:(Suppressed)
      Authorization:(Encoded)

      Probably of lesser importance is that the signal propagates at about 6
 to 7 million m/s, which fits with the overall activation times located by
 Keith and Warrior Persephone.
      Judged of High Urgency:
      Approximating the Central Generator's signal as a plane wave, some
 geometrical calculations indicate that the Central Generator is situated on
 a line 242 degrees SW of Manhattan, KS. Uncertainty in the time
 measurements as well as the error introduced by the plane wave
 approximation and the curvature of the Earth means that the uncertainty of
 this information is probably about 1 degree, increasing as one leaves the
 vicinity of Manhattan, but this does narrow the search area considerably.

      Respectfully,
      Cdr. Jennifer Burdoo
      TRES Corps, Zeta Squad