Pandemic Legacy mini-update 2

Director's Jacob Potter report:

I was not looking for the phone call from Ms. Stewart who along with stating the plague spread to San Francisco shortly after the medic left stated that I should be lucky to still have a job. According to her the Doctor was able to step in to control the faded people outbreak and UNIT was able to remedy the Martian fever with a partial shutdown of the affected areas. I was in no position to recommend making it a full shutdown.

Ms. Stewart also quoted the Doctor who stated that the people we have treated and cured in the middle east and Asia were not turning into zombies but rather Silurians.

I was also told the Madrid military base is now permanent, some funding will be directed our way and that Torchwood is developing something to help with the faded people problem. Heck with that phrase; I'm calling them zombies.

Right after I was done listening to Director Stewart, there was an alert. Everything is back. The partial shutdown was not effective.

April 16

Pandemic Legacy part 4

Researcher Henry Pierce blog:

UNIT is starting to get annoying with their demand of adding military personnel to the team and they even set up a base in Madrid but we are ignoring them as we have handled things with style so far.

Initial reports were not good as Africa, South America, and Mexico City were hit hard. We quarantined the African situation and were able to cure the anti-vaxxer situation in North America and Europe and what we have been calling the zombie plague in the middle east and Asia. Then we got alarming news.

The incurable disease has mutated further and worse. Infected in those areas have become faded and filled with rage starting in Mexico City. We got a warning to avoid those areas. We tried quarantine procedures but due to our inexperience with them we lost control and got reports that cities in the Western Hemisphere ranging from Chicago to Lima are now filling with these mutated people. Fortunately the quarantine barely held in Los Angeles or our medic, Dr. Erin Hunnicutt, would have been scarred.

If we have been keeping control of the zombie plague on the other side of the world, what the hell do we have now?

With this new, scary development, military and financial support will be required all for us to have any chance to keep the world from going into utter chaos.

April 15

Pandemic Legacy part 3

Researcher Henry Pierce log:

Commander Jacob Potter had a heated conversation with the head of UNIT then spoke with us. He stated the military branch will now be supporting us and that UNIT wants military personnel on our team. Our success the previous two months is the only reason they have allowed our group to stay as is.

We were concerned that we would have to start to quarantine areas but found out instead that we are required to eradicate at least one disease after we cure it since the money was redistributed to military assistance. Having done that the previous two months, the challenge did not seem that difficult.

Reports came in and the Martian fever came out strong in Asia and in an effort to show how they can help, UNIT military setup a quarantine in Tokyo. The system upgrade from our home base in Cairo paid off as we were able to discover a cure to it almost immediately and with the medic eradicate it quickly.

The zombie plague and anti-vaxxer problems were also handled rather quickly only having one outbreak in Delhi by the time we cured them.

We developed more info to cure the Martian fever in the future as well as securing better transportation for me.

Right now our team is kicking ass and Commander Potter called UNIT's head Ms. Stewart and told her where she can stick her military assistance.

March 29

Pandemic Legacy mini-update 1

Commander Jacob Potter log:

Not only am I stuck in Cairo for a computer upgrade, I heard rumors that we will be doing more than just treating the ill and curing the current strain of the diseases and that our in-field funding which was in January already reduced from previous years’ standards is being eliminated. I left a message with UNIT's scientific director Kate Stewart about this.

I also want to tell her how fortunate she is to have someone like me now in UNIT and that I deserved to be compensated far more than what I currently am and I don’t care if the finances are not sound within the organization as it would cost far more to replace me than it would to pay me fairly.

Since I have a family at home, I do not want to risk it since there are not many jobs like the one I have and I am well aware Ms. Stewart knows that as well.

March 1

This date revisited

Thirty years ago today, the 12-0 Chicago Bears went to the Orange Bowl to play the Miami Dolphins in what turned out to be the most watched regular season game in the history of the NFL.

Recently, I discovered that someone posted to YouTube the entire broadcast of the game including only a few commercials (Miller Lite golf one and one featuring William “the refrigerator” Perry). There were a couple of things I knew about the game and a couple that I discovered upon watching the broadcast like the announcers were Frank Gifford, Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson. I know O.J. was in that booth but forgot about Broadway Joe.

The most surprising thing to me was not that Bears QB Steve Fuller was starting his fifth game of the year for the often injured Jim McMahon but in his previous four starts including games which the Bears won 44-0 and 36-0 that he had not at that time thrown a touchdown pass in 1985.

I correctly remembered that in the Bears first two possessions they did not in any of the 8 plays give the ball to Walter Payton who still was an elite player who in that game broke an NFL record by getting over 100 yards of rushing for the 8^th straight game but they were only down 10-7 when they first gave Payton the ball on a possession where later a screen pass to him was intercepted.

I did not realize that the Bears tried to cover the Dolphins third wide receiver Nat Moore with either safety Gary Fencik or Dave Duerson (who by diving head first into a pile made me cringe knowing that he killed himself and was discovered with concussion based brain trauma).

I remembered that the Dolphins scored on 2 one yard runs and that their only points of the second half after being up 31-10 at halftime were on a pass that bounced off Bears lineman Dan Hampton’s helmet.

Looking at the box score I noticed two more things I did not know: The Bears had more total yards for the game and that in standard fantasy football, Dolphins QB Dan Marino had only .14 more points that Bears QB Steve Fuller who scored twice on a QB sneak and completed his only touchdown pass of the season to backup WR Ken Margerum. (In one week contests like Draft Kings or Fan Duel, Fuller would have had more points.)

I have said for years that the Dolphins losing the AFC title game that year to New England was the only reason the Bears won Super Bowl XX. After watching the game, looking at the stats, and realizing that Super Bowl XX was in the Louisiana Superdome on AstroTurf which helps the Bears who played its home games on it, I can no longer say that.

Pandemic Legacy part 2

Researcher Pierce log

While setting up the new parmanent Cairo research station, we got some bad news. Our January success has caused our funding to be cut in half again and worse we heard that the same disease we can't cure now has mutated to the point where it can't even be treated. We did get some good news hearing that a quarantine specialist is being trained to help.

Then we get a report that diseases came back but thanks to proactive measures taken based on the info the Doctor gave us, the Johannesburg situation was not as bad as initially reported.

We knew that we had to act quickly. After working well in January, we have gotten better at what we do when together. Our medic, Dr. Erin Hunnicutt, headed to the Pacific Rim but not in time to stop outbreaks in Sydney and Osaka and outbreaks of the untreatable disease in Laos and Los Angeles reminded us of the urgency of the situation.

Before leaving the Cairo office, I was able to supply the scientist, Dr. David Houlihan, and the medic with intel and treated those in Europe. The scientist was able to acquire info about the disease which has only developed due to parents refusing to vaccinate in North America and Europe and after discovering a cure in Atlanta and treating those in Chicago and DC. we eradicated it.

I then headed east as the scientist figured out the new strain of the Martian fever to provide the medic info about the zombie plague. We used our funding for quick travel to get the medic to Cairo and cured the three curable ones before the Africa/Latin America disease caused a worldwide shutdown.

Though I wanted to develop the concept to make anti-vaxxer problems easier to cure in the future, the rest of the team wanted personal upgrades instead. Now the medic has a special assistant who can treat one area away while the scientist can now store more disease info.

While working on those upgrades, we get a video call from Oswald at UNIT. She and or it congratulated us for our work but stated our in-field assistance is no longer available. I tried explaining that is why we are successful but she won't listen. Hearing that a future outbreak in one of nine areas would probably start rioting did not matter but we were told that UNIT will discuss this at their next meeting.

Feb 25

Pandemic Legacy part 1

This is part of a series of upcoming blog posts adapting the events which happen in our play of Pandemic Legacy from the point of view of the character I play each month.

Starting from this point, the blog will contain elements and situations that happen within the game and are definitely spoilers so if you are going to play the game and you do not know what can happen, do not read this or any future post titled Pandemic Legacy.

Researcher Henry Pierce log:

It is never pleasant to be called into work on a holiday but at the CDC er UNIT, (That will be difficult to get used to saying) we are called when ready.

Over the years, I have sat in the conference room many times. With me are a scientist, Dr. David Houlihan, who has been through this before though not as often though he can do his job as well as I can mine and in some cases better and our medic, Erin Hunnicutt who is not as experienced but with our new communication system, we can keep a close eye on each other and easily assist when necessary even if we are on opposite sides of the world.

Commander Jacob Potter stated in his briefing that one of the four diseases seems to be mutating faster than normal but did not get specifics on which one and will update once he gets more info. He then added another factor: Our in field funding had been cut by 20% from the original standard or by 33% from the more recent one. However, unlike the original in field assistance that we used to have or the third party selected assistance of more recent usage, our team itself will determine what type of assistance to receive. After a brief discussion to determine what method to have at our disposal, we looked at the city by city report.

Seeing that South America and the southern portion of Africa was most urgent, Dr Hunnicutt headed that way with me following shortly after providing info to one of the other diseases which she was close to solving. Looking at the locations, I was pleased to see that travel within South America and from there to Africa has improved. Dr. Houlihan was heading to New York then Europe but diverted to Los Angeles instead to treat an epidemic there as it was the same infection as the one plaguing the southern hemisphere.

Unfortunately New York had an outbreak and while South America was being treated, there were multiple ones in the Southern half of Africa. Since the approval for a requested temp research station came early, we decided to build it in Cairo. We also got approval for high speed transport which Dr. Houlihan used to treat all of those in the African outbreak in one day.

We then had an epidemic in London followed by a report from HQ: The disease from South America and Africa has mutated significantly and is not currently curable. Treating it will also be more difficult. Please cure the other three diseases.

Shortly after, Dr. Houlihan made it to Cairo to cure the disease in the far east and after Dr. Hunnicutt reported that she found the cure for the one which was in the eastern US and Europe, was airlifted to Atlanta to cure that one before treating the northeast part of North America in one full swoop.

I made my way to the far east and was able to eradicate that disease before heading west. After an epidemic was reported in the Middle East, we used our fourth and final funded event to promote disease awareness day leading to one quiet night. While Dr. Hunnicutt treated the incurable disease, Dr. Houlihan was able to treat those affected by the most recent epidemic and meet me on the way to Cairo to provide the info I needed to cure the last curable disease and since I treated the last known case of it on the way, that was also eradicated.

At the debriefing in which we were told that a dispatcher and a young protégé are being trained to possibly join us in future missions, our crew was told they can make a couple of upgrades while stating that due to our recent success our future in field funding is being cut in half. We asked about making the station in Cairo permanent which was immediately approved.

We then got a call on our coms. The name stated John Smith but he told us to call him the Doctor who we also know as the president of the world. After thanking us for our hard work, he stated that the disease we cured in the far east was something of which he saw a mutated version in his past on the planet Mars 40 something years from now. We then got a download from him about that incident which will allow us to cure that disease in the future on site rather than at a research station. He also provided a list of where things might happen next.

Date: Jan 29