Editing Covenant:ProjectBabel

Paranoid stories of Soviet and Korean mind control techniques drove a deluge of black bag experiments during the 1950's. Under such codenames as CHATTER, ARTICHOKE, and MKULTRA, the CIA and all four branches of the military used psychotropic drugs, electro-shock, and torture techniques in vain attempts to tame the human mind. Many of these experiments were conducted without consent, and a few were even carried out on the American public.

Project BABEL's aim was not mind control, but mass hysteria. The Army wanted a way to cause confusion among an enemy's ranks, a relatively simple goal. The project bore fruit much faster than its more grandiose contemporaries and, by 1959, the Army felt it was ready for a field test. They chose an isolated mining town in West Virginia and sprayed their chemicals into the night air.

The experiment was a gruesome success.

So ungodly were the acts performed on each other by the town's inhabitants that the staff destroyed all their records without waiting for authorization. By sunrise, Project BABEL was no more... and the town was drowning in its own blood.

Alexander Dougal was a lowly staff sergeant on site to coordinate logistics. While the officers were preparing to wipe their failure off the face of the Earth, he walked out into the streets and he spoke to those who had survived. Though not a religious man by nature, Dougal was raised by evangelicals and he knew the power of myth. He wove a story that made sense of their tragedy and gave them hope for the future.

After that, the town was his. The Army was all too happy to sweep Covenant under the rug and let Dougal be its keeper. They gave him a budget that made impersonating God a practical possibility, and he took to the role with relish.

A special ops team was placed under his command. They patrolled the border, constructed bunkers, laid traps, and generally terrorized anyone who posed a threat to Dougal's elaborate con. Over time, the residents of Covenant came to police themselves and, during the 1990's, the commandos were gradually reassigned.

However, the structures they put in place remained behind. An inventory tracking system keeps the House of God supplied with food and medicine via ten miles of underground conveyor belt. An invisible fence of cameras and motion sensors allows the Watchers to intercept escapees anywhere along the city limits. Most importantly, the locals have the complete conviction that no one can challenge the status quo and survive.

That, above all else, is the legacy of Project BABEL.