TRAP DOOR

The Trap Door is a Dungeon breach located within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and was apparantly created by the events of the Chernobyl Disaster. Access to the Trap Door is controlled by a branch of the Russian Mafiya that is believed to have compromised the MVS to the highest levels.

History

 * ''See also: Chernobyl Disaster

Though the true events of Disaster transpired essentially as disclosed to the public, investigation of events prior to the melt down has cast suspicion on their serendipitous nature. Depending on how much credence once puts in this "informed consideration", Chernobyl may have been intentionally built to fail in order to generate a breach. Most adherents to this theory believe that the fuel rods were tampered with during routine maintenance work conducted prior to the disaster.

Ivan Gregori Masarov (b. 1936), known in certain circles as "Grandfather of the Russian Mob", began operating Trap Door in earnest following Chernobyl's final decommissioning in Decemeber 2000. This suggests a probable discovery of access to the Dungeon sometime between the 1991 fire at Reactor 2 and the 1996 shutdown of Reactor 1.

Operation
After paying the standard US$1 million per week fee into a Swiss bank account, the clients and their equipment undergo stringent security checks before they are collected from Kiev and shipped separately to a staging point within the abandoned city of Pripyat. From there the delvers travel via a secret subterranean tunnel to the breach point, which is located somewhere beneath the sarcophagus. The exact location of the tunnel's entrance is kept hidden through the simple and very Russian expedient of putting hoods over delvers' heads during the trip, but the utter failure of any means of tracking suggests the use of xenotech.

No guarantee of safety is offered to clients; provision of medical care to returning parties is an optional extra that sensible delvers can pay for up front at a reasonable discount. Further, parties returning hot have no guarantee that the Trap Door will be open for them as the mafiya soldiers value their own saftey and the security of their installation within the Dungeon -- all facilities of which are currently believed out of bounds on pain of death to anyone passing through the breach -- above all else.

Personnel leaving the breach who did not enter it attract a departure tax, even if they are in the company of paying clients. The tax rate varies depending on whether or not Masarov's people know about the extra people, who they are and what they're carrying. There is however intel that Trap Door offers prepaid "exit visas" to people and groups who expect to be leaving through a different breach than the one they entered the Dungeon through in the first place.

Tentacles
Most of the Gate programs believe the Ukrainian government is ignorant of the operation's existence. They do not move against Trap Door itself out of fear of inciting an arms race amongst the former Soviet States for access to the Dungeon and the xenotechnology it can provide, a belief that still holds sway despite strong evidence of the CIS operating through the gate at Degelen. However, key elements of the government are not only aware of Trap Door but have cut a deal with the Mafiya to continue looking the other way in return for receiving funding to remediate the land contaminated by the effects of the Chernobyl disaster.

TRAP DOOR has contacts everywhere. Of the various official Gates, LONG STAIR at least is compromised, with individuals such as the infamous Ratoslov reaching out to sell undeclared, "misplaced" or outright stolen xenotech to foreign buyers through Masarov's organization. Given the endemic corruption pervading the region there is also unsurprisingly a working relationship between Trap Door and members of Dragon Spear looking to make a profit.

Known Complications

 * Intelligence indicates that Trap Door has access to the personnel databases of Interpol and many other civillian agencies.
 * They are reaching out to other organized crime and terrorist organizations, though they seem to draw the line at Muslim extremists. Of those they're known to be courting, the Yakuza seem very disdainful of many of the activities and other organizations in play.
 * Though lacking the equipment of official Gate organisations, TRAP DOOR personnel have shown tremendous resourcefulness. They've been recorded using livestock to set off traps.
 * Covert recon suggests that there are entirely different architectural styles in play at the Ukrainian site, as well as the flora and fauna displaying noticeable local variation.