The Republic of Dave

 Game Data for Sackville

Before the shit hits the fan, Sackville NB, has a population of about 5,500 plus about 2,600 students who attend Mount Allison University. Although the town is a small “village-like” place, the University is ranked #1 in the country. 

Recently a new town hall was built combining administrative functions with emergency services; police & fire departments. Previously each was scattered across town.

The Harness Shop may be a very useful asset, it makes hand crafted leather goods including tack for riding and working horses. ( has know how of old technology )

Mount Allison University has a total staff of 460, of this about 290 are teachers. Departments with 12 or more teaches are; Biology, Business, Chemistry, Computer Sci. English, Environmental Studies, Fine Arts, History, Modern Languages, Math, Music, Physics, and Psychology. The other departments mostly have 6 professors each.

Meloney electronics Inc. “is the only transformer manufacturer in North America that can boast of having provided cost effective solutions for 1000s of different applications for over 100 years.”

Points of interest from a map;

The big Home Hardware center just off the highway

Regional civic center 

Coastal Inn – 50 unit hotel

Soricimed Bio-pharmacy Inc. 

Armtec drainage products Inc.

Westmorland veterinary hospital 

Russel Metals Inc.

Sacville Auto & RV Ltd. A family business

The Selem elementary school is inside town zone, but the high school is not.

Several farms and a golf course are in the planned town zone

Story line

When the EMP happened people were surprised and confused. The mayor and town officials spent the first few days dealing with the direct results of the EMP; a few fires, lots of panic, and a lack of power or communications.

Meanwhile some of the Mount A. students had figured out what had really happened. They tried to see the mayor to explain the situation to him, but they were turned down several times. They eventually got him to listen when they dragged in a professor of physics to explain the science of what an EMP is. Although the mayor and council listened, they did not really grasp the severity of the situation. They kept on thinking the problem was a local one and that help would soon arrive, the power would be turned back on and things would get back to normal soon.

It was during this critical meeting that Dave Donovhan, leader of the student group, eloquently hammered home the both short and long term seriousness of the situation. Help would not be coming. The town had to look after itself. If direct action was not taken immediately, things would be even more difficult than they were going to be.

Naturally the town council started to debate the matter.

For several days the town council along with some experts from the university met and talked about what should be done. Meanwhile Dave and his group organized students as much as possible to deal with the disaster and plan for winter survival.

One week after EMP

After the mayor was frustrated at the hopelessness of the situation, he did the only sensible democratic thing he could; he called a full town meeting. Several professors gave the crowd an outline of the situation, including expected best and worst case scenarios.  Dave and his group quickly stood up and demanded a chance to speak before the flood of questions. He offered a plan of action, being a good public speaker; he soon had the town voting for it.  At the end of the meeting the mayor named Dave acting town director for the length of the emergency.

Dave started the very next day putting the plan into action.

Although he was the center of attention and a strong motive force behind the ‘save our town student movement’ Dave was not the dominant dictator people would later accuse him of being. Many other students shared similar ideas and were happy to push into the mountain of work that had to be done.

“Do what needs to be done. It’s not a question of money or of law right now, it’s a matter of manpower, skills, time and resources. The aim is everyone’s survival. Sacrifice in the short term will be many and painful.”  That is what Dave said many times in the first month. 

The plan had several major points

1. Inventory of all food supplies, confiscation of any supplies in excess of one week. Exceptions were to be reasonable, to avoid pissing people off too much.
2. Organization of food / supply storage and distribution, with an eye for stretching things out through winter and spring.
3. Restoring power to key areas of the town, this lead to the ‘war of the wind farm’ with the town of Amherst, who also wanted the power generating ability.
4. Downsizing of the town footprint, which meant moving people from nearby areas into the defensive zone and moving people from buildings that had no alternative heating to those with wood stoves. Services if they could be restored would not be extended outside the defensive zone.
5. Confiscation of essential businesses and materials. People would be paid back later, with money or tax credits.
6. Ensuring the defense of the town, vs. possible bandits.

Power Policy

After the ‘war of the wind farm’ it was agreed that electricity would be split 70 / 30 between Sackville and Amherst. Although the wind farm was technically in NS not NB, it was the militia from Sackville that took control of it ( and set up a guard post there ). Even so the power it supplied was not enough to operate the town at normal levels. Thus essential services and key buildings got power all the time, while homes and businesses got power for 6 hours / day on a rotational basis. 

Sackville town map 

Notice the yellow markings for the planned deference works 

Town Defense

A lot of work was needed to set up the defenses and then a lot of men were needed to guard the town. Seven gates were created to control access to the town along the roads; they would be linked to a nearby building, which would be modified to include an observation tower. Each gate would have a 5 man guard team, one of them being keeper of the walky-talky. Gate #1 next to the University would serve more as a command center able to dispatch several mobile 5 man teams if they were needed. A few 2 man teams would patrol the town on foot. A total of 150 men (50x3 shifts per day) would be required. The RCMP and anyone with real army experience would act as officers in the town guard.

A fence would be built around the perimeter. This was a big job because some land would have to be cleared and a service road built along side the fence. As much as possible the natural water defenses of the area would be included in the plan. When we say fence, one should thing more about a Roman palisade work; a ditch, hidden spikes, earth mound and fence, with a few hardened positions for defenders to hide behind, not simply a chain-link stand alone fence.

Some work was done on the fence before winter set in, but it was mostly uncompleted.

The plan called for Crossman Road to serve as the West edge of town, however the practical matters of downsizing and surviving winter meant that Salem Street was the temporary Western boundary. ( no services were extended beyond this during winter ) Like wise to the South, the Gate was intended to be at the junction of Wood Point road, next to the rail way tracks, but for the winter it was at Queen and Salem streets intersection.

Story Line – Continued

During the fall there was frantic activity to be ready for winter. People grumbled about Director Dave and his plan, but for the most part things went well, there were only a few problems that resulted in violence. Of course some people ( especially those outside the downsized footprint of the town ) did not want to go along with the plan. They claimed that they would be fine in their own homes and would not contribute to the collective supply house. They were pressured and pestered about it, but in the end force was not used on them. Most survived, a few came begging at the town gates in mid winter, a few died in their homes.

It was during the winter that most of the trouble happened. Some people had little to do except complain. Especially once their personal stock piles of food ran out and they were entirely dependent on the “soup-kitchen” rationing system that the town offered.

Several thefts of food occurred. When some of the criminals were captured justice was swift and public. They were whipped and told that next time they would be shot.

Of course winter was not dull for everyone. There were many projects on the go. Those with needed skills, and those with the interest to learn said skills, were kept hopping. Dave and his inner circle of students, were laying the foundations for dealing with the long term, not just the one winter. While most people expected things to get back to normal eventually, they were talking about a new and better society.

It is very important to point out here that there was a sharp division in the population. Those who saw current events as a tragic blow to their lives, who subconsciously thought that the world had ended when the EMP happened and those who looked ahead with hope, who actually enjoyed the challenges that life now offered them. In general terms this was an age related phenomena. Except for a few old radicals at the University who thought the world needed to be knocked on its ass, and a few old farmers who were kind of proud to help do things like they did in the good old days, most of the people over 30 suffered a kind of reality shock.