Cold Rivet Point
Cold Rivet Point is a high-security laboratory, manufacturing center and warehouse complex. It is located in the foothills of the Adirondacks in upstate New York, in an area that has a long association with the US Army: West Point is only a few hours away by car, and the facility itself is built around and underneath the remains of Stonefire Foundry, a 19th century steel mill that made the cannonballs that helped the Union win the Civil War.
Owned and operated by Saint Holding and directly employing over 3,000 people, Cold Rivet Point is arguably the most prominent weapons research facility on the East Coast. The top-secret nature of the defense-related work conducted here, its gloomy surroundings and the urban lore surrounding the facility has earned Cold Rivet Point the nickname "the Devil's Workshop".
Early History
The history of Cold Rivet Point began in 1804 when Buster Howes discovered iron deposits and built a blast furnace on the shore of Stonefire Lake. In 1855 his son took over and greatly expanded the ironworks, which proved a visionary decision when the Civil War broke out not soon thereafter. Hermes 'Old Iron Head' Howes became one of the Union's chief armorers, and Stonefire Foundry churned out weapons and munitions in such massive quantities that at the time it was one of the symbols for the superior industry of the North.
The Foundry's fortunes faded in the 20th century. Captain Elias Howes was killed during the Second Battle of the Marne in World War 1. He was the only child and heir of then-owner, John Dee Howes, who was so distraught by the loss of his son he retreated from public life and eventually sold the foundries, stating he wished "nothing to do with the devil's business no more".
The foundries were kept running for a while longer but by the 1920s the iron mine was beginning to dry up. Then the new owner lost much of his fortune in the Black Tuesday stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression was a final blow to the once-great Stonefire Foundry. The mine was closed, the steel mills fell into disuse. Despite global rearmament in the late 1930s Stonefire failed to capture any major arms contracts. Some of the locals were still hopeful of a revival when World War 2 rolled around, but all that happened was that the heavy equipment was moved down to New York. Most of the workforce, those who didn't join the army anyway, followed suit, and by 1945 Stonefire was a ghost town.
Anthony Saint
The site remained abandoned and mostly forgotten until the late 1970s when enterpreneur Anthony Saint acquired an interest in Rivet Point Manor. This secluded 16,000 square feet mansion was built for Hermes Howes in the late 19th century, and carried the nickname 'Ruby Red' for its red brick and oak exterior, and for the amount of blood Howes' weapons spilled to pay for it. This appealed and morbidly amused Anthony Saint, himself a weapons manufacturer, who acquired the mansion and indeed all of Stonefire from the trust that managed the Howes heritage for several million dollars. Saint renovated the mansion and until he went missing in 2005 spent at least a month of every summer there with his daughter Charlotte.
Charlie Saint
After the disappearance of Anthony his daughter took over the family business. One of her first decisions was to consolidate the holding. She did this by on the one hand building
All Saint's Center, thus putting a friendly green public face of the largest privately-owned military-industrial conglomerate in the world... And on the other hand by establishing a central weapons research and development facility in an out-of-the-way location. That location became Cold Rivet Point: far away from prying eyes, yet always just a short hop in a Learjet away from Newark and All Saint's Center.
Location
Cold Rivet Point is situated on a cape projecting into Stonefire Lake. This roughly triangular 24 acre promontory can be loosely divided into three areas: the Saint Holding campus, the old Stonefire Foundry ruins, and Rivet Point Manor. In-between the island is densely forested. Cold Rivet Point can be reached by car, although visitors will encounter a private security checkpoint shortly after turning off the state highway. If they are let through, they will eventually reach a security wall that blocks entry to the cape. Beyond its gates is a raised causeway that connects the facility to the mainland. The causeway is permanently floodlit and watched by camera's and motion sensors.
Saint Holding Campus
The campus is a network of modern interconnected buildings that house personnel, R&D facilities, prototyping centers and automated factories. Each building is fitted with sophisticated green technology: solar panels, smart insulation and clever waste management means each is very nearly self-sufficient in terms of heat and power. The campus in fact more closely resembles a small town: it has an electric monorail network, a harbor and a small air field, a geothermal power station, and its own private security office. But for every meter visible above ground the campus extends at least two underneath the surface, because the most sensitive research is in fact done underground, inside bunkers buried into the old iron mines. Privacy on the campus is a polite myth: practically every inch of its grounds are covered by one of the most sophisticated digital security systems in the United States.
The heart of the campus is a round twenty-story building called the Basilica. This is the nerve center for the entire complex, containing supercomputers, data uplinks, a massive server farm and data switching center, and a bomb-proof vault that holds the most sensitive of Saint Holding's records. Like in All Saint's Tower the upper level of the building is reserved as an office for Charlie Saint herself, although she rarely uses it.
Stonefire Foundry
The remains of Stonefire Foundry and its small company town stand at the edge of the island. The old buildings have mostly fallen into ruin. Most of the roofs are gone, and some of the mills have trees growing through them. A few of the red brick warehouses are still in use however, as is the old railroad station that connects Cold Rivet Point to the main network at Saratoga Springs and, beyond it, New York City. A common rumor amongst locals is that private security uses the ruins for urban combat practice. Another is that Saint has littered the Foundry with sophisticated small security robots.
Rivet Point Manor
This foreboding mansion looks out over Stonefire Lake. Its foundations are built out of rough stone, with walls of taut wood shingle and ivy-covered brick, and granite corner towers that rise above the surrounding forest. The manor has a peculiar internal layout designed by Hermes Howes himself, who in a fit of whimsy (or perhaps paranoia) included numerous secret passageways and hidden rooms in its floorplan. It is said that only Howes himself knew all the secrets of his mansion.
Rivet Point Manor is still used as a home by Charlie Saint, who has upgraded the old manor with a private helipad and fitted the conical roof of one of the towers with a small forest of antennas and satellite uplinks that allows her to keep in real-time touch with the far-flung corners of her business empire. The mansion is guarded by Aegis Security paramilitaries, with defenses further beefed up with some of the most sophisticated security money can buy.
Rumors
As befits a highly secure military research and development facility rumors abound of Cold Rivet Point. The mansion and the Stonefire ruins for example are said to be haunted, although only very few people have ever been lost there. It is also said that the campus, mansion and subterranean bunkers are all connected with secret tunnels. This is certainly plausible, because the old iron mine extends underneath much of Stonefire Cape and indeed the lake itself.
It's furthermore suggested that Cold Rivet Point is home to 'Deep Nine', supposedly a Continuity of Government installation capable of resisting a direct hit by a Soviet nuclear weapon. This deep shelter is said to be buried even deeper than the Saint Holding bunkers, with Stonefire Lake and the rocky lakebed acting as a giant shock absorber.
Then there are atmospheric anomalies occasionally observed over the lake: strange lights and shapes in the air, oddly shaped objects that manifest on the water and then vanish, and intermittent fits of peculiar weather. According to Saint Holding these are the results of advanced maser research and experimental UAVs. Conspiracy theorists claim that Saint is conducting experiments with weather control, teleportation and/or anti-gravity. It's these peculiarities that spawned the "Devil's Workshop" nickname.
Finally it has been suggested that Cold Rivet Point has a special security arrangement with the military. Helicopters from the 171st Black Knights out of Fort Mercier are frequently observed at the facility's air field, and armed Airborne troops are known to occasionally supplement corporate security forces at Cold Rivet Point.
Cold Rivet South
A secondary Cold Rivet installation is located in New York City, opposite Rikers Island in the Bronx. It has some laboratories of its own, but mainly functions as a warehouse, transshipment and harbor facility for Saint Holding. It is a secure facility that requires a national security clearance to even enter. Cold Rivet South is also hooked onto the rail network, allowing trains to travel here from the main Cold Rivet installation without stopping.