Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/PAWI Story

Projected Alternate Worlds Imagery, or PAWI for short, is a technology employed by Minutemen that creates a field of perceived invisibility in a wide area. It is the most groundbreaking technology that the Minutemen have to date, and will likely play a highly important role in the upcoming global events.

Discovery of the GAP
In 1948 V.C., former physics professor, Lawrence Atwood, joined a team of scientists attempting to explain strange results from their experiments. In trying to create a telecommunications device, the team had accidentally created a dark, mysterious mist. Atwood's first analysis of the swirling fog that erupted from the horseshoe-shaped construction implied that it was, in fact, a tear, or "gap" in physical space. As the team refined their device, they discovered that they could manipulate how the mist interacted with the universe, allowing certain objects through and stopping others completely upon contact. Not only that, but it prevented light, sound, and electromagnetic spectrum waves from entering inside the fog’s perimeter. Atwood and his team became world-renowned physicists for discovering the first completely flawless stealth device, called the "GAP" for "Generated Abstract Plane", though it was years before they patented it.

During these interstitial years, Atwood himself happened across some interesting observations. Fine, white particles suspended in the mist seemed very familiar when observed at certain angles. Under a microscope, he observed small, spiral-shaped clusters of what appeared to be dust. The strangest observation he made was of voices and whisperings so faint, you had to strain to hear them. He spent years trying to find the source of the voices, but his colleagues intervened. Sent to the asylum at Sefton, Massachusetts, he was treated for psychosis and paranoid schizophrenia until the bombs fell and the asylum was abandoned.

At least, until winter 1968 V.C., when a team of Minutemen searching for advanced stealth technology recruited one of Atwood's former colleagues. They formed a small team to invade the asylum, now filled with feral ghouls, and release the renowned physics professor (who survived due to hunkering down in the pantry), hoping that he would still be willing to continue his research. The rescue mission went flawlessly, and Atwood was reunited with his laboratory, or whats left of it, in Arkham shortly afterward.

The Mirror Paradox
After making adjustments to his calculations and adding several dozens of decimal points to all the variables involved, Atwood made several incredible discoveries about the world that appeared through a GAP field: The Milky Way Galaxy; The local star cluster; Gaiaterra; North Aquila; - even the very place he was standing in - all existed in this alternate world, with one exception: He wasn't there. "Life" wasn't there; at least, not life with a brain or central nervous system. Everywhere he looked on the planet, he could not find a single living being. Vehicles and buildings would appear and disappear, plants would phase in and out of existence as if they were being affected by humans... But no humans could ever be found. It was an odd phenomenon indeed - a ghostly mirror-copy of the real world. His theories of an alternate universe crushed, he went on to help improve his technologies and see if the Mirror Paradox could be studied, or used further.

Minutemen Application
After Atwood had perfected his GAP device, re-dubbed the "Projected Alternate Worlds Imagery Array", the Minutemen began equipping it on the backs of converted pickup trucks. These vehicles, known to most as "Imagers" or "PAWI Trucks" became integral in moving troops around the battlefield undetected. Its stationary counterpart, the PAWI Tower is another use of PAWI technology, used as a base defence mechanism.

It should be noted that while PAWI technology is an extension of a GAP field, its selectivity is limited to light, radio, and sound waves. Physical objects wanted or unwanted, can walk through an area covered by a PAWI generator, and can even accidentally run into (or run over) "shrouded" units themselves.