Blacksite 24

The former Chanute Air Force Base lies 130 miles south of Chicago and was first established in 1917 as an Air Service training camp following the United States’ entry into World War I, being used primarily to train pilot cadets to fly over the battlefields of Europe. Following the declaration of World War II, Chanute’s importance as a technical training center and enlistee entry point increased. The first all-black fighter squadron was activated there in March 1941, the 99th Pursuit Squadron, who trained first in ground-support roles and would later go on to form the core of the other black squadrons. The Women’s Army Corps Training School was established there in early 1944 and produced class after class of WACs until the end of the war.
In 1988, as part of a general reduction of forces consideration, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended that Chanute be closed and redeveloped for civilian use. Certain portions of the former base have, however, not been turned over to the public. Careful inspection of the site turned up the extensive use of asbestos in many of the oldest buildings on site, as well as toxic levels of volatile organic compounds in soil and groundwater requiring extensive environmental remediation. Those areas of the former base were declared an EPA Superfund clean-up site closed to the public, cordoned off, and assiduously patrolled to keep the curious and the foolish away.
Two months later, FIRSTLIGHT took possession of their new blacksite and began shipping captive Kindred into the facility via the conveniently located civilian airfield for long-term detention and processing. It’s not like blankbodies need to eat or drink or worry about mesothelioma, after all, and the isolation protocols followed by the interrogation crews generally also act to ameliorate exposure to environmental toxins. In 2015, the operation expanded from mere warehousing and interrogation when FIRSTLIGHT obtained possession of the former Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum, also on the site of the former base, and converted it to use as a medical research facility. An international team of specialists now makes its home there studying blankbody physiology to their hearts’ content once intelligence is done with them.
As a Kindred resident of Chicago, you have acquired knowledge of Blacksite 24’s existence and what you do with that knowledge could have a serious impact on your own, for good or for ill.