Project Double-N

Project Double-N (Miss Ning (Phoenician: 寧小姐, : Níng Xiǎojiě) as the local callsign; Wrecking Ball by TTO intelligence agencies) was the codename for a series of four simultaneous cosmic weapons tests carried out by Fengjiang at 3:00 pm on 27 12 1955. The tests were carried out at Dhan Tso, Yunjiang on the Bautan Plateau.

The devices were, designs for which were made at the Gee Visionary of the Farthest West in the Viceroyalty of Phwa-Kwok-Tsau (now dissolved), later assembled on site for the test series. The yields of the four devices tested ranged between 20 to 49. With the tests, Fengjiang became the third country to ever develop cosmic weapons, behind Barenia and Arsytia. This was the first of several thousand comic weapons tests of the country, which continue to be carried out to this day. The next test series was carried out almost immediately after: Operation High Noon around 1 of 1956.

Background
The concept of the cosmic weapon emerged in Fengese theological-scientific discourse (through its state religion of Infernalism) around the early decades of the 19th century, a logical extrapolation from the various breakthroughs in cosmosophy ( in oriental parlance) which occurred during the period. Among these, the most significant of which was the by the Fengese cosmosophist and Erudite Sakaguczi Jomogihara in 1911 (termed "stratic shattering" by the Fengese) and concurrent (though later) oriental experimentation on the concept by  scientists  and. While Jomogihara's findings determined cosmic weapons to be theoretically feasible, the concept remained a topic of both scientific and political contention, given Jomogihara's materialist leanings - the drafting of the Jomogihara Missive by Sakaguczi and fellow Materialists, which warned of the development of an "extraordinary weapon with the potential to fragment the Microcosm" and urged the acceleration of cosmosophical research on threat of universal obliteration, would draw battle lines which defined Fengese politics in the coming decades. For his findings, Jomogihara would be controversially appointed Potentate of cosmosophy and join the Eternal Phare, delivering advice on scientific matters in his expertise to the Scion. His appointment to the position of Archmagus in 1931, beyond its drastic political implications for Fengjiang and Infernalism entire, would see the official initiation of the Fengese cosmic weapons program.

Production of the necessary   and  was the primary bottleneck of the program and indeed, empirical research on the cosmosophical theories proposed at the time. The technical difficulties of the endeavor notwithstanding, procurement of the resources (both financial and material) necessary for research was hampered by bureaucratic red tape originating from political opposition to Jomogihara and the materialist movement he was practically the face of at that point. Among the constituent Five Great Houses which then formed the country, only two (the Daiszu Commonwealth where Jomogihara was born and the Viceroyalty of Phwa-Kwok-Tsau) actively supported the program - the "West Group" which headed the program was predominantly comprised by researchers from the two aforementioned constituencies and their Sanctuaries. Ironically, the outbreak of the Great Serrataran War in 1936 and Fengjiang's later participation in 1944 would contribute substantially to the program's progress, as wartime measures forced a centralization of the country under the Eternal Phare - headed by Jomogihara and Aluyama, a sympathetic Scion.

The atomization of Bakphwalaw by a Barenian atomic bomb in 28 8 1945 served as a crucial breakthrough for the program, being a proof of concept for the theories still thought outlandish by some corners of the Fengese scientific community. Dismissing (and by some accounts, celebrating) the horrors unleashed by the subsequent atomic bombing of Fengjiang, cosmosophists compiled practical data on the consequences of cosmic bombardment and made efforts to reverse-engineer them for the country's own weapons program. Searches for fissile materials now encompassed the entirety of Fengjiang and allied Infernalist countries (as much as was feasible given the ongoing conflict). To the great Materialists, the atomization of Bakphwalaw was no better than a divine inspiration from the Mother Phoenix. Whereas the radios and criers spoke of unimaginable tragedy in the obliteration of seventy thousand souls, the Erudite celebrated the martyrdom of those seventy thousand for their contribution (even if unknowing until the end) to the Infernalist understanding of reality. As Jomogihara stated: "As Erudites, we ought not be blinded by the fog of ignorance and hysteria which blinds lesser humans. For our duty, as it has always been since Her Descension, is to the grand font of Erudition, not the petty worries of peasants." It was at this point that Project Double-N, the formal project for the development of a functional cosmic bomb, was commenced.

Development of cosmic reactors necessary for producing the amounts of fissile material necessary for the program met various difficulties. While the first artificial cosmic reactor in Fengjiang (and worldwide), the Jomogihara Pile, was constructed much earlier in 1941 to demonstrate the feasibility of reactors and self-sustaining cosmic chain reactions, Project Double-N required a reactor a thousand times as powerful to produce enough plutonium for cosmic bombs. The construction of such a reactor in Yutseng was severely delayed when the false threat of an atomic bombing of the city forced hasty evacuations. After the war, the onset of political intrigue and conspiracies over the restitution of the prewar status quo of decentralization and Great House predominancy sank the project into quagmire. Being the primary sponsors of the project since the beginning, the Daiszu and Phwa-Kwok-Tsau sought to obscure research data from their competitors, over fears that those competitors may "steal" data to make progress on their own cosmic weapons programs. The project itself and its members would even become targets: Zhengdongese mathematician Ji Lingxiao when she refused to provide research data for the independent Zhengdongese program, while Sakaguczi would be subject to several assassination attempts himself.

Despite all these threats, an effective atomic reactor would be constructed under heavy guard and secrecy among the labyrinthine temple complex of the Gee Visionary of the Farthest West, the seat of the Sanctuary of the Farwest. Known as the NN Pile to those few privy to its existence, it would become the cornerstone of Project Double-N, producing the vast majority of the plutonium needed for the construction of the first Fengese cosmic bomb.

Location
Safety and security required an isolated and remote mountainous area. Initially proposed, locations in the Transerican Mountains were rejected due to them being in the Generalship of Zhengdong, a Great House previously opposed to the materialist caused embodied by the cosmosophical field; locations in the deserts of Daiszu were rejected as well owing to concerns over nativist insurgencies then-still active in the region (see the 1950 Kantarrian uprisings).