Delta Green - All Part of the Job

[Audrik]

Good Intentions - Session 1b

A man in a Guy Fawkes mask was sitting on the couch and talking as he took items out of a cardboard STOR-MOR box for the camera to see. One of the items was a necklace or amulet with what seemed to be a poorly carved humanoid figure. Within moments of lifting the amulet, what seemed to be inky-black moths appeared fluttering all over his arms, and spreading toward his head. He dropped the amulet, screaming and trying to brush away the darkness. Another man rushed from off screen to try to help, but he was immediately covered in the blackness as well. The first man fled down the hall, while the second stumbled to the kitchen and collapsed. Shortly thereafter, the shower began to run.

Agent SETH found the body of the second man in the kitchen. He was covered in a thin, dark film, and he appeared to have died in considerable pain. A quick search produced a wallet with a driver’s license identifying the man as Ronald Schumacher.

SAM ducked into one of the bedrooms, grabbed a pair of jeans and a hoodie that would fit her, and dressed quickly. Agent SETH told SAM to collect all the evidence from the living room. Once she was dressed, she took her sheet and began tossing the spilled contents of the box into it. She was careful not to touch anything with her skin.

Sergeant Gump climbed through the window with his Taser drawn, and he made his presence known. There was a brief two-way interrogation with both Agent SAM and Sergeant Gump demanding to know what the other was doing in the apartment. Agent SAM tried to disarm the Sergeant, but she was unsuccessful. They identified themselves; Agent SAM used her code name but gave her actual agency, and Sergeant Gump simply showed his badge. Recognizing a fellow INSCOM investigator, Agent SETH was a little more inclined to play nice, but he was still not going to let anything compromise the mission.

As SETH entered the bathroom, he saw a man in jeans and a hoodie sitting in the bath tub, and hugging his knees. The shower was on, and the man was soaking wet. He looked up at Agent SETH with an expression that was vacant, and yet still terrified. SETH pointed his gun at the man and asked for identification. He said his name was Garrett Duncan. Agent SETH interrogated Duncan at gunpoint, and the man admitted to breaking in to the STOR-MOR locker. He said some government agents – “a Patriot Act Wet-Works Team” – had murdered a shopkeeper and stolen a box of items. He followed them to the storage facility, and then later that night, he and his roommate decided to see just what was so important to the government that they felt the need to assassinate a law-abiding small business owner.

Mr. Duncan was obviously not completely in his right mind, but he seemed aware of his situation. Agent SETH advised him that he was under arrest, and asked him to come quietly, but Duncan only laughed. SETH threatened him with the gun, but Duncan laughed again. He said he wasn’t going anywhere, and he challenged SETH to shoot. If Duncan didn’t make a few important calls in the morning to let some people know he was fine, a very dangerous video would be released all over the internet, and the government would be powerless to cover it up.

He may have been bluffing, but even with his background in Psychology, Agent SETH couldn’t be sure. The man had been recently traumatized. He was most likely harmless on his own, so SETH left him. Recovering the stolen objects, and destroying the video evidence would be enough.

He opened the door to find Sergeant Gump. Yelling to SAM to grab the items and laptop, and run, Agent SETH pushed past the Sergeant and headed down the hall. He didn’t listen when he was told to stop, and so Sergeant Gump fired his Taser. Agent SETH must have been expecting it because he easily sidestepped and made it to the living room. Agent SAM scooped up the sheet full of recovered items, and she ran out the front door. SETH made a move for the laptop, but the Sergeant tackled him. The struggle was a brief one, and Agent SETH won it handily. Once back on his feet, he grabbed the laptop and followed SAM. They hopped into the rental car and headed back to the storage facility.

Sergeant Gump took his turn at interrogating the man in the bath tub, but his results were similar to those of Agent SETH. He called his commanding officer to report. Upon hearing that the target’s apartment was broken into by an INSCOM Special Agent and a FinCEN investigator named “Agent SAM”, the commanding officer asked for a description of the INSCOM agent. He instructed Sergeant Gump to leave the target, and return to base as soon as possible. He did as ordered.

Agents SETH and SAM moved everything from the STOR-MOR facility to a new location, and then they parted ways. They’d had a rough couple days, and it was time to go home and relax. They’d only been home a few days when SETH was contacted by Agent TIMOTHY of T-Cell asking him to meet a potential DG recruit at his local Olive Garden in a couple days. He agreed, and he passed the invitation along to Agent SAM, or Agent ROSE as she was now known. She’d been offered leadership of a new R-Cell, and with a new cell comes a new name.

Agents SAM and ROSE met up at the designated spot, and it wasn’t long before they recognized their potential recruit; Master Sergeant Cramer Gump. Lunch went well, and the sales pitch didn’t take long. About an hour later, S-Cell had replaced SAM with a new agent; Agent SID.

 

[Audrik]

Contagion - Introduction

R-Cell
Agent RED – Chad Smith, USPS Inspector
Agent ROSE – Gia Jones, FinCEN Investigator, Leader of R-Cell – Computer crimes specialist (formerly Agent SAM)

S-Cell
Agent SERGE – Ferdinand Bazinet, Federal Research Division, French-language occult documents specialist
Agent SETH – Ian Trotter, INSCOM Special Agent, Leader of S-Cell – Army Intelligence criminal psychologist
Agent SID - Cramer Gump, INSCOM "Black" Ops Agent

Former Agents
Agent RAPSCALLION (deceased) – Tatom Merzos – U.S. Marshall’s office, Special Operations
Agent RAPUNZEL (deceased) – Yuki Anderson, FBI Forensic Pathologist
Agent RASPUTIN (retired) – Grigori Ruspokov, CDC Researcher/Surgeon – Russian-born naturalized citizen
Agent ROBIN (deceased) – Chika Takahashi, EPA Biologist and Environmental Scientist – Japanese-born naturalized citizen
Agent SÁBADO (deceased) – Marcus Hernandez, IRS Investigator – Computer crimes specialist
Agent SLEEPLESS (deceased) - Reginald Longbottom, NSA Cult Infiltration Specialist


The action in this Opera takes place a little more than four months later, in early March of 2010.

 

[Audrik]

Contagion - Session 1

Agents ROSE and SETH received encrypted emails from A-Cell instructing them to visit drop-boxes at their respective local FedEx stores, meet at the airport in Nashville, and head north to Bowling Green, KY. Their contact, Doctor Eustace Carrington of the Greenview Regional Hospital, would brief them. This was expected to be more of a training operation than an actual Opera. In the drop-boxes, they found ID badges for their cells, including new cell members. R-Cell’s badges were standard FBI, while S-Cell’s were CDC.

The agents all arrived safely in Nashville within about a half hour of each other. After confirming the new agents’ identities, they all exchanged superficial pleasantries on the way to the car rental desks. Agents ROSE and SETH each rented a vehicle for their respective cells, and an hour later they arrived at the hospital in Kentucky. The weather was nice, and the drive was pleasant.

It took little time to find Dr. Carrington. A woman at the front desk directed them to a lab down the hall. The doctor looked to be in his early 50s and of average build with short, brown hair. He was examining pictures of what appeared to be badly infected lacerations. Another monitor showed a patient in a hospital bed. The patient was connected to an IV and a few other beeping and pinging machines.

The doctor accepted S-Cell’s CDC credentials, but he questioned why the FBI had been called in. To his knowledge, there was no evidence of criminal activity, and even if there was, he thought the FBI only had jurisdiction over cases which crossed state lines. None of the agents really knew the law well enough to fast talk, but a simple “you watch too much television” seemed to ease his concern.

He related his knowledge of the situation. The patient is one Mitchell Haws, a surveyor. He was brought in the previous evening by a couple who had said they found him stumbling onto the road a few miles out of town. He had unidentified animal-like gashes which seemed to be the source of a fast-spreading bacterial infection which was literally devouring him. Dr. Carrington reported this to the CDC, and he was pleased that they had responded so quickly.

The agents examined the pictures, but they too were unable to identify the cause of the wounds. The bruises which accompanied the lacerations in some places led Agent SID to believe they were caused by something like a bear. There was a sound of twisting metal which sounded close by. The monitor which had been showing the patient now showed an empty bed, and a ventilation duct ripped open and hanging down.

Agent SETH immediately ran out of the lab waving his CDC credentials, and shouting for security to block all exits as there was a highly contagious patient on the loose. Fortunately, there were no patients and few hospital staff in the area, or the shouting might have started a panic. Dr. Carrington left to get a Hazmat suit. The new agents, RED and SERGE followed SETH as he took the stairs going up. Agent SID headed for the basement and underground parking garage, and ROSE remained in the lab to copy relevant files to her laptop and delete the hospital copies.

SID needed security to let him through the door at the bottom of the stairs, and after a quick flash of the badge, he was through. He looked around quickly, but he found nothing of immediate interest, and so he went back upstairs.

The three agents heading upstairs were stopped on the top floor by security. Apparently this floor housed mental patients and other potentially dangerous individuals. Agent SETH flashed his badge, shouted something about a contagious patient on the loose, and demanded roof access. The security guards were quick to comply.

Stepping through the hatch to the roof, Agent SETH looked around. There were several industrial air conditioners, but not much else. The agents looked over the edge of the roof to examine the outer walls, but there was nothing interesting to be found.

Dr. Carrington put on the Hazmat suit and then headed in the direction of the patient’s room. He was stopped by a nurse coming around the corner. She seemed panicked, and she told the doctor someone was lurking outside ICU. Dr. Carrington told her to get security, and have them page Agent Service (which was the name given by Agent SETH upon their initial meeting).

The hospital soon rang out with a call for “Agent Service” to report to ICU. The three rooftop agents, and Agent SID all headed for the ICU. When they arrived, everything looked normal, and the doctor on duty assured them that he hadn’t seen anything unusual. They looked around a bit, but they didn’t find anything.

It wasn’t too long before “Agent Service” was being paged once more; this time to the maternity ward. Agents SETH and SID headed up to the third floor and spoke to a nurse in the maternity ward. She was very disturbed. She hadn’t seen or heard anything, but in the course of her rounds, she discovered a newborn was missing. All of the infants were in their basinets on her last round, but this time, one was missing. The nurse had heard that there was a contagious patient on the loose, and she was quite worried. Agent SETH pulled the vent off the wall and squeezed himself inside the duct, which didn’t go a long way toward calming the nurse.

Agent SERGE decided to examine the patient’s room. It wasn’t much different from any other hospital room except that it had no windows and extra machines. Then there was the fact that the ventilation duct was ripped and hanging. He couldn’t tell just what had ripped the duct, but it was apparently done from the outside since the metal was bent inward.

Agent SID headed down the hall and found the Radiology labs. He looked around a bit, but it wasn’t until he was about to leave that he saw something. It was dark, but he was sure he saw something like smoke, or maybe pudding, filter itself from the room, through the vent, and into the duct. He immediately took out his phone and alerted Agent SETH who reacted to the news by drawing his gun and crawling deeper into the vent.

He came to the sort of intersection you really only find in ventilation ducts, space stations, and M.C. Escher artwork. He could continue straight, turn right, go back the way he’d come, go up, or go down. Before he could decide, something slow but nearly silent came from around the corner to the right. They were face to “face”, and SETH could barely make it out in the beam from his flashlight. It was a dark creature; in some ways like a human, in others like a snake, but it gave the impression it could change its shape easily. It opened a mouth full of sharp teeth and putrid breath before diving down the ventilation shaft.

Agent SETH fired two shots. He felt sure he’d hit the thing, but all he’d heard was the sound of a gun in an enclosed space, and a high-pitched ringing. Most of the rest of the hospital could hear the gunshots as well. When SETH had recovered his senses, he worked his way carefully down the shaft until he reached the second floor. He pulled himself a little way through the duct so that he wouldn’t fall.

Agent RED ran up the stairs to the second floor. He looked around, but he didn’t see anything suspicious. Dr. Carrington took the elevator which slowed and jerked to a halt halfway between the first and second floors. RED shouted that the doctor was on the elevator, but it had stopped. SID ran down the stairs to try to pry open the doors.

The lights went out, and the red emergency lighting came on. He pushed buttons, and though they lit up, they seemed to have little other effect. He didn’t see or hear the darkness filter through the ceiling behind him, but he smelled it. That caught his attention. He shouldn’t smell anything in that suit, but he was definitely smelling something akin to rotting flesh. Then he saw two thick but ropey arms wrap around him and felt them squeeze. He couldn’t muster the lung power to scream or the arm strength to break free. One rib cracked, then two, then three … Then his entire ribcage popped and crunched.

When Agent SID finally got the doors open, he saw the doctor’s crumpled form, he smelled rotting flesh, and he heard an instrumental version of Aerosmith’s “Love in an Elevator” coming from the speakers. He slowly got out his phone and called Agent SETH.

“Hey, SETH … We’ve got a problem."

 

[Audrik]

Contagion - Session 2

“The doctor’s dead. He’s in the elevator.”

Agent SETH kicked out the vent and climbed into the elevator shaft. He gently dropped down onto the elevator and opened the emergency hatch. Agent SID pointed to the doctor’s twisted body, and SETH dropped down. Another doctor was passing by, and noticed the open elevator stuck between floors. Upon taking a closer look, he asked the agents what was going on. Agent SID explained that Doctor Carrington had been attacked while helping to search for the escaped patient. The doctor checked Carrington’s vitals and declared him dead. He flagged down some hospital staff, and they took the body away.

Agent SETH called for all the agents to meet on the first floor to form a plan. It was decided that as this person or thing seemed to like the ventilation system, Agents SETH and SID would enter the vents on opposite sides of the third floor and sort of patrol; just circle around and listen for anything. ROSE and SERGE would keep an eye on the maternity ward while RED watched ICU.

SETH and SID crawled around in the vents for a while without seeing or hearing much of value. SETH got stuck for a moment at one point, but he managed to tighten himself up enough to move. The agents in the ventilation system eventually moved down a floor and tried the plan again with similar results. Then it was down to the first floor where they overheard someone talking about Doctor Carrington. Apparently, the Hazmat suit was still on the bed, but the body was missing.

SETH grumbled, and he headed down to the basement and kicked out the vent so that he could drop down. Agent SID followed. The basement was dark, and Agent SETH’s flashlight didn’t help enough. This was the floor with the incinerator and the morgue. Agent SETH’s flashlight passed over something against the wall, and SID called attention to it. Shining the light back in that direction and taking a closer look, the agents found the clean-picked bones of a tiny human.

Agent SETH declared the remains to be evidence, and so he promptly ordered Agent SID to throw them in the incinerator. There was a brief discussion about legality and morality, and apparently SID won. It wasn’t the moral victory he’d hoped for, but at least he didn’t have to incinerate the bones of a small murder victim. Agent SETH handled that part.

Back in the maternity ward, a television in the waiting room was running a local news story about a missing child. Eight-year-old Zachary Danvers had gone missing early in the morning, and he was last seen riding his bicycle through a construction area near where the escaped patient, Mr. Haws, had originally been found. Agents ROSE and SERGE were discussing the story when SETH and SID returned from the basement. There was no mention of the bones found in the basement, but Agent ROSE pointed out the news story. Though it would be getting dark soon, she and Agent SID decided to head out to the construction site to look around.

It was a short drive, and the search area was easy to spot. There were a few police cars along the side of the road, some officers were standing around. ROSE flashed her FBI badge quickly, and no one questioned it. SID followed without showing identification, and this wasn’t questioned either.

The lot was lightly wooded at first, and it opened to a large field of dirt which was in the process of being cleared and levelled by heavy machinery. The construction crew had all gone for the evening, so the agents were free to poke around. Their search turned up nothing around the machinery, but Agent ROSE’s smartphone flashlight app caught a glimpse of something in the woods.

Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a rusted oil drum or a barrel of some sort, but it had been ripped open by something large. The agents decided it had probably been hidden in the woods, or even buried, and then one of the construction vehicles must have torn it open.

ROSE looked around some more, and she managed to find a bicycle not too far from the barrel, and near that, a skeleton. Agent ROSE suspected this was the missing child, and she told SID to put the bones in his duffel bag. Again the questions of legality and morality, but this time SID lost. He did as he was asked, and they headed back to the car.

An officer asked if they’d found anything, and ROSE started to say it was too dark, but SID volunteered that they’d found a bicycle in the woods, and not much else. Agent ROSE flashed him a dirty look in the dying sunlight, and they got into the car. Next stop: the hospital.

They headed up to the maternity ward to find that Agent SETH had covered all the vents with plastic sheeting. While SID told SETH and SERGE about what they’d found, Agent ROSE went down to the first floor and found a security guard to let her into the basement. She found the morgue, and began poking around. She flipped through the rolodex on the small desk looking for the name of a bone specialist, or the number for the medical examiner. Before she could find what she was after, a cloud of roiling darkness coalesced into a vaguely humanoid shape behind her. She didn’t hear it or see it, but she could feel a wet breath on her neck, and there was an awful stench of decaying food or flesh.

Agent ROSE dropped the rolodex, and turned around to see the creature. It was like a dense, dark vapor one moment, and a thick pudding the next. It could be humanoid, and then snakelike a moment later. Its movements were slow but deliberate and fluid. It created an arm for itself, and on that arm, it grew talons.

The creature clawed at ROSE, but she narrowly avoided it. She struggled to pull out her phone and dial while still ducking, dodging, and avoiding the thing. She managed to get a call placed to Agent SETH, but there was only time to say “Basement. Now! It’s here.” SETH and SID were on their way. SERGE and RED held their positions.

Agent ROSE avoided the thing for what seemed like long minutes. It scratched her lightly on the arm, but nothing worse. SETH and SID made it to the morgue, and they fired their weapons. SID’s Taser connected and discharged, but the thing barely noticed. It seemed to be only partially solid. ROSE swung the bag full of bones, and she hit it, but the bag passed through slowly like it was being dragged through water. SETH fired two rounds from his handgun, but neither bullet seemed to hurt the thing substantially.

It did, however, turn around, or rather, it moved its mouth from one side of its body to the other. The creature morphed into a snakelike creature, and it wrapped around Agent SETH’s legs. It pulled tight, and SETH hit the ground hard. SID kicked, SETH shot, and ROSE sliced with a scalpel, but nothing seemed to affect it.

It was slowly moving up SETH’s body forming a sort of cocoon around him. ROSE looked around for something – anything – and what she found was a sheet. She grabbed it and ran for the incinerator. She returned with a flaming sheet, and tossed it on the thing. The patches near the flame seemed to burn away, and the creature roared. It continued to engulf Agent SETH, and he could feel bones cracking.

ROSE grabbed a can of some aerosol or other, and combined it with her lighter for a makeshift flame thrower. Her first shot wasn’t very accurate, but it didn’t really need to be. It was enough to get the creature to leave SETH alone and flee. SID ducked into a janitorial closet to look for chemicals, and he lucked out with a can of Lysol. He doused what remained of the thing, and then ran back to check on Agent SETH. The leader of S-Cell was in really bad shape. He was broken, bleeding, and bruised, but he was alive. ROSE called for emergency help, and in a few minutes, SETH was already in the Emergency Room.

 

[Audrik]

Killer Out of Space - Introduction

R-Cell
Agent RED – Chad Smith, USPS Inspector
Agent ROSE – Gia Jones, FinCEN Investigator, Leader of R-Cell – Computer crimes specialist (formerly Agent SAM)
Agent RUBY – Amelia Larce, DoE Nuclear Emergency Search Team

S-Cell
Agent SERGE – Ferdinand Bazinet, Federal Research Division, French-language occult documents specialist
Agent SETH – Ian Trotter, INSCOM Special Agent, Leader of S-Cell – Army Intelligence criminal psychologist
Agent SID – Cramer Gump, INSCOM "Black" Ops Agent

Former Agents
Agent RAPSCALLION (deceased) – Tatom Merzos – U.S. Marshall’s office, Special Operations
Agent RAPUNZEL (deceased) – Yuki Anderson, FBI Forensic Pathologist
Agent RASPUTIN (retired) – Grigori Ruspokov, CDC Researcher/Surgeon – Russian-born naturalized citizen
Agent ROBIN (deceased) – Chika Takahashi, EPA Biologist and Environmental Scientist – Japanese-born naturalized citizen
Agent SÁBADO (deceased) – Marcus Hernandez, IRS Investigator – Computer crimes specialist
Agent SLEEPLESS (deceased) - Reginald Longbottom, NSA Cult Infiltration Specialist


This Opera marks the first appearance of Agent RAPUNZEL's new character. Amelia Larce is just one of those people you can easily overlook in a crowd. She works for the U.S. Department of Energy as a member of their Nuclear Emergency Search Team, and she has selected the code name RUBY.

Agent SID has been in the hospital for about three weeks, and he is almost fully recovered. Agent ROSE was visiting, and they were both watching a news report about the Space Shuttle Discovery. Space Shuttle Mission STS-131 has been under way for a week, and so that puts the game date at April 12th, 2010.

 

[Audrik]

Killer Out of Space - Session 1

Agent SETH was no longer confined to his bed, and though he still had not regained 100% of his strength, he felt he was just about ready to leave the hospital. He and Agent ROSE were discussing that between comments about the space shuttle mission that had been in the news for the past week.

The second day of the mission, Commander Alan Poindexter reported that the shuttle had passed through a ‘glowing cloud’. There was a slight jump in external radiation, but nothing dangerous. NASA refused to comment, but there was no shortage of speculation from the rest of the scientific community. The general consensus seemed to be that a cloud of gas or ions was pulled from the Van Allen Belt, and maintained as a glowing cloud of radiation. No one was particularly alarmed.

CNN had obtained footage from a NASA live-feed of day three of the mission. This footage showed Commander Poindexter performing an Extra-Vehicular Activity. He lost his grip on a tool which then floated slowly away. The camera panned to follow the tool, and it picked up a brief glow emanating from the shuttle’s side, and then its bay. The glow moved toward the airlock, and it passed from the camera’s view. A voice from off camera mentioned higher than normal levels of radiation. As Commander Poindexter headed back toward the airlock door, voice communication broke, and the camera winked out.

Over the next few days, mainstream news outlets parroted NASA’s statements that a serious malfunction aboard Discovery was preventing voice and image communication, but that telemetric communication continued, and the flight of Discovery was not threatened. The less-mainstream media, as well as many blogs and internet forums were full of talk of conspiracy and cover up. Iran accused the U.S. of fabricating reports of communication breakdown in order to test a nuclear targeting device over the Persian Gulf, and riots broke out all over the Middle East.

The space shuttle wasn’t the only thing in the news, of course. The President of Poland had been killed in a plane crash; a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Qinghai, China; and volcanic ash from beneath an ice cap in Iceland disrupted European air traffic. Still, the flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery was being discussed seemingly everywhere.

It was during one of these news broadcasts that Agent SETH’s Delta Green phone rang. A man’s voice on the other end asked for an Agent STUART. SETH gave his code name, and said that he knew of no Agent STUART. The voice said that it had been a long time since he’d called this number, but that STUART was his contact. He gave his name as Doctor Malcom Harris.

“Listen, I don’t know what you’ve heard – what the news is saying – but you need to know … the quarantine … not CDC … nor anthrax … the shuttle must have brought it down … it sucks and burns.”

The line stayed open, but there were no further sounds from the other end. Agent SETH asked ROSE to look up the number on the caller ID, and that turned up a dummy number for an offshore relay which is what would be expected for a call from a DG phone. She then looked up Doctor Malcom Harris, and that identified him as a retired NASA doctor living in the town of Gove, Kansas; population 80. On a hunch, Agent SETH asked ROSE to check out reports of UFO sightings in Kansas. There was indeed a surge in UFO sightings over the past couple days, but the Air Force had already discredited the vast majority of them.

The agents decided to mobilize their cells, and everyone was to meet at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. Once everyone was together, Agent RUBY was introduced. ROSE and SETH each rented a car for their respective cells, and it was about 8:30 PM when the agents left for Gove. Agent SETH obeyed speed limits, but ROSE kept her car over 100 MPH for the two hours it took to reach the road block set up by the Kansas National Guard. There were two Humvees blocking the road, and a man was yelling at a young soldier. Not willing to wait her turn, Agent ROSE approached and lifted her shirt. Once she had everyone’s attention, she demanded to know why the road was being blocked.

The soldier informed her that by order of the CDC and the Governor of Kansas, the area was under quarantine to contain an outbreak of anthrax. ROSE knew their CDC credentials had been invalidated after the previous Operation, but she still had a badge. She produced it, and handed it to the soldier. He took it to one of the Humvees and compared it to a paper on a clipboard. When he returned, he handed her the badge.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. You’re not on the list.”

“What list? I’m with the CDC.”

“I can see that.”

“So let me through.”

“Can’t do that, ma’am. You’re not on the list.”

She demanded to see the person in charge, and the Lieutenant gave her the same response. She tried flirting, but she knew that was getting her nowhere when he held up his hand to show his wedding ring. She argued with the National Guardsmen for an hour and a half before S-Cell arrived.

Agent SETH approached and asked what was going on. When ROSE explained, he showed his CDC credentials, and tried the same line. He got the same result. They decided to talk to the man who had been there first. He introduced himself as Doctor Pete Watson. He was trying to get to a friend of his in Gove, Malcom Harris.

He told the agents he’d spoken with his friend most recently about three days ago. They’d spoken of many things, but mostly the space shuttle, religion, and the unrest in the Middle East. Doctor Harris had invited him to visit, and he was on his way when he found the road blocked, and was informed of the quarantine. He didn’t believe the anthrax story. Anthrax was primarily a disease of herbivores, and while dangerous, it was treatable, and rarely deadly. No outbreak justified a quarantine of this magnitude. Agent SETH remarked that he’d been thinking something similar.

As they were talking and deciding what to do, Agent SID saw helicopters patrolling with searchlights, while Agents ROSE and RUBY noticed a third Humvee pull up slowly and stop several yards off. Two men in camouflage uniforms and blue berets got out and approached the Lieutenant. They discussed something briefly, and then the men headed back to their vehicle. As the Humvee drove off, Agent Rose asked the soldiers at the road block who the men in the berets were. The soldiers told her it was their job to keep the people inside in, and the people outside out. They were not operating an information booth.

Agent SETH emailed A-Cell to let them know everything that had happened so far, and what his suspicions were. He received a nearly immediate response, but it was short:

You’re certain of the blue berets? Please confirm.

Agent SETH replied that they had indeed been soldiers in blue berets, and that when asked about them, the National Guardsmen refused to answer. The next reply took quite some time to come in, and so the agents decided to return to Wichita, and regroup. Agent ROSE was upset, but she didn’t let that interfere with her driving habits. She still had her rental car over 100 MPH all the way back. At one point, R-Cell flew off the road, and into a corn field to avoid hitting a cow which had wandered into the road. They flew into the hotel parking lot just after 1:30 AM, and S-Cell arrived about an hour and a half later.

Late the next morning, A-Cell’s reply came through:

No CDC activity in Kansas. U.S. Army, and NASA. Blue berets may mean Majestic-12 BLUEFLY. If so, they’ll be looking for alien life forms. Proceed with caution.

Well, that explained a few things, and confirmed some suspicions, but more than anything else, it set a tone of danger and paranoia. Just what happened to the shuttle? What did the government know that it didn’t want getting out? The agents spent the remainder of the day discussing plans to infiltrate the quarantine zone, and acquiring necessary equipment. The first thing Agent SID wanted to do was find a good set of walkie-talkies. The hospital ventilation crawl had made him shy away from the constant use of cell phones for communication.

Later that night, Agent ROSE headed back out to the road block, once again making the three and a half hour drive in about two hours. She proceeded to distract the National Guardsmen for as long as it would take Agents SETH and SID to arrive, and sneak through. An hour and a half later, they did just that. Dressed in all black, they walked slowly through the corn fields north of the quarantine zone. Every time a helicopter would pass overhead, they would hit the ground and remain still. It was slow going, but eventually they emerged to find two farms straight ahead. One was totally dark and looked abandoned. The other was overgrown, and the barn and house looked to have burned and collapsed.

Beyond the farms, they could see several lighting structures keeping a large area well lit. They couldn’t tell from this distance just what it was, but if SETH’s calculations were correct, the tiny community of Gove, Kansas should be only a few miles past those lights.

 

[Audrik]

Killer Out of Space - Session 2a

Her distraction done, Agent ROSE headed back to the car. She and Agent RED drove out of sight, and then got out. They doubled back through a wheat field, and went far south of the road block. They emerged from the field southeast of town at about the same time SETH and SID came out northeast of town.

Agents SERGE and RUBY remained at the hotel in Wichita. A-Cell would have NASA credentials for them some time the next day. In the meantime, they reviewed what little evidence they currently had, and tried to piece together a coherent theory. At the same time, they prepared several bowls of popcorn and watched TV. First up was the movie Armageddon, followed by the 20th Anniversary version of E.T. where federal agents had their guns digitally replaced with walkie-talkies. Finally, one of the local television stations played an edited version of The Wizard of Oz they called “the Kansas edition”. This version was exactly the same, except the tornado tore through Oklahoma instead. Dialogue had been edited to reflect the change in location.

Agents SETH and SID moved quietly and cautiously toward the back door of the farmhouse. The windows were dark, and the door was locked. Agent SID smiled as he took out his lock picks. His smile faded well before he actually managed to get the door open. The lock was sturdy, and it resisted his attempts for about a half hour. Eventually, Agent SID succeeded, and the door opened slowly. SETH and SID entered and had a look around. They opted for the use of their night-vision equipment rather than flipping a light switch. Ultimately, the choice didn’t matter. No one was home, and the house had most likely been evacuated.

The barn didn’t offer much of use either. It housed a single horse which to SID’s untrained eye appeared to be healthy. They decided the farm across the street was unlikely to have anything of interest either. Both the house and barn were in ruins, and the whole area was heavily overgrown.

They proceeded cautiously through a wheat field toward the area lit by floodlights and patrolled by helicopters. They had both been trained by the U.S. Army for this sort of stealth, and so they had no difficulty remaining unseen even as they got close enough to see what was in the lit area.

There were six generator-powered floodlight towers set up around the perimeter of the area, and a paved road in disrepair passed through it. Mostly on the road, and with its nose in a wheat field was the Space Shuttle Discovery; or rather, it was the Space Shuttle Disco. The “-very” was missing, and where it should have been, there was a large hole instead.

There was a white van with a NASA logo parked on the shoulder of the road, and there were eight people in NBC (Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical) suits. Two of the people seemed to be guards, and they were holding assault rifles. The other six were examining the shuttle from all angles.

Agents ROSE and RED stepped out of the wheat field and onto a recently mowed lawn. There was a single tree in the backyard and a junkyard just across the street. According to her research, Agent ROSE believed this was the house of Doctor Malcom Harris, the man who had called Agent SETH.

There was a humming or buzzing sound being carried on the night air, and it seemed to be coming from the junkyard. It was about midnight, and the humming was loud enough to keep most people awake. The bright lights over the junkyard wouldn’t help much either. ROSE found the back door to be unlocked, and so she and RED entered quietly. They split up to search the house; ROSE took the ground floor, and RED checked the basement.

The upstairs was tidy but not overly so. The back door entered into the kitchen, and just off from there was the living room. There was a hall leading to two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a study. The only thing of interest to ROSE was the computer in the study, but that would have to wait until the house was definitely clear.

Agent RED hadn’t reported back, and so ROSE went downstairs to check. The basement was cooler than the ground floor, and it served as a pantry. It was well stocked with bread, rice, and canned foods. There was no sign of Agent RED, but he had to have come this way. ROSE poked around, and she eventually found a latch which allowed part of the wall to swing open. The other side of the wall appeared to be a bomb shelter of some sort, and Agent RED had found a bed. He was snoring quietly, but there appeared to be no danger, so ROSE just rolled her eyes, grumbled, and left him there.

Once upstairs, she heard a vehicle pull up outside the junkyard across the street. It was a military jeep with a machine gun mounted to the back. Four people in NBC suits got out. Two held assault rifles and remained by the jeep. The other two approached the gate to the chain link fence which surrounded the yard. Two snarling Dobermans greeted them, and a man emerged from a small building in the center of the yard.

“Toby! Ripper! Down,” was all Agent ROSE could make out. The dogs sat where they were, but they were still on alert. The man from the junkyard talked for a moment with the two people in NBC suits, and then he got into the jeep. The two guards with assault rifles also got into the jeep, and they drove off toward town. The other two headed across the street toward Doctor Harris’s house. A black sedan pulled up right where the jeep had been, but no one got out.

Agent ROSE snuck out the back door, ducked into the wheat field, and circled around the back of the junkyard. She climbed the chain link fence and looked around. Toby and Ripper were focused on the car out front, and so they didn’t seem to notice the intruder. ROSE found that the humming was coming from three electromagnets. Each one was suspended about twenty feet or so off the ground by a crane. She checked the controls for the closest crane and magnet, and she found that they had been intentionally broken in the ‘ON’ position. The crane was inoperable, and the magnet couldn’t be turned off without destroying most of the internal workings of the control box.

While the dogs were still distracted, she checked the office. There was nothing of interest other than a ledger book and very large bin of dog food. She looked over the ledger, but she couldn’t make heads or tails of it. It was obvious that the business involved the purchase and sale of junked vehicles, farm equipment, and parts, but she was no accountant.

The people in NBC suits were apparently finished with their search of the Harris residence. They got in the back seat of the sedan, and it drove off. The good news was that they apparently hadn’t found the bomb shelter or Agent RED. The bad news was that she didn’t have much time before Toby and Ripper turned their attention back to guarding the junkyard.

Agent ROSE took a large scoop of dog food from the bin and threw it out over a wide area of the yard as a distraction, and then she quickly snuck away the same way she’d snuck in. There was no one to hide from at the moment, and so she just crossed the road straight back over to Doctor Harris’s house.

 

[Audrik]

Killer Out of Space - Session 2b

As Agents SETH and SID watched the scene around the downed shuttle, a helicopter made a low pass only about ten feet or so over the top of the wheat. Agent SID thought he saw a dull glow from the wheat, and about ten seconds later, the helicopter started to fly erratically. It began to spin, and it crashed into the field. The blades continued to spin, kicking up dirt and wheat, and creating the perfect opportunity for the agents to run.

It was a mile or so to the doctor’s house through a soybean field, and they covered it in an impressively short time. They avoided the junkyard, but they made note of the humming. Finding the front door locked, they tried the back. Agent ROSE had been on her way down the dark hallway to take a look at the doctor’s computer when she heard the back door open. Cursing herself for having left it unlocked, she began to sneak back toward the kitchen.

SETH and SID were using their night-vision equipment, and they were being extra careful to stay quiet. That’s why Agents SETH and ROSE were both startled to hear a breaking glass. SID had accidentally knocked it from the counter. SETH spun around with his hand on his gun, but no one seemed to have been alerted. Turning back to the rest of the house, he saw someone in the hall, and then he recognized her.

“ROSE? What the hell are you doing here?” Agent SETH was whispering loudly.

The agents moved to the study to regroup and discuss. Agent ROSE reported the cranes with electromagnets over at the junkyard, and the bomb shelter in the basement. She also wanted to go on record as hating the Kansas National Guard. SETH and SID told ROSE about the downed shuttle and NASA crew, and the glowing wheat that apparently crashed a helicopter.

While they talked, Agent SETH examined the books on the shelves. They were all about space, medicine, or both; very technical, and not the sort of books for a casual reader. One of the books held a folded piece of parchment. The writing at the top said “This might be useful.” The writing at the bottom said “Agent WINSTON”. Between the two bits of writing was a drawing of a five-pointed star with an eye in the center. The star itself leaned and curved a bit, like it was drunk or lazy.

“That’ll look good hidden in a Green Box,” Agent SETH said with a shrug.

Agent ROSE wanted to go over the doctor’s computer, and while she was doing that, SID and SETH would do their own search of the junkyard.

The computer was an inexpensive, newer model. All the important internals were integrated. It seemed that Doctor Harris knew his way around a computer, but he wasn’t what you might call a “computer guy”. Agent ROSE checked everything, but all she found that might be of any interest were an unfinished manuscript for an untitled book on space medicine, and a program for mapping the night sky. She decided to play it safe, and so she switched the doctor’s hard drive for a blank one from her kit.

Agent SETH found a steak in the refrigerator, and he took it as a canine distraction. After tossing the steak to Toby and Ripper, SETH and SID went around back, and climbed over the fence. The results of their search were similar to ROSE’s results. They found the cranes with the electromagnets. The crane they examined was the same one ROSE had checked, and neither agent could determine an easy way to move the crane, or shut off the magnet.

SETH tested the magnet by tossing up a piece of scrap metal. He tossed it a little hard, and the piece bounced off the magnet. It didn’t bounce far enough, and it was pulled back to stick to the magnet. The agents then checked the office. Neither agent could get anything from the ledger other than the basic workings of the business.

The dogs had finished the steak in pretty short order, and so they were waiting when the agents decided it was time to leave. Agent SID stepped out of the office, and he was immediately attacked by both Dobermans. He fired his Taser at one, but even at such short range, the electrified darts missed their target. Agent SETH drew his knife and stepped out to even the odds. He stabbed, and caught Ripper with a nice slash. That only served to make the animal angry.

Toby jumped for Agent SID’s throat and got him. Blood started gushing from SID’s neck at a disturbing rate. He wasn’t dead, or even mortally wounded, but they needed to win this fight fast, and get out the first aid kit, or there would be trouble. Ripper tried to do the same to Agent SETH, but the soldier was quick enough to avoid being hit.

The quiet approach wasn’t going to win this fight for them, and so the agents reluctantly drew their guns. SID put one bullet into Toby, and then SETH added two more. Toby was down, but they still had to deal with Ripper. Two more bullets did the trick.

At the first gunshot, Agent ROSE looked out the window. She wasn’t expecting to see what she saw. A dimly glowing, kaleidoscopic ball of light bobbed along, paused near the junkyard, and then went around it in a wide arc. It floated off through the wheat field to the north. When she heard the other four gunshots, she ran out of the house and across the street to the junkyard.

Agent SETH found a roll of paper towels, and along with his belt to add pressure to SID’s neck, he performed field first aid. SID was stable for now, but he was weak. SETH looked around, and found the junkyard owner’s mint green 1958 Edsel. The keys were hanging in the office. SID laid down in the back seat, and SETH drove the car through the front gate. He stopped long enough for Agent ROSE to hop in, and they drove off a little way down the road before turning into a wheat field.

As Agent SETH went about trying to hide the car, he noticed a helicopter arrive and circle over the junkyard and immediate area. Shortly after that, a military jeep drove up, and people equipped with NBC suits and assault rifles searched the junkyard. The agents laid low until the jeep and helicopter left.

Agent ROSE leaned over the seat to have a look at SID.

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

SID’s reply was more of a gurgle than anything, but the twitching motion of his head seemed to indicate that his response was “yes”.

 

[Audrik]

Killer Out of Space - Session 3a

It was decided that Agent SID would remain in the back seat of the car while SETH and ROSE took the toolbox back to the junkyard to attempt repairs on the damaged electromagnets and cranes. SID held his pistol to his chest, and laid back to get some rest. SETH locked the car doors, and then he and ROSE headed back the mile or so to the junkyard.

The front gate was still wide open, but they decided it would be best to go around back, and climb the fence. Once inside, ROSE set to work on the repairs while SETH looked for a way to shut off the lights. He found the switch box just as ROSE shut down the magnet. Everything went dark, and while SETH put on his night-vision goggles, ROSE started the flashlight app on her phone, and moved on to the other two magnets.

It was about 3:00 AM by the time she’d finished. The early Kansas morning was eerily quiet. The tips of the wheat glowed faintly. The agents decided to head back to the doctor’s house. They both needed some sleep, but SETH took watch until sunrise.

At some point during the night, Agent SID awoke to shattering glass and someone in an NBC suit pointing an assault rifle at him. The person in the suit ordered him to drop his gun, and asked who he was. Agent SID did as he was asked, and then he produced his INSCOM badge. It was obvious he was in need of medical attention, so the person in the suit escorted him to a jeep. SID was taken to the town a short distance away.

There was a parking lot which was currently serving as a mobile headquarters. There was several trailers and tents; most of them were olive colored with U.S. Army markings, but some were plain white with NASA logos. Agent SID was escorted to a nearby building which had been converted into a makeshift infirmary. He gave his full cooperation, and soon he was in a bed with an IV running fluids, antibiotics, and painkillers into his arm. He drifted back to sleep.

Early the next morning, Agent RUBY was awoken by a knock on her hotel room door. She looked through the peephole, but she didn’t see anyone. She readied her gun, and opened the door to find a plain, unmarked cardboard box on the ground. When she opened it, she found NASA identification for herself, and most of the other agents. There was nothing for Agents ROSE or RED. Agent RUBY went back to bed.

Agents SETH, ROSE, and RED spent the daylight hours at the doctor’s house watching the news, and waiting for nightfall. Their day was fairly uneventful, but they did learn that the news stations were still reporting that the Space Shuttle Discovery was proceeding with its mission, and despite lack of visual and audio communication, everything was apparently going well.

When Agents RUBY and SERGE finally got up, they gathered their things together, and headed outside. RUBY was frustrated to find both rental cars were gone, and so they had to get another. They made the drive to the quarantined zone, and around 2:00 PM, they found both rental cars abandoned about a mile from the roadblock. Abandoning their own car along with the others, RUBY and SERGE stepped into the corn field, and made their way toward Gove. When they emerged from the corn, they saw the same overgrown farmland, charred foundation, and collapsed barn that SETH and SID had found.

SERGE stayed out of the way, and kept watch while RUBY took a look around. The grass and other plants were thick and rather wild. Stumbling her way through the field, she came upon an old well which looked like it once had a cover. She dropped a rock to see how deep it was, and when it hit the bottom, it sounded more like it landed in mud than water. She judged it to be probably thirty or forty feet down.

Agent RUBY shined her flashlight down into the well, and she saw several multi-colored rocks in the mud at the bottom. She went to the collapsed barn to look for something that might reach the bottom of the well. She managed to find a very long board, and an unsafe-looking but possibly serviceable wooden ladder. She took both back to the well and tried the board first.

The board was long enough to reach the bottom of the well, and it sunk a little in the mud. RUBY fished around with it, trying to scoop up one of the multi-colored objects, but she crushed one against the side of the well. Apparently, they were fragile. When it smashed, the colors leaked out and into the mud.

She pulled the board back out, and lowered the ladder instead. It was old and brittle, but she managed to get down to the bottom of the well. The mud was about a foot deep, and pretty thick. She could feel more of the objects under the mud. She picked one up for a closer look. It was a little larger than a softball, and it was more or less spherical. The shell was sort of milky, but translucent. The inside seemed to swirl or pulse with dim color like a sort of psychedelic snow globe.

Agent RUBY climbed the ladder without incident, and once she had reached the surface, she began to cover the well with boards. Placing the ball/rock/egg/snow globe thing gently in her purse, she moved on to the south where she could hear helicopters. Agent SERGE followed.

The agents came upon the downed space shuttle, and they watched it for a moment before approaching. There were eight people in NBC suits in the area; six were inspecting and/or repairing the shuttle, and two were standing guard. The two guards approached, and demanded to know who the agents were. They showed their brand new NASA credentials, and the guards seemed satisfied. They instructed the agents to get their NBC suits out of the NASA van, and get to work. They would have to be decontaminated when they got back to town.

The agents shrugged, and suited up. Neither of them knew much about astronomy, physics, chemistry, or most other sciences, but they did their best to fit in. Agent RUBY was able to determine that the hole in the side of the shuttle wasn’t caused by something forcing through from the inside, or the outside. It looked like a portion of the hull just stopped existing. One of the other NASA scientists mentioned that it couldn’t have happened in space, nor during re-entry. The shuttle would have been destroyed. The hole could only have been created once the shuttle was close to the ground, or after landing. The scientist said that didn’t make a lot of sense at the moment, and so NASA was choosing to ignore it until they knew more.

 

[Audrik]

Killer Out of Space - Session 3b

When agent SID woke up, he noticed a soldier in a blue beret watching him. The stood up when SID opened his eyes. He asked if SID could walk, and if he was ready to talk to the general. The agent nodded in answer to both questions, and so the soldier led him out of the building, and to a large trailer in the parking lot. As the door opened, he saw a man in his mid to late fifties sitting behind a desk. His uniform indicated his rank was brigadier general, and the name said Drake. SID entered, and stood in front of the desk. The general remained seated, and the two men looked at each other in silence for a moment. General Drake was the first to break the silence.

“What in the hell is the matter with you, Sergeant Gump? Don’t you recognize a general when you see one?”

Agent SID nodded.

“Well …?” The general seemed already at the end of his patience.

Agent SID looked around for a moment, and then he remembered to salute.

“That’s much better, son. I’m going to let that slide this time because you’re probably high as a damned kite with all them painkillers. Do not let it happen again.” The general put heavy emphasis on most of those final words.

SID nodded, and tried to look apologetic. General Drake asked him what he was doing in the quarantine zone, why he wasn’t informed that INSCOM was sending an agent, and if there were any others. Agent SID couldn’t speak without some difficulty, so he was allowed to write on a large whiteboard.

He indicated that he was instructed to assist the army investigation, he had assumed his superiors had contacted everyone who needed to know, and there were in fact two others. When the general asked where the other two were, Agent SID told him. The general nodded, and leaned forward in his chair.

“You can leave us, lieutenant. I’ll let you know when I need you.”

The man in the blue beret saluted and stepped outside. When they were alone, the general narrowed his eyes and spoke.

“I know who you are, and I know what you do. What I don’t know is what Delta Green thinks it’s going to find here.”

Agent SID stiffened a bit, and then he wrote a single question mark on the whiteboard. General Drake snorted.

“That’s about what I thought. We’re done here, master sergeant.”

The general stood, and moved to the door. He knocked gently, and the man in the blue beret entered. General Drake told the soldier that he was done with the interview. The lieutenant escorted Agent SID back to his hospital bed, and one of the doctors replaced his IV.

When it began to get dark, a short, white bus arrived at the shuttle site. People in NBC suits got off, and took over for the NASA scientists who were finishing their shifts. Agents RUBY and SERGE got on the bus along with the others, and they were taken to town. The bus stopped at the Gove Motel where NASA and the Army had apparently rented out all the rooms. All of the scientists went to their rooms, but RUBY and SERGE were directed to the makeshift infirmary so the medical staff could give them something to prevent infection.

The agents did as they were instructed. After he received a shot of what the nurse said was penicillin, Agent SERGE went to see about a room. As RUBY was getting her shot, she noticed Agent SID in a hospital bed. She pointed him out, and asked the nurse what happened to him. She was told that he was “Army Intelligence, or something”. From the looks of it, he’d nearly lost a fight with a dog, and he was found unconscious and bleeding in the back of a stolen car. Agent RUBY nodded. That sounded just about right.

Agent ROSE was making dinner with whatever she could find in the doctor’s house, and SETH was watching out the windows. While he watched, the wheat on the other side of the junkyard glowed; not just the tips, but the whole plants. It was still a faint sparkle, but it was definitely not reflected moonlight. It was kaleidoscopic, and it hardly seemed natural. After a while, the pulsing ball of swirling color drifted out of the field, paused outside the junkyard, and then continued through it. It headed straight for the doctor’s house, but it stopped out in the front yard. Agent SID called for ROSE, and she confirmed that it was the same thing she’d seen the night before.

The light then floated away at a high rate of speed. It seemed to be headed in the general direction of Gove, but it was weaving. Once it was gone, SETH and ROSE went out to examine the wheat field. It was definitely glowing with its own faint light, and it seemed to be blowing in the wind, except there was no wind. SETH cut a few handfuls with his knife, and they went to the junkyard. He dropped the wheat on the ground, and it continued to sway in the non-existent wind. They switched on the magnet, but it didn’t have a noticeable effect. They switched the magnet back off, and went back to the doctor’s house to discuss their options. Agent SID wasn’t answering the radio, and that must mean he’d been captured, or he died.

After her shot, Agent RUBY slipped off down a hall. No one seemed to notice or care as she stole a set of new scrubs with a paisley design. She put on her disguise, and went over to check on Agent SID. He was conscious, and though he was obviously medicated, he seemed to be in control. She undid the locks on the wheels of the bed, and she saw a flash out of the corner of her eye. When she heard the muted scream outside, she began to push the bed. When she heard the three gun shots, she pushed faster.

Out the double doors, and into the parking lot, she pushed Agent SID’s bed. They made it to a NASA van, and both agents hopped in. Agent RUBY broke off the ignition and began to hotwire the van. Just as she got it started, SID found the keys in the console. RUBY rolled her eyes, and they drove slowly out of the parking lot. They stopped a block or so away, in a dark area, and they watched the building to see what was happening.

As they watched, an elderly woman came out of her house to see why there was a van outside. The woman made it to the end of her driveway before the ball of colors came zipping out from behind the infirmary. It floated up to her, and she just stared at it as it pulsed. When she could finally manage a scream, it was too late. She made hardly a noise as the ball of lights drained all her life force.

Her skin cracked and turned grey. Her hair became brittle, and broke off in chunks. Eventually, her whole body crumpled and dropped to the ground. The agents watched, horrified and unable to do anything to help. Soon, the colored ball floated off into the night. Agent RUBY sat in silence, but SID jumped at imagined sounds and hallucinated flashes. He was having real difficulty remaining calm.