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From: <JASON>
Sent: Saturday, January 5 1997 23:17AM
To: <A-CELL>
Subject: Operation Kaleidoscope Debriefing
Debriefing Operation Kaleidoscope, J-Cell, Saturday, January 4, 1997
Operation Magenta failed.
* ZEPPO followed MULES for a few hours, observing them to be successful in picking up PACKAGE.
* KALEIDOSCOPE compromised when VECTOR (Humanoid creature, but looked very similar once wounded as Proto-matter witnessed in Operation Magenta) attacked MULES vehicle. Fight ensued, MULES AND ZEPPO continued together in single vehicle (Refereed to from-hereon as J-Cell)
* Witnessed presence of "Agent Shackleton". According to Jonah and Joseph "he had been there all along (not witnessed by Jules and Jason). Jules didn't question this, Jason knew something didn't add up, but couldn't be 100% sure about what.
* J-cell attacked again, by same VECTOR. During fight, also witnessed wasp-like creature (again, as witnessed at Operation Magenta). Vector and creature eliminated.
* Continued with PACKAGE. "Shackleton" continued more agitated.
* At this stage "Shackleton" started to mentally influence J-cell: Joseph pull off the highway to an exit Shackleton wanted us to take, later on he influenced Jason to stop, making him say that he wanted Jonah to take the container and run into the fields with it, and finally he made Jason pull a gun and threaten Jules.
* Eventually it was decided to pull over and get to a motel, where Jules and Joseph could be treated for injuries sustained in the last fight.
* Jason went to park the car, then blacked out, finding himself and the car smashed into a concrete wall. No sign of "Shackleton", and the container was breached, leaking a clear fluid.
* A-cell was contacted, the car cleaned of prints, and PACKAGE destroyed.
Jason
DELETE this message after reading.
<PATH REDACTED>
Sunday, 8 December 2019
Operation Kaleidoscope
Jason watched Agents Joseph and Jules walk into the motel room that Jonah had booked minutes ago. They both seemed a bit worse for wear but would be OK in the next few days or weeks.
Jonah got back in the car, closing the door.
“What now, Jason?”
“Now we’ll get some first aid kits at the chemist and some painkillers for them, then we take a break and drop the package off in Chicago, as discussed…”
He looked in the mirror, locking eyes with Shackleton on the backseat. This should have been an easy one, just a quick drop-off to ease the new guys into Delta Green…
January 1997, 12 hours earlier
“What are you doing with my car?”
Jason got up and look behind him, where the voice came from
“Knight. They got you on this babysit job… hang on. They said I’d meet Jules here, did you…”
“Yeah, they transferred me to J-cell”
He nodded and started going through the trunk. Mexican money, clown masks, a shotgun, red toolbox containing… teeth… Yeah, looked like someone had fun at an Opera. They cleaned up the back seat which was full of rubbish, and hid the loaded shotgun under a blanket.
Jules emptied a bottle of vodka that he had found over the spot where an old burger had gone rancid and moldy, which annoyed Jason. Waste of vodka, even if it’s a cheap one, is still a waste…
“So, what’s the job, Jason?”
“Got to follow two Mules, Jonah and Joseph. Guess they’re the new additions to J-cell now…” Jason almost added something, but didn’t and lit a cigarette instead, inhaling deeply.
“They’re picking up a package at 1900, then head to a drop-off point. We’re here to eyeball them, just make sure the job gets done. Easy. Right?”
He got behind the wheel and took off, giving Knight-Jules the address of the pick-up point, and also the coordinates of the eventual destination, which turned out to be somewhere near Chicago.
Jules grabbed a box that he had brought from the backseat, and opened it, revealing a bottle of more than decent single malt and two glasses. He poured a decent measure in them and handed one to Jason.
“To Jude and Jasper”
It took a second for Jason to process this. The two previous members had been gone for close to six months now. Other things had happened. Trying to get things sorted at work, get back in the good books. The call from Sue, telling him she couldn’t handle their daughter anymore, and that she had decided it was time for Jason to take care of her. Cleaning out the house, so there wasn’t anything for his daughter to find. The surprise he got when he found her reading through some of his occult books. A visit to the doctor, giving him the Bad News (“Don’t worry we caught it early, you should be OK”). Chemo. Pills. No Ops.
“Yeah… to Jude and Jasper…”
It didn’t take them long to reach their first destination and Jason slowly drove past the pick-up point, turned the car and parked, taking his time to observe the other cars and area. All seemed quiet.
About fifteen minutes later, another car turned the corner and pulled up at the location. Jason handed his binoculars to Jules, who had a good look.
“Two guys, one is going to the door, another guy handed him something, looks like some kind of cylinder. There’s another guy, he… well hello…”
“What?”
“Nothing. Just that I’ve seen this guy before, on my last Op.”
Jason waited until the other car had left and turned the corner, then lit up another cigarette and followed them, checking the GPS which showed a blinking light.
“Looks like the tracker is working”
They had followed them for a few hours now. They were making good progress, the guy driving the other car pushing it a bit, going just over the speed limit. Not enough to get fined, but enough for a patrol car to notice. Jason made a note to fill them in on that. Apart from that they seemed to do well, Jules had checked regularly, confirming the two FNG’s were doing OK. They had pulled over at a petrol station, one of them had gone in, Jules as well, then back on the road.
“Did you see that guy?”
“What guy?”
“The one in the car that just overtook us. He looked… strange…”
Jason could still see the guys taillights in front of him, going fast. Way too fast. He picked up speed himself, closing the distance to the other DG car. A few moments later the other car barreled into a vehicle, coming to a stand-still.
“Here we go”
Jason hit the brakes and Jules was out of the vehicle before it had come to a full stand-still, running towards the other DG vehicle. Jason saw movement, two guys getting out of the wrecked car, another guy heading towards them. He accelerated but missed the attacker. He turned the car and got out, taking the shotgun and aiming it at the attacker while moving closer. He was fighting one of the FNGs, the other he had seen running off. Jules was going around the car and had grabbed something of the backseat. The guy fighting the assailant had made a move, giving Jason a clear line of fire. He pulled the trigger, blasting the guy’s head apart… it split… the leftovers of the head turned grey… as well as part of his clothes. Something was wrong. Something looked familiar. Groversville… the thing in the bathroom… he saw the split head move, parts reconnecting.
“Fuck…”
He saw the new guy take off, running back towards the car. Good. He had the right reflex. Alphonse’s Axiom nr 13: If you're attacked, break contact. Do not stand and fight when the opposition has the initiative. Retreat, regroup at the rally point, go back later and kill them in their sleep.
Jason turned and moved as quick a he could back to the car. Newbie had taken the driver’s seat, and he saw the other new guy jump in the back and Jules in the passenger seat. He opened the backdoor and threw himself in, just as the new guy took off. A container was strapped in the middle of the backseat. They took off at speed.
A few minutes later, he told the driver to slow down a bit, stay just under the maximum speed. Next to Jason, Shackleton lit a cigarette. Hang on… there were only 4 of them in the car before. Now five. The guy was sitting in the middle, holding the container. Beefy guy, crew cut, older suit. Looked like a typical Fed. Jason was sure that there were only four of them when they left, and now there were five. The others didn’t seem to find this odd. He looked at Jules, signalling to Shackleton with his eyes, but Jules didn’t react. How did he even know he guy’s name?
“Right, so who’s Joseph?”
The driver put his hand up. He had recognized Jules as well, and they had been talking for a moment. Jason hadn’t paid attention, instead looking at the guy at the other side of the backseat.
“So you’re Jonah”
A nod.
“Either of you got combat experience or can handle firearms?”
Joseph confirmed, Jonah shook his head
“So, what’s your expertise, Jonah?”
“History, archaeology, anthr…”
“OK, that’s enough for now.”
Alright. A cop or a fed and an academic. That shifted the balance a bit more from Cowboys to where Jason liked it to be. He started putting a text message together for A-cell.
*Affirmative.
*Deliver package.
*Eliminate vector.
*Shackleton?
So A-cell didn’t know this guy.
“We can either go to the destination or take a stop at the green-box in Kansas city. It’s not really a detour, and it might give us an edge of that thing catches up with us. Downside: stopping at the green-box will reduce the head start we have on it. Thoughts?”
He listened to what they thought about it. Opinions were divided, but Shackleton kept budding in, pushing to know where they were going, getting more anxious as time went past, started mentioning Sky Devils. Majestic-12. Really didn’t want to go wherever we were heading.
Sky Devils. Jason had heard that before. Seen it somewhere… in some notes or something…. At Clive Baughman’s place, that’s right. He couldn’t remember the exact details though.
“Jonah, get some shut-eye, Jules, you keep your eyes open while Joseph drives. We’re continuing to our destination. No stop at the green-box.”
Jason closed his eyes, looking as if he went to sleep. He kept listening for a bit as Shackleton kept trying to convince the others of not doing this, but to go somewhere else, to a guy he knew.
Jason woke up, cursing himself for falling asleep. The car had made a sudden movement and Joseph was muttering something about having taken an exit where he shouldn’t. Jason looked at Shackleton, who was smoking and looking ahead of him. Jason sighed and lit a cigarette up himself.
“Don’t worry about it. Set up the GPS for the green-box, we’re bound to head there anyway, and I don’t want any accidents to happen…”
They made their way to the self-storage facility and Jason had taken both the new guys in, shown them the green-box and explained how these worked. They had grabbed all the firearms (AKs and handguns) they could find as well as an axe and an entrenching tool. He had a word in private with both of them in regards to Shackleton. Jonah said he met him at the airport, but then got confused, and couldn’t really remember exactly where and when they met. He said that Shackleton had been with them all along. From what Jason and Jules had observed, there had only been 2 people in the other car up to the point where they all had jumped in the same car. That’s when he had seen Shackleton the first time.
As they returned, it was clear the Shackleton had been working on the others, setting them up against Jason. In how far it had worked, Jason had no clue.
After about half an hour, they realized they wouldn’t find a chemist in the area and returned to the motel. Jason pulled over and gave Jonah a nod.
“Take the first aid kid from the glove box, and there should be another one in the room. Jules has some kind of first aid training, I think, he’ll sort it out. I’ll go and park the car.”
Jonah reached over to the container
“Leave it, Jonah, I’ll bring it with me in a second.”
He watched the newcomer leave, then looked in the rear-view mirror at the three people on the backseat, lit a cigarette and drove around the corner.
Two hours earlier
Jason and Jonah swapped seats with Joseph and Jules, and Jason continued driving on the highway towards Chicago, all the while being nagged by Shackleton. All of the sudden, there was a flash in the sky that moved forward at great speed. Next, headlights flared up behind their car. Jason accelerated and kept to the middle of the road, while the others opened their windows and grabbed AKs and the shotgun.
“Right… light the fucker up”
They didn’t react immediately and Jason looked in the mirror. Clearly, they tried to make sure this was the thing that was after them and not some innocent bystander. Someone fired a warning shot.
Jason was annoyed, Axiom 17 automatically popping into his head: Give no "fair warnings." Surprise is the only advantage you have then focused on the road as Joseph opened full auto on the vehicle behind them, while Jules blasted away with the shotgun. They must have been pretty accurate because within a matter of seconds, he could see the headlights behind him go in all directions as their pursuer lost control of the vehicle.
Then, a white flash. Their own car out of control. Flipping over. Screeching. Sparks. Bright stars flashing before him. The car came to a standstill.
“Everyone out! Get the package!”
They all got out, Jason and Joseph able to grab an AK and started aiming at the other vehicle, where that Thing was also coming out of. Jonah crawled out of the same side, dragging the package and was about to take off when Jason called him to stay near. There was no way he was going to be able to find Jonah in the fields, if he took of like he had done previously. Then, bursts were fired at the thing. Jules had grabbed the shotgun and let off a few shots too. He was hurt, but not as badly as Joseph, whose arm was bleeding badly. They had shot the thing up pretty well, but somehow the damage did not stop or slow it down. Then, Joseph and Jason saw something in the air. Something Jason had seen before, at Groversville. Some wasp-like creature, human sized, perhaps even bigger, with large wings and strange appendages.
Jason felt some bile rise up in the back of his throat, but he kept it together. He glanced over at Joseph, who had a strange glimmer in his eyes, and opened up fully automatic. He hit the thing mid-center, a perfect shot. It turned and pointed some strange implement at Joseph, that same kind of thing that the creature in Groversville had pointed at Jules. A massive discharge burst through the air, narrowly missing Joseph and creating a crater in the tarmac behind them. Jason opened up and was sure that he had hit the thing… but it wasn’t there anymore, it had somehow shifted a few meters. Further up, Jules fired his shotgun at the humanoid, while it was struggling with Jonah to get the container.
Joseph opened up again, emptying his clip into the flying thing, hitting it again, and shredding it. It fell down, and immediately the effect was visible on the humanoid attacker. It didn’t regenerate as quickly, and Jules was able to dispatch it quickly.
He doused it in single malt and lit it up, while Jonah kept close to Jason, who pulled the turtleneck of his shirt in front of his mouth and put the hoodie up. Joseph had run up to the other vehicle and was trying to change the tire that he had shot a minute ago. Jason signaled a car to stop, keeping the AK aimed at the chauffeur, who looked like a truck driver. The man stopped, kept his hands visible and got out of the car. Jason got Jonah to check if the man was armed. Jonah shook his head, all clear.
“I’m sorry, but we need your vehicle. Keep running the way you came from and don’t stop”. The truck driver blinked a few times, then turned and ran off.
They all got in the car and continued the trip. Shackleton became more and more agitated. He kept going on that they were going to deliver the package to Majestic-12, that he didn’t want to go back, that it was a set-up.
He wanted them to take the parcel to a friend, an old cell mate called Simon. Jason asked him where he could find Simon, to shut him up. Jason had a good think and realized he had lost track of Shackleton during the fight. He hadn’t seen the man come out of the car or get to the commandeered vehicle. He had just been there on the back seat, all of the sudden.
Jason blinked. Jonah was looking at him, and so where the others on the back seat.
“What?”
They looked at him as if he had been in the middle of a conversation he had no recollection of.
“What???”
“You just totally changed your mind, you asked where to go to to find this Agent Simon…”
“Screw this, none of this rubbish anymore, we’re delivering this package in Chicago, and that’s it. If I change my mind again, it’s him messing with me, OK?”
Jason accelerated and turned the radio up, to tune the conversation on the back seat out. He still caught snippets, Shackleton droning on and on about Sky Devils. The man seemed to be getting more worked up, to the point of desperate.
Jason looked across the barrel of his silenced gun, which was aimed at Jules’ face. He took a long, deep breath.
“OK… what happened, Jules?”
“You pulled over, and told Jonah to take the container and run with it…”
Jason reversed the gun and gave it to Jules.
“Hang on to my gun, this is getting ridiculous.”
He looked at Shackleton, and lit a cigarette.
“Right… you got my attention good and proper now. What do you want?”
Shackleton repeated the same over again, this time a bit more coherent. How he had fought against the Sky Devils with his cell. How something had happened, and he had no recollection of a long time, how he was sure we were going to deliver him back to Majestic-12, not Delta Green. How those wasp-like creatures were after him and wanted to take him home (he looked up into the sky). How they had experimented on him.
Jason tuned the others out and started thinking, looking for solutions. something wasn't right about this. There was no Shackleton. He was sure of that. There had been 2 guys in the car at the facility, the same two guys at the petrol station. Joseph and Jonah. When they took off in the car together there had been another guy. Out of the blue. Jules hadn't reacted to it or thought it odd. But Jason knew the guy wasn't there when he got in and ... then he was. He had given him his shotgun to reload. Shackleton hadn't. They had gotten into another fight and again, no Shackleton to be seen until they got back in the car. Shackleton had to be linked to the package, that cylinder. Some kind of mind control. It had done it to Joseph first, forcing him off the road, then twice to Jason, when he didn't want to go along with this Agent Simon business. Whatever it was, the entity knew a lot of DG protocols. About Majestic-12. Sky-devils.
"Alright, Shackleton, tell me about Agent Simon."
"Ok. He's a cell-mate. I shouldn't tell you this, but his name is Clive Baughman and he..."
Jason stopped hearing the rest. Baughman. Operation Lazarus. He didn't exactly remember all of the details, but the guy had been very busy, more than ten Ops in about ten years. and he had gone inactive in the late 60s. And been dead for over a year.
"Baughman is dead, Shackleton..."
Shackleton fell silent. Jason observed him in the mirror, seeing confusion in the man's... thing's.. whatever... eyes.
"Then... you got to let me go."
Jason thought things over while driving. Sky-devils. They clearly were the wasp-like creatures. He let his mind wander over Magenta. Those things had been there. Together with other things. Greys. Experimenting on people. That is what happened to Shackleton. And they had locked him up. Done something to him that was linked to that cylinder. Somehow it was able to influence them, communicate with them. The mission was to drop the parcel of in Chicago.
He looked in the rear view mirror again, casting his eyes over J-cell. Jules. The guy had seen stuff. He had been there at Magenta. And Iago. He might understand and agree what the right thing to do was in this case. The others, clearly new to this. The whole Shackleton thing already shook them, as he had clearly seen in Jonah's eyes in the Green Box. They didn't need this. First mission, and going against the rules, not following orders. Ignorance is bliss. Jules would probably suspect something. The guy wasn't stupid.
"Sounds like you've had a rough time, Shackleton. We've been up against those things before, and the stuff that has happened to you could have happened to us as well. Could have happened to Jasper too for all we know."
Jason made eye contact with Jules.
"How bout we get to a motel first, and see about getting these guys patched up and then we'll have a think about how to sort this...?"
Jason turned the corner and sped up, leaving the motel. Jonah, Joseph and Jules behind him.
"Where do you want to go, Shackleton?"
"Just end it, I don't care about anything else"
Jason looked in the mirror, and saw Shackleton sitting there, sagging shoulders, flanked by Nancy who was fidgeting with something and Norman, who was staring out of the window.
Now
"There you go, Jason, your first failed Op."
"I didn't fail the Op, Norman. In my books Kaleidoscope was a success."
Steam was coming from the bonnet, and the front of the car was crumpled where it had hit the concrete wall, somewhere on an industrial estate. Jason folded his knife and put it away
He looked at the dented cylinder next to him, and the fluid that slowly leaked out of it.
Agent Shackleton. Missing in Action: date unknown. Retired: 1997.
He picked up the phone and dialed the number.
"A-cell? This is Jason. Kaleidoscope compromised. Package destroyed..."
Jonah got back in the car, closing the door.
“What now, Jason?”
“Now we’ll get some first aid kits at the chemist and some painkillers for them, then we take a break and drop the package off in Chicago, as discussed…”
He looked in the mirror, locking eyes with Shackleton on the backseat. This should have been an easy one, just a quick drop-off to ease the new guys into Delta Green…
January 1997, 12 hours earlier
“What are you doing with my car?”
Jason got up and look behind him, where the voice came from
“Knight. They got you on this babysit job… hang on. They said I’d meet Jules here, did you…”
“Yeah, they transferred me to J-cell”
He nodded and started going through the trunk. Mexican money, clown masks, a shotgun, red toolbox containing… teeth… Yeah, looked like someone had fun at an Opera. They cleaned up the back seat which was full of rubbish, and hid the loaded shotgun under a blanket.
Jules emptied a bottle of vodka that he had found over the spot where an old burger had gone rancid and moldy, which annoyed Jason. Waste of vodka, even if it’s a cheap one, is still a waste…
“So, what’s the job, Jason?”
“Got to follow two Mules, Jonah and Joseph. Guess they’re the new additions to J-cell now…” Jason almost added something, but didn’t and lit a cigarette instead, inhaling deeply.
“They’re picking up a package at 1900, then head to a drop-off point. We’re here to eyeball them, just make sure the job gets done. Easy. Right?”
He got behind the wheel and took off, giving Knight-Jules the address of the pick-up point, and also the coordinates of the eventual destination, which turned out to be somewhere near Chicago.
Jules grabbed a box that he had brought from the backseat, and opened it, revealing a bottle of more than decent single malt and two glasses. He poured a decent measure in them and handed one to Jason.
“To Jude and Jasper”
It took a second for Jason to process this. The two previous members had been gone for close to six months now. Other things had happened. Trying to get things sorted at work, get back in the good books. The call from Sue, telling him she couldn’t handle their daughter anymore, and that she had decided it was time for Jason to take care of her. Cleaning out the house, so there wasn’t anything for his daughter to find. The surprise he got when he found her reading through some of his occult books. A visit to the doctor, giving him the Bad News (“Don’t worry we caught it early, you should be OK”). Chemo. Pills. No Ops.
“Yeah… to Jude and Jasper…”
It didn’t take them long to reach their first destination and Jason slowly drove past the pick-up point, turned the car and parked, taking his time to observe the other cars and area. All seemed quiet.
About fifteen minutes later, another car turned the corner and pulled up at the location. Jason handed his binoculars to Jules, who had a good look.
“Two guys, one is going to the door, another guy handed him something, looks like some kind of cylinder. There’s another guy, he… well hello…”
“What?”
“Nothing. Just that I’ve seen this guy before, on my last Op.”
Jason waited until the other car had left and turned the corner, then lit up another cigarette and followed them, checking the GPS which showed a blinking light.
“Looks like the tracker is working”
They had followed them for a few hours now. They were making good progress, the guy driving the other car pushing it a bit, going just over the speed limit. Not enough to get fined, but enough for a patrol car to notice. Jason made a note to fill them in on that. Apart from that they seemed to do well, Jules had checked regularly, confirming the two FNG’s were doing OK. They had pulled over at a petrol station, one of them had gone in, Jules as well, then back on the road.
“Did you see that guy?”
“What guy?”
“The one in the car that just overtook us. He looked… strange…”
Jason could still see the guys taillights in front of him, going fast. Way too fast. He picked up speed himself, closing the distance to the other DG car. A few moments later the other car barreled into a vehicle, coming to a stand-still.
“Here we go”Jason hit the brakes and Jules was out of the vehicle before it had come to a full stand-still, running towards the other DG vehicle. Jason saw movement, two guys getting out of the wrecked car, another guy heading towards them. He accelerated but missed the attacker. He turned the car and got out, taking the shotgun and aiming it at the attacker while moving closer. He was fighting one of the FNGs, the other he had seen running off. Jules was going around the car and had grabbed something of the backseat. The guy fighting the assailant had made a move, giving Jason a clear line of fire. He pulled the trigger, blasting the guy’s head apart… it split… the leftovers of the head turned grey… as well as part of his clothes. Something was wrong. Something looked familiar. Groversville… the thing in the bathroom… he saw the split head move, parts reconnecting.
“Fuck…”
He saw the new guy take off, running back towards the car. Good. He had the right reflex. Alphonse’s Axiom nr 13: If you're attacked, break contact. Do not stand and fight when the opposition has the initiative. Retreat, regroup at the rally point, go back later and kill them in their sleep.
Jason turned and moved as quick a he could back to the car. Newbie had taken the driver’s seat, and he saw the other new guy jump in the back and Jules in the passenger seat. He opened the backdoor and threw himself in, just as the new guy took off. A container was strapped in the middle of the backseat. They took off at speed.
A few minutes later, he told the driver to slow down a bit, stay just under the maximum speed. Next to Jason, Shackleton lit a cigarette. Hang on… there were only 4 of them in the car before. Now five. The guy was sitting in the middle, holding the container. Beefy guy, crew cut, older suit. Looked like a typical Fed. Jason was sure that there were only four of them when they left, and now there were five. The others didn’t seem to find this odd. He looked at Jules, signalling to Shackleton with his eyes, but Jules didn’t react. How did he even know he guy’s name?
“Right, so who’s Joseph?”
The driver put his hand up. He had recognized Jules as well, and they had been talking for a moment. Jason hadn’t paid attention, instead looking at the guy at the other side of the backseat.
“So you’re Jonah”
A nod.
“Either of you got combat experience or can handle firearms?”
Joseph confirmed, Jonah shook his head
“So, what’s your expertise, Jonah?”
“History, archaeology, anthr…”
“OK, that’s enough for now.”
Alright. A cop or a fed and an academic. That shifted the balance a bit more from Cowboys to where Jason liked it to be. He started putting a text message together for A-cell.
*Kaleidoscope compromised
*Package secure
*MULES secure, continuing in single vehicle
*MULES attacked by entity: human-sized, made up from similar substance as
entity encountered in motel bathroom (Operation: Magenta).
* Entity immune to kinetic damage, regenerates VERY fast
*Entity lost means of transport
*J-Cell continuing to coordinates unless instructed differently.
*Joined by Agent Shackleton
*Awaiting further instructions
*Deliver package.
*Eliminate vector.
*Shackleton?
*Jonah, Joseph and third agent in car. Shackleton. Experienced.
* Negative
*Crew cut, light brown hair, heavy set, approx.. 6ft.
Late 30s, early 40s, green eyes, dated suit
* NegativeSo A-cell didn’t know this guy.
“We can either go to the destination or take a stop at the green-box in Kansas city. It’s not really a detour, and it might give us an edge of that thing catches up with us. Downside: stopping at the green-box will reduce the head start we have on it. Thoughts?”
He listened to what they thought about it. Opinions were divided, but Shackleton kept budding in, pushing to know where they were going, getting more anxious as time went past, started mentioning Sky Devils. Majestic-12. Really didn’t want to go wherever we were heading.
Sky Devils. Jason had heard that before. Seen it somewhere… in some notes or something…. At Clive Baughman’s place, that’s right. He couldn’t remember the exact details though.
“Jonah, get some shut-eye, Jules, you keep your eyes open while Joseph drives. We’re continuing to our destination. No stop at the green-box.”
Jason closed his eyes, looking as if he went to sleep. He kept listening for a bit as Shackleton kept trying to convince the others of not doing this, but to go somewhere else, to a guy he knew.
Jason woke up, cursing himself for falling asleep. The car had made a sudden movement and Joseph was muttering something about having taken an exit where he shouldn’t. Jason looked at Shackleton, who was smoking and looking ahead of him. Jason sighed and lit a cigarette up himself.
“Don’t worry about it. Set up the GPS for the green-box, we’re bound to head there anyway, and I don’t want any accidents to happen…”
They made their way to the self-storage facility and Jason had taken both the new guys in, shown them the green-box and explained how these worked. They had grabbed all the firearms (AKs and handguns) they could find as well as an axe and an entrenching tool. He had a word in private with both of them in regards to Shackleton. Jonah said he met him at the airport, but then got confused, and couldn’t really remember exactly where and when they met. He said that Shackleton had been with them all along. From what Jason and Jules had observed, there had only been 2 people in the other car up to the point where they all had jumped in the same car. That’s when he had seen Shackleton the first time.As they returned, it was clear the Shackleton had been working on the others, setting them up against Jason. In how far it had worked, Jason had no clue.
After about half an hour, they realized they wouldn’t find a chemist in the area and returned to the motel. Jason pulled over and gave Jonah a nod.
“Take the first aid kid from the glove box, and there should be another one in the room. Jules has some kind of first aid training, I think, he’ll sort it out. I’ll go and park the car.”
Jonah reached over to the container
“Leave it, Jonah, I’ll bring it with me in a second.”
He watched the newcomer leave, then looked in the rear-view mirror at the three people on the backseat, lit a cigarette and drove around the corner.
Two hours earlier
Jason and Jonah swapped seats with Joseph and Jules, and Jason continued driving on the highway towards Chicago, all the while being nagged by Shackleton. All of the sudden, there was a flash in the sky that moved forward at great speed. Next, headlights flared up behind their car. Jason accelerated and kept to the middle of the road, while the others opened their windows and grabbed AKs and the shotgun.
“Right… light the fucker up”
They didn’t react immediately and Jason looked in the mirror. Clearly, they tried to make sure this was the thing that was after them and not some innocent bystander. Someone fired a warning shot.
Jason was annoyed, Axiom 17 automatically popping into his head: Give no "fair warnings." Surprise is the only advantage you have then focused on the road as Joseph opened full auto on the vehicle behind them, while Jules blasted away with the shotgun. They must have been pretty accurate because within a matter of seconds, he could see the headlights behind him go in all directions as their pursuer lost control of the vehicle.
Then, a white flash. Their own car out of control. Flipping over. Screeching. Sparks. Bright stars flashing before him. The car came to a standstill.
“Everyone out! Get the package!”
They all got out, Jason and Joseph able to grab an AK and started aiming at the other vehicle, where that Thing was also coming out of. Jonah crawled out of the same side, dragging the package and was about to take off when Jason called him to stay near. There was no way he was going to be able to find Jonah in the fields, if he took of like he had done previously. Then, bursts were fired at the thing. Jules had grabbed the shotgun and let off a few shots too. He was hurt, but not as badly as Joseph, whose arm was bleeding badly. They had shot the thing up pretty well, but somehow the damage did not stop or slow it down. Then, Joseph and Jason saw something in the air. Something Jason had seen before, at Groversville. Some wasp-like creature, human sized, perhaps even bigger, with large wings and strange appendages.
Jason felt some bile rise up in the back of his throat, but he kept it together. He glanced over at Joseph, who had a strange glimmer in his eyes, and opened up fully automatic. He hit the thing mid-center, a perfect shot. It turned and pointed some strange implement at Joseph, that same kind of thing that the creature in Groversville had pointed at Jules. A massive discharge burst through the air, narrowly missing Joseph and creating a crater in the tarmac behind them. Jason opened up and was sure that he had hit the thing… but it wasn’t there anymore, it had somehow shifted a few meters. Further up, Jules fired his shotgun at the humanoid, while it was struggling with Jonah to get the container.
Joseph opened up again, emptying his clip into the flying thing, hitting it again, and shredding it. It fell down, and immediately the effect was visible on the humanoid attacker. It didn’t regenerate as quickly, and Jules was able to dispatch it quickly.
He doused it in single malt and lit it up, while Jonah kept close to Jason, who pulled the turtleneck of his shirt in front of his mouth and put the hoodie up. Joseph had run up to the other vehicle and was trying to change the tire that he had shot a minute ago. Jason signaled a car to stop, keeping the AK aimed at the chauffeur, who looked like a truck driver. The man stopped, kept his hands visible and got out of the car. Jason got Jonah to check if the man was armed. Jonah shook his head, all clear.
“I’m sorry, but we need your vehicle. Keep running the way you came from and don’t stop”. The truck driver blinked a few times, then turned and ran off.
They all got in the car and continued the trip. Shackleton became more and more agitated. He kept going on that they were going to deliver the package to Majestic-12, that he didn’t want to go back, that it was a set-up.
He wanted them to take the parcel to a friend, an old cell mate called Simon. Jason asked him where he could find Simon, to shut him up. Jason had a good think and realized he had lost track of Shackleton during the fight. He hadn’t seen the man come out of the car or get to the commandeered vehicle. He had just been there on the back seat, all of the sudden.
Jason blinked. Jonah was looking at him, and so where the others on the back seat.
“What?”
They looked at him as if he had been in the middle of a conversation he had no recollection of.
“What???”
“You just totally changed your mind, you asked where to go to to find this Agent Simon…”
“Screw this, none of this rubbish anymore, we’re delivering this package in Chicago, and that’s it. If I change my mind again, it’s him messing with me, OK?”
Jason accelerated and turned the radio up, to tune the conversation on the back seat out. He still caught snippets, Shackleton droning on and on about Sky Devils. The man seemed to be getting more worked up, to the point of desperate.Jason looked across the barrel of his silenced gun, which was aimed at Jules’ face. He took a long, deep breath.
“OK… what happened, Jules?”
“You pulled over, and told Jonah to take the container and run with it…”
Jason reversed the gun and gave it to Jules.
“Hang on to my gun, this is getting ridiculous.”
He looked at Shackleton, and lit a cigarette.
“Right… you got my attention good and proper now. What do you want?”
Shackleton repeated the same over again, this time a bit more coherent. How he had fought against the Sky Devils with his cell. How something had happened, and he had no recollection of a long time, how he was sure we were going to deliver him back to Majestic-12, not Delta Green. How those wasp-like creatures were after him and wanted to take him home (he looked up into the sky). How they had experimented on him.
Jason tuned the others out and started thinking, looking for solutions. something wasn't right about this. There was no Shackleton. He was sure of that. There had been 2 guys in the car at the facility, the same two guys at the petrol station. Joseph and Jonah. When they took off in the car together there had been another guy. Out of the blue. Jules hadn't reacted to it or thought it odd. But Jason knew the guy wasn't there when he got in and ... then he was. He had given him his shotgun to reload. Shackleton hadn't. They had gotten into another fight and again, no Shackleton to be seen until they got back in the car. Shackleton had to be linked to the package, that cylinder. Some kind of mind control. It had done it to Joseph first, forcing him off the road, then twice to Jason, when he didn't want to go along with this Agent Simon business. Whatever it was, the entity knew a lot of DG protocols. About Majestic-12. Sky-devils.
"Alright, Shackleton, tell me about Agent Simon."
"Ok. He's a cell-mate. I shouldn't tell you this, but his name is Clive Baughman and he..."
Jason stopped hearing the rest. Baughman. Operation Lazarus. He didn't exactly remember all of the details, but the guy had been very busy, more than ten Ops in about ten years. and he had gone inactive in the late 60s. And been dead for over a year.
"Baughman is dead, Shackleton..."
Shackleton fell silent. Jason observed him in the mirror, seeing confusion in the man's... thing's.. whatever... eyes.
"Then... you got to let me go."
Jason thought things over while driving. Sky-devils. They clearly were the wasp-like creatures. He let his mind wander over Magenta. Those things had been there. Together with other things. Greys. Experimenting on people. That is what happened to Shackleton. And they had locked him up. Done something to him that was linked to that cylinder. Somehow it was able to influence them, communicate with them. The mission was to drop the parcel of in Chicago.
He looked in the rear view mirror again, casting his eyes over J-cell. Jules. The guy had seen stuff. He had been there at Magenta. And Iago. He might understand and agree what the right thing to do was in this case. The others, clearly new to this. The whole Shackleton thing already shook them, as he had clearly seen in Jonah's eyes in the Green Box. They didn't need this. First mission, and going against the rules, not following orders. Ignorance is bliss. Jules would probably suspect something. The guy wasn't stupid.
"Sounds like you've had a rough time, Shackleton. We've been up against those things before, and the stuff that has happened to you could have happened to us as well. Could have happened to Jasper too for all we know."
Jason made eye contact with Jules.
"How bout we get to a motel first, and see about getting these guys patched up and then we'll have a think about how to sort this...?"
Jason turned the corner and sped up, leaving the motel. Jonah, Joseph and Jules behind him.
"Where do you want to go, Shackleton?"
"Just end it, I don't care about anything else"
Jason looked in the mirror, and saw Shackleton sitting there, sagging shoulders, flanked by Nancy who was fidgeting with something and Norman, who was staring out of the window.
Now
"There you go, Jason, your first failed Op."
"I didn't fail the Op, Norman. In my books Kaleidoscope was a success."
Steam was coming from the bonnet, and the front of the car was crumpled where it had hit the concrete wall, somewhere on an industrial estate. Jason folded his knife and put it away
He looked at the dented cylinder next to him, and the fluid that slowly leaked out of it.
Agent Shackleton. Missing in Action: date unknown. Retired: 1997.
He picked up the phone and dialed the number.
"A-cell? This is Jason. Kaleidoscope compromised. Package destroyed..."
Sunday, 10 March 2019
Session 15 (Agent Krobar)
 |
| Scrote |
“Hey Scrote, missed me?”, he bent over and ruffled the massive dogs wrinkled head for a bit, and was rewarded with a handful of slobber he wiped on his fatigues. He headed towards the kitchen, followed by the large quadruped and took a couple of beers out of the fridge, ignoring the containers of food Sam had packed away.
He walked into the loungeroom, dimmed the light and turned the stereo on. Dopes to Infinity started to blast through the speakers, and he nodded, with a bit of a smile. The last thing he did before flopping himself onto the sofa was grab a fat joint out of a small box. He lit up, watched the smoke drift to the ceiling and closed his eyes. While the music flooded through the room, his mind wandered over the recent events.
Kodiak had gotten to work straight away on the second terminal, identifying locations where the electricity output was high. After about half an hour, he had found two likely locations. One was the local high school, but that kinda made sense, as it was also the gathering point for families who didn’t have electricity or heating and had been turned into emergency accommodation. The other one looked like a normal house. The looked at each other and nodded.
“Let’s check it out”
The decision had been made to load up the truck with all the sensitive materials, after Krobar had a run-in with some linesmen, who were asking more and more urgent questions, which he couldn’t answer. He had told the others the FEMA cover was wearing thin, and they should consider abandoning this spot and stay on the move. The counter on the SecureLine showed 21:44:16 and kept counting down. On one of his trips back, Knight mentioned a cop outside, looking like he was off-duty, but asking questions of linesmen, who clearly weren’t able or willing to help him.
As they moved to the car with the last load, the cop approached them, hat in hand. He claimed he needed assistance with a case, something about finding out where there was power etc. Krobar’s first instinct was to tell the cop to fuck off, but then he realized the guy may have known something they didn’t, perhaps even seen the things that had torn Mother Mills in two.
They made their way inside and fucked around a bit on the terminal, trying to get the cop to open up. The guy clearly was tired and not in a talkative mood, but after a while he said he had found a body inside an ATM boot. The guy was only wearing underwear, so clearly had to have come from a nearby location, so the policeman wanted to follow up. He had been glancing over at the screen, while Kodiak tried his best to steer away from sensitive locations. It didn’t work. The copper stopped him and tapped the screen, indicating the exact spot they were about to visit themselves.
Making up some ridiculous excuse about having to go there themselves to check what was going on, as the output was too high and they weren’t able to shut down remotely, they convinced him to let them come along, and even succeeded in getting Kodiak to drive along with him.
Once they arrived at the house, the cop got out and walked up to the front door. Knight and Krobar observed him from the pick-up. Kodiak remained in cop car. Clearly no-one answered the ringing and knocking, as the cop returned to the car. Krobar moved his hand into the small sportsbag, taking the safety off the SMG they had taken from the Green Box, while Knight checked his Magnum.
Two short blasts sounded from the car ahead of them, so they got out of the car and quickly made their way over towards it through the biting cold. The cop had cuffed himself to the steering wheel, relieved from his gun by Kodiak. Krobar noticed an AR-15 next to the cop and brightened up, flashing a smile. The cop kept talking while they were discussing how to proceed. He tried to ignore the man at first, but he kept jabbering on and on, and Krobar janked the SMG free and pointed it at the cop, telling him to shut the fuck up.
Kodiak intervened, seemingly convinced Krobar was about to turn the guy into a sieve and pushed the AR into his hands.
“Have this, but let the guy live… “
Krobar smiled widely, taking the rifle and handing the SMG to his cell mate.
 |
| Eli Fillagree |
As the others kept an eye on things, Krobar fired a burst at the body, but missed it totally. Annoyed by this, he called out, “There’s something moving in the dark!” And let rip again, this time piercing the body. Some kind of noise resounded, coming from … outside? … and straight after, something ripped out of the corpse, and moved into the darkness, too quickly to be shot at. They were all on full alert now, and in an adrenaline fuelled 20 seconds, they fired a number of bursts at the thing, which they could now identify as the creature mentioned in the papers: a legless form, moving on arms, sitting on what looked like a massive cock, with an eyeless head and two slits on the sides as ears. As soon as they blasted it away, the thing’s ‘cock’ tore itself free and moved towards us, covered at one end by a mass of small tentacles and on the other with some pincerlike protrusions. Kodiak stopped it in its tracks by slamming an ice-pick into it.
They made their way up, clearing the house room by room, fully aware that their presence would be known to anyone inside after the firefight downstairs. Everything remained quiet, apart from some of those noises outside. Downstairs they found some bloody marks on the wall, clumsily hidden by a blanket, and a man’s bedroom. Someone had been attacked there and the linen was covered in orangey stains, like what they had seen at the Mills place.
Upstairs they found two more bedrooms. No one to be found there, but clearly inhabited by two girls, with an interest in art. One room had quite a few sculptures in it, including one that looked exactly like the creature they had just dispatched. Kodiak called out from the other room, he had found some footage on a computer, showing a clip of how the girls had lured some vagrant into the house, and went to town on him, stabbing their heads towards his flesh like a couple of woodpeckers, with those Things sticking out of their dropped jaws. The whole thing was affecting Kodiak badly, and they decided to bring in the petrol and torch the place. Checking the messages on the phone, they got an indication as to where the two women might be: “Chaaaaad” had invited them to a party in one of the university dorms.
When they left the house, they heard a thudding noise coming from the patrol car. When they opened the door, the cop was yelling about something in the trees, clearly scared shitless. They quickly discussed the matter and decided to pull the policeman in, showing him what was going on, before torching the place.
Krobar sat up, reaching over for another beer. “Ego, The Living Planet” started to play, so he turned the volume up, to a level that made Scrote decide to find a quitter place in the house. Krobar didn’t give a shit about the neighbours. They all knew better than complain or ring the cops, if they knew what was good for them. He rubbed his eyes, cursing himself for not having something about the part that came next. It could have ended up totally different.
It seemed to have the desired effect on the officer, Eli Fillagree. Seeing the remains of the created and the pinned down tendril, plus the footage on the computer made it clear to him that something was on the loose here, infecting civilians and turning them into some kind of monsters. Another issue had become apparent: the girls were at the university, but there was also something out here as well. Something that would freeze to death soon in this cold and would more than likely make it’s way to a warmer area.
The Cell discussed it and decided to split up. Krobar offered to go after the girls and had hoped to get Kodiak with him. Knight said he’d go after the creature, which they expected would probably head to the high school, as it was closest to the house and one of the few areas with heating and power. Knight decided to take Kodiak along, leaving Krobar with the cop, who couldn’t even be considered a Friendly at this stage. This seriously pissed Krobar off, who already had Dawn of the Dead visions of a dorm full of students with cock-like tentacles dangling from their extended jaws chasing him, while the others would be chasing a single legless Penismonster.
They split and torched the house.
The front door slammed close, loud enough to wake Krobar up. Sam walked into the room, smiling widely when she saw him.
“Hey, Vang! Didn’t know if you were going to be home yet! All good with your mum?”
She picked up his beer and sat next to him, drinking what was left.
“Yeah, as good as could be expected, given the circumstances.”
She got up and heated some leftovers, and they sat together, listening to music and talking a bit. Krobar was happy to get some distraction, any topic was fine. After a while, Sam started to get a bit handsy and moved her hand to his crotch. Krobar jumped, pushing he away, perhaps harder than intended, but she fell, cutting her arm on the corner of the coffeetable. The cut started to bleed immediately, blood soaking her sleeve.
“What the fuck, Vanguard? What the hell is wrong with you?”
She got up and moved to the bathroom, holding her arm. Krobar watched her go. He wanted to follow her, apologize, try and explain. But he know he couldn’t.
In the car, Krobar returned the service weapon to Eli. They drove to the campus and parked behind the dorm. The backdoor was fitted with an alarm, so they decided they’d had to go through the front. Krobar told him to follow his lead, that he was going to make it look like he had taken the cop hostage. He put his balaclava on and marched Eli to the front and got the cop to signal the woman behind the counter to open the door. As soon as she had done that, Krobar came into view, pushing Eli in and pointing the rifle at the woman. He moved her into a cupboard under the stair, telling her that she’d be ok if she kept quiet.They moved upstairs, and soon started to hear music from one of the upper areas. Making their way there a bit of panic started to break out at the sight of a cop being pushed along by a masked guy with an automatic rifle. Krobar remembered something from the writings they had found, how infected people were lured out by the sight or smell of blood.
Putting it to the test, he smashed the butt of the rifle into one of the students who looked like a total dickhead, shattering his nose and spraying blood all over the area. Since no-one came out screaming (apart from the idiot blubbering on the floor), they moved on further into the corridors, opening doors and showing pics of the girls, asking if anyone had seen them.
After a while someone said they were in Chad’s room, pointing down the hallway. Arriving there, Krobar kicked the door in and was jumped on by one of the girls, tentacle in full glory, going straight for his face. Unable to use his rifle, he wrestled with the thing. Eli was unable to assist, as the other girl had jumped him and tried to overcome him as well. A frantic fight erupted, with Krobar able to land a few punches, but not enough to knock the Norwegian down. Eventually, he was able to land a solid headbutt, pushing her away and put her down with a burst from the rifle. As expected, the tendril removed itself, but was also shot to bits. In the meantime, Eli had also been able to freehimself and kill his opponent. The second tendril was also eliminated. Looking into the room, they saw a frantic Chad rush towards them, followed by a third tentacle. After dispatching it, Krobar looked Chad over. He was covered in bitemarks from the pincers. Not sure if this was enough to infect the young man, but thinking of the counter on the SecureLine, Krobar decided not to take any risks and killed the student with a burst in the back.
Sirens were audible, coming close at speed, so they made their move, still trying to keep up the pretence that Eli was a hostage. They made it to the patrol car, and started driving off, but it was clear that they would not make it by car out of the gated community, The car was ditched and they made their way over the wall, hotwiring a car a bit further away.
Krobar told Eli to direct him to the morgue, as he wanted to make sure the body Eli had found (clearly the 3rd occupant of the house), was also dealt with. They took it to the incinerator and destroyed any evidence to be found on him, only to be caught by the nightman, a spotty teenager. A few harsh words were enough to send him running, as Krobar really didn’t feel like shooting another kid tonight. They made their way out and drove off. Krobar chained the cop to the steering wheel and pistol-whipped him, knocking the officer out cold. He headed to a phonebooth and called it in, informing the other person on the line someone was locked up in a car, and bleeding.
Then, he made his way to the motel where he was supposed to meet up with Knight and Kodiak.
Upon arrival, only Knight was there. No pick-up, no Kodiak.
Apparently, things had gone bad after they had taken out the creature. Police had shown up and just like Krobar, they had come to the conclusion they wouldn’t be able to get away with the car which was loaded with sensitive materials. Kodiak had taken a flare and tossed it into the petrol tank but was too slow to get clear and got caught in the blast. Knight had seen him, down on the ground, and thought he was dead, but wasn’t 100% sure.
The risk of getting caught trying to get to the bottom of it was too big, and with a heavy heart Krobar decided not to try and go after Kodiak. He turned the SecureLine on and informed A-Cell that the threat had been dealt with. Answering a few of their questions he seemed to be able to convince him that all was taken care of, and the counter stopped ticking down.
He sat down, thinking what to do now, then said his goodbyes to Knight. He would make his way out by himself, after laying down for a few days in a nearby town.
He walked into the hallway and opened the door to the garage. Scrote followed him, giving him his usual stupid look. Krobar opened the garage, letting the winter air in, cold, but not apocalyptic like last week. He took his leather jacket and cut and got onto his Evolution. Time for a ride. Have a few beers. Get into a fight. He fired the bike up and took off.Scrote was looking at the bike as his master drove off. He walked a few steps out, clearly not impressed by the cold and lifted his leg, pissing against the bins.
Saturday, 16 February 2019
Session 14 (Agent KROBAR)
January 6th,
1997. 3:25pm
Krobar tore the condom off the small cylinder and flushed
it, pocketing the tube. He walked out, washed his hands and joined the others
at the bar in Lambert Airport, St. Louis. Kodiak slid a plate with steak over
to him and he dug in.
They woke up as the truck halted. Kellerman helped them out,
into the Utility yard where a lot of activity was going on and pointed at one
of the buildings. “That’s it, guys, Lafontaine City Utilities.”. A large amount
of people was waiting in line, and they made their way to the front. Some guy
piped up and Krobar tensed up, ready to headbutt him there and then, but Kodiak
and Knight talked the guy down, so he just smiled at the man holding a kid’s
hand.
Krobar had insisted on driving, not trusting the other guys skills
to drive a vehicle in this weather. It took them a while to get there, and
even Krobar wasn’t able to get the pick-up there without a scratch. Another car
was badly parked outside and when they got out, they could hear some faint music
coming from one of the houses, probably Mills’. Prior to entering, he siphoned
petrol out of Mills’ car into a jerrycan, refilling the truck as well as having
the can filled as well. Kodiak was adamant about not splitting the party, so
they all went through the front door, much to Krobar’s chagrin. The door
opened, only locked by a light chain which gave way when they applied pressure.
Indeed, the music came from here, loud jazzy noise, with some moaning in the
background. They were greeted by the
same heat, the same smell as in the office. They turned the lights on, and
cleared the room, which was filled with porn magazine all over the floor,
furniture, stuck up on walls. Boxes and boxes of the stuff. They carefully
proceeded, Knight checking corners with his gun, Kodiak holding his MagLite as
a club and Krobar hefting the crowbar he had liberated from the National Guard
truck.
Once Kodiak had composed himself, he went out to get the
jerrycan and began dousing the whole place in petrol. He clearly had had enough
and cleansing it by fire would make him feel a lot better. Knight and Krobar
made their way down the hallway, leaving the big guy to focus on a bit of arson.
No need for him to see some rotting carcass behind door number 3...
It almost took them an hour to get to the Green Box, being
forced to take a few detours due to fallen trees that hadn’t been cleared yet.
Once they arrived and opened the garage, it was clear that the tree that had
fallen on top of the Green Box and set of the silent alarm had knocked over a
heap of stuff, creating a chaotic sight in the cramped space. After quite a bit
of discussion they bitter cold decided the course of action for them. All the
items were loaded up onto the pick-up, and they made their way back to the
offices, where they would catalogue and make an inventory inside, rather than
freezing out here.
Krobar enjoyed a sip
of the hot coffee while warming his hands above the radiator. He looked up at
the map with the blinking lights, then at the guys hunched over the
Secure-Line. It had been a while since they’ve done anything together, even Klaus
was missing so it wasn’t really the same as before. Sure, he had met up and had
a good time with Kodiak, but this was an Opera…
Still, ball-freezing cold as it was, this beat making up inventory of Green Boxes with Klaus. Then again, that was exactly what Kodiak was doing at the moment, sending through the contents of Green Box 224 to A-cell. Or someone else who was bored enough to spend their afternoon receiving messages from Kodiak.
Still, ball-freezing cold as it was, this beat making up inventory of Green Boxes with Klaus. Then again, that was exactly what Kodiak was doing at the moment, sending through the contents of Green Box 224 to A-cell. Or someone else who was bored enough to spend their afternoon receiving messages from Kodiak.
January 5th, 1997, 11:07pm
Krobar tore the condom off the small cylinder and flushed
it, pocketing the tube. He walked out, washed his hands and joined the others
at the bar in Lambert Airport, St. Louis. Kodiak slid a plate with steak over
to him and he dug in.
“So… where’s Klaus?”
Kodiak shrugged and Knight kind of shook his head.
“It’s just us, Krobar.”
He nodded. “Figures… was bound to catch up with him one day…”
Kodiak raised an eyebrow.
Krobar lowered his voice “You know… Klaus… his grandfather,
and the whole situation.” He continued, noticing the blank look he got from
Kodiak.
“Right, so you didn’t know. Klaus’ grandfather, he was on
the Other Side during WWII, doing all weird stuff, medical experiments and all.
Seems like Klaus might have been flying under the radar for a while, but the
skeletons are out of the closet now. Come on, let’s go, Knight’s off already”.
He grabbed his kitbag and followed Knight, chewing the last piece of steak.
A Friendly, Private Kellerman, had taken them to one of the
trucks and showed where they could sit. Then he had taken them to their gear in
a neighbouring building, where they had changed into FEMA gear. Nothing
interesting, as usual, just some clothes, fake IDs and a Secure-Line. Then they
had moved out, close to midnight. The trip had taken forever, but, although
very uncomfortable, they all were able to catch some shut-eye along the way.
January 6th, 1997, 7:07am
They ID’ed themselves and Tanya Cambria, a woman in her fifties
let them into the building and guided them through the building to Mill’s office,
which would be their base of operations. When she opened the door, the were
blasted by a wave of hot air and a musty smell, which was kind of familiar, but
Krobar couldn’t put his finger on it.
After a few more pleasantries they closed the door on her,
turning the heater of and had a look around. Just a desk, two computers, a bit
map with lots of flashing light, which seemed to show which houses were going
without power. They checked the cabinets for the source of the smell but couldn’t
find anything. Kodiak went through a few of the drawers but didn’t find
anything.
Kodiak was having a look around the room, while Knight was
inspecting the desk. He was sure he knew this smell, it was a bit like… after
one of their parties? Yeah, that seemed to ring a bell. Knight cursed and
pulled his hand from under the desktop, covered in something “What the hell?”
He others came over “What’s that?”. Knight shook his head, “It
was underneath the desktop… it’s… semen…”
Krobar did his best not to laugh out. Yup, that’s right, one
of the parties. That was what Rancid’s basement had smelt like, the dirty pig. Knight
washed his hands frantically, and gathered
some cleaning products, while Krobar procured a few jars of instant coffee and
a water boiler, doding a barrage of questions from guys in the kitchen. This
would end badly, if they weren’t able to give them answers soon.
Kodiak had been digging through the pc and had figured out
that Skip Mills hadn’t answered any email since January 3rd, but had
spent a LOT of time going through porn after sending a last email. So… Skip had
gone out to check the Green Box, had returned and rather than doing his job, he
spent all his time redecorating the underside of his desktop. Public servants…
Kodiak set up the Secure-Line and contacted A-cell while
Krobar picked up car keys, and since it looked like Kodiak wasn’t getting
anywhere, they decide to brave the ridiculous cold and drive over to Mill’s
home, which was closer than the Green Box.
January 6th, 1997, 9:24am – 11:39am
Krobar had insisted on driving, not trusting the other guys skills
to drive a vehicle in this weather. It took them a while to get there, and
even Krobar wasn’t able to get the pick-up there without a scratch. Another car
was badly parked outside and when they got out, they could hear some faint music
coming from one of the houses, probably Mills’. Prior to entering, he siphoned
petrol out of Mills’ car into a jerrycan, refilling the truck as well as having
the can filled as well. Kodiak was adamant about not splitting the party, so
they all went through the front door, much to Krobar’s chagrin. The door
opened, only locked by a light chain which gave way when they applied pressure.
Indeed, the music came from here, loud jazzy noise, with some moaning in the
background. They were greeted by the
same heat, the same smell as in the office. They turned the lights on, and
cleared the room, which was filled with porn magazine all over the floor,
furniture, stuck up on walls. Boxes and boxes of the stuff. They carefully
proceeded, Knight checking corners with his gun, Kodiak holding his MagLite as
a club and Krobar hefting the crowbar he had liberated from the National Guard
truck.
As they moved carefully, a noise made them turn, and a man
was visible in the doorway from where the sounds of a porn movie were
originating. He was wearing an open nightrobe and clearly very happy to see
Kodiak, as he started to stumble/charge towards him. Mills (at least that’s who
we thought it was, as the guy was visible on some of the photographs on the
wall, in between stuck-up centrefolds, literally dropped his jaw and some fleshy
tentacle with pincers forced itself out of his mouth. Krobar flanked him to the
left, while Knight tried to take aim at the guy. It lunged for Kodiak, but
missed him, while the big guy put all of his weight behind the MagLite and
cracked him one across the face. Before the thing/man could recover, Krobar
swung his weapon and embedded the crowbar into the guys skull. Knight opened
up, perforating the tentacle, which now was freeing itself out of the guy’s throat,
with multiple shot. The sight of the thing made Krobar’s stomach turn, all he
could think of was Rancid’s basement and god know what fucking filth the guy
was up to, as he hit Mill’s head again and again with the crowbar, splitting
it, spattering bits of bone and brainmatter all over the floor, walls, boots
and Kodiak’s face. He stopped for a second, noticing Skip wasn’t moving anymore
and straightened up. He looked round, wiping some gristle off his cheek and saw
a deathly pale Kodiak heading for the sink.
“What? What’s wrong, Kodiak?” He cleaned the dripping metal
bar on Skip’s robes and stepped back. “and watch your step… looks like you’re
standing in a puddle of Skip’s swimmers…”. Kodiak cursed and rubbed his foot on
a kitchen towel. Then they noticed another smell. Something dead. Dead for a
while.
Once Kodiak had composed himself, he went out to get the
jerrycan and began dousing the whole place in petrol. He clearly had had enough
and cleansing it by fire would make him feel a lot better. Knight and Krobar
made their way down the hallway, leaving the big guy to focus on a bit of arson.
No need for him to see some rotting carcass behind door number 3...
Some of the rooms were relatively untouched, others covered
in more filth. As they opened the last door on the left, they found a scene of
carnage. Something once human was laying on the bed, seemingly exploded by
something that must have burst out of her. Something a LOT larger than a
chestburster… This probably was Skip’s mother, or what was left of her. Looking
closer they saw small puncture wounds all over her legs and arms, which were
the only relatively intact body parts to be seen amid a mass of intestines and
organs. It clearly bothered Knight, but he was professional enough to go ahead
and inspect the scene. They immediately noticed the bloody handprints on the
wall. All the way from the bedhead, up to the ceiling, where a hole was punched
through. Krobar took five minuted to go through the room and gather Mum’s
jewelry and a small amount of cash she had hidden under her stack of
nightclothes in the wardrobe. Not a heap but enough to cover his next Opera
expenses.
They called out to Kodiak and regrouped. Krobar was pretty
blunt about it. If there was any chance that thing was up in the attic, he
wanted to make sure the bastard was 100% dead, rather than relying on fire to
destroy it.
With a rickety stack of coffee table and stepladder they investigated
the attic, Kodiak leading the way. They immediately found another opening in
the roof. Clearly the thing had gotten away.
Sirens started to sound in the distance, so Kodiak torched
the place. Krobar told them to make their exit through the back and head up to
the parallel street. He would join them by car, unless he couldn’t shake the
cops. With quite some skill, he was able to drive the vehicle at speed into a
side street, before being noticed by the cops, then turned and slowed down so
the others on foot could catch up with him. As soon as they closed the door, he
took off, in the general direction of the Green Box, leaving the sirens and
smoke of the burning house behind them.
January 6th, 1997, 12:24pam
January 6th, 1997, 2:21pm – 3:30pm
Two trips were enough to get everything from the vehicle to
the office, which they locked. By then it was well after 2pm. They sorted the
items, bagging all weapons and ammo, which Knight started to check and load,
while Krobar went and got some goulash from the kitchen. He handed them all a
plate and pulled a bottle of Jack out of his kitbag, pouring them all a
generous portion. Kodiak entered all of the odd pieces, receiving feedback from
whomever was at the other end of the line:
- large nonahedron (nine-sided shape) decorative box, carved from some unidentifiable hardwood. Appears to be a puzzle box.
- A: SECURED
- Three very old, very battered BETA videocassettes of the Porky's trilogy. The second tape isnoticeably more worn than the others.
- A: SECURED
- A large list printed on yellowed computer stock, accordion-folded. It is easily forty inches thick. The list seems to describe exacting descriptions of pairs of hands.
- A: SECURED
- A crudely carved mannequin head. A hatchet is lodged in the cranium and there are scorch marks around the base.
- A: SECURED
- The files of one Abner Lebowitz consist primarily of maps. The maps appear to be yearly surveys of the Stockyard District in Chicago from 1910 to 1924.
- A: SECURED
- An unopened 50th-anniversary edition of Monopoly.
- A: SECURED
- An antique violin and bow in a cracked leather carry case.
- A: SECURED
Nothing out of the ordinary until Kodiak entered the next
batch.
- Hundreds of yellow legal pads contain failed drafts of “Escaping Altimira”, along with fouraudio cassette tapes. There is also an ammo box with Portuguese lettering on the side.
- A: Box?
- K: Ammo box?
- A: Ammo box closed?
- K: Closed
- A: Locked?
- K: Negative
- A: UNSECURED
- A: K-CELL CLEARED HOT
- A: ELIMINATE VECTOR
- A: NORWEGIAN CONTAMINATION PROBABLE
- A: COUNTDOWN COMMENCED
- 24:00:00
- A: DUCK SOUP INBOUND
“What the fuck? Norwegian contamination? Duck Soup?”
January 6th,
1997. 3:25pm
Krobar drained the
plastic cup of whisky in one go and took a deep breath. The stared at the
second terminal, with all the flashing lights, while Kodiak and Knight were
discussing something in the background.
Fucking hell… why can’t
these guys call something what it is. Ducksoup? Alright, they’re sending a
cleaner. In 24 hours. To do what? Clean up the town? Us? What the fuck… why can’t
they just have a little bit of faith in us, and let us handle shit. That
fucking counter really felt like a threat.
Not a nice “ok guys,
we’ll send someone to come and clean up, ‘s all good, just take it easy”.
No… it had to be a
fucking countdown, now down to 22:31:12 and an inbound ducksoup. Fuck you,
Adolf!
He kept staring at the
terminal screen, watching it without really seeing it, as he got himself a
refill. He thought he should call Irish in regard to this. Make sure he knew
that that last raid in Rhodes Island could have had something to do with those
inbred amateurs using the electricity grid, and someone noticing the high
output of electricity at that address. Clearly it would be safer to use a
generator to keep all those lamps going. Cops were bound to have access to City
Utilities records…
He smiled
“Hey guys… I think I have
found a way to figure out where Toasty Skip Mills Junior might be hanging out…”
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