Mayday Plays - Doomed to Repeat Ep. 11 - "Invisible Horizons"

Episode Date: October 29, 2021

Welcome back to the second arc of Doomed To Repeat. In this returning episode, agent Hyde searches for answers and convinces agent Boomer to unlock the digital case file found on the program’s server known only as PROJECT TELL. We begin this arc with an original scenario about a pivotal moment in Delta Green lore that pits a team of SEALs against horrors from beyond... TRIGGER AND CONTENT WARNINGS: Violence, blood, and gore, explosions, death, body horror, scientific experimentation, mentions of drug use and hallucinations, helplessness, mentions of stalking, shrill sound effects, droning sound effects, sudden loud noises Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this podcast are © Mayday Roleplay, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property. CAST OF CHARACTERS • Aaron - “Beefer”, Private Security Operator • Allegra - “Lion”, Navy SEAL • Amanda - Agent Boomer / “Blue”, SEAL TEAM 6 • Caleb - “Compass”, Navy SEAL • Eli - Agent Hyde / “Pinks”, Navy SEAL • Zakiya - “Downtime”, Navy SEAL • Sergio - The Handler MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS • Post Sound Supervision: Sergio Crego, Eli Hauschel • Mixed: Eli Hauschel • Original Music: Aaron A. Pabst • Soundstripe (soundstripe.com) • Glitch Machines (glitchmachines.com/) • Soundly (getsoundly.com/) DELTA GREEN LINKS • Delta Green (http://deltagreen.com/) MAYDAY ROLEPLAY LINKS • Instagram (instagram.com/maydayrp/) • Twitter (twitter.com/maydayroleplay7) • Mayday website (https://www.maydayroleplay.com/) • Twitch (twitch.tv/maydayroleplay)

Doom to Repeat is a Delta Green actual play podcast with violent themes in adult language. For a full list of trigger and content warnings, please check our show notes before each episode. Listener discretion is advised. Hello, my players. Hi. Oh, we're just doing it, huh? Welcome back to arc two of our Delta Green campaign titled Doom to Repeat. I am Sergio, your handler.

I'm Erin, and this isn't happening. I'm Elecran, I can't stop giggling. I'm Amanda, and I'm panicking. I'm Caleb. I'm definitely here. I'm Eli, and it's going to be okay. Zikia. And as you can tell, we are buzzing with excitement.

So let's not waste a moment. Welcome back to the conspiracy. Now, let's begin. It's April 23rd, 2020, a little after 10 a.m. Agents Tuck, Merritt, and Warp have rented a vehicle and are on their way to a rendezvous with Mallory, your case handler. Agent Samuel has stepped away to perform his priestly duties, which leaves agents Hyde and Boomer alone in Samuel's office.

Working together, you've just broken a code that has brought you to a folder on the encrypted server that contains a case file about something titled Project Tell. What would you like to do, Agents? A Boomer, what? What's in the file? Well, it's just that something about Project Tell, so we can click on it, but we got like other priorities. What are your thoughts?

Uh, could you just skim it for me? If, you know what? Okay, how about this? I'll skim this, but you're going to have to owe me a favor. What could you? I don't know what I could possibly owe you, Boomer, but fine. Just say you'll help me out when I ask for it, because you're the only other person in this that can put two and two together logically.

Fine, fine, fine. Thank you, and I'm going to go ahead and click on the file. So here's the first thing that you read. At the top of this page, it says Operation Tell Warning. This is a top secret document containing compartmentalized information essential to the national security of the United States. Magic, spelled with a J, eyes only access. The material herein is strictly limited to those possessing majestic 12 clearance level.

Examination by unauthorized personnel is strictly forbidden and punishable by federal law. On October 28th, 1943, the National Defense Research Council and the United States Navy tested the application of a device code named Mirage 3 aboard the destroyer escort USS Eldridge in an attempt to render it invisible through the use of intense electromagnetic fields. The fruits of the Naval Research Project, called Rainbow, was one of the earliest attempts at creating stealth technology. The Eldridge not only became radar invisible for more than 20 minutes, it disappeared completely from the visible spectrum and lost by its escort ships when the device was activated.

In effect, for 22 minutes, the USS Eldridge ceased to exist. It's November 17th, 2012 at 0800, and six of the toughest sons of bitches the American Military Industrial Complex has ever produced ride aboard a UH-60 Black Hawk. It's a warm day in Montana, close to 90 degrees, but you're kept cool inside the chopper as the air rushes past. You watch the mountainous terrain of northern Montana pass under your feet as you head due east, an hour passes, and the terrain transforms into rolling bad lanes, clusters of rocky hills and plateaus whose sides reveal centuries of sediment.

You were all picked up at Malmstrom Air Force Base for what you were told is an extremely covert mission. The scuttlebutt suggests this may be a continuation of Operation Neptune's Spear, the mission that took down Bin Laden only a year ago. As you wait to arrive at wherever they're taking you, I'd like you to introduce your characters by their call sign, describe what they look like and what they do to pass the time. My call sign is Beaver. I am five foot nine, medium build.

I have a black beard and messy black hair just longer than those that would be allowed by military regulations. I'm not dressed in a normal US Navy uniform, and I think that I'm probably passing the time by, you know, out of, at his side, he always keeps a, keeps a crumb bit, which is like a curved combat knife, and he's just kind of playing with it, flipping it around in his hand. Probably not the safest thing to do on an aircraft, but he looks like he doesn't give a f***. Uh, I'm Agent Lyon, or I guess just Lyon. Lyon's my call sign.

About five-five, really stocky, brown eyes, close crop, dirty blonde hair. Crooked nose that definitely looks like it's been broken a few times. Very square jaw, just like an entirely unremarkable physical human being. Except for the fact that he's built like a f***ing tank. He is short and broad, and like, looks like he's always kind of a little bit crouched. Uh, Lyon is, he's got in some headphones, but they're not really, they're not plugged in anything, he just doesn't want to be bothered, and he's reading a book about the Cold War. All right, I am blue.

He is about five-six, also on the shorter side, but he is very definitely, I would say, leaner, but he can definitely hold his own. He has short, choppy blonde hair, and he has like a little rock in his hand. He's rubbing the rock over and over, but you wouldn't see that on his face. In the meantime, he is literally just staring blankly straight ahead, all the while only thinking about Alan Pompeo from, just thinking about just actresses. That helps him keep in time. Code name Compass or call sign Compass is five foot ten white male with a shorn head,

almost completely shorn to one or zero. He keeps a clean shave in the face. He wears a pretty traditional uniform and is mostly non-descript, aside for a Roman numeral 14 tattooed on his right bicep. He is quiet for most of the ride, it's not mentioned much outside of maybe questions over the briefing, of which that is his primary concern on the ride over, he's pouring over some maps over the briefings that each operational agent put forward, exit Nexville, and all manner of what they're about to go into, he's trying to pour over the details.

Of which I will note, Compass, there is almost nothing, it's frustrating to you how little information you've been given. I think Compass is definitely focused on that more than anything else, he's trying to fill in the details where they weren't given anything, he's trying to fill up the missing places. Sup, they call me Pinks. I'm a six, three big swole buff dude. I'm wearing just a typical uniform, but it's just being such a big dude that it just looks

very tight, it's small on my figure. I'm just wearing these bright pink earbuds that are in my ears and I'm blasting, we will never get back together by Taylor Swift and I'm kind of just humming it under my breath as I'm just kind of like bobbing my head back and forth. I'm wearing a backwards cap and I got kind of like a scarf to keep the sun off my face, wrapped around my neck and then I'm just jamming five and it's codenamed downtime, he's pretty average built, he's a little lean, he actually looks a lot taller just because of what he carries himself,

but he's a dark skinned dude, he's got short hair with a little bit of a twist on top, not too much and he always looks tired, it's kind of just the way that his eyes are shaped, but he just kind of looks uninterested or unattainable, but he's just sort of leaning over on the way there until pigs start singing out loud and then he starts trying to drum with the noise that pigs is making and keep switching up every time, he's getting lost in it because he can't hear the music, but he's just chilling. The terrain changes again, this time a wide lake appears with raised brakes along its side, it's part of the Missouri River which runs for over 2,341 miles east and south,

but you aren't going that far today, eventually you see a compound nestled along one of the larger inlets on the river as the UH circles zeroing in on a landing pad, you count about two dozen plain white buildings within a double-fenced perimeter, high security, you also notice a few other things, one of the buildings is much larger than the rest with a domed roof beside the eastern entrance where vehicles might enter, there's signage that reads March Industries, finally the site that catches all of your eyes is a dull gray naval vessel parked on the riverbed, beaver, lion, blue, the three of you almost immediately recognize what this is, this is a USS destroyer escort class likely from World War II complete

with artillery cannons and 50 caliber turrets just sitting on the side of the river, the UH lands and you file out, you're met at the end of the landing pad by a small woman wearing a white smock, she's thin, dark skin, standing about 1.7 meters tall with these pale blue eyes, she looks Indian, North Indian, she has her long straight black hair pulled back in a ponytail and she says over the noise of the helicopter as it powers down, hello, my name is Dr. Thornbill and I'll be your liaison, please follow me and she begins walking in a direction, as you walk with her carrying all that you have brought, she says we prepared a series of aptitude tests, I hope you gentlemen don't mind breaking the sweat this morning,

she takes you up the side of a hill to what you immediately recognize as a firing range and this firing range is overlooking the inlet where the naval vessel is parked, you put your bags down, there is a table in front of you with everything you would need to use at a firing range, there are assault rifles, submachine guns, pistols, every dozen yards after the table, there are targets on wooden stilts and sand berms behind them to catch the bullets, Dr. Thornbill turns to you and says please if you could go through the usual drills, we'd like to test your aptitude with firearms and I'd like each of you to make a firearms check please, yeah, down time he's gonna say I could have sworn I could like test out of this or something like that, I thought this was

gonna be you know for real, he just picks something up and starts essentially not like heavily playing with it but he picks it up like it's a like a toy and so it's like twirling it around and stuff um and then gets ready he takes a shot it doesn't look like a good face sack yeah no he immediately failed oh no you did you had to do the twirl yeah uh yeah 65 out of I needed a 60 okay the you you meant I mean you hit the targets down time is not some slouch and it's clear that there is skill but you missed a couple too I left those for y'all by the way, I appreciate it kind beaver picks up the gun I just take the gun they set down on the table roll is a 28 on his firearms

check just a strong pass just bust through pigs is gonna find the biggest gun on the table if you do you may make a heavy weapons roll um okay yeah uh I would have succeeded either way with the 36 um and like the whole time he's just gonna be like laughing and just popping off shots and just sure enough uh though you are having a good time yeah you nailed those targets blue is going to go question would uh would there possibly be an m82 near there or bread at m82 like a sniper rifle what there is and I will actually share it with you now there is an HK416 which is an assault rifle there is an mp7 which is more of the submachine gun type and there are six hours p226 not my preference but they'll go ahead and take out

the HK416 and I rolled a 25 and I'm gonna go ahead and shoot after I'm done I'm gonna like kind of look to the rest of the group and be like you know what I expect a little bit more professionalism from people who've gone through the training I have to not wave around our weapons like they are just toys I expect better from each and every one of you fucking represent speak for yourself buddy I thought you navy boys weren't supposed to have a preference I am not a fucking navy person get your shit together I'm just so tense we're just shooting guns guys just chill my compass is going to approach and take out a six hour the p226 he's going to check the gun prep it remove the magazine place it back in and go through the protocol of firing and then

take shot at the the targets he passes with a 48 out of 60 as soon as the weapon is discharged he removes the ammo he sets everything back down on the table walks back to the line lion will take the weapon that compass just dropped go through the same exact process take it in like check the magazine take it out refill with bullets and then just straight down the line full magazine full clip out because I got it too two out of 80 just full clip unloading it just clustered perfect uh after he finishes he's going to eject the the empty magazine set it down separately and turn back and doesn't make eye contact with anyone just returns to his place in line it's a good grouping thank you you got a good shot I know I love this guy

once line puts down the weapon and steps back to the group Dr. Thornbill is making some notes but says thank you gentlemen if you'll follow me to the next drill and she starts walking down the hill Marie wait are we are we grabbing a question are we getting our equipment you want us to do the firing range are we getting equipment here are we checking it at armory they'll tell us a brief she looks at the clipboard and says of blue if you wouldn't mind being patient we'd like to run the drills and then we will brief you when we feel we're ready copy that and I'm gonna get back in line I'm gonna slap blue on the shoulder and be like no worries man we're gonna we're gonna shoot more stuff later while blue's talking I'm just laughing and following the doctor blue is literally

biting the inside of their lip at some of these fucking idiots all right rolls their eyes at literally anything anyone else says you're led down the hill and over to a large patch of dry dirt where a obstacle course has been set up it's big it's long it's clearly uh military uh standard in terms of it has everything it's got the tires it's got the wall climb it's got the rope climb it's got the rope bridge it's got you know crawling under logs and waiting for the group is a group of about three scientists similarly dressed to dr thorn bill you'll assume they're scientists they're all in white smocks and as you guys begin going through this drill they are taking copious notes I mean it's almost as if everything you do they are looking at you guys and writing things

down but I would like the entire group to make athletics checks and let me know if you succeed or fail pass with a 27 pass with a 40 pass with a 24 pass with a 34 fail with an 83 oh pass with a 67 you all complete the obstacle course in your own time some of you make better time than others beaver unfortunately seems to take the most amount of time yeah I think I probably get my like something it's something stupid that just like there's there's no avoiding it like my foot gets caught in like a loose piece of rope or something and it sucks but it just happens nonetheless the trial is over and without any fanfare or anything like that the scientists the three that have been standing there watching you guys walk away and dr thorn bill says okay let's

come over right here and she leads you to a kind of circular sand pit and she says could you please break up into groups of two and I'm going to have you do a little unarmed combat with each other go yes so what groups do you break into who's the biggest dude who's the biggest dude I'd be the biggest dude I'm fighting you you're the biggest dude let's go so lion pinks immediately join together let me have you both make unarmed combat roles and you let me know who who succeeds and who fails pass with a 64 pass with a uh 62 all right so you guys put up a hell of a show you are both impressively good at your unarmed combat throwing each other one at a time you guys go a couple of rounds and it's not clear as to who is truly the winner but you are both clearly very skilled

and you step out dr thorn bill asks for the next group I'll fight anybody yes let's fight I'll just go ahead and nod and I'll just go in the field and let's go ahead and see what happens I failed with a 67 out of 60 I failed with a 75 okay this is interesting to me you basically both uh you know give rounds up to each other where one second blue is able to overcome you downtime but in another round uh you are able to overcome them it sounds like maybe we keep fighting and then we start fighting you know what I mean oh yeah I think we take it maybe two you could tell like it gets personal a little bit like more emotional does anyone do anything about the fact that it becomes a little more uh pixel step in

and pick and bear hug somebody and move them out of the way hey compass can you give me an alertness check yeah of course uh I have a pass with a 17 out of seven the fight begins and dr thorn bill is obviously like a gentleman gentleman can we calm down here paints kind of starts moving towards but you just kind of look to your side and you can see by one of the white buildings about four plain closed men wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles kind of start making their way but when pinks finally calms them down and separates them they kind of lower their weapons and and back up um I'm standing next to beef because obviously he's going to be my swim buddy here but I'm going to look to him I'm going to point out the mercenaries hey we should

probably walk up and watch your backs here I don't think they like us yet I don't get paid to cause trouble all right usually speaking of trouble it's time for beef or encompass to make some unarmed combat rolls I rolled a 15 out of 60 88 out of 60 oh boy I think it like ends with one of those judo flips into an arm bar on the floor but afterwards compass definitely gives them the fucking uh you know action movie handshake across the forearms and brings them back up claps them on the back and that was good it seems to be the classic story of the young whipper snapper thinking he can outdo the old the old officer and sure enough compass is able to get the better of beaver again with no fanfare no commentary dr thornbill says thank you gentlemen we're

gonna break for lunch if you'll just follow me and she takes you to a large white building that is clearly a mess hall as soon as you walk in you can hear the sound of people talking and eating and going about their business it's very clear that as you get your lunches cafeteria style meatloaf mashed potatoes some vegetables nothing fancy that about two-thirds of the people here seem to be scientists or engineers or something they're in white smocks they're in jumpers and the rest of them seem to be mercenaries of some kind uh they are men in body armor plain clothes no insignias uh with whether it be assault rifles pistols at their side and they seem to be acting as the security they're not particularly aggressive or anything

but they are present so these are not like government this is not the military this is not us you see absolutely no insignia whatsoever that would indicate that these men might be military do i recognize their uniforms uh no they are wearing plain clothes jeans you know button down shirts some of them and i sorry i had another question from earlier um did i did any of us catch a designation or anything painted on that ship parked in the river uh no there is no designation or number on it so it looks kind of like it might be a replica or something it definitely looks like a replica yes gotcha um i i kind of want to sit with everybody if there there's a group for me for sure yeah same so with you guys um and and once we're seated is seated down and i'm aware that

you know no one's around us or anything i'm just going to turn to the group and say uh so what what's the read uh what do you guys think so far i i mean they got planes closed you know dudes walking around with rifles and i mean what's the situation here do you think i think the mashed potatoes need some more gravy i think we're in the middle of a James Bond movie and i mean like but look around well i know yeah it's pretty high speed here it's not exactly a run to the grocery store no and these aptitude tests before briefing they're not even telling us where we're going what we're doing i mean they're gonna send some of us away yeah and and we had nothing on the helo before we we landed i mean i i don't want to be presumptuous or anything like

that but i mean we're seals we before i i think we should stick together uh you know just keep an eye out these guys i i just these are mercenaries so they have no in my mind they have no loyalty everyone here has each other's backs correct exactly yeah seals yeah okay but yeah these mashed potatoes taste like shit i'll also point out that you you guys probably will have noticed that beefers dressed similarly to the other dudes guarding the compound oh are you with a march or whatever it's called with who isn't that it's is it march or marsh march industries no yeah well what's your story beefy what are you doing here what am i doing here yeah it's not the first time the u.s government's hired blackwater i don't know why you're surprised your private military

uh-huh interesting how many tours have you done beefy by the dozen pre and post iraq mostly a little bit of afghanistan me too you heard a nicer square beef or would you would you aeron would you mind elaborating what that means because because all of you would understand right um so nicer square was basically in um 2007 blackwater mercenaries contracted by the u.s government to guard a compound um in iraq uh killed uh 17 civilians uh in cold blood wow nice cool great oh i got opinions about you already well i mean sometimes the military sends men and sometimes the military sends dogs oh are there marine corps here is anybody marine corps sympathize that that makes sense i haven't done europe closest i got was uh the pacific i was

near korea you continue having your mediocre lunch before dr thornbill returns to you and says uh it's getting late in the day gentlemen we have uh just a few more things for you and you know this is strange you're you're getting like past two or three o'clock and no briefing there they just keep running you through drill after drill this next one takes place in a kind of large warehouse uh there is no lighting it is completely dark in there or very poorly lit and she instructs you basically to attempt to get from one side of the building to the other without being caught by these security cameras i would like you all to make stealth checks please ooh that's fun when you forget that stealth is a score this is weird i think this is the first

time we've ever used it yeah 50 58 uh i fail out of 50 i have a 46 i passed 63 out of 70 is a pass for me 21 pass 95 out of 70 i fail 18 out of 50 you pass lion and pinks you both are traversing through this warehouse thinking you're doing pretty good and then all of a sudden a spotlight just kind of hits you and you hear a voice over the intercom say thank you very much pinks thank you very much lion if you could step out you know it's basically just calling you to bring it to an end but the others managed to get to the end lion shoves his way out the door real piss that he got called out explicitly pinks is not bothered he's standing on the sideline they bring you to a another building this one has an indoor swimming pool and at the bottom of the pool

dr thornbill explains is an explosive a bomb you are going to suit up in diving gear and you are going to dismantle the bomb in under a certain period of time you leap in the moment you leap in the timer starts i'm gonna ask that you all make swim rolls please succeed with a 49 succeed with a 40 fail with an 85 i've succeeded with a 56 over 60 uh that is a success i have an eight that's a success for me you dive in and you all are able to get to the bottom this is this swim roll is for the entire kind of experience under the water it's clear that downtime has a little bit of a harder time floating and getting around but nonetheless you're able to do it you actually break into teams there are two separate devices at the bottom and i'm going to need one person

out of each team to make a heavy machinery roll to take apart and dismantle the weapon and then i need one person from each team to make a demolitions roll to diffuse the bomb who is going to make that heavy machinery roll and what what is our grouping i have no machinery stat i will take a decent military science as well i was going to say i can do military science well i can get one of the military science rolls out of the way so yeah i have decent demolition better military science so i i also feel like i'd probably be on blue steam even though i don't like blue okay i'll take i'll take one of those i'll go with blue and downtime okay okay so then be for pinks and me okay so blue downtime and line yes you separate

yourself and you go towards one of these it looks like a like a like a mine like a classic mine with with but without the little pieces poking out of it it's just a circular ball who is going to make that heavy machinery roll i have 50 for military science i have 60 i also handle that okay that's all for you oh i fail with a 70 oh and then who is going to make that demolitions roll do you want to take a downtime yes do you have higher than a 40 no i don't it's all you okay great cool do we all just get no no i don't like to be rushed i can't be rushed it was the whole thing hey i i tell you what you're not gonna have to worry about those mercenaries so before we continue i'd like the rolls of the others as well so compass pinks and beaver

who is making your military science roll i feel comfortable making that roll unless you guys have something higher than an 80 uh no i don't i have a 60 i have an 80 but yeah you can roll it i rolled a 70 straight up success and let's who's doing now the demolitions roll i have a 40 for demo what do you have the same i have the 40 we all just got the basic 40 it's any man's game elie you sound like you want to do it go for it yeah i'll do it godspeed beautiful 37 skin of our team so here's what happens compass pinks and beaver you go to your respective mine you successfully unlatch it and begin taking the part you're making record time every once while you look over your shoulder and you can see that the other team is struggling they are behind

you downtime blue and lion you open it but for some reason you have a difficulty kind of getting it all the way open so most of the shell is kind of blocking the the explosive and downtime you kind of go in to start working on it lion and blue you are somewhat shielded uh unable to see what's happening and that's when there is this you feel it where you are both lion and blue pushed back in the water and almost immediately there is nothing but red in the water you can't see anything what are you kidding me you really did it you really did it no you rush to the surface you all rush to the surface and at the the second team the successful team is able to see it sooner than the others there is chunks of downtime floating in the water

and you're you're all screaming and you're scrambling out and you're calling for help dr thornbill is there wide-eyed completely shocked at what's going on that's when these mercenaries about five of them come running in and they're yelling to ask you what happened and it's just a cacophony of noise is everyone is screaming and reacting to this you know most of you are saying most of you are stunned at the fact that these were actual live explosive yeah i think i'm probably screaming what the who said these were live this wasn't supposed to be an actual what the hell kind of operation are you running here as i'm like wiping bits of viscera so lion lion and blue came up okay right lion and blue are being examined by uh some medics and

they appear to be okay although they do seem kind of beat up both of you may constitution times five roles i passed with a 52 right 42 out of 60 you both succeed it you took it to the chest but you're okay i mean your breathing doesn't feel like anything's broken your protesting and your questioning is almost completely ignored i mean these men and women are just kind of cleaning up the pool they're getting you to safety and dr thornbill comes to you and says gentlemen i am so sorry we are going to file the necessary paperwork but we need to continue i'm getting right up in the doctor's face no i'm getting right up in the doctor's face i'm gonna be like what kind of cluster fuck operation are you doing that is a live fucking mind what the

fuck was that blue i i apologize i assure you apologies don't mean shit he's fucking dead do you see that i want to fuck and i'll do this where i'll take like i'm not going to be rough but i'm going to take her shoulder and shove it towards the pool fucking explain that yeah the moment you touch her uh some of these mercenaries uh lift up their weapons and they start walking towards you one of them orders you to let her go i'm gonna get closer to blues and like like looking at all the mercenaries getting like defensive i'll let go there's a moment where things calm down a little bit there are folks fishing a little bit of downtime out of the water with nets and with the help of the military uh excuse me with the help of these mercenaries dr thornbill issues you out of the

surgery i i have a clarification question did we sign anything before we came here were there any nda's or anything prepared for us before we arrived nothing has been signed you simply agreed go into this okay and and when we were given this mission was it through the navy or was it it was through various channels um i have a contract right most of them were you you the you get the sense that you were recommended uh your name was put in a hat kind of a situation right you are brought to a building that has six cots dr thornbill asks you to rest for the evening and that at 0600 you will be raised to perform a few more drills is there an eta on briefing the mission at hand is um

i apologize but i'm really not the one that should be speaking about this what i need you to understand is that i will take every precaution possible to keep you safe now not earlier though when a man died a navy seal died on your watch was that live round intended yes fuck if it's any consolation his family will be heavily compensated right that's the word you can consult these nuts get the fuck out of here see you at six without another word she turns and leaves the room night doc what do you think the odds are that we could just walk out of this place i mean is it zero negative you're totally fucked i mean we

wouldn't even make it into the hallway right no we might make the hallway actually next one though we could if we were armed you probably have it i mean you have at least like one personal weapon yeah not enough to take everyone though are there any windows or exits outside of the door we're in there would be no windows okay just fluorescent lighting can i it's um before we actually all knock out knock out can i go ahead and exam like look around the room really quick i'm talking look under the bedpost under mattress look at corners uh see if there's any reflective things like uh camera inside do i spot anything uh go ahead and make a search roll 18 out of 20 you search your bed you kind of look around the room you check the corners

eventually you see a locker and there's like rivets on the corners of the locker and you just happen to get close enough to tell that one of the rivets is hollow no it's not hollow it's like a tiny tiny lens in it uh go ahead and make a standing check first one first one first one back whoo 70 oh my god that's a success oh i thought i was screwed 75 how are you that sane you know uh blue you thought of it so you're not even that surprised when you do finally find it no that's not gonna i'm just gonna kind of as i walk away i'll notice it walk away and be like yeah i'll just cough i'll be like uh you know i was in skies we're on company time what do you think was gonna happen good to know

but with uh quite an unusual end to the day you lie on your cots and you try to get some rest and on the dot at 0600 the fluorescent lights flip on and there's thorn bill this time followed by two mercenaries and she invites you to get up completely random question was tapped or was uh was there was there like a trumpet like a bugle blast uh no there was not oh that's how you know it's private what's going on you are led outside you have breakfast you get dressed and you are finally led to the destroyer class ship that is parked along the lake fun waiting for you is a team of white coats like usual but this time there's a unique individual among them he is a tall dark skinned man sparse white hair on his head but what is noticeable is that he has these severe burns

that cover his cheeks his mouth his neck with these pale pink scars there is a sense that he seems to be in charge as he seems to be really the only one speaking uh and then the the other white coats will kind of respond to him but dr thorn bill explains that they need you to run a series of drills aboard this vessel she does say that she is able to let you know that a ship excursion is the first bit of intel she's able to give you about your mission boarding this ship is important however they have a strange request they pull out these bulky silver suits they're thick and cumbersome they're almost like astronaut suits but they have little packs on them that produce oxygen they're they're like little o2 tanks and they ask you to get in they are obnoxious to wear and the first

drill will require you to board the ship and take out any enemies aboard the ship so my question to you is as a group of five how would you like to board this ship uh given that i'm a close quarter combat specialist i feel like i will want to take the lead on breaching breaching whatever do we do we know i i assume that we're all well versed in ways that force your way on to a ship yeah yes you would be you i mean it could be as simple as if you want to just kind of board it from the the gang plank that is connected to the base or if you would like to use a boat and kind of board it a different way well i think we're seals we might as well drive up with a boat or raft and then uh you know there are there are uh sort of entrances at the bottom level of the ship

right can we cut in from the bottom yes i i i've also shared with you a the layout the layout so if you kind of want to look at it yes if you wanted to attempt to board it from the bottom up you certainly could and they would have the the items available to you the the cutter and stuff cut our way in that would be compass's solution is we should dive and then come in through the bottom and and he would definitely agree that lying can play point man so they do offer you the same weapons uh that you had there was the the assault rifle the submachine gun and a pistol i didn't sign up to kill us citizens here are these live rounds as well are you expecting us to kill people playing pretend you do not have live rounds and there will not be actual living

people on the ship we have cut out for you targets targets do we have any information of how many hostels are on ship you do not okay does the test include x fill do we have to escape the ship afterwards no interesting question are we going to the number one block and working our way to 80 or are we doing 80 to one i think we start in the middle in the middle that splits us that puts enemies on either side exactly i say one to 80 work our way through you are all skilled enough to do this properly you get into your suits you dive you get to the bottom of the ship you bore a hole through it and you enter i'd like you all to give me either firearms or heavy weapons checks so can i can ask a question just like a question so we have the like weird silver suits underneath

our like wetsuits and stuff uh no those are the wetsuits oh wild okay success with the 61 success with the 44 that's crazy send it at the same time that's gotta mean something what the fuck isn't that a crit though if yeah that's a crit yeah it's a crit who ate crits okay so did everyone succeed no i got an 80 blue you are kind of lagging behind but sure enough lion beaver compass you guys pinks as well as able to do a great job you all managed to get shots off and sure enough you know you you turn corners and there is a cardboard cutout of you know a man in a black mask holding an assault rifle you guys shoot it apart um you do an incredible job you've done this many many times before it's almost to the point where you're

wondering why they're making you go through these stupid tests when you complete the the drill you end up on the top of the ship and there is a um uh an alarm sound uh kind of signifying the end of the drill when you hear over the loudspeaker very good please step off the ship but we're gonna run you through it again you step off the ship and you can see engineers running on with new um boards new new targets we're getting paid for this right every day good good but i don't care dr thornbill says this time we would like you to board the ship and you are going to avoid killing any hostages and you will end the drill aboard the ship understood there will be a difference in the in the cutouts i assume yes okay i'd like everyone to make con times five

roles for me let's see for the old ladies with grocery sacks oh children with astrophysics books yes yes success with an 84 whoa damn how high is your constitution i failed with a 97 i have a 10 i have a crit success with a 55 you are all starting to feel that extra bit of fatigue wearing these suits they are heavy and they are obnoxious compass it's hitting you a little bit harder than everyone else maybe it's your age who knows but you are going to be at a minus 20 for this next drill gotcha you board the ship this time are you gonna board it the same way why don't we spice it up a little we don't want to do the same thing twice if it's the most logical way that's been proven to be successful we should absolutely do the same thing twice but where's the fun in that

maybe he has a point though this if this is what they're going to throw us at is a destroyer then we should at least know it inside and out maybe we run the same route backwards all right we run it backwards you enter the ship this time from the opposite side i am not going to make you make firearms roles however you find that they added obstructions random parts of the ship that are blocked and unable to be passed i'd like you all or you can designate one person to make either a navigation or a military science role oh fam i got you what do you have in navigate oh yeah what's your nav i'm just curious i've gotten 80 to my baby boy my military science which is also an let's go navigators shows the way yeah 42 success okay with the success sure enough you come up to

a couple of these obstructions but it's almost as if compass has already memorized the ship and he's able to redirect you down an alternate path and you are able to complete the drill again the alarm goes off um and you hear the voice over the intercom thank you very much gentlemen please come down we're gonna run you through one last time you step off and take a few minutes to relax you know they have a private tent for you that you're able to sit down and get drinks or food or whatever it is you need a few minutes pass again everyone please give me a con times five role you do not have to be at a minus 20 for this uh compass okay um just roll the con well i roll fuck 87 success with the 21 success with the 50 success the 28 27 so everyone succeeds except compass

compass it's too much you you literally can tell that you're about to pass out from the strain and a medic comes over and specs you thornbill questions the medic and thornbill actually requests that you sit down sit out for this uh scenario understood she asks you to you know get a drink and to relax and so lion beaver pinks and blue you are entering the drill how are you entering how about a boat this time sure i'll drive all right let me let me um back up a little bit this third and final trial they asked that you would board and that you would find and diffuse a bomb they have a small boat small dingy almost as they were expecting you to do this you all hop in you kind of do a little u-turn and you come around the backside of the ship or to the to the correct

side that you want and sure enough using ropes or however you want to enter you are able to climb aboard the ship you begin kind of going through the ship and at first there doesn't seem to be anybody on the deck there's nothing visible and then out of out of one of the corners who is currently leading i'm probably still on point out of a corner appears a mercenary and he begins firing at you oh fuck he succeeds with a 28 i see shooting fucking live rounds at me lion you are shot in the shoulder with four points of damage that motherfucker beefers screams down down down all hell breaks loose as you realize this is a live fire drill i'm firing fucking back fuck this shit okay uh you and compass have the highest initiative compass is not there

so legra excuse me lion you are going to head and fire your weapons what are you using uh probably just the medium pistol that i have strapped to my side that's my that's my chosen like my uh my preferred weapon and it's what my hand automatically goes to okay go ahead and roll the attack firearms yeah yeah 58 success friend seven uh you shoot him right in the throat and he just stumbles back dead oh no i didn't want to kill someone fuck nope fuck him he shot you nope no job first that was that was a legra that wasn't lion lion just kind of has a stone face with the fact that you now know this is a live fire drill what are you doing we need two people to go find that bomb and we need other two people to try to protect and kill off people you you have

only seen one person but as as you are talking you hear some ricochets off of metal it seems that there was someone behind you now sergio can i do one thing really quick yes what would you like to do i drop a smoke grenade okay every campaign every game sure so you drop the smoke smoke grenade i assume in the direction of the bull of the uh bullets as you just heard yeah cover cover cover uh i will say that is your turn if you wanted to move you certainly can yeah if i could any covered position i can take i would like to move into gotcha pinks what do you do you see the smoke coming up behind you and you would hear somebody kind of running forward i'm gonna yeah i'm gonna see that it's b for running and i'm gonna follow him but i'm gonna cover him uh and hold my weapon

up and fire it if somebody tries to shoot at me gotcha gotcha um amanda blue what would you like to do because someone is running up towards us correct yes and i know pinks has gotten eye on that i'm actually because of the smog i'm going to go ahead and pull out my combat knife and i'm also gonna hold action till i actually see who's coming up and then when they can i'm gonna go ahead and try to strike them and get them to do sure enough at the end of your turn another mercenary one that you've seen around you you've you've recognized them before and they're they're sweaty they're wide eyed they've got their their their weapon out they have a pistol and as soon as they see you pinks they fire but you are able to fire as well go ahead that's a success with a

54 it's the automatic rifle that's the rifle that's a d12 plus two that is five points of damage you shoot him in the like square in the chest and he stumbles back into the smoke but he also fired at you and he is going to clip you in the shoulder for two points beef or would you like excuse me blue would you like to pursue him into the smog i'm going to move in that direction and pursue go ahead and make a search roll 69 dudes is that a success it's not but it's just funny just nice okay you you you go in there but you just can't see anything you don't see him you're not able to get off your attack no i would have only gone if i because i saw them just enter if i immediately can't see them from how thick it is i'm doubling back just as fast still crouching

so i don't have any friendly fire coming my way i mean i'm hauling it back because this is a bad spot i'm sorry while blue is running back can i can i can i blow my my action to lay down suppressing sure yeah absolutely uh go ahead and make an attack succeed with a 56 with uh with my assault car fun does it have a lethality or no yes 10% okay go ahead and roll that okay is that another d100 roll yes you want to roll d100 and get under 10% that is a 91 so no okay blue kind of rushes pass you and you just start opening fire and where you saw a couple of gunshots you suddenly just hear someone and they're silent noise wasn't even dragged before we proceed um i'd like you all to make sanity checks for realizing that the drill is a live fire roll yep makes sense makes sense

tracks tracks tracks pass 2026 success with the 71 success with this success with the 68 fail with the 92 okay if you succeed you lose no sanity if you fail you're gonna roll a d4 all right let's see two okay you can project that if you'd like otherwise you're gonna lose too sanity i'll just lose it it seems as if you have a moment here what are you guys doing we need to get down into the ship and find that bomb yeah yep we need to move we gotta move okay someone give me a navigation roll or a military science roll i'd say navigation we need to get we need to get this mission done with so we don't kill anyone else i can roll it it's on you pinks go ahead that is a success with a 50 nice you are able to you've been on this ship twice now you

are able to navigate through it you do see the occasional mercenary but you either duck out of the way close the door in time they are not able to get to you and you do finally reach the room that they instructed had the weapon i need someone to make a demolition's roll does anyone have more than a 40 i got a 40 i just got 40 too i'll i can try it all right uh kaleb you had a question yeah i was gonna say from the like lala palooza cooldown tent they have me in and can i hear that there's crossfire yes there's two source yes and when you step out of the tent you can see that there is smoke kind of coming from the top of the ship um the scientists are taking fastidious notes and dr thorn bill gestures to you to stay calm right okay who's

making that demolition's roll to try to diffuse this bomb lion definitely thinks he's uh like he's the one that's supposed to be doing this he thinks he's supposed to be here he shouldn't know oh no he goes in he goes in confident he goes in a little bit cocky he goes in knowing he has been point on this and he rolls a 97 wow fuck me sideways off bridge lion you just take too long you take long enough for one of them to find you the other um the other seals the other mercenaries you can see a man step through the door he raises his pistol and fires right at lion lion you take six points of damage so well somehow what do you have one or two points of health i have four

points of health you have four so you kind of crumble to the ground but you are still conscious we'll start at the highest initiative which i believe is lion what would you like to do uh from my position crumbled on the floor i would like to return fire okay go ahead all right uh solid 50 pass solid 50 you do hit them and go ahead and roll your damage uh it's just it's just a d10 i believe right d10 okay yeah five uh you shoot them in the leg they crumble backwards and they begin screaming and they begin attempting to scramble out of the of the area however i believe the next person is beaver finish the job i got the door i will take up um a covered position uh beside the door uh and i will um a try to finish off the guy that's running

away uh so it doesn't cause any more problems uh and b keep an eye out so that whoever tries to disarm the bomb next doesn't have the same thing happened to them that happened to lion okay roll an attack against this person i'll give you a plus 20 because they're basically just crawling away from you okay well that is a success with the 62 okay uh you fire at them and i will say that you kill them they stop moving we still need a demolitions check to complete this drill i will roll the demolition check if i'm next no that's a 77 that's a fail oh you also attempt to uh diffuse the bomb you're having a hard time i mean just the the intensity of the situation is getting to you i got big hands i'm definitely in the way like trying to help and being no help at all being

like yeah lion's blood is like all over this thing you know oh eventually there is an alarm that goes off and after some time you are met with some medics who come in and put lion on a stretcher and begin pulling them out and you can hear the request for you to step out of the ship as the drill is over i'm not sure i'd buy that i'm going to like as lion is being like getting out i'm going to be like stay strong you got this like trying to just be somewhat encouraging but i'll like fist pump in this direction i don't know what it what it dudes what its soldier dudes do i think you got it i think you nailed it you're right good job i don't know you are met outside by Dr thornbill and the other scientists the tall one the dark skin man with a bad scarring on his face

seems pleased they all seem pleased in a weird way um it's hard to quantify just their their kind of demeanor has changed a little bit almost as if they were expecting this outcome but dr thornbill ever the apologist of the group apologizes profusely and says we're done with the drills today we're going to take you to relax please come with me we're going to take you to the showers and we will then explain what is happening okay we will explain everything and she begins to lead you in the direction of a building what is it just the is lion with us or uh lion as you begin walking away lion is being taken in a different direction sorry um is any of the mercenaries following lion yes okay yeah i'm just gonna go ahead and just as

dejected a feeling about that last round of everything i'm just gonna go ahead and head towards like the showers beaver blue compass and pinks you are brought to a facility and inside there is a kind of a classic locker room tiled floors um you are in a big square room that has lockers blue lockers kind of lining the the perimeter as well as the center of the room there are lockers and you know explain to me what the the mood is explain to me what everyone's doing as you come in and they close the door behind you you know what i think beaver i think this he's used to this shit i don't think he is really phased either way he's already been paid so i think he just acts like it's been a normal day and and and fiends himself up and goes on about his day

i think the compass is a little apprehensive over lions not coming back yet um he's looking out interested in how that goes about and whether they're going to go the downtime or route or not um but outside that he's just hoping for some sort of briefing so he can make an opinion for himself of whether he's gotten his self uh you know too far in over his head um blue is uh extremely frustrated by everything because even though they did sign up for it was they feel like everything's turning into a cluster fuck of epic proportions so um they're just gonna honestly they're gonna probably uh after they shower they're gonna go to the near their bed and just do a bunch of push-ups regardless because it's so frustrating so they're gonna do that but also afterwards they

will pull out some photos that he has stashed in his jacket which is of of a loved one just stare at it afterwards uh pinks is gonna hop in that shower uh and try to wash the day off uh and then put their headphones on like crank it up as loud as possible we can kind of hear gun them style going on and he's just trying to like you know he's got a small like smile in his face he's trying to like like on the outside seem okay but just kind of a little peeve and irritated on the inside after a few minutes of everyone kind of cooling down you hear a shrill whine which rapidly starts to build to a crescendo it seems to be emanating from the room and then it just dies off into a barely audible droning like the hum of a power transformer

what do you do what would i hear that through my headphones yes yeah you do is it like bothersome like it's so loud that like you couldn't sleep or ignore it or is it like it's obvious is the easy is the best way i can explain it's very obvious and and and to be clear it's not something that we would normally expect to happen it's i mean you almost assume that a pipe is about to burst or something it's just a very not expected sound could i ask that all of you make power times one rolls so we're rolling power times one which is just our power times one so it's just your base score oh i fail i fail okay i succeed with a with a 12 um please make a note pinks that you should just write power times two somewhere uh blue do you succeed no i had a 63

two you guys are really in sync this you all start to feel at first you think it's lightheaded but then you realize it's like it's kind of like after doing a bump it's kind of like after smoking a j you're you feel stimulated which of course none of us know what that feels like you're sweating a little bit you feel a little tingly it kind of feels good and then pinks you are the first to see it the entire room becomes saturated in this opaque pink light like this ultra violent light it's beautiful it's this beautiful color that just everything becomes kind of fuchsia and the air becomes like a viscous liquid you can feel it it's heavy it's slightly heavier than like water but you can move through it and anytime you move any kind of gross motor movement

creates this rainbow like trail effect that is really quite mesmerizing and i want all of you to make a sanity check please great fair 22 pass to the 48 succeed with the 52 holy shit pass with a 75 and it's 75 you are all able to maintain your composure you don't lose any sanity but this is i mean did they did they dose you did they inject you with something did they put something in the breakfast i'd like everyone to again make power times one rolls pinks you can make a power times two roll so whatever your base score is times two i fail with the 26 fail with the 53 i pass with a 14 nice damn oh i succeed then what is everyone doing in this moment i mean you can see this i mean it it it almost feels like you've entered a new space

what do you what are the four of you doing in this moment i'm just laughing and vibing i'm just looking at it just going it's all so you're like moving your hands around and like looking at the trail effect yeah i'm a dumb dumb what the fuck i'm gonna move and open the door and try and get out into the hallway and see if there's any the scientists or learn the thorn or or any of these people around you step to the door and it's locked huh b4 is starting to wonder if uh this isn't uh this this isn't downtime as they as they said it was supposed to be yeah this is another test blue's kind of like all right so if the door is locked and all that blue's just gonna go ahead and uh sit on the edge of the bed and just kind of like keep their shit together just

because they don't know if they're gonna end up passing out or not so that's why they go to the bed just in case if they pass out they have something to fall on like well i think b4 is probably thinking back to his um to his torture training and going through kind of the same set of steps at keeping calm i think b4 probably recognizes he's been intentionally exposed to something uh and he's just trying to uh retain his composure blue you sit down and you're trying to maintain your composure and pinks you're kind of moving your hands around it's at that time that you both notice out of the corner of your eye you catch something you notice something and you look and almost says if it was being drawn in real time this eel like creature it has no eyes starts

kind of floating down from the ceiling it has these sharp jagged teeth and it looks like a moray eel but again like this bright pink kind of glowing creature and blue you notice another one and as compass begins moving towards the door he leaves this incredible shimmering trail behind him and all of these creatures start drawing their attention towards him and they very quickly begin swimming towards him what are you doing stop i'm gonna shout stop uh hopefully come if that if compass stops at that but i will try to get their attention so they can turn around and see that who this fucking shit compass you hear blue screaming stop and you turn and you are confused because you don't see anything and that's when you suddenly feel something just clamp right onto

your chest and you can see immediately these holes just kind of appear in your chest this thing pinks and blue you see attack compass compass you take four points of damage oh what happens blue and pinks as you see blood begin coming out of compass and it's inside this creature it seems to be sucking the blood out of him compass you can now see your blood almost floating out of you into some kind of invisible container i need everyone to make sanity checks please what the fuck what the fuck 35 pass i fail with this 65 10 16 uh pass with a 45 okay those of you that pass you're going to lose one sanity compass you fail you're going to roll a d6 i'm so glad we get to vibe without fucking pink eels i love this this is a great show okay i rolled a five okay you can

either project that or you're going to lose five sanity which means you will enter a uh a state of panic i'm going to project two onto my bond okay remove that two from your bond and from your will power gotcha nonetheless this happens let's start at the top of the initiative beaver you have the highest dexterity you see across the room compass is now being attacked by something invisible you can see the blood starting to trickle out of him my priority is uh survive and adapt so if something's attacking compass i'm not going to go near him unless i feel that it is operationally necessary for me to do so i'm going to look for a towel is there a towel nearby sure yeah and i am going to attempt to uh use the towel um to keep any uh of uh any any similar attacker off of myself using it

as as an impromptu weapon at this point you all notice there's a high ceiling to this locker room and one of the walls kind of lifts up and retracts and reveals glass plating where you can see scientists looking down at you and you hear over a loudspeaker a male voice says if you wish to live you must shut down the device hidden within the locker it is the only way to rid yourself of these assailants and not another word is said now it is i believe pink's turn oh i'm sorry compass it's your turn um i mean i see that the blood is slowly lifting from my body and you know the others are watching on in horror clearly it's not something they can get close on i'm gonna try and grab at the invisible assailant pull it clean from my chest go ahead and uh make

a i think it's an unarmed combat role okay you're going to make it at minus 20 because all you see is this kind of trickle of blood uh with the minus 20 it would take me down to a 40 i have a 50 so i failed by 10 despite what the player Caleb believes is a failure nonetheless compass is able to grab onto this thing would you like to do some damage to it yeah i want to rip it clean okay go ahead and i think it's a d4 minus one is uh just an unarmed attack uh it's a three okay you you how do you do damage to this thing i think once i have it like in my hands there's that awareness that there's a pulling at my chest and i start to to understand it's on me and so i want to rip it like a leech and just pull full uh full from my my chest yeah sure enough

you do and as you're doing it you're just squeezing it so hard that you i mean it has to be doing some kind of damage to this thing uh and blood just kind of spurred out of your chest uh once you rip it off all right now let's go to pinks what are you doing the good time has suddenly stopped being a good time it's not funny anymore um since they've finally given us the directive pinks is gonna then go to the lockers and start opening them and trying to find whatever device that they're talking about okay what what lockers you're going to there is as i said a perimeter of them around this big square and there are ones right in the center as well um i'm gonna go to the one in the center okay go ahead and make a search roll

i fail with a 48 you are opening the lockers one by one and all you see is metal backing i mean you literally spend your entire turn opening maybe 10 or 12 of them and there's nothing inside any of them uh blue you can see that all of this movement that pinks is doing starting to attract some of the creatures some of these eel creatures that are now starting to float towards pinks what are you doing and you can see also that compass is in the middle of grap grappling one of them okay so what i'm going to do is uh since the center is being covered i'm going to go ahead and go to the ones on the perimeter and as i'm moving it i'm going to go ahead and try to move a little bit slower because i'm hopefully if if that eel

crosses paths because it looks like they're heading towards pinks i'm gonna i because i still have my combat knife from earlier i'm gonna go ahead and undercut jaw that motherfucker if it gets too close gotcha so you put the combat knife in your mouth and you kind of start moving over go ahead and give me a search roll i have a 27 in searches 20 the failure is partly due to the fact that you move very slowly you know trying not to attract these creatures yeah and the trail is lessened by you but just as if you were to walk through water there is a ripple effect and though it isn't as intense as pinks and compasses at the moment you do seem to be making a trail and it could possibly attract these creatures but you get to the lockers you start opening the ones

along the wall and it's just there's nothing in these at the top of the initiative these eels suddenly dark towards pinks and one of them is going to make an attack at you but it fails it kind of swims past you and you know blue warrants you so you kind of look and are able to kind of dodge out of the way in time and it kind of smashes into the locker it actually goes into one of the lockers and is now kind of you know swirling around inside and trying to regain its sense of balance we go to the top of the initiative with beaver oh i'm sorry the top of the initiative is actually compass so compass go ahead do i still have one attached to me or was that the only one it is not attached to you it is wriggling very hard in your hands can i see it or is it still

invisible to me make a power times one rule uh 45 i do not see it it's it's the freakiest feeling to have this thing that feels very much alive and you cannot see it well as much as he would love to find this fucking thing in a lockers there's no way he's going to sacrifice his life to do it he has to kill this thing first um do i have a uh i don't have a blade on me or or sure i would say you would if you want to use it okay i'd like to use that draw it from the side and take a swipe with it that's a success with the straight 20 straight 20 and go ahead and roll a d6 and that's a full six you slice whatever this thing is and you can see your blood that has been floating in the air suddenly kind of all just kind of fall out and spill onto the floor it's a decent amount too

but you are uh you have defeated this thing you do have your movement if you want to move towards a locker perfect i do want to ask a question about the locker hopefully i can get an answer this turn it's totally cool if it's too much but is there anything denoting them is there a name on any of them is there information a locker number or or make make a alertness roll okay a 25 which is past for me while everyone is opening them up you can tell that the lockers have a pretty decent amount of space behind them the ones in the center oh okay um i'm gonna call out to the rest of the group the ones in the center we gotta break through the other side it's a hidden compartment the center is bigger than the others and i'll start moving towards there we'll say you kind of get up the

side pinks it is beefers turn so gathering that they're like t-rexes the beaver probably stands as still uh as possible glances around for a second as explosively as possible fling the towel across the room to try to create a decoy to draw off these things's attentions before moving to the lockers to start searching the interior nice gotcha i like that um let's see what would that be you can either make a melee weapon or a persuade roll or or a survival i'll even allow you a survival to survival in may survival is my hire so i'll take survival if i can success with the 51 out of 60 your instincts kick in and you take the towel and you chuck it across the room it creates this very vibrant uh light trail and you do notice several several of the creatures start swimming

quickly towards it and i assume you run to the lockers uh yeah slower than the towel i'm moving slower than the towel i want to put that uh and yeah i'll i'll move to the center lockers and i'll start trying to search the cavity in the middle uh blue you have you currently see everyone kind of congregating towards the central lockers what are you doing i'm also gonna rush but be sure to slam the locker and i'll be like the eels in there so it doesn't come out i'll say it's a free action you can run up to it and slam the locker shut yeah lockers slam shut and then i'm gonna go ahead and help go ahead and rip it up so we can get to this thing okay um if you'd like make a strength times five i got a five yes so you along with everyone else who has kind of reached this area

you all begin pulling on this and sure enough the lockers begin to fall over and you all kind of leap out of the way as it clatters to the ground loud and you see this incredible display of light as it begins to uh light up this ethereal space you are now in any creatures that had not noticed you now notice you but here's what you see there is a wooden table in between all these lockers and there is a device about as wide as a suitcase sitting on the table in the middle it looks like a tesla coil with tuning forks that are protruding from either end of the cylindrical head and it is obvious that whatever is happening is coming from this machine so at the top of the initiative compass what would you like to do i think i want to take a closer look at this machine and see how

it is i can best disrupt it make a make a military science or a computer science role or engineering if you have it i'm not sure military science trumps those other two uh 51 is a success for me after studying it for a moment you can see a control panel and you quickly begin hitting buttons and eventually you tap one of the buttons and you hear that constant hum that electrical hum suddenly give out and in a moment few seconds the pink the fuchsia in the room just sort of disappears and these strange wriggling creatures that are right now they're kind of like attacking the locker just suddenly vanish and you are left back in this room with everything back to normal what do you do what the fuck is going on that's all i want to know you you all kind of look in

the direction of this plate glass window that i explained and you can see several scientists including dr thornbill uh the dark skin man with the heavy scarring all standing there and they begin clapping you don't hear the clapping as it's probably very thick glass but you can see it and they all seem very pleased and they exit they kind of disappear from sight where the fuck is my briefing i just i think we are even more fucked than before deeper size and takes another shower i'm going to go through the like first aid tree whatever i could do to assist the fucking hole in my chest yeah you can take like a towel that that uh be for through and kind of wrap it around the door that was locked becomes unlocked and stepping through are the scientists along with

some mercenaries they're clapping and this man this tall dark skin man says very good i was expecting you just to smash it to bits but i'm impressed you figure out how to turn it off who are you you can call me dr taffam taffam t a p h a m taffam i'm sure you're all very curious as to what's going on and we are at the point in which we can tell you i will go to the bench i will put my leg up in a very exaggerated way and be like oh please please please no rush please well if you wouldn't mind uh actually if you could follow us to another room we've got some coffee and donuts for you and we'll explain everything where's operative lion oh you don't have to worry about operative lion anymore i assure you what i'm going to tell you is going to make all of this very clear

i need a medic medic medic he he snaps his finger and a medic immediately rushes over to you don't take him no he doesn't take him anywhere okay go ahead and roll a d4 no it's a one so i'll take it you are led once again into another room it looks to be a briefing room there are posters on the wall printouts there's even a projector and there's all this kind of math and strange stuff on the walls but they sit you down and this man this dr taffam begins explaining what it is you just saw and he says that this uh device that you just shut down is colloquially known as a tilling gas resonator he begins going into the math and the science of it and to be honest for some of you it kind of goes over your head but the gist of it is that it creates a resonance a

kind of magnetic field and it builds a large electromagnetic charge within specific ranges which affect the human brain that that odd sensation you felt when you started seeing the colors it's because it wakes a dormant organ within your brain that allows you to see beyond normal vision what are you guys all thinking i'm just trying to take as many notes as i can and and trying to figure out how this pertains to whatever it is they're gonna have us do yeah uh blues also very like very analytical right now taking notes they're not associating like from an emotional point of view yeah it's point a to point b right now because i know that kill us if we think otherwise he goes on and says that the problem is that these perceptions allow

you not only to see into this other dimension but the denizens of that dimension are able to see and interact with you hence the bite he points to compass his shoulder they generally attack any type of gross motor movement so if you want to be safe i suggest you keep the policy of blue and beaver of standing still but unfortunately you're not really not going to be able to do a lot of standing still on this mission so this this thing opens our perceptions but it also allows them to see us just as well whatever these are you have it perfectly right and this is what like the fourth dimension i wouldn't call it a fourth dimension it's a super dimension that is coterminous with our own we've dubbed it end space coterminous with coterminous coterminous as it exists alongside our

four dimensions holy shit are we in constantine i just say that a lot without thinking like that thought just popped in my he taffum looks at the other scientists like i don't get that reference fourteen thousand however you would like to understand it uh yes now this gets me to the bigger point uh a machine like this extremely focused source of electromagnetism was turned on in 1943 aboard the uss eldridge does that ring any bells to you no but is it a destroyer class it is much like the ship we have replicated outside no kidding this electromagnetism was so strong that we believe the eldridge was well we believe that it punched a hole into end space pulling the ship into the dimension the eldridge bubble has all of the aspects of our four dimensions it has

gravity time etc but it exists in end space air is not common in end space it's mostly a vacuum mostly that aether that uh that you came across the fuchsia colored material uh so that is why we developed the end space survival suits the silver suits you were wearing outside a little earlier that's why you needed seals you needed divers exactly which gets me to the the problem if the resonator aboard the eldridge is not shut off it will cause a cascading effect of math i don't want to go into at the moment but it will ultimately result in the destruction of our solar system by 2053 and he dramatically pauses to see your reaction so we're going back in time is that what you're saying he's so pleased that you seem to be understanding what he is

saying he's like precisely in a manner in a sense uh you see here's what our solution is many scientists have worked over this over the years many projects many people have died to get us to where we are but our plan is to attune you to a very large resonator that we have on site which i have dubbed the concern and he seems very proud of that but you will attune to this resonator and you will be sucked into end space and you will be attracted through magnetism to the eldridge which you would then board and uh complete your mission stop the resonator exactly what you must do is we will provide you with some c4 explosive you will go in with assault rifles uh some machine guns pistols whatever you need and your mission is to enter the conning tower and he clicks a button

and the projector displays a kind of cut out of a uss destroyer class and he points to this large tower in the center of the ship and he says you must infiltrate the conning tower conning spelled c-o-n-n-i-n-g you will place the explosive and the explosive will disrupt the electromagnetism and we theorize it will bring the eldridge back to its original time in 1943 i the question so everyone aboard will be dead when we arrive yes well that uh that brings me to the the unfortunate outcome which is that due to the massive amounts of t radiation tilling gas radiation that you are going to be exposed to uh both uh through the concern and through end space you are likely not going to survive in fact we know you're not going

to survive and he kind of pauses and he's trying to gauge whether whether it seems like you want to know what he's about to say we don't come back from this well you it's a one-way trip yes and if we say no it's it's a one-way trip regardless they told us some shit guys he looks at you specifically compass and he says jonah langley i know for a fact that you are going to go i know that uh mr acelu pinks over there is going to go because we find your bodies in 1943 aboard the eldridge what i'd like you both to make sanity checks what the fuck did you just say i'd like all four of you to make yeah i was already getting ready to roll that one instinctively picks up dice finally i failed failed with the 96 clearly compass is fine with this

i have a five 34 pass succeed with a 62 if you succeed you're going to lose one sanity if you fail you're going to roll a d4 oh that's a four if you'd like you can project otherwise you will take that for sanity loss he only says the name of jon langley compass and nolyn k acelu pinks he does not say your names be for in blue but he begins showing you evidence he kind of nods to dr thornbill who kind of starts cycling through some photos and he begins to explain the very complicated project garnet which was dedicated to finding you they found your bodies and using reverse engineering studying dental implants and the strange weapons that you had or the bodies that were found were had they were able to eventually using a missing child's network uh

that your parents signed you up for they were able to find you and they start cycling through photos nolyn and jon of you as children of you graduating clearly photos of some third person who are taking photos of you these people have been following you your entire life you're joking you're kidding you're fucking kidding what the fuck is this taffum kind of ends his presentation by saying you see gentlemen you were destined to go aboard the eldridge and you were destined to save the world i'm gonna raise my hand and the other two schmucks you didn't say any info on are he kind of stumbles for a moment and he says i'm sorry uh beaver uh i'm sorry i'm sorry blue um we never find your bodies so i don't know what happens to you i assume the worst

oh trust me me too i'm already there but you're telling me there's a chance so what were what were the others to you guys then the downtime in lyon what was that a game yeah what was that thorn bill speaks up and says it was part of our experiment it we theorized that you were destined but we had to make sure we had to put you through the tests we had to throw everything at you to prove that you were destined to make it out of the six of you so we're in half life you're telling me we're in half life well we're already dead i got the proof it's right there in a way of speaking yes when does this mission of ours when do we stop when it's i'm just like when when are we supposed to go breathe breathe blue you first need to all become attuned to the other side you all need to

be able to see these creatures before you go in so we're going to spend the rest of the afternoon attuning you to the resonator and when you can all see what we need you to see we will send you through in the morning gentlemen i understand that this is very difficult to take in it's a lot but you are the best of the best and quite literally the entire fate of humanity rests on your shoulders do we get our phones yes that's we will allow you to make a phone call but we have to do it through our system and we have to warn you that if you say anything about the mission we will cut it off we already have it he kind of gestures to thorn bill and says give them and what they want let them have the night and they're no 600

we do it and the scientists leave the room and thorn bill kind of lingers to see if there's anything you want from her why didn't they just tell us we were worried that it would affect the outcome we're worried that it would affect time we we had to be sure that you were that you were it um i will uh raise my hand i'll be like um i actually do have a request on top of making that phone call can i please get i want a large double quarter pounder with cheese extra fries some nuggies and i want extra barbecue sauce and i'm gonna fucking die for it anyone else this isn't this isn't just some private military complex is it it's not some shell corporation is this the government what is this if i'm gonna die for it can i at least know the name

i i don't know if i can you already did you already did everything you think you couldn't do come on doc you're stalking us since we were kids this is bigger than me but from what i understand this is a joint operation between i think government forces but i get a paycheck from march industries you are perceptive that there is something else yes but to be honest with you i i i don't know the same stuff that taffam knows for instance just know that there have been many minds and many people working on this i mean since 1943 since the experiment i mean the the the oni um there's a history there's a track record here of many organizations trying to solve this problem

this is an amalgamation of years of research and and it's all come down to you guys so what's the status on the nuggies uh oh yeah yeah yeah she starts writing it down and if anyone else has any particular requests like that i'll just ask you know i have a dr thornbiller whoever if they you know i'll make sure you guys got my will right uh yes that is in order great i'll see you in the morning okay uh anyone who wants to make phone calls who who would you like to call go for it blue um i would like to call tessa okay you call tessa um you are using a kind of payphone but you call them and what do you what what is the conversation like and i am so sorry it's today monday tuesday wednesday what's the day whatever the day was on november 18th 2012

so it's a sunday i yeah i'll call tessa because i know she's at a family barbecue that we usually do so i'm going to call that house to get a hold of her she picks up and you can clearly hear this there's kind of a lively party going on in the background it only did pops up burn the brisket again she you know she laughs and says no and kind of is happy to to to be hearing from you was unexpected was not expecting it yeah no i got here everything is uh i can't say much you know that but everything's good i just wanted to check in and and uh just tell me about your week you know you and your sister are gonna go see uh breaking dawn tell me how is it you you just ask her for the most mundane things and she's kind of not sure why but she she play kates and she

tells you what you want to hear and it's a mundane but pleasant conversation yeah probably exactly what you want to hear it's exactly i want to i the main thing is i just want to hear laughing and just heard talking about her day and then um i will say no i love you very much and i will see you soon you hang up and you walk away who else wanted to make a phone call uh i'm going to call my wife clara uh i think that we know each other really well at this point we were a military wedding uh that happened way too quick like all good military weddings but somehow we made the distance and uh we both understand each other in a way that's really hard to do especially with veterans coming back and she was very careful and patient with me the first

two years after uh everything coming back and i i think we're very frank with each other and what do you say to her uh clara i wanted to give you a call and i want to get the normal i want to get the preparations out of the way um you're gonna have to call my dad uh there's a place north of where we live uh he's going to show you where uh it's an old cabin we used to keep i um i kept some money there just in case you know i don't always trust banks and with our credit issues in the past i just wanted something in there just in case uh part of that can go to cassie's fund for college um and the rest of it can be for you however you want to use it uh my parents are going to be there and uh i just want you to know that things are going to be okay on the other side

and i i did good things for us okay that's all i tried to do at first as you begin explaining basically spelling out a kind of speaking will there's a protest that comes from her but you quell it maybe she quells it herself on her on her end she understands you like you said and she she just says yes and she says that she loves you and you can hear the pain in her voice but you could also hear the temperance clara i love you too i need you to know this and i need you to know it well don't try and find out the moment you say that you hear the line go dead as if those in charge have cut the line no tolerance dang oh yes nolyn pinks who would you like to call uh i'm gonna call my sister my sister lani and what's your relationship

with lani um we she's my younger sister um by i would say maybe three years um she's also in the military but i believe um she's not active duty she's like a reserve um so she still lives at home or back on the island she's kind of uh we have a really great relationship we're kind of like she's my confidant we're kind of rocks to each other and i don't have the heart to call my folks so i'm gonna call her make a luck roll i got a three it rings and rings and you think she's not gonna pick up but she does she sounds like she's with friends what do you tell her um it's like really loud so i i'm kind of like talking over but um i'm kind of just kind of making jokes just asking about her day just really quick and um uh i finally just say kind of you

know whatever you whatever you do and whatever you choose to do in life just you know always know that i'm proud of you you know the family's proud of you and you know i know you're gonna do right by by um and and stuff um she can tell that there's an awkwardness in what you're saying and she's she can tell that there's something wrong and she starts asking you questions what do you say to her um i kind of just kind of shove it off i kind of kind of kind of change the subject a little bit kind of like play it off make a big a joke kind of just keep kind of laughing just i don't want to kind of panic her make her anymore make it any more difficult than it already is um and then by then i would probably just tell her that i love her and um sleep it at that

you hang up after telling her you love you you love her you have made your phone calls and you get your meals um sure enough they bring a whole bunch of cheeseburgers and food that you asked for blue anything that you guys asked for they are able to provide for you and really the kind of tone has shifted where there is this kind of empathy being brought towards you they are really going out of their way to make you feel comfortable in your last hours i'm good while we're eating i i actually want to extend my hand to everybody and just say chief officer christopher uh revera and i want to actually introduce myself to these four my name is jonah jonah langley i really don't want a title uh nolyn assalu nature you introduce yourselves and there is this kind of moment of

solidarity between the four men who are supposed to save the world all of you make luck rolls for me please what do you want from us i pass with a seven fail with a 56 i fail with a 99 oh oh shit well i don't think i passed i got a 62 so compass you are the only person who gets any kind of sleep the rest of you you toss and turn and it's not what's kind of bothering you is that it's not that you can't take your mind off the fact that you're about to go on your last mission it's that you can't stop thinking about that feeling that feeling that you got when the resonator was on it felt so good you would almost say that you're starting to get a little addicted to the feeling the truth that maybe you all come to realize is you're not going to be around long

enough to see what happens if you are addicted to this resonator you wake up it's november 19th d-day you are fed breakfast given the morning but eventually you are brought into the very large domed building the building that you have not entered and inside there is a preliminary room where you are put into your end space survival suits the silver suits you put them on and then you are brought into another room this is a very high vaulted room with metal walls metal floors a metal ceiling and there is this kind of very large probe that is coming out of the ceiling dr thornbill explains they need to degoss you they need to run electricity through your electrons so that you are unaffected by the t radiation for as long as possible you stand in the middle of

this room with your suits on everyone else steps out and there is this incredibly loud strike of life and you all can see that from above you is a massive bolt of electricity that is running through all of you and down into the floor the moment it starts a few moments later it ends and all that is left is kind of the smell of ozone in the air people come back into the room and they begin leading you into the next space but you are fine it just kind of felt like a little bit of a tingly sensation uh when it was occurring but you are brought into an even larger room and here in front of you is a massive version of the tilling gas resonator that you saw in the locker's room it takes up almost the entire space and there is no one in here besides the four of

you and you see another glass window where taffum and thornbill and several other people are could i ask one of you to give me a luck roll it feels lucky oh looks like calib's doing it okay oh i thought you were rolling you had the gesture that you're rolling whoever wants it i was going to volunteer but if do it b banda has appointed okay okay i'm gonna do it i'm gonna do it i volunteer strip you go go 23 succeed the four of you are standing there getting ready and you all in your own turn kind of look over at the glass window and you notice that there's someone else amongst them that is not a scientist very clearly a military type it's a man he stands about 1.9 meters tall about 62 uh you guess that he weighs about 77 kilos 170 pounds he has

close cropped gray hair thin framed glasses and a precisely trimmed mustache he wears military fatigues but is not dressed in any kind of insignia or uh status though he says nothing the entire time he has this stoic look about him you can tell that even taffum has a reverence to him uh recognizes his authority but he says nothing he simply stares at you guys as you prepare you hear over the speakers we're going to begin the countdown you are going to see an event horizon and you need to move towards it when you see it is that understood you all give the thumbs up or speak into your comms and just as before you hear this shrill wine and sure enough this massive machine in front of you you can sense that it is beginning up

and those of you who failed your checks last night it's almost a relief to feel that familiar tingling sensation in your pineal gland and just as before the room turns a kind of fuchsia just as before the creatures appear this time ones that are a little different than the eels there are eels but there's also other weird kind of spider creatures that are kind of climbing along the wall but you know not to move to draw their attention and just when the humming is almost unbearable it feels like your whole body is shaking the atoms in your body are about to come apart it feels this this fear this event horizon just kind of begins to form in front of you a kind of not opaque but reflective bubble and you can feel being drawn towards it what do you

do yeah yeah sifting through to the the horizon the light as soon as you start moving towards it it's almost as if everything in your body wants to move towards it you're being magnetically attracted to it and your eyesight goes black and that's where we're going to end today's session so one moment the seals of operation tell are stepping towards the event horizon and in the next a flash of light and they are gone the monstrous hum of the concern wanes as the resonator powers down its sound is replaced by the cheers and clapping of the science

team who observed the operation after decades of research and experimentation they've just successfully sent four men back in time to save the world even dr. taffum is joining in the revelry and pops the cork of an expensive bottle of champagne still staring through the observation room window into the concern is the stoic mustached man in black he turns his spectacled gaze to taffum and gives a nod to the head of research taffum nods back and knows it's as much congratulations as he can expect the man in black traces a thumb over the scar on his cheek with a sense of closure turns heel towards the exit and makes his way out of the facility no time to celebrate for him there's always more work to be done since the program was

brought back online he has been meticulously seen to it that all loose ends are taken care of hidden behind the bureaucracy of the program his real name known only by one or two members of the do the man in black is a phantom but he knows it's only a matter of time before he falters only a matter of time before oaks or someone else in the do begins questioning his methods suggesting a better way he buries the thought knowing an iron fist and an unbreakable will is the only way to lead this organization into the next century after all being the director means making the decisions that no one else can