Mayday Plays - Mayday plays Delta Green | Observer Effect (Part 1)

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

Agents investigate a cutting-edge physics laboratory that may have looked a little too deeply into the nature of reality. Cast: Amanda as Jessica Rivera, Medical Examiner Caleb as Isaac Stoyer, NSA Computer Specialist Eli as Grey Arruda, Undercover Agent for the FBI Lev as “Benny” Louisa Burgos, Registered Nurse Sergio as Elian Ramirez, with the EPA Zakiya as Betty Reed of the Fish & Wildlife Service and Vince as Handler MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS • Post Sound: Sergio Crego • Epidemic Sound (epidemicsound.com) • Soundly (getsoundly.com/) 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.

Welcome to May Day Roll Plays Playthrough of Delta Green, Observer Effect. Get read in at patreon.com forward slash Mayday RP. I'm Vince, your host and handler for this scenario. Joining me are Amanda as Jessica Rivera, medical examiner. Caleb as Isaac Stoyer, NSA computer specialist. Eli as Gray Arruda, undercover agent for the FBI. Lev as Benny Louisa Burgos, registered nurse. Sergio as Ileon Ramirez with the Environmental Protection Agency.

And Zakiya as Special Agent Betty Reed with the Fish and Wildlife Service. Observer Effect is a scenario of otherworldly horrors, written by Shane Ivy for Delta Green, the role-playing game. For more information on Delta Green, please visit delta-dashgreen.com. Music in these episodes is brought to you by Epidemic Sound. This podcast contains adult language, as well as elements of unnatural horror, graphic violence and dubious morality. As a result, it is intended solely for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

Folks, it is a Tuesday morning in September. It is shortly before 9 a.m. Central time. You all are at your respective homes or your respective workplaces, whatever it is you happen to be doing on a typical Tuesday morning. But we'll start with Benny. Benny, what are you up to? What's your normal morning look like when you're not on an operation? I'm just now getting off work. I work the graveyard shifts in the ER. And yeah, it was a long fucking night. People are fucking crazy. And now I'm going to just go home and sleep.

Betty, Betty Reed. What's going on in your part of the world? Betty probably, she's going into work, but she very much so hates her job. So she's doing. doing the most like petulant walk to her car and digging as long as she wants to, which is going to be a cool 10 minutes. It's a driveway, but she's making it work. Next up we have Elion. Ileon. What's your, what's your Tuesday morning looking like?

Elion is definitely in the office and just getting to getting to work. It's typically just like paperwork and kind of basic office stuff. And he's, the main thing on his mind is he's fighting going to lunch early. Gray. I am sitting in a Maryland shipyard. I'm looking out at the water and I'm like leading up against a black SUV and I'm waiting for a shipment to come in. Isaac. I've just recently taken some personal time off work.

It's the first time I've done this in a long time. And I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I can. It's 10 in the morning. There's no physical way that I am awake in this apartment. I am dead asleep under four sets of covers trying to shut out the world. Every curtain is drawn. And Jessica, last but most certainly not least. I am actually taking my gloves off and putting a sheet over a body as I go ahead and fill out my autopsy report about a drowned victim in the Sisko Hanna River and drinking my Starbucks ice match.

Almond Hill latte. As you all go about your morning routine and you adjust to a new day, whether your day before is coming to a close for some of you like Benny or the day is coming to a new start. The clock ticks to 958, 959, 10 o'clock. No matter where you are or who you with or what you're doing, you all begin screaming. I need everyone to roll sand. I hate this fucking game. It just started. I succeed with a 28. succeed with a 14.

Elion succeeds with a 12. Succeed with a 29. I got a dead 50. All right. Meets it, beats it, okay? I fail with a 58. So for those of you who pass, you lose one. For those of you who fail, please roll 1D6.

I rolled it two. You all are rattled. The best way you can possibly think of to articulate this sensation is like a person who has suddenly swerved into oncoming traffic and seen the Mack truck that will kill them speeding towards them. And the only thing they have left to do in that split second before death is scream. It is death. It is destruction.

It is entropy. And you feel yourself beginning to forget a half-remembered dream or nightmare. You feel details. You feel the sensation that you could reach out. You could grasp these straws of memory and remember what it was that caused you to feel this. But you know that that would be a very, very bad idea. Yeah.

Betty screams at 10 a.m. every day. So it's going to feel real normal. And then it lasts a little longer than she wants it to when it comes with all that other stuff. So before she tries to do her scream, she is going to try to remember. As you recover and as you find yourself the sensation passing,

but the adrenaline still pumping through your veins as the fear begins to subside, you push through that barrier, that resistance, that almost uncomfortable, consciously is manifesting to keep you from seeing something that you are not meant to see. You remember a sound, a bone-jarring, pulsing, thunderous sound that seems to be too deep to even perceive with human senses, but is almost like it reverberates around and in between your atoms, threatening to just rip everything apart and render you down to your basest molecules.

And I'll lead you to roll another sand check, please. So that's a success with a 69. You lose zero. Yeah, how does everybody, like, in your respective places, how does this look? How do you recover from this? So Elion actually succeeded on his sanity check. So I think that's him, like, not fully understanding what happens

and immediately jumping to the conclusion that he's having, like, a massive cardiac arrest. So he, like, you know, once it kind of ends, he kind of hobbles his way over to the computer and searches on WebMD, like what a heart attack looks like. And it seems like nothing like what a heart attack is supposed to feel like and kind of leaves himself in a stun. And he just goes to lunch early.

I probably just got to my apartment complex. I'm going to grab the door jam and unintentionally try to remember. I think they're trying to like think back like, okay, have I been in a fugue this whole time? Am I just now coming out of it? Where was I? What was I doing before this? and in doing so kind of inadvertently fumbles into trying to remember.

What you do remember is being somewhere that you're not familiar with, sterile, some kind of facility, lots of fluorescent lighting, lots of tile, lots of glass and lots of computer screens. And you remember the lights flickering, you remember death, you remember smelling almost tasting the coppery tang of blood still in the air, and you're screaming into a phone and you're begging for help. You're begging for the program to send more. You're begging for the program to fix it.

Roll sand. I pass with the 24. All right. You lose zero. Shakily, still not certain if I've been cognizant or in a fugue, go into my apartment, slam the door, turn on some music real fucking loud, and just lay on the ground. I think I'm still wiping the sort of flop sweat that comes from those shaking and those nightmares. And I'm trying to parse out what that dream was even about.

It has some sort of familiar feeling, this terror that comes through. And immediately, just like anyone else, I'm trying to parse through and find that dream, remember what I can from what I just dreamt through, not fully understanding that maybe it wasn't a dream. I'm going to push through. You remember lines of code. You remember graphs. You remember sounds.

And you remember a hammer lying on tile, bloody. bits of brain and hair still clinging to both ends, the blunt end and the claw end, and you see what used to be a face, but is no longer. There is instead a pult mess of flesh and viscera and all the judoes in. Sure. I pass with a 32. All right. You lose zero.

I'm not alone. The car door of the SUV opens up and there's a big tall man that gets out. He's wearing a, he's bald, but he's wearing a beanie over his head. He kind of gives me like a look and I kind of just brush him off and kind of give him the finger, but I end up getting off the SUV and I head towards closer to the water. And I'm just trying to gather my thoughts and trying to figure out what the fuck that all was about, but I am going to push. You remember talking to someone. You remember lab coats.

It's like one of those dreams where you can barely remember faces. They're shapeless, they're formless. You know, you register the sounds of, voices, you register moving mouths, you register words. A lot of it is beyond you. It's, if you had to put it to any specific discipline, physics, something physics, something with lasers, something with energy, something with pulses. And then you remember just fear. You remember screaming. I remember people running. And you remember the entire roof of this facility that you're in. Suddenly, you remember you're in a facility. The fluorescent, the fluorescent lights go off. The roof

begins to collapse and you wake roll sand. I succeed with a 12. You lose zero. These sand tests, all right. Getting that green stuff all over the lab coat. So I'm going to, it's going to drop onto the floor and then I'm going to, any paperwork I had, that also got dropped and is getting messed up. I'm most likely, I am not alone in this building, so someone's going to come in and I'm

going to be like, sorry, it was a cockroach. It was just a big cockroach. And then I'm just going to kind of brush them off and get them out. And I'm going to go to the autopsy table. And there's like where you have those faucets, like the extendable kind, there's like those metal, like the cables with it. They're very heavily textured. I'm going to grab a hold of it and like nonstop take my thumb and just like rub it really hard for like a texture to like kind of almost a little painful to calm my brain down and make myself very present. So as you all struggle to kind of compose yourselves after this, this, what can a lot?

really be articulated as an event. You go about your day, try to as best you can. And at 11 o'clock, phones go off, email notices paying. You know that this is the typical method for you to be contacted by the program. The same words that are used by your typical case handler, case officer, who for you as working group, Onyx, is Carlos Olivier. You are to get to Chicago immediately. You are to drop what you're doing. You were to get on the next available flight. If you have to pay for it yourself, you will, and you are to meet at the FBI field office in Chicago no later than 1500, 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Elion is in D.C., so he has his assistant charter him something as quickly as possible,

probably just something commercial. He packs an extra pack of gum, like chewing gum with him and just already, as soon as he gets the call, he starts chewing on this bubble gum, and every five minutes or so is replacing it with a new piece of gum as he makes his way to the airport. Jessica is going to rush to her supervisor, let them know that there's a family emergency and she has to take off. So she does. And she will go ahead and take some couple of equipment, medical bag and all that stuff that she doesn't already have in her car, just already in her trunk. She's going to take excess materials, rush over as quickly as she can to grab a go bag as well.

and then she's going to head over to Harrisburg International Airport because it's usually one of those little smaller planes try to grab the fastest flight directly to Chicago. Benny's already in Chicago. They live on the south side, so they're going to sigh and pick themselves up off of the floor, change out of their scrubs, jump in the shower, get dressed, and try to make themselves eat like a grilled cheese.

before they gather all their, like, supplies for things that they think they might need if it's the, if it's the program. And then on the way out the door, they're going to grab a bag of gummy worms and start, like, munching on them as they get on the bus. Isaac is all West Coast. So he's got to go from Oregon to Chicago. He's not excited. That means he's got to get on a flight almost immediately. So he spends a good five minutes to kick the shit out of his bed. Then he packs.

Then he puts his, uh, his earbuds in. to get some music going and then drives immediately to the airport and takes the first United flight out to Chicago. Very upset. He knows that that's his entire vacation gone. By now, the shipment that I've been waiting for at the docks has arrived. It's a shipping container. And when we open the shipping container, there's like two or three people inside that shipping container. We load those people into the SUV and then I look to the guy who I'm with and I tell him that he needs to drop me off at my place. He drops me off. I grab my go bag and I get on a flight and I head to Chicago. So this is conceivably one of the best things that has ever

happened because she didn't get to the car yet. So she turns around packs something acceptable. Both me and Betty are concerned about how to ship a ship a ship. shotgun to Chicago? As a federal agent, you're good to go. All you have to do is identify yourself as such. You check it with your luggage, you're set. You all board your flights. And as you get to the airport, as you land at Chicago O'Hare, and you make your way

to the FBI building, whether that's via Uber, via cab, however, whatever method you used to get there. And by three o'clock, or shortly before, you all, working group onics, are gathered inside the FBI's sensitive compartmented information facility, their SCIF, where all of their classified discussions, all of their most sensitive materials are handled and discussed, away from prying ears and eyes and away from potential intercept. You all are gathered around a conference table in this pretty sterile windowless room around a table. But if everyone just wants to, just for shits and giggles, roll D100,

and then we'll just, that'll determine who gets there first. 22. 86. In 80. 87. 34 for Elion. Gray, you open the door. You're actually escorted in by a suited FBI agent and shown into the conference room. This is very weird.

What you know is they don't really check for IDs for you guys, for you folks. They're not checking to see who you are. They just know to expect you. And they essentially just greet you and walk you back and let you in. which is very unusual. I go take a seat, kick up my shoes. Ileon, you step into the office and are escorted in. As soon as I see Gray, I visibly shut her and just go,

hi, hi, hi, everyone. Yeah, good to see you again. And I just sit down awkwardly. Hey, A Leon, have you been, man? I'm getting a divorce. I, like, I really leave my, like, right ear towards him. What did you say? I said, I'm getting a divorce.

She's leaving me. Oh, shit. She's taking a kid. What? happen, man. I got rid of the family dog and she didn't like that. Just don't worry about it. I'm fine. Oh, dude. Betty, you walk in as, as Elian is struggling. What? Hi. Hi, Betty. Hi, Betty. How's Lucy? Hi. How's Lucy? All right. She's in the car and she's fine. All right. What was that? Speak up? I'm sorry, Betty, you brought Lucy? Yeah. I mean, I don't know what I

signed up for. Just in case. I mean, she's attached to the hip to Lucy. It's a reasonable distance. What was that? It's... We had to speak up a little bit. It's all right. Thanks. Nice to see you again. Great. Caleb or Isaac. You step in. I'm not the most late. I take the seat up and I throw my legs up right opposite gray. How are we all doing

folks? I'm lovely. Does anyone know if they're doing a like a brunch thing? Are they going to put food out for us? Yeah, like a craft services table? That would be nice. I mean I hate it when they leave us with nothing. I don't know. It's an FBI joint. They don't exactly cater. Nice to see you, Isaac. It's good to see you, Eli. Benny. Benny, just... Here you go. Yeah, I probably, like, fell asleep on the bus and missed my stop by a couple,

so I had to, like, haul ass in, and Benny comes in with a bag of gummy worms. Benny, you really, you got to work on your attendance here. Fuck off. You look like shit, man. Did it an overnight? I've been up since... Fuck, I don't know. Like... Is like my 37th hour awake? I don't know, man.

Those cool bastards called you in. Keep Chicago alive somehow. I'll just, like, post up in a corner and, like, lean my head back. You know there's chairs for you to sit, right? If I sit down, I'll sleep. I don't think the FBI take too kindly to that, so. Benny, you raise a good point. Because you've been awake for so long, please roll 1D6.

That's bad. That's valid a good point. That's valid as fuck. One. One? Oh, you only lose that much willpower. So you're used to this. You're boot and rally.

You're good to go. As you all are catching up, the door opens, and the woman that you should see on your Roll 20 screen steps into the room. And it is slightly jarring because this is not your usual case officer. This is a graying, middle-aged, limping woman who has the tired eyes of an agent who's maybe seen too much, even if she's only in. hearing about it's secondhand these days. She strides into the room and sets a folder down the table and looks at you all and says, good afternoon. My name is, my name is Eve Carpenter. And thank you all for

being here and getting here so quickly. This is a fastly developing situation that we need your assistance with. Vince really quickly. Am I going to be late or am I not there? You come in just as she's introducing herself. I will acknowledge mostly everybody, but I'm rushing in because I know I'm late and I'm like also a little stressed out. Yeah, I'll pull out a seat right next to me for you to sit down. Question, who's next to you? It's gray opposite me and then a free chair next to me. All right, I'm going to do that, but I'm going to make sure I am close to Isaac as possible

and not make any eye contact with certain people. she looks across at you all and says your destination this evening is the Olympian hollow beam array. It is a new high-tech physics lab and just outside of Chicago. It's not far from formal lab. As far as we can tell, it's run by a handful of academic researchers from MIT and the University of Chicago. It's jointly funded by the Department of Energy and a private consortium of donors and venture capital firms. The biggest is Olympian advances, hence the name. The program, we have determined that the array is secretly using technology derived from Air Force research programs that were defunded decades ago.

These programs were too dangerous to continue and they were terminated. But during that process, certain elements were reclassified, they were privatized, and they were sold. Some of the same donors who sponsor the array. We have an interest in that technology. At 10 o'clock this morning, the array went online for the first time. Oh, shit. Based on the history of the array's technology. and some other anomalies indicate that there might be an encouragement in progress at the array.

We need you to go to the array. We need you to isolate it by shutting down any communications with the outside world, including any cell phones that might be on site, and stop the incursion at any costs. You want us to go turn off a laser. Is that what you're saying? Betty Elyon Gray, you all notice, she is, she's nervous. There is a slight tremor in her hand. She just, she seems to collect and gather herself and, and she, she moves on. The array, it's, you'll have to forgive me. It is, it is not something I am well versed in, but it is a, a project, again, between the Department of Energy and this Olympian advances. They're studying the theory that space itself is a three-dimensional hologram on a two-dimensional surface, essentially at determining if reality is a simulation.

Oh, that's above my pay grade. And you said it went on at 10 in the morning today? 10 a.m. today for the first time, yes. The same time that I experienced the worst dream I've ever had in my entire life. She goes pale. Yeah, me too. I saw some weird shit. Yeah.

I thought I had a heart attack around 10. Are you serious? What? Holy shit. Why the fuck are you here if you thought you had a fucking heart attack? I'm going to go over and start like checking him over, like immediately. Hold, hold on. Can you explain this to us?

As you all realize that you all experience this exact same thing at the exact same time. Roll Sandy for me, please. Pass with a 29. I pass with the 31. Pass with 32. Pass with 33. A 99 will be a fail. Anybody fails, you just lose one. It would make me really comfortable if like the whole world screamed, maybe not just us, right?

Just the seven of us? So just the seven of us screamed, and we're in, you have, tasked us with this, do you know something about how we're connected to this somehow? No, in all honesty, you are the only ones available. That tracks. Well, hey, I mean, if this goes off and as soon as it goes off, we all experience the same thing. Maybe we're in the simulation and it just proved it. We're all fucking computer programs, huh?

I'd make life easier. No, this is an inspection of some kind, right? I assume we're coming in to see what the deal is and try to solve it from there. I have experience with this. Yes, yeah, here. And she reaches into her briefcase, and she pulls out seven credentials, credential cases. They're the long black leather wallets that contain the badges and identifications, usually for federal agents. Those of you who are feds have ones just like this.

But as she hands them out, you see that they are issued in your name, but they belong to the Department of Energy Office of the Inspector General. and they are essentially credentialing you all as, or at least identifying you all, as federal agents with the DOE. They all have your name, they all have your photograph, and she says, you are operating under the cover of a DOE inspection team, and your objective, your stated objective, your cover at least, is to review the site and essentially determine why it went offline, a safety inspection. Make sure they're operating as they should be. make sure they're not violating any codes, any regulations, anything that would essentially give us credence to shut them down. Does anyone in this room have any computer skills? It sounds like this is going to be pretty advanced stuff.

I'm certainly not a computer expert. I got you covered. I mean, the NSA teaches us well. We will have cars for you. There is a DOE issued sedan and a cargo van outside. We will be issuing you firearms as part of your cover with the DOE. you will have weapons available to you. 40 caliber Glock 22, standard issue for the Department of Energy.

Is that really necessary case officer? I don't need a gun. I'll take your gun. Can I have his gun? Better, would you rather have it than, I mean, just in case. I understand. I understand what we're getting involved in, but I just, I'm not good with guns. So it's just going to, it's going to hurt my hip, okay?

That's all. You're sure this is just for the inspection? We're not expecting a fire on people, are we? No. I mean, well, this is not, certainly not your first night out. Yeah. Mr. Stoyer, so you understand situations can devolve. I do, I do, but I'd like to think that maybe once one of these could be easy.

Believe me, what I say with all sincerity, Mr. Stoyer, I hope that this is the case. Agent Reed here, and she slides you, Agent Reed, a single burner cell phone. And this has my number programmed into it. You can use this to maintain communication with me if necessary. Got. Destroy the phone after the operation, please. Easy. How long is this supposed inspection?

Are we here for days? Is this a one-day thing? What's the expectation here? You're here for as long as you need to be. Isaac, an inspection doesn't take more than a few hours. I mean, if things are up to speed, then it shouldn't take that long. But, uh... Okay, perfect.

Who knows? We don't know. No, I like that. We get in, we tag it, we burn it, we leave. Yeah. I'm right there with you, Eli. We make it out in time for dinner. Please understand.

We're not sending you out there simply just on a semblance of a hunch. We do believe something is happening out there. We just, we don't have the intelligence as of right now to indicate what exactly that is or what the nature of it is. That's why we are sending you. So all we have in terms of evidence on this thing is that at 10 o'clock it turned on. 10 o'clock it turned on and it is using technology that they should not be using. Understood. Okay. What do you think is going to happen if they keep using it?

We don't know. But there was a reason with the United States government defunded the Air Force from using those projects. Yeah, it takes a lot for the government to give up on something. There is additional equipment in the vehicles, and you may inspect it as you wish, but it should be about roughly an hour to the site. And just then her phone begins to vibrate.

And she says, excuse me, please. She steps aside for a moment, takes a phone call. 10 in the morning, you all felt that, we all did that? You mean screaming our heads off? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I thought I had a bad dream, but I tried to remember what I saw.

Okay, a bad dream. A bad dream about what? Just then, Agent Carpenter returns to the table. There was an unexpected power surge at the array. Its power was shut down a few minutes ago. They're working on getting it back online. That's much worse. Anything else before we can just go and get this done?

Are there any VIPs on the scene we should be looking to once we arrive? Anybody specifically to talk to? Well, so we haven't had an opportunity to collect much more on the site itself, but we do know the project lead is a Dr. Jamie Campbell. She'll likely be your first point of contact. I'd like to be the last person to leave. And I like to be the first person to leave. Elion's the first to stand up, although he sighs the whole time,

as he stands. Oh, I want to hurry up and see what's in the vehicles, so I'm leaving. as like everybody's like walking out I just want to like pretend that I'm walking but then I'll stop short and I'll turn around at Eve and I'll look at her and I'll be like you know my dad always told me that knowledge is sometimes the best thing to have

and something you're not telling us something that makes you a little nervous a little shaking in the hand I see what is it what is it that you're not telling us we're all human I succeed

with a 56. She says she doesn't know, but you get the sense that maybe that's not true, and she finds the truth troubling. But whatever is there, she just can't seem to get past it. She can't seem to get to that point where she can admit what it is,

whether it's some kind of subconscious barrier. But the look of fear that comes over her face is very similar to maybe what you probably looked like when you were screaming at the top of your lungs in Maryland. And she says, this is wildly inappropriate, Miss Aruta. Listen, you know there are certain things we can't discuss, and this is one of them. I just need you to go out there and need you to do your job. You saw something, too, didn't you?

Are we done here? If you held something back and it affects everybody here in this group? She walks out. I'll just head back down to it. I'll just laugh and just head down. As you all head out to the vehicle, you check the the sedan trunk

and you find the seven black plastic cases with Glock and blazoned on the front and inside you find you were issued DOE standard issue Glock 22 pistols. They're there and they have holsters with them so you can affix them to your belts.

In addition to the pistols and each comes with three magazines you have two handheld Geiger counters and in the actual cargo van you also find some medical equipment, complete with an electronic personal dosimeter, which is a, for those who don't know, it is an item that you can use to detect the presence of radiation,

along with the Geiger counter. So it's essentially something you wear, and it'll go off if there's radiation detected. There's a first aid kit, and there are also, you would know this, Jessica, with your pharmacy rating. There are medicines for radiation poison. So potassium iodide, depression blue capsules, DTPA with IV bags, everything that you would need to do for on-site, on-scene triage and treatment of radiation poisoning. While we're kind of getting in and going over the equipment, Elion leaves his gun and takes the Geiger counter and it doesn't really fit on his hip, so he puts it in his back pocket and he takes the electronic dosimeter.

There's only one of them, right? Right. I think him just believing that he is the most appropriate for this position will take it. So it is a little after four at this point. You know it's going to take you about an hour to get to the array. I'm driving one. Yeah, you got it. I don't want to drive.

So maybe we're all with Betty. How about this? We're in the van because I feel like most of the medical equipment, all that stuff is in there. Are we fucking going to Chernobyl? What the fuck? I don't know, man. They said it's an array. The only thing I can think of is the fucking Matrix, and it's like a giant-ass room.

Or, like, you know, you know in that X-Men movie when they were, like, training in shit? And, like, shit appeared, and then it would, like, disappear. That's all I can think that it is. You saw that X-Men movie, right? To be honest, if it's not the first one, I don't give a shit. You've only seen the first one in, like, multiple sequels of shitty remakes. What? I'm sorry.

I went to school. I was busy. I didn't see movies that much, okay? I'm sorry. I also went to school just because I was in the fucking army. It doesn't mean you get to hold it over me. God damn. Guys, can we talk about the mission at hand, please?

Dad's back. Team Squick, Dad's back. I'm sorry, we're just a little tired of grumpy. That's not the case. Go ahead. What you want? I'm going to look up this bullshit, you know, investor group they got for this thing. I mean, if they're on to the old lost projects of the government, they got to have something buying them. I'm going to see what they got.

Okay, so you're specifically looking up Olympian. Yeah. Olympian advances. I want to know whatever I can. And if I can, I'd like to exhaust any databases I have from my work on the exchange of those ideas, those lost projects. Okay. So got that for you. Is anybody else going to be doing any research during this time? That's probably why Elion brought it up, because he probably pulled his laptop out and started looking stuff up. He's a lot less conspiratorial. So he's just focusing on the hollow beam array. He wants to kind of understand it so that when he's, performs the inspection, he kind of has an idea. We'll start with you, Isaac.

You find that Olympian is a privately held corporation with extensive ties to the military and other contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin. You also find that it is a subsidiary of a much larger, much more secretive company called March Technologies that seems to deal with computers and flight navigation. And with your intelligence, you are also able to find out that the Olympian founder and chairman is Curtis Shank. He is a 74-year-old retired Air Force Lieutenant General. He's actually best known for being one of the most highly decorated fighter pilots of the Vietnam era. However, his postings between 1980 and 2004 are highly classified and restricted.

And going back to you, Ileon, The names, you're able to get the names of the researchers and the engineers that are assigned to the project along with their basic backgrounds, and you determine that the array was built about two years ago by Olympian advances. The one thing you do find, Ileon, especially with your kind of experience with physics, the array really is run with a skeleton crew. There's far fewer staff than you would expect, and they're mostly high-ranking experts. There's not a single intern in sight to do like kind of the drudge work. they're all super highly qualified, super experienced physicists and engineers. Yeah, it stands out to me that there's no support staff. And you find that Dr. Jamie Campbell, who is from MIT, has a reputation of being a little bit of a crackpot,

but she does have an extensive history of projects that have been associated with the Air Force. And over the years, she has garnered massive, extraordinary support from private sector underwriters, including Olympian advances and March Technologies. So I'm interpreting this as she has a history with these companies. Yes. Gotcha. That's your, yep, absolutely. For you, Isaac, if you would like to make a military science, bureaucracy, or accounting test, if you want to dig further.

I'm going to go with bureaucracy. It is barely a pass with a 48. So Curtis Shank, his postings based on what you can tell and some of the basics. that he was at were likely related to stealth technology, the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as Star Wars, which was the 1980s satellite program to shoot down missiles with lasers, as well as SDI spinoff programs attempting to weaponize lasers and particle beams. In 2004, and none of this is corroborated,

but there were pretty rampant rumors that he used data that he, quote-unquote, liberated from projects that he had overseen to establish to establishes, establish Olympian advances. He continues to find applications for the same research he pursued in the Air Force, but at incredible astronomical profit margins. On alien's side, he's noticing, and he's saying this out loud, it's quite unusual, but there are four guards at this hollow beam array. I mean, it's a lot of security for basically two staff members. There's this saying, and I mean, hell, there's a janitor there, but that's about it. And this Jamie Campbell

who seems to be connected with this information. I see that there's a research Helen Klinger and a Philip Black, but I don't see any information on this staff roster. Is this something that

if I Googled their names, I could maybe find out more about these individuals? Oh, for sure. Absolutely. We'll say that Dr. Black, he's a University of Chicago physicist. He is considered

the junior researcher in the project, but he does have a wealth of experience really decades behind him. And Dr. Klinger is also with the University of Chicago. And she is kind of the lead researcher just above Dr. Black. You also find, with your bureaucracy, actually anybody who's kind of participating or helping with the research and has a bureaucracy at 40%. So that would be Benny, Betty, Ileon, and Isaac.

You find that the research and the engineering team at the array were actually directly involved in the construction. They directly oversaw it, which is slightly unusual. I do want to ask, Isaac, do you have your phone on you? Uh, yes, I do, I do, I totally do. It starts to vibrate in your pocket. Uh, yeah, if it's a phone call, I'll take it. Mr. Stoyer?

And it is Eva Carpenter. Oh, yeah, hey, what's up? Curtis Shank is not the object of this operation. Okay, um, duly noted. I'll put that in the record. I'll make sure Eli gets that down. She hangs up. Fucking boogeyman.

Uh, yeah, I'm going to, uh, Go through the process of wiping my laptop then. All the information that I was, yeah. I mean, I'm going to go through everything I've learned at my day job to make sure that, you know, however they saw my info, it's gone now. I will, like, tell everybody about the medication just to be very transparent and also to, you know, keep an eye out. But on that, I'm kind of just going to lean up against the side of the window.

And just chat, but, you know, just chat. that kind of zone out. Benny's probably watching Gray and Jess and just trying to like keep themselves between them just because they're like, I don't fucking want to deal with this. I'm fucking exhausted. I'm probably trying to like talk to Gray

just so she doesn't say anything to Jess. Did you see Eve in the office? She's kind of nervous. She's kind of a little shaky. It'll keep things interesting. Yeah, well, what the fuck, man? How am I supposed to do my job? You bring Lucy? Did you get out of the car?

She's in this car and she's fine. I'm going to think about working on myself and remember not to respond to negative comments. I didn't say anything fucking negative, man. I checked on Lucy. Elion is really struggling with the fact that you brought Lucy and he just says abruptly the last person you use that on wasn't very loud.

Oh, come on, man. We're going to do this now? We already have weapons. I don't understand why you had to bring Lucy. I'm pretty sure Lucy is the only thing standing between us and the next hour. So I think you will have some gratitude. Yeah, I got a lot of gratitude for Lucy right here on my left ear. Look, you know, I like pull back my neck and you can see like buckshot stipplings up the side of my ear.

As you all continue your drive, you finally get outside of the Chicago City limits. and you find that the array sits by itself in the heart of a 16-acre woodland park on semi-rural county land outside the city limits. You reach an unlabeled driveway that leads directly into the woods past a sign that says authorized personnel only. Beyond the first warning sign, the road winds back and forth through the woods for about 100 meters until it stops at a stout, solid steel gate. The gate, too, was unlabeled but for another authorized personnel-only sign. On either side of the gate, a thick concrete wall stretches out into the woods surrounding the eight acres of the facility proper. Beyond the gates, a short drive through the woods leads to a wide clearing and the array itself. But at the gatehouse, you have an external security hut that you pull up to just outside the concrete wall.

At that time, a professional, friendly, sharp-eyed guard wearing the khaki uniform of the Breckenridge Corporation steps out. and you see a fit Hispanic man in his 40s with a gold name tag above his left pocket, or right pocket that says H. Gonzalez. And he steps out and gesture to you to roll down your window. She does. Good evening. I'm Henry Gonzalez. I'm security here on the site.

Can I see everybody's identification, please? It's the cool flip thing. We'll roll down everyone's windows. Pass it up. I'll take it out, same. as like we're passing in showing it to him i'm talking as if he hasn't heard already heard that we're here for the inspection and like going through my spiel about you know doing an inspection yeah yep inspection team okay got it all right well uh you guys are raring to go awesome uh well here's our

identification back let me get this gate open for you uh you have yourselves great night thank you mr gonzals will head back up open that gate and you all drive on through So as you all pull up to the array itself, it's another short drive through the woods, and you reach a cluster of plain concrete buildings, and the main building itself. And standing out front just on the other side of the parking lot is a, what looks to be another security type hut, and then the building itself. And out front waiting for you is Dr. Jamie Campbell, who you recognize from the research you did online.

and another gentleman that you assume to be one of the other site members. Can I, can I say that as we were getting out of the van, I stuck some of the radiation pills like in my back pocket and stuck on the Geiger counters in my backpack? I'd like to do the same as well. Grab a Geiger counter and... Yeah, I'll toss him the pills and... Thank you.

Dr. Campbell, it's a pleasure to meet you. Hello. Very happy to meet you, Evan. And just, you know, shake both their hands. Yes. Good evening. Thank you for coming. What is it we can do for you? Well, my name is Agent Ramirez. I am the lead of this inspection here. Please, if you wouldn't mind,

we'd love to see the facility. We know that we heard there was a little blip in the power and just kind of wanted to make sure everything was running smoothly for you. Well, of course, as you understand, we've got quite a bit of work ahead of us. So the sooner we can wrap this up, the better. Mr. Kozak here, one of our engineers, will be your escort for the evening. And he hands out very nervous, kind of, he seems a little timid around you all. I mean, there's seven federal agents now standing on his, on his doorstep. But he hands out these red visitor badges with a big, bold V on the front for you to clip to your pockets. Here you go.

Please keep these on you at all times, visible above the waist, just standard operating procedure for the site. I kind of notice his mannerisms and I just say, uh, no, no need to be nervous, Mr. Kozak. If things go smoothly, we should be out of your hair,

uh, shortly. Oh, of course. Yeah. So Evan, uh, you built this thing,

huh? Oh, no, no, no, I, no, I didn't build it.

I just, I made sure she stays up and run. And we, uh, we calibrate the lasers, make sure everything is, is, is, uh,

as it should be. Right. As it should be. But I believe it was, uh, uh, uh, uh,

uh, was part of the construction of it, no? Oh, well, I mean, we all kind of had a hand in it, but Missing her, sheing Faye, her main focus is the computers. She operates, let me really, the computer that keeps this

keeps this site running. Is she on site today? Well, she is. Everybody's here. Everybody's available. At this point, Dr. Campbell says, I trust you all are in good hands. Feel excuse me. I'm going to go back inside. I will make myself available, should you need me, but

I do believe Mr. Kozak is more than more inappropriately equipped to provide you with whatever you need. Can I follow and like trail off which direction she goes as she enters? She's just going back into the building. Okay, cool. And today everything went off without a hitch. What was the blip with the power? Could you give us some information on how today's been going for you guys? Well, I mean, we had the power surge, but, you know, we were able to get everything back up and running within no, I'd say, just under an hour.

and we've got the array back online, collecting data. Everything is as it should be. I see. No broken machines or anything out of the ordinary? Oh, no, that was the first thing we checked. I went ahead and replaced the fuses inside the array itself and the atrium. I got those switched out. We hit the backup generator, got that up and running,

and now it's like nothing even happened. What do you think caused the blip in the first place? I mean, it was hours after you had initially turned it on. You know, honestly, it really could have been anything. You know, first day in operation, there's expected to be hiccups. I didn't expect to have one this significant, but, you know, I mean, we made it work. He turns to Evan and says, well, we'd love to actually see it in person, if you wouldn't mind. Oh, sure, yeah.

Let me give you all the tour, all right? Just follow me. Please stick with me and trailing off. I am your escort. I don't want to get fired. Dr. Campbell is stickler. I can assure you we are all professionals, Doctor, and I'll look back at gray.

I'm going to go ahead and actually, because I had a full-on duffel bag full of stuff, and I'm going to go ahead and stuff anything I can. I'm going to actually bring a backpack in a duffel, even though it might look a little bit. I don't care. I'm going to bring that just in case. Yeah, Kozak actually,

as he starts to lead you all towards the main doors, he looks over at you and says, that's a lot for, that seems to be a lot for an inspection. What do you got there? Oh, just occasionally, like wardrobe, different things. Because you never know what you can actually touch. And let's be honest, we have a big group,

so we got a bunch of different sizes. And as he's like sort of starting to grill her, I'm going to pull out the dosimeter and say, we're very thorough, doctor. Oh, is that a docemitter? Yep. Just want to make sure everything's in tip-top shape, nothing strange or out of the ordinary. We're just checking things off a list, Evan.

It's normal practice. Agent Ramirez is extremely thorough. Well, there's no radiation on this site. We're not working with nuclear materials. It's just a formality. It's in the paperwork. Okay. Okay.

All right. Well, sure. Roll human for anybody who's really paying attention to him. I succeed with a 65. I succeed with a 40. Yeah, you look at him and he just, he does not know what to make of it. And not just that, but one thing you do notice for those who succeeded, as he walks, he's kind of humming to himself.

And it's a very, like, atonal, very irregular, just kind of nonsensical, but consistent hum. I think Isaac is pretty musical himself and fucking weird as hell. we're all weird, so I write it off. You know, some of us chew gum, some of us hum. Can Benny try to record the sound of his humming? Do you have a tape recorder? I have my phone.

I'll say you switch it on and are you just going to keep it in your pocket and just kind of try to stay close to them. Yeah, I have like one of those really shitty Hawaiian shirts on and that has a pocket on the front of it. Yeah, we'll say easily enough. Kozak leads you all into the main entrance of the array itself. And here, you kind of have a very basic entry area. We've got a little conference table with some chairs, some couches.

He takes you around, he shows you the kitchen, takes you to the hallway where you can see doors leading into separate offices and then to opposite ends of the building. This is a pretty small facility. Well, this isn't it. So this is just the main building. We also have what we call the atrium. That's where the actual array is housed. And then we also have, we have splitters. and then we have the terminals that essentially where we collect the data,

process it, and then kick it in over here to the building for analysis. And imagine you were giving some children a tour. What is the purpose of the array? What are you hoping to find in these experiments? Well, these lasers, you know, they are really meant to essentially detect vibrations in space time. You know, when you have black holes, meat and mesh, and you have stars collapse and explode, you have vibrations that are left in space time. And these lasers are so finely tuned that the intent, the idea is that they will pick up these vibrations and be able to essentially enable us to determine whether or not they're, you know, as our project goal states, whether or not this reality that we perceive is in fact just a holographic representation.

But that's beyond me. I just keep the fucking laser running. The researchers are the ones who make heads and tails of that. Doctor, let's keep this PG, please. Let's keep this professional. Of course. He blushes, bright red. Of course, absolutely.

Sure. I'll lean down to Jess probably closer than I really need to, but I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to lean super close and go, watch your fucking mouth. I'll laugh. I'll just laugh. I'll probably shoot him a glare and then ask for the doctor to continue. Oh, wink at Elion.

Sure, this way. And he leads you all into the computer lab, where you have six computers set up around this table. You've got screens on the walls. And in the far corner, you have what appears to be kind of just a standard server rack, a young woman working feverishly, just focused on the computer in the corner, who you assumed to be and who Kozak eventually introduces as, Jingfei Singh. Well, this is our computer lab. This is where all the data feeds into and where we process everything. And Missang over here, Jingfei, is the, well, she keeps the computer running. I think we'll introduce ourselves. Dr. Kozak, perhaps this is something maybe more Dr. Seng can answer. But in regards to this power, I mean, you guys are running lasers. Lasers can't draw that much power.

Have you realized why there was this? this jump in the system? Well, you know, we kind of figure it was just a hiccup. We were hooked up to Con Edison, you know, local power, so I could have been something on their end. Regardless, we were assured that it would be able to handle the workload. And for all intents and purposes, it seems like it should be able to. But for whatever reason, things went south.

But thank goodness for that back of January. We were able to get things back up online fairly, fairly, quickly. Dr. Seng? Or things running now? They're running, running just fine, running tip-top shape. D is singing along and things are going quite well. Cossack, who are these people? Oh, they're the inspection, the inspection team.

Okay. Unless you have any questions, I really need to stay. This is my work. I need to focus on this, please. Thank you. Is she wearing like a lab coat or something like that? She's wearing just like a plain t-shirt jeans. They're all kind of dressed very casually.

Even Kozak is just wearing jeans and a, like, a ratty t-shirt. Is there any chance there's like a coffee cup or like a pen or something that's got like the name of the company on it? Yeah, let's say, yeah, there's a like just a plain white mug with the Olympian Advances logo on it sitting on the corner of the desk. Where could I get one of those mugs? We had them ordered, made, we had them special made for the project. have an extra one. Could I get one? We can, we can maybe check the kitchen before you leave. As I, like, come up and, like, grab the mug, can I see what she's got on the computer

screen? It looks like gibberish. Okay. Doctor, my name's Agent Stoyer. You can call me Isaac. I'd love to carve out some time during this inspection for me to take a look at your workstation and the way that you run things on this end. It's part of our inspection. Well, of course, I'll answer whatever. questions you have, but I'm afraid you're not cleared to touch this computer. I see. Eli, could you mark that? Oh, of course. Yeah. Thank you.

Doctor. Miss, I'm not a doctor. Miss. Jingfei. Under what authority can you tell us now? Under the authority of the United States government. This is highly classified, and unless you have code word clearance, you're not touching my computer. Agent Sawyer, that's fine. We'll get this sorted out if there is a hiccup.

Absolutely. But I'll tell you all about it. Please, as much as we can understand your machines and what you're doing, that would help us very much. Yeah, I'd love to pick your brain. Of course, I'll make myself more unavailable. Don't forget the mug. Love a mug. She's already turned back to her computer and is just, with your human, with your human scores, it's a little unhealthy how focused she is on this computer.

Like obsessive? Borderline, absolutely. Agent Ramirez, if it's cool with you, I might as well just stay here with Ms. Jingfei and get to my line of questioning as much as I can for our investigation while you, the rest you see to the rest. Absolutely. Whatever speeds this up, I think that's a great idea, agent. Perfect. So I'm going to, is there an additional seat next to Jingfei? So there are plenty of seats around so you can easily grab one and pull it up next to her. I'm going to take one. I'm going to spin myself around in it and then pull up real close and get to know Jingfei real nice.

I'm going to spend as much time as I can trying to get to know her processes and whatever information she's willing to give in a line of questioning that does not befit a theater degree but does befit someone from MIT. So we'll come back to you and Jingfei, but at this point, Kozak looks to the rest of you.

Would you like to continue? I can show you the workshop. Yeah, yeah, that's great. Okay. And he leads you down to the opposite end of the building where there is the workshop where there are some mobile clean rooms set up. They are essentially these big plastic, essentially clean rooms you can move and set up that are just kind of sitting there and waiting. And he explains that these clean rooms are used to access some of the splitters with the laser equipment.

They're required to be set up. They require an hour to process. So that way you can get in and examine and calibrate the equipment without introducing any particulates, anything that could compromise the, the experiment itself. So what they do is they will actually move those bags or those cleaners out of the double doors. They will go set them up on the exterior of the splitters, let them cycle for an hour, and then process through. But the atrium itself, which is what houses the bulk of the equipment doesn't require a clean room setup. And this is where we just, if there's any

equipment that needs to be repaired, we just bring it back in here. We do our thing and we get it back in action and send it back. This is a good room. Love this room. Seems straightforward enough. Maybe on to the splitter itself. Well, yeah, we can take the atrium. Absolutely.

So for you, Isaac, so you got Jingfei. She kind of definitely blades her body away, just a little bit away from you for a little bit. What sort of questions are you asking? I just want to know what her work, routine is what exactly she's handling on the computer that

relates to the atrium, how she operates the array from here or at least daily operations. Anything I can learn about what she's actually doing here. Well, I really don't have to do anything. D handles everything. You're not doing anything? Well, I've really just made sure

her process, I'm sorry, I shouldn't refer to it as her. Its processes are running as they should be. You're talking about the array? Well, D, D is the computer. D is the heart of the project. D is what essentially intakes all of the data that the array collects and analyzes it. I mean, she does all the work.

So you're working with, what, an AI program set up? Only the most advanced AI program this generation has or ever will see. And that's directly hooked to this array. Anything the array picks up, every little jitter in those lasers and those mirrors, everything gets fed in back here. and D just immediately is able to process it and make sense of it. How long has D been running? Well, since 10 o'clock today. Right.

And you design D or was D already here? You're assigned to D. Oh, no, no, no. Dee, it's, uh, she's really the result of some truly groundbreaking work that was done at Nellis Air Force Base. It was a military project, uh, before it came out here. And we've just repurposed it for this, for this study. I have to get the feeling.

You kind of know what you're talking. talking about. It's a crystal matrix quantum supercomputer. It's all the data is stored in this crystal framework and it's actually retrieved by lasers. It's got more power and it's in that one cabinet than most other supercomputers can pack in those Google-sized refrigerated rooms. It's, you take state-of-the-art at about seven or eight decades on top of that and you'll get to where D's at. Great. Exceptional. That is truly great to hear. You've got a great infrastructure here. So D came with the territory. Oh yeah. She is, she is the core of this project. Your guess, do you, do you have much information on, you know, the people running this project? I mean,

I don't see my bosses a whole lot at work, but I'm wondering if you do, do the donors ever come around? No, they, they really just kind of leave us to our business. Dr. Campbell is really the one who runs a show around here. So Dr. Campbell could tell me where D came from. I mean, like I said, It was Nellis. It was the Air Force. It was the military. It's a military project. Yes.

That's a location, right? Someone has to pick up D and bring D here and give you permission to use D, right? So there are a lot of hands in between Nellis and here, don't you think, Jingfei? Oh, well, Olympian advances is the one that procured it and then delivered it here. Through, I don't know, Curtis Shank? Oh, no. No, Mr. Shank is the head of Olympian. be ridiculous for him to bring it here, right?

That's like Bill Gates visiting a Microsoft store in Albuquerque. Well, sometimes you've got to fight the Apple Store, right? So why don't you just walk me through what you're doing with D? Well, so I am just really making sure that there are no hiccups in her processing or in the data that's being spit out. I monitor for any sort of anomalies in the coding. Have you seen any anomalies? Did anything happen when the electricity went out? There were some signals that picked up that it really shouldn't have at the time, because, I mean, the array was not operational, but we just attributed those to just basic background noise.

So D was passing information while the array was offline? Well, collecting, and once everything was back online and the backup power kicked back in and had presented those recorded results. Is there any way that I could, I know, I know you're going to say, oh, it's classified, but is there any way I, I'm, I'm, it's classified, but is there any way, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a way. I could look at some of the information that Dee has brought about just to inform that these are regular results we're receiving for the inspection. Well, I mean, you can ask her yourself. Yeah? She points to a microphone right next to the computer. And with that, if you want to take a break.

Oh, no. There it is. Okay, all right.