Operation Final Spiral - Chapter Two

Community Engagement in the Delta Green RPG using Mythic 2e

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 document are ©SolumProtocol, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

Photo by Markus Spiske: https://www.pexels.com/photo/road-sky-lights-night-103693/

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US 72-E, Just outside Memphis, Tennessee, April 3rd 7PM

It didn’t really sink in for a few moments. I had last seen Candela through a haze of a hangover back in Arkansas in 2007 and I had maintained limited contact with her over the last year or two using a secure IIRC that she insisted on using as her main form of communication. We weren’t friends, I don’t think she had the capacity to make friends unless they were wired the same way she was, which I certainly was not. But seeing her just lying there, her vacant eyes staring up at me from atop a body pounded to blood and pulp was a shock to the system.¹ I took a closer look at the wounds and bruising but it was such a mess I couldn’t quite make sense of it. Something strong had caused it, that was for sure, the bruise that had formed around her broken neck took up most of her upper body.

“Agent Jones?” The sheriff said cautiously.

“How many bodies are there?” I asked, tearing my eyes away from Candela’s empty expression.²

“Four total, including this one.” he said.

“Show me. Now.”

---

Seeing Jesse White and Shirly Campbell in the same state as Candela felt like a slug to the gut, but it was Joe’s burly frame, broken and bloody, that tore the breath from my lungs.³ The other two were competent agents, and they had helped us through the storm in Arkansas, a fucking thankless task if there ever was one, but I had known Joe for years, and he was one of Jasper’s best friends.

Jasper

“There are no other bodies?” I asked urgently, but the sheriff shook his head.

“Aren’t these enough?” he grumbled.

“You want this off your plate, Sheriff? Then I suggest you fill me in now. Keep it quick.”⁴

The Sheriff knew a lot, most of it useless, but he handed me the four ID’s, all fake of course, and a briefcase full of blood spattered papers, likely also fake. It looked like the team had been acting undercover as agents from the Federal Trade Commission and were investigating an old industrial plant, about 10 miles out of Iuka, Mississippi just across the border.

“No one was surprised the FTC folks were investigating Mercury Aeronautics.” The Sheriff said with a huff. “Everyone knew they were corrupt as shit, but after their factory blew up, everyone considered it in poor taste to start digging around.” I noted all of this down, although something being in poor taste had never stopped the bureau from doing anything so I couldn’t imagine it being a hurdle to the FTC either.

“Any witnesses to what happened here?”⁵ My eyes moved past the Sheriff, and I saw the swish of Jo’s braid as she inexpertly snuck around the corner. I ignored her for now, but felt a stab of irritation. I didn’t want to deal with the little shit in the middle of all of this. The Sheriff didn’t seem to have noticed, his eyes fixed on a figure in the near distance, a slight curl to his lip.

“Yeah, Old Buggs.” He said. “He’s a wine soaked bum who lives in an encampment further up the highway. He’s harmless, actually cleans up a bunch of the trash people throw out their cars, although I don’t know why. We’re pretty sure he isn’t on anything stronger than cheap red wine, but he’s been saying some pretty crazy shit.” The way the Sheriff scoffed made me feel like he didn’t credit Old Buggs much, which honestly worked for me. The Less the local cops believed, the easier it was to clean up.⁶ “We did find one set of tracks. Barefoot, suspected female judging by the size leading off the highway and onto the grass. We suspect it might be one of the other members of the FTC team or another witness.”

“Do you know much about this team, apart from what they were doing here?”⁷

“This is the first I’ve seen of them.” He said, shaking his head. “I’m surprised to see them this far from Iuka, to be honest. Most of the people that worked at the plant still live out that way, the ones that survived the blast anyway.” He didn’t have anything else to say so I sent him back to the perimeter with assurances that I would get this off his plate as soon as possible. Then I dialed Landry.⁸

“Katherine.” He said. “The Director said you would be joining us. Did you miss your flight?” Something about his vague, absent demeanor caused a flush of anger to course through my body.

“Where are Jasper and Tracy? I know they’re on this op, where the fuck are they?”⁹

“They are out at the moment, working on the Job.” He replied, audibly non-plussed.

“Well get them on the fucking phone, and get them off the job.” I snarled. I knew this was the wrong tac, that I should be filling him in on the situation and getting our boots on the ground here to shut it down before word started to spread, but I didn’t care. I heard movement on the other end of the line, and the quiet snap of a door closing.

“What is this about Katherine?”

“I’m standing on a blood soaked highway an hour away from Iuka, over the border in Tennessee.” I said, reigning in my temper with an effort of will I hadn’t been sure I was capable of. “There’s four bodies here, mauled and broken, and I want you to take a wild fucking guess who they are?” There was a pause

“You can’t be serious.”

“No, you’re right Nolan, I’m just a barrel of fucking laughs these days.” I snapped, feeling a slightly hysteric edge creeping into my voice and hating it enough that it shut me up.

“Whatever the team undercover as the FTC were up to, they aren’t anymore, Nolan. They’re dead.”¹⁰

---

US 72-E, Just outside Memphis, Tennessee

I smoked on the edge of the highway and glared at Jo, who held a small digital camera sheepishly in her hands as she tried to weaponize those big brown eyes against me. It might have worked on a different day, but I was too pissed off right now.

“What are you doing?” I hissed.¹¹

“There’s this magazine that will pay me dozens of dollars for these pictures.” She whispered, glancing at the police stationed nearby.

“You’re planning on selling crime scene photos to a magazine?” I said through gritted teeth.

“I need currency.” She said. “It’s very hard to get currency in this body. Nobody believes me when I tell them I can increase the power output of their generators by at least 500%, and when I don’t eat for a few days I start to fall over, and it is exhausting.”

“Jo, Jesus fucking Christ, I can’t deal with this shit right now, give me the fucking camera.” I snapped holding out my hand. She handed it over reluctantly and I told her to go wait in the car. She shuffled away and I opened the camera and started to delete the photos. The photo’s were very detailed and the kid obviously had an eye for lighting but I removed all of them anyway and tucked the camera into my pocket. This was enough of a shitshow already. I spent the next twenty minutes convincing the sheriffs to maintain a perimeter and start shifting the paperwork over to me when my phone rang.¹² I prepared myself to tear Nolan a new one, but it wans’t him, so my mouth hung open awkwardly as Katherine Oakes’ voice greeted me over the line.

“Director.” I said cautiously. The Deputy nearby stiffened and all but ran away, either from the greeting itself or the way my whole body went tense.

“Jones, I need you to listen to me very carefully.” Oakes said curtly. “There’s a team coming towards you. They will take custody of the bodies and take over the perimeter. I need you to understand something before they arrive.”

“I’m listening.” I said

“These people are not ours.” She said. Despite the urgency in her voice, the pause before she continued was heavy. When she spoke, the words were filled with meaning, but I couldn’t tell exactly what the meaning was supposed to convey. “They are external contractors. We will work with them as we have to, but do not, under any circumstances, give them any intel without my express permission. Understand?”

“Yes.” I said, although I was lying through my teeth. I had no idea what the fuck she was talking about. External Contractors? Oakes could obviously tell I was lying because she actually barked a short laugh.

“You’re full of shit Jones. Of our available assets, you’re probably the best person to interface with our contact, but be careful. This team doesn’t answer me.”

“With all respect, boss, who do they answer to?”

“When I find out, I’ll let you know.” She said, before she hung up.

---

Old Buggs was a ruddy face portly man, who looked like someone forgot about him and left him out in the sun to dry out for 30 years. The Deputy said he was in his 40s, but he looked at least a decade older and smelt like cheap wine and plain, human fear.

“Can I bum a smoke?” He said, his voice slurred and shaky. I offered him one and lit it for him before lighting my own. “Oh hey, are you allowed to smoke?” He asked nervously.

“You going to tell my boss?” I said and he blanched. “I’m kidding, Buggs. Why don’t you tell me what it is that you saw?”

“I already told the Sheriff there, and I uh, don’t think you’ll believe me.”

“Try me.” I said.¹³

“It was a Monster.” He whispered.

“No shit.” I said. He blinked at me blearily, clearly not expecting this answer and I leaned forward. “Unlike these chuckle fucks, Buggs, I have eyes. Nothing short of a monster could have done that to those bodies, so stop fucking around and tell me exactly what you saw, or I’ll start using my federal remit to dig around that bag of yours.” I said gesturing to the satchel he had cradled protectively in his lap.¹⁴

“I thought it was human.” He said in a hushed whisper, clutching his bag. “But I was wrong. It’s fist is what put that dent in their car, and it had tendrils as thick as my arms that wrapped around the big guy. I heard his bones break from here. I could see the eyes glowing in the dark, and it had dozens of them, watching everything at once. I thought I saw it shoot something, like a spike that dug into the stone of the highway, but I can’t see them anymore. She killed them all so quickly. They had guns, pistols, but they didn’t seem to do anything.”

“She?” I asked.

“Yes. When they were all dead, it shambled over to the edge, over there. The rough skins seemed to melt off it, and then there was a woman standing there, naked as the days she was born. She walked off the highway, towards the trees. I didn’t see anything else.”¹⁵

“Do you want my advice, Mr. Buggs?” I said, stubbing out my cigarette. He nodded shakily. I passed him a $20 dollar bill.

“Go somewhere safe, have a good night, get a bit merry and then never, ever think about tonight again.” He looked at me, his drunken eyes calculating. “Trust me, Mr Buggs. Nothing good will come from keeping those thoughts rocking around your head. Forget what you saw here and move on.”

---

I walked to the edge of the highway. Sure enough, there they were, a pair of bloody footprints in the asphalt, smaller than mine and isolated. Now that I knew their origin, I could see the trudging step of the monster in the cracks and dents of the road. They would need to repave this whole area before it was properlly drivable. I wondered if I could track the woman down if she was moving by foot. The ground was flat for miles around the stretch of highway, but there was a thicket of trees not far from view. Given the direction of the tracks and Bugg’s account, I would guess she had hit the tree line and then gone further north or hung west towards Memphis. Either way, I would have to check it out. I moved back to my car, where Jo was sulking in the front seat. I pulled out a pack of jerky and a can of diet coke and slipped it through the window for her and she cheered up a little, her soda fix enough to tide her over. Hopefully the happier she was, the less likely she was to fuck around. I had a few rifles in the back of the car, and I was just wondering the best way to take one out without drawing attention to myself when there was a strange, whopping sound that got louder the moment I noticed it. My head snapped around to see a car approaching, black with ostentatious red paint highlights around the license plate and doorframes, it was mostly silent, it’s engine barely audible, apart from the occasional rushing whoop every 10-20 seconds. Something about the car set the hairs on the back of my neck on edge. One of the Sheriff’s went to intercept it, and the window rolled down, revealing a man in his mid thirties that looked the picture of corporate America. He flashed a white toothed smile, his eyes looking past the Sheriff and finding me, at which point his smile widened into a sharp grin. He waved, and I felt a dark, foreboding feeling in the pit of my stomach. Whoever these external contractors were, they were fucking trouble.¹⁶

---

March Technologies enters the scene. I had to edit this chapter a fair amount because when I started it, I was picturing an overpass, but the highway leading from Memphis into Mississippi is a single lane stretch the whole way, surrounded by trees and flat land. At this point I still had no idea what the meat of this mission would be, so there was this real sense of trepidation with every scene. Thanks for reading!

1. Oracle: Claws? 50/50 - 88 No.

2. Oracle: Any other agents? 06 Extreme Yes. All here. Any other bodies? Unlikely - 86 No.

3. Oracle All in the same state? Very Likely - 50 Yes

4. Oracle : Does he have any other information? 50/50 - 13 Extreme Yes. Starforged Oracles Support Trade, Untamed Ruins (I thought I’d try some different spark tables for now)

5. Oracle: Are there? 50/50 63 Yes. Hobo? 22 Yes, Random event - NPC Action, Follow Vow - Jo.

6. Oracle: Any tracks? Unlikely - 31 Yes. Human? 50/50 63 Yes Woman? 04 Extreme yes (Current Theory - Leader of Midnight Order)

7. Oracle: Does the Sheriff know any further details about the team? Unlikely - 69 No

8. Oracle: Does Landry answer? 50/50 41 Yes.

9. Oracle: Are they with him? 50/50 82 No.

10. End Scene. Chaos Factor 6 Test scene 6 Interrupt Scene - NEW NPC - Conniving Merchant - Comprehend Industry - March Tech guy? 42 Yes.

11. Advance Wealth

12. Oracle: Is the call from Oakes? Likely 68 Yes

13. Oracle: Did he see the monster? Very Likely - 77 Yes,

14. Monstrosity Table - Plant Humanoid Hybrid - Many Eyed, Tendrils, Spines Large

15. Sanity: 30/25 - 1 Sanity

16. End Scene. Chaos Factor 5. Test Scene - 1 Altered scene - Add A character