Operation Shadowed Past: Chapter Twelve

Clearing the Labs 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 Lisa from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/blue-eye-110321/

Project Blackwood Labs - 4PM

Tracy bound my wounds as best she could, but most of the supplies from the trauma kit would be going to keep Kenny Yu alive.¹

“This will probably scar.” She said hesitantly. I shrugged as she cleaned the blood from the gash beneath my eye. “You may have some internal bleeding.” She added, peering at my mouth. “Your teeth are stained red.” I gave her a tightlipped smile and gripped her shoulder to pull her close.

“Be careful.” I told her softly. “Keep the shotgun close. We’ll try to be quick.” She smiled weakly, before giving me a brief but very tight hug.

“Be quick, ok?” She said, “I don’t like it here at all.”

Yu had a couple of flashbangs and a frag grenade, as well as a few spare magazines for his MP5. I slung my rifle on my back and checked the submachine gun and then kept one of the flashbangs on my belt, giving the other two to Montford. Montford had his bolt action rifle out, having used over half the ammo in his carbine. We padded down the hallway as quickly as possible, following the limited signage to the Restricted Section of the Blackwood Labs.² The door to the restricted lab had been powered down and pried open with some heavy duty breaching gear, and now sat broken open. We moved in quickly, encountering no personnel or guards. The Restricted lab had a low, cramped ceiling with a number of old workstations and an intricate harness with syringes, needles and test tubes that hung from the ceiling like an rusty, mechanical spider.³ I glanced around the room, but I didn’t have time to process the state of the workstations before I noticed it. In the shadows across the room, a hulking, frozen form was slouched against the wall. Runic wards flickered and glowed on the floor in a half circle around it. Even slouched, and emaciated, I could tell that this creature was the real deal, towering over me despite its slumped posture.⁴ Either my nose was dull, or the creature was in rough condition because the smell that came of it was faint, almost entirely overpowered by the stink of sorcery from down the hallway. I placed the MP5 on the desk and drew my rifle, stepping towards the edge of the wards. The creature shifted, the manacles on its thick arms and malformed legs clattering as it turned it’s electric blue eyes onto me. I tilted my head, and it mirrored me. It was an unnatural monster, certainly, but I didn’t feel the disgust I had felt in my chest at seeing the other creatures working for the Robinson’s. It looked too pathetic to hate.⁵

“What the fuck?” Montford whispered at my shoulder. I turned to look at him, but he had frozen in place, his rifle held loosely in hands as he looked at the monster chained to the wall.

“They take samples from this to make their little ‘Winter Soldiers’” I said, gesturing at the large harness in the center of the room. Montford’s face was fixed in grimace, and he had gone pale, so I looked at him and snapped my fingers in front of his eyes. “Montford? Hey! Snap out of it!” His eyes were unfocused, and his breathing came in ragged gasps and he swayed as he rocked a few steps backwards. His sleeve was still coated in blood and he looked extremely unsteady, so I cursed and turned to the Wendigo, raised my rifle and shot it in the face.⁶ The bullet blew away part of its skull, and it groaned, but It was still very much alive, so I shot it again, and again, until there was nothing left of the head but a pulpy mess. I grabbed one of our bottles of booze, lit the rag in the end and hurled at the corpse and it went up in flames, the stench of burning, rotten meat filling the room.⁷

“Montford. Look. It’s dead. Snap out of it man, we need to finish this shit.” He had slumped to the floor, his rifle clattering along the ground as he stared at the flames. “I need you!” I snapped, my voice raw as I shook him.⁸ If anything, his skin had paled further, and when I looked at the corpse, I could guess why. The flames had striped away the flesh, revealing a skull that grinned with fangs the length of my forearm and wide, curled horns that jutted from the skull. Even as it’s flesh was burnt away to ashes, the creature’s eyes, a bright, vibrant blue, still sat in it’s skull. It looked almost relieved to have met its end.⁹

---

Project Charon Lab - 4:30 PM

I called Tracy over the radio, and told her to sync to Montford’s channel and keep talking to him. Unlike how he felt about me, he actually seemed to like Tracy, so hopefully she could bring him back from where ever the fuck he had gone off too. She wasn’t exactly happy that I would be moving ahead alone, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it. If Yu’s Bravo team had been made up of spec ops soldiers, it would have been a different case, but they weren’t, and if we left now, Dennis Robinson would be gone on the wind as soon as he discovered his weird, abomination son’s corpse in the Blackwood Lab. I took the frag grenade and two remaining molotov’s with me as I jogged down the corridor towards the Project Charon Lab, below the airfield.¹⁰ The main lights up ahead were off, and but I could see light creeping from a few side rooms, off of the main lab and stairwell to the surface.¹¹ I sniffed the air, keeping my body low and the MP5 raised down the hallway.¹² There were four side rooms, but only three had light from within. A mixture of smells filled the corridor, but the one that smelt the most foul, and therefore my target, was the door closest to me, on the left. I strained my ears as I moved towards it. An excited male voice was talking quickly while another voice hummed something in agreement. There was a startled screech that warped into a bestial roar before reverting to a quiet weeping. The first voice said excitedly.

“I think we have it! The transformation isn’t complete, but I think we can calculate the right dose for the rest of the subjects from this one.”¹³ I didn’t hear the response, because my chest felt like ice. I moved towards the door.

“Who’s there?” The deeper voice called. I threw open the door, aimed my MP5 and fired into the room on full auto.¹⁴ There were two men in Lab coats, standing over a small girl that crouched in a tattered pair of jeans and a bright pink t-shit splattered with dirt and blood. Both men looked at me in surprise as I opened fire. The younger one fell with a bullet in his stomach, curling into a ball on the floor. Dennis Robinson wasn’t so stupid. He had raised a hand and yelled something as I entered the room, and the flesh in his arm and chest bulged and writhed as the bullets hit in. He stumbled backwards, and I advanced, standing over him and focusing on his bubbling, ugly mass.

“Fucking die.”I snarled as I fired another burst, large globs of flesh tearing from his skin, splattering blood on the far wall as he screamed in pain.¹⁵ He dropped to the ground, his eyes rolling back in his head. The moment crystalised into a a breath. I could see both men’s pulses beat weakly at their throats, and all I wanted was to tear into both, leaving the bastards to bleed out. I stood over Robinson, drew my knife, and silently rammed it into his eye. I moved over to the scientist, who was weeping about the pain in his stomach, and I gripped his chin.¹⁶

“Shut the fuck up.” I told him. He sniveled, and I lifted him from the ground to place him against the wall. I reined in my temper and gave him a smile. It didn’t seem to comfort him. “Listen to me. I have a medical team in one of the other labs, and we both know the only way you live long enough to regret your decisions is if you answer my questions. Are we on the same page so far?” He nodded, and I widened my smile. “Good. Where are the children?”¹⁷

“In the hanger.” He said shakily.

“Guards?” I asked.

“Yes. A few, with small arms, just to make sure they don’t escape.”

“Any other armed personnel? Or any of your pets?”¹⁸

“Just a few runners, back from sweeping outside. Further down the hall.” He said, his eyes darting behind me.¹⁹ I turned and cocked my head. I could hear voices calling in the corridor. 2 or 3 different voices, swearing in thick accents I couldn’t place. I stood, plucked a flashbang from my belt and waited a moment, before priming it and throwing it underarm out of the doorway.²⁰ I pressed myself to the wall, my eyes flickering to the small girl, who still crouched on the far side of the wall.

“Get down.” I told her sternly, and she scrambled underneath the thick wooden desk. One of the voices yelled out a curse, and the flashbang detonated. The men outside screamed and I pulled the frag grenade out next, arcing it out towards the voices.²¹ The grenade detonated a moment later, and judging by the muffled thuds that followed, they hadn’t even realised it was there. I glared at the scientist.

“Try not to bleed out, I have more questions.”

---

All three of the gangsters outside were bleeding on the ground, but I withdrew my pistol and gave them each a bullet to the head to ensure there were no surprises. They were all armed with pistols and knives, and were dressed like typical gangsters, track suits with a mixture of red and white, and a few tattoos of questionable style. I returned to the scientist, who had started to tremble and shake. His wound wasn’t too bad, all things considered, I could probably take him to Tracy and extract him with the rest of the crew. I glanced at the scared little girl, her blonde hair frizzy and escaping the twin braids she had pulled over her shoulder. Her eyes were wide, and panicked, and looked glued to the spot, unable to move.

“So.” I said, turning to the scientist “Do you know who I work for?”

“No.” The man said.

“My name is Agent Jones and I work for the federal government. Some of the people I work for would be very interested in what has been done to this girl. From a military perspective, do you understand?”²² The man’s eyes flashed, and for the first time he looked relieved.

“Yes! I understand. We’ve managed to get the strain perfected in adults, but she’s the first of our juvenile subjects to survive the process.”

“I see. That is incredible. I assume you’ve taken meticulous notes. Are there any other of you colleagues we should be extracting?” I asked innocently. The girl had started crying again, and the man’s face fell slightly.²³

“You’ll need me, I’m their lead.” He said urgently. “Look, we are a team, obviously, and we have notes, but without me or Mr Robinson, you won’t be able to complete the process! This girl is only the beginning, she can’t fully transform even, but she’s stronger and faster than a human, truly a monster wearing the skin of a child! Once we perfect the formula, you’ll have a much better sample size, and you’ll see the possibilities are truly endless!” He was rambling, and I felt cold rage begin to rise, but I squashed it down, forcing another smile.

“That’s a very good point, my friend. What’s your name?” I asked with false warmth.

“Dr. Larch, Dr. Edgar Larch.” He said hurriedly.

“Well, let’s let your colleagues know about their new employment opportunity. Trust me, government work is a lot more reliable than whatever you thought this was.”²⁴

I bound the man’s wounds, and he looked downright spritely once I stopped the bleeding. Dr Larch nattered on while I tended his wound, but I ignored him, and instead focused on the girl. I held her gaze, and she stopped crying long enough for me to give her a wink and say “Come here.” She nodded, and and crouched down beside me.

“We’ll need the girl as a proof of concept, of course.” Dr Larch said pompously.

“Of course.” I said in agreement, helping him to his feet. I crouched next to the girl and held out a hand. “What’s your name kiddo?” I asked. The girls eyes flashed for a moment, her iris going from a deep brown to an icy, electric blue, before she took my hand.

“Teresa.” She said quietly. “My friends called me Terri.”

“Well ok Terri. Can I tell you a secret?” I said, whispering. The girl looked at me, her eyes wide. Jesus, she can’t have been older than 9 or 10. “Stay close to me, and I’ll tell you ok?” I whispered with a wink. She nodded, and when we left the room, she clung to my back closely. I reloaded my MP5 and slung Dr. Larch’s arm over my shoulder.

“We’ve been working in the far side of the hangar, this part of the lab is mostly mechanical, you understand? Dennis, he understood that the Blackwood project was the true treasure of Bosun, but Mary and Jeffrey were focused on the Nighthawk. We haven’t figured it out, I’m a biologist, and my team’s speciality is in the body and the mind. If you’re reporting this back to the government, though, you could get some mechanics down here to figure it all out, and we can give you our notes of course!” He rambled on like this for a while as I hauled him up the stairs to the main hanger. It never seemed to occur to him that I might be lying.²⁵

---

Bosun AFB Hanger - 5PM

The hanger was at surface level, and the last vestiges of sunlight peeked through holes in the rafters. It was cold, but not freezing, and my breath misted in front of me as we entered the main room.

“Where are the subjects?” I asked, trying to keep the disgust from my voice.

“We keep them in the other hanger. They have plenty of room to move around under the guard’s watchful eye.” Dr Larch said. “This hangar is for the Nighthawk, as you can see.” He added, gesturing to the midnight black chopper in the center of the room. Three scientists sat around it with laptops and a whiteboard, talking in a hushed tone. I could feel Terri’s hands begin to tremble at the sight of the scientists, and I could see why. A table sat a few feet behind the Nighthawk, spattered with blood and surrounded by empty vials and surgical equipment. The straps on the table were sized for a child. I let Larch take a few steps forward towards the scientists and began chattering in an excited tone. He had clearly let his imagination run away from him, and began talking about government contracts, funding and expense accounts. It’s remarkable how often smart people are fucking stupid. I guided Terri to a thick counter, and crouched down.

“Stay behind here.” I whispered. “Don’t come out until I get you, got it?” She looked at me, her large brown eyes flickering blue again before she give a stiff nod and crouched down. The scientists were huddled together, but Larch turned and pointed at me.

“Look, this is our contact, she said she works for the federal government.” He said, his voice high and irritated. “Unlike you, Charles, I’ve worked for the government before and trust me when I say that the blockers we’ve faced here will look comically trivial once they understand the applications!”

“Who are you?” One of the scientists said, Charles, judging by the venomous look Larch gave him.

“You can call me Agent Hunter” I said with a small smile. Larch’s smile twitched in confusion as he turned back towards me.

“I thought you said your name was-” I didn’t let him finish.²⁶ I had held the MP5 in a lose grip, but I aimed it from the hip and held down the trigger until the clip emptied. It was nice of them to stand so close together. Larch went down with a look of vague surprise on his face, and I turned the gun on the others easily enough. All three went down, but I could see Charles was still alive, having taken just the one round to the gut. Whether that made him the lucky one or the unlucky one was a matter of perspective. I slung the SMG on my back and drew my side arm.

“Charles, was it?” I asked, crouching down in front of him. He was my age, or thereabouts, although he looked not much older than Terri with the open fear that played across his features.

“Please…” He said, blood dripping from his mouth. I glanced at the laptop that was still open on the counter and flashed him a smile.

“What’s your password there fella?” I asked cheerfully. He told me, and I patted him on the head before getting to my feet. “Good boy. Night Night.” I said, pulling the trigger.²⁷ I sniffed the air, but other than the rancid, unnatural smell of the Nighhawk, I couldn’t pick anything else on the wind. I tried to radio Tracy,²⁸ but I must have been out of range. I looked around the room quickly, plucking the three separate laptop bags from around the room and sliding each laptop in. Landry had said to destroy everything, but I was no demolitions expert, and I wanted to get out of here so I could go the fuck to sleep as soon as possible, so decided we could take these with us, and deal with the rest of it later. I knelt down by Terri.

“Hey kid.” I said softly. She had curled into a ball and put her head between her knees. “We’re nearly done. I’m going to go get your friends. Can you watch these?” I asked her, dropping the bags by her knees. She nodded, gripping her knees tighter.

“Don’t leave for too long, ok?” She said quietly. I ruffled her hair and she looked mildly offended. She eyed me with narrowed eyes. “What’s your secret? You said you would tell me.” I took a knee and got down to her level.

“Do you remember what the doctor called you?” I asked her softly. Her face fell, and her eyes welled with tears but she held my gaze.

“A Monster.” She said thickly. I gave her a wide, toothy smile and whispered.

“I’m a Monster too.”

---

Rereading this for editing, I wonder how I would have played this with a higher Sanity/Non-Adapted Kat? Her time in the TAG-Teams and adaptions means this was an easy choice for her, but without that, I think she would have faced a real moral quandary here. Still, I think she’s human enough to feel a general disgust for all the horrible things going on at Bosun AFB, even if she herself has done some pretty bad things haha. Thanks for Reading!

1. Tracy First Aid(+20% From First Aid Kit) - 98/72

2. Oracle: Is it guarded? Unlikely - 75 No.

3. Skill: Search: 99/88 hahahahaha

4. Sanity(Unnatural) - 22/34 0 Sanity

5. I rolled a sanity check for Montford here, considering all that has happened. He critically failed. Fight, Flight or Freeze? 6 = Freeze

6. Oracle: Does that kill it? Very Likely - 86. No

7. Oracle: Does that kill it?? Very Likely - 58 Yes

8. Oracle: Does it bring him out of it? Unlikely - 63 No.

9. End Scene. Chaos Factor 6. Test Scene 8. As expected.

10. Descriptor: ‘Quiet Dark’

11. Skill: Stealth: 79/24 To be expected haha

12. Sorcery smell from one of the rooms? Likely - 07 Extreme Yes. Can I tell which room has Robinson? 50/50 - 43 Yes. Closest? 50/50 12 Extreme Yes. Sounds - ‘Damage Ferocious’ Is it what I think it is? 50/50 28 Yes.

13. Sanity(Unnatural) 61/33 - 1 San

14. Skill: Firearms: - 73/78 - 19 - 10 DMG

15. Skill: Firearms(+20% Close Range) - 26/98 - 88 - 16 DMG

16. Oracle: Is he still coherent? 50/50 44 Yes and Random Event.

17. Oracle: Are the children down the hallway? 50/50 79 No. Are there guards? Likely - 59 Yes.

18. Oracle: Is the base otherwise clear? 50/50 25 Yes.

19. Random Event - 57 New NPC Corrupt Villain. Kat Alertness - 17/80 (Good timing haha)

20. Skill: Athletics - 48/77 (Throwing a flashbang into a room of people actually doesn’t require a roll, but as it’s a corridor, I thought I’d do it anyway.)

21. Skill: Athletics - 03/77

22. Persuade: 03/94 (Lying through my teeth haha)

23. Oracle: Any other scientist? 50/50 18 Yes.

24. Skill: First Aid - 01/15 (huh, what an undeserved person to reason a 01)

25. End Scene. CF - 5. Test Scene - 8 As Expected.

26. Skill:(+20% Close Range) Firearms - 43/98 - Full auto 36 = 9DMG

27. Oracle: Unnatural smell? Likely - 58. Nighthawk only? Likely - 47 Yes.

28. Oracle: Is there any radio signal? 50/50 73 No