WIDOWMAKERS - Part One.

 Widowmakers

A Scenario for Delta Green by Fee Fi Fo Fin

After tracking him all night, finally she caught O'Keefe at a bridge that crossed the Connecticut river. He pleaded with her to spare him before blood boiled up from his stomach and came gurgling out his mouth. Then he tried to scream, and a milky white broodling dappled in blood came burrowing out of his chest and scuttled off into the night. 'It wasn't worth it', she thought to herself, 'whatever they're doing here, it just isn't worth it. It never was'. 

 

Introduction 

The year is 1997. Delta Green is at the height of its secret war with Majestic-12, using guerilla tactics and tradecraft to fight a multi-billion dollar conspiracy with the full power of the United States of America at its fingertips. 

Your agents are tasked with finding some answers after a confidential informant for the FBI winds up with an unexplainable, malformed scar on his chest and a stomach full of liquefied innards, their mission will take them to Wehring, Connecticut, and a new front in Delta Green's war against Majestic. 

This scenario will be disseminated through a series of posts, rather than one gigantic post. This post will cover the set-up for the scenario, the briefing, and the autopsy report of Aaron Spaniard.

The Truth

In the early 90s, a PhD student named Noah Burke traveled to Turkey. He wished to study neolithic and early bronze age-era religious sights, part of his doctorate thesis on the prevalence and meaning behind ritualised animal and human sacrifice in early mythology and its impact in modern religion and society. Burke entered a cave, spoken of in niche sources as sacred to a shunned pagan mystery cult of a spider god, whose name was lost to time. What he found was a cavern consecrated by Eihort, and after being insinuated with Eihort's parasitic broodlings, struck a desperate bargain that would cost him his innocence and sanity. He returned to his home in Boston, dropped out, and began to prey upon the homeless of Boston from January to July of that year.

The witness reports of the so-called "Vagrant Slayer of Boston" attracted the attention of Delta Green and Majestic, as many claimed the obscene mutilations were not the works of a knife or any tool, but of a half-dozen chihuahua-sized arachnids that burst from the chest of the unfortunates before slinking away into sewers or back-alleys. Both conspiracies worked to isolate and kill or captured the culprit. Majestic beat Delta Green to the punch and took Burke into custody. 

Months of examinations by Majestic culminated in a report that found itself on the polished glass desktop of of MJ-1, Justin Kroft. Kroft, the leader of Majestic-12, saw tremendous potential in the claims of the parasite's ability to arrest the aging process and allow its host to resist nigh-lethal trauma. He quickly re-assigned researchers and security personnel to a project ran by his private defense research firm, March Technologies, so that it could be kept far from the prying eyes of the Steering Committee. The project was dubbed 'COMBO'. 

Initially, human test subjects were sourced from another March front organization, the OUTLOOK Group, however it was decided that leeching too many of OUTLOOK's test subjects would greatly hinder its research. An NRO DELTA Counterintelligence officer proposed a workaround, and in a few months, Majestic-12 established 'Universal Alignment', an alternative health research group meant to appeal to the lowest denominator of vagrants, addicts, burnouts, punks, and hippies, with the objective of assembling a roster of people who would not be missed should they vanished, and others whose scattered few connections would be atrophied until they could disappear without much alarm. 

Since 1994, Universal Alignment has done just that. People were deemed acceptable for testing, they were whisked away for obscene human experimentation. No one outside the group noticed, and those inside the group were variably they left of their own accord, or were given ambitious assignments in the far corners of the country or the world. However, things have recently hit a major hitch. 

The Rat

Aaron Spaniard was a heroin-pusher from Boston. Unknown to even his closest friends and family, when he had those, he was a confidential informant for the FBI. His testimony helped the FBI locate huge caches of drugs, weaponry, and sites for illegal gambling and prostitution that eventually helped them topple the White Hill Gang and much of the Irish mob in the early 90s. Spaniard got out scott-free, but addiction and unwise financial choices kept him from living comfortably. He eventually found Universal Alignment. He was pointed to it by a friend. After only a few months, he was invited to their "campus" in Wehring, Connecticut for more intensive training, as the group's leaders felt he was a 'strong candidate' for a teaching position. Really, Majestic thought he was a sucker who wouldn't be missed, and only a few weeks after he arrived, he was taken to a March Technologies facility and insinuated with the brood of Eihort and died a couple agonizing months later. 

When his case officers in the FBI saw a newspaper clipping of his obituary cross their desk, claiming he had hanged himself in an apartment in Connecticut, they request the cadaver to be examined - they wanted to make sure this wasn't a revenge killing. An autopsy was performed, and the horrific effects of Eihort parasitism was discovered. A Delta Green friendly heard the news, and it was forwarded to A-Cell, who believed the case called for investigation. They assume that, given Spaniard's criminal background, that this is perhaps the work of The Fate, but they are not certain. 

Briefing

Agents are summoned to a conference room at the FBI field office in Boston, Massachusetts. They are received by John Drake, Agent PATRICK, who conveys their briefing. An FBI informant's autopsy took place three days ago that found some weirdness that the group wants you to look into. Aaron Spaniard was a heroin pusher whose testimonies aided the FBI in their organized crime investigations in Boston in the early 90s. The autopsy found that although Spaniard was allegedly found hanged in his apartment, his internal organs had been 'liquefied' and there was a huge scar on his chest that had malformed into a keloid. The agents are given the following instructions and are given instructions to contact PATRICK by dead-drop should they request additional resources from Delta Green. Operation BRONZE VESSEL

Point of Contact: Boston, Mass.

Date: November 4th, 1997

Objectives:

1. Discern the source and nature of the anomalous condition of Spaniard's remains. 
2. Assess the threat posed to national security and the public posed by the whomever or whatever is responsible.
3. Neutralize immediate threats with a minimum of exposure. 
4. If violations of federal law have been committed, determine whether charges can be prosecuted without exposure of  the public to information about preternatural or paranormal phenomena. If those responsible can be brought to justice without exposing us or the existence of preternatural or paranormal phenomena, then do so. If the threat of exposing us or the existence of preternatural or paranormal phenomena is too great, “alternative methods” of resolving the situation are authorized

The Autopsy

The autopsy and examination of Spaniard’s remains was performed by Dr. Miles Reed, a forensic pathologist who performs many examinations for the FBI in Boston. He has a spotless record, and by all indications performed the examination to the fullest extent of his abilities, though it is worth noting that Reed has no experience with the Unnatural or Delta Green. How he would react learning about such things is left up to the Handler’s discretion. The results of his examination as follows:

AUTOPSY REPORT: SPANIARD, AARON. 34. CAUCASIAN MALE.

MEDICAL EXAMINER: DR. MILES REED, MD.

Body shows signs of having undergone intermittent periods of serious substance abuse in the past. This is corroborated by his criminal records. He was not “using” at the time of his death. No traces of illicit drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or cannabis, could be found. 

The body shows signs of having suffered from prolonged periods of malnutrition, possibly stemming from a very serious parasitic infection.

His digestive tract and heart appear to have been severely damaged, as if exposed to a potent acid or digestive checmical. No traces of this acidic agent could be recovered and remains unidentified.

Spaniard appears to have developed a large, pronounced keloid scar on his chest (starting at the lower abdomen and ending near the third rib). Upon examination, it was deduced that the trauma needed to create such a wound would have been nearly fatal, and would have required immediate emergency surgery to heal, despite this, there’s no indication that Spanish sought out or received any such care. He appears that he had survived long enough for the wound to naturally (if improperly) heal.

An examination was performed in Wehring by the local medical examiner, Dr. Brian Cooper; his findings are not attached.

CAUSE OF DEATH: Undetermined.