After-Action Report: Out of the Mouths of Babes - Part Three

 

4 NOVEMBER

V-Cell and the Mexican SWAT team "Templar-2" are gathered in a storage annex under the Karotechia laboratory in Juarez. They're almost out, but to escape, they're going to have to fight their way through the Tryworks, the primary testing facility for Aktion HARUSPEX. 

VICTOR mounts a ladder to the layer above them and exits from a hatch to a small armory attached to an observation room and a testing chamber.

My shitty MSPaint isometric battlemap of the lab and the basement. 

In the observation room there are three men, they appear to be researcers, and three Bauern working security. One of the researchers is in a white labcoat, but is wearing a well-maintained SS uniform underneath. He speaks through an intercom with someone in the testing chamber, though VICTOR is unable to see them, as the chamber is choked with the same sickly green smoke he's seen quite frequently this operation. He heads down and reports his findings and has VERDANCE stay on watch while he tries to set up a flanking position. VICTOR forces open the door to the freight elevator shaft and climbs a service ladder to the second floor and opens it, finding himself in a hallway on the other side of the testing chamber from the lab. He crosses the horseshoe shaped hallway to get a flanking position. As he does this, one of the bauern in the lab spot VERDANCE. He confronts her, but they end up in a sort of tense standoff, as neither want to start shooting for risk of breaking the class contaning the poisonous fumes in the testing chamber. Distracted by VERDANCE, VICTOR attempts to sneak into the lab to line up a solid shot, but the sound of the door decompressing alerts them and fighting breaks out. VICTOR and VERDANCE ice a guard each while a third one crouches behind cover and starts shooting. The SS-uniformed doctor, identified as "Dr. Rascher", is killed after pulling a gun on VERDANCE. Eventually, the Bauern is killed and the researchers are handcuffed. A voice comes over a radio from the room, speaking in a dense Nahuatl accent. "I imagine that's the last I'm hearing from Dr. Rascher, yes?".

VICTOR takes a seat at the intercom and speaks. "You'd be correct". They speak with the man in the test chamber, identified as "Smoke Breather", the last sorcerer resurrected by the Karotechia. They negotiate briefly. Smoke Breather offers information on the Karotechia's operations elsewhere in the world in exchange for being allowed to conduct a ritual that will allow him to escape to Xiclotl, the home-realm of the alien beings that inhabit the "Children of Smoke". VICTOR pretends to ponder this before turning and interrogating the researchers, during which he learns that Smoke Breather isn't alone in the testing chamber. He has a Child of Smoke, as well as two children he took in, with intentions of taking them with him to Xiclotl. VICTOR orders the researchers to vent out the fumes from the testing chamber while VERDANCE prepares. They activate the ventilation and the smoke begins to clear, revealing the carnage inside: The corpses of an unknown number of men, and around a dozen children stacked like cordwood against the walls. The sorcerer has barely enough time to realize what's happening before the fight begins. 

The sorcerer targetss VERDANCE with the "Cynosure" spell and she is blasted by the hideous forces of an alien god while the Child of Smoke uses its telekinetic powers to overwhelm the agents and their SWAT team retinue. Eventually the Child is neutralized and the Sorcerer is killed with a lethal headshot. V-Cell take the kids and steal documents and items of power from the sorcerer and the lab before they escape to the surface, where the rest of the SWAT team have either killed or arrested the Karotechia garrison. They and Templar-2 are treated for their injuries before they're sent back over the border to Fort Bliss to recover. Aktion HARUSPEX has been successfully sabotaged. Mission accomplished. 

Two Weeks Later...

Bruises from buckshot absorbed by kevlar, lacerations from shattered glass, burns from errant shell casings and scrapes from hard concrete, all fade in time. 

In the aftermath of the raid, V-Cell finds itself flung into a bureaucratic ass-covering contest. Mexican SWAT were injured, a few were even killed in this last operation. Not to mention the over >1,000 rounds of ammunition fired in one of the largest "drug busts" in the state of Chihuahua this year. 

Just like Montana, its another merry-go-round of hearings and testimonies. The US Army and the FBI are not very enthused with the fly-by-night attitude that Lt. Fields and Special Agent Copeland have towards PATCON's remit and authority, and question why both agents seemingly lied to their parent agencies and arranged a raid on their own time in coordination with the Federales. For their part, Lt. Fields and Special Agent Copeland politick their way to lighter punishments. They receive official letters of reprimand and temporary suspensions, but nothing long-lasting. 

During one of the hearings, Special Agent Copeland is summoned to the Library of Congress for an emergency meeting with Delta Green, during which she is debriefed by ALPHONSE and ADAM on the behaviour of Agent VICTOR, who A-Cell privately suspects lied to them about his exposure to the King in Yellow. She assures them that she's seen nothing out of the ordinary with regards to VICTOR and assures them she'll report anything she sees. 

But two weeks after the raid, the fight hasn't ended. 

At Fort Bliss, VICTOR and VERDANCE receive calls from their Cell Leader, VIRGIL. The message is simple, they've been activated and assigned to Operation HUNGER STRIKE, and they're to muster at a local hospital and receive their briefing. This is a high priority mission requiring an immediate response. 

At a hospital, V-Cell convene in a break room, VIRGIL pops a VHS tape into a television and shows them the footage: It's pulled from a security camera angled towards an intersection in El Paso. A schoolbus pulls up and idles at the red light for a moment before a van screeches up beside the bus and armed men pour out with assault rifles and body armor. The last man out is a tall white man in a leather trench coat wielding an MP5. They recognize him instantly: Reinhard Galt.

Galt scans his surroundings and spots the security camera, then smiles and winks before levelling the MP5 and blasting a hole in the legs of one of his men as the others storm the school bus. Galt boards the bus and speeds off, leaving his comrade clutching a gunshot wound in the middle of the street. 

VIRGIL stops the tape and addresses V-Cell, the bus was bound for Jimenez Elementary, a majority hispanic and black public school in El Paso. The wounded Nazi, Robert Cody, has been detained by El Paso City Police and is being treated for his injuries under police guard. No one has received any demands, and as of now, Cody refuses to speak to interrogators, claiming he wants to "Speak to somebody a bit more Green". The agents, in their capacity as active agents of the Joint Task Force PATCON, are qualified to interview Cody. It's obvious Cody's been set up by Galt to convey some sort of message to the agents in their capacity as Agents of Delta Green. Obviously the Karotechia want to negotiate something with Delta Green directly in exchange for the hostages, V-Cell will get in contact with them, figure out what they want, and find a way to resolve the situation. VIRGIL, anticipating the worst, makes an emergency call to A-Cell, telling him the situation is "Priority Alpha One", asking him to "Send the Mohawks". 

VICTOR and VERDANCE enter Robert Cody's room, the two interrogate cody and eventually convince him that they're the "Greens" he was told to find. He gives them a number for them to call. They retreat to a private room to make the call. 

On the end of the line is a man's voice that speaks with a German accent. He asks probing questions about ABC Gemstone, Houston, New Orleans, and Ciudad Juarez, and the Anti-Karotechia operations undertaken in these cities. Once they confirmed they were the correct people, the voice gave its ultimatum. 

"You know who I am, I know who you are. Bring us the remains of Immanuel Toth and we will release the children. Call us back with your answer. You have ten minutes to decide, every five minutes you make me wait, you lose a child. "

The discussion lasts seven minutes, at which point V-Cell make their decision, they call back to confirm that they'll bring the remains. "Good", the voice replies. "In two hours, you will meet us at Lalo Cura's Mexican Cuisine with the remains in hand, we will give you their location there. If you're late, you lose them all."

The next two hours is a series of frantic phone calls and speeding car trips. VICTOR seizes the duffel bag of Toth's essential salts from their Green Box on Fort Bliss and makes an emergency request from Border Patrol. The severity of the situation, ts proximity to the US-Mexico border, and its connection to the previous action in Juarez, warrants intervention from Border Patrol's tactical unit: BORTAC. VERDANCE meanwhile drives to the airstrip on Ft. Bliss and receives Agent DARREN, scrambled from Louisiana to help with the operation. DARREN arms himself and goes over the plan with V-Cell before the meeting begins. 

The Meeting...

At Lalo Cura's Mexican Cuisine, VERDANCE and VICTOR enter through the front door and are met by an empty restaurant, save for five men. Four bald in suits, obscene tattoos of the neo-fascist variety poking out from under their collars and cuffs. In the center of the room is Reinhard Galt, eating a plate of what look like beef tacos with a bottle of modelo.

"Sit", he says "Have some". 
"No thanks", says VICTOR.
"Why not?" says Galt, "Don't care for Mexican?". He chortles, VERDANCE notices one of his bodyguards suddenly look a little queasy. Galt drinks and swishes the beer in its bottle. "They make a good beer, the Mexicans. Light, not too heavy in the belly. Good for a carnivore's diet". 
"Funny you'd say that, given your... allegiance" VICTOR observes. 
"Is it?" Galt replies, with a sudden and alarming coldness. "Pleasantries aside. You have it?". VICTOR responds by placing the duffel bag on the table. 
"I trust you know if there's plastic explosives in here, it won't work the way you hope it will". 
"I know. Look inside." VERDANCE assures him, and Galt does. Then he closes the bag and stands. 
"McAfferty Waste Treatment plant. The disused one, Northwest of here."
"Good. I would move your men out of there."
"Why?"
"Because BORTAC will be on their way to get those kids, and they're pissed."
Galt sneers for a moment. "No matter. We're done here."

Galt exits, his bodyguards linger for a moment, then exit out the back with him. Immediately, VICTOR and VERDANCE burst from their seats and race out the front door to the street. "Bingo, Bingo, Bingo" one of them hollars into their radio, and its own. Within seconds there's the sound of an armored truck speeding towards the alleyway, and not long after, the report of an anti-material rifle fired from a rooftop by DARREN. V-Cell locks-and-loads and ducks into the alleyway to join the fight. 

In the alleyways, its a knock-down-drag-out-fight. Galt's bodyguards and killed or wounded. V-Cell initially intends to arrest the wounded for questioning, but Galt seems to know their moves and drops a grenade to cover his retreat, killing his own guards as he ducks into a nearby store. VICTOR and VERDANCE take off after him, but VERDANCE is distracted by a dying neo-nazi and VICTOR loses Galt on the rooftops. As they return to the car, they check in with the BORTAC team en route to the waste treatment plant while they speed there to join them. Halfway there, the radio activity spikes, reports of enemy contact, a single shooter attacking BORTAC and uniformed cops on scene. "It has to be Galt" V-Cell ponders, "But how did he beat us there?". 

The waste treatment plant is its own battle. They fight their way into the basement and rescue some cops and a wounded BORTAC officer before they're ambushed by Galt, who tries to stab VERDANCE to death and even tries to suicide-bomb V-Cell with a hand grenade, they're ultimately able to fight him and he retreats -- by running into a wall and vanishing through it. They run out as explosives detonate behind him. VICTOR gets out unscathed while VERDANCE is flung against a windshield and breaks it. 

Operation HUNGER STRIKE is a pyrrhic victory, but a victory nonetheless. The Karotechia withdraw, and although Robert Cody is later found mysteriously dead in his hospital room from a stab to the throat (despite security footage showing no one entering the room), his involvement is sufficient to connect back to other Karotechia groups in the Southwest. 

Below. A quick doodle of V-Cell, on the left is VERDANCE fighting through the burning basement of the Schoolhouse, on the right is VICTOR getting ready to strangle a hapless Karotechia bauern.