Olympus RPG Blog

Positive Reinforcement

Vega comes-to, having fallen to a lower level of the parking garage after having been shot in the chest by Reilly. His injuries are minor, thanks to his body armor. He gets up and steals a car, drives up to the level where the event occurred and quickly checks over the scene, finding no enemies or intel. He collects his things from his previous vehicle, including the team’s smashed Q-phone Reilly left behind, and drives off, before the onlookers can question his Unit 777 outfit too much.

Baum comes-to in an ambulance, near Mahoney—with a crippled hand and leg—being tended by Chana, Baum’s sister, also a member of Mossad (unbeknownst to him until now). The ambulance is driven by her operational partner, Cameron Lynch, a CIA officer, who reveals that the raided warehouse had exploded; Baum was thrown, though his injuries are mostly superficial. Lynch drives the team to the nearest hospital, where Mahoney is gurneyed into an empty ER room, clothed, placed in a wheelchair, and wheeled back out of the side entrance, under the noses of the currently-overwhelmed (due to the results of the bomb) hospital staff.

The team takes Lynch’s surveillance-van back to a Mossad safehouse in a quiet neighborhood. Vega later rejoins them, and informs them of Reilly’s betrayal. Lynch reveals that he was on a separate mission (partnered with Mossad) having the same objective as the team’s. But Philip Quinn, an old friend, sent a posthumous request for him to take over the team and help them complete their mission. Given that CS:Bragi is now in the wind, all agree that their next step is to attempt to intercept the MV Pegasi in transit to Socotra, though she had gone dark, her current position unknown. After going over the available data, they decide to take the “company” seaplane to Salalah, Oman, where they can get a boat they can use to locate and board the freighter.

On the 8-hour flight to Oman, the team tries to get some sleep, while Lynch pores over the available intel and research, to determine the fate of the freighter and the enemies’ possible endgame.

The team gets a hotel and gets Mahoney situated there; he is handicapped, but recovering well, and eager to help out. The Baums use funds from CS:Heimdall’s seized accounts to purchase a fishing boat from a local owner. Meanwhile, Vega and Lynch set out in the seaplane to search the sea-lanes for the ship. After a couple of hours, Vega and Lynch spot the Pegasi, now transmitting as Perseus, as she exits the shipping lane, showing signs of having been taken by pirates, at full-steam toward parts unknown.

Forced Entry

The team continued to surveil the warehouse where CS:Bragi was taken, while Mahoney got in touch with an arms-dealer contact of his to fetch some local counter-terrorist gear. Then they phoned in an emergency, “armed men taking a hooded hostage into this warehouse,” before firing a few pistol shots near the phone to accentuate the threat. As expected, a Unit 777 response team arrived, led by National Security agent Ahmed El-Sisi—the team filed into the responders’ ranks unchallenged, wearing matching uniforms.

Suddenly, as the responders were getting set up for the raid, a car sped out of the warehouse. The agent pointed to Reilly and commanded him to get a car (Vega’s) and pursue it, which he did.

Their identities still undiscovered, Baum and Mahoney participated in the raid on the warehouse that followed. Due to the lead agent’s poor tactical decisions, the situation immediately erupted in a firefight with what turned out to be well-armed, elite Russian soldiers. There were many casualties on both sides. Mahoney survived a grenade by jumping into a dumpster, where he was then showered with bullets, and was badly wounded in the hand and leg. A few of the Russians managed to flee the scene. Afterward, Baum was able to get Mahoney medical attention, and entered the warehouse to find CS:Bragi strung up, badly beaten, and possibly dead—only he didn’t quite look “correct?”

Meanwhile, Vega and Reilly shadowed the fleeing car to a parking garage. Within, they were surprised as the car’s occupants were killed in an ambush by an SMG-wielding CS:Bragi. Vega drifted the truck around and knocked CS:Bragi off his feet against a barricade, and swung it around for another charge, as Reilly bailed out in-motion and charged up to the downed enemy. He held the shotgun at CS:Bragi’s face and demanded his surrender. Vega stepped out of the truck to see if the car’s occupants were in possession of the missing laptop case, when he heard their quarry say something in Russian to Reilly; Reilly responded, and calmly turned the shotgun to Vega and shot him twice in the chest…

Without Sanction

Back at the team’s warehouse-headquarters in Haifa, Quinn’s briefcase is opened: within it, the laptop containing CS:Heimdall’s financial information, a special smartphone, and new identities for the team as employees of the Global Wildlife Conservation Council.

DDO Hamilton Riggs calls the team, and knows more than he had previously let on about what they’ve been up to; he wants to observe the interrogation of the heavily-injured Heimdall remotely. Mahoney conducts the interrogation, and Heimdall reveals all, including personal details on the team, Operation: Klendathu Black Shadow (which preceded their own Syria operation), and the the cargo aboard M/V Pegasi, a Russian bioweapons scientist.

Afterward, Reilly speaks privately to Riggs about his involvement in Opn:KBS, and Riggs puts the pieces together for the team: CS:Loki, the Russian scientist Reilly helped extract; CS:Odin, whom they formerly knew as CS:Rook; and CS:Frigga, AKA Jennifer Harrington of their own company, involved with CS:Odin and probable source of the unsanctioned operation—ConsOps is clearly compromised. Now, with breaking news of Quinn’s reported death in surgery, Riggs declares a “Shadow Directive”—the team is to continue their mission without any support or sanction from ConsOps.

The team immediately destroys all intel at the warehouse and makes for the Haifa airport. On the way, Heimdall is dropped off for the local Israeli police to find. The team’s new cover-company has a seaplane awaiting them at the airport. They immediately fly to Cairo, Egypt, where CS:Bragi and Baldr (now dead) were known to operate.

In Cairo, the team uses Heimdall’s cell-phone to get Bragi’s number, and the Q-phone to ping Bragi’s phone’s GPS: it is located at the Sofitel Cairo El Gezirah. With funds generously and unwittingly provided by Heimdall’s seized accounts, the team splits: Vega and Reilly waiting in one rented car some distance from the hotel, while Mahoney and Baum take another rented car to the hotel itself. Mahoney enters the lobby to try to discover Bragi’s room number, but instead spots their target leaving the lobby, being assaulted outside, and being stuffed into another vehicle, which speeds away. The team shadows the strangers, communicating by radio to hand off pursuit from one vehicle to the other, managing to apparently remain unnoticed as they track it to a downtown warehouse.

Hot Pursuit

As the team fled south down the Suez Canal in the stolen Egyptian Coast Guard fast-boat, they were immediately picked up by a larger Egyptian vessel, well armed and bearing down. Mahoney tended to the unconscious Hurt, while Vega steered the boat out of the way of incoming machinegun fire, only taking a round or two before managing to evade pursuit.

As they continued down the canal toward a less-populated area, the team called in for assistance and were answered by Reilly, who gave them coordinates to wait for a pickup. Reilly arrived in a UH-1 bearing Sudanese markings and bullet-holes, with a rough landing due to his pilot being injured. The team boarded, and Vega took over as pilot.

They were immediately pursued by an armed Egyptian helicopter. Again, Vega evaded incoming fire, and managed to lose their pursuer with a well-timed stunt under a highway bridge masked by the near-miss of their pursuer’s antitank missile. They then made straight for the Israeli border and called ahead for permission to land.

The team proceeded to the hospital where most of the wounded from the embassy bombing were being collected to see if Phillip Quinn had been admitted. Baum was able to use his Mossad credentials to get in and found that Quinn had survived, and was in the ICU, but decided not to press his luck by trying to get past security to see him directly. With Reilly, on the way to rejoin the others at a nearby café, Baum spotted CS: Heimdall getting into a car. At Baum’s call, Vega and Mahoney quickly picked them up in their SUV. The team attempted to tail CS: Heimdall’s vehicle, but were quickly spotted. A street-chase ensued, filled with exchange of gunfire from both vehicles, ending in a crash on a narrow side-street.

Man Down

After the news of the bombing of the American embassy in Israel, the team had only moments to discuss what to do before shadowy intruders were spotted on their carefully-placed cell-phone-turned-security-cameras—soldiers, approaching fast and smooth, clearly professionals. Their prisoner, CS:Baldr, was quickly bagged, gagged, and bound; Mahoney and Vega half-dragged him along. The team moved out, stealthily, toward their stolen Mercedes. They spotted the soldiers surrounding the car. Deducing the situation, CS: Baldr made a muffled cry that gave away the Team’s presence.

A firefight ensued. The Team attempted a fighting retreat toward the waterfront, looking for an alternative transport. In the process, Mahoney was hit several times in the vest, but only bruised, while CS: Baldr was killed. As the Team reached the docks, Hurt was shot in the head, and very nearly killed outright. The Team kept up the fight, managing to take down three or four of the enemy, and forced the remainder to retreat to their two Egyptian Coast Guard boats waiting below. At Baum’s command, Vega quickly pulled his L85 out of his duffel and shot one of the boat drivers before he could get the vehicle moving. Police sirens could be heard in the distance, quickly approaching the docks.

As the vehicle was secured, and the unconscious Hurt stabilized and loaded aboard, Baum collected up the Israeli weapons the clearly not-Israeli soldiers were using, lest they be found by the local authorities and Israel be blamed for the attack—no doubt, intentionally. All aboard, Vega took the wheel and steered them South, deeper down the Suez Canal, to get them clear.

FUBAR Operation

• Mahoney, at the soccer match at Al Masry Club stadium, watches the Egyptian National Security (NSA) agents draw their sidearms and converge on CS:Heimdall and CS:Baldr, the latter of which produces a Mini-Uzi and sprays indiscriminate automatic fire, while the former calmly surrenders himself. Mahoney follows CS: Baldr as he escapes from the stadium in the press of the crowd. Seeing his quarry flee on a stolen scooter, Mahoney commandeers his own (flashing one of the stolen NSA badges) and gives chase, ending in a fiery crash in a crowded market, with the quarry injured and unconscious. Mahoney wraps the man in a carpet and hauls him away to an alley, to await pickup by the rest of the team.
• As the Egyptian police converge on the storefront CS:Bragi had entered, Vega stays out of the way and waits, watching. He spots the mystery-man slipping out the back of the store in disguise, and follows him on foot, where the man enters a mosque. He waits outside for some time, but never sees his quarry emerge, and later decides he must have slipped away. Returning to his stolen Mercedes, Vega finds a local motorcycle-policeman has identified it as stolen, and is in the process of having it impounded. Vega waited for the policeman to enter a nearby shop to ask questions, slashed the motorcycle’s fuel-line, and sped away in the Mercedes.
• On the way to their room at the AraCan hotel, Hurt and Baum (still wearing only a towel) have to share an elevator with some Egyptian police and a familiar NSA agent (with a bruised neck, from being choked out earlier). The police exit, but the agent returns to stop the door, perhaps having recognized Hurt. Baum quickly pulls the agent into elevator & the two choke him out (again). The unconscious agent is taken to the room and stowed in a closet, and as the two leave to get a taxi, Baum returns alone, briefly, to slash the agent’s femoral artery, killing him. Then the team flags a taxi and leaves to pick up Mahoney, Baum paying the driver $200 “for the day.”

In an alley some distance from the stadium, and the market, Hurt had stepped out of the taxi to help Mahoney load the carpet-rolled CS:Baldr into the trunk, when an Egyptian policeman entered the alley behind them and demanded they stand-to. Baum gives the taxi-driver a wad of cash and tells him to get rid of the cop, but the driver bolts with the money instead. As the policeman spots a human foot within the rolled carpet, he draws his weapon and calls for backup. Mahoney pulls his pistol and fires a few warning shots to dissuade the policeman, as they quickly stuff the carpet-roll into the trunk, and speed away in the abandoned taxi.

The team meets up with Vega and transfers to the Mercedes. They decide to hole-up in a less-well-observed corner of the port, in an unsecured shipping container. Inside, they wake up CS:Baldr and interrogate him, to no avail, as Baum deduces he’s been trained to resist. The team calls Phillip Quinn to report in. Quinn is in the process of connecting some of the dots with some of his financial research when the call is suddenly cut off. Having been keeping tabs on the local news for word of their own shenanigans, the team sees a breaking-news report that the American embassy in Israel—where Quinn was to meet with other intelligence agents—has been bombed.

Borderline Chaos

• Blue Team (Baum, sniper; Vega, spotter) sets up 500m from objective, in overwatch
• Red Team (Mahoney, CBRN; Hurt, backup) approaches objective, bunker (Facility 36), under cover of bombed-out town to the west
  • Circles dilapidated objective building, finds no other entrances
  • Distracts guard w/ rock; quickly picks lock & enters
• No radio contact inside bunker. Team observes pile of bullet-riddled bodies, scientists; human-sized specimen cages, cells. Bunker is stripped of intel. Team clears area. Single female survivor in one of the cells, suffering from effects of some bioweapon. Team puts down survivor, takes samples, moves body to incinerator. Team searches scientists’ bodies for intel, finds nothing, but one scientist appears to be “Russian.”
• Blue Team observes Syrian command convoy arriving at base for inspection and chewing out garrison. Soon after, observes Russians, Spetsnaz, arriving at base in Mil-24s, chewing out Syrian command. Team snaps photos.
• Red Team quietly open bunker door; guards run, screaming
  • Base responds to commotion at bunker, converges
  • Guards (accidentally?) machine-gunned, possibly fearing outbreak
  • Soldiers enter just before incinerator fires on time.
  • Helos circle looking for intruders; one RTB.
  • Red Team exits amid distraction
• Teams regroup, exfil by locally-acquired truck, via Iraq border-crossing

• Back at HQ. Intel sent up to be analyzed.
• Hamilton Riggs, the boss, calls, disappointed about chain-of-command issues, unsanctioned op
• Phillip Quinn calls:
  • Spetsnaz commander from airbase may be in charge of bioweapons
  • New “favor”; ASGARD YELLOW CHECKMATE; new person-of-interest, CS:Heimdall (Jerry Melendez, “American”, works for Good Samaritans of America transport co), operating out of Port Said (at AraCan hotel)—recon, see what he’s up to
• Cover IDs selected

• Team crosses Egyptian border, separately:
  • Hurt flagged, followed by Egyptian National Security (NSA) agents. Tries to lose them but fails. Ambushes them in an alley; chokes one to unconsciousness, and shoots the other dead. “Robs” them and leaves the scene.
  • Mahoney’s ID was flagged (cover downgraded)
  • Vega steals a Mercedes, via valet convinced he’s Russell Crowe
• Team meets at hotel café to strategize: Hurt+Baum to check in to Heimdall’s hotel, while Vega+Mahoney wait for him to leave, shadow him
• Hurt & Baum observe from AraCan hotel lobby. Vega & Mahoney wait at nearby boat-restaurant
• At evening, Heimdall leaves hotel:
  • Heimdall followed from hotel by third-party (3×NSA)—Hotel Team passes photos to drive team.
  • Drive-Team in Mercedes, follows Heimdall’s taxi to soccer game (Al-Masry Club Stadium). Heimdall exits taxi at stadium with different laptop-bag than he got in with.
  • Hotel-Team gets a room. Baum bribes porter for Heimdall’s room number. At room, Baum uses “towel+icebucket” to trick housekeeping to let him in. Hurt enters afterward. Plant bugs. Observe the room is spotless, sharp; find no other intel.
  • Vega tails taxi as it leaves stadium; another dude (CS:Bragi) gets out with original laptop bag, enters storefront; police sirens, cruisers soon converge on storefront
  • Mahoney goes into soccer game, 10 seats back from Heimdall, surveils meeting with stranger (CS:Baldr), lip-reads near-argument about overdue shipment (should be in Kuwait tonight; transfer to Socotra, close to Somalia; Operation Pablo Jimenez is a go), just before nearby NSA agents move in on the two