Olympus RPG Blog

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