TOPIC: Covert Ops - Discussion

Covert Ops – Session Three/Part Two

TRIPOLI, LIBYA, 1000 HOURS: Armed with the co-ordinates to U-977, the team fly to Tripoli and rendezvous with their contact, Amina Bakkar. The daughter of 'Pirate King' Akram Bakkar is a feisty tomboy with oil-smeared hands and messy bob of brown hair. Her little boat looks like it was frankensteined together from bits of other, better boats.

“She’s a little rusty, but she floats just fine.” Amina says defensively, as the team come aboard, “My father is away plundering the shipping lanes, but we need to get this done before he returns to port. I hope you fellows know how to swim.”

The scuba gear is stowed below deck and the little boat is soon chuntering off across the sparkling blue surface of the Mediterranean.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA, 1400 HOURS: The team change into their wetsuits en-route to the dive spot. They slip into the balmy water and descend towards the sunken wreck, which has come to rest on the precipice of a dark, yawning trench in the ocean floor.

“Of course it has,” Aubrey groans.

Alek applies his considerable brawn to opening the entry hatch on the submarine’s conning tower. The team enter the wreck and discover that despite significant damage to the exterior, the vessel is still watertight. The air inside is stale and close. Desiccated Nazi corpses leer from the claustrophobic shadows like some sort of racially insensitive ghost train. Noel finds the painting clutched in the bony grip of a long-dead Gestapo officer and prises the piece from the skeleton’s chalky fingers. Alek claims the Nazi’s sidearm (a Luger) to add to his growing collection of unusual guns. Once the team are done violating the Nazi’s underwater tomb, they prepare to return to the surface with their booty. Rather than simply leave the same way they came in, Aubrey opts to be fired out of the torpedo tube instead.

Emerging suddenly and with considerable momentum, it’s difficult to discern who is more surprised; Aubrey or the team of CITADEL divers deploying from a small submersible. One diver is particularly shocked, as Aubrey spears him through the torso with his sword-leg. The clear water is stained red by the man’s blood and deep in the oceanic crevasse, the nostrils of a 1,100kg predatory fish begin to twitch. The hatch in the conning tower flips open and Alek emerges, discharging his spear-gun into the chest of the nearest goon. The spear ruptures his air tank and the wounded mook jets off in a stream of bubbles. The sudden movement attracts the shark, which snatches the man up in its monstrous jaws and rends him limb from bloody limb.



“Bloody hell!” Noel cries, “I think we just found Nemo!”

“I’ll distract the fish,” Alek tells Noel, “You get the painting back to the boat!”

“What do you need me to do?” Aubrey asks.

“See if you can’t do something about that submersible, there’s a good chap.”

Alek reloads his spear-gun and takes aim at the shark. He pulls the trigger and drives a spear into the fish’s corpse-pale underbelly. The shark thrashes in the water and begins circling the battle, black eyes scanning for this dangerous new challenger. Noel seizes his chance to begin swimming for the surface. As the rises, he spots the underside of a second, larger boat moored alongside Amina’s vessel.

“Er… guys, I think Amina’s dad is here.”

Meanwhile, Aubrey paddles toward the CITADEL sub. The enemy divers shoot at him with their spear-guns until the rampaging shark forces them to scatter. Aubrey emerges from the moon pool and kills the two CITADEL technicians operating the vessel. He then stares uncomprehendingly at the baffling array of levers and switches, button and dials spread across the control console. Reaching for his SECTOR phone, Aubrey dials Stig’s number and waits for the injured driver to pick up.

“Hello Stig, old bean. Hope the ribs are on the mend.”

“Aubrey? I thought you were on a mission?”

“That’s kind of why I’m calling actually. Do you know how to pilot a submarine?”

It turns out that, no, Stig does not know how to pilot a submarine, but he manages to find an instructional video on Youtube and talks Aubrey through the rudiments. It takes Aubrey a few minutes to get to grips with the controls, but he soon establishes which lever makes the submarine ascend and gives it a tug. The lever break off in his hand (critical fail on an unskilled Pilot check, which he should not have been allowed to make in the first place).

“Oh, sh*tbuckets.”

The submersible begins to rise, picking up speed as it closes on the underside of Akram Bakkar’s ship. With a calamitous crash, the sub smashes through the hull and into the engine room. Pirate engineers stare in horror as the ocean rushes in through the hole. Aubrey waves cheerfully through the little porthole as they flee for the lifeboats.

Alek and Noel reach the surface and clamber back into Amina’s little boat. Alek immediately notices that some bastard has rigged it to explode. The timer has been set to 05:00 minutes. There is no sign of Amina.

“Can you disarm it?” Noel asks.

“Probably, but why bother?” Alek replies, detaching the bomb, “Waste not, want not.”

Alek kicks off his flippers and starts rummaging in his infiltrator pack. Attaching sticky cups to his hand & feet, he scales the side of Akram Bakkar’s (sinking) ship and throws the bomb into the hold. Then he spots the so-called ‘Pirate King’ bundling his daughter into the wheelhouse, sighs and draws his pistol. Alek bravely shoots Akram in the back while the Pirate King’s attention is elsewhere. Akram roars in pain and counter-attacks with twin machetes, the wicked blades carving slabs of flesh from Alek’s arms and chest.

“I like my meat rare, you white devil!” Akram crows, in what is possibly a rather racist depiction of the rich and diverse Arabic culture.

Before Akram can finish the job, Noel charges up the gangplank and shoots out both of his kneecaps. The pirate king collapses in a puddle of blood and bone splinters, spitting unfathomable Libyan curses (“wakanat walidatik alhamisitar waldduk tafawwah minha rayihat alttawt”). Alek pick himself up, aims his spear-gun at Akram’s head and pulls the trigger.

“Do you think he got the point?” Alek asks.

“Yeah,” Noel answers, “I can see it sticking out of his skull.”

“That was a rhetorical question,” Alek explains wearily, “It was supposed to sound cool.”

Meanwhile, Aubrey assaults the wheelhouse single-handedly, tossing in a couple of smoke grenades to provide cover. As the pirates stumble around, blind and grasping, he extracts Amina and helps her reach her own little boat. She fires up the engine just as Alek and Noel leap onto the deck. In the hold of Akram’s vessel, the time-bomb reaches 00:00 and the whole ship disappears in a ball of flame!

The team head back to Tripoli, having successfully recovered the first of the four paintings required find the secret laboratory!

To be continued….

OPERATION WINTER THUNDER

Location: Moscow, Russia
.
Caruso's contacts have located 'The Second Knight led by Brunnhilde' in Russia. The painting is in the private collection of retired Soviet general Kirill Barisov. It is believed that Barisov claimed the painting - among other pieces - as spoils of war when the Russian army captured Berlin in 1945. Unfortunately, SECTOR has been unable to locate General Barisov or his collection and it is unlikely that our counterparts in GRU will share that information willingly.

GENERAL KIRILL BARISOV


However, while we have been unable to locate the General, we have located his daughter Katerina Barisov, who is studying ballet at the Bolshoi Academy in Moscow. Katerina is performing in Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake', this should present you with the opportunity to approach her and extract information regarding her father's whereabouts.

KATERINA BARISOV


Once you have located General Barisov, secure the painting 'The Second Knight led by Brunnhilde' and deliver it to Atlantic Base for analysis. Obviously you will be operating in Russia without the GRU's knowledge and it would be best for international relations if your activities on Soviet soil went unremarked by the Kremlin.

OBJECTIVES

PRIMARY: Locate the collection of General Kirill Barisov and retrieve 'The Second Knight led by Brunnhilde' for analysis at Atlantic Base.
SECONDARY: Complete your mission without raising suspicions that your presence in Russia is sanctioned by SECTOR [2DP].
OPTIONAL: Do not harm/kill Katerina Barisov [1DP] / Do not kill General Kirill Barisov [1DP] / Acquire intel on CITADEL operations in Russia [1DP].

THIS WEEK (23/03/2017): Game running as normal, although Andy S (Aubrey) will be absent.

NEXT WEEK (30/03/2017): Room unavailable. I have no desire to try and run a roleplaying game in the bar (shudder), but I am happy to come along and play some board/card games, if anyone else is interested. I have a few games that will play 5+ players (The Resistance, Diamont, King of Tokyo, Formula D, Codenames, etc...) and maybe you lot have your own to bring. I know Andy S has a copy of Mysterium that would be a lot of fun.

Boardgames on Thursday; Yay or Nay?

If not, I'm going to see Ghost in the Shell.

I don't mind if we avoid the bar and let you go to the movies on Thursday!

Yeah, you go and look at Scarlett Johannson in a flesh coloured skintight bodysuit.