[Game Thread] Libertatis Cunabula

[Mulsrooney]

San Antonio. James Palmer was stationed here before he was recruited, and Dorian Johnson had more than a few escapades here along the River Walk. Brett Davison was sure that the mayor was a reptilian, and damn if he didn't uncover the truth. Now you are sitting in your vehicle outside a crappy abandoned building on the outskirts of the city. It sure wasn't much - boarded up and decaying, with a sign out front that said it was to be torn down for condos soon. Oh, and that trespassers would be shot on sight.

You double-check the address on your HERMES - part smartphone, part super-secret encrypted device given to you by that mysterious man you met a few months earlier. Yeah, this was the place. You've never been here before, but a few hours ago the thing went haywire. Flashing lights and everything, and at midnight too. Damn annoying. Then the message came, like some demented text-message that almost seemed impossible to believe.

>HERMES ALERT

//Urgent Transmission. Cell requests immediate response.//

At 01:30 GMT today, our Cell leader ordered us to intercept an NDD operation to recover a crashed alien craft. At 22:40 GMT today, three operational members of the Cell and three staff support members ambushed four NDD agents after they finished loading the craft onto a flatbed trailer for transport, presumably to Dulce. In the course of the interdiction, all operational members of the Cell were terminated.

We support personnel survive. One operative is wounded. We have secured the truck and are awaiting backup. The current location of the truck and craft is the Red Truck Stop and Diner on interstate 37, exit 46. We are filing this HERMES report using emergency pass codes given by our Cell leader. We understand we will have no further access to HERMES through this unit.

We will monitor a nearby phone. The number is 555-7457. We expect to hear the codeword 'bluebird'. We will repeat with the codeword 'lighthouse'. Repeat, we request immediate attention.


It ended with the address to the building you are at now. Supposedly there are supplies inside. Sure doesn't look like it. As you make your way to the building, you notice other people arriving...

This is the first time the PCs will be meeting each other. You can and should explore the area, but primarily I am hoping that you will interact/have some time to settle into your role. Each PC can drive either a sedan or a van, and has a handgun, flashlight, and HERMES unit (as well as any other minor objects you may wish to have, such as cigarettes/flask, etc).

[gunnar11]

Palmer got out of his black sedan, straightening his completely crooked leather jacket and lighting one of his cigars. Weird habit for a somewhat computer-centered agent, but cigars were the only smokables sweet enough for his lungs to handle -and it made him seem classy, of course-. Hiding his HERMES-device, he noticed he was alone.
James was prepared to do some hard work, but he hadn't suspected doing it all alone. "Well, home sweet home, I guess... he muttered while locking his car.

Palmer checked his surroundings for camera's, or people lurking, made a final check of the contents of his backpack (mostly laptop-stuff and some granola-bars), took his important documents out and burned them. Standard procedure.

A dog barked angrily in the distance. Silence followed.

[Chekken]

Detective Johnson--as he explicitly preferred to be called--was wearing a black blazer, with a white dress shirt and a red tie underneath. He was carrying a satchel full of his personal belongings; paperwork, a change of clothes and so forth. Johnson's silver Escalade pulled into a parking lot across the street from the abandoned building. Johnson felt uncomfortable with meeting people he barely knew in one of those "ghetto" parts of town, but he knew that this was a worthwhile gig and might help him understand the whole "aliens-are-real" concept. He was still getting used to that...

Finding nothing particularly suspicious about the man in front of the building, Johnson decided to step out of the van and walk across the street towards the hovel. He double- and triple-checks to make sure the doors of his Escalade were locked and that the alarm was on. Dorian pulls a cigarette out of the pack, puts it in his mouth and lights it with his zippo lighter. Dorian takes a few small drags as he approaches James Palmer. He sizes the man up; Johnson wasn't one to let his guard down, even around people whom he thought might be friendly.

"So are you Palmer, or Davison?", he asked confidently. Johnson was the smooth-talker of his department and was fairly outgoing for a government agent. Dorian extends a rough, somewhat calloused hand towards the stranger. "Detective Dorian Johnson. Pleasure to meet you."

[gunnar11]

"As if you wouldn't know that already, Detective" Palmer replied "Palmer's the name" he answered with a grin. He took a good look at the older man in front of him, a bit weary and cautious, but with the project they were undertaking not a surpise. Clothingwise Johnson looked like an everyday john doe, and James had to focus to find distinctive features to remember.
"Bit of a fancy car for these parts, ain't it, Detective?" Palmer tried, keeping the conversation going. He wondered when the rest of his group would arrive, and his mission started. He quickly went over the instructions provided to him by his little messenger god, but couldn't find anything that might give a clue. I guess we just wait then... he thought to himself.

[Chekken]

With further scrutiny, Palmer would notice that his partner had a tattoo on his chest underneath his white dress shirt. It was hard to see but, under the analytical eye of a government agent, the outline was easy to notice. The tattoo was of the letters "MS" styled in modern-day graffeti.

Detective Johnson's mouth slid into a grin beneath his cigarette. "The Escalade? Heh. Fancy, but functional. You wouldn't believe the sh** you can fit in there." He pauses, hastily adding, "Authorized sh**, of course." Palmer would also notice that Johnson has a subtle, but undeniable spanish accent.

There was a small, awkward silence as the men waited and smoked. Johnson finished off the rest of his cigarette and flicked the butt end towards the curb.

"So...", Johnson began, smoke blowing out of his mouth as he spoke. "Guess we should go inside, eh?"

Despite his feelings of trepidation, Johnson approached the door and nervously corrects his tie. He sees the threatening sign posted against the delapidated building: "Trespassers will be shot". Dorian's arm rose to knock on what was left of the door but, thinking it a bad idea, he instead dug into his pockets and pulled out his cell phone. Unlike his fancy car, Dorian's phone was a Blackberry that had gone out of style three years ago
He typed in his (unnecessarily long) HERMES password, making sure that Palmer wasn't looking over his shoulder. Then he scrolled through his messages, finding the one from "his grandfather". Dorian taps the screen a few times and hits send. He looks at Palmer and shrugs as if to say, "What now?"

The message said only, "We are here."

[Mulsrooney]

>> HERMES PASSWORD ACCEPTED >>

GREETINGS JOHNSON

ACCESS TO AEGIS BASE 1X332 GRANTED
>>

and with that the door the base opens remotely. Inside you can see the heavy dust settling in the light from the street. The place looks like it hasn't been occupied in a few years. The room is sort of like an office. A computer sits in front of a shuttered window on the opposite wall with a phone beside it. A wooden table is in the middle of the room surrounded by a few chairs. There is a blackboard on the wall closest to you on your right, and a gun cabinet against the left wall. Walking up to it, you see it is contains three AR-15s and some M9s.