In reply to Mina (msg # 685):

"Hey Vic, somebody has enough power to run a PC. Maybe we should take a look. It would also be interesting to know if there were more empty boxes of Russian super guns lying around."

Jorg move to descend into the cellar, scoping it out with his flashlight before he does so.

You notice the soft hum of a computer down below, with the occasional clicks of its hard drive when it cycles.

In reply to Jorg Mendez (msg # 686):

As I follow Jorg down into the basement, "Hey, don't you go hating on my Cubs. Even when they lost, rather frequently I know, being at the ballpark was still a good day."

I continue, looking around the room, "Yeah, shame about Wally and his wife. I'm sure he knew something, but unless we can get something from that computer, it's doubtful we'll find out."

Entering the small cramped room you see several file cabinets and a small computer desk next to an office printer. There is also a sophisticated radio setup next to a PC sitting on the desk. A soft glow emits from the screen saver on the screen. There is a large ashtray, and the room smells of smoke. Several butts have been put out in the ashtray. There is a flag you have not seen before hanging on the wall behind the desk It has a Modified Eagle shield in the center of a red white and blue circle on a red and blue background. on each side is a blue field with stars on it (see post on the Facebook page). There are several books on a small shelf near the radio. A large one lays open facing down from its spine on the bottom shelf where the shelf isn't full. You can't make out the title from the book as it's missing it's cover, but it is written by someone called Carl Hughes.

The file cabinets have been broken open, and the contents strewn about the room. There are piles of 3.5 inch floppy disks and CDs thrown around in a similar fashion.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:44, Sat 09 Jan 2021.

In reply to Mina (msg # 689):

"I suppose we should bag it all and take it back to the intel guys to go through."

In reply to Victor Lange (msg # 690):

"What they wanted is probably no longer here, but will definitely be interesting to see what they left." Jorg reaches over and gives the mouse on the computer a nudge.

The screen saver blinks momentarily, and is replaced by a plain black background with a single file folder in the upper left hand corner of the screen, and an open instant messaging program open below. There looks to be a conversation between a large group, using the radio as the network connection. The messages all seem to be encrypted, however, a quick scan of the dates of the messages indicate that the bulk of the members have not communicated since before 1996. There is one user, Horatio35 who seems to still be in contact with Wally, who's screen name is Cardinal18. The one file seems to be password protected.

Sifting through some of the stuff you see floppy disks that only have the date on them. You find one on the ground that has been purposely smashed that has today's date on it.

In reply to Mina (msg # 692):

"We can gather all this up and send it to the NSA for investigation. They can run through it all with there super-computers and..... oh wait, that is not a thing any more. Guess we will have to find someone to do it the old fashioned way. Timely intelligence that you do not collect yourself has gone the way of the Passenger Pigeon."

In reply to Jorg Mendez (msg # 693):

[OOC: Unless something really radical happens, I think we can wait for the spooks on this.]

Deleted per adventure guidlines-MJK
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:13, Sun 31 Jan 2021.

OOC: When I have replies to the above post I am going to delete it. If you want a hard copy, you will have to copy it on to your post to save the information.

In reply to Mina (msg # 696):

Jorg waves Victor over before reading the message, "Looks like Horatio35 has something to say.

C18, new tasking: find out which faction started the riots in Denver and Aurora. We suspect Civ Gov or Soviet intervention as per our prior communique. We may be able to move our timeline up depending on the outcome. The tracking frequency for the RFID used by whoever is selling you those AN-94s that you found is 900Mhz. See if you can use it to track any more shipments and locate those who are. You may be able to use the Milgov forces that have been speaking to you about this to track them down. They have assets in that hill of theirs that we do not have, and it sounds like they can be manipulated into helping with our cause. We still do not know what happened to communication with general operations, but we are still planning to secure Region 3 in the near future. You will know when that happens.

Do not respond until you have the required information. Will give status update RB:X9:BT:44 This message will self delete in five minutes. Follow established information security procedures.

Stay safe. Our time is nigh."

What do make of that? Seems Wally and his friends weren't responsible, at least not for this.

Jorgs copy the message into his notebook

In reply to Jorg Mendez (msg # 697):

"Looks like someone took a severe disliking to Wally. Certainly doesn't look like he walked in on his wife fooling around with the other guy, killed both of them, then himself and besides, Wally doesn't strike me as the type that would commit suicide to escape a bad situation. As far as the intel is concerned, if our guys are worth a damn, doing it by hand shouldn't be a big deal."

"Not real fond of them, whoever 'them' is, wanting to use and manipulate us. I'm pretty sure that won't go over real well with Barrel Rider or those that he reports to. Are we waiting for someone to come bag and tag all this or do we? I'd like to get out of here pretty quick."

In reply to Victor Lange (msg # 698):

"Think we got too many cards laid out here to just leave it alone. Besides, maybe the REMFs will bring some coffee. One can always hope."

Several minutes go by, looking around the store, and the storage area in the back, you see what made Wally wealthy. Large amounts of stored stuff. Food, ammunition, medicine, auto parts, tools, and electronics, you name it, Wally had at least a small amount of it.

After a while, you hear several vehicles pull up outside. You hear Bohn's challenge, and he did not open fire with the .50 on the truck, so you guess that they passed muster.

"Sirs, that information team is here, sending them in. Heads up." Private Bohn messages you both on the radio.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:15, Sun 31 Jan 2021.

Barrel Rider, followed by three other men in non descript civilian clothing enter the building. Barrel Rider is on his cell phone (this is the second time you have seen him use it).

Pointing at his men and gesturing to the room at large, and gesturing to both of you to come over while he is on the phone, he seems to be on an important discussion on the phone: "Yes General, yes I understand. My field asset seems to have been compr... Yes General, I understand, but the two must be related. Sir?... Yes Sir, of course General. I concur. it was probably Russian operatives that.... Yes general. I am with my assets now, we will debrief and come up with an action plan. It will be on your desk tomorrow Sir. Yes General, I will, thank you.".

He suddenly pulls his phone back and clicks a button on the phone, presumably to end his call, then he seems to enter in a code, and you hear a small beep on the phone.

He looks exhausted, and it is now that you see something different with him. He actually is visibly armed. A mini Uzi is strapped around his back, and you see a small bandolier filled with magazines as he pulls back his coat to put his phone in the inside pocket. "Gentlemen. Seems like somehow, the Russians are still at play here. They just pulled our shorts up over our heads, and there isn't shit we can do about it. Any clues as to who killed Wally?"

In reply to Barrel Rider (msg # 702):

"Well, we figured out that it was not a murder-suicide, as we do not believe that Wally offed himself in a fit of jealousy. That being said, there are forces at work outside this store.", Jorg says, handing over his notebook. "That message was displayed on the screen before it deleted itself. Someone was Wally's handler."

Barrel Rider does the same thing you did, he pulls out a small notebook and copies your notes into his.

"Looks like this isn't Civ Gov or the Soviets. I'm thinking that this is gonna be a helluva debriefing."

He looks around. "Christ! With those fires out there... Everyone here needs to strip everything out of here. It is unlikely this place is gonna get the fires extinguished before this place gets torched. Focus on the intel downstairs, including the computer, and Wally and the other two. Leave furniture, but tear it apart to make sure anything that needs to be recovered is." he shouts to everyone in the room.

"You did good, both of you. But the Brass wants us to change missions right now. My guess is that this may overlap somehow, but for now, the Buckley situation is on hold while we deal with this riot. We'll talk more after you've both had some time to write your reports, had some chow and some sleep. Well, lets get to work."

The work is grueling, but rewarding. Inside the torn mattress, Wally's personal cypher booklet is found. It's basic, but effective. They also find several supplies of ammunition, food, tools, even some motor oil and a stash of medical supplies and a ten gallon jug of diesel. There is also a collection of firearms and primitive weapons. Again, it looks like those who came here to do them in, didn't seem to care about looting the building.

You work long into the night, and when you get back to the medical building that makes up the HQ, you have to suck down some coffee (courtesy of Wally's supplies, it's the real thing) just to stay awake enough to finish your report while you eat a bowl of beans with some fresh cornbread (it's a little doughy actually).

Barrel Rider isn't available for the next several days. The Friday that just happened was the 23rd of Feb, 2001. He isn't available until the following Wednesday, the 28th. You are actually given some time off, though you restricted to HQ considering what had just happened. OOC: I'm gonna leave some space for you to do a little of your own thing for the few days left in the month to add some flavor, if you want.

Information is spotty, but it seems like the rumors of the Soviets in Texas gaining access to fuel and stabilizing their front was partially true, until Friday the 23rd, which on the radio is being called Red Friday. Using the Brotherhood to incite a massive riot in Denver and Aurora, the Soviet's made their move in Texas. Using a recently acquired source of fuel, they appear to have engineered the riots to tie down US response to them moving to consolidate the troops of their Mexican forces, and dispatch a heavily armed force to Mexico City in order to settle the recent Mexican civil war. In order to stem the violence in Denver, forces loyal to MilGov have been redeployed from Oklahoma, prohibiting a prepared response and weakening MilGov presence in both that state and what few troops are left in Texas.

No one knows how the Soviets are doing in Mexico, but the forces in Texas  have managed to unite several factions out of the need for stability, as it is just about to become planting season, and this winter, while not as bad as the winters of '99 and 2000, has been ugly. It does look like Texas may not remain a member of the United States at this time, and things seem to be getting worse. MilGov has declared war on the Brotherhood, as well as other groups in Denver and Aurora, with the conflict aimed at controlling what little resources are available to the cities, and preventing other factions from doing the same thing. This exacerbates the already strained supply situation and has lead to several small food riots. You are told to stand down for the time being, that tasking would come after the debrief.

In reply to Mina (msg # 705):

[OOC: Jorg is going to use the downtime for mundane things such as maintenance, PT and just doing a whole lot of nothing. Boring, yes, but in character,]

In reply to Jorg Mendez (msg # 706):

Mundane tasks like checking the radios. Radio Check, over.

OOC: Waiting for Response from possible other players and possible second characters from current PC's

In reply to Mina (msg # 708):

OoC:  I have a hard enough time with 1. Viktor is performing mundane tasks.

OOC: Ok, since my recruitment drive amounted to bunk, I'm just gonna accept it and keep my story coming. I will try again after everyone is mellowed on the 4th ed stuff. If you both are interested in upgrading to 4th edition when it hits Beta, I can give it a whack. I am in another group that is waiting to play then too, and I have made a couple of characters using the new rules. The beta version is rumored to have conversion rules included. Let me know what you think.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:03, Mon 22 Mar 2021.