HotZone

A 2017 Spec-Ops campaign from 2007.

Characters

• Initial GM: User:Johnm
• Tag Leonards, the paranoid demo-man, played by User:Jesster
• Sascha Lutsenko, played by User:Brantdanger
• Liam McGregor, played by User:Jslife
• Jurgen Timonneh played by Tom C.

Background

It's 2017 on Gurth, and the world has changed significantly in the last 20 years. America invaded Iraq in 2003, and tensions began escalating worldwide immediately. In 2008, the sectarian violence in Iraq spread like wildfire, and War in Iraq became the War in the Middle East which became the Central Asian Crisis. Long before pundits stopped changing the label, it was a world class clusterfuck. Had Russia, China, and India not united to quell the violence through diplomatic means in 2011-2012, the crisis was on track to evolve into World War 3.

This gradual unraveling of peaceful cohabitation was apparent to military leaders in numerous countries, and in fact the United States Special Operations Command presciently predicted a change in strategy would be required way back in 2006 when they issued the following public statement:

“Creating conditions where people want to live peacefully is a powerful weapon against terrorism. Direct action will become increasingly restricted as the Global War on Terrorism matures. Indirect actions of Foreign Internal Defense and Civil Affairs programs are the key to winning the war on terror.” 1

Powerful governments with awesome military arsenals became increasingly aware that wielding their power was becoming politically untenable in all but the most extreme situations. United States Special Operations Command, as just one example of a trend worldwide, quadrupled in funding and personnel from 2008-2015, but forced a significant portion of their Direct Action specialists into early retirement, and instead filled their ranks with civil engineers, psy ops specialists, administrators, and diplomats.

However, focused Direct Action operations will always be required when organized groups are willing to commit violence to contravene national interests, and so outside of government military operations, a second and third tier of operatives evolved. The second tier consisted of large private security companies, with tens of thousands of employees, some tiny portion of which could be used for “wet work” of Direct Action operations.

The third tier has evolved over the past 7-8 years. Increasing public scrutiny over and demand for transparency in military expenditures in industrialized nations worldwide has made certain operations difficult to fund through the large and somewhat infamous security corporations. However, worldwide, government agencies always have funds available for classified “black” operations, and it is here that the third tier of operatives has found its niche.

This third tier, or “SubNet” is a loose affiliation of a few thousand specialists and commanders worldwide, mostly ex-military. By adopting terrorist organizations' practice of maintaining “cells” which know little about global operations, the SubNet maintains a thick veil and appears to be nothing more than disconnected gangs of shadowy figures.

Your group is one such cell.

You're based in Dili, East Timor, a desperately poor but relatively peaceful nation of about a million souls, 400 miles north of the coast of Australia.

You (might) come from diverse backgrounds, but have been working together the last 5 years for various governmental, quasi-governmental, and private organizations. Highlights of your activities during that period (which might give you an idea of what skills the team should possess):

In 2013, Australian Secret Intelligence Service paid your team AU$100k to blow up a warehouse in Jakarta it said contained munitions en route to terrorists in the Philippines.

In 2014, the Indonesian State Intelligence Agency paid your team US$80k to extract a political hostage imprisoned and tortured by separatist rebels for three years in the jungles of Malaysia.

In 2015, your team was paid US$200k by what was probably (you were never sure) an American CIA agent to assault a luxury yacht off the coast of Sri Lanka, and kill all aboard -- except the teenage son of a prominent local politician.

In 2016, a prince of Borneo personally paid you in emeralds worth US$100k to kidnap his own daughter, who had fallen in with a Christian doomsday cult deep in the jungle.

Throughout this time, you have also occasionally provided security for a (Contact) local entrepreneur named Malto Umbabo, primarily in the business of exporting marijuana to Australia. This activity, while officially illegal, has generally been nonviolent, and your Contact within Australian intelligence has been helpful in ensuring its smooth operation. However, one event made an impact on all of you.

On your first trip to the Australian mainland on Malto's behalf in 2015, your role was to go ashore in a rubber raft at night, and ensure an Australian gang was not lying in wait to seize the shipment as was rumored. The rumor turned out to be true, and a firefight erupted between your team and over a dozen gangsters. Team member Jack Stone, a stoic and effective American, was slain in the battle, and the rest of you might have been as well, had Malto not sent his untrained men ashore in a second raft with nothing but old revolvers to provided support and firepower. You've not forgotten the risk they took in deciding not to abandon you.

Your life in Dili is generally dull, with operation opportunities coming up only every several months. (You might have hobbies or businesses to occupy your downtime.) Operation dollars go a long way in a city where a gin and tonic is 50 cents and a blow-job is three bucks. Occasional payments to the (Contact) local police ensure little scrutiny over your activities, and you are careful not to participate in or aid any operations anywhere in East Timor.

You have Contacts that can provide air and sea travel, no questions asked.

You've had the opportunity to collect whatever standard firearms and TL7 ammunition you desire, as well as body armor and other reasonable military gear. In your weapons cache, you also have one SMAW anti-tank weapon with 2 rockets, and one pound of C4.

You all speak English and Portuguese (primary language in East Timor) adequately, as well as your native tongue and any other languages desired, consistent with your backstories.

200 points total
max 100 attributes
max 50 disadvantages
max 50 advantages
max 5 quirks

TL7 gear, but with enhancements similar to how we played the QRT campaign. Scrambled, hands-free communication devices with satellite uplink, Google Maps, etc.

As the curtain opens, the team is grumbling about boredom, sipping cocktails at the Tiki Bar on the beach, watching as a tropical spring thunderstorm rolls in.

What Happened

On Approach

As the curtain opens, the team is grumbling about boredom, sipping cocktails at the Tiki Bar on the beach, watching as a tropical spring thunderstorm rolls in.

A call from Hans Juergen comes in, Mambobo brings the phone over, and the party learns their skills are needed in a dangerous place. Jumbilly flies them to Aten, Sudan, where they are greeted in 112-degree heat by MP5-toting military police who inspect the papers and wave them on.

They meet with Milo Dragovich who explains the misdeeds of Solomon Mugabe in the context of world events, provides them with Dutch papers to get onto an oil rig off the coast of Somalia. Liam goes on a bender in the hotel that night, and after 1 hour of sleep, the party boards the leaking and overcrowded ferry to the rig.

Tag creates a disturbance in the kitchen and the party sneaks off the rig, swims to a gear-laden raft, and motors some 200 miles to the reedy shoreline of Somalia, just north of the city of Hobyo. Electing to stay hidden in the reeds until nightfall, the party languishes in the reeds, swatting sand fleas all day.

After dark, they obtain intelligence from a local about Mugabe's whereabouts, and set up a lookout across the street from a makeshift tavern surrounded by gun-toting revelers. A 3AM shooting incident brings them in contact with a contingent of Doctors without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)) staff, with whom they make contact the next day.

Liam tracks down Candace Mason, the intuitive MSF nurse, and they share drinks that afternoon and exchange some information. The next day, the party boards the MSF Range Rover en route to Galcayo, an inland city 120 miles away. Along the dusty way they see atrocities in progress, and African driver Marimba demands the party intervene, but in the end they continue on to Galcayo where their quarry reportedly lurks.

On the way into the sprawling crumbling city of Galcayo, the Range Rover has an mechanical problem, and after dropping off the doctor and the nurse, the party accompanies Marimba to visit the city's mechanic, Rocky Rhoades. While Marimba scavenges for the needed part, the party negotiates an intel exchange with Rocky, in the end obtaining his promise to discover when it is that Mugabe plans his next raid.

Guns Blazing

While in Rocky's garage, Mugabe's general John Zaid shows up with several thugs. Liam and Sasha take up tactical positions while Liam comes out to meet the general. Zaid inspects Liam like cattle, and when Liam exhibits defiance, Zaid attempts to fastdraw his 9mm, provoking Liam into grabbing his weapon arm and twisting him around into a painful arm lock.

Liam and Tag then drop two thugs with their silenced pistols, and Rocky checks the technical outside for additional thugs. He convinces the remaining gunman to come inside and check on his downed comrades, and gets the drop on him when he turns his back. Rocky disposes of his prisoner and interrogation of Zaid commences. Ethiopian soldiers interrupt but are easily bribed.

Zaid divulges that Mugabe intends a raid on a small community 40 miles south at dawn the day after tomorrow. The Range Rover is repaired, Marimba sent on his way, drinking begins, and sleep results.

The party leaves early the next day for the small community, befriends the locals, plays some soccer, places some explosives, and eats some fresh goat.

In the dim pre-dawn darkness, the party concludes that the village was surrounded in the night by 12 technicals, each sitting quietly in the darkness 200 yards out into the desert. Sasha effectively assassinates several drivers in the first few seconds before headlights turn on and the enemy begins moving in. A vicious firefight ensues, punctuated by Tag's explosions.

In the ensuing melee, Liam and Sasha are gravely injured, with Sasha pinned down in the center of the battle. In a quiet pause between explosions and gunfire, Rocky calls out to the party, advising them to throw down their weapons and talk. Tag hatches a plan to kill Rocky and reclaim Sasha's body using a smokescreen and a hastily constructed C4 grenade. The explosion rocks the village, blowing off Rocky's clothing and much of his skin, and when Tag emerges from the thick, oily smokescreen, Rocky is on his hands and knees, silently mouthing some curse and trying to raise his .50 to meet Tag while 3 henchman writhe on the ground behind him. Tag silences Rocky permanently, from point-blank range.

Tag then loads Sasha into a commandeered technical with the now-unconscious Liam, and races to the coast and the encouraging light of the rising sun, flat tire flapping, to seize a boat and escape the godforsaken country of Somalia.

Mugabe Snared

Fast forwarding 2 weeks. From campaign notes:

8 hours at sea means sunburned, dehydrated, blood-bathed, shot-to-hell compatriots, and when Tag spots the green-hulled Amnesty freighter (nearly 5 miles out of position), it's all he can do to keep from screaming.

Aboard, the crew of eyebrow-ringed, tattooed, dreadlocked weirdos is surprisingly efficient in handling and treating the injured. A call from the 28-yr-old blond goateed Australian hippy captain (who goes by “Ahab”) causes private Yemeni medical chopper to arrive that night and 'life flight' the party back to Aten.

Tag collects their military gear and Liam and Sasha undergo some of the most advanced care in the middle east. Shortly after checking his compatriots in, Tag receives a phone call. Milo Dragovich (swiss/austrian/german accent): “Captain Ahab told me you were hurt, and Ethiopian military is saying they engaged Mugabe at Kagilistan and caused heavy losses but failed to take Mugabe...” Tag gives a rough outline of the truth, probably concealing some facts as is his habit, and Dragovich knowingly acknowledges the partial truth and tells Tag, “That is fine. You will succeed another time. For now, rest and heal your brothers. All will be taken care of. I have arranged for you to stay at the Desert Rose (5-star hotel with icy AC and pools and prostitutes) until you are operational again.”

Tag and Sasha are lounging in their 23rd floor penthouse suite, and Liam (on crutches) is downstairs drinking Guinness and watching soccer at the bar, when Liam's phone rings in the suite. Sasha takes the call when he sees Candace Mason's phone-cam face on the screen. Candace reports that Marimba has been imploring her for a week to contact the party. Marimba has intel on where Mugabe and Zaid are going to pick up a shipment of guns and drugs, and wants the team's help to intervene.

Transportation details are worked out, with a flight from Yemen to Boosaso, a 5-seat bush plane from there to Quardo, and a taxi to Beyra (see [map]) to meet Marimba. In the busy African market square, while Sasha spots from above and Tag (in drag) mingles with the locals, Liam meets up with a frantic Marimba driving a modified VW Bus.

After relocating to an alley, Marimba explains that Zaid forced him to lead him to Rocky's hidden war-dune-buggy. The booby trap worked flawlessly, killing 4 henchmen and knocking Zaid unconscious. Marimba was able to look in the vehicle, find Rocky's PDA and learn of an upcoming meeting with Colonel Gamba in Ethiopia. He then turned to Zaid and tried to summon the resolve to kill him, but could not. Since then, Marimba has been filled with rage (and evident self-loathing).

The team loads into the VW and heads through blistering red-sand desert towards Ethiopia, bribing the military welcoming committee along the way to get to the outskirts of the city of Warder. Spying Mugabe's technicals parked outside a small military compound on the edge of town, the team formulates a plan and takes up positions. Tag (still burka-clad) wanders around the compound identifying hostiles and enters the rear of the compound to work on disabling the armored vehicle. Marimba and Liam approach the guard house and hear a lite popping sound as Sasha terminates the guard from afar, whereupon Marimba dons the guard's uniform and takes up his position in the guard house.

Liam proceeds to the small office building and eliminates the soldier therein, and then meets Tag near the barracks, wherein at least two soldiers have been spotted. Tag and Liam step inside and quietly assassinate the four soldiers in 2 seconds flat. Liam picks up the bottle of mead while Tag watches the door and notices Marimba scampering over to join them.

With Sasha relocated to the guard house and covering the entrance to the warehouse, and Tag having disabled all but one vehicle, Tag and Liam pull open the huge sliding doors. Within are Mugabe, Zaid, four Somalian henchmen, the Ethiopian colonel, and six Ethiopian soldiers. The colonel is the first to die, courtesy of Sasha's silenced rifle. A bloody flashbang-punctuated gun battle commences, in which the hostiles are all put down, and Liam and Marimba suffer serious gunshot wounds.

The team makes off with Mugabe's $50k cash and pound of pure heroin, as well as a crate of 99 fragmentation grenades, rolls back to Galcayo to receive tenderly-delivered first aid by Nurse Candace Mason.

Upon landing that night back in Yemen, Milo Dragovich gives the team their $200k balance in an aluminum briefcase and takes Mugabe into custody with the help of a huge (Dolph Lundgren lookalike) Russian assistant in a black Suburban.

The team rests at the Desert Rose for a few days, and then Jumbilly takes them home to East Timor.

Mission Accomplished.

Pirates

While Tag Leonards lounges in Kuala Lumpur, Sasha and Liam are paid a visit by fellow operative Jurgen Timonneh, a German gunner. While sipping cocktails at the Tiki Bar a month after the Somalian affair, a call comes in from friend Malto Umbabo, with whom the team entrusted the Ethiopian heroin. It seems that Malto successfully unloaded the junk for $200k, but was subsequently ripped off by pirates south of Singapore, losing two henchmen in the process -- a third, Mikey Dread was captured to guarantee Malto's return with 100 kilos of ganja (an arrangement which spared Malto his life).

Sasha assures Malto that all will be made well, and nudges the inebriated Liam off his bar stool and the pair begin preparing. Jurgen accompanies with a nonchalant shrug, "sure why not".

Jumbilly fires up the seaplane and the team is en route, arriving near sunset at Malto's anchored boat. After dark, the team rows the dinghy to the pirates' island, and approaches stealthily in a steady tropical rain, arriving a half mile inland at a modest cinder-block house. Liam goes around back, Sasha prepares a grenade, while Jurgen watches the front door. Sasha leads with a frag grenade (which gets stuck in the screen/windowsill but still does massive damage) and a flashbang while Liam slips in through the back door and assassinates the pirate watching over the ensnared Mikey Dread.

Jurgen stows the minigun and approaches with his shotgun, and engages in a vicious firefight with four pirates coming out the front door, eventually being pinned down and clipped in the leg while Liam and Sasha clear the house. One pirate escapes, a second is crippled and captured and divulges that a Singaporean called Kumar hired them to attack the boat and seize the cash, and that Kumar would visit in the morning to claim it (less 10% commission). Malto claims that Kumar is the representative of the Singaporean crime syndicate to whom he sold the heroin the day before!

Singapore Slaughter

The team resolves to await Kumar's arrival to negotiate. Mikey Dread takes one of the waterski boats to rendevous with Malto and Jumbilly at the other island. Sasha and Jurgen set up their respective heavy weapons in the jungle, while Liam sips brandy near the beach. Eventually a huge cigarrette-style boat approaches, piloted by four stylish Singaporeans. But then Sasha spots a pirate on the beach, apparently attempting to flag down the boat. The boat slows and turns towards the pirate. Before they have a chance to communicate, Sasha terminates the pirate.

When the pirate's face explodes, the boat accelerates and turns away. Jurgen opens up with the minigun, spraying the craft from 240 yards with 60 bullets in one second. Sunlight and fiberglass and flesh and bone and saltwater and lead mingle in midair, and the boat begins sinking rapidly. Liam drives the ski-boat out and hauls one body aboard, but it's too late. All four are dead and being fed upon by tropical sharks.

During mop-up, Sasha's wisecrack about Ireland is not well received by the bad-tempered and half-drunk Liam, and the subsequent conflict results in Sasha's split lip and bullet wound to the knee.

The team re-groups and heads back to East Timor, Mikey Dread, Malto, and Jurgen by sea, and the rest by air. Sasha spends a night in the hospital to put his knee back together, while Liam and Tag collaborate virtually to research Kumar and his crew. The next day Jumbilly flies Sasha and Liam to Singapore. They stride confidently past the huge sign at the pier which reads "ALL FOREIGN NATIONALS WITHOUT VISAS MUST CHECK IN WITH SECURITY" and check into a nearby hotel in the midst of the Singaporean metropolis.

After a day getting their bearings (and changing Sasha's leg bandages), the team makes their way to the Elephant, the seedy bar owned and operated by Malto's old friend Chung Luck. After some small talk, and becoming acquainted with local escort Annalise, they ask Chung Luck about Kumar and request that the bartender call him in. With some suprise, Chung reports that Kumar is on his way over straightaway.

Suspicions aroused, Liam decides to break away from Annalise's scintillating conversation and head back to the hotel to retrieve equipment. Sasha takes on the task of entertaining Annalise and engaging Kumar's crew in business banter upon their arrival.

After Liam deposits Sasha's rifle on the roof across the street, he approaches the front of the bar just as two huge black SUVs race up and screech to a halt outside the bar. Four stylish goons emerge from each and race into the bar, but Sasha has relocated to the ladies' room, so they spread out and start asking questions. Annalise intervenes and explains that the businessmen who want to see them have stepped out but will return, which Chung Luck confirms nervously.

Meanwhile, Liam approaches the two henchmen outside the door, fastdraws, and silently assassinates both with shots to the brain. ...