Mid-West Campaign
Session Seventy-Nine

Monday, 11 June 2001 [continued]

In the early evening, Dominic Rocaan, Jack Burchill, Todd O'Connell and the entire east coast team survey the wreckage of the west coast headquarters. They are joined by a badly beaten Michael Hunt who is resplendent in his new designer wardrobe.

Fortunately, there is no-one trapped in the rubble, but the team still has the problem of all the sensitive supernatural paraphernalia that is buried under tons of molten concrete. With Schult off-line, Dominic telephones Georgeson, but he cannot get anything from him either. Contacting, Artemis Black, Dominic is ordered to remain on site and make sure the area is secure. The east coast team quickly depart to leave him to it.

Dominic sends Todd and Burchill the get the necessary supplies to fortify the site. They order some port-cabins, and return with razor-wire, cameras, motion detectors which they spend half the night setting up. Dominic then notices Burchill's copious collection of gun-shot wounds and sends him to hospital. In an uncharacteristic display of charity, Dominic also sends Todd back to Wichita.

Tuesday, 12 June 2001

This leaves Dominic and Michael Hunt to spend the night in Todd's car with nothing to keep them warm but a tool box and Artemis's Black Christmas album to keep them warm. Hunt wants to leave on his own nefarious business, but Dominic makes it clear that he needs him on site.

Meanwhile, in outer space, the agents have been stocktaking their resources. There are forty-two human-like creatures in the suspension tubes, all of them bald. Searching quickly, while the light form their torches still holds out, they discover a frosted glass cabinet. Quickly, Harlow produces a glass cutter and proceeds to open the cabinet with all the skill of a lunatic with a lump hammer.

Inside is a lever and two plastic boxes with handles. One box contains a scores of uniform silver cubes, about the size of stock cubes. Throwing caution to the wind, Ecks eats one and says that it is jelly of some sort and tastes of blueberries. He then picks the wrapper out of his teeth. Of course, this does not solve the problem of fresh water.

The second box is more of mystery, but Drake thinks that it is a power source. They take the box up to the bridge, and Jane spots somewhere to plug it in. A single control panel lights up. Ecks thinks that this is a communications panel of some sort, and they may be sending out a distress signal. The question is: where else can the agents plug this box in?

In addition to the bride there are five other locations. It can be plugged into any of the tubes, the agents wisely do not mess with the controls. It can also open the door into space (ditto!). In engineering it activates a diagnostic of the ship's condition (it seems to be repairing itself). To the agents delight, it can also be used to activate an electronic water fountain.

Finally, the power pack can be used to activate a circular projector in the rear of the vessel that shows the exterior of the vessel. The agents notice a huge piece of debris from the destroyed vessel is sailing through space in the general direction of their ship. Ecks sits in the middle of the projection and makes some calculations. At first, he thinks the debris will miss the vessel by metres, but after rechecking his sums he is of the firm belief that they will be hit, and their ship will be destroyed. Something has to be done about it.

Ecks quickly works out a plan. At exactly the right moment, they must open the airlock for exactly ten seconds. The evacuation of the air will cause the ship to rotate, and the debris will (barely) miss the vessel. It will be a two man job. One to open and close the door, and one to hold the power pack in place. Jane immediately volunteers. It is decided that Ecks is the best qualified to open the door, in case it isn't immediately obvious which buttons to press.

It is fourteen hours until the plans needs to be put into operation: a terrible time. The agents secure everything they can (especially the batleths). Harlow makes a secure nest for himself in the hold with all the stolen tech. He is hoping that even if his harness snaps, the other agents will have closed the door before he has travelled the entire length of the ship toward the air lock.

The agents pass the time in quiet reflection and abject panic. They record video-letters to their loved ones: Ecks to his family, and Harlow to himself. Jane doesn't make a recording, she already left the letters she wanted to on earth. They then plug the power source into the distress beacon and wait enjoy a last meal of meatball-flavoured jelly cubes.

Wednesday, 13 June 2001

It is time. All the agents wear gas masks to try and protect them from the rigours of space. Jane and Bradley strap themselves to the frame of the airlock door. Jane secures the power pack to her ankle, in case she has to let go of it in the ensuing chaos. Bradley says that even if this plan works, their air will be extremely thin afterward. The clock counts down to the require time, Jane puts the power lead in place, and Bradley opens the door into space.

There is a tremendous blast as the air forces itself from the vessel. Jane hangs on, but it is too much for Bradley who sucked out into the void. His tether holds him inches for the door, but on the wrong side. Jane lets go of the power cell and reaches out with her left hand to drag Bradley in, but she doesn't have the strength. Bradley knows that if the door isn't closed after ten seconds then everyone will die, he reaches in and presses the control to seal the airlock.

But there will be no heroic sacrifice on Jane's watch. She lunges forward and grabs Bradley's feet. As the door is sliding down she pulls him back into the vessel with inches to spare. Bradley is saved, but he is much the worse for wear. His ears are bleeding and his eyes are blood red. He is also suffering from the effects of severe frostbite. Jane tries to make his comfortable as possible; at least he will live.

Suddenly, the ship shudders as the piece of debris scrapes along the hull. For a few moments it look as though the plan failed, but the Bradley's calculations were correct. The debris passes them, and their stricken ship continues intact.

Back at the west coast headquarters, the portacabins have now arrived. They sport living quarters and laboratories. Work has not yet begun on the rebuilding of the HQ, and Dominic is waiting to begin any new cases until his team is properly assembled.

In Washington, Artemis checks himself out of hospital and then makes contact with his allies at MK Ultra. Before long he is flying to the Colorado Mountains, and an abandoned federal building. There he meets his fixer, and he is shown into a room where he meets four of twelve leaders of MK Ultra, each one named after a precious stone: Ebony, Pearl, Opal and Emerald. Artemis is codename: Obsidian.

Artemis cannot see the other four, thanks to a melodramatic lighting effect reminiscent of low-budget sci-fi. Artemis tells MK Ultra absolutely everything that team has been up to - all about their discoveries, the brain bug fleet, Georgeson and so on.

Opal (a Texan) wants proof of everything Artemis has said. Artemis says that he will provide proof, but it is currently floating many miles above the planet. This is very irregular: agents usually summon an MK Ultra cabal when they have physical evidence, and not before. But this is Artemis Black and he does things differently. MK Ultra has known of the existence of extra-terrestrials for some time, but Artemis has more pieces of the puzzle.

The cabal are very interested when Artemis speaks of Apache Joe and the work of Majestic. MK Ultra hates Majestic, and are in direct competition with them. The fact that Artemis is working against Majestic seems a good reason for them to support him. Ebony wants to know if evidence response has any more stocks of the green mineral - Artemis reports that the north-east team have a supply. Ebony says that MK Ultra needs to get hold of a k'tai and analyse it.

Black proposes that a diplomatic effort to seek out the k'tai and yig, and form an alliance with them. Pearl is sceptical of this, and tells Black to return to this facility for a full council meeting fives days from now. Black agrees and then leaves the facility.

Outside, he speaks to his fixer (Gates). He asks him about Vitrano and Lavin. Gates has heard of them, but they have disappeared from his radar. Overt efforts to find them will tip them off. Black asks Gates to keep tabs on the agents, or at least locate them once they surface. He tells Gates to leave them alive for now, but action may be needed against them in the future.

Black returns to Washington. In the evening he receives a telephone call from Marc Georgeson. Georgeson reports that the spacecraft will exit the dark side of the moon in twenty-five minutes. He also says that he plans to land the ship in Winterset, once the self-repair mechanisms restore its power. He thanks Artemis for giving his people (the Signai) hope. He can now run his ship on full power if needs be. He asks Artemis where he is going to disseminate all this new tech. Artemis says that he is undecided.

Artemis asks Georgeson about the submarine project that Dynamicorp was helping the build: Project Poseidon. Georgeson says that is a sub-carrier, designed to bottom crawl and launch planes and missiles. Interestingly, he says that this is the ship that Jane's brother, Edward, captains. The ship has already been launched. The carrier could be designed to launch spacecraft, and it is only a small extrapolation of the design that will create Earth's first true starship. MK Ultra would be unaware of this vessel, so Black asks that all the specs be sent to them. Georgeson agrees to this.

Artemis asks about the K'tai and Yig. Georgeson, has little on the yig. He says that the John Smith he mentioned who lives in Maine is a k'tai. He suggests talking to him.

Soon after, Huntington-Price telephones. He says that the launch of a Russian vessel to obscure the shuttle will take place in two hours. That will leave a small window in which the alien ship is visible.

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