Mission Report Part (1/9)Flossmore Resort Rescue and Demolition
The team will arrive at the unregistered landing site.
Even if all the staff live and work on-site, they'll no doubt want to escape to the local town occasionally. This should thus give opportunity for HUMINT work led by Anna Chapman. She should frequent any bars/clubs/whatever the staff visit and pump them for information. As we've learnt our lesson from last time, she'll have Erik Heller in civvies with a sidearm present at whatever location she visits, whilst Simon Taylor will keep watch on the building from a convenient location outside.
Meanwhile, Nikita Taylor, Hoxton, Mr Blonde and Redbrick will set up a location to observe the Resort, working in pairs with the Thermal Binoculars.
Once the HUMINT and Direct OBs teams have decided they have acquired all the information they can, a high-ranking Resort member should be detained for questioning. This could be 'Assistant Warden Oglivy', leveraging Mr Blonde's connection/cover to arrange a meeting, or it could be another higher-up that Anna encounters during her HUMINT work. Either way, this individual should be lured into a situation where they can be captured and taken to a safehouse. Anna, and a second operator (whoever is feeling up to it), should work together to interrogate the Asset. Whilst some violence is probably inevitable, they should limit themselves to non-permanent harm. Anna would likely work best as Good Cop in this scenario, leveraging her HUMINT training to gain the target's confidence and advising her interrogation partner on Bad Cop tactics.
By the end of this phase, The HUMINT, Direct Obs and Interrogation should answer the following PIRS:
1) What is "Princess Elsa's" schedule?
2) What prevents individual PUC's on the resort, like "Princess Elsa," from escaping?
3) What emergency procedures does the resort have?
4) What standard security measures exist to prevent forced ingress/egress?
Once as many of these have been answered as possible, Simon Templar should plan the assault, using the acquired Intelligence and Mr Blonde's advice as a Door Kicker where appropriate. The specifics are left to Simon's judgement, although it is suggested that both teams enter together, rescue the princess/rig the explosives simultaneously, then use the detonation to cover the joint exfiltration. Side objectives include:
- Destruction of other Resort Facilities
- Release of other inmates
- Neutralization of Security Forces
There's no money in them, but each of these objectives will increase the amount of harm dealt to the Resort, making the target less able to successfully respond to the team's presence. It will also be a bit of payback for their actions against Evelyn Salt, Princess Elsa, and numerous other inmates.
Whilst the strike teams are on site, Anna should manage communication between the two teams and grill the hostage for any additional information as and when needed. When the teams have exfiltrated, she can release the captive whilst giving herself time to escape on one of the ATVs. (Such as calling a pizza delivery to the safehouse for after she's left, or freeing their feet, pointing them towards the nearest road and telling them to start running).
Deployment
Intelligence:
Anna Chapman (HUMINT Collector)
Intel Hardware:
John Deere Gator ATV x1
Team Princess Rescue:
Simon Templar (Tactician NCO) - Team/Operation 1IC
James "Hoxton" Hoxworth - Team 2IC
Nikita Taylor (Scout)
Erik Heller
Princess Rescue Hardware:
Thermal Binoculars x1
AS Val Carbine x3
Land Rover x1
Team Castle Destruction:
Victor "Mr. Blonde" Vega (CQB Team Leader) - Team 1IC, Operation 2IC
Redrick "Redbrick" Batiste (Demolitions Expert) - Team 2IC
Ethan Hunt
Evelyn Salt
Castle Destruction Hardware:
Thermal Binoculars x1
AS Val Carbine x3
Land Rover x1
Semtex Bricks x4
Teams should use their standard issue gear as appropriate (armour, first aid, Dynamic entry kits, firearms, etc).
With so much work scoped for the Flossmore op, your nine operators spend minimal time shipside after the formal briefing. After dropping off Anna the HUMINT Collector and her two man support element at the Flossmore spaceport, the shuttle flies through a snowstorm to the northwest. Flying in whiteout conditions over evergreen forests, the pilot breaks radio silence to contact the unlisted spaceport. The spaceport answers the call and confirms their planned arrival, "Please report immediately to security upon disembarkation."
After touching down, they're met on the tarmac by two men with assault rifles in heavy snow camo parkas. Their faces are entirely covered in balaclavas and ski goggles. As they get closer, they see the drop leg holsters with HK USP .40's and embroidered Greywater Solutions PMC insignia on their parkas. Unable to speak in the howling wind, they wave your six operators to a nearby quonset hut.
Once inside the pre-fab shelter, everyone strips off their outer layers and makes introductions. Team Leader Vic and Salt immediately recognize the younger of the two bearded Greywater men as "Jack Ryan," back from their first op on Anghabar. Only Ethan recognizes "Jack Bauer," who he met under less than ideal circumstances on his previous op. Bauer recalls Ethan as well, and makes an effort to speak with him informally first.
Bauer shakes Ethan's good hand, "Glad to see you made it out of New Dublin in one piece."
Ethan wordlessly removes the glove from his prosthetic.
"I guess I spoke too soon. It comes with this kind of work though. I once had my jawbone shot off. Wore a mask and ate all my meals through a straw for three months. Thank god for TI implants and cloning, right?"
Ethan gives him the cold shoulder and their interaction ends.
Bauer addresses the group, "Now that we're all comfy, welcome to Cooper Point Spaceport, a private spaceport owned/operated by 7D Prospecting. I am Jack Bauer, the Head of Security for this spaceport. Over there, is Jack Ryan, my second. No secrets between either of us."
The bearded Jack Ryan nods in greeting.
"Speaking of secrets, why you're here and what you plan to do is none of our business. I think it's best for everyone if it stays that way. 7D has also ordered us to inform you that 'Safe Harbor' laws apply, and you are not authorized to stay in any areas associated with Cooper Point Spaceport either. Do you understand what that means?"
Team Leader Vic answers for the group, "Of course we know what Safe Harbor is. What's it to you?"
"As anyone in the business knows, unarmed spacecraft and their spaceports are explicitly and implicitly protected by interstellar law. Naturally, this includes personnel and property within the interior of the spaceport. However, this only applies in transit. I'm under orders from 7D Prospecting to keep you from compromising this spaceport with your extended presence."
Salt speaks up indignantly, "So you're just going to kick us out in a storm like this?"
Bauer scoffs, "Well legally, you still have roughly an hour. But they ain't exactly big on timekeeping out in the boonies, if you catch my drift. In the meantime, if you want to warm yourself up in my bunk, sweetcheeks, I might really lose track of time."
Salt is not amused by this, and in growing solidarity with the sisters in arms, none of the other five operators are smiling.
"Jesus, guess you guys can't take a joke," Bauer looks over to Ryan.
"Gorram snowflakes," Jack Ryan affirms.
"Anyhow, as they say: you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. So God bless and stay safe out there."
As the pair from Greywater head off to the their duties, Team Leader Vic turns to Salt, "Guess we'll be sleeping in the woods again."
"Probably for the best, cowboy. That duvet was some bad luck."
***
Back in town, Team Leader Simon the Tactician NCO, Anna the HUMINT Collector, and Erik Heller try to figure out their own shelter issues. With the team in the woods needing both SUV's for transportation and storage, they're limited to only what they can reach in the Gator ATV. Anna also needs ready access to the townsfolk, and enough creature comforts to not look homeless. While there are plenty of shuttered industrial facilities from Flossmore's heyday as a mining boomtown would make great hideouts, Anna's not going to make a lot of friends with her face chewed-up by frostbite. Under these conditions and requirements, formal in-town accommodations will be a necessity.
The clerk at the spaceport information desk is surprised to see your party of three. A rural sub-arctic community doesn't get a lot of visitors in the dead of winter. Their plan didn't state a cover identity for them, but they decide to pose as middle-class migrants looking for work.
"Welcome, but this far north, we all kinda hibernate until Spring. Y'all picked a bad time of year to migrate."
Erik speaks, "Well with how bad things have gotten on Anghabar, we just had to get out of there. Everyone else is heading to Harad, but we heard there was work out here in Flossmore."
"Well I'm glad you got out of that nightmare in one piece then. Obviously y'all heard of Flossmore PCF, or you wouldn't be here, right? They just wrapped up some major construction work before winter hit. They built a resort that's really going to change everything for this community. They plan to be open year-round and are already getting bookings. They might have something for y'all there."
Team Leader Simon responds, "Thanks, I think we'll do that. Any recommendations on lodging?"
"Well there's that hotel for those visiting the PCF, but you need to reserve that through the PCF and they're pretty pricey anyways. I know a few folk with rooms to rent, but they want you to already have a steady paycheck. There's a motel that truckers use and y'all could probably get a cheap weekly rate."
With not much of a choice, they set themselves up in the motel.
***
Back in the woods, the snowstorm lets up, but not by much. The two Landrover SUV's must travel slowly and deliberately over the unplowed roads in the wilderness. After getting stuck in the snow repeatedly, they don't make their planned campsite by nightfall, and end up sleeping in the vehicles their first night planetside.
Making use of the Blackhawk! tools to shovel themselves out the next morning, they get back to traveling and make it to their abandoned mineshaft camp site. Nikita the Scout, reconnoiters it briefly to confirm no fresh tracks in the snow or other signs of recent habitation. A padlocked gate seals off the shaft, but is no match for the Blackhawk! bolt cutters. Rather safe than sorry, Pipehitter Vic leads the team to hastily clear the mine shaft. Other than stirring up some hibernating bats, your team's search finds nothing of note.
All six operators make themselves at home fairly quickly. Supplies are unloaded from the SUV's and stowed appropriately within the mineshaft. They don't have a construction or combat engineering specialist, but within a day, they manage to build a short-term camp for the six of them. It's not well camouflaged, or explicitly defensible, but it'll provide shelter and general living arrangements against the harsh winter weather. It's also roughly halfway between Flossmore resort and the private spaceport, and thus not a terrible location for a rural safehouse.
Settled in, Team Leader Vic makes contact with the in-town element, "Greybrush, Greybush... this is Pipehitter. How copy, over?"
Team Leader Simon Templar groans over the phone, "I thought we get to pick our own callsigns."
"Well, you did just answer the call. So I guess you did pick it, right?"
Simon returns silence.
"So we finally made camp. How goes your side of the op?"
"Well..."
***
The 'Oasis Motel' is rundown, poorly kept, and its clientele walk on the dodgier side of society. The rooms don't have indoor plumbing, but at least their space heaters work. The pay cash for a pair of connected rooms, and the front desk doesn't even ask for photo id (which could've been a problem).
Luckily, Simon and Erik let Vic's team carry their tactical hardware, because the door locks on their room are unimpressive. A generic mechanical lock, you never know what past guests may have copied or simply 'lost' their key. Of course there's no safe either, and the Gator ATV doesn't have an enclosed trunk or interior cabin.
As situated as they're going to get, Anna tries to go fishing for leads that same night. A nearby dive bar, "The Klondike" is in walking distance. It seems like as good a place as any to start.
Erik goes in first, and the doorman doesn't seem to mind him open carrying the Magnum revolver. Turns out all the men in the bar seem to be open carrying in one way or another. Not a lot of women are carrying, but he assumes they're all packing protection in a more discreet manner. Erik takes a corner booth and signals Anna to proceed.
Much like back at the Shamrock Tavern, Anna makes her entrance. She poses in the doorway, unzipping her faux fur trimmed jacket to reveal her animal-print clad body. Having announced herself wordlessly, she gets to work.
Now as for Simon, things don't go as planned. Without an SUV, he doesn't have a mobile concealed hide site anymore. Furthermore, no other nearby buildings are open at night. Other than risking the winter weather and suspiciously loitering on the street for hours, he can't fulfill his assigned lookout position. Short of retreating back to the motel, he decides to move his position inside the dive bar. After texting Erik about his difficulties, Simon takes up a table with a good view out the window.
As planned, Anna gets plenty of interest, but keeping her "Priority Intelligence Requirements" (PIRs) in mind, she hasn't found anyone worth thoroughly developing. The dive bar's clientele are distinctly low-income: most being seasonal labor like construction and logging. Almost everyone seems to have done some kind of work at the construction site that became the resort, but none are presently working there. Several have not so subtly propositioned her, but she has to keep brushing them off, hoping to find anybody worthwhile.
A shotglass of vodka is placed on Simon's table, and a Slavic man stands over him. He says something that sounds Slavic and appears to want a toast. Simon confusedly raises the shotglass to him and downs it. The Slav takes a seat at his table.
"Gastralyor?"
Simon shakes his head, not knowing how to respond.
The Slav speaks English in a heavy accent, "The girl. She's nice. Yours?"
Simon shakes his head, "Naa, I don't know her. She's sure something though."
"So you don't mind if I change her up abit? She'd make a nice blonde. I know someone who'll pay big money for a nice blonde."
"Hey buddy, I don't know what you're thinking..."
The Slav drops the accent, "Drop the act, ginzo. I don't want to make a scene here, but the Pakhan has an agreement to keep your kind out."
Simon catches on what's happening and has to think fast, "Whoa, I swear I'm not Casa Nuova. The girl's mine, but we're unaffiliated. Neutrons, my friend. We're neutrons."
"Neutrons, you say? No such thing in the New Worlds. Everything belongs to someone, and now you belong to me."
While the rest of the bar is enraptured in Anna and their drinks, Erik sees the scene with Simon and the Vor unfolding. He leaves his position and goes to Simon, "G'day, mate. My name's Dingo. I'm new in town and looking for work."
The Vor looks to Erik and then back to Simon, "He yours too?"
Simon shrugs and puts his hands up in surrender. He then motions Erik to step back.
"Smart, what's your name?"
Simon blurts out the first ethnically Slav name that comes to mind, "Roman... Roman Polanski."
"Ah, good name."
"There's Polish heritage on my father's side."
"Well Roman, you owe me dan for the krysha. As my welcome gift to you, it won't be due today, but at the end of the month."
Simon holds back a smirk at the due date, "That's very generous of you. I'm afraid I didn't get your name though?"
"My friends call me Deniska, are we friends now?"
Simon spends the rest of the night hashing out the details of their protection payment to the Vor, followed by some general male bonding.
At the end of the night, all three return to the motel and share their findings.
Anna kicks it off, "Sorry to break it to you guys, but that place was a dry hole. We gotta find somewhere else tomorrow."
Erik jokes, "Really? None of those guys did anything for you."
Anna rolls her eyes, "I have standards you know. By the way, what was the deal with you guys and the Russian?"
Simon answers, "Maybe we should have noticed the babushka running the motel, but this corner of Flossmore is Slavic Vor turf. Now I'm a Vor-affiliated pimp named Roman Polanski."
Anna laughs, "Ha, that was the best you could come up with?"
"Hey, this Deniska guy thought we were low level Casa Nuova. Had I not, you probably would've been trafficked offworld by now."
"Touche, boss."
Simon looks over to Erik, "...and you're Australian now?"
"They really ate it up on the Smilodon hunt."
Simon shrugs, "Well okay, I just didn't see that coming."
Anna probes Simon, "You spent most of the night with Deniska. Surely he at least gave you the lay of the land."
Simon explains what he learned from Deniska. He wouldn't discuss the rest of the Bratva, but both the Klondike and Oasis Motel are his personal racket. He wouldn't confirm it, but it's likely the motel reported your operators to Deniska right off the bat. If any other Vor give them trouble, they can tell them they're already under Deniska's krysha (literal translation: roof). As long as they don't disrespect anyone, they should be fine. They owe Deniska dan (tribute, literally 'gift') for this, but they should be long gone before it's due.
***
"But a girl named Masha brought some complementary smoked fish to our motel room this morning, so we got that going for us."
"Roger that, Greybush."
"Wow, are we really going with that callsign?"
"Roger that, Greybush. Pipehitter, out."
First thing in the morning, the woods team starts their reconnaissance mission. Pathfinding in the snowy woods is difficult, but they manage to chart a primary and alternate route between the resort and their spaceport by the end of the day. With their routes mapped, they set up a two-man observation post overlooking the resort and the two-mile road connecting it to the main prison facility. The two pairs of FLIR binoculars and well-manned rotating roster enable your team to pull 24 hour surveillance from a safe standoff distance.
They first sketch a basic layout of the resort. A village like cluster of buildings surrounded by wilderness and three miles north of town itself, the resort doesn't have a clearly delineated outer boundary. With the wilderness to keep captives in, the resort apparently opted not to build a perimeter fence. As Vic reported last month, the front customer-side of the resort is designed to resemble a wood-shingled European Alpine village. With the obvious exception of the castle, most of the buildings are small single story affairs. From their vantage point, they can see that behind the castle are several less picturesque buildings, intended for the un-glamorous maintenance of the resort.
No one on your team has a construction background to really break down what the function of every service building though. The trash dump and incinerator is an easy make. Nikita the scout deduces what must be the main kitchen based on the movement of incoming groceries and outgoing food carts. The laundry facility is identified by similar pattern analysis of maid carts.
As far as the centrally located castle goes, it remains something of a mystery beyond what Vic already reported. It appears to be a sturdy multi-story building with five blue-capped towers. Customers visit one-at-a-time through the storybook drawbridge gatehouse out front. (As you would expect, the moat is just for show and doesn't fully encircle the castle on the rear service side.) Except for costumed Royal Guards and the occasional costumed French maid visiting the guest rooms, no one else seems to use the front door of the castle.
Accordingly, the castle's rear service entrance sees traffic at all hours, by all kinds of resort personnel. Employee and prisoner buses travel directly to a small parking lot immediately behind the castle. Roughly half of both employees and prisoners go into the castle. The other half disperses among the other service buildings.
Nikita notes that none of the prisoners are costumed in transit. The only costumed pucks they can see are the French chambermaids, and they seem to only move between the front castle gate and the guest rooms. Your team comes to the conclusion that the dressing rooms must be inside the castle, and that the fantasy costumes aren't worn in the service areas of the resort.
After a few days of surveillance their mission hits the point of diminishing returns, and your team puts their findings together.
Team Leader Vic the Pipehitter presides over a round-table meeting of the five other operators, "Alright guys, let's get the easy part out first. Redbrick, can we blow that castle?"
Redbrick answers confidently, "Get me inside of that thing and we're good."
Salt chimes in, "Where exactly, and how long do you need?"
"Well shit, interior ground floor or lower? It's not like we got any intel on how that thing is built. Rig all four timed charges in what, five minutes?"
Vic beams, "Exactly what I hoped to hear. Get in, hit it, get out. Cake walk-"
Nikita interrupts, "Excuse me, what about the guard force?"
Vic laughs, "I don't think the needle-dick at the castle gate knows how to use that spear. Besides, that's what we have guns for."
Most of our operators laugh at the punchline, but Salt takes Nikita's side, "She's right, just because we didn't see anybody armed, doesn't mean they're not there. We saw guards escort prisoners into the castle. I'd be surprised if they didn't have some kind of security room in there. Probably even an arms locker."
The room goes quiet in sober acknowledgement. Ethan hunt makes a point, "Plus, it's a gorram prison. They throw some kind of facility-wide lockdown switch, and we get stuck inside the castle; wondering whether the CERT or our own Semtex is going to kill us first."
Salt follows-up, "Great point. Despite freezing out asses off in the snow, we're still weak on answering the PIR's. Is it time to talk about the rescue mission yet, cowboy?"
Vic glances around the gathered operators for objections before motioning Salt to continue, "Keep it coming, girl."
"We've still got nothing for the hostage rescue. Try what we can out here in the woods, I don't see us locating Lise Schubert in a way that we can reliably isolate and extract her. Guys, we need to take some risks here."
Salt is met by mixed muttering. She has a point, but going for a spontaneous infiltration is both high risk and against their planning. Missing the hostage rescue would be a major disappointment, but the castle takedown would still be a respectable payday. But alerting the resort beforehand could spoil both ops and they'd end up bringing home nothing but bodybags.
Among the ruckus, Ethan raises his prosthetic hand in the air for attention, "If anything guys, I guess this means this is all on Anna right now. For better, or for worse."
Team Leader Vic agrees, "That's what's in our plan everyone. We'll just have to see if she's going to bring home the bacon."
***