Juan Estevez - DEA Agent and former Undercover Cop
Victor Blue - FBI Intelligence Analyst and Hacker
Jack Plisken - CIA Agent and Cleaner
23/12/19 The Arizona Inn
Having burned down an apartment building, the agents relocated to their motel to plan their next move. Jack suggested they get some kind of device to track alien psychic energy; Victor figured it could work, if such a device existed, but he had no idea if it was possible, much less where to find one. Victor tried to track down Tentacle Man/Christopher Maddox' friends or family, but apparently he was a loner, except for his three dogs.
They debated whether to bring in the Monterroro Organization or Lucia Yepez, but ultimately decided against it. Juan tried to dig up a connection online between Gabriel Harris and the two victims, but came up empty; David likewise failed to find any more info about Angelina Lucas, the security guard who had been disappeared. Jack went out to a green box he knew about, hoping for some explosives for destroying Object 2, and, cunningly hidden under a pile of dildos, was a half-kilo of C4 and a mysterious book he didn't show anybody else, for which he "traded" his battle rifle and knife.
24/12/19 Merry Christmas, Every Juan
The agents woke up and, at David's suggestion, went to Denny's for breakfast (he was on a diet, so he only had one grand-slam), but Juan never showed up, and wasn't answering his phone. They doubled back to the hotel and noticed that his DEA SUV was missing, then searched the room for clues, but found nothing of note. Victor hacked into the CCTV system and went through the recordings, eventually spotting Juan driving off in the middle of the night.
More hacking into other cameras found that Juan had been driving westbound on Highway 86, away from Sierra Vista and any other leads. Jack called up an NSA buddy of his and got him to use a spy satellite to track Juan's movement; he drove down to the border and illegally crossed the border in the desert, then continued off-road into the Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve. Jack took his car (which Victor bugged with a tracking device), while David and Victor took the Tundra, and followed Juan's trail.
Jack was able to talk their way past the border guards by claiming to be on agency business, and they took the highway to the point where Juan had gone off-road, and started to search. Eventually, they managed to find his tire tracks, and followed them for over an hour, eventually arriving at Juan's empty SUV. Victor was getting his drone out to try to find Juan when he felt a wave of fatigue crush him down. He noticed that Jack had passed out, and muttered for David to get them out of there before passing out himself.
Some Time Later
Juan woke up in the middle of a desert, though his most recent memory suggested he had just finished watching Mars Attacks! with his wife. Nearby were his DEA SUV, and a Toyota Tundra, containing Victor and David, as well as another man he didn't know, all of whom looked to have just woken up as well. The man he didn't know got out and shouldered his rifle, pointing it at Juan.
Victor asked David what he knew, but despite an initial response of "EVERYTHING", he wasn't sure; he remembered staring out a window, with no control over his body, then falling asleep. Victor double-checked his tinfoil hat lining, and found a tear, which must have been how the aliens got in his brain. Juan yelled "FUCKING ALIENS!" at the sky, while the others approached him, and asked him what the hell was going on.
Juan asked them what the hell was going on, and replied that he must have been abducted by aliens, but didn't know what his SUV was doing here. Victor told him that he had driven himself out there, and they had followed him. Jack started repeatedly telling the others that Juan "wasn't there before", while continuing to aim his rifle at him. Juan asked if this man was more insane than the usual Delta Green agent, but Victor vouched for his sanity.
Victor suggested that David should run an "alien test" on Juan, but he declined. As the others looked around for clues of aliens, David stated that he knew that "it" was here, and that it was recorded in his databanks; simultaneously, Jack and Juan turned to David and pointed their guns at him. He started babbling about a "meat machine" that "hovered into the sky". Juan verified that David was telling the truth, at least far as he understood it, but the others weren't sure Juan could be trusted either.
The others filled Juan in on what had happened during their investigation so far; this prompted Juan to check the date, which revealed that 13 days were missing from his memory. They searched the site for signs of aliens, but came up empty. Victor used his occult knowledge to figure that this had all been the work of ghosts, and that they were probably on an ancient burial ground right now. Jack suggested they just get back to the investigation, and everyone was more than willing to forget this incident and get back to the search for Tentacle Man... for now.
Back on the Trail
Victor put tracking devices on the vehicles, and as they started the drive back to the US (Juan: "Wait, we're in Mexico?"), they tried interrogating David about his memory. Unfortunately, the trauma of the experience (David: "I remember mostly normal stuff, like eating Denny's") caused him to lose his lunch, so they ceased their investigations for now. They decided to be good, law-abiding citizens and headed to a rural border crossing this time, but when they arrived, they noticed that the border guard's booth had no guard, and was smeared with blood.
Jack and Juan disembarked and aimed their guns at the booth, but nothing moved, so they advanced towards it. Jack kicked open the door and found a latino guard lying on the ground, barely conscious, with his right arm removed messily just below the elbow. David was called over to stabilize the man, and, after wiping the puke from his mouth and taking off his ruined jacket, he came over to patch him up. The guard mumbled in Spanish about something that wasn't a man taking his gun and walking south into the desert, then passed out.
Victor checked the security cameras, and saw Tentacle Man approach the booth, mangle the guard, and then proceed south, just as he'd said. The agents called Mexican 911 on the border guard's phone to get an ambulance, then drove south after the alien before it arrived ("Nobody will believe him that it was aliens" "What about his missing arm?" "Don't worry about it").
Four hours of tedious searching alter, they did manage to find "tracks", in the form of loose bits of flesh that looked to have fallen off of the alien, which led them very close to where they'd found Juan lying in the desert. After following the alien's trail for another hour, they finally found it shambling away. Juan immediately exited his car and emptied his rifle into it in a series of aimed bursts while stepping towards it.
The alien seemed not to recognize that it was being shot, and continued to stumble on until its body was too damaged to continue, and it collapsed to the ground, still crawling away. As the others looked on, Juan got a water bottle and hose, emptied the bottle, and siphoned some gas into it, then walked up the ridge to the alien. Once close enough not to miss, he emptied another magazine from his rifle into the alien, then continued on until he was right on top of it.
Despite its ruined body, the alien somehow spoke in a distorted voice, rambling about a captain, a ship, and food. Juan doused the alien with gasoline, lit it on fire with a match, and watched it burn as it let out a piercing wail (Juan: "I find most aliens don't like fire"). Victor keeled over in pain from a sudden, terrible headache, but the others were fine. The fire started to die down, but Juan dumped on a bunch more gas until there was no trace of the alien left. Watching the ashes drift away, Victor mumbled "Well, Merry Christmas, everyone".
Retirement
The agents returned to their room in the Arizona Inn, and discussed what to do about David's having alien memories. Normally, that'd be enough for him to be killed on the spot, but they decided to contact Lucia Yepez, the psychic girl, and try to have her fix his brain. Victor made the call, and she verified that David still had an alien presence in his mind. She tried to remove it, but failed, and they thanked her for the attempt, then hung up.
From behind David, Juan shook his head at Jack and Victor, then drew his gun. Victor left the room, while Jack gestured for Juan to put the gun away, and asked David if he'd like a sandwich, since he was always so hungry. David said that he was fine, but Jack insisted he eat something and quickly fixed a sandwich with whatever they had stocked up in the mini-fridge, then gave it to him. After he'd had a bite, Jack killed David with his knife, then started to clean up the mess and dispose of the body.
Notes:
This game was run remotely, which turned out to be a good thing, as Juan, David, and the GM could move to an alternate "super secret alien chat" when it became necessary.
Speaking of secret aliens, we know the following:
- David, Juan, and Tentacle Man were all possessed by copies of the same alien, but none knew of the others
- David and Juan needed to track down their ship before their host bodies decayed (like Tentacle Man), and repair it using biomass
- David figured out the location of the ship before Juan
- David's eating big meals was to get extra biomass
- David stole a truck from US Foods Stock Yard Meats and drove it down to the ship undetected, but it wasn't enough biomass
- Juan bought as much meat as he could from supermarkets before making his run to the ship, then stole crops from nearby farms to make up the rest
- Juan's alien erased his memory when it stopped possessing him, while David's did not
Juan had actually rented a car for his run to the border, but the GM forgot. It would have made it significantly harder to track him down.
The GM informed me after the session that Lucia was actually going to suggest that she could try again to fix David's brain, but would damage it in the process, so we kind of jumped the gun on killing him.
The PCs still wanted to go after Object 2 (nevermind Object 1), but this session was already pretty much over at that point, and the GM didn't want to run the same heist a second time.
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