Play@YSDC

The briefing said Lafontaine was ill prepared for winter weather. The city had sold most of its salt trucks and plows to keep from declaring bankruptcy during the Recession. But nothing prepared you for this level of destruction.

Nearly every road is blocked with felled trees.Phone and power lines dangle everywhere. The few emergency responders you see are still chiseling vehicles out of the ice like sculptures, and most who succeed seem to have impotently skidded off the road.

The majority of homes remain damaged and without power, their residents left to freeze in winter temperatures. Getting to the few operational shelters requires trekking on foot across the eerily beautiful city of ice. Upon arrival, they’re crammed into crowded shelters filled with cots and hastily packed suitcases. Even the lucky ones with vehicles rugged enough to escape often have to find a path ahead through the felled trees. The roar of chainsaws is constant.

Even after five days, relief teams have made scant headway. A few major roadways are cleared and salted. The commercial and university districts to the south have power restored.
Very little relief has come to the north side, the poor side of town the convoy inches through. The north of Lafontaine is the oldest part of the city, cut off from the rest by a moat of abandoned warehouses, rail yards, factories, and other remnants of the city’s industrial past. The massive, old-growth trees dotting its residential neighborhoods caused more damage here than anywhere else. The only lifeline south, The Zora Neale Hurston Bridge, remains a clogged, icy mess. It will be difficult to tell who needs help in northern Lafontaine; only the locals can distinguish which homes were abandoned to the storm and which were left vacant by the real estate crash.

Still, progress is being made. Operating out of the headquarters for City Utilities, workers are slowly getting Lafontaine livable again. It appears that while the storm will certainly be expensive, none of the relief workers will be haunted by lost lives. It’s uncomfortable, but patrols and emergency shelters are so far keeping those without power fed and warm.

Sarah looks about at her companions and shakes her head to herself.

An elderly doctor, an academic who looks like he hasn't slept in days, and... is that out of shape man actually a TSA agent? Hopefully that's just his cover story to get him through the airport.

Was this the best team the agency could assemble? Anyone would think that someone at Delta Green wanted this mission to fail.

The park ranger leans in to talk to the team without being overheard.

"When Hurricane Katrina hit, the death toll in New Orleans was less than 0.1% of the city's population," Sarah says. "Even if this is ten times worse we're looking at about 1% fatalities.

"Since Skip Mills hasn't reported in that means he's probably part of that 1%. I don't believe in that kind of coincidence. Either whatever was at the storage site caused this," she waves her hand vaguely at the rear window of the truck, "or something has caused the ice storm and used it as cover to break into the facility. We need to be prepared for the worst."

Mike Kowalsk nods. "Yeah, that's possible," he says. "Maybe this Mills guy breached the Green Box himself for some reason. We've got to find him. We should check his home address first. Even if he's not there, there may be some indication where he went."

Scott

"I've also been tasked with a homocide investigation, so I'll need to check in with local PD. I don't know if it's connected to our task, but I have to do it. If you go from FEMA to Mills' place, I'll meet you after at the storage location. Unless any of you have the same orders I do?"

Scott doubts it. None of them look like murder police. The big fellow maybe?

"Not me," says Mike with a shrug. "I'm here to help FEMA. But yeah, do what you can to solve the murder. Live your cover. You need any help with it, just ask."

Scott

"Thanks. Once we get briefed by FEMA, I guess we can find out how we can move around. We need to get equipped properly too. We don't want to freeze to death if we're out operating on our own."

"What a shitshow" he thinks.

OOC,I guess we can move forward to our arrival if nobody minds.

Sarah begins looking around the back of the transport for coats, knives, radios, or anything else that might prove useful.

OOC,I'm happy to move forward to our arrival. Also, do the characters have cell numbers they can exchange at this point?

Sarah finds coats.

The truck drops off the agents at the motor pool behind city utilities. Tents have been set up and trailers, most heated, with various officials and law enforcement moving about. This seems to be where they are coordinating relief from. You can all see the City Utilities building where Skip Mills works and where your cover needs to report. The City Utilities building is clogged with activity. Complaining customers entering their second week without electricity pack the lobby like cattle. Exhausted lineman trudge in and out, returning for more equipment or just trying to catch a few minutes' sleep in the locker room.

A man in police uniform meets Agent Scott at the truck and ignores the others as they depart. He gives him a firm handshake.

"I'm Deputy Filagree, and I'm so glad they sent someone to help me look into this John Doe case. We still have a lot of questions about the case. We should probably head over to the morgue, but I'm trying to follow up here to find out the closest homes with power to where he died. You can come with me if you like"

And Deputy Filagree heads into City Utilities.

The crowds of people become annoyed and give some resistance, but ultimately everyone is able to get to the front.

Tanya Cambria greets the Agents, having been briefed that a team from FEMA would be arriving. She talks a bit about how much the help is needed and how sorry she is there wasn't a spare office available. She takes you to a trailer out in the motor pool.

"This is where Skip Mills had been working since a tree went through the window of his office, not that he's been here. Poor guy seemed sick as a dog when he came in a few days ago, don't think it'll be enough to save his job after missing work at a time like this"

Agent Scott and Deputy Filagree are at the Utilities Manager's office also, the computer there can find out which homes had heat near the death.

Scott

Brian accompanies the Deputy. He doesn’t want to apart from the rest of the team, but hopefully he can rejoin them once he’s examined the body. He’s exchanged cell numbers, so he can keep in touch with the others. Recharging cell phone batteries might be a problem though.

“Are you guys using phones or radios to stay in touch with each other?” he asks Filagree.

"A lot of cell towers and down and phones are spotty." Says Deputy Filagree. "Radios are all that you can depend on at this point."

Scott

“Are there some available for all of us?” he asks. “As a medical doctor, I’ve also been asked to help out with casualties after the investigation is complete, so I need to stay in touch with the other new folks here.”

"I'm sure they'll have at least one left over these guys can use to report in. Of course you can have one Agent Scott. Is the FBI working with FEMA here in Lafontaine? I'll give you guys a little time to get situated, why don't we head on over the morgue? I'm love to hear your opinion on the strange wounds on the man there"

Scott

“Well, I wanted to help out. Use my skills on the living for a change.”

Brian leaves with the Deputy as soon as he is ready. He doesn’t want to raise too many questions about his relationship with the others.

Scott

You go with Deputy Filagree to the morgue in one of the police cars that have been equipped for travel through the ice. Even with that, travel is slow and he has to take many detours. Navigating will not be so easy for someone from outside the area. Scott arrives at the Morgue. The John Doe’s corpse is stored here, exactly as it was found crumpled inside a disused ATM kiosk downtown. He has no identification.The man wore mittens but no coat, and an athletic shirt and jeans not worthy of cold weather. One shoe is missing. It appears he ran into the frigid night midway through getting undressed, which is what initially tipped off Deputy Filagree. "This man looks like he fled somewhere rather quickly. I find it hard to believe these wounds were accidental"

He pulls up the corpse shirt to give you a better look at the four pronged puncture wounds.

Scott

Forensics,Forensics 50: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/538187]Forensics[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]64[/b]

Brian cannot tell what could have made the wounds without a much more extensive examination. He's never seen a weapon like this before, and can't think of what it could be.

Scott:

"We could head over to Lafontaine University, the biology equipment there is our best bet of moving forward until they get us the map of the current power grid."

Scott

“Okay, let’s do it. Don’t you have any other forensic personnel who can help?”

Scott:

"As you can understand resources are stretched pretty thin right now. Honestly, I'm surprised this case drew the attention of the FBI, my department thinks this is just the accidental death of a homeless man.

Do you want to bring some sort of sample or should we...bring the whole body?"

Scott

“He would have been better dressed for living rough if he was homeless” says Brian. “He probably lived nearby. Please make preparations to move the whole body to the university. I’m assuming you’ve been able to run his fingerprints?”

Scott:

"I've run a basic criminal check with no results. The other guys didn't think it was worth expanding the search, but I'm sure you have access to the full database"

He begins loading up the corpse into a body bag, and the two of you load it into the back of the cruiser.

Scott:

The two of you arrive at the University without incident. A few students wander around though most of them are closer to the dorms, the state-of-the-art Lafontaine University dormitory is
located across the bridge on the Southside and only a short distance from the Biology Lab.

"Well, I suppose we'd better talk to someone before just bringing in a stiff, don't ya think?"

Scott

"Of course. If you know the layout and people here please lead the way."

He leads you through the corridors and up the stairs to a hallway with several offices labeled after different professors. Most of them appear to be empty but a few still have light, and Deputy Filagree approaches one cautiously and knocks at the door before entering. A bald man probably somewhere in his sixties is sitting at his desk, and he closes the book he was reading and greets you both.

"I'm Doctor George Beller, I'm one of the few staying to man the classrooms during the disaster"

Deputy Filagree explains the situation, and Dr Beller seems incredibly interested. He wants to see the body, infact, he wants to know if a few of his students from the nearby dorm could supervise.

Brian shakes his head.

"Participating is out of the question Doctor. But you and your students can observe if you like. Just keep your distance. What is your students’ major? Medicine, I presume?”

"Oh yes, just a few of my most promising students. This could be a great learning experience for them." says Doctor Beller before heading off to make the calls.

The students arrive pretty quickly while you and Deputy Filagree move the body into the lab room. There are three students there, a small woman, a small white man and a larger, more athletic guy. It seems like the try to fade into the background, trying to stay out of your way. The body looks slightly different then you remember, more bloated. The four-pronged puncture wounds are visible. Pressure causes a strange orange fluid to leak out. Extended examination suggest that each pair of four-pronged puncture wound had a divided purpose. Odd bruising looks like two needles sucked blood out under enormous pressure, while the other two were injecting the orange fluid at a pressure sufficient to rupture veins. The areas of his body closest to the fluid seem to be starting to liquefy while the skin seems to have hardened.

The Doctor is incredibly interested in the orange fluid, and assist you in running it through some of the advanced microscopic imaging equipment.The equipment illuminates the alarming
resilience and reassembly capabilities of the orange fluid. Partial DNA strands assemble themselves at high speeds, maintaining impossible cohesion until combining with nearby genetic material. The only thing keeping the orange goop form assembling into an organism on the spot is the paucity of raw genetic material. Given a tight enough container, enough time, and sufficient volume, the stuff could clone…something…in a matter of days and completely asexually. The implications for such a genetic find are staggering, not to mention the knowledge that its building blocks are entirely compatible with human biology.

"Do you have any idea what we have here? I've never seen or heard of anything like this. Please let me get some additional samples"

Scott

SAN,SAN 50: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/538806]SAN[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]46[/b] SAN now 49

Brian pays no attention to the Doctor, too busy assessing what he has just discovered. The implications are too staggering, but he knows he cannot dwell too much on it now.

“The victim must have died from blood loss” he says, more to himself than anyone.

Looking up, he notices Doctor Beller. “Doctor, I’d appreciate it if you and your students kept this to yourselves. This is still a murder investigation and everything must be kept confidential. I promise to keep you in the loop about further investigation into what we have here, but in the meantime I must remove the body and all samples.”

The Doctor may be a useful ally in the future, so Brian thinks that it is best to keep him onside.

“Please, if you and your students could leave now, I have to finish up here. Deputy Fillagree, could you see everyone out?” Brian is civil, but his tone is firm.

After everyone leaves, he calls Hill and tells him of his findings. “Ideally, I want this body and the substance out of here and at a secure location where it can be studied further. It must be connected to the storage box. It can’t be a coincidence.”

"A-Cell thought that damned murder looked suspicious. Consider this confirmation that the box has been breached and have the team prepare for potential threats. You're the only ones we'll be able to get into the area in any reasonable amount of time. Get that body somewhere secure. Anyone who saw too much should either be vetted as a potential friendly or silence needs to be guaranteed. That green box might be the only clue to what you're dealing with out there, do the full inventory ASAP" Hill sounds exhausted.

Finishing with Hill, Brian calls Mike and tells him what he’s found.

“The body was injected with some kind of substance which has the ability to combine DNA with other organisms. It’s completely unlike anything I’ve ever heard of. It’s imperative that we examine the storage site immediately.”

“I have to return the body and all samples to the morgue for now until I can get somewhere better. From there I’ll do my best to get to the storage site as soon as I can. Forget about Mills' place, you get there too, and let me know when you arrive.”

Brian leaves the room and tells Deputy Fillagree that they will return the body to the morgue. He also talks to Doctor Beller and the students, promising again to give them news but insisting on their confidentiality. It seems to work.

Persuade,Persuade 20: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/538827]Persuade[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]18[/b]

He prepares the body and the samples, and sets off with Fillagree back to the morgue.

Agent Scott and Deputy Filagree arrive back at the morgue. There is no question that the body is significantly bloated now. It is a struggle to get it back into the body freezer.

“Look Fillagree, that body is vital evidence. It’s not contagious, so please don’t be concerned, but I don’t want it contaminated. I want to seal off this whole room – no-one goes in or out without my permission. Please relay that to whoever’s in charge.”

Bureaucracy,Bureaucracy (if it helps) 50: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/538833]Bureaucracy[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]19[/b]

Deputy Filagree radios some of the other officers, it takes more then a little persuasion but it sounds like he's convinced them.

"We have permission to seal off this part of the morgue, it doesn't have any windows, and we can lock the door. I can't close off the whole morgue in case there are any more victims of the weather or whatever else is going on. Do you think we need to man the door? I doubt he's going anywhere but I've never heard anything like what the doctor was talking about"

Scott

“Yes, get someone to man the door and radio me if anything happens. Anything at all. Now, I need a vehicle and a map of the city. Can you get me those?

"I don't know who else will be available, but I could man the door myself. There's a map in the car, and they might have a truck or something back at the motor pool. You can use the cruiser if you'd like"

Scott

“Good man. Thanks for all your help Fillagree. Now, anything, anything at all happens, and I mean anything, call me.”

Brian gets the cruiser and heads off to the storage facility.

OOC,Should I roll Drive?

The sun is starting to set.

Scott

The frozen streets are almost empty, and as the sun begins to set, Brian grits his teeth and prays that he won’t come off the road.

Drive,Drive 20: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/539151]Drive[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]15[/b]