Lover In The Ice: Troop Transport

[leestriter]

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.

[Zeppo]

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."

[Mr. Handy]

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."

[HoneyDog]

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?

[Mr. Handy]

"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."

[HoneyDog]

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.

Spoiler:

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

[Zeppo]

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

Spoiler:

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

[Mr. Handy]

Spoiler:

I'm ready to move forward too.

[leestriter]

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.

Spoiler:

(The Motor Pool/Main Office will be this thread, the trailer that will serve as HOME PLATE has its own thread)

[HoneyDog]

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.

[leestriter]

"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."

[HoneyDog]

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.”

[leestriter]

"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"

[HoneyDog]

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.

[leestriter]

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.

Spoiler:

Roll Forensics

[HoneyDog]

Scott

Spoiler:

Forensics 50: Forensics: 1d100 64

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.

[leestriter]

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."

[HoneyDog]

Scott

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

[leestriter]

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?"

[HoneyDog]

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?”