Hybridization

Chapter 165 – Initiative Order

Chapter 165 – Initiative Order

“Look, I am not going to give you the story, stats or class of the other parties. That’s how fog of war works. You won’t know who or what they are until you fight them.” – Steve, explaining his game mechanic.

Knock-Knock. The sharp rap on the frame of the door caused Gretchen’s head to snap up as her eyes narrowed on Peter, the replacement for Janic. “Sorry to startle you, ma’am.”

“Not a problem, I was just distracted by something is all.” She said and gestured for him to enter. It was the truth, not the whole truth but most of it. The whole truth was that she was still scared about the brand the daemon had left on her.

The mark would occasionally flare up, causing her to immediately panic. A bond such as this was lethal for a fey like her to break. So, whenever it began to react, she began to worry. It just so happened another flare up had been happening just before Peter entered.

“Hey, we got a packet pushed to us from Homeland.” Peter began as he walked around to the corner of her standing desk. “I sent the file to you a minute ago. Email.”

Gretchen pulled up the email on her second screen so they could both easily see it. She then opened the first PDF that was attached and scrolled through the preamble. She really hated the table of contents and the general warnings about ‘restricted’ and ‘classified’ access that went on every document. It was a waste of pages in her opinion.

“What is this?” She asked after getting to the summary which had a data point map of the northeast corner of the country, stretching from Wisconsin to Maine and down to Tennessee. It also included parts of Canada with data points in it.

The map was covered in small dots in various colors that had reference numbers to the ledger on the bottom. Each one was a ping off a cell tower or at least the interceptions within range of one. She recognized the prefix of the codes as those that came from the listening centers that targeted certain keywords. Those would be compiled then interpreted by a human to determine if there was something there that needed more attention. Apparently, this was one of those times.

“This is intercepts from NSA. They hit on the keywords listed on the next page.” Peter said.

Gretchen clicked to the next page and felt like she was going to be sick. “Rosk, Kurt, Kurtis, Petoskey… These are the ones we set up last year?” She looked to Peter and he nodded.

“We never dropped them from the list.” He said then gestured to the screen. “And it looks like it’s a good thing we didn’t.”

Taking a few moments, Gretchen scrolled past the map and the page with the keyword details to review the rest of the document. There wasn’t much more to it than that, so she quickly opened the other file and scrolled through the preamble of legalese.

“The hell?” She muttered as she began skimming the summary only to have to go back and read it in detail. “Where did we get this?”

“CIA went to homeland with it and the analysts thought it pertained to us, so they sent it over.” Peter said while begging to type on his laptop. “I’m pulling it up now since I haven’t had a chance to review yet.

“No fucking shit it applies to us.” The swear startled Peter and he looked up to her. “Fucking overseas cunts. Shit eared fuckwits.” Gretchen began while she snatched her phone off the table. “Get ahold of the Lansing office and tell them we are coming back. I want all their tac-teams ready to roll.”

“Yes ma’am.” Peter said and pulled out his own phone.

Gretchen was still cursing under her breath as she dialed her boss, Andrew Amdar. “Hey, Gretch, to what do I owe the pleasure on a Friday af…” he began to say after answering.

“We have at least three foreign nations about to try and grab an asset on US soil that we need to stop.” She steamrolled right over his greeting. “France, the UK and Canada are in on it along with some other organization or something.”

 Andrew didn’t stutter as he replied. “Where, when and how did you confirm?”

Hitting the forward button on the email, Gretchen began filling him in on what was happening as he read the email and attached files. She was so worked up she didn’t even notice that the burning sensation in the brand began to fade as she pushed to intercept the foreigners.

*****

Saturday afternoon found the crew headed for their weekly game of D&D a little earlier than normal. Kurt walked into the game shop, holding the door for the girls before entering and resuming his conversation with Anna after seeing that the store was empty, except for Frank. “So, what is the phrase for this one?” he nodded to the bangle on his wrist.

“Oh, no phrase.” Anna said but seemed to avoid his eyes.

“No phrase?” Val asked, sounding disappointed. “I liked the phrases.”

Narrowing his eyes, Kurt stared down the fidgeting fey. “Anna… Spill.”

“OK FINE!” She threw her hands up. “When it activates, it makes a certain… noise.”

“What noise?”

“It, ah, varies.”

“Anna…” Kurt sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“So, you know the sound of a health pack in video games?” She began, instantly grabbing Kristi’s attention.

“Which game?” The dragoness was now very engaged in the conversation.

“Umm, all of them?”

That immediately got the agents to look at each other before they all had the same idea. As one they pulled out the knives Anna had enchanted and pricked their fingers before activating the healing item. The sound was indeed the noise made when using a healing item in a video game, just all different ones.

Val’s made the sound of a health pack from Halo, the long tone being only just below a talking level in volume. Kristi’s made the sound of a Poke-center when you heal your party, 8-bit tones and all. Kurt’s made the Stimpak sound from fallout with its characteristic snap-hiss. Finally, Rindi’s made the healing noise from Half-Life with the Beepbeep-Hiss.

“Weird that we got these ones.” Val commented. “Like why did I get the one from…Halo? It’s Halo, right Kristi?”

“Yeah, and I have the Poké-center tune?” Kristi answered while looking at her own bracelet.

“Oh, those are just the ones that played this time.” Anna said, looking more confident after seeing they weren’t angry. “The sound changes every time. I’m not sure the mushroom powerup from Super Mario counts, but it’s in there somewhere.”

Kurt shrugged with a chuckle, his initial irritation forgotten. “Well, it will be confusing for our enemies if nothing else.” He waived to Frank as they headed for the stairs. “Let’s head up. I know Steve said this would be a long session. Maybe if we get started early, we won’t run late?”

They climbed the stairs to find that, once again, they were the first to arrive. It was pretty typical for the group. Usually, Anna was first since she lived upstairs but Kurt and the girls were never far behind.

Still, they loaded up the snack station and wandered over to the table to take their traditional places. Rindi sighed heavily as she settled into the chair next to Kurt. She pulled out her notebook and dice before opening the book to several character sheets filled out in a foreign language.

“Why so glum?” Kurt asked, bumping her with his elbow to get her attention.

“Hm?”

“I asked, what’s wrong. You just sighed at your character sheet like it was a sink full of dishes.” Kurt pointed to the page showing the name and stats of her ranger.

Rindi shrugged. “I don’t know. I just don’t really click with this one.”

“Then why did you pick a ranger?” He was curious since she had debated on what class to choose for literal days when Val and Kristi had prepped her for the game.

“It was a misunderstanding.”

“How’s that?” Kurt was curious about how something could be a misunderstanding when there was a literal rule book and a long playlist on the YouTube account for getting into the game.

“Well, I thought you were a ranger.” She answered sheepishly after a few seconds. “And I thought you might be able to give me some pointers for the game.”

“But my character is a rogue?” He was very confused and he looked to the others for help but found none as they all looked confused as well.

Rindi shook her head, causing her ponytail to flop around to land on her shoulder. “That’s the confusion. I heard Jay mention you were a ranger and went to ranger school, so I figured… yeah.”

Kurt was stunned for a moment before he couldn’t help but start chuckling. “Hahaa, no. Very different things. Airborne rangers are not D&D rangers.”

“Yeah, well, I know that NOW.” She grumbled.

Steve chose that moment to enter the room, not surprising anyone as they heard him coming and recognized his gait. “Got character problems? Anything I can help with?”

“Not unless you can retcon planes into the game and give Rindi a parachute.” Kurt said through a smile while giving the tall woman a reassuring pat on the arm.

“I mean… we can give your character an out if you want to do a new one.” Steve offered while setting up his screen. “The party is in a city so we can orchestrate something. Do you have a new character ready?”

They went back and forth a few times until they finally settled onto a simpler solution. Reclassing.

Steve had previously used a mechanic in his longer campaigns where a character could re-spec at a temple or similar location. Really it was just a way to not break immersion when a character’s class was just not working out, or their story dead ended.

Melody and Adam showed up not long after. They didn’t seem to mind the idea of Rindi getting a reclass, both of them having seen it in previous games that Steve had run. Adam was actually supportive of the idea since he had lost his barbarian and was now playing as a bard.

The session started off without much delay and Rindi got her reclass. She ended up playing a paladin, filling the tank position in the large party. They then got to business, unraveling the clues to the ancient temple they were racing other in-game parties for.

They came to find that Steve had planned this session to occur completely within the city and was running it long to see if they could at least make it to the final part if not completely wrap up the arc. He even had made a large map that covered half the table showing the city streets so they could move around and explore.

The most diabolical thing that their DM did was to tell them about the three other parties searching for the hidden entrances as well. He even had mini’s ready for those parties and set them out along the edge of the map but didn’t place them on it.

“You won’t know where they are until you explore.” Steve said while placing a small marker that looked suspiciously like a piece from the game Sorry. “These represent the teams and their last known locations. Of course, they won’t move until you spot them.”

“Did you just put fog of war into a tabletop game?” Val asked, her eyes wide as she bounced in her seat.

Melody grinned, fidgeting with an equal amount of excitement. “I love it when he does this. He ran a whole mini campaign with it once. All five sessions. It was super cool.”

“Oh yeah!” Adam snapped his fingers. “Wasn’t that the one with all the terrain he borrowed from the 40K guys?”

“Heh, yeah. Micah had it all in custom cut foam and packed into totes in his basement.” Steve said. “Nice guy but I don’t even want to think of how much he spent on mini’s and terrain.”

“Shit, just the time involved to paint it.” Adam muttered

Rindi leaned over to mutter a question to Kurt, scooting closer and letting their chairs bump into each other. “What’s forty-kay?”

“Umm, like turn based war games with dozens of hand painted mini figures like this tall.” Kurt held his thumb and fore finger apart to show how tall a space marine model was.

“Should I look into that?” She asked, her eyes holding a strange intensity to them.

“Ahh, if you want? It’s a bit too much for me but we can look up some videos later.”

She shook her head. “No, if you aren’t interested in it, then I won’t be either.” She sat back up and scooted her chair away but not where her foot had ended up, her calf occasionally brushing his.

Her statement confused Kurt and after a brief glance at Val he saw she didn’t know any better, judging by the expression on her face. Before he could ask about it, Steve started the next part of the game, and it was quickly pushed to the back of his mind. Not that Kurt didn’t think it was important but because Steve started the game by placing a countdown clock on the table which began to count down from 15 minutes.

They all scrambled to get a plan in place and began moving their figures around the map, searching for clues while Steve kept shushing the table talk. He was being very strict on who could talk to who and over what distance based on their skills, creating an added layer of difficulty.

The hours ticked by while they began navigating the map and picking up the hidden clues. They also had to decide on how to deal with the other parties. Do they follow them? Fight them? Avoid them? Is it best to split up or stay in larger groups?

Kurt was so engrossed in the game that he didn’t notice how long they had been there until Steve’s alarm went off and they paused for a break. He ended up cornering Steve and asking what was up with the countdown clock, but the DM was cagey and managed to avoid answering the question, instead just giving vague warnings.

After a fifteen-minute break, they resumed and almost made it all the way through the plans that Steve had made. They at least got through the part with the timer and found out that it was when the other parties hit ‘checkpoints’ and changed locations or discovered something.

The session ended with them having killed off one party, successfully defending in an ambush. The second party that was out was because the table’s party had picked up all the clues and the other team couldn’t find their way into the hidden vaults under the city.

All they had to do for the next game was race one team to the objective and then probably fight them or some sort of monster. Probably both. Or, knowing Steve, it could be neither and they would have a rap battle or something equally ridiculous.

“Great session, Steve.” Kristi said, causing a round of agreements to go around the table.

“Yeah? Thanks!” He beamed. “Glad it worked out the way it did. Probably a good thing Jess and Travis never showed up again. It would have been hectic with nine people.”

“Oh yeah. What ever happened to them?” Adam asked. “I saw Travis a little while ago and I think he said that he got into another game? No clue about Jessica though.”

“Yeah, his work schedule changed so he catches a game on Tuesdays.” Steve confirmed. “Haven’t seen Jess either. It’s like she just disappeared off the face of the Earth.”

“She ghosted you?” Mel asked, seeming to be offended on his behalf.

“Guess so.” Steve shrugged. “Anyway. Let’s plan another early one next week? Not that we will need the time but just in case we run long again.”

Everyone said it sounded good to them and they began packing up. Melody scooted over to Rindi, craning her neck to look up at the much taller woman. “So how did you like being a paladin over a ranger?”

“It was better, I still need to figure out a few things though.” She answered as they meandered out into the larger main room.

Melody blinked at her. “Like… what?”

“Well, the whole game really.” Rindi shrugged. “The concept doesn’t exist where I am from. At least not as far as I know.” She looked to Kurt, a habit of hers when she didn’t know something.

Kurt shrugged. “Beats me, I haven’t been to…”

“Kurt?” Rindi noticed the blank look on his face after his words trailed off.

Adam stepped in and waved his hand in front of Kurts face. “Hey, are you-“

“VAL, KRISTI!” Kurt suddenly shouted.

Both their heads popped out of the door to the room where they had still been packing up. “WHAT?” Val shouted back, far too loud for the large, empty space and creating an echo. Both her and Kristi began trotting his way, bags in hand.

“The wards.” Kurt said, lowering his voice as they got closer. Then he quickly switched to his implant, looping in Rindi as well. “Someone just broke through the wards at the house.”

Kristi immediately frowned but began moving. “Alright, let’s go see-“

“What are you guys talking about? Wards?” Adam looked very confused, but Melody just frowned, her eyebrows nearly touching together.

“We gotta go. Sorry, talk to you later.” Val answered in without actually answering any of Adam’s questions. She led the charge down the stairs while the rest of the group followed asking what was wrong.

“Is it a medical thing? do you need an ambulance or…” Steve was asking.

Melody was persistent in her worry as well. “If you need help with it, I can…”

They were all talking over each other except for Anna who had a stern but worried look on her face. She was also slightly moving her lips, like she was subvocalizing. Likely talking to Bont.

“I told Penny.” Kristi said via implant as they hit the main floor, startling Frank who had come out of the back room to investigate the commotion. “She is getting ahold of Jay and the wolves.”

“Calum is still at the coffee shop with Kate and said Gus was in the area too.” Val filled in more of who was nearby. “They are going to get moving too.” She said the last part out loud, forgetting not to while talking over the mental link.

“Who is going to get moving where? What’s going on?” Frank asked after Val said part out loud.

Kurt just pushed past him. “Sorry Frank. We are kinda in a rush. Tell you all about it later but you might want to umm… get your ‘walls’ in order.” Kurt tried to tell him what was going on without just giving it all away.

The shop owners’ eyes went wide, and he nodded once while reaching into his sleeve. Kurt had learned that’s where the wizard kept his wands in a kind of bracer most of the time. “Alright, well, take care.”

“Yeah, thanks. I think this might be what you saw earlier.” Kurt was at the door, pushing it open and halfway out already but ducked back into the door. “Given, I-“ THWACK-TING. SNAP. “-OOF!”

Kurt doubled over as a large caliber bullet passed right through his stomach then turned to powder against the kinetic energy ablative enchantment on the shop door. A nearly translucent barrier instantly sprang up on the other side of Kurt as he fell backward into the store, landing in the splatter of his own blood.

“Contact HIGH!” Kristi shouted as the shield she made took another impact and rippled from the force. Then came the much smaller impacts that peppered the surface as black and grey clad figures flooded the street.

Steve grabbed Melody and Adam by the shoulders and yanked them back to the stairwell as Anna screamed a curse in a language only she knew while ducking behind a shelving unit. Val grabbed Kurt by the collar and dragged him back into the store as the front door swung closed, stopping several more rounds after Kristi dropped her shield. Rindi summoned her rifle and large set of armor while smacking the light switch on the wall next to her.

“UuuAAAGh-FFFFuucck.” Kurt fought back a shift as his healing kicked in and he spurred it on by slapping the bangle on his arm. This time it was the sound of drinking a potion from some game or another. “Rooftop, above the thrift shop, left side.” He managed to shout over the commotion. He was thankful that someone thought to black out the store and give them some cover.  

“Back door!” Frank called. “The wards are holding on the front, and I am going to pop the bubble up.”

“Are we moving?” Val asked. “I can cover us at a sprint for a minute or two unless they have a way to counter me.”

“NooOoo!” Kurt nearly howled as he climbed to his feet and summoned his armor. His gut wound had completely sealed up in moments between his lycan biology and the healing item.

“What the fuck do you mean ‘no’?”

“We fight through them.”

Val looked thoroughly pissed as she pressed the issue. “Why are we-“

“I smell Strand.” Kurt’s rifle appeared in his hands, and he tossed his sling over his head. “They die here. NoOow.” He clenched his jaw as he felt his teeth lengthen in another barely suppressed shift.

Kurt’s attention snapped back to the windows and the dark street beyond as the sound of impacts against the building shields dropped off. He could see more movement behind the attackers and the brief flash of muzzles. “Well, this got complicated.”