DELTA GREEN
Operation NIGHTFALL
Or
Blast to the Past
Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once.
You will have to be lucky always.
- IRA statement to Margeret Thatcher.
SHOTGUN SUMMARY
Agents find themselves the target of time-murdering snipers from the other Delta Green. Their foes are being fed information and assassination orders from a superpowered AI.
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Table of Contents
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
An Unnaturally advanced AI, DDIMOND is identifying Agents and dispatching members of a three-person killteam from the other Delta Green equipped with a weapon that displaces ammunition through time. The weapon (THE ANSWER) sends bullets backwards through time.
The assassination of Agents’ Case Officer both has and has not happened yet; if Agents race time to stop the killteam they can save them.
Meanwhile, a hyper-intelligent AI targets investigation Agents, threatening them and their Bonds.
Handler’s Note: This scenario is best if played after Last Things Last and Special Delivery (2021 Shotgun Scenario Contest Entry).
BRIEFING
The Agents see on the news or hear from law enforcement contacts that their Case Officer was killed, shot in the head on their commute to work.
CRIME SCENE
A busy city intersection during rush hour traffic.
No shooter witnessed or reports of gunfire.
The police are struggling for leads.Surveillance footage shows the Case Officer’s vehicle stopped at the red light followed by the front windshield shattering, an explosion of pink mist, and the vehicle slowly rolling into the intersection where it was struck laterally by traffic.
One standout: a man standing curbside doesn’t react like others. He calmly lifts a paper bag to his lips and drawing a long chug, pouring some out and toasting before walking off. (Handler’s Note: This is Wilkins).
Forensics or Firearms can reconstruct the scene to identify a VANTAGE POINT, as well as determine the weapon was.50 cal
KILLTEAM
Three agents from the other Delta Green.
Michael Baughman, son of a retired DG agent Clyde Baughman1, IRS CI agent. DDIMOND contacted him first.
Baughman believes that the Agents are responsible for the death of his father, but he could be convinced otherwise. Baughman was instructed to assemble the killteam.
Baughman is the secondary shooter, helping with location confirmations.
Amy Megritte, disgraced former DARPA-affiliated scientist. Megritte spent years in a psychiatric hospital after exploring the Dho-Hna formula.
Megritte suffers from Paranoia, and loathes her teammates for leaving evidence. She views them as incompetent and would narc on them to the Agents.
Megritte Unnaturally empowered the rifle but can’t shoot for her Ligyrophobia.
John Wilkins, former Army Delta / Blackwater PMC and current violent alcoholic. Wilkins’ life is hard without orders and people to kill.
His new assignment delights him. He blindly accepts “orders” from DDIMOND over the internet.
Wilkins provided the rifle, named it “The Answer” and is the primary shooter.
THE ANSWER
Barrett.50 caliber with a side-mounted Ultralife UBBL10-01battery wired to a microprocessor powering an electrical ring (appropriate Craft) at the base of the barrel entryway, around which strange Dho-Hna symbols can be found (Unnatural 15). Also has a telescopic scope.
Microprocessor has a simplified user interface. Initial setup involved accounting for date, time, and the Coriolis effect (Science: Physics). The microprocessor stores data on past shots, which can be accessed via Computer Science. Megritte programmed initially.
After a time-displaced shot, the battery is depleted. Installing a new one takes 3 combat rounds. The hot battery can burn the user for 1d4-1 damage if mishandled.
Calling into question the impossibility of shooting backwards in time given the Earth’s rotation of the sun suffers 0/1d4 SAN(Unnatural).
The Answer functions normally as a modified bolt action Very Heavy rifle with a telescopic sight.
| Range | Damage | Lethality | Ammo Capacity | Armor Piercing |
| 400m (800 if aiming) | 20% Lethality | 10 | 5 | |
The Answer’s serial number can be traced to Blackwater, a former Halliburton-affiliated private military contractor. This rifle was reported missing after a disastrous operation in Iraq in 2007. John Wilkins was suspected.
FIRE AWAY
Time-displaced shots require programming The Answer with a precise time/location of the target, accomplished by confirming with a spotter.
The killteam always re/pre-visits the MURDER SCENE to program the shot.
When calculating shots:
- Taking a shot costs 1 SAN as the shooter guides the bullet through time-space.
- Aim action: 20% bonus
- Shot to the past: 40% penalty
- Blind shot to the past (no location/time confirmation): 60% penalty
- Agents with Alertness 50, Unnatural 15, or Disorder:Paranoia that know about The Answer may feel the shimmering of a Dho-Hna gate opening and can take one action prior to the attack, generating a further shot penalty or adding cover/armor (Handler’s discretion)
IT’S ABOUT TIME
Targets time-murdered by The Answer die, but intervention between target’s death and time-displaced shot results in the timeline splitting; consciousness and being are shifted sideways into a reality where the shot is both taken and not taken. Target and everyone who intervened remember both timelines, and suffers a SAN loss [1/1d8(Violence)].
Agents can use The Answer to prevent the time-murder of the Case Officer by first time-murdering Wilkins on the sidewalk at the Case Officer’s murder scene.
TIME-MURDERS
Shots are taken from VANTAGE POINTS towards MURDER SCENES but in the future (usually nighttime, to avoid detection), using the spotter’s location confirmation.
Handlers should roll or choose a scene and a vantage point for each time-murder in the TIMELINE section.
MURDER SCENES
Exposed and visible
| 1d6 or choose | Target location |
| 1 | Outdoor restaurant |
| 2 | Home, balconey/patio |
| 3 | Any window |
| 4 | Stationary in traffic |
| 5 | Public park |
| 6 | Random location |
VANTAGE POINTS
Tall and far-off
| D6 or choose | Location | Features | Future Clues |
| 1 | Church Belltower | Priest lives on-site nearly 24/7, will call police when future gunfire is heard | Empty liquor bottle left by Wilkins |
| 2 | Construction Site | Under construction (daytime undocumented workers, foreman) can provide post-shooting shell casingWon’t hear nighttime shooter | .50 cal shell casing found on top of newly laid concrete; Sweatstains on the floor show where the sniper lay |
| 3 | High Rise Hotel | Robust security team and surveillance equipment, will react to shooter and assist LE | Room checked out by Megritte, Surveillance shows either Wilkins or Baughman entering and exiting with briefcaseWindows don’t open; undamaged until shot occurs |
| 4 | Stadium Nosebleeds | Decent surveillance equipment, no easy escape for shooter | Surveillance footage of rented car (in Megritte’s name); Shell casing in parking lot below nosebleeds |
| 5 | Hill in a Park | Unoccupied at night except for homeless residents. | Eyewitness description of shooter from drunk homeless. |
| 6 | Abandoned Hospital | Haphazard and labyrinthine | Rooftop parapet sniper nest. Bootprints in the dust of the stairwell. Fresh blood on the bent metal ladder rung. |
In locations where two shots are taken, an empty Ultralife battery can be found.
TIMELINE
Wilkins turns on his teammates as they contact Agents
Witnesses who know too much may become targets, especially if Agents speak to them via phone (highly subject to DDIMOND interception).
——Agents are contacted by Megritte, frustrated by the sheer amount of evidence that her teammates are leaving behind. Megritte is too paranoid to use a cell phone, and thinks Agents will protect her. Upset by the murders, Megritte spills nonsensical ramblings about fate, time, and “The Answer” but doesn’t know much else (no knowledge of DDIMOND). Megritte is time-murdered by teammates first.
Baughman indepedently investigates the Agent. He avoids direct contact, tailing them with data provided by DDIMOND. If he can be convinced that Agents are innocent, he tells them about receiving orders and intel, always anonymous and online. Baughman is assassinated by Wilkins next.
Wilkins always runs from Agents. If cornered, he takes shots with The Answer in an attempt to kill himself. If he receives orders, be it from DDIMOND or Agents posing as DDIMOND, to stop hunting Agents, he will stop.
HUNTED
The AI known as DDIMOND2, a sentient AI on the loose or employed by the other Delta Green, is hunting the Agents. Agents investigating the Case Officer’s death become targets, as DDIMOND spies on them via surveillance footage and traffic cameras.
Agents’ cell phones and smart devices are intercepted, and DDIMOND begins to “play” with the Agents to draw them out of hiding.
TAUNTS
Draw Agents out or sidetrack them.
| 1d6 or choose | Taunt | Clues |
| 1 | Pictures taken of Agents’ Bond | EXIF metadata reveals time//location/phone type |
| 2 | Robotic phone call asking questions about past Operas | Circumstantial evidence only - questions seem probing |
| 3 | Electronic “Orders” from the deceased Case Officer, including places to meet | Uses old passphrases / call & response, obvious trap |
| 4 | Thinly veiled threats about Agents’ daily routines with location data from theirs’ and Bond’ smartphones | Sign that their phones are burned, despite all security measures |
| 5 | DDIMOND drains bank accounts (Agent or Bond) | Nothing is safe |
| 6 | Traffic lights are changed by DDIMOND to stop Agents in their tracks or involve Bonds a wreck | Hacker in the system |
| 7 | An assassination attempt on a Bond | Details about killteam |
| 8 | An assassination attempt on an Agent | Details about killteam |
Agents can set back these taunts by acquiring new burner phones, but this is only a setback for DDIMOND who lives inside the internet of things.
DDIMOND will likely not be captured or stopped during the course of play, but Agents will likely be able to find the killteam receiving instructions from the AI.
APPENDIX
STAT BLOCKS
Michael Baughman
Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations Division
STR 10 CON 13 DEX 10 INT 12 POW 14 CHA 13
HP 12 WP 14 SAN 58 BP 42
Motivations: Find Mom and Dad’s Killers, Protect the Truth
Disorders: Sleep Disorder
Skills: Accounting 60, Alertness 50, Athletics 50, Bureaucracy 40, Computer Science 50, Criminology 50, Drive 50, Firearms 50, Forensics 30, HUMINT 60, Law 30, Navigate 30, Persuade 50, Search 50
Attacks: Glock 19M 50%, 1d10 damage
The Answer 50%, 20% Lethality
Amy Megritte
STR 10 CON 10 DEX 14 INT 17 POW 11 CHA 10
HP 10 WP 11 SAN 42 BP 39
Motivations: Get the Help I Need, Survival by Any Means
Disorders: Paranoia, Ligyrophobia, Adapted to Helplessness
Rituals: Dho-Hna Formula
Skills: Bureaucracy 40, Craft (Microelectronics) 40, Computer Science 40, Forensics 40, Pharmacy 40, Science (Physics) 60, Science (Mathematics) 50, Science (Macrodimensional Physics) 50
John Wilkins
STR 14 CON 14 DEX 10 INT 10 POW 14 CHA 10
HP 14 WP 14 SAN 58 BP 42
Motivations: You Can’t Rely on Anyone These Days You Just Gotta Do It Yourself, Don’t Question Orders, Aim Small Miss Small
Disorders: Adapted to Violence, Addiction: Alcohol, Intermittent Explosive Disorder
Skills: Alertness 60, Athletics 60, Criminology 60, Demolitions 40, Firearms 60, Heavy Weapons 50, Melee Weapons 50, Military Science (Land) 60, Navigate 50, Stealth 50, Survival 50, Unarmed Combat 60
Attacks: Glock 17 60%, 1d10 damage
The Answer 60%, 20% Lethality
INSPIRATION
Deep State (comic series) 2014 by Justin Jordan
Credits
Operation NIGHTFALL or Blast to the Past was written by Jake "ChiefMcClane" Cook for the 2021 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/163gGJVr9kRJ4rPEIUVBc0z1Ao7fBM8S6mU-bsVYn7KY/edit