The Hawthorne Institute is an organization with a simple goal, stop the end of the world. In collateral accounting, you take the role of a newly recruited dispatcher within the institute, given responsibility for the defense of a city in a world of nightmares given form.
You scan your access badge as you enter a dimly lit room; walking around a privacy screen placed directly in front of the door, you are greeted with a floor-to-ceiling map of a city lost in the worst tragedy of a century. A second wall is covered in a large bank of monitors mounted on the far wall displaying a wide array of news channels and satellite imagery. A stable green light is placed high in the corner of the room. The center of the room is dominated by a large table hosting a miniature white-scale version of a city. Around the room's edges are six empty desks with six monitors each. As you approach the table hosting the city display, a pink sticky note catches your attention; written in neat lettering, by who you can only assume is your predecessor, is a single question.
"How much is a human life worth to you?"
_
Who are you?
Name
[ ] Write in?
Gender
[ ] Male
[ ] Female
Background
[ ] Recruited from the hallowed halls of academia, you were clearly chosen to put your groundbreaking research and theories to the test in a practical manner.
[ ] Recently separated from the Armed Forces, the Hawthorne Institute allows you to use your experience from service to help people.
[ ] A former Hero recruited to the institute specifically for your experience in the field.
[ ] A criminal given a choice by a judge to either go to jail or talk to some nice gentlemen in suits sitting in the back of the courtroom.
[x] Alex Wright
[x] Male
[x] Recruited from the hallowed halls of academia, you were clearly chosen to put your groundbreaking research and theories to the test in a practical manner
1.0
As you read the question written on the sticky note, you hear the distinct mechanical sound of a bolt disengaging and the door opening. Turning your attention to the room's entrance, you're greeted by Travis Lund, a bespectacled man wearing a light grey sport coat over a plain white shirt and dark slacks.
"Mr. Wright, how's the Pit treating you so far?" You catch the unmistakable glimmer of mirth in his voice at the use of the word pit.
"I'm upright and standing at the very least, so there's that going for me." You respond while augmenting on his humor with a touch of your own. "Time for me to get caught up?"
"That it is, Mr. Wright; while we have every confidence in your abilities, our good friends on the 12th would like me to ensure that you are provided with ample opportunity to get started on the right foot," Travis explains with an appropriately sympathetic tone, understanding the hoops the 12th floor has already made you jump through.
"Let's begin with the mandated tour of this facility officially designated Katmai. Currently, we're in the Dispatch Operations Center." Gesturing at the table dominating the center of the room, Travis continues his well-rehearsed monologue "Equipped with the Sand Table, the DOC is going to be your workspace during your time in the Pit. In times of true need, the DOC can comfortably provide a large team with the tools to solve any crisis."
As he leads you out of the Operations Center, you both walk down a hallway. On your left are two doors labeled Conference; on the right, a single door marked Briefing. Reaching a T-Shaped intersection in the hallway, Travis motions at the wall to your right, on which hangs a placard labeled Business, followed by an arrow pointing back towards the DOC. Next to it is an identical placard stating Fun is further down the hallway. Centered beneath both is a placard that indicates Freedom can be found left of the intersection in the hallway housing the entrance to the facility.
Further, down the hallway, Travis opens a door on the left for you to stick your head into a room, seeing that it is a bedroom floating somewhere o the spectrum between mildly bare and decently furnished.
"The Pit has six fully furnished bedrooms for use while you are on shift. As I'm sure, the folks on the 12th already told you, the Pit is an isolation facility run on 72-hour shifts due to the nature of the work. You get 3 days on the inside and 3 days on the outside. While on shift you have free roam of everything on this side of the door marked Freedom, do not leave the Pit unless someone is here to relieve you. No bringing phones, computers, or anything that transmits or receives inside the Pit."
Travis takes a second to stare at you with a grave expression.
"If you want to bring something in, get it cleared by floor 5; if they say yes, it never comes out once it goes into the Pit. If anything has the potential to ruin your life, Mr. Wright, not following this rule will."
Leaving the bedroom, the hallway wall to the right converts into a large open room with one-half kitchen, one half common area. The kitchen is comfortably equipped with what appears to be top-of-the-line appliances and natural granite countertops, at odds with the mediocre furnishings present in the bedroom you had previously inspected. A price of driftwood hung on the wall of the common room with the words Camp Katmai written in bright lettering.
"Down towards the end of the common room, you will find the gym, bathroom, showers, and a multipurpose room. You'll notice that this facility can handle a few more people than the current allotment of 1-man deep shifts would suggest."
Travis pauses his speech briefly to adjust his glasses before continuing.
"We have recently been able to drastically reduce our manpower requirements thanks in some small part to you. The eggheads at headquarters claims that one of the papers you wrote during your Masters's Thesis helped them adjust their approach to the design of one of our critical systems that handle the identification of incidents requiring the institute's intervention. They wanted me to pass on their thanks." Travis takes a moment to give you a wry smile "I do want to give you some parting advice. Keep an eye on the green light conveniently placed in each room and an ear open for trouble, and welcome to Katmai."
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What would you like to do?
Pick 2 Actions
[ ] While the tour was informative, you have some questions for Travis Lund before he leaves the Pit.
[ ] Write In the questions you would like to ask
[ ] Familiarize yourself with the Dispatch Operations Center and Sand Table. You need to be ready to do your job at a moment's notice.
[ ] Use one of the terminals in the DOC to research what you can about the current state of your city.
[ ] Explore the Pit a bit more; you can see a bookshelf and some arcade machines that might prove interesting in the common room.
[ ] Hit the Gym; a healthy body is a healthy soul or something.
[X] Familiarize yourself with the Dispatch Operations Center and Sand Table. You need to be ready to do your job at a moment's notice.
[X] Use one of the terminals in the DOC to research what you can about the current state of your city.
1.1
May 4 2025
0930
A closer examination of the DOC allows you to create an actual frame of reference for the many rushed, dense training courses you had been subjected to immediately after your recruitment from the rubble of Stanford. Each of the six desks in the DOC hosts a veritable collection of control surfaces ranging from phones that should have been in a museum before you were born to sleek display panels that wouldn't look out of place in Professor Tomorrow's laboratory.
Neatly placed on the corner of a desk, you find a binder with a hand-drawn cover proudly proclaiming the bind as "Dispatching for Dummies." Upon opening the binder, you see that the binder is actually called the "Operations Center Information Binder." Below the boring text is a description stating that the binder is the quick reference directory of all operations procedures and equipment in the DOC.
"This should be helpful." you muse aloud as you sit at one of the desks.
After over an hour of careful work using the binder as a reference, you have one of the workstations configured as the guide recommends. One of the many pieces of wisdom the guide felt the need to impart to you was that the DOC was built with the redundant system after redundant system layered on top of each other in a manner that should, in theory, allow the Pit to be one of the last functioning facilities in the city in any given scenario. Given every form of communications equipment available short of a bonfire to make smoke signals or perhaps a carrier pigeon.
Almost all the lines of communication, from shortwave to fiber optic, cable to be commanded from either a workstation or any touch-panel mounted around the sand table, a competent operator could respond to incoming calls and direct responses from anywhere in the Operations Center.
Standing from the workstation, you move over to the Sand Table to begin your familiarization with the device. Its technical specifications claim to be able to accurately map and display an accurate 3-dimensional representation of any environment. Currently, the display hosts Katmai's region of responsibility, the city of Seattle. With several deft gestures above the miniature Seattle, you zoom in on the city's stadium, allowing you to count the individual seats modeled within the stadium.
Pressing an icon, a touch screen changed the model from white scale into what looks like satellite imagery overlayed on the building. Resetting the zoom level of the Sand Table, you spend the next few minutes messing with the Table, ensuring you can easily manipulate it.
Deciding it's about time to take advantage of what the Hawthorne Institute touts as the world's most comprehensive global intelligence database, you take a seat at the terminal you had earlier claimed as your own, pull up a program labeled TAPESTRY, and begin to search.
1430
On the monitor, you watch as the lower half of Agent Hare gets propelled at Mach .8 into the pristine form of Apogee, barely noticing the impact. Apogee rockets fist-first into Displacer, sending the Villain flying out over a large body of water, causing a shockwave that shatters every window within a block of the punch. With barely a glance at the camera, Apogee flies off to chase down the projectile formerly known as Displacer.
The fight depicted in the video was one of many significant engagements between Heroes and Villains during the last major near collapse of Seattle 7 years before, all told the near collapse resulted in massive losses to the local Super population, not to mention the civilian casualties experienced as the result of an all-out war in the streets. One of the major developments to be prompted by this event in the city was the creation of Response Team Epsilon. Team Epsilon is an unpowered well equipped and highly trained mercenary outfit, with their initial operations in Seattle a major success they soon spread to support police and Heroes across the country.
Your multi-hour deep dive into Seattle's current and past climate has allowed you to watch several videos of the more active Supers in the city. You've also gained access to many reports on every active Hero or Villain in the town.
The conjoined consensus of many of the reports on Seattle indicates that the city has reached a comfortable equilibrium that has allowed the Hawthorne Institute to cut back its involvement in the town significantly over the last 7 years. With Apogee at its head, the local branch of the Sentinels has soared in popularity. They have even been able to subdue and capture the long-time regional threat Mekanakist last month. According to the TAPESTRY Stability Index, Seattle was currently ranked as the 3rd most stable city in the country over the previous 5 years.
As the light in the corner of the room changes from green to red, a calm female voice announces.
"Katmai Threat Warning, Location Charlie-Six Pier 48, Rating Medium, Local PD and Response Team Epsilon in contact, nearest Heroes marked."
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Initial Actions
These will be the actions that determine your initial coordination attempts.
[ ] Get a situation report from Local PD and Team Epsilon, and get the nearest Hero moving.
[ ] Instruct PD and Team Epsilon to maintain a perimeter while you put out a general broadcast for aid, this is a party and you want some friends.
[ ] Write In?
Subsequent Approach
This describes the overall approach you want your teams to take in the field.
[ ] Cautious: Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast.
[ ] Moderate: The Standard is the Standard for a Reason
[ ] Aggressive: Bad Guy First, Everything Else Second
[ ] Write In?
Assigned Roles
Define the roles you would like different assets to take. Things like putting a dedicated person on containment to try and limit the spread of the fight. Or clean-up to have someone actively working on taking care of any accidental damage or injuries to civilians.
[ ] Local PD on Crowd Control/Clean Up, Team Epsilon on Containment, Heroes on Offense.
