- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You are the former coordinator of America's most elite and most secret special forces unit. You have been retired for the past seven years. It is August 2021. You receive a phone call from President Biden.
Vampire ultranationalists have stolen the launch codes again.
ВАМПИР. The 0th Special Purpose Detachment of Spetsnaz GRU. The most elite and most secretive special forces unit in the Russian Federation, and the architects of the 2013 Komi Base Incident. As the name suggests, the unit is made up of a number of vampires. Having assisted Russia militarily since 1917, they have over a century's experience in special operations in battlefields all across the world. They have once again secured the launch codes.
According to the intelligence available to the United States, Vampir conducted an elaborate infiltration of a number of key sites in Washington DC and are now planning to extract. Luckily for the US, it is functionally not possible for the unit to extract by air, as their unique traits make them too conspicuous even for night time flights. Instead, it is believed that that they will attempt a sea extraction. Based on what is known about the unit, its habits, and the equipment it has, and what evidence of the raid has been found, they will be making use of a medium or large sized vessel leaving from either Baltimore, Philadelphia, or New York. Given their history, it is highly likely that Vampir has either arranged or planned a means of extraction in all three cities.
It has been three hours since the raid and it is just after midnight. As Baltimore is only an hour's drive away, this would normally spell disaster. However the immediate response to the raid included watching the roads, which Vampir has clearly anticipated. It is believed that their current plan is to make their way to Baltimore as part of morning civilian traffic. That means that they could be in the Port of Baltimore within eight to twelve hours.
This is a difficult mission timeframe, but as the person who resolved the Komi Base Incident, President Biden has utmost confidence in your ability to make the impossible possible. Once again, the United States calls upon you, and is providing you with whatever resources it can on short notice, to retrieve the launch codes.
To assist you, you have once against been given direct command of America's most elite and most secret special forces unit: Special Operations Force 404, known only in rumour as the Black Ice Unit. 404 is made up of only the very best graduates of other special forces units. The nine survivors of the Komi Base Incident are the core of the reorganised unit, which has been expanded. In addition to these nine, you have command of 36 Black Ice operators, each averaging about five years experience undertaking the toughest missions around.
404 has top level priority, meaning it has access to a wide range of US and non-US military equipment of the highest quality. The unit also makes use of 'mystic eye killers' developed by DARPA that counter the effects of vampire hypnosis. At the time of the Komi Base Incident these were wrap-around glasses, but over the past seven years they have been improved and are now contact lenses. As mystic eye killers are relatively expensive, you only have a limited number other glasses available: forty pairs of various types.
You also have access to any federal military, intelligence and law enforcement resource that can reasonably requisitioned on such short notice. For the purposes of the mission, you effectively speak with the authority of the President. However, you are still bound by US law, so you do not have much authority beyond that due to the need to keep the loss of the launch codes secret. As such you cannot simply order all the relevant ports closed, and do not have direct command over local authorities. You are legally being deployed under 18 U.S.C. § 831.
Your opponents are the five surviving members of the 0th Special Purpose Detachment. True children of the night, they are genuinely supernatural creatures with genuinely supernatural abilities. From your past encounter with Vampir, you know they have the following characteristics:
While this does allow a vampire the ability to operate in the sun, they prefer to spend the day asleep in armoured coffins. Due to this, they are assisted by a number of human conspirators. In total the full team appears to consist of approximately thirty armed soldiers of unknown origins. Of these, about a third are believed to be special forces operatives culled from GRU, Vympel, SVR Zaslon, etc. They appear to mainly be using locally acquired weapons and armour, but it is believed that they also have access to modern Russian military equipment. Whether this is a sanctioned operation, a team of rogue operatives, or hypnotised puppets, is currently not known.
You have been given the following objectives:
The full moon is expected in one week.
How would you go about achieving these objectives? What forces would you requisition to assist? And how would you equip the Black Ice Unit to best prepare them for this mission?
You left that world behind in the Arctic snow. Yet once more, the nightmare!
Vampire ultranationalists have stolen the launch codes again.
ВАМПИР. The 0th Special Purpose Detachment of Spetsnaz GRU. The most elite and most secretive special forces unit in the Russian Federation, and the architects of the 2013 Komi Base Incident. As the name suggests, the unit is made up of a number of vampires. Having assisted Russia militarily since 1917, they have over a century's experience in special operations in battlefields all across the world. They have once again secured the launch codes.
According to the intelligence available to the United States, Vampir conducted an elaborate infiltration of a number of key sites in Washington DC and are now planning to extract. Luckily for the US, it is functionally not possible for the unit to extract by air, as their unique traits make them too conspicuous even for night time flights. Instead, it is believed that that they will attempt a sea extraction. Based on what is known about the unit, its habits, and the equipment it has, and what evidence of the raid has been found, they will be making use of a medium or large sized vessel leaving from either Baltimore, Philadelphia, or New York. Given their history, it is highly likely that Vampir has either arranged or planned a means of extraction in all three cities.
It has been three hours since the raid and it is just after midnight. As Baltimore is only an hour's drive away, this would normally spell disaster. However the immediate response to the raid included watching the roads, which Vampir has clearly anticipated. It is believed that their current plan is to make their way to Baltimore as part of morning civilian traffic. That means that they could be in the Port of Baltimore within eight to twelve hours.
This is a difficult mission timeframe, but as the person who resolved the Komi Base Incident, President Biden has utmost confidence in your ability to make the impossible possible. Once again, the United States calls upon you, and is providing you with whatever resources it can on short notice, to retrieve the launch codes.
To assist you, you have once against been given direct command of America's most elite and most secret special forces unit: Special Operations Force 404, known only in rumour as the Black Ice Unit. 404 is made up of only the very best graduates of other special forces units. The nine survivors of the Komi Base Incident are the core of the reorganised unit, which has been expanded. In addition to these nine, you have command of 36 Black Ice operators, each averaging about five years experience undertaking the toughest missions around.
404 has top level priority, meaning it has access to a wide range of US and non-US military equipment of the highest quality. The unit also makes use of 'mystic eye killers' developed by DARPA that counter the effects of vampire hypnosis. At the time of the Komi Base Incident these were wrap-around glasses, but over the past seven years they have been improved and are now contact lenses. As mystic eye killers are relatively expensive, you only have a limited number other glasses available: forty pairs of various types.
You also have access to any federal military, intelligence and law enforcement resource that can reasonably requisitioned on such short notice. For the purposes of the mission, you effectively speak with the authority of the President. However, you are still bound by US law, so you do not have much authority beyond that due to the need to keep the loss of the launch codes secret. As such you cannot simply order all the relevant ports closed, and do not have direct command over local authorities. You are legally being deployed under 18 U.S.C. § 831.
Your opponents are the five surviving members of the 0th Special Purpose Detachment. True children of the night, they are genuinely supernatural creatures with genuinely supernatural abilities. From your past encounter with Vampir, you know they have the following characteristics:
- They are dead. They do not need to breath, their hearts do not beat, and they produce no heat.
- They are superhumanly strong and fast. They can throw large vehicles, and are able to move faster than the eye can see.
- Their senses are superhumanly sharp. They can easily outperform any member of the animal kingdom in visual acuity, night vision, hearing, smell and taste. They can detect heat better than snakes and detect motion better than insects.
- They can defy gravity, able to stand on walls and on the ceiling.
- They are invisible in mirrors, on film, or in digital cameras. Bizarrely, things on their person such as clothing or items they are carrying are also invisible to cameras.
- They have exceptional regenerative abilities. The loss of a limb is neither permanent nor particularly debilitating. It took quite spectacular amounts of physical trauma to kill two members of Vampir.
- They are capable of mentally dominating people by making eye contact. This is a form of absolute hypnosis based around verbal orders. At the most extreme, they can make a person commit suicide by ordering it.
- They can sense 'killing intent', the mental decision to kill a person. Depending on intensity they can detect this from at least several hundred metres, giving them what appears to be a degree of precognition when dealing with biological entities.
- They are empowered by the visible full moon.
- They fear the sun. If they are caught in its light they will die, though the process is not instantaneous.
- Garlic is an irritant. In an aersolised form the effect on vampires is similar to tear gas on humans.
- They have some difficulty in crossing uncovered running water. Larger volumes of running water are more effective in this regard--a vampire would not be able to leap a river despite physically being able to. Pipelines and other underground water sources aren't a problem.
- While they do not appear on cameras, they can be seen while using night-vision devices, and they are visible, for a given value of visible, on thermal devices.
- Their abilities are fuelled by blood. If they overuse their supernatural powers or need to extensively regenerate, they need to feed on blood.
- Vampires are also visually distinct from humans. While their pale skin can be passed off, they have pointed ears, red or gold eyes, and visible fangs.
- Vampires cannot enter private buildings without an invitation, however they can enter public buildings. The exact bounds of this rule is not fully understood by the US.
- They are susceptible to ultrasonic noisemaker devices.
- While it is not lethal, vampires are also disorientated by headshots.
While this does allow a vampire the ability to operate in the sun, they prefer to spend the day asleep in armoured coffins. Due to this, they are assisted by a number of human conspirators. In total the full team appears to consist of approximately thirty armed soldiers of unknown origins. Of these, about a third are believed to be special forces operatives culled from GRU, Vympel, SVR Zaslon, etc. They appear to mainly be using locally acquired weapons and armour, but it is believed that they also have access to modern Russian military equipment. Whether this is a sanctioned operation, a team of rogue operatives, or hypnotised puppets, is currently not known.
You have been given the following objectives:
- Prevent Vampir from extracting with the launch codes.
- Retrieve the launch codes.
- Avoid or minimise civilian casualties.
- Eliminate Vampir, if possible
The full moon is expected in one week.
How would you go about achieving these objectives? What forces would you requisition to assist? And how would you equip the Black Ice Unit to best prepare them for this mission?
You left that world behind in the Arctic snow. Yet once more, the nightmare!
