Operation FRUIT DUST

## BRIEFING

Agents are given credentials as FBI Violent Crimes, Major Offenders, and Gang Task Force members, but they would do well to keep clear of the real FBI task forces that work in the area, like the Houston Coastal Safe Streets Task Force.

Briefing from Friendly: Lieutenant Jane Haverty, a Houston PD detective that participated in Operation REDBONE - Katrina in 2005.

She is baffled about the alarmingly low homicide rate in their area. Other detectives joke unconcernedly. Her experience in REDBONE has led her to believe that no dead bodies are a sign of ghouls.

Criminal intelligence points to all-out gang warfare in north Houston, but the body count does not; street-level informants have told detectives that the city’s Blood affiliates are beefing with MS-13 affiliates, with multiple homicides occurring every night, but there are no bodies. This, and a rumor of a “Street Lazarus” bringing people back from the dead was enough for Haverty to call Delta Green.

## THE TRUTH

The gangs are killing each other, but both have a working relationship with a local septuagenarian Justice of the Peace, Hershal Taylor, who has a schizophrenic obsession with the dead from his conviction in Armstrongism. Taylor is paid by gangs to bury bodies on his ranch. However, Taylor has convinced some of the gang members that he has the power to resurrect.

This “power” isn’t totally unfounded, but merely accidental. One time he accidentally buried a Blood, Jeremiah “Ray-Ray” Glascoe, alive. Somehow Glascoe miraculously survived, a dead man walking, and now serves as a liaison between Taylor and the Bloods.

Both take this as a sign that Jesus is coming back. They are convinced that He will return soon, and want to save some sinners.

Taylor is looking for Jesus and finds Jesus Alvarez, the newborn grandson of  Juan Pablo, a local MS-13 lieutenant. Deranged, Taylor is planning on kidnapping baby Jesus to bring about the rapture. Taylor offers his services to Pablo and buries dead MS-13 gang members to the ranch to get close enough to steal the child.

### ARMSTRONGISM

Unlike other Christianity flavors, Armstrongism is more lenient and promising. Important to this scenario:

* Armstrongism is about action: performing works to save the lives of sinners and non-believers:
* Non-believers are not yet eternally judged, a future opportunity for salvation after a mortal resurrection awaits.
* Many people who have ever lived will be saved; thus the small number of true Christians alive are predestined to be merely the early "First Fruits" of God's harvest, to help teach the majority of humanity raised by the second resurrection.
* “Second Fruits” as people temporarily resurrected to mortality for an opportunity to learn and accept God's way
* The “Third Fruits” - resurrection of the wicked for final judgment, those whose minds had been fully opened to God's truth, either in this age or after the second resurrection, and rejected it; mainly, those truly called but who fell away, and those who incorrigibly rebel in the "Wonderful World Tomorrow"
* Armstrong also taught that followers of Christ should remain true to all of the teachings in the Old Testament.
	+ Sabbath as a holy time, in Jewish tradition the Sabbath was observed from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.
	+ Abstinence from eating unclean meats listed in the Old Testament, such as pork and shellfish.

## INTRODUCTIONS AND EQUIPMENT

Agents can get an office in HPD’s Northern District police building, a somewhat clandestine structure in the middle of a large shopping plaza, hiding in plain sight in an abandoned shopping mall.

Inside there is an office with a computer terminal connected to databases, camera systems, and other tools that can help Agents in their investigation, including but not limited to

* Department of Motor Vehicles database, for driver’s licenses and state ID cards, vehicle registration tags (plates), as well as driver and criminal history
* Citywide license plate reader camera systems, which capture still shots that log much of the city’s streets, including plates on cars and movement.
* Police and fire radio bands.

Agents can also sign for unmarked vehicles, but not weapons.

If Agents desire they can meet with detectives from various investigative divisions in order to ask them for information about the streets.

HANDLER’S NOTE: Optional Mode of Play

If desired, players could simply play any of the detective archetypes listed below

* Narcotics - has a street-level informant that they can reach out to for information, but will not burn his source to Agents. If Agents use this resource, they can get a lead within one day.
* Homicide - can put Agents in touch with the Justice of the Peace Taylor, who is in charge of coroner duties
* Gang - attempts to maintain a map of turf but is struggling to keep up with rapid changes. Can show a few graffiti signs commonly thrown up by low-level pushers in efforts to deter rivals from selling on their turf.
* Intel - read social media posts and make connections between groups

Besides the details listed above, none of the other detectives are willing to help Agents out. They view the lack of cases as a win and aren’t in the business of adding more to their plate.

## SHOOTOUT

HANDLER’S NOTE: The purpose of this scene is

1. To display the dangers of gang warfare
2. To establish that there should be a body here but isn’t
3. To put Agents on the trail of Taylor and Glascoe, if not directly introduce

This should take place after Agents arrive on the scene, preferably the first night.

If Agents miss this scene, repeat it.

Multiple 911 calls are placed about a shootout in a neighborhood. If Agents have a police radio or scanner, they can be alerted. A successful **Drive** or **Navigate** check can have them beat the initial police, only on a critical success could they arrive to see one of the fleeing vehicles.

Otherwise, police units respond and are on the scene less than five minutes after, but the shooters have all gone ghost.

Agents with **Forensics** 40% or higher find hundreds of shell casings of different calibers and blood splatter - enough blood loss to be fatal

Agents with **Forensics** 60% or higher can create a nearly exact mock-up of the scene: three shooters on one side (9mm, .45, and a shotgun (the deceased pool of blood), shooting into a vehicle (a lack of bulletholes in the brick wall behind where the car had been)

Agents with **HUMINT** 40% or higher that canvass the neighborhood can get descriptions of the shooters: two Hispanic males pulled up in a car and started blasting at three black males standing on the street corner.

Agents with **Computer Science** 40% or higher know how to work the traffic cameras and can spot:

* Stolen Dodge Charger with a shattered rear passenger window
	+ Can be tracked using OnStar to Taylor’s ranch and found abandoned with too much blood inside.
* A rental car.
	+ Rented by Gina Brown,  **Handler Info:** Brown is Demarco Berry’s girlfriend. Berry is a known Blood. He was making a shipment to mid-level dealers when the shootout began. He fled with wounded Taquan Rivers (the shotgun-wielding cash-holder) into his car, but Rivers succumbs to his wounds.

## CORONER

No bodies of homicide victims remain in the morgue. The assistant coroner advises that Taylor made their funerary arrangements, but family members of the deceased bemoan the body not being released to them.

## JUSTICE TAYLOR

Can be found via research: In the 1980s, while working as a Harris County deputy, Taylor locked up Juan Pablo, a prominent narcogang member. A decade ago, he became active in the push for Pablo’s probation. Upon Pablo’s release, Taylor forged business connections with the narco gangs and their family: in exchange for leniency in the courtroom, Pablo paid Taylor.

Formerly owned a construction company and still has heavy equipment

Since then, Taylor’s mind has begun to slip. He is displaying signs of schizophrenia, such as an obsession with religion (see ARMSTRONGISM). There have been news articles about his unusual behavior, but he remains in office.

* Works with sinners to give them a second chance - ramblings in the judicial chamber with thankful criminals and families for the second chance
* Refuses to work on the Sabbath - sundown Friday to sundown Saturday

***HANDLER INFO***: Taylor maintains a ranch on the outskirts of town where numerous dead bodies can be found. Believes that he is preserving them for their resurrection at the second coming

## KIDNAPPING

Taylor and Glascoe will kidnap baby Jesus Alvarez and bring him to Taylor’s ranch to begin the rapture and raise the “Third Fruits” from the dead through holy war. Pablo knows it was Taylor and brings a hit crew to Taylor’s ranch.

Ideally, the Agents will be present when the firefight begins. Taylor, being a schizophrenic Libertarian Texas ex-cop and justice of the peace, will fire the first shots.

## ALTERNATE ENDING

Ghouls displaced by REDBONE to Houston show up at Taylor’s ranch.

## NPCS

### Hirshel Taylor, Harris County Justice of the Peace

Accounting 50
Bureaucracy 50

Criminology 60

Firearms 40

Foreign Language (Spanish) 50

HUMINT 40

Law 60

Persuade 60

Ride 60

### Juan Pablo, head of local narcogang, grandfather of kidnapped child

Alertness 50

Athletics 50

Criminology 60

Dodge 40

Drive 50

Firearms 40

Foreign Language (Spanish) 40

HUMINT 50

Law 20

Melee Weapons 40

Persuade 50

Stealth 50

Unarmed Combat 50

### GANG MEMBERS

**STR** 13 **CON** 13 **DEX** 12 **INT** 11 **POW** 12 **CHA** 12 **HP** 13 **WP** 12

**MOTIVATIONS**: Rep the Set, Keep the Boss Safe

**SKILLS** Alertness 50%, Criminology 60%, Dodge 40%, Drive 40% (60% for Jesters on motorcycles), Firearms 40%, Foreign Language (English) 40% (Cartel only), Law 20%, Melee Weapons 40%, Persuade 50%, Pharmacy 30%, Stealth 50%, Unarmed Combat 50%

**ATTACKS**: Semi Auto SMG or Pistol 40% damage 1d10

Unarmed 50% (1D4)

Rifles 40% damage d12

Shotgun 60%, damage 2d10\* (2 shots)

## Credits

Operation FRUIT DUST was written by Jake "ChiefMcClane" Cook for the 2022  Shotgun Scenario contest. Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B-0V4zGMr8drY40dKSv9raMc\_ZAD6PJ2wqwK8pNIy5c/edit#.

Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this document are © Jake "ChiefMcClane" Cook, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

Operation FRUIT DUST is not available here under CC-BY-SA.

For preservation, a PDF backup of the original submission can be found here.