SELF PRESERVATION

Note: This scenario seed is best used in the “classic” 1990’s Delta Green setting, and can serve as an excellent end or start to a long campaign.

"Its all too much. The lies, the innocent lives, the sleepless nights… or even worse, the nights with the dreams, the nightmares. No-one signs up for this, no-one should have to see this. I wish you never talked me into this, I wish I never saw that thing in the church basement, I wish I could go back to my easy job in the Agency, pushing papers and cuffing dealers, I want my wife and son back. I want no more, I want out."

One of your cell agents has drunk a bit too deeply of the green kool-aid, and has been pushed over the edge. That last opera was the final blow that cracked their strained psyche. Outwardly, and consciously they may remain dedicated to the cause, but subconsciously they are screaming to get out and forget what they have seen. This subconscious desire, which in reality nags at all agents, has manifested itself as a particular kind of insanity. An insanity that threatens the existence of Delta Green itself.

## Involving the Players

Whichever of your agents has taken the most sanity loss over the previous opera should be the first point of contact. Alone, at home, they should receive a phone call on either their burner cellphone, or home phone, from a number they cannot recognise. When they pick up there should be a panicked, slightly hysterical voice on the other end:

"Be quiet and listen: The fat lady is singing and the Bronsons are knocking on the door. A-Cell has been compromised, This is your last night at the opera and the show is coming to an end. fold up the nearest box and put the contents somewhere safe where even I can’t find them. Do not attempt to contact me, this will be your last communication.”

## The Perils of Compartmentalisation

Of course, this phone call is an auditory hallucination, a manifestation of the agent’s subconscious desire to get out. Any investigation into the source of the phone call should provide the same results as if no phone call had occurred.

After summoning the cell together to spread the news, the agents may wish to confirm the news with A Cell, any calls to A Cell by anyone other than the normal Cell contact should simply ring out. The normal Cell contact should be able to get through to a member of A Cell they don’t normally talk to. Adam is an ideal candidate, and he should be curt and evasive in answering any of the agent’s questions. If they suggest they have been contacted by another member of the conspiracy, he will immediately order them to report the details of who contacted them, when and how. OpSec is Adam’s primary concern. Whatever the outcome, the agents should not be reassured by A Cell, and the reality of the situation should remain ambiguous.

## The Box

The nearest green box to the agents should be a 4 hour drive away, and they should not have visited it previously. They should only known of it’s existence second hand. This particular box is a unit in a run-down 24-hour access self storage facility, equipped with basic medical gear, weapons, ammunition and some furniture to facilitate lying low.

Unbeknownst to the agents, the box is currently being used by R-Cell’s stay-at-home team for a cult infiltration opera. Parked out the front of the storage facility should be an obvious hire car, with a dribble of blood on the rear bumper where R-Cell have dragged an abducted cultist from the boot to the storage unit. Yelling voices should be audible within the unit, and lights should be showing under the door.

## R-Cell’s B-Team

R-Cell consists of 4 members, but only two are in the Green Box. The other two members were attempting to infiltrate a nearby cult to Nyarlathotep, but they have been out of communication with the rest of the cell for several days. In desperation, their colleagues in the box have abducted a high-ranking cultist to try and find where their friends are being kept. Of course, the most skilled and capable agents attempted the infiltration, leaving Agent Richter and Ralph to hold the fort. Due to the compartmentalisation of the conspiracy, none of our agents should know of the existence of R-Cell, or have been in contact with any of its members.

Agent Richter: A Septuagenarian concentration camp survivor, and long time veteran of Delta Green’s fight against the Karotechia, Richter is ridiculously old by agent standards. He however refuses to retire and be taken off the active agents list. His encyclopaedic knowledge of the unnatural makes him Alphonse’s go-to for information-collection operas, notwithstanding his physical frailty he remains a resourceful and capable operative. His statistics should reflect this. He is armed with an automatic pistol.

Agent Ralph: To make up for Richter’s frailty, Agent Ralph, a 26-year old Green Beret has been assigned as his minder and as the muscle for R-Cell. Recently recruited, he is not particularly charismatic or bright, but is highly capable with all forms of hand held weapons and has hit points and sanity to match. His statistics should also reflect this. He is armed with a breaching shotgun.

## Mistaken Identity

R-Cell have just pushed a bit too far with their “enhanced interrogation” of the captured cultist, and the cultist is now suffering a cardiac arrest. Richter is trying to resuscitate them on the floor of the green box whilst Ralph is looking for the medical kit at the back. Richter is yelling instructions to Ralph. They have not heard the agents approach, and they should be shocked when someone comes knocking, or kicking, on the door. They will shoot first and ask questions later as they are under the assumption that the cult have come for them. Inevitably, this is going to go badly, and a gunfight between R-Cell and the agents should ensue. If the agents get the upper hand then R-Cell should be slaughtered, leaving few clues to their identity. If R-Cell get the other hand, they should attempt to flee the Agents and report back to A-Cell.

If A-Cell are successfully contacted by R-Cell, The agents should expect a visit from another cell, perhaps after a few phone calls to try and bring them together and keep them in one location to facilitate their collection. If not, then the cell should be tracked down by the two remaining members of R-Cell.

“Hi, Agent Zeke? We have an astroturf issue"

A-Cell will be convinced by the reports of R-Cell’s surviving members that the agents have been turned by an unnatural agent, or now are working for MJ-12. They will send Z-Cell, to first capture and interrogate, and then eliminate the agents.

When they are on the run, it should become obvious to the rest of the cell that the original agent didn’t actually receive a phone call at all, this may give them something to bargain with when Z-Cell, or it may not at the hander’s discretion.

## Credits

SELF PRESERVATION was written by Eric Parsonage for the 2016  shotgun scenario contest.

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 © Eric Parsonage, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

SELF PRESERVATION is not available here under CC-BY-SA.