FINEST EFFECTS: Military Escorts

The BORELLUS CONNECTION manuscript was too nightmarish and vast to be constrained by any binding our printer could conceive; therefore, we were obliged to remove some material from the book. It’s preserved here as a series of Page XX articles. As Orne’s mysterious correspondent in Philadelphia warned us, “no Part must be missing if the finest Effects are to be had”; therefore, we have categorised these cuttings as FINEST EFFECTS.

All materials tagged FINEST EFFECTS are Handler’s Eyes Only – prospective players of the Borellus Connection campaign are instructed not to read these articles.

During Operation ALONSO, the Agents must make a sweep of the Rung Sat swamp in Vietnam. Wary players may request assistance from one section or another of the US or allied forces in-theatre with Bureaucracy or suitable Agency spends. The Handler can play the escort as regular GMCs, or pass them out to the players as secondary characters if she likes. GMCs with Investigative abilities can (and barring mistreatment, will) spend them for the Agents if needed.

Even if you’re not playing The Borellus Connection, there’s every chance your Delta Green agents will end up in the jungles of Vietnam, in need of military backup…

 

Escort GMCs and Instability

Each GMC in this section has a Shaken entry describing the way their personality deforms under Unnatural stress.

To avoid excess die rolls and bookkeeping, each encounter with the Unnatural reduces at minimum one GMC to Shaken. If the creature or effect has a Stability loss value (e.g., +1 for Greater Deep Ones), debilitate that many more GMCs.

Once all the GMCs are Shaken, the next encounter Shatters a GMC (or more than one, if the stimulus has a Stability loss value). At that point, decide whether the GMC reacts with frenzy, flight, or freeze (see FoDG,p. 113).

Choose the victim randomly, or based on the drama of the moment: the point man sees the lurking monsters clearly, for example.

 

Riverine Force

If the Agents arrange their escort with the Navy or the ONI, or go through the MACV-SOG command (with its heavy DELTA GREEN penetration), the helicopter drops them off at Cat Lo Naval Base (near Vung Tau) across the bay from the south end of the Rung Sat. Here they board the Madeline,a US Navy PBR Mk. II with orders to take them wherever they need to go (By River,p. XX), get them back to base, and provide fire support in between if needed.

One officer and three enlisted men crew the Madeline.

The Madeline

Nobody’s idea of a beautiful boat, the PBR (Patrol Boat, River) Mk II mounts two diesel-powered water-jet drives on a low (not to say wallowing) fiberglass hull. Powerful engines and light weight give the PBR a top speed of 29 knots and the ability to turn in its own radius; it can creep up creeks less than three feet deep. At 32’ long with an 11’7” beam, its crew of four and the Agent team crowd it.

The Madelinemounts a 60mm mortar [L2] and two M79 “Thumper” grenade launchers [L1*] that can be fired from swivel mounts or from the shoulder; its crew are issued M16 assault rifles (d+0, [L1 on full auto]) along with personal shotguns and pistols. Each PBR has a powerful radio, a spotlight, and one bulky Starlight AN/PVS-2 night-vision scope (4x magnification, 7.5 lbs. including four AA batteries) in inventory (see FoDG,p. 142).

Speed:32 mph

Maneuver:+1

Notes:The fiberglass hull provides -1 Armor against light firearms (d+0 damage or less) and shrapnel. A Deep One can punch through the hull on a successful 6.

Ensign John J. O’Rourke, Boat Captain

If the Agents went through DELTA GREEN, he’s a friendly. He hasn’t definitively encountered the Unnatural, but he’s seen some shit. That said, he seems scarily young.

General Abilities:Athletics 5, Firearms 4, Foreign Language (Vietnamese) 1, Health 5, Melee Weapons 2, Pilot 4, Unarmed Combat 4

Hit Threshold:3

Alertness Modifier:+1

Stealth Modifier:+0

Attack:fist (d-2), fighting knife (d=1) machete (d+0), Colt .45 automatic pistol (d+1)

Shaken:You have to take command! Only you know how to stop these things, not these civilians!

Chief Petty Officer Lyman Peachtree, Gunner’s Mate

General Abilities:Athletics 8, Firearms 6, Health 7, Heavy Weapons 5, Melee Weapons 5, Pilot 4, Unarmed Combat 6

Hit Threshold:4

Alertness Modifier:+0

Stealth Modifier:-1

Attack:fist (d-2), belaying pin (d+0), Ithaca 37 12-gauge combat shotgun (d+1)

Shaken:You’re back on the football field where you’re a star. Use lots of sports metaphors.

Petty Officer Horatio Lopez, Engineman

Investigative Abilities: SIGINT 1

General Abilities:Athletics 3, Firearms 4, First Aid 4, Health 5, Mechanics 5, Melee Weapons 4, Pilot 2, Unarmed Combat 3

Hit Threshold:3

Alertness Modifier:+0

Stealth Modifier:-1

Attack:fist (d-2), belaying pin (d+0), M16 5.56mm assault rifle (d+0 [L1 full auto])

Shaken:Never get off the boat. The boat is the only safe place, and we have to protect it.

Able Seaman Mark Simmons

General Abilities:Athletics 6, Firearms 4, Health 5, Melee Weapons 3, Pilot 3, Unarmed Combat 6

Hit Threshold:3

Alertness Modifier:+1

Stealth Modifier:+1

Attack:fist (d-2), axe (d+1), M16 5.56mm assault rifle (d+0 [L1 full auto])

Shaken:Everything here is made of bugs, and bugs get in your boots and your mouth and other places. Scratch your skin to make sure no bugs got under it!

 

Army Escort

If the Agents went through MACV/US, or didn’t use a DELTA GREEN tasking when going through MACV-SOG, they get an experienced squad of “swamp rats” from the “4th of the 47th” (9th Infantry Divison, 4th Battalion of the 47th Regiment). Their unit begins mounting raids into the Rung Sat in 1967. Their orders: escort the Agents to one location in the Rung Sat, suppress enemy forces found there, escort the Agents back. Talking Sergeant Louis into extending the mission requires a 1-point spend of Inspiration, or Intimidation (from an Agent with combat experience).

Staff Sergeant William “Bear” Louis

Investigative Abilities:Inspiration 2, Intimidation 2, Military Science 2, Survival 3

General Abilities:Athletics 9, Firearms 7, First Aid 2, Health 7, Melee Weapons 5, Unarmed Combat 6

Hit Threshold:4

Alertness Modifier:+1

Stealth Modifier:+1

Attack:fist (d-2), Ka-Bar knife (d-1), M16 5.56mm assault rifle (d+0 [L1 full auto]), grenades [L1*]

Armor:Helmet (-3 vs. bullets, head only)

Shaken:Get quiet and fixate on one of the Agents. He’s the asshole who did this to you. Don’t let him get behind you.

Specialist 5 Billy Murnane

Investigative Abilities:Architecture 1, Chemistry 1, Survival 2

General Abilities:Athletics 5, Conceal 5, Demolitions 5, Firearms 5, Health 5, Melee Weapons 3, Unarmed Combat 3

Hit Threshold:3

Alertness Modifier:+1

Stealth Modifier:+0

Attack:fist (d-2), Ka-Bar knife (d-1), M16 5.56mm assault rifle (d+0 [L1 full auto]), grenades [L1*], flares, satchel charge [L3]

Armor:Helmet (-3 vs. bullets, head only)

Shaken:Pyromania; let it burn.

Specialist 4 Theo Maniakis

Carries the field radio. Assistant gunner on the M60.

Investigative Abilities:Foreign Language (Greek, Vietnamese), SIGINT 2, Survival 3, Traffic Analysis 1

General Abilities:Athletics 5, Firearms 5, Health 7, Heavy Weapons 3, Melee Weapons 3, Unarmed Combat 5

Hit Threshold:3

Alertness Modifier:+0

Stealth Modifier:+1

Attack:fist (d-2), Ka-Bar knife (d+0), M16 5.56mm assault rifle (d+0 [L1 full auto])

Armor:Helmet (-3 vs. bullets, head only)

Shaken:You hear voices, giving you good advice. Maybe it’s the saints or the angels? Maybe it’s your dead pappou?

Corporal Vic Russo

Investigative Abilities:HUMINT 1, Inspiration 1, Survival 3

General Abilities:Athletics 8, Firearms 7, Health 6, Heavy Weapons 5, Melee Weapons 4, Unarmed Combat 6

Hit Threshold:4

Alertness Modifier:+1

Stealth Modifier:+1

Attack:fist (d-2), Ka-Bar knife (d+0), M16 5.56mm assault rifle (d+0 [L1 full auto]), grenades [L1*], M60 7.62mm machine gun [L1* full auto]

Armor:Helmet (-3 vs. bullets, head only)

Shaken:Explain everything, lay it out, talk everyone down from this bad place we’re in.

Squad

Five statistically identical infantrymen. One also carries ammo for the M60.

General Abilities:Athletics 6, Firearms 7, Health 5, Melee Weapons 4, Unarmed Combat 5

Hit Threshold:3

Alertness Modifier:+1

Stealth Modifier:+0

Attack:fist (d-2), Ka-Bar knife (d+0), M16 5.56mm assault rifle (d+0 [L1 full auto]), grenades [L1*]

Armor:Helmet (-3 vs. bullets, head only)

Shaken:1) Panic; 2) Berserk fury; 3) Desperate attachment to an Agent; 4) Religious mania; 5) Regression to happy childhood memories

 

ARVN Escort

(Army of the Republic of Vietnam)

If the Agents go directly through ARVN General Dzu, they’re eventually supplied them with a squad of miserable draftees under an incompetent officer, Captain Hoang. It takes a 2-point spend of Military Scienceto recognize this while still in base: Dzu also ordered a spit-and-polish drill for the day before, and their Sergeant Chinh is actually a good, honest soldier on punishment detail for informing on his superiors. Thus, the unit looks good in formation.

Captain Tran Minh Hoang

Venal, incompetent, and related to someone that Dzu can’t offend by firing him. The only English-speaker in the unit, although most of the other men understand a few words (“Fire,” “Bullshit,” “Charlie” etc.).

General Abilities:Athletics 3, Firearms 4, Health 8, Melee Weapons 3, Unarmed Combat 2

Hit Threshold:3

Alertness Modifier:-1

Stealth Modifier:-1

Attack:fist (d-2), Colt .45 pistol (d+1)

Shaken:Vainglorious megalomania.

Sergeant Pham Duc Chinh

A veteran of the war against the French, he fights the Communists with the same fervor and effectiveness. If the Agents demonstrate calm and military competence in the field, and if one of them speaks Vietnamese, he tells them that he doesn’t think the radio works.

The men dropped it in the mud on a patrol a month ago, seemingly on purpose, and he hasn’t got a clear answer why or whether they’ve obeyed his order to fix it.

He has Special Weapons Training in his knife.

Investigative Abilities: Survival 3

General Abilities:Athletics 8, Firearms 8, Health 8, Heavy Weapons 6, Melee Weapons 6, Unarmed Combat 6

Hit Threshold:4

Alertness Modifier:+1

Stealth Modifier:+1

Attack:fist (d-2), Maserin commando knife (d+1), M16 5.56mm assault rifle (d+0 [L1 full auto]), grenades [L1*], M60 7.62mm machine gun [L1* full auto]

Armor:Helmet (-3 vs. bullets, head only)

Shaken:Chinh is the last to be Shaken in the unit. His response is to melt into the jungle and disappear, then reappear at base with a story about a VC ambush.

ARVN Squad

A dozen conscripts, statistically identical. Two carry ammo for the M60.

General Abilities:Athletics 5, Firearms 5, Health 4, Melee Weapons 3, Unarmed Combat 4

Hit Threshold:3

Alertness Modifier:-1

Stealth Modifier:-1

Attack:Attack:fist (d-2), bayonet (d+0), M16 5.56mm assault rifle (d+0 [L1 full auto]), grenades [L1*]

Armor:Helmet (-3 vs. bullets, head only)

Shaken:When Shaken, they act as if Shattered. Roll randomly: 1-3: run away; 4-5: freeze up and babble; 6: shoot wildly at everything on full auto

Caterina Garcia-Tomas

Cuban pilot, CIA contractor. A veteran of the Bay of Pigs, Congo, Peru, and lots of other places she can’t tell you about. She’s here to fly her bird and kill Communists.

General Abilities:Athletics 8, Firearms 7, Health 10, Melee Weapons 9, Pilot 9, Unarmed Combat 5

Hit Threshold:4

Alertness Modifier:+1

Stealth Modifier:+0

Attack:fist (d-2), balisong knife (d+0), 9mm Luger pistol (d+1)

Shaken:You get angry, mostly at the rabiblancos Agents who planned this disaster. It’s like the Bay of Pigs all over again! If Shattered, you retreat to robotic stillness, just like in Castro’s prison after the Bay of Pigs.

CIA Gunship

Agents who go through Lansdale or the CIA (or who request CIA backup instead of military escort from MACV-SOG) get an Operation PHOENIX tasking built around their mission. The PHOENIX program hunts, captures, and sometimes kills VC cadre in South Vietnam. Their liaison, “Mr. Fall” has no problem taking out a drug lord or whoever as well – he doesn’t ask questions, he does his job.

The Agents meet Fall at Tan Son Nhut, and after a quick exchange of pleasantries he asks them where they want to go in the Rung Sat, and who their target is. Target established, he leads the way to a Huey gunship parked in a secure area, badging past a guard post. The Agents pile on with any gear, and the helo takes off.

Barry Glenn

Door gunner and mechanic, CIA contractor.

General Abilities:Athletics 6, Firearms 7, Health 5, Heavy Weapons 8, Mechanics 8, Melee Weapons 4, Pilot 2, Unarmed Combat 5

Hit Threshold:3

Alertness Modifier:+0

Stealth Modifier:+0

Attack:fist (d-2), fighting knife (d+0), M134 7.62mm minigun [L1* full auto; each 1 Heavy Weapons point spent counts double]

Shaken:Goes from frame drop, to spot memory loss; Shattered goes to hysterical blindness.

“Mr. Fall”

From the CIA’s Political Action Division, Fall is a veteran of Korea, and of Lansdale’s psychological warfare training sessions with Alpha 66 in Florida and Guatemala.

Fall has Special Weapons Training in his knife and pistol.

Investigative Abilities:Foreign Language (Spanish, Vietnamese) 3, Military Science 1, SIGINT 2, Survival 2, Tradecraft 2

General Abilities:Athletics 9, Firearms 10, Health 8, Melee Weapons 9, Psychotherapy 4, Unarmed Combat 10

Hit Threshold:4

Alertness Modifier:+1

Stealth Modifier:+2

Attack:fist (d-2), commando knife (d+1), Smith & Wesson Model 39 silenced 9mm automatic pistol (d+2), Carl Gustaf “Swedish K” 9mm submachine gun (d+1, [L1 full auto])

Shaken:Ritualistic cleaning and assembling of guns; if Shattered hunts and kills the Agents.