Session 5: Charlie’s A-Gents

Ajax, Aardvark and Acorn had a particularly sophisticated and particularly late soiree at Ajax’s well-appointed town house in London. You were thinking of calling it a night in the early hours when you got a phone call from ALPHA. You had to travel down to Downton Port, in the countryside, because there was an emergency at a top secret base. You were to secure the area and solve any problems on your own, because it was all top secret.

So you all drove down to Downton Port and got there around day break, making a race of it (Aardvark won!). The place was guarded by the local constabulary who weren’t letting anybody in, and the fire brigade were there too. You could see the main research centre was a pyramidal kind of structure, but it had been damaged by an explosion. There were flames coming from parts of the building, and a strange green gas was bellowing out. You thought it might have been sabotage by TWITCH.

Heading down to the pyramid, you could see the body of a technican lying by the main door. You could see he had met a violent death and had been beaten and bitten by some sort of animal, maybe. The door seemed to activate by palm print, which was certainly new-fangled. You decided to try the technicnan’s hand, and the door slid open. You found yourself in a sort of airlock, and after a few seconds you were able to open the inner door.

Immediately you were attacked by five savage (and what looked like) rabid dogs. You quickly closed the airlock and left. You scouted around the grounds and managed to find a few bits of corrugated metal which you thought might make some decent shields against the dogs, and then went back inside. You were able to fend the dogs off pretty well, and shoot them safely, but Ajax got nicked. You thought it might have been a bite from one of the rabid dogs, but fortunately (as fate would have it) it turned out to be a simple scratch from the corrugated metal.

Faced with a long, straight, corridor with many doors on both sides, you decided to shut all the doors, so you could work methodically through the dunge research facility. You noticed on one side was a large lab full of cages. All the cages were open and there were a few dogs still alive inside. They seemed to be rabid, and surrounded by many dead dogs in a scene of horrific carnage.

On the other side you could see a similar lab with all the cages open, but only one animal there. In one cage there was a chimpanzee reading (or looking at the pictures) of a children’s book. You went to have a chat with him. He managed to communicate by pointing to pictures from the book. He seemed to think monkeys (or apes) had caused the explosion, and then they had all got into a limousine, or something. You called him Charlie (the Chimp).

You had a look through the records and discovered this part of the facility was dedicated to uplifting moneys (or apes) so they might be useful for performing special monkey (or ape) spying missions.

Looking through the other section you discovered it was researching into creating super-strong strains of rabies and infecting dogs, for some reason. You also found a couple of dead technicians here. It looked like they had been killed by the rabid dogs, but their injuries were not similar to those of the technician by the door.

The third section was for creating new chemical weapons and so you took some rudimentary precautions (damp face masks and gloves) before entering the third section. You saw a number of dead technicians, who looked like they had been killed by the fire or the fumes. A whole bunch of chemicals and items had been piled on the floor and then set alight. This had obviously caused the explosion and it was billowing green fumes. You managed to put the fire out, but not before Aardvark lost consciousness from the fumes and had to be dragged out.

Finally Acorn climbed up through the suspended ceiling and put the rabid dogs out of their misery. As you left, a policemen told you that something strange was happening in the village and that you’d better go and sort it out. So you all jumped into you respective vehicles and drove down towards Upper Downton.

Nearly at the village you each felt something heavy land on the top of your cars. And Ajax had his soft top ripped off by a huge gibbon. Ajax pulled the gibbon off his car and threw it into the road in front of him, and ran it over. Then he shot at the gibbon on Aardvark’s car, causing it to jump onto his car. At that very moment, an E-type Jag came roaring round the corner, driven by a hapless chimpanzee, heading straight for Acorn’s Bond. Acorn managed to swerve onto the verge and avoid the E-type, but Aardvark didn’t and hit the Jag head on, getting knocked unconscious in the crash. Acorn carried on into the village finally shaking the gibbon off, and Ajax drove around the wreck, and headed for the village shooting the gibbon on top of his car.

In the village Acorn noticed a bunch of chimps in the local tailor’s trying on suits and hats and generally going ape. He decided to knock on a door to talk to a villager and a frightened villager did manage to tell him that the village was in uproar and being invaded by monkeys. He then knocked on the police station door to see if he could get some help. The door was answered by a gorilla wearing a police helmet. Acorn asked if he could see the sergeant, and a huge silverback turned up. It punched Acorn in the face sending him sprawling into the road.

Meanwhile, Aardvark recovered from his crash and headed for the village. A gibbon jumped at him from the canopy but Aardvark managed to shoot it as it jumped towards him. Ajax put his car in reverse and opened the door as he drove back through the village, and Acorn managed to jump into the car as it passed him. Then they picked up Aardvark.

You hatched a plan to take pot shots at the Gorillas from distance but that wasn’t very effective, and then you decided to head back to the research facility.

Once there, you went to speak to Charlie. You explained you wanted him to come down and sort it out, and he seemed to agree. And so you drove back down to the village and knocked on the police station, and left Charlie there while you retreated to a safe distance. He gestured and chattered at the gorillas, and seemed to be telling them off. He got them to sheepishly stand in the village square. Then he beckoned a few of the surviving gibbons down from the trees.

The chimps had gone on to the tea shop, where they were having a party. Charlie convinced them to come out and wait on the green, too. You wanted to know who had caused the explosion, and the chimps all pointed to one of their number, who looked guilty about the whole thing. And so the monkeys (or apes) all waited patiently on the green to be picked up by the authorities.

So another successful mission. You got the situation at the research centre under control, rounded up the errant monkeys (or apes) and found out who caused the explosion. And you decided to recruit Charlie into the A-Gents, codenamed: A-Gent Ape.

Session 4: Abacus Now

So we started the session with everyone in the house in the village in the army base. You had rescued Aardvark and Abacus, but were still surrounded by a whole regiment of crack (ish) troops. Despite your predicament you decided to press on with your mission, and attempt to capture Colonel Short.

Ajax sneaked out and lit a fire in one of the far village buildings as a distraction. When the fire had got going everyone else sneaked out. Tom got out, but Abacus was spotted, and Aardvark ducked back inside the house. The soldiers shone their torches at Abacus and ordered him to surrender, which he did. But as they went towards him Ajax sprang from the darkness, taking out two of them out and Aardvark shot the other, hoping he might not be killed as he was probably just an honest Tommy doing his bit for queen and country, maybe.

All the commotion had attracted the attention of other soldiers and soon were advancing towards you in numbers. You all legged it across the base, vaguely in the direction of the HQ. But ahead of you you could see the soldiers at the HQ getting ready to defend it, and the soldiers behind were closing and firing. You were the meat in the sandwich. Abacus and Aardvark decided to give themselves up, to allow Ajax and Acorn to slope away unseen, as still no one knew they were even on the base.

Aardvark and Abacus were beaten up by the angry soldiers, and Short came over and ordered them to be taken to his office. In his office, Aardvark was injected with truth serum and interrogated. He revealed that there were four of you, and the code words for the mission. So Short ordered that Green Apples to be radioed on the A-Gent frequency. This was about 5:00 and so Airforce One was only an hour away.

Meanwhile Acorn and Ajax closed on the HQ block, Ajax was spotted and shot. And dragged to Short’s office. Meanwhile, Acorn broke into the top floor of the HQ, and could overhear Aardvark being interrogated.

They dragged Ajax into the office and Short explained his great plan in some detail. It seemed he was an agent of TWITCH. He was going to kidnap the PM and the president and hold them on the base. He was to give the world the ultimatum that if all incarcerated TWITCH agents weren’t released within the hour then the PM and president would be killed. He had no plan for his own escape as he fully expected to die whether the TWITCH agents were released or not. You did wonder why he was able to speak so openly in front of his soldiers, whether they were in on it too.

Meanwhile Acorn crept back into the radio room he took out the radio operator and the guard guarding him in one move, and then rebroadcast the Red Apples code. Then, to be sure this would not be countermanded and with no real expertise in electronics, he smashed up the radio set with his bare hands. Then he crept out again to look into Short’s office.

Meanwhile, the three prisoners were working on their handcuffs but their training didn’t seem to be doing much good. Annoyed by Short, Ajax decided to attack him anyway, and with his hands  tied behind his back managed to head-butt him and knock him unconscious. The soldiers gave him a good beating for this.

While Short was being resuscitated by the Medical Officer Acorn leapt through the window and grabbed Short from behind.

Taking your cue, you all attacked the guards. Abacus knocked into three of them, before they could open fire, and Aardvark disrupted the others. There was a bit of a stand-off, with Acorn holding Short, and some soldiers still armed. Aardvark attempted to explain to captain Stephens that Short had gone renegade and none of this had been ordered. Stephens seemed to think the world was on the brink of world war three and this was the only way to stop it, or something. Short had been feeding him and all the men some sort of warped version of reality. But in the end Aardvark managed  to convince him, and the soldiers agreed to take orders from the A-Gents.

Mission mostly successful. The meeting between the PM and the President did not take place, but you managed to keep them safe, thwart a TWITCH plot, and bring another TWITCH operative to justice.