Session 2: Just a Little Prick

You were all called to a TACTICs, Tactical Assessment: Combat Training, Initiative and Coordination, assessment. A-Gent Anvil had done it before on his Advanced Urban Protection Course. On the way in you bumped into Achilles and Athena on their way out. Achilles (a desk jockey) had had a rough time of it, getting hit 18 times, and scoring 82%. Athena had performed much better, scoring 94%.

Steve the technician explained that you had to run the gauntlet of a number of hidden, automated mannequins set up in a mock-up of a Russian village (actually a real English village). They fired tiny darts at you, and if you were hit by a dart, or you shot innocent civilians, then you lost points. He would be watching you through CCTV and controlling the mannequins from his control room.

First up was Aardvark who made his way through the course well enough. He had just a single dart on him as he reached the objective, but missed a sniper on the church roof, and got hit four more times, scoring 95%.

Ajax lost his nerve, when faced with an old lady looking at him through the window, thinking her knitting needle might be a gun, and shot her in the face. Apart from that he did the course perfectly, not getting hit by a single dart, and scored 99%.

Acorn, similarly, shot a civilian, an intimidating-looking little girl playing with a ball. Then he got shot once doing the course, before completely missing the sniper, and scoring 95%.

Anvil also did the course perfectly but missed the sniper at the end (the mannequins were all set up in different positions from his previous course), getting hit twice and scoring 98%.

You all went back to Ajax’s house to chat wittily about you day. You got a call saying that a Major Franks had died suddenly while fishing and also that A-Gent Achilles had been found dead in his car by the side of the road. Anvil knew Franks and so went with Aardvark to investigate him. Acorn and Ajax drove off to check out Achilles.

You could not see anything suspicious in Franks’ death. It looked like he had just had a heart attack while fishing, although the Major has been super-fit. None of the witnesses saw anything suspicious. Anvil went to talk to his wife. He could not sense anything wrong there, but did ask if Franks had done any courses recently. In fact he had done the TACTICs Assessment just three days before (scoring 96%).

After checking out the scene, it looked to you like Achilles had died somehow while driving home from the TACTICs Assessment and his car had rolled off the road.

Back at Ajax’s you also heard about an old colleague of Ajax who had died in his crashed glider. You wondered whether he had done the TACTICs Assessment, and sure enough he had done it two days ago, scoring 94%.

It quickly dawned on you that the TACTICs Assessment might be using some sort of poisoned darts and that the number of times you were hit during the assessment determined your life-expectancy. This worried Acorn and Aardvark a lot more than it worried Ajax.

You decided to head back to the TACTICs range in the dead of night. You knew that Steve lived in the middle of the village, and so you broke into the control room and Anvil did his best to make all the systems safe and stayed in the control room watching on CCTV as you sneaked up quietly on Steve’s house. Aardvark made too much noise and Steve opened fire with a dart gun. Aardvark managed to avoid the darts and with his position given away, Acorn and Ajax did a pincer movement on him, disarming him skilfully.

You questioned Steve in a forceful and frank manner. He went off on a rant criticising all the arrogant, know-it-all agents who strutted around his range like they owned the place, never giving any thought to hard-working technicians. He told you that Professor Stourby, who you had vaguely heard of, had supplied him with a big bottle of a rare, natural venom which he put on the darts. He also said there was no known antidote.

You found out about Stourby at HQ. He had been one of the top minds in British intelligence on poisons and venoms and other nasty bits of chemical warfare. He always used naturally occurring substances. He had been sacked by the government after becoming addicted to some of the poisons he used and going nuts. He lived in a big house in the countryside.

That morning Athena called in sick (And Aardvark and Acorn weren’t feeling great, either). You made sure she got to a hospital and had the best care she could, and then drove off towards Stourby’s house in Anvil’s Dodge.

Stourby lived in a Victorian mansion surrounded by a tall wall. Even from far away you could see that it was wildly overgrown. Getting closer, you noticed that the flora was extremely exotic, maybe Amazonian, and the stranger sounds of exotic fauna could be heard beyond the wall.

You decided not to knock on the narrow door leading into the garden, and Acorn and Ajax climbed up onto the top of the wall. Meanwhile Anvil set a load of explosives around the gateway, hoping to make it large enough to get his car through.

Looking into the garden, you could see it was a veritable impenetrable jungle, and you caught brief glimpses of strange figures moving within. Then Acorn saw a human shape in the forest, and suddenly he was hit by a poisonous dart. Together with the poison he had already received from the TACTICs it made him unconscious. He fell back, off the wall, and was fortunately caught by Anvil.

Ajax made the decision to enter the jungle alone, and jumped down into the undergrowth. Meanwhile you managed to slap Acorn into consciousness, and you all piled into the Dodge as Anvil detonated the explosives.

Ajax could make out two figures inside the garden. They seemed to be Amazonian tribesmen armed with blowpipes. He fired at them, but they blowpiped back and Ajax too was hit by a dart and fell to the ground. At that moment the garden wall blew and the dodge came roaring to the rescue. Acorn managed to drag Ajax into the car, and then Anvil drove it through the French doors into Stourby’s drawing room.

As you piled into the drawing room Aardvark got him by a blowpipe and fell unconscious. Acorn and Ajax went through the house looking for Stourby, while Anvil reversed out again and began hunting the tribesmen  through the jungle, activating the flamethrowers and scythes which he had had especially fitted to his car.

As Ajax and Acorn searched the house Ajax felt a heavy weight drape itself about his shoulders and heard a hissing in his ear. He quick smashed the snake against the wall, and continued with his search.

You managed to find Stourby’s lab, and the man was sat in it, waiting for you. He made a brief speech about being sacked just because he was nuts, and then threw a box of frogs over you. Acorn only just managed to avoid getting hit by the flying, highly poisonous frogs. Ajax charged Stourby, but Stourby bit him back, and the venom that he was so addicted to seeped into Ajax’s bloodstream and knocked him unconscious once more.

Acorn used his martial arts prowess to smack the professor in the face, and take him down for good. He also found a big bottle of red liquid in the lab marked ‘antidote.’

Meanwhile Anvil was still driving round the garden, scythes whirling, flamethrowers blazing in pursuit of the extremely elusive tribesmen.

Another successful mission. By getting the antidote you saved the lives of all the military and intelligence personnel who had gone through TACTICs Assessment over the past few days.