December is here, which means in a few weeks Christmas is finally coming. Things around BW have continued in routine, as routine as a black ops group is.
The only downsizes are the still comatose Joy and Fear.
At least Thanksgiving and your birthday events came out great without any problems and you have Jack Bauer, someone that Joy apparently trusts a lot, managing Joy's job until she wakes up.
Though you still wonder what exactly the microfilm that Russian left you in his will contains inside.
MARTIAL:
-[X] Tanking It:
Cost- 700, CoS- 50%
Roll- 85 13(Bonus)= 98 CRIT
Bonus= 8 (Training Field) 5(Jack)= 13
Deciding to see if the theory of tank shots not hurting you or the rest of the Watchmen, you ordered a volunteer testing session to see if tank shots could hurt you or the rest of the Watchmen. Both Indy and Christopher volunteered for the test.
Long story short, it was discovered that all Watchmen, including yourself; could withstand getting hit by tank shells without any damage.
The only thing that gets destroyed were the clothes.
Reward- All Watchmen in BW are immune to tank shots.
-[X] US Military Cooperation (Localized):
Cost- 1000, CoS- 50/???
Roll- 21 5(Jack)= 26
Because Jack was still new to his role and was concentrating more on helping you and the rest of the Watchmen with their tank training, Jack did not have time in establishing relationships with other members of the military.
Reward- FAIL
INTRIGUE:
-[X] Request help in reading the microfilm:
CoS- 100%
AUTOMATIC SUCCESS
Continued in 'Read the Microfilm' below.
-[X] Secret Identities:
Cost- 900; CoS- 60/20/10%
Roll- 95(Fury)= 14 FAIL
Re-Roll= 98 5 (Fury)= 103
CRIT ROLL- 87 3(OVERFLOW)= 90
You really are wondering if Fury was somehow cursed with that Chinese saying you heard about:
May you live in interesting times.
You ordered Fury to begin the process to acquire false IDs for BW's operatives just in case they need to operate outside the US. He said he would get right on it. But he ended disappearing the next hour later.
Though you should have not been surprised when a week later, Fury appeared carrying with him several cases of documents. The contents, the bulk of the CIA's unused LEGENDS.
Fury somehow, due to his 'skill' and the CIA's current situation; he managed to find the correct person in the CIA to bride and that person managed to steal the bulk of the CIA's LEGENDS. The type of LEGENDS that are so complex and beautifully detailed that only really, really looking deeply into them would show they are fakes.
Fury acquired enough LEGENDS to cover well beyond the number of operatives working with BW. And best of all, thanks to the CIA's current situation, the theft went unnoticed.
When you told the rest of the main BW staff, well the reactions were mixed. Half of them were just looking like they expected something like this to happen, while the rest were shocked as hell; specially Jack, being the newest member.
Reward- CIA's LEGENDS archives stolen and now belong to BW.
BW operatives have an easier time moving across the globe, hiding in plain sight, and not getting spotted. It can even use in domestic operations to help decrease information leaks and even hide people in the United States, Europe, or Third World nations if we so desire.
STEWARDSHIP:
-[x] Construct Pharmaceutical Factory
Cost- 5000, Upkeep- 2000; Time- 6 Turns, CoS- 50% (Cost already taken and upkeep already in the list)
Roll- 65 5(Hayden)= 70
Construction of the factory continued without any problems, especially with Hayden making sure nothing out of the ordinary happens.
CONTINUED (finish in Turn 16)
-[X] Hartford Investment Opportunities
Cost- 500, Upkeep- 100; Time- 1 turn, CoS- 40/20/5%
Roll- 39 10 (Bonus)= 49
Bonus- 5 (MC Oversee) 5(Hayden)= 10
Just like before, priority of the factory took much of Hayden's time and due to the revelations of the microfilm, you did not have time for this either.
FAIL
LEARNING:
-[X] Create more catalysts:
Cost- 150, CoS- 100%, Reward- Batch of stones (d50) will be ready in one month
AUTOMATIC SUCCESS
Will be ready in Turn 15.
-[X] Upgrade Lab 4:
Cost- 180, Upkeep- 50, CoS- 30%, Reward- Upgraded Laboratory 5
Roll- 87 14 (Bonus) = 101 CRIT
Bonus- 5(Marcus) 5(Robert) 2(Strangelove) 2(Christopher)= 14
CRIT ROLL- 74 1(OVERFLOW)= 75
READ ACTION BELOW…
-[X] Research Cube:
--[X] Computer Bonus
Cost- 2000, CoS- 50/???, Reward- Cube examined,??? (5 Next Attempt)
Roll- 98 49(Bonus)= 147 CRIT
Bonus- 5(Marcus) 10(Robert) 2(Strangelove) 2(Christopher) 10(Laboratory) 5(Nuke Lab) 10(Computer Room) 5(Next Attempt) = 49
CRIT ROLL- 79 47 (OVERFLOW)= 126
CRIT ROLL 2- 83 26(OVERFLOW)= 109
CRIT ROLL 3- 92 9(OVERFLOW)= 101
CRIT ROLL 4- 79 1(OVERFLOW)= 80
You now really starting to wonder what you have unleashed when you told all your scientists to unlock the secrets behind the Cube.
For the next two weeks, with the exception Christopher when he was dragged out for training his body; all of BWs scientists were working inside the laboratory, where a lot of requested materials were daily delivered on a round the clock routine. You mostly did not notice this due to having to deal with the Microfilm, so you let them continue their own since you trusted them.
Whatever they were doing was apparently something big since during that time the laboratory was expanded to the point the building was now larger.
It was on the final day of the two weeks that everything changed.
The lights around the base turned off and for some reason, the generators did not kick in after two minutes passed. At three minutes later, the lights were turned on again, but you noticed that there was a weird light coming from the main laboratory followed by what you could described as a shockwave that affected your BLs.
Wanting to investigate what happened, you went there and upon entering, you found a very different lab and upon following the trail in this lab, you headed to what looked like the newest room in the laboratory and upon entering the room, you found all the members of the R team either on the ground or sitting looking tired as hell, with the exception of Christopher who was eating Tacpur like if he was a vacuum cleaner.
But the main thing that got your attention was the Cube in the middle of the newest room, which was connected to a very strange machine that seemed to be sucking out light from it and injecting light to a series of glowing blue high tech boxes the size of a fridge.
When you asked what happened, the team began to tell you their combined tale.
Apparently when they began to examine the Cube, at first things started out like normal, but as time passed, each one started to get ideas into their heads on what the Cube was and how to tap into its function.
They discovered that Cube was a source of infinite energy, a type of energy that made nuclear energy look like a cheap battery and was clean unlike other types of energy generation; and that they discovered a way to tap into that energy directly and a way to store it.
What interesting was that the technology to tap and store the energy was something none of them ever though of before, yet they managed to create the technology as the days passed and they also developed this strange desire to build the technology right away, mostly forgoing rest and sleeping the bare minimum.
(Unknown to any of them, the source of their ideas came from the Cube, whispering to them on what do build and how; and all of them entered a fugue state.)
It took them days and a lot of restructuring around the lab, but they managed to finish their project. Upon finishing it, they connected it to the base's power grid and now the base is running off the Cube and no longer connected to the grid.
They also explained that besides providing energy to the base, they also knew how to build batteries that could store the Cube's energy and then those batteries could be connected to either a building or a city's power grid, they could provide power for an established time depending on what they are powering.
Either way, this discovery was, in Robert's words; the greatest scientific discovery in history of mankind.
While you were impressed at what they built and the potential the Cube could offer in terms of cutting off the US's dependency on oil for energy; you saw that the entire R team was tired for working days straight. Which is why you told them for the next two weeks, they would be forbidden from working and be on mandatory rest.
Another thing was that everything related to the Cube was now considered TOP SECRET, cause if anybody found out about it, specially with the USSR; it would be war. You also tasked Fury to find any way to hide the existence of the Cube.
Though one detail that Robert confided into you was that just as the Cube's potential for energy generation is without limit; this also applies to the possible creation of weapons based on the Cube's energy; who Robert said that in theory a bomb with this type of energy would make a nuke look like a firecracker.
That and Christopher said that with the Cube's energy and using the storage system, it could be possible to create what any fan of Buck Roger's would dream to have: the ray gun.
Oh, and one interesting detail you and Indy discovered was that while inside the territory of the base, any BL abilities became easy and did not tire either of them even after hours of shooting BLs willy nilly. The only thing that was different between the BL usage of before and after was the Cube's activation.
Robert suspected that somehow Watchmen's bodies with the ability to use BL were able to tap into the energy from the Cube directly if they are in range of it. This just provided more proof that the tablet and the Cube were related.
Reward-
Lab Upgraded from Lvl. 4 to Lvl. 6 (15 to actions in lab, 1 reroll in lab actions)
Access to Cube technology tree unlocked.
Cube batteries created, capable of providing power to anything that runs on energy.
Action to sell energy either directly from the cube across the power lines or create batteries for sale available.
Upkeep reduced by 1,000 due to Cube providing free power to the base.
Connection between Watchmen and Cube discovered; Usage of BLs while inside the base is without cost.
Due to necessity to build the machine and batteries quickly, next turn, all Learning Actions are locked and cannot be taken.
DIPLOMACY:
-[X] Attempt to make friends
Cost- 40, CoS- 50/40/20/10%
Roll- 24 12 (bonus) = 36
Bonus- 5(Walter) 2(Indy) 5(Carol)= 12
-[X] Ties with the Great Powers of the "1st World."
--[X] NATO: CoS- 70%
Cost- 900, Time- 2 Turns; CoS- Read each nation section
Roll- 12 12 (Bonus)= 24
Bonus- 5(Walter) 2(Indy) 5(Carol)= 12
-[X] Help me bury all these hatchets (and ICMBs non-nuclear or otherwise) with the "Second World" (Author- RookDeSuit)
--[X] USSR
Cost- 1100, Time- 2 Turns; CoS- 30%
Roll- 37 12(Bonus)= 49
Bonus- 5(Walter) 2(Indy) 5(Carol)= 12
Just like last month, Walter, Carol and even Indy tried to establish new diplomatic ties with allied services, NATO and even with the USSR. But sadly, this could not be done again, too many things happening at the same time, it could not be done.
Though personally the less you dealt with the USSR, the better; specially after discovering what the Microfilm contained.
Rewards- FAIL in all 3 actions
PERSONAL:
-[X] Read the Microfilm
Roll- 91 10(bonus)= 101
Bonus- 5(Fury) 5(MC Bonus) = 10
CRIT ROLL- 100 1(OVERFLOW)= 101
CRIT ROLL 2- 78 1(OVERFLOW)= 79
Your rich.
No scratch, you are not rich.
YOU ARE FILTHY RICH!!!
With Fury helping, the both of you managed to read the contents of the microfilm and what you both found was beyond the expected.
The microfilm contained the information on how to access a hidden slush fund of a group called the Philosophers, who apparently amassed this during the time of WW2 and whose most important members were operating inside the CIA and KGB; that was called the Philosopher's Legacy.
Inside the microfilm also included a letter from Boris explaining that the slush fund was stored in a series of financial institutions and that he had stolen the money from its previous owners due to being the group's former financial officer and using the schism that the Philosophers ended up having due to being slip in two factions between the US and the USSR to hide his tracks.
The letter also stated that he managed to hide the slush fund in a series of money laundering and maneuvers that anybody who had the instructions could access the money without alerting anybody of it been used.
When WW2 ended, the Philosophers had amassed the following amount of money:
100,000,000,000.00
The total amount of money as of that month due to collected yearly interest:
168,539,325,842.70
The letter ended saying that his son knew about the Legacy and that he found out that he was going to kill him for it; so as a precaution and final revenge against his son; he left the microfilm in the possession of the man his son hated the most, which was you. This along with a warning of being careful of the two factions of Philosophers, for they are hunting down the Legacy, for whoever gets a hold of it could turn their host nation into the dominant superpower of the world.
It took Fury time, but he managed to confirm that everything, at least the financial parts; inside the Microfilm was true. Though he did not risk trying to find out if this Philosopher group was real on the off chance that investigating them might spook them.
You knew that Fury and you would need to hide this with every fiber of your beings, specially from the CIA cause if Boris was right the American members were operating there and he and BW were already on hot water with the CIA even though they did not know that BW was responsible for their situation.
Either way, you would have no problem in keeping BW funded for a long, long time.
You were really thankful that Boris sent the Legacy to you and was not in the hands of Borisovitch. Lord knew what that bastard could do with the resources the Legacy provides.
One thing is for sure; at the end of the month, everyone in BW will nominate you for Boss of the year when they see their Christmas Bonus. Though you would have to decide when you were going to tell the main BW staff of this, cause even they would notice if a large amount of money was being used around BW.
Reward- Access to Legacy Slash Fund, able to access it at anytime without being detected and use it immediately.
Partial existence of the Philosophers discovered.
Note- Out of the MC's group, only Fury knows about the Legacy.
-[X]Oversee an action- Personally oversee an action and help carry it out.
--[X]Hartford Investment Opportunities
-[FREE]Investigate weird occurrence
CoS- 50/20/5%, Time- 1 Turn
Roll- 28
Nothing weird happen across HQ this time and there were more important things to do than investigate the weird occurrences.
FAIL
Translation Roll:
Current= Part 3 DC 325
Roll- 40
New DC= 285
Fear Coma (gets 25 this turn)
Roll- 55 25= 80 vs. 86
FAIL (30 for next turn)
Joy Coma (gets 5 this turn)
Roll- 195= 24 vs. 47
FAIL (10 for next turn)
Random Event Roll= 55= NOTHING HAPPEND
Final Cost Result:
New Upkeep= 6,220 (current) 50 – 1000= 5,270
New Income= 592,198 (current) - 7470 (turn cost) = 584,728
Legacy Fund= 168,539,325,842.70
Two more weeks until 1962 ends, which you could honestly say that it has been an interesting year; from becoming the head of a black ops group, gaining superpowers, experiencing a near possible nuclear war occurring, being present for the discovery of a new source of energy that could change the world to becoming quite possibly the richest person on the planet due to a Russian of all people not wanting his work to end in the hands of his kinslayer son.
One thing is for certain, regardless of what has happened, BW will continue to do its duty and stand tall. Either way, just because we are a military group did not mean that we could not celebrate New Year's.
Though you hope that both Joy and Fear do wake up one day soon.
Stewardship:
-[x] Construct Pharmaceutical Factory
Cost- 5000, Upkeep- 2000; Time- 6 Turns, CoS- 50% (Cost already taken and upkeep already in the list)
Roll- 75 5(Hayden)= 80
PASS
Even though it was the holidays, construction of the factory continued on schedule without any delays with Hayden supervising directly.
CONTINUED (finish in Turn 16)
-[X] Hartford Investment Opportunities:
Cost- 500, Upkeep- 100; Time- 1 turn, CoS- 40/20/5%;
Roll- 42 5(Hayden)= 47
Sadly, just like the past tries, Hayden could not get a chance to meet with the town's leadership to discuss investments due to checking the factory's status and the town being busy with their own holiday festivities.
FAILED
Diplomacy:
-[X] Help me bury all these hatchets
--[X] USSR
Cost- 1100, Time- 2 Turns; CoS- 30%
Roll- 22 12 (bonus) = 34
Bonus- 5(Walter) 2(Indy) 5(Carol)= 12
--[X] Ties with the Great Powers of the "1st World." (Author- RookDeSuit)
--[X] Take a trip to
--[X] NATO: CoS- 70% Cost: 900
Roll- 8 12= 20
Bonus- 5(Walter) 2(Indy) 5(Carol)= 12
--[X] Britain: CoS- 60% Cost: 900
Roll- 24 12= 34
Bonus- 5(Walter) 2(Indy) 5(Carol)= 12
Your diplomatic group tried their hand again but this time the holiday's made it impossible to get their jobs done right, with their counterparts either being busy or on vacations.
You were now starting to wonder if you should continue trying to do this when it should be better to get better Homefront dealings first.
Rewards- FAIL in all 3 actions
Martial:
--[X] Upgrade Base Defenses 4-
Cost- 250, Upkeep- 40, Time- one month (1 turn), CoS- 45/30/10%,
Roll- 51 5(Jack)= 56
Jack, due to time constraints in response to the holidays, was able to tweak the base defenses to be even more deadly than before by just a bit.
Though after what happened when 1963 rolled in, Jack is not worried on what to do when if an enemy enters the base from the outside, but rather what happens if an enemy enters from the inside of the base.
Reward- Base Defenses Upgraded from Lvl. 4 to Lvl. 5 (15 base defense rolls)
--[X] Get more weapons
Cost- 200, Time- 1 turn, CoS- 70/50/20/5%
Roll- 99 5 (Jack)= 104 CRIT
CRIT ROLL- 79 4 (OVERFLOW)= 83
When Jack sent the requisition to get more weapons for BW's soldiers, you though it was just going to be something routine.
But a few days after the request was sent, you and your staff were surprised and horrified at what the shipment they received at the base continued.
All the weapons, from handguns, rifles to grenades; that were ordered arrived without any problems along with a large amount of ammo to last a while. The problem with the shipment lay with what was included with the weapons, which made you think that either the person in charge of sending the weapons was either sleep walking, drunk or was desperate to get to his vacation that he or she was signing off on orders without looking.
The extra weapon inside the shipment was the experimental Davy Crockett Atomic Battle Group Delivery System, or M-388 Davy Crockett for short. The Davy Crockett was, in simple terms, a portable nuclear rocket launcher. With the weapon came two nuclear warheads.
The horrifying idea that BW just got handed two nuclear warheads in a simple weapons requisition was too much. Robert went on a rant on how the DC was supposed to be an experimental weapon in the testing phase if his old contacts were right and that instead of being in a lab or locked up with the rest of the nukes, it got to BW's hand.
Immediately, you ordered Jack to have the DCs to be locked up in a secure place in the base until the situation was dealt with in the Hill. While common sense said that you should have reported this immediately, you decided to keep this quiet until after Christmas and New Year's to not disrupt the mood around the base, specially those that you gave permission for Leave.
Oh, and on a side note, by curiosity; you picked up the DC and found out that you or other Watchmen could ignore the weight on the DC and use it like a regular one man rocket launcher as opposed to the mandatory crew necessity to use it.
Reward- Extra weapons shipment with ammo arrived at BW; 1 Davy Crockett with 2 warheads acquired
Intrigue:
--[X] The Art of Tradecraft
Cost- 1000, Upkeep- 400; CoS- 40/20/10%
Roll- 35 5 (Fury)= 40
Because you and Fury were busy with hiding the Cube's existence with false stories, he did not have time to establish a spy division for BWs. Though seeing the results of their Cube hiding efforts, you forgave the guy for not doing this.
Reward- FAIL
--[X] Hide the Cube:
Cost- 1000, Upkeep- 300; CoS- 50/10%,
--[X] Oversight Action
Roll- 4 5 (Fury) 5 (Oversee)= 14 FAIL
Re-Roll= 98 5 (Fury) 5 (Oversee)= 108 CRIT
CRIT ROLL- 87 8 (OVERFLOW)= 95 CRIT
With the discovery of the Cube's potential, you knew that its existence could not be discovered to anybody outside of BW. Which is why you got together with Fury and began to find ways to keep the secret from getting out.
In the following days, Fury did everything he could to hide the secret and came up with protocols regarding this duty, which in the end you could honestly were very deep and convincing. This included any accidental discoveries and fake stories or rumors to counter the Cube's existence.
Meanwhile, you helped when you could and at the same time decided to come up with a legitimate public image for when the Cube batteries are distributed. You talked with Robert and it was decided that when the batteries are made public, the story would be that they are batteries powered by an experimental nuclear reactor that Robert created.
With Robert's public image related to nuclear things, the people would buy it and while there was no doubt that other powers would be interested in them, it was better they think they are some nuclear type batteries than batteries fueled by a weird and strange thing like the Cube. The fact that this might make the other powers invest in nuclear batteries and waste resources in trying to emulate something that was not real was a bonus.
Reward- Cube's existence hidden, fake stories regarding accidental discovery ready to be used and implemented, specially when Cube batteries and/or energy is distributed outside of BW.
Personal:
--[X] Oversee an action- Personally oversee an action and help carry it out.
--[X] [FREE] Christmas Bonus=
--[X] 5,270 x 2= 10,540
Cost- above vote, CoS- 90%
Roll- 80
PASS
'Look Christmas Miracle'
--[X] Investigate weird occurrence
CoS- 50/20/5%, Time- 1 Turn
Roll- 48
With all your duties and the spirit of the holidays, you did not have time to investigate. Not that anything weird occurred for the rest of the year.
Though the same could not be said for what happened at the exact second when 1963 rolled, which fits the category of weird occurrence.
FAIL
--[X] Confide the Legacy
CoS- 50%
Roll- 39
You really wanted to tell the core of your group about the Legacy but between your work and the fact that some of them decided to take leave to go visit their families and/or go on vacation, the reunion could not be done.
You would try again next year, specially since the most important person that deserves to hear about it due to being a founding member of BW finally awoke from her sleeping beauty nap.
FAIL
Christmas Roll= 99
'Look Christmas Miracle'
Translation Roll:
Current= Part 3 DC 285
Roll- 5
New DC= 280
Fear Coma (gets 30 this turn)
Roll- 10 30= 40 vs. 38 PASS
'Look Christmas Miracle'
Joy Coma (gets 10 this turn)
Roll- 91 10= 101 vs. 1
CRIT PASS 'Look Christmas Miracle'
'Christmas Miracle':
It was a week before Christmas that you decided to be good boss and gave all of BW's employees a fat juice Christmas Bonus, which was basically two months' salary in advanced. Though due to the time limit of Christmas nearing and so many things to do, you had to take the money from BW's official account instead of taking it from the Legacy fund. Your just lucky that the primary account had enough money to cover the expanse.
Either way, all your BW employees, from the highest members to the basic help; were happy and thankful for the bonus. The other thing was that you approved leave for many BW employees due to Christmas and New Year's.
By the time Christmas came, the only people around base were all the Watchmen, Jack, Brandon, Turtle Squad (though unofficially, they were on active duty due to losing a bet against the other squads and forcing them to stay while the other two got leave) and you. The rest were on leave either enjoying themselves in Hartford or having gone to visit their family or friends outside the state.
You decided to host a small party to just celebrate. The only person who was not in the party was Brandon, mostly due to staying in the medical wing to take care of the comatose Joy and Fear.
Imagine the surprise of everyone in the party when Brandon comes running into the party saying that a miracle has just occurred.
The entire group ran toward the medical wing and the surprise was seeing both Fear and Joy out of their comas. Fear was on his bed, fully awake but looked he was trying to get up but could not do it.
Meanwhile Joy, she was up from her bed, looking at a nearby mirror. She was examining her chest region, like she was looking for something but was not finding it*. And it looked that unlike Fear, Joy seemed to be in full health since she was able to move her body without delay.
(*Her snake scar got healed.)
When she moved her gaze from the mirror to look at the group, her eyes lit up like the rest of the Watchmen but for some reason, the group felt like a weight was on their shoulders momentarily while she was looking at them. The second her eyes became normal, the weight disappeared.
"So, would someone please explain to me what has been happening." Joy asked.
After that, Brandon gave both former comatose patients extensive medical tests to determine their status. During that time, you and the group briefed both patients on what has been happening in BW while they were down.
Fear needed more explanation since he has been in a coma far longer but since he was following Joy's lead, he took
Joy did not known which news was more shocking, between the discovery that the Cube was now an energy source, that she was reunited with her old student Jack, or that somehow BW got sent a pair of nuclear weapons by accident (when she heard that, the metal cup she was holding was crushed like it was a piece of paper).
At that time, she decided to just ignore for now, and be glad that she was awake. And after years since WW2, she would enjoy a Christmas while not being alone.
After Brandon finished his examinations, he shared the results.
Fear's body was exactly like Indy's but due to being in a coma for long term, his body was atrophied. In Brandon's medical opinion, Fear would need rest and physical therapy for a month before he can regain normal mobility and be cleared for combat.
Joy's body on the other hand, it was a complex answer. Even though she was in a coma, her body was in top physical shape and was not atrophied. Now regarding her body's composition, while on the outside she looked the same; her interior seemed to be like yours; which was demonstrated when Joy lifted a startled Christopher off the ground with two hands with ease.
Brandon stated that he did not know if Joy's body is like that because she was a female and that female transformations are different than males. He would need more female Watchmen to gain a baseline.
Joy can do activities next month, though if she wants to go back to active duty, she will need to undergo training to see what her body is capable of.
In the end, BW was glad their original military commander is back and that now BW had two more Watchmen to their forces was good thing. One of them, the Mother of Special Forces; now was a superhuman.
The fact that they awoke on Christmas was just a bonus.
This was indeed, as some called it, a Christmas miracle. Though you did hope that the year was going to end peacefully without anything bad or dramatic happening.
Though if you and the rest of the group could have known what was going to happen on New Year's Day, of what the Cube would literally drop on BWs lap, you should have been careful what you asked.
Reward- Christmas in BW celebrated, all employees received generous bonus
Joy and Fear awake from the comas.
Fear requires 1 turn of rest before becoming active.
Joy can do actions starting next turn but requires a mandatory training action.
Random Event Roll= 100
New Year Arrivals:
January 1, 1963
"Okay, now that everyone is either not drunk or panicking following the event on the last few hours, we can discuss what the fucking hell happened." You said to the main BW members in the meeting room.
The BW members in the room where all the active BW Watchmen, Jack, Robert and Brandon. Joy and Fear where in the medical wing. Brandon was in the medical wing just a few minutes ago but now arrived at the meeting to insert his own notes.
Speaking of notes, you needed to tell purchase chairs that could withstand the weight of a Watchmen. At that moment, you and all the other Watchmen had to be standing up in the current meeting.
The reason for the impromptu meeting was what happened at exactly 12:00 am when it became New Years.
Following the surprised but successful Christmas party, you decided to throw a New Year's party as well. The party, after much nagging to Brandon; took place in the medical wing, mostly to allow Joy and Fear to not be left out of the festivities. Besides those two, the only other addition was Robert who came back. He was also happy that Joy and Fear were awake and like the other nerds, was curious about Joy's status as the first female Watchman.
The party started out good and everyone was having a good time. This changed when the traditional countdown began and on the exact moment the time reached zero, the lights across the medical wing turned off. At first, everyone though someone was playing a small joke but then the lights began to turn on and off on their own, and weird flashes of blue were seen in them.
At that moment, all the Watchmen began to feel something, and their guts were telling them to run toward a certain location. All of them, except for Fear due to his body's condition; ran toward the location, even Joy. The rest of the group ran behind them, trying to catch up to them.
The location turned up to be the Cube room, where the Cube was acting weird, throwing out what felt like pulses that affected all the machinery that was connected to it.
When the rest of the group arrived, the nerds try to see what was happening to the Cube for some minutes, trying to stop it. But nothing they did, even disconnecting the cables from the Cube; worked, while the pulses coming from the Cube seemed to only intensify.
It was only after trying everything they could safely think of (Joy slapped the back of Indy's head when he suggested shooting the Cube) that the pulses stopped, and the Cube then shot a beam of light into a nearby wall and created something that was not ordinary.
It looked like a bubble of darkness, surrounded by a blue line.
A few seconds later, two objects came out of the 'bubble', falling into the ground and the 'bubble' disappeared, while the Cube returned to its normal looking state.
The entire group just stood still, trying to process what just happened.
The first one to act was Joy, who ran toward the objects. Upon reaching them, then kneeling to check on them. She then looked to the rest of the group; her eyes momentarily glowing.
"BRANDON GET OVER HERE. THEIR TWO KIDS AND ONE IS INJURED!!!" Joy yelled.
This snapped the group out of their trance, and all began to work.
The two objects, like Joy said; were kids. Both were unconscious and arrived with their hands holding together.
One was a male kid, who looked to be 8 years old; wearing something that looked like it belongs to one of those science fiction novels.
The other kid was a girl, who looked to be the same age of the male kid wearing a red dress. But unlike the male kid, she had injuries and was covered in blood.
At the situation, Brandon immediately got to work on the girl. After Brandon did the best he could for the girl, he said that he needs both kids to the medical wing.
Joy carried the girl while you carried the boy, leaving orders to find out what happened.
Hours later, Brandon managed to stabilize the girl and keep the boy also stable.
You told the group to report to the meeting room to discuss preliminary findings. You did order Turtle Squad to be stationed in the Cube room on the off chance someone or something comes out of the Cube again.
Meanwhile, Joy stayed in the medical wing, mostly to stay near the girl.
Robert began the debriefing.
"Well, sir. First things first, after running every test possible we could think of, the Cube is back to normal." Robert said.
"After what we just saw, what exactly would be considered normal for that Cube." Jack said.
"Hey, like I said, we tried everything that we could think. Maybe will run more tests when the others come back from vacation. But at this moment we have no idea what the fuck happened, nor why the Cube by either coincidence or purpose decided to act like it did at exactly 12:00 AM. The fact that it was able to create a hole in the middle of the air defies all reason." Robert said, exasperated at trying to understand what the Cube did.
"For some reason, the hole the Cube made remained me of the bubble in Leigh Brackett's 'Sword of Rhiannon'." Christopher said.
"You mean an event horizon? While I will admit that sounds farfetched, but after everything we have seen here and the fact that two kids came out of it, I guess it could be possible that just like in the novel, they were transported from somewhere, rather somewhen else." Robert said.
"You mean time traveling? Okay, I know we deal with strange things here but that is just going beyond the norm." Jack said.
"Trust me kid, there are some things both in here and out there in the world that defy the norm." Indy said.
"Well, if the kids are time travelers from the future, it would explain the armor the boy was wearing. It looks nothing we have at our disposal and it looks like something a science fiction artist would draw of a futuristic armor. That is not even going into the fact that at what happened when we managed to get the armor of the kid." Robert said.
"The armor did have an emblem on it in places that they are normally put in military uniforms but it did not match any emblem Joy, Fear, Robert or myself know of. Here is a drawing of it." Brandon said as he showed a drawing of the emblem.
"Anybody here seen this before?" You asked.
The rest of the group saw the emblem but all said negative.
"Okay, at least it's a lead regarding where the boy comes from and who made the armor. Speaking of armor, what did you find about the armor?" You asked.
"Right now, we do not know anything about the armor, since we were busy trying to get it off the boy to examine him. What we did find was that while looking for ways to get the armor of him, we stumble upon what looked like a button on its waist and upon pressing it, the armor seemed to like to release some locks and we were finally able to take it off the boy in separate pieces. We will examine it later." Robert said, with Christopher nodding at his findings.
"Okay. Next thing to discuss on the list. Brandon, how are the kids?" You asked.
"The preliminary examination I did on the kids revealed some things. I would like to mention that both kids did not show any sign of radiation, so that is a plus." Brandon said as the group became a bit calmed at that.
The last thing they needed was for two kids to suffer from radiation poisoning, something that was horrible.
"Now, the male kid, he is fine, no injuries nor any visible problems, just in a coma like the girl. He is completely healthy for a kid his possible age range, which I put him being maybe around 8 or 9 years old. The female kid on the other hand…" Brandon stopped speaking, who seemed to be trying to determine what to say, his hands forming fists so tightly that you though he was going to bleed into them.
"She was not fine. Now, just as I was starting my examinations, the girl, even though she is in a coma; started to react in a negative way to what I was doing, like she was scared, which was starting to ring warning bells in my head. It was then that Joy came and told me to allow her to do the examinations while telling her what to do. I was going to tell her no but the way she was looking at me, with glowing eyes; it made me follow her orders. Which was strange cause when she began to do the examinations following my instructions, the girl stopped reacting and was peaceful." Brandon said, taking a pause and then continuing.
"From what Joy found, the girl had scars. Both old and new ones, and they looked like they came from both invasive medical and combat settings. She is also way too pale and is just a bit malnourished, thus making determining her age somewhat difficult. The blood that was on her clothes, we checked, and she was not bleeding anywhere; so luckily it was not hers. To be honest sir, she has all the signs that she came from one of those hell forsaken Nazi camps." Brandon finished saying, with anger at the last sentence.
Everyone in the meeting room frowned at that bit of knowledge. All the WW2 veterans knew about that, either from seeing them firsthand or hearing about them from the Nuremberg Trials; and other the scientists also knew about those places, which served as an example of what a scientist without morals was capable of.
"That does not sound good at all. Is there anything that is fine with the girl? Also, what do mean Joy was demanding to examine her?" You asked.
"Hell, to be honest, sir, the only thing that I had Joy examine that was fine with the kid was that she was still a virgin, which I feel was a blessing." Brandon said.
"As for why Joy asked to examine the girl, I don't know. All I know is that she was careful when examining the girl and she was angry, which was noticeable by her eyes glowing, which kept intensifying with every time we found something wrong with the girl. She stopped visibly getting angry when we found out that the girl was still a virgin, calming down a bit."
"Heck, the way Joy is acting around the girl, it's like she was a very worried mother bear looking after her injured cub." Brandon said, with a small smile at the description he just said.
The rest of the group tried to understand what Brandon just said, especially Jack.
Joy, acting like a protective mother to a girl they just found. It felt surreal.
You decided to store that bit of info for later and concentrate on the current situation.
"Okay Brandon, that is nice to know, and if the situation was not dire, it could be a funny thing to mention to her. Either way, you said that both kids are in a coma, any idea when they could wake up?" You asked.
"Right now, I have no idea. There is no way to tell if the method of travel they went through affected them and how long it would take. Best thing we can do is to keep them healthy like we did with Joy and Fear; and hope for the best." Brandon said.
"Fine. Do whatever you can to make sure they are safe, especially the girl. Now, is there anything else that needs to be aired?" You asked.
"Well sir, one thing we need to consider is the now possible security issue for the base. Now that we know that the Cube can somehow drop people into the middle of the base, we need to consider on the possible chance of an incursion. I mean, this time we got lucky that it was just a pair of kids. For all we know next time it could be a prepared team of Spetsnaz or if we consider sci-fi things, giant bugs like in that novel Christopher was reading, what was it, Rocketship something." Jack said.
"Starship Troopers, and I will admit that the possibility of an alien invasion, while really improbable, it's still a possibility." Christopher said.
You stayed silent as you contemplated on what Jack said and came to a decision.
"Okay, regarding the security issue, Jack I want you to come up with a way to deal with any unwanted intrusion through the Cube. For now, Turtle Squad will remain there to guard the place until you get a plan in place. Get together with Robert and the other scientists and come up with a way to protect the place that does not interfere with any work the R personnel needs to do with the Cube." You said.
'Last thing we need is for a machine gun turret accidentally hitting the Cube and causing a giant explosion that makes our nukes look like firecrackers.' You thought.
"No problem. I think we can come up with something that the docs over here won't find troublesome." Jack said.
"Same." Robert said back.
After hearing that, you decided to say the final piece of this meeting.
"We will tell the missing BW members about this once they come back but everything related to what happened will be kept secret, known to us only, especially the existence of the kids. Once they are awake, we can deal with who they are and if by some chance they are from another time." You said as you then paused to take a breath and continued talking, this time pointing directly at Indy.
"Also, regarding this new ability the Cube just literally dropped on our laps, Indy, you are the archaeologist here. After you finish translating the tablets, try to find anything you can about the Cube. The fact that is was found in an ancient tomb means that it's quite possible it might have some history in mythology." You said.
"Will try my best sir. At least it helps that the Cube was found in a Norse tomb, so that at least narrows down the mythology." Indy said.
"Okay, anything someone was to speak of?" You asked the group, but they all said no.
"Very well, dismiss." You said. The group nodded and each left the meeting room, leaving you alone in the room.
"Happy fucking New Year. Why do I get the feeling this is only the start of something big for us?" You muttered after everyone left.
END.
Reward=
-New Year's Party went without a hitch
-Unexpected development leads to new discovery regarding the Cube
-New arrivals at base, stuck in comas
Final Cost Result:
New Upkeep= 5,270 (current) 340 = 5,610
New Income= 584,728 (current) – 16,390 (turn cost) – 5,270 (upkeep cost)= 563,068
Legacy Fund= 168,539,325,843
