A Fall of MOON DUST

Saturday, November 15, 2003, 7:00 a.m. EST

Red Roof Inn, Rumford, Maine

The investigators rose early and discussed the events of the previous night. They realized that their choice of a Hummer was probably not a wise one as it was too conspicuous. Defending their choice of a large rental vehicle, MAYA said, "What could we fit into a Ford Focus?" They decided that they needed to change vehicles. They left most of their gear in the Red Roof Inn and headed for Portland, Maine.

As they neared Portland MAYA realized they were being followed by a black sedan. MICHAEL watched the tail as Maya drove. They reached an intersection. MICHAEL told MAYA to floor it. She ran the red light. The tail also entered the intersection, but got stuck in the middle of oncoming cars, narrowly avoiding an accident. It was clear that they had definitely been spotted and that changing cars was a very good idea. They also needed a second layer of deception with their identifications. MAYA dropped off MORGAN. MORGAN took a cab to a rental agency and picked up a Jeep Grand Cherokee. While he did that, MAYA and MICHAEL took back the Hummer and grabbed a cab to take them to a rendezvous location. MORGAN joined them there in the new rental.

The agents went to an Office Depot and picked up three sets of pre-paid cellular telephones. They went to a public phone. Delta Green had issued them phone cards from the Delta Green owned phone card company in the Caribbean. The cards offered unlimited minutes and an untraceable connection to other Delta Green cells. They contacted A-Cell and requested new IDs and a cover story as reporters. If anyone penetrated their initial hunter/tourist cover, they would hopefully think they were reporters on some sort of assignment. The IDs were to be sent to a Portland Fed Ex office. Their contact number was that of one of the new cell phones.

On the way back to Rumford the investigators stopped at a one-hour photo place to have MORGAN's pictures developed. MORGAN slipped the girl at the counter a $20 bill to have his pictures processed right away. The pictures were a huge disappointment, with the suspicious military vehicles very much underexposed in the background. MORGAN's photography skills leave a lot to be desired.

At about 10 a.m., as they neared Rumford, paranoia began to set in. They made the decision to get yet another rental vehicle, this one locally, and have MICHAEL transfer their gear into it and shuttle it to a rendezvous point with the Cherokee. They dropped MICHAEL off at a parking lot and he took a cab to a place that rented Chrysler mini-vans. He picked up a nondescript white Caravan. MICHAEL returned to the hotel rooms. He noticed something out of the ordinary, one or two little things moved slightly from where he had left them. After doing a quick but thorough search MICHAEL concluded that their rooms had been searched by professionals. Apparently the paranoia was justified.

MICHAEL drove to the rendezvous point, checking as he went to see if anyone was following. He didn't see anyone. They offloaded the van's contents into the Cherokee while MICHAEL explained about their rooms having been searched. They checked into another hotel, a local Days Inn. MICHAEL drove the van back to the rental place and took a cab to the rendezvous site. He suggested that they leave all their gear in the Cherokee covered by a blanket. "Oh, you with the backache!" replied MAYA.

They went to lunch, taking a laptop with them. While eating they did some searching via Google. They discovered information on a SciFi Channel program about "Project Moon Dust" and "Operation Blue Fly". The special talked about a supposed UFO crash in Pennsylvania and a government attempt to recover the object. This certainly fit in with what they knew of MOON DUST and Blue Fly based on the memo they were sent.

A quick check of their gear showed that along with the weapons they were given hunting licenses. MICHAEL suggested that they find out what kind of hunting was legal in Maine at this time of year so that they could carry the appropriate firearms without arousing suspicion. More Googling found that raccoon's were in season and that they were one of the few animals you could hunt after dark. Unfortunately they are also not the kind of animal you hunt with a large calibre weapon. "Skiing by day, hunting by night. This is getting confusing. What was my name again?" asked MAYA.

MORGAN suggested that the group go "antique shopping", as a cover for asking the locals about the military involvement in the town. On hearing the word "antiques", MAYA responded, "I'm there!"

They left the restaurant. Outside was a white rental van. Getting out of the van were a couple of people in casual clothes who began unloading video equipment. A third person dressed as "business casual" got out of the van. This person looked familiar but none of the agents could place him. Just in case, MORGAN took a picture of MICHAEL and MAYA with this person in the background (in fact MORGAN was trying to get a picture of this person, using the other two as camouflage for his picture).

The agents walked down the main street of picturesque downtown Rumford. They entered B. J.'s Antiques. They looked over some pottery and brought it up to the person at the counter, a middle aged man who appeared to own the store. As he helped them with their purchase they asked him what the military was doing in town. "They are practicing some sort of search and rescue operation. Apparently the terrain around these parts is similar to Afghanistan."

"A lot of maple trees in Afghanistan?" asked MORGAN, sarcastically. The agents bought the pottery and left.

MICHAEL stated that they had to check out Black Mountain. He suggested that they nap during the day and prepare for an all night operation. Before they went back to the hotel, though, they went to the local Wal-Mart and bought a telescope. MORGAN picked up some camouflage coloured spray paint and painted the barrel of the telescope. The agents drove back to the hotel and napped until 4:30 p.m.

The drive out to the service road for Black Mountain was uneventful and they didn't notice anyone following them. Soon after turning onto the service road they were stopped at a military checkpoint. The men stopping them were young, dressed in camouflage but wearing blue berets. MICHAEL identified them as Air Force personnel. MORGAN started eating boiled eggs and jerky in the hopes of looking like the stereotypical southern hunter. The military types refused to let them onto the mountain. They claimed that there were military maneuvers being conducted up there and that it was for their own safety. The agents played the part of obedient civilians. "I'm all for you boys in uniform," said MORGAN, helpfully. They turned around and headed west along the road towards Farmer's Hill.

MICHAEL told MAYA to drive the Cherokee off the road near Farmer's Hill. They would hide the car and hike up the mountain. "I'm in the IRS," cried MAYA. "I don't hike! Only taxes! Only taxes!"

MAYA found a good location to park the car. MICHAEL looked around and said, "This is good, let's go." MAYA's own seasoned eye saw that they needed to do more to camouflage the car. Under MAYA's direction they covered it with leaves. The agents grabbed their .22 calibre rifles, hand guns, medical kit, night vision equipment, the camera and the telescope. They hiked south, towards the mountain.

As they crossed the road, they were spotted by guys in a passing car, who waved to them. They tried to sneak up the mountain, but soon four men in ghillie suits with M16s appeared from out of nowhere. Like the previous soldiers, they treated the agents with civility, but it was obvious that these men were far more professional. They seemed to buy the agents' story that they were "coon hunting", but they still wouldn't let them on the mountain. There was no way of knowing precisely what military outfit these guys belonged to. They escorted the agents down to the road before slipping away into the darkness.

They returned to the car and drove a little bit further west. It seemed obvious that they weren't going to make it up Black Mountain, so MICHAEL pointed them towards Whitecap Mountain. They hid the car off the road, again, and hiked up the second mountain. They had gone less than a mile when they noticed two more soldiers in ghillie suits. This time the agents themselves were not spotted. They sneaked past the soldiers and headed further up the slope. They spotted a second set of two camouflaged soldiers, but once again the agents managed to sneak past.

Near the top of the mountain the trees opened up into a clearing. Before them was a copse of trees. Beyond the copse was the bare summit of the mountain. Squatting in the copse were ten men dressed in standard camouflage. They spent their time observing the summit and talking on military radios. The agents could just make out the figure of a woman on the summit, sitting on a camping chair and apparently meditating.

The agents settled down and made themselves comfortable. They kept an eye on the soldiers in the copse and the woman on the summit. For more than two hours nothing happened. MORGAN said that he needed a tranquilizer gun to deal with people quietly.

"Remember, that shoots needles!" cautioned MAYA.

As their wait continued, they took shifts napping. Finally, around 4 a.m. the men in the copse began to take down their makeshift camp. Two soldiers went up to the summit and escorted the woman back down to the copse. "Abducting a woman on a mountain is part-and-parcel of Deliverance," said MORGAN. "If I hear a banjo, we grab the woman and run!"

The soldiers and the woman descended the mountain slope. After about 30 minutes, the agents followed. They climbed down the mountain and hiked back to the rental SUV without incident. When they drove onto the road, they saw several military trucks head towards East Andover. The agents turned down toward Rumford and their hotel room. Once there, they searched the room but found nothing untoward. They went to bed.

Sunday, November 16, 2003, 12:00 p.m. EST

Days Inn, Rumford, Maine

The agents slept in until noon. They woke and discussed the events of the previous evening. MICHAEL wanted them to climb up the mountain before the military got there so as to avoid problems of sneaking.

They needed more gear, and so they went on another shopping expedition. They drove to a local Radio Shack and bought a parabolic microphone and a tape recorder they could attach to it. They then went to an army surplus store. Luckily the store had ghillie suits in stock. They bought three and prepared for the evening's "festivities".

The agents drove to their previous hiding spot and concealed the car. It was mid afternoon when they hiked up the mountain. They didn't see anyone up there. They came to the copse of trees and hiked further up the summit to a clump of bushes. Concealed within their ghillie suits, they pointed the telescope towards the summit and waited for the military to arrive. Snow flurries were in the air, the temperature dropped and the wind picked up as the day wore on.

The wind continued to build up after the sun set. The temperature dropped drastically, making things uncomfortable for the agents. There was still no sign of any military people. In spite of this, the agents decided that they would spend the entire evening on the mountain if need be. It began to snow after midnight. They continued to watch the slopes for soldiers, and the skies for... anything.

At 1:23 a.m. they noticed a glow coming from the clouds above them. They looked up and the clouds seemed to part. Above them appeared a silver saucer shaped craft, seemingly featureless. It glowed with an unearthly light as it hovered momentarily above Whitecap Mountain before slipping into the valley, flying parallel to the slope. MAYA stared at it in disbelief while the other two agents recovered quickly. MICHAEL motioned for them to follow it. They ran as quickly as they could down the mountain and back to their jeep. They stripped off the suits, piled into the jeep, and headed after the craft.

The UFO flew towards the north. MAYA pulled the car onto the road and headed north. As they topped a rise, they saw the craft hovering above a farm house. There was a flash on the ground and some sort of commotion. The craft slowly rose, angled upwards, and slid into the sky. Suddenly something descended from the clouds and surrounded the craft. This "something" was a collection of iridescent balls of light. The UFO tried to escape the balls, but the balls had it in some sort of grip. The craft's glow diminished substantially and it fell from the sky. The UFO disappeared behind Black Mountain, followed moments later by a muffled thump. The collected balls of light in the sky exploded in a soundless flash. Some of the smaller balls fell to the earth in a shimmering cascade.

The agents turned around and drove towards Horseshoe Pond. They pulled off the road there, quickly concealed the jeep, and donned the ghillie suits again. They hiked along the west face of Black Mountain. They soon spotted the crash site. The craft was partially buried in the ground. It no longer glowed. MORGAN took pictures. MICHAEL and MAYA inspected the crashed UFO. The body of the craft was not as featureless as they earlier thought. There were some sort of squiggles in a half oval pattern carved onto the craft's bottom (or was it top?). The outline that the squiggles formed might actually have been a complete oval but the agents couldn't tell as the squiggles continued along the portion of the hull buried in the ground. MORGAN touched the craft; it felt cool, but not as cold as the outside air would suggest. The metal felt smooth, slimey, almost as though it was covered in oil, though there was no residue on MORGAN's hand.

MICHAEL saw lights approach along the highway and then disappear. They were about to have company. "We know more than the memo now!" said MAYA. "Let's leave!"

MICHAEL disagreed. He wanted to see what the military (or, more likely, Majestic-12) were going to do next. He had the other two agents head toward a clump of bushes further up the slope as he swept away their tracks in the snow. They hid in the bushes.

Shortly thereafter, a couple of Humvees appeared. Four men got out of each vehicle. A short, thin man with three gold teeth, pointed cheekbones, and pointed chin and nose slipped out of the lead Humvee. He stared at the craft and then pulled out his radio. Using the parabolic microphone — which was also hooked up to the tape recorder — MICHAEL could hear one side of the conversation in spite of the swirling wind.

"This is Lepus. Instigate Blue Fly. Recall Blue Fly. We have one down." The man then ordered the other men to set up a security perimeter.

The agents appeared safe, for now, as they were already inside the secure zone. MICHAEL heard a squawk on the radio. "Bird incoming. ETA 45 minutes."

Another Humvee appeared and more men were sent back down the mountain. The temperature continued to drop as more snow fell. The agents became rather chilled, though their ghillie suits provided some insulation.

Right on time, a Black Hawk helicopter appeared above the craft. The wind whipped it around and there was a real possibility that it would crash into the mountain. It was waved off. It headed back towards the east. The storm continued to rise in strength.

Around 5:30 a.m. vehicles started to arrive. These were the vehicles that the agents saw Friday night in East Andover. They obviously were no longer in East Andover if it took this long for them to show up. First on the scene was the eight-wheeled armoured personnel carrier. It stopped and a team in hazmat suits clambered out. The suited personnel pulled equipment out of the APC. They walked around with Geiger counters, as well as chemical and biological "sniffers". The next vehicles to show were the tracked vehicles with lowered "boom" cranes. Finally, with much effort, two of the large wheeled cranes made it up to the craft. Luckily for the military, the craft crashed into a relatively accessible part of the mountain.

After more than half an hour someone in hazmat gear walked over to the man known as Lepus and took off his hood. He told Lepus that the craft checked out as clean. "Thank God," whispered MORGAN.

A couple of dozen military trucks arrived, as well as another couple of Humvees and a large military-looking flatbed truck. Out of one Humvee stepped a tall blonde man with chiseled features, wearing camouflage fatigues and a blue beret. Lepus, who had been calling the shots up until then, went over and saluted this newly arrived officer.

Soldiers from the trucks were shoving the craft as though they expected simple human power to push it out of the hole. They soon gave that up and the tracked vehicles moved into place. Bulldozers had arrived moments earlier, and with their help enough of the craft was freed so that the tracked vehicles, with cranes raised, were able to shift it. The wheeled cranes moved in. Together the four vehicles slowly lifted the craft out of the hole and placed it on the flatbed. As it was lifted out of the hole, the agents could see that the squiggles on the underside of it created a complete oval outline. They had no idea what the scribbles symbolized. The craft was placed on the flatbed squiggles down. Once in place, men scrambled to cover it with an aluminum frame and a tarp. After it was done, the shape of whatever was on the flatbed could not be discerned. This was tough work in the storm, but the soldiers completed it with practiced precision.

The flatbed truck and the tracked recovery vehicles moved out. Remaining soldiers ran up to trucks and hauled out pieces of debris. They set about creating a fake crash site, though the agents had no idea if it was supposed to be a simulated crash for the training that was going on, or if they were faking an "actual" crash. By 9:30 a.m. they were done and jumping into the trucks. Lepus and the others that arrived first climbed into their Humvees and followed the trucks off the mountain.

The agents came out of their hiding spot. They proceeded down the mountain to their hidden jeep, now covered in snow. They brushed away the snow, took off their ghillie suits, climbed in and started the jeep. MAYA pulled onto the road right behind a military Humvee. She tried to follow it, but the jeep slid off the road in the poor conditions. The Humvee had been heading north, towards East Andover.

As they, too, headed north they saw the farm where the UFO had been hovering. They decided to check it out, to figure out why the UFO thought this place was so important. They knocked at the front door. There was no answer. They made their way around to the back door. MAYA spent three minutes picking the lock. It finally opened and they stepped into the house. It looked like a typical farm house. A fairly young family lived there, according to the pictures on the wall. MAYA noticed some broken glass in the kitchen, as though something had been dropped but not properly swept up.

They moved through the house, checking the upstairs first. They didn't find anything suspicious in the bedrooms. The bed in the master bedroom was made, but not the beds in the kids' rooms. The attic held nothing of consequence. They made their way downstairs to the basement by way of the stairs in the kitchen, MICHAEL leading and MORGAN trailing. At the bottom of the stairs was a laundry room. A blanket hung as a makeshift divider between the laundry room and the main part of the basement. MICHAEL shifted it. Inside this room were four people — apparently the family who lived here — tied to chairs and unconscious. MORGAN rushed forward to help them. None of the agents heard the man who had been hiding under the stairs until it was too late. MICHAEL turned just as the man fired a weird looking weapon with a conical front end. All three agents grabbed their ears as piercing pain shot through them. They fell unconscious, the victims of some sort of sonic gun.

* * *

The agents awoke in a military tent/temporary building. There were wooden doors and interior walls, but the roof and the outer walls were made of olive drab canvas. They were each shackled to a gurney. In the room were four armed guards, several men and women in military fatigues and white coats, and the man named Lepus. Lepus stared at them with his intense grey eyes, his tight, sallow skin forming a cadaverous grin that exposed his three gold teeth. MICHAEL tried to break the bonds holding his arms but it was impossible.

One of the men in lab coats moved to MAYA and injected her with a vial of blue liquid.

Lepus stood up and left the room. Shortly after that the people in the white coats left, too. MORGAN noticed that one of them took on a strange look, as if he had just remembered a meeting he was to attend. This same look came over the guards as well. The agents were now completely alone, though not for long. The door to the room opened. In walked a very well dressed gentleman with a Middle Eastern look about him. He was grinning from ear to ear. It was Stephen Alzis.

Alzis began by apologizing for a lie he told them. When they last met he said that he was the owner of Club Apocalypse. That wasn't the case. He had told them that lie because he knew it was the quickest answer, the one that would result in the fewest follow-up questions and waste the least amount of time. Time was a critical factor, after all, as the Bloated Woman was almost upon them. That's why he lied. Alzis and Hubert merely worked for The Manager, the true owner of the club. Alzis wanted to clear this up because he has always been above board in matters dealing with the club. It was important to him that the agents knew the truth before they died. He walked over to each of them and tugged on their bonds.

Alzis claimed he was constantly amused by Majestic-12, the organization that had captured the agents. Majestic-12 liked to think they knew what they were doing but they were dealing with forces far beyond them. The agents had stumbled into the middle of a "family feud", as Alzis put it. He didn't elaborate, except to say that they had seen too much. MAYA was the lucky one. The two men would be injected with experimental chemicals that would result in a lingering and painful death. MAYA, on the other hand, would lose her memories of the last few days. She would appear on a street somewhere with no knowledge of what happened to the other people in her team. Nothing would work loose her memories. The organization she worked for — he never mentioned it by name — would see her as a liability at best and a double agent at worst. Her fate, in a couple of months, would be a shot in the back of her head; a quick and merciful end compared to that of her companions.

There was, however, a way out. If the agents agreed to aid Alzis some time in the future, he would help them escape. He promised that he was quite capable of getting them out of their current fix.

MAYA agreed wholeheartedly as she wasn't going to remember any of this anyway. MORGAN and MICHAEL took only a couple of moments to agree. After all, as MICHAEL put it, what choice did they have?

Alzis' smile grew wider. He told them that the back wall led out to the East Andover town square. There, a few hundred feet away, sat their jeep. Everything they had with them on their persons was gone but they still had all their gear in the jeep. They would have a five minute head start before anyone would come looking for them. He thanked them for agreeing to help him, and bid them goodbye... for now. Alzis stepped out the door.

MICHAEL tried his bonds and they broke, easily. MAYA joined him while MORGAN looked around the room. He saw another vial of the blue liquid that had been injected into MAYA. He grabbed it. MICHAEL lifted up the back tent side. They could see the jeep. There was snow on the ground and the wind was still nasty, but it looked as though the weather was starting to clear up. The flatbed with the craft was off to their left. The guards watching the vehicle apparently didn't see them. They raced for the Cherokee. The doors were unlocked and the keys were in the ignition. MAYA started the jeep and they raced out of East Andover. No one followed.

Monday, November 17, 2003, 5:17 p.m. EST

East Andover, Maine

As MAYA drove the others checked under the seats of the jeep. Alzis was true to his word: the encrypted cell phones were there. The agents found out that it was after five o'clock on Monday afternoon. MICHAEL called ALPHONSE and told him everything he knew about Blue Fly, MOON DUST, the craft and MAYA and the blue liquid. He even mentioned Alzis and their escape. ALPHONSE was nearly speechless. After a moment he considered the craft on the flatbed, saying — mostly to himself — "Jesus, if we can do this..." He told MICHAEL that his orders were changed. They were to disguise themselves as best as they could and go on a reconnaissance mission. ALPHONSE needed to know what was happening with the craft. He would send in some sort of Delta Green strike team to assist. MICHAEL mentioned Lepus. ALPHONSE recognized the name, and in chilled tones warned MICHAEL to be careful.

MORGAN found his camera with the film still in it. They stopped off at a store to have the pictures developed. They realized they couldn't head back to the Days Inn, so they checked into the Rumford Motel, a fleabag in a rundown area of town. MAYA started writing down everything she remembered about the last few days. She found she was beginning to get light headed. MICHAEL cut and dyed his hair. MORGAN went with more of a scruffy look, with bib overall camouflage pants and a trucker's cap. In between writing things down, MAYA dyed her own hair dark black.

The agents drove the jeep to the Safeway parking lot and left it there. They took a taxi back to the motel. MICHAEL contacted ALPHONSE and told him where they were staying. All three agents were pretty tired, in spite of sleeping most of the day away. The two men set a rotating watch, with one staying awake and the other sleeping. MAYA slept through the night.

Tuesday, November 18, 2003, 7:20 a.m. EST

Rumford Motel, Rumford, Maine

MAYA awoke, startled. The last thing she remembered she was in her condo in New Orleans. Suddenly she was in a fleabag motel with the other two agents somewhere in Maine. She had no memories at all of the last several days, which was a shock to her psyche. [MAYA's player had to erase all of the skill checks from her character sheet. She was also allowed to regain all the sanity lost so far in the adventure, then she took a small Sanity hit for waking up in a strange place with no memory. - Editor] MICHAEL and MORGAN explained what happened to MAYA the best they could.

They gave her the notes she had written the previous evening. "Who's been forging my handwriting?" she asked, incredulously.

"Don't look in the mirror yet," replied MORGAN, helpfully.

They got dressed and took a taxi in to town. From there they sent a report off to ALPHONSE, as well as the recordings taken from the microphone and most (but not all) of the blue liquid.