Where Condors Dare

A Feng Shui Production

A Delta Green Film

 

WHERE CONDORS DARE

 

Starring

Jason Gallagher
Alana Goodall
Tom Neeley
Jimmy Pope
Mark Vaughan

 

Screenplay by Allan Goodall

 

Directed by Allan Goodall

 

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DELTA GREEN / EYES ONLY

DEPARTMENT OF WAR
OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES
Washington, D.C.

6 OCT 45

SUBJECT: Transcript of Mission Briefing, Operation CONDOR, 19 JAN 45

THE FOLLOWING IS A TRANSCRIPT OF THE MISSION BRIEFING GIVEN TO STRIKE FORCE JULIET, OPERATION CONDOR, ON 19 JAN 45 AT AAF BASE CERIGNOLA, ITALY.

COL. WESTBROOK: At ease. I apologize for bringing you in so soon after your last mission, but this comes from the top. Last November, Dr. Alexiy Semenovich Krylov fell into Kraut hands. He worked for GRU SV-8, our Soviet counterpart. He was investigating documents left behind by retreating Nazis when he was caught in a counter-attack.

Through ULTRA intercepts we recently discovered that Dr. Krylov was taken to Nadabaum Castle, in the Bavarian Alps, in early December. We don't know what the Nazis are doing with him, but we can assume that it's not pleasant.

Nadabaum Castle is a Karotechia stronghold. We know little about it, except that the castle has been fortified and altered over the last three years. We can't bomb the castle because it is on the side of a narrow valley, with a convent and an orphanage below it.

The war will soon be over. We know it, and the Krauts know it. ULTRA intercepts suggest that the Karotechia will not go down without a fight. We fear that they may try some sort of "scorched earth" strategy in the dying days of the Reich.

Your mission is to infiltrate Nadabaum Castle, rescue Dr. Krylov, and uncover the Karotechia's plans. If possible, you are to destroy Nadabaum Castle, though getting out with Krylov and any information is your top priority.

You will fly out on the first clear night on board a B-24 Liberator from this air base. You will parachute into a relatively clear plateau five miles from the castle. You will enter the castle and execute your mission objectives.

After you complete your objectives, make your way down the slope to Nadabaum village. There you will find a boat left for you by Italian partisans working in the mountains. Take the boat up river to a nearby lake. Fire a red flare and a Catalina flying boat will pick you up.

Unfortunately, we don't have reinforcements to make up for casualties on your last mission. However, the Soviets are sending a GRU SV-8 operative to aid in the rescue of Dr. Krylov. Captain Ivanova Stepanovna Kovalenko is arriving this evening. She is one of their top agents, fluent in German and knowledgeable in arcane lore. She will also act as your medic. If anyone has any objections to working with a woman, speak up now.

Good. I can't stress how important this mission is. The Karotechia are capable of anything. Now that the Krauts are cornered, they are more dangerous than ever.

Good luck, and Godspeed.

DELTA GREEN / EYES ONLY

 

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Monday, January 22, 1945, 01:00 hours

Somewhere Over the Bavarian Alps

A lone B-24 Liberator banked to starboard as it flew over a deep mountain gorge in the Bavarian Alps. Inside the aircraft, bathed in red light, sat seven soldiers in white winter camouflage suits and parachute gear. The jump master stood by the main door, in the side of the aircraft. He turned on a red light, then opened the door. Cold air rushed and the roar of four large engines swept into the aircraft.

The group's leader, Major John "Ski" Tuberski, stood up and hooked his static line to a cord. The members of his team followed suit. Ski moved to the doorway and grasped it. The jump master counted down from five with the fingers of his right hand. When he curled the last finger into his fist, he switched the light from red to green. Ski jumped out of the plane. The rest of the team followed.

Ski fell for less than a second before his parachute opened above him. He held onto his straps as he drifted to a small plateau high on the mountain side. He absorbed the shock of the landing with his legs, and rolled in the soft snow. Ski quickly detached his parachute, buried it, and unbundled his gear. In less than a minute he was ready for action.

He wandered to the tree line. One of his team members was hung up in a tree. It was "Sparks", the radio operator. One of the parachute cords was wrapped around Sparks' neck. Sparks wasn't moving.

The other team members joined Ski. Ski ordered Rouge, the rifleman, to climb the tree and cut the radio man down. Rouge got most of the way up the tree, but lost his grip. He fell to the ground and landed with a crack. The unconscious form of Rouge was spread before them. The man's leg was bent at a sickening angle.

Ski grumbled, then grasped the tree and began climbing himself. Meanwhile, Capt. Ivanova Kovalenko removed a splint from her backpack. She set Rouge's broken leg with speed and precision as Ski cut Sparks loose from the tree.

The major lowered Sparks' lifeless body to the ground. Lt. John "Jack" Pepper unstrapped the radio. The members stripped Sparks of his ammunition. As Rouge woke up, moaning, lieutenants "Johnny" O'Ryan and John "J.T." Thomas dug a shallow grave. They quickly buried Sparks in the shallow grave. It was not an auspicious start to the mission.

Rouge implored his team to leave him behind. Ski would hear nothing of it. Rouge was mobile. He ordered the injured man to make his way down the mountain to Nadabaum Village. A boat prepared by Italian partisans waited for them at the dock. He was to climb into the boat and remain hidden until the team escaped from the castle. One of the team members cut a tree branch for Rouge to use as a crutch. Since they were short a radio operator, they gave the radio to Rouge; the others were already loaded down as it was.

As Rouge hobbled down the mountain, Ski led his team toward Nadabaum Castle, some five miles to the east.

Monday, January 22, 1945, 03:20 hours

Outside Nadabaum Castle, Bavarian Alps

The team caught their first glimpse of Nadabaum Castle while they were still half a mile away. It hung on to the slope like a mountain goat perched on a ledge. It's slim, black towers topped with narrow cone-shaped roofs marked the corners of its tall, imposing walls. It looked like a collection of spikes thrust out from the mountain face, hoping to catch an unfortunate hiker. The team pressed on, grimly.

They halted at the edge of the woods. They were within sprinting distance of the castle's walls. Jack and Johnny watched for anyone patrolling the outside of the castle, but Jack was certain there were no exterior patrols.

The team noticed a guard walking along the upper wall. The guard looked out into the woods where the team was hiding. The team scattered for cover, but not before Ski was spotted. From her hiding place off to Ski's right, Ivanova yelled, "Hilfe! Hilfe!" The guard looked toward her, slowly raising his Mauser rifle. Ski pulled one of his silenced .45 automatics from its holster. A whispered shot slammed into the guard, dropping him.

Jack saw a guard on the castle wall. The guard did not notice the prone body of the one Ski shot. Jack fired his silenced rifle while barely aiming. The first shot missed, but the second shot caught the guard in the eye, killing him instantly.

Ski, slipped over to Jack. "We'll call you 'God' from now on," he said.

With no time to lose, Ski ordered the team forward. He reholstered his gun. From his pack he extracted a rope and a folding grappling hook. Ski swung the rope over his head and then threw it up to a spot between two battlements. The hook caught on the first try with a soft click. Ski grabbed hold of the rope and began climbing. Part way up he lost his grip and collapsed to the ground, landing face first in the soft snow.

Another guard approached from the other side. This third guard stopped in his tracks, stunned at the sight of his two prone comrades. Jack fired a shot into this guard, hitting him in the throat and shattering his spinal column. This guard fell without so much as a whisper. Three guards were now dead, but the castle's inhabitants still hadn't been alerted to the strike team's presence.

Ivanova was next in line to climb the wall. She vaulted for the rope, bouncing off Ski's back. She climbed to the top of the wall with no trouble. J.T. was right behind her. He, too, bounced off Ski's back and easily climbed the wall.

Ivanova checked the first guard, the one Ski had shot. He was dead, with a well-placed shot to the head. The guard's uniform indicated he was a standard Wehrmacht soldier. She looked down into the courtyard. A squad of Waffen SS soldiers were drilling, though it was unclear if they were about to go on guard duty, or if they were just drilling for the practice. In the middle of the courtyard stood a small tank. Crates and barrels were scattered about the courtyard, near the walls.

As J.T. arrived at the top of the castle wall, Ivanova moved to the nearest of the corner towers. J.T. saw the dead guard. He stripped off his white camouflage pants and overcoat, and plopped the German's helmet on top of his woolen cap, hoping any other guards would mistake him for one of their own. As he put on the helmet, he saw another guard moving toward the same tower as Ivanova, but from the intersecting wall. He pulled out his silenced .45 and fired at the German. The guard fell on the parapet, narrowly missing a plunge to the courtyard below. No one else seemed to notice the fallen guard.

Johnny bounced off Ski's back and climbed the rope as easily as the previous soldiers. He was followed by Jack, who had a little more trouble with the rope, but still managed to climb with relative ease. Ski dusted himself off, grabbed the rope, and this time reached the top without incident.

There were two guards left on the parapets. Jack screwed the silencer onto his rifle and aimed at the two farthest guards. They were about to walk past each other. If he timed it right, he could take them out with a single bullet through the neck of the first and into the neck of the second. He squeezed off a shot. It missed. Ski was quick to react. He shot both of the guards with his silenced pistols.

Ivanova heard voices in the tower. There were Germans at the tower's base. She leaned in to see where they were. A shot rang out and a bullet grazed her arm. She jumped back from the doorway.

Guards and Waffen SS troops yelled as the alarm went out. Johnny leaned over the edge of the parapet and let loose a stream of bullets from his Johnson light machine gun. Ski ran over to help Ivanova. J.T. holstered his pistol and pulled the bazooka from his back. Jack, with half the bazooka ammunition, ran to load J.T.'s weapon.

Ivanova pulled out a grenade and threw it down the stairwell. The Germans jumped out of the way with a yelp just before the grenade exploded in their midst. Ski followed with a grenade of his own. One of the guards was caught in the blast.

J.T. aimed his bazooka at the tank. Jack had the weapon loaded in record time. He tapped J.T. on the head. J.T. fired the bazooka, but the shot went wide, detonating against the base of the far wall, penetrating the ancient stone and creating a large hole. Jack jumped away so as not to be caught in the weapon's backblast. J.T. yelled to Jack, "Oh, boy! Reload me!" Jack was too busy pulling himself off the parapet, so J.T. was forced to reload his own bazooka.

Johnny fired at the SS troops in the courtyard. The SS troops dove out of the way. Out of the corner of his eye Johnny saw the tank's turret move. The tank was bringing it's gun to bear on J.T.'s position on the wall. Johnny threw his johnny gun over his shoulder. He grabbed the rope, which was securely attached to the castle's wall, and jumped off the parapet, slowing himself with the rope. He arced out over the courtyard and landed gracefully on his feet.

Jack also saw the turret move. He brought his rifle up to his shoulder and aimed at the tank's vision slits. He fired, first one shot, then another. The glass in the slits cracked, making them virtually opaque. The tank's driver and commander now couldn't operate without opening their hatches. They were locked in their vehicle unless they wanted to risk Jack's marksmanship.

Johnny sprinted for the tank. Nazi bullets raked his thigh and ricocheted at his feet. Johnny grimaced at the pain in his leg. He pulled out a grenade and pulled the pin with his teeth. He threw it at the tank's barrel. The grenade wedged itself in the cannon's muzzle. A second later it detonated, bursting the barrel and warping it. At that moment, the tank fired its main weapon. The shot hit the bent barrel and blasted back into the turret. Ammunition in the turret detonated, and flames exploded from the turret's hatches. The Waffen SS men threw themselves to the ground. The tank roared with flame and gouted thick, black smoke.

A Nazi guard, a sergeant armed with an MP-40 submachine gun, charged up the stairs at Ivanova. Ski threw himself at the guard, in an effort to protect the Soviet fighter. He missed the guard, who deftly stepped aside. The guard levelled his gun at Ivanova. Ivanova pulled out her fighting knife. She whirled around with the blade extended, catching the guard across the chest. He lashed out at the woman, but missed. Ski jumped up and kicked the Nazi. The Nazi swung back at Ski, but to little effect.

The SS men, led by an Obersturmführer with a submachine gun, concentrated their fire on Johnny. Jack reloaded J.T.'s bazooka. J.T. aimed at the cluster of Nazis. He fired. The Obersturmführer saw J.T. at the last second and jumped out of the way. The other SS men weren't so lucky. Most of them were immolated in the blast. Jack pulled up his rifle and J.T. switched to his carbine. The two Americans on the wall, and the johnny gunner, wounded the Obersturmführer and killed the rest of the SS stormtroopers.

The Obersturmführer fired at Johnny, pinning him near the tank. He charged Johnny's position. Jack took careful aim, and fired at the Nazi, hitting the man's submachine gun. It flew out of the Nazi's hands and rattled across the cobblestones. Unarmed, the Nazi screamed and leapt at Johnny. Johnny cooly fired half his Johnson's clip into the German. The Obersturmführer's corpse slid to a stop at Johnny's feet.

Ivanova and Ski continued to fight the Nazi guard, who was remarkably resilient. Ski called for help. J.T. fired a burst of his carbine into the guard. Jack shot the guard in the groin. The Nazi dropped.

The team quickly ran down the tower stairs to the courtyard. Debris and Nazi bodies littered the cobblestones. Ivanova tried patching her own wound, but without much success. She did staunch the bleeding from Johnny's wound, incurred during his dash to the tank. Jack placed a bandage on Ivanova and she was as good as new.

The strike team moved to the heavy double doors leading into the castle's keep. The doors were unlocked, and opened easily. The great hall was about 10 yards wide and twice as long, with a balcony running around it. Two sets of stairs, one on either side, led up to the balcony, and presumably to higher points in the castle. Ski took point, and all of the members watched warily in case Nazis appeared on the balcony or from hidden doors.

They got to the heavy door at the end of the great hall with no interference. Beyond was a narrow corridor ending in a spiral staircase. The team walked carefully down the hall, and paused at the stairs. The stairs extended to the floor above and the floor below. They quickly decided to move down the stairs. It was hoped that Dr. Krylov would be in the lower sections of the castle. The castle's generators would most likely be in the lowest level. J.T. needed to get to the generator room, and its expected supply of fuel. He would plant his explosives there, and hopefully destroy the entire structure.

Ski slipped down the stone staircase. The staircase terminated one story below the main level. Ski carefully peaked around a doorway. About twenty feet away, down a corridor, was a German MG-42 machine gun and its crew of two. Ski, his .45 automatics already in his hands, jumped through the door way and fired several silenced rounds into the two Nazis. They were dead before Ski hit the ground.

Ski looked at the MG-42. He unclipped the strap from the rifle lying beside the assistant machine gunner. He found a place to mount it on the MG-42. He threw the strap over his shoulder and wrapped the ammo belt around his left arm. He was ready for anything.

Ski moved carefully down the hall with his team in tow. Johnny was immediately behind him. J.T. was behind the Russian, and Jack brought up the rear.

The corridor ended in a door. The major pushed the door open while standing out the way of an expected hail of bullets. There were no shots. Ski carefully peaked around the corner. The room contained 30 crates in two rows of 15 with an aisle down the middle. Each crate was about 7 feet long, three feet wide, and four feet high. German writing was stenciled along the top and sides of each crate.

Ivanova walked over to the nearest crate. The writing said, "Warnung! Biologische Gefahr!". "It says there are biological hazards in the crate."

Johnny thought it best to open the crates. There was no telling what might be in them. Not knowing could be more dangerous than exposure to whatever was inside. Major Tuberski agreed, but he didn't like the idea of everyone being lumped together when they opened the crate. He would cover everyone from the far end of the chamber, which ended in an alcove with another set of spiral stairs.

Ski marched along the center aisle, while Ivanova and Johnny prepared to open one of the crates. Ski got halfway across the chamber when the crates — all of them — began opening by themselves.

Johnny and Ivanova jumped back from the crate and brought their weapons to bear. A man in a German uniform climbed out of the nearest case. His half-open eyes were fully dilated. His motions were deliberate and uncoordinated. His skin was a pale grey. As he moved, the scent of dust and mildew wafted from him.

The German soldier was dead, but he still moved with purpose as he aimed his rifle at Ivanova. A Nazi zombie rose from each of the crates.

Ivanova reacted first. She pulled out a grenade, yanked the pin, and threw it across the room. With Ski in the middle, she aimed long, hoping to spare the team's commanding officer. The grenade flew too far. It exploded in a hail of shrapnel that tore flesh from a clutch of nearby zombies, but did nothing to stop them. Ski was scratched by a small piece of shrapnel.

Johnny fired into the nearest undead German soldier. Jack and J.T. joined in. Pieces of Nazi zombie flesh flew off as bullets struck them, but none of them went down. The zombies slowly, deliberately brought their weapons to bear.

Ski was stuck in the middle of the room, facing the strike team, with 15 zombies behind him, and the same number in front of him. He yanked out two grenades, pulled the pins with his teeth, and threw the grenades behind him without looking. The grenades flew long and detonated well away from most of the zombies. One zombie crashed to the floor, another clung to his weapon but could not raise it due to the amount of flesh it had lost from its shoulder.

The zombies fired, seemingly at random strike team members. Ivanova was struck by a bullet. She yelped in pain as she fired three rounds into the nearest zombie, one smashing into its skull. It fell in a bloodless heap of meat. Green fluid leaked from its riddled corpse.

Johnny and J.T. fired their weapons into small clumps of zombies. Most of the Nazi undead stood in their crates, but some shambled forward.

Jack brought his scoped rifle up to his shoulder. He spotted a zombie with a grenade attached to a bandolier. Jack relaxed, took in a breath, and squeezed the trigger. The bullet struck the grenade. The grenade exploded, and the zombie disintegrated in spray of grey meat and green fluid. The blast and shrapnel struck other zombies, tearing away limbs and large chunks of dead flesh.

Tuberski pulled out two more grenades and threw them behind him. This time the grenades landed within a cluster of zombies. Two disintegrated while eight others lost significant pieces of flesh.

Another clutch of zombies focused on Ivanova. Perhaps something in the remnants of their minds recognized her Soviet uniform. They fired. Several bullets struck her. Pain overwhelmed her, and she fell, unconscious.

Tuberski opened up with the MG-42. Bullets flew through the air, taking huge chunks of zombie meat with them, but he wasn't stopping them. The gun was too heavy to respond to the zombies' movements. He stopped firing, and let the weapon fall from his shoulder.

J.T. and Johnny pumped bullets into nearby zombies. Jack targeted another zombie with a grenade on its chest, and blew it up along with two others. Ski drew his .45s. He jumped behind what little cover he could — a crate and a pile of zombie meat — and fired. More zombies fell, but there were still almost a dozen left over... and they kept firing. Johnny was wounded, as was Ski and Jack. Jack took out another zombie and its compatriot by blowing up yet another grenade. He had now run out of grenade-armed zombies to disintegrate.

Nazi bullets whined back and forth, ricocheting off the walls. It was only a matter of time before another strike team member fell or the zombies were reinforced.

Grim determination swept across Johnny's face. There were nine zombies left. He held his Johnny gun against his hip and let off a stream of automatic weapon fire. He swept the room with bullets, dropping several zombies in the process. Then he hammered on each zombie that remained standing. The Johnny gun clicked, empty of ammunition. Johnny pulled out the banana clip and snapped in a fresh one. He looked around. All the zombies were down. The scent of grave mould and cordite filled the air. The occasional piece of grey meat quivered, but no whole zombies moved.

Ski ran up to Johnny. He grabbed either side of Johnny's face and kissed him squarely on the forehead. "That's why I keep you around!" he cried.

The team ran over to Ivanova. She was wounded in several places. She was bleeding bad, but they could stop that with pressure bandages. While Ski kept watch on the stairs at the end of the chamber, the other members patched up their Russian medic.