Operation Harsh Light

This is a taster for the next game I will be putting on at the local game store!

INEPTT OPERATION HOT WASH UP

OPERATION HARSH LIGHT

Background: XRAY activity had been picked up on Eye in the Sky. Craft appeared to be a Patrol or Scout craft. Eye in the Sky went Black just when the craft landed. Technicians believe this was from some sort of pulse from the craft itself.

Two teams dispatched. SEA401 and SEA404 (South East Asia).

Team Composition:
SEA401

IC, 2IC, Sniper, Medic (and Sniper spotter), 4-person Fire team.

SEA404

IC, Support Operator (with NLAW), 2 x 4-person Fire Teams.

Operations Area

Small Village of Yeng Fo located on a fertile plateau. Ground was relatively flat, some foot hills to the south and a large rocky mountain to the north. Single dirt road following a shallow river. Southern portion of the area a mix of dense jungle and rice paddies.

Northern part some jungle and rock.

Teams were landed by Hypersonic transport to the North of Yeng Fo. This area was chosen as last known XRAY craft sighting put it to the south of Yeng Fo.

**The following is a portion of the audio from the two teams involved in OPERATION HARSH LIGHT.

**SEA401 Radio Channel** Apollo (Call sign for 401’s Sniper), confirm when in position over.

**Roger, we are nearing the top now, probably 2 minutes.

**Copy, we are starting our move towards target. (referring to the Village of Yeng Fo).

**SEA404 Radio Channel** Alfa and Bravo move. Once you are in a flanking position of the target get low and look for any signs of movement. Second team has over watch.

**2 responses of Roger**

**SEA401 Radio channel** Stark, Magoo and I are in situ. Eyes on. Looks clear so far, over.

**Roger that we are moving now.

**Display from Rover Drone shows the three fire teams moving rapidly across the open field towards Yeng Fo. Both Command teams trailing slightly behind the fire teams.

SEA401’s Fire team closes to the nearest building and stop their movement. At the same time the two teams of SEA404 are in a flanking position to the West of the town.

**SEA401 Radio Channel** Stark this is Mosquito, no XRAY’s and no Non-Coms (Non-Combatants) sighted, doesn’t feel right!

**Roger that Mosquito keep your head down for now. I am waiting for word from Second team that its clear.

**Roger, staying put.

**Joint Comms Channel** SEA401, we have no contact spotted your team is free to move on to target.

**Roger that 404.

**SEA401 Radio Channel** Mosquito you are clear, take your position on the objective.

**Roger.

**SEA404 Radio Channel** Alfa and Bravo, execute stage two.

**Two consecutive Rogers from the two teams**

Display shows the three teams beginning to move. SEA401 breaks out into 2 x 2-man teams and start to clear buildings, the 2I/C staying back by the first building.

SEA404 Bravo team moves to the south part of the village and halt. Alfa team continues south towards the jungle area south of the village.

**SEA401 Radio Channel** this is Apollo, STOP, everyone down, I have movement along the jungle line!

Holy Shit what is that??

Stark, I have a target, must be an XRAY, looks like a crocodile or alligator but this thing is the size of semi with its trailer over

**Say again Apollo! How big?

**Stark its huge, I can take a shot, but I would advise pulling all teams back RIGHT NOW.

**Joint Comms Channel** 404, pull your teams 200 meters back towards our rally point, Apollo has contact on the jungle line. Tell your guys to stay down!

Display shows a large object coming rushing out of the jungle toward SEA404 Bravo team.

Automatic weapons fire can be heard from audio feed from the various team members.

**SEA401 Radio Channel** This is Apollo I am engaging the target.

**pause of a few seconds**

Stark this is Apollo 2 hits to the head and it just tore through one of the 404 teams. I can’t stop it!

**SEA404 Radio Channel** Maestro, this is Trask, holy crap it’s a massive Crocodile. ((small arms fire is heard))

Maestro we can’t slow it down ((Screams are heard)) get the NLAW onto it ((radio goes dead))

Rupea Castle Expedition 1884

The expedition to Rupea castle.
**20 April 1884, Headquarters of Imperial Intelligence Department (IID), Templar Barracks, Ashford, Kent. **
Doctor Kieran Hamilton look at the map for at least the 100th time.
Shook his head and wondered allowed who had come up with this brilliant plan.

A knock on his door alerted him to the arrival of the two people who would help him with this expedition on behalf of Her Majesties government.
“Come” he called out and the door opened. The two people who entered could not have been more different.

The first was a rather short woman, with a normal build, she was dressed in a tweed skirt, blouse and jacket. Dark framed glasses and her hair pulled back in a bun, she looked both intelligent and observant. This was Doctor Helen Mulvaney. She was an expert on the Occult and was also capable of speaking 17 different languages. Dr. Mulvaney didn’t look like a field researcher but she had been across the Gobi Desert twice, hiked the Himalayas and had worked on digs in Papua New Guinea as well as the Knossos dig on Crete.

The man who came in behind her was a bit over six feet tall, broad shouldered and walked with the ease of a powerful confident person. Travis Scott was from the back woods of Northern Ontario. His early days working as a lumberjack by Thunder Bay helped develop a powerful body as well as an uncanny ability with navigation in woods, jungle or where ever he might be.

The two had two completely different roles for this expedition.

Mulvaney was the brains behind what they must and yes that is must find in Rupea Castle. It was her job to figure out what the tomb within the Castle had to offer in the way of either relics or guidance to the site of the Ancient evil that once occupied medieval Romania.

Scott’s role was to keep the team safe and to secure the site once they got there. Scott was one of the most experienced operators in the “Special Branch”, of the Imperial Intelligence Bureau (IIB), a sub-branch of the IID.

“Welcome! I am glad the two of you could come on such short notice, but we have quite the task ahead of us”! Hamilton stood up and shook hand with the two arrivals.

“Glad we could make it” was the short response from Mulvaney. She immediately began looking at the map on the table in front of her. 

Scott remained standing near the door, ensuring that it was properly closed then walked over to the table as well.

“So, Romania and I can see here that it is right in the middle of the country. This can’t be an easy one! The Carpathian Mountains are not easily travelled”!

Hamilton looked at the Canadian and nodded, “You have it Scott. We need to take a team in there, to a spot known as Rupea Castle or Rupea citadel, depending on how you want to translate the Romanian. Rupea has been used in warfare since about 1200 AD and was one of the fortresses used by Vlad the Impaler. That is where our interest lies”.

“As the two of you know, Vlad has been identified by our Occult teams as one of the Ancient Evils, and we need to track down his remains, as well as any relics that may relate to him. We did the obvious and sent a team to his tomb, as you know, and of course no surprise the tomb and vault adjacent were both empty.

This is not problematic, except that The Austrians got there first and found it empty before we did and now have the jump on us. We know that they, and the Germans, have both been through Castle Bran for any relevant information. We will send a second team to Bran as well, but we now believe it will be a dead end. The Austrian team is apparently headed to Rasmov ruin, but we have already been there, and it is a dead end”.

“No not dead Doctor”, replied Mulvaney. “That is where we got the information on Rupea”!

“Yes, you are quite correct Doctor. Well, we have a bit of a surprise waiting for the Austrians when they do get there in any case.

So, here we are. You two will lead a six-person team to Rupea, search it and figure out the useful information and recover any possible artifacts, maps, relics and so on.”

“Six? I was told I could bring along myself and 3 others! I doubt Mr. Scott would be happy with just himself and one other for security”. Mulvaney stared hard at Hamilton.

“Well it’s a question of not arousing suspicion from the locals, keeping the team small and being able to move quickly in and out.” 

Scott laughed at the prepared response from Hamilton. “Then count me out! Its impossible to secure a site like that with just me and one other. I need a minimum of six! My thought is 12 is the number. That would be the four researchers including Doctor Mulvaney and eight members of the security team, including myself of course. We can move quickly by horse, travel in the area is not going to be quick regardless. But on horse back we can move at a good pace.”

Mulvaney looked to Scott, back to Hamilton and nodded her head. “I agree”!

“Very well” Hamilton replied, pick your team.

You leave tomorrow on the 10am train to Dover! The Ferry leaves at 1pm for Calais. You will embark a train there taking you to Paris. Overnight in Paris. You will board the Orient Express on the 22nd of April at 8am and should arrive in Bucharest Romania on the 25th of April at noon, if there are no delays. Once in Bucharest, you will acquire any necessary transportation to get yourselves to Rupea”.

“From there I am afraid I can provide no further detail. We are unaware of the scope or the state of the site. It has been abandoned for at least 200 years now and the area is not heavily populated.

Good luck, and I hope fortune smiles on us this time out! I fear the Austrians are ahead of us in this race we are in, and if they win, they will have a power in their hands that we will find very difficult to counter, if it is even possible! Again, Good Luck!”.

Mulvaney and Scott both acknowledged Hamilton’s words and left. Both were thinking very similar thought, this was going to be a challenge.

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Ok, if we take the above story and convert it to MODERN INEPTT.

You will have an 8 person INEPT Team (Leader, 2IC, Combat medic, Support Operator and a four person fire team. Plus four civilians (Mulvaney should probably have the stats for a Police officer given her field experience). The Civilians should have body armour and possibly a side arm - your choice if you do or not.

Opponents would be 2 separate bands of 10 warlord type soldier (or militia). Armed with AK's and maybe RPGs. The Rupea should be a fairly large castle with a tomb like chamber located somewhere within the ruins. Allow for up to 4 relics (each a VP to INEPTT).

One band of the militia/warlord soldiery is under control of the Ancient evil in the form of the Commander of the group (Mind controlled) the other are locals who just want to be left alone and so will try and scare off or capture any intruders to be held for ransom money.

I will get some pics up of possible table layouts in the near future.

INEPTT FUNDING MEETING

It is my intention to write more and more on INEPTT (to be honest I am thinking of doing either a graphic novel or novelettes or essays. My hope is that the stories are usable for you as scenarios (though I intend writing scenarios as well). I think the back ground gives some good context to the game. Please let me know if you see these as positive or just meh :)

**A portion of an INEPTT Funding Meeting held in Prague, June 2017.

*Russian delegate*
Let me get this right Commander, you are saying that Paranormal activity in the way of Demons, Ghosts, Vampires, Werewolves and so on are as real a threat as our growing conflict with the Aliens?

*INEPTT’s Commander*
Ma’am, yes, that is correct, in fact we now believe the old ancient evils and at least some of our Alien enemies today are indeed one and the same!

*Japanese delegate*
Commander, how can this be? Has not parapsychology and all the ghost hunting proven to be a hoax?

**INEPTT’s Commander*
I would ask our Chief scientist at INEPTT, Dr. Elizabeth Morin, to answer that if I may. Doctor?

**Dr. Morin**
Good morning all.
In answer to your question delegate Yakimoto, quite the opposite is true.
Many have tried to make mockery and debunk ghost hunters, possession and other such paranormal happenings. But there is good evidence to back up that as much as 8 percent of all reported paranormal incidents are indeed true. This evidence has grown to approximately 12 percent now that we have uncovered new advanced techniques to correctly identify the normal and the paranormal

In 2016 at a conference held at Berkley California, a combined panel of archeologists, neurologists, sociologists, psychiatrists and psychologists put forth a convincing argument that opened the eyes of the scientific community. They had conducted approximately 3 years of field testing on hauntings, possession and other such activities and concluded that more of these were noticed in 3rd world or under-developed countries not out of ignorance but because their brains were not electronically saturated and therefore blind to the paranormal around them!

They went further by taking volunteers from the countries of Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia, Spain and the United States and isolated them for six months away from the electronic world that these countries are now raising their youth in.

They found that by month four the receptors of these volunteers were open, and they were just as likely to be able to quote see unquote a ghost or apparition as were people from underdeveloped nations. Further, their ability to notice dark presences in their surroundings that were not identified as known life forms was higher than they had been before. This opens the whole field of research now being worked on by INEPTT scientists as to what these dark presences are. We know that most if not all are malevolent, but are they aliens or are they life forms native to our earth and present since life started on this earth?

**Delegate from South Korea*
Doctor, that is simply fascinating and to me begs the question. How did we not see this earlier?

**Dr Morin**
Delegate Yong, I think that is best answered by our drive to understand and learn. Science leapt our societies forward at a rate unimaginable in the 19th century and through this process we unknowingly shut down some of our own neural receptors. In fact, the panel from Berkley put forward the idea that these dark presences were supporting the types of science that helped block our receptors. For all intense and purposes making them radar invisible to us.

**Gasps across the 140 delegates**
**Canadian delegate**
Doctor, I can see the connection, but honestly so what? They haven’t been affecting us in any way?

**Dr Morin**
Sadly, that is not true. Look at the number of cases of mental illness across the developed world. We think it is because we know how to better diagnose these illnesses, and while some of this is true, the overall number of mentally ill has gone up exponentially since the middle of the 20th Century. Oddly this corresponds to the same time when electronics became more and more common. The same is not true in underdeveloped nations. The link, in the opinion of the Berkley panel were the dark presences. Call them what you want, demons, ghosts, boogie men, they are there, and they are whittling away at the foundation of our societies. They are working against us and we don’t even see them any more because our receptors have been turned off. Not unlike the virus that working on you invisible to the eye when you catch a cold or flu!

**Numerous conversations break out across the assembly**
**Chair person**
Delegates please, you have heard the plea from INEPTT’s command teams about funding and combined research projects. I need you to input your vote, yea or nay. Thank you.

**Pause, the Chair speaks again**
Unanimous! The funding and joint research will proceed.
Thank you all for your time.
This concludes our business for now.

The Beginnings of INEPTT!

The formation of INEPTT took place after World War Two. In fact, it was during the Viet Nam war, when US, Australian, South Vietnamese and North Vietnamese soldiers engaged with Extraterrestrials, that a world-wide effort was secretly undertaken to get to the bottom of the Alien/Extraterrestrial activity.

But our story goes back even farther, into the age of Imperialism. In the late 19th century, the great powers of The British Empire, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and to a lesser degree The United States and China all were having encounters with the paranormal and at an accelerating rate. These encounters even became deadly but were often kept quiet by the governments of the day!

Things changed in the year 1881 when the French, upon the death of Auguste Mariette, were able to piece together hieroglyphs allowing them to gain access to a lesser pyramid in Nubia. The pyramid, located in the ancient ruin of Meroe, dated back to about 2500 BC and as the French discovered from the translated text deciphered by Mariette, was supposed to contain the remains of the Goddess Mehit.

This in and of itself was stunning to the archeologists within the French inner circle. So, they put together an elite group of soldiers, archeologists, Egyptologists and free lance adventurers to discover the truth.
In October 1881, the expedition departed Cairo via Nile steamer under the combined leadership of Dr. Georges Daressy, the man responsible for the scientific research and Capitaine Emile Chartrand in charge of the 12-man security team as well as 6 “African adventurers” who were responsible for the safety and security of the 40-person team and the dig site when they arrived at Meroe.

The team would have to travel by paddle wheeler, river boats, some parts by camel and then boat again followed by a further trip via camel and horse. In total over 1800 km. Their journey south was apparently mundane except for the loss of a small boat to hippos which cost the lives of 2 junior diggers and two labourers.

It is known that the expedition began setting up camp at the pyramid to Mehit in early December of 1881. Native tribesmen described two attempts to stop the team from commencing a dig. These attempts cost the tribesmen over 20 dead but took the lives of at least 4 and possibly as many as 8 of the expedition.

The Chief Tribesman of the area described how one day the vault of the pyramid was breached and with it came a sandstorm that seemed to come from no where and with no warning. The storm lasted no more than a few minutes and the sounds, of what the Chief described as the “Screams of a large hunting cat” were heard!

When the storm cleared what remained of the expedition were dead, torn apart for the most part, though some seem to have shot themselves. Neither the Chief, nor his warriors entered either the camp or the pyramid and have shunned the area since. They continue to hear, at night, the cat screams like those they heard during the Sand storm!

This was the first of many expeditions into discovering the various ancient evils that existed throughout our time here on earth and continue to exist today.
In the following chapters, to give you context to why INEPTT exists today, I will detail out some of the expeditions from the 1880s up through to the Viet Nam War and the eventual formation of INEPTT!

Laid up a bit

Hurt my back last weekend so haven't really done anything on the gaming front :(
No painting, but I did get in my Turkish Dismounted cavalry as well as some 2mm buildings from Brigade Games.

Once I have them mounted on bases I will post some pics.

I am going to try a proof of concept on INEPTT II. See if it is capable of tournament style play, which seems to be a big question for a lot of people looking at the rules.
I will be doing this at the local store, and if it works I may ask one or two of my other INEPTT II supporters to give it a try as well.

Shawn