Complex 374-5

Introduction

It is 1984 and the players are a Nuclear Emergency Search Team, (NEST) team of scientists, technicians, and engineers or special operators escorting the technical NPCs.

Early on the morning of July 17th a series of alarms were tripped in a Titan II ICBM Launch Complex 347-5 in Faulkner County, Akranas.  The alerts compounded quickly, first a fuel leak, then the complex power was tripped and finally the internal security cameras went offline. Little Rock Air Force Base attempted to contact the crew, but there was no response after numerous attempts.

A Titan II Missile complex is manned by a four person crew known as missileers, who serve a 24 hour duty.  

Command tried to contact the active duty crew numerous times with no response.

After an hour command attempted to bring in the second missileer crew assigned to the complex. The second crew could not be found anywhere on base.   Command reviewed the topside security camera footage for the past 12 hours which showed the both duty crews enter the silo three hours before the alarms sounded.

Panic set in among base command, who sent two technicians to secure the silo.  Both men stopped responding to command after reaching the entry point.

Eight missileers and two technicians went down into that hole in the past 36 hours to never come out and the status of the missile and the warhead are unknown.

The Truth

The men in the missile silo are infected by Insects from Shaggai, Shan, who have emerged from a 700 year old scout ship under the silo.  The presence of the radiation awakened eight of the insectoid aliens who now have burrowed into the brains of the crew.  

The Shan plan on slowly leaking the radiation from the warhead to power the scout ship.  The Shan are sadistic and take great pleasure in controlling weaker species like humans.  They tortured and killed one maintenance technician and a missileer died of radiation poisoning while attaching a device to siphon radiation from the warhead.

The Shan are in the heads of all the men down in the silo complex and are waiting for the NEST team.

The Shan’s ultimate goal is to keep using the strange devices to siphon radiation from the warhead and slowly power the scoutship buried just below the ICBM silo.   The Shan need another 24 hours to siphon enough energy to activate the ship.

Briefing

The agents are met by General Kelly of Strategic Air Command who wants to send the NEST team and Federal Protection officers down to secure the silo and repair any damage.  There is no fuel leak detected on the surface but full SCBA gear (45 minutes air) and RAD detectors are issued to be safe.

The General warns all sorts of bad shit can happen in a complex with a LGM-25C Titan II ICBM loaded with a 9 megaton W-53 Nuclear Warhead and a toxic liquid fuel propellent inside its silo

• Batons and Knives Option: Firearms and arc torches are dangerous to use if any fuel has leaked in the air.  Weapons will be distributed but knives and batons over firearms preferred.  Tell players shooting is a last resort.  If they decide to shoot, have them roll luck to see if they ignite any lingering gas for 1D6 damage.

• Free Fire Option: No gas detected weapons hot!

Objectives

1. Ensure the power to the complex is not disrupted and the ICBM launch command is not compromised.
2. Secure the silo and make sure the warhead or ICBM are not damaged.
3. Find out what happened to the crew.

The Layout

The complex is one of the oldest Titan II sites in the region and consists of five sections.  An entry point, a power house, a launch command center, an entry tunnel, and the silo.

The Entry Point

160 feet deep and the elevator is out of order so the players have to go down a staircase 15 stories. The power is on, but is working on emergency reserves from the Launch Command Center.   At the bottom of the staircase the players will find the first maintenance technician, dead.  He is really sliced up and badly beaten.  Medical Above 30% or Forescincs 30% can determine he was tortured for a long time but shows no sign of prolonged exposure to chemical or radiological material.  

The Power House

A two story industrial space.   The bottom story contains internal camera controls and a manual unlock for the blast door to the silo.

The top story is filled with parts and tools for maintenance on the silos.  Players with technical skills can restore full power to the complex.  The cameras cannot be turned on because they were physically destroyed throughout the complex.

The players will find the surviving technician, Alfred Clark, cowering among the equipment.  The players can deduce either through roleplay or by an intelligence roll that if Clark is still breathing then the air should be safe to breathe.  

Play him as a sympathetic NPC looking to help.  Have him claim he hid out here after the crew ambushed them.  The crew is all in bad shape from radiation sickness.  He will tell the players he thinks the warheads are some type of new payload that actually is not constructed correctly and are leaking isometric radiation or maybe a new type of radiation that makes you mentally sick and we are all lab rats?

The Shan in his brain wants to lure the players into the tunnel and instill paranoia or doubt.  

The Launch Command Center

A three-story dome. The first level is the crew's living area, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and a small equipment area.  The second level is the launch control area and holds the LCCFC (Launch Control Complex Facility Console, the main launch console), the ALOC (Alternate Launch Officer Console), the Control Monitor Group (monitored the missile).  The lowest level, level 3, holds communications equipment, the two battery backup supplies, the sewage lift station, and a motor-generator.  

Everything is in working order here aside from a huge spike in radiation.  The source is a dying missileer suffering from late stage radiation sickness stuffed into a locker on level 3.

The Tunnel

100 feet long 10 feet diameter steel bridge underground.  There are strange markings in sharpie on the walls.   The Shan stage an ambush here  in which two missileers pretend to toture a third.  If the players try to intercede they attack. Alfred will also try to attack with a hidden weapon.

The Silo

The missile silo is a reinforced concrete structure with dimensions of approximately 146 feet in depth and 55 feet in diameter.  Treat the silo as a last stand the Shan infested missileers.   Have crewmen throw tools, attempt to leak poisonous fuel, the entire Shan swarm bursting from the heads of NPCS to get into players.

Strange Devices - Alien Devices

The Shan have connected strange organic devices to the warheads. The devices have thin tendrils that loop down to the thruster section at the base of ICBM.  These tendrils are what is siphoning radiation to the core of scoutship below. If the players fiddle with the device too much, give them a healthy dose of radiation.  If they knock it off the warhead give them a full lethal dose.

A player with - Craft or Heavy Machinery 40% or above can safely remove them.   If under duress make the players roll skill.  

Scoutship

If the players want to investigate where the tendrils lead will see that the crew have removed some of the steel and concrete to expose a tunnel dig into the dirt.  The Missileers have removed about five feet of dirt and exposed an opening to the scout ship.  

If the players go into the scout ship everything is unnatural.  The material looks like rotting flesh melding with rock.  The perspectives  are all wrong.   SAN 1D10 for entering the ship.

Radiation

The levels coming out of the compromised warhead is very low and not harmful for a short period.  

Resolutions

• The players kill or incapacitate the entire crew and Shans.  As they emerge from the silo they are greeted by two Heuys full of MJ 12 dorks and PJ goons who swoop down to “secure the location further.”
• The players deonate the warhead, vaporizing and irradiating thousands in the surrounding county.
• The players fight the Shan and crew bravely only to die horribly or get taken over.  A Delta Team is sent in afterward...maybe you can have the players get a little payback by picking up new character sheets.

NPC STAT Blocks

Titan Missileers

STR 11, CON 11, DEX 11, INT 3, POW 0, CHA 0

HP 11, WP 0, SAN 0

Disorder: If Insect is removed they will be flooded with all the horrific acts they committed in the past three weeks.  San D20

Skills: Alertness 40%, Athletics 40%, Firearms 40%, Stealth 40%, Navigate 60%, Survival 60% Electronics 60%

Attacks: .38 Service Pistol (40%, Damage 1D10)

Pipe (60%, Damage 1D8)

Big Knife (60%, Damage 1D6)

Insects from Shaggai

See Handlers Guide

Alien Devices

Big Bulbous knobs that look like human lungs with long tendrils streaming 150 feet into the earth.  They have something that looks like a probe or stinger that sucks into the warhead.  

STR 20, CON 20, DEX 0, INT 1, POW 0, CHA 0

HP 20, WP 0, SAN 0,

Skills: Adsorption 95%

San Loss: 0/1D4 Intelligence Roll Success 0/1D8 when you realize what these things are doing.

Absorption - Sucks any energy source to fuel the bulbous sac growing on its rear.  Electromagnetic, Radioactive, Chemical tt drains batteries or any power source within a meter.  

A player must make a CON check just to get near it.  If they fail they lose a few degrees of core body heat and 3 WP.  

Attacks: Light Radioactive Burst (100%, CON Check)  Medium Burst (100%, 1D8)  Full Burst (100%, 2D10)

Credits & New Version

Complex 374-5 was written by Patrick Corcoran for the 2020 shotgun scenario contest.

Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this document are © Patrick Corcoran, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

Complex 374-5 is not available here under CC-BY-SA.

Note: Complex 347-5 has been expanded and updated on DriveThruRPG.