Highlights from Last Session
Episode 04 "Failed Paradise" - Mission Report
SITUATION: Guillermo Montejez is a top aide to (real life) Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó. Montejez is an important figure to the Guaidó opposition movement, filling such roles as Guaidó’s liaison with International Red Cross, the South American “Lima Group”, and the US State Department. Montejez is currently surrounded by in his villa by paramilitary police loyal to the generals of (real life) Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the city of Carupano. Phalanx Multinational has been contracted “friends” of the Venezuelan opposition movement (possibly Lima Group, possibly even black ops agencies in the US government) to effect a range of executive solutions throughout the Venezuelan crisis zone. Escalation Team (X-Team) 619 has been assigned one of those mission packages.
MISSION: Case Director Marcus Bryant has assigned X-Team 619 the mission to find Guillermo Montejez, safely extract him, and escort out of Venezuela. Options for safe zones include Bogota Colombia, Miami Florida, Trinidad, or even Curaçao. Guillermo Montejez is currently under house arrest at his suburban villa just outside of Carupano. Get him out of there by whatever means is necessary, and exfiltrate to one of the designated safe zones.
EXECUTION: Methods are at the discretion of X-Team 619. However, Operations advises a low-kinetic approach, as opposition forces are predicted to include formal units of the Venezuelan Army, a state with which the United States is not at war. Also, unnecessary collateral impact in the infiltration phases will only result in higher degrees of difficulty during extraction and exfil phases afterwards. Note that Guillermo Montejez is a civilian, with no military experience whatsoever and little or no security personnel of his own on-site.
ADMIN/LOGISTICS: Case Management Officer Scott Delham has arranged staging point in the island nation of Grenada, where you will have diplomatic immunity under the aegis of the US DoD. From there you will have access to a pre-staged twin-engine turboprop (leaded by PMC Ltd., so return the aircraft in good order) for use in a “dark flight” to an abandoned airfield in the jungles outside of Carupano. The airfield is marked on your maps, and hasn’t been used consistently since the Drug War of the late 1980s.
COMMAND / CONTROL: Frederik Ottesen is in tactical command of this mission. Marcus Bryant is case officer, with Scott Delham as operations, intelligence, and administrative lead (note: he’s doing Gabrielle Knight’s job as well – who remains on “administrative review” after certain issues In Episode 03 “Crossroads”).
The characters find their promised twin turboprop waiting for them in Grenada, Annika "Taaki" Visser piloting the plane to the designated "black ops" landing site. The landing is a rough one, but the group makes it okay and begins down the hidden jungle trail. Here they find a trio of "colectivos" pro-government militia burying the body of a murdered dissident. The three bandits are dispatched and the group takes their jeep, heading to Carupano to find Montejez's villa.
The find the villa more or less intact. But rather than "under siege" - it seems to have already fallen? There is some stealth, recon, and subterfuge as the group tries to make a soft entry. Taaki makes good use of the bottle of tequila and brick of marijuana found under the seat of the jeep to "smooth" their way past the guards at the gate, Frederik "Sirius" Ottosen makes good use of his silenced assault rifle, and Jackson "Ajax" Hyatt makes us of his new silenced autopistol.
Taaki manages to fast-talk her way past the two militiamen in the driveway, but the third man on the porch by the villa's front door actually cares about his job. Looks like she needs to find another way in.
Heading to the east door, Taaki talks her way past another colectivos militia, but another guard at the doorway seems intent on barring her entry. Sirius, who has by now infiltrated the north servant's gate along with Jackson, settles the argument with a silenced round from his rifle. The guard is only wounded, and staggers back inside screaming bloody murder. So much for the soft entry.
Rather than set off a furious firefight, the colectivos militia immediately start running for their lives. There are a few small exchanges of fire, almost accidental, but by and large ... yes, the Montejez Villa has ALREADY fallen, but the colectivos militia run with unnatural fear and speed even for rather undisciplined rabble. What were they so afraid of? 
A search of the house finds it mostly ransacked. Sirius finds a "spiderhole" beneath the master bedroom's walk-in closet packed with encrypted laptops, spare car keys, and perhaps $5 million in cash. Yes, Montejez was filthy rich (just look at the size of his house). Finally Jackson finds a second panic-room under the floorboards of this conference room, this one occupied by Francesca Palez, one of Montejez's lieutenants. Here is where the "curveball" is thrown in the mission. Yes, the team was supposed to come here and get Montejez. But Montejez was never the real priority for escape. Montejez only contracted Phalanx Multinational to send X-Team 619 down here to rescue him as a diversion, as bait, while the REAL objective, his two daughters (Alexandra and Rosa, 9 and 7 years old) were smuggled out of the country. Francesca, Montejez himself, and even our heroes of X-Team 619 were really just "bait." Montejez leaked his location and the fact that he would soon be "rescued" by a powerful force to the colectivos in order to give his daughters the best chance. Well, at least we know why those militia ran away so fast. As for the one militiaman locked up in that bathroom ... yeah, don't ask. :)
Swerve in the plot Number Two ... Even as Montejez remained here with Francesca ... somehow ... the colectivos learned that Montejez's daughters were already smuggled out of the country aboard the container ship MCS Santissima Carreno. The colectivos then took the ship on the high seas, and turned it around back to Venezuela. Clearly they mean to force Montejez to surrender himself and his opposition network by leveraging the two girls. Half-mad with terror and rage, Montejez apparently took off from the villa, chartered a helo to the freighter, and tried to get his daughter back. Not the wisest move, there were at least 20 colectivos on that ship, and now they have Montejez as well as his two daughters. Needless to say, Francesca is not happy with Montejez right now, and honestly neither is X-Team 619. But they're contracted to get him out of the country, and apparently that means his daughters as well. So looks like we're heading for this freighter! Good thing our heroes found all that cash in the villa to hire a "Miami Vice" style go-fast boat to intercept Santissima Carreno before she makes port back in Venezuela. 
Rather than go full "Pirates of the Caribbean" on the freighter, Taaki uses the bulk of the cash found at the villa to make a deal with the colectivos militia. MOST of the colectivos accept the offer, releasing the two daughters and leaving the ship on the two launches stored on D Deck. Some harder-line colectivos remain, and of course the group still hasn't found Montejez himself. But at least those two innocent girls are out of the crossfire.
This freighter is a full "floating dungeon" with all compartments mapped out for the group to explore (seven decks' worth). They fight their way up the superstructure, off of E Deck, then D Deck, C, B, and finally A deck (the highest deck, where the group has been told Montejez is being held). Each compartment potentially houses more colectivos hard-liners, and the players must clear each deck and compartment lest they leave enemies behind them. Engagement ranges are brutally close, and of course all these metal bulkheads and ricochets present dangerous factors to the running firefight.
Finally we get to the bridge, where one colectivo throws a flash bang grenade that Sirius kicks with his boot into the bridge. The last enemies are cleared, but Montejez himself (half-blind and deafened by that grenade) snatches up a pistol and shoots FRANCESCA of all people in the leg. Turns out she was the one who tipped off the colectivos about the daughters being smuggled out on this vessel - angry that she was being hung out to dry as bait. Basically, Montejez and Francesca used each other, and X-Team 619 got caught in the middle. Just goes to show that in shadowy world of the private military contractor, the "good guys" aren't always squeaky clean. But the Montejez is taken to Trinidad, the daughters are safe, and the mission is complete ... and not ALL that money was either paid out to boat owners, colectivos, or Phalanx Multinational on the group's return. A big chunk went to anonymous charity, and still more, well ... who knows? *WINK WINK ... Spoils of war, after all. Suffice it to say that some characters will have a new ranks in "Finance" on their sheet ... 
Hello all, I play Jackson “Ajax” Hyatt in HKOPS. This game is really starting to take shape and is not your typical table top game. Its very story driven, with real world consequences for your character. The decisions that you make in game really matter, and the story is developed based on those decisions. I’m looking forward to getting back together in February with everyone from X-Team 619. Thank you to everyone who has decided to play test this game and really make into something that is interesting to play, and a hell of a lot of fun to write… Read more »
Thank @brunhudson ! Indeed, great job to you, @gladesrunner , and @rasmus on this mission!
Thanks for you kind words. With HKOps, we’re really going for a fun, action-packed RPG as with most other RPGs, but also …
A narrative focus, both with plotlines within each story / session and with longer-ranged character arcs and development.
A real-world modern warfare setting with current crisis, conflicts, and flashpoints depicted in a semi-realistic fashion.
The greatest possible engagement with the OTT and Sitrep community! 😀