Thorns

Operation Scrambled Eggs

Mission Briefing

Welcome to 2024, soldiers.

You are soldiers of a multinational elite task force officially operating under the UN mandate. You're the best damn group of operators that the governments of the world managed to pull together, dedicated to protecting the peace of the world - and, often, the interests of the Security Council nations, with that pleasant shroud of deniability that your status offers.

They call you Thorns. Spines upon which those willing to harm the world shall impale themselves.

You are the Delta Squad of the Second Platoon, B Company. This time, you have been deployed into New York, straight into Manhattan. Apparently, a research facility of some sort went dark, and you are the ones chosen to clean that mess up.

You are to enter the facility, get to the mainframe in its centre and recover the data. The facility's staff is to be considered expendable.

Get it done.
Mission accomplished!! Tier Zero forever!

Parisian Nights

Welcome to Paris, soldiers.

You are still the best damn group of operators that the governments of the world managed to pull together, serving under the authority of the United Nations all over the world. However, after the rather dramatic events within the United States, the encounter with the Scrambler Virus, and certain other operations that shall remain classified for now, the Delta Squad of the Second Platoon, B Company, is being given a breather - some R&R in Paris, which is most certainly free of any research facilities researching highly infectious information viruses. Take this moment to rest, before other assignments come up - you've earned it, and a chance like this might not come soon again.

It's a beautiful night in Paris, and absolutely nothing can go wrong.

...is this gunfire around the Eiffel tower? The French President is what?

Tier Zero. Looks like you have a job to do.

Chalkboard

We interrupt your regularly scheduled UN operational operations with American gusto. This means new characters, just for this oneshot! (this time also an actual oneshot, this I am quite certain about)

You are the best damn group of operators that the United States government managed to pull together, serving under the authority of the President of the United States all over the world.

Your current mission is tied into some shady CIA business. Apparently, the Russians are up to something big in Siberia - real big - and the spooks and their spooky pals grabbed themselves a Russian scientist to interrogate and find out what's going on in there, after a long series of failed attempts at finding out, with your help of course. Ruskies are none the wiser about who did the job, as far as anyone can tell - USS Ponce, the ship that you are currently on, has so far been moving unmolested, and the operation itself was clean enough. Still, worst comes to worst, Ponce has it all - Phalanx CIWS, rocket launchers, an entire company of Marines and even frikken lasers.

Get that man to the US. If what we've heard about what is going on in Siberia is right, this might end up being the most important mission in your lives.

Good luck, soldiers. Hopefully you won't need it.

Hot Chocolate

Welcome to Brazil, soldiers. You're in for for a ride, and I'm sorry to say, perspectives for a vacation are looking grim right now.

As you know, the Reveal blew off the lid on more than just bitter Prussian werewolves. For one, the sheer scale of human trafficking that was going on in the world had been underestimated. Between all the man-eating monsters that hid under the rock, poor people from developing nations being sold for dinner went just as under the radar as them being sold into sex slavery, just with less survivors to talk about it afterwards. It's a real messy business, and a lot of people died in worldwide attempts to crush it.

Even with vampires, werewolves, lamia, fae, the Japanese youkai living within human society and so on and so forth desperately trying to distance themselves from this mess (and in some cases trying to destroy incriminating documentation), we have met with limited success - the ones running these horror shows have had a lot of time to get really good at it. Now, however, this has changed.

Intel's traced the heart of one of the largest human trafficking rings to Brazil and is on the case to find out about their leadership and their areas of operation. What we have gotten from our agents so far has been very worrying - and now, we've gotten a signal for a pickup in Rio. We're sending you in, Deltas - get our agent out, find out what they learned, and help us bring down the hammer on them. We have three full battalions of troops ready to deal with whatever was found, just in case - better not to take any chances.

Let's put an end to it, once and for all.

Thorns Archives: Black October

In October, 1962, an event that would become known as the Cuban Missile Crisis ensued. For thirteen days, Earth was on the brink of atomic annihilation.

The disaster was stopped, however, and both sides withdrew their missiles. The Soviets, from Cuba. The United States, from Italy and Turkey. No ballistic missiles were launched and no armies were sent out.

Or were they?

You are the soldiers of the 10th Special Forces Group of the United States Army. The commandos, the best of the best, taking on missions that others would be afraid to even touch. And today, you get to save the world.

The target is Eagle’s Nest. An ultra-modern secret NATO military base on a Mediterranean island, sporting a garrison of a thousand men and enough weapons to blunt any attack for long enough to deploy its lethal payload.

One of the key NATO ballistic missile sites in Europe, carrying enough firepower to wipe out a dozen Russian cities on the press of a button.

Earlier today, on October 25th, an unknown force seized control of the base and is preparing the missiles to launch as we speak. All attempts at negotiation have ended in failure, and the contact with the negotiation team has been lost three hours ago. The current status of Eagle’s Nest garrison is unknown.

At least, that’s how it will be remembered in the folders hidden in some secret warehouse if there’s still United States after tonight.

The truth, soldiers, is that your enemies will be your own countrymen. Eagle’s Nest has been taken over by a top-secret commando unit working for the CIA, the Black Chamber, who went rogue a week ago.

We do not know why they are preparing the missiles to fire. We do not know what they told the garrison to get it on their side, or if they somehow managed to kill everyone within the base. The only thing we do know is that if they are not stopped, by this time tomorrow neither the Soviet Union nor the United States will be around anymore.

We will give you the best equipment that you have. Your objectives are to stop the launch at all costs and to liquidate the traitors and their commander, General Johannes Miller. According to our estimates, the Black Chamber has a company of soldiers in field, minus an unknown amount of casualties from the taking of the fortress, along with thirty non-combat technical personnel.

Remember, soldiers – the enemies are traitors to the United States of America. Shoot to kill.

NOTE: characters may be from 10th itself or from associated NATO countries due to the hurried nature of the mission. Keep in mind that this is 1962, and as such, the shadier sides of the world are still overwhelmingly unknown, along with general lower technology level.

Chargen

The system is standard #lords d10 affair.

There are four stats to track:

• Physical
• Mental
• Social
• Integrity

Perception is handled via Physical or Mental rolls, depending on the situation. Social is also the leadership stat and responsible for getting command stuff done. Love cannot bloom on the battlefield, soldier.

You have 21 dice to assign overall to your stats of choice. You're elite operators, you're hardcore like that.

In addition to that, pick one speciality and your role in the squad. They can complement each other, but that is not necessary. You probably want something more immediately useful than elite operational knitting skills, though.

Your role will determine your equipment, though feel free to just pick whatever feels appropriate - there are no hard restrictions on this.

Specialities lower the difficulty number for relevant rolls by one, (so the success number for related tasks is 5 instead of 6) and also adds a single dice to actions relevant to them.

Maximum tacticool is considered to be in effect. Bring your own holographic sight.