Operation: Jumbo Shrimp

After Operation: Motherly Betrayal, the ORION team needed a long stay in the hospital to recover from their numerous wounds.  After a few years of peace and quiet, suddenly the world went mad; the Ukraine was on the verge of war with Russia, Venezuela was on the cusp of collapse and Obamacare was pushing the Republican party to the brink of mass hysteria, but then something happened that grabbed the attention of the entire world...  Oceanic Flight 370 vanished.  Most of the world was caught up in the mystery and it was going to be up to ORION to solve it.  The leader of ORION, Orion 1 (Ted Tyler, the greatest secret agent of all time before he retired) sent out the signal to assemble the team; Owen Darkwind (one-time protege of Tyler who is now the team leader), Guido Guiseppe (the Italian pugilist), Kale Lightfoot (Native American pilot and wheelman) and Fetu (Samoan Marine Biologist) assemble at the secret headquarters in New York City.  Ted's briefing is direct and to the point.  "While the rest of the world tries to find this plane, we know where it is and so do the Chinese.  Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but we intercepted a picture of their deep sea operatives, led by a man we identified as a former WEB commander named Yu Chan.  Time is of the essence here, you have to get to the Indian Ocean to the crash site and see what they are up to.  We dons't know what is going on, but if Yu Chan is leading their mission, it is something very dangerous.  Good luck, Gentlemen."

The Team flies to Perth Australia where they meet with their contact, Nick Dundee who sets them up with a speed boat the "A.S.S. HAT" which has been equipped with super jet engines and a Diver Delivery Vehicle.  Kale excitedly guns the engines to rush out to the location and stalls the engine 20 feet off the dock.  After a quick repair they sped to the coordinates, but as they got closer they saw a much larger vessel had beat them there.  They needed to get on the ship without being detected so Guido and Fetu take the submersible and go under the ship while Owen and Kale prepare to gun the engines (without stalling them) so the ship swoops by as they jump off to board the ship from the water. 

Unfortunately as Guido and Fetu scale one side of the ship, they are spotted by the Chinese Guards and fired on.  Despite being hit in the hand, Fetu managed to hold on while Guido climbed on.  With the firefight distracting most of the seamen, Owen and Kale managed to dive in unnoticed and swim under the boat so they could come up on the other side.  Only as they came up they spotted a raft along side the ship and noticed the people on the raft were planting a bomb on the side of the ship.  Then they saw the name on the side of the raft GREENPEACE!  Kale tried to stab one of the men, but slipped and his knife got tangled up in the hippie's beard and tossed over to the other hippie who used it to attack Owen who tried to calm things down.  The knife slashed through Owen's hand as the Greenpeace leader, a woman who was stoned out of her mind barked orders at her men to kill the intruders.  Kale used his Judo to toss on man yelling "Hey dude!  Doooooon't!" across the raft into the other two man sending all three off the boat and into the air when a giant shark leaps out of the water and killed them!  Owen used a heart punch to render the woman unconscious, allowing them to take the bomb off the ship, tie it to the woman and her raft and get on the ship to help the rest of the team.

Meanwhile, Guido and Fetu exchanged gunfire with the guards and had managed to take down one guard, but took some significant damage in the process.  Kale used his sword to slice and dice the guards he took on while Owen shot on in the chest.  This gave Guido and Fetu the chance to take down their targets and the team moved to the bridge to confront the Captain and remaining guards.  While the battle was short, Guido narrowly avoided a pair of lethal wounds, but it was Kale and Fetu who cut down the remaining men.  Suddenly in the middle of the ship, a Deep Sea Vehicle is raised out of the water holding a locked armored box in it's motorized arms and docks on the ship.  Fetu cracks open the seal and drops a Flashbang grenade into the sub to disable the crew.  Stumbling out of the sub first is the ex-Web agent, Yu Chan who they take into custody and demand to know what is inside the box.  Chan refuses to tell them so the team agrees to bring Chan back to ORION headquarters so he can be interrogated there.  While they don't know what is inside the box, whatever it is was worth killing for and to drive Greenpeace to the point where they were trying to blow up the ship?

Looking Back: Operation Flashpoint

In 2003, NATO deployed several teams of former Orion agents to a small island off the coast of East Africa to investigate suspicious activity.  Although each pair of agents believed they were commissioned alone, NATO had sent at least two teams into the island.

After monitoring the island for months for the activity of the Somali government using the island for some sort of experimental weaponry, Owen Darkwind and Ted Tyler agreed to work together one last time. Several weeks earlier, the island had gone dark, and NATO needed information quickly.  When they arrived at the island, all was deserted until the discovered another team deployed, Paul Anderson and Samantha Tyler (Ted's 7th wife).  Although surprised to run into one another, they worked together, discovering an abandoned weapons depot with ammunition, artillery, launchers and an underground laboratory.  Unsealing the lab, they delved into the darkness.  It soon became clear that an outbreak of some viral contagion had infected the residents of the lab turning them into bloodthirsty cannibals!  While scrambling back out the lab, Owen released an incendiary device capable of incinerating the entire underground lab.  Although the timer gave them five minutes to get out safely, resistance while retreating was heavy and in the heat of the moment, Owen was forced to choose between guarding Paul or Samantha to aid in their retreat.  Owen's loyalty to Paul overrode his feelings of camaraderie with Ted.  Samantha was trapped behind debris, left to fight off the mob of cannibals alone.  When Owen and Paul reached the surface and rendezvoused with Ted, their eyes met and reality set into Ted just as the ground rumbled with the sound of the explosive incinerator!

While Ted dropped to the ground in anguish, Paul and Owen tried to help him get back to the skimmer boat to escape the island, but Ted refused to move, damning Owen's decision and vowing to get revenge some day.

The events and details of that operation remain classified and, although other agents may have been present, surely Ted, Owen and Paul are all aware of those events. 

Operation: Motherly Betrayal

2012 (8/22) -  The audio picked up via the bug at 14 Opal Street which reveals Walter and a man named Peter discover the break in and agree to act fast before anyone realizes what they are up to by heading to Indonesia the next day.   Since their mission was to find Paul Anderson, the team decides to split up with Feto flying Jakarta to follow the men and the rest going to Wisconsin to speak with Paul’s sister, Bobbi.

After a layover in Boston (where they deliver Paul’s laptop to Stevie) they arrive in Madison, Wisconsin at Bobbi’s home finding her now an older, heavier shell of the super agent she used to be.  When Bobbi inquires why they are visiting, Guido bluntly asks why she is getting $7,000.00 payments into her account each week and never mentioned her shared ownership of the apartment in Prague with her brother Paul.  Bobbi excuses herself to usher her two children to their upstairs bedroom.   She claims to have no knowledge of the money, hasn’t seen Paul since Christmas and professes to live a simple life as the wife of a Commercial Fisherman.  She fetches her lap top to dispute their claims and offers it to them to check for themselves.  When it opens a flash bang device goes off blinding the team as Bobbi draws a pistol and shoots Owen in the abdomen!   Using the surprise to her advantage she flees into the game room and takes cover behind the pool table.  During the exchange of gunfire, Bobbi screams “Why did you come?  Why?  WHYYYYY?” as Guido responds “Cover me guys, I’ma’ goin’ for dah kids!”.   Bobbi screams back at Guido  “Go ahead and take em, you filthy wop!” and shoots Owen in the stomach again.  Under a barrage of fire, Bobbi stands up, screams “It’s over Darkwind!” and shoots Owen in the stomach a third time sending him crashing over the living room unconscious!  

Guido reaches the second floor hallway and searches for the children where he finds an escape ladder on the window.  Guido yells “It didn't have to be this way!” and fires a round in the ceiling to which Bobbi retorts “They are long gone, WOP!”   Guido returns down stairs uses lifts Owen as a ‘meat-shield’ while carrying him to safety.  Vladislav shoots Bobbi in the leg and Guido fires off a shot that hits her in the heart and sends her lifeless body flying backwards through the sliding glass door just as her husband, walks in!  The husband, dressed in a full length yellow rain slicker raises his razor sharp fish hook and screams “NOOO!  My wife!  Owen Darkwind, you killed my father!  Now I... will kill you!”  He charges in and misses Guido with a swipe to which Guido unloads a point blank shot into the Fisherman’s chest, killing him instantly! They are unable to locate Bobbi’s children and decide to leave before the authorities arrive and Owen dies of blood loss.from his numerous gunshot wounds.  

While Owen is patched up, they watch the evening news.  The lead story is about the rising tensions in Nigeria as a militant faction is attempts to acquire chemical weapons to take over the government.  Before they can discuss it, breaking news story about a home invasion in Madison where the police have discovered  the body a slain middle-aged woman. (bom bom bommmmm!)  

The next morning the go to Bobbi's bank and uses her keys to access her security box where they discover a pistol, a folder of  files, passports and $200.000 in cash.  The detailed files detail Paul’s plan to double cross the SLA in order to sell the weapons to the Nigerians.  There also current photos of Owen and ORION’s leader, Ted Tyler as well as a log in and password for operation: Flashpoint.  Owen recalls Operation: Flashpoint as a mission to investigate a remote island off the coast Africa in which he and Ted were lured out of retirement for a mission that went so badly, neither of then has spoken of it since.  Darkwind gets the feeling that this may be where Paul Anderson is hiding, but keeps it to himself. 

The team returns to ORION’s Boston headquarters and Stevie reveals that the man who flew with Walter was a man named Peter Hupert (a black marketeer, smuggler with a Masters degree in anthropology) and is still being followed by Feto in Jakarta.   They decide to return to England and see if they can find any clues to discover the location of Paul Anderson.  When they arrive in London, they go to the home of Walter Wainwright, but find the house empty and nothing of value to help on their mission.   They come to the realization that Paul Anderson may have gone bad like his sister Bobbi, so trying to locate him may be fruitless.  The team knows they need to keep the weapons out of the hands of the Nigeria militia, but have a week before the weapons deal is due.

The teams next step is to decide if they will go to Jakarta to investigate the connection between Greggor Iradirfoff -Walter Wainwright and Avalon or to follow up on the Paul Anderson-Serbian Liberation Army-Maccareesh-Nigeria Militia connection to see if Paul may be held there.  Has ORION agent Paul Anderson turned?  Where will the ORION team go?  Will Owen reveal the truth behind Operation Flashpoint?  

Looking Back: The Fisherman

1990 - Now and then, the Top Secretish Blog will stop to look back at pivotal moments and unforgettable characters from the ORION team's past that stood out.  First up, the infamous Fisherman incident.

       Ted Tyler and Owen Darkwind were on a mission to take down an international arms dealer known only as the Baron in Europe and were hot on his tail when he jumped into a boat and sped off.  Ted tried to talk a local Fisherman into lending his boat to the ORION team, but when he rebuffs the offer, Owen's patience runs out and he guts the Fisherman with his knife and tosses him in the water!  Just across the dock watching in shock are the Fisherman's three boys as their father's lifeless body bobs up and down in the water.  Ted outraged at Owen's action beats down the rookie agent before the rest of the team pulls him off and begins the pursuit of the Baron.  While the team races off in hot pursuit, the tear-filled eyes of the Fisherman's sons all swore vengeance on the man who killed their father, Owen Darkwind.
      In game terms, this is how an Enemy is created.
     Enemy 1 is someone who dislikes or hates someone enough to make that person's life difficult at every turn, maybe even enough to try to kill them.  This could range from a local newspaper editor (think J Jonah Jameson in Spiderman) or an obsessed ex-lover (Fatal Attraction) that swears to get even.
    Enemy 2 could be a group of people that are determined to kill the person that has caused them trouble or stands in the way of their success.  This could be an organized crime syndicate or government official who is out to get them.
   Enemy 4 is rare and means trouble at every turn as the person is targeted by a combination of government groups or international crime syndicates determined to finally rid themselves of the bothersome thorn in their side.  This could lead to situations where a simple trip to the supermarket could result in sneak attacks by the Mailman, Paperboy or even the kid who bags your groceries pulling a knife on you.
          A few ofORION's famous enemies; Dark Rider, Bloodbath, WEB and of soon The Fisherman's sons.

Operation: Prague Punishment

2012 (8/15) -  The team resumes the search for Paul Anderson and discovers that he was working alone under the name Roger Smith, acting as the front man for Serbian Liberation Front.  All of his bank transactions and personal tracer stopped and his final GPS location, was his apartment in London.  With the leads all seeming to be dead ends, Owen decides to contact Paul’s sister Bobbi who has since retired.  On the phone Bobbi, quickly goes from happy to nervous, claiming she hasn’t heard from Paul in months.  She did recall that he enjoyed visiting Prague and that he may have gone back to his home in Wisconsin.  Owen remembers from operations in the 90’s that Paul and Bobbi owned a flat in Prague so the team decides to go there first.   Blind stays behind in London to keeps tabs on the Nigerian Embassy while Feto keeps tabs on the Wainwright estate.

     Once in Prague, they break into to Paul’s apartment and find a lap top in the office.   They search through the files on the lap top finding a file with his fake Serbian ID Robin Kocsis and a chat log that reveals a Nigerian contact, Kwame Fall.  The 3 month old coded chat discussed acquiring black market weapons systems and a double cross and that was traced to an internet café Abuja, Nigeria.   They check his internet history and locate an international bank with offices in the Cayman Islands with a substancial deposit of 17 million dollars that was wired one month ago from Meridian Steel.  There was also a 5 million wire transfer from the Cayman account to a bank in Wisconsin.  Stevie checks Bobbi’s bank accounts and finds that she has been getting a $7,000 deposit every week for a month.   A close fingerprint examination shows that there are prints from both Bobbi and Paul on this lap top. 

      Just then a flash-bang grenade is tossed into the room which blinds Guido, but Owen manages to somersault behind a wall.  Two men burst in with Uzi’s and spray the room but miss both Guido and Owen.   A shootout ensues, Guido is clipped while Owen is hit by a shot to the head.   Despite his wounds, Owen shoots one of the gunmen in the thigh and then blows his hand off with his second shot where as the impaired Guido continues to miss with his shots.   The second gunmen, leaps up and unloads his clip, hitting Guido in the belly and Owen in the left leg, but as he falls Owen fires off two shots that disable his arms.  The gunman staggers screaming in pain until Guido steps up and unloads with a knockout punch (.00)!   Owen uses First Aid to bandage the gunman, while Guido snags the lap top and they allow the other bad guy to bleed out.  As sirens approach, they head out looking for a place to hold up so they can question him without being caught by the Prague Police force that is swarming the building.  

       After the Police finish their investigation and leave the apartment complex, the team is joined by Blind for the interrogation..  The team wakes the captured gunman, but discover they cannot communicate effectively with him.  The team calls Stevie Bullet who uses ORION’s super-translation machine (Google Translate) to figure out that the man is a Serbian named Joseph and was hired by the leader of the Serbian Liberation Front, Jakub Cerny.  Joseph reveals that they have been watching Paul Anderson’s apartment in order to capture Paul who double crossed them and took the $1.5 million in gold bullion to get the weapons launchers and disappeared..   Blind reveals his true name Vladislav Mishkilov, and uses his powers of hypnosis to extract the location of the safe house Joseph was to return to.  In moments, Joseph is under hypnosis and reveals the safe house in located in Belgrade which acts as the headquarters of the SFL.  Guido tries to gain more information by shooting Joseph in the groin but gaining nothing gives him the Italian Death-Sleeper to kill the would-be assassin.  Before leaving they tuck Joseph’s body into the bed of the unsuspecting apartment owner and head back to the hotel to figure out their next step.