Episode Transcript
Records of the Unknown, Operation Latency, contains horror elements that may be disturbing to some listeners.
Listener discretion is advised.
You are listening to an Atomic Broadcasting Production, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the feature presentation.
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[Music]
That's it? What... what... steele adams? Where are they?
The records of many missions are incomplete. You may not find satisfaction in how the story ends, but the book needs to be closed and that's why you're here.
He closes a folder, taps it a couple times, and thought... "What do you need me to do?" And he sets it in front.
Elvin will take you to mission debrief?
Will Daringer be there?
No. He shouldn't be tied to this one.
[Sighs]
As little information as possible. Like normal, right?
As much as is pertinent, you of all people know the risks of knowing too much.
Agent Green and Olive. Will they be a part of this?
No. As Elvin told you, Olive, we have been unable to contact. And Green is preoccupied.
Why doesn't that surprise me?
He stands up, picks up his briefcase.
Archivist?
Hmm.
He heads to the door, grabs the handle, and pauses.
Agent L. Will I be seeing him again?
That remains undecided. He was compromised quite a while ago.
He turns his head a little bit just to look behind him.
Majestic?
Perhaps not, if you resolve this quickly.
He turns to look at the door again, and right before he's about to pull it.
One last question.
What if we meet them again?
And not hearing an answer, he turns around.
And she is not there.
And the door begins to open, and you hear...
We'll just really hope to avoid that. If you do, I think things might get violent as Elvin is standing there.
And I prefer the less violent missions and I read about them.
His hand is still on the door handle, staring at an empty room.
It's a nasty habit she has, doing things like that.
Those words, he just kind of snaps him out of whatever frozen state he was in.
He just gets a frown, and he looks at Elvin, and then just shakes his head.
I believe you're taking me to the mission. Debrief?
Yes. I'll be taking you to the debriefing and meeting some new friends.
Absolutely. He once again just shakes his head and walks out the door, passing Elvin, and then stops.
"Oh, nice jacket."
Thank you. Thanks.
Then he just nods. Not scary.
He just looks at his unsuspecting brown jacket. "I got it out of the thrift store recently."
"Which way?"
"Right this way. Let's get a little wiggle on."
Then the door closes, and in its reflection we see the Archivist sitting at a table.
And we cut to black.
November 20, 1045 AM. Corporal Adams, Dr. Steele, you will stand here in the mine.
Behind you is the gruesome, half-empty body of John the Sheriff, and a body mutilated by a shotgun blast that you know to be Dan Haley, owner of the mine.
In front of you was a creature of vegetation make that resembled something like a crab, an insect of some sort.
In flashes of light began to burn and it left you, leaving behind a button-up shirt.
And now you will stand there.
"Thanks for coming as quick as you did."
"Certainly would. Let's hopefully make it out of this hole first, though."
"Let's get out of here."
"Agreeed. I'm gonna take the shirt."
"Is there other, like, of the fungus that we've been seeing pop up around in here? Is the floor squishy, like it's been in here?"
"No. There's no sign of any fungal activity in here."
"That's a fair point. Is there anything else in that chamber of note? Or just the bodies of the Sheriff and Dan Haley?"
"All that's in there right now are tools for the miners, some setups, and the leftover explosives."
"Let's get out of here. Two more lost. Yeah."
"What'd you see you were first down here?"
"I saw the lights. I saw the Sheriff standing over Dan Haley's body."
"I wasn't sure which one of them it was first or not."
"It appeared that the Sheriff killed Dan Haley. I called out to him to get him to turn around,
and when he did, there wasn't much left of him. He was already gone. He was hollowed out, his brain was gone,
I shot him in the head, but there was nothing in there, and his eye was hanging out, and his leg was injured,
and as soon as I put him down is when that thing came down from the ceiling."
"That's disturbing."
"Yeah. That's one way to put it. I think if we're going to tell the townspeople what's happened here,
we just tell them that..."
"In a dispute."
"In a dispute. They killed each other. Or we could tell them that the Sheriff killed Dan Haley,
and I had to stop him from hurting me. I don't think that would necessarily go over very well,
considering we're outsiders and the Sheriff has lived here his whole life."
"Or we could...a bit more dry, so we could leave him buried in here."
"Hold up a stick of dynamite."
"Exactly what I was thinking."
"Doesn't put us in a very good position with the town, destroying their mind, but they don't have to know."
"Dan Haley's dead, although I'm not sure who else is in charge for running the things. He was the owner of it."
"I mean, his brother's dead, so not him. I'm not sure who else in his family they have."
[sigh]
[fire crackling]
"It'd be hard to explain anything if we just bury the bodies in here.
It's like, nope, they just disappeared. I don't think that's going to fly at all.
If it's a mining accident, at least we can explain away why we can't recover the bodies,
because them shooting each other can certainly explain Dan.
I'm not sure how it could be explained unless we could hide it, at least Peter would see, but...jogged."
"Straight bullet, hit a stick of dynamite."
"As you two are still walking to the entrance of this mine,
Corporal Adams, you're still feeling the shaking,
and when you take another step you feel like everything is intensifying, all of the shaking.
Dr. Steele, you feel nothing, and you're looking at him steadying himself as like he stops walking for a bit."
"Are you okay, Corporal? You don't feel that?
It feels like an earthquake, or something. Something on unsteady ground.
You don't feel it?"
"I look around like the cave where he's walking, anything, but..."
"This looks like he's...just looks like the normal tunnel."
"I put my hand on the cave wall to steady myself."
"And after a few seconds, everything starts calming down."
"That happened when I entered too. You didn't feel that then either?"
"No, I was...maybe I didn't notice at the time, but I was in a hurry down here."
"If you don't feel it standing right next to me, then you're...something's...
We're gonna collapse the tunnel, or what?"
"The only thing that's hard to explain is another bang. That's gonna draw the crowd again.
With a dynamite, bailing for a gunshot."
"Oh, there were several other gunshots just now."
"It's true."
"At this point, you guys are getting closer to the entrance still.
As you can hear the rushing sound of water,
as you hear this enormous...
loud...
clapping, slamming of water against what would probably be the town, the edge of the town.
This feels like an enormous wave crashing right outside the mine."
"What in the...?"
"We'll move faster."
"I'm not even thinking about caving the mine anymore. I'm in a hurry to see what happens in town."
"You head outside. The town looks unharmed,
but the waves are getting...quite torrential."
"That's unsettling."
"And it looks like most of the town folk are in their homes.
No one's really outside at the moment, except...
Dr. you see...by Peter's house you see Peter talking with Mallory.
But you recognize us those two."
"Okay."
"Corporal Adams, at the dock,
the edge of the town,
where the waves would be at their worst, you see Aurora standing there,
waiting."
"I think I'm gonna go tell...first of all with Mallory here, I think I'm gonna tell her that
Mallory might be ill with that, even though she's there.
I'm also gonna tell her about John.
Not everything I'm gonna tell her, but he's no longer with us."
"Fair enough."
"I think we've lost our window to collapse the mine.
You do that, I'll meet back up with you."
"Dr. Steele, you approach Peter and Mallory.
Peter looks over at you.
'Doctor, doctor, um...I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here.
Would you please come inside? Real quick? We need to talk to you.'
'What is it, Peter? Were you able to find Dan?'
'No, I don't know where Dan is.'
Peter turns to Tommy, 'Will you please go wait inside?'
and Mallory nods and heads inside.
'Wait, Dr. Tommy needs to talk to us.'
'Um, I don't...I think that would be a bit difficult at this time.
Very well, I've seen plenty of strange things.
Do we need to get Aurora? I don't know if she might be able to do this.'
'No, no.'
'After you, Peter.'
'Alright, he looks very kind of shaken up, like he's maybe cried in the past recently.
He starts heading inside.'
'Uhhh, following them in. Dr. Steele's definitely on high alert.
Always want to make sure like he's closest to the exit and hand on the shotgun.'
He head inside, and the wind pulls the door closed.
And Mallory is sitting on the couch, her head in her hands.
Just kind of shaking a little bit, kind of rocking.
'I'm just so tired of all of this.'
'I'm sure it will be...we'll try to make things right with this.
Mallory, how are you feeling this morning?'
'As awful as always. I just...I just want...
I just wanted to live again.
I didn't want to lose all of this and...
I'm just so tired. I want to have a normal life again.
I don't want to have to kill anyone anymore.
I...and the doctors are like, 'It's okay, it's okay. Calm down.
Calm down just a minute.'
'Tommy...'
And Mallory looks up at you.
'This is certainly strange. Um...
Do you...I'm sorry if it's painful to think about it.
Do you remember what happened the night you were electrocuted?'
'Yeah, um...the accent from Mallory has kind of gone away.
It was...I guess I was just stupid.
I didn't have the wiring right and I got hit by the feedback
and it reacted a lot differently to my physiology.
I wasn't made like you were, but a lot has happened.'
'It's certainly interesting. Um...the feedback I saw in your home,
there was the iron rods set up in the basement. Is that what caused it to first...?'
'No, that was a different thing. I did that to get rid of the fungus.'
'It worked.'
'I only wish I could have talked to you then and Amanda might not be dead.
I'm sorry. I was trying to get her away from the doctors.
Trying to help her.'
'As, um, Peter has mentioned us since you've been like this, have you seen Sasha?'
'Peter kind of turns around and heads to the kitchen to grab like a drink or something.'
'What? Sasha's...dead. There was so much that wasn't supposed to happen there.
It was just a tragic set of circumstances. Um, yeah.
I haven't been able to see it for myself, but I've heard that Sasha's actually at the sanitary room as well.'
'What?'
'I thought that might be why you were wanting to keep Amanda away. I...I've only heard that. I haven't been able to...'
'No, they said Sasha was dead. John told me Sasha was dead.'
'I'm sorry John.' 'After everything she went through.'
'I kneel down next to Valerie. Um, I'm sorry. Do you...what happened after the accident? Do you remember how you were?'
'No, what did you...is Sasha alive?'
'Yes. I've only heard that she's at the sanitary room. I don't know if they've moved her. I haven't been able to go check myself.'
'What?'
'I just...I...and she starts like shaking and starts throwing up a bit of that gray stuff. The right arm sort of starts twitching and starts shriveling a little bit.'
'Sorry, I don't understand. Are you spending yourself...'
'No, I...these bodies, they don't fit right. They don't last long. I was made for my body. And now I don't have it. And none of these work.'
'I just wanted a body again. Now I've killed all these people. And Sasha's alive.'
'She was never supposed to be involved in any of this. I have to go get her now.'
'Wait, wait, wait. We will go. We can go get her. But let's take a moment. I'm sorry. I had to try your patience. But we will go see her. Hopefully she's okay. But I'm afraid she may not be in the right state of mind since then as well.'
'She kind of shakes her head and starts standing up and then like one of the legs kind of gives out and they fall back on the couch. This damn body. I was hoping, praying it would be...and you feel what?'
'Everything's been such a blur since the accident. I can't live without a body very long, so I have to have one. But none of it...I wasn't designed for them. They weren't right for me. I didn't want to kill all these people, but I couldn't let myself die. I was scared.'
'Try to remain calm. We'll try to keep as long as we can. And what you have right now, Tommy. I remember correctly from when I was turning earlier when I came to visit this town. Were you raised in an orphanage by Aurora?'
'Yeah, I was raised there. I didn't have parents. I don't know where the baby came from. But all I know is I was designed for it. They made me that and they put me here for the experiment.'
'Since you were passing, does Aurora know?'
'No. I don't think so.'
'You weren't close with her?'
'I don't know what that woman knows or what she doesn't know. I don't care about her. I'm sorry, I shouldn't say that. She raised me and I struggle sometimes with emotions.'
'Until here with Peter, you haven't confided with anyone else?'
'No, I wanted to just solve the problem and have it go away. And after I killed a couple people, how was I supposed to just tell everyone? I'm a murderer now.'
'Do you know if the doctors have come to town yet?'
'I haven't seen them, no. But maybe I can use that to get to the sanitarium. I need to find her, doctor. This whole town is falling apart. And it's because of me. They stopped talking to me when I was younger and I got married to Sasha.
'Maybe I wasn't supposed to do it, I don't know. But they stopped talking to me and I felt like I was a person and I had feelings and emotions. I loved Sasha. And she wasn't supposed to ever get pregnant. That was an impossibility. That's what they told me. And then she did.'
'I was so worried something was going to happen to her. And something did. I don't know what happened to her when the baby was born. They started speaking to me again. And I would find her at night. Just looking, just staring.'
'Who were speaking to you?'
'Things that made me. They spoke to me and I think they did something to her.'
'Do you remember what they looked like when you only ever hear them?'
'I don't know. I don't. I never saw them. They just talked to me in lights. I can understand the lights, the fungus. They'd speak to me through it sometimes. I think they did something to her. And then she died and she killed. And she...'
'And just starts breaking down in tears.' 'Doctor.' 'And it takes your hands.' 'Will you help me?'
Another wave crashes against the dock as we see Corporal Adams walking down the dock. Aurora standing there, waves splashing into her, but she is ever unmoving as the Corporal struggles with the wind, with the water splashing around. The dock shakes.
As you get close to her, you hear her through all of this loud. You hear her very clearly as she says, 'Are you prepared?' 'Yes.' 'What have you brought to sacrifice?'
'Corporal Adams will reach into his shirt and pull out a chain that has dog tags on it.'
'I made a promise when I became a soldier to protect people. I want whatever is happening here to end.' 'To end.' 'I want these people, this world to be safe. I don't know if you or whatever is in the water can help.'
'I can help with that. But this is who I am.' And he holds up the dog tags. 'I'm willing to sacrifice this if you can help.'
'A sacrifice of oneself seems worthy enough a sacrifice to me. Come, come up to the edge.' 'I do so.' 'Look into the depths.'
'Kind of lean forward a little bit.' 'Now give it to him.'
I'll hold it out over the water, handshaking and slowly let it slip from his fingers. As it begins to fall, you hear gunfire. You hear shouting.
You remember seeing things. You're in a Nazi base fighting your way through water, crashing. Your people are screaming. You see something in the distance walking towards you.
Fire surrounds you as you walk by a stack, a pile of bodies, a dead body in your hands.
Now it's your daughter alive and happy as you play with her. Now it's raining as you're watching her be taken away from you as you're left all alone.
In a bar, drinking. You sit in a circle of men and introduce yourself and they are all receptive to you as you share your troubles and your heartache and worries.
You sit in your bed alone. Years go by, you hear the screaming, countless screaming.
As the dog tags hit the water, you hear 'My dad stops monsters.'
As the dog tags hit the water, they stop, landing on something solid. The water all starts to drain down as it then begins to rise, as it looks to you in front of you like a mountain rising from the depths.
Water torrenting off in all directions. This figure, this being rising, dwarfing you.
You see what looks like a hand holding the fishing vessel as it continues to rise, towering above.
Lightning strikes against it, lighting up the sky, lighting up the dark fur of this creature.
You see it's six arms stretching.
Holding what to it would be a type of walking stick or staff.
But to you, it looks like that of the New York skyline.
As the water rains down from its body, you see on its head.
Where a mouth would be there is nothing.
But on the top of its head is split down the middle, the two sides of an elongated mouth as the many eyes look down upon you.
Lightning crashes, now red.
The water now seeping into the town. You see buildings crash and start to fall apart.
And a deep, guttural rumbling begins around you as if something is speaking, but the very heavens are quaking.
And with a flash of red from the lightning.
We fade to black.
January 7, 1997. Washington State.
We are outside of a motel and it's storming very heavily.
Inside of one of the rooms we see Logan Mitchum sitting staring at the wall.
Knock at the door. Twist of a key as Alvin, the Delta Green agent presumably so, who has been leading you all around, steps in. He's utterly drenched.
No umbrella on him.
All right, wipe some of the water off of him. Are you ready to meet your team?
Logan doesn't reply.
He's still sitting staring at the wall.
His fingers drumming.
Agent Gray, we are on a timetable here. Is everything okay?
Everything's fine, Alvin.
And he just turns. I believe it's time to meet. My team.
Yes, follow me. I hear flights into Alaska from here can be quite troubling. So be prepared, if you will.
His fingers stop drumming.
You never know what you might see. And with that he opens the door back up again to the winds and the rains and he steps out.
Yes, everything looks better in the light.
And with a flash of lightning...
We fade to black.
This is the end of season 2. Thanks for listening.
Thank you for listening to the Records of the Unknown Operation Latency.
Records of the Unknown is an Atomic Broadcasting Production. Delta Green is copyright of Arc Dreams Publishing.
Operation Latency is not published or endorsed by Arc Dreams Publishing and is an original module created and run by Samuel Sarver.
Our players are Nolan as Dr. Sylvester Steele and Harold as Corporal Alexander Adams. Music in the show is from Monument Studios as well as various artists.
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Don't forget to like, comment, and tell a friend. And as always, have an Atomic time!
[Music]
Congratulations on finishing season 2!
I may have made a horrible mistake.
It's okay.
To be fair, Steven knew that this was a very bad idea.
I think it checks out for the sake of containing things and stopping everything else that's going on, because there's a lot more than just, "Oh, we have a body snatcher."
Yeah, but I've just made a pact with some kind of... right... thing.
Make a sentence.
I think it drops to zero.
You pay the rest.
13.
I think that's just, you lose it all.
[Singing]
I'm pretty sure.
[Singing]
I think if that what you did work, and stop whatever Tommy was doing.
[ Silence ]
