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Onboarding
“Welcome to Portland, sir. My name is Mike, I’m the TL for team 1.”
Good to be here, Mike.
“Obviously everything that I’m about to tell you is very classified, but you’re used to that. MTF 503 is a regional task force established by the Foundation in the 50s to address the very unique region that is the Pacific Northwest, although we do a lot of work outside of the region because quite frankly our, uh, target audience doesn’t really care about things like zoning plans.”
And what exactly is our target audience, Mike?
“Well, sir, as you know, the Pacific Northwest has an especially diverse ecology, millions of species of flora and fauna, and its own share of spooky mysteries that are the stuff of myth and folklore going back hundreds of years. Bigfoot, for example, although they’re not really a-”
I’m sorry, they?
“Yes sir. Bigfoot is real. Try to keep up. Although Bigfoot is really just sort of an idiom, since its not an individual, but rest assured sir, they’re literally the least of our problems. Do you know what a wendigo is, sir?”
I saw a movie about them once. Pretty good, I thou-
“Its based on a true story, sir. We allowed the story to leak to maintain plausible deniability. Its a fairly standard act on the Foundations part, its easier to cover stuff up if everyone thinks its a work of fiction.”
That movie was terrifying.
“Yes sir. I loved it, although the body count was a lot higher in reality, sir. del Toro does good work, but that kind of...well, it would never have made it past the censors sir. Anyways. MTF 503 is generally charged with the daily needs of the foundation in this region, especially dealing with the broad variety of cryptids that call the region home. We’ve called in other teams as needed, but we’re usually able to handle what crops up, heh, without having to call back home for grocery money.”
Whats our staffing levels?
“12 operators per team, 6 teams total, 3 in Portland, 2 in Seattle, one in Spokane. Foundation is planning to spin up team 7 next year to float for coverage, but thats hay we’ll make later. Including operational support staff and local admin folks, but not including cooperative folks outside the Foundations immediate control, 120. We don’t exactly have a housekeeping or catering staff, but we make do. Team 1 is our most senior guys and I run Team 1, so that makes me the biggest bull on the ranch right now.”
Whats the operational tempo?
“We’ve gone a month without a standby phone call, we’ve had weeks where we never had time to go to the range. Last year the 3-1 was able to buy a house and then didn’t get to sleep in it for 4 days.
Fun. Kara at HQ certainly made it seem like we have a pretty deep purse but whats the reality?
“Well, sir, as you probably figured out by now, the Foundation doesn’t exactly operate on the same playing field as the rest of the planet. Generally speaking the delay in us getting stuff is transit time. Everyone on this team has HK416A5s, GPNVGs, every operator is given broad leeway to outfit themselves as they desire and I’ve never had anyone ask to see a receipt. The last time I asked for a Javelin, the only question anyone asked was “how many?”
Wow. War is a racket, isn’t it?
“What’s the sanity of an entire planet worth, sir?”
Good point, Mike.
So, that all seems well and good. Before we carry on, I do have a question. How do you actually kill a wendigo?
“I told them I needed 5.”
5?
“Javelins, sir. They asked how many I needed. Told them 5, and I was glad I wasn’t wrong.”
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Interview
“Good morning, Captain. How are you feeling today?”
I don’t know you. Who are you? What do you want?
“I’m just here to talk. Doctor Astor called us. She said we might be able to help you get better.”
Get better?
“Yes, Captain...do you mind if I call you by your first name?”
Whats yours?
“I’m Kara. May I call you Doug?”
Sure.
“Thank you, Doug. Doctor Astor told me a little bit about you. She said you had some trouble adjusting to life in Afghanistan.”
THATS NOT WHAT HAPPENED! I’M NOT CRAZY! I’M NOT FU-
“Doug. I know you’re not crazy.”
I’M NOT you what?
“I don’t think you’re crazy, Doug. I think you saw something horrible, and that experience changed you.”
The others wouldn’t listen to me. They said I was seeing things, hearing things. They told me I needed drugs, that what I saw wasn’t real.
“And did you believe them?”
No...not at first. It seemed so real. I saw it with my own eyes. But...now I’m not so sure...they said it couldn’t be real.”
“Would it make you feel better if I told you it wasn’t real?”
No. No it wouldn’t.
“Would it make you feel better if I told you was real?”
...No. No it wouldn’t.
“Why not?”
Because...because if its real, then its not just something I see in my nightmares. Its not something I see when the lights go out, or the drugs wear off. If you tell me its real, that means other people can see it...
“Others have.”
What do you mean?
“I mean, after you left that cave, other people reported seeing the same thing. They all described the same things. Some of them are dead, some of them by their own hand. Some of them are alive, and they’re locked in boxes like you are right now, and they’ll never get out.”
So why are you here?
“You have an impressive record, Doug. And not just your military record. You survived an abusive childhood at the hands of a neglectful drug-addicted mother and an alcoholic father. Records from school show you were a bright kid but lacked challenging material so your grades weren’t great but your teachers spoke highly of you. You joined the military at 17 during the height of the war on terror, you had a generic yet impressive enlisted service, infantry, sniper, Ranger, Special Forces, 5 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan including 2 after attending Officer Candidate School. Your ODA saw a lot of action your last trip. You got a Purple Heart, twice. Bronze Star.”
Why the fuck are you here? How do you know so much about me? Who are you?
“Doug. I’m here because of what you saw, and how you reacted to it. See, most people who saw...what you saw...died by their own hand immediately. They didn’t make it out of that cave. They didn’t get their team back to base, they didn’t get the chance to report in, they never made it to a psychologist who told them that what they saw was impossible and couldn’t be real and was the product of a PTSD episode because you got your asses kicked by a bunch of...well. The point is, you saw that, and you managed to keep yourself in control just long enough to be told you were insane.”
Who are you? What do you want from me?!
“I work for a private organization thats very interested in the thing you saw. I’m here to offer you two things: A job, and a way out of this box.”
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Psych Eval
“Alright, so, team psych evals came back. First up, Alexander. Anxiety, paranoia, audio and visual hallucinations, uncertainty about the future. Same as the last 3 psych evals.”
So we’re gonna retire him, right?
“No, sir, he’s fit for duty.”
Excuse me?
“He’s fine, sir. Consider the line of work we do, sir. The things we see on a daily basis. McCaskey was QRF for the Dollhouse incident last year. You read the briefing?”
Yeah.
“Well, then you know what that place did to people. He didn’t even go inside. But it had him on edge for months. Which, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t really all the bad. Most of us are on some sort of low-grade amnestic and mental health meds. Its our baseline, sir.”
Your baseline is insane?
“Well, that depends on your definition and perspective sir. I know you’re new here, sir, so with all due respect. The...incident...that brought you here. In Afghanistan. How did you feel afterwards?”
I couldn’t sleep for days, even after that I had nightmares, I heard things. I couldn’t focus on patrols. Every figured I’d cracked, that the stress had gotten to me. Doc diagnosed me with PTSD. A hundred years ago they would have called it shell shock.
“Right, sir, but here’s the thing: Thats a normal response. You saw something that scared the absolute shit out of you, something that, quite frankly, you weren’t supposed to see, and it mentally scarred you for life. Which is a perfectly reasonable thing to have happen. So, imagine, if you will, that you saw...what you saw...on a daily basis.”
I’d never sleep again.
“Exactly. What you saw, thats a Tuesday for some of the guys on this team. But they, like you, have the mental resiliency to bounce back from it. Sure, it’ll mess them up, which is why most of us are on some sort of memory blocker, but we keep our calm, we address the problem, and we move on. You know who I’d worry about? I’d worry about the guy who doesn’t seem the least bit phased by anything we’ve seen. I worry about the guys who don’t have to fight down the panic, who take a look at something horrible from another plane of reality and go ‘huh, thats neat,’ and don’t even react. Alexander? He’s like every other guy on this team. If it wasn’t for the drugs the Foundation gives us, every single one of us would be locked in a nice clean padded vault somewhere or we’d have blown our own brains out in a puddle of alcohol and heroin.”
Thats a good point, Mike.
“Thank you for understanding, sir. You’ll get used to the way we do things around here. Normal is just a setting on a washing machine, sir. Anyway, next up, yours truly. Baker...”
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