Although more or less every contact with the occult is new and exciting (and not in a good way), the Invisible College has evolved a number of protocols for dealing with whatever weirdness may occur. In cases where the contact takes place on foreign soil, standard procedure is usually to leave quietly and make sure all the trip expense claims are in order. Where otherworldly threats have to be dealt with, officers and Special Forces personnel of Excalibur Units are well-advised to follow standard procedures. Any deviation from these requires a full and formal explanation of what was done and why rather than the use of a pro-forma contact report. And the pro-forma is brain-twisting enough.
Officers would also do well to remember that mundane threats are still threats. Falling off a cliff or being bitten by a snake are pretty mundane misadventures compared to having your brain eaten, but that does not make them desirable, except maybe by comparison. Agents must be on the watch for mundane threats as well as occult ones. Most such mundane threats can be dealt with using common-sense precautions and do not require a College-approved guide. Nevertheless, there is one.
Large chunks of the Field Operations Manual deal with issues such as how to use a ladder safely and avoiding stomach upsets in countries with inadequately clean drinking water. Clueless as many College staff can be about the real world at times, most do manage to avoid mishaps without referring to the manual section on anti-slip precautions in the shower and similar environments. Of course, when you’re being chased by Deep Ones, it is possible to forget these elementary real-world precautions and come a cropper, as the manual charmingly describes it.
However, the main mundane threat to College officers is, ironically perhaps, the fabric of civilised society and its many agencies that try to be helpful and protective.
Clueless Responses to Incidents
(AKA: How Not To Get Killed By A Police Sniper Just Before You Confront Lurking Evil)
It is quite startling to discover what people can fail to notice going on in front of them, but once someone does actually spot the zombie horde or gateway to crappinessville, there will be a response of some kind. Fire and ambulance crews, lifeboatmen and other helpful people will attend the scene to try to save lives. Normally that’s a good thing but it can lead to all kind of complications.
The police are a more active threat in this sense, in that they have a remit to protect the public from strange people who brandish weapons, and will feel duty-bound to try to deal with whatever is happening no matter how outmatched they are. That usually equates to evacuating an area, setting up a cordon and calling in anyone and everyone who might be some help. Thus a single police officer can bring down massive complications with a well-intentioned radio call. Pretty soon the area will be flooded with uniforms and people whose job it is to find out what is happening. Operating on the quiet can become problematic at this point
It must also be stressed that cops have no sense of humour about people waving guns or things that look like guns, especially if bodies have been turning up or stuff has recently exploded in the area. Most patrol officers in Britain are not armed, in the sense that they do not have a gun, but they do have incapacitating sprays, batons and a radio to yell for help from the armed response team – and they do have guns.
A College officer who rushes around with a gun in an area covered by police marksmen might meet an untimely and rather ironic end. The key to dealing with police and emergency-service response is cooperation and containment. That is, you need to contain the police response before they get too enthusiastic and call in the anti-terrorist unit, and you need to get their cooperation. Your warrant card is the primary tool in this case, and should be applied vigorously and nearly. If you can get to the first cops on the scene and co- opt them with your warrant card then you should be able \nto take control of the police response or stop it happening at all. If not, you need to get to the on-site commander and use your warrant card at that level.
Once you have gained control of the emergency-service response you should be able to use rather than work around the official response. Cops can be useful for keeping anyone else from wandering into the area, and to keep reporters out. If you’re lucky and there are officers with appropriate experience present they may be able to actively help, but if not then the rule is to use the cops to keep everyone, including the cops, out of your way while you deal with the problem.
Conventional (ish) Operations
Some Laundry operations are not much different to other national security situations. Most of these are termed ‘Counter-Terrorism and Rescue-Like Operations’ in the field manuals, raising the question of exactly what a ‘rescue-like’ mission might achieve.
These operations are conducted much like conventional counter-terrorism missions, and might involve an element of interaction (of a non-violent sort) with the opposition. Many cults, occult organisations and even terrorist groups have a public face and do not want to be exposed for what they are before their plans are ready. It may be possible to negotiate meaningfully with such groups, so long as the College officer does not forget that their long-term agenda is probably not something that should be encouraged.
Dealing with such groups can be a lot like international relations during the Cold War. Both sides know what the other is up to but maintain a polite façade to avoid escalation until they are ready or it becomes inevitable. Infiltration of a cult or other occult group is conducted much like infiltration of any other suspect organisation, though with the added complication of geasa, magical wards and other sorcerous means of exposing a snitch.
Overt operations against a cult can be carried out much like any other operation. If it becomes necessary to smash in the door and rescue the hostages, it does not matter very much whether the hostiles worship Nyarlathothep or Osama Bin Laden; the details of the threat may vary but an arrest or hostage rescue op is much the same in either case.
Some groups are utterly crazed and unpredictable, but most follow some kind of logic and many are frighteningly rational when it comes to operating in the real world. These are the most insidious, as they tend to know how to, “play the game,” and will use legal means, bureaucratic stalling and misinformation to protect themselves… backed up of course by less conventional defences. Once the façade is cracked, these groups are as ruthless as any international crime syndicate or intelligence agency, but not necessarily more so. They do tend to have more inventive ways of disposing of bodies, however.
Conventional (ish) operations include typical, “black bag,” covert entry missions to plant evidence or obtain information as well as observation, surveillance and infiltration. Deliberate cage-rattling of a suspected cult is about as far as, “conventional,” can go; once the weirdness is out in the open then it’s time to move on to less conventional means.
Containment and Suppression
Containment and Suppression (or C&S, as it is sometimes known) is the College’s primary and preferred mission. In short, the threat is identified and contained, then quietly disposed of. Where possible, the College prefers to co-opt anyone it can and to obtain artefacts for study – a former threat who now works in Cubicle 17a in the Indexing and Cross-Referencing Team is suppressed just as efficiently as one who has been vaporised or banished back to the outer realms.
Co-opting works best on humans who have stumbled upon something by accident or through being a bit too clever for their own good, but can be applied to some other entities too. The knowledge and abilities of the individual might be useful to the College at some later date, and elimination always remains an option. Indeed, it is easier to achieve and to clean up afterwards if the individual is within the College – the appropriate quote here is, “Keep your friends close, and give your enemies a job with a decent benefits package”.
If the threat cannot be co-opted or negotiated with to a satisfactory outcome, then suppression is the only answer. “Suppression,” in this case means making the threat go away. The means used should be as cost-effective as possible and ideally will not involve any requirement for a cover story to sell to the masses. Low-key is good, but the need to succeed sometimes takes precedence.
In the case of a possessor entity threat, or any other threat that can spread, containment and suppression go hand in hand. The usual precautions must be taken against possessor entities – avoiding physical and electrical contact, treating encountered persons as suspect until proven, “clean,” and so forth – and care must also be taken to ensure that innocents do not blunder into contact with entities.
College agents may be aware that what appears to be Fred the Delivery Driver is not him any more, but this is not a conclusion that will leap readily to the mind of ordinary people encountering the entity currently wearing Fred’s uniform… and skin. A thin attempt to deceive, which will not convince the most distracted of Laundry agents, will work on an ordinary person who considers demonic possession to be the stuff of fiction.
Military personnel backing up a College operation may have ways to deal with possessed entities, such as using less-lethal weapons to incapacitate the host body, while attempts are made to contain or drive out the entity. They also have guns and explosives, and those work pretty well, too. Shooting every possessed entity in an area will provide effective suppression of the outbreak, and extreme as it may sound it may be the only option.
Containment can sometimes be achieved by indirect means. Explosives will disable most possessed entities, but they can also be used to create obstacles that will contain or channel a group of enemies. Hostiles can be channelled into kill-zones in this way, or contained for a single response such as a large explosive device or mass exorcism.
Checkpoints and obstructions are also a useful way to control the movement of personnel and hostiles. A simple cordon-and-search operation can be used to ensure that an area is cleared, and afterwards access may be restricted to a few key points. These can be controlled by the creation of cleared, “Kill zones,” that deprive hostiles of cover, and movement through the kill zone can be further curtailed by using razor wire and similar obstacles that will impede movement but not bullets.
Note that many possessed entities will disregard threats that would cause a normal person to find another route. A possessor might try to push through thick thorny hedges or even razor wire, accepting damage to its host body that the host might not. Thus it is necessary to think in terms of what is physically possible when setting up obstructions, rather than what would deter most people.
Thick hedges or weak wire entanglements will slow down anything trying to push through them, and are thus useful as a delaying tactic. They must, however, be watched and use made of the delay. As combat engineers say, “An obstacle not covered by fire is not an obstacle,” and a team that neglects to watch an approach because none of its members would fancy climbing through that hedge might get an unpleasant and surprise. On the other hand, somebody trying to climb through a razor wire fence is pretty good confirmation of possession or mind-wrenching stupidity, both of which might merit opening fire.
As far as minor possessor entities go, it is usually possible for a team to maintain its security through the use of kill zones, obstructions and access control, at least for long enough to complete a primary mission. Those entities that get too close may have to be dealt with in the old fashioned manner (shooting them), and in this case suppressed weapons are preferred if the team is to remain fairly covert.
In a possessor-rich environment, a team may have to operate as a, “Roving pocket,” with team members covering all approaches on the move and shooting anything that comes too close. This works well enough in the short term, but is best used only when making a brute-force movement through hostile territory.
In many ways diseases and other forms of contamination such as radioactive fallout or hazardous chemicals can be harder to deal with than possessor entities. Similar principles are used, however, with barrier protection in the form of protective suits and breathing equipment, and a general policy of keeping your distance and not touching anything you aren’t sure of. Barrier protection such as a protective suit will only be useful so long as it is not compromised by holes or taking the helmet off.
Contaminants can remain on the outside of the suit, so decontamination is important after a mission. This takes the form of washing off the contaminants with neutralising agents or, if nothing better is available, lots of water and detergent. Decontamination is mandatory before removing protective equipment where there has been contact with… pretty much anything. Ideally it is performed in a sealed environment such as aboard a mobile decontamination suite, with the fluids then disposed of according to current Health & Safety legislation. Allowing contaminated liquids to enter the local drainage system can cause a new set of problems, after all.
One other form of contagion is to be avoided wherever possible, and that is civilian panic and stupidity. Both seem to be infectious and can be extremely dangerous. Establishing a secure area from which the public are excluded is of paramount importance, as is the creation of a suitable cover story. Explanations about E. coli outbreaks, termite infestations, gas leaks and such like can be used to keep the public away from an area without much effort from the security team, though it is necessary to watch for journalists, conspiracy theorists and perhaps a group of meddling kids with a large dog trying to see what’s really going on.
Use of the warrant card and a security detachment (which can be co-opted from local police if necessary) to secure an area will go a long way towards reducing panic. What the public can’t see can still hurt them, but at least you’ll be able to deal with it without tripping over rubbernecking yokels.
If the area cannot be properly secured, then a cover story can be effective at keeping people away. An announcement that anyone who has been exposed to – whatever – will need to report to a local hospital to be checked out and perhaps quarantined can prove surprisingly effective in clearing the vicinity. Which is why if it is necessary to get people checked for contamination, you should use a different story.
Suppression of a disease or contaminant can require anything from a good scrubbing down with bleach to the use of fuel-air munitions or thermobaric warheads. More physical threats can be more easily found and eliminated – though incendiaries and explosives work well there too. Other related threats will normally suggest an appropriate suppression response. Which translates as: “You weren’t just going to leave that gate to another universe open, now were you?”
Paranormal Reconnaissance and Exploration
Sometimes the nature of a threat is not immediately apparent. A gate opening in time and space is rarely a good thing, but sometimes nothing immediately inimical leaps out and starts devouring. Alternatively, sometimes something does but rather than just slam the gate closed it may be necessary to investigate where it leads.
“Paranormal Reconnaissance and Exploration,” missions also include entry into physical areas such as a suspect building or a mysterious tunnel under the arctic ice. Searching a lost city in the South American rainforest may also fall in this category, depending on what you find. It is wise to assume that there is a paranormal element – or at least a paranormal threat – involved with any new place your team is sent into. While the officers’ mess may be a strange place indeed, it is probably not necessary to observe paranormal reconnaissance protocols when visiting (depends on your unit, though), but in most cases even a routine visit to the offices of a suspect company could result in contact with something even odder than the average database engineer.
Paranormal Reconnaissance missions are much like any other recon operations. The team will try to operate covertly, avoiding contact and observing where possible. Wards, protective equipment and a healthy degree of paranoia should be in place, and even apparently mundane objects must be treated with suspicion.
The goal of a recon op is to gather information, although sometimes this can lead to the realisation that something needs to be dealt with immediately. Wherever possible the team will go in, get the info and slip back out again. A properly planned response can then be set up using the Intel gathered by the reconnaissance mission.
One simple rule for paranormal exploration missions is: “Don’t touch nuthin”. Once the experts from Artefacts have examined an area or object and proclaimed it safe… you probably still shouldn’t touch it if you can avoid it. An exploration mission takes the team into someone else’s backyard, and there is no telling what horribleness might be just lying around waiting for someone to step on/fall into/invoke.
The team should move through the area to be explored cautiously, but not too slowly. The typical 4-man Special Forces patrol formation works as well here as anywhere else, with larger expeditions using the 4-man team as a building block. Typically the, “Tail end Charlie,” of any given 4-man patrol will be armed with a high-firepower automatic weapon such as a light machine gun, and will respond to a threat with intense fire while everyone seeks cover.
A team may send out scouts or detach personnel to investigate points of interest along the way, but the horror-movie rule of, “Don’t go out of camera shot,” applies. “Nobody goes anywhere alone,” is another basic rule. Pairs cover one another as they explore or protect the College boffins as they investigate things man was not intended to fiddle about with. A team may move through an area in bounds, with some elements static while others are on the move. Guard posts may be set up at key points, such as the entry to an area, and often snipers are used to provide security as others operate. Snipers do not operate alone; usually a sniper and his observer will suffice to provide mutual security, but a couple of additional personnel may be sent to protect them if necessary.
The sniper team will establish itself in a secure elevated spot, where it can observe the area. Fire support is a secondary role; the sniper’s observation skills are the team’s first line of defence. The sniper element’s first task is to sanitise its location, making sure it is not sitting on top of something nasty, and while one soldier is using a rifle scope or specialist spotting scope to make a minute examination of an area, the other will be watching all around for threats. The sniper team must also make sure it has a clear avenue of escape in case things go badly wrong.
It is rarely possible to put so many personnel into an area to make it safe for College agents to skip about from one interesting site to another, so movement must be carefully coordinated. With armed personnel at their backs and a sniper team up somewhere high, the specialists should be safe enough to do their thing… but ‘should’ is a dangerous word, and things can get hazardous fast when poking around ancient ruins on the far side of a gate. Personnel who become complacent may not live long enough to learn from their mistake.
A variant on the recon mission is a live specimen snatch. Under some circumstances, a damaged specimen will do, so expedients like shooting it in a non-lethal area a few times can be used to assist the capture. More commonly, it is necessary to bring in a specimen undamaged, and that can pose a challenge.
Less-lethal weapons, either of a general sort or something specific to the creature to be snatched, can be used in a capture, or perhaps a sorcerer might be able to use a geas or similar spell to gain compliance. Unless occult means make it simple, “bagging,” a specimen is normally done the same way as snatching a terror suspect; the target is attacked by surprise, bashed, drugged or otherwise made less able to resist, and then secured for transport. That tends to be much easier with human-sized creatures, but a team may have to snatch something big. If so, mechanical assistance is useful.
It is vital that the whole team does not fixate on the snatch operation. Some personnel need to protect the rest of the team from incoming threats, and even if less-lethal weapons are to be used, some team members should have lethal weapons ready in case things go south and a fast put-down is required.
Recovery of Personnel and Artefacts
Sometimes it is necessary to retrieve people and things that have been… misplaced. There are all manner of reasons why an object might end up in potentially hostile hands, and if that object happens to be the owner of a warrant card then utter stupidity cannot be ruled out.
Options vary depending on the circumstances. If the object or person is in the hands of a neutral or potentially friendly group, or a group so powerful that a direct challenge is a bad idea, then bargaining or purchase is one of the few viable options. If the opposition can be kept in the dark about the value of what they have, so much the better. Occasionally a potent artefact is stolen by someone who knows nothing about its powers but thinks it might fetch a few quid on the Internet. A bag of notes is a small price to pay for its return in most cases.
Where the new owner is unwilling to hand over the item, coercion can be used. Threats to kill loved ones are officially frowned upon but as an alternative to leaving something dangerous in unpleasant hands, such measures might be acceptable. Deals to perform a service in return for the object, although the stuff of most console adventure games, are not normally considered an option; the British government does not want its Special Forces operators rushing around the countryside doing the bidding of some crook with a hostage. There have been occasions where there was no alternative, however.
A stealthy snatch operation is always a viable option, using covert means to grab the item and then depart swiftly. In the event that a covert snatch is discovered, or if it is not an option, then a direct assault may be the only option. This does risk accidental damage to the artefact or hostage, but if the need is great enough then deliberate elimination may be acceptable to avoid hostiles getting access to the item or whatever the hostage knows.
The general rule is that stealth and surprise are the best options, and once a recovery operation goes, “loud,” then it needs to be fast and violent. Flashbangs and similar distraction devices are only useful if they are followed into the room by armed people intent on violence. The aim, as with most rescue operations, will be to prevent the opposition making any coherent response and to overwhelm what opposition does materialise by a combination of speed and firepower.
A recovery operation can be broken into three main phases: approach, snatch and escape. The approach should be stealthy if possible, sudden and fast if not. The team may have to wait for a long period until the circumstances are right, and must be ready to go at a moment’s notice.
Once the prize has been secured then the goal is to get it to safety, not necessarily to eliminate all of the opposition. Depending on what is at stake a military team may have to forgo a golden opportunity to take out a whole lot of bad guys in order to save some geek from the Laundry, but if those are the orders then they must be followed. The geek may be more important to the big picture than the opposition; though occasionally a rescue or recovery does suffer ‘mission creep’ or the team realises that they have to deal with something else important right now.
Escape is always part of the plan; possibly the most important part. Some elements of the recovery team may be assigned to cover the extraction route or to protect a safe house. Escape can be slow and covert or might be a crazy dash through enemy territory; the team will have to decide whether to make a break for it or to hold up and wait for the search to die down. Sometimes the extraction actually goes according to plan, which is always a nice surprise.