[Hider= SFC ESCARRA, GONZALO] TS//SCI//DG//NOFORN// U//FOUO// Name: Gonzalo Escarra Alias: Hakim Najjar (Central Asia) Raymundo “Ray” Santana (Latin America) Age/DOB: 33/01MAY1987 Gender: Male Appearance: Ht/Wt: 5’10”/200lbs Speaks in a voice of middling tone, not too deep, not too high. When among others of Latino descent, he may code-switch and speak with more of an accent versus when he is speaking in a professional capacity to peers. Keeps his hair longer than most are authorized in the military, being on the Army’s special roster has its perks. His face is ambiguous enough to lend him the ability to blend in anywhere from Latin America to Central Asia. Gaunt cheeks, a prominent nose, and angular features lend him a sort of ambiguity among the peoples who have darker skin. As such, Central America and Asia, as well as parts of Europe, are his areas of expertise. He has served in several hotspots in these areas, and has accrued habits and mannerisms from those places into his own. His build is athletic, but with no wasted bulk on his 5’10” frame. He usually wears clothing to fit him in ways to hide his athleticism and blend into the populace around him. Profession: Sergeant First Class (SFC) - E-9 US Army Intelligence Support Activity - Ground Squadron Education: High School Diploma Master of Science, Cybersecurity Psych Eval/Personal Info: Gonzalo grew up poor in San Jose, inside one of many barrios across the west coast and southwest of the US. With this, he had been involved somewhat in the street life, his mother finding her money in low-paying jobs and making up for the rest of their profits with peddling illicit substances for the local Sureño gang. It wasn’t long before he was approached, but his staunch refusal to do work for the gangs in the area was not mirrored by his younger brother. He needed to escape this life, and when recruiters came to his school for any future recruits, he jumped on the opportunity. Sports or music, or drug dealing, wasn’t a dependable path out of poverty. Maybe the Army would be. As he’d hoped, when he turned 18, the Army made good on its promise to take him far away from his barrio. He’d had good grades in school, and was able to score high enough in the right areas of the ASVAB to ensure him a slot as a SIGINT Analyst, analyzing and disseminating things like radio signals to offer up a piece of intelligence packet to DoD customers. Farther along in his career, he’d been recruited into the NSA-led Central Security Service as part of Army INSCOM. He would later be approached by senior individuals to volunteer for Selection with a little known SMU that was recruiting anyone from INSCOM and SOCOM who showed promise. After being one of the last left in his class, he was chosen from the few who’d made it through to be part of the new generation of the US Army’s Intelligence Support Activity. As part of JSOC’s premier intelligence gathering unit, he found himself in almost every theater in Central Asia and Latin America. It would be after an operation in Syria that he would be recruited by yet another shadowy organization by a man named Joseph Blaine. He assumes this is just another Special Access Program dealing with terrorism, but he remains unsure if all of this could be that simple. [hider=TS//SCI//DG//NOFORN] U//FOUO// Following is the debrief interview conducted by Case Officer REDACTED, interviewing SFC REDACTED of Task Force REDACTED of JSOC as part of Operation GHOSTWRITER. Interview was conducted at REDACTED, Turkey. FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY. CO REDACTED: Tell me about Operation Ghostwriter. What you were doing, and who you were doing it with. SFC REDACTED: We were attached to CENSORED in Syria, mostly in CENSORED and the surrounding area, as part of the effort to oust Daesh and the other extremist militants from the region. There were other, um, state actors in the area of operations that we were also gathering intelligence on. We relied a lot on SIGINT, our HUMINT guys couldn’t get a direct asset within the CENSORED, so we gave them a wide berth. I’m talking like our assets had assets, so we were getting third-party information and expected to develop targets for our hitters based on hearsay. LONG PAUSE… Who are you with? Counterintel? CO REDACTED: Something like that. Go on. SFC REDACTED: Okay… uh, what specifically do you need to know? I’m not going to beat around the bush, you want to hear about when we took contact. CO REDACTED: Yeah. SFC REDACTED: Right. I’ll say this, the state actors- the CENSORED- they had ordnance and munitions that we had never encountered. Even Agency reports didn’t list any of this, or maybe I wasn’t read on, but- CO REDACTED: Just tell me about what happened, what you know. I know it’s fresh, but I have to know. SFC REDACTED: Yeah, I get it. So, we were supposed to be the advance team, me and one other guy. First in, collect what we could, give it to the analysts and targeters, see what they could get and if the hitters needed to go in. There was supposed to be an HVT somewhere in the town, but airborne ISR couldn’t get anything going in or coming out, which is weird. All our HUMINT guys were pointing to that town, that the Alhilal al’Aswad group was in there, and with the ROE of the CENSORED when it came to Daesh and our Green Forces, we didn’t have time to verify. JSOC needed this guy bad. We thought it was rushed, but nobody could veto shit. So, Aswad guy was in there somewhere, we could rendition him before the CENSORED could level the town, but we had to act fast. If ISR couldn’t get anything, maybe our closer-range instruments could. We were going to deliver real-time intel to the analysts, analysts would feed shit directly to the direct action guys and they’d go in and out, quick as fuck. We took a civilian car, plain clothes, PDWs only and whatever else we could fit in the trunk. Weren’t supposed to be there long, so we planned on leaving a small footprint and splitting after a few hours. We went from the edge of the town to make our way to our local guy’s safehouse and set up our scanners, firefight or something in the distance the whole time, which isn’t too weird for Syria. We got set up, turned on our shit. It was like opening up a dam. We flipped our instruments on, cellphone signals and radio just blasted us. Shit was happening right now, and it was bad. Whatever was hitting the Aswad guys… from what the radio signals were saying, it wasn’t like anything I’d heard of. At first, we were thinking NBC, some kind of gas. Maybe CS gas, white phosphorus, something we could explain. Something that made sense. But they said it was like a black cloud. That it was eating them in seconds… LONG PAUSE The signal grabbers went quiet. Fucking dead quiet. And it sounded like… like they were saying this one thing, over and over. CO REDACTED: Okay. And then? SFC REDACTED: And then we took contact. RPG in the window, it hit low and blew the fucking wall open. Our local guy was dead, bad. I’m the one who fucking drafted the mission, and took these guys with me and I’m the one who got them… My partner was wounded, unconscious. I could hear them speaking CENSORED, so I knew it couldn’t be Daesh. Maybe Chechens, but they weren’t in that area just yet and the Alhilal al’Aswad guys were multiplying like rabbits in the region. That’s when I saw what the guys were talking about. The CENSORED had a guy on one of the rooftops, and his hands were glowing- CO REDACTED: Any smells? SFC REDACTED: LONG PAUSE… Like what? I could smell gunpowder, the dust and rubble… CO REDACTED: Anything like ozone? Electrical burn? SFC REDACTED: Maybe. Figured it could’ve been the millions of dollars in equipment that just got damaged, why? CO REDACTED: Okay, go on. Glowing hands? SFC REDACTED: Yeah. His hands were glowing, and he was drawing shit in the air. I thought he had some fucking chemlights, but the trails the light left just stayed in the air. That was the only thing that kept it… LONG PAUSE It really was like a fucking cloud. Just a big cloud of black shit, like bats almost. Syrian guys who were fighting Alhilal al’Aswad since they appeared in the region out of Iraq told us about Shayatin- Islamic demons, Arabic language. Walidu Al-Harb. We didn't report that, just brushed it off as superstition. But I saw it! I fucking saw it, and I saw this dude on the roof doing fucking magic! The guys that interviewed me before you look at me like I’m fucking crazy, but I fucking saw what I saw! CO REDACTED: What were the signal grabbers picking up over and over before you took contact? SFC REDACTED: Tueal Washahid. Arabic. Come and see… What does it mean? CO REDACTED: LONG PAUSE… Listen, I have to cut this short, but I’ll be back. If they try to move you out of here, I’ll stop it. You’re not going anywhere until I can talk to you again. You’re grounded, no missions for you, but they can’t put you in a fucking institution while I’m around. You need anything, just ask for me. You want to figure out what really happened in CENSORED with the black cloud… don’t call me, I’ll call you. SFC REDACTED: The fuck do I do while you’re gone? CO REDACTED: Take a breather. I’ll be back. END AUDIO… FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY U//FOUO// [/hider] Bonds: Wife? Kids? Ma and Pa? Best Friend? any and all go here. These count as Bonds and can be invoked when failing a WP roll. No more than 5 His brother, Giovanni, 25. Involved in the Sureño street gang in San Jose, he is now serving a sentence in San Quentin for the murder of his step-brother and his step-father. He has since began trying to distance himself from his gang, but is afraid that he may be harmed if he tries to cut off his ties. Gonzalo knows it’s blood in, and blood out. His sister, Andrea, 16. After their mother was beaten to death by her most recent boyfriend, and Giovanni was sentenced to time in prison for the revenge killings of their step-brother and step-father, she found herself on the streets for some time before becoming involved with the church. His spouse, Cindy Aquino. Their marriage has been rocky since his career with the Army deepened. More secrets kept from her, and less days spent together. She’s beginning to think his passion for his work is overshadowing her. His best friend, Ayanda, 30. Another member of the ISA who's been on his team and worked as his partner in small two-man teams since 2017. A first generation immigrant from South Africa, with roots in the Zulu tribe. Motivations: Doing what’s right for America, the Army, the US Intelligence Community, and the Activity Protect his country from any and all who would corrupt or harm it Doing a job no one else can do, because no one else should have to Fears: The fear that everything he’s done has been in bad faith. The fear that the bureaucracy that he’s sworn to would only serve to deceive the people, and use him as their tool. The fear that nothing he does will be enough to stop those who would harm America from doing so. That despite all his training, all his effort, every victory, that defeat is inevitable. The fear that no one else can, or should have to, do the things he’s done. Everything he does is to ensure a better future free of those who would hurt the innocent. When his time comes, will he have done enough? (73 points to spread out within these attributes) HIT POINTS: STR+STAM+DEX (40) STRENGTH: 13 DEXTERITY: 14 STAMINA: 13 BUREAUCRACY: 2 (Cap is 5, for exceptionally wealthy characters, which are rare. In this economy?) INTELLIGENCE: 15 WILLPOWER: 16 SAN/BREAKING POINT: SAN=WPx5/BREAKING POINT=SAN-WP 80/64 POWER: WPx5 >> Sample Distinguishing Features Strength - 3-4 (Feeble) 5-8 (Weak) 9-12 (Average) 13-16 (Muscular) 17-18 (Huge) Dexterity - 3-4 (Barely Mobile) 5-8 (Clumsy) 9-12 (Average) 13-16 (Nimble) 17-18 (Acrobatic) Stamina - 3-4 (Bedridden) 5-8 (Sickly) 9-12 (Average) 13-16 (Perfect Health) 17-18 (Tireless) Intelligence - 3-4 (Fuckin’ Stoopid) 5-8 (Slow) 9-12 (Average) 13-16 (Perceptive) 17-18 (Brilliant) Willpower - 3-4 (Spineless) 5-8 (Nervous) 9-12 (Average) 13-16 (Strong-Willed) 17-18 (Indomitable) Skills: (Either choose from the sample professions found at the bottom of the Doc, in the Agent’s Handbook or The Complex sourcebook, or freely choose from the list below the Character Sheet to fill out the skill tiers) Gifted(70-80): 3 skills Criminology 70 | Spycraft 70 | Breaking-and-Entering 70 | SIGINT 75 Adept(50-69): 4 skills Awareness 68 | Marksmanship 64 | HUMINT 58 | Search 50 Average(30-49): 4 skills First Aid 35 | Subterfuge 46 | Hand to Hand 40 | Tactical Driving 45 Novice(10-29): 5 skills Craft-Microelectronics 28 | Artillery 24 | Milsci-Air 24 | MilSci-Land 25 | MilSci-Sea 24 (After placing skills in the appropriate tier/point range, the DM will roll a d20 for each skill in tiers below Gifted, disregarding any actual resultant 20s. Resulting numbers are added to the score, not to exceed any Tier thresholds this time around. You will also get 6 points to allot to 5 of whatever skills you want to improve, adjusting tiers accordingly. THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO GIFTED TIER. Any skill slot left empty by lack of skill, or upgrading of a skill, gets a free slot for any skill THAT MAKES SENSE FOR THE CHARACTER/THEIR PROFESSION The only exception is legacy characters, who may have only ONE skill above 80) Languages: If applicable 50 = Fluent (Spanish) 40 = Semi-Fluent (Arabic) 30 = Rudimentary (Persian) Special Training: Black Markets - Drug Culture (INT) Black Markets - Weapons Dealing (INT) Military Freefall HALO/HAHO Qualified (DEX) Combat Diver Qualified (STAM) (Example: Black Markets - Drug Culture (INT), Military Freefall HALO/HAHO (DEX), Military K9 (INT) these are special facets of assignable skills, or fields of knowledge not typically found among professional peers) Weaknesses: Viewing his work as that of a crusader, an endless war in which he beats back the darkness of man in hopes that his countrymen can sleep peacefully at night. As such, he can be daring, and borderline reckless in the pursuit of victory. This has led to many close calls. ADAPTATIONS: (These are adaptations to trauma. For any SAN roll that succeeds against these two types of trauma results in you adding an X in either Violence or Helplessness. 4 Xs result in gaining an Adaptation, and a mental disorder, like PTSD for instance.) Violence: XX Helplessness: XX Off-Duty Clothing/Equipment: Because you're not going to be walking around in door-kicking gear all day, every day on a clandestine op. Clothing: Plain clothes befitting his locale Weapons: Concealable weapons, situation permitting Tools/Equipment: Go-Bag(Extra magazines, two IFAKs, flashlight, chemlights, pepper spray, tools for technical surveillance, lockpicks and lockpicking gun, a few thumb drives pre-loaded with malware for installing back doors into computer systems, a multitool, burner phones, clamshell and key blanks, nitrile gloves, sunglasses, ski mask, as well as surgical masks, Bic lighters, trusty zippo lighter, notepad and pen, digital camera with an assortment of lenses, radio frequency code grabber, bug/camera detector, audio jammer) Operational Clothing/Equipment: Nothing that would remove all doubt that you are part of the US military/Law Enforcement/Intelligence Community. NATO weaponry is fine, but not required. Clothing: Either full battle rattle with plate carrier and Crye apparel, or plain civilian clothes befitting the locale depending on the mission at hand. Weapons: Usually something very concealable, either a handgun or PDW. He keeps a SIG MCX on standby loaded with accessories befitting an operator. Tools/Equipment: Go-Bag(Extra magazines, two IFAKs, flashlight, chemlights, pepper spray, tools for technical surveillance, lockpicks and lockpicking gun, a few thumb drives pre-loaded with malware for installing back doors into computer systems, a multitool, burner phones, clamshell and key blanks, nitrile gloves, sunglasses, ski mask, as well as surgical masks, Bic lighters, trusty zippo lighter, notepad and pen, digital camera with an assortment of lenses, radio frequency code grabber, bug/camera detector, audio jammer)[/Hider]