"Sure, all of us can jump out of airplanes, but can all of us survive?"
-- Agent Friday Brown

Colonel Vasquez begins the teleconference by welcoming everyone in his soothing voice, with the faintest hint of a Puerto Rican accent -then he orders everyone except for the agents who will be going to Nevada out of the office. Agent Doran winks at Agent Brown, who scowls back. Agent Miller sees both.

Vasquez explains that this mission is of the utmost secrecy, and that he has believed that Chessmen have had a Nevada base for some time. The agents are to maintain their cover, not let anyone know they are with PRIMUS. Their orders are to surreptitiously locate the Chessmen base and to call its location in - the PRIME Team and squads of Iron Guard will then arrive to handle it. Agent Riley asks why the Avengers aren't going to be involved, and Vasquez explains that it would be very difficult to get Avengers to mobilize at that location so quickly - they're too busy with their other duties. Before the conversation ends, Vasquez asks Agent Johnson how his father is doing, and also asks him to relay his respects.

Because of the importance of the mission, the agents will be allowed extra equipment. (Game terms: 20 extra equipment points).

After the meeting, Avenger Chow immediately pulls Agent Riley aside - earning them both a wink from Agent Johnson (which Chow returns and Riley doesn't) - and demands to know what Vasquez said. Though Riley refuses to tell her at that point, as soon as they are outside, he gives her an account.

Our agents check out their equipment from Agent Perkins and drive to SFO, where they're taken to a private jet for their flight to Reno.

In Reno, a white SUV awaits. Agent Johnson takes the driver's seat and the team heads to a neighborhood in the hills above Reno, where the mysterious phone call was traced. It's easy for them to find the route, as they can follow a steady stream of fire trucks - when they arrive, they find the house in ruins. One of the neighbors explains that the fire started in the garage when the wind blew the pilot light into some flammable materials - or so he's been told. Two people lived here, but weren't believed home when the fire started.

The agents spy a white van with four people inside; one is filming the fire. Agent Brown sneaks up to the van and places a tracer on it. The van pulls away and the agents follow.

Knight Biotechnical is housed in a four story, steel and glass structure in the middle of Winnemucca. Their primary area of research, according to is the anti-cancer properties of sagebrush and rabbitbrush. They're one of the town's largest employers and have the pick-up trucks in the parking lot to show for it.

The white van the agents tracked from Reno pulls up in the parking lot, too; two people get out and go inside through a side entrance.

Agent Friday calls and finds out who handles the extermination for Knight Biotechnical: Orkin. She sets about getting Orkin equipment and uniforms. Agent Riley suggests sending in a Spider, but Agent Miller objects, as they don't have a court-order. She wants to call Colonel Vasquez to procure one. Agent Johnson strongly objects, saying not to bother the Colonel, that they should just send in the Spider and be done with it. A heated discussion follows, and at the end Agent Miller calls Vasquez, who says she can consider the court order procured. When she says she wants to have it in hand, Vasquez is curt and changes the subject - to Agent Miller's mother.

The agents send in the Spider - Agent Miller doesn't watch, at least not at first - and discover there are three stories of basement offices in the Knight Biotechnical building that look to Agent Riley to be Chessmen offices! No one appears in an actual Chessmen uniform - they're in business casual - but it has that Chessmen feel to it. They also discover a vacant office bearing the name Doctor Paul Wagner - the name of Dr. Stella Bergamante's old friend who died at the Argent Hotel.

Satellite photos of Winnemucca on file on the PRIMUS MATRIX don't show the Knight Biotech building at all; building plans filed with Humboldt County don't indicate the building has anything more than a standard basement.

The van the agents followed to Knight Biotch leaves; Agent Doran stays behind to keep the building under surveillance while the others, including Agent Kestler, track it south to State Route 400, where the van stops briefly at a convenience store/gas station and then leaves. Nine miles down the road, the van turns west onto a gravel road near a Nevada Historical Marker proclaiming a spot several miles to the west to be the site of Star City, an old silver mining town from the 1860s.

The agents give the van a healthy start. Agent Johnson puts on his armor and Agent Friday drives. The road gets rough and Agent Johnson opts to walk behind the SUV instead of riding inside of it. That's when he hears several shouts, echoing off the hills around them. Next, a very cold wind passes over, lasting for about ten seconds, then ends.

Using IR tracking devices, the agents follow the footprints of two people up along side of a large opening in the side of the mountain, which is surrounded by rusty barbed wire. The trail they take is steep and rocky, and in the high altitude and heat of the day, the agents are quickly tired. The footprints lead them past a large plastic rock, and then to concealed air-purification equipment. A VIPER blaster lies on the ground, and a discarded canister lies under nearby sagebrush. Agent Brown approaches the canister and sniffs it - she then throws up. Fresh air soon remedies her illness, however.

The agents leave the VIPER blaster and canister where they lay and continue to follow the footsteps - this time, seemingly into the side of the mountain itself! Agent Johnson discovers it's a hologram and steps inside - a door hangs open, and several cameras are trained at the agents. No alarm sounds, and they descent the stairs.

After three flights, they arrive at a set of heavy fire doors, which have been blasted open and are still hot. The stench of human waste comes from inside. When the agents step inside, they're in a long hallway, and bodies in jumpsuits litter the floor. Examination of the jumpsuits reveal that all have the images of chesspieces over the left breast - most are pawns, some are knights and bishops and one or two have rooks.

Agent Brown starts looking for a control room, and Agent Riley continues down the hallway, following the footsteps.

The agents spot the two figures in a large open area - staring at the Golden Avenger, standing over two prone bodies in a large ring. The Avenger looks ready for a fight, and the two figures in white (dressed identically to the man the agents encountered in the Argent) appear very baffled by his appearance.

Agent Johnson yells for the two in white to drop, but they do not. Agent Johnson fires and hits one, who collapses; Agent Riley launches a flash grenade and blinds the other. On his next shot, Agent Johnson smashes the other agent in white against the wall; he then collapses in a bloody heap.

Agent Brown continues to investigate the odd ring and the Golden Avenger. She spots a control panel behind the Avenger, but at first glance it looks inaccessible - except through the ring - and whenever an item enters the ring, it seems to have the Golden Avenger's full attention. She spots a door behind the panel, however, and is able to pull the power on the control panel - the Golden Avenger's image fades, leaving only a robot.

The agents hear the faint yapping of a small dog. Uncycling an iris valve, the agents discover a woman in a tank top and shorts inside a large tank - who seems to want out in a hurry. Two books - The Art of War and a History of Scotland - sit beside her. The computer monitor nearby has the medical chart of Elaine MacArthur, Knight of the Crown, open.

The agents let her out and after momentary confusion, she bolts. After several unsuccessful attempts to capture her, a flash bomb blinds her long enough for the agents to capture her and put her in suppression cuffs.

Agent Brown spots the control room she was seeking and notices something interesting - a personnel file is open on a computer near the body of an agent with a rook on his chest. The personnel file has a portrait of Agent Brown's father - with the notation: "Bishop Andrew Washington." She scans the file and commits it to memory.

The agents take their three captives down to the SUV, and drive down to where they have a clear cellular signal. Colonel Vasquez says "Very satisfactory. Do not go back inside the base, but keep anyone else from doing so. You will be relieved shortly. Hand over your captives to the agents who will arrive and return to San Francisco. Speak of this to no one, but I assure you that you will be appropriately rewarded in time."

EPs: 3
BPs: 4