Several interesting topics were discussed with respect to with respect to what parts of the US government knew about UAPs and what are affectionately called NHIs or Non-Human Intelligences. Some of these claims are absolutely wild, but all of this discussion is absolute gold for Game Masters of conspiracy and occult roleplaying games like Delta Green. I will be highlighting some of the more interesting real-life tidbits discussed or reported in the committee meeting with an eye to how these can be used in a fictional Delta Green roleplaying setting. Significant spoilers for the Delta Green setting will follow.
The Witnesses
First let us discuss the four witnesses at the House Committee Meeting on UAPs and their fields of expertise. Dr. Tim Gallaudet is a Retired US Navy Rear Admiral, and CEO of the Ocean STL Consulting company. He described what is known as the “Go Fast” video (declassified), in which a UAP was observed during naval exercises off the US East Coast in which the USS Theodore Roosevelt CSG (Carrier Strike Group) was present. His testimony seems to reveal a silencing of UAP discussion in military ranks and describes UAPs observed in the ocean as well, specifically describing these UAPs as “exhibit[ing] transmedium travel through the air-sea interface.”
Luis Elizondo is a former Department of Defense official who has managed SAPs (Special Access Programs) during his tenure. His answers to most of the questions from the House involved requesting a closed session (non-public) in order to describe an answer. I’ll just quote from his written testimony here:
“Let me be clear: UAP are real. Advanced technologies not made by our Government – or any other government – are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe. Furthermore, the U.S. is in possession of UAP technologies, as are some of our adversaries. I believe we are in the midst of a multi-decade, secretive arms race— one funded by misallocated taxpayer dollars and hidden from our elected representatives and oversight bodies.”
True or not, this statement is chock full of inspiration for Delta Green.
Michael Gold is a scientist. He is the former NASA Associate Administrator of Space Policy and Partnerships and member of NASA UAP Independent Study Team. His interest in UAPs mostly comes from a “they display unknown physics and thus we should study them” perspective, and he believes NASA should be the departmental clearing house for UAP data. Also, he advocates for additional NASA funding. Shocking. Here is a quote from his written testimony:
“Moreover, science is driven by anomalies. Anomalies are the foundation upon which scientific breakthroughs are built. The Theory of General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, virtually all of our scientific progress has been based on discovering and studying anomalies. This is why the study of UAPs should be embraced since, whatever is occurring, the chance to garner new knowledge should never be shunned.”
Now in real life this is a laudable and admirable stance. Not so, in the fictional Delta Green universe! In fact, the progress of science into understanding the true nature of the universe is dangerous to human minds. As Lovecraft said:
“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” From the Call of Cthulhu.
Michael Shellenberger is a journalist. He brought an 11-page document to the House Oversight Committee that described the Special Access Program IMMACULATE CONSTELLATION. IMMACULATE CONSTELLATION’s objective was to collect imagery and other intelligence on UAPs, thus serving as a clearinghouse for the activities, capabilities and locations of UAP activity. Shellenberger also included, in his written testimony, almost 200 pages of references and public domain information about UAPs. Some of these UAP references go back to 1947, making Shellenberger’s written testimony a nice timeline for UFO/UAP history for Delta Green Game Masters and interested parties.
Excerpts from the Document that Describes IMMACULATE CONSTELLATION
The document provided to the House Oversight Committee by Michael Shellenberger regarding IMMACULATE CONSTELLATION does not have a title. I will refer to it as the IMMACULATE CONSTELLATION document or the IC document for brevity.
According to Shellenberger’s written testimony, a UAP whistleblower (current or former US government official) has claimed that “the Executive Branch has been managing UAP/NHI issues without Congressional knowledge, oversight, or authorization for some time, quite possibly decades.” NHI is the acronym for “Non-Human Intelligences.” This unnamed whistleblower (or another, it is not clear to me) claims that the Department of Defense created IMMACULATE CONSTELLATION in 2017 and denied it’s existence. That is the history.
In the IC document’s introduction, the document claims that parts of the U.S. Executive Branch conspired to block Congress from becoming aware of and doing anything about UAP and NHI issues in a so-called criminal conspiracy. In fact, it also “strongly suggests” that the Executive Branch has been managing UAP/NHI issues possibly for decades.
The IC document goes on to claim several documented encounters of the US military with UAPs. One of the more interesting reports is of “CENTCOM Cuboid Formation of Metallic Orbs” in which approximately 12 “white-hot” metallic orbs flew in a “tight ‘cuboid’ formation” then broke formation as pairs at speed. The cuboid was observed over the ocean in this case.
So, what could this be in the Delta Green universe? Generally, UFOs sightings are considered the domain of the Mi-go so let’s go with that idea. Any civilization advanced enough is going to have drones, evidently, so let’s say these metallic orbs are drones from a Mi-go source; be it a technological Grey spaceship or released by a Mi-go practitioner of hypergeometry.
Why would Mi-go drones be in the area? I have two proposals. First the Mi-go are tracking another Mythos agency and they don’t care if the hapless hairless apes see their drones because the mission is that important. I could see perhaps the Mi-go drones going after shoggoth activity beneath the waves or collecting data on some undersea Elder Thing base that they have just become aware of.
Alternatively, since the white-hot metallic orbs were captured in daytime infrared footage, we may assume there was some sort of military platform nearby that was observing the event. Let’s imagine that this sensory platform was accompanied by a ship owned by March Tech in which hypergeometically aware March Tech researchers (i.e. wizards-in-training) were trying to restart some piece of now dead Grey tech, and the Mi-go wanted to monitor the situation. When the Mi-go finished, their drones broke formation and went to observe some other sites for other inscrutable purposes.
In Section 5: Restricted USG Historical Records section of the IC document, it was reported that there was an NSA report published in 1978 on the topics of parapsychology, 'psi' and biological effects of UAPs on human beings being researched in the Soviet Union.
This little tidbit would be fantastic to drop into a Delta Green game, a GRU SV-8 game or a game that featured a conflict between cells of the two organizations. In addition, if a Delta Green Game Master wanted details on what biological effects of UAPs have on human beings, just consult the tables on page 6-9 of the IC document or examine the Defense HUMINT Reports on UAPs on page 9.
One of the interesting Defense HUMINT Reports on UAPs is the Perimeter of Sensitive Facility Breached by UAP report where somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard a "dark sphere" was observed approaching a sensitive building for 10-15 minutes. Humans observing the phenomena "reported eyestrain, headaches, and a feeling of unease or dread".
What if those UAP biological effects, namely "eyestrain, headaches, and a feeling of unease or dread" were somehow researched and then weaponized by March Tech or GRU-SV8? Imagine an invisible "dread wave" that could be targeted and the device that deploys it is the size of a suitcase. Such a device could be utilized to clear an area or building of humans (or maybe animals as well) quickly without say shooting up the place or causing unnecessary panic. This would be a wonderful tool for a Coral Nomad (Delta Green’s Mythos artifact retrieval agency) team to have to secure Mythos remnants and or artifacts from a hot site.
And you could connect the "dark sphere" UAP’s effects on biologicals with the Music From a Darkened Room adventure. You could say the sentient house emits a waveform of energy that matches the one "dread wave" studied from the "dark sphere" UAP and thus Delta Green is aware of this and interested in the site as a result. Or you could pull the reverse, have the Agents investigate the haunted house first, and then drop on them that something in the house produces a "dread wave" that is similar to those emitted by certain UAP phenomena. That could pull the Agents into investigating UAP phenomena (maybe Convergence?) and your next adventure.
Really guys, really. It's too good.
Interesting Questions for the Witnesses
Congresswoman Lauren Boebert asked the following questions of the Witnesses in the House Oversight Committee.
Congresswoman Lauren Boebert: "There are rumors that have come up to the Hill of a secretive project within the Department of Defense involving the manipulation of human genetics with what is described as non-human genetic material for the enhancement of human capabilities, hybrids. Are any of you familiar with that? Yes, or no?"
The unanimous answer by the witnesses was no.
Also, Congresswoman Boebert: "Are there any accounts of UAPs emerging from or submerging into our waters which could indicate a base or presence beneath the ocean's surface. Are there any technological capabilities that have been observed in these oceanic UAPs to defy our current understanding of physics or human engineering capabilities?"
In the Delta Green world, let us assume that both of these statements reflect a literal reality. Human-alien hybrids are real and there are alien bases under the water where the aliens that control the UAPs plot to over take the surface world. This describes pretty well the world of X-COM: Terror from the Deep, the 1995 the video game and sequel to the original X-COM: UFO Defense. So why not crib from MicroProse’s legendary sequel to enhance your Delta Green game? This works best if you want your Delta Green Agents to morph from an investigative team into a kinetic anti-alien squad armed with laser rifles and the like. Much of the lore from X-COM, in particular Terror from the Deep, leans on Lovecraftian themes so a Delta Green campaign or one-shot could fit right in.
Yet Another Mythos Theory for UAPs
One issue about the UAPs described in the IMMACULATE CONSTELLATION document is that they vary widely in appearance. This begs the question, why? Allow me to supply a scifi/Mythos related answer. What if UAPs do not originate from a different place, but in fact a different time? This is not a new theory in UFO lore but let’s go with it. Let’s say humans eventually figure out time travel, but not in a singular location with a single researcher or group. Let us say several nation states or corporations or whatever discover and develop time travel in the future simultaneously. The UAPs are time traveling drones or observers from our future but the catch is they all use differently shaped craft because they all have different means of moving through time.
Now, why are the time traveling humans here? And why are the UAPs seemingly increasingly focusing on military sites in our present? This is where the Mythos comes in. In the Delta Green Handlers Guide on page 149 there is described a temporal war between The Great Race and the Lloigor. To summarize the war, these two Mythos factions want either a radioactive future earth where a species of giant beetles dominate the planet, the Great Race’s desired outcome; or a sinister future human empire called “Tsan-Chan” to rise on Earth in approximately 5000 CE, the Lloigor’s objective. The Lloigor’s objective is seemingly in direct conflict with the Great Race’s plans for a massive human nuclear war, as the Handler’s Guide says. Future human time-travelers could serve as agents of one of the two aforementioned factions, or they could be an independent third faction that has their own goal of a more human focused future.
If the future human time-travelers are opposing the Great Race, you could say that the UAPs frequent nuclear arms sites and nuclear research locations and that these sightings are correlated with nuclear weapons mysteriously losing effectiveness or nuclear scientists reporting amnesia. If the future humans are opposing the Lloigor, then say the UAPs are congregating around Mythos sites, as the rise of Tsan-Chan is associated with the return of the Great Old Ones from their slumber. In this latter case UAPs may actually help Delta Green Agents, either as serving as markers for previously unknown Mythos hotspots or with some direct future-tech or hypergeometrical support.
Whatever you do, there are plenty of inspirations for an occult conspiracy game in the documents from the UAP House Oversite Committee hearing. Happy Gaming.
Good work.
ReplyDeleteI hope to see more in this vein.