The Hungry God

Session 01 - Operation Living Bomb

Three strangers converged on Las Vegas Airport in the spring of 2026. Ronnie Vint, a wiry British SAS trooper with a reputation for acquiring supplies through unconventional means, arrived first. Guy LeFleur, a scarred Québécois demolitions expert who drove south from Canada specifically to avoid airport security screening of his sensitive equipment, pulled up next. Sammy Castaneda, a compact American operator who introduced himself with a grin as “the Savage,” completed the trio. Their shepherd for the day was Sam Elliott — not the actor — who guided them through Las Vegas Airport and into a corporate limousine stocked with an open bar and a corporate AmEx. During the drive to the Voss Campus in Arizona, the three operators engaged in a high-stakes poker game — instigated by Ronnie, who produced his own deck of cards. Ronnie attempted to palm the aces, but Guy spotted the sleight of hand and said nothing. Despite the stacked odds, Ronnie lost badly anyway. His Bad Temper got the better of him: he accused the innocent Sammy of cheating and knocked the cards off the table in a fit of rage.

At the sprawling Voss Campus compound, two figures briefed the assembled team in a secure conference room. Adrian Voss, the corporate mastermind behind the Voss organization, and Major Jenkins, a battle-hardened field commander in a specialized combat suit, laid out the strategic situation: since The Meteor Event several years ago, super-powered individuals had begun appearing across the globe with alarming regularity. Surveillance footage from multiple Middle Eastern locations showed a young man — designated The Exploding Man — walking into crowded markets and military encampments before detonating in massive explosions, yet somehow crawling away alive each time, ready to repeat the process. The primary mission objective: infiltrate a Taliban-controlled cave complex deep in the Afghan mountains and bring the target back alive. The financial incentive was substantial: $100,000 bonus per operator for successful capture. Jenkins also briefed the team on two other confirmed super-powered threats currently at large: The Dragon, capable of sustained flight and apparent invulnerability, and The Regenerator, a figure with extraordinary healing capabilities that had made traditional elimination tactics impossible. Before the team departed for the airfield, Yi Jiangku, the sharp and intense head of Voss research, distributed three mysterious manila folders labeled “Hungry God,” “Toasty Titan,” and “Jens” to various team members — only Guy managed to glimpse all three labels before they were whisked away.

The team’s insertion came under cover of a moonless night, parachuting into the rugged Afghan mountains approximately five kilometers from the target location. Major Jenkins, encased in his combat suit, took point position and immediately spotted a tripwire rigged across their primary approach vector — the kind of crude but effective device that would have triggered a cascade of explosions across the mountainside. Jens moved forward with deliberate precision and disarmed the device cleanly, his hands steady and sure despite the darkness. Guy pressed forward to scout the minefield ahead and identified a pattern: red paint markers spray-painted on specific rocks, the insurgents’ own system for marking safe corridors through their defensive maze. Sammy slipped forward alone into the darkness, moving with the silent efficiency of a predator, and eliminated two sentries at the cave entrance with quick, efficient knife work. Guy, demonstrating his expertise with explosives, recovered one of the bodies and rigged it with captured explosives as an early-warning trap — a grim but effective insurance policy. From their observation post on the ridge overlooking the cave complex, the team maintained watch throughout the long night until a radio query in Arabic crackled from the cave entrance, forcing their hand. Ronnie, thinking quickly, crumpled paper near the radio to mimic static and create the illusion of a responding transmission, but the ruse bought them only seconds — six armed insurgents emerged from the caves anyway, weapons at the ready.

With an estimated twenty-minute window before the main insurgent force could be mobilized, the team descended rapidly into the left cave entrance and navigated the twisting passages to a lower chamber. There they found their target surrounded by three armed guards. Guy executed a textbook grenade assault, rolling two knockout gas grenades into the chamber in quick succession. Three insurgents collapsed immediately, overcome by the potent sedative vapor, but the target remained completely unaffected, suggesting either a biological immunity or some aspect of his power granted resistance to conventional chemical agents. As the target bolted for an exit, Major Jenkins activated the Sonic Weapon built into his suit, an auditory assault that dropped the target unconscious where he stood. Ronnie rushed forward and bashed the prone figure with his rifle butt for good measure, then secured him with restraints. Jens, meanwhile, picked off a sentry at the rear cave entrance with a single precise pistol shot from nearly thirty yards, the shot traveling through darkness and dust to find its mark with surgical accuracy.

The exfiltration proved chaotic. The team navigated back through the minefield using the insurgents’ own red paint markers as a guide, loaded the restrained prisoner into a Stasis Chamber aboard the waiting extraction helicopter, and prepared for departure — but four insurgent fighters mounted on flying carpets intercepted the aircraft over the mountain passes. Guy demonstrated his explosive expertise once more, timing a grenade toss perfectly as the carpets closed in; the device detonated among two pursuers, destroying both in a brilliant flash. Ronnie manned the rear-mounted .50 caliber turret and shredded the remaining two carpet-mounted insurgents with devastating suppressive fire. At a NATO base in Afghanistan as dawn broke over the mountains, the prisoner was handed over to medical personnel and placed under heavy guard. Major Jenkins raised a glass of whiskey in the officer’s club and delivered the news that would reshape the team’s future: their own Voss Combat Suits — identical to his own — were awaiting them back at the Voss Campus.