03 April YC123
Torrinos V Lunar Mining Colony — Dark Wolf Legion safehouse
“Sir, the lab report on the brick of white powder we found during the last raid,” a Legionnaire said, handing a datapad to his sergeant.
“So, 100% pure Crash,” Sergeant Willis said, taking the datapad. “Very well. Move the brick to storage. Narcotics section.”
“Yes, sir!” the Legionnaire said, walking off.
“Sergeant! I need to speak with you in private,” Director Chastot said angrily, storming towards the sergeant.
“Yes, director. Erm … this room is empty for the moment,” the sergeant said, entering a small study. “The Legionnaire who uses it is out at the moment. Well, director, what do you need?”
“I need an explanation for this!” Chastot said angrily, throwing a datapad onto the nearby table.
“What? It’s a Kirjuun! article, so?” the sergeant asked, picking up the datapad.
“Read the damn headline, will ya?” Chastot said irritatedly. “Massive firefight at abandoned factory. Eight dead! Really?!? This was our op, I know it. You know anything about this?”
“Erm … ,” the sergeant began, looking at Chastot’s furious face. “Indeed I do, ma’am.”
Sergeant Willis was crouched behind a stack of crates with two of his men. He could see another Legionnaire kneeling behind a fallen crate, and a fifth Legionnaire was standing behind a pillar. The five men were in an abandoned factory and in the midst of a frantic firefight.
“Private, did you happen to see how many shooters there are?” the sergeant asked one of his men.
“A lot, sir!” the Legionnaire replied as he continued firing his subgun from his kneeling position.
“What about you, corporal?” the sergeant asked a Legionnaire crouched next to him. The Legionnaire popped up and fired five rounds at the hostile shooters before responding.
“At least ten, sir. Too many!” he said before returning fire again. Lasers thudded into the pillars and crates around the Legionnaires.
“Damn! Damnit!” the sergeant swore, pulling a radio from his belt. “Corporal Kaske, corporal Kaske, come in.”
“Kaske,” the radio squawked.
“Where the hell are you, Kaske? We need backup here!” the sergeant shouted into his radio as he drew his pistol. He quickly aimed and fired five shots at the enemy before adding, “We need backup NOW!”
“We’re thirty seconds from the door. Repeat, breaching in thirty seconds!” the corporal replied.
“Hurry your ass up, Kaske!”
“How the hell did you get into a firefight to begin with?!?” Chastot asked angrily.
“We got a lead that the factory was being used to illegally manufacture explosives,” the sergeant said defensively. “So I decided to take the squad and check it out.”
“Well, yeah, you were supposed to look for evidence related to the bombing. You were NOT supposed to go around getting into firefights, sergeant!” the young Jin-Mei woman was furious. “You doing this is causing more trouble than results!”
“Well, we weren’t expecting to meet resistance! Our information was that the building was abandoned, and had been for the last few days!” the sergeant responded, his voice rising. “When we entered, we were immediately fired upon, so we split up! I ordered Kaske to take his fire team out, and go around back. Meanwhile, I took my team forward. We found cover and began firing back!”
“You were wearing civvies?”
“With body armor, yes. And carrying SMGs and pistols, both bolt and laser,” the sergeant answered. “The op didn’t go as planned, but we at least avoided detection. No surveillance cameras, and no witnesses nearby. Any witnesses who saw it go down had to be far away, and they won’t be able to identify us.”
“Good, good. Who exactly were they?”
“Well, some of the bodies we found were those of clone soldiers,” the sergeant began again.
“Sergeant, take cover! We’re gonna fire on them in 3, 2, 1, …” the radio squawked as Sergeant Willis’ fire team dived for cover. “ … NOW!”
“Hey! What are you … .” one of the shooters began as a new round of gunfire erupted. The sergeant could hear bodies thudding to the ground.
“Hey! Stay down!”
“Get down!”
“Down! On your belly! You too!”
“Sergeant, we’re all clear!” Corporal Kaske shouted. Sergeant Willis stood and began jogging with his fire team towards the corporal. Willis could see the corporal and his fire team standing over the corpses of a couple of clone soldiers. Some Caldari men and women were lying on the ground with guns trained on them.
“What have we got, corporal?”
“Eight dead, seven over here, one behind that stack of crates. Three of the dead appear to be warclones, and the others are Caldari males,” the corporal began. Nearby, one of the clone soldiers stirred. “We’ve also got seven captives. Five Caldari males, two Achura … ,” the corporal whipped out his laser pistol and fired a sizzling blast into the head of the clone soldier, who fell back against a nearby pillar before slumping to the ground. A bolt pistol fell out of the dead clone’s hand. The corporal holstered his pistol and picked up the fallen clone’s gun before continuing, “As I was saying, we have five Caldari males and two Achura females captive.”
“Very good, corporal. My fire team, start searching this place. See what you can find,” the sergeant said. “I’ll call Command to get a transport for any evidence we can find and these prisoners. Go!”
“And what did you do with the bodies?” Director Chastot asked, calming down.
“We left them in the factory, director. But we started a fire using some incendiary explosives to destroy any evidence,” the sergeant said. “We brought out the prisoners and some weapons and bomb-making materials that we found in the factory and loaded them into a transport that Command sent.”
“Where are the prisoners now?”
“Basement, ma’am. I’ve got some of my squad interrogating them.” the sergeant replied. “We’re converting the basement into a makeshift prison until the praetor sends a ship to pick them up.”
“And the evidence?”
“I delivered it to the makeshift lab you set up, along with the holos we took of the factory.”
“Good, good. What exactly did you collect?”
“Five bolt pistols and five bolt rifles from the warclones, along with a helmet and some armor plates. We also took a precision rifle, two subguns, five bolt pistols, a shotgun, and a laser pistol from the other hostiles,” the sergeant began. “We also found a sniper rifle, two assault rifles, six laser pistols, five bolt pistols, two subguns, and a pair of shotguns in a makeshift armory. We also found some ammunition for the weapons and a number of IDs, both real and counterfeit. We also found some Dragonaur equipment, including a number of Dragonaur propaganda posters.”
“Dragonaur?!? You’re kidding!”
“No, ma’am,” the sergeant replied, picking up a datapad and hitting some keys before handing it to the woman. “Look. Dragonaur posters. We found these in the factory.”
“Damnit! This is way bigger than I imagined. Alright, I’ll need to contact the praetor and the duke, ask for more support,” Director Chastot said after a while. She began walking out the door. “I gotta go.”
Meanwhile, in Shasta's quarters on the Amarr Trade Hub station,
“Report from Torrinos, sir,” Praetor Darim said, handing Shasta a datapad.
“Director Chastot needs more men?” Shasta said, looking at the praetor.
“Well, Sergeant Willis’ squad went and got into a firefight with some warclones and possible Dragonaurs, sir,” the praetor said. “Killed eight and arrested seven.”
“Warclones and Dragonaurs?”
“Yeah, they killed three warclones during the firefight. And recovered a bunch of propaganda posters,” the praetor said, taking the datapad and hitting a few keys before returning it to the duke. “Here, look. The evidence photos. Those are the posters.”
“Hmm … interesting.”
“Also, sir, they recovered a number of weapons,” the praetor added, showing Shasta some more photos. “Most of which were missing identifiers. Some of the weapons that are missing identifiers appear to be manufactured by Airko Industrial. We believe that there are … let’s see, that would likely be a AIRS-16 sniper rail, and all these pistols appear to be AIRC-18 bolt pistols. Also, all the weapons with identifiers are also produced by Airko Industrial.”
“Airko Industrial,” Shasta repeated. “Airko … Airko, right! Airko-Tensei Group!”
“What?”
“Airko-Tensei Group! Some corporate union that sent some people to Torrinos after the bombing!” Shasta said, turning to his computer and searching for something.
“And we find their weapons in a factory with explosives? Explosives and traces of Triglavian materials like those used in the Torrinos bombing? Interesting … ,” the praetor mused.
“Well, tell Director Chastot that her request is approved. And prepare a transport to Torrinos to ferry some Legionnaires over and take the prisoners and evidence back here,” Shasta said. “Hmm … Willis is part of 2nd Battalion, Company Bravo, yes?”
“Yes. Squad Two of Platoon One, sir.”
“Good. Order the rest of the platoon to move to Torrinos as soon as the transport arrives.”
“Yes, sir!”
“And send the 2nd Battalion’s I-team and MPs also,” the duke added. “That would be Company Alpha, right?”
“No, sir, Company Alpha is the Kameira company. The MPs would be Company Juliet.”
“Right, right. Well, send them their orders, and get the transport. This is really big!”
“Sir, yes sir!” the praetor said, exiting the room.