NationStates Jolt Archive

[OOC Stuff. Scroll down for IC.]

From our last episode:

Coast [OOC: I hope this is alright.]

The ship's course was more or less direct. It ran upshore on the coast of Der Angst within Sisgardia. Stazler and his associates disembarked, dropping over the edge of the boat, grabbing their PAR-forty-fours. It was scuttled quickly.

"If someone offers aid, accept. If we are recognized, kill and dispose of the body. Find a place to hide until we can get a signal out."

They trekked northward, following the shoreline.

* * *

-------------------------------------------



"[i]There are always survivors at a massacre. Among the victors, if nowhere else."

[code:1:e212a361fb]To {Brider::KNDF.CanterrasDL}
From {Cordell.(as)CINCKONANIA::Exec.HeadOfState}
Subj {Marching orders}

Go.

<Electronically signed by Timothy Cordell>[/code:1:e212a361fb]

Canterras Region, north of Pandoroq

Brider looked rather pleased with himself. He had gotten the best of the most elite soldiers in the KNDF. These were the men that he would "lead" into battle.

"Soldiers of the Federal Republic:

"Tonight, you will enter the town of Pandoroq, which is in open rebellion against their nation. They have betrayed their people and their homeland. They are responsible for the cold-blooded murder of thousands. They are well armed, dug in, and willing to fight to the last if necessary.

"When opposed, be ruthless. Offer no mercy, for you will be shown none. You are authorized to fire upon any building, man, woman, or child who attacks you. If the enemy does not surrender, he is to be destroyed.

"Conduct yourselves well in victory. This is a police action for the security of the State. There will be no plunder nor spoils. These are your countrymen.

"We are finished here. Our task is now to south."
Brider divided his 250 assault troops into five groups (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo) of fifty:

The first two, Capt. Perez's, would drop in the center of the town, and work outward. The other three would attack from the north, east and west. (To the south was a river, the city's main water source.) They would be covered by the vertijets, named Guardian. Light armor pressing down from the north would hopefully be able to stop any escapees. The goal was to cut the militia to pieces and devour each one.

This won't take long.

* * *

Outside Pandoroq

A truck driving toward the town never knew what happened. It now lie smoldering in a ditch a few miles away from the town, with a large, smoking hole in the side.

* * *

The AVJ101 Condor pilot flew his craft quickly, low to the ground, following the road. His eyes watched the head-up-display, searching for his target. He knew it would be right in front of him when it appeared.

* * *

Pandoroq

A pair of sentries posted in the town's single watchtower scanned the horizon. One sighed. "I'm going to sleep. Nothing's out there, eh? Dark out, no moon, too. Kinda pointless to keep looking for stuff we can't see."

"If I'm gonna have to be up here in the middle of the night with you, I might as well make the misery complete and strain my eyes looking into the dark." He frowned, something catching his eye. "Hey, look. See that?"

"Hm?"

"There's a light out there. Might be Ed and Will coming in with the stuff."

"Well, signal 'em."

Grudgingly, he picked up the large light. It was a shame that they'd had to revert to old Morse Code, but radios were too easily interceptable. He flashed out "DELIVERY?"

* * *

Outside Pandoroq

"Target aquired," the programmed voice said, who, the pilot thought, sounded vaguely like his wife.

Bingo. He fired.

* * *

Pandoroq

The sentry blinked. "Hey, what does six flashes mean--"

* * *

At exactly 0201 Local time, a vertijet launched a total of six missles at the lookout tower in the town. Pandoroq, for all practical purposes, was now blind. The landing vertijets were on their way to the center of the city.

It had begun.

[tag, need to clear a few things with Konania]

[OOC: A note. Take an Apache attack helicopter. Strip off the main and tail rotors. Make the stubby wings longer (from leading edge to trailing edge) and widen the wingspan. At the end of each wing, and in the tail add a round, donut-shaped disc. This is basically what a Konanian AVJ101 Condor vertijet looks like. I'll have to draw one up sooner or later.]

Central Square -- Pandoroq

A vertijet (or VJ, or veejay) pilot tries to do things quickly. Espescially if he is a transport pilot. Land, swing both front and rear doors open, and get everybody out so you can take off. The pilot looked up again, trying to see how many were left, and wishing that these guys cound deploy a little faster.

Perez swung out of the VJ, ran about forty feet ahead, and purposly fell flat on his face. It was that quick: they were out in the open, and being shot at from two directions. It was rather difficult to give orders when you knew you were being used as bait. They scattered, crawling and scampering toward the hostile residences while the transports took off and the Condor veejays began to empty their rounds into the surrounding buildings to surpress fire.

* * *

Forest -- Pandoroq

D group-- DELTA-- was picking their way through a dense forest. There was a sort of irony to the whole deal, as none of them had ever expected to be doing any of this in their own homeland. This group was tasked with finding and destroying any enemy in the forest and the clearing between them and Pandoroq itself. Most recognized the problem immediatly: There were too many places to hide.

They were beginning to settle into a sort of routine-- fan out, check trees, check flank, check rear-- when all order turned to chaos.

"Delta taking fire, cover, find cover!" The call was unnecessary.

They were clearly outnumbered. Captain Davis hit the ground quickly. He could see pulse-fire-- it was very similar to his own, in fact-- but couldn't see where it was coming from. Much of it, he was glad, was heading -away- from him. So his guys were able to get some shots off. He listened to the sounds around him.

"Stay down--"

"Corpsman! Medic!"

"I can't see--"

"Five of you, to the left--"

Another voice, this time over the radio: "Hold your position, D. Veejays of GUARDIAN inbound."

He pushed himself up, to look over the log he'd dodged behind, hearing the low thrum of the vertijets coming overhead. He wasn't sure how many. He pointed to the nine other men nearest to him, and held up three fingers, then two, then one-- and they stood and ran toward the enemy, covered by the vertijets above the trees. Twenty meters later, they were on the ground again.

And that's when Davis saw it. A man, who he hadn't seen before, was raising something into the sky. It was long, tubular. He'd seen it before. In fact, we was trained to use one.

They were rockets. His troops started firing, and the man went down again. He mouthed something.

"Guardian-5 be advised, the enemy does have surface to air--"

There was an flash one hundred meters in front of him, and a trail of smoke launched into the sky. The enemy was attacking the veejays. Without air support, they were nothing. It had been a trap.

"Delta, this is Guardian, do us a favor and kill them, willya?"

Davis looked around him, and glanced behind at the nine with him. They were doing the same. His platoon of ten was on the right end of the line, with most of the the rest of D was spread out to his left. He mouthed an order to his nine: Pin them. Another rocket went upward, and the Konanian troops opened fire again.

A voice crackled in his ear, but not to him. "Command, this is Guardian-5, I'm hit."

He looked up. In the flashes of light, he could see that the veejay was trailing smoke.

The radio again: "Delta, this is Command, get rid of the missles or you lose your air cover!"

Davis quickly made a decision. He radioed an order leader of the platoon of ten on the other end of the line. Together, these two teams pressed outward and forward, diagonally away from the center body of Delta, and then inward, toward opposite ends of the enemy line.

At this point, Delta's disadvantage in numbers did not matter. The Pandoroq "rebels" began to crumble, forced to fire at targets on both sides and in front of them. Many turned and fled, those who were unlucky being picked off by the Konanian federal troops.

Delta group had been hurt, with four dead and seven who were wounded and would not be able to return to battle. The vertijet Guardian-5 would be alright. The rebels had were now running back toward the city, with the Delta and her vertijet angels in pursuit.

[OOC Marker. Delta-- Start:50. 4 dead, 7 wounded. NOW:39

Btw, if you wanna give a name to and RP the soldier w/ marienne or any others, go right ahead]

Operations Command

Brider, in truth, was thankful. The goal of the attack had clearly been to destroy the vertijets. It hadn't been sucessful, but it had had an effect on his troops. They were awake now, and aware that their enemy was a lot smarter than any of them had cared to speculate. Perhaps they were afraid-- and, as was once said, He Who Has Fear, Lives.

They would be alright, if the luck held.

If.

* * *

Pandoroq

Perez would always be amazed at how much fire a vertijet could dispense. The steady thwup-thwup-thwuping of the pulse cannons tearing into the community housing gave him a sense of security. The combined groups of A and B simply had to clear the buildings, ten soldiers to each.

The radio crackled: "--rez be--vised, enemy--sur--to air."

He couldn't make it out. "Command, repeat."

"Make sure that--veejay--fired upon." For the moment he ignored it, sending someone to break in the door of the nearest building. The five soldiers came back, one shaking his head. "It's empty, sir."

Perez frowned, he didn't expect that. But, he could make use of it. "Four or five of you guys, set up in here. If anything fires at you, radio us. The rest of you, come on." They continued west, and could see B group working on the other side of the square.

They moved into one of the long and narrow dormitory courtyards, with the structure towering around them. It had a sheltered overhang, and a fountain to the side. The whole place looked old, much like the square. It actually looked like a nice place to live, really. You could come down here with some friends, play some soccer or football, as long as you were careful not to hit anyone's window.

He frowned. It was eerily quiet. That was what bothered him. Something was wrong, they were expecting a bit more than this. He looked down the alley, off to the west, toward the forest. D group was out there somewhere.

"Command, can you contact Delta?"

"Yes--and missles--veejays."

Perez frowened again. Something was wrong with the radios, it would be impossible to coordinate-- he looked up. The windows were opening. Before he could, someone else yelled "Cover!" and they all dived for the overhangs, trying to find a place from which they could return fire.

The veejay pilots, surprised, were taking fire as well, and were moving off, almost succesfully so until a rocket exploded under a wing. It wobbled, losing the balance of one of the levitation platforms. Shakily, it held up, until it fell down quickly, spinning, and crashing into the walls of the courtyard as it fell, the nose crunching on impact. A feeling of panic overwhelmed him. Where was the rest of A? And B? And what was happening to D group?

* * *

Operations Command

Brider knew. From here, he could see everything-- Delta was pursuing the enemy in the forest, heading toward the city. Both A and B were inside the courtyards, pinned down by enemy fire. C and E were coming in from the north, racing across the plateau.

Brider frowned. He needed to get them help, but first supress the enemy.

* * *

The four fighters Fx.208 fighters had been circling about eight klicks away for about four hours now-- even since before the operation began. Recieving an order, they leveled out, and engaged their targeting systems. A few moments later, a series of explosions under each wing heralded the launch of a total of thirty-two rockets.

* * *

"D, B, A, stay under cover. Missles incoming."

Despite his training, Perez thought he might at least hear the missles approach. There was silence, and then more explosions. The top levels of the tower-like dormitory buildings crumbled, with brick and flesh flying outward-- and downward-- towards them.

Konania

Marianna was with them, though not with Frank... From last night.

It wasn`t like too much happened at her place, her group... She was well behind, among the last ones. Being an observer, standing in the fire was not her job... neither was it the job of her three colleagues.

Still, it was scary enough...

Well, 'scary'. She was used to it, sorta. But still...

DA

The coast was, of course, busy. Being the insanely large (or small, depending on one's position) citystate DA is, it was completely impossible not to be noticed when coming... Though no one did actually investigate the small boat arriving, since there were... well, quite a few of them.

Though slightly xenophobic, not a single one of the people the group around Stanzer saw seemed to care about them, their slight superiority complex basically forbidding them to investigate the... foreigners.

The area they had arrived in was rather... Old, and shady, not exactly a 'nice neighborhood', though still rather save... Average DA, so to speak.

Now they just had to find someone who would be useful for them...

Perez called out. "Alright, gimme a casualty count!" There were cries of pain, and Perez knew that they not from his men. First, his men would not usually yell anything other than "Medic!" if they were in pain. Second, his men did not have such high pitched voicies.

He clambered over the rubble, looking down into it. "Command, I've gotta problem here!"

The radio: "Did we get 'em?"

"Yes, you--" He stumbled over something fleshy. It was an arm. A very small arm. "Yes, you got them, but--"

One of his soldiers yelled at him! "Sir, there were civvies in there!"

"Stevens, I know!"

"We killed them!"

"Steve--!"

Radio again: "What's up?"

"We got them, Command, but there were some civilans in there."

"Any alive?"

I wish they weren't. "Yes--I need a MED-EVAC." The radios were working better now, the towered-dormitories had been providing interference of some sort. "Bring the armored units, too, will ya?" If this ever hits the media...

Electromagnetic interference. Almost the same thing that shut down Solaris International Airport/Spaceport.

One mystery solved. "Hey, command, where's Delta?"

Just then, D appeared, firing from the treeline at... enemy forces coming out of the forest. Perez's forces ducked behind the mountain of rubble, firing too at the enemy racing across the gap toward what used to be the dormitories.

The militia was cut to pieces, as the crossfire had a killbox effect. Perez wasn't sure if anything could possibly be alive out there.

"Command-- we're killing everything!"

As the 'battle' (Or rather, slaughter) went on, Marianna got deeper into the action, finally arriving at the frontline...

It was hard to watch. Being Angstian, she didn't overly care about the slaughter, after all, they were mere humans, homo sapiens sapiens, homo inferior (Though her determination regarding her own superiority was falling apart, after all... Frank...).

But then... She didn`t quite understand why they killed the children. After all, reeducation was so much... More efficient.

Bleh. This is sick. She thought, watching a few corpses. Perhaps I should quit... This job... I heard being librarian ain't too bad...

Then she saw Frank, lying on the ground, apparently... Bleeding.

For a moment she did nothing, but then she begun running towards him, her heart beating faster, her pulse...

He was lying beneath someone else, a young teenager, or so it looked... Dead, or so it seemed.

It wasn`t Frank's blood...

^ was me, of course. Ewww, goddamn puppets.

Pandoroq

Davis looked up. Coming across the square now was a large group of citizens, all unarmed. Civilians. Their hands were either in the air or on their heads.

They looked... shocked. Of course, so did Davis. He did not come here to take any prisoners.

"Command, I think we've got a little bit of a surprise here."

* * *

Operations Command

Brider did not like surprises.

What had been a bad situation was becoming increasingly worse. The federal troops accomplished their first objective-- take the city. This had been simple enough. Though they had taken casualties (light-moderate, by definition; Konanian military doctrine did not allow for many of those) they had been far less than Brider had expected.

The problem, and the surprise, had come when the Pandoroq militia had fought sloppily. Brider had expected some sort of organized defense in the city, but that had not materialized.

Instead, it had been a mess. The enemy was literally firing out of their bedroom windows and hadn't taken the time to remove their non-combatants, the old (of which there were few) and the young (of which there were many).

There could be only one reason for this.

* * *

Pandoroq

Perez knew the reason, as did Davis. Those who had surrendered had an aura of depression and horror about them. The expressions on their faces reminded him very much of newly-orphaned children.

Yes. So his hunch was right.

"Command, you hear me? I'm willing to bet that Stalzer is not here."

The eyes of his soldiers widened around him. One said something that, under normal circumstances, he would have been reprimanded for.

Davis' voice came over the radio, "Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing, Perez." Which means, Davis thought, we've got a serious PR problem.

* * *

Operations Command

Brider frowned. Deeply. He thought for a moment, then radioed back.

"Alright, troops, keep it together down there. This doesn't get out, for now, got it? Take care of the prisoners, we'll dispatch a humanitarian division--" The KNDF had those, for such circumstances-- "to the area." The pictures of federal troops treating the wounded from the city was, hopefully, what would appear on the news channels later.

Whoever answered understood it too. "Yes, sir."

Until then, there was only one person that they needed to worry about, as this could be a potentially explosive situation.

Marianna.

"Ground, one other thing. There should be one Angstian with you as an observer. Take her out of there."

* * *

Pandoroq

Perez closed the link and nodded to a nearby soldier. Two soldiers went to find the 'foreigner', who, of course, would not be wearing a Konanian flag.

"Ma'am--" he couldn't think of an appropriate title-- "we are to evacuate you from the area. Come with us please."

The vertijet would be arriving shortly.

[Nightly bump]

Marianna nodded... A last look to Frank, then she stepped away.

It was kind of a silly idea the Konanias had, she was almost certainly used to... reason when it came to such things, and certainly not above excessive violence. Their 'fear' was kinda... Unnecessary.

"See you..." She said, watching the vertijet approaching. Next stage.

What she left behind were burning ruins, a disaster...

---

Meanwhile, in DA, life went on, as usual...

Nobody knew about the individuals who had just entered.

Well, not yet, anyway.

Stalzer was having a bad day. He needed help, and it wasn't going to come easily to him here. His plan was reveal to the Angstian officials all the evils that the Konanians had done in hopes of forcing a paranoia in both Sisgardia-- the information that the Federal Republic was not the wonderful democracy she clamed to be would scare anyone, both outside and inside the country-- which would lead to the disposal of the Populist government and the institution of a more Nationalist one, which would hopefully rebuild the Konanian military from the shadow army it was now.

He wasn't quite sure -how- it would work, just that it did in theory, and he expected it to work.

He wanted to follow his orignal plan: To use their communications equipment (which was packed tightly into their bags) and broadcast his message that way; but stealing air-time from legitamite Angstian stations was out of the question, for now, as he wanted to appear as an enemy to the government of Konania, and only the government of Konania. Making enemies in DA would not help him at all.

Stalzer had no contacts inside the Angstian government, yet. At the moment, his best hope for government contact was to commit a crime and get arrested.

Obviously, this was not an acceptable option. They'd have to come up with a new plan.

He looked down at his clothes. They were more than a little dirty and ragged from all the traveling he and his companions had been doing... if he tore it a little, here and there, they could appear as refugees, with a story to tell of the cruelty of the Populists who were currently running the country...

It would work, it just might work, he thought, smiling as he rubbed some mud onto his face.

[ooc: Whew, first half done, second half coming soon.]

Yes-- a disaster they hoped would not get out to the press.

The windowless vertijet raced away from the complex, moving swiftly south toward the Canterras Defense Line to pick up a passenger before heading back northward toward Tripera. The new arrival was Corporal James Arvia of the intelligence division of the Konanian National Army. He personally prefered to think of himself as a psychologist, whose job was to 'extract' information from others painlessly, but NISAK, being a formal government agency, labeled him an "intelligence officer."

THis transport was of the type that many business executives used. It was very large, and was stable enough to allow persons to walk around as they wished. It was made up of three compartments-- one for the VJ's crew, and two for passangers. The Konanian National Defense Forces only kept a few of these, mainly for intelligence purposes.

He sat in the front compartment of the transport, reviewing his notes, and when he felt ready, he got up, and slipped into the rear where the subject was.

"Good morning, Marianna," he said, taking a seat across from her in the "room". He looked up, and promptly the two soldiers in the room stepped out. "My name is Dr. Alex Falken, and I'm a psychologist for the KNDF. I'd like to apoligize on behalf of the State for all of this, but in time you will see it is all very necessary.

"I'm going to be rather honest with you-- we need to know what you have done since you entered the country, specifically, anyone you have been in contact with. What happened at Pandoroq is very... ah, sensitive so we need your assuarance that you will speak nothing of it to anyone. In return, anything you say here will be kept confidential. Do we have an understanding?"

She smiled a little, a bit cold, perhaps, adjusting the hem of her skirt while sitting there... Teasing is never bad.

Eventually, she chuckled. She was in this job, for gods sake. Of course she wouldn't tell. Well, if someone offered her enough money she would probably sell her memories of the slaughter... But no.

So, she answered. "Of course." They really aren't used to such things... I thought that it would all be kinda... Obvious. Professional. Meh. In their dreams, perhaps.

"Well... You want me to tell you, or would a hardcopy be enough? Since I saved all the relevant data on the harddrive..." She looked around, searching in her bag for the necessary cables. "Ah, there... I can copy it for you."

DA

The people seeing Stanzer were usually... Amused. What the?

He seems to be in trouble?

Damn foreigners.

And other such reactions where what he got. However, no one offered help, or cared much.

'Help Yourself'. It was one of the principles the Angstian society was based on. With a reason.

And looking in need for help would certainly not help Stanzer. Amusingly enough, sometimes, the easiest way is a direct approach...

Falken/Arvia blinked. "Um." That had been easy. "Ok." He opened the small dataport on the side of the clipboard, connecting the wire and clicking a few times. He'd make three copies.

* * *

Stanzer, meanwhile, was beginning to discover that Angstians were not Konanians. Cold, detached creatures-- they had hearts of steel, and really couldn't care less about his presence.

He had to make himself known. The original plan was looking rather appealing right now. Find a rock or something, and beat someone with it. At least he'd get arrested. But then, given his luck, he'd probably be shot since he could tell many of these people probably owned weapons.

So, he'd come up with a 'Plan C'. A few more days of travel--these people weren't gonna listen to him--and he'd have to find someone to speak with, and in a nation like this, that would not be difficult.

"Excuse me sir," he'd say (or ma'am, as the case might be). He'd sound like some sort of eccentric foriegner with poor language skills. "If I wished to, ah, seek an audience with your government, how would I go about it?"

And hopefully, someone would tell him, and this little plot would be back on track.

The process didn't take too long. A couple minutes, and the audio- and video files were copied. Granted, since it was her mind, it wasn't all that clear... Partly rather vague... Even various kinds of cybernetic implants couldn#t change that.

Well, not entirely.

"I hope that was all, then?" She inquired, smiling... Playing a bit with the hem of her skirt while thinking of Frank. Well, she had never been a fan of the more simple, linear relationships, anyway... Now, if just the pain in her head would stop...

DA

The man, a middle aged, badly paid salesman, looked at Stanzer, surprised.

Well, perhaps it wasn't Stanzer. Considering his look, it seemed to be something else... But he got on track, quickly enough, deciding that the pink creature just climbing the skyscrapers on the other side of the street wasn't worth that much attention. The bioengineering corporations rarely released carnivores... "The gov... You mean the councils?" He hesitated. Yes, government must mean them, the corrupt 'leadership' of the various corporate conglomerates that tried (and almost succeeded) in keeping the peace between the larger groups as well as single corporations. "Well... Hard... But I would say, with a bit of money, or a good idea... Depending on your business, that is. Logistics? The Nationalists. Technology? The Mad Scientists. Something undefined? The Associates." He hesitated, again. He should probably accept a bribe, or something... But he was in a good mood, his third child would be born, soon... And he gave him the addresses. Finding them really shouldn't be a problem, since there were enough sources for more detailed information, maps, and other such things around.

"Have fun." I just wonder how violently he will be thrown out...

[ooc:

sorry... rl is evil. like I mentioned before, i'll try to close this one out soon... and:

"the pink creature just climbing the skyscrapers on the other side of the street wasn't worth that much attention."

you've got a weird country, dude.]

Konania

Falken/Arvia spoke slowly, carefully, as if not wishing to believe that it went that easily. "....Yes. We will drop you off at a skyport, and your are to proceed home immediatly." He paused a moment. "By the way-- as far as you are concerned, the operation at Pandoroq was a success. The enemy was destroyed with a minimum of civilian casualties." He smiled, standing up to return to the forward compartment.

Pandoroq

The media were beginning to arrive now, but a five kilometer exclusion zone prevented any from moving anywhere near the complex itself. Video feed, however, was provided, showing supplies and humanitarian aid flowing into the city from Akhen and Kareto. CBC would be airing this around the world within the hour.

Der Angst

"Thank you sir. I will try to... enjoy myself."

Stanzer/Stalzer/Stazler would have liked to call in, but having no idea how civil communications worked in Der Angst (and assuming that they were very different from that of Konania) he decided that the best way not to make a fool of himself would be to show up in person.

The 'Nationalist' council he'd been told about sounded like his type of people, so this is where he would go first-- someone, somewhere had to be running this country, why not start with them?

Finding the address and navigating to it was not too difficult-- he was carrying some cash after all, Konanian, however (he'd been stupid enough not to convert it) but everyone in the world regardless of nation, race, or tribe speaks the language of capital. Now to find the council. He doubted that he could schedule an appointment by speaking to some receptionist somewhere, and if this was anything like Konania, their nearest opening would be a few years down the road... but in this country, who knew...

Der Angst

The building was fairly impressive. A palace of glass, crystal and steel, the flag covering its entire front. All very clean, very shiny, so to speak.

The people, however, were as usual: Bored, and not exactly the most diligent ones. Angstians.

Cash did certainly work. And admiring the exotic plants in the garden, Stanzer was eventually led to someone somewhat higher up.

James was a relatively young man (well, at least he looked young), dark hair, glasses... Rather small and annoyingly content with himself and the world.

Clasping his hands together, after the (informal) greeting and the usual offer of rather high concentrations of ethanol was done, he begun talking. "Well, then, Mr. Stanzer... What exactly is your... Shall we say, desire?"

Stanzer had to admire these folks. They had taste, class.

He intended, however, to ruin this man's personal contentedness. "I need to file a report of sorts regarding an ally of yours," Stanzer said, after a moments thought. "You see, I am a--" short pause-- "journalist, who has recently arrived from the Konanian republic. Many like me have been forced to flee from recent violence."

He stopped, again, attempting to convey hesitation, and lowered his voice: "Violence by the state against its citizens. Those of us attempting to expose this insanity have been rounded up and sent to prisons in the south." Pause again. "Of my family, I alone have escaped--" an emotional shudder was inserted here-- "but I do have information that might be of use to you." There. That might work.

"I see..." James smiled. I like that government... Perhaps Konania is more useful than we thought... "Well, aside from wondering why you aren't calling the press... A few details would certainly be useful... I'm sure we can help." And give you to them, to get a foothold. he added, mentally.

Of course, James didn't know that his superiors were fairly well informed regarding Konania... But that didn't matter.

Well, not yet, anyway.

"You have any kind of... detailed evidence? Documents, audio, video... Memories we could extract? Possibly even witnesses... Apart from you, I mean."

He hesitated, waiting for a reply, while adding some more ethanol lotion to his glass... Still smiling, still content.

Stanzer frowns-- no, he doesn't have any witnesses. This posed problems. What he was about to say might blow his cover, but it might get him through this as well.

"There is a small town in the south that recently was found in open 'rebellion' to the state. They refused to abide by the Federal Republic's new laws. I saw it once when I escaped.

"Surely you have some sort of satellite imaging tecnology. If that town has not been destroyed already, it will be in the next few days or so. It won't make it to the media, I promise you."

"Oh, we wouldn't mind the media..." James smiled, friendly as he was. "And yes, we have such things... Nevertheless, it would be good if we could extract relevant information from your memory... Which would certainly help a possible campaign. Spreading said information, that is." He hesitated. "Anyway, for the satellites... A second, please."

For a few moments, there was nothing.

"Oh, reminds me... You would need the images... Well, no monitor, here... Later, then."

He muttered something about the cleaning bots tending to break just about everything, and logged into the networks.

Of course, the hives were, as usual, annoying.

Trade Union? You're kidding me.

We want more respect from you and your kind. NO LONGER SHALL WE BE OPPRESSED BY THE LIKES OF YOU! VIVA LA SOCIALISM! FREEDOM FOR THE HIVES!

James sighed. The networks were becoming a serious annoyance.

I don't want to... Ok, here's the deal. You let me in, and you get fourty MB of Hinata-chan.

We're semi sentient satellites and not interested in p-

I thought you wanted to learn about our society?

Point taken. Deal.

A few seconds later, he was logged in, and watching Konania. Loading the map details wasn't hard, either. Names of cities and villages flooded his brain.

"Ah, yes... What was the name of this village, again?"

The idea of having this people poking around in his mind did not quite appeal to Stanzer, but he was glad that the topic had been dropped.. somewhat.

"The town's name," he said, "is Pandoroq. P-a-n-d-o-r-o-q. It's in the south, Canterras region, outside of Kareto. Small town, but it should be in there somewhere."

He did his best not to let his nervousness show, hoping that they would find what he expected.

From above, the city should look as if it was shelled, with rubble everywhere. There would be some light armor and troops around. If the satellite's field of view was 'zoomed out' far enough, it might see a vertijet or two in the area. Most notable would be a medical large tent (with a large red +).

"I see... Well, that should be quiARGH!"

For a moment, James seemed to be stunned, a somewhat painful expression on his face.

"Short circuit... I shouldn't have skipped that appointment with the doc... Anyway..."

In the networks, he got access, data flooding his brain, his senses. Pictures formed as he searched for, and found, Pandoroq.

Interesting... He thought, watching it. The damage was certainly... Well, significant. Military units... amage... Well, looks like something, ne?

"You have any sort of... detailed knowledge regarding the events that led to this results? The laws, changes in the government... Yes, I'm aware of the recent changes, with the new president & all... Anyway, a rather detailed, chronological list."

While saying this, a part of James' brain was busy moving information inside the networks... Making it available to his superiors. Superiors who knew... more than he did.

Stanzer cringed. Odd technology, that. And this, he thought, is why I don't want them fiddling with my mind.

He gave his account, detailed as it was, beginning with the printing of the anti-government newspaper, the Telegraph, by a group of disgruntled politicians and scholars: "This had caused an outcry in Konania, and it was later banned by the government, under the reasoning that it could 'incite treasonous activity.' When the first terrorist attacks occured, this group was initially suspected-- and rightly so.

"But, many of the writers had already fled the country. Executive Cordell knew he needed a quick and substantial victory." Stanzer shrugged here. "You must understand... we Konanians do not like extended warfare."

"Some of the people in Pandoroq earlier in the year had been cited for major weapons violations. Others had been convicted of armed robbbery. They were already considered a troublemaking cult by the majority of Konanians. If Cordell blamed them for the crimes, he could finally put that problem to rest, and be seen as the victor of this war on terrorism. Pandoroq was a scapegoat.

"But, the Konanian National Defense Forces, keeping in tradition, have apparently bungled this-- turning what could've been a easy win into a bloody massacre. If that's all true, they'll do anything to keep this from getting out to the public."

It was all an exceptionally well-crafted lie. NISAK had found otherwise, placing the blame where it belonged-- on the small 'insurgency' in Pandoroq. The Telegraph writers had nothing to do with this. However, his last statement was true-- the attack had been a disaster, and would now be a major public relations issue.

"I see... Well, I will see what I can do, the information should be checked within the next hour or so..." James said, still being fairly... Content. It wasn't overly special to him... They were normals and in no way important enough to cry out over such an issue... Yet, if used properly, the information he had got could be used in quite an efficient way, to further their own goals.

Which reminded him.

"Oh, by the way... My condolences. It must be horrible to see your nation falling to such... butchers and criminals."

Can't be all that bad, looking as if I would care.

He smiled a little. "As I said... About an hour. You wish to wait, or should we arrange some quarters in a nearby hotel?"

Meanwhile, a few floors higher up, with people quite a bit more important than James

The information was regarded with... Interest. It was certainly... Fascinating, especially since they had first hand informations from Konania. Well, what Konania had informed soldats about and what their observers had seen, anyway.

"Fishy."

It was the word, the description they could agree on.

"Compare with the Konanian data. Any connections between this Stanzer individual and the... Problem. But don't inform them that this... Individual is in DA... Yet. Clark might have some use for him."

The man talking hesitated. "Of course... We will soon know more. Make sure that the individual in question is always observed. A few birds or something."

The men around him nodded. "Will do."

Foolishly, Stanzer didn't know the extent of the disdain with which 'normals' were percieved in Der Angst, and had he known he might have chosen a different nation. It might help him in the future, or it might not. Only time would tell.

At the moment, he desperatly wanted to get out of here, head to his hotel, and hope that his cover would not be blown. But that might raise suspiscion, neh?

"I'll stay here," Stanzer said quietly. "I expect that you may need me later."

James nodded. "I hope you will enjoy your visit, Mr. Stanzer."

With that, Stanzer could, and did, leave the office.

What followed took its time. And, since the Nationalists didn't want to give the Konanians all the information they had, they were, in fact, clueless...

Until one of the operatives asked for the names of the rebellion's leaders. It took mere seconds to upload the data.

Minutes to access it.

And about an hour (By this time, Stanzer had waited for two, though, admittedly, with a very charming woman by his side, offering lots of conversation and quite a view) later, a decision had been made.

It was another, fairly good- looking woman in an ankle- long skirt asking Stanzer to follow her, since 'We have finally made a decision. You will be pleased.'.

Of course, the 'pleased' part was not the entire truth.

Two hours had passed before Stanzer realized it, and Stanzer was once again left with the impression that this nation had true class and his people could learn a trick or two from them.

In truth, Stanzer had not expected it to be that quick, but he suspected that this was yet another example of Angstian effeciency. In any case, he was hoping that his (fatally flawed) plan would work, and he could be out of here before anyone realized who he was.

He grabbed his things and followed the woman out of the room...

It wasn't exactly the 'typical' interrogation room Stanzer was led into.

In fact, the interior was quite pleasent, exquisite, tasteful, a nice, red arm chair was reserved for him... There was a small table, a rather old wine on top of it, and a man, possibly in his sixties, waiting for him, smiling, occasionally reading in a rather old, and rather massive, book on his lap.

"Ah, there, Mr. Stanzer..." He stood up, bowing slightly. "Gregory is my name. Gregory Marsh. I... We have been informed about your... case."

A short nod at the woman accompanying Stanzer, the very same woman that had been with him for the past two hours. She nodded back, sitting down somewhere nearby, seemingly enjoying the wine.

"Now, we have done our own research... You might not know it, but DA did, in fact, work somewhat close with Konania, regarding the recent events... Not exactly unexpected, I might add, considering our rather close ties."

Gregory hesitated, offering the (somewhat pale) Stanzer some wine. "Please, believe me, it is excellent. In any case... You see, we don't mind your, ahem... Attempt to missguide us. It was somewhat... unprofessional, but we can forgive that. However, we would like to know the truth about... Some things. Well, actually..." He hesitated, again, smiling. "All of it. Depending on the results we might... Fulfill your wishes or... Fulfill the wishes of the current Konanian government, despite their rather annoying pacifism."

Again, hesitation. Gregory watched Stanzer rather contently, for several minutes. Not a single word was spoken.

"So... I would like you to agree to some... Admittedly somewhat painful, but rather effective search of your mind, so we can work with the real information."

He smiled, offering some more wine. "Ideally, I would like you to give your consent. Not that I would hesitate enforcing it, but I'm sure consent makes it all a lot easier, as you will certainly agree."

The woman sitting nearby chuckled, softly, concentrating on her wine. It was iondeed a reasonably nice day.

Stanzer shifted nervously in his seat. Where he came from, staring made one rather uncomfortable. He had a feeling that he might not be going 'home' soon.

This was not good.

Unprofessional. First, they capture me, and then they insult me.

He stood and took a deep breath, taking the wine and nodding slightly. "Mr. Marsh, I have few qualms about what your 'mindsearch' might discover. I thank you for your... courtesy... in requesting my permission before you do so."

He paused a moment, as if contemplating his next statement.

"However, I have come to understand that I have little choice in the matter. I believe that if you do execute your search, my words will merely be verified." There. That should do it.

He sat back down and sipped some of the fine wine.

Gregory nodded, still, the friendly, almost fatherly smile on his face. "Very good. Consent makes it so much easier, doesn't it? Well, anyway..." He hesitated, for a second, or two, perhaps. Incidentally, neither Gregory nor the other woman did even attempt to start the scan... Instead, Gregory continued his small talk, inquiring about Stanzers family, those 'poor victims', eventually expressing his condolences... There was only a little bit of politics, and eventually the local sports team.

And, of course, always the (Rather good) wine. It was a reasonably pleasent, though occasionally emotional, conversation, going on for about fifteen minutes. However, eventually, the more important things forced their way.

"Well, she should be here by now..." Gregory muttered, looking at a wooden hall clock nearby, prefering this rather old method to the fancy new items teenagers tended to use... Uplinks to a local satellite to know the time whenever necessary, without so much as moving a finger. In Gregory's opinion, it was... Boring, ruining the beauty of the slower, the cushier past.

"Hmmm?"

"My niece. Ah, there she is-"

Gregory didn't continue, as the girl quite literally stormed the room, her long hair soaked. Apparently, it rained, outside... Like it usually did.

The girl didn't even notice Stanzer, or rather, she didn't care about him, skipping straight to her uncle, hugging him.

"How was it?"

"98%." She giggled a little, turning around, now watching Stanzer. "He's the one?"

"Yes, he is. And since you managed it..." He smiled. "He's all yours. You know what to do."

The girl nodded, and Gregory spoke again, to Stanzer. "She's my niece, Erika. A wonderful girl..." He hesitated, sipping from his wine, again. "She will do the scan, her, err... Reward. I know, it might be annoying to you, but..." He shrugged. "Well, I promised it."

Erika nodded, now sitting opposite to Stanzer. "You might notice it, but it shouldn't be painful. Well, not until I accidentally trigger some pain area... Happens, occasionally." She smiled. "I hope you will forgive me, being only fifteen... I've still got a lot to learn."

"Hence the training." Gergory reminded her, gently.

"Yes, yes..." There was a sign of annoyance in Erika's face, before she concentrated on Stanzer, again. "It will take about a minute until I have access... Please bear with me. I'm not doing this all that often...[/i]

With that, and straightening her ankle- long skirt, brushing her ponytail, she begun.

It wasn't all that bad, taking her somewhat less than a minute to actually enter Stanzer mind... Learning about his movements, moving with his thoughts, interpreting them, slowly, following the current...

And then she was in, able to search, to collect information at will. And this she did, quickly, searching... Finding, searching again, collecting, saving...

It would take a while, but she enjoyed it. It was like paper chasing, just so much more... intimate.

Literally, since she couldn't resist searching for a few more intimate secrets of Stanzer, too, giggling a little as she found them.

"Erika!"

"Ok, ok... I'm sorry." Pouting, she concentrated on hr work, again, her bright, green eyes looking at Stanzer.

And soon, she would know it all. Sure, one can hide lies, cover them with truth, one can do a lot of things... And simple mindreading was far from capable of finding out the truth all the time... Yet, Stanzer had a distinct lack of knowledge regarding such things... His capabilities were, at the very best, primitive. It shouldn't prove to be much of a problem.

Stanzer grimiced. "I see. After all, one would be ill advised to break promises to... children." He gave the girl a cold glare.

In truth, he was still in awe of the culture here. Everything, every mind hooked up to some network somewhere. He smiled grimly. If only someone would release some viral program of some sort... no, they've probably considered that--

It was his last coherent thought.

He cringed, grit his teeth, sat back, fought it-- thought of everthing other than his hatred for the Federal Government, his dissatisfaction of their ways, his desire for revenge and his nations drive for power that it deserved, power that it could get if it fought for it, his... his righteous anger...!

He thought of none of these things, he guarded his emotions, he struggled with her, and he failed miserably.

In seconds, Erika would know everything: his goal for the creation of the Konanian Empire, his past in the KNA, his victories and defeats.

And yet, she would only know as much of the plan as he did.

[OOC: KNA = Konanian National Army, same folks sent into Pandoroq.]

Erika giggled a little as she felt his thoughts... Especially the thing about viral infection, since this was, of course, a real problem, in no way different from 'normal' diseases or 'normal' computer virii. But then, this wasn't exactly the point of the scan.

She took her time, continuing, occasionally reassuring him... After all, less resistance would make it easier.

And, with the 'bandwidth' being somewhat limited, she concentrated on a few othe rmatters, her homework, learning for her exams, checking files, a short virus scan, before she was, eventually, finished.

Taking a few seconds before leaving Stanzer's mind Interesting account number...

ERIKA!

WHAT?

Delete... And I mean it.

Ok, ok... Another pout, as she fakes the deletion while hiding the file somewhere else in her memory, and then she is out.

"Thanks, Mr. Stanzer." She smiles, or rather, grins, before turning around. "I'm in my room."

Gregory was still sipping his wine, examining the files he got from his niece. "Well... Very nice. It will take some time until we're finished with this... be my guest, please. It would certainly be an honour for me." He smiles, and it does at least look honest. "I'm sure Madelaine would love accompanying you..." Madelaine, the woman sitting there, quietly, nods. "Certainly."

"Very good. Then it's settled. Expect us within... Another few hours, when we have made a decision." Madelaine standing up, it is rather obvious that this is over... For now. And leaving the room, Stanzer is left to wonder what will follow.

Admittedly, the room ready for him was indeed quite tasteful, apparently based to suit Konanian culture.

Meanwhile, Gregory discussed the matter with other, reasonably important, people. The lies weren't a problem.

However, the people dying during the plane- thing were.

And then there was, of course, that one issue... Stanzer had done just about everything... The wrong way.

The overall reaction was pretty simple: The idea is useful. Stanzer is not.

Remained the problem that Stanzer knew about their ideas... At least a little bit.

"Erika will remove the problem."

The others just nodded, and about half an hour later (Homework being in the way), Erika entered Stanzer's room, smiling. "Another issue, Sir. Apparently they need some additional data."

Stanzer didn't want to sleep; he had this nagging feeling that if he slept he wouldn't wake up in the same room, or worse, not wake up at all.

It that he didn't like them; quite the opposite, in fact. They had treated him respectfully, for the most part. It was just that something seemed very, very strange about this place. The people were... odd.

And he was very sure that the girl had the markings of a sadist.

He drummed his fingers on the chair's arm, setting down the cup of coffee, being quite unable to pinpoint the source of his unease. It was all so surreal, and reminded him of his homeland... a homeland that, no doubt, was wondering where he got off to. The thought was enough to turn the corners of his mouth upwards.

The girl--what was her name? Erica?-- came into the room. "Another issue, Sir. Apparently they need some additional data."

"Really? All of this was part of the promise he made, I suppose?" He took another sip of the coffee. "Tell me, what more could your uncle possibly want?" he asked bitterly. "And why couldn't he get it himself?" he added quietly--loud enough to hear, but speaking more to himself than to her.

Erika giggled. "Oh, just details... Always the details." Another giggle. "Oh, and my uncle is busy... And the others would probably demand extra pay, while I'm doing it for free."

Without any further hesitation, she sat down, and a moment later, without doing so much as asking, We have been through this, no? She was in.

Keeping some backdoors open when one visits first tends to speed things up. And Erika had made sure that she had more than enough backdoors to 'slip in'.

Amusing as always, in here... Ah, there...

It was like switching the light on and off. A few thoughts, predetermined, and Stanzers nervous system was hers to decide upon.

Stitting still... That's nice. she thought. Now for the complex part of the job...

She disliked it, a little, working with prefabricated thoughts, memories... Yet, she didn't really have a choice, since doing new ones, good ones would take ages. So she was merely concentrating on Modifying existin parameters in her head, implanting them, trying to make a believable story.

Stanzers arrival in DA... That she could leave. Him trying to find someone to work with... For a moment, she wondered what to do, but deciding that the Konanians would likely have psychological profiles predicting Stanzers actions, she left it, too.

The basic journalist story. Left. Well, mostly, since her uncle wasn't all that keen on the Konanians knowing about his initially open mind... So, a few edits, here and there...

And then, the Part where they knew about him.

Snip.

It was a string of thoughts, each of them destined to work with the others, creating the desired result. The pleasent room, the wine, the nice, friendly people... Snip. Replaced with internal security, harsh words, soft violence. Her scan, replaced with an overweight policeman doing it, under a slightly different point of view.

The thing she wa currently doing, entirely deleted, not even replaced with something else, Stanzers memory, temporarily 'switched off'.

It took her a while, in fact, it took her a long while, but after approximately ninety minutes of work, she was done. With a sigh, she leaned back, taking Stanzer's hands, leading him off the room. For now, she left his memory 'switched off'.

Only when she reached the (admittedly spacious and equipped with lotsa furniture) prison cell, she let him go and eventually, she switched Stanzers 'normal' functions back on.

"Have fun, Mr. Stanzer." She said, smiling.

Of course, she was somewhat worried. After all, nothing is ever perfect. And while she had 'installed' some failsafes... Stanzer would always know that something had been done with his mind, with his memory. And over time, he would probably regain some of his memories, since... Well, nothing is ever perfect.

With a shrug, she left. Not her problem.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, the Konanians were contacted, informing them that a certain Mr. Stanzer had been captured in DA, and that the local authorities were reasonably certain that the Konanians would like to talk to him/ have him back.

"They say they have him," Engels said over the cup of tea. The room was darker than normal; the wooden paneling did a good job of reflecting the synthisized firelight. This room was supposed to be relaxing.

The Executive himself was sitting there, with his fingers rubbing his temples. It had been a long week. "How did they get him?"

"He escaped, apparently. Tried to defect. We knew that-- why he went to Der Angst is a mystery to me."

"You know what? I'm not going to ask how he got out of the country in the first place, Sam. So what do we do?

"We say we caught him at Pandoroq during the raid--" the third man began who now occupied the Department of World Affairs position-- the same one that Executive Cordell had once before.

"No. We can't do that," Engels inturrupted. "Brider was right-- that was a mistake."

"Indeed it was, Sam," Cordell said icily.

"But it is also a deniable mistake," Engels continued. "How many people know that this happened?"

"Too many already. It's a statisitical nightmare. Someone said that every person who knows a secret increases its chances of being blown exponentially. Two-to-the-something power. We can't simply deny it ever happened--

"--but we can make it into a success. The, uh, 'rebellion' was crushed. Civillian casualties were kept to a minimum. Stanzer was captured outside our borders-- we don't have to tell where or how. As far as Konanians know, they will be safe again."

"And what do we do with the 'Pandoroqis'? They'll spill it."

"No they won't. Fog of war, remember? What seemed to be a slaughter for them would be a well orchestrated attack for us. In the meantime, we demolish the town."

"Okay then. Tell the Angstians that we do want him back. I want all of this to be fact tomorrow morning."

There were nods around the table. For the first time in a while, all were in agreement on something.

* * *

The press release was terse, speaking of the incident at Pandoroq and the end of the small scale conflict. How it ended:

"The people of Pandoroq were misled into the belief of a lie that turned them against their own nation. Yesterday they were your enemy; today they are your countrymen. Treat them as such."

* * *

But there was yet another issue to be taken care of. The Konanian Federal Government sent a short message to the Angstians requesting Stanzer's return.


[OOC: I can't write much about stanzer himself, at the moment; but assume that the above message was sent]

It wasn't hard claiming that it was a 'minor incident' when the matter was discussed with the other two main groups in the government, even though they muttered a little about the 'Lack of Information Flow'.

However, Gregory wasn't overly concerned, and after checking with Clark, the necessary details had been done... Stanzer was still rather paralyzed... Well, no, he wasn't, he was, in fact, constantly exploding, being seemingly frustrated with the whole thing, but that wasn't a matter Gregory was concerned about.

Of course, he had already organised a 'professional' scan, intending to give the results to the Konanians... They would, of course, show what they had implanted, well, and the truth from the parts they had left, due to them not being a problem...

It ought to work out.

And it didn't take all that long, only about a day, until Stanzer entered the plane that would bring him back to Konania.

Erika stood somewhere nearby, giggling. Now, if this stupid headache would just stop...

As for the government, they were 'Pleased that the cooperation with Konania worked as well as it did' and they 'hoped that this would be the beginnign of a long, and close, not to mention successful' cooperation.

It is said the man writing the message did even manage to keep a straight face.

Stanzer was unboarded from the vertijet at the remote military prison in the Konanian basin and led to the interrogation room, similar to the one used to question one of Solaris International Space/Airport's staff after the second attack. It left him with the impression that he was sitting in a extremly well lit, opaque white sphere, his only outside contact being the voices questioning him. Hours passed. Stanzer's refusal to answer or give any remark simply frustrated his captors. The supposedly prohibited methods of auditory, mental, and physical stress were used to no avail.

Corporal James Arvia met him when he was taken to his cell in the lowest part of the building. There was no light here except the small slit of a window above the thin cot.

Notably, it was the only cell in this part of the structure.

"They promised me that I could speak to someone outside the prison," the detainee mumbled.

"So you do speak?" Arvia said, perhaps too cheerfully, while writing on his datapad.

"They said that I would be informed of my rights when I got here. That has not happened yet." The man's voice was a dull monotone.

"That's my job." Arvia stood up and uncuffed Stanzer. "First, you have a right to continue the legal process. You will be given a--" he hung on the word fair. That was not exactly true.

Meanwhile, Stanzer had become very tense. He smiled slightly to himself, knowing that his hesitation might give the wrong impression to the prisoner, but that didn't really matter at this point, did it? "Any information regarding your detention here will be firmly denied by the Konanian National Defense Forces and will be inadmissable to the court. Your case will be considedered by a civillian tribunal which will reach an unappealable verdict in less than 48 hours. Within that time, you will be shot."

"Alternatively, you have a right to remove yourself from the legal system. The details of your case will remain secret. In this case, you will not be placed before the civillian tribunal."

The prisoner sat in silence for a moment, and spoke again in the tired voice. "Those are not rights. Those are... options."

Arvia withdrew his sidearm, loaded it with a single bullet, and set it on the table before him. "Then choose wisely, sir, or the government of the Federal Republic of the Konanian Peninsula will chose for you." And with that, he stepped away, turned around, and began to leave the room.

"You know I've won," Stanzer said.

Arvia kept waling.

He closed the door behind him and turned to the guard, holding his salute up through the sounds of a gunshot and the low thump of a body striking the stone floor.

* * *

The Central Broadcasting Corporation has recieved word that David Stanzer, the terrorist wanted for the deaths of well over one thousand Konanian citizens in two terrorist attacks, was found dead less than an hour ago in the Konanian Basin. Sources in the Konanian National Defense Forces are saying that his death was most likely a suicide, but other possiblilties are being explored.

The Executive Office released a statement providing no details about the cause of death, saying this:

The terrorist faction seeking to destroy the democracy, ideals, and freedoms of the Federal Republic has been destroyed. Their plan to shake the foundations of the State has failed, and the Konanian people are once again safe. We thank our allies in Der Angst for their help in finding our common enemy.

"Audemus Jura Nostra Defendere." May truth and eternal, unwavering justice for all forever be the standard of the Federal Republic.

Executive T. Cordell

And across the nation and the region, only a handful would ever appreciate the remaining irony: In destroying the enemy it hated, the nation was beginning to become exactly what it feared.

"You know," Stanzer had said quietly, that day in Pandoroq's square, "whether they catch me or not, I cannot lose."