NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Okay, a quick rundown. This is not open to anybody who only wants to invade. Use of military pressure due to the events involved is allowed, but this isn't just an excuse for some warmonger to invade me. Press coverage of the events, and what you can find out about the investigation is fine. Diplomatic/military pressure to solve the case if fine. Just for general information, before these events, the world at large had no knowledge of this island's existence.

I've also already got people interested in being the ones to stumble across it, so they have first dibs.

The island is just outside of Aesonic territorial waters.

Please keep all OOC here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=496559).

IC: There had been a village here once. With a culture, a religion, and a way of life of their own. No more. Now, instead of the sounds of busy village life, only thick plumes of smoke, and the stench of corpses drifted into the air.

And the cries of the carrion birds, as they pecked at their newest meal. An entire village, men, women, and children, had died. Their backs broken, they had been strapped to wheel like structures, and left to perish in the tropical sun.

The village had been demolished. The wood from the houses used to construct the deathwheels. All that was left over had been piled high, and the bodies of those that had died in the fighting that preceded the death wheeling placed on top of them.

And it had not stopped there. In a nearby cave, there had been paintings on a wall. Intricate swirling designs, that told a story, for those who could read it, that offered a glimpse into the lives of these people. They had been obliterated, with hammer and chisel, knocked out of the wall, ground into dust, and scattered to the wind.

There had been a trail through the forest, that the hunters used. It too, had been obliterated. Trees cut down across it, boulders rolled into the center of it.

And it had not stopped there. Footprints on the beach had been swept away. A cache of arrows in a nearby cave had been found, and had been stuck, nonfatally, into those lying helpless on the death wheels.

Perhaps most disturbingly of all, besides the destruction itself, there was no sign of the attackers. No fingerprints anywhere. No DNA. Some of the bodies, both on the death wheels and on the pyre, had bullet wounds in them. But there were no bullets. It was as if the village had been destroyed by ghosts.

Ban Umbrellas Moan Penguins!

(tag for possible interest though I don't have a reason to get involved yet, will there be an OOC thread?)

(tag for possible interest though I don't have a reason to get involved yet, will there be an OOC thread?)

OOC: Probably not a bad idea. I'll go make one.

bump

OOC: Tango Alfa Golf.

Tag

OOC: This is gonna be kinda fast, as I want things to get rolling, and I'm really in pain (Hurt my back today serving too hard), so bear with me...
IC:
SOMEWHERE OFF THE AESONIC COAST

It was a usual day on one of the usual tours of Roaming Gnome group 13, and everyone was enjoying the rather nice weather. Hell Jumper Colonel Jake Lester was enjoying a nice afternoon smoke with his staff seargent outside, just below the flight deck of the INS Kelanth.

"I hate these god damned patrols," Staff Seargent Mike Williams commented while taking a deep drag.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, but we're the Hell Jumpers, we're the "go anywhere, at anytime, do anything" corps remember?" Lester shot back...

"Bah, that old slogan is nothin' but a recruitment ad. If I could have one assignment it'd be..." He didn't have a chance to finish, as a messanger from the bridge came and delivered a message.

"Colonel, have your men saddle up, we've got an unidentified Island up ahead, and they aren't responding to radio traffic. We sent a flight of F-33's over, but there was no sign of life, you're to check it out, oh and an IINN news team wants to go along, so you're gonna have to baby sit too..." The messanger continued, "Be ready to leave within the hour, you'll have IH-65 and A-15 support if things get hairy." He finished and walked off.

"Well, now we've got some excitment Sarge, tell Luska that her squad's goin recon, and they're to be out in half an hour, and we'll follow along."

"Yessir," Williams said as he tossed the rest of his cigar into the ocean and went off to find Luska and his squadron.

HALF AN HOUR LATER IN THE AIR
"God damned intel freaks," a private commented as he sat checking his gear, and his mate's gear for the four thousandth time, or at least it seemed.

"Shut up you little whiner," Lance Corporal Alex Henson shot back, "We might be able to actually get some action today."

"Not likley Henny," Seargent Kieth Jackson said, "From what I heard, the place's a ghost town."

"Ladies, this is your captain speaking, we're inbound to the lovely desolate island of nowhere," an intercom buzzed, "and we'll be landing shortly, so get your asses in gear, we'll be down in two."

"Gah Shut up you fat assed crock!" Lieutenant Jessica Luska said into the intercom. It was the usual slander from the flight crew, as they always thought it was funny that a woman would actually be able to lead a Hell jumper squad. They all knew that she could outshoot them, and was a good leader. They all respected the flight crew, as they'd saved the squad's ass several times over.

"We're down in five, four, three, two, one, GO GO GO!" Shouted the loadmaster as he manned his 15mm Cannon at the exit ramp of the H-75.

The hell Jumpers exited like a bat running from Ozzy's mouth, and stopped as soon as they got off the ramp,

"My..." Luska was interruped by the sounds of some of her men vomiting. The sight was horrible, there were dead bodies strewn everywhere, on the ground, in the trees, and all of them were seemingly shot. Jessica immediately got on the radio back to the ship, "Arca, Arca, this is Romeo four-three, over"

"Romeo Four-three, this is Arca, go ahead,"

"Arca, we've got a massacre down here, there's thousands of bodies, lying around, get some more men on the ground now, and contact the Aesoni coast guard athourity, this is their juristiction." She finished. About five minutes later, another squad arrived on the ground, but with the IINN news crew, and the head reporter immediately sent out a bulletin, when she saw what Luska's men had vomited over.

*** URGENT NEWS ***
MASSACRE OUTSIDE AESONI WATERS, THOUSANDS BRUTALLY SLAUGHTERED
*** END BULLETIN FROM IINN ***

A number of helicopters were immediately dispatched, carrying a number of Aesonic Marines and one Detective Robert Mosian.

Mosian had seen some stomach churning scenes in his time, but never anything like this. No... there had been something like this, he realized, as he forced his face to remain stony. Wouldn't do to lose face in front of the Illorians.

But nothing like this scale. There had been a Christian couple a couple of years back, soon after New Aeson had opened up to immigration. They had lived in a small town, working in a new factory that had opened up. This back when skilled workers were worth their weight in gold. Then one Sunday, while they were worshipping in their home, a man had broken in, beaten them unconcious, gagged them, and left them in a similar position in their own backyard.

The man had been shot resisting arrest about a week later. And that was supposed to have been the end of that. So what was the connection?

Mosian flicked on his radio. "Rita, get on the computers. Find out if there's any mention in the old religious texts to anything like a 'death-wheel'."

"What? A death-wheel? What the hell's going on down there Robert?"

"Just do it!" Snapped Mosian, turning off the radio. Then he noticed the news crew.

"Ah, hell no. Listen, what have you broadcast so far?" He asked.

New Roanoke Island...
Intel dudes checked and rechecked their satalites for malfuntion.

One of them gave very weird pictures and readings, almost no IR of anything living, and the houses appeared to be spheres...

High concentrations of methane...

Might as well send a few prospectors with a camera to figure out 3 things:

Find out what the @%# is going on down there
Find the pockets of methane - if any - and figure out the best [cheapest] way of extracting it
Get/invent a story for the 10:00 PM weekend news team...

(Blair Witch Project anyone?)

They send 4 people, a cameraman, a 'repotrer', a specialist, and "security".
Equipment:

Two CCZ-75 fully automatic pistols (had they known of the massacre they'd have sent more "security")
Four Swords/Knives/axes/shovels
One video Camera, 7 tapes
Three digital Cameras
Reporter's notebook
Specialist's notebook
SATCOM unit (for direct feed video to comm satalites)
Solar charger unit
Laptop
A raft
One week's rations
2 tents


The'd be deployed from a seaplane that happened to have its route bumped due to "adverse weather conditions".

(Now I have to invent names and back history for 4 people...)

The Lead reporter heard the Aesoni person, and responded by pressing "send". "let's see, some basic footage of the death, and a basic report, that everyone was shot, no bullets found, pretty gruesome, and it was a massacre or finished Genocide. If you want that news stopped, well too bad, It's already on line and'll be on the six 'o clock news."

"Ah fuck. What the hell is wrong with you? Why the hell would you do that? Do you want whoever did this to get off clean?" He turned away in exasperation, and towards one of the Hell Jumpers, "You, is there any way you can stop them from splashing this all of the evening news?" Without waiting for a response he whirled away again and began examining the bodies.

"Robert?" Came a voice over his radio, "This is Rita. There's a reference in Malio's Codex to a 'Wheel of Vengeance'. Is that what you're looking for?"

"Vengeance?"

"Doesn't go into great detail, but apparentally Malio used it to punish the enemy that had caused him the most sorrow."

"Keep looking. See if there's anything more specific about it." He knelt. "Ah fuck. They shot this kid in the back. He must have been running."

He stood up again and turned to the marines. "You. Make yourselves useful. Comb the island for survivors, or for anything that might give us a clue for that matter."

"The name's Lieutenant Luska," Luska said to robert, "sir, and I doubt it, oh and There's already several helos wandering and searching the island, and they haven't found one live body, a body with a bullet in it or a shell casing, it's rather fucked up..."

Robert turned back to the Lieutenant. "Look," he said, "This is my job, ok? I won't tell you how to do your job, whatever the hell that is, you don't tell me how to do mine, agreed?"

He knelt by another of the bodies. "Whoever did this did it about a week ago." He hit the radio again, "Rita, when you get a chance look over all intelligence from within the last week about this area."

Earlier... Airport motel on People's Republic Of Hurtful Thoughts
Orders for the day had been sent out, 2 members of the HNN (Hurtian News Network) would go on trip to an exotic island in an attempt to get the winning story before anyone else, they would be sent with a foriegn security specialist, and a guide to help the people get along with the locals.

The camera team, consisting of Jane (reporter) and Pete (Video technician) enjoyed their stay at the motel, all expenses paid.

In the other room down the hall, Ed the Security specialist, swapped notes on customs and proceedures with Bob the guide.

Many pictures had been taken, and the team was in high spirits, for they had no idea what they were about to step into.

Aesonic Island...
Everything went according to plan... almost, the batteries for the equipment had almost no charge, and thus, the laptop, and 2 of the cameras would not be used until fully charged, and the video camera only for video clips of importance.

Another part of distress was the lack of poeple on the coast to help the team pull in the raft from the surf. They dragged it up the beech a considerable distance and then went inland to find out why they did not see any locals on the beech.

Then they saw the wheels of death...

They immediately filmed a brief report of what they had seen, and took a number of photos of the dead in detail, the guide morned the deaths of his patrons, whom he often sent his clients to visit for a small percentage of the profit.

*panoramic of the beech*
"What you see here are the dead of an Aesonic island massacre, even after asking authorities, their deaths are still shrouded in mystery. What we do know is that many of the dead exhibit puncure wounds, but all are indevidually non-fatal, much like the execution of 1,000 cuts..."

*stills from digital camera inserted*

"We found many of these constructs, which are each about the size of small house and covered with dead bodies, which appear to have been killed rather quickly and recently, the only weapons found so far have been arrows, although an examination from our own team suggests that bullets and knives had also been used, but niether type of murder weapon has been found"

*Video clip of crow landing on a death wheel and picking apart one of the dead*
"This has been Jane Fonda, HNN news, reporting"

Thje laptop, low on power still, was booted up, the film edited, and then sent to the comsats for the viewing public.

A couple of marines saw the small group.

"Hey! You! What are you doing here?" Asked one, raising his gun. "Nobody move!"

The other moved rapidly to the side, keeping his eyes, and gun, trained on the group, while calling on his radio, "We've got a small group of suspects, requesting backup."

A couple of marines saw the small group.

"Hey! You! What are you doing here?" Asked one, raising his gun. "Nobody move!"

The other moved rapidly to the side, keeping his eyes, and gun, trained on the group, while calling on his radio, "We've got a small group of suspects, requesting backup."
Hearing the call over the radio, an H-75 with two squads of Hell jumpers responded. "Aesoni Marines, this is Sierra Tango Niner Seven, we're inbound on your position with reinforcements and transport back to ground zero, over," Captain Mark Franks responded, and turned around to the Hell Jumper commanders, "Hey Jack, a couple of Aesoni marines want some help, and we're the inbounds, so lock, load, and get those asses in gear!"

"God damn you Mark," A seargent called, "I was planning on taking a nice nap."

"Well then, I guess you'll need to wait for your bed in a tent," Mark shot back. He got back on the radio on the frequency that the Aesoni marines had called on, "White smoke, for a green LZ, Red for a hot, we're 2 out, over."

OOC; I'll reply IC later, but just a heads up II, it's Aesonic not Aesoni.

A couple of marines saw the small group.

"Hey! You! What are you doing here?" Asked one, raising his gun. "Nobody move!"

The other moved rapidly to the side, keeping his eyes, and gun, trained on the group, while calling on his radio, "We've got a small group of suspects, requesting backup."

Ed the security specialist was the first to respond:
"Uh, we're reporters from the HNN covering a story, didn't you get the memo?"

"This is Jane, the reporter; Pete the technician, Bob our guide, and me, Ed, the assistant video tehnician..."

Pete had already pressed "send to HNN".

"We need to get the story out before the competition... or it's our behinds that get roasted on a stick. Mind helping us pull our raft in? Oh, and some batteries would help too, ours are dead..."

Just then they noticed other marines arrive, they also apparently didn't get the memo.

OOC; I'll reply IC later, but just a heads up II, it's Aesonic not Aesoni.
OOC: Lol... I couldn't decide... I started with Aesonic, then went to Aesoni, thanks for the heads up...

Ed the security specialist was the first to respond:
"Uh, we're reporters from the HNN covering a story, didn't you get the memo?"

"This is Jane, the reporter; Pete the technician, Bob our guide, and me, Ed, the assistant video tehnician..."

Pete had already pressed "send to HNN".

"We need to get the story out before the competition... or it's our behinds that get roasted on a stick. Mind helping us pull our raft in? Oh, and some batteries would help too, ours are dead..."

Just then they noticed other marines arrive, they also apparently didn't get the memo.

About that time Robert arrived, swearing profusely. "What the hell is wrong with you people? Has it never occured to you that telling whoever did this that it's been discovered might not be the best idea? You know what, whatever. Just stay out of my godsdamned way."

He turned to the marines. "These idiots didn't do it. They're just arriving. Keep an eye on them." He turned his back on them and stalked off to continue his investigation.