Post by Ofton on Mar 14, 2022 19:41:48 GMT
Poboja, Fureskina, Sallag System
The High Imperium did not leave a good impression with the Furrelian Union. The deaths of twenty-thousand Furrelian sailors at the hands of Alhergus Vakorian specifically angered the Furrelians. Even though Alhergus might’ve been acting rogue, this would have mattered little to the average Furrelian citizen who lost a member of their family or a close friend. The government itself had denounced the High Imperium’s actions, but the citizens took to the streets. However, it mattered little as two weeks later the Furrelian Union would declare war on the Gauss Dominion, bringing the attention of all to the war, rather than some minor nation half a galaxy away. All, except for Hinudam Marena. Marena had suffered enormously from the defeat at Iloron and had vowed to take revenge for his father, brother and best friend, all killed at the hands of Alhergus. The Furrelian Intelligence agency took note of his behaviour and began monitoring him more actively. What they found was rather shocking. He had a rather unusual evening routine. Every evening, at 28.55 O’clock, he would leave his apartment, walk to a storage unit below his apartment, and take a motorbike towards the city centre of Poboja, the second-largest city on Fureskina, capital of the Furrelians in Ancerious. At around 28.65, he would go around the High Imperium’s embassy in the city, walk around it, inspect the building, and the routes of the guards patrolling the building. At 29.05 He would take his motorbike towards another storage unit near the diplomatic corner of the city, drive back towards the embassy at 29.10, before going home. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out what he was planning, but rather surprisingly, the guards of the embassy weren’t informed, neither was the ambassador.
...
“Sir, Marena H., Citizen registration number 3953HB120-5, is on his daily routine again.” a junior agent said to the evening shift agent; Tilosny Horena.
“Kinda late, is it not? It’s 29.10, could it be that he’s doing it tonight?” he said in a deep voice, which sounded a tad bit on the surprising side.
“It is possible, sir.”
“Keep me informed,” He let out a sigh. “I’ll check-up with the Embassy’s security, hopefully, he can sneak past them. Do we know what he’s going to do?”
“We’ve checked up on his recent purchases, seems like an Improvised Explosive device.”
“How large?”
“We estimate that it’s large enough to lay around a fourth of the embassy in ruin, excluding any subsequent explosions, or fires.”
“Is Ginokla ready to take him out?”
“Yeah, he and Tirudamio are patrolling the street, and are ready to go to the embassy once it happens.”
“Good. Where is he now?”
“On his way to the second storage unit.”
“Then it is happening tonight.”
…
Marena had arrived at the embassy. A two-story-high building built in the traditional Furrelian architecture was located a few blocks away from the main diplomatic road. As, and as such, it was not as easily accessible in the case of an emergency. Just what he needed. The embassy was open all day, and due to some restrictions made by the Furrelian government, the diplomats were confined to the embassy, unless given permission. Marena looked in his bag, and at the explosive. It was small enough to fit in his bag, but it remained improvised. He was an engineer in the armed forces, and as such was able to collect some components needed for the bomb, one of which was a disruptor core. If the core would not be able to let out its contents on time, it would explode. Marena had attached a timing mechanism and a few bottles of flammable liquid to the core. Marena took a deep breath and entered the embassy. He would walk to the waiting area, sit down in one of the chairs while doing the final checks on the explosive, and moved to exit the building, leaving the explosive in the waiting room. It began counting down.
5:23
5:22
5:21
5:20
The back porch door of the embassy building opened, and Emarth Ioskel stepped out with a sigh. Yet another day, stuck out here at the ass end of the galaxy in a nation that hated him and his kind.
Fishing in his pocket for a cigar, he pulled it out and lit it with a minor effort of will, then sucked on, savoring the deep, rich tang of the flavor. If he was going to be exiled out here beyond civilized space for the next two decades, then it couldn't hurt to have a vice or two. A sharp wail from the living quarters above him made him smile, remembering his other voice that had led to the source of that.
Grinning, he spent a few more minutes puffing away. After all, the night was still young.
2:30
Stubbing the cigar out on a stone brick, he dropped it in a trashcan, and headed upstairs. Pushing open the door, he smiled again, leaning against the frame as he watched his wife rock their daughter in her arms. She looked up, matching his grin.
"Been smoking another of those deathsticks again, love?"
0:30
He shrugged. "Superior biology?"
She slapped his arm. "Don't give me that! Just because you can flush that poison out of your system is no excuse!"
He laughed, taking the baby from her and setting his child in the nearby cradle, then sweeping her up into a kiss. " Now then. Howabout you stop complaining, put the baby to bed and see if you can't convince me of the error of my ways, hmm?"
0:05
She huffed and turned away.
0:00
Then the world dissolved in fire and the last thing Ermath Ioskel saw before he was buried beneath the collapsing building was the two people he loved most in the universe being consumed whole by a tidal wave of flame.
Poboja
-0:05
The building disintegrated in a blinding explosion, the FIA’s calculations were correct, as around twenty-five per cent of the building instantly collapsed, which included the waiting room, and the main staircase. The disruptor core had done its job, now came the fires. The remnants of the building, as well as any next to it, had been enveloped by a sea of fire, burning a large part of the remaining documents, and much of the wooden interior. By now, people started to notice something was going incredibly wrong, and among these people were the two Intelligence Agency agents, Ginokla and Tirudamio. Marena might’ve stayed too long near the embassy complex, as just a minute after the explosion, he was spotted. The two agents turned a corner, located the man, and raced to capture him. Marena might’ve been smart enough to plan the entire attack, but he wasn’t smart enough to plan his escape. He was smacked upon the ground, and with a single fist, knocked out in cold blood.
“HQ? Marena has been taken care of, orders?”
-“Give him to the police, he’ll be executed either way.”
“Copy that.”.
…
Back at the building, it was pure chaos. Emergency services arrived as fast as they could, but as the Imperium’s embassy was not near the main street, it took time. The first to arrive was the firefighting drones. Small rotary vehicles, the drones moved to extinguish the large fires, with success. It would take more time, but the main fires at the rubble were under control, or at least barely. Fires still continued to spread into other parts of the building, but those were to be dealt with later. It seemed to take a while, but eventually, the first rescue crews arrived. Armed with little more than a respirator and a few rudimentary tools and protection, they found what remained of the embassy to be a field of debris, lacking anything living. The first squad sent in found little more than that, but the second squad had more luck. As more of the fires dissipated, some of the debris could be moved without a serious health risk. This is exactly what happened to the most junior of the crew sent in. He moved a large part of concrete and found an arm.
“Medical staff! We need Medical staff here, a survivor!”
5 hours later, Poboja Merota City Hospital
Pain. Fire. There had been so much fire...Ermath jerked awake with a scream of agony and horror, tearing at the various tubes and equipment near him. Alarms blared as he howled, the anguish deep and clear as he flailed about. All told, it took three nurses to hold him down and another two to inject him with enough sedative to calm him down.
He'd suffered massive third and fourth degree burns and several broken bones from falling debris, but now that he was awake, the damage was healing even as the befuddled doctors and nurses watched. Almost half an hour later, he looked like he'd never suffered and injury at all. Shrugging off the medical staff, he paid a man to go buy him new clothes, then checked out of the hospital. Striding out of the building, he flipped back the collar of his coat, then sighed.
Time to find the bastard, and allow him some understanding of Ermath's pain.
Poboja
By now, it had become morning, and the lights of the twin suns of the Sallag system began shining over the city, nature chirping on its sides. All in all, it would've been a good day for social activities, but that was sadly enough not possible. A large, black, cloud of smoke hanging over the inner parts of the city, the result of the remnants of the embassy still burning. A large police presence was located around the embassy's remnants and the few casualties, members of the embassy's staff and guards had been brought away to a crematorium. By now, it became apparent that it was a terrorist attack that had happened, and many were rooting for revenge, completely ignoring that the attack was committed against the High Imperium. At the central hospital of the city, a tall Furrelian man was waiting. He was wearing the standard police officer uniform, and once Ermath had left the building, he followed put.
"Mister Ermath? I am H. Dorema, member of the Poboja provincial garrison's police branch. Could you please follow me to the main headquarters of my organisation? We would like to hear your version of this attack, and afterwards, question the main suspect." Dorema said, whipping out his badge and pointing at a car.
He snorted, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Funny, that you imagine I give a damn about working with you, furbag."
Turning away, he hesitated. The Houses might sympathize with his grief, but they wouldn't take any steps to avenge his family. They couldn't, really.
To do would risk war with the Furrellians, and with the threat of one war looming overhead, the Senate would brook no action that might threaten the Imperium.
And all of that added up to... "Damn," he swore, before turning and going back to Dorema. Pulling his hands of his pockets, he pointed a finger at him. "I'll cooperate, but I expect a pound of flesh afterwards. Now let's get going."
Heading over to the car, he opened the passenger door and slipped inside muttering to himself.
"Voiddamned fucking flea mats."
The insults used by Ermath did not go unnoticed by Dorema, but he did not care too much. Ermath had his family killed, so it was to be expected he was not well, in the end, all Dorema wanted to do now was catch the person responsible, something he'd not expect to take long, and he was right. As the car travelled through the city of Poboja, he received a voice message.
"Dorema, good news for your investigation. Apparently, two officers caught the guy responsible, some failure called Marena. Either way, the weird part is that these two agents are not registered in our records, so that's weird. I will see you at the office with our guest." The voice message played, a female voice blaring out.
"Fucking traffic." Dorema sighed to himself, as his car ended up in a traffic jam. He turned around to Ermath, quickly turning a recording device on.
"Can you please recount what happened on the night of the attack for me, please?" he said.
He grunted, turning to look out the window. A few minutes later, as the car inched forward, he gave in. "After lunch that day, I went into my office to go over correspondence I'd gotten regarding the recent engagement at Luasu. The rest of the day was fairly routine. No offense, but given the distance between our nations and the lack of any established relations, I don't have much to do out here. Honestly, the embassy is something of a backwater posting. It's the type of place you get sent to when your career is going absolutely nowhere.
I always figured I got the shit end of the stick due to my populist opinions. Guess the old biddies running the Great Houses didn't like it when I married a mortal. Star knows they forbid me to elevate her." Here he broke off, his voice thick and choked with grief. "If I'd done it anyways, she might still be alive." He shook himself, then continued. "Later, we had dinner, I went out for a smoke, and the bomb went off about a minute after I went back inside to help put the baby down for bed. Then everything went black when the blast happened, and I woke up in the hospital."
As the car continued through Poboja, the investigator and the delegate continued to talk, with Dorema eventually bringing up the fact that the bomber, Marena, had been caught. Ermath immediately insisted on them visiting Marena, which Dorema reluctantly agreed to. However, as the cell was unlocked, it became clear that Marena would not talk, as he was no longer able to. In the short few hours he was there, he had already taken his own life.
The next few days saw a complete breakdown of relations between the High Imperium and Furrelian Union. Investigation by the Furrelian Agency of Homeland Security, the FAHS, revealed that it was not suicide that had killed Marena, but rather a gunshot to the head, the FIA had apparently killed him. The second Ermath found out, he was furious. Almost instantly, he declared that the age of relations between the Furrelian Union and High Imperium was over, and that there would be no following diplomatic missions again, ever. The Furrelian Union responded by joining in on sanctions set in place on the HI following the Varnel campaign, and that all HI Nationals had to leave the Union within a week.
Only a short week after the Terrorist attack, Poboja was back to normal, the building which had hosted the Imperium's embassy was demolished and replaced with a park, with only a plaque telling the story of the "failed embassy". Emarth Ioskel himself had retrieved the remains of the bodies of his wife and daughter from the Morgue at the hospital, and had prepared to return to the Imperium. As he looked out of the window of the shuttle which was going to bring him to a larger Imperial ship, he thought back to his time with his family, a family now gone. A single tear was shed as he took off, to return to the Imperium with a report on what had happened.
The High Imperium did not leave a good impression with the Furrelian Union. The deaths of twenty-thousand Furrelian sailors at the hands of Alhergus Vakorian specifically angered the Furrelians. Even though Alhergus might’ve been acting rogue, this would have mattered little to the average Furrelian citizen who lost a member of their family or a close friend. The government itself had denounced the High Imperium’s actions, but the citizens took to the streets. However, it mattered little as two weeks later the Furrelian Union would declare war on the Gauss Dominion, bringing the attention of all to the war, rather than some minor nation half a galaxy away. All, except for Hinudam Marena. Marena had suffered enormously from the defeat at Iloron and had vowed to take revenge for his father, brother and best friend, all killed at the hands of Alhergus. The Furrelian Intelligence agency took note of his behaviour and began monitoring him more actively. What they found was rather shocking. He had a rather unusual evening routine. Every evening, at 28.55 O’clock, he would leave his apartment, walk to a storage unit below his apartment, and take a motorbike towards the city centre of Poboja, the second-largest city on Fureskina, capital of the Furrelians in Ancerious. At around 28.65, he would go around the High Imperium’s embassy in the city, walk around it, inspect the building, and the routes of the guards patrolling the building. At 29.05 He would take his motorbike towards another storage unit near the diplomatic corner of the city, drive back towards the embassy at 29.10, before going home. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out what he was planning, but rather surprisingly, the guards of the embassy weren’t informed, neither was the ambassador.
...
“Sir, Marena H., Citizen registration number 3953HB120-5, is on his daily routine again.” a junior agent said to the evening shift agent; Tilosny Horena.
“Kinda late, is it not? It’s 29.10, could it be that he’s doing it tonight?” he said in a deep voice, which sounded a tad bit on the surprising side.
“It is possible, sir.”
“Keep me informed,” He let out a sigh. “I’ll check-up with the Embassy’s security, hopefully, he can sneak past them. Do we know what he’s going to do?”
“We’ve checked up on his recent purchases, seems like an Improvised Explosive device.”
“How large?”
“We estimate that it’s large enough to lay around a fourth of the embassy in ruin, excluding any subsequent explosions, or fires.”
“Is Ginokla ready to take him out?”
“Yeah, he and Tirudamio are patrolling the street, and are ready to go to the embassy once it happens.”
“Good. Where is he now?”
“On his way to the second storage unit.”
“Then it is happening tonight.”
…
Marena had arrived at the embassy. A two-story-high building built in the traditional Furrelian architecture was located a few blocks away from the main diplomatic road. As, and as such, it was not as easily accessible in the case of an emergency. Just what he needed. The embassy was open all day, and due to some restrictions made by the Furrelian government, the diplomats were confined to the embassy, unless given permission. Marena looked in his bag, and at the explosive. It was small enough to fit in his bag, but it remained improvised. He was an engineer in the armed forces, and as such was able to collect some components needed for the bomb, one of which was a disruptor core. If the core would not be able to let out its contents on time, it would explode. Marena had attached a timing mechanism and a few bottles of flammable liquid to the core. Marena took a deep breath and entered the embassy. He would walk to the waiting area, sit down in one of the chairs while doing the final checks on the explosive, and moved to exit the building, leaving the explosive in the waiting room. It began counting down.
5:23
5:22
5:21
5:20
The back porch door of the embassy building opened, and Emarth Ioskel stepped out with a sigh. Yet another day, stuck out here at the ass end of the galaxy in a nation that hated him and his kind.
Fishing in his pocket for a cigar, he pulled it out and lit it with a minor effort of will, then sucked on, savoring the deep, rich tang of the flavor. If he was going to be exiled out here beyond civilized space for the next two decades, then it couldn't hurt to have a vice or two. A sharp wail from the living quarters above him made him smile, remembering his other voice that had led to the source of that.
Grinning, he spent a few more minutes puffing away. After all, the night was still young.
2:30
Stubbing the cigar out on a stone brick, he dropped it in a trashcan, and headed upstairs. Pushing open the door, he smiled again, leaning against the frame as he watched his wife rock their daughter in her arms. She looked up, matching his grin.
"Been smoking another of those deathsticks again, love?"
0:30
He shrugged. "Superior biology?"
She slapped his arm. "Don't give me that! Just because you can flush that poison out of your system is no excuse!"
He laughed, taking the baby from her and setting his child in the nearby cradle, then sweeping her up into a kiss. " Now then. Howabout you stop complaining, put the baby to bed and see if you can't convince me of the error of my ways, hmm?"
0:05
She huffed and turned away.
0:00
Then the world dissolved in fire and the last thing Ermath Ioskel saw before he was buried beneath the collapsing building was the two people he loved most in the universe being consumed whole by a tidal wave of flame.
Poboja
-0:05
The building disintegrated in a blinding explosion, the FIA’s calculations were correct, as around twenty-five per cent of the building instantly collapsed, which included the waiting room, and the main staircase. The disruptor core had done its job, now came the fires. The remnants of the building, as well as any next to it, had been enveloped by a sea of fire, burning a large part of the remaining documents, and much of the wooden interior. By now, people started to notice something was going incredibly wrong, and among these people were the two Intelligence Agency agents, Ginokla and Tirudamio. Marena might’ve stayed too long near the embassy complex, as just a minute after the explosion, he was spotted. The two agents turned a corner, located the man, and raced to capture him. Marena might’ve been smart enough to plan the entire attack, but he wasn’t smart enough to plan his escape. He was smacked upon the ground, and with a single fist, knocked out in cold blood.
“HQ? Marena has been taken care of, orders?”
-“Give him to the police, he’ll be executed either way.”
“Copy that.”.
…
Back at the building, it was pure chaos. Emergency services arrived as fast as they could, but as the Imperium’s embassy was not near the main street, it took time. The first to arrive was the firefighting drones. Small rotary vehicles, the drones moved to extinguish the large fires, with success. It would take more time, but the main fires at the rubble were under control, or at least barely. Fires still continued to spread into other parts of the building, but those were to be dealt with later. It seemed to take a while, but eventually, the first rescue crews arrived. Armed with little more than a respirator and a few rudimentary tools and protection, they found what remained of the embassy to be a field of debris, lacking anything living. The first squad sent in found little more than that, but the second squad had more luck. As more of the fires dissipated, some of the debris could be moved without a serious health risk. This is exactly what happened to the most junior of the crew sent in. He moved a large part of concrete and found an arm.
“Medical staff! We need Medical staff here, a survivor!”
5 hours later, Poboja Merota City Hospital
Pain. Fire. There had been so much fire...Ermath jerked awake with a scream of agony and horror, tearing at the various tubes and equipment near him. Alarms blared as he howled, the anguish deep and clear as he flailed about. All told, it took three nurses to hold him down and another two to inject him with enough sedative to calm him down.
He'd suffered massive third and fourth degree burns and several broken bones from falling debris, but now that he was awake, the damage was healing even as the befuddled doctors and nurses watched. Almost half an hour later, he looked like he'd never suffered and injury at all. Shrugging off the medical staff, he paid a man to go buy him new clothes, then checked out of the hospital. Striding out of the building, he flipped back the collar of his coat, then sighed.
Time to find the bastard, and allow him some understanding of Ermath's pain.
Poboja
By now, it had become morning, and the lights of the twin suns of the Sallag system began shining over the city, nature chirping on its sides. All in all, it would've been a good day for social activities, but that was sadly enough not possible. A large, black, cloud of smoke hanging over the inner parts of the city, the result of the remnants of the embassy still burning. A large police presence was located around the embassy's remnants and the few casualties, members of the embassy's staff and guards had been brought away to a crematorium. By now, it became apparent that it was a terrorist attack that had happened, and many were rooting for revenge, completely ignoring that the attack was committed against the High Imperium. At the central hospital of the city, a tall Furrelian man was waiting. He was wearing the standard police officer uniform, and once Ermath had left the building, he followed put.
"Mister Ermath? I am H. Dorema, member of the Poboja provincial garrison's police branch. Could you please follow me to the main headquarters of my organisation? We would like to hear your version of this attack, and afterwards, question the main suspect." Dorema said, whipping out his badge and pointing at a car.
He snorted, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Funny, that you imagine I give a damn about working with you, furbag."
Turning away, he hesitated. The Houses might sympathize with his grief, but they wouldn't take any steps to avenge his family. They couldn't, really.
To do would risk war with the Furrellians, and with the threat of one war looming overhead, the Senate would brook no action that might threaten the Imperium.
And all of that added up to... "Damn," he swore, before turning and going back to Dorema. Pulling his hands of his pockets, he pointed a finger at him. "I'll cooperate, but I expect a pound of flesh afterwards. Now let's get going."
Heading over to the car, he opened the passenger door and slipped inside muttering to himself.
"Voiddamned fucking flea mats."
The insults used by Ermath did not go unnoticed by Dorema, but he did not care too much. Ermath had his family killed, so it was to be expected he was not well, in the end, all Dorema wanted to do now was catch the person responsible, something he'd not expect to take long, and he was right. As the car travelled through the city of Poboja, he received a voice message.
"Dorema, good news for your investigation. Apparently, two officers caught the guy responsible, some failure called Marena. Either way, the weird part is that these two agents are not registered in our records, so that's weird. I will see you at the office with our guest." The voice message played, a female voice blaring out.
"Fucking traffic." Dorema sighed to himself, as his car ended up in a traffic jam. He turned around to Ermath, quickly turning a recording device on.
"Can you please recount what happened on the night of the attack for me, please?" he said.
He grunted, turning to look out the window. A few minutes later, as the car inched forward, he gave in. "After lunch that day, I went into my office to go over correspondence I'd gotten regarding the recent engagement at Luasu. The rest of the day was fairly routine. No offense, but given the distance between our nations and the lack of any established relations, I don't have much to do out here. Honestly, the embassy is something of a backwater posting. It's the type of place you get sent to when your career is going absolutely nowhere.
I always figured I got the shit end of the stick due to my populist opinions. Guess the old biddies running the Great Houses didn't like it when I married a mortal. Star knows they forbid me to elevate her." Here he broke off, his voice thick and choked with grief. "If I'd done it anyways, she might still be alive." He shook himself, then continued. "Later, we had dinner, I went out for a smoke, and the bomb went off about a minute after I went back inside to help put the baby down for bed. Then everything went black when the blast happened, and I woke up in the hospital."
As the car continued through Poboja, the investigator and the delegate continued to talk, with Dorema eventually bringing up the fact that the bomber, Marena, had been caught. Ermath immediately insisted on them visiting Marena, which Dorema reluctantly agreed to. However, as the cell was unlocked, it became clear that Marena would not talk, as he was no longer able to. In the short few hours he was there, he had already taken his own life.
The next few days saw a complete breakdown of relations between the High Imperium and Furrelian Union. Investigation by the Furrelian Agency of Homeland Security, the FAHS, revealed that it was not suicide that had killed Marena, but rather a gunshot to the head, the FIA had apparently killed him. The second Ermath found out, he was furious. Almost instantly, he declared that the age of relations between the Furrelian Union and High Imperium was over, and that there would be no following diplomatic missions again, ever. The Furrelian Union responded by joining in on sanctions set in place on the HI following the Varnel campaign, and that all HI Nationals had to leave the Union within a week.
Only a short week after the Terrorist attack, Poboja was back to normal, the building which had hosted the Imperium's embassy was demolished and replaced with a park, with only a plaque telling the story of the "failed embassy". Emarth Ioskel himself had retrieved the remains of the bodies of his wife and daughter from the Morgue at the hospital, and had prepared to return to the Imperium. As he looked out of the window of the shuttle which was going to bring him to a larger Imperial ship, he thought back to his time with his family, a family now gone. A single tear was shed as he took off, to return to the Imperium with a report on what had happened.