Dark Hunter's resolution.
Chapter 37: Guillotine set, Crisis of Eru'lindi part 1.
9th March 2902
Ki'ristalis, UIP Central Intelligence Bureau
"Reports coming in from the Gel'dren offensive confirming that the planet's defensive fleet has suffered 27% losses, to 9% UIP losses. Ground attack forces have begun their descent to liberate the smaller towns."
The overhead announcements of general news from the recent war front occurrences served as a reminder to workers in the CIB to continue working diligently and efficiently, and the recent push to retake a large UIP border colony from the Alliance invaders proved a good way to regain public confidence in the war.
The atmosphere was a static optimism overall with the war. The Dreadnought raids had been called off for now, and the Decepticons had made the Alliance distracted from the UIP by fortifying the captured Konurich station with the NKI remnant fleet and its captured Dreadnought. The UIP had regained infrastructure in this more peaceful lapse in war, and the small, incremental regaining of territory was more hopeful than had previously been in the war.
In his main office, Zoran passively considered the events to follow. He had sent the message to his black ops team, and now all he had to do was wait for the bomb threat to be issued.
Looking out at the cityscape of Ki'ristalis, Zoran recalled the events behind his 'premature' ignition of the war, thinking of how he misjudged the Kro'nogri-Leg'hrul Alliance slightly. He had seen their warlike nature, the paranoia of their alliance against outsiders, their military potential, the cunning of the Leg'hrul and the aggression of the Kro'nogri. He had seen a threat, and his suspicions were confirmed by the killing of his fellow scout, a female Vulcan, in a racial riot on Konurich station, just 17 years ago.
It was then that he and Scout Hu'treck, his fellow Grey scout, had decided that an opening war with the Alliance was inevitable, and it was Zoran's, or Oro'naze's decision at the time, to make the first strike. They would cut all ties with the UIP officially, and go to ground with their identities, after they struck a capital blow to the more aggressive of the two races, the Kro'nogri.
By killing King Le'krio and framing Princess Sha'krii for regicide, they would emplace the younger, inexperienced prince Lo'rath at the top of the more aggressive side of the Alliance. The trauma would prompt him to attack sooner, when the Alliance had studied the UIP lesser.
In the time to plan the attack, Zoran had realized that going to ground would be difficult without the UIP, and knew that at some stage, the Alliance would contact the UIP in a warlike manner. At this shared search for a solution, it was Scout Hu'treck that found a solution to support themselves. The first stage was to give a 'peace' offering to companies in the Alliance by means of UIP tech, associated with weapons and technology. It was all outdated, but enough to prompt the companies to begin manufacturing a supply chain of weapons to counteract these supposed 'state-of-the-art' weapons of the UIP. Secondly, once the blow was struck, and the young prince driving the Alliance for war with his kind and influencing the honour bound Leg'hrul, these companies would manufacture heavily. A large portion of bought shares in these companies under false names would pay off once the Alliance contacted for war, and when sold off they would be off the hook. Zoran and Hu'treck would later use the money gained from this to invest in UIP weapons companies, further expanding their stock broking wealth. It was a theoretically solid plan to make money off a painful, but as the two saw at the time, necessary decision.
After this, Oro'naze and Hu'treck retreated to UIP space, associating with King Le'krio's death with Sha'krii, but in reality, they were no longer UIP. They parted ways soon after, assuming different roles. Hu'treck led a quiet life, gaining a sudden increase in wealth legally when the war started. Oro'naze changed his name to Zoran, and worked his way up through the Intelligence bureau office departments, learning the skills to cover his and Hu'treck's tracks.
Zoran and Hu'treck's scheme, albeit at Hu'treck's growing regret, showed one glaring flaw in its execution, which while rectified, prolonged the war. They had not anticipated the capacity for biding time for war that the Alliance demonstrated, as the retaliatory strike didn't come until 10 years after King Le'krio's death. While this meant their shares in military related companies in the Alliance gave them a greater return when they subtly cashed in, it meant that the ferocity of combat was greater, and already the Alliance had come close to critically striking the UIP with UIP leader Pedosk Viniril's assassination, the Varya raids and the Dreadnought campaign. It was in this more desperate war atmosphere that Zoran vowed to not let anything compromise his plan to end the war with his self intact, and both sides reaching a settlement. His previous 'life' would face the post mortem blame, and he would have ultimately humbled the Alliance with this war he prompted them into blindly waging.
To Zoran's deeply buried pain, Hu'treck's guilt over starting a war as a necessary evil in their eyes grew too dangerous. Zoran had to have his old friend killed, joining their other older friend, her death brutal at Konurich station 17 years before. He had framed Hu'treck's nephew for good measure.
For Zoran's scheme to end the war was actually bold, and would allow him to have a clean slate, and a boost of reputation. He had kept the records of Oro'naze's actions intact for one purpose only, omitting Hu'treck to save face. Making sure that he as Zoran was not implicated, Zoran would expose that Oro'naze was the true killer of Kro'nogri King Le'krio, and that Sha'krii had to assume the throne. He had made sure to kill all links to him being Oro'naze, though he was certain that some people knew. There was no evidence to support it in a courtroom or hearing, and maybe they would see this as his redemption or 'apology' for starting a war.
He would end the war with both sides intact, take a moderate amount of heat for the bomb plot if it was linked to him, and not be linked to Oro'naze. It was a plan nearly 2 decades in the making, and Zoran's masterpiece of his intellect, cunning and regretful actions.
How ironic it was that the unmasking of Oro'naze was being conceived at the same moment by an individual that knew exactly who he was.
9th March 2902
Tarihhis, Kro'nogri homeworld, Eru'lindi city.
Eru'lindi council building.
Security was as tight as could be at the council building, armed guards, automated turrets and robotic units on standby, and even a handful of hover tanks and an attack aircraft stationed nearby.
The dignitaries had all arrived, and were inside the council building itself, formulating their cases and arguments for the next day's war meeting discussions. The lapse in activity along the UIP-Alliance border, the Decepticon-NKI occupied Konurich station and the offensive or defensive usage of the Dreadnoughts were most likely to be key topics.
Police commissioner Dure'kil rubbed his brow scales impatiently, the day surprisingly cool with a broken cloud cover blocking much of the blazing heat from the Tarihhis's star. He was one of a few higher members of the police that knew of the threat issued by the human, and the other UIP race members, responsible for the mostly non-fatal terrorist strikes bearing the mark of Kala'vos, Kronogri god of hunters. And today was the day the supposed reign of the hunter began.
While he believed little in what the threat literally said, Dure'kil knew that the fact that it was tied to the body of their one kill, a convicted drug dealer, planted at their last attack 5 days before, showed that a need for greater security was certain.
Royal palace, observation level.
Lo'rath passively gazed out at the cityscape, his mind wandering to the beckoning council meeting the next day being prepared by its delegates as he stood by.
The threat issued by the UIP terrorists was hard to ignore, but he was confident that the higher security would dissuade an attack, or stop one earlier.
While ruthless in warfare and headstrong, Lo'rath was not one to be caught unaware. He knew fully well of the public opinion of him as a warmonger and seeking vengeance against the UIP, and the suffering of the public with resources diverted to the militia were not helpful.
In the recent month however, the decrease in military activity had freed up resources to the public, if only marginally, but every bit helped. A people was less likely to grumble when their needs were more satisfied.
Still, he couldn't help but worry.
Eru'lindi council building
"Positions set. Begin attack upon shot fired by Razid Akbular."
The burst transmission was sent from Soundwave, posted 5 blocks away, to all Decepticons and UIP members involved in the city. All the recipients clicked a single burst transmission to confirm their positions.
To compensate, and using the replicator with Decepticon alterations, weaponry near cybertronian grade standard for their size had been manufactured and given to each organic member of the UIP races involved.
Moko'tel was still within the Catacombs, guarded by Ravage in the tombs itself, and with Barricade on the surface road above.
Je'rol and Grindor reported from 2 blocks from the Eru'lindi council building, a commercial shuttle with concealed weapons parked up on a commercial landing pad. Both were ready for combat, but on standby.
Razid Akbular was in a sniper position, his powerful cyber tech improved rifle trained on its target 3 miles away, arm exosuit segments steadying his aim. Laserbeak kept sentry beside him.
Stationed within the patrols of Alliance fighters, using their race's skill of disguise, the seeker trine, Starscream leading with Skywarp and Thundercracker, were the eyes in the sky, and served as backup and intimidation.
Finally, positioned within the plaza in front of the Eru'lindi council building, was Tyrania, disguised as a smaller patrol hovercar, and Blackout, an armed military shuttle. Inside Blackout, 'Dominic Cortez' was ready.
They all waited, for it was a bang that would start it all.
Crack!
It was that sound that chief Dure'kil would always associate with the beginning of the war's end. Seeing the young male Kro'nogri floored by a plasma shot in the shoulder, the pain and impact making him scream out as he fell, still conscious.
Even as screams of a sniper rose, a whirring in the background made Dure'kil spin to its source. To his horror, he saw one of the armoured vehicles turning its turret onto the other vehicles. With a charge, it fired.
The bluish white energy blast wave that came from the tank's cannon turret immediately showed that it was different, the heavy EMP blast ripping the tank off the ground like a toy, blasting it into the council building walls.
"All units mobilize! We have an infiltration!"
Dure'kil's screams into the police comms filled the air, as more rounds were fired off from both sides.
Screams came from elsewhere, as a sleek police patrol car took off, ramming a few Kro'nogri to the ground as it flew towards the council building's entrance doors. As it rose up the steps, a brief glimpse of deploying weapons from the car told Dure'kil what he needed to know.
These were not normal vehicles.
The sleek patrol car blasted the doorways, and smashed through without consideration. Anger in his blood, Dure'kil took off to rally his police.
Blackout fired on more police and military personnel and vehicles, backing up gradually to the hole blasted by Tyrania. His back door swung open, and with his vehicle's back imbedded in the building entrance, Dominic had a clear entry into the building.
Running out, the human tore off after Tyrania's path of destruction, yelling back: "Kill as few as possible! Vehicles and heavy weapons are priority!"
Blackout would have retorted to being reminded of orders by an organic, but an arrival of police reinforcements drew his attention to one of the connecting streets nearby.
Above these reinforcements though, an ally flew in. Grindor came to assist, landing in the plaza with great skill, weapons immediately firing upon the incoming patrol vehicles.
As an armoured police truck was flipped over by a heavy EMP wave, Durre'kil screamed out into comms and aloud:
"Fall back! We need reinforcements!"
As he spoke, the newer, armed commercial shuttle hovered just beside the landed military shuttle, and unseen, Je'rol leapt out and entered the council building, following the path left by Tyrania, catching up to Dominic.
At that point, a shape quickly flew down, and swiftly entered Grindor's cargo hold. As Blackout took off again, Laserbeak prepared the equipment inside, readying the drone software responsible for transporting the load.
Catacombs, bomb chamber.
Ravage patiently lay down upon the upper level archways, acting as a relay directly to Soundwave. Moko'tel ran through the procedures of the next phase, stating instructions to relay to Soundwave, to in turn relay to the others.
As he waited for the next stage of the attack to be reported successful, Moko'tel couldn't help but flick his gaze towards the thermonuclear device in the chamber, just 10 metres from where he was now, the repaired replicator and power generator nearby.
He just hoped that Zoran's plan, whose orders to the black ops team they were carrying out, would prove convincing.
Over the comms, Soundwave relayed the next order to all involved units:
"Flight Commander Starscream, initiate attack on patrol and security vehicles, suppress all incoming reinforcements to the Parliament building, utilize seekers Thundercracker and Skywarp as deemed strategically best. Barricade, continue guarding sewage entry port. Remaining units continue as ordered."
On the city outskirts, a trio of airbourne space fighters flew from the mountains, stealth drives hiding them from all but visual, plain eye sight.
"I just love the thrill of the hunt!" Screeched Starscream with glee, as he led his trine brothers to join the fray.
Eru'lindi council building.
Having dispatched numerous guards with cloaked strikes and gunfire, Dominic had detoured into a service hallway, locating a central server node. Pulling out the device Soundwave had provided, he placed it over the server port, activating it.
A floor above, Tyrania's actions in ravaging the building's security continued, and after only 4 minutes of being in the building, the security guards had been sensible to evacuate the dignitaries into a panic room within the outer edges of the building.
It was this routine that was to be exploited.
"Module in place Soundwave. Ready for lockdown."
"Engaging hack, all entrances and exits to building to be imprinted to identities of those involved in all fronts of the attack, and hacking to be accessed only from inside building once system is isolated from city network. Hack completion time estimate: 1 minute. All entrances to be sealed immediately following completion."
His work done, Dominic rushed off, cloaking with dark matter as he went.
As he became invisible, Dominic felt the familiar sense of power that the substance gave him, and the upcoming thrill of the hunt, at least while it was short lived.
The replicator they acquired was very helpful in manufacturing a specific dark matter synthesizer, and now supplies of the substance were a lesser concern.
Rounding a corner, Dominic was still invisible as a lone security Kro'nogri crossed his path. Not stopping, the cloaked human ran forwards, and with his cybernetic strength, rammed his shoulder into the guard, and as he let the guard fly, he swung his arm around, the new gauntlets around his arms electrocuting the guard's armour as he was smashed aside. The guard was unconscious, and had a few broken ribs, but would live.
Casualties were to be avoided if possible. Though in Tyrania's case, and other ex Decepticons, Dominic was not expecting complete compliance at all.
Around the next corner, Dominic saw Je'rol round a corner, and resisted the impulse to raise his weapons in defence at a sudden appearance. Running up to the Sril'sask, he ordered: "We find the panic room, and make our way there. If the lockdown gets us before we get near, its not a problem!"
No more was needed to be said, as the Human cyborg and Sril'sask Dark matter users took off.
In a large hallway, Tyrania casually mowed down the security guards before her with her neutron pulse cannon. The 15 foot femme then charged her plasma whips, and swung them sideways, sending a plasma charged wave slicing towards more security guards. The superheated wave incinerated the guards, while others cowered from her neutron pulses, disintegrating any organics it hit.
"Yes, tremble before me! FEAR ME!"
As she fired another burst, Tyrania stumbled from a strong hit on her armour, penetrating her shields. A high powered burst, and sure enough, her scans showed a mounted sniper rifle at the end of the hallway. Bracing an arm guard in front of her chest, she fired a rapid neutron pulse burst down the hallway, taking out the sniper.
Her processor then clicked a reminder:
Building lockdown in 10 seconds.
"Just when it was getting remotely fun." Tyrania commented to herself. Stepping backwards 10 metres, she held her ground with neutron pulses as the guards saw her slight retreat and foolishly advance.
Before they could mount any offensive, heavy duty doors slide from the walls and ceiling, criss-crossing to form a 1 metre thick wall of metal. Tyrania almost laughed as their faces became shocked at the sudden lockdown separating them.
All around the building, similar lockdowns of building sections occurred, isolating the guards from each other, and trapping the dignitaries in the panic room, and also isolating dignitaries and their escorts still headed to the panic rooms where they were.
Tyrania, Je'rol and Dominic were the only attackers in the building, but with the uplink from Soundwave's hack, they had clearance through the blast doors where they needed to be, and could communicate, using a channel that was the only one not blocked by the building now.
Outside, Starscream laughed cruelly as a patrol van wildly flipped over from a nearby missile he launched at it, imagining the state of the organics inside it. Looking around, Starscream saw Thundercracker transform mid flight, landing on an office roof, letting loose a volley of null ray fire into an incoming fleet of patrol cars, the EMP waves disabling any that weren't blown up.
It was then that Skywarp called on comms: "The council building is locked down, they'll issue the threat and demands within the hour. We must get to the building and help guard it."
"Very well, go and clear a path Skywarp, while Thundercracker and myself finish off these helpless law enforcers." Starscream ordered.
10 minutes later.
Just 30 minutes after the attack began, and most of the Cybertronians involved had met up at the Council building, with the exception of Barricade and Ravage, still guarding Moko'tel and the bomb.
Soundwave still kept his distance, now 2 blocks away, concealed in an alley in his sleek hovercar form.
Outside the building, to ensure that less firefights occurred, the Decepticons that were in robot mode saw fit to take a dozen hostages from the surviving police and military members, placing them at heavy gunpoint at the main entrance to the council building.
Trembling, a Kro'nogri soldier fearfully flicked his gaze upwards, seeing the cruel double gaze of Blackout and Thundercracker staring down at him for moving.
Grindor was still in vehicle mode, having acted to secretly transport Razid from his hiding place, and get him into the council building just before the lockdown occurred. Laserbeak had also entered the council building, leaving only the Seeker trio, Blackout and Grindor guarding the hostages out front.
Then, with everything in place, Soundwave broadcast the simple message to all Alliance security and military channels on the planet.
Eru'lindi, Kro'nogri royal palace
The royal family had been in the midst of evacuating, the transport organized, when the message came in, and the whole situation ground to a halt.
The message, and the details, brought Lo'rath's entire world to a halt, in disbelief of what had happened.
For the attention of any and all Kro'nogri security and military personnel on planet Tarihhis
The council building of Eru'lindi is under lockdown. The Kro'nogri and Leg'hrul councillors of defence, finance, transport and intelligence are hostages in the building, along with any security or military personnel inside the building.
Attached to this message is information regarding the thermonuclear weapon hidden inside the city, and a video link confirming the weapon's presence.
The city of Eru'lindi is now under new jurisdiction, and the following protocols are to be followed.
-All hostage government officials must remain inside Eru'lindi city's council building.
-The Kro'nogri royal family must remain inside the Royal Palace.
-All security and military forces are to not target the listed individuals, or any reinforcements that arrive to aide them.
-Civilians are to remain inside Eru'lindi city, with requests to leave the city to be processed through the channel provided with instructions for the request process. No unwarranted departure from the city is to be tolerated.
-Marshall law is declared, under the jurisdiction of the individuals listed prior, and any reinforcements that arrive to aide them.
Any breaching of these conditions will result in detonation of the thermonuclear device, destroying anything caught within the 14 mile blast radius.
Further conditions will be announced in one local day cycle.
4 hours later
The palace halls were quiet as Lo'rath walked through them, headed for a large window at the end of a hallway. Gazing out, he saw the sight of the city before him, seemingly peaceful, yet locked by the vicegrip of decepticon and rogue UIP member terrorists.
It didn't take long to confirm the data sent by the communications member of the rogue group, a mech called Soundwave. The bomb was genuine, as the readings provided by the terrorists were genuine. They were clever enough to not give away any details pertaining to its location, other than it being within the inner districts of the city.
With no councillors, Lo'rath was acting by his power of authority alone, though had almost immediately contacted King Rho'kis.
Further alarm was that the NKI were unaware of this attack, as their undercover leadership, presumably Kirth and La'kias if Lo'rath were to guess, had issued a statement of not knowing about the raid, even going so far as to slightly condemn it.
There were also reports that several Decepticon warships had broken off from the defence of Konurich station, and were headed to Tarihhis. Kal'sik had been watching the station with a Dreadnought fleet he personally had on standby, and his associate admiral Ke'ranes confirmed the crafts' trajectories.
There was worse on the way.
Queen Va'kara had become very disciplined in hiding emotions for the sake of politics, to the point where it became an art for her. And yet, seeing the Kro'nogri King, her husband and role-father of her child in such a catatonic state was unbearable.
Lo'rath was always stubborn, brash and impatient, but he had good intentions, and a strong sense of justice and justified vengeance and wrath. He had been thrust into a position of great power before he was ready, and had to quickly adapt to wage a war promised since his father's death.
And now it was all coming crashing down.
Her husband didn't notice her as she walked up beside him, her wing brushing his arm gently. She wanted to offer soothing words of comfort, or words of wisdom in this situation. But what could be said?
"How?"
The single word summed up Lo'rath's state, and it broke Va'kara's heart. How had this occurred, why and what could be done?
But she had to continue, and with a painful ache in her chest, she gently tugged Lo'rath from the palace window, away from the distant sight of the council building.
"There is always a way." Her words were vague, and held only a shred of confidence at this moment.
Wordlessly, Va'kara beckoned 7 year old Ara'kai to her side, the young Leg'hrul son of King Lo'rath joining his distraught but steadfast parents.
The Endgame has begun, and the last story arc of the war.
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