Chapter 12
RedRat8- I don't know. Will think on it when I get there.
Moonreaper666- Dude, I told you before in the Titans rise story, I'm not white. Do you just forget or do you just think I'm lying?
"This is just great." Said a detective from Side 3 as he inspected the corpses of the elderly couple. He was a bit on the young side, but that didn't matter to Kai as the man was inspecting the dead with competence once expected from his line of work. A soldier of the Federation, who was sent in with an entire squad mumbled something about him being a traitor, but otherwise kept quiet. Kai, who was otherwise quiet, then spoke to the detective.
"What's the verdict, detective?" Asked Kai as he looked at the detective. "Do you know what killed them?" It had been several hours since the death of the elderly couple. Since then, both a Federation patrol and a detective from Side 3 arrived to help lockdown the area and figure out what killed the couple, the latter arriving much later than the former.
"High caliber bullet, but not a 50. Caliber." Said the detective. "Seems, the bullets are still lodged in their heads. So, it has to be something that can both penetrate glass easily and still kill them with ease. My guess a 7.62 mm. Won't know for certain until we get the bullets out and find the bullet casing. Didn't you send an AI to investigate?"
"Yeah, we did." Said Kai. "They should be back soon." Truth be told, Kai was getting a bit worried. Merc should have been back by now with information about where the bullets were shot, and he hasn't contacted since. Perhaps he should send some people after them or try to call them again. Before he could even think on it more, the door to the crime scene opened, revealing a Federation soldier.
"Mr. Shiden, a mobile platform has just arrived." Said the soldier. "He says he's part of your security team." Upon hearing that, Kai was relieved and so asked him to bring them in. Sure enough, Merc arrived with the two mobile platforms he took in tow. To his surprise, however, he saw Merc and the two others had stains on their bodies.
"Hey Kai." Said Merc as he approached his friend. "How's everything on your end?"
"Well, we got an investigation team here investigating the deaths, but aside from that, nothing noteworthy to report." Said Kai as Erika decided to talk with the other resident of Side 3. "What about you? Found anything?'
"Well, I found the origin point of the shot. Across the street. Abandoned apartment. Used by the homeless." Said Merc before touching one of the stains on his body, specifically the one on his head. "The people there didn't really like us there, so they throw stuff at us while we were there. Nothing too dangerous, but I think they threw human waste at us. Anyway, we investigated the room the shot originated and found an old Principality of Zeon sniper rifle. Kind used in the war." One of the mobile platforms with Merc then presented an old Zeon sniper rifle and handed it over to a Federation soldier.
"Definitely an Zeon weapon from the war." Said the solider as he inspected the gun. He then ejected it's magazine to find it missing two bullets. He then took another bullet of it to see what caliber it was. "Well, if the detective is correct, then this is the gun that killed them."
"So, the Zeon scum are killing each other?" Asked another solider with an amused tone. "That's good. Let them kill each other. No skin off our back." Kai narrowed his eyes upon hearing that as well as Erika, but otherwise refrained in order to not cause trouble.
"Moving on." Said the detective as he took one of the bullets from the gun and put it into a plastic bag. "I'll take these bodies to forensics as well as the weapon. We'll know for sure if this was the gun that killed these two."
"Good luck." Said Kai as the detective left. Once he was gone, Kai addressed the soldiers. "Okay, I'm going to my next location. You guys should stay here and keep the bodies intact for the forensics to do their thing."
"Understood." Said one soldier while another simply nodded their head. The rest just stayed calm as they guarded the apartment.
"I can do with dead Side 3 people." Said one soldier, the one that made the snide comment. "Better that way for everyone. Wouldn't want someone to suddenly end up dead, right?" Kai narrowed his eyes at that along with Erika. Deciding not to start a fight, Kai left with his people in tow.
"What an asshole." Said Slick. "I'm no saint, but at least I don't make comments like that."
"I suppose we can't blame him for thinking it though." Said Crick, trying to be the mediator of everything. "He's probably lost some friends and family in this zone. Has hardened him, causing him to develop an understandable hatred for the people of Side 3."
"That doesn't excuse what he commented on." Said Kai as he looked at Crick. "Just because he has some understandable hatred for the citizens of Side 3 doesn't excuse what he has said to a dead, perhaps a bit mental, couple. Nor implying he'll kill any Side 3 citizen he comes across. No excuse is worthy of that."
"But sir, shouldn't we be a little more compassionate with the soldiers stationed here?" Asked Crick. "They're put into an area that forces them to fight against people that have refused to take into account that the war is over and that resistance is futile. So, in a matter of speaking, his frustration and hatred of Side 3's people are justified. Correct?"
"I know that, Crick." Said Kai. "But just because something is logical and understandable doesn't make any action more right or wrong. Besides, he didn't even need to make those comments out loud. He just did it because he can and it wouldn't get him into trouble. Either that or he just wanted to be an ass to Erika here."
"Yeah man." Said Merc. "Even I know when to keep my mouth shut in regards to stuff like this. And I'm the loud and annoying one when I was assigned to the White Base during the One Year War." Crick wanted to argue more, but refrained when Tick stopped him, shaking his head as a further warning. With that, the AI stopped talking and resumed to walk in silence to their next destination.
Eventually, they all arrived to their APCs and boarded them, using them to get where they needed to go. Normally, Kai would just walk to the location as there, given it's close proximity to their current location, but because of what happened earlier, Kai was determined to stay as protective as possible. During the ride, however, Kai was questioning himself on why the killer had targeted the old couple instead of him. Why target and elderly couple that had little to no influence in the grand scheme of things over someone like him? He was the logical target. Not them. So why did the killer target them over him?
It's possible that it was Principality of Zeon loyalists that were responsible for it, trying to sabotage his mission by killing the people willing to talk to him, thus preventing others from wanting to do it in fear of dying. It was possible, he'd seen some very stupid people in all his time working as a freelance reporter, but he doubted that was the case.
Was it a Federation soldier? But why? Commodore Lombard and admiral Kowen would never do such a thing. They wanted what he wanted right now, so why would they jeopardize his assignment when by pulling a stunt like this? Elements of the Federation that disliked this whole thing. To Kai that was the most likely culprit. He'll need evidence to prove all this, but he was confident that this was the right answer. He just knew it.
Thinking of how to break this to Lombard and Kowen, Kai almost didn't notice the APC stop until Merc talked.
"Kai, APC stopped." Said Merc, catching his friend's attention.
"What's wrong?" Asked Kai, not liking what he was hearing at the moment. Before Merc could even speak, the driver spoke out via opening the door to the driver seat.
"Better stay inside. Something's stop going on up ahead." Said the driver. "Looks like something has stalled a Federation patrol several hundred meters away. I'm not sure who is but…wait. I'm getting a transmission." It took a few minutes before the driver spoke again. "Alright, we have to make a detour. Federation patrol just got attacked by terrorists and command doesn't want you involved in any of that. So, we're diverting from this road to another one. It'll take longer, but that's better since we want you alive, Mr. Shiden." Kai simply sighed at that before saying okay to the driver.
With that, Kai's transport and it's security escort diverted itself from the road they were in to a safer one. One that led to a broken down street filled with hole riddled building. The status of the area around them was enough to make the drivers nervous, but otherwise they kept driving. For a time, things were quiet, but after a few minutes of driving, however, the lead APC got hit with a rocket, forcing the convoy to stop.
"Death to the Federation!" Yelled someone as they popped out a window and starting firing at the convoy with his rifle. Soon enough, more and more people emerged from the building and began opening fire on the convoy as they tried to get a sense of the situation. As they were opening up their bays to let out the mobile platforms, the sole man with a rocket launcher was reloading his weapon. While doing so, he looked at the APC in the middle, the one where Kai was, preparing to destroy it for the principality of Zeon. Once he finished loading, the man aimed at the APC and prepared to fire.
