Emil Sanderson was just happy that he had a job. Every morning his wife would drop him off in front of the Luxor office building in downtown Tharkad and he would go about his daily routine. The Federated Commonwealth Civil War was now over and everybody was trying to get back to as normal a life as possible. Narrowly avoiding the draft of the LAAF just before the Civil War began because of his age, Emil kept his job as a security guard with Trident Security Specialists Incorporated, a small firm that was started by his uncle over a decade back. Being a former police officer, Emil was preparing to coast a few more years until he was eligible for retirement.
As he entered the double glass doors of the ground floor of the building, Emil walked along a newly remodeled hallway to the guard station just before the elevators and walked towards his fellow security personnel. Teddy Lobago and Neil Forevin were already at the front desk beside the reception area, chatting with one of the office secretaries.
"Good morning everyone. Sorry to be late." Emil smiled as he placed his lunch box underneath the guard table beside the metal detector.
"It's alright Emil. Had a rough night?" Neil joked. He was a recent addition to the security crew, having just been discharged as an infantryman with the LAAF.
"Very funny." Emil retorted. "My eldest boy got the flu and Suzi had to take him to the clinic first."
"Just kidding Emil. It's no problem, I think this is going to be just another boring day." Teddy Lobago sighed. He was also a former cop. His thick black beard and growing potbelly made him closer to Emil's age.
"Hey did you guys notice that they are rebuilding the Grand Steiner mall just down the block?" Neil asked the other two as he adjusted the nightstick on his belt.
"Yeah, I can't wait till they reopen. I hope they'll put in a McDenny's at the food court. I sure miss their trademark grand-slam breakfasts since the last outlet in this city was destroyed in the war." Emil answered.
"Don't talk about food." Teddy Lobago snorted as he sat down behind the desk. "I'm on a diet."
Neil decided to change the subject. "Guys, I've been meaning to ask you a question since you've both been at this longer than I've had."
"Fire away Neil." Emil said.
"It's just that I've been here for two months now and this office just feels weird to me." Neil mused.
"In what way?" Teddy asked.
"Nothing major really." Neil explained. "Its just that I wonder why do they need to have guards like us in this place. I think this company employs no more than twenty people and yet there are five guards here on the ground floor level as well as two guards on each floor. With four floors, that's another eight guards in this building. Almost half the people in this whole building are security guards! Why all the security? I was told that this was nothing more than a computer company and yet every one of us guards is fully armed to the teeth."
Emil looked down at the small machine pistol strapped to his hip holster. "We follow orders. The owners of this company wanted metal detectors at the entrance as well as fully armed security personnel. We complied with the contract."
"Yeah, but why though? What's so important about this frigging' place anyway? We have orders to shoot to kill any unauthorized personnel for chrissakes!" Neil still wanted answers.
"Kid, I asked the same questions when I started here awhile back too." Teddy sighed.
"And what did they say?" Neil waited for the answer.
"They told me 'don't ask again' and I didn't. What's important is that you have a good paying job while there are others out there starving in the streets what with all these recent wars sapping our economy and so many people dead. So count your blessings and shut up, laddie." Teddy explained so as not to antagonize the young man.
As Teddy Lobago finished his sentence, two figures walked through the double glass doors. Emil noticed them first. One was a man and the other was a woman. The man seemed to be tall and well built; he had a pencil-thin mustache and had slick black hair. The woman had fiery red hair tied back in a ponytail and had a sensuous beauty about her. Both seemed to be wearing long black leather overcoats and they were carrying large duffel bags on each hand. The morning rays of light from the glass entrance reflected off their sunglasses as they both approached the guard desk.
This didn't seem like a typical day at all to the three security guards. Since they all had worked in the building for some months now, every single employee of the company was already familiar to them. But this was the first time that two strangers had ever ventured into the building. Each man therefore acted differently depending on their individual personalities. Neil Forevin smiled due to the fact that this was a welcome break from the monotony and proceeded to usher the couple through the metal detector; Teddy Lobago sighed and stayed sitting on his stool but Emil Sanderson went instantly on alert; he sensed that something was amiss, the hairs on the back of his neck pricked up as he kept his hand on the walkie-talkie on his belt.
As the woman went through the metal detector first, a loud beep from the sensor indicated that she was indeed carrying something metallic within the folds of her clothing. As Neil came over to search her, the young woman instantly made a sideways kick that pinned the surprised guard to a nearby marble column. A split-second later, she instantly thrust out a knife from her right hand and she plunged the blade into Neil's exposed Adam's-apple. With exceptional strength, she thrust the blade in all the way to its hilt.
Neil began to gurgle and choke on his own blood as the knife impaled his throat to the column. Emil let out a cry of terror as he backed off while taking the walkie-talkie from his belt. Teddy Lobago sat frozen on his stool; his mind seemed unable to believe what was happening.
Within a blur, the couple acted again. The man drew a Sternsnacht heavy pistol from his shoulder holster and leapt up upon the desk where Teddy Lobago was sitting and quickly shot the petrified guard point blank in the face. Emil dropped the walkie-talkie and tried to draw the machine pistol from his hip holster but the woman caught up to him; she let out a spinning kick that cracked his forward kneecap and sent him sprawling across the granite floor, his machine pistol clattering away from him.
As Emil tried to pull himself up, he let out a cry of mercy as the woman leapt on top of him and put both her arms around his neck. It was then that the sound of a loud snap could be heard after which Emil flopped onto the floor, his body convulsing in death spasms.
Anne Zimmerman was the secretary manning the receptionist's desk at the entrance. She was only nineteen years of age, working temporarily in order to pay for her college tuition. Despite her youth, Anne did not panic when she saw the security guards being murdered. The part-time college student stayed calm as she punched the fire alarm button even as her eyes caught the mustached man with the black overcoat aiming his pistol at her. One second later, the alarm bells rang all over the building but Anne did not hear it because the bullet from the man's heavy pistol had passed through her left eye and exploded out of the back of her skull.
Two other uniformed security guards who where hanging near the maintenance room by the elevators instantly heard the shots and the alarm and began to run out towards the entrance, machine pistols at the ready.
As the two remaining guards rounded the corner, they came face to face with the man in black. He smiled at them as he fired his dual Sternsnacht heavy pistols from both hands, gunslinger style. The shot from his left pistol tore off the first guard's leg; the shocked guard looked at his bloody stump before falling over. The second guard was instantly hit by the massive slug in his abdomen that sent him flying across the hallway, his machine pistol spraying wildly from his already dead fingers. The bullets that came out from the dual Sternsnachts were not your ordinary kind; they were in fact .357 Magnum slugs, their steel tips were scooped out and cross-hatched in order to cause maximum damage to the target; they would flatten like metal pancakes upon impact. This type of customized bullet was popularly known as a dum-dum.
James Wilbert was a computer programmer, though overweight and bespectacled, he was nevertheless loved by his subordinates. At the last minute, he decided to go out to buy some doughnuts for the accounting department. As the elevator doors opened on the ground level, he saw a tall man dressed in black shoot two guards in the lobby. Being a physical coward, Wilbert punched all the buttons in the elevator's control panel, hoping the doors would close and bring him back up to safety before the man would notice. Since the fire alarm was blaring at full blast, Wilbert thought that the man would be so distracted that he would still have a slim chance for life.
The man in black turned when he heard the faint ping of an elevator door; it was actually the second ping indicating that the lift would be going back up because he didn't hear the previous one on the account that he was shooting people. He quickly saw an overweight man wearing glasses frantically pushing at the elevator controls, hoping to get out of there. By the time he was able to bring his dual pistols to bear, the door was already halfway closed. This did not stop the man from firing more than a dozen shots into the thick elevator doors, his pistol rounds making huge dents but failing to penetrate due to the fact that they were dum-dums.
The man in black soon heard a woman's voice in his earpiece. It was faint because the alarm was continuing its ear-splitting wail. "Clavell, is the ground floor clear?"
"Ground floor clear." Jimmy Clavell acknowledged through his throat mike. He silently cursed himself for allowing a target to warn the people upstairs. Oh well, then they do it the hard way.
"Cover me." The woman spoke again. It was the voice of his superior, Captain Natasha Kerensky.
As Clavell walked back towards the entrance, he noticed that Natasha had taken off her black overcoat and was loading a magazine into her H&K MP559S sub-machinegun that she had retrieved from her duffel bag. Dubbed the "Blacklight", it was the weapon of choice for some in Wolf's Dragoon's Seventh Kommando special-forces unit. Being able to fire its 10mm APHE shells in three-round bursts, the MP559S also had a built-in integral JAF-09 flash suppressor that enabled the weapon to be used silently in close-combat situations. After cocking the bolt on her weapon, she slung it over her Kevlar-padded shoulder and proceeded over to the receptionist's desk. Once he reloaded his massive pistols and placed them back into his shoulder holsters, Clavell then readied an identical sub-machinegun after retrieving it from his own duffel bag.
As Clavell kept watch on the elevators, Natasha accessed the building's main computer program and initiated a command override on its controls; within a span of a few minutes, the fire alarm was deactivated and permanently switched off. Heavy steel bolts locked the glass entrance doors firmly in place and all but one of the elevators was rendered inactive. The fire doors leading to the emergency stairwells were also locked electronically. Everyone within the building was now trapped inside unless they knew the command password.
James Wilbert got off the second floor and was able to warn everyone there. As the loud ping indicating that one of the elevator doors was about to open, the two security guards on that floor opened fire with their machine pistols, spraying the slightly opened elevator doors with 9mm slugs. As they emptied their magazines and hurriedly began to reload with fresh clips, they noticed that the elevator stood empty, bullet holes seemed to honeycomb both the internal compartment as well as the elevator doors. Two office workers, a balding man in a dark suit and a young accountant, stood by the slightly opened door leading into the office suites, their curiosity overcoming their fear.
As both guards let out a sigh of relief, thinking that it was all much ado about nothing, the ceiling seemed to collapse beside them as Natasha and Clavell dropped down from the ventilation shaft right on top of the two guards. The first guard choked to death as Natasha swung her gloved left fist in a hammer blow that landed right on his throat while second guard's head exploded from a point-blank burst of Clavell's sub-machinegun.
The two curiosity seekers that watched this entire scene of carnage acted in two totally different ways. The balding man seemed rooted to his spot for a split second and then tried feebly to back away while his younger co-worker instantly turned tail and tried to get back into the suites where they came from. The two assailants also acted in different ways: Clavell instantly dropped to one knee while tucking his weapon close to his shoulder and opened fire while Natasha instinctively got into a Weaver stance; legs spread out in a manner similar to that of a martial artist with knees slightly bent as she extended her sub-machinegun towards the target and fired simultaneously. Both the office worker's heads instantly exploded before they got through the door and their bodies flopped forward, opening the doors even further.
Taking full precautions, Natasha threw a flash-bang stun grenade into the suite before she and Clavell moved in. Once the deafening boom occurred, the two assailants instantly came through the door, both rolling sideways in different directions as they entered the main suite. The office in fact, was one big room with desks and chairs everyone could see everyone else. As they both ventured inside, they noticed that some office workers were lying on the floor, stunned and dazed by the flash-bang grenade while others hid underneath their desks, screaming and crying in absolute terror.
Natasha and Clavell shot everyone that they could find. First, the ones that were totally exposed lying on the floor were shot execution style as both mercenaries moved along either side of the room, shooting anyone underneath them as well. One lady stood up from under her desk, her hands covering her bleeding ears, wailing incessantly like a banshee until she was cut down by simultaneous bursts from both assailants. Another lady, who was fearful of being raped, had a laser pistol in her handbag which she always carried for that eventuality, regained her courage and composure. She instantly drew the weapon as she got up from her hiding place and fired wildly at Clavell's direction.
Clavell was able to sidestep a near miss as the woman's laser pistol unleashed a pencil-thin red light that scorched a wall just inches away from his shoulders. He instinctively dropped to one knee and returned fire but his weapon was empty. Clavell cursed as he kicked down a desk in front of him and got behind it for cover.
From the other side, the Black Widow instantly saw what had happened but there were a number of shoulder-high obstacles that blocked a clear shot at the woman. In a matter of seconds, Natasha bounded over several desks and fired as she leapt forward over the last desk right beside the woman. The lady's head exploded like a burst watermelon as Natasha finally had a clear shot at her.
With a curse, Clavell got up and began to sweep his side of the room with his newly reloaded weapon. The MP559S was equipped with superb Doppler sights that allowed highly accurate aiming. In addition to its ruggedness and dependability, the Blacklight was the only sub-machinegun that could fire even with a closed bolt. It was no wonder why the Dragoons swore by it.
James Wilbert was able to regain his senses and managed to lock himself inside the small bathroom beside the main suite. Clavell saw the fat, bespectacled man get inside the toilet just as he was finishing his sweep. The former Wolf's Dragoon instantly faced the bathroom door and fired three short bursts that peppered the door full of bullet holes. As he kicked in the severely damaged aperture, Clavell noticed Wilbert sitting on the toilet, his intestines hanging out from his torn stomach, his death mask a study in surprise, shock and pain. It was apparent that his bowels had opened up too.
As he turned around in order to get away from the potent stench of blood and excrement, Clavell noticed that Natasha was already rummaging through the manager's desk. After a few minutes, the Black Widow retrieved a data disk from the desk drawer and stowed it into her all-black jumpsuit.
"We got it." Natasha said as a matter of fact.
"Floor is clear. Now what?" Clavell asked.
"Return to the ground floor and set the charges." Natasha ordered.
"Roger. Wilco."
Later that day, some witnesses of the Luxor Building bombing in Tharkad noticed that a man and a woman, both wearing black coats, had exited the building just before it exploded. By the evening, expert pundits in the tri-vid news reports stated that the incident might have been a terrorist bombing by forces still loyal to Katrina Steiner-Davion, the deposed ruler of the now defunct Federated Commonwealth.
Over thirty people were believed killed when the entire building collapsed in a heap of steel, dust and concrete. Their grieving families held a protest at the mayor's office a few weeks later, demanding compensation as well as forwarding a petition with over ten thousand signatures so that the city would create a memorial where the Luxor Building once stood.
Katrina's younger brother and current Archon of the Lyran Alliance, Peter Steiner-Davion, publicly announced that there were forces intent on destabilizing the rebuilding of Tharkad and that a planet-wide manhunt would commence in order to bring the murderous perpetrators to justice.