Weeks followed as the edict went into effect. Warmaster Xilch and High Marshal Turu put freshly recruited IIA officers and NCOs into every single Armada unit at the company level. There was also the matter of Armada SOG Mirage. For those that remained of this unit, there was only one choice that Turu would trust with monitoring them.
Arriving aboard the General Krad would be none other than Sublieutenant Sor. Elsewhere on the ship, a remnant trio gathered in Captain Rha's quarters. Herself, Sergeant Major Krad, and First Sergeant Dak.
"They're going to find out." Dak, struggling to remain composed within one of the storage compartments in Engineering. "Internal Affairs has their hands so far up everyone's c'hurtas now they'll start pulling teeth out. They're going to find out and we are dead. Dead men be we-"
"Calm the fuck down, Dak." Krad sighed, "You Scout Snipers are advertised as being cool under pressure. We all know you use Vortian weapons anyhow. We know you're instantly fucked with this new shit."
"That's why the three of us are here." Rha added, "With this new edict it's clear we can't stay here."
"It's true, we're getting out of here. No saboteur work for us. Going to get out of here and link up with the loyalists of the General. Which is why I asked you two to meet here. It's your choice." The Sergeant Major paused to look at them both, "You want in on this rebellion or you want to try to act as saboteurs still. The choice is yours, but we'll have to grab our shit and leave, now. I been told our new IIA oversight is arriving today and I'd like to be gone before whoever the fuck it is gets here."
"Yeah, I'm in." Rha got up, packing an assault pack worth of gear and grabbing her weapons from nearby. "What about you, Dak?"
"So that's it then? Just…leave?" He pursued.
"Do you have a better idea?" Krad inferred. "Now or never, Dak. You in or out?"
The Sergeant closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before nodding shakily.
"I-in. I'm in."
"We can depart under the guise of an assignment. Would explain our packed gear and only the three of us. Reconnaissance or some other nonsense." Rha reasoned, concocting their cover story on the spot. "It isn't ideal but like Krad said, time is of the essence. Either we go now and more than likely get free and clear or we take our chances and likely end up on a one-way trip to Judgementia."
"Yeah, so let's get a move on, grab our shit, grab our armor, and get the fuck out of here. The Captain can cook up some doctored orders for us and make it look like they came from above."
In the hangar, Sor stepped off the shuttle, being met by Lieutenant Tuu and Sublieutenant Jat who commanded the bridge of the ship on a usual basis. The Sublieutenant made his way over to the two, clearing his throat.
"I suspect neither one of you are Major Amka or Captain Rha given your height…Where are your superiors?"
"Major Amka hasn't ever come back," Jat began, "as for Captain Rha, I don't know."
Sor quietly exhaled, "Clearly this is why High Marshal Turu chose me for this…you SpecOps types lack a great deal of discipline. Informed that your IIA oversight is arriving and your highest ranking officers are nowhere to be found."
"Might we know who you are, specifically?" Tuu queried.
Sor reached into an overcoat pocket and withdrew a dataslate to present to Tuu. "I'm Sublieutenant Sor, tasked with being oversight for Mirage per the new edict embedding us in Special Operations. Still trying to smoke out any Vaukt loyalists that remain, and given this unit was his idea, it makes everyone save for one Lieutenant Tuu highly suspect. Who are you two?"
"I'm Sublieutenant Jat, bridge commander for the General Krad during the daylight watches."
"And you?" Sor looked to the Lieutenant.
"Lieutenant Tuu."
"Ah! Our pivotal man. If it were possible I would give you a medal. Your revelation of this most insidious plot has been a great service to the Empire."
As if on cue, the trio emerged from another door nearby, armored up and armed.
"And who might you three be?"
"Captain Rha, Sergeant Major Krad, and First Sergeant Dak." The Captain opened, "We're on our way out for an assignment."
"No you're not." Sor curtly replied.
"What the fuck did you just say?"
"Ah, speaking Vortian? How disgusting. And I said Captain you're not going anywhere."
"We have orders, short stuff."
"Funny that you mention orders. Mine here state that you don't do anything without my say so." He paused, holding his hand out for the orders from Rha as she held them out to him. "Once I run these by high command, you'll be given your clearance to leave."
"We never needed a permission slip to go out and do anything before."
"Times have changed."
Krad, meanwhile, took his rifle and whacked Sor across the face, knocking the IIA officer onto the deck. "Move!"
The three made a dash towards one of the shuttles in the hangar. Sor himself rubbed his jaw and drew his pistol as he started rising to his feet.
"Damn it you two, stop them!" Sor began firing his plasma pistol at the fleeing three operatives. Jat soon followed with his own plasma pistol with Rha and Dak returning fire as Krad ran into the shuttle to start the engines. Tuu, with a machine pistol for a sidearm, was able to deliver automatic fire that was being dished out in turn. Short, controlled bursts, putting hits where it counted. Rha's rifle fell as she clutched her chest and fell to the ground, curling up.
"Get on!" Krad yelled from within. The Scout Sniper turned to run only to be nailed in the back by Tuu and rolling back down the ramp. "Dak! Rha! Come on!" The Sergeant Major yelled until he noticed Sor charging, without any choice, Krad shut the boarding ramp, pushed off the deck, and rushed out of the hangar and then activating his FTL drive, jumping to anywhere but there, forced to leave the others behind.
Rha was practically gone, death rattles, that would be the end for her. Dak, wounded, groaned until he was kicked over onto his wounded back by Sor with a pistol aimed right at his face.
"So you try to run and you're using Vortian weapons. You disgust me." Sor spat blood on the sniper from Krad's earlier blow to his head. "Very well, summary court martial convened by me in light of this recent instance finds you guilty of being a loyalist of Vaukt and a traitor to the Empire. Sentence is death."
"Sublieutenant." Tuu intervened, off-hand to his shoulder with weapon still drawn in his other.
Sor, displeased with the interruption, looked to his hand before scowling at the sniper.
"...are you interfering with official Internal Affairs business, Tuu?"
"No…only making a request." He began to explain, turning his attention back to Dak with a sneer of contempt. "I wounded this traitor. I do not leave business unfinished or expect others to do my work for me. I humbly ask to personally send this filth on his way to join the Captain."
Sor gave an approving nod.
Making his point known, the Lieutenant's machine pistol rose to take aim at Rha. Her fate sealed as it were as she continued to bleed out across the deck, choking and gagging, another well-disciplined burst into the back of her head from range silenced her. A merciful punctuation to her self-inflicted suffering by foolish decision.
"I believe it was also your own burst that wounded this other traitor as well, Lieutenant," Sor stepped aside, pistol still trained on Dak all the while. "You have my permission to carry out this sentence."
Dak, meanwhile, looked Tuu right in the face. "I knew you were going to be trouble. I hope you get what's coming t-"
Another unceremoniously-squeezed burst of fire stitched Dak's center mass. A member of his own team, without a second thought. He watched his limbs involuntarily twitch from the impacts before slumping to a rest, dead as the Captain.
Mirage, torn asunder by defectors, and now forcing the hands of once-allies to turn on the stragglers. All of it left a bitter taste in Tuu's mouth. In a cosmic sort of way, he and he alone could have prevented all of this…or had been the cause of it in the first place.
"...I tolerated deviation beneath Vult as we produced results. I regret it in hindsight seeing it has led to the misplaced adoration and imitation of others. No more." He summarized, making to holster his weapon.
"Your assistance to the Empire is immeasurable, Lieutenant." The Sublieutenant holstered his own sidearm, looking to Jat. "Get this mess cleaned up."
"Right away." Jat made his way over to a telephone in the hangar to get some of the others down there to clean the mess. Sor's attention turned back to the Lieutenant.
"So, we believe Major Amka and those with him have also gone rogue given he's been incommunicado. Given Rha's treason…Mirage is in need of a new Major. You want the job?"
That gave the marksman pause. Another promotion? So soon? Thankfully, the visor of his helmet hid his expression. No…that mentality and behavior is what led down the twisting, slippery slope of Vult and the others…and now this. He tempered his expectations.
"I lack the stature for such a lofty position, Sublieutenant. Even by Imperial standards, I should not be Lieutenant."
"You are correct, but you have also proven yourself extremely loyal and a faithful servant of the Empire." Sor rubbed his chin in thought.
"If my compliance is in line with Internal Affairs' expectations and it would benefit the Empire, I will humbly fulfill the role of acting unit commander until my death or a suitable replacement is found." Tuu compromised, making sure to cover all angles and ensure each party was satisfied.
"In this case, it would very much so. To work alongside the man who proved himself an unshakable bulwark in dispatching two traitors this moment, in addition to exposing this horrid plot within Special Operations would be an absolute honor. You will serve as Acting Major and Commander of Mirage until I find someone better or you're killed in action. Have your man set a course for Devastis, your unit will need to be reinforced. We already have a mission to go on, right from the top."
The newly-minted Major went to attention, clasping a fist to his chest in salute to Sor.
"As you wish, Sublieutenant." Tuu nodded before turning about-face with the intention of making for the bridge.
His heading took him past Rha's lifeless body in a pool of cooling blood, the contents of her skull splattered across the deck from his own hand minutes prior. Not a single glance spared or hesitation in his gait. They were not even excrement fit for the underside of his boots. All of those who turned their back on the Empire would meet a similar end. Duty demanded it. Command willed it. He would be the instrument to deliver just punishments to those who dared defy their masters.
Jat was still out of the bridge. On duty was Iaak, appearing most typical of female Irken. As the door swept open, she assumed it was the bridge officer. "Steady as she goes, sir, nothing to report beyond what I relayed over the phone." A few moments lacking a response saw her look over the shoulder of her chair, seeing Tuu instead.
"Oh! I'm sorry, Lieutenant! Did you need something? I'd get up to salute you but I need to keep hands on the controls. Whatever came out of the hangar just knocked one of our directional thrusters out of line and it's causing chaos on our trim. Waiting on one of our engineers to either disable it or fix it."
Iaak did not receive a verbal response. Instead, the still-warm muzzle of his machine pistol unkindly shoved into the back of her head while she was at the controls.
"That was an unauthorized departure of Sergeant Major Krad. Captain Rha and First Sergeant Dak intended to join him. Jat is scraping both of them off of the deck in the hangar as we speak. Do you intend to join them or do you know where your loyalties lie?"
Horror immediately overcame Iaak. She wasn't a properly trained member of Special Operations. She was just some helmsman pulled in to run the ship. Tears streamed down her face.
"D-don't kill me, please. I'm only doing my job, sir. I had no idea that it was the Sergeant Major's shuttle. I just got told to man the helm at my assigned shifts and that's all, sir! I don't want to die for doing my duty!"
Several uncomfortably tense seconds passed before the muzzle pressure relinquished and Tuu holstered his weapon.
"Consider this your one and only warning, Iaak. Mistakes of that magnitude will not go unnoticed in the future. You will raise the alarm and call all hands the next time there is an unscheduled departure or you will be implicated in the matter all the same. Are we understood?"
"C-Clear as can be, Lieutenant."
"Major." Tuu corrected. "Acting until an appropriate replacement is found."
"Major Amka isn't coming back, sir?"
"As far as Internal Affairs is concerned, he and those complicit with him are traitors and are to be killed on sight should we cross paths with them. They have turned their backs on the Empire and betrayed the Almighty Tallest in following Vaukt."
"Understood, Major…" she paused, unable to believe her antennae but Tuu had no reason to lie to her. "What's our plan, sir?"
"Set course for Devastis, per Sublieutenant Sor, our Internal Affairs officer. We have a roster to fill."
"Yes, sir." She went to work plotting a course as Jat activated the PA system from the hangar. A sharp whistle followed to get the attention of everyone aboard.
"All hands, all hands, IIA Officer requests our presence in the conference room immediately. The helmsman and engineering shall attend via screens from their posts. That is all."
Sor waited as what was left of Mirage assembled in the conference room of the ship. Only a single member of Red team remained, all of Black Team was absent. Purple Team, with the sole exception of Sergeant Major Krad, was present. Qas entered the room hastily dressed as she was the off duty helmsman sleeping at her bunk when the announcement went out. Iaak joined on screen from the bridge, Taail from Engineering, and Hesa, who was the polar opposite of the Shadow Strikers' own of the same name, joined in from the exterior in an EVA suit as she worked to repair the damaged thruster.
As Tuu entered the room, Sor gestured to the seat next to him for Tuu to take.
"Greetings, everyone. I am Sublieutenant Sor of Internal Affairs, your unit's new political attache for oversight. You want a codename, you may call me Watchman, as I will be watching all of you closely. A question I have as to the readiness of your team. When there was gunfire in the hangar, why did we not have a response from other members of the team?"
"...are you being serious right now?" To opened, incredulous. "Sir, my entire team just…disappeared. No one has had any contact with Amka and Captain Rha-"
"Captain Rha is dead, To." Tuu interrupted. "I personally dispatched her and First Sergeant Dak in the hangar. Both of them and Krad attempted to mount an escape and likely defect alongside Vaukt. Traitors."
"...w-what?" To stumbled in shock. Her team, gone…and now her commanding officer killed by one of their own.
"Black team no longer exists. You are the lone remaining member of Red Team and I am curious if the defection is instilled within you as well. Sublieutenant Sor will determine as much in short order if you are hiding anything, To."
"I'm not! I swear to Irk I'm not!" She decried, horrified at such accusations. "I-I-I have been just as confused as everyone else as to what's going on lately!"
Uat unceremoniously raised her hand to get the officers' attention.
"...I was sleeping. Some of us need to rest every now and again when over half the unit is MIA and pulling double-duty, Sir."
"Uat's right on the money, sir," Caz added. "Aside from you and Vinar, the rest of the team was asleep."
"And where were you then, Vinar?" Sor looked at the remaining sniper seated at the table after an apparent embarrassing reaction came across his face.
"It's not flattering…" Vinar began, "I was in the head taking a massive dookie. Food this morning didn't agree with me."
Gat laughed, earning her a punch in the shoulder from the man sitting next to her.
"What?! That's kinda funny."
"At the most unfunny time, you idiot." Vinar grumbled, "Literally caught with my pants down in this case."
"Enough." Tuu barked at them unkindly. "Making it abundantly clear that this unit moving forward is going to be in full, direct compliance with Sublieutenant Sor's requests. His purpose here is to prevent ugly scenes such as what happened in the hangar from transpiring. The men and women that we served alongside that took flight are our enemies now. They chose to follow a traitor over their duty to the Empire. I personally ensured two of them would not raise their weapons in anger to us ever again. I expect all of you to treat them with the same due diligence or you will be found of equal guilt in permitting their continued existence."
Going an extra step further, Tuu typed a quick keystroke of commands into the terminal, bringing up stills of Rha and Dak's grotesque bodies in high definition prior to being removed from the hangar.
"Failure to do so will not be tolerated. Are we clear?"
"We get you, sir!" Tuu's team sounded off in unison.
"Fully understood, sir. I serve the Empire." To spoke, hand over her mouth in shock at the sight of two of her own squadmates dead in the hangar attempting to run.
Leaving the graphic images linger a few more seconds longer, Tuu removed them before turning his attention back to the remainder of Mirage.
"As we speak, we are currently en route to Devastis. The roster will be brought back to full strength and Sublieutenant Sor will ensure the Imperial Standard is enforced. After today, I will take every single infraction seriously and address them accordingly. His authority supercedes my own and you will obey him. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!" The team responded.
"Good," Sor nodded. "If I have to ask him questions of your loyalty he will most definitely not be asking you questions, but you'll likely be introduced to the same fate as those traitors and your corpse unceremoniously thrown from the nearest airlock." The Sublieutenant took a sip from a cup of water nearby in an uncomfortable pause before resuming.
"Firstly, Tuu is Acting Major and the new Commander of Mirage. He will serve in this capacity until I find someone better or he dies, whichever comes first. Second, once we receive our replacements and bring your team back to strength, we have a new mission." A few taps on his screen bought up personnel photos of all members of the Shadow Strikers on screen.
"Red and Purple's own team have gone dark. We can't reach them, their transponders are offline, and our tracking modules are malfunctioning. Our duty is to hunt down these traitors and eliminate them with extreme prejudice. Vaukt and Zha, as well as Zha's command staff, are also targets of high priority if we come across them, but they are not this unit's main objective."
No one needed to speak of it. Tuu's former unit. The one he was so graciously transferred from per Vaukt's orders on Vort, believing he had done his duty in preserving the integrity of the Empire. Now, he had been thrown aside to avoid internal conflict while they continued to conspire and tear away from those they served. His expression could fill an entire dissertation on the topic.
"So effectively half of Spec Ops went rogue with Vaukt, is that right?" Gat queried. "At least that's the rumors we've been hearing anyway."
"How is that even possible?" Caz added, confused. "Shouldn't the Control Brains be able to issue mass deactivation on them?"
"It would be but the Control Brains report they have been deactivated and the number is increasing by the day." Sor answered, "We believe the General's found a way to disconnect their PAKs from the Control Brains, somehow, or block the incoming deactivation signal, something that makes them immune from such an effect. We have men still investigating the matter. We're dealing with other Irken, yes, but those of a far more insidious nature."
"...soldiers I once called brother and sister…podmates for those of you uninitiated…" Tuu began, a burning fury behind his gaze toward the projection of his former teammates. "The finest examples of military prowess in their fields the Empire had to offer…the greatest of allies who held off the might of Tallum's last gasp with minimal assistance…these are not ordinary Spec Ops. These are not even ordinary Irken. These…warriors are the greatest threat to the Empire at-large…and we are tasked with ensuring that threat is eliminated."
Uat sat up, making a show of audible cracking her knuckles.
"...when do we start the hunt, Sir?"
"After a trip to Devastis." Sor began, "We need to reform effectively two teams worth of loyal Special Operations soldiers, see them equipped, and then we'll be on our way." A few more keystrokes pulled up the last known location of the Ghost of Irk on another screen. "We've lost contact with them here. Projected flight paths don't lead to many places, least of all any habitable ones. One of our analysts thinks they're headed to Planet Eight Eight Seven Five. It seems almost laughable."
"Which one is that? I've never heard of it." Caz commented.
"Doesn't even have a proper name, probably why you haven't heard of it." To added, looking to the projection. "...could be mistaken but I think this is the one I hear the Armada always freaking out about when they are making deliveries to Destructia."
"Where?"
"You know, Destructia? Devastis 2.0? Yeah, this is the really hazardous planet that likes to eat starships with its gravity well and then shreds them on the surface. Sure White Team can give you the technical reason why its even part of the flight pla-"
"Send the fleet." Tuu interrupted, much to everyone's confusion.
Sor looked equally confused. "A fleet?"
"Yes, a fleet. Send a fleet." He reiterated, serious as could be in realization. "That is where they are. That is where all of them are. The Armada avoids it. The planet interferes with communications and all manner of wavelengths of scans. They are there. Send a fleet and crush them."
"How do you know this?" Sor pointedly asked.
"I will be revealing Level 9 classified information to you in doing so, Sublieutenant." Tuu struggled, frustrated in wanting to explain his ramblings. "Just know that during my time beneath Vult, we were issued an assignment in the vicinity and observed all of these abnormalities and phenomenon. They impacted our mission. I am telling you beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will find them there."
"How are you so sure?"
"It's the first place I would go to hide."
Sor immediately pulled up a screen in front of him to type a priority one message back to headquarters. "I'm trusting you on this, Major. I'm hoping your intelligence pans out."
"As do I…I prefer to avoid the fight entirely if it can be ended before it begins."
"A sound strategy." The screen indicated Sor's message transmitted to HQ. "And now we wait and see what the net catches as we head to Devastis."