Merendinoemiliano- I do enjoy trying to write about Adam and Marrow and they will be in the next chapter again. In my own mind Marrow is a man trying to do the right thing who wants to believe in his superior officers – in a rather political tale he is the nearest to a man just trying to do the right thing day to day. Adam at this time is still capable of going either way and I found it interesting to touch on the feeling of frustration which happens when your game plan fails through no fault of your own.
Clover Ebi checked the time. They were thirty minutes away from Atlas. He rehearsed what he was going to say to the General and had been debriefing the rest of the Ace-ops with a view to writing up his report on Vacuo generally
He then cast his eye over to Colonel White who was travelling with them. The Colonel had clearly also been preparing for the meeting with the general. However, he was looking very tired and rather miserable.
Clover thought about what he had read in the files about the old soldier and what his uncle had and had not said about him. The man had been sent to Vacuo because he was seen as a safe pair of hands and could be relied on not to go off on frolics of his own or pick fights with the locals, the embassy, or the multi-kingdoms. He had been kept there because that was all they wanted from him and if he had left the hard work to Major Magenta, it was also true that delegation of tasks to someone who was better at them than you were part of what being a good commander was all about.
It was hard luck on that man that a few months before retirement it had become obvious that leaving the multi-kingdoms to their own devices had encouraged them to cut corners, that he had been brought to Ironwood's attention that officers were receiving gratuities from the said multi-kingdoms and then for the worst terrorist attack in Atlas's history to take place in the territory he was responsible for defending. It would be a very confident officer indeed who would not be suffering from misgivings about a meeting with the General in the light of these events.
While strictly the Colonel was his superior officer, the position was more complicated. Clover was clearly a rising officer and a protégé of Ironwood. As head of the Ace-Ops he could actually call upon superior officers for support and he had learnt to be wary of volunteering his opinion too early in meetings because people deferred too quickly to him or assumed that he was passing on Ironwood's instructions. Of course, there were times when he did proffer an opinion to ensure that a certain course of action was followed.
He nodded to himself. He could not directly ask the Colonel if he was worried or reassure him. However, he may be able to do so indirectly.
"Sir, have you reported to the General previously?"
"I have met him, but only at large gatherings. Until now there was never anything happening in Vacuo which required me to report directly to him. I rarely go to Atlas and the General has never visited the base."
"The General appreciates brevity and honesty. Flattery makes him suspicious. Also answer the question he asks you before suggesting that he should have asked you a different question."
The Colonel nodded.
Clover continued, "I anticipate that the General will be focused on deciding what Atlas says about the incident as something will need to be said to the press first thing in the morning. He will be speaking to Captain Schnee and Major Magenta about the details of what happened at the mine. He will be depending on you for any Vacuoan perspectives on conditions and personalities. In particular, I expect that any insights you have about Major Bronze and the reason for him being there at the mine will be particularly valuable. I am afraid that he will want to know whether there are reasons for downplaying his heroism"
"Thank you, Specialist Ebi. I rather think the film of his CSM shooting the miner makes the answer obvious."
It was Clover's turn to nod.
The Colonel sighed, "Specialist, may I rehearse my answer to that question. An honest answer risks sounding like blaming it on the dead man. He had once been a highflyer and a confidante of Colonel Tarragon. When General Ironwood was chosen to lead the military, he saw the way things were going and volunteered for the posting to Vacuo. The man knew his career was going nowhere and that it was unlikely that he could do anything to resurrect it. He usually accepted that being out of sight, out of mind was the best he could hope for. He dealt with me and Magenta as little as possible. He was a slightly unsatisfactory officer but was clever enough not to push things too far. I am told that he half-heartedly lobbied the multi-kingdoms to be my successor and they told him that it was no go in the light of the fact that I was lobbying for Major Magenta to succeed me."
He paused, "He had a rather Mistralian attitude to Faunus and after a couple of incidents we avoided posting any Faunus to his outpost. He also did believe in the old saying that what is good for Atlas Gold is good for Atlas. The suggestion that off his own bat he would go and visit a SDC mine to check that they were not hiding branded Faunus is frankly laughable. The fact that his inspection visit happened immediately before an explosion in the mine is rather suggestive. On the other hand, deciding to fight was probably a rational choice for him as we all know that senior officers are regarded as legitimate targets by the White Fang."
Clover took a deep breath, "In my short time in Vacuo, I have not got the impression that we are popular among the Vacuoans."
White laughed "Of course we are not. Some still remember the Great War; others regard us as hypocrites. While I know the risks, there is something to be said for Magenta's view that we should have a Vacuoan auxiliary force here. For what it is worth, Magenta is the best choice as my successor as he understands the Vacuoans better than anyone who has only served in Atlas or Argus will."
Clover was reminded that the other aspect of his perceived relationship with the General was that people tended to pass on to him messages or stories which they were reluctant to directly convey directly to the General.
The Colonel said, "It is a pity that our prisoner decided to burn through his aura by activating his semblance rather than recuperate."
Clover replied, "We were lucky he delayed doing that long enough to talk to us."
"Did you believe him?"
"He may have omitted a lot, but I think what he told us was true so far as it went."
Clover was wondering how he could convey to the General that the Faunus had been brave and whether the General would be willing to take a course of action suggested by an enemy.
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Jacques Schnee checked the time. There were still a few hours before Raddock would arrive at the Schnee mansion and until then there was a limit as to how far Jacques could plan for the meeting with Ironwood. Jacques had summoned Raddock as soon as it had become clear that apart from evacuating the remaining workers there was no point in trying to reclaim the mine and the Atlas military had made clear that it was to be regarded as a crime scene. He also wanted to talk to the man without having to worry about Ironwood listening in to the call.
Jacques knew that the next few hours would be crucial for the SDC. Despite the fact that it was their mine which had been attacked, the noises coming from the chamber of commerce was that Marigold was looking to blame him at least behind the scenes. His mood had not been helped when he viewed an edited highlights clip from the surveillance cameras at the mine which had been sent to him by General Ironwood. While it was clear from that footage that the shooting had been started by the White Fang at the gates of the mine, it was in reaction to the sounds of the explosion within the mine before the attack started. Still, he doubted anyone on the Council wanted to be fair to the White Fang in public.
The fact that the senior mine staff tried to surrender was puzzling. The standard operating procedure was that unless there was a board member on the premises, SDC staff should surrender rather than risk their lives. Even if there was a board member, resistance was to cease when the board member had either escaped or been captured. He supposed that the Major may have regarded himself as being what the White Fang called a legitimate target and so was fighting for his life. He could see that the management team and the Mohawks could have taken the view that the major was to be treated as a member of senior management and abandoning a soldier to his fate would not have looked good. He was surprised by the fact that the Mohawks had access to surface to air missiles. Effective, although shooting down one of the bullheads must have drastically reduced the chances of a later surrender. Still the Mohawks were useful, and it was possible that the black box would reveal that they had been ordered to fire it.
The shot of the CSM shooting a worker with an eye injury in the back jolted him. The implication was that no attempt to surrender was made because the Major and the mine staff knew that there was evidence of something which made their deaths inevitable. He should have pressed Raddock harder on the question of numbers of Faunus who had been made into advertisements for the SDC or told him that he wanted the real numbers now and then work round it. On the other hand, if Raddock had successfully arranged an accident without evidence then he would have been content
He then sat himself down and tried to think calmly about the situation. Ironwood had sent him the footage rather than calling him to a council meeting and confronting him with it. The footage suggested that whatever had happened at the Rising Sun mine a section of the Atlas military was involved. Ironwood was clearly not going to release the footage to the public, but clearly was happy to show it to the Council. Clearly he was prompting Jacques to defend himself and the SDC. The man had spent the last eight years accumulating power and he presumed that he was inviting the SDC to help him in this task in exchange for being let off lightly. He suspected that Marigold and Atlas Gold were lobbying for the SDC to bear a disproportionate amount of the costs of the increase in costs arising from the fact that the White Fang had escalated their attacks and were prepared to attack Atlesian economic interests outside Mistral and Atlas.
At that point he had ordered Raddock to report to him in Atlas and to bring with him all evidence of excessive zeal by the other multi-kingdoms in Atlas as well as reporting on what he knew about the situation in the mine. The man had reassured him that the other multi-kingdoms had taken similar steps to the SDC in breaking the strikes. He also ordered Klein to bring him the SDC file on the military officers in Vacuo. He had a hunch that there was a reason why Ironwood was relaxed about distributing footage showing an unarmed Faunus being shot.
He thought about what had happened to Bruce Crimson and decided that he would ensure that Raddock was checked for weaponry before being admitted to his presence.
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Winter had arrived back at the base. She had left Marrow and Sergeant Hartnell back at the mine to coordinate with the forensic specialists. Corkran had volunteered to break the news to the Mohawks. Frustratingly it looked as though the main White Fang attack team had got clear away. She had spoken to General Ironwood on the flight back and given him an initial heads up on what she had found.
Major Magenta walked into her office. "We have a call with Atlas in thirty minutes. After that one of us at least should get some sleep. Before we prepare for the call, I want to say that you did your best today. All the deaths happened in the first thirty minutes and unless you had guessed that the Rising Sun mine was the target, you could not have saved any lives. If you had patrolled close to that mine you would have been badly out of position for any others."
Winter said, "You are right, but it is difficult to think about it objectively."
Winter put the black notebook and a scroll on the table. "We were lucky that the bear Faunus made such a mess of Bronze that no one wanted to search him properly afterwards. If the White Fang had got hold of these, the publicity would have been excruciating particularly if we had said he was a hero."
Winter showed the Major the evidence. He grimaced and said, "The General needed to know about this, but I am not happy about broadcasting it directly even over a moderately secure line. Did you convey the gist to him without going into details?"
"I believe so." Working for Ironwood for two years had taught her how to communicate obliquely although she was not certain that she had fully explained it to him. She would use some different terminology which would allow him to put the full picture together."
"For what it is worth, I do not think that the SDC were that much worse than the multi-kingdoms during the strike period."
Winter thought to herself that if was true it said more about Atlas than she was comfortable to admit to.
The Major said, "Who found this?"
"It was handed over to me by Mr. Corkran. He had clearly read enough to decide that it was best to hand it over to me rather than first giving it to Lieutenant Amin."
"You had probably better let the General know that. You should also be ready to express a view on how far you trust his discretion and whether you recommend drafting him as an officer. For someone who is strictly a civilian contractor, he knows a lot more about our dirty laundry than most people would feel comfortable with. If I was him, I would be wondering whether he should make a run for it before he is permanently silenced."
Winter said, "Neither of us would think that appropriate."
"We know him better than most. Look at it from his viewpoint. The Atlas military hushed up the excesses of the strike period, we have covered up an attempt by the multi-kingdoms to assassinate a member of our own foreign office and we are about to lie like crazy about what happened at the Rising Sun mine. He told you about the first, he was present during the second and helped capture the key witness, and he knows what Bronze was up to. He is well liked in Vacuo and enough of our troops respect him to mean that he cannot easily be called a liar. He would not be being paranoid to realise that he is an inconvenient Faunus and that his death would reduce the number of people who can directly testify to the truth of what has happened in Vacuo over the last six years. I would suggest that you make it clear to the General that he is friends with Lieutenant Amin who also knows what happened at the mine today and that Parsifal Campion would also take it amiss if an accident befell him."
Winter said, "The General is an honourable man. However, I agree that it would be appropriate to reassure him that Mr Corkran has earned our trust. I will stress that we are relying on his discretion when I pass on his request that we do not publicise the scalping of some of the Mohawks."
"What was his reasoning for that request? Was that to protect the feelings of their relatives?"
"It is apparently more complicated than that. The Mohawks have a strong sense of honour and cutting off their hair is a sign that they have no honour. However, he is going in person to tell the tribe the facts of the case including the scalping. They pride themselves on honesty within the tribe and a stiff upper lip presented to the outside world."
"I can identify with that attitude."
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Russel Thrush was practising fighting. His recent assessment at Shade Academy had been encouraging. The professors there had encouraged him to apply to be a huntsman and that then left the question of where to apply.
His brother and uncle had suggested to him that if he was going to an academy and spend time away from the tribe then there may be something to said for leaving Vacuo altogether. His brother had been to Vale with that odd Faunus friend of him and had said that it had been exciting. He also said that he could get used to a place where the elements where not trying to kill you all the time.
His uncle had stressed that as a rule in life he believed that at the end of their lives people regretted the things which they had not done and the chances which they had not taken rather than the things they had done which had not worked out. At less guarded moments, he said that he loved visiting the tribe but that it would drive him insane.
At the moment he was slightly distracted as an Atlas bullhead had arrived and the tribe elders had been called into an impromptu meeting. He wondered what was going on. He knew that his uncle had been trying to persuade the Atlas military to employ Mohawks without requiring them to cut off their hair. Perhaps the Atlesians were here to discuss terms?
He then saw his mother approaching him together with the Faunus friend of his brother's, who he referred to as LC. He began to feel uneasy as his mother was walking stiffly in the way which he associated with her trying to hide strong emotions. The Faunus was also looking subdued, and he was rather dustier than he normally was. Russel steeled himself for bad news.
His mother said, "Mr. Corkran here has something to say to you, Russel."
Afterwards, Russel found it hard to remember the details of the conversation. His brother and uncle were dead killed by the White Fang. They were apparently a tribe of Faunus who had arguments with Mistral and Atlas and in particular with the SDC. It helped to hear that his brother and uncle had fought bravely and that his uncle in particular had ensured that Atlas knew more about what had happened then they would otherwise have done so. After they had died their killers had removed their hair. While LC could not promise anything, he had asked the Atlas officers not to tell the world about the scalping. Even within the tribe it was only the elders and family members who had been told about the desecration today. Russel told himself that he had to be a man and look after the best interests of the tribe by dampening down the mix of anger and grieving he felt. As it was he almost longed for a Grimm attack to purge his emotions
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Umber Raddock was ushered into the presence of Jacques Schnee. The security check before he was allowed to see Jacques had been through to say the least. The head of security had been unapologetic although had put a fig leaf on matters by saying that in light of the events in Vacuo today, it was better to err on the side of caution.
In some ways, it had been useful to have the flight time to think about the long-term issues rather than firefighting the immediate aftermath in Vacuo. His second in command could deal with housing the workers and reviewing the contingency plans which had been prepared in the event that the White Fang escalated their campaign. He had also calmed down. A few hours it had been irritating him that it was clear that General Ironwood was telling Jacques more than the military in Vacuo were telling him. Now he had time to reflect on it, he could not complain if Magenta, Winter and White had focused on trying to deal with the attack rather than keeping him informed.
He had spent the hour and a half before the flight gathering all the bits of insurance he had kept over the last ten years hoping that this would assuage Jacques Schnee's justifiable anger. His bet was that if he gave Jacques a way out for the SDC which meant mud stuck to all the other multi-kingdoms, them Jacques would go with it. It was the only game in town and luckily what was good for the SDC should also be good for Umber Raddock.
He was shown in by the butler to Jacques Schnee's office. It was 1 in the morning, and it was clear that Jacques was popping pills and mainlining coffee. He was also very unhappy.
Jacques said, "Before you even think of soft pedalling me, watch this extract from what Ironwood sent me. I have to meet with him in two hours and then attend a council meeting at 4.30 where it is clear Marigold wants to sacrifice me and the SDC."
Raddock watched aghast as he saw an Atlas soldier shoot a branded Faunus in the back. Luckily he had prepared for the worst. He then suddenly realised that this was not altogether bad for him.
"Well at least it was one of his men shooting an unarmed Faunus. He will not want to publicise that. If he wanted to take you and the SDC down totally he would have waited until the council meeting before showing you this."
Jacques said, "I had worked that out for myself. The way you said that suggests that you have something you think I can use. In particular what have you got against Atlas Gold?"
"They paid 30% of the down payment made to the Vacuoan underworld to assassinate Parsifal Campion. Also, they preferred to kill their trade union activists rather than brand them. I am not pretending that Crimson was squeamish, he merely felt that evidence of the futility of resistance was a better long-term deterrent than unexplained disappearances."
"Can you prove any of this?"
"I have a tape with the discussions among the multi-kingdoms where they discussed the need to get rid of Parsifal Campion and another where the local manager of Atlas Gold tried to persuade Bruce to support the attempt. Bruce obeyed my instructions to stonewall them. We have contemporaneous file notes showing that we dismissed the talk as being mere bravado. I suspect that Ironwood may already know about this as there was an odd incident at a local bar where this man and some friends took a member of the Vacuoan underworld into custody."
He showed Jacques Schnee a photograph. Jacques grunted and said, "Clover Ebi. Ironwood's enforcer. You are probably right. What reason do you have for disclosing the information at the time?"
"First, we did not think it would happen as the local managers would see sense. Second, when it did happen, we did not have total proof and Parsifal Campion gave a strong hint that he did not want to investigate too closely. Also, the risk of being blamed for not coming forward with our suspicions, the unlikelihood of anyone being stupid enough to repeat the attempt and the concern that any clampdown on Atlas Gold and the others would impact on us."
"And the strike breaking activities?"
"Most of the multi-kingdom heads of security back then were from Mistral and compared notes with each other. They all felt that there was a joint interest in breaking the strikes and to teach the Faunus where they belonged. We were the first mine to deal with a strike and so people tended to come to me and Bruce for information. Everyone copied us when the strikes happened and most of them tried to outdo us. Most of the multi-kingdoms moved towards employing ex-military as heads of security and sacked those who had been around during the strikes. In part as preparation against a day like today and in part because of fellow feeling with people who had done the necessary with us, Crimson and I helped them obtain compensation for unfair dismissal. In reality it was hush money. We collected an interesting collection of signed affidavits which were prepared by a lawyer whom a colleague of ours recommended. In addition, for some reason many of the local managers like to reminisce about the strikes and gave me and Crimson enough clues as to who had done their dirty work for them. Crimson would then arrange to bump into those individuals in a bar and would record their boasts."
"Is it plausible to claim that Crimson gathered the information himself without your knowledge and that you only discovered them after his death?"
"The boasting tapes, yes. The affidavits, no."
"I presume that you have a selection of the most incriminating affidavits and tapes for me to show and play."
"Yes."
"Good. Show me later. Now it is time for confession. What on remnant, were you up to at the Rising Sun Mine and how incriminated was that Major?"
Here was the crunch moment, "Burying the evidence. There were thirty additional brandings which came out of the woodwork after Crimson died. Initially I was planning to dump them all there and merely use Major Bronze to perjure himself while we worked out how to do the operations ourselves. It quickly became clear that I was kidding myself and that the Faunus had to vanish."
"Vanish?"
"Die in a convenient explosion in a part of the mine which was separate from the rest. There were potentially valuable dust deposits there, but they were not in practice capable of being exploited because of fears of cave-ins. The records will show the chief engineer at the mine thought that these problems had been overblown. He also died in the accident as did twenty other Faunus and four overseers. The overseers were from Mistral and as far as I was aware have no close family to mourn them."
"Why did you not tell me about this? Killing thirty Faunus is rather a drastic solution and I would prefer to have been consulted before you blew up one of the seams, even if it was likely not capable of exploitation. It is hard to see how revealing that Crimson had branded another thirty Faunus was worse than being caught murdering fifty-five Faunus and humans. Tell me why I should not throw you to General Ironwood as a sacrificial offering?"
"Would you really have wanted to know about this? I regarded it as my problem for not having kept a closer eye on Bruce Crimson. At the very least I should have made it clear to him that he should stop using the SDC initials to do the branding. However, I suspect that you may have a similar problem with throwing me to the Ursas. If you did not know about it, you should have known about the brandings and you should have kept more control over me."
"I, unlike some others, prefer to boast that I allow my subordinates some independence and do not always second guess them."
"True, but why admit to an error of judgement if you do not have to?"
"Not if I have solved it by the time I have to admit to it. You dealt rather drastically with Crimson. You are not suggesting that I do the same to you?"
"I have an alternative which suits both of us better. First, the only people who know that the mine incident was not an accident are dead apart from me. Others may suspect it, but there is no proof which is capable of being produced. The White Fang's destruction of the mine entrance makes excavating the mine impractical. Even if it was not, we have a fallback position that the incident was an accident, and it was simply unfortunate that the main victims were branded Faunus. Second, Ironwood would have to admit that the military had employed a corrupt major and it is hard to see how the fact that most officers were taking ex gratia payments from the multi-kingdoms would not come into the open. Third, all kingdoms including Atlas prefer not to admit wrongdoing or wash its dirty linen in public. Fourth, trying to assassinate Parsifal Campion rather trumps fifty dead Faunus, four Mistralian outcasts and an annoying engineer."
"Are you certain Bronze did not take out some insurance? I have no doubt you would have done so in his shoes. Besides which no doubt you paid him something on account."
"Payment was to a numbered account in Argus. If he did keep a record, then it will be the military who find it. Magenta will forward it to Ironwood. I suspect what record he would have kept will be consistent with the accident story." He pressed with his semblance, he had no doubt Jacques would want to believe that and there was no mileage in speculating what would happen if the White Fang had found it.
He decided that he had better pass on the other bit of bad news. "Sir, I should tell you that the White Fang have captured Arnold Beige from the Argus Office. He had been in Vacuo defending the store pricing policy and he had gone off on safari for two days. I have heard from the manager at the supply base which the White Fang took over last night and a SDC executive was with the safari group which the White Fang had infiltrated. While there is no reason to believe that he was involved in the raid, he does have a weakness for Faunus women. I should mention that he had a company scroll top with him and he was the designer of our pricing policy. He is clever, but he lacks personal bravery."
An hour and a half later, as Jacques Schnee left for his meeting with Ironwood, he said, "Probably best if you come with me. Ironwood may want to speak to you himself. If you and I are fortunate you will be a main board member by the end of the year. If not, then you will be under arrest or dead by lunchtime tomorrow."
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Ironwood was ready for the council meeting. After a series of meeting and calls, he had decided on his battle plan and had triggered his semblance to achieve his aims. He now understood the doctrine of an old political leader in Vale who had said "Never waste a good crisis."
He was lucky to have intelligent and loyal subordinates. Winter had clearly confirmed to him that she was a soldier of Atlas and not a scion of the house of the Schnee. She had not hesitated to let him know in admirably guarded tones what they had found on Bronze when it would have been easy to destroy the evidence. As it was he had not needed to use it to obtain Jacques Schnee's cooperation. However, he did envisage a future use for the information. It had also been enlightening to meet the Mistralian, Umber Raddock. Magenta and Winter had briefed him on the man's semblance, and it was interesting to see him using it on Jacques. He actually was fairly subtle about it, but there again he had studied Jacques. Ironwood had realised that while he had known the semblance was being used, he had not reacted badly to it. Perhaps it was because he also believed that the SDC were no more corrupt than the other multi-kingdoms and Jacques Schnee was less of a hypocrite than Marigold.
The meeting started with Ironwood saying, "Gentlemen, I have invited Jacques Schnee to address this meeting and answer any questions which you may have. Last night, I promised you an update on the attack by the White Fang on the Rising Sun mine. The night before last the White Fang used the cover of a safari group seeking to buy food, drink, and fuel at a SDC supply base to take over the supply base. The safari had as one of its tourists a member of SDC middle management and it appears that this meant that the site manager left his office to greet the man. They took over the base before any warning could be given. The employees were told that they would be unharmed if they cooperated. The next morning three SDC bullheads landed at the supply base on route to the Rising Sun mine. It is clear that the White Fang knew that these ships were due and also knew the security codes and call signals designed to reassure everyone that all was in order. The bullheads were captured and their crews other than the three pilots were interned at the supply base. The safari firm's staff, the bullhead crews and the staff at the supply base have been recovered unharmed and were not ill-treated. For most of their period of capture they were anaesthetised. The pilots of the three bullheads were ordered to fly the bullheads plus around sixty armed members of the White Fang to the Rising Sun mine."
So far he had said nothing which he did not believe to be true. It was now time to broach the official unofficial story of the raid.
"At around the same time as the bullheads came into land another safari group arrived at the gate of the mine. It is believed that the intent was to divide the attention of the SDC's local security force. It is here where things become complicated. Major Bronze of the secondary Atlas military base was together with a small team carrying out an impromptu inspection of the mine. This was clearly an unexpected complication for the terrorists. At the same time as the bullheads landed and the fake safari group were occupying the attention of the guards on the mine gate, an explosion occurred in the mine. This resulted in the White Fang at the gate opening fire which was returned by the local security guards. The first bullhead had just landed and around thirty emerged from the bullhead and opened fire. The rest of the mine guards and Major Bronze's troop detachment returned fire and the local security force used a surface to air missile launcher to shoot down the third bullhead, killing or seriously injuring all on board. In the fighting Major Bronze, CSM Verde, a pilot and four privates were killed together with the seven members of the SDC mine security team and ten members of the external SDC security team from Vacuo. Thirty other SDC mine employees are either dead or missing presumed dead. There are eight Mantle residents among the dead mine employees and the soldiers all came from Mantle or Atlas. Most of the rest of the casualties are Mistralian although there are three from Vale. It has been confirmed that a mid-ranking executive of the SDC is travelling with the White Fang, almost certainly as a prisoner. Twenty White Fang members died, mostly at the gate and in the Bullhead. One SDC pilot died in the bullhead which was shot down. There was no attempt to surrender by the Major or the SDC employees and no invitation to surrender was given to them. Fifty miners left with the White Fang when they departed. Those who remained said that this was primarily down to a fear of reprisals from either the SDC or the military and to a lesser extent concern that the emotional aftermath would attract the attention of Grimm. It took Captain Schnee and most of her squad forty minutes to deal with the Grimm who arrived and that was even after Lieutenant Amin had done his best to calm down the remaining miners. As I said earlier the two remaining pilots and two SDC cooks survived. The miners hid the cooks from the White Fang."
"What happened to the White Fang attackers? Do we have any lead on them?" asked Camilla,
"They left in the two remaining SDC bullheads and in an Atlas military bullhead. The tracking devices on the SDC bullhead were disabled and we do not know for certain in which direction they left. It should be assumed that they rendezvoused with the team which had remained behind at the supply base. They and the workers have not been found. I do not realistically expect to locate them, and I am told that a paintjob can be carried out overnight on a bullhead. As you know we do not have a power of arrest in Vacuo and the Vale authorities require an extradition warrant before they will act. They are also reluctant to accept that our face recognition technology is scientifically valid in identifying the faces behind the masks. While I believe that after this attack the Vale authorities will be more helpful, they are still reluctant to become involved in what they see as a fight we chose to start."
He saw Sleet and Marigold rehearse the usual argument and decide not to waste time having it.
Ironwood continued. "The Atlas military bullhead flew towards the coast. Specialist Ebi recognised that this was probably a decoy, but it was moving in a direction which meant that he could realistically pursue it. The Bullhead landed near the Vacuo coastline and two White Fang members are believed to have made for the coast. A third who was seriously injured stayed behind with a view to exploding the bullhead when Atlas military personnel approached it. Specialist Ebi suspected a trap and used one of our prototype robots to approach the bullhead. We capture the Faunus in question, but despite operating on him he died a few hours after capture. He volunteered a statement before activating his semblance and effectively killing himself."
Jacques Schnee asked the first of the leading questions he had agreed to pose, "Do you know who was responsible for the raid and what they hoped to achieve from it."
Ironwood activated a screen to show five photographs. "The three males were certainly involved in the raid and the two young women were involved in the disappearance of the executive. The leader was Adam Taurus. You may recall that a few years ago we ridiculed the White Fang for backing the claim that he had ben blinded in one eye as a boy of 12 by the SDC. Further evidence has come to light which suggests that his story may have been true. We believe he planned the raid and was involved in seizing the supply base. He did not participate in the attack on the mine. The second is Ronald Rouge who was the one who died in custody. He was more on the political side and was seen as a moderate. The third is a bear Faunus known as Bruno who has been involved in several armed robberies. He has a formidable berserker semblance when angered and was responsible for the deaths of CSM Verde, Major Bronze and three of the other soldiers. We are not certain of the identity of the two Faunus women although we have reason to believe that the missing executive, Arnold Beige, first met them on the Mistral Express. One is a Fox Faunus and the other is believed to be a chameleon Faunus. We are making discrete enquiries in Mistral. We will not be publicising that we have identified them as they may not realise that they have been identified."
Marigold sneered at Jacques, "You really should have taken more care with who you employed and kept them under control. If it was not for employing sadists we would not be in this mess."
Sleet asked, "What was the reason for the attack and why so many casualties."
Ironwood said "The SDC employees at the supply base and the surviving pilots said that the main aim of the mission was to show Atlas that the White Fang could launch such attacks and to cause the multi-kingdoms to spend a significant amount of money on improving the security infrastructure and on ongoing security measures. In this they have succeeded. Later today I will be providing a working paper on the measures which the Atlas military believe will need to be undertaken by the multi-kingdoms and the increase in the military presence in Vacuo and Mistral which will be needed. There will also be a need for increased security within Atlas and Mantle."
Campion asked "How many bullheads do we have in Vacuo? It seems disturbing that we only had three in the air despite the concern that an attack was imminent, especially as one of those was Specialist Ebi's command bullhead."
"Twelve. However, as usual four were being serviced, three were being used for the normal activities of the Vacuo detachment in dealing with Grimm infestations, one was on the ground in case of other eventualities and the other two were at the secondary base. The threat was non-specific and our forces there were playing a hunch. Do recall that we have had many discussions around this table doubting the need for such a heavy detachment in Vacuo."
"How many would you have needed in the air to respond within 30 minutes to any attack."
"Ten. However, that would require another twenty to allow for servicing and avoiding having times when no bullheads where in the air. Frankly I would not propose that level of increase, but two more bases and ten more bullheads would be needed at least to give a reasonable sense of deterrence"
"Who is going to pay for this?" asked Marigold while Campion nodded his head vigorously.
Sleet said that "I agree that it is necessary to increase expenditure, but it will need to be justified. Disproportionally it will benefit the multi-kingdoms and they should bear more of the cost. Certainly, the costs in Vacuo should be borne by them."
Marigold said, "It was covering up the SDC's skeletons which caused us to outlaw the White Fang a few years back and resulted in this attack."
Ironwood coughed, "Perhaps we could come back to this point. While the casualties would not have occurred if the White Fang had not attacked the mine, there are some reasons to believe that the White Fang were not intending a massacre. The reason given for Adam Taurus not being involved in the attack was to reduce the risk of unnecessary casualties. Apparently the Rising Sun mine was the mine he was scarred in. The person who was meant to be in charge of the attack was Rouge who was incapacitated early on in the attack by the missile which took out the third bullhead. The shooting started because of the explosion in the mine and, between ourselves, I can understand from a military perspective why the sound of an explosion caused a nervous group of people to start firing and for the main attack force once the fighting had started deciding that they had to go all in. The shooting down of the bullhead and other factors also increased the anger of the attackers"
Marigold said, "You are the last person I imagined excusing terrorists killing civilians and your own troops. You are not seriously suggesting that we release a statement saying that they did not mean to kill close to fifty people. They surely could have stopped once the soldiers were dead. Are we really saying that the Vacuoan guards deserved to die because they fought back?"
"I was merely pointing out that we have a choice of how hard we play this. There is a different message given if we say that the massacre was deliberately planned from the start or only happened because fighting broke out. As Mr Sleet pointed out yesterday evening we have a large Faunus population in Mantle and a small one in Atlas. No matter how we announce this, there will be an increase in human/Faunus tensions."
"The people of Mantle and Atlas need to believe that their government is protecting them. This is not a time for being understanding. This is a time for showing strength."
"I did say that there were other reasons. This is from the security footage which was recovered from the mine." He was being a little economical with the truth here, but they had recovered the back up disc which had some how survived the destruction. No need to mention that the Mohawks had sent the footage from immediately before the fighting started.
Ironwood played the footage showing CSM Verde shooting an unarmed Faunus in the back.
"I have reason to believe that the reason for the presence of Major Bronze was that the SDC in Vacuo had concentrated a number of Faunus who had been branded in one eye for alleged crimes of violence in the Rising Sun mine until the current fuss had blown over. Major Bronze had prepared a report saying that he had inspected all the new workers brought to the mine to work the new seam and that none of them showed any signs of branding. Major Bronze had agreed to make such a report in exchange for a cash payment and a job offer as well as believing that this was in the best interests of Atlas. Not surprisingly neither he nor the local management wanted the White Fang to discover large numbers of branded Faunus and felt that they may as well fight. I have a recording of the head of security ordering the local security force to resist the attackers."
Sleet said, "Are you telling me that the White Fang have a whole load of branded Faunus that they are ready to parade in front of the Vale media this morning as soon s we make our announcement."
"No, apart from that one Faunus the others died either in the mines or the headquarters building when the White Fang used the missiles in the military bullhead to blow up the mine and sent an anti-tank missile into the armoury housed in the headquarters building."
Campion said, "So the SDC was out of control and one of your officers was corrupt. However, I assume you have all the evidence and we have covered up worse scandals than this in the past. If you do not want to call bronze a hero that is your affair, but otherwise we do what we normally do, clean up the worse of the mess behind closed doors and blame the deaths on the outsiders. Ok, we say that the White Fang members involved in the attack came from Mistral or Menagerie if you want to reduce tensions here. We can talk about the bravery of the Faunus workers who hid the cooks, but we do not wash our dirty laundry in public."
Marigold said, "Let's shut down the White Fang front organisations and expel the Menagerie consul. Require the Faunus to carry identity cards in mantle as well as in Atlas. So long as the SDC pays for the increase in security costs, I do not mind if this is done behind closed doors or is phrased as penalties for breaches of the law."
Ironwood looked at Jacques Schnee and said, "What is the SDC's views on this?"
Jacques said, "At least the SDC did not go in for murdering its trade unionists. Everything we did in Vacuo, Atlas Gold and the other multi-kingdoms did, only more so. At least my men had trial records recoding convicting most of the branded people of theft or grievous bodily harm. We all did things during the strike period which seemed necessary at the time, but we knew not to talk about in polite society."
"Nonsense." shouted a very angry Marigold.
"Bruce Crimson had many faults, and these included remembering what people told him. He collected 100 affidavits from ex-employees of the multi-kingdoms detailing the necessary actions they took during the strikes. He even had a few recordings of people discussing which was the best part of the desert to use to hide the bodies."
Marigold said, "This is just whataboutery. It does not alter the fact that yesterday your people in Vacuo were bribing an officer of the Atlas military to cover up a crime."
"And I suppose you know everything your people in Vacuo do?"
"They would not do anything major without talking to me. They know what would happen to them."
"So, arranging a hit squad for Parsifal Campion was done on your orders?"
"What?"
At that point Ironwood said, "Gentlemen. Time is pressing. However, I should say that our own investigations do confirm that Jacques Schnee is correct in saying that Atlas Gold and several other multi-kingdoms did pay for the attempted murder of Parsifal and Brede Campion. Actually, George, Brede was merely going to be collateral damage as was a squad of Atlas troops including Lieutenant Amin." This was calculated to really press home the message. The thought the death of one of his sons was seen as an acceptable cost would be anathema to George Campion, while Sleet would be unhappy about Lieutenant Amin being targeted.
Campion turned to Ironwood, "Is this true? Do you have any proof?"
Ironwood said "Yes. The Ace-Ops with some help from one of our local employees took one of the few remaining participants into protective custody last week and he has been very helpful. The SDC has provided some confirmatory evidence, although they were not involved with the attempted assassination. They say that they thought that it was just alcohol talking when the suggestion was first mooted, but later became aware that the Vacuoan underworld had been approached to organise an attack by bandits. This was mainly due to the disappearance of most people who had been involved. To be fair to Marigold here, there is no evidence linking him to the attempt."
Jacques Schnee said, "Of course, John you know what your employees are up to, and they know when they need to refer back to you. I suppose they thought that killing the relatives of an Atlas Councillor was something that they did not need to check with you."
Ironwood said, "George, I can let you have the evidence to read at your leisure. However, I do have a press announcement to make."
Campion said, "Of course. If Sleet or Camilla agrees with it, then I do as well. Send a copy of the evidence to my house." He got up and left the room, shaking off an attempt by Marigold to catch his arm..
John Marigold was looking poleaxed, "Let me see the alleged evidence as well. Clearly I am outvoted here so do what you like this morning." The man slowly left the room. He had the look of a man who did not expect to find that Ironwood and Jacques were bluffing and had just lost his oldest political ally.
Jacques Schnee stayed behind and said, "Sleet, Camilla, General, a pleasure. I must admit I do wonder whether it is good for Atlas to have a member of the multi-kingdoms as a member of the council especially as the people of Mantle are unrepresented. This is particularly in light of the fact that the multi-kingdoms will be asking for government loans to fund the increased expenditure. I for one would support a removal of the seat for corporations. If nothing else it does seem to prevent people from spending enough time looking after their businesses and they do expect favours in return for doing their job."
It took only five minutes for Sleet and Camilla to agree the text of the announcement. Sleet was happy that it was designed to reduce the scope for human/Faunus conflict. Besides which military matters were out of their comfort zone, they were not used to staying up all night and the potential political demise of John Marigold was distracting.
This was a long one and I had originally intended to include some thoughts from the White Fang side of things. I do not know whether I have been too cynical or not cynical enough with the cover up. By the way I did think about whether I could justify Jacques not being interested in the council seat with the show and decided I could on the basis he only wanted the seat to lift the Dust embargo and the travel blockade.
