Ogilvy patted Pilkins on the back. "Good work, Pilkins," he said. "We found him and got what we wanted all before the sun went down."
"Well, thank you, sir" Pilkins replied, unsure of how to react to such encouragement. "Um, the Commander will want you to talk to him right after something like this."
"Sure, sure. I'll be off then." Ogilvy shook hands with Aahmiah and they both went their separate ways through the New Eden Federal HQ. Ogilvy took to the stairwell while Aahmiah retreated into his office where he replaced all his weaponry and armour before sitting down and relaxing. He looked at all the paintings that coated his plain grey concrete walls. Pictures of Buddha and other Dark Age religious mementos brought him to a more peaceful state of mind. He was glad the operation went down with minimal casualties and was a success. He truly felt accomplished. All of a sudden, a tone started blaring from the phone on his desk and he almost fell back on his chair. When he saw the tone was the Commander summoning him to his office, he let out a loud grunt before leaving the room, feet slapping on the floor like a child leaving the playground.
Ogilvy turned to the doorway to see who the footsteps coming up the corridor belonged to. Aahmiah strolled on in and gave a light punch to Ogilvy's shoulder before positioning himself to the left of him in front of the Commander. Commander Ilupen stood behind his desk, hands behind his back. "Sergeant Ogilvy, Sergeant-Commander Aahmiah, what have you got for me?" Ogilvy tapped on his left armour chest plate and removed a black block. He stepped forward, placed the block onto the table and stepped back. Aahmiah looked at the block and then looked back up at Ogilvy, giving a thumbs up. Ilupen held the block in the air and tapped a small rhythm into the top of it with his fingers. A hologram of audio wavelengths appeared. Mernov's words began to play, describing the BBB, the sudden disappearance, the silver suitcase, the Culter agent. "Men, I don't think any of us knows how the interrogated knew about all this but his word is as good as whatever Head of Intelligence Pilkins can scrounge up so we'll go along with it," started Commander Ilupen. "What it sounds like to me is that a bunch of bandits bit off more than they can chew in Secreta technology. Possibly an argument brought an end to the gang, or possibly it was an attack by the Secreta. If it's the former, than this investigation goes on no longer. But that leaves out the deaths of scouting squad that searched the most recent case of gang infighting so that can only mean the latter. Effective immediately, this investigation is high priority."
Ogilvy and Aahmiah looked at each other and looked back at Commander Ilupen. Ogilvy broke the silence that followed Ilupen's summary. "What do you suppose we do next?" he asked.
"We need to know what the Secreta are up to and if this is their doing," Ilupen instructed. "This will not be easy so I'm going to assemble the other Commanders and discuss our next move. If the Secreta are doing this and plan on targeting us, than this is war. You two are to report back to me tomorrow for further instructions. Until then, dismissed." Ogilvy and Aahmiah saluted the commander and forwarded out of his office.
The duo returned to their offices. Ogilvy found his door wide open even though he swears he had closed it before the meeting with the Commander. "Someone's getting really sloppy," he said out loud. La Roux rose from the other side of his desk and left the room. Ogilvy grew suspicious from the lack of response that he usually expected from encounters such as this. He slowly walked to his desk and sat down at his chair. It was warm, as though someone had already been sitting in it very recently. Letting down his guard, he booted up his computer and perused the dispatch log for anything that could contribute to his investigation. According to the log, two cases of gang infighting and another killed-in-action scout group appeared yesterday. Ogilvy looked at maps that had been highlighted with the locations of recent Federal activity and applied a filter for gang infighting. The infighting appeared to spread from the first case instead of randomly occurring in different areas. This lead Ogilvy to suspect that these cases are not random and that something is causing them. Clearly, these aren't just random arguments that are causing firefights to burst. Ogilvy held a button on his phone down while asking for Aahmiah to come to his office.
Upon Aahmiah's appearance through the doorway, Ogilvy gestured him over with his hand. Aahmiah took a look at the screen and studied the map and the highlights. "What does it mean?" he asked.
"These circles are the locations of recent gang deaths," Ogilvy explained. "Do you notice how there is almost no variation in the placements?" Aahmiah nodded. "We sent, so far, two scout groups to gather any information that can from these fights. These red circles are the last known locations we could track them to." Ogilvy tapped on the keyboard twice and clicked the mouse. Two red circles appeared almost directly over one of the areas with the most gang deaths. Aahmiah remained silent as he tried to draw links between the positions of the circles. "Now what I reckon is going on," Ogilvy began, "is that something is causing the gangs to fight amongst themselves leaving no survivors, and then waits for the scouts to arrive before doing the same to them. I'll send my findings to the Commander and let him take this into account. These are definitely co-ordinated attacks." Ogilvy opened his main window in order to open his emails but found that the background has changed to a heart shape made of numbers with the words 'Oggy and Roxxy' inside. Aahmiah got up and left almost instantly, leaving behind an annoyed-as-usual Ogilvy with his palm over his face. Ogilvy will never understand how the best tracker in New Eden could be so immature, and hates her for it.
With the data sent off and no calls to action from Aahmiah, Ogilvy took the rest of the night off. He said his goodbyes to Aahmiah and drove to his home. The wooden interior was almost a museum exhibit of Dark Ages architecture. He had his much-loved leather couch, a 60" holographic television complete with a black square behind it to stop the wooden wall from interfering with the colouration of the screen. The floors were the same wood as the walls. His kitchen supplied only the essentials; pots and pans, fridge, microwave, oven, dishwasher, stereo, phone and none of that decorative crap he saw no need for. The tabletops were a black stony-patterned limestone. The kitchen sat to the right of the lounge room, perpendicular to the stairs that lead up to the bathroom, his bedroom and the guest room. Each room had windows that displayed the buildings that surrounded his house and let barely any solar light in. His front yard was mowed occasionally, but otherwise had nothing attention-grasping, just grass and bushes that lined the fences to the left and right. It was a modest home for a highly payed Federal sergeant, but supplied the necessities and a little bit more, and that's all Ogilvy would ask for.
The evening passed peacefully and Ogilvy was fully rested and ready to get back to work. After his breakfast and morning television, he got into his SpecFor suit and left for the Federal HQ. Upon his arrival, he saw Pilkins standing outside the door, his uniform almost silhouetted by the lights inside the building, clipboard and pen in hand as per usual. Pilkins was never one to call someone to his office when he had something important to say. "No need to sign in at your office," he told Ogilvy. "The commander has asked me to make sure you do not delay and attend his office immediately." Ogilvy nodded and marched through the doorway. Aahmiah's door was closed with his "out" sign hung over the keypad next to it, so Ogilvy knew not to knock and say his good mornings.
Once he reached the Commander's office, he saw Aahmiah already standing to the left and Ilupen standing behind his desk, hands behind his back. Ilupen nodded towards the door and Ogilvy slammed on the close button with the side of his fist. "Don't slam my buttons, will ya?" Ilupen beamed. "Our maintenance men are off-world for their grading and I don't want to be locked in my own office." Ogilvy remained silent, standing straight. "Now, to the matter at hand. Sergeant Ogilvy was able to cross-reference two sets of data concerning our scouts and bandit deaths. I brought the data to the meeting and I was able to get the other Commanders on our side with this one. We now have permission to send investigators off-world."
"Why would we need to leave New Eden?" asked Aahmiah.
"One of the Commanders at the meeting specialised in cybermancy and took his own look at our data," Ilupen explained. "He detected interference in the areas surrounding the locations of the deaths, more intense around more recent deaths. This could simply be implants draining their own energy before shutting down, but the interference could only be detected on a certain frequency." Ilupen removed a black cube from his hip compartment and tapped on it a few times before setting it down on the table. A hologram of a spaceship appeared with very strong golden colouring. "This is a Secreta squad transport ship that was found orbiting around just outside of New Eden's atmosphere. Thermal scans found no traces of life and no traces of machine activity. Cyber scans, on the other hand, found interference on the same frequency as the interference surrounding the bodies. The ship was absolutely teeming with the stuff. This is where you two, plus two additional allies will be deployed to this ship to investigate. Now, the Secreta are known for being secretive – it's basically their name – so this ship could be a trap. All four of you have remarkable combat records so I believe it wouldn't be an issue should it be true."
"Who are our helpers?" asked Ogilvy. Out of the darkness of the corners, a man in a fully black and red armoured suit steps out and into the light of the hologram. His armour was blood-red with black binding around the edges of each plate. His helmet was similar to Culter headgear in that it resembled a knight from the Dark Ages, but instead has three midnight-blue lights where the visor should be. The lights were placed like corners of a triangle, indicating that the man in the suit was Orus and needed somewhere for his third eye to see out of. Around his waist was a tight, black utility belt that holstered a modified .222, three grenades on his right and a large, bright green syringe with a plastic lid on the needle was stored horizontally across his belt buckle, which was a golden Federation insignia. His hands remained behind his back and he stood with a proud posture.
"Meet Carpenter," said Ilupen. "He's a combat technician who will help get you anywhere you need to be on that ship." Carpenter raised his right hand in front and waved to the duo. "He was assigned to us by the Equator HQ. He came a long way to be here so you've got even more of a reason not to let this fail. He is very well equipped and received training only slightly outmatched by yours. He will prove to be a valuable asset to this mission."
Carpenter approached Ogilvy and held his hand out. Ogilvy took him up on the offer and shook his hand. "A pleasure to be working with you," Carpenter said, his deep Orus voice complimenting his intimidating appearance. Carpenter moved on and gave Aahmiah a handshake before stepping back next to the Commander.
"I'll finish up with bringing Carpenter up to speed," said Ilupen. "You two are to gather your things and be ready for space travel in half an hour. Dismissed."
"Who is our fourth partner?" asked Aahmiah.
"You'll meet them before you depart. Now go get ready." Ogilvy and Aahmiah saluted the Commander and forwarded out of his office. The pair grabbed the same equipment as the previous mission and met on the roof of the HQ, where the transport will be located and ready for departure. The Commander shortly arrived with Carpenter close behind him. Commander Ilupen stood next to the shuttle opening where the doors slowly retracted open. Carpenter entered the shuttle after saluting the Commander. Ogilvy and Aahmiah followed him shortly after. As the doors closed again, the Commander saluted the men on board. Carpenter took his seat in the cockpit and engaged all the engines. Aahmiah took his seat next to him whilst Ogilvy took a look around. He opened the only other door on the shuttle, and discovered the fourth partner.
-{Carpenter Bridley: Monologue File #00005}
TIMESTAMP: 05/02/00015
Training update. My last task was a success. I am now ready to join forces with Central New Eden HQ to assist with an investigation they are carrying out. All equipment has arrived. I have learnt how to use each and every individual weapon and tool I will have at my disposal. End monologue.
{End Holonote}-