Chapter 6: Casualty Reports
The lift doors opened silently, revealing a large room, around the size of a tennis court. In the middle of the space, a man stood, talking on a comlink. Below his feet, a holographic display lit up the entire floor, a standard placement for any EDF facility. Currently, its display showed a schematic of the headquarters we currently resided in, with red dots indicating casualties. I shivered. There were too many dots to count.
"Commander. They're here." Commander Singleton looked up from the holomap at us. Although in his mid-fifties, the war had toughened him beyond his years. Of course, his balding head only accentuated the air of seniority that he had about him, especially as he looked upon Malaya, Stone, Nakano and I. He took a step forward, and the holomap shut off.
"What you have just experienced, ladies and gentlemen, is the worst terrorist attack against a military compound in almost fifty years. The lower five floors are covered in corpses of both our unknown attackers, and our communications are still shut off from the outside world. Without any way of reaching the public, we have no idea who they are or why they attacked us."
"Sir, how did they get into the building?" Nakano asked. The holomap turned back on.
"By way of a self-sealing tunnel, dug from points unknown. We haven't gotten anyone down there to check it out yet." The map zoomed in on the basement of the headquarters building, next to the boiler room. A gaping hole the size of a subway tunnel had been blasted into the westernmost wall of the room.
"Sir, permission for our technician take a look at the hole and try and pinpoint where it came from?" Malaya asked.
"Permission granted captain." Malaya saluted and swiftly exited the room, already pulling out her comlink.
"Back to our unwanted guests. It seems that they hacked into our security systems, disabled the automated defense force, locked all of our doors, and forcibly gained entry from below, before-" He paused. There was a great pain in his eyes, and suddenly, he looked very old, like someone who had seen the world slowly decay around his crumpled form. After a moment, he continued. "before slaughtering the majority of our staff on the first five floors. After the marines were called via emergency radio, they tried to force their way into safe rooms on the sixth floor-" he nodded towards Stone, Nakano and I "but most were killed in the process." He sighed.
"Casualty figures?" I asked. He nodded.
"The preliminary reports indicate that almost 700 people were killed overall, with a majority of them being EDF staff. Around 200 militants participated in the assault, though not all of them have been accounted for yet. We're not disclosing any of this information to the press."
"But what about the public? They have the right to know-"
"That the most secure building on earth was invaded and used as a human slaughterhouse? I may be a reasonable man sergeant, but I don't want to cause another mass exodus into the Sub-Mets, especially since that's where we think they're coming from."
"Right sir." I grimaced. Keeping secrets wasn't my number 1 priority, but Singleton made sense. I could see why the EDF had placed him in command. Malaya walked in a few seconds later, her comlink holstered. Presumably, Al was already speeding towards Megaopolis to investigate the mysterious bore.
"Until we find out who ordered this attack and why, Sergeant, I want you and your team to do all the investigating you can on the facility you discovered. By the numbers and condition of the militants that attacked us today I can assure you they must have come from a similar facility."
"Which means that whoever is in charge of this might be attempting a coup d'état." I added.
"Exactly." Commander Stone piped in. "We can't trust the Star Force-"
"-You can't trust the Star Force Stone." Singleton forcibly corrected him. Stone, fazed slightly, continued.
"Um, yes. I don't trust them, and your team has been in the Sub-Mets longer than most. You're perfect for the job."
"Thank you sir." Malaya said. "Shall we be going back to Sub-Kyoto?"
"Yes. That's where this whole thing started. And take Commander Nakano with you. As her office has been shot up, I don't think she'd be able to concentrate anyways." I smiled. Having another person down in the Sub-Mets was always a boon for us.
"Thank you sir. It'll be a pleasure to work with you, commander." She nodded solemnly. Already reports were streaming in from the outside world about the casualty figures, it was apparent that the attackers had spared no mercy for any EDF officers in the building. The sheer brutality of the attack had left all of us shaken.
"You are all dismissed. Go do whatever you can to help the dead and dying below. They need it." We saluted. Singleton did the same, and turned back to his holomap. Commander Stone walked over and stood beside him. Malaya, Nakano and I walked out the door and back into the lift. As the doors closed, I had a creeping feeling that the answers to who was behind the attack were right in front of us.