Chapter 4 - Aurum
January 10th, 2544 (15:20 Hours – Military Calendar)
Epsilon Eridani System, Reach
Undisclosed Location
4 Days After the Molnar Bombing
:********:
White walls, sterile hallways and lights without any visible source had comprised everything Lieutenant Riat Cordova had seen for the past several hours. It was enough to drive a person insane given enough time, and knowing who she worked for, there was a high chance that that was its purpose. Perhaps it was a subtle psych examination meant to test the mental state of the person inside.
Cordova had to stop herself from overthinking, no easy feat considering her profession. She was paid to overthink, to consider possibilities others wouldn't dare imagine. Oftentimes it was the ludicrous and absurd that proved to be correct. Maybe that said a lot about the times. After all, when was the last time humanity faced an existential threat from a superior enemy?
Then again, Cordova hadn't just spent the last four days investigating the actions of the Covenant. No, this was a different, much older enemy.
Suddenly seams appeared within the otherwise featureless wall in front of her. It formed a door that slid aside with a metallic hiss to reveal a white hallway beyond. An automated woman's voice with a detectable British accent spoke.
"Lieutenant Cordova, The Colonel has been expecting you."
"I'm sure he has." Cordova said as she got up. She took a deep breath to steady herself then strode inside.
The hallway seemed to stretch on until ceiling and floor met in some extremely distant horizon. After thirty seconds spent walking forward, she stopped and turned to the right. Another door materialized itself inside the wall, sliding apart to reveal a dark room.
Cordova willed herself to step inside and the doors closed behind her.
A single ceiling light turned on over a chair placed in front of a large table. She pulled out the chair and sat down.
As far as she could tell there was no one else in the room. It was quiet. She shifted in her seat and the walls absorbed the sound.
Where was he? Cordova knew the AI had allowed her access to the debriefing room for her scheduled report. Her CO should be here.
"I believe you have my report, Lieutenant?" A male voice said from somewhere in the dark. Cordova stiffened and peered further into the room. She couldn't tell whether it was her imagination or if her eyes were actually able to carve out a single silhouette, a shadow whose vague shape melded and dissolved with the surrounding blackness. It just so happened to be sitting opposite her.
Cordova swallowed. "Yessir. I believe you received my files?"
"Yes." The darkness replied.
"We-"
"ADT 6849-9." The dark interrupted. "Activate the presentation board and upload Cordova's report to it as well as my personal pad."
The British sounding AI answered. "The requested file has been successfully uploaded to both devices."
Behind Cordova, a presentation board activated and its light filled the room. As it booted up, it showed a black and white pyramid with a central circle: the symbol of the Office of Naval Intelligence.
"Lieutenant, if you would be so obliged."
Cordova looked back to the faint silhouette and noticed that it was still difficult to distinguish from the rest of the room. She got up and stood near the board. It sensed her presence and the screen changed to two images. The first displayed the mushroom cloud that had been seen by so many in the city of New Alexandria. The other showed the large building that had stood there before the explosion. The skyscraper was the regional headquarters of the Molnar Colonial Bank, a financial institution prominent amongst the inner colonies.
"As you already know," Cordova began. "On January 6th, an explosion with a blast radius of 300 meters went off within the Molnar Regional Headquarters."
She moved her hand. The screen swiped over to the 3-Dimensional depiction of the building's schematics. Cordova magnified the 7th sublevel where a ball of light popped into existence and rapidly expanded out. The explosion rippled upwards through the building's floors in microseconds. Cordova wondered how it might have been for the people working there a heartbeat before they suddenly no longer existed.
The explosion funneled through windows, splitting the structural foundation in two before shattering the building completely, sending out a deadly pressure wave over three kilometers.
"Total civilian casualties amounted to more than 6,000, of which 1,952 were fatalities. We only allowed Waypoint and other media outlets to reveal a third of the actual figures."
She did a circle with her fingers and the explosion reversed course, heading back into the Molnar as the building reformed itself. She stopped it once it reached the small ball of light.
"The explosion began here, on sublevel 7, inside a storage vault. Our EOD Specialists recovered samples from the site."
The screen changed to small pieces of gold under a microscope.
"We found an unusual quantity of gold fragments close to ground-zero, even recovering whole bars that were still intact. Forensics revealed the gold had extraordinarily high traces of Iridium mixed within its chemical composition. Even the few undamaged bars showed the presence of high Iridium composites. This is unusual because the average quantity we detected was approximately 7.4 times higher than the acceptable limit within which gold bars can be used as liquid assets. That's according to the CAA's legislation on the management of permissible, non-credit based currencies."
"I'm aware of the legislation of 2409." The darkness said. "It sounds like someone was running a racket at the Molnar. But how does that relate to the bombing?"
Cordova nodded. "Beyond the Iridium, we found high traces of explosive residue matching the chemical profile of Composition 12. As you're aware, mixing regular, everyday items with explosive compounds was a common practice by a certain enemy."
"…The Insurrectionists…" The voice said pensively. Cordova thought she saw the silhouette rematerialize and lean forward, thinking. She felt free to continue when he said nothing more.
"During the Insurrection, in Operations like TREBUCHET, the primary cause of UNSC casualties were IEDs disguised as normal objects. One example was an incident on Tribute in 2524 when the wheels of a truck were used to destroy an entire Jim Dandy restaurant. It killed 3 Marines and 38 civilians. We can think of this as the same incident on a much larger scale."
"So, it's the Innies then." The silhouette said. "I suspected as much, but what other evidence do you have to convince me they signed their personal signature on that mushroom cloud?"
Cordova ran through the presentation in her mind. She shifted the screen to the mug shot of an Eastern European man in a business suit whose face suggested he wasn't having the best day.
"This is Adorjan Adami, the Manager of the Molnar Regional Headquarters Building. Mr. Adami was not at the Molnar at the time of the explosion. We caught him at the Starport about to take an out-system shuttle. After some questioning we were given access to the Molnar's Account Information Servers. A thorough search found a single account that had transferred nearly 200,000,0000 credit's worth of gold to the vault where the explosion occurred. This transfer started with the first deposit in 2532 and ending with the latest deposit as recently as two days prior to the meeting at the Octavia."
Cordova flipped to the next image which showed a catalogue of enterprises. "We couldn't access any personal communications between the Molnar and this account owner except for private conversations between Mr. Adami himself and our unidentified party.
We're not certain why yet but Adami agreed to have the Molnar act as an unofficial investment bank, converting the gold's worth into credits before funding over 49 different organizations. Most are ordinary corporations who we found no solid connections to. It seems Adami and some within the management were using this account to send out the money as investment funding. The only one we found of particular interest was the group at the very top of the list."
Cordova swiped her hand and a picture came on. This one was a symbol of two arrowheads, one inverted and phased over the other to form a letter 'A'.
"The Aegis Material Acquisition and Defensive Delivery Services, or AMADDS, is a mercenary group for hire that emerged around the same time as the mysterious account was made. They're the only group under a contractual agreement between the account owner and Mr. Adami to receive a consistent funding of 20% of the account's monetary worth annually. Little is known about them except that they're black market hitmen on different colony worlds. Other than that, there's little known, even by ONI. To add on top of that, Adami doesn't even know the identity of the account owner. Even worse is that we tried hacking all of his devices for the information but couldn't trace what we found to any known person or entity."
"Have you tried everything to get answers?" The voice asked.
"Everything, sir."
"Everything?" He asked again, prying further.
"Everything within our operational limits, sir." Cordova said. She heard a huff from the darkness.
"Mr. Adami is potentially responsible for the deaths of thousands. If he has valuable information about this account owner or the AMADDS, that leaves us well within our rights to violate his."
"Human rights, sir?" Cordova asked.
"Whatever rights we see fit to recognize." The voice answered, a hint of anger stalking in his tone. "Anyway, what else did you find?"
Cordova hadn't realized how tense she had become during the exchange. She relaxed her stance. "There was a hunch, sir."
"Hunch?"
"The bars contained high levels of Composition 12. It's likely that bars with internal 'timers' were set to go off around the same time as the armament deal once news of it went mainstream. That means that the account owner, whoever they are, was planning this for potentially more than a decade."
"You're telling me there's someone out there who predicted that Hood would have an armaments deal in the High Octavia? And planted bombs just 2 kilometers away in excess of 12 years?" The voice cackled to himself. "Hmph, I bet the old hag couldn't even see that far into the future, and that's a terrifying precedent in and of itself. Go on, Lieutenant."
"It's possible that they were simply placing the bombs there since Reach is so important strategically. They're goal in detonating it on the same day as the Armament Deal may have been more for psychological affect."
"…To say they could have taken out the heart of the UNSC right then and there if they really wanted to." The voice thought to himself. "If that's the case then we need to hunt them down immediately."
"And we may know where to start hunting, sir." Cordova said.
There was a moment of silence from the dark before the response came. "Really?"
Cordova switched to the image of a planet's upper atmosphere.
"As for a signature on the mushroom cloud, the gold's high Iridium levels are characteristic of the gold used by mining facilities on Epsilon Eridani IV, specifically the lesser continent of Arany."
Another image appeared. It showed a continent connected to an even larger landmass by a massive isthmus.
"Arany is rich in Iridium and known for its Iridium mines that flourished around 2440. However, these mines were shut down by UNSC authorities on the planet during the Insurrection. Rebels began using them to mix gold with large amounts of Iridium before flooding the markets, selling them as pure gold to support their efforts against the colonial authorities. This threatened the economic stability of the Eridani system and forced the UNSC to shut them down."
"An old racket." The voice commented.
"However." Cordova continued. "In the wake of the Insurrection, most UNSC forces that once secured the mines were redeployed after the Covenant were first encountered on Harvest. This would've given anyone the chance to return to operate the mines in secret.
Operating on this hunch, we acquired access to Stealth Tactical Aerial Reconnaissance Satellites placed over Arany. We discovered that satellite observations by Section II had gone mostly unrecorded for years. This was due to the lack of Insurrectionist presence on the surface as well as the need for satellite-intel gathering operations against the Covenant."
The board showed pictures of a large complex deep within Arany. They carried the dates the pictures were taken as they moved forward through time.
"Construction began on structures around the Meleonich Mining Facility, one of many closed during the Insurrection. Around May of 2531, the facility suddenly disappeared."
Sure enough, the compound vanished in its totality beneath a layer of wildlife.
"Thermal scans around 2531 revealed that not only was the facility still there, but it also had a growing population."
The board showed thermal scans of the area with at first a few dozen, then hundreds and finally several thousand by the time it reached 2544.
The silhouette observed the scans for a few seconds.
"You may not know this." He said. "But ONI had tracked one of the three major leaders of the Insurrection here to Epsilon Eridani before he dropped off our radar. We captured Watts in 2525 and killed Graves in 2531. But the third head honcho got away.
"You mean Major Benjamin Kirkley?" Cordova asked. "The former UNSC Army Major that defected to the URF?"
Cordova immediately understood where the conversation was going.
"You're saying he's on Epsilon Eridani IV, sir?"
"I'm saying there's a chance." The silhouette corrected. "This mining operation began around the same time that he disappeared. To have hidden the entire Meleonich Building from us, they must be using Photo-Reflective Jammer Stations. Its the only known human technology capable of fooling satellites like this, meaning this is no simple enemy. Kirkley may be our missing link and if he's really down there…"
A deep, contemplative silence passed. It lasted for half a minute and even Cordova found herself pondering the possibilities.
"Lights." The voice said.
Immediately, light flooded the room, prying away the mask of shadows from the individual sitting on the opposite side. He was a balding middle-aged man sporting a UNSC Army Officer's uniform. The eagle insignia of a Colonel was pinned to his shoulder beside the insignia of ONI. Beneath it was a tag that read 'J. Ackerson'. He had a smug yet contemplative look on his face that suggested the beginnings of machinations ready to move heaven and earth to have their way.
Cordova realized this was her first time seeing her new CO. Being a Section 2 girl herself, she had been reasonably wary when her original superior informed her that she would be heading an investigative team under Section 3 leadership. A joint operation between the otherwise autonomous Sections was rare in the Office of Naval Intelligence. To have abruptly formed one had surprised Cordova more than the bombing itself. Yet she had to follow orders.
At length, the man rose from his seat and strode over to her. "Congratulations Lieutenant, you may have just caught us a big fish." He held out his hand to shake. Cordova was suspicious of the gesture. Still she forced herself to shake it.
"Thank you, sir."
"Now understand this, Lieutenant. I've been given express authority from HIGHCOM's Security Committee to pursue whatever course of action I think necessary to capture and or neutralize those responsible for the Molnar Bombing. It's a blank check and I want you on it."
"Sir?"
"You have the diligence and intelligence I'll need to accomplish the task that lies ahead of us. You'll be serving as my personal aid until this whole thing is over. Understood?"
Cordova noticed that his hand grip had tightened almost imperceptibly. She knew it was better to simply get the job done so this whole operation would be over sooner. She met his tight grip with her own.
"Understood. I'll do what I can to help, sir."
:********:
Two days later and Cordova was back in the Colonel's office. Organizing a Task Force capable of dealing with the possible Rebel presence on Epsilon Eridani IV was shaping up to be a perpetual game of tug-o-war.
Colonel James Ackerson favored a more direct approach with Marines and Armored Units invading the mining facility. Cordova favored a stealthier approach, using ODSTs to first investigate the site and confirm the enemy presence there. To simply bring the hammer down without any real considerations for what was really there could lead to an incident of massive proportions. Then they would have to cover up a massacre, which was already a difficult enough task for Section 1 every other week, courtesy of the Covenant of course.
She didn't seem to be able to convince Ackerson of her point. It was as if it were a different man that had asked her to be part of his "blank check" two days ago. He either refused to listen or refuted her points with a measure of logic mixed with personal preference.
'I've seen your recommendations, Lieutenant." Ackerson said. "However, it's not feasible for what's necessary here."
At the moment they were arguing in front of the presentation board which showed the two roster lists of units they were considering for the operation. Earlier he had asked her to compile such a list to present to him, but she hadn't thought it would be just so he could refute it with his own.
"Sir." Cordova replied. "An ODST Team could land out of scanner range, neutralize the Jammer Stations and confirm the Insurrectionist presence at the Meleonich."
"Lieutenant." Ackerson said, a growing irritation in his voice. "You haven't considered that since they have Jammer Stations, its equally likely that they will have the capacity to detect any major UNSC forces as soon as they enter local space.
If they detect those forces ahead of time then chances are high that whatever High Value Targets are there will take the opportunity to flee. We'll risk losing Kirkley as well as ODSTs needlessly. Which is why we'll use the 202nd Expeditionary Marine Division's 1st Battalion as the main ground force. With assistance from the 25th Aerial Reserve Wing and the 75th Armored Division, not to mention an entire battlegroup, we'll crush even the faintest traces of rebellion on that planet."
He folded his arms and looked at her, as if daring her to suggest otherwise.
"I disagree, sir." Cordova said. The moment his face hardened told her that hereon in she was walking on eggshells. "A tactical insertion enables us to confirm the degree of the hostile presence at the facility. We may very well be walking into a bloodbath in the enemy's favor without that intel. Thermal scans can't show us everything sir. We need eyes on the ground."
Ackerson seemed to briefly consider the matter, then furrow his brows as he grew more irritated. "Your assessment is noted. That said, we cannot allow someone like Kirkley to escape if he's there."
"If." Cordova emphasized. "How can we confirm unless we send someone down there?"
A scowl crossed Ackerson's face. Cordova could tell he didn't like his plans being criticized as they were now. High-ranking officers in ONI never had to worry about a lower-class agent questioning their plans. But he had made her his liaison officer. While it didn't put them on equal footing, at the very least it allowed her to point out factors that he may not have otherwise considered.
Then she thought of something. Section 3 was the branch of ONI responsible for weapon's and technology development. They specialized in 'black ink' programs prioritizing the creation of new technologies, particularly via captured Covenant tech, into usable resources for the UNSC's war effort. She had been lucky up until this point that he hadn't dismissed her. What she was about to do now was push her luck over the edge.
"Is there a way for ODSTs to deploy secretly to the ground without being detected, even from space?"
She hadn't said it directly: Is there a secret developmental program run by a subdivision of Section 3 that can help us out of our dilemma? But she might as well have said it.
Ackerson didn't respond the way she expected. She figured he would point out the fact that she had no authority to ask for such classified information, then have her kicked off the mission, demoted and recommended for psychological evaluation by ONI Psych Branch.
Instead, the Colonel stood hand to chin. An idea seemed to come to mind, one he looked uncertain about. He sat back behind his desk and sank deeply into his chair.
"ADT 6849-9, establish tertiary and quaternary encryption lockouts on all communication sensors connected to this room."
A second later the British-sounding AI answered. "Tertiary and Quaternary Layer encryption lockouts are activated."
Ackerson sighed, pinching his nose thoughtfully.
"…There is a way." He said and clasped his hands together. "We developed a technology, an advanced variant of the ODSTs' Human Entry Vehicle. We call it the Long-Range Stealth Orbital Insertion Pod. Essentially, while HEV's can only be launched from a vessel in orbit around a planet, the LRSOIP can be launched from a ship still in slipspace. They're also stealthed to make them undetectable from groundside radar systems."
Cordova winced. When had they even acquired the knowhow to develop such technology? Then again, she reminded herself that it was Section 3. Anything that came out for use by the UNSC was likely a play toy for them 20 years earlier.
"That's perfect, sir."
"There' just one problem." Ackerson leaned onto the table. "They haven't been tested in real world combat conditions."
"How would that be a problem, sir?" Cordova asked.
"Not exactly a problem." Ackerson corrected. "Merely the risk of one. This means whoever you suggested for the op will be the first to field test it. They'll need a month or two of training beforehand. And that worries me because the longer we take the greater the window our enemy has to escape."
"It's still a worthy risk." Cordova said. "It gives us the chance to recon without immediately alerting the enemy. Won't it be worth the capture of a man like Kirkley?"
Ackerson breathed out and took a slow breath in. "I see your point, Lieutenant. Alright, I'll pull some strings to get access to the Pods and get you access to their specs. Now for your end of the deal." He squinted back at the board.
"Are you sure about your selection?"
Cordova glanced back at the unit she had chosen for the job. "Yessir. They're a veteran unit and the best option in my opinion."
"I see." Ackerson said. He turned back to her. "In the end it seems we'll both get what we want."
"Not exactly, sir." Cordova said. "You still haven't approved of my final recommendation on the operational roster."
Cordova felt the air in the room shift unexpectedly. It felt heavy. It manifested itself around the sharp change in the Colonel's demeanor. He was no longer relaxed but visibly stiffened. She saw something metastasize behind his eyes that reminded her she was still merely a subordinate.
"That recommendation." He nearly growled. "will not be included."
"Sir? Why not?"
"Because this operation is able to be conducted successfully by Marines, Navy Pilots, Tank Operators and Shock Troopers." He shot her a look that could have melted through Titanium A armor. "Ordinary human beings."
Cordova quickly realized she wasn't walking on eggshells anymore. She was walking on the minefield of Ackerson's explosive ego. She swallowed.
"With respect sir, aren't you aware of the rumors that have been spreading across the frontlines over the years? It's no longer an impossibility to deploy them alongside regular troops."
"They're a liability in more ways than one. But I doubt someone of your rank could understand that." He had taken aim at her credibility. Maybe hers wasn't much compared to his own. Either way she knew she needed to press her point. Lives were on the line.
"Colonel. During my initial report, you spoke on the capture of Colonel Watts in 2525 and the elimination of General Graves in 2531. Both were extremely high-profile Insurrectionist leaders that led rebellions within entire star systems, and they were both taken out. No ordinary human beings, no ODSTs even, could have pulled off such clandestine operations as those, sir."
Ackerson sat back and grumbled under his breath. "I'm not about to let Halsey get the glory for this one."
Perhaps he was just that angry, but Cordova inwardly recoiled at what may have been a gross breach of military secrecy. Dr. Halsey was famous within ONI, a first rate intellectual.
Sensitive information may have been dumped right in front of her. Information leaks within ONI were as feared as someone with Hemophobia finding out they were internally hemorrhaging. The Office specialized in making problematic people disappear. The only problem with that was that it made life dangerous for agents themselves. That was because they were surrounded by others that knew how to effectively erase a person.
The Lieutenant feigned ignorance so the Colonel wouldn't think she overheard him. She leaned in closer. "We need them. I'm not aware of how extensive their service records are. What I can assume is that if we want the best chances of capturing someone like Kirkley, we'll need them on the Task Force."
Cordova was constantly watching Ackerson's face to make sure she wasn't stepping on a proverbial landmine. The furrowed brow and angry scowl slowly growing on his face, added by the fact he remained silent, told her she may have barely avoided one.
"Colonel, if we capture Kirkley, you will still be given full credit for the success of the operation. It's still your operation."
Cordova's last words seemed to slowly defuse the man. His brow gradually relaxed and his scowl lightened as whatever internal demons she had accidentally summoned retreated into the depths. His eyes remained steadfastly locked on hers.
"…Alright Lieutenant…you've convinced me."
Cordova perked up. "You'll use them?"
"You've convinced me to consider it." He said and nodded towards the door. "You're dismissed for today."
The Lieutenant felt she still had more to say but decided that it was a battle well fought. She rose up, saluted and walked out the room.
:********:
Hubris.
Colonel James Ackerson knew, like any sensible agent, that if you wanted to make any headway at all within the Office of Naval Intelligence then you had to have a certain measure of it in your system, at least a few millilitres above the healthy dose. It gave you an edge over the less motivated within the rank and file. You rose up because you knew that working to emphasize your own success would ultimately contribute to the continuation of humanity, the UNSC and most importantly, ONI itself.
But there were some that simply didn't understand that. They were the ones that would always be subordinate to those who did.
Once the seams of the door frame disappeared, Ackerson started tapping his office table. Why was he so irritated? His initial observation of Lieutenant Cordova when he chose her to be responsible for field investigations told him she was the perfect subordinate. Loyal, but not to herself. He felt he could use that. Even so, that conversation had exposed an element within the agent that he wasn't fond of. She was willing to question what should have been unquestionable. He detected a hint of independence. Moreover, and perhaps more dangerously, she seemed to know more than she was letting on or was at least giving off that impression.
No, that wasn't it.
Then it clicked. She reminded him of someone. The way she left the room even mirrored how a certain Lieutenant Commander had also questioned him at a point in their relationship of officer and subordinate. The latter's tendency towards independence was a given. His job required adaptability by its very nature. But the only reason Ackerson was willing to tolerate it was because it got him results. It was the kind of long-term investment that bore fruit every 7 years and increased his own career service vitae in the sight of HIGHCOM.
Ackerson realized he was anxious, not angry. That was because at the moment there was little over a year left before the next 300 results were finally ready. It was a long time to wait but the fact that the waiting period was winding down made him anxious.
His attention shifted to Cordova. While a capable liaison officer, she certainly had potential. He decided that he would keep an eye on her. Hopefully, she would also bring him preferential results in the coming days.
The Colonel thought back to what he told the Lieutenant about 'ordinary human beings' being the ones to bring success in the eventual operation. He smiled and laughed to himself. How could he not? Afterall, only one of them was fully aware of how impossibly hypocritical that statement actually was.
Aurum - Gold