[HEADING=1]Arc 3 ? Chapter 1: ?New Arrivals?[/HEADING]
The following takes place over a period of ten days, after the occupation of RACDI-Alpha?
The first casualty reports had come in at 6:15am GMT. By the time the headlines rolled on the evening news, over thirty thousand people were dead.
It started with a Mega-Rig in the South China Sea, operated by the Shao Long Conglomerate. At peak capacity, the rig had a workforce of approximately three and a half thousand, ranging from skilled Shao Long employees, to indentured servants drafted there for the express reason that no-one would miss them. Four days after Venture Horizon?s coveted RACDI-Alpha facility had mysteriously gone dark; this rig also stopped reporting in. There was no SOS, nor any indication that communications had been disrupted. The people on the other end of the line had simply stopped responding, in the middle of peak production time. Once suspicions had been roused, advance recon teams from Shao Long?s military forces were dispatched, and arrived at the rig within fifteen minutes, a record response time?
They were too late. Every last person on the rig was dead from exposure to some kind of toxin (what autopsies that were performed delivered a verdict of carbon monoxide poisoning, though in truth the results were inconclusive). By the time an internal investigation could begin, no trace of any toxin remained on the site that could have provided some answers, and it was unclear if there had been any fault in the rigs ventilation fail-safes. With Shao Long now suddenly holding a new Ground Zero in their hands, with nothing concrete with which to respond to the questions being asked of them from all directions, the company?s board of directors were getting ready to lean on every government and media outlet they had a handle on to suppress the story. That was when another facility went offline, followed by two more within the hour.
Things continued much in that vein for the rest of the day. In the end, over a dozen Shao Long facilities suffered catastrophic and unexplained failure, resulting in the deaths of any and all workforce on site at the time. While there was no conclusive proof that there was anything Shao Long could have done to prevent these tragedies, neither could the people in charge offer up any explanation that exonerated them, and all those politicians and media moguls who had previously been under the heel of this corporate super-giant were smelling blood, to say nothing of Shao Long?s competitors, who were quick to point the finger of negligence.
The response from one of the ?Big Five? energy corporations, Ignite Solutions, was livid in particular. Two of the sites in the Indian Ocean that had been hit were joint-managed by Ignite Solutions, a rare symbol of cooperation between these competitors, and their own workforce also suffered mass casualties. Just as they were busy issuing a fierce ultimatum for compensation from Shao Long, however, a leak from a nefarious source inside another of the big players, Capricorn International, pointed a blurry finger and Venture Horizon, circulating online what they claimed to be acquired Venture Horizon documents concerning a corporate sabotage project, code-named ?PHANTOM?.
What followed was a perfect storm of political escalation. Shao Long, eager to grasp at any opportunity to take the heat off themselves, publically condemned Venture Horizon, blaming them whole-heartedly for the catastrophe and threatening retribution. Ignite Solutions was quick to level the same ultimatum it had made against Shao Long to Venture, but without repealing their previous demands to Shao Long, preferring to blame the both of them for the time being. Venture, for their part, dismissed Capricorn?s evidence as complete fabrication (while Capricorn themselves were still searching for where their own leak had supposedly come from, and how they?d managed to get access to such information in the first place), and promised that any hostile action taken by Shao Long or Ignite would be met with retaliation. Almost as an afterthought, Venture launched an accusation of their own, releasing a statement claiming that RACDI-Alpha was currently being occupied by Shao Long forces (though they had little more than their own conjecture to present), and gave Shao Long, who vehemently denied the claims, fifty six hours to pull out before the occupation would be interpreted as an act of war.
Within three days, The Shao Long Conglomerate, Ignite Solutions, and the affiliate nations of both, were conducting ?Rapid-Response Training Exercises? on the fringes of Venture Horizon?s (and each-other?s) territory along fronts in Mongolia, Bengal, and the Black Sea. Faced for the first time with a coalition force that significantly outnumbered their own, Venture played their trump card, de-activating Condor Black-Zones to reveal Venture?s own advance strike forces, already deployed in positions deep inside Shao Long and Ignite territory, ready to launch assaults on military bases and headquarter cities at a moment?s notice.
With three of the five giants now locked in a standoff that seemed to be deteriorating by the hour, Helios Industries, the only super-power not yet implicated in the crisis, stepped forward to diffuse the tensions before things got out of hand. Over the next week, several private talks were held with the other players individually, bringing military manoeuvres to a halt (though not succeeding in reversing them), and the world started breathing a sigh of relief, when it was announced that Helios was laying the groundwork for a summit between all five corporations to find a peaceful resolution.
From her safe-house, somewhere in the Persian dessert, The Talon watched the jubilant news reports coming in, Her inner circle of the most loyal and accomplished Songbirds in attendance. Absent-mindedly, she drummed her bladed, metal fingers on the arm of her chair, and smiled.
?Phase One.?
==================================================================================
Alone at the bar, Selena absent-mindedly played with her empty glass, clumsily tracing its rim with her finger. She looked, in a word, deflated. Her usually immaculate nails chipped and chewed, her hair hanging lankly down over her shoulders, and dark circles beneath her eyes. She supposed it would be churlish of her to complain; with the free reign of the facility, largely unsupervised, that her cooperation with Hammond had brought her, she was just about the freest prisoner in this place. Still, that thought did not particularly comfort her now, and nor did the drink, despite her most valiant efforts.
?What else should I do? I?m a disgrace, I might as well look it.?
?Another!? she slurred loudly, at the bartender who?s name she vaguely remembered, Zach or something.
==================================================================================
?The food drops are getting smaller.? Chen wasted no time in telling everyone, as he dropped a sack full of rations through the small burrow in the ice that led to their hidey hole, and wriggled through after it once he had checked the coast was clear. One inside, he started passing out the rations to the rest of the group, all huddled inside the space just large enough to accommodate their number. The safe havens of Colonel Lee?s faithful were getting fewer and further between.
?I think Hammond?s lot are just starting to realise that they?re going to have to be here a lot longer than they?d anticipated,? he continued ?and they clearly don?t have supply lines of their own.?
The rest could be left unsaid. After the initial chaos of when RACDI-Alpha was overrun, things had at the very least settled down. The few Wardens that weren?t already dead or captured were too smart to slip up now. While the occupying forces were still offering amnesty to Inmates who brought in captive Wardens, the flow had almost completely dried up by now, and for the most part things seemed almost bizarrely back to normal. Many of the Inmates were still mining, or operating the machinery at their workstations, even though the new bosses had no interest in collecting what they produced. Chen guessed it was just easier to keep to the old routine, for lack of anything else to do other than kill each-other. Most of the Inmates didn?t much care who this place belonged to, so long as they were being fed. If that changed though, things would get bad, fast.
?I got a message today.? He said, looking specifically to Yu. ?One of our old contacts. Someone above ground wants to meet, midnight tonight at the Back Door.
Yu was curious. On the one hand, it sounded tenuous as hell. On the other, Chen wouldn?t have bothered saying anything unless he had good reason to believe it was legit. The stakes were too high.
?What was said exactly??
?He relayed the message to me, and told me that ?the lone tiger roars the loudest, even in the lion?s den.??
Yu nodded, convinced. ?Okay.? He said, turning to the rest of the group. ?The Back Door at zero hour, everybody got that??
After days of just skulking around, with no objective other than two keep themselves and Neil alive, the possibility of having a mission again was a welcome one indeed.
==================================================================================
It was with little grace that Hammond decanted the whiskey, placing the bottle back down on the desk with a thud while he took a generous first swig. He had hardly been ignorant of how tough a nut this place could prove to crack. While the layout of RACDI-Alpha was hardly common knowledge to those who had never stepped foot inside it, he?d always imagined there?d be a million places for undesirables to hide in the sprawling, underground tendrils of the complex.
Well, a million had clearly been an underestimate.
In most areas, things had gone remarkably well. The local population was proving relatively calm now that the initial chaos had settled down, and the influx of more enterprising Inmates into their ranks had, in quantity at the very least, made up for much of the losses Hammond?s forces had sustained during the assault. These victories paled in comparison, however, to the task still left to accomplish.
?At first I thought you died well, Lee, but now I take it back. You?re proving to be even more of a nuisance now after I had you shot!?
Cut off from the rest of the Songbird network, not to mention the outside world at large, Hammond and his men had no idea how well or otherwise the plan was proceeding. Had the General?s failure to accomplish his full objective so far cost his superior victory? Was their ultimate doom waiting for them, just over the horizon, because of him?
?No. She would not let such an important plan rest entirely on the success of one, fragile element. Things must still be proceeding regardless. Nobody can stop her now, especially not a dead man! Don?t lose faith now. Succeed while you still can, and any delay will be more than forgiven.?
Taking another heavy gulp, almost draining the glass, Hammond took one last moment to study Lee?s old office. So many comforts treated with such distain; the mark of a man who had grown weak, uncomfortable with the realities of command, a man who had, ultimately, not lived up to his resume as a foe. Hammond would prove to have more teeth, as those who continued to resist would soon learn.
?Tell Barrows I will see him now.? The General said, moving over to the door and rapping his knuckles on it.
==================================================================================
Nikolai leaned over the side of the ship, watching the sunrise. Just visible on the horizon, he could see the outline of land that they would be reaching in a few hours. It would be good to step off onto dry land once again. The cargo ship had seemed massive when he had first seen it, hundreds of meters of dark, rust-streaked metal from end to end (he hadn?t trusted that a thing so heavy could float on the water, let alone move, and it had taken some encouragement from Lucia to persuade him to get on). However, everywhere on board seemed cramped, even the top deck was a maze of narrow spaces between stacks of metal containers. By the end of their week-long voyage, Nikolai was more than a little restless. He?d taken to spending as much of his time as possible out in the open air, despite being warned that they should stay in their cabins so they didn?t get under the feet of the crew while they were working. In the end, it seemed that if the crew really minded, none had wanted to be the one to challenge him, and so Nikolai had been left alone.
His solitude was broken by Natalia appearing on the railing beside him, leaning with her back to the sea as he was leaning forward. While Nikolai did not visibly flinch, he was a little startled. Decades of growing up in The Pit had hard-wired him to always be wary, on the lookout for a shiv in the back, and yet somehow, despite the fact that she was taller than most of the men he had known, Natalia had always been able to sneak up on him.
?You look tired.? She told him, somewhat bashfully, as her eyes searched his face. ?The dreams are getting worse, aren?t they??
Nikolai cricked his neck, his head turned so quickly to look at her. ?How do you-?
?You cry out in your sleep sometimes, and sometimes I hear you.? She interrupted, embarrassed. ?Not that I?m? well, you know. We all have a past. We all ended up in that place for a reason, Nikolai. You?re not alone.?
Nikolai sighed, looking back out across the water.
?My past is screams, and fire, but none of it makes sense. I still don?t remember?? He paused. At the back of his mind, it occurred to Nikolai that he?s never really talked like this to anyone before. He?d discussed the dreams, with Lucia, but he?d never taken the time to explore what they meant, and how he felt. There had always been something more important to do.
?What if I remember, and it turns out I deserved to be put underground?? He admitted, a bitter edge in his voice. ?I have killed men, for as long as I can remember, but it was always to survive; because they were attacking me, or because a Master ordered me to kill them. What if there was a time when I used to kill because I liked it, and I have forgotten? What if I can?t live with the person I remember??
?Stop it.? Natalia said firmly, reaching out and gripping Nikolai?s hand with her own. ?You?re not like that. I know the sort of men who maim and kill for sport. You saved me from some of them, remember? You could never be like that, I know it.?
Nikolai was facing her again, and she was closer than before, leaning forward with her lips parted slightly. Nikolai could see his own scarred visage reflected in her eyes, those big, dark eyes.
They were no more than a few inches apart from one-another, when the moment was ripped to shreds by the ship?s horn letting out a deep bellow, as it drew closer to port. Natalia?s eyes, that had been drinking Nikolai in just a few seconds before, now seemed unable to look at him directly.
?I? should go and find the others.? She said, breaking the silence. ?Make sure everybody is ready.?
No sooner had she come, Natalia fled from him, and once more Nikolai was alone, with nothing to do but watch the land draw closer.
The following takes place over a period of ten days, after the occupation of RACDI-Alpha?
The first casualty reports had come in at 6:15am GMT. By the time the headlines rolled on the evening news, over thirty thousand people were dead.
It started with a Mega-Rig in the South China Sea, operated by the Shao Long Conglomerate. At peak capacity, the rig had a workforce of approximately three and a half thousand, ranging from skilled Shao Long employees, to indentured servants drafted there for the express reason that no-one would miss them. Four days after Venture Horizon?s coveted RACDI-Alpha facility had mysteriously gone dark; this rig also stopped reporting in. There was no SOS, nor any indication that communications had been disrupted. The people on the other end of the line had simply stopped responding, in the middle of peak production time. Once suspicions had been roused, advance recon teams from Shao Long?s military forces were dispatched, and arrived at the rig within fifteen minutes, a record response time?
They were too late. Every last person on the rig was dead from exposure to some kind of toxin (what autopsies that were performed delivered a verdict of carbon monoxide poisoning, though in truth the results were inconclusive). By the time an internal investigation could begin, no trace of any toxin remained on the site that could have provided some answers, and it was unclear if there had been any fault in the rigs ventilation fail-safes. With Shao Long now suddenly holding a new Ground Zero in their hands, with nothing concrete with which to respond to the questions being asked of them from all directions, the company?s board of directors were getting ready to lean on every government and media outlet they had a handle on to suppress the story. That was when another facility went offline, followed by two more within the hour.
Things continued much in that vein for the rest of the day. In the end, over a dozen Shao Long facilities suffered catastrophic and unexplained failure, resulting in the deaths of any and all workforce on site at the time. While there was no conclusive proof that there was anything Shao Long could have done to prevent these tragedies, neither could the people in charge offer up any explanation that exonerated them, and all those politicians and media moguls who had previously been under the heel of this corporate super-giant were smelling blood, to say nothing of Shao Long?s competitors, who were quick to point the finger of negligence.
The response from one of the ?Big Five? energy corporations, Ignite Solutions, was livid in particular. Two of the sites in the Indian Ocean that had been hit were joint-managed by Ignite Solutions, a rare symbol of cooperation between these competitors, and their own workforce also suffered mass casualties. Just as they were busy issuing a fierce ultimatum for compensation from Shao Long, however, a leak from a nefarious source inside another of the big players, Capricorn International, pointed a blurry finger and Venture Horizon, circulating online what they claimed to be acquired Venture Horizon documents concerning a corporate sabotage project, code-named ?PHANTOM?.
What followed was a perfect storm of political escalation. Shao Long, eager to grasp at any opportunity to take the heat off themselves, publically condemned Venture Horizon, blaming them whole-heartedly for the catastrophe and threatening retribution. Ignite Solutions was quick to level the same ultimatum it had made against Shao Long to Venture, but without repealing their previous demands to Shao Long, preferring to blame the both of them for the time being. Venture, for their part, dismissed Capricorn?s evidence as complete fabrication (while Capricorn themselves were still searching for where their own leak had supposedly come from, and how they?d managed to get access to such information in the first place), and promised that any hostile action taken by Shao Long or Ignite would be met with retaliation. Almost as an afterthought, Venture launched an accusation of their own, releasing a statement claiming that RACDI-Alpha was currently being occupied by Shao Long forces (though they had little more than their own conjecture to present), and gave Shao Long, who vehemently denied the claims, fifty six hours to pull out before the occupation would be interpreted as an act of war.
Within three days, The Shao Long Conglomerate, Ignite Solutions, and the affiliate nations of both, were conducting ?Rapid-Response Training Exercises? on the fringes of Venture Horizon?s (and each-other?s) territory along fronts in Mongolia, Bengal, and the Black Sea. Faced for the first time with a coalition force that significantly outnumbered their own, Venture played their trump card, de-activating Condor Black-Zones to reveal Venture?s own advance strike forces, already deployed in positions deep inside Shao Long and Ignite territory, ready to launch assaults on military bases and headquarter cities at a moment?s notice.
With three of the five giants now locked in a standoff that seemed to be deteriorating by the hour, Helios Industries, the only super-power not yet implicated in the crisis, stepped forward to diffuse the tensions before things got out of hand. Over the next week, several private talks were held with the other players individually, bringing military manoeuvres to a halt (though not succeeding in reversing them), and the world started breathing a sigh of relief, when it was announced that Helios was laying the groundwork for a summit between all five corporations to find a peaceful resolution.
From her safe-house, somewhere in the Persian dessert, The Talon watched the jubilant news reports coming in, Her inner circle of the most loyal and accomplished Songbirds in attendance. Absent-mindedly, she drummed her bladed, metal fingers on the arm of her chair, and smiled.
?Phase One.?
==================================================================================
Alone at the bar, Selena absent-mindedly played with her empty glass, clumsily tracing its rim with her finger. She looked, in a word, deflated. Her usually immaculate nails chipped and chewed, her hair hanging lankly down over her shoulders, and dark circles beneath her eyes. She supposed it would be churlish of her to complain; with the free reign of the facility, largely unsupervised, that her cooperation with Hammond had brought her, she was just about the freest prisoner in this place. Still, that thought did not particularly comfort her now, and nor did the drink, despite her most valiant efforts.
?What else should I do? I?m a disgrace, I might as well look it.?
?Another!? she slurred loudly, at the bartender who?s name she vaguely remembered, Zach or something.
==================================================================================
?The food drops are getting smaller.? Chen wasted no time in telling everyone, as he dropped a sack full of rations through the small burrow in the ice that led to their hidey hole, and wriggled through after it once he had checked the coast was clear. One inside, he started passing out the rations to the rest of the group, all huddled inside the space just large enough to accommodate their number. The safe havens of Colonel Lee?s faithful were getting fewer and further between.
?I think Hammond?s lot are just starting to realise that they?re going to have to be here a lot longer than they?d anticipated,? he continued ?and they clearly don?t have supply lines of their own.?
The rest could be left unsaid. After the initial chaos of when RACDI-Alpha was overrun, things had at the very least settled down. The few Wardens that weren?t already dead or captured were too smart to slip up now. While the occupying forces were still offering amnesty to Inmates who brought in captive Wardens, the flow had almost completely dried up by now, and for the most part things seemed almost bizarrely back to normal. Many of the Inmates were still mining, or operating the machinery at their workstations, even though the new bosses had no interest in collecting what they produced. Chen guessed it was just easier to keep to the old routine, for lack of anything else to do other than kill each-other. Most of the Inmates didn?t much care who this place belonged to, so long as they were being fed. If that changed though, things would get bad, fast.
?I got a message today.? He said, looking specifically to Yu. ?One of our old contacts. Someone above ground wants to meet, midnight tonight at the Back Door.
Yu was curious. On the one hand, it sounded tenuous as hell. On the other, Chen wouldn?t have bothered saying anything unless he had good reason to believe it was legit. The stakes were too high.
?What was said exactly??
?He relayed the message to me, and told me that ?the lone tiger roars the loudest, even in the lion?s den.??
Yu nodded, convinced. ?Okay.? He said, turning to the rest of the group. ?The Back Door at zero hour, everybody got that??
After days of just skulking around, with no objective other than two keep themselves and Neil alive, the possibility of having a mission again was a welcome one indeed.
==================================================================================
It was with little grace that Hammond decanted the whiskey, placing the bottle back down on the desk with a thud while he took a generous first swig. He had hardly been ignorant of how tough a nut this place could prove to crack. While the layout of RACDI-Alpha was hardly common knowledge to those who had never stepped foot inside it, he?d always imagined there?d be a million places for undesirables to hide in the sprawling, underground tendrils of the complex.
Well, a million had clearly been an underestimate.
In most areas, things had gone remarkably well. The local population was proving relatively calm now that the initial chaos had settled down, and the influx of more enterprising Inmates into their ranks had, in quantity at the very least, made up for much of the losses Hammond?s forces had sustained during the assault. These victories paled in comparison, however, to the task still left to accomplish.
?At first I thought you died well, Lee, but now I take it back. You?re proving to be even more of a nuisance now after I had you shot!?
Cut off from the rest of the Songbird network, not to mention the outside world at large, Hammond and his men had no idea how well or otherwise the plan was proceeding. Had the General?s failure to accomplish his full objective so far cost his superior victory? Was their ultimate doom waiting for them, just over the horizon, because of him?
?No. She would not let such an important plan rest entirely on the success of one, fragile element. Things must still be proceeding regardless. Nobody can stop her now, especially not a dead man! Don?t lose faith now. Succeed while you still can, and any delay will be more than forgiven.?
Taking another heavy gulp, almost draining the glass, Hammond took one last moment to study Lee?s old office. So many comforts treated with such distain; the mark of a man who had grown weak, uncomfortable with the realities of command, a man who had, ultimately, not lived up to his resume as a foe. Hammond would prove to have more teeth, as those who continued to resist would soon learn.
?Tell Barrows I will see him now.? The General said, moving over to the door and rapping his knuckles on it.
==================================================================================
Nikolai leaned over the side of the ship, watching the sunrise. Just visible on the horizon, he could see the outline of land that they would be reaching in a few hours. It would be good to step off onto dry land once again. The cargo ship had seemed massive when he had first seen it, hundreds of meters of dark, rust-streaked metal from end to end (he hadn?t trusted that a thing so heavy could float on the water, let alone move, and it had taken some encouragement from Lucia to persuade him to get on). However, everywhere on board seemed cramped, even the top deck was a maze of narrow spaces between stacks of metal containers. By the end of their week-long voyage, Nikolai was more than a little restless. He?d taken to spending as much of his time as possible out in the open air, despite being warned that they should stay in their cabins so they didn?t get under the feet of the crew while they were working. In the end, it seemed that if the crew really minded, none had wanted to be the one to challenge him, and so Nikolai had been left alone.
His solitude was broken by Natalia appearing on the railing beside him, leaning with her back to the sea as he was leaning forward. While Nikolai did not visibly flinch, he was a little startled. Decades of growing up in The Pit had hard-wired him to always be wary, on the lookout for a shiv in the back, and yet somehow, despite the fact that she was taller than most of the men he had known, Natalia had always been able to sneak up on him.
?You look tired.? She told him, somewhat bashfully, as her eyes searched his face. ?The dreams are getting worse, aren?t they??
Nikolai cricked his neck, his head turned so quickly to look at her. ?How do you-?
?You cry out in your sleep sometimes, and sometimes I hear you.? She interrupted, embarrassed. ?Not that I?m? well, you know. We all have a past. We all ended up in that place for a reason, Nikolai. You?re not alone.?
Nikolai sighed, looking back out across the water.
?My past is screams, and fire, but none of it makes sense. I still don?t remember?? He paused. At the back of his mind, it occurred to Nikolai that he?s never really talked like this to anyone before. He?d discussed the dreams, with Lucia, but he?d never taken the time to explore what they meant, and how he felt. There had always been something more important to do.
?What if I remember, and it turns out I deserved to be put underground?? He admitted, a bitter edge in his voice. ?I have killed men, for as long as I can remember, but it was always to survive; because they were attacking me, or because a Master ordered me to kill them. What if there was a time when I used to kill because I liked it, and I have forgotten? What if I can?t live with the person I remember??
?Stop it.? Natalia said firmly, reaching out and gripping Nikolai?s hand with her own. ?You?re not like that. I know the sort of men who maim and kill for sport. You saved me from some of them, remember? You could never be like that, I know it.?
Nikolai was facing her again, and she was closer than before, leaning forward with her lips parted slightly. Nikolai could see his own scarred visage reflected in her eyes, those big, dark eyes.
They were no more than a few inches apart from one-another, when the moment was ripped to shreds by the ship?s horn letting out a deep bellow, as it drew closer to port. Natalia?s eyes, that had been drinking Nikolai in just a few seconds before, now seemed unable to look at him directly.
?I? should go and find the others.? She said, breaking the silence. ?Make sure everybody is ready.?
No sooner had she come, Natalia fled from him, and once more Nikolai was alone, with nothing to do but watch the land draw closer.
