Shintenchi Shogunate Global Military Forces's Story

SOLINUS SEA Shogunate Military forces conduct operation 'Golden Dawn' in anticipation of TNG aggression following the Volarian Execution of convicted trafficker Joshua Mattrix.

Shogunate Military exercises included the simulated invasion of the Shintenchi Shogunate by TNG Forces, though the specifics of this scenario remain classified by the Shogunate Military. The Military Spokesman has assured us that the Shintenchi Shogunate will be prepared to face TNG aggression wherever it may rear.

Shogunate Naval forces conducted several exercises off the Masako islands, including the seizure of beach defenses, and naval engagements with both Starship assets, and ocean borne assets.




As the Exercises are planned to continue for several days, including live fire exercises to ensure that the Shogunate Military is prepared to face any threat to it's sovereignty, or the sovereignty of their allies.

STN Shikoku
Shokaku Class Carrier
Off the coast of Solinus City

The mighty Shokaku Class carrier was sitting like a monolith off the coast of the Shintenchi Shogunate. As the Officers and crews prepared for the exercise.

"Alright, the objective is to move in and seize the island from TNG, I want all units on standby and to prepare for engagement." Admiral Gunichi Kuwabara, explained as he leaned over a console.

"Begin the exercise." He ordered, and the commands were sent out as several specialized Androids in TNG military uniforms were activated to play as the defenders of the Island. Several Triremes were built as targets for the Shogunate Military vessels as they maneuvered through the waters of the Shintenchi Nations.

"Incoming Trireme!" One Lieutenant called out, as the Admiral nodded. "Hold steady and prepare for engagement!" He shouted, while the ship's massive cannons swiveled to engage, and several Botanachi DRHC Tilt rotors lifted off from the Carrier. Their massive rotors thundering as they moved to lift off.

Roughly four Shogun Battleships positioned themselves off the water, and their massive cannons lit off as they began to fire, hurling 250mm shells towards the island, causing the very ground to shake as the Taiyou began to rain fire on the small Island.

A Second Naginata swooped about as the Trireme closed in, loosing a flurry of cannon fire up towards the ship, peppering it's shields and hull with ordinance as several Jet Tengu loosed with autocannon and missile fire.

The Exercise had begun.

Tahir had been permited aboard the carrier to observe the exercise, but he hung back from the officers so as to not interfere. He was here purely in an observatory capacity to report back to Avantia later, and he took in the battlefield with a quiet calm as he carefully studied the field of play.

Volarians peppered the battlezone alongside their Taiyou allies, with avorian pilots claiming the skies, and the humans the seas. Amphibious warfare wasn't Volaria's strong point, but where they lacked, the Taiyou excelled.

The first shipments of GHX infantry units were being field tested today as well, and the five unit squads were in place to join with the forerunners that would be taking the beach.

Just outside the Shogunate City of Narita, a massive concrete door peeled away from one of the Shogunate's numerous ICBM sites.

As the Concrete door pulled back, the missile slowly peered it's nose out, exposing itself before a plume of smoke began to erupt from the silo itself.

"Launch in T-minus thirty seconds." The Missile Commander said, as he checked his watch.

As he checked his watch, a team of technicians worked furiously to program the missile's coordinates into the system. The Target was the middle of the Solinus sea, where a mid-altitude nuclear detonation was to take place.

With the TCCA informed several days prior to the scheduled test, even invited to watch. It would seem that Launch Preparations were going without a hitch.

"Ten... nine... eight..."


The Missile began to billow smoke even more, while a technician turned to the commander.

"Coordinates Locked, nuclear warheads armed."

"Five... four..."

"Three... two... one..."

"Zero Hour... Launch."

The Commander's hand went onto the large red button in the center of the console, and with a plume of white smoke, the Missile was away.

Having been watching the chopper before her Cy's head whipped around when she heard a faint sound her eyes narrowing in on the white plum of streaking smoke through the sky, a frown pulling at her brows as she watched it. "Missile? Why the hell have they launched missile!? What of all the life that hasn't been evacuated?" she asked, puzzled by the humans stupid actions but knowing that she couldn't do anything bout it, Cy turned her attention back to the chaos she had already made, hissing in pain as her shoulder sparked.

Looking down at her shoulder, or what was left of it, her lovely face twisting into an angry enraged look as she reached up and gently touched the skin around the edges of the wound, noticing that it was taking to long for the nanitz to fix the damage a sigh slipping from her as she shook her head and looked up, her eyes skimming over they sky and the missile, back too the helicopter and too where the cops had been stopped and heaved a sigh.

"Shin...I hope you have gotten Ki somewhere safe. Cause something tells me this is gonna be getting even worse." she muttered as she ran the fingers of her left hand through her hair, eyes closing as her head dropped back, her thoughts on her son, and the man who had helped her find him. "Things always go from bad to worse to chaos...." she muttered as she stood there silently, listening and waiting, knowing she was in the center of the eye so to speak.

As Shin drove, Ki, who was still unconscious began to twitch and shudder, his right shoulder a mangled ugly bruise, keened in pain as he twisted and jerked where he lay on the back seat, the pale blue shield now covering his abdomen slipping over the red stone in his bellybutton. 'Mommm...." whispered from him as he sunk further into darkness as soothing coolness washed over him from where the shield already covered, though his head continued to pound and pulse with agonizing pain.

Also on board the carrier stood two other figures distanced from the Taiyou officers. Daisuke Nakamura and Aiko Mizushima, Losenji Generals of the Sky and Sea respectively, were present to witness their allies in action. Like the Volarians, they too had come with a show of force to accompany the exercise. Though their military was far less advanced than that of the Taiyou and Volarians, they did possess assets that neither did. Alongside the Avorian pilots soared the glimmering forms of Losenji Dragon Riders, casting flames of all colours down at the android infantry, along with the magical ordinance of their specially trained riders.

The Losenji Navy was largely absent from the battle, as were its airships, due to their relative primitiveness compared to their counterparts amongst their allies' forces. The Losenji forces present largely consisted of their magical support units, those that channeled the currents of the ocean and the movements of the sky to keep the weather and tides favourable for their allies, and those that would bring the wrath of the spirits to bear on their foes on land.

"It is more than time that we embraced the technology of our neighbours." Aiko noted as she watched the devastating barrage from the Taiyou ships released at the Trireme. "We have long desired to make our own progress, rather than be propped up by our allies, but it is foolish to not embrace the advancements they could grant us."

Daisuke gave the stern Admiral a sidelong glance. "Perhaps. Our magic would not stand against the technological superiority of the TNG were they to target us. The Empress seems more willing than her predecessor to listen to such counsel."

Aiko nodded. "She will need to be if we wish to remain relevant on the world stage."

"I think perhaps that is exactly what she does not wish," Daisuke noted, "As it stands, we are incredibly easy to overlook. If we join the arms race, then we become a threat."

"We cannot rely on being overlooked for the security of our nation, General."

"Of course."

As the Varden Frigate made it's initial descent over the Great Seto Bridge, it's crew would be unaware of the pair of beady eyes watching them through a bioluminescent organic screen.

But likely aware that every Military Installation in the Sato Shogunate was tracking the unknown vessel upon entry, and alarms began to blare as it's payload was set off and dispersed through the bridge.

---

Activity in Shintenchi was swarming as the CENCOM Facility was alight with activity, even as the Varden Frigate ascended towards the heavens, the Shingenchi Ground command was preparing for counterattack, beaming several transmissions throughout all orbital and ground assets.

"Alert, the Shogunate is under attack by Varden vessels, this is not a drill, all assets intercept and terminate!" The Voice called out, while the underground complex monitored the spread of the black powder.

"I have Strategic Artillery on the line." A young Lieutenant reported, as he handed the red telephone to the CENCOM Commander.

"Moshi Moshi Baito Desu..." He said, nodding, and then nodding some more, before he hung up the phone.

"Launch the Shori Missiles! Do not let that ship escape! All assets on intercept!" The Commander called out, and the order was swiftly carried out, as several installations across the Shintenchi Shogunate opened up, and a firing solution was acquired through the use of Coalition PERIMETER and Matokey Aetherius arrays.

Like streamers from a party can, several hundred nuclear capable Shori type missiles launched fourth from installations across Shintenchi, rapidly gaining altitude into the Azure sky. Though the missiles were crude, using a two stage solid fuel design. They were incredibly efficient at tracking and gaining on the Varden frigate.

Fighters groundside were also scrambled, each Type-Zero Space Model 52 Cosmo Zero designed to launch and intercept fast flying ships quickly, and were armed with 20mm Mass Drivers, and wing mounted Two Shinya Type-X torpedos. Each Pilot checked his avionics before the Zeros took off, and once they too started towards the Azure sky, they would take off after the Varden frigate.

"Zeroes away, ETA to intercept, thirty seconds..." One of the Pilots called out as he checked in.

---

Already in orbit, the single Nagas class Omnicruiser belonging to the Matokey Order slowly shifted on it's axis, an inky residue vanishing from it's hull and making it's existence known. With a few thoughts, and a few sweeps of small fingers, an entanglement was broadcast towards the lone frigate, hopefully jamming it's FTL Drives and bringing it into a powerful gravity well that would aim to draw it towards the larger, rather alien ship.

"Varden Ship you have committed an act of aggression against the AXIS Cooperation forces, you are implored to surrender or be terminated." The Matokey Shipmaster warned, as the Omnicruiser loomed ever closer at an unusual speed.


Of course, if the Matokians didn't get them, the missiles would use the Matokey attack to rapidly gain on the Frigate.

Three of the two dozen PERIMETER outposts along the Eastern seaboard had been quick to identify an unregistered contact, of course one of thousands, first approaching and then disengaging from a particular sector of the coast. Though none of the men and women behind the screens knew, but the contact was the same unidentified craft that had bombed the bridge spanning the Aslund channel.

Merely five minutes had passed before the personnel were instructed to continue tracking the target; in the meantime the Naval Cavalry was scrambled, a Star Fleet vessel was requisitioned from the Wing City starport and the Eastern seaboard Authority garrisons, on both sides of the channel, were placed on high alert. It wouldn’t be until thirty minutes to an hour after the contact was first sighted that any personnel would finally be aware, indeed, that the Great Seto Bridge had been bombed.

The first duty undertaken was an extensive spectroanalysis, examining the radar cross-section and peeling away any ECM through the use of spectrum-burrowing. Though there would be no definitives, no smoking gun or bloody knife, what the personnel were able to do was capture a suspicious flight pattern; something that would coordinate directly with the bombing attack on the bridge.

Just a few minutes after it began climbing, however, the ECM envelope of the contact would once again obscure the target from direct observation. Instead, the men and women at their computers would only have a few minutes sifting through the passive scans and diagnostics, following every last piece of evidence until the vessel reached the isosphere. Without requisitioning a high-powered quantum scope, an activity which would take hours, only the contact’s brief activity in-atmo was recorded. A second call opened to a scrambling Naval Cavalry force deploying from southern Aslund.

Turning skyward the frigate shot, picking up speed and below the dark cloud of swirling dust obliterated the bridge, growing ever closer to landfall on either side. This cloud was a real and very viable threat that should have quickly became apparent to all those watching the scene. Afterburners flared causing the ship to accelerate at an enormeous rate once it had come out of the dive. Interceptor rockets fired from all sides and at a steady rate pealing off the ship's hull and turning backward and to the sides to intercept the Shori missiles. Fireballs bloomed into being behind the climbing vessel as a compression wave formed at the ship's bow and a sonic boom issued. A single second later and the frigate was doing mach two and a second after that, mach three and still faster and faster as heat started to char the ship's bow.

Four 102mm double-gun hybrid/phaser vulcan cannons and eight 51mm quad-guns deployed and discharged a hail of bright white phaser fire, tracking missiles that were not shot down by the rockets but even the lightning quick reactions of a quantum super computer coupled with an artifical intelligence can do only so much to overcome the hard limitations of physics and the mechanical movement that caused the guns to track on targets. The ship became a bright white comet trailing firey explosions and quickly overtaken despite its velocity and continued acceleration.

Just as expected the Shori missiles overtook the ship in bulk and from all sides of the vessel's flank and yet the ship continued up and up. The Aura shield thwarted the missiles, arcs of electrical current pulsed around the ship, throwing colors reminiscent of the Northern Lights in a nova with each impact and subsequent detonation into the atmosphere. The ship reached mach seven just as the Nagas class Omnicruiser in orbit targeted it with a warp disruption device. In that moment the frigate was surrounded by a impenetrable black orb of inky darkness and every cloud in the vicinity was wrenched from its place in the sky along with all the missiles that has been following. The dark sphere shuttered and snapped inward leaving nothing behind. The frigate has been completely obliterated, the cause: unknown.

The ship had registered as Varden to all those capable of observing. Another Varden signal broadcasted from nearly a full light year away the moment the ship was destroyed. It was not a message just a locational marker broadcasting a steady tone.

The 'Chzznt quickly banked hard to the right as the strange sphere enveloped the Varden ship. The Matokey Shipmaster scowled, an eucalyptus leaf dangled ever so slightly from his lips as he swept and moved his hands across the shimmering yellow screens of light, trying to garner analysis of the strange energy, feeding it through a massive organic 'brain' to study the data and try to piece together what was transpiring.

After the Omnicruiser banked hard, it jettisoned several pods from it's underside towards the planet's surface. Stabilized by specialized ventral and dorsal fins. What took place within these pods was nothing short of genetic magic. Genes were spun on the fly, mutations were woven and flesh and sinew were webbed together.

Each pod was roughly the size of a large school bus, and were enveloped in a cloud of ionized gas as they moved through the atmosphere at nearly terminal velocity.

The reaction was quick while the Omnicruiser moved through low orbit, trying to get a sense for what just happened.

It was then the beacon was recieved, not just by the Matokey ship, but the Shogunate and Taiyou navies in the area, in addition to ground forces who were at work trying to evacuate everyone around the Bridge, which was a gesture of futility from the sheer density of the population center around it.

The pods landed in a perimeter around the clouds, with a few dozen on the Shintenchi side, and a few dozen on the Aslund side. The process was sickeningly quick as seawater was drawn up into the pods and they began to grow rapidly. Two large stalks emerged from each pod, these stalks arced with energy, and once every pod was deployed, a field of electrically charged bioplasma surrounded the cloud, and through a powerful electromagnetic field, aimed to contain it.

SSN 'Murasame'
Shogun Battleship
Flagship of the 1st Shogunate Fleet

The Commander of the Murasame had already received counterattack orders to assemble his fleet. With CENCOM Broadcasting coded transmissions, Admiral Hisao Ishimura, a young Shogunate admiral was on the ship's bridge.

"Once the fleet is assembled, prepare the Hyperdrives for the offensive."

"Signal acquired, one light year out, I've locked coordinates." A lieutenant reported, while the Taiyou Shogunate fleet, of roughly eight Capital class vessels, and a handful of Frigates began to assemble in the space over Shintenchi.

Each Ship was preparing it's weapons, while Admiral Hisao checked the logs.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as of this moment we're at war. We'll attack the beacon, and then prepare to hit Sol Stat with everything we have, hopefully by then reinforcements will have arrived."

A quick analysis reveals that no electromagnetic signal passing directly into the sphere while it existed, returned. Further analysis would reveal sharp gravitational lensing and a minuscule temporal discrepancy to the negative for those in the area. Analysis of the signal in deep space would confirm that it was of Varden origin. Careful analysis would pick up an encrypted transmission just as the dark sphere anomaly presented itself. Triangulation of the signal's source pegged its origin in close proximity to the current signal, a pulsing tone, unmoving, and approximately one light year distant.

On the ground the bridge has been cut down to the water, nothing remained of it and the civilians at either side had exited their vehicles and moved back from the area where the pods appeared to contain swirling masses. Within those powerful electromagnetic fields the dark powder coiled, violent tornadoes contain with in charged bio-plasma. The civilians retreated as quickly as they could, many leaving their vehicles behind due to the pile up in traffic.

For a moment all seemed well, the day seemed saved and yet somehow it had all been too easy. For someone standing near the scene the first thing they would have noticed below the howl and sparking bio-electrical current would have been the strangest noise, like frost forming in fast motion, water coming to the quick and forming into ice, or the crunch of snow beneath tiny feet. The tinniest pin pricks formed in the windscreen glass of the cars just behind the pods on either side of the bridge and then spiraled outward like frost until each window was stark white. The metal began to peel as if a thousand engraving tools were set to antique the cars before their due time. The tires blew out and the glass shattered and the cars behind started to feel the same. The pods were then set on from behind by the same threat that they attempted to keep contained. A few civilians further up the line of cars that had fled fell to the ground screaming, sent into fits as blood poured out their eyes, ears, and mouths. It was not a pleasant death...

The Matokey shipmaster made a face as the strange smoke, though it reeled within the containment of the field, it seemed to continue to spread outwards in all directions.

The figure stroked it's fingers across a holographic readout, and the Nagas class ship slowly banked to the right once more, placing itself directly above the strange event transpiring below.

Genes were inserted through a self mutating bioplasma embedded within the pods, and mutations began to erupt within the pods, and a third spire erupted from the tops of each pod, spreading into a feathery like material up top before a network of roots worked their way deep into the ocean and the soil, not before a Warp flux was generated by each individual pod encasing the Nanomachines within a field that displaced them from the surroundings utilizing a quantum displacement method which prevented the Nanites from physically interacting with anything beyond the containment sphere.

'Taanz let his hands move across the screen some more, and the Omnicruiser itself began to mutate, as jets of bioplasma began to form on the ship's underside while the pods connected to the ship via Gravity tethers.

It was then a powerful seismic disturbance erupted from the local area, and a massive chunk of land from northern Shintenchi to eastern Aslund would be separated, and slowly begin to rise.

The Nagas class Omnicruiser shuddered violently, as red hull stress alarms began to blare.

Slowly and surely the ground began to rise up, higher and higher into the sky as the field fluctuated to better contain the Nanites.

A Seismic disturbance that, while not threatening the overall integrity of the planet, could be felt as violent earthquakes across Terra.

The aim was to physically separate the infected mass and better handle the Nanites, this was achieved by biological creatures engineered by the Matokey.

Programmed with one purpose, consume the other nanites, and replicate. They would die off on their own once their goal was accomplished.

The pods did just that, with the landmass suspended in midair, they used the differentiation in air pressure to release microscopic creatures by the millions. Taking the appearance of a luminescent purple cloud, the two clouds did battle for the fate of Terra.

Stone and packed earth tore as a more formidable and much more expansive containment field was erected. The earth shook and the sea writhed as a mass of land almost twice as large as Hawaii was torn from Terra to save her. Within that sphere on the rising mass of stone, earth, and draining water two fleets of microscopic ships engaged in battle and before that very moment it was for the fate of the whole of Terra. The scope of the attack would have been far more reaching than the destruction of the bridge if the Matokey had done nothing. They had chosen the lesser of two evils.

In that moment the beacon stopped broadcasting and the swarming mass of nanites became inert. Long range scans on that grid would detect many celestial objects that could be identified as tremendous chunks of ice and rock.

At the sandy beach of the Aslund shores two uniformed men watched a patrol boat continue up the coast three hundred meters out, pilot lights flashing and radome spinning while it fought over the waves. Though the sun had been hidden in an overcast the water seemed too dark to reflect the time of day, a black film obscured any depth of the cold ocean and seemed to lap and cling at the hull of the cutter passing on.

The two uniformed men pulled their coats tightly, the staunch black outer-layers emblazoned with the letters FBP. The silence between the two could have been misconstrued as an animosity, until the older Azric brought the binoculars down from his eyes after scanning the upland approach to the bridge. Eight kilometers down the beach, the hulking skeleton of the bridge loomed across the horizon into the channel like the rotting ribs of some ancient serpent.

“What’s it like across the channel?” The younger investigator crouched low and used the end of a pen to pry something from the dark, mucky sands of the beach. Looking back at the Azric he noticed the sullen appearance of his leading officer, he returned to the small piece hanging from the end of his pen. He didn’t see any relevance to it immediately, but thought of the article - a tiny bracelet - as it was two days before.

“Not any better.” The older man said bluntly, letting the binoculars hang on their leash as he brought a hand to the receiver on his chest. “This is Wayin, we’re at our eight-mark.” The radio on his jacket breast squawked and barked in response to the agent.

“The Naval Fleet dropped off our buckets, set up your signaller and high-tail it to Facility 3.”

Viktor's eyes were glued to the remains of the once great bridge as his SUV and the few that followed behind it approached the coast of Aslund. He didn't want to believe that people were capable of acts so inhumane. But, he was once a soldier. He'd seen it on the battlefield. He'd seen it on the police force.

Human nature and the nature of monsters it breeds were things you couldn't help but see, even if you didn't want to see it.

The fleet of SUVs stopped before they got too close, men and women dressed like they were detectives or government agents climbing out. Some carrying briefcases and duffels. They were prepared to collect data. All kinds of glorious, meaningless and meaningful, possibly incriminating, data.

Viktor and the group approached the debris left from the attack and vehicles that didn't off the bridge, giving it all a once over before they went to work in search of visual clues.

"Who would do something like this?" Viktor asked aloud, "Why?" He asked.

"Non è giusto. E 'senza senso. E 'stupido."

The bridge is ruined and what is not underwater is not structurally sound. There are very few corpses but the corpses that do remain near the coastal portions of the bridges were terribly butchered with missing limbs, large sections of their torso, or facial features gone. Death in these cases always appeared to be blood loss.

A fine black dust coats everything that is still intact. This dust is powder like but sharp with the consistency of black metal filings. Upon closer inspection under a microscope in the field it is found that this dust is clumps of non-functioning nanites the size of proteins primarily composed of iron with one in one hundred thousand composed of an unknown metal alloy. Perhaps something can be determined about the original manufacture of these tiny weapons with a stronger microscope in a lab?

There is nothing left of the ship and the area in the vicinity of the last known location of the ship continues to have spiking electromagnetic readings. There is some discussion taking place about a possible delivery device but such a device has yet to be found. It is likely hidden under wreckage at the bottom of the ocean waiting to be recovered.

Six hundred and twenty eight bodies, or what remnants could be claimed as bodies, had been brought from the waters in the first proceeding days of the investigation. More and more were found with every new FBP team and volunteers joining the effort; all while the hope for survivors faded with every passing moment. The first FBP investigators had been at the scene just two days after the attack, and despite inclement weather hampering the initial searches, by now a clear operation had began to catalog every fatality. The first corpse was salvaged from the sunken remnants of a half-eaten bus that had gone over the divider and plunged into the water. When investigating divers had discovered the hulking mass thirty meters underwater, they still found the occupants.

Onboard the small trawler Pipi, FBP Agent Nathan Krohngale stood beside the Terran fisherman who had called in to the dispatch center when his vessel’s fishing net became snagged on something a few dozen meters below. Rather than call for rescue though, when the man noticed odd material floating to the surface he quickly pieced two and two together; it only took the Bureau an hour to get a team sixty klicks out into the water on a RHIB inflatable, Agent Krohngale and one other officer joined the Terran fisherman while a crew of divers prepared to launch from the inflatable.

“When did you say you found this again, sir?” Krohngale kept a handheld device gripped in one hand, the other pulling the drawstrings of the black raincoat that shrouded him and the other FBP agents.

“I come out and fish this sector once every month, I know the topography underwater -- “He motioned back to the pilothouse, where the curious face of a young boy could be seen peering through the stained and murky windows. Eyes quizzically flitted first to Krohngale, then to another agent, then to the inflatable alongside the craft and divers. “My boy back in there said he saw something on our UWS scanner, something … “

“Manmade?” Krohngale answered shortly, eyes peeking over the gunwale of the vessel and finding a piece of floating debris. Plastic and twisted bits of some unknown material bobbed about in the water just a few meters below him. “There was a preliminary fly-over that produced similar evidence, we believe you … might have found the delivery device used in the attack.”

“Ah.” The Terran replied solemnly. “You’ve found ... y'know -- "

"Corpses? Plenty ... what we don't have Is the device that made them." Krohngale lifted the tablet from under the jacket, quickly referring to a dispatch before looking back at the man. "We will need to see the UWS scan to corroborate with our fly-over -- I'm sorry, your name is?"

"Veylos, Marshal Veylos." The Terran replied with a curt hand gesture for the agent to follow.

"Thank you, I'm Agent Krohngale, Federal ATMN." The Terran seemed to gawk slightly.

"You think this was ... "

"International terrorism? That's what it's looking to be." Krohngale saw the Terran's features harden with anget before he spoke.

"And to think the TNG trusted those Varden ... what do you guys call them again? Extragalactics?"

“At the moment we’re considering this an act of lone wolf terrorism -- although we are not outlawing the possibility of government complicity.” Krohngale replied, hardly taking his eyes off the screen below him. “We locate the delivery device, we can track it to a ship, we can track it to a ship, we can track it to a supplier and names. From there … “

“What?” The Terran looked over the gunwale as the first diver went into the water, the splash followed by several others as the diving team of four specialists began their long descent to the bottom. Following the snagged netline, a small earpiece began squawking to Krohngale as the first diver remarked about a ghostly shape on the bottom.

“We find our criminals, Mister Veylos.”


Meanwhile on the coast, the marines had been called in to provide perimeter security. The Aviation Cavalry was flying constantly over the whole littoral, searchlights cut from the darkness and scanned along the empty water. From the beach they looked like metal insects, zipping and hovering as high-powered sensors did their best to sweep the bottom of the great channel; a lattice work of invisible lines traced all the sectors of the ocean one slow pass at a time, onboard the aircraft crew and technician alike were calm and silent as they worked.

An Aslunder native stood in front of the first checkpoint along the road, a uniformed marine with him as the Invictus convoy was quickly and without incident ushered through. The bright letters "VOLUNTEER" across the back of his jacket betraying his association with the investigation. In the days since the attack the foot of the bridge, at least on the Aslund side, had become an impromptu command center at the very site of the investigation.

It almost looked like a small city or town of prefab modules and rain-proof tents had sprouted up. Whatever wasn't tied down with sandbags and ropes was jerry-rigged to parked vehicles and trailers.

"I've got something. I think." One of the female investigators said, waving over her comrades who weren't assisting the FBP and other investigative organizations with their findings. There was a lot of ground, and water, to cover. Sharing was the best policy if anyone wanted real answers.

"What is it?" Viktor asked, approaching with the group to see what was found. "Soot. Except, it's not." The investgator answered, pointing to the black dust coating everything.

"Soot? They didn't use conventional munitions, I thought." Another said, "And there aren't many signs of fire here." He continued. "See, that's what I thought too. And, you're right. I think this might be something else. We'll have to take it a lab. There's got to be one someone will let us use. Wing City is far and time is of the essence." The first investigator told her colleauges.

"I would have thought you brains would have brought a lab in a bag or two." Viktor joked, "We did. We need a bigger lab." The investigator said seriously.

"Oh. Well... go ask someone." Viktor said, "Already on it. We're looking for any communication channels that have to do with this search or general investigative services. Police forensic specialists, peacekeeping organizations, Red Cross." The investigator said, scrapping samples of the black dust into a bag.

"I feel like I'm just along to protect you, not actually investigate." Viktor muttered.

The FBP had set up no less than three mobile labs in the premises around the foot of the bridge. Most of the systems were double-wide trailers brought in by heavy truck or primary movers, and were scattered about the investigation site in various states of use. While effort at the shores continued many FBP personnel scrambled from group to group when the time allowed, as a system of convoys bringing information and evidence out while new equipment and teams in.

A plainclothes FBP lawman stood on the rocks with his squad car parked on the road behind him. The Scatterran pressed a phone into his pocket and kept both hands hidden from the wind as he trudged his way up to the Invictus team.

"There's a slick several kilometers out from the coast and the bridge covered in this stuff." The Scatterran looked over the murky water until reaching the water. Reaching a hand up to the radio on his jacket, the earpiece broke into static for a moment as a Cavalry airjet streaked overhead.

"We have mobile labs waiting and we've been trying to collect as much of this stuff as possible -- there are rumors of some other things showing up too."