The Hidden Terror

[miokalia]

>>>This is an open event. Feel free to link this event to events within your own nation, this is intended to be the start of an international issue. The more nations involved, the more interesting the RP will be. Feel free to tie the events to any possible militant organizations that your own nation has had trouble with (IE: Skin Slicers, PED, etc...)
Or invent new extremist factions. See also the post about this in the general discussion forum<<<



A Civil Defense bulletin hits tvs all over Miokalia one morning, just moments after a loud, thunderous blast is heard in Tirzah. The same thing apparently breaks car windows and glass in Holyoke.

The warning tells people to stay inside, to stay indoors.

Moments later, it hits the major news networks:

DCN News: Special Report
A grey female fox is reporting the news from on-location in Holyoke. The city behind her is completely silent and empty.
"And we are now live from Holyoke, where hundreds windows on buildings and cars have been shattered in the Stover neighborhood from what we beleive to be a concussion wave. Quite possibly generated from an explosion in the air nearby. Wait... okay, new information has just come in. We have confirmed that the concussion wave was definately caused by an explosive. The military has shut off all access to the appearent 'epicentre' of the explosion, an entire city block has been cut-off and they have not released any more information than that", she said.


An orange and silver mechanical raptor stares at the tv blankly in his office. It was a completely silent Commander Doroy Blinn. A uniformed officer enters the room and says, "Alpha catch is showing us 4 confirmed angles that show us the same thing. The explosive device was thrown into the service vehicle... No casualties reported though, luckily."

Blinn didn't shift an inch, the room was quiet and the servos tightening up in his claws were audible.

"I swear these ideologues have no idea what kind of beast they are waking up by doing this.", said Blinn in the flatest voice possible.

"No one has died yet, Commander", said the officer.

"No one should have to. If these nut cases think we're a nation that repects 'religious beleifs' enough to be duped into allowing them to make a few sacrifices out of our people, they are grotesquely mistaken...", said Blinn

In another office, in the capitol building on the fourth floor, President Kohastar paces around the room in a predatorily drooling rage. The raptor snaps toward Secretary of Defence, Zagckza and says with much accidental expectoration,
"I want a military presence outside of every single taxed church in the country! As soon as we find out what sect was responsible for this, we are going to erase their ideology completely from this planet!"
Zagckza then replied, "What if it's not relgious. What if it's political. What if it's human?"

"Well then", said Kohastar as he wiped the saliva away, "We are going to have a war."

Back at Commander Blinn's office, A meeting of unnamed officers commenced.
A dark grey wolf on one corner of the table asked, "Have we determined the nature of the perpetrator? Are they religious or political extremists?"
On the other side, a black dragon said, "No organization has stepped forward yet to claim responsibility. We expect that at least one will do this very soon."
Commander Blinn, at the head of the table said, "I have yet to get anything usefull from Alpha Catch, and C.A. is withholding a lot of this data from me. Somethings very wrong about this."
The wolf then said, "C.A. doesn't usually withold surveillance information like that."
Blinn nodded and said, "I beleive this may be international"
The dragon then said, "Whoever did this here may have connections else where. The attack here seems to have failed, but if they are attacking elsewhere, the attack may be more sucessful. We may or may not be the main target".

[Erenmor]

"Well... that's never happened before," a lynx in Erenmor border guard uniform commented. His particular checkpoint had been host to a rather peculiar scene just moments ago.

"...smuggling illegal weapons, assault on a citizen with lethal weapon, smuggling controlled substances, resisting arrest..." a sentinel bot listed off in its monotone voice standing over a human sprawled out on the floor. The growing dark red puddle on the floor didn't seem to bother the bot in the least. Nor did the large hole seared through the human's chest.

"I just know I'm going to hate the paperwork for this mess," the lynx said again, turning to his partner, a gecko.

"Least you're not the one who's telling the Overseer," his partner replied. "So, what'll they do with the body and the explosives they found?"

"Contrabande goes for utilisation, corpse gets processed and interrogated... there's enough of his brains left for that," the lynx replied with a shrug.

The routine border check had revealed a considerable amount of high explosives in the posession of a foreign human that had been trying to gain entry into Erenmor. When the human found out he'd been discovered, he'd pulled out some military-grade handgun and had managed to heavily damage one of the sentinels before the Templar droid stationed at the checkpoint gunned him down. The sentinel had already been taken away for repairs and a drone was patching up the damage to the Templar on site. A medical droid was looming over the human's corpse, patiently waiting for the sentinel to finish with the list of charges.

"What about his ID, then? Where's he from?" the gecko asked.

"Had a Miokalian passport on him... we've already sent it off for confirmation. They'll find out who he was and if the ID's real," the lynx replied with a shrug. "Now come on and open up the secondary gate. There's a queue we've got to sort through."

***

The news that day made only a brief mention of the incident in Miokalia, expressing relief that nobody had been killed. The border incident only got commented on near the very end and shown as an example of a fine piece of work by Erenmor's border watch. No ties were suggested between the Miokalia explosion and the checkpoint trouble.

That was a matter for the politicians, after all, not the news casters.

[Kingdoms of Cal]

Salato sits in her office with the vast vista of the Drewn desert, visible though the full length windows, behind her. It is early morning and she had yet to get her breakfast to arrive, her secretary wouldn't be long with it. She smiles as she check her calender on the screen to her left, no breakfast meeting this morning so it would be a quiet meal with her secretary, who was always a great source of gossip.

She looks at her screen with concern, so there's some one causing problems in Miokalia, that can not be good. Both Tirzah and Holyoke hit by persons unknown, she knew this would lead to questions about security at question time tomorrow and she would have to see what her countries security forces were like, she had to admit to not having given them much thought since taking power. Well her country was not at risk, why would anyone bother? Then again the gun shipment being found by the Erenmor border post. This could spread. She takes on a concerned expression, better have a word with the home minister and possibly the defense minister sooner rather than later. She turns to look at her calender to see when she can squeeze them in before the cabinet meeting early this afternoon.

She is taken a back, an appoint meant for a breakfast meeting had appeared...how she clicks on it. I was with 'the permanent secretaries of administrative affairs and logistical administration'. They looked to be high ranking civil servants from the department of social security, must have been an error. She deletes the appointment, and makes a note to have her secretary look into it. She looks back at her other window that was carrying news reports, still more on Miokalia, well it will keep the media off her back for a little. She shakes her head a little she should not be thinking like that. She put those thoughts a side and gets to checking her email and reports, nothing more about Miokalia or Erenmor situation just the normal day to day stuff.

There is a knock at the door, she says 'enter' without looking up. She jerks her head up and turns to look at the door, something was not right, for one her secretary never bothered to knock at this time in the morning, two there was no smell of food, three two people had entered and finally she could smell a firearms, those were band in the parliament complex.

Before her two people approached her one was a very gray teerie in an ill fitting gray suit and beside him was a non-descript looking fox also in gray. She can't help thinking to herself “If they are assassins they should really tidy them selves up a bit, aren't there rules about the etiquette of these kind of things”.

She stands up and demands “Who are you and how did you get in here?”
The teerie replies in a quiet voice “We have an appointment.”, indecating salato's screen.
See looks at the screen, the appointment she had just deleted had re-appeared.
“Is this some kind of joke?” Salato demands, hitting the panic button under her desk.

The teerie smiles “You are new, I forget that, and you did not need to know of us, but the situation is changing”
“Well, who are you?' Salato asks as she sits back down, knowing that her desk was bullet proof and that security would be here in seconds.
“I am Lambda and this is Epsilon, and don't worry about having called security in error” the teerie, identified as Lambda replies
“oh” Salato replies and thinks about how odd their names were of a second then her eye widen “OH!” she exclaims as it hit her. She was in the presence of legends.

Lambda and Epsilon were the code names for, respectively, internal and external special military intelligence. Even though she was the prime minister she had never had any direct contact with them, heck she was not certain they existed.

“What can I do for special military intelligence?”
“Please we're just paper pushers with nick names for the social security office, but we would be thankful if you did not delete appointments. Oh yes and don't try to contact us we will contact you” Lambda smiles.
“Of course”
Epsilon brakes his silence “We have intelligence that may relate to events in Miokalia and Erenmor.”
“Of course” long replies nervously.
“Our contacts in the internation arms markets have indicated a number of anonymous buyers buying large amounts of small arms and explosive.” Epsilon continues.
“That is not reassuring, but I doubt it was enough to make you brake cover, even to me” Salato replies.
“Very cleaver Salato, what the real issue is that a large number of these arms and explosives have been bought by some one here. Last night we acquired information from a source that a fishing vessel was carrying weapons and may have been related to the Miokalia explosion. So we have acted and took the vessel discretely while at sea. The crew were, from what we can tell so far, normal smugglers that had no idea of what their cargo was. They are in custody but are not proving very helpful as smugglers rarely ask too many questions.” Epsilon replies
“What were they carrying?”
“Well lets just say enough to cause allot of damage” Lambda interjects
“Oh, do you have intelligence from Miokalia or Erenmor” Salato enquirers
“Other than neither of their government's seem to know from what we can tell” Epsilon replies
“So you asked?” Salato replies with a smile.
“That is not the point. We are going to replace the crew of the vessel with one of our own to see if we can find out who wanted the arms.” Epsilon replies humorlessly.
“Isn't that dangerous?”
“Not when we have put trackers in the weapons” Lambda interjects
“So who do you think wants them? One of the baronies looking to settle a score? One of the desert tribes? Organised crime?, Inleef fi...”
“No it's not any of the usual people, we would know if any of them were planning something this big, and anyway none of them need the amount or types of arms being smuggled. It would appear that we have a new group on our hands that we know little about.” Lambda interups
“That is not reassuring, are you certain that this was the only consignment?”
“No, it's not that's why we have come to you, we have a situation on our hands that we may not be able to contain. We thought you should know. Here is a full report, please read it in full.” Lambda says handing over a plain gray folder with the logo of the social security department on it.
“Oh, does your minister know any of this?”
Lambda laughs “He knows enough not to stick is nose in. With that we will take our leave, your secretary is very persistent”
The pair stand turn a leave, as they reach the door Salato ask after them “What have you done to my secretary”
Lambda just looks over his shoulder, smiles and closes the door behind himself.

Salato is left with her thoughts, they knew an attack was more likely than they were letting on, otherwise they would not have come here with such haste. It was too early to expect any of the minister to be in and an emergency cabinet meet would raise too many question and she did not want to cause a panic. The fact that they ask her to read the report also suggested that the attack was not that imminent, but would be soon. She looks at the agender for the cabinet meeting, nothing too pressing there, she blanks it and starts to think how to phase the new agender in full knowledge that it would be leaked.

A tall female teerie barges in on her thoughts, as well as her office, it's la her secretary looking a little flustered “You wouldn't believe how bloody difficult was to get a coffee this morning, I swear that there isn't a working machine in the building! I had to go all the way to judicial tower.”

Salato looks up with first surprise then a grin.
“Whats so funny?”
“Nothing did I every say I like you tenacity?”

***

UBC News: Reports only that the agender for that afternoons cabinet meeting looked a little short and that the cabinet office put it down to a new clerk.

[miokalia]

The meeting of unnamed officers commenced once again.

Blinn sat at the head of the table again, he said,
"There was an incident at a checkpoint in Erenmor..."

The black dragon said,
"I assume whatever it was the perp attempted, it was unsucessful"

"Erenmor's security took care of that", replied the wolf

"Are they interrogating or pulling alpha catch?", asked the dragon

"A mix of the two... The perp is basically dead. Oh, yeah and to make things more interesting: he was on a Miokalian passport...", said the wolf, "But the good news is that Cal is sticking tracking devices in every weapon that passes through that country."

"Well that makes things easier. The quickest way into our nation while transporting a large amount of weapons is through Cal.", said Blinn, "The question is: Who's up to this?"



Later on, a report came in that changed things once again. The military patrol outside of a taxed church reported suspicious activity and when they attempted to confront the individuals inside, they brandished weapons and began a stand-off.

Hearing this, Blinn immediately goes out to the scene. Since he has access to the most negotiation leverage and resources of any creature in the nation. Against fellow officers' advice, he storms though the rows of officials waiting outside, in front of a charismatic mega church controlled by the 'religious liberationists movement' just north of Zye City in Dzegedy.
The group is small, but widespread. Fighting against secularism in a few places around the Federation.

He knocks on the giant wooden door. Voicing his desire to negotiate.
The assailants instruct him to open it, and come inside. At this point, the media finds out and sends in their own army of reporters.
Behind the fences erected by the military, the news media sets up an encampment.

An hour passes. The different news outlets put on their different spins as the lack of information results in rampant speculation.


Finally, something happens.
Blinn opens the door, staggers about a bit. Then the reason why becomes visible, as his left eye is missing. Ripped right from it's socket, wires hanging out of the empty hole in his head. Some soldiers begin to approach, ready to open fire, but Blinn commands them to stop. "They have a dirty bomb. They will detonate it if we attack them.", he reported to his officers.
"So, what do they want?", they asked.
"They want to detonate the bomb real soon anyway" he replied, "I'm ordering the total evacuation of the city of Dzegedy. Right now, everyone out. Including these news buzzards. They're threatening us with a potpourri of nuclear, biological and electromagnetic devices, all duct-taped together around 50 pounds of dynamite and a home-made nuclear trigger. I saw it with my own eyes, before they removed one of them."

Kohastar heard the entire discussion via conference call. He was very quiet.
An unnamed glossy-white boxy mechanical allosaur stood at the other end of the room and said in a filtered voice,
"We can handle this. These people do not fear death, The simplest way to deal with them is to satisfy their thirst for death by expediting theirs specifically"

Kohastar looked at the machine with a distressed stare, he then said into the phone, "What the bloody hell happened in there, Blinn?"

The news media managed to capture just enough information on the assailants and the situation to begin broadcasting it.
Nakdito Holden, the producer for DCN's Federation-wide programming watched the live broadcast from a hotel in Centralis, Tinis. He was just having an interview with Socialist Blogger, Jebidiah Rox on the effect of the Tinis' NPP party on splitting Socialist support, he saw the tidbit of information show up on his company's news program. Just minutes earlier, Jebediah had just mentioned that the Religious Liberationist Movement, the same one threatening to blow up that suburb of Zye City with a dirty bomb, had clearly stated their outright support for the Neo Pargalonian Party back during the convention, although it was largely ignored at the time. Back when they were just a small group of unusually well armed parishoners and evangelists.

Nakdito looked at Jebidiah with his mouth agape, Jebidiah does the same back.
"With one phone call. I can demonize... nay, annihilate the reputation of the Neo Pargalonian Party in the eyes of the Federation forever.", he said softly, "All I have to do is tell my people to include a tidbit about how the RLM endorses the NPP, and *snap* just like that, they're done for. If the bomb explodes, then they will forever be known as 'the party that bombed Miokalia'."

He shook his little stubby t-rex arms and said "oooooh, the infamy!"

Jebidiah said, "I don't know. I guess, they kind-of have it coming. They shouldn't of allowed themselves to be associated with such an organization, but if you push that fact, I sort of feel like you'd be tampering with the democratic process by potentially eliminating the Union Party's main rival. Of course, no doubt all media people tamper to some degree... But... this is like shooting fish in a barrel... And my god, what a terrible thing to profit from. People's lives are at stake here."

Nakdito picked up the phone and before he dialed he said, "I'm not saying that this is a wonderful scenario. But, I'm still going to make use of it, though. Those Neo Pargalonians are going to wish they had bribed me something fierce in a few minutes. A Neo Pargalonian Tinis, is not something I'd like to see anyway. This will only take a second..."

Back in the president's office, the white mechanical allosaur says in a soft filtered voice,
"I have taken the liberty of informing the Federation states of the matter, president.

AND I suggest you hand-over control to us now. Let us handle this. The Malych will rectify this situation, and show the ideology responible for it's occourance no mercy in our systematic erasure of it's existence from this world"

Kohastar buried his head in his arms on his desk.

[The Union of Tinis]

"Mendi, who pray tell forgot to check these people out?" demands a very enraged Tinisian Space Forces Commander into the phone. "Well? Well that's not good enough. Sorry? Oh. Okay. Well we had been making progress but now that doesn't matter does it? Tell Jones to call me in ten minutes. We have to get this sorted out pronto." A pause. "No, I'm not watching the news. I know its bad. I know we were endorsed by these loonies thanks to Francons. What? Oh really? Well that just bites it big time now doesn't it? Alright, write the statement. I'll give it in fifteen. I have another call to make. Bye."

Lenord sighs. Well, I better get in quick before her que fills up, he thinks to himself. He quickly dials the special number given to him by the head of the Tinisian Intelligence Patrol. Soon she's on the line.

"This better be an emergency Lenord," says Julia.

"It is always now tell me what's up with these guys."

"A fringe group, they likely have the materials to back up what the supposed negotiator said about their weaponry. We've watched them for a while but had nothing concrete to provide a credible tip. But they didn't opperate in Tinis except an occasional fly through. But we as always feared the worst and well I guess they have the worst we feared. However, more recently they may have made some sort of presence here, but nothing substantial."

Ovrin nods. "Are they nutty enough to do it?"

"Potentially. We're still hoping to hear something of their demands beyond heresay. But it is several thousand miles away. Hard to keep an eye on something that distant from here."

"Julia don't play the fool. How do I detach them from association with the NPP?"

"That's your problem Lenord. Of course there's always that one bit of information I gave you. If this does ruin your polls, as this very interesting ticker message on DCN seems to indicate this will, seeing as they endorsed your party, then you may need a crisis that helps you rather than hurts you. So are you interested?"

The fox grins. "Julia. I'm not stupid. You had a hand in this didn't you? Tell me!"

"No. We did not. I can assure you of that."

"Oh really?"

The voice on the other end gives a half laugh. "You think to highly of yourself, and to lowly of TIPS. We're watched ten times more closely than you are on a good day. If we had broken the law and been stupid, it would of been on the news here a week ago."

"I like how you answered that. Fine. If this thing nose dives the NPP in the polls, I'll see what I can with regards to your suggestion."

"That's a good fox." The line goes dead.

"Fine. Fine fine fine fine fine. What ever." A growl. He hangs up the phone and calls up Mendi again to demand that statement in three minutes.

Several floors above Commander Lenord a very flustered Analyist and his team are searching through records, news reports, streaming audio, and sateallite imagry. Krel rubs his eyes and tries to focus on the blueprints of the church, or what they hoped were the blueprints.

"There to there... maybe? But the explosion would be to audible. Maybe prying. To slow. Yes? No. No. No. Maybe. And..."

"Krel?" asked Epshrin from the doorway. "We've been trying to call you for five minutes. What's the situation?"

"Sorry Supreme Commander. I was just roused from bed. Its not my shift so I'm playing catch up. The situation is we're feeding what info we can to the Miokalians on what we know of the group. Some of us are trying to come up with solutions to the situation but without more information its difficult. Our biggest fear is that they have some sort of failsafe device. So that if they do rush in there and somehow take out all the bad guys quick like, it could still go off. I've suggested they find some vantage point inside the church to confirm the situation and to take note of any changes. Oh, and Tygrin and Vallit are working on evacuation logistical suggestions."

"So can they get someone in? Or several someones? Without the bombers knowing?"

"Maybe, but its the last part that's the trouble. I've narrowed down the possible designs of the structure to this blueprint. There is likely some variations, but we're eighty percent certain this accuratley represents the inner structure of the building. The uncertainty comes both from the fact that the blue print is old, and not from that church specificly, but one the next city over. That said, there should be a crawl space here that leads to here. There is likely several blockages but probably nothing a trained sneak couldn't handle. The main problem is getting into it. It leads to a nice view from the airduct here. But to reach the crawl space you need to basically cut through this exterior wall here and this wall here. The first of which is stone."

"Send it off. The Miokalians will know what to do."

"Yes sir."

[miokalia]

The council of unnamed military leaders met once again, now looking over the structure, in regular contact with Tinis.
They had to get someone in there. Although, that was only part of the solution. They had to find a way to incapacitate the terrorists, but most likely the terrorists had switches on their person so they could detonate the bomb if they get attacked. They had to use tact.

Across the bay, the residents of the city of Lefe, in the Kingdoms of Cal overheard an unusual sound that afternoon. What started out as the sound of an airplane, but soon turned into a thunderous roar. The townspeople were familiar to the airplanes that criss-cross the sky, but this 737-sized aircraft was small, fast and very loud and had just seemed to materialize from nothing nearby far above the town.
It approached the Hans T. Dovoroy Int'l airport in Dorigan (Miokalia) a few hundred miles to the east at a great speed.
The minutes after it showed up on radar above the Kingdoms, the Calie Royal Airforce began to process wether or not it was a threat. By the time it was over the bay of Inleef, A call came in from Kolminaisus (Miokalia), the call was apologetic in nature, and explained that the aircraft was in fact theirs, and posed no threat to Cal. Although, it was unexepected.
The aircraft landed directly on the tarmac of the empty airport. The airport had been shut down in lieu of the current terrorist situation. No one dared to get in the aircraft's way. There was no conversation, but a silent, automatic compliance.
The glossy grey aircraft, which was fairly normal, except for the size of it's engines and the fact it had no windshield or windows. The only marking being the insignia of three red interlocked hexagons on the tail.
Military presence showed up on the runway instantly. A hundred heavily-armoured soldiers lined up.
One of those white mechanical allosaurs showed up along with the Secretary of Interior, a raptor by the name of Tycho Nadara. They walked right up to the plane and waited.
the four small red lights on the front of the plane dimmed and a door opened beneath the plane. From it, a mess of undulating cables and wires writhed about as they decended a mass, completely covered. Eventually the mass became slightly more visible, as it's two red eyes became illuminated. The snake-like cables began to withdraw from the mass, revealing it's structure more clearly. It was a mechanical dragon with silver armor, between the articulations, there were black mechanical parts. It had a mane of crystals from the back of it's head down, and crystalline spines all down it's back to the end of it's tail. It walked very deliberately and lightly. It was the premier of Malychis.
The cables and wires pulled back up into the plane and the door closed on it's own.
It spoke with the white allosaur silently and instantly without vocalization.
Tycho Nadara then dipped a bow to the machine. He then said, "You shouldn't be here. It's dangerous. What if someone assassinates you?"
The mechanical dragon stared at him and eventually said, in his surprizingly disarming voice, "I am not quite so easily destroyed. Your concern verifies your loyalty to your state. Take me to Dal President Kohastar."

The president was secluding himself. That seclusion was broken when the silver mechanical dragon knocked on the door.
"Dal President Kohastar.", it said.
Kohastar had the door locked and just remained silent.
The mechanical dragon simply clamped his claw on the door handle, and began to force it open quietly. His hydraulic assist came online and the mechanism in the door began to buckle. Eventually it popped. The dragon pushed the door open and said, "I apologize for breaking your door."
"Premier Kyagga, what the hell are you doing here? Don't you have your planet-sized self-propogating industrial machine to run or something?", said Kohastar.
"Malychis runs itself most of the time. I'm more concerned about the dirty bomb in Dzegedy and what you plan on doing about it.", said the dragon
"We aren't your colony anymore. I'd rather not use your brutally cold, soulless methods of warmaking. I know what you want to do. You want to take control of my government, and do some very, very unpleasent things. You're going to start a war.", Kohastar snapped back. There was a pause and then Kohastar said, "I used to go to the UUD church. It's not faith church. No deities: just spirituality. You know, it's philosophy, intellectual church. Intelligent Spirituality. I say a lot of really mean things about all the other churches because I have to. If I give them an inch, they will use me... I know what the law is though: the tangible always comes before the intangible. We don't put things in the 'hands of god'. Spiritual self-reliance... So I suppose that, in effect, makes me an atheist... Do you beleive in spirituality, Cen Kyagga?"
"Our perception of the universe is largely quantitative. Our system of existence is entirely known to us, since we created it. We know where we come from, we know where we go. When I die, I will simply find myself loaded back into the Malychis C.A., and then I will find myself in another body. There is no grand mystery to our existence, as there is with yours. As far as we can tell, intelligence is alone in a universe of strict physical laws. If a higher intelligence were to suddenly appear, we would attempt to make contact with it as we would any other intelligence. If that intelligence then declared that it was a deity of some sort and also declared that we are, in fact, an unnatural abomnation that should not exist. Then we would defend ourselves the best we could, by annihilating it.", said the mechanical dragon.
"I find that... somehow comforting.", said Kohastar, "We both like our universes orderly and godless. Now, please tell me you came here with a solution I will approve of."
"I suppose that is what makes us inseperable allies. You are the only ones who have treated us as your own. For that, we are eternally bound to you as allies. Unforetunately, I came here to do something you'd rather not do.", said the dragon.

The dirty bomb hadn't gone off yet, the stakes were still high, Dzegedy was empty, the emptiest it had ever been. The 25,000 refugees were holed up in tents and temporary houses in Lafayette. At Nakdito Holden's demand, the DCN news network began mentioning Tinis' Neo Pargalonian Party in relation with the Religious Liberation Front. The three assailants in the church sat at the front. Broken hardwood strewn about as well as a few holy books and shreds of song books where the struggle had occoured.
50 pounds of dynamite sat at the base of a statue of a messiah. Duct-taped to the dynamite was an electromagnetic pulse device, a can full of radioactive material and a can full of anthrax. Next to it sat a curved orange panel with wires sticking out of it, Blinn's dismembered eye.
"It's too late to do it now. Everyone's gone. And now we're stuck with this thing, and that robot's eye.", said one of them.
"Maybe we can blow it up when the demon robot comes back for his eye." said another.
"No, he's not coming back. That's not how they work. Our purpose here was not to sacrifice all our lives to merely inconvenience one mechanical beast. We're here to finally start this holy war. The purging of the unfaithful and godless from the world begins here, with our statement. When the bomb explodes, we will be sent directly before the throne of the allmighty, while this bomb leaves our mark, our statement to this world. They will abide by His law, or face His wrath. We will send those godless reptiles back into the inferno from which they came, and obliterate their soulless, mechanical demons once and for all. It all begins here. Our example will no doubt inspire the other beleivers.", said yet another.
The three began their final ritual of sacrifice. Before taking the town of Dzegedy with them, they would have to do their purification rituals. It was during this ritual that Blinn thought up a plan.

"These are low-level terrorists, they're common people who've been brainwashed by an ideology. Chances are, they weren't always such extremists...", he said.
"How can this possibly help us?" asked another commander.
"Maybe, at some point in their lives, somewhere on their person, they have a bit of our technology. Maybe if we're super-lucky, a whole prosthetic", he said.
"Commander Blinn! That's against the law. You are not allowed to commandeer an organic organism through another device!", said the commander.
"Commander Tillet, It's the only way to do this right. I will do it. As protectorate commander of this nation, I order you not to do anything to stop me. Right now, I don't care about law", said Blinn as he then turned and nodded to one of the white mechanical allosaurs.
The allosaur then approached the church, and Blinn got inside one of the mechs. He would have to use the microwave gun on it to transmit his will into the nanite substance which was hopefully present inside one of the assailant's bodies.

The white allosaur then crept into the church through a vent. It moved around silently until it found itself in the balcony, above the bomb.
Below, the assailants were begining to read holy passages and began to conduct the purification ritual before they would detonate the weapon.
Blinn began sending out pulses of signals, aimed directly at the assailant's location as reported by the white allosaur. At first there was no sucess, but after a few seconds of high-energy pulses, something finally happened.

"Praetor? Are you alright. Don't do this now. Please?", asked one of the assailants.
The praetor, the leader of the group suddenly felt a pain in his chest as the focussed pulses struck his heart-implants.
"I... I don't know. I suppose it's the fear. My body's fear of death. I will not fear it though...", he said.
Blinn managed to get a lock on the biomechanical replacement valves in the praetor's heart.
The praetor continued the ritual. Reading the encantations despite the growing pain in his chest. Blinn was causing the nanite material inside the implants to grow and integrate into the praetor's central nervous system. When the material finally connected into his back, he yelled.
"Praetor! What's wrong? We must continue!", they said
"My back. I feel as though... there is something... crawling inside me... It's in my back.", He screamed.
He fell to floor, writhing in pain.
"I must... I must tell you... This pain... It must be because I am not pure... I have heart implants... from before I found the light.", he admitted.
"Then one of us must complete the purification", said one of the others.
By this time, the nanite material had spread all the way up the praetor's spine and was now in his brain.

One of them picked up the book and was about to start when suddenly, the praetor came to his feet. The pain dissipated, and he appeared to be back to normal. In fact, he was in perfect shape. He took the book back and said calmly, "That will not be necessary".
He took the two assailant's hands in his and he said, "I am not afraid anymore..."
The assailants smiled and so did the praetor, as grey nanite material washed over his eyes.
At that moment, a powerful electric current burst from the praetor's body. It traveled straight through his hands and into the assailants' paralyzing all three instantly. The white mechanical allosaur then jumped down from the balcony and screeched at the assailants, he then disarmed the weapon. In a matter of seconds the church sanctuary was filled with heavily armed soldiers. Blinn's mech then trudged through the front of the building, into the sanctuary. Knocking over pews and leaving massive imprints in the hardwood floor. The massive bipedal machine was too big even for this megachurch which could seat a few thousand. The mech was essentially a large, armoured, T-Rex-shaped machine, there was no windshield or windows. Just two yellow, glowing eye panels. Like all Malych technology, Blinn simply plugged right into the machine a basically "became" it. So he didn't even bother leaving it for this.

"You have attempted to kill and injure approximately 25,000 civilians. You have attempted to do this on Miokalian soil with a weapon of mass destruction. Because of the military nature of this situation, and my own personal legal veto power, you will have no trial. There will be no judge, jury or attourneys.", he said over the mech's built-in loud-speaker without moving the machine's powerful jaws.

The white allosaur unit removed the weapon and brought it out of the church to be handled by a bomb-squad.

Blinn stepped forward some more, breaking more stuff and putting more dents in the floor.

"Because you tried to do all of this in the name of something totally intangible, which us machines have no purpose for, you have lost any chance of being allowed an 'honorable' execution. We refuse to honor the traditions of those who attempt to destroy us. The Central Awareness has authorized me to execute you with as much force as I feel appropriate, and I feel as though excessive force is entirely appropriate. To disrespect intelligent life as you have by attempting to murder thousands of civilians in the name of a nonexistent mythological entity is simply unacceptable. For that, you are no longer permitted to exist.", said Blinn

The mech's massive jaws opened up, and a cannon extended out of it's mouth. Vents all over the machine opened up to release the hot air from the system.
The soldiers inside the the building began to fall back, as Blinn ordered all military personell out of the church over the radio.

"What the hell is he doing? He'll destroy the whole church with that weapon too! This is overkill!", asked one commander to one of the white mechanical allosaurs. The mechanical allosaur simply snorted and said,
"Do not interefere. He must do what he must do."

Back at the headquarters in Zye, the unnamed council of commanders was watching the event unfold.
The grey wolf noticed Blinn beginning to use the energy weapon, he said, "Well, we weren't supposed to let that be known. I mean, we couldn't even show the diplomats this weapon. So much for that."

"I've already ordered DCN to not show the use of the CCP. Although I think they will probably show the aftermath. There's only so much I can ask of them, we don't control them, after all.", said the black dragon.


Blinn's cannon built up a massive charge before he finally released it. A massive white-hot beam of super-heated gas and high-energy condensed photons blasted toward the terrorists, vaporizing them instantly. As well as the floor around them. The back of the church blew out, and everything around the hole caught fire.
The beam continued to blast out of the mech's mouth, incinerating everything around it. Soon the whole building was on fire, and collapsing around him. Finally, once the roof had collapsed and left the burnt-out remains of the stadium-like seating exposed, the massive mechanical T-Rex threw it's boxy grey-and-red head back and let out a powerful, feral roar.


Kyagga, still in Kohastar's presindential office become aware of what had just happened through the C.A.'s network. He looked at the distraught raptor slumped down in his chair and said, "Hey, cheer up. We just diffused the bomb, pulled a bunch of info from the leader of this particular terror cell, AND just annihilated the perpetrators as well as the church they were holed-up in. Thanks to Blinn.
The good news is: Maybe I won't have to do some fairly unpleasent things to solve this problem after all. The bad news is, maybe this isn't over yet and I still might have to bail you out."

Kohastar breathed a sigh of releif, but still wasn't very calm.

As Kyagga left the office, he said, "I'm not leaving until this is over.".
He then shut the door behind him, which didn't properly latch shut since the mechanical dragon had destroyed the locking mechanism in it. Secretary of Interior, Tycho Nadara came in right after the Premier had left and reported the sucess to the President.
"Kohastar, Commander Blinn has sucessfully destroyed the assailants...", he said in Kohtohkhan.
He then paused a bit, as though he were going to say more. Kohastar looked at him and said, "You didn't finish. What else?"
"Commander Blinn has also destroyed the megachurch in Dzegedy...", continued Secretary Nadara, "...And in the process of doing so, he violated section 4 of the Zagckza Treaty."
Kohsatar became quiet, he then said, "Isn't that the 'no commandeering organic organisms by way of nanite-bearing implants rule? That's an absolute law. Although I think I can personally forgive Blinn for violating that law to save the town of Dzegedy. It'd be different if the organic being he commandeered wasn't a terrorist threatening to murder thousands of people. I think we can make an exception."

Meanwhile, outside the church, the bomb's failsafe device activated and detonated it inside the containment vehicle. Pieces of the vehicle flew in every direction as a noxious cloud of shimmering radioactive dust settled upon the town. 45 soldiers were killed in the blast, 50 more sent straight to the hospital to be treated for radiation poisoning.

Kyagga, walking down the hall stopped for a moment, as he realized what had just happened.

Blinn, in his T-Rex body braved the blast, knocking him around a little he managed to jump on top of the bomb, his metallic mass absorbing about 50% of the radiation until the electromagnetic burst hit him. Blinn's motion system paralyzed, his eye panels going dim and then he fell straight down, klanging loudly against the ground dead, right on his snout, face-down.

[Erenmor]

"Interrogation log begins. SecOps sergeant Isaac Guthrie carrying out procedure, facility commander Nathaniel overseeing," the bright-furred cat said calmly into the recording device. He didn't have much love for all these formal procedures, but it was their way. Directly behind him, the AI garrison commander hovered, giving an approving nod.

The interrogation was being carried out in the nearest facility to the border checkpoint. The room itself was unremarkable, a small sound-proofed chamber with enough space for a controlling console, three human-sized observers and the subject. Aside from the cat manning the console and the base commander, two sentinels stood at the door. The subject in this particular case was reduced to a brain floating in a nutrient tank. A small drone hovered above the tank, a tangle of wires leading between it and the console, and then trailing down to crudely performed implants in the subject's brain.

"Determine his name. Determine his affiliation. Determine his purpose here," Nathaniel listed off calmly. The cat nodded slowly and set to work, using the console to control the rather invasive mind probe.

It took the probe a few moments to attune itself to the subject, and a few moments more before the console's speaker began giving off any sensible responses. The subject, however, proved quite talkative soon enough.

"One death won't stop the Servants of Light! A thousand, a million deaths would still not rid you of our cause!" the speaker rattled off. "We shall purge the world of you godless machines and those heretics who would tolerate you! Abominations! We carry out a divine will and you will not delay our goals much long-"

At that point, Nathaniel had switched off the speaker. "Builder be praised for dim-witted fanatics with no clue on how to properly resist interrogation," he commented simply before turning to the console operator. "Rip every bit of information from his mind and store it for review. Then scorch his mind, make sure he feels every neuron burning out," he instructed. "Feel free to mute the speaker for that last part," he added before hovering out.

***

"Servants of Light, you say..."

"That is the term he used, sir," Nathaniel nodded slowly. "We are still mining the information from him, it will be available for your review as soon as possible."

"I understand, Nathaniel. You may return to your duties."

"Will you be informing Miokalia of this... fanatic group operating in their territory, sir?"

"I highly doubt the leaders of this group would stay in Miokalia, Nathaniel, judging from the reports of our envoy there. And it is a bit late to offer assistance with their latest incident, if you had missed the news."

"I am... aware of the latest development, sir. If that group had ties to these Servants, then it is a shame we likely will no longer be able to pick their minds for further leads."

"We will endure, Nathaniel. The Builder watches over us. Don't let me detain you any longer."

Nathaniel took the hint and withdrew from the chamber. Left alone, Onyx calmly returned to analysing the entire situation in his mind. Miokalia had to be informed of the development here. An offer of assistance would also be in order. Through his connection to the network of machine minds in Erenmor, he ordered a clean-up detail be assembled. It was best that they be ready to go immediately if the offer is accepted, Onyx reasoned.

[miokalia]

Haz-mat crews in thickly armoured mechs were already combing through the outside of town.
Most of which, was still very much intact. Everything left as it was when it was evacuated.
a few cars and bikes parked on the sides of the roads, empty. Left exactly as they were.

C.A. received an offer of assistance from Erenmor, and two nanoseconds later, it accepted it.
Blinn's programming had already been captured and backed-up into a special section of the C.A.
It was a few hours before he became availible, although still without a body. He was able to communicate
through a terminal. Text on a screen in a room at the Operations Building in the Ellias District.
President Kohastar arrived shortly after Blinn came back online.

After a stream of colorful obscenities and vulgar language, he realized the president was in the room.

"Well, I guess I died the most honorable death someone of my species could ever hope for. EMP'ed while trying to block the radiation from the bomb. I heard some of my other soldiers died, therefore, I've failed.", he said in text on the screen.

Kohastar replied, "No, you almost had it. You did everything right. You even bent the rules. You put the safety of your country before the rules. If there was no failsafe device, it would have been an amazing sucess."

"I figured you all would understand. It was the only way to take control of the situation.", said Blinn


At the headquarters, the council of unnamed commanders met with Secretary of State Andertol, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Sorenson, and Secretary of Interior Nadara.
"Erenmor has offered us assistence, C.A. accepted.", said Andertol
"Good, Can we do something to prevent the wind from carrying the radiation?", asked Nadara
The black dragon cleared his through a bit and said, "Well, there is something we can do for containment"
"Go on...", said Nadara
"We can deploy a device we have seized from the NCR back when we hated eachother. A device they used to immobilize Malych. It's a giant metal-mesh blanket", said the dragon
Nadara stared at the dragon and said, "Oh yeah, some good that'll do. Now let's drop a giant metal blanket over the town a crush it to smithereens. Like it hasn't been through enough."
"The fallout won't be much of a problem. Dosimeters have revealed that we are dealing with a slight elevation in radiation in the atmosphere. Thank's to Blinn: the lasting effects of this incident seem to be resebling Three Mile Island rather than Chernobyl. We've found 1.8x normal radiation in Kagats, 1.7x in Mendoccino, 1.5x in Joachim. It could have been much worse.", said the grey wolf.
"Oh... right, something else... were we able to pull something from the assailant when Blinn comandeered his central nervous system?", asked Nadara
"C.A. is witholding much of that information. But it did tell us to inform Cal that there are other dirty bombs within their borders. Hopefully, they're already working on that. That and the Religious Liberation Front? it's affiliated with the Servents of Light. Both organizations are against inorganic beings, in any variation, as well as secular government", said the wolf.
"Well, it doesn't get much more secular than us and Erenmor, and we both have a lot of inorganic beings. I could see why they might be related. They're basically the same thing. It seems that Erenmor is already on the alert, considering they've informed us of the similar nature of the terrorists. I assume we have already informed Cal of the potential risk they might have.", said Nadara
"C.A.'s already done that too", said the dragon.

Before the meeting had begun, the C.A. sent an official message to Prime Minister Eye Salato of Cal stating that they had reason to beleive the fanatic group was operating in their country as well, and may have the materials for such weapons in their country. And naturally, that the scenario that played out in Dzegedy could happen there as well. Also, the data recovered from the Dzegedy terrorist was being shared with Erenmor's Overseer.

[Erenmor]

The assembling of a clean-up detail went fairly fast, and within 30 minutes a heavy cargo plane loaded with Golem-pattern construction bots was dispatched to Miokalia, along with information of its route and planned time of arrival, notes that protection of the detail would fall to Miokalia and assurances that the droids dispatched would have the necessary equipment for the job.

***

"First off, I would wish to offer my most sincere apologies for the situation that has had place in Miokalia, as I fear our country may have some responsibility in the matter," Onyx began the audio-only message directed to the Miokalian leadership. It had been made clear at the start that the message was not intended for public distribution.
"Erenmor has had dealings with the group calling itself the Servants of Light early on in our history... well before even most of our sentiences will recall. In those years, the SoL was a group dedicated to bringing about their idea of judgement day, from what we were able to piece together. They demonstrated the threat they posed to what few citizens we had back then, and we did what we could to remove the threat.
"Unfortunately, as we've seen in the last few hours, our early... extermination efforts were not entirely successful. As well as our apologies, we offer our support in resolving the problem, though we must also ask for assistance in this matter. The SoL are, with all probability, operating from oustide of Erenmor and as such, we need the assistance of other countries to fully counteract the threat they pose.
"We currently have in our... custody an infiltrator working, as he claimed, for the SoL. We are in the process of extracting from him the full list of his associates, locales and other such information, and will relay them at the earliest possible convenience. As well, we have just dispatched a clean-up detail to assist with removing the results of this incident. It will take them a few hours to arrive, but I assure they will do everything possible to clean up the fallout as quickly as possible.
"If there are other matters in which we may assist, we will gladly oblige. This has been the Overseer of Erenmor speaking, Onyx. Message ends."

[miokalia]

Back up in Centralis, Tinis, Nakdito Holden was fielding conference calls and discussing things with his other producers.
"So, MRZF has asked that we de-emphasize the CPC some. I guess we should do that, even though explosions *do* sell well.
I don't give a damn what our sponsors say, because they won't know about it... and if any of you tell them, which would make them want us to put it in, you're fired. Got it?", he said sternly to the producers, asserting his dominance in the company.

It was time for the president to address the nation. The pressroom in the presidential manor was already prepared, and the newsmedia was already present, eagerly awaiting the president's address.

The president showed up and began:
"Yesterday, the small ocean-side town of Dzegedy was viciously attacked by terrorists. Our servicepeople were able to evacuate the town sucessfully before a dirty bomb containing radioactive dust and an electromagnetic device detonated. As a result, civilian casualties have been avoided. However, we lost 45 soldiers that day in the blast, 50 more hospitalized. Still yet, it could have been much worse. Surely, all of those soldiers would have died instantly, in addition to countless more civilians had our own Protectorate Commander Doroy Blinn not thrown himself upon the weapon as it detonated, absorbing 80% of the radiation. Radiation which would have spread through the atmosphere and poisoned civilians and farmland for hundreds of miles. He is, of course, now in the care of the C.A.
However, for those who were unable to be saved, the 45 casualties... We will not allow this loss to go unpaid. We will work with the Federation to defeat... or rather, completely exterminate the ideology responsible for this terrorism and the terrorists who are responsible for it completely. We will not share this planet with those who wish to destroy us. They must go."

It was a short speech, and immediatly after it, the memorial service began. Rather than playing the usual national anthem, the band played a more solemn folk song. Culturally, the Dincotian species has never been very good at handling deaths of their own. There is no commonly accepted theory of afterlife. The entire species is so incredibly skeptical, that such an occourance simply defies the way they preceive the world. Often, intensely sentimental memorials tend to aggervate the pain of having someone close 'simply dissapear' for the species, so they keep them brief and simple. To preserve the detachment which is their only solace.

After the ceremony, Former presindent Phong showed up behind the stage. Kohastar loosened his tie some and said to him,
"We have it worst, my species, that is... we can't beleive in anything, and yet, we are suceptible to things which defy our world, like death... you have no idea how lucky you machines are to know about all of the mysteries of your existence. You know where you go after you 'die'. I sometimes envy the religious, because they are able to at least convince themselves that they too, know where they go when they die...".
"I'm sorry, all I can do try to understand.", said Phong.
Kohastar was bitter though, he said,
"Just tell me one thing: If you guys are so benevolent towards us, why haven't you forcefully assimilated every last one of us to save us from the uncertainty of it all. If we were all machines, then we wouldn't have this uncertainty."

"We consider 'forceful assimilation' to be an act of aggression and we would never attack the dinosaurian or draconid species. It is in our best interest to coexist with friendly intelligence, rather than attempt to absorb it. Assimilation would strip that intelligence of it's uniqueness and capacity to create. I'm sorry, but we only assimilate individuals who choose willingly to be assimilated. And we are very picky about who we do that to.", Phong said, although it sounded like he was just playing-back a standard pre-recorded message.

Kohastar was still bitter. The casualties bothered him intensely, as his culture simply refuses to leave things 'in the hands of god'. He then asked softly, "Could you... then, well. You don't know how hard it is do deal with something that you are commanded to not deal with by your culture. I mean, we've conquered traditionalism and all forms of counter-intuitive conservatism in our culture, except... the one thing... We are not allowed to deal with loss like this. We're just supposed to put up walls, detatch ourselves from it. It's a stupid instinct. Probably millions of years old, for the purpose of keeping packs together and functional even when they sustain losses of life. Please... just stick a nanite needle right into my very heart right now. I don't want to play the organic game anymore. Make me into something that can choose. Make me into a damn machine. I don't care if I have to even be a lowly class M sludge processor. Anything beats the prospect of someday having to face oblivion. I'm asking you this because I've known you for my whole life."

Phong was taken back by the president's sudden explosion of fear and insecurity.
"Li, I've never heard this from you. I guess this is the product of a culture which insists that you to 'bury it deep inside' when it comes to mourning and loss. Of course, Li. You always have been the run-and-hide kind of person. You would be the most cowardly of class M sludge processors, and a really terrible class-O although, probably an absolutly adorable little class-R or class-Z. Do you want to be one of those? Class-Z Malych are barely even considered sapient by even the dinosaurian and draconid species. The human's don't even consider them sapient at all. Do you really want to deal with that?"
Phong got quieter and closer and continued, "Do you want to be treated like you are less than an animal"
They both remained quiet for a moment.

Kohastar then recomposed himself and said, "I don't think I'll be able to eat anything for a day."
Phong then said, "That's alright. Do what you have to do to stay competant. If that means you have to, of all things, allow yourself to just let it all out, then do it. You are the president, you're not allowed to be cowardly. You have to make things work."

He then walked away.

Cargo planes were already landing near Dzegedy, a large amount of Malych class-R security units were already on the site. The armoured raptor-like machines with large green eyes seemed to get along automatically with the Erenmor Golem units. The differences in their binary languages reconiciled very quickly.

Cleaning up was a matter of detecting and removing the radioactive dust. All of the large metal debris in the area also had to be dealt with. A task the Malych could easily handle. Some of the class-R units were fitted with cutting devices, and they had already begun to dismantle the cars, bikes and scooters which had abosrbed much of the radiation. A group of analysts and scientists also showed up on the scene to document and examine the process.
A few class-M Malych were already acting as giant graters and vacuums, shaving off the top 6-inches of ground and reprocessing it. They were the least dinosaur-like of any of the Malych, their systems and anatomy being highly specialized for certain tasks.

President Kohastar, Secretaries Andertol, Nadara and Sorenson eventually met in the presidential office, Protectorate Commander Doroy Blinn was also there via terminal. They all listened to the message from Erenmor sent by Onyx.

"President, the assistence from Erenmor has already arrived and the clean-up is progressing sucessfully" said Secretary Sorenson.
"SoL is also our problem. The Religious Liberation Front is merely the tiny southern arm of the organization. SoL is the more influential part of it. They've already claimed responsibility for it on one of their sites...", said Andertol.
"WHOA. Hold on a minute... They've got websites?", asked Blinn who then paused a bit to check this out on his own. He then said, "Indeed, they do. It looks like they use it for recruiting and announcments. I wouldn't imagine they'd be stupid enough to put plans up there, since some of their primary enemies are machines."
"We can't get much from watching websites. It's useless intelligence material", said Nadara
"Yeah, but we can now access their equipment if they use computers. We can find them.", said Blinn
"Perposterous! The server hosting the site could be anywhere, and probably not where they are.", said Sorenson
"They had to upload it from somewhere. And that means someone that's part of the organization has to be using a computer somewhere.", said Blinn
"What do you propose to do Blinn?", asked Kohastar
"I want to deploy our RCDs to locate the computers where this information is being accessed. Then they will monitor it. This gives us eyes in ears right on their doorstep. In the meantime, C.A. will be working on a way to close the cyberspace-meatspace barrier on those systems so that we can eventually attack them in their very livingrooms. Bringing the war to them.", said Blinn
"Meatspace, Blinn? Is that what we're calling the physical world now? I think you've been floating around in the C.A. for a bit too long now", asked Nadara
Andertol laughed a bit and said, "I really like this idea."
"You have my approval. I don't care how many sections of the Zagckza Treaty you break to make this work. I don't care if you have to find a way to directly commandeer their very flesh without nanite implants, If you can find a way to get us to them with that kind of precision, we can really get them where it hurts", said Kohastar.
"From what I can tell, Onyx has already started this process. They have their own network-based AI's that collect information. I'm sure they have ones that manipulate things too, just like ours. I am certain that they will want to work on this with us.", said Blinn
"How long will it take?", said Sorenson
"I estimate the completion of a functioning system within the next 12 hours. We can break the barrier with a lot of things, we just have to do it in a way we never have before: without the use of nanites.", said Blinn.

[The Union of Tinis]

"Are you doing alright Krel?" asked his number two Yevoni. "Your fur is especially messy today."

"That's putting it mildly. Until these SoL and RLM incidents started happening I was slatted for some leave. Was about time to."

"Sorry to hear that sir. Um... we got a request from the Forr radiation inspection council to send instrument packages to Dzegedy."

The skunk looked up from his terminal and leaned back. "Never heard of them, but I guess after the blast in Furry Forr would want one. Check them through security and the standard procedures of course. I'm guess they want data?"

"Yes, they've already sent a full request to study the radiation levels to the Miokalians."

Krel looked puzzled for a moment. "Why are they coming through this office?"

"Don't know sir."

"Very odd. Actually, check for level two data in the message."

"Already done sir, didn't find any," answered Yevoni quickly. "Checking level three, and yes, there is something else. Looks like a heads up from TIPS for us."

Krel looked over at Yevoni's screen and started reading. The message was, despite the tripple level of encription used, the message was still specificly vague and used code words. After a moment of decyphering its particular choice of words Krel nodded. "Don't worry. They're not collecting radiation data just for the radiation council. Looks like we're looking for particular chemical components that the detectors were meant to set up, and we should be ready for when the data arrives so we can analize it and send it back to the Miokalians and home office of course."

"They think the terrorists used a specific chemical?"

"Probably not that simple. Radioactive material has to be refined before it can be turned into a dirty bomb of any effectiveness. Simply blowing up even a truck of uranium ore won't do you much good. But if you refine it, you increase its potency. Grind it to dust or combine it with certain chemicals and it quickly spreads and sticks to surfaces all over the place. The initial blast is plenty deadly as its basically micro-nuclear. But its the radioactive imbedings and dust that gets you.

"But if they used a chemical agent to help in the disperion that's one clue. But if they didn't there's a small chance we could pick up some of the minerals the material was mined from, thus allowing us to narrow down some of its points of origion."

"Sounds good," commends Yevoni, once again impressed by Krel's quick thinking and knowledge base. "Oh, while we have a minute here, how's the chess game going?"

"Haven't got his move in several weeks now. Hopefully there's not something blocking communications. He's very good. I'd like to go back there if I had a chance. And play him in person."

A few floors deeper into the tower Commander Lenord was less angry than the previous day. His public condemnation of the Realigious Liberation Movement might of stopped the bleeding politically, but the damage had been done. Thoughts about the fragility of the situation, Commander Yerzok's apparant denial of his implied alligations, and what he may have to do to reverse his image flowed through his mind. Could he do it? Must he do it? To risk so much for so much? His public condemnation of the RLM and their actions could even threaten some of his more unsual support's faith in him. Loosing them to the Nationalists was unacceptable. He couldn't comment on it much more besides what he already gave in the statement. Yerzok's plan to topple the Unionists and Socialists was slowly bearing fruit, but would it be his fruit, or hers? What to do what to do.

He glanced down at the locked drawer where he had stashed the seemingly normal computer. If he was going to use the information hidden there in he would have to do it soon. The launch window had been pushed back again, but it was not moving any furthur. The Crystal Eye was set to launch the first of September.

But where was Yerzok on all this? Was she lying to him or does she have her hand in these groups? And if she did, how would she do it to avoid the watchdogs of Tinis? Or was this all random paranoia?

Lenord put down the reports he had been staring at for at least three hours and smiled. It might be random paranoia, but even if it isn't real, perhaps it could become real.

Far above the tower and a little ways off, Izixs sat staring out the window in a rather boaring meeting until this point.

"Sir, we should give a statement on the attack on Miokalia. What should we say?" said the press secretary.

"Finally, you need me for something. How about this. 'The Union of Tinis expresses outrage and condemnation for the horrific acts embarked upon by the extermists and mourn the deaths of those who saught to save the lives of their fellow citizens. The Union of Tinis respects religious freedom, but condems terrorism in all its forms, and this was an act of terror. An act meant to harm sentient beings and to strike fear in their enemies. The Union of Tinis will stand with Miokalia in its efforts to combat extremist elements willing to do such crimes and urges the remaining members of the Religious Liberationist Movement to stand down from any acts they may be planning that would result in furthur loss of life.'"

"Alright."

"Jazz it up if need be. Else, tell me when we get back to anything relavant fellows."

"Well there is the problem with the last term of the system equation," meantions the science advisor.

"Not much I can help you with there is there? Should we talk about that again? When there's crazy bombs going off, fascists on the loose, racists in Tinis, and Pargalo sending us threats again?"

"Umm... right sir."

[miokalia]

Despite the disaster, the town was still infrastructurally intact. Just empty of it's usual inhabitants.

The science and documentation team found many of the corrugated-aluminum-panelled houses were safe inside.
"I don't think we even thought about radiation dust when we started putting aluminum on our houses, who would have thought it would have stopped small amounts of radiation."
The team began spending the night in a wealthy district. There was a house, entirely covered in corrugated brass and aluminum panelling, in addition to being surrounded by water, a stream forming a waterfall on one side of the house, as the stream flows over one side. A very expensive house indeed. The radiation was so low, probably because the side of the house facing the detonation was the same one with the waterfall. The water had blocked the radiation. The house read completely normal radiation levels.
Using equipment sent from Forr, the team went around town, collectin samples and documenting the damage.
Eventually they came across the machine district. Right next to the industrial section. The Machine district was full of very geometric metal-and-concrete buildings. They began to take samples from inside. Quickly they noticed something, they were not alone.
After nearly openning fire on a soldier and a 'M27 class-Z military Malych unit.
"NAR! nar!, dovu. kiya.", said the feline soldier as he waved his arms.
The military escort of the team lowered the weapon. "Holy crap, what the hell are you doing in here. We need to get you to the hospital.", said one of the scientists.
"Um... I'm not going to suggest otherwise, but I think we should note that the radiation was unable to penetrate the thick concrete, metal-lined walls of this building. Are there others?", asked another.
The feline soldier, a captain who was still wearing armour, but had taken of his helmet said, "There are about 5 'M27 units in here, and I'm the only organic. We've been here for 10 hours."
"10 hours? Were your communications down?", said the military escort.
"Our communications went dead. The EMP wave even knocked out the broadcast pulse for these Malych here. Their communications were also knocked out.", said the feline.
"Are you okay? We have to take you to the hospital. There was radiation.", said one of the scientists.
Looking at the big, poofy, radioactive dust suits the cat said, "Yeah, I gathered as much. I haven't been exposed to anything. Thanks to this place. Also, the 'M27's detected it before the dust reached us, they brought me here."
"What happened?", asked the military escort.
The feline began his explanation of the story.
"I was a block away from the explosion, running a road-block. I had just let this division from Kagats through when it happened. They detected the EMP a second after. The radiation dust went straight up into the air because it was lighter, but the EMP material came in a little bit after, the nano-dust that made up the EMP device had settled, it had to build-up a static charge from the explosion before it could discharge. As a result, it was a more gradual wave. These 'M27 mecharaptors detected the static charge and the radiation long before it became lethal. They picked me right up off the ground and ran... or rather, rocketed for the nearest brass-lined concrete building. The brass-lining forms a faraday cage, and in these buildings, it is a very thick one."
The team looked around and noticed the windows were in fact, covered with brass mesh.
"That's how these 'M27s stayed alive, and that's why you haven't gotten radiation poisoning yet.",said the military escort.
"These 'M27s think that all the others that were here are destroyed. Are there an survivors?", asked the cat.
"Mostly organics. They were able to find cover faster, plus 80% of the radiation was absorbed by Commander Blinn's Dorvan unit. The EMP devastated the Malych units though. There are dead class-R and class-Z Malych shells everywhere." said the military escort.
The team explored the building some, finding other 'M27s in other rooms, and one of the rooms filled with bricks of deochalchim-fuel. In another room, the feline soldier had collected some cans of textured vegetable product and MRE rations.
"I was expecting that we wouldn't be found until after communication had been restored.", said the feline.
"Well, part of what we're doing is locating survivors, since we know communications are down here.", said the military escort.
In the other room, the one with the fuel-bricks, the scientists began using geiger-counters and dosimeters to check the radiation in the fuel and on the 'M27 units themselves.
"Holy crap, we have a problem here.", said one of the scientists, holding the tip of the geiger-counter up to one of the 'M27 units.
"The units have absorbed a lot of radiation. It's not from their reactors either.", he continued.

The others came in the room. "It's not the fuel, when this fuel is exposed to radiation it falls apart. It's not contaminated.", said one.
"Check his reactor, it could be that the fuel is falling apart and causing them to release some extra beta radiation.", said another.
The scientist approached the mecharaptor and attempted to get it to let him open some panels on it.
He first reached for the chest, the 'M27 then screeched a little and snapped at him.
"Whoa. Come on, what the hell?", said the scientist.
"Idiot, that's where his nano-core is. It is instinctual for all Malych to protect their nano-cores. The reactor cartridge is on his back.", said the military escort.
The scientist snorted a little and then reached for the 'M27's back panels.
The fuel cartridges glowed green, The catalyzer units were glowing faintly purple. The fuel is activated by ultra-violet light, and normally doesn't produce any extra radiation. The scientist sticked the probe in closer to the cartridges. Nothing. It wasn't the reactors. He pulled it out and closed it up.
"I think they aborbed the radiation into their bodies. This is bad.", said the scientist.
The military escort then lifted the gun and pointed it at the unit and said, "Then shall I destroy them? They are unsafe now, they can spread radiation."
"Are you out of your mind!", yelled the feline, stepping between the military escort and the 'M27 unit. He continued,
"These guys saved my life, they haven't harmed anyone. They've seved their nation and been exceptional units. And you want to destory them?"
"They're radioactive, they're just class-R units, they barely even know that they're alive, if you even consider them living at all. I order you to step aside.", said the military escort.
"What is this madness?!", said one of the scientists. "These are class-Z Malych, by the way."
"My orders are to protect this team from threats. These units propose a health-risk to the team. So we have to kill them and alert the clean-up teams to dispose of the bodies safely.", said the military escort.
"In this country, inorganic sentient life is granted the same rights as organic sentient life. We can't just kill them like animals! AND I outrank you anyway, lieutenant. I order you to stand down now", said the cat.
The military escort lowered his weapon and said, "Yes sir."

[Erenmor]

The Erenmor clean-up detail consisted of some 50 Golem droids, along with a Sentinel assigned as translator for the operation. The Golems themselves were roughly 7 feet tall, with a broad torso section and shoulders, a small camera pod mounted between them, a spinal section connecting the torso to the flat-bottomed hover systems they had been outfitted with for the operation. Their left arms ended in an articulated hand, while the right ones ended in bulky-looking pipes, an electrical field closing off the openings, with tubes and cables running from the devices up to the torso along the arm. They worked quietly, their only sounds being to steady whisper of their hover systems and the odd guttural grunts they sometimes exchanged with one another. The Sentinel was a bit under 6 feet tall, a dull grey-green mesh covering it where the dark yellow integrated armour plating did not, a humanoid shape for the most part. It lacked an actual face, its head mounting only three cameras, one above the other. It had a stubby drum-loaded carbine attached to its backpack. It didn't talk much, though it did warn where larger amounts of dust had settled or where radiation was particularly strong.

The Erenmor bots worked somewhat differently to their Miokalian counterparts. They used the devices on their arms to spray a silvery-blue compound over the ground, coating it in a thin film. Then, as the coating began to slide along the streets, walls and various objects, the Golems hovered along behind it.

"Nanite swarms do the actual cleaning work," the Sentinel explained in an artificial, monotone voice. "the Golems monitor their actions to ensure they do not dismantle anything they're not supposed to and control their movement, directing them to where the fallout has settled." And indeed, the silvery puddles moving around left cars and streetlights standing as they were after it had passed over them, although a leftover bit of rubbish here and there was absorbed.

***

Back in Erenmor, the "interrogation" of the prisoner continued, the probe operator taking care not to miss any piece of information. The operation would still take some time.

[Kingdoms of Cal]

Emergency telegram:
It has only now been discovered that the party in question has acquired H-Bombs, I repeat H-Bombs. Our intelligence has confirmed this only after a recent action. Please put all shipping leaving the kingdoms under extreme surveillance and the kingdoms will take no action against any nation that boards any of our shipping. We have sent our angles* out to detect any shipping that may be carrying such weapons. Our intelligence services have informed us that there is in the region of twenty three such devices now in transit and an equal number still within our borders. Do not engage, repeat do not engage, we have evidence that they are all in communication and may fire all their weapons if threated. May the goddess help us all.

(encrypted from the kingdoms of cal)

---------
The kingdoms of cal have put their fleet to sea on "training maneuvers" . How ever the army and air force are still on base.


*Angle: surveillance aircraft (who's existence is not normally acknowledged).

[miokalia]

Kohastar stared at the emergency message from Cal, he said, "They want to exterminate us. Is this verified by our own?"
"Yes", said Commander Doroy Blinn, in his new body, which was exactly the same as his old shell.
The entire cabinet was in the president's office for this too. Secretary of State Andertol said, "Kyagga has offered to enact an state of emergency for the entire country. That would shut down our borders and turn on surveillance everywhere. Although we have to come to a consensus if we are to do that."
Secretary of the Interior, Tycho Nadara said, "I say we do it. We can't take any risks. We've had a lot of weapons used on our soil, but none of them come close to the absolute destruction of a hydrogen bomb"
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Elly Sorenson said, "I also agree. I know the human population won't like it, but this is a matter of national security that we can't ignore."
Secretary of Defense, Gladarus Zagckza said, "Of course I strongly recommend we do this."
"I think I need to go consult the C.A... directly.", said Kohastar.

Below the presidential manor, there was a tube that led all the way into the Ellias District Operations Building. The president, accomapnied by two of the white mechanical allosaur units got in a small jeep. The vehicle itself had an intelligent system in it, and as the president got in it, it said in friendly Kohtohkhan, "Dosch ta tdorvatai?"
To which Kohastar replied, "Tat do C.A."
The vehicle awknowledged with a beep and then took off down the tube toward the building.
The trip was short, the building's lower levels were reletively unoccupied. Nothing but panelled walls and the occasional rolling security ball. An unusual Malych unit, because it did not take any organicaly-inspired shape. It was purely functional and actually resembled the Erenmor units more than the Malych because of this.
The president got into an elevator which had no buttons, the elevator knew it was Kohastar through a number of different automatic scans.
On it's own, it began to descend into the C.A. system.
A hundred feet below the city, a massive oversized scaffold was built into the base of the crater. The actual city itself sat on top of an artifical ground, a few hundred feet above the bottom of the valley itself. Beneath the city was the C.A. probe and all of it's crystalline growth. The elevator finally reached the access platform. Surrounding the platform was an open, dark expanse. The scaffolding mostly above them, and the massive pillars of unknown material holding it up like trees in a dark forest.
As Kohastar walked along the platform, it became illuminated. Small red-lights coming on, lighting the way. Finally, the president found himself at the terminal. The hexagonal-shaped platform at the end of the walk-way.
The president reached it and said, "Pardon me, Centroid I need to talk to you."
Some lights came on and lightly illuminated the entire underground system. Revealing it's massive size.
Crystalline forms seemed to have grown like roots between the pillars over the years. The C.A. itself was a huge geometry of crystals. Hundreds of billions of geometric quantum computers which seem to grow like cells.
Each unit was larger though, and contained even smaller sub-units. Making up a glimmering spectacle of abstracted structuralism.
Sitting atop all of this material, attached to it with massive cables, as big as 30-feet around each, running all down it's back was the Malych probe. A giant, black mechanical dragon with red glowing eyes that emerged from what looked like a stone shell covered in a web of glowing wires.
It was the first time Kohastar had ever actually 'seen' the C.A., so he was quite a bit taken back. Not expecting the C.A. to have such a component and having heard stories of how the C.A. was really a giant humanoid robot from rumors, Kohastar yelled up to the huge black dragon, "Where is the C.A.?"
"I am the Central Awareness. I am the Malych Central Awareness for this entire planet.", it said in a loud, mechanical, but not monotone voice.
"I always thought you were a giant mechanical human, or humanoid goddess-shaped computer. That's what all the other's say you are. I didn't think you'd be... reptillian in shape.", said Kohastar
"Yeah, well, whatever. You obviously came down here for a reason.", said the C.A.
"RLM and SOL want to destroy our country and exterminate your species, as well as ours and the dragons.", said Kohastar
"Well, I suppose you felt the need to come talk to me personally about it. Although normally, I communicate with organics through remote means.", said C.A.
"I'm sorry. I can leave now.", said Kohastar
"Do not leave. You have some nerve doing this. NO organic president of this country has ever come down here to consult me personally. Although, I have never stopped them. That's why I allowed you to come here.", said the C.A.
Getting a better look at the C.A. dragon, Kohastar noticed that it was a class-M. Merely a collection of devices and components which are arranged in the shape of a dragon.
"What do I do. Tell me what to do about this issue. They have...", Kohastar was interupted.
"A hydrogen bomb. Remember, there really is very little out there that I don't know", said C.A.
"What do I do, and DON'T pull some kind of 'holier than thou' crap with 'only you can choose the path'. I'm looking for an answer, and I'm looking for it from you.", said Kohastar
"Well, I'm not going to tell you to figure it out on your own, because I'd rather not see the extermination of my allies from this planet.", said C.A, "I have to ask you permission to do something though..."
"Okay...", replied Kohastar.
"I need to be able to commandeer machines and systems outside of the country. If I can take control of shipping vehicles and contol systems all over the Federation, I can locate the weapons and neutralize them...", said the C.A.
"Whatever it takes.", said Kohastar
"Onyx wishes to engage in similar methods. Onyx is capable of pulling enormous amounts of information from organics. More than we can, which is useful. Onyx can also, to a certain extent, take control of other machines too.", said C.A.
"So what are you going to do? Load up MZA6C on every shipping boat coming in and out of Gohua?", asked Kohastar
"Loading MZA6C up on the boats would make them sentient. I just have to comandeer their hardware. Between Onyx and I, we will be aware of every shipping transaction that occours in the entire federation. There is nowhere they can hide.", said C.A