Tamora and the Cult of Draves (Chinese Republic and Tamora)

[Markus]

Djerb, Imperial Enclave, Empire of Tamora

At the request of the Head of Intelligence (HI), Emperor Abbas has called a secret meeting with Alya, his First Wife and also Head of Foreign Affairs, and his Head of Intelligence. The topic was the recent manhunt going on in the Second Imperial Chinese Republic for members of the Cult of Draves. After a brief presentation of the situation on the ground, an argument started over how to proceed:

HI: I believe we should initiate an operation in the Chinese Republic in order to extract as many members from this Cult of Draves. They could have valuable research that could help our biological weapons program. We need as much information on the subject as possible if we are to maintain an edge in this field.  Our enemies have nuclear weapons, we don't.
Alya: I firmly disagree with this proposal. We have no business in the Chinese Republic, no interest there. We are engaging in an operation on their soil without their approval. All Mundus nations are watching us ready to slap another embargo on us. All they need is for them to hear that Tamora has engaged in covert operation in a foreign country, in relation to biological weapons, for them to remove any doubt that we need to be embargoed. What the Head of Intelligence forgets to mention is what happens if the operation goes wrong and we are discovered. It would be a diplomatic fallout that somehow the Foreign Office would have to fix.

HI: Allow me to point out that Tamora most likely isn't the only player interested in this. We assume that at least the terrorist groups: Borlanders and the Bene Gesserit would be interested in this research. We need to get our hands on them before the others.
Alya: With all due respect to our Intelligence Service, if the Borlanders are interested in this research then we can pretty much assume they will beat us to it. We have no intelligence network in the Chinese Republic, no connections, nothing. I can't even believe to imagine how the Intelligence Service hopes to achieve this operation.

HI: I agree with the Fist Wife that our resources and intelligence in the Chinese Republic is limited. The whole country is a bunker. It is a vast heterogeneous country with massive underground military infrastructure, very reclusive with a healthy distrust of foreigners. I doubt even the Borlanders have good infiltration there.
Alya: And we do?

HI: No, as I said we have limited intelligence. All he have is an embassy and the regular intelligence gathering our embassies do. But we do have one advantage over the Borlanders. The intelligence Service has a great deal of experience with various religious sects and cults in the Empire.
Alya: We have experience with religious cults of Midaranye not Ardia. How many cults worshiping mutants have you encountered so far?

HI: None with such specific... interests. But religious cults have quite a few things in common on how they operate, we believe we can use that experience to find the most probable locations where they are hiding.
Alya: I strongly disagree with the proposal, Abbas. The Intelligence Service is in over its head. This operation will fail and we would make at the very least the Chinese Republic our enemies for nothing.

HI: I do agree with the First Wife on one aspect, we need to consider the Chinese Republic when we deal with these cultists. Once we have them in custody, we extract whatever information we can from them and then we contact the Chinese Republic and return them to their custody.
Alya: And tell them what? That we kidnapped their citizens and extracted information from them?

HI: That is for the Foreign Office to decided how to spin this around. It is now our area of expertise.
Alya: This is going nowhere, the Foreign Office strongly recommends that this operation does not take place. Abbas?

Abbas: I give the green light, we need any advantage over our enemies. We have no standing on the international stage so there is little to lose there and our enemies will always find a reason to embargo us. However, the operation will not take place or will be aborted if it cannot be done quietly and without local victims. The main objective has to be to not ruin relations with the Chinese Republic.


Once the Emperor decided, the issue was settled.


Heisen-Duminjia Proninz of the Second Imperial Chinese Republic

Hassan Malekmadan, an operative of the Tamoran Intelligence Service had been dispatched by Intelligence Service to get in touch with the fugitive cultists. An almost impossible task since they were on the run from the authorities and in hiding. Still, orders were orders, and he used the little information the Intelligence Service provided with the probable locations where they could be hiding. It was like searching a needle in haystack but he worked tirelessly nevertheless. He contacted various underground criminal elements and had left word that the cultists should contact him as he represented foreign interests. However, even contacting the criminal elements proved very difficult, the Chinese Republic had just engaged in a major crackdown of the local Mafia, and criminal elements were disorganized themselves. And if that wasn't enough, he couldn't stay forever in his motel room in this small town in the countryside. People were extremely  suspicious of foreigners and it wouldn't be long before they alerted the authorities if he stayed too long or did anything they considered suspicions. All that Hassan could do now was wait and hope that the cultists would contact him via the word he left with the criminal elements he generously rewarded.

[Admiral Taiwanpenguin]

Tingxue Village, Heisen-Daumer Provinz, Second Imperial Chinese Republic, 10:23 PM, Local Imperial Time

Thirteen cultists had caught wind of the Tamoran agent's message from a corrupt policeman, though they hardly got to know much before soldiers kicked down the door, shooting him and pursuing the cultists as they ran. They managed to lose them as they caught a helicopter to Tingxue Village, a small farming community near Er'mingtua. They dared not to venture into the city, for it was swarming with Internal Security Officers and Nationalist Militia soldiers searching for them. They found a bartender willing to carry the message to this "Hassan" as the bartender called him, and they quickly found shelter in the surrounding caves thereafter.

Cultist 1: What now? If this "Hassan" doesn't arrive soon, the Bureau will surely find us. They - they'll have us shot! Hung!
Cultist 2: Calm yourself brother. The Divine One, even in his passing from the mortal realm, will watch over us.
Cultist 3: Even if the Bureau finds us, we have the power of the Divine One with us. Do not forget that.

They fell silent, their woven bundles tightly strapped to their backs. They all stared at the ground or clasped their hands in prayer. One was counting beads around his neck while another drew hieroglyphs upon a small journal.

Their silence was ruined a moment later when shouting emerged from a cultist on watch outside, who dashed inside, white-faced.

Cultist 4: Hubschrauber!

Helicopters.

They were on their feet within an instant. Gunfire erupted from the machine guns of the helicopters above, scattering lead and shrapnel all over the foliage.

Cultist 5: How?! How did they find us?!
Cultist 6: Run! In the name of the Divine, run!
Cultist 3: They are dropping soldiers!
Cultist 2: Just run!


Special Internal Security Officer Hans Obern II, Clearance Jade

Hans pulled out his silenced pistol and leapt off the helicopter, his eyes locked on a cultist desperately running away from the searchlights of the helicopters.

Hans landed with a roll, and began firing at the cultist's limbs.

The cultist only redoubled his pace, but not before Hans caught up and pounced him. They rolled to the ground, struggling and flailing.
The cultist managed to grasp Hans' pistol and point it at him. Hans responded to the threat by ramming his head into the cultist. The cultist groaned in pain and dropped the gun.
Hans picked up the gun and fired a succession of rounds into the cultist, who screamed until the officer stamped on his face.

He turned towards the direction of the others until, to his horror, he saw an unmarked helicopter rise and fly away, the Bureau helicopters in close pursuit.

It seemed that the criminals had not been comepletely flushed out.

[Markus]

Hassan got a message from one of the sources he generously rewarded. It would seems that they were hiding in the Tingxue Village so he drove there as soon as possible. He was surprised he actually managed to find their trail considering the whole manhunt going on. By the time he got to the village, he heard guns shots and helicopters. It couldn't have been anyone else but the authorities and cultists. He wasn't surprised at all that the authorities got to them, they didn't seem like amateurs and the cultists weren't trained for this. He had to think fast if he would abort the mission or try and do something. He tried to assess the situation and it seemed like the one helicopters took off with the others in pursuit.

He decided that not all was lost. He thought that the first thing he should do is try to get the authorities off the backs of the cultists since it seemed they would soon capture or kill the cultists. He decided to try and divert their attention from the cultists and , making sure no one was looking, found some haystack, put some gas on it and lit it. He then proceeded to use his pistol to shoot a few times in the air. Hopefully that would attract the attention of the helicopters in pursuit and make them change course giving the cultists some time.

Unfortunately, that his work wasn't done. He had to get out of the village as soon as possible so he took the car and drove towards the helicopters. There were a million things that could go wrong, the helicopters in pursuit could very well continue their chase, there was even the chance that they would consider him as a target or something else could happen. Even if all went according to plan, the cultists would still be in the helicopter with no way to communicate with them. He had with him a flare gun which he could used to signal the cultists should it be safe but other than that he couldn't think of anything. He would just have to wait and see what would happen next.

[Admiral Taiwanpenguin]

Most unfortunately for the Tamoran agent, Hans had returned to the village to search for clues, leaving the Bureau helicopters to pursue the Cultists. To his shock, a car tore across the road in the direction of the helicopters. As he turned towards the helipad to secure his personal gunship, he heard yelling and an alarm for a fire.
Soldiers and villagers had already begun dumping sand and dragging the burning bale away.
Sabotage.
Figuring that the locals would take care of the fire, he dashed to the helipad and boarded the gunship, a battle-worn AH-64 from the famed cavern fabrication hangars of the Lotus Fortress itself, one of the last evacuated before the Pretorian occupation.
He boarded into the gunner's seat, commanding his pilot to head in the direction of the helicopters. Finding the car from before, he ordered the pilot to chase the car. He took careful aim, and began firing.


The cultists were piloting the helicopter towards the distant hills when they noticed the car on the narrow road. As cars were extremely rare, they quickly realized it could only be this Hassan fellow or someone hired by him. They quickly began descending, bullets dinging the steel behind them. To their horror, they suddenly heard the powerful, high-velocity chatter of an attack helicopter's machine guns. They quickly jammed the helicopter into a sharp dive, but to their bewilderment, a 20mm autocannon round  from one of the Bureau helicopters smashed into the engine above their heads, sparks raining down on them as it sharply descended. One cultist decided to take his chances and jump, the others seeing and following suit as the helicopter lost altitude.

They hit the ground hard, breaking several bones, but they dragged themselves up, hoping the Tamoran agent would pick them up.

[Markus]

Things never go according to plan, thought Hassan as the AH-64 began firing at his car. Not that it surprised him much.  There were some good news though, the cultists did see him and they were dropping from the sky, almost literally. It was clear to Hassan that another five people won't fit into his car. He picked up four of the cultists and then drove off leaving the fifth to his fate.

The cultists in his car that he did pick up were still in shock and in too much pain to realize exactly what had happened.  They probably would have protested if it weren't for the AH-64 that kept firing. Not more than a couple of seconds had past when the bullets from the helicopter that was in pursuit hit one of the cultists from the backseat of the car killing him. The others tried to hide from the bullets that were constantly coming. Hassan screamed in a broken Chinese at the cultists behind him to throw the body out of the car since it was slowing them down. After the cultists did that, Hassan resumed screaming at them:

"What on Earth did you people do to make them this angry and have them waste so much energy and resources to kill you? Did you insult their Emperor or something?"

Hasssan would have continued but it was hardly the time. The car raced as fast as possible and he did his best not to drive straight so no to be a still target to the helicopter, it was something not very easy to do at the speed to which the car was going.   

Hassan had to reach the Southern border as soon as possible. The problem was that with such "company" in pursuit it was unlikely to make it there alive. He would have thrown some of the remaining cultists out of the car if he would have thought that would help however it was unlikely that would make much of a difference. That and not to mention the fact that he had only three left and chances were high that another one might be killed by bullets soon. To make things worse, the cultists looked like they had some broken bones and were unlikely to be able to run so driving towards a forest, abandoning the car and running through the forest in the hope they would lose the authorities also wasn't an option.   

With no other option, Hassan decided to drive for the closest more circulated road in the hope that some more traffic on the road will gave him some cover from the trigger happy helicopters. Once there he would have to think of something else. These damn cultists better have a wealth of knowledge with them to be worth this much trouble he thought.

[Admiral Taiwanpenguin]

Realizing that the car was headed for the Southern borders as it entered a congested section of road, Hans quickly came to the conclusion that they could still, if not all, then at least kill some of the cultists. Coming up with a plan, he ordered a single Bureau helicopter to continue pursuit and ordered the rest to break off. He then directed his pilot to head towards the southern border while he radioed the nearest Imperial Fortress Corps battery.

"IFC Battery Seven, this is Bureau Officer Hans Obern, Clearance Jade. I am requesting an artillery strike upon any vehicle that attempts to leave through the Southern Mountain Pass. You are to use high explosive rounds, repeat, high explosive rounds. If anyone leaves the vehicle, you are to shoot all but the driver, if at all possible."

He then called the other Bureau helicopters, ordering them to clear the roads and force the car to drive through the narrow dirt path along the only southern exit in the region.


The cultists were cowering in the backseat, horrified at the death of two of their number. As the car tossed and turned, swerving to avoid the other motorists, one managed to choke out a response.
"We - we developed a highly contagious superbug that was -"

He was interrupted by one of his fellow cultists , who simply said quietly, "We burned the Holy Library. Our Head Priest declared all other religions illegitimate. We then made a virus to show them the Light, and when they rejected it, we realized they could only seek salvation through death."

He cradled his head, letting out a feeble whimper, murmuring,

"We didn't think they would attack us. We thought they would waste their time by trying to reason with the Priests. But they didn't. They- they just kicked down the door with guns blazing. None of us knew that they cared so much about the libraries."

His fellow cultist turned and muttered, "They are wrong to think that we shall perish, for the Divine One will carry us with His Light."

The gunfire suddenly stopped, and to their amazement, as they turned, the last helicopter had turned around as they had entered the Southern Pass's unpaved road. They began cheering but were cut short when one motioned for their attention.

"Listen! Do you hear that?"

There was a sharp whistling that turned into several, the cultists' confusion becoming apparent as the noise grew louder and they saw traces of white smoke racing towards them. By the time they realized what it was, it was too late. The ground exploded, shells detonating all around them, the force shattering the window. One cultist turned to his friend only to scream at the bloody stump of his arm. His friend saw and began screaming as well, the third trying to calm them down.

[Markus]

"You people are sick" Hassan said in Parthian being sure that the Cultists wouldn't understand him. These people seemed insane at best, he thought.

As we saw the helicopters break off their pursuit he was wondering if more "surprises" were to be expected.

As he got close to the Southern border, the artillery started firing and one of the remaining cultists lost his arm. He didn't feel pity of the cultist but he began to worry that he may not  make it to the border. Right now the cultists and their safety were becoming a lower priority to his own safety.  He didn't expect the whole country to be after them and certainly not that he would end up with shells detonating close to his car.
 
The artillery shot merciless at the car, breaking the glass of the car and smoke and debris were beginning to obstruct his view. Hassan had little choice than to go for a race to the border with the hope he will make without getting killed. As he drove towards the border the cultist that had lost his arm kept screaming when all of a sudden he stopped. He then heard one of the other cultist after suffering a further injury.  Hassan was now racing to the border with just two cultists left alive.  This whole operation was beginning to resemble less like an extraction and more like one a suicide mission.

[Admiral Taiwanpenguin]

Hans watched as the car tore to the border, shells blowing up columns of smoke and fire all around it. He realized, suddenly, that at the rate the artillery was going, there would be barely anyone left in the vehicle by the time it got out, and therefore whatever resulting bioweapon that the cultists could create then would be hugely diminished in strength. Pulling out the radio, he again dialed the artillery bunkers.

"IFC Battery Seven, stand down, repeat stand down. Objective complete. Necessary enemy casualties compiled. You may cease fire."

He then radioed the remaining Bureau helicopters, repeating the same message from before and ordering them to return to base. With a quiet, satisfied smirk, he remarked to his copilot, "With luck, a Wilderjager will nail a cultist in the kidneys."

They shared a laugh as the AH-64 turned tail, heading back towards Er'mingtua.

In the meantime, he would have to write an awful long report on why a border patrol was needed.

To their astonishment, the artillery stopped and the helicopters turned around just as they passed the border markers and into the southern jungles.

The two remaining cultists cheered, and began clasping their hands together and thanking their Divine One.

But their joy was short lived for a sharp crack echoed throught the jungle, and one of the cultists screamed in agony as blood erupted from his leg.

"Wilderjager! Drive faster!"

Thankfully, that was the last that they ever were shot at again for the rest of their journey and the night.


Er'mingtua BIS Regional Headquarters, Heisen-Daumer Provinz, Second Imperial Chinese Republic, 4:25 AM, Local Imperial Time

"Well done, Officer Obern, from what our analysts have assesed, your assumption was right. Even if whoever is helping cultists does develop a biological weapon tries to use it in warfare, we have sufficient evidence to prove that the the balancing factors of the rest of Mundus would force them to relent. You handled the sistuation quite well, I should think. Get some sleep, its late. I shall see you in the morning."

"Of course, Kommandant. Good night."

"Good night, Hans."