Minor edits on the unit, don't you hate when you change something and then forget to carry it through to your writing!

Trooper Renain peered through the scope of his R5M1, scanning the valley ahead. Enemy soldiers weren’t a concern here in the middle of Boreal Tundra, even the exercise OPFOR would not be involved until they crossed the national park boundaries and entered the exercise area. Here the worry was wildlife, especially the bears and cougars. Practicing tactical movement, the section moved quietly and even with the Rangers sweeping ahead, they could accidentally end up too close to the wrong animal. Before they started there were some jokes about bringing back a nice trophy but, they all knew the only way they’d kill anything would be last ditch self defence.

He continued sweeping the valley, spotting two of the four Rangers ahead moving across the open meadows. Moving up the sides, he spotted a third Ranger about a click away, along the scrub brush. “Should be OK” he thought to himself, not much cover for us but, not much for the bears either.

Suddenly a loud thump split the air and was followed by an echoing rumble. The section hit the ground instinctively, even the Rangers vanishing into the terrain. Almost instantly, Captain Feori’s voice came through on override, “Lancer 571. platoon soundoff on section nets, leads confirm.” Then switching to his own section, “One section, sound off, Rangers first.” The replies were quick and everyone from the section checked in OK, Feori confirmed the other sections were fine as well then he called Renain for a sitrep.

Knowing the call was coming, Renain had immediately began scourng the direction the explosion came from. He spotted the smoke plume cresting the ridge almost as the echoes died away. “Smoke at bearing three-five-magnetic, unable to laser, estimate three klicks out. Should be in the next valley, over the ridge Three is on.”

“Three section, have you got a fix on that smoke?”

“Roger that, bearing three-five-five-magnetic, no laser, under three klicks estimated. We have your beacon at two-eight-five-magnetic, laser 1854meter.”

“OK, puts it just under three klicks. Echo-one, any reason for that explosion?

“This is Echo-one, no reason we know of. Shouldn’t be anyone but us in the area, no registered visitors and us twelve are the only Rangers.”

“Echo-seven”

“Go ahead Echo-seven”

“I’ve had a lot of experience with explosives and if that was three km away, I can tell you it was big and hot. There were no secondaries and the detonation was clearly separate from the echo rumble. We’re talking the equivalent to a quarter-tonne bomb or better of very high grade explosives.”

“Thanks seven.” Feori thought for a moment, studying the map. “Lancer 571 to full patrol. We’re the only ones here so, it’s our job to find out what the hell is going on.

Rangers will team up with their escorted sections as third fire team. Three section will take a blocking position in the valley to the northwest, two teams in the valley and one on the far ridge slope. Two section will get up ridge to three’s current position, one team on east facing slope and two in ahead trail along ridge line. First section will double time north until west of the target and then cross the ridgeline. Two and three move up valley once your skirmish line is set up.”

“Lancer571, this is Echo1, nearest forestry bird is 5hrs out but, we’ll have two here within 5 mikes of each other.”

“Roger that Echo. platoon move out”

More to follow...

The Lancers moved into position, encircling the blast site.

Overwatch, any movement?

Renain answered first. Negative, I can see three bodies and four possibles.

Overwatch two?

Same here, no movement, some bodies.

Three here, ditto.

OK, Alpha teams from one and three will check it out with Echos on overwatch. The rest of you keep an eye out outwards, make sure we’re not surprized.

As they moved through the site, it was apparent that it had been there a while. Supplies and building materials were strewn about the area. Camo nets strung through the trees made it obvious that the occupants didn’t want to be seen. Twenty three bodies were found, dressed in a variety of clothes including a few in combat fatigues.

What do you think, survivalists?

His machine gunner responded, looking at some of the papers, Maybe but, I think there may be more, take a look at this. He handed a few sheets to his captain, sheets bearing the writing of C-Ton. On the third page was something that had brought pain and anger to many nations in Canada.... plans and directions on building the suicide vests that had become synonimous with the religion and nation of C-Ton.

Echo1, do those choppers have IR?

One will, it’s a fire spotter, not sure about the other. Why?

There’s evidence of others, survivors, he replied, noting a blood trail and several sets of boot prints leading north away from the camp. We may need to track them.

A couple hours later, the site has been searched and secured. More documents had been collected and a rough estimate of the number of people and time they'd been there. The helicopters arrived and with a couple of troopers aboard, began to look for the survivors. Two Section followed the ground track for ten km, locating only two more bodies. Meanwhile, the OPFOR battalion and the rest of the Lancer battalion were converging on the area.

As the sun set, Feori came over to Ranain. There's a team of MilInt coming in via VTOL, take Braer and mark a landing zone. They'll see if they can find anything we missed.

Military encampment near the blast site, two days later...

We've swept the grid 20 klicks out. Either they slipped us on the first night or,...

The Intel Major looked up at the company commanders, Or?

This part of the park is riddled with old coal mine entrances, air shafts and natural caves. It would be easy enough to slip into one and hide.

How do the men feel about spelunking? asked the Maj as another man entered the command post. Jack, any news on those documents?

Yeah and it looks bad. The new officer, another Intel Major, looked over the assembled company officers. We've been translating the documents and we thought we'd found something so, we sent images to the brain trust, they confirmed our findings. Again he looked at the others, Capt Feori could see fear and anger flickering in the Major's eyes. In less than a month, the "Blade of the Prophet" intends to strike here and several other places in the region, possibly other regions as well.

Blade of the Prophet? I thought these were C-Tons, the Foundation?

They were, with the fall of C-Ton and the capture of the leaders there, it appears the Foundation has morphed itself into a new organization. This one appears to be much bloodier than the original, they're not going to be asking if anyone believes in gods.

Colonel, I'd sure like to talk to one of these bastards.

Col. Jaimes put down the radio headset and stepped forward. So would I Jim, so would I. He then addressed the company commanders. Alright team, we know what we need to do and we're going to start from the point we lost the trail and check every damn hole we find. I want them checked, cleaned and tagged so they can't be used without our knowing or can't be used at all. It's time we had a chat with these campers. Everyone is on hard rotation, another OPFOR battalion will be coming in tomorrow by air as well as an engineer battalion driving up the parkway. The Rangers are fully tac'd up and they'll be creating a buffer around us. As you're ready to deploy, the Major and I will assign your patrol areas. Dismissed.

As he headed back to the map table, Jaimes heard the banter. "Fully tac'd Rangers? Wonder if that hottie at the park gate can actually get a vest over those jugs?" "Anyone want to bet there won't be any non-permitted fires tonight." "Tonight's campfire presentation, how to identify the yellow bellied terrorist and other vermin." The jokes meant moral was high but, even as they crossed the camp to their unit bivouacs, he could feel the cold purpose sinking into the men. The sense built like the pressure change before a stor and, Jaimes knew any Blade of the Prophet so foolish as to challenge his men find out there were worse things than the wrath of some imaginary gods.

OOC: Any nation that wants can consider itself listed as a target, of course Gemetria and Durass are on the list. The nation's appropriate government departments are being contacted as the documetns are decyphered.

Handle the attacks as you see fit, the BotP is not well coordinated but, they are extremely ferverent. They have a very unique view of religion which will consider everyone else sinfully lax at best and acursed infidel at worst. If you need any help with ideas, planted bombs will be a major weapon though random shooting attacks, kidnapping and assassinations area all likely, suiceide bombers should be limited to high value targets. Most of the cells will be independant with little, if any, knowledge of higher command layers. They'll get their orders, carry them out repeatedly until contacted wth new orders.

The squad car door slammed, and Detective Martin “Smokey” McNamara pushed his way through the crowd, balancing an poppy seed covered sticky cake on top of his morning cup of tea. Ducking under the police tape required the most dexterity, but he managed to pull it off without losing his breakfast.

“What’cha got for me Tim? ” the Detective removed his sunglasses with one hand and stuffed them into the inside breast-pocket of his brown suit. He squinted at the burnt out wreckage of a bus, before removing the cake from his tea. It was from a pretty good new bakery in the downtown core of Tiar.

“Looks like a pretty conventional homemade explosive detonating in a packed bus. We sent some samples down to the lab… 28 dead, 7 critical at the hospital. Burns, bones, the works…”


” We have any idea who did this?” Martin starting walking around the perimeter of the cordoned-off area. Pieces of broken road and glass crunched under his shoes.

“No sir. We’ve requested the bus logs from the bus company so that we can figure out the numbers of the people that got on and got off. We’re also trying to get security camera footage from the two stations that are on this bus’s route. There were five people that were almost completely destroyed by the blast, like we might not get dental off of them. If it’s a suicide bomber, it would have been one of them”

Martin wiped his free hand against his jacket to clean it, “Do we have any reason to suspect a suicide bomber?”

“No sir, it just seems to be the usual way that these kind of things go down.”

” Right, well let’s not get sloppy. The way the that bus was destroyed certainly seems to indicate an internal blast, but it could have been someone leaving a package and then walking off.” Martin took a big sip of tea, “Oh, the Captain says that he’s willing to spend a little Tree-time on this. It’s a big PR case, and our time-budget was increased last month. We need to make sure that we have as much as possible on this case before asking Her for suggestions…”

“HEY SMOKEY! I just heard the most fucked up thing on the radio! Listen to this…” Roberston, Martin’s partner, yelled from the car. Her face looked worried.

Rache strolled along Bankside enjoying the sunshine and the bustle of the city. After his posting in DOC (Durassian Occupied C-Ton) it was nice to be home. Tonight he would have dinner with his sisters and with any luck Kayla would bring his bike from home. While in DOC he'd gotten to ride dispatch quite often but, the big dirt bikes they used were nothing compared to his Beowulf. 1300cc of racing engine in a frame that was barely street legal, he'd instantly rack up a months pay in violations if the Motorway had speed limits.

Looking at a jewel smith’s kiosk, Rache bumped into another passerby. Without paying attention, they muttered a quick "sorry" ad continued on their respective ways. A few steps later, Rache stopped, something triggered in his mind, the man hadn't spoken Durassian or common. He'd spoken in the language of C-Ton and Rache had answered out of habit from his two years there.

Rache turned and looked after the retreating man. He was talking on a cell phone and carrying a sports bag. Another thought was tickling at the edges of Rache's mind as he turned towards the man. The C-Ton (as Rache began to think of him) walked up the steps to the SkyTram and just made it aboard. Topping the stairs, Rache saw the tram arrive at the next station as the snippet of conversation he'd inadvertently heard suddenly cleared in his mind. "I will bring the gift of the prophets to these infidels."

The tram pulled out of the next station as Rache got to the constable. "Sir, we need to talk." Rache leaned close and quietly told the constable what he's heard. The constable hesitated but, the earnest look in Rache's eyes and the military tattoo on Rache’s arm caused him to reach for his radio.

At that moment, a ball of fire erupted from the tramcar, everyone stopped and stared but, Rache's training took over and his attention was caught by the only man still standing at the next tram station. Everyone else had ducked at the blast but, one man still stood, cell phone to his ear, watching the shattered car collapse towards the crowded market place below. He turned and it seemed for a moment, he was looking straight at Rache before he began casually making his way to the stairs. Then confusion erupted as everyone started moving and he was lost in the crowds.


Rache watches the local news several hours later at his sisters’ a half drank, now warm, beer in his hand…

Further on today’s cowardly attack on Bankside, it appears the main suspect has been identified and authorities are closing in on his whereabouts. Surveillance video tracked the man to a location where several accomplices attempted to help him evade OverWatch (Durass’s public area surveillance system) several of whom have been taken into custody. Furthermore, earlier reports of a possible suspect being apprehended at the scene have been corrected. This person was assisting the police and in fact may have notified them of the suspect just before the attack. These are the suspects in this incident remaining at large; if you have any information on the possible whereabouts of any of these people, please contact the police or the TIPS line.

This attack appears to be one of several similar incidents across the nation, here with more are national anchors Garret Keel and Veronica Sayers….

Renain stared at the small opening and thought, "another fragging hole." For two weeks now they had scoured the country side for the Blades, after finding the tunnel that lead through a mountain that allowed them to slip away from the soldiers.

Brennan, barely a whisper to the sapper just below the entrance, any trace?

Brennan replied with an out stretched hand, fist, flat palm down, three fingers, fist. The tunnel entrance was booby trapped, Brennan had spotted the tripwire and now slid backwards.

Thumper, TJ, fire a couple of thermobarics. Cory, let the Capt know what we've found and to watch for puffs, we're going to over pressure.

Within seconds of the detonations, the chopper circling over head called in four possible opennings, one 100m up hill from them. Renain left TJ and a machine gunner at the entrance and the rest of the team headed up the hill. The arrived just as two ragged figures crawled out, blood trickling from mouths, ears and noses. One carried an old battle rifle and began to raise it towards the approaching soldiers. Without hesitation, Renain shot him dead centre. The other man didn't notice his comrade fall, he hadn't even flinched to the shot.

Brennan moved up to him, motioning with his rifle, Deaf from the blast, lucky to be alive, he said.

Thumper checked the fallen man and nodded to Renain, he'd probably survive for questioning. Now to see if anyone else was in there....


Major Jack McMarin heard of the capture over the radio as news of yet another attack was playing on the TV in the CP.

... Once again, we're here at the Royal Library in Arcturus where a molotov cocktail was thrown through on of the windows. It appears this was not the actual attack however as when fire crews arrived, a trio of other bombs exploded. The first was in the mailbox, right in front of the fire bombing attack while the second and third were located in cars parked just down from it. Casualty estimates are uncertain but, it appears over a hundred people were injured and at least 20 are dead. I'm going to try to talk to one of the fire crew who wa Sorry to interupt you David, this just in from Wolfsport. A gunman has shot several school children at a soccer match. Reports say a large sedan suddenly began driving across the fields at high speed and a man was firing either an automatic rifle or light machine gun while standing in the sunroof. Police are currently in pursuit of the vehicle which appears to be an armoured......

The Major turned and left the CP, he hoped the capture report was correct, somebody had some questions to answer.

OOC: Appologies for not getting back here, soccer is taking up most of my time right now. Hope to get it going again in the next week or two.