Table of Contents

Story - Death on the Oregon Coast

Overview

She could feel the heat of the fire on her back as her feet dug into the woody forest earth, the screams of the party goers around her and those who hadn’t made it out before the fire consumed the structure.

She is a noble, the scion of a major house and the head of its operations on earth. The estate was a recent build and entirely Shil, carved into the woods and mountain to the east of Oregon Route 101. It was a getaway and a symbol of her and her family’s power in the Pacific Northwest. There was a party and an auction that night, individuals from as far away as the blue zone holdings in Australia had come. Some of the ‘goods’ knew what was in store… others didn’t… and there was another darker one that would have taken place later in the night. The debauched atmosphere had started the moment the sun had slipped over the pacific, many intoxicants passed around, most focused on the human male component of the party. The change in tone was noticed by the some hundred Militia that where stationed in the outer areas of the grand construction and in its outer perimeter…. Mostly as their wireless COMs went down. Then the outer guard started dropping off the short range COMs. Then the shuttle port exploded and the Red Spectacles began to push in from the woods, a line from the north and a line from the east ensuring none would accidentally cross their firing lines. Some were USTERCOM personnel, insurgents who’d spent a year off world and returned with the tech of the infamous ghost fleet. Others where former US military who’d done much the same, but the leaders where ghost fleet marines.

The assignment paid well, but it was still annoying to stand out in the chilly Oregon weather, listening to the party carrying on in the estate behind her…. She’d seen the boys come in.. including the ones that she knew weren’t going to be visible until later in the night.. Boys that would never go home, she got extra credits to look the other way on that. Pondering whether or not she might get laid upon her return to Portland, she doesn’t see the shadowy figure detach from the trees behind her. Her earpiece suddenly goes to static and while fiddling she feels a sharp pain and then nothing.

Her killer eases her down into the shadows as more shapes emerge behind him, they’re one of three teams, the others pressing in from other approaches and taking down their own sentries. They’ve already compromised the local COM and datanet and disconnected it from the more strategic wireless links that may have allowed them to call for help. Some know perfectly well whats going on inside, they’d been trafficked in similar ways, others.. Fleet personnel… have an idea. The goal is simple…. Make a statement in the bodies of those within and extract any innocent humans for the duration.

Each team has two groups, one that will lay back in support and one that will push forward. The first sets up with light machine guns and suppressed marksman rifles. The second begins to press forward, SMGs and suppressed carbines up, though some simply use knives as they carve a path inward.

The building is a two domed structure, crescent shaped with two large pads out in front, the one closer to the buildings grand front doors is a shuttle pad and had a dozen currently landed, beyond it is a large parking area with slightly fewer vehicles. Twenty some militia women patroled in and around and another ten had been on the farther out areas. They where down to five, the others already starting to call for missed check ins.

The command team for the operation noted this and prepared for the operation to go ‘loud’ as they tasked a drone to get closer. The marine and naval forces in the area still hadn't gotten wise to what was occuring, the continuous backfeed of legitimate but fake data keeping them in the dark.

Five minutes later as the assault teams started to get in close the first exchange happened. One of the assaulters was noticed and engaged by a militia woman who let out a shout to confront him. He cuts her in half with a burst before she can realize what is happening but the confrontation leads all of them to realize their network is compromised and they switch to another channel and the hardline alarm goes out. Though cut from being able to go beyond the complex's grounds it still brings everyone to full alert.

The remaining outside the wall are engaged and taken out by the attacker's sharpshooters. The machinegunners open fire with suppressed sustained fire, nearly half the remaining outside militiawomen are cut down in the first ten seconds before the rest either find hard cover or slip inside. The three assault teams press in, those outside still are engaged and terminated by the frontal attack team. Militia women inside begin firing from windows inviting heavy fire from the support team. Some of the party goers take up arms, they're former or current Shilvati marines.

The assault teams press inside, breaching into the structure. They are ruthless as they know what was going to happen here after the festivities. Any alien they encounter is cut down as they engage militiawomen and armed party goer alike.

Their primary HVT is the daughter of the governess of the southern western american continental district. Controlling an area from Oregon to the baja peninsula. The party was intended to be a show of wealth and reach while also offering the fruits of one of her side projects for undocumented credits to be used in other projects. Five boys between the ages of 10 to 13, some at the beginning of conditioning, others raw and fresh from being snatched in the name of removing innocent children from the hands of potential insurgents. An excuse to traffic children to wanting hands here on earth, the empire, and even the galaxy beyond.

For Ghost Fleet this was the beginning of the string to pull on, using information gathered and given by the Vaida Warren after the discovery of boys in cryo tubes on a freighter destined for the core. They had a list, people to black bag and people to eliminate. Of course as far as the mixed group of now reforged insurgents and UAMC marines were concerned anyone of note at this get together was in the know and would be dealt with accordingly.

They conduct themselves accordingly, some resist, some beg, the result was always the same unless they were marked to be bagged. All three teams move through the building like wraiths, reapers reaping alien life.

A small cadre manage to escape out the back, some five humans, the governess's daughter, and a dozen or so others, militiawomen and marines with arms. One support team is forced to relocate from heavy fire while one of the other one's shift. One of the assault teams presses out to pursue while the others move deeper into the complex, unfiled building plans on their huds as the find a hidden entrance to the structure below.

The leader of the pursing assault team is a UAMC marine and a father, he can see the feed as they find the five boys after their captors surrender. One is actually in charge and the other two are brutally killed at knife point before the three shooters go to work on her to determine if they've missed anymore trafficked humans.

The rest of the upstairs is cleared by the other three man team, the service people are rounded up and placed in the main room, now filled with bodies. One of the troopers, another UAMC marine begins dead checking with a sidearm. Among the ‘help’ rounded up is a Erbian from a warren other than the Vaida.

Outside a support team and an assault team are hounding the group, picking off stragglers, the survivors hearing their screams for help before its cut off by the steady thud of suppressed weapons fire. By the time they reach the road there are only five of them left. A marine, two of the deathhead contractors, the governess's scion, and a human. The human, one of the main traffickers finally loses it and runs off down the road, theres a pop, a snap, and a scream. The three shooters take up positions aiming their weapons toward the trees on the east side of the road. The scion, panicking begins to slip down to the west and the rocky beach below.

The fight between the three, the marine only has her pistol and a stolen laser rifle, the death heads while having optics and rifles are in lower grade commercial kit, and the pressing six man team lasts ten minutes. Mostly because they want at least one of the death heads alive for interrogation. The support team slowly picks off two of them, the marine dying first from her lack of armor and optics and one of the death heads taking a round to the dome.

The survivor tries to run but after being suppressed for so long doesn't realize shes been flanked until her arm and one leg explode. One of the assaulters stay to secure the DH as the support team arrives to further help. The marine and one reforged insurgent press down to the beach, the sole remaining figure glowing on their thermals.

The scion is near hysterical, screaming at the goddess of the sea as she faces out into the pacific, how everything was going so right and now its going so wrong. An authoritative voice behind her in the dark tells her to drop to her knees, she turns on it in a rage and her knee cap explodes. Shrieking and writhing in the shallow surf two figures look down on the pathetic creature. One grabs her by the ruined leg and drags her back up on the sand dodging her swipes.

Back at the complex one team member has introduced an infiltration AI into the local network and found an air gapped datavault, they call to the outside team saying they need a passcode from the HVT.

The scion is interrogated, brutally, (pistol rounds to the joints?)

Opening the data vault and extracting every byte of information from its servers they eye the end of a string knowing that they will spend the next several years pulling on it. They call down the transport as they lead the boys out. One looks at one of the service staff on her knees, he picks up a cleaver that had fallen from one of the food tables and carves into her face, the neck, she can't fight back due to having her hands zipped tied she screams and howls and soon gurgles as the 13 year old boy empties a month's worth of horror into his tormentor. The shooters merely pause and watch, the other service staff scream and push away as the cleaver goes up and down until the Shil'vati woman is a ruin. Some stare in wide eyed horror, some in a rage, some look down. The shooters knew the last two groups where in on it, one running the show and outraged, the other seemingly along for the ride with little choice. The leader, another UAMC marine pauses as he sees two Erbian faces in the group. He aims his weapon at them both and calls out in english. Ears perk and eyes glance up and he lays down the task, get the terrified boys out since the Erbians looked close enough to human. Screw up, and they die horribly, both girls nod, one trooper disarming the cleaver armed child as he implodes in on himself before one of the Erbians scoops him up.

The shooters then look out on the surviving group, some are well dressed, others appear to have all the makings of the ‘help’ in plainer clothing. He gestures to them, and to the door, some of the better dressed attempt to leave only to get smacked back down. As his optics scan the room and confirm identities, he hangs the rifle at waist height, flicks the selector to auto, and works it across the crowd.