254 Article 75 (1/2)
Sin City, Great Hall
Raman stormed hurriedly into the Great Hall where the rest of his cadre sat around with worried looks on their face. Ivan waved the Orc guards away and ordered them to guard the main doors before closing and bolting the doors.
Raman grabbed a pitcher of watered wine and poured himself a goblet, shooing the slave away who offered to do the work. He slumped down on the chair at the head of the table and said, ”How? HOW?!”
Nicolas De Vos standing by the windows watching the destruction of the inner city turned back and looked at the Raman was in a state of panic and sighed. ”You are too greedy!”
”I warned you that we shall stay low for the time being, but no... you want to expand your powers and control of the area,” Nicolas spat. ”Now look at what you have done! They have found us!”
Raman paused in his fidgeting and glared at Nicolas by the window, ”Didn't you enjoy the spoils too? Now it's all my fault?”
”Enough guys!” Ramu stood up and smacked the table hard. ”ENOUGH!”
Raman and Nicolas turned away from glaring at each other and looked at Ramu who said, ”Now the important thing is, is there an army outside the gates? Or is this just a strategic bombing?”
”I have confirmed earlier that three places are hit, Tony said from his seat on the table. He took a large gulp of the goblet of wine before him and said. ”The factory, the Administration, and the Barracks are hit by the bombs.”
”Leung... ” Tony took another gulp of the wine, ”Is most likely buried under the Administraction building...”
”Shit...” The rest looked at each other. Every one of the original eight was here except Aaron who was leading an expedition to find what the snake wants. Now one of them was dead.
”If this was just a strategic strike, they just destroyed half of what we have built up!” Kumar who was running the production department cried out. ”All the time and effort... Gone! Just like that!”
”Calm down!” Raman snapped, his nerves returning. ”We knew that they will find us sooner or later, and we made some plans for that! They must have sneaked some spies in and they found out which buildings and areas are a high priority.”
”I doubt they have the capability to launch a ground attack, we will be able to see them coming miles away,” Raman said. ”But I underestimated that they have some kind of bombers! I assumed they will attack with those converted cargo haulers!”
”We prepared those AA guns as a surprise for those low lying gunships, now we need to rethink how to rebuild our production base!” Raman said. ”We can't have the slaves nor the Orcs think we are weak! We need to be able to better protect ourselves and show those pretentious assholes that there are consequences if they fuck with us!”
”Wait,” Nicolas cut in, ”What are you going to do? Upgrade the weapons we have to the Orcs?”
”No, we sell weapons to the Empire and get them to wipe those fuckers off the face of this planet!” Raman cried out with a crazed light in his eyes. ”We will show those fuckers!”
”Are you crazy?!” Nicolas cursed just as the rest looked among themselves uneasily, ”You know what consequences there will b-?!”
The double doors suddenly blew inwards and several splinters the length of a man's hands sliced through Nicolas as he bent over the table glaring at Raman, sending him gaggling on to the floor.
The shock wave knocked the rest over their chairs and they stood up on their feet in confusing with blood caused by the cuts from the splinters. Raman wiped the flecks of Nicolas's blood off his face as he sat dumbly on the floor with his ears ringing when he sat several dark tubes rolled in. His armorer knowledge kicked in and he recognized the tubes as flashbangs.
He quickly threw his large bulk behind the upturned table and plugged his ears with his fingers and opening his mouth just as the flashbangs detonated. He screamed as his ear ringed painfully and he quickly crawled his way to the back entrance of the hall.
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”GO! GO! GO!”
They rushed into the room, finding an upturned table and five bodies in rolling about on the ground from the effects of the flashbang. ”Tag and bag them!” Tyrier ordered coldly as he swept the area.
Tavel dragged the closest hooman to the side and wrenched the crying man's arm behind before cuffing him by the thumbs. The rest did the same while Hitsu called out, ”We got a door here!”
”Go check it out!” Tyrier ordered and Hitsu and Loke disappeared through it.
Tyrier turned and looked down at the five men, one of them laid squirming by the table in a pool of his own blood, choking on his blood while Wolf crouched next to him.
Wolf looked up at Tyrier who shook his head slightly and Wolf nodded and stood up, denying the man any medical assistance as the choking man with a splinter in his throat gasped and reached out to try to grab Wolf's arm who stepped out of reach.
Tavel using his tablet, verified each person's facial features and names, followed by fingerprinting each of the arrested persons.
Wolf walked among the hoomans are using a video camera, he carefully video and record each person's facial features properly before zooming out to the capture the four kneeling men.
”Who the fuck are you!”
Tyrier stood before them and pulled out a small notepad, flipping pages till he found the correct page. ”By the authority granted to me by the highest level of command, Captain Richard Blake, United Nations Naval Command, You five have committed the most serious crime of Desertion in time of war. Under UN Article 75, the crime is punishable by death or other such punishment as a court-martial.”
He paused and looked at the kneeling men who were recovering from the effects of the flashbang. ”Do you understand your crimes?”
The four looked at each other in fear and nodded hurriedly. ”Y-yes...”