Chapter V
"Why don’t you all go back to Russia then?” You intervene, drawing everyone's attention to you. Even Skorzeny turns towards you and listens.
A cacophony of discontent fills the air in the camp.
"This is a scandal!” One refugee yells.
"Is it really? Is it a scandal that we gave you a place to live, providing you with food, medical aid and water? That we try to protect you from attacks like yesterday’s, that we even give you the opportunity to get a decently paying job, as if you were legal residents or citizens?”
The cacophony gets weaker, it appears that some understand what you are trying to say. Or at least they are willing to hear you out.
“Tell me, why aren’t you in Russia now? That’s right there is a war and your government doesn’t really care about helping you. In fact, some of you are here because of it in the first place. How many of you lived in Kaliningrad and seen your homes shelled when the RSR army decided to take back the city, a city which it ran away from as soon as Europareich troops landed there following the destruction of the Russian Baltic Fleet?”
Some of the refugees give up, they walk back to their tents and hab-containers. The remaining ones shout in disapproval over your words, but they're voices are weaker than before.
"How many of you are from the Russian Soviet Republic? Did you see the communists *nationalize* all the belongings you worked so hard for your entire lives? Did you see them force you out of your medium-sized house to turn it into 3-4 apartments for the proletariat, because it was *too big*?" You continue your monologue.
The crowd disperses, some still appear to be utterly dissatisfied by your speech or the murder, but for now the situation has calmed down. Skorzeny takes away the armed refugees weapon, as there is no one around to stop him from doing so and even the man himself has resigned from resisting.
Your squad looks at you relieved that the situation got resolved, it is clear that most of them are as green as grass. Otherwise they would not be so nervous when faced with a potentially hostile and barely armed rioting rabble.
"Frau Westgard, that was rather unexpected but surprisingly effective." Skorzeny congratulates you. "It seems the harsh truth has worked, it could have ended up with a riot."
"My interference Herr Skorzeny might have ended up with a riot as well, we were lucky enough that most of these people have seen enough suffering, and in the end they want stability and safety. I just needed to remind them of it, although some may think less of us our army because of it. I saw a lot of similar situations back in France, people driven from their homes by mujahedin."
"Either way we would have handled it, the camp was designed to contain a potential riot easily just in case even if it got bloody. Still, I appreciate the assistance Frau Westgard."
You spend another hour making sure things calmed down. Eventually the squad regroups, the Unteroffizier returns to the base with half of it. You on the other hand take the team you picked to Müggau where Miss Żuławska lives.
*
The diesel engine of the Neinmask goes silent, it stops before an apartment building built somewhere in the late teens or early twenties. An odd mixture of communism and capitalism, a chessboard of late XXth century and early XXIst century housing. You think that if you ever decided to resume your history of architecture studies in Oslo, you could write a thesis about this. But that is a goal for more peaceful times, for now you cannot rest until everyone is safe.
Somewhere behind the maze of apartments an S-Bahn train just stopped at the nearby station, you wait for the *experts* who rode on it to arrive. You can see them walking towards you, it has to be them. No one else could look like that, wearing sleeveless jackets in such cold October weather. But it appears that weather is of little concern to them.
"My god." Gefreiter Mazowiecka mumbles in shock. Henri and Sven try to hide that they're also unnerved by the sight. Oskaras however gazes in amazement at them.
Their eyes and ears are covered by Sidic Inc. Multi-Spectrum headbands grafted onto their skulls. The trendy sleeveless leather jackets reveal a pair of Prateek Pro-Tech utility limbs, a plethora of smaller extendible dextri-arms with various tools is attached to them. A bunch of cables is hanging around their necks, already plugged into their neural-interface I/O ports connected to their spinal cords. No doubt they want to start working as soon as possible.
"Feldwebel Westagard I presume? The name is Adam McKay, Europa Cyber-Krieg SysOp." One of the two experts introduces himself.
"And I am Paul Strauss, ECK data analyst." The other one says.
"They sent in a SysOp?" You ask surprised. "It's only one wannabe journo, she didn't think much about hiding her views. With that kind of attitude I doubt she was the kind of person to use the latest in encryption."
"This task requires efficiency, a potential problem left unsolved can cause a major disruption to a system. The system must be stable, flawless." Adam replies in a cold machine-like monotone.
"Surely Herr Strauss alone would have been enough." You tell him.
"My performance is not yet optimal, I need real-time feedback to improve my efficiency." Paul explains.
Anna looks like she's not paying attention, she keeps looking around nervously for some reason. Perhaps she has an issue with the very transhuman nature of the experts.
"Very well, you are the experts here. We'll take care of everything that isn't digital in the apartment."
"Agreed, let us proceed then." The SysOp replies.
You take the elevator to the 9th floor, there you find apartment number 93. You knock on the door, a young woman with obviously dyed red hair, no doubt another student, opens the door.
"Yes? What do you want." She asks irritated.
"We require access to your habitation chambers. As this hard-copy proves, you are legally obliged to comply with our request and cooperate or face severe punishment." McKay explains as he shows them a search warrant. Henri groans upon hearing what Adam just said or rather how he said it.
"Who is that?" A male voice asks from some room in the back.
"The Cyber-Gestapo, who else." The redhead answers.
"Tell them to fuck off and go recharge themselves in whatever assembly line they came from." The male voice suggests.
"It seems Herr McKay has made some new friends." Sven jokes, the rest of the squad seems to agree with his snide comment. McKay himself however appears to have been completely oblivious to it.
"I am Ida Westgard, Feldwebel of the Europa Bundesreich Army." You shout. "If you do not let us in, I will be forced to arrest you and use force if necessary. Needless to say I have four soldiers with assault rifles to back me up. They may be fresh off basic training, but they're eager to see how their guns fare against moving targets."
"Come in." She says as if she just had to admit defeat.
The ECK experts quickly locate all the mainframes, laptops and other devices of interest in the apartment. They jam their cables into the appropriate ports interfacing with the devices. In a trance-like state they explore the data. As they focus on the data you search the apartment for something more material. Your squad observes closely.
Eventually you find some documents related to Miss Żuławska's life. School diplomas, certificates from school journalism contests, nothing even remotely suggesting that she is anything other than a nascent news vulture, hunting for scoop to sell to the highest media corp bidder.
"We are done here." The SysOp proclaims.
"So soon Herr McKay?" You ask surprised.
"We are efficient when it comes to gathering data, however the data will still need to be analyzed. My report will be sent tomorrow. There is no need for us to remain here."
"In that case I want to thank you for your help."
"Your thanks are not required, however I will give you a piece of feedback. Investigating this Żuławska , when the DSE admins continue fail to identify the cause of yesterday's malfunction, is an inefficient way of trying to research the incident. For better future cooperation, I suggest you improve your efficiency and use of resources. Using my time on this task is illogical."
The experts leave the apartment, Mazowiecka sighs in relief for some reason. You continue your search, but despite spending two hours there you find nothing useful. If there was anything at all, it must have been on one of the computers. It's 17:34 according to your HUD's clock, the day isn't over yet.
You will...
A)...visit the DSE power company, call the "experts" from ECK to assist you in finding out what happened there. This will delay their analysis of Żuławska's data.
B)...visit the DSE power company, don't call the experts yet, see what you can find out on your own.
C)...visit the clinic's surgeon in his apartment, ask him what he saw.
D)...visit the surgeon's assistant in her apartment, ask her what she saw.
E)...take the Neinmask for an off-road drive in Quaschin while you have a chance. See how the rookies drive the transportpanzer.
F)...get back to base, talk to Richter regarding his accuracy and training.
G)...get back to base, talk to Gefreiter Mazowiecka about her views on cybernetic augmentations.
H)…talk to the manager and the other shift working at the Fuchs Implant Saloon and Clinic.
Ida Westgard has gained a trait:
Fearless public speaker - no matter how angry the rabble before you is, you have no problem telling them what you want to tell them. Whether or not they will like it is a different matter, but your message *will* be heard.
