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From the air, it appeared to be an artistic mantra, if not a mere collage prank. Within the innocent field of wheat on Planet Kyushu, circles and symbols written into the crops. Their meaning was lost on most of the aircraft flying overhead, their occupants paying little heed, or only seeing a mere flash of artistic prose.

On the ground, it was much diffrent.

A grizzly scene in the center of the circle greeted the Kusari Policemen and the Farmer who owned the field. What was once a Cow, one of the livestock from a nearby cattle farm, now a barely recognizable pile of wet flesh, chopped with sickeningly surgical precision and re-arranged into a pile.

[color=#CCFFFF]"And you found this... when?" Asked one of the KSP officers.

[color=#99FF99]"Just this morning. I was getting in my ship and heading to work, when I saw it from the air..." Replied the Farmer. A sickened look on his face. "At first I thought it was collage delinquents, but... this..."

"Right... I can't imagine who would do this. We'll have to take the animal for a necropsy. If you wouldn't mind."

"Hai, Tomo-san. Would you mind getting a tractor and helping these officers?" The farmer asked one of his farm-hands.

"...Right...I'll get it." The other man reluctantly replied. Running back up the field to grab a vehicle.

One of the officers stepped forward, braving the stench of the rotting animal's corpse and walking around it, studying the grim scene. The bovine had almost been completely turned inside out, some of it's ribs arranged in a particular manner vertically in the ground.

Purposely stretched between two bones, a piece of hide caught the officer's attention. He walked close, seeing carvings, letters, on the creature's skin. Even to his trained eye, the letters seemed strange, completely foreign to him...



The officer takes his portable computer, snapping a picture of the words and the carcass, and immedietly forwards it to Police Headquarters, before walking over to the Farmer, trying to look away from the horrid scene.

"Mister Kumero, I hate to alarm you more... but..."

"Hai, but what?" The Farmer replied, somewhat uneasily.

"Well, I found what looks like writing. I get the feeling... this is just my gut instinct... but... this may be more serious then I thought. Political Terrorism, quite possibly..."

"What!? You mean Dragons or Chrysanthemums did this!?" The farmer replied, shocked.

"No, I don't think it was them... but... there's some strange writing here. It could be a code... this whole thing."

"I...I want to know everything. Am I or is my Family in any Danger?" The farmer asked, now visibly scared.

"Now now, Let's not jump to conclusions. I can't say anything yet... but just to be sure, we'll keep watch. In the meantime, we need to get this back to the lab for autopsy... ah, there's your friend now." The officer replied reassuringly.

The Farm-hand drove up in a field truck, parking it next to the dead cow. He lowered the back of the flat-bed and began to attach straps to the carcass.

"Hang on, let me help with that. I don't want to damage any forensic evidence." The officer stated, walking over with the man to help secure the animal, handing his camera to the farmer as he walked.

The farmer walked several meters away, pacing back and forth, considering what the Policeman had said and what his gut said to him about the situation. He felt things were much worse then the officer had hinted at... his thoughts dwelled on his wife, his son, his daughter...

The officer and the farm-hand had by this point, carefully attached the cow carcass to a winch and tarp, and began to attempt to lift it onto the farm-truck.

"Alright, take it up." The officer stated, and the farm hand gave a thumbs' up and cranked up the winch...

The farmer looked up, and for a brief second saw the two men standing there.

Then, suddenly, a blinding flash and a bang. A massive explosion ripped through the field, a bomb from within the cow carcass detonated, instantly killing the Police Officer and Farm-hand, throwing the truck into the air like a toy, and sending the Farmer's body careening almost ten meters into the air and backwards.

The last flash before his eyes was the face of his wife, before he landed on his back, and lost conciousness...

>>>Transmission Log Fragment: Chusa Takahashi, Mikako
>>>Source: Hokkaido
>>>Time: Day 34, 818 AS

I began shift in New Tokyo, everything seemed in order.
I met a ship tagged "Fuzzything" near Roppongi, the strange pilot inside communicated through an odd series of chirrups and mews.
After some decryption, I managed to clear up most of what the creature was saying: this one was in the employ of Ame-no-uzume, (a somewhat crazy pilot that I've met a few times - though I suspect her reference to ancient legends hints at a greater intelligence than she would project.)
The fuzzy-thing had a message for me from Steve (a cute piece of kusari-rump I 'encountered' months ago), who wanted to meet in Hokkaido; what was left of the message read:
"<::I haven't... heard from you in a while... I remember when... you and I... *damaged*"
<:: ...and I'd like to meet again. Alas! So much of our time has been spent apart, oh cursed politics standing between...)
<::*static* ...d like to see you! Please, come to Hokkaido. We really need to taaaalk!."
So along I went: expecting something like a nice meal; maybe some flowers. What I got was a hostile contact on scanners closing fast. In moments strange energies issued from the huge hulk as it slid across the sun, blocking out any light, as ships systems stuttered and failed. The hull of my ship took a hammering, as a metallic voice crept across the comm.
\CS\-Darak.Ti-[DDK-12]: C-OPS: <::Kusari Vessel. Lower your shields and cut your engines.
\CS\-Darak.Ti-[DDK-12]: C-OPS: <::You are being placed under duress.
[KNF-K]Takahashi: Steve! What’s happening? They’re going to take me Steve!
The ship brought me in; it's massive shape looming over like some dark leviathan. In the hangar a team of apparent soldiers surrounded the cockpit, weapons at the ready.
I rose slowly, and was frisked, I said one last quiet goodbye to dad over the dash, and the soldiers gestured me down. A security droid manhandled the protesting Steve off the deck as he pleaded with them to let me go, to show some lenience, but to the cells I was taken, cuffed and neutralised. After being pulled through a score of drab, unadorned corridors; the silent soldiers led me to a huge, seemingly glass-walled chamber. Eerie and yet somehow beautiful, the walls seemed to stretch on forever, separated into glass cubes.
My revere was soon broken, at seeing that each cube contained a person, floating mid-space, still and possibly broken.
A quick shunt from a rifle moved me along, and into one of the cells I was unceremoniously flung. I spun from the impact of what had happened, as the feeling of nausea crept in - I took control of myself, and adjusted to the zero-g. I made my way to the wall; it looked like glass, but had some kind of slight give when pushed on. My joy was soon shattered as the wall resisted the more I pushed, and suddenly sprang back into place. I hung in space and waited, two thoughts cycling over and over in the surface of my mind;
1. Escape was not going to be easy, I'd need help from these other 'victims' - half of whom seemed incapable of anything.
2. Though my loyalty to my comrades is strong: I know that, despite the bravado: It's just a matter of pain; torture always works.
>>>Transmission Lost

It was just another day within Osumi barracks. Another terrorist plotting to destroy the Emperor. Another attack on the civilian population. But this attack seemed different...somehow. Exploding livestock was not a standard method of terrorism. What could the perpetrators have to gain in blowing up a farm, when they could just as easily plant a bomb in a city? This could just be some crazy GC techie on a cardimine high, but there's gotta be something more to it then that.

Suzuki Akane looked up from the intel report at the office setting that was Osumi Barracks. As joint headquarters for both the KSP and the Kempletei, it was a crowded place. Intelligence analyzers were looking over reports, armed guards in full combat armor were guarding the exits, and outside security patrols were protecting the station. This was a high security place, but it just didn't suit Akane. She would much rather be out in the field then behind a desk.

Unfortunately, being promoted all the way to Socho - the leader - meant more paper pushing and less field work. She was no longer expendable enough to use as a field agent, instead forwarding intelligence reports to the Emperor himself. While this was a whole lot safer then field work, there has been so many mysteries lightly that Akane really wanted to get back out in the field to see what was going on. Unfortunately, this was no longer an option.

"At least I don't have to dig through the raw data" Akane said to herself. There were people far below her that did that.

Tomimoto Tachiko of the Kusari State Police sat at his desk, after having read the file on the recent "terrorist act" on Planet Kyushu. The file itself, labeled "Bovine Bomb", had very little in it, save for a single image of the scene before the explosion, and several reports from neighboring farmers. Two men had been lost--one civilian and one officer--and another civilian had been injured in the blast.

There simply wasn't enough information on the subject. It was unclear as to why the farm was targeted, and there were no exact details of the events leading up to the explosion. As for the bomb itself, there was a single claim that the explosion had originated from the mutilated cow-carcass that had created the "artistic" scene in the field. This came from a man who was flying to work that morning, but had dropped lower to the ground to get a better look at the pattern below him. This claim had given the file its title, but Tachiko was still skeptical. There wasn't enough evidence to prove that the cow itself had exploded.

"In any case," He muttered to himself, "This is something that needs to be looked in to." Tachiko picked up his roster and selected two officers for the job: Junsa Saburou Kenta and Junsa-chō Szerano Lycone. He quickly composed a message to each of them, giving them their orders, and sent them the related files.

Tachiko paused for a moment, intending to give the issue one final thought before moving on to his other work. But something came to him. That image... he thought. Tachiko opened the Bovine Bomb file again and took a closer look at the picture within. The symbols that had been carved into the cow's flesh were familiar. It was hard to tell from the angle and the sloppy photography, but...

Tachiko pulled out his computer and did a quick search, pulling up any files he could find on "The Consortium". In only a few seconds, his suspicions were proven true. The symbols on the cow closely matched the symbols seen on Consortium ships. A further search, and Tachiko brought up a file of Consortium transmissions. There were only two or three that had been successfully intercepted, and even those were quite scrambled... but yes, some of the symbols from the photograph directly matched those from the intercepted messages.

"So," he said quietly to himself. "They're causing trouble again."

Immediately, Tachiko set to work searching for possible translations of the Consortium language. There had to be something in the KSP's records that could shed some light on this occurrence.

Aboard the Consortium destroyer Darak.Ti

Hovering cameras and monitoring sensors floated idly by the honeycomb of containment cells in the Darak Ti's relatively cramped hold. Of the fifty or so cells, only a handfull possessed occupants. Among them, a KNF pilot. One who likely possessed valuable flight data...

Watching through a holoscreen from the ship's CIC, the Coordinator/Operations director, who's name has been lost to time, stood idly. Shipmaster Daisuke, or 'Steve' as he was referred to, had been reprimanded for a bit too much 'humanity' towards the KNF officer in question, likely a failure of the Neurocyte to compensate. This temporarily left the Coordinator in overall charge of the ship's functions. With most of the ship's internal systems fully automated, there was little to be done outside of a combat situation.

He went through a mental checklist of tasks to be completed. Arriving on the subject of 'interrogation' of the female subject. Focusing the camera on the unconscious woman, he could only guess at how strong willed she would be.

Before he could decide on this, another man entered the room, handing him a data-pad. The man spoke with a thick Irish accent, not garbled by any form of voice modification.
[color=#66FF99]
"Sah, we've goot new orders. Coomond wants 'oos to sortie into Kyushu tonight. Seems we're going to be sending 'oot a landing party. Soom' 'ooperation."

Despite the Consortium's neurocyte-linked nature, there were some orders still delivered by hand.

[color=#FF6600]"<::Landing party, low orbital drop, dead of night. Well... isn't this interesting? I didn't get any word on what's going on down there."

"Sah, you wern't in 'coommand when they gave the briefing." The man replied.

"<::It dosen't matter." The acting shipmaster replied, punching in the indicated co-ordinates to the ship's mainframe. Almost immedietly, the ship's engines rumbled to life and it broke it's position, heading toward the pick-up point for the delivery. "<::Relay the message to Overwatch. We're Oscar-Mike to the RV point for package pickup. Also, request instructions for our 'former' shipmaster."

"Aye, Sah." The aide-de-camp replied, taking back the data pad and heading into the comms room.

The Shipmaster immediately went back to his previous task, extracting information from the KNF prisoner. An idea struck quickly, with the thought of Steve still in his mind. Maybe they could profit from his 'insubordination'...

*mean while on Kyushu, a young woman in her twenties hops into the cockpit of a Alliance Black dragon fighter.

The Pilot who's name was Miura Idumi, was a member of the AFA and heard about the attack of the "bovine bomb" from other farmers.

She slowly travels from farm to farm watching for trouble on the planets surface, looking for any one who might try to planet another bomb.

After awhile she decides she will patrol the Space around Kyushu to prevent any one from ever getting near the planet.

After complaining to the head of the Idumi family, Kyo, she proceeds into space*

Hirosho Horatami, Roju of the Blood Dragons, landed his Hachiman Gunboat on a large, flat, and unoccupied plateau several miles away from the farm site. Once he and several others had fueled their small craft, they headed for the farm.

Upon their arrival, they were greeted by few police and investigators. The officials confronted them with their weapons at hand.

"Blood Dragons! You dare come here after what you've done!?"

Hirosho stepped forward

"Relax, we're not here for a fight, and by the looks of it, we didn't do it..."

He and the other Blood Dragons had already begun scrutinizing what was left of the explosion.

After several minutes of standing around and police officers scratching their heads, the group of dragons began to pack up into the craft. Hirosho Horatami patted one of the officers on the back and smiled. Before entering the vehicle, one of the Dragons tossed an object at the group of officers, and was caught.

"Here, have a poison cigar, and die."

The dragons laughed, and were soon unseen.

>>>On Board The Darak-Ti in a dimly, white-lit cell:

Consciousness slowly dawned on Mikako, as she raised her head and found herself slumped in a corner of the small room, bleary eyed and exhausted. A moment of confusion passed, before the full weight of events settled into her mind.
The 'front' wall of the cell became translucent, as two of the silent soldiers rudely shoved a hooded figure into the small cube; His solid form tumbled into her, and the two fell against a wall. Looking back to the possible exit; her faint hope was quashed, as the guards had dissapeared in a moment; the wall returned to it's impregnable state. At least there was gravity again; some semblance of normality.
She faced the new arrival and registered a slew of emotions as she regarded the face of Steve. She held his face for a moment, studying the dejected look and couple of bruises that he wore on his pretty face; before pushing him off.
Steve had obvioulsy gone-to-bat for her, and was now up the creek too.
He uttered an awkward greeting; still obviously reeling from his sudden imprisonment. Mikako took a moment to compose herself; wondering if she could trust steve: as it stood, it didn't matter, she just needed to get out.
"O, steve, what a mess we've made huh? Well, things look bad, but now we have twice the power we had, we need to get out of here steve..we need a plan" she searched Steve's face for that flicker of recognition that said "I've an idea" but he simply flushed at her intense study, bashfully looking aside. The two sighed, and slunk down again to the floor a faint 'clink' noise issued from both as their limbs struck the floor, and in a slightly suprised moment Mikako looked wide eyed upon Steve; as that flicker of recognition crossed his face: "I think I have an idea.."