Revelations

"Revelations" is the first chapter of the Orion Nero Initiative series, and first chapter of the Federation Prelude (six chapters dedicated to the foundation of the conflict between the ACS and the ONI). Several Central Security police teams infiltrate an apartment complex in downtown Enderossi after linking it to an unknown terrorist cell.

Characters

 * CMDR. Fletcher
 * Cpt. Streicher
 * Sgt. II Crowley
 * SO. II Sanchez (W.I.A.)
 * SO. I Kojak
 * JO. II Royce (K.I.A.)
 * Sgt. II Lux
 * JO. II Wellington
 * Sgt. II Zaric
 * Sierra 1

Plot
"Delta Teams, this is Dispatch. Operation is green!" Commander Fletcher announced into the earpieces of several Central Security police officers as their boots slowly moved across the wet stoned alleyway.

"Good copy Dispatch. Delta 1, moving in on the rear garden." Sergeant II. Crowley announced.

A team of six Central Security officers moved swiftly through the alleyway behind the target building, walking up towards the garden fence while the second Delta Team approached from the opposite end of the street. The six officers of Delta Team 1 positioned themselves along the wooden fence as Delta Team 2 prepared to breach the premises. The team leader of Delta Team 2, Sergeant II. Adrian Lux pulled out his bolt cutters and snapped the padlock in two. He proceeded to flick the snapped lock away before removing the rest of the lock off the meter tall oak brown garden door. Sergeant II. Lux opened the door and his team filed into the garden first before Delta Team 1 moved into the small lawn that sat behind the target building which was a small apartment complex that rose four stories high.

"Delta 1 and 2 moving through the rear garden." Sergeant II. Crowley informed.

"Delta 1, this is Delta 6. Delta 6 and 3 are about to enter the West alley." Delta Team commander, Captain Streicher announced.

"Copy." Sergeant II. Crowley replied.

The officers of Delta Team 1 and 2 had their suppressed weapons drawn, aiming up at the windows in case any hostiles inside wanted to get a few shots out, but it was highly likely as nobody inside knew of Delta Team's presence. Moving through the garden, Delta Team 2 moved to the left side of the building where a staircase leading down to the basement was located. While Team 2 got ready to breach the basement, Team 1 continued around the right side of the building to the West alleyway where Delta 3 was coming in from with Captain Streicher leading the team.

"Delta 2 is set." Sergeant II. Lux informed.

Delta Team 3 remained in position, hugging the brick wall of the building to the right of the lobby entrance while Sergeant II. Crowley led Team 1 to the other side of the entrance. Delta 3's team leader, Sergeant II. Zaric placed a single circular breaching charge on the door before returning into breaching positions.

"Delta 1 and 3 are set." Sergeant II. Zaric confirmed.

"Sierra 1 to Delta 6. Got movement on the ground floor, right side. Four males and one female." A member of Sierra 1's two-man sniping team informed.

"Understood Sierra 1. Keep me posted if the situation changes." Captain Streicher replied as Delta 1 and 3 finally prepared to breach the target building.

"Delta is moving interior." Captain Streicher announced over the net right as Sergeant II. Zaric detonated the breaching charge.

A small explosion occurred where the device had been situated on the door, blowing off the lock, and granting the Central Security team entry into the building.

"Central Security, on the ground!" Sergeant II. Zaric shouted first as his team made entry before Delta 1.

The receptionists let out a horrifying screech as soon as the officers of Delta 3 barged in unannounced, falling to the floor before being detained by an officer.

"Stairs!" Sergeant II. Zaric called out, prompting two of his soldiers to move towards the staircase on the other side of the long hallway lobby to secure the area.

"Two rooms on the right!" Sergeant II. Crowley of Delta 1 announced as the second team moved into the building.

"Give me two, give me two!" Sergeant II. Crowley ordered.

"Two, two, two." Senior Officer II. Sanchez replied, tapping the Sergeant's shoulder before forcing entry into the first room on the right, which was the conference room that Sierra 1 had previously flagged as having multiple potential combatants inside.

Sergeant II. Crowley kicked open the door, and the two officers moved into the conference room to see four males and one female standing around a table filled with paper, and other documents. Amongst the mess of paper were several firearms that the two officers immediately assessed as potential threats, and painted the five civilians as potential hostiles if any one of them ran for the guns.

"Hands where I can see them!" Sergeant II. Crowley shouted with his suppressed MP5 drawn up.

"Guns!" Senior Officer II. Sanchez pointed out.

"Don't even think about it!" Sergeant II. Crowley warned as he observed one of the males looking down at the pistol on the table.

Amidst all the chaos, two of the males immediately bent down to grab their weapons that were lying on the table. The two males both grabbed their rifles but were shot down before they could reposition with their firearms, dropping both military-aged males in a burst of fire.

"Two X-rays down." Sergeant II. Crowley confirmed.

With two of the males killed, the women and one of the men immediately surrendered, holding their hands up high while the fourth man ran to grab the rifle from his dead colleague. Sanchez shot another two suppressed shots and the body fell to the floor in the blink of an eye.

"X-ray down." Senior Officer II. Sanchez confirmed.

"Clear." Senior Officer II. Sanchez added.

"Room clear." Sergeant II. Crowley announced.

The function room was cleared, and the two surrendered civilians were removed from the building by three officers. When Crowley and Sanchez returned into the lobby, they turned to the right to see the second door open up and Lux's team walking out with three suspects in custody.

"Basement clear?" Captain Streicher asked.

"All clear. Three suspects in custody. No suspects down." Sergeant II. Lux informed.

"Good work." Captain Streicher replied before turning to the rest of the team.

"Delta 1 is going to be running point with me. Zaric, you're gonna SSE this function room." Captain Streicher ordered and everyone moved out.

Two officers of Delta 3 posted at the entrance of the building, and another officer standing behind the reception desk while Sergeant II. Zaric and two others started to commence sensitive site exploitation of the function room. On the other side of the building, Captain Streicher led half of Delta 1 over to the staircase where they would begin clearing the rest of the floors above.

"Delta 2, Delta 6. Cut the power to the building. Over." Captain Streicher ordered.

"Delta 2-1 to Delta 6. Solid copy. Cutting power now." Sergeant II. Lux replied right before the power out.

The entire building went pitch black, and the officers rolled down their Night Observation Devices (NODs) to give them an advantage over the hostile civilians who would be severely disadvantaged in the dark.

"Delta 6, moving to the first floor." Captain Streicher reported.

Captain Streicher took point at the bottom of the staircase, hugging the far left side with the rest of his team falling in behind. Sergeant II. Crowley was directly behind him, with Senior Officer II. Sanchez, Senior Officer I. Kojak, and Junior Officer II. Royce picking up the rear respectively. Just before proceeding up the staircase, the officers turned on their infrared illuminator lasers, and all five green lasers immediately shot out from the sides of their weapons. Starting from the last member of the team, each officer squeezed the shoulder of the officer in front to signify that they were ready. As soon as Crowley squeezed Captain Streicher's left shoulder, the team began walking upstairs, IR lasers pointing in five different directions.

Delta 1 watched every single possible angle while slowly climbing up the staircase. Beads of sweat dripped down the side of Kojak's face that was enclosed in his helmet as he took each step upwards, not knowing what to expect on the floors above. Was everyone living in the building affiliated with the terrorist organisation, or were some families living inside, completely oblivious to the situation. Kojak, as an officer who wished to ascend the ranks and one day lead his own team, needed to think of all possible circumstances. Kojak was snapped out of his heavy train of thought when the Captain suddenly let off two suppressed shots without warning. Silence filled the tight space in between the final shot and the first body thumping on the floor ahead.

"One X-ray down." Captain Streicher confirmed.

Upon reaching the first floor, the layout of the first floor, which was identical to the floors above, consisted of four apartments. Two on each side of the rectangular spiral staircase. From where Delta 1 was standing, at the top of the staircase, there were two rooms in the hallway on the left, and two on the right. The staircase upward was just around the right corner that wrapped upward like a dogleg, hence being a dogleg staircase.

Captain Streicher checked up on the terrorist he had just shot down, who was identified as a middle-aged male with an AK47 under his body. The Captain fired another two shots into the deceased man to make sure that he was dead before bringing up his hand to order Delta 1 to move to each apartment.

Captain Streicher and Sergeant II. Crowley took the two apartment rooms on the left while Sanchez and Kojak took the two rooms on the right. Royce, on the other hand, would watch the staircase leading up to the next floor in case anyone tried to flank the team. The four officers each breached one apartment on the first floor, but only the Captain had contact behind his door.

"Contact in 101." Captain Streicher announced as suppressed shots opened up in the far left apartment.

Three armed terrorists were hiding inside Captain Streicher's room but were all shot down without even getting a single round out of their AK47s.

"101, clear." Captain Streicher shortly announced.

"Entering 104." Senior Officer II. Sanchez informed from the other end of the hallway.

He knocked down the door and entered with his rifle up, but was met by a couple who tried to surrender.

"Please don't shoot!" The woman shouted, holding out her baby to show that the family was not a threat.

"Fuck…" Senior Officer II. Sanchez cursed under his breath as he slowly removed his finger from the trigger, having almost shooting the woman and her baby.

"This is Delta 1-2, got civilians in my room that need to be escorted out. Over." Senior Officer II. Sanchez announced.

Kojak quickly cleared his room, which was vacant and free of any furniture. Kojak returned out the hallway and saw Sanchez leaning against the wall outside the apartment, MP5 hanging by his side as another member of Delta 1 came up the stairs and removed the young family from the building.

"You alright Sanchez?" Senior Officer I. Kojak asked.

"Y-Yeah. I'm alright. Thank god for my hands though. If I was trigger happy like my usual self, I probably would have ended the family right then and there…" Senior Officer II. Sanchez muttered as he looked at his left hand.

Even though Kojak couldn't see Sanchez's expressed from behind the balaclava and rolled down NODs, but he knew that something was off, especially given the fact that Sanchez was usually a calm and collected officer.

"Sanchez… You're not your usual self, right now. Maybe you should sit this out, get Royce to take over for you." Senior Officer I. Kojak suggested.

"Nah… It's alright. I'm fine." Senior Officer II. Sanchez refused, but before Kojak could say anything else, Sergeant II. Crowley walked over with the Captain.

"Everything all good?" Sergeant II. Crowley asked.

"Yep. All good." Senior Officer II. Sanchez replied before walking off.

"First floor secured. Delta 6 is moving to the second floor." The Captain posted as all five officers regrouped at the bottom of the second flight of stairs, in the same formation.

Royce lowered his weapon and waited for a member from Alpha Team 3 to arrive and remove the family from the premises before Alpha Team 1 proceeded to the next floor.

The wooden floorboards creaked under the team as they slowly made it all the way up to the second floor, turning the corner mid-way up when the dog-leg staircase had a 180-degree bend. When Delta 1 was just turning to the second part of the staircase, they were halted by the sniper team.

"Delta 6, Sierra 1. Two enemy hostiles with PKM's on the second floor and have a line of sight on the stairs. Over."

"Affirmative. Do you have a clear shot?" The Captain asked.

"A-firm. Taking the shot now." Sierra 1 replied.

The sound of glass breaking broke the silence and two thumps were heard to the right of the staircase.

"Targets neutralised, hallway clear." Sierra 1 confirmed, signaling Captain Streicher to continue up the last few steps of the staircase before firing two shots into both deceased hostiles before confirming their deaths.

"Two x-rays down." Captain Streicher confirmed.

The same floor clearing formation was maintained throughout the entire operation with the Captain and Sergeant sweeping the apartments on the left hallway, and Kojak and Sanchez clearing the right hallway apartments. The second floor was cleared extremely easily, with no real threats, and so the team proceeded up to the third floor.

On the third floor, the right side of the hallway possessed three apartments, and the plan was that Kojak would clear the far-right apartment, Sanchez taking the middle apartment, and Royce taking the last remaining room. Kojak passed the first door to breach the far left apartment, but when Sanchez crossed the first doorway to breach the middle apartment, machine-gun fire erupted from inside, shredding down the wooden door, and tagging Sanchez in the process.

"Contact, first door!" Senior Officer I. Kojak shouted, hugging close to the wall as bullets continued to fly outward.

Royce and Kojak waited on either side of the doorway for the combatant inside to cease fire before Royce threw in a flashbang, and Kojak immediately pushed in afterward. Inside, the single-armed hostile was dazed by the flashbang, enabling Kojak to fire off three rounds into the combatant's chest.

"First room cleared." Senior Officer I. Kojak informed, but stopped mid-sentence when he heard more movement deeper into the room.

"Hold on. I think there's more inside. Give me two!" Senior Officer I. Kojak requested.

"Two!" Junior Officer II. Royce called out, moving into the room with Kojak while Captain Streicher and Sergeant II. Crowley cleared the other rooms with the rest of Delta 1's six-man team.

In the single bedroom apartment, Kojak moved into the bedroom and spotted another middle-aged man hiding in the closet with a handgun in his possession.

"Central Security! Drop the gun!" Senior Officer I. Kojak shouted.

Blinded by the darkness, the armed combatant jumped out of the closet and fired blindly in the room before being dropped by the two officers in the room.

"Suspect down." Senior Officer I. Kojak confirmed.

The pair walked back out into the hallway to see Sanchez lying on the wooden floorboards in a pool of blood, with another office assessing the injuries.

"How bad?" Senior Officer I. Kojak asked.

"He's been shot up pretty badly under the vest and on his shoulder. He needs surgical ASAP." The paramedic assess.

"Alright. Get him out of here quick. Delta 1 will continue with the mission." The Captain ordered.

"Hang in there Sanchez." The paramedic announced, dragging the injured officer towards the staircase where two more medical officers came up to take Sanchez away.

"You think he'll be alright?" Junior Officer II. Royce asked.

"Sanchez is one tough son of a bitch. He'll live through that." Sergeant II. Crowley replied.

After the sudden loss of a team member, the team regrouped at the bottom of the fourth staircase, and proceed upwards. The fourth floor saw the removal of two more families who were not affiliated with the terrorist organisation, but just to be safe, they were still suspects and would be brought into the station for questioning. All three rooms on the fourth floor had been cleared, and so all that was left was the final door.

"Kojak, take point on this one." Captain Streicher ordered, prompting the Senior Officer to place a breaching charge on the door and detonated it.

The door came flying off after the explosion and the officers filed into the room to see three women standing by the kitchen island.

"Please don't shoot!" One of the females desperately pleaded, freaking out and slowly backing up, away from her friends and towards the couches in the living room.

"Just stay calm! Don't panic!" Senior Officer I. Kojak tried to reassure as he looked around the surrounding environment and noticed the female backing up towards an AK47 that was standing up beside the two-seater couch.

Kojak knew what the woman was doing, but couldn't shoot unless she became a threat.

"Don't do it…" Senior Officer I. Kojak muttered to himself, aiming at the women's head through his holographic sight.

"Gun!" Sergeant II. Crowley shouted at the same time as the woman turned around and reached for the rifle.

Before she could pick it up, both Sergeant II. Crowley and Senior Officer I. Kojak fired off several rounds each, doming the female in the back of the head, forcing her to smash down into the ground just short of the weapon.

"Fuck." Senior Officer I. Kojak muttered to himself as he watched the deceased female face plant onto the living room carpet.

As soon as the two officers opened fire on the first female, the other two reached for the weapons hidden beneath their clothing. When one revealed a handgun, Captain Streicher and Junior Officer II. Royce intervened as well, opening fire, and the other two females were subsequently dropped.

"Clear!" Captain Streicher announced, "Three suspects down."

Panting furiously, with his armoured vest heaving up and down with every breath he took, he watched as a pool of blood formed under each of the three women. Kojak had been on the Central Security Police Force for just under two years but had never dealt with anything like he had done today. The first terrorist cell possessing heavy weaponry in a suburban building was a first for Kojak.

"Is that it?" Junior Officer II. Royce asked.

"There should be a-" Captain Streicher announced, but was cut off when Sergeant II. Crowley found a hidden staircase that led up to a fifth floor.

"-nother floor…." Captain Streicher continued his sentence before walking over to the hole in the wall, and all four officers were astonished by the finding.

"Dispatch, Delta 6. We've located a hidden staircase that leads up to either a fifth-floor or an attic. Nothing in the building blueprints suggests that this should be here, meaning that it was added recently, and by the look of things, I still think it's a work in progress. Requesting permission to investigate. Over." Captain Streicher announced.

"Good copy 6. You have the green light to investigate. Proceed with caution. Over." Commander Fletcher replied.

"Understood. 0-6, out." Captain Streicher replied

The entire building was secured and the rest of Delta Team made their way up into the floors below but weren't allowed entry into the room. Sergeant II. Crowley remained in the room to conduct a search of the apartment room itself while Captain Streicher, Kojak, and Royce moved up to the attack. Glancing at the staircase, it was evident that the attic was undergoing construction, with a lot of the insulant wall wrap still present on the walls surrounding the staircase. Coming up to the top of the staircase where a single door stood to the right of the trio, Kojak tested the doorknob, but confirmed that it was locked.

"Locked." Senior Officer I. Kojak informed.

"Royce, get the shotgun. We're forcing our way in now." Captain Streicher ordered.

Royce overtook Kojak and positioned himself on the other side of the doorway with a shotgun in hand. He fired off two shots on the left side of the door, where the hinges were located before blasting off the doorknob itself. As soon as the three shots were fired, Royce kicked down the door and stepped into the attic. What nobody on the staircase was expected, was to see Royce's body fly back out, smacking into the insulant wall behind and splatting blood all over the wall before Royce's corpse dropped to the ground.

"Shit, officer down!" Senior Officer I. Kojak called out, taking a few steps back down the staircase with Captain Streicher right behind him.

The sudden gunfire and Kojak's shout alerted Sergeant II. Crowley and two other officers were in the room, and soon five weapons were being trained on the staircase.

"What happened?" Sergeant II. Crowley asked.

"Not sure, but Royce's down." Captain Streicher informed, "Stay here and watch the doorway. Kojak and I are moving up."

Slowly moving back up the staircase after taking a couple of steps down, Kojak and the Captain both had their weapons trained to the doorway in case the insurgent inside decided to push out.

"Crowley, give me a flashbang!" Captain Streicher ordered.

"Rog!" Sergeant II. Crowley replied before climbing up the staircase and throwing a grenade into the room by bouncing it off of the door frame.

Sparks flew out after the pop and the two officers rushed in while the enemy was disorientated. While climbing up the stairs, Kojak glanced slightly at Royce's deceased body which had shotgun shell markings all over his vest with two cracked holes in his visor, most likely from the other shotgun pellets. Kojak rounded the corner and moved into the room with the Captain by his side as they watched the dazed hostile try to regain his composure. One hand holding the Remington 870, and the other hand covering his eyes. Captain Streicher seized the opportunity to bring his weapon up and shoot down the threat before he could get a second shotgun blast out.

"Clear! Suspect down." The Captain confirmed after scanning the rest of the room.

With the attic being brightly lit up by several lights connected to a backup generator, the two officers were forced to roll their NODs up to get a better view of the messy room. Apart from paper and documents littering the tables and floor, boxes of files were stacked on top of each other while other boxes were tipped to their side, and contents were spilled all over the floor.

Sergeant II. Crowley came up shortly after, and with the help of two other officers, took Junior Officer II. Royce's corpse back down the staircase where he would be transported away.

"Captain… Royce. He's our first officer death since I joined the team a year ago…" Senior Officer I. Kojak informed knowing that even with the manpower, firepower, and technological advantage, the Central Security still lost an officer and another critically injured officer against a group of terrorists who had little to no military training.

"These guys are different… Not like anything we've dealt with before." Captain Streicher replied, staring at a series of boards at the far end of the attic.

Kojak stood in the middle of the attic, looking around at the piles of paper stacked on top of each other in bundles, small sculptures covered with cobwebs, whiteboards that were half-broken, and paintings that were covered by rugs. A passerby would dismiss the attic as a place to store random useless items, and so thought Kojak. Only when he walked over to the Captain, did he see several maps of Ansaris, Alvitr, and the other countries within the Atlanta Federation. Some had drawings and arrows on them while others had specific images of landmarks.

"Captain what is…" Senior Officer I. Kojak trailed off, looking at several landmarks of Alvitr's capital city, Olympus.

Images of the Gilstein Palace pinned to the board had been taken several weeks ago while other images had the King of Alvitr murdered in cold blood. Other images contained several mercenary group photos, and some group photos containing a child that looked no more than 15 years old, from seven years ago.

"Captain? What is the meaning of all this? I thought the King of Alvitr died seven years ago from cancer? Why is he in a pool of blood? Who is this kid that's in all these photos with the mercenaries?" Senior Officer I. Kojak asked, bombarding the speechless Captain with a dozen questions.

"Captain?" Senior Officer I. Kojak asked again and he finally snapped out of his little daze.

"Captain are you alright?" Senior Officer I. Kojak questioned but the Captain completely ignored the question.

"Do you remember about the Alvitr incident seven years ago?" Captain Streicher suddenly asked, turning to face Kojak with his eyes dilated backward, as if he had seen a ghost.

"No sir. Seven years ago?" The Junior Officer asked confused at where this topic was heading.

"Bastards… High Command must have covered it all up. I don't know why this is all here… but these images and maps are related to seven years ago when I was a Senior Officer and served under Captain Forge in the Elphix Police Brigade." Captain Streicher informed.