The Council of Truth/Dust Brigade Link - Myth or Fact?
Oa Kieretsu
Newland City -- (IRRK) -- Dust to Dust. Those three words have terrorized Rubi-Ka for over two years, and though Omni-Tek departments have often claimed that evidence exists linking the Dust Brigade to the Council of Truth, is this link fact, or nothing more than a smear campaign?
The Past
On December 18, 29475, Rubi-Ka Headline Services (RKHS) first broke the news that a transmission had been intercepted from a previously-dormant sect of social extremists calling themselves the "Dust Brigade", who originally earned a degree of infamy for the "Black October" attack of October 7, 29466, during Rubi-Ka’s third civil war. It was on this day that "more than fourteen hundred Omni-Tek soldiers were massacred, and their insurance patterns sabotaged."
However, in the months following their initial appearance, the Dust Brigade was believed to have been suppressed, as a result of a two-pronged effort by the Council of Truth to curtail the extremist clans within their ranks and massive manhunts by Omni-Tek to root out the personnel involved. It wasn’t until RKHS broke the intercepted transmission story that speculation of their rebirth began to rage.
Almost immediately after the RKHS announcement, spokespersons from both the Council of Truth and Omni-Tek Corporation of Rubi-Ka denied the accuracy of the report.
"We’re not even one-hundred percent sure that there was a real group called the 'Dust Brigade' – most of the atrocities were committed by rogue clan terrorists – but even if there was, there is no way that this group could still be active. We track and control all militant clan factions, and there’s currently nothing suggesting that Omni-Tek interests are under any sort of threat. In fact, with our generous amnesty in full effect, and Boss Ross and Radiman talking, I think it’s safe to say that the days of war are far behind us." An unnamed official from Omni-Pol was quoted as saying at the time.
The date December 19, 29475, changed that opinion.
In what has been called the most brutal and vicious attack on civilian targets in Rubi-Kan history, an apartment complex in Omni-1 was brought crumbling to the ground by an anti-matter bomb placed in the vicinity. What made this attack particularly horrifying was that a large percentage of the residents of the apartment were individuals who fell outside of the operative range of Omni-Tek’s insurance technologies, and as such, were perma-killed.
According to RKHS, "[t]he official death-toll of the Omni-1 explosion has now risen to a confirmed 158 citizens dead, 132 of which were Omni-Tek employees. 49 of the dead were children or teenagers below the insurance age-requirement, and 23 were senior citizens above the threshold. The remaining 86 adults either lacked insurance, or their insurance had expired. Omni-Tek attempted to restore more than 30 of the patterns, but they were unsuccessful."
Speculation as to the individual or individuals responsible for the attack rippled throughout Rubi-Ka, as citizens from all walks of life attempted to come to terms with both the brutality of the bombing and the rising death toll. Many feared the worst, and though officials from both sides initially declined to link the bombing to the Dust Brigade, on January 15, 29476, The Omni Herald reported that Omni-Tek had confirmed everyone’s most wretched nightmare, that a militant clan calling themselves the "Dust Brigade" had been identified by Omni-Pol as the party responsible, though denying that this particular group had any relationship to the Dust Brigade of Black October fame.
Also on January 15, RKHS reported that there was an "imminent break in negotiations between Omni-Tek [and the] Council of Truth." RKHS reported that an Omni-Tek spokesperson had cited "a lack of cooperation in the investigation" into the bombing of the apartment complex.
A statement confirming the break in talks, released on January 16 by Omni-Tek Corporation, stated that the "clan-related terrorist acts of December 19th have placed the future relationship between Omni-Tek and the Council in serious jeopardy, and the Council's obvious unwillingness to offer their full cooperation in the month-long investigation has contributed to this unfortunate severing of ties. Omni-Tek Corporation is more than willing to resume talks if and when the Council makes a reasonable effort to bring the terrorists to justice in a manner consistent with the Tir Accord. If the Council continues their policy of non-cooperation, however, Omni-Tek may have no choice but to terminate the amnesty."
In response, the Council of Truth seemed to urge Omni-Tek to act rationally. "We are more than willing to assist Omni-Tek in their investigations into suspected terrorism, but we do not wish for this situation to turn into a witch-hunt against clan-members."
Talks between Omni-Tek and the Council of Truth would never be restarted, and the unconditional amnesty announced by Omni-Tek Corporation of Rubi-Ka CEO Philip Ross was effectively terminated on February 6, 29476, barring all Clan citizens from entering any Omni-Tek territories as defined by the Tir Accord. And so began a war of words between Omni-Tek employees and the Council of Truth, which culminated in Henry Radiman's disappearance in the spring of 29476.
The only material effect that the break in peace talks seemed to cause was a sparse escalation in violent confrontations between Omni-Tek employees and Clan members, which culminated in the battle for the Perpetual Wastes town of Sabulum between clan members and Omni-Pol and Omni-AF personnel. However, relations took a defined turn for the worst on August 8, 29476, when The Omni Herald reported that "there [was] "solid evidence" the Council of Truth has channeled funds to the Dust Brigade, beginning last autumn, prior to December's vicious attacks on civilian Omni-Tek targets…[and] that Henry Radiman maintains direct contact with the Dust Brigade, which may account for his prolonged, and puzzling, absence."
The Council of Truth immediately denounced the report as "nonsense", though the report itself seemed to confirm what many within Omni-Tek had suspected since the break in talks.
The Dust Brigade yet again proved its danger to Omni-Tek on August 15, 29476, when an investigation by Omni-Pol into the murder of a unidentified "John Doe" in a private suite at the popular Lush Hills Resort was disrupted by members of the terrorist group. To this day, many believe that the "John Doe" was actually a member of Sol Banking Corporation, though this has never been confirmed.
During the melee, one of the masked commandos was killed by Omni-Pol officers, and his body failed to reclaim. This provided Omni-Pol with an intriguing piece to the puzzle, a piece which conveniently added to the mounting physical evidence linking the Dust Brigade to the Council of Truth.
On August 23, Omni-Tek media liaison Burton Shogren announced Omni-Pol’s findings, stating that the evidence was of a "solid, demonstrable, and…largely financial nature." It would later be revealed that the "evidence" to which Mr. Shogren referred was a listing of a series of monetary transactions between the Council of Truth and the Dust Brigade, funneled through secret off-world accounts, that were contained within the memory structure of John Doe's NCU. Though Mr. Shogren refused to elaborate further, an immediate manhunt was launched by Omni-Pol for two "prominent Council of Truth employees" with established ties to Henry Radiman.
Despite Omni-Pol's demands that the Council of Truth hand over the two for questioning, the Council refused to co-operate. In a statement released by the Council through UniClanCast on September 4, 29476, a spokesperson attempted to rationalize the reasoning behind the Council's actions. "To surrender citizens of sovereign clan territories to the Omni-Tek Corporation for detention and questioning goes against the guidelines laid down by the ICC and the Tir Accord. Without criminal charges first being pressed, our employees remain at liberty to make their own decisions regarding whether or not to cooperate with Omni-Pol. The Council will not be forced into committing actions that might set a dangerous precedent."
On September 10, Omni-Pol laid official charges against the two unnamed Council employees, for "a long list of corporate crimes – including conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism." The two were later identified as Max Spiva and Carlene Solari. Despite Omni-Pol's best efforts, both fugitives were able to flee the city of Tir and elude the massive dragnet which pursued them. They would not be found until October 10, when they were permanently murdered by Dust Brigade commandos.
This double murder would cause no small number of headaches for Omni-Pol in its attempts to build a legal case against the Council of Truth. Though the NCUs of both fugitives were recovered, the data that engineers were able to reconstruct was "con****uously incoherent", according to Burton Shogren. Omni-Pol would never be able to fully reconstruct the NCU data, and as such, failed to find a "smoking gun" that it could use as evidence in any inevitable prosecution of the Council of Truth or rival hypercorporations.
According to Kelvin Ratterman, a legal advisor with the Interstellar Confederation of Corporations, "All the evidence put forward so far is purely circumstantial. Omni-Tek's entire case could be put in jeopardy should they fail to produce something more substantial."
The entire Dust Brigade conundrum became even more baffling when, on September 18, the Council of Truth abandoned their offices in Tir. Henry Radiman vanished, as did the Dust Brigade, and the investigation by Omni-Pol was shelved.
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Originally Posted by dustynova
- AO webcomics for the sake of being silly
