Solutions

Chapter X �" Solutions

 

*Cough *Cough

 

“That’s a bit grim..”

Kruger said enjoying his morning coffee with a smoke, inside their apartment.

 

“It’s nothing.. Daddy.. Just a little cough..”

Gaige replied wiping her nose with a paper towel, there was a tiny red drop on the paper, which she discreetly hid under the drink tray. The apartment was big, due to a big budget Kruger earns because of being high in the ranks of the Atlas military strategics division. It was a bit too big to fill, Kruger wasn’t the type that would decorate and buy a lot of furniture, since his wife Esther passed away, the place was in more in a need of a womans touch than ever. Washed out drapes and curtains didn’t help brighten the atmosphere either.

 

“Well im off.. Don’t forget to go to school pumpkin..”

Kruger said taking his coat and opening the door with a loud screetch, he took a decent amount of paperwork from the desk.

 

“Alright dad.. I’ll try not to forget..”

Gaige said and set her food next to the sink rolling her eyes.

 

“Can.. I uhh.. Get a.. What do you call it..”

Kruger spouted uncomfortably.

 

“A hug..?”

Gaige said with a smile.

 

“Yeah.. That’s the one..”

Kruger replied happily and his daughter went into his arms.

 

“Hey uhh.. Pumpkin.. Listen uhh.. I’ll be home late tonight.. We got a big meeting today with the Atlas prime board.. I have to be present till the end.. So uhh.. Lock up and go on to sleep without me..”

Kruger said tapping her head and kissing her cheek.

 

“Roger, Colonel! Sir!”

Gaige said and assumed a military position.

 

“Hehe.. Not that formal now eh.. Bye Pumpkin..”

Kruger said leaving the door, he looked at Gaige under the eye and saw a bit of melancholy in her eyes. He closed the door shut, meeting an old friend on the way down the stairwell.

 

“Winter! You coming?”

Kruger said looking at the sunrise outside the building industrial glass window.

 

“Ehh.. Don’t f****n ask.. Not really feelin’ sitting behind a desk for six hours listening to a bunch of monkey suit fuckers squeal about their trouble..”

Robert Winter replied grunting, Winter was a General in the Atlas lunar/naval warfare division and the head of the national Shadow Legion department, the shadow legion were Atlas’ human top elite special forces, they were tasked with the “dirtiest missions”, he hated Atlas and everything about it. He was a hardcore soldier and an ex-Shadow himself, never in a good mood and always a few curses spare.

 

“You’re telling me.. You should’ve been there a few days ago.. F*****g shitstorm..”

Kruger said spitting on the ground next to their official vehicle, the driver was already awaiting them with the door open.

 

“The second intrusion?”

Winter asked quickly not showing much interest.

 

“Yeah..”

Kruger replied entering the car and setting himself comfortably.

 

“You’d think this f*****g shithole’s becoming a convention.. You know what I think.. I think all this is f*****g bogus.. Two little twads got lost and somehow ended up here.. And everyone’s losing their s**t over it.. And I thought we had a f*****g military..”

Winter said with a slight smirk lighting a cigar and blowing a cloud of smoke dispersing in the roomy limousine, Atlas official cars were gorgeous, dark toned and opulent. The driver was driving faster than usual considering Kruger’s gesture and a monthly prime board meeting, on those meetings, it was considered almost criminal not to arrive early. The streets were unusually empty and the roads traficless.

 

“Kinda vague today..”

Kruger said with no response from Winter aggresively scrolling through his terminal database.

 

“Sir, we have arrived..”

The driver said opening the door in front of the Atlas defense ministry, the building was massive, laying an intimidating shadow down on the nearby bleak Atlas government buildings. They went out simoultaneously from both sides, Kruger surprised with the lack of civilians usually spread out like a disease, Winter was hecticly putting out his smoke at the gate of the massive estate.

 

“Personal belongings and weaponry to the clerk table.”

The official greeter at the gate told them while reading the new headline of the Utopian Times, Kruger took a quick glance of it, the headline stated- “Uknown disease spreads through Atlas, Kronn Memorial overencumbered with work.” He ignored it and silently entered the main board room where the meeting is supposed to be held. The large room was filled with Atlas’ best and brightest all sitting alongside an unecesarily long and expensive branded smoke filling the air slightly dimming the chandelier illumination.

 

“Looks like the gorilla’s out of the cage.. S**t must be in deep..”

Winter said smirking and separating himself from Kruger due to different sitting positions of the two men.

 

In the middle of the boardroom was an unexpected guest, the High Chancelar of Atlas, Victor Borisov.

Borisov usually attended these meetings via audiovisual live transmission, his voice was also processed into a deep generic robotic tone of voice. Next to him to the right, was sitting Supreme Admiral Zander Phallon Milius, to his left was the Prime Minister of Atlas Jonathan Brandon Arminay, next to Milius, was the High Admiral of the Atlas Starfleet Ioan Pollock, followed by Admiral Hudgens, Admiral Cranston, Admiral Stanoyowski and Admiral Nethremayer, followed by an empty seat reserved for Colonel Kruger, and the rest was filled with high military officials. On the left next to Prime Minister Arminay was a seat reserved for Robert Alex Winter, followed by Admiral Evan Onerstein, Minister of Defense Trench Dawk, Senior Chief of Import/Export Pine Herman and the Minister of the Atlas Health and Insurance system Richard Ward, and other men and women on the top of the military core of Atlas.

 

“What I miss?”

Kruger asked assuming his position next to Nethremayer, all the attention was fazed to him and Winter due to them being late by being right on time, everyone got there early. Above everything, everyone was dazed, nervous and unconcentrated, it was definetly about the intrusions, something like this was unimaginable. But it happening twice, was just madness.

 

“Meh.. Nothing.. Just a bunch of uneccesary greetings and small talk, people asking more important people questions while simoultaneously sucking up to them.. Uncomfortable tension..”

Nethremayer quickly replied while putting out her cigarette, the grim silence was interrupted by Borisov standing up and speaking.

 

“Now that we’re all finally gathered, I am getting straight to the point. What has happened in the past few weeks, I am sure you all are perfectly aware of. Two individuals have somehow broken into our perfect society. And I can tell you without hesitation that they are not here to see our national treasures. I will be taking no excuses from the ministry of defense whatsoever, but, I also need to remind you all of the obvious intelligence these individuals posess. The ministry of defense has done their best in their work, stopping any attemps of assassination and/or intrusion upon us, hence Atlas being intact for the past decade. Gentlemen, as of right now, we are not looking for faults, we are not looking for people to blame, we are looking for resolutions and solutions to this mess.”

Borisov said fluently with determination and sat down giving the word to Prime Minister Arminay.

 

“As you all know.. There were exactly two breaches of Atlas integrity, the first was on the date of the 12^th of November, the second occured after the two following days, on the 14^th of November. We can assume that because of the two dates being so close together, that the intrusions were carefully planned out, and well executed,  we can also suggest that the two intrudors are accomplices of some kind, sharing the same goal here in Atlas. Their identities remain uknown, with little leads onto their names, or even any kind of information regarding them in whole. However, with careful investigation, those leads may prove to have greater potential than we thought, right now, I would like anyone with any knowledge regarding the two situations, please raise their hand in submission.”

Arminay sat down with everyone impatiently scanning the room for the few people that have any idea what is going on. Borisov calmly shifted his sight from the left to the right spotting several people raising their arms, to the left, the two people that raised their arms were the Senior Import/Export chief Pine Herman and the Head of the Health system Richard Ward. Turning his sight to the right he saw two people raise their hand also, those people were Admiral Christina Nethremayer and Brigadier Colonel Jason H. Kruger.

 

“We will begin in a clockwise order beginning from the left to the right. Mr. Herman, give out your assessment of this situation based on your knowledge, this applies to all of you when it is your time to speak.”

Borisov said formally and took a sip out of his glass of ice Brandy.

 

“Well.. Err.. The situation was as follows- On the date of.. The 12^th  of November. I reviewed the specimen imported on that date from the Callsign Murdoch Harvest. And.. Well the specimen had an unusual carving on it’s well.. Head.. So what I did was.. I telephoned Brigadier Colonel Jason Kruger to adress the situation since he was leading the operation alongside Admiral Nethremayer. After that happened, the specimen was dispatched to quality control and was deemed and I quote “Unfit for processing due to the level of the overall structure damage of the whale.. Erm.. Specimen” After this.. It was sent to disposal processing..”

Herman said uncomfortably tingling his fingers on the table, his voice was filled with nervousness.

 

“Is that all?”

Borisov asked bluntly.

 

“Uhh.. I suppose..”

Herman said and sat down drinking all of the water in his glass.

 

“Mr. Ward, go ahead.”

Borisov said and looked at the short person slowly standing up. Richard Ward had been the Head of the Health system of Atlas for the entirety of the ten years Atlas had existed.

 

“Alright so.. The main thing we should be concerned about on this matter is the well being of the population.. Which I can tell you.. Has gone downhill since these alienations occurred.. Atlas hospitals are crowded on a record scale with constant calls forwarded to my staff at the Kron Memorial.. With calls arriving to other Atlas hospitals aswell.. Most of the diseases seem to be either pending or simply undiscovered.. I pres..”

Admiral Hudgens stood up interrupting him annoyed.

 

“What’s this!? You’re talking about some diseases and illness bullshit,  when obviously we have matters of greater importance on our hands! The intrusions Ward! You raised your hand! What do you know about them!?”

Borisov nodded to the Security Captain in the corner of the room, the Captain set his rifle along his shoulder and fired a shot into Hudgens’ head, he collapsed and blood ran with all of the meeting board startling.

 

“Anyone else that would like to say something?”

Borisov coldly and innocently implied and nodded his head while two men came in and collected the body.

 

“Good, please carry on Mr. Ward.”

Borisov said innocently and Ward nervously continued still startled by what just happened.

 

“I was uhh.. I was going to say that.. I presume.. These diseases are happening on an irregular cause.. Because I assure you, Atlas life support has never been higher, what I assume is that it is possible that these intrusions are somehow connected to the rapid spike in illness.. I am assuming this because something strange kept happening.. People obtain the illness somewhere and then infect their families.. But what is peculiar in this situation.. Is that we have almost determined that the disease is so complex and endurant.. That we haven’t been able to properly cure yet, also.. We believe it can be obtained even through the skin.. The intrudors may have planned this out, what better way to weaken us than to spread a disease inside of Atlas, which no one can leave from.. Now.. When I say this.. By no means do I aim to point fingers.. But we exctracted the saliva off several patients down at Daranese Memorial.. After the processing.. The uhh.. The saliva sample results proved inconclusive.. On a few patients, we have discovered the saliva originated from animal species, such as cows and dogs.. Suggesting that the disease may be animal transferred.. The only thing about it is that the extracted saliva from the recently deceased Captain Brandon Lake, was the sole saliva sample we’ve extracted that proved human. And uhh.. When the autopsy finished and we err.. DNA scanned it.. The person who’s saliva it is proved inconclusive.. But.. There was a lot of similiarity with the genetic code of the present Admiral Christina Nethremayer.. Thank you..”

Ward quickly spouted the name and uncomfortably sat, avoiding direct eye contact while everyone shifted their slightly less bored expressions towards Nethremayer, who could not comprehend the situation at hand.

Borisov turned to Nethremayer, who was showing slight anxiety and gave her a hand gesture to begin.

 

“I.. Really don’t understand.. How could it be my DNA on the infected.. I.. Do I need to remind you that I have no other family here in Atlas..”

Nethremayer said a bit insulted.

 

“The evidence.. Is there.. Do with it what you will..”

Ward said with a slightly aggressive tone.

 

“How about beneath the walls of Atlas?”

Kruger asked attracting attention, his voice was unusual to be heard in that board room. He stood up receiving a quick confirmation to speak from the Chancelar.

 

“Well.. I might still have a distant cousin.. His name was Roger.. But then he change his name into something with a K.. I can’t remember..”

She said bluntily and sat down, leaving Kruger in submission to speak.

 

“I think I speak in everyone’s name here when I say- That we have been compromised.. There is no shame in it.. It is not the Defense Ministry’s fault.. It is not my fault and it isn’t anyone’s fault.. We need to stop looking for answers in this room.. We need more time and investigation.. We need a way to uncover these intrudors and do away with them.. Now.. My knowledge based on the situation. Everything Mr. Herman said was true. He phoned me after he discovered the whale specimen had been damaged.. When I saw it, it took me a few minutes to understand what really happened there.. And the the truth is, that an uknown individual concealed themselves inside of the whale, and carved themselves out upon shutting down the power in Daranese District.. He has to be somewhere around there, inside Daranese.. Since we’ve engaged in total lockdown of the city.. Individuals are unable to use the Atlas tube and all types of  transportation have been unabled until the 20^th.  That would be the best first place to start investigating, that is my knowledge regarding the first intrusion.. All other leads are untraceable and they do not seem to prove useful.. Regarding the second intrusion.. The catastrophe that occurred two days ago. At the date of the 14^th of November, the Atlas Interplanetary Starship Honor came home after a 15 hour expedition around Deimos, there was salvageable cargo on the way.. And it proved originating from a craft called the A.I.S. Ridner.. All records of the Ridner are either corrupted, deleted or missing.. Now I don’t need to tell you all how this is a set up plan and was probably planned for months ago.. Someone wanted the escape pod to be collected, and they concealed themselves inside of it.. There is no other explanation..”

Kruger said and turned to the left seeing Pollock stand up.

 

“Colonel Kruger.. How do you suppose, the individual got out of the escape pod without anyone noticing..? Then.. How did he manage to kill the Captain of the craft.. Without anyone noticing or trying to stop him.. How do you explain the Captain’s behaviour and I quote “Moments after the cargo was collected” unquote.. The following few sentences explain how you’ve gone inside the craft to investigate the matter.. No one has seen the Captain since the cargo was collected, he went into his room probably.. Then you barge in on your own, without any witnesses of the first hand discovery of the body, you then rightfully claim you saw him lying dead with blood on the ground, next to the bed. After that, you’ve also claimed and I quote “I’ve seen his dog” unquote.. When Captain Brandon Lake never had a pet animal of any kind.. Are you suggesting the “dog” killed him? But I don’t even think there was a dog in there at all… Also, when the paramedics and everyone that has been inside the Ridner on that day.. Claim they’ve seen nothing of that kind in the craft.. Just a dead Lunar Atlas Officer.. Blood all over the place.. And your fingerprints all over him.”

Pollock said deviaetly minded and clever as always, Kruger sat and went silent for a few moments. Winter stood up.

 

“Pollock… Does that brain of yours even live up to that pitiful excuse for a beard? Are you deaf sonny..? Ward just said Lake’s death wasn’t blunt force or stabbing of any kind.. There are no marks that would imply Lake fighting back.. So get all that varnish out of yer ears.. And sit the f**k down..!”

Winter said roughly and sarcastically as he always was, he was a Scottish 6 footer with a bad attitude towards everything, he didn’t take anyone’s s**t and always had something to say back, he had dark graying hair and almost black botomless eyes.

 

“Thank you.. Winter..”

Kruger lightly nodded to him being thankful for getting him out of the situation with such ease.

 

“Colonel Jason Kruger! What are you suggesting!?”

Borisov yelled across the room, getting sick and tired of people aimlessly turning on one another when things go bleak, knowing that Kruger was the sole person with the most combat experience and knowledge of any strategist in the room.

 

“Well.. This is my suggested course of action, regarding Atlas and the intrusions- Deploying additional security to all sectors, lowering the curfew time down to 1900 hours.. Deploying Staz units through the entire city, for the first time in Atlas history.. Assign quarrantine locations for infected and possibly contagious individuals.. Further investigation must be held throught the city.. Our final goal will be set on the extermination and integrity restoration of our perfect society, Atlas!”

Kruger said with determination, Borisov’s eyes shined with pride, he stood up and spoke.

 

“Colonel Jason H. Kruger… I do not know how you were capable on investing such time and developing these solutions to our success… But it is with great pride and tenacity! I now pronounce you! High Admiral and the New Head of Offensive Strategics!”

Borisov said proudly and the whole desk started applauding and congratulating, getting their minds a bit off the overall situation. People started slowly leaving and saying Goodbye. Borisov was escorted by his specially assigned to guard him from 24/7. They all left as well as Winter and Kruger joining in on the same vehicle again.

 

“What a f****n’ day.. Woooohh..”

Winter spouted loudly, Kruger had been more interested in the flux this situation could escalate to. What if this group of people, these masterminds. Keep invading Atlas, with sinister objectives. Can Atlas really hold itself against that. Sure, he thought. Atlas was so powerful it has reached the former power of Aven. But he wanted to be sure, he wanted things to be clear and no risks are taken.

 

“Hey.. Uhh.. Robert.. You mind me askin you something..?”

Kruger said nervously.

 

“Shoot..”

Winter replied shortly laying back on his quality leather seat.

 

“Erm.. You’ve probably been told this by Borisov.. Since you’re in contact with him all the time.. You’ve heard about the situation at the Murdoch Harvest.. I was leading the Harvester back we’ve gassed a town.. And uhh.. We encountered some life forms on sonar.. Not sure if it was people or animals or what.. But you know.. Animals wouldn’t even be with a 100 f*****g meters of that thing.. And if those were humans.. They could.. Im not saying they are.. But.. They could have followed us.. They could’ve followed the Harvester.. And we didn’t gas them.. Because they weren’t in the town.. Do you think we can conjoin an operation.. With the Legion.. Like the good old days… Just to make things sure..”

Kruger asked remembering their gold glory days.

 

“I was dying for someone to ask that…! F**k yes.. You, Me, Brooks, Allard, Kahn, Riley and Camton! Get s**t done Hash..!”

Winter replied with a glimpse of enthusiasm and excitemen which he hadn’t felt for years.

 

They separated at the building entrance, Kruger going to the right and him going to the left. He approached his door looking for the keys in a fast manner, he put the keys in and turned to the left.

 

The lock was broken.

 

He took out his standard issue handgun and stood by the door, a ray of anxiety and suspense grew through his body, he slammed the door open rolling to the table and scanning the area around him.

 

“Gaige!? Pumpkin!?”

Kruger yelled, the door could be heard opening and he pointed his weapon towards it.

 

“Yes.. Daddy? What.. Was the matter with you?”

She nervously replied holding her hands together, he quickly lowered his weapon and hugged her tightly.

 

“Nothing.. Gaige.. Did you.. Did you uhh.. Break the door lock..?”

 

“No daddy.. You did.. I don’t know why.. But.. Twenty minutes ago.. You just ran inside.. Kissed me.. And ran back out.. And now you’re back! Don’t you remember…”