>>5424049>>5424071>>5424089>>5424210>>5424212>>5424220>>5424232>>5424322>>5424338>>5424439>>5424440>>5424470>>5426659"Alright, handle it. Ask him about his past and the other targets."
You close the line, and prepare to give another order, this time to the soldiers in position.
"I want nonlethal captures, if possible. Go."
With a nod, the dozen soldiers pour out of the woods, assault rifles trained at the mercs. To their credit, the mercs know when they're outmanned and outgunned. Aside from the few that surrendered on the spot, the rest scatter to the wind.
Only three of the dozen or so mercenaries were captured. The snipers from their heli contacts you.
"We've got visual on the runners - should we take shots?"
"Negative, don't waste ammo on these likes. Return to rendezvous point, we'll be going home soon."
Your guess is correct, seeing at the three you captured doesn't look like officer material. In their haste to scram, the mercs left behind their equipment - the weapons are mostly old local army surplus, no Zayyine weaponry. There's a field radio with notes about a certain frequency, but nothing else.
Then again, you could ask your captives why they were congregating in El Carambol - back at the capital.
As you return, a report arrives from the liaison to the Interfeds, Lena Santos, regarding Kruger.
Apparently, most of Soleil's targets in Paneira were involved in an event known as the Massacre of Lukavic, where a village was suspected of harboring pro-Monarchist sympathizers and was burned alive in their own homes by Eisen Doctrine troops.
Kruger said that Norman was the officer who ordered the massacre, and Andre enacted it. Kruger, on the other hand, was sickened by the atrocity, and deserted right after. He said he rescued a child hiding outside the village as he ran, and that there's no mistake - that kid was Solaire.
You wonder how your airforce general Clifton or the fifth unknown target figured in the massacre, until you reviewed some official post-war inquiry by Bordec authorities. As a mercenary airman in the war, Clifton was ordered to drop incendiary bombs on 'enemy encampments in Lukavic', but didn't sortie out due to sudden bad weather.
As for the mysterious fifth, the info that the village harbored sympathizers was supplied by an 'Agent Succubus', a freelance spy under the employ of the Eisen Doctrine. Interestingly, this is the only time the agent is mentioned in the reports. They seem to have disappeared after the war was over.
(Contd.)