Mindshard (ON HOLD)

Fallout

     Further consideration was forestalled by Ixim’s hand stretched forth towards her.

  “Come, colonel.”  The drax said with a faint smile.  “Let us survey the battlefield and see if the enemy close to our heart is counted amongst the dead.”

     The drax’s report on the team’s casualties were, if anything, conservative, Vaughn discovered to her horror and chagrin when they stepped to where Deks and the others had made their stand.  The tight knot of operatives were all but destroyed, gunned down from three sides when the Viseith assault completely flanked them.  Their hands glowing soft blue with healing energies, a number of healers were already working amongst the bodies, trying to coax life from the burnt and broken husks.

     Surveying the scene, grim in their black suits, were a number of ISD agents, com units chattering almost nonstop and hands hovering close to holstered weapons.  It was one of them that suddenly piped up from where she was searching three downed Isivir that were beyond the healers’ ability to revive.

  “Got something.”  She rasped, a no-nonsense Juresil with a scar running along her tanned jaw.  She handed a small object to the nearest standing agent, a frowning Teserin that looked hard enough to rip through solid plasticrete with his bare hands.

     The muscular Teserin agent quickly flipped the object around in his hands, the flattened spindle minuscule in his hands.  After a brief consideration, he handed it to the agent beside him, who began cataloguing it with a small, handheld AI.

  “A covert communication device of some sort.”  The Teserin agent indicated, looking first at Vaughn then to Ixim.  “Of Viseith issue, found sewn into the fabric of his tunic.”

     Ixim swung his eyes off the sliver of plastic and metal and down onto the dead Juresil the device had been discovered upon.  If this was the mole, then his fellow Viseith made little or no effort to insure he survived the attack; the dead Juresil had no less than six separate wounds, two of which would’ve been instantly fatal.

  “Sloppy of them.”  Vaughn muttered, also looking the supposed mole over with a jaded eye.  “A couple superficial wounds to make it look like he was with us, but to kill him outright?”  She looked over at Ixim.

  “The Viseith aren’t that determined to win, are they?  That they’ll sacrifice their own people for the cause?”

     The drax’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully.  But it was the Teserin ISD agent that answered, Ixim choosing, for the moment, to remain silent.

  “It isn’t unheard of, agent.”  He rasped, thumbing the com unit in his ear to reduce the incoming volume in order to better concentrate on what was passing between the human and the drax.

  “The Praetors have used suicide bombers in recent cycles with high amounts of explosive strapped to their bodies to devastate civilian targets with little regret.  Our intelligence suggests they may be trained Viseith operatives brainwashed into accepting such assignments.  If they have no compunction against such sacrifice, why would they ask twice about killing a mole that’s outlived its usefulness?”

     Vaughn grimaced.  The ISD agent’s logic was impeccable.  And she had her own experiences in the field to back it up.  Several rebel factions in the Directorate used similar guerilla and terrorist tactics against civilians, targets made vulnerable by the lack of security and military protection afforded to military and secure sites.  It was barbaric but highly effective in swaying popular opinion.  Nobody liked dying, especially getting killed in the midst of carrying out their day-to-day activities.  Local government always reeled against the sudden surge of public pressure that followed every such attack.