This is Jajlin Bolts giving a full report of the Ticotan Station incident.
It was 3 AM standard time when I suddenly woke up to my Galacom buzzing. I wondered who the hell was calling me at this hour. I fumbled with the Galacom. The call was encrypted. I immediately knew who it was. I picked up the phone. Your voice came from the other end.
You told me to run a sitrep at the Ticotan Station. You told me it was urgent. Normally, I would've done so without any grumbling. That's how it works between us, isn't it? Or at least, it used to. On paper, I'm a pilot working for The Miner's Group. But thanks to our time in the army, I secretly do recon flights and pass information to you. The next day, my account is credited with a decent chunk of units.
I said that I was on my way, and pulled myself up from bed. As I dressed up in my flying gear, I couldn't help have a bad feeling about this mission. You hadn't given me any details about the mission. You had just asked me to run a sitrep at the Ticotan Station. That was weird. You usually gave me a short briefing about the mission. Nevertheless, I didn't waste more time and climbed up in Santa Maria, my 4x4 freighter.
I typed "Ticotan Station" in my dashboard. It gave me some information about the destination. It said "The Ticotan Station was one of the first Earthian refineries to produce interplanetary fuel."
It was about 4 clicks away from my current location. I set up my destination location and rested back. The travel was smooth and I reached the location within the prescribed time.
But as soon as I approached the refinery, I had a bad feeling. The station should've been technically abuzz with activity. But it seemed desolate. From up above, I couldn't see any workers carrying the raw material from the inventory to the smelting podiums. Nor could I see any engineers in their yellow helmets barking orders to the workers.
Suddenly the dashboard of my plane started showing weird activity. I realised that I was losing control of my aircraft. The freighter started losing altitude. It was as if some invisible force was pulling my freighter towards the refinery.
I had no time left. I quickly pulled my M4 Laser Automatic from beneath the seat. I just ejected out of the aircraft in the nick of time. As I landed on the roof of a desolate building, I saw Santa Maria careen into the distance. It hit the base of a cooling tower and exploded into a million pieces. I choked. Santa Maria was my friend in need. I had cruised in it for almost two decades. And now, just like that, it was gone.
But I soon got hold of my senses. I had two missions now. One was to run a quick recon of the area. Gather as much detail as I can. And the second was to get the hell out of that place.
I clutched my M4 and scouted the area from my higher vantage point. And for the first time, I saw that deadly scenery before me. There were dead bodies strewn everywhere.
There were almost 30 buildings in the entire refinery. And as far as my eye could reach, I saw humans lying in pools of blood.
I gulped. Who could've done such a grotesque act? It very well seemed like a terrorist strike. But there was no time for speculation.
I banged the door of the roof open and made my way downstairs. It was a smelting chamber. The furnace was still churning. The raw material was still being poured inside the furnace through the automatic chutes. There were lifeless workers in uniforms lying all around.
I made my way through the sweltering hot chamber. There were absolutely no signs of struggle. I finally exited the chamber. The smell outside was even more nauseating.
I made my way to the nearby pile of dead bodies. The pool of blood around the pile had turned cakey. I had to get to the control room to get hands on the security footage of what really happened here.
I moved from cover to cover and made my way to the main building. The control room had to be in there. As I neared the entrance of the building, the glass doors slid open. The sight that met my eyes made my heart skip a beat.
All around the reception area, bodies of security personnel were strewn. Their bodies were riddled with laser holes, just like the rest of the workers. Their semi-automatic rifles must've been no match against the advanced weaponry of the foes.
More careful and vigilant now, I kept scouting the area, hoping to find the control room. Thankfully, the control was in the corridor behind the reception desk. I entered the control room. A security guard lay on the floor, his head punctured. I quickly turned on the main server.
I checked all the drives. These bastards had wiped the drive clean. There were no security feeds. Whoever the foes were, they were not fucking around. As much as I wanted to stick around to investigate more, it was time for me to get the hell out of here. As I got up to leave, I saw a flash drive in the hand of the lifeless guard.
Damn! This guard must've taken a backup and ripped off the flash drive off right before someone shot him dead. I took the flash drive from his hand and inserted it into the server. Voila! I was right. He had taken a backup. My hands were numb as I clicked on the play button to play the footage. What came next was completely unexpected.
The refinery plant was working fine. Everyone was going through their daily routine jobs. Suddenly, five spaceships of the Earth's Defence Forces landed on the refinery. Without any deliberation, they moved out in formations and started open firing on anyone and everyone that came in their way.
They even let the victims run a bit and then shot them down so that the crime scene looked like the work of an amateur. They went to the storage area and took the fuel. They spilt a couple of barrels to give the amateur feel once again. They loaded the fuel in their spaceships and left.
I turned off the computer. What the hell had happened here? Why did the Earth's Defence Forces kill everyone on Ticotan Station? Then it struck me.
The Earth's government wanted to impose restrictions on the fuel it sold to the Galactic Federation by one means or another. By blaming some alien terrorist organisation for attacking their facility, they could impose restrictions on the fuel they sold to the Galactic Federation.
You, as a member of the Earth's Defence Forces, wanted an "honest" report about what happened here. That's why you sent a relatively unknown agent to do your dirty work. But guess what, you weren't that lucky.
Now, here's the thing. YOU, my boss, ordered me to give you a sitrep report about Ticotan station. YOU knew all along where you were sending me. YOU wanted an "honest" report about this event. So here it is.
The Earth is not what once it stood for. I have lost all hope in humanity. So, after I submit these security footages to the Galactic Federation, I'm coming for you.
I'm going to shoot you at point-blank range, just as your boys shot those innocent workers on this refinery.
How's that for a report, bitch?
