The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Making Sure All Parts are Accounted For

"You know, I never quite understood how the western alliance worked," Narcist said as the comms line went inactive. "A bunch of two or three House clans loosely aligned with each other, but not with one of the big clans like Ventru or Toreador. Yet making temporary alliances with them when the mood suits, or the needs fit."

Lash smiled wryly.

"I think they looked across the English Channel and saw the chaos of mainland Europe and opted out," he said. "No ties to pull them into one of our wars,"

"Until Magnar aligned with Ventru," Narcist pointed out, "which pulled him into the pogrom. That didn't benefit Liam Magnar in the end."

"True. But before the pogrom, the alliance between Ventru and Magnar gave clan Magnar and its premier House, House Magnar access to Ventru resources and capabilities for several generations, making them one of the strongest clans in the western alliance!"

Lash's expression tightened for a moment.

"Of course, it also didn't benefit Liam to discover what Romanescu and his fake KIA's were doing. That ultimately was his undoing."

"His death. Our benefit," Narcist said with a sardonic twist of her mouth. "His intel was vital in destroying Romanescu's Krakow base and capturing that piece of filth ourselves."

"Mm," Lash grunted. "Could've done with getting the intel without losing my mentor and commander, though," he darkly noted.

"Sorry, boss," Narcist said with an apologetic look. "I didn't mean to stir bad memories."

To which Lash made a dismissive gesture.

"Magnar's death is in the past. But his murderer's death is still in the future. So let's focus on accomplishing that, yes?"

A swiping gesture moved the VOC report to the side. Then a quick dance of his fingers over the interface and he was looking at a satellite view of Budapest. Zooming in on the ridge that marked the entrance to Varos, he paused to consider it a moment, arms folded and thoughts churning.

Their recent operations against the traitorous High Lords and the slave trade network had made alot of noise and left behind hundreds of bodies that had to be disposed of. Already under pressure from the pogrom, the Dark Secret was in direct jeopardy from their efforts. If they didn't work to mitigate it now, they ran the very real risk of full discovery with the upcoming assault on Varos. Then it wouldn't be just the White Flames they'd be facing.

It would be the entire common Human Race!

Another interaction with the interface brought up the human news network, followed by a search for relevant topics. There, the terrorist action in Saltzburg, Austria, another in Esbjerg, Denmark, the mysterious firefight outside of Brussels that resulted in a castle being destroyed by a powerful bomb, a mafia-style gun battle in Antwerp, a mafia-style raid on a high profile mafia safehouse outside of Naples along with it being obliterated by another powerful bomb, and another raid on a beachside villa in Cadiz, Spain. And finally yet another mysterious explosion destroying a soviet-era industrial park in Krakow.

By the looks of it, the humans were pretty aware of their battle across Europe with Demaskieros and his underlings. They needed to get ahead of it, and promptly.

But how? Did they leverage the Interpol angle again? Or work a play masquerading as human soldiers on an exercise? Or both?

"Think you could hack the Hungarian human government's ministry of defense, Narcist?' he asked, looking over at her. The veteran tech thought for a moment then nodded.