Confederation of Corrupt DictatorsBoard

The room is typical for a facility that never knows what it could be dealing with. The walls are whitewashed concrete, the table, and chairs utilitarian steel and plastic. A Kempetai officer sits in one of the two chairs, facing the door. Someone knocks respectfully. The officer looks up.

"Come in."

A man opens the door, careful not to crush the doorknob with his left hand. He nods to the officer.

"Alfred said you wanted to debrief me as well."

"Correct. Take a seat."

The man takes a step into the room. As he does, the officer moves his right hand slightly. The man freezes. The officer looks up.

"Take him."

The other officer drops from the ceiling, where he'd been hanging. He lands on the man's shoulders and grabs his right arm, tearing it from the socket. A stream of crimson and silver gushes from the torso. The man is doesn't move. The first officer shakes his head.

"Don't bother making a show. Get it."

The second officer grunts in affirmation, then flexes his fingers. Short spikes rip out from his flesh at the end of each digit. He latches onto the man's face, preparing to rip his head off.

crunch

The officer finds suddenly finds himself without a hand, as a matte-black metal arm crushes and rips his wrist. The man throws himself out of the room, and the top of the doorway makes a satisfying thunk as it hits the officer who was on top of him. Scrambling up, he turns the corner, hoping to lose any pursuit in the depths of CUFAFEDI Headquarters.

Back in the room, the officer at the desk examines his hand.

"The mechanism is undamaged. He should still be immobilized."

The other officer raises the stump where his hand was. Swarms of black dust cover it, creating a tourniquet.

"Clearly, he was not."

"Correct. Therefore, we can assume that other conventional methods will not work. Our best option is total dismemberment. Sorting through the remains is preferable to him surprising us again."

Both officers leave the room, following the trail of blood and nanobots left by the man's missing arm.

The camera zoomed one last time on El Presidente Guillermo Sanchez's face and then the interview began:

"Welcome, citizens of Pamero, Today exclusive interview with our good leader who was kind enough to accept our many interview requests. Presidente hello and thank you again! "

The camera shifts to the El Presidente: A bearded man, cigar in hand, short dark-gray hair, sunglasses and a neat suit. He smiles and begins to speak in a deep but charismatic voice:

"You know, I have very little time to spare. Being the president is not an easy task..."

He theatrically checks his gold watch and smiles.

"Of course, Presidente. Let's get right to the point, the World Assembly accuses you of, I quote: " Crimes against humanity, repression, slavery and electoral fraud. "
What do you think?"

Guillermo takes a whiff of his cigar and responds in a slow and sharp manner:

"The World Assembly, this assembly does not know anything about Pamero. It does not know anything about the sacrifices I made to rebuild this archipelago, I put my heart, love and order into it. When Paremo will be a paradise, people will no longer care what ways I worked to rebuild it. "

"And what do you do with the charges of slavery? It is said that you use political prisoners and other opponents to work in iron mines and oil wells in unsanitary conditions."

El Presidente gets up and turns towards the large bay window which gives a bird's eye view of the capital.

"Lies coming from the opponents. I can assure you that no citizen of any kind is enslaved like cattle or even executed."

The interview ends on the image of the President from behind.

With the recent tragedy of one of the nation's beloved members of the C.C.I.P (Cape Canavral Imperial Senate), the Emperor-King, in the first time since the previous war with Ecrosha had begun, has come to make a public announcement. It would be noticed that the Emperor looked much more worn down than previous conferences, and he appears thinner. Standing in front of a podium at a press conference, the room is loud with noise from the talking of reporters and interviewers. As the Emperor-King enters the room, his presence commanded those in the room to fall silent, and the room did so. Lockhart adjusted the microphone, and cleared his throat.

"The tragedy that has befallen the nation following the death of one of our beloved senators. While the situation is very tragic, and I give my condolences to the Senator's family, and I have received reports that it is an underground sect working alongside the Republicans, more specifically, their much more radical group, the Caper Republican Army. We are already in the process of looking into it, however we are also trying to manage a deeply unstable country following the war with Ecrosha, and as such any investigation may get held up by other issues. While we certainly are keeping a keen eye out for any suspects, the police force is currently dealing with a string of other murders as well, so our criminal investigation unit of the police force is currently full. If you as a citizen have any information that you believe may help the investigation, please do not hesitate to report it to the police. Now then, I'll take some time to answer questions before I must return to my duties, so let us start."

The conference suddenly burst into a mix of talking and shouting, as the Emperor-King scanned the room, looking for the slightest semblance of a reporter being calm. Eventually he saw a young man who was holding his hand up silently, and he pointed at the man, ushering him to stand and ask his question as the room quieted down now.

"Seeing as this is a fairly recent announcement and has been the talk of discussion across the political sphere in Cape Canavral, what are your thoughts on The Xaviet Empire leaving the Omsk Treaty Organization for the NTEP?" He said, looking at a notepad.

"While it is deeply unfortunate to see a member of our alliance leave, we do understand that we will not force them to return. Though I did find it funny how we called us "Communists" despite the fact the vast majority of the alliance itself hardly harbor's any socialists at all, the real exception being two of the oligarchs themselves. Regardless of this, we do hope the Empire well in their future endeavors. Any other questions?"

A woman in the crowd raises her hand, and the Emperor-King again gestures for them to stand and clears her throat, before beginning her question.

"Seeing as the recent string of murders has also led to the disappearance of Senators Leon Basset, Alfred Valiante, & Ripley Monroe, what are your thoughts on the disappearances of these Senators, and do you believe their disappearance correlates with this string of murders?" The woman asks in a soothing voice.

"While the murders, as I said, are deeply tragic, the sudden disappearance of these three is deeply alarming. We have no idea whether or not these are a series of murders from a group, or just a series of incredible coincidences, we don't know. But these three are not only influential senators, but also incredible people who have achieved a great deal during their time in the senate. Whether or not they're kidnapped or not is also unknown, but if they are currently kidnapped, know we are trying our hardest to look for you, and if not, then the nation is sure to have your backs, no matter where you are, and that I myself am wishing you the best of luck. Now then, it appears I must take my leave, I thank you very much for your time. Hail the Empire."

The Emperor-King now walks off-stage with his armed guards, as the hall fills with chatter again as the people began to file out. For now, the Emperor-King slinked back into his quarters, trying to push the investigation to high priority. Meanwhile, the three senators watch the conference on the TV intently, hidden deep inside the bunker. The trio exchanged looks at the television was turned off.

Suddenly, a knock was heard from the door.

"-Huh?" Octavia said, as he looked over towards the door, startled by the sudden knock. "Oh, uhm- come in." He cleared the cigarettes and empty bottles off his desk, and adjusted his tie.

Lieutenant Reuss opened the door, stepping into Octavia's office. "Good morning, Sir." He said, he proceeded to shut the door behind him, and then walked over to sit down in front of Octavia's desk.

"Care for a cup of coffee?" Octavia said, as he poured coffee into a cup and handed it to Reuss.

"Well of course, Colonel. I haven't had a drink since I left the mainland, which was roughly around... five hours ago?" Reuss said. "But never mind that, I didn't come here just for a cup of coffee, I've come here for an important discussion with you, concerning our nation."

Octavia raised a brow at Reuss' statement. "Go on..." He sipped his cup of coffee.

"The state is planning an invasion of the bordering nations of Cetus and Aquila, the Government has grown concerned of political corruption due to growing influence from other nations, such as Orion." Reuss said.

"An invasion, you say? It's about time we returned to some good old warfare... send the word to the mainland that I'm willing to assist in this operation." Octavia said, standing up to look outside his window. "We must carry out this operation for the sake of our dear nation."

"Understood, sir." Reuss said, soon standing up and walking to the door. "I'll be departing now, I must return to the mainland at once." Reuss then proceeded to walk out of the office, and shut the door behind him.

"Very well." Octavia said, before sitting back down on his chair and continuing to drink his coffee.

Meanwhile, Reuss walked towards the base's port, escorted by a few soldiers of the Imperial Army. He was soon inside of his boat, pacing around inside of his cabin. The boat now departed from the port, and set course for the mainland.

Octavia watched from his office, as the boat sailed away from the island, and was consumed by the thick fog surrounding it. "Good luck out there, Lieutenant."