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Case, The
by Jason R. Weiser |
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CHAPTER 1
Star League War Crimes Task Force HQ
Warrenton, Hyner
8 September, 3061
0935 Hours PST
Hauptmann Jordan Ackerman, AFFC was not a happy man. "GODDAMMIT, LEIGHTON, WHERE IN HELL IS THAT COFFEE!" His torrent of verbal abuse was directed at a young Corporal of the AFFC who was their sometime clerk, and sometime gofer.
His green eyes, hidden behind large-coke bottle-like spectacles, were now the size of your average dropship doors, somehow, through his terror, he managed to get the Hauptmann his coffee, without spilling it.
"Here you go, sir, Oh, and here's the latest faxes from the field....they found a new mass grave near Kimota, sir. May have up to 100 bodies all told."
Ackerman nodded, and waved the corporal away. "Dismissed, Corporal" he said in a dismissive tone.
.. Hearing about yet another mass grave here on Hyner was the last thing Ackerman wanted to hear about this early in the morning. One of a team of 10 AFFC JAG officers sent to the Draconis Combine in the wake of Operation Bulldog to catalog and prosecute Smoke Jaguar war crimes, Ackerman had seen his share of things that simply made his flesh crawl. Some of the mass graves that the Task Force forensics people dug up, were, well, tough to take, not that Ackerman hadn't seen death..no, before this, he used to be an Infantry officer, but was soon reposted after a bad incident during the Marik-Liao invasion in '57.
Ackerman heard the door creak open and the sound of approaching footsteps. He didn't even bother looking up from reading the reports on his desk, simply muttering "Good Morning".
The reply was light and musical, with a Japanese accent, "Well, good morning to you too, Ackerman, if I had known how much fun you'd be this morning, I'd have asked to be assigned to Hong-Jian's case?"
Ackerman looked up...< Damn >, he thought, < Ain't been here more than a few months and already folks know I am not a morning person. > Tai-i Hiroko Musashi, Department of Military Justice, DCMS, was eyeing him up and down from his bloodshot brown eyes to the his rumpled uniform with her sparking grey eyes, framed well by her jet black hair.
"Put in a long night again?" Hiroko queried.
"Yeah, this damn Beaver Falls thing, and now Kimota, sounds like we're gonna have the case from hell against this Paul Moon." Ackerman replied as Musashi sat down behind her desk.
"So, are we gonna pay a visit to this new site?" Hiroko asked, half in curiosity, and half in dread.
"Looks that way, Hiroko...Pack your holocam?" Ackerman answered with a sigh.
Hiroko fished it out with a grin "Sure thing, Jordan-san, even got it charged this time!"
Both lawyers shared a chuckle, remembering a time both had been so eager to get to a former Smoke Jaguar interrogation center, they had forgotten to charge the holocam.
Ackerman rose and walked to the door, opening it with a loud creak, "After you, Hiroko-chan?"
Crime Scene 146 Alpha
Site of Mass Grave 2km west of the former township of Kimota, Hyner
8 September 3061
1128 hrs PST
Ackerman could never get used to the stench one got from these mass graves. They were a hard thing to take and well, the conditions of the bodies, violated as they were by mech-class weaponry left nothing to be desired either.
He turned to the Marik Lieutenant in charge attached from the FWLM MIO(Military Investigations Office). "So, Lieutenant Kapaly, One-hundred and forty-two bodies...that's the count?
Lieutenant Karpaly nodded blankly as Hiroko panned her holocam over the scene, being sure to catch the exact dimensions of the grave site.
Ackerman turned to his right, and noticed a crowd of civilians being held away from the site by both a barbed wire fence and a line of Kuritan infantry.
"Lieutenant Karpaly? Who are those folks?" hooking a thumb towards the crowd.
The Lieutenant, already grim enough, darkened even more, a furrowing brow distorting even more his fair features as the wind played through his blond hair. "Them sir? Those are what families of the victims there are left. The ones that for whatever reason, were lucky enough not to be in Kimota when it happened. They wait there day and wondering when we'll turn loose their loved ones."
Ackerman's heart dropped "Damn, ok, Lieutenant, what's the story on the investigative work, what's the setup?"
Karpaly visibly relaxed, as the subject became more of a detached, professional nature. "Well, sir, we got a ComStar forensics team headed up an Adept Quincy, he's damn good and they're doing both the physical stuff, and the ME work, with the Warrenton ME's office in attendance. As for interviews and legwork, we have some FedCom CID, Lyran CIB and some of my folks following up on some witness testimony, but not much to tell, all we got on that end is one Drac '39 vet who's mute and a senile old man who's not sure at all what he saw."
Ackerman sighed again "Ok Lieutenant, so basically, it's physical evidence we have to go on, right?"
"Roger that, sir. I'll tell you one thing, we did the 'Sphere a favor by wacking these damn Smoke Kitties, these bodies were here for six years...and that ain't all, Jags tried to destroy the remains with quicklime. Good thing for us the bastards screwed up." Karpaly spat.
Ackerman looked on into the distance as Karpaly walked off to confer with Hiroko. It was obvious that there had been premeditation and that there was a good chance they could even make a case for conspiracy to cover the whole damn thing up...Damn shame that the actual officer responsible, Star Captain Jez Howell hadn't lived to see Bulldog, but, well, stuff happens in this line of work. With that thought, Ackerman turned towards the hovercar and began to build a case in his mind.... |
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