The PacificBoard

Tyrone, Thomas and Wilson, as well as Ahuv, Rosalina, Esual, Alexandra and Cassandra are sitting around the task.

Tyrone takes a file with several documents from his desk and heads to the virtual screen.

"Alright, now that everyone's here, we can start."

He turns on the screen. The projector visualizes a symbol of a red arrow going down on a black background. Under the symbol it is written "CREPITUS".

"This symbol remains one of the biggest political mysteries in our archives. We've seen it appear only several times, but those several times were big ones - Kathol Rift civil war, Ballistikov civil war, MoA nuclear crisis with Finnedy, who just happened so to have that symbol on his armpatch. Recently, their activity has been detected once again. If they are active - that means something big is coming. Something that could threaten the world peace and the free world in particular."

Thomas observes the symbol with interest, so does James.

-"So does this symbol has to do anything with east lebatuck federation?" - asks Thomas. - "If it does, we should alert the ISC right away-"

-"It clearly has some connection with the E.L. federation, you idiot" -says James, looking at Thomas with an expression of as if Thomas doesn't understand something obvious. - "That being said, I believe even the federation is just a minor part of a major system. Not to mention, even if the ISC is informed, they ain't gonna do anything, just like they didn't do anything with Cermiersia."

Tyrone interrupts Thomas and James' debate, knowing very well, that if he doesn't, James's ranting can go on for hours.

"Denis managed to get the permission from the MoA government, as a somewhat MoA government official himself, to browse through their nuclear crisis archives. The MoA remains sceptical on the subject for the time being. Denis has assured Cetiri however, that if we managed to get ahold of some reasonable data on the case, we would provide them with the information at once."

"Wouldn't that be a violation of novoblupolian governmental privacy?" - asks Ahuv.

"I understand your concerns, Ahuv." - says Tyrone. - "That being saud, this is MoA we're talking about. They have earned themselves a reputation among novoblupolians as an ally we can trust. Not to mention, they are partially involved with Kathol Rift crisis, and connections with "CREPITUS" organization could profit both of our nations."

Cassandra, the decembrist prty leader, who is usually silent, raises a hand.

"This whole operation feels a little complex. If we start a region-wide inspection, we could end up violating several international laws."

"There ARE NO INTERNATIONAL LAWS HERE, idiot." - rudely interrupts James. - "If there were, a butt ton of nations wouldn't exist by now. We are gonna do what we consider necessary."

"But this is a fascist way of thinking." - says Rosalina. - "Considering ourselves to do something which would violate other's privacy in order to-"

"Calm down, young people." - Says Esual, rising from his chair, his caine in hand. - "This isn't just about interests of Novoblupolia - we are talking about hypothetically prventing any upcoming atacks by this organization, thereby taking an action which would profit all the people of the free world. I believe other nations would understand this and support our cause."

"Thank you, Esual. My opinion is the same as yours on this." - Says Tyrone, turning off the screen and returning to his seat. - "We will send our agents to investigate archives throughout Novoblupolia, and maybe in some other nations. Except for MoA, since the investigations there are already taking place."

Tyrone takes out a communication device and says "You may come in."

Two people, a man and a woman, both about 25 years old, enter the office. They are wearing Novoblupolian investigation agency costumes.

"Take a seat." - says Tyrone.

The two young people take their seats, both feel a little awkward sitting next to the big arena politicians. The young woman nervously says:

"G-greetings, sir. My name is Pauline and this is John-"

"Worry not" - says Tyrone - "I know your names. It was me who approved your last mission, after all. I have called you here because I am informed that you are the best we have. Anywhere. You'll have to be. You two are given an important task - to hold an investigation which will protect our very way of life from a great evil. And while few will know of your struggles, I can assure you, the entire free world will benefit."

15:44, New Alexanria Grand Archive.
John and Pauline approach the librarian AI. Pauline takes out a personal ID with a governmental data pass chip.

"Official secret governmental investigation, priority code #1. We need a pass to the -14th floor."- Says she.

The AI scans her ID and opens up the elevator in front of Pauline and John.

"You sure are quite experienced with this stuff" - Says John, as he walks into the elevator along with Pauline.

"I don't have that much experience actually." - Pauline said, while awkwardly scratching her head - "But the Prime minister said he gave this mission to us because we're the best in all of Novoblupolia - we gotta live up to that name."

John smiled and said: "Your Giorex mentality sure is kicking in."

"Let's not play with stereotypes, shall we?"- Said Pauline, as the elevator arrived onto the floor they needed. - "You are from Shakerest state, that doesn't necessarily mean you saw Donald Peters as a god, does it?"

"Nah, what you just said is the one 100% correct stereotype. It's not a stereotype actually - it's a fact." - said John, chuckling a little.

The two of them made their way through several corridors. Eventually, they stop near one of the data blocks.

"This must be the one we're looking for." - said Pauline.

John looked at the block with a serious face, after which he said: "This seems quite... suspicious."

"Huh?" - Pauline was surprised, sonce this was one of the few times John had a serious face. - "What do you mean?"

John kept scrolling through the data in the system computer.

"If this organization is stretching worldwide, wouldn't they take care of deleting all data possible about themselves? I'm pretty sure they's delete something from... Aha! There it is!" - He cheered as he pointed towards the screen.

Pauline looked at the screen. On chapter 3962 of the archive, it said "Could not open file from the server".

Pauline was surprised: "Could not open file? But this is one of the most advanced computers in the world!"

John smiled as he started putting the code in: "It's not the computer being not advanced enough that's the problem here - the file was changed to a program out of the computer's possible reading machine codes. Now, if we run the same file through drawing program..."

He proudly demonstrated the screen to Pauline. On the screen, there was a square filled with one pixel-sized black and white squares.

"A QR code?" - Pauilne said.

"Not really" - said John - "this is actually binary, now if we run this through several decrypting problems..."

He ran the image through several programs, after which, he finally got a message on the screen of his laptop - a message which said:

"CREPITUS. DH Museum. Whitecrab complex. Return of the king."

18:11, Ychina city mountain resort. Pauline and John are on a funicular, which is heading to the top of the mountain. They are putting on warm clothes as the funicular passes the ski tracks and trees - in Novoblupolia, funiculars are usually only 4-5 meters above the ground, due to about 7% of the population being afraid of heights.

"Alright, so let me get this straight" - says Pauline, as she puts on a pair of warm socks over her normal socks. - "The DH annagram stood for Douglas Henrison? Why would he put any clues here? And what are we looking for?"

"There's a cabinet with old papers in that small museum. One of them contains a list of secret passages in Novoblupolia. If we study it well enough, it could make things more simple for us."-Says John, as he's putting on a pair of winter shoes.

"But isn't this whole investigation supposed to go through the AI technology?"- Says Pauline, as she puts on her gloves and wraps her scarf around her neck several times.

"It IS about the AI, Pauline." - says John. - If somebody managed to gain the access into the Novoblupolian main data center, that someone must've been a governmental official or knew some kind of a secret passage."

The funicular arrives to a lonely small wooden house near the mountain top. John and Pauline step out of the funicular and both shiver a little - they are from southern warm states, and aren't used to the cold as much as northern novoblupolians are. John opens the door of the wooden house and they both enter. As they enter, they see that the fireplace is working, so they both stretch their hands towards the fire to warm themselves up.

"W-w-wait a m-minute," - says Pauline, still shivering a little - "If the fireplace is working, then somebody must have lighted it."

They both start searching through the house, but can't find anybody anywhere.

"Anyway, let's head to the documents room, shall we?" - Says John, having warmed up from running around the small house, looking for someone who was nowhere to be found.

They enter the documents room, and see that one of the boxes is lying on the floor near the entrance. As they pick it up, they see a message written on a paper sheet, one which looks not as old as the others. The message says:

"Greetings, dear investigators. I couldn't help but notice that you two have visited some of the key locations in Novoblupolia where you culd find some data on me, which could make this whole game of mine way less interesting then I would like it to be, so here's how this is gonna go: the files that you need are located in Whitecrab, in the Dutch royal complex. In fact, Imma go all open on you and reveal all of my plans for the Pacific and Novoblupolia in particular - yes, Imma personally meet you. Not that you or even me can influence the play of the game anymore, fellas."

"Too bad it's not handwritten, otherwise we could probably find out who wrote this. This may just be a deception move of an organization, after all - they could just be luring us into a trap." - Says Pauline, analysing the document.

"That may be true. Still, we don't have any other choice - he cleaned up all the data, and there's at least SOME chance that this letter is telling the truth. I suggest we go there, but bring a minor armed force with us." - Says John, as he is thinking to himself - "That manner of speaking... Could it be... Nah, that's impossible, let's move on."

21:16, Whitecrab, Dutch Royal complex.

John and Pauline take an elevator to the 47th floor, where, according to the letter back in the museum, the one who left it would personally meet them. As the elevator passes the 39th floor however, the lights suddenly turn off as the alarms activate. Red lights and siren sounds feel the cabin, as John and Paula both feel that the elevator is now going down, and it's going down with acceleration.

"I told you this was a trap!" - screams Pauline,as she is both scared and mad at John.

Suddenly, the elevator stops moving, and the doors open. The floor device shows the number "-6"

"I never knew this building had negative floors" - says John, surprised. - "Come on Pauline, let's take a look around"

Pauline, still not completely having recovered from her stress during the fall, followed John out of the elevator and into the dark room. It was so dark, that they couldn't see anything, aside from a small lamp on the table at the end of the corridor. They cautiously approached the table on which the lamp was located, and noticed that lamp's light was pointing towards an open bloknote, on the open page of which it was written:

"Man, they still ain't got no clue that the whole "Crepitus" name thing was just me bein' edgy, thou I ain't not sparin' credit for myself here - I have been pulling the needles across the globe for the last few months, after all - So much I've already done: Kathol Rift civil war, Ballistikov civil war, liberal reforms in GPC, destablilization of ISC, and Cermiersian crisis - and so much more to play with - MoA division, Wildfires in Embauba and drought in Stollberg-Stolberg - let alone how much fun I intend to have by toying with that James Wilson fellow."

Suddenly, both John and Pauline heard a voice behind their backs, which said: "And by "them" I of course meant you. This whole game sure was fun, but no fun can last forever, the curtain shall soon fall."

As he finished his line, "New kings walking" began to play in the room and the lights turned on, all pointing behind Pauline and John's backs.

John was even more shocked than Pauline was after hearing those words, he thought to himself: "That voice... Impossible... It can't be him!"

John and Pauline turned around, both unable to believe what, or more particularly, who they were seeing.

There he stood, alive and well...

DONALD PETERS.