Operation Empty Tomb

Operation Empty Tomb was a top secret mission undertaken by RANGECOM to destroy the Divine Machine Lucius Titus during the liberation of Artheniapolis and the defense of Agalos City.

After receiving their orders from President Relithys, Seraph Squad struck a deal with Elena von Rut Lucrenia. In exchange for support from the EB'G, the mission would forgo the use of magic or other unnatural means in the fight against the divine machine. Through discussions with the Margravina and Apostle a strategy was hatched - to find the identity of the demon inhabiting the Divine Machine and then anger it to manifest physically. Once fully manifested the demon could then be harmed by mundane means.

Based on a tip from EB'G intelligence reports, Seraph Squad began their search for the demon's identity with the Sek-Agkelos Zalia, a bio-tech mogul who lived in Neo-Meikyou, Touyou. Upon their meeting, it became clear Zalia intended to bargain for the information. She had previously entered into a research agreement with the Xiamen Union, unionist state also currently at war with the USC. The Xiamenese were refusing to hand over the findings of said research and claimed they had scuttled the facility to focus on wartime research. Zalia claimed the research was sufficiently high tech enough that it would embarrass the regime if it became public, but simply wished to retrieve any data on the research that could be recovered from the site. In exchange she would discover the name of the demon for them. After agreeing, Zalia sent them on their way with her assistant, a mysterious “AnoHito” who carried a refrigerated case of some kind.

To get around wartime border controls, Seraph Squad used a legal maneuver (a CFT request), as well as a healthy dose of bribes to local military police, to gain landing rights at Wusonfame. There they met an anonymous arthenian man who, upon gaining his trust, said he wanted to smuggle a shipment of guns hidden in rice further inland. Yet another bargain was struck - Seraph Squad would ensure the guns were delivered to a contact in Anqin, and would then be able to take the trucks and their cover trade goods from that point to the research site outside of Quiguang.

During the drive south, however, intel reached the rangers that one of the drivers was a known USC operative. The man they were to deliver the guns to, one Hujo “The Crane”, was also suspected of links to USC intel handlers. Rather than make the delivery, Seraph Squad covertly contacted the local authorities to make yet another bargain. After meeting Commissar Jun and his partner Song, they led Xiamanese secret police to the meeting spot where they killed the underground members and seized the weaponry.

After the raid, Commissar Jun kept his end of the deal and led the group to the quiet farm village of Quiguang. Finding the scuttled ruins of the research facility several miles into the hills, the rangers found a way into an extensive basement system. All around was evidence of more than just high tech energy weapon testing - indications that testing was done on residents and not on fixed devices. By distracting the commissars, they were able to get AnoHito to the center of the facility, where they found a large biotech lab filled with artificial wombs. Though the facility had been abandoned for several months at least, AnoHito found one tank with a fetus he claimed was 'viable.' He placed the child in refrigerated case, and returned to Zalia.

Upon their return, Zalia explained her life in an industrializing Centrian Empire and how she was deceived into helping create the first Divine Machine. She identified that first Divine Machine as a vessel for the demon Moloch, and the latest one in Artheniapolis as the demon Barbas. With this knowledge, Seraph Squad assembled allies and prepared for the final push into Artheniapolis.

After finalizing battle plans, it was decided that the coalition army would assault Artheniapolis along central highways and plaza along two spearheads - north and west. Seraph Squad would lead the assault for the western corridor alongside the vanguard of the Commonwealth's 1st Organized Brigade “Le Poux” [The Elite]. Using the power of the Anthegalian AelirLit orbital weapon, the advance to the Ziggurat was quickly accomplished.