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 (), as well as a healthy dose of bribes to local military police, to gain landing rights at . 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 bargian was struck - Seraph Squad would ensure the guns were delivered to a contact in , and would then be able to take the trucks and their cover trade goods from that point to the research site outside of .