In the weeks since the attempted assassination of His Majesty Justinian I many shifty actions have taken place. The Imperial Slavorussian Guard, personal body guards to the Emperor, his family and other high profile political figures, lead the investigation into the assassination attempt. The fallowing events are classified. No record exists to prove they really happened.

Flash back to Dec. 21, 2008
Moments after a seemingly lone assassin attempts to murder the emperor 3 bodies lay still on the ground, and the crowd around them is enraged. The ISG is attempting to remove the assassin from the scene, while angered bystanders attempt to mercilessly beat the man to death. They are able to get the man safely out of the crowd and into a black SUV, which then promptly speeds off.

Inside the SUV the man is rechecked for weapons. They had already confiscated the weapon used moments before, but they were concerned there may be more. Indeed they find a switchblade and what appear to be cyanide capsules. The body guards immediately know this man wasn’t working alone.

Unbeknownst to the man or any of the witnesses of the assassination attempt the man had been administered a sedative while he was under the mountain of bodyguards. The man drifts in and out of consciousness mumbling incoherent words during his half-lucid moments.

The black SUV stops outside a warehouse in Moscow’s industrial district. The building is owned by the Slavorussian Ministry of Defense, but has no markings to indicate government ownership. This was literally one of the shady interrogation buildings that are seen in movies. On the outside it looked worn and dirty from years of use during Slavorussia’s industrial expansion in the 1960’s and 70’s. Inside an elevator took the assassin down to a bunker, with the usual gray and white concrete and steel walls.

The man was cuffed to a wooden chair in an empty room with only one light over his head. It shined brightly creating a ring of almost heavenly light around him, but leaving the rest of the room in complete darkness.

When the assassin finally awoke he immediately tried to stand up. As he attempted to lean forward he realized his hands were cuffed behind the old wooden chair. He takes a look around the room and sees nothing. Fear grips the man as he tries to break free. As the fear intensifies he starts to scream for help. His screams go unheard however, at least by any who would be in the position to help him.

Just as the assassin realizes the futility of his cries for help a dark figure steps out of the darkness. His hair is a sandy blond and is styled into a flat top. He’s wearing a black suit and black tie, and an eye patch shields his left eye and a large scar. His voice is deep and raspy, a commanding voice which frightens the assassin as soon as he hears it.

The suited man asks the assassin several simple questions, what is his name, current address, date of birth. Despite the fear that’s rapidly gripping his mind and body the assassin refuses to cooperate. He demands to be released immediately, but his demands go unheeded.

The man’s unwillingness to cooperate was expected however, so the black suited man proceeded directly to the next phase of interrogation. The room was quickly illuminated. Behind the assassin was a large pool filled with water, and to the right of him were four more men in black suits. They picked up the man in the chair and take him over toward the pool.

He is warned that he is about to be thrown into the water and will surely sink to the bottom and drown. Fear now turns to total terror as coincidentally the man is extremely afraid of drowning. He now easily gives up information. He gives them his name, address, age, the names of his coconspirators, and where they live. What really interests the men in black is the name of the organization he works for. He reveals he was ordered to assassinate the emperor by the infamous international terrorist organization, the Dark Hand.

To be continued…

The men in black suits are not surprised to see the assassin give out the information so quickly. If he was really working for the Dark Hand then he was obviously a rookie. This was obviously his first assignment and he clearly wasn’t supposed to be the one to pull the trigger. No this was just some sorry idiot who saw a chance to be immortalized for murdering the emperor. The assassin quickly ran out of information to share with the men in black, and unfortunately for him so did his usefulness.

Later that night the assassin was gagged and tied up. The men in black put him in the back of a plain white van. He is taken outside the city where the men execute him and burry his body. Since the Dark Hand fabricated much of his identity it was easy to erase the man from existence, his family lived in Berlin and assumed he had died several months ago. The man disappeared almost as quickly as he had appeared.

The next morning the men in black show up at the apartment buildings of the other 3 conspirators. They are quickly arrested and taken to the same warehouse as before. Just as their comrade before them had done, these men too refused to give their names. They were in turn tortured, however they didn’t give up information so easily. Simply threatening to drown the assassins wasn’t enough. The man with the eye patch was an expert in torture methods, his favorite were those used during the Spanish Inquisition. For days he would use cruel methods of interrogation to get answers from the men, using every method in the book.

Before long his methods began to show promising results. All three men started to spill their secrets. They gave up names, people they had trained with, lower level structuring of the Dark Hand’s mysterious hierarchy, locations of safe houses, and information that would lead to regional leaders. They continued to squeeze information out of the men until they were dry. Afterwards they too were taken and executed. It wasn’t common for terrorists to be executed, but these men had seen too much and were a liability. They had seen faces of men who were not supposed to exist, and been inside the headquarters of an organization that, just like its members, doesn’t exist. The Dark Hand had finally met its match in the Ministry of Defense’s shadow organization the Iron Fist.

To be continued…

Some Background
During the later years of Emperor Gerald II, Slavorussian diplomacy became increasingly isolationist. While the emperor retreated from public view the politicians took over Moscow. The government’s internal policy was weak and used to further their own selfish aims. Law and order was low on Moscow’s priority list, their main concerns were appeasing the corporations and industrial giants. As a result terror organizations like the Freedom Faction and the New Bolsheviks thrived. At the turn of the century a especially ruthless group called the Dark Hand reawakened after decades of inactivity.

Between 2004 and early 2007 the Dark Hand single handedly brought the Slavorussian government to its knees. Political assassinations were a regular occurrence, and street brawls with authorities happened almost daily. The Dark Hand, under the guise of the Slavorussian National Democratic and Peace Party (SNDPP) was able to get its own members elected to parliament and appointed to cabinet positions. /The DH’s most formidable opponent was Prime Minister Kolesnikov, who vowed to return Slavorussia to the Slavorussians. Her efforts were ineffective and the death of the emperor only made the DH stronger.

The Prime Minister would fine an unlikely ally in the form of a 17 year old prince from Zamira. Justinian I, as he became known, was the grandson of Gerald II. Formerly the crown prince of Zamira, revolution in his homeland forced his family to flee.

Although he was young Justinian I was considered by many to be extremely wise. In his coronation speech he vowed, just as the prime minister had done, to return the country to the people and the government which the people vested so much of their faith in. The Emperor’s first act was to dissolve parliament forcing all seats of both houses of parliament to be abandoned. New elections were held, and the SNDPP was banned. The prime minister declared martial law and turned the empire into an iron fisted military state. Almost immediately their actions began to show results. Violence in the streets decreased to nothing almost overnight, legislation was passed to maintain the order, and strengthen the military. The emperor himself began to form powerful bonds with foreign nations, knowing that if things got out of his control again foreign intervention would be necessary. The emperor’s closest foreign allies were the neighboring Russany lead by Baron Erwin Uberstein, and GIAS.

Just as Justinian had predicted tensions came to a head on March 16 2007, only days after his 18th birthday and claiming full authority over the Slavorussian government. A faction of the army under control of the Dark Hand assaulted the Imperial Palace at Moscow. Almost simultaneously naval forces of the URPR attempted to gain a beachhead in St. Petersburg. The result was a 2 month siege of St. Petersburg and Moscow. With help from Russany, GIAS and other allies Slavorussia eventually beat back the terrorist and URPR ships. The Slavorussian navy however was completely destroyed. Almost a dozen ships sank to the bottom of the St. Petersburg bay.

The Dark Hand was down but not out. They returned to attack the palace and attempt to kill Emperor Justinian, Baron Uberstein, Motoko Kusanagi and dozens of other high profile world leaders at the emperor’s first Imperial Ball. The prowess of the leaders was severely underestimated. The Dark Hand had again failed to seize power, but had sent a very serious message to the government. The very next day Prime Minister Kolesnikov created the Iron fist to combat the Dark Hand. Although no document exists to prove its existence, it quickly garnered attention. In august several bodies were found in Moscow’s industrial district, men believe to be associated with the Dark hand, one of them was former Internal Minister Denis Baranov. Russany requested permission to investigate the murders but the prime minister quickly shot those requests. In reality the men had been interrogated, tortured and executed by the Iron Fist.

By the end of august 2007 the emperor and prime minister had regained control over the country. The Department of Imperial Security’s anti-terror squad made hundreds of arrests and forced the Dark Hand into hiding. In under a year the emperor had crushed the most powerful terror organization in the region and restored law and order. His actions earned him the name Justinian the Mighty.

To be continued…