You weren't left waiting long. A man in a bespoke suit came in, looking serious, and asked you all to take your seats as his presentation began.
"As you are all no doubt aware, Akras has been engaged in expansion and acquisition of as raw goods producers on Mars. These acquisitions have diverted production from terrestrial factories to the colonies, increasing profit margins across the board." He said, pulling up a list of recent Akras purchases. He didn't sound like he was from a business branch of the company, quoting 'margins across the board' instead of actual numbers. "This project has not been a part of an effort to create an industrial monopoly. It's actually been spearheaded by the Security Division."
The names of acquired companies shifted to overlay onto a hologram of Mars floating over the table. It showed the acquisitions one by one, as well as changing flags. They weren't clustered together in any meaningful way, or focused on any particular assets. Examining the pattern, so far, Akras had been purchasing only American and Latin Union assets. "Our goal was simple - to prevent the Pan American War from opening a Martian front. With the escalating conflict in the asteroid belt, Akras determined that it was an unacceptable threat to our operations if either war party decided to bombard a Martian target from orbit. In addition to the dust storms and difficulty in shipping, we believe that such a move would inevitably escalate towards ground occupations of critical facilities and grounds - in short, a military invasion of Mars."
"Unfortunately, there's been a problem." He said. The hologram shrunk down into a facility layout for a large mining complex built into the edge of a mountainside. "Del Fuego Heavy Industries supplied the bulk of the Latin Union's remaining incoming raw materials, refining magma flows from a tap deep into Olympus Mons. Less than 72 hours after Akras' purchase of the facility, a group of employees has gone rogue."
"At 03:27, they took the security office at Del Fuego, and began broadcasting a message."
The image changed over, to a group of armed employees in the security office. A group of security officers, suits, and employees had armed themselves. Their broadcast included ideological support for the Latin Union, denouncing the shareholders who sold to Akras as traitors, and refusing to be bought out of defending their homes and loved ones. It concludes by declaring the facility nationalized - a move that seems certain to draw the attention of the others in the conflict.
The image changed back to the map.
"Fortunately, we were able to prevent our satellites from relaying the message to Earth, or the Latin Space Force, but in 6 hours, at dawn, local time, the Olympus Mons Geothermal Mine will have a direct line of communication with Earth. If we have not regained control of the facility by then, Akras Security anticipates that Mars will become a new theater in the Pan American War."
The briefing faded. The suit looked around the table. "We expect resistance. Members of the security division were involved in the terrorist takeover of Olympus Mons, and their facility has full access to all of the same weapons, armaments, and drones that we do. You have a transport preparing to leave in fifteen minutes, and when you arrive, you will have just three hours to regain control of the security office and main communications hubs. There are hostages, as well - employees who remain loyal to Akras after the purchase, so you are to check your targets and avoid friendly casualties. Try to avoid any atmospheric breaches - we don't know if the hostages have been given space suits."
"Any questions?"
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Topic: Castle:Reboot [Combined Missions] (Read 54338 times)