Prelude To Chaos

Standing in the office of the Chief of Police was Bazel, Neto, and Schwarz. The three had just finished giving the in person report of the first offensive operation against this new group of organized crime. They explained everything, from what went right to what went oh so horribly wrong towards the end of the operation.

The Chief drummed his fingers on the table as the report concluded, taking in all the information that he had just heard and combined it with what he had learned on his own side of things.

"With these results, I am now keenly aware of the type of power that these people hold. While before it was just theory and guesswork, we now unfortunately have some very concrete evidence," said the Chief in reference to the fifteen who were lost.

"My request for reinforcements from the other departments has been agreed upon, quicker than I had anticipated but it is a welcome thing. However with the seriousness of the situation now completely confirmed, I will only be accepting reinforcements from Northern Central.

"Eastern and western are half the size of our own department, and if any incidents happen in their jurisdiction they will need every man that they can get. Northern Central on the other hand is three times as large as we are, so they can easily spare us enough men to recoup our losses and then some.

"Either way, we will not be able to afford such a large scale operation again. The losses were too high and this was when all the cards were already in our favor. So we will instead just do what we always do, put out the fires as they come."

The news was not the best for the men in the room to hear, as it was technically their fault that the department had suffered such losses in the first place even if they had done all they could to mitigate that loss.

Noticing the falling mood of his subordinates the Chief snapped twice to gain their attention once more and said,

"That does not mean we will still be completely passive. There are still many things that we can do in order to bite back wherever we can against this new threat.

"For starters, I have already tasked the Vice Chief to expand our intelligence gathering. We are in the middle of constructing a large scale network that will be centered around these "noble" houses that have been popping up. Right now we will be mainly focusing on House Sanguis, for they are the cancer that is right in front of our noses, but in the future it will be responsible for monitoring everything regarding these types of people.

"All properties that these people own will be monitored, as well as we will be scouring public and private records for any large scale movement of outside influences in each major sector at a time. Hopefully we will be able to eventually understand the full scope of these Houses as they start to spread their influence into our territory in preparation for this whatever prophecy."

The Chief then stops speaking for a moment, reaching into his desk and pulling out a folder. He opened the folder and took out some documents, laying them on the table face up and oriented so the three in the room could read.

"Next is the creation of a new task force, named the DASF. Defense Against Supernatural Forces, simple and direct. The leaders of this organization will be the three of you here, the two Captains will handle the day to day stuff while Mr. Vasa will deal with everything in regards to the direction and goals of the task force. He will also be responsible for training the men who come into the task force as well as making all information in regards to training and tactical success available to the rest of the department so that I can slowly get everyone up to speed."

The news was surprising to Bazel, as he found himself surprised by the Chief again and again. It was clear that the man in front of him had the ability to see far beyond his station.

'No ordinary man would be able to adapt to the current situation as well as he is. Every decision he is making is the best one possible, that keeps both the big picture and small one in mind. Brilliant' thought Bazel, completely impressed.

But if he was impressed at first he was now about to be completely blown away by the next words of the Chief.

"DASF will also be free of oversight for the most part, acting as a largely independent organization. But you will be able to liason directly with the Vice Chief to have direct access to the information network that we are in the process of constructing.

"Not only that, but you will be allowed to choose anyone you wish from any department to bring on to your team. You can also make use of outside personnel, but I suggest that you vet them carefully. If these noble houses are dead set on spreading their influence in this town, I would not put it past them to infiltrate the existing structures from within and take control that way.

"Finally, your budget will be as high as we can handle. I will personally be cutting my own pay and move my entire year's salary into the budget. The Vice Chief has also agreed to this and a request will be put out in two days time asking others if they would like to do the same, with all the money going straight into your budget. Of course...this is all assuming that you accept the position, Mr. Vasa."

Everything that the Chief was offering was almost too good to be true but while Bazel was somewhat suspicious as to why he was being given exactly everything he wanted for no cost whatsoever, he still very much so needed everything that was being offered.

Thus,

"I accept."

The Chief nodded happily, clearly pleased that Bazel had accepted as if the position was not exactly what Bazel wanted in the first place.

"You will be given the rank of Special Adviser, which will have the same authority as a Corporal unless the supernatural is involved. When such an event occurs then you will have the same powers as a Captain, able to requisition whatever you need from the other branches temporarily so long as as it is approved by myself or the Vice Chief.

"Now, Special Adviser Vasa, what do you think the next move of our new foes will be?"

Having been passed the baton, Bazel stood and thought for a moment. He did not know this House too well, but having met with them in person and talking with their leadership he was able to paint a fairly clear picture in his mind as to how they might react.

"As of right now I believe that there are two things that they could do.

"The first is that they will give in to their largest character flaw, extreme pride and arrogance. If this happens then we will most likely see large scale movements around all of their places of operation, as they pull their men from the field and mass them together to strike a large fatal blow. Though I doubt that they will do this, at least if they have any understanding of how our society works."

The Chief agreed with this deduction, backing up Bazel's ending remarks by saying,

"If they were to do that then while they would win the small victory they would lose the war, or at the very least create a far bigger enemy than just a single police department. My request for the national guard to get involved would be accepted in a heartbeat if that happened. Sadly, this means that unless they do something big like that then my request will most likely remain in limbo forever. Bureaucracy, what else can I say?"

The men in the room all clicked their tongues in annoyance, wondering why the very institutions that are there to protect the citizens often ended up getting in the way of that sole duty.

'If I close my eyes to the situation with Lily for a moment, I can easily see that this town is essentially dancing on the edge of a knife. The noble houses might be playing nice for now, but that is simply because they are still the newcomers. The more they stick their claws into the town the more bold they will become, until eventually it is they who rule and not us.

Not to mention that we are only dealing with two houses as of right now, with more set to arrive. There could even be more entities other than just these houses...the possibilities are endless but I cannot be bothered to worry about them. Lily first, everything else later'

Breaking the silence, Bazel began to explain his second and more likely theory.

"The second theory that I have is that they will prioritize their current goal over revenge. Originally I had thought that their overall goal would be to just do what the other noble house, McGrath, is currently doing: slowly increase their influence and power in the town to prepare for a dramatic climax when this whatever prophecy is revealed.

"But after that last meeting, there is another key factor: Lily Vasa, my currently still kidnapped sister. They value her highly, so highly that when they let her meet with me they only did it under the protection of their entire leadership. And if they did not lie to me, which I see no indication that they did for they were trying to get me on their side at the time which means at worst they just exaggerated a little bit, her use to them is far more concrete and real than a mythical prophecy.

"They also know that I am highly motivated to get her back and that I will stop at nothing to do so, so their goal will be to get her out of the town so that I will not be able to get to her anymore. We have eyes everywhere, as this is our territory, so they will not make any obvious moves. Instead they will create a smokescreen to obfuscate their actions from our many eyes, then sneak out under this cover.

"I have two guesses as to what such a smokescreen could look like as of now,

1. They will split their forces into multiple parts, moving Lily in one of them, and then scattering. We will be forced to pick and choose which ones are most likely to contain who we are looking for, which means that even if we do find the right one our forces will be spread thin and our reaction time will be extremely slow.

2. They will artificially increase the level of crime so that our resources are stretched thin, so much so that we will be forced to choose what to sacrifice if we go after them when they make their break. Although I am sure they did not expect us to already have a dedicated force for this in the works, it will still have the effect of causing the department to only have DASF available when they do make their move.

"Regardless of what they choose to do, we should move forward with the idea that after they complete this goal...whether we successfully stop them or not, they will counterattack the moment their hands are no longer tied."

The Chief digested these theories and was about to speak on them when a knock was heard on the door. Their meeting was designated as extremely important, so anyone who had to bypass the Vice Chief to see the Chief must either be very important or was carrying vital information.

Directing Neto to let the person in through the door, in walked one of the Vice Chief's men with a report in hand. He respectfully handed the report over and waited to the side silently, but everyone in the room could tell that what was contained within was anything but good from the face of the man delivering the news.