The Wildwalker

— Morning - IHB Local Branch —

Strauss sat in his office, eyes darting between multiple monitors as his fingers flew across the keyboard. One screen played security footage of Maximilian's bar brawl with the bikers, the evidence Oldcowboy had provided during yesterday's meeting when suggesting someone might have tracked and incapacitated Necrotox before his arrest.

As a Level 9 IHB officer, Strauss recognized the combat skills on display. The man in the video demonstrated close-quarters combat abilities rivaling Blood Mongoose himself, though only CQC techniques were visible in the recording.

"Maximilian Sterling Graham..." Strauss typed the name under 'Surveillance Target' in his report, recalling yesterday's discussion with Oldcowboy and Thomas.

Oldcowboy had proposed Maximilian might be Blood Mongoose's protégé - an idea Strauss initially dismissed. UEC psychological profiles deemed the legendary operative Blood Mongoose was a "lone wolf" type with near-zero likelihood of taking an apprentice or starting a family. Yet their analysts had been wrong before. They'd failed to predict Blood Mongoose's family life, after all.

The man had taken a wife and a daughter, though his dangerous profession eventually drove them away. Tragedy followed: first, his wife's accidental death when their daughter was fourteen, then Blood Mongoose's died during a highly classified UEC mission the following year. The information on that mission was so sensitive that Strauss, with his level 9 officer authority, couldn't access the files. This left their fifteen-year-old daughter to enter the UEC's protection program for fallen operatives' families.

If the analysts were wrong once, they could be wrong again.

Perhaps Maximilian was indeed Blood Mongoose's secret student, trained in the Wildlands, maybe even raised among Wildwalkers.

That would explain his advanced camouflage skills that fooled Necrotox, despite supposedly only possessing enhanced strength.

Strauss resumed typing while uttering.

"Warning: Suspect possesses elite black ops training with confirmed strength enhancement EF. Exercise extreme caution during surveillance."

After reviewing and sending the report, Strauss examined Maximilian's migration records. The clean paperwork suggested this was the man's first city-state citizenship application. Strauss, who used his authority to access all the record data in all city-states and even outposts, confirmed that no "Maximilian Sterling Graham" existed in any migration databases or Wildland outpost registries.

This only reinforced his theory that Maximilian must have been raised by Wildwalkers. Only these people could conceal someone so completely from UEC oversight while teachung such exceptional stealth skills.

Strauss's thoughts turned to Blood Mongoose's daughter. I should pay her a visit, he considered, and ask if she knows anything about this Maximilian.

Determined, he accessed the UEC's Operative Families Safeguarding Program database to locate her current residence. The search quickly yielded results—she was living right here in the city. Just as he began noting down her address, a sharp knock interrupted him.

"Come in!" Strauss called out.

An officer hurried inside, his expression tense. "Sir, we have a situation. The prisoner convoy transporting Necrotox has been attacked."

"What?!" Strauss's frown deepened as he immediately rose to his feet.

— 3 Hours Later —

The sun was high, approaching noon. Strauss arrived at the scene with his entourage and Oldcowboy. A dozen people were already present, working to secure the area and gather evidence. Several heavy tanks and APCs were parked around the site to defend in case any mutated beast were to attack them.

"Holy… cow," Oldcowboy muttered as he took in the gruesome scene.

Human remains—carcasses, half-eaten corpses, organs, and severed limbs—were scattered across the highway. Corpses of mutated beasts, many half-devoured by other creatures, littered the area alongside wrecked vehicles and damaged tanks. The tanks bore visible claw and fang marks, but the true cause of their destruction was evident: armor shredded by anti-tank rocket explosions.

"Mr. Strauss!" a voice called out.

A man, seemingly in his mid-thirties, walking toward Strauss. He wore tight leather armor and a black cloak made from mutated beast hide, with a scoped rifle holstered across his back. His light gear resembled that of a recon role or scout, but clearly not standard-issue for a UEC soldier.

As he got closer, a deep yellow glow in his irises and a tribal tattoo that ran from his cheek down his body revealed his identity. He was a Wildwalker. One of the humans who had forsaken their EF in favor of the controlled, practical power granted by enhanced tattoos.

"Mr. Honiahaka, it's good to see you. What happened here?" Strauss shook the Wildwalker's hand and got straight to the point.

"Professional as always, Mr. Strauss," Honiahaka replied, then led Strauss to an armored prisoner transport vehicle. Nearby, several body bags contained the corpses of the prisoners, while a UEC enforcer catalogued their names on a tablet.

"Sir!" the officer saluting Strauss as he approached to inspect the scene. The officer handed him the tablet and began his report.

"Sir, from our investigation, there were no survivors—except one: Necrotox. We suspect that the escort team was killed first, and then the attackers freed only Necrotox. The rest of the prisoners were executed, judging by the bullet wounds on their bodies," the officer reported with professional precision.

Strauss nodded, handed the tablet back, and turned to Honiahaka.

"Mr. Honiahaka, do you think this assault was led by the Wildwalkers?" Strauss asked. Only a Wildwalker would possess enough knowledge of the Wildland to use beasts in a first wave to soften up the convoy, follow up with an ambush, then drive off the creatures to rescue the target.

"Absolutely." He shrugged "This is textbook Wildwalker tactics—ambushing Convoy 101 in the rulebook if the convoy is too strong to confront head-on," Honiahaka replied confidently.

"Do you know which Enclave was responsible?" Strauss asked.

"I don't know," Honiahaka said, "but I'm sure it wasn't a trader-type enclave. They're not that reckless. And the proud warrior enclaves within a hundred-kilometer radius of the city didn't do it either."

"I see…" Strauss murmured, his eyes scanning the battlefield as he pondered the implications, he then look at the canopy that has a gaping hold. He then check the footage on the tablet that recovered from the camera from the tanks and vehicles here.

"Your name means 'Little Wolf,' right? Honiahaka," Oldcowboy said to the Wildwalker standing beside them.

"Yes, it means 'Little Wolf.' And you are?" Honiahaka replied, extending his hand.

"Blackwood, Carter Blackwood. Folks know me as Oldcowboy. Nice to meet you, son," Oldcowboy answered in his Southern drawl, shaking Honiahaka's hand firmly.

"By the way, you might be the chillest Wildwalker I've ever met! Hope they're all as easy to talk to as you. No disrespect, but most Wildwalkers I've dealt with make me feel like I gotta pay for every word outta their mouths," Oldcowboy added with a grin.

Hearing this, Little Wolf burst into loud laughter, earning a sharp glare from Strauss, who was deep in thought. The Wildwalker quickly nods and offers a wry smile in apology to the ever-serious Strauss, then turns back to Oldcowboy.

"None taken, old man," Honiahaka said, waving off the remark. "Thing is, I'm from the Fang Trader Enclave. We're the merchant types. Most trader Wildwalkers are as easygoing as me. We'd rather make friends and profit than strut around like some proud, moody peacock looking down on everyone else."

He leaned in conspiratorially. "Can you believe it? Those warrior-type enclave folks act like they've got their noses stuck in the clouds! They even sneer at us traders, saying we've got no honor just 'cause we do business with you city folk and..."

"Please be quiet, Mr. Honiahaka!" Strauss growled.

Honiahaka pulled a mocking face as if to say, "Look at this grumpy ass." Oldcowboy couldn't help but chuckle.

Strauss ignored Honiahaka and continued reviewing the footage after a few minutes. Straus frowned he eventually noticing something strange. He then turned to a nearby officer and issued a command.

"Officer! Bring me the original footage from both the front tank closest to the explosion zone and the rear vehicle."

"Yes sir!" The officer immediately rushed to retrieve the requested footage.

Within minutes, the same officer returned with a data shard containing both recordings and gave it to Strauss.

Without hesitation, Strauss inserted the data shard into the tablet and began analyzing the two footage files, carefully comparing their timestamps.

After a tense moment of examination, his expression darkened. "So... we have a traitor within the UEC. And this... dreckskerl appears to hold a high-ranking position," Strauss stated coldly.

Oldcowboy looked puzzled. "Huh? How'd you figure that out, son?"

"Do you know about the DG Charge, Mr. Blackwood?" Strauss asked.

"Yeah, I've heard of it. Isn't it some kind of experimental explosive?" Oldcowboy replied.

"Yes. Directional Graviton Charge—an experimental explosive device that uses gravitational force to destroy material in a conical shape. This thing is supposed to still be in the lab, as the UEC hasn't approved it for field testing yet.

From what I've uncovered in the footage, it appeared at first that the canopy was breached by C4 charges—but that's not the case. The first explosion was indeed C4, but the second blast, which penetrated our six-inch-thick titanium-alloy armor plate, was a DG Charge. The evidence lies in the fact that the first explosion did no damage to the armor, while the second tore right through it, creating a clean breach—exactly the kind of signature DG Charges leave behind.

Moreover… the footage from the frontmost tank shows a timestamp that lags behind the rearmost tank by 0.0006 seconds. That kind of discrepancy can only be caused by time distortion due to gravitational strain."

"There's no doubt about it… gentlemen, we have a high-ranking traitor within the UEC," Strauss concluded.