Interview with a member of the Allivino Task Force
Interviewer: Good afternoon.
Officer: Good afternoon.
Interviewer: Would you like to tell us about your time in the Allivino Task Force?
Officer: Of course. A little over fifty years ago, I served in the Allivino Task Ford I worked under Ilja Arseniy during that time.
Interviewer: And what did you think about him at the time?
Officer: Well, most of all, I thought he was bold. I mean, it takes a bold man to go against his superior to do what he thought was right and what, frankly, we all thought was right. Even though I didn’t always agree with his ter as, I never ohought he was the type of devil those red bandits portrayed him as.
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Part 0: Birth of a Revolutionary
| 0:3 | Promotion? |
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Seifedmis 19th, 968 (7/19/968) - Allivino - Riccali Landgraviate - Ilja Arseniy
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Five minutes had passed since Ilja had given his ultimatum to the Riccali Family Captain Vsevolod to surreo his men. As the minutes passed by Ilja’s team aimed their multitude of ons at the windows of the mansion, ready for the Family soldiers to open fire at any moment. Then, as Ilja checked his watch, he finally gave his order for his team to advan the mansion.
Cautiously, several terintelligence Department agents stepped out of cover with their rifles and shotguns at the ready. As they passed the open gate, a fusilde of gunfire erupted from the mansion as Vsevolod’s guards opened fire. Several agents went down with gunshot wounds and the others took cover in the vishly furnished courtyard. Ilja, for his part, rushed forward to join his men, reasoning that if they saw their leader with them, they wouldn’t turn and flee.
He slid into cover behind a fountain, and several bullets ricocheted off the tiled path. From behind him, several of his agents, in cover behind their vehicles, opened up with their semi-automatic rifles. Their hail of bullets temporally forced the defenders bato civing Ilja and his team in the courtyard the freedom to move again, which they took. They quickly formed up at the main and prepared to breabsp;
With several strikes at the door, it burst open, and Ilja was the first into the building. They were in an exposed position in the foyer, and the first thing Ilja saw was a bodyguard raising a shotgun. Wasting no time, he raised his pistol and fired a quick succession of shots which took down the bodyguard. The rest of his force spread out across the foyer, taking positions behind cover.
Around them, there were the symbols of the massive wealth anized crime took from the city, with grand paintings, rge richly decorated rugs, and statues. These would’ve been impressive in another text, but in this it just showed how mudue power ah anized crime had because of their practices. Although her side could really ruminate on this as bullets flew across the mansion. These bullets dug into the walls and poked holes in the paintings and rugs, and broke off pieces of the various statues around the room.
As more and more people on both sides filled the foyer, Ilja’s agents gradually pushed the bodyguards out and away from the rest of the foyer. But it wasn’t without losses for the agents who lost several of their rades in the sense of them dying or being too io tinue on. Again, Ilja took the lead as he pushed forward further into the mansion.
As Ilja’s advaook him into a narrow hallway with doors oher side, he was more careful, trying to tu the sounds of gunfire from throughout the mansion so that his focus would be on the current enviro. Whided up paying off almost instantly as another of the Family’s soldiers burst out from one room and brandished a submae gun. Already prepared, Ilja ducked into one of the open rooms as the bodyguard fired off a burst, which was cut short by one of Ilja’s men, who dispatched the man with a quick rifle shot.
The bodyguard fell to the ground, dead, as Ilja and his team pushed forward. This force tinued pushing forward, easily dispatg whatever bodyguards remained. Finally, they made it to the area just outside of what they assumed was Vsevolod’s bedroom. As they approached, a hail of gunfire flew over their heads. As they ducked down behind pilrs, walls, and pieces of furniture, they faced off against the st few bodyguards that Vsevolod still had. The guards fired off another salvo as Ilja’s agents returned fire.
The guards moved calmly as the agents fired, and Ilja assumed they had been former soldiers. Although that didn’t tell him much, sidering how on those types were after the war. Still, they had his men pinned down, and he had to do something. He peeked out for a sed before a bullet chipped off part of the wall. Swearing slightly, he thought of something. He took off his cap, and dug down, he waved it, drawing fire, and then quickly dug down below his cap, he peeked out of cover and quickly fired a series of shots at the guards. Taking down two of them before the uards fired at him, f him bato cover.
Regardless of whatever skill the bodyguards had, it was no match for the raw numbers of terintelligence agents who were pushing into the area every minute. As more and ments pushed forward, they overwhelmed the defenders. Ilja finally got out of his cover and again took the lead of his men as the st guards put up a st stand. They barricaded themselves against the door to the main bedroom and fired blindly, which for a time kept his men back but they eventually broke through the st of the bodyguards, who tried to surreo the agents, only to be shot by them.
They formed up to bread quickly did so, bursting into the main bedroom. Ilja saw Vsevolod reag fun and quickly aimed at his shoulder and fired, causing Vsevolod to drop the gun. Then, as he tried to get up and move towards the window, Ilja fired at his knee, immobilizing him. Ilja turo his men and had them sweep the room before turning back to Vsevolod, who against the foot of his enormous bed. As Ilja advanced, Vsevolod tried to plead for his safety. “Hey now, let’s talk about this!”
Ilja pressed his pistol against his head and said. “Alright the’s talk.”
“You’ve seen my house. You know I’ve got plenty of money. I give you three times what you make in a year!”
“That’s not w on me,” Ilja said as he pressed his pistol into his head harder.
“Hold on, I be valuable.” As he said this, he was looking just past Ilja as if pnning something.
Ilja noticed this but pretended not to and instead, in an ied voice, asked. “Really?”
“Yes, of course…” As Vsevolod said this, he tried to lunge forward and Ilja quickly just pulled the trigger, killing him instantly.
With that, the raid ended. Nine agents died in the raid, with a further twelve being wouwenty-four of the Family soldiers, including Vsevolod, died during the raid, with a not insignifit number being executed after surrendering, and terintelligence agents captured sixteen more afterwards. bined, both sides fired roughly two thousand rounds during the battle.
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Seifedmis 20th, 968 (7/20/968) - Allivino - Riccali Landgraviate - Ilja Arseniy
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After the first ten minutes of hearing the ior yelling about him to the higher ups over the telephone, Ilja just tuned him out. After the raid the day before, the ior and whatever loyalists he still had took Ilja into “custody” for bypassing the of and to do his raid. However, both he and the ior khat without getting rid of a lot of agents that joined in Ilja’s raid, nothing could happen to him without risking a miniature civil war. Which was how Ilja found himself patiently waiting while the irew red in the face with anger as the phone call dragged on.
A smug smirk grew on Ilja’s face despite his attempts to keep a ral expression. Judging by how long the call was going and how angry the ior was, he assumed things weren’t going how he thought they were going to. Finally, Ilja started paying attention to his words as he noticed the ior’s eyes widened aopped talking suddenly before asking. “You ’t be serious! After all that, you do the exact opposite of what I suggested?”
Then he apologized before saying his goodbyes to whoever was on the phone and then hanging up. The ihed, grabbed a bottle of his expensive alcohol and poured himself a gss before sitting down.
He threw his hands up, saying. “I don’t know how you do it. You go off on your own without orders a you don’t get punished. Unbelievable! You know, I worked for decades to get to this position.”
There was a time when Ilja would’ve just nodded along a along with whatever the ior said, but after he tried to bribe him to drop the iigation, he didn’t care and instead asked. “What did they say?”
“ you answer something for me?” The ior asked in a defeated tone.
Ilja raised an eyebrow and said. “Go ahead.”
“Why didn’t you just drop it? Make money and live fortably.”
At first Ilja wao brush off the question and demand the ior ahe question, but thehought about it and realized he had essentially won, so he was magnanimous and answered. “I joined in order to protect the people and the Emperor from any threats. Something like that is worth more than any money.”
“Easy to say when you don’t have anybody else to support. Even after a decade, I’ve still been struggling to support my family. You just don’t uand, do you?”
“You could’ve chosen any other path, but you chose this one. Now you’ve damned yourself.” Ilja responded.
At that, the ior slumped ba his chair. “You couldn’t be mht. Because of you, I’m finished. No use in hiding it now. The Directeneral himself dissolved this task force. Everybody is getting transferred to different task forces, and you and I are going to the capital to expin what happehough it won’t help me, I’m sure they have already decided. Luckily for you, though, they’ll probably promote you, although they’ll probably send you to the political department.”
Ilja respoo the st part, saying. “That’s not a promotion, that’s just where they send ‘troublemakers.’”
“At least you’re not going to prison.”
“What are you going to do now, then?” Ilja asked.
Resighe ior replied. “Might as well just go face the inquiry and accept whatever sentehey give me.”
Ilja just nodded and rose from his chair, and then something strange came over him. A sort of worry about how he and all the other people associated with the iht get smeared by association. It had happened before, so his worry wasn’t unfounded.
The lights flickered as he turned around aioned. “Won’t it be a shame that for the rest of their lives your family will have the stigma of corruption around them?”
“What?” The ior looked at Ilja, fused.
“Remember what happeo the officers victed in the Sampi Corruption Trials? The media had a great few weeks c the situation.”
The ior defended himself, saying. “What I did wasn’t even on the same scale!”
“Do you actually think that when the media hears about what happehey’ll stop at what you say happened? No, when they hear the word ‘corruption’, they won’t stop until they find everything that happened under your watch. And they won’t stop at you or the agents under your and, but they will also go after your family, too.”
“They wouldn’t…”
“Trust me, a story like this could make the career of a journalist. I'm sure they’d be happy to do whatever it takes to get the story out into the open.”
“What I do about it though?”
“You have one way of saving your reputation.” Ilja moved his coat aside to show his pistol, the ohat all terintelligence agents had.
The ior stared at him for a sed and asked. “You ’t be suggesting what I think you are.”
“Why not? Your reputation is already going to be dragged through the mud by the inquiry and you are almost definitely getting fired and probably sent to prison. But if you never make it to the inquiry, you and your family won’t have to deal with the iigation. Instead, they’ll have a heartbreaking tale of a dedicated public servant lost too soon.”
At that, the ior looked down and said nothing, so Ilja walked out. The day, as he went to the capital under guard, he heard the hat because the ior was unavaible; the inquiry was called off. Ilja knew he should feel at least a little bad about the fact that he caused that, but he also khat he probably saved the careers of him and dozens of ents who worked under him. Although some probably should’ve gotten arrested for corruption, keeping the ones who weren’t corrupt was more important.
Still, it made things easier since most of the objeable things about the task force came from sparse dispatches sent by the ior. So Ilja had full trol over the narrative, which he easily spun to make the situation isoted to a few key individuals. Largely, this killed the iigation, sihere was really nobody else who had as much of a role in the whole situation as Ilja did.
So within a few days, Ilja was basically free, mostly just rexing in Spighat was until he received a letter from the Directeneral of the terintelligence Department asking to meet with him. Although naturally it wasn’t a request, it was an order. So Ilja once again made his way to the tral offices of the terintelligence Department ao speak with the Directeneral.
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Seifedmis 24th, 968 (7/24/968) - Spignane - Itronemi ty - Ilja Arseniy
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The tral offices were a plex of buildings which housed the various task forces operating from the capital city and the leadership of the department. They were rge crete buildings which jutted out from the nearby more ornate buildings built to be remi of cssical Spignanian architecture. Most people didn’t like the buildings sihey didn’t mesh well with the surrounding gover buildings. Ilja was one of the few people who actually liked it. After all, what’s the point of dressing up their job as something more peaceful than what it really was?
As Ilja walked through the building, he saw plenty ur employees w on various muasks. Not like the headquarters in Allivino, which was only uniformed agents. Instead, many of the people w there were basically just office workers. It was only once he made it to the upper floors, which were filled with actual uniformed officers.
Finally, though, he made it to the office of the Directeneral. By the door it had his name, Matvei Maxim. Ilja knocked and heard a voice say to e in, so he did. Inside arsely decorated office with essentially just a desk, a bookshelf, and just other basic things you’d have in an office. If the Directeneral hadn’t been at his position for over a decade and a half, Ilja would’ve assumed he had just gotten the office.
As he sat down, the Directeneral introduced himself. “It is a pleasure to meet the man so many people around me have been talking about.” He then reached out for a handshake, which Ilja took only to be surprised by the Directeneral’s strength for his age. After the handshake, he tinued. “I’m Directeneral Matvei Maxim. I’m sure you have some questions for me.”
“Why did you summon me here?” Ilja asked as he settled into the chair.
“I read over your official report aimony about the corruption in your old task ford what you did before you came here. Safe to say you’re a shrewd man, few could take advantage of the situation in the way you did.”
Ilja moved to defend himself, worried that he might be in trouble. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I said was the truth.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not here to punish you for anything you may or may not have done. After all, I feel that soon I’ll be needing people like you,” Matvei expined.
Ilja asked. “What do you mean?”
“Look around us and tell me the state of the Empire.” He paused for a sed when Ilja just stared at him, w what his point was. Then he tinued. “All around the try, rebels and traitors have sprouted like weeds, trying to choke the life out of it. However, nobody else seems to see it. Tell me, in times like these, who does the state need?”
“A gardener.” Ilja replied, mostly just wanting him to get to the point.
“Exactly, and that’s what this department’s job is. We are gardeners keeping the garden of state clear of weeds. A you’ve seen how we’ve degeed from that goal. Corruption ay abuses of power corrupt our officers high and low. So treason abounds, anized crime and terrorists fight against tral authority. But I have nobody reliable to face them.”
As he paused, Ilja filled in the bnks. “And you wao lead this force?”
“I knew you were the right person for this.”
“So what kind of task force are you going to have me lead?”
“The task force is the 15th Political Task Force.”
Instantly, Ilja defted slightly si olitical task force. “Why political? The biggest issues are with anized crime.”
“I fear your time in the east has blinded you to the current political reality. anized crime is a threat, but silently uhe surface guerils have grown bolder and radical political actors tio spread their treason in the media and the halls of Parliament itself. We ot ighis issue anymore. So I need somebody bold to take this position.”
Ilja easily cluded that the best choice for him was to take the position, which he said to the Directeneral. Matvei then reached into his desk and pulled out a new armband to repce Ilja's current o was a maroon stripe outlined with silver thread with a in the middle. The rank insignia of an ior. Ilja took it and then Matvei said. “I’ll be in touch with you soon for your first assig.”
With that, Ilja left and would begin on his path that would lead him into direct flict with the various revolutionary and reformist movements of Spignania, a flict which would unleash a whirlwind of violence across the try. Violence which would cim the lives of tless people. Ultimately, through all the trials and tributions of his struggle, Ilja would stay true to his guiding belief in the Empire and his service to it.
