"Mort? Fucking hellhole of a world, goddamn eternal city, never shut the fuckin' lights or vids off - do the bastards want Thresher to spot us? So fuckin' easy to find, find and kill, as many as I want, silly little civilians, stomp them like ants........"

One of the more disturbing trends recently among ex-War Criminals has been claiming to be "Under the Banner of the White Duke." As many of you no doubt remember, the White Duke was one of the most powerful Shiver captains of the last decade, commanding over one thousand Shivers in the lower subsectors. When he made his bid for Warlord status in 892 SD, he encountered the Band of Disobedience - a group of soft companies, gangs and hired mercenaries which stood in his way. Fighting raged for two years in the undersector of the city, with the White Duke hiring operatives and pirating weapons for his men while the Band of Disobedience recieved covert funding from the Twilight Soft Company.

Events came to a head when the White Duke spent all of his remaining financial reserves to hire about sixty operatives and followed them up with one century of Dispersal Shivers in the infamous "Operation Legion." The Band found itself having to make a stand and hold its territory, or be obliterated from its supply bases and contact points. It was here that the legend of "Ostwind's Rifles" was first born. Ostwind was a prop operating out of the Depth Charge who built a loyal following of troops to follow him. During Operation Legion, Ostwind and his men held the center of the defensive line - an old supermarket used as a depot, against three squads of operatives with AFV support. Originally heavy ebb powers were employed in an attempt to crack the defenses by the Dark Lament Necanthrope 'Banishment'. Had the White Duke's men succeeded, they would have been able to destroy the Band of Disobedience's main force with a flanking manuever, utterly annhilating the Red Summer armoured squads concentrated there.

However, 'Banishment' was killed before he could accomplish the Red Rain the assault forces were waiting for. How this was accomplished is uncertain and all documents pertaining to it are classified. However, reports from troops in the vicinity indicate that 'Banishment' came under attack from an extremely skilled squad of power armour troops, previously unencountered. The identity of these attackers cannot be confirmed, and their like has not been encountered since.

Ostwind & his men were able to hold, but died to almost the last man. When the forty-five minute firefight ended, Ostwind's Rifles was under the command of an NCO by the unlikely moniker of Angry Chance and over thirty operatives and Shivers lay dead. Ostwind was reported dead by survivors interviewed on both sides of the battle, however his body was not recovered.

The stand of Ostwind's Rifles allowed the Band to gather its heavy armoured fist and deliver a counterpunch to the Shiver C3 units stationed behind the lines by using a corridor through the sewers to gain entry to the parking lot where they were entrenched. The Red Summer squads swarmed the command post and inflicted nearly 100% casualties on the command, control and coordination staff, leaving the gathered forces nearly leaderless. The Duke took personal command of the front line and led it in an unsupported charge against the central Band kampfgruppe, at which point the affair became a confused melee, devoid of any precise attempt to monitor the goings-on. When the affair ended, the Duke and a small core of troops were all of the SLA forces left, but the Band of Disobediance had suffered near-irreplaceable losses.

Rather than going to face his maker, the White Duke simply left, at the head of his personal bodyguard squad. Recent reports indicate that he has resurfaced in Cannibal Sector Three, with the Ex-War Criminals. What makes this disturbing is that he has not simply been gunned down in the constant warfare, but rather has managed to gain a following of this heavily armoured killers, all of whom take his insignia for their own. High SCL Operatives are currently being tasked to investigate this situation......

900 SD, from the SLA document : "Urbos: The Pacification Struggle."

"Well, who the fuck ordered them to do so if it wasn't high command!"

894 SD, memo from head office of KARMA to KARMA black ops. (remainder deleted.)

It is disturbing how quickly the Red Summer soft company recovered from its losses in the Pacification Struggle. Within one year, it appears the company was restored to its full-strength of armour and equipment. What is more disturbing is that the troops appear to be of the same quality as those lost in the initial conflicts. Where do they get them? Operatives have scoured the surface of Mort, but no obvious training facility for such a large number of quality troops exist. Investigations of slain Red Summer forces do not indicate an off-Mort point of origin for the company or its personnel. Suggestion: Continue investigation of possible Red Summer ties to 897 Report by Operative Nightscream, SCL 5. Operative Nightscream was terminated two days later by Stigmartyr agents for violation of emplaced security protocols. Rest of report deleted by unknown parties.

'Banishment' was an extremely high SCL Necanthrope, prominent in the SLA Administrative community. It is known that he was in charge of the Dark Lament Black Operations Department and was an active participant in the Pacification wars. Why he chose to involve himself in such a seemingly pointless conflict is as yet unknown to the author, but it is clear that he had his own agenda and requested that any Band of Disobedience prisoners be brought before him.
Short Summary in A Thumbnail guide to Operatives, database maintained by Financier Takashi Ueda for his own purposes.

Stigmartyr orchestrated .... .... .... .... ....
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(D-NOTICE : PLEASE REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE. CLOAK OPERATIVES WILL BE THERE SHORTLY)