Top Secret: Sky Raiders

Top Secret: Sky Raiders

Federal Bureau of Super-powered Affairs
***CLASSIFIED***

Colonel Virgil Duray was a casualty of the Rikti War, in mind and soul if not in body. While it’s unclear exactly what happened – and would probably take a psychic of Sister Psyche’s stature to plumb the depths of his tortured personality – he lost sight of his mission and purpose.

His courage was never in doubt. The man led scores of missions personally, and never shied away from danger. But his patriotism turned into something self-destructive when he felt the country slipping away from people like him. In several classified reports we’ve obtained Colonel Duray made it clear to his superiors that he felt the current-day dependence on super-powered heroes was intolerable. He believed it would lead to a super-powered ruling class, where the privileged few would all be super-powered individuals. He clearly resented super-powered civilians who had no allegiance to the military chain. Furthermore, his statements about foreign-born nationals (even those who were naturalized citizens) were nothing more than thinly veiled hate-fuelled polemics.

It’s not completely surprising, then, that when General Aarons ordered the restructured Vigilance to operate as an arm of the United Nation’s Vanguard that it broke Duray.  Duray had insulated himself with a cadre of obsessively-loyal men, who would do whatever it was he ordered them to – up to betraying their nation. But were there more influences than simply dissatisfactory orders?

We obtained documents from a top-secret informant, General Z, that are copies of a file he claims was passed on to Duray. Unbelievable as it might seem, these expertly forged documents laid out a case accusing the Freedom Phalanx of starting the Rikti War, and described a scenario in which the Freedom Phalanx would attempt to secure power for themselves in a post-war world.

Why did Duray and his men believe such an outlandish theory? The document was laced with highly classified facts that were accurate, so as to create an environment of verisimilitude. But I would hazard to say that Duray was looking for an excuse on a subconscious level, and it made his decision to turn traitor that much easier.

More importantly, perhaps, who provided Duray with the top-secret and duplicitous information? Who would benefit? Where would the trail lead?

Duray’s secret contact would reveal himself again when Duray’s force – now known as the Sky Raiders – was imprisoned. This contact was clearly wealthy, well-connected to politicians and military men, and had no morals. The contact freed Duray and his men through legal channels, and then was able to not only shelter them, but reequip them with state of the art weaponry.

All evidence we’ve subsequently collected points to someone high in corridors of power of Lockhart AeroTech. It seems likely that this goes all the way to the top, to the CEO and owner, Tyrone Lockhart, a millionaire military mogul. Lockhart AeroTech is one of the largest defense contractors in the United States, and one of the few companies that could equip the Sky Raiders with their assault skiffs and jumpbots. Furthermore, many of the world-wide strikes the Sky Raiders have made have directly contributed to the well-being of Lockhart subsidiaries.

Lockhart carefully shields himself, and the few witnesses who have come forward to testify against him have been assassinated. But forensic accounting implicates him as part of a much larger criminal network. Could Lockhart be the missing link to Nemesis’s army, acting as a semi-independent financial backer? And if so, what is the relation between Nemesis, Lockhart, and the Sky Raiders? What do Lockhart and Nemesis gain from Duray’s crusade against the super-powered heroes?

— Agent Maxwell Christopher