TFA1 3.2 - Lucan 'Vex' McGuire

Apartment 2304, Royal Crown Tower.

07:55, 15 Nov 2023

Vex found that his workspace was a luxurious two-story apartment. His office was on 1st Floor, while the 2nd Floor was a normal apartment room consisted of bedroom, recreation room, bathroom, and kitchen.

In his office, Vex found a variety of information about weapon systems that were under development, had been adopted by US military and its close allies, or decommissioned assets in the storage facility. He also found a contact list of people who had influence in the arm trade and development of military technology.

Beeeeep beeeep!

As he held a bowl of cereal he was about to enjoy, Vex opened the door, and his gaze immediately met a middle-aged man with a super neat appearance.

"Mr. Vex, my name is Bob. Miss Claire sent me to assist you."

"Come in, Bob." Vex led Bob into kitchen in the 2nd Floor before saying, "Snacks and drinks are in the refrigerator and cabinet, restaurant brochures with delivery services are near the telephone, choose what suit your taste."

"Thank you." Without hesitation, Bob made a cup of instant coffee before sitting in front of Vex.

"Bob, Miss Claire asked me to include the cost estimation as accurately as possible, but the Task Force I had to form is bigger than I expected. So we have to contact a lot of people.

The problem is, I'm afraid the people on the contact list won't be willing to help, considering that they hate me so much."

Bob casually answered, "Don't worry Mr. Vex, Miss Claire knows that when you became advisor for Minister of Defense of the Central African Federation, you angered many figures in the arms trade world.

So Miss Claire has made some precaution to make sure those people help us wholeheartedly."

"Are you sure? For your information, some of them even tried to kill me, and I thwarted their tender because they forced a sale of junks."

"Mr. Vex, some of them actually tried to eliminate you as soon as they knew Miss Claire want to meet you, but you are still fine until this moment."

'Hell!' Vex cursed in his heart, but it's too late to change his mind now. "Well, we'd better get started then."

---

Apartment 2701, Royal Crown Tower

08:40, 17 Nov 2023

While sat on the sofa and enjoyed a jumbo waffle, Claire studied Vex's profile, which she had only skimmed through previously.

Vex was the only child of a middle-class family. When he was in 11th grade, he lost his parents in a car accident. He then refused a basketball scholarship from a professional club, preferred to enter Airborne Ranger, and completed his training at the age of 18 years old.

His military career was full of rewards, and although he had difficulty keeping up with the chain of command, he never did an insubordination and always completed his missions flawlessly. At the age of 22 years old, he married a Japanese-American woman from an upper businessman family, and at the age of 25 he passed the SFOD-Delta's selection.

While he had been deployed on Central African Federation, Vex was accused of blasphemy against the enemies' bodies he killed. The government of Central African Federation fiercely defended Vex, but their effort was ignored by US Government. Vex was then dishonorably dismissed from Delta.

A week after he was kicked out of Delta, Vex divorced his wife and lost custody of his four-year-old daughter. Vex then disappeared in the deepest part of Louisiana and no one had ever managed to meet him. It took two years before Vex appeared again, and then accepted an offer to train Army Sniper Unit of Central African Federation.

However, somehow he ended up became advisor for Minister of Defense, and played a major role in the reformation and modernization of Central African Federation Armed Forces.

Vex was known to have observed his ex-wife and daughter from afar several times, but he never tried to fight for custody of his daughter. Moreover, his wife had remarried to a veterinarian and gave birth to a second child.

Vex had a confidential account in Switzerland, at six different banks with different identities, with a total deposit value of up to USD 8.4 million. Vex also had non-liquid assets in Central African Federation, but the local government was closely guarding information about his wealth.

Claire turned her gaze towards General O'Neil and asked, "Uncle, why did you dishonorably dismiss Vex?"

"To avoid martial court." General O'Neil replied casually, and then paused for a few moments before continuing. "At that time, my choice was to roast Vex or roast the whole team. I chose to roast Vex even though I was aware that the accusation on him was false."

Claire tilted her head before asking curiously, "Wasn't in the Vex’s combat knife, the forensic found the DNA of mutilated guerrilla fighter?”

"Of course they found it in Vex's combat knife, as Vex was the one who killed him using his knife. The two guerrilla fighters were actually Russian's merc, and Vex didn’t mutilate their bodies.”

Claire immediately got up and sat cross-legged. "Tell me what wasn't written on the report."

General O'Neil gave a small nod before starting his story. In return for refusing to make the country a base of operations for anti-American fundamentalists, the Central African Federation received military assistance in the form of equipment and training. Until one day the young country was involved in a conflict at the border, and suffered many casualties due to the activities of opposing sniper.

A team of shooters from Delta was then deployed to provide assistance, and managed to silence the sniper activities at the border within two weeks. On the last night before the withdrawal of Delta personnel, a pair of Russian's merc tried to avenge their student.

After silencing a machine gun nest the Russian’s mercs then splited up. One tried to go deeper to finish off a high-ranking officer, while the other tried to comb the perimeter to finish off the American's sniper.

At that time Vex was lucky, the Russian’s merc who combed the outer perimeter knelt right beside him, without realizing that Vex had pulled out his combat knife. After neutralizing the visiting Russian Commando, Vex then warned the camp about the infiltration.

The entire camp immediately conducted a sweeping, but you couldn't underestimate Crazy Ivan. The last Russian’s merc killed four people and injure a dozen others before he got an additional hole in his head.

To avenge the deaths of their fallen comrades, local personnel held a jamboree. It was a bonfire and alcohol party while using the remains of Russian’s merc as a knife-throwing target. Meanwhile, Vex continued his guard duty at the outer perimeter.

Several international journalists who happened to be at the camp captured the jamboree event. They then wrote a story where Vex was the main character in the event. The negative sentiment from the public then flared up and some politicians used it to pressure Delta.

Claire nodded slightly before asking, "One thing I still don't understand, why is it that my psychologist concludes that Vex is retreating into deeper part of Louisiana to punish himself?"

General O'Neil deeply sighs. "I don't know for sure, but imagine someone willing to trade his life for mastering an art. Then, when he managed to master it to the highest degree, suddenly it was taken from him because some bullshit.

And while he loses most of his identity, dirt is wrought on what is left. If that happens to me, I am sure I will be driven to destroy this world."

General O'Neil was pensive for a while, while Claire remembered a piece of information on Vex's profile. Every time Vex was in a city where Potus would visit, Secret Service’s agents accompanied by FBI agents and local police SWAT would kindly ask him to leave the city. As analysts in the Secret Service put Vex on the top list of people to watch out for, as a figure who had both the motive and means to kill Potus.

General O'Neil took a deep breath before speaking softly, "The fact that up to this moment, Vex is not an enemy of this country is a miracle in my opinion."

"Yeah."

Claire nodded slightly before eating the last piece of waffle in her hand.

*****