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^000088The Truth of Mercenary Rebellion ^000000

Mercenary Rebellion started in 781, and was quelled in 782. The incident allegedly started when mercenary soldiers felt that their employment was threatened by the establishment of the robotic Guardian troops. The specific details regarding the mercenary uprising and how the guardians stopped them were kept secret from the public, resulting in many rumor and speculation about what really happened. In response to our readers' requests, we plan to chronicle the Mercenary Rebellion's events in the following three issues.

Doctor Varmunt, the greatest sage in history, discovered and successfully reproduced ancient mechanical, sentient relics. The Regenschirm Laboratory, a subdiary of the Rekenber Corporation sponsored his research. When they revealed their plan to develop these robots for military applications, Doctor Varmunt severed his professional relationship with them, and the Regenschirm Laboratory had to invest years of failed experimenation to complete their project without the sage's help.

Regenschirm wanted to test their robotic Guardians in actual battle situations, so the Rekenber Corporation lobbied high ranking military officers, including the commander of the republic guards division. Tensions between the mercenaries and the mechanical guardians immediately began when the military agreed to station two Guardian companies with the mercenary troops assigned to the guards division agitated the mercenary troops. The mercenaries felt that the military intended to eventually replace them with these robotic soldiers, and their resentment was demonstrated in disobedience and negligence in their duties.

One of the Guardians that was supposed to serve alongside the mercenaries killed the commander of the Black Canine Mercenaries because of a programming error. The Rekenber Corporation and the guards division tried to conceal this incident, but the news of the Black Canine commander's death spread quickly amongst the mercenaries. Angry over the loss of their leader and Rekenber's refusal to acknowledge that a Guardian killed him, the Black Canine Mercenaries destroyed many of the Guardian robots and deserted the guards division. This act of retalilation grew into full blown revolt as more and more mercenary troops decided to support the Black Canines by opposing Rekenber and the Guardian robots.

The mercenaries, now a large army of rebels, advanced towards the Rekenber Headquarters while plundering a few villages on the way. Although the mercenaries moved quickly, the Rekenber Corporation's response to their rebellion was much quicker: an incredibly large force of Guardian troops and elite soldiers intercepted the mercenaries and quickly overpowered them. The rebel forces were forced to retreat, and invaded Doctor Varmunt's mansion, a castle like research center armed with security machines to deter intruders, in hopes of establishing his home as a stronghold against Rekenber's troops.

The united Guardian troops and the elite guards division immediately defeated the rebels, trapping them in the mansion. The rebels attempted to negotiate a peace treaty with the republic, but Rekenber refused them and announced their intention to eliminate them all.  This caused the mercenaries to panic and fight amongst each other in their desperation. The rebels that tried to escape from the mansion under the cover of darkness were caught and killed by the guards division. Most of the mercenaries attempted a last ditch offensive against the elite guards and Guardians, but they were crushed because their plan was leaked by a traitor that also opened the mansion gates to allow Rekenber forces to advance into rebel camp. Rekenber's forces killed everything in sight, destroyed all of Doctor Varmunt's valuable research, and burned his mansion down. It is also also assumed that Doctor Varmunt perished in this battle.

The aftermath of this final battle stigmatizes the Rekenber Corporation even today. Public opinion of Rekenber and the republic assembly plummeted because their response to the Mercenary Rebellion was excessively aggressive and they concealed most details related to the uprising from the public.  In response to the public outcry for the truth, the republic quickly organized the Mercenary Rebellion Investigation Committee. This has only proven to be a token gesture since the committee was mostly comprised of Regenschirm Laboratory researchers and republic guards division inspectors that had invested interests in postponing any efforts to investigate what had happened. The citizenry demanded change, and the government was forced to reorganize the committee with new, unbiased members.

The newly appointed Mercenary Rebellion Investigation Committee has discovered that Rekenber pressured the military to station robotic Guardians in the elite guards division by prosecuting military and political leaders. They have also found proof that many ancient mechanical relics and works of art were also stolen from Doctor Varmunt's mansion during the final conflict between the mercenary army and the Rekenber forces. The Rekenber and Republic leaders that were deemed responsible for massacring of the mercenaries in the battle were either punished or forced to resign from their positions: most notably, Prime Minister Doenir and his secretaries resigned ten months before his term of office ended.
