The Sentinel: August 18th -- Students mourn the death of charismatic literature teacher
DANNAH HEIGHTS -- Members of this year's senior class will be starting their school year on a sombre note. An attack by an apparant anarchist group has left several teachers and school maintenance workers dead, including Zola Arnolt-Brecht, a beloved teacher of British Literature. Marina Hannaford, who admits she will be repeating her senior year for disciplinary reasons, was the most outspoken of her classmates. "I never really liked reading much: I'm one of the girl-jocks, you might say. But Miss Zola made it interesting," she says. "This has been a crappy year for me and it's just getting worse. I want out of all this."
Grief counsellors will be on hand to offer support to the shaken students. School officials have announced that the August 28th opening of the school will be postponed until future notice.
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The Sentinel: August 21st -- Personal Ads
N -- Just wanted to tell you that I love you and I want the whole world to know it. Your, S
The Sentinel: August 28th -- Barron University announces faculty cuts, course reconfiguration
STRATFORD CAMPUS -- Following massive budgeting cuts and the removal of several courses from the school's roster, university administrators have had to downsize several professors. The most agressive cuts came to the humanities courses, including the history and literature departments. Says Merton Hannaford, a longtime professor of medieval studies at the prestigious hall of learning, "At first I couldn't help seeing this as another burden, but in time, I'm looking at this as an oppurtunity to experience real freedom. I've had an offer to work in an archaeological site in southern France at the behest of a university benefactor, on the site of an 5th century fortification, and now I'm free to pursue that." When asked as to the identity of this benefactor, Dr. Hannaford replied that he knew little about the individual in question, except that he is "an expatriate French billionaire who wants to preserve the remains of his country's past in order to educated future generations".
The Sentinel: August 29th -- Gangs assault swimmer in Murasaki
Late last night, a dogwalker who wishes to remain anonymous reports hearing machinegun fire and shouting near the spring running through Yueng Park in the northwest section of the neighborhood. The dogwalker went to investigate the cause of the commotion and spotted a small woman dressed in black and red trying to escape from a mob of gang members milling about in the shallows of the spring. These troublemakers were later identified as members of the Jade Moon, Black Tiger and Shuriken gangs of Shinjuku, Murasaki and Ueno respectively. The gang appeared to be trying to attack the woman using machine guns and Asian throwing stars. The dogwalker contacted the police, but once they arrived, the gang members had either left or had been gunned down by unknown persons. Several discarded throwing stars, made of a porous ceramic that appeared to have been treated with some toxic substance, and bullet casings were found close by a trail of blood, several large rocks covered with blood, and torn pieces of fabric leading to the water. Park officials and a police diving team examined the spring, but found no sign of the woman, althought the bodies of several Black Tigers were recovered. The violence appears to be gang-related.
The Sentinel: September 4th -- Police Log
TABOR PARK -- An off-duty officer spotted a robust young man in his late twenties with auburn hair running past the Yellow Line subway entrance, carrying a young woman in her late teens or early twenties. The woman appeared to be in medical distress, but the witness, even after pursuing the couple, was unable to catch up with them.
The Sentinel: September 11th -- Body of missing accountant found
ACHAN -- A city sanitation worker returning home discovered the body of thirty-two year old Alban Jamison Fluth, a junior accountant at Metacortex, lying behind a dumpster behind a bar known to host an illegal "fight club" in its basement after hours. Mr. Fluth disappered eleven weeks ago and was believed to have mingled with members of the "red pill" subculture. Prior to that, he was known to frequent establishments such as the above-mentioned "fight club", under the assumed name "Khnumru".
Police have no leads into the identity of the killer. However, crime scene investigators found the body, riddled with bullet wounds and bruised from several punches to the head and face, had been drained of its blood. "Whoever did this [also] stopped to remove all the rounds fired into the victim," says crime scene investigator Lucien Frost. "We're looking at a trained killer here: Army Special Ops or an assassin, not just some punk who had a beef with this guy."
The Sentinel: September 14th -- Missing Security Guards stymies company head
Industry Square -- Local business owners are puzzled at the sudden disappearance over the past few days of several dozen members of Corporate Security, a for-hire security operation run out of Stratford Campus by one Horatio Black, a business owner of somewhat questionable origins who has managed to clear his name of many disreputable claims levelled against him. These security guards either failed to show up for work, or disappeared while they were supposed to be on the job, taking the graveyard shift late at night. Police visited the homes of these individuals, but there was no trace of them, or any sign that they had returned home.
"It's like they vanished into thin air. Whoever is responsible for this is putting my clients, the community and my company at a terrible risk," says Mr. Black.
Local residents and several office workers taking late shifts report having heard loud screams and terrified shouts late at night, but there is nothing to indicate this was in any way related to the disappearances.
The Sentinel: September 15th -- Tribute left on minstrel's grave
Maribeau -- An unknown individual left a bunch of purple hyacinths, a bottle of mead, a pair of leather wrist protectors and a roll of parchment-like sheet music on the grave of Merrill Hannaford, a graphic designer known for his minstrelsy at local medieval festivals, killed along with a dozen others in the July 28th terrorist attack on the head office of Metro Glass. Along with the items was a note written in red ink on parchment paper, reading: "Rest easy, my brother. My kinsman has avenged your senseless death."
The Sentinel: September 22nd -- Personal Ads
To Mercy: I know youre still out their. If youre reeding this, meet me tonight at midnite on the steps of the padestrien overpass thing in front of my shcool. From Rina
The Sentinel: September 29th -- Local Professor Relinquishes Search for Missing Daughter
By the Sentinel Staff
STRATFORD CAMPUS -- “It’s not something I’m giving up on easily, but sometimes you have to know when to lay down a burden you’ve been carrying and move on from it,” says Professor Merton Hannaford sr., a professor of Medieval Studies at Barron University. That burden would be the search for his missing daughter Mercedes “Mercy” Hannaford. The eight-month investigation into the disappearance of the now 22-year old literature major and competition-level swordswoman has turned up empty.
Even Major Merton "Tony" Hannaford jr, an Army Special Ops and Mercy’s oldest brother, could find no leads to track down his younger sister, not even when he enlisted the aide of friends with access to government resources. “Wherever she is, she either doesn’t want to be found, or she may be dead,” the thirty-two year old Gulf War veteran reported. Professor Hannaford would prefer to remain positive and hope that his daughter is only in hiding and living under an assumed name.
“She probably could remain very hidden if she wanted to. She always was the shy violet,” he says. “I’m going to play devil’s advocate here and say that it’s her decision to live whatever life she’s chosen: she’s an adult now and I have to respect her decisions. My only hope is that she’s happy wherever she is and that she’s found friends who will look out for her.”
