I was on my lunch break sitting outside a coffee shop when squad cars starting speeding past me flashing their blue lights. Something was obviously going down. No doubt I will hear about it when I get back to the office, but for now it was lunch time. As I took my next swig another set of cars went past, but going in the other direction. Odd. Two major incidents in the space of under 10 minutes. This is going be a busy afternoon.
As I walked in, the office was going crazy. People on phones, rushing here and there, typing like machines. As I stood there taking it all in I heard my name being called. TrevorPhilips was standing by his office door waving me over. As I entered his office he closed the door and pulled the blinds. This was serious. 'It's been a big one. Two crews done in about 6 minutes of each other. Death Valley were involved...' 'Standard' I joked back to him. 'Don't interrupt.' He replied sternly. 'Death Valley were involved, so was The Sacred Empire...' 'What?!' 'AND so were Sector Omertà... Now you can saying something.'
I sat there in shock. 3 crews all joined force. 'Who'd they get?' 'Final Redemption and The Roc Boys. Some shooters from both crew were involved in both shootings, at different places in the city.' God. This was well planned. More so than any shooting I had seen recently. Three crews all community and coming together to wipe two. And as ever it fell to me to write this one up.
First I had to get in contact with representatives from each crew. Now DV would be easy, I have DasShrooms direct number now. Jmak, well that should be fine, but this time he can come to me. The other was AbuRaghebV2, who I worried would be distant and reluctant to talk as I've never met nor spoken to him. I reached out to them all and surprisingly they agreed to an interview. We arranged a night that the four of us would meet at a local Mafia run bar. That night was tonight.
When I walked in to the bar I was patted down, like when I was going to meet The Vanguard dons. I turned a corner and saw the three of them sitting there. Waiting for me. They were chatting about something else when Jmak looked up and saw me. He let out a little grin, like he did the day he took me hostage, and the others followed his eye line straight to me. They went silent. I moved to the table and sat down.
‘So, who approached who about this shooting?’ I said, thinking why beat around the bush with these men, they know why I’m here so lets not waste time. 'Several parties in the alliance had proposed the shooting.’ replied Abu, 'Some were against it, others neutral, but there were more who sought it. So it went for a vote.’ ‘Right, and why did you do it?’ I asked. ‘They wanted revenge for the last kill so from DV’s [Death Valley] point of view it wasn't a good idea to wait around for them to shoot us with free bullets’ answered Shrooms. Abu then added 'From TSE's perspective, not all of us wanted it to take place, but it was not something to break the alliance for.’ Then Jmak piped up 'We retrieved intel that they were preparing a wipe. Considering we wiped them together with DV [Death Valley] a few weeks ago, we concluded that DV [Death Valley] and/or us (SO [Sector Omerta]) would be the most logical targets. Our alliance concluded that we had to eliminate this risk for we could not afford to lose our crewspots. Even though every crewboss I know likes Tottenkopf. I have mixed feelings shooting them, but it was necessary.’ They all then started nodding their heads in agreement.
‘I understand why you went after Final Redemption, but why Roc Boys. They were a new crew, weren't they?’ James jumped in with ‘Roc Boys are affiliated with FR [Final Redemption].’ Abu looked at him then turned to me ‘[What Jmak means to say is that] seeing as it was run by FR people, some were under the impression that it was one of the same but in separate spots.’ I had thought as much but wanted to hear they say it, now next question. ‘What do you hope to achieve with these wipes in the long run?’. 'Survival is the only factor in any wipes made.’ said Shrooms still looking down at his drink. ‘I’d like to add that we – Sector Omertà – oppose random shootings. Nearly all our targets are confirmed enemy accounts.’ Jmak muttered, whilst Shrooms still didn’t look up. ‘Final question gentlemen, will The Vanguard ever be a joint target for you three to go after?’. I didn’t really know how this question would go down. They all shuffled in their seats. ‘Well why don’t you answer it one at a time, from your point of view. Abu?’ ‘I don’t see how TV [The Vanguard] is related to this shooting.’…
‘Right. Ok Jmak?’ 'Of course that completely depends on the situation. I like to talk with crewbosses of all crews to maintain good relations and I'm almost always available for a chat with nearly anyone. Our relations with TV are friendly. They are not part of our alliance, neither our enemies. Neutrality is possible.’ I didn’t expect that, it was like he was reading from a script, as if he thought I might have asked that so prepared for it. Fair play to him. As I then turned to Shrooms he looked up from his drink for the first time and said 'Yeah we will shoot them next week, especially StodE’. The other two looked at him fiercely but he didn’t take his eyes off me. Was he joking? He must have been. Then he let out a smile and started laughing. As did Abu and Jmak, then me. As I sat there laughing my head was going crazy. Why are we laughing? Was he joking? He’s not really one to joke? He must have been though, right? Just get out of there!
After the goodbyes I left the bar and starting walking home. As I was turned down a not so well lit street someone jumped out from an alley and pulled me in. He said he was a close relative of a Final Redemption council member called Nightrain and wanted his side of the story told in wake of his death. I asked him if they knew the shooting was coming to which he said ‘yes and no’. Yes because of ‘the free bullets everywhere, high gang member activity, gold prices going up, believing FR [Final Redemption] and ROC [Roc Boys] were really the same thing’ but he said they weren’t planning on taking anyone down as ‘we didn’t have the resources to do so’ and ‘taking down SO [Sector Omertà would only make FR [Final Redemption] a bigger target amongst crews and gangs linked to SO [Sector Omertà]’. I wondered if Roc Boys were just a second crew of Final Redemption as the others had said they were, but he said 'No, Roc Boys were completely a stand alone gang. If they got mixed up in this shooting because several of its members were former FR [Final Redemption] than this is even more of a terrible misunderstanding than it already is.’
I then pressed him to see if there was going to be any retaliation from anyone still affiliated with Final Redemption but he insisted that they were’t going to and that the crew boss had ‘decided to quit. Former FR [Final Redemption] members will keep in touch but there won't be a gang or crew anytime soon.’ He ended with explaining that ‘The players that have left FR [Final Redemption] are mostly players that have joined this round and don't get the "alliance war" that was carried over from last round. They also conclude that strong crews are mainly interested in consolidating their current role rather than to be second to none and feel the game is locked up.’ And with that he ran off into the night.
I got home that write night and started to put together this article. As I did so I kept thinking back to what Shrooms had said. It must have been a joke. It must have. But if it wasn’t, things could get really interesting. Would mean more work for me though so… Well, we’ll see.
