Chasing Stars in Hollywood

April 18, Monday.

While the entire USA was still engrossed in discussing the series of violent incidents from the past week, Igreat Portal suddenly released an explosive news special.

A genocidal massacre had erupted in Rwanda, Africa. In ten days, an estimated 200,000 people had been killed.

The special began by outlining the background of the event.

On April 6, Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was assassinated. The Hutus believed the assassination was carried out by the long-opposed Tutsi tribe. Fueled by local media's incitement and armed Hutu militias, a nationwide genocidal massacre against the Tutsis began on April 7, starting with the purge of Tutsi high-ranking officials, including the Prime Minister.

Igreat Portal featured numerous images and videos showcasing the horrific scenes of the massacre.

In a Tutsi-populated area north of Kigali, the capital, Hutu militants conducted systematic killings over several square kilometers.

The aerial footage showed that all buildings in the residential area were burned down, with many places still emitting thick smoke.

However, the most shocking footage was of a mass grave not seen since World War II. A three-kilometer stretch of a river was filled with countless corpses, including the elderly, women, and children. The river was clogged with at least 30,000 bodies, turning the surrounding waters a horrifying dark red.

In the massacre-ravaged eastern and southern regions of Rwanda, villages were burned to the ground, bodies lay everywhere, and fleeing civilians scattered in all directions.

A rooftop surveillance video from a hotel in Kigali showed militants herding hundreds of civilians into an alley like livestock, shooting them, and then charging into the crowd with machetes to kill the survivors. One militant, after beheading a woman, laughed as he displayed her head on a stick to his comrades. The decapitated woman was holding a dead baby in her arms.

In a burning town, a humanitarian aid team searched the ruins for half an hour without finding any survivors. A young white woman from the team, after failing to save a black girl with a chest wound, collapsed to her knees, crying, "Oh my God, oh my God, this is hell, who can stop this?"

Above this heart-wrenching news from Igreat Portal, the headline was about a UN resolution passed on April 10, four days after the massacre began, to withdraw most of its 1,500 peacekeepers from Rwanda, leaving only 260 symbolic members to mediate.

Belgium, Rwanda's former colonial ruler, also withdrew all its troops and citizens immediately after the massacre began.

France, with its deep roots in Africa and the capacity to stop the massacre, chose to remain indifferent.

In fact, to avoid unnecessary friction with the French government, Igreat Portal did not explicitly state that for the past decade, in its power struggle against the Tutsi forces supported by Belgium, the Hutu militias in Rwanda had been receiving financial aid and military training from the French government. The French government was thus inextricably linked to this massacre.

To draw immediate international attention, Igreat Portal issued a special statement on its homepage, waiving all copyright claims on the articles, photos, and videos in the Rwanda massacre special, allowing any media to freely reproduce the content without authorization.

Leveraging Igreat Portal's global influence, the news of the Rwanda massacre spread worldwide within hours, shocking the world!

Many television networks immediately covered the story extensively, and countless mainstream newspapers around the world made it the front-page headline for their evening or next day's edition. Governments of major countries and the UN issued statements urging the Rwandan military to stop the killing.

Domestically in the USA, almost everyone's attention quickly shifted to the horrific genocide in Africa, significantly reducing the public focus on the Pittsburgh Woodfield mansion bombing from the previous week.

This shift even relieved the FBI task force, as the limited clues they had only pointed to the former Monroeville Machinery Company employee who carried out the bombing, with no further leads. While the FBI's top brass knew some inside information, they couldn't risk targeting a $200 billion tycoon without concrete evidence.

With national attention diverted to Africa, the FBI could quietly close the case as public interest waned.

Meanwhile, the Westeros system had no intention of merely exposing the incident and letting it be.

As the situation unfolded throughout the day, that evening, Igreat Portal's headline featured another major news story: Simon Westeros announced that he would, in his personal capacity, spare no effort to stop this genocidal tragedy from continuing in the civilized world.

"Huh?"

This was likely the first reaction of many readers upon seeing the news.

However, those with sharp instincts had already noticed some clues.

Despite the chaos in Rwanda, with risks even to foreigners, how had Igreat Portal managed to gather so many on-site photos, videos, and other news content from the conflict zones?

It was evident that the Westeros system had already begun to intervene.

Even with this realization, the public was still curious about how Simon Westeros intended to stop the massacre. Would he just issue calls for peace like various governments?

Next, Igreat Portal, which had ceased video streaming after the London Girl broadcast at the end of March, reopened its live stream page.

The live camera first panned over a vast lake from the air.

The host provided background information, explaining that this was Lake Kivu, located on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, covering several thousand square kilometers.

Unbeknownst to many, a large camp had been established on the shores of Lake Kivu. The aerial view showed a row of neatly arranged temporary barracks on the camp's south side, with armed helicopters and armored vehicles visible around the barracks. Near the barracks, there was even a three-kilometer-long makeshift airstrip.

This was clearly a temporary military base.

In the northern part of the camp, a refugee camp had been set up, filled with a dense but orderly mass of refugees. The aerial view estimated the total number of refugees to be at least a hundred thousand.

As the live camera panned over the camp, the host continued the explanation.

After the Rwandan massacre broke out and with the UN and various governments turning a blind eye, Simon Westeros personally hired 2,000 armed soldiers from a private military company to establish a temporary refugee camp on the shores of Lake Kivu, receiving Tutsi refugees escaping from various parts of Rwanda.

At present, the refugee camp housed over 120,000 civilians.

The host also mentioned that once the next phase of the plan was completed, the camp would air-drop leaflets across Rwanda to guide more Tutsi refugees to gather at Lake Kivu. The armed team at the Westeros refugee camp would take proactive measures to clear an escape route for the refugees.

As viewers speculated about Simon Westeros's next phase, the live host, after circling the camp with a helicopter and giving a general overview, returned to the ground. A soldier said something to the host, who hurried to the makeshift airstrip at the camp.

Minutes later, amid growing noise, the live camera pointed skyward as a large gray transport plane descended.

Military enthusiasts quickly identified the plane as an Il-76 transport aircraft.

A Soviet Il-76.

WTF!

Especially for American viewers, the first question was, why not the US military, why not a Hercules?

As the Il-76 landed and hundreds of armed soldiers poured out, their appearance and language clearly identified them as Slavic soldiers from Eastern Europe.

They were likely former Soviet Red Army soldiers.

Thus, the live feed was once again filled with countless 'WTF's.

Simon Westeros, are you finally revealing your true identity?

Sensing the confusion of millions of viewers, the host finally spoke after a ten-minute silence, explaining that these were retired soldiers recruited from Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. The reason for not recruiting in North America was the difficulty in obtaining federal approval and military support in a short time. With thousands of civilians being killed daily in Rwanda, they couldn't afford to wait.

The host's explanation seemed premeditated.

In the live stream, which had attracted over 30 million viewers in just half an hour, many accepted this explanation, while some understood the deeper reasons.

Besides political factors, another reason for not choosing US-based military forces was likely cost.

Everyone knew the US military was expensive!

Even recruiting retired soldiers would be far more costly than hiring desperate Eastern European soldiers willing to fight for food.

Indeed, this was the case.

Before this operation, the Westeros Company had contacted domestic military contractors like MPRI. The quoted price was $15 million per month for 1,000 soldiers, including weapons and equipment, plus a death compensation of $200,000 per soldier.

That was a rip-off.

The initial 2,000 mercenaries stationed at Lake Kivu from South Africa's EO company, also self-equipped with weapons including helicopters and armored vehicles, cost only $8 million per month. The death compensation was also lower, at $80,000 per soldier.

The latest batch of 3,000 Eastern European mercenaries, mainly recruited from Ukraine, had individual contracts at $500 per month with a death compensation of $50,000 each.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's economy had fared worse than Russia's, with its GDP falling by 30%, leaving the average monthly income at a meager $30, insufficient for basic needs.

When the Westeros Company offered $500 a month, over 100,000 applicants signed up within a week, many former Soviet officers bringing their units.

At times, Simon even felt he could raise an army to overthrow the Ukrainian government.

Of course, that was just a thought.

He had no time for such pursuits and needed the Ukrainian government's cooperation for the recruitment.

The 3,000 former Soviet elite soldiers, aged 28 to

 35, with a combined monthly salary of $1.5 million, needed to be equipped and supplied by the Westeros Company.

To quickly get the green light from the Ukrainian government, Simon placed a $50 million order for military equipment. For a country whose total foreign trade exports were less than $1 billion in 1993, this was a significant sum.

The $50 million in military equipment included 12 Mi-24 attack helicopters, 60 light armored vehicles suitable for African jungle warfare, and a large number of grenade launchers, rockets, and infantry weapons. The 12 Mi-24s were a bargain at $2 million each, even as second-hand items, given that they were once restricted to the Western bloc during the Soviet era.

A 12-helicopter squadron for air support, combined with 3,000 ground troops, was enough to sweep through Rwanda's 50,000-strong militia.

There was precedent for this.

South Africa's EO company had conducted similar operations in various African countries.

However, to save costs, the 2,000 South African EO mercenaries would stay at the Westeros camp for security, while the Eastern European mercenaries would handle the offensive tasks.

After the operation, all the equipment would belong to the Westeros Company, including some of the Eastern European mercenaries.

Throughout the following hours, millions of viewers worldwide saw numerous Soviet transport planes unloading 3,000 former Soviet soldiers and a large amount of military equipment at the Westeros camp on Lake Kivu's shores.

Seeing this, the UN, Rwanda's interim government, global governments, and media could no longer remain calm.

It was clear that Simon Westeros planned to launch a personal war against a sovereign nation without any authorization!

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