December 17th, 2267. Vosture Prime. 06:00 Xenunian Headquarters
The lights inside the austere headquarters of the foreign invaders flickered on. Elias Mendacite was scrambling from station to station. He needed to wipe the consoles of any incriminating evidence. They were in a hurry to get off this planet and nothing could be left behind.
Making matters worse seventeen of his peers had died since they achieved planetfall. Despite the extreme loss of life, completing their mission successfully was still achievable. But that success was hanging over a precipice of failure, which they were leaning dangerously towards at the moment.
“Tirones Lionel, help me wipe these consoles,” Elias shouted.
“Yes Tribune,” Aric said as he initiated the wipe command of the console nearest him, “What is going on? How did three more of us lose our lives?”
Elias was franticly working on a console. Sweat dripped from his brow and landed on the console. He clung to the console as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. How in the hell had things gone so pear-shaped recently? The three deaths this morning weren’t just a message, it was proof that they had been targeted.
“Who is doing this?” Elias said quietly as he initiated the wipe command.
“Three left, sir,” Aric said.
Immunes Ellie Meiko then walked into the command center. The team doctor’s white coat was stained a deep crimson red. Life was in her eyes, but only just. She was horrified by what she saw, and her psyche was broken that she was helpless to help more of her peers.
“Immunes, were you able…” Elias’s comment was interrupted.
“There was no hope of saving any of them. The attacker saw to it that the moment they were moved they would bleed out,” Ellie began to weep quietly, “These weren’t just murders, whoever did this butchered our fellows and intended to make them and us suffer. Whoever did this used death as a means of conveying a message to us.”
Ellie fell to her knees, then looked up at the ceiling. She was now in a near-catatonic state. Elias was trying to track down a lead overnight and wasn’t in his team’s housing facility when the attacks happened. Ellie and Aric also happened to be away. Whatever horrors the pair had seen didn’t seem to affect Aric in the same way it did Ellie.
Elias walked over to Aric, “Are we done here?”
Aric pressed a red button on the console and nodded, “I just need to pack, and then we can leave.”
“No, I’m enacting the immolation protocols. Get Ellie changed into clean clothing and help her to the shuttle and take her to the rendezvous point. Our reinforcements will arrive in a little over six hours.”
“Understood, I will do as you command Tribune,” Aric said but then put his hand on his leader’s shoulder, “What will you do? Are you not at risk of being left behind?”
“I must meet with our mystery man one last time and settle the score. With any luck, I’ll be able to uncover his wretched plot and return to safety.”
“Stay safe, that man, that Steven is… There’s something off about him. He always gave me the creeps, as if he is subhuman or something.”
“Go, take our compatriot with you. Our healer is in need of your assistance. Our work will be rewarded when we make this system our foothold in the breeder’s space.”
Aric nodded, turned, and walked over to Ellie. He helped her up to her feet and the pair slowly exited the room. Elias could do nothing but curse under his breath. The mission had been going so well until six months ago, not long after this Steven, a recently convicted felon and current deserter of the Confederate Navy and son to a wealthy corporate scion, had cast his shadow onto this world. He had to be the center of this fiasco, there were no other viable possibilities.
Elias walked over and picked up a backpack. Inside it was a mobile Xenuian console, far more advanced than the rather pathetic examples the Confederates used. He connected to the numerous tracking devices they had across the city. Importantly he turned on a couple of dormant devices near the hunting cabin of this Steven they had been keeping tabs on.
Life signs were detected by the long-range scanners. But when the scanners nearer to the cabin began sending their data those life signs in his cabin were no longer seen. In fact, his life signs were nearly thirty minutes from his cabin, traveling on the main road and rapidly heading back to his cabin.
“Fuck, it was him after all!” Elias shouted as he seethed in rage.
He walked over to the armory and grabbed a pistol and a couple of spare magazines. He walked back to the console and watched as Ellie and Aric exited the compound. Elias cursed their poor luck as he activated the immolation protocol. In five minutes, long after he’d safely been gone and driving towards Steven’s cabin, their temporary home on this god-forsaken world would be burned to a crisp, deleting any traces of their presence on this world.
08:30 Vosture Prime – John’s Homestead
Elias took one of their vehicles and sped out of the colonial city. It took roughly ten minutes to escape the urban sprawl before reaching the rural areas of the planet. There was a paved road leading towards the large farms and mines. The road had always been in a state of disrepair and desperately needed repaving.
Each bump in the road sent shivers up his spine. The vehicle's suspension was unforgiving to the human body. He sped on down the road despite the discomfort. He needed to confront this, Steven. Who was he? Why was he here? How had he found out who they were?
Those were all important questions. But none raged around his mind like why he had killed Daphne? Her last words to him still stung, perhaps they were in anger or not. He would never have closure, which enraged him anew as he thought about her death.
For two long hours those questions and so many more consumed Elias. Minutes before he would arrive at the homestead, he engaged the auto drive systems and recomposed himself. He knew Steven was intelligent, he had an almost supernatural ability to sus out lies and acts against him. Elias needed to be calm, cool, and collected.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The vehicle was parked just outside of the gate leading up to the house. Elias hopped the fence and moved with a methodical purpose towards the house. He darted from tree to tree to attempt to avoid being spotted. He crept up to the home and paused to the right of the door. He slowly reached out and grasped the door handle.
The door to the cottage slowly opened, so as to not alert anyone that a guest had arrived. The lights in the kitchen were turned off, but the television was on in the living room just a few paces down a dark hallway. The man gripped a handgun in his strong hand as he slowly walked down the hallway.
Just as the man was about to raise his gun and fire the lights turned on. John continued to watch the television. Images of a shuttle ascending from its launch pad could be seen.
“Ahh, Tribune Mendicate. I was wondering when you’d arrive,” John said as he took a sip from a Glencairn glass, “Pour yourself a drink if you’d like. I wish I could offer you a more varied selection, but I assure you the bottles are all top shelf.”
Elias gritted his teeth. He squeezed the gun tightly and even raised it at John. But his grip was so strong that any hope of accurately firing it was long gone.
“How do you know my name and rank?”
“The better question is why in the bloody hell did y’all use Roman ranks? Your so-called religion wasn’t created until the 1960s I think.”
Elias ignored John’s snark-filled question and asked tersely, “Tell me why I shouldn’t just kill you right here and now?”
“Come now my noble adversary,” John said as he yawned loudly, “You are in the business of subterfuge and intelligence gathering are you not?”
“I am, what can I possibly get from you?”
“Not a very good agent then, are you?” John scoffed as he took another drink, “If I were in your shoes, I’d have a hell of a lot of questions to ask.”
“And how could I ever trust any of your responses, Steven? If that is your real name?” Elias spat the words out, “You’ve been a rather duplicitous fellow since the day I met you.”
John smiled. All this time and this intelligent agent from the Union of Xenu had yet to impress John. All of them were such a close-minded group. They were stunningly naïve about a great number of things. Not that John was a master in social situations, but he was nonetheless able to blend into a crowd. These Xenuians were so horrifically socially awkward.
“My name isn’t Steven. Nor did I abscond after being convicted of any crimes,” John smiled as he continued to watch the shuttle ascend into the heavens, “I’m sure you’ve come to suspect the former at the very least. My name is Lieutenant Commander John Lief of the Confederate Navy’s First Fleet, former commanding officer of the CNS Waukesha. I saw former because she’s in space dock because I got her properly fucked up in battle.”
Elias shook his head. What was he hearing? What madness was occurring in this room? How, no, why did their military send him here?
“If you ask me any question about what I’ve done on this planet I’ll answer them honestly to you. You have my word on that,” John took a drink of scotch, “Any questions about the Confederate military will not be answered, I’m sorry but I cannot give you our secrets for free.”
“You are lying.”
“I have no reason to lie to you, Elias. Holster that weapon and ask your questions, I’m here to put your mind at ease.”
Elias stared at John. The gun didn’t return to its holster. Nor did he take up John’s offer of a drink.
“Why are you watching shuttles depart from the spaceport?”
“I’m a bit of a closet nerd when it comes to aircraft and void craft. I am a fan of the shuttles this colony uses. Such a beautiful design,” John then pointed at the screen, “Then again, I’d be hard-pressed to say that this Xenuian shuttle isn’t an absolute stunner. If I had to wager your engine technology is at least ten years better than ours.”
“How do you figure that is a Xenuian shuttle?”
John spun his chair around to face his would-be attacker, “I won’t treat you like an idiot or fool if you in kind do the same. I’m far smarter and much more refined than you may think.”
“How can you be refined, you’re a psychopath!”
“Sociopath is probably more accurate. I don’t really know but ultimately I do follow a code of some sort and I am remarkably well adjusted,” John’s answer sounded sincerely honest.
“My team was made up of twenty individuals, including myself, three are left. Two of which were on that shuttle.”
“You’re going to ask how and why I killed the seventeen deceased members?”
Elias’ face contorted in anger as he clenched his teeth together, “How did you do it?”
John took a deep breath, “In short, I didn’t kill all of them.”
The eyes of John’s attacker bulged. John raised his hand slowly and carefully. He didn’t want to worry Elias or cause him to fire at him.
“I didn’t say I didn’t kill any of your crew. I said I didn’t kill all of them.”
“You didn’t kill all of them?”
“Elias, I can say this without ego. I am exceptionally talented in the art of death. I’m equally adept at blending in and being a chaotic force against my enemies. Both of these are true statements and I suspect even you would have to respect or at the very least accept them to be true.”
“How many did you actually kill?”
John looked down at his tablet but then back to Elias, “If you don’t mind, I’d like to pull up my tablet. I’m sure you have a blocking device of some sort preventing me from connecting to the planetary network, but the local network in this home ought to still work, no?”
Elias nodded.
John unfolded the tablet and brought up dossiers of Elias’s team. He turned on the TV to Elias’ right and began to share data on it. One by one folders with their faces appeared on screen. Elias was shocked, then horrified, that John had accurately identified all of them.
“Seventeen dead. I killed these nine,” John said as he placed a red x over the faces of those who he killed by his hand.”
“No, that’s not possible,” Elias shouted as he waved the gun dangerously about, “You killed her!”
“I did no such thing. I was planning to for sure. In fact, I even had a plan to off her and frame one of your own guys. A local killed her during some rough sex,” John paused and brought up the local police report of the crime, “As you can see, the police bought into the kink side of the story from the dude that killed her. The apartment she had, which was used by a couple other of your crew, was effectively a sex dungeon.”
John reached for his Glencairn glass and finished the scotch within. He slowly stood up and walked over to the mini bar. He set the used glass on a platter and reached up and opened a cabinet to get a clean one. A bottle of twenty-year-old Lagavulin was carefully opened and a healthy pour was dropped into the glass. He used a bar spoon to carefully drop a single spoon's worth of water into the amber liquid.
“You sure you don’t want a drink?” John smiled as he took in the aroma of the heavily peated spirit.
“You aren’t lying. You didn’t kill all of them.”
John shook his head, “Oh I was definitely planning on it. Had shitty luck or idiot locals not gotten in my way I can assure you each and every one of you would be dead. Obviously, I failed in that regard since two of your crew are in that shuttle and obviously, you’re pointing a gun at me. Also on that note, put that damn gun away, I’m not going to do anything to you.”
“Why is that?”
“You are giving me the opportunity to be a megalomaniacal supervillain. A, ah hell what was that old series called?” John paused for a moment before snapping his fingers excitedly, “I get to be a James Bond villain.”
Elias stared at John dumbfoundedly. What was he hearing? This mountain of a man, who was a verifiable killer, looked and sounded like a blithering idiot. Could he be telling the truth? Would he answer his questions honestly?
“Very well, I’ll play your game,” Elias said.
“Oh, I assure you my good sir, this is no game,” John said as he sat back down in his chair, “This is very much a fight for life.”
Elias took a deep breath and paused. He began to think about the numerous interactions he had with this man over the past six months. Where would he begin? Then Elias smiled, he knew where he’d start. From the beginning, perhaps John would be willing to discuss how it was he came to be on this planet.
“Very well, how did you come to Vosture Prime?”
John smiled, “A combination of a crippled ship, wounded pride, and being forced into a no-win scenario. But I suppose I can share most of the backstory to this little chapter of life we’ve written together.”
Elias noticed something about John’s tone and body language. It was eager to tell the story. It had an almost childlike innocence to it. Which in and of itself was disturbing because he had willingly and rather eagerly admitted to nine counts of premeditated murder. Still, Elias listened on with rapt attention.