Arthur stepped past the large ring, thankful that the stroll he was subjected to was finally over. The walk between the entrance of the wormhole network and the exit of it took about ten minutes. Through those ten minutes, he was stuck in a world with glaring multicolor space around him, utter silence, and a feeling of disconnection from reality. However, he was finally free. The room he appeared in was nearly identical to the one in Fortress Gamma, with the only change being that the door was on the far right side of the flat wall.
The administrative AI did not deem it necessary to greet him personally, so he simply opened the door and left the room. He found himself at the end of a hallway, about twenty feet in length, and with only two doors lining its left side and another door at the end of it. Seeing as how he was not in need of supplies, he marched his way down the hallway and opened the next door.
That door led him to another semi-circular room, but instead of being barren and empty, the curved half was lined with window panels looking out into the pathways of the astrodock beyond. To his left, there was a large desk that took up the middle of the flat wall. At the desk was a young Ukalan man, with green fur and a monkey-ish appearance.
Upon his arrival, the man did a double take and stood at attention with haste, “Greetings Inquisitor!” he said just a bit too loudly, “D-Did you supply yourself here?”
Arthur shook his head, making his way to the door, “No I did not,” he replied. He slowed to a stop and turned around, meeting his eyes for a moment, “Do you know the best place to find transport?” he asked.
The man stumbled his words for a moment before nodding quickly, “The station’s docking hangar, Sir,” he said quickly.
“Thank you,” Arthur said, walking through the doorless doorway and onto the pathways of the BV-X9V astrodock. The astrodock showed many signs of being the result of great profits in every way. In most permanent astrodocks, the entire structure was made of titasteel, with some carboglass to allow sight outside of the station in case of a power outage. The astrodock Arthur found himself in was not that. Most of the structure was made of carboglass, with only the bottom being made of titasteel. Even then, the ground beneath him was paved in smooth slabs of interlocking stone. The buildings were not built into the whole structure but were freestanding, none being connected to the carboglass exterior. They were made of titasteel panels, but what Arthur could only call professional graffiti lined the once-gray walls, depicting anything from the Kragak war to some local Cilerian celebrity.
Apart from the signs of luxury in the architecture, the station’s inhabitants also showed their wealth with the clothing they wore. Many men and women wore jewelry, a luxury usually only worn by planet-dwellers, as most rings and necklaces inhibited the ability to use undersuits, the bare minimum needed to survive the vacuum of space. Instead, many forewent undersuits entirely, wearing decorative shirts, pants, and jackets, and the few who did bother with the essential attire wore them under similarly vibrant jackets and baggy pants.
Arthur did not spend more than a couple seconds taking everything in once he emerged onto the wide boulevard, instead finding the docking bay, a cylinder in the center of the astrodock’s axis of rotation like Fortress Gamma’s docking bay. He traced his vision to the closest elevator leading to the docking bay and began the miles-long trek to reach it.
His appearance caused some amount of pause to come over the comfortably busy boulevard, with passerbys looking at him nervously as he marched down the pathway. Eventually, a small group of children ran off to play elsewhere, leading the rest of the pedestrians to nervously go about their own business once more.
Everywhere he went, however, the same scene repeated itself. He would come within eyesight, the pedestrians going about their lives would pause and freeze in place, and would resume their activity as soon as he was beyond eyesight. Arthur did not even need to see it to predict the pattern. That was the common response to an Inquisitor appearing in a population center, after all. He had been trained to ignore the fearful pedestrians, so it was not as if he was torn up about people fearing him.
After a long march across multiple miles of ground, he found the base of the elevator system between the habitable section of the astrodock and the docking bay. It was a wide building, hundreds of feet to a side, and covered in professional mural-graffiti like every other building in the spacebound city. The front doors, made from some sort of brass, were wide open, with two stone pillars flanking them, as if inviting Arthur into it. He took the invitation, walking through the doors and into the building’s lobby. The lobby itself was quite rustic, with wood-paneled floors, electric chandeliers, and even paper-based books lined up in a bookcase beside a waiting area. Lined up against the far wall was a long desk with three receptionists working on their terminals.
One was a Human woman, one was a Vikshe man, and the last was a Seeker man, none of which had noticed Arthur as he entered. He walked up to the middle desk, manned by the Vikshe man, and waited for any of them to notice him. After a moment of utter obliviousness that would have gotten them booted from the Inquisition, the Vikshe man finally looked up to see his helmeted visage. He showed obvious confusion for a moment before his eyes traced upwards to Arthur’s forehead, where he went rigid. Arthur held back his amused smile and opted to instead spare the man any more stress, “I am looking for the docking bay. I presume this is where the elevators are?” he asked, as kind as he possibly could.
The man shivered so slightly that it was only Arthur’s training that let him notice, “Y-Yes Sir” he stuttered, “P-Please enter the doors over there to find the personnel elevators.” He pointed to the double doors on Arthur’s right, which were made of wood to add to the rustic theme, he guessed.
“Thank you,” Arthur replied, standing straight up and walking through the doors. The room beyond the doors was much smaller than the lobby, being just large enough to give access to the four carboglass elevator tubes in that part of the station. All four elevators were at the docking bay, so Arthur pressed the call button and sat down in the waiting area, Pulsing once to get a sense of everyone around him. There were the three bounces from the lobby, as expected, but there were also pulses beneath his feet. They were plenty strong, with enough activity that he knew that they were working diligently, so they were likely the workers in the shadows who let such an idyllic city remain so beautiful without falling into chaos.
Eventually, the elevator dinged and the closest door opened. Arthur stood and made his way over to the tube as three astrosuit-clad people emerged. They seemed to be the mercenary types to him. The good ones, at that, with clean armor and confident gaits. One was short and squat with four fingers, a Meyitvant, one was tall and broad-chested, a Human, and the final one was tall and lanky, which could have been a human, Ukalan, or Vikshean. They were all armed with beam guns, small though they were, and they gave off an impression that declared them professionals with moral codes to uphold.
Arthur ignored them, waiting until they passed to enter the elevator. He pressed the top button, heard the ding, but he saw a hand suddenly blocked the door from closing out of the corner of his eye. “Can I ask you why you are carrying such a big beam gun in such a peaceful station?” the tall woman asked. Her voice was distorted from her helmet, which resembled the artifacts of ancient times, when steel-clad warriors roamed old terra in search of holy lands.
Arthur turned towards the woman, meeting her eyes as she gasped. She stumbled back and he ignored her as the elevator doors closed with a hiss. A moment passed, and he felt inertia push him into the floor. After a moment, his body followed the elevator’s trajectory and he held onto the handles installed into the wall beside the buttons. He chuckled to himself. He held great admiration for the types of people who would stop a stranger to ask about their carrying a beam gun, but lamented that not all of them were the types to join the League Guard.
The carboglass walls soon passed through the top of the building and reached the main shaft. As he rose, he was granted a wide view of the architecture of the station. It was quite large, with miles upon miles upon miles of living space orbiting a barren, rocky planet. From the miles above the ring he was reaching, the people walking the streets looked like little bugs marching along with purpose. For whatever reason, getting such a large view of the lives of so many people always turned Arthur sentimental, but he did not let it last. Before long, the elevator reached the docking bay and inertia’s cold grip did its best to throw his body towards the ceiling, stymied by Arthur’s grip on the handle.
After a moment of gripping, he was left floating in zero gravity, his mass now unlatched from the centrifugal forces that held him at the ground level. He floated out of the elevator with the assistance of rows of handholds and finally reached the cavernous docking bay. The whole bay was a half mile in radius, almost a mile wide, and was certainly large enough to fit plenty of stations. Most of them were docked on long pylons designed to hold every one of the stations in place, but some were detached from their pylons, either leaving the bay or having just entered it. A great number of people milled about, either going about station maintenance or waiting for it to be done. There were people bustling about with enough purpose that his presence did not incite immediate attention as it had on the ground level of the astrodock, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before he would be noticed and it would become difficult to find passage to BV-X4Y.
Arthur began to float forward, making sure he did not get stuck without something to hold on to. He propelled himself to the closest station, which was a typical central pillar station with a habitation ring around it that most civilian stations used. In front of it was a pair of humans, an older man and a younger man. The older one was explaining something to the younger, pointing at one thing after another as the younger one nodded. Remembering his manners, he called out to them before he came too close, “Excuse me,” he said.
The elder of the two turned around with an annoyed sigh that caught in his throat as he caught sight of Arthur. His grip on the younger’s shoulders suddenly strengthened and the younger one glared back at his compatriot. Before the younger man could say anything, the older one bowed his head a bit, “Can we help you, Inquisitor?” he asked, his words stopping the younger one in his tracks.
Arthur nodded, “I was looking for passage to a solar system. It’s about twenty light years from here. Where might you two be heading?” he asked. While he did have the authority to order people to bring him to places far out of the way, he preferred to be diplomatic about it.
The man paused for a moment, then grimaced as if trying to remember where he was going, though Arthur could tell he was faking it. He suddenly snapped his fingers as if he remembered where he was going, “Ah, we were heading towards the inner systems. I think it was… um… AH-Y9J. My son and I were supposed to deliver some cargo to a client,” he explained, smiling innocently.
While Arthur felt like could already guess at what the ‘cargo’ the man was ordered to deliver was, he simply let it go, nodding to the man, “I see. If you aren’t going towards the outer colonies, then I’ll find another station for passage. Thank you,” Arthur floated off, noting with amusement that the young man breathed a sigh of relief that was quickly silenced by his father. With a sigh, he pulled up his right forearm and tapped his comslate a few times. A few more taps and he sent a search and detain warrant against the two. If they were innocent, then he would have wasted an hour at most, the majority of which would have been spent on refueling and maintaining their station. If they were guilty, then there was equal odds that he saved a group of people from slavery or that he stopped a drug run. Either way, it was below his pay grade and not his goal anyhow.
The next station he saw was an uncommon sight in League space. It was a large tube embedded in an armored ship-like hull. The station was a Kragak station, and, as expected, there was a Kragak mercenary polishing their exoskeleton. The mercenary was battle scarred, with white scars running up and down its black exoskeleton. It was missing a compound eye as well as one of its six legs. Even its arm was missing a finger. Arthur floated up to the Kragak and pointed to the station, “I am looking for passage. Are you headed towards the outer systems?” he asked.
The Kragak stared at him for a moment, then narrowed his eyes at the Regalia on his forehead, “I don’t serve your kind, Seekerspawn,” he spat, turning away and looking in another direction while he continued to polish its exoskeleton.
Arthur knew when he was not wanted, so he simply left to find another station. The closest station apart from the Kragak’s was a station above him. Oddly enough, it was a station from the only other non-citizen species of the League, the Gilvan.
Arthur, in his Inquisitor training, was taught some degree of galactic history. One of the main events on the commonly studied timeline was the first contact with the Gilvan. While they were much more friendly than the Kragak, whom the League was waging a war against at the time, they still refused to join the League, instead becoming a group of peaceful traders. With the right price, they would do anything legal, and nothing was a greater price than an Inquisitor giving a favor. Even if one was never able to claim it, it was a point of pride to the Gilvan. For whatever reason.
However, whatever the reason, he finally received a warm welcome when he approached the Gilvan station. Their stations were built for bulk cargo transport, which typically led to their crafts appearing unwieldy, with large, bulky cargo areas within their hulls. The Gilvan station he was approaching was no different. It had a medium sized habitation ring at the top, connected to the rest of the craft via a thick titasteel framework and the motors that rotated it. Below the ring, there was a solid cylinder with an atmospheric catapult system jury rigged to the side.
As Arthur approached, the Gilvan trader, a snail-like shell with his entire ‘face’ being made up of stalks protruding from the shell’s opening, waved at him with happy eyes, “Inquisitor! Happy see today!” the Gilvan greeted, waving his tentacle-like arm around, “Hear of need. Transport. Can provide for little price! Want bragging rights!”
Arthur chuckled, securing himself to the ‘ceiling’ of the docking bay, “Is that all you want? No problem then. Are you sure, though? I need to go to BV-X4Y and it would be a bother if you were not going that way,” he asked. As much as he would have liked to take the Gulvan up on his offer of kindness, his morals made him at least give the person some information.
“BV-X4Y?” the Gilvan asked, “I go there too! Have mail and materials give and trade! Will give ride! Come, find cabin! One spine-haver like! Name is Saltless, pleasure work with!” Saltless extended a tentacle to shake, which Arthur took him up on. As Saltless led Arthur up to the spinning habitation ring, he noticed a commotion close by the elevators. A group of guards were wrestling with two men, one older and one younger, as the older shouted. A pair of guards suddenly appeared, three beaten and bruised people in tow. They wore rags and had furious scowls on their faces as they glared at the pair of humans. Arthur shook his head at the sight. He could not take care of those types himself, but he could at least point the Guard in the right direction. He boarded the station, following after Saltless and hoping that he would have no more incidents until he reached Jalrish.
*=====*
“Hmm. Star off. Wobbles,” Saltless remarked, pointing to the screen in front of both of them. Arthur did not respond, instead observing the wobbling for any pattern in the movement. Saltless paid Arthur’s lack of response no mind, simply continuing with his monologue, “Seen before. Funny star far off. Wobbled like this. Not know what come from.”
Arthur gave Saltless a glance, “You’ve seen something like this before?” he asked.
“Hmm?” the Gilvan asked, “Oh yes. Once. In depths of space. Trade deal with vac-born stations profitable. Made deal around wibbly star. Left before found why happened. Did not like. Made I feel danger.”
“Uhuh,” Arthur remarked, “Do you know if this is done by people, or if it’s a natural phenomenon? It’s part of my mission.”
Saltless shook his eye-stalks furiously, “No no! Not by thinking hands. When saw last, we alone for yearlights. Think has something do with other star. Maybe resonance.”
“You think this is a resonance?” Arthur asked, “That would not… Actually, that makes some sense. If two stars were approaching each other on an odd trajectory, then it could happen. That just leaves the question of where the other stars are…” he said, thinking.
Saltless tapped the screen a dozen times with just as many tentacles, letting out a cry of triumph after a few moments, “Hah! Found! Big dark star!!” he shouted, pointing at the screen. Arthur gazed at the object of his happiness, a massive object approaching the solar system from far, far off, “Big and heavy, though wonder how no light come. Star has light. Not star? But not dark gate.”
“At least it is not a black hole,” Arthur affirmed, “But that just makes me wonder what it actually is… Looks like I won’t be getting communications back up. We do have bigger issues with that thing hurtling towards us” He thought for a moment. He had executive power in most circumstances and a mysterious, dense, and inactive object approaching a star was one such circumstance. With nothing but a word, he could order an evacuation of the local colony and almost undoubtedly save hundreds of lives, if not thousands. Despite that, there was a problem. If he forced them out of their colony, he was condemning them to severe damage to their quality of life back in tamed space. While few things were as valuable as the lives of the citizenry, he did not want to force them to live poorly just because there was a chance for the planets to be thrown from their orbits. There was an alternative, which was to offer the leader of the colony the choice, but without knowing how long it would take for the foriegn object to arrive, it would be a gamble, “Saltless, sorry to say, but you may not have many people to trade with. I am offering an evacuation to this colony. If they do not take it, then I will request some assistance from my contemporaries. Let’s go to the colony and give them the news.”
Saltless, to his credit, showed no issues with the arrangement, “Understood. Going now,” he said, warming up the worm drive, “Inquisitor know best.”
Arthur glanced towards his companion, “That is quite an odd phrase. Where did you get that one from?”
Saltless paused for a moment, “Gilvan secret. Sorry,” Saltless replied, wrapping his tentacles around each other nervously.
“Really? If that is the case, then,” Arthur replied, changing the topic soon after, “You seem pretty reputable. That, and professional. I have dealt with some who claim to have ‘worked with’ Inquisitors before and none of them were as… competent as you. Have you worked with us at all?”
Saltless nodded his eye stalks, “Many times. I many years old. Seen fourth ten years month past. During, worked with Inquisitors on fight missions to find missions. None fun, but worth experience. Learn value life and respect death. Not complacent in stations. See people die to cold expanse. Scary. Humbling.”
“It was the same for me, way back when,” Arthur agreed, “How long have you had this station? It seems pretty lived in and well loved.” He could not deny that. The station had plenty of jury-rigged repairs, stains from parties long passed, and well-worn paths along the ground, and it all went to showing how the station’s owner had taken care of it over the years.
Saltless put a tentacle at the base of his eye stalk, “Hm. Three ten years. At least. Clutchmother owned before. Sisters wanted quiet. Peace. Can’t argue, but not want Rumrunner to go to scrap planets. Better than that.”
Arthur hummed, “Since you were ten? That is young, even for a Gilvan,” he remarked. In Gilvan society, a person became fully mentally mature at seventeen years old, much younger than a human child did. Because of that, teenagers were considered adults when they became fifteen years old, and they were expected to find jobs and generally be independent.
Saltless nodded his stalks in response, “Know. Can’t let Rumrunner go. Won’t. Maybe find clutch carrier one day, settle down and pass Rumrunner to clutch. Maybe. Someday,” he reiterated, “But not today.”
Arthur was about to respond when the screen they were standing by lit up, “Looks like we areready to go,” he said, walking over to the handrail on the wall.
Saltless nodded, “Ready. Ripping now,” he said. A ripple passed through the station and Arthur could see a multicolor glow reflecting off of the station’s hull through the small window on the wall, “Diving Three. Two. One.” Arthur held on tight as the station was plunged into the wormhole.
As soon as he felt them pass the event horizon of the worm hole, the feeling of disconnection returned, as it always did when he went through wormholes. Arthur let go of the railing and stretched. So far, his mission was going fine. He did not like having to inform people of the danger of their homes, but it was better than the alternative.
Saltless tapped him on the shoulder and Arthur turned his head to acknowledge the Gilvan, “Almost there. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.” Arthur once again felt the event horizon from the wormhole and he enjoyed the feeling of being reconnected with reality once more.
“Alright, what do we have on the planet, then?” he asked, taking over the scanner screen from Saltless. The planet Jarlish was normal for a human colony to be found. Green plantlife spread over the course of a year, a dozen or so high mountain ranges, and a few blue oceans. Despite the planet being so large, the colonists had claimed a limited area of the planet, the size of a continent, for their current territory. He checked his comslate for a moment, checking the size of the colony. Just a single thousand. Far too few to properly inhabit a space as large as a continent. It was common practice for colonies, however. More land for fewer people meant that every child in colonist families, one of which would consist of at least six children, could receive land to do whatever they wished.
Whatever the practices of colonists, that was not his task. His job was to figure out why communications had ceased with the colony. “Inquisitor. Go down?” Saltless asked, gesturing to the airlock.
“You would let me use your dropship?” Arthur asked, both surprised and relieved. He did not want to argue with Saltless about using the dropship, nor did he want to be stranded planetside once he got there.
Saltless nodded, sliding over to another screen and tapping it a few times, “Inquisitor need. AMS drive. Inquisitor worry about Inquisitor things,” he answered. Arthur nodded his appreciation and made his way over to the airlock by walking a quarter around the ring. He pulled open the door on the upper side of the habitation ring, which for his artificial gravity was to his right, and stepped inside.
Arthur had actually missed the dropship when he made his examination of the station before departure from the astrodock. It was well hidden within the wiring and the struts keeping the habitation ring connected to the storage department, being a dome that connected to the ring via its underside. When Arthur looked at it for long enough, he thought that it looked like the ‘flying saucers’ from early pre-Invader terran movies.
He boarded the saucer and found the interior to be nothing but a chair, a small piloting console, and an empty space made entirely of titasteel, all of which was on his relative ‘wall’ due to the habitation ring’s spin. He clambered down a set of subtle grip-holds to the chair and took a seat, pulling the straps tight, when the Artificial Management Software’s synthetic voice spoke on the console. Its emotionless tone betrayed the lack of said emotions all lower level artificial processes had, “We will be detaching from the station in two seconds. Please be prepared.” Arthur barely had a moment to process the AMS’ words when he felt like he was being thrown against the back of his chair.
Being a well-trained Inquisitor, however, he did not let the force affect his posture, simply waiting for physics to take its course and for weightlessness to come over him. As expected, the force bled off after a few seconds, which left his body floating in the dropship only being held down by the straps of his seat. Just as he adjusted his posture to the lack of gravity, artificial or otherwise, the dropship began hurtling towards the planet at a near-dangerous speed. Arthur was not concerned, however, and simply waited for the dropship to make its way to the surface of the planet.
The trip was short, if filled with seemingly limitless peril, and he soon heard the voice of the AMS speak in its emotionless, genderless voice, “We are approaching the surface. Please prepare to depart.”
“Got it. Thanks,” he said, though the AMS was far too simple to appreciate such niceties, as he unstrapped himself from his seat and stood. The middle of the dropship, where he had entered previously, lit up as if inviting him to stand atop it. Arthur obliged, standing on the lit-up platform and feeling the mechanical parts shift beneath him. The platform, with its exterior door still within it, lowered, letting light shine upon his body. He found himself in the center of a large settlement, with rows upon rows of dome-like houses all around him. What he found odd, however, was the utter lack of onlookers around him.
There was no crowd to greet a presumed trader, nor a group of armed guards to protect that same trader. There was nothing but an empty town square, paved in tiles made of normal steel, the buildings, and the distant whines of beam fire. He followed the sounds, walking through the desolate, labyrinthine town as the sounds of battle only became more and more tense. A sudden pop of chempowder gunfire rang, followed by a dozen more of the same. He hurried himself to the source of the noise until he finally found the first signs of life. It was a pair of men, standing next to the last building on the street. Beyond the building, there was a tall wall with a group of mismatched colonists standing atop it, firing weapons.
The first man caught sight of him and grew a furious face for a moment as Arthur approached. Just as he was about to shout at Arthur, his eyes went wide and he stumbled back a step. His partner, looking nervously at the line of colonists fighting off something on the wall, noticed his comrade’s movement and turned, only to catch sight of Arthur himself.
“I see there are issues in this colony,” Arthur remarked, “Might I ask of what kind?”
The two men were frozen in place, shuddering lightly, when the first snapped out of his fear and nodded, “Y-Yes sir! We have been f-fighting off… Uhm…” He hesitated for a few long moments before he tensed, “C-Chimeras…”
“Chimeras?” Arthur asked, “And you wouldn’t happen to have a Cilerian biostation here, would you?” If there were any non-Cilerians messing with genetic chimeras, then it was his job to deal with it.
The two men seized for a moment, the second gathering his wits soon after, “N-No sir. We d-don’t know where t-they got the equipment to m-make them,” he answered, still shaking. Arthur took a moment to examine the two of them more closely. They were both humans, not parts of subspecies like Obakes or Oni. Neither were Janissaries, which was obvious given their possession of organic limbs and not being fifteen foot tall mechs. Both were dressed in armor cobbled together from leather, scrap metal, and cloth. They both held chempowder breech loader firearms, tipped on the end with bayonets. The Jarlish colony was in desperate times if they needed to resort to breechloaders to defend itself.
“So you know who made them?” he asked, letting a dangerous edge creep into his voice. Cooperating with anyone who broke the rules of the Technology Regulation Committee was a life sentence at best, an instant execution by the Inquisitor that found the collaborator at worst. While Arthur was sure that the colony was not working with, and even actively against, the chimera-makers, fear was one tool he was trained to use well, and there were few greater things to fear than being the subject of an Inquisitor’s suspicions.
The two scrambled to shake their heads, then nod when they realized what Arthur had asked, “W-We do!” the first shouted, “They left the c-colony a few weeks ago with their dropship, with a bunch of crates w-we didn’t think to s-search…”
“I see. You are under attack. Then, as it is my duty, I will help you,” he said, walking towards the outer wall as he unstrapped his beam gun. He checked it once more, ensuring the plasma launcher and the beam emitter were both in working order. When done, he found himself at the base of the wall. More than a few colonists had noticed him, less than half of them gawking at his appearance. There were ladders leading to the parapets, of which he climbed in three easy leaps. At the top of the wall, he found a group of four colonists, firing wildly into the expanse beyond. “I see you are having issues,” Arthur said, startling all four of them, “I will be of assistance, then.” He peered over the wall, looking at the flat plains of grass beyond. Out in the plains, there was a menagerie of mashed-up creatures that looked at home in the fabled ‘greek’ mythology, right along beside the headless lion-goat-snake or the armless man-bull.
He quickly counted the ones within his vision. Around fifty, with two dozen littering the ground behind them. Arthur turned to his side and caught sight of the beam carbine the woman beside him was carrying. He held his own beam gun in one hand and held out the other to her. She gave him a confused, terrified stare for a moment before she understood his intention, putting the gun into his hand as if it were on fire. Arthur examined it. It was a bit bulkier than his own gun, but it did not have the same plasma launcher that his own beam gun had. It was well taken care of, as evinced by the polished internal components, but still had a few specks of dirt and dust on it from the previous battle.
Arthur nodded to himself. The gun would do nicely. He leapt over the wall, hearing the gasp of surprise from the people behind him, and landed twelve feet below barely having to bend his knees. He looked at the oncoming horde of chimeras and walked at a leisurely pace to meet them. Looking at his guns one final time, he smiled. In his training, he was taught by Maya to shoot dual-handed, but it was not his strong suit; he was still more comfortable shooting one gun when he needed precision.
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But he did not need precision, and he needed the extra firepower.
He raised the guns in front of him, holding his arms in the loose firing pose of the Assassin’s Unit. Watching them as the horde approached, he waited. He waited until he could make out the eyes of the creatures’ faces, then fired. From one gun, a glob of plasma, glowing red, arched into the rush of blood and bodies. From the other, a thick purple beam burned and cut into the abominations. At the same time, he squeezed his Mind to Suppress the beasts.
All at once, they slowed, stumbling under the effects of the Suppression. Limbs were severed from their places on arms, legs, and other extremities. Some of the beasts fell from his assault. Just as they began to push through the beams, the red plasma broke its thin membrane and erupted within their ranks. Light, as bright as the surface of suns, shone across the battlefield. Beasts trying to sneak around him hissed and stumbled back. The whines of beam fire and the pops of gunfire ceased. Arthur, however, had his helmet to thank for being able to see despite the oppressive glare of the plasma’s explosion.
He turned to his right, shooting the bug-turtle chimera that tried to flank him through, burning the grass behind it. His left hand whipped around and blasted a many-headed beast through the heart. He felt the heat from the plasma rush over him through his armor, the sensation vague through the layers of protection and the adrenaline pumping through his veins.
Just as the explosion’s light began to die down, he let loose a volley of beams into the still-glowing cloud of gas that used to be plasma. He did not want to leave the swarm’s survival to chance. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a burst of movement and Suppressed the offending creature with his mind. It faltered in the air and, with a quick movement from Arthur, sailed past him and tumbled to a stop a few feet away. It barely moved before he put a few shots into it.
He spared a glance at the thinning cloud of gas and saw that almost every chimera within it was dead, melted into heaps of charred flesh. There was a single chimera left, a gorilla-like creature with shell-cracker tendrils on its face and hide like a rhino’s, standing weakly and huffing breaths that Arthur’s analyzer module told him was hotter than boiling water.
He turned to blast another rushing chimera and turned back to the gorilla. It began to stumble forward with a hateful glare aimed at him. He felt something try to worm its way into his Mind, to choke his thoughts and leave his body like a ragdoll. In response, he calmly pushed back, Suppressing the chimera with ten times the force. It stumbled, falling over and Arthur blasted it in the head thrice. He waited a moment and blasted it once more, just to be certain. He looked around, and saw nothing but a handful of chimeras still remaining. They opted to run, but the colonists did not let them. A shower of bullets and beams ended the remaining chimeras.
He stood tall for a few more moments, keeping his vigil for any sly survivors that would fake their own deaths. When nothing came out from the piles of bodies to attack him, he relaxed his stance and breathed a sigh of relief. Fighting was not his strong suit, but over the two years of his apprenticeship with Maya, he learned not only how to fight, but also how to kill. How to eradicate anyone and anything stupid or prideful or apathetic enough to let the potential of the forbidden technologies run rampant. It was his job and, more importantly, his way of life. He was not going to abandon the values of the Inquisition after he had gone through so much training and had come to embrace the caution that some things deserved.
He turned back towards the settlement, seeing very few people standing atop the walls. There was also a commotion within them, with many people shouting over each other. Arthur sighed, “Ain’t no rest for the wicked,” he mumbled, marching back to the wall. It soon became clear, however, that the section of wall he had vaulted over did not have a gate. The wall was about twelve feet high, twice his height. But, he was an Inquisitor. He secured the two beam guns onto his pack and stepped back a few feet.
That sort of task, climbing up flat, smooth walls over ten feet tall, were things that Maya loved to make him do. She left him alone once he could climb a fifteen foot wall, since he was in the Investigation Unit, but it was a task few from the Investigation Unit knew how to do. Such things were much more common in the Assault Unit and required in the Assassination Unit.
He got a running start and, after sprinting to the flat surface, ran up the wall a few steps before grabbing onto the lip of the parapet. He clambered up, standing tall after a few seconds. There, two of the people standing there disappeared, with only a man in his fifties and the woman he had taken the beam carbine from remaining. He unstrapped the carbine from his pack and handed it to her, “Here. Thank you for letting me use it.” She quickly nodded her head and Arthur descended from the wall to figure out what was causing so many people to be up in arms.
Luckily, the commotion was not far, just a bit down the line of buildings on the outskirts of the settlement. There, he found a crowd of people surrounding a group of three people. One, a young man, was being shielded by an equally young man and slightly older woman from the crowd. They were so preoccupied that they failed to notice him as he approached.
He reached the outskirts of the crowd and tapped the closest person’s shoulder, “Excuse me,” he said, “What is going on here?”
The man, huffing as Arthur spoke, turned as he started to talk, “That bastard was working with the fuckers who-” he seized up as Arthur’s visage filled his view.
“Working with who?” Arthur asked, reaching for his beam gun. The colonist winced as Arthur spoke, giving him a nervous look, “Answer me,” Arthur demanded, stepping closer. It was no longer a matter of manners, morals, nor kindness. It had become a question of duty. And he would not fail in that.
The man stepped back, “H-He’s working with t-the- the chimerists…” he let out, turning from Arthur, a nauseous look on his face.
“I see.” Arthur walked forward, past the man, and into the crowd. It did not take long for people to see him coming. Some turned before he came upon them. Others, the ones closer to the center, were so wrapped up in their hate-filled shouting that he had to shove them out of the way as he approached the center. Soon, the entire circle had fallen silent and the rest of the mob gave way for him. He came upon the middle of the circle and found the three young adults looking around confusedly. That lasted up until they caught sight of Arthur himself. Their faces grew alarmed and the two protecting the third stood in his path. Arthur stopped, glaring down at them, “Move,” he told them.
The two shared a glance and stood firm, “H-He didn’t do it!” the young man in his way cried, stepping closer to the young woman.
The young woman herself barely held her gaze on his visor, “Sir… please. Don’t do this,” she pleaded.
“Did that man,” Arthur replied, pointing to the cowering young man, “Willingly collaborate with an individual or group who is directly violating the rulings of the Technology Regulation Committee?” he asked. The young woman averted her gaze to the ground, “Unless you answer, I will have to take the words of those around you.”
She whipped her head up and met his visor, only to cringe away as his hidden eyes bore into her, “I… don’t know,” she said, drawing a furious scowl from the young man next to her.
He turned to glare at her, “What do you mean you don’t know!?” he furiously whispered, “We both know he didn’t do anything wrong!”
The young man behind them both looked conflicted for a moment, then sighed, “I… I did it,” he said, stepping past the other two. His friends both wore shocked faces as they watched him approach Arthur, “They told me that I could become part of a great future, that I could help pave the way for a new era of civilization if I helped them… They said that they could do so much good with their research, and all I needed to do was tell them where the shortest walls were…” he whispered, looking down.
Arthur studied the young man. He had short black hair, golden skin, and blue eyes that were not unlike Arthur’s own. Yet, despite any similarities the two shared, there was still one, irreconcilable difference between the two, “You admit to your alleged crimes, then?” Arthur asked.
The young man nodded, “I do.”
“If that is the case,” Arthur sighed, “Under the authority vested to me by the Inquisition, I sentence you to death. Kneel, and I will make this painless,” he ordered. The young man wordlessly nodded, kneeling on the dirt ground and looking down. Arthur walked up behind him, raised his beam gun, and shot the young man in the back of the head.
The young man’s body went limp, falling to the ground with a thud. The two young adults behind him stood still, shocked. Arthur remembered when he first killed a man as a member of the Inquisition. Unlike what he did against the pirate warlord, it was not from a place of passion that he killed that woman. There was nothing more important to think about that could distract him from his deed. There was only the cold, heavy feeling that he ended that woman’s life. But then he recalled what that woman had done, and why Arthur had to kill him. It was cold comfort and likely not the most healthy coping mechanism, but he felt like he would lose a part of himself if he simply ignored the death he caused.
He shook his head and looked to the crowd, “Who is in charge here?” he asked, looking between them all. There was a moment of silence as no one came forward. It was then that a tall, older woman with a trio of slash scars on her face pushed her way through the crowd.
She paused as she saw the young man’s corpse, shaking her head. She stepped beside his body and knelt down, “Austin… Why did it come to this?” she asked to the corpse. She sighed, standing and meeting Arthur’s visor-covered eyes, “I am in charge, Inquisitor,” she said, “Thank you for helping us defend against the chimera’s attack. They have taken a lot of good men and women from us. In more ways than one, it seems.” She looked down at the corpse once more, a pained expression flitting across her face.
“It was my duty,” Arthur replied. If he was correct, he was dealing with a woman who was both shrewd and insightful. If he was correct, his message was clear. It was his duty to eradicate the chimeric creations, just as it was his duty to kill the young man, Austin. And if he was correct, she knew that it was meant to be once Austin began working with the ones who broke the TRC’s rules, “Now then, it seems that my business is not done. Do you happen to know where the chimerists are?” he asked.
The woman grimaced, nodding, “We do. Too few of us know how to fight, so we could not attack their base of operations. But this is no place for this conversation. I’ll bring you to my home,” she said, walking through the parting crowd. Arthur saw no reason to do otherwise, so he followed behind her. They leisurely walked through the town, finally arriving at the town square where Saltless’ dropship was idling. To her credit, the woman did not spare a glance to the dropship and instead led Arthur to the largest dome of the ones surrounding the square. She led him through the door and into her home.
Her home was quite nice, with a long table in the front hall and a second floor balcony overlooking the table. With a sigh, she sat down at the head of the table and held her head in her hands. Arthur did not press her, letting her gather her thoughts. After a minute, she sighed once more and looked up at Arthur, “I’m sorry. It’s improper for me to be acting this way. I have simply been under far too much stress. First, our connection to UNET was cut off, then the raids started, and now… I’m sorry, but accommodating your presence will be difficult. We have few luxuries and even fewer places for you. If you want, I can provide a room for you,” she offered, giving a weak smile as well.
“Thank you,” Arthur said, nodding, “But there was another matter I came to discuss with you, first. I discovered why your communications are being scrambled,” he said, holding up a hand to prevent her from speaking over him, “The star this planet is orbiting is approaching a massive object. Sparing you the details, a massive object has caused your star to begin to ‘wobble,’ emitting waves in the quantum spectrum and interfering with communications. This massive object is likely going to intrude upon this solar system and dislodge multiple planets from their orbits. Normally, this would be a good phenomenon for the Inquisition to study, but I bring this up to offer you a choice. There is a chance that this planet becomes dislodged from its orbit and that it becomes a rogue planet. The Inquisition will come to study the phenomenon no matter your decision, but do you want to evacuate your people preemptively, or do you want to wait for more information?” he asked, keeping his voice level and professional throughout. It was important to be the least intrusive and the least biased as possible when offering decisions, so as not to influence the one making the decision.
The woman sat still for a long moment, looking at her weathered hands, then up to Arthur, “I… need time to come to a decision. Can you grant me that?” she asked.
“I can. Could you give me the location of the chimerists, first? I will deal with them, and hear your answer when I return.” The scarred woman nodded, standing and walking into a back room, emerging soon after with a paper map, as ridiculous as the item was. She handed it to him, stepping back and sitting down once more. He peered at it for a moment and immediately noticed the large red circle around a little drawing of a cave. “Thank you. I never did hear your name. My name is Inquisitor Arthur, if you were wondering.”
She jolted upright, looking towards him, “Ah, I am Julia Hanoui. Thank you again, Inquisitor Arthur,” she said, keeping her weak smile on her face. He nodded, turning and leaving the building. He looked at the map once more and studied it. According to the map, the chimerists’ hideout was close by. It was close enough for him to walk to and return before sunset. So, with nothing stopping him, he began to march his way down the street.
In the time it had taken him to have his conversation with Julia, a few people had ventured from their homes and into the streets. They too, however, shied away from him whenever he passed them, ushering their children into alleyways and quietly shutting windows as he passed. He ignored it, however much it happened, and continued on.
Eventually, he once again stood before the end of the buildings of the town and passed them, vaulting over the walls and moving on his way with nary a word spoken to any of the other colonists. As he walked through the grassy fields, he once again looked at the map. There was supposed to be a stream in a shallow valley nearby that would lead him to the cave where the chimerists worked from. Finding the stream was hardly a challenge, but that challenge came when he began to follow it.
Caves were in no short supply, but the map only had a single cave marked on it, the chimerists cave, so he had to judge its location by clues in the other elements of the map. The biggest of them was a sharp bend in the stream close to the cave, so that was his goal for the moment.
An hour passed, and Arthur found no sharp bend in the stream. He was close to giving up and going back to use the dropship when he spotted something contrasting the omnipresent green grass. Blood. Red blood. It stained the grass and stood out against the green. He smiled behind his helmet. There were no animals on the planet, none but the illegal and dangerous chimeras.
He followed the trail along the stream bank, across said stream and over a hill at the top of a deep valley. Sure enough, the blood trail led into a cave where a set of hastily-assembled metal fortifications stood. Not a single person was manning them, but instead they were guarded by a pair of human-height, flower-like plants, each with dozens of eyes on its petals. As Arthur hid behind a rock, being very careful not to reveal his deep blue armor, he grimaced. Not only were they making chimeras, they were also splicing animal and plant genes. Such a thing was only allowed in very specific circumstances, and guarding a base of illegal chimerists was not one of them .
He debated his approach for a moment before shaking his head. His skills lied in Investigation, but he was just as capable of breaching a fortified location as a whole team of League guards. Granted, a single Assault Unit Inquisitor could clear buildings that needed dozens of League squads to clear, but he was no Assault Unit Inquisitor.
Instead of going in head-first, he decided to put some of the training Maya had given him to good use. The first step was to study his opponents. He hid there for a few minutes and almost instantly found a pattern. The flowers only seemed to have a narrow field of view, and they scanned the surroundings with that in mind. They scanned the environment at a set interval to ensure as much area was covered by their vision as possible, but there was always a blind spot in the area the plants were moving away from.
With his knowledge gathered, he moved onto the second step, which was to make a plan. His plan was simple. He would wait for the flowers to begin to turn away from him, then quietly sprint into their blindspots. From there, if the roots of the things were not sensitive, he would sneak into the cave, eliminate the chimerists, destroy the research done there, and deal with the plants on his way out.
Plan completed, he continued on to the third step, creating an escape plan. He looked down at his beam gun and his underbarrel plasma launcher. He could take out the plants if it came down to it. The only reason he decided to sneak into the cave in the first place was so he could more effectively eradicate the chimerists. He had no real need to deal with any of it. It was for the sake of efficiency.
Finally, the last step was to execute his plan. Thus, he snuck around the hill and got into position. As soon as the flowers began to turn away, he sprung into action. He dashed up to the entrance of the cave whilst hugging the wall as best as he could. He made it behind the flowers just as he was about to be seen, and he smiled. That was when the one closest to him quickly turned all the way around to stare at him with its dozen eyes.
Arthur did not waste time, and seized the stem of the plant, ripping it in two with a single fluid motion. Arthur stopped for a moment, surprised by the weakness of the plant and staring at half of a man-sized flower in his hand. Blood poured from its stem, staining the ground red and splashing around, alerting the other flower. The second flower turned around quickly, but met the same fate as its companion.
Arthur paused for a moment and thought about his situation. There he was, standing on a newly colonized planet, holding the upper halves of two human-sized flowers that were bleeding onto the ground profusely, and he was about to delve into a cave filled with scientists doing illegal genetic research on chimeras. Maya had suggested the exercise every once in a while, as it could help Inquisitors not only put their situations into perspective, but also ‘helped them remember funny stories for everyone else,’ according to Maya.
He shook his head, tossing the two stems to the ground and unholstering his gun. He still had work to do. Going into a low crouch, he stepped inside with a slow, quiet gait. The entrance to the cave was another cluster of hastily assembled fortifications, but these were not manned. He quietly snuck by them and entered deeper into the cave. He followed the blood trail through the cave, though there were no splits in the path, and eventually came upon something more interesting.
It was a cavern twice as large as Julia’s dome-house, with grated platforms installed above the ground level. With the help of his sensor module, he learned that, on those platforms, there were humans-- mostly unaltered humans with a single Oni among them-- but there were no chimeras among them. Every chimera, what three of them were left, were on the ground level, clustered around a metal feeding trough. Arthur ground his teeth. They disgusted him. He did not like chimeras, nor the things the Cilerians made for that matter. The difference, however, was that the Cilerians, water born sapients from the depths of a rogue planet, needed biotools to be able to do anything at all on their own. The chimerists above him were playing with dangerous things just because they were far too shortsighted to see the damage they could cause.
He shook his head and cleared his mind. Emotions had their times and places, but that was neither. Once his mind was clear, he snuck his way towards the access stairwell up to the second floor as slow as he could. He did not want to alert the chimeras feeding nearby; if he did, then there was no telling how many chimerists would escape, not to mention the chance of their research falling into malevolent hands.
Eventually, Arthur reached the stairwell without alerting the chimeras. The door had a bar on it, but with a bit of reaching, he was able to dislodge it, and it opened without a fuss soon after. The stairs were rickety and rattled at the slightest provocation, but the chimerists seemed to ignore the subtle movements on the stairwell. Arthur made sure to count his blessings as he ascended.
As he reached the top of the staircase, he looked through the door of the stairwell and into the laboratory beyond. Vats of cells. Animal, chimera, and even human corpses laid out on operating tables, the chimerists poking and prodding the remains with dozens of needles and electric shocks. Tall tubes encased chimeric creatures as they grew. All the while, the chimerists watched on, either impassionate, frustrated, or gleeful. Arthur felt a bubble of pity grow inside of him for these chimerists. They were trying so hard to do what they set out to do, whatever that was, and poured their hearts and souls into their work. There was something to admire in them, their work ethic and commitment knew no bounds.
He crushed the thoughts with a vengeance.
Those people went to the colony with the express purpose of creating their abominations. They attacked their parent colony with their chimeras, killing and pillaging to their hearts’ content. They broke the rulings that were Arthur’s code of ethics with barely a passing thought. He realized that he hated them, and everything they stood for. They claimed to be making progress, doing what they did to usher in a new age, but they failed to see the damage they did. They failed to ponder what could happen if they followed every other group of chimerists who were given too much time to complete their work. They were narcissists of the highest order, believing themselves special and able to avoid what claimed all others, and Arthur wanted nothing more to knock them down enough pegs to leave them six feet under.
He was combat capable, enough so to handle fifty plus chimeras alone, but he was not an Assault Unit Inquisitor. There was no way he could clear an entire laboratory of chimerists without letting a few slip through the cracks.
He pondered for a moment. There was a way to do it, but that relied on far too many variables for him to count upon. If he took one of the hundreds of scalpels lying around, he could tear into them and leave the other floors none the wiser. But that relied upon the assumption that, one, they did not have beam guns, two, did not have instantaneous communications with the other floors, and three, that the fight would not alert the other floors anyway. He did not think the lack of beam guns was unlikely, or chempowder firearms for that matter, but the idea that they did not have some form of alarm system in place was wishful thinking at best. Even morso for the hope that they could not hear through the floors-- they were grates, after all.
Really, he only had one option from the beginning, which was a mixture of shock and awe, with a dash of psychic Suppression thrown in. He squeezed his mind, easier after years of training with the ability, and immediately narrowed the flow of information between the Minds and the bodies of every chimerist present. Some stumbled, some even fell. One of them, a floor above where Arthur stood, even died from something. He did not pay attention to that, though, as he shattered the door to the stairwell and ran into the lowest level of the lab, guns blazing.
Beams cut through the hapless chimerists, sending them sprawling to the floor and melting clothing to flesh. The few that survived the initial volley screamed in pain. Arthur made sure to put those ones out of their misery first. Only one chimerist was left standing once Arthur’s initial volley ended, stiff as a board and hand slowly losing grip on the clipboard and pen in his hands. A final shot left the man dead and sprawled on the dissection table he oversaw.
Arthur did not have time to waste on the body, and crashed through the staircase door leading to the level above him. His footsteps rattled the grated stairs beneath his feet as he climbed, no doubt alerting the chimerists. He did not need to remain stealthy, though. He slammed his shoulder into the door leading to the third floor and a similar scene repeated itself. He gunned the chimerists down, forgoing counting the bodies. None fought back, only seeking cover from his barrage of beamfire. He briefly looked over the scene one he was the last one standing and heard ragged breathing coming from behind a vat of something or other. There, he found a young woman wearing a lab coat, huddled behind the metal base of the vat. She looked up and saw him standing above her and began to back away. He shot her in the forehead before she could get more than a foot.
He shook his head as he made his way to the fourth staircase, going to the fourth and final floor. Just as he was about to reach it, however, a charging figure smashed through the door and bounded straight towards Arthur. Arthur himself let loose a burst of beamfire before throwing himself out of the way, barely dodging the Oni woman as she tore tables from their places and scattered bodies all over. The woman was tall, over nine feet tall, with cherry red skin, wearing a labcoat like the other chimerists, and had a furious scowl. She stood tall, ignoring her beam wounds, and turned to him, opening her mouth to talk. He blasted her with a shot from his beam gun, burning a deep groove in her flesh and boiling her blood.
The scowl deepened and she tore the leg from the metal table beside her, throwing the rest at him with a single motion. He ducked below it, relying on his sensor module to notice her trying to flank him. He turned his gun towards her and shot at her approaching bulk, sending two blasts into her chest and another into her right eye. She shouted curses as she tumbled forward, upending yet more tables, and slamming into the rocky wall of the cavern. She was slow to rise, slow enough to let Arthur get close enough to land shot after shot on the back of her head.
With a groan, she finally fell, and stopped trying to rise. He knew Onis far better than to simply assume that they would die from their skull being pierced-- they were a product of the Old Terran war effort against the Invaders, genetically modified soldiers meant to contend with the biomechanical monstrosities that flooded Terra. She was likely in a coma-like state that made her harder to detect and, with a small bit of examination, that was proven to be true. He knew of one, surefire way to kill an Oni in that state. He took a scalpel, thrown to the ground in the battle, and methodically removed her head from her body.
Once the deed was done, he threw the head to the side and made his way to the fourth and final floor. Beds, shelves, and tables were scattered around the room, making it clear that it was being used as a commons room, barrack, and storeroom all at the same time. The thing that caught Arthur’s interest, however, was the fact that there was not a single person there, neither alive nor dead. With a pulse of his sensor module, he discovered why. They had escaped through a tunnel hidden in the maze of shelves. He broke out into a run as he pursued them, keeping his sensor module running all the while. After a minute of running, the device finally caught a glimpse of the escaping chimerists. They were all, seven in all, huddled around a slowly opening door at the end of the winding corridor they had escaped down.
As soon as he caught up to them, halfway through opening the door, he slaughtered them all, gunning them down where they stood and not giving them a chance to retaliate.
As they laid there, dead on the rough hewn stone of the tunnel, he wondered what their lives could have been like if they pursued another path. If they had decided to go into genetic research under a well-trusted scientist whose interest lied in medicine or species preservation. They would have done so much more good than they did whilst creating chimeras and attacking random colonies.
He shook his head, clearing away every ‘what if’ and ‘maybe’ from his mind. No matter what they could have done, they endangered a whole world to a potential fleshmass scenario. They attacked and killed innocent people just to further their experiments. That was not something he could forgive so easily.
The next half hour was a blur for Arthur, as he spent the time scanning, looting, and burning everything within the laboratory. Only the ashes of the chimerists bodies and the ruins of the labs, systematically blown to bits with his plasma launcher, remained when he left the cave. With him, he had a dozen hard drives, a blood sample from the Oni, and the sensor data from the entire lab, from the lab’s layout to what he did within it.
As Arthur looked at the entrance to the cave, he sighed. He had enough surprises for one mission. Even with Maya, who brought him along on missions that required the strengths from both the Assassin Unit and the Investigation Unit, there was a one in a thousand chance that they randomly stumble upon a random group of illegal scientists. More often than not, the cases they were dispatched for were isolated to only that one anomaly or group of chimerists or whatnot.
Arthur pondered such things as he made his long trek back to the colony. After a while, he stopped thinking about it and wondered what he could have done better. He definitely could have used some restraints to interrogate the Oni, not to mention a knife or other silent weapon to more effectively deal with targets silently. Though, the most useful thing he could have used would have been an AI assistant. They could have helped him a great deal, including calculating the trajectory of the massive object interacting with the star. Besides, he could expect more complicated tasks for his next mission. Unless he made such a catastrophic mistake that he would be sent back into training. But he knew for a fact that he did fine.
The sun was just dipping below the horizon when he arrived at the colony, and there were a few people on the walls, keeping watch for another attack. They saw him easily-- he did have bright blue armor, after all-- and rushed to lower a ladder down the wall as he approached. Arthur smiled behind his helmet as he watched them lower the ladder. He reached the wall in short order and, after climbing up to the top, nodded to the young man and woman standing guard, “Thank you. Your kindness is appreciated,” he said, moving on without saying anything more. He was about to walk into the settlement when he thought of something. He looked down and realized that there was still some of the blood from the flower-creatures and the Oni on him. Shaking his head, he found a tap on the side of the building and washed himself off with the water there.
Once he was in a presentable state, he made his way through the little settlement, catching the eyes of every man, woman, and child as he passed. He doubted that they noticed any blood on him, but they still wore fearful faces all the same. He eventually reached Julia’s home and knocked on her door before entering. She was still sitting at the head of the dining table, though she seemed to have fallen asleep there.
Arthur had a small internal debate. He did not want to be rude and wake her up, but he also did not want to waste any time. No matter what her decision was, he still needed to report the incident to his superior. Finally, speed won out over politeness, but he still thought about the latter when he gently tapped the woman’s shoulder.
She grumbled, turning her head to the side with an annoyed huff. Arthur tapped her shoulder once again, eliciting a similar response. With a sigh, he tapped her with a bit more force than before. She awoke, snapping her head up and looking around frantically. She caught sight of Arthur and froze, “I took care of the chimerists,” Arthur said, “Have you come to a decision?” he asked.
Julia paused, looking at him for a long moment, “Did you… really kill them all? All of them? Even Anastasia? The Oni, the one with red skin?” she asked, fear in her eyes, “Oh gods…” she muttered, slouching back and holding her head.
“I did my duty, Julia,” he said assertively, holding back a sigh. If there was one thing he disliked about most people, it was that they did not see the importance of erasing every single trace of those who disobeyed the rulings of the TRC. He admitted to himself that he was somewhat of a scholar of the rulings-- they, along with the incidents that induced their enactments, were some of the most interesting parts of his time in training-- but he knew they had their purpose beyond philosophical debate. The people who decided to break those laws and rulings were the people who were vain, self centered, and petty. If he let even one live, there would be assassins coming for his head for decades afterwards. “Have you come to a decision?” he asked.
Julia looked at him with both fear and tiredness, “I’m… sorry, but this is a bit to take in. I… knew them. Some of them, anyway. I promised them a better life than the one we lived back in the central systems. No more comfortable mundanity, just the open expanse of endless opportunity. But… I don’t even know who did it. I can’t even curse the bastard or bitch who convinced them to do all of this,” she cried, tears leaking from her eyes.
“I’m… sorry,” he said, feeling a pang of sympathy. She was far too kind for what happened to her and her people. Some snake wormed its way into her group, tempted many of them, infected them with promises and ideals, and pulled them away, forcing Arthur to put them down. She deserved better, “I know that it is difficult,” he said, removing his helmet, “But you still have to make a decision for your people still here, still conscious of their own actions and not blinded by personal glory. They are counting on you. What will you do?”
She turned to him with a furious glare in her eyes, but stopped when she saw his helmetless head. She reached out for just an instant before retracting her hand, glare gone, with a chuckle, “I’m sorry. That was rude of me. It’s just that I never thought about who was behind that helmet. To most, you’re a force of nature and… never mind… You’re right. I still have a job to do. And… Well, I can’t just force everyone to leave, and I won’t leave them behind, not unless we really can’t stay,” she said with renewed determination.
Arthur nodded, putting his helmet back on, “I can respect that choice. I will send word to headquarters about the situation.” He stepped away, walking towards the door, “With that, my business is concluded. I hope you and your people fare well in the future. Farewell, Julia,” he said as he stepped through the door and out into the plaza.
Colonists were trickling home at that point, suddenly accelerated by Arthur’s appearance. He did not acknowledge them as he made his way back to the dropship. Once aboard, the screen lit up, “Greetings. Do you wish to return to the Rumrunner?” it asked.
“I do,” Arthur replied, sitting back onto the chair and strapping himself in.
“Acknowledged,” the AMS replied, “Preparing for liftoff. Ready. Lifting off in Five. Four. Three. Two. One.” Inertia slammed him into his seat, pushing him down, “Liftoff achieved. We are now approaching escape velocity. Sufficient speed achieved. Determining Rumrunner location. UNET signature not found. Using visual sensors. Rumrunner found, we are approaching the station now. Docking.” A deep click reverberated throughout the dropship, “We have boarded the Rumrunner. Please brace for simulated gravity.” Just as they AMS spoke of it, Arthur felt the force slam him into his seat. He sighed as he unstrapped himself and deftly landed on the new floor.
Once he climbed up the ladder and entered the habitation ring, he immediately found Saltless focused as he wrote in a q-notebook. With Arthur’s appearance, he moved his eye stalks up from his writing to his guest, “Ah! Inquisitor! Good to see. Fine?”
“I am fine, Saltless. Thanks for worrying about me. I need to take a break. Can you bring us out of the system?” he asked politely.
“Already doing,” Saltless replied, “Worm drive now.” A ripple passed through the station once more and Arthur felt the odd sensation of going into a wormhole take hold once more. Just as he was about to walk away, Saltless waved him over, “Won’t take long. Will know when leaving. Know you talk other Inquisitors. Talk, then tell Saltless where go.”
“Thanks again, Saltless,” the Gilvan simply smiled and waved him off to his room. Once there, Arthur removed his helmet and put it on his room’s table. He then removed any items from his pack that he would need to give to the Inquisition, such as the hard drives and the blood vial, and put them onto the table besides his helmet. Finally, he took his comslate from its spot and placed it in front of his helmet.
Just as he did so, he felt the world around him shift and they emerged from the wormhole. He tapped his comslate a few more times and found that he had a connection to UNET, which meant that he could communicate with his superior. In a moment, he was calling her. It took a few minutes, but his comslate soon connected to hers, “Inquisitor Wan. It is good to hear from you. May I presume that you were successful?”
“You can, Ma’am. I discovered the source of the UNET interference and eliminated a group of chimerists working nearby the colony of Jalrish. I collected data from the chimerists for an Archivist to look over, but I am requesting another Archivist to visit the colony of Jarlish. From the scans of my transport, there is a massive object approaching BV-X4Y and it will likely collide with the system. That is all of importance to report, ma’am,” he reported, keeping his back stiff even through the call.
There was a moment of pause, with the typing of a keyboard and the scribbling of a q-pen coming through, “I see. In that case, I believe your job is done. Good work in dealing with the chimerists, as well. Now then, I have your new mission here. Let’s see…” she paused for a moment, “This is odd… Whatever. This one is from on high; apparently someone high up in the hierarchy has their eyes on you. You are to seek out and recruit Kelish Balak, a… Huh… that is another odd detail. She is a Vikshe bounty hunter who has found and destroyed multiple groups who disobeyed the TRC’s rulings. For this mission, and every mission afterwards, you will be assigned an AI assistant to help in your investigations.
“This is new ground for you, so here is some advice: know everything there is to know. If you recall your own recruitment, you were put off balance by Inquisitor Penen knowing so much about you, including your subspecies. There is a chance that you will be unable to recruit her, but do not worry yourself about that. Do your best. According to our records, three fourths of Inquisitor candidates refuse to join the Inquisition.
“Now then, find an Inquisition branch location large enough to have an Archive and make your presence known to our systems. Your AI should arrive soon afterwards. The closest branch location would be in BG-X7U, not too far from your current location, only about fifty light years. Now then, good luck, Inquisitor. You are dismissed.” The connection cut off and Arthur was left alone in his room.
He sighed, “From simple to complex, huh?” he wondered aloud, “Well, duty calls.”