Akihiko trembled. As much as he wanted to reign in his emotions, he’d just lost his entire gang in battle. 363 people total. All of their specialized skills and builds were gone in a single battle. He felt that now understood Todo Takatora, who commanded ten times as many ships as his enemies, yet lost a decisive battle.
Shin Saito walked into his office again, bowing deeply and holding it again. “Rise brother,” Akihiko said, recomposing himself. “What do you want?”
“I have come bearing some good news,” Shin said. Akihiko raised a skeptical eyebrow, but Shin continued. “We have a lead on the man who is leading the assault against us. Some of the younger brothers from the United States recognize the person in the gang. They believe he frequents the pleasure lounges in Neon Orleans, particularly the White Lotus Lounge. Nothing conclusive, as we don’t have any security footage and all transactions are anonymous.”
Keeping security footage would give police an excuse to raid their places of business and keep customers away. Sometimes, operating an underground criminal unit could be a real drag.
Akihiko felt the first bit of real hope he’d had since the whole fiasco went down. If they could identify the real person, get him to reveal his location in game, then this whole mess could be over. He’d go back to easy money and gambling, instead of monitoring everything inside of a video game.
“Put a bounty on his head, twenty thousand credits. But if anyone kills him, then they’ll be executed for their failure. He absolutely must be taken alive. Tell them not to approach him if they see him, but to call in for help immediately and I’ll fly over and see him personally. Spread that news to all of our brothers in the Neon Orleans area, and the surrounding areas as well.”
“Should we bring in outsiders to help?” Shin asked. Akihiko paused to think about it. The more people outside of the Yakuza that got involved, the more likely word would spread out. With the Yakuza, he’d have to pay some bribes to the New Orleans syndicate, as they’d see this as using their resources and requiring compensation, but that was a price he was more than willing to pay. Moreover, he could control Yakuza members and know that they wouldn’t do anything stupid like kill the target. But if he called in local gangs, they might not be so easy to control.
“No shin,” he decided. “If it comes to that, we’ll use other means. Local street gangs are too unruly, and if we pay them off, we might be increasing the strength of our own future enemies.” Shin bowed again and left the room.
Akihiko felt a wave of relief. Todo Takatora had retired after his loss in a battle. Losing one battle didn’t mean losing the war. He had to keep this perspective if he were to make it out of this alive.
----------------------------------------
Luciana, Mark, and Vidal rode to the police station. They all looked rough after removing their full-body suits. Cleaning out the area and quarantining everything took a few hours, all of the evidence and miscellaneous body parts and vehicles had to be kept as physical evidence. Without showing proper cause, a situation like this could be a grounds for planetary war. But the footage they’d taken of the battle didn’t leave any guesses about the perpetrators of the attack.
Mark dabbed the blood off his face with a wet towelette, and checking his teeth for any blood in them. Vidal had bruises all over his body, including a gigantic one that spread across his forehead. Luciana looked physically drained, but composed. She managed to avoid any serious injuries.
Mark grabbed an empty evidence bag and started puking into it. His stomach was mostly empty, so it was mostly liquid and dry heaves that wracked his body into convulsions.
“Careful Captain,” Vidal said, “That’s a sign of a concussion. Did you get hit in the head back there? Combining that with the stress of… well, whatever it is you do probably takes more out of you than you realize. You need to get checked out.”
When Mark was sure that talking wouldn’t cause him to start heaving more, he settled back in his seat. “No,” Mark said. “I think that’s the combat shakes getting me. I only killed one person in my entire line of duty. I’ve seen lots of dead bodies in investigations.”
Mark realized after he said it that this was a slip-up. As Captain Thomas of the Lesser Calrusian, he hadn’t spent his time as a homicide detective. He’d spent his time as an investigations officer looking for pirates and apprehending people who skipped on bail or didn’t pay their correct allotment to the Earth government. He hoped no one else would realize that slip up. Thinking straight after intense combat was more difficult than he’d realize.
“But never did one in myself until I cut the head off that ship Captain when we took over the Void Terror.”
“You still see his face don’t you?” Vidal replied sagely.
“More than I’d care to,” Mark admitted, though he meant that more literally than Vidal likely believed.
“I remember my first real firefight. Twenty-five years ago when I was still green. Had a dip shit officer, no offense to present company,” Vidal looked around to make sure that no one took offense. Mark nodded at him with a weak smile. Captain Smith raised her eyebrows in the review mirror, but didn’t say anything.
“Land dispute between some groups on a plane 24 lightyears away. Desolate rock too, not worth fighting for in my humble opinion. Anyway, we do patrols through the area, make sure everyone keeps the peace through superior firepower. But our patrols are too regular, so everyone knows where we are going to be and at what time.”
“So the CO decides that we needed was more presence on the planet, so he split our platoon up to patrol more areas simultaneously. We’re on the regular patrol when we get ambushed. There were nineteen of us, and maybe about two hundred of them. We have better gear and weapons, but they’re hitting us with mortar rounds and rockets.
I’d like to say we beat them back, but really, I think they just ran out of heavy ammo and knew that a traditional fight wouldn’t go the way they wanted. We took out half of them, but thirteen Marines died that day, over a strip of land no sane person would ever want. More money than any of us had to revive them. The CO got shifted onto desk duty, and I got a few scars to add to my collection. It took me months to come down from that firefight. That’s when I told myself that I wouldn’t ever leave bodies behind like that. If I could save someone, I would.”
He paused for a bit, reminiscing over his past decisions. “So what I’m saying is you did good back there Captain,” he gave a slap to the back of Mark. He didn’t put any force behind it, but his sheer mass made it feel like he was being gently mauled by a bear. “No one died, the injured aren’t going to need synthetic legs or anything. These weren’t some hill-dwellers armed with pop guns and rockets, that was a professional assault force, and we kicked their asses.”
The police station on the planet was a metal and glass square building. Sliding turrets went up and down the walls, covering the building from aerial assault and ground attack. They exited their SUV, a courtesy of the assault group that they took with them. Several of their regular vehicles had been destroyed in the aftermath of blasters, claymores, grenades, and turret fire. They took the SUVs as compensation for the damages incurred.
Fortunately, the vehicles hadn’t been keyed to biometric data, a sign that those SUVs were rotated frequently. IIO Protocol dictated that they should keep the vehicles under lockdown as evidence, but they were commandeering them.
They got out and walked into the police station. A few people milled about in the reception area, waiting for the attendant to get to them. The attendant was a small middle aged woman, behind a bulletproof reinforced glass paneling. A speaker and a sliding drawer were the only means of access between her and the outside waiting room. A magnetic reinforced steel door held access to the main precinct area. The group walked up to the receptionist.
“How can I help you, sir?” The woman asked through the speaker panel.
“Captain Mark Thomas, Interplanetary Investigations Office. I need to speak to the police chief immediately.”
She arched an eyebrow at him and put a data pad into the steel drawer, then pushed it out. Mark picked up the data pad and pressed his thumb into it. It confirmed his identity. He put it back into the drawer and slid it back to her. She picked up the phone and made a call. Without her speaking through the speaker, they couldn’t hear her, but could guess she was asking if the Chief expected them. She hung up the phone.
“The Chief isn’t in,” she said apologetically.
“That’s ok. We’re just going to look around and find the highest ranking person there.”
She hit a button and the magnetic steel door disengaged and slid open. They walked through into the main area of the station. A series of boards listed crime patterns by region, along with information on victims, time of crime, and other data useful for police setting up patrol routes and looking for perpetrators.
They walked up to the first uniform officer they saw and Mark asked, “Anyone know where the chief is?”
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
“Who wants to know?” the officer responded warily. He noticed the bruises and lacerations on them. They probably didn’t smell great either.
“Captain Mark Thomas, Interplanetary Investigations Office. I need to speak with him urgently.” He showed his data pad and the officer confirmed the authorization on his own. He stood up a little straighter and shrugged. “Don’t know. He, his secretary, the police Captain, and the Lieutenant all left a few hours ago, haven’t come back.”
“So who’s in charge here?” Mark asked.
“That would be Sergeant Fabisch. He’s in the corner office over there,” the officer pointed to an office. They could see the Sergeant’s digital plate over the door, with his title and a digital photo that identified him. The display said, “Status: Available.”
They walked over to his door and knocked. A voice briskly called out, “Come in.” They opened the door and walked inside.
The Sergeant was a middle-aged fat, but strongly built man. Wisps of red hair covered his head, past a sharply receding hairline. He had food wrappers in his cubicle’s trash can. He had the ruddy brown skin of most of the inhabitants. “How can I help you?” he asked, finishing off a bite of food.
“Captain Mark Smith, IIO. We understand your the person in charge of this department currently.”
The sergeant seemed to not know that, so he wiped off his hands on his pants and tapped his fingers across his computer screen to check on the location of his superior officers.
“Huh, so it would seem. Didn’t know that really, but I’m sure the others will be back soon.”
“No, they probably won’t be. Why weren’t there any officers out at the governor’s mansion?”
“We had an alert put out,” the Sergeant replied, “The governor’s mansion was testing out his defenses, so we were told not to interfere or we might accidentally kill somebody.”
“No,” Mark said, letting a bit of exasperation creep into his voice, “There wasn’t an exercise at the governor’s mansion. There was a full-blown assault. We’ve taken over the scene and removed all the hostiles, but there will need to be repairs done. Additionally, there will need to be a succession to the governor appointed.”
“Oh hell,” the Sergeant said, looking dumbstruck. “The governor’s dead?”
“No,” Mark replied, “But he won’t be available to run the planet anymore. Who’s next in line?”
“Ah, that’d be the Lieutenant governor.”
“Great, where’s he or she?”
“It’s a he. Hold on.” He tapped his fingers across the computer screen again. “It says he’s going on a trip to Earth to petition for an expansion of mining contracts. He’s not expected back for a few weeks.”
“Okay, keep going down the succession chain. Who else?”
“Well, let’s see. That’s the senate pro tempore next. She’s out too. Then the speaker of the house… well, he’s gone too. That leaves the secretary of state. She’s out. The auditor general, also gone. Well surely the Treasurer is here. No. Oh, it’s the Attorney General. He is in.” Each of the Sergeant’s sentences grew fainter in tone, until he shouted the last sentence.
“No one found it odd that the entire upper echelon of government disappeared without telling anyone?” Mark had a minor growl to his voice.
“Hey look, I’m just a grunt here. I’m only in charge because of seniority. I don’t hobnob with the major players except at the police banquet ball every so often. Probably the same with most people. It’s not politicians ever do anything anyway.”
Mark did have to concede that point. “Very well, here’s how this is going down. We’re placing the entire planet on lockdown. We’re going to have forensic experts called in to go through all the financial data, as well as who came on and off this planet. No one is to leave the planet without our express approval, and all inbound ships must go through us to verify their identity. Assuming you pass the background checks, you’re now the police Chief. Send us a list of whoever is underneath you and what station you want to promote them to. If they pass a check, we’ll verify their promotion. Congratulations on moving up the bureaucratic chain of command in record time.”
“Well, that’s a stunning combination of good news and bad news,” the Sergeant replied. “Very well, I’ll notify everyone and start putting everyone in for overtime.” He licked his lips at the prospect. Cops made decent money, but police unions usually negotiated for some very lush overtime benefits. That’s where the real money was.
“See that you do,” Mark said, “Also, I’ll need to wire into your system so we can see all outbound records and maintain contact.” Mark guessed that there were probably unofficial channels of communication as well, which meant he’d be spending his night programming a backdoor into their entire system so he could see all of their dirty secrets. A forensic case is the worst type of case for investigators, since it meant tracking down all the parties, laundered money, and aliases.
“Also, put me through to the Attorney General, there will probably need to be special elections after martial law gets pulled.”
The call went through Mark’s data pad as they left the police building. The call broadcast over the ATV as they left. Mark figured that it’d be a lot less annoying than hearing a one-sided conversation.
“Yes,” a man replied blearily at the other end. It was early morning and they’d probably awoken the Attorney General.
“Hello your Honor. This is Captain Mark Thomas of the IIO. An assault took place at the governor’s mansion a few hours ago. We’ve secured the scene and are taking control of the planet under military law. You will be receiving a data packet confirming all this information. Right now, you’re the highest ranking civilian on the planet. We do not have a location on the rest of the government, but it doesn’t look good.”
“Hang on,” the man interjected, “The governor’s been killed and everyone else is gone?”
“No, the governor’s not dead, but he’s definitely indisposed for the foreseeable future. You’ll need to call together a special election or whatever is in your Constitution for handling a succession period. We’ll need access to all the civilian channels, we’ve already started working with the local law enforcement to quarantine the planet. You’ll need to make that an official order and air it across the planet, as well as giving us access to all of the government’s information.”
The man was quiet for a minute, no doubt reading through the data packet confirming Mark’s story. “I have to make a bunch of calls, I’ll call you back whenever everything is done.” The man hung up abruptly.
“What now?” Luciana asked from the driver’s seat.
“We need to go to the hospital and get us some medical staff and equipment for our ship,” Mark replied.
“Shouldn’t we just transport our people to the hospital?” Vidal asked.
“No,” Mark said, “We don’t know how many people are involved in all of this. We can easily lockdown our ship, but securing an entire hospital is just a good way to get ambushed. Call our medical officers and see what they need and how many people they think we’ll need. We’ll pick them up and take them to our ship.”
The hospital visit went about as well as could be expected when an off-world military group demanded access to staff and medical equipment. Which is to say, it didn’t go well at all. The civilians weren’t impressed by the trio’s credentials, so Mark had to call the Attorney General again and get him to authorize their requests. The hospital complied, but didn’t look happy. Their own staff told them that they only needed two extra doctors, it was nurses that they really needed to monitor the patients. They took two doctors and four nurses, and commandeering a helping of antibiotics, pain killers, regeneration stem cells, epinephrine and flumazenil shots, and body part incubation chambers.
Vidal and Luciana oversaw the medical operations while Mark went to talk to the governor. They had a makeshift prisoner’s cell in the loading bay. The governor was still unconscious, so Mark gave him a shot of flumazenil to help him wake up. The governor woke up in his cell with Mark next to him.
Mark waited for the man to get his bearing and get frightened for a bit. When the governor settled down, he looked at Mark. “I won’t talk. Not even if you torture me.” He probably wanted to sound more defiant than he did.
“Torture? You went to a dark place fast.” Mark said. “No, you’re afforded the right to a full trial and due process, which we’ll conduct in my office, where I’ll lay out all the communications that went outbound between you and the group that attacked us. You’ll be found guilty, and they’ll probably rule to shoot you out of an airlock and into a star. But that’s not what I plan on doing.” Mark said grinning.
“I plan on just releasing you. See, they know we captured you. So if they find you walking about, they’re going to get real curious about what you told us that made you get a free pass for your criminal activity. While Earth’s government does not condone torture, I’m sure that the fine folks you work for that have their hand in rebellion against Earth’s government, attempted murder, and slave trafficking probably don’t have those same qualms. You tell me everything you know, and I’ll just put you in a prison for the rest of your natural life.”
“You don’t know who you’re messing with,” the governor told him, “This group will eat you alive.”
“Let me be the judge of that. I’ve run in with these people several times. I’m the one who’s still here.”
The governor laughed. “That’s the problem. I don’t know where they come from, but they are everywhere. You have to win every time, they only have to win once.”
“Let me worry about me and mine. Start talking.”
“Very well. As far as I can tell, their main base is several light years beyond where we think the perimeter ends. There’s no habitable planets, so they’re building artificial stations. I have no idea where they get enough people to man those things, but somehow, they never run out of people. They use planets like this one to smuggle goods and buy things they need, without leaving a digital trail back to themselves. You can’t flip them. If you try, they just kill themselves. Like some sort of fanatic cult. You can’t stop crazy, Mr. Thomas.” He let out a short laugh with that.
Mark scowled. This wasn’t anything new. He had already figured all of this out, but a confirmation would let him move the investigation from official black ops to official investigation status. He’d need it to quarantine the planet. He sent over the governor’s confession, the video footage of the fight, and his notes to Colonel Grohall, along with the request for a blockade of ships. A dozen ships would be arriving at the planet in a week.
He had one last ace in the hole, and he hoped that his investment would pay off. He sat down on his bed in his Captain’s chamber and logged off.