Jidari 76th Orbital Precinct, Jidaruun, Thiezl System, Gel’dan Quadrant, 4056AD
~
“They call themselves the Apostles, sir.”
Marvin stared, rapt, as the massive, robed man considered this information with a slight incline of the head.
“Unusual name for a gang, but not unheard of.”
His voice rumbled through Marvin’s chest, making him shiver from a mixture of fear, awe and sheer intimidation. His companionAI flashed a warning on the inside of his eyes, the scrolling text notifying him that he was dangerously close to fainting. Born and raised on Jidaruun, the hive world slowly turning beneath them, he’d been lucky and talented enough to make it off-world, if just barely.
His world was one of many industrial hubs in this cluster of systems near the edge of the quadrant. Nothing special. So he’d never once thought the mythical Sol’raan Command Special Operations soldiers, the Legionaries, would ever come across his region of the galaxy. The officer he was assigned to this quarter, 262nd Police Corporal Wilkins, was visibly fighting his urge to run and find a superior to talk to the grizzled veteran in front of him. He was keeping his nerve admirably though.
“Y-Yes sir. They’ve also had a dramatic increase in power over the past standard cycle. They control an entire gridblock now, with nearly two million men under their command.”
The two-and-a-half metre tall soldier grunted, the muscles in his forearms flexing like osmirri-steel cable as he crossed his arms.
“A small gang turning into a mid-sized gang. Something to look into, to be sure, but that hardly warrants Imperial attention.”
Jidaruun, covered by a single, planet-wide, densely packed city, was home to just over a trillion people; on the smaller side for a hive world.
Wilkins hurriedly agreed.
“That’s what I thought as well sir, but one of my squad was on patrol and his drone picked up some anomalies. I thought it was just a glitch, they happen from time to time, but my motherAI was a Diligence model, so I put it in the report anyway. That’s when the area got flagged.”
This caught the giant’s interest.
“Describe these anomalies.”
“Objects floating in areas with no gravtech installed. People walking into shadows and disappearing. Here.”
With a gesture, he sent the video to the soldier’s own AI, a beast of a program that made Marvin’s own companionAI seem like an abacus in comparison.
Wait, no, I didn’t mean that!
From the sulky tone in the text in his viewfield, the virtual assistant didn’t believe him.
The huge Legionary silently considered the sense-vid before grunting once more.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Yeah that’ll do it. Did your man see this himself? Sensory feeds are notoriously vulnerable to manipulation by malignant actors. It would not be the first hoax.”
A hiss from the corner of the room drew their eyes.
“He speaks the truth. There is a growing strain of infection on this world.”
Death had spoken.
Immediately starting to hyperventilate, Marvin’s companionAI dumped sedatives into his bloodstream as he fell to the floor in terror, scrabbling towards the door in hopes of getting away from the skeletal spectre of doom that had just apparated into the space. His teary eyes flashed with the warning that he was under the effect of an infrasound emitter combined with a powerful pheromone aura, but his police-issue blood scrubbers weren’t up to the task, and he very nearly wet himself from fear.
The huge Legionary blurred across the room, grabbing Death by the throat and slamming him into the wall with a metallic thud.
“Turn it off before I snap your neck.”
Raising both hands, Death’s rictus grin grew gums, a tongue, lips, his entire form shifting and writhing with new flesh, finally resolving into a sharp-faced man.
“Peace, brother, we all forget to put down our tools of the trade every now and again, eh?”
The soldier scowled.
“Never call me your brother again. I’m guessing you were sent down because of the flagged report.”
“Indeed. A few standard cycles ago, our predictive models indicated a rogue would appear in this quadrant within the decade. We have had people scouring all over this back-country region of space, and Officer Wilkins’ report happened to tick all the right boxes. Of course, many occurrences tick the right boxes, but only when I went down myself, was I sure. It’s- oh?”
Corporal Wilkins, brave soul that he was, had his plasma thrower out, his knees visibly shaking despite the calming drugs no doubt rushing through his system. Marvin meanwhile remained on the floor for a bit.
“Wh-Who- Who are you?”
The intruder simply smiled.
“That’s classified.”
The soldier rolled his eyes as he put the man down.
“He’s from another Special Operations branch. The Speculators. They’re spooks. Spies. Infiltrators.”
“Intelligence specialists. And a lot better at keeping secret information secret. Goes to show, such a powerful Lorica still cannot make up for a dull mind.”
The Speculators. Marvin had heard of them, they were boogeymen used to scare children in the night. All the Legionaries were monsters compared to the average, minimally genetically diverged human, but the Speculators leaned into it hard. Face-changing master manipulators who could move about like ghosts, with a habit of impersonating loved ones and making people vanish. According to the stories, they could even read thoughts. Their Loricas were weakest in a pure combat sense, but they made up for it by being extremely specialised at their job. And of course, “weakest” was relative to the other classes of Lorica. He could still probably take down this entire orbital station should he choose to.
“We’ll see how sharp that mind is when sprayed across the wall.”
The Speculator gave a dismissive smirk at the threat.
Too late, Marvin realised he should’ve stayed in his pod today.
“Since my colleague here has decided to speak candidly, so shall I. I called Command about the infestation because that’s what it is. These ‘Apostles’ are consorting with the profane, the information packet I just sent should give you all the salient details. I’ve done my part. It’s now time for you brutes to do yours. Glass them.”
Marvin queried his companionAI on what the different branches of the SSO did, but it was restricted information.
The Speculator laughed.
“You won’t find that information anywhere near this quadrant, boy. Today may be your lucky day however, as you’ll get to see the fabled Iconoclasts in action. The Tier Ones of the SSO, the most elite fighting force in the galaxy. A privilege granted to many, with but few surviving to tell the tale afterwards. But I’m sure my colleague will be happy to explain his role here.”
Did… did he just read my mind?
The wildly invasive intrusion was brushed aside by his sheer curiosity. He looked up at the soldier hopefully. Wilkins asked the burning question.
“Wh-what is his role? What are you all here to do?”
The soldier shrugged, his powerful shoulders seeming more like boulders than flesh.
“Deicide. We kill gods.”