November 3rd, 2035
West of Osiris
4:30 P.M.
A red pickup truck pulled up to one of the only structurally stable buildings beyond the West Gate of Osiris. Two Revenants dressed in blue military uniforms and holding bolt-action rifles against their shoulders stood guard outside of the building. These two Revenants were each lieutenants in command of one of the Osirian militia’s battle-companies.
This building was the biggest secret in Osiris. Only Revenants very high up in the military’s chain of command knew of its existence. No Imperials and no civilian Revenants knew of this building.
Those who knew of this building called it the Black Site. The upper echelon of the Osirian command structure would use this location whenever circumstances forced them to do something that the general populace of Osirians would find morally objectionable.
The truck parked next to a few other cars, and Captain Tantalus of the West Gate stepped out. Tantalus had recently been promoted to the rank of Chief Strategic Officer of the Osirian Revenant Division (CSO-ORD), the highest rank a Revenant could hold in the Osirian military. Within three days of the start of Ferrum Online, Tantalus had become the most influential Revenant in Osiris by far.
Physically speaking, Tantalus was a short man who wore a long grey cloak and carried a knife and pistol at his belt. The two men guarding the door to the Black Site stood half a foot taller than Tantalus.
Captain Tantalus was allowed into the Black Site without a word. He was the one who authorized it, after all. Inside of the Black Site stood a man also dressed in a long grey cloak. This man was Scotch, a Revenant who had reportedly been a member of the FBI before he had been trapped in Ferrum Online. Scotch held a clipboard which held notes written in scribbled English.
“Good afternoon, Captain,” Scotch said. “How has your day been?”
“Okay, I guess,” Tantalus said casually. “The funeral was rough, but today was definitely better than two days ago.”
“If we do our jobs right, perhaps we can cut down on the number of funerals you have to attend in the future,” Scotch said. “The prisoner is ready in Holding Cell A.”
“Straight to business, then?” Tantalus said as he slipped an unlit cigarette into his own mouth. “Once Meph and Lank are ready to go, I’ll head in.”
Scotch handed his clipboard over to Tantalus before he headed back out the front door.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The Black Site had once been a police station. Much of the furniture had been destroyed when the Deluvians controlled the area, but the major infrastructure was still in place. The walls and ceiling were still intact, and the holding cells were still functional. It was the perfect location for the Revenants’ Guantanamo Bay, Tantalus had decided the day before.
Within a few seconds, the two Revenants who were previously standing watch outside entered Tantalus’s field of vision. The three Revenants walked a few dozen feet to a metal door. One of the guards unlocked the door, and they all walked inside.
Handcuffed to a metal table inside of the holding cell was a Goblin dressed in an orange prisoner’s jumpsuit. At first, the Goblin thrashed against its restraints, but it stopped resisting once it saw who had just arrived.
The two guards stood near the door as Tantalus casually took a seat opposite the Goblin. With the slow hands of someone who had no pressing business to attend to, Tantalus took out a lighter and lit his cigarette.
After taking a deep puff of the cigarette, Tantalus asked a question. “Do you know who I am?”
“Yes,” the Goblin answered quietly.
“And you saw what I did to the other Goblins at the Battle of the West Gate?” Tantalus asked.
“Yes.”
“And you know what will happen if you try to break out?”
“Y-yes.”
“Okay, good to hear,” Tantalus said with a smile. “Boys, if you could please leave the interrogation room, it would be much appreciated.”
The two guards left the interrogation room without a word.
“So,” Tantalus extinguished his cigarette in a nearby ashtray, “you’re probably wondering why I’m here. To tell you the truth, I am a rather busy man. I am here right now because I am the best torturer in Osiris in addition to the best strategist.” Tantalus stood up from his seat as he spoke and stepped behind the Goblin’s chair. The Goblin flinched away as Tantalus approached. Unseen by the Goblin, Tantalus produced a ballpoint pen from his pocket. “There are many things I could do to you if I wanted. I could cut your ears off,” he tapped the Goblin’s ear. “I could strip the skin from your cheeks,” he tapped the Goblin’s cheekbone. “I could gouge out your eyes,” he tapped the Goblin’s temple. “Oh, I could go on and on and on and on…” Tantalus tapped the Goblin in another vulnerable place every time he said the word “on.”
As Tantalus spoke, the Goblin’s fear increased. By the time Tantalus had tapped it on the temple, it was hyperventilating.
“But…” Tantalus said as he withdrew his pen, “I don’t want to do that. Unlike the other people that work here, I don’t enjoy the process of vivisection. I think you’re going to answer all of my questions so that you don’t have to spend your last moments with Scotch learning if your intestines are the same color as ours. Does that sound good to you?”
With an absolutely terrified expression on its face, the Goblin nodded. Tantalus reached down and, with a series of smooth movements, unshackled the Goblin from the table.
The Goblin looked at Tantalus in shock as he returned to his seat.
“We already know everything about the legions, troop movement, troop composition, and unit position. There is one thing we don’t know about. Tell me about the Dark Apostles…”