Continued From Part 6

By the time Balinski pulled his truck up into the precinct parking lot, it was raining heavily. The sound of muted thunder roared in the distance like the hammer blows of some dark forgotten god all while the howling wing screamed through the gaps between nearby buildings. Balinski paid the raging elements no more mind than a superstore greeter would a customer as he bowed his head slightly and walked towards the imposing edifice of the police complex.

Moving forwards, the wind threatened to tear his wide brimmed hat from his head and he had to use a hand to hold it in place as he stalked to the glass double doors at the front of the building. Shaking the rain from his coat, he took hold of the doors and stepped into the precinct.

All was a study in controlled chaos. The vast open space in front of him was full of sound and activity as officers and civilians alike rushed too and fro on business. He could see a pair of heavily armoured tunnel trawlers walking in lockstep nearby, their gutter-sweeper shotguns held in iron grips across their chests as if they were expecting to be ambushed at any second. Looking around he spotted a blonde haired woman with a briefcase talking excitedly on her assistant, likely a defense attorney of some caliber on a case to protect some unfortunate.

There were many that he recognised, but many more he did not. He didn't often have a reason to swing by the main precinct, but every time he did he saw strange and new things. The child in him clapped gleefully as a small group of SWAT hurried by, the armoured men and women looking ready for anything with their tactical gear and masks. His cybernetic eye picked up the EM jammers on their suits as a sort of grayish hze that surrounded them like a fine mist, invisible to the naked eye but all pervasive to electronic surveillance.

He shook his head slightly, he wasn't here to gawk. He was here on business, and as such he needed to show confidence and poise. Straightening to his full height, he marched to one of the many front desks and waited for the elderly Gre’vahn woman there to notice him.

The woman was tall, even taller than he was, her race being centauroid quadrupeds with an upper torso that had two arms. Their heads were large and their features were wide and almost seemed a bit stretched to his eyes. Her body was lightly furred and she wore a gown over her upper body to preserve modesty and simultaneously denote her family hierarchy and rank. The Gre’vahn were a proud people that held family deeds in high regard, a single brave or heroic act could be lauded for generations and were used as badges of honor.

The woman looked up from her computer and then over to him. She was nearly thirty centimeters taller than him and her silver eyes met his with a distinct look of disinterest.

“Hello there, I was hoping you could point me in the right direction?” He said cautiously as she eyed him.

She looked him over and said in a bored way “Sugar, I don't think I have enough information to do that. You will have to be a lot more specific.”

Balinski bobbed his head in embarrassment, great first impression. “Sorry, I am looking for Commander Siyel. She requested my attendance here…”. He started to explain when a husky feminine voice rang out from behind him.

“Balinski! You made it! Great!”

He turned around to see Siyel gliding towards him with the grace of a life-long dancer, her feet scarcely seeming to leave the ground. He tore his eyes from the sway of her hips and looked up into her face, if she noticed his lapse in decorum then she didn't show it as she sidled past him to lean on the counter next to him.

“Hiya Debra, this is Balinski, the one I was telling you about the other day.” She said obliquely.

Debra perked up a bit and gave him a much more interested once over before leaning in close to Siyel and whispering something. Siyel laughed and said “Oh you can try, but you’ll have to get in line.”

He looked at both women curiously but they just laughed again like schoolgirls with some delicious secret and he sighed. He didn't really want to know, knowing Siyel it was likely something at his expense after all.

Siyel stood from the counter and drifted up to him before saying “I know I couldn't keep you away for long. But still, thanks for coming Balinski. I know you’ll get me Slake. That sluurge has had it coming for far too long.” She said angrily.

Balinski just watched her, she seemed furious. Her face was lightly lavender and her tail was lashing from side to side, deciding to proceed with caution he asked “So uh, what's the game plan? We going straight in or something else?”

She seemed to take a moment to compose herself before she answered. “Well, we have a team on standby. A SWAT team and a sniper specialist just in case. The plan is to storm the building nice and quiet and catch them all together.” she said with a small gesture.

He nodded and followed as she started to walk away from the front desk. She gave a little wave to Debra as they walked away but the old woman was focused back on her screen, deep in her work apparently.

Matching strides with the tall woman, they continued along the main walkway towards one of the walls. As they approached he read the words above the door which said ‘Operations rooms 2B-4H’. Not being intimately familiar with the station he surmised that there must be a great many such rooms as the city had over forty five million inhabitants.

“We are planning to move on Slake within the hour, so I am glad you showed up when you did. To be honest, I wasn't expecting you to actually take it easy. I was prepared to turn you away, but you are looking much better I must say.” She said as she appraised him from the corner of her vision.

He raised an eyebrow and smirked as he replied “Yeah. I was tempted not to, but I was pretty sure you were keeping an eye on me so I was a good boy.”

She chuckled and stopped, motioning to a set of heavy double doors she said “This is us. Come on in.” And then pushed her way into the room.

Balinski shook his head and glanced down at Caesar before pushing open the double doors to the operations room. Inside was a large semi circular table set in front of a large flatscreen and holoprojector. It was an old setup but looked like it had been top of the line when it was originally purchased. Damn bureaucracy and its need to hold onto things far past their prime. Either way it looked serviceable enough and Balinski moved to take a seat on the near side of the room away from the other occupants. Caesar decided to simply flop down by the front door, well away from any of the others.

As he sat he heard a slight noise and turned to see the others looking at him. Siyel was at the front of the room and preparing a presentation of some sort, but the other officers were giving him dubious looks. It was as if they couldn't believe he was in the room. He noted with a look that none of the others were Human, three Slaaveth, two Nerivith, a Vinarfelien and even a Yeown stared back at him.

Balinski smiled and winked his remaining organic eye while giving them a head nod as if they were nothing other than fellow drinkers at a bar. He had no reason to grovel to these people and less reason to care what they thought of him. Siyel trusted him enough to have him here, and that was all he cared about. Generally a case of this importance would have a Police Major on board, but Siyel seemed determined to see this one through herself.

Once more he wondered what stake she had in the investigation. Had Slake hurt someone close to her? Perhaps there was more to it, something below the surface that he hadn't seen yet he mused to himself silently.

With a small jolt he realized that someone was speaking to him as he heard his name. “What was that Siyel? I'm afraid I was thinking about the case and missed the last thing you said…”. He uttered, a bit embarrassed.

She smiled slightly and repeated “I was just introducing you to the rest of the team. I'll say it again, Delta force, this is Balinski. You might recognise him from the spaceport or the warehouse… raid.” She finished with a little pause for emphasis.

He ducked his head a bit at the mention but turned to look at Delta force. They seemed even less impressed with him, with the exception of the Vinarfelien. The large insectoid was waving their antennae with great interest and staring right at him. Well it looked as if they were at least, with their compound eyes they could have been observing a great many things, but for some reason he got the impression that he was the bug’s main focus.

Frowning slightly he nodded towards the group and gruffly said “Hello there.”

Siyel began by pointing at the nearest Saaveth to him, a man who was a bit shorter and more heavyset than the average member of his species. While most of his race had the lithe athletic bodies of natural born swimmers, this one had a more classically rugged look. “This is Jackok, a long time member of the force.”

Pointing to the next in line, a female Slaaveth. She had the regular acrobatic look of her people, that coupled with a larger than average headfin made her compelling to look at. Siyel introduced her in the same manner as before “And this is Slurth. She joined Delta force just last month but has already proven herself to be a capable and handy operator.” The woman inclined her head towards him, her jet black pupiless eyes giving away nothing of her inner thoughts.

Next to her was a Nerivith male, a rare sight to see in such dangerous work. His short pink horns poked through close cropped hair, Balinski noted the man’s dour expression. The man seemed to be in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction, his face a scowl and his brows furrowed. Siyel introduced him “This is Trevor, he might seem a little icey on the outside. But don't worry, it won't stop him from saving your ass if you really need the backup, he is an excellent shot after all.” She chuckled which only served to deepen the man’s perpetual scowl.

Next was another Slaaveth, this time another male. The distinct wide shoulders and partially frilled appearance similar to that of many others Balinski had seen in the past, with the exception of the missing portion of his head fin that was. The damage looked to be old and must have hurt terribly at the time, but the man never mentioned it instead simply nodding as Siyel pointed to him and started “This here is Delta force Commander Jerg. A long standing veteran on call and a real asset to the CPD as a whole.” The man nodded at the praise and remained silent. Balinski decided to keep an eye on the rugged looking man, he seemed like he knew how to handle himself in a fight and could very well come in handy when taking down Slake.

“This is Aien, her mother was an officer as as was her grandmother before that, two long generations of service and counting.” Siyel said as she pointed to the next person at the table, a somewhat short Nerivith female with striking Indigo eyes like freezing ocean water. The woman smiled prettily and gave a little wave, she seemed more friendly than the others but it could also have just been her way of getting under people’s armour. He nodded back to her wave and then turned to look at the next officer.

Before Siyel could get a word out, the Vinarfel blurted out with a wave of several arms “Hi! I’m Daryon but my friendss call me ‘Whirlwind’. Oh you can call me that too though, it’sss okay…” Balinski noticed several things all at once, first, they were female it seemed judging on the tone of their voice. But also their carapace was dark with bright yellow shaped lightning patterns and orange highlights. A very rare patterning for a Vinarfel and generally considered quite striking. The other thing he noticed was all the others in the room looking at her, if the large centipede shaped alien could blush he got the feeling she would have then and there as she slunk down a bit and lowered her antennae down across her back.

He coughed slightly as the attention of the room focused back on him and he asked “Ah yes, well nice to meet you then.” The woman perked up a bit, her compound eyes sparkling like jewels as she once again seemed to focus on him. “And who might you be then?” He asked the last unintroduced person in the room, the Yeown female seated at the opposite end of the table.

She had light cream fur that darkened to a muted gray across her shoulders and upper neck, what more of it there was was hidden by the tactical gear she was wearing. She inclined her head, her bestial features twisted into a sort of grimace that passed for a smile as she replied “My name is Gruznul.” She stated simply.

Balinski waited a second for more before he just looked to Siyel and shrugged.

Siyel cocked her head slightly, her raven black hair catching the light for a moment before she straightened once more. “Alright, well now that we all have gotten to know each other, I will start the briefing. Now you all know why you are here, we are going after a big fish. Top Shrij, a real go-getter. Word on the street is that Slake is the actual leader of The Golden Boys, but we had no evidence to back that up.” She said with a look that made him want to smile. “Until now that is.” She said, her tail lashing behind her like a cat getting ready to pounce.

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She continued as the holoprojector behind her pulled up a diagram of Slake’s main office. It was a front for his drug running campaign. If the front was to be believed, Slake made his fortune selling stuffed chew toys for rich people’s pets. And while Balinski could believe the man made a profit on the side from the business, he knew from experience just how much a good chew toy was worth, he also knew that it didn't account for the man’s personal lifestyle or excessive taste.

The building was built like a fortress with outer crenulations and winding inner passages that looked defensive in nature. The building was going to be a bitch to storm and then there was Slake’s personal army to deal with. Dozens of highly trained goons and assassins that would likely shoot first and ask questions later, they wouldn't give a Znot’s ass if they were killing cops.

Siyel pointed to the front of the building as noted the defensive nature of the building “As you can see, this won't be the easiest structure to bust. Now we won't be going there alone, we have another team coming in to cover the rear and sides of the structure, but they are in a different briefing as we alone are storming the structure. Top brass doesn't want to commit the resources that would be required to fully siege the structure so we are going to have to use subterfuge rather than brute force. Any questions so far?” She asked in a general way.

Balinski leaned back into his chair a bit and thought about it, it seemed like a well thought out raid. A small team would infiltrate and attempt to take the enemy with stealth and swiftness where a larger force would just get bogged down. And while they were bogged down Slake would likely escape the building and go into hiding when he found out they were onto him. The man didn't exactly run his business like the most courageous crime lord, always using alibi’s and deceit.

One of the others, the somber looking man named Trevor spoke up, his voice a velvety tenor that was completely at odds with his gruff expression “And how are we supposed to keep these idiots from setting off the alarm the instant they see us?”

Siyel nodded at the question and smiled. “I thought of that, you will all be equipped with short range jammers. Nothing that would cover the whole building and potentially alert Slake of course. These little things only have a range of about ten meters and will completely cut off all radio communication. Tightbeam might still be able to get through but let's be honest, these guys are not the type to be so blatant.” She raised an eyebrow at Trevor but the man simply sat back in his seat, apparently satisfied for the moment.

Daryon’s slightly accented voice reached his ears as she asked “How will we be proceeding onto the property? Asss a group or in pairss?”

Siyel nodded “Good question, we will be breaking into four groups of two, I won't be joining you on this one unfortunatly. Apparently I'm too close to this one according to someone upstairs…”. She grumbled as she cut off. Balinski once more got the feeling that this whole affair was somehow personal to her, he decided he would breach that subject with her after the job was done.

The rest of the briefing was quick and informative with no questions from any of them. They knew what needed to be done and they knew how to do it.

As soon as the briefing was done Siyel excused them to go gear up for the raid and he walked over to her. She was putting away her notes and turning off the projector equipment when she must have heard the slight sound of his cybernetics, she turned to look at him even though he hadn't uttered a word. She nodded once, flicked a few more switches and then turned and straightened to look him in the eyes. Once more he found himself tempted to drown in the deep violet of those orbs but he pulled himself back from the edge and said “So, Slake’s as good as gone now. We are going to get him.”

She gave a quick nod and motioned towards the doorway, Caesar stood as she saw them turning her way and gave a yawn and stretch. As they started to leave the room, Siyel let out a pent up breath and turned to him “It’s happening. I can't believe it’s really happening. After the last three years I wasn't sure I would ever bring him down, but now I finally have that chance.” He jerked slightly as she suddenly clung to his arm as if drowning, she looked up into his face. Her eyes were full of pain and she pleaded “Balinski, promise me something. Promise me that you’ll catch this dirty son of a shrij for me, or kill him if it looks like you can't. You can't let him get away, I don't know what I’d do…”. She trailed off looking a bit desperate and shaken.

He wasn't sure what was happening, but he knew the feeling of rage well and could see it in her eyes. He turned and gripped her shoulder’s and said as seriously as he could “Siyel. I promise you that I will get this guy, he won't leave the building alive if I can't drag him out myself. You have my word.” Caesar butted her head against his leg and looked up at the woman with her puppy eyes as if to say she promised too.

Siyel let out a strained laugh and patted Caesar on the head saying “Oh I know you will help. I didn't forget about you.” She turned to look him in the eyes again as she said “I know you will. It's just, I need this. I can't explain it right now, but I will, if you want.”

Balinski gave her a small nod and smiled “I do. I care about you, you know that.”

She just gave him another small smile and then cleared her throat. “Alright, enough small talk, we have a job to do. Come on, we need to meet the team in the garage.”

She started walking and he had to rush to catch up to her, Caesar trotted alongside him completely content with the situation. Sometimes he wished he could be more like her, unconcerned with the bigger problems of the world. She might be smarter than normal with her cranial implants, but it didn't make her any less of a dog. She still had a very short list of daily worries and concerns, the mysteries of the universe didn't plague her with cosmic questions. Instead she worried mostly about where her next meal was and if he was going to take her to the park that day.

He laughed as she gave him a sideways look, her tongue lolling out over cybernetic jaws and a perpetually goofy look on her fuzzy little face. Seeing him watching she gave a little ‘Urf’ as if to ask what he was staring at. He just smiled and looked back ahead, it was nice to have such a continually happy friend around. Caesar always managed to put things into perspective for him without even trying.

The hall they traversed was wide and tall, he suspected it was that way so that fully kitted out powersuits could be worn between the armory and garages. The CPD might have been just a law enforcement agency, but they sported some pretty heavy gear. To be fair, some of the threats they faced were paramilitary crime rings with full on combat rigs and the like. It paid to be able to match them blow for blow if the need arose.

Siyel motioned towards a large set of steel doors and they made their way through. He had been to the main station a few times since he started working in Cheenha City, but this was the first time he had entered a major precinct's garage.

The room was huge, larger than an aircraft hanger in height and almost as long as three G-ball stadiums combined. He glanced up and looked at the roof, it was a mesh of dark titansteel spars interlaced with bluish plasteel support struts. The whole design looked capable of withstanding an orbital bombardment and was likely incredibly strong and flexible.

The next thing to grab his attention were the vehicles. There were all kinds, small utility vehicles and unarmored patrol cars parked next to armoured behemoths with anti riot turrets and machine guns. Then there were a few literal tanks, Quinten pattern main battle tanks no less. The massive armoured hulls of the Human designed war machines were painted a sinister black and had the markings of the CPD along with warnings to stay back. Part of him wondered how many times they had needed to deploy such weapons on their own city, then he remembered the massive detonation that had occured in his first month in the city.

A gang war had escalated with the detonation of a munitions cache that resulted in the deaths of at least 300 civilians and several officers. If the officers had been in a Quinten MBTs then they could have quashed the situation with less if not zero civilian casualties. It seemed a bit proactive then to have such articles in their possession, just as long as the gangs didn't get their hands on the same.

Siyel led him towards one of the mammoth armored transports. The vehicle was large and wide, obviously based off the hull of an armored personnel carrier. It had duramite coated titansteel armour plates and bullet-proof glazmite windows, it was geared for war and war was where they were headed. Standing next to the vehicle were the rest of the crew and another that Balinski hadn't met, a young female Nerivith that wasn't wearing the same heavy tactical gear of the others. In fact she looked like less of a soldier and more like a college kid wearing an officer’s uniform.

Siyel and him stopped a few paces from the group and she clapped her hands saying “Alright. The whole band is here I see. Jessica, thanks for coming, this is Balinski. Balinski, this is Jessica, our driver.” She said to him, motioning towards the young woman that was standing a bit nervously to the side.

Balinski gave Jessica a small wave to which she simply nodded back. He waited for instruction as Siyel motioned to the armoured truck and said “Well, let's get going then shall we?”

They moved to get into the vehicle, the back doors swinging open to reveal the inside of the vessel like the dark lair of some beast. Then as he watched a series of lights flicked on and revealed a cramped interior much like the dropships he used to ride into combat on. He felt his heart rate pick up at the memory but Caesar butted into him and barked softly. He gave her a pat on the head and tried to think calming thoughts, he could do this it was fine. He would be fine.

Caesar jumped up into the back by herself and then turned to him as if to show that it was safe. He mustered his courage and tried to look as nonchalant as possible as he climbed into the back. He almost tripped as he stepped on something and heard a surprised hiss.

“Sssssshit! Ouch…”. Daryon wheezed out.

Balinski immediately apologized “Oh Luck, I'm sorry, are you alright?”

The large Vinarfelien woman was sitting across three seats, her six meter length taking up a significant portion of the left side. She wriggled a bit to get more out of the way, a multitude of her feet tucking themselves under the bench as she tried to reposition herself a bit. She pointed her face in his direction and said “It’ss my fault really. I’m ussed to being the lasst one aboard. I forgot that I wasss not the lasst one today. Pleasse, it'sss alright.” She said with an accent, the hiss of escaping air apparent through her slightly slurred speech.

The Vinerfel breathed through a complex set of spiracle lungs that ran the length of their bodies and so spoke with a constant exhaled stream of breath that gave them a distinct accent like air escaping a tire.

He glanced around but saw that the only open seat was next to the large chitinous woman, so he shrugged internally and sat. The rear doors closed automatically with a pneumatic hiss before Siyel’s voice rang over the vehicle’s internal comms.

“Alright, now the final details of the mission are as follows. Non lethal takedowns are not mandatory but encouraged nevertheless. I'm looking at you Daryon, the less noise we make going in, the better. Second, your pairs are listed on your assistant’s and your primary mission adjectives too. Lastly, please remember not to switch on your jammers till we arrive, it would be pretty awkward for us to get lost because the navigational system got scrambled alright? Okay, let's go give em hel girls!” Her voice rang through the speakers then fizzed off with a puff of static.

Balinski smiled slightly, he loved that woman’s positive outlook on the world. She truly believed she was making the world a better place, and that was priceless in its effect on morale. He could tell just by looking around the compartment that the others were confident and ready for the task ahead. It would be dangerous, but they believed that they had the skills to pull it off. Confidence like that was worth more than big guns, it made heros.

Balinski sat with his head bowed slightly, the brim of his hat blocking the view of the compartment and allowing him to imagine himself somewhere less stressful. Suddenly he felt several taps on his shoulder and looked up curiously, then recoiled just a bit as a pair of large mirrored blue eyes shone only a foot from his own, twin dark pupils boring into his own.

“Whah! Uuff.” He huffed in surprise before gaining his bearings. Aien chuckled at his reaction before looking away, leaving him just staring at Daryon, the woman having shuffled herself around to be able to sit next to him. If by sitting you meant holding her forward third upright in the seat next to him while the other four meters of her centipede-like body trailed off over the next three seats.

“I apologisse for sstartling you. I jusst, wass curiousss I guessss.” She hissed slowly.

He looked at her face, the insectoid features not exactly easy to read or fraught with emotion. “Curious about what?” He asked, taking the obvious conversation bait. He was curious what she was going to say, being a species he was not at all familiar with after all. He knew all about the Nerivith and Slaaveth, Yeown and even Skorp. But the Vinarfel were not a people that he had much occasion to speak with.

She clasped several pairs of hands together and shifted slightly before asking “I wass curiousss, about your creature? It iss like nothing I have ever ssseen. It’ss about the ssize of a noppin, but it iss furred like a mammal. What iss it?”

He smiled as she asked the question. Earthly dogs were not necessarily uncommon in the Union, but they were generally found mostly closer to Earth or on Human dominated worlds. Cheenha was populated by mostly Nerivith and Slaaveth and so dogs were less often seen. In fact, he had only seen one other dog on the planet besides Caesar since he got there and it had been a small breed. Some sort of terrier variant he guessed.

He gestured to her and said “Well, first things first. Her name is Caesar and she is an Earth dog, specifically a Husky. She’s a great friend of mine, but she can get a little moody at times.”

Daryon looked from him to Caesar and then back to him before she asked “And sshe iss friendly?”

He nodded and said “She is generally. I'm not sure what she would think of you, she has never met any Vinarfel to the best of my knowledge. You could give it a try, she is very intelligent. Cranial implants.” He said, tapping his temple.

“Oh?” Daryon stated simply. She looked down at Caesar who was lying on the floor with her head on her paws, apparently asleep. “Hello there…. Caessar?” She said tentatively.

Caesar raised her head and turned her pale blue eyes onto the woman, cocking her head slightly and then looking at him.

He chuckled slightly and shrugged as Daryon said her name again and waved slightly. Caesar for her part just rolled her eyes as if to say ‘what is this a joke?’ Before laying her head back down and closing her eyes.

Balinski smiled a little till he saw the way Daryon’s long antennae drooped. She seemed to be a bit dejected and so he said “Hey it's okay. She is a bit standoffish with strangers sometimes. I'm sure that once she gets to know you a bit better she will warm up to you just fine.”

Daryon perked up slightly, her antennae raising a few inches up from their previous position. Not enough to stand above her head, but no longer lying directly down her back either.

“You think sso?” She asked.

Balinski gave her a sturdy nod and smiled “Yes. Definitely. She is a sucker for attention after all, so just be yourself and she’ll come round.”

The Vinarfelien woman seemed to on the verge of saying something else when the vehicle slowed to a halt and Siyel’s voice crackled over the speakers.

“Alright ladies, we’re here. Lock and load, and remember. Stealth is the priority here, if you get into a bad position and need to backtrack then do it. The whole mission depends on Slake not getting suspicious and bailing. Okay, move out.” She finished vigorously.

Continued in Part 8