by R. E. Graham
“Sir,” the comms officer said to the Tribune. “Major Legatus Anthony wishes to speak with you.”
“Put him on screen,” Aries said as he moved back to stand in front of his captain’s chair. He tugged on his uniform and stood straight.
The image of the PLOWs and Noire was replaced by a grizzled gray-haired military man. Multiple medals adorned the left breast of his maroon and gold colored uniform from his cycles of service.
“Greetings Major Legatus, I am Tribune Milo Aries of the 12th DSST.”
“Welcome to Noire, Tribune,” the older man said with a rough voice. “May I ask, what has brought you to my world? I have not received orders of 12th’s reassignment to my legion.”
“I have been given orders sir to escort and assist an inquisitor on his mission to locate a crew of pirates.”
“They would assign an elite battalion to follow some lawman on a simple errand? Bah!”
Aries instantly wanted to calm the situation that he felt was about to unfold as to not aggravate the Inquisitor on the other side of the bridge.
“Sir, with respect, this assignment is not typical. I wish I could elaborate further but…”
The Major Legatus cut the other man off. “Enlighten me.”
“I apologize Major Legatus, but it is classified.”
“Classified? So, classified that you show up to my planet with a small invasion force to escort some prissy lawman?”
Cyrus was tired of this conversation and wasn’t about to allow some military grunt to insult his profession.
The Inquisitor stepped up beside the Tribune and smiled. “Hello, Major Legatus.”
The older man recognized the uniform and knew who the newcomer was. Even still, he did not feel embarrassed about the previous words he shared.
“Perhaps you can help me. Why is it that you have three Carinas probably loaded with companies of troops and armor heading for my planet without official documentation?”
“I assure you Major Legatus, that we have all of the data you will require to see that we are legitimate. Unfortunately, as the Tribune here has already stated, we cannot give you details about our mission.”
Aries twisted his body back to the comms officer. “Send them our clearance codes.”
“I have been assigned a mission by Prefect Haines himself to locate a crew of pirates responsible for a crime. We have arrived at Noire because I know that the group Onyx operates out of here and I wish to speak with them to gain information. We will then be on our way hopefully without incident.”
Anthony leaned back in his chair and glared at the Inquisitor. “So, you mean to tell me that you traveled all this way just so you could talk with some low-grade criminals?”
Cyrus grinned and nodded. “That’s exactly why we have come.”
Someone off-screen of the Major Legatus told him that the clearance codes checked out. With lips still shut, he licked his front teeth with his tongue before he looked back to Cyrus and Aries. "You have one rotation, then I want you off my world. You inquisitors have a gift for causing problems that I simply do not need."
The Tribune gave a small bow. Cyrus just continued to grin. “Yes sir, we will be out of here as soon as possible.”
Anthony made a cutting motion with his hand, and the signal was severed.
“What a pleasant man,” Cyrus said jokingly under his breath.
“Sir, you may desire to not agitate him,” Aries said with a cautious look.
The Inquisitor's face became more serious. "I will not allow any man to slow this investigation down. We will locate the Onyx headquarters, and we will visit them promptly."
“Yessir.”
“Have the Silverbolt and Jade hang back but close enough to respond. Odds are that if Onyx has operated out of here for so long that they have connections with either the local KoPs or military commanders. Possibly even both. Regardless, we will get the information we need.”
“Do you suspect an officer of the military would send troops to impede us?” Aries asked.
“In my line of work, anything is possible. Seeing as how they oversee a world that is rife with crime I wouldn’t be surprised if they were part of the corruption themselves. At the very least they have turned a blind eye to it.”
Cyrus pressed several keys on his gauntlet and a hologram projected up from it. “There are two likely locations where Otto the Weary is at. I want you to send your best intelligence officer to scout and investigate the second location while I personally look into the first.”
“Yessir. Would you like an escort to tag along with you?”
“No. Instead, I would like you to make a bigger show of force by sending multiple troopers to the second. I imagine that if anyone is watching our actions here that they will trail your people.”
As the fleet passed through the blockade of Republic ships, the Inquisitor glanced back at the main screen to watch as the nearest PLOW went out of view. He turned back to the Tribune.
“I will take down a shuttle and will blend into the crowds of High Tower. I believe the first location is the most likely hideout for Onyx here and will message you as soon as I am certain. If I am correct, then I want you to deploy Dogma’s Centurions and three fireteams of shock troopers. We need to hit them as hard as we can without drawing all eyes on us.”
“Would you like Delta pike on standby?” Aries asked.
“Yes, along with the Jaspers. But do not launch them. I feel deploying WarMechs would raise more issues with the Major Legatus than either of us wish to deal with. Besides, the fireteams should be enough to create a strong perimeter."
"It will be done, sir."
Cyrus nodded then headed for the shuttle that would take him to the planet’s surface.
Hopefully, all of this won't be for nothing. We need Otto to cooperate, or we are back to having no leads.
Chapter 24
Cycle: 434 Month: 2 Rotation: 21
Corre Republic Space
Prefecture: Siimon
Planet: Noire
Location: High Tower, downtown
As the shuttle came to a halt, Inquisitor Cyrus unfastened his harness and gestured thanks to the pilot. The short ramp at the back of the ship lowered itself, and Cyrus looked around at the crowd of people. A planet such as Noire had vessels coming and going all the time. As such, it was as typical of a sight as cars were, so the people didn't pay any attention to the Inquisitor as he walked off the shuttle.
The ramp began to raise as soon as he stepped onto the stonecrete and the shuttle lifted off. It accelerated and boosted away to await further orders.
One other smaller ship rested on the stonecrete platform nearby. Its crew offloaded equipment and supplies, completely clueless that a lawman was so close to them.
I wonder if they are here to deliver goods to Onyx…
A gentle breeze blew over the delivery zone, and his belt cape fluttered in the soft wind. As he made his way off the platform and down a flight of stairs, he began to really notice that High Tower didn't smell. Seeing as how it was so close to a body of water, the city got to enjoy a near constant breeze. It kept much of the stench of other cities from building to the point of nausea.
The streets themselves looked pretty well maintained and nothing had looked rundown or ravaged from the war against the machines. Even though the battles had happened over four hundred cycles ago, plenty of the inner worlds still showed signs of now ancient scars. They had plenty of dust and plants to help cover it, but if you dug down at all, you would find pieces of the golden age of humanity, destroyed in that great war of survival.
A young woman walking by the Inquisitor on the sidewalk noticed him and nodded politely. He returned the gesture and made his way into the crowds navigating the paths.
The drop off point he had chosen was only a few blocks away from his destination, which would have made it ideal for a smuggling operation. Cyrus had done some research on some more research on Onyx after he had been given this mission,
just in case they were somehow linked to the attack on Senator Servius. Onyx was ruled by Lord Yondo Horsh, which from his file was a despicable human being.
Onyx itself was only one branch of an organization called the Five Skulls. The other extensions were Ruby, Topaz, Emerald and Opal. Each branch was controlled by a different lord and each controlled different sized realms. Neither leader seemed to mingle with the others except when it came to Dusk, the homeworld of the Five Skulls.
He was surprised to learn that while they had been around long before the war with the Synthetics, that one of the lords apparently was able to form her own kingdom within the Republic and had converted multiple worlds to join her nation.
This action, of course, angered the Republic's leadership as other worlds had already broken off and formed their own governments. To make an example to other fledgling nations, the Republic launched a very devastating campaign and defeated the Five Skulls on every world they ruled. The organization went from criminals to a government, then fell back to being lowlifes in the shadows again. While the Five Skulls was still around today, they didn't seem to be but a shell of their former selves.
As he walked the blocks heading towards a teal facility within the downtown district, he would occasionally check to see if he noticed anyone following him.
Good so far. Let’s see if this luck holds out and we actually locate someone.
He checked his gauntlet for the time and figured that the operation to investigate the second facility was already underway.
Hopefully, that will distract anyone dirty within the local government and gives me time.
A white hover bus drove by on the street beside him and sent a gush of hot air out from under it. He swatted the dusty air away from his face and finally spotted it. The teal building had undoubtedly seen better rotations, but to him, it instantly felt like the right place.
While some people may tell you that they have an intuition about this or that, Cyrus had a special gift for detecting locations that housed criminal activity. Other inquisitors had joked with him that his destiny was to be a lawman all along.
He decided to find a seat at a nearby restaurant with outside seating and watch for activity. In one swift motion, he hopped over the waist-high barrier meant to create a fence around the outdoor eaters from passersby's bothering the customers. One man was startled at the motion as his eyes widened comically. He nearly dropped his sandwich on his pants when Cyrus nodded at the man and took a seat of his own at a table.
Before he picked up a menu, he took out a pair of black sunglasses and placed them over his eyes. They instantly connected to his gauntlet and displayed information right in front of him that only he could see.
He set the menu down on the table so that he could "look" at it while he used his right hand to scroll through known Onyx members until he found the profile of Otto. The man's face rotated silently with a display of his crimes listed beside him. He pulled up other Onyx pirates that were thought to be on Noire, and he went back and forth among the faces as he tried to confirm them to memory.
“Could I get you something to drink, sir?”
Cyrus looked up to see a cute young woman holding a tablet staring at him.
“Uh, yes, could I have a water to start with?”
“Sure thing hun!” she said as she pushed a button on her tablet. “Do you know what you would like to eat?”
“Not quite yet. Could I have a few moments?” he asked as he smiled kindly.
Her reflection bounced off the pristine sunglasses. “No problem. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” he said as she walked off to get his drink.
A man in a business suit sat down across from him at a different table. It was just about lunchtime in the city, and there was starting to be a lot of foot traffic as everyone broke to eat.
He glanced over at the front door of the teal building and blinked his eyes so that the glasses would zoom in. A lone man stood outside the structure with his hands clasped in front of him.
Probably one of them right there. How bad are things here that criminals could just operate out in broad daylight?
Not wanting to look suspicious he turned back to his menu and continued scrolling through faces. Eventually, the young waitress returned with the water. She set the cool glass down as moisture began to build up on the outside of it.
“Have you decided what you would like?”
"I apologize, I'm new to the area, and you have quite the unique menu here. What would you suggest?"
The young woman smiled cheerfully and tapped her leg with the electronic device in her hand. “I’d suggest getting the Zambo Griller. It’s quite a burst of flavors on a bun.”
“You know what, you’ve convinced me. I’ll take a Zambo Griller if you please.”
“Alright sweetie, coming up!” she started to walk away but turned back to him. “Hey, I’m sorry, but I gotta ask, are you an inquisitor or something?”
Cyrus smiled back and tried to appear embarrassed. “You got me.”
“Oh wow, I’ve never met one of you in person before. Is your job as crazy as the news and movies try to make it?”
“It is certainly different than what we are portrayed as in the theaters, but it has its perks,” he said as he reached out a gloved hand and touched his water.
Something about how the waitress briefly glanced at the glass caught his attention.
“Oh?” The woman seemed overly sweet when most citizens got anxious when they realized who he was. “Could you give me an example?” she asked as she strained to maintain eye contact.
Before Cyrus answered, he lifted the glass and started to bring it up to his face, and she glanced again at it. He gently set it down and smiled at her with his toothiest grin.
“I could,” he said as he pointed his finger at her. “For example, we go through extensive training that prepares us for all sorts of situations including assassination attempts. Like, for instance, how you just tried to poison me.”
The color drained from her young face as terror gripped her. “Wha…what…what do you mean? P…poison? Poison?” she stuttered as she backed up nervously.
Cyrus slowly stood up and brushed his belt cape away from his pistol.
Now seeing the grip of the gun sticking out of the holster, the waitress gripped her tablet tightly. “Pl…please…I didn’t want to do it!”
The businessman quickly pushed back his chair and stood up. But before he could draw his handgun, Cyrus pulled and fired twice into the man's chest. His body crashed into the table behind him as he tripped over his chair. People in the area began screaming and running in all sorts of directions to get away.
Cyrus turned back to the waitress who pulled out a knife and started to charge him. “Raaaah!” she screamed as she dove forward.
The Inquisitor reacted by striking her with his pistol so hard that she lost her footing and smashed into his own table. Before she could get up, he shot her right in the head. The knife clanked on the hard floor as her body became lifeless.
He scanned the area around him for other threats, but everyone else was trying to escape the violence. Using his glasses, he looked back at the teal building to see the other man was now gone.
“Frick!” he said as he raised his gauntlet to his mouth.
"Aries, I have engaged the members of Onyx on the surface. I have located their HQ, deploy the troops now." He ran towards the building and hopped the barrier with his gun in hand.
“Roger that Inquisitor. They are en route,” the Tribune said calmly over the radio.
Cyrus broke out in a full run as a black vehicle pulled up in front of him, and the side door slid open revealing a turret bolted to the floor. A man clothed in brown and black clothing grinned as he aimed his heavy machinegun and opened fire.
On instinct alone, the Inquisitor dove to his left and rose to a crouched position. Bullets zipped through the air tearing apart a parked car and killing three running civilians
down the road.
The Inquisitor raised his pistol and fired three times, killing the shooter just before the turret’s rounds reached him. Two more men exited the vehicle and brought up their rifles. The first one fell to the ground dead as Cyrus fired multiple times before he got up and ran for cover.
In anger, the last attacker fired relentlessly as the Inquisitor ducked behind an abandoned truck.
The armor piercing rounds tore right through the vehicle but thankfully missed Cyrus. As the man began to reload, the Inquisitor rose up and fired twice. One of the bullets missed but the other blasted him in the face. Blood exploded out of the back of his head and sprayed the now parked black vehicle.
Screams continued to ring out from the battle zone while sirens began to whine in the distance.
“Aries, things are getting bad down here. Deploy Delta pike and have them create a perimeter. If you don’t hear from me then deploy the rest of the forces and locate Otto.”
He didn't wait for a response and reloaded his sidearm. The magazine ejected out the bottom of his pistol, and he swapped it with a fresh one. He was sure to secure his mostly empty magazine in his belt.
Using the bullet-ridden truck as cover, he poked his head up and checked the building. He saw a vehicle drive up to the side of it and he knew that it was probably an attempt to help the local Onyx boss to escape.
“No, you don’t!” he shouted to no one as he got up and sprinted.
His boots clanked loudly against the stonecrete road with every step as he sped up. The driver of the waiting vehicle noticed him coming and motioned with his hand. A gunman stepped out from behind the truck and fired his rifle at the Lawman.
Dodging to his right, the Inquisitor narrowly avoided being shot in the chest. He aimed and fired two more times. The other man doubled over in pain and fell to the ground. In a vain effort, the driver fumbled with something dark but couldn’t get a good hold on it before Cyrus shot at him. The driver side glass must have been very thick because the bullets ricocheted off of it.
