War Is Not Going Well

"Lieutenant!" Dead and dying were laying next to haphazard barriers. Rolando was trying to save a man with what little medical training he had, Kyriac was long gone, having been folded in with a strike team hoping to cut off the enemy. Rolando had stayed behind to hold the fall back position and it wasn't working, the enemy was just advancing relentlessly and the dead were piling up. Rolando could figure they would, he'd fought the damnable creatures before, but now they were smarter. They had integrated ranged weaponry into their attacks and some how had figured out how to pilot starships.

"What?" The young man calling for Rolando was one of the farmers who had been press ganged into service, before that day he hadn't even fired a weapon not in some kind of video game.

"I don't think we can hold this position." It was really just Rolando and the farm boy left, everyone else was dying or already dead, the creatures weren't even attacking they were waiting.

"Where do suggest we go son? There ain't no evac." The landing ships that had deployed originally had gone, they were joining a space offensive somewhere else. The force on planet was just to keep the planet from falling to the mechanoids, and that hadn't worked for shit. Most of the planet was now dead or had been converted in methods that horrified Rolando.

"We could hide." The thought had occured to Rolando, but he couldn't leave the men behind to their fate, and he wasn't about to execute them either. Which meant they were stuck there.

"Just watch your damn zone boy." The boy did not, by the evening he was gone and Rolando was left with the dead and dying. He wrote in his journal the war was going great he hoped it would be over soon. He did not say which side he assumed would win.

And Just Like That Money From the Sky

Wars were great for business. Trezlan didn't supply armies directly, didn't have the infrastructure nor the firepower to directly arm a side. But Armies weren't the only people buying in a war, or at least not government armies. Plenty of smaller private security firms were looking for the best they could get, or to replenish stocks in case they were needed. In the wake of the new conflict Trezlan was extremely busy. He had to close his store front to just deal with all the extra orders he had coming in. It was remarkable, he was in danger of running out weapons something he didn't think was possible.

The conflict itself was worrying of course. Their were rumors of a second red war; which Trezlan did not believe because the first one was the last one as it were, a second one would be a catastrophic event that could not possibly have been repeated. This just was some kind of new conflict involving a nebulous force of awful slowly taking over the galaxy. Completely different from the red war which was a force of souls freed from their awful afterlife trying to take over the galaxy.

Trezlan was a bit concerned about Rolando though, he was apparently in the middle of the conflict area and no one had gotten word if he'd survived or not. Which was as a father something that worried him, if only because Rolando was important for what was to come, though Trezlan surmised the galaxy would have to survive for that to be an issue in the first place. Still business was good while it lasted, he hoped he lived long enough to spend the money.

In the Midst of Boredom

Excerpts from Lieutenant Rolando Lorentino's journal

Day 6: I think Kyriac is trying to kill me. First he offered to get breakfast this morning, but it tasted slightly different. He said they just didn't use enough salt, I believe it was some kind of low level poison. I am not letting him buy lunch for fear of the second dose of poison.

Day 7: Kyriac is totally trying to poison me. I know it now. He's offered to get me water three times this afternoon, no one does that. Clearly he's moved beyond food and into drinks. I'm on to him.

Day 8: It is now my fault that we can't get off this awful planet. Kyriac listed his reasons on a white board he had procured from a gift shop. I think he's using the white board in secret to plot out how he plans on killing me. He's arranged this with the cleaning crew, they are coming for me tonight, I know it.

Day 9: Transport is coming tomorrow. Kyriac is being annoying, saying I don't even know if its coming and I just say that to make myself feel better we're stuck here. Festival is almost up, so we can finally get a place to stay.

Day 10: No transport, no hotel room, no hope. Apparently there is a system wide issue effecting transport. I don't know what it is, or if there even is one. At this point I've given into the conspiracy theory the gods hate me and this is my punishment. To live out my days in a transport station's arrivals/departures lounge with a short asshole who hates me.

Day 11: Temporary event has expanded, now it appears to not be some kind of environmental thing. Whispers of a second Red War. Kyriac and I are now in danger of being left behind. I've got to figure out what to do.

Day 12: The war is here.

Even the Luck of the Lorentino's Runs Out

Rolando and Kyriac had been sitting in the transport station for two days. There had been no shuttles or any outbound traffic due for at least a week. Rolando thought this was an oversight by command, Kyriac thought it was just Rolando not paying attention to schedules. Either way it meant both men spent time in the transport station trying not to kill each other while they waited. As to why they were in the station and not in a hotel, those had all been booked up by a local festival, something about comets. Rolando theorized this was probably what the cult was doing there, planning on killing everyone in time for one of the comets, but he had nothing to back that up and so it was just a theory.

"This sucks." Kyriac was laying face down on one of the benches, he'd been throwing a ball to himself but recently lost it.

"I keep calling command they keep telling me they'll send someone when someone is available."

"They are liars and you should have checked to see how backwater this place was."

"You keep blaming me, but I don't think this is my fault." Rolando had taken to starting a journal, he had only gotten one sentence down -This Place sucks. He felt it was representative of the experience.

"Of course not Lieutenant, its not like this wasn't your operation and its not like you didn't properly scout out an ex filtration."

"Well when you say it like that."

"You just hoped your stupid luck would carry the day and there would be like a freighter or something to pick us up didn't you?"

"I'm not going to say no to that instead I'll just focus intently on my journal and pretend you don't exist."

"Why do I get the feeling this is almost an exact word for word conversation that has occured between your father and someone else?" Rolando didn't answer and Kyriac went to find his ball, it was amazing how unprepared the Lieutenant really was, it was almost enough for him to file a report, but he figured why even waste the report.

I'd Rather Not

Rolando had two more applications of sedative he could give Devis, but he had no idea what the breaking point was regarding too much, or too little. So he was hesitant to just inject him again while the drama with the cultists played out in front of him. It was almost enough to make him laugh, here he was worrying about Devis's health when his own was in doubt. The cultists had blocked off the room, but had not advanced. Kyriac had pushed over some of the furniture to create make shift barriers, though they wouldn't hold anyone for long.

"Why aren't they rushing us?" It seemed like a good question, Rolando didn't know, he was worried about structural integrity. The building was literally just a ranch, if they wanted to they could easily blow out a wall and assault their back.

"Must be waiting to see if we are going to come out."

"We were setting up the poison gentleman, its what took so long." Sand seemed confident to Rolando, and he should have been considering he did in fact have a lot of poison available to him.

"You gas us you kill your leader."

"We're a death cult Mr. Lorentino, he'd rather die free than live with as a prisoner." Kyriac looked back at Trezlan and shrugged.

"Well then Sand prepare to join your boss." He didn't have much of a bead on where the cultists were, but the walls shittyness could work in his favor. He and Kyraic opened up on the sides of the door, their weapon fire split open the entry way and through a quirk of luck happened to detonate the poison canisters in the hallway with the cultists., though it did mean the poison was now unleashed. Rolando acted fast, and grabbed Kyriac's hand leaving behind Devis. He shifted, thinking of the ridge way they'd been watching in the first place.

"So basically we shouldn't have tried at all." Kyriac was the first to point out the obvious.

"Right, lesson learned, orbital bombardment of cult camps." In the distance the compound was slowly being engulfed in a poison cloud. Both men didn't even have to say what they were thinking.

Best Laid Plans of Assholes

Devis was getting bored. He'd thought running a cult dedicated to his fire would be fun, and it mostly was when the sex was good, but now the women in the cult were all boring and more devoted to fire than he personally as their avatar. He also didn't trust Sand, the man who had one point had been his confident seemingly was moving against him everyday and Devis couldn't abide by that, but at the same point Sand ran the cult and Devis would be lost about anything even the daily bills. So that left him with killing everyone and starting over somewhere else. He had resigned himself to doing it right after he burned alive the two assholes the imperial military sent after him. He was about call up Sand when he heard a noise behind him and felt a sharp prick in the back of his neck. Then the world went black.

"Well that's at least one thing down." Rolando hoped the sedative dose was enough to get Devis out of the complex, and on to a ship.

"Right so just blink us out of here right?"

"Umm hmmm actually haven't ever done that with two people." Kyriac frowned.

"And you don't want to try?"

"Do you want to find out what happens when I shift with too many people?"

"No not really."

"Ok so that means we have to fight our way out." Kyriac was about to say something when a lot of foot work was coming to where they were.

"And probably pretty fast Lieutenant."

"Probably."

Brings Back Memories

"Is there a thing with Lorentino's and cages?" The Fire God was wearing the robe of one of the cultists, how she acquired it wasn't immediately clear.

"Who is that?" Kyriac was confused how Rolando could possibly know one of the cultists.

"The Fire God Kyriac, we are in the presence of the true god."

"I like how you derisively said that Mr. Lorentino, you are you're fathers son, in all ways apparently. He too loved to be locked up awaiting his execution at the hand of fire, even I at one point toyed with the idea." The Fire God looked at both men with bemusement. She didn't know why she'd come, didn't know why she cared about the Lorentino's she'd seen many outcomes where they weren't important at all, but still she couldn't help but feel an ownership of this dumb family of necromancers. Allowing Trezlan to live had let this whole thing become an issue in the first place and the Fire God was paying that penance every day.

"What do you want other than to mock my predicament." The locks opened on both his and Kyriacs shackles and their cells.

"To let you free, though I will caution you, this is the second thing you owe me and intend on collecting at some point." She went to leave, not that she had to walk out, she could just disappear in a puff of flame, but she always found it was easier for the lessers to see you leave before you do that, gave them a sense of finality.

"So you wouldn't happen to know where they put our weapons?" But she was already gone, Rolando shrugged and Kyriac could only sit there dumb founded. He had just met a god and the Lieutenant didn't seem phased at all. Perhaps command had a way bigger issue on their hands then even they knew.

Man Has to Live For Himself

Trezlan was drinking his morning coffee alone. The new store location was fairly nice, it had two apartments so he could stop literally living with Valrym, and decent foot traffic even though he didn't necessarily need the foot traffic. It was still nice to see the occasional customer who came in looked over his selection of antiques and pronounced something wrong so that Trezlan could feel superior to everyone. It was something he always liked, and one reason he even opened a store. Not to sell anything, just to talk down to people and then see them leave in a fury that the man behind the counter was rude.

The coffee was good, decent beans from some place that Valrym like to get it. Slightly bitter aftertaste, it was the poison Valrym put in the coffee hoping Trezlan wasn't tasting it. Trezlan was aware of the rouse and thus aware Valrym was trying to kill him, but he liked the idea of the little godling trying to poison him and failing at it. It brought a smile to his face. Much like the confused couple who came in to look at his antiques, but seemingly knew little of antiques or what he sold. It was almost a perfect day.

"He's in trouble again." Valrym emerged, as he tended to do from the back.

"Who is?"

"Your son."

"Oh, well I'm sure he can sort this one out, my first couple cults were hard as well." Valrym looked on in shock.

"They are going to burn him alive."

"So he jumped the learning curve, I remember my first cult like it was yesterday..." Trezlan launched into a story and Valrym wished the poison would work a lot faster than it was, because he was tired of Trezlan's storys and generally being an awful person.

So That Was a Bad Plan

"So this is my life now." Rolando always knew this would be his fate. His father had mentioned many a time of sitting in cells, sometimes for years at a time. And now Rolando was doing the same thing. It was sad to end up doing the things Trezlan did, almost like the universe hated him in a really specific way. The cell was not very well maintained, it was at one point some kind of live stock pen with metal bars on it, Rolando didn't want to know what it normal use was for the cult, seeing as he saw blood smeared on the wall, he figured nothing good.

"You know I'd never been arrested prior to working with you, now I've been in two cells so far, not liking the change in leadership." Kyriac was chained to the wall, Rolando was at least free to move around with his shackles on.

"Well this was your plan Kyriac, my plan was just call in an orbital bombardment." Not that there were any ships in the area, nor would they probably have provided the bombardment, but still Rolando liked the idea of destroying the entire complex and calling it a day.

"If you hadn't screwed it up..."

"It was a dumb plan!"

"You're an ass..."

"Gentleman." It was Devis the magical they had been sent to capture, he was dressed only in what appeared to be dirty white pants, his hairless torso which was decidedly average to Rolando seemed in contrast to his elaborate hair style which defied description.

"Devis by the authority of Imperial Government..." Rolando tried to do his job, well tried as much as one person shackled in a cell can do.

"Right right you're here to arrest me on charges stemming from your governments backwards view system. Yes yes I'm well aware, what I'm wondering is why a being of power like yourself is shackled to a false view point. Brother why are you shackling yourself to false beliefs?" Devis ignited his hand and extended it as if to shake Rolando's hand. "Embrace the fire brother it will not burn you."

"Yeah no, sorry not into weird burning cults." Devis look soured.

"Well if you will not join us you will burn for us, you and your little mishappen child."

"Hey that's insulting." Devis left, and Rolando looked to Kyriac.

"So you don't know a way out of shackles do you?"

"Use a key."

"Ever helpful Kyriac, ever helpful."

Not Very Legit

"Salesman?" Sand was wondering when the imperial military boys would show up at the compound. Ever since the poison attack failed he expected they'd be there sooner rather than later, but they hadn't shown up at all. He was almost wondering if they had given up, and then someone at the gate said there were two salesman wanting to pitch something to the head of the house and he just knew this had to be the magic hunters, though salesman? What kind of idiot would choose that? Still Sand agreed to let the "salesman" to come to the front, and sure enough it was the Lieutenant and his short Sergeant just like Sand had expected when he'd gotten a look at their files.

"Are the you the decision maker of this fine establishment?" The Lieutenant did all the talking, he was dressed in a ridiculous blue suit along side the shorty who was wearing a slightly less flamboyant white one clearly intended for a child and not a man.

"And if I were?"

"Well my friend I have a great offer for you today, it's all about cleaning products." Rolando did not like this plan, and the man who had opened the door seemed more amused than intrigued. Rolando felt ridiculous in the suit, but it was the only thing that fit him at the store.

"Cleaning products?"

"Industrial grade, imperial military spec, my friend and I are whole salers had an order get canceled on us and our loss is your gain." Sand smiled at Rolando, the Lieutenant wasn't too terrible at his pitch, though his personnel file mentioned something about his father being a gun dealer.

"I don't think we need cleaning products gentleman, though I do have something you can help me with." Sand signaled his men and they rushed the two imperial military people, making sure to shackle the Lieutenant first. "Yes Lieutenant you and your sergeant will be a great bargaining chip for me and mine." Sand smiled to himself, two imperial military people would be worth quite a lot for the cult, and quite a lot for Sand himself.

Slightly More Terrified

The cultist complex was at some kind of pack animal ranch. It made sense. It was an isolated locale with plenty of sight lines to pick out where people are and plenty of places to set up an ambush. It also let them have time to themselves which had let them build up their resources. Rolando and Kyriac were observing from a distance, they spotted plenty of guards with high powered weapons. It would not be an easy extraction as Rolando had hoped.

"Question."

"That many shifts in a short period of time would be a risk of corruption Kyriac, especially the distances."

"No I'm more wondering how we went from sitting at a fountain to finding our targets with you making one call." It had been eating at Kyriac since Rolando suddenly knew where to go. He feared that the younger Lorentino had called his father which would confirm command's suspicions the two were working together.

"Two calls actually, and Kyriac I know you think I just rely on the luck of my family, but I do have a brain. My first call went to the sheriff to determine where the chemical compound used in the poison came from, next one was to Imperial command to determine where that compound was delivered on this planet. Using those factors I discovered this ranch because they had a large supply of the chemical and while it does have uses for agriculture, not for live stock producing agriculture."

"I'm impressed."

"Thank you, now of course the bigger question is, how in the gods damned way can we possibly get inside a religious nutjob compound that's already aware we are coming."

"And for that I may have a plan."

"I'm not going to like this plan am I?"

"Well that depends Rolando, how good are you at selling things?"

It'll Come to Me Eventually

"Sorry about that Lieutenant but you did shoot two men in cold blood." The sheriff unlocked the cells and Kyriac and Rolando exited, none the worse for the wear for the day of time they'd lost. The locals even returned their weapons with ammo, and their supplies which was the least they could do.

"It's ok we killed two people on arrival that's always enough to warrant a further look." It wasn't actually ok to Rolando, it pissed him off locals thought they could contain him or Kyriac. He wanted imperial command to reprimand these assholes for slowing he and Kyriac's work down. Effectively letting the cult prepare for them.

"At least you understand Lieutenant. And it wasn't bombs, it was poison, fairly nasty one too, damn near ate through the containment device we exploded it in." Rolando would have felt better with bombs, poison meant someone in the cult was a chemist, or at the very least really lucky with mixing dangerous things.

"Thank you sheriff we're already delayed, nice meeting you." Kyriac walked outside first and Rolando followed, it was mid morning one of the planets suns was coming up and Rolando shielded his eyes from the blue light. Both men didn't really know what to do, Rolando lead them to the center of town near a nice fountain and then sat down for a minute.

"You don't have any idea what to do next do you?"

"I was hoping time in jail would help me come up with a better plan."

"Did it?"

"Well I'm sitting at a fountain wondering the best way to ask about a cult of murderers, so no." Kyriac joined him on the bench.

"At least your honest."

"Oh I wouldn't go that far Kyriac." Rolando smiled and figured things will work themselves out, the cult already tried to kill him once, surely they'll try again. Surely.

Keeping Up With The News

"And so they both got arrested." Valrym always had an ear to the ground, it's one reason he had stayed alive all this time. That and being near Lorentino when everything turned to shit. But he liked to think it was his ability to keep one step ahead by using news and resources and not anything to do with Trezlan.

"That is hilarious and exactly why I do things outside the scope of the law." Trezlan was in the middle of sorting through his journal, it was partially hand written, partially typed, and partially on audio recording and he was trying to put it altogether, a task that Valrym thought was dumb, but it was entertaining at least to see the old necromancer struggle at something.

"You do things outside the scope of the law because you're actively wanted by like half the galaxy, the other half just pretends you're a boogeyman."

"Oh Val do you really think I'm wanted by half? That's touching." Trezlan was currently engaged in trying to decipher where the hand written/type written divide occurred. It was maddening, made worse by his hand writing. Ordinarily he's just remember where it happened, but it was hundreds of years ago and he was unable to remember the moment.

"Shouldn't we get back to making money or making the world a worse place or whatever we are doing now I forget."

"Biding our time until the next conflict with Morley, and resources, so many resources, speaking of which how is the boy going to deal with being arrested, he didn't break out again did he?" Trezlan was minorly concerned how often Rolando got in trouble, its like his son specifically took chances without realizing what a gift he'd be given. Also how the boy factored in to Trezlan's plans.

"He's still in jail, though he should be out soon, I mean cultists tried to blow him up, not exactly a let them shoot first situation."

"He's going after a cult? They grow up so fast Val." Valrym sighed, knowing hte mind of Trezlan Lorentino was difficult, knowing when he was joking or being serious was gods damned impossible. Still soon enough Lorentino would stop being useful to him and then it would be time to make his move, so he bided his time, and Trezlan was none the wiser as he always had been.

Seemed Like a Bad Idea At The Time

"The Imperial military authorizes you two to shoot people in the street?" Rolando never really liked local authorities. In his experience on the Rim they tended to be corrupt jack asses who were just as likely to turn on you as help you. It didn't help his father had said as much back when he lived with him and experience kept proving the elder Lorentino correct.

"They had bomb Sheriff." The sheriff had both man's explosive devices, he was toying with them as Rolando looked on in horror.

"Are you sure these are bombs? Look like some kind of toy thing to me." Rolando wasn't exactly sure they were bombs, but they looked like bombs; Kyriac agreed. Unfortunately as they sat in the sheriff's office Rolando felt less and less convinced they were.

"Look sheriff you'll have to take this up with management we've got things to do." Rolando stood up and the older man drew on him along with his deputies.

"Nope that's not how we do things here Lieutenant you and your man here are going to spend some time in a cell until we figure this out." Rolando sighed and Kyriac just shook his head, but both men went along with it. They had to at least respect the authority of the planet, even if neither man actually did. As the bars slammed into place Rolando could feel his dislike for local authorities shoot up.

"Next time I say we just let them blow us up." Kyriac agreed and both men waited, it was all they really could do.

No One Ever Brings Flowers

There was no one waiting for Rolando and Kyriac. They stepped off the shuttle and into the small greeting area of the space port and not even a maintenance guy was there. The pilot's didn't seem bothered by it, so they gathered their gear and moved further on. Outside of the small ship greeting area was a larger common area that appeared to have some restaurants and desks for where people would direct others to catch shuttles to other places, but no one was there either.

"I don't think we're going to get flowers." Rolando dropped his gear and un-holstered his pistol making sure to put a round in the chamber. Kyriac took up a position by some chairs, his compressed plasma rifle slightly humming.

"I was hoping for chocolates, flowers die, chocolate is forever."

"That's bullshit, chocolate goes bad, I had bad chocolate on the rim it sucked." Rolando moved up from his position and got closer to the exit. He hand motioned Kyriac forward and the shorty crept over the chairs and sprinted to the front of a tourist station promoting the local attractions.

"I refuse to believe chocolate goes bad, I don't want to live in a world where that's true." The entrance, looked to have two people waiting, dressed in white with red highlights. To Rolando they looked like bad sports fans.

"Gentleman care to intervene in our discussion about chocolate?" Both men seemed surprised by Rolando just walking up to them. He could see they had some form of explosives in hand, possibly to blow themselves up. They didn't even pull the trigger on their devices, which made it easier for Rolando and Kyriac to do just that.

"Suicide bombers, inventive."

"Right Kyriac, but the question I have to ask myself as we stand over the dead bodies of two men, where is everyone else?"

Welcoming Party

"Only two?" Devis was surprised that the imperial military thought so little of him. He had established a cult, killed several people, and was known on his planet as more than a little dangerous, and yet the government just sent two, it was an insult.

"Well this Lorentino fellow seems to be fairly nasty, I believe he might even be a shifter." Sand wasn't that fond of Devis, but he was a useful idiot, the kind of person Sand was find letting run the show while not actually running the show. Devis didn't even know how many cult member they had, let alone what all of them were doing. And that was fine with Sand, especially if the Imperial military was going to start looking for Devis.

"Should we send him a welcome? I think five or six men should be sufficient."

"More than sufficient sir." It wouldn't be, not to kill a shifter, but it would allow Sand to at least see the effectiveness of this lieutenant and the man he was bringing with him.

"Make the plans than Sand, I have work elsewhere." What work Devis had was probably debauchery. To Sand it appeared all Devis ever did was drink and screw, how he became a cult leader was almost mystifying with how stupid he was. Sand was already imagining what he would do with the Cult with Devis in shackles somewhere, all kinds of ideas.

****

"You think they'll send someone to greet us?" Lorentino was very chatty, which was a change from Barker who never said anything, Kyriac was kind of half way on whether it was a good change or a bad one.

"The cultists?"

"No no, the planet, I'm sure the cultists will send someone, but we are the first reps from the Imperial government to visit Ril in about two years, I wonder if they'll send a welcoming party."

"Pretty sure if its been two years since we were here Rolando what they'll send us will not be a welcoming party." Kyriac was sure of it, most of the planets outside the core worlds of the imperial government weren't fond of being a part of it.

"Well make sure you have a round in the chamber and you're wearing body armor, I think today will probably be a long day." The shuttle was nearing the pad and Kyriac nodded, though the idea of a round in the chamber with an energy weapon was a bit ridiculous he let that one slide.

And Now You Owe Me

Simon didn't want to return to work. Ever since she'd been freed from her captivity she didn't feel up to investigating anything. She sat at her desk, looking at her computer's monitor in a bit of a fugue. No one said anything bad to her, nor did anyone imply anything bad about her, but she couldn't shake the feeling everyone was talking about her behind her back. That people were whispering about her connection to the dangerous Trezlan Lorentino. How had he found her? What did he want for freeing her? He hadn't said. He just let her go and didn't speak at all. Which just left Simon wondering what if anything he would eventually come for. So it didn't come as a huge surprise when her first call of the day was Trezlan Lorentino.

"You can't call me here." Simon was terrified, it was a video call everyone could see him if they came by.

"I can call you wherever I want Simon, I own you."

"You don't own me."

"I believe differently Detective, if not for me you'd be dead or worse, I saved you, I did not do it out of the kindness of my heart." His voice was cold and demanding, the kind of authority you use when you know the other person can't say no.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing, for now, but know this Simon, you're now mine, and in time I'll collect." The feed winked out and Simon cursed her rotten luck. She had never been dirty, but now because of that damned necromancer she was effectively dirty. She sighed and just sat in stunned silence not knowing what to do, which is probably what Trezlan Lorentino wanted.

***

"You are never going to ask for that woman's help are you?" Valrym had come back from wherever he went without Trezlan, Trezlan never asked because Val never asked what he did by himself either.

"Nope, I mean never say never, but eh what good is a detective to me on a planet I probably won't go back to? This is more just me screwing with someone because I can."

"You're so awful."

"Thank you Val, now on to that arms deal..."

Just Like That

"I'm still confused how you went from being in actual prison to being in charge of our unit." Kyriac was walking alongside Rolando. They had been assigned to go track down a loose magical, this one was not exactly on the Rim, but close enough to be Rimish. Rolando wasn't even shackled anymore, they had "taken him off the chain" as the Imperial guard said when they unlocked him from holding.

"I charmed them with all the nice things I've done for Empire."

"Bullshit, you saved the emperor and got locked up, I doubt almost getting blown up by Barker would suddenly change things." Rolando shrugged.

"Look I can't tell you why the Empire does these things, maybe they realized keeping me locked up just put the Empire in danger, the best place for me is working." It made sense to Rolando, not so much to Kyriac.

"So who are we after?" Kyriac didn't have much of a feeling with the young Lieutenant, he had proven himself obstinate, and he was a Lorentino which was another layer of danger, but his record was fairly clean and he'd taken down several magical people in the past. Which could play into him being a plant for his father, helping the elder Lorentino by removing problems, but despite several inquiries to the matter the Imperial Military had found no evidence of that. Kyriac remained unconvinced but Rolando outranked him and he did follow orders even if they were by people he didn't trust.

"A bad man Sergeant, a bad man." They loaded into the shuttle and Rolando sat in the back and closed his eyes. Kyriac sighed and called up the information on the target, a Simon Trents, and as Rolando had said, he was indeed a bad man.

Legal As the Day is Long

The Lyn family was dead, Vitor knew it. He knew it the second that Barker's lifeless body was found on a shuttle port. He knew it the second his perimeter sentry went dark and the rest of his family started dying. The emperor had sent one man, and that's all it took, one stupid sin was wiping out his whole family and all Lyn could do was sit there and stew about how Trezlan maneuvered him and then wiped him out. He recalled a conversation once with an associate to never underestimate the Lorentinos, never be at odds with the weapon dealer. But that was a memory he'd rather forget as he waited for the sin.

There were four of them in the room watching the only door inside. Body armor and high tech weaponry spread among them. The door went red for a brief moment and exploded, they all opened fire, just dumping round after round into the hall. Their guns ran dry and the hallway was filled with smoke and shrapnel. Six shots answered the din of gun fire and after it was all done but Lyn was left standing and his weapon was rendered inoperable.  The one eyed assassin emerged his robotic eye surveying the damage.

"Kill me." Lyn did not want a speech from this stone faced killer.

"Not my choice." The man withdrew a communication device and the emperor in his naked glory was suddenly in the room.

"Vitor Lyn, I see my assassin reached you, I guess he's slightly better than yours."

"MINE SHOULD HAVE KILLED YOU!"

"Either way Vitor, I just wanted to let you know I beat you, Mr. Dubois if you please." Dubois fired two more bullets and Vitor was dead, his exploded head laid amongst his men.

"The empire will cover my expenses."

"As always Mr. Dubois we pay our debts and thank you for your service."

"There is one thing else Emperor."

"And that is?" The emperor was slightly annoyed with Dubois, he did not expect this man of little words to speak so much.

"A matter about a lieutenant Lorentino..."

Nice Try

Barker loaded into the shuttle with fear. He had been told to kill both Lorentinos, he had failed at that. Lyn would not be happy, but he'd have to smooth that over. He was also burnt with the Imperial military, he knew blowing up a hospital was dangerous, but he was sure he could have at least killed Rolando, but that damned shifter avoided it without issue like he had avoided the shuttle bomb. Barker's own injuries were pretty severe, space travel was probably not in his best interest, but he had to get out of town.

"Good evening Mr. Barker." Barker had heard the voice before, he knew it was Lorentino, he was going to go for his gun when he felt his body seize up. "Yes your ability to fight back has been compromised, maybe in the next life you'll look at your seat before you sit down."

"You bastard."

"Come come, how dare you insult me after you turned your back on your government and attempted to kill me and my son, nice attempt, I'll wonder for years how you found I was at that cafe, but not too much." The ritual Trezlan had invoked was pulling what little life Barker had in him out, agonizingly slow.

"I can make a deal."

"You have nothing I want, nothing anyone wants, and soon enough your employer will find he too has nothing anyone wants either." Dubois had already left to kill Lyn, said he'd take care of it personally, which left Trezlan to deal with Barker and get off planet before Rolando caught up with him.

"Information..." Barkers pain was exceptional at this point, Trezlan had been in his place once, and it sucked.

"Nothing I don't know, Mr. Barker please you're a cog not the machine." Trezlan pulled the strand of magic attaching himself to Barker and he died with a thump. Trezlan dumped the body outside of the shuttle and motioned to the pilot it was time to leave, he was done helping his son for now.

Well At Least They Can Get Treated

The hospital was a warzone. The imperial military was attempting to fight back, but the gun thugs that the bomber had hired were of sufficiently good quality and they had hit fairly fast leaving the men guarding Barker unprepared to say the least. There were only two of them left now, and they were calling for help for anyone who could listen. Rolando arrived just as another squad got there, the cab driver he had called up took off immediately, Rolando couldn't blame him.

"What's the situation here?" The sergeant in charge looked visibly relieved when Rolando showed up, he was surprised no one else from command was there, or even contacting this squad they were in the middle of the freaking city.

"No clue sir, something's jamming coms and our transport station was attacked earlier all but one shuttle was blown up." It was shocking to Rolando how brazen Lyn was being, then again the man did try and kill the emperor.

"Well I'm here now, how many men do you have?"

"Six sir, but two are hurt, we have reports of at least ten men inside the hospital, and supposedly two of barkers men are pinned down, but holding, we have no confirmation of that." Rolando was so angry at how things had turned out, he could feel it boiling up in his blood. This brazen attempt on an imperial officer was going to be put down, and hard, Rolando would see to that personally.

"Pull back your men, make sure no one gets out."

"Yes sir, do you need a weapon?" The sergeant seemed even more relieved.

"Nah shifting tends to break anything that's more modern than what I carry, thanks for the suggestion." Rolando had a twelve round pistol and knife, both were owned by his mother and she used them effectively. He'd tried to use more modern weaponry, but they never survived past a couple shifts and an unreliable weapon was dangerous in a combat zone. Rolando snagged a loud speaker the sergeant had been using to order his men, and walked toward where the gun thugs had taken up in front of the hospital.

"You have five seconds to turn down your arms and turn yourself in the Imperial military can promise favorable sentencing for anyone who gives up now?" The laughter followed by gun fire was everything Rolando expected. He shifted behind the men at the counter, they never even noticed he was there until he fired the first shot. There were three of them there, wearing modified body armor, Rolando shot the man to his immediate right through the back of his head the bullet exiting out his jaw. He shifted again to another man and slit his throat, and fired another fatal shot at the surviving member, this one hit the man below his eye. He heard more fun fire up the hall way and moved up the stairs, There was a weird sense for Rolando, he didn't feel the corruption, even though with three rapid fire shifts he should have been feeling a bit more pressure, instead he felt better than he had in a while, even the bruises from the explosion earlier which had been bothering him weren't anymore. He tried not to concern himself with what was going on though he had to save barker.

Up the stairs was four more men, they had pinned down Barkers group and were about to advance when he showed up. He didn't even have to shift, the gun thugs had their backs to him and so he just them all like his old target back with Trezlan. When the last man fell he felt a zing of power through his hand and it terrified him, something was wrong, Trezlan had done something to him, he knew it now, and whatever it was, was bad.

"Weapon down!" It was order from the shorter Sergeant Kyriac.

"It's me you're safe." Kyriac visibly breathed a sigh of relief at seeing it was in fact Lorentino.

"Thank the gods, I was shocked as anyone when these assholes showed up, where is support?"

"Blown up at the transport field, I don't know where the bomber is though, how's Barker?"

"Isn't he with you?"

"No? He was supposed to be at the hospital?"

"No we were guarding a young lieutenant who was near the shuttle when it blew up." Rolando was confused, he didn't recall another man on the shuttlepad other than Barker and himself, the pilots were dead on explosion. He rushed to the door just in time to see the very large bomb in the bed, grabbing Kyriac and the other mans hand's he shifted again, this time back to the office just in time for the hospital and the grounds around it to be annihilated.

The Politics of Scum

Rolando was uncomfortable with the people around him. He never had an issue going into the areas of poverty, he'd had to do it several times on the Rim chasing after one random person or another. But the under city area that Dubois was walking through like it was just another day in the life was dingier and more awful than anything he'd seen on the Rim. It was probably due to the under city existing for a lot longer and having a more set in stone social structure of awful, than anything in any far colony. The people in the under city were sad people, they had that beaten down look that spoke volumes. Dubois at least knew where he was going, which was nice because it was definitely the kind of place where getting lost could get you dead.

"Gentleman." The two people in front of Dubois looked less like gentleman and more like the kind of people you'd accidentally bump into and regret having touched them.

"One eye is here, told you he'd come back." The shorter stockier one did all the talking, what Rolando could tell his name was slime.

"Right, gentleman I'm looking for a man works with the Lyn's likes to make bombs." The two looked between them like they knew, but didn't want to say what they knew.

"What do we get one eye?" Dubois didn't blink, he pulled his large pistol and primed the first shot.

"You get to live, at least for a day, ask again like I'd bother to pay either of you scum suckers and I'll come back down here personally to execute you for the insult." Mordere's weren't known for treating people with kindness, or even basic courtesy.

"Easy one eye know need to pull on us we're just trying to get by." Rolando understood the men's issue, his father had dealt with scummy people before, they didn't start out assholes, they learned that from their time amongst assholes.

"Well get by on someone else, my associate and I are on a limited timer, so the bomber.."

"Right right, yeah your bomber he came looking for some gun thugs earlier, anyone who could pull and not shit themselves, he was going to roll up on a hospital to off some lieutenant like your boy." Rolando immediately got worried, if the Lyn's thought they had put Rolando in the hospital and not Barker, Barker was in immediate danger and for the crime of simply being near Rolando.

"I'd say thank you, but neither of you earned it, tell anyone I was here and you'll never see the bullet that killed you." It seemed strange to tell two of the scummy shits not to alert anyone to their presence when just about everyone could see Rolando and Dubois, but clearly there was a power structure Dubois counted on. They were outside the undercity when Rolando turned to Dubois.

"You're not coming with me to the hosptial are you? That was all for show so that I save Barker and you get rid of me?"

"And Trezlan always thought you slow young Lorentino." Rolando sighed and let the assassin past him.

"How will I get to the hospital?" Dubois tossed him a com device, something cheap and possibly not even legal.

"Good luck Lieutenant I don't suspect we'll meet again." And so Dubois left to go kill Lyn as he had intended on before getting side tracked. Rolando set out for the hospital and a lot of people ended up dead, as was common in the world.