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?"