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An expansive turquoise sky, as calm and tranquil as a tropical sea, stretches across the horizon. A giant, dark-blue planet hidden behind the land's twirling sherbet clouds smothers the firmament, almost as if it was ready to come crashing down any second.

Below the serene yet eerie atmosphere is a swaying pasture of pinkish crops with blue bulbs growing down the sides. The farmlands are separated into multiple rows, each with distinct flora trapped in a box of crimson-fenced wiring that produces a twitching zap ever so often.

Though the crops are encased in a blue bubble, blue square-shaped dropbots whiz past the temperature shielding and float down to collect some of the plants and place them in the blue knapsacks on their backs. An older near-human male with teal skin and bulging turquoise eyes wearing black hex-gridded overalls walk past each of the vibrant grazings.

He stops in front of a bluish fence holding a transparent pear-shaped fruit with an orange liquid swishing around its inside. One of the dropbots floats down, extends one of its metallic arms from its pouch, and places a ripe fruit in the farmer's long four-fingered hands. Though callused and cracked, a show of his workmanship, he grazes the plump berry before holding it up to his lips and taking a bite, then sucking out the flowing honeyed hamlin juices with a smile.

"Just about right. Give it a few more starnets, and they'll be good enough for harvest." His rasped voice enthuses with a nod.

A breeze rolls over him, causing his black curled-back hair to flow to the side as he does a quick about-face. His eyelids lower as he glances into the horizon's shimmering heatwave as a short individual comes into view. After a few moments down the amber-dirt path, the individual is made out to be a young girl with pale, almost white skin and short cinnamon-colored hair rolling in the passing breeze.

She stops a few feet in front of the farmer, him looking her up and down with squinted eyes. She wears a white bomber jacket with metallic-gray grooves going down the sides and, while unzipped, reveals a black undersuit with the letters 'GF' intertwined around a pair of expanding angelic-winged lines.

"Ah, you're from the Federation, I see. Must be a long way from Sector 24. How has seventy-six been treating ya'? I see you're doing just fine despite the scorching heat."

The girl lifts her head, gazing at the blaring white sun with squinted eyes. Beads of sweat roll down her cheeks as she takes a deep breath, adjusting her white worker's cap onto her head.

"Good starvas, sir. My name is Miya, an Ens-Officer under Tavaus Patrollment securing Sectors 68 through 79. I was sent here due to an emergency-distress beacon going off at Planet 696-AC-76, Acuraspat. Your home, I presume."

The farmer nods his head. "My name is Aoi, and likewise. Ya' got the right coordinates, but I assure that we've had no one visit for quite sometime. This planet was sold off to Grevenas, and they hired me as their landskeep. It's private property, and if there's been any breaches, Grevenas would've sent a security shuttle to check it out."

Miya crosses her arms and turns around. A sizable blue-grassed hill in the distance holds a group of Srichiya, beige trees with long brownish trunks and greenish umbrella-like leaves shooting several meters into the sky.

"You said, we. There's someone else that resides here with you?"

Aoi nods before turning around. "That would be my daughter Yua. We transferred from Sector 76 a few moons ago. All that blastin' and shootin' above our planet from rebels and bounty hunter dogfights made my daughter worry. Not to mention the crops started to decay from all the fuel dumps flakin' from the skies as well."

He then ushers Miya with a wave as he walks down the dirt path.

"But enough about me. I can see you're not thick-skinned like us Elymanians, sweatin' like a Zuschanot. Come on and I'll show you to the tempermant zone hubble. Nice and cool near our residence, we can continue our talk there."

Miya wipes a trail of sweat running down her brow and follows him.

"So, how'd you get here if you don't mind me askin'? I didn't get any trans reports, so it couldn't have been by ship."

"I arrived through other means." Miya briefly explains. "How long have you been stationed here? The premise logs stated that this property was a few tricts trayward from here."

"Ah, yes. That was the prior landkeep's residence. We decided to move our providence a bit outward for safety. The Judrac that live on the other side of the ravine, for instance, eat any predatory flora that may try to attack our crops."

A group of triangular shadows looms over Miya's head. She looks at a group of long furred-beasts with four-winged arms flapping above her. Their four-azure beady eyes lock onto Miya and then continue rising high into the sky. Judrac, or Yurgspanuals as the Monzangizi call them, are predatory creatures that can go on for weeks without the nourishment of meat. However, once their cravings start, they'll eat just about anything that moves.

Their golden wings span several feet across the surrounding blue, with another forceful flap that blows a brisk wind across the ground. Miya inhales the citrus smell wafting from the cultivated brown soil surrounding her, its sweet and fruity fragrance lingering in her nose.

A semitransparent lilac field comes into view in front of the path. Aoi steps through and looks back at Miya, a few feet behind.

"Come on through. The weather's fine!" He urges with a grin.

Miya's tepid stare glances at him past the purple field. She then raises her foot and takes a single step forward with a sigh. The turquoise grass is a lot more vibrant beyond the hubble, with the farmland now changing from cropped fields to farmland buildings in the vicinity.

They pass by a levitating green tractor with booming mecha-thrusters for wheels that levitate over a large silver disc on the ground. Then a blue-glass coop holding fat hairless chicken-like creatures with bulging black eyes squawking and cooing into cacophony.

Aoi hums a soft tune as he continues down the narrow path. Miya's brown-tan eyes dash to the side as she raises her nose for a sniff. She then discontinues her next step and turns to face a large, white metal barn on the side of the trail.

"What's in there?" Miya inquires, pointing toward the tall building with a scowl.

Aoi turns around while scratching his receding black mane. "Hmm... You'll only find some maintenance equipment in there. Nothing important, I assure you."

Miya sniffs, and a twitch of disgust crosses her face.

Being an Ens-Officer for the Federation means getting on-call for distress beacons, emergency land shuttles, and mundane tasks that her higher-ups label as busy work. Though ever so often, that one case turns out to be bigger than expected, and people get hurt, killed, or worse. Miya knows that her kind isn't treated well and is expendable, so they could be careless with the details and her safety. So, to stay alive, officers must find a fear sense or foresight to help them in times of need when something seems off.

Her foresight is her nose, and the foul stench has saved her countless times from danger because of her time on the frontlines. Its smell resembles rotten capacullas left in the searing heat on a planet's tidally locked side of the sun. Or perhaps a Turtangrular's intestinal gas after its belly explodes from parasitic marmalades, chewing through its stomach lining. Miya's favorite comparison is rodent urine from a Farsalox, a spider-like beast that tends to kill its prey and wait weeks to eat its kills' decayed flesh.

But one may not be so poetic and regard it as the smell of rotting corpses.

Before Miya steps toward the lingering smell, a trail of hurried footsteps makes her head turn past Aoi. A young Elymanian girl with long turquoise hair, complimenting her light-blue skin, is braided into a ponytail on her back that sways as she runs towards them. Her black hex-gridded overalls are coated in a dense layer of brown muck and splotches on her face. However, her cheery-laughing smile and welcoming wave don't stop her personality from shining outward.

"Padar! Padar! I finally fixed the Auro-P16 so it could till our northern farm-tracks. Now we won't have to stretch further into that Beehatrix colony!" The young girl stops in front of Aoi with a grin before rubbing the top of her head.

Aoi smiles and pats her hair with a gentle touch. "You have quite the knack for those electro-wares. I'm proud of you lots, dearie."

"Thanks pa!" The young girl beams.

Aoi then turns around and extends his palm toward Miya, still eyeing them both with a dubious glare.

"This is my daughter, Yua. If it weren't for her techy know-how, I'd still be out plowing the fields like the elden Domini before me!"

"Oh, padar, you would've eventually gotten with the times... I think..." Yua giggles and then looks past Aoi.

Her eyes gleam at the gold crest pinned to the top of Miya's jacket. "And you're an officer for the Federation, that's so cool! I've heard so many stories from our past sector about the 'protectors of our galaxy.' Our last province didn't have any, so it was quite dangerous. I'm glad we moved somewhere a bit safer!"

Yua skips a few steps in front of Miya, offering her a wide smile. "So what's your Annoberu? I think we're about the same in moons if you were born in a frost cycle. You're kind of short though… But you're Ya'valtian, aren't you? I heard you all don't reach senescence for entire warp cycles!"

Miya's eyebrows raise as the tips of her closed lips stretch down into a scowl. She then turns around, and despite her 5" 4 stature, she manages to get on her tipped toes and tap a finger on Yua's chest.

"Never make the mistake of calling me that again." Miya's eyes fade from their amber-brown and blush into a crimson-red. "Do I make myself clear, jobuuya?"

Yua's eyes widen. She then takes a step back and nods while looking to the side.

"I'm not a jobuuya… I clearly live in a home and not a cave, and do not have four arms, nor am I ugly!"

"Are you… It wasn't meant to be literal." Miya sighs and turns around, walking toward the tall white barn in the distance.

Aoi steps to Yua's side as she flicks her tongue with puffed cheeks. "It wasn't meant to me literal, she said! How was I supposed to know… That jerk…"

Aoi laughs, then places his hands on his hips. "I wouldn't take it personally, dearie. We're new to this quadrant and there are some things that won't come naturally to us like their way with words."

Yua nods while holding her head up to the side. "I… I guess… B-but she's still mean! I thought officers were nice and caring. I did not receive that at all from that yarinya."

"Yes, I suppose not." Aoi's smile drops down into a neutral face. "I'm sure she has some questions to ask me. Why don't you go see to the dropbots down the road and make sure they're all well?"

"Hehe, no need for surprise maintenance checks anymore! With the new diagnostics screen I installed, we can see-"

Aoi turns his head, and despite not having any pupils, his intense blue-lensed stare and unambiguous expression leave her speechless.

“Yes, pader… I’ll see to them now….” Yua murmurs with a droop of her head, then treads down the dirt path past him.

Aoi turns to face the barn. Its long square doors already spread a small crack revealing the ominous darkness within. He steps in front of the tall building. His boots create a metallic clink that makes him look down at a set of blue-dasolic locks cracked open with fingerprints on the sides.

He clicks his teeth and walks through the doors. The darkness spreads around his body as the dirt turns into a floor of hay that softens his footsteps. Though the inside is masked with shadows and clouds of material dust scattered throughout the enclosure, one can make out the empty wooden stables and opened barrels around the room.

Aoi then turns around and closes the sliding barn doors before picking up a therm-tech lantern by its handle near a walled shelf. He clicks the switch on the side of the lantern. It then flicks into a vibrant green stick of light.

With the room now illuminated, he gazes at Miya a few paces ahead, looking up into the hayloft with crossed arms. Despite the horrendous display, her eyes show no fear or concern.

Several corpses of young children are pinned across the aisles. Their stone-gray skin, now discolored, is bruised with long cuts and lacerations. Their deranged open jaws and appalled facial expressions show the grief they experienced before their deaths. Though some keep their yellow-eye sockets, others are more mushed with green flies and red twitching insects entering and exiting through their nose and mouths. Their open torsos, torn and dismembered, fall to the floor with stringy gray flesh and pinkish-red intestines acting as support lines back to the rest of their bodies.

Miya walks in front of one child's heaps of pinkish innards. White tube-like maggots the size of human thumbs resurface through the mound along with red leaf-shaped flies that buzz around the pile of gump.

"I'm assuming this is your doing. You held a calm facade in front of your daughter, but I could tell from your eyes that you didn't want me to see whatever was in here. That, and it smells like a bowl of kjul'aas shit. How your kin couldn't point it out is beyond me."

Aoi's lips grow into a smirk as he sets down the lantern on the floor. "Yes, well, our people aren't known for our sense of smell. But you seemed to notice the scent as soon as you walked in the hubble barrier."

"Yeah, speaking of that… You do know that it was stupidly obvious that the barrier had infiltrator nanodes? …What? You wanted to knock me out then pin me up like these poor yachmin?"

"I wouldn't expect anything less from an officer of the Federation." Aoi's long purple forked-tongue licks across his bottom lip. "But now that you've seen my work, I can't let you leave."

"Well, naturally." Miya turns back around, then looks back up at the children's hanging corpses with a nod. "But I'm still curious as to how you acquired your new toys. Stone pigmented skin… Flaxen eyes… Oh! They're Bal'vorth from the Warring Sector in 70… Flaxenar, I believe their home turf is called?"

Aoi nods while walking a few steps to the right with a grin. "Very perceptive, officer. But how would you know about this?"

"Everyone knows about the Hashe'en-Balvorthian Battlegrounds in this sector. They're having some big dispute over clan territory that's lasted over fifteen exo-cycles. And these poor bastards had to witness their parents die in battle, only for them to end up fucked by someone like you. Truly distasteful."

"It wasn't like they were going anywhere more pleasant, murja." Aoi responds, then crouches down to search the hay with both hands. "Just more weapons and test buds for the wealthy core to use in their conquest."

"Oh, I agree. The Federation sends transport shuttles for orphaned children during interplanetary wars whenever the casualty reports come from the battle's victor. With little to no security on the shuttles, they can easily get remotely hijacked or picked up by crickers passing by. For the passengers that don't end up dead, they usually end up in various places and sectors just to be made work slaves, issued to body brokers, or made into lifeless fahise."

Aoi's eyes widen as he grasps a curved cleaver with sharp edges and lunges forward at Miya's back, still turned, seemingly aloof to his near assault.

—CLINK

An orange spark illuminates Miya's face as she spins around, blocking the cleaver with a midnight-blue XMS pistol in hand. Though similar to the standard-issued officer pistol, this one has variegated energy lines swiveling down its sides. The gun's black sheen is due to Stethil, a rare metal from Xyfar-12 that can self-repair its atoms biochemically.

Aoi grits his teeth, slides to the side then swipes again with his knife; Miya leans back, allowing the sharp edge to cut some of her hair strands still lingering in the air before her eyes. She then redirects and clashes her pistol with the cleaver as Aoi swings at her from multiple directions. Each hit creates orange sparks that sprinkle the air like firecrackers.

Miya catches another of Aoi's strokes with the short barrel of her pistol, then throws it upward, causing him to lose balance. She then twirls to the side, and a cherry-neon glow illuminates the sides of her gun as the nozzle hole oozes with a crimson bubble.
Aoi's eyes widen as he stumbles back, barely eluding the red neon beam as it scrapes his forehead, leaving a black burn mark. Regaining focus, he looks to the side at Miya as she hurls her fist into his abdomen. He gasps as the air is knocked out of his lungs, then throws his cleaver above her head.

Miya chops the side of his wrist, causing his cleaver to drop as he winces. She then takes his arm and throws his entire body over her head in an incredible show of strength. Aoi's body tumbles across the hay floor. After stopping a few feet away, he looks back with a hoarse cough.
Miya steps forward and then raises her pistol toward him with a smirk. "I'll be escorting you to Tavaus III, where you'll be held in holding for questioning. Any more resistance and I might accidentally kill you."

Aoi smirks, then glides his hand across the hay at his side. "Unfortunately, I'm not goin' anywhere."

Miya's eyes widen as Aoi pulls a triple-barrel ECT-19 shotgun from a mound of hay. The weapon was made by EnoCal for Terror Hunters in the Supa Star Quadrant to hunt medium-sized monsters. This one has custom adjustments, such as the trigger-less grip and MK-plasma voltage.

With several clicks of its inner chambers, the sides release a green light that runs down the edges into the barrel. Aoi presses two fingers on the trigger grip, and a buckshot of three straight green darts whizzes through the air. Miya ducks down and looks back at the sizzling green plasma ooze melting the barn wall behind her.

Miya then jumps back, dodging another buckshot with a grin. "Where'd you get that from? You do know you're breaking Aero-law by having an unlicensed and modified weapon, especially as a civilian."

Aoi's toes leap off the ground with each shot he releases. "Sector 70 was a bit lax on obtaining firearms, with no law enforcers. Gettin' something like this was surprisingly easy."

The air smells of smoky fumes and burnt charcoal with each blast of his cannon. Miya runs across the room, stopping in front of a metal steel beam. Aoi turns and clicks the trigger, releasing another verdant buckshot from his shotgun. Miya ducks down, causing the blast to cut through the shaft, with one of the small corpses breaking from its hinges and falling.

Before it reaches the ground, Miya kicks the half-blooded torso in front of Aoi. With another click, his shot creates a short blast that explodes the top portion of the body, spraying blue mushy tissue across the room.

Aoi then takes a step back, his eyes scanning the room with a gulp as he twists his shotgun back and forth. The lantern's green light flickers behind him, creating ominous shadows of his environment. The mounds of hay's small silhouettes now look like pricked black needles poking from the ground while the upper metal beams seem to close in on him, like inky hands conjured by a Dark Lord.

A red stream of light catches Aoi's eye to the left, but before he can react, it bolts past his side and blows the lantern to pieces. The room becomes pitch black, with the last crackles of the destroyed lantern fizzing out, and the room becomes hushed as well.

"Now that I think about it, you didn't dismember their entire bodies, only the lower halves allowing their entrails to escape to the floor."

—BANG

Aoi turns to the side with a gasp. Sweat drips down his face as smoke leaves the triple nozzles of his shotgun. Despite hearing Miya's voice, the small space makes her words echo around the room, making him unable to pinpoint her.

"You're a part of that religious cult, aren't you? What're they called…? Godlem Sacratus or something like that? A bunch of misfits who cut people up to appease a green giant. I wonder how much they'll up my pay-grade if I bring in one of their members."

—BANG BANG

"You're not bringing me in, ya hear? I'm gonna cut you up nice and slow, so show yourself!" Aoi hollers into the inky abyss that surrounds him.

The lantern's green photon stick fizzes once more, creating a slight shadow behind Aoi. He turns around with a warrior's cry; However, Miya kicks him in his shin, causing him to fall to his knees. In a failed attempt to hit her with his shotgun, Miya whacks him with her pistol, sending him crashing to the ground with a groan.

She presses her boot onto his chest, hovering over him with the tip of her nozzle centered at his noggin.

"… Pa! Are you in there? I took a look at the dropbots and they seem to be fine…." Yua's voice exclaims from outside the barn's doors.

Aoi leans up and begins to open his mouth, but Miya bends down and slams her knees into his throat, causing him to wheeze. She then scrapes up a pile of blue-gooey intestines from the floor and jabs it into his mouth, causing him to sputter with muffled screams.

Miya jabs the bottom of his chin, then pushes her gun's nozzle into Aoi's mouth. With a slight push of her trigger, the grooves of the gun radiate a modest heat that causes the molding flesh to bubble and churn in his mouth. White larvae squirm down Aoi's lips as his nose holes release a nauseating gas with every breath he takes. His eyes roll to the back of his head, refusing to chew or swallow.

After a few moments, footsteps go out of earshot from behind the barn doors. Miya lifts herself from atop Aoi, making him tumble to the side and disgorge a combination of slick mucus, runny liver-covered vomit, and steaming blue-maggot-infested innards. His mouth is scarred with black streaks of burnt flesh, some of which aren't his own.

"Killing me wouldn't solve anything. It would only make your life harder." Miya kicks his ECT-19 shotgun to the side, then takes a few feet back to squat down. "I'm assuming you left seventy because you got into some trouble or you wanted to keep your kin safe. If you kill an officer of a quadrant's law enforcement, you get a crimestat that puts you up for hunters and mercs everywhere. You really want to put your daughter through such a life?"

Aoi wipes a trail of spit from his lips and nods his head. "N-no… What fuquin would want that for their kin?"

"Then there's only one option for you." Miya stretches and then jumps to her feet.

"I-I see… Only one option indeed…." Aoi stammers while reaching for the shotgun at his side.

Miya turns around and starts walking toward the barn doors. "Yep. Turn yourself in and your daughter goes free-"

—Click

Miya's eyes dart to the side as Aoi slides the gun nozzle into his mouth, with tears streaming down his face.

—BANG BANG

Aoi's cranium explodes with burnt turquoise skin and crimson dust powdering the air. His brain and fragmented skull expel from the impact before his body falls limp to the floor.

Miya scrunches her nose and then groans while scratching the sides of her head. "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Do you know how many points you were worth? You're worth nothing if I bring you in dead!"

The barn doors screech as they move apart, giving way to a narrow white light spreading throughout the barn.

Yua walks through the tiny slit, holding her arms with a gulp. "Pader…? A-Are you in here…? I heard some voices and a gunshot. I was just wondering if you were- "

Her eyes go white as her knees fall to the floor. She crawls over to Aoi's bloodied and shambled face, almost unrecognizable. His fractured nose bone creates a blood-filled bubble as he takes his last breath.

Yua grips his shirt with a whimper, tears flooding her eyes and running down her cheeks as she sobs uncontrollably.

“Pader…! Pader…! Please… W-why would this happen?"

A rustle of hay to her side makes Yua's head jolt upward. She looks up at Miya's gleaming crimson pupils with hazel flakes etched around the edges. As if looking into the eyes of a rabid beast after its prey had been slayed, a shiver coursed down Yua's spine.

"W-why would you do this…? I thought you were an officer… You're supposed to protect us…!" Yua hicks, wiping the mucus running down her nose.

Miya raises her gun and centers it in front of Yua's face. Despite looking down the gun's nozzle, the girl's eyes widen with fury as she clenches her teeth.

"Give me an answer… Answer me… ANSWER ME-"

"Kekaara."

—BANG

A sharp line of scarlet light penetrates through Yua's noggin as her head whips to the side from impact. Her body then falls onto her father's; A damp-sticky red broth oozing below their twitching corpses.

Miya's unemphatic gaze lingers on them briefly before placing her smoking pistol back into her thigh holster. She then turns around and walks through the barn doors, allowing the chaotic display to settle on its own.