By the time Exo helped dock Kelish’s station with the worm drive, there was a representative waiting for them in the hangar of the astrodock. He was a short man, tanned face carved with the wrinkles of age. He had a full beard of black hair, a bald head, and a large nose. As Arthur and Kelish disembarked with everything they would need for the mission ahead, the man seemed to jump, “A-Ah… I did not know that there were two of you… I apologize for my oversight. We could-”

“All we need is transport to the outpost where the incidents have occured and some minor repairs on the armor of our station,” Arthur cut in.

The man nodded shakily, “I-I see. In that case, you would not mind riding with the reinforcements, would you?” he asked. Arthur and Kelish merely shook their heads, “Thank you, Inquisitors. The next crew is beginning their descent in about ten minutes. Their station is over there,” he said, pointing to another station docked at one of the pylons, “If they are stupid enough to deny you access, then tell them that Vulcan sent you.”

“Noted,” Arthur replied, “We will be going, then. Make sure that our station is left alone.” The man nodded, throwing himself towards one of the elevators and soaring through the zero gravity area. As he left, he turned to Kelish and turned on his radio, “Are you fine if I just call it ‘our’ station from now on?” he asked, drifting forwards.

Kelish followed behind him, hooking her feet into a few less footholds than he needed to, “I don’t. It makes everything easier. I didn’t get much time to study our mission, seeing as how you gave me so much homework, so do you mind filling me in?”

Arthur chuckled a bit, taking care not to let his frame shake any, “No problem. So far, if we include the last victim Vulcan informed us of, there are four victims, an Oni, a normal human, a Seeker, and an Ukalan. They were all killed by a set of bio-altered mandibles, so it’s safe to say that our perpetrator is a bio breeder or a chimerist, using the Hlaphids as the genetic base of their experiments. So, we need to both find the perp, and destroy any notes they have. We can’t exactly trust the people of this mining colony to do the job properly.”

Kelish nodded just enough for him to see as they were in front of the station. From what Arthur read about the way that Moskt Belaran drilling worked, he knew that the station was only a miniature astrodock for the dropship, which mostly devoted its space to storage capacity to ferry oil between the planet and orbit. Once the station was filled with the crude oil, it would dock back with the astrodock and unload its cargo, which was when another station would disembark to take the place of the first. It was a complex machine that worked like clockwork to ensure the maximum amount of crude oil was collected from the planet in the shortest amount of time.

Arthur knocked on the hull of the station, waiting for the occupants to open the hatch, wherever it was. A moment later, a hatch at the top of the spherical station opened, “What is it!?” someone shouted, “We’re almost ready!” The person, a Meytvani woman wearing most of a power armor astrosuit, floated over the side of the sphere to look at them. As soon as she caught sight of them, she gulped, “I… Uh… didn’t expect you, Inquisitors. I apologize. Uh… what can I do for you?” she asked, giving a smile.

“We were sent to investigate the incidents that have occured in the subsurface drilling outpost. Vulcan said that you were disembarking in ten minutes. We are coming with you,” he stated.

The woman nodded shakily, “I-I understand, sir. Come with me, then. I’ll get you set up!” She waited for them to begin their climb up the side of the station before leading them to the hatch at the top of the station. Through the hatch was a small control booth, with a young Vikshe man sitting at the cramped cockpit.

He turned to them, then gaped, “Damn, didn’t know you guys would be here so fast,” he muttered, “It’s only been a few days…”

Arthur and Kelish ignored him, following the Meytvani woman down another hatch beside the control cockpit. When they passed through that, they reached a small pod, with five other people within. One of them, a Kamaitachi with dense fur on his arms and legs and bio blades in his wrists, looked up at the Meytvani as they entered, “What happened?” he asked. Then Arthur and Kelish entered the cramped pod, “Oh… that happened. Well, crap. Uh… you guys know how to fight, right?” Arthur and Kelish just stared at him, “Alright, I get it. You don’t need to stare at me like that. Jeez…”

The Meytvani woman slapped the man on the head, “Sorry about him, Inquisitors. He’s an oaf and we’re all more than a little surprised that he lived this long down there, with all the bugs around.” Arthur just nodded in response, and looked around the cramped pod for a place to strap in, “Um… Sorry, Inquisitor, but these pods only have six seats…”

Arthur sighed into his helmet, making sure the gesture was not seen by the other occupants of the dropship, and turned to Kelish, “You take it,” he said over the radio, “I’ve dealt with my share of free floating entries. I’ll be fine.” Kelish nodded just enough for him to see and took the open seat, right beside a human woman who seemed to be napping, but Arthur knew that she was examining them thoroughly. Beside her was a Seeker, judging by the carboglass faceplate and battle skirt-like lower armor, who did a double take when they entered the pod, then looked away. The person beside him was an Ukalan man who just stared at the pair of Inquisitors with some degree of awe. They all wore gray sets of power armor style astrosuits, with the only difference being the considerations given to their species and a small red badge on the human woman’s chestplate.

Arthur, seeing that every seat was taken, stood beside Kelish’s seat and held onto the titasteel bars making up her hand holds. A moment later, a voice came over the internal speakers, “This is Fe9, decoupling your station. Stand by.” Arthur felt them crossing the event horizon of a wormhole a moment later, then felt it cross another a second after that. When they crossed the second event horizon, the voice returned, “Your station is in a proper orbit. Cargo dropping in five. Four. Three. Two. One. Dropship deployed. Brace for acceleration,” Fe9 warned just as Arthur felt inertia try to rip his feet from the floor. That was far from his first rodeo, though, and he knew to hook his foot under Kelish’s seat before they began their acceleration. A moment later, their acceleration increased once more, and Arthur had to grip onto Kelish’s handholds tightly to avoid being thrown to the ceiling. A moment later, the voice returned, “Prepare for deceleration,” it said. Arthur braced his legs for the impact not a moment too soon, as inertia pushed him into the floor like an angry god. Luckily, he was experienced and avoided breaking his legs with the help of his armor. The inertia continued for a few moments, before the voice returned one final time, “Dropship has arrived. Please disembark immediately.”

The top hatch opened automatically and the sounds of beam fire and plasma explosions flooded in. None of the occupants seemed bothered, though, and they all filed out of the pod one by one. They all looked at Arthur as if he were a ghost, though; it was probably because they had never seen someone do a free floating atmospheric entry.

“That looked dangerous,” Kelish commented through their radio.

Before Arthur could answer, Exo did, “While it is highly discouraged by almost every safety commission in existence and illegal for companies and corporations to allow at their workplace, Inquisitors are expected to know how to do it by the time they receive their own station.”

“Oh… I don’t want to learn how to do that…” she mumbled.

“It’s better you learn now than wing it when you need it,” Arthur replied, “Come on, we’ve got work to do.” Kelish nodded, unrestrained since they were alone, following him out of the dropship and onto solid ground. They ended up in a large cavern made of stone with a large silo door in the ceiling. The door led to the surface, but was being closed at that moment. The cavern was shaped like a large, rough dome, with the silo door in the ceiling and the outpost in the center. There were roots of some massive plant burrowing through the ceiling. All along the roots were bioluminescent bulbs, shining soft blue light over the entire cavern. All along the walls, moss grew in the light of the bulbs, adding a green and brown tint to the gray stone, but there was a circle of mossless stone around the outpost. In the outpost, there were a couple dozen buildings in the cavern, all of which were reinforced massively with titasteel. There were also a couple buildings that were closer to garages for massive machines than actual habitable buildings, but they also had human-sized entrances.

The fighting was coming from one of the offshoot tunnels from the cavern, but Arthur noticed the conspicuous pipeline going through the floor of it. Whatever the case, he and Kelish had a job to do. And the first step of that job was to find whoever was in charge. That was easier done than said, as it turned out, as a large Oni walked out from one of the buildings at a near sprint. She was wearing an undersuit and a pair of overalls over that, but did not have any other armor nor a helmet. She ran up to them with a relieved smile on her face, “Oh thank god you’re here!” she panted, “Everyone’s all wound up and nervous about the bodies. But now that you’re here, you’ll fix that, right?” she asked.

“Please calm down and explain to me what happened,” Arthur said, holding up a hand. From what he read in the mission file, the bodies were all found near the barracks, and while they could not test the blood samples, given that they were dealing with the mysterious bloodsucker cult, witnesses said that they were either drinking or extremely tired before the attacks.

The woman looked confused for a second, then nodded hurriedly, “Yeah, yeah, I gotta explain it. While I explain, can I bring you to the mortuary? We haven’t brought the bodies up to the astrodock because we didn’t want anyone sneaking out with them.”

“That would be helpful,” Arthur replied, “Firstly, I want to know if anyone has seen anything. The wounds, from the reports sent by your company, suggest that the victims suffered attacks by genetically altered and bred Hlaphid creatures. Has anyone seen anything like that? Such as Hlaphids sneaking through the shadows, or even any tracks?”

The woman rubbed her chin for a long while, “No, no tracks, no sightings, nothing. All we found was a corpse drained of all blood and with weird bite marks on them. I don’t know what you guys look for when finding foul play, but I’m thankful you picked it up,” she said, turning a corner, “Also, the doc was saying something about smelling ‘seducer’s scent.’ It’s apparently some sort of drug that paralyzes people. It’s some sort of fetish thing from wherever he was talking about, since it also increases the sensitivity in the skin neurons or something like that. But, he’s claiming that someone in our crew is paralyzing people and killing them with some freaky monster bug.”

Arthur nodded to the woman, thinking. That was a lot of information, a lot that he could use as well, “Exo, search up what you can on this ‘seducer's scent’ and give me a more accurate rundown of it.” Exo’s waveform nodded, and he went to work, “Kel, make sure that your helmet is filtering out the air. I don’t want you to get nabbed by this bastard.”

“Got it,” Kelish replied, tapping her helmet, “By the way, do you have a plan on how to capture this guy? Or gal? Because the only way I’m seeing this working is if we wait for the guy to paralyze another person. And I doubt that would do well for the whole reputation thing you are obsessed with.”

“That would not be good for our reputation, no,” Arthur answered, motionlessly chuckling a bit, “I can try to use my Mind to psychically look for sneaking creatures, but it is hard to differentiate a person from a sentient creature. It would be easier if the suspect made a non-sentient creature, but that would be assuming too much. We need more information, and getting a good look at the bodies can help determine how large the chimeras we’re dealing with are.”

“Okay, that works,” Kelish said. Arthur raised an eyebrow at that. He wondered why she was satisfied with his plan, but he put it out of his mind. They arrived at the mortuary, which was a small two storied building with a small sign that stated exactly what kind of building it was.

The Oni forewoman led them through the door and into a small lobby. It was no larger than a large, ancient terran automobile, but it was finely furnished. There were wooden floors, likely made from the roots of other caverns, and with other wooden furnishings. Chairs, a table, a front desk, and even wooden railings going up to the second floor. “Alright, this way. We kept them in the safe coolers, so you could have a look at them, but I don’t know if the doc is around. He might be patching the kids up near the front line.”

Arthur merely nodded, following her to the morgue. There were eight coolers on the wall, but only four of them were in use. The other four were being used as temporary storage for tools, if the one that was open was any indication. The forewoman opened them up, one by one, and laid the bodies on autopsy tables, which they had stacked up in the corner. The wounds were, in Arthur’s relatively modest opinion, quite odd. He had training in the medical sciences greater than most doctors working in hospitals, but even he was confounded as to how the wounds on the victims got there.

If the perpetrator bred or created a Hlaphid, then he expected a bit. Instead, it looked like a massive insect burrowed its mandibles into the victims flesh, then opened them. If the pained expressions on the victim’s faces was anything to go by, it was painful, to say the least. Even the forewoman had to step out once Arthur began to poke around the wounds. Kelish reluctantly watched as Arthur looked at the cuts from the worst of the shriveled wounds and abrasions around them. It seemed that the victims suffered repeated ‘reverse bites,’ as he called them in his mind, around their intestines. Not lethal, but painful. He was also able to use his analyzer module to detect any odd chemicals in the little blood remaining in their flesh, and the doctor was correct; someone had indeed injected a chemical into the victims. 

Something was nagging at him in the back of his mind, but every time he tried to figure out what it was, it would slip his mind. There was something he was missing, but he did not know what. “Exo, did you figure out what this ‘seducer’s scent’ is, and does it match what I’m seeing here?” he asked.

“I did, Inquisitor, and it does. It is a popular sexual impliment, used in the central sectors of the galaxy. The drug is similar to a lotion at room temperature, and putting enough of it near a person’s olfactory organs causes temporary paralysis. Other side effects include heightened neuron sensitivity and a light headache if too much is inhaled. Overall, Ms. Degurechaff addressed the effects of the drug quite well.”

“So, we have a drug that paralyzes the victim, a wound that looks like it hurts like hell, and some mystic witchcraft cult behind it all. Is it just me, or does it look like they’re trying to make these kills hurt the people dying?”

Arthur raised a finger to reply, but that was when it hit him. The genetic alterer, the pain enhancer from the cybernetic cases, the mysterious wounds, the pained expressions. It all made sense, “They are…” Arthur replied, “They’re trying to make it hurt. But the problem is that we don’t know why.”

“Can’t we just chalk it up to a crazy magic cult and leave it at that?” Kelish asked, “I mean, the Oni lady from the city planet was saying some crazy stuff about gods and uncles and stuff, right?”

“We could,” Exo replied, “But it would not exactly be following procedure if we were to chalk it up to simply ‘cultists are cultists.’ Even if the reasoning behind it is nonsensical, it’s our jobs to figure out what it is.”

Kelish snorted, “Since when was that in the job description?”

“It’s in the name, Kel,” Arthur said, “Inquisitors are meant to inquire.” Kelish snorted again, but otherwise did not reply. Arthur then looked at the wounds once more and examined them closer. If he were to estimate the size of the creature, he would have to say that it was about the size of a normal human’s torso, “Alright, I think it’s about this large,” Arthur said, gauging the size with his arms.

Kelish nodded, patting her beam rifle as if to make sure it was still there. Arthur just raised his eyebrow, then put the bodies away. He learned all he needed to, mainly that the creature they were hunting was about the size of a human torso, and that the perpetrator was intentionally causing intense pain to the victims. “So, what now?” Kelish asked.

Arthur did not reply immediately. They did not have many ways to go from there, “We need to do something, so let’s get a list of the residents and go from there,” Kelish nodded, following behind Arthur as they left the morgue, coming up behind the forewoman, “We are going to need a list of everyone who has been her during the four murders. We cannot discount there being multiple perpetrators, so anyone here during any of the murders needs to come to me. Understood?”

The forewoman  jumped, but nodded nonetheless, “Is there anything else you need, or should I get to it?” she asked.

“We are going to be searching the buildings for any evidence,” he stated, “Please tell us in advance if there is anything dangerous or explosive that we need to be careful around.” The woman nodded, telling the two Inquisitors about their fission mini reactor and the small cache of explosive gel they kept in the garage. With that, they set out to examine every building.

Doing so also gave him a chance to teach Kelish about properly searching buildings for evidence. The main point he needed to drive home was the concept of not recklessly wrecking everything in sight. Not only was that impolite, but it also ran the risk of destroying hidden pieces of evidence. Not to mention the effect it would have on the reputation of the Inquisition, but he barely needed to mention the topic of discussion before she made that connection. Instead, he showed her how to properly take care of everything they searched, and not to destroy people’s property just because she was searching through it.

A few hours later, and they had found very little that was useful for them, though the Forewoman did come through with the list near the end, giving them a list of thirty names. So, Arthur and Kelish went off to question the suspects. The first few were easy enough, and Arthur could tell that they were telling the truth, especially when their combined story of getting swarmed by hlaphids was corroborated by each of the others. It was only after the tenth suspect that things became difficult.

“I think they’re out fighting,” Kelish said, “We’ve looked all over and we haven’t found them, so they aren’t here.” After talking to the forewoman, Kelish’s suspicions were proven correct. They were out in the tunnels, fighting to protect the pipelines connecting to the large oil reservoirs around the central cavern.

“If they’re not here, then we go to them,” Arthur stated. Kelish discretely shrugged, and checked her beam rifle, just as he taught her. Arthur drew his carbine, and they left the central outpost to find the rest of the suspects.

The tunnels, which were large enough to accommodate whatever vehicle was in the garage, that the oil pipelines were being run through were filled with the bodies of many Hlaphids lying around, parts blown off of them. LIke the information Arthur found said, there were a few variants around that were apparently closer to species than castes. The most common were the Hlaphid soldiers, which were four feet long, a couple feet tall, had sharp teeth, large maws, and four legs-- Arthur was sure that they each had special names, since they were shaped differently and had different purposes, but he was not an entomologist, so he could only call them the armored front legs and the unarmored back legs. The workers, rarer on the battlefield for obvious reasons, were three feet long and just as tall as the soldiers, with six legs instead of the soldier’s four, none of which were armored, but the front legs had large, broad, and steel-like claws for digging through stone.

For obvious reasons, he did not find any slain queens in the tunnels, but he did find one that he recalled being the cataphract. It was seven feet long and five tall, with four legs, but the front pair were freakishly large, the pair being as large as the rest of the body if combined. They were also armored with chitin so strongly that Arthur wondered how they even moved them, especially with the rest of the body covered in armor as it was. Eventually, they found a small group of stratiotai, which were like the warriors, in both size and facial features, but with incredibly thicker armor, sharper front limbs, and larger maws.

Their peaceful if bloody jaunt, though, did not last forever. A small group of Hlaphid soldiers turned a corner ahead of them and turned to face Arthur and Kelish. As he noted before, they only had a single eye in their heads, but they were obviously blind with how they poked at the ground around them. Arthur knew that they were able to sense people through the ground, and that they already sensed them. So, he immediately attacked. He used his Mind to suppress the soldiers, raising his carbine to fire. Kelish was quicker on the draw than he was, and nailed one of them in the head just as it charged. Its head sported a clean new holw, blasted right where its eye once was.

The other Hlaphids roared their challenges, stumbling a bit but nonetheless running forwards. Arthur shot at them, but they brought their legs up in front of them to block his beam shots. Arthur growled, wondering how a species evolved an effective countermeasure to highly advanced weapons technology, and prepared to launch a plasma payload from the lower half of his gun. There was just one problem, though. There was an oil pipeline right beside the Hlaphids. Arthur was not stupid enough to forget that oil and plasma do not mix well, so he continued to fire beams at the Hlaphids, trying to break their armor. He also increased the power with which he suppressed them, making them stumble even more.

His shots, though, affected the bugs less than he would have liked, and they continued to stumble closer, their sharp maws and blunt legs clicking and gnashing together. When they were just five feet away, Arthur rushed forwards, kicking the one that Kelish was not shooting. It stumbled back, not expecting the kick, and Arthur used its moment of weakness to blast it in the head. With his target dead, there were only two more, both advancing on Kelish. One had its back turned to him, so Arthur let loose a burst of beamfire, hitting it in the joints of its two left legs.

It fell to the ground, still trying to pull itself forwards, but Kelish was ready to make use of the opening. She used her jetpack to jump over the able-bodied Hlaphid. She landed on the crippled one, stomping its head into the mossy, stone ground and blasted its eye open with her rifle. While she did that, though, the other one tried to sneak up on her. Unfortunately for it, Arthur was no slouch when it came to marksmanship. It made a lunge for Kelish, and Arthur blasted its eye to steaming vapor, sending it tumbling to the ground.

“Thanks,” Kelish said, nodding her head to Arthur, “Where to from here?” she asked, hopping off of the Hlaphid she just killed. Arthur just gestured forwards, to where the sounds of battle were growing louder. Kelish nodded, and they continued forwards. The whines of beam fire, the pops and cracks of gun fire, and the bright flashes of plasma all signaled that they were approaching their target, and when they rounded one final corner, they were met with the twenty-odd remaining suspects.

They were in a large cavern, one about half the size of the cavern where the outpost was housed. In the center was a short barricade, where they were all holed up, surrounding an oil pump. There was a diverse spread of species there, but the one that drew the most attention was the Janissary, who was fighting a pronoiarus with their bare hands. Though, bare hands was a stretch, as they were in their Janissary suit, which was a fifteen foot tall mech made of titasteel and with enough armor to be comparable to a battlestation.

The pronoiarus, which looked like a cataphract if it had grown a size or two, being just as long as the Janissary was tall and able to bite the suit’s midsection with ease. The Janissary stepped back as the large armored Hlaphid tried to bite through that very place, catching its jaw with a powerful punch. The massive bug was thrown a dozen feet away as another wave of Hlaphids of all sizes emerged from the walls, workers leading the charge when they finished digging their tunnels.

Arthur and Kelish shared a subtle, almost imperceptible nod, and shot forwards. There was a tangible hesitation as the two Inquisitors took the field, the company muscle likely stunned that they were there and the Hlaphids confused that relatively small prey were actually attacking instead of running away. Arthur inwardly chuckled when he had that thought-- it implied that they were smart enough to have such a thing as expectations. He doubted it, seeing as how they roared in response and rushed to meet Arthur and Kelish.

Arthur glanced around and was happy to see that the oil pipeline did not extend in the direction of the Hlaphids, as he could use his plasma launcher with impunity. “Stay back,” he warned over Kelish’s and his radio channel and slid to a stop, raising his carbine. Kelish did the same with her rifle and began firing just as the glob of plasma left the barrel of Arthur’s launcher.

Arthur was able to get three shots off and begin suppressing them before the ball of plasma’s membrane burst, showering the glob’s surroundings in heat. Arthur, once again, thanked his helmet for the ability to block out such intense light and continued firing into the startled and reduced horde of workers, soldiers, and stratiotai-- the stronger strain of soldiers-- as they stumbled back in shock at both the heat and the sudden psychic attack. Eventually, though, they grew enraged, and charged through the superheated air, suffering the burns just to attack the pair.

Kelish, who had been shooting her beam rifle, holstered it and switched to her shotgun, walking forwards to meet the charging Hlaphids. Arthur stayed back and shot the ones trying to go around her. Kelish left those ones up to Arthur and got into a ready stance. As the Hlaphids came closer and closer, they gnashed their teeth and roared, obviously ready to tear Kelish to shreds.

She was an Inquisitor, though, and was far from weak enough to fall victim to a small group of soldiers and workers. As they closed in on twenty feet of her, she ran forwards, shotgun raised. Her first shot burst one of the worker’s heads open, sending it tumbling back into the soldier behind it. The next tore through the midsection of the soldier on her right, separating its upper and lower halves. By the time she swung her gun to meet the next one, it was lunging at her, trying to bite at her face. Kelish met the soldier with a knee to the face, power boosted by her greave-mounted thrusters. The Hlaphid’s skull shattered with an audible crack. It screeched and was thrown into the approaching horde, stopping a few in their tracks.

Arthur continued to fire into the Hlaphids both trying to bypass Kelish and the ones trying to flank her. Slowly but steadily, the crowd thinned as more and more were met by Kelish’s shotgun blasts and creative use of her thruster modules. As the crowd thinned to almost nothing, though, a chitinous leg burst through the rocky ground. Then another. Then three more. Workers burst from the ground and charged Kelish, leaving a large hole in its wake. Through that hole, a cataphract emerged, followed by another. Kelish swore across their radio channel, backing up and bringing out her beam rifle, “Do you think they’re tough enough to survive a ball of plasma hitting them over the head?” Kelish asked.

“Maybe, but it’s the best we got, no?” he asked, suppressing them as he spoke. Before he could shoot his shot, though, a heavy footfall came from behind him. He turned a bit, seeing the Janissary standing there, looking down at them, “Yes?” he asked, checking to make sure his weapon was ready for another, more scrappy fight. Kelish already began firing, tearing into the Hlaphid workers but doing little more than slowing them down by making them bring their highly-armored forelimbs to bear.

The person in the suit seemed to flinch at Arthur’s curtness, regaining their confidence a moment later, “Sir,” the man inside said, “May I help with them?” he asked.

“You are welcome to. We did not come here to fight the locals, but they are threatening our suspects and potential witnesses,” he replied, “Stay back for a moment, though.” Just as he spoke, he shot the second plasma payload at the horde. They actually backed up a bit when they felt the heat from the red ball of plasma coming towards them, but they were unable to avoid being hit by it. Despite evaporating the remaining workers, though, Arthur saw less damage done to the cataphracts than he would have liked, with most of their chitinous armor flaking off but leaving their bodies unharmed. Arthur turned to the Janissary, “If you want to help, now would be the time.” He did not wait for a response, and rushed forwards, following Kelish who had already brought out her shotgun.

She used her jetpack for its intended purpose and leaped over the cataphract, shooting at the top of its head with her shotgun. Unfortunately, the cataphract lived up to its name and namesake; it had armor all over its body, the only exception being its hind quarters. Arthur assumed that it would focus on either one of them, giving the other a chance to shoot at the unarmored portion. It was smarter than that, though, and backed away from its comrade to focus on both of them at once. Arthur shot at it, trying to put pressure on it, while keeping an eye on the other one, which was preparing for the Janissary’s charge.

He did not need to bother, though, as the weight of the mech overpowered the cataphract easily. The Janissary pinned the bug to the ground, trying to wrestle it to a position where he could kill it, but Arthur had to focus on his own battle, so he placed his faith in the man in the suit. The cataphract that he and Kelish were facing, though, could see what they were doing. It charged at Arthur, obviously trying to assist its counterpart.

Arthur had a few choices when it came to dealing with the cataphract. He could either dodge it, leaving the Janissary to deal with it himself, shoot at it, likely getting hurt in the process, do both, which would do little more than anger the bug, or pull out the final option. He hated doing it, but sometimes, he needed to put his job over his distaste. So, he went for the coup d'etat, stopping his suppression of the Hlaphid’s Mind and going for the kill. He ripped the Mind of the Hlaphid, not even sentient, to ribbons.

The Hlaphid let out a pained cry so loud that the stone shook as if the planet itself was enraged. Then, it fell. It landed on the ground with a thump and stayed still. Blood pooled in its mouth, leaking out between its teeth. Arthur silently apologized to the bug’s scattered Mind, then turned to take care of the other cataphract, only to see the Janissary slowly ripping its head off. After a few more moments of the Janissary decapitating the bug in the messiest way possible, he stood and looked over to Arthur and Kelish’s foe, who had been dead for a few seconds by that point. “Ah… sorry about that, Inquisitor. He was kinda… stubborn.”

“Not a problem,” Arthur replied, holstering his weapon. Kelish did the same and followed behind him as he approached the Janissary’s mech. It seemed to be a newer model, if a half-century old design could be considered ‘new.’ Really, the Janissary program was one that was always unpopular with the League Guard, Inquisition, and public in general. The only reason why Janissaries were created beyond the Invader invasion of Terra was because of the other galactic conflicts and Invader sightings. “What generation are you from?” Arthur asked. It was just idle curiosity, but it made a good conversation starter-- especially if a Janissary was one of the suspects.

The man chuckled a bit, rubbing his helmeted head, “Well, I’m from the last generation. The one from the Bulwark-Invader conflict. Lost most of my limbs but they liked my performance enough to offer me a mech suit. How could I say no.”

“I see,” Arthur replied, “Then you are at least six hundred years old?” he asked. That was the reason that the public disliked the program; it extended the lifespan of the organic pilots by a millenium, at least. People did not like it because of the fact that the people in the program were able to collect on ‘retirement’ benefits despite being working age. Arthur had never heard of a Janissary trying to collect on it, not unless they were unable to work for a long period of time, but people had their opinions, and Arthur was not one to go digging for a deeper meaning for it unless it was part of his job.

The man sighed, “Just about. Six hundred and forty six this year. Damn, saying that makes me feel old… Anyway, is there anything I can do for you, Inquisitors?” he asked.

“There is,” Arthur replied, “We are investigating the recent murders that took place in the drilling outpost. I have a few questions that could help find the killer. Firstly, have you noticed anyone that had ill will towards the victims before their deaths?” he asked.

The man rubbed his chin, shrugging, “Not really. The doc kinda did, but he’s just a bit grumpy and one of them, the Oni, knocked one of the doc’s favorite coffee cups off a table. I doubt it was the doc who did it, though.” Arthur nodded in response; he had heard the same story from most of the people he interviewed before, and all of them came to the same conclusion.

“I see. Next question: have you noticed any strange behavior from anyone? More specifically, has anyone become distant or, maybe, manic?” he asked. That was a cold read-- a term he found quite fitting that he lifted from faux mystics and the like-- but if he was right, then it might have been able to provide some information that he could use.

Luckily, his cold read was accurate, “Well, there is one guy… He’s the company’s chemical analyst. They sent him here to study the crude oil to figure out where it all came from, figure out how long we need to wait for another payday, that sort of stuff. But about… a week ago? Yeah, a week ago, he started mumbling about needing to do something. His name’s Velke, Vikshe if the name didn’t tip you off on it.”

“Hmm,” Arthur hummed, “Did he say anything about… say, gods? We suspect that the person or group doing committing these murders is part of a large-scale cult and we are currently suspicious of any unestablished religious groups, so any mention of odd or unorthidox religious behaviors are important to take note of.”

The Janissary shrugged, “I dunno. He mentioned having to do something, but it could just as easily have been a bout of inspiration and he’s just really getting into it. Those are just my thoughts, though. The others probably have some opinions on Velke’s behavior.”

“In that case, we will question your comrades immediately. Continue with whatever mission you were doing before.” The Janissary nodded, turning to walk back to his group of well-armed enforcers, all of whom were more than a bit nervous about Arthur and Kelish’s presence.

The mention of Velke struck Arthur as quite a bit odd. The name did not come up before, and, since the list was in alphabetical order, they would have questioned the man second to last in their search. After questioning the rest of the armed men and women, Arthur learned two things. The first was that Velke was relatively introverted, not making many friends and being quite fixated on his work. The second was that the Janissary, Norman, was of a friendly sort. Only he and a few other similarly friendly people mentioned Velke, with the rest either saying that they did not know the man well enough to comment or saying that he was too obsessed with his work to make friends.

“Sounds like you,” Kelish joked as they left the pump cavern, “You kinda fixate on your job too.”

“It’s better to live fixated on your work than to die from not paying it enough attention,” Arthur replied, “Either way, we have our next suspect. This Velke seems like a likely candidate.”

“But don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” Kelish answered.

“Hey, you’re learning. Good job,” Arthur said with a subtle chuckle. Kelish just rolled her eyes, “But that adage is particularly correct here. We cannot assume that we know the culprit just because they are the most likely suspect. We don’t want any false accusations, do we?” he asked. Kelish barely shook her head as they made it back into the tunnels leading towards the outpost.

The walk back was interrupted by a single worker Hlaphid, which charged the pair of Inquisitors, with predictable results. As Kelish was scraping the gray matter from her boots, she turned to Arthur, “How big do you think this cult is?” she asked.

“What do you mean by that?” Arthur asked back.

“I mean what I said. There can’t be that many people part of this murder cult, but I’m starting to wonder… If a few nutters are willing to go up against the Inquisition to follow whatever teachings they… uh, follow, then won’t at least one of them be smart enough to do things the old fashioned way? I mean, a knife, some medicine, and a decent medical degree would get a cultist quite far in their endeavors,” Kelish explained, “So why are so many doing their thing in a way that steps on our toes? I mean, if even half of those cases your boss gave us were these cultists, then the group must be at least a little connected…”

“And they would realize that their methods would garner more resistance than if they were just a problem for the Guard to handle,” Arthur finished, “Whatever the case, we have our job. We aren’t here to crack down on the religious practices of the people--”

“Funny that we’re Inquisitors, then,” Kelish laughed.

“--Whatever the case, we need to do our jobs, and we can let the League Guard do theirs,” Arthur said, “Now, let’s go,” he said, leading them back to the main outpost. After asking around for Velke, they found him in a small building Arthur had guessed was an analysis lab. It turned out that he was right, as the Vikshe man was within, using an advanced microscope to examine a slide, “Velke Melie,” Arthur said, standing by the door of his small lab, “We have some questions for you.”

The Vikshe man growled, standing up straight without turning around, “Can’t you company hounds leave me to my work. You’ll have it soon enough, so you don’t need to keep breathing down my neck and looking over my shoulders,” he said, his voice terse.

“We are not company men, Velke,” Arthur replied, still waiting. Velke turned his head, then did a double take as he saw the Inquisitor’s Regalia on his helmet, “As I said, we have questions.”

Velke looked confused for a moment, then nodded solemnly, “Ah, yes, the murders. If there is anything I can answer to make this state of affairs come to a close, I would be happy to.” Arthur nodded, remembering the questions he asked the other people of the outpost.

“In that case, have you noticed anyone that had any ill will towards the victims?” he asked. Velke just shook his head, “I see. Then, have you noticed any odd signs around? Like a Hlaphid acting strangely or, seeing as you are the chemical analyst, any strange samples?”

Velke shook his head again, “Apart from a slightly increased level of sulfur in the recent samples of oil, nothing springs to mind.” Arthur kept his expression schooled. That was a lie. Not a white lie, either, it was a bold faced lie. Arthur did not change his expression, but he once more thanked his helmet for being tinted enough to hide his eyes.

“Interesting. One final question, then. Do you know anyone here who has brought a drug known as ‘seducer’s scent’ with them?” Velke just shook his head again, “Understandable. In that case, we will be off,” he said, leaving the lab with Kelish en tow. “He’s got something to do with this,” Arthur said over their radio channel, “Exo, make sure this channel is secure. If it isn't, figure out who tapped into it.”

“That goes without saying, Arthur,” Exo chuckled, “I checked. This channel is secure.” Arthur nodded his head in response.

“Okay, so now can you tell me how you know he’s in on it? I’m pretty lost over here,” Kelish said, walking with Arthur, side by side.

Arthur himself just gave her a look, then continued to walk, “Investigation Unit Inquisitors are trained in detecting lies. Only one in a million gets past a well trained Investigation Unit Inquisitor, and his comment about not seeing anything strange was one of the other just shy of a million lies,” he explained, “So, we have a lead.”

“Okay, so why are we circling around the block, then?” Kelish then saw that they were approaching the back of Velke’s lab, “So… are we going to capture him? Pump him for information? Um… the Esper mind-dive thing, even?”

“No, gathering information from captured rulebreakers is the job of the Archivists. What we are going to do is a stake-out,” Arthur explained.

Kelish just stared at him as they rounded a corner and entered an alley, “So we’re just going to wait here? What if there’s another guy doing this stuff, or if that lie was because of some company rule?”

Arthur stared back in response, “Well, if the company is able to convince its employees to keep tight lips on anything when in the presence of not just one Inquisitor, but two, then they need to be investigated. And if there is another person controlling whatever creature is doing the dirty work, then I will likely be able to sense them. As it turns out, Hlaphids are not sentient. Mostly, anyway. The queens might be, but I doubt that this is being done by a creature with a queen as a base. Instead, they are probably using a soldier or a stratiotai as a base, and unless they spent the time, resources, and endured the compromises and setbacks needed to make it sentient, then we have nothing to worry about.”

“Okay, so you’re going to meditate here while I do… what, exactly?” Kelish asked, shifting on her feet.

“You, Kel, are going to keep an eye out. Spatial awareness is paramount when working in the field, so you need to train it. Without leaving this spot, I want you to know every place where an enemy could come from and be able to explain it to me when we move. Understood?” he asked.

“Yep, got it,” Kelish replied, leaning against the wall. Arthur followed suit, leaning against the wall and closing his eyes. He needed to be focused whenever something happened.

 

*=====*

 

Kelish looked up and past the two buildings surrounding their alley. That was probably a place where a climbing monster could appear from, or even someone with a jump pack like her. She looked at the two ends of the alley. One of them was a dead end, and the other led to the street. Those were the most obvious places that an enemy could use. She looked around again, finding nothing in the alley but Arthur and the ground beneath her feet.

She pursed her lips. If a Hlaphid was so inclined, one of those could burst from the ground and bite at her shins. She nodded to herself, that was definitely one place. So, she had the air above them, the street-side end of the alley, and the ground. She looked around, trying to figure out what else she was missing.

She shifted her back a bit, finding another, more comfortable position while leaning against the wall when it hit her. The wall was by no means unbreakable. She had a feeling that if she had a rock, a stick and enough time, she herself could break through it. If there was someone who really wanted to kill her, they would not be restricted to such things. Really the only thing she knew she could trust was Arthur. That shifted her mind into thinking like a station captain.

In space, there was no sense of up or down. Not on the small scale level, anyway. Sure, the galaxy rotated in a disc, making it so that there was more stuff in certain directions compared to others, but when fighting in a station, she could not trust up or down. She had to shift her thinking and pretend like she was in an infinite ocean. The fact that she was doing that when firmly rooted to the ground by gravity made her head swim.

When she further imagined that she only had one gun to point in one of infinite directions while fighting, it also made her head swim. Sure, she could just aim her gun in the direction of what needed to be dead, but she felt like that was not the way she could become a good Inquisitor. And that thought made her conflicted.

She felt like she had three different childhoods. One as a the daughter of a pair of asteroid miners, one as a slave for a notorious pirate, and one as the protégé of a Kragak. In all of them, the word ‘Inquisitor’ meant very different things. For her first childhood, the word was a byword for safety. The Inquisitors came when the Guard could not hope to protect the people, and while they needed to be respected, they were always working in the interests of the people.

For her second, ‘Inquisitor’ meant danger. And hope. But mostly danger. It was said that Inquisitors would not hesitate to destroy a pirate station, even if there were slaves on board, if they suspected any peice of forbidden technology to be aboard. But an Inquisitor would not just execute the slaves of a pirate dabbling with such things, and they would be freed after making sure that they did not willingly help the pirate.

For her last childhood, being the protégé of a mercenary, she learned how people, who did not live in the League’s system, viewed the Inquisitors. She remembered hearing Garab’s rant about the Inquisitors, and how they obsessed over putting people down and keeping minds contained.

The three views were all at odds, and in the end, the allure of the opportunities provided by the job was the decision maker, not what it meant to be an Inquisitor. She shook her head, just a bit. She stopped that train of thought. In the end, it did not matter why she was doing her job. Arthur, Maya, and Helix all told her that people agreed to join for different reasons. Arthur’s was out of a sense of duty. Maya was in it for the kicks. Helix never mentioned why he joined, but Kelish got the sense that he joined for a similar reason as Arthur.

She sighed to herself, keeping her movements minimal. She did not know how long they had been there for, but it had to have been an hour at that point. Maybe two. Either way, Arthur still leaned against the wall, perfectly still, when she finally heard something from him, “Velke is moving,” Arthur said.

Kelish nodded and got ready, rolling her shoulders to work out the stiffness of standing around, doing nothing. Arthur watched her and, when she was done, led her out of the alley. They walked along, as if nothing was wrong, and most people were nervous enough around them to ignore their deliberately slow stride; though, the warriness was easier to deal with when it was a few dozen people rather than a few thousand. One corner after another passed, leading them all throughout the small outpost, until they stopped in front of a random building at the outskirts of the outpost. She remembered that it was little more than a reinforced oil tank, though. “He’s leaving the outpost, going into one of those side tunnels.”

Kelish nodded ever so slightly in response, waiting with him until he deemed it safe to move. When they did, they moved in the opposite direction of the tunnel they went down before, and into one without any oil pipelines. They continued on in silence, and Kelish took the time to look at the local wildlife and plants. As she had seen before, she saw moss growing in little patches, right beneath the glowing blue bulbs from the roots. Little flying bugs buzzed around those patches of moss, picking at it. A few three legged insects as large as her hand were latched onto a few of the bulbs they passed, their heads pressed against the glowing surface. 

It was not just moss and bugs, though. There were a few flowers growing from the walls, and some dark green vines growing around one of the bulb roots. Along those vines, little mice-like creatures scurried, taking little nibbles out of the bugs larger than them and running away. The environment was nice. Calming. But, it did not last.

“He stopped,” Arthur said, pausing before a sharp bend in the tunnel. She could distantly hear some clicking and clunking, but it stopped a moment later.  Kelish shared a look with Arthur, and they went forwards, Kelish first with her shotgun out. When they rounded the corner, they were met with a metal wall, with a large metal door in the center. “Looks like he had something to hide after all,” Arthur commented.

“So, how do we do this? Bust in there and wreck the place, or politely knock?” Kelish asked, stepping closer to the unadorned wall. It looked more than a little ramshackle, obviously made up of spare metal that no one would miss. While it was cobbled together, she could tell that there was a bit of titasteel in there, so she couldn’t just kick the door down without giving anyone inside time to prepare.

Arthur looked at her, and she could almost feel the contemplation in his head as he stared at her, “You decide,” he said, “Think of it as training.”

She rolled her eyes, “Training to make decisions, huh?” she commented. She could break the door down, but she was pretty sure that there would be something interesting on the other side, and she did not want to break whatever that was. She could politely knock, but that was even worse than impolitely knocking, as it gave Velke time to prepare. Eventually, she came to a decision, “We wait for him to come back,” she said, “Unless he wants to be suspicious, he needs to go back to the outpost. And that means he comes through that door and comes face to face with us.”

“Well thought out,” Arthur replied, “We’ll do that.” She nodded and prepared to wait as she had been doing all day before that, but Arthur held up a hand, “Wait, he’s coming back,” he said. Kelish nodded again and aimed her shotgun at the corner. There was a loud clang, and then some more clicking. Kelish could hear two sets of footsteps; one was from a person in boots, while the other had more than two legs.

When the pair of footsteps turned the corner, Kelish was met by two figures. One was, as expected, Velke. The other, though, looked like the stuff of nightmares. It had six legs, was about as large as a worker Hlaphid, and had a mouth that looked like a twisted perversion of a mosquito’s proboscis. It was a thick, three-faced tube of flesh with teeth on the outside. As the two saw the pair of Inquisitors, the bug opened its mouth, which showed the cavity that could have been considered a mouth. Kelish did not hesitate to feed that mouth a blast of lead.

Blood sprayed, painting the walls red, as the bug was thrown off its feet. Or legs. It tumbled, collapsing into a heap on the ground and not moving again. Velke, on the other hand, looked at the pair of Inquisitors with fury in his eyes, “What have you done!?” he screamed, throwing his arms wildly, “You’ve ruined it! My chances are ruined, now!” Kelish was just about ready to smash a thruster-powered elbow into the man’s face for all the trouble he gave them.

Arthur seemed to think the same as well, as he slammed a fist into the Vikshe’s jaw, sending him sprawling on the floor. She was more than a little surprised that he did not just kill the man, considering his views on their existence, but she just rolled with it. He turned to her and did not bother with the radio as he spoke, “Do you have any more handcuffs?” he asked. She shook her head; the only reason why she had them in the first place was because she thought that they would be useful and because they were just lying around. “That’s fine, then. Do you know how to manually restrain someone?” he asked.

“I do well enough,” she replied. It was a skill she learned when away from Garab. Wanton murder was frowned upon in the League, so she had learned to play ball when a drunkard bit off more than he could chew in his or her choice of women. She walked up to the stunned man as he was gathering himself and put his arms behind his back, gripping them tightly.

Velke growled, weakly struggling in her grasp, “Let me go! I’m close, I know it!” he shouted. He struggled harder, but Kelish just needed to grip his arms with more force to get him to cut it out.

“Why were you killing people?” Arthur asked, standing in front of the man and ready to smack him again.

The man spat on the ground, “You wouldn’t understand!” he screamed, receiving another punch in the jaw for his troubles, “You won’t get anything out of me! Even if you kill me, you can’t stop it! We will learn what’s beyond the veil soon enough!”

She rolled her eyes. He was definitely part of that cult, she decided, “We heard this spiel before. Something something gods and uncles. Now, why are you guys doing this?” she demanded.

He wheeled around to look at her, ready to berate, she was sure, but he paused, “You… you’ve heard already? Who was it? I would love to see that bitch with the blue skin eat a bullet… Whatever. If they told you anything, then I don’t have anything to say to you.” He went quiet after that, shaking his head as if a great loss had been suffered by someone he vaguely knew.

Kelish looked at the man, then to the door, “Well, we’re here, aren’t we? Shouldn’t we make sure everything is taken care of?” she asked over their radio. Arthur did not reply, stepping towards the metal wall while Velke watched with disinterest. Arthur walked up to the door and kicked the door. It dented, but did not break. Arthur kicked again, denting the door further. With every kick, the door caved further and further inwards until, finally, the door fell to the stony ground with a loud clatter. Arthur led Kelish through the door and what they found was a lab. It was a small lab, but with the capabilities to create hybrids, judging by the large glass tubes and other lab equipment.

But what caught her attention the most was a strange plate of stone on the ground. It was carved with foreign words, or at least she thought they were words. They were closer to scribbles, but they seemed shaped with purpose, so she just assumed that they were words. In those carvings, though, was blood. Lots of it. The disk was thick, and the carvings in the places not filled with blood were inches deep. “That explains where the blood’s going. Doesn’t explain why you need to torture people, though.”

Velke looked somewhat surprised, “You figured that out, did you? You aren’t as stupid as I thought. Whatever. You want that much, fine. The reason is because He has understood pain and its relationship with devotion at the deepest possible level. Therefore, if enough pain has been gathered, in the form of blood, He can locate this universe by binding our souls with our devotion and bring with him powers beyond our reality.”

Kelish and Arthur shared a look, then Arthur prepared his plasma launcher. A moment later, a ball of glowing red plasma shot out and collided with the stone ‘atlar,’ destroying it and scattering metal, plastic, and other materials around the room.. A moment later, Arthur sent another shot into the genetic altering equipment. He prepared a third shot when a small computer, in the corner of the room, began to beep. Arthur turned to Velke, “What is that?” he demanded.

Velke sneered, “That’s my communicator. If that’s beeping, then that means someone’s finally ready for the ritual and wants to rub it into our faces,” he said, chuckling, “Maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t leave today; I get to see history!” he laughed, nearly cackling.

“We don’t have time for this,” Arthur said, shooting a ball of plasma at the computer, putting an end to the beeping. The man kept cackling, though, and Kelish was tempted to just knock him out. “Kelish, we don’t need him. He explained it well enough. We still have the Oni.”

Kelish wanted to say that they did not need to kill the man, but she knew that she could not stop Arthur from doing it. He raised his beam carbine and shot Velke in the head a moment later. Kelish dropped the man as soon as he died, shooting a glare towards Arthur, “You could have warned me,” she said, more annoyed than angry.

“I did,” Arthur replied. Kelish could almost hear him rolling his eyes, “I told you that we don’t need him.”

“But you didn’t tell me I’d be holding him for you to use as target practice,” Kelish shot back, growling a bit. Anyway, let’s get-” And that’s when it happened. Something passed over Kelish, something unlike anything she had ever felt before. It felt like thought itself was burning through her veins, ripping her body apart and remaking her into something else. She stumbled forwards and managed to remove her helmet before puking up a mouthful of blood. She fell to her knees, still puking blood, then fell to the ground. Darkness creeped into the edges of her vision, and the last sight she saw before the pain took her was Arthur, form in constant motion, suffering the same thing as she.