Shifting Lines (MF, Voy, Vio, Murder (non-sexual Murder))

[Writers Bloque]

This blasted rain wont stop. That's what the city planners got for building the first city on the rainy side of the mountains. The city stayed dusky dark ninety percent of the time, since the planets tilt never changed, and this hemisphere's climate varied from biting cold and snowy, to humid and rainy. There was no other classically defined seasons. The small diner was empty, not unusual, since this was just after Lunch.

This place was owned by first generation immigrants from the now decommissioned Earth-1 space station, which overextended its original mission parameters by a few decades, now a hulking relic in the scrap zone stretch of empty space. Still, they make a mean real meat burger and home grown real, not genetically modified potato fries. Nothing healthy to be seen for miles in this place, it was a good spot to settle my overworked and over indulged in drink stomach. Of course the couple was nice to talk to, and did not poke their noses into my business, even after a case went wrong in my office and their ceiling received free remodeling from a wayward blaster.

My badge slapped against my chest in my coat pocket. While I was technically on the planets security forces payroll as a gumshoe, they had no room for me at the main precinct, nor any of the sub stations, so it was either retire, live in the broom closet, or just go P.I., and well you see where I went. MY office and apartment are small, occupying the second floor of this artificially replicated historically accurate building, from an era in humanities past, where people actually enjoyed walking, talking to neighbors and generally floated through life. But even if you tried to turn this into a future version of the Big Apple, you cannot capture the long forgotten charm of a city that was both dirty and beautiful.

I grab my hat after transferring the money for my meal, and my comm chirped to annoying life.

"Parke, there was a murder at Billway Tower, Homicide and crime scene need a detective on scene, cant spare anyone else."

"On it."  I hung up. "If you got off your lazy ass, and actually ran the department, there would be people to go investigate."

I mumbled in the cold, dark rainy afternoon. The military was simple and clean. Point, Shoot, and pop a beer pack when the mission was done. Out here, people complicate things with their own level of bullshit. As I reached for the keypad to the garage, I noticed her.

All of the bad of the world, weighed down by her own mix of bullshit. She was pretty, her face at least, as the rest of her head minus some rebellious tufts of hair was safe under one of those god awful e-hoodies, that could change style or color with just a thought. But she kept it a simple dark gray as she bagged on a real tobacco cigarette, as if she was one of those ancient movie starlets that was playing the angst ridden, raging against everything characters. I wouldn't put it past her to either have a musical instrument or a full on art set. But she sat there, paying nothing any attention, comfortable, apparently, sitting on a pile of stuff that was not there when I came down for breakfast.

I wanted to reach out to her, not to be an asshole, but to offer her a better perch in the buildings faux lobby. But my intuition said she was radioactive, something to not mess with. I think she was picking on my vibes and presence, as she gave me a two stage acknowledgement, first was a look of greeting and nicely blended with a look of "What the fuck are you looking at, Old Man?" and the second stage, given after my nod to her was the classic universal symbol of not interested in you, what you got or what you believe in, the middle finger, which I noted that her nail on that finger was painted black. I snorted and laughed as the car carousel brought my beater up, I had finally paid off the loan for it, and since the department wont issue me a car, I prefer this one. It was gently pushed into the driveway, the scanners looking for other vehicles that would be traveling in this rain, under the neon sky.

It took a few seconds for the dumb machine to realize that the rain beaten street was fully empty, and unlock the tire locks. I got in, and the car asked its usual "Where to?" I wish I could find the circuit for it to disable it. Auto drive was the law in the city, no one can be trusted to go a speed limit, when cars can fly to low orbit, or that drug addled pilots like to buck the rules and fly close to the ground with ships and craft obviously too big to fit in most of the city. The drive was long, as the Tower was in the "nicer" part of town, where the homeless and junkies like to offer snacks and drinks before they mug you, where no one cares if you die, because if you live there, you have the money for an Auto-Revive. As long as its only minutes after death, they can revive you back to stable condition.

The Tower loomed over the bridge, the only access point to the block of towers, owned by many of the well to do citizens. To avoid mingling with the common folk, each tower was like a mini city, just for the opulent and grandiose wealthy citizenry. It was imposing and disgusting at the same time. All that money that went into making that, could have made the city better, and probably knocked the mountain down so this area can have a semi normal climate. I pulled out my e-cig, as real tobacco was a minor luxury, and also I don't like to smoke the real stuff around certain folks, because they have the bad habit of bumming a smoke with the promise of returning the favor and never do.

A scrawny woman in glasses had to almost skip like a schoolgirl to get to me as I set my car to park. I fought with the auto parking bot, as its attitude was stuffier than the peoples who inhabited this tower devoted to the demon of greed. It would not take my car, as it was not "authorized" to be here, in other words it was a piece of shit mass produced model, and doesn't belong among cars that cost more than I would make in twenty years. But the system was forced to obey when it scanned my badge. A tiny perk, being an unofficial official detective, the security force badge was an all access pass, that did not even need a warrant to open doors. It gently moved my car onto the car train and soon was underground tucked in with the other vehicles.

"What do we have here, Nancy?" I addressed her under the elegant awning. The woman was about to collapse, as I doubted she was completely used to the gravity of the planet, only having been sworn in days after getting off the shuttle a year ago.

Nancy was smart. A bit too smart, and without any conceited notions most overly smart people have. She knew where her skills lie, and she did work hard. But while she worked hard, she also had a habit of ignoring things, just the minor things, like keeping her blouse tucked in, or not wearing sneakers in uniform. I was only bound to the dress code on official holidays and formations, other than that, slacks, shirt and jacket was my uniform. But Nancy was full time cop, and I doubted she could remember where she left her jacket. The brass treated it like a private joke, only really calling her out if one of her blunders would make them look bad. But despite her flaws, she was an honest hard worker.

"Five people dead. Two women, three men."

"Oh, a party gone wrong? Or right?"

"I don't think so, its a real puzzle, Parke."

"Give me a break."

I left her to handle the Homicide detail, not really detectives, but not street officers, more like Crime Scene Security, for the Crime Scene detail. I entered the building, that was wall to wall belligerent residents, bent because the fifth floor was locked down, no access. The fifth floor was private. Offices for important company people who did not want to go into work, so they work from the fifth floor. But what caught my attention, other than the patrol drones blocking access, and other drones gathering evidence was that the wall was open. Before I looked in the room, I took a picture of the buildings map for the floor, and the room did not exist on it. I pulled up the blueprints for the building from the city hall admin server, and there the room was, complete with notes on how it was to be a high spec vault. Huh, neat.

I finally pushed past the drone scanning bloody footprints, looking down as I did not want to step in them myself, I noted no tread pattern, which was odd. No one wears flat soled shoes, not even dress shoes are flat soled any more. The rich of the tower could afford grav null shoes, and even those have slight bumps on the bottom that help grip the ground better, while removing the stress on joints from walking in a slightly heavier than normal gravity. I ordered the drone to send me a copy of the pictures, to my personal computer, and as if a machine could sigh in overwork, it took ten seconds longer than normal to comply.

Inside the room/vault there was a lot of high end objects, a table with seven chairs. Five were occupied, the sixth was covered in a weird dust, and the seventh was pulled out. On the table, other than blood splatter, and brain matter was an open case, with weird dials and displays, and something missing. I ordered a drone to take the case to the tech department quickly. Again, I must be seeing or feeling things, the drone clicked and opened its small cargo hatch, to put the case intact into, and the outer window dinged as it opened to let out the drone with an attitude.

I started putting things together in my head, as I checked the security logs for the door. Secret doors like this would always record access. The video showed seven people enter, their faces out of frame, until they sat down, and the man at the head of the table silently puts a case down onto the table and opens it. Then the video becomes scrambled, until a service drone enters to discover the bodies and raise the alarms. The records show no sign of tampering, and the door once closed would remain locked and sealed until it was opened again.

I called over a drone to bag up a sample of the strange dust like powder, with a hunch as to what it was. But I would rather go on a verified clue than a hunch. After taking more pictures, a very frazzled woman broke past the crime scene blockade in search of someone to give an earful to.

I hold up my hand to prevent the woman from being tazed by every drone targeting her with red lasers. The problem with drones is they will all swarm a suspect and not stop jolting them until ordered to do so. Its in their programming. Not a very useful thing if you are scaring the shit out of a suspect after dropping them with enough juice to make an elephant twitch. The drones stood down as I was a ranking officer on scene.

"Can you hurry this up, I am late for my zero G pilates class on the seventh."

"No."

"Excuse me. Who do you think you are to tell me no?"

I flashed my "I can do anything with impunity, as I am a high ranking detective, and I do not give two shits or three flying fucks about your upper class bullshit" Badge at her. It shut her up. It did not stop her from fuming as she was gently escorted behind the tape, as I looked up who was renting the office with the vault. The records came up that it was not currently being rented. Odd. An hour later, after dealing with stubborn witnesses, and asshole residents, The team had cleared the scene, and the service drone began their thankless task of cleaning. I ordered the room to remain open, under guard by two rookie uniforms.

"Do not let anyone in, even if they claim to own the entire planet. No one goes in until I personally give my blessings, understood?"

The two rookies nodded and saluted. I grunted, already sick of this shit.

Nancy met me back at my car, which was oddly cleaner than when I parked it.

"Nancy, when you return to the department, I need you to find out the last two tenants of that office with the vault and who is renting out the other offices. Also I want to know what was in the vault before the murders. Something is off about the whole thing."

"Okay..."

"Or would you like to do some footwork?"

"I will get the information to your computer in an hour."

"Thanks."

She nodded and ran off to her own car. She hated riding in his, she says it smells like old coffee, cigarettes and cheap junk food. I think it smells fine.

Before I got in, something was chewing at the back of my brain, and I ordered the auto parking valet unit to curb my car, I ran back up to the fifth floor. Sitting in chairs, having secured and easy up table, the two rookies were reading or doing some paperwork, as they guarded the open door.

"I will be a minute."

They nodded, and returned to what they were doing with all of the passion of someone who was bored, and yet thankful to not be out in the rain.

The room was spotless. All traces of blood were gone, but so were the objects on pedestals, which was fine, being covered in human gore would decrease their value, odd that none of them were taken, relics from the history of the alien race who sold humans the planet, to move to a better, less wet planet.

The newer oddity that was joining the pack of back of the brain biting puzzles would not leave me alone. So I did what I was paid to do, and investigate.

I lifted the table to find that there was no imprints of the knob like feet. As if the table did not belong in the room. I dragged the chairs out, and as I flipped the table onto its side to go out in the hall, there was something taped to the bottom. It was a circuit key of sorts, looked like the insides of a device, but despite having no case to protect it, those kinds of keys were almost impossible to hack. With the table joining the chairs in the hall, I started a deeper look around. The smooth faux wood finish of the walls were almost seamless, and the floor had a weird tile like pattern that made me feel disoriented the longer I looked at it. But something was off about it. I assumed it was flat, but getting on my hands and knees the floor was not flat, as the white tiles were the flat ones, and the black tiles were raised.

I fucked around with the tiles, after learning the black ones moved, until the pattern of movement led me to the dead center of the room, where the center tile after more poking around the tiles, with a click could be freely lifted. Underneath the tile was a slot for a circuit key.

Sometimes following a hunch can lead to solving the problem, and other times it led to pain. Guess where this hunch led me to?

I inserted the key, and from the center of the floor, a nitrogen exhausting pillar rose. On it was clearly In vitro ready to implant embryo's numbered, and ready to go. The small screen on the pillar was reading off detailed information on the condition of the embryos, and the estimated time table for the project "Rapture" to be completed. But after taking one of the embryo tubes, certain it could survive in my hiding spot in my coat, I started downloading the data from the pillar, when I noticed four tubes were missing, which left me stumped as to how, since the table was dead center of the room, and the pillar would have jammed up while extending upwards. Once the data was downloaded an backed up else where, I turned to leave through the door, when I was greeted by the rookies holding stunners. They took my comm and stomped on it, searching me, they only found a candy bar, and my badge, which they chucked back into the room.  One held his finger up to his lips and pulled the trigger.

White hot fire blinded me, and my world slipped from my grasp.....

[Writers Bloque]

You know those hangover blinding headaches, my head right now felt like it wished all this one. I woke up cold and wet. I was still in the room, my comm confirmed to be wrecked, everything that was in my pockets was floating in the two inches of liquid that is slowly filling the room. Christ, they triggered the final level of protection for the vault. This liquid was not water. It was way worse. The moment I stopped touching the ground, and the room filled up, I would be frozen in a block of hardened cryo liquid, that would take a week to thaw me out. Would I be dead? No, but out of action for a bit. I really did not want the mess of paperwork it would take to explain how I was frozen in the first place.

But there was a fatal flaw in systems like this. Heat. A failsafe was built in, in case the system had a problem, like triggering on the owner, or the other measures failed. This system will stop as the liquid would evaporate quickly if the room temperature exceeded a hundred degrees or so, to preserve the expensive liquid stored. I pulled out the cheap blaster I carried when I did not want to get the department involved, as the security force weapons are highly traceable, right down to the registered user. I turned off the guns heat regulator, and started to shoot at the door, and after the first volley, I started sweating, and after another round, the liquid stopped filling the room, and despite the door being sealed tight, it slid open without even a scratch on it.

Once free, I gathered my things, and looked at what changed about the place. The wall panels were open, obviously there were things missing, and the pillar that rose from the center of the room was gone. I scanned what I could with my handheld scanner, and left, as building security started to hassle me. Another flash of the badge, and I left the goons speechless.

My car was waiting for me, and oddly running. I stepped back from it, and that dread feeling came over me as I reached for the door handle. I tested the trunk opening button on my watch from behind the pillar near the entrance. I waited for the explosion that did not come. I started cleaning out my trunk into my emergency carry all, and grabbing my bug sweeper, I accidentally turned it on, and the screech from signal detection nearly deafened me. I dialed it down, and was shocked to find a strong signal coming from my vehicle coming from somewhere in the industrial district. Oh boy.

With a heavy heart, and a tear in my eye, I reached into my old rucksack for a Trigger and slapped it on my driver side window. Using the manual controls on my watch, I guided my steed right to the edge of the river, where there was no one that could be hurt. Holding the Trigger controls, I backed the vehicle up, and with a small prayer of forgiveness, I gunned the engine to jump the curb. As it flew into the air, I activated the trigger, which did its job in sending a trigger signal to the bomb that was presumably under my driver seat. There was a momentary flash, and the car was gone, leaving sparkling dust behind, as the entire vehicle was torn apart at the molecular level. A nasty weapon I haven't seen since the war. I stood in the rain, watching the last particles of my vehicle depart this world.

Luckily, I was on the clock, and the department would be forced to to buy me a newer vehicle. I uploaded the security video, including the time showing the three men in black tampering with it. I sat in the lobby, despite the non verbal protests of me being there was unwanted. Minutes later the Happy Hauler showed up, and unloaded a very nice new car. I pressed my palm into the side of the unmanned vehicle, and confirmed that I now owned a top of the line, first off the factory floor vehicle. Not even the richie fucks here had one yet. It was...something. The trunk automatically opened, as it was pairing with my watch. On the dash was my new comm, because the one that was destroyed was department property. It too was being synced to the car. Once my stuff was loaded in the trunk, the driver door opened for me and I got in looking for the steering wheel. What was in its place was a stick. Right. This vehicle can fly and glide over water. Right. The stick was locked in place as the onboard computer awaited my destination input.

"Central."

"On our way, sir!"

The computer's voice was like an overeager cheerleader, in levels of peppiness. I swear, between the fuck it drones, and this car, I wanted to find a nice asteroid to hermit on for the rest of my life. But on my pay the best I could afford and still have money to live on was a space trailer, and those things truly sucked.

The car slid smoothly out of the parking lot, on to the bridge, as the area now was active. It waited properly for an opening to turn into, and after a few minutes it switched modes and we flew to Central. I had no aerial parking spots at Central, my spot was almost underground, but somehow this car found it easily and quickly. It chimed a cheery little tune as it shut down, and the tire locks engaged.

The elevator ride was not the break I wanted, my first stop was Personnel.

"Know these two assholes?"

I pulled up the security image of the two rookies right before they put me to bed.

"Yeah, they haven't returned for last call. If you see them, tell them that if they don't show up, its their jobs."

"I need their files."

"Need a captains sign off."

"De right back."

I was approaching the captains office when I was approached by three men in suits.

"We need to talk."

[Writers Bloque]

A gathering of brass and suits never boded well. It was either "Stop what you are doing!" or "Why haven't you finished it?" Neither conversations were appealing to me. But the mood of the room was like an angry ocean, as everyone was on edge. I stepped into the room fully, and taken the offered seat.

"Parke, are you okay?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, this will need all hands on deck for it."

I could only shrug, as all the video that I gathered, and the scene techs gathered played. Even my body cam footage played, and it showed the two rookies clearing out the room. One of the suits coughed and the third suit opened up a brief case. A video played from the case, as the room was secured. The video to be brief, was how all seven people were connected to the commonwealth's biggest xenobiological research labs. Something went missing during a robbery, but the thieves made such a huge mess, that it took a long time to figure out what actually was stolen. No one was allowed to know what that object was, but it was a wise guess that whatever was stolen was being stored in that vault, and the thieves had a falling out.

The Commonwealth loves to let people take just enough rope to properly hang themselves with, and this was no exception. The suits closed the brief case and ordered me to slide my badge to them. After a few seconds of tinkering, the men handed me another briefcase, and my badge back.

"We suspect there are still others in the company that are involved with the theft and murders. You are now an employee of the company. We need you to sneak around, and learn as much as you can. You, on paper are an official overseer and auditor. You have full access to the entire facility. I warn you now, if even a word you say remotely points out anything you see or hear in there to anyone, there wont even be dust left of you, understood?"

"Yes, Sir."

The meeting left me drained. The captain walked with me back to my car.

"Word is, two bodies were fished out of the canal, their faces pretty messed up, and their hands removed. The boys in forensics think the pair were the ones who got a jump on you earlier. Be careful, Park, can't afford to lose you."

The Captain was a stern man, but had an air of a fatherly figure. But his words has a dual meaning. He was not worried about me, but for me. Getting involved with suits never ended well. My car opened the driver door with that damned sing song tone that threatened to force me to put this car out of its misery too. The Captain reached into his coat, and handed me a cloth wrapped thing.

"Take it, not many scanners will pick it up."

I knew full well what it was. The Captain was famous for it. His private gun. The thing could open up the armored plating of a tank. It was powerful, compact, and highly illegal. It ate batteries like a fat kid eats Spacey Cakes, but it was an effective weapon in a universe full of semi useful weapons. I stashed it in the center console and soon was heading home to pack. I was to leave tonight on the Red Eye heading to the Core system of the Commonwealth. Not Earth, oh no, no one goes to Earth. I get to go to the outer rim of the core worlds. Fun.

She was still sitting right where she was when I left her, as I passed her to pull into the auto garage. This time, I am in a flashy new ride.

She was in a puffy coat, with the shortest shorts, and midriff showing top. Still bagging on a cigarette. I noticed her stuff had moved, probably to allow her to pop a squat over the the drainage grate. I mean why try to hide it in this neighborhood? Where the common demographic is Old or Immigrant. And the old are too busy to notice, and Immigrants are too busy to care. I got out as the auto garage took in my new car, and standing under the awning in the pouring rain, I fished out my own smoke, the real and rare kind. I struck a match against my fingernail, and the little flame brought me a moment of joy as it kissed the end of my cigarette.

"The fuck you doing still out here?"

And that's when it hit me.

Her accent.

It reminded me of a sexy blend of Archaic French and Archaic Russian, with a dash of Archaic Spanish.

"..........."

She said something, I could not translate. So I tapped the spot under my ear and let my surgically implanted computer run a language translator, and in a second, it told me where she came from.

It was a sleezy backwater planet, that was soo welcoming to the human refugees, that they practically gave every human who landed a job. Nice hours, Low pay, and all the slop you could stomach. Yes, on that planet we were enslaved. But we revolted and took control. And now its ten percent less sleezy.

"..ck do you care?"

"Come again?"

"Why the fuck do you care?"

Now we could properly talk.

"Because, you are a young woman, human, sitting with your belongings out here in the gutter of the city, smoking cigarettes like they dont cost anything."

My words must have hit her. I could see the cracks forming in her tough girl, she woman exterior she was putting up.

"Mama and Papa no can afford me. Told me to go to work, or sell my body. I say no. I want school."

"I see."

"I have little brothers and sisters. So I pack things and leave. They no come downstairs to see me off. So fuck them."

Then she started to sniff, holding back the tears.

I had a few hours to kill, so I invited her up to my place, which had a hot shower, and something to eat. She was sitting waiting for a ride that will never come. It was obvious her parents were kind of important players among the immigrants, as they usually will band together to help the family through the hard times, or at least help set the oldest daughter up with a place and a job. But since her parents went down the nasty route, then their situation was a bit worse than she was letting on.

I reached into the garage and pulled out the carry all. Piece of shit barely worked when it was on wheels, switch it to a heavier mode and it floated. I strapped down her stuff, and she reluctantly followed me up to her impending doom.

Not really, I let her use my shower, and the scanner in the shower reported that she was twenty two, unemployed, and starting to develop a cold. Right.

The steam in the bathroom was intense as I set a sweatsuit set for her to relax in. I went ahead and ordered two pizza's and some sodas, set the deilvery timer for an hour from now, and walked into my small in home office. My normal office was below this apartment, and above the diner. I would normally take the diner stairs down for dinner, but the old couple were real old school immigrants and if word spread that she was persona non gratis among the residents, then they would most definitely not serve her a scrap of food.

I started preparing for my trip, not hard with a closet that has an auto packing feature. I selected the nerdiest clothes I had, as I needed to be a bean counter for the case.I heard the shower stop, and the bathroom door swoosh open. I could hear her feet lightly stick to the cold tile floor as she crashed on the couch. I heard the t.v click on as I was going over everything I was going to need, as she kept flipping channels.

*DING*

The small chute opened, and my order was placed on the kitchen table, a surreal cityscape of empty bottles, news papers and half eaten bagels. Someone thought it would be cute to put me on a bagel of the month club list, and now my fridge is full of bagels that may or may not be going through some stages of moldering. Plain, or cheddar jalapeno bagels, with bacon, sausage, egg and cheese in the middle is the only way to eat them. Wit strong dark coffee, lightly sweetened, and creamed. Fuck.

I left my office, as my suitcase was placed next to the carry all with her stuff, she looked at me confused.

But before I tell her anything, we have to address the very real problem before me. Splayed out, ultra comfy on my couch, in my oversized sweatshirt was a freshly cleaned twenty-two year old, who looked back at me with a childish wicked grin, when she realized I noticed the elephant in the room...

She was sipping soda, and eating pizza while laying on her stomach, and she was completely naked from the waist down, not like cute tiny panties to hide her shame, no. Not even a stitch of clothing was preventing me from seeing all of her secrets. Her clean shaven, but might need a touch up mound was parted slightly, and her cute chocolate starfish winked at me. But she smiled while looking back at me.

Oh fuck.

It took every single ounce of self control, along with calling in all the favors God and the universe owes me for putting me in this situation, to keep from plowing the minx right into my couch.

We made small talk as we ate, as we were getting into this show she picked out. A secret agent had to save some woman from an asteroid, which she is chained to. The show bored me to death, and I was already tired. I had to stay up, because of my flight. The pizza gone, and soda polished off, I had to pee.

I threw the pile of clothes she left into the all in one washing machine, and pissed a mighty stream into the bowl. I was just about finished, as the stream slowed to a trickle, when some soft hands reached around me to give my cock a good shake.

"The fuck you are doing in here?"

"This is why you take me in, no?"

"Fuck no."

"Are you the man lover?"

"Fuck no."

She held my dick a little harder as she questioned my sexuality. But by that point lust won out against reason.

"So I play with your dick, and I get a bed to sleep in?"

"What the fuck are you on?"

"You no like?"

Well she was pretty good at handling my cock, the slow handjob was working on my will.

"I like."

"Then we have the sex and I can live here?"

"You can live here without having sex with me."

"Hush, and let me have the fun."

"Okay."

She got me to rock hard, and led me to the bed, where she lost the sweat shirt and was naked before me. Her hair shifted color to a lusty purplish pink, I guess she spent her money on the mood hair color changing implant. I could tell this was her plan all along, as she laid on my bed to take my cock into her cute mouth. But I believed in fair play so I laid down on the bed and let her suck me off, as I explored her treasure with my fingers and tongue. Every lick of my tongue made her twitch with the feelings building. Getting bolder, I latched my lips on to her clit and sucked, and that sent her over the edge as she wildly sucked my cock, trying to give me the same pleasure as she was feeling.

Soon, her efforts were rewarded with a mouth full of my fresh hot protein shake, and my face covered in her sweet organic fresh from the hive honey. She rolled off of me, panting, and swallowing the last of my load. We laid there, catching our breaths but she revved my engine, so now it was time to take her to the race. I rolled her onto her back, and her dreamy eyes grew wide.

"We now make the sex?"

"Yes, if you want."

"Be gentle, I never make the sex before."

"You lying to me?"

"No...."

She spread her legs and held herself open. I noticed her hymen intact, a detail I missed as I ate the ever loving shit out of that cute pussy. She told me the sad story, which was the real reason she ran away from her family. Her mother wanted to whore her out to clients at her father's street food stall. There was enough room, as the stall blocked the only entrance and exit to an unused alley behind their apartment building. Her sisters were still too young to do it, so the whoring responsibilities fell on her. She tried it once, and then again, and after the fifth time, she started to hate herself, and that is when she knew she had to leave.

But right here was a hot piece wanting his attention. She was skinny, with the very last traces of baby fat on her cute tummy, and after explaining her situation to him, looking at him pleading. She wanted this for herself, not for a place to crash, but because this older man actually gave a damn about her. Why else would he take her in and feed her? But the time for talking and negotiating was over.

She grew impatient as I rested my cock on her puffy. virgin slit. She grabbed my cock, and used her legs to grab me.

"Put it in, now!"

"Hold up."

I was lost in thought, and as she grew impatient, I wanted to break her cherry easy. But she wanted it now. She took my cock in her hands and guided it to her hole. Then with her legs she pulled me into her, and I felt the resistance tear away, and her face showed the mixture of pain, pleasure and fullness all at once. I did not dare move, until she started to move on her own. A little blood trickled down, between our connected bodies, to stain my sheets. It was about time I bought new ones, as this set was almost thread bare. When we started moving, she pulled me into a kiss. I could taste the day on her lips, an odd mix and flavor to be sure, but it felt right.

I built a slow steady rhythm of thrusting, that was edging us closer and closer to our combined climaxes, but I wanted her to feel the full impact, so I had her lie on her stomach as I pulled her ass up to meet my cock, and I took her from behind. This drove her wild as I bore down on her, driving her into my mattress with each thrust. She stopped making human sounds, panting as her mind was overdosing on the pleasure cocktail I was giving her. I grabbed her arms and pulled them behind her, and used them to pull her more into the action. I felt her tighten up on my cock and howl as her climax came. I followed her into orgasm land, filling her insides with its own taste of my homemade protein shake.

We collapsed, sweating, and tired. I held her close and we finally told each other our names.

"Deynitra, Din for short."

"Parke. Travis Parke."

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Parke."

"Likewise, Miss Din."

It was a goofy, silly moment, that made us both laugh. But I checked the time, and it was still three hours until I had to drive to the airport. I call it an airport, as it was the only way to connect to the starport above. Something chewed at my guts. I took her measurements from the dried and folded neatly clothes and shoes. I placed a rush order on the after market shopping network and finished showering with Din. She returned to the bed, and changed the sheets, and crashed afterwards. I went downstairs for coffee, and was not surprised at what happened below.

I sat at my usual spot at the counter, and ordered a slice of cake and cup of coffee, when three men, Immigrants, came in looking like a long gone parody of the classic mafia from ancient Earth. They shouted at the old couple, who in turn shouted back. I pretended to not understand what was being said, and when the conversation got heated, one of the goons lightly clapped my shoulder and laughed.

"He's no Immigrant, he looks too stupid to understand."

The three men laughed, the old couple smirked, knowing full well I was not to be trifled with.

"So, have you old people seen girl sitting over there or not?"

"No."

"Call us if you do. Her parents just sold her to us, she works for us now."

The old couple shook their heads. Of course they would not like to be party to human trafficking and forced prostitution. It left a foul taste in everyone's mouth. I just smiled like I was clueless and they clapped my shoulder again, and paid for my meal while leaving.

"Don't get involved."

The old man knew I heard every word, as he spoke to me in common.

"I know. Let it lie."

"Good boy."

The old woman who was sweeping the customer area patted my head. I smiled, and stepped outside into the rain, to watch the car the three men came in leave. I called the suits to alter the plan.

After some dancing, they agreed to let my assistant and partner come along. The flight had two more people added to it, and I made the rush call to Nancy, who was mad.

"Fuck Parke, what did you wrap me up in?"

"Just a little spying, and evidence gathering."

"Why?"

"Cause my cover is a Commonwealth Auditor, and they travel with an entourage."

"Why not grab some rookies?"

"Cause I work with you, and can trust you."

"You shouldn't, I am about ready to blast you full of holes right now."

"Well you might get the chance, if things go south."

"When do I have to be at the airport?"

"Two and a half hours."

"Fuck you."

"Fuck you too Nancy, pack business. No uniforms, skirts and heels."

"Sexist pig."

"You know it."

"Meet you there."

She hung up. Although sounding mad, she practically jumped at any chance to do sneaky beaky shit. She was oddly good at it, as she was not one that many people paid any attention to. Did it make her sad? Nope, she did not like attention. But explaining to Din the trip would take some finesse.

I finished my smoke as the rain poured on, watching the goons car make another lap around the block, looking for Din. I went upstairs, to find Din awake again, trying on clothes.

"The machine dinged, and I get new clothes?"

"Well.."

"They fit, but not my style, too plain."

She was talking, but opened the lingerie order, and fell in love with the silken things.

"The thing is.."

I explained my job, which she already knew, as among the residents of the area, it was known that I was a P.I. But she did not know I was attached to the security forces. I also gave her a job to earn her own money. She was mad at first, thinking I was buying her as a sex toy. I told her she would be my assistant and secretary. She frowned, and thought about it. But soon accepted the offer with a kiss and grab at my dick as I too was changing into a nerdy suit and tie. I told her she was coming with me on a trip, but the plain clothes were what she had to wear as I would be working. She nodded and finished unpacking her things into the hall closet, as we would share the bed.

Half an hour before departure found us pulling into the cargo loading area. I made her change her hair color to blond, as there were no blond headed Immigrants. She looked like a nerdy secretary, and when my car was loaded onto the transport, I met Nancy at the gate. She wore a blouse and skirt, and was carrying her luggage. I introduced Din to Nancy, and found out Nancy was fluent in Din's language. Neat. We approached the boarding counter and received the bad news.

A supernova had exploded along the path of the express jump gate, that connected our gate to the core worlds gate, which would have made the trip last a full day. Now our trip was going to take a month. A month in hypersleep there, and a month in hypersleep back. But our tickets were upgraded to sharing a hypersleep chamber with them both. I also paid for the Mental Stimulant package. It was basically a virtual world to keep your mind and mental focus sharp during an extended hypersleep.

We boarded, and in our assigned pod, we were made to strip together, shower together, and the synthetic worker hooked us up together in a technologically advanced plush king sized bed inside the pod. It was plush and I smiled at a bored Nancy, and Nervous Din. Soon the lid closed on us, and I held both ladies hands as we were put to sleep...

Inside the virtual world...

(If anyone is interested in what happened in the virtual world during their trip, I will gladly write it out upon request)

[Writers Bloque]

The transport docked with the Commonwealth Frigate, the CSS Jefferson. It was SOP for mid ranked Commonwealth workers such as myself and my lovely assistants to be escorted planet side by the military. That means....

Another motherfucking ride on a dropship that should have been decommissioned long ago during the galaxy wars. In the Commonwealth Military, if it isn't broken to scrap, and still works, its good to go. So during the transfer, I tried to prep my assistants for the bumpy ride passionately named by all who served "The Woman Maker." Women soldiers reported among each other that a drop in one was like a month long, no breaks fuck grind on the crotch. It was not uncommon for women to become lust crazed after landing. But for men....

There was the issue of what was driving women wild, but was dropping the unfortunate man who tried to shift around to get comfortable. You are supposed to not move a single inch during a drop, as you are locked in and down to prevent bone breakage. But that bar has wounded more men than actual combat. It is a support bar to prevent you from flopping around at the waist. The actual seat part was two inches of plastic who's only job is to let your ass rest on it, and to protect your lower spine. Our cargo (my car) crate was loaded as the orders were reviewed and doubly authorized. We were soon locked in, wearing helmets, as the Dropmaster in Charge cleared the deck. I watched the floor below the dropship open as the rear ramp closed and sealed. The first bump was the hardest. But my service taught me how to ride the drop. It also helps to have packed my old crotch plate into my pants. The crotch plate was actually was what the support bar magnetically latched onto to keep you in place. Most men will put up with the odd feeling of wearing one, while others go old school dumb and not put it in. I mean getting shot in the dick is low on the probability scale, but not ever zero.

The ride down was uneventful, as the shaking and bumping stopped as we entered the lower atmosphere, on course to the landing pad. We landed and were unlocked, and I had to visibly stop myself for reaching for the empty rack for my weapon and barking loudly as we walked down the ramp. However my companions needed me to support them, as they both suffered from post mega orgasm jelly leg syndrome. The looks on their faces was priceless. They were so out of it, when my car was unloaded from the shipping container, I had to help them into the back seat. The guards at the gates waved us through and we drove down the mountain, following the GPS to the facility.  We get to another gate, this one guarded by Milspec, and I showed them my badge and orders.The guards saluted me as I was let in. Auditors held a rank in the branches, not high enough to do much, but high enough to be listened to.

The absurdly fat man in a white coat greeted us like he was on the firing line. I snickered as he waddled to the main elevator and was nervously fidgeting, waiting for the car to come.

"Why would the Commonwealth send an auditor to work on site with us."

Que the practiced lines I was told to say to his fat bastard who ran the facility, by the suits.

"Were you not just robbed? Its standard practice to make sure one of our assets is in order after a situation, do you reject and object to this?"

That line carried the weight of death with it. The suits who gave me the authority, told me not to wave it around too much, but if an asset objected to an audit, an entire brigade of auditors would show up and lay waste to the place, restructuring it from the ground up, and replacing owners with ones that played ball better. One might "own" a company, but if more than half of its profits come from the commonwealth, then at any given time on a whim, the commonwealth owns the company secretly. Basically the fat man knew not to rock the boat, or lest I drop the ocean on him.

"No, sir, no need for objections. I was just curious as to the need to send you so far out to settle a petty theft."

This was new information, which the secreted recorder recorded in my jackets sleeve.

I opened the thick file in my hands, as physical evidence was weighted heavier than digital.

"I do not believe Project 0494, or "Titan Fist" would be considered a petty theft."

I didn't push any harder. I need to blend in as an Auditor. I need these people to be willing to help me if needed. So I tossed the fat man a lifeline.

"But I am led to believe that there is more going on, without your knowledge or consent."

The man looked relieved for a split moment, before putting his business face back on. Give that rope out, boy. I had to play it like a real auditor, despite never having seen one, or had contact with one before. The suits had paved the road for me, now it was up to me to follow it to its conclusion.

"I will need an office. Three desks."

I spoke to the man, stating the obvious as the lift stopped on his floor.

"Your office will be across from mine. And before you ask, there is no room in the employee housing, so its either drive into the city, or sleep in the office."

I could tell there was a slight grin on the man's face. He thought he was getting one over on me. The choice was basically have to drive for an hour to and from work, giving him time to possibly cover up some wrong doing, or look like a total commonwealth tool, and sleep where I work. Neither choice would be a real benefit to me. But I was not going to let him think he has won.

"I will sleep in my office, to help keep an eye on things after hours."

I said in a neutral tone, to cut off any more feelings from the fat man. I basically just said I didn't trust him or the other executives after hours, and forced his hand, if he was involved.

"A large king bed would suffice, as me and my assistants will be sleeping in shifts until we sort this out."

"Consider it already done."

"Thank you."

The fat man waved me off, as he entered his power trip looking office behind heavy oaken doors. I entered the less showy office, finding that there is room for the desks, and a loft for the bed. This office would probably make a nice office back home, but the true surprise of the room was the stacks of boxes with files in them. They literally just dumped everything in my lap that was related to the theft in hopes I wont go snooping around. Closing the door, I pressed my finger to my lips as a released a tiny drone into the room. In a flash it started finding hidden spying devices hidden in places no one would think to look. Once they were found, I set up the silent signal block. I had to tweak it a bit, so it would not trigger any alarms. Reasonably sure that we were safe from eavesdroppers, I sat in the chair and started to set things up.

Some workers carried in two desks, a mattress, frame and a block of instant foam. It was easy, build the frame to fit the mattress, place the block into the frame, add water to block, and watch it grow to fill the frame, and once it is all done, you now have a sleeping spot. The ladies had desks to work at now, and after setting the bed up, we all used a small storage room under the loft for our clothes and other personal effects.

I had secured us shelter, and as it was just after noon, and we haven't really eaten anything for a whole month, I decided to do a little snooping at the employee cafeteria. There are two, one for the executives and one for the researchers and workers. I decided to poke around the workers eatery, not really trying to stand out, but word of my arrival had spread down the totem pole, to the point these people were trying to hide their fear and terror of me. The crowd parted as I walked up to the ordering line.

"No, you all were ahead of me. I am just here like you, to work."

I had to diffuse this toxic air, before something triggered some real trouble.

"Damn, those Meteors could not stop a ball to save their lives."

I struck up a conversation with the guy ahead of me in line, and using sports, the universal language of men universe wide, we hit it off. I was now approachable, as others chimed in their two cents about a once great spaceball team, now the laughing stock of many systems. The group hung around, ordering food and we shot the shit about next seasons prospects. I dropped a little insider info here, some solid betting info there, even though unauthorized gambling is a crime, I wasn't immune to trouble from it, but the worst an auditor got was a stern lecture. After getting my to go order, I had to part ways with them, with the promises of beer at the watering hole in town with them one day.

But it wasn't all sports talk and crotch scratching. I let out some little things, and got back nuggets of useful information. Like it took way too long for the security to reach the breached area. Or how there was reports of a hovertruck seen sitting in an unused loading dock for a week solid without moving. Stuff I could look into. But right now, I was tired, sore and had to get something done off the bat or my cover could be blown. So I placed each to go box on the desks, as Nancy was helping Din to figure out her actual job. So she and Din were sorting files by date and relevancy. They stopped working to eat, and as I finished my meal off, the door slid open, and Fat man made his reappearance.

"There was an emergency meeting called for all department heads. You are required to attend?"

"Yes I am."

"It will be starting in twenty minutes."

"Got it, thank you."

He muttered something and scurried off, presumably to the meeting. I yawned, and stretched. Getting up, I asked:

"Which of you wants to join me?"

The answer was obvious, Nancy wanted nothing to do with a large crowd, and Din was learning the ropes.

"Change into something comfortable. They do not need you to be dressed up."

I said, as she finished her meal and went into the loft to change. She came back wearing a nice blouse and a skirt. But the skirt was shorter than the others, and that wicked smile came through, and even Nancy smiled. I mean nothing was off about her appearance, she would pass for a secretary easily, but she gathered a note pad, clipboard and her comm, she bent over, and I swear again.

Again she was wearing nothing under the skirt, as she bent over her desk, so that her whole ass was in my view, no panties under the pantyhose, but a well placed slit in her asscrack made for easy access. She knew it, and I suspected Nancy knew it also. Were they trying to get me turned to particles? She was putting on a pair of fuck me heels. Nancy helped with her makeup to make it working woman spot on, and fixed the hair that momentarily flashed a sexy pink color. Oh, boy.

The meeting room smelled good. Apparently dinner was going to be served to accompany the meeting. I had a separate table for me and my assistant Din, much to the chagrin of everyone in the room who turned into scared cats the moment I walked in. The sentiment was that I should be at the big table right into the mix of things. But I put on my pious act and said the table I was at was fine, as I did not want to intrude on their work. Eyebrows were raised when I did not send Din to fetch my plate and drink and I just smiled and slapped her ass.

"I prefer this one to stay by my side, no telling the trouble she could get into if I let her loose on her own."

That earned some good nature chuckles from the men and women of the room. But they did not notice that I let my hand linger on her ass, sliding it down the back of her skirt, tracing it to the slit in her hose, letting my finger gather some dew from her mound as she tried standing like a statue. She bent over, to move the files and other things for me to have a place to eat. While she did, I slipped my middle finger into her well moist pussy. I fingered her as she was preparing my area for the meeting, while others were merrily chatting away, eating. I ate my food, while still fingering her, fortunate that the meal could be eaten with one hand. A small gasp forced its way out of her mouth as she came, when the servers came to collect empty dishes and refilled drink glasses. She almost fell down, and with a swift motion I made what looked like my hand being not where it was supposed to be, a hand pulling her chair under her to sit comfortably. She sat and gave me a dirty, sexy look, and stuck her tongue out a little.

The meeting officially started.

I sent word to Nancy to access the servers for Project Titan Fist. I gave her the official access code and she nearly shat a brick. I told her to just gather the important details for review later. The meeting started with the minutes, and pressing concerns from the various departments. I had Din take notes, as I paid attention. It seems large amounts of materials and money were vanishing into the depths of the complex, and all the legit departments were suffering from it. After some debate and back and forth, I was formally introduced.

"This is Travis Parke, Commonwealth Auditor."

This made everyone gasp nervously in their own way. But I put on my schoolboy sheepish smile, to calm their nerves, because I did not want them afraid of me just yet. I rubbed the back of my head and smiled goofy like. There was a quiet chuckle and the meeting continued....

After the meeting, which lasted several hours, I had too many leads to work with, and as everyone was leaving, they made it a point to introduce themselves to me. A lot of bullshitting and friendly banter later, I made my way back to my office with Din, who now was hornier than ever. Once we entered the office, the fat man bid us goodbye and left his own office to go home. I locked the office door, and made a quick trip to the small executives bathroom, and changed out of my nerdy gear. I slipped on my usual trousers and undershirt, and popped open a bottle of very old whiskey. I propped my feet on my desk and sipped the sweet and smooth liquid as I went over some of the points of the meeting that stuck out.

-Money and resources are vanishing

- Project Titan Fist was never mentioned.

- A war of statuses was brewing, between both the workers and executives, and even between the executives.

What exactly was project Titan Fist? I mean its not a weapon, as this facility was not cleared to make or design weapons. It had to be something darker. Because only the Commonwealth could play the top secret game, and this place was full of more holes than a wheel of real swiss cheese. There was no way this place would be a black site for hush hush projects. But I noticed Nancy passed out at her desk. She often slept at the precinct like that. I carried her to the bed, and she moaned a little, as I placed her in her chosen spot. I turned to leave when I heard the sounds of a woman undressing, and failing due to being half asleep. I helped Nancy out of her clothes, and she smiled in just her bra and panties as she got under the heavy blanket. It was winter on the planet, and despite the office being a nice seventy-five degrees, the temps did drop as this was a skyscraper.

I returned to my desk as Din returned from the restroom, in her lingerie. I was making a call to HR for a workers pass for Material receiving and processing tomorrow. The nice lady was confused as to why I would need it, as I had full access to the building anyways. I told her that I did not want to be one of those men who waves his authority around like a tyrant. She laughed and as she was asking the proper questions, Din proceeded to fish my cock out of my pants, and sucked me off. I fought the urge to make noise, as the woman can see my face on the screen. Din had crawled outside of the camera's view to launch her surprise oral attack.

She had gotten better at it, and I had to fake cough to cover the intense feelings that was marking my face. Soon the paperwork was filled out and minutes later my pass was on my desk. But the woman wanted to talk my ear off, which was okay, I was not particularly busy, except an infestation of Minxes in my office, one who likes to gobble my cock like a sweet candy. Me and the nice woman made small talk, and I learned she was from the planet my parents were from, but on the dark side. And our conversation came to an end when one of her workers came to her with a problem and I could tell this call was the high point of her day. I made a note to talk to her more often, before my mind and all reason was siphoned through my dick.

Apparently at the meeting I was supposed to look but not touch, and my finger job did a number on her. When the call disconnected, she went harder at it, and I grunted that I was about to come, she played with my balls to coax a big load out. She flared her nostrils when I came, sucking down my protein shake like it was the best one in the universe. She licked her lips when my cock popped out of her mouth, and not a drop of fresh man cream was wasted. I was hard again, but she smiled at me, stood up and stretched.

"I am tired, time for bed."

She left me like that, giggling up the stairs to the loft.

I had more to worry about than blue balls. I looked out the one way window of the office, and noticed a black truck rush past the guards, many floors below. I rang security, and no one answered. The truck was followed by black armored buses. Something was wrong, where were the gate guards. I sent a dispatch encoded message to the suits, who quickly authorized me to use force to stop what was happening. They seen it too. From the Frigate above, a red streak made its way down, to the roof of the building I was standing on. In it was weapons, and detailed orders for capture of the threat, or execution. I was not a Merc, or Killer, but whoever was brute forcing their way through could end up hurting Din and Nancy, who were not soldiers. Nancy barely passed her shooting qualifications for the force.

I geared up, accepted the orders, and using the drop gear, that when active, dampen my Inertia before hitting the ground. Most soldiers had used it before, opting not to complete a dropship ride. I leapt off the roof, into the violent night..... 

[Writers Bloque]

The night air was cold. I had my weapons, not like I was armed or carried a combat load out. I used the almost hidden fire escape, reaching the ground just as the black truck, unhindered drove nearly silently by the dark alley I was standing in. I charged both weapons as I decided to follow the truck. My comm vibrated, as I set it for sneaky mode, and it was the suits. They were sending a squad of specops, as the suit had now full control of security, and found out it was intentionally deactivated. Soon the truck and busses were trapped by plasteel walls that could withstand an orbital strike.

I was too old for this sneaky fighting shit. I was just a detective. The team the suits sent landed quietly near the main tower. I linked up with them and they explained the situation and plan. They were going to go after the team in the truck. They believe that the large group on the bus was after whatever was in the tower. I was to use the passkey they given me to take control of the tower's defenses. I had to keep them from reaching the forty-fifth floor, where the records and research findings were stored on secured servers. Once they dealt with the truck team, they would come mop up any stragglers from the tower raid.

"Something smells"

"Yeah this situations stinks of shit to high heaven."

"Keep low, Auditor."

"You too."

The soldiers had given me an extra plasma caster rifle, after seeing the two blasters I carried. I used the passkey to enter the south entrance of the tower, and once in, I rushed to the security control room, hoping to find someone to assist me in protecting the tower. What I found were four barely alive bodies lying on the floor in puddles of their spilled coffee. I inspected the coffee pot, and gave it a smell. It smelled like real coffee with a hint of some exotic spice. My scanner indicated that it was a poison designed to slowly kill the target, in hours or even days. I slipped some thin gloves on, and the coffee puddles were cold and sticky. This happened hours ago. I put the passkey into the master override slot, and now had control of the tower and area around it's defenses. I closed all ground floor and roof top entrances and exits. Once sealed I activated the emergency bio hazard protocol, which added another layer of annoyance to anyone trying to get in. I was curious about the forty fifth floor, and found it had its own set of defenses, separate from the buildings main security, which was put to sleep. I woke it up.

I tapped into the camera network of the entire facility, and watched the wall blocking the buses was starting to spark out. The bus group was going to cut through. Funny. Even with the best cutter, it would take at least five minutes to cut through enough to let them in. I could not access the rest of the facilities systems, so I had to think of a way to slow them down.  The wall was breached in record time, as two teams of twenty each came through. However, when they reached the tower they were visibly shook.

They expected it to be an easy wide open snatch and grab, but what they got was a fortress, sealed to slow them down two times over. I could see from the camera drones that a dark figure lug a case up the stairs and set it up. Removing its helmet, it was a woman who set up some kind of equipment right there. The security controls lit up, as the passkey alerted me to an attempt to gain access through the back doors. Nope, not tonight ma'am, not in the mood for back door play. So now it became a serious game of whack a mole, as I was working to shut down every attempt, with her trying to find some way to gain control. The game lasted for a few minutes, and after it became obvious someone was thwarting her every attempt, the man standing above her yelled out for something and four men carried up a large box. The woman frantically kept trying and it was becoming automatic, almost mechanical how I was stopping them. Digging into my archaic music collection, I decided to change the song playing out of the outdoor speakers from the janky elevator music to a more fitting tune.. Little Richard's Keep a-knocking.

This visibly angered the manas he flipped the camera's off while his men set up what I believe to be a door knocker. Designed to be a wall breaching tool, the thing could make short work of everything less than starship hulls. But I was not even remotely in a corner yet, as I set up the surprise for his entry team. I retracted all the stairs, and locked down all the elevators but the rapid one in the security office. The elevators were now stashed in the basement and every set of stairs in the building were retracted, an emergency measure in these sort of occasions. I watched the monitor, and the buster was charging, so I activated the last bio-hazard protocol on a timer. All doors and windows in the lobby were sealed shut with metal plates. I then set the security station to be controlled remotely by the passkey, removed it, and fired my blaster at the main power junction box, watching as the entire station went dark. I entered the elevator and went directly to floor forty-five as each floor closed behind the elevator's ascent.

Floor forty-five was giving me bad vibes. I made a secret call to the suit I was working with.

Suits. They do not have an official title. They are not on any Commonwealth record, not because they are intentionally being mysterious, but because they actually have no job title, to maintain their autonomy. They are considered hidden hand of the Commonwealth, and wield much power. No one meets them by chance, as if the meeting was good, you disappear. If bad, you disappear and any trace of you scrubbed from any records. The only difference between the two meetings is your fate after, the good end is that they fold you into their ranks, and the bad end, there wont even be enough left of you to consider cosmic dust. So it is a safe bet they could explain why I was sitting in the supposedly most secure room of the tower, supposed to be looking at rows and rows of top secret servers and all I see is a huge empty room.

"Sir, what are the invaders even after?"

"Nothing we know of."

"Why break in then?"

"We think they are after something on site, but our reports are sketchy. It's best if you stay on alert."

"They are currently breaching the tower."

"Then stay alive. I am working on my end to figure this out."

"Will do, I will report later."

"Okay."

The conversation was not promising. I tried every wall, floor, and all, and there was nothing. It seemed as if....

Alarms rang out, not unexpected, as my parting gift with the ground floor activated. As if on time, the seal was broken, and the teams of invaders had entered the building, just as a very volatile mix of flammable liquid was pouring into the lobby and then ignited. The lobby became for a moment almost hot as a sun, at 15,000 degrees. Nothing living could survive, and the invaders who were in the lobby, were ash before they could scream. This pushed back the invaders, who were now being pinched between the hell inferno and the specops team who finally arrived. I knew the fire of god would last a minute, and even after it was gone, it would still be at least a few hours before the temp lowered to safe, but the nagging feeling would not let go as it tried to wrest control of my senses from me, and that's when the southern wall exploded.......

A late model Dynatine Interceptor, a short range strike craft, unmanned, but still deadly. It targeted me, and began firing. Using the rapidly vanishing rubble as cover, I fired the caster at the craft, it would do some damage, but the lightly armored craft boasted a high speed, and top maneuverability that was what made it popular in many armies and militias. It's fatal flaw was that it was a single target craft, its radar and scanners could only target a single target, meaning you had to be damned sure what ever you wanted gone did not have backup. But I was not only just a sitting duck, the craft itself confirmed a suspicion of mine.

[staci]

What happened to  the woman?

[Writers Bloque]

What happened to  the woman?

For all the detective knows they are passed out on the bed five floors above him.

[Writers Bloque]

This intense scene was bullshit. The strike craft was wasting its ammo on trying to target me, as its controller was directing their support to fire into the big open hole in the wall. I just watched as my certain doom was coming by the chunks of debris being liberated by each shot of my hiding spot. Tactically, I was suited for a medium soiree, but for armored and mechanical units I was wholly outclassed. My only choices was to play mouse until it depleted its ammo, which meant death for me, or I try to leap out of the hole in the wall to a death also. If I was going to go out, I wanted it to be on my terms. The striker stopped firing in its ten second reload phase, and I decided to rush it.

Leaping over the rubble, I charged the striker. Not expecting me to charge to my doom like that, the guns clicked as the operator was desperately trying to gun be down before I reached the striker. I jumped and before I could hit it, I flew over it and into the semi dark night below.


My jump gear was at half charge, so my landing in the snow bank was not exactly soft. The air was knocked out of me as I rolled into the shadows of a dumpster. The striker tried to follow me down when it fell from the sky with a small explosion on impact. I released the trigger of the small charge I left on top of the striker as I leapt over it. The charge wasn't explosive, but an EMP mine, used against mechanized units. I got up sore and limped my way to where I spotted the group that was controlling the striker was before I made my dive.

I made it to the chemical tank as an older style dropship flew over head, as the sounds of fighting drew closer to my position. The group was coming down the tank as I stuck to the shadows and fired at them while they were on the ladder. Despite thinking I had them, my bullets impacted on air, leaving blue sparks. Shields. Fuck them. I guess it was hand to hand time as some of the group stayed behind to keep me busy while their friends escaped. I am out of practice in CQC, years of booze and cushy desk work has dulled my knifes edge. But that doesn't mean I don't know how to do it anymore, as I ranked the top fighter in training and on the battlefield, but that dont mean shit if you dont practice and keep in shape. So when I noticed the first guys opening blow was a hard right hook, I moved to dodge, hooked his punching arm with mine and threw him over my sore hip, sending him clattering to the snow behind me.

But his friends were not going to be as easy. A woman with a knife thought she was trying out for one of them virtual fighting games, as she tried to sting me with her knife with quick stabs. I let her blade eat into my shoulder pad as I drew her in to a really solid blow to her solar plexus. Even with armor and pads, it was the hard blow taught to disable an opponent in advanced training. It worked as she tried to suck in some air and fell to her knees, and then into sandman land. The third idiot was fighting his snaps holding his side arm in its holster, and I took the knife out of my shoulder pad, and sunk it into his neck. I covered his mouth, to keep him from alerting any one of his friends that might be left in the area. I had to rush, to get to that dropship. The first guy was trying to get up, dazed and I left him to take a nap with a solid blow to the side of his head.

-Meanwhile-

The spec op forces had the dropship pinned down, no one was making it on or off the ship. Both forces holding each other at bay. The ships guns were trying to get beats on the spec ops, but they were just too damned good at not letting ships shoot at them, hence why they were Spec Ops. Me, I had only one mag left, and three batteries for the guns I had left. I was not an action movie star, so I had to play this just right. Some of the attackers were using the fire fight to move a large metallic box. An obviously important box, as it would be hit by a stray shot, and not be damaged. The ship was turning, to look like it was trying to fire down on the defenders, but in reality it was moving to make it easy for the box to be loaded. That is, until an unlucky soldier turned detective turned paper pusher started to pick off the men trying to move the metal box closer to the ship. I was out of ammo when the box was stopped halfway to the ship. I only had a few shots left for my blaster and the captains gun left. I noticed the back of the ship open and those not involved in the gunfight, and whom I also suspected was the leader jump on board the ramp. The ship rose and I ran at it, firing the blaster, knocking a gunner off the ramp, who crashed into the snowy ground with a sickening thud.

I drew down on the man I thought was the leader as my camera on my suit zoomed in on his face as he smiled at me. I fired the gun and was thrown back a couple of feet. The shot missed the man but it punctured the hull so they would not be leaving the planet any time soon. In response to me rising he tossed a small cylinder out of the closing ramp, and the world grew white...

-Onboard the escaping ship-

"Did you get it, Colonel?"

"No, the tower was sealed before we could infiltrate. The fat man lied."

"We were double crossed. Someone is getting in our way on purpose. Pay the fat man a visit, make sure this is his last night."

"Yes, General."

Shaken, as his people moved about trying to patch the hole in the hull, the General slammed his fist into the frame. He just nearly lost his head. He wanted to know who the fool was that thought he could take him down. The ship activated its anti tracking measures and slipped into the early morning darkness.

---

The planetary news was alive with the news that the owner of the company was found dead in his study by his maid. His head was placed firmly on his desk, and "Traitor" was written on the wall in his blood. Security forces are chalking it up to a robbery turned murder, but will release a full report once the investigation is finished.

--

That morning found me being patched up by a "trusted" doctor, who is a planetside liaison between me and the suits. I was to report to him now that the situation has become a bit more darker. Once he was done treating me, he handed me a pill bottle, and told me to take two and relaxe for the day. Of course the company was closed, the fighting and the death of its owner, the gates were sealed, except for me and mine, because technically I was an Auditor with free reign.

I made it back to the office, and sent the girls for food in town. I trusted them, and knew they would be fine. I opened the bottle and shook out two pills. But looking at the three in my hand, one was a chip, and I knew it was more sneaking spy shit. So I took the two pain pills and put the chip in its slot under the bottle's lid and then laid the bottle on its side as a small holo projector played its death threat of a warning - For my eyes only.

The video that played was mostly common knowledge, that the Commonwealth had enemies, blah blah. But the name Colonial Senate shook me. They were once a branch of the Commonwealth that was wildly pro-human, pro destruction of planets if it meant more wealth and resources, etc. The Commonwealth cut ties with them completely, and they became a major thorn in their side. They sought to usurp the Commonwealth and turn the systems in its embrace into hell holes of excess and waste. Though to have been wiped out, pockets of them appear where they are least wanted.

Then the video cut to stuff that was not known. It started with Project Origin, after it was discovered that Earth was not the only planet with Humans. But the further they followed the bread crumbs, the harder it was on the human researchers. This gave birth to Project Rapture, to design a wholly new human being from the ground up. One that does not age past a certain point, one that can adapt quickly to survive any environment and can colonize and terraform planets once thought uninhabitable. This lead to a very dark place. Because before the project was supposed to be wholly scrapped, abandoned and destroyed, the Senate before it being excommunicated, took over and did not tell its parents what it was doing. The video then cuts to the raid of Omicron Delta Prime, the secret facility continuing the research. Ultimately the base was erased off the planet and all was considered closed. But an offshoot of Rapture was Project Titan Fist, the project that was trying to figure out how to augment human skin to be tougher than most metals. A silly whim to make the Commonwealth seem like it actually gave a damn about its loyal soldiers. But Titan fist was the cover for Rapture's continued research, now safely and firmly under the Commonwealth's control.

It seems that the leadership of the Colonial Senate want their toy back.

This was not going to happen.

As the video ended with another warning, it cut out and the girls returned with a local delicacy. Fried eggs on top of a steak on top of a pile of seasoned hash browns. Served with toast and coffee.

I ate, as I got word that the fat man was murdered, and now was left in the dark as one possible lead was gone.....

[Writers Bloque]

Honestly, I am starting to really not want to continue giving a shit about this case. I was already in a shitty mood, since the fat man died, now I am chasing shadows and ghosts. I had requested the duty rosters of the nights of the break ins and attacks. I wanted to know who exactly was on the security team to either have dropped the ball, or intentionally let the wolves in. Three names popped up. So after my breakfast I decided to pay a visit to these people. One lived in the employee dorms and the two others lived off site but close. It was a breeze to get Dossiers on them, their entire life's story from first breath to the last time they paid for sex.

I slid my badge on the door lock, and it opened.

"Hey man, if you wake him up, tell him I am reporting him next time he throws a wild sex party."

"Gotcha."

The man was hanging out, smoking before he had to leave for his shift. I broke it to him that he and most of the staff had the day off, but I don't think he fully trusted my word as I opened the door. What awaited me was the nightmare fuel. The place was clean. but in the living room, someone decided to try to paint it red with blood. The body of Security Officer Johnson was almost cut up into hamburger. He wont be telling me anything, anytime soon. I put the call into the Planet Sec. The man outside seen the gore and threw up over the railing. While looking almost ground up, the wounds were too clean for an edged weapon. Among the human mess, was pieces of artificial wood. This narrowed the weapon down quite a bit. I called a drone and asked it to summon a few more to do a grid by grid search to look for anything out of place outside. Inside I stayed out of the bloody mess, and searched his bedroom. Inside I found a woman with a broken neck, left draped across the bed, and a credit wallet, displaying a massive sum of credits under the blanket beneath her. There was a half empty bottle of some synthetic liquor on the floor and I decided to leave this to the locals.

I had to race to the next two men, and when I reached the closest first, Just as I was about to get out, the house exploded violently. I called it in, and rushed to the last house to find it empty. It was as if who ever lived here left in a hurry at dinner time, as there was a steak dinner cold on the table. I searched the rooms, and as suspected the family left as fast and hard as they could. I contacted the spaceport and they gave me a list of passengers from last night starting at seven pm. I had photos and biometrics, and it was easy to find the family of five's info, since they were using fake names. They were headed to Delta Centari Zeta, as far away from here as humanly possible. Sadly though, the ship they were on was lost to an unexpected worm hole, and all that was left is the emergency beacon. There were no survivors.

Now in my foul mood, I lit my smoke and sat under the awning of a small diner located on the main entry road. It was cold as shit right now, and only getting colder. Of course I had on my thermals, but that did not stop my hands and face from being chilly. Did I give a flying fuck?, No. Boot camp puts you in much colder climates. I wanted a bite to eat, as my comm blared to life. The drones found a bloody rock chewer in a nearby scrap pile. The thing still had bits of blood and wood in its horror fuel looking mouth. The rock chewer had many uses, mining, scrap crushing, killing someone in the most gruesome way, and oddly enough, boat propulsion in a pinch. No prints, and of course the only DNA found on it was the victims. Well, its time to return to the office. The cold wind picked up as snow started to fall again. The wind was deafening, but not loud enough for me to not notice a tell tale "DING^ of a projectile missing my head by millimeters and striking the metal vending machines corner. The next shot ricocheted off of the roof of my car, as I rolled out of sight of the sniper trying to pick me off.

My sense of where the shots came from was off due to the storm. I could not risk firing back and wounding someone in their apartment across the street for me. The roads were empty, the main road to the facility was lit, but the snowfall was making visibility almost zero. I tried to zero in on the shooter, using some micro drones I carried for additional eyes and clue finding. But the storm was making it hard for the drones to lock onto heat signatures, I ordered them to circle the area as I kept my head down, but there were no more shots. I could not shake the feeling in my stomach and something screamed in my head to throw myself backwards under the bulletin board loaded with missing pet signs and taxi service cards. As I threw myself backwards, the snow where I was erupted as the mystery sniper in all white stepped around the car to catch me off guard.

BOOOM!

The roar of the illegal burner, followed by the intense scream of pain as the sniper's knee was freed from his body. The second shot I fired, was timed nicely as the sniper had dropped to the ground, using the rifle to keep him upright, until he could use it to kill me. The second shot painted the last thing on his mind all over my rear car door. The shot did not even scratch the paint, but now I could not ID him quickly. I got up off the ground groaning, as I hit my com, and a dose of light anesthetic pain killers were introduced to my bloodstream transdermally. Once I could walk normal, I cursed the asshole as people in the diner had rushed out to see what the loud boom was. Living near a facility, booms were something to fear.

I kicked its body around, as I searched it, finding an unopened pack of smokes, and a small holodrive. He had just enough credits on him for a cup of coffee. Satisfied, I lit another smoke and called my contact. Ten minutes after the call, the local PlanetSec arrived to pick up the body. They were efficient at gathering every piece of his head off of my car, and after some questions, a flash of a badge and a nod, I returned inside for a piece of pie and coffee. Fuck, it was cold outside.

An hour later, I had the rifle sitting on my desk, and the holodrive with nothing more on it than the order to kill me in the worst way possible. From the looks of it, these invitations were spread around to some of the worst head hunters in the universe. I could not give a shit, as we would not be staying any longer than need be, and since it's turning out that the facility attacks were a distraction for a series of thefts, I had already put that part of the puzzles pieces together. Now I needed to finish the whole puzzle, and that cannot be done here anymore. Besides, I technically was out of a job, as the Commonwealth was bringing in the numbers boys to take full control of this place, and while I had a teaspoon of power, those guys would want justification as to why I was still around after the fat man died.

We spent the next two hours packing up. Most of the top floors were already empty, since a company wide memo stated that the Commonwealth was coming and everyone was given a nice severance package. I got one too, which was funny. But a video started up on my display screen. It was taken from outside the ship in orbit, as a dropship limped its way to a ship in the distance. My contact sent the message that they are tracing the warp destination that the almost hidden ship was going. Time to leave.

The car trip to the spaceport was uneventful, as a large black ship was following the road, above us. It landed, and of course it was the triple C, Commonwealth Corporation Corps. or the Number Boys and Girls. They were tasked with one job. Get the facility back to work, or decommission it, and move everything to another site that was prepared as a back up. We did not want to be part of the flurry of action that is falling upon that place. I drove up the same ramp I drove down days ago, and the cargo handlers packed it up nicely again. We sat in the terminal as the small army of suits were moving quickly through the building to enter a hover bus outside. The lady at the counter called me to the counter.

"It seems your return destination has changed. You three will be heading to Mu Gamma Vega two."

It was a slip of the woman's face, a slight contortion as she told us this, that spoke volumes. My travel partners and walking protein shake receptacles looked at me confused as to why I had a scowl.

Mu Gamma Vega Two, or as it is politely known and spoke of as "The Commonwealths Landfill." It was a literal shit hole. There was no redeeming value to the place. Even with all of its rare minerals and such, nothing could make going there favorable for anyone other than those that are tired of having the basics, like a stable power grid, food that isn't served in pouches, a working sanitary system, or even just fresh water. The system was home to four races, slowly being poisoned by their own home worlds, so they did what any well adjusted species would do, they declared war on each other, until there were barely any of them were left, and all four species went in opposite directions and did not look back. The Commonwealth took it over with no resistance and then slapped it with all sorts or processing facilities. But while the money was flowing, those that worked there did not trust the Commonwealth much, after generations of being left alone to fend for themselves.

But fortunately for us, we will not be going planet side. The black ship is docked at a huge space depot. largest within four sectors. And as the war ship left the jump, a series of red hot plasma shots greeted the Jefferson, which of course fired back, taking the engines of the black ship out. However the black ship had friends, and the captain had to call in for support as this was now confirmed to be the nest of vipers, being a major thorn in the Commonwealth's side.

But something did not sit right with me, as we were going to use the firefight to sneak aboard the depot, or well I was going, and the ladies were kept aboard in safety. I was going solo for this. I was outfitted for the mission the Suits now had for me. I was in a dropship with the spec ops from the facility raid. We were heading into the snakes den....