Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 530: Investigative Prowess
As he rode into town he was surprised by two things. The first was that Gaz went invisible again as they got close. The second was the state of the town as they rode in. He figured it would not be well off. But he did not realize that it was this bad. The houses were just a bit bigger than wooden sheds. With the only places sticking out being a brick house and the sheriff station that appeared to be a mix of brick and wood.
They rode slowly through the middle of town. They received a number of glares as they went. Some were glaring at him and the corpse on the back of the horse. But the others were glaring at Liz as she sat on the back of seemingly nothing.
They pulled up to the front of the sheriff’s station where a man was already waiting. He was rocking back and forth on a rocking chair. He said something and Jace frowned as he did not understand him. It must be a specific dialect that is completely different from the common tongue he already memorized.
"Stick to common." Liz told him with a chuckle. "My new friend here does not know all of the local dialects. As it is, I am surprised he managed to learn our common tongue in only a few hours."
"Oh? Not a local?" The sheriff, an overweight man with a full beard and a dirty white shirt with a gold badge on it, looked Jace up and down. "Yeah... definitely not from around here? Not from the planet either I am guessing. You from the debris that fell?"
"Yes sir." Jace nodded.
"Do you have any decent technical skills? If you can fix my radio I won’t blab when those annoying investigators come." The sheriff asked as he stood up. Adjusted his gun holster as he did.
"I do. How about this one?" Jace pointed a thumb at the corpse on the back of the horse as he pulled himself off the horse with a grunt. It was uncomfortable to ride something that bumped and jostled. He much preferred his hoverbike. Although he could see the fun it could be.
"Huh... he is... wanted for 200 units I believe. Let me check the records because I will have to mark him as dead and send out a few images to provide proof of death. Toss it in that tub." The sheriff pointed at a tub that was sitting on the porch that Jace was thinking was sitting out of place. But now it made sense.
Jace grunted and picked up the body and tossed it into the tub as he followed the sheriff into the building. Liz plopped down in the rocking chair and waved at him. "Have fun."
He walked into the station and flinched in surprise at the surprisingly clean inside. "Surprised?" The sheriff chuckled as he walked around the counter and grabbed something from underneath and set it on top of the counter. "I usually do all my business out front. Just to keep the office as clean as possible. It is also to remind the hoodlums that I am watching." He explained as stepped back around the counter with a device in hand that appeared to specifically take photos. "That is my intersystem radio. I use it to call in bounties like this. I need it to pay for your bounty so I hope you were not lying about being good with machines."
He stepped out of the room and Jace turned back to the device and looked it over with a frown before he began tinkering with it.
—------------------
"What do you see?" Sherlock asked as he stood a few feet from the front door of the lighthouse. They landed their ship just down the road after confirming there was nothing living within a mile.
The mechanic’s drone was hovering around scanning the area. Giving them readings that were bewildering to say the least. He could see them on the tablet he was holding. His assistant was inside searching the lighthouse that appeared to double as a residence.
"I see. The front door of a lighthouse. Looks like the occupant has left recently. We saw something that looked like two different tracks when we were coming up here for at least two different types of mounts." The mechanic pointed out with a shrug before turning his attention back to the data.
Sherlock smiled as he looked around. Glancing at the shed near the house as well. Before looking back at the door as it opened. "How about you West?"
West, his female assistant, walked out of the building with an expressionless face. She glanced at him and looked annoyed for a moment before looking around then walking past him. "A fight. The owner left with another person. Not someone who is living here. But before that there was an injury and a fight. I believe some of these tracks are of a horse. But I have no clue what the other tracks are."
"Makes sense why you would not recognize them. They are for a species not native to Prima Terra. But I was out on the ground on Mars during the latest regime coup war. The Mars Rebels showed a surprising amount of technological advantage, including the ability to genetically engineer a new species of mount that caused us quite a bit of trouble." Sherlock explained as he crouched down and looked at the track.
"Then how did it get here?" The mechanic asked in shock. "I mean, most of those rebels were killed along with any evidence of the rebellion when the planet was bombed from orbit."
"That is what the imperials wanted everyone to think. But in reality a large swath of them escaped. Promising revenge before they spread out far and wide. Our unknown person might have led us to one of our most wanted." Sherlock declared before standing and walking to the shed and pulling the door open. "Just as I thought."
In the back of the shed barely hidden by some debris was the red circle with a black swirl that symbolized the Mars Rebels. "Oh... shit... are we going to need to call for backup? I heard they were genetically engineered to be physical monsters."
Sherlock nodded and chuckled. "Indeed they were. But they were defective and by the way of this shed’s state. I am guessing the rebel is dead while the Scaleback is alive and well taken care of." He looked to the mechanic, "scan for a trace of plutonium. It is not detectable on high grade detection systems from a distance. But if we are within a mile and specifically scanning for it we should pick it up."
"Find what?" The mechanic asked as he started doing the scan.
"The body of the Mars Rebel. Now that we know about it we have to treat it as a priority and then go retrieve the Scaleback. The imperials want one so they can reverse engineer it. They never managed to get one during the rebellion." West explained as he pulled out a communicator and flipped it open. "Now I have to contact the ship commander."
Sherlock sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "I know."
"So what do you think happened here?" The mechanic asked as he scanned the area with his drone.
"Well something created an altercation here. Then someone walked up, someone who left a trace of warp. That is the person who came through the blackhole. He then was holding something that superheated the air and even created a lasting impression that we could still pick up with our scans." Sherlock moved over to the door of the lighthouse and looked around for a moment before crouching down and picking up something out of the dirt.
"Where someone was injured and left some blood at the doorway of the lighthouse." West pointed out before turning away and talking into her communicator.
"Dead, not injured." Sherlock nodded. "He killed one person and probably injured several more. But the lighthouse keeper still helped them. I am guessing they were attacking the lighthouse keeper."
"They?" The mechanic asked as he looked up from his tablet.
"Yes, multiple horse tracks leading away from the lighthouse. The other person must have run them off by fighting them." Sherlock explained as he held up a piece of metal that was a mix of blue and black.
"What is that?" The mechanic asked.
"No clue, we should take it to the lab-"
"What!" West’s uncharacteristic yell caught them both off guard. "No-" he then stopped as they could almost hear her grinding her teeth. She put away her communicator and turned to them. "We have a problem. The ship commander decided to take a platoon to the nearby town instead of sending support here."
"That dumbass... we still do not know what we are facing down. There is a reason an investigative unit is always so well trained. It is also the reason we always go in with a peaceful mindset. But that moron is going to pick a fight! West,contact the other investigation units and get in contact with another ship in the area." Sherlock immediately yelled in a panic. If this enemy is too strong, they might end up becoming a problem.
