Disclaimer I own nothing.
Deep inside the great black citadel of City 17.
Two combine soldiers marched a man dressed in the uniform of the Combine police, down one of the many dark corridors, to the captain of the commander of the CP's of area 17
.
The man was named Randolph Murrington Kreel, more commonly known as Randy he was a gangly sharp featured man, just a shade under six feet, in his late teens, with short blood red hair, bright green eyes, and olive tanned skin.
And he was in deep shit, the reason for this was that he had disobeyed a direct order, to execute a man charged with the simple crime of loitering in the wrong place, and his superior officer, a blocky, dark skinned man in his early thirties. Named Ramirez had berated him for it, and had drawn his pistol to finish off the poor civilian, when Randy in burst of foolishness and altruism. Had knocked out the older man, and allowed the civilian to escape.
Randy looked up as they came within view of the Regional Commander's office, and nearly wet himself when he saw the regional Commander himself standing in front of the door scowling at him.
The Regional Commander was Salvo Barrington Kreel, his uncle.
Salvo was a tall, extremely athletic, wolf like man, who stood an impressive height of sixe foot five inches, in his late thirties, with sharp vicious features that on the rare occasions of when he smiled gave a person the instinct urge to run for the nearest tree.
His hair was ear length straight, and very thick, and very, very black. Faintly threaded with silver at the temples.
But the most wolf like trait he had, were his eyes. His eyes were colored silver, and cold, and cruel.
He was wearing the standard black outfit of a combine regional commander, black combat style boots, black jeans, a black t-shirt, black fingerless gloves, and a black Kevlar-weave trench coat that could keep small arms from penetrating, and all of was loaded with tiny Nano machines that constantly repaired and cleaned the clothing, a luxury that only the most honored Combine officers were allowed.
He nodded at Randy, and looked at the two guards, "you two can go now, I'll take him from here."
The two guards shifted uneasily, "Sergeant Ramirez said weren't to leave his side sir."
Salvo scowled irritated at the soldier, and the soldier took a few steps back, Salvo wasn't the kind of person you wanted irritated with you, indeed he was the kind of person you didn't want to even want to notice you "Did he? Well Sergeant Ramirez isn't the regional commander here, now go, and clean yourselves up, you both smell like you've been traveling the sewers."
He turned back Randy who was glancing around nervously, "In my office." said Salvo in a tone that brooked no argument.
Randy entered his office and was surprised at how small it was.
It was perhaps 15 feet in diameter, with a ceiling that barley accommodated their height, and was sparsely decorated with a wall covered in medals given to Salvo both in his days in the Marines, and in his days as a Combine officer. A large bullet proof window on an other part of the room, showed the sun setting at the west
A Mahogany Desk sat at one corner of the room, with Salvo's blood red leather chair behind it, and a smaller brown leather visitors chair at another corner of the room,
Salvo sat down in his chair, and motioned for Randy to do the same.
Salvo just looked at the squirming Randy for a moment, then sighed, and tried to make his voice as kindly as possible, which was practically impossible for someone who had a voice like gravel
"look, lad I know for fact that what happened out there wasn't nearly so bad as Ramirez made it out to be, now just relax, and tell me what happened.
Randy swallowed and looked at his hands on the desk, feeling akin to a mosquito caught in a spotlight.
"well uncle it happened like this."
Four hours earlier
Corporal Randolph and Sergeant Ramirez. Were on patrol when Ramirez pointed down an alley and said,
"Hey Randy would you look at that."
Randy looked and saw a tall, wiry, dark haired, man in glasses, and wearing the usual blue outfit. Strolling seemingly aimlessly down the sidewalk
"what about him?' Randy asked bemused.
"he's Loitering in a non Loitering sector, a crime punishable by a severe beating." Randy heard the undertone of wickedness in the older man's voice despite it being garbled by the mask, and knew that the unlucky civilian would be lucky to get away alive, Ramirez was well known for his cruelty.
"can't we just let him off with a warning?" Randy asked uneasily. Ramirez turned to him, and he knew that the older man was grinning at him, "Now where would the fun be in that."
"You citizen stop!" Ramirez shouted at the civilian, and the unlucky civilian, turned and ran.
"After him!" shouted Ramirez and they chased after him.
*smart son of bitch, hope his fast too* thought Randy as they chased the man down an alley.
The man was fast, but not fast enough, Randy wasn't nearly as big as Ramirez in the muscle department, but he was faster, much faster.
He caught up to the Civilian in no time at all and slammed him into the wall, eliciting a cry of pain from the man, and spun him around to face him, and shoved his service pistol into the man's face
"good work Randy!" panted Ramirez as he caught up to them.
He clapped Randy on the shoulder, and said "now because you caught him, I will give you the honor of executing the man yourself."
Randy looked at him shocked. "But why, what happened to just giving him a beating?"
"Oh don't you know Randy, evading justice from an officer of the law, is a charge punishable by Death!" he laughed as he said this.
Randy looked back at the man under the barrel of his gun who was looking strangely calm, under the circumstances. Then back to Ramirez. "No." he finally said.
"What?" said Ramirez as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. Which was probably the case.
"I said no, this man hasn't done anything wrong, he's just doing what everybody else does." Randy pulled his gun away from the man and put it back in its holster.
"Randolph Murrington Kreel! As your superior officer I order you to execute that man!" shouted Ramirez.
"Go take your order and shove it where the sun doesn't shine sir." said Randy getting angry.
"Randy damn it, if your uncle wasn't the Regional Commander I'd shoot you for that, as it is when we get back I'm gonna have you I'm gonna have you washing toilets for a month when we get back, now step aside so I can shoot that fucker."
Ramirez raised his pistol, "NO!" Randy shouted and without thinking he stepped forward, drew his stun baton, and rammed it into Ramirez's ribs.
Ramirez dropped like a rock.
Randy looked back at the dark haired man, "GO!" he half screamed, motioning the man to run, "Thank you." he said before he turned and ran.
Randy looked at the retreating man stunned, *Did that guy actually just apologize to me, ME A COMBINE COP! Well alright I did save his life but still* these were Randy's last thoughts, before Ramirez who had recovered surprisingly quickly even for CP with all the special healing implants. Stood up, and brought his Stun Baton down on the back of his head.
Salvo Barrington Kreel looked at his Nephew feeling that familiar old headache of frustration coming on, and sighed.
"Okay this is bad Randy, not as bad as Ramirez made it out to be, but not by much, I can keep you from getting a death sentence, but I am going to be expected to deliver some sort of punishment, if I don't I could be seen as unfit for the position of Regional Commander, and other officers might get ideas about who should be running things around here, the Animals.
Randy felt his mouth go dry and he had to fight to keep from passing out, if his Uncle was replaced by someone else, someone less Lenient, someone like Ramirez things could go in a bad way. "What," he swallowed "what punishment did you have in mind?" he asked
"I was thinking about setting you on patrol by the ocean, where all the Antlions are getting riled up, with some of your friends, like Wayne, and Preacher."
Randy felt like the floor had fallen out from under him and he was now falling, Patrolling by the OCEAN! That was as good as a death sentence, Spawning season for the Antlions was nearly upon them and they were really grouchy around spawning season.
Salvo smiled as kindly as possible, and Randy shivered not immune to the effect it had on people, "Don't worry Randolph, I know what I'm doing its not as bad as It sounds out there, and contrary to common belief Antlions are not ten foot tall bullet proof monstrosities, they in fact are quite vulnerable,"
"And while spawning season may be near, as long as you stay off the sand over there you should be perfectly fine. Now go get some sleep your gonna need it, oh and tell please inform Sergeant Briggs that if he doesn't start tossing his cigars into the Trash can like everyone else, he's gonna be cleaning out the drunk tank for a year."
Randy nodded dumbly before standing up, and exiting the office, and wondered whether or not it was too late to take up religion like preacher had.
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