Chapter 1: Chaotix
March 10th, 3238, 1301 hours
M-21 Motorway, Mobius
Ryan shifted gears on his Hyundi Jagged and merged into the motorway. This was his Mobius car. He had another car on Earth, a Hitsugaya Helios. Something about Japanese cars, the feel, the edge, the power windows...it screamed perfection. Personally he didn't understand some of his other friends. Chris and Sonic, they were all-American muscle car guys.
He realized that he was almost tailgating an SUV and eased on the gas. Driving etiquette was similar to that on Earth and he had to obey the rules of the road. He crossed over a lane and nearly cut off another motorist. The annoyed driver honked in anger and sent Ryan skidding for a second.
"Jackass." He growled. He continued along the M-21 motorway for a good five minutes where the buildings began to grow thick. Ryan prefered this environment where the urban center was thickest. He pulled off the highway and moved onto High Street, slightly off First Avenue. The city was located some distance from the castle. Before he descended from the motorway, he could just barely see the keep in the distance. However, as soon as he hit the off-ramp, he was emersed in Knothole.
The city was busy today, and it was rush hour no less. That made traffic congestion terrible. However, Ryan was determined to get through the fray. He waited for his chance and stomped on the accelerator. The Jagged leapt forward in front of a Mainz-Trager, a German jeep. The driver honked on his horn a few times. So he was a bit of a crappy driver today. He was trying to find a killer.
"Automatic. Take over." Ryan said. The wheel snapped out of his hand and his car automatically aligned to the center of the lane. Sensors in the engine block scanned for the road while other sensors in the wheel wells gauged the distance to the curb. Autopilot was useful for jams like this in which somebody didn't want to keep their foot on the pedal for untold hours each day. Kind of like Cruise Control on a long highway.
"Bring up search engine."
A holographic screen popped up. The Lexicon, a popular Internet search engine was on default. "Command?"
"Search. Mobius, Knothole, Chaotix Detective Agency."
"Confirmed. Cha-o-tix Agen-see. Searching." The planet built itself on the screen and it dramatically zoomed in on the city. His car was represented by a blue shape and his destination, a rectangle tinted orange appeared and a line snaking through the city. "Calculating fastest route. Driving."
The car accelerated foot by foot, the traffic slowing them down. "COME ON YOU BASTARDS!" He honked the horn furiously. When the drivers didn't even budge, he reclined his seat. "Tint windows." The windows polarized. "Radio on, Playlist 1."
"Playing. BeeGees."
"Like I'm not in enough shit already."
By the time the traffic was back at a managable speed, the sun was starting to set. Ryan was back at the wheel and driving at a managable rate. According to his research, the Chaotix detective agency was one of the most connected in the city, sporting an interpol computer, licenses to carry firearms, and an office on Earth in Chicago, Illinois to boot! That being said, the vast majority of the 'detectives' were assholes. In his Internet research, Ryan came up with three active detectives. There was Vector T. Crocodile, an airhead if he ever saw one. Vector was as white a gangster could get while still being Mobian. In his early twenties, a music addict, and the dumbest sumbitch when it came to technology that even walked the earth, he was - Ryan was sad to discover - the leader of the motley crew.
Second was Espio the Cheamilion. Ryan did some work and discovered that he originated from the Asian analogue. Served in his local military for three years, ranking in as Third Platoon Master (Gunnery Sergeant in UNSC terms), and taking part in a secret project. His involvement got his last name redacted so Ryan couldn't break through the military firearms to discover what it was. He had his own built in Active Camouflage that could blend into scenery, kind of like a suit of Semi-Powered Infiltration (SPI) armor. He was trained in armed an proficient in unarmed combat, a great addition to the team.
He was surprised that he could find someone as useless as this guy. Charmy the Bee. Good-fucking-God! At just over ten years old, he was the adoptee of the group. As a matter of fact, Ryan believed that he was an adoptee, but he saw no papers to lay it to rest. It seemed that Charmy's only function was to fill up space, flying around and annoying people. That was Ryan's take though.
He checked his laptop. Apparently, Chaotix had a respectable case completion ratio, and they must have earned enough money to buy an Interpol computer. Chaotix seemed to resemble a small warehouse, but Ryan knew appearences could be decieving. His firearms dealership in New York was based on an old warehouse on ground level. Pulling into a street-side parking spot, he turned off the car and stepped out. The sky was somewhere between blue and orange, the sunlight being stretched by the atmosphere. Ryan took a deep breath and stepped inside the building. The instant he walked through the door, he was in a detective office right out of Dick Tracy. Wood panneled walls, a ceiling fan, a large filing cabinet, and a billboard labelled 'EVIDENCE'. It was blank.
"Yoo hoo." Ryan said tapping the wall. "Anybody home?"
Suddenly, a crocodile burst through a door. "I'm here! I'm here!" He panted for a second before catching his breath. "Vector T. Crocodile, at your service sir. You grace us with your presence."
"Uh huh." Ryan said shaking his hand.
Vector ajusted his headsphones. "You'll have to excuse us. We're in a bit of a deficit right now."
"What do you mean? You guys have a respectable streak."
"Well, there's a story behind that..."
"Human. Military, I can tell." A patch of air said.
"Hello Espio." Ryan said.
"Impressive. How could you tell?" The air spoke.
"I've done my homework. Third Platoon Master, decorations, Project SHADOW-WIND."
"He could be an enemy, Vector. He has solid intel."
"Naw, the man's cool, Espio." Vector interjected.
"Hmm..." Espio said narrowing his eyes. "UNSC?"
"I was. I actually enlisted in '27. 75th Battalion. I was at actually at Malificent and then at Talahan. I was there when Malificent cracked in two."
"What rank?"
"Lance Corporal when I finished my second tour. When I reinstated in '35 I moved up to full Corporal."
"Hmm...Mediocre."
Ryan bit his lip. "Well, I was reprimanded for a crime I did not commit."
"Is that so, B.A. Barrachus?"
"I was demoted for supposedly striking an officer."
"What was the truth?" Espio asked.
"Another soldier. I didn't even know the guy, He was in Echo Company, I was in November Company. Apparently, the guy had his back turned and this jackass hit him. He didn't die, but he ran off. An MP who was nearby ran over, saw me, and boom, I get blamed."
"Classic." Espio whispered to Vector, who nodded.
"So, you need our help finding this guy?"
"No, I do need to find someone though." He hefted a file. "When I was a child, my parents were killed by a crime lord because they owed him money. I need to find THIS guy."
"First you get demoted, and your parents are killed?" Vector asked. "Don't think that's our style! You wanna talk about murders, there was this one group a couple years back..."
"I can pay. I'm a very well off entreprenuer."
"Selling what?"
"Guns. Lots of guns."
Espio grunted.
"Hmm. Takes more than that to impress me. What's your brand name?"
"RyCorp."
"Never heard of it."
"Hmm. We'll see about that. You're ex-military?"
"Yes." Espio said.
"Got guns?"
"Yeah."
"Get me a gun."
"Which one?"
"Any gun."
The gun was a Russian assault rifle. Krinkov arms were reminiscient of old AK rifles produced back on Earth during the 20th Century. High rate of fire, high accuracy, overall kick ass.
Espio retrieved the gun. It had the magazine removed, and the chamber was cleared. The gun seemed to be simple, except for a holographic sight that graced the top of the pictinny rail. "Here you go, PK-27, Standard Issue Spetsnaz rifle."
Ryan looked the gun over and immedietely started disassembling it. He pulled apart railing, bolts, gas tubes and firing pins. Soon, the Russian assault rifle was laying in neat rows. "See it?"
"See what?"
"Right there on the bolt."
Espio looked hard and saw it stamped just behind the barrel lock: RYCORP.
"No..." The Chemelion said trying not to believe it. "You swapped my bolt out."
"Really? I must be damn fast, faster than a ninja supposedly."
"That information is not well known."
"Well, I got a friend who's great with computers and information. He could crack a manifest on New Mars if he had to."
"Yeah? What's his name?"
"That information isn't for sale. However, I am willing to pay you a king's fortune and a half if you guys help me." He glanced slyly at Espio. "That is if I got Stormshadow's blessing here."
"This is my bolt. I remember installing it myself."
"I'll take that as a resounding yes." Ryan said beaming.
Vector, who had been lost in the music for some time, came to his senses at the word 'fortune'. "Well, we're gonna need to see numbers man!"
"Certainly." Ryan took out a PDA and tapped a few numbers in his stylus. "That's with the exchange rate?"
"Sure." Vector said shrugging.
"Let's see, multiply by .956...gives me your total."
"MOTHERFUCK!" Vector said, jaw dropping.
"That...that's a lot of zeros."
"Damn straight. You want it, it's yours. You just need to give me Davik's location."
"Hey mister?"
Ryan wheeled around. Charmy the Bee hovered in front of him. Not even ten years old, Ryan wondered what he was doing in this environment. An ancient instinct kicked in and he backed away from the bee. "What's that?"
"Can I ask a question?"
"Go ahead kid."
"If you have so much money, why do you kill people?"
"Do I kill people? Or do I stop them?" He placed his hand on his chin. "That's a good question. I think it started out as killing. I had been hurt and I wanted to hurt back. When I was old enough to join, I joined and went to Malificent. Course there were few humans, so I didn't really get my fill until Talahan came along. That was a hard war. It made me see how sick humans could be. I mean, I've read about it, but when you see it..."
He seemed to digress from the topic.
"I went into serious weapon design. I had a pistol my father gave to me when I was young, I still have it. I made my money that way, little man. I made a living, and now I am a king, resting on a throne of bullets."
"Hmm. I don't know if I want to live that life, mister."
"You don't have to. We all have our paths."
Ryan stayed at the Chaotix agency. The facility was more than he assumed it to be in the beginning. Behind the facade of a seemingly simple agency, it had a high-tech back section with equipment that just had to be a gift from a military power. Espio was the man on the computer. It seemed that Vector's job was to displace as much air as he possibly could. Ryan figured that he must have had his uses though.
"Percy, where were you from, again?" Espio asked.
"Constance, Barnard's Star."
"OK, let me see here..." he brought up the Milky Way Galaxy, highlighted UNSC space, and zoomed in on Barnard's Star. The system only had three planets. One was a Hot Jupiter, Constance itself, and an ice giant hovering at a Plutonian-like eccentric orbit.
"Hmm...vacation spot. Secondary source of revenue. What's the first?"
"Geothermal energy." Ryan said.
"Really. Huh. Ship energy off-world?"
"Yeah. Bottle it and sell it."
"Yeah, this is interesting..." Vector said, not interested at all.
"What's 'Geothermal' mean, Vector?"
Espio said, "Means that energy is produced by the natural heat of the planet. Renewable. Reliable. Should be more like that. Predictable, not like wind." he zoomed in on the planet, which was circled by three satellites.
"Cool! Your home has three moons?" Charmy asked hovering near the screen.
"Yup, the Triplets. Denver, Holland, and Quinn."
"Name of capital city?"
"Whitesand. Largest mainland city. Population seven million."
Espio highlated the sprawl of ivory buildings, bleached by the sun and from construction. A single silver strand ran from the city into the sky. "OK, shouldn't be too hard. I'll have to scan the news records over the past fifty years. I know your parents weren't killed that long ago obviously, but it's a search setting hardwired into the computer."
Newspaper articles flashed on the screen, each labelled over the past fifty years, multiple hotwords showed up as a highlighted streak across the screen. Some people appeared on front pages. Some they recognized, some they didn't. A hodgepodge of activity. Sports teams winning intra-region championships, some kid who won a science fair with a paper mache volcano, When a famous actor, David Blane (no relation) came to visit while during a film in the area.
"Wow. All this stuff happened on Constance?
A smile tugged at Espio's mouth. "Stuff happens all the time. You just need to keep an open eye and an open mind. Isn't that what got you off your rock?"
"No. We're still close-minded, cyinical bastards, we just have fusion engines."
Espio was about to comment on Ryan's statement, on how he had met several open-minded humans in the past few years, when the computer pinged.
"Hello. Got something."
The screen showed a newspaper dated almost twenty years ago. It showed a pair of body bags. The headline read, Couple Murdered by Drug Lord Davik.Ryan suddenly leaned in. "What's that?"
"Newspaper article. Hmph. Looks like your parents made front page." his lip curled at his own dark humor.
"Not funny. Was there a picture in there?"
"Hang on, let me see. Story continued on A6..." Espio digitally flipped through the newspaper, looking for the page where the story continued. "OK. Found it. Tragedy has struck for a local family of three. At approximately 11:23 PM, Gregory Percy and his wife Helena met their ends from two sole gunshots. The man who pulled the trigger was said to be none other than the Constantine crime-lord, Weston Davik. Despite the testimony of three eye-witnesses including the Percy's young son, Ryan..." He looked at Ryan for a second who gulped uncomfortably. "...Davik was able to escape conviction through unknown reasons. A manhunt has been organized to attempt to bring the criminal in."
"That search was cancelled a year after this article was released." Ryan noted.
"How did he do it?" Charmy asked.
"Playing dirty." Ryan explained with hands crossed. "He may be considered small time on Constance, Casa Nostra I think not, but he had contacts in the Mafia. Made him disappear."
"If that's the case, his trail may be long gone by now." Espio said.
"I think you're right." Ryan agreed.
Vector leaned up against the wall. "Well, we know one thing."
"What's that?"
"We know there's some sort of connection with Constance. You need to go there to get more information."
"What, that's all you have for me?"
"Not yet. Davik's crimes go back a few decades. According to this police report, Davik was almost sixty years old! This was about ten years before Ryan's parents."
Doing quick math, Vector stated, "That makes him almost a hundred."
"The new mid-age." Ryan quipped.
"Look at this." Espio said surprised. "Illegal weapon smuggling, rumrunning, backroom deals, armed robbery, extortion, murder. This guy is like Teflon. Nothing sticks to him. People talk though. Internet forums, chat rooms, even historical sites. Look at this guy. I can't believe this is all open information."
"Gangs like to make themselves known." Vector said. "I bet he bribes the police to keep his gigs quiet."
"Constance isn't the cleanest place in the galaxy if you catch my drift. It's used as a speakeasy for contraband." Ryan explained.
"Speakeasy?" Charmy asked.
"A word coming from the 1930s back on Earth. In the United States, Prohibition kept alcohol from being used. Speakeasies were places where you could have a drink and not get caught. Illegal, perhaps. Nowadays it just refers to a place where the law doesn't exist."
"Awesome. Real life Al Capone shit!" Vector said, thoroughly psyked.
Ryan crossed his arms. "So now we have a lead. Thanks a lot guys."
"Whoa, where you going?" the crocodile asked.
"You did your job. I have to catch a flight to Constance."
"We're coming with you." Espio said.
"Guys. You don't need to." the human tried to explain.
"With the figures you're paying us? Not a chance." Vector said. "Besides, its been weeks since we had a case, and we've never been off-planet before!"
Ryan knew he was going to regret his choice.
"If we're going to leave, we had better leave now."
Charmy did a loop in the air. "YAY!" He cried in joy.
Knothole International was a moderately sized airport. A single terminal dominated the horizon with dozens of international flights. In terms of design, it resembled old-fashioned airport terminals found back on Earth. Some still existed in some countries. Multiple airplanes stood in berths, but there also were a few space-worthy craft, long, aerodynamic ships that could break escape velocity. There were comparably fewer of these craft than airplanes.
The interior was spartan in appearence. It lacked the flair of Terran terminals but got the job done. The woman at the terminal smiled. "Hello! Can I help you?"
"4 for a round trip to Constance." Ryan began.
"OK, any carryon?"
"Yes, one large suitcase, roundabout forty pounds."
"Alright. Your flight's departing in a little less than half an hour, sir. You might want to hurry."
"OK. How much do I owe you?"
"4,800."
"OK."
Vector stepped ahead. "We'll take this, Ryan."
"Why?"
"You paid us more in the course of a few seconds than what we make in a year. We'll take it out of the king's fortune."
The aerospace shuttle took off much like an airplane. When it reached a hundred thousand feet, SCRAM jets kicked in, pushing the craft to well over 9 km/s. The acceleration was enormus. Every passenger was pushed into their seat. Soon, the rumbling was gone as air pressure dropped. Soon, the sky was black. The detectives looked out the porthole.
"Look at that, Espio. Have you ever seen something so...beautiful?"
The chemielion's eyes blinked. "No. Never from up here before."
Charmy just stared, in awe of the broken moon, much sharper here than on the ground.
The shuttle rolled in the vacuum. maneuvering thrusters positioned the ship dead center on the warpgate. Soon, the craft accelerated. The pilot shifted the craft to the right to avoid a UNSC frigate that blew through the gate at 50,000 KPH.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you will experience a slight flash. Do not be alarmed, it's a natural procedure. We urge you to sit back, relax, and please wait while we make the transition." the pilot advised.
The gate grew at an alarming rate. the jumpgate that connected Earth and Mobius pulsed blue, responding to signals sent by the shuttle. Within an eyeblink, they were in the gate and moving down a tunnel of white light. The Chaotix detectives were shaking in nervousness. Ryan couldn't blame them. This was something they wouldn't be used to. As soon as it began, a few minutes later, the sky was black again and a glowing blue ball stood before them.
"Is that Constance?" Charmy asked.
"No, that's Earth."
"WOW!" Vector said. "I always heard that Earth was a dump! There's still forests! Clouds! Blue oceans!"
Ryan gritted his teeth. "Contrary to popular belief, Humans are not complete morons. We know when to stop expanding. Several parts of Earth are still green. Forests, deserts, oceans so to speak, we healed our planet when we got the message in the 21st Century. This isn't our stop though."
"It's not?" Charmy asked, sad that he would never see the glowing skyscrapers.
"No, we were just connecting. The real flight begins very soon."
As soon as he said that, the ship wheeled. A white ring of light grew in space. "Slipspace rupture." he explained. "I don't know how it works, but its our saving grace, FTL."
"How long will it take?" Vector asked.
"Less than a few hours."
"I can barely wait." Espio said, somewhat sarchastically.
The tiny shuttle flew into the generated tear in space. As soon as her stern pushed through, the gash sealed itself, leaving a busy homeworld behind them.