Chapter 3: The Brewing Shadow
As I drove through Savanna Central back towards City Center to return to Precinct One, I had some time to think about my suspect of my latest case. It just didn't seem right with how this smuggler got his paws on such a massive quantity of Proginator Cells. The documents that were shown to me seemed legitimate, with them clearly showing who he was working for and that the delivery of a normally illegal quantity of a Class 4 medical product was authorized by the Federation Board of Commerce. The signatures from the Board were all there, showing that the documents had at one point crossed their eyes to be approved. I would have to run a check on the signer's names to make sure that they were indeed correct as I had perceived them to be. In the meanwhile, the bigger thing that didn't sit right is the name of Pharmaceutical Corporation that employed Mr. Wilde, provided that he was actually hired by them and not actually smuggling like both the spaceport security staff and I think he is.
ExoAmp Corp.
That name was so unfamiliar to me. While I indeed was not familiar with the vast amount of corporations that operated within the Zootopia Federation, I was certainly aware of the bigger ones that had a large stake in the business world within it. In order for the Board to approve a shipment of a restricted product, they would have most likely need to first be familiar with whom they're approving to begin with. Being able to find a clean background on the company and their buyers, contractors and suppliers would probably be the deciding factor. With that system however, the bigger corporations would be easier to track as they would have a longer standing record than any smaller newer start-ups, and would be easier for the Board to trust.
That would have to mean that ExoAmp is a bigger and more powerful company. I mentally sighed with relief as this would mean my current task of following up on the delivery documents would have to be easier as I would have to do less combing through our system to find proof on whether these documents, the shipment, ExoAmp and Nick were all legally operating or not.
I came to stop at an intersection and began to wait for the light to change to green. I quickly checked the time on the holographic radio display of my Systems Authority cruiser and noticed that it was almost 4:30 p.m.
Damn how fast time flies on the job I thought.
I wouldn't normally be against the day feeling like it was going by fast, but with the amount of investigative work and paperwork I would have to back at the Precinct, I could only groan softly as I knew this would keep me there way past the end of my shift.
Not only did my late breakfast with Tu'ulok get interrupted by this case, but now I'd have to stay well into the evening to both look further into it, and handle my paperwork.
The truth was that I didn't hate my job as a Systems Authority Officer. I actually rather loved it, but only the fieldwork part of it. The challenge of cracking a case, protecting those in danger from the baddies that lurked in the shadows of our Federation, the rewarding feeling of doing good in a noble profession…I loved all of it. The part I hated was all of the paperwork and combing databases for leads and clues, with the latter not annoying but rather time consuming.
Oh well I Thought, just another daily task on duty as an Officer.
I got my green light and eventually made my way back to the Precinct. Knowing that my work would keep me from my daily patrol, I first had to stop by Clawhauser and find out if another Officer could take over my patrol for the rest of the shift.
I entered through the huge front doors of the Precinct and slowly made my way over to where our resident cheetah dispatcher was.
One of my favorite things about coming into the Precinct every single day was getting to greet all of the familiar faces of my fellow officers. While I loved working with both my fellow officers and our detectives, one of my favorite mammals here was Clawhauser. He and I have become great friends over the time that I've worked here, and I love to talk with him when he wasn't absorbed into Gazelle music. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE her music. The only problem was just how spaced out he gets when he gets drawn into anything Gazelle.
I walked over to his reception desk, a slight smile plastered on my muzzle as I went to greet him. He was currently coordinating a dispatch for two officers to search for someone in the Rainforest District, while he reached into a box of a dozen donuts and pulled out a honey glazed one.
"…That's right Officer Grizz. Suspect is a Zebra about five foot four wearing a dark hoodie, dark pants and carrying a red backpack. How copy? Over" spoke Clawhauser.
I heard Officer Grizz respond in a gruff voice saying, "Solid copy. We'll radio if we find him. Over and out."
Clawhauser put down the radio mic and was about to take a bite of his donut with a hungry, longing glare in his eyes when he paused and must have noticed me waiting right in front of his desk.
"Hopps! How are you? Hey did you get to that smuggling scene in Savanna Central alright" he said with his usual enthusiastic tone?
I then paused for a few moments and said, "Ehh…not exactly. Turns out that this case is a lot more complex than I thought. I was wondering if you could find another Officer to relieve my patrol so I can follow a possible lead I have on my suspect."
Clawhauser then said with both slight concern and confusion, "What happened? I thought he was already detained. Why would you need to chase a lead?" He then took a huge bite out of his donut and looked at me eagerly awaiting my answer.
I tried to answer as best as I could.
"Well, it's really complicated. I got to follow up on some documents that I retrieved from the detainment and see if they are valid or not. Besides, my perp was really vague and was carrying more than 20 Tons of Proginator Cells" I replied to Clawhauser.
Clawhauser's ears flattened a bit on his head as he said, "Yeah, that does seem quite suspicious there Judy."
Clawhauser then took the last bite of his donut and licked his digits before saying, "I can see what I can do for ya Judy. You sure you don't want to hand the case over to one of our detectives?"
That did get me thinking. I never even heard of ExoAmp, neither did I have any idea how on Earth this pilot had managed to acquire such a haul of Proginator Cells. It…well it did make me wonder if these were just covers for the real truth. Still, I've been a reliable Systems Authority Officer and I doubt that I wouldn't be able to handle this case on my own.
I looked at Clawhauser and shrugged my shoulders and said, "Eh, probably not. It depends on what I'm able to dig up on my suspect and my lead."
Clawhauser returned to his bubbly personality with his saying, "Alright Judy, well just let your old pal Ben know if you need anything else. Plus, you know where to find the Chief too." He smiled at me and returned to his paper work at his desk.
I moved along to the police records and database, taking a staircase up to the top floor and continuing down a hallway to the records room. Next to the door, there were retinal scanners at three heights: one for tall mammals and aliens, one for shorter mammals like myself, and one for mammals. The ZPD did have a few Hyraxes and Mice that worked in the records department, so they needed a shorter scanner they could use.
I put my eye up to the retinal scanner then I saw and felt a red beam go over my right eye. Soon afterwards, an electronic voice then said, "Identity confirmed. Welcome to records Officer Judy Hopps."
The door slid open with a hiss and came to a gentle stop once the doorway was fully open. Inside, the room had light green tiling and empty tile walls of the same color. Inside the center of the room, there were multiple sized pairs of electronic gloves siting on a small table. I went over and found one of the black pairs that fit my paws and slid them on. Immediately, lights began to turn on around the gloves as I grabbed the pair of VR glasses that were attached to the gloves via invisible electric wiring. I tapped the side of the glasses and I saw an interface pop up in the center of the room, a floating holographic control panel. The glasses were what was projecting the panel into my vision as the interface wasn't really there for an outside observer to see. This way, more than one officer could use the records and database without compromising any possibly sensitive information to anyone outside of the case, however; all activity in the records and database room was monitored by our buildings own A.I. VERN.
I tapped a few of the holographic buttons on the panel and was prompted with the ability to input a search. Since I was the only officer in the room, I decided to use the audio search.
"VERN, show me any criminal record for one Nickolas Wilde, species: Fox, age: early 30's."
VERN then responded in his own voice, which always surprised me in how it sounded since he sounded so natural.
"I have multiple search results for that Officer Hopps, do you want to view mugshots associated with them" he responded?
"Yeah VERN, show me their mugshots."
Immediately, three files materialized in front of where I was looking, right in front of me. Each was a translucent blue tinged folder, with a name hanging below the folders.
"Let's see" I said to myself.
The first file belonged to a Nickolas K. Wilde and I tapped the folder with one of the gloves and the file discharged its contents to hang in the air in front of me. I moved the files around, each one still hanging in the air where it stopped until I found the mugshot.
This one was an Arctic fox which immediately ruled my suspect out of this possibility.
I held the folder as all of the files flew back into the folder they came from. I then walked over to the next folder and pressed it once. Afterwards, the files for this folder, belonging to a Nickolas P. Wilde, flew out and hung in the air around the folder. I dug through the virtual files and found that the mugshot was exactly for the fox I was looking for.
"Bingo, Slick" I said with an upbeat tone.
I then began to look over his arrest record and found that he had three accounts of smuggling non-lethal illegal goods.
At least he's not smuggling alien weaponry and stolen goods I thought.
Anything classified as a non-lethal illegal good was still an offense in the Zootopia Federation, but it always levied a smaller fine to the perpetrator, whereas smuggling lethal goods was a felony that resulted in jail time and fines. Such goods were things like: Drugs, lethal firearms, explosives, unrestricted AIs (A.I.s with no inhibitors in their programming, therefore could be capable of bodily harm and damage to computer systems, depending on what they were installed into), as well as other things. All these had to be brought in through legal channels and have the proper paper work done for them.
As I looked further through Mr. Wilde's criminal record, I noticed that he had no charges of piracy or assault on his record, which told me that he was solely a smuggler. I did notice however, that Mr. Wilde's three other cases involved smuggling, but only the last stood out like the Proginator Cells did.
He was cited for trying to smuggle Terraphim Gorux Vodka into an independent, theocratic system within the Zootopia Federation. The count for what was scanned in his hull was only 4 tons of the liquor, well within the usual cases of smuggling.
He was cited for trying to smuggle low temperature diamonds off of the mining colony world of Fero-4, no confirmation if the diamonds were stolen or not. Amount was 6 tons, well within the normal smuggling ranges.
The final case was where things got really weird. As my eyes read over the file and I manipulated it with gloved paws to read more of it, I noticed some really odd tech that was being smuggled.
20 tons of mechano-replicators. Mechano-replicators were almost never seen in Zootopia Federation space and were highly restricted in many systems across the galaxy. These parts originate from within the territory of the Tramagadon Dominion, built by the Tramagadons to replace the worn mechano-replicators that wore out on their old platforms. The machines that were the Tramagadons used the mechano-replicators to be able to alter the physical appearance and function of their bodies to serve a number of purposes from stealth and infiltration to combat, depending on the platform the Tramagadon has.
While these parts were not restricted in the Federation themselves since we do have pockets of Tramagadon citizens throughout the Federation, they were highly regulated. The thing that got me thinking is that Mr. Wilde was cited and arrested for bringing the parts from Tramagadon space to an agricultural world in the Bleno System.
I then spoke up to VERN and said, "VERN, show me the Tramagadon population demographic of the Bleno System."
After only a couple of seconds, VERN then came responded back to me and said, "The Bleno System has a recorded 5 percent of its population as Tramagadon. It could be possible that those parts were meant for the Tramagadons there, but given the ratio of population to the amount of cargo the suspect shipped, this appears unlikely."
I knew VERN was right. There was no way that the Tramagadon population of 200 there would need that many machano-replicators.
While this was suspicious, there was nothing else to go on from here on this issue unless I visited the system to investigate. Given the fact that my case does not directly involve the system and is restricted to a crime scene on Earth, I wouldn't be able to even go to the Bleno System.
I then asked VERN, "VERN, show me everything you have on a company called ExoAmp. Their location, products, consumers, markets, everything."
VERN then said, "I have located your company in question. Showing you all I have now."
A whole bunch of articles, documents and several sources on the history of ExoAmp popped up through my glasses. I manipulated the first one, grabbing it and scrolling through an article that talked about the history of it.
"ExoAmp is a biotech company originally founded within the Suitrox Confederation. Having gone through many takeovers and changes in leadership, it now operates out of the Galactic Business Center, the inter-civilizational, independent zone of galaxy wide commerce and business located between the borders of the Suitrox Confederation, Voretox Republic and the very eastern end of the Vicron Collective. The company, which created several biotech products such as Proginator Cells and patented many plant medications for farming worlds, has now risen to be one of the larger biotech firms to operate out of the GBC" I read out loud to myself.
After reading this, Mr. Wilde's story about being under direct contract to deliver Proginator Cells on behalf of ExoAmp may not be far-fetched after all.
I then found another article and I read the title for it and I could feel a sense of surprise build in my mind.
"ExoAmp cuts contracts with private shipping pilots"
I saw the article was recent and went on to read it as it said that ExoAmp had stopped using privately hired pilots to deliver goods to company consumers and to company manufacturers. They said they quit the idea of doing this due to several shipments going 'missing' and the date for the article was 5 years ago.
That would explain why I never had a case like this involving ExoAmp before. I became a cop after ExoAmp quit this policy. However, I now knew that the fox I was dealing with was lying, and I was hell bound to get the truth from him now. The real question becomes who were the Proginator Cells meant for if this wasn't a legitimate shipment from ExoAmp.
I took off the glasses and pulled my gloves off, all of the files disappearing from view as I then said to VERN, "VERN, end database session." A gentle whirring was heard after I said this, as the natural sounding male voice of VERN then began to speak.
"Yes Officer Hopps, did you get what you needed" it asked?
I started walking out of the room and I spoke quite annoyed I had been lied to, "Not quite yet, VERN , now I need to find the truth."
I walked out of the room and the black automatic door slid shut behind me with a locking hiss as the electronic lock reengaged with the doorway.
I exited back into the hall of the top floor and began to walk to one of the offices reserved for the patrol officers. The light of the sun shone brilliantly through the floor to ceiling windows of the top floor of the ZPD, basking the hallway in light and warmth.
I got into the elevator and exited off on the second floor where the patrol offices were. First, I would have to stop by Bogo's office and fill him in on what I was dealing with. As I walked to his office I felt the usual apprehension that came with talking to the Chief as he had a very abrasive personality. However, I just needed to let him know that this case may have to turn into an investigation.
(TundraTown, a few hours before)
The sun was shining through the partly cloudy day of Tundra Town as the district was full of activity, mammals and aliens going about their day to day lives. Some were taking ice platforms down the TundraTown pedestrian mover that was the artificial creek that wound its way around the district. Off in an isolated area of TundraTown, out in the alley between two abandoned warehouses, three figures stood in the frigid cold. Two of them were mammals, one was a grey wolf and the other was a Honey Badger. The third figure was a Voretox wearing thinner clothing designed for a Voretox and he clearly was not too happy with his misfortune about it.
"Snow, snow, snow. Always with the Govetek snow here, as if it isn't cold enough" said the Voretox who was rubbing his arms trying to warm up, shaking from the cold in the process. As he spoke, his 'breath' formed in the air.
The Honey Badger, who was playing with a red handled switchblade nonchalantly just chuckled at the alien and said, "Oh give me a break, Avjtik, I thought your kind was supposed to be warm blooded like us. Besides, I told you that we were going somewhere cold."
Avjtik exhaled, breath hanging in the air and said, "Yeah, but I didn't expect this cold. We aren't really meant for cold weather. You know no hair and all that." Avjtik played with a small stone on the ground using his foot as he was talking
The Voretox then added in, "For gods sakes, our home planet orbits three blue stars. We don't really know the meaning of cold back home. Even during the winter, our planets temperature only drops down to the mid 50's Fahrenheit."
The wolf gave Avjtik a curious look and said, "I thought you said you were from the Korven system, not the Rigel system?"
The Voretox then said, "I am from the Korven system, but that still doesn't mean that I'm adapted to colder weather. Besides, Germati is an arid desert planet, which provides the ideal climate that we are used to. Granted, we can live in almost any environment, but we are still the most comfortable in warmer weather."
They were interrupted by the wolf that was looking at his holo-phone, "Will you two ladies stop bickering. It's cold, so what? I'm more concerned with Nick not having dropped off our bargaining chip yet. I just hope he didn't get caught by spaceport security."
Suddenly, the three of them were interrupted by a black SUV type vehicle that came descending from one sky lanes in the distance. The vehicle showed appeared first as a glimmering form in the distance, but was rapidly approaching the three of them.
The wolf then groaned and said, "And there's our contact. Only problem is…we ain't got no fucking package."
The vehicle gently lowered to the ground and displaced dust and debris until its repulsion lift system turned off when it made contact. The fusion engine of the repulsion lift vehicle powered off in a loud droning whirring noise, the sound tapering off rapidly after the engine turned off.
Then three figures made their way out of the SUV. The first two were Suitrox, the right one wearing a dark green, almost black mechanical suit. The left one was wearing a crimson red mechanical suit. Both of the Suitrox had an orange 'eye'. The third figure was a tall polar bear wearing a business suit, which seemed a bit out of place to the three observers. To the relief of the three observers, their contacts didn't seem armed, and they grateful for this being the case if things went sideways.
"Let's hope that we can negotiate with them on more time" said the Voretox softly so as to only have the Honey Badger and the wolf hear what was said.
The three from the SUV approached the two mammals and the Voretox that were standing out in the alley.
As the Suitrox got closer, one of them spoke up, "You must be the contacts that the boss told us about."
The Honey Badger then chuckled and said, "Yeah, that's us alright." He rubbed his neck nervously.
Immediately, the posture of the two Suitrox and the polar bear changed, which made the two mammals and the Voretox nervous. Their postures became that of suspicious and agitated.
One of the crimsoned colored Suitrox then said, "So…where are the Progenator Cells? Don't tell me you Kolitoks don't have them."
The Voretox became slightly suspicious of what the Suitox had just said. The word Kolitok wasn't a Suitrox word, though it was really close to the actual word. The proper word, Kolitov was a Suitrox word, but the fact that the Suitrox pronounced it wrong made the Voretox very nervous and confused.
The wolf then said in almost a pleading manner, "Our contact didn't show up, all we need is more time."
The black colored Suitrox then shock its body as in signaling 'no' and said, "The boss needed the Proginator Cells by the end of this week. You want to know what he said?"
The three of them stared blankly at the two Suitrox and the polar bear, afraid of what might happen.
The Suitrox speaking before continued and said, "He said, 'if anyone slips up with this delivery, it will set back the project by months; and for each of those months lost, I will make whoever fucked up regret it, dearly.'"
The black colored Suitrox then asked again, "So…if you three geniuses didn't fuck up, then who did?"
The Honey Badger then said, "It was this fox named Nick Wilde. You'd think that a fox would be great at smuggling and being sneaky, but I guess not."
The polar Bear then spoke in an unnatural tone, sounding more machine than mammal, and said, "Then this Nick must pay for the mess the boss is in now."
Then, the wolf spoke up very concerned for his smuggler acquaintance that he knew and said, "Wait, so what you going to do to him?"
The polar bear grinned wickedly and said, "Why, make him pay for every month and every C.E.P.T lost due to his fuck up. Maybe a few nights of beatings to start before the real torture begins. The boss does love make those who fail him suffer, he especially loves to start with cutting of fingers and toes after the beatings, and when the boss is through, he won't even be recognizable as a Fox."
The wolf's expression darkened as he heard what the Polar Bear was saying. It almost made the wolf sick to his stomach.
"Hey, that Fox is one of us. He may have fucked up, but that doesn't give you a right to make him suffer" said the Wolf as he stepped forward aggressively.
The crimson colored Suitrox then chuckled and said, "Oh, I'm afraid that somebody will have to pay. The boss won't want it any other way. So unless you can tell me in the next ten seconds where those Proginator Cells are, then we're done here."
The wolf then pulled out a silver sheened laser pistol with blue lit inlay and aimed it at the three of them, "How about we give you 10 seconds to pack your shit and leave."
The Voretox and the Honey Badger followed through as well and pulled out their own concealed weapons, with the Voretox's being a hand held plasma beam emitter. The device expanded to wrap around the Voretox's right forearm and wrist as several of the components for the device began to orbit around the alien's wrist.
The other three were unphased as the right Suitrox then said, "If this is the way you want it…"
He then spoke darkly, "TERMINUS, kill them."
The polar bears eyes changed from a green to blood red and then spoke with a dark robotic tone, "With pleasure."
The bear then raised its arms upwards on either side of his body and compartments on his arms opened. Long, serrated metal blades extended with a metallic ringing noise, catching the light from the sun brightly on them.
"What the fuck" said the Honey Badger dumbfounded?"
The Polar bear then moved with remarkable speed to the wolf and impailed the wolf with the blades, blood spraying out the back of his body as the wolf screamed in agony.
"Fucking shit" cried out the Honey Badger in fear and shock as he jumped backwards from where the bear was, almost slipping on the snow covered ground in the process.
The Honey Badger and the Voretox then began to fire their weapons at the Bear, energy fire ringing out in the air with light crackling sounds and flashes of light.
Meanwhile, the wolf was wide eyed in shock and screaming, firing his laser pistol wildly out of reflex from the pain as he was lifted up into the air over the bear. The laser pistol shots impacted the nearby warehouse on the left and scorching burn marks were left on the metal and concrete structure.
The bear was unphased as the energy blasts impacted the bear's skin, leaving burn marks, but no visible damage. The bear then ripped his blades in opposite directions and tore the wolf in half right down the middle as organs and blood flew around the bear.
The bear then retracted one of its blades and a multi-barreled weapon formed out of its right arm, a four barreled electron cannon of some sort with a dark green metallic finish.
The weapon charged up with a whirring noise and the barrels lit up orange as the weapon discharged powerful electron energy blasts, the first of which hit the honey badger and blew the Badgers upper body apart into a show of gore and blood.
The Voretox then screamed and tried to run away for his life, self preservation and total fear now kicking in…that is until he grunted in pain and stopped in his tracks, feeling a wet liquid trickle down his chest. He looked down and saw a huge four sided blade, the blade that was on the bears other arm, sticking out of his chest as he began to choke out orange glowing blood.
"Gods…ha..ve m..erc..y" he said weakly, chocking on his words.
Suddenly, the four angled cutting fins of the blade shot off the central unit like a rocket and cut the Voretox into four pieces, then followed by the central blade exploding in a small blast, eviscerating the Voretox's torso.
The two Suitrox were apparently pleased with themselves at the end of the three incompetent contacts they were to meet. However, the crimson Suitrox then said, "I'm impressed with the abilities of the first generation CEPT, wouldn't you agree Javict?"
The Suitrox then made an out of place clicking found as the Suitrox's accent went away to be replace by another one.
"Oh, yes. The with what the boss has planned for this project, the galaxy won't know what hit it" the other 'Suitrox' then said.
Both of the Suitrox then walked back to the SUV vehicle as the bear grinned evilly covered in blood as the bear he then said, "Glory unto the Father who protects the Hive."
The bear shook his blade of the fresh blood as he finished marveling at the work of his weapons.
The Bear retracted his weapons and then followed after the Suitrox, getting into the SUV vehicle, the engines turning on with a loud powering up, whirring noise
Now all that was left for the three to do was to get their Proginator Cells to the claws of their boss…and Nick Wilde.
Little did the bear and the Suitrox know that a certain bunny was also on her way to talk with Nick again…and what would result next would bring not only Judy trouble, but the whole galaxy.
(A/N: While after a much longer than needed delay, I was able to get the next update for this story out. I hope you all liked it. As I said before, the time I dedicate to writing was mainly taken up with co-creating the story Zootopia: Two Worlds with ZombieSlayerOfTheUnderworld and Commander Sebastian. I hope to get the next update out soon, but I can't promise when it might be. Just know that I will see this story through to completion, that's a promise.
Anyways, since I never actually introduced the Tramagadons in this chapter, I'll tell you a bit about them. The Tramagadons are a machine race created centuries ago by a now extinct race of aliens who made them to be a source of cheap labor and a mechanized military force. This alien race was invaded by the Vicron due to hostile aggressions that the species was taking against the Vicron Collective, resulting in the alien race using the Tramagadons to fight the Vicron in a brutal war. Eventually, the conflict wiped out the aliens controlling the Tramagadons, but due to the heightened artificial intelligence that the Tramagadons have, and with no creator race ruling over them, the Tramagadons were now free from the control of their masters. They made peace with the Vicron, or at least most of them did to prevent their kind from being wiped out. A small faction within the Tramagadon Dominion (about 15% of the 35 million Tramagadons at the time) broke off to form a splinter group. This splinter group, now fighting to avenge their fallen masters, now wages a guerrilla style war against the Vicron Collective and also participates in terror attacks and small military skirmishes against the other factions in the galaxy. The reason being is that these machines in the splinter faction see all organic life as a threat, and rather than trying to live peacefully with the other races to prevent their destruction, they feel the only way to protect their kind is to exterminate all organic life. As such, the rogue Tramagadons are one of the hostile factions and enemies in my sci-fi series.
The Tramagadons can scan any weapon, creature or vehicle that is equal to the mass of the Tramagadon or less and alter its physical form to: 'transform' its limbs into weapons, change into a person, alien or animal, and if it is the much bigger type of Tramagadons meant for war, can change into a vehicle they scan.
Being machines, they have a life expectancy for as long as their platform (body) keeps running.
Anyways, I hope you liked the chapter everyone. Let me know what you think, what needs to be changed or if you have any questions. Stay safe and creative.)
-SR2Turoka-1
