Choke tested his gears after he founded them again within the broken shuttle.
The rifle seemed to work still and his visor which he used for either scanning for electric or heat signs or as a little telescope, seemed to work as well but when he got his communicator he already heard the swoosh from it.
"Oh no…" he mumbled to himself and inspected it closer, shook it and listened to the noise again. It did not seem broken anywhere but who knew where it crashed during the landing? He went out of the wreck and immediately froze again.
"That's just great…" he mumbled and starred into the seemingly endless wasteland of snow and ice: "At least my weapon seems healthy. But now I can't call anyone, the ship is broken and it's damn cold out here! What's next? The target getting away, or worse, a policeman calling me?"
Five minutes later…
"So just for the record, you do not know how this ship lost control and you were just a passenger?" the police officer asked patiently.
"Sir…" Choke tried to explain and pointed on the ship: "When I do not manage to land such a thing, how would I even have managed to start it? As I said, the computer on board had the control and then things just went wrong."
The policeman just made himself some notes. "Hm… we will contact SpaceTravel Companies. You will stay during the time, we might have some questions. Your name and home planet please." "Choke."
"Next name?"
"There is no second name. Just Choke and I come from Tabora."
"Do you have an identification card?" Why did it always had to be the police? Formalities… Those were not usual in Tabora. Good home…
"I would like to but I'm afraid I do not possess any of this," he, as gently as he could, tried to explain. He felt like he had to answer questions the next hours.
The policeman continued: "Sir, I see you poses a weapon. Do you have a license for that?" Choke sighed: "Sir, as I was trying to explain: I'm from the outer rim. On Tabora the only police like station we have is the office of the local marshal. And this guy doesn't care if anyone has licenses or not. We don't have these things out there."
The policeman suspiciously inspected Choke once more before he said: "Then I'm afraid I can't leave you with just that. Please come with us to the police station where we can clarify your identity." He turned back and closed his notebook.
"Is this really necessary?" Choke asked and followed: "If I would have any evil intentions I would have crushed the ship into the fort over there or something!" The police answered while moving: "You will come with us as an attestor and maybe we will have some questions later, especially about your weapon license. Unless you can call your organization you're working for, in case you're working for something like the galactic rangers and they might vouch for you."
Choke puts up his communicator and said: "I'm afraid something is wrong with my communication device. It makes weird sounds since the … land." The policeman sighed and righted his glasses: "You really do not make it easy for me, mister."
"Alright, how long you need me on your station?" Choke asked uncomfortably.
"Maybe not that long. But we need to send you back where you come from, because, wherever you came from, here on Batalia we have orders and these say you need to have a weapon license in order to carry a functional weapon with you."
And all of this because of one silly AI that did not know how to fly, Choke thought.
There was no chance to get away from this mess quickly without getting too much attention. He did not need attention right now, especially when he had a job to do.
Right before they were about to leave the landing zone the policeman stopped, handed his hand out and said: "Your weapon please, mister. You are not allowed to carry a weapon as long-"
"Yeah, I got it," Choke said and handed out his rifle. Not willingly but he did not have another choice in this situation.
"… as long as I do not have a license. I got you." He was done with authorities for the rest of the day but sadly it seemed like a nice romantic morning on this planet. They entered a transport vehicle to get back to the city.
It was a tiny bus, so one driver and a place for maybe criminals. And just because they were inside it did not mean it was any warmer.
Just the wind is no longer blowing here. Crazy people who are willingly living on an icy planet like this…
"You are very careful when it comes to security, no?" Choke asked the policeman while they were driving back to the town. They sat in a transporter they came with while a few people stood back to secure the wreck. Just he and the policeman were sitting in there right now, in front of each other, in this truck plus the driver.
"I mean," he continued: "I haven't seen as much security this fast in any other planet." The policeman leaned towards him a bit and asked: "You never were on Batalia weren't you? This planet contains one of the biggest defensive systems in the entire galaxy. It's a core in our defensive system. Of course it's highly guarded." Choke leaned back on his sit.
"No, I'm afraid I did not know that yet. I've never been here before," he honestly said: "It's…. very cold in here." It was incredible how cold it was. He was still shivering from the cold. The policeman leaned back. "Tabora…" he said: "I suppose it's a more high temperatured planet?" He nodded: "Oh yes, it is. It's a giant desert."
"Never heard of it though," he just answered and looked out of the window, probably to check their progress. "So what brings someone like you to one of the most cold planets in the entire galaxy?" "Nothing really. Just a little job. Deliveries. But now things are getting complicated."
"Ah." he said and turned back towards Choke. "As long as you do not deliver bullets from a gun I'm sure you are going to have no trouble here at all."
"Oh, the gun is just for my own security. You know, every planet has their little creatures that love your very own meat as their dinner. Or insane robots that forgot their place and stuff."
"But not on Batalia," the policeman said strictly: "Unless you are actively searching for it and even then you have to do it on purpose." He roughly bonks on something that looked like a robot. One of those flying ones with three arms. "Hey, Rob. Wake up." The machine begun to become alive again with light blue lights on it's shape. Slowly it made it's way up in the air and now stood ready for further introductions.
"Unit BSG-25 active and waiting for instructions, officer Gaato." The policeman handed it Choke's rifle and said: "Take this weapon into custody Rob until I say otherwise." The robot took the rifle. Choke did not like this idea at all. At first an AI brought him into this mess and now and AI was supposed to take his weapon? He had a bad feeling to never see it again. He leaned back and looked out of the tiny window. At least in this vehicle it was somewhat more warm than on the outside. No wonder the people were so stiff here when they are living under such conditions.
A beep from a loudspeaker pronounced a message from the driver: "It seems like there is something on our way. We need to hold for a bit and maybe get a team here to deal with it. It seems like we got a situation here." The policeman Gaato looked up and asked loudly:
"Which kind of situation?" The vehicle stopped and the driver said: "I don't know. I do not even believe what I'm seeing. Looks like a giant rock that appeared out of nowhere."
"Can't you describe it a bit further?"
"Hold on. I'm transmitting to the HQ right now. … Hm… Seems like something is wrong with our connection." After that it was silent for a few moments. They waited impatiently for a message from the driver. The robot BSG-25 suggested: "If I may suggest, Sir, we should inspect the anomaly directly since something is seemingly interrupting our connection to the HQ."
"Shut it, Rob, we are not moving until we got further instructions."
Choke asked: "Can I have my weapon in case something bad happens?" Gaato immediately turned strictly to Choke and answered with a higher tone: "You stay where you are, Stranger. This is none of your business." At some point the vehicle drove backwards and driver was speaking again:
"I'm still not receiving any message. Now changing my course and try to enter the city from another route."
The policeman mumbled: "Are this point-heads never able to make our gears truly operational?" Choke wondered. Apparently something was off with this planet. First his crash and now not even the local securities can work properly. Suddenly the vehicle made a rough curve so everything that was not fixed anywhere was floating trough the room and Gaato just shouted:
"Damn! What are you doing there?" The driver answered quickly while the vehicle roughly and faster went onward: "You won't believe what happens here! I bet you can't drive better than I'm doing right now. Some sort of rifts are opening in the air and strange creatures are coming trough! Some are even attacking our vehicle! I've got my hands full here!"
Rob suggested again: "Maybe now it would be wise to try establishing the situation and look what those creatures are before the unavoidable happens, Sir."
"Are you crazy?" Gaato asked angrily: "We are not stopping with those things out there! We are moving onward! Do not stop!" Choke looked towards his weapon. It can't be long before he got to carry it again when the situation gets really dire. Gaato saw his view and warned him: "Don't even think about it, Mister! We got the situation perfectly under control!" Choke slowly leaned back again, heightened his hands and said calmly:
"Hey, easy there: I'm just looking."
"How does it look like?" Gaato asked the driver.
"Not good. I don't think we can reach the city in time. I got some serious damages here."
"Go to the next outpost!"
The driver answered stressfully: "Negative! Negative! Systems are shutting down. I'm trying to get out of the fire before we are crushing!"
Gaato turned to Choke and Rob: "Nobody moves until I say so! Seems like we got to walk the rest of the way back to the town. But you do not touch your weapon until I say so, alright?" Even before Choke was ready to respond the driver already said:
"Landing inbound! 3… 2… 1…" while not even mentioning the bus just fell down a cliff.
It was a rough landing but the vehicle did manage to not explode during it but it sure slided a few metres across the surface. When it was finally stopped Gaato stood up, took a gun and pushed the door open. "Alright. Everyone listens on my command and we will get out here! I'm not waiting if someone stays back. Now what are you waiting for? Move out!" he commanded and jumped out of the vehicle. Choke was still unhappy about Rob still carrying his rifle when it left the vehicle. He moved out last and it was just really cold again. He looked around for any enemies or rifts in the air but trough the snow storm it was not really possible to see far. After the driver came along Gaato commanded: "Alright, this way! Let's move!"