The docks became an impromptu spectacle.
Just beyond the hull of this larger-than-average Voot Cruiser embossed with Spec Ops insignia saw a convoy of vehicles parked outside near it. Internal Affairs insignia adorned every door and identified facets of each. Most were nothing more than IIA livery troop transports, but the lead and rear were heavily-armored and loaded-to-bear. What sort of troop transport on Devastis needed an armored escort?
The question answered itself with the near-company strength unit of IIA officers that dismounted and took up security around the area. Unlike their typical counterparts often seen at detention centers, behind desks, or running errands for higher-ranking officers, these were hardened soldiers. Troopers, Elites, and Spec Ops who achieved a certain height and amassed a record of victories and survival against the odds. Adorned in heavy armor that would make an Elite blush clad in purple and crimson, visors intentionally faceless, and enough firepower to bring any potential threat on Devastis to kneel in short order, they were not there for show.
Chief among them stood a very high-ranking IIA officer in his dress uniform of deep violet and dark red with enough metallic adornment to blind someone. A High Marshal of all ranks, one who appeared to be quite perturbed and growing increasingly impatient as she checked the time on her wrist for the upteenth time. A sternly-set face of features sharp enough to cut glass with equally cold eyes of ice-blue teal. Where did the mutant freakshow of a Lieutenant run off to?
The Vortians received a warning from Vard, cloaked and stacked up in a hallway just in case anything went south. Haxx, meanwhile, had covertly made his way into the Megadoomer. Whatever was going on, it didn't seem good to the ones unhooked. Bad news all around given everything that transpired so far. Rha looked up from a crate with a stored PRC right as Aero and Vult ran into the hangar. The chair-bound man made sure he was well hidden behind a pile of crates.
"Commander, is that who I think it is-" Vard attempted quickly as they moved past him with a purpose.
"Yes. Return to your post." Vult addressed in kind without missing a step.
"Sir-"
"Post. Now."
"Yes, Sir." Vard snapped a salute, doing as ordered as they departed the hangar onto the retractable ramp leading down to the docks where the welcoming party of a hundred IIA officers poised for war awaited them.
The High Marshal's icy glare snapped to with a mask of contempt beneath the polished bill of her cap.
"There you are. I was beginning to think you had gotten lost and was about to send a search-and-rescue party in, Lieutenant." Her tone dripped of sarcasm, slowly turning her attention to Vult. "...and you are her "commanding officer", I presume?"
"Yes, High Marshal Xilch. I am Lieutenant Aero's commanding officer." Vult nodded while at parade rest before the Internal Affairs officer.
Xilch's eyes shifted between the tense, pink-eyed Lieutenant and the stalwart Commander.
"Aero, was it?"
"Y-yes, Ma'am."
"Are you nervous?"
"A little, High Marshal."
"Why?" Xilch needled, verbally dissecting Aero with each statement.
A nervous laugh escaped her with a smile to match, averting her gaze.
"Well…not everyday Internal Affairs rolls up to your home in-force. More confused as to why-"
"Aero." Vult interjected.
"Sir?"
"Take your leave, return to your post. The High Marshal requested my presence. I presume she needs to speak to me in private."
"Yes. Yes I do." Xilch sneered. "Begone, Lieutenant."
She didn't need to be told twice. Snapping a crisp salute, she about-faced and noped on out of there. The High Marshal tracked her every movement until she was up the ramp and back into the hangar of the Ghost of Irk, out of sight before returning to Vult before her.
"Your second-in-command, Captain Corr. Is he aboard as well?"
"Yes, Ma'am, he is."
"Summon him. I will not repeat myself twice."
"At once," Vult nodded, lifting his arm to type out a short missive to the Captain to get outside ASAP.
Haxx flipped several switches, turning on a variety of systems but not fully activating the mech. Whatever was going on, it gave him the creeps. The head of IIA present here?! This really couldn't mean anything good as far as he knew. He glanced around the hangar, seeing Corr run into the hangar in PT gear. Apparently he's been spending quite a bit of time with the new recruits.
Corr's sprint stopped at Vult's side, snapping to attention. "Reporting as ordered, sir." He also turned to salute Xilch, "Good afternoon, High Marshal." He appeared cool and collected as can be, even with his current attire.
The High Marshal did not return Corr's greeting. She did not speak, only folding her gloved hands behind her back, appearing all the more imposing before them at a staggering height. She nearly eclipsed the likes of Grimm and most certainly was just as tall, if not taller than High Marshal Zha. That distance away from the ground did not make her frozen glare any less intimidating.
"Do both of you know who I am?" Xilch opened casually.
"Yes, ma'am. You are the Director of Internal Affairs," Corr answered.
"It is a prestigious honor to stand before you and bask in your presence, High Marshal," Vult added convincingly. Fluent sarcasm to anyone else in the know.
"Save your bootlicking, Commander" She chided, looking back to Corr. "You know who I am, then you know my physical presence is quite unorthodox. Something we have in common at this moment, don't we? You, your team, an unconventional sort of unorthodox standards…and I, a house call to your vessel with an entourage whenever I have an entire branch of the Empire to manage. What could possibly bring me to the docks and demand your presence before me?
"Anything at this point on our behalf would be presumptuous, Ma'am," Vult countered, maintaining his bearing while standing his ground. A subtle "I don't know, why don't you tell me?"
"It was brought to my attention that your team recruited not one, but six defectives in IIA custody pending evaluation. Six defectives unfit to stand before the Control Brains, but now wear your peculiar uniform…and their statuses locked behind Level 9 Security Clearance."
"Respectfully, Ma'am, my security clearance level was necessitated by the nature of our assignments per the request of the Almighty Tallest."
"Oh, I'm quite aware, Commander." Her eyes narrowed to venomous slits. "I had a lengthy discussion with them on the matter to which I was told it was "none of my business" and to "leave them alone, they're busy"."
She paused, leaning down in their faces, her voice lowering with malice.
"It is my business to know. You are going to tell me or I will have all of you detained for questioning until I get the answers I deem sufficient."
Thank Irk Aero wasn't still there or she'd have likely panicked at that decree. Even Vult found himself somewhat rattled beneath the surface.
"We are happy to oblige, High Marshal, but I am afraid we can only disclose Level 8 and below information per your Security Clearance."
Her left hand snapped to a pointing gesture just behind her toward the skyline. One of Devastis' primary features that even Rem in the infirmary couldn't miss.
"Do you know what the purpose of that structure is, Commander?"
"That is the Main Cloning Facility of Devastis, Ma'am."
"One of the most heavily guarded facilities in the entire Emp-" Corr followed, only to be cut off by Xilch.
"I did not ask for you to regurgitate your training manual, Captain. Only identification." She concluded, hand returning behind her back. "Yes, the largest cloning facility in the Irken Empire and capable of producing millions of smeets daily at full production…Why, in the name of the Almighty Tallest are your recruiting the excrement unfit for my boots from a detention center instead of requisitioning fresh troops?"
"Experience," Corr answered, keeping his composure despite the verbal slap across the face. "The exact same reason IIA doesn't pick up its field units from the facility."
Immediately noting the ever-increasing incensed look of Xilch at Corr's boldness, Vult was quick to add.
"In addition to that, High Marshal, these deactivation-bound soldiers are expendable. Each fresh recruit from the pool I intercept is one less for the front. One less for the Armada. One less for your ranks, Ma'am. My team undertakes extremely dangerous assignments with a low probability of success. Exponentially greater risks than the average Special Operations team. The fact I needed to recruit six of them at one time should stand testament to that."
The Commander's inclusion slowly diffused the increasing ire of Xilch. Pride denied her the ability to admit Vult had a point and there was nothing logically wrong in doing so. Yet, admitting her fault before lowly officers was unbecoming of one of her stations. A change of subject was in order.
"There is a matter of business to be discussed, but first, a morbid curiosity I've had about your quaint pet-project of the Tallest since I was made aware…why is every member of your team marked as KIA in the system when more than one of you clearly stand before me, alive and well?"
"Deniability, High Marshal," Corr began. "In the event we were captured by an adversary of the Empire who might have the bright idea to leverage us in some negotiations…officially, we no longer exist. Nothing for them to gain. Even less so than a usual soldier who does exist in the system; some alien species may not know of the kill switch."
"Deniability is not exclusively one-way, Captain." The IIA Director made clear, sharply reading between the carefully-placed lines of Corr. This one was a frightening mixture of Zha's intelligence and Grimm's brutality. No surprise Aero narrowly avoided laying a brick-shaped egg.
"Unfortunately, neither of us are at liberty to discuss further on the matter-" Vult began to placate.
"Yes, yes, Level 9 Security Clearance," Xilch tiredly sighed with a nonchalant gesture of her hand, the other snapping her fingers to her nearest bodyguard to approach, a robust storage container in hand. "I haven't the time or patience to navigate verbal minefields to find out what I want with more pressing concerns. Lucky you. I do, however, have this matter to discuss with you."
As she spoke, she extradited the heavy-duty storage case from the bodyguard.
"Do you know what is in this case, Commander?"
"I presume something important, Ma'am."
"More than you can possibly fathom." She responded with emphasis. "A directive was handed down to me this morning that Destuctia is set to begin phase one of production operations. Priority among those operations is getting the Main Cloning Facility up and running, just as the one behind me."
She ran her long, gloved digits along the top of the nigh-indestructible case.
"Contained within is a copy of our species' genome. The sequenced data and tissue sample to begin the cloning process. This is why I am personally here, Commander. The very key to our entire species in my hands…and I have been ordered to delegate what is an Internal Affairs task to you. You have been tasked with seeing the safe delivery of this genome to Destructia in a timely fashion."
"Of course, High Marshal-" Vult nodded, reaching for the case. He gripped the handle to take possession of it, only to have it stayed by Xilch's iron grip.
"One of you care to tell me why this duty was imparted on you when my branch has exclusively handled this up until now?"
"An excellent question I lack an immediate answer to, High Marshal." The Commander did his best to not smugly smile in her face. "This is the first I am hearing of this honor bestowed upon us."
"I have a theory," Corr spoke, their previous assignments likely providing the exact bit of cover needed. "We're not at liberty to go into details, but we're familiar with the route to Destructia based on a previous assignment. Several lost shipments of material and freighters. Perhaps the Tallest wishes for us to make sure their crowning achievement for the Empire comes to fruition?"
An explanation that Vult had silent reservations about did not elicit an immediate response from the High Marshal. After several painfully awkward seconds of silence, Xilch's grip on the case relented, permitting it into the Commander's custody fully.
"Perhaps," She mused, standing upright once more. "The commanding officer of the IIA garrison stationed on Destructia, Marshal Turu, is expecting you post-haste. I will forward the relevant information of your due date and procedure to make the delivery. Any questions?
"No, Ma'am." Vult assured.
Thoroughly unconvinced…or disdain for the likes of this Special Operations unit, Xilch's contempt lasted for a few moments before speaking once more.
"Oh, Commander, one more thing. A…friendly warning. Should anything nefarious befall that case in your hands, should it be lost, stolen, or tampered with…deactivation will be the least of your concerns once you are located and detained. I will personally see to your entire team's punishment myself. Am I understood?"
"Crystal clear, High Marshal. It is in the safest hands in the universe."
"I doubt that. Dismissed." She waved the pair off before turning about with a hand signal over her head for her contingency of field officers to mount back up in the vehicles and return from where they had come. Likely back to IIA Headquarters, not terribly far away.
Haxx watched the exchange, seeing the Commander and Captain salute as the High Marshal left. Relief overcame the Lieutenant as he powered down the mech and made his way out of the cockpit and back down to the ground. He made his way over to the pair. "What the fuck was that?"
Corr looked back as Aero saw to the retracting of the ramp after she ensured the last of the cargo was loaded. "Part of the plan is what."
"Plan? What plan?" Aero hurriedly queried, her nerves still rattled from dealing with Xilch.
"I'll explain later. Just know Byte came through and now it's up to us to carry out the rest." Vult spoke, handing the case off to Corr. "Store that somewhere safe."
Vara came into the hangar, uncloaking as the hangar sealed. "I suppose that handles whatever that was."
"Ah, Commander, good," Corr's attention turned to her. "Who's better on the stick, you or Charsis?"
"Me, why?" Vara asked, cocking a brow underneath her mask.
"Because we need to leave immediately and push this crate well past the redline. Aero?"
She grinned in anticipation.
"Sir?"
"You know all those limiter switches on the control panel in Engineering for our power plant I told you not to play with?"
"I do."
"Go play with them. Double-time."
"On it!" She bounced away, eager to step outside of regulations and push their equipment to the limit and see what it was capable of.
"I'll get the engines started, then." Vara took off with Aero, headed for the lift to bring her to the bridge and power up the engines.
"So what about us?" Jur asked, coming up with Kiara and Dorum after the two women took off.
"Chief, we'll need you and Vard in short order after we take off. Go wait in the conference room." Corr directed, "General, Petty Officer, I hate to say it, but-"
"Right, we can't do much, back to the brig," Kara interrupted.
"Hopefully for the final time. Only the new recruits of Green Team remain. I will have a conversation with Byte soon regarding their handling. I believe you are going to like it." Vult concluded with a small smirk. "Vard?"
"Yes, Sir?"
"You and Aero are on crisis management duty. Don't care what you have to cannibalize, disconnect, or reroute…that powerplant stays hot and those thrusters full throttle. Stuff will probably start failing under the stress on the ship. You two make sure it doesn't fail catastrophically and holds together long enough to get us to Destructia in one piece."
"Consider it done, Commander."
Vara checked the flight schedule for the local system. The ship wasn't slated to depart for another couple of hours. Two hours was two hours, better to increase their window even somewhat. Presses of some buttons, flipping of some switches, and the engines came to life. Free of the docking clamps and checking to see that the cargo hold and hangar were sealed, she took off and off to the stars.
"Commander," Corr rang up to the bridge on the internal communications, "set our destination for Kyozist."
"You sure you want to go there in this tin can?" Vara sounded confused at his request.
"Positive. Just warn them in advance so they don't shoot us on sight."
"Will do."