"What's the difference between a hero and a monster? It's all just a matter of perspective really." - Imperial Defense Minister David ██████ during the bombardment of Tyana II
Nick and Ciane's dwelling, City of Vale, 8:45 am local time, two days after the abduction
Joseph was lounging on a sofa in the house that his victim shared with Angelica's victim browsing native channels on a television. It was mostly realities and documentaries, mostly what one would expect from society at this level of development. Overseer Liu had just told him that they had successfully kidnapped their first subject and that interrogation had commenced. He kept scrolling through channels until he came across a news broadcast.
"...the search for a 20-year-old Huntsman from Beacon Academy continues today as searchers scour an increased search radius in hopes of finding any signs of the man. His fellow teammates were beyond distraught and assisted greatly in the search." A news reporter said. Joseph leaned back with a smirk.
These poor fools, he thought to himself.
"I really don't know what happened," a man with black hair said. "We were clearing buildings, we didn't hear anything; no yells, no screams and no sounds of Grimm."
"Hope is still high that the poor huntsman will be found in good health, but some secretly think that Grimm killed him during his mission or even his teammates murdered him for some reason and hid the body." The reporter continued. "This comes right after a clothed skeleton and a weird device were discovered in the Forever Fall forest by an unrelated group of huntsmen."
That perked Joseph's attention.
"The device was sent to Atlas' labs for testing while the body was sent to Vale for examination. An Atlesian representative stated that Atlas did not create the device, furthermore, the function or even the material it is made of is not known except for the fact that it is exceptionally durable. Atlesian scientists are seeking to take a sample for potential replication, although it has proven exceptionally resistant to all known tools." An image showed the Technocracy logo on the device. "Researchers are also baffled by this symbol shown on screen as to whether it represents a group, a deity or an individual, however, it has been found in another location." The image then got moved to the side and another image with a tattered shoulder of a lab coat appeared. "The symbol has also been found on the clothes that were on the skeleton. Analysis of both are expected to continue today."
Not if we have anything to say about it, thought Joseph as he called Liu.
"Command here," Liu said. "Report."
"Yeah, we have a situation," Joseph said. "The natives found a sample analyzer and Richard's corpse, requesting permission to intervene."
"Granted."
A devious smile crossed Joseph's face as he went to inform Angelica of the situation. Angelica was sitting in Ciane's room while browsing an online database of the Technocracy's historical scientific findings when Joseph burst in.
"The unsophisticated natives found a body and an analyzing machine and are planning to study it further," Joseph said with a smile. "We can't allow that to happen can we?"
Angelica then had the same smile as they left the dwelling while rubbing their hands.
Vale Police headquarters, Vale commercial district, 10:45 am local time
Two officers were sitting at their desks with reports piled high on both sides. Recent heists on dust shops have left the entire force overwhelmed, tired and grasping at straws to find any motive since no money was stolen and all the thief or thieves took was large amounts of dust. They were about to collapse and fall asleep when the Sargent said that two people were coming who had information about the most recent heist and that they were coming to their desks. After around five minutes, a tall woman and man walked to their desks in a confident, almost arrogant fashion. The male officer looked up.
"So," the officer began. "You said you had information for us?"
"Yes, we do," the man said. "But before we get to that;"
The man and woman simultaneously lunged forwards and stabbed both officers with syringes.
Joseph and Angelica looked at their handiwork in satisfaction. The two officers would be the perfect disguise to infiltrate the morgue and eliminate any evidence.
"Ready?" Joseph asked.
"Rea- wait," Angelica said. "Let's hide these two."
After putting the near-naked, unconscious bodies of the two officers in a washroom, the pair left and headed toward the hospital.
Vale Community Hospital, Vale commercial district, 11:55 am local time
The journey to the hospital didn't take long, partially because they took a cruiser from the police headquarters and because the hospital was only about four blocks away. Once the two parked, they walked confidently through the main entrance and saw numerous nurses, doctors and patients scurrying about, trying to get to their location. They saw a young woman at the front desk, so they approached her.
"Greetings ma'am," Joseph said as neutral as possible. "My partner and I are with the Vale police force and we are looking for the morgue. Could you point us there?"
"Take the elevator to the basement," she said as she pointed to an elevator to the left of the reception desk. The pair took the elevator to the basement where they found two people working on the skeletal remains of Richard on an autopsy table. They turned and saw Joseph and Angelica walking towards them.
"W-what are you doing here?" The mortician asked.
"Vale police," Joseph said sharply. "We're taking over the investigation."
"I'm afraid you can't do that, we've got strict orders to-" the man started before he was injected with a sedative by Joseph. He looked back and saw that Angelica had done the same thing. Now that they were alone, they could look over the body. They saw that both femurs were broken, an arm was broken and the ribcage was completely shattered. Angelica found the lab coat on a desk, which she confirmed was the lab coat of Aristotle Squad. After briefly going through the mortician's logs, Angelica removed the sections detailing the corpse and the clothes and replaced them with normal autopsy results. The pair then scattered nanites to completely disintegrate the bones within half an hour. The only thing anyone would find if they investigated would be a pile of dust.
Joseph and Angelica then left the hospital without anyone noticing, shedding their officer disguises and becoming "Nick" and "Ciane" once more. As they made their way to their dwelling, they hoped that the other Wraiths in Zone A had done their part as well.
Research and Development Laboratory Wing A, Kingdom of Atlas, 10:55 pm local time
In the frostbite-inducing cold weather of Atlas, two guards were patrolling inside a section of an R&D facility, bored out of their minds. They should've been relieved by now but since apparently an "unusual object" as the higher-ups called it had been discovered in the Forever Fall forest, they were both voluntold to stand watch until further orders. Their legs hurt from standing and patrolling for so long and they silently cursed their superiors for making them stand there for what could be all night. With nothing else to do, they struck up a conversation.
"So," one guard said. "What do you think they found out there?"
"Probably just an artifact or something," the other one said.
"No way it's some ancient junk, that thing looked modern. It looked like it was made by us."
"I doubt it's made by us, have you seen that symbol anywhere else?"
"Other than the poor bastard in the woods? Nowhere, but it must have come from somewhere."
"I agree with you, it can't possibly be from, I don't know, space?"
The two laughed at that, unaware of two figures moving out of their vision. Suddenly, they both were stabbed in the neck by two people, unseen by both of them.
Andreas and Sophia waited for thirty more seconds for their disguises to take full effect before doing anything else.
"Thank the fucking state we're finally out of that cold," Andreas said while the two were standing over the bodies of the guards.
"Tell me about it," Sophia said angrily. "How these fucking primitives tolerate this fucking cold, I'll never understand."
Sophia wasn't exactly human, anyone could tell she wasn't based on her pointed ears. She was a Hesukar, a species that evolved on a tundra planet that could easily pass as humans if you discount their pointed ears. The best comparison would be elves and fairies from ancient Earth legends and stories, which is a title the Hesukari have wholeheartedly embraced. As the Hesukari evolved on a tundra world, they are well-accustomed to cold weather, which makes Sophia's hatred of the cold the pinnacle of irony for Andreas.
"I thought you Hesukari weren't afraid of a little cold," he teased. Sophia shot him a scalding look.
"Shut the fuck up Andreas," she said. "You and I have been waiting for the past four hours for this place to almost empty out and another two for these bastards," she angrily pointed to the bodies. "To be fucking distracted!" Tears were starting to well up in her eyes. That was another thing about Sophia; she tended to get very emotional, very easily.
"Okay, okay," Andreas said, trying to calm her down. "Let's just get this done."
"Whatever," she said as she pulled open the door. "I better get a pay raise when this is done."
The pair tried to act like a pair of security guards as they tried to find the room where the analyzer was located but had no luck. Frustrated, Andreas spotted a lone scientist and rushed him, holding his combat knife to the scientist's throat.
"Listen to me closely and listen well," Andreas said to the panicking researcher. "Your bosses found an unusual device in the woods with red flora. We want that device and we will not leave until we find it, so it would be in your best interest to tell us where. It. Is."
"D-d-down the hall and t-to the r-right! S-second door!" The researcher weakly squeaked out. Andreas knocked him out, then turned to Sophia.
"Got that?" he asked her. Sophia nodded, then the two of them headed to the specified room.
Head Researcher Robin (Robin) Arlen was engrossed in his notes, his readings and the results as he tried to figure this strange device out. Ever since it was brought to his office, he had become borderline obsessed with figuring out its secrets, a sentiment shared by his coworker, Head Researcher Lilly (Lilac) Thornton. She had gone home a couple of hours ago while Robin had volunteered to stay longer in order to finish some last-minute tests. He was just about to start the final batch when knocking sounded on the door.
"Enter," he said, not even looking up. Two security officers stepped through the doorway. At their footsteps, he finally looked up and saw the security officers.
"Oh, uh, how may I help you?" He asked the two security officers. Security visiting them wasn't unusual, they had a moderate security presence in the facility for their safety, with Lilly even having an entourage to escort her to and from work, with a huntsman as her "bodyguard" of sorts.
"Standard security check sir," one of the officers responded. "We need to sweep this room."
"I assure you both that the only people who have entered and left this room are me and my coworker."
"When did she leave, sir?"
"A couple of hours ago with her entourage."
"We just need to search the testing chamber then."
Robin then led the two officers to the examination room before turning back to his work. Not even two minutes later, a call came through his earpiece.
"Head Researcher Arlen!" A panicked voice came through, unaware of a security officer subtly getting closer to him. "Are there any members of security with you?"
"Uh, there are two here," Robin said with concern. "What's the matter?"
"Two guards were just found dead!" The voice said in a much more panicked tone.
Before Robin could respond, he was sharply turned around by the "security officer" who proceeded to slice his throat open with a large knife.
"Head Researcher Arlen are you there?! Can you hear me, Robin?!" Sophia heard the voice of an unsophisticated screaming through the native scientist's earpiece. Just then, an alarm sounded and red lights started flashing.
"Andreas we have to go!" Sophia yelled to Andreas.
"Got it, let's go!" He yelled back while holding the analyzer.
The pair rushed out of the room where an armed security team rounded a corner behind them. Gunfire sounded as bullets raced beside them and above their heads as they try and make their escape. They ran out of the doors and into the night before reinforcements could arrive.
"Okay," Sophia said through panting breaths. "Let's never do that again."
"Agreed," Andreas replied. He then called up Overseer Liu.
"Liu, we have the analyzer, send the location for pickup, over."
"Copy that, location sent with dropship en route. Out."
Information Data Logs:
AS-223 "Encyclopedia" Analyzer: The AS-223 is the staple device of field teams across the Technocracy. It is used in conjunction with other devices as a part of a surveying squad or on its own as a field research tool. It is used to scan any flora and fauna samples that an individual collects, cross-references to known entries across the entirety of the Technocracy's archives and adds a new entry if the sample has not been recorded yet. As each analyzer is connected to the entire Technocracy databank on biological life, if one could find a way to operate an analyzer, one could theoretically access every single documented flora and fauna sample recorded by the Technocracy.
Hesukari: The Hesukari are a humanoid mammalian race that evolved on the tundra world of Mithra in the triple-star system of Mituhar. They evolved sapience from primitive ancestors a bit earlier than humans (6.1 million years ago) and followed a similar evolution and developmental path, with the first farms being created while humanity was just starting to settle down into permanent communities with agriculture (11,000 years ago.) The first divergence came from the progression of the medieval period, where the Hesukari medieval period lasted almost 1.2 times as long, ending when humanity was entering the Steam age. While humanity was murdering each other with mustard gas and artillery, the Hesukari underwent a fierce Eugenics program. As they evolved on a tundra world, the Hesukari have a natural affinity to the cold and it is not uncommon on cold worlds to see Hesukari groups wearing a light jacket and mildly thick pants in weather that would require thick winter coats for humans, an aspect that the Hesukari frequently tease about, which often leads to the development of romantic relationships, sometimes intimate. The Hesukari shares 96% of their genetic material with humans, which led the Technocracy to investigate the possibility of cross-breeding. Out of 100 subjects tested, 94 gave birth to healthy offspring, three had genetic deformities and were euthanized and three were stillbirths. The Technocracy counts this as a success.
Galactic Hesukar Regime: The Galactic Hesukar Regime, or 银河赫苏卡政权, is a matriarchal society and the second most powerful empire in the galaxy, behind the Interstellar Solar Technocracy. It was the first alien contact humanity ever had and the most steadfast, supportive and profitable ally even well into the future and the discovery of other alien races. It all started when a science ship came across another, obviously alien, ship while surveying a system. Three years of both sides translating each other's languages later, the first envoys with their respective guards met for the first time. A year after that, the Imperator met the Hesukar Empress on Mithra, the Empress visited Earth and multiple agreements were signed. Unfortunately, a civil war broke out between pro-democracy rebels and the current government, and the government was being beaten. The Technocracy came in with weapons, troops and military reinforcements, and after a combination of space combat and vicious ground combat and orbital bombardment, the rebels were crushed and order was restored. As of this entry, the Regime has seventeen planets, twelve citadels and eight fleets, the majority of which was made with the assistance of the Technocracy. Unfortunately, recent crisis events have left the Regime's economy in shambles and despite generous donations from the Technocracy and other allies, it is not expected to recover within this century.