Anarchy: Revolution

Corruption

Lightyears away from the Artemis Pass, the crystalline world of Lumari was in havoc. Streets were bare, as if the people had packed up and left, but they were simply locked inside their homes under government order. Official warnings pulsed from tower speakers at every hour, their calm recorded voices echoing between glassy buildings and empty market stalls.

Every window was shuttered. Every public lift had been sealed. Transit lines hung motionless above the avenues, dark and silent where they once carried crowds across the city. On every corner, glowing notices stated the same command in bright, pitiless letters: remain indoors until further instruction.

Guard patrols worked night and day, enforcing a new curfew with polished rifles, scanner drones, and checkpoints at every district gate. Anyone caught outside without clearance was ordered to kneel, scanned, documented, and dragged away in transport vans marked with the Lumari crest. Families watched from behind crystal panes as neighbours vanished for breaking rules no one had been allowed to question. The decree had come from the council itself, sanctioned in the name of public safety, but fear had settled over the capital faster than any disease. No one spoke above a whisper. No one opened their doors after dusk.

In the courtyard of the main palace, the council members sat rigid in a semi-circular room as nurses and other hospital staff were dragged into the open.

Then, from a side hall, another young nurse was dragged in. Her left arm was cracked off at the elbow, her body showing stress fractures as she panted from the pain. Her uniform was stained with the shimmering ichor that was the blood of the Arian people. “Please, I know nothing!”

“Then you will not mind answering my question. How did former doctor, Talis Dar escape the hospital if no one helped?”

“I don’t know, your Lordship. I tried to stop him, but he just went to his office and then he just vanished.” The woman sobbed from the floor, her remaining crystalline hand pressed flat against the polished surface as pale fractures of light trembled through her fingers.

“What access route was taken?”

“I really don’t know, Sire.”

“Did he have help from an off-worlder?”

Sobbing, the nurse lowered her head, and the faceted ridges along her brow caught the chamber lights in broken flashes. “Please, I’m begging you. I honestly cannot answer. I do not know the paths.”

The Senator stood, her robes glistening over her crystalline frame as she stomped her foot against the polished floors. The blow rang through the chamber with a sharp, glasslike crack. “This has gone too far! Had Doctor Talis not been removed from my husbands care team, then maybe he might still be here.”

“Yes, yes,” someone said. “How tragic. The loss of a bleeding heart leader.”

“Counsellor Arlock was no bleeding heart.” Another called from the other side.

“Why are we searching for one lousy doctor?” a third voice asked from the back.

As a cacophony of voices rose in argument, the newly appointed Prince gestured to the guards. Raising their high-powered plasma blades, they shoved the humming tips of their halberds into the woman’s chest cavity. Blue-white light flared through her translucent torso, exposing the delicate lattice beneath her skin seconds before one blade sheared her heart. The mercy of a quick death came in a violent flash as her body crashed to the floor, scattering a hard chime through the chamber.

A small smile curved the Prince’s lips, not realizing that the Senator had been closely watching him.

“Enough with the killing! You are destroying your own people!” Deti cried out, tears streaming her face.

“Dear woman, we are simply cleaning our world of corrupt people who do not follow the laws.” The Prince’s smug look set fire to Deti’s blood as she worked her jaw.

Looking around the room, she took in the disparaging sight of the lower floor where so many had already been killed in front of the council over the last week and a half. Broken crystalline bodies had left glittering trails across the polished stone, and faint mineral dust dulled the places where blood and shattered fragments had been hastily cleared away.

“Nearly fourteen days of this, and you still have not explained why Talis Dar needed to be found. You still have not disclosed what crime he supposedly committed prior to his apparent vanishing act.” She said, her voice cracking slightly.

Raising her arms, she gestured to the rest of the chamber. “When do your own government get to find out the reasons? When do we get an explanation of action taken?”

Suddenly, the room seemed too still. Too quiet.

Then, from his ornate chair, the Prince slowly shook his head. Light slid over the hard planes of his face, catching in the crystalline edges of his jaw as if even his patience had been carved sharp. “Woman, you overstep. You will know what I wish for you to know. Any more than that is privileged information meant only for the crown’s eyes.”

“Then perhaps new leadership is required.” Deti said, her tone going dark.

Smiling easily, the Prince raised his hand to the nearby guard. “Arrest her for threats against the crown.”

Gloved hands grabbed her arms in a hard grip as Deti screamed in protest, the sound ringing off the faceted walls. “I will not stay silent! I will not bow to a tyrant’s rule!”

Fighting her way out, she managed to make it to the door before a kinetic round shattered her lower right leg. Crying out as she went down, she looked back in terror as blood pooled where her leg ended at the knee. Splinters of crystal sprayed across the floor like broken stars, tinkling softly as they settled.

Murmurs filled the chamber, rising as some protested the treatment of a long-sitting member. As the Prince called for order, guards dragged the injured Senator out of the room.

Egis, standing behind the Prince as his private physician, smiled in triumph. Soon, it would all be over. Soon, they would find the last witness to the truth of the High King’s death and silence them forever.

Leaning over, he said, “Sire, Talis was your father’s physician. If he speaks of the kings death, prospective and lucrative partnerships with other worlds may not fall through.”

“Trade routes are important, but so is keeping that information as secret as possible. He must take it to the grave or else, Egis,” the Prince declared in a whisper.

Then, louder, he said, “I demand our soldiers search the ports and docks around the world and the smaller moons. My father’s killer is out there, and I want him found!”

******

High above the chamber, her feline form blending perfectly with the shadows, Novidia sat with her data recorder. The blinking red light was unnoticed by the people below as she gathered more information.

“Killed the king, huh?” She growled. “I can’t see it.”

“Can’t see what?” Trykerius’s voice asked through the com. He’d remained on the ship, waiting for her to return with her fighter so they could leave.

She yawned. “I missed my nap for this crap, but I got what we needed. Looks like our medical person is the scapegoat for internal corruption of the crown.”

“Well, s**t,” the Terran replied. “That doesn’t sound good at all.”

Her banded tail swished lazily as the Katzenfurg got to her feet and padded over to the wall, then stopped as the whir of something powering up made her ears twitch. She’d used an air filtration duct to enter the building, but now the fan was running, cutting off her escape.

Looking around, Novidia slipped her data pad into her sealed back pouch. Dropping to all four paws, she moved with a quiet stealth toward the maintenance corridor. “I’m trapped. The fan came on so now I need a new exit. Heading south-west.”

“Maintenance hatch roughly sixty feet from you, take the next right, Novi.”

Making it to the hatch, she used her claws to remove the bolts, gently setting the screen to the side to not make noise. Hearing boots hitting the floor, she reached into her thigh pouch and pulled out a smoke bomb. “Time to see if these actually work, Axel.”

Throwing one down as she pulled the grate closed, Novidia listened as the steps drew closer while she tied a mask to her face. Maneuvering her body just right, she padded through the tunnel until she came to a grate that led to the outside.

Climbing out, she landed on her paws before getting up to look around. Three heavily-armed guards were patrolling not even ten feet away, but they thankfully didn’t see her. Ducking into the crystalline grass, she kept low as she tried to move past them.

Unfortunately, one had seen her.

He reached down, grabbing onto the one thing she absolutely hated having touched. Her tail. “Intruders from off-world! Sound the alarm!”

“Aw, hell,” she muttered. A slow, predatory smile parted her lips as she opened her mouth. Pulling up her body weight, she latched her claws into the uniform and climbed the guard like a tree.

As he tried to shake her off, another took aim with his weapon. “Hold!”

“Yeah, no,” she answered.

As the second guard fired a plasma round, she leaped onto the third. The missed shot sliced through the first one, downing them instantly. The third guard also attempted to grab the feline creature, but the quick, agile movements had her out of reach before he could get a good grip.

Opening her mouth, Novidia bit down hard on the guards throat, shattering the crystal as it crushed his ability to continue breathing. The second guard fell back, his blaster shaking in his hand as he trembled in fear. “What are you?”

“Death,” she answered. Swiping her claws in a wide, downward arc, she shattered the arm holding the blaster as the guard howled in pain. She swiped again, her diamond-hard claws cleaving the head from his shoulders. “And now, I take my leave.”