Heroes of The Collective Volume One : Resentment

5. The Astral Sheriff #1 : A Star is Born

Warning: This issue contains descriptions of a crime scene that could be considered traumatising content. 

"ID please?" asked the officer, leaning through the window with a clipboard. She examined the badge and the photograph and recorded the name down. "You're clear, just pull up where you can, Sir."

Do'Lânqwa wasn't used to being called 'Sir' yet, but politely nodded at the officer, before driving down the long drive. In the distance, he could see the purple and orange flashing lights of the response vehicles where the drive way finished and the crime scene started. Industrial sized drones hovered and beamed light at the house. Tents were being put up as well on the garden lawn. Do'Lânqwa stopped the car and headed for the steps leading up to the house. A man talking to a group of uniformed people spotted Do'Lânqwa and left his conversation to join him.

"Sir, I'm sorry to have woken you," the man said, holding up his palm for Do'Lânqwa to press his own palm against.

"You're ok. I was awake anyway, Mo'Lilva. My new infant hasn't mastered sleeping yet," he responded before motioning for Mo'Lilva to lead on. "Give me the run down then."

"Of course Sir. So we have a partial demolishment at the rear of the building. This is where they entered and exited. No further structural damage elsewhere," Mo'Lilva led his superior down the main hallway towards the rear where the kitchen and open plan living would have been.

Instead, it was all reduced to rubble, except for a column of wall which had remained. Glass covered the ground in tiny shards and metal was warped and shredded, twisted in dramatic shapes protruding skywards. A drone hovered in the middle of the area and a search bot sifted through and lifted what would have been the refrigerator. Do'Lânqwa just nodded in acceptance at the work being done and to signal that he was ready to move on.


Mo'Lilva led his superior to the grand staircase. Do'Lânqwa observed the images on the wall of the stairs featuring many scenes and memories of happy times for the occupants of the house. He'd almost missed what he was being told as he got lost in his own thoughts of his own new and expanding family.

"Sir, I was just saying that you need to be warned before we go any further," Mo'Lilva repeated.

"Yes, I heard. It's fine, let's proceed," he lied.

"There's a search of the wider area for the missing ten calendars old infant and alerts have been sent out."


They went room to room starting with the master room. Both of its occupants were brutally murdered. The male was lying on the floor by his bed, his right arm torn off and resting beside him. The female was in bed, or rather, her legs were. Her top half was intact but lay on the floor. Do'Lânqwa took a subtle exhale and nodded again, ready to move on.

"This is the adolescent sixteen calendars old female's room Sir," announced Mo'Lilva, taking a step back to allow Do'Lânqwa to go in first.

He'd already seen what was within the room, and he didn't like it one bit. The girl was slumped in the clothes storage unit, the doors to which were in pieces either side of the gap that contained the body and the strewn around clothes. The girl looked intact and Do'Lânqwa couldn't see where the blood had come from. The post mortems would find out.

The last room belonged to an infant male, younger than the adolescent they had just seen. Mo'Lilva had even less of a stomach for what was in this room. The infant's intact remains were half in the room, half hanging out of the window, showing he was probably trying to escape. The family hound was in two parts on the floor. Do'Lânqwa ran his hand over his head, exhaling loudly this time.

"Are they going to be recovered soon?" he asked, eyes fixed on the boy in the window.

"Around eight at first light," was the simple answer given.

"Any suggestion yet as to who did this?"

"You really think a 'who' was behind this? Looks like a 'what' did this," mused Mo'Lilva. "The missing infant's room is down the hall. Did you want to see that too, Sir?" Do'Lânqwa's phone started ringing, and he frowned when he looked at the screen.

"No, it's ok. I'm going to have to take this. Give me a moment." Do'Lânqwa turned to take the short phone call and hung up at the end. "I'm needed back at the office, thanks Mo'Lilva."