Empyrean Iris Story Collection

Behind Bars

VIEWER DISGRETION IS ADVISED 

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"Gah, this place is a dump."

"Yeah, just be glad you can't smell it."

"Why is that?"

"Urine, lots and lots of urine."

"Ah, lovely." Krill muttered making his next movements very tender against the dark clattering metal as if he could avoid stepping in anything unsavory. Beside him, a rather scruffy human appeared from the shadows, "scruffy" with an overgrown haircut, five o-clock shadow, eyepatch and an army jacket that had seen better days.

Commander Vir blended in surprisingly well with the grungy understreets of noctropolis. The city was Less of a city, and more like a series of tunnels bridges and rickety buildings built on and into the side of a cavernous rift in the ground. Once upon a time, the Tesraki had begun serious mining operations on the border moon's surface causing some serious scars in the landscape which was then filled with the teaming underground life that the most unsavory humans bring with them.

Noctopolis was located on the furthest edge of the Milky Way galaxy, and seeing as the GA was based out of Andromeda, it was a very difficult moon to police. The UNSC had attempted to take over operations on the moon but had found only limited success considering their military had only been operating in space for the past few years. They didn't have enough manpower to undergo such an operation, so the moon itself was left mostly unpoliced. Since then it had become home to the most unsavory of the Tesraki, the Drev, and the humans having enough economically or emotionally in common that they at least tolerated each other.

What understanding they had of the border moon had begun with the banning of interspecies relationships almost a year past. Since Noctopolis wasn't particularly well policed, may counter culture groups had made their home here. While many of them were decent people attempting a little privacy away from the eyes of the law, other less savory groups had taken an opportunity to stake their claim.

The streets about them were littered with trash and abandoned cardboard and metal scraps. Their greatest source of light leaked down from the lively redlight district above, not only called that because of what it offered, but because it actually did bost a series of bright neon lights that could be seen across the city.

"Wanna tell me why I'm here again. This is kind of a Sunny and Vir thing."

Commander Vir propped himself casually up against a wall slouching inside his jacket collar turned up against the sour wind blowing up from the cavern vanishing into darkness below, "Sunny had to finish requisitioning our new weapons system, besides, i thought it was about time you and I hung out. We haven't done anything together as friends in a while."

"Ah yes, just how I prefer social bonding, Loitering through piss covered streets with an eyeless legless hobo."

"Rude." The human muttered glancing quickly around a corner.

Krill let the question drop instead moving onto the next topic of conversation, "Wanna tell me why we aren't working with local law enforcement?"

The human dodged past a leaking pipe and the resulting black puddle, "Well there are a few reasons. If I plan on getting close to this drug ring, or even the suppliers, I can't have the smell of the feds one me, second is that the policing system here is only partially overseen by the UN, mostly they supply their own officers and their own laws. There are serious rumors about law enforcement corruption, but that can be expected considering the kind of people that hang out here. And then there is the issue of ease of access to fingerprinting and DNA systems. Mine have been temporarily removed from the system for this operation because the dealers tend to check before the sell, but if i was working with local law enforcement my identity might be leaked."