Maire's right eyebrow quirked, and her head tilted slightly, a slight frown sliding across her features before disappearing like water on a greased platter of iron. "And I'll have you know that threatening a government operative is treason, no matter the... code, you follow." Her head straightened and her movements took on a strict grace as she floated slightly closer before stopping. "Fortunately for you, I have no interest in provoking combat. Considering the fact that you know I'm a psychic, you should have obviously been briefed on the kind I am as well, and while I'm quite skilled in Telepathy, I'm a Healer. I only use telepathy... aggressively when in defense of this culture, and I'm not about to use it on an unbound, obviously dangerous individual. I'm an interrogator, not an idiot." She had been told, by a few, that she was surprisingly expressive for a Psychic.  Of course, her response had always been that Psychics were trained to control their minds. It came with the package that facial and emotional control came as well. She let exactly the emotions she wished to show out, and the others were carefully locked up in well ordered and defined closets. She was completely expressionless now, even her eyes looked dead, but she saw everything. "I suggest you introduce yourself." She said. "Before I have to tell the OSI that we've been infiltrated by a foothold and they destroy this place within the next 7 hours. I believe you don't have hostile intentions, at the moment, since I don't see myself dead quite yet, but even senses as well refined as mine can be fooled, and I'm no fool to believe otherwise."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:11, Mon 15 June 2015.

"Treason?" He laughs. It's an unpleasant sound, like the laughter someone who has never been sincere in their entire life. "Miss Doiteain, who do you think deals with traitors if not the Shivari?" He kicks off the bulkhead and drifts down the passage way, no longer looking at you. "There is an saying from the Old Homeworld, 'Deos vigileas vigilum' which applies very aptly to your current situation, Miss Doiteain."


"All you need know is that Mr. Grim knows I am here and that I am Shivari. You should count yourself lucky that I am not here for you, because no one will be coming or going until I have completed my business here. For all intents and purposes, this installation no longer exists on any nav chart and that will remain that way until I say." He halts himself about halfway down the hall, facing away from you as he speaks.

"Unless you need to pontificate further for the safety of your own ego, I suggest we go visit our mutual 'friend' and get what we came for."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:24, Mon 22 June 2015.

In reply to Janus Meyrink (msg # 27):

Maire shrugged and led the way as quickly as she could. "As you're well aware, we are in a very tense situation. Politically, militarily, etc. I'm simply taking precautions. While I'm flattered that you consider me important enough to... count myself lucky not to be on your hit list, the thinly veiled threats at murder and removing me from existence are... unnecessary." Maire sent a quick message to Kith. "Clean up some for our guest."

Her gaze never left the hallway in front of her, and while she was certainly comfortable in zero-g, she was far from quick. She'd spent some time as a child, on her trip out from the outer rim to be trained, on a transport. She'd picked up a few things on the journey. She might have tried having a little more fun if she'd known that was the last she'd get to experience in a long, long time. "My colleagues are on their way here as we speak." She mentioned, casting a brief glance behind her. "Kith is the one that found him, but the other two still did their jobs well enough. Would you like me to send them back home, or are they allowed to dock too? I assure you that they're the only other ones, asides from me, aware of anything. I didn't even tell my director anything."

"Don't take it so personally." He shrugs. "I threaten every telepath I encounter. It's for your own safety and the good of the Hegemony that you don't go poking around where your mind doesn't belong. If I didn't warn you up front and you tried it, I'd have to kill you. No exceptions."

Kith acknowledged your request with a mental nod.

Silvin speaks to you through the link "Uh, we're having a problem. Juint and I can't find you. We're at the relay station on Ceti-Alpha but, um... we can't find you. Theta-Seven doesn't show up on any of the charts and none of the shuttles are taking us seriously. What's happening?"


"Your colleagues will be unable to find a vessel to make the journey, since every nav-com in system no longer recognizes LP Theta-Seven as a valid destination. I already told you: No one is coming or going from this installation at this time. As for Mr. Grim, he is already aware of the situation."

"Tell me about our friend. What have you learned so far?"

Maire's head tilted. "Hmm, that blood and gore make quite the mess in a Zero-G environment." She said, glancing at him. "You've read my file. If my telepathy fails, which it did. He resisted and I'll be unable to try again for at least a day, then I don't have any other skills with which to extract knowledge." She shrugged. "So we were getting him ready for the next time I try infiltrating his mind. We have no intention of letting him sleep, eat, drink, or any kind of bodily function that we can keep from happening. If he decides to urinate himself, or shit his pants, than the demeaning nature of such actions will hardly work against the ultimate goal here."

She straightened her head and continued floating down the hallways. "Since I don't have to be a telepath to understand that most people would consider me an inept interrogator, you don't have to keep the thought to yourself. I am an inept interrogator. I'm a glorified switchboard where I'm stationed right now. My job has seen a great deal of... no excitement what-so-ever." She shook her head. "And honestly, if you even had the faintest inkling of what the Academy did to us when we tried reading another persons mind unwillingly outside of, ironically, an interrogation, you wouldn't be nearly as scared of us... telepaths as you seem to be. You make us sound more like an infestation of vermin than a... gifted section of your population."

She stopped in front of the door to the closet Kith had claimed, and gestured him forwards. "You first." She said. "And don't worry, if the irresistible urge to do anything even remotely violent to you crosses my mind, I'll be sure to take into consideration that you're a far more qualified combatant than I am, and unless I got lucky, I'd lose."

She sent a message back to Silvin and Juint. "Go ahead and return to your posts. We'll take care of this by ourselves, for the moment. I'll keep in touch."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:28, Mon 22 June 2015.

Juint and Silvin acknowledge your response and go silent.

"Well, now you've got me here to make sure this goes smoothly. We don't exactly have a lot of time, I'm afraid..."


"Oh no, I rather respect what you can do, Miss Doiteain. Having those talents would make my job much easier, but as always, I serve at the pleasure of His Majesty." He clasps his fist to his chest in salute to the Hegemony.

"It's quite simply a matter of expedience. After all, not all Telepaths are as well behaved as you are." He grins as he says this. "I'd hate to have to make a mess. And it would make our next assignment considerably more difficult."

He slides through the hatch into the small room with an unconscious prisoner and a very nervous Kith.

"Wake him up." He reaches into his belt pouch and produces a small vial and snaps it into a hypo-jet.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:46, Mon 22 June 2015.

Maire shrugged and floated over, looking him over. "I don't even know how to wake him up..." She said, flicking him in the ear. "Kith, you got any idea?"

You think about flicking him in the ear, but right before you actually do it...


Sharp pain... stabbing.... belly... oh gods, oh gods, it's inside your intestines. It burns, it fucking burns. You can see the broken pipe sticking out of your abdomen. The sick grin on the face of the fuck you had tied up. His hands are free and his twisting the fucking pipe, churning up your guts as your blood, bile and feces float through the air, splattering your face and his. He laughs, cruely, enjoying your pain.

You flash back, premonition ended. He's still slumped there against the cargo crates, seemingly unconscious. Instinctively, you pull back from him, staying out of arms reach.

The Shivari assassin looks at you curiously and Kith just floats there, trembling slightly with his weapon.

Maire tilted her head to the side, taking in what she could before speaking. "Shivari, watch Kith for me, would you? Take his gun away." She drew her own, and without even blinking shot the man in the shoulder, using her knowledge of anatomy to hit a nerve that would hopefully kill his motor functions. She wiped a bit of splattered gore off her cheek and cracked her neck. "He's untied. Unless Kith happens to have not been paying attention, which I explicitly told him to, then he helped, or at least didn't hinder. Or he's just really inattentive. I can't take any chances, and honestly, you're the most trustworthy person here right now."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:44, Thu 02 July 2015.

Just like that, you blast the prisoner's shoulder apart with a mag-spike. More blood and ripped tissue fill the air. He screams in pain and vomits, lurching forward. His hands were free, but his legs were still glued to the cargo crate.

The screams of the man echo through the halls of the asteroid station.

Kith glances at you as you intruct the Shivari to disarm him. That's all it takes. One split second of broken concentration and the Shivari assassin already has his skana out, lightly pressed against Kith's jugular and Kith's pistol in his gloved hand.

You didn't even see him move. "Fuck..."

"Miss Doiteain, if you could repair the damage you just did to our friend here. I'm going to administer a dosage of Deja Vu."

"And as for you, my dear boy, if you could use the rest of that sealing cement and bind your hands behind your back?" He pushes the blade of his weapon ever so slightly up against Kith's neck and you see a single droplet of blood drawn.

Maire sighs and shakes her head, rolling her eyes. "Unfortunately, I'm a specialist. My... battery for other fucntions is fairly limited, and as such, I'm a little out of options on treatment here. Give me some time to sleep, lock these two in here, and I'll come back in the morning and we can work through this."

"I will spend some time with him and have a talk with Kith about where his loyalties lie." He gestures towards the door with his weapon and kicks off the bulkhead to approach the bleeding prisoner, injector in hand. "I will see you in eight hours."

Maire's sleep was dreamless, though she woke up a little disturbed. Some residual psychological shock at the probable betrayal of Kith, likely. She swept it out of her focus and quickly headed for the store-room. Upon entering, she said nothing until after she'd healed the prisoner, at which time she turned her attention to the Shivari. "What'd you find out?"

The supple lithe body of the assassin was stuck to the ceiling via magboots. Simply resting there in a meditation pose. Something about him though... you wondered if maybe the aestheticism and pose was merely an act. There was a sardonic quality to him and something that wasn't quite honest about him. It was hard not to feel like he was playing with everyone around him.

Without his eyes so much as opening he responds from above. "Kith isn't a traitor. He never was. Incompetent, yes. Traitor, no. Juint is your traitor, if you want to call her that." He pauses for effect. "She's been working with us all along. That's how I knew where you were and why they never came to help you. Don't worry though; they are working for the Office. If any of the four of you weren't, I'd handle it myself."

"As far as our friend here, his name is Vasily Chernov. His real name that is, he was going by Veran Collins, but he was never born in the Hegemony. He's from the Unified Brotherhood, the filthy little spy that he is." Janus doesn't move from his spot but stays serene and relaxed. "He's pumped full of drugs and chems. He probably doesn't even know where he was, but he'll tell you the truth. Try to pull something else out of him. If he forms a Freudian barrier, let me know and I'll give him some Deja Vu."

Maire's eyebrows raised slightly, but she said nothing. Her gaze turned to the man, and her head tilted to the side. "When was the last time you contacted whoever it is you report to? Did you have suspicions that you were close to being found out? Do they know?" She asked.

"They know everything." He spoke for the first time, in highly accented Indari. He spit at you, a little globe of saliva sailing towards your chest.

"Our friend is not being honest with us, Miss. Doiteain. He was caught unaware and was unable to contact his handler, who is likely somewhere in this system."

Meyrink prepared a hypo-injector with a small bottle of something clear.

Maire shook her head quickly. "I'll try it one more time. He seems to be at least semi-conscious now, so I'm going to take advantage and..." She leaned forwards and jabbed her mind into his, as quickly as she could, and if she could, dug around for anything regarding the mans handler, his report times, protocols he used, etc.

You wander around the Hedge in his "Space" for what seems like an hour or two, endlessly extending in both directions until you find it: A rusty gate... open for you to enter. You push into his inner space, the old wooden house seems run-down now. Not as luxurious or imposing as it might have been.

A flock of crows scatter from a tree as you step onto the overgrown lawn and approach the door.

The door is open, kicked in, hanging from it's hinges. The kitchen is archaic, like something from a histdram-vid or a frontier hab.

The table is knocked over and various household items are scattered across a dingy floor.

Next, is a hallway. Impossibly long in reality; it would never fit inside this house. In the mind, however, dimensions are not always consistent. The walls are covered in pictures and paintings. They move, sometimes. Some are in color and others seem surreal, but you have found the memories of Vasily Chernov.

You proceed until you notice one with a brass placard beneath it "Operation: Golgotha"

Reaching for it, you touch the frame and swirling memories fill your mind. You see Vasily speaking to what looks like priests <Presbyters> he kneels before them and they anoint his head and shoulders. The prepare him for Crusade. He will go to the Heathen's star systems and take on a new identity, pretending to be one of the pagan nonbelievers and feed them false information and learn from their ways that the invasion force will more easily subjugate them.

You see troop movements, fleet arrangements, detailed files on political figures, aristocracy. He sends them everything he can get his hands on. A ship came in, disguised as Hegemony and picked up unencrypted data fed to them by Vasily.

Last, but not least, you realized that Kith unwittingly helped him. Providing him access codes, procured sensitive information for him and broke protocol in what Vasily seems to believe was a successful attempt at manipulating Kith into being his "Friend" and an unwitting accomplice.

Maire shook her head and glanced at Kith. Even if it was unwitting, she'd need to report him. She'd put in a good word, but she doubted he would be allowed to remain in a position where he could compromise the Hegemony so severely. As to Juint, she didn't particularly care that she was a spy. Maire had spent years of her life learning to control her connection to others. Juint was a peer, not a friend. Maire didn't make friends. She was a telepath, and telepaths didn't get to get on friendly terms with anyone but other telepaths. The betrayal didn't even sting.

She waved her hand at the Shivari. "Operation: Golgotha." She said. "And you did a real number on his mind. But that's what he was here for. I've got all the fleet movements, star charts, and such that he's acquired." She pointed at Kith. "He, unfortunately, will be reprimanded. Breaking protocol, even for a friend, is unacceptable. I'll be recommending he be moved to a less sensitive station. He gave Vasily here an unfortunate amount of in on our operations. That means I'll need to set up interviews for other candidates to take his place immediately. Having an empty spot in the link is pointless."

She turned her head back to the Shivari, and put her arm down. "In fact, I'm sure you'd be able to find extremely capable candidates. Juint, after all, is fantastic at her job. And if she's working for you as well, then she obviously went through not only my protocols, but some measure of yours as well. But business first. What do you plan on doing now? Or am I not high enough clearance for that?"

"Good night, Mr. Chernov." The assassin slipped an injector into Vasily's leg before the spy could so much as open his mouth to protest. Almost instantly, his eyes rolled back into his head and he went limp. "Hmm. And what to do with our friend Kith... Don't you worry now, Miss Doiteain. I've been keeping his dosage up as well. He'll be asleep for a long time." He wiped some blood and grime off his hands onto Vasily's jumpsuit and begin to pack up his kit. "If you'd like, I can provide a list of recommendations for replacement personnel when we return."



"What do I plan on doing?" The white-haired Shivari chuckled. You started to think after looking at him for so long that his face, and perhaps more of him was the product of cosmetic surgery rather than birth. Something was a little TOO symmetrical about it, aesthetically pleasing but not greatly so. Devoid of any distinguishing marks or features save his hair, but that could easily be dyed or shorn. "Well, now that we're the only conscious individuals on this rock and our task here is complete, I can tell you: We're going to catch a ship out of here and onto the next part of our assignment. I trust you'll submit your report before we drill out?"

"What am I saying? I'm sure you will. In any case, our mission is to locate and acquire a ranking officer of the invading force and interrogate him for further information. We will have considerable resources for this mission, including the full cooperation of the Office of Special Intelligence. Of course, there may be targets of opportunity available. The Immortals will handle any demolition, and you can I can take care of some... wetwork as needed."

Maire blinked and shook her head. "An advantage to being linked to my boss means I don't have to try to send in reports. He's already fully aware, and he's having someone else write up the actual report to be submitted. I'm assuming my transfer has already been set up?"

The assassin leads you to the airlock and punches something into the command deck. Just like that, the lockdown is over and the doors slide open, hissing and beeping to alert an atmosphere transfer was taking place.

He floats into the airlock and beckons for you to follow.

"From here, it's a short trip to our rendezvous." He pauses and looks you in the eyes with his cold red pair. "I hope you like other psychics; this ship is going to be positively crawling with them."

Maire shrugged. "I get along with other psychics just as well as I get along with normals." She said, but followed the Shivari into the airlock. "This is going to be quite the trip."

>>> Horus: Hallways
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:37, Fri 24 July 2015.