Psi​ ​Termina​ ​I
Inquisitorius​ ​Listener​ ​Ship
Wild Space
36 ABY

A pair of small blue figures pressed up against either side of the corridor walls, easily shrouded by the shadows cast from the harsh overhead lights. The first figure, an Aleena with a mottled burn mark on his left cheek made a series of quick hand gestures to the second figure who had the same pale blue skin as her counterpart. Sherine flashed the hand-sign for acknowledge and nodded once, carefully removing the pack from her shoulder and setting it down beneath her feet.

The Inquisitorius Listener ships were eerily quiet, the only sound lilting through the filtered air the steady metronomes of beeps, creeps, and faint sweeps from long range sensor equipment. The security on each ship had been lighter than expected, but Breek Trailm knew that his team needed to move carefully. One tripped alarm would blow their mission. Literally. Trailm was suddenly very aware of his own pack that carried the same lethal canisters that Sherine was busy planting. Breek loved nothing more than to wreak destruction through the art of demolition, and knew that it meant that one day, he would inevitably go out with a bang.

For the time being, however, he would prefer not to.

Sherine looked up and shouldered her pack. Nodding once, Breek Trailm tapped a button on his wrist-comm to confirm another successful plant. The wireframe map on the small screen shifted from red to green. Breek couldn’t help but smile. He had hand picked his team years ago for missions just like this. They had started with small jobs, but eventually were noticed by Daggo Mouk’s head of engineering. Gwendolyn — or “Sparks” as everyone called her — saw his team's potential and had finally given them the mission they all had dreamed of.

The Dark Brotherhood deserved what was coming for them, and Breek’s team all shared the same fiery devotion to the promises set forth by Rath Oligard and the Collective. The Brotherhood had, after all, hunted down Aleena like they were some kind of scourge in the Wild Space that they had “claimed” for their own. Oh yes, they would pay, and the Aleena Demolition Squad would be hailed as heroes within the Liberation Front.

“Are you sure these are going to work?” Sherine asked. “In their current state, these wouldn’t do much damage to a shuttle, let alone a whole surveillance vessel.”

Breek shook his head. “Exactly, which is why they won’t show up on any of their scanners. They will react to the right catalyst."

“It would need to be a pretty significant heat source...”

“We just need to trust Spark’s plan. Has she ever let us down?”

“No...I suppose not,” Sherine conceded. “Alright, let’s rendezvous with the rest of the team and get out of here.

Click here to read the full fiction

Written by: Voice Marick Tyris.

Summary

• One of Rath Oligard's many propaganda speeches plays back on a holographic display in the Voice’s office...
• ...which is located inside the impregnable mountain that houses the core Dark Councilor offices and the Iron Throne.
• Marick Tyris, the leader of the Inquisitorius, is not pleased with losing to The Collective and wants more information.
• Ness’arin Ohnaka (no relation) explains the current situation in regards to the Brotherhood's efforts against The Collective. She is the NPC Director of Inquisitorius operations, functioning as the Voice’s second in command.
• Atra Ventus, Combat Master, is also present.
• Marick resolves that the Inquisitorius needs to be a visible threat to enemies of the Brotherhood, breaking away from the past perception that they were simply a task force for the GM’s bidding.
• Atra confirms that Operation: Tempered Iron is in motion, a hint to the ACC Competition that ties in to the larger storyline.
• Ness points out that stepping into the light will put a crosshair on Marick. The Voice is more than willing to take that chance to better show strength in the face of The Collective.
• Meanwhile, a small team of Aleena infiltrate one of the Inquisitorius Listener ships that help fuel the Advanced Inquisitorius Network. (AIN). The “Aleena Demolition Squad” sets charges that foreshadow later activity.
• Varryn Antillus — head of Capital Enterprises, which serves as The Collective’s spycraft and financial prowess — watches with amusement as Marick follows through on displaying an open challenge against The Collective.
• Antillus orders an attack of some kind to commence.
• Reiko Minikara is a Liberation Front Partisian that gets chosen to be a Zealot pilot.
• Reiko uses his rage and determination to crash his Quadrajet spacetug into the Inquisitorius Listener ship.
• The suicide bomber detonations react with the volatile canisters planted earlier by the Aleena task force. Foreshadowing, yo.
• Varryn is smugly pleased with the results. So much for the Voice’s claims of a stronger Inquisitorius...
• To be continued.

Voice Sponsored [INQ] Fiction Competitions

To go along with the release of this chapter, and in an effort to start hosting more sponsored fiction prompts, I’ve created two fiction competitions for members across the DB to participate in. As an added incentive, all qualifying entries will be eligible for Bonus Clusters of Ice, as outlined in the Cluster of Ice article.

1. [INQ] Counterpoints : Multi-Objective Fiction
2. [INQ] Counterpoints: Standard Fiction

These competitions will run for two weeks, and should get you all warmed up for the upcoming RoS!

Wrap-up

If you have any questions on the fiction update or competition details, let me know. Thank you again for your patience as we endeavor to push out updates on a more regular schedule.

-W