Chapter 364: Dead Orius
"What’s going on?" The High Priestess asked as she arrived at the sight. There were a number of human police officers along with the military police present. Apparently the forgotten maintenance dock’s security system had been triggered and drew all of them here.
Initially she was just told that they found a bunch of human corpses and a number of people who had gone missing from around the station. Solving the case of both who was the culprit and stopping them. But now they had to figure out how this came to pass. But she continued to delegate that to her subordinates in the military police.
So why was she being called down here now? Because the person in charge on the military’s side had taken complete control of the situation. First he had declared it a classified military zone and forced all the kidnapped people collected along with the bodies while he forced the normal police to watch the exterior to make sure no one broke in.
Then called not just the High Priestess but also a few other high ranking military officials. Apparently he had something to show them.
"It is this way, High Priestess." One of the soldiers slightly bowed before leading her past the human police officers who were grumbling and clearly angry. They had every right to be as well, so the High Priestess could not fault them for it. They were moving into investigating this station’s crime far more than what was promised or what they assumed would happen.
They walked into a room that was covered in human blood and cuts that were going through the first layer of the metal walls and ground. She hesitated for a moment before stepping aside so the other military commanders could step in and suck in their breath.
The High Priestess looked around until she saw a rolly chair with a man tapped to it. The tape used was duct tape, something that was a uniquely human invention that she knew for a fact their engineers were loving. Just as the human engineers were loving hydra sap, which was basically a glue.
She walked over and looked at the headless body. It had two wounds. One was the missing neck. The other was a stab wound in their knee. There was a clear lack of it but the man was clearly tortured for a moment before he was killed. "I hope this was not the reason I was called down here. I do have an enormous amount of paper work I have to get to." She declared.
The Military Police officer that is in charge of this investigation was standing near the window of the room that looked out over the entire dock yard and the ship that was inside it. There was a hole in the window that was made from something hitting it. Probably a blade considering the way it was split outward into the dock.
Shel’la is the Military Police officer in charge. He used to be part of the covert operations unit. But he intentionally transferred after he was almost caught on a mission to the human system of Waterswan. "No, High Priestess." He turned and pulled a cloth off something that was covering it to reveal what was underneath. "This is what I called you here about."
The High Priestess processed what she was seeing for a second before she quickly stepped forward. "Is this... a corpse of an Orius?"
"Yes, High Priestess." Shel’la nodded his head. "I wanted to show you this because the rest of these humans are known criminals. Just like what happened with Sima and Tacole. I think the Orius Criminal Union is doing the same with humans." He explained. "Although I am curious about the person that managed to kill them."
The High Priestess looked around the room and at the goo pile that was once an Orius. At the center of it was the blue core that symbolized a deceased Orius. "If I recall you have an Orius in your unit."
"Yes, High Priestess." Shel’la nodded his head slightly in response. "I did not have them call the response unit until I called you and got your wisdom on the next course of action I should take." Basically he was passing off the blame and task to her by making her make the call.
The High Priestess narrowed her eyes and Shel’la shivered but stayed at attention. After a few minutes of her glaring at him she sighed and shook her head. "Call them. Now tell me about the person that managed to kill the Orius. What have you found?" She asked as she began looking around.
"Well he came in through the vent." Shel’la nodded at the roof and the High Priestess looked up to see an open ventilation shaft. "That gave him the chance to kill most of the people in the room and knock out the person that is tied up in the chair. Then either the Orius surprised him or they realized the Orius was faking being dead. Because then they ended up fighting. Which is when the rest of this damage occurred." He waved at the long cuts that probably came from the Orius elongating and hardening its limb into a sword. It was a common trick that most of them used.
"So the Orius’ opponent could move quickly and with a remarkable level of agility." The High Priestess concluded as she stepped over to the console. "How about this?"
"It was wiped, no historical data for the time of the attack. We only found the trigger command for the alert that brought us here." Shel’la nodded as he waved at one of his subordinates they stepped over and Shel’la took the data puck from their hand and handed it to the High Priestess.
"Anything else of interest?" The High Priestess asked as she opened the data pack and looked at the data that was in hologram form before her.
"There are scorch marks on the ground that we believe are from an arc of electricity because there is no dimming that we would see from a flame. Then there is the blade that damaged the window. This window is supposed to be made for use in a vacuum and the blade seemed to have just cut right through it. Then there is the core. It was not cut, it was crushed. Then finally we have some blood samples that were taken to get tested but we have already determined that they are only partially human." Shel’la explained as he pointed at the various things to make his point.
But for some reason a thought popped into the High Priestess mind. "The percentage that is not human. Do we have any record of it?" She asked hesitantly.
"No High Priestess," One of the people behind Shel’la answered. The military commanders were looking confused.
But the High Priestess sighed as she turned off the data puck and tossed it back to one of Shel’la’s subordinates. She then tapped her communication wristband. Taking a moment to make a call.
It rang for a moment before he answered. "Hey! What’s up? Also thanks for taking care of the orphanage thing." Jace answered nonchalantly.
The High Priestess eye twitched for a moment, "Jace you would not have happened to have killed a shapeshifting species. Did you?"
"I did, that was a Victorium based species correct? I have no idea why they were working with criminals but they were quite the interesting opponent. They even managed to leave scars on me." Jace answered with laughter.
The High Priestess sighed as she shook her head. She could see the military commanders and Shel’la were completely confused. "I am going to send the Military Police officer in charge of the investigation your way. Explain what happened and he will tell you about the Orius. We do not typically reveal their existence because the majority of them are part of our intelligence apparatus."
"So you are revealing it because I will probably run into one eventually." Jace quickly concluded. Already realizing that they were probably being rolled into the Military Intelligence and Logistics Division.
"That is correct. But besides explaining what happened, that is where your work ends. So do not do anything else. You are supposed to be finding a hobby or something else that you can do to relax." She insisted while she felt a headache come on. She swears, after these next two months she was going to send him far away from her. So she would not have to deal with whatever he got up to.
"Boo... okay, send them to me in the morning. I was about to grab some shut eye." Jace told her before hanging up.
Once he did, the High Priestess brought a hand up to her head and rubbed it. Slowly the headache was subsiding.
"High Priestess, who is Jace?" One of the military commanders asked.
"That is classified. Shel’la, destroy the biological samples you collected and that Jace left behind." The High Priestess informed him. "Make sure there is no trace of his existence."
"Is this to keep his existence a secret?" One of the other commanders asked.
"No, it is so I do not have to pay him." The High Priestess answered as she walked to the door. "I will send you the address in the morning Shel’la."