Spiral of Light

Chapter 6: Gondola Ride

The gondola made good time. They passed through the center city and began moving into the distant reaches of quarter three. The buildings began to gradually grow more decrepit and rundown as they moved toward the location of the hybrid den and when they did see a citizen, they would fearfully duck back into the sanctuary of the buildings. Hover-trollies, the public transportation used in Drydellia, would arrive occasionally in front of a dimly lit habitation hive and the employees would leave their residence as a tightly knit group, casting cautious looks over their shoulders and wasting no time to get inside the trolley and depart.

"Well, they seem fearful and on edge." Moloch said, pointing down at the group.

"They have every reason to be. The hybrid den has been out of control, and they know we are struggling to protect them. There are also dozens of drainers on the loose."

"Have you had contact with them?" Moloch asked.

Salazaar puffed on his cigar, and then spit some juice over the side of the gondola.

"Too much contact. We've lost over half the constabulary to them already."

"Over half your forces?" Moloch said in astonishment.

"Pretty much. When we first learned of the Hybrid den, they didn't cause much trouble, just evaded our forces, stole critter dust and food from the warehouse, and laid low on the outskirts of the quarters in uninhabited structures. Weird thing was they would even leave most of the stolen food and medical supplies behind in the employee habitation hives like they were trying to give back to make the Employee's lives better, which it did for a short time.

But once the Drydellians caught wind of it, the hybrid's generosity did not improve their lives at all. Supervisors arrived and caught everyone they could with the stolen contraband. They popped a few napes to make an example of the poor unlucky saps who had the goods, and put the rest of them on ice, in the cryo-vault. The Den Master at that time was a large golden lion hybrid. When he caught wind of what the Dradellians did, he and his hybrids didn't take kindly to that move, and in a short time they raided the Royal Palace. They ended up killing several supervisors, in addition to destroying a large section of it.

"That would explain the walls and the large security force around the Drydellian's palace. It seems they don't want a repeat of the raid to ever happen again." Moloch said.

Salazaar made some inputs into the gondola's navigational board, and the craft adjusted slightly on its course.

"The Drydellians can't ever let anything go. Since the raid on the palace, they have declared total war on the hybrids. At first, they would just run from us, and I knew they weren't trying to hurt employees, they just took what they needed to live, and would keep to themselves. I knew the other constables would intentionally miss shooting at them and muddle up any investigation and clues about their whereabouts. That's how they managed to survive for so long."

A pleasure yacht was floating by a raucous party in full swing atop it, drowning out their conversation. Salazaar patiently waited before continuing, "We knew the hybrids only held hate in their hearts for the Drydellians, and boy did it ever get them angry. They couldn't do anything about it, because they needed us to protect them, so all they had were empty threats. Life for us was never better than when the Drydellians were scared for their own welfare. Which is why they petitioned for you lot to show up and fix this whole mess. They never wanted any officials that weren't Drydellian poking around in their business, but the situation has become too much for them to handle."

"You wouldn't know it from the way they were bleating for help over the petitioner feeds." Krasus said as he walked across the aisle of the gondola to join them, sitting on the bench beside Moloch and behind Constable Salazaar. Salazaar nodded as he pushed his hat back and wiped his brow with his coat sleeve.