None of this had gone as planned, absolutely none of it.
He had been sent out months ago to try and track down Admiral Vir and inform the UNSC on his whereabouts, and then everything had gone to shit. Now he was stuck on an unknown colony out in the middle of nowhere without the funding or ability to get back home.
The only thing he knew for sure was that, Admiral Vir had been here, and not only had he been here but he owned the planet. The man was, somehow, incredibly rich. The Martial knew that the man had received a substantial government payout for the Steel Eye debacle, but that did not account for all the money he would have needed to buy and run a small moon.
He had some theories on the subject. Clearly the infrastructure was built on capital that had been gained by way of criminal enterprise, the only problem was, apparently the man had gone legitimate as soon as it was feasible, and there was no traceable evidence of any illegal activity, as far as he had been able to find.
But none of that mattered now.
Just when he thought he was getting somewhere, the Behemoth had happened, Admiral Vir had vanished off of Arcadia to steel a ship from god, and the result had been behemoth's death and a second star in the sky above earth. Admiral Vir was MIA, and Earth was on the verge of a Civil war. The Martians had begun backing support of Citizen 404 after a rash of arrests lead to a few wrongful deaths. The Lunar colony had taken the time to announce itself as an independent government though they were willing to back earth. It was a smart move considering how close they were and how much richer earth was.
Mars on the other hand seemed intent on removing themselves from association with the UN.
Boarders had been closed, stations cut off, communications halted. And here he was sitting around twiddling his thumbs with no orders and a voided contract.
It wasn't all bad though.
The Martial sat in a small café at the edge of the city. The small table he had claimed was on one of the outer balconies, and a warm wind gently blew past him, before him Arcadia's developing ecosystem stretched out into the darkness, lit only by strategically placed artificial stars, and the ever present sky jellies.
Arcadia was a beautiful place. He missed the warm radiation of the real actual sun, but if he had had to chose somewhere to live that was not earth, than Arcadia would do. The landscape before him was a wash of color and light, an intricately designed biome of bioluminescent plants and animals. The water itself was infused with non-toxic algae that glowed with a gentle blue light, giving the impression that lakes ponds and rivers glowed.
Jellies floated gently through Anin Coiltrees, and moss, and past orchards of bulb fruit.
Creatures resembling snakes slithered through the underbrush opening recemented mouths to bit into the overripe fruit.
Small blue, many legged lizard creatures climbed up the side of buildings and rested under the canopy of leaves.
Friendly two legged birds wandered both outside and inside the city, walking up to curious bystanders and demanding food or pets.
There were very few earth animals present on arcadia, mostly because earth animals tended towards violence in way that other planets animals did not , but he knew for a fact that the opposite hemisphere of Arcadia, house a nature preserve for more dangerous animals, including roving packs of wolves, and certain large cat species. The Arcadian scientific community had even been given license to attempt and create animals in their spare time. It was the addition of adaptid DNA to their creation process that had been so exciting.
Almost anything was possible now if you tried hard enough.
A crowd gathered around him, staring off into the strange landscape with a soft murmur of awe. The Martial couldn't help but agree with their wide eyed assessment, as the Genetically modified Bright Stag stepped from the trees.
The creature was the definition of a serene forest spirit from any fantasy novel or fable. It was at least two meters tall at the shoulder, and pure white. A bioluminescence gene caused its fur to give off a gentle white/blue illumination as it walked through he dark underbrush, and upon its head was a massive rack of antlers, which also glowed white.
The jutting protrusions added a few feet to the creature's height. If he was to guess he would have said each antler had at least ten points, perfectly symmetrical on either side and gently curving inward over its head. The creature was regal, and beautiful, making its slow stately way to the edge of a glowing pond before lowering it's massive head , antler points brushing the water.
It was a good show, but put the thing up against any earth predator and it was a goner. There is generally a reason that glowing animals don't tend to exist on earth. And that's because glowing at night is a one-way ticket towards getting yourself dead.
The martial watched the deer for a long moment before it turned and slowly returned to the cover of the trees.
At his shoulder, his little AI Nemo beeped.
"It's time."
The martial stood slowly and whistled sharply once.
At his feet another genetically modified monstrosity took to its feet . and joined the martial at his heels.
Ok perhaps that was a tad exaggerated to call the dog a monstrosity . He was, as most large dogs tended to be, a big cupcake deep down, and despite his intimidating looks, he was all dough.
"Come o, Rogue."
The dog's light pink tongue lolled from his mouth as he trotted into step at the martials heels.
Rogue had been purchased directly from the genetics agency. Through methods that multiple news agencies had proven to be completely humane, pregnant animals were injected with adapted DNA and the required isolated traits in order to birth the desired affect in their own offspring.
Rogue had been the result of one such test. He was a German shepherd mostly, hyper pigmented to be a sleek stealth black, though his eyes were bright blue, and glowed gently in the dark. It had no affect on his health or vision, and he was probably one of the friendliest dogs the martial had ever encountered, which was saying something because dogs are inherently friendly to people. Gently speaking the big lug was too friendly, and his only mission in life seemed to be cuddles.
The martial had originally purchased the dog for his mission intending him for a specific use. At that point he had intended to hand the dog back when he was no longer serving a purpose, but after about ten minutes with the puppy he had realized what a dipshit he had been to think about returning the dog. So, while he still intended on using him for a purpose, Rogue was not going anywhere.
"Turn right here." Nemo said
He did as told walking across a short bridge and into a small park.
Overhead the spiral tower loomed large in the perpetual night a set of blinking red lights glittering at the top.
He held out a hand to a nearby jelly and it floated closer to accept a pat before wandering away.
Ah, there they were.
His target.
The Saint of Anin stood at the edge of a small pond, lit from below by a delicate blue glow. With her pearl white robe she held all the stately grace of what one might have expected from an alien saint, her chin held high and one set of arms clasped behind her back. It was not often that she could be seen these days, where once she had been a staple of the arcadia environment , participating in tournaments and gladiatorial fights, she had become more and more reclusive. She had not participated in a fight for over half a year, and speculation was beginning to run rampant.
The favorite theory?
Pregnancy
It was a biological fact that in order to avoid miscarriage due to battle related trauma, Drev females experience an extreme aversion to physical conflict during the gestational period, along with an extreme nesting instinct the closer they draw to term. This often presents as withdrawal . Unlike humans however, pregnancy was not easily visible on a Drev, so it was difficult to tell.
Either way, he status as an upcoming mother was not his interest.
It was her companion that he was focused on.
The tan and black German shepherd circled the saint's feet once protectively, eyeing the trees around her as if she expected an attack.
The saint sighed, "Go play waffles, go play!"
The dog gave her that signature German shepherd head tilt before finally accepting the command when the saint pointed a finger into the park. The dog was not on a leash, but that was not surprising. That dog was probably the most well-trained beast this side of the milky way and was unlikely to cause injury or trouble. The dog herself was at least seven years old as far as he knew, maybe older, but she didn't move like she was old.
There was a hop in her step, and a steady sureness about the way she walked that made it very clear her state of mind.
The dog was well trained, mentally stable, and well behaved.
Rogue, was a big idiot, the definition of book smart but not street smart.
But that's all that was needed.
The Martial surreptitiously unclipped the leash and rogue was off like a shot, bounding across the park with his tail wagging and his tongue dangling. Waffles to her credit only startled a little as the big glowing eyed missile shot at her from the forest. The big oaf skidded to a halt next to her almost plowing into a tree, tail wagging furiously before happily beginning to sniff at her.
She stared at him for a second like he was some kind of idiot before eventually coming to the conclusion that he was neither a danger or bad enough for her to be angry at. The two animals circled slowly, sniffing. Where Rogue was big, energetic and stupid, Waffles, was calm, observant and almost stately for a dog.
The saint of Anin lifted her head at the barking and turned to look at waffles, "Hey girl, whose your new friend."
There it was, that was his in. As he approached he worried that he might be recognized, but then shoved that thought aside. He had had a few modifications done, and it had been a while ago since their last encounter.
"Sorry about that, don't know how he manages to get off the leash like that."
The saint of Anin turned to look at him, her bright golden eyes looking him over. He saw the twitch of her expression as she identified the pistol on his hip before sliding off to examine the AI hovering at his shoulder.
Off to the side Rogue had rolled onto his back in an attempt to coax waffles into play.
"he's a pretty dog, what's his name?"
"Rogue."
"That's Waffles."
Waffles nipped at his neck and the two began playfighting mouths open teeth showing. Strange half whining half growling noises erupted from their throats, cut with intermittent sneezing the way dogs tend to do when they playfight.
"She's a beautiful dog too, a real classic girl. Her puppies would go for a pretty penny."
The Drev tilted her head, clearly having never thought of the subject, "Really?"
"Well, not to pry but that.... Is Admiral Vir's dog isn't it."
He watched her face carefully, looked into her eyes and sensed a hint of sadness there, though her voice remained calm, "Yes, she is."
"Well than she's smart, well trained enough to be a service dog." He motioned towards her, "I only say that because I know the people up at the DNA labs are looking for more dogs to DNA splice. I bought Rogue there off of them. Sure you can make a dog look any way you want these days, but Smart is something you cant isolate as a trait."
The Saint of Anin chuckled, "That is true. And no I don't think anyone has thought about it. She's been on ships for most of her life without other dogs for company. The opportunity just never arose. I'm not sure if she's too old."
"Probably not with the health she is in. She'd probably make a good mom."
The Drev hummed deep in her chest, "Is Rogue offering?"
The Martial laughed, "Rogue is an attempted ladies man, though I'm afraid he tends to chase off the ladies with his stupid."
Rogue was on his back again with Waffles sitting over him mouths open again. Rogue wiggled like a worm, his paws flailing in all the directions.
The saint hummed again, "Waffles is a veteran of that sort of behavior, mostly from humans though." She paused, "That DNA lab, do you know if they have found anything to extend dog's lives>"
He was getting somewhere now, "I believe so. With adapted DNA, the mothers are exceeding life expectancies by more than five years in some cases. The results are better for the puppies though. " he motioned towards rogue, "This big idiot is supposed to live to be around twenty give or take a year or two?"
"So.... Having puppies might extend her life if she is allowed in for DNA testing?"
"basically yes."
He saw it then, the flash behind the Saint's eyes. He had guessed right.
"You know what, I've gotta head to work soon, but maybe I can get your number and we can meet up again." He motioned to the two dogs still playing in the grass, "Let what happens happen."
The Saint nodded her head once, "I suppose that seems fair."
The martial took her number with a small bit of glee.
He wasn't sure what he was doing at this point, falling back on the job because there was nothing else he felt he could do, but either way, he had gotten himself an in.
The closer he was to the Saint, the closer he would be to the admiral if he ever returned.