Irus sandstorms were some of the most powerful weather phenomena in the galaxy . The winds could travel at more than 62 miles per hour, and throwing dust hundreds if not thousands of feet into the atmosphere. These sustained winds could last days , and in some cases months if the condition were right. Entire civilizations had been entombed in sand never to be seen again, cities buried alive in a sapphire sea of copper dust. Ancient ruins were often uncovered throughout the Irus dessert after large sandstorms, revealing the remains of hundreds suffocated and starved under miles of rolling sand.
The Capital city of Irus was one of the oldest unburied cities on the planet, but still it fought a constant battle to keep its head above the rolling sand.
Once upon a time massive patricians had been built into the ground along the outer edge of the city holding great underground mechanisms that could be deployed high into the air creating a barrier against the sand and rolling wind.
Though these patricians blocked the worst of the sand, it could not block everything.
Overhead the Moons of Irus were snuffed by a swirling wall of particulate. No bodies moved I the streets, almost completely black with the lack of light. The occasional orb lamp glowed an eerie blue through the rolling particles, obscured one moment only to brighten in the next moment.
There were no patterns in the rolling sand, no order, only the simple pattern of natural chaos.
Except for a small space at the base of the wall, where the particulate did not go, swirling and undulating around the object, but without actually touching.
The form shifted, and so did the sand, rolling past and bouncing off the strange outline as it rolled as a shadow through the abandoned streets . The form was completely silent as it moved, blending almost perfectly with he blackness and the sand. Passing under an orb light, it would have taken an incredibly observant bystander to notice the change in the chaotic pattern of the wind highlighted in diffused blue sand.
It would have taken an even more observant bystander to notice the slow pulsing orange light at the center of the form's chest, radiating in thin lines outward and through the creature's limbs as it moved.
It did not deviate from its course, did not slow.
There was no need to .
There were no obstacles to its mission.
Its destination was just up ahead, at the center of the city circle.: a massive building that dominated the skyline when the sun was out and shining, but under the sand, it was no more dominant than the other buildings that squatted in the sand, hunkered against the wind and particulate that battered their walls.
Rundi guards hunkered in booths around the building monitoring cameras that desperately worked to pick up heat signatures through the sand.
No one in their right mind would be out during this time, and their patrol was lax.
Only one figure still moved within the whirling chaos.
It slipped past the guards with contemptuous ease, making its way up to the side wall of the building. It stopped for a moment, head cocked as if it was listening before turning, and beginning its slow, spidery progression up the wall and towards a waiting skylight.
Still, it's movement went unnoticed , shadow darkening the window, and what little light managed to leak downward and onto the stone floor below.
***
He didn't know what woke him.
It could have been a sound or, maybe a smell he supposed, but upon waking up he could not pinpoint the stimuli that had brought him out of his slumber. Adam sat up in the near darkness, his human eye struggling to make out anything but indistinct shapes and masses around the room.
Out of habit, and with only the flick of a thought, he activated his mechanical eye, painting the room in the eerie green of a night vision landscape.
He saw nothing out of place.
At his side, Sunny was still asleep curled up on her side head stuffed under a provided pillow.
She breathed slow and even.
Adam was a light sleeper, and while Sunny was not what he might have considered a heavy sleeper, she was not nearly as light as him. He shifted to the edge of the bed, and quietly reached down to retrieve his leg.
He could have gone back to sleep, everything about the room told him that there was nothing out of the ordinary, but still, there was something inside that bothered him, a strange and uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Once upon a time, Adam used to think that such sensations were just the product of sleep deprivation or an overactive imagination, but after living so long with aliens, and reading some of Krill's papers, it had become apparent to him that the humans' intuition was better than most people gave it credit.
Perhaps he was reacting to some sort of unconscious stimuli his frontal lobe was not yet aware of. Perhaps a sound or a smell during sleep had bothered him enough to wake him.
His first thought was perhaps a smell of some sort, something that might indicate a poisonous gass, maybe even a carbon monoxide leak, though he quicky remembered that Carbon monoxide was odorless and tasteless, so he was unlikely to notice.
With his leg strapped on, he still took the time to test the air with his implants, looking down at the little glowing square on his wrist that determined the readings to be within normal limits.
The stone of the GA headquarters was warm beneath his feet.
Despite the dark and the night, the planet was still unbearably warm.
He stretched, cracking his neck and back as he stood. Behind him, Sunny rolled to her other side. He turned to look at her, worried he might have disturbed her sleep, but after a moment she stopped moving and went still again. In the glow of the green IR light, she still managed to look beautiful.
Adam had heard nothing, seen nothing and smelled nothing since he had woken, and a large part of him demanded that he just go back to bed, but now he was awake and alert, and there was no harm in being overcautious.
Feet and chest still bare, he padded over towards the door, grabbing up his spear and silently slipping out into the darkened hallway. The light was a little better here, diffused through massive skylights in the ceiling above.
He dimmed the contrast on his mechanical eye, using his primarily human night vision to navigate his way down the hall.
The corridors were filled with the gentle echoing of sand and wind clattering against the windows. It was a soothing sort of sound, mostly white noise like the rolling of ocean water or the distant cheering of a crowd. It faded, resurged and then tapered off from moment to moment creating a sort of chaotic rhythm in the dark.
But that was when
He noticed something
It was odd.
Over the sound of the sand and the wind there was another noise, louder and closer. It was hard to make out, but it seemed different.
Hefting his spear in one hand he followed the noise down a set of corridors and up a flight of stairs. As he walked the sound grew louder and louder until he could finally make out what it was. It was the sound of wind and sand, but instead of being outside, this sounded far too close, and with it came the slow whistle of wind being pushed through a tight space.
He broke into a light jog up the last few stairs and turned the corner into the dark corridor.
Light spilled downward from an open skylight which dangled open from above swaying back and forth in the breeze and creating a sort of soft creaking sound as it moved. Wind blew sand down through the opening which was beginning to coat the floor and pile in a small mound against the stone. Adam raised his spear slightly turning his head this way and that up and down the hall.
He saw no one.
This might be what he heard?
The window popping open. That seemed like a logical possibility. He had no idea how long the windows had been in place or even if they were designed to open, but either way it was hardly his problem. He would just run down and grab a guard to deal with it.
Adam was about to turn when he heard a step behind him, and a cold spike of fear rolled up his spine.
Faster than thinking, Adam whirled on the spot, bringing up his spear in one fluid moment to the point of.....
He stopped frozen in place.
Standing before him Tane raised his hands in surprise looking almost as startled as Adam. The Big man was still an imposing mountain of a person outside his uniform, but here in the dark, with his wide eyes and his hands raised, he was hardly a threat.
"You mind putting that thing away." He asked casually.
Adam straightened rather sheepishly and withdrew his weapon. He motioned to the window, "you do this."
Tane raised and eyebrow, "Why? Because I needed some fresh air/"
The man had a tongue on him that was for sure.
"I don't know your life." Adam retorted
Tane shrugged and then shook his head, "No, I.... something woke me up." He nodded towards Adam, "I am just down the hall from you, so I imagine we heard the same thing."
Adam motioned back to the window, "Probably just old, and the latch broke or soemthing."
Tane raised an eyebrow, "That is a possibility, but in your position, I think it might be best we consider the possibility that there is something more nefarious going on."
Adam frowned, "What do you mean?"
Tane shook his head like a patient school teacher, "You are the head of a government now Adam Vir, and as the head of a government there are plenty of people who are probably more than eager to bash your head in." he motioned to the window, "Thigs like this, while very likely to be the result of an accident or mishap, must also be scrutinized for foul play. While 99 times out of a hundred a failure is likely to bean accident but its that 100th time when you will find a skewer in your back."
Adam crossed his arm over his chest.
"So you're saying I should live my life in a constant state of paranoia?"
"I am saying you should lie your life in a constant state of mild caution."
He turned and began walking down the stairs. Adam rested his spear on his shoulder and followed after. Neither of them wore shoes, so they were mostly silent as they headed down the stairs.
"You're a good man Adam, but good men are often naive, they like to think the best of people. Truth is there are plenty of horrible people out there who would like nothing more than to see you dead, and when the slit your throat, they aren't likely to lose sleep over it.
Adam sighed softly, "So is this you openly admitting that you aren't a good man?"
"I'm a politician. Sometimes I have to put on the mantle of a villain to get things done."
Adam rolled the spear on his shoulder from left to right in contemplation, 'You know what, if that is the way you want to look at things, than I am not going to stop you, but that is certainly not the way that I am going to chose to look at it."
Tane shrugged, "Your funeral."
They made their way down another flight of stairs and onto the bottom floor, heading towards where they knew they were likely to find guards. There was a small guard post before the GA meeting room doors, but when they finally arrived, there was no one there.
The two of them paused in mild confusion before the empty booth.
Adam leaned over the desk and peered down at the monitor bank against the far wall. He saw rows upon rows of security feeds, but nowhere on them did he find a guard.
"That's odd." He muttered, and then stood
Tane Sniffed at the air, frowning slightly as he did.
"Do you smell that."
Adam sniffed at the air but detected nothing out of the ordinary.
"No, what?"
Tane frowned, "Perhaps what I don't smell as much as I do smell. But you have noticed that Rundi give off a certain scent."
Adam paused and then nodded. He had noticed, but it was such a bland sort of dusty smell that he hardly would have considered it notable.
Tane sniffed at the air.
"Their smell is still here, so they haven't been gone long."
Adam leaned over the counter to look at the feeds again.
"Well, where could they have gone, there are no cameras here."
"But there are also no cameras in some of the guest rooms." Tane pointed out
Adam frowned, "Well that makes no sense, why would all the guards go into one of the guest rooms that seems....." he trailed off with a sigh.
"Say it."
"Suspicious, it seems suspicious."
"Damn right it does. Maybe next time you won't blow off my advice?"
Adam readjusted his spear, "tane, I have the feeling you are the kind of man who I will have to ignore several times before taking our advice."
Tane gave a humorless sort of smile, "Well then, you have the weapon, lead the way."
***
The Chairwoman did not like sandstorms, which was a real problem considering their frequency on Irus. She had never liked them, not since she was very young, when by accident she had been caught out in the beginning moments of a sandstorm, watching as the billowing mass descended down on her rising thousands of feet into the air, and reminding her of just how small she was. She remembered how the sand had peppered her skin and face in those first few moments, like little needles being driven into her skin.
She remembered crying out and getting a mouthful of sand. She remembered pounding on the door of her dwelling for many minutes before anyone heard and came looking. Ever since that day she had detested the sandstorms and everything to do with them. They always gave her a gripping sense of unease that she couldn't shake, and every time one came, she was left sitting up late into the night wishing for the wind to go away, unable to relax and descend into her needed trace, not unlike sleep.
Days she would go like this, forced to hide her exhaustion so others would not know.
She hoped this storm would not last.
She sat in her private rooms at the holodesk looking over a projected map of GA alliances, foes trading partners and other.
The original GA, the one that had existed for the past decade was still, mostly intact. It included, the Rundi, the Tesraki, and the Vrul, though they were still actively trying to transition their government away from the despotic mess it had once been. Many of the newer species had broken away from the GA after Admiral Vir was put up as the suspect for killing Kelly. The Drev and the Celzex had left in protest, and president hunt had pulled out after that completely fracturing what had once been a unified human alliance.
It was a complicated mess, and somehow she was expected to handle it.
She leaned her head back with a sigh string up at the ceiling when, over the quiet, swishing of the wind, she heard soemthing.
The soft hiss of her exterior door opening.
She stood from her seat abruptly and looked around the room turning towards the doorway where.
A silhouette now stood, backlit by the open doorway.