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Tales from Grimmerspace: Frozen Memories

By Stephen Landis

Set in the Grimmerspace Universe

All Rights Reserved

The morning after the events of Night Shift…

Arc grumbled as he slowly walked into the lounge at the heart of the Truthseeker’s “base” in one of less-traveled parts of the Endless Mall, having spent all night fighting a psychopathic serial kidnapper that thought she was some kind of a wizard and all morning in debriefings and filling out paperwork. All he wanted right now was to get a cup of decaf to keep him awake long enough to head to bed.

“Damn Fazhurian green skins; first they conned us out of our moon to build this stupid mall, then they weasel us into a lopsided trade deal, now they want our kids too?” Arc grumbled to the empty room as he walked over to the coffee machine in the corner of the lounge.

The lounge and the coffee machine were much like the rest of the building, visibly dated but very definitely Fazhurian design. The walls and the furniture were either egg-shell white or bright pastel colors, and the appliances were over-engineered contraptions that were painted with a chrome finish or with the same shade of white as most of the walls. Arc supposed there was a psychologist or something that would argue that the color choices were meant to be inviting and welcoming but he would have to disagree. The balance of the faded colors just felt off and made him feel like he was either in an alien hospital or some kind of carnival fun house depending on the color scheme.

The lounge was more of the latter, painted in the same bright colors as the pizzeria he spent last night in, which didn’t help his mood at all as he stepped up to the coffee maker. Or at least, what he called the coffee maker. Given the size of the damn Fazhurian contraption, a block of machinery sealed in a chrome rectangle that was easily as tall as he was and roughly a foot wider, Arc wouldn’t be surprised if the “coffee maker” also produced everything from tea to soda and beer if he thought to ask for it. Beer would have been good but it was still too damn early in the morning for that.

Sensing his presence as he finished staggering up to the machine, the coffee maker chirped to life and projected a cartoon smiley face onto the shell so that it was eye level with him. “Good morning Mr. Arc! How are you today?”

“Coffee, Decaf, Black, please.” He replied in lieu of greeting it. Any other time he would have tried to return the greeting properly rather then find out if the Fazhurians actually managed to make a damn AI that had feelings he could hurt but right now he was not in the mood to ponder the finer philosophical points of artificial intelligence.

“Right away sir, rough night? Oh, and will that be a Binary or Votikun blend?” The machine asked.

“Whichever you have in stock.” Arc replied. He preferred the Votikun blend but it was also a fairly popular item and the Truthseekers didn’t really have the budget to stock the appliances regularly. At least they weren’t drinking Attien Combine recaf anymore. One sip of that and Arc immediately understood the Combine megaspires had to regularly deal with riots, recaf tasted terrible.

The machine complied and soon produced a disposable cup of the steaming hot coffee. Taking his beverage and walking towards a table in the corner, he sat down and began to doze off the instant he finished setting his coffee down on the table. Seconds later, his eyes were closed and his thoughts drifted away to another time on a planet not too far from this one….

Seven Years Earlier…

Arc fiddled with his laser rifle nervously as he checked to make sure the power cell was fully charged and properly attached to the rifle stock for the third time as the cargo truck raced over a particularly bumpy stretch of dirt road leading away from his home city in northern Gylorr, making him nearly drop the power cell before he could get it back into his gun. Fumbling, he slotted the cell back into the gun and made sure the safety was still on.

The mood was tense as the rest of the group riding along with him in the rear of the truck silently performed similar equipment checks or uttered silent prayers to whatever gods that may be listening. A heavy snow had been falling as they continued to drive through the night, snowflakes reflecting in the truck’s headlights as they drove closer to the Fazhurian compound at the foot of Dumpsite #3666.

Just thinking about it made his blood boil. Pickings there had been off-limits for three generations and for good reason. Arc’s grandfather told him stories about monsters that lived in the caves beneath the dumpsite until four brave souls went into the tunnels and collapsed them. No one went there and the pile of scrap metal and junked parts just kept growing bigger and bigger until it was more of a mountain then a field. To Arc and his neighbors, it was a tomb but of course to those damn robotics wizards from Fazhur, it was an easy payday.

The town tried to block the attempts to set up an excavation site. The mayor told them he had their backs and the sacrifices of the previous generations would not be in vain but he lied. He lied and betrayed all of them, signing a deal with the outsiders behind everyone’s back. Arc was surprised there wasn’t an outright riot right then and there when the truth came out.

Still, there was no resistance, no threats of repercussions, before Arc and the others jumped into a cargo truck and drove up to Dumpsite #3666 without flipping the vehicle over. Then again, considering that the town sheriff was the one driving the truck, was there any point in the mayor making threats?

As the compound came into sight, fear quickly gripped the group. The Fazhurian camp was in ruins, fires still burned, and… things lurked in the dying light. Big white-furred things with bright yellow eyes that glowed in the growing darkness and felt like they stared straight through Arc before slowly lumbering towards him with a stomp that shook the ground beneath him.…

Back in the present…

The thump of armored boots on polymer flooring woke Arc with a start, making him nearly jump out of his chair as he reflexively reached for his sidearm. The gun was in his hand and he was halfway through the motion of pointing it in the general direction of the noise when he finally woke up enough to remember where he was and see what the source of the noise was.

“Damn it Aila, one of these days you’re going to get shot doing that.” He grumbled, putting his hand cannon away.

Aila Fireblossom had the biggest grin on her pale face, the cybernetic Anti-Personal Ordinance cannon perched on her shoulder snaked back to its housing atop her shoulders. Arc continued to scowl as he looked down at the red-headed humanoid woman, literally as the top of Aila’s head didn’t even reach his shoulder after he got back in his seat. In short, she was short. And broad-shouldered, really unbelievably broad-shouldered. The high gravity of the Voti homeworld bred a race of humanoids that were short, compact hills of solid muscle and Aila was definitely typical of her species. So muscular and broad-shouldered that apparently neither the small minigun-like APO on her shoulders or the heavy alloy armor that she wore like pajamas were apparently all that heavy to her. It was the boots of her armor that made him think his nightmares were real.

Looking away from the source of his annoyance, he saw that the Voti Marine wasn’t alone. Nimmec Wormtail and Stims were both in the break room with the two humanoids; both Ysoki “rat folk”, whatever a “rat” was, looking back at him with a mix of fear and disappointment.

“Told you I could spook him. Come on, pay up.” Fireblossom smiled and turned around, gesturing to the two Ysoki with her open palm facing up. Arc slightly glared at the back of her head as he quickly finished off his still-hot coffee. This “hey, watch this!” routine… again.

Stims grumbled and produced a credstick from a small belt pouch next to that custom microlab she was always tinkering with, handing it to Aila with a glare. “Should have known better by now then to bet against you. And Arc’s right, you are going to get shot in the face one of these days doing that.”

Nimmec rummaged through his pockets, pulling out random bits and bobs, before producing a credstick and checking the amount. “That was really mean Aila, I thought you liked him.” Wormtail replied softly. That was typical Nimmec, soft-spoken and sheepish, would have been hard to believe he was fully capable of laying down some serious firepower when needed had Arc not seen it for himself.

Aila held up the credsticks she had won… only for Arc to snatch them out of her hand as he quickly walked out of the lounge. “I’ll be in my room.” The salvager grumbled as he tossed the empty cup in the trash. “You two will get these back when I’m done fuming over being your entertainment for the morning.” He added as Fireblossom chased after him.

The Voti Marine was fairly quick on her feet despite her heavy armor and weapon but Arc was quicker and traveling much lighter. He quickly put some distance between her and himself as he swiftly walked through the white-colored hallway to his room. Unfortunately for Aila, he also had some other tricks up his coverall sleeve. Tricks such as being able to use his Custom Rig to remotely shut and lock a security door between him and her long enough for him to slip into the closet-sized dormitory room he was assigned and shut the door behind him.

Barricading the durable polymer door by pushing his desk in front of it, he set the credsticks on the desk, undressed, and fell face first into bed. Despite drinking a whole cup of decaffeinated coffee, he was asleep before his head hit the pillow….

_Truthseekers Interview File #09: Jacob “Arc” Gnosh

Subject: Recruitment

Interviewer: Lt. Detective Shields, ARCop of the Ruby Spire_

Summary: Approached subject with the idea of joining the Truthseekers. Arc was as reluctant and cynical as predicted but was open to having a regular job with pay and benefits even if it did involve facing the same sort of danger that caused him to lose his previous job. Ultimately he accepted. Frankly I’m glad he did, our engineering division is understaffed as is and our ships really need a refit in the worst way.

Also, he harbored every bit the hatred and contempt towards the Fazhurians that fellow Binary recruit Arjana warned me about. Still, wouldn’t have been a good ARCop if I didn’t immediately pick up on the bitterness in his voice when the topic invariably came up. This was not just a case of planetary patriotism, this was something personal. Some careful prodding confirmed pre-interview reading, Arc is from an abandoned Gylorr city called Crescent Deep. An independent city-state that famously tried to deny a Fazhur-based corporation excavation rights to a nearby dumpsite, the city had to evacuate when monsters that were imprisoned beneath the same dumpsite broke free thanks to Fazhur digging. Arc lost everything and had been struggling to rebuild his life ever since.

While not a high priority due to his case’s age, it is an interesting one that I feel is worth following up on at a later date. A recommendation I’ll have to share with my superiors.

Addendum (post-recruitment note from Truthseeker psychologist): Subject’s personality and temperament is largely unchanged from interview summary at this time but seems to get along well enough with others except for occasional personality conflicts with Corporal Aila Fireblossom. Which… well it’s Fireblossom. Curiously, Arc seems to have bonded better with the Ysoki “transplants” Stims and Wormtail then most of the Truthseekers, there are moments where he shows that he cares about the two of them in his… unique way.