Chapter 11 - Museum

“Alright!” Fenres slammed his hand down on the table, “Now that we’re finally at the hotel, we can discuss business. Namely, what we’re here for.”

“Didn’t we already talk about this in the groupchat?” asked Quin.

“It’s a tradition of ours,” said Seil, “We always have a discussion right before a mission officially starts.”

Fenres cleared his throat to quiet the conversation, “As you all know, seventeen years ago, the Veetan Rebellion, one of the largest wars in the Galactic Coalition’s two-thousand year long history, ended. Since then, numerous rules and regulations have been placed on the Coalition in accordance with the Tebin Treaty. The Partition, a mysterious organization that directly opposes the Coalition, has been riding on the sentiments of those who partook in the Rebellion. Only…”

Fenres paused for several seconds.

“Are we supposed to participate or wha-” Teek attempted to ask a question only to be cut off.

“The Partition has never taken direct action, nor have they had much funding…” Fenres continued, “Until now, that is. The Partition has officially made a move: hiring some low-profile pirates to attack Humanity’s only interstellar space station, Gaia. This time, they really did their best to discredit the efficacy of the Coalition. Regardless of what the media claims about it… Gaia was completely unprepared to defend itself. Too many were hurt.”

Quin clenched his fist.

Fenres’ tail swayed back and forth, and his ears flickered, “We don’t know exactly how the Partition has acquired any amount of wealth, nor do we know what their end game is, but we have a lead.”

“And that lead is?” asked Chugol, “Don’t tell me…”

“Heh, that’s right…” chuckled Fenres, “We’re going to meet my cute little nephew.”

**

Fenres and the others stepped off the train. They were all wearing white armbands with the symbol of the Ranger Corps on them, signaling they were on official Ranger business.

The symbol, despite being called a symbol, had no symbolic meaning whatsoever. It was procedurally generated at the foundation of the Ranger Corps – just one of many ways that the Coalition avoided letting any individual culture influence their overall position.

The buildings were worn down and dilapidated. If an outlaw were to live anywhere, they would probably choose this town by looks alone.

As they walked through the town, rather than the looks beaming with admiration and wonder that they received in the city, the townsfolk glared and leered at the squad.

“Are you sure we got off at the right station?” asked Quin.

“C’mon Quin, the captain’s a little empty-headed, but not that bad,” Chugol joked, “We’ve been here before. It’s the right place.”

“Yeah. We’re not that far ou-” Fenres cut himself off, “Hey… whaddya mean empty headed?”

The group laughed together, save for Vaichehen.

They continued on, completely ignoring scowls they continued to receive. Eventually, they reached their destination. 

The building was in just as rough a shape as any of the others in the town. Above the door there was a sign, as well as one to the right of the door.

[Museum]

[Member count: 3]

Fenres knocked on the door.

Within seconds, the door opened.

A black-haired Veetan with rounded ears and a short tail opened the door.

“Ah! Well if it isn’t Fenres and company. Did you guys finally come around and decide to join our movement?”

“Ha! Good one, Behine,” Fenres chuckled, “No, not today. I’m sure Ashur already gave you the rundown. Speaking of…”

“He’s inside. Come on in. I’m sure you’re all hungry by now. Lasia and I were cooking something up for you guys.”

Chugol looked anxiously at the ground.

The squad entered the house. The interior was slightly less shoddy than the exterior, but not by a much. They sat down around a table. 

The black-haired Veetan introduced himself to Quin.

“I’m Behine, by the way. What’s your name?”

“I’m Quin. It’s nice to meet you, Behine,” Quin said as he reached out for a handshake.

“Oh, we don’t really do handshakes here on Talis,” said Behine.

“Oh, alright, I guess,” Quin awkwardly rested his arm back at his side.

He found it a little strange, since he was certain that he had shaken hands with Fenres at least once or twice; maybe he was just being polite.

A young Veetan woman set plates of meat down at the table. She had long, straight, light pink hair, bright-blue eyes, cat-like ears, and a long, fluffy tail. Her skin wasn’t quite as light as Quin’s or Seil’s, but she was fairer than most Veetans.

“I’m Lasia. It’s nice to meet you, Quin,” she spoke softly, “How was the trip here, Fenres?”

“Pretty uneventful,” Fenres speech was quite muffled as he had already begun shoving meat into his mouth with his bare hands, “Though Quin here made quite a lot of progress, so that’s a plus.”

Teek was eating his meal in the same way that Fenres was. Vaichehen was also eating, but with far more grace than the other two.

Quin looked down at the hunk of barely-cooked meat before him. He was unsure what sort of animal it came from, and it wasn’t served with any utensils, but he decided to follow suit, taking little bites out of the meat. His hands and face instantly became a mess.

The meat was very tough, but it was flavorful and savory. It had no seasoning. 

Chugol stared down at his dish. There was a look somewhere between disgust and bewilderment on his face.

“You guys know that Surans don’t eat meat, right?” he asked.

A voice came from the far end of the room, “So you just come to Talis, enter a Veetan’s home, then refuse to eat the Talisian cuisine that they’ve prepared for you? You haven’t changed much, Chugol.”

It was a very young Veetan male standing in the shadowed part of the room. He couldn’t have been older than sixteen. He had white hair, pale skin, and nearly black irises. He was around one-hundred-seventy centimeters tall. He wore unusually thick-lensed spectacles.

“If you don’t want it, I’ll have it,” said Fenres, already reaching for it.

“I’ll take it if you don’t want it,” said Teek at the same exact time.

They both stood up silently, walked around the table and faced each other down. Without warning, both sides threw their right fists into eachothers faces simultaneously. 

As the fight behind them continued, Seil spoke lightheartedly, “Ashur, it’s so good to see you! How have you be-”

Ashur slammed his mod onto the table and showed the screen to Quin.

“You’re Quin, right? The one in this article?” Ashur asked.

On the screen was a short article written about the attack on Gaia. Quin gave it a quick look over and realized that he had already read it at some point.

“Yeah… that’s me,” he said, “The article’s a load of crap, though. That’s not how it happened at all.”

Ashur pulled his mod back and crossed his arms, “Hmph. It seems like you have some promise.”

Behind Quin, the fight between Teek and Fenres intensified. Fenres had Teek in a headlock with his legs. Teek struggled to pull him away with his hands, but it was no use.

“Huh?! Who’s meat did you say it was?” Fenres said.

“Fine, fine. I give up. It’s yours,” Teek admitted, disappointedly.

Fenres released Teek from the headlock, and stood up, triumphantly. He reached to grab the leftover piece of meat off of Chugol’s plate, when he suddenly felt a glare.

“Uncle…” said Ashur, ominously.

Fenres smiled brightly and nervously, “Yes, dearest nephew?”

“Just split it with him,” commanded Ashur with annoyance, “Why do you have to start a fight every time you come here?”

“Of course, of course,” Fenres’ voice was shaky, and a new bead of sweat formed on his brow. He reached a hand out and picked Teek up off the floor, “Sharing is good, isn’t it Teek?”

“Y-yeah.”

Fenres pulled out a knife and precisely cut the slab of meat down the middle. They both took one half of it.

Ashur sighed and sat down at the table, “So… about the lead that I found…”

“Indeed,” Fenres responded, “You told me you had one, but you didn’t tell me much more about it.”

“Hmm… have you heard of Mosar’s Shadow Arena?”

“Yeah. A lot of bigwigs frequent that place right? Some bizarre form of entertainment, I’d say.”

“Illegal entertainment, no less, but Veetan politicians patronize the place anyways. There are absolutely no rules on the free-for-all matches there, save for no intentional killing. Well, I did some snooping around the area, thinking that it would be a good place for the Partition to strike, and sure enough, I found some unfamiliar traces of Arima radiation.”

“That’s my nephew. Always thinking ahead, aren’t you?” Fenres said as he slapped Ashur on the back only to be met with another glare. He halted his enthusiasm immediately.

Ashur cleared his throat, “Anyhow, after sneaking a look at the list of names participating in the arena this time around, I conveyed the information to the other two here,” he pointed at Lasia, “Lasia here confirmed with me that she recognized some of the names from when she was attempting to recruit for our organization. In particular, the name ‘Patipay the Wall’ stood out. Could you tell us a bit about him, Lasia?”

“Of course,” she said, “I met him a few months back. He was a Sogarian. He seemed to align with us pretty well, but the more I spoke to him, the more I understood that he was just an extremist. He supported some crazy ideals like segregation across the galaxy, and although he wished for Talis’ culture to be preserved, eventually he started making claims about Sogarians being superior to all the other races. It was quite strange. More importantly… he had a substantial amount of Arima radiation leaking out of him.”

“What a shame that he was such a nutjob… we would’ve been happy to have another savant join our cause,” said Ashur.

“I see,” said Chugol, “If what Lasia said is true, then it sounds like we’ve got a member of the Partition on our hands.”

“That’s if what she said is true,” said Fenres, “Sorry, guys, but we have to confirm this for ourselves. We can’t undergo this sort of operation by word of mouth alone.”

“No problem,” said Behine, “In fact, I’ll even take you there.”

“Really?” asked Fenres.

“Sure! I mean, whatever it takes to stop the Partition. We may be in support of Talis’ cultural preservation, but we have an even harder time aligning with those freaks than we do with the Coalition.”

“I’ve said this before, but you’re really far more hospitable than Ashur.”

“Ahaha,” Behine laughed, “Well, I am the chairman, afterall. Shall we go right now, then?”

“Yeah, let’s go guys,” as Fenres said this, all six members of the crew stood up, “Not you, Quin. I need you to keep an eye on my nephew there. Do you mind, Ashur, Lasia?”

Ashur stayed silent.

“No problem, Fenres,” said Lasia, quietly.

“Very good. Don’t let Ashur recruit you into his weird cult while we’re out, Quin.”

“Weird cult?” Behine felt a little insulted, “Whatever. Let’s go guys.”

They all walked out the door, but Teek turned around at the last second and bowed his head.

“Thanks for the grub, Lasia. That was really tasty,” he said, then he turned back to the door and followed the rest of the group.

Moments ago, the small house bustled with energy. Now, an almost eerie quiet fell over its three remaining inhabitants.

“Just the three of us, huh? What to do…” said Ashur.

“Actually,” said Lasia, nervously, “we used the last of our food to entertain the group. I think I’m gonna have to go out and buy some more.”

“Seriously? We really gotta just not feed them next time,” said Ashur, “You want me to come with?”

Lasia giggled, “I think I’m good by myself. Thank you, though.”

“Okay, be safe.”

“It was nice meeting you,” said Quin.

She smiled a bit, then headed out the door.

Ashur sighed and sat down at the table opposite Quin.

“Then there were two…” Quin said.

Ashur stared at the ceiling, then smirked as he looked to Quin, who was leaning back in his chair, “Say… you wanna hear about Museum?”