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Chapter Two: The Halo Trident System

Captain Jane Picak walked into her room after a long day of room. She placed her flash-drive on the table and sighed. As her name suggested she was the captain of something, that something was the Halo Trident Spacestation. She had to deal with atmospheric shutdowns, explosions in the hull, incompetent staffing and security declaring itself a new nation.

Therefore, when Jane got home she generally sat down on a couch, got drunk, passed on the couch, woke up on the couch and repeated. It the life she lived, an incompetent captain on an incompetent station. However, without her the station would explode, implode, and fall into a singularity or some other new form of destruction her crew would invent.

"Honey, I'm home." She said, her husband was quite the scientist and he often stayed at the lab late, so she wasn't expecting him to be home. She walked into the kitchen and pressed a few buttons on her food materializer, a drink complete with a glass formed and she grabbed it.

However, when she walked into the living room she dropped the glass. It shattered on the floor and spilled it contents. The lights above her flickered and she screamed as she was attacked.

A few hours later she was found in the disposal pipe, her face blue. She had no pulse and her skin was burned. Captain Jane Picak, captain of the Halo Trident Spaceship was dead. Her spacestation would have descended into chaos, had not Dwight Philp Hyde was at the crime scene.

"Well, that could be a bit of a problem. What do you think Marian?" Dwight said as he looked down at the dead body in the pipe.

...

"Now Kory, this is something you keep special care of. Don't ever lose it, because this is very, very important and will be needed in the future." Dwight said being very clear and explanatory in his words. He was holding up a flash drive to Kory. The priest looked at it with curiosity and grabbed it.

"What is it for; we don't have one of these on my planet." Kory said as he grabbed the flash drive and looked at it in his hand.

"Think of it like a key, so long as you have access to it you will be able to open it. Just don't plug it in to things that aren't doors." Dwight said trying to prevent the child-like priest from breaking everything.

"Dear God, please like me keep the focus in order to not lose this flashdrive." Kory said putting his hand together and making a simple prayer.

"Ok then, you go bless something and I'll go start up the warp engine." Dwight said as he walked over to the bridge. He sat down and reclined relaxing. He moved the seat over to the computer panel and pressed the warp button.

"Hello, it looks like trying to warp would you like help?" the computer said as a paper clip on a piece of paper appeared on the screen blocking the view.

"No, go away clippie! I know how to warp already." Dwight said as he flicked the interface away. "God that's what I get for running my ship on Windows XP 5000."

Dwight pressed a few buttons on the interface, entering in his current coordinates and where he wanted to arrive. He pressed a final button and the warp engine started up. The ship started to shake and the thin smell of smoke was released from the engine.

The shaking intensified as the ship started to move forward. There was a blue flash of light in front of the ship, and a wormhole formed around the ship. The ship was shaking, barely able to handle a quick jump.

...

A few jumps later

...

"Well Kory those few jumps were a few adventures I will never forget, but I think it's time to go to my home base, because we ran out of power." Dwight said as the light above them flickered on and off.

"Yeah this ship needs a few blessings; maybe I can do a few funerals on a few planets and make some money." Father Kory said reminding Dwight that he was a priest. Dwight remembered that Kory said he put the fun in funerals, and decided against it.

"Yeah no she runs just fine, and I think any money we make, I'll earn." Dwight said as he grabbed a crowbar and manually pulled open the spaceship's doors. The ship connected with the spacestation and was recharging, the prisoners cryogenically frozen in the brig were teleported off and warp fuel pumped through a tube into the engine

Kory looked out of the window and saw the beautiful site of the station. There was a tiny blue rotating star in front of the station, which the station orbited. As the star rotated so fast, the mass moved towards the equator of the star. There it was repelled into space, as an ever-expanding ring of energy. Lightning flew all around the energy ions giving it a crackling glow.

It was breathtaking, the sight of the station orbiting slightly above the energy ring. The station gathered energy from the star and an artificial gravity generator prevented the start from collapsing and releasing all its energy at once.

They walked into the spacestation and breath in the slightly less recycled air. Unlike the dark walls of the spaceship, the spacestation had three diagonal white square panels making up a wall, the middle panel with a stripe of orange. Grey medal panels made up the floor. Along the walls were light fixtures and vents for air circulation.

Nobody was in the arrival bay, as nobody had a reason to be there. He walked forward and arrived at the airlock.

"Ok these doors have the same lock as my ship, so just place the drive into the lock and twist it. If you're not approved nothing bad will happen, the red lights will flash but the door won't open." Dwight said as he plugged the flashdrive into the door. Red lights flashed above the door and Dwight looked embarrassed.

"Yeah this happens sometimes, AI open door." Dwight said, there was a speaker next to the door. Soon it reacted and the door opened, he pulled out the flashdrive and walked into the main hallway.

"Ok, we should probably go meet Marian in the library; she can give us the rundown of what's going down here." Dwight said as he walked into the main hallway, extending his arm out and turning Kory with him.

They walked forward and passed through another set of doors. He turned into another set of doors and into a tinier hallway. There was another set of doors and they arrived into a gathering room. There was a small table and two bookshelves around the table.

"Marian I'm back, what happened here? Anything big happen here?" Dwight said as he entered the library. Marian was sitting at the desk, she was a mid 20ish Swallow, her face and neck was covered with blue feathers, her arms and presumably body were covered in white feathers.

"Oh you're back it's been a year since you left and two months since you called me. I thought you died, but never mind about that. It was only a year, I have like three hundred more of those before I become a cyborg." Marian said blowing off the event.

"Who's she, isn't she a little young to be a librarian. Perhaps it just a cover for something, this doesn't seem a busy place, so she can do multiple things and she your assistant." Kory said.

"So he's a priest, I didn't know you kept those types." Marian said as she took a pile of books and placed them under her counter.

"No, he must of won a contest or something, but I keep him around because some strange shadow attacks us, and one day I'll kill him." Dwight said being prideful.

"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Father Kory said jumping into the conversation.

"Keep your proverbs to yourself." Dwight said being partly ironic.

"16:18." Kory said. "Might be childish, but I still have my beliefs."

"Well then, you are her at a lucky time, get to deposit all my tickets in to the disposal chute." Marian said grabbing a massive pile of papers, she walked over to a chute in the wall and placed the papers inside.

She pulled down a lever but a red light on the interface flashed and the papers were stuck.

"God I hate when this happens, something stuck inside the pipe again, now I have to go to bottom floor and alert the cargo people.

Marian in one motion pulled the lever up and opened the bar to her counter exiting the counter and revealing she was in a brown dress. She walked out of the library and walked down continuing the path Dwight and Kory would have taken.

"She is quite the person." Kory said as he left the area with Dwight, the dinosaur plugging his flash drive into the doors plug. He twisted it the other way and the door closed and locked.

"That is why I employ her, she loves her job but she loves to help me, even if it is from the other side of the galaxy." Dwight said as he started to run in order to catch up with Marian. He barely caught the elevator as she walked in, he kept it open for Kory who arrived a few seconds later.

The elevator closed and it took them down two levels, they arrived at the button floor which was a much more consistent grey panel than the middle floor. They walked forward towards the cargo area, but found a large group.

"Why is security here?" Marian said asking an obvious question. They sped up towards the crowd.

"I think that's obvious Marian, someone has entered the kingdom of god." Kory said emotionless, as if neutral on the matter.

"God, please not another person." Marian said as she pushed through the crowd and reached the front. Dwight and Kory stood behind her and looked at the dead body, leaning out of the disposal pipe.

"Captain." Dwight said recognizing the captain dead in the pipe shaft, "Well, that could be a bit of a problem. What do you think Marian?" Dwight said as he looked down at the dead body in the pipe.

"Yeah, anything you can do Kory?" Marian said to Kory hoping the priest would have an idea of what to do.

"No she's already dead, we can't do anything after she's dead." Kory said as he got on his knees and looked at the girl.

"See she was burned, fire or electricity." Kory said looking down on the body.

"Oh god, not her, why couldn't anybody but her." Another person said as he pushed the crowd apart and looked down at the dead body. He fell to his knees and started to cry. He was a man dressed in a grey vest and a lab coat. He had brown feathers and a set of wings, a sharp beak and piercing eyes.

"Oh god Markus I'm so sorry, she was a good captain." Marian said holding his shoulder and comforting him.

Dwight stood up and got behind the crowd. "Ok, everybody listen up. This doesn't leave this hallway, nobody mentions this until we can find a replacement captain and figure out who did this." Dwight said to the crowd.

"As I walked into the hallway and saw the dead captain, I figured that the station was going to descent into chaos." The crowd looked to the left and entering the hall was a wolf in a brown longcoat and smoking a pipe. He smelled of brandy.

"This is The Detective; he investigates the crimes of the station and speaks mostly in monologue." Marian said as he entered the room and looked at the dead.

"So as it seemed the captain had died and now I and this troubling trio had to investigate what was going. Did I trust them? No. Did they trust me? With me smelling of cigars and brandy, probably not. However, we would have to work together if we were going to solve this crime and free the station from this tyranny." The Detective said monolguing to the group.

"Does he always speak like this?" Father Kory asked stepping away from the dead body.

"Unfortunaly, but Dwight this seems to be done by someone with powers, so this is your area." Marian said to Dwight, who formed a microscope in his hand. He looked forward at the body and wondered who killed her.

"Ok then move out, are there any surveillance cameras in the pipe?" Dwight said confidently before sinking down when he realized how ridiculous that said.

"No, No there are not." Marian said, talking sarcastically with the dinosaur.

"What if we asked Mark if he saw anybody?" Kory said walking over to the bird.

"I had too realized that the priest's idea was an excellent place to start, and walked over to the bird. He had tears running down his eyes, suggesting the emotion sadness witch would fit in with the recent events that transpired." The detective said before Marian cut him off.

"Shut up Ace Ventura." The swallow said pushing him aside and going to confront the hawk. She got down on one knee and helped him up on his feet. She brushed off his back and walked him out of the crowd.

"Ok, Markus do you have any idea of who would do this to your wife?" She asked, as the hawk started to regain his composure.

"Well I was walking out of my room and I could've sworn that there was some sort of shadow outside of the room, it followed me for a few seconds and then it disappeared." Mark said giving information to the group.

"The shadow entity, but you didn't kill him so he's still a threat. The little bugger must have found our ship and started to follow us." Dwight theorized while he received the information.

"As I gained this vital information I wondered how this would come together into play and how this would affect the station. Would this shadow entity destroy the station before the next night?" The Detective said monolguing before a scream cut him off again.

Slightly down the dark hallway was a woman screaming, menacing her was a massive shadow. She continued to scream as the shadow beast raised a scythe and chopped her head off clean. The shadow entity struck again.

Dwight and Kory started to make a dash for the shadow beast as it turned towards them, both parties started to charge at each other.

"Dwight, I just figured out who murdered the captain." Kory said at the most inopportune time, slowing down Dwight. The shadow beast jumped up and landed on Kory, Dwight looking in fear as the shadow entity entered a portal disappeared with Kory.

"Oh crap, well I never liked him anyway." Marian said as she walked up to the site of the incident. Dwight had a saddened look on his face and he just sat down of the ground. "What's wrong, if he didn't stop you the shadow entity would have gotten you."

"Yes but that isn't the point, I was protecting him. He has great powers and its possible the shadow beast attacked him because he has those awesome powers. I shouldn't have let him get close to the shadow beast." Dwight said as if a parent who had lost a child.

...

"Whoa there that is a red light touch, I am a priest. Hold on ma'am can you resist my childish charm." Kory said as he was pushed through a barrier and into another room.

"What, wait a sec, you know who I am." The shadow entity said as she spread out her arms and the shadows around her dispersed. She had orange hair over her body, there were large muscles over her body. She looked a bit like an Amazonian woman. She had two large teeth coming out from her mouth that looked like it could break metal.

She growled at him but Kory being Kory did notice and/or care. He looked at her examining her and seeing how see was reacting.

"You are insane aren't you; there has been no one in existence that has never been intimidated by me, ever. Who are you, how are you even a priest you seem to act far too young to be one. God, Space Christianity has lost its touch since I left." She said to the priest as she circled around him both studying the other.

"Now you attacked me, what do you want?" Kory asked looking intensely at the tiger, making him look like the psychopath.

"It's not that simple, I can't tell you just yet. Now I have to just wait until your friends presume your dead and we can leave. However you're progressing at a slower rate than expected, so I can give you this to speed you up." She said reaching into one of her jean's pockets and pulled out a steel ball chain.

"And you're giving this to me why? Aren't you supposed to be kidnapping me, now you're giving me something to home my abilities, please make up what your trying to do with me." Kory said as he reached out and grabbed the steal metal chain.

He grabbed it and swigged it around, however doing so caused a sonic wave un the room. Kory moved back and wondered what he had done. He looked at the chain and placed it into his pocket with not a care in the world.

"So you just put it back into your pocket, ughh I don't understand you." She said raising her arms up and reforming the shadows. She jumped into a portal and disappeared from the closed off room.

...

Extry! Extry! Read all about Captain's dead, shadow beast kill random citizens and the station going to hell!" A tiny robot said next to a pile of newspapers that overshadowed his body. He had a grey metal frame, like a body but one of his legs was short and his right arm was replaced with a crutch. He was handling out newspapers to the citizens, who were putting a currency into his hat.

Dwight grabbed a copy of the newspaper and searched through his pocket putting something coin shaped in the hat. He walked away from the air with Marian behind him and The Detective trailing them.

"As I ran for the group, I wondered how long I could keep going on until I passed out, as I had to take the stairs and am still running." The Detective said as he kept running trying to catch up. He then stopped and took a massive breath of air.

"Ace Ventura's still following us, but how's the news?" Marian asked as she walked behind Dwight taking a look at the newspaper. Because Dwight's message didn't go well with the people of the station, within minutes the entire station knew of the captain's death.

"I don't know but they got a bad picture of me." Dwight said looking at the moving picture on the front page that showed him, Marian and Kory gathering around the captain's body.

"It doesn't look that bad you should of seen the one I snapped of you the time you stayed overnight. You were in a pile of books, arms up, knees folded and your tongue was sticking out into the air." Marian said as they walked into one of the spokes of the spacestation.

In order to give room for board and to better protect people, the cabins of the station were in large circles attached to the spacestation only by a few gravity generators and spokes. They crossed it feeling the change of gravity as they entered the wheel.

Marian turned to the left and Dwight followed as Marian taking the lead stopped him. They walked forward entering the leadership cabins, until they stopped at the one with fanciest door.

"Ok how do we get into here, it should still be locked." Marian asked as she pointed at the flashdrive plug.

"Easy, don't say I don't ever come back with anything." Dwight said as he took the lead again, he plugged his flashdrive into the plug and the door's light flashed red. However, the flashdrive started to glow blue and the flip cover started to move on its own.

"What is it doing?" Marian asked as she looked at the flashdrive cover move over it lights, seemly decoding the door.

"Simple it figuring out the password, by trying every possible combination but disabling the security system, so it can easily open the door." Dwight said as the cover slowed down and aligned with the light.

The door made a "ping" sound and the top of the door flashed green as it opened up and allowed them access.

"Where did you get that from?" Marian asked as the two walked into the room and looked around at what had happened. There were some char marks on the floor, and the control panel of the disposal pipe had a red light blinking, suggesting that it broke.

There were electrical chars over the control panel suggesting that someone fried in the controls in order to get it to activate.

"Does the shadow entity have electric powers, these are definitely electrical burns. So it has to be some sort of electricity but who did it?" Marian asked as she examined the casing of the disposal unit.

"As I walked into the captain's unlocked room, I wondered what could have possible led the two examiners to leave me, the needed detective behind?" He said as he opened the door and entered the room as well. His fur was covered in sweet and he was breathing erratically.

"And Jacques Clouseau has arrived." Dwight said as he looked in and around the disposal Shute for more clues about what could have happened.

"As well have I." The three turned to the corner of the room as in a burst of shadows, the shadow entity arrived in the station. They looked at him as he raised his scythe and walked towards the group.

"Ah, finally time for a good fight." Dwight said as he got out of the disposal chute and faced the shadow beast. He focused and formed a large bronze shield and a long sword. He grabbed them and charged at the shadow beast.

He did not make contact and only passed through the beast. The shadow beast turned around and he literally forced Dwight into a corner. The shadow raised his hand and sent some of its shadow energy to attack.

Dwight raised his shield and blocked the shadow energy; however, the battle came to a short end. Marian took things into her hands and slammed her body into the shadow beast. Whatever kept her voice male stopped and there were two female screams as the Shadow entity tried to protect itself, mainly by opening a portal.

"Crap, not Marian too." Dwight said as he walked away from the corner. He looked at the detective who seemed obvious to the situation. Instead, he was scanning the area.

"As I scanned the area, I realized that the shadow entity left a trace of his energies but found none near the disposal chute, and I thought to myself could I be wrong. If it were not the shadow entity then who could it possibly have been?" The detective asked himself as he continued his monologue.

"Wait so then could have it been?" Dwight said as he walked over to the disposal chute. He looked down into the darkening void and tried to figured out what was going on.

"Wait a second, what is this?" Dwight said as he grabbed into the chute and found a feathery object. He pulled it out and found it was a brown feather, the detective looked at it and scanned it.

"I think both of us figured out who had murdered the captain when we saw the feather, the idea would be further hammered in when I scanned the feather and found that it was covered in static electricity." The detective said as he finished the scanning of the feather and converged his ideas.

"Crap, Markus did it, he must have powers. He bamboozled us. If anyone asks just say I knew it all along." Dwight said as he started to run outside the room, he was going to capture Markus and capture him.

"Follow along detective!" Dwight said as he ran down the hall and turned into the spokes, he quickly entered the main area of the wheel. He passed the newspaper bot and walked towards the security office.

He opened the door, making an appearance. Everyone looked as he entered his longcoat fluttering in the wind behind him. Markus looked at him with a nervous face as he entered; they both realized what happened. Markus jumped up and in the process knocked over a water barrel, however his attempts to escape were stopped when he slipped on the water he spilled and fell.

"And this through ironies, the criminal is taken down." Dwight said as he looked as Markus was surrounded by security officers. However, Markus wasn't going to be taken down that easily, he raised his hand and slammed it into the ground. The security officers were all knocked down as electricity streamed through the water and into the officers.

"Crap, forgot about that in the five minutes I spend running here." Dwight said as he walked over to Markus and grabbed him, and pulled the hawk out of the water puddle. Dwight raised his hand and slammed his hand into the bird's knocking him out.

"Now why did his do this, what kind a psycho waits this long to murder the captain, he was playing the long game." Dwight said as he wondered what was happening. He sat down on a chair and wondered where Kory and Marian were teleported to.

"As I walked into the security office, I found Markus detained and Dwight sitting down, he seemed to be missing his group." The detective said as he walked in, causing Dwight to realize a way to find his friends.

"Detective, scan the whole base for shadow energy, find some sort of closed an or abandoned area." Dwight said and one station wide trip later they were found.

...

"So Markus tell us why did you kill the captain?" Dwight asked as he looked at the hawk through the holding cell.

"You have figured it out, for 33 years I was wired this way, only now have I out lashed. You and me are more similar than you realize dino, put it together figure it out. You're gonna be stuck here until my trail, well then you better wise up because unless you figure out who you are it won't end. Also heads up, I'm not the shadow entity and she is still on the station." Markus said to Dwight getting him angry.

"I know who I am, I'm not a criminal or a killer, and I will never sink to your depths. I use my powers for good and nothing will change that, I don't have to deal with you." Dwight said angrily as he walked away from the cage.

"You can't run away from who you are, the beast inside will find you and it will escape. It always does, and it always will. The top beast will always succumb to his fatal flaw!" Markus said as he tried to get Dwight's attention, but the dinosaur had none of it and he walked away from the holding cell.