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Chapter Three: On The Moors of PXC-348

"So then shall we be off?" Dwight asked the group as they walked into the teleporter room. Kory and Marian stood on a teleporter and waited for the computer transport them. "Well then computer, telegize."

Blue beams shot down from the teleporter and hit them; it engulfed them and caused them to sparkle a bit. They all closed their eyes and when they opened them, they were in the middle of an open field, in the middle of a forest, in the middle of a different planet.

A priest was standing next to the teleport pad they were standing on. He appeared to be a fish, and as such as a helmet of water on his head. He walked up to Kory and shook his hand. They then started to talk, with Kory speaking English and the fish priest speaking some sort of gibberish.

"Guys, this is Father Jack Brennon. He invited us here to investigate some mysterious livestock disappearance." Kory said introducing the priest to Dwight and Marian.

"So we are apparently that free on the station." Dwight snarked as he walked around the field.

"Ahh, Kory how come you can understand him? All I hear is bubble gibberish." Marian asked as she stepped off the teleport pad and walked towards the priests.

"Well, all Space Catholic priests can understand each other just give it a few seconds and the translation aura should extend to you for a while." Kory said as some of bubble gibberish started to sound like real worlds.

"So is there anything we should know?" Dwight said asking Father Jack a question.

"Well give it a second for the universal translator to kick in and watch out he is the most sarcastic priest in the entire universe." Father Kory said giving a warning to Dwight who approached the group.

"No, I just going to let you out in the moors and let you figure out the crime and hope you solve it by yourselves, you Sherlock Holmeses." Father Jack said sounding quite sarcastic as he said his first sentence to the group.

"Ok, then what do you want us to investigate?" Marian said to the priest being clear and precise.

"Ah see I like her, straight and forward-facing, that sounded better in my head. Uhh, either way, there has been a mysterious disappearance of livestock around the farms in the moors; we want you to investigate what is happening to the livestock." The priest said giving out vital information.

"Ok, then how bout we head into the marsh and go find your beast." Marian said as she looked around and realized she had no idea where to start or where to go, or what a marsh, or a moor was. "I think we might need a tour guide though."

"No really, I was just expecting you to come down with your laser swords and with a swipe of your sword take everything out in a three mile radius." The priest said as he turned towards the thickest part of the forest, "Put these boots on and follow me."

They walked away from the teleport pad and in to the forest. As they walked into the moors, the sunlight was taken away from them and they were only given brief glimpses of light. The ground was wet and mosquito-like bugs flew around them.

"So how deep into the moors do you think this beast is?" Marian asked as she swatted at some flies that were buzzing around her body, trying to get her. She spread out her wings and the resulting wing gust blew them away.

"I don't know, it could be right there for all we know. Just watch out for snapping terrapins." Father Jack said as he kept the group walking on the tiny path that was between them and the wetland next to them.

"Wait, I smell something." Dwight said as he pushed Father Jack out of the way and took lead of the group. He ran forward and pushed underbrush out of the way, the group saw Dwight's path and followed him, chasing him and superior speed.

"Crap why does he have to run so fast?" Kory asked as he ran towards Dwight, not wanting to lose the velociraptor in the trees and brush of the wetlands. Birds screeched as the group ran through the forest. Dwight stopped when he found a hole and soon the group caught up with him.

"I found something, it's a hole. About twenty feet down and five feet wide, there's something down their but I can see anything." Dwight said as he looked down the hole and tried to find something.

"No crap there's something in the massively deep hole hidden in the middle of marsh." Father Jack said as he walked over to the hole and looked into it. "But there is nothing in the hole, how is that happening?"

"I can smell it, there's a person in there." Dwight said as he sniffed and checked the air to see if he was right. However, there was a flash of two red eyes and a growling coming from the hole.

Dwight backed up and the two eyes jumped out before revealing a massive black body appearing in front of them. The beast growled at them, but they were shocked when it stood up on two legs and showed himself.

It was a black panther; it stood up taller than everyone in the group did. It seemed not to be a beast but a thinking person. However, they received a greater shock when it jumped up in the tree and suddenly disappeared into thin air. The trees above them rustled and leaves fell on the ground.

"Where'd he go?" Father Jack said as he looked up into the tree trying to find where the panther had gone. The group closed in as more leaves feel from the tree gathering a ground underneath the tree.

They stood there all breathing heavily trying to figure out where the panther would strike from next. The forest was now a horror show, each and every tree a possible location for the attacker to camouflage himself.

The leaves on the ground hid his footsteps and the sound of birds sounded like horror noises, piercing through the background of eerie silence. They stood back to back, all waiting for something to happen. However after five minutes, of standing they all disbanded their gathering and stood around.

"That must have been the fog or something." Kory said as he uncomfortably laughed, trying to shake off the feeling of a horror movie from the experience. He walked over to the tree and took a deep breath trying to calm himself down. However, he started to scream when something placed a hand over his mouth.

"Wait, where Father Jack go?" Dwight said as he looked around seeing Marian in front of him, but couldn't see the priest in his vison. He turned around and saw Father Kory at the tree being turned invisible.

Dwight didn't want to lose Kory again and charged at the tree as more and more of Kory became invisible before his eyes. Dwight internally screamed as Kory became fully invisible and jumped at the tree hoping to ram into Kory.

However, Dwight screamed externally as he hit the tree and landed flat on the ground.

"Shit, where did Father Kory and Father Jack go?" Marian asked as above them the panther seemed to run away quickly from the site leaving the two alone in the moors of the planet.

"I don't know but we have to find them quickly, we can track them with their teleportation signal!" Dwight yelled as he turned around and started to run taking the path back through the forest, and quickly getting back to the large open field and the teleportation pad.

Dwight bent on the ground as he arrived at the pad and pulled out a hidden panel from the device. He entered a screen and pressed the emergency return switch. The teleportation pad glowed and Dwight was teleported to the pad as was Marian, but Kory did not appear.

"Crap he didn't appear, why didn't he appear?" Dwight said as he ran over to the pad again and looked at the status screen, it read out that it couldn't find Kory's signature and that he was lost.

"Crap, where'd did Kory go. Ok, here's the plan there's a town nearby maybe we can go see if any of the townspeople have any leads on where the panther took the two." Marian said taking control of the situation from Dwight.

"Yes but that's not what I'm worried about, that panther was a person, not a beast. That means they could be hiding in plain sight, tracking us and waiting to jump us." Dwight said as he and Marian walked away from the teleportation pad and towards the village near it.

...

"Wow look at this, it's like an authentic Irish village." Marian said as she walked into the village. Dwight put his hand out and stopped her, the windows in front of them broke and a lamp was thrown out into the street.

Marian walked over the lamp debris and further into a town.

"OK, a bit violent but why has an entire town seemly based itself on Irish culture, I could understand the moors and the forest but what is with the cottages and stone streets. They did come here to settle this planet on the generation ship right?" Marian asked as she looked around and wondered what was with the place.

"Well the Irish grouped up on the generation ship and were the most violent so they must off thrown them off at the first planet they could find." Dwight theorized. "So the culture must have stayed in tack with one culture group."

"Sounds fair enough to me, so where would you go in Irish culture to find information you need?" Marian asked as she pondered what to do.

"A pub!" Marian and Dwight said at the same time when they realized what to do. They continued to walk down the stone covered road of the village and found the place they wanted to go. A brown covered building with flashing lights advertising the place.

Dwight walked into the smoky pub followed by Marian, no one looked at them. Everyone was either drowning their sorrows in mug, or playing a game of billiards. Dwight sat down on the twisty chair where he could talk right to the bartender, Marian took a seat right next to him and they faced the bartender.

"You two aren't from around here, what do you want?" The Bartender said as he cleaned a large drinking mug that seemed to be recently used.

"Well you know that Moor outside of the town?" Dwight said trying to be straightforward.

"Yeah bad place, there was a beast killing the livestock, so the town got the priest to hire a team to kill it before it could do any worse, they should be here any second now." The bartender said as he dried off the mug and hung it on a shelf.

"Well, let's say that's us and let's say that it kidnapped the two priests in our group, and let's say that we needed someone who could track the beast, or have hunted the beast before, what would you say to that?" Marian said being straight forward.

"Well I'd say that you two should go to the taxidermy in the entrance of the town, they say there's a sample of the beast's skin there. With that nose of yours you should be able to find the beast within minutes." The bartender said pointing to Dwight's large noise.

"Well then we'll just head out, thank you for the information." Dwight said as he walked out of the bar fallowed by Marian and they walked onto the cobble stone streets. They walked back out towards the entrance of the village and found the entrance to the taxidermy as well as a person cleaning up a broken lamp.

"So this is the sample of the beast it seems a little small, do you think I can get a smell off of this?" Dwight asked as he looked at the taxidermist's sample of beast hair.

"This all we ever found, everyone is too scared to stay in the forest for more than five minutes and then he starts to attack, this was the first sample I found when he attacked me." The taxidermist said giving a reason for the lack of hair.

"Well then I guess we'll have to make do." Dwight said, as he turned around they faced the door of the establishment and someone walked into the room. He looked at person and he had blood in his eyes; and one his face and a bit on his clothes too.

He didn't say anything but instead grabbed a chair and instead of sitting down, he grabbed it and threw it at Dwight. Dwight reacted by putting his hand in the air and forming a basic shield, witch the chair bounced off of and hit the ground.

"I'm just going to go in this room, just don't break any glass." The taxidermist said as he quickly exited room. Dwight stared at the attack and held out his arms, forming a translucent orange, as always, pair of pistols with bayonets on the nuzzle.

He showed then off pointing them at their attacker who didn't seemed faced by the occurrence. He only picked up a pair of swords from the rack that was on the wall and ran at Dwight. The velociraptor ran towards his attacker and hit the swords with his bayonet.

The metal clashed and Dwight quickly got an advance forcing the attacker against the ground on his knees with the swords crossed against the chest with Dwight forcing the swords down further more.

Dwight applied a little more pressure and the swords his attacker used actually broke, shattering into pieces and landing on the floor.

"Now then is there anything you'd like to tell me before I decide to push this into your lung, collapse it and pull the trigger." Dwight said boasting to his attacker, who looked a bit scared.

"I'm sorry, I had to test you before I could be sure but let's say I can help you with finding the priests you're looking for." The attacker said as he stood up, and put out his hand.

Dwight dissolved his guns and put his hands out as well. The two shook hands and studied each other.

"No then let's get to business, I am Ross, and I know the location of Ted McDougal's base, he is the beast and for the last few months I kept track off him." Ross said as he introduced himself to the group.

"Wait how do you know who he is?" Dwight asked confused about what had happened.

"Well for time's shake for the last five years he has been the god of a cult that has been trying to replicate his powers, they've been using livestock to test the powers and know he might have kidnapped your friend in order to recreate his powers." Ross said quickly explain what was going on.

...

Kory didn't see after the man attacked him, he only saw again when the man took off the sack from his head and threw him into a basement with Father Jack. There was barely any light in the room, only a dim lantern hung in the basement. It was concreate on all sides; even the stairs were concrete. The door was steel and the only non-concrete object in the room.

"Dammit this can't keep happing to me; this is my fifth kidnapping this month. I really got to do something about this." Kory said as he dusted off his clerical uniform and helped Father Jack off the floor.

"Well then space travel must be very interesting, so how should we get out of here?" Father Jack asked as he looked at the steel door that blocked them from the outside world.

"Perhaps a good old praying session would help." Kory suggested before Jack looked at him with a sarcastic look and both of them laughed at the idea. "No, actually I think I might be able to break open the door."

Kory walked up to the door and pushed Father Jack down a step. He reached in his pocket and pulled out his metal chain which the guards had miraculously not taken. He channeled psychic energy through the chain which lit up the room with a purple glow. He whipped it at the door and the resulting psychic wave barely dented the door.

"Something tells me that's new." Father Jack said as Kory walked down to the ground level.

"Well then at least I have someone to be kidnapped with, most of the time I'm alone with myself." Kory said as he put his chain back in his pocket. "Well then, we'll just have to wait for Dwight to come here and rescue us."

"Yeah, I think you really need to work on your anti-kidnapping powers, speaking of which what happened to your church and when did you get the powers?"

...

"So you're saying that "The Beast" is really a black panther, with the ability to camouflage himself against any surface, he has a cult that warships him and wants to recreate his power, that makes sense." Dwight said as they arrived at "The Beast's" base, which was an old abandoned gothic mansion.

"That's right, he's a black cougar so he's top of the chain, he's the apex predator, but we have you you're the original apex predator, you are a dinosaur, you are the tip top of the food chain."

"Exactly, now then let's talk about what we are going to do." Marian said finally speaking up, wanting to formulate a plan for the group.

"Well, let's start up in the obvious part, how are we going to get in, are we going to stroll in like we own the place, go guns akimbo, or are we going to go in the back entrance?" Dwight asked as he looked at the large mansion.

"Nope we're just going right in the front door in these hoods." Ross said as he pulled three cloaks out from his backpack and handed them to Marian and Dwight, who wondered what they were getting into.

...

However, Kory was having a less than great time, three cults had come and took him and Father Jack to some sort of stage. They put him in the back, keeping him stuck in a forcefield cage, but they had taken Jack to the center of the stage before him.

The people in the crowd were ranting all sorts of random Latin, and seemed to cheer even louder when the black panther from before came on to the stage. Three other cultists, who sat him down in a chair and locked him in it, attended to him.

One of them took a blade and gently sliced down the panther's arm, who seemed to be viewing it as nothing. Blood poured out from the wound and into a bowl that another held up to the wound. However, Kory looked in amazement as the wound quickly healed as quickly as it opened.

"This is salvation, look at in at wonder. Its properties will save us all from eternal damnation!" The final attendant said as it took the bowl and it up to the crowd who cheered louder.

He walked over to Father Jack and forcefully held up his head, he opened Father Jack's helmet and placed the bowl on Jack's mouth and forced the blood into his mouth and down his throat.

"That's funny, what kind of religion uses their savior's blood for preventing damnation!" Dwight said as he, Marian and Ross stood up in the middle of the crowd making them known. Kory tugged on his collar when he heard their question.

"Complete the ceremony; I will deal with these idiots." The panther said as he stood up from the chair and walked up to the crowd.

"Good people let these three out so that they can face the mighty power that I hope to give you all!" He said to the crowd, getting them to cheer louder and allowing Dwight, Marian and Ross access into the center row, where they could face the panther.

"Well then look who managed to get back from the moors, I personally though you two would be trapped their forever. And look who you got too, I thought you were a loyal servant, but that will not matter in a few seconds.

Lightning flowed up the chains, Father Jack was chained too and engulfed his body. He screamed as his body took on a red glow, but after a few more he disappeared into nothingness.

"Ha, your experiment failed, he just disappeared." Marian said before realizing what that could off mean.

The chains rose up even though there was nothing visible attached to them. Instead of a fish priest there was another black panther, who seemed to be pulling against the chain.

"And with more of my blood, I shall make a device that shall turn everyone in to me!" The panther said as he pressed a button and it released the second. The second panther seemed more feral than the original, growling and unable to form words.

It jumped up and disappeared into thin air. The panther had to run around the room but Dwight, Marian and Ross were on edge.

"Now then I'll just enjoy your deaths." The panther said walking back on the stage and sitting down on the stage. Between the crowd cheering and them being better doors than windows, the group had no idea where the camouflaged panther could be.

"Marian be careful, he could right behind you." Dwight said warming the swallow of what could happen.

"Don't worry about me, just focus on protecting yourself." Marian said as Dwight formed a crossbow in his right hand and pointed it around.

He needed to find some way to defeat the panther without having sight or sound useable. Dwight decided to do something less than prideful, turned around using the cover of the crowd, and fired an arrow right at the original panther.

The panther knew not of the arrow speeding towards him, as he was distracted by taking in the crowd. The arrow hit his body and pieced through his chest, stopping his heart and knocking him against the floor.

The crowd gasped as they stood up and ran towards their dying savior's body.

"Quickly eat his body so that we might still be able to reap salvation!" Someone shouted out from the crowd that gathered around their body.

"Ok, that solved one problem where did the other one go?" Marian said as she looked around, however when the original died it seemed to reverse the effect on Father Jack.

There was a white glow and Jack appeared in the upper row of the crowd. The group ran over and helped Father Jack up. They looked around and found Kory swinging around in a purple force field.

...

"Bye Father Jack, Ross, have a good time, we probably never come back here." Kory said as they waved to the two on the teleportation pad.

"Please don't come back here, we don't want any more of your crazy super powers and stuff." Ross said as he knelled down and started the teleportation process.

"Stay far, away from here or we'll beat yer asses." Father Jack said as his language changed back into bubble speak.

"Bye, see you again." Marian said as blue light engulfed their body and they were transported back up in to the orbit of space and to the Halo Trident system. They groaned when they arrived back at the station.

...

"So now then they managed to defeat the only one I was able to find, well then that will have to do for now." Helena said as she monitored the group with the security system, and smiling delightfully.

She looked at the stations calendar and saw that the first day of Markus's trial was only in a few days. She moved the mouse in her hand over to the off-world expeditions schedule, using her PDA to hack the system, she put Dwight's group on an off-world expedition, set for the first day of the trial.

She laughed evilly as she changed the security camera's look to Markus's cage and saw the hawk going crazy with in the cell. It seemed now the detective was speaking with the criminal.

She guessed The Detective would unknowing fill in Markus with what she knew now. She was going to reveal herself as The Shadow Entity and when it happened it would be the complete end of the Halo Trident Spacestation.