It's been a long day. He had nearly single handedly brought the Bounty Hunters Guild Core to peace with the Zoners of Freeport 11, not to mention seamlessly 'seized control' (for lack of a better phrase) of Freeport 11, similar to how many other leaders of various Freeports around Sirius sector have stood up for what they believe in, took control of diplomacy away from the unified vision of the now defunct ZA. Although 'peace' in Omicron Delta hardly lasts for long, at least it will be for now...
He looked at the mess of papers lying sprawled across the desktop. He shuffled them all into a stack and set them aside. The pedestal toward the front of the desk glowed a cool blue and Heartless appeared in her usual Grecian garb.
'Thinking of something? Or just the usual nothing?' She said sarcastically.
'Well if you must know, I'm thinking of how to celebrate my'¦ 'self-promotion'' Marvin fired back.
'Oh, that! It was inevitable, you know it, I know it. Nobody is crazy enough to defend something that so many people want'¦ dead' She continued. 'So, Why not hold another one of your'¦ oh so riveting masquerades?' Heartless said
'We could hold it in the Palace Club'¦ I'm sure you remember it.' Marvin said.
'Ah, yes.' She remembered. 'I do not think I've ever had so many lines of the 'laugh' protocol repeated into my processing unit'.
Marvin's shoes clacked on the marble floor as he walked down the hall from the bridge to the Entertainment Level IV. He could hear the beats already, reverberating through the ship's hull almost like a gauss cannon had impacted it. Parties started without me! He thought. Marvin headed up the stairs to the VIP deck of the 3 floor club. The walls were covered in pearlescent purple material and the strobe lights created quite the effect along with the thumping music. The tables up on the VIP floor were filled with various lieutenants, happily drinking their booze to bridge commanders filling the air with the smell of synthetic marijuana. Paradise. Marvin thought. He sat at the empty seat at the 'head' of the table with his closest circle, consisting of: Drill Sargent Jeffery Peters, Weapons Officer Andrew Markov, Juliana Barrow, Alicia Simmons, and Senior Lieutenant Ty Locklear. Lieutenant Locklear was one of the men from the project that 'created' Marvin, (although that's hardly the correct word.) He was but a mere guard from Marvin's training sessions. The scientists didn't know what the effects of the experimentation would do to Marvin's sanity. They had protection at all times. Most of the guards only looked at him with disgust but Locklear was different. He befriended Marvin from the beginning. Eventually when Marvin passed Training and gained his own ship and 'freedom', he offered him a job aboard his then-newly commissioned Battlestar the Dawn Under Heaven, not to mention a considerable pay raise.
The VIP tables slowly emptied as they went to dance. Marvin eventually was left with just Locklear. They both stared out over the railing at the moving floor of people, saying nothing, until Marvin eventually broke the silence.
'A shame I can't dance.' He said.
Locklear just laughed.
They continued to drink and watch the dancing. They never slowed down. In fact, they appeared to speed up. The hair on the back of Marvin's neck stood up. The dancing crowd slowed. Almost into a blur. He grabbed onto the railing. He felt the hull shudder. Microseconds later - Boom. The club was thrown into chaos. A massive fireball welled up from the center of the club. Marvin felt the heat on his face. He heard the screams in his mind, A hundred people at once. He stood up as the chair flew back and tipped over behind him. Locklear was already up pulling the emergency switch. Sprinklers from the ceiling let loose a flow of water. The fireball quickly died as Marvin leaped over the railing landing on the 2nd tier catwalk, absorbing the impact with his cybernetically enhanced knees. People with scorched faces lie everywhere. Marvin looked at the ground tier ' Nearly completely blackened. A ring of people lie around the epicenter of the fireball's blast. The people inside the area-of-effect were nearly completely charred into nothing. Marvin heard moaning ' he turned to see Alicia Simmons, his diplomatic assistant, badly burned. She was responsive but weak. Suddenly, he felt a cool presence enter his mind.
Heartless chimed almost in his mind and in his ears at the same time.
'There was an attack!' She raised her voice exponentially, 'Terroristic'¦' she said.
'No kidding'¦' Marvin said as he carefully set Alicia down near a group of survivors.
'We have to find out wh''She was cut off.
Marvin saw a dark silhouette out of the corner of his eye, edging toward a back exit. He ran as fast as his legs would take him, bounding over curled up bodies, residual fires and rocketing through the door as the man ran through the back hallways that supplied the guests with all things food, drink and drug. Various cables run along the wall, leaking pipes with such a low height Marvin nearly lost his head. The man sped up considerably, turning through the maze of hallways like a snake. Cooks barely got out of the way of Marvin as he sprinted down the hallway, nearly losing it as he skid on the slippery water drenched floors.
The man eventually came to a dead-end and Marvin cornered him.
'Why! Why are you doing this?' Marvin said angrily.
'Spreading Anarchy!' The man laughed arrogantly.
Marvin lost it. He ran and left hooked the man so hard in the face he could hear the bones crushing; his head twisted so far his neck snapped. Blood splattered against the wall. Marvin stood firm, breathing heavily, the adrenaline slowly leaving his body.
'Jesus!' Heartless said.
'There went our witness' she said.
'Hush!' Marvin screamed. 'He can't hurt anyone'¦ anymore.'
Marvin stood looking up at the club's scorched ceiling and sighed, as various medical personnel lifted the bodies of both dead and alive onto stretchers and rushed them off to the Medical deck. Marvin headed over to the Security Central, the hub of all the security aboard the Glorious Advance. Various Guards and assistants walked quickly across his path with papers, coffee and the occasional sunbuck's doughnut. He found Chief of Security Marcus Ambrose in his office.
'I suppose you're here to see the tapes, Captain?' he said as Marvin ducked slightly to avoid slamming his head into the door jam.
'Indeed I am. I want to know if the right person was'¦ 'apprehended'' Marvin said.
Marcus leaned over his metallic desk and tapped a few commands on the holo-panel. A hologram recording materialized in front of them.
'This is the club before the attack, only slightly, mind you.' The Chief said.
The recording showed the moving dance floor of people, and towards the bar in the back, was the man Marvin had killed. He was dressed normally like the other patrons, but he had very dark sunglasses on hiding his eyes. He was holding a briefcase. As Marcus fast-forwarded the recording, the suspect moved toward the center column on the 1st tier supporting the catwalk on the 2nd tier. He sat the briefcase down then moved out of range of the security cameras.
'That's our guy alright.' Ambrose said.
'Quite right.' Marvin said as the recording clicked off. 'Thank you very much Chief Ambrose.' Marvin said as he walked out of the office and toward the medical section where the body of the perpetrator was being held.
Both doctors and investigators were sweeping the body for any shred of evidence they could find'¦ However they could not find anything except for a hunch the attack was from a notorious terrorist group that recently cropped up in the Omicrons...