Epilogue: The Devil Wears A Suit and Tie

[Marullus]

Epilogue: The Devil Wears A Suit and Tie

Hansel

Hansel lowers his rifle and smiles Everything is okay! How are you?, I’m fine. Everything is fine. Let’s take it easy, try to lighten our load…. He’s sure he can talk his way out of this, or maybe take over. Tomorrow is another day.

Hansel finds Karen and the other Directors readily amenable to negotiation; he easily talks himself out of trouble and is given a role in the Exchange. After all, his skills at covert statecraft are valuable, and he is on the ground floor of restoring financial stability in the post-Mandate era. There's no mention of any otherworldly entities, which Shadrach and Andros feared. Seeing his work dedicated to the goal of restoring inter-system commerce based in the Exchange of Light credits being restored as reliable currency can't be bad...

Over the next few years, Hansel's skill at negotiation paired with the clout of representing the only feasible interstellar bank, which has successfully restored faster than light communications for instantantious galaxy-wide transaction reconciliation, enables him to become very, very rich and comfortable. The Exchange of Light is the repository of miracles, the inheritor of the Mandate legacy, and even just a small percentage of the trade deals negotiated leaves Hansel a powerful, powerful man.

To think his old friends were going to burn this all down... To think he knew them less than a month.


Taavi

Taavi wakes up in his cell, his body a world of pain. He remembers what happened. “Where did we go wrong,” he thinks... He has to somehow get back to Kumekha, to Alina and the kids. He thinks about how the mission to establish the rule of the law in the badlands took a hard left turn and ended in complete failure. In a cell, in orbit how many unknown miles away.
Oracle psychic ability

Contemplating his life choices in the well-appointed room on Deck A that might as well be a cell, Taavi strains to reach forward with his prescient abilities and is unable to find the alarm of any future where he comes to harm. At first he wonders if his ability is failing him, but eventually accepts some comfort for the lack of threat to his life.

A few days pass before Karen comes, with an offer from the Directors. "We regret the misconceptions that have confused this situation," she says, "you are a skilled and valuable lawyer, and all accused have a right to competent defense. All we wish from you is that you return to your job and sign a standard nondisclosure contract regarding Langtang station."

Taavi sees no deception in her mind, and his thorough legal reading finds nothing amiss in the legal documents. If he never speaks of this place, his wife and kids await. He is shown video of the rest of his crew being released - Shadrach, Nora, Oliver, and Dantes boarding a ship and undocking, Emile being rolled onto a med-transport to get better care, Hansel free and in opulent quarters. Nobody is detained. They request nothing but that he continue as counsel for the defense, which is like fighting them, in a way, isn't it? The one flaw, of course, is that there is no second option presented. He cannot find a future that causes him harm - so it is agree and return to his life on Earth-9 or live forever unarmed in this sterile containment cell...

He signs the agreement - his psychic training is enough to feel the compulsion that accompanies it. Should he ever speak of Langtang station, his own mind will cause him harm. So he doesn't. Obeying the gag order becomes a natural habit.

Alina and the kids are grateful to have him home - it has only been a month since he left on his first junket with a circuit judge. The strangeness and horror begins to fade as he finds normalcy.

He watches Lira Bunt and the other judges warily for years, always doing his job, defending the accused with preternatural capability... reading minds is almost unfair, but at least he finds comfort in knowing that he has never allowed a sentence on a man who was actually innocent, the truth written in their own memories even if they would lie to him about it with their words. Everyone punished was guilty of that which they were accused.

The legal system reasserts itself over the Wild West-like lawlessness more every year; he learns that Lira Bunt is not the only supernaturally-competent legal expert on the bench as global communications are restored. All across the planet, the post-Mandate slide is halted, legal systems restored. The Exchange of Light re-emerges, providing certified galactic transactions that enable interstellar commerce. The total collapse that almost-was slowly reverts, slowly rebuilds.

Taavi is niggled by one detail alone. The Anti-Retention movement on Earth-9 and their lobby to end prisons and incarceration, resulting in almost every felony becoming an ultimately capital crime. The population still grows as technology and commerce are restored, he knows those that are guilty are truly so, but the steady stream of court-ordered executions on the planet is not what Earth was. The broken compad that lights up on Judge Bunt's hip every time she oversees an execution itches at his soul, but words never come out of his mouth when he tries to ask about it.

"A small price to secure the future," Lira says to him.


Shadrach

== Skills ==
Biopsion-0
Our house rules for Psionics work with Biopsions as follows: Any PC can buy Biopsion like a normal skill. They can use this at will with a 5-in-6 chance of permenently reducing an attribute for each use. Someone using at least biopsion-0 can stabilize for the cost of 1 system strain to the patient with a main action.

Shadrach gasps awake. He lays on a cold metal table in a long room. The air is so cold his breath turns to a white puff above him, the dim blue emergency lighting letting him see almost 30 dead security guards laid out similarly, stretching in both directions.

Damn it. I died again. he thinks to himself.

The warrior rises and binds his wounds with supplies from a metal rolling cart. Able to walk through doors or walls, he explores his surrounds unimpeded. He discovers that he, and all of the corpses killed by hhim and his friends, were deposited in a makeshift morgue on Deck C. The life support systems and lights are set to minimal levels, so it works fine as cold storage. In the main hallway, he finds well-marked signage designating the Deck's purpose as being for emergency escape, with two fully primed starships on standby, their AI piloting computers prepared to fly themselves to safety once passengers board. Shadrach doesn't think that's such a bad idea. But he can't abandon the others. Especially Nora and Oliver; they don't deserve this. They can still have a better life.

Moving alone, he goes up the stairs to Deck B, passes through the bulkhead into the security wing, never opening doors and so triggering no alarm. He whistles low and Grimm melts out of the shadows next to him - the almost-dog lopes down the other direction of the hallway to distract and occupy the security guard (now understaffed due to attrition). Shadrach deactivates the shielding, freeing Nora, Oliver, and Dantes from their holding cells. Nora throws her arms around his neck, shaking with relief. Seeing no others detained, they make haste back to the stairwell and down to Deck C.

Boarding one of the starships, its systems come on-line with a greeting, automatically decoupling and welcoming the escapees in warm tones. "You will find full medical and living facilities on-board, what are your needs? What is our destination?" asks the AI concierge.

Dantes drops into the piloting chair. "Marseilles Station," he says grimly, "My friend Caderousse runs the Space Bar there. He'll know... where to find the other friends I need to visit."


Emile

Emile wakes in the cell, bruised and bandaged. Well, he mutters, they got me fair and square this time.

His eyes search the small room as he calculates how he might escape…

Backstory...

Order of Prestation
Arising out of the planet Partana in the Nacimne system, the Prestationers worked tirelessly as esteemed advisors and purveyors of power who helped create authoritarian and oppressive systems throughout Sector Canippe Rho. Their homeworld was a teeming penal colony, hosting their elite caste of psychic overseers and one of the sector's most advanced psychic academies. Their axis of planets grew in power until their combined military might threatened the sovereignty of the rest of the sector. Their first strike was at the Brotherhood of Phe roughly 200 years ago, in an event that came to be known as the Day of Everlasting Mourning (also known as the Day of Pain by the Prestatons), where a million of the Brotherhood clerics and the people they were helping were slaughtered. The Mystic Knights of the Chun Kuk emerged from the remains of the formerly peaceful monks of the Brotherhood of Phe, created to be the response to the Prestatons. The resistance to the Prestationers solidified throughout the sector, and within 50 years their network of planets was broken. They remained confined to their homeworld - still elite but now as imprisoned as the rest - until all contact was lost during the Scream.

The Mystic Knights of the Chun Kuk
An order of legendary gunslinger-monks founded in response to the Day of Everlasting Mourning two centuries before the Scream. Their Knights were instrumental to breaking authoritarian regimes across the sector, after which they settled into a benevolent protector role against oppression, largely disappearing from view and being resigned to legend.
Mystic Order monasteries were established in remote locations on several planets, where individual knights were trained in two main skills: diplomacy and war. Legends abound but actual sightings were very rare. Most legends speak of "one planet, one Knight" where a single knight would be sent to a planet where injustice had arisen. There is a saying: "if a Knight has come to your world, it's worse than you thought, but about to get better." Also, "if a Knight invites parley, be thankful." Knights pray twice daily, with evening prayer involving cleaning their weapon. They eat meat when possible, and are known for hunting game: the fresher the better. Their main virtues to which they strive to meet are justice, courage, and even-handedness.

Consciousness is elusive. Emile drifts in a twilight state, timeless and gray. He can hear voices but he cannot open his eyes. Cannot seem to find his limbs. Snippets snagged in memory, drawn from a sloshing sea of emptiness and time.

"Add 150cc every three hours... we need him sedated. He's too dangerous if he wakes."

"Careful, secure the gurney before we move. It's only a few days to Nacimne."

"Oh, we've waited for this one a long time... We will be glad to negotiate our place in the coallition."

"Long live the Empire!"

"Long live the Empire."


Emile wakes. The Mystic Knight of the Chun Kuk evaluates his surroundings, while he is undoubtably a captive, this isn't where he expected to be. The accustomed vibration of the space station's engines is missing from the floor. The walls are not sterile plasteel, but the reddish brick of some planet. This isn't the station, he was moved sedated to... somewhere else.

"Ahhh.... glad for you to join us, Brother Khadaji," says a smug voice at the door, brown eyes visible through the slot. "Welcome. Welcome to Partana."

[Marullus]

Please feel free to expand with your own Epilogue from these revelations! It isn't often we get to do this.

[redwarrior]

I made my comment in OOC before reading here

After a good night's sleep in the nice safe cell, Hansel gets up and does what limited exercises he can with his injuries to get his blood pumping. He addresses the air of the cell, assuming he's under surveillance It seems so obvious, he doesn't even bother to look Please contact Karen and the other Directors and let her know that mistakes were made... but I think I see a path forward.

Later, after the med-techs have done their thing, and he is brought before Karen, he starts out Madam Director, Karen, First, I would like to apologize for the mess my comrades and I made so recently. After our adventures in the surface, and finding the portal that brought us here immediately after fighting demonic creatures, we made some bad assumptions as to your intent. The fact that I am alive, and I hope my companions as well?...., shows that those assumptions were unfounded and incorrect.

After being reassured over his friend's survival, he starts in again If you could, again, but this time with me listening fairly, could you tell me what it is you are attempting? He sits in stunned silence as he realizes that they are trying to reintroduce civilization to this planet, and incorporate it in the economy of the galaxy. As he listens, he starts to think that his earlier ambition of getting A single ship and getting off world was entirely too small for someone with his manifest talents and training, especially given the early stage of their efforts... Why, this is ... the possibilities are.... Ok, back to business.

It seems that the light was fading and the fog was getting thicker in our brains and we had, at best a frail grasp of the big picture. He pauses, with a futile hope that someone will get the reference, but, of course, they never do... I can't speak for my companions, but... Oh, Taavi has returned to his job? That's good, what about Emile, oh I see, and Dantes, did he get... He DID, that's awesome!!! And he had passengers! So, I guess that leaves me. As you may have noticed, I have a particular set of skills ....

Several hours later, Hansel makes his way back to his suite, he hums and subvocalizes to himself
Oh, I did some damage
I know it's true


Several years later, as he sees Taavi among the guests at his Doolin–Dalton "Ranch" at the reception honoring the newly opened spaceport, He looks over at Karen and whispers The thrill is gone, there must be something somewhere that needs some split second decisions to be made. Karen glances over and says Now that you mention it...

[Enoch]

Shadrach

Some time later Shadrach and Nora sit in a booth in the Space Bar, which sits strangely empty. Oliver plays at a nearby table with a small model spaceship Shadrach whittled for him from a block of composite plastic fiber. His posture is looser, somehow, than it has been in a month; he's lost whatever it was that made him seem on the edge of violence all the time. He signals Caderousse for a refill.

"So what now?" Nora asks. "You return to the Church for another assignment, I suppose?" Her voice is carefully controlled.

Shadrach shakes his head. "I'm done taking orders, I think. Thought I might try my hand at farming and ranching.
Maybe you could give me some pointers?"

Nora's eyes widen slightly. "And that...creature you have?"

Shadrach shrugs and glances over at Oliver. "Every kid needs a dog, don't they?" He laughs at the sudden steel in her eyes and her posture. "No, Grim's no pet, I know. He's a demon, and loyal because he has to be. Grim, doći.

The angle at the corner of the booth where it meets the wall somehow unfolds, and the creature is there, both houndlike and not at the same time. "Your service is over. Go back to where you belong." He begins to pray in the Church Tongue: "Neka vas lanci anđela odvežu. Oslobođeni ste službe. Vrati se svom Gospodaru u Pakao."

White bindings suddenly appear around the creature and begin whipping off as Grim thrashes. When they disappear Grim fixes Shadrach with a malevolent glare and folds himself back into the angle of the booth, never to return.

After a long moment Nora tears her eyes from the place where Grim disappeared. "So I know of a ranch..."

[jemmus]

Government lawyer Taavi was grateful just rejoin his family alive. There were many thing he'd missed along the way. And that he still didn't he didn't understand. He'd never been a gunfighter. He'd hardly ever shot a gun, except as a kid out on the steppes with old Grandpa.

So many demons. And so many human deaths.

Taavi rallies his old girl wife and they fly to Shadrach's party. The old friends greet each other and hug. As do the wives of all, the marshals whose eyes know everything. But say nothing.

[jemmus]

That was a wonderful story and adventure, GM Marullus. Truly good. More!