"Ain't that the worse thing you've ever seen" Colonel Derlo said as he looked at the bodies,
"There's a fabric attached to the heart" Aradi said as she pointed towards the body in the middle,
One of them almost slipped on the blood,
"Need a vacuum and some swabs" he said,
"On my way" his partner said.

"Vacuum?" She asked,
"For the blood" Derlo said, the Officer carefully extracted the fabric from the body and took a gander,
"Is indeed the same as the other cases"
"Other cases? What do you mean, there's more like this in the city?"
"In the NC districts, you know. Murder is a common thing, homicides. But this the first one outside of the district, we've been trying to find who did this, first one crept up some time ago, oh and uh Captain Derlo by the way" he said.

Aradi stepped back as Derlo's partner came in with tools and a vacuum cleaner,
He set the tools against the stained walls.
"What do you think it is?" He asked,
She shrugged again,
"Well, Captain.....it seems like someone who might be religious, humans are affected by that disorder exclusively. But humans aren't exactly plentiful, and I can't recall a human living in the NC districts in my lifetime at least, probably would have been on the news at some point" she said as she moved her feet to get it out of the vacuum's way.

"We figure it's someone who's got a grudge, for whatever reason blaming their failures on the Council. But we don't really have that, do you recall anyone blaming the Council for anything?" the partner said as he wiped the mouth of the vacuum. Aradi shook her head,
"Usually they have a distorted view of how the Council should be, but blame? Can't say that I have"
"That's what we thought, but no Citizen in recent records goes through the effort of learning how to ritualize deaths, they don't even have access to libraries or anything knowledge based. Plus, humans, as I know, don't have rituals, they don't have a religion. At best they have hallucinations like the rest of the fanatics" Derlo said.
The Citizen held the fabric, there was black ink written on it.
"This...cloth..." Derlo said as he stood up, he showed the two the cloth,
His partner looked closer,
"Those are the same markings as the ones in the NC District"
"I'm telling you, its Marauders...." the other said, there was a slight shock that spread throughout the room. His partner shrugged it off,
"Come on Derlo. I told you, Marauders in The City? That's a horror movie plot"

Aradi looked at the cloth,
"Its true Marauders use blood to write messages on their victim's skins" she said,
Derlo looked at the cloth,
"You seem to know a lot about them" he said,
"I was enlisted to the guard posts near the Pro-Native villages, I saw how they operated"
"How do you feel about being an on-call?" Derlo asked,
"I have a ShadowSup active in training under my supervision for today'' Aradi said.
"Who's your C.O?"Derlo asked,
"Chief Toh Rin, sey"

"I don't have time to wait for the next strike, I'm pulling all 3 of you. I need someone in the field that has knowledge of Marauders, and can use a weapon effectively. Don't worry about those two newbies, they'll most likely just be serving coffee until this is over. OK, talk over, we have to clean this up and move the evidence back to the station, expect a reroute in a few minutes"
Aradi nodded,
"Yes, sey"

"Private Zzarr, it's me, status" Aradi said into the walkie,
"Whole lotta nothing, ma'am"
She smirked,
"Alright, come on towards the front, they're cleaning up" she said,
"Copy that"
Zzarr sighed as she came out the front door,
"How ya feeling, Sidko?" she asked,
"I want to make my Fa proud of me, I want to bring honor to the Council. This, I want to stop it, and never let it happen again" Sidko said, he sounded serious, grown even.

Aradi looked at the streets, some onlookers couldn't help but stare as they walked by. Sidko's words somewhat resonated with her, she had brought honor to herself, to the name of her adopted parent. They had long since passed, their other adoptive child grew up completely opposite of a standard Citizen, his name was Crist, he became a banker after winning in the lottery draws. She couldn't really see any type of valor in being a banker. Though a critical part of the Council's expanse, she'd rather be on ground than sitting in rooms all day, endless talking and number debates.

Derlo's partner walked out of the building and towards the vehicle, the large grey door slid open, the Officers carried hard plastic bags on a gurney, there was a moment of silence as the Homicide Investigator walked by and boarded the ship.

"how much do they get paid?" Sidko asked, Aradi shrugged, she never had an interest in higher pay, or rank, she had a strange, in her words "attraction to being grounded"

"How much do they get paid?" Sidko asked,
Aradi shrugged,
"Dunno, haven't really given it much thought, but I heard it's about two times what we get paid, you'd rather look at dead bodies all day than arrest people?" she asked,
Sidko looked at the vehicle they arrived in,
"It does sound boring," he said.
"Well I got news for you" she said as she pointed to the crowd starting to gather across the street,
The civilians across spoke to one another, some were taking photos, others selfies, a News Cruiser soon turned the corner and parked next to them,
"You handle the press, I'm going to expand the perimeter" she said as she began walking toward the Van
Sidko looked at her with a caught off guard expression.
"You want me to talk to the media? What do I say?" He asked as he quickly caught up with her,
"Just tell them none of us are taking questions, and that the Protectorate has everything under control, the usual, oh - and Sidko, try your best to be polite" she said, Sidko looked at the reporter exiting the cruiser; 2 short journalists and a tall cameraman, they were gearing up to record, Aradi popped the trunk open from inside the vehicle, her fingers then tapped on a tablet screen that was attached to the dashboard, she navigated the user interface and came to the Police Drone activation panel,
she clicked on her walkie,
"Dispatch this is Antara-Zero, I'm requesting authorization for crowd control, mid range" she said.
"You're clear, additional drones on their way...."

The drone in the back of the van suddenly came to life, it turned on and greeted Aradi,
"Greetings...citi...prote.....error identifying individual, please contact your manufacturer or bring authorized personnel for override sequences"
"Antara Zero, override"
"Authorization granted, greetings, Antara, Zero. Set mode to guard mode"
It flew out, it was on standby. Aradi set the drone to guard mode and assigned it to Sidko. The drone flew around towards the driver's seat and headed to hover over the Private. It had a large black camera eye, a white antenna with a slow pulsating red glow.

Aradi grabbed the Barrier Tape and began setting it on the end and middle of the block, she saw the news reporter interviewing Sidko, she smirked as she saw him being hounded. The was equipped with riot control like mechanisms, sometimes a Citizen might get out of hand when something of this magnitude occurs, not out of violence but more, excited as they quickly demand information pertaining to the event.

"What happened!?" one journalist asked as they shoved the microphone into Sidko's face.
"The Protectorate has everything under control, there's no need to panic"
But many people started repeating the question and even asking about Sidko himself. Aradi approached the crowd and spoke loudly. They all looked at her, some spoke their thoughts out loud, referring to her as a human, they huddled up in front of her, microphones and cameras everywhere.
"I understand your curiosity but please bear with me, The Protectorate is on the move, and you'll see the results on the evening news" she said,
"Is it true that this started in the maintenance room?" one reporter shouted,
Aradi's brow ticked,
That damn kid probably posted it on Social.
"We see a homicide unit there, how many are dead?"
"Are these related to the homicides in the NC District that's been trending on Social and VIral lately?"
"How did someone from the NC district get past the border?"
"Are the bodies ritualized?"
"How many murderers are in the city?"
"Does the Protectorate have any leads?"

Aradi put her hands up in a gesture to calm the press,
"Per usual, the Protectorate remains diligent and aware of the situation, when the perpetrator is apprehended, you'll hear about it. Now I need you to step back. 20 feet from the tape unless you're a verified journalist" she said as she looked up at the drone.
Saying that Aradi has a distrust of robotic intelligence is quite the understatement, she is apart of the large majority that believes Cyborgs, heavily augmented individuals and high levels of artificial intelligence, are a living nightmare. She's barely gotten used to drones in the past few decades, and it was more of a forced situation. New protocols dictated that every S.F.O. was required to have one while on duty with nicknames being made optional to ease the disdain officers have with the "Smart machines". Aradi was quick to reject the option but eventually warmed up to the dies after the annoyance of calling it by its production number, the nickname, 'Fido' seemed to suit the Police Drone.
"Fido, crowd control" she said, A voice emitted from the speaker of the drone,
"Warning, Citizens of the great Council. If you do not heed the Protectorate's command, I am authorized to use any force necessary in order to receive your systems' compliance"
People began to back up, even some of the journalists who were authorized to be there. She looked around,
"Fido, scan for low scores" Aradi ordered,
"Scanning......two citizens found, safety locks disengaged" Fido said. She turned to Sidko,
"Always scan the crowds, stay here" she said as she began to walk past the journalists, who then swarmed to Sidko. The Protectorate stood in front of the crowd, they all looked at her somewhat quietly.

Aradi took out her PD and looked at the can results,
3 B-classes, both hitting the red..

She recognized the 2. Former Protectorates who won the class lotto and were working jobs in higher end restaurants. She spoke,
"Alright, the two who have a lower than 75 SoCred score need to step to the front of the crowd now....you're not in trouble or anything. Section Two, Article Twenty Six of the Protectorate codex states 'Any Citizen who has a below 75 percent SoCred must be within eyesight of said Law Enforcement Officer - meaning me, upon command. Now, please, step forward" she said.

"That law sucks!" A Citizen shouted, the others seemed to nod in agreement,

Aradi sighed. There was a certain level of speech tolerance in the Galactic Council. Those in C Class and above may engage in voicing their negative viewpoints on the laws the Council places at the cost of 100 credits per statement, for politicians during elections and speeches, the rate is 150 per statement.
It's going to be one of those days....

"Just like your score, now step forward" she said. The 2 walked forward, Aradi looked at them with disappointment,
"How's it going, lieutenant?" the short Citizen known as Frolo asked,
"its pretty slow today, let me scan your cards" She asked,
the other Citizen scoffed,
"You scanned us last week" the one known as Gene said.