Rukopis+

It has been a long day when a lone cloaked stranger walks into a pub and takes a seat by the bar. The pub goes silent as a grave for a moment before it erupts back into its usual chaos of laughter and chatter. The lone stranger stands out like a sore thumb among the grizzled and rough looking patrons of the watering hole in the industrial world of Genos prime. The stranger gestures the bar keeper closer and requests in a hushed tone, “Anything to quench the thirst.”

The bar keep replies, “Use your eyes, buddy,” and points to a board on the crude-looking wall behind the bar. “So what will it be? You might be new but you aren’t the only customer I got tonight. Make it quick.”

The lone stranger replies to the bar keeper in a shaking voice, “I’ll just have a pint.”

The bar keeper who has been keeping his short temper at bay replies to the stranger’s half baked order in a harsh tone, “A pint of what?”

The lone stranger in a cracked voice nervously answers back, “A pint of any beer.”

The bar keeper hastily pours a pint and slides it to the lone stranger who by now is stiff as a rock. The dark sky smothered by the smog of Genos prime can be seen through a soot-covered sunroof. The only lights the stranger can see in the night skies are outbound crafts headed towards somewhere far nicer than a planet ravaged by sapiens’ need for exponential growth.

The stranger can already tell that the sparse hospitality for him is quickly running out as he can sense some people in the pub keeping their eyes on him. The uneasiness he feels quickly takes over his mind as one of the rough looking men among the crowd takes a seat beside him and takes a sip from his cup. The stranger under normal circumstances would’ve already thrown a punch but something is amiss today. He knows it is his cue to leave. He tries to get up from his stool but the weight of the man’s arm beside him bolts him stuck to the stool. The stranger, who was already nervous, now is in full panic. With his mouth already dry from the nerve-wracking experience he is in he snatches back the cup from the man.

“Hey, what’s your problem? I thought you weren’t drinking it,” the man retorts back at the stranger’s action.

The stranger, crude in his action, still does not reply but just opens a mouth piece on his mask and starts sipping on the cup under the hood.

A long silence ensues after his action till the man leaves him alone. The stranger’s thoughts run amuck through his mind till a vox machina from behind the bar draws his attention to it.

“Another successful operation for our boys on the Gamera system, filthy xenos have been driven back to the holes they came from! Stay tuned for more news from the front in our holy crusade against the xenos.”

This announcement sends shockwaves of cheers and celebration across the pub, yet it has the complete opposite effect on the stranger. He quickly finishes his cup and is ready to leave until the bar keeper announces, “Next round on the house!”

This turns the already ecstatic crowd into a frenzy as the people flock to the bar pushing the stranger back onto his barstool. Another pint of blue milky fluid the people of Genos call beer slides in front of the stranger. He is hesitant to finish it again as it has not been to his liking nor had the time to do so. However, he knows the tradition of the people around him demands that he drink in full what he has been offered or else it would be a great insult to the barkeep and that is extra heat the stranger is not willing to take on right now. So he reluctantly sits back down and prepares to drink again. The commotion of the crowd causes him to spill the beer on himself. He knows it is it for him as he toggles a few buttons on his wrist. A deep breathing ensues for a moment before the stranger’s voice is completely muted. The problem for him though is just the start. This commotion alerts the people around him to dart their attention with him as what happened was the most unusual thing. The stranger, without even finishing the beer he was served, jolts up from the stool and tries his best to make it to the exit by pushing his way through the crowd, weaving through the crowd like a leviathan through an asteroid field hunting down a mining vessel. After what must have been an eternity has passed the stranger finds his target directly in front of him. It is mere moments before he exits the pub until he hears the most unnerving sound he has heard in his life.

“Hey! You forgot to pay for your drink!”

The barkeeper raises his voice and points directly at the stranger as he turns around to meet the bar keeper’s gaze. He makes his way back to the bar hastily as he hands over the credits he owes.

“Did you think I was gonna forget you didn’t pay? Not today buddy,” said the barkeep in a soothing yet unnerving way.

The smell of jangosium assaults the stranger’s nostrils as soon as he steps outside the pub, reminding him to put his breathing filter back on. Proceeding to walk down the winding, dimly lit streets of Genosiopolis back to the starship, he notices something is off. He feels like phantoms are haunting him. He darts his eyes nervously around the winding alleys, scanning his surroundings to ease his anxiety. Again, he is starting to question reality itself as the Genos star has hid itself from view under the smog across the sky ever since he arrived to this god-forsaken planet. He has already forgotten his mission. His thoughts are running wild till he remembers to open the personal machine sitting on his wrist. A wave of relief runs through his body as he can finally breathe normally, but the spilled beer has damaged his voxxer and is just creating static. His senses are fired up again when he hears a garbage can being knocked down right behind him. He is no longer hesitant as he pulls his blaster out and starts pointing down the alley frantically.

“Zzzzz….”

He was sure he said something, but the static is all that comes out from his mouth. The situation does not get better as two figures emerge with their blasters pointed square at the stranger from the crooks of the alley.

“Shinsengumi! Drop your gun, we got you surrounded. No drastic moves and we won’t shoot!”

The stranger is unfazed by this as he reaches slowly into his pocket and drops his gun onto the steel floor. Another two armed men slowly emerge from the alley behind. The shinsengumi agents approaching behind him slowly take the hood off from the stranger revealing fleshy strands of tentacle where his hair would be.

“You can speak your tongue xenos, we know what you are,” says the shinsengumi agent sternly.

The siren wails across the alley as the mask is violently ripped off, exposing the grotesque face with mandibled jaws of the stranger. He can feel the metallic cold of the handcuffs being fastened on his hands as he is pushed to the ground.

“HQ, we got the xenos terrorist. Attempting to bring him in.”

The shinsengumi agent speaks into his vox machine. The stranger’s body is relaxed. It is as if there aren’t two of the most elite agents the Imperium of man on his back pushing him down to the cold hard steel floor. This is all interrupted by a violent earthquake as a fireball consumes the whole alley, only leaving four charred bodies.