Chapter 4 – Law Enforcement Brutality
Everyone is guilty of sin, but those
who refuse to submit themselves for justice are the worst of all. Criminals,
traitors to the Ecclesia, escaped prisoners, and enemies of the Church who have
yet to be sentenced for their sins are just a few examples of these people. As
an Excubitor, it’s my duty to bring these sinners back alive in whatever condition.
I can bring them in without a scratch or with them hanging on by a thread of
life. It doesn’t matter since they refuse to do penance, therefore, I will make
them feel the pain of their crimes so that they understand what they did and that
their souls may be saved.
The unknown regions are a great
place for people to hide even on the planets the Ecclesia has some foothold on.
Politicians and leaders who should be ashamed to call themselves Catholic let
these people hide on these planets because they were paid a very “generous” sum
of money. These people will face justice soon enough. For now, I’m after five
Catholic “leaders” who are connected to riots against the Church. I’ve tracked
them down to a forest world in the unknown regions. I have my ideas about where
they are, but I’m not going to waste my time guessing because there are other
criminals I need to find.
I go to an Ecclesia command center and
enter through the emergency exit that I use as a short cut to get to the office
of a certain someone that I need to ask a few questions. To be polite, I knock
on their door.
“Who is it?” the woman inside asks.
“You know who it is,” I answer, “The
card reader informed you that an Excubitor had entered the building.”
“Oh, my mistake!”
The woman opens the door and
appears to be shocked to see me. Most people are shocked by my appearance that’s
meant to scare people to repent. Those who really know who I am and what I can
do are the most scared.
“What do I owe the honor for being visited
by someone of your high status?” she asks.
“You know exactly why I’m here.
Tell me where the fugitives are, and I may grant you a lesser sentence.”
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to
specify what you’re talking about.”
I cut off her arm with one of my
blades before cauterizing the wound with a fast healing gel so that it feels like
nothing happened at all. She stands in shock at what happened and falls to the
ground in fear.
“You know exactly what I’m talking
about.”
“I-I-I.”
“You have three more limbs that I can
cut off if you need more motivation.”
“They’re not too far from here so
they could run to me if any trouble came! I can show you where they are on a map!
Just don’t do anything else to me, please!”
Cutting off limbs then healing them
is a great way to get sinners like these to talk. Once they know their life is
at stake, they cowardly spill what they know to save their life.
“Thank you. You will be provided
with a robotic arm to replace your old one so that you can do the labor for
your penance. Stay here and if you move too far, I’ll do something worse than
cut off your limbs.”
I exit the building and head off to
the location that the woman shows me on the map. At the location, I find a luxurious
cabin with many trees around it one of which I use to perch myself on. Using my
heat vision, I see through the walls of the cabin to see all five of my targets.
To get a better idea of what’s going on in the cabin, I launch my miniature drones
into the cabin so that I can hear and see what they’re doing. They seem to not
know that I’m here so it’s good that the woman didn’t call while I was coming
here. They’re having a good time without a care in the world as they drink and
indulge in the spoils of their corruption. It’s about time that ended.
My miniature drone detonates itself
inside the fuse box to destroy it. This scares them as they huddle together for
safety.
Using a microphone on my drones, I
say, “You thought you could escape from your crimes, but the Church always finds
those who defy her. You have five seconds to surrender yourself for judgment and
your sentence will be lessened. Refuse and it will be worse. The decision is
yours.”
They’re starting to panic now and
argue amongst themselves rather than try to surrender. Five seconds pass and I take
aim at with one of them my arm guns. Along with my heat vision, I’m able to blow
through the walls of the cabin. I hear them really starting to panic now as
they take cover while I reposition myself to a different tree to get a better
angle. Switching to stun, I use my arm cannon to shoot through the open window and
hit one of them. The shot hits them and puts them in a state of shock and pain
that won’t kill them.
“Surrender or suffer the fate as
your accomplice,” I say through my drones.
One of them tries to run for the
basement. What a fool. A drone of mine jumps on their face and blows itself up
to set the person’s face on fire while another administers medication to
quickly subside the pain while knocking that person out. Two down.
“You’ve seen what I can do.
Surrender. Now,” I say.
Two of them go for the guns they
have hidden in the kitchen. These people don’t have a clue what they’re doing.
My drones overload the laser guns so that they blow off the arms of both
people. I go in the cabin and shoot healing gels at the arms of the two, so
they don’t die. There’s only one more. This last man falls to the ground and
backs himself up as I approach him.
“Will you be as foolish as your
accomplices?” I ask the man.
“What-what do you want? Here! Take
all of my money!” the man says as he throws the money in his pockets at my face
before reaching under a nearby couch for a shotgun that he shoots at me.
I fall to the ground from the
impact and he continues to unload the shells of the gun on me until it’s empty.
“Not so tough face to face, huh?”
he says before walking away.
“If you knew what I was, then you
would’ve used something stronger,” I say as I lunge at him to cut off his legs.
Normal shells and laser fire can
damage my armor, but not pierce through it. God bless modern technology. I then
seal up the man’s wounds before knocking him out. With all of my targets
pacified, I call my ship to me so I can load them on it and bring them to their
prison. At the prison, they are put into the bodies of robots that force them to
work out their penance by pushing and pulling their limbs and bodies to do what
the command center wants. If they willingly do their penance, the pain is
lessened along with the sentence of their penance as the robot’s systems can
pick up their manual input. Most of the time it does, anyway.
The warden of the prison comes to congratulate
me and says that, “Another job well done, Sandman. Your payment has been
transferred to your account, your weapons, armor, ship, and supply of drones
have been resupplied and tuned up for your next hunt.”
“Thank you, warden. Can you bring
me one of my arm cannons?”
“Here it is. I’m sure that you will
see no problem with it.”
“Can you have the man who fixed it
up to fire it at me?”
“Excuse me?”
“Have that man who fixed it up fire
it at me. I want to test it out. Don’t worry. My armor will hold and if it’s damaged,
I’ll pay for it.”
“O…okay.”
The man who repaired it timidly approaches
me with the arm cannon on his arm. He tries to fire it only for the weapon to
blow off his arm. Medics quickly come to bring the man to the hospital in the
prison.
“Did you know it would blow up?”
the warden asks.
“Yes, I did. You have traitors inside
your ranks who want Excubitors like me dead. I suggest finding them or someone
might think you’re a traitor like them and make you work like the prisoners below.
I’ll be praying for your success.”
“Y-yes, Sandman. Thank you. I’ll
get right on it.”
“Your service is appreciated and
noted, warden. Oh, and I need another arm gauntlet.”
“O-of course. Right away!”
Once I get everything I need, I
head off for my next hunt. The universe is full of heathens, heretics, and
traitors that need to face God’s justice. My work has only just begun.
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