Interstellar Age

Chapter 271 Hunting Down the Stragglers Part I

After winning a great victory over the three challenging Orcish Hordes, Erich found himself with a massive increase in soldiers and personnel. Because of this, he retired back to a world on the borders of Imperial Space. It was a large continental world, with a similar climate to Earth.

However, it was not owned by any interstellar civilization, and was instead purchased by Tia to house and train the Orcs for the upcoming wars which they would wage against the Germanic Star-Empire and the galaxy.

While billions of Orcs waited for their new equipment and ships to be manufactured, they needed a place to stay. And the barren inhospitable wasteland which was used as an industrial world by an army of robots, was no place to house Orcs.

Thus, Tia had acquired another world to store the Orcs for the time being. And while Erich was relaxing on this world, while focusing on leading the Orc clans and their new training regimen. He had agents out in the greater galaxy tracking down the remaining Sages who had escaped the slaughter at their sanctuary.

One of these Agents was JT, who was deep behind enemy lines in the borders of the Ennead Theocracy, tracking down a Sage who had enough sense to flee from his hiding spot. JT had spent the better part of two years in the criminal underworld of the Galactic community, gaining intelligence on the Sages like Erich had asked him to.

Though he could not make contact with Erich until relatively recently, he learned all about the Sages, specifically those who had been tasked to hide in the Milky Way and monitor the Dark Sage's activities.

Because of this, the man knew their habits, and how they thought. When the Sage he was tracking lost contact with the sanctuary, and fled from his refuge. JT knew exactly where to look. And that was in a rather unassuming world.

This world was primitive by galactic standards, but if it could be compared to any civilization in Earth's history, it would be 20th century Earth. Specifically the mid twentieth, where global war loomed, and authoritarian political ideologies battled for supremacy.

As a master of disguise and subterfuge, JT had disguised himself as a member of the local population. This was obviously done in the same manner the WRAITHs and IIS always conducted their long-term espionage operations. By transferring his consciousness into a cloned body of one of the local inhabitants.

JT may officially be dead in the eyes of the Germanic Government. Hell, even Emrys thought that Erich had actually killed the man over some past grievance. But that did not mean he didn't have contacts who could get him access to the revival technology that was used to restore fallen soldiers.

And thus, JT was currently dressed in the political uniform of one of the local countries, whose society was similar to Fascist Italy. Seeing as how the GSE had a similar political ideology, it was incredibly easy for JT to fit into this humanoid society.

Meanwhile, the target he was looking for was hiding somewhere in this world, most likely using advanced illusionary technology to hide his Elven features. Thus, JT was having a difficult time tracking his target.

Essentially, what he was looking for was someone who didn't fit into society. Most likely, upon landing in such a world, and such an authoritarian society, the Elf likely would have been deemed an undesirable, and sent to a labor camp. After all, it was not easy to blend into such a society, especially if you were from a foreign one.

The Sages weren't covert operatives; they weren't trained to blend in with alien civilizations, and thus, it would be entirely unlikely that JT's target had succeeded in this endeavor. Thus, he was now speaking with a representative of the local party, specifically the security forces who handled the labor camps, in search of his target.

The two of them were sharing drinks of a locally brewed alcohol, and JT had blended in so perfectly that this Alien, had no idea that JT was from another world, and another species.

"I'll tell you, thiese gods damned Korvolks. They invade this country, and try to tear it apart with their revolutions, only to cry and play the part of the victim when we retaliate and revoke their welcome. They don't assimilate, and worse yet, they bring nothing but crime and poverty with them. Kill em all is what I say!"

JT chuckled at this comment before expressing his own view of the matter. He had been embedded on this planet for three months now, slowly tracking the whereabouts of the Sage, and he had it on good authority that his target was hiding in one of the labor camps which this security officer worked in.

"It's not the Korvolks you have to worry about, but the fucking sympathizers. Traitors to our own kind, working together to smuggle these parasites into our great nation! Speaking of, I'm looking for somebody, somebody I hear is in one of the camps you work in.

Though, from what I can tell, he isn't a simple prisoner, instead he's working from inside the camps to coordinate a trafficking operation. I don't know his exact identity, but the man I am looking for would appear to be one of our own, yet out of place.... Like he doesn't know basic stuff about our culture or even our esteemed history.... Almost as if he were from another planet pretending to be one of us!"

The security officer laughed when he heard this, thinking it was preposterous before making a snide remark.

"That could be any foreigner... Wait a second... You know what? I think there is a prisoner like that. He looks like any other Trovolkian, but he seems to have no knowledge of our culture, of our history, or even a proper grasp on our biology... Actually, now that I think about it, this guy was brought in under the suspicion that he was criminally insane. Yet despite his strange behavior, he appears to have his mind together...."

Knowing that he had found his target, JT smirked and took a sip of his alcoholic beverage before asking for permission to enter the facility and interrogate the subject.

"You know, if he is working to traffic spies into our country from inside the camp, that would fall under my jurisdiction. Would you be wiling to grant me authorization to visit the camp and interrogate this prisoner?"

The Security Officer took a long sip from his alcoholic beverage and wiped the foam from his mouth before responding to JT's question.

"I'm not supposed to... But if he is who you say he is, then I suppose there would be no harm in it. Hell, I got to get back to the camp, anyway. Tag along if you like, I'll give you some alone time with the prisoner to determine if he is the man you are after or not..."

After saying this, the Security officer paid the tab for the beers with some strange metallic triangular shaped currency, where he then led JT into the camp. Once inside, the prisoner in question was sequestered in an isolated room, and restrained before allowing JT entry to the facility.

Once, they were all alone together, JT smirked before making one simple statement that caused revealed that the prisoner was indeed the sage he was looking for.

"Good evening Nerilan... It has been a long chase of an entire quadrant of space, but I have finally found you..."

The Prisoner immediately panicked when he heard his name, knowing that this man in front of him was not a member of the local species which inhabited this world, but instead an agent of the Dark Sage. Knowing that his fate was sealed, as he had seen it in his visions, Nerilan sighed heavily before accepting his death.

"I could not outrun fate.... No matter how hard I tried.... Very well, get on with it. I will join the rest of my order now."

JT simply smirked as he pulled out a disintegrator ray and pointed it towards the disguised sage with a wicked smirk on his face.

"As you wish!"

After pulling the trigger, a green light flashed in the room, blinding the security cameras, and by the time they had recovered JT was gone, and only a pile of ash and a scorch mark on the wall remained of the prisoner.

This, of course, caused the Labor Camp to sound the alarm, but it was already too late. JT was off world, and in his own personal starship, where he marked on his list of targets that the sage known as Nerilan Nightkind was terminated.

With this in mind, JT set a course back to Imperial Space, where a familiar voice called out to him from the terminals aboard his ship.

"One down, a hundred more to go..."

This remark caused JT to sigh, knowing fully well that this voice was simply watching him, where he spoke the name of the individual it belonged to in a rather forced manner.

"Thanks, Tia...."