Scary Solar System Prelude: Exile's refusal (Patreon)

The bar was grungy and the music booming from the club next door rocked the tables and rattled the teeth of the patrons. Most didn’t care or liked the sensation and the few that did care were too drunk to remember why. Exile had entered the bar and had been there maybe 40 seconds before he was ready to leave. "The grape room" he was told and the grape room was where he was headed.

When the door to the grape room slid open and then shut behind him, he almost let a sigh of relief-- the room was sound proofed and aside from a rumble or two from the outside, was fairly peaceful. In the corner of the was a rounded booth with a crooked looking table. At the table sat a bulbous creature that sucked on a large booze battle like a hungry calf would a teet. 

Exile was motioned to the table by the creature and with a gentle swing of his reptilian tail he was sitting. The yellow skinned creature let a wet belch and then greeted him "have a seat Enforcer" which was more of her way of being sarcastic in response to him taking a seat. Exile reached into his side pants pocket, produced a card shaped object, tossed it into the air and watched as it transformed into a small drone like machine. "This is my pocket lawyer" he informed her "by law I have to inform you that this interaction will be documented in full".

The yellow creature didn't seem to mind much as the device hovered merely feet from them, a little metalic orb like eye scanning the two. The pocket lawyer was a neccessity for Enforcers and they guaranteed that video and audio evidence of any event. With spacial recognition scans; they were also able to completely recreate, within a 10 yard radious, a holographic replica of any event they've recorded. Pocket Lawyers were needed mostly to protect Enforcers from lawsuits and very few Enforcers did not carry them.

"You know who I am" the creature grunted. "Niel Zevia Froth" Exile's ageless voice came to emit from the metalic mouthplate that covered his entire jaw. Of course he knew who she was, it was his job to know as much about her as he could, maybe she was playing coy, initiating the conversation, or even too intoxicated to realize how stupid she sounded. 

NIel Zevia Froth was a Goritoa, a race of non-native Alien species from another solar system; that shared more in common with Earth's amphibians than their humans. Aliens of any kind in this solar system were rare, but Goritoas were a bit more common than others. While most Goritoas were very intelligent, hard working individuals, Niel was anything but and it showed in her appearance and demeanor. 

Exile had already been examining her body language and had long since gathered that she was more than drunk, she was sloshed and judging by the amount of booze bottles that littered the table and the floor; he figured this was a common occurrence. Seeing no other occupants in the Grape Room gave him the idea that she spent a lot of time renting this room so she could drink alone. The math had been adding up quickly but it was reinforced by the research he had done on the Goritoa woman before he even entered the bar. Exile didn't like Niel and she was about to find out why.

"You're here, so that means we can proceed forward, right" she asked him, dropping an empty bottle on the seat next to her. Exile stayed quiet for a second before carefully replying "I showed up to inform you Miss Froth, that I will not be taking your case". Niel's nostrils flared and she ran a chubby hand through her greesy, dyed blue hair before gritting her crooked teeth and grunting. "Why the fuck not..." she spit on the table.

"It goes against the Enforcers Code of Ethics and my own personal views" he replied, his reptilian eyes focused on Niel's right hand which gripped the edge of the table so tight that the pressed wood material began to creak. "I asked for you specifically, Lizard boy, cuz I know you know what its like" she snarled, half snorting as she spoke "know what's like" Exile questioned the goritoa.

"You're a Dracaurian, an alien, ya know. Like me, you know what its like" she pressed and he did not falter "know what-- what is like exactly" he pressed back. "How they treat us" she was obviously done holding back, a crack in her voice ringing out, not one of sadness but anger and spite. This was the  kind of bubbling hurt that comes from jealousy and her body language stank of the primitive emotion. 

"You mean humans" Exile spoke, his brow actually started to turn down ever so slightly in what one might recognize as a physical manifestation of annoyance. "Yeah, they own everything, they run everything" she gargled back the lump in her throat and Exile didn't miss a beat "its because this solar system has been populated by their species for eons. Its only natural they'd be well established here". This reply didn't sit well with Niel, who squeezed the table even tighter.

"Bullshit, why should they have everything" she growled "because they worked for it" and his words cut into her like a knife. She was beyond fuming. "That Bastard Welling, you know what he did and you know its your job to make him do right" her voice was high now, apelike, and full of frustration. "Welling terminated your employment based on the miserable way you treated your coworkers, which included androids and other Goritoas. You've spent the last 9 months trying to ruin his life for justifiably terminating you. Not because he's a shitty being but because he declined your advances" Exile snapped back with surprising poise at the woman.

"That's bullshit! He fired me because he hates us" she shouted, her voice a loud hoot at this stage. "He terminated you because you stole, because you harassed, you refused to groom and meet the job's dress code. Your entire stint at that firm was one big protest after another and he became tired of it and when he wouldn't date you, you became insufferably malicious. There is months of social media posts about your behavior, video records of your action, and eye witness testimony to back it up. I'm afraid that I will not only be refusing your case, but I'll be red marking it for other Enforcers" Exile finished.

Niel snorted twice, took a second to gather herself "this is your job god damn it" she tried to inform him. "My job as an Enforcer is to do what district police, Interpol, Solarpol, and everything inbetween cannot. We are expected to uphold a certain level of social engineering through specialized law enforcement, meant to keep the greater populous of the Solar System fearful of the repercussions if they exhibit unjust behavior. Our job is to hunt down the wicked, intimidate the cruel, and stamp out the violent. Our job is not to scare a business man into hiring an entitled brat who thinks she should be praised for waking up and getting dressed in the morning" Exile's words were true and they filled Niel with a sort of rage she'd never felt before.

Exile had researched the case for a good while after she had contacted him and as per the law, he would not be able to simply refuse it without meeting in person-- if possible. Enforcers were always expected to speak to their 'clients' in person if they were within a certain mileage of said client. He was, in a sense, bound to turn her down in person and also expected to explain his reasoning why. From his research, Exile knew that Niel was a entitled type. She spent more time protesting than actually working, her unshaven forearms were even a protest. Goritoas shaved their forarms as a sort of traditional practice that came from when their planet began to heat up during a drastic climate change. Niel, like many other's like her, seemed to think the arm shaving thing was something that was a societal expectation laid out by humans. This gross miss-understanding of the tradition just further fueled her xenophobia.

"Human's fucking hate us" she was fighting back sobs "Humans hate us? You hate humans..." he informed her, which turned her bulbous eyes into angry slits. Before Exile could even react, her trunk like left arm swung right at him. Crack, her knuckles struck his mouth piece and flung it to the floor several feet from the table, but her arm was suspended in the air and a mere inch and a half from Exile's face. 

His reptilian pupils had shrank to sharp slits and his admittedly gnarly fanged mouth was now on full display, his lips seeming to curl in a snarl. His own hand was up, blocking hers, but not soon enough as she did manage to knock his faceplate from his jaw. This angered Exile, as the Dracaurian wore the faceplate that covered his mouth and nostrils for no other reason beside it filtered bad stenches from the air and because of his sensitive sense of smell those bad stenches were everywhere.  Exile's strength impressed and shocked Niel, Niel being a Goritoa meant she was one of the most physically powerful aliens in this solar system, but Exile's training had given him enough physical prowess to at the very least-- stop her battering ram like appendage from knocking him out cold.

This was the look of illogical rage for Niel's particular type of being-- settle all issues with violence when logic breaks down their emotional stance.

Niel's arm shook as it remained suspended, snot ran from her nostrils and threatened to drip into her gaping, large mouth. The ape-like-amphibian roared, pulled the table toward her, bounded off it and into the air. She collided with the wall, sprung off it and toward Exile. Exile took this opportunity, which happened in just about a second and a half, to throw himself to the floor and out of her direct line of attack. She hooted and roared in midair, arms raised in the air like a adult silverback about to strike a rival.

Her shadow over took Exile's entire shape, despite her being much shorter than the man, her rotund and round shape made up her mass and blocked out the dim lighting in the room. Before she could land the powerful strike on the reptilian alien, Exile's thick tail connected with her jaw and nose. Carefully he aimed it, preventing the single row thagomizer at the end from cutting her to ribbons-- instead he simply sent her spiraling away from him and onto the floor. 

The Goritoa landed with a thick, heavy thud, turned, pounded one of her thick fists against the floor and turned to get up, her adrenaline masking any pain she felt. Click, voooooom, shiiik, and right in front of the goritoa's face was a weapon-- Exile's Crystal. The Crystal was a standard issue weapon for any enforcer, but Exile's was custom made to 'unlock' 20 percent faster than others. The unlock procedure was a sort of transformation, as the pistol like weapon stayed in a mostly blocky form until it was needed, not to dissimilar from the Pocket Lawyer.

Exile was standing in front of the woman, gun drawn, pointing right at her face. She could see he was already wearing his face plate again, meaning he had enough time to put it on, draw his weapon, and fix it on her before she could fully prepare to react to his tail strike. The seriousness of the situation had finally sank into her as her adrenaline started to dissiapte, this wasn't a game. Her cheek tingled, her head throbbed, and fluids flowed. Her concepts of justice were skewed and her constant attempts at bullying those around her to get her way had put her in this position. Her cheek had already started to swell and blood trickled from her flat nose and into her mouth, staining her yellowed teeth orange and pink.

"How can you side with them" she asked, spitting and sobbing between words "Humans took me in when my own god damn people hung my parents right in front of me..." he explained, with no love lost for any race. Exile's opinion on humans was the same he had for any species, but it was hard for him not to acknowledge what humans did for him it might have been a bias he had. Though being an Enforcer showed him just how bad some humans could be. While Niel had a rather mundane, but privileged life with a hard working Goritoa father and a trust fund that kept her bad habits fed, Exile had to work very hard to get where he was.

Exile had seen her kind a thousand times and he would make just how he felt about her known beyond a shadow of a doubt "your lack of happiness and success comes from your own inability to accept your weaknesses. You think no one likes you because of outside forces beyond your control but I can guarantee its your shitty personality that pushes everyone away" he knew a lot about this woman, he had to, it was his job to understand his client before taking or refusing a case.

He kept his pistol drawn on her head, his pocket lawyer recording every word. "Clean yourself up, take up a craft, earn something for once in your god damn life instead of expecting it" his words were cold and mostly emotionless. "Pocket Lawyer, what counts do you have her for" he then addressed the hovering device.

"One count of Wasting an Enforcer's time, 2 counts of Assault on an Officer, 1 count of assault with a deadly weapon" the machine informed and Exile knew that Goritoa's powerful arms were registered deadly weapons. The Pocket Lawyer continued "the local police have already been notified and will arrive in 13.5 minutes. Suggested Sentencing, Exile?" the Pocket Lawyer asked.

One such advantage of being an Enforcer was the right to suggest punishments for perpetrators. Exile glanced up for a second while he pandered then and then answered. "Rehabilitation by Economical Service, with a suggested full conversion and a career specifically geared toward the enjoyment of Human Males". Full conversion Economical service was a rather harsh, but very interesting form of sentencing and reform.

The idea of Economical Service was that it forced criminals to contribute to society, Full Conversion meant that aspects of their physical bodies would be altered to better fit this goal and it was reserved for particularly bad offenders. Alteration of a beings physical form in order to preform a job better was seen as mostly Barbaraic, however; in the case of criminals, it has proving to help reform them into productive members of society.

Some species could not undergo these conversions if their blood type was wrong, the concept of being able to alter one's physical appearance was novel for most, but a few rare people out there could not be altered by this technique. The end result was that people who had undergone environmental transformations and had this rare blood type, would be stuck with those environmental transformations forever. 

Exile knew Niel's bloodtype from the information he had of her-- so he knew she'd be a ripe candidate. "Suggestion noted. For acts of criminal violence, both parties will be charged a sum of 700 credits" the Pocket Lawyer informed the two. "That's fine" Exile informed, keeping his weapon fixed on the Goritoa. Mars had a rather strict policy on violence, even Enforcers had to pay fees if they resorted to violence to solve a problem. Sometimes it was a necessity and part of self defense, after a council of magistrates reviewed the footage, the fine could be lowered to half if they agreed it was in self defense or there was no choice. Regardless, some fee was always paid if violence had taken place.

Though the system seemed irritating, it did have rather outstanding effects on society on Mars. Mars had a much lower Violent Offender registry than any other planet or Satellite in the Solar Sytem, so it must work. Exile did not mind paying the 700, though he was certain it'd be reduced to 350 credits and even then he'd be able to write it off on his taxes. Niel on the other hand would find the charge to be rather damaging to the bank account her daddy filled for her.

When the local police finally arrived, Niel was blubbering. She tried and tried to explain her side of the story but they had already seen the footage. As she was hauled off, Exile felt a tap on his shoulder. When he turned to see who touched him, he was met with the face of a rather attractive redheaded human female.

She informed him that her boss would like to have a word with him. He went to refuse at first, as he had enough excitement for the day, but when she waved her hand over her personal wrist com and with a few clicks on the holoboard-- she had paid his violence tax in full. This made it hard for Exile to not at least entertain her for a moment out of gratitude.

"Follow me Exile" she lead him to a backroom in the bar which in-turn housed a special elevator. The elevator lead to a sort of party penthouse, where the reptilian alien was met with the visage of beautiful people of all species and genders. As he was motioned to make his way past the partying crowd the Dracaurian stood in front of Misa Lea Crai, a wealthy socialite and one of the most well known people on all of Mars. This surprised him to see her here, but he did know that secret clubs like this did exist for the elite. 

"Exile, my friend. Have a seat... I have a request of a Enforcer such as yourself... I need you to capture a weasely little thief for me. He's slippery, probably one of the best, but after seeing how you handled Niel down there in the Grape room..." she motioned toward a holomonitor "I think you'll be able to take Maxiz in pretty easily..."

With that Exile glanced  about the room a few times, noting the obvious examples of wealth and understanding the monetary gain he could acquire from taking this case. He had heard Maxiz's name a few times before, so he knew the man was very much a wanted criminal and a known super-thief. He took a soft breath and replied to the woman"I'm listening..."

The End.

This is a sort of sidestory/prequel to Scary Solar System meant to establish Exile's character.