The Calm Before The Storm. (1)

In a small, dingy looking apartment, a large, tall man slept on a disproportionately small bed. The man was a restless sleeper, tossing and turning every so often, yet also appeared to be in a deep sleep. His slumber was interrupted however as a dog shaped thing started rattling and shaking on the bedside table, making an awful racket as it did. It took a few moments, but the man stirred a bit before absolutely shooting up and looking towards the thing. His eyes were barely open, and his face screamed of him still being extremely sleepy, however he reached over with one of his long levers and after a few failed attempts at pressing a button on the dog's forehead, he finally managed to do it.

"Relovan! What took you so long to answer?!" A somewhat panicked voice boomed at the man.

"What time is it?" Relovan groggily asked as he tried to force his eyes open.

"No time for stupid questions, I need you to come in!"

"It's my day off, Captain."

"Yeah, I know, but this is an emergency. Get your ass over here ASAP – you're going up to the Station in the next hour."

"What the fuck is going on?"

Relovan was speaking to himself at this point, because whoever this 'Captain' was, he had already dropped the call. Despite not understanding a thing, Relovan knew from previous experience that when the Captain spoke with that much urgency in his voice, the situation was serious. This prompted him to hop out of bed and power his way towards the bathroom. For a human, he was quite the specimen – tall, muscular and what many would consider to be handsome. A quick shower and shave later, Relovan was now powering his way towards his closet. He opened it, and there was an untold number of pressed uniforms of some sort hanging inside. He reached for one and quickly got dressed. The blue uniform with black accents, complete with a black cape which covered the shoulders and ran down to the floor was the standard attire of the Coalition's Police force and after putting on the flat peak Police hat, Relovan was almost good to go. He placed his hand on an enclosure within the closet and after a brief scan and a series of confirmation beeps, it opened to reveal a standard issue energy blaster as well as a standard issue Police stun Baton. Once each weapon had been equipped and holstered, Relovan quickly made his way out of his minimalist style bedroom into a small studio apartment which seemed to continue this theme, with a home gym in the middle of the lounge as well as a desk and book case the only things that broke the monotony.

"I likely don't even have time for coffee." Relovan commented to himself as he walked to the door.

He didn't even bother with anything else in the apartment and quickly stepped out into the corridor. A mechanical locking sound emanated from the door, and Relovan quickly walked down the corridor towards a flight of stairs that led directly to the parking lot. It was still so early in the morning that most of the other tenants of the building were either still sleeping, or trying to sneak in a quick morning session before having to wake up. Relovan's footsteps were loud, and his gait was powerful, however the strange grunts and squeaks coming from the apartment of one of his neighbours prompted Relovan to increase his walking speed just a smidge. He quickly descended the steps to the parking lot then to the street. There was a level of filth in not only the building parking, but the streets as well that screamed of this being a slum – which it was. In fact, the planet itself was a slum; one of the small planets orbiting the larger Blargon 5, an Essence rich planet on which a large Void Station which doubled up as a mining rig and refueling station had been built. All but one of the small planets that orbited the Station were almost uninhabitable slums, in which those who lived in them were forced to endure incredible hardships.

As Relovan walked, those who slept on the streets or plied their various trades during the night all saw him and gave him their own renditions of a morning greeting. Police weren't very well liked on any of the Blargonian Planets, and received receptions that reflected that dislike. Relovan was spat at, flipped off and cursed out in a multitude of languages, by aliens originally from every corner of the Coalition Systems, and likely beyond. Despite their diversity, the common theme amongst them all was just how hideous they all were. Ranging from frog like creatures from the swampy planet of Dertha, to those that looked as though their faces imploded and then a black hole sucked in what was left of said faces to a single point in the middle of their faces. Humanoid aliens, at least in build alone, were also fairly numerous, however those with multiple limbs and even heads also populated the alleys and street corners. Despite being surrounded by these somewhat hostile aliens, Relovan appeared to be unperturbed and he just continued to power down the street, his cape fluttering behind him as he did.

The entire area was shrouded in a kind of mist that could not only be seen, but also felt. Like an invasive species, it forced its way into nostrils and mouths, being both smelled and tasted as the same time. The Essence mining on the main planet produced vast sums of residue that could not simply be incinerated; thus, they were dumped into ever growing piles all over the planets that orbited the main one. The mist all emanated from the multiple junk piles, and in spite of the efforts of those responsible for Blargon 5, the inhabitants of the planets still suffered daily. Despite also sharing the same space with those in the slums, Police Enforcers like Relovan were still viewed as the enemy, and were made aware of that as often as possible. Most weren't stoic and able to ignore it all like Relovan however, and he walked as though he noticed neither the smog, nor the hatred. He seemingly tanked his way through it all, and fairer looking races which had to wear gas mask type accessories just watched on as he powered past them. Relovan's commute brought him to a large lift which despite the hour, still had quite the queue of people waiting to board it. Without so much as an inkling of hesitation, he walked past the entire queue and went straight to the doors, where Enforcers dressed similarly to Relovan were stationed, and looking decidedly jaded with their existences.

"Relovan." One of them said sounding slightly surprised.

This Enforcer was a Paxian, a humanoid race which stood upright like Humans, however had no eyes or nose. Instead, a fleshy film grew over where eye sockets and nostrils would usually be. The other was Xubian, a type of Mantis-esque, bug eyed people from a predominantly jungle like planet. She looked Relovan up and down as she usually did, and made a strange chittering sound when she did.

"Isn't today supposed to be your day off?" The Paxian asked.

"Captain just called to demand that I come in. I'm needed for some reason."

"Seriously? What for?"

"He didn't say, K'Tax." Relovan grumbled with annoyance. "I need to go up."

"Sure thing, dude." K'Tax said with a thumbs up. "I used those correctly, right?"

"I wouldn't know." Relovan said with a shrug as he walked off towards a separate, smaller door next to the much larger lift doors. "I keep telling you that I've never been to Earth. Earth mannerisms aren't known to me."

As he said this dismissively, the Xubian female made the chittering sound again and this time, raised a gloved forearm and wiped away what appeared to be drool from her mandibles.

"You familiar with THAT, huh Relovan?" K'Tax asked with a shudder while pressing a series of buttons on a console on his wrist.

"…unfortunately." Relovan answered as he walked through the open the door.

The small lift door closed as the woman chittered away again, and Relovan just caught the beginning of it, shuddering ever so slightly. In a matter of moments, the lift shot straight up, accompanied by a hydraulic sound. It came to a stop almost as quickly as it started moving, and the door opened to a slightly cleaner, and less depressing looking area of the planet. There was yet another pair of Enforcers stationed at the lift doors, and another queue of people waiting to board the lift that was going down. The Enforcers on the current level were not quite as friendly with Relovan as the others, as they looked at him and then scoffed before angrily looking back at the queue and barking orders in their native languages. Relovan paid them no mind either and kept walking.