[V]Chapter 65: A Letter Home

Dear Mother and Father

Dear Mother an|

Dear M|

D|

|

"Ha." Varyna sighed as she deleted the words again. She was hunched over a message chip, desperately trying to decide what to write for her very first letter home in over a month. "Let's see.." she hummed, starting the letter again.

Mr. and Mrs. Rhyne,

"That's better," she nodded. "Since I have to send the message under a false identity anyway. I wouldn't want to give myself away to any peeved Nemarian mafia members who might get ahold of this."

She halted, glancing around the drab room. The smooth metal walls gleamed sharply, even in the mild orange light from her lamp. She kept it on the lowest setting, not just because it's what her eyes were used to, but it made her quarters feel the tiniest bit less sterile. 

"Maybe I should let my identity slip. It might liven up the place to have the mafia busting down the door."

I am having an unbelievably amazing time here in the Helios Sector. Every day is full of exciting new adventures, and my new room is so cozy. It feels just like home.

Since Varyna knew her parents would be curious about how she was doing with her System, she pulled up the familiar screen and navigated through the options. She barely glanced at the XP, still annoyed that she'd received so little for her last quest. With all the work it took to bring down the Peacekeeper-turned-serial killer, not to mention risking her life, she should have at least gotten enough XP to level up.

But she didn't.

She scrolled to the [Quest] tab. It mocked her with her single completed quest that gave her little more than a thus-far useless [Skill] and a single active quest that was near impossible to complete.

I'm gaining a lot of valuable experience here. I'm sure the Demonology Division won't reject my application next time I apply. They'd be crazy to turn away such an experienced [Demon Hunter].

She'd been excited after her last mission, hoping for a chance to meet a member of the Demonology Division in person. After all, the demonic relic the killer had been carrying had to be handled by a pro. Instead of coming for the smashed relic themselves, however, the Demonology Division had sent a brief, brusque letter with instructions and a special container to ship the pieces of the object back to them.

She was more than a little crushed, but her parents didn't need to know that.

Tapping her fingers on her desk, she tried to figure out what else to say. She'd talk about the food or the culture, but there wasn't much to say on those subjects out here. If there were interesting foods and cultures, she hadn't seen any sign of them.

She bit her lip and thought more about her recent assignments. After the serial killer case, they hadn't been given anything interesting to do besides 'patrol' aka bumming around on the COPS ship waiting to get an assignment.

The work is interesting. I've gotten to handle some unique cases. I really feel like we're making a difference here.

Varyna's mind then went to her teammates. While she and Hxlt didn't always see eye to eye and she sometimes found Opun's constant note-taking annoying, at least they were reliable. And, really, the only company she had.

Being in closed quarters lately had taken its toll on all of them, though. Just the other day, she and Opun had gotten into a screaming match. They were reviewing the Imadrin case as a team when Opun had muttered something about her and Hxlt's poor note taking.

"Haaa. Well, we're too busy doing our jobs and solving the case," Varyna had retorted. "Sorry I didn't think about pulling out my pen when I was confronting the serial killer alone."

Hxlt had done his best to quiet her, but she couldn't stop.

"Actually, maybe I wouldn't have been alone in that dangerous situation if you ever did a single thing besides take notes!"

That had been the last straw. Opun, his face entirely red from rage at this point, jumped to his feet and began shouting his own complaints against Varyna. Their argument only ended when Hxlt roared his own dissatisfaction with his squadmates, threw the report chip so hard it broke, and stormed out of the room.

My fellow Officers are nice. We get along well, and they've helped me learn how to keep up with the work here…|

What else? If her letter was too short, her parents would definitely worry. After all, they always sent her overly lengthy letters with updates about every little thing. She thought about their last message.

Her siblings seemed to be doing well. She was the oldest of four, a sister and two brothers. Her sister had recently entered the workforce, but her brothers were both very young. She couldn't help but miss their cute little voices and how they always climbed all over her as soon as she walked in the door.

I miss you all and hope to see you again soon. I was so happy to hear about Henny's acceptance into the Academy. She'll make a great teacher. I have a few fun stories that I'm sure Willem and Jed would enjoy.

She tried to recall anything interesting but wouldn't cause her family to worry. Honestly, the only exciting assignment had been the serial killer case, and that's only because she got herself kidnapped.

One of my early assignments was quite fun. We were on a small planet picking up a wanted criminal who had been caught by the locals. 

When they had picked up the criminal, they had also stopped to chat with the local law enforcement for a while. Surprisingly, it was one of the local forces that didn't hate the COPS. (Though they were all too chronically drunk to care.) The missions was pretty uneventful, but one of the stories an intoxicated local officer had shared was pretty entertaining.

We happened to run into a scuffle in one of the tech shops where the owner claimed that he had been robbed. He was accusing a young Nemarian who claimed to be innocent. When one of my fellow officers asked the shop keeper why he was so certain the young Nemarian had stolen from him, the shop owner just gestured to the lad's admittedly very large and oddly-shaped hind end and said, "I've never seen a natural bum shaped like a multi-planetary broadcasting unit before."

That story was more of an old joke for the officers on that planet, but they had been elated to share it with fresh ears. Varyna was sure her brothers would enjoy it just as much. She wondered what her old squadmate Quoppi would think of that joke. Would he actually laugh? Or maybe even turn red from embarrassment?

She hadn't crossed paths with the shy Nemarian much (seeing as they were ions apart now). She thought she might get a chance to see him when they had an assignment on the border of the Aura sector, the place Quoppi had been assigned.

She hadn't seen her old friend, but they had met some interesting farmers.

We traveled to another small planet where two farmers had been sharing a flock of kechins on the shared border of the property for nearly a decade. For some reason, three of their best layers all stopped producing eggs at the same time and one of the farmers decided the natural reason for this was that his neighbor had started using demonic powers.

In an effort to cure his neighbor and fix their kechins, the old Kremel had taken a 'holy stick' to him repeatedly.

I could keep from laughing while my team lead explained to him that even though he used a holy stick, it was still considered assault and he would either have to go to jail or pay a fine, including reparations to his victim.

Hxlt had also been a victim of the farmer's 'holy stick' while he was trying to arrest the guy. Varyna and Opun laughed together as they watched, but they eventually had to step in and help. Hxlt was predictably less than impressed with their hesitation.

Varyna learned later that Holy Sticks were an actual religious item used by some rural planets who worshiped their suns. The stick the old farmer was beating others with didn't quite count as one, however. 

Well, that's all the time I have to write. I have another exciting mission waiting for me! Love you all.

She signed the letter with her new identity and closed the chip with a sigh. Writing letters could be tedious when there wasn't much to fill them with. She yawned and stretched then stood from her desk. 

"Maybe I'll have a nap now.." she mumbled. "Or I can go scour the kitchen for snacks."

She weighed her options carefully before deciding on the nap. There was a chance she'd run into her squadmates if she left her quarters, and things were still a little awkward after their last fight.

"I should put my real name on that letter," she said to herself as she snuggled under her blankets. "I hope the mafia will come and take me away.. Or at least take Opun."