"Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical" - Blaise Pascal
[color=#ccdeff]January 16th 813A.S. - Sector 3E - New York System
[color=#aac5f7]Zane King killed his engines, drfiting up beside the other three Patriots. He turned off his chase lights and steadied his breathing, time to begin his shift.
Work was slow, his partner Dean Zelinsky always made the job bareable, even on the low pay. Dean was a good friend, always had his back, told great stories. Friendship made the job possible.
The other two douchebags on patrol with them were Officers Leemac and Franklin, two of the greasiest, fattest, ugliest bastards in their precinct. Zane didn't like working with them in the slightest, they were lazy, they cut corners, they were here for the Sunbucks and pay, not to do their jobs right.
"You remember to zip up your flight suit this time Zane?" Dean chuckled, clearly teasing,
"Man shut up, don't make me remind you of that 'blonde' you took home at the christmas party" Zane responded,
"Low blow Zane, low blow..." Dean smiled, pushing the throttle to impulse, "We'll be patrolling up to Colorado and back down to Bush, you pick up the disrupters?"
"Yeah, full load" Zane replied, re-checking his ammo reserves,
"Let's move on out" Dean said, kicking his Patriot into cruise, pulling away from the douchebags. Zane was close behind in formation, following Dean into the tradelane.
They arrived in Colorado with no delays, running checks on the passing ships to spot contraband. A few Synth Transports had missing manifests, but alot of them turned out to be innocent Food Rations.
Another half hour passed before they got a call on an unmarked freighter headed down through the lanes from Planet Denver.
Another squad had seen it disappear into the lane towards New York, dropping mines on the ring as it passed through, cutting off pursuit.
Zane and Dean positioned themselves on either side of the last ring of the lane, ready to drop it when the freighter arrived. Within a few seconds, an unmarked Dromedary passed the last ring, matching the description the last squad had given.
Dean ordered it to cut it's engines, ready for a scan, but the pilot refused, engaging cruise. A couple of disrupters prevented him from cruising off.
"I said cut your engines pilot!" Dean yelled, firing off some warning shots,
"He's carrying a full load of Artifacts, Dean" Zane informed him, firing another disrupter,
The pilot continued his feeble attempts to reach cruise, ignoring the Officers.
"Open fire, he won't listen to us" Dean ordered, firing his debilitators and vengences,
Zane obeyed, assisting his friend in stripping the sheild off the Dromedary, as the pilot desperately applied Nanobots to his ever decreasing hull, two Patriots arrived, jumping in from New York.
It was the douchebags, Leemac and Franklin.
"Stop firing on that innocent trader!" Leemac commanded, flying in to stop the fighting,
"What are you talking about? He's smuggling in Liberty space!" Dean defended, continuing fire on the smuggler,
"He is under our protection, we ordered him to move those goods" Franklin blubbered, speaking between munching on his sandwiches,
"Now listen here you fat f**k-" Dean began, growing angrier as he focused his fire on the smuggler's engines.
"Open fire Franklin!" Leemac ordered, shooting on Dean's unsuspecting ship,
"What the hell are you doing?" Zane screamed, breaking off from the smuggler to defend Dean,
The smuggler successfully engaged cruise, disappearing into the jumpgate ahead of them.
"Goddamnit Leemac, you imbecile! He got away" Dean cursed, dodging fire from Franklin's terrible aim,
"Disengage Franklin, let's get out of here" Leemac smiled, engaging cruise,
Franklin obeyed, forming on Leemac's Patriot as they disappeared back into New York,
"Are you alright man?" Zane asked, checking his own systems for damage,
"Yeah, what was that about?" Dean hissed,
"I suspect foulplay, we'll talk to the Chief when our shift is done" Zane sighed, re-setting his weapon groups.
January 19th 813A.S. - Fort Bush - New York System
[color=#135fec]Zane sighed, shifting through more of his paperwork. Trying to find a lead on the smuggler. The Chief had told him to drop it, someone was handling it he was told. Zane smelt a lie though, the douchebags were as confident as ever.
"Have a good weekend, man?" Dean queried passing Zane's door,
"Been better... say, come take a look at these reports here" Zane muttered, beckoning Dean in,
Dean took the files Zane handed him, shuffling through them. Picking out specific sheets and reading them out to himself. They were all sheets of contraband seized and stored for evidence.
"So? These are all accounted for" Dean said, a confused look on his face,
"Yeah but look at who signed them off"
Dean checked the signatures at the foot of each evidence report, reading them out.
"Brian Leemac, Brian Leemac, Tom Franklin, Brian Leemac..." Dead repeated, throwing the sheets down, "So? This doesn't prove anything"
"It wouldn't if the evidence was present in the evidence warehouse, Leemac and Franklin are idiots, I traced back a few of their reports, turns out they aren't as good at covering it up as they thought they were" Zane sighed, kicking back in his chair,
"So some evidence went missing?" Dean questioned,
"A whole load of it never even made it to the warehouse, worse than that, It isn't just Leemac and Franklin who've corrupted, a large portion of our precinct have overseen this stuff, we aren't just looking at some crooked coppers Dean, we're looking at something alot more complicated"
"I know Zane, I've been here alot longer than you, I've seen some pretty bad stuff"
"You knew about s**t like this?" Zane cursed, throwing himself forward in his chair,
"Alot of us know Zane, the Chief is working on it"
"We have to do something Dean, even you know that, we can't let these a**holes walk everytime it's in the favour of the wallet of Liberty!"
"Zane, I appreciate your commitment, but this is being dealt with, there is nothing we can do, not as police officers"
"Dean... this is the justice system we're talking about, the incorruptible... What makes us any better than them eh? If we sit around and let this happen? What if this gets worse? What if the Chief is in on it?" Zane began,
"We let the Chief do his job, until then, we can think of ways to help the problem, rather than shouting at it" Dean assured him.
January 25th 813A.S. - Boston Residential District - Planet Manhattan - New York System
[color=#699af5]"How is this guy going to help again?" Zane questioned, straightening up his tie and attempting to uncrease his suit.
"He has dirt on a major Rogue gang operating in Colorado, but the Police Officers he assigned to deal with it haven't acted" Dean replied, ringing the doorbell on the house marked '55'.
"He suspects dirty cops?"
"Yeah, they haven't been touched since he handed over the information" Dean clarified, a figure moved about on the other side of the door, "Now shut up and play it cool, we need this guy"
The door opened to reveal an elderly man, wearing comfortable, yet expensive looking clothing.
"Well hello there!" he beamed, "I'm Martin Greenwood, one of you two must be Dean..." he tried to figure out which of the two he had talked to on the phone,
"That's me, this is my partner Zane" Dean introduced them,
"Pleasure to meet you Mr Greenwood, sir" Zane leaned forward to shake his hand,
"Well come in then, we can talk in the living room" Greenwood beckon them in, closing the door behind them,
His house was small and quaint, and it smelled like someone was cooking something delicious. The atmosphere was warm, the decorations were out of date, but homely. He led them into the living room and offered them a seat.
"So you wanted my help in tracking down those dodgy officers eh?" Greenwood questioned, sipping some tea he had left on the coffee table,
"That's the idea, if you could gather up anything that can be of use, we'll track down both those bad coppers, and the Rodrigo scumbag" Dean assured him,
"Well, I'll do my best, but how can I be sure you aren't just going to ignore it like the last two?" Greenwood asked,
"Because we're not part of the shifty part of the squad, or the ignorant kind, we're looking to clean up the office before we work on the streets.." Zane informed him,
"Good enough for me I suppose, but I am a lawyer, I have defended some guilty men, what happens to me?"
"Doesn't matter, you're willing to help us now, and it's the jury's choice to let someone walk, you're just doing your job" Dean assured him again,
"Smart thinking detective, I'll be in contact" Greenwood smiled, sipping.