Carnage by Aer-ki Jyr (the chimp paradox .TXT) 📕

11 foot tall reptilian visibly twitched, after which he became a puppet as Cal-com remote controlled his body and got him moving through the crowd of statues until they got to the edge where there were moving people beyond looking on at the freakish occurrence…but a little mental distraction from Cal-com took their curiosity away and he was able to blend in with them as he walked behind his ward.

Paul hung back a bit, wiping the memories of the police officers and adding some mental conditioning against assassinations. That way the next time they were ordered to do so they wouldn’t accept it without thinking. They might still overcome his imbedded impetus, but they’d have to work at it to do it. That might put their own lives in jeopardy if their bosses didn’t like them not following through, but that was still better than them jumping someone who didn’t have a chance to fight back.

And while he was working on them he reviewed the orders he was given as he slowly walked away from the scene. There was quite a bit of wrong going on here, and it seemed to avoid Star Force’s rule against executions they were killing people unofficially in order to get the job done…along with a lot more unsavory stuff.

That angered Paul in a multitude of ways, but the most shocking of all was the fact that Star Force had set firm rules to allow them to remain independent. Generous rules that allowed a lot of crap to go on but provided individuals caught up in that crap an escape route. There was a Star Force embassy on the planet, though far from here, that would transport anyone off the planet that wished to leave. And rather than send their political enemies there to get rid of them…which many planets did…they were instead killing them, as if getting rid of them wasn’t the objective. It was almost like they wanted the sick pleasure of overriding their control of their own lives and snuffing them out.

It had been a very long time since Paul had sensed a mind with that level of darkside in it. The Hadarak were different, for they were just going on instinct and programming. This was by choice. It was individuals seeking out the darkside and embracing it, not being tricked into it or programmed to follow it.

Most of these police didn’t fall into that category, but two of them did, and it turned out they were the ones making the assassination kills while the others were either not in view or simply said nothing and did nothing as it happened.

But those two…they knew what they were doing was a violation. And for them that was the point. Part of it was old genetic memory, prey and predator instincts, where you went after a target because you were instructed to, and movement and even screeching enhanced the takedown urge, almost as if it were a game.

But in those predator instincts there was no desire to cause pain or torture. That’s still what happened, but from the predator’s perspective they didn’t understand that. They didn’t understand they were tearing apart a person, just an objective.

This was different because the whole point of it was to tear apart a person. They didn’t just pull them out of view and shoot them in the head. They would beat and knife them into a bloody mess before finally killing them. They wanted the torture, and reveled in it. They wanted to see their terror and feel it, as some kind of sick rush…which was why they were so useful when it came to assassinations. They weren’t doing it for money or power, they actually liked it.

As Paul walked off those two individuals collapsed to the ground, with specific internal organs spontaneously crushed to kill them as quickly as possible using Lachka. These two monsters were not going to be able to prey on anyone else, but there were probably many more of them out there if these assassinations were as widespread as these police seemed to think.

Paul continued to walk, visibly calm but with his teeth clenched. This was within Star Force’s domain, though it wasn’t their territory, and that made it even worse. The Hadarak were the greater threat, but this darkside was playing out right here, plain as day, by people with skills and powers far inferior to even the youngest of Archons. Why was this being allowed?

Paul knew the answers to that. Star Force couldn’t be everywhere. Star Force needed to fight the biggest enemies. Star Force had to pick and choose its battles, and in truth Paul knew of many histories that were far darker than this, but being right here and seeing it about to happen in his presence angered him in a way he hadn’t experience before in his entire life.

And part of that anger was him having the power to stop it, as well as many others in Star Force, and nobody had. It had just been overlooked as an unimportant planet with an escape hatch for people to leave if they needed to.

But they couldn’t leave if they were jumped and killed by the very police force that was supposed to be protecting people.

The rage burned in him as he slowly walked and caught up to Cal-com and their rescuee who was still unaware of what was happening. It was better that way, because trying to explain would leave him freaking out and drawing attention, and right now they needed to get him away from here and to the embassy.

They walked, using mental distraction as needed, until another group of 6 police officers…different from the first ones…spotting the Tri’meori and yelled out at him, attempting to arrest him before Paul did another quick mind wipe and sent them on their way.

“We’re being tracked,” Cal-com noted.

“I think you’re right,” Paul said, extending