“Agent Gibbin you said?” The contractor asked.
“Yea." Gib replied.
“Gib Gibbin?” The contractor asked.
“That’s the name.” Gib knew what was coming next.
“So you’re Gib Gibbin, the gibber that works at GIB. Is that right?” The contractor concluded.
“You got it.”
“I don’t think I've heard of something lining up so perfectly in my whole life.” Another contractor spoke up, this one was the other’s superior officer as told by the rank symbol on their arms.
“Well my parents really started me on the right track young you know?”
The contractors laughed loudly in Gib’s face.
“Too right, my Gods too right.” The contractor said.
“Well I suppose you have questions about this.” The sergeant said, gesturing to the dead bodies littering the ground, he was also coming down from his laughter at Gib’s expense.
“Just a few…” Gib had to be patient when meeting new people as he could never have an effective interview until they had their chance to make fun of his name and its connection to the colloquial name of his job.
“Reports say that there was some sort of terrorist attack and you and a DOD team were called in to investigate afterward?” His statement ended with an inquisitive pitch looking for confirmation from the contractors.
“That’s right. We started clearing buildings and came across this hidden area in the basement. We weren’t contracted to do any kind of investigatory or raid work, just ensure the security of the DOD team. When we came across the basement secret entrance, we got the DOD folks out and were attacked in the process.” The sergeant reported.
“By these Leonids, right? Did you lose anyone in the fight?” Gib asked.
“No thank the Gods. A few severely injured, but no deaths.” The sergeant said.
“Good, good. Well I’ll need to deputize the remainder of you for the purpose of clearing out the basement facility…” Gib started before he was interrupted.
“Actually Sir we received a call from our command that we are to head back expeditiously and leave everything as found.” Said a contractor captain that walked up to the three discussing the affair.
“You can’t deny a deputiza-” Gib started again before being cut off again.
“Sir, they said you would say that as well and that you would be getting a call to explain further. It’s out of my hands, sir. We are also not to answer any more questions as we have been signed to an NDA.” The captain said, holding up his hands.
“Sergeant, Corporal, please proceed with finishing exfiltration.” The captain commanded.
The two contractors saluted their superior officer and took off picking up different pieces of equipment scattered along the city street. Gib’s link began buzzing, he looked down and saw that the Senator was calling..
“Senator, I figured you would be calling.” Gib said.
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“Agent Gib, please let those contractors go and investigate the facility. We need to limit the amount of exposure this story is going to get. I have pulled an ungodly amount of favors in to quiet this down.” Senator Joon said quickly.
“We, Senator?” Gib asked sarcastically.
“Yes, WE. When you agreed to join the Silent Watchers and become an agent you became we, and WE, need to get to the bottom of this. Leonids have invaded Union space, and Union planets and are standing up secret facilities doing Gods knows what.” The Senator barked through the link.
“Understood… Did the lab ever come back with results of the sample you found on Radan?”
“The results were inconclusive, but it was most certainly blood. We just don’t know who’s or what’s. That further worries me about exposure, usually scientists can’t keep their mouths shut about unsolved mysteries.”
“Understood. Well I’ll call you when I’ve finished my investigation here.”
“See that you do Agent Gib.”
Gib hung up the phone. He was frustrated, somewhat questioning joining the secret organization the Senator roped him into, but it was for the greater good, and they allowed him freedom in his investigatory tactics. The investigation of the Leonid complex on Radan was his initiation and this facility on Tulian was his first real case as a Watcher.
Gib put away his link in his jacket pocket and entered the storefront he was instructed to investigate. He made his way down to the basement to find a massacre. Blood covered almost every surface of the room, including the clothes that the store supposedly sold upstairs.
On the wall was an antique piece of technology, a keypad, with manual buttons to press in the code to open the door. The face of it was open to reveal its wired innards where everything was crisscrossed showing signs of being tampered with by the contractor squad he was just questioning. On the front of the panel he found a familiar symbol, a thinly lined circle with two more lines in the center of it.
Gib shot out his life sense ability to see if he was going to be getting into another fight when he got to the bottom of this facility. Luckily he did not detect anything so he strolled down the hall to find another elevator, just like he found in the complex on Radan. Different from Radan however were two gun turrets sitting within small concrete bunkers. A couple Leonid bodies were sprawled out on the floor of the long hallway, including one that the elevator door was attempting to close on repeatedly. Gib moved the body out of the path of the door and allowed the elevator to take him down to his destination.
Agent Gib arrived to a familiar scene as the other facility when he reached the bottom. A hallway line with windows, automatic rectangular doors, and a left-handed turn at the end of the hall. The difference between this facility and the other though was that he got there in the middle of the Leonid extraction as opposed to the end. Gib sighed as he realized the amount of work that was cut out for him.
After several hours, Gib had learned startlingly little about this second facility, except many references to “Assets.", “securing the Assets at the staging location." and a slew of security procedures when they were dealing with the “Assets.". Everything was code worded and so vague he couldn’t glean any operational knowledge of the site whatsoever. Gib placed the papers he was reading back down on the administrator’s desk and walked back out into the dull hallway and turned the corner to find the same vault door as he had before.
Inside the vault however, Gib finally found something interesting and new. Four Leonids laid dead on the floor surrounding a large pool of the purple blood he found at the last site. The smell of death filled his nose as he laid eyes on the beehive like nest in the corner of the room. A honeycomb structure that bloomed up like a flower instead of a flat surface against the wall. Gib pulled out his pistol and cautiously walked forward. While the outer integrity of the object was dry, further inspection showed liquid pooling towards the bottom.
Gib put a glove on and rolled up his sleeve to stick his hand into the short honeycomb structure and fish around. The liquid was very thick, like a gravy as opposed to a soup, thicker than the blood on the ground. There were chunks inside which made Gib want to hurl but he kept it in luckily. He pulled out a couple chunks of the mystery meat and placed them in evidence bags he pulled from his duster jacket. He collected additional samples of liquid as well as blood from off the floor and decided to call it a day.
Back outside in the fresh air the contractors that greeted him there were long gone, but his link buzzed with a welcome interaction from an old friend he went to the Academy of Contractor Certification with.
“Hey Kalazan, I assume you had a chance to look at the stuff I sent you?” Gib said, delighted to talk to his old friend.
“I did, and we need to talk. I’m glad you didn’t bring this to any old lab, this would have been flagged immediately and generated a full-blown inquiry.” Kalazan said.
“So… What is it?” Gib asked non-chalantly.
“Gib, we go way back, but I can’t talk about this over the phone. Come to my home, I have something to show you.”
