((This character is neither an agent, nor an SFA, but under the circumstances this struck me as the best place to put her profile. After having gotten into this intro though…I think you should expect to see an Investigator Limna in the future as well.))
Disturbing reports were making their way to investigator Limna's desk, one after another. He had grown accustomed to the routine violence that often followed disagreements in his district’s burgeoning spaceport. Most recently the increase in slave trade had made the place a haven of sorts for all sorts of typically undesirable characters, though none of the locals would complain about it too loudly. Their own business had increased ten-fold, and the city governor got a healthy kickback for looking the other way. Limna had never been a supporter of the slave trade, but he hadn’t ever opposed it either. It came with benefits both good and bad, and until now the bad had been a minor nuisance compared with the good.
These repeated incidents, however, were quickly changing his mind, as well as many others in the city. Over the last month at least a dozen known slave traders had been found brutally murdered in a variety of fashions. Some appeared to be arranged accidents; others looked as though the perpetrator had an axe to grind with the deceased. The disturbing part was that thus far no one had caught a glimpse of the killer, not a single trace of useful evidence had been found at any of the crime scenes. Only a single common element showed him that these murders were linked.
At each scene scrawled somewhere in various materials, paint, chalk, sometimes the victim’s blood was a single word, “Spartacus”. Its meaning meant nothing to Linma or anyone in the investigation department, until an anonymous tip had pointed them at something useful. “Spartacus” it seemed, was the name of a slave who led a tremendous rebellion on the primitive world from which the humans came. That explained, at least, why its meaning had eluded them for such a time. Humans were a rarity here, even with a massive slave trade. They were quite valuable, for a number of reasons, Linma had gone on to learn, least of which their uses for pleasure and for some species reproduction. What he had not yet pinned down, however, was how such a pathetic creature was managing to kill so many. Humans were a weak species, in body as well as limited in mind. He remembered how he’d laughed when he learned that it took a pair of humans almost a year to produce a single offspring, it was no wonder they were such a rarity.
He finally ceased his mind’s wandering and turned his attentions towards the latest report, linking the explosion of a ship in orbit to this “Spartacus” character. The human was getting more creative, as well as more dangerous. As he flipped through the report, a younger agent, Interrogator Svra burst into his office. “Lord Investigator, we have something!”
Limna rose slowly from behind his terminal, staring across the office towards Svra. “This, I hope for your sake, is not another dead end.” His voice dripped with cool contempt. Svra was an up and coming officer, but a little too overzealous. The last time he’d “found something” it had turned out to be a dead end and gotten the entire department into unnecessary trouble with the city government.
Svra nodded enthusiastically as he always seemed to, “Indeed, we have a survivor!” At those words Limna moved quickly from behind the desk and out into the room that served as office for most of his underlings in the investigative department. Most of his officers stood in a semi-circle around a short, stout creature that had tentacles for limbs. He introduced himself as Qerth, a travelling slaver. He had just come into possession of a small shipment of human females, and had intended to sell some of them here. He had arrived smoothly, with all of the proper documentation and fees paid, Svra had checked that first. He made his cargo known through net advertisements and entered his wares available for the next public auction. What he hadn’t counted upon, however, was an attack. He gave a terse description of his attacker, saying little more was known to him as it had all happened so fast. To protect his interests, he’d hired a pair of hulking mercenaries as guards until they were all sold, though they were largely for intimidation. When attacked, one had been killed instantly and the second had fled in panic. Qerth explained that he’d hidden himself in a dark corner and didn’t believe the woman had seen him, for he’d been behind the dead man. She was fairly tall, for a human female, roughly one point seven meters, with a slight build; he estimated fifty-five kilograms. Her appearance was not of standard human stock, however. She bore two eyes, each a disturbing shade of red, and her roughly kept hair was a shade somewhere between white and pink. She’d freed the slaves and spoken to them in one of humanity’s unintelligible languages before scrawling “Spartacus” on a nearby wall in the dead man’s blood.
It was certainly a breakthrough, for the description distributed onto the net was responded to almost immediately by hundreds of tips, though only one proved particularly interesting. Coming from an anonymous source they traced back to a slaver alliance, they learned more about the criminal that called herself Spartacus. She was a former resident of the “Shokushu” facility, what could probably be best described as a facility that provided the bulk of human slaves available on the market. Her real name was strange to me and difficult to pronounce, Nicole Clarke. I preferred to continue calling her Spartacus, as that is what I had learned to pronounce. When she’d been brought from this Shokushu she had already been purchased, though the buyer had requested some physical alterations be done before taking possession of his slave – hence the unusual eye and hair colour, though beyond that records indicate no further alterations were performed, leaving me to suspect that she is no more formidable physically as an ordinary human. Something, however, had gone awry in transit and both the slave and slaver were presumed dead after the vessel’s wreckage was found on a nearby asteroid. She had however, apparently taken one of the vessel’s interceptor craft and had since been stealing and killing her way across the galaxy. Her personality as a slave was rebellious, constantly struggling, fighting, and resisting anything her masters desired. It seems that she has not changed in the time since, her actions and demeanour strike me as a typical anti-authority type. Her motivation is probably very simple, she seeks vengeance against those who have wronged her and her species, though at this point she’d need a fleet to fulfil that desire. Considering the frequency of the murders that could be pinned to Spartacus, I would go as far as to suggest that she either had accomplices or simply goes from completing one kill to planning the next. Questioning some who had heard and seen her, as well as a handful of slave she had freed, she is apparently fairly fluent in most of the local trade languages, though she speaks them with an obvious accent. Physically she is as all humans are, weak and pathetic, though she has countered that point, and has apparently earned quite a reputation as a marksman, as well as a talented pilot. Therefore she is presumed to be well armed and exceedingly dangerous, caution is advised to any who approach or attempt to apprehend this fugitive slave. Distinguishing marks, she has none, though should her unique appearance not prove to be enough to make her stand out, she still bears the leg manacles of her slavery, though they bear no chain now. Whether they are a reminder, souvenir, or she simply found them too difficult to remove we do not know at this point. One last piece of information, her vessel was last reported in the northern reaches of the moon Ceuot (see attached picture).
That ends this report; hopefully it will help my successor in bringing this fugitive terrorist to justice. This is the only case I have ever left open in my career, but my leave has been planned for far too long now, therefore I leave this to whomever the Lord Protector decides should take up my position. Regarding your questions about my retirement plans, I have often considered the moon of Vega, but this Shokushu facility also intrigues me. Perhaps I shall take a sojourn to it before my passing.