The Calm Before The Storm. (3)

At this point, nobody even attempted to converse with the drivers as they were forced to concentrate completely on the task of driving, and as Relovan looked over to Highways that were adjacent to the one they were on, he saw Police cruisers from other precincts all using thrusters as well.

"Damn." Was the only thing he said as he assumed there were even more motorcades all rushing to the Station as well.

The drive up was usually a forty-five-minute affair; however, they didn't have that kind of time. The use of thrusters meant that they would shave at least ten minutes off of that standard time. There was absolutely no conversation in the Captain's car, and Relovan continued to look out at space and the other motorcade out to his right. The Station and the First Planet were visible, and as they got closer to them both, the sight of other Highways and other motorcades became more and more prominent.

"Just how many of us have been summoned?" Relovan asked nobody in particular.

"The best Enforcers from every precinct were requested." Toto answered, much to Relovan's surprise. "It seems we are needed for appearances – to make it seem as though we are competent enough to keep things under control should the situation escalate."

"The fact that two bitter rivals will be arriving at the same Station is absolutely ridiculous."

"Agreed." Toto said, replying once more. "These people could destroy us and the planets if they broke out into a serious fight."

"How the fuck are we supposed to prevent that from happening?!" The Captain barked.

"Well, we are the Law." Relovan answered without a lick of reservation. "We will enforce the law, and force them to toe the line – Void Lords or not."

After a total of half an hour, Relovan and the rest of the motorcade blasted through the Access points into the station. They had deactivated their thrusters upon receiving a prompt from somebody at the Station Access, so by now, they were using the regular engines – although the thruster use had chewed through vast amounts of fuel. The fuel was enough to carry them to the Central Station, which was the main Police Station on Blargon 5 in its entirety. The trip to Central Station was quite chaotic, with motorcades all taking different routes to the building. By the time Relovan and the rest of his colleagues reached Central Station, it was hub of lights and noise as the vast majority of Enforcers just jumped out of their cars and rushed into Central. The Policemen and women that were running inside were already mostly armed and armoured – Relovan's precinct included. The Captain and Toto led the group into the building, with Relovan hanging back in order to try and find an opportunity to get changed. There was no such opportunity however, as Captain Biggum actually looked around for Relovan, before calling out to him when he located him.

"What are you doing?! Get your ass over here!"

The Human Enforcer looked at his still sweaty Captain and sighed, before making his way up to both the Captain and Toto, who just gave him a slightly apologetic look. The group walked in to find the top-rated Police Enforcers from all the other precincts as well as their captains all assembled within a particularly large auditorium. The captains were in a group of their own, while the rest were standing in the groups they arrived in. A captain from the group spotted Captain Biggum and waved him over.

"Piggy! You made it!" The female sounding Captain boomed. "I wasn't sure if your ugly, cowardly butt was going to come."

"Quiet down, Mpume." Another Captain said. "Besides, do you really think that you're in any position to call Piggy names and say he's ugly?"

"Yeah, especially when it looks like a Vrundrian Acid Slug danced all over your face." Another Captain said with a barely disguised chortle.

As the one called Mpume looked at both the Captains that had chided her with a dirty look, although having the face that she did, she really could have just been looking at them normally. Biggum sighed as he looked at Toto and Relovan.

"Let's go greet the other Captains." He said defeatedly.

"Unfortunately Captain, I can't do that. This is an official gathering of Police – Captains are to fraternize with Captains, and those of us of lower rank are to fraternize with our fellows. I am prohibited by law to go there."

"What?! This is a crisis, Relovan! Who cares about the rules?"

"It is precisely because this appears to be an emergency that we have follow the letter of the law. I shall hang back with the others. Excuse me."

Relovan quickly turned around and walked back to join the other Enforcers from his precinct. He didn't really speak to them and he wasn't spoken to either as the others seemingly gave him the cold shoulder and the odd sneer. He paid them absolutely no mind as he set about pulling a belt out from the bag. The belt itself was armoured, however the reason it was equipped was because it had slots and pouches designed for holding things. Relovan was quick to start loading the slots with grenades, smoke bombs, various serums and every other useful handheld object that was in the bag – extra ammunition included.

"It's nice being the… how do they say on Earth, 'teacher's pet', isn't it Relovan?" Said a voice from behind.

"I'm not sure if that is what they say on Earth Ste-Az; I've never been." Relovan replied without even looking back.

At this time, he was busy equipping some plated gloves – with some difficulty – and once those were on, he went back to rummaging through the bag. There was just the briefest moments of awkward silence as everybody waited for him to address the actual meaning behind the phrase teacher's pet. It became apparent very quickly that Relovan had absolutely no intention of doing so, and this got on the nerves of the one called Ste-Az.

"Look here Human trash, you've been acting like you fucking own the place for long enough. Don't think for even a second that your past makes us fear you – you're still only human after all."

Again, as if he didn't hear what had been said, Relovan continued looking through the bag. Ste-Az and the other Enforcers were seriously starting to get pissed off, however before the situation could escalate any further, Biggum and Toto rejoined the group, as the other Captains did with their respective squads. Toto seemed to be sensitive to even the slightest changes in atmosphere and had already detected that things were a little tense.

"Ugh, what is with that Mpume? With a face like that, I can't believe she has nine children." Captain Biggum said with a snort and a shudder. "Why does she want me to give her one?"

"Are you sure she doesn't want to feed you to them, Captain?" Toto asked his boss, which drew a few chuckles from the others.

Relovan continued to sort through the bag when a loud voice interrupted any and all conversations that were being had by those in Central.

"Enforcers – attention!" The voice boomed, and within a matter of seconds, every single Police Enforcer stood up straight and at attention.

The sound of approaching footsteps made all the Enforcers stand in absolute silence, and moments later, an absolutely massive man dressed similarly to the rest of them walked in. His attire had quite a few medals on it, his cape wrapped around his entire body and his hat was slightly different, looking more like a military commander's hat than the flatpeak cap everybody else was wearing. This man was an Adonian, a race of war-mongering conquerors who were widely regarded as beasts that simply existed for the sake of battle. Large and physically powerful by nature, this man was a specimen even amongst other Adonians, and his footsteps seemed to shake the very foundations of the Station. A few moments after he had stopped walking and looked the hundreds of assembled Police Enforcers over, he suddenly spoke again.

"This is pathetic." He boomed, his burbling voice startling a few people. "Enforcers, assemble into Column Formation B – precinct by precinct!"

Everybody that was present within the auditorium saluted swiftly began shuffling and moving into formation. As if moving on rails, they all changed positions within the auditorium, and after close to five minutes of shuffling, it was over with. Hundreds of Policemen and women stood organised and at attention, with Relovan and the rest having assembled towards the rear of the formation. Each precinct had brought around eighty Enforcers, leaving the planets somewhat barren, however this was an emergency situation. The order of precincts within the formation was governed by their rating with the force based on performance, and columns formed by those rated the lowest brought up the rear.