As Swain's ship entered the space near the Governor's Palace, the scanners started to scream. An entire film appeared before the ship. The entire might of the Top Region's 46th Punitive Regiment's naval forces lined up in a defensive formation before the Palace. As the ship was calculating a path for docking into the Palaces dock, three haling signals have been received from the fleet. The three squadron captains were hailing to him.
"Ship, turn the hails down and order them to gather at the Governor's Hall for debriefing and new orders." Swain gave out an order as he was making sure that his uniform was immaculate.
"As you command, Governor de Peck."
The ship slit through the emptiness of space and docked into the Palace with a quiet 'tud' sound. The airlock hissed as it balanced the air pressure between the two objects. Swain left his ship and entered an absolute dilapidated hangar. The dust was visible on the floor and many lights didn't work properly. The only ship was a small shuttle probably belonging to the Leader of 46th Punitive Regiment.
Swain breathed in a mouthful of the vapid and dust-filled air. So this dust nest was his new position. For this shack, he has left behind his high spires in the Institution of Order and Investigation and his palace complex on the beautiful world of Servack II. Even in his early years when he was toiling in the toxic mine of Kerast, he had never felt more desperate and hopeless.
Maybe the Emperor intended this place as his new station, but Swain couldn't understand why would he, Deputy Investigator Swain de Peck, sent to be in the border village. There should have been a thousand better places where he could serve the Emperor purpose better, and conversely, there were thousands, if not billions, individuals who could serve here better. Swain has been thinking a lot about this for the last two hours, but he couldn't, even the slightest, understand the Emperor's intention.
Maybe it was sinful for a simple being like Swain to question a Ruler, but Swain, who in the past could clearly see his future path, was now lost in a miasma of questions and doubts. Maybe it was the current state of this palace, but he was depressed by the atmosphere and he could even feel a sense of decay in the air.
The end of his cane slammed against the steel and stone floor of the Governor Palace and its sound could be heard echoing around in its empty halls as Swain walked towards the Governor's Hall. He could sense that these halls were constructed by millions of mortal sinners hundreds of years ago in a work camp. Then it was towed here on the same route as Swain arrived and had been left here to rot and decay for the last hundred years. Maybe he, himself, was destined to rot and decay in this joke of a palace, just for a small concession between a noble family and the Emperor.
As he was musing on these thoughts, he sensed a wave of power that appeared in the near. It was the familiar power of the most basic way of imperial magic, the Shock Formula. Somebody released a considerable attack inside of the Governor's Hall. From the attack's power alone, Swain could calculate that it was probably the colonel of the 46th Punitive Regiment who discharged this magic. Swain was distracted from his musings by this sudden attack, but soon he realised that there was another form of magic lingering in the air.
He felt something like this before. Something so small and so shadowy that even he couldn't notice at first.
'Maybe the colonel will have an answer.' though Swain and continued his walk towards the Governor's Hall.
But as more Swain thought about this strange underlining force, the more serious he got. As his thoughts moved away from his depressing path more and more, the stronger he could feel this power's influence in the surrounding air. The air was filled with it, the smell of the magic was almost the same as the air yet definitely different. Then Swain remembered.
The holds of the Halls of Order in the centre of the Institution of Order and Investigation and an enchantment used to make the convicts and criminals depressed and melancholic. Mines of the Noble Faction, powered by slaves chained by magic weaved to blame the past and not think about their present. The Legion Melancholis' weapons forged to break the enemy's will to fight and break the morale of armies.
Swain hastened his steps, despite the ever-present pain in his right thigh, the power was radiating from the Governor's hall, a sanctum of the Empire's and the Glorious Emperor's power. If some non-human was corrupting it then in this Zone there were more problem he thought.
When he entered, he saw two Imperials in the middle of the hall. One of them was in the green uniform of the Punitive Regiment while the other wore the usual white and gold uniform of the Imperial Navy. They were the colonel of the 46th Punitive Regiment, Colonel Vlastimir, and the leader of the Naval Elements in Top Excursion Zone E1Z1, Commodore Gima. And there was one more person inside the room. He was on the Judgement Cross of the Governor's Hall. That was a device of the Emperor's Justice. If he survived the cross, then Swain would think about him, but if he didn't, then he simply didn't warrant any thought at all.
Besides these three people, Swain could feel a fourth presence lurking in the depths of magic. It wasn't using Imperial magic, and it definitely wasn't human. A non-human inside one of the Sanctums of the Empire. Heresy!
"Who dares to defile this glorious hall of our Empire? I ask that brave being to stand out and face me. To face me and receive his punishment for sulling one of the sacred places of the Emperor!" shouted Swain in his wrath.
His voice was imbued by the power he wielded in the name of the Emperor. This power was made to fight non-humans and sinners in the first place, so the presence lurking inside the Hall was frightened and tried to slip away.
"And you dare to run from me?! The Governor of this sacred Hall, Swain de Peck!" shouted Swain even louder and struck the floor with his cane while imbuing it with his power.
A wave formed from his power and gathered around the being. It fought against it for a minute, but it was completely useless. Swain was an experienced Investigator who had captured even traitor legionaries in the past. The presence was soon bound by shackles weaved the strongest magic that Swain could muster. It was dragged into the light and its figure could be seen.
It was a pot given sentience and power comparable to stage 10 experts, but it definitely was stronger than similar powerhouses in the field of stealth. Swain read about these kinds of artificial experts, or artifact spirits, and they were a favored way of the Cultivation Union to achieve more power. But if a spirit like this was here, it meant that the Cultivation Union held bigger sway over the Top Excursion Zone, than Swain thought it would be possible for them.