//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: The Detective Turned Smuggler // by Lamasioux //------------------------------// November 30th, 1009 Regine, the police chief, sighed.  A gruesome murder of a mid-aged deer where their head was cut off. It wasn’t a normal case for the city, but it was still one that needed to be solved and unfortunately Torsti was now the head lead detective for the case, being the one who first reported on it. “I lay in bed every night once the city is quiet, only listening to the distant sound of explosions 20 some miles to the east. Every fucking night for the past three months now. Closer and closer and closer they get. Each day they increase just slightly more. Noticeably louder each night. Back and forth it goes. We send our artillery, they send theirs. Only theirs is what I’m worried about. That’s what you mainly hear. All night. All day. All night and all day.” Regine took a moment and rubbed the base of his antlers. “Torsti. I think this is the case that breaks me. Not only do will the Changelings be here in some weeks where the military will be doing urban fighting, destroying everything we’ve protect, but we also have to worry about normal living and life. Murders and headless deer on top of it. I-” Regine sighed again. The stress was really building up on him. Torsti said, “At least we finally have some clues on who might’ve done it. Vesa was able to get us a bit more information yesterday as well as our infestation into nearly every house on the road, plus more. Only took two full days of work and tons of questioning to find out that we truly are dealing with a military car. Found some deer who saw a car that night driving in the direction it went, before and after the murder and with their words, we’ve confirmed the identity of the car. No clue who it belongs to yet but we did send in our info to the base. Should be getting word back if they know anything regarding it later today actually. Probably head over to find out after this.” Torsti finished off by stretching his legs and closing his eyes momentarily to enjoy a seconds worth of rest. “If the military ends up having anything useful, it’ll surely be able to be paired with those other killings that happened on the other side of the city. Had a few deaths in the past month similar like Nooe’s. Whoever’s doing it, they’ve been doing it recently.” Said Aulis. “Mhmm, very much so. I’d wager either tomorrow or the next day we’ll be finding whoever this creature is. Arrest them, get their ass to Cervus for military work and move onto that spy problem the base wanted us to work on. Enjoy the rest of our days doing that before we finally evacuate the city.” Regine moaned out. The three sitting together sat quiet for a few seconds before Torsti broke his own rest and stood up, “Whelp, enough fucking around doing nothing. I’ll enjoy my rest after this Nooe problem. I’ll head off now to get that info about the car now. Good luck you two bastards.” He then left the HQ, checked out the same car he had used the day of the incident and took off, back to the military base, this time with a reason to go. The drive over was calmer and slower than it was days prior. Snow had started falling two days ago so everything had a thin coating fo white over it. Few car tracks littered the snowy road, so little that any detective could figure out which track belonged to what car. There wasn’t much else to do for the twenty minutes it’d take to get out of the city to the base so Torsti turned on the one-way radio the car was equipped with and flipped through the channels that were being broadcasted. Most deer had radios, but even the police had limited radios for sending messages still. Olenia wasn’t that far developed to equip every deer with one. Any being made were being sent straight into military service for all the deer fighting currently. Losses were high still. Only the radio stations in Vaverfront, Hjortland and Cervus had known radio stations that were able to send out their voices. Even then, most deer knew they probably had some soldier nearby, making sure they weren’t spitting out something they shouldn’t. At least that was the rumor. Hard to know when nodeer’s questioning it. “As we enter December my viking brothers and sisters know that Queen Velvet is watching over our fellow Deers at the frontlines. She of all deer are working tirelessly day and night to better our future and ensure we win this damn war those bugs started--” *Click* More propaganda. Even if it’s the basic truth, it’s still the same. We’re losing though. It’s something every deer knows if they pay any attention to rumors and newspaper. We in Vaverfront don’t even have to do that. All we have to do is listen and hear it. At least some stations don’t have war music being playing. “--t gnisol drac lli yademos yal Os sight si lla I evah ot yas. Edicius si sselnaip Ti sgnirb no ynam segnahc Dna I nac ekat ro evael ti fi I esaelp. Eht drows fo emit lliw--” Damn Equestrian. Sometimes the stations play music for those that can understand it. Sadly Torsti can’t. After listening to the song for a bit longer, it just sounded like other war songs, despite Torsti unable to understand it so he just turned off the radio. Silence it was. Other than nothing interesting being on the radio, the ride went uneventful. Once Torsti made it to the military base, he met with base security who disarmed him, checking him for anything suspicious as well as using a magic item to detect whether he was a changeling under disguise or not. He passed. Once everything was in order. Torsti was escorted by the security to the First Lieutenant who was helping with the investigation. After talking, writing notes and being told some worthless classified information that not even the Changelings could make use of, Torsti was sent off. “Damn fucking easy to just get in it seems.” Torsti muttered to himself once he was back in the car. He  shook his head a bit and went back off to the police HQ with his newfound information. On the ride, Torsti went through his head of the information he just learned, trying to piece together what he could with what the department already knew. But what was best right now was to get back and share it with everydeer else. “-- Equestrian import.” Torsti said. “1005 model. Old but it works. FEN-289 plate. They didn’t remove it. Taken from a native pony in Seaddle two months ago. Sat in storage for a few weeks after being retrofitted to work for the military. Then they gave it out to, what I was told to say, some random deer. Anything past that they either said was classified or I was told to not tell after the lieutenant fucked up.” He shrugged it off, “Not going to mess with that so that’s the information I got from them.” “FEN-289 then.” Regine nodded at Lenni who was on the stations only two-way radio. “This is Officer Lenni with Chief Regine. We have information regarding the headless Nooe murders. Need all operators currently stationed to get this out to all officers involved with the case.” Lenni stopped talking and waited a few seconds to let the operators at the other stations get ready for the info. “We are looking for a plate number FEN-289, an Equestrian Filly import, 1005 model. Military converted. We believe that it is in the hoofs of a active duty soldier. Their role is unknown to us at this time but this is currently what we have known so far. Pl--...” Lenni spoke about what to do and such, nothing worth listening to. “Tomorrow or the day after. As I said. Once they find the car and who’s associated with it. We’ll get to action.” Regine said. “Definitely has to be a military member. Only reason the car hasn’t been reported missing I bet.” Aulis said. Torsti nodded along to him, not saying anything else. But he stood up and said, “Well, cars yours then. I’ll be walking home tonight. Not far so y’all don’t have to worry about me.” He said as he was wrapping himself in his jacket, already bracing for the cold outside, “Might even see our suspect car, who knows.” Everydeer said their goodbyes as the day came to a closing. Torsti didn’t usually work at night and today wouldn’t be any different. Today he’d be going home to enjoy some nice hot chocolate. Alcohol wasn’t his thing, but that sweet chocolatey drink was. Especially since winter was rolling around. It didn’t take Torsti more than a minute after leaving the station building before he could hear distant shelling between the crunching of snow from his hooves. Even at the end of the day, when most cities in the world would be busy with traffic from cars and creatures alike, here in Vaverfront, most deer would be found sticking inside most of their time. The lack of cars and the looming front line made many scared to be outside. Still, the occasional car would drive by that had lucked out from being thrown into a war it didn’t ask for and pedestrians that wanted to brave the quiet. Every car that drove by, Torsti inspected. Every car he walked by he inspected. Nothing matched the car of the Nooe case. None probably would but he had to do his part. Once Torsti reached his home, he stopped outside of it and faced the direction of distant artillery and stared up at the reddening sky. Despite being a few trots away from the door to his home, where a cold fire dying to be lit was ready to warm it’s housing, Torsti stood, letting his mind wander. He shrugged and finally made his way inside before the passing deer deemed him insane. Torsti poured the boiling hot chocolate into a mug, before putting the rest back near the fire to stay hot. He took his mug and placed it on the coffee-stand next to the chair and leaned back. He brought one of the many blankets that draped the other side of the chair and covered himself with one before dragging another across himself. While he waited for his freshly poured hot coco to air cool, he spent a few moments of frustrating fidgeting to get into a comfortable position covered in two blankets where he could safely drink his hot beverage. Once snug, he began. Sip after sip did he slowly consume his hot chocolate, watching the fireplace burn away at his lacking supply of wood. The cracks and the pops of the fireplace blended well with the occasional sounds of distant booms. The next hour he let his mind wander again and again, thinking about cases he’s solved, where involved in and active ones. He thought of the war and thought of what’ll happen to everydeer once they lose. What’ll he do when they lose. What’ll even happen. He, like many deer, weren’t thinking that far ahead though. They each just had to manage to survive the current day before worrying about the next. But there was one thing that kept coming back to Torsti. One thing. One little small piece of information he learned during the Nooe case. What the fuck was Operation Operation.