280 Side Story : The Guardian 2 : The Outpos

Kodak placed set the airship on a hill that overlooked the slave outpost below him. He needed the vantage point, but also this was the only place that offered enough protection from the outpost. There was a short time rter chance of being discovered, and as it is, he needed to tread with caution and discretion.

"I hope you're not planning on leaving me here?" Shao Tie asked, as his huge golden form, peeled away from the airship, and materialized by Kodak's side.

"You're almost a hundred meter long if not more, those guys will see us coming. So it's better if you remain bonded to the airship." Kodak explained to Shao Tie, hoping against all odds that the dragon won't make things too difficult for him.

"Don't worry, I can be discreet too." Shao Tie replied to Kodak.

However, before Kodak could ask the imperial dragon what he meant, he turned into a beam of light and drilled into Kodak's body. The entire process was painful and tortured filled, as for only a moment that seemed like it would last an eternity, Koado felt his organs, his blood, his body even his cells shift and change to acclimate to the fact that he was now housing a dragon in his body.

"Now that's much better, you better get a move on though, we have to get this done, and fast too. I don't think I want to be around this for much longer, it feels weird."

Kodak even with his pain addled mind couldn't refute with what Shao Tie just said. The outpost had this weird vibe that he couldn't place finger on. The outpost was one massive dome in the middle, along with a few towers. There was a launching bay, along with a lot of ships parked on it. However based on the sizes of those ships, Kodak would have to agree that this place really was a market for slaves. The majority of ships there were cargo ships, and while there wasn't much activity within the outpost, the entire place was brightly lit, and Kodak could hear whispers spread allover the place.

"you know you can't just waltz up into that place right, there's bound to be detection spells and wards out in place, so they would definitely see you coming from a mile away." Shao Tie's voice rang out loudly in Kodak's mind.

"I know that, and at this point, I can't really say that I know what sort of spell or wards are placed around the perimeter of the outpost, but I think I should be able to bypass all that by going through there." Kodak completed his words by pointing at the eastern part of the outpost. A huge sewage pipe was left exposed to the world, as a various amounts of viscous sludge pure out from it.

"No! Don't you dare. If you go in there, you'll be smelling like shit for a week, and right now, I'm in your body, which means you have to treat it like a holy temple. I forbid you from going into that place." Shao Tie raged as his voice rang out within Kodak's mind.

"Well it seems you're forgetting something. It's my body, and I can do whatever the fuck I want to do with it. You're just a passenger, so just come along and keep your mouth shut."

With that said, Kodak ignored the still complaining Shao Tie ad he made his way down the hill, but not before placing his airship in stealth mode. Apart from the airship's speed, defense and impressive weapons system, courtesy of Malek going a little over board with the designs. What Kodak loved the most, was the stealth capabilities of the ship. It wasn't so amazing that it could escape detection from radars, especially when it's moving. But so far, it's not been discoverable by even the birds in the air when it was not moving. So it was safe.

Kodak kept his head low, and picked his way across uneven terrain towards the sewage pipe. There was a massive pool of the same sludge, that flowed outwards towards the south, however due to how thick it was, it would get to a certain point and stop, hardening under the glare of the sun, and turning into a kind of mud.

But apart from it's rather peculiar look, one thing that Kodak was really bothered about, was the smell. It was so strong that Kodak could hardly even see in front of him. But even with the numerous amounts of scents asdailing his senses, there were some that Kodak recognized. And that was the smell of blood, and death.

The very idea that death might have a smell, might seem abtruse to quite a few people, but vampire were among the few races capable of sensing it. Kodak came closer to the hardened sludge and took a more careful look. At first it was hard to dicern what he was seeing, but after a while, the mistaken shape of decapitated heads, ripped off limbs, crushed skulls, and a significant amount of guts and organs, all hardened and fossilized by the sun and the sludge they were a part of, was obvious to him.

Kodak couldn't count the amount of bodies, heck he couldn't even identify who or what kind of race the people laying here were. They were all dead, and in each in a very miserable and quite disturbing way, based on what he could see. This was haunting, and stomach churning in more ways than one.

"This is disgusting, and beyond babrbaric. Those responsible deserve a fate worse than death, there's no honor in this." Shao Tie said to Kodak.

Kodak didn't say anything, but he agreed wholeheartedly with what Shao Tie just said. This was horrible to look at, and it made him really angry. The worst part about this all, would probably have to be the limbs and broken bodies of children within the hardened sludge. Their limbs stuck out of it, like trample flowers from a garden, horror was to light a word to describe what he was seeing.

Kodak made his way to the pipe, and as he got closer, the smell got stronger. He ignored the bubbling sludge, the rotten smell, and the sheer amount of flies and maggots that littered the whole place. He used his aura, as best as he could to prevent the smell or the sludge from touching him as he jumped into the pipe, and made his way through darkness, heading for the source of the dead bodies.

Kodak walked for almost forty minutes, ignoring the limbs that floated passed him, as he followed his nose, to the place where the stench of death was the strongest. Eventually he reached a hatch, but from the look of things, it seems to be automated, and would only open when they had to dump the bodies. Kodak could just as easily break through it, and find out what was going on there, but he was supposed to be as discreet as possible, so that he wouldn't be discovered. He might be strong and powerful for a vampire his age and rank, but he was no Kael Cor, who could take on scores of enemies all on his own.

Kodak had to find another way into the outpost, and make his back to the location of the hatch, only this time, it has to be above the ground. He moved on, picking his way across twists and turns within the sewage system, until he came upon a service entrance. There was a stairway on the wall that led outside, and Kodak went up to it, and discovered that the door needed a keycard to be opened.

"Well what are you going to do now? If you break down that door, I assure you, this entire place would know that you're around, and they're going to shoot your ass. Wouldn't that be just unfortunate."

Kodak was about to reply to Shao Tie when the door slid open, and a significant amount hulking brute of a minotaur came through, with a box of tools in hand. Kodak reacted as fast as he could, as he stretched his hands out, grabbed the minotaur by the left and started speaking, his eyes glowing purple.

"Don't make a sound, don't fight, relax and just stand still."

The minotaur followed his commands exactly, not moving one bit as he relaxed and watched Kodak for his next command. The power of the allure was unprecedented, you can only ever worry about it failing, when your target was stronger than you. Of course Kodak didn't know if he was stronger than the minotaur, he was shooting blind, but at the very least, he hit his target.

Kodak proceeded to ask the Minotaur a couple of questions, finding out the location of the ledger and records he needed, and also what exactly was this brown sludge full of dead bodies that he just saw. The ensuing answer was not really something he would have loved to hear.

Apparently the bodies are from the exhibition room. It is there a number of privileged scions would cut apart members of different races, all for their sick sadistic pleasures. After they're tortured, raped, mutilated and finally killed, their bodies would be sent to a research center where they'll be studied and their genes harvested. And it was all for the ability to give up there one of those scions, a chance to emulate certain characteristics of the race whose genes were harvested.

As for the records that Kodak needed to track every slave transaction made, the minotaur had no idea where it was, but he was sure the head researcher would have an idea about where to find it. After all, the researcher's family had built this outpost some three hundred and something years ago. Kodak also asked about the general feel of the outpost.

He learnt that the scions where torturing more and more people as of recent. And that was mainly due to the fact that the vampires were no longer prisoners, and the threat of the vampires coming to attack had them all on edge. But none of that made sense to Kodak, because if they were that afraid, why didn't they just leave. And when he asked the minotaur, he got the answer that he was looking for, and that was greed.

These guys wanted to turn what was left of the mountain range of Noxis Nix into a hunting ground. They'll be inviting hunters from across Shearath, and off world, who would pay them a significant sum of money to go hunt the vampires, Nephilim, and the mysterious dragons they all believed existed somewhere around. Of course they wouldn't be making all these plans if they knew what Ethernalia Leonis was capable of. But since they didn't, they all expected to find a rabble of frail looking monsters.

It annoyed Kodak to no end, but he also found it funny. These guys are really going to find monsters no doubt, however, they'll be anything but weak and frail. Besides that's if Kodak doesn't find a way to shut down this bloody operation before it begins.

"Forget you ever saw me, forget our conversation, and just go on doing what you're doing." Kodak said to the minotaur staring at it straight in the eyed, as his words flowed out of his mouth like silk, but still heavily laden with power.

The minotaur blinked his eyes and shook his head for a while, then looked around a little disoriented. He could have sworn he heard someone talking a minute ago, but it was all quite hazy. Almost as if he couldn't remember what the conversation was, or who was even talking.The minotaur just shrugged his shoulders and made his way down into the sewer system, his box of tools still clutched tightly in his hands.

Kodak gave a soft smile, as he watched the broad back of the minotaur, as he made his way into the darkness, a flashlight clutched in his beefy hands. Kodak flipped his hands upwards as a silver key card flashed within his palms. He swiped the keycard on the panel by the door, and opened it, as the door beeped open. Then he walked through it, and out into the open, a sinister plot in his mind, as he made plans to burn this entire outpost, to the ground.