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With his hands free, Luke stretched his arms outward to gather as much wind resistance as possible before vanishing entirely. Nataya blinked, momentarily unsure of Luke’s plan in executing such a bold maneuver before she found herself sprayed with a healthy coating of ice chips and snow. 

Where a previously undisturbed mound of frigid, snowy powder stood before her was now a splayed-out Luke Wilson, his body perfectly contorted into a snow angel with a small trail etched in the ground where the momentum from the fall carried him.

He looked up at her.

She looked down at him.

He cocked his head playfully, waving his arms and legs around to complete the picture.

“It’s a snow angel, Nataya.” He assured, his voice completely deadpan.

“Are you serious?” Nataya asked, her hands moving to rest on her hips. “Where’s the halo? You messed up the halo- it just looks like the angel has a really long head!”

“Well, you know, actual angels are supposed to look pretty strange, right? Let’s say it’s something like that.” The human winced, picking himself up from the ground and dusting the snow off of his uniform.

“Sure, I guess you’d know something like that,” the troll leaned back, looking at the height that Luke had essentially teleported himself from and then back down at the ground. “A pretty gutsy play. Not bad, not bad.”

“I could have been smarter about it. I should have just done it from the beginning.” He said in admittance.

“Yeah, but that’s not as fun. This was fun.”

“You were still quicker, though.”

“Damn right, I was.”

“I’m not sure what I did to deserve you as a partner for this assignment  considering we’re here to examine a corpse.”

“Thank your stars, Luke,” Nataya said, moving over to kneel down by the partially-buried corpse in question. “This is just one of a long series of very lucky circumstances in your life.”

“Well, I suppose I can’t argue there.” He conceded, withdrawing a small tool from his jacket to brush away the patch of snow that covered the nameplate on the corpse’s battered fleet uniform. Loktah Rydier.

“Hey, did you see me walking on the wall, though?” Nataya whispered, examining the neck and its surrounding area for any tags or identification.

“Yeah, I did. That was cool.”

“It felt pretty cool. We should have taken some video of that.”

A simple idea. A collection of those most dedicated to ensuring the continuity of Alternian life as it were. To dissuade rebellion, to cull the opposition, to influence culture, to monitor, maintain, and pioneer Alternian society into its most ideal state. A collection of trolls with exceptional recorded skill and ability and those simultaneously with loyalty to the cause of planetary stability. These select few would be allowed continued residency on the Alternian homeplanet in the execution of their duties as an equivalent unit.

Yet unprecedented in its founding was the idea of a discrete society of empire agents operating together outside of the hemocratic system. A division in which a rust-blooded agent was hypothetically free to execute their duties regardless of influence or manipulation from other castes. The Freeblood division, founded on the principles of raw ability and loyalty, would be free from the deadlock of hierarchy that normal fleet sectors would experience. An experiment by all accounts, but one that would see remarkable efficiency in its members.

The division would be free to monitor even the smallest events occurring on the planet, operating under the all-seeing eye of its quantum network capacities and guided by the directive of the Condesce herself, should she be bothered. Alternia’s economic, social, and cultural development would be extensively scrutinized and tailored to the deliberations of the Freeblood division in the name of security and stability.

While the headquarters of the division located in the historic metropolis Gravilos, several other branches across the planet would also be founded in time. These branches would pioneer sectors based on necessity, with mainstays in: 

General Intelligence

Bioengineering

Anomalous Materials

Engineering & Technology

Socioeconomics

Cultural Organization

In many respects, members of the division would be policed by themselves, their actions scrutinized by their own division’s administration. Members would carry out their services on the homeplanet until their services were either required elsewhere or terminated, the latter of which would result in thorough and unequivocal execution. Reasons for termination are few outside of treasonous behavior, or the compromising of the division itself.

The Freeblood experiment would operate in secrecy, leaving only small traces where necessary to ensure the most natural evolution possible. Today, there are simultaneously many members and none at all- the only veritable and pervading trace of their existence found in their bold symbol, marked by the letters “F” and “B” in the shape of an eye. Experienced members of the resistance know the eye as danger, though it is difficult to impossible to truly understand in what capacity.

The only thing one can know for certain is that somebody is out there and watching.