“So your name is Gib?” The man asked.

  “Yep." Gib affirmed.

  “And you work for GIB, so you’re a gibber?” The man asked.

  “Yea." Gib answered.

  “You introduced yourself as Agent Gibbin, right?” The man’s wife came back to the door after settling down their dogs.

  “That’s right."

  “So you are Gib Gibbin the GIB gibber?” The man asked with finality.

  “You got it.”

  “Really set yourself up there didn’t you? Your parents really knew what they were doing too, huh?” The woman asked.

  “It was meant to be really. Can't have a name like mine and pass up this profession, you know?” Gib said sarcastically, this was his rehearsed answer to this frequent line of questioning.

  “Yea, I guess so. What do you want, gibber?” The man asked.

  “Ah yes, why am I here, to do my job. There was a report of a… significant disturbance in the dunes nearby, did you two happen to see anything?” Gib pulled out his notebook prepared for some actual leads given the home was located so close to the epicenter of activity.

  “Nope, not a thing.” The woman responded.

  Gib looked up from his notebook with an exasperated sigh. “You two live very close, are you sure you saw nothing?”

  “Well I mean I saw a number of spaceships fly off in the middle of the night when I had to get up to take a wee.” The man said.

  “I’d call that significant. Can you tell me more about the ships you saw, what color, shape, any logos?” Gib asked, rolling his eyes in his head making sure he didn’t do it on the outside.

  “They were black, and it was dark, being night and all. They were real quiet and looked like flying rectangles.” The woman said.

  “You saw them too?” Gib asked the woman.

  “Well yea he wakes me up every time he gets up to piss. Get worried he’s stepping out on me again so I watch to make sure.” The woman said.

  Gib’s mouth was wide open, but he quickly closed it realizing what his face was doing. “I feel the same way… Anyway, anything else that might be of help to the investigation?”

  “Nope.” The man said.

  “Alright then, thanks for your time!” Gib tipped his long brim hat as he walked away from the small farm house.

  Gib was old school compared to the rest of the force. He used a pen and notebook to keep notes which he kept tucked into the interior pocket of his knee length duster. He didn’t have any implants or special gear other than his trusty pistol that channeled his unique and very deadly ability. Many called it “The flame of the iridescent dragon.", Gib just called it “certainty". He called it that because when used, it would produce an iridescent beam of light that could annihilate any organics it touched. It was the most deadly ability ever recorded since record keeping started. Nothing could block it, nothing could survive it.

  Gib flipped the tail of his duster and sat down in his personal shuttle that he bought with his stipend from the Galactic Investigation Bureau. He was a Category Four investigator so he wasn’t required to have a partner, got to pick his own car, and got paid a stupid amount of credits to stay with the bureau.

  He started his car and floated away gently from the farm house and approached the center of the reports that had come into the GIB by local authorities. He circled the area and noted an almost imperceptible tan colored complex of buildings. He hit the brakes and stayed still in the air looking for any movement. He projected his aura ability down to the ground and sensed five Leonids still walking around, their life signatures were small specks of iridescent lights from this far up in the air. Gib pulled out his link to make a call.

  “Hey Gib, what's up? Are you still on Radan?” Captain Darkov asked.

  “Yea, I found the center of the reports, gonna poke around and see if it’s just some juiced up scorpion or something.”

  “Alright, well text me when you’re headed back.” Darkov said.

  “Copy." Gib ended the connection.

  Gib flicked through his link to make his next call.

  “Agent Gib, what have you found?” Senator Joon said.

  "I'm just circling the complex now. It was just as you said, it blends in with the environment with what is probably a clean-up crew of some kind, only five left down there.”

  “I hope its nothing, but from what I've heard… Just be careful.” The Senator finished.

  Gib ended the connection.

  Now that Gib knew what, or rather, who, was down there, being cautious was at the top of his list. Leonids were hostile to any and all species that encroached on their claims, even when they were in Union space. The divide between the Leonid empire and The Union had grown in recent years and he had to be careful as to not cause an international incident. A human from Mara like himself, let alone a gibber, was not going to be welcome here.

  Gib flew his car down to the sand dunes below and parked behind a dune a short way off. Getting out of his vehicle he stayed low and crawled up to the crest of the dune and took out his binoculars to get a better look at what he was about to walk in on. He could see impact resistant crates being loaded onto an armored box truck. The five Leonids were wearing unrecognizable uniforms with rank insignias that were not the same as the empire’s. Gib got up from his position and stealthily made his way towards the complex.

  Now that he was closer, he could see that the Leonids were the only ones wearing any kind of symbols that could be used for identification. He took pictures from a ways out before the action started where he might unintentionally erase them with his ability. He continued to creep towards the building closest to him and pulled his custom made pistol from its under arm holster. It was a brushed steel frame that had a forty-five degree tilted grip and a hollow barrel that rested on top. It was unadorned other than a simple set of iron sights that came off the top of it, perfectly aligned by the Connection smith that made it for him. It was made for one purpose, to channel certain death.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Gib rounded the corner, gun first. The bureau didn’t know what was actually here, just that some locals saw a bunch of ships flying to and from this area and there was maybe a firefight. Senator Joon arranged for a Category Four investigator to be sent against the bureau’s judgement, after which Senator Joon filled Gib in on the rest of the details. Shoot first, ask questions and take notes later. His report back to the bureau was already written for him. Just a pack of wild boar that some contractors were hired to hunt.

  What the GIB didn’t know was that this was an audition for Gib to join the secret organization known as the Silent Watchers. A covert organization formed to protect the Union from threats within and without. Gib had a firm sense of justice and protecting people, it’s why he joined the Galactic Investigation Bureau and not become a contractor like his friends.

  “Just boars in the desert.” Gib said as he spotted the first Leonid with his aura.

  He readied his pistol and fired at his target once he was in his sight line. A bright cylindrical beam of light burst from the gun with a sound that sounded like an electrical current. Gib’s attack burned clean through the Leonid's arm, then chest, internal organs, and other arm. The one good thing about his ability was that it was only capable of ending life. It couldn’t cut through walls, it couldn’t take down drones, or vehicles, just organics.

  Gib surveyed his surroundings looking for the other Leonids but only found three others. There were definitely five total when he was in the air, but had lost track of the other. Gib looked down at the dead body in front of him and that's when he saw it. The missing Leonid was very far underground. There wasn’t a cliff on the other side of the complex. So whatever was down there was something they put there.

  Gib worked his way through the rest of the other buildings zapping one Leonid at a time with his death ray. He downed two before there was only one left above ground. He used his aura to track him through walls and followed him into a plain and unadorned building with a very wide door that slid upwards so the whole opening could be used without hindrance.

  At the back of the room was another door that slid open horizontally to an empty room. Gib lined up his shot and fired as the Leonid turned so he wouldn’t see him. The doors closed on the dead body but opened again as Gib walked close to it. Gib looked around and found that it was a freight elevator. Inside there were only two buttons so Gib pressed the downward arrow to clear out the remaining Leonid. Gib looked down at the dead body and could see the same insignia he saw on the others. A circle with two lines crossing inside of it pointed upwards from left to right. The same marking was on the back of the elevator, the only place he had seen it not on a body so far in the whole complex.

  The elevator door opened and Gib hadn’t been paying attention. He locked eyes with the last Leonid that was holding a simple lock box. The Leonid threw the box at Gib causing him to stumble back and drop his gun as the lion man roared and charged Gib.

  Leonids were naturally more physically powerful than any other species which is one of the reasons for their superiority complex towards everyone else. Their strength was known to make up a whole category gaps in a fight so Gib wasn’t surprised when he was overpowered and fighting a quickly losing battle. His iridescent beam was his only offensive ability, and he just lost his best way to channel it.

  Just because Gib lost his pistol though, didn’t mean he was without options, not in the slightest. He summoned his blinding light ability from his eyes and looked directly at his attacker. The Leonid howled in pain and quickly disengaged trying to run out of the elevator, but he stumbled and ran into the wall on the way out. Gib knew he had time, so he took a second to adjust his clothes, fix his duster, and look around for his pistol. He picked up his gun after leisurely looking around the floor of the elevator. Gib’s attacker was moaning on the floor, still unable to see when the gibber walked beside him and opened fire on his back, twice.

  Gib examined the complex again with his aura to make sure there weren’t any other life forms to be found. Having found none, he turned back to the elevator to open the lock box that the Leonid threw at him. He hunkered down and bashed it with the butt of his gun until it was busted enough to open. Inside were just plain manila folders with almost fully redacted documents. He held the papers up to the light to see if the redactions were only done by marker but couldn’t make anything out.

  He stayed there, crouched down next to the broken box and useless papers thinking, “why would they just paint these papers with black and transport them, why not destroy them?”

  Gib turned the folder over to look at the back and that’s when he saw it. The light caught the embossed edge of an insignia in one of the corners. A circle with two thin lines in the middle of it. He looked at the dead body next to him and matched the symbol to the one on the arm embroidered on its uniform. Gib took out his notebook and drew the symbol and stood up to move on.

  Now that he wasn’t fighting for his life, Gib took in his surroundings. He found himself in the middle of a sterile grey hallway with no art, posters, not even employee instructions or room labels. There were rectangular sliding doors and glass windows along the hall that allowed line of sight into each room. Poking into a couple of the rooms he found medical tables, white sheets, and some simple scientific equipment. Each room was picked clean, so instead of looking around he decided to continue down the hall.

  At the end of the hall there were wires hanging from the ceiling where Gib presumed a camera used to be. The wall had a rectangular cut into it but was clearly meant to be there. There was nothing on the other side of the hole, just another empty room. Gib turned to continue down the hall when he stopped in his tracks.

  A large vault door that was not quite double the size of the other doors he had just seen in the other hall, was cracked open just a hair. Gib stepped forward to investigate the door for traps or any other security measures before opening it further to step inside. The vault room had concrete walls, concrete floors, and a concrete ceiling. All in all pretty unremarkable, even tomb-like Gib thought, until he saw the back left corner.

  In the corner of the room was a dark pool of purple liquid that looked like it had been mixed with oil due to a rainbow-like film on top of it. Gib took out his pen and poked the liquid to find it to be pretty thick, similar to saliva, oil, or even blood. Gib patted around his duster until he found his small forensic kit that had a vial for instances just like this when he was first to a scene. He collected the liquid, sealed the top and labeled it with where and when he had collected it. Gib stood up and took another look around and after not finding anything interesting he walked out the way he came.

  Projecting his aura the whole way out of the facility he met no further resistance, and nothing else to report on. Now out in the desert sun, Gib squinted as he took out his link to call Captain Darkov.

  “Hey Cap, can you hear me?” Gib said.

  “Hey Gib, I’m assuming you are wrapping up?”

  “Yea, about to take off now, didn’t really find anything, must have just been some desert creature causing a ruckus or something.” Gib lied.

  “Alright then, close it out with the caller will ya, see you when you’re back.” Captain Darkov ended the call.

  “Hmph, that was easy.” Gib muttered out loud.

  Gib tapped on his link to make his next call.

  “Agent Gib? What did you find?” Senator Joon said quietly, as if he was trying to hide the conversation.

  “There are five dead Leonids, and a shuttle full of goodies if you want to come pick it all up.” Gib said

  “Oh excellent, I knew I got the right guy on this, that’s incredible. Sorry about the trouble with the… locals. Have you inquired after the contractor team, the one that was killed?”

  “You mean the one you sent to their deaths? No, that’ll be one of my next stops. This scene has already been sitting here for too long. I’ve lost a lot of important evidence as it is.”

  “I didn’t know what they would encounter Agent Gib! Now that I know that… locals… are involved I’ll be more selective with my choices. Is there anything else to report, any evidence at all?”

  Gib held up the vial of the strange liquid he found to the desert sun. “Nope, nothing.”