Welcome to the IDPD (Chapter 3)

"The IDPD emphasizes the saying 'the right person in the wrong place'. You're all adults, and you all have your individual abilities that made you choose to apply for the IDPD." Sergeant Blazkowicz paced past the recruits and spoke in an uncharacteristically calm tone. The contents of his explanation were exactly what Commissioner Gorgon had told Mari during the long talk they had after they had recruited her.

The IDPD was one of several interdimensional police forces. However, they were more akin to bounty hunters acting on a set of laws created by the Void Gods. Their code of conduct was far laxer than that of actual police, and they weren't expected to uphold a uniform level of skill. All that mattered was that they performed their tasks to satisfaction.

"As such, and as much as I would love to, I won't be making you run laps around the training field, do an obstacle course, crawl through mud, or any other physical training." The sergeant continued, preemptively glaring at Mari with one of his heads before she could grumble about her punishment from the day before.

"Wow, that's great to know!" Ignoring Blazkowicz's warning, Mari asserted with a faked smile. Deisha snorted and ducked away behind the much taller male recruit standing before her.

"You never learn, do you?" Vega whispered with a long-suffering sigh.

"Punishment is another thing, Nova!" Snapping his other head around, the sergeant boomed at Mari. "Authority and rank are still important!"

She would never dare to oppose Commissioner Gorgon, but aside from them, she cared nothing about authority and rank. And even toward them, it was out of fear rather than respect. She had lived this new life in complete contempt of governments and laws; Mari had defied the odds and carved out a life for Sara and herself.

"In either case, today is the true beginning of basic training. And you're going to jump right into it, too." Unexpectedly, Blazkowicz didn't sentence Mari to punishment for her interruption and continued his explanation. "As some of you may already know, that takes the form of field operations. Aside from weapons and equipment training, there's nothing else to teach you after all."

"What about morals or the laws that we uphold?" A yellow-skinned young man raised his hand and asked.

"Good one, Cillian." Turning one of his heads to the recruit who spoke up, the sergeant shrugged it off with a chuckle. "All that matters is that you get your targets, dead or alive. Any and all collateral damage is acceptable."

"That doesn't sound right." Cillian muttered, but Blazkowicz overheard him.

"Since you care so much about your fellow citizens, this field operation training will be right up your alley, recruit." The sergeant declared with a broad grin.

"I don't like the sound of that." Vega whispered behind Mari. He looked like he was developing a stomachache from anxiety.

"Follow me, maggots!" Bellowing this command, Blazkowicz changed his attitude back to that of a professional drill instructor in an instant. "You will be briefed about the training objective in transit."

"Where are we going, sir?" Doyle inquired with enthusiasm unabated by the blasting he received the previous day for being nosy.

"If you would shut up and walk, you would find out soon enough, Doyle!" Without slowing down, the sergeant turned one head to chew out the prying recruit. "The next person to ask a dumb question will be kicked out of the shuttle somewhere in transit. And nobody will ever find out. Understood?!"

Nobody even dared to reply, but that appeared to be precisely what Blazkowicz had intended.

When they had boarded the shuttle, Mari had likened the atmosphere to a class going on a field trip. Then Sergeant Blazkowicz had begun to brief them on the contents of their training. With every passing sentence, the recruits had grown increasingly anxious, and gone had been the feeling of anticipation. It had been replaced with pure dread.

By the time they left the void through one of the many hidden portals of the IDPD, the entire shuttle was deathly silent except for Blazkowicz's cheery humming. According to the shuttle's friendly artificial intelligence lady, they had entered Universe 29. It caused everybody to grow paler than they already were.

The sergeant had been telling the truth about their field training objective.

"Welcome to Goria." The shuttle AI announced in an uplifting tone that belied the gravity of the situation when they jumped through warp space and arrived at their destination. One of the recruits vomited in the aisle front of him, unable to hold back his crushing terror.

Mari had been reborn on this planet, so she knew why people not from here would react this way. Goria was a city planet in Galaxy 669724, held in an iron grip by the galaxy-spanning Vyrath crime syndicate. It had a puppet government that was part of the Galactic Federation, but the real power was in the syndicate's hands.

And the IDPD recruits' objective was to make it from the North Pole to the South Pole of Goria within three rotations of the planet - while wearing Galactic Federation Police Force uniforms and carrying empty guns.

It was definitely not a coincidence that the field training was held on Goria. Commissioner Gorgon must have felt like messing with her by making her home planet the site. Touching the collar around her neck with a click of her tongue, she grumbled about individual rights violations and power harassment.

"Remember, Zaras Space Port on the South Pole, dock 13, in three rotations." Sergeant Blazkowicz repeated their destination for the third time since they got on the shuttle. He was genuinely hoping for their success - or at least that as many as possible would show up so that he wouldn't run out of playthings for basic training.

Finally, their shuttle touched down, and the airlocks opened to let in the stench of spacecraft fuel and machine oils from the docks. The clicking of seatbelts filled the cabin, and everybody stood up like moving corpses. Most wore an expression suggesting that they were heading to a war they knew they wouldn't return from.

"See you on the other side, doggo." Lynn, one of the very few who were confident about their success in this field training, was first out of the shuttle. Her towering form gave her an edge in this because it kept at least the street thugs looking for trouble away.

"This isn't a race." Memory commented deadpan under her police cap. She had it pulled deep into her face as if to shield herself from view. As a frail-looking but cute girl, she would run into trouble before she was even out of the space dock.

"Let's go together." Stepping up to her, Mari extended a hand toward the slender girl. She stared at it for a moment, then looked up into Mari's face.

"Are you hitting on me?" The former asked with a tilt of her head.

"I agree. Our chances are going to be better in a group." Suddenly, Cillian joined them as if it were the most natural thing.

"Is he hitting on us?" Memory stared at the yellow-skinned man, then looked at Mari.

"I didn't ask you." Shooing Cillian away, the dog-eared girl then turned around to Vega. "What about you?"

"Thank you for the invitation, but I need to do this alone." He replied against her expectation. His bluish-gray skin was paler than usual, and his teeth were clattering. It appeared that his father, a captain in the IDPD, had given him a condition for the field training. As a future career officer, he expected great achievements of his son.

Mari watched the Lovian walk away on unsteady feet, shaking her head sympathetically.

"Let me join you!" Deisha announced in a cheery voice, pulling Mari's attention back to her group. The bubbly pink girl lacking in common sense wore a grin that showed off her unexpectedly sharp teeth. "So it's the four of us?"

"Four?" Mari asked with a glance at Vega's back just as he rounded a corner while muttering to himself.

"Isn't he coming too?" Pointing at the frozen Cillian, whom Mari's rejection had hit hard, Deisha asked with an innocent tilt of her head.

"Are you sure he's alright?" Memory questioned his abilities with her usual deadpan expression. Her words only caused Cillian to gaze into the distance in self-reflection.

"The more, the merrier, right?" With a beaming smile that overwhelmed both Mari and Memory, Deisha replied. They couldn't disagree with her now and had to let Cillian join them after all.

"I won't let you down!" The yellow-skinned man with the plain but friendly face gathered himself and declared in an enthusiastic tone. He was of average height and build, wore the Galactic Federation Police Force so naturally that he easily passed as an officer, and had the presence of a background character.

"Oh, well." Shrugging, Mari asserted that she no longer cared about it. They had three Goria days to make it all the way across the planet, so they better started moving. "Let's go then."

With these words, she walked ahead of the group, acting as the leader. Memory glanced at Deisha, who wore a vacant smile on her face while following Mari. Then she looked at Cillian, who returned her gaze with a friendly but questioning expression.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Memory muttered to herself with an already tired sigh.

Goria was slightly larger than Earth of Universe 46 and had about the same gravity. A sprawling city covered the entirety of its surface, and no buildings were smaller than skyscrapers. The sun only ever shone onto the roads when it was right overhead, and the undercity never saw natural light.

It was in the alleyways and slum districts of this undercity that Mari had grown up with Sara. They had gone from orphans to street urchins in the first five years of their lives. Getting picked up by a youth gang turned out to be their fortune, and finally, they caught the attention of the Vyrath Syndicate. Working as low-level enforcers for the syndicate ensured full bellies and a roof over their heads until they finally had enough money to get off-world.

Mari could have never imagined that she would return to Goria, especially not after Sara had died. Nothing had tied her to this place when they had left, and they had set fire to their small home to burn all the bridges. Now, she was back while wearing the very same police uniform that they used to avoid like the plague.

"We need to get a ride." When they exited the space docks' main gate, Mari looked around and announced. Police on Goria were all either corrupt or rookies. Their group of four looked like the latter, so they would surely be targeted by the unsavory type if they walked through the streets.

"Appropriate a hovercar under the pretense of a police emergency." Memory asserted while staring in the direction of the continually arriving and departing cabs in front of the platform.

"That's an abuse of authority." Cillian, ever the goody-two-shoes, chastised Memory with a frown.

"What do you suggest? We don't have any money and weren't given rations." Three days without food was harsh but not impossible. Mari and Sara had to go hungry for days during their street urchin years. However, she had grown into an adult since then, and her calorie demands had increased. By the end of the three days, she would be too weak to fight when attacked.

And she still had to show Lynn what was what.

"Hitchhike?" With a shrug, Cillian suggested questioningly.

"Yay, let's hitchhike across the planet!" Deisha raised her hands and yelled with the high-strung attitude of a child. It drew the attention of everybody on the platform, and the atmosphere grew cold in an instant.

The Galactic Federation Police Force was ill-received on many planets, and Goria's civilian population looked upon them in an especially unfavorable light. After all, most of them were in the syndicate's pockets; only rookies dared to oppose organized crime with their unrealistic moral standards. It usually caused collateral damage among the locals.

"Maybe we should first get out of the public eye." Dragging Deisha along by her arm, Mari pointed at a dark alleyway across from the platform. With the loud-mouthed pink girl around, they would be the center of attention wherever they went.

When they entered the narrow space between two skyscrapers, Mari turned around to her companions. For better or for worse, she would be stuck with the three of them until they made it to the Zaras Space Port on the South Pole.

"Mari Nova, is that you?" Suddenly, a man called out to her from the entrance to the alleyway. He wore a synth jacket with removed sleeves to show off his lean tattooed arms. Metal bands dangled from his wrists, and he had several chains around his neck. It was the typical appearance of a small-time gangster with barely a foot in the Vyrath Syndicate. A towering muscle man and a slender woman with an undercut flanked him. "I don't believe it. You? In a GP uniform?"

"Ugh." Muttering under her breath, Mari took off her police cap and completely changed her attitude when she looked up. "Been a while, Yerbol."

"What are those?" The man named Yerbol pointed at Mari's floppy dog ears and then her collar with a laugh. "Is that what your captain is into?"

"Nah, that's on me." She shook her head with a casual wave of her hand. Then she spun her police cap on her finger while gesturing at Yerbol in return. "How's your jaw?"

"Heh, it still hurts from time to time when I swallow." Touching his metal lower jaw, the thug replied with a grin. 

"Oh, are you still sucking off the block leader?" With a shrug, Mari sneered at the man. She was the one who had shattered his jaw when he had tried to grope Sara in a bar. Bone regrowth was reserved for the wealthy, and those at the bottom had to scrape by with black market prosthetics and mad doctors. Chronic pain and rejection was a common occurrence when relying on those.

"I'm the block leader now." Yerbol's grin froze at Mari's fighting words, and he declared in a less than amused tone. As if that was the signal, three more people appeared from behind him and his two companions.

"Surrounded." Memory muttered, causing Mari to turn around. From deeper inside the alleyway, five thug-looking individuals approached them.

"Did you have to look for a fight like that, Miss Nova?" Cillian scratched the back of his head with a troubled expression.

"He wouldn't have let us go either way. We have a bad history." Mari stated with a shrug.

"You don't say!" In a rare expression of her emotions, Memory looked up at Mari with exaggeratedly feigned surprise.

"Get her!" Yerbol shouted, then rubbed his jaw from apparent pain. He then added with a growl. "I want her alive."

At the same time, Vega had pawned his empty gun at the space port's pawn shop and bought a ticket for the nonstop pole-to-pole supertrain. They weren't allowed to take off their uniforms during the three days, but nobody said they couldn't sell their guns.

As he stood on the platform waiting for the train, the civilians looked upon him with smiles; they thought he was a child going to a costume party. It's for that reason he had avoided teaming up with anybody as being accompanied by an adult in uniform would have ruined his act.

The train would take one Goria day to reach the South Pole.