Rogue Hunt: Gems and Beauties

The mare’s high heels clicked against the marble floor, sounding out sharper and more rapidly than those of her master. She tailed her closely, her lower ranking co-workers giving them a wide berth. Starlite kept a tight grip on the sealed folder she had been given, and she did not let her thoughts nor her eyes wander too far. It was a subconscious form of self-control, as the mare knew too well what activity was and was not allowed within her mind and body. Especially when she was put to work.

Among the many loyal workers enthralled by Dr. Numinous, she entered in at a rather high post. Starlite was no lowly gemstone, and it was implicitly understood she would act as such. Tittering shocks emanated from her flanks at the thought of an opportunity to not disappoint Mistress, let alone impress her. A lot of faith had been put into her, she was made to understand…

Enough to be given a personal assignment so soon into her tenure as secretary. Led personally by Numinous to Militarized Enclosure D, she stood by the dragon’s side, looking over the expansive warehouse. Numinous didn’t rush to explain, taking some time to light up one of her favorite cigarettes and remove a speck of gemdust off her perked collar. Starlite sighed, rubbing the folder in her hands.

“So, Mistress-“

“Tut-tut. Nuh-huh.” Numinous puffed cherry scented smoke, which mixed oddly with the oily, industrial stench of the enclosure. “No need to be thusly suggestive. We’re at work.”

“Hkk. Yes, Doctor,” the mare corrected herself. She used her well-appraised willpower to remain calm. “So, considering we’re in Militarized Enclosure D… Are we expecting anything – or anyone? I believe I would have been made aware if we were to mobilize our assets.”

“Hmmm, no, I rather think I would not warn you before any mobility toward assets took place,” the dragoness murmured. She appeared behind Starlite in a blink of an eye and squeezed hard against her behind. The mare wheezed, tossed toward the railing by the sudden impact. “Remain vigilant, please. I needn’t find reason for a personal reevaluation of your activities, Starlite. For now, why I assigned you to this section is to be treated like all other elements of my operation: on a need-to-know basis. Do not overstep your boundaries.”

“…understood, Doctor.” Starlite looked at the blank, tightly sealed folder. “So, what is my assignment?”

“That’s better,” Numinous remarked, smiling sharply. She then looked over the enclosure, which housed numerous units of military hardware and facilities for their maintenance. “I require a trusted little beauty to accompany me on a series of direct evaluations for workers in this area. You are to accompany me on a tour through the facility. Following that, I will watch over as you perform a general facility reevaluation, from roster to effective product. Just point at anything that appears faltering – I will adjust any decision if I find it unfit… or if I simply have a better idea. Now, does that sound good, Starlite, dear?”

“…” Starlite puffed her nostrils and cracked her neck. “Understood, Doctor.”

“Now you’re just being overzealous. Pfeh! Unseal your folder and procure the evaluation form. As per procedure, I expect you to mark down the appropriate forms with necessary information for my later appraisal. But you’re a qualified specialist, you don’t need to hear all this.” Numinous smirked. The mare’s spine went soft for a moment, and she barely stopped her knees from buckling. “Let’s head off then, and see how our fangs and claws fare. Don’t go easy on the pen!”

“I won’t,” the unicorn hushed under her breath before unsealing the folder. Many forms and comment spaces appeared within, familiar from the training she thought she remembered.

She levitated a pen out of her uniform’s front pocket and into the air, the light teal aura shimmering in reflection of the folder’s cover shortly before it disintegrated, as most disposable things did in the HQ. Numinous liked things to be clean and orderly. So they were cleaning house at home, then, Starlite figured.

There was more to inspect than she imagined. It was always quite apparent that her Mistress had a fairly large operation, but in this area, numerous underlings kept rather impressive hardware maintained in working order. Furthermore, this enclosure housed the R&D division – something they apparently had. Considering the vastness of their inventory, that was not so surprising at all. Indeed, she was here to consider both the inventory and those behind it…

Starlite stuck by the dragon’s side, marking down comments and grades for every major item of weaponry they were shown to by the facility staff. Said facility was advanced enough to house multiple firing ranges and simulation areas. While Numinous was not terribly interested in the minutia and functionality of each portable turret drone, laser array gun, scatter frag mine pack or repeater flak cannon – Starlite, however, saw to it that each was demonstrated and inspected. The dragoness did insist to see her handle it all herself, which the mare did with little hesitation. It was well known to her that she had a natural affinity for violence, and to see it fostered by the Mistress was surely a sign of approval.

All this made one thing incontrovertibly clear – their operation was not just state of the art, it went above and beyond. Access to such arms made paupers of Task Force Riot and Task Force Rogue by comparison. Some of this was advanced enough that Starlite acutely remembered thinking such technology was not yet invented. Even the actual facility with its cleaning drones and smart simulation environments was something out of science fiction; in fact, much of the interior left hard-to-ignore clues that this whole enclosure was transported in its entirety from another place to their HQ instead of being built on-site. One item after another, one testing area after another, the mare pieced together that these were not all developed in-house – these were iterations on other designs, incredibly rare, exclusive Royalty contractor designs. She knew that their operation dabbled heavily in trading high tier merchandise throughout the City, but to find out they had an expansive internal armory that stayed one step ahead of their unparalleled sales inventory was something else.

Nevertheless, despite how impressed she was with what the enclosure’s row of armament warehouses actually contained, she did what was asked, approving certain arms for specific uses as per the forms included in her folder. Numinous simply smirked and evaded any pointed questions as to what they were being evaluated for, but Starlite made her own educated guesses and left comments on each piece of equipment, remarking on how it would be handled in different situations. She didn’t know if they had a militant force on the premises, but there was no reason not to be thorough. A lot of the once-forgotten Force training was firmly in her mind now, and mixed with extensive experience of various hostile encounters throughout the City, she could put her intuition to use and do what was asked. It seemed to please the dragon, who chiefly just sat back and watched her work, only sometimes putting her on the spot.

A similarly revealing experience was interviewing the minions who ran this place. Starlite had only ever interacted with basic staff and Numinous’ fellow secretaries, so it was mystifying to see their operation’s military and research personnel. Each one had an extensive portfolio of prior accomplishments and recommendations, multiple of them with extensive history working for the various Task Forces or doing research for Royalty contractors. For some of these to end up here, some serious connections would have had to be pulled, as surely being stationed down at the District of Beauties within Dr. Numinous’ compound would not have gone over well with their previous associates or employers. These ponies (and a couple griffons) were serious enough that the mare recalled a faint memory of hearing rumors regarding some of these going off the map, abandoning their successful mercenary careers. Starlite could not help but remember that her detective sense tingled, way back when, as she heard someone jokingly consider that they had found enlightenment through some spiritual guru.

Starlite momentarily considered whether she related to them. She froze, but only briefly – the serpent’s tail poked her at some very precise point along her spine, causing her to spring to life, clearing her throat, standing at attention. Having gained Starlite’s attention, Numinous rolled her eyes at the facility’s senior staff and gestured for the mare to begin note-taking as one by one, they interviewed the backbone of their military operation.

Each subject was like a marionette hanging from the dragoness’ every word, the conversations tailored with paralyzing precision. Their behavior made it clear that Numinous’ attack dogs were kept starved of attention from their Mistress. The R&D team seemed to get moderately better treatment, who nevertheless freaked out and showered her with all sorts of adoration and attention. Most found it hard to behave maturely in her presence. Needless to say, there was no doubt as to the loyalty of those that would take charge if any aggression were to unfold around their operation.

“We are so glad to see you again. You really should visit down here more often!"

“Oh, yes... yes, of course, Doctor. I assure you, there will be no delay! This is the place where we make the impossible happen!”

As for their skills, each one seamlessly transitioned into a serious job-oriented professional at the flicker of Numinous’ pendant. Starlite, meanwhile, simply watched on, pitching in with questions when Numinous got carried away playing with any given interviewee. Hardly any were worth criticizing based on their performance, but the more excitable and eccentric ones went down with negative recommendations in her book. When all was said and done, she passed it over to the dragoness. The mare’s willpower was invaluable in keeping herself together as she flicked through the pages of employee review. She dared to strive to look favorable compared to the rest of these knobheads… However important they’d once been before falling into the fold.

“Aw, it truly is nice to see you feel these toys are worth putting to use. I’m often told these are quite good indeed, but… I’ll, just, hmmm – hmm... defer to your judgment, Starlite, dear, when it comes to the hardware items. Let’s just cross out these bulky things… and this…” She dashed straight lines through certain sections. Starlite held her breath, standing at attention behind the dragoness. Her heels squeaked as she shifted in place, her body occasionally remembering how unused she was to keeping straight posture. ”…aaand that, that looks hideous – do set aside a redesign request form, I’ll be getting a less important secretary than yourself making my desires known.”

“…very well.” Starlite gulped. She reflexively adjusted her collar. “And, thanks, Doctor.”

“Oh, now-now, I’m just being objective,” Numinous mused, examining Starlite’s interview assessments. “It’s not a compliment. I put significantly more effort into procuring you, my dear little beauty, than any of these rather impressive professionals. Goodness, some of these would still be here if I’d just pay them! Hah-hah. I see your assessment matches mine… Assuming full control over their feeble minds was significantly harder than retrieving my credit crystal. I oft forget these are meant to be somewhat useful in a heated combat scenario, truth to be told… They’re quite adorable and benign. When I let them be themselves, that is. A lot like you, dearie, yet somewhat more pathetic, I find. Consider yourself, loyal secretary – a low-bit detective with some outstanding talents. Now look at just what you’ve written about some of these!”

“They acted like excitable pups. Nothing more, nothing less…” Starlite replied, her palms sweating. “I’ve left recommendations on whom to exhibit more direct control over through use of Assumption Gems. Some seem entirely unfit to keep working on weapons for you. Consider my suggestions on where to move the more… eccentric staff.”

“Of course I will, Starlite. Lovely how ruthless you are, by the way. Taking control over their fates so eagerly, mmmhm, how charmingly authoritative. I wonder if I’ll let you keep that trait…” The dragoness hummed, trailing her pen through the mare’s notes. Starlite felt her heart attempt to skip a beat, before simply remaining still, exhaling and resigning to feeling thoroughly validated. “When my next venture has come to its conclusion, I will need to invest rather heavily into discipline. I love you all, my precious jewels that you are, but some of you are entirely too needy. Tsk.”

“Tsk,” Starlite repeated after her. Numinous cast a glance towards her, lifting an eyebrow.

For a moment, the mare’s heart sank. Numinous then snickered, rolling her eyes. After a bit more back and forth, she graciously took aboard Starlite’s remarks, and soon thereafter, they could commence the purge of eccentric, unreliable personalities from their active weapons research staff. The unicorn was elated to receive a shoulder pat of approval and promise of benevolent together-time later in the week - a fine reward for a job well done. Her knees quivered at the mere thought...