Chapter 12: Imperial Citizen

Starfort Lycurgos, Northern Quadrant, Some time later

Arcturus looked in wonder at everything as his ship docked at the Northern Quadrant of the Starfort Lycurgos. There were tens of spaceships of various types and even more smaller vessels.

He donned the armor that he was wearing when he attacked the space pirates; as he exited the spaceship Obscurus he adjusted his hair.

When he exited the spaceship, he saw there several Imperial Officers; all of them were wearing black uniforms, with golden and red trimmings; some of them had different numbers of stars on their patches, signifying their ranks.

All of them were naturally humans, though when they saw his facial features, all of them looked mildly surprised, though they did a good job at hiding it. The Registration that he mentioned when he arrived at the Star System was basically for the Citizenship of the Imperium.

He already had prepared a rather believable tale that should be highly possible and also passable enough for the Imperial Administration to buy. After he got the Citizenship of the Imperium, he could move freely within the borders of the Imperium to a certain degree.

"Please, Sir this way."

He was a bit surprised by their polite tone, but he suspected that it was due to him being the Highborn variant of the Asuryani. The Highbornes were rare genetic mutations among the standardized Asurayni, as they had tremendous potential, especially for the Psionics.

Among the almost one trillion of the Asuryans, only approximately 10% of the population had the Psionic potential. And from the overall population, only something below 0,01% were the Highborne, the best of their very own species.

The subsequent interrogation went rather well because he was giving them the well-crafted story that Alice had prepared. Basically, he was born outside of the Imperial Space to a pair of deep space explorers and was taken care of by the Artificial Intelligence on the ship.

"Please fill out the papers, including your name, age, place of birth and insert the sample of DNA for the verification of the status. The rest of the things would be finished by Artificial Intelligence of the Imperial Administration."

The entire procedure was rather straightforward and simple as he filled up the data just as Alice prepared for him to do so and gave a drop of his blood as the DNA sample, something that he wasn't really thrilled about.

But it was needed for the citizenship of the Imperium; aside from that, without the DNA sample, it was impossible to verify his status as the Highborne of the Asuryani people.

He didn't know how it was possible, but soon enough, it was over as he got his Citizenship ID from the Officer who was in charge of the procedure.

"Thank you, Colonel Ruford."

The middle-aged Asuryan Colonel of the Imperial Military then nodded and passed him a small chip with additional information.

"As the returnee and Highborne at that, you could attend the Imperial Academy Courses through the Imperial Netsphere; I would recommend doing so as it would get you better social credit. Is there anything that you need?"

Hearing the question, Arcturus actually thought over the matter before he spoke.

"During my journey to the Imperial Space, I have encountered some pirates, who were mostly unfortunate to perish under my sword. I was wondering where is the local Branch of the Bounty Hunter Guild so I can claim their bounties? Aside from that, I also have some contraband from the pirates, mostly from what the pirates were robbing from lesser species."

Colonel Ruford wasn't really surprised by that, as he expected something like that, because it was clear that Arcturus was crossing over the Lawless Zone of Space. There were a lot of space pirates and Ravengers roaming those places.

"In the Western-Quadrant of Lycurgos, there is a trade zone where you will find everything, including merchants and traders that would buy the contraband. Of course, the contraband must be checked for the banned substances and other prohibited objects."

Arcturus knew that not one Imperial Officer would care that he was selling stolen goods of lesser civilizations.

Aside from that, he knew that it was important to report this because he didn't really wish to be charged with some criminal charges, considering the super strict penalties for breaking the law.

"Be my guest."

A few thousand Universal Credits in illegal contraband was nothing, so he didn't really care about that. He also knew that he wouldn't be able to avoid the scanning of his cargo at all because the Imperium had extremely strict and precise border controls.

There was nothing that could slip through their borders and they were checking everyone very thoroughly.

***

Western Quadrant of the Starfort

Each Quadrant was divided into several layers, the layer where Arcturus was heading right now was one of the deeper layers of the Western Quadrant. He was wearing his armor and hood covering his face, with his Power Sword Aetherius strapped on his left side.

Now that he had obtained citizenship, he could connect to the Imperial Netsphere without being found by the central A.I. that would threaten him like a rogue element. However if he had very advanced A.I., far more advanced like that of the Red Queen Alice, then the situation would be different.

The Bounty Hunter Guild was extragalactic was an institution that regulated the complicated profession that was the bounty hunting trade throughout the galaxy. Ensuring the legality of hunting for its members, it worked alongside galactic governments and curated bounties for its members.

The Bounty Hunter Guild operated on the essence of accepting bounties, mainly on people such as rogue elements, criminals, but also on everyone as long the other party was capable of paying for it.

The Branch of the Bounty Hunter Guild within the Imperium was small because the Imperium didn't really trust the other organizations too much, especially the ones that were so widespread, like the Bounty Hunter Guild.

At the same time, they naturally allowed similar organizations to build branches across their territory in specifically chosen locations.

In this way, the Bounty Hunter Guild and Star Mercenary Association were allowed to operate within the Imperial territory to a certain degree.

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