Epilogue

It was three weeks before Reign and I finally made it out for our date night, but there was one last job outstanding before we could relax and truly unwind.

I strode along the reinforced balcony of the penthouse, my scanners flickering out and pouring over every inch, searching for threats, as I hefted my rifle.

It was new, hell, half the panels in my armor were these days, hardly a day went by that there wasn’t a new prototype to test. After the fight with Marcial—he’d been stripped posthumously of his rank and any army rights, including a decent burial—I’d made sure everyone was okay, then I’d gone looking for the designer of my suit.

I’d found her working in a shitty little factory designing improved sex toys. I’d asked her if she’d rather stay there, or come and work for me, with access to a fabricator as soon as we could manage, and being able to improve all our suits.

She’d jumped at the chance, but included settling a vendetta she’d had against the man that owned the factory as part of her cost. That was fine by me. It meant I stood over her, scaring the shit out of a bunch of rent-a-cops and making sure nobody interrupted, while she beat the crap out of the owner with a twelve inch purple sparkly dildo.

Life can be fun like that.

Since then, things had been running smoothly. I’d accepted a role in the management of the guild, and we were generally seen as a guild to watch now, rising steadily through the ranks.

Occasionally though, I still took a little personal contract, here and there, like this one.

Oshbob was more or less happy. Well, he was slightly less grumpy, and he’d glared at me for at least a whole second less than normal when I saw him last. The renovations to his warehouse, and ours had apparently mollified him slightly.

Possibly because as a ‘guild strongpoint and armory’ we were permitted legally to install heavy weaponry around the building, and we’d used a bit of a grey area to make sure that if he wanted them on his building? That was fine too.

He’d have managed it himself, I had no doubt, but he didn’t complain when I let him know we’d arranged that section of the contract as a thanks for his help.

ACE didn’t want the kind of toys we had getting into the wrong hands, mainly because anyone that got them was likely to have a reason to use them on those fuckers first.

I idly tracked an ACE aircar as it passed, my railguns locking on and zooming in as I fantasied about shooting the fucker out of the air, before it diverted hurriedly.

Reign turned the corner ahead of me and strode towards me, smiling. “So, you ready?” she asked.

“Never been more so,” I assured her as the pair of us walked back inside.

“Sir, I’m legally making you aware that our employment contract with you ended fifteen seconds ago, and we are no longer responsible for your safety, do you accept this?” I asked of the figure slumped on the plush seating, frantically tapping his foot and glaring at me.

“No, no I fucking don’t!” he snarled. “Your contact might be up, but I can’t get a replacement! Nobody, and I mean NOBODY is answering… fuck’s sake, fine! I’ll pay you for another week and…”

“Unfortunately we’re unavailable.” I cut him off smoothly, staring down at him from my armor.

“What? Well fuck that , you don’t know the shit bags that are after me!” He snarled.

“Made some bad deals did we?” Reign murmured, shaking her head. “Tsk, tsk.”

“Fuck off, whore,” he snapped at her, before shaking his head and drawing a deep breath. “Fine, whatever, what’s this gonna cost me?”

“We’re already hired by another,” I said, burying the desire to squash the fucking bug for that comment. “As I said sir, we have made you legally aware that we are no longer responsible for your safety and we are not accepting any further contracts from you. Your ident has been scanned and recorded as being present. This contract is over.”

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“Yeah? Yeah well fuck you too asshole!” he screamed, getting up and grabbing a drink and throwing it at me. “You’ll regret this!” He promised. “You don’t know who I am! Not really!”

“Oh, I think we do,” Reign purred, moving to the door, and pulling it open, letting two people in.

I nodded a greeting at Doul, who’d taken over the squad from Timur after the cooling tower incident, and his second, Liolet.

“Good to see you again,” Reign said, hugging them both, then smiling. “Now, before we leave you fellas to ‘talk’, let’s keep our accounts current shall we?”

“How much was it again?” Doul asked, grinning evilly.

“A credit.”

“Worth it ten thousand times over,” he assured her, transferring the credit.

“What… what the hell is this?” our previous employer asked, backing away, then grabbing a gun from the table and trying to use it.

It clicked loudly.

“That was the fee for us making sure you were disconnected from Aug-World and the cybersphere in general, and unloading all your weapons,” Reign said sweetly. “Now you might not remember us, but I assure you, we remember you, as well as the cooling tower job that you hired us for. Your name changed, but you were easy to track down.”

“No… no wait…” he mumbled, shaking his head, while pulling the trigger over and over.

“You sent us in there to die in a death match,” Doul said as he folded his stealth gear up and dumped it on the couch nearby, before drawing a hammer from a small case he’d carried in. “You tried to kill us, and our friends, and you never even gave a shit, because for people like you? There’s never any consequences.”

“Until now,” Reign said firmly. “Now, Liolet doesn’t speak, not anymore, but you’re going to find out that he has no issues in making himself understood.”

“Have fun, everyone,” I said with a smile, before turning my back and striding out of the living room and onto the rooftop of the penthouse, Reign by my side.

I clambered into the back of the heavy transport that was waiting for us, and waved to Dondo to take us home, as Reign settled across from me on one of the smaller jump seats.

The transport lifted into the air as Reign leant back, her rifle resting across her knees, her hair falling loose as she took her helmet off, a kink in it from being constrained for too long, and I couldn’t help but smile at her.

“You’re watching me again,” she said without looking. “I can feel your sensors.”

“You’ll be feeling a lot more soon,” I promised with a laugh, and she grinned at me.

“First we get home and you get out of that armor and shower! Then dinner, some drinks, and maybe, maybe , if you’re very good, then you’ll get some later,” she said almost grudgingly.

“What if I’m bad?” I asked.

“Oh, well then you’ll definitely get some,” she assured me, glancing up and winking at my sensors. “You know, we’ve got twenty minutes before we get home… how long would it take you get out of that armor and kill the cameras in here?”

“They’re already dead,” I assured her, triggering the emergency release on my armor.

She burst out laughing and reached for me. “I love you, Kabutt, I really do,” she said, saying the words we’d danced around for weeks.

“And I love you, Reign,” I said, reaching out to take her in my arms.

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