Void stepped out of the hall, his eyes darted around.

'They scampered off.'

'Not like they would've tried shit in the courtyard anyway.' He shrugged, casually strolling through the courtyard, towards the elevator shafts.

No matter how bad they hated each other, no matter what grudges they held. Guardians had to suck it up and act accordingly in the tower. Was it their due to their immense respect to the city?

'Absolute horse s****' Void chuckled to himself.

The reason was far simpler than that, a reason no one could ever deny. It was the existence of the Vanguard's inner circle.

Often called the Top Brass, each of these guardians could take a dozen on their own. Void could easily recall a few names, 'Shaxx, Sai Mota, Tevis, Eriana, Wei Ning'

The list continued, but those were among the few he had actively met. If anyone dared to act up? Void was sure the vanguard wouldn't mind if a few guardians went missing here and there.

It wasn't like the Vanguard's slate was clean either. Having played the game for so long, Void understood the internal politics quite well.

The Hidden, Praxic Fire, Order of Warlocks, Head Hunters, Stone-born and various others.

Simply different names for regiments under the Vanguard. One way or the other, the entire power structure of the city was dependent on three guardians.

'Dead Orbit or New Monarchy...Try as they might, those pathetic leaches cannot move a mountain.'

Void crept towards an isolated corner of the hanger, an instant later, he turned, vanishing completely.

He flickered down, nimbly skipping through the floors as he swooped down the elevator in the hangar.

Seconds before impact, Void shifted, gracefully and silently landing on his feet. His figure still cloaked, Void looked around, a sign was plastered across the wall.

'10th Floor'

The elevator shafts seemed to not go any deeper. Void found it strange, but then again, it would be odd to have a direct access to the core of the tower.

Swiftly darting through the maze of the 10th floor, Void spotted some stairs spiraling down. He leapt through the gaps, briskly hopping down to the 6th floor.

However, as he landed, several patrolling droids were scattered around the area, monitoring every inch of the place. The doors were seemed to be crafted from dense steel, armed with state of the art detection systems.

Although he could eventually find a way to slip in, it was obviously easier to take the direct route.

Void unfurled the scroll Banshee had given him. Stepping towards the massive gates, his translucent figure seemed to glisten as the aura wore off.

Instantly, all the droids went on full alert, not expecting any presence on the floor. As the gate detections system went haywire, several laser turrets sprang to life, rotating to face Void.

Immediately, Void held up the scroll, halting the machines. A rapid laser scanner surveyed the document, and a moment later, the whirring and heated machines fell silent.

The gate flashed a neon green light, depressurizing, a chilling fog rushed through the door.

At this point, Void truly had to take a step back and reconsider...'Did the guy designing the tower have a secret door fetish?'

Void had lost count of how many "special" doors he had to open in this place. It was definitely intentional.

"Would it kill you bastards to make this a bit faster?" He cursed, dense fog seemed to flood the entire floor.

Mechanical hinges clicked, gears screeched as the door struggled to slide open, revealing a pathway downwards.

"Obsidian, brief on the foundries." Void flickered, weaving through the gaps, striding down.

"Already ahead of you, referencing the city archives, the foundries have been around for a long time. They're uh, kinda the foundation of the city" Obsidian chuckled dryly.

"....."

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

"Can you please stop glaring at me..."

Void grabbed Obsidian like a tennis ball, "Don't ever do that again."

"Yes sir."

"Good, I don't suppose you're craving that makeover we talked about."

Obsidian vehemently shook his head, "Err, uhm, let's just pick up where we left off."

" Datto, Hakke, Tex Mechanica are the three major foundries. Focusing on weapons and armours. If we're only looking for a discrete and lethal armour set, perhaps Tex Mechanica would be the ideal choice. However, there is a problem."

Void picked up the pace, flickering forwards with his stride.

"and what's that?"

"Hakke and Tex Mechanica signed a huge deal with the city's factions. Which means, Dead Orbit, New Monarchy and Future War Cult, basically get their entire armory from these guys."

Void caught a glimpse of an ivory triangle insignia layered with red stripes, "Speak of the devil."

His stealth triggered, as he faded into the shadows, Void crept up towards the New Monarchy guardians, lingering akin to a phantom

One hunter kicked the crate next to his feet, "You sure we need all these weapons? Didn't the great hunt just end?"

The reply was instant as the man shrugged, "Hideo's orders. Take em."

Dragging a cigarette to his lips, the man lit the end, and drew a long breath.

"I Suppose you don know a lot do ye? City's pullin red lines all over. Cuttin the budget. Hideo wants the remaining batches to be moved fast, can't have the rats getting a whiff of this."

"Whatever you say man, I just want the commission."

The man visibly scrunched his nose, scoffing as he gestured the hunter to leave.

'F*cking amateurs' The man muttered under his breath.

Void watched with a sly smile, he gestured Obsidian to take a discrete picture of the crate.

Not dillydallying any longer, Void paced towards the fourth floor, rushing through, he came upon hall crowded with Dead Orbit and New Monarchy guardians.

'More smugglers. Guess the city's really taking drastic action.'

He kicked the ground briskly, soaring through the air, Void darted across the hall, using the ceiling as a support.

At the same time, Obsidian had already captured footage of various guardians bootlegging weapons meant for the city into their faction's private collection.

wading through the hustle and bustle of the fifth floor, Void finally found himself isolated, pacing towards the last leg of the descent.

Suddenly, a distinct hammering began to echo, the chilled air mixed with a warm lull rising from the bottom.

Void felt the heat permeate through his armour. Undoing his stealth, he walked towards the workshops.

Various signs littered the workshop floor. The perimeter, made of decaying walls, littered with decades old graffiti that someone had done a horrible job of painting over.

The hammering rang through his ears, now more than ever. Harmonizing as each workshop continued smithing their weapons and armours, piece by piece.

Industrial cauldrons filled to the brim with molten alloy, golden-age machinery primed as manufacturing continued.

Void glanced around, as he spotted Hakke, and Tex Mechanica, however, he had already decided not to engage with those two for now.

'The risk of the factions keeping tabs on me is too high'

Instead, Void opted for Daito, one of, if not, the oldest foundry in the city. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't spot their sign.

Taking a walk through the workshop, Void's aura pulsed through the perimeter.

He frowned, 'There's no one here.'

At a closer glance, the various stations were manned with droids. The entire process was almost fully automated. Yet Void could tell that someone was here, at least there were signs of human presence.

Walking deeper into the workshop, Void found rusted machinery and various barrels full of machine oil.

"Obsidian, what's the status on the workshop."

Heeding his words, Obsidian ran a quick scan of the place. "It's quite an old shop, City records state that the owners only visit every few weeks. Mostly everything is taken care of by the droids."

"So no one's here ?"

"Not exactly, the log book does state a recent entry log for Datto, but there was no exit."

"What's the odds of a system bug?"

Obsidian ran a few swift calculations, "Well to be honest, they haven't updated the system since Osiris himself was Vanguard."

"I will take that as a yes."

Void wasted no time in surveying the place, the entire fourth floor was essentially a junkyard, with a small section dedicated for the workshop. The deeper he went the more astonished he got.

The city had dedicated one entire floor, just for weapons production. The entire residential district for guardians, was still lacking compared to the space available here.

Abruptly, Void's gaze caught something, peculiar, he felt very weak energy fluctuations from one of the rooms in the junkyard.

He focused his eyes, and clearly spotted it. "There's someone here, might be injured. Energy waves look a bit off."

"Noted, I will keep emergency on standby if we need someone."

Void cautiously crept closer to the door, silently twisting the door knob.

"F-five more minutes" A muffled voice rang out as the door swung open.

"Hmm?"

In front of him, hunched over on a table, a lady was clutching her forehead. She groaned.

"Health status?"

Obsidian's laser scanner immediately flashed, "Normal, but a bit dehydrated."

The lady struggled, flailing about, the familiar sound of glass echoed in the room as a bottle rolled from underneath he

Void picked it up and sniffed, "I guess we found the cause."

Chucking the bottle away, Void sighed as he helped the lady to a chair. "You know, if you're gonna get blacked out drunk, at least have a designated droid."

A mindless groan followed, the woman now disgruntled, kept shaking her head.

Obsidian scanned the lady again, "Interesting, Void, meet Chiyoko Mey, the current president of Daito."

"Huh?" He looked between the two, "This...is the president?"

The words seemed to ring in Chiyoko's ears, as she abruptly struggled to stand up, but her legs failed as she stumbled and fell on the chair.

" It's looking really promising." Void gave obsidian the look.

"Don't look at me.. Banshee's the one giving the names."

"Yeah, but I thought you were supposed to be smart."

Obsidian flared his eye, "Hey...I am smart, sometimes the data doesn't match up..."

"Think Hakke or Tex is still a dangerous bet?" Void glanced towards the workshops he had left behind.

"Like it or not, I don't think we have options..." Obsidian lamented.

Chiyoko jolted awake, startling the two, but immediately without any words, she looked at Void. her eyes widening.

"...UGhhghghgh" Chiyoko gagged, hurling vomit all over his feet.

"...."

"Great"