The ride was more smooth than Kazuki had expected. He kept his arms crossed, eyes closed. He felt any and every change in the frequencies of the vibrations. It was mainly gear changes. He couldn’t help himself but remember these nuances.

“We’re getting closer,” said Karl, leading the shuttle convoy. “SPTU and police already have a perimeter around the building, we helping them or going in alone?”

“Alone. This is our fight,” Kazuki replied, opening his eyes and glancing towards the frontal cockpit.

He saw Jessica’s old HQ tower in the distance, even amongst the various skyrises of the floating islands. Down below was the surface, a monotonous colorfilled landscape of buildings and streets. But those that have the privilege to live up here are the greatest scum on this planet, not those that live underneath…

The armoured convoy continued to barrel through traffic as a second voice spoke, “You sure you don’t want to talk to them first?” asked Archius. “Having more numbers would help us…”

Kazuki glanced towards Archius, sitting opposing him in the shuttle. This reminded him of their initial arrival to Anagora after one long year. But this time, they’re ready for combat. Even Kazuki’s spymaster was decked in armour, though it was quite extravagant compared to his.

“The Loyalists have taken over Clandestine’s HQ and you expect me to negotiate with them?” asked Kazuki.

“Yes… negotiations normally happen before you ram the gates. Not that you’d know…”

“He’s not wrong,” said Martinez, cutting into the conversation. He was fixing his gear, most of which had the signs of bullet impacts. “We’ll need those men.”

“See! Even Martinez agrees with me.”

Kazuki nodded. Martinez was standing inside the shuttle, holding onto one of the straps on the ceiling. “I know, but they have not surrendered, have they?”

“No…” Martinez sighed. “I don’t think they expect us to offer terms of surrender.”

“The police have sent them a thousand messages by now, but they still remain silent…” Archius trailed off, clicking out a data-pad and showing Kazuki the megastructure, along with a dozen dots and lines. It highlighted key points of entry.

“The news anchors are already present, and the building has its own power generators. We’ll need to move fast, they’ll be watching for us,” said Archius. “Luckily for us, they’ve already executed all the hostages before we’ve arrived.”

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“Or sadly for us…” Martinez interjected, “Sad we can’t save those hostages…”

“Indeed,” Kazuki paused. He lowered his head, maintaining a blank face. He looked towards the side, then back up. “I haven’t seen the casualty report yet.”

Martinez pressed down on his uplink, projecting a report in front of his face for him to read. “Twenty seven operatives, two handlers and a few logistic guys.”

“Rivera won’t like that…” Archius muttered.

“No she won’t…” Kazuki agreed. “Who’s dealing with her after this?”

Martinez smashed through the conversation. “Not me. She always comes crying to me about any casualties on the logi-team.”

The General started to count on the joints of his fingers.

“—Not me either!” Archius chuckled, pointing towards Kazuki. “Just tell her the news simple and walk out, don’t get bogged down by her rants.

“Easier said than done.” Kazuki looked towards the front of the shuttle again, seeing the HQ closer than before. It was a large, barricade building, a modified defence bastion back during the siege… It was a good defensible position, but not good enough. “We’ll rely on shock and awe.”

“And the survivors?” asked Martinez. “I’d prefer to integrate a few of them…”

“No survivors,” said Kazuki, to the surprise of the other two. He looked towards both of them. He won’t let them get away, and he needs to draw a line in the sand. “They’ll be made into examples, those terrorists…”

Leaning closer, Martinez started, “It was the ones with Svenn that were—”

“—I know. But things are expected of us, as far as the judiciary and the public are concerned: these are the same PMCs that attacked P-2. They’ll be brutally killed, any survivors are to be executed, or given to the police. I don’t care.”

Martinez sighed, before nodding. He understood the situation quite well, even Kazuki has his own limits - and there are things that even he cannot influence. Archius, however, remained silent, putting a finger up to his chin before speaking, “If we’re going down that route, we should capitalise on those news anchors, increase our PR.”

“More PR means more possible contracts, but then again: we don’t want any possible external influences on this operation.” Martinez deliberated to himself.

Kazuki sealed his helm-mask on as Martinez grabbed onto his. The three all had golden trimmed black armour, with their sigils painted on their pauldrons. It was the only thing that visually connected the three, as their helm-masks all had different paint jobs: except Archius. He didn’t bother putting his on. Martinez glanced towards him.

“Oh, please!” Archius started, “I’ll leave operations to you two, let me handle overwatch and the public.”

“If that’s fine with you, then.” Martinez shrugged, sealing his helm-mask on as the wide sirens of the police blockade around the building could be heard. The convoy pulled off from the sky highways, latching down onto the sky canals between various buildings.

Kazuki watched as police patrol chasers skidded by, acting as guides. ‘Vallé, Lazarus, prepare your teams.’