It’d be best to keep things quiet, Kazuki thought. This imposter might have backup. He placed his hands in his pockets. His pistol was loaded. Trailing her from afar was easy, though she did make frequent looks over her shoulder.
The cruise was almost at full capacity, so he had no problem hiding amongst the crowd. From afar, he’s simply another Lautrasian in a sea of them, nothing noteworthy. Then, lights out. The white hue flickered off, then on, before a low dim red filled the halls from above.
‘LOCKDOWN PROCEDURES INITIATED. ALL PASSENGERS ARE TO RETURN TO THEIR QUARTERS.’
The voice boomed across the intercom. Most glanced up and around. Whispers and mutters were shared amongst both crew and passengers.
Drones present shone out messages repeating the message. Arrows shone out, guiding passengers.
Kazuki took his eyes off the imposter for a single moment. This had to be related… Then, he turned back. They were gone. Fuck. He’ll need to report this to the command bridge.
He flicked up his Contractor Card from his pocket.
It was the ID card the BCA provided. Fourth of the Seven on the coin flip; it should be enough to get him through, he thought. Turning his head to the large hallway windows, Kaz noted the Deep Space Leviathans soaring in the distance, matching the cruise’s Deep Space Warp Drive. They swam through the multi-coloured and black void.
He took out a pill bottle from his pocket, chucking a Halolazil into his mouth and swallowing… Better to take it now than later.
“Command bridge it is, then,” he muttered to himself, turning and walking the opposite direction.
Continuing towards the command bridge, he was soon the only person out. The halls were silent. A never-ending red hue blared down.
Strangely peaceful.
He kept his mind steadied on his objective, walking up a flight of stairs and exiting out onto another hallway. Level 6, the deck that houses the command bridge.
Kazuki kept walking down the hall. A fragment of his mind snapped awake.
”Oi! You!” a voice called out to him.
He twisted around, his golden husks landing of three false faces. “Security?” Kazuki asked.
“Yeah!” Said the lead guard, in front of two others. Their uniforms and hats were the same, but Kazuki could tell: they were very much imposters. “Get the hell back to your room, it’s lockdown.”
They shook backwards as he looked at them. Scared of him? Many would be. Not enough evidence. But… he could be wrong. Even though he checked the dossier right before, he might not be privy to something. “Guess it’s just procedural?”
The question itself wasn’t too insane to assume. The slowly nodded. “Can’t say if it is to you, but we do these drills sometimes…”
“How frequent?” Kazuki demanded an answer. His voice was cold, monotone and filled with a commanding vigour.
The imposters glanced at one another, before exchanging nods. “We did one a few months ago?”
That was enough to justify his thoughts.
“You know who I am. And I know who you are.” Kazuki kept his hands in his pockets.
One of the ‘guards’ slowly placed their hand on their waist. Too obvious, Kazuki thought. Too many gung ho idiots. “Don’t know what you mean?”
“Enough of the facade. Enlighten me,” demanded Kazuki. “What are you doing here?.
The guards stood frozen at his question. Pathetic. Then, they all moved to draw their pistols. Well, that’s a shame. Kazuki drew first, firing into the head’s of the side guards. Blood splattered out.
The lead guard finally was able to draw, blasting Kazuki at close range. Bolts flicked off his clothes. Kazuki’s hand shook as he fired. Miss.
Bolts continued to be exchanged in the hall. The Imposter ran up to him, closing the distance within a hail of bolts. Kazuki twisted his wrist, weaving to the side. “YOU’RE TOO CLEVER FOR YER OWN GOOD!”
Kazuki shot his hand out, letting a spray of plasma thicken the air. They were hit, knocked back. Projecting their shield up, they were barely able to get it up in time - with bolts slamming into it.
It was time for him to go on the offence.
Throwing his hands forward, Kazuki latched onto the shield. He used its mere existence as leverage. Ripping it down, he ducked beneath a rippling bolt. He then found the opportunity to go for the stab. Twisting a small dagger out, Kazuki stuck forward.
Between the battle of bolts, in the grapple and struggle, his blade struck true. The Imposter’s chest was punctured with the knife. They dropped their pistol, slowly stepping back as blood spat out.
They let out a groan of pain. Kazuki walked over, as they crumpled onto the ground. “I won’t ask again. What were you doing?” he asked.
“I… I…” The imposter looked up at him, slowly grimacing and grinding his teeth. “You pathetic aristocrats. Contract-Breaker… There’ll be a day that—”
Kazuki crushed their hand. Kazuki grabbed their remaining hand and crushed its bones. They let out another shriek as he sighed. Shaking his head, he said, “I warned you. Now, what are you doing?”
This time, Kazuki was making sure the imposter knew exactly what would happen. He slid a finger into his own belt, grabbing a small device. He’ll have to thank Rivera later, he thought.
He showed the imposter the device. “You know what this is, don’t you?” he asked. Flicking it up, it revealed a small syringe inside, with several tendrils. It was a mind-snare.
The man’s face went pale. “The cargo hold… we’re… shit…” He gave Kazuki enough information in a panic, before falling silent. “Justice will come for you, Contract-Breaker…”
“Justice? No… Never justice. Karma? Yeah.”“Karma, actually.” Kazuki displaced their brains with lead and walked off.
The cargo hold… He has no idea how much of the security is compromised. This will be tricky, he thought. On one hand, he knew they were imposters. That won’t stop the detractors from hailing him murderer. Why bother with them?
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The cargo hold is of importance… If security is compromised, then there’s no point going to the command bridge. The hold it is, then. He knows first hand just how easy it is to smuggle bombs onto cargo holds.
Kazuki snuck through the vessel, away from guards, prying eyes and drones. Eventually, he made his way to the cargo hold.
Opening a door, he walked out onto the catwalks up above. He made no noise, and the low dim red lights helped hide his figure.
Slowly, he pulled his pistol out.
Trouble’s ahead. He expects it. But they won’t. He pressed onto his uplink, wanting to update Eliza of what’s going on… Nothing. He pressed on it again… It wasn’t offline, but he couldn’t get a signal. Fuck.
There were a few dozen figures across sections of the catwalks, some leaning one small crates or the bannister. Safe to say: they were easily taken out.
Each one was terminated with speed and efficiency, cracked necks, slit throats, gravity. He cleared out the catwalks under the cover of a red hue.
Continuing along, Kaz reached a small clearing in the rows of containers. There were people down there, along with opened containers. There was gear and computers within them. Oh. So that’s how they got on, he thought.
Kazuki sighed. “Better hope Eliza doesn’t get mad at me over this…”
Sliding something out from his ICAPAD, he attached it to the railing of the catwalk. It was cable wire. Vaulting over the side, he quickly rappelled down to the containers, walking on top of them.
“SHIT… We’ve lost contact with Meranti’s team on Deck 6!” Someone shouted down below. “We should get the bombs primed already!”
“You don’t speed up art, Asterpol,” said another. Kazuki walked to the edge of the container, peering down into intersction, with several containers pried open. There were two individuals standing, armed to the teeth, and wearing guard uniforms. “Plus, it’s a bountiful harvest this time around. They will pay for their crimes…”
Beside the containers were hostages. Key word being were. All that was left were corpses, half-naked. He recognised those faces as the real guards. On the other end of opening were five other hostages. To his surprise, they were alive. Their uniforms were intact, with one wearing a bright hold captain’s cap.
“But what if word gets out!?” shouted Asterpol. “Dymitri, we CAN’T let some random outsider ruin all of it for us.”
Peering at the two individuals, he noted down everything he could. Asterpol, female, tall. Dymitri, male, short. Both had rifles. Little to no armour. No helmets. Not even a fight.
“Fine, fine,” Dymitri said. The terrorist looked towards the container as a third person emerged, snapping their light vest-plate into shape. “Cono, start the execution list, remember the order?”
“Of course,” said Cono, shrugging as he walked past them, leaving the group as the third imposter left. Cono. He’ll deal with them later. They have a bomb primed here, he’ll have to deal with that first.
An internal explosion in a voidway would cause untold chaos.
Asterpol still seemed frustrated. They paced around. “And what about the actual security?! The security that might still be out there! What about the drones?”
Dymitri walked into the container. Kazuki leaned down, kneeling to get a view inside. He was doing something on a computer. “Wow! It’s just like I checked for the twentieth time! Drones and security will be distracted looking for ghouls that don’t exist in the maintenance shafts! It’s smooth sailing, don’t fucking jinx us.”
Kazuki’s heard enough. He jumped down. The landing clicked his exospine to life. It started up. “No. You jinxed yourself,” he said, staying in the shadows. The two twisted towards him. Only the light from his eyes glinted his figure.
“See!” Asterpol shouted, raising a rifle muzzle to Kazuki.
He felt no need to respond, simply standing still with his arms crossed.
Dymitri slowly walked out of the container. He drew with equal speed to a slug, aiming at Kazuki. “The hell? What do you want? Don’t mess with security, kid.”
Kazuki glanced at the dead guards, and the still alive hostages. “Did you think I’d buy that?” Kazuki snarled. He shook his head. “Let’s make this easy for us all. Kill yourselves.”
He raised a finger at them, a part of the red hue eclipsing his lower face.
“Hands on your head! Turn around! Else I’ll blow your fucking head off!” Asterpol barked orders at him.
For a moment, Kazuki thought about torturing the answers he wants from them. That won’t be necessary, he concluded.
The computer will suffice. “And if I do? You’ll still blow my head off.”
“Tch,” Dymitri slowly walked forward, muzzle pointed at Kazuki.
He waited until there was a distance between the two, enough for him to better effectively terminate both in detail. Dymitri stepped forward just out of reach from Asterpol. Kazuki sprang into action.
Kazuki twisted his wrist, as a bright light exploded. He ANCHORed directly through a hail of bolts, grappling Asterpol. Dymitri turned around, hearing the scuffle. But as he raised his pistol and fired, Kazuki shifted Asterpol into the line of fire, disarming her.
He felt blood trickle onto his face as the bolt killed Asterpol on the spot. He shot his eyes to golden life. Dymitri saw exactly who he was up against. He froze, sweat pulsating down his face…
Kazuki sent two bolts into his neck. He fell, gagging on his own blood. Kazuki dropped the now dead Asterpol, placing a final bolt into her head, a mercy if she was still alive.
He had nothing to say. Dymitri started to crawl away, gargling on his own blood. Kazuki walked up, and pressed down onto his leg.
He wanted to get a clean shot. The dying man looked up at him one last time. Kazuki shot him.
A brutal execution, Kazuki thought. Though merciful as it was… It befitted him… Best to keep the idea of the Contract-Breaker up around these people. Kazuki looked up at the remaining hostages.
Contract-Breaker at the dassant, Kazuki thought for a moment. Hell… he doesn’t deserve to be there.
“Don’t worry, I’m on your side,” Kazuki said. They quickly nodded as he untied one of them, giving the freed guard a knife to untie the others.
He turned his attention to the computer inside the container. It was beside a bunch of bunk beds… He remembered how he used something similar to hide during the rebellion. They all had a similar configuration to what Kazuki presumed the Loyalists had on the Skyliner.
He scanned through the computer. “Hey! You gonna help us?” asked the captain. “Comms are down, we’ll need to get it back up
“It’s not down,” Kazuki said ”It’s being jammed.”
He scanned through the computer, trying to find any form of signal jammer. He clicked onto an executive panel, finding a list of zero-day executions that were being ran. Uplink jamming was one of them. Kazuki moved the mouse over to it, and terminated the executable.
“You should be able to contact the rest of security now.” He turned towards the captain, him and the guards taking up any firearms they could find.
“And… you?” The captain asked, his grey eyes and blonde hair contrasted the dark, red atmosphere.
Kazuki paused. What will he do? He turned towards the computer once again. He opened up another folder, revealing a large pdf dossier. It was a list of everyone on the vessel… No. Not everyone. Every brooch-wielder - every aristocrat on board.
It wasn’t in alphabetical order…
After all, his name was first, along with an outdated image of him. His eyes scanned to the next person. Mortinax. Then the next, Elizabeth Mary Celeste-Delmara. His eyes widened. Everything clicked.
It was a priority list of hits.
He scanned onto his own card. ‘TERMINATE AT ALL COSTS’ was on it in red text. Mortinax had something similar: ‘IT IS TIME FOR HIS CRIMES TO GO PUNISHED.’,
He kept scanning, until he found Eliza’s: ‘TARGET FIRST. USE TO LURE OUT THE CONTRACT-BREAKER.’
His muscles froze, as his mind only came to one conclusion: he must save Eliza.
“Well?” The captain asked again, as he grabbed onto Kazuki’s shoulder.
Kazuki twisted around, and forced his legs to move. “Deal with the terrorists. I will join you shortly. I have something else to do,” he said, walking off.
Though his heart did not beat a single sound, Kazuki felt it burst to life, pumping full of blood and energy. That terrorist, Cono, Dymitri sent is going after Eliza… He has to catch up… He can’t let him reach her first.
Walking out of the container, he made sure to turn any funeral for Dymitri into a closed casket. Explosive bolts ruptured the corpse’s torso, organs and limbs. Kazuki broke off into a sprint.
He felt his hand start to shake… Kazuki swore in his native tongue without thinking. Taking out a pill of Halolazil, he refreshed his mind and pain inhibition. Clenching his fist, he buried his worries away.