Kazuki could see a dozen Loyalists fire up at them as the shuttle approached overhead. But all of them were taken out by the gunners, whilst those that remained were shredded by the drones. Even more shuttles came into view as the AGENCY threw their strength into the attack.

Lilly pushed past Claire as she lugged a spigot launcher on her shoulder. Lilly knelt to support herself as she aimed in front of the van. The blink of a firing mechanism slowly activated.

Claire said, "Alright… let's see if Quinn replaced the spigots with pool noodles!"

However, Kazuki pushed the launcher's barrel down to the floor of the shuttle before she could pull the trigger. 'Don't destroy it. I'd prefer to capture this final one."

'It's probably just rations, Arbiter.' said Lilly.

'But…' Archius interjected, 'Might be something important, don't you think?'

'It isn't worth the effort.' added Sato.

Archius was viewing the situation from a monitor drone far up above as the shuttle neared the van. Even if most of the drones were destroyed or damaged, there was still enough work to use them effectively.

'Eliza, what do you think?' asked Archius. Kazuki grumbled at that and narrowed his eyes, using her role as an aide to help push his view. But he wouldn't expect anything less from that social engineering control freak.

As expected, she sang his tune. 'Additional supplies would be nice…'

'There we go!'

'Quiet, you two.' ordered Kazuki as he flicked open his ANCHOR-watch, its calculations and deviating fields changing with each nano-second. "I'll ANCHOR onto the shuttle."

"Teleporting directly on top of them!?" Claire shouted in an inquisitive voice.

"Yes."

Bullets whizzed up at the shuttle, with a Loyalist sticking their head out of the passenger-seat window - only to be met with flying bolts of disapproval. Their body was riddled with returning fire - thrown to the ground. Zero out of ten for execution. Kazuki's golden eyes activated.

Kazuki's mind formulated and crafted everything necessary as his ANCHOR watch lit up. And in a sparkless nanosecond, a bloodied, formless light engulfed him as he ANCHORed on top of the van. The shockwave of his landing sent vibrations down into it. Another Loyalist peeked out to check the commotion.

As they saw him, he raised a muzzle at Kazuki, only for him to spray them point blank. Their body fell onto the streets below as civilians were scrambling away. Bullets smacked through the van's hull as those on board tried to shoot through the armour up into Kazuki. He narrowly dodged a bullet as the van turned the corner. He felt his body skid.

'Kaz!' shouted Eliza, in a panic. Her worry did not help whatsoever. 'Watch out, it'll try to swerve.'

Kazuki grabbed onto the van as it tried to throw him off. He stabbed his knife deep into its armoured hull as he fired his backup pistol into the cargo compartment of the van. Swapping to his primary pistol, he clambered to the front and placed several bullets into the driver's seat from above.

Kazuki glanced up as the series of shuttles hovering up above followed along the road. Loyalists on the rooftops were quickly taken down, with the van starting to steer off course. He grabbed onto the door of the van, tearing it off. He slid into the driver's seat, pushing the driver's corpse into the empty passenger seat.

'We can't use Mag-locks with you on it!' panicked Eliza.

He had, to put it bluntly, no idea how to stop a hover-van. Driving was never his expertise, it was Karl's - the navy's ace. His eyes scanned a manual between the cup holder and gear stick. He snatched it and flicked through it. His eyes glittered with information as he threw it at the corpse in a measured calm.

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'Oi! Get that thing under control!' shouted Lilly, 'You're gonna crash it!'

'Clearly, I am trying to send this van down to the planet's core.' snapped Kazuki, slamming down on the pedals whilst doing an emergency halt, twisting the van's wheel and slamming down on one of the many buttons on its screen dashboard.

The hover beams snapped shut as the van landed directly on the pavement. A scraping noise filled the air as it started to skid along the sidewalk. Civilians narrowly avoided the spiralling van as it came to a halt.

"Fuck…" Kazuki trailed off, taking in a huge breath as he let go of the wheel. Small vapours of steam left his mouth.

'Nice save, Kaz.' said Archius, snickering.

As he got out of the van, the shuttles nearby got close, landing and forming a defence line. They began to unload their passengers as AGENCY operatives secured the area, surrounding and creating a perimeter against anyone that might want to interrupt the operation, be it civilian, merc or crim.

Lilly placed a finger to her uplink as she shouted to a crowd of Sub-level civvies that started to gather around the wreck. "THIS IS THE AGENCY JUDICIARY BRANCH. CIVILIANS. GO HOME. LEAVE. DO NOT APPROACH - OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE. I REPEAT—"

It was a clear message. But knowing how crazy the Sub Levels were, there was bound to be someone to test the sewage out… Kazuki staggered to his feet as he started to cough up steam vapours. Claire approached him as she noticed his condition getting worse.

The pain in his spine wreaked on his psyche as she unsealed the nano-locks. She ripped Kazuki's helm-mask off, placing it on his belt. Fresh steam exited from his mouth as his golden eyes lay blank. "Shit, you shouldn't have pushed yourself, Arbiter."

"I can… handle myself," interrupted Kazuki, making sure that the drone up above couldn't see him, "Not a word to her."

"Not a word," repeated Claire, "I'll patch you up with some Halolazil till we get back to base."

As she injected a cocktail of drugs into Kazuki's neck vein. Riharia spoke up, 'The Loyalists… they're retreating!'

'Understood. All forces not currently at the van, exfiltrate on shuttles and RTB. All forces with me, we'll secure the merchandise.'

Sato sighed audibly and cracked her knuckles. 'Wasn't as clean as it could be, but that should be a glimpse into this…'

Eliza let off a sigh of relief. 'Yeah.'

Kazuki pressed onto the uplink on his ear and dragged him, Sato, Archius, and Eliza into a separate uplink channel. Claire helped him; the two slowly clambered towards the back of the van. Two operatives were already taking point at the door; one glanced at him, nodding.

'So… how was that for a first mission?' asked Sato, 'Fun wasn't it? Watching all the stuff from up here and secretly eating snacks without Kaz's knowledge.'

Eliza found amusement in the joke and chortled quietly. 'Well… It does look very informative.'

Kazuki interjected, 'Don't take this for an easy job. One mistake and many die. And try to keep your head straight. I've survived far worse than this.'

'I know… it's just that I can't help but worry.' said Eliza. He understood her worry. But it was not warranted. Compared to Mantaru, Old Terra and even Cantari, this was a tame mission.

Archius took Eliza's side in the argument. Probably to get her support. 'Hey! Kazuki, cut her some slack. It's her first mission, and even I was worried when I started.'

'Well, fine.'

Kazuki nodded as he approached the van's door. The two operatives slowly pressed their muzzles against the door. Claire positioned herself behind Kazuki, drawing her sidearm. He glanced at it, SIGAR-95 plasma bolt. He felt the steam from his spine and mouth slowly dissipate into cold vapours, but his internal heat remained high. One of the operatives tried to open the door. It wouldn't budge.

"Locked. Kain, you're up," said the first operative.

"I know…" said the second, slightly frustrated. They pulled out a crowbar and jammed it into a small crack within the door. Pressing down on a button, the device expanded and cracked the lock open.

'Get a drone down here. I want to know what's in there,' ordered Kazuki. 'Preferably bomb difusal.'

'On it,' responded Sato, redirecting the monitor drone down into the streets as the operatives maintained their perimeter of the situation. Securing a Judicial Enforcement contract this early from Nimitz-Delia was probably the best thing to happen to the AGENCY. Otherwise, the ENFORCERS might take this opportunity to get a good bout of violence.

He crossed his arms as the doors flung open, revealing the interior. It glistened on all sides with sealed boxes and red iconography with standard galactic all over them. They read explosives, in the Narisan dialect. Dead Loyalists were there. Most were holding onto their weapons as they died - yet a single one held onto a trigger. Claire and Kazuki's eyes lit up.

A single trigger was released, connected to a fuse. A dead man's switch.