The shuttles were hauling out operatives, blaring with their searchlights. Many of his men took as much as they could carry, a little extra on top. Kazuki didn’t stop them. Instead, he had ordered the hostages to be gathered all in one place, on the central platform of the shipyard.
They exchanged stares with the hostage takers, most of the hostages being scared out of their lives as the fourth of the seven mercs glared down at them. Of course, they ignored the cutesy scarf he wore. Because they were all fixated on the golden bulbs that bore down on them.
Most of them were guards, probably people in the know-how for the smuggler’s operations. But whether they lived mattered only as much as their worth as bargaining cards.
‘Arbiter, we’ve picked up shuttles tunnelling straight towards you, want us to hail them?’ asked Sato.
‘Yes, I’ll buy as much time as possible.’ Kazuki crossed his arms. He looked across the shipyard. Any heavy equipment that was worth anything was being hauled off by the shuttle’s grav-locks. Yet those deemed worthless were in a burning pile of thermite at the bottom of the shipyard’s platforms. He could see the flames through the blizzard.
Sato sliced into a new channel as she uplinked Kazuki to an unknown source. ‘Good luck in there,’ she said.
He nodded, turning away from the hostages, with Claire taking guard. Lilly was barking orders, speeding up the exfiltration. But they had limited shuttles. And with the snowstorm, Kazuki wants to avoid any risks of collisions.
‘This is Kazuki Izumi Geminorum-Ryzaku, representing the interests of the High Table Oversector’s Judiciary. You are nearing our area of operations. State your business.’ Kazuki demanded, sealing his leviathan painted helm-mask on.
‘Kazuki?’ asked a surprised voice, through the uplink. Kazuki immediately knew who it was. Tifta, Ex-Clandestine. ‘By the eclipse, I didn't expect you to be here. We’re, uh… we’re here on behalf of Narisa’s PD to eliminate trespassers. Bit heavy handed but you know… operations aren’t as they used to be.’
‘There are no trespassers.’ Kazuki said in a monotone voice. Tifta sighed…
Kazuki nodded at Claire, and she immediately took her and Amyé to help Lilly. The storm wasn’t helping their efforts at all. Most of the ground was covered with thick snow, with the blinding storm even sometimes blinding the pilots’ behind their shuttle windows.
‘Sorry, Kazuki, but I have to do this…’ said Tifta
‘I know,’ replied Kazuki.
‘We both know what’s about to happen.’ deliberated Tifta. Despite their past, the two knew that bloodshed was the only option forward. They hated it, but it must be done.
‘Is it the police, or is it the smugglers that hired you?’
‘Pfft, it doesn't matter to me, business is business after all. We all gotta do what we gotta do.’ said Tifta, in a solemn tone.
‘No. I’m guessing they said nothing about hostages.’
‘No idea. If they wanted hostages alive then I guess they would have told us before.’
‘So be it,” said Kazuki.
He cut off the source, with the uplink channel collapsing into. Kazuki felt Krystalink lock him back into the AGENCY’s comlinks. He watched as the shuttles of the first wave disappeared, full of cargo.
‘Overwatch, what’s the ETA for the rest of the shuttles?’ asked Kazuki, turning back towards the hostages. Quinn held his trigger with a sour face. ‘It’d be nice to not be shot at.’
Eliza’s voice pierced the snowstorm. ‘Several minutes at the very least, just hold out until they get there.’ Despite being an analyst and aide at her core, she is somewhat useful as a handler… But that was secondary to keeping her safe. He can only ensure her safety if she’s with him, guarded by a thousand mercs at least.
Kazuki glanced across the shipyard, its numerous layered platforms delving up and down. But the place was still brimming with shuttle-haulers, most were old though. And as the final lights in the snowstorm disappeared, it left small sections of Heimfall and Deltastring left. Compared to their full strength numbers, holding out may provide a challenge.
‘Arbiter. The hostages.’ started Archius, his voice filled with coldness, Kazuki knew the only course of action with them - more than anyone else.
‘I know.’ Kazuki turned to Quinn, and nodded at him. “Put them to sleep.” demanded Kazuki.
“Huh?,” Quinn raised his voice, seemingly awaken from slumber. His face turned towards the gunrunners, then he nodded. He took in a deep breath as he patted them down. Kazuki noticed that his movements were sluggish, regret?
Kazuki ignored it as Quinn raised his shotgun.
“PLEASE!” one of the hostages shouted. “PLEASE! DON’T KILL US! PLEASE! WE DIDN’T WANT TO JOIN!” Quinn paused.
Quinn slowly took his helm-mask off, staring at the gunrunner with a frowning face. “We all had a choice,” Quinn said.
“NO!” they continued. “WE HAD TO! WHAT CHOICE DID WE HAVE?! JOIN THE MILITARY?! THOSE FUCKERS THAT FED US TO THE DOGS?!”
“It’s still a choice,” Quinn continued, the sense of livelihood within his voice was gone, left with a cold harsh, Narisan reality. “Sorry...”
“Wait... Quinn...?” the gunrunner called out. Kazuki gave a small glance over – but pretended to not notice. “Dude...”
Quinn gritted his teeth, slamming his helm-mask back on. “Shut up, gunrunner,” he said, before raising his shotgun.
He unleashed a torrent of fire at the first of the hostages. Those that survived the first seconds started to run. They were tied up for the most part. Safe to say, they failed miserably. And all fell.
All that was left was a pile of mis-assorted limbs and flesh. It gave off a rancid odour, quickly clouded by the blizzard and frost.
Kazuki stared at the slaughter. This was justice, he justified to himself. They caused pain and suffering. They sold their merchandise to criminals.
It just so happened that those criminals are Kazuki’s enemies. If they were his allies... Kazuki sighed. He hated blurring the lines, but he bit the judicial bullet.
Let justice be done. Blindly. Because if Lady Justice could see, her disgust would be measured towards the highest echelons of this republic. Kazuki’s mind lingered in thought, just imagining the justice and righteousness he can unleash.
All it took was one command to wipe out the greatest of criminals.
However: that was not this day. Today, Kazuki will remain blind, his gold eyes tied shut widely.
Lilly walked up to Kazuki, dismissively peering at the corpses with a distant noise whistling through the air, far away.
“The fuck’s that sound?” asked Amyé, jogging up, most of Heimfall and Deltastring spreaded out, taking cover as they all listened in to the whistling. They were all prepared for anything. “Sounds familiar!”
Lilly placed a finger up, listening to it. She tilted her head, as if remembering something. “String missiles!” She shouted, head staring deadly at Kazuki.
The first missiles crashed down as she finished, sending one of the shuttle-caravans into a fireball. The team hiding behind it were all but vaporised. Debris flicked upwards. The interlocking wreckages started into a free fall as they started to crash downwards.
“THE FUCK?! PEOPLE STILL USE THEM?!” Quinn shouted as Claire dragged him to the side.
“YEAH?! Old, but reliable, I guess?” replied Lilly, starting into a run as she avoided a skidding hauler. The platforms started to vibrate. Years of neglect had caused the structure’s integrity to falter. The hulks started to collapse.
Panic ensued as more missiles smacked down on the ground, sending debris and snow into a violent uproar. Anyone caught in the blast radiuses were split limb from limb. And those not were crushed beneath falling shuttles and debris. Groups of agents on the upper platforms fled downwards, debris slinging down. An ensuing scramble began. Kazuki’s head ached with the whistling noises, Claire dragging him to the side with her…
They felt so familiar. And he placed a hand to his head, smacking it. FUCK, focus, Kazuki reminded himself. His mind bled anyway, until a sparking panic filled his eyes. He twisted his head downwards, narrowly avoiding a piece of flying debris.
“Arbiter!” Claire shouted, clambering out of the way of a shuttle as everyone started to flee.
“FUCK FUCK FUCK! WHAT THE FUCK DO WE DO!?” Amyé started panicking, unslinging her sniper as the platforms started to shift from the force. Amyé slid down one of the platforms, avoiding debris as she crashed down beside Kazuki. “COME ON, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!”
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More and more of Kazuki’s men were being swallowed up by the barrage, built up snow kicking downwards to a free fall onto the platforms below them. Giant hulks of steel came tumbling down.
He slammed his brain back into place, silencing the pain. He demanded more focus from his head. “MOVE,” he shouted. They all burst into a run as they tried to find cover. Cover?! Where the fuck was cover strong enough to withstand the shuttles AND the barrage?
‘ARCHIUS. ELIZA. COVER, IS THERE COVER?’ asked Kazuki, in a monotone, calm, albeit loud voice.
‘Somewhere, let me find it for you.’ said Archius, his voice souring at the turn of events, ‘This place’s old… not a lot of new records on them.’
‘I need them now. Not later.’ Kazuki snapped at Archius, venom in his voice.
Eliza was panicking, but placed her panic into something productive. ‘Found some! Internal docking ports have maintenance tunnels built in! They look like air-locks in the ground!’ Eliza blurted out. A speeding crate nearly took both Kazuki and Edain’s heads off as he led the group in a crazed direction, scrambling to avoid the crashing platforms, whilst avoiding the slippery fall.
A crescendo of platforms were being torn to shreds as crushed operatives screamed across the uplink. Kazuki’s mind slowed with each passing scrap of debris, his mind taking in everything. Even the splitting limbs of his own men, falling downwards. He and his team kept running, with all they had, until his eyes scanned a bright orange airlock. It had emergency stripes all over it. THAT WAS IT.
“I found it. Follow me. Stay close but not too close.” ordered Kazuki. He burst into a dash, running across the shipyard platform. His reinforced exospine injected in a cacophony of energising drugs.
Claire stabbed herself with a stimulant as she shot injectors into everyone else with her pharm-assist. Adrenaline bolts struck everyone, enhancing them as Kazuki neared the maintenance shaft.
As he was a hand away, his mind spluttered into action. Left. His aug-glasses demanded left, and he twisted - to see a small shuttle hauler crashing down towards them all. Directly in the line of fire. No getting out of the way.
‘ARBITER. GET DOWN, NOW!’ Eliza shouted.
‘Not enough time. Everyone, in - now.’ Kazuki stated, ordering his men to go down.
He stretched his shoulders. Claire led everyone behind him. Lilly, Quinn, Edain, Amyé were accounted for. No point worrying about the others… He could see fragments of other teams through the snowstorm of debris - but as Claire yanked at the trigger of the shaft Kazuki pushed his limbs into action, tensing them all up.
Here it comes.
The hauler increased in speed - only to be met with Kazuki, his cybernetics and exospine wheeling into action. Drugged up muscles pushed for all Kazuki demanded and more.
A burst of blue crackled with steam and stims. The hue burst from within his exospine, out between his vest-plate and jacket.
Smoke clocked itself out of his lungs. And slowly, he weathered the weight, slowly pushed back as he halted the shuttle. But as he pushed back, lacerations started to split across his hands.
“Lazarus. Tell me when to stop.” Kazuki strained to get a word out, as he felt an added weight burden against the shuttle.
“Just hold it still for a little bit longer!” shouted Claire, “Do they fucking grease these doors?”
“You think they even touch these doors since the war?” snapped Quinn, moving forward and helping Claire.
“CAN YOU TWO SHUT UP.” Lilly moved forward, crashing down to help Claire.
Kazuki held firm, but his limbs were already strained against the thousands of kilograms forced against him. His cybernetics were going into overdrive. The only thing keeping him in action was the reinforcements to his exospine.
Even then it was slowly fading - revealing old scars. Any failures in his body were met with more drugs, more stimulants.
But just as Kazuki’s arms started to falter, Lilly pried the shaft open. They immediately stormed in, crashing down into the small maintenance foxhole. Amyé shouted upwards towards Kazuki, “Get in you fucking brute, door’s open!”
He slowly shimmied his way down towards the maintenance shaft, holding back against the tide until he was on the edge. He couldn’t shove the shuttle backwards. Pressing his energy into his legs and arms, he allowed the hauler press down onto him. His wrist twisted as his ANCHOR-watch activated, linking to the Analyspec in orbit.
A light cracked forward, sending Kazuki into the hole. Half a second passed as the hauler up above skidded by, crashed into by another - sending it into a secondary fireball.
“Good callout.” Kazuki’s body was drained of energy, more drugs took its place… He took a look at his ANCHOR bracings, they were still fixed on. He took an additional handful of Halolazil.
“Thank fuck you have a high tolerance,” Claire said, peering over at Kazuki.
He closed his eyes, gasping for air in the tight space below. ‘Arbiter to Overwatch, we’re safe. All callsigns report in.’
“Fuck… can you move a bit?” asked Amyé. It was cramped. Incredibly cramped. There was barely any room to fit all of them, with most of them squished up against each other, made worse by their heavy armour - and Amyé’s long sniper rifle.
‘Haymaker here,’ Kiri reported. ‘We’re safe… so are a few others.’
He could hear the grief in her voice. One by one, the teams called in. His mind calculated the losses, barely any casualties - despite what he saw. Around a section’s strength left.
But Edain immediately snapped back at Amyé, “If it wasn’t for that large sniper of yours, we’d have more breathing room.” The complaint was reasonable.
“Oh fuck you! You fucking perv I bet you became a medic to finally get some ass in your life!” Amyé shouted, “AND WHAT ABOUT QUINN’S SWORD THAT HE STOLE?!”
“DON’T GET ME INTO THIS!” Quinn snapped back. “YOU’RE THE ONE THAT BROKE THEIR ARM AND HAS TO HAVE A FUCKING BRACE AROUND IT! CRIPPLE!”
Kazuki cleared his throat. Quinn zipped it.
“HEY! AT LEAST I LIFT, WHICH IS MUCH MORE THAN WHAT YOU CAN DO!” Amyé relied on the most irrelevant facts. Lifting might be her hobby, but it was nothing to do with now.
Edain shot back, “I’ll shove that muzzle down your throat, so we can finally have some quiet and room in here!”
Quinn stabbed into the conversation. “Maybe if you didn’t always try to pack fifty missions’ worth of medical supplies, we wouldn’t have this problem!” His support for Amyé seemed to have pissed Edain off.
“BETTER TO BE PREPARED!” rebuked Edain, looking down at Quinn.
“Can you guys please stop?” both Claire and Lilly said at the same time, feeling like they had to babysit their operatives. Both were tired by now, and this little brawl did nothing to help them recover. Both Amyé and Edain continued the argument, but Quinn was uncharacteristically silent. Blood still dripped off him from the executions.
Claire muttered to herself, ‘At least Zym isn’t here…’ But the mood was tense, thick and foggy. Everyone was seemingly dreading having to go out, back there.
‘Hey! I can hear you, you know… you said that just to piss me off, right?!’ said Zymuel, ‘It’s not fun being on the reserves, you know!’
The two exchanged nods, glancing through the mass of operatives. “Hey, so you all come here often? I mean, it’s a bit cramped but I think we can make it work” joked Quinn.
Quinn’s little joke did not go well as he immediately let off a continuous round of ouches. But with that, the atmosphere collapsed into chatter. Kazuki guessed that Lilly pinched him. Up above the debris was still falling down, the noise of crashes and string missiles still lighting the air.
‘Tell us when they finish their bombardment…’ said Kazuki, ‘And why the fuck are they blowing up the merchandise?’
‘Probably are too scared to fight you guys in an even fight.’ started Sato, ‘But… that also damages the Gunrunners. Losing stupid old tech…’
Eliza butted in. ‘But Imperial G-99s are still quite popular, might I add, especially for raiders and patrol groups.’
‘No shit…’ Lilly gasped for air, constricting her voice in the tight space, ‘Those things never jam, especially compared to GemDEV weapons.’
Lilly gave Kazuki one glance, expecting him to shoot back with his own response. But he didn’t see it as an insult, more rather an astute observation of his mother’s weapons. Even under that plain visor, his golden eyes were still uncaring.
Quinn tried to stir something up, saying, “Oooh, you gonna take that, Arbiter?”
“Yes.” stated Kazuki, “She is not wrong. GemDEV weapons are typically high-maintenance.”
As he finished, the barrage overhead came to a halt. Nothing muttered on the surface, only the raging fires of alight debris remained.
‘The missile barrage’s over…’ Archius said, ‘Shuttles are coming back in five minutes, They’re probably going to go after you guys, stay strong.’
‘Understood. All forces, get out and hunker down. Overwatch, control the drones to support the boots on the ground.’ Kazuki ordered them around, watching as Edain exited out, stretching.
One by one, they all left. Quinn was first, aiming on a swivel to see if there was anyone to blast. Damn hot-head, Kazuki thought. Seeing no one, he dusted the snow and dust from his coat, along with the others.
Kazuki scanned across the shipyard. He couldn’t see all the remaining teams. A mist of blood lingered in the air, though quickly fading into smog. Those closest joined up, exiting out from their own cover.
‘Hey, Arbiter… are you still alive?!’ Tifta asked, ‘Don’t worry, we’re checking up on you anyways.’
Kazuki connected to Tifta. ‘Sorry, but we’re all dead. Please come by some other time, it’s rather inconvenient right now.’
‘Ah, you survived. Fuck… I was kinda expecting that to kill you all.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll aim for the head.’ said Kazuki, giving assurances to Tifta. Professional courtesy, nothing more - Nothing less.
Tifta let off a small chuckle as hostile shuttles burst through the blizzard, older models but still dangerous. No markings on them. Hovering in the air, they immediately opened fire downwards.
‘Same to you, see you later, Kaz’
“If Tifta was going to be like this…” Claire started, hiding behind a piece of a broken void-engine, alongside Quinn and Edain, “I would have left him for dead on Malico-4!”
“Yeah, yeah, we all know you wouldn’t have the heart to do that,” Quinn quipped.
Searchlights beared down. Lilly and Amyé ducked behind a small crashed star-fighter, one attached to the haulers, any cover was better than no cover. Amyé immediately fired upwards as troops started to land. Large red warning zones projected downwards as she eliminated any that flowed down from the shuttles with her hollowed piercing rounds.
Sporadic gunfire and firefights exploded around the place as bullets fell down in the raining hard blizzard. The only thing differentiating their allegiance was the location of their destination as hell started to break loose. Kazuki weaved out the trajectory of a stray bolt.
He sighed, before taking a step forward, looking at a group of disembarking mercenaries. They were numerous, too numerous for his forces to hold out against. The shuttles started to hover, turning searchlights into rotary cannons.
Splatters of blinding light shot out onto the field, suppressing everyone - even the mercs. ‘All forces. Rally on Lazarus and Vallé,’ ordered Kazuki. He’s taken enough punishment today, but still he demands more from his body.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re headed?” asked Lilly, firing at an approaching mercenary, who in turn fired back. Kazuki weaved away from the flicking bullets as the merc fell. He clambered on top of a small pile of debris, igniting a flare.
“Distracting them.” Kazuki stepped forth, pulling his hood back as he fired his railgun into the air, creating a beam of pure energy that all were able to see. He shouted into the uplink, ‘Come. Claim my head.’ He barked at the opposing mercs.