Two mercenaries continued on their death march, storming forward up through the various hallways. Claire would hold the rear, whilst the two CQC specialists would barrel towards the Command Bridge. A logical move, Archius thought, shifting his monitors around as she looked at the status of the time control.

‘Five minutes! Get a fucking move on,’ said Archius.

‘YOU THINK WE’RE SLACKING OFF?!’ Quinn shouted in an offended voice. The hot-head took a few bolts to his chest, only to send back out a cannonade of fiery death to his opponents.

It was close. But adding that level of stress onto them should increase their speeds, especially with Kazuki. And it did wonders, both Quinn and Kazuki cracked through fire teams and squads of smugglers, sentenced to death the moment they were put between the mercs and their objective.

‘Just get there.’

Not a single soul was left alive as they turned each corner, etching closer. Heavy machine gun fire erupted down towards them. Amyé was not there to take care of it, forcing the two into cover against the walls.

A stray bolt smacked into the walls, loosening up a sheet of steel bolted down to the walls. Kazuki grabbed onto it, and before Archius could tell what was going on, he had ripped it off.

‘That machine gun will shred our shields!’ Quinn looked over towards Kazuki, ‘The hell you doing?’

‘It’ll shred energy shields. But it won’t penetrate irosteel.’

Charging forward, he used the piece of large hull as a makeshift shield, igniting his own shield as he threw the steel sheet forward . No quarter was spared as heads rolled, the machine gun crew were left a little shorter than before. And with a contrast of leviathan teeth to holo-card icons in the spearhead, the blast doors to the bridge came into view. And of course, it was behind a squad of heavily armoured smugglers.

‘We’re getting close!’ said Quinn, his voice picked up by his jagged Clandestine uplink.

The two reloaded their weapons, Kaz igniting a flash-smoke as he flung it down the hall, vapours spreading with each passing bolt. ‘Epsilon. Coup de grace?’

Quinn chuckled. Archius knew exactly what they were talking about. ‘I’ll take anything at this point, he’s mine.’

Kazuki nodded, as the two pushed onwards. Bolts flew, with the duo having to deflect, dodge and manoeuvre over every obstacle in their way. Shields erupted up as the smugglers were cut down in close quarters. Kazuki himself thrusts forward, already halfway across the hall; he was being too fast again, Archius thought.

If he gets separated, he’ll be easy pickings for heavy gunfire. Though, the smugglers are too inexperienced to exploit such a blunder, though most wouldn’t be as experienced to exploit it.

Kazuki slowed for a moment, allowing Quinn to catch up. He took cover, as heavy bolts of plasma flung through the hall. A smuggler at a back barricade knelt on one knee, lugging on a rocket launcher - aiming it.

Quinn shouted out, ‘SMOKE! SMOKE!’

All eyes came forward as the smoke of a rocket barreled down the hall. It smashed into the ground, sending up steel fragments with smoke and dust. Archius couldn’t see through the smoke as his camera-view became blocked, it should clear up soon.

Time was of the essence, but things were going smoothly. For each AGENT dead, a dozen smugglers were terminated. Acceptable Losses to Archius, but there was only five or so minutes left.

‘Arbiter, Epsilon, report,’ said Archius, trying to smudge the smoke off the monitor, as if that did anything. ‘Status report, now.’

‘Fuck…’ Kazuki’s voice slowly trailed off. His voice was strained.

And as the smoke slowly cleared, Kazuki was pinned down, sitting behind a small prop-up barricade. Quinn immediately threw a smoke grenade forward, covering himself as he suppressed the hall, running across to Kazuki. Zooming in, Archius could see that a steel pipe had cut straight through Kazuki’s lower torso, fragmentation from the rocket.

It pinned him to the wall, as he heaved heavily. ‘Come on, it’s not lethal,’ said Archius.

Kazuki survived worse than a little pipe through his torso, most of his organs were mechanical anyways. It wasn’t like he’s keeling over from kidney failure or whatever…

Quinn fumbled, trying to pull it off him, with little success. Kazuki groaned in agony, biting his teeth as he punched Quinn on his white-trimmed pauldron. ‘Go. Kill Leon, I’ll catch up.’

‘But—’

‘YOU DON’T HAVE TIME,’ Kazuki stated, his golden eyes activating with a blue hue as Quinn fell in line, feeling a commanding aura seep through both the air and monitor. He nodded, stood up, and as instructed: he went to kill Leon.

‘Get a move on, Arbiter, you’re getting slow,’ joked Archius, skipping cameras close to Quinn.

He’s survived far worse than impalement.

Missing limbs, punched out steel-organs, blood-loss, that was all the norm, and for once: no Eliza to complain. It felt blissful, but she did give a worried look - he didn’t blame her for that. For any normal person, seeing such a sight would be a bit anxiety inducing.

‘Fuck you.’ Kazuki spat out words, his exospine injecting a cocktail of medical stimulants into him, before he started breathing down on a healing inhaler.

It was time to get things back on track. Quinn was quickly approaching the Bridge; even without Kazuki he made short work of the smugglers, sending shotgun blasts into their heavy armour - before terminating them with clean headshots. Archius swapped back to view the bridge.

Gunfire was close - Quinn’s - becoming more erratic through the door. ‘Osmond. When the door opens, shoot Leon in the chest. It will prove your loyalty to our agreement, I’ve told them that you’re not to be shot if that happens,’ lied Archius.

‘Huh?’ Osmond once again moved to the corner of the room. ‘I… can’t. He’s… my friend… Look, I’m sure I can convince him to surrender, please… Just give me this chance to end this without bloodshed.’

Before Archius gave his response, a crash came at the door. Smoke seeped through underneath. The smugglers all looked towards it as it unsealed, opening. A figure pushed into the room, pumping in new rounds - setting the guards’ unarmoured joints alight with fire-breath before they could react.

Bullets sprayed, screamed, fell - and blue flames trickled. It seems that their heavy armour did nothing to protect them, Archius thought, even if they weren’t using it correctly.

Leon drew at Quinn, yet stayed his hand as the two zeroed in on one another. No one shot. The two glance at each other, continuing to analyse their movements. Osmond slowly turned around as he walked towards Leon.

Archius listened through the uplink as Quinn spoke first. ‘Nice try, but did you think you could get away that easily?’

Osmond shot back, pleading, ‘Quinn! Please, we… we don’t have to fight, w—we can talk, right? Right?!’

Leon’s eyes twisted towards Osmond. ‘No talking… Osmond. I call the shots.’ demanded Leon, his eyes even redder as fragments of red crytera dissipated out his nostrils and mouth.

Osmond was sealing his fate; he did all of this work… for nothing, it seems. What a shame… what a shame, Archius repeated in his head.

‘—And where has that led you, huh?’ Quinn jokingly jabbed at Leon. Quinn was evidently buying time: distracting them until Kazuki could arrive and deal the killing blow. ‘You got so many of our people killed…’

‘And you?’ Leon retorted, ‘Traitor… You dragged both Petra and Riharia to their deaths. They were like sisters, even to you! And you killed them.’

‘QUINN!’ Osmond shouted out of turn, attracting the ire of both men. ‘PLEASE, just listen to me, alright?’

Quinn was silent. He slowly nodded.

‘Thank you… thank you!’ Osmond put up a strained smile. ‘Join us, we’ll hide away in wild space and return home later… These people need us, Quinn. Without us the local gangs and criminals will spread to the high alleys.’

‘I…’ Quinn trailed off, his gun still aiming at them. Archius couldn’t distinct his face underneath the helm-mask. ‘You peddle guns… you get other people killed… You know that!’

‘But…’ It was time for Osmond to trail off, not having a counter-argument ready. Archius could watch this back and forth for hours, but he knows that it won’t last that long. ‘We…’

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

‘We do what we do because there is no other choice,’ Leon said. Quinn’s muzzle hovered for a second, wavering… Leon wasn’t wrong, but whether Quinn will stay loyal is up to him.

If he doesn’t, it might be a problem, but Kazuki will cleave him in two nonetheless.

Of course, Archius was going to ignore the fact that the largest distributors of arms weren’t these gunrunners, but nation states - but at least those states give those guns to somewhat reputable freedom fighters and planets, instead of bat-shit insane Yamikoi radicals.

Quinn stayed silent, letting the silence creep into the room, before his finger twitched on the trigger. Gunfire elsewhere seemed more like a distant hum. But instead of letting his emotions control him, he stayed calm.

‘Join us…’ Leon whispered, an offer for Quinn. The breacher stopped for a moment, thinking, before tightening his grip.

‘Ten years ago… you told me you secured a deal with the Mischief Board. Explosives to Anagora. Osmond, you know, don’t you?’ asked Quinn. His face hid behind the helm-mask, but Archius could tell that he was shaking… itching for an answer.

Osmond was immediately put on the spot. ‘Uh… explosives? Ah! The high grade ones, yes… I—we were going to tell you about it, before…’

Leon glared at Osmond, the second quickly fell quiet as he didn’t even try to draw his pistol, his hands shaking in fear. ‘So what? This is the present. Not the past… we need you, Quinn!’

Quinn was on the edge… Archius could see past the visor that Quinn was trying to take the easy way out. Joining the Loyalists would give him everything he wanted, family.

Yet he hasn’t taken the offer yet. These explosives… Archius will have to gamble that Quinn’s resolve remains stronger than Leon’s venomous words.

To make things worse, or better, the setup was nearly done - and all the execution needs is a slight push. Either way, Leon will die. Archius looked at the void-jump button as it flickered, it was ready… Blinking.

Now or never, it must be done, and the ship must not be allowed to jump… But still, one option was no option.

‘Excalio, come in, status report on the reactor or engines?’ asked Archius. If Quinn fails he’d prefer secondary options.

Negative!’ shouted Yjara, ‘We can’t push through! We’re trying to secure more teams for a push, maybe in like? I dunno? Ten minutes?!’

Fuck… Archius must rely on Quinn. He has no doubts about his combat prowess, but he has no idea what state of mind the guy was in right now. If he betrays the AGENCY, Kazuki would have to kill him, and that’d be inconvenient; not physically, but mentally.

“Oh fuck…” Archius muttered to himself. Quinn lowered his weapon for a second, as a moment of calm came across the command deck. He had to gamble on these explosives… explosives on Anagora? Deaths… probably, civilian deaths?

Archius masked his voice and directed it only to Quinn, a low tunned voice that acted as if he was the subconscious of the man himself. ‘Quinn. Remember Riharia… Petra… Did they stand for this?’

Luckily for him, it seemed to have worked. Quinn snapped back into action, as he raised his muzzle once again.

‘Explosives were a special type, they created purple light no matter what, remember?’ Quinn pushed on, in a hostage-standoff situation between the three of them. ‘You guys did it, didn’t you? You did it…’

‘Did what?’ Leon smugly shot back. ‘We’re gunrunners, Quinn! We do not question what they do with our product… Hell be damned to Clandestine, I hate them, but they were good buyers!’

‘You sick fucks… you actually…’ Quinn trailed off. Archius already put two and two together, it was too obvious at this point. Leon was the supplier. He was the one that supplied Jessica with those bombs… One target is now known; and now he will perish nonetheless.

‘Quinn!’ Osmond’s voice cracked, ‘We had no idea! Please! You have to believe us! We were both disgusted at what had happened! And look, we had to! The money was enough for us to survive! To thrive… Trust me on this, please.’

‘Eclipse boils over before I will!’ shouted Quinn, his voice raising as his face scowled at the two.

“Quinn… you’re one of us,” Osmond begged. “Narisians trying to make it out off the shit-hole. Just listen to us, PLEASE!”

Quinn gritted his teeth behind his helm-mask. “Bullshit… liars. The two of you. You’re just cowards! I’m not one of you scum… I am an operative of the AGENCY - second to none!”

Perfection at its finest, a perfectly crafted manipulation. Osmond was sweating, nearly on the breaking point. Without even doing anything himself, he had laid the groundworks for another victory for the AGENCY. He had to get his hands dirty, yes, but everyone forgets the dirt left behind from work.

In such a controlled environment, Osmond was the only person that knew the truth. Now was the time to spring the trap.

‘Osmond.’ His voice whispered directly into Osmond’s psyche. ‘Shoot Leon. Now,’ ordered Archius, in a cold, demanding voice.

His vocal chords lowered themselves to the point where he sounded like a different person. He dropped his facade, an eerie bludgeon that even Osmond could feel.

He paused for a moment as the stand-off continued. Then, he slowly shook his head, grimacing. He didn’t want to kill Leon. How illogical, how stupid, Archius thought. His voice froze as he activated the blinker mode for Osmond’s custom uplink, at the sound - Osmond whimpered. He was a good asset, sad to see him go like this.

‘What a shame.’

The device attached to Osmond’s ear glowed red, brightly. The crescent, C-shaped moon glowed. If it didn’t, it would have seemed just like any other off-the-shelf uplink. It attracted both Quinn and Leon’s attention.

Leon’s eyes glared at it before he uttered a single word, ‘Clandestine…’

‘I—’

Leon twisted his revolver, firing directly into Osmond’s chest. An explosive shockwave ruptured Osmond’s chest, flinging him backwards. Quinn fired his shotgun in turn, the stand-off blowing up as Leon’s armour flicked off the fiery pellets; the smuggler’s pistols and backup weapons forming a makeshift steel barricade on his chest-plate.

‘DAMMIT. YOU TURNED HIM AGAINST ME…’

Quinn rushed forward, firing at Leon as he looked towards the warp-trigger. The hauler was in position, and all it took was a single lever flick.

Leon was continually knocked away from the sheer ballistic impact of the shotgun, with Quinn intercepting. As he got close, Leon twisted his arm down to his shot-axe, slamming it into Quinn with a lunge. Quinn’s vest-plate buckled under the force, sending him backwards as he dropped his shotgun.

Activating his shield to avoid a volley of pellets from Leon, Quinn drew his pistols. Firing back, the two were quickly sent into a violent brawl, Quinn fighting tooth and nail to draw Leon’s attention from the lever flick. Leon continually expelled bullets from his backup pistols, pushing Quinn back ever so slightly. Despite the volume of fire, Quinn shielded through it, steeling himself as he grabbed a combat-knife - Kintax reinforced - from his belt with one hand.

Archius watched the blood-fueled frenzy as Quinn charged forward. Leon sidestepped from the head-strong attack; Quinn blocked another string of shots, twirling around as he aimed at Leon’s neck. As the knife got close, Leon parried it away with his shot-axe.

Raising it upwards, he slammed the axe down onto Quinn’s shield, pulling the trigger as a shockwave let loose. “This… ends now,” said Leon.

Leon fired, again and again. And as Quinn was beaten back, he fell, lead piercing his vest-plate. Leon took a step back, raising his revolver as he fired.

It crashed into Quinn’s knee joint, sending agony through his body. Quinn’s wargear exoskeleton activated, a muzzle protruded out by a steel arm from his vest-plate and fired at Leon.

Equilibrium was retained with injections dampening the pain Quinn felt. Leon, however, had the advantage. Quinn landed a few more hits with his combat knife, thrashing and grappling Leon to the ground.

Ducking and weaving hits and slashes, Quinn’s progress was all but removed from a single strike. Leon had struck Quinn in the chest with his Shot-Axe... Not good, Archius thought, all it takes is one good hit and Quinn is out, doesn’t matter how many pretty moves and weaves he makes.

Knocked back, Leon once more tried to move to the switch. He struggled and crawled, nearly reaching it... Flicking that switch will be the end of the operation... Archius watched, patiently.

He took in a deep breath that betrayed the calm façade he placed up.

The back and forth burst back into play as Quinn staggered up, grabbing Leon by the collar and throwing him away. Quinn wasn’t out of the fight yet, despite his numerous... numerous injuries.

“Come on...”

Leon was barely able to react, injecting himself with a vial of red liquid... Red Crytera? Shit... Quinn noticed too. He had to finish this. Now.

The Gunrunner’s limbs contorted and spasmed with energy as she charged back up towards Quinn. Eyes bloodshot even more than they were before, the two engaged in a heated duel of blades and plasma buckshot.

Each blow and spasm of plasma was equally parried away by Quinn, his movement pacing down against Leon’s renewed assault. Steam expelled from his mouth. “Don’t you fucking run!” he shouted, pressing the shot-axe down and down again on Quinn’s blade.

Beneath each assault and counter, Quinn landed more hits, but scant few got past Leon’s armour... Fucking Imperial Siege Gear... Clunky is normally bad, but in brawls like these: they have the advantage.

Archius could see blood seep out from Quinn’s battered hand and fingers, still in the fight it seems. The brutality of each blow was not lost on either of them, with Quinn rebounding from each lethal strike from Leon’s axe.

Leon’s arms latched onto the shot-axe and began to ram it forward, just trying to break Quinn’s guard, forcing him on the backfoot with each strike forcing him to duck and weave beneath a dozen pellets.

To make things even worse, Leon huffed more of those drugs, injecting himself a thousand times over. His veins bulged and his movements became more erratic. It was poisoning him! Hmm, if Quinn keeps this up: perhaps Leon will overdose?

Red dust and liquid expelled in steam from Leon’s nostrils. Quinn couldn’t buy himself room for a counterattack, each blow he took gave way to another boost of synthetic poison for Leon.

No... Leon’s been doing this for a while, given how readily he’s willing to huff another puff. It’ll take a while... But all he must do is wait... To buy time. Archius knows what will happen once Kaz arrives.

This time, Archius is in control. No miscoordination in the midst of this victory. To Archius’ dismay, he had to watch Quinn blunder.

He erupted his shield in front of him, trying to bash Leon away, only for it to shatter against continuous assaults, as Leon slammed it down onto him. Rocketing away, Quinn slid across the floor, blood pouring from his injuries.

Quinn injected himself with a medijector, but not even the stimulants can keep him moving as he let off a cry of agony. His pistol and shotgun slid to opposite sides of the room.

‘Cathing…’ Quinn groaned, in pain, grasping at his leg, trying to grab hold of the backup knife. But as he faltered, he started coughing, ripping his helm-mask off as his light-turquoise hair was covered in blood and sweat.

Leon staggered away, towards the warp trigger. ‘You have no right to our dialect,’ said Leon, giving Osmond one glance. ‘Traitors…’

Quinn started to crawl, one hand on his wound, the other dragging him to his pistol.

Archius slowly accepted that this might be a problem. But he didn’t feel any remorse or sadness, simply dissatisfied at a failed mission. Yet… there was still some hope, as the shadow of an entity emerged.

Quinn has bought just enough time.

Loud footsteps crashed with thunder across the floor, as bolts erupted.