The plasma slug slid into its chamber, its burgundy casing disappeared as the slide slid shut. The constant drumming of the shuttle's engine gave Kazuki an uneasy sense of clarity. He watched Claire slide the pepper-shot into her backup holster as the two other operatives in the hover-shuttle prepared for the mission. A datapad was on Claire's leg, showing a dozen medical injectors and information for med school.

Amyé and Quinn sat opposite of each other in the shuttle. Amyé and Claire wore the blood-red armoured trim of Kazuki's personal unit: Heimfall. They weren't as large as units like Deltastring, where Quinn came from. A relationship exchange between the two command units. Heimfall was Kazuki's fist. Deltastring his shield.

Both came together. The Phalanx - Kazuki himself. Nigh unkillable from the front. They were his personal executioners. The shuttle brimmed with weapons strong enough to take down a whole platoon. To the average civvy, this was overkill. But to those in the business: it was light.

White hues broke the monotony of the Sub Levels' darkness outside; a sea of mechanised, industrial slums underneath the mirage of the surface. It was cold outside, but far warmer than summer in the Sub-Levels. As Kazuki turned his head back to the van, Archius started his briefing on the uplink.

'Night everyone, now that things are back on schedule, let's get back to work.' Archius said, in a serious tone.

'Sure, Archi, can we do this quickly? I still gotta show Quinn that he ain't a tougher drinker than me," interjected Amyé, placing her helm-mask over her short, unkempt ginger hair and freckles. Despite her nature of loving alcohol and being drunk, she was probably the cleanest shot Kaz's seen. Outside of the Heptagia - crim and merc both.

'Bet!' shouted Quinn, pointing his finger at Amyé.

'Wait... now that I think about it, why the fuck are you here?' asked Claire. Quinn's armour had distinctive white trims, contrasted to Claire and Amyé's red.

'Lilly's unit is in reserve,' said Kazuki. 'But Quinn's been begging for some action. I want to ensure he doesn't get rusty on me. Surprised you didn't bring along Riharia.'

'Hey! Hey! I can hear you guys!' interjected Riharia, also connected to the uplink. 'And I'm here, alright! Just... in the reserve.'

"Eh, it just slipped my mind, I guess?" Quinn shrugged. But Kazuki could tell that it most definitely was not a mere slip-up. Kazuki and Quinn looked at each other, as Quinn sighed. Kazuki will not pry any further.

Archius cleared his throat, 'Our mission is to retrieve information from a Loyalist-held safehouse within the Deadzone. A captured Loyalist gave us some information.'

Kazuki remembers that one Loyalist. Apparently, Eliza saved Archius from her. That probably explained why he was so rough in the interrogation. However, Kazuki did wish that Archius limited it sometimes, he prefered not to put the drones to clean his mess up.

"Ugh… Deadzones…" Claire muttered to herself.

'We captured one of them?' asked Amyé, surprised, 'I thought we killed them all! Claire?'

'We did… just stay focused dammit.' Claire muttered to Amyé, nudging her with her leg. By far, Claire was the most 'normal' of operatives under him, Kazuki thought, a bit nerdy though. Get rid of all that red-trimmed armour and weaponry and she remains the same, just a medical nerd that wants to go to med-school, though she was very much an elder sister to them all, overprotective and fighting for his favour with Zymuel… Ironic, considering how Kazuki was younger than her.

Archius, annoyed, stayed silent for a second before continuing, 'The infiltration will be quiet, breach in and take over the safe house. Chain-Keys were in the old Clandestine building, so we'll have easy access.'

'Remember,' Kazuki interjected. 'If you have the chance to capture one, do it. But I won't object if you mag-dump them.'

The three nodded as Quinn strapped his modified helm-mask on. It had holocard iconography painted over it in holo-paint, along with a turquoise stripe down the side. Looking towards the pilot compartment, Kazuki saw Karl, wearing aviators and armour, pressing numerous control buttons - he didn't understand what he was doing, nor did he care if he had to learn something he'd learn it at that very moment.

'That's all the information we have. We have drones in the air, but strikes will be limited to emergencies only. Amyé will stay on the shuttle to provide supporting fire.'

Sato said, 'I mean, we only have a couple dozen strikes worth of ammo left for the drones, we shouldn't have wasted that much taking down the Directorate Fleet.' Archius was uncharacteristically quiet.

Her objection was somewhat sound, Kazuki thought. 'Between the men and the ammo, I choose the men. Men win wars.'

'Not without ammo they don't,' Sato shot back. 'My drones are surveying the AO. I'll update you if anything changes.'

As the briefing finished, the shuttle slowed to a complete halt. Karl turned back towards Kazuki's selected team, and slammed on the interior of the shuttle. He was chewing on tobacco. Kazuki nodded and sealed his own helm-mask on before he opened the shuttle door.

"My exospine will kill me for this…" said Claire.

The coldness of the underground rushed. Jumping down onto the broken pavement below, he could tell through the temperature alone that it was Sub-level 482. Its abandone sections, however. Simply one of many carved out under cities. Claire and Quinn followed suit as their exoskeletons shined a low hue. He took one glance at them, feeling a sense of envy. They could take theirs off, but his is lodged in. Part life-support; part combat suit.

As typical for a small-scale blackop strike, Amyé took point at the shuttle door, her mask painted with a crosshair around the visor She was joined by the drone. 'Yep, it's the target alright, a dozen or so hostiles.' said Amyé, peering through the loaded-viewer as she chuckled under her breath at the to-be mission.

It was an abandoned apartment block used as a safe house. Kazuki led Quinn and Claire into a side alley beside the block. It was a good thing their shuttle wasn't one of the war tiers with loud hover engines.

Claire looked around at the dull, emptied out under-district. The smell was horrendous, probably rotting corpses. 'Ugh, at least the populated sections aren't this awful,' she said. 'Why the fuck did they have to set up in the Deadzone…'

'Discreet, hidden, far from eyes,' Kazuki said. 'Perfect for them.' The group continued down an alley beside the apartment.

Amyé commented as she watched from above, 'Still as dead as the tales… they'd always tell me about the creatures lurking around here.'

Claire scoffed in a light-hearted tone, 'What? The Ghouls or the urban legends parents say will drag them into the warzone and eat them if they're naughty?'

'I dun' fuckin know? Second one?'

Kazuki spoke up, 'Second one. My mother always told me that if I were naughty the Dread-Haunter would drag me down here and bisect me.'

'Nasty. My friends talked about how the Haunter would take your head first, then wear you like a puppet and lure your loved ones to death…' Claire shivered at the thought. 'Shit's still somewhat scary… you know?'

The Dread-Haunter was many things to the people of Anagora, Kazuki thought. It was right to presume that the number of interpretations matched the number of cultures and traditions present.

'Ya know that shit ain't true! They're just turned ghouls from the war that were left out in the Deadzone… at least I hope so…' said Amyé. 'I mean, I saw one of the Haunters as a lil' kid, looked kinda like a ghoul.'

'Because they are,' Kazuki confirmed. 'They are ghouls bound to unstable Hazard-Shards. Poor man's recreation of the essence of a Star God. They're forgotten… My mother told me the truth since my memory simulated the perfect nightmare. It did nothing to help me sleep. She said things down here are forgotten." He paused for a moment. "She's not wrong.'

'I'm all down for you guys talking but uh… can you guys like… focus on the mission?" Sato grumbled.

'Oh, it's just harmless chatter, let 'em be!' Archius shouted back. Quinn let off a small chuckle under his breath.

'Arbiter, you talk a lot… when you wanna,' Quinn yapped. 'Don't expect Hazard-Shards to be showing up anywhere far from the Maelstrom…'

'Because they don't!' Claire took a shot at Quinn. She wasn't wrong, Kazuki thought. The Imps dropped unstable Hazard-Shards all over the Anagoran Deadzones, leaving the Republic to clean up the mess. For the most part, those abominations were purged, but some lingered.

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'Then what about Arbiter's! He has one, doesn't he? How come he hasn't turned into a more burnt, deformed fuck?' asked Quinn. Claire slapped him across the arm, but Kazuki kept his eyes dead-forward.

Kazuki grabbed onto a dumpster in the way, slowly prying it to the side, before shaking off the disgusting mucus on his gloves. 'Not all Hazard-shards are the same. They might all be Star-God essence, but some are more stable than others. Star Brooches use stable ones, obviously.'

'Of course, you'll leave it to Quinn to remember that one antique Kaz has that's worth a ba-gillion standardis!' Amyé said, leading practically everyone, bar Kazuki, to snicker under their breath.

'Money's money… Ugh… star-god this, star-god that…' Quinn muttered. 'Anyways, you still haven't answered my question, why—'

'I don't not like talking. I just believe most people are not worth my time to talk to.' Kazuki's eyes snapped towards Quinn, causing the breacher to catch his glare. 'You three are.'

The shuttle fell quiet. None of them expected a heart-to-heart with the Contract-Breaker, ey? All three glanced at the young, but quite damaged Contract-Breaker. He… didn't know why they shut up. He just told them that he liked talking to them - maybe he didn't. Doesn't matter now, what's done is done, and said is said… Kazuki knows his mother was right.

'This place's awful… but it could be a cathing freezing waste,' said Quinn, trying to shift the conversation elsewhere. Amyé immediately threw herself into an argument with him.

Kazuki ignored their bickering as he approached a run-down side door to the apartment's stairs. He disabled a holographic poster covering the keypad and entered the chain-key combination into the hidden keypad. And as he finished, the door slid to the side.

Entering the apartment block, their masks' internal Night Vision system activated. Kazuki took point, raising his pistol. The smell of mould filled the air. Following procedure, Claire and Quinn followed him in. Ascending the stairs, Kazuki's augmented glasses highlighted the floor on which the safehouse was located.

It was quiet, luckily there were no cameras. Eventually, they reached the target floor. The door to the floor was armoured, and unlike the rest of the doors in the building, it was pristine. A tattered notice board beside the door had a dozen posters stamped to it, mainly missing person posters and ENFORCER notices. Both date back decades.

Kazuki reported back to Archius. 'Arbiter to Overwatch. We're on the floor.'

'Good. Use the fourth code.' replied Archius.

"Stack up," ordered Kazuki, approaching the keypad of the door and typing in the long string of digits for the code by memory. As he finished, he waited for the door to slide open. But it wouldn't budge.

Claire looked towards the door past Kazuki. 'Brain damage, Arbiter? Did Director Antonius hit you with his gauss?'

"I know them all - and I crushed his windpipe before he could." Kazuki typed in every available code by memory, all two hundred, and still the door wouldn't budge. 'Overwatch, we have a problem. None of the codes work.'

Sato and Archius paused for a moment as the three-man team waited. Then, Sato gave an update, 'They probably changed the codes, seems like you guys will have to blow it.'

'And here I was naively believing we'll have a clean-op…' Archius trailed off. He was always a control freak, wanting everything to be his way and only his way, his disapproval of him saving Eliza attested to that - but no point living in the past. No point at all...

Kazuki looked towards Quinn, nodding. Stepping forward, he attached a breaching charge on the locking mechanisms before he retreated back. Quinn gave Kazuki the trigger.

He gripped his pistol, feeling the weight of his holstered railgun uneven him. Pressing down on the trigger, it made a clicky-clicky sound. A second of silence passed as a loud, crashing explosion filled the air as dust and grime blew up. The door came crashing out of place with a loud clang onto the floor.

∗ ∗ ∗

Sound of coughing filtered out the building, as footsteps pushed into the safehouse. Through the smoke, Kaz saw that it was a typical Clandestine safehouse, bare-bone interior with two floors. Enough room for mild comfort but not too much. A long hallway to the front and a 'common room' to the right with an inside balcony.

Two figures staggered towards the smoke. Two shots turned the Loyalists into corpses before Kazuki ducked behind the half-wall between the hall and the common room. Claire was second, entering as bolts flew through the air. Loyalists in the common room took cover as they fired at the intruders, lighting the hall up.

She ducked further in, behind a column supporting the floor above as Loyalists ran down the stairs on the other end of the hallway. The moment they came into view, Quinn gunned them down, plasma-pellets painting the walls red.

'Lazarus, cover and divert' ordered Kazuki. He remained unflinching as bullets smacked into the pillar.

Claire nodded, immediately poking her head out of cover and spraying into the common room with her rifle. The Loyalists all directed their attention towards her. Amidst the gunfire, Kazuki pulled himself around the pillar as Quinn took his place. Kazuki's mind filtered in with drugs and stims. Three behind the sofas. Two behind a toppled shelf. Three in the opening pushing up to Claire.

A bullet whizzed past his mask as he hammered down on the trigger. An unfair exchange of bullets smacked into the Loyalists in the common room. All fell where they stood. However, one jutted out of cover. They charged towards Claire from the sofa. As Kazuki was about to place a round in their armoured mask a flurry of rounds flung down at him from up above. Rounds bashed off his vest-plate as he ducked down.

"Tch. Watch out."

Loyalists on the balcony above fired down at them. He fired up at them to buy Claire and Quinn time. The Loyalist grappled with her and placed a bullet directly into her sides. She let off a small groan.

He was just about to take another shot as she grappled with her knife and used their own momentum to cut deep into them, penetrating their neck and leaving them slumped against the column. Kazuki took note of it as a sniper bolt crashed through the armoured wall of the living room. A body fell over the balcony railing.

Claire took cover, kicking the corpse out from behind the pillar. She let off a painful sigh, injecting her sides with healing stimulants. She kicked the dead corpse out into cover to get her more room.

'One for the hol-pad.' said Amyé, with her smug attitude.

Kazuki took another glance as they continued to fire down at them. Quinn started to fire back. The trade of bullets went nowhere as more sniper bolts were exchanged.

'Epsilon, keep them suppressed,' said Kazuki to Quinn.

He nodded as he peeked out of cover, using his heavy armour to deflect incoming bolts as Kazuki tapped Claire on the shoulder. She followed him down the hallway, walking over corpses and puddles of both blood and exospine juice.

Reaching the stairs, the two ascended to the second level of the safehouse. They saw the vault on the opposite end of the hall. Rushing forward, The two stuck to the wall as his aug-glasses highlighted the hostiles on the balcony, overflowing with information that only he had the memory to process.

Bullets were still being exchanged, with Amyé trying to predict the locations of the Loyalists upstairs.

He gave Claire a hand signal and clenched his fist. As he did, the two turned the corner and looked out onto the inside balcony. Three Loyalists were firing down at Quinn. Claire gunned down the Loyalists on the far end. The two Loyalists closest to Kazuki turned to fire at him. Before they could, he sent a bolt directly through both of their heads with his railgun.

Gunfire ended. Amidst the silence, a bullet skidded through the wall and into the corpses. Amyé smugly remarked, 'Second.'

Kazuki lets Amyé take the kill, he already has enough kills to his Contractor-Card to count. Walking up towards the vault door, Kazuki started to analyse it, touching the edges of the door and rubbing his gloves up and down it.

'Arbiter got the kill before you, Artillerist,' Claire remarked, probably to make Amyé frustrated. She joined Kazuki as Quinn ran up to join them, taking point behind them.

'Go fuck yourself, you coulda left me with that!' shouted Amyé.

The vault door was sealed with hydraulic-mag locks. Kazuki grumbled for a bit as he slid his pistol into his hidden holster and his railgun into his leg holster.

'Vault door. Do we have anything for that?'

'Crack-stick it,' said Sato, 'I'll crack it open.'

Kazuki took out a cracking stick from his pocket. He checked to make sure it had Krystalink's markings as he stuck it into the chain-key import. A few seconds passed as nothing happened.

'And… open-sesame,' said Sato. Immediately, the door mechanisms started to unwind as it slowly slid to the side.

'Took you long enough.' remarked Archius.

'Ugh…' Sato rolled her eyes.

Kazuki took a step back. His brain ached. In a split moment, he dodged out of a grapple attempt by a Loyalist that was within the vault. Claire was nearly taken by surprise, but a quick bolt to the head through the wall silenced them. Blood and brain matter littered the floor as they fell to the ground. Claire immediately drew her backup shotgun and tapped their torso.

Quinn dismissively looked at the corpse. "You good, Lazarus?"

"Yeah… Yeah." Claire said as she looked up towards the wall littered with anti-material bullet holes, 'Thanks.'

'Yeah, yeah, just buy me a drink later."

Kazuki walked past the corpse as Quinn playfully patted Claire on the back. Claire took out a combat stim and injected herself with it in the small gap of chain-like armour on her neck.

The safe room was filled to the brim with servers, equipment and some low-end weapons. Kazuki ignored all of the weapons. Claire started to look through an opened computer, it was old, archaic and bulky. Kazuki injected a cracking stick into one of the servers.

'Safehouse secured. Information's being transferred to you.' Kazuki said, walking over to Claire as she browsed through the laptop. The walls were plastered with old holo-news articles, mainly detailing the First Shadow War.

Hopefully, this will be quick, he thought. He didn't want to overuse his cybernetics. That'd only lead to more troubles, like Claire's incessant bickering. But to them, he practically was one in age, Seven Merc or not didn't matter.

"Hey, Arbiter," Claire said, catching Kazuki's attention as she was scrolling through a series of messages. "The Loyalists are under the command of someone called Afterlife, got anyone under that call-sign in that database of yours?"

"I'm not just a database, you know? Surprisingly, I'm a living being." snapped Kazuki.

He looked over her shoulder as he glanced down at the messages. He knew one person who had the calling of Afterlife. But he's long gone. He should be. "I knew a guy in the industry with that call name. Dead, though."

Claire shrugged, "Well, probably just a coincidence, then?"

He nodded as Archius finally gave them their next orders. 'Overwatch to Phalanx team, information's been secured. Get the hell out of there. Blank check on drinks for this one!'

With that, Claire walked past Kazuki, leaving him glancing at the messages for a moment. His old mentor's dead, he knows that. They dropped a building on him… He sighs and walks away. Meanwhile, the laptop shut off, holo-monitor flicked offline.