Kazin

I wake up, feeling a little guilty for my cold refusal of Vyvani’s request. After all, she is not wrong in indicating that she did indeed help me during my time of greatest need. It is thanks to her that I am still alive, along with Mugen, Jin, and Kala; and without Vyvani’s timely assistance, we would not have been able to capture Sangsum as our prisoner.

I scarcely have time to linger on my thoughts, however, as the compound is a bustle of activity, filled with the clamor of equipment and machinery as the Yamda clanmembers prepare to meet with the White Tiger Syndicate. The whir of power tools fills the air as bioEnhancements are modified and repaired.

I come across Ghost at her very own station, aiding a number of Healers and technicians.

“She’s a damn natural and a prodigy,” Damera says to me while looking fondly at the girl. “A pity she was born in the Underbelly. She might have had a bright future elsewhere.”

“Don’t push her too hard,” I say with a laugh.

“No need,” Damera answers, shaking her head. “Ghost is pumping out creations of her own. Soon, with proper guidance, she might be able to recreate angravSuit levels of technology, and perhaps even invent her own contraptions.” Damera prods at my ribs playfully. "Maybe she'll even fix you up, eh?"

I laugh and wave to the Healers as she leaves to help with the work.

Ghost saunters over to me, her cheeks smeared with grease, her hair mussed, and her face plastered with a bright smile. She whirls a wrench around her finger.

“Kaz! What can I do for you today?”

“Hey Ghost,” I say. “You think you can mod a photonBlaster into my wrist? One that stays hidden until I need to use it.”

“Sure thing,” Ghost says, turning my left wrist this way and that. “You’ve got thicker bioEnhancements than most, so it should be cinch.” She shoots me a sardonic look. "For me, at least."

Ghost proceeds to sit me down. She then unscrews a part of my plates, lifts the flap, and begins to insert hinges and bolts in order to attach the photonBlaster barrel and energy core. She wires the blaster to my muscle movement, so that I can fire the weapon with a downward pivot of my wrist. When the photonBlaster is in rest mode, it appears as a steel, half-dome pipe rising slightly from my arm.

As Ghost is putting the finishing touches on my weapon, lasering her insignia onto the barrel, Norbu approaches us and sits beside me. He looks over Ghost’s invention and nods in approval.

“You are a boon to our clan, young one,” Norbu says.

Ghost lifts her head, smiles, and continues at her work. I glance at the contraption of five iron bands wrapped around Norbu’s right arm. White and blue lights blink on and off. It is a machine of Ghost’s own making, though I am not too sure what its function is.

“Is something the matter, Norbu?” I ask.

Norbu frowns, appearing as if he is wondering how to proceed. “You will not be accompanying me to the meeting with the White Tiger Syndicate.”

I can hardly believe my ears. “Why?”

“Not only is it unsafe, you have only recently been freed from the Gato boy’s torturous experiments. You must rest. You are in no shape to engage in such activities.”

“You’re kidding,” I say as calmly as I can. “You need me there. Most of your captains are dead, and of those who remain, I’m the best fighter among them.”

“You grow arrogant, boy,” Norbu warns me. “Such pride will lead to a quick downfall.”

I stare at the ground as I realize my mistake. “I’m sorry.”

Norbu’s face softens, and he lays a hand on my shoulder. “When you are fully healed, you will be one of my strongest captains. But you must first recover, in order for that to happen.”

I nod. “I understand.”

“When I return, we will share a meal together. There is something I must tell you.”

With that, Norbu leaves me, wallowing in my despair. Ghost silently fits the last steel plate over my bioEnhancements.

“All done!” she says in false cheer.

“Thanks Ghost,” I say as I stand. I immediately head for the smoke chamber. Jin locks eyes with me from across the compound, and I nod towards the rear. He joins with me, and we both head into the room.

“So, I’m out,” I grimace.

“Out of what?” Jin asks nonchalantly. He whips his head to face me. “Out of the meeting?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh,” Jin says. “Well, you can stay with Mugen and me, I guess.”

“Mugen’s out too?” I ask in genuine surprise.

Jin nods. “Yeah. Too hotheaded, I guess. According to Norbu, he might ruin things at the negotiation table. Actually, Norbu doesn’t want anyone from the Mob present. Apparently, there’s been a change in the Syndicate’s command structure, and there’s a bit of internal conflict. Anything could set them over the edge, and Norbu doesn’t want to risk that.”

“And…Mugen’s okay with that?”

Jin smiles bitterly. “Got no choice, do we? The Mob’s got nowhere to go, and our organization doesn’t command the same amount of respect as the Yamda name does. Mugen’s got a temper, but he’s not stupid. He knows which battles he has to lose.”

I sigh. “So, what are we supposed to do, just hang back?”

Jin shakes his head. “Nah. The Mob’ll be hovering in our transports around the Syndicate’s base tower.” He shoots me a wry smile. “You want to come along?”

I laugh out loud and clap Jin on the back, delighted that I have a friend who is so in sync with me. “You need to ask?”

After our smoke, we watch as Norbu and twenty other clanmembers march out of the compound towards the shower elevator. Norbu appears both weary and commanding, dressed in a black, polycarbonate breastplate over a traditional robe of dark navy. The ancient ionBlade of the Yamda clan, handed down over generations, hangs at his hip. He has removed Ghost’s invention from his right arm, I notice.

Before he steps out the doorway, Norbu looks at me, smiles, then nods. A little bit of guilt begins to worm its way into my mind.

Kala steps beside us, her face likewise crumpled into a concerned frown.

“Made you hang back too, huh?” Jin asks.

Kala lifts her arms and glances at them left and right. “Apparently I look too…threatening.”

I shrug and trade looks with Jin. “You…want to take part in the mission? As an NPC, of course.”

Kala whips us with a sharp stare as realization dawns. “Little troublemakers, are ya?” A broad grin extends across her face. “You know I do.”

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And just like that, the four of us have boarded Mugen’s transport. Two other grey transports trail our own as we glide towards the center of Andaka.

“It’s crazy to think that the Syndicate are the ones summoning the Yamda, like dogs at their beck and call.” Mugen checks the energy core of his photonRifle and adjusts the laser scope. “Shows how much the Yamda name has lost the fear it once commanded.”

I nod in reluctant agreement. Even if the White Tiger Syndicate were to join us, I still have no idea how we would even hope to stand against the Kargu—and Handata City isn’t even that clan's homebase of operations.

Our trio of transports hurtles towards the tallest building in the district which dwarfs all others in its vicinity—the Andaka Tower of Commerce—an immense structure of glass and steel. Its shape is almost hourglass-like, though its pinnacle joins into a pointed tip. White steel frames the silver glass of its surface. The tower thrusts magnificently into the sky, a symbol of the newer generation of wealth that has swept over the city. Landing pads jut out like concrete tongues from all sides of the gargantuan monument.

Though the sun still sits high in the sky, bankers and workers have begun matching their step to the beats of the approaching nightlife. Bars and nightclubs and karaoke establishments are teeming with the young and hotblooded leaning into drunkenness. Hypercars and expensive flightCraft swarm the airspace—especially near the Tower of Commerce.

Our three transports barely make a mark in the sky. Hypercars cruise languidly by as the wealthy youth flaunt the evidence of their abundance. Crowds of well-dressed men and women congregate on the balconies of nearby airShips; spaceYachts as bright and burnished as the stars themselves drift higher and higher towards unattainable heights.

Far down below, upon a landing pad near the center of the Tower, Norbu’s caravan of transports lands.

“You want to take a look?” Mugen offers.

I nod, and take the photonRifle from his hands. Resting the barrel upon the open sliding window, I peer through the scope. The White Tiger Syndicate members who greet Norbu and his entourage are all dressed in business suits and darkened techSpects, indistinguishable in appearance from the bankers cruising by in their opulent vehicles. The landing pad itself is filled with hypercars and flightCraft of all make and manner.

“…They are a criminal organization, right?” I ask.

"They do look like business-types and bankers, huh?" Jin chuckles.

“Most of them are former mercs and hitmen,” Mugen answers through a cigarette.

“Mercs?” I ask.

“Mercenaries,” Kala answers as she looks through her own binoculars.

“Mercs and hitmen,” I repeat. “They’re basically a murder-for-hire group then.”

“Yeah,” Jin says. “They carry out hits on high-profile targets, or at least that’s what everyone believes. “No one can really prove it. They’re meticulous in their methods.”

"Or maybe they just pay off the Constabulary," I say through grit teeth.

I squint my eyes at the Syndicate members. Some are in business suits of black coats and pants paired with white shirts. Others are dressed in all black. Perhaps this is evidence of their “internal conflict.”

Kala clicks her tongue. “I recognize some of the faces there.” She puts down her binoculars to sip at a straw thrust into a bottle of melon soda. “There are Contractors among their number too.”

“Contractors, mercs, hitmen, they’re all the same.” I shrug and lean back against the wall. The air is cool and feels good on my face. The trio of transports hovers continuously around the building, watching for any suspicious activity, listening for a distress call.

“Jammers?” Mugen asks Kala.

She looks down at her tPanel and shakes her head. “Nope.”

“Maybe we’ll get through this unscathed,” Mugen says in relief.

At that moment, there’s a light blurb of static. I stare down at Kala’s tPanel.

“Did you hear that?”

Kala glances up at me, her brow lifted.

“Never mind,” I say quietly.

The static sounds again. I look around to left and right, wondering if anyone else has heard. Everyone else appears to attend to their own business. Mugen continues staring down the scope. Kala stares down at her tPanel, and Jin dozes across from me. The unending drone of engines permeates the air around us.

Am I going crazy?

I gaze down listlessly at the gears of the city below me. Hovercars hurtling towards some intended destination that I cannot guess; people going about business that no one else knows; neon panels blinking on and off to entice the jaded passersby.

We begin to lower our guards. Hope springs inside me. I begin to fall into a peaceful slumber.

“Shit!” Mugen screams as he looks through his scope at a window in the tower. He screams into his earpiece. “We got a situation in the tower! All transports, to the front! Snipers ready! Mayday! All units, to the front!” He taps on the driver’s shoulder. “Take us closer!”

Mugen fires a shot from his rifle, but the beamShot fails to penetrate the reinforced glass surface of the Tower of Commerce. He screams a curse.

Jin’s woken from his nap, and Kala sits up worriedly.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“Ambush happening as we speak! The Syndicate’s betrayed us!”

I take from Mugen his rifle and peer through the scope. Past the reinforced glass, I can see a battle unfolding as Yamda members clash blades with Syndicate employees. Norbu grips at his right arm as the others attempt to shield him.

The transport hurtles down towards the landing pad. Slowly, we ready our weapons, and an all-too familiar feeling of fear and anticipation blossoms in my chest.

The transport makes a hard landing. Mugen slides the door open, and the four of us pile out of the vehicle, Kala with her energyShield activated, Jin with the white beam of his flameSword bursting from the hilt, and Mugen with his rifle upheld. I unsling my own ionBlade, the purple and white bolts of ions jumping up and down its length.

When we land, we find the landing pad empty but for the vehicles. Two other transports land behind us, and fifteen of our number sprint the length of the concrete slab, towards the glass doors of the Tower.

When we pass through them, we walk right into a hail of beamShot.

Norbu and his remaining members are pinned behind the wall on the right, held down in their position. Syndicate members rain down barrage after barrage of photonBlaster fire on our allies.

Mugen unstraps his twin cracklers and lunges at the nearest Syndicate member as his weapons roar to life. I bioCharge my legs, bring the ionBlade over my head, and cut a man into two.

Emboldened by the additional reinforcements, Norbu’s group makes to move. Our joining of the battle has forced the Syndicate members to turn to melee weapons as well. Their weapons of choice seem to be collapsible cracklers and ion-enforced steel bars.

A Syndicate member in all black flies towards me with such speed as I have never seen before. I narrowly dodge out of the way, stumbling to the ground as I do so. I bring up my blade barely in time to block a blow from a black bar, crackling with purple and white ions. I reel from the strength of the strike, and nearly drop my blade.

As the Syndicate employee lifts their weapon above their head to deliver the final hit, an ionBlade gilded in silver and gold passes through their wrists. As the employee turns in surprise, Norbu’s weapon separates neck from body.

Norbu lifts me roughly to my feet. “You disobedient boy!” he cries angrily, deflecting blue beamShot with his energyShield. “Just like your father!” But when his eyes meet mine, his face breaks out into a smile.

I grin back, and as the Yamda members form a wall of energyShields before us, I kneel to inspect the dead Syndicate member. I fold the sleeves up their arms. The muscles and tendons and bone are nonexistent. Metal connects seamlessly to fleshly shoulders.

“Cybernetic limbs?” I express in shock. “They really are rich.”

Jin kneels beside me and gives a crooked grin. “Maybe I should join the Syndicate."

Outside, through the window, I hear an ear-splitting crash. Our transports have been destroyed by rifle fire from hypercars overhead. They are nothing but crumpled pieces of broken steel now, reduced to rubble by high velocity projectiles.

We no longer have any escape. But the implications do not end there.

“Conserve charge,” Norbu commands to Mugen. “Our transportable energy units have been destroyed.”

“Shit,” Mugen curses.

“Quite the quandary we’ve gotten ourselves into,” Jin sings above the roar of battle.

Slowly, our wall of energyShields is pushed back into the corner. There would have been thirty-five of us if all remained alive. Now there are but twenty-five left.

Why do we always lose?

Damn it, Vyvani. I could have really used you right about now.

Another one of the energyShields fails from too much fire. The Yamda who had held it up falls onto his back as another frantically takes up his place.

Slowly we are edged back, losing ground to the relentless advance of the Syndicate attack. At the very rear of our enemy's number, I can make out a large, broad man with a shock of grey hair. His face is cold and statuesque, with a pinch of the madness of grief added.

Static sounds in my head.

Now it makes sense.

I whip my head around from side to side, up and down, before it dawns on me finally.

Vyvani? How long have you been in there?

My face flushes from anger and shame. How many times had I used the bathroom since our last meeting? How many times had I let my mind wander?

You never left!!!

I recognize that man.

She ignores me.

Who is it?

That’s Danba.

I don’t know who that is.

No. But your dad might. And you knew that man’s son too.

Not helping.

I flinch as beamShot shatters the glass lighting overhead. We duck as a piercing rain pours down onto us.

That man there is Vorin Kanbar’s father.

Vyvani pauses, and more static rattles my brain. Vorin?

I think I am beginning to understand.

I sway from the confusion of Vyvani's thoughts and presence in addition to the fray of battle.

Understand what?!

We’ll still have to find my friend, Kazin.

Vyvani—

But we won’t be saving her.