Backing out now wasn't even an option. Mira looked as though she was going to go through with this no matter what, and I wouldn’t abandon her. Especially considering I had my own vested interests regarding Edward Smith. More specifically, the Skill Point reward for finding the man.
If I had to get into a fight… It was regrettable, but things needed to be done. And Fedra sucked majorly. It was an open secret they were responsible for the Endless Sandstorm and the Dune Walkers after all. Or at least mostly responsible. They were the worst kinds of terrorists. They brought about the destruction of the majority of North Arkhanika in their hubris.
I quietly followed her into Ichiban after she grabbed a bag, trusting Mira to know what she was doing. I tried to keep my eyes peeled for our tails, but it was nearly impossible to spot them in the mass of people. Especially considering the high amount of off-duty FSA troops to blend in with.
True to her word, Mira pulled me into an arcade. We spent nearly an hour just playing around, though that didn’t help the mounting tension across my body. The more we delayed, the more I was unnerved about the whole situation. It showed, especially in my scores.
I also took the time to call Shinobu and ask a favor. Nothing serious, just requesting access to the Jade Fang’s entrance to the Underground and to borrow some equipment. He was more than happy to help and promised it would be ready in an hour. Knowing a rather high-up Fang Enforcer certainly had its perks.
At some point, Mira gleefully chuckled and tugged me toward the back of the room, citing a need for the bathroom. It was then that things started to finally hit into motion. Instead of heading to the bathroom, we snuck out the back of the shop into a filthy alley with several homeless people camped out in it.
We skittered back into Ichiban Street through a different building’s back door. Then we disappeared into the crowd, hopefully losing our tails in a far less obvious way than if Mira drove crazily. This way, it could be considered incompetence on the tails' part for losing us rather than an intentional shaking from us.
Neither one of us spoke for several streets. At least, not until Mira finally showed a look of relief. “I think we lost them. Alright, Miss Investigator. Where are we headed?”
“Are you sure you should come with me? From what it looks like, they’re only watching you and Uncle Ezra.” I hated to say it, but there was no denying the fact I wasn’t under watch. At least, not yet.
Mira nodded her head. “We thought of that too, but whatever we’re heading into potentially killed two hundred soldiers. You’re shit with a gun, so I’m acting more of an escort than anything. At the very least, I might be able to slow down an enemy long enough to make a plan. That is, unless you think you can move about the Underground just fine?”
I rubbed the back of my head as I directed us to a spot closer to the backside of the Dragoon Saloon. “I’ve been down there a few times for the Jade Fangs… you’re right though. Probably best you come with me.”
She followed me to a small building, completely similar to its surroundings. That is, except for the high amount of Jade Fangs patrolling around it. Like I said, I’d already done a couple of minor gigs for the Jade Fangs in the Underground, so knew exactly where the entrance was.
Shinobu had also come through. We were easily allowed through the security and grabbed some equipment. Namely glow sticks, flashlights, and masks.
The Underground, for as much as it was a restricted zone, was a Combat Zone through and through which is why it was so guarded. At least on the surface gangs didn’t just kill everything that moves willy-nilly. That was bad for business. The Underground wasn’t quite the same.
That disposition wasn’t entirely without reason though. The Underground was filled with all types of hostile creatures and critters, everything from mutants to flesh-hungry ghouls. That wasn’t even counting the Scav and Savants that liked to hide in the decrepit tunnels, nor other human elements. For the most part, shooting first and asking questions later was far safer.
Inside the building was like a warehouse, with armed guards camping around a massive hole in the ground. A ladder was bolted into the side of the hole, going far down into the darkness below. And so began the long and tedious process of entering the Underground.
I cracked a glowstick, shedding pale light on my immediate surroundings as I hooked it onto my backpack. The hole led deep below the surface into an ancient brick tunnel supported by metal rings every once in a while. Deep shadows sat all around me, and a chill settled amidst the worn and torn bricks. A scent, somewhere in between rotting sewage and mildew filled the entire place. Really, the fact I could even catch a scent through the mask covering my face proved the strength of the stench.
The mask was quite a high-quality product, but it suffered from the same flaws as other similar ones. The biggest issue was the spiked difficulty in breathing. It wasn’t too terrible, though it was uncomfortable. It was like I had to use double the effort to get the same amount of air.
For however much the mask sucked, it was required down here. There was no telling what kinds of viruses and pollutants were trapped in the Underground. Sure, we might not need them at all, but I would rather not catch some terrible pathogen.
I heard two feet slam into the ground and turned to see Mira finally completing the long descent. She wore the same mask as me, covering her entire lower face with the breathing apparatus and the rest of her head protected by a thin sheet of plastic. She tried to speak, but her words came out as muffled grumbles more than anything.
I popped in my earbud and created a self-contained channel with just the two of us in it. A second later, she joined and her voice came across. “This place reeks.”
“Just wait till we move deeper,” I spoke, my voice barely a whisper. Even then, my pricey communicator was capable of picking it up and transmitting.
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“Can’t wait!” She waved her arm in faux-cheer. It was slightly odd hearing her voice and yet not seeing her mouth move. She took a look around and then pulled her long hair up under a baseball hat.
“What’s the plan?” I asked as I made sure my equipment was good to go. “We can’t search the entire Underground, especially if we avoid the main chambers.”
Mira pulled her gun free. It was a submachine gun of some sort, potentially a Knight Security firearm based on its similar design to the KS Squire. I followed her lead and also pulled my Rhymer out. “Avoid the main chambers?”
“Did you not do any research about this place? I don’t wanna run into a ghoul or mutie nest.” Large chambers throughout the Underground were known to be gathering points of the various hostile entities.
“I faintly remember that… A couple of the files that mentioned our missing Operation Beachhead had linked locations close to Talus Tower. Maybe we poke around there as best we can?” She suggested.
Talus Tower was the furthest arcology out from the center of Aythryn City, and not too far of a walk above ground. Below ground? A confusing journey awaited us. Too bad I wasn’t in good with any other group, otherwise I might’ve been able to get us a closer entrance. Still, it was better to have a potential destination rather than not.
I led the way as I pulled a map of the city up into my HUD. There were no flawless maps of the Underground, and the few decent existing ones were expensive. The best bet to get around with even a minimum of confidence in your location was to use a city map and guess. Even that had its flaws though considering the occasional cutouts of tracking as I moved under something too thick for the GPS. For similar reasons, communication systems also tended to fail down here unless it was a self-contained system like the one that linked me and Mira.
Mira followed behind me, her feet splashing around in the putrid water settled in the brickwork. She definitely wasn’t cut out for Stealth. I tried to ignore my growing sense of unease as we moved, a flawed attempt as any could be. Every shadow that moved caused me to flinch, even if it was only an unusually sized rodent burrowing back into its den as we passed.
There was just enough light to see even without anything external thanks to the small patches of glowing lichen and glowing graffiti here and there, but nothing too crazy. In the same way, it strained our eyes to look out into darkness, the light of our flashlights and glowsticks left us unbothered by the wildlife as we moved through the ancient tunnel system.
For the most part, we kept silent as we moved. Mira would only pep up to ask about things we passed, such as too-big claw marks or rotten corpses that looked as though they had been bitten in two. Most of the time, I could only guess about the monstrosities that inflicted such wounds. My main guesses were ghouls, though I gave that answer knowing that ghoul’s claws never stretched that wide.
Course, they could just be bladed weaponry from the occasional Jade Fang moving about the Underground. There were enough lines of flicked blood to prove they were active down here.
At one such junction, Mira spoke up. “What are we going to do if that group chases us down here?”
“They’d have to fight through the Fangs first… we could set up an improvised trap though, if you want.” I could easily rig something up with some of the grenades and the microwire.
Mira looked around at the graffiti for a moment before shaking her head. “It might hit someone unrelated. Probably best we don’t.”
“Right.” It was also a good reason to pay attention to our surroundings more in case there were other traps like ours.
We passed by an assortment of collapsed tunnels and naturally forming caves cutting through our path, each time causing me to practically guess which one to take. We ran into quite a few dead ends, though that was preferable to other things we could run into.
It had been about an hour or two before Mira put a hand on my shoulder, stopping me. She raised a hand to her ear and began to speak, though so quiet the mask canceled all noise except through our channel. “Voices up ahead… sounds like a small group.”
I didn’t doubt her for a second. Her cyber audio suite was far more sensitive than my ears. I pulled back a bit and stuffed the glow stick into her hand as I turned off my flashlight. “I’ll sneak up and check it out. You stay back and I’ll call you.”
“Okay.” There was barely enough ambient light, cast by glowing lichen, for me to see the aggravation on her face. Not at me, no. It looked to be more towards her lacking stealth skills.
I nodded, my motion probably lost in the dark, and moved my way forward. Fox’s Paw kept my footsteps entirely quiet even in mostly unfamiliar terrain as I stalked forward, dodging a few bear traps set up. Eventually, I came across a cross-section.
The tunnel on our left had collapsed, and the other two faded into darkness. On the floor of the cross-section sat a glowing symbol, a disturbing glow of two triangles with their tips pointed together. Anyone with half a brain cell would recognize the symbol for what it was: a Scav Mark
Scavs were the lowest of the low criminals. They treated people, law-abiding and gangers alike, as nothing more than a product yet to be processed. They were the kind of scum who took people off the streets - not even children were spared - and brought them back to their dens to be ‘processed’ like mere meat.
Cept, they weren’t after the flesh. No, Scavs would rip and tear their victims to pieces, processing their chrome to sell while they were still alive. Scavs and Savants were tied with the highest body count in Aythryn City and had a kill-on-sight order from every faction. Even I, with my shattered moral compass, wouldn’t feel too bad about flatlining them. They were the scum of the earth, and by killing them now I might save a hundred other people.
The two standing over the symbol looked the type. A glowstick cast dim light around the cross-section, revealing their forms. They wore the typical mess of patchwork clothing associated with the down and destitute, yet their armor gave them away. Bits and pieces of chrome were sloppily welded together into makeshift armor, some still dyed by the blood of their victims. Like true psychopaths unafraid of catching any number of diseases and viruses, neither one wore masks. Scav Marks covered them with their infamous glowing red paint.
I hid in the darkness and watched the two chatter, one of them was covered in cuts, most covered sloppily with a black tar-like substance. I recognized the drug at a glance: Patch. It was a highly addictive, flawed designer drug that gave its user near-constant adrenaline and slowed time for the user, but the high was incredibly short.
I was worried for a moment about attacking the thin guy since he’d be able to react nearly instantly, but that worry faded as I saw his constant twitches and jitters like he had far, far too much caffeine. It was a sign of Patch withdrawal, so he likely wouldn’t be too big of an issue. Patch addicts had a hard time moving since their bodies were 'used to 'moving at the speed of Patch.
They were both armed, though their weapons looked like homemade scraps more than anything. Shouldn’t be too big of a deal to take them out, but I still backed up to Mira. Where there was one Scav, there would inevitably be more, and it would be foolish to just charge in without a plan.