Date: The year 2452, 3 days later…

Time: 14:27:55

I woke up with a shock with a blade in hand, as the heavens stood shaking as they reverberated the shock from the thunderclap through the makeshift halls of the ruined building. The room turned bright white as the apocalyptic arcs of lightning touched the ground with their searing fingers. The sweat beaded off my forehead, soaking my shirt and making my hair slick, I catch my breath and sheath my blade as I survey the room for any signs of imminent danger. As my pulse returned to normal, I looked over at Elizabeth, her bandages still slowly turning crimson from her wounds, she still slept soundly her chest gently rising and falling as her body continued to mend itself. Becoming restless I lifted my legs off the cot and reached for the small red gas lamp I had placed on the crate next to my head, I relit the flame and slowly opened the valve giving an eerie glow to the deteriorated room. Elizabeth stirred, turning in her sleep as I stood up and put on my boots, I grabbed my blades and my wet stone and made my way towards the rooftop. The small lamp illuminated the staircase, showing the age of the stone as each crack was given its own miniature shadow in the red glow, the sound of the pouring rain became prominent as I reached the broken steel door that separated the staircase from the elements. I pushed the door open with my shoulder opening up to a small tin lean-to on wooden legs on the rooftop of the ancient building, the water flooded off of the metal lean-to onto the cement roof and over the broken edges of the foundation. I walked under the lean-to and turned down the lamp and placed my items on the ground, a large sniper rifle rested against the small wall of the roof waiting to be used by skillful hands. I had made it a habitat the last few days of checking the perimeter with the rifle every few hours and making sure our targets were still in reach, but tonight the target showed us that he was very much in reach, and waiting. Through the rain and the storm clouds in the low-flying sky, the red lines of laser sights cut through the darkness as they swept the perimeter of the headquarters they are forced to patrol. I picked up the rangefinder and the screen told me that the edge of their perimeter was more than two kilometers away, giving us more than enough room to operate under the cover of darkness. I put down the rangefinder and picked up my father’s dagger, looking into the stained steel that made up the blade I saw myself, a scarred man, a branded man, a broken man. I picked myself up in the chair and grabbed the wet stone off the ground and held it in the rain as I ground the blade against it honing the edge into a razor, as the sound of metal on stone resounded through my head, I realized that no matter what happens tonight, the man who has plagued my life will die and my vengeance shall be complete.

As I honed each blade, the steel leaving bits and pieces of itself on the ground, I failed to notice the footfalls approaching my lean-to, my ears perked up as a small splash gave me notice of the approaching figure and I turned coming face to face with a bandaged and startled Elizabeth. Her eyes were wide as the rain fell on her face drawing her hair into a slick mess around her; she smiled as she came back to reality and threw her arms around me holding me close, she asked what I was doing up here in the rain, I told her I couldn’t sleep and that I could ask her the same. She gave me a small chuckle and pulled up a chair next to mine, she said she never got around to thanking me for saving her from the mercenaries three days ago; I kept my eyes on the perimeter and simply said that her being alive was thanks enough. She looked at me with a feeling of happiness that I had not seen since I last saw my mother; I shook my head and quickly changed the subject and told her that we were going to move in a few hours when the storm picks up. She silently nodded as she picked up the stone and began to sharpen her katana under the lightning-strewn sky. Once the blades were honed, we made our way down the dark stairs into our makeshift armory and began to prepare for the coming storm. After we had finished strapping on all the weapons and ammo we could carry, I ran a system check and re-encrypted the short-range broadcaster for Angel so that she will be able to hack the enemy’s systems once we are inside. I shifted my plates and tightened the straps on my armor; I looked at Frost and I told her that she doesn’t have to do this, that this is my fight. She puts on her helmet as the lens lit up and she speaks through the speakers in her helmet, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I laugh a little bit and lock in my helmet as the HUD lights up and my RIG synchronizes my vitals to the display. I pry open the door and step through into the raging storm that had befallen the badlands and started making my way towards the lit-up perimeter of my old home, Demon Security.

It takes us longer than expected to make the trek towards the outer perimeter, nearly making us miss our window of infiltration. As the guards changed and the fence was left unattended, we can cut the fence links and slip into the spotlight-filled field behind the line. We set up inside a half-filled shipping container and checked our equipment before we moved to engage the enemy at the gates of the compound, I look at Frost as I cocked my hand cannons and told her that we have no friends here, if she wished to only wound the younger recruits so be it but if they have a weapon, they have to be put down. She reluctantly agrees as the bolt of her rifle snapped shut and the safety is switched off, and the spotlight passed by the open container, we both breathed a heavy sigh and stepped into the darkness ready to kill anyone who stood in the way of our goal, to find the man who has destroyed our lives and return the favor.

Through the howling winds surrounding the guarded gates, only whispers could be heard between the crashes of thunder as shadows appeared and dissipated as the lightning strikes the landscape showing the bloody and strewn faces of the guards in the fresh crimson mud. Brass casings fly from the breeches of the twin cannons, their shots silenced by the canisters on their muzzles; the smoke disappears into the rain replaced by vapor created by the heat of the canister. The gate begins to shift as the Guard Captain brings reinforcements to the silenced squad, just as the shadows wanted, the captain was accompanied by twenty men and as his hand raised to send his men forward, a bright dot fell upon the forehead of the soon to be a victim. The soldiers who moved forward came across the strewn bodies and then came face to face with a large man in blackened armor, smoking guns in his hands raised to meet the new targets, his head lifted slowly showing a skull drawn in blood upon the backlit visor flicking to life as the rest of his armor followed suit, the man suddenly erupted from the shadows his fingers tightening on the triggers releasing death upon the fodder. The captain heard the screams of his men and turned to face the attacker seeing the large armored man walk into the light of the flicking bulb above a rusted door, pieces of metal falling from his cannons and being replaced soon after, the fearful captain drew his sidearm raising it to fire upon the man but as his finger tightened and his heart began to race, a whisper ripped through the air, leaving the other shadow and erupting the captain’s head as if it had been hit by a hammer. The grim figure turned his head, tracing the vapor trail to a tower two hundred yards away, the other shadow was perched on the railing backlit by a dim blue haze nodding towards the man knowing the one word he would say to her, perfect.

The now opened gate would allow the shadows to enter the burdened asylum that used to be called home, greeted by the flashing red lights silhouetting their forms against the white walls of the corridors. Their footsteps silenced by the echoing siren allows them to move quickly through the cluttered and unmaintained hallways that would lead them towards barracks that would give them access to the main transit system of the compound. Their pace slowed as they noticed the doors sunk into the graying wall of the corridor, a feeling of nostalgia flowed over both of the killers as they saw the numbers in chipped white paint laid upon the doors. Their old homes sat in front of them, a thick layer of dust lay upon the handles as if they had not been opened in years, trying to open them led to no success due to the doors being forcefully welded shut. The man tried to force the door a few more times, finally, the woman laid her hand on his shoulder telling him that they have to move forward, the shadow nodded and begins to move down the hall only to stop as the horror unfolded in front of his eyes. The woman gasped as she came across the same scene as he had and a sob escaped from her helmet as she turned away from the carnage, the man walked forward and placed his hand on the door feeling the metal’s twists and warps from the charges placed on it when this scene began, he continued forward as brass casings crunched and clinked under his boots, weapons laid strewn across the room, some broken, some empty and bent, helmets and pieces of uniforms lay bloody and discarded along the heaps of broken bodies within the large room, the sign above the door still flickered with a minuscule amount of life as the man turned to look at the large sign as tears welled in his eyes, the dying sign read “Barracks Commons” this was the room where all the operators would eat, train, and just relax between sessions, but now it had become the scene of a massacre. As the man looked towards the far end of the room the bodies began to pile up, gaining numbers as he walked towards the middle of the room, as his feet moved over pieces of armor and weapons, the flags of the fallen squads stood erect amongst the bodies still attached to those chosen to carry them, the pennants tattered and stained moved slightly as he walked by them, as he came to the apex of the massacre his movement became stiffened as the sight brought him great sadness within a revelation. In the middle of the bodies a large man lay upon the ground, two assault rifles in hand and a large black pennant with crossed red scythes upon it attached to his shoulder, the man’s hands trembled as he reached to uncover the name of the soldier from underneath his old pennant, he brushed away the flag and he fell backward from the mental shock he received, the man’s name was Bishop, he was one of the shadow’s allies when he was still with the agency and was pronounced K.I.A. almost seven years ago during a solo mission in the heart of Uganda, Africa. The man was able to stand after a few minutes of processing the tragedy and went back to his squamate’s body, he pulled off the helmet of the decomposing corpse and unhooked the pennant from the dead man’s shoulder and as the man lifted his head, he saw what he was meant to find, behind the line of massacred operators laid piles of black-robed soldier covered in wounds and bullet casings, now the man understood the events that transpired here. With a heavy heart, the man stood up, his friend’s helmet in hand, attached the pennant to his shoulder, and walked out the destroyed doorway to the woman who did not dare enter the bloodied room. As he passed through the frame of the door, he held up the helmet and gave it to his companion whose sobs began to echo in the hallway combining with the already blaring sirens. A wave of deep anger began to build up inside the man, his hands clenched in iron fists, his legs tense and eager to run towards the enemy, he unholstered his cannons, untwisted the suppressors, and began to walk down the battle-scarred hall towards the transit hub in the center of the complex, his mission was clear, his hands steady, his means justified, and now he had no limits knowing that all his brothers in arms had been slain by greedy creatures clad in black. The ghosts of the agency and the writing of order were all that is left in this forsaken place. This made the chaos he was about to unleash all that much sweeter. As the shadows traveled deeper into the compound, the hub within sight, the siren’s wail began to fade replaced by the clacking of boots against the metal floor, the backlit sign laid above the bolted door showing that only one barrier stopped the shadow’s progress. The man walked towards the door and placed his hand on the mechanism in the center of the obstacle, his fingers relaying valuable information about the make and shape of the inner locks, he withdrew his hand and gathered a small amount of plastic explosive and like an artist to a canvas, he began to shape and mold the explosive into the necessary form needed to break the lock and allow the shadows passage into the Hub.

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A detonator is embedded in the explosive and a timer is set, as the red numbers count down as the shadows withdraw to the corners away from the molten fragments of shrapnel that used to be the door. What was left of the steel door swung lazily open with a loud gnarling creak and thumped against the wall echoing the noise into the abandoned transit hub station as the shadows moved towards the unmaintained tubes that would bring them directly to the blackened heart of the compound. Upon inspection of the hatches, a feeling of annoyance feel upon the man as his progress was dampened again by another obstacle created by the bastards who had taken over his home. The welds were too tight to pry open and the tubes were too fragile to use charges, so they would have to use a torch and open it the old-fashioned way. The man hands his torch to his companion and she gets right to work at loosening the tubes enough so that they would become operational again, as she looked back towards the man, he seemed to become increasingly troubled as he stood with his back to her, his hands tightening and relaxing as they gripped imaginary pistols in the air, she flicked on her light and went back to work disregarding the tension that seemed to thicken in the air. Seeing that the only light was a small crusted skylight and the glow from the flashlight, the shadows of the old hub seemed to dance and move along the walls, creaks and moans sounded from the structure as a slow sizzling noise was produced by the torch. A sudden sound though would make the man stiffen in silence as if to listen closer to the disturbance as his hands hovered over the firearms on his hip, the shifting shadows made it hard to pinpoint to cause of the noise but the man knew something was not right. Drawing his pistols and his visor turning grey as it switched to low-light, he swept his arms across his field of vision as he searched for the creature that had joined them in this room, the man became frustrated and shouted back towards the bellowing torch, as the light began to die from the torch and the noise dissipated the man drew a large cylinder from his belt, pulled the pin, and threw it into the air above their area. The cylinder reached its apex and exploded into bright white light as smaller pieces erupted in unison causing the lights to flash and bathe every corner in light to expose the intruder. A gunshot rang out as the light faded, and a loud metallic thump echoed in the large hub staying in the air for several seconds as the man dropped his arm and replaced his weapon as he moved towards his target. He kneeled towards a metallic spider about two feet in diameter, with red reflective eyes on what used to be a softball-sized head before the bullet destroyed most of it, someone had sent in a surveillance drone to see what they were up against. The man quickly got up and joined his companion and continued the work on the door cutting through the door itself so as not to waste time, he threw the woman her rifle as she slammed in a new magazine and switched to automatic as she raised her weapon towards the same door they had entered through, the sound of footsteps growing louder as each second passed.

The shadows of the enemy drew themselves across the wall as they drew closer to the passageway that would lead them to the hub; the man finished the hack job and kicked the door to break it off and give him room to load one of the small ships capable of traveling the tubes, as he moved to drag the vessel automatic fire broke his concentration as hell was unleashed on the soldiers trying to force their way down the hallway. The sound of screeching metal broke through the noise as the man pushed the vessel through the hatch and locked it in, he turned to see the enemy trying to fire back but being struck down before they can even pull the trigger, and he gets into the ship and boots it up allowing Angel to hack in and find the fastest route to the command center. As the lights on the ship kick on, the pace of the soldiers quicken as they push harder to try and stop the shadow’s escape, the thrusters grow brighter and begin to push against the thrust wall of the transit tube, and the man tries to yell something over the roar of the engines as the bullets from the hallway slowly make their way closer to the ship, pinging off the tube at an alarming rate. His partner slowly makes her way towards the ship; backstepping as she continued to fire downrange at the enemy, but as she got close enough for her to enter the ship and she turned her head to grab onto the hull, a bullet erupted from the hallway and bit into her leg causing her to collapse onto the ship, the man turned and helped her into the vessel’s door and sealed the hull as the bullets pinged harmlessly off of the ship. As the seal completed, the throttle was pinned and the ship took off destroying the thrust plate of the tube and causing shrapnel to embed itself into the soldiers near the explosion. As the ribs of the tube flew by at breakneck speed and the ship on a direct course, the shadows relaxed as minutes passed and the adrenaline left their systems, the realization that the end was closer than they thought crossed their minds, and as the ship left the tubes and shifted itself into a small rusted out maintenance bay underneath the buzzing command center, the man stepped out of the ship into the humid and hostile environment, weapons in hand, grizzled and ready to end this hell that had been created.

The hissing of the cockpit’s hatch closing echoed through the dimness, giving a feeling of dead space within the small encrusted room. I stood as a silhouette against the darkness as the lights on the small craft came to life and burned through the black that seemed to have soaked into the very metal of the maintenance bay. I took my first step away from the ship, my body still shaking from the firefight, the metal on my boots clacked giving me notice of the solidity of the floor beneath me. As the lights on the craft moved and caused the shadows to dance, the colors of my surroundings seemed to melt together into a hue that resembled darkened orange rust that showed the age of the walls. I holstered my weapons seeing that there was no need and traded them for a crowbar and my RIG light. I stepped ever slowly across the floor, dust and other particles being kicked up by my footsteps; the bay seemed to narrow as my progress continued the clutter left behind by years of unfinished work began to choke the catwalks and corridors forcing me down darkened paths untouched by the powerful ship lights. The worn and rusted crowbar weighed heavy in the hand as it scraped against the wall inside the corridor that had continued to narrow to the point that there was nothing but myself and the dead space separating me from the halls of the command center. The light from my RIG reflected off the walls making false images appear where nothing but dust sat, I continued to move forward along the echoing noise from my boots, matched by the reverberating thumping from within my chest, made the hairs on the back of my neck begin to stand. Suddenly rushes of frozen air began to flow down the shrunken hallway causing a fine mist to form around my visor, obstructing my view. As I tried to clear my vision my footfalls quickened as a piece of my boot caught in one of the broken plates sending me tumbling down the slickened ramp that had opened in front of me. The noise from my armor clashing with the floor shook my ears and the empty halls for what felt like hours, and as my body finally came to rest at the bottom of the ramp, my RIG light slowly flickered from the sustained damage, as I regained my bearings and brought myself up a sudden glimmer of steel came thundering down the ramp after me. I barely had enough time to move my head away from the path of the object as I watched it hit and impale into the steel plates behind me. As my breathing returned to normal, I turned to look at what had chased me only to have my RIG light finally give up and allow the darkness to creep back in, I tried to activate my visor but the fall had damaged the receptors and would take time to fix. So, in turn, I began to feel along the wall for something to grab, a sort of switch, my fingers traced the wall until they came across a handle of some kind, and in haste, I pulled down on it as the switch gave way and the buzzing of lights filled my head. My eyes tried to adjust to the white light erupting from the ceiling, the loud buzzing of ancient circuits returning to life, I raised my hand to shield my face from the burning lights. I turned towards what looked like the hatch that allowed access into the center, as I walked towards the door the lights seemed to dim as my eyes adjusted and the room seemed to be alive if for just a moment.