CHAPTER X26: A MODICUM OF STEALTH

  "Are the charges set?" asked Edain, peering back at Quinn.

  "Just..." Quinn was silently attaching a breaching charge to the door handle.

  With much difficulty, Archius added on. The freezing temperatures had made any liquid on the handle freeze. It was a bit amusing to watch Quinn fumble like that with such a slippery item. Eventually, he just caved in the door with his axe, and then wedged the charge in.

  It was… not even necessary at this point; the breaching charge seemed to be for its sake.

  ‘There! It’ll blow up the fucking door, or whatever,’ Quinn grunted in frustration.

  'Good,' Archius said. ’Seeker-12-12, anything on your end?’

  'We've taken the outskirts, little security on the surface. Rangaza's looped the camera system, so we don’t have to worry,” reported Persephone.

  Hosea was standing by the door, opposite Quinn. 'Just praying to Iris this mission doesn’t blow up like always.’

  ‘We have CRIS intelligence and ENFORCER reinforcements. We won’t front the bill if this goes south,’ remarked Archius.

  Archius looked up at Amyé, who was stationed on a watchtower near the edge of the warehouse complex. Her thermal laser was visible to Archius, poking out the window.

  Archius chimed in, 'Just make sure not to hit us, alright Artillerist?'

  Amyé snorted back, ‘If it’s a target-rich environment, I’ll consider not shooting you.’

  Amyé won't be happy to miss all the action, but Archius didn’t care – her mark count was irrelevant to his paycheque.

  An eerie silence slowly lulled around the compound as Archius glanced around.

  ‘Let’s crack this open,’ Quinn, whilst lobbing the detonator over to Hosea.

  'Osmond, keep tabs on communications,' Archius ordered. With Archius on the ground, he’ll need someone semi-competent to monitor potential threats. 'And don't fuck up, got it?'

  Osmond squealed back, ‘On it!'

  Archius tapped on his ICAPAD, showing the blueprint. He skimmed through it once again before nodding. "Epsilon will go in first, then me, then the Old Man and Apothio, got it?"

  "I can rinse anything that comes our way,” Hosea stated, protesting being second last in. He pulled both his arms up into the air, showing the twin-laser wrist cannons, rattling for a chance to open fire.

  "Old Man! This is a stealth mission, and I don’t like getting shot at, despite what Kaz may say!" Archius sighed... Ugh. Archius didn’t like working with unknown variables.

  Reliability was not trusted, and Hosea was the epitome of that.

  "I want this to be tight, clean, no unnecessary shots" Archius raised an eyebrow and looked to the rest of the team. "Arbiter plays it fast and loose – but I keep my missions tight. Got it?”

  Quinn shrugged. "Can we just fucking start this? I want to get that drink.”

  Edain rolled his eyes behind the helm-mask. "And paycheque.”

  Hosea mumbled to himself. He then nodded and handed the detonator to Archius. "Alright, Archius," he started. "We'll play the music to your tune."

  Grabbing the detonator, Archius shifted in front of Hosea. 'Breaching.'

  Clicky-clicky away. A quiet bang blew the locks off. The door swung open, and Quinn rushed in, shotgun in hand. Archius was next, tugging his light vest-plate up as the team flooded inwards. Archius' eyes scanned through the entrance hall...

  'Clear!' Quinn shouted, shuffling to a corner. Archius glided to the other side with the rest.

  The warehouse interior was dingy... Dark. The smell of mould and moss was everywhere, even beneath the frost-bitten steel. Side rooms, storerooms and offices? Empty, all of them. It was clear that they were hiding things somewhere, but maybe…

  'Was your informant reliable?' Archius asked again.

  'Yeah! He’s never failed me before, even back in the old days. I think even Quinn might have known the guy, before... well...'

  'Catching hell, you really think I could remember shit whilst my balls were freezing?” asked Quinn.

  The team crashed into a large warehouse storage area.

  It was large, with several aisles of filled shelves lining the room. Catwalks hung from above with dingy dying lights.

  ’What do your guts say, Old Man?' Archius inquired.

  'Nothing right now.’

  Continuing the search, they found nothing. He checked his ICAPAD again; the blueprints showed that there was something beneath them. Still... Where was the entrance?

  'Clear,' Archius said. ‘Below us, we’ll need to find the entrance. I prefer not to topple the whole Sub-Level to get to them.’

  'Clear up here too, the whole damn place's clear,' commented Quinn, him and Edain having cleared the rafters up above them. ‘What about you guys?’

  'Down,' Archius stated. 'We need to go down. Spread out, check for any basement entrances.' Archius maintained his position within a large clearing in the warehouse, in front of a few wide gates used for transporting cargo.

  Icy stalactites hung from the shelves.

  The team dispersed. Quinn shook his head grumpily as he walked over. 'Don't your blueprints show an entrance or anything?' he asked.

  Archius shook his head. 'No game,' he said. 'We're going based on a hunch here. But...' Archius sighed. ’If we can’t find something, we’ll have to blow the floor.’

  It would end any semblance of stealth this operation had, but that'd be better than going home empty-handed. But before either could say another word, Hosea popped his head around a corner. "Hey!" he shouted. "Found a hidden entrance behind one of the shelves.”

  Edain rushed over. "How heavy is it?" he asked.

  Hosea shrugged as Edain took out a few stimulants, preparing for a huge multi-man job. “Moved it already, probably the way in, right?”

  Archius nodded, and they followed on after Hosea. Good thing he found that. Well, explosives could be a tax write-off... So, there were pluses on all fronts.

  A hidden entrance, hidden behind what used to be a shelf. Archius knelt beside it and scanned the entrance...

  "No traps," he said. Grabbing onto a lever, he opened up the entrance, revealing dim blood red floodlights… and a descending staircase.

  How fucking ominous, Archius joked to himself.

  "What'd you notice?" asked Hosea.

  "No ghoul eggs," Archius commented. "Ghouls always make themselves at home in damp, crusty shit holes like this. So, it’s inhabited.”

  Quinn replied, “We found them, then.”

  Archius nodded and continued down the stairs, pulling the receiver back on his pistol to be prepared for anything. The way continued down. By the time they reached the bottom, Archius’ legs were aching, and a key-coded door blocked the way.

  ’Cracking it open,' Archius iterated, stepping to the door and trying to insert Krystalink’s injection stick.

  But, the door refused it... Huh? Archius tried again, but it failed once more. Piece of fucking shit! Now, out of all times for Sato’s works to finally fucking fail?!

  'Fuck.'

  'It's an Imperial era code tech,' Hosea remarked. 'Your new Krystalink shit won't work on it. 'Oi! Hades! Get down here! We got a door for you to crack!'

  Persephone knows how to crack Imperial era doors. Consulting his ICAPAD, Archius’ team stacked up and waited for Persephone to approach the door.

  'Tch... should have told me earlier,' she said, approaching the door and beginning the bypass.

  According to the blueprints, it should lead to a large series of server farms and data storage rooms. ”Rooms are tight down here,” Archius stated.

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  Persephone cracked the door open, revealing a crusty old interior within, fitting for the Blood Contractors. 'Alright, on me,' Archius said.

  Creeping forward, Archius halted communications with a hand signal. Archius' ICAPAD was detecting other footsteps throughout the facility; a tracker oscillated with each footstep.

  With Archius at their head, they kept sneaking through the facility, which was barely a livable place, with so much rust and decay appearing in the walls and pipes.

  “Didn’t know they’d live in such a place,” Quinn remarked anxiously.

  Persephone snorted back, “They’ve lived in worse conditions before. They weren’t able to make the transition to civilian life, not as if it was much of a chance for people like us to begin with…”

  Peeking around a corner, Archius saw patrolling Blood Contractors. Fuck... Archius sighed, trying to think of something.

  'We'll have to take things slow.’

  'Really?' asked Persephone. 'Naw, I thought we'd run and gun till the enemies are dead, what’s the plan now?’

  'Unless you want to be riddled with bullets and have Apothio treat you...' Archius trailed off, providing the options. 'We'll need to get past them... I love prisoner exchanges, but these fuckers don’t take any. No lost harlot either… Hades’ ain’t pretty enough.’

  Persephone jabbed Archius in the back of his coat. you.'

  Quinn and Edain snickered. But they went quiet as Archius ordered, ‘Suppressors on.’

  Everyone followed through as he signalled for everyone to stand still. 'Stay in cover, hide yourselves.' Checking his ICAPAD, he could see a small power room nearby. Flicker the power for a bit and then take out the rest, easy, perfect plan!

  ’Wait for my signal,’ Archius continued.

  Then, he went to work. Cameras were all looped. That meant that he wasn’t able to get the best… looks. Still, Archius casually placed trackers along the walls, keeping his ICAPAD updated of any movements.

  Each passing second slashed avenues of infiltration as the game kept up.

  Even if he can bluff it all, Archius would prefer to keep himself as a silent assassin until no other options are available.

  'I'm going to turn off the lights in this section of the facility,' Archius said. ’Marked areas will be lights out, and I’ll need the rest to clear out the area before they can alert anyone.’

  'Tall fucking order,' Quinn jeered.

  'Yeah! Arbiter pays you top money, he expects top fucking money!' Archius snapped back.

  'Don't worry, we’ll rendezvous near the checkpoint doors, Archius,’ Hosea stated.

  Archius nodded to himself. 'Good enough of a place.' He looked at his ICAPAD. He was really stretching the best of what Kazuki's guys could do here.

  They'll have to clear half a dozen rooms and halls before reaching the checkpoint. Archius skimmed through the cameras, wiping away the loop momentarily to view the checkpoint. Well, I don’t want to attract too much attention.

  Walking through the power room, Archius attached a sensor to the door behind him. The room was illuminated by a dying red light, with steam bleeding from the pipes and generator machinery. Imperial era shit...

  A control panel of the modern age was haphazardly attached to one of the machines.

  Archius approached it and immediately started working through it, but he couldn't use Krystalink - an old piece of shit. Archius had to manually hack through the firewalls.

  But the moment he did, a loud voice came out from the panel: 'THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING KASTé TECH SYSTEMS FOR YOUR POWER AND GENERATIONAL NEEDS! WE—'

  Archius slammed on the panel's mute button before swearing a thousand times in Máwti. “Jiriki! Jiriki! Fuck…” Archius murmured to himself.

  The sensors finally died, and Archius was able to access the power and lights system. Then, the doors swung open, and footsteps entered the room.

  'Archius?' Quinn asked. 'You... good?'

  'YEAH!' Archius replied, ducking to the side to avoid a flashlight beam, hiding beneath a small boiler tank. Archius kept his face away from the steel, as he could feel the scalding air around it.

  It was a Blood Contractor. "The fuck was that?" they asked. "Piece of shit... tech... Imperial shit, maybe I ought to skin you too."

  That was exactly what Archius was thinking! Amazing! Maybe they'd bond over hating old, burdensome technology. Still, wrong side and wrong time. They approached the panel, groaning in frustration.

  Archius sighed, sneaking around the several machines and slowly creeping up from behind. Drawing his pistol, Archius slowly raised it. B

  Pulling back the safety, it made a small clicking noise.

  The smallest click was enough to send the Blood Contractor's head reeling around. Archius barely had enough time to react as they swept their torso around, eyes frantically glaring at Archius.

  "Huh!?" The Blood Contractor let out a welp. Archius placed a bolt straight into their chest, but the Contractor collapsed against the floor.

  Their pistol slipped out onto the steaming concrete floor. The Contractor immediately started to crawl to their pistol.

  “Don’t try that,” Archius warned, clamping his boot down on the Contractor’s hand before they reached their gun.

  They let out a gasp of pain. “Fuck me! Wait, I’m just an engineer, no real trouble maker, honest sir.”

  The dark lights of the room hid Archius’ features as he glared down at them. “Did you think I’d let you live?”

  “No… Wait, just… do anything. I just don’t want to die, alright!?” The old man bellowed. “You’re a Contractor, aren’t you? We fight for the same reason, right… We were wronged, good sir, you know that! So… why are we fighting?”

  “I’m afraid we don’t,” replied Archius. “It’s a bad galaxy, but we need money, and it’s always a shame…”

  At those words, the old man swiped Archius’ leg with his other hand, before scrambling for his pistol.

  “Agh!” Archius tripped over as the old man clambered to his knee, aiming forward.

  Before they could pull out their own pistols, Archius scattered their brains against the machines and panel. Taking a moment to collect himself, archius got back to work. No more distraction, he thought.

  'I've got things under control, ' Archius said. 'I'll disable the lights on your mark. You'll have given or take ten seconds to kill them all before they realise something’s up.’

  Sliding through the various power sources and breakers, Archius prepared himself. 'We're ready,' Hosea replied.

  'Lucky hunting,' Archius said, before hitting down on the breaker button. Instantly, the lights all around shut off.

  Archius clipped some goggles to his eyes, activating night vision as he heard small thuds and whizzed outside. In the dim red light, Archius wiped his hands clean of the blood before tightening his gloves over his wrists.

  The Contractor was gargling, still somewhat alive after being shot in the head.

  Sensors were being ignited across Archius’ uplink from his own team.

  Not unheard of, Archius thought. After all… He knows someone too well who has survived such a terrible affliction. Archius placed two extra bolts for prosperity’s sake.

  After straightening his armour, Archius waited a little longer before flicking the lights back on. With that dealt with, Archius left the room, snatching his own sensors back. Quietly whistling to himself, he walked over the dead bodies littering the hallways.

  Archius rendezvoused with the rest of the team, stacked up at the checkpoint doors. 'Happy hunting, then?' he asked.

  He kicked a few of the bodies away to hide them from the view of the door.

  Quinn shook his hand a bit. 'Night vision was a bit iffy, but it was a good hunt.’

  'You wouldn't have this issue if you didn’t keep breaking your equipment,' Edain jeered. 'Or... use equipment that isn't even ours to begin with.'

  Persephone rolled her eyes as Hosea interjected, “That’s enough. Let’s focus and get back to drinking.”

  What was it with drinking all the time, Archius thought to himself. Sure, their lives weren’t great, but they could at least try something new!

  Then, Persephone spoke, ‘People die, you know? Maybe you should get that in your head before you try tallying everything up.’

  Oh... no. Archius braced as he knew what was going to happen. Quinn threw the ex-Seeker into the wall. ‘FUCK YOU SAY?!' he shouted, slamming her head into the concrete wall. Hosea had to rip Quinn off, whilst Edain restrained him.

  Archius interposed, placing a hand on Persephone to stop her.

  "Don't do it," he calmly said to her.

  'The fuck's going on down there?!' Amyé asked.

  'Yeah! Quinn, you good?!' asked Osmond.

  Oh great! Another newbie that doesn't use FUCKING CODENAMES! ‘

  Everything's fine. Keep your eyes fucking peeled,' Archius replied, silencing their concerns.

  Persephone slowly calmed down. Quinn, on the other hand, was full of fury. He dragged his axe out with both hands, pointing its sharp edge at her. "People die?! No fucking shit. You think I don’t know that?"

  "QUINN!" Hosea bellowed at him. "Let this go, I’ll discipline her later.”

  Edain and Hosea had to keep up the pressure to stop him from breaking free. Eventually, he calmed down, too.

  "Fuck..." he murmured.

  Persephone opened her mouth, but Archius lightly jabbed her in the side for jabbing him in the back. "Do not," he added quietly to her. “Play nice, or don’t play at all.”

  With this charade finally out of the way, Archius slid a probe through the door. A full 180-degree view of the room was provided. Guards are stationed above and at the blast door.

  How unaware they were of the massacre that just happened in the rooms next to them… Persephone shrugged off the pain with gritted teeth. Archius could see that she wanted to punch him.

  Still, the ex-Seeker had some level of self-control. Punching Archous was an early-bird appointment to getting Mind-Snared and becoming his lobotomised goon.

  Hosea asked, "How are we gonna get past them?”

  "Gun them down?" suggested Edain. "Works all the time, right? We love a little bit of violence, right? Don’t leave me hanging here, boys.’

  Hosea shrugged. Lugging up his machine gun, with bolts hanging by a chain. Relic of war, Archius thought. “I’m down for that.”

  "Let me handle this," Archius said. "Uplinks off. We don't want them spooked or anything." How would he convince a small platoon's worth of seasoned, blood thirsty Contractors to let them through? Armour… They were wearing AGENCY armour plating.

  A star lit up in Archius’ mind. Archius rushed to a few of the dead bodies, taking devices out and scanning their faces. Then, Archius signalled for everyone to clear the hall. After the bodies were hidden from view, Archius flicked these devices to each individual member.

  "What's this?" Persephone grumbled with a raised eyebrow. "Cloaking devices? Really?”

  "Face scramblers," Archius explained. "We’ll look like their friends, but we’re not. They won’t question the armour, after all… Are you really a seasoned merc if you haven’t at least looted someone?” Activating the clipped scrambler, Archius changed his face to that of an old man, grizzled beyond his years.

  Everyone placed their hats on, showing disgustingly tattered faces.

  "What about our armour?" Hosea asked. "I don't want to be slipping into any of their crusty old gear, Archius."

  Archius shrugged. "Tiran-Genesis and Prodigy? The only difference between mercenaries and looters is that we get fucking paid.” Reiterating the plan, everyone seemed to get on board.

  “If something goes wrong, you know what Apothio said,” Archius started. "If they see through our disguises, we’ll have fewer magazines to clean by the end of this.”

  The more anyone learnt about humans, the more they realise how easy it is to get into their heads and fool them…

  Not a mutter came from any of them as they prepared to move in. When the shooting starts, Archius thinks that the team will finally get along. Even as Quinn and Persephone were at each other’s throats over their past grievances… Archius knew that conflict breeds camaraderie.

  Yet Archius held his reliance on them highly; he had not a speck of trust for them… Or Eliza… But the thought passed.

  Moving to the front, Archius swung the doors open and stepped through, meeting the Blood Contractors on the other side.