X10: Within the Deadzone

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. 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 safehouse. 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 parent's 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 was naughty the Dread-Haunter will drag me down here and bisect me.'

'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 binded to unstable Hazard-Shards. Left behind from the war. 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 alot… 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.

'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. Solar 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 to practically everyone, bar Kazuki, to laugh 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 mood quickly soured after that, with them all glancing at the young, but quite damaged Contract-Breaker. He… didn't know why the mood soured, 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, but she reaped what she sowed.

'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 keypad hidden underneath. And as he finished, the door slid to the side.

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

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 persons posters and ENFORCER notices.

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 Antoni 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.

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 on his pistol, feeling the weight of his holstered railgun uneven him. Pressing down on the charge's 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.