X11: Raid

Sound of coughing filtered out the building, as footsteps pushed into the safehouse. Through the smoke, Kaz saw that t was a typical Clandestine safehouse, bare-bone interior with two floors. Enough room for mild comfort but not too much. A long hallway to the front and a 'common room' to the right with an inside balcony.

Two figures staggered towards the smoke. Two shots turned the Loyalists into corpses, before Kazuki ducked behind the half-wall between the hall and the common room. Claire was second, entering in as bolts flew through the air. Loyalists in the common room took cover as they fired at the intruders, lighting the hall up.

She ducked further in, behind a column supporting the floor above as Loyalists ran down the stairs on the other end of the hallway. The moment they came into view, Quinn gunned them down, plasma-pellets painting the walls red.

'Lazarus, cover and divert' ordered Kazuki. He remained unflinching as bullets smacked into the pillar.

Claire nodded, immediately poking her head out of cover and spraying into the common room with her rifle. The Loyalists all directed their attention towards her. Amidst the gunfire, Kazuki pulled himself around the pillar as Quinn took his place. Kazuki's mind filtered in with drugs and stims. Three behind the sofas. Two behind a toppled shelf. Three in the opening pushing up to Claire.

A bullet whizzed past his mask as he hammered down on the trigger. An unfair exchange of bullets smacked into the Loyalists in the common room. All fell where they stood. However, one jutted out of cover. They charged towards Claire from the sofa. As Kazuki was about to place a round in their armoured mask a flurry of rounds flung down at him from up above. Rounds bashed off his vest-plate as he ducked down.

"Tch. Watch out."

Loyalists on the balcony above fired down at them. He fired up at them to buy Claire and Quinn time. The Loyalist grappled with her and placed a bullet directly into her sides. She let off a small groan.

He was just about to take another shot as she grappled with her knife and used their own momentum to cut deep into them, penetrating their neck and leaving them slumped against the column. Kazuki took note of it as a sniper bolt crashed through the armoured wall of the living room. A body fell over the balcony railing.

Claire took cover, kicking the corpse out from behind the pillar. She let off a painful sigh, injecting her sides with healing stimulants. She kicked the dead corpse out into cover to get her more room.

'One for the hol-pad.' said Amyé, with her smug attitude.

Kazuki took another glance as they continued to fire down at them. Quinn started to fire back. The trade of bullets went nowhere as more sniper bolts were exchanged.

'Epsilon, keep them suppressed,' said Kazuki to Quinn.

He nodded as he peeked out of cover, using his heavy armour to deflect incoming bolts as Kazuki tapped Claire on the shoulder. She followed him down the hallway, walking over corpses and puddles of both blood and exospine juice.

Reaching the stairs, the two ascended to the second level of the safehouse as they saw the vault on the opposite end of the hall. Rushing forward, The two stuck to the wall as his aug-glasses highlighted the hostiles on the balcony, overflowing with information that only he had the memory to process.

Bullets were still being exchanged, with Amyé trying to predict the locations of the Loyalists upstairs.

He gave Claire a hand signal and clenched his fist. As he did, the two turned the corner and looked out onto the inside balcony. Three Loyalists were firing down at Quinn.. Claire gunned down the Loyalists on the far end. The two Loyalists closest to Kazuki turned to fire at him. Before they could, he sent a bolt directly through both of their heads with his railgun.

Gunfire ended. Amidst the silence, a bullet skidded through the wall and into the corpses. Amyé smugly remarked, 'Second.'

Kazuki lets Amyé take the kill, he already has enough kills to his Contractor-Card to count. Walking up towards the vault door, Kazuki started to analyse it, touching the edges of the door and rubbing his gloves up and down it.

'Arbiter got the kill before you, Artillerist.' Claire remarked, probably to make Amyé frustrated. She joined Kazuki as Quinn ran up to join them, taking point behind them.

'Go fuck yourself, you could'a left me with that!' shouted Amyé.

The vault door was sealed with hydraulic-mag locks. Kazuki grumbled for a bit as he slid his pistol into his hidden holster and his railgun into his leg holster.

'Vault door. Do we have anything for that?'

'Crack-stick it,' said Sato, 'I'll crack it open.'

Kazuki took out a cracking stick from his pocket. He checked to make sure it had Krystalink's markings as he stuck it into the chain-key import. A few seconds passed as nothing happened.

'And… open-sesame,' said Sato. Immediately, the door mechanisms started to unwind as it slowly slid to the side.

'Took you long enough.' remarked Archius.

'Ugh…' Sato rolled her eyes.

Kazuki took a step back. His brain ached. In a split moment, he dodged out of a grapple attempt by a Loyalist that was within the vault. Claire was nearly taken by surprise, but a quick bolt to the head through the wall silenced them. Blood and brain matter littered the floor as they fell to the ground. Claire immediately drew her backup shotgun and tapped their torso.

Quinn dismissively looked at the corpse. "You good, Lazarus?"

"Yeah… Yeah." Claire said as she looked up towards the wall littered with anti-material bullet holes, 'Thanks.'

'Yeah, yeah, just buy me a drink later."

Kazuki walked past the corpse as Quinn playfully patted Claire on the back. Claire took out a combat stim and injected herself with it in the small gap of chain-like armour on her neck.

The safe room was filled to the brim with servers, equipment and some low-end weapons. Kazuki ignored all of the weapons. Claire started to look through an opened computer, it was old, archaic and bulky. Kazuki injected a cracking stick into one of the servers.

'Safehouse secured. Information's being transferred to you.' Kazuki said, walking over to Claire as she browsed through the laptop. The walls were plastered with old holo-news articles, mainly detailing the First Shadow War.

Hopefully this will be quick, he thought. He didn't want to overuse his cybernetics. That'd only lead to more troubles, like Claire's incessant bickering. But to them, he practically was one in age, Seven Merc or not didn't matter.

"Hey, Arbiter," Claire said, catching Kazuki's attention as she was scrolling through a series of messages. "The Loyalists are under the command of someone called Afterlife, got anyone under that call-sign in that database of yours?"

"I'm not just a database, you know? Surprisingly, I'm a living being." snapped Kazuki.

He looked over her shoulder as he glanced down at the messages. He knew one person that had the callsign of Afterlife. But he's long gone. He should be. "I knew a guy in the industry with that callname. Dead, though."

Claire shrugged, "Well, probably just a coincidence, then?"

He nodded as Archius finally gave them their next orders. 'Overwatch to Phalanx team, information's been secured. Get the hell out of there. Blank check on drinks for this one!'

With that, Claire walked past Kazuki, leaving him glancing at the messages for a moment. His old mentor's dead, he knows that. They dropped a building on him… He sighs and walks away. Meanwhile the laptop shut off, holo-monitor flicking offline.