5 - Inferno
"Then, Tom, servant of the Hunt, what's your reason for visiting little old me?"
Wiping the tears from her eyes, Rose finally dismounted Tom and sat down next to him.
It seemed that for whatever reason, she now believed what he was saying.
"I'm here to destroy the Rover slave market, given you most likely have an axe to grind, I figured you could help me with that."
Stating his intentions directly, Rose turned far more serious as her eyes turned cold.
"... What exactly does 'destroy' entail?"
"Most importantly will be freeing you and the other slaves that are kept somewhere here for the upcoming slave action, then of course I'll be killing Mr. Jacobson and most likely destroying or capturing any assets, contracts and sales records he holds here on site… Preferably also burning down both these buildings, but that's just a bonus at this point."
Listing his objectives, Tom tried hard (and failed) to count his objectives on his fingers as he thought about infiltration, exfiltration, loadout and how many grenades he could afford.
"I see… But there's no need for you to rescue me, I have my own escape that I've planned for a few years now."
Letting the mask slip for a moment, Rose quickly returned to her 'normal' self, but not fast enough for Tom not to notice it. Whatever hellscape Rose had been through since she had turned into a slave had been enough to scar her mind so deeply that she desired nothing other than an eternal rest.
"I see. I could help you with that."
While Tom had no idea what Rose had been through, she was an adult and seemed sure in her choice, so Tom had no problem helping her along.
"Oh my~ And how would you do that? Do I need to remind you that there are guards whose only job is securing Mr. Jacobson's investment and making sure it does not 'go to waste'."
Pulling together a half amused smile as she drew slightly closer to Tom, Rose's eyes remained dead as she figured there was no point in hiding it anymore. Instead of responding to her question outright, Tom pulled out a X-91 and placed it in her hands.
"It's simple, you pull out that ring there, let this lever release and then clutch it into your chest. 5 seconds later you'll burn with chemical fire that can't be extinguished, not even if you fully submerge it in water ."
"That sounds painful…"
"Not if you hold it next to your head, I can guarantee you won't feel a thing. I've seen that happen multiple times, I even tried to end myself with one of these once, but my owners managed to prevent it so I only lost my eyesight."
The first time Tom realised he was well and truly trapped in a debt scheme for the rest of his life, he tried to take the easy way out, but was stopped. When Tom later woke up in the hospital with a pair of artificial eyes, and a neural interface which shocked him everytime he tried to 'violate his contract'.
"Needless to say, the fire will keep spreading after you kick the bucket, without the right kind of chemical extinguishers the flames will consume at least this entire building, if not more… I'll only ask for a single thing in exchange for giving you this. Wait for the opportune time to light this entire place on fire."
Extending the grenade out along with his offer, Tom showed a slight smile after he indicated Rose could help out Tom and the other slaves if she would wait for the opportune moment.
Instead of taking the grenade, Rose bloomed a warm smile and gently reached out to Tom with both her hands as her eyes remained dead. Gently caressing his face, Rose peered deep into Tom's eyes as he maintained eye contact without flinching.
"... Okay then."
Accepting Tom's terms, Rose kissed his forehead like a mother would lovingly do to her child, but there was no love or emotions behind her actions as her soul had long since left the world of the living, now only Rose's body and mind waited longingly to join her soul in the afterlife.
-
"Hmm…"
As the sun once again started setting, Tom went over all the information he had received from Rose as he did a final check of his equipment.
Having used the remainder of his points on resupplying earlier in the day, Tom made sure to top up the original magazine on his M-909 DMR in addition to buying two additional magazines loaded with API ammunition, bringing his total ready tap up to 60 rounds spread out across 3 magazines, 2 of which he had taped together to create a dual mag. The spare magazine Tom carried in an empty plate carrier which he had hidden beneath his leather vest along with a pair of X-91's and his bayonet.
(Time to get to it.)
Leaving nothing behind in his inn room, Tom left to wait on standby for Rose's signal.
From there it would be do or die.
Just like Rose had explained, the mansion to the west of Mr. Jacobson's was only populated by a skeleton crew of servants as their owners were visiting their autumn home, thus there were no night time guard patrols and Tom was easily able to move up to the 4 metre tall perimeter wall which was his first obstacle.
(Guards on the other side patrol every 10 minutes all 24 hours of the day…The only exception to that rule would be if a fire broke out on the premises.)
"FIRE! FIRE IN THE AUXILIARY COMPLEX!"
Right on queue the guards shouted from the other side of the wall, not wanting to let Rose's sacrifice be in vain, Tom took off the leather vest he had been wearing to hide his plate carrier, unwrapped his M-909 and affixed his bayonet to the tip of it.
"... Time to get to work."
While scaling a smooth 4-metre wall without using magic or any other tricks might have been difficult for normal people, the enhancements the USIE equipped their indentured mercenaries with were decent, and the body the divine entity had given Tom also lived up to their standards.
With a little bit of a runup, Tom easily scaled the wall, and after making sure the coast was clear he entered the Jacobson's main mansion by kicking in a door.
(From the west facing servant's entrance, turn left at the second door to reach the servant's staircase and take it to the 3rd floor…)
As Rose had spent over a decade as a slave in the mansion she got to know it by heart, so guiding Tom to the master bedroom was a piece of cake. Entering the cramped spiral staircase used by servants to move between floors unseen, Tom quickly noticed he wasn't alone, with at least one person heading up behind him and another going down towards his level.
(Now, the question is if they're servants, or guards…)
Readying his rifle, Tom had to work a bit to use such a long rifle inside a cramped staircase, but he easily managed against an unaware opponent.
"W- ARGH!-"
Aiming for the throat just above the collarbone, Tom cut the surprised guard's windpipe and spine in one fluid motion and kept the corpse from falling by supporting it. Waiting for the life to drain from the surprised guard's eyes, Tom finally let the corpse drop as he passed it, now with a time limit.
Running to the third floor as he heard a scream behind him, Tom practically bashed the door down as he entered the third floor hallway where he was immediately spotted.
"INTRU-"
(Fuck it.)
Having already chambered a round, Tom squeezed the trigger now that his cover was blown, hitting the guard square in the chest and knocking him to the floor with the butt of his rifle as he passed.
"Plan C it is then."
With his cover now well and thoroughly blown, Tom dispensed with the subtle tactics and toggled the fire selector on his M-909, going from single action to fully automatic as he continued on towards the master bedroom.
Containing his urge to scream room service at the top of his lungs, Tom kicked in the double door to the master bedroom as time slowed down when he noticed the armoured person lunging towards him with a sword drawn.
"DIE!"
Bringing his rifle up, the long barrel made Tom unable to bring it on target on time as he squeezed the trigger.
"Fu!-"
Without a secondary to fall back on, Tom brought up his rifle to block the downwards swing of the sword before pulling back half a step as he let go of the M-909 and grabbed the knight by his forearm and tossed him over his shoulder. With his foe on the ground, Tom quickly made sure to step on his sword before he grabbed his M-909 hanging by his shoulder by its strap before emptying the magazine into his chest. Swapping the magazine and chambering a new round, Tom finally paid attention to the person shaking in fear on the bed.
"... You must be Austin."
"HIIII!"
Squealing like a pig when Tom raised his rifle towards him, the slaver Austin Jacobson reminded him of one of the balding military contractors of his old life, hence his voice was laced with bloodlust.
"Where's the strongbox? Hurry up and show me if you don't want to die."
"I-It's right here! Ta- ARG!"
The second Austin pointed towards the safe next to his bed, Tom no longer needed the slave dealer and shot him in his outstretched arm.
"NOO! DON'T HURT ME! YOU CAN HAVE EVERYTHING!"
Ignoring the squealing, Tom pulled out a thermal grenade and pulled its pin before tossing it to the safe.
"W-Why!?"
Watching as the strongbox started melting, dooming all the priceless documents and contracts inside dissbelief overcame Austin's pain as he turned to Tom who was calmly walking over. Seeing the fire start to spread, Austin stumbled half naked out of bed, but he didn't make it far as Tom plunged his bayonet into the pit of his knee.
"AAARRGH!"
"Oh shut up will you."
Pulling out the bayonet, Tom grabbed the fat merchant by the arm and tossed him into the spreading fire, making sure the flames had grabbed a hold of him properly before leaving.
(Now for the hard part…)
With the mansion actively catching fire and every guard on the premises alerted, Tom would have a hard enough time just escaping on his own before the city guards locked down the area, but he still had more to do.
Ignoring the panicking maids who had noticed the fire, Tom ran back to the servant's staircase and headed down to the basement where he easily dispatched the pair of guards standing in front of a locked metal door.
"Stand back! I'm breaking down the door!"
While Tom would need quite a bit of explosives to break down a door made of solid metal, he didn't need to as the hinges were on the same side as him, and just a few rounds of 8.75mm armour pricing quickly destroyed those and made the door fall over.
The second he burst down the door a horrid smell assaulted Tom, the inside of the room was dark, damp and overall totally unsuited for any kind of extended habitation.
(Damn, now I wish I could have shot that fucking pig a few more times…)
"Hang on a moment, I'll get you guys out of here."
Inside the cramped cellar room were a total of 9 demihumans of different races, but all of them were women.
(... Nevermind, I should have skinned the pig alive.)
"W-who are you!? W-what's going on?"
Understandably, the women inside were quite alarmed by a person suddenly breaking the door down and wielding a strange weapon with a blade attached to it.
(The fastest way to get them to thrust me would be the same as I did with Rose, although I'm worried about the 'tracking', the people of this mansion should be preoccupied with different things at the moment.)
Instead of responding to the tan girl with long ears using words, Tom tapped into his resupply.
INTERFACE_CONFIRMED:_ACTIVE.
CONNECTION_NOT_SECURE.5_POINT(S)_AVALIBLE.
Feeling his body feel with the now familiar-feeling warmth he had gotten used to over the past week, Tom did his best to not appear threatening.
"I serve the Hunt and I'm here to get you guys out of this place. Spread out your hands."
Taking the bayonet off of his rifle, Tom tried cutting the leather straps that retrained the girl, but when he approached she flinched.
"W-wait! These things are cursed!"
(Yeah that would be my reaction too.)
To make sure the 'goods' in Austin's care wasn't stolen before the auction could take place, the two parties would enter a contract which would make sure that the 'goods' couldn't be stolen without loosing their value, kind of the same way clothing stores added tags filled with dye that would explode if they left the store, ruining the product.
Placing a seal in blood on an enchanted parchment which was bound to a restraint, the contract (or curse) made sure both the signatories would need to be present, if that condition wasn't met any attempt at removing the slave's restraints would create an electric shock strong enough to kill both the person attempting to remove the restraints and the slave.
"Don't worry, I've already dealt with the contracts already."
Not wanting to waste more time, Tom cut the leather handcuffs in spite of the girl's protests.
"... H-huh? I'm free?"
"Yeah, free your friends, I'll cover you."
Handing the former slave his bayonet, Tom watched her eyes glaze over for a moment until she understood what had just happened.
"O-okay!"