- The Residential Area

*Issued Mission: Security at the Rally: Failed*

*Reactive Mission: Protect Mileena Aliti.*

*Reactive Mission: Discover the Culprits.*

'System,' Gus thought. 'Stats.'

*Level [3] {1615 / 2000 EXP}*

*Strength [3 (2)]*

*Speed [3 (2)]*

*Stamina [2 (1)]*

*Leadership [3 (2)]*

*Combat [3 (2)]*

*Durability [2 (1)]*

*Ranged [2 (1)]*

*Proficiency [2 (1)]*

In an ideal world, Gus would have already been strong enough to face the attackers alone, while also finding out what they wanted to kill the politician for. The situation felt a lot more like an actual, professional hit than a random assassination attempt, and it all gave Gus an odd feeling inside.

But this was not an ideal world, and with just a glance at his stats page he could see that his stats were nowhere near high enough for that yet. Even with the addition of the socks that he had obtained, which granted him one extra point for each stat, he was not able to solve everything himself just yet.

Therefore, if he wanted to achieve the condition of this mission, which had now changed from security to keeping the politician who was the lead speaker of the rally alive, he would have to use his mind.

They were very poorly armed. The only weapons that they had available to them were the Repeaters and, while they fired well enough, they did not have the necessary modifications to keep a target down and, the amount of time that they kept them down for was insignificant enough. Even if the EDF forces that surrounded the area were able to thin their forces enough to tilt the odds drastically in their favour, it was not a risk that Gus was willing to take.

That brought up another issue to their situation. If.

They simply did not have enough information to work with at the moment. As they left the rally site in favour of approaching the residential area, they could still hear the sounds of gunfire being traded between the two sides growing ever more distant. As a result, all they knew was that the fighting was still going on, not how it was going for their allies in the EDF.

There was also the matter of who was behind the attacks. While the weapons that were used by the attackers were not that likely to be too expensive, they still had to be good enough for the people using them to take them to do an act like this. Then, there were the cybernetics. Even though there was virtually nothing for them to hide behind in the area, the attackers still carried out the assault and, thanks to cybernetics from some of their members, they were able to create some cover and begin the attack, causing irreparable damage to the cause of the Unified Way and its supporters.

Both of these pointed to there being more than met the eye. Something else that added to that idea was the system mission Gus received. With the system instructing him to find out who was responsible for the attack, Gus figured that there would have to be some kind of group or organisation backing the attack. Perhaps it was one that was in opposition to the beliefs of the Unified Way. In fact, it probably was one.

The residential area of the dome was one that caused mixed thoughts to run through Gus's mind. On the one hand, it was pretty bad from the outside, compared to what he had seen in the past. On the other hand, this would probably be considered luxury on other worlds under human control, especially those in the frontier.

Each building was plainly made, with sleek, marble walls on the outside, designed purely to look nice rather than be practical. Behind those walls were metals, cemented bricks, and woods, each different material designed to provide the defences against weather that the visually pleasing marble could not, although it was unlikely that it would be needed within the dome. The size of each building was surprisingly large, especially for the amount of buildings that made up the residential area.

The buildings were tightly packed together, creating narrow streets and sharp corners throughout the area. The buildings all had different decorations, clearly put there by the owners of the buildings. Along the rooftops, the various owners had put up different decorations, treating the space as a garden.

Buildings were stacked almost on top of each other, with man made elevation used to be able to stack different streets in the same area. Stairs provided access to the different levels, giving residents easy access to the farm fields below and the other layers of the residential area. In many ways, the area was familiar to a shanty town, just updated for the modern day.

Upon seeing it, Gus was filled with relief.

"Looks like we'll be able to lose them in here," he said to the others.