Cargo container

Two Black SUVs exited the Arcadius business center, both heading southwards towards the docks.

Keith sat in the back of the second car, just enjoying the quiet for a bit, as he had been driving all day before coming here.

There was nothing much to chat about, not to mention that they were new hires that just met him… and while he did enjoy the silence, it did create a somewhat awkward atmosphere in the car.

Eventually, they arrived at the dock, where they would be picking up their container, this was a simple mission of following orders and cooperation, so nothing could realistically go wrong, but the world was full of surprises.

While nearing the pickup location, Keith could see some cars surrounded by men sporting loose-fitting sports t-shirts.

They slowed down quite a bit, the closer they got the more could be made out, the men were wearing a mix of sports and casual wear, with guns at their sides ready to defend themselves.. the one connecting feature they all had was that they all appeared to be from a Mexican cartel.

"Lucas, they are Madrazo's men right?" Keith wasn't too sure himself, he knew of Madrazo, a cartel boss who lived north of the city, but didn't know Madrazo's men, so he asked the driver of the car.

"They appear to be…" The car was now barely moving as they crept by the men, some of them had turned to look at the two cars that had arrived but the others focused on the Container that they had opened.

Keith could see it clear as day, they were raiding his container.

"Drive back around, they are trying to steal my property." Lucas re-lade the information to the car in front of them before following Keith's orders.

 Keith was mad, more accurately he was furious, they had already taken two motors out of the container and had begun driving them around.

Keith didn't know how they had gotten wind of him moving his assets, he wasn't even sure if they knew who they were stealing from. Either way, they were about to die.

Madrazo was a powerful man, but his men were mediocre at best, killing him would be simple for the five of them, and the repercussions would follow, but that was only if Martin found out, and he wasn't planning on leaving anything behind pointing towards him, although Martin could make all the allegations he liked.

"Stop the car here." Keith stepped out, before signalling the others to stop as well.

"What's the plan boss?" Max asked while he approached the group that was behind one of the SUVs.

Keith handed Lucas the sniper rifle that he had bought with the other guns.

"Lucas, could you position yourself somewhere with a good line of sight on them?"

"of course sir." Lucas accepted the gun, putting it on his back before walking over to some containers that were climbable.

They could continue the communications on their earpieces, so he didn't need to wait for further instruction.

"We are entering a shootout, I expect you three to be ready." Keith looked at them getting some firm nods in return.

"Get in, we are leaving the other car behind for Lucas, once we kill them we will close the container and get out of here, Jack, Eddie, you two will get on the bikes that got out of the container, do you guys understand?"

"Yes, sir!"

-

Once again they approached the drop-off, this time coming to a complete stop before getting out.

"HEY! You better get out of here before…" The person who was shouting at them suddenly stopped, before falling down with a loud thud.

In his head was a hole carved by the bullet Lucas had just shot.

With the first one down chaos ensued, with Keith and his guys getting into cover while gunning down the one that sat in the open.

From the original twelve Mexican gang members remained eight. Six of whom were staying in cover while the other two flanked them with Keith's bikes.. they were the once Keith was aiming for.

As one approached them from behind he received a shot to the chest. Keith had barely missed his head instead hitting him in his chest, the gang member seemed to lose control of the motor before falling to the side, with screams of pain as he skidded over the asphalt, injuring his unprotected arms.

His screams continued, but Keith was more concerned with the state of the bike, looking from where he sat in cover it appeared to be some minor scrapes, nothing that couldn't be fixed.

The second bike on the other hand was still going strong, going even faster than the other, likely trying to dodge any possible bullets by going at such an immense speed, but unlikely for both of them, some debris from the earlier bike caused the second bike to slip, resulting in a gruesome death as he lost control and hit one of the support beams coming out of the ground…

Keith wanted to cry while looking at the result of the crash.

'.. it can be fixed..' the motor was dented into a shape he didn't recognize, but most of the back was still intact, although he knew that he could never repair damage like that, no matter how much effort he put in.

Yet he still held out hope, to at least recreate its former beauty, sadly his hopes were crushed by the explosion that engulfed his destroyed bike..

The destruction of his bike caused several emotions to well up inside of him, but all were overtaken by anger, anger at his loss, and anger at the one who did this…

Getting out of cover Keith sprinted to the side of the few men that remained and shot the three of them each with four bullets only stopping his shooting as he had to reload.

"Get the bike, if it isn't drivable then bring it some other way." Keith climbed up to the back of the container and secured it shut once again.

They needed to get out of here and Keith wasn't about to wait for the cops to show up, one bike was destroyed and the other was slightly damaged, but could likely still be driven.

"Let's get out of here boys, Jack, you get the motor." Max gave the last couple of instructions as Keith got ready to leave with what they came here for.

"Roger that." Jack confirmed as he got the bike back on its wheels.

The drive back wasn't as long as the drive to get there, but the sky was already turning dark once they arrived at his clubhouse.

The container was opened and every one of them helped with getting the bikes inside, after they were done with the bikes the remaining encampment was still inside, most of which needed to be moved back to his office, where Keith would store it before bringing it to the heist prep location.

As the SUVs got filled up Keith handed each of them a weapon out of his stage, Max got a special carbine with some modifications on it, and Lucas got a military rifle with an increased scope and silencer.

Eddie got a Combat MG, with extended mag and special bullets, and lastly, Jack got an Assault shotgun along with some c4s.

All of them were happy with the equipment, but Keith didn't see it as a gift, he saw it as an investment, the battle earlier had shown him how much one needed to have a weapon they were comfortable with as Lucas was the one with the most amount of contribution getting four people on his own just like Keith did.

Now that everything was out of the container Keith ordered Jack to destroy the truck and container somewhere away from here while he accompanied them, the others were free to leave after they had delivered the two SUVs to the office garage.

Keith checked his clubhouse one more time before closing it, now with an incomplete collection inside.

-

Martin Madrazo was mad, he had gotten a report from a contact in Liberty City that some valuable goods would be arriving at the docks tonight and had sent out a competent team to secure the container for themselves, but instead, he got twelve dead men and a investigation pointing towards him.

The person who killed them didn't leave behind any evidence, so the only person he could realistically suspect was the owner of the container, but he never got a name as to who that person might be…

"Carlos! Where are you?!" he shouted for the person who had given him the information and had guaranteed that nothing would go wrong

"Martin, please listen to me, I didn't know that he had men under him." Carlos seemed to be rambling on how he didn't know, the problem was that it was part of his job to know.

"What are you spouting, if you don't have a good explanation then you are done, you hear me!" Martin grabbed him by the neck, stopping his nonces.

Carlos took a few deep breaths. "The guy that owns what was inside of the container is a former criminal, he moved a while back because his identity was exposed back in Liberty City, but he didn't appear to be active until now."

"What has that to do with anything, active or inactive that doesn't excuse you from failing in something you guaranteed would succeed!"

"I managed to get some footage of them entering the docks, that showed them with being more than one." Carlos prided himself on finding out information about others and reporting it back with utmost confidence, but this time he was wrong.

"Doesn't that just mean that you failed to investigate?" Martin wanted to beat Carlos into a pulp, as Carlos himself tried to salvage the situation.

"I will make amends boss, just let me handle it, I promise no trouble will come your way."

'No trouble' Martin wondered if Carlos even heard his own words, there was already trouble, and he was fixing it by going out to get revenge..

"I ought to…" Martin raised his hand to slap him across the face but was interrupted.

"Martin?" A woman's voice came from the other side of the house.

"Yes dear!" Martin turned his head towards the voice, clearly showing his ear injury that had yet to heal.

"Could you come here for a second?" Lately he had been caring more for her to mend their relationship, but nothing seemed to be working as of now, but refusing could mean sullying the small bit of progress he had made.

"Coming Dear… I swear if you don't deal with this then it will be off with your head!" Carlos would probably die either way, Martin simply planned on using him to lure that criminal out, allowing him to make him regret ever getting in the way of himself.

-

To Keith's surprise, his new employees planned a small get-together in a local bar for them to complete the first job…

Jack had lured him in by dropping him off at the bar before the others surprised him by being there.

Keith's first instinct was to doubt them and get away, thinking of it as an ambush, but he calmed down as killing him now would just be stupid.

The night was still ripe, so Keith decided to go for it, joining his new employees in the bar, as they hung out Keith thought of maybe purchasing some bars as well, it was not like he didn't have the money for it…

The night continued with them eventually doing shots to end it on a high note, Jack and Lucas seemed to be out of it after the second round, with Max stopping to make sure nothing went wrong with going home, Eddie on the other hand went for another two rounds against Keith before also calling it quits.

He was apparently in such a festive mood that he ordered a free drink for everyone in the bar.

Keith didn't remember much after that.. only short bits of memory that stringed together to form a haphazard series.