X31: Skyliner Op

Whatever storm of emotions raged within him mattered not. The gale continued to pour down rain as Kazuki walked alongside the top-deck of the skyliner, a behemoth vessel flying high above Anagora's surface. His raincoat and hood swayed. He looked out towards the thousands of floating islands and bastions that encompassed the surface

'Arbiter, police assets are on the ground through levels five and six.' reported Captain Paulus, commander of the 31st 'Sparkless' SPTU Unit, the best Police Unit on Anagora. 'Commissioner's not happy, but it's greenlit.'

'He can be happy?' snapped Kazuki.

'Touché.'

'Keep your Unicorns on red-alert,' Kazuki ordered.

'And your Freemuzzles at the ready,' Paulus replied.

Kazuki nodded to thin air.

As he approached the door to the pilothouse, he stood outside for a moment. 

'Arbiter to Overwatch. The moment I open the door, there'll be no backtracking. Last chance, are you sure Svenn will be here?' asked Kazuki, standing still as the bleeding red sunset of the never-sleeping metropolis peering at him from behind. His brain was still aching from the analyspec leakage before… He hopes its simulatory powers do not affect this mission.

'I wouldn't have told you about it if I wasn't! This location had the highest densities of pings from the master computer.' rebuked Archius, 'Now get on with the mission before they smell that something's up.'

'Just get on with the mission.' fussed Sato, annoyed, 'A skyliner safehouse isn't something that I would expect, but it works I guess.'

'Of course. All forces, gear up in your rooms. Mark yourselves with helmets and insignias.' ordered Kazuki, to the units already infiltrated.

'We're ready… what about the civvies?' Claire asked, a tint of nervousness in her voice.

Kazuki gave her a level of reprise. 'Do your job. And try not to take another grenade to the chest protecting kids.'

Swallowing a Halolazil pill, Kazuki tapped the touchscreen panel along the wall, opening the pilothouse door. It slid open as he stepped in, being met with the warmth of the control room. The crew were manning their stations whilst the captain looked towards Kazuki, waving at him.

He had a grizzly white beard, a man easily above his hundreds. His face had wrinkles. What he could see of his stature was that of strength. "Ah, you must be the mysterious inspector my superiors' superiors talked of, I guess you are this affiliate?"

"Yeah. Something like that. Kazuki," said Kazuki, highlighting his ICAPAD's badge projector, showing the seal of the Anagoran Metro Judiciary, with it flashing between police and AGENCY seals, "Let's get to business. We have evidence linking your vessel to be harbouring criminals. Are you aware of this?"

"By Iris' name, if I knew I'd kick them out myself!" said the old captain, enthusiastically. "If my back allows it…"

"Judicial forces will be boarding. You will alert your men and all personnel within the skyliner, passenger or not, that they are to remain where they are. Your cooperation is non-negotiable." stated Kazuki.

The old man nodded. "Well, nothing we can do to change that, then. Oh, and care to look through our security cameras, my old age has hampered my vision."

"Sure." 

The captain looked towards a crewmate sitting down at a series of monitors and interlinked consoles and modules, security cameras. "Cameron, our guest wishes to see the cameras." 

"Ah—" Cameron twisted his head at the two of them as his hands immediately grabbed onto the control module, "Go ahead, sir."

The old captain led Kazuki towards the module as Cameron shot up. He shimmied backwards to allow Kazuki space. The captain gestured to the computer, "Be my guest. You know, I served with your grandfather, saved me so many times. I guess this is me paying back the favour!."

Kazuki nodded, taking a single glance towards Cameron. He avoided Kazuki's glare. He didn't blame him. Being in the presence of a member of the seven must be quite uncanny. He took out his cracking-stick, injecting it into the machine. 'Overwatch, process and harvest information. Alert me to any abnormalities.'

'Got it, Arbiter…' said Eliza. Seems like she finally got the memo, this was an improvement, Kazuki thought. 

'Alright… let's see what we have here.' said Sato, enthusiastically digging into the data as she started to mine it, though she still wore the voice of exhaustion.

The monitor blinked as the analyspec started to process. Thousands of minutes of footage were compressed down through sheer quantum magic. Kazuki stood up, awaiting a reply from either Sato or Eliza. If they can get the drop on the Loyalists, they'll have a decisive advantage.

Archius playfully commented on the slower than average progress, 'Come on! We'll die of boredom.'

'These things take time… Aha!" Sato said, uploading a specific time frame onto the monitor for Kazuki to see.

Cargo bay. Lowest deck of the vessel. Security passed by one intersection as Sato zoomed into one anomaly. A shadow moved. Enhancing the footage and zooming in even further, one detail was clear: Clandestine patent armour.

'Jackpot!' said Eliza, enthusiastically.

'I see.' said Kazuki, his eyes thinning at their details. But as he placed his hand up to his uplink to start the operation, he felt a jab of pain to his mind.

Stress stabbed. His head twisted on a swivel to meet the source of the chaos. His mind fastened. His exospine blitzed into action. Filtering systems gave way to send drugs into his bloodstream as his head twisted towards Cameron. P4-50 Pistol. Kazuki drew. Triggers flinched as bolts were sent point blank across the room. Kazuki's bolt hit first, smacking into Cameron's head. 

Cameron missed.

Cameron's body slammed into the steel floor below as his mind calmed. He twisted to look at the captain. The captain was dead… And Cameron.

"Put the vessel on lockdown. Remain here. Do not let anyone into the bridge." Kazuki ordered them, his voice both bare and fear-inducing.

As expected, they all nodded in fear as his eyes glowed a hue of gold to them. Kazuki contacted all the teams. 'All forces deploy. Happy hunting.'

Gunfire had already started to erupt across the vessel. Kazuki looked towards Cameron's dead body, his head was splattered. It was clear, he was the messenger. 

Claire shouted across the uplink as gunfire continued, 'They're here! Watch out, civvies are among them.'

'Understood.' stated Kazuki, 'Reinforce our teams on the vessel. Keep your armour light and your heads on a swivel. Loyalists are hiding amongst the civilians.'

He walked out of the pilothouse, cold rain smashing into the upper void-deck, getting a clear view of the Anagoran skyline. Shuttles shone their searchlights. They started to land as troops of both police and mercs poured out. He looked towards one of the shuttles, harbouring Lilly's unit. She got out, followed by Quinn and Riharia as they sealed their nanobot-reinforced helm-masks on.

Kazuki pulled his hood up with both his hands, placing his leviathan-marked helm-mask on. "Vallé, Epsilon, Gambit, your team's on me. We're heading straight to the cargo bay."

"Understood, Arbiter." said Lilly, "Come on boys! Let's go shoot some loyies."

Kazuki led them towards the auxiliary staircase near the front of the vessel, passing by dozens of teams storming onto the vessel. Pushing the doors open, he threw his raincoat aside. Descending downwards, the red alarm lights of the vessel engulfed their Night Vision NODs as the cold metal hull of the skyliner did nothing to hide the sound of gunfire. 

Kazuki took out an extendable Powered-Carbine. He took point as he pulled its pieces from his left leg, nanobots and parts assembling to full length.

And as he passed by one of the many doors, bullets smacked through it, narrowly avoiding Kazuki as he pushed himself forward, crossing the firing zone. One AGENT was hit in the neck by the spray of bullets as they were caught in the crossfire, bolts denting the 'drone-eye' paint job, scraping fragments off. They dropped against the railing, dragged to the side by another operative.

"Shit! Onita's hit!" they shouted, quickly sealing up the wounds. "Fuck… this is what happens when you overstep it."

"Stack up…" Kazuki trailed off, stacking up on one side of the door as Lilly and her team piled up on the other side. He ignored the medic to work his magic.

He clenched his fist as both him and Lilly pressed against the door, swerving it open. A flurry of bolts and plasma flung straight first into the stairwell. The sound of plasma and explosions rattled in the air. Peeking out, Kazuki saw a group of Loyalists, on the far side, engaging a squad of AGENTs down a long hallway. 

'Arbiter! Vallé!' Claire shouted, tugging a child into cover along the hall. 'We're pinned here, multiple civvies are trapped in the rooms!'

'On it!' shouted Lilly.

A bullet smacked into Kazuki's mask, deflecting off it as Lilly pushed forward, gunning down the lightly armoured Loyalists - her team stormed in after. Kazuki stayed back, preserving his limited energy. A dozen more Loyalists poured into view as Lilly's squad took cover behind their shields, Claire's team using their shield-line as a fallback line for assaults.

Claire, as always, was on civilian duty, dragging any stragglers in the hall into cover or chucking them into the side-rooms… Kazuki hopes she never changes.

'Arbiter, we'll hold them back; take a few if you need.' shouted Lilly.

'Copy that. Epsilon, Gambit on me. We'll take the stairs down." Kazuki ordered. Both Quinn and Riharia broke off from the team as Kazuki covered their retreat, killing two Loyalists. The two quickly entered into the stairways as he closed the door behind them.

"Heads or tails?" Quinn asked, slinging his shotgun over his shoulder as he braced it between his arm and torso, reloading it.

"Oh, really? Are we actually gonna do this?" asked Riharia, unloading an empty cartridge as she searched for another one.

Her mask phased in and out the holographic-paint on her mask. It depicted anything from a row of flowers to red holo-card iconography. Whilst Quinn's had something similar as well, though with a blue colour scheme.

"Fuck yeah? Or are you too much of a wuss to play in a game of coin?" Quinn lightly jabbed Riharia with the butt of his shotgun, placing his finger outside the trigger as he did. Riharia chuckled it off, probably the most experienced at dealing with Quinn's assholery. She took a moment as she searched through the compartments of her vest-plate, modified with flak-plating. Then, she looked at Quinn, who snickered under his breath, waving a cartridge, filled with liquid. 

"Hey!" Riharia shouted, snatching it from him as she slammed it into her rifle, grumbling. "Why do I even put up with you?!"

Quinn shrugged, placing his shotgun over his shoulder. "Awh, it's not the only one I stole off you." He waved a few more as she continued to snatch them, slapping him across the face as she finished.

"Arbiter, can you order Epsilon to stop stealing?" Riharia asked. "If it isn't Vallé's stylus, then it's always my mag-cartridges!"

"Enough, you two. I'll take point." Kazuki stated for the record, he started down the stairs as the two followed. He never bothered to stop Quinn's annoying bouts of kleptomania; it'd be rude to force his men into a pre-existing 'contractor mould'.

Eventually, they arrived at a set of double doors at the bottom. The team stacked up against the doors as Kazuki took out a probe. Activating it, he lifted it into the air. Connecting to the uplink, it started to hover.

'Eliza, take command of the probe. Provide us with recon whilst we're in the cargo bay.' ordered Kazuki, he wants to keep Eliza close, so that she won't bother the others.

'Uh, hold up!' Eliza said, taking her a few seconds to connect to the probe. She wasn't as proficient as he'd prefer, but nothing he could do now. Eventually, its eye lit up with a pink hue. 'Am I connected? Wait, yeah, I am.'

'Good. Check beyond the door for us.' ordered Kazuki, pressing the muzzle against the door and slowly pushing it open. It hovered straight through it, only colliding once as it clanked against the steel door.

A few seconds passed as Kazuki saw the feed from his glasses. Eliza gave her report. 'No activity, it seems.'

The drone slowly hovered upwards until it had a large view of the whole cargo compartment. It was massive, like a whole warehouse of lined-up cargo containers stacked on top of each other. The lights were dim, only illuminating the areas between the sections of cargo. Meanwhile, heavy machinery protruded from the ceiling.

'Alright. Team, on me. Eliza, scan for anomalies and heat-signals. Our goal is simple: search and destroy. We're looking to cut the head of the snake. Anyone down here is to be considered hostile.' Kazuki relayed information, setting up the relevant groundworks.

"Haha… let's do this," said Quinn, fired up as he pumped the rack on his shotgun.

'Come on, Lizzie, we'll be relying on ya.' said Riharia, encouraging her friend. Kazuki pushed the door further with his muzzle. As he did, he rolled a smoke bomb into the room, flicking the pin off.