XX9: Shuttle-Ride

The plasma slug slid into its chamber, its burgundy casing disappeared as the slide slid shut. The constant drumming of the shuttle's engine gave Kazuki an uneasy sense of clarity. He watched Claire slide the pepper-shot into her backup holster as the two other operatives in the hover-shuttle prepared for the mission. A datapad was on Claire's leg, showing a dozen medical injectors and information for med-school.

Amyé and Quinn sat opposite of each other in the shuttle, wearing the blood-red armoured trim of Kazuki's personal unit: Heimfall. They weren't as large as units like Deltastring, with only a hundred and twenty seven operatives in total, but they were Kazuki's fist. They were his personal executioners. The shuttle brimmed with weapons strong enough to take down a whole platoon. To the average civvy, this was overkill. But to those in the business: it was light.

White hues broke the monotony of the Sub Levels' darkness outside; a sea of mechanised, industrial slums underneath the mirage of the surface. As he turned his head back to the van, Archius started his briefing on the uplink.

'Night everyone, now that things are back on schedule, let's get back to work.' Archius said, in a serious tone.

'Sure, Archi, can we do this quickly? I still gotta show Quinn that he ain't a tougher drinker than me." interjected Amyé, placing her helm-mask over her short, unkempt ginger hair and freckles. Despite her nature of loving alcohol and being drunk, she was probably the cleanest shot he's seen. Outside of the seven, at least.

'Bet!' shouted Quinn, pointing his finger at Amyé.

'Wait... now that I think about it, why the fuck are you here?' asked Claire. Quinn's armour had distinctive white trims, contrasted to Claire and Amyé's red.

'Lilly's unit is in reserve,' said Kazuki. 'But Quinn's been begging for some action. I want to ensure he doesn't get rusty on me. Surprised you didn't bring along Riharia.'

'Hey! Hey! I can hear you guys!' interjected Riharia, also connected to the uplink. 'And I'm here, alright! Just... in the reserve.'

"Eh, it just slipped my mind, I guess?" Quinn shrugged. But Kazuki could tell that it most definitely was not a mere slip-up. 

Archius cleared his throat, 'Our mission is to retrieve information from a Loyalist-held safehouse within the Deadzone. A captured Loyalist gave us some information.'

Kazuki remembers that one Loyalist. Apparently Eliza saved Archius from her. That probably explained why he was so rough in the interrogation. However, Kazuki did wish that Archius limits it sometimes, he'd prefer not putting the drones to cleaning his mess up.

"Ugh… Deadzones…" Claire muttered to herself.

'We captured one of them?' asked Amyé, surprised, 'I thought we killed them all! Claire?'

'We did… just stay focused dammit.' Claire muttered to Amyé, nudging her with her leg. By far, Claire was the most 'normal' of operatives under him, Kazuki thought, bit nerdy though. Get rid of all that red-trimmed armour and weaponry and she remains the same, just a medical nerd that wants to go to med-school, though she was very much an elder sister to them all, overprotective and fighting for his favour with Symuel… Ironic, considering how he's younger than her.

Archius, annoyed, stayed silent for a second before continuing, 'The infiltration will be quiet, breach in and take over the safehouse. Chain-Keys were in the old Clandestine building, so we'll have easy access.'

'Remember,' Kazuki interjected. 'If you have the chance to capture one, do it. But I won't object if you mag-dump them.'

The four nodded as Quinn strapped his modified helm-mask on. It had holocard iconography painted over it in holo-paint, along with a turquoise stripe down the side. Looking towards the pilot compartment, Kazuki saw Karl, wearing aviators and armour, pressing numerous control buttons - he didn't understand what he was doing, nor did he care, if he has to learn something he'll learn it at that very moment.

'That's all the information we have. We have drones in the air, but strikes will be limited to emergencies only. Amyé will stay on the shuttle to provide supporting fire.'

Sato said, 'I mean, we only have a couple dozen strikes worth of ammo left for the drones, we shouldn't have wasted that much taking down the Directorate Fleet.' Archius was uncharacteristically quiet.

Her objection was somewhat sound, Kazuki thought. 'Between the men and the ammo, I choose the men. Men win wars.'

'Not without ammo they don't,' Sato shot back. 'My drones are surveying the AO. I'll update you if anything changes.'

As the briefing finished, the shuttle slowed to a complete halt. Karl turned back towards Kazuki's selected team, and slammed on the interior of the shuttle. He was chewing on tobacco. Kazuki nodded and sealed his own helm-mask on before he opened the shuttle door.

"My exospine will kill me for this…" said Claire.