Three |Ragonor's Haven|

Wind whipped at my face as drove down the almost empty highway, I couldn't shake the paranoia surrounding the desolate asphalt path. It was too early for all the cars to be off the road, even being that this one leads to Ragonor's Haven. There would have to be at least a few cars, something wrong.

The fact that I'm armed with only two moderate impact pistols, on an open area sure's hell wasn't doing anything to ease my restless mind. My thoughts kept returning to the fact that my father thinks I've been abducted and most-likely plastered my face on every wall in Nosaroc by now, and despite my red hair it's hard to miss my eyes. You see my eyes aren't what you'd call a common color, they're an amber-like firey orange one of the rarest eye colors in Argaled, the rarest being silver. So no one is going to hesitate when they see my eyes, but that's their funeral for trying to bring me in; plus Ragonor's Haven is the perfect place to lie low.

Just then I heard the sounds of engines approaching my flank. Well, this'll be fun, I thought sarcastically as the vehicles swiftly gained. I quickly realized they were probably gonna capture me. I loaded a smoke mag into one of my pistols and fired at the asphalt, before throwing my bike in reverse back through the smokescreen. As the two drove into the smoke, I switched the smoke mag for a ten-round combustion mag in both my pistols and as the name suggests about a minute after the initial impact, well let's just say you run or you die.

With a pistol in each hand, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, Here we go, I thought as I aimed at the back tires of the vehicles and pulled the trigger. I heard the impact which means I had about sixty seconds to get the hell out of dodge.

Throwing my bike in drive I took a sharp turn and quickly switched to an impact mag and as I gained speed I fired at the asphalt again before holstering my pistol to control my descent to the entrance to Ragonor's Haven. Unconventional, yes really damn unconventional but no one in their right mine would plunge themselves of a bridge with a three hundred yard drop.* Thankfully the founders of Ragonor's Haven were properly insane; why else would they make an underground black market when I could cost them an so many others there lives. I landed on the lower freeway towards the entrance.

"Halt," a voice crackles through the speaker at the gate. It's the high-tech security system I designed for Ragonor's Haven to keep the Anopoly out. Although I have to go through the security protocol search like everyone else entering, and because I designed the system's 'neural network' I'll occasionally have to run maintenance and shut down the entire grid. However, the Haven is pretty much defenseless, and suddenly the 'jump off a bridge' entrance makes sense.

Thankfully, the system is due for a check for at least a month, maybe two. "State your name and authorization code," the poor man on duty to watch the mostly inactive entrance said, clearly tired despite the fact that it's maybe 09:00 in the morning. So to let this man go back to the nothing that is his job I complied, "Zemira Arose, Authorization: 6567, RDP*: 117," I heard the man gasp at my response, whether it was because of my identity or the fact he forgot to ask for an RDP, I don't know and couldn't give two shits about.

After what was most likely a heart attack from the exhausted man, an exasperated voice choked through the speaker, "Right, uh...come on in Phoenix." with all the stuttering it almost seems like he was afraid, I couldn't believe it. Even here in the Haven, Derrick Reyes' name still clings to my back like the radiative leaches in the marsh regions of The Outlands.

But here, they only fear Arachnid, and maybe they think I'll cut the power to the system, leaving them defenseless. No, I'm not my father, and I'll never be. The gate slowly rose and the thought occurred to me that I probably will need to come out and lubricate the gears. Once the gate was high enough I drove through, breathing a sigh of relief to be home.

I sat and took in the familiar sight, six-story buildings rose from the more than slightly desolate ground, blocks and blocks of apartments, factories for some not so legal products. There're a few dinners and bars here and there, the farther west you go the more prominent the Black Market gets. People walk around with at least one Magnum P9 pistol on 'em, that's just how you survive here, 'The bigger the gun, The bigger the target payoff.' it's how goes for some people.

That's because on the black markets the bigger the gun the more it cost, same with the material used to make it. So if you're walking around with a heavy auto mini-gun, thugs'll assume you got more money than you paid for it. Chances are you don't, and when that happens you have to choices, use the machine gun or run like hell and hope there not behind you.

I get off lucky with Arachnid because I built it, went out, and got the materials from the Outlands myself. I constructed her piece by piece, and there's so much more I'm gonna add. Hell, when I'm done I'll have to find an adequate place to test her because it's gonna raise some serious hell.

After about a minute of admiring the Haven, I decided to go find Iain and get Arachnid back. I've always thought it was apocalyptic how even at nine in the morning the sky is still dark with smog and pollution, yet another problem that was being fixed by the Archali but cut short by the blade of death that is the Anopoly. However, it's strangely fitting of the war breaking out around Argaled.

I make it about three-fourths of the way to the rendezvous point with Iain when I hear a scream. Normally I'd ignore something like that but the sound was so blood curtailing that I force me to a halt. Soon my mind was spinning with questions, What the hell could have induced such a scream?, Why does it sound so familiar?. My thoughts rage like a violent storm, it almost seemed like a young girl was the source of the screaming.

The sound of my commlink pulled me out of my thoughts, "Hey Iain, what do you want?", I said slightly irritated, as the wailing was giving me a headache. "Are you coming to get Arachnid or what?", Iain asked sarcastically, he honestly sounds a bit exhausted, which I understand completely.

"Yeah, I'll be right there.", I said before hanging up and leaving the scream behind and going farther into the heart of the Haven.

Closer to the Resistance.