Everyday Stresses of Kazuki - Sci-Fi Action/Intrigue Webserial

Looking back out at the control room, the whole place was now coming in on itself. Kazuki took a deep breath, but they had to move.

The longer they linger idly by, the more time the Blood Contractors have to tighten the noose. The three kept running, ducking into one of the factories attached by the walkways. Behind them, the walkway itself caved in, eventually leaving nothing but dust and rubble in its wake.

Karl and Quinn were heaving for air from the sprint. Kaz, however, merely looked back. He scoffed. Too close, he thought. His hand was starting to shake once again…

"Sloppy aim," Kazuki muttered. Grabbing the shaking hand with his other, Kazuki forced his body to unfreeze itself. It was not in a tundra… it was on Anagora.

When his body finally followed through, Kazuki placed a hand to the burns and fragmentation scars across his face.

'Kazu, remind me not to fly you places the next time you ask me?' Karl was slowly getting up, using one of the heavy machines. No light poured in from outside; the only illumination in the room came from the low, red neon lights attached to the walls.

The smell of dust and sweat clung to Kazuki's nose.

'What the fuck did you shoot?!' Quinn shouted.

Kazuki turned to Quinn. 'Explosive slug. Nothing special.'

'Tell us next time when you're going to force us into a damn suicide pact with you!'

Grabbing onto Quinn, Kazuki helped him up, ignoring his complaints. 'Let's keep going. We'll rendezvous at the exfiltration point. Martinez, Paul, good luck.'

'And you three, too,' Martinez replied, before cutting the uplink offline. The air was thick with dust and a rancid steel smell… It was probably not safe to breathe in the air.

Kazuki tapped the side of his belt, finding his Helm-Mask. Clipping it off, he placed it on his face. Quinn did the same. Karl scrambled a hand across his belt before finding and placing his emergency respirator on. With oxygen flow back, the three kept walking.

Death and silence now hung in the corners of the room. Kazuki's team flicked their flashlights on, aiming them through the red light smog.

From room to room, the trio slowly cleared their way to the rendezvous point. Each room only clung closer to the deafening silence. Lights poured out across dust-filled rooms.

Search teams of Blood Contractors… Still, they had a job to do and crashed forth into the patrols. The search teams were being pushed back at every opportunity, retreating from room to room.

Kazuki barged through a wall, crashing onto an ambushing Blood Contract Cultist. Just when the muzzles turned in confusion, the doors flung off their hinges with a bang.

Karl and Quinn rushed in, gunning down the rest who dared to gaze at Kazuki.

'Tch! Damn Bloodies!' Quinn shrieked, activating his Exoskeleton's war-gear. A shotgun burst out from his back, blanketing the room with buckshot.

Under Quinn's suppressive fire, Kazuki ducked forward, rolling around machines and assembly lines. Those hiding from Quinn's barrage didn't even get a chance to react. Kazuki shot his hand out before dumping his magazine into his foes' heads.

As they cleared the last team, the fire team kicked a final door down, leading upwards to an emergency exit by the ceiling.

Kazuki's aug-glasses told him this was the right way. Stopping at the door, Kazuki held his fist up, signalling for the two behind him.

'Stack up,' Kazuki ordered.

Karl stacked up on the left. Quinn was on the right.

'Probe it.'

Karl nodded, taking out a small probe disc from his tools and sliding it beneath the door. His uplink came on, and he went silent. His eyes darted left and right.

The low-hanging whirr of mechanical noises clung from behind the door.

'Emergency staircase to a shuttle-park. Dead lights, easy to hide in,' Karl commented.

It was good enough for Kazuki. 'That's our exfiltration point.'

Karl disconnected from the probe. Kazuki took a suppressor out and screwed it to his pistol. Shooting out the alarm sensors, Kazuki unlocked the door. Then he swung it outwards, gently and silently. Stepping out, a cool intake of air rushed through the trio.

The cold air and heated industrial wastes clashed for control of all senses in the air.

The shuttle-park was right below them, occupied by a dozen or so Blood Contractors. So this was where they infiltrated from? Ironic… The AGENCY's LZ is right on top of them.

Steam seeped out from grates and sewage pipes beneath the shuttle parking lot. Pipes and large cables hung high and low from the walls.

In the shuttle lot were a few shuttles. Who would have guessed? They were unmarked Blood Contractor ones, converted civilian grades. However, there was also another shuttle, some random maintenance company.

Poor fools. It must have been sent here when some silent alarms were triggered. Of course, the Blood Contractors lived up to their names. Kazuki, Quinn and Karl started to descend the stars, hidden within the shadows.

Karl looked down at the parking lot. He noted the dead bodies by the ransacked shuttle. 'By the Eclipse...' he murmured.

By the Eclipse indeed.

Kazuki gave it another look. The maintenance crew consists of a female and a male... At least Kazuki thinks. It was hard to tell, though. Their heads were caved in by blunt objects, though it probably didn't matter if they were still alive from that or not.

Their heads were on bayonet spikes.

Thoroughly disgusting, but a common, gruesome sight in the Sub-Levels. Nonetheless, they continued. 'Martinez, Archius, watch out. Rendezvous position is occupied by Blood Contractors and enemy shuttles.'

'Shit... We can try to draw them away,' Martinez suggested. 'We see you. I'm lasering my position.'

Kazuki looked out across the large parking space. His augmented glasses highlighted a laser from one of the buildings across from him. Paulus and Martinez were across from them, in the perfect position to pincer them.

Firepower, Kazuki thought, was the one thing they lacked. If they don't secure this LZ, casualties from the reinforcements may be high.

It was not a chance or possibility Kazuki could allow, he thought. So many had already died in his name… Doubt and guilt began to creep in. Kazuki silenced his memories with a pump of adrenaline from his Exospine.

'Karl, can you hotwire shuttles?' he asked.

Karl laughed. 'Of course I can!' he boasted. 'I've hotwired vehicles and bombers a thousand times more complex than that.'

'Half a minute, if you don't do it by then we're dead,' Kazuki replied. 'Paulus. Martinez. You two will draw their fire. Buy us time and distract them. We'll hijack one of their shuttles. Reinforcements will land right on top of the chaos.'

Sato chimed in, 'They're getting closer, alright?'

Getting into position, Kazuki's team stacked up against a half wall beside the parking space.

It was cramped. Tight. Dead fauna adapted to the heat and stuck out from cracks within the concrete. However, it was close to the nearest shuttle. Two machine guns hung from its two doors.

'We're in position.'

Paulus replied, 'We've spread along the second and third floor, we'll throw everything we have left. Maybe they'll think all of us are here.'

Smart.

'On my mark,' Kazuki said. Kazuki held his hand out, counting and watching the Contractors. They looked grizzled but bored, apathetic to the tormented corpses lying close by. So even zealots have limits to how long they can stay on guard duty…

Silence clung to the permeating heated atmosphere.

Kazuki then clenched his fist. 'Phalanx Team, Open fire.'

Bolts and lasers came tumbling down from the windows across the shuttle lot. The first contractors were taken out cleanly. The rest took cover, but half a dozen were cut down in the first few seconds.

After the shock of the initial assault, the Blood Contractors ignited their shields, charging forward across the parking lot.

'Come on... What are we waiting for?' Quinn asked, and he loaded a new round into his shot-axe.

Kazuki press checked his pistol before reloading his railgun. Contractors from the shuttles rushed forward, distracted by the gunfire.

'You better not collapse the whole damn thing on top of us,' Karl remarked.

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Kazuki shook his head. Such a situation would be mightily inconvenient.

'Now.' Rushing out of cover, the trio ran across the parking lot towards the closest shuttle. Crouching behind parapet walls and broken shuttles, they hid from streams of Blood Contractors, moving to suppress Martinez's position.

Paulus and Martinez were holding their attention well. Under a hail of bolts and explosions, Martinez leapt down from the window. Crushing a Blood Contractor beneath him, Kazuki could see Martinez draw their fire more ferociously than before.

Under a hail of gunfire, he kicked a shuttle forward, using it as mobile cover. It was flamboyant. But it helped distract their attention. Such boldness and arrogance ensured the ire of the enemy was on them alone.

Reaching the shuttle, Quinn was the first to board. A Blood Contractor turned to face them, in the pilot's seat. He scrunched his face up in confusion before lunging for his pistol.

Quinn sent a slash of buckshot straight into their skull.

Karl walked past, kicking the body off the seat. 'Ugh... Sticky...' He wiped some of the blood off the seat and controls before getting to work.

Quinn's quick execution, however, alerted the Contractors to their presence. Gunfire whizzed their way as Quinn latched onto one of the machine guns. He unleashed a torrent of bolts, covering Karl's hot-wiring.

Kazuki looked at the remaining machine gun.

A Tritech-99a. Kazuki… was disappointed in their choice of weaponry.

Not exactly his first choice of weapon. Still, it kills all the same.

Ripping the machine gun off its gun pod, Kazuki exited the shuttle. Pulling down the trigger, Kazuki joined in, suppressing the Blood Contractors from two sides whilst walking forward.

A dozen plasma bolts pinged off his armour, whilst a few bolts whizzed between his armour plates. Blood gushed onto the shuttle behind him, but Kazuki kept firing. Painkillers stymied the flow of agony, allowing Kazuki to continue the bombardment.

Paulus and Martinez used this opportunity wisely. Those suppressed or flushed out into the open were picked off. Hide from one side, flushed against the other.

The doors leading into the factory complex burst open. More Blood Contractors! Kazuki grunted. Kazuki dragged his machine gun fire towards them, feeling a bolt graze his neck. Kazuki grunted through the pain.

A singular auto-injector flooded his system with regenerative fluid, clotting the wound. Still, blood dripped down beneath and onto Kazuki's armour.

This was not sustainable… Where the hell are their reinforcements?

Quinn kept up the fire against the pinned company between them and the others.

Bolts pinged off Kazuki. Grenades rolled forward. Kazuki is to kick his machine gun forward. Jumping back into the shuttle, Kazuki narrowly avoided a splutter of steel splinters and supercharged heat.

'KARL!'

'I'M TRYING!' Karl shouted. 'THIS SYSTEM'S ALL FUCKED! WHOEVER JERRY-RIGGED THIS IS A FUCKING IDIOT.'

A splutter of energy ignited the shuttle to life. 'GOT IT!'

Twisting around, the shuttle opened fire, sending shockwaves of bolts and plasma forward. Within mere moments, tens of body parts littered the parking lot.

Then, grenades and rockets slammed into the shuttle.

'Taqping…' Kazuki swore under his breath. He grabbed his rifle and laid down precision fire, gunning down the rocketeers. 'The rockets, take them out.'

'We're on it!' Martinez replied, taking shots at the rocketeers, hiding along the factory windows. With the shuttle nearly out of control, it started to spin.

Amidst the chaos, Quinn's stream of fire was ended when a stray bolt slashed through its neck. Kazuki dragged him back, instantly injecting him near the wound. "Don't you dare die on me, Epsilon," Kazuki snarled, keeping Quinn in the fight.

"Fuck…" Quinn coughed up some blood from the wound. Injecting himself with more stimulants, Quinn ensured that damned wound sealed up. "I wish I had that gift of healing you have, Arbiter!"

Quinn took a moment to cough out the rest of the blood before taking in a deep breath.

A curse, Kazuki thought, not a gift. Where Quinn took a few stimulants and auto-injectors to heal from that wound, Kazuki could recover without a singular stimulant.

The shuttle was starting into a death spiral. Karl couldn't get it under control. Death, the idea lingered in Kazuki's mind.

However, that was not today.

Chaff immediately redirected the rocket. Mechanical whirrs came in from above. The clambering of steel slammed into the surface below. Shuttles and mech guns dropped into position, blasting away all along the factory walls...

Karl landed the shuttle. The pilot unleashed the Eclipse on whichever Contractors lay in his gun's field of fire,

Drop teams of red and white trimmed armour crashed down with Jump-packs. The assault was turned back the other way. The reinforcements cleaved through the remaining resistance.

'We're here!' Lilly shouted. 'You fuckers better not have bled out! Especially you, Arbiter... We have Lazarus if you're wounded.'

'Took a bullet to the neck,' Kazuki reported. 'A few to my shoulders and legs. Negligible damage.'

Agents flooded out of the shuttles. Karl helped Kazuki and Quinn out of the shuttle. They were lucky no one took any critical injuries. Looking up, Kaz could see an entire arsenal of vehicles and manpower.

Lilly's team crashed down onto the asphalt floor, cracking their Exoskeletons alive. She looked up at Kazuki. "Arbiter, we'll secure the facility... Epsilon, you better explain what the fuck you are doing here."

"He's with me," Kazuki said. "I wanted him as my lancer, but he had to be recalled."

Lilly turned to Claire, who jumped down behind her.

'The hell were you guys doing? Behind my back, Lazarus?'

"Well... It's..." Claire chuckled, scratching the back of her head. "It wasn't out of malice, Lil."

Paulus and Martinez clambered over the dead to reach them. Martinez explained, "Heptagia Meeting, didn't want to alert people about it," Martinez said.

To that, Lilly merely grumbled. "Well, this is a total fuck-up... We even brought in the light guns."

Kazuki turned towards the large mech pieces that were hauled on, six or four-legged machines made to provide close-range support. He felt knives stab at his exospine and mind. It's time, Kazuki thought. Waiting for when Claire looked away, he pulled out a jar of Halolazil and chugged half its contents.

Immediately, a wave of calmness slammed into him. The knives disappeared... For now. Kazuki held tightly to the empty bottle of Halolazil. His hand shook, then calmed itself.

'Light guns?!' A lighter voice came through.

It was one that Kazuki did not expect. A shuttle dropped down behind Claire.

Exiting first and foremost was Eliza, wrapped in a winter coat, a thick wrap-cloak and mercenary boots. It was a patchwork of different clothing, but Kazuki thought it worked.

Zymuel, Nihara and Václavos dropped down behind her, along with additional AGENTs.

Then, Kazuki began to wonder… Why the hell was he thinking about Eliza so much now?

A stream of red and white painted AGENTs continued to breach through the facility. Shuttles and cannons landed on the roofs, setting up a temporary perimeter. Kazuki turned his mind towards the real, not perceived.

Kazuki thought this response was heavy-handed, but necessary, given the package right in front of him… Eliza.

"Yeah..." Lilly turned to Liz. "Come on, did you really think we'd bring in the heavy siege weapons for this?" She turned to one of the fire teams that were patrolling the area. "Oi! You guys, after you secure the perimeter, assist the other teams in searching the facility."

Even when speaking in a lighter-hearted tone, Lilly still barked orders. Her men nodded and ran off. They probably just wanted to slack off. After all, they're not here officially, the pay will be… overtime, for now.

Eliza rushed forward. "What's the difference?" she asked.

"We used Siege guns when we assaulted the High Director's fortress," Claire elaborated. "Trust me, Lizzie, they're way larger than what the holograms show you."

Claire walked over to Quinn, helping treat his wounds.

Karl sighed, walking off and sitting down, stretching and groaning loudly.

Zymuel followed up after Lilly, "These are light guns." He gestured to the mechs and vehicles that were almost a story tall, with large bore cannons attached to them.

Eliza stopped just a few steps away from Kazuki. She didn't respond to Zymuel. Nor did she respond to Lilly. She clenched the warm clothes attached to her, staring at Kazuki's wounds.

"Categorical," Kazuki commented, easing her mind.

"Yeah... We used siege guns three times larger during the rebellion," Quinn said, giving a thumbs up to Claire, who still treated him anyway. "Hey..."

"Do you want to risk infection or not?!" Claire retorted, fixing up and jabbing disinfectant across Quinn's closed and open wounds.

That silenced Quinn. After all, no one wants to know or experience whatever fucked up pathogens might be down here.

Taking a step forward, Eliza took in a deep breath. Steam vapours left her mouth, as did Kazuki's. "You're safe..." Eliza murmured to herself. Kazuki nodded. "I... I heard they're Blood Contractors, so I thought they'd be a bit of a trouble for you..."

Synthia sighed. 'I don't want to rub it in but… I told you so.'

She crossed her arms before looking up and around on Eliza's shoulder. Synthia's holographic projection was wearing similar winter clothes to Eliza, namely a coat with a warm fabric cloak.

'Run down… I'm surprised this pre-war relic hasn't collapsed yet!'

Eliza still looked worried.

Kazuki did his best to smile, placing two fingers to the edges of his lips and dragging them upwards. That only got a few chuckles from his inner core around him.

"I'm fine. We're fine."

Freyja will not strike. Kazuki had to justify it to himself. Not here. Too many guns and muzzles await her. Kazuki looked around, seeing the full strength of the AGENCY's Judicial forces solidified in this singular location.

Anything existing that is hostile will cease to exist. This wasn't the silver screen... One does not just fight an army. Except for Hartius. He's the exception.

At the calmness, Kazuki's mind released a bout of stress and steam.

Kazuki had to speak to Martinez.

This was a troubling development, even if it didn't cause any real harm.

Before that could happen, however, Eliza grabbed Kazuki's forearm, wrapping her hand around his vambrace.

Then, she slapped him across the face. Kaz knew he'll get an earful for this…

"WOAH?!" Quinn chuckled at the sight, the first one to react.

Eliza stepped back, placing her hands on her hips and angrily glaring at Kazuki. "I was gone for… ten, twenty minutes?"

"Eliza..." Kazuki murmured. A couple of drones whizzed by around her as her uplink blinked on. "Twelve minutes."

"Hey!" Eliza grumbled.

"Getting good?"

Kiri dropped out of one of the shuttles, chuckling with a thumbs up. "You want to keep them above or below the neckline, trust me on that!" Eliza's training was… going well, it seemed. The drones were moving much better than Kazuki could have anticipated.

Kazuki didn't like controlling drones. People forget the phantom pain of a drone's death quickly. Kazuki… the idea was impossible.

"At least I'm improving," Eliza said before chuckling slightly. "Still can't stand the sound of gunfire, so I'm still on training silencers."

Kazuki cut in, "Suppressors. They… suppress sound. They don't silence it."

Eliza shrugged. "It's what their creator named them, mind you."

"Marketing… Tch."

Sneezing, Eliza covered her mouth, groaning and grunting in annoyance. "How come you're not sneezing…" Eliza looked Kazuki up and down, who had his coat wrapped around his waist.

Kazuki replied, "I don't get sick…" It was true, even on that frozen waste of Narisa, he didn't catch a cold. But a cold was preferable to what awaited him.

The thought of the She-Wolf reared itself again… Freyja Beamont, the third finger of the seven.

Unlike Svenn and Antiar, Kazuki can NOT beat her. It was, by all calculations, impossible.

Pushing his mind forward, Kazuki dared not fathom. No plan would work, Kazuki thought – not against her… Just what does he do now?