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Dinosaurs, due to their size, are unable to ride on most vehicles. Therefore, special trailers with strong springs, shocks, and paired with special axles, tires and wheels are often towed behind the vehicles of parties with a Dinosaur member all over Occupied Space. They range in trim level and price, from simple open trailers with modified suspension all the way to enclosed, climate controlled box trailers similar to passenger cars.

Holley was shaping up to be quite the interesting town. As Eos and I headed out with our new allies, we were making notes of several buildings that looked like they had been occupied until just very recently. Two of them specifically had makeshift wind and solar set up, as well as fence made of well dressed up cinder blocks and wrought iron, with UV lights encircling the perimeter that went almost all the way around an entire acre of land that the houses sat on. Upon taking a peak over, the fenced in area contained a few different facilities, a large garden, a hog pen, deep pool which looked to be modified to supply drinking water, rather than recreational use. There was what looked like a blacksmithing set up, and a concrete pad out front that we could easily park two trucks and a small car in. The buildings themselves seemed well maintained, though there was evidence of a prolonged gunfight, given all of the dark stains in the road. Someone had killed quite a few of the blacksuits before they decided to bug off.

"This is quite the place here", Vivian noted, her size allowing her to peer over the walls quite easily, " Y'all see these boot prints in the mud? Someone heavy fucked off quick, tracks on the boots look like an Entombed."

"Smaller boot prints following", Tessa noted, "looks like an Insurrectionist, or someone wearing their boots at least."

"Trails run off this way", Charlie noted, "somebody cut the blacksuits down here like they meant it."

"Yeah, hard to miss. Lots of spent .30-06 and six five Mauser around", Vivian noted, "there's plenty of space here for all of us. Could be a good place to hide out for the time being."

"Yeah, we'll have to come back here once we get done at the superstore", I agreed, "Eos, this might be our way out from under the asshole's thumb."

"Yeah man, I wouldn't mind living here, that's for sure. Nice place to live until we can work up the courage to cross that damn bridge. Wonder if there's a Cordyceps Colony around here any where?"

"If there is it would almost have to be a surface colony", Charlie commented, "this doesn't strike me as the type of area to have many caves around. If it has any at all."

"Yeah", Eos agreed, "the thing about those surface Colonies is that they tend to not cover up the places where light can seep in. Why would they? Those purple freaks are immune to it, I am not."

"I saw a Carrier executed by his hive like that once", Tessa piped up, "melted him in the sunlight, didn't seem like a pleasant way to go."

Eos began, "Yeah, it's called Sun Death, and it's typically only reserved for the worst of the worst criminals. If they gave him Sun Death, it's because he did something that only the Great Star could properly punish him for. I've never been one to question the judgment of God or the Great Star, but there's not much in my mind that really warrant's Sun Death. I mean, I don't even really consider murder to really deserve it, but the Bishops disagree."

"Seems like this is a point of contention for you", Charlie said.

"Well", Eos sighed, "It's like this, I've been as far as Stage Four of five of Sun Sickness. Artemis and I were out in the Exclusion Zone, pretty close to old Eiron about a year ago. You heard of Four Point Plaza, near old Eirron?"

"Vivian grew up near there", Tessa said, "she's told stories."

"So we were close there, getting ready to hold up since the sun was starting to go down. Right about the time you'd start shedding gear, Insurrectionists show up. Some stuff happened and I ended up losing my plate carrier, and then my shirt when it got shredded by a frag grenade. I don't remember shit about what happened after that, just how much UV light hurts. It can take hours to die a Sun Death, sometimes a day if you've got plenty of meat on your bones. As someone who almost experienced it, I pray every night to the Great Star to end that punishment, no Carrier is truly deserving of it. No matter how evil they are. I'd just as soon be beheaded, I'd still be punished in the Afterlife."

"That was one of the worst days of my life", I told Charlie, "I carried him out of the Exclusion zone on my back through hordes of Gräuel. Once night fell, I called my mom and dad, because I wanted to see them one more time before I died. If it hadn't been Dino Territory, we would have. Soon as the shooting started, three or four Raptors and a big ass TREX with a taste for blood came running. We still haven't really recovered from that mess, our asshole landlord tripled our rent while Eos was recovering, fucking cleaned out our savings in a couple of weeks."

"The hell he do that for?"

"His logic was that my injuries made me a "biological hazard", Eos said, "in reality, he's a racist. He's made passive aggressive comments to me, and out right used slurs to others. We can't really do anything about it because apartments in Siren City are packed, and the city has pretty strict tenant counts per building to prevent landlords from packing people into buildings like sardines."

"We're two of his best tenants too", I shook my head, "we don't trash our apartment, make noise after dark, we keep our guns locked up and we don't shoot crack or cook meth. But for some reason, he picks on us."

"Seems like a good way to lose two good renters", Charlie suggested.

"I don't mind it when people throw slurs around", Eos shrugged, repeatedly swapping magazines to occupy his hands, keeping his nervous twitch at bay. It always happened when that night in the EZ got brought up, "Art and I throw them at each other pretty casually. What I do mind, is that I was laid up, with Art taking care of me because we couldn't afford to go see an actual doctor, and this man, of which the term man is loosely used, is putting UV lights INSIDE MY ROOM, to "kill the spores I'm shaking off"."

"Man...", Vivian sighed deeply, "that's gotta be malicious, surely, he knows Carriers are lethally sensitive to that? Right?

"Aight", Tessa said, "if I meet this guy I'm killing him."

"I almost did", I told her, "he had thrown that switch I'dda shot him."

"I'm sorry, I'm still hung up on the idea he's putting UV lamps in the room of someone who will literally melt from exposure. I would have called the police", Vivian said.

"We have, number of times", I said, "we're just hung up in a stalemate. We're not in breach of contract, so he can't evict us for another year. We can break the lease whenever, the issue is finding a place to live. We can't find another apartment, everyone in the city is packed full."

"Why not just move into Eos' colony?", Vivian asked.

"We thought about it", Eos said, "the Elders and Mass have made it pretty clear that Art is welcome to stay there as long as he needs, issue is...it's not really conducive to our line of work. My Colony only has one Guardian, she's good with a sword, never really did get the hang of firearms. If we bring the Insurrectionists to our front door..."

"Point taken", Vivian sighed, "do you have family you could move in with?"

"Yeah, we could move in with my parents, they have the space to house us, but not much space to store things. Our apartment has two bedrooms, we share one and our spare is our armory. Trust me, that bitch is full."

"We really don't wanna start tearing that shit apart until we know what our next move is. Probably not gonna be-able to take much of it across the bridge, starting from scratch is a given", Eos said.

"Sounds like you guys are having quite the go of it", Charlie said, "hopefully we can help take the strain off."

"Yeah maybe", I shrugged, "what would really take the strain off is getting out into Plains Country."

The rest of the walk was spent rather silently as we approached the shopping center. As we began to get closer, we started to hear a copious amount of gunfire, like...a lot of gunfire. I could pick out at least two different machine guns, one large one, which was audible over all the other gunfire in the center, what was perhaps a subgun of some kind and at least a couple of squads of Insurrectionists. As we approached the parking lot, I realized just how massive the building was, easily five or six stories, spanning perhaps a dozen or more acres capped with a giant glass dome. The second we actually entered the property, a couple of bullets whizzed past Charlie's skull, just barely missing his soft capped brain.

"Contact! Bloody contact!", he shouted diving behind a concrete parking lot divider, the rest of us fanning out and taking cover behind several vehicles.

"Eyes! Eyes! Anyone have eyes!", Vivian asked loudly, laying down in the middle of the open parking lot, making herself as big a target as possible for the unseen hostiles. It wasn't like the SS1110 was going to punch through her armor, only select loadings of 20x152mm could even think about that, short of a control unit. With the Insurrectionists unable to punch through Vivian's skull plate, she drew enough attention for Eos to peek out and pin down where the fire was coming from."

"Two...no three! Three contacts, third story window, on the far right, roughly....roughly 1050 feet near the shopping center logo pole!!"

"Rodger I see them!", Charlie said, he rolled out from behind the concrete divider and fired four rounds, prompting return fire from the Insurrectionists in the window, forcing him back into cover.

"Holy fuck those guys can shoot!", he barked, "Damn near took my head off!"

"RGGGH!", Vivian growled, "Tell me about it! Get this heat off of me!"

Eos stepped out from behind me and tried to get a shot off, only to have a couple of rounds whiz past him, again, almost taking his head off.

"Gah!", he hissed, stumbling backwards, almost falling off his feet, "what the heck! Heretics don't normally aim this well!"

Now Tessa stepped out, pointing her AKM in the general direction of the Insurrectionists and unloading an entire magazine of that 7.62x39 BP tracer ammo. While she was keeping their heads down, Charlie rose up from behind cover and fired two shots, leaned sideways and fired three more rounds.

"Got one!", he shouted.

Eos and I stepped out, bringing up my ACOG, I saw two of of them appear in the window. Eos and I fired at the same time, him once, me a three round bust. The one I was aiming at let go of his rifle when the second of the three shots shattered his left elbow, while Eos nailed his target directly in the face. Despite the fact we couldn't see any more hostiles, we could still hear what had to be either an Entombed or an emplacement with what sounded like a Browning M1919 Stinger ripping at the blacksuits like they meant it.

"Two targets down", Eos said, "no other visual on hostiles!"

"That don't mean shit", Vivian said, "listen to that machinegun go. Jeez that thing's loud."

"You feeling okay?", Charlie asked, "lot of ammo you just ate."

"My skull hurts", Vivian said standing, shaking her head, "might get one of those wicked headaches later, should still be good to fight."

"Okay, you take point, Tess and I will cover left, Art, you and Eos feel okay covering right?"

"Yeah we got it", Eos agreed.

"So what's our mission here as of this moment?", Vivian asked.

"Right now it's to secure this building so we don't get shot at while we're trying to steal a trailer", Charlie said, "anything else we'll handle in the order of it's appearance."

While we were moving towards the front of the store, we started hearing more of the fight. Now, instead of short, controlled bursts from the machine gun, we were hearing a steady stream of hatred from it, while the quieter of the pair was now firing in short controlled bursts. The Insurrectionists were trying to spray down whoever their targets were, albeit unsuccessfully. Given the the apparent cursing and swearing of the many, many blacksuits that we could hear, their targets were having an easier go at them than they were.

"Jeez", Eos mumbled, "listen to 'em. They don't sound happy."

"There must be three or four dozen of them in there", Charlie said as we approached the front of the mall. Passing through the front entry way, we entered a spacious lobby with a stone bill board flanked on both sides by cheap, fake palm trees. The board showed the layout of the store with directions to each individual vendor. According to the map, it seemed like the gun fighting was coming from the food court, with the machine guns being located in a bike shop a stones throw from the court. It was in the back of the store, and with all the contacts I was sure would be around, that wouldn't necessarily be a safe walk. To make matters worse, the trailer sales store was a few doors down from the bike shop, so we'd be involved in the fight either way. Either the defenders would attack us, or the blacksuits would.

"Seems like the fighting's going on in the food court near the bike shop", Vivian noted, "uggghh, I bet this mall is filled with those skinny little fuckers. How we gonna do this? Not like they won't hear me stomping through this store wearing about 500 pounds of armor."

"We'll be shot to pieces by that many heretics", Eos said, throwing his M24/30 over his back, exchanging it for his new I416, "doubly so if they all decide to aim as well as those other three did."

"These guys must be Insurrectionist Special Forces", Charlie mused, "I've only heard stories about them, never seen any myself, didn't think they were real."

"Ask any dinosaur", Vivian said, "you always see ISF with the Control units. They don't venture far from there often. Why would they? Dinosuars are plenty hard targets to keep them occupied."

Charlie growled, "Fuck, so it's ISF or what? An Entombed? Maybe two?"

"We're going to have to pick our poison", Vivian agreed, "Either way, we're gonna have skin in this fight. Either the defenders will attack us or the blacksuits will. I don't wonder if there's leadership here?"

"Government pays big money for those tags", I added, "we make a leadership kill..."

"We can maybe get out of this hole without selling off our inventory", Eos agreed.

"Wherever leadership goes, there's dozens and dozens of blacksuits near by", Charlie said, "good thing we've got ammo."

"I'm more than happy to play that game if they want to", Vivian said, "I didn't get a chance to really fight the last ones to attack me, and I've been itching to spit fire since you all picked me up."

"Fire burning hot today is it?", Charlie asked.

"From the depths of the furnace in my heart", Vivian said, cracking her neck, "I'll take point, everyone stay close...guess we'll just follow the violence."

With Vivian out front, Eos and I followed with Charlie and Tessa behind us. She lead us just barely forty feet, just after we turned the first corner, no fewer than twenty Insurrectionists came running around the corner. Initially heading towards the sounds of the fight in the bikeshop, but turning to see us once one of them started screaming in whatever language they speak when he saw us. Eos and I slipped out from behind Vivian on the right, Charlie and Tess went on the left as seven of them broke off from the main group. Ducking behind a concrete planter and leaning out with my Mutant in my left hand, I fired a six round burst at the Blacksuit closest to me, dropping him, while Eos nailed the one behind him. The remaining five immediately broke off into two groups, one of three and one of two. The group of two slipped into a near by store to try and get out of my and Eos line of fire, and the group of three wasted no time in engaging Charlie, Tessa and Vivian.

"Holy cow the Heretics are out in force today!", Eos exclaimed, "what at that bikeshop has got them so angry!?"

"People who don't like being shot at!", Vivian yelled.

Without another word, the Firestone set in the front of Vivian's helmet began to glow a deep, bright crimson. Her equipment began to smoke, then smolder, until eventually the fabrics began to catch fire, turning an ashy grey. The hard armor plates heated up quickly, turning from tan, to black, then a bluish copper before quickly turning white. Flames erupted from underneath the seams of her armor, the vent holes in her helmet, as well as from underneath the lenses protecting her eyes. A substance with the consistency of molten iron dripped from her gaping maw as she opened her mouth wide to scream a hellish scream at the Insurrectionists. It was a scream that you might hear in your nightmares when the demons are chasing you, it gave me chills, and despite having seemingly heard it before, still seemed to strike some fear into Charlie and Tessa. The Insurrectionists, of course, attempted to spray her down, with little success, obviously. Fire and molten liquids spilled from Vivian's mouth as she spit a two foot wide jet of fire at the Insurrectionists like she was a living flamethrower. The Blacksuits, flammable the way they were, went up like fireworks. Screaming and discarding their weapons as they tried desperately to extinguish the fury Vivian leveled at them. They were unable to do so, their ammunition cooking off as the rolled around on the ground, going still after several seconds. Vivian seemed satisfied.

"That felt nice!", She said, liquid iron dripping from between her teeth, "payback's a bitch, bitches."

I pulled my Balaclava up over my face to keep from breathing in both the ash that Vivian was shaking off with every movement, as well as the ash and smoke wafting off the bodies of her kills. Eos tried to wave it away from his face with little success. Tessa had put on a gas mask and even though he was wearing a thick knit neck gator, Charlie had covered his mouth with his sleeve.

"Good idea Tess", I said slinging my ruck off my back, grabbing my own mask out of it and sliding it over my face.

We pushed deeper into the mall, Vivian out front, Tessa, myself, Charlie and then Eos bringing up the rear a good 20 feet behind her in two teams of two on either side of the common area. It was hot enough in this building with no AC, but standing too close to Vivian while she was playing the part of a living volcano was unbearable. Slowly, one Insurrectionist squad at a time, we pushed our way through the mall, eventually drawing near the bikeshop. The fighting escalated from gunfire to the use of grenades and some other kind of explosives as we grew closer to the epicenter of the conflict. Grenade after grenade echoed through the empty, trashed hallway's of the old shopping mall, the many stores of which were still filled with products and loot. If we didn't have a very specific objective here, this would have been quite the raid, though it might shape up to be quite the raid anyhow. Just before we turned the corner, the Entombed's machine gun quieted, replaced by the earsplitting crackling of Veil Lightning. Blue and white flashes tearing through the smothering, heated darkness of the mall. I could hear the Entombed, somehow screaming, and somehow unable to breath at the same time, it was not a pleasant sound, nor was it a sound I thought even an Entombed could make. The only thing strong enough to subdue and Entombed with a veil ability of any kind would be either A, another Entombed, or B, insurrectionist Leadership. They rarely showed themselves on the battlefield, and when they did they were there to kill you personally. Most, not all, but most, practiced the Element of Light in their favored ability of Veil Lightning. It was one of the stronger abilities that a practitioner could master, and the strongest masters could kill just about anyone...or anything. Whoever this was really had it out for this Entombed.

"Check up, Insurrectionist Leadership", Vivian said picking up her pace, "man...I didn't think a living creature could make sounds like that!"

"He won't be alive for much longer if that Leadership has anything to say!", Charlie said, "let's hustle and get that heat off him!"

We turned 'round the corner to a scene of just...complete carnage. There had to be several dozen dead Insurrectionists, sixty or more. A lot of them had been taken apart, missing limbs, missing heads, chunks blown out of bodies, and it was obvious the Entombed had been using his Elemental abilities, given the burns, rot and melting ice covering many of them. In the center of the mess was the Entombed, down on all fours, being electrocuted by the Insurrectionist Leadership. His bones were flashing visible through his armor as the lightning crawled up and down his body like a million viscous fireants, chewing at whatever was softest first. The tall, dark robbed and hooded figure was so transfixed on killing his target that he hadn't seen us come around the corner. Vivian took a deep breath like she was going to spray down the Leadership with a tsunami of fire, but before she could unleash it, the Entombed popped up and reached out like he was trying to grab the leadership, clenching his fist. The lightning stopped, we could hear the sounds of the bones in his hands shattering from across the food court, a good hundred or so feet. The Leadership screamed in agony as the Entombed opened his hand and in perhaps the most impressive mastery of Atunment that I had ever seen, the Leadership flew a good 10 feet to his grasp. The Entombed sized the Leadership by the throat, then, slowly stood up, lifting the Leadership a good four feet off the ground, one handed. With a voice that boomed throughout the food court, his fury was as tangible as the smoke in the air.

"Did you really think..it would be. That. Easy?"

The Entombed paid no attention to us as we fanned out into the room, taking up positions behind the small, portable barricades that the blacksuits had set up. The Entombed most certainly knew we were there, but he still focused on his target. Good thing too, Entombed were not small creatures. They could get upwards of seven foot seven, and the armor their race was confined to was the strongest in the known galaxy, we didn't have anything that could penetrate that suit if he decided to level that aggression against us.

"You're going to pay for what you've done to me. You will suffer for your crimes against....HER!"

The Entombed threw the Leadership into the ceiling of the food court, a good 30 foot throw, so hard that he cracked the stone work in the ceiling. Then, with seemingly all the strength he could muster in his body, threw the leadership back into the floor as if he were merely holding him above his head. I felt it in my fangs when the Leadership hit the floor, the sound of bones breaking filled the food court. The Leadership seemed to realize he was beaten, and started trying to crawl away. The Entombed let him crawl a good five feet, towards a fallen Control Unit, then reached out and clenched his fist. The Leadership's body twisted at unnatural angles, bones snapped and shattered.

"How many others have you inflicted this torture upon?", the Entombed hissed, the darkness swirled around his iron hand like a dense fog. His fist clenching tighter as the Leaderships body twisted in way's no one's should. It brought me a sick pleasure. It was satisfying, perhaps in a morbid way, but satisfying nonetheless, to see one of them get taken apart.

"You prey on all those around you, assume that they are simple targets! Yet, like all those leaders that have come before you, you are reduced to a mere cowering mess as you flee the target you so stupidly assumed you fall before you. Your swarms of cannon fodder may overwhelm a lesser foe, but I am not so easy a mark."

The Entombed bent down and grabbed the leadership by the neck, lifting him into the air. I could hear the Leadership gagging as the Entombed tightened his grip, a disgusting, crackling sound rolled throughout the food court as all of the bones the Entombed had shattered moved out of place, the Leadership flopping about like a waterlogged stuffed animal. The Entombed looked the Leadership in the eyes, then uttered the last words he would ever hear.

"Es gibt kein entkommen."

With all the savagery the Entombed were known for, he bent the Leadership's neck at a right angle, the snap echoed through the food court just like his own voice, tearing his tags off his neck as he tossed the corpse to the side like the trash that he was. He reached back out, his weapon, a pretty heavily customized Stinger LMG, flew from underneath a nearby corpse to his grasp. He affixed it to the sling still wrapped around his torso, and then fell to one knee.

"You'll never hurt another soul...the way you hurt me."

Eos stepped out from behind cover, "are you quite done there big guy?"

The Entombed turned to look at Eos, "Yeah...yeah I'm done."

"You okay? Do you need medical?", Eos asked.

"No", The Entombed stood up, sighing heavily, "I'm good. I appreciate ya'll not getting involved in that by the way."

"Seemed like that one hurt you in more ways than one", I noted, standing up from behind my cover, "we didn't fancy getting in the middle of that. My condolences for your wife, little as I'm sure it means from a complete stranger."

"I appreciate that", the Entombed said, "Not that I mind the back up, but what are ya'll doing here?"

"Just trying to pay the bills big man", Tessa said.

"I find that a bit difficult to believe", the Entombed seemed suspicious of us, "You seem more like mercenaries than people trying to pay debts. Are you from near by?"

"Does Siren City count as near by?", Eos asked, "but you know, we could be asking you the same question."

"Fair enough", the Entombed stated, "I'm sorry if I come off as ungrateful, I'm not exactly keen on handing out trust to some random group of PMC's and or slash Raiders with a Mini Rex looking like he's some Fernai half breed."

"First of all", Vivian began, "last I checked I was a girl, second of all, have you got something against hybrids?"

"Hard to tell with all the fire and smoke you're shaking off Rex", the Entombed stated, "Dinosuars all look the same to me anyways. Don't really have them where I'm from."

"Are you from off world?", I asked, noting his accent, "because if you don't see a lot of Dino's you sure ain't from around here."

"I'm not", the Entombed said, "I hail from Arctic County. Pole city to be exact, this is my first summer down here."

"How do you find our weather?", Vivian asked, letting the energy fade from her Firestone, returning to normal as it's red glow faded.

"Man, people said Old Country summers were rough, but holy shit."

"Yup", Vivian said, "people don't think it be like it be, but it do."

"Sorry if I've forgotten my manners", the Entombed said, "It's just that my time here so far has been....difficult. To put it bluntly. I'm Jakob."

"Well, I'm Artemis, sort of the leader of this little gang but not really, Eos here is my best friend and partner in crime, and this is Vivian, Charlie and Tessa. We picked them up just recently and we share common goals, so we joined forces."

"And it's working out pretty well so far", Charlie added.

"Well", Jakob sighed, "if you guys are still hiring, my hideout got burned down by the skinnies like a week ago. My wife, the partner and I were on run since then, but she met her match in a Control Unit and this Leadership back about two days ago and got killed. I've been making my last stand here since then. Came out to face the Leadership because I intended on taking my time killing him, but I've always been fairly weak against that lightning shit. Should have known better I guess."

"I wouldn't try and face down leadership", Vivian said, she nodded her head at him, "good way to get Electrocuted."

"Yeah, I know. Wasn't seeing much but red once he showed up", Jakob shrugged, "all I could think about was killing him as brutally as I could for the way he and his rats murdered Kwliyzhan. I'm a pretty mild manners guy, or at least I'd like to think so. I can't remember another time I've been that angry."

Charlie and Tessa exchanged glances, "that sounds like a Lebensjäger."

The Entombed shifted his glare, his eyes weren't visible underneath his visor, "Good observation. Yeah...she was a Lebensjäger."

"I've only heard stories about them", I said, "but, always thought they were just that...stories."

"Fraid not", Jakob said, "I can explain more later, for now, you guys still hiring?

"Depends where your stop is", I told him.

The Entombed shrugged, "dunno. Wherever I guess. We mostly just drift around, so I don't really have a home to go back to, and the only one I ever loved is dead now."

I sighed, we all exchanged looks.

"Well, here's the deal then", I began, "right now, we're looking to head to plains country. There's a couple of things standing in our way, but the biggest obstacle is crossing Infamy bridge."

"Insurrectionists during the day, then Gräuel when the sunsets", the Entombed said, "I've heard the stories, figured I'd end up there sooner or later."

'We heard you running your machinegun, and we found all your spent brass back at the walled off house", Eos said, "seems like you know how to handle a .30-06 belt fed."

"Yeah, I can hit the broadside of the barn with it if nothing else", Jakob said.

"Good, welcome abroad", I said offering a handshake.

He accepted.

"Okay", I turned back to Charlie, "well, with that out of the way, let's try and grab that trailer and fuck off before something else happens."

"What kind of trailer are y'all lookin' for?", Jakob asked.

"Dino Trailer", Vivian said, "the skinnies trashed ours, and our Semi too."

"Humph", Jakob grunted, "you're in luck, I happen to have the keys to a quite nice Freightliner Cascadia. It's parked around back in a loading dock, right underneath where the usable trailers are kept. They're locked up rather tightly from what I could tell, so unless someone is a master of Synthetics, we'll need a good pair of bolt cutters at least. Speaking of cards, anyone have an ammo card on them? The wife passed with all our cards on her."

"I may have one", Eos said pulling out his deck, "let me see.....yup, here you go."

Jakob took the card, but didn't use it instantly. He looked at it for a moment, back to the bike shop and then back to us.

"Hey...if I'm gonna roll with you guys, there needs to be room for my partner."

"Plenty of room", Eos said, "strength in numbers and all that."

"You mean that?", Jakob asked.

"Of course", Eos said.

"Really mean it?", Jakob asked.

"Why do you ask?", I inquired.

He looked back to the bike shop, "Hey, du kannst rauskommen, lass einfach den Karabiner unten."

A pair of gloved hands, which looked almost artificial, appeared from behind the door frame of the bike shop, as though he was being approached by police. Slowly, but surely, the figure started to step into the door frame. It took me until he was almost around the corner to figure out what was going on.

"Surely not", Eos mumbled, discretely reaching for his sidearm, "surely....surely not."

"Down Eos", I reached out and grabbed his hand. Jakob's partner came around the corner, his hands away from his weapon, and for good reason.

Turned out, Jakob had been concerned about there being room for his partner due to the fact that he was an Insurrectionist. He looked like, at some point, he had been a Scout Unit, since he still carried pistol caliber carbine in the form of a quite heavily customized Ruger 19115 Carbine that bore a striking resemblance to the Volume's PPSH Carbines. He was our 6.5 Mauser shooter, given the fact that his carbine's receiver had 6.5x19 written on it in permanent marker. He was wearing faded blue jeans with holes in the knees, steel toed sneakers and a white shirt with the elastic at the ends of the sleeves missing. He wore a pretty standard Insurrectionist Scout Unit vest with a big "651919115" written across the chest with a white paint marker. He seemed to be used to having weapons pointed at him, and from the way he glanced at Jakob, seemed shocked that we weren't currently trying to remove organs from his body.

"What....the fuck is this shit?", Charlie asked, seeming unsure if he should raise his weapon.

"This is my friend of six years. He answers to Takhir. As far as I'm aware, you're looking at the only Insurrectionist to ever defect from their army", Jakob said, "at least, the only one to do so and survive for any length of time."

We all exchanged glances, "they defect?"

The Insurrectionist looked to Jakob, I couldn't see his eyes under his old goggles, but Jakob nodded to him.

"Erzählen Sie ihnen die Geschichte, stellen Sie nur sicher, dass Sie Ihre Worte verwenden", Jakob motioned towards us.

"Thanks for not taking my head off", the Insurrectionist said, in a pretty thick Arctic Country accent, sure, but pretty clear English.

"Okay...I have questions", Eos said.

"I might have answers", The Insurrectionist said.

"Well, while you boys do that", Vivian interrupted, "I'm gonna go find something to eat, because I'm gonna get real violent if I can't get something in my stomach."

"We'll catch up later", Tessa said, "meet back here in an hour?"

"Yeah", Charlie said, "that'll work. We'll go see about this trailer, call if anything comes up."

"Rodger that", she said, "Jakob welcome aboard, and by extension, you too Takhir."

The Insurrectionist threw Tessa a respectful salute as she went to go help our reptilian friend look for sustenance. I turned back to Jakob and his partner.

"I'm afraid if you follow us into town, you may find others aren't as open minded as we are", Eos noted, "You can probably tell Charlie doesn't trust you. I certainly don't, given the history our races have together. You seem...different though, not like the other heretics I've encountered."

'Heretics?", Takhir asked.

"Cordyceps slang for Insurrectionist", I explained, "you have to understand, we've spent our entire lives killing your brothers wherever we find them, and I'm sure until he met you, Jakob had too."

Takhir chuckled, "Jakob did the same thing to me that he did to the Leadership when we first met. I still have scars on my back from where my spine tore through the skin. It's kinda sucky first thing people do when they meet me is open fire. But...by the same token I guess I can't fault them...given what my race has done. I'm used to it."

"I think I just figured out why the Insurrectionists are out in such force today", Charlie said, safeing his weapon, "are there more defectors?"

"Oh, probably somewhere", Takhir said, "we just don't tend to last very long against our former allies. Given, I've never left Keiturn, so I can't speak for anywhere else."

"Mind telling us where the heck your lesser minded friends come from?", Eos asked, "they're tearing our planet apart."

"Wish I could", Takhir said, "I don't remember anything before defecting. I don't even understand my native language anymore. It took Jakob six months to teach me to speak Deutsch and about two years to speak English."

"So what, you've got no idea where you came from, you can't speak your own language any more and what...you just don't remember anything until five years ago?", Eos asked, "how old are you?"

"I've got no idea", Takhir shrugged, "far as I know...five?"

Eos looked at me, "bro...that creeps me out."

"Yeah...me too", I agreed, "do you remember how you defected?"

Takhir took a deep breath, "I was performing maintenance on my weapon one day and I had just gotten it put back together, I had a wicked surge of pain through the back of my head. It was so bad I had to take off my helmet and, next thing I know, I've got bullets flying at me from everyone in camp. Ended up having to kill my way out of my camp and spent a couple of nights on my own, trying to figure out who the fuck I was, where the hell I was, and what I was supposed to do now. Before that...I can't remember a thing. No dreams, no dejavu, nothing."

"Well that doesn't make any sense", Eos said, "what, your friends just opened fire on you and then you what...lost your mind?"

"We think it has to do with the fact that he was supposed to become a Leadership", Jakob said, "there's a little piece of his brain, or at least, the organ in his head, down near his spine that's sort of shriveled up and dried out. Some medical guys ran a few scans back home and found that both standard Insurrectionists and Leadership have this area intact. I suspect, but can not prove, that when Takhir became Veil Energy Sensitive, instead of becoming a Leadership, he Defected."

"Hmm, so that's how that works", I mused.

"Nobody really knows how Leadership is picked", Takhir shrugged, "just the best working idea we have at the moment."

"What element to do specialize in?", Eos asked.

"Stone", Takhir said, "some of the stuff I've gotten really good at, some of the stuff, like Atunment, I'm still sort of working on."

"Everyone is always working on Atunment", I shrugged, "fucking difficult thing to master. But, be that as it may, enough chitchat, we have a shared objective now, so let's get after it. Jakob, what is your opinion of the Insurrectionist presence in the mall?"

"Mall's filled with those skinny little fuckers", Jakob said, "Takhir and I have been fighting them off all damn day."

"Fighting has been drawing them in", Takhir said, "sooner we get out of this AO, the better. The dino trailers are locked up pretty tightly, so unless someone is a master of Synthetics, we'll need a breach pen or a pretty bad ass pair of bolt cutters."

"Artemis practices Synthetics", Eos said, "we'll have no problem breaking whatever needs breaking."

Jakob motioned for us to follow him. He started heading away from the food court towards the back of the mall down a long hallway that followed a long, gradually downwards sloping ramp that took us underground, perhaps a good twenty feet or so before we started to run into the arcades, the gunshops, the gaming stores, fishing huts, gardening stores, tobacco and vape and the drug houses which sold combat medicine and medical supplies. The places where if you were a native, you were a frequent flier most of them, but perhaps those who were from off world visiting might not be so comfortable seeing out on display. Keiturn, despite our planet currently being besieged by the blacksuits, still had quite the strong tourism industry. Lot of those people were from either Union Space, or the Universal Wall from Metal City, and most of what we get coming through was from Metal City. The Keteran and Cordyceps lifestyle is quite the culture shock for most from both. Ergo, the shops that made the most cash from the natives were where the off-worlders wouldn't bother us. Some of the best memories I have are going with Eos on Friday afternoons after we got done with school to the gun stores to see if the store owners had anything new. A couple of shops knew us by name, and sometimes kept cool things back for us. My first rifle was an Insurrectionist I-416 I picked up for just over a hundred credits, which was still my most fielded firearm by a long shot. I kind of wondered how many childhood memories this mall helped make. It certainly reminded me of ours. Eos apparently shared my thoughts.

"Wonder how many weekend afternoons were wasted in these arcades?", he mumbled.

"And how many wives were pissed at the new gun, fishing rod or gaming PC?", I added.

Eos grinned, "yeah. How many bishops were angered that sprouts were using technology. Fun fact, I got back to the colony way late one night. Remember that day we went to the range to work on shooting in low light and we were out until like midnight and then at the last second some Gräuel showed up?"

I nodded, stopping to peer into one of the gun stores, looked like some stuff was still on the shelf, "yeah, that was the first time we encountered them."

"So I got home late that night, and keep in mind, we're like, 14 and 15 at this time. And hoo boy, did I get into some serious trouble. The Bishops tried to argue that my being back late meant I was out covering myself in sin. They told the Mass that I was out partaking in technology and drinking and", he snickered, "something else that almost everyone else in Occupied Space does that Cordyceps don't."

I snickered too, "that was possibly the funniest thing I ever witnessed."

"They assumed you were out sport fuckin huh?", Jakob asked.

"Sure did", Eos said, "but there are two big problems with that, which both my caretakers and the mass quickly addressed. First of all, I was hanging out with Artemis. He spent a lot of time at the Colony and respects our customs and lifestyle in a way most others simply don't. Everyone in my Colony knows his name and respects him, so the idea that we were doing anything other than shooting was viewed as a character assassination, which is a big no no in our faith. So that was quickly dismissed. Second of all, do explain to me how it's possible for me to engage in such activities, without the required parts?"

Jakob and Takhir both started balling laughing so hard I wondered how they continued breathing. Eventually, Jakob managed to collect himself enough to further the conversation.

"Life without sex sounds fuckin' boring", he said, "I'm an Entombed but even we still get to have fun."

"So how did you find Lebensjäger significant other then?", I inquired.

"Please don't answer that question I beg you", Takhir pleaded, glancing at his friend.

"They asked", Jakob shrugged.

"Das bedeutet nicht, dass Sie Idioten antworten müssen", Takhir stated firmly.

"Es ist unhöflich, die Fragen von jemandem nicht zu beantworten. Habe ich dir in den letzten vier Jahren nichts beigebracht?", Jakob protested.

"Vous vous demandez ce qu'il y a de si mauvais dans cette histoire qu'ils ont dû revenir en allemand?", Eos asked quietly, elbowing me to get my attention.

(Wonder what's so bad about this story they had to switch back to Deutsch?)

"Soit un Lebensjäger est un si bon moment qu'il devra nous dire chaque détail, soit il va nous avertir des épines à des endroits où il ne devrait pas y en avoir. Mon argent est sur le premier", I replied.

(Either a Lebensjäger is such a good time he'll have to tell us every little detail, or he's going to warn us about spines in places there shouldn't be. My money is on the former)

"Heh, pari", Eos chuckled.

(bet)

"Okay so basically", Jakob began.

Takhir groaned loudly and plugged something into his headset, presumably to drown out what was coming.

"Let me put it like this", Jakob said, "if, you get a Lebensjäger female to fall for you, she will make you never want to be with a female of your own species. Ever. Kwliyzhan showed me something I didn't think I could ever find in this world, something I can't explain. You'd have to fall for one to really understand. Oh, and yeah and she really know how to make bedtime great."

Eos put a hand on Jakob's shoulder, "you know, I don't know what faith you and yours subscribe to, if any at all, but, I do know this. She'll be waiting for you, wherever she is."

"I do have one question though", I added in.

"Shoot", Jakob said.

"Why did Takhir plug in his music? That story wasn't so bad."

"Because around our old set of friends I tell everyone that how a Lebensjäger can fuck you to the point you forget how to breathe, but you can't go spilling all that stuff to people you've just meant. You guys seem cool though."

Eos and I exchanged glances.

"Dude, I don't get this. You and I are so straight laced but these are the people we tend to pick up. Why is that?", Eos looked at me blankly.

"Man, do I look like the keeper of that knowledge?", I retorted.

We passed a few more shops, to a second hallway that lead further down into the mall. A sign hanging from the ceiling read "Trailer Sales-Freight Drop Off-Will Call-Shipping Services-Parking Garage." It lead down into a long hallway that branched off into their respective areas.

"Our rig is right around the corner from Trailer Sales", Jakob said, "through a big utility door. Course, no telling whose taken up positions since then."

"Anyone got flash bangs?", Takhir asked.

"I've got a few bangers", Eos said, "no flash, but they make a loud enough noise the girls will probably hear it up stairs."

"Cool", Jakob said, "Artemis, Eos said you practice Synthetics?"

"Sure do", I said, "doubt a trailer lock will be of much issue."

"So, is it true that Synthetics Practitioners can render things down to little pellets of raw material?", Takhir asked, "I heard some people in a bar talking about it once, never seen it done myself."

"It's a hundred percent true", I told him, "I do it all the time. If you're a skilled sort of person you can assemble something from a schematic. Matter of fact", I flashed my Mk-47, "I built this mutant from a tub of steel and aluminum pellets. Found the spec online and spent a few days studying it. Took me a few tries to get it right."

"A few?, Eos asked, "you were at that for three days."

"You talk as if I'm trying to pass it off as anything but difficult", I said, "synthetics is just a bit different than life little bro."

"You two are brothers?", Jakob asked, "I get twined species and all that, but didn't think it worked like that."

"It doesn't", Eos said, "but you know, we've been friends for how long?"

I shrugged, "I dunno. I can kinda remember some stuff as far back as four years old, but truth be told, I can't recall a time in my life I didn't know you."

"So we're not related but we've been stuck to the bottoms of each other's boots forever and ever", Eos shrugged.

"You don't carry just anyone out of the exclusion zone on your back in the dead of night", I said, stacking up on the opposite side of the wall from Jakob and Takhir. Jakob said that this was the door that lead to the bay where his rig and the trailers were. I could hear movement on the other side of the door, sounded like at least four of them, setting something up.

"Sounds like at least four of them", I said listening closer, "setting something up, could be some kind of machine gun. Either way, they're right on the other side of the door."

"And directly in our path", Jakob said, this was when he chose to activate the ammo card that I'd given him, "Let Takhir and I lead on this."

"Be our guest", Eos said hitting his radio, "Hey ladies, some fun is about to start downstairs."

"Don't start the party without us", Vivian said, "we're on our way. Y'all leave any breadcrumbs?"

"I dropped a few light sticks", Charlie said, "can follow them from the food court. Party will be in full swing by the time you get here."

"Coming to you", Tessa said, "save some for us."

"No promises", Jakob said, he addressed us, "our rig is parked in Row 24, it's about six hundred feet from this door, and we're likely going to have to fight our way there. Be ready for anything once I start breaching this door."

He slung his M1919A4 Stinger over his back and stepped in front of the door. He observed it for a minute, then leaned back and punched the slab of sheet steel that made the door as hard as he could, putting a sizable dent in it. Eos and I backed up a bit, expecting the Insurrectionists to start shooting through the door any second. Jakob slammed his left fist into the door, putting an even deeper dent in it this time. Again, the dent grew deeper, a crack appeared. Again, and again, and again, until eventually he punched two holes clean through the door. Using the holes as handles, he lifted it halfway, then opened it fully. Still, the Blacksuits didn't open fire yet. When he reached for his machinegun, I caught a glimpse of the Dark Stone on his left hand glowing faintly. With his weapon in hand, he motioned to us.

"Stay close, file as normal, I have a shroud up, so they'll only see me."

"This should be an interesting fight", Eos mumbled as we proceeded.

We funneled through the door in the typical fashion, Jakob going middle, Takhir going right and Eos and I going left. The large parking garage was filled with trailers and rigs, most of which had blacksuits hiding behind them. The closest were five of them, all set up with M249 SAW's behind a concrete divider directly in front of us. The five Insurrectionists squared Jakob up for only a second before cutting lose. One M249 on the top end of it's cyclic rate was scary enough, being this close to five of them made my blood go cold. Jakob took a slight step back, the SS1110 pinging audibly off his iron skin and tearing into the concrete surrounding him. Thirty seconds or so of sustained fire caused the five Insurrectionist SAW's to go quiet in quick succession. They wasted no time in popping the dust covers to reload. Jakob shouldered his M1919, pointing it directly at the head at the middle Insurrectionist, who was fighting with a pouch on his plate carrier to get a fresh box out.

"My turn."

Jakob opened fire, spraying one long burst at the Blacksuits behind the barrier. The M1919A4 Stinger WC was well known for it's firerate, closing in on 1500 rounds a minute, one of the fastest water cooled machine guns ever built, and one of the few still used today. It was favored by the Entombed on Keiturn, especially when paired with the 7.62x63mm M72 armor piercing round. At these ranges, it sheered limbs from their sockets and punched through most body armor like cheap OSB board. Jakob clearly had some experience with machine guns, so it was no wonder he had been able to cause the mess that he had at the food court. Two other Insurrectionists stepped out from behind vehicles, both armed with M14 EBRs. Jakob shifted his point of aim ever so slightly, firing short bursts at both of them, tearing large chunks out of their bodies and splattering the vehicles around them with their clear, oil like blood. Jakob moved forward, smashing his way through the divider, breaking the solid concrete block in half with a seemingly half assed kick. Eos and I worked around Jakob's left side, Charlie and Takhir his right. Roughly a dozen more of the heretics had now shown their masked faces. Seven on the side of Eos and I, three in the middle and the final three on Charlie and Takhir's side. I raised my Mk-47 and fired a short burst of the or four rounds at the one closest to me. The shots struck him mostly in the upper chest and though they failed penetrate his plates, one struck in the lower neck, severing something vital because he went limp instantly, almost causing the one behind him to trip. That made him an easy target too. Continuing to push up, Eos moved in front of me as I rocked a spent magazine out of the Mutant, looking down the ACOG of his I-416, he fired a quick six round burst, killing one fool that had been dumb enough to stick his head out to try and get a shot off. The fire rate of the I-416 seemed to have surprised him, but he adapted quickly, shooting down three more blacksuits with shorter bursts before the bolt stopped in the rear of the weapon. He turned the gun sideways, realized the mag was empty and then dumped it, sticking in a new one from his back pocket and sending the bolt home. I stood above him while he stayed lower, both of us taking more accurate shots with Charlie on semi auto, while Takhir and Jakob put their machine guns to work. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Takhir drop the magazine out of his Carbine.

"Gun down stand by!", Takhir shouted.

"Got ya you're covered!", Charlie said.

As we slowly pushed through the masses of blacksuits that were infesting the parking garage, I started to feel heavy footsteps approaching from behind. The smell of burning rock started to fill the air. Ducking behind one of the support pillars and peering back, Vivian was melting through the concrete of the parking garage, simply by pressing her head up against it.. The molten slag poured off the wall like water as she shoved her way into the garage, kicking the barrier Jakob had shattered aside entirely. Fire was spilling from the seams of her armor like she was a living volcano. She was entirely too small for the garage and had to slouch down a good three or four feet to fit, but simply the fact that she had shown up made the Insurrectionists completely forget that Jakob was cutting down anyone who showed their faces.

"This just got exciting!", Jakob said, "cavalry's here!"

Vivian let her fury be known, the roar that she mustered from the burning pit in the back of her throat reverberated throughout the entire building, seeming to shake the parking garage on it's foundation. Rage rolled off her presence like the black smoke emanating from the tips of the flames that sizzled from the seams of her armor. The air around her body was distorted like heat mirage, she must have been putting off the better part of six thousand Celsius. Now, more Blacksuits had joined the fight, along with two control units. These guys were wearing significantly heavier armor than normal, essentially amounting to being covered in plates of AR500. They were both carrying chopped up M60E4 Machineguns and one of them had some kind of a shield in his off hand, suggesting that they might be Elite units, due to the deviation from the normal M240 Bravo that they typically carried in lue of their heavy energy cannons.

"Look sharp! A couple of big boys just stepped up!", Takhir noted.

"I got 'em!", Vivian roared, stepping forward so she was out front with Jakob. She planted herself in front of him, dug into the concrete with her claws, opened her mouth as wide as it would go an unleashed a super concentrated torrent of white-blue plasma which was so hot that Eos, myself, and Tessa, who had joined us, all had to take several steps back to avoid being roasted. Despite the command she seemed to have over her practice, that was some seriously hot shit. The Blacksuits scattered, and most avoided getting roasted. The Control Units, however, didn't seem so easily intimidated. The one with the shield planted himself firmly down, and the other moved in behind him. The shield seemed to have not been made to block bullets, but perhaps elemental attacks, as it seemed to withstand Vivian's anger quite easily. She ceased her assault, stepping back as Jakob stepped forward, levying another full auto rampage directly at the control units. His assault tore the shield the lead control unit was using apart and Vivian stepped forward again. The Control Unit threw the shredded shield away and the pair didn't hesitate to remind Vivian that killing Dinosuars their job, and that they were good at it. In the tight confines of the garage, those 10.3" M60's weren't much more than automatic flash bang dispensers, but they worked well for that. Despite the protections of my MICH combat helmet and Vektor K41 ear muffs, their M60's were deafening, to the point I put my hands over my ears. Charlie and Takhir were also disturbed by it and Jakob seemed the most bothered, even falling to one knee with his hands over the sides of his helmet.

It only seemed to enrage Vivian further. The hail of projectiles leveled at her seemed to vaporize inches from her skull. She gritted her teeth, reared back and spit what looked like a ball of white hot obsidian at the Control Units, which shattered when it made contact. The pair was drenched in liquid rock, which melted off their armor and quickly seared flesh and bone. Their blood, of course, ignited instantaneously and they melted away into ash, the rock cooling and hardening within seconds of impact. The rest of the Blacksuits, seeming to realize that they weren't going to win this fight, began to retreat.

"Takhir! Don't let them escape!', Vivian barked.

"Not an issue!", Takhir said letting his carbine down to one side. Raising his hand, a large slab burst out of the ground at their end of the parking garage, and a few of them smacked into it in their frantic attempt to get away from the quickly approaching Vivian. Realizing what was about to happen, the group of Insurrectionists started to utterly panic, focusing all their fire on Vivian's head, perhaps hoping, praying even, that someone could sneak a bullet through and score a lethal hit. Of course, that didn't happen, and Vivian sprayed them down with a jet of plasma I could feel the heat of from just about 40 feet away. Flammable as they were, the skinnies went up like firecrackers, burning away to ash rather quickly.

"Clear center!", Jakob said.

"Clear right!", Takhir said.

"Clear left!", Eos announced.

"Clear rear!", Tessa said, joining Eos and I.

"Clear front!", Vivian said, "Jakob! Where's that rig! We can't keep this up all day!"

"Just around the corner!", Jakob said, "I'll take point."

Jakob lead us towards a corner of the parking garage. As we rounded the corner, he stopped us. Standing between us and the only Freightliner Cascadia I could see near by were a group of Insurrectionists, they took notice of us immediately, but didn't open fire. They were already dug in, probably heard the gunfire and decided to ambush us, though why they decided not to open fire instantaneously was beyond me. Dressed in Keteran uniforms and kit, they were easy to pick out over the standard Blacksuit. The Control unit, dressed in a heavy plate armor suit with six or seven boxes for his M240 bravo hanging off of it, stepped forward with his Leadership behind him.

"Heretic Special Forces", Eos mumbled.

"Six of them", I answered taking cover with him behind the nearest piece of concrete I could find. Tess, Charlie and Takhir took cover opposite us. Vivian ignited her Firestone, while Jakob stood his ground, motionless, his finger hovering right over the trigger. I found myself hoping, praying, that the bright yellow Cascadia right off to the side of the group wasn't going to take any hits during the gunfight that was fixing to break out.

The Leadership, a tall, dark robed figure stepped forward, blocking his Control Unit's line of fire. He dropped his hood with one hand, his face still concealed by his balaclava, sunglasses and helmet. He slung the Smith & Wesson .500 in his right hand a few revolutions on one finger before sliding it seamlessly into the holster on his hip. He pulled his balaclava down, reaching into a pouch on the back of his belt, from which he revealed a large cigar. He put the cigar in his mouth, lit it with a match he ignited from the concrete divider in front of him and then lit his cigar. He puffed on it once or twice to get it burning to his satisfaction and extinguished the match, throwing it aside. He took a long draw on the cigar, burning it down by at least an inch or so, then looked up at us. He took the cigar out of his mouth and looked me right in the eyes, then shifted his glance to Jakob, Vivian, then to Charlie and the others on the other side of the room. He drew on the cigar again, burning another two inches and blowing the smoke out just as quickly when he exhaled, pulling the stogie only slightly away from his mouth when he did. He placed it back in his teeth and then locked eyes with me again, pausing for a moment.

Almost faster than I could track, he threw the cigar away, pulled his balaclava up, drew his revlover and slapped the hammer back, firing a shot that hit Vivian square between the eyes, just below her Firestone. Her fire was extinguished instantly and she roared in pain as she went flying to her back. Jakob took a slight step back as the leadership ducked down behind the concrete divider, exposing his control unit.

"Guter Schlag, Arschloch, das ist das einzige, das du bekommen wirst!", Jakob shouted. He fired a salvo at the Control Unit, who I would have expected to buckle like a wet dishrag, but that wasn't exactly what happened. Jakob's ammo went up in a spark when it hit, bouncing off the Control Unit's heavier than normal armor in a fashion similar to what the standard SS1110 tended to do off Dinosaur Plates. The Control Unit braced against the incoming fire, placing his right foot back and getting his 240 bravo into his shoulder, he returned fire as accurately as Jakob, with similar results.

"Wird ein guter schwarzer Anzug sein!", Jakob shouted at the control unit, reaching out like he was going to try and take the unit's 240 away with his veil abilities, only to take several steps back when nothing happened.

"We're sitting on top of a Field Card!", Jakob said, "Gonna have to win this fight the old fashioned way!"

"They were waiting for us!", Charlie said, "do we have anything that's gonna punch through that armor!?"

"I do", Eos said stepping back, trading places with me, he set down his I416 and pulled his M24/30 off his back, tying his 416 off to his body as he stepped forward again. He glanced at his magazine then turned to me.

"Do you have a flash bang?", He asked, "We only get one chance to get this right!"

I reached into the back of my TV-Rig, groped around the sustainment pouch I kept on the right side before eventually finding one. I flashed him a thumbs up as I took the safety off. Eos hit his radio.

"Artemis is going to throw a flash bang and then I'm going to take care of the Control Unit! We'll have to press them as soon as the CU goes down! Get ready!"

"Got ya!", Tessa said.

"Rodger that!", Charlie answered.

"Acknowledged!", Takhir said.

"Rodger that!", Jakob said, "Gimme a second to reload!"

Jakob ceased his assault on the Control Unit. Steam was venting from the back of his machinegun's water jacket with quite the audible whistle as he locked the bolt open and popped the dust cover. He pocketed out the last fifteen or so linked rounds and knocked the box off the bottom the weapon, checking the feed ramp, he threw a single delinked round to the ground. Taking a new box from his kit, he clicked it into place, pulled the belt up into the feed tray and slammed the dust cover closed, sending the bolt home with a slingshot of the charging handle. Through this entire process, the Control Unit only ceased his own assault when he too ran empty, shortly after Jakob. That caused the other five with him to pop up to support their ally, perfect.

I let the spoon on the Flashbang go.

"FLASHBANG!", I shouted throwing it underhanded at the ceiling of the parking garage, directly in front of the Insurrectionist position. It bounced off the ceiling and it's detonation couldn't have been more perfect. The bang rocked my brain inside my skull through my MICH and Vektors, reverberating through the entire parking garage, and the flash, even though I wasn't looking directly at it, was still blindingly bright. Eos slipped out of cover, following Jakob's advance towards the Insurrectionist position, I followed suit, Tessa bringing up our rear. Eos, peering through that big Ultrazoom Custom optic cranked down to 1.23 power from the six he normally kept it on, cracked off a shot that struck the CU in the face, killing him instantly. He cycled the spent shell out of his rifle as the rest of us pressed the fight, circling around the lot divider they had been hiding behind, we found them dazed and deaf behind the divider. A blast of full auto from Takhir and myself had the parking garage quiet.

"Clear!", Takhir said.

"Clear!", Charlie said.

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

I bent down over the Leadership, who somehow, was still breathing. He'd been one of the first one's I'd hit. Six rounds from my initial burst had struck all over his torso and while they had all struck his TV-Rig, it seemed that this particular leadership had been involved in some pretty heavy fighting, as all six of my hits had punched clean through his carrier, suggesting his plates were shattered. Blood was leaking out from underneath his rig, and he had his IFAK rolled out, trying to patch himself up. I suspect he found that somewhat hard to do with a .30-06 lodged in one elbow.

"Hard to stop up holes in your chest with your rig still on dumb fuck", I laughed flipping the Mutant over to semi auto, "you ranking officers a worth a hell of a lot of money dead. Hope you enjoyed the last cigar."

I put the muzzle of the mutant to his head and pulled the trigger. A morbidly satisfying crunch ripped through the parking garage as the steel core of the bullet tore through the Leadership's helmet and embedded itself in the divider behind him.

Takhir flinched noticeably. Tessa turned to him.

"You okay?", she asked.

"I don't really get the whole idea behind execution", Takhir shrugged, "Jakob always says they aren't handed out lightly, but the fact isn't lost on me that if things had gone just a bit differently, could have been me whose skull just got split in half."

"Seems like a pretty reasonable bother given your background", I reached down and swiped the Leadership's tags. They were worth a metric fuckload of money to Keiturn Government officials, thirty thousand plus credits on a bad day. These tags alone would easily pay every single outstanding bill we had, six months of rent with lots of profit left over.

"Don't worry bro", Charlie said patting Takhir on the shoulder, "we most definitely will not kill ya' probably."

"And I in return will shield you from the creatures that live under your beds, which you humans seem to be so plagued with", Takhir fired back.

"Good one!", Jakob shouted from the back of the garage, where Vivian was now getting to her feet.

"You need help Viv?", Eos shouted, "you feeling okay!?"

"I got shot in the face with a five hundred SW mag! Shit fucking hurts!", Vivian hissed.

"Takhir", Jakob tossing the keys to the rig at him, "take the rig, get the trailer and pull it around front, we'll meet you out there."

Takhir caught the keys, turned to look at me and pointed, "trailer's just topside, hop in and let's grab it before more Insurrectionist troops show up."

"Bet", Tessa agreed.

We all climbed into Jakob's Cascadia. Any other time, might have been a comfortable fit, given the internal table had space for four adults, plus the two seats in the front. However, this Rig was built for civilian use, and thus, the seats weren't at all accommodating for loaded down TV-Rigs and plate carriers. I grabbed shotgun while Eos and the others piled in around the table in the back. Takhir climbed in the driver's seat of the rig , setting his Ruger carbine in the space between the seat and the wall of the cab. The aftermarket Recaro seat was pretty clearly designed for a large creature wearing lots of armor, as it swallowed Takhir with a hilariously large amount of room left. He threw the fob in a deli meat dish that was velcroed to the dash, slammed the door shut and started the truck. He threw it into first gear and pulled it out of the parking spot. Shifting into second gear almost as soon as we were out of the parking space, he rolled the truck out into the parking lot, where he pulled up next to a rather high end looking dino trailer with a large "Falcon Performance Engineering" on the side of it, an enclosed model, it looked like it was fancy ride. I hopped out with Takhir, walking around the front of the Cascadia as Vivian and Jakob joined us.

"Man, something like that is what the rich assholes used to ride around in prior to the invasions I bet. Looks damn expensive", Vivian noted.

"Yeap", Jakob said grabbing the price tag off the window, "half a million credits."

"Rated for a good bit of weight too", Takhir pointed out, "can you get this king pin lock off Artemis?"

I reached into my deck and fished out one of my two remaining Locked-Unlock cards, grabbed the lock and pulled it off the trailer, the card flaking into dust as I threw the lock aside and Jakob cut the wires through the wheels with his bolt cutters.

"Sweet, Jakob, feel like guiding me in?"

"Yeah, I'll spot you bro. Art, Viv, feel like stepping back for a moment?"

Vivian and I stepped away from the trailer while Jakob guided Takhir's efforts to mate the truck to the trailer, which they accomplished in one swift motion. As soon as the back of the Freightliner was locked to the trailer, Jakob started hooking stuff up and preparing the trailer.

"You know Vivian", Jakob said, "I've been around a good bit. Been to a few planets and met a lot of people who all practiced their elements in their own way, but you command fire in a way I haven't seen before. That level of mastery doesn't come through practicing spells after school. That's Monastery education mastery right there. How long did it take you to command your Practice like that?"

Vivian shrugged, "my entire life. See, my parents wanted a son, well, they got me. So I guess they decided to punish me by forcing me to completely master Fire. Jokes on them, I'm a certified Pyromaniac, so fire is the perfect element for me anyway. Of course, we're talking about two narcissists who had the best day of their life when they kicked me out of the nest at 3 years old, sending me to monastery. I sobbed about it for weeks. Didn't understand why they hated me so much. Eventually, a newly mated couple who couldn't have kids of their own adopted me, and shortly after, the doctor at the Monastery told me I had Pyromania, so jokes on them I guess. One of the things I remember one of my teachers saying is, quote;

"Vivian will be a great master of fire, we can all see this. However, I theorize she will go further than that. She could perhaps be the master. She will surely be spoken of in the history books as a truly great practitioner."

Eos snorted laughing, "I'll be your ego was never bigger than it was then and there."

"I'll tell you what, it was nice to get a compliment from someone I looked up to for once in my life.", Vivian giggled, "I want you to understand, the master that said that was straight up a Fernai, and still one of the most talented duelists I've met to this day. He was one of those hard to impress mother fuckers, and so I stuck my face to the glass like one of those fish that sucks algae off an aquarium window. I spent 18 years there, vacuuming every bit of knowledge I could get my claws around into my tiny, tube shaped brain. By the time I got done when I was 21, only one other person in the entire Monastery could hold their own against me, and he was the white dragon they brought in to teach light to the Entombed that were there. I kinda wonder where I might be if my parents hadn't booted me like they did, but at the same time, who cares?"

"Whoever your master was taught you well", Jakob said, closing the dust cover on his M1919, "I prefer to fight in the dark myself, but hey, Fire leaves physical scars. I would argue that's just as bad as what the dark can do to you."

"Well you know", Vivian said, trying carefully not to crack her skull on the concrete beam she was having to almost lay down to get underneath, "someone told me one time, and I wholly believe this, that someday, another Fire Practitioner is going to come along and show me just how weak in this element I really am. As the saying goes, there's always a bigger fish. Plus, I can't do Atunment for shit, the only instruction we had in it were the masters telling us not to worry about it, it's too difficult to master to a level you can get serious use out of. I would very much like to know where you picked skill like yours up at."

"The Dark Veil", Jakob said flashing his left hand. I noticed that two of the stones, a Darkness and a Synthetics, were cracked.

Now, pause for a moment, Elemental stones are fucking hard to break. What can you do to crack one? Not a whole lot. You can run them over with a freight train and you'll have more of a chance to derail the train than you will to crack the stone. I could write you an entire novel on the Veil and the Dark Veil, but to keep the story a short as I can, The Dark Veil is the flipside of the Veil, which is another dimension slash plane of existence that any skilled sort of elemental practitioner can access. The Dark Veil is suspected, but not proven, to be the origin points of some of Occupied Space's worst creatures and diseases. It takes a bit more skill and a cracked Veil stone to access, but, you can do it. Staying in the Dark Veil for too long can ruin your body and mind, and it can also cause your Elemental Stones to crack. Any practitioner of any Element can tell you that the stones regulate the Veil Energy powering your abilities, which keeps you from overloading your body and, you know, dying. However, a cracked stone, called a Corrupted Stone, looses it's regulation abilities, and essentially hands the wielder unchecked elemental power. Only really the Entombed can handle cracked stones, and even they sometimes struggle. Cracked stones are better left where they're found, for most at least. I only ever knew two people who could access the Dark Veil, and both of them had said that there are few reasons to travel there, since the Dark Veil has been mired in a war between Ethereal and Corporal beings since about the time of the Creation Event. I'd only heard stories of the horrors that took place there.

"Is that where you picked up those cracked stones too?", I asked.

"Sort of. I already had the extra stones, they cracked while I was looking for a way out", Jakob finished hooking up the trailer, "Takhir, gimme my fuckin' spot back!"

"I'm not in your spot jackass!"

Vivian hopped into the trailer, the door of which shut behind her, whereas I managed to somehow stuff myself into the rig in between the front seats. There wasn't a place for me to sit, so I just sat on top of my ruck.

"Aight Art", Jakob asked, "where to?"

"You can drop Eos and I off at our Tundra, from there we can go to Siren City."

"Okay then", Jakob said putting his truck in gear, "lets roll. Good raid."

"Good raid indeed", Eos agreed.