Slavegear 2 - Katsura's Mask

Geoff pulls himself up off the floor, and brushes himself down. Drawing the two pistols he took from the dead agent outside, he moves back up to the door, and cautiously takes a quick glance around the corner looking for an attack of opportunity.

In a panic Gamma gets up off the ground and starts to search for Epsilon's Plum of Dusk.

Inferno leapt into the room, grinning like a madman. If anyone saw him, they noticed that his data pad was still displaying his information of his glucose levels, which were steadily dropping due to burning his fuel for the burning state.

With his Nirik high active, he picked up the body of the unconsious fox man, held him close for protection and setting the man's clothes on fire, then hurled the body at the guy shooting franctically. He also got in closer to take out the guy with a whack with his shotgun.

Slasher tasted blood in her mouth and she couldn't speak properly, as her lower jaw was growing inceasingly swoolen and pained. You suspect it got fractured right in the middle, as a guant bruise began to form on your chin.

The enemy soldier stirred as you pried his jaws open and shoved a grenade down his mouth. He suddenly became very lively as you were pulled back, the man began gagging and clawing at him mouth, but he couldn't unclench his jaws anymore as they were already hyperextended and the grenade got stuck between his teeth.


His eyes grew wild and he released a muffled scream, before his head exploded from the inside, the blast completely contained by his armored skull. A blast of gore shot out of his mouth and eyes, before the empty husk of his skull thumped to the floor, smoking and burning within.

One of the enemy agents vomited, exposing his head out of cover and Slashers wild burst of Vector fire sprayed three bullets across his temple, sending his lifeless corpse tumbling out to the floor.



"STAY IN COVER!" Matej barked across the room, his voice drowning in gunfire, as Gamma popped into view. She looked dazed, her left arm missing at the elbow, the stump still glowing with blue phlourescent goo, that shed hissing droplets in her wake.

Her vision still glitching out and slowly returning to normal, she scanned the server room and finally noticed the operating table at the vrry far end of the room. Inside an open armored case, on the desk by the table, saw a small blue chip, emanating its phantom glow. The bullets were striking the wall behind it, flying alarmingly close.

Before you could take another step forward, at least 10 bullets struck you across your upper body.
Several bullets deflected off your armored chest plate, three penatrated somewhere around your ribs, ripping apart sensitive circuitry inside. Three more struck the side of your face, one deflecting off your skull, exposing it and ripping the synthetic skin one. One penetrated the side of your forehead, blasting some ciruit inside and leaving a gaping hole in your head. The last one shot right through your left eye, obliterating it and becoming lodged in your head.


Two dozen red warning signs flashed across your glitching retina, indicating accumulating failure across several system and you tripped, stumbling down to one knee. The only thing you knew for sure was that your Plume of Dusk didn't get hit, as indicated by you still being alive.

"COVER ME!" Roksana barked, waited for Barker to start spraying, then made a leaping jump, ending with a roll and in the same movement knocked and shoved Gamma and herself behind a metal cabinet.


"Stay in cover, are you trying to die!?" Roksana yelled into Gamma's ear, her voice coming through glitched and distorted.





As Geoff took a quick glance around the corner, he saw 3 sources of enemy fire inside the room, and one of them was spraying blind, his face was burned horribly and he tried to heal himself simultaniously by gripping thr side of his face with the other hand, that emanated a blue ghostly light.

"FUCKING PRICKS, FUCK YOUUUU!!!" He was shrieking in Soren with a horrible accent "YOU LIKE FIRE? I SHOVE A MOLOTOV UP YOUR DICK-" the upper part of his head popped out of cover in excitement, the man was too dazen and blind to notice.

Taking a very carefully aimed shot, Geoff put the mans head in his crosshairs and gently pressed the trigger.

The far wall behind the agent got sprayed red and the man stopped shouting abruptly. You heard his body crumbling out of view behind the cabinet.



As Inferno leaped into the room and ran toward the dead fox man, he was immediately greated by a burst of three bullets, to the left side of his body. The impacts flipped him to the side and tripped him hard, making him fall beside the dead smoking skull of the fox man.

One bullet had ricocheted off Inferno's bullet proof vest, another embedded in his left shoulder and left biceps. His entire left hand started to grown numb. You involuntarily screamed out im pain, as you struggled to lift the mans body, largey one handed. His clothes burst into flames, just as you hid behind his form and heard several bullets striking the corpse in the back, some penetrating deep and running the danger of flying clean through.

Grunting, you somehow managed to lift the burning corpse off the ground and violently hurled it as far as you could, at the nearest enemy.

That caught the agent so by surprise, he didn't manage to get away in time and was knocked down to the floor, with the burning corpse falling right on him. The man started to scream, but from pain and the absolute shock of seeing his dead team mate in such a ravaged state.

Without missing a beat, Inferno closed the distance and shot him with a shotgun to the face, nearly point blank. At this distance, even the agents armored skull didn't save him and his head exploded like a watermellon, painting the floor red.

Inferno looked up and realized he was completely out of cover, and in direct line of fire of the last surviving agent.

The enemy already had his gun raised and aiming right at Inferno's head. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl, as you saw his finger inching toward the trigget and one of his eyes closing, as he carefully aimed down the sights.


And then Krys's deep and manic bass voice, as he popped out of cover with a red spark in his palms:

"I'MA FIRING MY LAZOR, BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" A thick laser line shot out of his outstretched palm, coating the room in red light, as it shot across and splashed the agent across the face, nearly instantly melting his assault rifle his chest and his face and searing a deep red molten crater into the metal wall behind him.


The red laser remained active for almost 5 seconds and nearly blinded you. By the time it turned off, the enemy corpse had no upper body and slowly fell back to the floor, the entire back of the wall melting and glowing orange and red.



The silence continued for 10 more seconds, before you realized that all agents in the room were dead.

"Ow..." slasher says weakly, "Quick! We gotta take the things." She mutters her jaw growing numb, "-And then we gotta fick off FASHT!" she sets her back against the door to the hallway, "Chome on Roombash. Go go go! Before shiber shquad gets here."

"This pony went... to the Moooooooonnn..." Krys giggled weakly and slid down to the floor, leaning against the doorway. Looks like his glucose is down to 50 again.

"I'm not carrying you." Barker curled his upper lip.

"..anybody got a chocolate bar?" Krys asked with a decidedly baked expression.


"Schwarzesmarken be adviced," Shi-Tongs relatively calm voice cut in again "ETA to military tasks force arrival, 4 minutes"


"Alright, we need to get Epsilon, extract that intel file from the servers, raid the armory for explosives and rig them on the buildings support columns for a timed, or remote triggered detonation, then extract through the sewers." Roksana called, looking around:

"Pick a task and split up to cover more ground. Inferno, if you know magic first aid, attend to the wounded. Lets move out."

Roksana knelt next to Gamma and raised her hand next to your head. Some holographic coned orange lights projected out of her palm and onto the side of your forehead. You think she's running a diagnostic.

Geoff holsters the pistols and moves over to Krys to help lift him up off the floor.

His facial expression becomes incredulous as he hears they only have 4 minutes left to do literally everything.

Gamma twitches

"Touch Epsilon's Plume and I will kill you! Do not separate us any more!"

Gamma twitches

"Roksana, get the data and don't worry about me. I've lived through worse.

Gamma twitches

"The system will overload in just under 30 minutes automatically. Recall the drones on the street and multiply it by what is in here"

Gamma twitches

Slasher is up looking for their primary objective, "Ge'th Gamma up! Pull yoursh'elth toges'her Roombah. Your th'ucking arm can be repla'sh'ed your Sh'ister cant. We dont have th'ime for thi'sh."

Geoff wrote:Geoff holsters the pistols and moves over to Krys to help lift him up off the floor.

You somehow manage to get Krys on his feet, although he wobbled quite frequently after, even as he leaned against a bullet-riddled cabinet:
"W-whereeee....areee... we going??...." the mage asked, blinking slowly into the ether.

Gamma wrote:"Touch Epsilon's Plume and I will kill you! Do not separate us any more!"

Gamma twitches

"Roksana, get the data and don't worry about me. I've lived through worse.

Gamma twitches

"The system will overload in just under 30 minutes automatically. Recall the drones on the street and multiply it by what is in here"

Gamma twitches

"30 minutes isn't good enough. We only have 4." Roksana said, rising up slowly and turning off whatever device she was using "The entire left half of your body was paralyzed when the bullet struck your cortex. I've managed to re-route the power for now, but if you rattle you head hard enough, the paralysis may come back. I only had time to do a shoddy field patch work."


Roksana looked over her shoulder "Guys, I'm not joking, we literally don't have a second to spare.
Someone needs to raid the armory for explosives and find a place to put them to level the building.
Inferno, tend to the wounded if you know the magic. Gamma, get Epsilon. Whoever's not per-occupied, find our sewer exit and look for ways to hinder the enemy's pursuit, be it makeshift barricades or booby-traps. Lets move."

Slasher wrote:Slasher is up looking for their primary objective, "Ge'th Gamma up! Pull yoursh'elth toges'her Roombah. Your th'ucking arm can be repla'sh'ed your Sh'ister cant. We dont have th'ime for thi'sh."

A quick glance across the room revealed a computer terminal on the desk to the left, placed between several shelves of servers, some of which were smoking and hissing from their bullet holes.

"Lets hope we didn't hit anything important.." Barker winced.

"Alright, let's see what we're dealing with." Roksana fell into the chair behind the terminal and connected a wire from the side of her neck, to the USB port on the side of the screen. Her closed eyelids started twitching rapidly, as if her eyes behind them were zig-zagging left and right. Several green holographic hoops materialized over her body and danced around her.

"Got it. An encrypted file named 'Opera Football'." She said after 5 seconds.

"Can you decrypt it?" Matej asked, falling into a chair beside her.

"Already done." Roksana frowned slightly "...the file size is 20 Terra-bites."

Barker twitched, peeling himself off a server shelf, as if he just now started listening "Uhhh... excuse me... the fuck did you just say?"

"I said 20 Terra-bites." Roksana drummed a beat on the desk with all ten fingers in thought.

"Oh... good." Barker rubbed his face bitterly "And how many hours will that take to copy?"

"What do you think I'm running on? Pentium 2?" Roksana curled her lower lip.

"...what's a Pentium?" Matej quietly whispered to you, cover the side of his mouth presumably so Roksana won't hear.

"It should take me about... 7 minutes." Roksana grimaced "That's if I skip the 23% of the files that got corrupted when the server shelves got filled with led."

"Files? I thought there was only one?" Barker cocked his head.

"Opera Football is actually a folder housing hundreds of thousands of files, that include documents, pictures, audio and video files. All accumulating to 20 Terra-bites large."

"What the hell are they housing in there?! The worlds biggest donkey porn collection?" Barker bristled.



Roksana sighed and unplugged her self from the computer, making the wire whip around, slashing the desk, before it retreated by itself into the side of her neck:
"Alright, this isn't going to work for me. Matej, turn around."

"What-?... Oh." Matej turned in his seat and moved the stealth cloak out of the way, exposing a military backpack on his back. Roksana unzipped it and rummaged through its contents before she pulled something that looked like an external hard-drive. She promptly plugged into the computer terminal and hit a few keys.


"Whacha up to?" Barker leaned in over her shoulder. Roksana planted her palm on his face and pushed him away:
"I can't be chained up to this terminal. I've started the download process, the files will copy themselves to our external hard-drive and be done in 7 minutes, freeing me to move about, and do something about our friends who will arrive in... 3 minutes." She checked her watch:
"Watch over the terminal for me, won't you?"

She strolled out of the server room.


"Mm." Matej nodded with a thumbs up, then immediately turned toward the terminal and began accessing as many files as he could reach, while they were being copied.

"Hey," Barker slapped him over the back of his head "Whacha doing, fool? Didn't Roksana said not to peek at whatever the hell we're downloading for Shi-Tong? That digital hack is pissed enough at us, as it is."

"Matej turned in his seat, looking him dead in the eye, then at you: "You seriously want to blindly do what he tells us? Following orders without thinking or doing our own research is a good way to wind up dead-"


"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Krys suddenly shrieked, pointing straight at the terminal screen. He gasped so loud, the other two men flinched in their seats. All trace of any drug influence or high had faded from the cultists eyes, as if they were never there. His expression was so lucid and clear, you even began to suspect he was playing it up earlier.

His breathing increased, eyes growing wide, as Krys slowly took shaky steps toward the computer, his hand pointing at a video file, the first frame of which was frozen on the screen, waiting to be played. On it, the most beautiful woman you've ever seen in your life, stared with a small bitter smile, just off to the screen somewhere. Her fur was pure white as snow, her blue eyes were mesmerism and sad. Her blond hair was brushed back and two, pure white wings were half-folded on her back.


"The... prophet!..." Krys covered his mouth, staring in awe at the paused video on the screen:
"...Audrey Swan!"

"What wu'sh all the Defen'shes you ghained acc'sh'ess to when you hacked in? Any'shing for when they arrive? Can you inter'shept befor they get here? Blow them up when zshey pull in or shomefhing?" Slasher askes Roksana as she disconnects from the computer.

As Matej leans over Slasher leans back, "It'ch an intel prosh'essor from the nineteen ninede'sh. Ancient tech now."

Her eyes flick to Krys then to the image on the screen she silently examines the woman before promply turning to Krys and raising an eyebrow, "Who?"

Geoff helps Krys hobble over to the terminal to keep him occupied, and then heads off to find a sewer exit.

Gamm heads over a carefully picks up Epsilon's Plume. Placing it somewhere safe and secure on her own body. She steps over to the computer.

"Krys, let me sit. I'm going to be useless in a fight right now. I'll stay with the hard drive and make sure the file transfer completes. Also we can't have you ogling the pretty girl right now"

"The only "healing procedure" I can do is cauterization." Inferno said, his flames slowly dieing out. He took a look at his own body, shaking his head. Once he lost the Nirik state, he hissed loudly in pain, as the damage of the bullets registered in the brain. He shhok it off quickly though, speaking with a hint of acing and exhaustion.

"Leave explosives to me. Destruction is my forte, I can even leave it as a pretty bonfire if you want to." He turns to leave. "Keep me informed on directions."

With that, he ran off.

Slasher wrote:As Matej leans over Slasher leans back, "It'ch an intel prosh'essor from the nineteen ninede'sh. Ancient tech now."

"Woaaah!" The batponies eyes widened in awe "That's almost a hundre years old!"

Slasher wrote:Her eyes flick to Krys then to the image on the screen she silently examines the woman before promply turning to Krys and raising an eyebrow, "Who?"

"A mad woman" Barker flatly replied.

"Curb your tongue!" Krys turned to him in fury "This is our spiritual leader!-"

"Oh come off it." Barker waved him away without even looking Krys in the eye "You morons found a vulnerable, mental girl and elevated her to a position of power, exploiting her suicidal ravings to justify your 'End of the World' cult! None of you clowns can claim a shred of dignity."

"Uroburos is not a cult!" Krys hissed, raising his index finger that lit up with an orange flame "And we don't believe in ending the world, we believe in rebirth! Reincarnation!!!"

"Is that why you encouraged Audrey to end the world three years ago? And shoved your satanic book of Mirror-Mirror demons in her hands?" Barker curled his lip in disgust.

Krys gasped and went pale, apparently at the familiarity of addressing the woman by first name: "You disrespect the prophet again and I will make your liver implode!!!" The unicorn shoved his flaming finger in Barkers chest, the two men staring daggers at each other.

Gamma wrote:Gamma heads over a carefully picks up Epsilon's Plume. Placing it somewhere safe and secure on her own body. She steps over to the computer.

You found a tactical armored pouch strapped to your thigh, apparently ment for housing sensitive equipment in a firefight. Although not intended to carry Plumes of Dusk, this pouch seems to best suit for your needs.

Gamma wrote:
"Krys, let me sit. I'm going to be useless in a fight right now. I'll stay with the hard drive and make sure the file transfer completes. Also we can't have you ogling the pretty girl right now"

"Excuse me!?" Krys glared at you incredulously "Ogling!? There is no ogling!! There is only reverence!"

"Whatever, your excellency." Barker shrugged in poorly hid disgust.

"Barker would you mind checking the armory. Inferno might need your help." Matej timidly suggested. Barker growled at him and peeled off into the corridor.

Matej himself didn't relinquish his seat to Gamma but pulled up another chair.

"...the words of the prophet... " Krys whispered in reverence again, looming somewhere over your shoulder and watching the screen. "Sakamundu's ministry of intelligence went out of their way to encrypt and hide these files away from mortal men!... OOOOooohhh!... what sacred words of wisdom left unheard, may she bestow upon us yet?" Krys stared at Audrey's images mesmerized, before snapping out of it for a moment and impatiently tapping you and Matej on the shoulders:
"Well, what are you waiting for? Play the video!" His eyes returned to the screen, growing misty.


"Are you literally high right now?" Matej asked casually.

"YESSSSS!!" Krys said with glassy eyes "Now play it!"

Inferno wrote:"Leave explosives to me. Destruction is my forte, I can even leave it as a pretty bonfire if you want to." He turns to leave. "Keep me informed on directions."

With that, he ran off

Your Data-pad beeped, indicating you had 91 mg/dL of glucose left, as you stepped out of the server room. The wounds on your shoulder and bicep were throbbing painfully and you noticed they were still actively bleeding, as a trail of blood was left in your wake.

It seems there was no need to ask for directions, as a helpful sign in the hallway juncture pointed you toward the armory. As you started your way there, you heard loud footsteps behind you and soon Barker caught up. The man looked annoyed and more than a little disgusted by something, but made no comment at first.

He made a quick glance in your direction, which seemed to remind him of something different and he grouchily asked:
"Did you only study the fire spell or something? You know Unicorns usually master 7 spells right?"

His mood improved instantly and immensely, when you found a heavily armored door, filled with black and yellow stripes on the doorway and a sign above reading 'The Armory'

Stepping inside, was much akin to entering an extravagant toy shop for him. The entire room was lit up by a pleasant blue light, padded with sound proof foam and looked very high-tech. Shelves upon shelves of high-end G-36 KA4 assault rifles, completely packed with specialized attachments to improve fire control and target acquisition. Glock 17 pistols sat in a neat row, equipped with silencers, flashlights and laser sights. There were some bullet proof Data-pads too, all configured and ready for use, their screens sturdy enough to withstand direct impacts.

Two miniguns rested on a table to the left, each one with a 500 bullet giant cartridge that was meant to be worn on the back.

Four Anti-Tank missile launchers also caught your attention. And 4 missiles sitting beside them.

10 Claymore mines sat neatly stacked on a desk nearby, infra-red laser based, proximity activated.

And close to 20 packs of C-4 Explosives with remote detonators attached.


"YEAAAAAAAAAAH! JACKPOT BABY!" Barker suddenly barked, jumping in glee like a teenager and running deeper into the room. "OH CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY FOR BARKER WOOOOOOOOO!"
At first you thought he spazzed out about the explosives, but then you realized that the massive, giant fridge he was running towards, wasn't a normal fridge for groceries.

The label above it read - 'Cyberwear'


Without missing a beat, Barker swung the fridges transparent, frosted door open and pulled out an extending rack, full of large, sealed silver bags with yellow and black stripes and warnings on them. Barkers eyes widened and started watering as he stared at them in awe. A single tear of joy fell down his unshaven face as he visibly resisted the urge to fall to his knees before this sight.


There were things in the fridge, that you didn't know existed.


Cybernetic eyes with military grade enhancements. Some that significantly enhanced vision, acting like sniper scopes. Others protected from Flashbangs, while acting like Flashbangs. Some with hidden compartments and some with offensive capabilities.

There were cybernetic arms and legs with very extreme weapon attachments.

There was bullet proof alloy that could be woven under the skin, to protect from bullet fire. There was a polymer liquid that could be injected into the bones, to make them essentially unbreakable.

There was bioware here as well, synthetic lungs that allowed to breathe underwater or filter poisonous gasses out. Synthetic liver and kidneys. Synthetic hearts and lungs that gave a better cardiac output for prolonged physical exercise.

There was so much stuff here, you couldn't even grasp all of it at a passing glance.

Barker licked his lips and tapped his earpiece, coming through everyone's radio:

"Guys... we found Loot."

Slasher wrote:"What wu'sh all the Defen'shes you ghained acc'sh'ess to when you hacked in? Any'shing for when they arrive? Can you inter'shept befor they get here? Blow them up when zshey pull in or shomefhing?" Slasher askes Roksana as she disconnects from the computer.

"The enemy will be inserting via 4 military cargo helicopters. Each such helicopter can house anywhere between 10 and 50 soldiers."

Roksana casually said, as she began walking out of the server room "I've placed two murder-bots with miniguns on the roof to greet the party. Placed several flying drones in tactical choke-points throughout the building and reprogrammed the hidden turrets in the walls to identify anyone who's not Schwarzesmarken as an enemy."

She pulled her hood back and moved a lock of synthetic hair from her closed eyes, fully revealing her head "I don't think it will be enough." She looked back to you over her shoulder:

"I'll go on ahead to the upper floors and slow them down. You should booby-trap the area behind me and move to the sewer when you can. I'll catch up later.
Don't, wait for me."


"Wait wait, what!?" Matej suddenly jolted, staring at her in fear "There may be 200 soldiers inserting up top and you wonna meet them alone?! What the hell are you gonna do?"

"............I'm going to open my eyes." Roksana said quietly, her expression extremely grim "...you don't want to be near me, when that happens."
She turned away, moving the locks of hair away from her face again:
"...don't worry, I'm not out to commit suicide. If they get passed all my drones, I'll met them at a choke point in the hallway. If they get too close to the server room, I'll pretend to surrender. Buy you some time. Don't wait for me."

She quietly stepped out of the room.

Geoff wrote:Geoff helps Krys hobble over to the terminal to keep him occupied, and then heads off to find a sewer exit.

"Oh thank you child." Krys gratefully smiled, before looming over Gamma and Matej's shoulders, watching the terminal, as you headed off.

Lifting the sleeve on your forearm you examined your Data-pad, looking through the buildings schematics. Following the floor plan, you walked down the corridor to the medical wing, noticing it wall fully stocked and even had two operating tables. Then you took a turn with the corridor and a few meters further you found a large maintenance room. There were water boilers here, some complicated ventilation machinery and a dozen other generators that all buzzed and clanked, creating a low hum on noise in the room.

At the far end of it, you spotted a reinforced hatch on the floor. And a giant minigun turret just over it, on the ceiling. The turret immediately jerked at your approach, zeroed in on you, its tiny camera zeroed in on your forehead, scanned your features and identified you as friendly, before the turret jerked back and returned to stare at the hatch.

According to the floor plans, this is the hatch to the sewer.

Geoff gives the turret a wary glance, before approaching the hatch to see if it can be opened.

The turret beeps at you menacingly, as if it was a dormant wasp, but doesn't twitch at your approach. Approaching the hatch you spot three deadbolt-locks that can be opened only from inside the maintenance room. There is no keyhole, but there is something that suspiciously looks like an opening for a keycard to slide into.

Gamma adds the file of the video to the download, then closes it. She then sets up a search for all files marked with Toruviel, Mirror, and Audrey and adds those to be downloaded after the Opera Football is done.


"We'll have to watch it later, best we can do is copy the video and as many extra files from your religion as we can before we have to jet. We're already going to be in the middle of the transfer with our mission files when the enemy gets here. Also, if you faint from excitement by watching it now, I don't think anyone will carry you out. At least not me or Matej, though me because my fucking arm is gone"

If possible Gamma also tries to connect herself to the system and provide her own processing power to speed things up.

Krys emitted some sort of sound, that reminded you of a mix between a horrified cheerleader and a dying cat:
"AAAAAAAAGH!!! THE PROPHEEEET!" he stretched his palms toward the screen as you closed the file, then he deflated and stared at you very murderously:

"If you deny me access to this file later, I will condemn your soul to eternal damnation!"

"Okay, father, have a seat." Matej said only semi-mockingly, and pulled up a chair. Krys fell into it with a very sullen expression and returned to watching the screen with a dull stare.


As you connected to the computer terminal, a flood of data scrolled before your retinas and at the same time, over the computer's screen as well. Matej's jaw slightly fell open, as he caught a brief overall glance at the Opera Eight folder.


"...Wait...." Krys squinted suspiciously and only with a mildly baked expression "The video file with the prophet, is not named Audrey Swan... it is named Logan Krauss..... why is that...?" he tilted his head, as if that could help him comprehend the situation better.


"Oh my god..." Matej was turning paler by the second, as the realization began dawning on him, and you both, as you scanned just the labels of files:
"There's... nothing but names here... folders with names... prominent figures, politicians, officers, scientists, CEO's... each folder containing audio, video, documents, photos..." his hair began standing on end:

"This is black mail....... black mail material...... on everyone who's anyone......" he slowly looked toward you:

"'Opera Football' is a library of Black Mail material...... it must have been compiled by the Digital Waltz for decades...... THAT'S how they controlled the world! You can look up ANYONE important in this library and black mail them to do pretty much anything! I mean look-" he tapped the screen at random with his finger:


"There's folders for Logan Krauss, Councilor Mercer, Twilight Sparkle, Marek, Lisa Brown... I always wondered what happened to the Digital Waltz' intel that they compiled over the years. I guess the Sakamundu ministry of intelligence managed to nab it, right under everyone's noses, when the Digital Waltz collapsed. No wonder Shi-Tong's wants-"


"THE FUCK YOU JUST SAY?!" Barker's voice suddenly cut through the earpiece "WHAT WAS THAT LAST NAME IN THE FILE!?"

"...Lisa... Brown?" Matej shrugged "Who's Lisa Brown?"

"Give me that file Matej..." Barker growled, his voice sounded uncharacteristically poisonous "I want that fucking file!!!"


"Okay, chill out man, its in the Opera Football folder anyway." Matej shrugged "Try not to pop an aneurysm, yeah? I don't see why everyone's getting so worked u- Oh..... oh fuck." Matej covered his mouth, his eyes growing wide as you noticed a schematic of some sort of bomb being copied onto your external hard-drive.

"What the fuck.... is a nuclear bomb....?" The boy muttered slowly, all color draining so fast from his face, he began resembling a ghost.


"Fiction. It doesn't exist." Krys crossed his arms "Allegedly, it is a bomb, so strong, it can level a city, with a blast radius as wide as 20 kilometers. The only explosive material that can allow such a massive release of energy, is something called Uranium. But that is a fictional chemical element.
It doesn't exist.
Not a single trace of Uranium was found on Kepler, in the 4 millennia that humanity lived here. Its a made-up metal.
Looking for Uranium is like looking for Mithril."


"...then why am I looking at a detailed schematic for building an Uranium Bomb...?" Matej asked hoarsely, as the schematic got copied onto your hard-drive.


"...Its real." Barker said, his voice ominously quiet in your earpiece "Its fucking real."


"What the hell are we stealing here- wow..." Matej blinked, as a strange grainy picture filled the entirety of the computer screen, before it too, was copied onto your hard drive:
"...what the hell is that."












Krys' jaw fell open, as he stared blankly at the screen. His expression, a mix of fear, disbelief and respect:


"...The Masters' Medallion."

"You guy'sh are too caught up in shpechifiks." She waves her hand dismissively, "None of zhish hash anyfhing to do wi'sh us. Dont dig yourshelf into a hole. Shi'tong could jusht kill you after we finish hish misshion." She glares at the screen when the amulate appears. "Krysh... your bosh hash more to do wish your faith then you realish." Her attention suddenly turns around and she moves to check on the hallways, "My facsh throbs... how much longer?" She mutters.

Kaylee Brown wrote:He made a quick glance in your direction, which seemed to remind him of something different and he grouchily asked:
"Did you only study the fire spell or something? You know Unicorns usually master 7 spells right?"

"Maybe Unicorns do that, but I'm not a unicorn." Inferno said in a factual tone. "I'm a Kirin, maybe closer to Nirik even. We're taught about our fire from a young age, since our tempers can literally flare up. Controlling other elements do not hold meaning for us as mastering fire does."



Once the armory is opened, his mind is taken away from the wound on his arm, and there does seem to be a genuine interest in some of the equipment here. "Oh my... All kinds of equalizers to make battles about skill and determination... This could be fun. If only we could take this treasure along."

He was busy loading up on bombs for distribution around the building, when the discussion flared up. He pondered and spoke. "They say the first plans for the submarine were made before technology had advanced enough to make those specific parts for constructing the vehicle. This bomb can be the same."

Then the mediallion popped up, and he looked. "Hrmmm... It's jewelry. Unless there's some secret to this that can't be felt from a picture, decoration at best."

He grabs more bombs for distribution.

Spotting the card reader on the door, Geoff whips out the card he stolen from the agent, and swipes it.

Inferno wrote:Once the armory is opened, his mind is taken away from the wound on his arm, and there does seem to be a genuine interest in some of the equipment here. "Oh my... All kinds of equalizers to make battles about skill and determination... This could be fun. If only we could take this treasure along."

"Speak for your self man," Barker gleefully descended onto the fridge and started grabbing as many sealed silver packs as he could hold in his arms. All these silver packs were rectangular in shape, about 1 by 0.7 meters in length and 0.2 meters in width, with various protrusions visible on the side.

Barker started shoving them under his arm but they were cumbersome and he couldn't seem to hold more than 4 under one arm pit, so he started shoving more under his other, with a few bags slipping out of his grasp and falling on the floor.

It doesn't look like he's even paying attention to what he's grabbing, and just looting everything he can reach.


As you start grabbing explosives, you begin feeling light headed and maybe a little nauseous. A few tiny dark spots appear in your vision, then fade, and you feel a little wobbly on your feet. A steady stream of blood keeps trickling down your left arm and tapping on the floor, creating a small, but growing puddle.

Inferno wrote: "They say the first plans for the submarine were made before technology had advanced enough to make those specific parts for constructing the vehicle. This bomb can be the same."

"I don't... I don't like this..." Matej uncomfortably shifted in his seat, his bat-wings shuffling "...how do you... how do you even stop something like that? It can just go off and you won't even know, won't even have time to hide or run. There won't even be anywhere to hide."


"Is this really that different, from when Marek used Slavegear to lay waste to a city in Artemis?" Krys pondered "I seem to recall the effects being largely the same. All that's left of that city now is a giant crater."

"Okay, that's way different-" Matej made an X sign with his palms "because, A, Slavegear wasn't using radio-active material, it was using incendiary artillery shells. B, it didn't level the whole city, it only blew up the Union Council building and everything around it in a 2 kilometer radius. And C, Slavegear was a giant fuck-off 100 meter tall robot that you can see coming from 40 kilometers away and fired artillery shells that could theoretically be shot down from the sky.

If you put this... Nuclear Bomb... in a fucking suit case, and leave it in the back of your car in some parking lot somewhere, ain't nobody finding that shit, or knowing about it, until it explodes-"

You heard Barker awkwardly cough into his earpiece but the merc said nothing, so Matej continued:
"That is horrid, and horrifying, and I don't like the implications of handing Shi-Tong the schematics for this crap, coupled with a library of black mail material on everyone who's anyone, in the world. With all of this bullshit, he will be like a god. That's not a figure of speech anymore."


"Mate, you have a Neurochip in your head." Barker scoffed "You think it matters what you like? What is it you think we do here?"

"I'm scared for my country, damn it!" Matej slammed his fist on the desk. His free hand subconsciously drifted to the scar on the back of his head, as if he was wincing and contemplating the logistics of ripping the Neurochip out of his head with bare hands.

Inferno wrote:"Hrmmm... It's jewelry. Unless there's some secret to this that can't be felt from a picture, decoration at best."

"That's putting it generously." Matej looked scornfully at the medallion "It looks like a cheap trinket you'd see in a tourist souvenir shop, selling a dozen a buck. Hell, I'd be ashamed to buy this as a present for friends at home, its so cheap looking."


"...I believe... that was the intent on its creators..." Krys quietly spoke in reverence "To have its mild, unassuming appearance, mask its potential."

"What'd you call this thing again? The Masters' Medallion?" Matej raised an eyebrow.


"I know of it, only from urban legends." Krys said grimly "An artifact of in-comprehensible power. The legend goes that twelve masters of different crafts came together, and poured all their knowledge into one artifact. And those who wear it, gain all their knowledge.

An Earth-pony will be able to cast magic, unlimited magic, strong enough to level mountains. He will gain the knowledge of martial arts, better than any mortal master in the world. He will gain proficiency of every weapon invented by man.

He will have the power to destroy armies on his own, and bring nations to their knees. But, all those who wear the Medallion, run the risk of falling prey to its murderous influence, and will not stop, until the whole world lies in ashes."

Krys narrowed his eyes "They say the one who holds the Medallion, holds the fate of the world in his hands."

"Is that hogwash even real?" Roksana cut in through the channel.

"Real or not, it just proves Shi-Tong wants to become God of Kepler. Literally." Matej grimaced.

"Who gives a crap, one asshole on top ain't no different from another. We still get to eat shit either way." Barker dismissively said. "Now if someone could please help me grab all this fabulous cyber-loot from the armory? I'm running out of arm-pits!"

"...what did he just say?" Matej asked, muting his microphone and giving you a weird look.

Slasher wrote:My facsh throbs... how much longer?" She mutters.

"The files will finish copying in.. 3 minutes?" Matej wearily said, checking his Data-pad "And the military response team-"

"Is here." Roksana's voice called via earpiece.




As her voice faded, you heard the dull throb of engines as four heavy cargo helicopters began approaching the building, slowing down for descent. Almost at the same time you heard two different miniguns go live, releasing deafening sprays of led from the rooftop.

That must be Roksana's murder bots conducting their anti-air operation. The entire building shook and vibrated as a battle raged somewhere, 10 floors above. Return fire soon followed and you heard the roof of the building and several windows on the upper floors shatter and get shredded by high caliber rounds, large enough to wreck the floors support columns and walls.



A massive, deafening explosion followed, high over the building. It was so massive, the shockwave made the walls shake, even down here, two floors below ground and several seconds later something gigantic crashed onto the street outside and exploded once more, sending an earthquake throughout the whole structure.


"One bird down." Roksana reported "Fuck, they have missiles-" her voice became drowned out by a series of massive explosions that hammered the roof of the building seemingly into debris the size of bricks and you thought you hear the entire upper floor collapse in on itself, under a relentless barrage of high caliber rifle fire and rockets.

Dust fell from the ceiling right on your head and the entire structure shook and creaked under its weight, making you weary if the whole building won't come down on your heads just from this.

The creaking and shaking of the buildings support columns continued for several painfully long seconds, before the building seemed to level itself and come to a relative stop.


"...Schwarzesmarken be advised," Roksana called loudly "That bought us some time but not enough. They're dropping close to a hundred troops all over the building and establishing a perimeter. They will begin a frontal assault in 1 minute. I will meet them at a choke point on the ground floor.
Set up those explosives and get the hell out of there!

Stop the download if you have to, just grab what you already downloaded and go, we're out of time!"


"We only need 3 more minutes!" Matej desperately called.

"You don't have 3 minutes!" Roksana yelled back, it sounded like she was running upstairs somewhere.

Geoff wrote:Spotting the card reader on the door, Geoff whips out the card he stolen from the agent, and swipes it.

A green light winked on the hatch and the deadbolts retracted loudly, as you inserted the featureless black card into the slot. The hatch released a faint pop, unsealing itself and a very faint yet familiar smell of raw sewage reached your nostrils, prompting a gagging reflex. It smelled like a hundred dead rats have been ritualistically sacrificed down there, then wrapped in old cheese, sweaty socks and dead fish.

Aware that the soldiers may try to enter the building through the sewers, he peers around the corner of the door to observe the space beyond.

Peering into the sewer, its tunnel seems deserted and empty. Not even an echo of footsteps is heard down there. Only a large crater and blackened walls and ash is visible down there, marking the site of a recent explosion. The ashes still look warm, but the fires died down. Something exploded in this sewer tunnel a few minutes ago.