The target and his guards walked over to our table. The VIP took off his jacket and folded it over, handing it over to one of his guards, who took it with a bowed head.

"So, I heard you wanted to make a trade." The target said, sliding over a disc that slowly turned blue. "I got a new shipment of gear just last night, along with some other items, if you're interested. I should have what suits you." He said, looking at Cid. He didn't even glance at me. He was an Uzal with dark tan skin with black tattoos along his jaw on either side that disappeared below the collar of his suit.

"What is that disc?" I asked Zero.

"A personal jammer, it stops all audio and messes up most video around the disc for a short time. They have a short run time only a few minutes before they need to be recharged."

Cid shifted, "Good, where shall we meet to view the merch?"

"I have a small outpost some distance from here for testing. Bring a loader or something if you plan to buy anything you cannot carry or better yet, your mech." He said with a grin.

"Will do, When?"

"Tomorrow, Six."

"I cannot make that. How about I send him in my stead, he knows what we need?"

"Fine, fine." He said, slipping the disc back into his hand and standing back up, grabbing his coat. "I'll send you the coordinates."

He left the Bar without giving anyone else a look, but almost everyone else was looking at him and his goons as he left.

Looking at Cid, "Who was that and what are we buying?"

"That is our target, Keener. He is an arms dealer and smuggler and all-around bad guy. He also owns most of this settlement and the arena you essentially robbed."

"Fuck..." I said.

"If he doesn't know who you are now, which I don't believe he does, he will tomorrow by the time of the meeting. He'll more than likely use that as an opportunity to capture you or kill you." Cid said, his voice sounding cheery.

"You're using me as bait."

"Kinda, you made the plan easier."

Squinting at him, "How do you know he's our target? The mission briefing said we were looking for an Uzal with a habit of attacking supply routes near here."

"It's not my first time meeting him. My old team bought gear from him. One of his guards used to talk and let it slip during the trade. We just need proof and it will be fine, plus he's selling illegal gear he stole from said convoy."

"Does he know who you are?" I asked.

"Shouldn't," Cid said, touching the hood of the jacket, "Unless he recognized the jacket."

"I doubt it," I said, shaking my head.

"We will do operation kill the arbiter but instead of me it's him, and instead of you sniping me I'll snipe him, while you are me the arbiter...wait... I just got confused...He's the arbiter,.." His face dimmed before becoming bright again "Frack it. You are the big metal robot, and you squash him." Cid said with a huff.

"This will be fun," Zero said slowly to both of us.

Outside the Tavern.

One guard stopped outside the shuttle, answering a call before stepping inside the shuttle as well with Keener.

"That human is the guy," he said, projecting an image from the arena. "The one who won all that money at the arena earlier."

"I knew it," he said, clenching his fist. "Plan on ripping me off. I don't know how he cheated, but he did. Follow the arbiter but don't kill it under any circumstance, but we'll use the trade to kill the human."

"What about the credits?"

"We'll do it after he traded them for the shipment. Either way, we will keep our merchandise and gain a mech and the credits," he flipped up his hand and a projection of Belial came up. "It is unique and will make a beautiful showpiece in the arena," Keen said, gazing at the mech.

Laying in the bed of our moderately sized hotel room looking over my gear before bed. Cid was sitting on the floor against the wall reading a leather-bound book titled "Wizard of Oz".

"Couldn't you finish that instantly?" I asked, finishing up my work.

"I could, but I already know all of it by heart. I read it, or should I say reread it, for enjoyment," he said calmly.

"I see. Can I ask a question?" I asked.

"Shoot."

"Why are you here? I mean outside the Arbiters that is?"

Sliding a bookmark into place, "The Arbiters don't reproduce nor do we die, Our memories, and experiences are being saved so if I were to die I would wake up back in the nexus with all the knowledge to continue even if my body died and I would miss at most a few days or only minutes depending on where I am or what is happening around me. You did try and stop my memories, which would be like killing me, but not. I have already informed Zero that we now use a different and rotating frequency to stop just that. Something that Ghul hunters used to hunt us a long time ago with. Like I'm doing now, I'm partitioning a part of my mind to filter out anything to do with you and zero. Enough of that, why am I not part of the Arbiters..." He said placing the book down, "We are made and our personalities are limited at first but we develop and gain unique personalities over the years but some of us have a calling to always be a quote on quote arbiter. To protect the galaxy and all that it entails. Arbiters like me, we are freewalkers, we served our time, and we decided to explore the galaxy and develop further. In times of war is the only time they can recall us, but there are only two ways that can happen, and that would be no good for anyone." He said.

"So you're one of these freewalkers then. What did Zero give you?"

"Simply an exchange in currency, a currency that only the Arbiters use. You spend time serving the arbiters and you slowly gain this currency which is used on replacement bodies like this one and its upgrades, like what I'm currently wearing now."

"I can make an infinite amount of this as well," Zero said to me, I assume only to me as well.

"I enjoy you Gaians, or humans. So much so that I only work with you humans now. I even lived on Gaian for a few years before I got bored and started this life working for Nebula and joining teams of interesting people like yourself." He said, opening up his book. "Anything else?"

"Why haven't I seen many other freewalkers?"

"They're around, but I say only a few thousand of us actually freewalk. And there are limits to how many of us can freewalk at a time as well." He started reading his book again, ending our conversation.

Morning came fast, and I barely slept. Cid had gone sometime early in the early morning. Zero informed me they have an open line. Getting ready, double-checking gear, and everything else.

Zero happily told me that we returned the credits we borrowed. Using a small chunk out of our winnings, I felt better knowing those people who unconditionally helped us had essentially double dipped the system gaining from our theft.

Zero got the coordinates, and I left for the mech bay. Cid already had Belial ready on a loader waiting when I arrived. He said to just drive over to the site and he would be waiting in an overwatch position before going radio silent.

Driving the loader out the gates into the blowing snow and going directly through a snowdrift. Tall poles with glowing blue lights along the sides of the roads lead the way through the blanket of soft snow that always flurried here. The loader was a ten-wheeled monstrosity that rose above most of the massive drifts. Belial was strapped down on the flatbed with a massive tarp covering its frame.

Driving through the barely visible paths that were more snow than roads. The site was around thirty miles from the city, making me realize that loaders had the nicknamed crawlers for a reason.

Noting nothing along the way showed any signs of life along the way. Zero explained that many arctic species of mammal and even a few birds did call this harsh planet home. The large planet even held an ocean of sorts under the ice that had its own oceanic ecosystem as well, but it has been barely explored. The war was a major part of that but also due to location and the cost of resources here.

Driving through a freshly cleared path into a large compound. A large cleared-out courtyard was surrounded by huge prefab buildings that looked like massive warehouses that matched the surrounding snow. I doubt any overhead shuttles or drones would pick up this place unless they were looking.

Only one of the warehoused had its chimney churning out clear white smoke. The compound itself was surrounded by sheets of ice that looked more mountain than ice at this elevation, only the distant sun's rays gleamed off of their surface not covered by snow.

A small frame for carrying heavy cargo was clearing out snow near the main building. It turned on the loader and raised an arm. Stopping the loader, I waited until I saw Keener walk out of the building, followed by his minions.

Feeling the comforting armor under my clothes, my pistol attached at a mag-point behind my back and a knife tucked into my belt, I was nervous but ready. Putting the protective facemask on, and heavy winter jacket. I opened the hatch out of the loader and climbed down. Feeling the crunch of snow under my boots as I touched the recently cleared ground of the courtyard.

Raising my arm in greeting. Walking my way towards the crates set up in the middle of the courtyard, where Keener stopped with his boys. The crates were mostly all hard plastic shells used mainly for space travel, but all the numbers and everything else were painted overhastily.

"Welcome. I hope the trip was good." Keener said. "The weather is pleasant today," looking around the gray sky. He was a little right. There was no snow coming down, and the wind wasn't making it negative thirty.

Pulling down my mask and feeling the bite of the wind hit my face, which almost took my breath away. "It was good, first time driving a loader."

Nodding, "Shall we get down to business?" he said. He seems different, a little less snappy. I thought.

Opening up the first case, it had ten rifles neatly stacked. "New rifles, under it is ammo for it." Point out crates. He began to name off what each held, everything from rations to armor, space suits to more weapons. "Over here," he said, pointing out some massive wooden crates I hadn't noticed. "This is what you requested. Those three have last year's model of carbine/assault packages from Nebula. Those two smaller ones have LMR-10s from a new company out of Seris station. I also have ammo for both and some other miscellaneous gear within the warehouses. Well, what do you think?"

"I'll take all the mech gear, armor, weapons, and their respective ammo. If you have anything special, I might be interested in that as well." I said.

He made a hand gesture and one of the guards left towards a different warehouse. I was guessing getting the special stuff.

The small mech frame came over, and Keener pointed out crates and it began to lift them and bring them over towards the crawler. He pushed a screen with the total. "The other stuff we can do as a separate transaction, or we can wait."

"You may proceed, Leo," Zero said in my head.

"Now's fine."

"Excellent." Keener smiled.

I transferred the funds, almost clearing out all the winnings. A smile tugged at my lips. "Good doing business with you," I said.

"Business isn't over yet," Keener said, nodding towards the building the guard left towards.

The gates to the warehouse slid open, revealing an all-white mech with blue and gray camo over its bulky frame. It was carrying what looked like a massive mini-gun in its arms.

"I don't think I need another frame," I said, looking over at Keener. Who between me looking at the warframe and looking back at him had pulled out a handgun and was pointing it at my head.

"Is this special enough for you?" he said with a sneer.

I felt my stomach in my throat when his hand turned into mist seconds later. Then I heard the noise of a bullet zip by after. Then the echo of the rifle bouncing around the camp from wherever it was fired.

The familiar whirring of the mini-gun spun up, shouting from Keener who was clutching his hand or well stump now, shouting "Kill him, kill him," which was being translated, spoken in his native tongue as he stumbled away leaving a trail of blood as he did.

The mini-gun began to spit out rounds, hitting the ground between me and it. I could only throw myself behind some crates and hope not to be hit. Round bounced against the ground just inches from where I was standing just moments ago and the mini was still firing, but the bullets were not hitting anywhere near me. Taking a chance and looking over the crate, somehow Belial was wrestling with the bulky, heavy warframe.

One of Belial's hands was holding the mini-gun up into the sky. Angry red tracers were firing off towards the atmosphere. While the other hand was tearing away at the thick armor to get to inner warframes guts.

Watching Belial make a spear hand thrust penetrate the armor protecting the cockpit from the side and pulling out a handful of armor and reinforced frame. A blood-curdling scream followed this from inside the cockpit, hearing it even over the heavy metal brawl. Belial thrust its large hand back towards the open part of the cockpit. A deafening burst of gunfire from the wrist-mounted guns on the Belial ripped through the cockpit and the mini-gun finally stopped.

Dropping to my knees to gain my barrings but instead, I was yanked backward onto the ground by the other guard, the one I forgot about. He kicked me and I felt the armor that protected my chest bend to the blow. Stopping the kick from breaking my ribs, he seemed to feel the armor as well, leaping back and cradling his foot, which he probably broke something important. Rolling over and reaching behind me, I felt the familiar handle of my pistol and drew it, firing at him. Hitting three in his chest, he dropped face-first into the snow, which was rapidly turning red. Going to pick up the drop gun by Keener earlier, but Zero stopped me.

"That is a biometric firearm, and if you tried to use it, then either it wouldn't work or it would have blown your hand off."

Shaking my head and leaving it. I followed after Keener, reloading as I did. His blood trail lead directly towards the warehouse he came out of. The door was open; the warehouse was full of crates with UGF symbols or other ones I didn't recognize. They were stacked all along the steel shelves within the warehouse, from floor to ceiling.

The blood trail lead to an office in the back of the warehouse. I heard footsteps on metal and saw him entering the second story of the office area. Following slowly, I entered after him, clearing as I did as fast and careful as I could. Zero was also helping by feeding me information. In the room, Keener was stumbling towards a table of honey-colored wood with a projection of Belial floating over it.

"Stop," I said. Which he did. He slowly turned around to face me.

"You robbed me, shot off my hand, killed my men. Now, what are you going to kill me?" he shrieked, spit flying out of his mouth. He was still cradling his missing hand.

"No, you're being detained and are to be dropped off at the nearest detention center until you're sentenced," I said, projecting the warrant from Nebula.

"You can't prove it was me," he shouted, waving around his arm, wincing at the action.

"Got them," Zero said, "Pushing now."

The wall along the office began to spew out documents, footage, pictures, and the manifests of all the illegal actions Keener and his people have done over the years.

"You should have a more secure server, or you know, not keep evidence lying around."

"I'll kill you," he said, lunging at me with a hidden blade in his free hand.

"Nope," a voice said from outside the office and Keener's other hand exploded into meat paste, hitting me with gore caused by our close proximity.

"Whoops," Cid said, walking into the room. Pulling out a bandana from his jacket, offering it to me.

Wiping my face, I would have said something if it hadn't been for the wailing idiot between us. Cid slapped him and put him out cold. "Damn, how am I supposed to handcuff him now.." Cid said, looking at the bleeding stubs of the unconscious Uzal bleeding out between us. Cid pulled out what looked like milky white sheets of plastic, placing them on the man's nubs, which sealed over the wounds and stopped him from bleeding further. "I'll bring him in. Zero sent me the information. You stay here and inventory the loot. Too bad you sent him the credits." Cid said, hauling the man over his shoulder.

"Actually, we blocked the transfer from going through. He would have found out in about five minutes," Zero said.

"Sneaky. I like it," Cid said, letting out a chuckle. I bet he would be smiling if he had a mouth from the tone he had when he left.