“Have to say, I wasn’t sure you’d complete the mission,” Bob watched as the group unloaded the material. “I’m impressed.”

“Thanks, I think,” Mai replied, unsure whether to be insulted or not. “So, is that it or do you need more materials?”

“Need more. It’s a special type of dye from the ink of a creature called a Squink. Horrible looking. All floppy, twelve arms. Produces this ink which is the blackest in existence. Literally soaks up light.”

“Let me guess, it’s at a farm which is under the thumb of one of the factions,” remarked Dakota drily.

“Yes. How did you guess?” Mai laughed at that, she was starting to like the armourer. “It’s the last material I need before I can make the kit. Promise.”

He even held three fingers up in the ages-old sign of sincerity.

RETRIEVE THE SQUINK INK

DO YOU ACCEPT YES/NO?

No doubt about it, we’ve come this far, can’t not accept it, Mai thought as she pressed the YES.

Looking at where the guideline led them, she rolled her shoulders. It went through at least four different territories and ended up in one of the military faction areas.

“Shit me,” Hind groaned as he looked at the minimap. “This is going to be even more difficult.”

“Life is never anything but easy,” Chan sighed.

“There is one good thing,” Bob remarked, “the squink ink is in a factory. They process it at this location. SO there’s lots of cover. Nothing as open as the cotton fields were.”

“You know, the whole environment of this city freaks me out,” Jock pointed up. They were inside, but they all understood what he meant. “This city is underground, and yet there’s a whole region of farms, with fields. What the hells?”

“Solar arrays. We put all the power into powering them. And by we, I mean the controlling factions,” Bob explained. “The lights mimic sunlight, which allows things such as cotton to grow, even though as you so eloquently pointed out we’re underground.”

It was logical, or rather it sounded logical, and it was clear that it was accepted as not only logical but as fact, but Mai wasn’t convinced. Just another part of her life which she questioned, rather than accepting blindly.

“Doesn’t matter right now. We’ve got a mission to complete people.”

Not waiting for their replies, she walked out of the shop, guideline gently pulsing as it led the way to her next mission.

*

“This place is much bigger than I ever thought it would be,” Dakota said as they rested up in a deserted shop. Windows shattered, walls pockmarked, it was clear that there had been a battle of some sort in the shop's long history. Destroyed counters and the odd jar filled the interior, sheltering them from any prying eyes. Although Mai had noticed that people in this district tended to avoid looking anywhere but the ground.

It’s as if they’re punished for raising their eyes. The thought made her stomach twist, this was no life for anybody. The district was particularly bad compared to the rest of the city, with even fewer working lights, more damaged buildings, and a cowed local population.

“Factories, roughly five hundred paces to our North. Plenty of cover all the way in. All the way out as well,” Jock said as he highlighted their objective on the minimap. “How much of this stuff did Bob say we needed?”

Mai opened her mouth to speak. Then closed it with a snap.

“Shit. We didn’t ask!” Dakota slapped her hand to her forehead, cursing as she did so.

“Huh,” Hind rocked back on his heels. “That makes things difficult.”

Mai was lost for words, mind racing to work out what they needed to do. Finally she just shrugged.

“Hells, we grab what we can. We don’t know how it’s stored. Hopefully, it’ll be small bottles rather than some large container. I get the feeling that squink ink is pretty rare stuff. So it’ll be in smaller quantities.”

There was an unspoken, ‘it has to be’.

The others nodded, but Mai could see that this had unsettled them. It was something that she as a leader shouldn’t have overlooked. Giving herself a mental shrug, she drew a line of approach on the minimap.

“This looks as though it gives us the best approach, hides us from the factory until we need to clear the last fifty paces or so. We’ll pop up a couple of drones, scout out the area once we get into this building here.” She marked that with a large ‘x’.

“Sounds like a plan,” Dakota smiled, slapping her on the shoulder. “We’ll get this done, just like we always do. Five more minutes’ rest before we move out?”

Mai nodded, grateful for her friend’s support.

*

“Drone out, patching the feed into your retinal monitors,” reported Jock as the drone’s birds-eye-view popped up on Mai’s eyes. “This place has taken a beating.”

That was an understatement. All of the buildings in the area showed signs of battle and had been badly patched up. The factory itself was one of the few well-maintained buildings in the area, and Mai had the sneaking suspicion that the controlling faction had put all of their resources into keeping it in top-notch condition.

“Any find it odd we haven’t seen any of the controlling faction yet?” asked Hind, waving his hands as he played with the view on his retinal monitor.

“Picking up heat sources within the factory. Couple of people are moving around the outside,” reported Jock.

“Take a closer look at the actual building. See if you can find an entrance,” Mai ordered. She didn’t say, but the lack of guards had her on edge. A place this well maintained should have had a strong contingent of guards. Especially considering the size of the factory, it was one of the largest buildings she’d seen in Nether City.

“Damn,” cursed Jock as he scoped the building. “Place is a fortress. They’ve built all of their defences into the actual building. That’s why there’s no guards outside, they’re all inside.”

He started marking turrets, firing positions, towers, bunkers, and any number of other defences. Mai’s stomach sank as she took in the size of the task ahead of them.

“Look for a sewer, or an effluent out pipe,” Chan said. “We might be able to get in that way. Not that it’ll be easy, depending on the type of waste coming out of there.”

“Easier than trying to cross open ground against those sorts of defences,” chuckled Dakota. Mai didn’t feel like laughing with her.

Are these damned suits really worth it? She thought as she looked at her friends. I don’t want to lose people just because I fancy getting hold of a nice piece of kit.

“And there it is,” Hind marked the pipe as he spoke. “Not too far from here. And it looks as though it’s big enough to let us get up.”

“Don’t like the look of those bars,” said Jock as he flew the little drone closer. “We’ll have to cut through them.”

“Not a problem. Better that than walking through a hail of bullets,” said Dakota.

Mai frowned, her friend was cheerfully gloomy, not her usual type.

Probably just tired, she couldn’t blame her. Mai had a weariness that felt as though it was bone deep.

“Let’s move.”

*

Much later than she thought it would be, Mai was crouched before the entrance to the pipe. Moving through the various buildings covering the approach to the grate had been more difficult than it should have been. Filled with old machinery and with multiple levels that seemed to change on the designer’s whim, they’d been forced to backtrack more times than she could count.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that this place stinks of rotten eggs and shit, I'd have been willing to have a quick sleep,” groaned Dakota as she rubbed at her legs. Thousands of steps, up and down, had been made getting here and they all felt the burn in their legs.

“Quicker we get this done, the quicker we can get home to our beds,” Mai replied. She too was tired. So tired that she wondered whether pushing ahead with the mission was a good idea. “How are you guys doing?”

Jock shrugged, Hind made a face, but both said they were ready to go. Chan just gave her a thumbs up and a weak smile. She couldn’t blame him. Taking a sip of bio-boost, Mai formed a cutting torch and went to work. Unlike the approach, the job was done in no time at all, the bars melting like butter with a hot knife as the torch’s white-hot flame cut through them.

“If you’ve got TUNNEL COMBAT, be ready to activate it,” ordered Mai as she moved through the entrance into the pipe. The stench was much stronger, so she formed a mask, ordering the others to do so. “Watch out for mogwai.”

“Mogwai? You think they’re here as well?” Jock followed her through the entrance.

“Can’t be too careful. Never know what’s up a pipe. Especially one that smells as bad as this.”

“Not going to argue there, this is one of the worst smells ever. I don’t think we’ll be getting it out of our skin,” Chan muttered just loud enough for all of them to hear.

Mai shuddered, the idea of smelling like this permanently wasn’t a pleasant thought. Not least because it would turn them into social pariahs.

*

“Minimap says we’re right beneath the factory,” whispered Jock as they stood in a small chamber only a few paces across. It was bigger than the pipe however, and Mai revelled in being able to stretch her arms out and stand fully up. She wasn’t tall by any means, and she smiled as the others groaned in pleasure at being able to straighten up.

“And there’s a ladder. Let’s have a breather, rest our legs, and then get climbing. No telling how far that thing stretches,” suggested Chan, lowering himself onto a ledge which ran around the edge of the chamber.

Mai looked up, the ladder disappeared into the darkness above them. As they moved along the pipe her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, but even now they couldn’t see the top of the ladder.

Grasping hold of it, she gave a gentle tug, increasing the pull the longer she held on. Aside from a little rattle, there was no give.

“Ladder’s in good condition thank the gods,” she let go of the ladder and sat down on the ledge next to Dakota. “Probably best we don’t form weapons until we actually need them, leave our hands free.”

“We’ll move quicker,” Dakota agreed. “And quick is good, I just want to get this over and done with. All this for some damned clothing. Are you sure it’s worth it?”

Her words stung. Mai already had her own doubts, but to hear them voiced by someone else drove them home.

“Not just a bit of clothing mind,” Jock leaned forward. “We’ve got a whole farm under our banner now. That’s more than the rebels ever achieved before. A farm. Always wanted to be a farmer. Now I can be. Thanks to us having to get these materials.”

Mai smiled as he gave her a double thumbs up.

“Let’s get this done shall we? I’m fed up with this damned stink. Not even the sewers smelt this bad!”

*

“Five workers, all with some form of nanite tool. Four without. Not dressed as well as the first group either. Looks like they get rewards. Do well, do better. Don’t do well, lose access to nanites,” reported Jock as he sent his drone whizzing through the air.

“Guards. Here, here, and here. Looks like this room,” Hind marked it on the map, “is where they store the ink. Small containers. Small enough to be put into a backpack.”

Finally, something was going well, thought Mai as she let out a breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding.

“Lots of other guards moving through the factory in this area. But looks as though they’re busier looking out than in,” Dakota marked the guards as she spoke.

“Probably didn’t realise that there was a way out of the pipe into the condensing tower, and then out of that through the maintenance hatch,” Mai was surprised at the supposed ex-military guard’s sloppiness.

Maybe they thought no-one would ever find out about it, or just never bothered to explore this place properly, and the workers didn’t tell them. Which was fully understandable. From the look of the workers they’d seen, they weren’t here willingly.

“Okay, we need to follow this path,” Mai marked the map, “which will expose us the least. Take out the guards on the door of the vault when they open it to allow another bottle in.”

“Why not just take it from a worker?” asked Dakota.

“I don’t want to have to hurt any of the workers if I can avoid it. Plus, we don’t want the guards at our back if the worker raises the alarm. This way we kill the guards, get the bottle, and the worker will have to run all the way over here before they can raise the alarm. Which is further than we have to run to get back here and into the pipe.”

“Weapons?” Jock questioned, as he brought the drone back in.

“Not yet, from the state of most of the workers we’ll blend in nicely. Not sure about the smell, but the whole factory stinks, so maybe it’ll mask us. Let’s move.”

Climbing down the ladder on the condenser tower, Mai bit her lip as her legs screamed in protest. It felt as though two metal bars had been inserted into her thighs with an added bonus of acid.

I need to get to the gym more, she thought, saliently vowing to add workouts to her daily routine. If we’re going to get back into the city, we need to be at our peak.

Moving along the route she’d mapped out, they slipped between banks of humming, hissing, and buzzing machinery, all of it an utter mystery to her.

“Hold!” hissed Dakota, dropping onto knee. Mai grimaced as her muscles protested at yet more punishment. Ahead, a worker ambled along, moving away from them, checking some machine, before moving on to another.

Not daring to breathe, Mai willed the worker to just keep moving away from them. After what seemed like an eternity, they moved out of sight.

“Move,” Dakota pushed herself to her feet, staggering slightly as her own legs betrayed her.

Checking the minimap, Mai sighed in relief as she realised how close they were. She’d been so focussed on the approach she’d lost track of the closing distance.

“Weapons people, we’re nearly …” she didn’t get to finish as a weight crashed down onto her shoulders.

DAMAGE! 5%

WINDED!

Lungs feeling as though they were exploding, stars bursting before her eyes, she scratched and butted at her assailant. “Go! I’ve got this!”

Her attacker’s breath was hot on her cheek as rolled on the floor, pummelling each other, trying to pin the other’s hands to prevent them forming a weapon. As soon as the option presented itself she drove a headbutt into her attacker’s nose.

HIT! 5% DAMAGE

BLEED @.25% PER SECOND

STUNNED

Her attacker let out a groan, their grip slackening slightly. Ripping her arm free, Mai activated her DIRTY BOXING, and UNARMED COMBAT, smashing a hammer fist into the guard’s face.

HIT! 2% DAMAGE

BLEED @0.5% PER SECOND

Somehow the guard bucked her hips, throwing Mai forward, and allowing herself to squirm out from under Mai. Going with the sudden movement, Mai tucked into a roll and came back to her feet.

“What the fuck?” the guard’s face screwed up in confusion. “Why the hell would someone like you be here?”

Mai didn’t have time to answer as the guard started to draw a weapon from a holster. Mai beat her to the draw, forming a suppressed SMG, a quick burst stitching bullets across the guard’s chest.

CRITICAL HIT! 91% DAMAGE

BLEED @10% PER SECOND

KILL!

Mai dropped to all fours, chest heaving, lungs trying to draw breath. Her back spasmed where the guard had landed on her. Activating HEAL, Mai tried to get her breathing and thoughts under control.

What the hell did she mean by ‘someone like you?’