Anali

“Is everything okay, Anali?” A smooth, bassy voice asked while I continued to bang my head against the grimy bartop. I paused for just long enough to glare at Zen before continuing with my self-imposed punishment. The large, dark-skinned human chuckled as he sat another overfilled glass of brandy next to my freshly drained one. “If things are that fucked, then you’re probably going to need another one. Here, on the house.”

“Thanks Zen.” My eyes watered as I drained it and I held back a cough as I slammed the empty glass back onto the bar. “And things aren’t that bad yet, but they will be if we can’t crack the encryption on some implants. Which isn’t something I can actually help with, so I’m sitting here, bored out of my mind while I wait for Castin and Doc to solve the problem again!”

“You’re the only person I’ve ever met who could find a way to be bored on Paradise.” Zen shook his head, and I rolled my eyes. “Besides, it won’t take those two long to crack the encryption, and you’ll be back blowing shit up in no time.”

“They’ve been going at it for nearly three weeks,” I groaned, and Zen blinked at me.

“Three weeks? When was the last time Doc took three weeks to do anything?”

“Admittedly, he just started helping Castin last week.” I eyed my empty glass and Zen refilled it with a sigh. “One of our targets is too powerful for us to fight directly, a failed goddess or something, so Doc was working on a way to deal with her.”

“Still, I’ve heard stories about Castin cracking corporate encryption in under a few hours. Why was it taking so long?” Those stories were mostly just Ja’kol’s drunken exaggerations, but Zen did have a point. It shouldn’t have taken him nearly this long.

“The implants aren’t corporate,” I explained. “Not knock-offs either. They’re top of the line and seem to be designed not to be traced. Probably cost at least a hundred grand.”

“Damn,” Zen cursed, and I nodded. “They’ve got enough wetware shoved into their head to buy a decent cargo-hauler, and they’re dangerous enough to warrant one of Doc’s specials? Who are these assholes?”

“Why do you want to know? You looking to poach?” I shot Zen a look, and he grinned at me.

“Nah, doesn’t sound like my kind of thing,” he shook his head and I relaxed a bit. Zen was a fixer, which meant talking to him about a job he didn’t give you was always a bit risky, but he had the sort of personality that made keeping secrets from him hard. Besides, he ran the best bar on Paradise, and he liked me enough that I usually got a few drinks for free. “Although, if you’re bored waiting around for your crew, I might have a job for you.”

“Does it pay well?” I asked as I sipped at my drink. It was my third one, and I was determined to enjoy it.

“Does it matter?” He shot back. “It’s something to do, and it’ll keep you in my good graces while burning off some of your tab.”

“How much of my tab?” We’d been focusing all of our resources on this job for a while, and that combined with the substantial amount of money we had to pay for Sora’s feed ID meant we were hurting for cash. Not to mention, a week and a half stuck on Paradise with nothing to do meant my tab had gotten pretty big.

“All of it.” Zen smirked before continuing. “Client wants a message sent, the sort intended for everybody except the recipient. If you catch my drift.”

“The job is approved? Including the collateral?” I narrowed my eyes. These were the sort of questions I learned to ask years ago, especially when the job came from Zen. Accepting a scorched earth job on Paradise that wasn’t approved by a member of the council was suicide, and if collateral wasn’t included, then it could get expensive. Especially if I was just working to pay off a tab.

“It’s approved and collateral is encouraged.” Zen nodded before sending me the details. I skimmed through them and smiled.

“Alright, I accept.”

~~~~

It was a little past midday by the time I finished up at Zen’s place, which meant the streets of Paradise were mostly empty and breakfast was still on most menus. I figured this was probably going to be the best time to take care of things if I wanted to avoid too many bystanders getting caught in the fighting.

Not that I was worried about innocent people getting hurt. There weren’t innocent people on Paradise. I just wanted to limit the number of bystanders joining the fight on the wrong side.

There was a food stall set up a couple dozen meters outside my target, and I scoped out the building while I waited for the attendant to finish with my breakfast.

“That’s the Nine Riders' hangout, right?” I asked, paying just enough attention to make sure the old human woman didn’t mess up my order.

“That’s them alright,” the woman answered. “Moved in a few weeks ago and started shouting about government reform or some such nonsense. I’m sorry, did you say you wanted salsa? My memory isn’t quite what it used to be.”

“Yes, please.” I smiled sweetly before turning my attention back to the hideout. It really wasn’t much of a stronghold, to be honest. An old warehouse that had likely been converted a few decades ago and housed a half-dozen different gangs since. There were a few ‘guards’ falling asleep outside, but no other visible defenses.

Normally they would’ve just been ignored by anybody who mattered, but the poor misguided fools had the audacity to score a small fortune in credits from a hijacked corporate freighter. Which they then bragged about across the station, and then conveniently forgot to pay taxes on. Even going so far as to kill the council collector who came for them.

“Here you are, dearie.” My attention was pulled back to the woman as she proffered a foil wrapped burrito. I traded her some credits, making sure to include a tip, and took the joyous bundle before delicately unwrapping it.

I bit into my breakfast and savored the taste for a precious few moments before continuing my interrogation.

“Any idea how many there are?” I asked through a mouthful of food.

“Twenty or thirty. It’s difficult to know for sure, since they’ve been recruiting non-stop since they moved in,” the woman answered with a sigh. “Please don’t speak with your mouth full. It’s rude.”

“Sorry,” I apologized before swallowing, which earned me an eye roll. “Are any of them dangerous?”

“Their leader is some sort of nymph, water if the rumors are to be believed, but I’ve never met her. Other than that, they have a mountain troll on their roster. Not somebody I’d recommend getting angry.”

“Yeah, sounds like a pain to deal with.” I held my burrito in my mouth to free up my hands, while I pulled a grenade launcher from my dimensional storage. The woman working the stall cursed, and I heard her wrestling with a weapon, so I also pulled my pistol from the holster on my thigh to aim at her. I simply shook my head at her, and she held up her hands in surrender.

Figuring that was dealt with, I turned away and fired a half dozen grenades, arching them to roll through the open warehouse door. There were no explosions as they landed, instead they released a dense white fog that quickly spread throughout the building. The guards barely even seemed to notice.

“Huh, that was less explosive than I was expecting.” The woman lowered her hands and seemed to calm herself as I put the grenade launcher away and continued to eat my burrito.

“Give it a second,” I said through another mouthful of food. She was about to chastise me when the fog ignited, exploding into a brilliant white fireball that ended a few meters in front of me.

“It takes a bit for the stabilizing agent to decay enough for the thermite to catch.” I shrugged as I tossed what was left of my burrito into the nearest trash bin. “You should probably get out of here.”

I could hear the woman struggling to pack up her stall while I scanned the blinding inferno for survivors. My implants were working overtime to dim the light coming from the warehouse, but I could just make out a massive form moving around inside. It seemed like the troll was still alive.

Trolls weren’t easy to kill, but fire was supposed to slow down their healing. I pulled a mid-sized rifle from my storage before swapping the armor-piercing rounds for ones that were coated in hydra venom. They were expensive, but I hoped that starting the fight by covering the troll in thermite meant I didn’t need to use too many.

I started firing into the still-burning warehouse, and the troll turned to sprint towards me. Its corpse slid to a halt a few meters away, and I stowed the rifle in order to prepare for the nymph. The inferno was starting to burn itself out, and I was under no illusion that they had been killed in the fire.

I stood there waiting for what felt like forever, before shrugging to myself. Right as I started to leave, I heard a noise coming from my left. In one fluid motion, I spun towards it and fired my pistol. There was silence, followed by a thump as the nymph fell to the ground and her invisibility spell dissipated. Even from this distance, I could see a faint green mist escaping from the hole in her back as her soul was shredded by the enchantments on the bullet.

Captain, we weren’t able to crack the encryption on the implants, but we did manage to use them to break into the ship’s security and we have a location. Castin’s voice came in over my implants, and I couldn’t help but laugh at his wonderful timing.

Excellent. I’m across the station right now, but I’m on my way back. Be prepared to leave as soon as I get there. I replied, before summoning a bundle of explosives and tossing them into what was left of the warehouse. It wasn’t all that necessary, and some of what I just used was actually really expensive, but I figured overkill was part of the contract. Besides, I suddenly found myself in a really good mood.