Age of Space

Ronin and the pillar flew over the embankment, only to be met by a 3-meters drop right after. In order to give themselves more cover, Specter's men had apparently dug themselves an entrenchment at the other side of the hill. It's a good idea, but did they really have to dig it so deep? Ronin internally sighed as plumes of dust puffed up all around him.

As he shook himself, waiting for the dust to clear, he glanced below. The three men he'd taken along with him in the fall lay there, under the pillar. What hadn't been crushed by the pillars weight, had burned and melted from its heat. There weren't much left of the men. Some partially bionic limbs, a couple of organic parts. Many of their tattoos could still be seen though. The tattoos depicted gang affiliations as well as... well, various conquests so to speak.

It was one thing to commit a murder, but to tattoo the act onto one's own body after? Now that was something else.

It didn’t matter now anyways. There would be no new tattoos for these guys.

As the dust cleared, he turned his gaze upwards. He could see the large stationary laser guns on top of the embankment behind him. They weren’t far away. Fortunately, none of them had been turned his way yet.

He looked from one end of the trench to the other and saw more guards emerging from behind the corners. Well, that certainly wasn't good. As they noticed Ronin, they began shouting and gesturing. They would begin raising their weapons soon. They would begin firing...

I didn't come here to fight in some trench, Ronin inwardly grumbled.

As the guards came closer, he threw a couple of grenades at them, hoping to slow them down. He came here to take out their laser-based artillery, not to fight random gangsters. And on that note, with a firm pull, he climbed up the trench and began heading up towards the nearest gun available.

Fortunately, the laser-based artillery was only a few steps away, and it did not take him long to reach it. A man, looking almost delirious as he fired laser round after laser round into the fog, was currently operating the gun. Ronin reached out his hand and grabbed him.

“Hey, what are you-,”

Before the man had a chance to finish, with a firm grip, Ronin yanked him out of his seat and threw him aside. With little time to spare, he positioned his warsuit's arm in for a shot, then ended the man with a laser round of his own.

With that minor inconvenience out of the way, Ronin took a hold of the large stationary gun, attempting to move it. Loud shrieks of metal grinding against metal rang out as he slowly began turning the weapon. Apparently, these stationary guns weren’t supposed to be moved like that. It didn't matter. His warsuit was more than strong enough to line up a shot, regardless of whether the laser gun wanted to or not.

His HUD flickered.

[Shield stability at 61%.]

He was taking fire. With little time to spare, he aimed the massive gun towards the other stationary lasers, then pressed the trigger. A hot beam of light shot out, and the entire left side of the embankment flared up in a blaze of destruction.

“…”

As Ronin turned to see who was firing at him, time slowed down. What could cause the near-death-sight to activate while I'm in the middle of a warsuit?

Everything around him was now moving in slow motion...

He could see the trail of flames left from the shot he’d just fired. The flames flickered in mesmerizingly slow detail as they danced back and forth. Among the flames, he saw melted metal. And there was a lot of it. That one shot must have taken out at least half the enemy's artillery, he thought in shock.

He shifted his gaze towards the trench below. There were more guards there now. Looking at him with fear and anger in their eyes, they readied their weapons, no doubt aiming to take his life. One of those guards held something large upon his shoulders. It was smoking. That meant he’d already fired something.

Ronin felt an ominous tingling at the back of his neck. That weapon was pointed directly towards him... What had that man shot out just now?

As he traced the path the shot would have taken… he saw it. Just there, 2 meters away from him, was a large missile!

Moving in quickly, the missile was too close to dodge. Ronin needed a solution, and he needed it now!

Think, predict, adapt, act, think, predict, adapt…

Moving as fast as the power armor would allow, he reached out his hand and caught the missile!

Before it had the chance to detonate, he quickly moved his wrist, changing the missile’s path, then released.

Time sped up as the missile flew past his shoulder, exploding shortly after.

[Shield stability at 2%]

The missile had gone off too early. His HUD showed minor damages to servos and armor plating, lighting up as yellow in several spots. No doubt, carrying that pillar earlier had played a role in the servo damage, but the armor plating? No, he'd be toast if they fired another one of those missiles at him. He had to fight back.

Before anyone had a chance to fire again, Ronin launched a couple missiles of his own towards the guards. With a resounding BOOM, the missiles struck. And the guards, not possessing shield generators, did more than just die. As the missiles detonated, they were torn apart into little more than limbs and viscera, then scattered out across the trench.

Sorry guys, but better me than you, Ronin breathed out as he looked upon the devastation.

Suddenly, there was another loud rumble. To his right, Ronin saw two more of those big stationary laser guns explode. This time, however, it wasn’t Ronin's doing. Out of the fog, he saw the Hammers of Fortune. They were advancing. With half their artillery missing, Specters forces had been crippled and the Hammers were turning the tide.

His charge across enemy lines and the destruction that followed, had done its work... They were winning.

With his energy shield nearly depleted, Ronin entered the trench again. Though, he did make sure to stay far away from where the guards had been. Holding his rapid-fire lasers at the ready, he waited for the shield to recharge.

“…”

The rumbles of battle continued above, but after a while, other sounds began mixing in as well. Ronin could hear men shouting and cheering as they approached.

A few men wearing the distinct black clothing of the Hammers of Fortune entered the trench.

“There, it's the madman! You really saved our hides back there!” One of the men laughed.

“When you began running with that pillar, I almost started thinking someone was playing a joke on us, but to think you actually did it!” Another to the side said, his face flushed with excitement.

Ronin chuckled in response, “you know, I did try shooting down one of those guns first, but when that failed... I mean, what else was I supposed to do?”

“Nothing, nothing at all! What you did was perfect!” The second man laughed.

Walking up to Ronin, he held out his hand. “Name’s Haxel by the way. I might not know your name, or face, but I do know your heart. Regardless of who you are behind that helmet, from today on, to us, you're a brother.”

The warsuit's large metal hand clasped Haxel's own as Ronin heartfully replied, “Thank you, you fight pretty well yourselves. I’d be honored to be called a brother of the Hammers.”

“…”

With most of the enemy artillery gone, it did not take long before the forces outside were defeated. All that was left now, was Specter's lair.

“Ready?” Haxel asked as they stood by the wall, waiting to breach the door.

Ronin gave a firm nod in response, and they activated the laser cutter. After the laser cutter made a full rotation, Ronin stepped out in front and kicked down the door. Readying himself for another firefight, he raised both arms. However, what greeted him was not the gang members he'd expected. Instead, what he saw was a small girl, probably no more than 6 years old, running out of the door opening with tears in her eyes. What in the? -

“Hold your fire!” Haxel shouted.

As the little girl ran out, the entire assault force had a dumbfounded expression. This was simply too absurd. Why would a little child be at the front gate of a place like this?

“Someone bring her away,” Haxel commented, and one of the men jogged over and caught her.

As the man carried the girl away, Haxel shook his head, baffled. “When you think you've seen it all, something new comes along and grabs you by the balls.”

A couple of chuckles could be heard amongst the men, but the minor distraction did not delay them long.

“—Alright, we're not paid by the hour.” someone broke in. “Let's get this going.” And with Ronin in the lead, they entered the building.

Faint smells of old sweat and rust greeted them as they entered. It tainted the air, becoming thicker and thicker the further they moved. As they reached deeper, they began finding traps. There was a high-grade explosive strapped to the wall in one corridor, an automatic turret installed onto the ceiling in another. And that was only the beginning. Tripwires began showing up, triggering who knows what, and EMP mines started showing up under the floor plates.

Fortunately, the Hammers of Fortune knew what they were doing, and they swiftly disabled every single trap with practiced ease. It wasn’t until they were halfway into the facility that they actually encountered other people.

“Grenade!” Haxel shouted as they approached the next corner. A round black ball bounced off the wall, landing in the middle of their group.

Everybody jumped away, and as the black ball went off, the room reverberated with a BOOM. One of the Hammers reacted late, and got his left leg mangled in the explosion.

“You guys take care of the injured, I’ll handle the goons,” Ronin said.

With his energy shield back up to 100%, a grenade or two wasn't an issue. He walked up and around the corner, but he saw nothing of Specter's men. He did see a tiny hole along the ceiling though. Faint whispers sounded out from the tiny hole as another grenade was thrown out of it. He swiftly kicked away the small explosive. How in the world was he supposed to deal with this?

My missiles won't fit, my grenades could get thrown back out but... Didn't he have that one thing? The ion plasma blaster? It couldn't hurt to blast some plasma into the opening, right?

He readied the weapon as the gears and servos along his right arm began moving. Armor plating slid to the side, making way, and something akin to a long tube rose up along his arm. After the weapon was primed, he stuck it into the tiny hole, activating it. Blue bars began lighting up along the tube and he smelled a strong metallic scent of ozone. But that was it. Nothing else happened.

By the time Ronin was halfway into a frown, however, something changed. As the last blue bar along the weapon was filled, he felt a sudden jolt to his arm, and a loud sonic boom akin to thunder rang out. A thick lightning bolt burst out from the weapon, instantly filling the room above. By the loud screams emanating from the room, he could literally hear the white bolt reach out, spreading its dendritic tendrils around.

He’d at least hit something, but was it enough? Just to make sure, he stuffed one of his 3 remaining frag grenades into the hole as well.

That should do the job, he thought as he heard the grenade go off.

“…”

As the injured member of the Hammers was given first aid and helped back out of the building, Ronin, along with the rest of the vanguard continued on.

“Just where did you find that armor?” Haxel asked after passing the hole in the ceiling. He was not alone in his enthusiasm.

“Well, actually the government gave it to me,” Ronin replied vaguely.

“They actually give out power armors like that!?”

“I doubt it, at least not normally,” Ronin began as they headed deeper into the corridor. “In my case, they gave it to me as a means of apology, and how often does a government do something like that?”

Haxel made a disappointed expression. “A shame. If Bargas had had armor like yours, he’d still have a leg to walk on.”

A solemn air fell upon the group as the rest of the vanguard nodded in agreement.

“…”

Continuing on, deeper into the compound, they encountered more guards. But with Ronin eagerly using the ion plasma blaster every chance he got, they made swift progress. After finishing clearing traps from one particularly tricky corridor, they arrived in front of a large circular door. The rusty thing was distinct from any of the other doors they'd come across. And it was more than just its shape that was different...It felt... older.

Bringing out the laser cutter, they began slowly melting it open. The rusty door must have been over a meter thick, with how much the cutter struggled. Eventually they managed to remove both locks and hinges, and on cue, Ronin walked up and began pushing.

The door fell inwards with a loud metallic rattle, and they were greeted by a vast dark room. As their eyes adjusted to the dark, they could see innumerable silhouettes of skeletal remains. The bones were everywhere. Stacked up upon each other, they formed mounds and ridges several men tall. Ronin’s golden eyes, being uniquely suited for this sort of environment, saw more.

The skeletal remains still had skin, it was just so closely bound to the bones beneath, the remains looked as if they had no skin at all. It was almost as if something had drained all remaining fluid out of these—

Humans. These are all remains from human beings…he realized as he saw the distinct shapes of the bodies.

Stacked up along the walls, there had to have been thousands of people who’d died here. Realization struck him then! The people he’d seen before. All those figures, looking hopeless as they shuffled along in the direction of this very building. Had this been what they walked towards? Had they all been walking towards their own deaths?

No wonder they’d looked so hopeless.

His gaze shifted upwards. Above it all, was a gallery housing nothing but a single chair. On it, sat a gaunt man. Despite sitting down, it was evident that the man was tall. The man's face was pale, and it wore a restless expression as it looked down upon them.

“You guys leave the room. I will deal with this myself,” Ronin said, his voice low.

The vanguard, some of which looked sick from what they’d just seen, walked back, giving him thankful glances as they left. He didn’t blame them. He was feeling quite ill himself as well. Whatever had happened here, was so horrible, any man would’ve been affected.

As the group began leaving the room one by one, soon, only Haxel was left.

“Make sure he suffers,” he said as he passed, his voice hoarse with emotion.

Eventually, every single member of the Hammers was out of the room. Only Ronin and the man in the gallery were left now.

Looking up, Ronin narrowed his eyes and shouted, “get down here Specter!”

The man lazily stretched, arching his back as his hands reached for the ceiling.

“You think you're the boss now?” The man chuckled. But as Ronin raised his arm, readying a laser gun, the chuckling quickly became strained.

“GET, DOWN!”

The gaunt man slowly began descending the stairs as Ronin looked on, his warsuit unmoving. As he reached the floor and Ronin was certain the man had a clear view of himself, he removed his faceguard.

“Did you ever think we’d meet like this Specter?”

The man looked confused… didn’t he know? He’d ordered his death, sent him to prison, blown up his apartment… and he didn’t know?

“What is my name?” Ronin asked, his expression turning ferocious.

“Why would I bother myself with every little rat—” the figure began. Before finishing the sentence however, his hand twitched as he reached for something behind his back. When the man’s hand returned, it held a gun.

Ronin didn’t give him a chance to fire it, burning a hole through the man's head the moment he saw what the man was holding.

As a new corpse was added to the already enormous collection that was this room, Ronin couldn’t help but feel a sense of disappointment. The way Specter had been talked up by his uncle, it shouldn’t have been this easy…This whole thing felt wrong somehow.

Nevertheless, the Ghost Butcher had been dealt with, and there was still one more crime lord left…

As for making Specter suffer? Ronin didn’t see the point. To torture someone already destined for death seemed meaningless. An act like that would, if anything, be more for the man inflicting the pain than the one suffering it.

Putting his faceguard back on, he exited the haunting room.

“It’s done,” he said as he reached the waiting Hammers. Now, it was time to deal with Argus…