12:25 PM

December 19th

Dreadwire

It seems like everyone was keen on gathering a private audience with me, my other-third should have charged higher for my services.

"Have you come to realize what our plan is?" The Second Prince asked me through the drone. "You'd be wise to aid us, now that Yuzhou's coming. They intend to kill you as well, today."

"I got paid for a job, I don't intend to kill any cops today." Other than the Lieutenant and Rachfeld.

"Not cops." War-watcher's drone shook its body from side to side. "But have you realized it, yet?"

"You've all betrayed your father, haven't you?" I stabilized my posture, a single drone wouldn't hurt me at all. "Staged an entire independence act just to collapse the entire weight of the city, Yuzhou and Crimson Souls upon him."

"Correct, on some fronts. We have staged a coup on our father, but he remains… too powerful to remain alive. Neither of us could ever kill him. 'I will let you detain me, but should any of you try to take my life — I will return in kind'. Those were his words."

This was a lot of work to kill one man, but his death would leave ripples in the city.

"So you need others to do it for you. And in doing so, he'll take so many lives that Muramasa will forever be hailed as one of the most infamous gangs in the world." I deduced. "While you and your sister scurry towards Himiko for safety, recovering, knowing that all sorts of fanatics will hail you as revolutinaries."

"Ah, you've managed some of it." War-Watcher said. "But while we have our issues with our father, Himiko is the last we would choose to run towards — nor would I willingly take shelter with my sister. Our father may be disillusioned by his hatred of Yuzhou, but we are not blinded by our hatred of Yuzhou the way he had been."

"Hard to believe this all started because of familial drama." Like everything, there was more than what met the eye. "What do you want from me?"

"You do not need to kill any of the police, but take the Datacube on this drone, it'll give us-" I shot the drone before it could finish speaking, it fell down defunct and harmless. I wasn't going to take any more deals today, I decided that much.

———

Diana

Kim and Sabrina were the first to confirm the assault team had made it to their position, soon after Pouler and Grey confirmed as well until Fernandez and Rachfeld grouped up as well. Death toll was low, but as groups of dozens of officers invaded this highly lethal space… we were taking more of them out.

More reinforcements would come soon, the primary Assault teams were focused on securing key locations of the prison to serve as bulwarks for our takeover, or reclamation, of the Prison. Who got to me first wasn't them, but Dreadwire, a little bruised and battered but not particularly damaged.

He wagged a finger at me and pointed me to follow, I was keen to not leave my position but then he took off his mask. "Twilight's blocking out camera footage, come with me for a moment."

I followed Ripley, he went over to a cell and collapsed on it's bed, a tired groan escaping him. "War-Watcher contacted me, tried to angle out a deal with me to give him access to your system."

He threw a cube at me, and I caught it to stare. "This isn't a trick, right?"

"Might be loaded with Daemons, have one of the new guys test it out." Ripley half-snored.

"Are you seriously going to sleep right now?" I scoffed, unbelieving at how he could even find the peace of mind to relax.

"Wake me up when I'm needed." He gave me a thumbs up, before his mask slid down and covered his face, faint snores that came through his voice filter permeated the walls of the cell.

With a chuckle both humored and annoyed, I left to go back to my position. "What a fucking endearing dork."

Standing guard, I was soon met by a barrage of steps as about twenty-six STRIKE Investigators approached, led by none other than SI Risa Wickett. Leader of what was once my Intelligence Squad 13. Her tone was both neutral, but not apprehensive. "Associate Special Silvereye."

"Special Investigator Wickett." I regarded her, leading them all towards the Lieutenant as they pulled equipment out and began setting up a more advanced internal base within the Prison. I also handed them the Datacube, and they began establishing a supply chain as I got equipment restocked and a tube of nutrient paste in my mouth. I preferred the metal.

While we were quick, we also weren't in a hurry to send ourselves deeper into the jaws of this mess. Over five-hundred police personnel were still available, while more than four-hundred had been rendered incapable of entry after the Bladefather's bombing of our other bases. Still, the hospital was secure… for now. If we lost contact with Omen, we'd be in big trouble.

Eventually, around seventy police personnel — mostly STRIKE — were gathered by the Warden's office. Many with faint wounds as we began the process of creating a medical ward nearby, from here we would truly begin an assault on Muramasa.

The Southern team was moving slower, and taking heavier losses, but we'd yet to be deterred. The Lieutenant stepped out, her finger snapping as she gripped the focus of each of us into the tight-grasping fist of her words.

"Muramasa will be exterminated by the end of tonight. For that, I require complete cooperation from each of you, understood?"

That got an aye-aye from many of us.

She eased the tension in her voice, no longer psychically reverberating but still hardening in our minds. "I will be coordinating from this base until the Bladefather makes his move, after which, I am to aid the Captain in eliminating him. That is our priority. Let nothing else distract you, each of you are more than policemen right now. You're soldiers. So fight and win this war, that is my order. You have five minutes to gather your equipment and prepare, before separating to either the East or West Wing. Any injured personnel is to be taken here after your current engagement is done, don't expect me to micromanage each and every move of yours — it's your call, and your decision. Survive, and I'll treat all of you to drinks."

That got a round of cheers, a burst of energy amidst this harrowing event. While everyone else gathered their equipment, I went over to Ripley. He hadn't moved an inch, but when I tapped him to wake up, he abruptly sat straight before letting out a nod.

Starlight got back into our comms while Twilight remained with the Lieutenant to work through the prison's security, and Kim, Sabrina, Pouler and Gray all grouped in with our half of the assault Team. Joining us were Rachfeld and Fernandez. We were to head to the Eastern Wing to infiltrate through there into the Implant Cache and Bladedaughter.

Kim's sword unsheathed, Sabrina prepared her belt of grenades, Pouler's arm turned to elastic stone while Gray readied twinblades of his own. Fernandez and Rachfeld both grabbed heftier guns and stood on guard, while Ripley's Arachne limbs choked the gazes of others with their sleek black edges.

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Fear, rage, determination, pride, hope, despair. Around my cohort, those emotions infected everyone and toiled like oil and water within a storm. Even Risa Wickett had an unhealthy mix of them within her stern gaze.

She was a leader of one Assault group, but I wasn't foolish enough to think she was who they looked up to. When they all gathered their sights upon me, for a moment, I felt an ease within them. In the only hope they could place in this time of despair and death, in who Silvereye had become.

Turning my head, I removed my visor to meet each of them with the reflection of my eyes. "I'll have your backs, don't forget that."

"Ah," Risa Wickett met me with a snarky gaze that shook just a little bit, "and who has your back?"

"That would be me." Dreadwire joined me at the vanguard, cracking his neck. "Now let's go, I'm not paid by the hour."

———

The cafeteria was loaded with Muramasa guards. Before we even entered, I felt their presence now that Shadow Son was dead; STRIKE showed their expertise perfectly, within moments we barraged in as all corners were taken and bullets fired first with shields soon erupting to prevent us from getting overwhelmed.

Archangel trembled as blood and steel spilled into the air, a thick iron scent muffling the atmosphere as we moved on from that scene. I didn't even need to lift a finger, and over twenty men were dead just from my report of their existence. Information was power, that was proven true when time and time again as we continued.

An hour passed, it was a blur of hectic movement and my mind scanning for every threat across the maze of the Northen Wing. Former prisoners and Muramasa assaulted us from all ends, our next goal was to pierce into the main security control center to further establish control over the prison, and Muramasa only grew denser and more deadly as we approached.

Black Dragons swarmed us, six of them. All Tier IIs and in an instant, a flurry of various Shardware and Mutations rained down, thunderous booming from guns cracked into our shielding, one glaive wielder's swing in particular melted right through and opened us to further fire.

Archangel stood large as a half-sphere formed around her, and we fired from within. Kim grabbed the frost wielded by Sabrina, directing shards of ice and frozen limbs to tear them apart before a green glow infected their guns and began firing back at them. Ripley was further in within a blink, taking on two Dragons at once as he pushed them back with a criss-crossing blur of all four Arachne.

Even Pouler and Gray, who both very much graduated from the silent but deadly school, dealt with a Dragon each as one was utterly impenetrable while the other never failed to cut through. Such was the path of Special Investigators, and I was no stranger to that. A many fanged woman danced around my men, her Shardware jaw opening up to cannon out teeth which like a shotgun blast. Armor and blood was chewed down by her advancement. New teeth slotted into place from some mechanism in her throat, and she continued to remain elusive and quick with her fray against Risa Wickett.

SI Wicked was a storm unto herself, a short-statured razing woman of fury as she entangled herself with the Dragon, but I was quicker. My suit condensed into electricity into its palm, as I flowed it according to the patterns Starlight explained to me while training — a wonderful snap of electricity bored into her chest, and like a chain I dragged her as though the light was tangible.

Slamming her against a wall, her struggling and writhing evolved into an explosion of those shrapnel-like teeth against me. With a flicker of Energy into my left bracer, electricity flowed into and manifested a holo-shield that absorbed the impact before I whipped her up to the roof with my telekinesis.

Every blow gathered courage in the hearts of these men, and that only empowered me.

As she fell, I gave a one word order. "Execute."

Muzzle-flashes and gunshots erupted like firecrackers around me, and all that was left was raw blood and dented steel. Not yet finished, I skirted to aid Dreadwire as a third Dragon assaulted him, pushing him just past the limit of what he could take at once.

We didn't even need to synchronize to determine what was best, with a brief glance his Livewire hooked into all three of them by their non-vital organs while a fourth strand shot towards my side. With a grip of the Livewire, I sent a storm through him to conduct it into the three Dragons. As they seized in scorching pain; Shardware was torn apart, mutated limbs came free into the air and my bullets penetrated a skull.

Soon after, this skirmish was over — one of our men had died from bleeding out while another three were injured. Medsprays flowed between us and we stored the body in a jailcell to keep Muramasa from finding them, but there was no time to waste.

I sensed more approaching, crowding in from all sides — and once again, we had to be ready.

I didn't know how many times we would do this until the day ended, but each time — lightning would strike.

Feeling that in my heart, my Soul triggered.

———

Some time later...

I studied my surroundings, bloody carcasses wearing black robes poked in with long shrapnel I'd torn from the limb of a Shard Adapter, large enough to impale a Dragon into a wall and leave them suspended. As I passed Archangel, I didn't hold an ounce of emotion in me.

I couldn't let myself. All this death, what was it's reason? Why would they let themselves end up like this? Maddened, hateful, slaves to an ideology.

Then I found myself staring at the covered bodies of my fallen comrades, and wondered the same thing. Another three dead, many more injured. We were down to twenty-four.

But I couldn't let myself think of them as a number, that was what my father had done. I was not my father, right now… I needed to be more than Diana Ulrich. I needed to be her, and it came remarkably easy as I allowed my fellow policemen to put their hope into me.

———

Silvereye

"We don't get to choose who lives and who dies. But we get to choose why we keep fighting. So remember, every step forward… it isn't just for the living — but those who have fallen to get us here. Remember that, remember them." I closed the eyes of one of my men, First Investigator Eric Gladus as I settled him onto a bed.

Many men paid their respects in a quiet, but quick, moment, before we carried on. At the security center for the North Wing, we found the space of computers and screens largely abandoned as Delving specialists dug into the cyber-architetcture of the feed.

Then their Neuroframes snapped and hissed, each exploding in a wave of blood and spinal fragments as their bodies collapsed down to the ground. Three of them… now putting us at twenty-one. Archangel screamed, and wasn't the only one to do so as we all stared blankly at the corpses of our fallen comrades.

"Oh shit!" One man held a wire up from his Neuroframe, he was seconds away from joining them.

"War-Watcher." Dreadwire said without a hint of his true feelings. "I'll deal with this. Starlight."

"Um… is he asking me to keep his brain from exploding too? I- uh. Yeah-yeah! I'll handle this! Leave it to me!" She fled from my skull and into Ripley's, a wire from his wrist clicking into a console.

———

Dreadwire

A voice reached to me, War-Watcher once again. "What I wanted to say the last time, was that I want you to kill The Bladedaughter. I'll offer you the same support as she is, Dreadwire. Better support, to take down The Dogwhistler."

"Wait, what is he talking about?" Starlight pulsed in my skull. "Dreadwire… Dad?"

Later, get him out.

His presence vanished soon, a Gold Datashield like Starlight was resistant, but not infallible. Each time I connected her to the Prison Systems, I had to consider that War-Watcher was learning how to break past her.

"Okay, but that's not what I'm focused on! What did he mean by Bladedaughter giving you support, aren't you working against her?!"

I'm fulfilling my job to attack her today, if she escapes… we've agreed to an alliance against The Uncaged.

"Alright, but why didn't you tell me!" Starlight appeared in my vision, panic streaming down her face. "Is this why you've been so secretive as of late?"

I need you in Diana's system, but I can't let Diana know things.

"I can keep a secret!"

Starlight, you know as well as I do that secrets don't stay that way.

"I-" She turned her gaze away from me, her pain flowing into me and then silencing under my Personality Matrix. Her voice cracked, her hand rubbing at her eye as she nodded. "Fine. Just give me a second."

True to her words, a second later and I'd broken into their database and was ready to transfer access over to Twilight, when I saw something interesting.

It was as equally terrifying. There was a live camera feed of the Isolation Chamber that the Bladefather was contained in, opening it revealed him to be missing. Instead, large chunks of stone were visible in the room, as though they'd fallen into it.

Slipping out of the feed, I turned to Diana. "The Bladefather has broken out."

"He's… shit." Diana tapped her temple, immediately sending notice to the Lieutenant.

In seconds, her voice radiated in everyone's Neuralink.

"We have confirmation that the core target of this raid is on the move, everyone… r-remain vigilant. Should you see him, do not engage. He is strictly to be dealt with the Alpha Unit. For now, remain on standby… secure your locations and wait for further orders."

So we had to stay here for now, it wasn't my preferred move, but I wasn't going to reject that order. The Bladefather… could probably kill either of us with the ease it took for him to lift a finger. I had no idea how he was transmitting his Mutation across the Soulless he hijacked, even less idea of how he took over Soul Killer's powers, but if he could threaten an Uncaged…

I sighed, my eyes falling onto Diana's as I caught her attention with a wagging finger. "I need to talk to you about something."

The remaining Assault team gave us their stares, but both of us had become used to the weight of other's gazes. As she followed me to a quieter corner, I let out a secret.

"Skeleton hired me to kill the lieutenant."

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