BLACK SWORDS INC VOL. II

BLACK SWORDS INC VOL II
Taina was in a female dress uniform of dark green with a black beret, her hair in a bun, and she was already following something that she'd searched up.

"Wait up!" I shouted as I pushed past the soldiers on their way to another online battleground. "Hey, I said wait up!"

When I turned the corner she was standing in front of a Vannie base station, windows bagged up and banners hanging from the building. It looked like it had been under siege since the fall of their Noble Lady. And there Taina was just knocking on the gods damned door with a virus gun in one hand.

I walked up next to her.

"Are you fruking crazy?!" I said. "They'd probably kill us rather than give up one of their hacker's-"

The door opened and a tall V'Halsen sergeant stood in the doorway, obviously an AI construct. He, or it, raised a virus rifle and pointed it at us.

"State your business you C-Fed frukers."

Taina showed the sergeant her gun and said, "We're searching for Deronium's Last Upload. A quick search brought us the the V'Halsen quadrant."

The sergeant grunted.

"There's no file here bearing that name. What do you think this place is woman?"

I stepped in. "Look for anything uploaded by Deronium. I know he used to get you guys guns."

The sergeant paused for a moment and there was a brief flicker as his avatar ran the search. It was always eerie during a data dream when this would occur, seeing an avatar not being fluid in the world it inhabited. Suddenly the sergeant came back to.

"There are three hundred forty eight files from Deronium on my local server," the sergeant said. "Are there any specifications for a closer search or should you C-Fed frukers bugger off?"

This time I pulled my virus gun from the back of my belt.

"How about we get this done quickly and you give us the files, Vannie."

The sergeant flinched, and then turned into the building and came back with a stack of files. I grabbed half and Taina grabbed the other half. We tucked them into our ruck sacks so we could view the files on Zed's desktop when we woke from the data dream. Taina went to go, but I stopped. I decided to be a bastard for the minute and shot the AI sergeant three times in the chest with the virus gun. He fell over, shuddering as the virus took effect and claimed the whole place.

Burn the roads behind you, as Ulrich would say.

---

"What the fruk were you thinking?" Jin said.

It was the next day and Taina and I were in Jin's office. On her screen was a news report covering V'Halsen insurgents in the Northern Dominion slaughtering those loyal to the Gaian C-Fed. It was a matter of simple science: Cause and effect. The cause was a perceived attack on the V'Halsen DarkNet archives by C-Feds, and the effect was a very real breaking of the truce.

I sat in slight awe of what we were supposedly in trouble for.

"We were trying to figure out why we're here," I spoke up.

Jin's face was flushed and she was fuming.

"Trying to figure out why we're here?" Jin said. "We're here because we're protecting corporate interests and your moonlighting jobs are causing a whole lot of trouble for the world around you."

I took a moment to let that soak in.

I'd had my share of cause and effect before when I was helping run guns to the Vannies during the Wars, but I didn't ever think that I'd inadvertently cause the death of thousands of loyal Gaians. Three quick shots of the virus gun had put down a Vannie server, and then had pissed of the VHM command enough to try and take down a whole Gaian protectorate.

"What if they were just waiting for a reason to strike?" I asked. "What if they just needed a little bit of chaos to go for it?"

Jin crossed her arms.

Taina took this time to talk, "So what if there's a civil war again? We've all been through it before, and all we were trying to do was just make an info grab about this job we're on. We can't trust this Ulrich guy just because he writes our paychecks, Jin."

Jin shook her head and then her phone began to ring.

She took a look at it.

"Speak of the devil," she muttered as she answered the phone. "Hello sir. Yes sir. I understand that sir. Everything is safe for you up there? What? What do you mean you need to speak with him, sir?" She bit her lip for a moment. "Alright I'll set up the call. Thank you, sir. Goodbye."

She hung up.

"Jakk, you're coming with me." she said. "The boss needs to talk to you."

CHAPTER 13

We walked into a room in another building that had a holographic rig set up in it's center, something I'm sure was used more for briefings than for private conversations with your boss and stern talking tos. At least that's what I thought I was in for when Ulrich's face popped up on the holo display and began to speak.

"Good work, Jakk," he said first.

I was taken aback. Jin looked more pissed than ever.

"Jin, leave us for the time being," he said. "There's much Jakk needs to hear."

Jin nodded and silently left the room.

The blue of the holo display was the only light in there, and it washed over me like a cold bath of holy water. I suddenly felt very small as Ulrich's huge head glared at me.

"Jakk, do you know what the true purpose of the Black Swords is?" Ulrich asked slowly and calmly.

"To fruk shit up?" I said with a sneer.

"Nice." Ulrich grinned like a shark. "Are you familiar with the term black operations?"

I nodded. I'd come across it a few times on the Net and knew enough to reply, "Yeah, when black ops occur a state or entity wants plausible deniability from said operation."

Ulrich smiled wider. "Good. Now did you know that the C-Fed has it's own Black Operations division?"

I shook my head. It was news to me if it was concrete.

"Where are they operating mostly?" I asked.

"Gaemiria actually," Ulrich stated. "They took the reigns of control there not too long after Operation Apotheosize ended and left a large portion of the City State in ruins thanks to the V'Halsens."

I arched my eyebrows, "Well I gotta say boss, that's interesting, but that's not what I was looking for exactly."

"Are you familiar with Operation Apotheosize?" Ulrich asked.

I shook my head again. "Not particularly. I just know it was a bloodbath for those who rose up against the C-Fed's forces up there. Riots in the middle of a battle. Caused a lot of uneeded death."

"Are you familiar with the root cause of the Operation reaching that level of ferocity?" Ulrich asked.

For the third time I shook my head.

"The V'Halsen Militia had taken a school hostage," Ulrich began. "They were searching for a relic, much like the one that we found. When the 1st Air Assault Battalion landed in the area under command of Lieutenant Colonel Fischig Sama, they began killing people in the school and suddenly, inexorably, the people of Gaemiria rose up against both the VHM and the CGMF in the city."

The name rang a bell, "And this Colonel Sama, he's what exactly?"

Ulrich grinned that terrifying grin of his again.

"He is your father, and a former Black Swords contractor."

I took a step back, shocked to my core. My gut flipped. I'd always wanted to know who my father was. I hadn't asked my mother for many years because she stopped giving me excuses and I had grown up on my own under the tutelage of the clan. And now I knew that name. I knew that name from the news, from vid casts, from C-Fed propaganda while growing up through the Wars and now I knew that I was a bastard. A total bastard who knew little of who he really was. This was why I'd been chosen for impressment into the Black Swords; to follow in my father's foot steps.

"Ulrich," I said with a rim of tears in my eyes. "Is that why you brought me here?"

"No it is not," Ulrich said. "I brought you here to try and do better with you than I did Fischig. Fischig is a pure warrior. He knows nothing of computers or the InfoNet. He's always had others to do that for him. What you are here for is for the rebranding of the Black Swords. Harom will be moving soon, and the Swords will not follow. These past few weeks guarding him will all be swept under the rug. There will be no questions, no more digging by you, Jerri, or Taina, or Zed. You will fall into line and begin your true purpose."

I had tears falling down my face now.

I was glad we were alone.

"Then what?" I whispered.

"Then the Black Swords Inc team will follow in it's predecessors footsteps as a C-Fed Black Ops team. I have a mission written up specifically for this purpose, Jakk. You and Jin will have to work together to make this so," he said.

"But my father-"

"You father doesn't know you exist. Your mother was just some random student at a bar to him. I warn you, he is a bloodthirsty man. There is a reason his enemies call him 'the beast'."

I nodded, and wiped the tears from my eyes before looking up again at my new boss, understanding more and more about what Jin had been talking about in regards to Ulrich.

"So he's a bad guy?" I asked.

"That he is my young friend," Ulrich said. "You're being given a second chance at life, as is Taina, as is Jerri. Let the big dogs take control of the reigns for a while. Don't worry about the problems that face you. Just fight hard and fight strong and I will return to lead the Swords to victory."

I nodded, feeling small. So damned small.

---

When I walked out of the room, Jin was there to meet me. She saw that my eyes were red and head bowed low.

"Do you understand now?" she asked, standing in the way.

"Yes, I do." I said, holding back back a sob, my throat tight.

She embraced me. I lay in her arms for a moment, breathing in her soothing scent. Life had just changed in a big way for me. I knew what I was meant for, I had direction that wasn't just for profit. I could bring stability to this country, to this world, and Jin was here to help do that. I let out a small sob and stayed put.

"Jin," I said. "I need to be alone for a few days. Just a few days leave."

She pulled away for a moment and looked into my eyes and nodded. "Alright. You got it."

"Thank you," I said silently.

---

I spent the first day in a hotel room in the City Proper getting absolutely trashed on grain liquor, singing old songs my mother had taught me as a kid from Jimunga. I rolled on the bed, smoking real tobacco cigarettes and wishing I had time to get some of Kalv's drugs from him. It would have made the release of many years of emptiness and angst much easier. I sobbed alone. I screamed into the sky and didn't give a fruk when the other people at the hotel said anything about it. I was hurting, healing old opened wounds. It was my time in the wilderness of my mind. My mind.

Gods my mind had caused so much trouble.

But why?

I kept an eye on the news feed and watched the situation in the Northern Dominion spiral out of control. I secretly wished for Fischig, my father, who was the commander of the C-Fed peacekeepers on the ground there to be captured and killed by the damned Vannies. I knew my actions had cause this situation to spiral out of control. Like they say, sometimes all you need is one little push. I might have killed my own father before ever meeting him and I knew this and it killed me.

I ordered Malarcan food from the store down the block and ate ravenously, as if another hole had been opened in me, and still I watched the news, transfixed and horrified all at once.

Fruk I was a mess.

A gods damned mess.

And I knew it all too well.

What could I do other than watch that situation? I couldn't convince Jin to move us to the Northern Dominion. That was too risky, especially with her adherence to the rules of the base. I knew we were sitting there just standing pretty for the time being until we were given our next orders. But it was Black Ops. And what I knew of Black Ops was they were fanatical for the Confederacy. They didn't care who got hurt, they fought till the end. From what I knew about my father, he was very much the same. He was probably the reason why there even was a Black Ops branch, just as he was the reason I was here, and why Black Ops were running Gaemiria.

Fruk. What a life I had found myself in. Blood, death, and suddenly relation to one of the C-Fed's biggest supposed war criminals who was fighting it out in the Northern Dominion because of three trigger pulls of a virus gun in Vannie DarkNet territory. How the hell was I supposed to deal with this on my own? I had asked to be alone and I wasn't shaving, I was eating crap, smoke stench filled my nostrils and clung to my clothes. My eyes were bloodshot and baggy. My chest was tight and no matter what my stomach was sick. On the second night, I called Taina.

"Taina," I said into the reciever.

"Yeah?"

"I need you here right now."

"Jakk, I'm not a call girl anymore," she said.

"No," I said. "I need you here. To watch the news with me. Like when we were kids."

There was silence on the line.

"Fine," she said. "I'll be there in an hour."

"You know where I am?"

"Jin told us all you were taking some time off."

"But she told you guys where I am?"

"Yeah, why? Is that a problem?"

I shook my head, "No it isn't."

"Good. I'll see you in an hour."

And so I waited. She showed up a little behind schedule, and I had the news feed on full blast behind me when I opened the door. A plume of stale cigarette smoke fell out in front of me and into her face.

"What's got you so down, Sal?" she asked, hand on her hip.

I thumbed over my shoulder.

"I got some bad news."

"What? That we might have sparked off another war?" she smiled. "Did you think I didn't have that kind of chops?"

I walked back in and she followed me to the bed, shutting the door behind her. The lights in the hotel room were off and the screen was casting a white glisten in all the smoke.

"Taina, Ulrich told me who my father is. And why we're in the Black Swords," I said.

She raised an eyebrow.

"He's Fischig Sama. The guy all the Vannies called a war criminal after Gaemiria Isle and Operation Apotheosize. He apparently used to be a Black Sword under Ulrich, and-"

"And we're supposed to get him, right?"

I sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I think so..."

She reached into her bag and produced a bottle of cheap champagne.

"Then let's celebrate a bit. Not every day you find out you're bastard of the year. We're all soldiers now."

She popped the cork and filled two coffee cups that were sitting in the room.

"Cheers, handsome," she said. "Things just got a lot more interesting..."

   

CHAPTER 14

After my three days of leave we up we were stationed to the barracks just to train more. I dealt with the news about my origins by throwing myself into long hours at the range, firing my L4 with ferocity at the century old range. We were no longer going on rides into the city proper and we spent much of our time waiting for new orders to arrive. Taina and Jin had kept Ulrich's revelation to me under wraps mostly, and I was glad for that to be the case.

Still, I was pissed as fruk.

When I wasn't training, I was drinking, keeping away from the urge to go through all the files that we had snagged, especially Deronium's files. I could only wonder and wait for what would come next and fume over being left behind by a monster I'd never even met. Jin was right in a way about Ulrich. He was a man with a plan. I would have never expected to basically be taking my father's old job. But what was Ulrich doing? He'd been gone for nearly a month, and it was nearly two months before Jin called us all into the briefing room for a meeting.

We all filed in quietly and she lit up the holo display.

"Hello everyone, and thanks for coming," she said as the holo display lit up a map of several hills and valleys with clusters of settlements highlighted in them. "We've got our marching orders. A small town of Erismans in the Ba'tinim River valley has informed the West Ba'Arriti Militia that there is a Bocchus cult of militant fanatics working in their area."

The holo map zoomed in on a ridge overlooking one of the settlements.

Jin continued.

"The Bocchus Fanatics have been extorting the locals for credits, food, anything they need to continue operations in the area," she said. "The West Ba'aritti Militia are in the area but need us as a strike force on the fanatics' base. They'll provide any heavy support, but from what the locals tell us they don't want a major battle in their town. Apparently they've already lost their most notable relic to the fanatics and the local tribe wants us to bring it back to them when we kick the Erismans out."

I could almost feel Jerri grinning and Taina's excitment.

"Now with the debacle going on up in the Northern Dominion the C-Fed needs us to keep this quiet, hence the strike force operation. We're going to be inserted just below the ridge under the cover of night, and then move into the tunnels in the ridge above. Take no prisoners is Ulrich's command. The C-Fed and the Ba'arriti are willing to look the other way on this one in that regard."

I leaned back in my seat, feeling a tad queasy. This seemed to be more like my father's kind of job. Or was this what Ulrich wanted?

"Mission go time is twenty two hundred hours tomorrow evening. Standard assault load outs guys. This is what we've been training for," Jin said, closing the holo display. "Let's make the old man proud."

---

We rode out of the barracks in a two car convoy. Me, Taina and Jerri were in one in our armored suits and gear. Jin, Zed, Kalv and Mell rode in the car in front of us. The trip took us around the outer edge of West Ba'arriti City and most of it was through slums and shanty towns. It was a hell of a sightseeing trip for Taina who still had some untarnished vision of West Ba'arriti tribal life in the area. Most of it seemed to dissipate from her as we made our way. I drove while Jerri and Taina kept their eyes on the streets for any suspicious movement.

Soon though, we made our way to the rendezvous point with the West Ba'Arriti militia checkpoint. There were two automated gun turrets set up behind concrete barricades and two J47 Type military off road all terrain vehicles with their own automated turrets keeping guns trained on us at all times. I understood that since the V'Halsen Wars, it was common for these types of checkpoints to be around most border areas where combat had been fierce, and it made me wonder how these Erismans we were after had made it into the settlement at all.

Jin exchanged details with the sergeant in command of the West Ba'Arriti detachment, and he ordered his men to saddle up and before I knew it we were on the road again into the night.

I pulled on an e-cigarette and watched the blue light at the tip light up the cabin space in front of me as I kept my eyes on the road in front of us. It was a small haul down the road in silence aside from the random radio chatter our scanner was picking up. We'd been afforded a key piece of intel on the Erismans; their radio frequency. Mostly they were chatting about their dinner and how it was going, but they made no mention of our movement into their territory.

"We're doing good," I muttered to myself as the convoy clung to the road along the valley walls.

I checked the HUD map and noticed we were nearing our disembarkation point. I pressed a stud on my helmet and it closed around my face. I could hear Taina and Jerri's helmets doing the same and Jerri racking a round in his carbine.

Jin waved a hand out of her car's window as the convoy pulled to a halt and the J47s aimed their turrets up the ridge. All lights were down aside from the lights of the trailer settlements below.

We all met on the road.

"Alright," Jin said, her voice digitized over our closed channel, "Everyone ready?"

We all nodded.

Something felt off.

Jin was off.

"Alright," she said. "Let's get up there. Sal, you're on point."

I nodded to her and began hiking up the grass covered valley with my comrades behind me. My HUD in my helmet was scanning for any heat signatures and was in night vision. The target point was designated by Jin to be three hundred meters up the slope and was marked by a glowing blue diamond. I kept my L4 close to my chest as we made our way up and up. It was a steep incline but our suits helped relieve some of the pressure.

There was still chatter when we were two hundred meters in on the Erisman radio. There would be little to no way that they could see us with our active camo on. We would look like mirages to the naked eye, but if they had any sort of HUD or goggles they'd be able to see us just as easily as I was beginning to see them then.

We closed within seventy five meters of their hole.

Jin pipped on the radio.

"Hold position. Move into attack formation taurus."

We began to shuffle about into a half ring around the front of the cave entrance. Two guards were sitting out front nursing what looked to be coffee mugs and talking in their native language, seemingly unaware that we were about to unload on them.

"Kalv," Jin said, "drop 'em now."

"Gladly," said Kalv.

He raised his scoped rifle and took two well placed shots.

The guards' heads exploded one after the other like bloody fruit. The gunfire echoed through the valley.

"Move in," Jin said, "Breach formation."

We lined up next to the entrance of the cave and could hear people down inside yelling and guns being loaded.

"Taina, now!" Jin shouted.

Taina threw a EMP and nerve gas grenade into the hole. It exploded and flashing grey yellow gas filled the entrance. Screams and shouts filtered through the smoke and we rushed in, shoulder to shoulder, our guns raised, ready for the fight.

I was in first. A flailing Erisman with a TF31R rifle and a gas mask on rushed me with reckless abandon. I pulled my trigger twice and shot him in the gut. He fell over and I fired two more rounds into his head and kept moving. We were through the gas and the cave was opening up. Several bodies were laying in front of us and a terminal was glitching out behind a barricade of boxes manned by four Erismans in gas masks.

We all stared at each other for a moment.

Close contacts, I've learned, are ugly.

Jerri fired the first shot, blasting away on semi auto at the fanatics behind the boxes. We all joined in. A few shots from them made their way out as their hands spasmed in their death twitches. A few more of the Erismans ran up, one throwing a grenade down the hall that he produced from his gear.

Mell ran up and threw it back in the middle of their oncoming fire. Three rounds hit him and he twisted backwards as the grenade exploded behind the barricade. The Erismans were knocked down. Kalv and Jerri ran up to Mell and pulled him back.

"I'm good!" he snarled. "Just hit my armor, I'm good!"

Kalv whacked Mell's helmet a few times for good measure.

"Nice work with the 'nade."

Jin walked up to them, "C'mon, let's keep moving."

Taina and Jerri moved forward with me, our guns raised. Smoke obscured our vision and there were more bodies to pick through. The other three came up behind us. There was a spoke in the cave there, three tunnels spiraling down into the depths of the ridge.

"Split up into parties of two," said Jin, "Zed you sit tight here with that heavy gun. Move fast and with a purpose. 'Nade the bastards' rooms before moving into them."

Zed unswung his tripod and sat down in the middle of the intersection. Jerri and I teamed up and started moving down the tunnel to the right. It wasn't too long before we heard fire coming from the other tunnels, but there was nothing in ours except for a cable running along the walls. The tunnel descended into the ridge for a while, and the cables kept running, and the gunfire and explosions kept ringing behind us. Finally though, we entered a room lined with monitors and computer consoles. Enough hard drives were there to store hundreds of terabytes of information.

"Shit," Jerri said. "I think we just found an intel treasure trove."

I smiled behind my helmet and brought up Jin's channel.

"Jin, you're gonna want to see this."

CHAPTER 15

We loaded the consoles into the cars and the Ba'Arriti warriors took care of disposing the bodies of the Erismans. I was still buzzing from the fight, and I felt better than I had in about a week. Not even drugs could get me feeling the way that I felt after a good firefight. The street samurai in me made sure of the zen of combat that I never felt tired of. That was one thing that the Shogun had given me, my ability to enjoy combat.

Jin walked up to me.

"Nice find, Jakk," she said with her helmet under one arm.

I grinned and nodded, "Just lucky I guess."

She returned the grin and stood next to me.

"You know you'll be getting a bonus for this," she said.

Honestly my mind was far from the cred that I was getting for the job. She should have known that. I was riding off of the adrenaline high, sure, but my mind was on other things. Wondering about what was going on in the Northern Dominion especially due to the news about who my father really was. To be fair I'd never really asked since I was grown, but knowing that that man was my father. And in matters of family, I was wondering what my mother was up to in the midst of such unrest.

"Yeah," I said with a sigh and a drag. "Maybe there'll be some money to send home."

Jin gave me a sideways glance.

"Didn't expect that," she said.

"Well the news I got has me thinking," I said.

"Thinking more along family lines it seems."

"Is there a problem with that Machiavelli?"

She grinned again and shook her heard.

"Nope."

---

We returned to the barracks, cleaned our gear, and ate some chow. Not much fanfare compared to our last visit with the Klerians. I was exhausted from the job though and fell asleep quickly, but I was met by dreams almost immediately.

I was underwater, so deep I could hardly make out the light of the sun above the surface. I could feel the pressure of the deep on me and yet I felt no pressure on my lungs to breathe. I swam along the floor of that body of water in a haze that I could only figure was the silt from the floor. I felt something brush my leg and I looked behind me to see a tentacle flowing away into the darkness. I turned around and looked where it could have gone.

The fruk? I thought.

I reached to my side for a weapon that wasn't there and swam after the tentacle, wondering if it was the one that had haunted my dreams during my return to Durik City. I swam and swam, and soon I saw the tentacles of the creature pull away into a cave that was littered with skeletons of other fish and beasts of the sea. I knew I had no chance of fighting my way out of an encounter with it now, but I also knew I was compelled to go into the cave.

So in I swam.

It was only a few moments before I was met by the floating corpses of my fellow Swords. This scared the shit out of me, I'll be honest. I turned and swam out only to be stopped by a tug at my leg. I kept pulling and looked back but I was stuck. My eyes met the monster's gaze, and it was the kraken. Giant bulbous eyes met me and a beak clattered in the deep waters as it tried to pull me into it's mouth. It seemed the more I pulled, the more it toyed with me, flicking me around like a rag doll. I was terrified and I screamed, but no sound came out. Only masses of bubbles that burst against the ceiling of the cave I was stuck and there was no way out.

The kraken pulled me in and clamped down on me.

I awoke drenched in sweat and heard the snores of Mell, Kalv and Zedd. It was still dark out, and the rest of the base was still asleep aside from the lights of a patrolling car of MPs. I got up out of my rack and pulled a jacket and pants on, grabbing my e-cig and headed outside.

Vapor poured from my mouth into the night air and the sounds of the distant city met my ears and I stood shaking off the night terror. I couldn't figure out what was happening to me. I had just found out that I was the son of Lieutenant Colonel Fischig Sama, and that meant that I was held in some respect somewhere in this fruked up country. My boss was his old boss, sure, but where was he now? Where Fischig was? What the fruk was happening to me being stuck in this gods damned merc company? Sure the pay was good, and I was among friends, but I couldn't shake the feeling of being a pawn, or even worse, prey in some game bigger than me by far.

I sighed and took a long hit.

I needed it.

Hell, I needed more time off.

I began to walk around the fence of the base. It was a plascrete wall really, with razorwire the top of the damn thing. No one was getting through it without some nice firepower. I looked up at the amber and neon haze of the night sky and wondered who else was looking at that sky as I turned a corner and found Jin sitting on the steps of her office building and staring at the sky as well.

"Hey," I said, walking up.

She grinned and looked my way.

"Hey," she said. "Can't sleep either?"

I nodded.

"What's got you up?" I asked.

She shrugged and looked down at her feet. It wasn't common for her to look so vulnerable. I walked a littler closer.

"I usually don't sleep well after an action," she said. "Or before one. I'm gonna be needing the caffeine tomorrow at breakfast."

She looked at her watch.

"Well, today at breakfast," she laughed. "Why can't you sleep? I thought you samurai loved the thrill of combat."

I smiled and rubbed the back of my head nervously. "Dreams honestly."

"Really?"

"Serious as sin."

"Huh," she looked me up and down. "Come here, I want to show you something."

She stood up and walked into her office. I followed quickly. The office was a desk covered in data pads and hard copy papers and a rack in the corner. There was a holoscreen on the wall and there was an InfoNet feed scrolling down news as a commentator reported on notable highlights from the previous night's hyperball game.

Jin went to her desk and pulled a hard copy file out of the mess.

She opened it up.

"This," she began, "is my secret stash."

"Of drawings?" I said taking a glance at her handiwork. I had to admit, it wasn't that bad.

"Nice stuff, Jin," I said, leafing through the art.

It was mostly animals and still life work done in graphite pencil, but it was very good work. I didn't exactly have an eye for art, but I knew good art from bad art. This was good art. I stopped when I got to a drawing of a young man in the nude with dreadlocks.

I had to laugh.

"Really?" I said. "Is this supposed to be-"

She laughed too.

"Yup, that's you."

"Well I'm glad to be a part of your body of work."

She nodded, "Well, there's a reason you're in there, Jakk."

"And that is?"

"Because you're a beautiful creation."

I shook my head and placed the file down on the desk.

"Jin, we gotta stop this."

"Why? We're not kids anymore."

"Exactly. I'm not your bodyguard anymore, you're my boss..." I trailed off.

She stood up and walked over to me.

I took a deep breath in.

"Jin..."

"Jakk, it's okay," she said placing a hand on my shoulder. "We're a good unit, and you're here and that means the world to me. You learned a lot about your existence the other day and Ulrich has assured me that he's going to find Sama and bring him to you."

I shook my head and moved her hand.

"Jin, I can't right now," I said. "Ulrich told me something I hadn't worried about since I was in Kleria and in love-"

"And that love failed, and somehow the gods made justice for you that my family couldn't have."

"The gods Jin? Really?" I scoffed. "The gods aren't listening anymore. If they're even real, they're just throwing random shit at us and hoping it sticks."

She stepped back, rare tears beginning to brim at her eyes.

"I should go," I said, turning to leave.

"Jakk, c'mon..." she said.

"No, I need to dive for a while." I said, leaving the building.

She stood in the door and watched me walk away. She knew me just as I knew me, and I knew that I'd be better off doing some work on a console. When I got back to the barracks, I fired up Zedd's console and got myself hooked up. I was going to go through those V'Halsen files we had grabbed and I was going to find Deronium's last upload.

---

I ran search programs looking for anything surrounding the last date he was known to be active. I ran search programs on every classified file we had in the cache. Anything and everything would be brought up but Deronium had been pretty damn prolific. He was very active up to his last day alive, which even that was somewhat hazy because it was a few weeks before anyone found his body. It took about an hour before I found anything.

"Hm," I murmured quietly as to not wake the others, "this seems about right..."

I scrolled through several files that were uploaded two weeks before his body was discovered. One was entitled "Project ELYSIUM". I opened it and found that the contents were heavily encrypted. It was to the point I almost thought that the contents weren't just encrypted but corrupted even. I opened a cracking program and began running it as everyone began to wake up.

Zedd noticed me first.

"The fruk do you think you're doing kid?" he said groggily.

I stood and waved him off.

"I'm onto something with the files we got from the V'Halsen MilNet," I said.

He rubbed the back of his head as his eyes whirred and clicked into focus.

"Well you could have asked."

"You were asleep and I didn't want to wake you," I said, still feeling the buzz of finding something important.

He muttered something and started heading towards the chow hall with Mell and Kalv. I followed them out, content to wait for the decryption program to run its course. We made our way into the early sunlight that was covered by the smog of the sprawl. Jerri Boy and Taina joined us but Jin was no where to be seen.

We were all a little sluggish in the line.

I edged closer to Jerri and Taina as they made their way down to a table.

"So I think I found it," I said as we sat down.

"Found what, Jakk?" Taina asked.

"Deronium's last upload."

"Oh?" said Jerri.

"Yeah," I said. "It's called Project Elysium."

"And?" asked Taina.

"And it's heavily encrypted and probably highly dangerous."

"So what is it?" asked Jerri.

"Something, I don't know what yet, but we should know soon," I said with a bit of hope in me. "This could be big."

And I left it at that for the time being. I had no clue what we were about to uncover and how much trouble it was about to cause. Not a damn clue...

CHAPTER 16

We were all hovering around Zedd's computer waiting for the decryption program to finish. It was at ninety eight percent and I was pacing up and down the barracks with anxiety. I hadn't slept much and I had caffeine in me to compensate for that, but all I could think about was what we had found.

I had completely forgot about Jin.

Then she came in.

"Alright Swords, we have a new order from Ulrich," she said walking in without breaking a moment's stride.

We all looked up.

Mell grunted out a surprised question.

"What is it now?"

Jin grinned and lifted her data pad.

"We're not guarding Harom tomorrow," she began, "We're arresting him alongside the West Ba'arriti Militia."

Everyone started to their feet. Confusion was on most of our faces. Why now? Why?

Zed asked first.

"Any reason for this mission would be appreciated."

"Ulrich ordered it and he said we'd be paid for it on special combat pay," Jin said.

Most of us sat down at that moment.

I was still standing when the decryption program pinged as finished.

"Whatever that was has to wait," Jin said. "We're leaving in the morning for the raid."

I stifled my dissent for a woman who could seem able to stifle her love for me.