From a Black Dusk to a Titanium Dawn

[Kaze Dagon]

One more taxi ride.
She read to herself the little piece of paper she has procured.

"Bowery District, 11th Sector, Cipriani 42nd."

Kaze knew the building in question. Old style, was built to be a bank, but then it was restaurant that closed not 1 year ago, it seems.

The colors of Manhattan just blurred away by the window as she counted the seconds.

"So be it. It's just another way to die."

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As the taxi-hover faded from her view, she looked around first for any potential.. problems.
She spotted McIntosh boys, watching from the top of one of the buildings.

She flashed a small IR beam to them thrice.

They used their own three times as well and disappeared.

"Seems McIntosh trained well these kids." Kaze thought.

She entered a side building and with a quick EM Decoding job, she opened one of the vacant apartments.

Four minutes later, she was exiting the building by the back, wearing an light body armor, opening the schematics of the building. Armed with her trusty old LSF six-shooter, knifes, a combat shotgun, some explosives and her brand new sword.

A faithful copy of a Juuchi Yosamu, made of Niobium, Iridium and Cobalt. Courtesy of her brother.

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Kaze moved between shadows with a light step. And accessed the old sewer connection.
Easy, considering the lock was about 200 year old.

Four minutes later, she was exiting the septic tank of the old building.

The Cipriani.

A building built in the late 2nd century A.S., the building was old by any standards, with heavy old Sol architectural influences. Roman columns, wide halls, narrow corridors.

Excellent to defend.

A solid problem for anyone trying to break Taiki's party.

"Hm." Kaze mumbled as thinking of a plan.

"Either.. I start a fuss.. Or i just drop down on them."

Her eyes showed of a glint of fun.

She walked slowly and silently to the access corridor. Two men. With standard civilian LSMG's.

Kaze grunted at that. It only complicated matters even further.

When alone, one can kill silently. When they are pulling double patrols?
It's a whole new game.

She sighed and moved in the opposite direction of the corridor, while both men were talking to each other. Kaze noticed the steel beams that were on the ceiling and quickly started to climb the narrow corridor walls.

A nice way to move, undetected.

Filled with dust and cobwebs. Which was a double edged sword.

It would help her identify if that route was tampered with, or it could alert the security while she was moving.

After five minutes of silently moving at a height of 30 feet, disarming the occasional trap that was set up there, she was in sight of the great ball room that was the main room of the restaurant.

Kaze closed her left eye and let the right one do the work.

One great gift from the Hellfire R&D department, the bionic eye zoomed in and she found Shin alongside four men, discussing at the tables, not far.

What about, she couldn't listen.

And the next beam was too far away for her to jump without making noise.

Five guards in total were the ones around.

The power junction box of the ballroom was right beside her.
Kaze grabbed a small plastic material, and prepared a detonator to ignite on her signal.

She trailed the nearest guard.

"Time to make an entrance to die for." She thought while she pulled her gun and throwing knifes.

Suddenly, she leaped with her feet, aiming at the guard's back and nape.

The power box suddenly melted away, throwing the lights in the room down.

With a thick thumbing noise and a sickening crack, the remaining four guards in the hall were taken by surprise.

An advantage she did not allowed to get away.

The one that served as a cushion to her fall would never rise up again, with a severed spinal cord in his nape.

With a quick flex of the wrist she threw a knife directly at the nearest guard that was already pulling his gun to aim at her. At the same time, she aimed with the 6'shooter at the two that were starting to closing in.

She took a quick aim, aided by the bionics that were now hers, and two heavy laser slugs were fired.
The powerful shots melted through their helmet and their brains turned into liquid in less than a second as they flew back.

As they hit the floor, they were dead already.

The last one, the one further away, was radioing for support, but her RHF Jammer took care of that, swamping the channels with static.

She just aimed at the mans screaming eyes, and pulled the trigger softly.

One more for the devil's count.

To her, it was a ballet of death and coordinated movements that were slow in her mind.. Second by second.

To Shin Taiki and the four men at his side, it was a sudden change of pace, where their men died in less than five seconds.

The fear and surprise were installed in their brains, thumping like an unwanted headache, every second, every heartbeat.

One of the men moved his arm to reach for his gun, but Kaze just squeezed the trigger while she walked towards them.

The man was thrown back like a rag-doll while his arm was almost severed at the shoulder.

Quick and ruthless, that woman covered in the shadows, continued to walk, each step echoing in the ball room, each sound pilling up the fear in their hearts.

"Who are you?" Shin asked.

The echo of the steps in that shadowy ballroom was the only answer.

Another man, at his side, shouted.

"WHAT DO YO-" He was cut off by a fully condensed 0.5 Petawatt through the chest, causing him to be thrown back and fall at the pool of blood caused by his dying friend.

The pressure in that room was now unbearable to them. One by one, they raised their arms.

"Who are you?" Shin asked again.

Finally, she stopped.

A light flashed inside the room, coming from the huge windows, due a passing-by transport hover.

It lighted up part of her face, and her right eye reflected part of the light, scaring both scientist.

Her face was finally seen by Shin.

He immediately recognized her. Shin couldn't help himself but to feel slightly shamed as he lowered his head.

"Silver sent you?" He said smirking.

Kaze unsheathed her katana with her left hand, without a word, causing the two men around Shin to gulp down as their heartbeats increased.

She walked the last couple of feet to their location.

"On your knees." She said.

The two men slowly complied and kneeled. Shin did not, as he stood there in defiance.

Kaze suddenly kicked him in the groin, causing him to yelp and to buckle on his knees.

While both men got scared and started to look down to the floor and with Shin trying to shrug the pain away from his privates, Kaze quickly replaced the now smoking battery of her gun.

"Hmph... What are you going to-" Shin tried to ask, still trying to forget the pain, but suddenly her sword came close to his throat, and slowly drew blood. He stood in attention.

"I will make you drown in your own blood, if you so much breath harder, Mr. Taiki." Kaze whispered in his ear and moved away.

"What was your business here?" She asked to one of the men.

The man, soaked in sweat and fear, raised his head, and stuttered.

"We are he-re.." He looked at the other man. Kaze clicked the power button on her gun, and the energizing sound drove her point home.

"We are here to exchange research equipment and data with Mr. Taiki for several confidential Reaver contracts and database files." The man gulped as ended the sentence.

"And you are from....?" Kaze let the question to linger in the air.

"They're Order, Der-" Shin said, but a quick jab with the handle of the gun caused him to shut up.

She looked at both men with vacant eyes.

"Order.... Very well. Quick it is." She said as she raised her sword. Both men opened their mouths to scream.

One swift swipe, and their voices didn't come out.

William Andrews, born in Bretonia, thirty two years ago, father of two, QCF'd in Nuclear Energy, scientist in the 67th Order Division, couldn't scream.
The voice didn't came out. His mind was slowly drifting away and then.. Pitch black.

Gregory Risak, born in Freeport 5, thirty years old, engaged with Laura Hastings, due to marry in two months,
Ds.C in Applied Sciences, scientist in the 67th Order Division, couldn't feel his hands. His eyes were feeling heavier. And his voice was silent, no matter how hard he tried to scream.

Their heads rolled to the floor, and blood gushed out.

"Perfect." Said Kaze as she looked at the blade. Not a single drop of blood on it.

With a quick movement, she sheathed the katana, and grabbed both heads by the hairs.

"They won't be needing this." Kaze said to Shin, while she threw the heads to the only access corridor to the whole room.

The sound of them hitting the floor was gushy and sickening.
Shin could swear he saw an eye popping out of the socket as it hit the floor.

Kaze took a look around the table and in the middle of the various electronic devices, she found a small black box with "Shin's" written on it.

She grabbed it and quickly placed an explosive in table, right in the middle of the whole electronic equipment and wirings.

Shin kept his silence, and looked at the two heads that were at the entrance of the corridor.
Like watchdogs.

"No one betrays the Reavers, Mr. Taiki." Kaze whispered at his ear, unsheathing her katana once again.

"No one leaves the Reavers, Mr. Taiki." Her whisper was like the silver tongue of death. Sweet.. And sour.

"No one can cheat Death, Mr. Taiki." Her breath was cold.

"Do you have any last words?" Kaze moved away.

Shin was silent for some seconds.

He turned his head to look at her.

"Yes, i d-" He started to say with a laugh, but suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. He looked down and saw the tip of her blade, doused in black blood, sticking out.

Kaze had plunged her sword, up to down, in his back.

"There are no last words, Mr. Taiki. Only truths." She whispered once again at his ear.

Voices were heard in the background. The remaining security force already found out that something was wrong.

Shin felt a metallic, warm taste in his throat. His lungs were being filled with his own blood.

"And those were already spoken to you." She yanked the sword, and with a swift movement, cleaned the blade on the back of his jacket.

She started to walk away in direction of the corridor.

"Do squirm in pain as your liver bleeds out and you drown on your own blood." Kaze said as she started to run.

Shin fell down to the floor and felt the cold marble face first.

He twisted as he tried to breathe.

He squirmed as the pain in his abdomen increased.

Death unwanted.

His lungs were failing.

Black blood was coming from his ruptured liver.

"Is this it?" He thought.

Another sharp painful contraction from his abdomen came. He quickly squirmed and got into a fetal position.

The pain was increasing. It was there.

He couldn't think. Only the pain came to his head.

Shin coughed blood as tried to breathe.

The pain hit harder. He was loosing his mind.

The ground shook.

The sound of gunshots and shouts were heard in the background, but he couldn't even look.

Finally, another sharp contraction raged on his abdomen.

And suddenly, he felt nothing. Only the warm blood in his mouth and hands.

He closed his eyes.

And oblivion came.

---------------------------------------------------

"Damn. I am not going to last long here." Kaze thought as she lined up a shot to the visible foot of a man behind the tight turn in the corridor.

She squeezed the trigger once more, and the man fell to the floor screaming in pain.

Kaze took the chance to throw a grenade in, and to hopefully take two or three men as the grenade exploded over the screaming man.

The blast shook the old building.
And Kaze let the empty smoking battery of her gun hit the floor as she reloaded.

She managed to get hit on her leg and arm already. But that's the perk of having bionics in her.
That arm and leg are not her own.

There is no pain.

Kaze smilled as she saw what remained of four half blown men near the entrance.

The two dead heads worked as a charm.
Two long fuse grenades in them and the stupidity of those men, as they disregard them as they were thrown into their midst, did the rest.

But she couldn't hold longer.
Another shot hit her in the arm.
This time, hard.

She hid behind the steel crate and tried to ascertain the damage. She couldn't lift her arm higher than her shoulder.

Kaze cursed the gods and as she raised again to keep the pressure over them, she saw one of the men heads exploding.

A torrent of shots hit the goons that were huddling behind the walls and columns. Their heads kept exploding, one by one.

As they turned to shoot at the new assailant, Kaze took the chance to gain more terrain and pressed forward, shooting at the now distracted security.

One minute later, the last man died with a gurgle as he tried to keep his entrails inside, as Kaze finished him off with her katana.

She looked at were her support came. The sound of steel tipped boots echoed through the corridor.
The feet walked over a man that spurted some blood, and the owner of the steel tipped boots fired a round in his head, finishing him off.

The flash of the shot, showed a bright red colored head.

Kaze relaxed visibly, as she recognized who that was.

"Ye sure like to do things the hard way, yeah?" Kalliste Silver said as she walked towards Kaze.

"You know me." Kaze replied dryly, sheathing her katana and holstering her gun.

"Now i do, Dagon. Quite the stunt ye pulled. You just forgot 'bout the exit strategy." Silver smirked as she holstered Nani. She opened a cigar case and offered one to Kaze, that promptly accepted.

They sat over the crate that was riddled with laser blasts and Silver lighted up her cigar.

"How did you found me?" Kaze asked before lighting up hers.

Silver inhaled the smoke and looked at Kaze's gun.

"That. Ye know that the batteries on that thing are emitting a small dose of radiation? With the right scanner, and since no one uses that ol'shooter for nothin', i could trace the isotope of it. Ye should think on changing the batteries it uses."

"Meh. Never saw that one coming." Kaze inhaled the smoke of the cigar.

"Huntin'. All that there's to it. And you're good." Silver looked at Kaze.

Kaze shrugged and looked at her right arm, trying to see if she could get it to move properly in the meantime.

"Say, Dagon. Aren't ye interested in a color?" Silver asked.

"Aren't you interest in knowing what Black was up to?" Kaze pointed at the lying body of Shin Taiki.

"He's dead. And it seems you took care of business." Silver replied, looking at the bodies around Shin.

"So, ye want it or you still want to be the Sec Chief?"

"I don't have a favorite color." Kaze inhaled the cigar once more.

"Neither do i, Dagon. Neither do i." Silver laughed.

Fifteen minutes later, a stolen hover car left the district and an explosion engulfed the old Cipriani building, destroying everything inside.

Shin Taiki, Black Reaver, was gone from Sirius.

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