With a neat crop of black hair and a pair of blank grey eyes, Artel was a person who had often heard himself being described as the least interesting character in Ormain’s group. Ormain’s great looks and leadership skills were qualities that were beyond him, while Vechse’s ability to seamlessly integrate with any group of people was also something that he could never do. Sure he was good looking, intelligent, and fit, but as a suit that was simply par for the course. Apparently he was lacking in defining features, and unfortunately the trait seemed to seep into his working life. Even the lieutenant who wasn’t a proper member of the team seemed to be getting assigned more interesting tasks than he had been recently, and as a result he had become frustrated.

Forget about Shalan or Lysalya paying him any attention, even the female suits from other squads didn’t seem to be interested in him. At first he had wondered why, as Ormain’s team had quite a reputation, but it hadn’t taken him long to realise that it was because of his role. As the cream of the SuTSU crop, suits were prideful people, and if people perceived him to be a glorified errand boy then he was never going to get the recognition that he thought he deserved.

He knew that there would be women who were willing to throw themselves at him if he started to look outside of the suits, but at the same time he knew that he would simply be cementing his status. After all, it was generally seen as a failure if someone couldn’t find a partner from within their own arm of the organization. Looking elsewhere did nothing but confirm to everyone that you couldn’t find someone who was interested in you.

Now, however, he had found a chance to prove himself.

As soon as the alarm bells rang out through the night, Ormain had quickly thrown his group into action. While ordering each member to fan out around the Royal District, Artel had been assigned a position near one of the main gates in the farmer’s district. He wasn’t stupid, so after realizing that he had been given this position because Ormain thought it was a low priority, he frowned. It seemed logical that they wouldn’t escape through a heavily guarded gate, so yet again he was left to grind his teeth over the fact that he had drawn the short straw.

Or so he had thought.

From his vantage point on a nearby street he had clearly seen the trio of young women drop into the moat amidst a heated exchange of gunfire. Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to pull them out from the moat under the watchful eyes of both the Royal Guard and The Cloud Orchestra, he instead decided to bet that they would end up in one of the cisterns that he had heard about while questioning the public earlier in the week. Not only would be able to beat the Royal Guard and The Cloud Orchestra to pick Nina up, he would also beat the members of his own team.

Once he delivered Nina into Ormain’s outstretched hands, his fortunes would turn.

He knew how valuable this woman was to not only Ormain, but also to his boss Grant. Sure he wouldn’t draw the same plaudits from the higher-ups that they both would in the end, but it would be inevitable for his role in the legendary capture mission which spanned the entire seven plates to spread. Grant and Ormain might become the stars on the surface, but everyone who was in the know would view him as a central character in the story that was spread about their subsequent rise within SuTSU.

He sneered when he pictured the look on Wahla’s face when she saw Ormain reward him lavishly. Maybe even Cinida from Captain Hamral’s team would see him in a different light after he became one of the stars under Ormain. Soon everyone would know who he was, and his status among the suits would skyrocket.

“Hands above your heads,” he spoke coldly as he shook off the thought, motioning up and down with the barrel of his weapon as he tried not to smile. “Step back and don’t try anything funny.”

He watched as the two women before him followed his orders, which pleased him greatly. Waiting until after they had backed away a reasonable distance, he cautiously stepped forward until he stopped next to Nina. He knew that he had found the right people because he had seen the girl with the green hair at the badlands, while the other one seemed to be the one that he was looking for at the restaurant. His gaze lingered on the wet dress that clung to her skin for an extra moment, but unfortunately there wasn’t much for it to cling to.

“What’s wrong with her?” he asked as he gently kicked Nina in the thigh. “Is she dead?”

“We don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Jade replied. “She needs medical attention as soon as possible. Please don’t do this.”

Artel smirked but remained quiet as he mulled over what to do next. Ormain had said that Nina was important to the people in the Royal District, so he couldn’t just carry her out or else she would almost certainly be confiscated. The fact that she was incapacitated wasn’t something that he had planned for, but it was also something that he could work with. The moment he tried to pick her up and leave, however, the two women who had their hands up would almost certainly turn on him. Pulse weapons were usually useless if they were waterlogged, but it wasn’t something that he was willing to gamble on. Killing them before escaping with Nina seemed like it would have been the best solution, but unfortunately he was carrying a traditional weapon and he was worried that the noise would attract too much attention.

“Get back in the water,” he said after spending a second to consider his options. “Swim away from me, towards the back.”

He watched closely for signs of disobedience as Jade and Saela both stepped back down into the water with frustrated expressions. Without any way to retaliate, they simply had no choice but to slowly paddle towards the darkness at the back of the cistern. Attacking them with his combat knife briefly crossed his mind, but cornered animals tended to fight with all they had and right now that was something that he didn’t want to deal with. Removing them from the picture by sending them away wasn’t a bad solution in the end. Not only was it quiet, he would be able to escape with Nina before they managed to swim back to the stairs.

Smiling inwardly at his own quick thinking, he edged away from the stairs that ran down into the water before stepping over to where Nina was slumped against the wall. He frowned when he thought about how he was going to have to carry her while he made his way to Ormain, but his options were limited and he needed to escape from the cistern as soon as possible. Crouching down beside her, he placed his weapon on the floor and reached out.

“Don’t even think about it.”

Artel grasped for his weapon on the floor but it was already too late. A bright flash appeared in the corner of his vision and immediately he felt the round of compressed energy enter his shoulder. His mind fizzled, but the round had already torn into the side of his ribcage and ripped a ragged hole straight through his chest from one side to the other. Dead before his body hit the ground, smoke rose from each end of the hole that had been bored through his corpse while a sizzling sound filled the air.

“This is why I hate pulse weapons,” Trim frowned as she appeared in the doorway while her nose wrinkled at the smell of burnt flesh. “It smells terrible.”

“Trim!” Saela said as she swam back to the stairs with renewed vigor. Jade, who was exhausted, trailed in her wake.

Trim ignored them as she crouched over Nina with a concerned expression. Through the wet white shirt she could already see both the bruising on her arms and the discoloured patch on her chest, and combined with her weak state which seemed to be a borderline coma she had already pieced together all that she needed to know.

“We don’t know what’s wrong,” Saela said as she finally hauled herself out of the water. “We need to get her to Reina.”

Trim nodded before looking up, pausing briefly with a look of surprise on her face when she saw Jade’s wet dress clinging to Saela’s skin. “Alright, questions later. Help me strip her off, she needs dry clothes.”

“I’ll help,” Jade said as she finally staggered up the steps. Trim could see that she was on the verge of exhaustion, so she was glad that she had made it in time to support them. It seemed like they had been to hell and back to get to where they were now, but hearing about it would have to wait until later.

“You strip him off,” Trim said as she nodded in the direction of Artel’s corpse. The sizzling noises had subsided along with the smoke as the wound cauterized, but unfortunately the smell of charred flesh still lingered over them. “See if he’s carrying anything useful too.”

Jade grit her teeth but complied as she crouched down next to the body. Trim would take charge from here, and to Jade it was a relief. Trim was not only a quick thinker, she was also ruthless when she needed to be and Artel’s lifeless corpse that she was now pulling the jacket off was a testament to that. Saela had done well to get them this far, but she could also tell that she was fatigued and so a fresh mind was what they needed.

It only took the group a minute to reorganize their gear, although she was already worried that Royal Guards would be pouring down the stairs to the cistern at any moment. Artel’s clothes had been too big for both her and Saela to wear so his pants, undershirt, and jacket had instead been loosely put on Nina despite the gaping holes through the sides. Trim had given her dry black sweater to Jade which revealed that she was wearing a simple cream t-shirt underneath, while Saela had to make do with wearing Artel’s white shirt over the wet dress.

“Good work so far,” Trim said as she hauled Nina on to her own shoulder, much to Jade’s relief. “It’s not over yet though, so follow my lead and hopefully we’ll all make it out in one piece.”

“Where’s Svanda?” Saela finally asked the question that had also been playing on Jade’s mind. “She isn’t here?”

“We split up to look for you, so she’ll meet us back where Reina is,” Trim said as she nodded at Jade. “You’re on point, so follow my directions. Saela, you’re covering the back.”

“Alright.”

Jade stepped through the door to the cistern and began to climb the thin stone staircase which rose away from them. Not only had they managed to get over the wall to the Royal District and take Nina back from right under Rucille’s nose, they had also managed to escape from her tightening grasp while also dealing a serious blow to Ormain. Somehow they had got this far, and now all that was left was the home stretch as they would head across the district towards Reina and their escape route from the plate.

“Morning is coming,” Trim said as they reached the top of the stairs before walking through a narrow stone corridor that could only fit one person at a time. “Let’s get out of here before the sun rises.”