“This is Kai, my cover is blown, and they’re looking for me. Infiltrate and start blasting.”

As soon as Ken spoke through the radio, everyone becomes tense. There is apparent urgency and concern in Ken’s voice that causes the rest of the team to become alert.

“Kai, what do you see in there? Where are you?” Matt urgently asks.

Ken doesn’t reply, and the radio is silent.

“Kai, respond.”

Matt picks himself up and signals the rest to stand up as well. Whatever happened in there must have been bad enough to cut off communications. That or whatever Ken is preoccupied with must have made him forget that he doesn’t have his earpiece in his ear and thus can’t hear them.

“How are we going to do this now?” Jax asks through the radio from across the street.

“We can’t start shooting out here; too many people will see us. We should go inside first.”

“Everyone, conceal yourself.”

All members of Ringleader pull up the scarves they wear around their neck to cover their faces. They also pull up the hoods on their cloaks and leave only their eyes visible to the people around them.

The team approaches to converge on the entrance of The Siren as people begin taking notice of these mysterious hooded figures. Of course, because they loitered about as homeless beggars, no one paid any attention or even made eye contact with them. Now that they seem like they are hiding something, no one can remember what they look like.

The two guards that stand near the door notice these four strange and suspicious individuals and immediately become alert. No one dresses to conceal themselves like that unless they are about to do something.

“You four, stop right there! Reveal yourselves.”

The team ignores the demand and closes in on the two guards.

“I said sto—”

The guard doesn’t get to finish his sentence as the team ram knives into both their stomachs. They are stabbed once more in their chests where their hearts would be as they back up against the wall. The two guards fall dead while the team glances around. Most people seem to continue minding their own business, but a few people notice the sudden attack and hurriedly walk away. This is good; it is better if fewer people get involved.

Leaving the two dead guards outside by the door, the team enters The Siren unhindered. Inside, they take in the full glory of The Siren. As Ken said, it looks like girls are up for sale, seeing as they are all being catcalled and molested by everyone.

Despite most men being too drunk to tell their elbows from their asses, they all turn to see the four disguised people.

“Rules of engagement?” Jax asks.

“Give the bystanders a chance. Target hostiles only. No penalty if a stray gets hit,” Matt says.

“Hey, look! These guys think they’re assassins or something!” a drunkard laughs. “Ain’t that cute? C’mon. I can fight them.”

One of the drunk men slowly but steadily walks towards the team as they almost trip over with every step. He sizes them up confidently before sluggishly throwing a weak punch. The man he tries to punch happens to be Matt, who simply grabs the man and pushes him against the wall with a thud. Next, Matt firmly holds the drunkard’s arm and throws him over his shoulder onto a table where other drunkards are sitting at. The wood table is smashed along with all the drinks on it and likely knocks the man out cold while the two sitting at the table fall over in surprise. This sudden escalation takes the attention of everyone, and the team is in the spotlight.

“Hey! What do you think yer doing!?” a guard shouts from across the room. “No fighting inside! Take it outside, or take it up with me!”

The team ignores the guard’s threat and briefly glance at each other before Matt speaks up.

“All right everybody, listen up! We’re taking over this place, so if you don’t want to die today, get the hell out right now!”

“Who do you think you are to order us around!?” the guard retorts. “Do you have any idea who yer threatening? This place belongs to Greysen Bourkee!”

“I wouldn’t give a rat’s ass it was his majesty the fucking king! I’ll only say this one last time! Everyone! Get out!”

Matt’s thunderous threat makes some of the prostitutes jump and flee in fear of getting caught amid a gang war. Meanwhile, only a few drunkards have enough sense to make their way out of the place, while others continue to think it is some sort of bluff.

“Yer going to be sorry for threatening the Bourkee gang! If you want to fight, let’s fight!”

“Frags,” Matt says into the microphone.

The four of them reach onto their combat vests and takes out an M67 fragmentation grenade each. Pulling the pins, they toss the grenades to the far reaches of the room. As the guards watch in confusion at why they randomly threw what looks to be rocks, the team knocks over tables and takes cover behind them for the inevitable explosions.

The grenades explode into anti-climactic clouds of smoke and shoot out shrapnel in all directions with loud bangs. Many guards and drunkards who are too unfortunate to be close enough to the grenades are shredded with shrapnel while the rest cover their ears from the piercing blasts.

Matt and the rest open up the front of their cloaks to hold up their HK416s and stand out of cover. They aim through their optics at anyone who looks like a threat and starts repeatedly pulling the trigger. Suppressed gunshots ring out as bullets and sparks spout out of the suppressors, and the remaining guards are struck in their torso or heads before they can react. Blood splatters, cries echo, and bodies fall. In the chaos that ensues, some of the drunk patrons and even one of the prostitutes are shot as they panic and run around.

Those who piss their pants in fear duck down and cover their ears in hopes that the cloaked demons let them live. Matt and the team traverse the area continuing to fire at the guards and customers who looks to be a threat. Any guard who is injured is shot again to ensure that there are no survivors.

As they move, one of them finds the stairs and signals the rest. Matt takes out the empty magazine in his gun and swaps it out with a fresh one from his vest, as did the other team members. Jamming in the magazine, he releases the bolt and aims up the stairs.

“Stack up, c’mon,” he says as he climbs up with the team trailing behind.

On the second floor, the team remains vigilant with their guns points forward. The thugs who heard the commotion have their weapons out while the customers are hiding in fear. More gunshots ring out as some guards charge but are shot and killed before they can cross the room.

“Everyone who doesn’t want to die, go downstairs and get out of the building! Now!” Matt orders once more.

Hearing the threat, some of the men and women hiding pop their heads out and desperately follow the order.

While the rest of the team continues to the next floor, Reed stays behind to monitor the fleeing people and act as a sentry.

When the team reaches the third floor, they are met with a group of people but don’t shoot as they scan them. Many young women are paired with half-dressed or fully naked men who are looking at the team in confusion and apprehension. Recognizing them as customers or prostitutes, the team restrain shooting them. However, some men wearing leather armor armed with swords or daggers appear and charge at the team. They fire their guns repeatedly as the men fall in pools of blood while the rest of the people steps back in fear of the strange men.

“Everyone! Head downstairs and exit the building immediately! Right now!”

The team moves aside while continuing to aim at the group of people. They amass near the stairs and frantically climb down. Among the group of people trying to leave, Cayde is surprised to notice a familiar face. Among them is Athela, who Cayde notices is in a depressed state. She still has bruises on her neck, and her face is wet with tears. Strangely, despite clear signs of crying, Cayde notices her face is more or less neutral. He also sees she carries a small pouch in her hands that looks strangely familiar. Disappearing down the stairs, Cayde ignores the thought and focuses on his mission.

The team splits up and travels through the maze of rooms individually. Cayde travels down one area and maintains his sight down the optic of his gun. Every time a mean-looking man wearing leather armor appears, he taps the trigger to fire off shots to the chest and head. Suppressed gunshots continue to sporadically echo throughout the building from both his own gun and those of the team. What strikes him as odd is also that some of the gunshots sound strange and unsuppressed.

“Be advised! Hostiles with firearms confirmed! Rules of engagement lifted. Drop every unknown you see! No hesitation!”

Taking note of the sudden revelation, Cayde continues with a higher sense of caution.

As Cayde quickly makes his way down a hallway, he turns around a corner to find a body on the ground and two gangsters looking around nervously. They don’t even get a chance to lift their weapons before bullets tear through their clothes and into their bodies.

The body that is already face down on the ground is familiar to Cayde. It is the same dirty dark brown trench coat that Ken is supposed to be wearing.

“Kai!” Cayde jogs and kneels next to Ken’s body.

A bullet hole is visible on the trench coat, and Cayde prepares for the worse. He flips him over face up to reveal a cocky grin on Ken’s face.

“Hello, you come here often?” Ken says.

Cayde gently punches Ken’s shoulder as he also smiles in relief.

“You son of a bitch. You fucking scared me.”

Cayde stands and pulls Ken’s hand to pick him up. As Ken is lifted onto his feet, he groans with pain, and tiny lead shards and fragments fall onto the ground.

“What the hell happened?” Cayde asks.

“Bourkee and his goons rolled up and shot me. He has a flintlock pistol. I’m lucky he didn’t aim for the head.”

“Are you good?”

“Yeah, the waistcoat caught the bullets.”

Ken spreads out his trenchcoat to expose the bullet hole in his waistcoat. Luckily for Ken, the grey waistcoat he always wears is the same waistcoat he brought along with him from Entesia. All the clothes the team brought with them come with protection. The clothes are armored with the assumption that the team would face edged or blunt weapons and are resistant to cuts and punctures. With the worst-case scenario in mind, the waistcoats they have are padded with kevlar.

“It hurts like a fucking bitch. I might have a bruise after all this,” Ken says.

“Can you still fight?”

Ken nods while he massages his chest where he was shot. Cayde sets aside his gun and reaches to his other shoulder, where the spare rifle is slung. Taking it out, he gives the gun to Ken, who eagerly takes it with excitement and checks the magazine out of habit.

“If you saw Bourkee, then he’s still here somewhere. Reed monitors the stairs, so he couldn’t have escaped yet. Let’s roll.”

The two of them start jogging while Cayde reaches for his microphone. “This is Cayde. I found Kai; he’s okay. Can confirm Bourkee’s still in the building. Continue the search.”

Distant gunshots, both suppressed and unsuppressed, continues to echo. As Ken and Cayde continue through, they shoot and kill every thug they came across. A few patrons and prostitutes still occasionally linger around in confusion. Every time a confused half-naked man and woman appear, Ken restrains from shooting. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Cayde. With no hesitation, Cayde shoots and kills every person they came across, much to Ken’s frustration and disagreement, but he doesn’t argue.

Eventually, they reach an area with a large number of thugs guarding a single door. They peek the corner and spray the thugs with automatic fire, who in response return fire with their flintlock pistols. Ken and Cayde pull back as lead shots shred the corner they hide behind while they load fresh magazines into their rifles.

When the lead shots stop, Ken and Cayde assume the thugs expended their pistols and peek around the corner to fire once more. In a hail of bullets, the thugs are struck and killed as they either desperately try to reload their flintlock pistols or charge at them with daggers and swords.

None survive, and the floor is red with blood. Bullet holes litter the wall and door behind the dead thugs, but they can’t be sure if anyone behind the walls survived or died.

“Bourkee has to be in there,” Cayde says. “Do we just knock and enter?”

“No. He’ll be waiting with more flintlock pistols. They’ll shoot as soon as the door moves.”

The two of them reload their rifles again as they briefly think of how to breach the room without getting shot.

“I have an idea,” Ken says. “Saw this in a movie once. You gotta run and jump through the door like a wrecking ball. Let yourself fall on the ground. They’ll shoot at the door frame in panic, so you should be fine on the ground. I’ll follow up behind and shoot them while they’re confused.”

“Me? Why me?”

“Cus I’ve already been shot twice. C’mon, you’ll look cool.”

“Fine.”

“Bonus points if you kill one midair.”

Seeing no other choice, Cayde takes a step back and prepares to run into the door at full speed. He inhales and exhales while he firmly grips his rifle hanging beside him. He charges at the bullet-riddled door at full speed and braces for impact. He jumps and turns around mid-flight to smash through the door with his back.

The door shatters as Cayde’s momentum breaches the door. He falls on his back as the sound of firecrackers, and lead balls shred the door frame where the thugs expected him to be standing.

Cayde notices two thugs standing guard near the door frame on the wall and quickly raises his rifle while still on the ground. As everyone fires their flintlock pistols in panic, the two guards near the door are shot by Cayde, and they fall.

When the gunfire stops, Ken enters the room with his rifle raised and fires at the remaining thugs in the room. The sound of empty casings falling and rolling around is the only thing heard in the room once everyone is dead.

“I live,” Cayde says as he picks himself up with a groan, and the two look around the room to assess the damage.

On the other side of the room, where dead thugs litter around a desk, a single man sits on the chair with his eyes wide in shock and horror.

“You…” Greysen Bourkee mutters. “I killed you… How did this happen?”

“Tough luck. You should have never gone after Ardai.” Ken raises his rifle at Greysen, who in turn panics.

“Wait! Don’t kill me! I’ll give you anything you want! Anything!” Greyson says with sweat dripping from his face.

“No.”

Two suppressed gunshots rip through his chest and head—blood splatters behind him. Greysen leans back into his chair with his eyes still open, looking up at the ceiling.

Ken exhales and relaxes as footsteps come from behind them. Cayde gets spooked and turns around with his rifle up. He lowers his guard when he notices that it is just the rest of the team in which Jax raises his hands in surrender.

“Christ, you guys scared me,” Cayde says.

“We heard the gunfight, so we came to assist. Looks like you guys had a blast.”

“Did you find him?”

“Yeah, he’s right there.” Ken points towards Greysen’s corpse.

“Good kill. Our objective here is complete. Let’s burn this place down,” Matt says.

“We’re burning it?”

“Yeah, with the gang leader dead and their base of operations destroyed, the gang will effectively be extinct. Sends a bigger message that way.”

The team rummages through the room to pick up any black powder they can find from dead thugs and takes it with them. They make their way down to the second floor and pick up Reed, who has also found himself in a small gunfight from gang members trying to climb up the stairs from outside.

At the bottom floor in the bar, the team piles up all the furniture and flammable materials they can and pour the black powder over it. With a spark from the flint harvested from a flintlock, the black powder violently burst into flames as the flammable materials catch fire. The team exit the building with a fiery inferno burning inside.

Ken drops the blue rose pin he carries on the street in front of the burning building, and the team hurriedly leaves the scene making sure no one follows them.

.

.

The next day, news of the Bourkee Gang’s destruction spreads all over Egwater as all the criminal organizations take note and stop their nightly raids on Ardai. Despite Ken’s avoidable screwup where he got himself shot for helping Athela, Ringleader’s plan worked perfectly, and the blue rose left behind showed everyone that Ardai is responsible for the gang’s violent downfall. Ardai Industries has successfully demonstrated itself not to be a pushover.

Within the top floor of the Casiem, Ken sits slumped over his desk as he has succumbed to exhaustion. Though he is supposed to be reviewing some documents detailing who has expressed interest in working with Ardai Industries from within his office, he instead fell asleep before he was able to read through the first document thoroughly. It results from the operation the day before and monitoring the building at night to see if the attack had its intended effects.

Eleanor sits on a couch on the side of the office, reading some of the documents to try and take off some of the workloads from Ken.

Soon, there is a knock on the door, which startles Eleanor and wakes up Ken from his slumber. Eleanor lowers the documents and stands up to open the door.

“Mister Brookse, welcome. Please come in. Mister Kai is waiting inside.”

“Thank you,” Knox replies as he enters the office.

Once he enters, he notices a groggy Ken is rubbing his eyes while yawning.

“Were you sleeping, Ken?” he asks.

“I’m awake. I’m awake. What do you need?”

“We scheduled a meeting for yesterday, but you weren’t here, so I came today instead. Have you forgotten?”

“No, never. Sorry, something important came up yesterday. So, what is it you need to talk about?”

Knox pulls out a chair in front of the desk and takes a seat. Meanwhile, Eleanor stands by Ken’s side with a clipboard and pencil, ready to record anything important.

Knox sighs. “I wanted to talk about the STC. I heard from some of your staff that people have been trying to rob you. More importantly, your problems with the STC have spread over to me. Did you know that their representatives gave me a visit in Stonegate?”

Ken shakes his head and notices in Knox’s voice that he is stressed and worried.

“They threatened me, Ken. Threatened to blacklist me and my business if I continue working with you. Are you aware of just how powerful the STC really is? They control maritime trading routes. They have the power to completely cut you off from buying anything from Venesia and force you to make do with what little there is here. They can force other people to stay away from you and isolate you from investors or customers. We’re lucky that the only thing they have done so far is to scare you.”

Ken takes in everything that Knox says without showing concern and considers how much pressure he must have been facing. It is entirely understandable that he is scared and shaken at being on the STC’s bad side, but he can’t lose Knox as he is an important partner who has been his biggest supplier of metals.

“I just don’t understand how you can be so calm knowing that the Venesians have their eyes on you. I hope you fix this soon, Ken, because I don’t know if I can continue doing business with you if my business is at stake.”

“All right.” Ken sighs. “I realize your concern. But trust me, I will fix it. I’ll handle the STC and resolve all the problems with them. Just have faith. In fact, if you lose business because of me, I’ll compensate you. I just need our relationship to continue.”

“How will you resolve it?”

“I’ll figure something out.”

“You sure?”

“Promise,” Ken says confidently.

“All right, you’ve been good so far. I’ll continue trusting you. Now with that said, I have something else to talk with you about.”

“And that is?”

“Your machines are too efficient, Ken. I hate to say it, but you were right. Raw ore suppliers can’t keep up with my demand. The good news is that I talked to one of them. One of the largest mining companies in Scorcia is the SouthHeim Mining Company, and they supply most smelteries here in Efielge. They are based out of Scorrest and operate mines mainly in the Heimfara Mountain Range up north. Their people grew interested in how much metal we processed, so I told them about Ardai Industries and how you can probably increase their mining efficiency. Their people might come to visit sometime. I hope you don’t mind.”

Ken is delighted at the news that Knox brings. If he can build relationships directly with mining companies, his requirements for more unique and rare metals can be met. Added to the fact that SouthHeim is based in Scorrest and one of the largest mining companies in the country, it means Ardai Industries might gain more prestige. This is definitely an excellent opportunity for him. Best of all, he didn’t have to go out of his way to attract their attention.

“I don’t mind at all, Knox. Actually, this is great news! I’ve been meaning to meet with people in the mining industry. Thank you.” Ken enthusiastically smiles.

“I’m relieved to hear that. Well, that is just about everything I wanted to talk about at the moment. If you don’t mind, I’ll be going home.” Knox stands up to leave the office. Ken simply waves him goodbye as Eleanor closes the door as Knox leaves.

Once Knox is gone, Ken stretches out his arms and legs as Eleanor returns to sit on the couch.

“Have you been here the entire time? While I slept?” Ken asks.

“Y-yes,” Eleanor stutters. “Should I have not been? I simply wanted to assist you in sharing the workload and making sure you rested easy.”

“Right… You didn’t do anything weird, did you?”

“W-what? No! Of course not! I would never!” Eleanor blushes while Ken laughs.

“All right, enough joking around. We have work to do.” Ken moves his head around with audible pops.

He then rubs his chest and back, which has been in constant pain. It is the result of the bruises caused by the gunshots he received during The Siren raid. Though the kevlar layers in the waistcoat stopped the lead balls from going through, the energy transferred was still enough to feel like getting shot with a paintball gun on bare skin.

“Man… I’ve been feeling really sore lately.”

“Would you like a massage?” Eleanor quickly suggests.

“Don’t be weird.”

“N-no! That’s not what I meant! I am not weird! Why must you tease me like that?”

Ken continues to laugh and turns towards the window as Eleanor tries to look away in embarrassment. It seems to her that Ken enjoys teasing and embarrassing her whenever he gets the chance.

As Ken looks out of the window office, he admires the view of the busy city underneath the shining sun. He always notices how inconsistent the weather seems to be. That day is clear and sunny, but it was raining just a few days prior. It probably has something to do with the fact that Scorcia is near the equator. Lost in reverie, Ken suddenly remembers that he has something to do that day.

“I just remembered.” Ken breaks the silence. “I have somewhere to be. You don’t mind taking over these files, do you?”

“No, not at all. May I ask where you are going?”

“I’m going to Edgar’s factory to check up on the production lines. Then I’m going with one of the senior engineers to the Mercenary Guild.”

“The Mercenary Guild? What for?”

“To field test the new weapons we are developing.”