Jason awoke from a restless sleep, his dark skin covered in a glistening sweat. The cold nexus night was leaking In through his cracked polyethylene window pane; it made him shutter. It had been five years since the battle at the mine and his meeting with Azothoth, but it still felt like yesterday. Every night Jason went to sleep he was right back in front of the monstrosity, right back to being torn apart by his dead friends. At first he tried to not sleep at all by prolonging his consciousness with dermal stems and perk brews, but when sleep finally took him the dreams seemed to be more vivid... Then he turned to alcohol. The alcohol made his dreams feel more distant, like looking at them through a dirty stained glass window, less clarity and less pain. One undesirable side effect was the constant hangover he experienced every morning; however it was better then the nightmares. He set up and placed his feet on the rough textured flooring that covered the ground in all of the pod units in this part of Xenon city. He hated Nexus, and he hated xenon.

Jason stood up and walked to the mirror and examined himself. He had slight bruising and dried blood around his left eye from a fight he half remembered. By the bruising pattern, cuts and the small shards of glass still stuck in his skin he concluded it must have been an alcohol bottle that was smashed across his face. He picked up a set of tweezers and began pulling the shards out of his face in a morning ritual that was more common than he cared to admit. He was glad that at least these shards came out with a slight sting, unlike the light blue crystal shards that seemed to be fused to his skeleton.

Five years ago he came in contact with an artifact that gave him visions of other unexplainable phenomena that haunted him nightly, but during the day they served as a painful reminder of his unholy destiny. Each shard of crystal was about an inch in diameter and they were scattered in about his right side like a morbid tapistry. He could hide the shards on his body easy enough but ones that crawled up his neck gave him a very Distinctive look, which in his line of work could get you killed.. that and his lack of a right arm didn’t help.

He noticed that his appearance was suffering from the night before, but luckily that made fitting in with the patrons of xenons’ red light district all the easier. His beard was slightly overly bushy which made it a pain to tame so most mornings Jason just let it be. His hair on the other hand looked all the better from the lack of trim, the growth at the top allowed his faded sides to grow into a mass of tightly curled hair.

“If the rangers could see me now..” Jason thought back on his time with the citadel military and all their needless regulations. He went to the closet and changed out his booze stained clothes for some less dirty ones and then threw on his favorite bounty hunting jacket. The jacket was a light brown colored bomber jacket with an artificial heater in the collar and back which gave off a faint orange glow. He had taken off one of his first bounties, a coalition bomber pilot, who had a price on his head for hitting a local drug lord's supply warehouse. Jason tracked him to a known coalition bar called “the colony”, and started buying him drinks. The pilot was talking about all his missions and how excited he was to be a week from the end of his deployment. At the end of the night Jason offered to take the pilot home, which was welcomed by the man, but instead of going home Jason took him drug runners. Jason wasn’t exactly sure what the fate of the pilot would be but he did know two things: first, it wasn’t going to be pleasant, and he wouldn’t be needing his jacket after they were finished.

Jason grabbed his Justice 10 shot revolver, his shoulder ammo dispenser, and walked out the front door of his residential unit and into the bustling streets of xenons’ red light district. The smell of sewage and body odor was potent enough to sting the nostrils and made Jason’s eyes water. Despite the fact that it was almost 7 in the morning GST, the nexus sky was still dark as pitch. The long nexus days meant the “night life” of xenon essentially never stopped. Jason headed down the crowded street being jostled by residents trying to get drugs, weapons or women some were trying to get all three. The crime in the red light was basically unrecorded by the city officials because of the undesirable residents that live here. Most were gang members, junkies or outcasts that had no place in the main city of xenon and because of this there were checkpoints placed around the red light that was supposed to keep all the less fortunate in the slums.

“Hey big boy, are you looking for some company?”

A hand grabbed Jason by the arm and he spun to face who had touched him. It was a toppless girl no more than 20 years old, she had a thin but fit physique and obviously fake breast. She had a pretty and kind face but the faint trace of dark veins on her neck said that under the makeup this girl was hiding a bad drug habit, possibly Phenol hydroxy.

Before Jason spoke he released the grip on his gun. Sure there were escort assassins that were employed but most were just people that were down on their luck just like he was. “Hey lady, I don’t pay for sex.” He said in a calm but commanding tone to indicate he was not interested in making this a negotiation, she didn’t get the hint. “Come on, with your scars” she eyed Jason missing arm, “and other deformities you probably aren't getting for free honey…. how about I lower the price for a fellow outcast like yourself.” She said looking up at him biting her lip.

Jason yanked his arm away from her grip, “I said get out of here!”, he said with a much harsher tone. Her expression soured to a frown.

“You know what, FUCK YOU ASSHOLE!” She turned around and walked away back to a group of women under a heating light in front of a dinghy club called ‘The Dirty Lemon’. Jason didn’t blame her anger, he understood how hard life was in the streets, but he learned it was even harder if you care for others. With that thought he turned around and walked the rest of the way to the bounty office.

……

The bounty office smelled like smoke, which made sense because it was in the back of a bar. The bar was a front that allowed people who knew how to make a “request” to do so in a way that wouldn’t draw the eyes of unwanted observers, It also provided cover for the hunter. Jason sat in the back stirring a smokey capital gin, while observing a couple at the bar. They were discussing a string of murders happening in the district which were targeting sex workers. Jason didn’t understand how murders in the red light district could make city wide news, no one usually cared. Jason continued to study them from a distance until a glass of whisky was placed in front of him with enough force to snap him out of his stupor. Jason saw that the interruption came from salv, a bar back who would handle the special requests. Jason looked up with him.

“The man in the suit at stool seven bought this for ya, he said he needed a drinking buddy.” salv said with his thick gruff accent. Jason leaned to the side to get a view of the man who was being obscured by salv’s husky frame. The man looked clean cut and put together, he was wearing a sleek sports jacket and slim pants. His hair was shaved up to the top of his ears but the hair on top was longer and slicked back. His face was smooth like someone who had never crossed into the redlight district.

“What do you know about him?” Jason inquired

“What, you think he gave me his calling card? You know the people we work for don’t like giving out their personal information.” Salv said, sounding annoyed.

“You know you should be vetting clients, I need to know the details of what I’m getting into.”

Salv’s face went from showing annoyance to frustration.

“ I don’t care what he has done, he bought you a whisky, so get off your ass and go see what he needs or I can put a price on you!” Jason knew that salv didn’t mean what he was saying. He couldn’t afford to kill off bounty hunters who turned down contracts, there was an abundance of work but an ever shrinking pool of bounty hunters. Jason looked up at salv with a cold gaze, drank the rest of his gin, picked up his whisky, and walked over to the client.

“So I hear you are looking for help”

“Are you my man? Wow! I’ve never hired one of you before, I love your hiring process.” The man seemed more excited then any one he had been hired by before.

“You need to calm down, talk quieter this is not exactly legal. Now tell me who you are, what do you need me to do.” Jason said

“Straight to the point, that’s something that I value.” He turned over to face Jason who was now sitting next to him Jason noticed that the man's right eye was an implant which made Jason nervous, the man continued, “I am the spokesperson for an upcoming tech and implant development company called sapphire industries, maybe you have heard of us?” The man said questioningly.

“I haven’t, just get to what I need to do.” Jason replied, trying to be as cold and professional as possible. The man looked taken aback from the starkness of the reply, after gathering himself he replied, “sapphire industries is just starting out on the market and we have recently come into a little competition with a black market group that is undercutting our business. They have been stealing our implant tech and selling them to our client base. We need you to find them and ensure that they are put out of business.”

Jason looked toward the bartender making it look like he was considering the offer, in his head he had already accepted but in this line of work there is value found in negotiation. After a few moments he turned back to the man and said, “If this group has high quality tech then it could get dangerous fast, I won’t take less than 5,000 Credits.” The man looked at Jason with a sly smile, “We are prepared to pay you 100,000 credits to make the job happen tonight, we will pay you half now and half after the job is done. Will this deal work for you?” Jason’s mind was spinning, that amount of money was unheard of for one bounty, he could buy a ship with that money and leave this hell hole! Things were finally looking up!

Jason looked at the man with a forced neutral expression. “I think that will be fine.”

……...

It was nearing 11pm GST but the blackness of the nexus night was wearing off and giving way to day. The somehow xenon city looked even worse during the day, Jason alway thought it had something to do with the buildings. During the many dark hours the buildings were lit up with colors and signs but during the day all the buildings were a disgusting beige color that looked like the embodiment of depression.

Jason neared the warehouse where all the stolen tech and implants were stored. there were two options he was considering, first was a bridge that was high enough to launch a zip line onto the roof, The other option came in the form of an eroded sewage pipe.

“On the one hand zipping into the base would allow me to get a good vantage point to take out all the thugs but I wouldn’t be able to do that quietly, on the other hand I don’t really want to climb through that shit pipe. If I take the pipe I could get in and do the work from the inside out this would be more quiet and efficient.” With an audible sigh Jason started walking towards the sewage pipe. The smell hit him first, a mix of shit, lake water, and something rotting that Jason could only hope wasn’t human. The sewer gate looked like it was sturdy but one swift kick was all it took to break the screws holding it in place. Jason looked into the darkness and saw a faint light down the tunnel, “that zipline is looking really good right about now.”, Jason thought and started the walk down the tunnel.

Upon reaching the end of the tunnel Jason realized that this was definitely not just a black market, the bloody tools and hanging meat made that abundantly clear. He had seen rooms like this often associated with drug lords who wanted to make rivals disappear. “ I guess that explains the smell” Jason thought while looking around the room. It was a large area with a handful of guards roaming the floor. The nearest guard was close to the tunnel exit looking out of the warehouse doors into the bay. Jason claimed out of the tunnel like a predator stalking its prey. Once behind him Jason plunged his knife into the guards neck, he tried to scream for help but only a gurgle escaped his dying lips. Due to the amount of blood Jason could tell the man died nearly instantly. The next guard was standing at the top of the staircase overlooking the main floor, this would make him hard to sneak up on him but if Jason could get the guards attention away from the main floor he could cover that ground quickly and make his way up the stairs. “ This should work.” Jason thought finding the dead man's keys. He took aim and launched the keys at the wall near the over watch guard, however Jason was not left handed. instead of hitting the wall it caught the railing in front of guard due to throwing with his off hand, the guard looked directly at Jason ,”Damn it” he muttered and the warehouse lit up with the sounds of shouts and gunfire. Jason dove behind a box or implant chips just as the wall behind him became riddled with bullets. The zing of bullets rang over his head and he pulled out his gun to retaliate right as a guard appeared over the dead man in the doorway. The confusion allowed Jason the time needed to turn around and fire two shots at the man, which sent him flying back 3 ft off the dock and into the bay. Jason spun fast and fired off 4 more shots at the men across the warehouse only hitting one in the arm, which left the man screaming. He would most likely die from that wound but that thought couldn't linger, he took aim at the man at the top of the stairs but right before he pulled the trigger there he was hit in the chest by a burst of burning hot pain.

Jason’s chest became tight and his breathing was labored… he had to end this quick. Jason quickly scanned the grounds and saw a large oil barrel was located at the main entrance of the warehouse that would have to do. His first shot rang out and landed right in the center of the barrel draining its dark contents onto the floor. Another burst of bullets ripped through the air near by and one lodged its self in his hip dropping Jason to his knee. More men streamed in through the main doors and began firing adding more suppressive fire. The blood loss from the wounds was making Jason weak, but he had to get off one more shot. Jason summoned all his strength and stood up once more and fired off a shot. His bullet smashed into a metal support sending sparks cascading into the spilled oil. The fire moved quick and the men near the entrance began screaming and flailing in the flames, “this is a fucking shit show!” Jason yelled just as another bullet tore through his tricep.

The inferno reached the oil drums, and for a moment Jason's ears popped from the concussion force of the blast.

BOOM!

The explosion hit Jason like a truck cracking his rib and throwing him 50 feet into the bay. As the fireball dissipated Jason floated motionless in the water. The water stung in his wounds but at least he was alive, but if he wanted to stay that way he needed to get help. “ughhhh” Jason groaned weakly as he turned over in the water and started the swim toward the shore.