Depth 28, December 2016
The Path is Sealed
♠ So, how did it feel to take the lives of your own kind?
♦ Didn’t feel anything new. Just some faceless people, just like the Morai.
♠ Oh really…
♦ What the hell do you want.
♠ ...
♦ If you have nothing to say, then how about I just kill you and get on with my day.
♠ Do you really think that you’ve ever been a threat?
♦ Yes.
♠ Why do you wear that mask?
♦ It keeps me hidden, from those that remember my face. But now, it conceals my guilt. I’ve killed some of my friends, all of whom i’ve met when I was nothing more than an underworld agent.
♠ You had a vendetta against them?
♦ No. I just felt like killing them. But… there was one person. That I killed with complete regret.
♠ Hm? Who was it?
♦ Some girl. A medic, still a kid. She was dying, and despite the fact that it was the best I could do, it felt wrong to put her out of her misery.
♠ Tell me, how did you find this girl?
♦ It was a search and rescue mission. I failed.
4 years ago
The masked man.
Another oddball of the Spiral Order.
A fraction of Spiral Order consisted of mercenaries, most of which have stayed loyal to our objective. To save Isora from the flames of the Morai.
And an even smaller number of those people, were criminals.
When we first crashed on the world of Cradle, a few of the criminals and mercenaries separated from our original objective, and went on to live away in exile.
Several squads were sent out to detain the rogue knights loose on the surface of Cradle.
Only a small degree of success was obtained.
Haven Arcade
“Feron. Send me to do the rescue.”
One person was a criminal, but he wasn’t one of the few that strayed from the Spiral Order.
He wore padded armor, but with shorter sleeves and less protection, and a dull grey scarf that went along with his namelessness.
He also had a magic hood, but none of that mattered. What did matter is the accessory that gave him his namesake.
A masquerade mask. It had a dull, silver trim instead of gold, and the fill was black. Strangest of all, there was a pink acrylic gem on the forehead. In the right light, it looked like the eye of the swarm.
“You’re planning to do this alone, aren’t you? That’s suicide.”
The masked man was called only one name. Mask. “It’s not your problem whether I start a suicide mission or not. I have to deal with this, alone.”
Feron crossed his arms. “Fine. Since Arkus was dealt with some time ago by a lone knight, i’ll let you go.”
Mask didn’t say anything back, and just walked back to the Town Square.
Walking… done it too many times and will still be doing it forever. As long as it takes.
As he left through the town gates, one of the guards shouted to him.
“Hey! Are you planning to fight the brigands by yourself?”
He didn’t answer back, and kept walking.
Depth 0
Camp of Brigands
Several Hours Later…
From a hill, he watched the camp. Though it wasn’t far. With some sound, you were likely to get noticed by the vigilant guards.
He pulled a Magnus out, and screwed a longer barrel onto it, and attached a scope to it.
Not as effective as the Railgun, but it will work just fine.
He aimed at the patrolling guard.
Stop moving…
New plan. He reloaded prematurely, forcing one of the bullets out of the weapon. The echo of the sound was slight, but the guard heard it. He looked at Mask’s direction for a second, and then dropped dead as a bullet sliced through his neck.
The shot rang out for miles, alerting what could be an invisible enemy.
As another person walked out of one of the three tents, Mask shot him too.
Then reloaded.
A voice rang out angrily. “Hey! You do any more stupid crap and i’ll kill this girl!”
Mask aimed the sniper. The sun was shining through the tents, and he could see a figure holding a gun in one of the tents.
Bang!
Target down.
Mask’s monitor cleared up, leaving only one faint life signature on his radar.
He quickly ran down the hill to the camp, ignoring the corpses of the men he shot.
Mask checked all of the tents. He found the medic, bound and unconscious. Her Vitasuit was heavily damaged, and she was bruised in a lot of places. On top of all that, she had a slightly bloody cloth band covering up one of her eyes.
Quickly, Mask cut the medic’s bindings with a Cold Iron Carver, then scooped her up started to slowly carry her away from the camp.
He contacted Feron. “Lieutenant Feron, I’ve rescued the subject. But I can’t walk back to Haven at night. Send me a chopper at Daybreak.”
“Roger that, make sure your flank is clear.”
He walked back in the direction he came, looking for one of the things he saw earlier, a forest, a pond.
After slowly dragging the medic through to a forest, he set up camp, leaning her against a tree.
As the sun was drowned in a blanket of darkness, Mask collected twigs, bark, and other firemaking essentials. Soon enough, he the goods. But some fire and smoke would be easy to spot.
He dug a hole in the ground, tossed all the wood into it, and then lit it.
Mask relaxed against a tree, keeping his eyes closed, but his ears open.
“Ungh…” the medic was waking up.
Mask opened one eye, but otherwise kept still.
He waited a couple of seconds for the medic to regain her senses.
Hmm, wolvers might attack us in the darkness, but they’ll have a lower amount of energy influence.
The medic opened her eye. She didn’t say anything.
Mask didn’t say anything either, unless he got a response he would just stay awake to keep watch.
“H… hey, who are… you?” She started to cough mid sentence.
Mask didn’t look at the medic at all, and kept paying attention to the nearby open field. “I’m the rescue operative.” He started eating a granola bar. “So… can you explain how you got captured by the traitors?”
The medic motioned Mask for a granola bar, and started munching on it. “My name is… Frost. I was part of one of the teams that was to deal with the criminals...” she coughed some more. “But… everyone’s gone now. Except for one.”
“You?”
Frost shook her head. “No, there was one other person that escaped… he was my friend.”
“That’s all I need to hear for now.” Mask said. “Now sleep, the rescue chopper will be coming at dawn.”
Frost easily went to sleep on the rough forest floor.
The masked man tirelessly watched the nearby plains.
3 Hours Later.
“Pssst. Frost, wake up.”
“Wake up already!”
Frost yawned. “What…?”
Mask pointed at a few shaded figures moving in the darkness. “Some of the traitors are coming, you’re going to need to leave.”
“What about you? Frost said.
Mask grabbed his rifle from the ground and aimed it at the traitors. “You’re wounded, so if you want to be helpful then you should get a head start over me, got it? Now go!”
Reluctantly, Frost started fleeing the area, away from the traitors.
“Find them!” One of them said. “They’re not getting away!”
We’ll see about that.
Mask blended into the shadows and watched them walk closer. The more time they spent walking instead of running the better.
“Hey! There’s one! That one is running away!” They saw Frost limping away.
Goddamnit.
Mask fired a shot at the closest brigand, hitting him in the leg.
“There’s another one! Smoke him!” his partner yelled.
Three more brigands appeared and starting firing random shots into the forest. Despite it’s near useless effect, the energy shots were luminescent, lighting up their path.
Mask shot one of the brigands in the head, then retreats out of the forest. He started shouting orders into his communicator. “I need Evac now! I’m receiving fire from multiple enemies!”
No response.
Damned idiots, sleeping on the job.
Mask reloaded his sniper, then dived to the ground and aimed at the trailing brigands. They too, had hid themselves within the forest. They were firing shots in his direction, but he still couldn’t get an exact fix on their position.
Suddenly, a wolver pounced on one of the brigands and started thrashing, killing. The other one aimed at the wolver, but was sniped.
Let him suffer, fool. Escape while you can.
He ignored the voice in his head, and used his remaining bullet to shoot the brigand being clawed to death.
All clear. The wolver couldn’t see Mask from a long distance, and any threats were either destroyed or suppressed.
He continued to march forward. But then he heard whimpering. Mask tracked the noise… and found Frost, bleeding and sprawled across the ground. “What…”
“Help…” was all she was able to say.
Goddamnit, she’s going to die.
Mask thought as he checked Frost’s wounds. She was actually going to die. Took two bullets and has been bleeding without assistance for up to a minute.
He moved a few steps away from Frost and unscrewed the barrel from his gun, then aimed it at Frost’s head. “I’m sorry.”
Bang. He couldn’t hear the noise, somehow. But the wide, horrific stare of the medic a moment before she died was an obvious indicator that he did either the right or wrong thing.
Minutes passed. The masked man walked in the direction of Haven until the Rescue Chopper came for him, tracking his beacon. They lowered a rope ladder. He climbed up to the chopper.
“Hey, where’s the medic?” the gunner said.
Mask kept silent.
The gunner read his face, and motioned the pilot to fly back to Haven.