=== Iron Ferret's Cargo Bay -Dusk ===
The ship's cargo bay was poorly lit with a few of the overhead lights broken. This was the hangar that had half of it converted to more living space for the crew while the other half was used for storing whatever cargo the crew deemed valuable and worth keeping; The only people living there were the ship's doctor and Desmond, with a few of the cabins being actually empty.
Despite the ugly first impression, the insides of the ship were actually well maintained that the the inside was kept rather cool, as opposed to the boiling heat that was Delsauria, while the other functions were kept in check through regular maintenance. At the current time there was barely any activity in there, as most of the crew only 'gathered' in the lounge, which gave the people who were bunked in the cargo bay a greater deal of peace.
Sitting with his back leaned against one of the metallic cargo crates, Desmond looked at the gear that was splayed out in front of him on top of a white tarp, his battle rifle and pistol were all disassembled in front of it, and the parts looked like they had just been cleaned. The bounty hunter also had his armor on from the waist down, with only a white T-shirt on his torso; The rest of his Muur was right next to him, on top of the actual crate.
To anyone who paid attention, he looked like he was about to go. Before the bounty hunter did so, though, he got up and headed out of the cargo bay, making her way to the lounge.
=== Iron Ferret's Lounge - Dusk ===
As the door slid open and he made his way in, Desmond saw the same lounge he had been in earlier to get the payment from their last -and pretty botched up- mission. The chairs were standing on random parts of the rooms and some empty bottles were still on top of the tables; The vid-screen on there was also left on, showing only static that cast an eerie glow to the badly, lit lounge.
Amanozako lounged on one of the couches, eyes seemingly closed, her booted feet up on an armrest, fingers lanced behind her head. She opened one eye just a sliver as Desmond entered the lounge to see who had come in. Seeing it was not a hostile she needed to kill, she closed her eye again and continued with her relaxation.
As Desmond made his way into the lounge he grabbed the controller from the vid screen, shut it off and then placed the controller on top of the table as he looked around the room, the armor that covered his legs clinked as he then walked across the lounge and made his way to the galley, although he stopped for a moment to glance at the neko, almost not noticing her.
Her ears twitched as the white noise was silenced and replaced with the clinking of armor plates. "I was listening to that" she said, not opening her eyes.
"Right." Desmond said, grabbing a plastic water bottle from the galley and making his way back into the lounge. He leaned with one shoulder against the wall as he opened the bottle's seal with a click and regarded the neko.
"You people listen to your noise, I listen to mine" she shrugged and streatched very cat like.
"Right." Desmond repeated as he took a large gulp of water from the bottle, still looking at the neko. He didn't sound ironic, nor the usual cynical just acknowledging.
She opened her eyes again, sliding her feet off the armrest and onto the floor before standing up and walking over to the galley area and opening the fridge. Peering inside, Amanozako grabbed the carton of milk and poured herself a tall glass.
"So whats got you up at this hour?" she asked offhandedly.
Desmond suppressed a laugh once she saw her pour herself a glass of milk, it was funny for him how 'cats' really liked milk after all. "Something needs doing." He said, turning his head around to glare at Amanozako.
"Whats that?" she asked, glaring back, her own red eyes more menacing as she locked eyes with his.
"What's it to you?" Desmond asked, raising an eyebrow as he closed the bottle, not breaking the eye contact with neko
She shrugged. "Nothing" she replied, taking a sip of her milk, her own eyes remaining locked with his. One advantage of being an artificially created being was that she really did not need to blink like he did, so staring contests were easy.
"Guess not. You feel like making some money, though?" He asked, inevitably blinking after a while.
Amanozako shrugged. "After that last lame excuse for a gig and it's substandard pay..." she trailed off, sipping her drink again.
"I was there too. And It’s me who’s offering you the opportunity, not Kendra." Desmond said, remembering the last mission as he crumpled the plastic bottle on his fist and threw it in an empty trash can.
She walked back to her couch, settling onto it again lazily and sipping her milk. "What's the gig?" she asked
"We'll be borrowing some ammo from a gang. The same gang that came to greet us when we first landed." Desmond said casually, crossing his arms across his chest as he regarded the neko again.
Amanozako laughed. "Those fools?" she set her milk down on the armrest. "Be like taking candy from a child" she glanced at Desmond. "Just ammo, or are you wanting to clean them out for anything else while you're at it?" she asked. She had no issue with theft. She was a bounty hunter yes, but she was in no way someone moraly obligated to adhere to the laws of the land, this wasnt even her land anyways.
"It's a big warehouse..." Desmond said, letting the idea trail off, "And we might just stumble or something or someone worth the time. Besides, the more we hurt these assholes the better off we are, and from the info I've got the ammo they got there is something we could use. And who are they gonna call, the police?" He added.
Amanozako grinned. "Police wouldn't want to answer that call" she stated, the look on her face was less than pleasent.
"And we don't want the police anywhere near." Desmond added, still looking at the neko, "So you want in or not?"
Finishing her milk she stood back up. "Yeah sure, It's something to do" she replied and put the now empty glass away to be washed.
"Alright, meet me outside the ship once you're geared up." Desmond said before leaving the galley.
Amanozako left without another word, heading for her cabin. There, she pulled off the comfortable clothes she had been wearing and grabbed her black jumpsuit, pulling it on and zipping it up. She slipped her boots back on, buckled them, then grabbed her well worn NMX flack vest and got it on and situated, fastening it together solidly.
She then grabbed her pair pistols, checking each HHG, making sure it was clean and ready for use. She loaded each weapon and put it into its respective holster, before strapping on her gunbelt. Next went her combat knife, slipping it into the scabbard on her right boot. Finally she hefted her Impaler rifle. She had been required to do some minor repairs after the last mission and went ahead and did a full check of the large weapon before loading it and slinding it over her shoulder.
Extra ammunition for both the Impaler and HHG's went into their respective pockets and pouches. She finished by pulling on her long coat and black fedora. She was all set and exited her cabin, locking the door behind her and then starting off down the passage for the cargo bay and exit.
===Hangar Bay - Outside the Iron Ferret - Early night===
The Hangar was as badly lit as the ship, with only two of the projectors overhead working. Desmond was already standing there, next to the lowered loading ramp, and in his full gear. The had opted to not take the helmet for his Muur, and his arms weren't covered by any armor except a pair of elbow pads, but instead by the same grey jacket and black sweater that semeed to be his standard attire, which wasn't all uncalled for since a desert planet like Delsauria got inexorably cold during the night.
He lifted one of his hands to cover his mouth as he lit a cigarette that was plucked between his lips, slightly brushing the battle rifle that hung from its strap on his side. His pistol was also carefully holstered on the chest plate of his Muur and his powered blade sheathed behind his back horizontally.
Shutting down the lighter with a click, Desmond took a deep puff of his cigartte and looked around.
Amanozako's nose wrinkled at the stench of the cigarette. She stopped next to him and eyed her fellow mercinary. "You know that thing can be seen for miles and miles on a dark night like this" she commented. The fact was a truth that had helped her spot and take out a good many bad guy over the years.
"I know." Desmond said, looking up and blowing up the smoke from the cigarette. "We're going on foot, the place is a short walk from here." He said as he regarded Amanozako once more.
She nodded. "Let's go then" she said and indicated he lead the way.
Desmond started talking soon as they got walking, "The place we're going to is a warehouse that's supposed to be used by a shipping company, which is just a dummy company for the gang." He said, bringing his hand up to take another drag of the cigarette and watching it slowly diminish once they got out of the hangar.
"And that's one of the warehouses they have that work as a middle point between the things they smuggle in and off world. This particular one is mostly for ammo." He continued, recalling whathe had seen on the computer he and Raven had acquired during their raid on one of the gang's building.
"Right" she said, "We will want to scout the exterior before we go inside" she said as she walked along side Desmond.
"Of course." Desmond said, finishing his cigarette after a few more puffs and then casually flicking the butt aside.
==== Maharombi City Outskirts - Night ====
It wasn't a short walk, it took the duo at least an hour to reach the outskirts where the warehouse was located. The said warehouse was built across a triangular block and was surrounded by a few residential buildings to one side, neither taller than three stories, while the other side was just a wide avenue leading both out of the city and directly into the cliff face where it was originally built from with the spaceport. The last side was just an empty plot with trash strewn around it for several yards, ending up with more buildings behind it.
Both of them were approaching it from the side of the residential buildings through an alley, both of them completely shadowed between one of the buildings.
Desmond looked at the warehouse, then around him at the residential buildings, "These look like a good vantage point." He said dismissively, swinging his head around to look at Amanozako.
She nodded. "I'm going to take a look from above" she said softly, lifting off the ground, floating up to the rooftop using her built in gravity manipulation. She kept in the shadows and landed softly, keeping low to the roof she now crouched on.
Unslinging her rifle, she brought it up to her shoulder, using the scope to get a better close look at the surroundings and target building.
"Damn." Desmond said once Amanozako was up. The sight of someone levitating up and effortlessly wasn't something he was used to, so he just marked it as still one of the crazy abilities the nekos had. Sticking next to the wall, he slowly made his way to the lip of the corner to get eyes on the warehouse from the ground level.
What he was able to see right off the bat was that the side of the warehouse was -unsurprisingly- facing his way, with a small parking lot for the cargo to be delivered in and out. While the parking lot was on the ground level, the warehouse was a little bit up so that someone standing there would be at the same level as the back of a cargo truck, with a small concrete platform extending from the main body of the two story bulding that was the warehouse and into the parking lot.
Also one the same platform sat a man right beneath the light from an electric lamp, which was a really poor choise since the bright light would make it impossible for him to see anything in the darkness ahead.
As Desmond took that in from the ground level, Amanozako had a better view from her superior vantage point. She could see that not only the apartment buildings nearby were clear, but also inside the warehouse through one of the panels on the roof that were swung wide open to ventilate the building. Despite the time, the building clearly had activity inside of it, and it was possible for the neko to see with her superior eyesight different people moving to and fro through the small window in the rooftop.
Amanozako cycled through her infrared and ultraviolet visual spectrum modes, using them to attempt to see how many people were inside the warehouse. Although she was able to see four distinct thermal signatures on the right half of the warehouse, the left half was a mess of them, some were small while others were big, and due to the way the heat signatures constantly shifted and changed it was clear to see that something in there was generating and exhausting heat at regular intervals, which also made it hard to make out any distinct signatures from normal people.
The neko frowned. "Lots of activity in their" she commented over the radio. "At least four targets on the right side of the structure, many, many more on the left" she went on. "Too many for me to tell apart, Might be livestock or other animals along with people"
Desmond scratched the stubble on his cheek for a second as he took that in, "Alright. We'll watch this place for some more time to see if there's any activity, then we move in. The sentinel they put in the back will be an easy picking." He said, one finger pressed against the communicator on his ear as he kept watching the warehouse for any activity.
"Right" Amanozako replied, continuing her observation. She took note of any movement patterns outside and inside, hoping to see if there was a routine and if she could figure out how many people were inside the place.
Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, Desmond kept watching the warehouse from his point of view. The bounty hunter scratched his chin before pressing his finger against his earpiece, "So what's got you in this business?" He asked.
The Neko frowned a little. He wanted to make small talk...great. "I don't think you want to know" she replied as she followed the outside sentinel with her rifle scope.
"Why not? We're gonna be stuck here for a while." Desmond replied. He, too, watched the sentinel, noticing how the man seemed oblivious to the two watchers he had on him due to the fact the light shining on him obfuscated everything darker than the place where he was. 'Amateur,' Desmond thought idly.
Amanozako turned her attention to the figures inside, tracking them. "It's not something I talk about" she replied after a few minutes of silent observation.
Desmond was silent for another couple of minutes, just in time for the street in front of the warehouse be suddenly lit up by a headlight from a vehicle that came from somewhere else in the outskirts. The vehicle soon came into Amanozako's view, although the neko was able to hear its engine way before that, revealing that it was a cargo truck carrying a container.
The vehicle slowed down in front of the warehouse and then reversed, and as soon as it came to a stop one of the garage doors on the warehouse opened and a pair of men started to load crates into the truck, while the sentinel just stood at his spot and watched it.
Once they were done loading whatever they had into the truck, it took off as quick and effectively as it had come. Desmond waited a couple more minutes before pressing his earpiece again, "So why stay with the ship if you're not a team player?" He asked.
"Because I was there first" she replied, having taken a good look in through the garage door while it had been open. Since only a small portion of the door was visible because of how the truck was close to it, what she could see was only a concrete floor, with the areas around the path to the door having a few wooden boxes piled on top of each other.
"Just that," Desmond said idly, "So what? You could just have turned and went, the ship is not even worth half of the original price because of how bad it is." He continued.
"Why do you want to know all this?" she asked, getting a little frustrated. She took count of everyone she could see visuially and thermally. There had to be animals in the warehouse too, but just like before, it was clear to see that the same amount of signatures on the right side remained, a clear four, the other half was still a mess of mutating blots of heat. It didn't matter how much they had transported in or out, nothing had changed.
"Maybe I want to know who I'm working with. Maybe I just want to do small-talk while I watched this place." Desmond said.
"You do not want to know me" Amanozako replied flatly.
"Try me." Desmond shot back. It was not like him to back down.
Amanozako snorted. "Tell me something about yourself first" she replied.
"Like what?" Came the response.
"Like why you're here" she shrugged.
"I thought I was here to raid a warehouse." Desmond replied, smirking to himself. He pressed his earpiece again for a while, "You mean in this business?" He asked.
"Yes, with this group" she replied, exasperated.
"We met at the airliner and I stuck around." He said, pausing. Come to think of it, he didn't know why he had stuck around himself, he just did and didn't bother thinking about it. "I guess bad things stick around the longest." He added, if he was talking about himself it wasn't clear, "So how did you end up with the pirates in the first place?"
"I infiltrated the group to take the bounty on the entire lot of them and would have had you lot not shown up" she said. At least she had been the sole claim on the two leaders, who she had killed herself.
"And before that?" Desmond asked.
"You do not want to know" she repeated.
"Back at square one, then?" Desmond asked, exhaling. "Why wouldn't I?" He added.
"Doubt you would sleep well at night knowing I was on the ship" she suggested.
"Bullshit." Desmond replied.
"Whatever" Amanozako replied. She didn't really care what this round ear meat bag thought anyways.
====Maharombi City Outskirts - Night====
With nothing more being said, the two hunters resumed watching the warehouse. Just like clockwork, another truck arrived thirty minutes later, either loading or unloading cargo, and another one on the same interval. The pattern was clear enough for them to be confident that it would repeat itself again.
Desmond pressed a finger against his earpiece again, "I'm moving in. Take the rooftop." He said, and casually walked towards the warehouse.
Amanozako clicked her microphone in response and shifted her scope to the warehouse roof, switching to thermal mode to better keep track of targets in the dark of night. As she did that, she could see a lone heat signature crossing the wide street, taking cover not to stay in the view of the sentry that was posted outside the warehouse.
Further inside the warehouse, nothing much had changed, except that the four signatures were now three, while the left half of the building continued to be a mess of thermal blots.
The former NMX Neko kept watching, ready to move if needed, but for now not taking any action beyond observing.
Desmond crept the edge of the factory, going through the side instead of straight ahead. Through her scope, Amanozako would see him press himself against the side wall, then climb onto the platform and grab the sentry in a neck lock, the other man shuddered and kept squirming against the lock until he fell limp.
The other bounty hunter waited a few seconds until he finally let go of the man, throwing him from over the platform and onto the ground below.
"Entrance's clear," He said through the earpiece, looking at his wristwatch, "We have about twenty something minutes until the next truck comes back." He added.
"Right" she replied and checked to see if anyone was near the entrance on the inside. "Checking the interior". As she looked, there was no reaction from inside concerning what had just transpired outside, while Desmond just pressed himself against the wall, holding his battle rifle and facing the access door.
Amanozako continued her overwatch, read to take out any hostiles that moved on Desmond. She was not sure how she had drawn overwatch, she was an infantry woman an trained by the military to do what Desmond as now doing.
Desmond stacked up against the door, giving a short glance towards the building Amano was doing her overwatch. "You're not taking the rooftop?" He asked her, one finger pressed against his earpiece.
"Just waiting for the opportune moment" the former soldier replied, taking one last sweep of the interior with her thermal optics, then launching herself silently into the night air. She crossed the gap effortlessly, landing on the warehouse roof gently without a sound, aided by her gravity manipulation. She set down well clear of the rooftop windows, then glided to an open one, her feet just a few inches off the roof so no one inside would hear footsteps.
Once at the window, she checked with thermals again, then peered down, just around the window frame. Since she was closer, it was easier to discern what was happening inside, and from the angle that she was in it was also possible to see that there wasn't just four people in there, but at least three more on the left side, which were standing or working in what then appeared to be some sort of heavy machinery.
Upon seeing the neko make her approach, Desmond waited a couple moments before he reached with a hand for the access door's knob, getting ready to move in. "Alright, in three, two, one, now!" He said, then forced the door open.
"Damnit" she growled. He couldnt wait for her to collect more intelligence. Amanozako swung herself around the window frame, floating just inside, took aim at the first bad guy with her Impaler rife ad squeezed the trigger. As the three round burst lanced across the space between herself and the first target's head she was already retraining her rifle on the next, squeezing off three more shots, then again for a third.
Since the door opened first, the attention of the group inside was focused there, and when the neko came from the rooftop it took them entirely by surprise, since that was the last place they expected anyone to come from.
Before Amanozako started shooting, she then had eyes inside the warehouse for the first time. After much mystery and guesses, the source for the intermitting heat signatures proved to be coming from several machines as well as welding stations. Five men, in addition to the four on the right side, worked either producing all different sorts and calibers of ammunition or even producing or modifying weapon parts. Not surprisingly, the right half of the rectangular building was used to store the ammo and goods that were produced, with several boxes stacked on top of each other forming effective aisles on that half.
The neko's first salvo caught the first man square in the chest, making him jerk and crumple where he stood like a marionette that had its strings suddenly cut. As the neko switched her aim for the next target, the people inside the warehouse hadn't even begun to react against her.
Her second salvo, while not being lethal, disabled her second target when the pencil-thin beams from her Impaler went cleanly through his right arm and shoulder, with the rest impacting against the wall behind him. By then, the men inside the warehouse, being all Nepleslians, had already drawn their weapons, while the distinct report of a battle rifle rang out twice, dropping the third man on the right side; That all happened in less than five seconds.
That was when the people inside starte to return fire, with the place being an ammo depo it wasn't hard for them to have a weapon at arms reach anywhere, and the first target was obviously the neko floating and very clear to see.
It was about time to move anyways, the neko thought and gave th area as a whole a good hozing down with particle fire as she moved, encouraging the bad guys to seek cover if they were smart. Amanozako rocketed to a spot with good cover, landing behind a stack of crates and storage containers. She then moved, ducking low ad speeding across to another cover spot, working her wa round to get another good vantage point. All the while she kept an eye on the lcation of the remaning bad guys, switching optical modes as needed.
Not wanting to leave Desmond a target too long, she edged out at another suitable spot, aimed on a bad guy wo had obviously been aming up to shoot at her and sent a three round burst at him. While her suppressing fire had been successful, sending the other half of the warehouse scambling for cover, the last remaining bandit on the right side had a clear shot at her, and while most of his shots missed because the neko simply moved too fast, she felt two hit her on the back. Gladly for her, though, she was wearing her flak vest, so the bullets only felt like punches to her ribs.
Adding to that, her suppressing fire also didn't come without other consequences, and as soon as one of the beams impacted a crate that one of the gangers was hiding behind it instantly set it off, cooking the ammo inside. This made it impossible for the neko to discern anything with her thermal vision.
"I got the straggler, focus on the rest!" Came the reply from the other bounty hunter. By then, Desmond was also firing against the last guy on the right side. He was also more careful, taking good aim to not hit any of the ammo stored there.
"Yeah yeah" she replied as casually as someone who had just been asked to take out the trash. Amanozako jetted around, moving for a flanking position, using her gravity manipulation to float inches off the ground rather than run. As she did she came upon one of the ones shooting at Desmond and aimed at him from fairly close range, giving him three shots aimed or center of mass, the swinging her assault rifle around to another target. Since the other man was focused on not shooting Amano, her shot also took him by surprise, but as soon as he fell the fire from the last remaining gangers switched back to her, peppering her surround area with gunfire.
By then, Desmond had hastily hunched on the ground as shots started to come through the crate he was using as cover and buzzing inches from his face. He had succeeded in keeping the last bad guy pinned until one of his shots went through the crate and hit the guy, but the hunter kept firing until he saw the blood slowly pool from behind the crate.
Amanozako ducked back behind cover, letting the bad guys piss away their ammo on crates and boxes. She took the opportunity to relocate again and attack from a new angle. There were four or five left to take care of. She popped up above a crate, aimed and fired, then dropped back behind cover.
Because of her ability to float, the neko was able to strike from places that were the most unexpected, always catching the bad guys by surprise. While her next salvo took out yet another bad guy, it wasn't because the particle beams had struck him, but because they struck one of the ammo assembly machines he was hiding behind, blowing it up in a small show of fireworks and killing the man with the ensuing shrapnel.
As the last four remaining gangers took cover against the neko, Desmond struck again from his side, nailing another one.
"Three to go" she reckoned and zipped around to change direction again. She checked the power level on her rifle, found a new spot she liked and took aim. She did like how these machines blew apart... and there was no reason to leave them for the bad guys to keep using and these mooks were covering behind them... so she intentionaly aimed for one this time, sending four pulses into it before getting back under cover once more.
It was only when there were three bandits left that they finally decided to stop focusing on a single person. As Amanozako fired again, the bandits turned to take cover from her, leaving their sides exposed to Desmond again. While her salvo had completely trashed the other machine, leaving several holes from where a molten slag slowly poured out, the machine hadn't for one reason or another blown up as catastrophically as the last one, but instead it slowly started to catch fire. What it did, however, was scare the ganger hiding behind it enough to make him bolt out of his cover, only to be picked off by the other hunter's battle rifle.
That left only two remainin bad guys, one a heavily augmented Nepleslian, who was wielding a submachinegun, and another one with a shotgun. Both of them wore the same gang uniform, with the metallic badge proudly attacked to their leather jacket sleeves, respectively fighting Amanozako and Desmond.
"Don't you think its time to give up?" The neko called out. "Sad little Nepleslian hiding behind his little toy gun" she taunted.
"Screw you, bitch! You have no idea who you're messing with!" Came the reply from the augmented Nepleslian, who just raised his submachinegun and let out a burst from where the taunt came from.
Amanozako laughed. It wasnt a nice laugh. "And you think you know what you are dealing with?" She replied and giggled in a creepy fashion. She accesed her volumetric system, projecting an image around herself of a large Mishhu, something she was very familiar with. She slung her rifle over her shoulder and drew he knife. "Why don’t you come out and play?" She asked, her voice sickly sweet as she let her volumetric projection cast a bulky tentacled shadow on the walls for her prey to see. As if on a cue, both of the gangers turned to fire at the new horrific apparition, only to see that their bullets didn't do any good against it, and either by fear or lack of attention, they didn't realize that their shots were impacting on the walls right behind it.
She laughed again. "Pathetic!" She hissed to tem. "Take yours out while I have them distracted" she whispered into her mic to Desmond, but unbeknownst to her, Desmond was already on the move.
The other bounty hunter had moved at a crouch, zig-zaging through the various crates until he had a better position, and by then he could see that the other unaugmented ganger was clearly panicked by the holographic display; The man's eyes were wide open and he constantly fumbled as he tried to reload his shotgun, letting the shells drop several times as he missed putting them in properly.
Once he saw that he was on the sights of Desmond's rifle, he dropped his shotgun and raised his hands.
Amanozako kicked the crate she was using for cover hard, using her superior engineered neko strength to send it flying at the augmented goon. Not to hit him, it would tumble short, but it would be more than enough to distract him and make him jump to avoid the large metal and wood container.
That’s when she moved, vaulting at him, a massive Mishhu apparition, tentacles reaching out for the Nepleslian, toothy maw gaping wide as she crossed the distance in a second. She bull rushed the man and just before she impacted with him, she let the illusion drop, the mishhu vanishing in an electronic flicker just in time for her black clad figure to slam into him, driving her combat knife into his chest, aimed for the gap in the ribs over his heart.
Despite the man still being recovering himself from the thrown crate, and didn't have enough wits to react against Amano once the holographic misshu disappeared. The neko's knife went straight to the man's chest, but instead of going to his heard and ending him, the blade hit something solid beneath his jacket and broke, sending the man to the ground from the force of the impact.
She landed on top of him, driving her knees into his gut and the air out of his lungs. She snarled and wrenched his weapon away from him, tossing it aside, then bringing the jagged remains of her knife down, went for his much softer throat, but he managed to gab her wrists before it plunged it.
"Now you understand who you're dealing with?!" She demanded as the blade came swinging down, and although the man was still putting up resistance, the neko's strength was still superior, and the knife slowly started to go down. The Nepleslian gritted his teeth and pushed harder, but to no avail, and he was choking on his own blood in no time.
Even broken the blade would do the damage intended and make a gory mess. Once she was sure he was done Amanozako picked up the snapped off blade and stood, looking at the last goon, her blood soaked hands hanging at her side.
"What about that one?" She indicated him, breathing hard.
Desmond, in the meanwhile, was standing next to the last remaining 'bad guy', who was kneeling next to the bounty hunter with his hands behind his head. "You sure took your time." He stated as he regarded the neko, then turned to face the last remaining guy. "This one? Dropped his gun or something." He added, motioning with his rifle pointed at the man.
She grinned, keeling back down and wiping her hands clean on her victim's shirt. "A lot smarter than his friend here" she commented, then searched the corpse for anything interesting. The corpse also had the usual gang badge, although this one had a steel finishing to it, signaling that he was someone of at least some importance. Among other posessions were the man's wallet, with a few DA bills, a pack of cigaretters and a lighter.
"Yep." Desmond replied, still holding the last goon at gunpoint. The warehouse seemed secure by then, and somewhat safe once the ammo crate they had shot stopped cooking off and the machine that had caught fire seemed to stop wanting to do that.
The bounty hunter looked around to regard the crates before looking at his wristwatch. "We got eighteen minutes before the next truck arrives." He said.
"Alright" she said, pocketing the DA bills, then letting her eyes sweep around the space. "We're gonna need a truck to get what we need back" she commented and walked over to Desmond and his prisoner. "You got a truck around here?" she asked the last remaining goon.
The goon in question was still kneeling on the ground and shivering, when the neko approached him it only worsened his condition, "N-no we just store things here, I swear. They come in every thirty minutes!" He exclaimed, half-pleading with the two hunters.
"And why should we keep you alive when your gang has an entire bounty on it?" Desmond asked, jabbing the still hot barrel of his rifle against the man's head, who decided to just stay quiet after that. The bounty-hunter then turned to face the neko, which allowed to see that he had a small gash on his neck from where a bullet had hit, while the chest plate of hi Muur also sported two new hit marks, "We wait for the next truck and then jack it." He stated.
Amanozako grabbed the goon by the collar with one blood soaked hand and lifted him into the air, bearing her canines at him. "How many people are on those trucks? Are they going to need any kind of password response?" she demanded, tightening her grip on his collar.
The ganger clutched against Amanozako's wrist as he slowly left the floor, "No we're not that good, man! Come on!" He pleaded again, almost at the verge of tears. Desmond in the meanwhile, just looked around the warehouse, occasionally kicking one of the downed bodies.
"Tell me what I want to know" the NMX Neko hissed, shaking the man. "Tell me now!"
"There's no password! This isn't some IPG movie shit I swear, man!" He yelled back at her.
"How many will be on the truck?!" she demanded next.
"It's just the driver and two dudes in the back every time, it never changes, I swear!." He answered back, wide-eyed and with his feet still off the floor.
Amanozako walked the man over to one of the support pillars that held up the warehouse roof and slammed the goon against it, enough to crack his head against it and knock him out, then dropped his limp form to the ground. Satisfied he was out she grabbed cable or rope or the best she could find like it and tied him to the pillar securely. Ripping a strip of cloth from his shirt, she gagged the goon and double checked everything was tied up good.
"Okay" she said. "Three mooks in the truck, a driver and two others. Easy" she commented and started gathering up all the goon's weapons that were scattered around the floor. She also looked to see if any of them or anything in the crates were worth adding to her personal aresnal. The crates were mostly a mix of different ammo calibers, while only a few contained the usual guns that the gang seemed to be sporting most of the time: pistols, SMGs and shotguns,which looked like as if they were simply assembled there, if the machines in the warehouse were any clue. While the weapons were only assembled, so was the ammo, although there was no clue where either came from; It only appeared to her that the warehouse was a middle-point in the gang's weapon distribution.
"Cool." Desmond said, pulling out his Datajockey to take pictures of the goons they killed. The chances were that there would be a bounty on most of them, although he was certain there was one on the leader. Once his little trip through the warehouse was done, he took one final picture of the only ganger who was left alive, before turning to Amanozako, "You know we'll torch this place once we're through, right?" He asked.
She nodded. "Yeah, I just dont want him waking up and making noise when that truck comes by" Amanozako replied.
"Alright. How do you want to take on these last three?" He asked, putting the datajockey away.
"Ambush them" she said. "We need to make sure we take them out fast. One of us take out the driver, the other the two in back as soon as the vehicle stops"
"Right." Desmond said and moved out of the warehouse. Although he had the same in mind, he had asked anyway. Intent on making the place look as business as usual as the last stops the truck did, he removed the body from the sentinel he had knocked out and dragged the man inside, secuting him against a steel beam with a ziptie cuff; He had ten minutes before the next truck showed up.
Once that was done, he took cover on the corner of the warehouse, so that its wall was between him and the direction from which the vehicle had previously come from. From what he could gather, the gang was so used on being the top dog in their business that they had chosen to overlook some very vital precautions, like making routes random or having a better perimeter security, which suited him just fine. Crouching against the wall, Desmond waited.
====Maharombi City Outskirts - Night, ten minutes later====
Desmond stood next to the parked truck, the driver's door was open and the man who had been in charge of that was lying next to it, with a family-size cut on his chest. The bounty hunter waited until the power field on his blade did the job of sizzling the blood off it before he turned it off and sheathed it.
With a grunt, he started dragging the body into the warehouse.
Amanozako was doing much the same at the back of the truck. She had opted not to use her guns outside, it would have been too loud. She wiped her broken knife clean before putting it away and grabbed the pair of corpses and dragged them out into the warehouse. One had been stabbed in the throat, the other's head was twisted around much farther than the human head was capable.
She deposited them next to the one Desmond had brought in, then busied herself picking up boxes and crates and loading them into the back of the truck about the same time as Desmond did.
The bounty hunter carried one crate at a time, and as the time passed the crates slowly started piling into the truck. Although the amount of munitions that they had 'procured' was sizeable for their group, and would sure come in handy since a good portion of it was specialized ammo, such as AP rounds, it only did a small dent in the warehouse's stock.
Desmond lifted the last crate with a grunt on top one of the piles that had formed inside the cargo container of the truck. He let the wooden crate go and wiped the sweat from his forehead and face, which had formed despite the cold of the Delsaurian night. The bounty hunter reached for one of his pockets and plucked a cigarette from it before he walked back to the warehouse, "Truck's loaded up, time to torch the place." He said.
'Right, so leaving that mook in here to burn with it?" she indicated the knocked out goon tied to the pillar.
Desmond shrugged, lighting the cigarette before turning to face the neko again. The lighter closed with a click as he stashed it away, "He's your responsibility." He said to her, fishing a red gallon from one corner of the warehouse before he started dousing some of the crates with the yellow liquid that poured out from it.
"Why's he my responsibility?" she asked as she walked over to the goon.
"Because he sure as hell ain't mine." Desmond said, tossing the gallon away after he had made a trail of the liquid leading towards one of the exits.
"You captured him" Amanozako replied and nudged at him with the toe of her boot.
"But you roughed him up, and I'm not carrying him out of there after all those crates." Desmond said back.
"Fine" she said, pulled out one of her pistols aimed it at the goon's head and pulled the trigger. "Not a problem anymore" she added as the sound of the single gunshot dissipated. She returned her weapon to it's holster, shouldered her rifle again and made sure nothing was left behind and walked to the truck.
Desmond stared at the dead ganger for a few more moments before turning around and flicking his cigarette away, making it land on the trail of fuel he had made. The bounty hunter made his way to the truck's driver seat after he closed the doors of the container and sealed it.
He turned the key next to the steering wheel, starting the vehicle and then took off away from the warehouse in a hurry, just as the fires started to grow and the ammo that was stored there started to cook off.
==== Iron Ferret's Cargo Bay - Dawn ====
If Loading the crates was a hard task, unloading them and sorting them out was harder, longer and more boring. By the time Desmond had finished doing that the planet's night cycle was almost over, but the crates were separated by their contents, and he had taken stock of the entirety of the new inventory, which would be very vital to their next mission.
The bounty hunter regrettably fished the last cigarette from his pack as he stared at the newest acquisition. He again had his armor stripped from the waist up, as well as the jacket and sweater. His gaze turned towards the truck once the cigarette was lit, the faint orange glow from it very clear in the penumbra of the hangar, "So have you ever set fire to one of these?" He asked Amanozako, motioning towards the truck.
"It's not that hard" she replied. She had removed her coat, armor and guns before helping unload the truck as well and the front of her black jumpsuit was partially unzipped help let cool air in. "Find a spot to dump it, then we can burn it" she said.
"I know that. I just asked if you wanted to see it." Desmond answered, staring at her.
She shrugged. There was not much else to do now that the hard work for the night was done. "Sure" she said, grabbing her gun belts and strapping them back on.
Desmond jumped off the crate he had been sitting on and walked towards the truck.
====Maharombi City - Abandoned plot - Dawn====
They were standing on a wide abandoned plot a short walk from where the Iron Ferret was docked, the place was littered with all manner of small debris, from furniture to vehicle parts. The sun was still slowly rising behind them, giving an orange tone to the sky as the rays slowly and surely cast themselves against that side of the planet.
Desmond was standing besides the truck, crouched down near one of its fuel tanks. The bounty hunter opened the tank and shoved a piece of cloth in it, leaving only a bit hanging out before he took his lighter from one his pockets. He pressed the lighter close to the cloth, but then paused for a moment, before turning his head towards the neko.
"You do the honors." He said, extending the lighter on her direction.
Amanozako took the lighter, flipping it open and flicking the wheel, igniting it. She walked close to the truck and lit the rag before flipping the lighter closed and stepping back far enough to be safe.
Desmond crossed his arms, watching as the flame slowly burned away through the cloth until it disappeared inside the truck's fuel tank, only to come out in a much higher intensity once it reached the fuel. The fire slowly rose and spread on the vehicle's flame, first under it, and then slowly reached up; The truck's tires popped due to the fire, and then slowly melted away, making the truck 'sink' against the ground. A few seconds later the fire completely enveloped the vehicle in a very bright pyre, which was both seen and felt by the two bounty hunters as the heat projected against them by convection.
Desmond reached for another cigarette, only to realize that the last one had been long gone, and he neither had a lighter anymore. Sighing, the bounty hunter let his arms hang by his side and just watched the fire.
Amanozako stretched her arms out, palms towards the fire, feeling the heat from the flames, letting the warmth roll over her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation, letting it relax her.
It took the truck a couple minutes to finally burn through all of the fuel it had left in its tanks, but by the time it was over the truck was nothing but a blackened out husk, as well as its immediate vicinity, and the sun was already visible on the sky.
"Well that's it then." Desmond said, still staring at what was once a truck. "I'll check to see if there was a bounty on any of these guys... And keep it all to myself." He said, smirking.
"Only if you want to end up with a bullet in your own head" Amanozako commented, slowly opening her eyes and glancing at Desmond. If she was joking or not was hard to tell with the deadpan expression on her face.
"Relax, I wasn't serious." Desmond said, raising a gloved hand in apology. "It's pretty easy to know which guys you took out because you have an energy weapon." He added, pausing for a second, "But yeah, thanks for the help. Not that I couldn't do it myself." He concluded.
Amanozako nodded, which was about the best he was going to get in reply to this thanks, then turned away from the burnt out truck, starting off back the way they had come.
Desmond, in the other hand, waited a little bit longer, still staring at the wreck. With that task done, there were still other preparations to be done before the little showdown they would have with the gang. The bounty hunter sighed and also made his way back to the hangar.
==== Iron Ferret's Lounge - Morning ====
Back on the ship Amanozako gathered up her things and returned them to her cabin, setting everything back where it belonged. She grabbed some clean clothes and went to shower. Her hands were still caked in dried blood and her jumpsuit badly needed to be washed. Once she was cleaned up and refreshed, the neko deposited her jumpsuit into the ships laundry system and went back to the lounge, clad just in a tank-top and underwear.
Amanozako fixed herself a tall glass of milk and settled back down on the couch where Desmond had found her hours earlier. Just as she settled down on the couch, the door to the main hallway slid open with a hiss, and the bounty hunter stepped inside. He also had a fresh set of clothes, and made his way to the pantry.
"Don't you have your own room?" He asked the neko as he walked between her and the vidscreen on the lounge.
"I like this couch" Amanozako replied, sipping her drink. She stretched out, laying her legs over the far armrest.
"Right." Desmond said, emerging from the pantry with a beer bottle. The bounty hunter sat on one of the chairs next to the lounge's table before popping the cap off the bottle. He examined the neko once again, not even touching the bottle any further, "So what's your story?" He asked again.
"Why do you want to know so much?" the neko asked, eying the Nepleslian lazily over the edge of her glass.
"Is that a problem?" Desmond retorted.
"I could be" she responded, her eyes drifting closed again.
"To be honest, I didn't really think you were gonna shoot that guy back in the warehouse." Desmond said, changing the subject.
"It was the simplest way to deal with him" she replied and took a long sip of her drink. "If you wanted to deal with him differently you should have. I have no time to deal with prisoners"
"What I don't get is, if you don't really care that much why do you still stick around with this ship?" Desmond asked, leaning back on the chair. "And I don't buy that shit about you being here first, this thing really isn't worth shit, and barely got us here."
"What’s it matter to you?" she finished her drink and got to her feet, walking to the kitchen to deposit her glass.
"Because I'm also on this ship" Desmond said when she got back.
"I don't have to explain my reasons to you" she said and slid back onto the couch. Amanozako put her feet back up and laced her fingers behind her head. Her red eyes visible under half closed eyelids, watching him.
"You don't have to. But do you think anyone on the crew will trust you ?" he asked back. fingers interlacing as he leaned closer to the table and supported his head on his hands.
Amanozako laughed. "You think I trust any of you lot?" she replied.
Desmond grinned at that, "Good point." He said, getting up and grabbing the glass bottle as he did so, "I'll be going then, this isn't going anywhere." He added as he made his way out of the lounge.
"Suit yourself" the neko waved a hand dismissively at him as he walked out. She grabbed the remote off the table and clicked the TV screen on, back to the white noise of a channel with no signal.
==== Aftermath ====
Despite the ‘spoils’ being worth a considerable sum of money, none of it was actually sold, yet. But despite that liquid profit that either bounty hunters had made was more than reasonable. For Amanozako, there was a solid 2000 DA bounty on the lieutenant that the neko had killed, as well as a bonus of 500 for the other mooks that she had killed. For Desmond, the pay was less considerable, but still fair, since the bounty hunter had taken out less: A mere 1200 DA.
With the ammo seized, stocked and tagged, the crew of the Iron Ferret had acquired yet another advantage against the gang that had antagonized them as soon as they had landed on the planet. Despite the few generic weapons, it included a considerable amount of Zen .45s and Styrling Ripshots, as well as a few M3 Assault Rifles, which had actually been either stolen or bought on the black market. The ammo seized contained the regular ball ammo, but also a big amount of several other kinds, such as incendiary , Armor Piercing to name a few; There were even a couple of exotic loads for shotgun shells, such as Dragon’s Breath.
That aside, a slow but sure paranoia grew inside the gang once they realized that they weren’t on the top of the food chain anymore. Although none of it was mentioned on the public media, the more ‘informal’ ways of communication as well as the contacts that the Iron Ferret had soon noticed the tighter security and excessive security measures. What was worse – for them – was the total lack of clues as to who were the perpetrators of such attacks; What had first started as an allegedly inter-gang warfare since the raid on one of the Gang’s bases was soon discarded once their ammo warehouse/workshop was destroyed. Since Desmond and Amanozako had been thorough and relentless in burning all evidence and leaving no survivors, there were no implications as to who had actually done them.
The ship's cargo bay was poorly lit with a few of the overhead lights broken. This was the hangar that had half of it converted to more living space for the crew while the other half was used for storing whatever cargo the crew deemed valuable and worth keeping; The only people living there were the ship's doctor and Desmond, with a few of the cabins being actually empty.
Despite the ugly first impression, the insides of the ship were actually well maintained that the the inside was kept rather cool, as opposed to the boiling heat that was Delsauria, while the other functions were kept in check through regular maintenance. At the current time there was barely any activity in there, as most of the crew only 'gathered' in the lounge, which gave the people who were bunked in the cargo bay a greater deal of peace.
Sitting with his back leaned against one of the metallic cargo crates, Desmond looked at the gear that was splayed out in front of him on top of a white tarp, his battle rifle and pistol were all disassembled in front of it, and the parts looked like they had just been cleaned. The bounty hunter also had his armor on from the waist down, with only a white T-shirt on his torso; The rest of his Muur was right next to him, on top of the actual crate.
To anyone who paid attention, he looked like he was about to go. Before the bounty hunter did so, though, he got up and headed out of the cargo bay, making her way to the lounge.
=== Iron Ferret's Lounge - Dusk ===
As the door slid open and he made his way in, Desmond saw the same lounge he had been in earlier to get the payment from their last -and pretty botched up- mission. The chairs were standing on random parts of the rooms and some empty bottles were still on top of the tables; The vid-screen on there was also left on, showing only static that cast an eerie glow to the badly, lit lounge.
Amanozako lounged on one of the couches, eyes seemingly closed, her booted feet up on an armrest, fingers lanced behind her head. She opened one eye just a sliver as Desmond entered the lounge to see who had come in. Seeing it was not a hostile she needed to kill, she closed her eye again and continued with her relaxation.
As Desmond made his way into the lounge he grabbed the controller from the vid screen, shut it off and then placed the controller on top of the table as he looked around the room, the armor that covered his legs clinked as he then walked across the lounge and made his way to the galley, although he stopped for a moment to glance at the neko, almost not noticing her.
Her ears twitched as the white noise was silenced and replaced with the clinking of armor plates. "I was listening to that" she said, not opening her eyes.
"Right." Desmond said, grabbing a plastic water bottle from the galley and making his way back into the lounge. He leaned with one shoulder against the wall as he opened the bottle's seal with a click and regarded the neko.
"You people listen to your noise, I listen to mine" she shrugged and streatched very cat like.
"Right." Desmond repeated as he took a large gulp of water from the bottle, still looking at the neko. He didn't sound ironic, nor the usual cynical just acknowledging.
She opened her eyes again, sliding her feet off the armrest and onto the floor before standing up and walking over to the galley area and opening the fridge. Peering inside, Amanozako grabbed the carton of milk and poured herself a tall glass.
"So whats got you up at this hour?" she asked offhandedly.
Desmond suppressed a laugh once she saw her pour herself a glass of milk, it was funny for him how 'cats' really liked milk after all. "Something needs doing." He said, turning his head around to glare at Amanozako.
"Whats that?" she asked, glaring back, her own red eyes more menacing as she locked eyes with his.
"What's it to you?" Desmond asked, raising an eyebrow as he closed the bottle, not breaking the eye contact with neko
She shrugged. "Nothing" she replied, taking a sip of her milk, her own eyes remaining locked with his. One advantage of being an artificially created being was that she really did not need to blink like he did, so staring contests were easy.
"Guess not. You feel like making some money, though?" He asked, inevitably blinking after a while.
Amanozako shrugged. "After that last lame excuse for a gig and it's substandard pay..." she trailed off, sipping her drink again.
"I was there too. And It’s me who’s offering you the opportunity, not Kendra." Desmond said, remembering the last mission as he crumpled the plastic bottle on his fist and threw it in an empty trash can.
She walked back to her couch, settling onto it again lazily and sipping her milk. "What's the gig?" she asked
"We'll be borrowing some ammo from a gang. The same gang that came to greet us when we first landed." Desmond said casually, crossing his arms across his chest as he regarded the neko again.
Amanozako laughed. "Those fools?" she set her milk down on the armrest. "Be like taking candy from a child" she glanced at Desmond. "Just ammo, or are you wanting to clean them out for anything else while you're at it?" she asked. She had no issue with theft. She was a bounty hunter yes, but she was in no way someone moraly obligated to adhere to the laws of the land, this wasnt even her land anyways.
"It's a big warehouse..." Desmond said, letting the idea trail off, "And we might just stumble or something or someone worth the time. Besides, the more we hurt these assholes the better off we are, and from the info I've got the ammo they got there is something we could use. And who are they gonna call, the police?" He added.
Amanozako grinned. "Police wouldn't want to answer that call" she stated, the look on her face was less than pleasent.
"And we don't want the police anywhere near." Desmond added, still looking at the neko, "So you want in or not?"
Finishing her milk she stood back up. "Yeah sure, It's something to do" she replied and put the now empty glass away to be washed.
"Alright, meet me outside the ship once you're geared up." Desmond said before leaving the galley.
Amanozako left without another word, heading for her cabin. There, she pulled off the comfortable clothes she had been wearing and grabbed her black jumpsuit, pulling it on and zipping it up. She slipped her boots back on, buckled them, then grabbed her well worn NMX flack vest and got it on and situated, fastening it together solidly.
She then grabbed her pair pistols, checking each HHG, making sure it was clean and ready for use. She loaded each weapon and put it into its respective holster, before strapping on her gunbelt. Next went her combat knife, slipping it into the scabbard on her right boot. Finally she hefted her Impaler rifle. She had been required to do some minor repairs after the last mission and went ahead and did a full check of the large weapon before loading it and slinding it over her shoulder.
Extra ammunition for both the Impaler and HHG's went into their respective pockets and pouches. She finished by pulling on her long coat and black fedora. She was all set and exited her cabin, locking the door behind her and then starting off down the passage for the cargo bay and exit.
===Hangar Bay - Outside the Iron Ferret - Early night===
The Hangar was as badly lit as the ship, with only two of the projectors overhead working. Desmond was already standing there, next to the lowered loading ramp, and in his full gear. The had opted to not take the helmet for his Muur, and his arms weren't covered by any armor except a pair of elbow pads, but instead by the same grey jacket and black sweater that semeed to be his standard attire, which wasn't all uncalled for since a desert planet like Delsauria got inexorably cold during the night.
He lifted one of his hands to cover his mouth as he lit a cigarette that was plucked between his lips, slightly brushing the battle rifle that hung from its strap on his side. His pistol was also carefully holstered on the chest plate of his Muur and his powered blade sheathed behind his back horizontally.
Shutting down the lighter with a click, Desmond took a deep puff of his cigartte and looked around.
Amanozako's nose wrinkled at the stench of the cigarette. She stopped next to him and eyed her fellow mercinary. "You know that thing can be seen for miles and miles on a dark night like this" she commented. The fact was a truth that had helped her spot and take out a good many bad guy over the years.
"I know." Desmond said, looking up and blowing up the smoke from the cigarette. "We're going on foot, the place is a short walk from here." He said as he regarded Amanozako once more.
She nodded. "Let's go then" she said and indicated he lead the way.
Desmond started talking soon as they got walking, "The place we're going to is a warehouse that's supposed to be used by a shipping company, which is just a dummy company for the gang." He said, bringing his hand up to take another drag of the cigarette and watching it slowly diminish once they got out of the hangar.
"And that's one of the warehouses they have that work as a middle point between the things they smuggle in and off world. This particular one is mostly for ammo." He continued, recalling whathe had seen on the computer he and Raven had acquired during their raid on one of the gang's building.
"Right" she said, "We will want to scout the exterior before we go inside" she said as she walked along side Desmond.
"Of course." Desmond said, finishing his cigarette after a few more puffs and then casually flicking the butt aside.
==== Maharombi City Outskirts - Night ====
It wasn't a short walk, it took the duo at least an hour to reach the outskirts where the warehouse was located. The said warehouse was built across a triangular block and was surrounded by a few residential buildings to one side, neither taller than three stories, while the other side was just a wide avenue leading both out of the city and directly into the cliff face where it was originally built from with the spaceport. The last side was just an empty plot with trash strewn around it for several yards, ending up with more buildings behind it.
Both of them were approaching it from the side of the residential buildings through an alley, both of them completely shadowed between one of the buildings.
Desmond looked at the warehouse, then around him at the residential buildings, "These look like a good vantage point." He said dismissively, swinging his head around to look at Amanozako.
She nodded. "I'm going to take a look from above" she said softly, lifting off the ground, floating up to the rooftop using her built in gravity manipulation. She kept in the shadows and landed softly, keeping low to the roof she now crouched on.
Unslinging her rifle, she brought it up to her shoulder, using the scope to get a better close look at the surroundings and target building.
"Damn." Desmond said once Amanozako was up. The sight of someone levitating up and effortlessly wasn't something he was used to, so he just marked it as still one of the crazy abilities the nekos had. Sticking next to the wall, he slowly made his way to the lip of the corner to get eyes on the warehouse from the ground level.
What he was able to see right off the bat was that the side of the warehouse was -unsurprisingly- facing his way, with a small parking lot for the cargo to be delivered in and out. While the parking lot was on the ground level, the warehouse was a little bit up so that someone standing there would be at the same level as the back of a cargo truck, with a small concrete platform extending from the main body of the two story bulding that was the warehouse and into the parking lot.
Also one the same platform sat a man right beneath the light from an electric lamp, which was a really poor choise since the bright light would make it impossible for him to see anything in the darkness ahead.
As Desmond took that in from the ground level, Amanozako had a better view from her superior vantage point. She could see that not only the apartment buildings nearby were clear, but also inside the warehouse through one of the panels on the roof that were swung wide open to ventilate the building. Despite the time, the building clearly had activity inside of it, and it was possible for the neko to see with her superior eyesight different people moving to and fro through the small window in the rooftop.
Amanozako cycled through her infrared and ultraviolet visual spectrum modes, using them to attempt to see how many people were inside the warehouse. Although she was able to see four distinct thermal signatures on the right half of the warehouse, the left half was a mess of them, some were small while others were big, and due to the way the heat signatures constantly shifted and changed it was clear to see that something in there was generating and exhausting heat at regular intervals, which also made it hard to make out any distinct signatures from normal people.
The neko frowned. "Lots of activity in their" she commented over the radio. "At least four targets on the right side of the structure, many, many more on the left" she went on. "Too many for me to tell apart, Might be livestock or other animals along with people"
Desmond scratched the stubble on his cheek for a second as he took that in, "Alright. We'll watch this place for some more time to see if there's any activity, then we move in. The sentinel they put in the back will be an easy picking." He said, one finger pressed against the communicator on his ear as he kept watching the warehouse for any activity.
"Right" Amanozako replied, continuing her observation. She took note of any movement patterns outside and inside, hoping to see if there was a routine and if she could figure out how many people were inside the place.
Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, Desmond kept watching the warehouse from his point of view. The bounty hunter scratched his chin before pressing his finger against his earpiece, "So what's got you in this business?" He asked.
The Neko frowned a little. He wanted to make small talk...great. "I don't think you want to know" she replied as she followed the outside sentinel with her rifle scope.
"Why not? We're gonna be stuck here for a while." Desmond replied. He, too, watched the sentinel, noticing how the man seemed oblivious to the two watchers he had on him due to the fact the light shining on him obfuscated everything darker than the place where he was. 'Amateur,' Desmond thought idly.
Amanozako turned her attention to the figures inside, tracking them. "It's not something I talk about" she replied after a few minutes of silent observation.
Desmond was silent for another couple of minutes, just in time for the street in front of the warehouse be suddenly lit up by a headlight from a vehicle that came from somewhere else in the outskirts. The vehicle soon came into Amanozako's view, although the neko was able to hear its engine way before that, revealing that it was a cargo truck carrying a container.
The vehicle slowed down in front of the warehouse and then reversed, and as soon as it came to a stop one of the garage doors on the warehouse opened and a pair of men started to load crates into the truck, while the sentinel just stood at his spot and watched it.
Once they were done loading whatever they had into the truck, it took off as quick and effectively as it had come. Desmond waited a couple more minutes before pressing his earpiece again, "So why stay with the ship if you're not a team player?" He asked.
"Because I was there first" she replied, having taken a good look in through the garage door while it had been open. Since only a small portion of the door was visible because of how the truck was close to it, what she could see was only a concrete floor, with the areas around the path to the door having a few wooden boxes piled on top of each other.
"Just that," Desmond said idly, "So what? You could just have turned and went, the ship is not even worth half of the original price because of how bad it is." He continued.
"Why do you want to know all this?" she asked, getting a little frustrated. She took count of everyone she could see visuially and thermally. There had to be animals in the warehouse too, but just like before, it was clear to see that the same amount of signatures on the right side remained, a clear four, the other half was still a mess of mutating blots of heat. It didn't matter how much they had transported in or out, nothing had changed.
"Maybe I want to know who I'm working with. Maybe I just want to do small-talk while I watched this place." Desmond said.
"You do not want to know me" Amanozako replied flatly.
"Try me." Desmond shot back. It was not like him to back down.
Amanozako snorted. "Tell me something about yourself first" she replied.
"Like what?" Came the response.
"Like why you're here" she shrugged.
"I thought I was here to raid a warehouse." Desmond replied, smirking to himself. He pressed his earpiece again for a while, "You mean in this business?" He asked.
"Yes, with this group" she replied, exasperated.
"We met at the airliner and I stuck around." He said, pausing. Come to think of it, he didn't know why he had stuck around himself, he just did and didn't bother thinking about it. "I guess bad things stick around the longest." He added, if he was talking about himself it wasn't clear, "So how did you end up with the pirates in the first place?"
"I infiltrated the group to take the bounty on the entire lot of them and would have had you lot not shown up" she said. At least she had been the sole claim on the two leaders, who she had killed herself.
"And before that?" Desmond asked.
"You do not want to know" she repeated.
"Back at square one, then?" Desmond asked, exhaling. "Why wouldn't I?" He added.
"Doubt you would sleep well at night knowing I was on the ship" she suggested.
"Bullshit." Desmond replied.
"Whatever" Amanozako replied. She didn't really care what this round ear meat bag thought anyways.
====Maharombi City Outskirts - Night====
With nothing more being said, the two hunters resumed watching the warehouse. Just like clockwork, another truck arrived thirty minutes later, either loading or unloading cargo, and another one on the same interval. The pattern was clear enough for them to be confident that it would repeat itself again.
Desmond pressed a finger against his earpiece again, "I'm moving in. Take the rooftop." He said, and casually walked towards the warehouse.
Amanozako clicked her microphone in response and shifted her scope to the warehouse roof, switching to thermal mode to better keep track of targets in the dark of night. As she did that, she could see a lone heat signature crossing the wide street, taking cover not to stay in the view of the sentry that was posted outside the warehouse.
Further inside the warehouse, nothing much had changed, except that the four signatures were now three, while the left half of the building continued to be a mess of thermal blots.
The former NMX Neko kept watching, ready to move if needed, but for now not taking any action beyond observing.
Desmond crept the edge of the factory, going through the side instead of straight ahead. Through her scope, Amanozako would see him press himself against the side wall, then climb onto the platform and grab the sentry in a neck lock, the other man shuddered and kept squirming against the lock until he fell limp.
The other bounty hunter waited a few seconds until he finally let go of the man, throwing him from over the platform and onto the ground below.
"Entrance's clear," He said through the earpiece, looking at his wristwatch, "We have about twenty something minutes until the next truck comes back." He added.
"Right" she replied and checked to see if anyone was near the entrance on the inside. "Checking the interior". As she looked, there was no reaction from inside concerning what had just transpired outside, while Desmond just pressed himself against the wall, holding his battle rifle and facing the access door.
Amanozako continued her overwatch, read to take out any hostiles that moved on Desmond. She was not sure how she had drawn overwatch, she was an infantry woman an trained by the military to do what Desmond as now doing.
Desmond stacked up against the door, giving a short glance towards the building Amano was doing her overwatch. "You're not taking the rooftop?" He asked her, one finger pressed against his earpiece.
"Just waiting for the opportune moment" the former soldier replied, taking one last sweep of the interior with her thermal optics, then launching herself silently into the night air. She crossed the gap effortlessly, landing on the warehouse roof gently without a sound, aided by her gravity manipulation. She set down well clear of the rooftop windows, then glided to an open one, her feet just a few inches off the roof so no one inside would hear footsteps.
Once at the window, she checked with thermals again, then peered down, just around the window frame. Since she was closer, it was easier to discern what was happening inside, and from the angle that she was in it was also possible to see that there wasn't just four people in there, but at least three more on the left side, which were standing or working in what then appeared to be some sort of heavy machinery.
Upon seeing the neko make her approach, Desmond waited a couple moments before he reached with a hand for the access door's knob, getting ready to move in. "Alright, in three, two, one, now!" He said, then forced the door open.
"Damnit" she growled. He couldnt wait for her to collect more intelligence. Amanozako swung herself around the window frame, floating just inside, took aim at the first bad guy with her Impaler rife ad squeezed the trigger. As the three round burst lanced across the space between herself and the first target's head she was already retraining her rifle on the next, squeezing off three more shots, then again for a third.
Since the door opened first, the attention of the group inside was focused there, and when the neko came from the rooftop it took them entirely by surprise, since that was the last place they expected anyone to come from.
Before Amanozako started shooting, she then had eyes inside the warehouse for the first time. After much mystery and guesses, the source for the intermitting heat signatures proved to be coming from several machines as well as welding stations. Five men, in addition to the four on the right side, worked either producing all different sorts and calibers of ammunition or even producing or modifying weapon parts. Not surprisingly, the right half of the rectangular building was used to store the ammo and goods that were produced, with several boxes stacked on top of each other forming effective aisles on that half.
The neko's first salvo caught the first man square in the chest, making him jerk and crumple where he stood like a marionette that had its strings suddenly cut. As the neko switched her aim for the next target, the people inside the warehouse hadn't even begun to react against her.
Her second salvo, while not being lethal, disabled her second target when the pencil-thin beams from her Impaler went cleanly through his right arm and shoulder, with the rest impacting against the wall behind him. By then, the men inside the warehouse, being all Nepleslians, had already drawn their weapons, while the distinct report of a battle rifle rang out twice, dropping the third man on the right side; That all happened in less than five seconds.
That was when the people inside starte to return fire, with the place being an ammo depo it wasn't hard for them to have a weapon at arms reach anywhere, and the first target was obviously the neko floating and very clear to see.
It was about time to move anyways, the neko thought and gave th area as a whole a good hozing down with particle fire as she moved, encouraging the bad guys to seek cover if they were smart. Amanozako rocketed to a spot with good cover, landing behind a stack of crates and storage containers. She then moved, ducking low ad speeding across to another cover spot, working her wa round to get another good vantage point. All the while she kept an eye on the lcation of the remaning bad guys, switching optical modes as needed.
Not wanting to leave Desmond a target too long, she edged out at another suitable spot, aimed on a bad guy wo had obviously been aming up to shoot at her and sent a three round burst at him. While her suppressing fire had been successful, sending the other half of the warehouse scambling for cover, the last remaining bandit on the right side had a clear shot at her, and while most of his shots missed because the neko simply moved too fast, she felt two hit her on the back. Gladly for her, though, she was wearing her flak vest, so the bullets only felt like punches to her ribs.
Adding to that, her suppressing fire also didn't come without other consequences, and as soon as one of the beams impacted a crate that one of the gangers was hiding behind it instantly set it off, cooking the ammo inside. This made it impossible for the neko to discern anything with her thermal vision.
"I got the straggler, focus on the rest!" Came the reply from the other bounty hunter. By then, Desmond was also firing against the last guy on the right side. He was also more careful, taking good aim to not hit any of the ammo stored there.
"Yeah yeah" she replied as casually as someone who had just been asked to take out the trash. Amanozako jetted around, moving for a flanking position, using her gravity manipulation to float inches off the ground rather than run. As she did she came upon one of the ones shooting at Desmond and aimed at him from fairly close range, giving him three shots aimed or center of mass, the swinging her assault rifle around to another target. Since the other man was focused on not shooting Amano, her shot also took him by surprise, but as soon as he fell the fire from the last remaining gangers switched back to her, peppering her surround area with gunfire.
By then, Desmond had hastily hunched on the ground as shots started to come through the crate he was using as cover and buzzing inches from his face. He had succeeded in keeping the last bad guy pinned until one of his shots went through the crate and hit the guy, but the hunter kept firing until he saw the blood slowly pool from behind the crate.
Amanozako ducked back behind cover, letting the bad guys piss away their ammo on crates and boxes. She took the opportunity to relocate again and attack from a new angle. There were four or five left to take care of. She popped up above a crate, aimed and fired, then dropped back behind cover.
Because of her ability to float, the neko was able to strike from places that were the most unexpected, always catching the bad guys by surprise. While her next salvo took out yet another bad guy, it wasn't because the particle beams had struck him, but because they struck one of the ammo assembly machines he was hiding behind, blowing it up in a small show of fireworks and killing the man with the ensuing shrapnel.
As the last four remaining gangers took cover against the neko, Desmond struck again from his side, nailing another one.
"Three to go" she reckoned and zipped around to change direction again. She checked the power level on her rifle, found a new spot she liked and took aim. She did like how these machines blew apart... and there was no reason to leave them for the bad guys to keep using and these mooks were covering behind them... so she intentionaly aimed for one this time, sending four pulses into it before getting back under cover once more.
It was only when there were three bandits left that they finally decided to stop focusing on a single person. As Amanozako fired again, the bandits turned to take cover from her, leaving their sides exposed to Desmond again. While her salvo had completely trashed the other machine, leaving several holes from where a molten slag slowly poured out, the machine hadn't for one reason or another blown up as catastrophically as the last one, but instead it slowly started to catch fire. What it did, however, was scare the ganger hiding behind it enough to make him bolt out of his cover, only to be picked off by the other hunter's battle rifle.
That left only two remainin bad guys, one a heavily augmented Nepleslian, who was wielding a submachinegun, and another one with a shotgun. Both of them wore the same gang uniform, with the metallic badge proudly attacked to their leather jacket sleeves, respectively fighting Amanozako and Desmond.
"Don't you think its time to give up?" The neko called out. "Sad little Nepleslian hiding behind his little toy gun" she taunted.
"Screw you, bitch! You have no idea who you're messing with!" Came the reply from the augmented Nepleslian, who just raised his submachinegun and let out a burst from where the taunt came from.
Amanozako laughed. It wasnt a nice laugh. "And you think you know what you are dealing with?" She replied and giggled in a creepy fashion. She accesed her volumetric system, projecting an image around herself of a large Mishhu, something she was very familiar with. She slung her rifle over her shoulder and drew he knife. "Why don’t you come out and play?" She asked, her voice sickly sweet as she let her volumetric projection cast a bulky tentacled shadow on the walls for her prey to see. As if on a cue, both of the gangers turned to fire at the new horrific apparition, only to see that their bullets didn't do any good against it, and either by fear or lack of attention, they didn't realize that their shots were impacting on the walls right behind it.
She laughed again. "Pathetic!" She hissed to tem. "Take yours out while I have them distracted" she whispered into her mic to Desmond, but unbeknownst to her, Desmond was already on the move.
The other bounty hunter had moved at a crouch, zig-zaging through the various crates until he had a better position, and by then he could see that the other unaugmented ganger was clearly panicked by the holographic display; The man's eyes were wide open and he constantly fumbled as he tried to reload his shotgun, letting the shells drop several times as he missed putting them in properly.
Once he saw that he was on the sights of Desmond's rifle, he dropped his shotgun and raised his hands.
Amanozako kicked the crate she was using for cover hard, using her superior engineered neko strength to send it flying at the augmented goon. Not to hit him, it would tumble short, but it would be more than enough to distract him and make him jump to avoid the large metal and wood container.
That’s when she moved, vaulting at him, a massive Mishhu apparition, tentacles reaching out for the Nepleslian, toothy maw gaping wide as she crossed the distance in a second. She bull rushed the man and just before she impacted with him, she let the illusion drop, the mishhu vanishing in an electronic flicker just in time for her black clad figure to slam into him, driving her combat knife into his chest, aimed for the gap in the ribs over his heart.
Despite the man still being recovering himself from the thrown crate, and didn't have enough wits to react against Amano once the holographic misshu disappeared. The neko's knife went straight to the man's chest, but instead of going to his heard and ending him, the blade hit something solid beneath his jacket and broke, sending the man to the ground from the force of the impact.
She landed on top of him, driving her knees into his gut and the air out of his lungs. She snarled and wrenched his weapon away from him, tossing it aside, then bringing the jagged remains of her knife down, went for his much softer throat, but he managed to gab her wrists before it plunged it.
"Now you understand who you're dealing with?!" She demanded as the blade came swinging down, and although the man was still putting up resistance, the neko's strength was still superior, and the knife slowly started to go down. The Nepleslian gritted his teeth and pushed harder, but to no avail, and he was choking on his own blood in no time.
Even broken the blade would do the damage intended and make a gory mess. Once she was sure he was done Amanozako picked up the snapped off blade and stood, looking at the last goon, her blood soaked hands hanging at her side.
"What about that one?" She indicated him, breathing hard.
Desmond, in the meanwhile, was standing next to the last remaining 'bad guy', who was kneeling next to the bounty hunter with his hands behind his head. "You sure took your time." He stated as he regarded the neko, then turned to face the last remaining guy. "This one? Dropped his gun or something." He added, motioning with his rifle pointed at the man.
She grinned, keeling back down and wiping her hands clean on her victim's shirt. "A lot smarter than his friend here" she commented, then searched the corpse for anything interesting. The corpse also had the usual gang badge, although this one had a steel finishing to it, signaling that he was someone of at least some importance. Among other posessions were the man's wallet, with a few DA bills, a pack of cigaretters and a lighter.
"Yep." Desmond replied, still holding the last goon at gunpoint. The warehouse seemed secure by then, and somewhat safe once the ammo crate they had shot stopped cooking off and the machine that had caught fire seemed to stop wanting to do that.
The bounty hunter looked around to regard the crates before looking at his wristwatch. "We got eighteen minutes before the next truck arrives." He said.
"Alright" she said, pocketing the DA bills, then letting her eyes sweep around the space. "We're gonna need a truck to get what we need back" she commented and walked over to Desmond and his prisoner. "You got a truck around here?" she asked the last remaining goon.
The goon in question was still kneeling on the ground and shivering, when the neko approached him it only worsened his condition, "N-no we just store things here, I swear. They come in every thirty minutes!" He exclaimed, half-pleading with the two hunters.
"And why should we keep you alive when your gang has an entire bounty on it?" Desmond asked, jabbing the still hot barrel of his rifle against the man's head, who decided to just stay quiet after that. The bounty-hunter then turned to face the neko, which allowed to see that he had a small gash on his neck from where a bullet had hit, while the chest plate of hi Muur also sported two new hit marks, "We wait for the next truck and then jack it." He stated.
Amanozako grabbed the goon by the collar with one blood soaked hand and lifted him into the air, bearing her canines at him. "How many people are on those trucks? Are they going to need any kind of password response?" she demanded, tightening her grip on his collar.
The ganger clutched against Amanozako's wrist as he slowly left the floor, "No we're not that good, man! Come on!" He pleaded again, almost at the verge of tears. Desmond in the meanwhile, just looked around the warehouse, occasionally kicking one of the downed bodies.
"Tell me what I want to know" the NMX Neko hissed, shaking the man. "Tell me now!"
"There's no password! This isn't some IPG movie shit I swear, man!" He yelled back at her.
"How many will be on the truck?!" she demanded next.
"It's just the driver and two dudes in the back every time, it never changes, I swear!." He answered back, wide-eyed and with his feet still off the floor.
Amanozako walked the man over to one of the support pillars that held up the warehouse roof and slammed the goon against it, enough to crack his head against it and knock him out, then dropped his limp form to the ground. Satisfied he was out she grabbed cable or rope or the best she could find like it and tied him to the pillar securely. Ripping a strip of cloth from his shirt, she gagged the goon and double checked everything was tied up good.
"Okay" she said. "Three mooks in the truck, a driver and two others. Easy" she commented and started gathering up all the goon's weapons that were scattered around the floor. She also looked to see if any of them or anything in the crates were worth adding to her personal aresnal. The crates were mostly a mix of different ammo calibers, while only a few contained the usual guns that the gang seemed to be sporting most of the time: pistols, SMGs and shotguns,which looked like as if they were simply assembled there, if the machines in the warehouse were any clue. While the weapons were only assembled, so was the ammo, although there was no clue where either came from; It only appeared to her that the warehouse was a middle-point in the gang's weapon distribution.
"Cool." Desmond said, pulling out his Datajockey to take pictures of the goons they killed. The chances were that there would be a bounty on most of them, although he was certain there was one on the leader. Once his little trip through the warehouse was done, he took one final picture of the only ganger who was left alive, before turning to Amanozako, "You know we'll torch this place once we're through, right?" He asked.
She nodded. "Yeah, I just dont want him waking up and making noise when that truck comes by" Amanozako replied.
"Alright. How do you want to take on these last three?" He asked, putting the datajockey away.
"Ambush them" she said. "We need to make sure we take them out fast. One of us take out the driver, the other the two in back as soon as the vehicle stops"
"Right." Desmond said and moved out of the warehouse. Although he had the same in mind, he had asked anyway. Intent on making the place look as business as usual as the last stops the truck did, he removed the body from the sentinel he had knocked out and dragged the man inside, secuting him against a steel beam with a ziptie cuff; He had ten minutes before the next truck showed up.
Once that was done, he took cover on the corner of the warehouse, so that its wall was between him and the direction from which the vehicle had previously come from. From what he could gather, the gang was so used on being the top dog in their business that they had chosen to overlook some very vital precautions, like making routes random or having a better perimeter security, which suited him just fine. Crouching against the wall, Desmond waited.
====Maharombi City Outskirts - Night, ten minutes later====
Desmond stood next to the parked truck, the driver's door was open and the man who had been in charge of that was lying next to it, with a family-size cut on his chest. The bounty hunter waited until the power field on his blade did the job of sizzling the blood off it before he turned it off and sheathed it.
With a grunt, he started dragging the body into the warehouse.
Amanozako was doing much the same at the back of the truck. She had opted not to use her guns outside, it would have been too loud. She wiped her broken knife clean before putting it away and grabbed the pair of corpses and dragged them out into the warehouse. One had been stabbed in the throat, the other's head was twisted around much farther than the human head was capable.
She deposited them next to the one Desmond had brought in, then busied herself picking up boxes and crates and loading them into the back of the truck about the same time as Desmond did.
The bounty hunter carried one crate at a time, and as the time passed the crates slowly started piling into the truck. Although the amount of munitions that they had 'procured' was sizeable for their group, and would sure come in handy since a good portion of it was specialized ammo, such as AP rounds, it only did a small dent in the warehouse's stock.
Desmond lifted the last crate with a grunt on top one of the piles that had formed inside the cargo container of the truck. He let the wooden crate go and wiped the sweat from his forehead and face, which had formed despite the cold of the Delsaurian night. The bounty hunter reached for one of his pockets and plucked a cigarette from it before he walked back to the warehouse, "Truck's loaded up, time to torch the place." He said.
'Right, so leaving that mook in here to burn with it?" she indicated the knocked out goon tied to the pillar.
Desmond shrugged, lighting the cigarette before turning to face the neko again. The lighter closed with a click as he stashed it away, "He's your responsibility." He said to her, fishing a red gallon from one corner of the warehouse before he started dousing some of the crates with the yellow liquid that poured out from it.
"Why's he my responsibility?" she asked as she walked over to the goon.
"Because he sure as hell ain't mine." Desmond said, tossing the gallon away after he had made a trail of the liquid leading towards one of the exits.
"You captured him" Amanozako replied and nudged at him with the toe of her boot.
"But you roughed him up, and I'm not carrying him out of there after all those crates." Desmond said back.
"Fine" she said, pulled out one of her pistols aimed it at the goon's head and pulled the trigger. "Not a problem anymore" she added as the sound of the single gunshot dissipated. She returned her weapon to it's holster, shouldered her rifle again and made sure nothing was left behind and walked to the truck.
Desmond stared at the dead ganger for a few more moments before turning around and flicking his cigarette away, making it land on the trail of fuel he had made. The bounty hunter made his way to the truck's driver seat after he closed the doors of the container and sealed it.
He turned the key next to the steering wheel, starting the vehicle and then took off away from the warehouse in a hurry, just as the fires started to grow and the ammo that was stored there started to cook off.
==== Iron Ferret's Cargo Bay - Dawn ====
If Loading the crates was a hard task, unloading them and sorting them out was harder, longer and more boring. By the time Desmond had finished doing that the planet's night cycle was almost over, but the crates were separated by their contents, and he had taken stock of the entirety of the new inventory, which would be very vital to their next mission.
The bounty hunter regrettably fished the last cigarette from his pack as he stared at the newest acquisition. He again had his armor stripped from the waist up, as well as the jacket and sweater. His gaze turned towards the truck once the cigarette was lit, the faint orange glow from it very clear in the penumbra of the hangar, "So have you ever set fire to one of these?" He asked Amanozako, motioning towards the truck.
"It's not that hard" she replied. She had removed her coat, armor and guns before helping unload the truck as well and the front of her black jumpsuit was partially unzipped help let cool air in. "Find a spot to dump it, then we can burn it" she said.
"I know that. I just asked if you wanted to see it." Desmond answered, staring at her.
She shrugged. There was not much else to do now that the hard work for the night was done. "Sure" she said, grabbing her gun belts and strapping them back on.
Desmond jumped off the crate he had been sitting on and walked towards the truck.
====Maharombi City - Abandoned plot - Dawn====
They were standing on a wide abandoned plot a short walk from where the Iron Ferret was docked, the place was littered with all manner of small debris, from furniture to vehicle parts. The sun was still slowly rising behind them, giving an orange tone to the sky as the rays slowly and surely cast themselves against that side of the planet.
Desmond was standing besides the truck, crouched down near one of its fuel tanks. The bounty hunter opened the tank and shoved a piece of cloth in it, leaving only a bit hanging out before he took his lighter from one his pockets. He pressed the lighter close to the cloth, but then paused for a moment, before turning his head towards the neko.
"You do the honors." He said, extending the lighter on her direction.
Amanozako took the lighter, flipping it open and flicking the wheel, igniting it. She walked close to the truck and lit the rag before flipping the lighter closed and stepping back far enough to be safe.
Desmond crossed his arms, watching as the flame slowly burned away through the cloth until it disappeared inside the truck's fuel tank, only to come out in a much higher intensity once it reached the fuel. The fire slowly rose and spread on the vehicle's flame, first under it, and then slowly reached up; The truck's tires popped due to the fire, and then slowly melted away, making the truck 'sink' against the ground. A few seconds later the fire completely enveloped the vehicle in a very bright pyre, which was both seen and felt by the two bounty hunters as the heat projected against them by convection.
Desmond reached for another cigarette, only to realize that the last one had been long gone, and he neither had a lighter anymore. Sighing, the bounty hunter let his arms hang by his side and just watched the fire.
Amanozako stretched her arms out, palms towards the fire, feeling the heat from the flames, letting the warmth roll over her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation, letting it relax her.
It took the truck a couple minutes to finally burn through all of the fuel it had left in its tanks, but by the time it was over the truck was nothing but a blackened out husk, as well as its immediate vicinity, and the sun was already visible on the sky.
"Well that's it then." Desmond said, still staring at what was once a truck. "I'll check to see if there was a bounty on any of these guys... And keep it all to myself." He said, smirking.
"Only if you want to end up with a bullet in your own head" Amanozako commented, slowly opening her eyes and glancing at Desmond. If she was joking or not was hard to tell with the deadpan expression on her face.
"Relax, I wasn't serious." Desmond said, raising a gloved hand in apology. "It's pretty easy to know which guys you took out because you have an energy weapon." He added, pausing for a second, "But yeah, thanks for the help. Not that I couldn't do it myself." He concluded.
Amanozako nodded, which was about the best he was going to get in reply to this thanks, then turned away from the burnt out truck, starting off back the way they had come.
Desmond, in the other hand, waited a little bit longer, still staring at the wreck. With that task done, there were still other preparations to be done before the little showdown they would have with the gang. The bounty hunter sighed and also made his way back to the hangar.
==== Iron Ferret's Lounge - Morning ====
Back on the ship Amanozako gathered up her things and returned them to her cabin, setting everything back where it belonged. She grabbed some clean clothes and went to shower. Her hands were still caked in dried blood and her jumpsuit badly needed to be washed. Once she was cleaned up and refreshed, the neko deposited her jumpsuit into the ships laundry system and went back to the lounge, clad just in a tank-top and underwear.
Amanozako fixed herself a tall glass of milk and settled back down on the couch where Desmond had found her hours earlier. Just as she settled down on the couch, the door to the main hallway slid open with a hiss, and the bounty hunter stepped inside. He also had a fresh set of clothes, and made his way to the pantry.
"Don't you have your own room?" He asked the neko as he walked between her and the vidscreen on the lounge.
"I like this couch" Amanozako replied, sipping her drink. She stretched out, laying her legs over the far armrest.
"Right." Desmond said, emerging from the pantry with a beer bottle. The bounty hunter sat on one of the chairs next to the lounge's table before popping the cap off the bottle. He examined the neko once again, not even touching the bottle any further, "So what's your story?" He asked again.
"Why do you want to know so much?" the neko asked, eying the Nepleslian lazily over the edge of her glass.
"Is that a problem?" Desmond retorted.
"I could be" she responded, her eyes drifting closed again.
"To be honest, I didn't really think you were gonna shoot that guy back in the warehouse." Desmond said, changing the subject.
"It was the simplest way to deal with him" she replied and took a long sip of her drink. "If you wanted to deal with him differently you should have. I have no time to deal with prisoners"
"What I don't get is, if you don't really care that much why do you still stick around with this ship?" Desmond asked, leaning back on the chair. "And I don't buy that shit about you being here first, this thing really isn't worth shit, and barely got us here."
"What’s it matter to you?" she finished her drink and got to her feet, walking to the kitchen to deposit her glass.
"Because I'm also on this ship" Desmond said when she got back.
"I don't have to explain my reasons to you" she said and slid back onto the couch. Amanozako put her feet back up and laced her fingers behind her head. Her red eyes visible under half closed eyelids, watching him.
"You don't have to. But do you think anyone on the crew will trust you ?" he asked back. fingers interlacing as he leaned closer to the table and supported his head on his hands.
Amanozako laughed. "You think I trust any of you lot?" she replied.
Desmond grinned at that, "Good point." He said, getting up and grabbing the glass bottle as he did so, "I'll be going then, this isn't going anywhere." He added as he made his way out of the lounge.
"Suit yourself" the neko waved a hand dismissively at him as he walked out. She grabbed the remote off the table and clicked the TV screen on, back to the white noise of a channel with no signal.
==== Aftermath ====
Despite the ‘spoils’ being worth a considerable sum of money, none of it was actually sold, yet. But despite that liquid profit that either bounty hunters had made was more than reasonable. For Amanozako, there was a solid 2000 DA bounty on the lieutenant that the neko had killed, as well as a bonus of 500 for the other mooks that she had killed. For Desmond, the pay was less considerable, but still fair, since the bounty hunter had taken out less: A mere 1200 DA.
With the ammo seized, stocked and tagged, the crew of the Iron Ferret had acquired yet another advantage against the gang that had antagonized them as soon as they had landed on the planet. Despite the few generic weapons, it included a considerable amount of Zen .45s and Styrling Ripshots, as well as a few M3 Assault Rifles, which had actually been either stolen or bought on the black market. The ammo seized contained the regular ball ammo, but also a big amount of several other kinds, such as incendiary , Armor Piercing to name a few; There were even a couple of exotic loads for shotgun shells, such as Dragon’s Breath.
That aside, a slow but sure paranoia grew inside the gang once they realized that they weren’t on the top of the food chain anymore. Although none of it was mentioned on the public media, the more ‘informal’ ways of communication as well as the contacts that the Iron Ferret had soon noticed the tighter security and excessive security measures. What was worse – for them – was the total lack of clues as to who were the perpetrators of such attacks; What had first started as an allegedly inter-gang warfare since the raid on one of the Gang’s bases was soon discarded once their ammo warehouse/workshop was destroyed. Since Desmond and Amanozako had been thorough and relentless in burning all evidence and leaving no survivors, there were no implications as to who had actually done them.
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