CHAPTER X16: BLOODIED NOSE A flaming shuttle wreaked havoc amongst the buildings. The shielding sputtered out before the shuttle erupted against the windows. Again and again, Eliza felt more vibrations echo through the floors…

There's more than one?!

Eliza was knocked off her feet, thrown to the ground. She felt heat and shrapnel shoot around her as someone dragged at her.

She opened her eyes slightly, as the Judiciary's Floating HQ slowly stabilised.

Kazuki stood above her, his shield active as he blocked away the debris. Archius was hiding as well, scurrying beneath Kazuki's protective shield. "Fuck. You two good?"

Archius nodded, coughing up some of the dust he had inhaled. Looking around the room, Eliza could see that everyone was scrambling to their feet, as the Maroon guards gestured for everyone to evacuate…

"I think you should be more concerned for yourself!" Eliza shouted, pointing at some injuries Kaz just sustained.

"I'll live," he remarked, pulling Eliza and Archius up. Everyone clambered up, grabbing onto anything that they could.

"The hell?!" Lorenza shouted, scurrying to the door, with Maroon Guards protecting her retreat. "The hell was that?!"

"Blood Contractors," Paulus shouted, as Eliza saw the mirage of another burning shuttle – careening straight towards the half-broken mosaic!

The HQ's security systems shuddered to life, with flak and lasers protruding out. A blanket of munitions tried to catch the shuttle – but to no avail!

Martinez bellowed, "Get the hell away from the window!"

Those words turned the whole room into a tidal wave of self-preservation, as everyone scrambled to the door. Eliza was picked up by Sato and Archius, who helped her jump over the broken shards and furniture.

Eliza searched across the room, her head darting from Kazuki to the others… Dad…?

He was at the front, along with Hamzarhi and Kelina!

Lorenza was hiding in the centre of the group, beside Eliza. Martinez tapped Eliza on the shoulder. "Don't worry, alright? We're one hell of a meat grinder right now." Gunfire raged back in the meeting room as Paulus, Kazuki, and Bernside held the rearguard. "Dammit…"

Soon, gunfire was engulfing the entire HQ.

Bernside gloated, "Have me at them!" Then, one of the Maroon guards grabbed him and threw him backwards, the guards maintaining their protection over the governor of the Anagoran military district.

"You don't even have your armour on, Bernside!" Delia remarked, hiding away at the front, as Eliza's dad, Kelina and the CRIS director took the lead.

Even in the chaos swirling around Eliza and in her mind, both her dad and the Director didn't look out of place, with their bureaucratic uniforms and ceremonial drabs.

However, just like everyone else, all she did was run.

Archius commented, "Liz, don't tell me you got hit by shrapnel."

Eliza frantically shook her head. "No! Kaz... Yeah..."

Archius nodded, with a look that understood what she meant.

They stopped by an intersection within the long and twisting headquarters, with gunfire just down the hallway. Kelina and Hamzarhi peered forward.

"We're trapped..." Hamzarhi murmured back to the rest. Kelina shook her head.

"No. They're trapped with us!" she rebuked his statement with confidence, patting Hamzarhi on the back. "Come on, let's make some noise! Y'all civvies can uh..."

Frederick took charge, and Eliza saw a spark of authority and respect beneath all the spite. "Hamzarhi, Kelina, you two will draw them away, we'll get to the Shuttle Bays, got that?"

Bullets flung towards them from one of the hallways. Dad took cover, dragging Delia backwards with him before returning fire. Eliza huddled at the back… flinching at each gunshot ringing through the air.

Hamzarhi sighed, but nodded. "A logical approach, Commissioner." He stood out for a moment, throwing a grenade down the hall. Eliza could hear and see its blinking lights, before a splutter of gas vacated outwards…

For a moment, everything was silent – then flames! Screaming ensued, as Eliza held her hands to her head… They were burning, alive, Eliza thought!

No, Eliza thought… No, she had to get herself together! Eliza could hear the crisp crackle of the burns across the hallway. Kelina chuckled, charged forward. Hamzarhi sighed, unfurling his cloak and revealing his nano-bot pistol. Then, he followed the lead ENFORCER.

"Hey, get up," Archius quietly snarled, grabbing Eliza by the shoulders and throwing her up against the wall, behind the eyes of Delia, Dad, Bernside and the others. "Get your head together, or you won't have by the end of this!"

Eliza nodded, being exposed to the full ferocious façade-less Archius. "I know," she muttered back.

Kazuki and Paulus turned the corner behind them, giving hand signals forward to them.

Bernside gave a few signals back. "We have to move," he said. "Young and Old Chaps are under fire from behind, and they aren't going to let up!" More bolts rang from behind, and Eliza had her eyes glued on Kazuki before he fled backwards with Paulus, covering their rear. Tracers and flashes shot through Eliza's heart as she peeled her eyes off and kept moving with the rest of the group.

"Dammit, dammit!" Lorenza shrieked. "Damn this all, did someone leak!? I will have their head for this!"

Delia remarked back, "Later, Lorenza, we are in a very bad situation to be heading right now!" The Máwti politician was being dragged forward alongside Lorenza; the two members of the senate were being guarded heavily.

Bernside was given more free room, helping Frederick, Martinez and Sato.

Another fusillade of bolts hammered forward, as Archius tackled Eliza into cover. The halls were covered in blood, and Eliza looked beside her, seeing the corpse of a random policewoman…

Martinez and Sato rushed forward. "Dammit, we'll hold off this batch and lure them away!" Martinez bellowed back to them before ducking into an indent in the wall. Throwing shelves forward to make a makeshift barricade, the two withstood the chatter of gunfire.

"Are you sure?!" Frederick shouted back, flinching as bolts hammered in around him.

Martinez nodded. "Look after your damn daughter, Fred! We'll push them back from here!"

Frederick grunted in annoyance, giving a rough glare at Eliza. Eliza felt ashamed by being here… and she cowered at the rear. Delia gave a comforting smile, however.

"Don't worry, your dad is just rough on the edges," Delia remarked quietly.

Kazuki and Paulus ran up from behind, throwing smoke grenades down behind them as bolts and plasma flew past them. "Move. Double time! Don't walk. Run."

"I'll move at a fast pace as I please, Contract-Breaker!" Lorenza shouted. Frederick sighed, turning back to Kazuki, then to Lorenza.

"He's right!" Frederick bit off with spite. "Unless you want to die, we have to move faster."

The group quickly pedalled forward, leaving Sato and Martinez to lure away a squadron of Blood Contractors.

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Through conference halls, training rooms, seminar rooms with glass windows and more... It truly was a maze... Eliza kept her head on a spin.

Eliza flinched and nearly dropped to the ground as Kazuki rushed ahead, a bolt slamming straight through the air before Kazuki shielded the rest.

"Eek!" Eliza shrieked as she ran to cover. Oh no… Oh no… Eliza was reminded of how Quinn and Claire had to protect her back at the train station… And now, here, in the blood-soaked walls of an ongoing massacre…

"Sir! We can try and hold them off!" Paulus shouted back, rushing ahead to help Kazuki.

Frederick snarled back, "Don't you die on me, Captain! The Imps haven't taken you, so you ain't getting taken by them either!"

Archius slowly picked Eliza up. "Don't you dare daydream," Archius stated. "What's gotten into you?"

"These people… we're…" Eliza was completely frozen. Then, Eliza paused. She's seen so much blood in the past half a year. A thought Eliza never wanted to conceive came to her: it's just another fight. Just another set of bodybags… With that, Eliza slowly calmed down, and the cynical and ice-cold side of her took control of the beating crimson heart for but a moment. "This is going to get me killed," Lorenza complained, only caring for herself as she cowered behind the shield and armour of the Maroon Guards.

Paulus reeled around. "Commissioner, we've got word, we're under attack everywhere. They're hitting the communication array! Should I go?"

Frederick nodded instantly, even as Lorenza complained. With that, Paulus ran off, bolting through a small break room as Kazuki covered Paulus' advance.

Delia sighed, watching everything play out and turning to Eliza, shaking her head. "Tch... was this a trap...?" she muttered.

Kazuki tapped on his uplink. 'Send in the cavalry, ' he ordered.

Frederick gave a snide glance at Kazuki. 'Police and SPTU units, all report back to the HQ, we're under attack...' he said, not wanting to be outdone by Kazuki. 'Paulus, status report...' A few seconds passed. 'Understood.'

"Enlighten us, Commissioner!" shrieked Lorenza.

The Commissioner scoffed. "It's not just us that's under attack… The whole Sub-District is under fire!"

Those words shook Eliza to her core… "What?" she murmured.

An oozing silence overcame the group as they passed through a large server storage hub in the HQ.

"Shit… Eliza, okay, you can panic now," Archius admitted, chuckling. He took a moment to look at his ICAPAD; hacked cameras backed up whatever Fredrick said.

The Blood Contractors were on the surface! Police were already on the scene… but the Blood Contract Cultists had better weapons, better training as well.

A few officers ran up to them, one of them had a support brace on their leg, and a familiar face. "Riley?!" Eliza erupted, feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline and relief.

Riley! That officer Eliza saved months ago! Riley's face grew with a smile. "Hey! Didn't expect you..." Her gaze turned to the rest of the super-serious people in the room. "Commissioner... Arbiter... We've been under fire for a while, they're crawling everywhere!"

"Thank Iris you're alive…" Eliza muttered to her.

Riley smirked. "Can't die with an empty stomach and no can o' beer in my hand, right?" she said before chuckling.

Another officer chimed in, "They got Supervisor Simmeo! Lobbed his head off... What do we do?!"

Frederick cleared his throat. "Follow us, we're carving a path to the shuttle bays to secure a landing site for SPTU reinforcements and for evacuation, best thing we can do."

Continuing forth, the small section made it to a server room.

Archius scoffed quietly to Eliza. "The Analyspec's more efficient than this mess."

"I'd like to have a look at that, one day," Eliza replied gleefully. "A supercomputer on that scale... Must be amazing..."

Archius rolled his eyes. "You don't want to…" he trailed off with a sense of doom, straightening Eliza up.

"It's quiet," Kazuki remarked, leading the team. Frederick closed the door behind them as they fanned out through the room. Columns, rows and pillars of shelves stacked up on top of each other filled the server archive room. Drones were attached to the walls, offline, but even here it felt… too strange, too quiet.

"From experience... or intuition?" Delia inquired, peering up and around, but sticking close to her Maroon Guard. Kazuki turned back to Eliza and the rest, holding his fist up to call for silence. Nothing was spoken as he slowly turned, blinking. Then, Eliza saw Kazuki's ear flicker.

The Arbiter twisted and fired upwards at the second floor in the archive room. A body fell to the ground, over the railings of the server floors above... An invisibility field shuttered off - as soon as plasma spewed down at them.

Everyone was thrown into disarray. A headache wreathed Eliza as Archius rammed her into cover. A few officers fell, whilst a Maroon Guard was shredded protecting a cowering Lorenza, only for her to flee behind another pillar. Eliza's eyes scanned the room briefly… Kazuki was safe! But… Riley… The police officer, Eliza, who was saved months ago… was dead. Her head was cracked open by a bolt and splattered on the floor.

For a brief moment, Eliza felt like… crying… Weeping for the loss of someone she herself had saved. Yet… Eliza didn't. Many people die, she thought, it was something she had learnt through blood alone.

Why was this any different?

Eliza dragged her eyes upwards.

Frederick was with the Consul, shouting furiously into his uplink. 'You fucking fools! Where are our reinforcements!?'

The veracity and tenacity in his voice shook Eliza, that feeling of shame coming back.

During Eliza's thinking, Frederick shouted, "What's the plan?! We aren't going to shoot our way out of here, right!?"

Kazuki returned, "Any better idea?!"

Explosive rounds riddled the console and the floor, turning up small bits of marble with each detonation. Bernside raised his hand, before tugging at his collar and the golden medals adorning his uniform...

"Freddie Boy! This is a console that controls this room, right?" Bernside shouted across the room.

"Do not call me that!" Frederick rebuked. Archius chuckled, slinking his way over to Eliza from across the room, firing up and above to cover himself. "But yeah!" Stray bolts slammed into the trench coats of the AGENTS, black soot and scorches along the navy blue fabrics.

At the sight, Eliza tugged her own uniform's coat tightly, praying that it would protect her.

"Seems like a lot of people knew your father," Archius commented.

"Yeah..." she trailed off with an awkward nod.

Archius leaned against the server before planting something onto one of the server ports, all the while whistling.

"What are you doing?" Eliza inquired, hoping that it'd save them as she looked with anticipation.

"It's not every day that I get to plant spyware directly into government buildings, you know!" he remarked with a gleeful face.

Despite the context, Eliza found herself chuckling at that, even as the anticipation fell to dread.

"Maybe I can access a few police drones… who knows?"

"Well... there's no harm in that, right?" Eliza asked. "Wait… police drones…" An idea sparked in Eliza's head. She knows how to control drones, right? Well, of course! Eliza reiterated it to herself, affirming it to herself…

Bernside grumbled, having to drag Kazuki out of fire here and then, whenever the heat got too hot. "Any ideas on what to do? Young lad, look after yourself!"

"What?!" Frederick shouted back. "You didn't have a plan?!"

"NO!" Bernside shouted back. "Just like in the Navy! We wing it!"

Eliza watched her father grumble. Slowly, an idea rose as Eliza saw a bolt skid through a pillar. It was blinking on and off?

"We can overload the server lights, right?!" Eliza shouted over.

Frederick glared back. "WHAT?!"

"Well… there's fire extinguish drones here, right?" Eliza looked around, seeing a few red and white painted drones along the walls, deactivated. "It could… give us enough time, right?"

Archius rolled his eyes at Eliza, but muttered to himself, "I can always go to a backup server, don't mind me…" Despite his words and neutral tone, Eliza could feel the frustration oozing from Archius' tongue.

Frederick sighed. "Fine!" He looked over to the console, in the centre of the room. "Contract-Breaker, you're a good shot, cover me." But then Eliza realised something… Eliza looked at Kazuki. For once, Eliza saw disdain in his eyes.

Wait… No.

Was Kazuki not going to shoot?!

Eliza watched in horror as Kazuki flinched into cover, just as Dad rushed out! Eliza ignited her uplink, instantly searching for the fire extinguisher and archive drones! Instantly, Eliza threw them upwards! Up and in the way of gunfire!

A thousand shots of steel rang through Eliza's mind as she grunted, nearly throwing up as her mind felt the phantom pain of the drones… But it was enough, Eliza created enough of a field for Dad to get to the console...

Bernside looked back at Eliza. "Good thinking, young lass!" He cheered on with a smile, and Eliza ate up the affirmation without a second care in the galaxy.

Archius sighed before nodding as well. Kazuki finally began to cover her father… Eliza paused as the two exchanged glances. Eliza couldn't tell.

Was Kaz going to let her father die?

"Alright, count me down!" Frederick snarled.

Delia grunted. "Just do it!" Lorenza nodded vigorously.

Frederick slammed down on the console, instantly overloading the lights as a billion archive datapads sprang to life – lights igniting across the whole room.

Despite having her eyes covered, the blinding lights still penetrated... "Ow..." Someone tugged on Eliza.

"Stand up, you're not hurt, just walk it off, m'kay?" It was Archius.

With that, Eliza could hear a string of gunshots, as the lights slowly died down.

Eliza rubbed her eyes, opening them to see that the room had been completely cleared, the Blood Contractors that had pinned them from up above were all but dead...

Kazuki was out in the open… reloading. Just then, the dozen or so Contractors firing down upon them rolled over the railings, falling to the ground beneath them.

However, there was no time for fanfare, as Kazuki looked back at them. "Move it."

Lorenza was the first to try to leave, bursting out from cover as she ran towards the door.

Her eyes rose: Frederick Celeste-Delmara. Her own dad had placed his hand on her shoulder. There, in the middle of the chaos, Eliza froze, staring up at her own father.

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