Jae woke up, as usual, to the sound of gunfire. It was closer than normal, but nothing surprising. He got out of bed, stretched, and started breakfast. Once he had finished, Jae donned the armor that would hopefully keep him alive. Jae lived in the slums of Haven City. It was dirty, damp, dark, and full of pot holes. The water was sporadic, and the food was horrible more often than not, and that was before the war started. It was a terrible place to live, but Jae wouldn't want to live anywhere else. In the slums you could disappear in a moment, and that was important in his line of work.
Jae was a Zoomer. His job was to deliver messages and do missions as fast as possible for members of the Haven City Defenders. His was an all-volunteer unit. It paid well, but there were better paying jobs. He got a nice set of armor, but the Azure Guards got better. There were no benefits, but Jae didn't care about any of that. He was a Zoomer for one thing. He did it for the speed.
Jae wasn't just any Zoomer. He was the best one since Jak himself had founded the group. He held almost every record for every route. He had been instrumental in the repulsion of the Metal Head invasion two years earlier. During the time of peace before the current war, Jae had broken his previous records on an almost weekly basis, but there was no time for competition now, lives hung in the balance. As if hearing his thoughts, Jae's buzzer sounded meaning he had a mission. He sighed, grabbed his customized jet board, and walked outside. His hover-bike was parked exactly where he had left it, a testament to both his reputation and the ignition tech in bike. He hopped on and palmed the start scanner. The start chip in his palm was the only one that could activate his personal bike, and it acted like a skeleton key to any other bike. That was the perk Jae liked the most. Unlimited access to any vehicle he wanted.
Jae activated the propulsion coils and rose to the Zoomer only flight level and started toward the main headquarters in the business section. As he did so, a KG spider bot activated and took a shot at him. Jae leaned to avoid the shot and sent one back from the pistol holstered on the bike. The spider exploded in a shower of metal and Jae went on his way. The spider worried him. The Azure Guard had always been more than capable of fending of the KG kill bots. If one was this far into the safe zone, did that mean the Azure Guards were losing? Would there be more soon, and if so, how many? Jae made a mental note to ask when he had completed his mission. After winding his way through the slums for a few minutes, Jae came to Dead Man's Turn. No one, not even Jae had managed to go through it at full speed. He slowed down and made his way to the industrial sector, where the main fighting was.
Jae managed to avoid the majority of the conflict by taking a little used maintenance tunnel that went through the sewer. He ran into a small scouting party of Metal Heads, but just a single clip of yellow Eco, and they wouldn't be reporting anything ever again. When Jae surfaced, he stunk like hell, but he was safe and had almost reached the headquarters. He powered up his bike and once again drove like the speed freak he was. He made the ten minute journey in fewer than two, a new personal best.
He pulled up to the HQ and keyed in his personal identification code. If someone didn't enter a code, or entered it wrong, the door would still open, but the elevator would go up to a normal but important looking building. But when Jae's code was put in and he stepped onto the elevator, it descended to the real building. It wasn't much, just one large room with lots of computer screens and a 3D communication relay. No one paid much attention to him until he walked past them. Many of them gaged. One person puked. Jae didn't care. He knew that there were only four people in the room, and they were gathered around the relay.
Ashelin, Keira, Torn, and of course, Jak. The four pillars of the defenders, their faces were known to every single citizen of Haven City. Without them, the city would have fallen immediately. They all cringed as Jae approached except Jak, since he had been to the sewer many times and was used to the stench. Since he was the only one who could get close to Jae, Jak was the one to brief Jae. Jak tossed Jae a small box. "Here's what you have to do. Take this over to the Power room in the industrial sector. Once there, you should be able to find an access panel. Open it, push the green button twice and drop it down the tunnel. Then, run like hell. You'll have twenty five seconds to get as far away as possible." "What happens after twenty five seconds? Or is that a stupid question," Jae asked. Jak laughed. "After twenty four seconds, a small generator produces a small spark of blue Eco. At twenty five seconds, things go-" "BOOM!" Daxter had suddenly appeared on Jae's shoulder. Jak nodded. "A large convoy of KG Killbots is going to be passing there in five minutes. Get going." Jae nodded, stuck the bomb in his pack and ran out the door.