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The Faceless Hunter
~He moved quickly through the open ground towards the edge of the crater, and lied down to survey the warehouse district. Four large warehouses rested within the center of the crater, and various roads and storage units outlined the outer edges. Multiple large loading trucks roamed the area carrying crates and other items. Using built in binoculars in his mask, he looked down and noticed the various guards patrolling the facility. He counted a few dozen within plain view, and assumed even more to be within the buildings. "This will be easy." He thought to himself.
Eager to being his mission, Cyrus slid down the edge of the crater towards the base. He sprinted towards a nearby truck that lied still next to a set of crates. "Where are you…?" He thought as he peeked around the crates. Cyrus activated a facial scanner within his mask and noticed that his target was not out in the open. "Hmph. You're probably inside."
Cyrus waited for a pair of guards to look away from his direction, and he sprinted towards another set of crates near him. He used the cover of the shadows and the absent sight of the guards to carefully maneuver his way towards the edge of the nearest warehouse. As he pressed his back against the warehouse walls, he reached into his back and pulled out a grappling hook attachment for his blaster. After equipping the attachment, he aimed his blaster up high towards the warehouse roof.
After pulling the trigger, and using a hook line to lift himself four stories towards the roof; Cyrus quickly crouched and readied his sniper rifle. He looked about him and noticed a pair of guards on the roof with him, but both looking the other direction. One stood nearby, but the other stood on the opposite end of the roof. He dispatched the far guard with a sniper round, and quickly approached the other with his short blade. He took down his target with an aggressive stab in the back while covering his mouth to hide the scream. "One… two… three… four…" He softly counted.
As Cyrus quickly paced towards the center of the warehouse roof, he looked through an exterior window down into the warehouse interior below. "Two… two… three… four…" His count continued. He gently opened the exterior window and poked his head inside to view his surroundings. He held tightly onto the window rail as he dropped through the window and swung himself onto a catwalk in the upper section of the warehouse. "Three… two… three… four…" He continued.
Cyrus noticed new contacts appeared on his mask radar and he quickly pointed his rifle in the general direction. "Four." His count concluded. He watched as the main doors to the warehouse opened below him. A large truck slowly pulled inside accompanied by half a dozen guards. A pair of black hover cars followed the truck inside, and the two of them pulled to the side away from the truck. Cyrus quickly scanned the faces of the men below him, and determined that his target was not amongst them. "One… two… three… four…" He softly counted.
After a few moments, he noticed the drivers of the truck and hover cars dismount their vehicles. One of the hover car drivers opened the rear door of his car, and out came a large anthropomorphic tiger dressed in black bandit gear and donned a hood over his head. Cyrus pointed his rifle down at the tiger and quickly scanned its face. "Two… two… three… four…" He softly counted as his mask scanned the tiger.
As the scan ended, a green light highlighted the tiger's face. "Confirmed, Freddy Bosner." A computerized voice said.
Cyrus had confirmed his target, and took a deep breath. In the meantime, he quietly moved towards the end of his catwalk to position himself more clearly to see events transpire. As he pointed his rifle, Bosner approached the truck crew and a pair of guards brought a crate before Bosner. "Open it." Bosner said in a deep tone.
One of the guards held his hand over the crate and a small keypad lock appeared. After pressing a trio of keys, the crate popped open and the guard opened the lid. Bosner approached the crate and reached inside to pull out a rocket launcher. "Perfect." He said as he admired the weapon. "Give me the numbers. Crates and shipments."
"We've got another dozen shipments ready to leave tonight, each carrying several dozen crates with a few launchers inside." The guard responded. "There's also rockets lined up in each crate."
Bosner placed the rocket launcher back into the crate and closed the lid shut. "Perfect." He said. "Load up the rest and get the trucks to the frigate. I want our first transport out of here in three hours."
One of the guards looked about the truck crew and held his arm up. He made a circle motion with his hand and the truck crew loaded up the crate and quickly left the warehouse. As they left, Cyrus eyed the truck crew and watched as the last of the crew left the warehouse. However, his thoughts turned towards the munitions truck. He felt a small sensation of nervousness as he chose to do nothing about the munitions, and doubt slowly sit into his mind. "Who's their buyer…?" He thought.
Cyrus continued to monitor Bosner and watched him converse with a nearby guard. "Make sure those weapons are delivered on time without incident." He said to the guard. "Our client will be hitting the research facility tomorrow at dusk."
"Are we going to be involved in the raid?" The guard asked.
"We have no business in killing some doctors and scientists. Our job is just to supply the guns."
Hearing Bosner's words put Cyrus on edge, and he quickly fled from his position. He ran towards the exterior window of the warehouse and leaped towards the edge to climb out. "This is an incredibly stupid idea." He thought as he sprinted towards the edge of the warehouse roof. "Stupid… stupid… stupid idea."
Cyrus quickly perched himself on the corner of the warehouse roof and aimed his rifle at the roof of the adjacent warehouse. A singular guard patrolled the roof and Cyrus quickly fired a sniper round into the guard's cranium. As he fell, Cyrus aimed his rifle at the third rooftop and noticed two more guards on the roof. He quickly dispatched them both with another pair of sniper rounds and brought his attention to the truck from earlier.
The large truck drove off towards the edge of the complex towards a loading frigate. Seeing that the truck was out of his reach, Cyrus wrapped his rifle back around his chest and ran towards the center of his rooftop. He locked his gaze at the adjacent rooftop and sprinted towards the edge. Before he would leap, he quickly activated his rocket boosters on his legs and launched himself across the road below onto the rooftop of the adjacent warehouse. A quick roll followed his landing and Cyrus sprinted towards the other end of the roof. To his relief, the truck had made a turn around his warehouse and remained nearby. He timed his moment carefully as the truck drove below him, and took his moment to jump down onto the top of the truck.
Cyrus lied down on top of the truck and pressed his body low to the surface. The truck slowly drove away from the warehouse district towards the loading frigate, and Cyrus studied his surroundings. As the truck neared the frigate, Cyrus slowly rose to his knee and noticed half a dozen guards loading crates into the back end of the frigate. "Need to stop this ship from leaving." He thought to himself. "Grenade belt in one of the rocket crates would do the trick, but it'd need to be remote detonated."
As the truck arrived at the back of the frigate, Cyrus carefully timed a boost jump from the top of the truck to the top of the frigate. He quickly looked behind him and noticed the guards continued their work without interruption. "Thought I'd be caught from that." He thought. "Once that truck leaves, I'll clear out the crew and plant my grenades."
Cyrus perched himself on the edge of the frigate, and aimed his rifle down below at the guards loading the weapons. After waiting a few minutes for the last of the crates to be loaded, the truck slowly drove away leaving only a trio of guards by the frigate. Wasting no time, Cyrus quickly fired three sniper rounds to dispatch the guards below. He jumped down towards the ground and used his rocket boosters to break his fall. He ran inside the frigate and fired a sniper round to open one of the crates. He looked inside and noticed nothing but rocket munitions inside the crate, and he dropped his grenade belt inside.
Cyrus took that moment to sync the grenade detonation timers with his mask, and changed their settings to be remote detonated. After he readied his explosives, he quickly left the frigate and ran back towards the warehouse district. A large feeling of relief overtook him as he knew he could halt the shipment of weapons. Yet, the thought of an innocent research facility being destroyed by those weapons haunted his thoughts.
It took him a few minutes to eventually hide behind a set of crates near the edge of the warehouse district, and his thoughts quickly returned to his task at hand. The radar built into his mask preserved Bosner's tag, and Cyrus could tell that Bosner was still within the district. However, he could not visually see Bosner from his current position. "Where are you…?" He thought.
To his shock, he felt a barrel of a plaster pressed upon the back of his head. A guard had found Cyrus kneeling behind the crates and readied his blaster. "You're not supposed to be here." He said to Cyrus.
Cyrus quickly snapped his head to the side and drew his blade. The guard did not anticipate Cyrus's sudden movement as Cyrus grabbed the guard's wrist. He quickly stabbed his blade into the guard's throat and kicked his leg out from underneath. As the guard's corpse fell to the ground, Cyrus took several deep breaths. However, a voice could be heard over the guard's communicator. "Jack?" The voice called out. "Jack, you there? You check out that anomaly yet?"
Cyrus felt panic for a brief moment and sprinted towards another set of crates. Using the same tactics as before he made his way towards the edge of one of the warehouses. However, an alarm sounded off within the district and the remaining guards went on high alert. "Shit…" Cyrus thought. "Where are you?!"
Though he could still tell Bosner was within the district, Cyrus did not have a visual on him. He noticed a trio of guards quickly moving from one area to the other and he rushed towards the edge of the nearby warehouse. He used his grapple attachment once more and lifted himself onto the roof. From there, he surveyed the district.
After hastily scanning the area, Cyrus located Bosner again. Bosner quickly moved towards the entrance of a warehouse accompanied by a group of guards. "I want every inch of this compound searched until this intruder has been found." He said to the guards. "And once you find him, I want you to bring him to me."
Cyrus quickly perched himself on the edge of the warehouse roof and aimed his sniper rifle at Bosner's guards. "Now or never." He thought.
Seizing that moment, Cyrus opened fire upon Bosner's guards catching two of them off guard. Bosner and the remaining guards quickly turned around and noticed Cyrus firing from the rooftop. "There he is!" Bosner called out. "He's on the roof!"
Cyrus gunned down one more guard and Bosner quickly took cover behind a set of crates within the warehouse. As he took cover, Cyrus noticed several more guards firing upon him from below. He aimed his rifle in the other direction and dispatched a few more guards before the blaster fire forced him to retreat. As Bosner saw Cyrus retreat, he placed his finger in his ear piece communicator. "Tell the frigate to take off!" He yelled. "Now!"
The frigate at the end of the compound closed its rear cargo bay doors and powered up its main engines. From the distance, Cyrus watched as the frigate slowly ascended into the air. "Computer, detonate." He said into his mask.
After a brief moment, Cyrus watched as a large explosion decimated the back of the frigate. The explosion also destroyed one of the rear engines, and the frigate had lost control. "Hell yes!" Cyrus cheered. "Time to- Oh no…"
Cyrus watched as the enflamed frigate quickly descended towards the warehouse district. The lack of stabilizers set the frigate on a crash course with the warehouse buildings. "OH SHIT!" Cyrus cried out. Cyrus sprinted towards the other end of his rooftop and ran as the frigate came crashing down in the center of the district. Using his rocket boosters, Cyrus launched himself from the rooftop and used them again to break his fall. As he took cover behind a truck on the edge of the district, he watched as the frigate crashed within the three warehouse buildings. A massive explosion went off as the many munitions onboard detonated, and chaos and flames engulfed the entire facility.
Seeing the fireworks transpire, Cyrus stood casually and held his sniper rifle in his arms. To his surprise, he noticed a green contact appear on his radar mask. He used his built in binoculars and noticed Bosner limping away from the flames of the explosion.
Bosner limped towards a truck at the edge of the district. A metal shard protruded from his leg and blood slowly seeped from the wound. As he reached the truck doors, a sniper round went through the center of his hand. Bosner fell backwards from the pain and screamed as a gaping hole resided in his hand. He looked to his side and noticed Curys casually approaching. Bosner reached for his blaster with his other hand but Cyrus fired a sniper round at the ground next to Bosner's head. As Cyrus stood next to Bosner, a cold feeling of fear overtook Bosner. The emotionless stare from Cyrus's mask amplified the feelings of fear from Bosner, and he slowly held his hands up. "Wh- What do you want?" He asked. Cyrus.
Cyrus activated a voice modifier in his mask. "You…" He said in a deep, distorted tone. "You're coming with me."
