Markus Haraldson looked at a metal fortress through his binoculars, going through the enemy's capabilities in his mind. There was a small army of E class guards and two D class fighters under the employ of the Marcovi family, along with the Gamma class foreign actor. Not to mention the various mechanical defenses Marcovi had likely installed. On the other side of things, Haraldson had left Peralta and two of his other buddies back on Akaadia. That meant he only had ten E class fighters on his side to back him up, most of whom were rookies who hadn’t even filled up all their Capacity or Attribute slots yet.

  That was fine.

  Markus turned to the rest of the men, looked them over appraisingly, and gave them a simple set of commands: “Stick close to each other. Stay in the eye.”

  Without further ado, the man turned and dashed toward the massive fortress. The men followed with grim faces, running up the rocky path with no hesitation. As they ran, Jordan felt something cold hit his face. Reflexively, he reached up and touched it, his hand coming away with a small orange smudge. Looking around, he saw more glowing saffron specks materializing into the air all around their group. Thanks to his father’s briefing, he knew exactly what was happening. The Pioneers were at the eye of a budding, orange snowstorm.

  …

  By the time the soldiers hit the stronghold, the snowstorm had become a minor blizzard, swirling around them and concealing their movements. Gunfire had broken out, yet what few shots reached the Pioneers pinged easily off their defenses. The attacks could have been more effective even with their cover, but Markus regularly teleported away and destroyed whatever was shooting at the soldiers before they could do much damage. The men reached the entrance to the fortress without much difficulty.

  The Pioneers ran through the hallways of the building as the storm continued to grow around them. The wind howled and men screamed as the entire building was trashed, the enemy personnel running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Markus moved within the storm, destroying and killing his way through the entire facility, but he shared some of the burden with his allies. Many of the fortress’s guards were funneled into the eye of the blizzard, where they were either killed or detained by the waiting Pioneers.

  Their group progressed smoothly into the heart of the fortress, and the first bit of resistance they felt came in the form of a javelin of green light. It shot through the snowstorm in a blur, hurtling toward Jordan at blinding speed. The Pioneer was only saved by someone tugging on the back of his shirt, yanking him out of the path of the deadly attack. He looked up to see his stern-looking father staring intently at the laser’s origin, the older man frowning thoughtfully and saying: “Find Marcovi. I’ll handle this.”

  He then disappeared in a flash of orange light, and Jordan watched as the distance was suddenly lit up with flashes of green, yellow, and orange light. The booming roar of the fight shook the building around the Pioneers, and Jordan heard a piece of the roof collapse with a loud rumble in just the opening seconds. Unwilling to be buried under rubble, the Pioneers kept moving forward while dodging what debris and chaos came their way. With Markus distracted, the eye of the storm eventually stopped moving, forcing their advance to a halt. One of the men radioed Markus a message: “Can you put a stop to the snow, sir?”

  They waited for a few moments, and then the storm began to abate, the orange flurries melting away as quickly as they’d come. With his visibility now cleared up, Jordan scrutinized the options in front of him.

  He didn’t have perfect knowledge of the fortress, but his father had been able to obtain a limited schematic of the building in advance. In front of him was a fork, and he knew for a fact that the passageway on the right led back toward the fight his father was tangled up in. So, he took the leftward route. The Pioneers continued running through the fortress, trampling over what resistance they found, and it wasn’t long before Jordan spotted a certain dark-haired figure further down a long hallway. When the figure turned around to look at him, Jordan felt the thrill of recognition. Those red eyes and that aquiline nose belonged to his target.

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  “Stop and surrender!” Jordan yelled as he teleported down the hallway, raising his blaster threateningly. Marcovi obviously didn’t listen, and he dashed around the corner as Jordan’s blaster fire crashed impotently into the wall. Jordan teleported again, rounding the bend right after his quarry. The criminal was right in front of him, then twin turrets sprang out from both sides of the wall. Jordan was forced to dodge a few bolts of plasma, dismissing his blaster and manifesting his knives before teleporting forward again. He dismantled both turrets with a few flashes of his blades and kept running forward. Marcovi was just within his grasp, and Jordan was just about to teleport right next to him before the man pulled his final gambit. He jumped out the window.

  The Pioneer’s mouth gaped open as he watched the man crash through the glass. He appeared right there in a flash of light soon afterward, sticking his head out the shattered window and looking down. Jordan was forced to dodge backward as a blaster bolt shot back upward at him, shaking his head in frustration. Marcovi had landed in a Hovercar, and he’d shot back up at Jordan while flying away. The young man wasn’t going to let that stand, so he stepped back and dashed toward the open window. Jordan jumped up to the windowsill and kicked off it, sending himself rocketing outward into open air in a long jump. He activated his Hypersight, allowing him to take in his surroundings in slow motion.

  It was easy to spot the shocked face of Marcovi, looking back in disbelief at the seemingly suicidal flying man. Jordan turned, teleporting toward the flying vehicle and reaching out to grab the rear. Marcovi shouted in anger, taking out a blaster to shoot at Jordan, but the criminal looked like he was moving through molasses. He dodged the bolts, manifesting a knife in his free hand and reaching over to destroy one of the small hover wheels in the car’s rear. The vehicle began listing; the forces keeping it balanced suddenly knocked out of equilibrium. Jordan shifted to the other side of the car, still dodging Marcovi’s blaster fire. His hands were a blur as he reached down and destroyed the second rear hover wheel.

  Now the rear of the car began to sink, the whole vehicle going into a slow decline. Marcovi gave up on shooting Jordan, turning around and desperately trying to land the Hovercar safely. For Jordan’s part, he simply passively hung from the rear of the car and watched. If he’d wanted to kill Marcovi, he probably could have a couple of times by now. However, the original plan had been to take the man alive, not necessarily because he deserved to live, but because he could give them information about just how much the Khazari had infiltrated the government. While Markus Haraldson had been happy to help Lucy and Jordan, this wasn’t all about them. He was a patriot, and the Pioneer veteran wanted to improve his country by working to purge this criminal element. Bringing Marcovi to justice for murdering Lucy’s parents was just the beginning.

  As a result, Jordan allowed the criminal to guide the craft down to the rocky plains below, jumping off as the vehicle made contact with the ground. With a prolonged shriek of metal, it skidded across the ground for a long time before finally coming to a stop. Jordan appeared alongside the car, reaching inside and yanking the dazed criminal out of the vehicle. He disarmed the man and threw him over his shoulder, turning back toward the embattled fortress.

  It was a long way back, yet Jordan made it at a dead sprint. By the time he got there, half the building had collapsed, and the sounds of the fighting had died down. He was met at the entrance by his father and the others, most of them looking tired yet mostly uninjured. A few actually had gotten shot, but that was nothing a few stims couldn’t take care of. Jordan’s father was the exception, only because he didn’t look very tired at all. The weathered-looking man fixed his son with a serious gaze, which Jordan returned with a perfect salute, saying: “Mission accomplished, sir.”

  That leathery, grave face slowly cracked into the shadow of a smile, eyes softening with a hint of mirth. Markus returned his son’s salute: “Well done, soldier.”

  …

  That night, countless people across the Akaadian system tuned their SmartGrams into their local news station, where they saw the following news at the top of the hour:

  “Good evening, Akaadians, I’m Brent Co’Trak.

  A scandal has wracked the Ministry of the Treasury from offices all around the Capital Star System. High-level officials have been credibly accused of using government accounts to facilitate money laundering, counterfeiting, and other financial crimes. This plot was believed to be orchestrated by the dreaded Khazari criminal Clan, working through their agents within the Empire. Several of these agents have already been apprehended.

  The Treasury officials involved include Undersecretaries John Cominski and Theodore Nivison, who have also been taken into custody. The arresting officer, Lieutenant Caleb Masterson, had this to say: ‘Complicated situations like these are exactly the reason why the Emperor is devoting more resources to the domestic police force. Financial crimes perpetrated by sophisticated actors need a sophisticated police force to deal with, but we are still woefully lacking in certain things that could help us prevent these situations.’

  Critics of the police say that these kinds of crimes have been happening for some time now and that failing to catch them is a stain on their honor. Supporters of law enforcement agree with Captain Masterson, saying that it was only the recent influx of resources that allowed for a success like this to happen. Whoever is right, I am certain that the wise Emperor will make the appropriate decisions and adjustments.

  Next: A gas explosion in an abandoned district near the outer limits of Ankara has resulted in multiple fatalities. The urban safety commissioner has been brought in for comment. More at 10.”