As the devil dances....

[Achanos]

*Somewhere outside of 20K*

With one last inhalation, the balding atrox stubbed out finished his cigarette and stubbed the remainder out on the frame of the door behind him, before flicking the spent husk out into the grass in front of him. “Pfaugh Milo, do you HAVE to keep engaging in that filthy habit while other people our around?” Milo glanced over his shoulder with a grin. “Hell yes Jan, especially if it bothers you, you fussy git.” The figure standing behind him frowned in annoyance, his brows lowering over glowing blue eyes. “Really? Well then perhaps I should assign you to something more fitting your foul habits, like sewer maintenance?”, the irritated nanomage snapped back.

Milo smiled innocently back at the irritated bureaucrat. “Nah, that would require someone who has some basic mechanical skills, I all do is smash stuff.” Rubbing his balding scalp, the atrox grinned again, and winked back at the crat. “Guess that’s why you have me up here guarding the front door.” Jan rolled his eyes, “Might I complement you on your incredible job performance there, particularly in light of us not seeing another soul around these parts for months!” Milo threw his head back and laughed, “Well hell, its not my fault all the damn Omni’s up and buggered off to Jobe and the Shadowlands.” Reaching back into a thigh pocket, Milo pulled out another fat pack of cigarettes and shook loose another smoke.

“Cant complain though, makes my life a lot easier. No Omni’s means this guard duty is easy money. Nice and quiet.”, he mumbled around the cigarette as he patted various pockets, looking for his lighter. Jan snorted, “Yes indeed, it’s so quiet that some parties are begging to question the wisdom in paying so much for security staff at this facility.” Milo grinned and turned toward the flustered bureaucrat, lifting his newly discovered lighter towards the waiting cigarette. As he turned, his hands froze just millimeters away from the unlit cigarette, eyes widening as he looked at something just past Jan’s shoulder. Curious, the crat looked over his shoulder and was surprised to see a lanky figure leaning against the doorjamb of the facility, nonchalantly trimming his fingernails with a wicked looking knife.

Milo took the whole scene in with a glance. The newcomer was an opifex, clad in well worn carbonum and kevlar armor. A sinsister looking black helmet completed the armor, the red eye plates gleamed wickedly. The long knife the newcomer was holding showed signs of hard use, but was bright and shining, obviously well cared for. The dense oily sheen of the blade made it obvious it was a compressed blade. "Crap, I never even heard this guy", he thought, this is bad, really bad. His gaze drifted from the blade to the hands holding it, and his stomach lurched as he caught the intricate tattoos covering the stranger’s hands. "A shade, oh man, not good, not good at all." Milo started running the options in his head, and they were going from bad to worse. "How the hell do I deal with this? He is way to close already." As the through flashed through this mind, Jan made Milo’s decision for him. The crat began backpedaling away from the newcomer and clawing at his holstered Kolt pistol, howling “OMNI!” at the top of his lungs. Milo dropped his lighter and reached for the club clipped to his belt. Oh crap, here we go…

The sinister figure uncoiled from his position at the door like snake, sliding a second knife, this one long and slender, from his belt. "Oh hell this guy is fast, too fast", Milo thought, as he struggled to wrench his club free of its retaining clip. Jan managed to free his pistol, and even managed to squeeze off a searing bolt from the big energy pistol. But the stranger flowed up to the startled crat, the shot passing over his shoulder by a good margin. Milo watched in horror as the stranger closed on Jan in a blur of motion. Jan swung the heavy pistol around, desperately trying to bring the stranger back into his sights, but the sinister figure was quicker. The long knife flickered out in a short arc, followed by a screech of pain from Jan, as the heavy energy tumbled from his hand, an bright arc of blood spraying his nearly severed wrist.

In less than a heartbeat, the stranger spun in a tight arc, the long slender blade in his off hand flickered out and punched through the flak armor covering the crats abdomen. Jan hunched over with a grunt of pain and the stranger jerked the slender blade back out with an effortless twitch. Whirling like a dancer, the stranger slid behind Jan, and Milo watched in horror as the sinister figure reversed the compressed blade in a fluid motion and slammed it down at the juncture of Jan’s neck and shoulder, just above the neck of his flak armor. Jan collapsed with a wet, choking groan. The whole fatal dance had taken place in just a split second.

Milo swung his heavy club at the lithe figure, as rage boiled up inside him. "Im going to smash your damn skull you Omni bastard" he thought. The stranger danced back from the blow, and Milo pressed in, whirling the club in short brutal arcs. The stranger flowed like quicksilver and Milo struggled to get in a solid hit. A few glancing blows slid from the stranger’s armor, and only one solid hit connected to the fluid figures left arm. None of the blows seemed to faze the stranger in the least. In the mean time, Milo bled from scores of small punctures and cuts, as the shade struck back with uncanny swiftness. With a sick, sinking sensation Milo realized that the shade wasn’t pressing his attack. "The bastards playing with me!" A cold chill crept up his spine. "I’m going to lose this fight." Milo tightened the grip on his club and pressed in on the elusive figure. Suddenly the stranger leapt in to meet him, parrying Milo’s swing with his compressed blade. In the blink of an eye, the blade slid down the shaft of his club and effortlessly slid through several fingers along the way.

Milo watched in shock as his severed fingers spun way in lazy arcs. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. The stranger was a blur of motion, Milo felt the impact of the strangers other blade as it punched through the armor over his thigh. A torrent of blood gushed past the shattered armor. "That’s an artery for sure Milo thought." He was amazed that it didn’t hurt. He tried to turn and follow the shade, but the lithe figure rolled past him in a tight ball. "Oh crap he’s behind…" Milo’s world exploded into pain. He felt the armor over his back give way as the shade slammed the blade home into his spine. The impact of the blade was enough to drive the breath from his lungs, and pain burned through his body from the point of impact. "Nano enhanced", the thought, as the pain burned along his nerves.

Milo slumped to the ground, as his nerveless legs gave way beneath him. Another jolt of pain surged up his arm, as he landed on his mutilated hand. "How the hell did this happen" he thought. He coughed, and could taste blood in his mouth. A kevlar clad armed reached from over his shoulder and plucked the electronic door key from his harness. The tattoos covering the shades exposed had shined weirdly in the sunlight, crawling across the skin in sinister swirls and savage jags. “Just to let you know,” the voice behind him was unexpected, and sounded almost friendly, “this wasn’t personal, just business.” Then something slammed into the back of Milo’s neck, and the ground rose up to meet him as his vision went black.