Ellie sat staring, slack-jawed. “Seriously?” she asked. “Aliens? And they're willing to kill people over this why?”

Neal leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Because none of it’s real. It’s all a game for power, money, control. It’s one big lie.” 

“Do you have proof anywhere?” 

Neal thought for a moment. “I think all my servers and storage here has been scrubbed but I had a vacation home on Ganymede that might have some files.” 

Nothing said I have more money than I know what to do with than a vacation home on Jupiter's moon. “Well that's a start,” said Ellie. She logged into Rena’s network with the iComm and found a strange message waiting for her. Rena must have had some bio-monitoring implants that had fired off an automated email letting the team know she was dead, and apparently there were enough dead officers to leave Ellie with a field promotion from clerk to commander. She stood and walked over to a nearby closet, and pulled some fresh clothes into a backpack.  “So we need a way off planet. Any ideas?” 

“I had a small shuttle that could make the trip to Ganymede but I'm sure it's under impound now.” 

“Maybe we can round up some guns and get it. All I know is we can't stay here, we need to move.” 

Ellie tossed the backpack to Neal and left the safe house behind, stepping out into the grime of the undercity and doing their best to fade into the crowd. Spattered with gore, they couldn't help but draw stares and soon a pair of men in black combat plates were tailing them. 

Ellie motioned for Neal to stop in a darkened alley and opened the mercenary forum on the iComm. “Just keep a lookout, I need a second.” Neal ran a trembling hand through his hair and set to pacing back and forth while she typed. Footsteps pounded up the pavement after them, Neal paced faster. 

“Ellie,” he said nervously. “I think we need to get moving.” 

She closed down the iComm and peeked out into the street, where a squad of soldiers was running towards them. “Run!” she shouted, firing Rena’s hand cannon into the soldiers. One fell the rest ran for cover. Ellie and Neal flew out of the alley and pounded down the street, bullets ripping through air around them. 

“Where are we going?” Neal shouted. 

Ellie winced as a round tore into the wall next to her, showering her with shards of concrete. “Just keep running! I have a plan.” She pulled Neal down a side street and stopped to snap off three more rounds at the pursuing soldiers. She didn't bother checking if she'd hit anyone before turning around and sprinting away. 

She ran until her legs ached, until every breath was like taking a lustful of fire. She ran until they hit a dead end. They were caught between two towering buildings on their left and right, and a sheer drop into the deeps in front of them. Ellie turned around and pulled the magazine from the hand cannon; there were only four rounds left. As she slammed the magazine back in the soldiers caught up to them, and all hell broke loose. Glass shattered from the windows above, falling to the ground in a scintillating rain, muzzle flares lit up the street like lightning, and the thunder of gunfire rolled. The soldiers scrambled backwards, desperately trying to pull away from the last members of Rena’s Razors as they filled the street with machine gun fire. 

The torrent of gunfire died away and was replaced by the shriek of an ill maintained anti-grav engine. A boxy, rust streaked aircraft wobbled out of The Deep on twin tails of black smoke. The grav-copter set down behind Ellie and Neal. Ellie sent her last four bullets downrange and climbed inside, hauling Neal in after her. The airship rose, stopping by the shattered second story window to collect their troops. The four mercenaries were just about to make a running leap into the ship when a bass thud echoed off the concrete below them. A shiny silver sphere rocketed past the chopper’s open door, narrowly missing the vehicle and exploded. A wave of heat and flame shoved the chopper away from the building and shards of hot metal pinged off the hull. Two of the mercs had been vaporized by the blast, and a third had fallen out the window, landing a crumpled heap below. The fourth soldier made the leap and hit the lip of the chopper’s floor, fingers scrabbling desperately for purchase as the airship swayed. A spray of bullets slapped of the chopper’s belly and the merc lost his grip. He fell, screaming, and landed with a crunch. A gunshot rang out, silencing the soldier forever. 

Ellie turned and shouted to the pilot. “Get us out of here!” The ship shuddered, engines belching smoke and flew out into the chasm between the skyscrapers. The new city had been built directly over the bones if the old one here, there was no way up so they dropped back into The Deeps, cruising down a wide service tunnel. Ellie pulled the magazine out of the hand cannon, it was empty. Scowling at the useless weapon, she tossed it out the open door, if they made it back to the upper city having an unlicensed handgun that would likely trace back to several murders certainly wouldn't help them any. If there were any bullets left it might be a different story but without ammo there would be no more shooting their way out of danger. Unzipping the backpack she did the same with her bloodstained clothes and pulled on a fresh outfit. Neal did the same, grimacing at the ill fitting shirt and jeans she'd found. 

“There weren't any better clothes at the safe house?” he asked. 

Ellie gave him a tired smile. “Well I'm sorry your majesty but undercut mercs don't usually wear expensive suits.” The grav-copter finally found a way out if the undercity and rose into the open air, making a beeline for Reinhardt estates. 

They nearly made it. A black and white VTOL soared up behind them, red and blue lights flashing on its wingtips. The pilot turned in his seat and shouted into the crew compartment. “What do we do?” 

Ellie leaned out into the gale of oncoming air and took a snapshot of the estate with the iComm. She pulled her head back in and magnified the picture, spaced at regular intervals across the grainy image were human shapes dressed in black. “Go full throttle straight for the hangar!” she said with a wicked grin. “I have a plan.” 

The grav-copter picked up speed and another VTOL joined the chase. They screamed towards the estate, flying headlong towards the domed hangar sitting at the back of the manicured lawns. A warning shot snapped past the open door and the black clad soldiers below returned fire. More bullets sparked off the copter’s belly. It looked old but damn if it wasn't built tough. Ellie risked another quick peek out the door. The black troops were firing up at the police VTOLs, it was chaos. The cops returned fire and heavier aircraft could be seen flying in over the city. In the midst of the madness the grab-copter set down in front of the hanger and everyone on board leapt out, running into the relative safety of the domed building. A gleaming white luxury yacht was waiting for them, doors open and boarding ramp extended. They flew into the ship, ignoring the richly decorated passenger compartment, and ran straight into the cockpit. Neal and the chopper pilot took the pilot and copilot seats while Ellie strapped herself into a communications station. 

“Is your computer on Ganymede part of a network?” she asked, looking down at the comm controls. 

Neal slapped a few keys on the pilot console, drawing a rising whine out of the ships engines. “Of course it is, why?” 

“I should be able to patch into it from here. We won't even need to land as long as we can in signal range.” 

“Okay, great” said Neal disinterestedly. He hauled back on the control column, lifting the ship up out of the hangar and fired the main engines. Thrust crushed them into the their as the yacht carried them up above the battle, through the clouds, and out into the black.