Ellie sat staring at Neal Reinhardt through the haze of greasy smoke. He was battered and bruised, smeared with filth and patches of dried blood. He was a shell of the man he used to be, his suit hung loose and there was a haunted look to his eyes. 

“So are you here to finish me off?” he asked. 

Ellie frowned for a moment before holding up her still shackled hands. “Not with these still on.” 

“You look familiar, we ever work together?”

“No, I don't think we have. I knew your son, though.” 

Neal’s eyes fell to the floor and he blinked back tears. “Toby … the men who killed him are after me now, I take it you're running too?” 

“I think I'm next on their hit list.”

“Well pull up a chair and wait to die then, it'll be nice to have some company.” 

“To hell with that. I have a mercenary team here with me, I'm going to get out of here even if you aren't.” 

He seemed to perk up at that. “Really?” 

“Yup, we got separated, I just need to find a way up to a higher level.” 

“I know a way.” 

The pair of the stood and waded through a tunnel filled with knee deep freezing water. The tunnel narrowed as they went further, water rising to their chests. 

“If this gets any deeper we’ll be swimming,” said Ellie, dreading the thought of swimming in handcuffs. The water rose to their necks and the stepped into a pool similar to the one she’d fallen into earlier. A rusted ladder hung on the far wall, slowly the scrabbled up the ragged metal rungs and pulled themselves wet and shivering onto the dusty concrete walkway above. A series of hard footsteps pounded their way. Exhausted, Ellie barely managed to haul herself into a sitting position before a pair of men with assault rifles burst through a rotten wooden door at the end of the walkway. Ellie’s breath caught in her throat and Neal dropped to his knees, interlocking his fingers behind his head. The men lowered their rifles and a tall woman with a large bore pistol stepped through the door. Ellie let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holing, they’d found Rena. 

“Shit got thick Reid, this one is going to cost you,” said Rena, holstering her pistol. 

Ellie glanced over at Neal, between the two of them she was sure they’d have enough to pay the Razor’s retainer fee. “Don’t worry, I think we can cover it.” 

Neal shuffled to his feet, eyes darting between the three mercs in front of him. “She’s right,” he stammered. “Whatever you need I’ll pay it.” 

A wicked grin spread across Rena’s face, no doubt she was already marking up their already steep fees. “We can head back to the safe house now.” 

Ellie nodded and together they made their way back up out of the Deeps and into the festering levels of the Undercity. A matte black VTOL drifted down through a hole in the ceiling, hovering a few feet above the ground and turning a slow circle. 

“Oh hell!” shouted Rena, “Cops, everyone down!”

They scrambled for cover, diving behind dumpsters and hiding behind ruined buildings. The VTOL set down and a ramp lowered from the rear of the aircraft, spilling a half dozen men and women in black combat plates onto the trash filled streets. Ellie snapped a picture of the soldiers before ducking back behind a dumpster. The troops had no police badges and all carried bulky long barreled rifles. 

“Rena,” Ellie whispered, projecting the picture onto the side of the dumpster. “I don’t think these are cops.” 

Rena squinted at the grainy image. “Shit, are those railguns?”

Ellie shook her head and shrugged. “You’re asking me? I don’t have a clue!” A low hum rolled down the street followed by an ear splitting crack and the hot copper smell of blood. Whatever these guys were carrying was serious business. “Rena, I need a piece.” 

A low growl bubbled out of the grizzled merc. “Take this one,” she handed Ellie an old scuffed and scratched revolver, a gun like this belonged in a museum. “And that shotgun is going onto your bill.” 

The black clad soldiers stalked closer, moving in a loose circle towards the scant cover the Razors were hidden behind. At a nod from Rena they burst from cover, firing everything they had on full auto. Ellie leaned out behind Rena, squeezing the trigger on the ancient weapon. Some of the soldiers dropped, some fell and got back up, the mercs pulled back into cover just as that low hum rolled through the streets again. The teeth rattling, eardrum bursting crack filled the air again, shattering solid concrete and punching fist sized holes through solid metal. The mercs scrambled down a narrow alley that was little more than a cleft in the rubble between two crumbling buildings. One of the soldiers tried to follow and caught a face full of bullets for his trouble. The squeezed through the sharp rocks as fast as they could, pushing through ancient rubble and into a decaying storefront. The soldiers following them were stupid and pushed out of the alley one at a time. The mecs gave them hell, filling the alley with fire. The black armoured troops were tough, one fell dead but two more pushed through, rounds bouncing off their combat plates. Ellie rested her hands on a splintered old counter and let out a long breath, placing the sights of the old pistol over a soldier's face. She squeezed the trigger slowly and flinched as the old gun bucked against her palms. The soldiers head snapped back and a thin pink mist blew out the back of his helmet. 

Ellie ducked down, fighting the churning sensation rolling through her guts. The railguns fired again, blasting chunks of the storefront to dust. One of the rounds caught Rena in the chest, liquifying flesh and pulping bone. The merc tumbled down to the dirt, her right arm landed a few feet away from her. Ellie sat staring at the huge pool of blood collecting under the merc, Rena was cruel, tough, and now she was dead. Ellie thought she should feel sad, scared, angry, anything. But there was nothing, only a dull hollow space inside her. 

Another volley of railgun rounds pulled her attention back to the battle. Another one of the Razors fell dead, a gaping hole punched through his chest. Ellie pulled Rena’s monster handgun out of the mercs fingers and leaned out of cover. There were just two soldiers left. She aimed at the first and pulled the trigger. The hand cannon cried thunder and sent a flaming hammer blow into the man’s chest, smashing a hole through his dented plating and leaving him bleeding in the dust. The last soldier fired her rifle, blasting the last of Rena’s Razors into steaming red pulp. The hand cannon screamed twice blowing a ragged chunk of blood and bone out of the soldiers knee, she dropped her rifle and fell screaming. 

Ellie pulled Neal out of the corner he’d been cowering in and shoved him out the door. “Search the bodies,” she said, her voice coming out in a flat monotone. “Find me a handcuff key.” 

He did as she asked and returned a few minutes later and unlocked the cuffs. Ellie bent and grabbed one of the railguns, Neal did the same and the pair of them ran off into the nearest alley, desperate for a place to hide. They spent an hour running, casting nervous glances over their shoulder, avoiding contact with other people, eventually they made their way back to the old safehouse. The place was a mess, doors had been kicked in, furniture overturned and dark red smear marks covered the floor in the entry hall. The place had been cleaned out, there wasn’t a scrap of food or spare bullet left. 

Ellie sat down heavily on an old chair that was still upright. “Not a thing useful left here, Neal you have anywhere else to go?” 

Neal paced back and forth through the ruined room, running his hands through his hair and choking back sobs. “No! We’re dead aren’t we?” 

“Not yet! Think Neal, you were the head of a multi-million dollar company, what assets do you have? Where can we run? You have to have a vacation home or something we can use!” 

He stopped pacing and started shaking his head. “No, no, this is so big all my places here will be watched. You don’t understand the power these people have or what they’re willing to do.” 

“Then help me understand, I’ve been scrounging in the dark for months trying to understand this.” 

“I don’t know a lot, I was just a cog in the machine. We were a multi-planet alliance trying to secure resources for an advanced shipbuilding project. We needed parts from Mars, computers from Wolf, engines from Ganymede, and we needed to get them by any means necessary.” 

“But businesses like that change hands all the time. Why the secrecy? Why kill for a spaceship?” 

“Because if the reason why we needed those ships got out, there would be mass panic, pointed questions from every government in the galaxy, and maybe another Interstellar War.” 

Ellie sat in stunned silence for a long moment, staring at the floor. The Interstellar War was the worst event in human history, if their roles were reversed she’d probably kill to stop another one from breaking out too. “What’s the reason? What would cause so much panic?” 

Neal righted an overturned chair and sat leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees. He fixed her with an icy glare, and a hardness crept into his eyes. “Do you believe in aliens?”