novelraw Chapter 206: Arrest
Chapter 206: Arrest
Faya lived in the mid-hive sector on the surface of Mining Sector 14. It was a bleak, utterly impoverished place where filthy pollution covered absolutely every surface. Acid rain fell incessantly most of the time, and the assorted pipelines hissed and clattered with noise every single second of the day.
Dim light crawled feebly across the streets, while every stone of the architecture seemed to be visibly rotting away.
"Move in!"
Late at night, a voice calling from the street corner received an immediate response. The silhouettes of Enforcers clad in black carapace armor stepped out from the dark, narrow alleys. The one leading the charge leveled his shotgun and fired point-blank into the heavy iron lock of a rusted gate.
Bang~!
The deafening gunshot echoed through the alleyway, blasting a fist-sized hole straight through the metal.
The Arbitrator stepped forward, violently kicking the gate open before rushing inside, the others following closely on his heels.
Beyond the gate lay a corridor scattered with discarded refuse, illuminated blurrily by a few filthy oil lamps. A seated man, with both feet propped up casually on a crude wooden table, suddenly widened his eyes. A pipe stuffed with hallucinogenic lho-stub hung loosely from his mouth.
Through prior investigations, the Arbitrator already knew that this was Faya's servant, and also the man hired to watch the premises—though clearly, he was basically useless.
Following that, a second shotgun blast blasted the man backward. His blood sprayed forth as his entire body crashed violently against the wall.All the Enforcers advanced into the corridor in a half-crouch, moving swiftly through the scattered piles of twisted metal and shattered stone.
"Smells like a fucking cesspit."
One of the Enforcers muttered in a low voice. The others signaled their total agreement; only the Arbitrator remained entirely silent.
As he approached a closed door, he pointed sharply. The two Enforcers behind him immediately moved to position themselves on the left and right sides of the door.
The very next second, one of them kicked the door open, and both rushed in simultaneously with their shotguns raised and leveled.
The beams from the alleyway sliced through the darkness before them that could not be fully illuminated. Several rodents scurried frantically to escape the light, while the stench index had already completely broken the charts.
The Arbitrator swept his gaze across the room, discovering yet another empty alleyway leading forward. Another door stood at the very end, with an oil lamp hanging overhead giving off a feeble, frigid glow.
"Why would a tech-priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus willingly live in a dump like this?"
An Enforcer commented, subsequently adding a colorful string of profanities.
"Obviously, to make it much more convenient to contact his accomplices."
The Arbitrator answered sharply, immediately cutting off the conversation.
"I've heard enough of your whining."
The Departmento Justitiae's arrest squad continued advancing toward that door, subsequently hearing some muffled sounds—shouts, mixed with curses.
Taking a deep breath, the Arbitrator raised his heavy boot and delivered a vicious kick. The door's chain had long since rusted from years of neglect; under the force of the kick, the entire door immediately collapsed inward with a loud crash.
"Who is it!?"
It was a somewhat spacious, square room with exceedingly sparse furniture. The few remaining sofas and chairs had all been ignited, and a low table was covered entirely in paper documents. A bed and a desk were arranged against the wall, while a makeshift kitchenette had been built in the eastern corner.
One man at the far end of the room seemed to have completely failed to notice the sudden intruders, still continuing to pour liquid from an iron can directly onto the desk.
Two other men were currently lifting a window out from the wall. One of them, his eyes brimming entirely with sheer terror, swiftly leapt out into the shadows beyond the window.
The third man raised a pistol, his entire face horribly twisted with seething hostility.
"Die!"
Muzzle flash erupted from the end of the short-barreled weapon, but the bullets struck absolutely nothing. The Arbitrator calmly raised his own weapon and fired, blowing the man's head apart into a pool of bloody gore.
"Capture him. Don't use your guns."
He silently mouthed the order to the others. Consequently, two Enforcers swiftly closed in on the remaining man.
By the time the man actually noticed the disturbance behind him, it was already far too late.
In the very next second, thick, muscular arms clamped exactly around his neck, pinning him firmly in place. Subsequently, the man was dragged completely across the entire room, his face smashed heavily into the floor, and both hands painfully secured behind his back.
The man vainly attempted to resist, but the Enforcer had already highly professionally pressed his knee right into the back of the man's neck, forcing him entirely flat against the ground.
"I... I can't breathe!"
Despite the man howling like this, it was completely useless. The Enforcer continued pinning him absolutely dead to the floor.
On the other side, the Arbitrator ran across the room and picked up a drenched sheet of paper from the grease-soaked desk. When he saw exactly what was depicted on it, the Arbitrator couldn't help but curse under his breath—it was an exhaustively detailed route map of Mining Sector 14, marking numerous hidden mine shafts, with circles and crosses drawn across many areas, completely unknown exactly what they represented.
"Put out these damn fires immediately! Otherwise, this entire place might burn down at any second!"
After ordering the fires extinguished, the Arbitrator walked over to the captive pinned to the ground and forcefully shoved his face upward. The man's face was completely distorted with agonizing pain.
"What were you planning here?"
He asked softly, but the captive merely spat, his eyes literally burning with untamed fury.
"What kind of symbol is this? I've never seen it before."
The Enforcer pinning him suddenly spoke up. He had been staring at the captive's thrashing movements. The dark brown work overalls the man wore were somewhat torn at the left shoulder, directly revealing a crude, jagged tattoo.
"This is..."
The Arbitrator tore open the man's heavy clothing, staring intently at the tattoo—it was a shrieking raven with its wings fully spread, its talons viciously clamped onto a skull.
"...The Raven Lord?"
"The name of my Lord is not for you ignorant fools to know!"
"Still acting tough? Where is Faya? Where did he run off to?"
"I don't... know!"
Seeing this bastard acting so incredibly stubborn, the Enforcer pinning him secretly applied a bit more sheer force, drawing an agonizing groan from the man.
"Don't worry, we have plenty of ways to make you talk. Take him back!"
"Yes, sir!"
After announcing the squad to withdraw, the Arbitrator stepped out the front door.
Suddenly, the combat instincts he had honed over many years made him keenly aware that something was watching him. He immediately drew his pistol.
It was completely silent outside the shack, save for the subtle patter of rain and the whistling hiss of leaking pipelines.
Following this, the Arbitrator kept his gun raised and looked up toward the roof. The gaze he had sensed was explicitly coming from above.
It very well might have been his own imagination, but the exact moment he looked up, he faintly glimpsed a dark shadow dart across the exposed rafters.
The Arbitrator immediately moved forward, raising his gun to explicitly point at the shadow.
Noticing a suspension ladder to the side, the highly agile Arbitrator took only three seconds to scale the roof, instantly raising his gun to aim.
Bang!
A gunshot completely shattered the silence of the late night. The bullet struck the roof tiles right next to the Arbitrator, nearly causing him to pitch forward and fall entirely to the ground.
He subsequently returned fire with three shots directly ahead, but his angle was absolutely terrible.
The very next second, two bullets were fired directly from behind the chimney. The flash of metal tiles being struck appeared once again, violently hitting the flooring.
The exact moment the gunfire rang out, the sound of running footsteps immediately echoed from the lower level. The Enforcers also rushed out with their guns raised, but the Arbitrator had already taken the lead in pursuing the figure. However, yet another volley of bullets explicitly forced him to dive entirely for cover once more.
He raised his gun and fired blindly into the roof tiles, explicitly punching a few holes in the exact direction the bullets had just come from.
Something on the roof seemed to snag, appearing entirely thrown into complete chaos.
Enforcers were already rushing explicitly up the stairs.
"This is the Departmento Justitiae! Cease fire immediately! Raise your hands!"
Imbuing his voice with sheer willpower, the Arbitrator let out a massive roar.
Suddenly, an even louder, resounding crash echoed, practically as if an absolutely massive portion of the entire roof had collapsed entirely. Something seemed to genuinely fall directly into a nearby room.
The Arbitrator rushed forward, raising his gun to explicitly aim, just about to loudly declare his very next absolutely firm command.
But there was absolutely no one left. There was merely the shattered roof and sheer metallic shrapnel scattered across the floor entirely beneath a gaping hole. A battered, heavily damaged homemade submachine gun lay discarded among the utter rubble.
When the Arbitrator jumped entirely down into the room, he saw only a few scattered splatters of blood left completely on the ground. However, it was definitely not a normal scarlet red, but instead a deep, profound purple...