Dagmars plated boot lightly clinked against the empty and dinted can once more as he paced down the equally empty and misshapen alley, with his arms bent at the elbow and hands deep in his pockets. Not much could be seen in the evening aside from your own feet in these parts, no investments had been made to illuminate the backstreets, and Dagmar doubted there ever would be.

However, this was no impediment to Dagmar, who was used to finding his way around the gloomy mazes of civilisation. His eyes had long since trained themselves to adjust, his nose on the other hand had not – the smell was repulsive.

Perhaps it was the festering corpses of vermin or just the everyday shit people seemed to think belonged on the floor, Dagmar really didn’t want to think about it. Playing with his room key to distract himself from his senses, Dagmar twirled it this way and that in his pocket, delicate like, as if it were a blade.

[i]‘Frag, my blades!’[/i] Dagmar exclaimed internally, pushing a rolling stone of probability and reasoning into motion. What if that good-for-nothing Agmar had taken them, run them off to market for a nice price?  A frown protruded onto Dagmar’s face, the only indication to the outside world of his annoyance, he continued to think up scenarios of increasing ill ending. 

To halt this frustration before it consumed him, Dagmar stamped down on the can he had, up until now, been kicking for a few blocks. Flattened into the ground, Dagmar walked past the new addition of trash with his anger released, and turned the last corner to face his hab-slum.
He stopped suddenly.

Perhaps it was his previous track of thought that had paranoid him, but the lights in the entrance room were on. To most this would seem normal, but for the last week or so Dagmar had stayed here Agmar hadn’t wasted his pocket on such pleasantries as a welcoming atmosphere.
The only reason they would be on is if he had company, or he was in a particularly pleasant mood, the latter being less likely. On second thought however, Dagmar didn’t know the man well.

Choosing to play it safe, Dagmar reached up with his hand and pushed back the small power button for his Auspex scanner. He was met by a flare of light in his right eye. 

At least a dozen humanoids were behind the makeshift fence that surrounded the entrance to the slum, almost all of them armed, Dagmar could tell by the lack of heat signature in their hands.

Crouching down Dagmar backtracked the way he came, pulling his collar up and over his mouth and nose; he searched the floor with his keen eyes. After a few false hopes and minutes of search, Dagmar found the crushed can he had left. 

Picking it up and wiping it down on his trousers, he quickly walked over to the alley wall and held it there in his left hand. Pushing a single knuckle duster blade into the can he dragged it down and around, created a sharp metal edge and point.
Shoving this half-made shiv into his knife sheath, he searched the floor once more for the last component. Bending down, Dagmar grabbed a scrap of clothing buried beneath a pile of miscellaneous rubbish. 

Tearing the material into three separate strips, he wrapped the first completely around the bottom half of the would-be shiv, the second strip he zigzagged along the first and the third he looped thrice, pulling the shiv handle through each loop. Pulling the strip tight and knotting it, Dagmar had a weapon of poor quality, but a weapon none the less.

Returning to the crossroads before the hab-slum, Dagmar peered around the corner to confirm the assailants were all still there. Had those two thugs been of some importance? Whoever these guys were, they were not what Dagmar needed.

Shifting his shiv into the sleeve of his jacket, Dagmar walked slowly and cautiously forward down the alley. Half way down he turned into the adjacent alley, and walked toward the door of the block there. A large black man with a bionic hand dressed in white stood glaring at him as he approached.

[color=ed1c24]“Do you have an appointment?”[/color] He growled.

These guys were a small time gang that worked with illegal drugs and the like, Dagmar had used one of their guys a few days ago for the ingredients to his narcotic tranquillizer. It was the only reason he had rented accommodation in this shit hole. 

[color=8dc73f]“There’s a storm heading your way soon, and you need to inform your boss.”[/color] Dagmar spoke as if distressed; on the contrary he was pleased with his quick thinking.

[color=ed1c24]“Walk away before I break you.”[/color] The doormen rudely replied, spittle gathering at the corner of his pink lips.
With a glint of steel and a quick wrist, Dagmar retrieved his shiv from his sleeve and pushed it up against the guard’s throat. The bulge of his Adams Apple pushing against its sharp edge drew a single drop of blood.

[color=8dc73f]“Listen and listen closely.”[/color] Dagmar hissed into the face of this trapped mutt. [color=8dc73f]“A group of men are going to march over here and shoot you all up.”[/color] Dagmar pushed his elbow up against the wall, forcing the man onto his tiptoes for the sake of his throat.[color=8dc73f] “If you don’t ready yourselves, you’re dead!”[/color]

[color=ed1c24]“O-Okay, alright. Get that blade off of me.”[/color] His authority diminished, the doormen retreated through the dank opening behind him.

Leaning up against the wall, with his right boot rested flat upon it, Dagmar kept his eye on the alley way he had entered through, throwing and catching his blade as he did. 

As he waited the faint reverberation of night life dropped from the roofs around him and into his ears. He heard mostly screams, shouts and the sound of violence. After a few minutes of the cringing harmony, a short but athletic man, also black but with bright blue hair pushed the door open and pulled his stubber on Dagmar.

[color=7ea7d8]“Who the frak is this?”[/color] He was joined by five others, similarly armed.

[color=fff79a]“I know him, poison guy right?”[/color] Came a deep voice from behind the others, it belonged to a short and well-built black female, Dagmar nodded.

[color=7ea7d8]“You sold to this stupid vermin-spine?”[/color] The blue haired one barked back at its underling.

[color=fff79a]“Well, yeah. He paid good money, even tipped me for Emperor’s sake.”[/color] She replied, clinging to the hope that she had done no wrong. Her already ugly face distorted into a frown of both confusion and annoyance.

Pushing the cold barrel of his stubber into the bottom of Dagmars still sore jaw, the leader of the group grabbed him by the bloodied collar and pushed him forward down the alley. 

[color=7ea7d8]“Show us this mob then, genius.” [/color]

Dagmar walked forward slowly, followed by the blue haired ego and his five men and woman. He stopped when he came to the end of the alley and beckoned the ego forward.

[color=8dc73f]“There behind those fences, they are gathered.”[/color] He whispered.

Speaking a tad louder than Dagmar would have liked, the blue hair pulled them both back around the corner.
[color=7ea7d8]“How’d you know? Throne, why should I trust you?”[/color]

Dagmar reached up to his head, the ego held his stubber tightly and watched him closely, and pulled off his auspex scanner.
[color=8dc73f]“Check for yourself...”[/color] Dagmar hit the power button [color=8dc73f]“Just hold it up to your eye and look.”[/color].

The ego did as he had instructed and popped his head out around the corner. The others hadn’t moved, they were all still glued to the wall with their guns raised and ready, the woman still looking at Dagmar.

[color=7ea7d8]“Woah. I gotta get myself one of these. How much?”[/color] a look of bewilderment and the words ‘witchcraft’ painted the ego’s face.

[color=8dc73f]“You won’t find any on this rock, and mine isn’t for sale.”[/color] Dagmar said plainly.

The ego was not used to being told no by the looks of the scowl he gave, but neither was he used to charity, and for all he knew Dagmar had just saved him from a gang raid.

Brushing his disappointment aside he signalled his men to advance, but Dagmar stood in their way. Holding his hands up, he told them to stop. Turning to the leader he pointed at him, and then to the shadows of the alley opposite too.

[color=8dc73f]“Hide in these alleys, when they come through the doors, end them.”[/color] He prompted.

Nodding silently, the ego pulled over the female and another to the opposite alley and waited, ready. Looking to the others in the opposite alley, Dagmar spotted the bionic arm of the doormen held a lasgun with a barrel magazine. 

This was going to be fun.

[hr]
Trudging down toward the door of the fence through the grime, Dagmar looked back to see two dark silhouettes of peeking heads. As he approached the scratched metal door, he took a vial from his poison pouch, and began to shake it. A mix of an exotic serpent gland, and many powdered roots from Xeno marshes results in the aggressive poison that targets the lungs, Akpaloli.

Clicking the latch at the bottom of the metal vial shell, he faced the end away from himself and threw it over the top of the fence, hissing as it flew. With a pleasant clink he heard the vial connect, with either ground or person.

[color=f26522]“What’s this? What the frak is - ”[/color] The at first alarmed voice choked up suddenly, beginning to violently cough and choke, Dagmar heard unsettled shuffling and the gargling of blood.

Quickly he ran, heading back the way he came, he heard shouts and yells as the source of the thrown vial was identified as being outside. The door to the fence was brought off its hinges as a hulk of a man, face scarred and head bald, kicked it down with his enormous foot.
Just as Dagmar reached the two alleys and heard the crack of a laspistols superheated beam hitting the wall behind him, he dove into cover and rolled back onto his feet, the fireworks began.

First to fire was the blue haired ego, his stubber trigger squeezed tightly; he unloaded the clip in what must have been record time. Then the doormen, not risking injury, fired his Lasgun blindly around the corner, 220 round per minutes sent fierily toward the oncoming enemy.
After that it was flash after flash of bullet and laser, reloading clips and screaming as the adrenaline rushed into their veins, ferocious merciless death dealing that took Dagmar back to unpleasant memories – and then a lull.

[hr]

The crackling air settled on the ground along with the empty shells of bullets, and no noise was made for some seconds.

[color=7ea7d8]“Yahha! Yes!”[/color] the ego screamed, walking over to Dagmar [color=7ea7d8]“That was crazy, we really[/color] [color=9e0b0f]–[/color][color=7ea7d8]“[/color]

Blood, flesh and brittle bone enthusiastically exploded over Dagmar before he could duck away, a single echoing shot followed suit as the gang leader fell to his knees, a whole blasted through his temporal lobe and out through his jaw which hung from what remained of his face – the auspex scanner he had been wearing all but ruined. The female on the other side almost ran across the firing lane, but the doormen held her back as she sobbed, and peered around the corner.

Another lone shot ricocheted off the wall, sending a billow of dust into the air, the doormen shrunk back into the wall once more. Looking at Dagmar, who had pulled the body of the now red haired leader into the alley, he presented him with three fingers.

Three targets.

Turning to the two men behind him, Dagmar spoke with a hushed tone; they were both in shock and couldn’t free their gaze from the body on the ground.

[color=8dc73f]“Lasgun over there is going to need to get on this side. He needs covering fire.”[/color]

They nodded in understanding and doubled up on the corner, ready to shoot anything and everything, sorrow slowly turning to rage and vengeance.  Dagmar patted them on the back and they leaned into position, spraying the narrow corridor of fire with bullets.
The doormen ran and jumped, skidding into position next to Dagmar, he pulled him close.

[color=ed1c24]“Three of them, one of them have a sniper rifle!”[/color] He informed, but too late.

Another single shot whistled into the standing gang member whose body was flung against the far wall, barely able to release a groan of pain before falling motionless onto the floor.

Taking the stubber from the body, Dagmar also took the leaders firearm and held the two in each hand. Three shots.  Standard clip size for a sniper rifle a civilian could acquire is five, he only hoped this was a standard rifle.

Pulling out his shiv Dagmar cut the sleeve off of the man against the wall and grabbed the Lasgun from the doormen, draping the sleeve on the end of the barrel, through a sniper scope it was an arm. Dagmar edged the gun into view and fainted reaching across the divide. A rattling shot fired and ripped through the sleeve, the scent of burning synthetics filled his nostrils and caught at the back of his throat. 

“[color=8dc73f]He has one shot left. Make him waste it then charge him, got it?”[/color] it had been a while since Dagmar had asked so much of someone in such harsh tones, not since he hunted with his feral tribe. 

[color=8dc73f]“I will come around behind them if I can.”[/color]

The doormen nodded silently as he pulled the corpses behind him, pushing himself against the wall he waited with his Lasgun in hand, the female was still sobbing, but the remaining member was ready to fight. 
 
Turning past the metal door he had held the bionic arm against, Dagmar sprinted through the slightly wider but just as dirty street. His feet heavily landing against the floor, he took deep and steady breaths as he ran, arms working with legs. A tall mesh fence cut off the route he had intended, but it wasn’t the largest obstacle he had ever conquered. Leaping on top of a small metal shack nearby, he felt it buckle beneath him and just managed to grab an overhanging ladder and pulled himself up.

Climbing upwards, Dagmar finally reached the roof, which had seen better days. Hopping between cracks and gaping holes that revealed the underprivileged lives of those that lived there, Dagmar reached the opposite side and swung his legs over the edge, clambering down the ladders until he was safe to drop.

Racing forward he heard the whip crack of a rifle and a chilling scream; he refused to stop running and spurred forward, skidding around the corner.

There he saw the hab-slum, bodies sprawled around littering the floor, a deep puddle of crimson. Two men were flat against the wall with laspistols raised, another lay on his front, a rifle tucked under him as he reloaded.

[color=662d91]“Cover me you thick grieves!”[/color] yelled the sniper at his two gangmen.

A ripping fusillade of red beams sped toward the sniper and shredded him in a flash of burning flesh as the bionic ran forward with his lasgun blazing, turning on the two others as he saw them. 

[color=ed1c24]"DIE!"[/color]

One of them let off a few rounds, two smacked into the doormen’s chest and faint whispers of smoke rose from the wounds they made. Rushing forward Dagmar threw down the Stubbers he held and took his shiv in hand, as he ran he stuttered his step and lunged forward powerfully, sending the blade flying through the air into the back of the nearest thug, whose arms were flung into the air as it connected with his spine.
Falling to the floor the doormen grasped at his chest, his finger still pulled at the trigger however, sending a trail of red into the sky. Dagmar hadn’t stopped running and crashed into the second man, forcing him against his own cover and crunched a fist into his ribs. The man retorted with the back of his elbow which knocked Dagmar back, but he returned with a knee into the same side of his ribcage and felt the bone buckle. Ignoring the yelp of pain, Dagmar dug another fist into his face, and again and another into the arm which held the laspistol.

The man dropped down onto his back and whined deeply, his face a portrait of ripped flesh and his left side ribs shattered entirely.
Dagmar pulled the shiv from the back of his dead friend and stumbled over to the remaining assailant, resting the blade against the man’s chest for a moment he quickly thrust it up and through the minefield of broken ribs to his heart – he fell dead on Dagmar’s arm.