While the Larkinsons outside the pirate stronghold began to resist some of the darkness, the interior of Ulimo Citadel began to grow bleaker and bleaker!
The darkness slowly bred some strange grey apparitions. Driven by cruel instructions, these ghosts that took on the form of deceased pirates hunted down every human inside the public marketplace.
The grey ghosts easily managed to fell the many shopkeepers, technicians, administrators and other ordinary workers that called Ulimo Citadel home. While a portion of these native Nyxian residents were armed, their lack of combat training and poor equipment failed to keep them alive for long.
Only the Nyxian residents who banded together or sought shelter from a friendly gang managed to remain alive for some time longer.
However, each person that grouped together also brought their enemies along. The pirates who sheltered the lightly-armored residents out of friendship discovered that their group needed to fend off a lot more grey ghosts than before!
Though there were some odd pirates at Ulimo who possessed uncorrupted hearts, many other pirates straightforwardly ditched their useless baggage.
Anyone who wasn't strong enough to repel the grey ghosts wasn't worth bringing along!
The streets and structures of the public marketplace became filled with dried and lifeless husks. The deaths of thousands of Nyxian residents and pirates underscored the great price that needed to be paid to sustain this dreadful anomaly.
In fact, even the Dry Snakes and other pirates faced attacks as well! The grey ghosts did not possess the ability to discern their opponents. They attacked innocent bystanders, hidden enemies and friendly pirates alike!
Fortunately for the latter, Grand Protector Roshaw always insisted that all of his subordinates be equipped for battle as frequently as possible.
The half-prepared pirates easily fended off the sporadic ghost assaults, though the same could not be said for the subordinate forces of the Dry Snakes.
Much of the Xona Stalkers, Farmund's Own, Rapid Qlinters and the outfits that comprised the Ulimo Militia had been completely caught off-guard!
Though many of these pirates wore armor and carried weapons regardless, much of their support personnel did not, causing them to die unjustly!
In order to keep this powerful move as hidden as possible, Grand Protector Roshaw told no one about the deal he made with the Watchers of the Hallowed Abyss Temple.
Though many allies of the Dry Snakes and the Grand Protector grew furious, the constant attacks by the grey ghosts and the communications blackout prevented them from conveying their discontent.
At the heavily-defended security checkpoint that barred most people on Ulimo from accessing the restricted center area, an intangible cat quietly phased through a wall.
Lucky, clad in his Misfortune Harness, carefully stalked forward. He kept most of his body phased through a solid object, taking care only to peek out his head in order to observe his surroundings.
A lot of large machinery filled the interior of walls. Large power generators, capacitors, regulators and other equipment all made sure that the large turrets placed outside remained in working condition.
What discomforted Lucky somewhat was the large amount of pirates on guard. Armed and armored pirate infantry vigilantly patrolled the interior while technicians and experts constantly kept their eyes on the integrity of the various weapon systems.
Sabotaging these systems without triggering some sort of alarm was impossible. All of the previous targeted sabotage were planned ahead of time. The Black Cats prepared custom hacks and specific suggestions on which components to break or tamper with in order to deactivate a system without exposing to the pirates that anything was amiss.
Since the Black Cats never intended to sabotage these checkpoint defenses, Lucky had to resort to blunter ways to deactivate the deadly turrets.
There was one condition that made it a bit easier for Lucky to do his work without interruption.
The ghosts that assaulted everyone inside the pirate base also plagued the pirates here as well!
The Dry Snake guards were well prepared though. Each technician wore combat armor or at least a protective hazard suit and the abundant number of guards prevented the few ghosts who spawned inside to do any serious harm.
"Careful with where you are shooting!" A foreman warned a couple of guards who just shot a ghost. "I told you time and time again to watch the direction where you are shooting your guns. You almost shot one of our power connectors!"
"Sorry, boss."
Between the occasional noises of weapon discharges, Lucky silently phased through the floor until he reached underneath an important power generator.
Having sabotaged many similar models of power generators, the stealthy cat did not need to know the actual design of this device to destroy it from within. His claws briefly phased back into the material realm, allowing them to destroy several important processors!
Alarms immediately began to ring. The power generator kept working as normal as its backup processors and other systems provided some crucial redundancy.
"Meow!"
If destroying one part was not enough, then Lucky would just have to take out the backups as well! He briefly searched around until he finally eliminated the other three critical processors!
Without the processors keeping every system under control, the power generator automatically initiated its emergency shutdown procedure. Unless the pirate technicians replaced one of the broken processors, the device would stay shut!
Though it wouldn't take that much time to get the power generator back to work, Lucky hastily moved on the next important machine. He needed to sabotage as many defenses as possible in a very short amount of time! It didn't matter if the pirates were able to repair some of the damage within an hour, because Ketis and the Mirror Raiders didn't intend to stall so long!
As the last major defensive system went down, some of the pirate guards who shot down yet another annoying grey ghost still remained on high alert!
The ghosts only cared about killing people. They never targeted any machines!
"Wait, what's that?"
"MEOW!"
"Ack!"
An armored pirate officer clenched his neck as a swift energy claw had cut straight through the gorget of his combat armor that shielded his neck! Blood poured from the horizontal cut as the man quickly collapsed.
"We're under attack!"
"What just killed him?! I didn't see anything?"
"My suit sensors detected some sort of black cat!"
The pirate guards quickly became disarrayed as they tried their best shoot and guard against the black cat that relentlessly launched guerilla attacks against them. Sometimes, laser beams or ballistic rounds passed through his phased body, which made it increasingly harder for him to maintain his current form.
Eventually, Lucky momentary couldn't hold it any longer as he endured too many laser attacks than he could bear. Once his body fully phased back into the material realm, half-a-dozen attacks struck the surface of his armor!
Due to the thin Breyer alloy plating of his Misfortune Harness, the cat suffered no meaningful damage. Even so, the repeated physical rounds impacting his frame kept interrupting his course and constantly pushed him back!
"Meow! Meow!"
As dozens of pirates all focused their firepower on bullying the black cat, most of the defenders failed to discover the approach of a squad of pirate soldiers.
The squad approached vigilantly, but kept their weapons expressly pointed away from the defenders. The alloy armbands and other markings on their armor signified that the newcomers were members of the Ulimo Militia.
The pirates on guard against the grey ghosts pointed their weapons at the approaching group.
"Halt! This checkpoint is off-limits to anyone except authorized personnel! Unless you have orders or the right permits to pass through, get out of here!"
"Wait, don't shoot!" Ketis's armored form stepped forward. She even slid her helmet open in order to expose her face. "Ever since these dark clouds appeared around us, the streets have become dangerous! All of us had to fight past hundreds of ghosts in order to reach here. Can't you let us in? We're part of your militia! We can still fight!"
The patrol leader expressly pointed his rifle into Ketis' face. "Stop right there! Don't get any closer! You militiamen don't belong here! There are hostiles in our midst and we don't need trash like you getting in our way!"
"Can't you make an exception for us? We're the Mirror Raiders! Our mechs helped fend off the Larkinson Clan earlier!"
As Ketis kept stepping forward despite the urgings of the pirate leader, a couple of ghost pirates emerged out of the dark fog. Armed with cheap rifles, the ghosts shot at both the Mirror Raiders and the pirate guards on patrol.
Without receiving any orders, the pirate guards all shifted their aim towards the attacking ghosts and took them out within seconds.
Even though some of the ghosts that appeared attacked the Mirror Raider soldiers in the rear, none of the disguised Larkinsons turned around to wipe out the apparitions.
Instead, the Mirror Raiders immediately took advantage of the distraction afforded by the ghosts! They pointed their rifles at the pirate guards they had already marked and fired their rifles without hesitation!
"Ahh! Traitors!"
"Have you gone crazy?!"
Though the pirate leader reacted the fastest and brought his rifle back to bear on Ketis, his target had already closed her helmet!
Instead of shooting her opponent with her laser pistol, Ketis instead charged forward! Her upgraded Red Rising Dragon fearlessly withstood every attack as it rapidly allowed its wearer to reach within knife-fighting distance to the pirate leader!
A sharp cutlass swung and cut off one of the pirate leader's arms!
"Ahhh!"
The combat armor worn by the victim hardly offered any resistance against Ketis' attack. With just a single swing, she managed to disarm and cripple the pirate who refused to allow the Mirror Raiders to step forward!
Her momentum didn't halt. An instant after cutting off the arm, her armored bulk collided against the pirate leader's lighter suit of combat armor. The unfortunate collision victim immediately bounced backwards and slammed against a wall!
"Die!"
Ketis fearlessly chopped the closest pirates around her. With each swing of her cutlass, she always managed to cut through the armor of her opposition. While the Dry Snakes equipped their foot soldiers with better gear than usual when it came to pirates, none of them offered any meaningful resistance against a woman with vastly superior gear and combat training!
Blood splattered in every direction as Ketis single-handedly spread panic throughout the ranks of the pirates. Her fellow Mirror Raiders managed to shoot down their targets with greater ease as a consequence!
In just thirty minutes, the Larkinsons wiped out the entire pirate patrol!
"Don't slow down, men!" Ketis called as she swung her cutlass at the side. "Lucky is still keeping them busy. Let's go and wipe out the rest!"
She didn't wait for her fellow Mirror Raiders to move forward. Instead, she utilized the full capabilities of her upgraded combat armor and charged forward with indomitable might!
Though no pirates were near, she snapped up her other arm and fired the compact laser pistol that Ves had gifted her beforehand.
A bright red laser beam blasted out of the muzzle of her modestly-sized pistol and burned straight through the armored forms of three pirates in the way!
"Wow! No wonder Ves wanted to give me this gun!"
Ketis fired a couple of more shots but stopped when she neared another group of pirates. She preferred to cut her opponents down.
The more she killed, the closer she came to understanding the essence of swordsmanship.
The closer she understood her own relationship with swords, the more ideas she formed about possible designs!
To her, killing was the best way to gain inspiration! Each blood splattered seemed to contain a different design idea and each corpse that fell in front of her way seemed to light her path forward!
With all of the heavy turrets that could have posed a threat to her being taken out of commission, Ketis exhibited no fear against the remaining pirates!
