The Planetary Defence Force soldiers in standard-issue armor stood high atop the purification tower, looking down on the scum slaughtering one another below.
They watched it all with cold smiles.
To them, this was nothing more than fighting between underhive gangs and some mutants.
Yes, the Tearblood Gang did hold a special status, and yes, they had long maintained dealings with the Planetary Defence Force.
But that was in the past.
According to instructions from a certain important figure at the spire, they were not to assist these people in this gang war.
On the contrary, the Wild Dog Gang had received a large amount of weapon and equipment support from them.
At that thought, the squad leader narrowed his eyes, and a trace of contempt flashed within them.
He truly looked down on this scum from the bottom of his heart.
To him, the people of the underhive were as disgusting as worms in a drainage ditch.
The souls of these vermin were as lowly as the place they lived in.
They were the underhive's hazardous waste.
This captain even sneered at the story that the Tearblood Gang had once produced an angel.
Angels could be born from anyone, but never from these scraps as lowly as ants.
And now, standing atop the purification tower, watching these disgusting pests slaughter one another below, he felt immeasurably superior.
This son of a mid-hive soldier had now completely imagined himself as one of the exalted masters standing high above the clouds in the spires, entirely forgetting that he himself was still inside the underhive.
"Can't you see these lunatics?! Do your duty and help us!"
Griffin's furious roar rose from below, shattering the man's pleasant fantasy.
His expression immediately darkened.
"Have you mistaken something, scum? My duty is to guard the purification tower, and then…"
"To kill any underhive trash foolish enough to get close."
After saying that, he ignored the attempts of his subordinates to stop him, grabbed up a lasgun, and aimed it straight down at Griffin.
"Now, in the name of the captain of the purification tower guard, I order you to leave immediately."
"Do you understand?"
"If you do, then get lost, you disgusting maggots."
And after saying that, he even fired a shot beside Griffin as a demonstration.
The laser passed right by Griffin's body and instantly carbonized a large patch of ground at his feet.
The corner of Griffin's mouth slowly began to rise.
And the curve kept growing, until in the end it became a terrifying, unhinged smile.
That las-shot had not struck his body, but it had struck the heart of this lone wolf and reignited the flame that had long lain dormant in its depths.
A mad and stubborn fire of survival flared in his eyes, determined to burn away every obstacle that stood in the way of his continued life.
"Kid, you're fast enough."
He dropped five madmen around Gavo with rapid, precise shots, then pulled something from inside his chest lining and tossed it to her.
"Set that beneath the front base of the purification tower."
It was something like a large capsule canister, incredibly heavy. Even Gavo, strong as she was, felt her arm sink the instant she caught it.
She recognized it.
Not long ago, while cleaning up after battle and picking through the remains, she had casually found it and brought it back.
It had been heavy, and as someone used to making every scrap count, Gavo had figured it would at least buy a large can of food if sold as metal, so she had tossed it to Griffin.
What she had not expected was that Griffin had treated it like a treasure and kept it with him at all times.
So just what had she picked up?
Seeing the question in her eyes, the nearly crazed beast before her spread his harsh lips and revealed a smile so frightening it raised goosebumps.
"Shaped charge."
At those words, Gavo's pupils suddenly shrank.
This thing was an extremely destructive weapon, and Griffin had been carrying it on his person?
"Go. This is our last way out."
Griffin sneered as he looked back at the huge purification tower behind him.
The madmen were converging on the tower from the front.
And if the foundation on that side were blown apart, then the tower's enormous mass and the huge volume of purified water within it would come crashing down and wash away these tide-like lunatics.
And naturally, they could use the chaos to escape.
This was what Griffin had meant when he said the purification tower's Planetary Defence Force would definitely help them.
There were simply two kinds of help: willing help and unwilling help.
Gavo looked at the warband survivors still locked in a desperate fight, then at the bloodthirsty lunatics still appearing in the distance. She gritted her teeth and burst into a sprint toward the base of the purification tower.
This was now a race between life and death.
The fate of the whole warband, the whole underhive, and perhaps even the entire hive city now rested on the shaped charge in her hands.
She ran with everything she had, and the air around her shrieked as it tore apart from the speed of her movement.
That kind of movement naturally did not escape the eyes of the Planetary Defence Force atop the tower.
The captain had no idea what Gavo was trying to do, but he took it as a direct provocation, so he shouted:
"Open fire!"
In an instant, dense laser fire rained down toward Gavo.
Yet whether because her speed was simply too fast or because of some other reason, the beams somehow only managed to outline her body, missing her by the narrowest of margins.
"Useless idiots! Bring up the boltgun!"
The captain roared, snatched the boltgun from one of his men, and began trying to predict Gavo's movement path.
Griffin noticed the danger, but said nothing.
At this distance, if the bolt round was fired, then the purification tower would absolutely collapse.
Of course, that little one would die too.
And in that instant, a thought flashed through the cunning lone wolf's mind.
Give the order immediately. Have everyone break to both sides of the tower, and the moment it collapses, retreat at once.
If he did that, then the First Warband would still preserve a small portion of its strength.
And he would still remain Ironarm Griffin, the terror of the underhive.
This operation would become one of those stories future generations of scum told when boasting.
They would spit out crude underhive curses and praise the battle experience and tactical foresight of the strongest Weeper...
He raised his logging gun, preparing to fire it into the air and give the order.
But at that moment, he happened to glance back and met Gavo's eyes as she darted through the laser fire.
In them, that light that always pierced Griffin's heart was still burning.
And in that instant, his thoughts seemed to return once more to that night.
The lone boy, in the death-filled night of the underhive, fighting for his life against the carnivore that had already eaten his right hand.
Under the dim moonlight, he had looked into the blood pooling on the ground and seen the light in his own eyes.
It had been steadfast and stubborn, the purest reflection of the will to survive.
But sadly, over the countless slaughters of the underhive, through the merciless plundering of other lives, that light had long since been tainted by killing and madness.
And he had changed from the toughest scum into the vilest brute.
(End of Chapter)
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