Snippet #2820094

March 11, 2045, 5:42 A.M. - Plategap, Corporate Kingdom, Texas, U.S.A

The draft rising up from the gap ripped at Máire's hood, the metal grating creaking beneath her weight as she stepped out onto the disused maintenance walkway spiderwebbed between the plates. She tugged the cloth back into place, eyes flitting back and forth as she scanned for fresh energy signatures matching what she wanted. Drones hummed in the distance, scanning the rest of the sites Pendrake had provided while Máire walked into the thickest of it.

The readings filled her HUD like smog. Whoever had been here had been here a lot. Pendrake hadn't lied when he said the plate gap had the highest concentration.

"Arcanist, do something to clear out the older readings," she instructed, one hand tracing along the height barricade.

Sairyn grunted from the other side of the comms, followed by rapid tapping on what was presumably a slate. He slurped noisily at the bottom of his drink through a straw for a long moment before anything else happened.

Gradually her HUD started to clear as staticky energy traces faded from her vision. That was better; it wasn't quite a path, but it did give her a direction to move in.

"That's everything that I can filter out. Everything that's left has a strong enough signature to have been made within the past twenty-four hours. When the Investigators get there I can narrow it down further," he explained, as a formation of Tracers shrieked past. Quite a few of them had flocked around the area, holding vigil lazily overhead as they waited for the drones with more advanced sensors to catch up.

Máire took the rusted metal stairs down two levels, squinting slightly as a blanket of thick cloud cover filled the gap, making her eyes sting. The metal beneath her groaned and swayed in the updraft flowing up from the crater below, causing her cloak to whip and billow around her. Ultimately she abandoned trying to keep her hood in place.

She reached the first of the readings, reticle spinning in the corner of her vision as the data was relayed back to the tower. Two feet from the walkway, in open air; Máire felt it was safe to assume their suspect wasn't visiting this place for the view.

Movement from the left. Máire's hand twitched, a small cloud of silver dust puffing into the air around it, hidden by the clouds forming from the crater below the plate. She took one step toward the source of the noise, then another; visibility was becoming an issue, and without confirmation of engagement…

Well, she supposed Templar protocol did have its uses. "I am Cruaidín Catutchenn with the Templar Order. You are walking into a pending investigation; by authority of the Tower, step forward and identify yourself."

A figure stepped out of the mist, dark cloak billowing around them. They were slender, with high heels that stepped between the gaps in the grating with practiced ease, and a saber strapped to their waist.

And an Italian comedy mask hiding their face.

They lingered only for a brief second, stepping back into the mist with a mechanical giggle that was almost swept away in the gusts from below. Máire didn't hesitate; she thrust her arm out, a sword ripping forward only to fly through empty air. Her HUD blinked as a new distortion reading popped into her vision, followed by the alert of another. She leaned against the railing, looking for where it was.

There, below. Máire threw herself over the edge of the walkway, air whistling briefly past her ears before she hit the path below her. The metal groaned and swayed dangerously from the impact, but Máire steadied herself only briefly before standing and casting her gaze around for the masked killer.

"Hier entlang."

Another sword tore through the fog, and two more energy signatures blinked into her HUD. The murderer was heading downward, toward the bottom of the plate gap. It almost seemed to Máire as if they were leading her toward something. No, away from something? It didn't matter; let them play their game.

Máire leapt again. She spotted the masked figure from the air, and two more swords shot out at them only to collide fruitlessly with the perforated metal grating. This walkway groaned from her landing as well, louder than the last. The killer stood further along the same walkway, a little past the center of the gap. Máire stood slowly, then began walking deliberately in their direction, pulling one of her swords free as she passed. The other vanished in a puff of metal sand.

"Are you having fun?"

"Du bist nicht?" She giggled, beckoning with a single finger.

Máire tossed the sword ahead of her, aim going wide just enough that the tragedy killer could avoid it by just turning to the side. Their face may have been covered, but Máire could smell that smug grin. She darted forward, keeping low as another blade appeared in her hand.

Only for the ground to fall out from beneath her. She threw out a hand to catch herself, her sword vanishing into dust... then something in her eyes flickered, and she made a fist, throwing her hand back instead. There was an instant's hesitation, a brief, anticlimactic silence, and then the sword she'd thrown before ripped through the back of the tragedy killer's thigh and followed Máire down the hole in the walkway, bursting into metal dust before it made contact with her chest.

And Máire let herself fall.