Sweeping Away Black and Eliminating Evil

A single glance was enough to tell that these Tiger Claw Mercenaries had come for far more than a friendly greeting. Clearly, someone had paid these young mercenaries to drive off the unwelcome visitors before them. For newcomers trying to make a name for themselves, the more they wanted fame, the more ruthless they had to be. They had to take jobs others dared not.

"Tychus, don't kill anyone. We still have use for them." Augustus exhaled a cloud of cigar smoke, like the haze hanging over D-4358.

D-4358's industry was not well developed. What polluted its skies were Terrazine gas springs erupting from fissures in the ground, and in a sense, this gas had shaped the locals' crude, irritable temperaments. Many people here suffered from insomnia, with deep bags under their eyes as though they rarely slept well.

Legend had it that when night fell and the Terrazine rose, the Taldarim's dark god would briefly return to this world.

"I've always known how to hold back." Tychus grinned, exposing every bit of the flesh and scars on his face. As this smoking Giant strode toward the menacing Tiger Claw Mercenaries, he looked even more like the villain of the piece.

Other than Tychus, everyone on Augustus's side remained where they stood, without even the intention of moving. There were seven men on the other side, all tall and powerfully built.

Both sides wore Power Armor. Tychus's was clearly superior: an upgraded CMC-400, in the classic Imperial red-and-gold trim. Only, it bore no Terran Empire insignia, but the image of a curvaceous naked woman.

The mercenaries, meanwhile, wore refurbished and modified CMC-200 Power Armor. Their helmets' movable visors, shoulder plates, and greaves had all been replaced with reinforced parts. Compared to the standard-issue Power Armor of the Imperial military, mercenaries