"Hmm…"
Mark threw the corpse aside, after the failed negotiations with Serlina he had realized why their talks had failed and ended in bloodshed
"Nope"
Sending his sword flying Mark cut down another person, he was still acting like he was in the other reality. His personality had fundamentally changed, however here he wasn't the warlord of the 100.000, here he was just another wanderer that had blown in at a shitty station, ruled by petty drug lords and insignificant mobsters
"...So it really is no wonder they don't take me seriously"
Opening his hand Mark retrieved his sword along with a severed head, which he peeled off the blade and fed on for a few moments before he tossed it aside, there was no pretty way to tell what Mark was doing and had been doing for the past 2 days. He was slaughtering, pure and simple
"I should be nearing the ten thousand mark around now"
Mark raised his sword and blocked a metal slug from one of the Towo station security forces elite units, those flies had been annoying him for a couple of hours now. He had caught a few, however it didn't really seem like they feared death so they kept pestering him
"Fuck off"
In one fluid motion Mark cut a piece of metal debris out of a nearby building and flung it at the sniper, the augmented operator managed to block the throw at the expense of their arm, which bent in with a loud snap forcing them to retreat
"Now, next one on the chopping block… Over there"
The area of the station Mark roamed was the old territory of the Livita family whose leadership Mark had decapitated before dealing with the Gila cartel, it had long since been blockaded and evacuated. However, stragglers, security forces and gang remnants still remained in the area giving Mark plenty of targets
"Oh, bait?"
Making his way towards his next target Mark was intercepted by a rain of gunfire from security androids, his sword span rapidly, blocking the accurate fire as he fell back into a nearby alley before he set the blade free to cut up the androids, standing in the alleyway Mark focused on his personal console and checked up on his other ongoing projects
'The pickling looks like it's proceeding nicely, the other pieces are also in place…'
Opening his hand Mark caught his sword that returned to him, then he peeled off the head of the drone operator that had been used as bait and fed on it for a few moments before he threw the served head aside. There were several reasons why he could get away with this massacre, being within a station limited the caliber of weaponry the local security forces could leverage, the location being the grave of the Livita family whose security was already compromised due to the infighting of the remnants.
However the last reason was that this was Towo station, a piece-of-shit rundown station nowhere special, that produced nothing special. There were big players in the galaxy that Mark couldn't afford to fuck with, however none of them cared about this backwater system, not even The Assembled group, the megacorporation that owned the system cared enough about Mark to come smack him unless he touched their personal or subsidiary corporations directly
'Well, if I blow up the station they might still send a few private battle groups after me out of spite'
Letting out a sigh Mark pushed off the wall and headed towards his next victim to continue the slaughter
"Oh..?"
Seeing a pending notification on his console Mark changed his route towards a deserted area where he sliced open a wall, inside the wall he cut open a large shaft, a few moments later a delivery drone flew up the logistics shaft and delivered its package to Mark before it fell to the ground, its internal Ficer crystal circuitry self-destructing to deny data harvesting
"Would you look at that, what a beauty"
Mark picked up the chest rig filled with magazines before he picked up the ballistic rifle, the completely custom manufacturing job and untraceable delivery was courtesy of a particular neurotic weapon nut Mark had been chatting with for the past 3 days, Mark spoke into his console
"You know aiding and abetting a terrorist will get you hanged, right?"
A few moments after sending this voice message, Mark received a text message which simply read
[Ye, fuck 'em. They'll have to find me before I'll let them sniff my farts]
Seating a magazine and checking the chamber Mark checked the analogue top-mounted iron sights before his console vibrated again and he received another message
[Why don't you tell them I made it at your hanging then? I would love to get the Assembled Group fuckfaces on my ass. Fucking them over always gets me nice and warm inside]
"Come on now, I don't plan on getting caught in first place"
[Yeah, yeah. If you get the chance, shoot up an orphanage or two for me, oh, and tell me if the porting on the barrel feels weird to shoot]
"You're one sick freak"
[Says the guy massacring people with a sword, catch you later, blade psycho… Well, unless you show up on the news with your brains painting the sidewalk]
Mark flashed a smile, he was reminded of a few colourful personalities from back when he was a general, those were weapon and armour smiths that all had a few screws loose. In particular he remembered an old blacksmith that had hounded a warrior who wielded a sword he had smithed into battle about whether it felt more like cutting cattle or pigs when he cut down his enemies with the sword even after the old blacksmith got beaten senseless a few times
Now outfitted with greater range Mark's massacre sped up, whether they fled, hid or fought back Mark continued his killing spree
'Hmm… I dose feel a little weird shooting this thing, given the caliber and chemical load, I keep expecting higher kick and muzzle instability, they must have done something funky with the stock…'
"Now then…"
Mark removed the magazine before he manually cycled the action, catching the unspent round he loaded it directly into the magazine before he raised both hands and walked down the street, once he reached a place he knew he was within earshot he yelled
"Are you having fun just watching, or do you feel like listening to what I have to say this time?"
A moment passed before a figure leaped down from the top of a building, a long metal tail extended out and stabbed into the wall slowing their fall, the tail was longer and their entire lower jaw had been replaced with a lipless jaw which displayed long metal teeth fixed in a permanent predatory sneer
"I like what you did with your jaw, Serlina… Did you buy something shady from the gas station, your tail is a lot girthier too"
"Fuck you"
"Yeah, yeah… So are you ready to hear my offer, or do I have to cut another set of limbs off your fiancé?"
Serlina crossed her arms and remained silent to two continued to stare each other down for a while longer before Serlina finally relented
"Fine, let's hear it"
Mark flashed a smile and spoke
"Well, we both know the Assembled Group owns the system and sure they could properly send a low percentage of their battlefleets to the system and flatten it if they wanted. However the actual control have always laid with the underground factions, sure if the the Assembled Group says jump, everybody will ask how high, but if the gangs, cartels, mobsters and outlaws all collectively say jump, people will leap and hope they jumped high enough"
Serlina nodded silently and waited for Mark to continue
"And well, since I've decapitated the leadership of the other criminal elements on the station the Iron Snakes are the final player at the table, so why don't you let me help you out with collecting the chips that are scattered around on the table?"
Serlina's giant tail started waving back and forth slowly before she stated plainly
"I don't need you for that"
Mark let out a sigh, then as half his face melted into gray goo he spoke
"Yes, yes you do, because I don't need the people on this station breathing to get what I want"
Serlina's tail face twisted in disgust as she looked at Mark's face melting, however before she could speak his face twisted and transformed into that of her fiancé as Mark spoke with Jame's face and voice
"Have you ever tried farming?"
Serlina's face lit up with rage as her tail shot out, an instance later it slammed into Mark's side, however instead of sending him flying like a twisted rag the metal broke against his body, Mark answered immediately and grabbed onto the metal bionic before he lifted off the ground and threw Serlina across the street. Right before she slammed into the wall face first Mark grabbed her by the neck as he continued speaking
"I recommend cucumbers for a novice, they're really nice and you can even eat them raw… Or my personal favourite—"
Mark took out his console as he pressed Serlina's face into the wall before he showed her the screen, a live feed of her fiancé, James inside a modified medical pod out in the cold vacuum of space
"---You can throw them in a modified medical pod and pickle them in the vacuum of space until they die of thirst, but what do you think? This is my final offer, fleshbag. Take the gift I offer you"