Crimson Contract – Outer Rim, Planet Vora-Ka: Universe Six.

The air on Vora-Ka was thick with smoke and neon haze. A dying star bathed the planet in a constant, bruised twilight — a place where sunlight never fully reached and law never fully mattered. Spires of jagged metal jutted from the crust like broken bones, home to the worst scum of Universe 6. Drug lords. Weapon smugglers. Flesh traders. The kind of beings who knew Hit’s name — and knew better than to speak it aloud.

A violet shimmer distorted the alleyway.

Time flickered.

And then he was there.

Hit, the stoic assassin, emerged from nothingness as if space itself bent to make way for him. Cloaked in silence, his cold, lavender eyes swept the street. No footsteps. No wasted movement. Just calm, predatory precision.

Outside the Cracked Fang Syndicate's den, two alien brutes flanked a rusted doorway. One grunted, "You lost, old man?"

Hit didn’t answer.

A heartbeat later, they were both unconscious — bodies crumpled in the dust before they could even process his presence. Time-Skip. Efficient. Quiet.

Inside the den, dim red lights pulsed like a slow heartbeat. Music rumbled through rusted pipes. Shadows danced on stained walls. Dozens of criminals played cards, drank luminous brews, and whispered threats in a dozen dialects.

But when Hit stepped in, the room fell silent.

He walked with the grace of a man who'd killed gods and politicians alike — and never missed.

From a throne of synth-leather and stolen tech lounged Boss Kelzar, a slime-skinned tyrant with diamond teeth and a cybernetic spine.

Kelzar laughed, falsely brave. “Didn’t think you’d really come, Hit. Word is you’re picky.”

“I am,” Hit said, voice low and unreadable. “But the target you offered... He interests me.”

Kelzar’s eye twitched. “Then it’s true. You do take personal contracts.”

Hit’s silence was confirmation enough.

Kelzar slid a holo across the table — a rotating image of a masked figure in a long coat, labeled only: "Guy took some precious cargo of mine. Track the thief down and dice 'em. Retrieve the cargo."

Another job, another target. Or was it?