Brightstar: Outwitting the Moon Tyrant

I'm not sure if my record is broken yet. Most people would have quit by now, but then again, most people aren't me.

I slid the last round into my revolver and took aim. I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins as I counted down the seconds in my head. The target rose slowly from its box high above me, a person holding a sign that read 68%. My eyes were locked on it, and I squeezed the trigger. The bullet hit its mark. The man holding the sign dropped to the ground, dead. Another victory for justice.

That was the 67th assassination of my career, and I hadn't even been doing this for a year! Of course, there were all of those other times where I was just helping out a few friends here or there, but all of us were pretty good at what we did. That was why we were called The Phoenix Syndicate. No more than 5 people at a time, we operated in secrecy with only our allies knowing about us and never going rogue. Sure, we might have made some enemies along the way, but as long as they didn't find out about our base of operations, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

My mind flashed back to just three days ago when we got word that one of our allies had been captured by the government and was being held in the highest security prison in the solar system: Lunar Maximum Security Prison. The government's best had tried to break her in there once before, but they couldn't succeed after she managed to escape on her own without even being seen by any cameras or guards. When she was first captured there was an uproar among our ranks as people demanded that we rescue her immediately using any means necessary. However most of us agreed that it would be too risky to try and just send someone on their own since they would likely be killed instantly by their security team. But then again, I was known for taking risks like that...

"Ready?" A voice came over my earpiece as I quickly grabbed my backpack and jumped behind cover when a group of guards started running towards me from around a corner ahead.

"Hell yeah!" A man with orange hair yelled enthusiastically from his position across from me as he ran up next to me, his rifle already aimed towards where the guards would come from. "Just give me a second!" He said as he waited for me to slide another magazine into my gun before joining him near their hiding spot so that we could ambush them together once they got closer.

"Ugh..." One of the guards groaned loudly before coughing repeatedly as his team walked past me just a few feet away from where I hid behind a wall while they questioned him about what happened two minutes ago when they were distracted by an explosion nearby while they were still speaking with each other over their radios.

"What happened?" One of them asked impatiently while another one just stared blankly at him like he wasn't really listening at all despite how loud his co-worker's voice was getting while he paced back and forth while still clutching his chest with one hand and holding his radio with the other one; he looked like he was having trouble breathing or something.

"I don't know! It wasn't me!" He said defensively before taking a deep breath and standing up straight again as if nothing had ever happened; he looked pretty embarrassed for some reason... "Next thing I know some guy runs right past me screaming 'freeze' at everyone else."

"Someone went rogue?!" The third guard exclaimed loudly as he pointed his rifle at him threateningly while pressing his finger against his trigger finger nervously; that poor guy looked like he was about to cry... "Someone go get backup!" He ordered before turning around with his hands up when another guard ran past them shouting something about going rogue; it looked like things were definitely about to get interesting...