Burn Fast

**Burn Fast** is a comic book written by Igor Tarasov and illustrated by Vlad Gernet, released as part of the Deluxe Edition of INSOMNIA: The Ark. Taking place 11 years before the events of the game, the story revolves around Thyper in what he would soon find out wasn't just another mercenary job.

## Story

Zone B-91. Year 401 After Exodus. Thyper, the infamous mercenary also known as the Bane of Mills, is following the trail of a bounty named Nerrakh, as per Broker's orders. Soon, one of the combat bots that gave him the eponymous title catches him off guard only to be saved by a bunch of reprogrammed repair bots hacked by a young girl named Skyter, Broker's backup. Despite Thyper's reluctance to work in a team, the two of them make their way to the Reservoir: Thyper guesses Nerrakh will try and escape to the Junkyard, for which he'll need to meet up with a man named Hangnail living there. The job to catch Nerrakh comes directly from Urb, where he escaped from the Quarantine Block where rumor has it they were keeping late stage Somniks.

While trying to unlock a gate blocking their path, they hear a not-so-distant noise at the end of the hallway and hide just in time to see a couple of Committee trackers walk into view talking with each other. While discussing what to do next, Skyter's lighter -a Zippo with the words *Burn Fast* scratched on to it- falls from her hand while she was fidgeting with it and onto a giant sewer mahole. Skyter immediately jumps after it and Thyper grudgingly follows.

Thyper realizes Skyter wasn't really sent there by Broker: she overheard a conversation with Hastir and wanted to meet the Bane of Mills himself to be part of one of his stories, like in one of those "pre-war movies". Thyper reiterates he likes working alone because that way only the bad guys in front of you are sure to be the one that'll shoot you in the gut; Skyter explains the lighter was given to her by her father a month before he was shot to death saving her from some low-life scums, pointing out how for some people catching a bullet "is a choice".

Their next stop is a bizarre sight: a room full of bodies. No discernable injuries, no visible signs of aggression nor suffocation. All of them dead on the ground, looking like a corpse. From the corner of the room a shadow reveals itself to be an injured Hangnail, who to Skyter's surprise turned out to be a deformant. He reveals to them how Nerrakh asked to be taken to the pier. Before the two of them could leave though, something happened to Nerrakh's eyes, something Hangnail had never seen before.

Thyper and Skyter get to the edge of a sewer waterfall overlooking the pier, located right next to a transit station named *Eternal Light*. From there they get to see how people taking the boat were actually all headed straight to "the abyss": a huge whole in the middle of the sea of waste, leading to the unknown.

After climbing down the waterfall and making their way to the station they realize the Commissars were faster than them and already inside, interrogating Nerrakh. Somehow, one of them got ahold of Skyter's lighter. Bursting into the premises a short battle ensued before Nerrakh fell to his knees, the objects in the room started floating and visions of a strange land, with two suns, an endless beach and a group of people walking towards a giant bonfire were had...

Thyper wakes up to the abrasive words of Hastir, there to make sure he was okay. It was him who explained how Nerrakh was nowhere to be seen when him and the boys arrived, and how Skyter had already left after being fixed up. While the contract had technically not been fulfilled, Hastir claimed Broker knew things had gotten "a little bit more complicated".

Picking up the *Burn Fast* lighter left behind on the floor, Thyper expresses his desire to drink some booze.