Hardshells

Story so far

'Hardshells' is Juice Box's word for the hired mercenaries the system uses to do its dirty work off camera. Justice Light confirms he has heard the term before: they are usually Gnolls, though not always, and they are the standard instrument for disposing of problem indentured servants and NPCs.

The reason they exist at all is procedural. Execution by The AI — the beam from the sky that erased Dante — is quite rare, because the showrunners prefer to keep the AI focused on the crawlers, lest it go primal early. Cleanup work is therefore contracted out. Justice notes bitterly that the mercenaries fighting outside the ninth-floor bases right now are the same class of hired killers, doing the same job under a different banner.

Appearance

Not described directly; drawn most often from gnoll stock but not exclusively.

Role

The system's off-camera enforcers, contracted so the AI does not have to kill non-crawlers itself.

Relationships