It all started with little jobs around derelict apartment blocks and cargo containers near the docks, places where nobody would be able to call for the police or fight back against their assailants. It all started with a couple of friends, who had met in high school and had taken their teenage angst out on the surrounding public. The public who were either too old or too scared to take action against the pair and let them get away, if they were caught in the act. This was very seldom, they were very efficient in their work and rarely got spotted or antagonised while on a job. As the years went by, the duo became a group of like-minded souls who soon became friends with one another and their tasks got decidedly more difficult. It was not as easy to get away with theft in the more secure sections of the city, but they were relentless and continued with their ideals with fruitful results. Mostly food was stolen by the group as it was not easy to come by for them in the beginning, then objects that could be pawned off for money became the target. A few years after realising that the pawn brokers were offering them peanuts for their finds, the gang decided that going for actual money would be the best way to go in the declining market. They'd been successful taking cash from small shops near the Sex District where everyone has the morals of a drunken rat and had escalated after several months to taking money from office vaults on the outskirts of the Business Estate; a place rich with tall buildings and apartments with people living in them that had more money than sense. The group were not stupid though, they would never go in and demand money. They would wait until it was night-time and sneak in and sneak out, usually unnoticed. If they were caught, those that sprung them could not report them to the authorities because they could never identify who they were. They wore masks, to protect their identities. They shielded their persona from the world that they tried to stay alive in. They call themselves the Masqueraiders.

Since the start of their group, they had always worn masks and they had always used names that they were not born with. They had nicknames and these were used on their stints in case things got out of hand and a chase or panic ensued. The last thing they wanted was one of them to accidentally let a name slip. The police would have no difficulty in finding out where they were if that were the case. After stumbling upon a voice change device on one of their outings, one of the men; younger than the rest but equally as capable of the line of work they were in, suggested using those but it was soon dismissed when nobody in the group could understand a word he was saying through the machine. Keaton Myller, alias Joke, had quipped that he couldn't understand a word Eteocles Poseidon Brund, alias Bracky, said on a daily basis. Bracky lived and breathed science fiction so was forever going on about stories from that realm. He prided himself on being a Masqueraider, if not because he was out actually doing something, regardless of how bad it might be, he got to run with a pack in a mask. Just like his heroes in comics that he read on a regular basis. He'd asked the quiet and reserved Sebastian Rhylar, aka Spider, about the possibility of capes but it had been laughed off as jest when the look he got in return was "you're kidding, right?". However, deep down Bracky knew that he was already friends with a superhero and he admired him so much. That man was Anthony Donovan, 'Tony' to his wife but Vagrant to his friends in the group. A very loving man who had served in the military for years before retiring after a tortuous tour of a disturbingly shocking war-torn country far from where he lived now. He told the others once and never again of what he saw on that last tour, they had all been shocked into silence, even Joke. Vagrant knew that they knew now how good they had it but he would always have to listen to their petty comments about where they lived. It was no ideal place to live, especially if you had no money; which even though the group managed to get by on what they 'found', they were a million notes off being happy and comfortable. Ska, real name Frederick Hoult, stated once that when he got enough gathered together he was going to set off somewhere in search of a better life. That was seven years ago and still he strived to save enough for his dream to be reality.

They knew that the only way to get enough to keep themselves fed, entertained and alive, was to infiltrate the largest vault in the city. However, getting there in one piece was another matter. The island where the vault stood was heavily guarded around the clock and the only way in was across the Chetev Bridge which linked the island to the Industrial Zone's docks. Every day there would be a stampede of armoured cars and personnel that were paid, through the nose, to keep the vault secure and safe. The only way that the general public new about at least. The Masqueraiders, thanks to Vagrant and Ska's Intel from asking around the slums where ex-dock workers lived, had learnt of another route. A much more difficult and dangerous route. One that could cost them their lives.