Marcus wakes up in a haze not knowing where he is. His body is sore all over, similar to when he walked through the desert during his first test. As his memory returns he attempts to get up, causing a sharp pain to stab his ribs and back.
"I wouldn't recommend getting up right now."
looking to his right, Marcus sees Tech putting away his medical supplies.
"Memory might be a little hazy, so i'll bring you up to speed. While making our way to the cargo truck we were pinned down behind the armored jeep the merchant guards used. It was at this point your body slammed into the driver side door from what I can only assume to be a blunt weapon swung by a strength oriented augmentor.
Your plate vest took the brunt of the hit, but was destroyed in the process. Three of your ribs broke from the initial impact. In addition you have a spinal fracture along one of your thoracic vertebrae from slamming into the jeep.
Since your an augmentor these sorts of injuries will heal faster, and cleaner than most people. That being said we are out in the field, so I gave you a stim to accelerate the healing process. You'll be fine to move around in an hour, but I wouldn't recommend getting into a fist fight for at least a week."
"Ok, thanks for patching me up Tech."
"Don't thank me just yet. Every stim a Red Scarf uses during a job is a 250 credit fee. Most of what we use is covered by the company, but stims are expensive to make, and the ingredients are hard to find/grow, so they bill us 50% of the stim cost to keep production going."
"Alright, alright you can stop talking my ear off now."
"Heh, fine. Just get some rest."
Tech picks up his bag, and walks off leaving Marcus to his thoughts.
'Guess i'll check my status, got nothing better to do.'
_______________________________
User: Marcus Callsign: Viper
Condition: Injured(Minor)/Recovering
Active Effects: Regeneration Stimulant - 57min remaining.
Radiation Level: Acceptable
DNA Stability at: 83%
Stats:
Strength 10 (8)
Dexterity 17 (13)
Stamina 12 (8)
Mind 14 (13)
Augments: (Any augment enhances all stats by +2)
1. General Senses Enhancement: Enhances all 6 senses.
Additional Stat Increase: Mind+3
Tier 0
Stability 8
Origin: Lycan/Abomination
2. Strengthened Reflex Time: Enhances Reflexes/Quick movements by 5X.
Additional Stat Increase: Dexterity+5
Tier: 0
Stability: 9
Origin: Hunter/Abomination
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
-details-
____________________________
'My injury is considered 'Minor'? Doesn't feel very minor to me. Stats are also down, which isn't much of a surprise. Hmm? Details?'
Seeing the little details tab at the bottom of the status screen Marcus decides to open it, just to immediately regret doing so.
A wave of information flowed over his eyes, from every small injury, and abrasion to his blood pressure, and hydration level. It described his body in scientific, excruciating detail with nothing to filter it. After subjecting him to that it then described exactly what his augments are, where they come from, and what they do.
Marcus shakes his head and closes his status screen. As Marcus laid there he started to think about how they were attacked.
'They were most likely the same people who were watching them in New Craven. But how did they find us? They would have to know we were going to Dust, and they would have to figure out which path we took out of dozens. Either there is a mole leaking information, or they hired an augmenter experienced with tracking. Considering their was a strength augmentor amongst the attacker it wouldn't be hard to expect a small team of them to be hired to take us on with a group of goons to act as meat shields.'
'But why go through all the trouble to kidnap Cass of all people? Being a new guard was an obvious disguise in hindsight sure, but who is she really? Daughter of the Golden Trails owner? Maybe a diplomat between New Craven, and the City of Dust?'
While Marcus was brainstorming he remembered a conversation he had with Abby the day before graduation.
"No way...god damnit!"
Marcus slowly got to his feet. He had to stop every few seconds as pain shot through his spine, and it was hard to breath. Marcus Hobbled towards Rain, and Vance the Golden Trails merchant, who were currently in a shouting match by the fire.
"WHO THE HELL DID THEY TAKE!"
"THAT'S CLASSIFIED! BESIDES, WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE!"
"OF COURSE THERE IS A DIFFERENCE! If we were protecting a valuable item, or rare resource like you said, we could expect a certain amount of danger, and prepared accordingly! Escorting a VIP is a whole different ball game!"
"That shouldn't matter!!! You are all Red Scarfs, aren't you guys the 'best of the best'!?"
"WERE NOT FUCKING MIRACLE WORKERS!!! One squad against 30-60 enemies is a dire situation at the best of times. What just happened was a shit-show! Now tell me. Who. Were. We. Escorting?"
"Cassandra Craven. First daughter of the Craven family, and third in line to the family legacy."
Both Rain, and Vance turn to see Marcus creep towards the fire with a slow, and pained gait.
"She sat next to me during dinner, and introduced herself as 'Cass', a new recruit. Thing is she felt familiar to me, but I didn't put two and two together until now. One of my friends from training is Abigail Craven, the youngest in the Craven family. Not only do they look similar, Abby also mentioned her sister by her nickname 'Cass'."
They faced Vance to see he was looking down at his feet with a loss for words.
"Cassandra Craven." Rain mumbled. By now, Marcus could see she was visibly shaking in anger.
"If you had told us, we would've sent at least half a company, hell we might have sent a captain to escort her. No one would have been able to muster enough forces within these few days to even have a chance of getting to her. Yet only one squad was hired. You can't tell me Lord Craven would skimp out on protection for his daughter to save a few credits!"
After a while, Vance sighed and shook his head.
"She's running away."
"...What?"
Marcus, and Rain look at Vance with confusion.
"She's in love with Vincent Alvarez, the man that runs the City of Dust. They met at an event Lord Craven hosted four years ago, kept in touch, and slowly fell in love. While Vincent has grown Dust into a large, and successful trading hub, Lord Craven believes he isn't worthy of his oldest daughter.
He wants to marry her off to the Leader of Despot City, Peter Crow. New Craven and Despot have a tenuous peace at best. It would be a political marriage that would help secure relations between two of the three main cities of the Drylands."
Marcus shrugs.
"That doesn't sound so bad. Sure he's not Cass's first choice, but Crow is still a ruler of an entire city."
Vance shakes his head again.
"It's not that simple. Miss Craven doesn't want to marry Crow, not only because she loves Vincent, but because Crow came to rule Despot by controlling its underworld, and staging a coup two decades ago. A man as ruthless as him would make a poor husband.
So Miss Craven decided she would flee to Dust, and marry Vincent in a big public wedding. Lord Craven's hands would be tied at that point. If he broke up Vincent, and Cassandra by force he would look incompetent, and unable to keep his own family in check. Peter wouldn't want to marry her anymore either as she would be considered 'spoiled goods' at that point."
"I still don't see why you didn't hire enough Red Scarfs to properly protect her."
"Cassandra couldn't use her families money in fear she would get caught right away. So she begged me to help her leave New Craven, and I eventually agreed. I don't have enough liquid assets to pay for proper escort on such short notice, so we disguised her as a guard and wrote up a fake equipment request from Dust to make it look like a semi-routine caravan. Instead of hiring twenty normal caravan guards, we hired you guys."
"..."
After finally hearing the truth from Vance, Rain rubs her face and slowly lets out a deep breath.
"Well this is a fucked up situation isn't it?"
Marcus turns to look at her.
"Sure is. So what are we going to do now?"
Rain looks up at him, with a face that screams 'are you serious'.
"Were going to get her back, obviously."