Chapter 4: Scorched Branches Part 1
Under the pale blue light of the Main Hub of the Mercenary Guild, the bustle never ends even in the dead of midnight. In this seemingly endless expanse of tables, screens, and counters, the clinking of glasses and scrawling of papers and notes can be heard resounding constantly into the dark of dusk.
In a secluded corner of the Hub, there sits Aritha at a table for two. Normally, she would be alone, scrolling mindlessly through her phone for jobs with an elbow resting on the steel tabletop, however…
“Checkmate,” Navia says with a soft smile.
“Damnit!”
“I suppose this makes your third loss?” Navia smugly reminds her.
“...Yeah.” Aritha grumbles.
“Don’t be too down, Aritha, you suggested this game after all.” the red eyed blanchette rubs in.
“Now you’re just putting salt in the wound!”
Aritha turns away from her friend with a pout as Navia chuckles to herself.
“Yo. What are you two doing so late into the night?” a male voice pipes up.
Turning around, Aritha finds herself face to face with a smug, white armored, familiar looking dirty blonde haired man.
“Aiden!” Aritha says in surprise.
“Sup, been awhile.”
Aiden turns his eyes from Aritha to the blanchette sitting across from her, “And who might this be?”
Navia gives a hand in greeting, “My name is Navia.” she says simply.
Aiden takes Navia’s hand in earnest, “Aiden, nice to meet you!”
Putting his hands on his hips, he continues his question, “So, what have you two been doing so late in the night?”
Aritha shrugs, “Doing whatever honestly.”
Aiden cocks a brow, “That can’t possibly be it, right?” He turns to Navia for answers.
Navia nods, “We’ve been trying to find suitable jobs for us late in the night, but we eventually gave up. So now we’re playing chess as per Aritha’s recommendation.”
Aiden looks to Aritha, who looks like she’s internally screaming.
He decided to leave her be for the moment.
“...Anyways, speaking of jobs and commissions, I got a perfect one for you two right now!”
Two hands were slammed onto the table, messing up the chess pieces, as Aritha shot out of her seat, “Where?!”
“Woah, easy girl! I’ll share it through my phone okay?”
The tan girl feels a beep on her pants pocket just as Aiden was fiddling with his phone.
Opening the device up, she then reads the contents of the folder Aiden has sent out loud for Navia to hear.
“This is an encoded request officially registered by the Guild under the quest ID: 3090468933. Multiple mercenaries D-Rank or above needed.”
Aritha looks to Navia for confirmation.
Navia nods, “Proceed, Aritha.”
Aritha nods back and opens up a recording.
“Hello,” an unnaturally deep voice greets the listening trio, “this request comes from me personally, a client who wishes to remain unknown. To put forward the issue, two separate gangs, the Doe and the Rabbit Gang, have taken root in the Nyx Town Ruins, District 7 to be precise. I wish for whomever receives this recording to keep your lips shut about this request and eliminate the gangs quickly and efficiently. The pay is 1,800,000 credits. Good luck.”
Aiden looks up to the two girls with a wide smile, “Hear that? 1,800,000 credits!” he excitedly cheered as he already began daydreaming about what to do with such a large sum of credits.
Navia snaps her fingers in front of Aiden, jolting him awake from his delusion, and with her arms crossed and a stony expression she asks him, “Aiden, where did you find this request?”
Aiden nervously scratches the back of his head under Navia’s suspicious gaze, “Um, I just asked a Guild clerk by the counter if there’s any special commissions I could take?”
Navia hums and looks towards Aritha, who has an unreadable expression on her face.
“We’ll get back to you on that offer. First, Aritha and I have to discuss a few things.”
Aiden nods understandingly, “Just give me a holler if you wanna take the commission.” he says as he leaves the two girls to their own devices.
“...Aritha, let’s check in on Ren to see if he’s got intel on this mysterious client.” Navia suggests, already getting up from her seat.
Aritha nods as she follows Navia’s lead to the Communications Hub.
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When the duo reached a Communications Termina, Navia does the usual starts comms, waiting for Ren to respond with an encrypted channel.
“Hey,” Aritha starts with a curious gaze, “why is it that whenever you come into contact with Ren, it’s always in an encrypted channel?” the twintailed girl asks.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Because he’s wanted by the corporations.” Navia replies nonchalantly.
“What?! Why?!” Aritha asks in shock.
Navia hums as she thinks of her answer.
The ponytailed blanchette shrugs in the end.
“I don’t know the exact reason, he never told me.”
Aritha visibly droops, “...Well that’s disappointing.”
Navia shrugs again, “Don’t blame me, I don’t know everything about him.”
The C.T suddenly beeps, catching the attention of the two mercenaries.
Communications Channel established, sending user to channel…
The screen on the C.T lights up for a moment before showing the messy room of a messy haired blonde boy who quickly slides into view of his computer camera, “Yo. What do you two need so late into the night?” he greets.
“What are you doing staying up so late into the night?” Aritha questions, to which Ren shrugs.
“I’ve got a bunch of clients that need my skills, even late into the night.” he shrugs.
“Anyways, what do you two need?”
“Ren, I’ll pay you 300,000 credits if you can look into this unknown client that we received. The encoded folder is in Aritha’s phone.” Navia explains.
“Consider it done.” Ren says as he’s already typing away on his keyboard, working his magic.
“Um, does that mean he’s gonna hack into my–” Aritha starts before suddenly being interrupted by Ren’s whoop of joy, “Alright! Got access to the folder!”
‘Already?!’ Aritha screams in her head.
A couple seconds pass, and those seconds turn to minutes as Ren continues his work.
Then, Ren turns to his camera with a grave expression on his face.
“What’s wrong?” Navia asks, her normally stony face growing into worry.
“Navia… I suggest you come to my house alone. We’ve gotta chat.”
“What? What’s happening?” Aritha perks up.
“Aritha, if your only concern is whether you could take the commission or not then yes, it’s relatively safe. However, Navia will have to join you later.”
Navia crosses her arms, “I haven’t even agreed to the meeting yet, Ren.”
“It’s important, trust me.” Ren assures.
“...Fine, I trust your judgement, Ren.”
Navia turns to Aritha, with an equally as serious of an expression as Ren’s, “Take the commission as you please, and of course bring a companion with you. I’ll join you soon.”
Aritha takes a breath, “If it’s that serious, then go ahead. I’ll take the commission in the meanwhile.”
Navia nods, “Goodluck.”
“Same to you,” Aritha replies as she begins walking away with a determined stride in her step.
“...Are you sure letting her go was the right idea, Ren?”
Ren shrugs, “I said it was safe for her to go, didn’t I? What I’m more concerned about is you, given your plans.”
Navia sighs, “Alright, what’s this gotta do with me?”
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“So you’re gonna take it?” Aiden says hopefully.
“Yup!” Aritha says with a smile.
“Sweet! But… where’s your friend?”
“Oh, Navia? Something came up on her end, she said she’ll join midway so we might as well register her name under this commission too!”
Aiden nods in agreement, “Fair enough, but may I introduce you to my plus-one too?”
Aritha nods happily, “Sure! The more the merrier~”
“I get it if you don’t want him to tag along but– wait, you agreed?!”
Aritha scratches her cheek, “Um, yeah? I don’t often tag with people but I certainly don’t mind!”
Aritha’s expression suddenly takes a 180 for the serious, “Just tell em’ they’ll be getting far less of the reward money when we split it between the four of us, got it?”
Aiden hesitantly gives Aritha a fearful salute, “Um, ye– yes ma’am!” he stutters.
Aritha crosses her arms as her lips lift into a smug smile, “Good, now call your friend, I wanna see what he looks like!”
At that command Aiden walks away shortly before quickly coming back with a considerably tall companion suited in all black armor with silver highlights, quickly reminding the tan girl of her own scarlet and silver highlighted armor. However, there are some noticeable differences in design: The first thing Aritha notices is how balanced the armor looks. It’s quite bulky, but it’s also sleek enough to allow for considerable mobility. It’s spiky, but the spikes are not so tall that they’re a hindrance. It has as many edges as there are smooth surfaces.
Aritha likens the design to be like a combo between her own and Navia’s SoAs. But the biggest standout detail of this stranger’s armor is the crown of thorns embedded on the top of their helmet.
Aritha was so distracted by the alluring SoA that the stranger is wearing that she didn’t notice that the stranger themself had already put out a hand.
“You are Aritha, right?” the voice beneath the armor says, masculine and gravelly.
“Oh– Oh yes! That’s me!” Aritha stutters, abruptly grabbing the black armored stranger’s hand and shaking it wantonly.
The stranger lets out a hearty chuckle as he retracts his hand, “I assume that you were distracted by my armor? Judging from your stare?”
Aritha feels her face getting red-hot, “Um– Uh– Uh…”
The stranger lets out another chuckle. Aritha could practically hear the smile in his voice, embarrassing her further.
She hears Aiden let out a snicker too…
She suddenly feels a strong pat on the back, causing her to stumble a little. Looking up reveals that the pat was from the black armored fellow, “My name is Asher.” he says with an unseen smile.
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“They’re a rebel faction.” Ren says nonchalantly as he prepares his cup of coffee in his kitchen.
“Excuse me?” Navia questions from his couch.
“That unknown client, it’s from a rebel faction.”
Navia hums, “There are many that are out for corporation blood, or even Overseer, so which faction are you referring to? The ones that fight for the slums? The ones that protest for the egregious taxes?”
“Neither,” Ren says as he takes a sip of his fresh hot coffee, “this faction originates from the survivors of Nyx, much like yourself.”
Navia’s eyes widened, “There’s a rebel faction made up of Nyx survivors?”
“What, you wanna join em?” Ren says sarcastically.
Navia shakes her head, “I have my own goals in mind, Ren, you know that.”
Ren takes another sip of his coffee, “But the real question is: Do you want to associate with them?”
Navia stays silent in thought.
Ren takes yet another sip of coffee and sits down next to her on the couch.
“I think you should take the opportunity.” Ren suggests.
“...And why do you say that?”
“Resources, Navia. I checked the faction, named Sequoia out, and they’ve got pretty good stuff in terms of manpower and materials.”
“...What does this have to do with me, Ren?” Navia asks.
“Navia, having some sort of a connection over people, and therefore resources, gives you both knowledge and power. The intel you can reap from this would be incredible.”
“If they have the intel I want.” Navia reminds the blonde.
“Intel is intel, Navia.” Ren answers smugly.
“You’re only saying that because you’re a data broker.” Navia replies with a stern look on her face.
“No, it’s because of my job both as a data broker and as a hacker that I know knowledge is power.”
Navia hums, “...You’re right. But what if I get caught by the corps? Even as a mercenary that would definitely tank my rapport with them…”
Ren snickers, “I’ll cover ya. One way or another.” he says with a wink.
"But–"
"I said I'll cover you." Ren insists, his eyes gleaming with care.
Navia sighs, “Of course, Ren. You always go.” she says with a smile
The blanchette clears her throat, “Alright, I’ll associate with them. Hopefully we can reap a symbiotic relationship from this,” she declares.
“Mhm,” the blonde agrees, “And if it doesn’t work out and you want them to taste your wrath, D.R.A.”
“...Dismantle. Reconstruct. Acquire.” Navia finishes for him.
“And now you’d be the leader of a reformed Sequoia rebuilt in your image.” Ren laughs.
“...Just as I want to do with the corporations.”