Chapter 5: Scorched Branches Part 2
In an armored transportation truck heading to the ruins of a long since abandoned town, there sit people in armor: one scarlet, one white, and one pitchest of black, and they wait silently as the vehicle hums along shattered roads, meeting little resistance from the elements of the Outlands along the way.
The silence is calm, yet the tension between the mercenaries can be felt in the still air.
“Um,” Aritha starts, breaking the quietness of the truck’s steel chamber, “Asher, why have you never taken off your helmet?”
“...Because we’re in the Outlands. It’s best to protect ourselves from the exposure of Absomist.” Asher says plainly.
“...That’s not what I meant.” Aritha replies in slight annoyance.
The black armored Asher grunts, “Then to answer truthfully, it’s because I don’t like showing myself.”
“Is there another reason? Or a reason behind that reason?” Aritha questions curiously.
Asher doesn’t reply, to which Aritha responds with a sigh and a pout, “Well, I suppose I won’t pry.”
Aritha hears a playful chuckle beside her. “What is it, Aiden?” she says irritably.
Wiping an invisible tear from his white and gold trimmed helmet, Aiden replies, “Nothing, I just think your curiosity is funny.”
Aritha puts her hands to her hips, “Is it now?” she answers sassily.
Aiden responds with an unashamed nod, which only served for Aritha to pout even further.
This time, Aritha hears Asher’s deep and gravelly chuckle echo through the small room.
“Now what are you laughing at?!” Aritha asks hotly, her arms crossing at Asher’s chortling.
“Nothing,” he replies through a combination of a cough and a chuckle, “I just think you’re funny.”
“Wha– now you two are just bullying me!”
The rest of the ride is beset by laughter and heated banter between mercenaries.
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The town of Nyx. A walled town close to Polyphena met by ruin 15 years ago, a time when corporate violence was at its highest. Despite that, it is those very same corporations, namely Plasidax and Charmer, that saved the lives of hundreds of thousands, and it is Lux that ended up bombing the amassing monsters at the close of the Nyx Incident.
In the end, it was the monsters that won on that day, as Nyx was left a desolate and ruined town, haunted by the eruption of chaos and left to the mercy of the Outlands.
In this quarry of destruction, Aritha now walks amongst its ruined roads alongside two fellow mercenaries, feeling the quake of the rotten ground with each step she takes.
“...This is my first time being here,” the twintailed girl comments, “It feels so… tragic.”
“...It is, isn’t it?” Aiden replies.
Asher does not respond. He seems dead focused, not even looking at the scorched ruins of the collapsed and blown upon homes on the side of the street.
Aritha decides to follow his example, though her eyes still shift to the death on display on the sides of the road. Ruined homes, dropped toys and devices on the streets, a multitude of large craters plaguing the road ahead.
“This is a different kind of hell than what I was expecting...” Aritha says as an unexpected shiver climbs up her spine.
But still, she walks on, igniting a bonfire of determination with every step she takes. Confidence, as Aritha knows and is known for, is something she exudes in spades.
“Come on,” Aritha says, looking back at the two boys who seem to be tailing behind, “let’s get those gangsters already.”
She receives a nod from the two, Asher a bit slower than Aiden, but both committed nonetheless.
With nothing else to say as they trek through the dead town, Aritha decides to strike up a small conversation. “So, what do you think the gangsters are here for?” she asks.
“Who knows, probably something important if they’re willing to go to such a dangerous place like this.” Aiden says, now walking in step with her.
“If that’s the case then why don’t the corporations send somebody to stop them?” Aritha questions.
“The gangs are the corporations.” Asher cuts in, his response earning to click several gears in Aritha’s head.
“...What?” she replies in disbelief.
“You didn’t know? I don’t blame you, most would have to figure it out themselves.” Asher says plainly.
“But… Why would they set up the gangs? I know we’re mercenaries but at least we don’t terrorize the civilians of Polyphena…”
“For money, mostly. But they also act as their secretive black ops, eliminating important people and coercing or forcing other smaller companies to do their bidding. The selling of drugs and stuff is on the side, but money is money.”
“...How could Overseer let them get away with this?” Aritha asks.
“Simple: Just don’t let them know. Use any and every tool at their disposal to eliminate the very idea of being found out.”
Aritha turns to Aiden, “Did you know about this?
Aiden nods, “Yeah, though you don’t seem to be taking it very well.” the dirty blonde points out.
Aritha looks away, “I– I have a history with the gangs, sort of. So to hear that they’re being controlled by the companies I routinely work for is…”
Aritha feels a pat on the shoulder, looking back she sees Aiden, his face obscured by his helmet, but she could feel the concerned look on his face, “You don’t have to tell us about it if you’re not comfortable, Aritha.”
Aritha smiles under her own helmet, its amber eyes flaring along with its silver highlights, “Thank you.”
Aiden nods in response as his hand leaves the twintailed girl’s shoulder.
Aritha, not wanting the somber mood to overtake the rest of the mission, puts on a smile through painful memories and asks the boys in the crew with a cheer, “So, how did you two find out that the gangs are part of the corps?”
“Connections.” they both say in unison.
“...That’s it?”
They nod at once.
“Yup.” Aiden answers, “Just connections.”
“What kind of connections?” Aritha asks.
“Any and all.” Asher responds, “Any connection can lead you to important intel, Aritha. In this case, through connections, we have found a delve into the hidden world the corporations don’t want you to see.”
Mystified, Aritha gives a long “Ooo.” to Asher’s reply.
“You’re quite easy to please, Aritha.” Aiden snickers, to which Aritha replies with a huff.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“I know a lot of things, but I don’t know everything.”
Aiden laughs, “Again, because you lack connections, or at least, more meaningful ones.”
“Then can you at least introduce me to said “meaningful connections” then?” Aritha asks irritably.
Aiden then puts a finger to where his mouth would be, and with an unseen grin he replies, “Trade secret~”
“You’re the worst–”
A powerful roar interrupts Aritha, causing the trio to unsheath their weapons in quick caution.
“Careful now…” Asher says cautiously, his steely dark-grey halberd humming with plasmic energy.
“Gotcha,” Aiden replies, readying his mechanical tonfas; several clicks resound from the weapons, revealing a large spike at the end of each baton.
Several stomps quake the earth beneath the mercenary trio, and from the rubble to their right reveals a humanoid head peeking above the remains of a ruined house, its two beady eyes staring at them blankly.
Aritha hitches her breath for only a moment, but her body does not flinch a bit under the pressure of the monster’s gaze.
The monster’s head recedes, and from the side of the rubble comes several human-esque hands, six to be exact, carrying a long, ribbed body, and from this body is sprouts several fleshy wings from its back, and a spindly neck carrying a head that looks all too human for comfort.
“Alert!” Aritha’s visor warns in alarm, targeting the unsettling beast in front of her with a circular reticle, “Category 4 Remnant detected! Numbered 004-0777, Codenamed “Seraph”.
“This isn’t part of our commission…” Asher mutters.
“But it is in our way!” Aritha charges the monster dead ahead, brandishing her silver blades with a scowl on her face.
“I best make this quick–” an invisible force suddenly throws Aritha back, sending her tumbling back to the boys who haven’t moved an inch. “Ow…”
“Seraphs have psychic abilities, Aritha.” Asher says flatly.
“Told you that your impatience will bite you in the ass.” Aiden lectures.
“Hmph.” Aritha picks herself up and glares at the monster before her, having not even flinched at her attempt to assail it.
Aritha unhooks something from her pocket and slowly approaches the monster.
Suddenly, she throws the object as fast as she can, and from the small, spherical object, it lets loose a radiant flash of light and an explosion of smoke, blinding the beast and sending it reeling.
“Confirmed: Target Locked!”
A bang, a scream, and the sound of a heavy body collapsing and flailing on the floor wildly can be heard through the smoke before a sudden silence overtakes the atmosphere.
When the smoke clears, the first thing Asher sees is a crouching scarlet figure holding position with a heavy sniper rifle held tightly in both her hands. The next thing he sees is the obliterated facade of what was once the Seraph, laying limply on the floor, its six arms and grotesque wings unmoving and flat on the road.
A Category 4… killed in a snap like it was nothing.
“...Told you I’ll make this quick.” Aritha says through a breath.
Asher grins underneath his helmet, seeing the sheer potential this mere D-Rank has to offer.
“Good job, Aritha.” he replies, smiling.
Several roars follow the death of the Seraph, forcing Aritha to regroup with the others into a defensive position.
“This isn’t part of our contract at all…” Asher mutters irritably, before a number of Category 1 and 2 monsters emerge from the surrounding rubble, surrounding the mercenaries.
“It’s a horde.” Aiden scowls as he readies himself for the carnage ahead.
“Don’t worry Aiden,” Aritha says with a smile as she unsheathes her dual blades, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall!” she yells as she charges directly for the horde.
“That phrase doesn’t work when they’re all small fry, Aritha!” Aiden yells after her as he cleaves and stabs through monster after monster, humanoid, insectoid, and mammalian alike.
Asher of course follows their example, flourishing his plasmic charged halberd as he decimates three monsters in a single swing.
Asher feels a small grin grow in his face.
So does Aiden and Aritha.
This is fun. They collectively thought, as they continued dispatching the horde of monsters before them.
Slashing, bashing, kicking, punching, soon enough they found themselves in a little game to see who catches the most kills from the horde.
“I’m at 14!” shouts Aritha.
“16!” yells Aiden, earning him a groan of frustration from Aritha.
“...21.” Asher says flatly, making both Aiden and Aritha grit their teeth.
And so, Aritha continued hacking and slashing, Aiden continued piercing and batting, and Asher continued swinging and cleaving. But soon enough the fun ended unceremoniously when Aritha stabbed the head of the last remaining monster.
“Welp, that was fun,” Aritha comments, clapping her hands off the dust and blood that accumulated during the carnage, “Does last blood count as bonus points?”
“No.” the boys say in unison, making Aritha’s smirk turn to a pout, “Aww…”
Holding his halberd over his shoulder, an invisible smirk appears over Asher’s unseen face, “Well, I win.”
Aiden groans, “Screw you, Asher…”
“Say, Asher, where did you learn those skills? The way you handled your halberd doesn’t seem self-taught.” Aritha asks chipperly.
“...I was a soldier once. Served the Plasidax Corporation under their Knight Program.”
“Oooo, why did you leave?” Aritha questions.
“...The destruction of my hometown, Nyx.”
The realization quickly clicks with Aritha, “Oh… I’m sorry…”
Asher shakes his head, “Don’t be, I accept that I was powerless at the time, and at the very least I have power over the present.”
“What do you mean?”
“...Connections.” Asher replies cryptically.
Aiden shakes his head, “Come on guys, let’s stop fooling around and get this commission completed–”
The distinct sound of a bullet slamming into metal resounds as Aiden is sent hurtling across the street and sprawled onto the ground in pain.
“Alert!: Absorption Levels at 50%”
“Aiden!” Aritha shouts as another thunderclap echoes across the quiet ruins, slamming into Aiden again and sending him rolling.
Aritha grits her teeth as she prepares her heavy sniper rifle, “Asher! Cover for me! I’ve gotta find the sniper!” she commands as she gets into position.
Asher nods as he rushes for Aiden while Aritha looks through her scope to hunt down the assailant.
“Bingo!” Aritha thought as she saw the hintest of glints from the window of a collapsing home that shortly vanished.
Aritha repositions atop some rubble to get a better view of the area. Looking through her scope she finds no traces of escape from the perpetrator, so with gritted teeth she decides to go back to Asher and Aiden.
“They’re in that house, over there–” Aritha points and warns, but neither Aiden nor Asher could be found.
“What–?”
Suddenly, Aritha hears the nearing noise of familiar plasma jets homing in on her location.
“An Apostle Series?! Here?!” Aritha screams as she gets ready to run from the nearing cacophony of propelling plasma, but she suddenly finds her ankle wrapped in a dark colored wire right before it drags her across the street.
She grunts in pain as she collides with rubble and stone but quickly finds that the wire has dragged her behind the cover of what’s left of a house.
She also finds that the wire was shot from the wrist of a black armored mercenary, “Asher–?!” He shushes her quickly with a sign and gestures towards the street behind them.
The sound of plasma thrusters are the loudest they’ve ever been, and after a few minutes… they slowly begin to vanish as the Apostle Series machine leaves the vicinity.
“Asher,” Aritha says slowly, angrily, “why did you leave me hanging like that? Why is there an Apostle Series here?”
“I had to act fast.” Asher explains, gesturing to the slow breathing white armored man slumped up a ruined wall. “He’s at 0% AL, and I know the gang’s tactics, that sniper we encountered contacted the gangs, to which they usually respond by sending a warmachine to maximize the efficiency of killing off mercenaries.” he explains.
“You could’ve still warned me in the moment! We’re wearing AoS’ for crying out loud!”
“Well I’m sorry but I had to make a choice in the heat of the moment,” Asher replies heatedly, “At the very least be thankful that I saved you.”
“In the last minute!”
“We can argue about this later, Aritha, for now just know that we’ve been spotted by the gangs.” Asher says irritably.
“We must continue forward with the mission, but one of us has to bail in order to take Aiden back to Polyphena.”
“Are you suggesting that I do it?” Aritha asks hotly.
“Why not you? You’re getting the split pay anyways, and I’m more experienced than you, given that I’m older.”
“...Fine. Just know that Navia is going to back you up midway, be sure to come into contact with her.” Asher nods.
“...And stay safe.” Aritha says as she takes a look over to Aiden.
“Be careful, Aritha. He’s at 0.” Asher reminds the tanned girl calmly.
“...I know.” she says as she picks Aiden up over the shoulder, “I’ll be heading back. Terminate those gangsters for us.” Asher nods determinedly as Aritha walks past him and back out to the street.
Asher is now alone.
“...How troublesome. ”
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“One hell of a welcome home, huh?” Navia says as she continues to gore a Category 2 humanoid Remnant through the chest.
“It’s not a pretty look…” Ren agrees through Navia’s comms.
Dropping the fresh corpse of a Remnant through her blade, she looks across the corpse-littered road and spots what she was looking for.
On the side of the road next to a collapsed house, there lies three distinct pieces of metal plunged into the dirt that lies below the pavement, sticking out from the rest of the rubble.
Navia walks over to them and gingerly runs her hand across the tallest piece of metal with a sort of reverence.
“How long has it been since you visited them?” Ren asks softly.
“...2 years at least.” Navia replies.
She closes her red eyes, and she sees it all, feels it all.
The outcry of townsfolk with the announcement of the last rescue vehicle making its departure, sealing their fate with the monsters within.
The bombing, the screams, the yells, the fire all feeling too real.
She recalls how her mother hugged her and her brother in her room as she watches her father be eaten by a pack of “Direwolves” right in front of her.
She recalls the bomb that decimated her home.
How she escaped the rubble that killed her mother and trapped her brother.
How she stared at her brother suffocating, and how she was helpless to do anything about it.
How she ran, braving the exposure to Absomist and miraculously retrieving a protective suit from a fresh corpse nearby, the suit being all too big for her small 9 year old body.
How she walked endlessly, without food or water, weakened head to toe, wading through the Outlands until she finally met him, a mercenary.
He picked her up, and got her to Polyphena…
Navia opens her eyes again, rage and bloodlust burning across the scarlet in her eyes.
A familiar hatred.
“Navia?”
“Ren… It’s time I move on with the commission, don’t you think?”
“...Sure is, Navia. Be careful.”
“...Noted.”