Chapter 6: Black and White
“Targets found. Five of them. Wearing Mass Produced Protection Suits; weak in preventing direct blows but effective enough in warding off the Absomist. Armed with standard issue AB-99 Assault Rifles… A non-issue.”
Asher stealthily walks out from the corner of the dark alleyway he was hiding within, pistol in hand as his armor’s targeting system works for him as he slowly closes the distance between the unaware gangsters.
Alert!: Targets locked!
Five shots, and not one scream. Swift and efficient.
Crouching next to the corpse of one of them, he realizes that it’s a Rabbit Gang member, in other words, a pawn of Lux.
“Hey! I heard something over there!” Asher overhears from afar as he quickly jumps back into the shadows.
The assault on District 7 gladly begins with him. Now all he has to do is to find the heart of the Rabbit and Doe gang’s operations.
Alert!: Incoming encrypted communications channel initiated by: Leader.
“Hello, Asher.” a mature female voice says through the channel.
“...Leader.” Asher answers plainly.
“I am currently in the depths of enemy territory, Leader; so what is it that you desire of me?”
“A simple check up on my most reliable mercenary is all.” the Leader replies.
Asher chuckles “What is this really about, ma’am?”
“Straight to the point as always, huh?” the Leader humors before shifting her tone to be much more serious.
“My team failed the mission in the ruins of Alba. The corporations have successfully retrieved the first piece of the Stellar Key.”
“...It’s not your fault, Leader Delphy. Given that Alba’s ruins are mostly desolate and intact, it would be much easier for them to locate and retrieve it.” Asher assures.
He could feel the invisible shake of Leader Delphy’s head, “None of that now. Just ensure that they don’t retrieve the one in Nyx.”
“Understood.” Asher replies.
“Remember, if we succeed in grabbing the three pieces before they do, then we’ll have a leg up on the corporations: a way to access the Stellar Breaker.”
“...I understand the weight of this mission, ma’am.”
“I know you do, Asher.” Leader Delphy says before clearing her throat and swapping back to a more casual tone.
“By the way, how is your little “subquest” going along?” she asks.
“...Aiden had to withdraw due to an injury, with the red girl Aritha accompanying him.”
“Oh? What happened?”
“...Sniper.” Asher grumbles.
“Oh, well about the violet one?” Leader Delphy asks concerningly.
“Still not here.”
“Oh, then what is your personal evaluation of the two?” Delphy queries, forcing Asher to stop and think for a bit.
After a while, he answers, “Aritha will remain loyal to us so long as we pay her money, and judging from her skills she would be quite the useful asset to us, even if she is part-time.”
“Now for the violet one, Navia… She’s scheming something behind everyone’s back; I could tell from her eyes. I don’t think she will dedicate herself to us, and she may betray us if she deems it fit… I find her suspicious.”
“A fair assessment.” Leader Delphy agrees.
“But if we take the gamble… then perhaps both Navia and Aritha will make wonderful assets, don’t you think? For me, I personally believe Navia is on our side, especially given her background.”
Asher hums, “That Navia girl… She has potential, but I still don’t trust her.”
Asher hears a laugh from the other side of the receiver, “Don’t worry, I’ll handle it if she does turn out to not be one of ours.”
Asher hums again, “Fair enough.”
“Mhm. Well, see you later, Asher. Stay safe.” Leader Delphy says, Asher feeling her invisible wave of goodbye.
“See you soon, Leader Delphy.” he replies as he shuts off comms.
“Now… to continue with the mission.”
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“Found it,” Navia mutters, standing atop a building with a hand to the side of her head, “the heart of the gang’s operations.”
Overlooking the scenery before her, she spots a multitude of bipedal piloted mechs armed with guns and floodlights searching across the ruins of the old Nyx Town Plaza, not nothing but debris and barely held up pieces of structure.
To her left, she sees a group of searching gangsters.
To her right, an active Apostle Series warmachine, similar to the Overlord model she previously fought, except armed with a plasma shield and a plasma lance. A Centurion model.
“Do you recognize this place, Navia?” Ren asks, watching the scenery through the blanchette’s visor.
“I recall that this place was once Nyx’s plaza.” Navia replies.
A silence settles between the two, the gears in Navia’s head ticking away, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together as to why the companies are interested in this little place.
“Operation Nightfall and Operation Daybreak…”
“What was that, Navia? You whispered something?”
“Operation Nightfall and Operation Daybreak.” Navia says out loud, “Those were the names of the operations to sabotage Nyx and bombard it respectively.”
Why’d you bring that up?” Ren asks curiously.
“Do you recall the reason as to why those operations exist?”
“Hmm, Operation Nightfall was a joint operation between Charmer and Plasidax, wherein the plan was to bring Nyx to ruin by disabling the photon barrier that surrounded it, letting Remnants and Absomist in, and then they sweep up the place in search for a classified object, after the fact. Of course, while saving money in the process by not evacuating everyone from Nyx.”
“For the latter, Operation Daybreak was a counter operation by Lux, ordering the bombardment of Nyx so that no one party would win. The object ended up being lost to the bombs.”
“Do you remember what that classified object is?” Navia asks.
“...A piece of the Stellar Key, a gateway to access the legendary Stellar Breaker.”
Navia turns around to see a man clad in black and silver, his arms and legs dripping in blood. “Talking to an infamous intel broker, are you?” Asher says plainly.
Navia scoffs, “And you’re a rebel, why does that matter?”, she rebukes.
Asher huffs, “Of course you’d know that from the intel broker. So you figured out the plan?”
Navia crosses her arms, “Sequoia wants more firepower, in other words, more mercenaries to do their dirty work against the corpos. You’re testing both me and Aritha to see if we suffice as pawns.”
Navia feels the brow raised by the man before her, “And you agreed to come to the mission despite that?”
Navia nods, “We can discuss the details of me and your faction’s “relationship” later, for now, focus on the mission.”
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Asher nods as well, “Fine.”
He eyes the Apostle Series warmachine floating mindlessly around the vicinity, searching for anyone who dares interrupt the gangster’s work.
Asher’s eyes narrow. “Navia, what’s your plan?”
“Do you have any bombs?” she asks.
“Three.” Asher responds, jingling the little marble sized explosives clutched onto his hip.
“Good enough.” Navia’s eyes narrow at the three mech bipeds walking purposefully in the distance, their large metal feet stomping across vast amounts of rubble and crushing them underfoot.
“The plan is simple: Keep the mechs and the gangsters busy while I deal with the warmachine.”
A loud, heavy metallic click resounds from behind the two scheming mercenaries.
“You two aren’t planning anything.” a voice says, his tone deep but teeming with arrogant bravado.
“That voice…” Asher mutters.
Asher and Navia turn around to see a man clad in bulky white and red armor holding a heavy sniper rifle in one hand and a sword in the other, its blade made of pure pulsating light blue plasma.
But upon looking at Asher properly, the white knight’s demeanor seemed to shift, down to his posture.
“Anton.” Asher addresses the white armored man.
“Asher.” Anton sneers, pointing the barrel of the rifle at the black armored man.
“Decided to join the Knights Program from Plasidax, have you? After betraying our cause?” Asher admonishes.
Anton scoffs, “Really gotta rub it in? What was I to do in that situation? Die? I had to give up Sequoia for my own survival!”
“And you joined them outright despite that?”
“They have a damn noose around my neck!” Anton yells.
Navia feels the anger welling up Asher.
“You got 14 of our people killed! Survivors of Nyx killed again by the corps!”
…She decided that she had enough.
“Both of you shut up!” Navia shouts, drawing a gun and pointing it at Anton’s head.
“I don’t care what either of your dramas are, the fact that you stand here with your weapons pointed at us means that you’re an enemy!”
Anton tuts, “Stupid girl, what are you doing this for? Marking yourself as a target of the corps and throwing your life away.”
“Don’t lecture me, I’m just doing this for the money.” Navia warns.
“By knowingly taking part in an operation of a rebel faction? You’re marked for death, girl.”
Navia remains silent, but resolute.
Anton sighs.
“You’re up against a wall of despair, girl. So for your sake, I’ll give you an out.”
Anton drops his weapons suddenly… and gives out a hand.
“Take my hand, and we will pretend like this never happened. Your rep will never be tarnished, and this farce of a commission will be stricken from your records.”
“Otherwise, prepare yourself.”
Navia eyes the white cladded knight’s hand. She looks to her side to see Asher doing the same.
Navia’s eyes narrow at the gun in her hand, still raised.
She fires, hitting Anton's head dead on. But he doesn’t even flinch, his armor absorbing the blow so effectively.
“...So be it.”
Anton lunges at impossible speeds, plasma blade drawn, forcing Navia to take the blow–
But not before Asher pushes her out of the way, taking the hit for her.
“Navia, go! I’ll take care of Anton.” he says, his halberd locked in place with Anton’s plasma sword.
Navia nods as she hops down from the collapsing building, leaving Asher and Anton alone.
“I honestly should’ve expected the sniper to be you of all people. Only you would be able to snipe that fast and accurately.” Asher said through gritted teeth.
“Thanks for the compliment. Unfortunately, I’m not taking any from you.” Anton responds, kicking off from the standstill and retrieving his sniper rifle from the ground, firing thrice in quick succession.
One. Two. Three. Asher dodges them all and charges with his halberd in hand, clashing once again with Anton’s plasma blade.
“I don’t want to have to do this to you, Asher.” Anton says heatedly.
“Too bad.” Asher disengages and swings the blade of his halberd right onto Anton’s head, the hit sending Anton flying.
But Anton lands on his feet, and as he does he stares Asher down with rage.
“Damn you, Raven of Sequoia.”
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“That’s the third mech down, great job– Navia, watch out!” Ren warns as a blade of plasma just barely misses the blanchette’s neck, the heat pressing through her armor.
Navia swerves to the right, using the weight of her greatsword to gain further distance, and once again the Apostle-Centurion’s plasma lance strikes where it shouldn’t have, instead hitting the rocky ground where the armored girl should have been.
“Heh,” Ren chuffs, the smile on his face audible through his voice, “this thing is purely melee focused, you should be able to bring it down quickly, Navia.”
Enraged, the white warmachine propels itself in a jousting pose directly at Navia, plasma shield raised for extra protection.
“And if I don’t bring it down?” Navia replies hotly through a snarl.
“You will.” Ren reassures
The pale girl dodges right at the last second and strikes the machine on the back, causing it to lose balance midair.
Using the opportunity, Navia brings a downward slash on the machine, destroying one of its white wings.
Navia ducks as the machine spins around to hit her with its plasma lance, leading to a devastating rising slash from Navia, sending the machine spinning in the air and hitting the ground in a loud metallic clang.
Navia chases the downed machine down to finish it off until a hail of bullets struck her from her left, four gang members wearing Mass Produced Protective Suits slowly approach her whilst firing their weapons wantonly, hoping the suppressive fire will pin her.
“Navia! Bombs!”
“On it!” the blanchette yells as she lobs a small steel ball towards the direction of the suppressive fire.
The ball passes through the pouring bullets, swerving past each and every one before landing at the feet of the gangsters.
“Bomb!” one of them yells out in horror before the ball violently explodes in a fiery plume, silencing the firing squad for good.
“Good, now it’s time to– Navia!” Ren yells as the girl is sent flying from a well placed slash of the plasma lance.
Despite the shaky flight of the Apostle-Centurion, it’s still barely functional, functional enough to commit to one last charge to kill the armored human that had tarnished its pristine white plates of steel.
Navia rolls out of the Centurion’s way, but gets smacked again by the plasma lance, once again sending her reeling back.
“Ren… my absorption levels…” Navia says shakily through shallow breaths.
“I know, Navia, but you can pull through.”
Navia nods, her eyes narrowing at the damaged warmachine staring her down, its blue lights flashing and dimming threateningly.
The machine charges shield-first, which Navia takes advantage of by jumping and kicking off its plasmic surface.
“At this angle… Its head is exposed!” Navia thought as she threw a bomb in midair, the small object successfully hitting the top of the Apostle-Centurion’s head, and moments later it exploded, blasting the machine apart and sending Navia flying through the air.
With several groans of pain, she skids across the harsh ground, hurt but relieved.
“See? Told you you’ll pull through.” Ren says with an audible smirk.
“We’re not done yet, Ren.” Navia growls, glaring at the number of armed gangsters steadily approaching her from a distance.
“Sweep 'em up, Navia.”
“Roger.”
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Breathing heavily, the insurgent in black and the knight in white glare at each other from opposite ends of the ruined roof.
“You’re good… As good as I remember you to be.” Anton says through heavy breaths.
Asher does not respond as he clashes again with Anton, halberd to sword.
“But that makeshift equipment… is nothing compared to the blade of the corporations!”
Anton lifts his left offhand and points a fist at the side of Asher’s face, and from his wrist the white plates lift open to reveal a
small barrel.
“Eat it, Asher!”
The barrel comes alive, firing a bullet of plasma straight onto Asher’s face, knocking him just enough for Anton to overcome the bind and deliver a stab right into Asher’s chest.
Alert: Absorption Levels at 50%!
“Tch, Anton…”
Asher steps back with the point of his halberd held up defensively against the approaching knight.
Anton lunges again, with Asher quickly countering and parrying his aggressive swipes with thrusts and sweeping slashes.
“What does being a rebel get you but false hope and death?” the white knight taunts.
“Hope is hope regardless, and up against the monsters of the corporation, you need all the hope that you could get.” Asher counters.
“But why continue to fight? The destruction of Nyx was 15 years ago, give it up.” Anton growls.
“So that a tragedy like that never happens again, and so that we could finally bring the corporations to justice.” Asher says with pride and determination.
“...wrong answer, idealist.”
Anton charges again, even more wildly this time–
A charge that gets suddenly interrupted by a massive greatsword that knocks the white knight back several meters.
Navia roars as she thrusts herself right into the stunned knight’s blindspot, hitting him again with a great slash of her sword, knocking him off the roof and onto some nearby rubble.
But just before Navia could jump down to finish the downed knight off, a hand suddenly grips onto her shoulder, startling her.
“Wha–”
She turns around to see Asher, shaking his head.
“Leave him to me.” he says softly.
Navia wasn’t going to protest, “Okay, just don’t die. I’ve done my part and cleared the commission while you were fighting.”
Anton nods, “Thanks.” he replies as he jumps down towards the fallen knight.
Navia shakes her head and looks towards the horizon of the ruined city, the sun now starting to peek through the dark ashen skies of the Outlands, the scattered rays of the sun slowly painting the inky blackness with tinges of orange.
‘Home sweet home…’ Navia thinks to herself somberly.
Navia decides that wallowing in hopelessness is and homesickness does nothing for her but fill up useless space in time, so she decides to walk to the edge of the ruined roof and peer into whatever Asher is doing to Anton.
But when she got there, Asher had already laid down his halberd on Anton, the white knight’s armor torn open from the chest from a single strike of Asher’s plasmic polearm.
Deciding not to watch the rest of the show, she decided to sit down and stay put watching the dark turn to light.
“Say… Navia, how are you feeling?” Ren pipes up, his voice soft.
Navia hums. “Hmm, I wouldn’t say good, but not really bad either.”
“Not much of a celebratory bang after this commission, huh?”
Navia shakes her head.
“So, that drama between Asher and that Anton fella… quite a show, huh?”
Navia chuckles, “I guess you could say that.”
“What did you think of it? Did you take a side?” Ren asks curiously.
Navia shrugs, “Indifferent.”
“Really? Why’s that?”
“Well, if I were in Anton’s shoes, having been compromised by the corporations and being forced to sell out intel in exchange for survival and even a chance to join and gain a rank as a Knight, I’d honestly probably take it.”
“What? Really?” Ren asks, confused and a bit shocked.
“Well, I did say if I were in his shoes, right? I’d probably join them for the sake of building rapport with them, which would be useful as a way to gather intel, and while I’m at it I’d probably reach out back to Sequoia and tell them I would work with them as their spy. Two birds with one stone, I’m both safe and still working with the previous organization I was in.” Navia explains.
“Sound logic, if assuming all things go right.” Ren huffs comedically.
Navia sighs, “Yes, things tend to go the opposite direction, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah.” Ren agrees.
Navia hears something heavy jump onto the roof from behind. She turns around to see Asher, bloodied halberd in hand.
“Now,” Asher starts, giving a look to Navia that she can’t quite decipher, “the commission has ended, I believe it’s time we both get to business.”
Asher drops the halberd suddenly and performs a salute, a fist to his chest and an arm behind his back, “I am Asher, a mercenary and fighter of Sequoias.” he introduces.
“We fight for justice for the survivors of Nyx, and to bring an end to the corporations free reign over the people so they may never get away with such schemes again, and so that justice can finally be served for the hundreds of thousands that died to the Remnants and the bombs.”
“Now, what would you like to know, Navia of Nyx?”