“Wait! We’re not hostile!” I quickly yelled out as the hooded gang members were about to scatter.

Several of them immediately pointed their weapons in the direction my voice came from. They nervously looked into the empty space where I shouted from, with their fingers on the trigger. Then one of the hooded figures held up a hand to gesture for the rest of them to relax before they took a step forward and shouted in my direction.

“Speak corpo. What do you want?”

“I have no business with your gang. Just tell me about all the QGs you know around here.”

“You think you can just waltz up to us and command us around like your employees? We aren’t—”

“We did you a favor already by saving your two members over there from the firefight earlier. You have five seconds to decide or we’ll try someone else.”

“...”

The hooded figure glanced around in all directions before settling their gaze on their members, who wore unnerving expressions.

“Fifty thousand credits.” The hooded figure blurted out.

“...Done, but only after we make contact and verify your connections are legit.”

“You think we’ll purposefully get on the bad side of some corporate spec-op team for some money? You already have all the leverage in this negotiation. If you’re dealing with us in good faith, at least give us half the amount first.”

I took a moment to think it over when a message suddenly came in from Thorne.

*Rollo, these guys could be playing us. If you agree, I’ll have a team trail them until we confirm their intel.*

While that may be the safer idea, I didn’t want to spare any manpower when we were already short-handed in unfamiliar territory.

*It’s okay. It’s just fifty thousand, twenty-five if they come up empty. We can afford to risk that instead of playing these games.*

“Deal.” I declared.

“Excellent. Transfer the money to my account, the number is 92—” She paused abruptly as I had already sent the transfer over. It wasn’t that hard to find their account with their cybernetics vulnerable before us like this. “You…How did you—nevermind. I’m copying the deets to this chip here now. You better follow through on the remaining half,” she said as she plugged the chip into their neural port for a brief moment before throwing it over toward us.

The chip sailed through the air and landed on the ground as they didn’t know where we exactly were, but Andrew swiftly moved over to retrieve it. He plugged it into his terminal for a moment to scan it for any malicious threats before giving me the go-ahead.

“See you then. I trust you know what happens to people with loose lips, so I won’t bother threatening you.”

I quickly got moving without waiting for her reply.

With our deal complete, the rest of the team quickly retreated under the cover of our Shades and regrouped a distance away. We uncloaked when a quick scan from our Argus notified us that there was no one around us.

Andrew handed me the chip, and I plugged it into my port right away.

There were three entries of information on the chip we received, detailing information on three different QGs.

The first one was known as ‘The Voice’, and they were apparently the most well-known among the community up here in Aegis. They were known to always find the right people for the job and were reliable in terms of both payments and information provided for jobs. The downside was that no one knew how they took on clients, and they one-sidedly contacted mercenaries for jobs, with no one knowing their contact.

They sounded like more of a corporate middleman to me, but either way, they weren’t an option we would make use of right now.

The second contact was some cyborg named Timothy. They hired anyone, but their jobs were often violent, with little details available as you went into it. Again, not the most ideal candidate we were looking for.

The last contact was for a retired asteroid miner by the name of Amos. The information said they worked the more delicate jobs that were a pain and the pay wasn’t the greatest. To me, that meant stability, and the job we had for them was definitely delicate, exactly what we needed.

With the information we needed, we went back to get our car and headed for the district where our new QG could be found.

He operated out of a street market in a district where most menial workers lived.

We knew we entered the right district when all we could see on the sidewalks were people either in spacesuits or overalls, much like the bar we had tried our luck in earlier.

The establishments around abruptly differed from what I had come to be used to as they catered toward a different clientele. There were no fancy terminals and screens everywhere, and instead, thick armored doors and display windows.

Occasional scuffles could be spotted all over, though they mostly relied on their fists. It was unlikely they would produce any life-threatening injuries because of their lack of cybernetics and how malnourished they all looked to throw a good punch.

We had Andrew’s team play frontmen again once we arrived at the market. Thorne and I followed behind in our camouflage power armors, as they joined the crowd of miners by projecting a set of spacesuits that were similar to what other miners wore.

They walked into the nutrient store on our intel and joined the checkout line. The line was short, so it wasn’t long before it was their turn and the man behind the counter greeted them.

“What do you want, gentlemen?” The cashier stared at their empty hands. “If you don’t see any more of the flavor you want on the shelf, then it’s sold out. If you’re feeling spendy, ask one of the kids running around to unlock the cabinets for you.”

“Peng is hungry. Can we buy some of those nutrient packs—”

The person beside Peng quickly elbowed him into silence before clearing his throat.

“Sorry, we’re actually feeling unwell. Is there something more easy on the stomach and suited for the sick?”

The person manning the counter fell silent for a brief moment before nodding.

“Yes, we keep those in the back.” The man turned toward the back and yelled out. “Jacky, come guide our customers over here.”

A young boy soon ran out from somewhere and gestured for the party to follow him. We crossed over into the adjacent unit that had been turned into a storage room and continued toward the back. A few people were browsing the unattended wares here, but we continued moving toward the back and no one paid us any heed.

The boy soon led us to a cargo elevator, where me and Thorne had to carefully step inside. It should have the capacity to carry us, even in our power armor, but we didn’t want to abruptly weigh the elevator down when we got on.

Instead of pressing a button, the boys entered a series of codes into the terminal, which made the elevator go down and down into the basement for several floors before it came to a stop.

“Go straight ahead and you should find what you’re looking for.” The boy instructed before the elevator doors hid him from view.

Andrew continued to lead the pack as we ventured forth into our new environment. There were cases of nutrient packs down here, as well as cases of alcohol. The doors on the side of the hallways seemed to be shut tight, with stacks of cases blocking entry, and we continued moving forward. It didn’t take long before we started hearing some sounds ahead.

As we got closer, it became clearer that it was coming from a terminal of some sort, and when we turned the corner, we spotted an old flatscreen TV. It was ironic that it was called a flatscreen, but in this world, the residents considered it ancient and clunky compared to the razor-thin terminals.

The TV was playing a recording of an old boxing match and sitting in front of it was an aged man who seemed to be in his eighties by the standard of my old world, with a face full of age spots. He turned toward Andrew and scoffed.

“What do you foreign corpos want? You can put an end to your farce now.”

Before Andrew could respond, I took the initiative to disengage my active camouflage.

“Hello, are you Amos?” I asked.

He ignored my question and gave my power armor a good look over as he mumbled incoherently to himself.

“Hey there. Are you Amos?” I tried again, a little louder this time.

He snapped out of it and made direct eye contact with me through the helmet of my armor.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m old, not deaf. State your business, corpo.”

“I’m looking to see if there is a way you can get me into contact with an executive from Ferrumus Corporation.”

He raised an eyebrow before picking up the remote from beside him and lowering the volume on the TV.

“Ferrumus Corp, eh? That ain’t no small fry corp you want to mess with. It depends on what’re you looking to do with contacting their executive. Let me warn you, I won’t be able to help if you’re trying to kidnap or assassinate their people. I’m too old to take that kind of heat. You might as well kill me now.”

“No, we’re just trying to talk to them. Bring something to their attention.”

He blinked blankly a few times before closing his eyes.

I gave him some time to process his thoughts, but when a few minutes passed and he didn’t seem to have any movement, Andrew and his team began to whisper amongst themselves.

Thorne couldn’t take it either. He turned off his active camouflage as well and pulled on my arm.

“Let’s leave. This guy is obviously senile and he can’t help us. We’re wasting our time.”

“Who are you calling senile, you giant tin can?”

“You! Stop wasting our time and just tell us if you can help us or not.”

“Kids these days have no patience. No wonder you forwent training and took on cybernetics instead. Your mother failed in your education.”

“You—!”

I quickly stepped in and interjected.

“Now, now. Let’s stop with the banter and get back on topic, shall we?” I glanced back toward the old man once Thorne backed off. “Can you help us?”

“Hmm… yes. But not for free.”

“Of course. Name your price.”

He held up a hand to me and continued. “Not in credits. I need a job done and you guys seem well-equipped for it.”

“You old fart, we’re not mercenaries that you can just hire!” Thorne shouted out from behind me. He seemed a bit more emotional than usual, but I couldn’t blame him, as it must’ve touched a nerve at the mention of his mom earlier.

“Well, that is my price if you want my help. It’s non-negotiable.”

“Can you tell us what type of job you’re looking to make us do, and why us?”

“You foreign corpo may not have noticed, as you’re new around here, but the mercenary scene isn’t exactly flourishing up here in Aegis. It won’t be in the future either, with the corporations managing this city, monitoring and regulating who’s in and out of this city so strictly. One of the downsides of being stuck on this space station, unless you’re rich or influential.”

“Get to the point,” Thorne muttered.

“The point is, there aren’t many well-equipped people I can use around here, and it’s not every day someone shows up to my place decked out in power armor. Not only that, but your power armor can go invisible. That will be very useful for the extraction gig I have on hand. That is all I can tell you without accepting the job. Does that satisfy your curiosity, younglings?”

“Can you really get us in contact with an executive from Ferrumus Corporation?” I asked as I brushed Thorne’s hand off me.

I could hear him sigh behind me, as he knew me enough to realize I planned to accept the gig.

The old man looked back up with a gleam in his eyes.

“Of course.”