Marcus arrived at the armory with his crate of guns. With a quick nod, Stoner greeted Marcus as he entered the back and went to leave the guns for the moment. He then went to find Ylenka at the range. On the way, he noticed something flying over his shoulder. Looking over, the hornet was back. “I have a question. Are you still able to see even with your avatar broken?” Marcus asked the Scion. “Yes, the destruction of my avatar will not prevent me from observing. Nor will it incur you any penalties in the game.”

“Just curious. If I get intimate with another player and I tell you to go away, will you do it?”

“No. My task is observation and does not conflict with any intimate actions you perform with your chosen mate. We will however respect your privacy and delete the footage in our databanks.”

“Just in the game, right?” He asked, growing concerned. “You’re not going to be snooping in my room, right?”

“Affirmative.”

“That’s good. I’ll hold you to that.” Marcus replied, then opened the door to the range. “I think we’re done talking.” He found Ylenka inside, her rifle on her shoulder and shooting at the targets fifty meters away in a standing position. She took her shots slow and deliberate, ringing the 12-inch plates for every round shot downrange. Marcus waited, watching Ylenka as she emptied the rest of her magazine.

She turned, glancing over at the intrusion.

“Good job.” Marcus said as he approached. “You’re getting consistent. It’s no longer a dice roll whether you hit your shots or not.”

“Thanks to you, it would have taken me a lot longer if not for your help.” Ylenka replied, flicking her rifle to safe. She removed the magazine and started loading it up from an ammo can filled with loose ammunition sitting on the table. “You need anything?”

“Come on.” Marcus drawled. “Why would you ask me that? I could just be checking up on you.”

“No, you’re not.” Ylenka chuckled, “All the times I’ve seen you, you’re always running around doing something. So it’s safe to assume that you’re here for a reason. Am I wrong?”

Marcus paused, refreshing his memories, only to confirm that she hit the mark. After getting the job from Columbus, Marcus had been too busy doing jobs for other people, and now himself, that he didn’t even have time to do his personal quest. Pending Quest: Your Father’s guitar. Leaving your previous job as a bar musician in a small town, you took everything you had and sold the rest except for your father's beaten guitar he had passed down to you. Too bulky for luggage, you had it sent separately in a fast hauler to arrive before your arrival. Quest type: Personal Quest Requirements: Track your package and retrieve it. “Yeah, that checks out.” He muttered, “But I don’t think it’s a terrible trait to have. I just have a lot on my plate, is all. So you’re right, I need you for something.”

Ylenka chuckled, waving for him to go on.

“Alright.” Marcus sighed. “I need proxies to buy me ammo on the down low. It’ll be at a cost plus basis so as to not waste your time. I’m going to need around ten thousand rounds. The more you get me, the better, but I’m on a budget.” Marcus said, ready to say goodbye to his earnings from the past two days.

Ylenka shrugged, then answered. “Okay.”

“So we good?”

“One question first. Are they for a quest?”

Marcus rubbed his lips, thinking about how to explain it. “I need hardware to help me keep things where they are at the moment. There are some, let’s say, agitators that are trying to mess with something I’m affiliated with. And I can’t have that.”

“You know it would help a lot if you drop the ambiguity.” Ylenka grinned. “You have enemies. You know we could help deal with that if you let us in. I do still owe you.”

Marcus waved it off. “It’s too small for a group like yours. It’s more like a schoolyard fight.”

“Then why that much ammo?”

Marcus sighed. “Let's just say that I got a lot riding on this. I need them to bolster up some defenses and make sure that they don’t crumble against a determined attack, but I don’t need the information to get out to the public. Me setting up a buy order openly would get some attention I’d rather do without. I want whoever is keeping an eye out to know as little as possible. All in case they might piece some sort of information from the scraps.”

“Care to give me an idea of who these people are? If I know them well, then I can help establish a mutual understanding.”

“The SRT clan.” Marcus replied. Short for Sable-Rock Tunnellers, his short research into the group had told him that they’re one of the more active clans in the region and were trying to establish themselves as the top clan. They were going to be a tough nut to crack, but Marcus didn’t need to defeat them outright, he only needed to harden the station’s defensive positions to the point that no sane person or group would try to take it over for themselves.

Ylenka frowned at the mention of the clan. Deep in thought, she tapped at the table absentmindedly. “That’s more than just a schoolyard fight. As far as I know, they’re moving again to take the factory zone from a smaller guild, TAS, I think. Despite being outnumbered 2 to 3, the TAS are holding their own and both are locked into a stalemate. So now it boils down to who has the deeper pockets to keep the fight going.”

Marcus nodded. The clan being engaged in a fight within their weight class could open up some opportunities. Whoever this TAS is, they’d be unlikely to decline a helping hand. “If they’re in a fight, why isn’t anyone trying to third party them?”

“I’m sure there are some, but whoever they might be, they are keeping silent about it.”

Marcus nodded, finally developing a skeleton of a plan to deal with the SRT. Even if the central focus is defense, it didn’t mean that they would only turtle up and take the blows as they came. It might work, or it won’t. “So about that, you want to have us in it or not?” she asked.

“I think it’s better to save your involvement till the end. It’s good to have you as the trump card hidden in my sleeve, if you know what I’m saying.”

“Not good enough. You can’t have us waiting for your word to tell us when and where to jump.” Ylenka shook her head. “So, how about this? Make sure you’ll find us a place in your plan and I’ll transfer a portion of our war chest into yours. If you can get me in the same fight as their best player, Demented, I’ll even double it and give it to you right now.”

Marcus perked up at that. “How much are we talking about?”

She shrugged. “100,000c or 200,000c. Take your pick. It’s not much, but it’s something. If you could help me persuade the boys, then we could see that amount increase. I’m sure they have some credits squirreled away to give you if you could convince them.”

Marcus ran the numbers. Of course, unlike him, there are players who play the game for fun and would look for any excuse to fight. If he could find these players, Marcus could get those people or groups to buy in for a promised portion of the loot. Financial involvement, along with personal interest, would motivate the players to fight harder since losing would net them nothing. It would also act as a filter to weed out any player that is in it only for the benefits.

Marcus looked at Ylenka and wondered what’s going through her mind. Still, doing it all by himself would only end in failure. “You know what? Fuck it. You’re in.” Marcus said, offering a hand which Ylenka took and both shook on it. “Let me write up the contract. I’ll have it so that contributors will have their own shares of the total loot. That way, I won’t just be taking your money and letting you all fight my battles for me. You’ll have something out of it for your troubles too.”

“Contract? First time I heard of that in the game.” Ylenka replied, cocking her head.

Marcus didn’t need a second to decide that transparency would have to come both ways. She had shown her team and a portion of their capabilities, even willing to share their own resources. Keeping information from her would only hurt him in the long run.

“It’s part of my unique job, Mercenary.” Marcus said, “Except for my personal quest, it replaces my quests with the ability to write up contracts that NPCs and players can accept. It has its tradeoffs, since it puts all the load on me to look for and take the initiative in situations. It’s working well for me so far, I think. I only hope that I don’t end up getting ripped off at the end of it.”

“Even with what little I know of you, ripping you off would be very difficult.” Ylenka chuckled.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Marcus smiled then opened up his screen. “Alright. Give me a second to write something up.”

“Then I’ll leave you to it.” She replied, stepping to the tables.

Marcus watched Ylenka as she loaded her rifle. She squared up to the target and raised the G36C to her shoulder, aiming down the sights. She breathed slowly, her finger tensed up as she put pressure on the trigger and fired, hitting the distant plate with an audible ding.

Looking back at his screen, Marcus let the sounds of gunfire fade into the background as he started writing up a contract. He skimmed through his prepared templates and felt that none of them would do.

“Hey Scion, help me out here with the contract.” Marcus whispered.

“I am unable to help. Directly using my abilities to influence your decisions is considered as meta gaming, tampering with the gameplay, and thus is forbidden.” The scion replied.

“Well, fuck you too then.” Marcus mumbled absentmindedly as he pored through the conditions. Looking at the cost of materiel he expected in the operation, one million game credits should be a solid starting budget. Even before meeting with Ylenka, Marcus was ready to shell out half a million credits. Given his current side gig going on with Silvercorp, it allowed him to loosen his purse strings to invest in ventures that could pay dividends.

For this one, it was either go big or go home.

Knowing that he could find prospective players willing to join, Marcus priced 1 share to be equal to 10,000 credits, which should value Ylenka’s team’s contribution to 20 shares, while Marcus would have 80 for his own, 30 for being the leader and the one responsible for the operation along with his half million. Nodding at the basic template of the contract, Marcus started writing it up.

“Hey Ylenka. What do you guys call yourselves?” Marcus shouted through the measured gunfire.

“We go around by Honest Scribe.”

Marcus nodded approvingly at the name. ‘The name fits. Ylenka did say that she’s some curator in a museum.’ He thought to himself as he put in the finishing touches. Contract Information: Operation Contract: Songbird Defense This contract covers the fair distribution of loot at the successful defense of Songbird station. At the end of the operation, the value of the loot gathered, contributions, and additional notable deeds will be accounted for and will be divided according to the shares earned and owned against the total number established at the end of the operation. Shares awarded for every party will be thus: 1 Share for every 10,000c contributed to the total war fund. 2 Shares for every successful operation contributing to the success of the overall defense. At the end of the defense, majority shareholders will conduct a meeting where additional shares can be awarded depending on other unnamed contributions unmentioned above, such as exceptional deeds committed by players or groups. The shareholders will then hold a vote where, in the conclusion, shares will be awarded. Afterward, loot and quest rewards will be divided. Death and loss of gear will not be automatically counted towards the contribution. Further review would be required for the value to be counted and to adhere to the established exchange of 1 share for 10,000c. Reneging on this contract by abandonment or sabotage investigated by a third party will penalize the offender with 1 level and a credit penalty of 500,000c. Marcus looked at the contract and sighed. It wasn’t as good as he would have liked, but it was the best he could do. Still, it should be good enough for the job at hand. He then called up Ylenka to show her the contract.

“Looks good.” Ylenka said after she read the contract. “I won’t claim to be an expert on contracts, but it’s simple enough and doesn’t have any obvious loopholes. I do wonder if you’ll be able to collect on the penalties you’ve written here.”

“It should,” Marcus muttered. “It isn’t some egregious penalty and even if the penalties aren’t enforced by the game, it should scare players that sign the contract trying to mess up the operation.”

“And who’s this third party?”

Marcus grinned. With his right hand, he lazily pointed up, knowing the scion was still hovering over his shoulder.

Ylenka looked up at the ceiling and frowned. “You have to be joking, right? God?”

“Fuck around and find out.” Marcus smiled.

Ylenka could only shake her head at Marcus. The door to the range then opened, and both glanced over to find that the rest of Honest Scribe had arrived.

They entered and approached the two, curious. Marcus handed them the contract. Signing it as a group, Ylenka decided to hold a vote first, whether everyone in the group was fine with taking part in Marcus’ operation. After some questions, he repeated the same spiel he said to Ylenka about his unique skill, extending to them the same level of transparency he had given to their leader. With Ylenka already on board, the rest agreed and signed in. A second later, a window popped in. Contract Alert: The group Honest Scribe has accepted the terms of the contract and is now under your command 200,000c received as contribution. Loot share automatically awarded. “Looks like it’s working well.” Marcus muttered.