After the guitar session, Marcus led the way towards the ship with everyone save for Bo in tow. They decided to show their unity by joining Marcus as he went to register the clan on the ship. His pack was filled with the packages taken from the scavs, intending to come true with his promise with the post office man in exchange for his help. Even though it turned out to amount to anything, Marcus still needed to keep his promise for the information he was given.

Back on the ship, through the relatively safe tunnels, Marcus felt a sense of confidence as he walked ahead of the group. People ahead of them would unconsciously stay off to the side.

“Player Ylenka, being the leader of the Honest scribes that was instrumental in the fight between TAS and SRT, what are your future plans?” A player asked. Almost materializing out of thin air, he held a microphone to her face and started asking questions.

The group paused. Ylenka was surprised by the questions and looked over to Marcus. He only winked and continued towards the registration, content with letting Ylenka take the fall.

‘You owe me.’ Ylenka mouthed, which Marcus acted as if he didn’t see. Still, the presence of a known player started gathering a crowd, and Marcus managed to shoulder his way out of the crush of bodies and retreated away with Anna and Rex.

“Are you sure we should just be leaving them there?” Rex asked.

“I want to be interviewed,” Anna pouted.

“You can go back and join them.” Marcus offered. “Besides, I still needed to turn in these packages for the post office. What was that anyway?”

“You didn’t know?” Anna asked, “We’re kinda famous! A player named Soapbox managed to piece together the events and was able to post enough of a coherent narrative from interviews and aftermath pictures and posted it to his channel on the largest video streaming platform, earning himself a decent amount of views. Here I’ll send you the link. The new update allows net access from in the game now.” She said excitedly.

Marcus received the link from Anna and followed it. Through the game window, a video opened.

A man was talking to the camera. The same one in the hallway. “Hello everyone, this is Soapbox talking to you again. Today, I have something interesting to show you this week from our local cluster inside the region; Light of the Stars. Also known as the ship region, where the result of two top clans vying for supremacy has ended with a stalemate. Wah wah whah. Not exciting stuff, you say? Just wait till I tell you more.”

The video cut to logos of the clans; a skull wearing a mining hat with a sledgehammer on his shoulder on one side of the screen and a silhouette of a gopnik with a bottle in front of him on the other side. “The two clans in our week’s episode: an offensive clan, Sable Rock Tunnelers, SRT for short, and a crafting clan, Track, Assault, and Squat, TAS. Now, you wonder how a thirty-man crafting clan half filled with technicians, gunsmiths, and reloaders are able to fend off against forty assaulters, breachers, machine gunners and end up the way it did?”

“We’ll, they weren’t, at first at least. From what I could glean from inside sources within both clans, the fight started when SRT simply wanted what TAS had. What do the TAS have exactly? Simple, a metal stamping facility converted to an ammunition factory. Now, any clan would chomp at the bit of taking such a location for their own, so it was only a matter of time when the raiding clan, SRT, set their sights on our wee little crafting clan, simply content on making ammo.”

All the while, the voice talked over footage of the SRT’s armored vehicles laying down fire into a building. Other players were in cover, cheering and waving at the camera only to keep their head down as retaliatory fire raked their position.

“The fight went on as expected. Being the more experienced of the two, the SRT dominated the fights outside their base. The TAS, however, being able to fight on their home ground, were able to put their efforts entirely into defense, forcing the SRT to lay out a siege for the TAS and root them out.”

“You already know what the end result was, stalemate. But the devil is in the details and that’s where things get interesting!”

The video cuts to an overhead map of the area showing the areas both clans controlled. SRT controlled all the area around the TAS base who were only able to keep the area around their base.

“The TAS is in the defense. The SRT had set up multiple positions to harass the guild and chip away at their resources for this battle of attrition. You would expect for the crafting clan to start calling out for help from other clans but no one was coming, that is until our wildcard came in.”

“A locally established group, calling themselves the Honest Scribes, started hitting SRT hard points. On their first fight, they were able to take out several known SRT positions along with their best player; A sniper named Demented. Now this guy is no slouch. Able to hit a man-sized target at ranges past five hundred meters, this is not the person you want to be looking out a window towards you.”

“Now you’re going to ask, ‘is this Demented guy demented like his namesake? Was he running alone and this group only managed to take him out from behind?’ No. Being the clan’s top player and a sniper, he had his own security detail guarding him who was also taken out alongside him.”

The feed cuts to footage from during the attack. From the angle facing the building, Marcus suspected that the footage came from Razer. It showed a machine gunner posted behind a M240B machine gun in a sandbag pit getting taken down with two shots. The first shot took out his shields, while the other took out his head. It then zoomed out, just as the area around the machine gunner was peppered with a fusillade of bullets.

The video then cut to the Scion’s point of view, showing Marcus, his face blurred out, kneeling over Demented’s grave and looting a gun.

“The clan’s quick reaction force was dispatched immediately, seven minutes away. And the group took him out with enough time to loot and scoot. Only slowed down by a detached SRT squad coming to respond to the attack.”

The video was showing exclusively Marcus’ video now. It started with them leaving the building, getting shot, moving cover to cover. Getting caught in the alley, Razer drawing fire, Marcus taking out the player lying prone on the ground until they managed to get away. All the while, Soapbox’s voice narrated over the video.

“They were surrounded. With a hammer and an anvil, you all should know how this would turn out, but I would say that most of you will be wrong. Somehow, during a fighting escape, the group managed to get out of the encirclement at the cost of a single TAS clan member. Now if that was me who managed to do that, I’ll be showing my bare ass to them the next time we meet in a neutral area.”

Marcus turned off the video. He already knew what happened since he was there. Any more would only succeed in stroking his ego. “He got one thing wrong.”

“I know!” Anna said, “we should tell him!”

“No. It’s fine.” Marcus said, waving the issue away. “It’s better this way. I don’t want that baggage.”

With that, Marcus ended the subject and entered the post office. The same haggard man was there and did his best to stand to attention.

“Hello, sir. How may I help you today?”

“Actually, I’ll be the one helping you.” Marcus said, laying the bag on the counter. “Just like I promised, I got some out with me. Sorry for the damage. I found them already opened.”

“You mean?” The man muttered, opening the bag and looking at the packages. He then smiled. “You actually got them? Are there more?”

“The place was already burning down when I found them. These are the only ones I managed to save. Sorry.” Marcus lied.

“Its fine sir.” The man smiled. “I have no idea the effort you went through to get these packages back, but I’m sure it took a lot. In behalf of Terminus postal service, I give you my thanks.”

Attention! 50,000 received from UNCS Light of the Stars Post Office

“Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.”

“Please sir. I insist. I wish there would be more people like you in the world.”

“Alright.” Marcus replied, nodding. “You have a good day.”

“You too, sir.”

Marcus turned and went to leave the office. Anna and Rex were there and managed to watch the whole exchange. “Hero of the people.” Anna quipped.

“I got paid, so more like a mercenary.”

Anna chuckled. “If you say so.”

Ylenka and the rest managed to get away from the reporter and managed to meet up. With everyone present, Marcus led the way to the command, turned administrative sector of the ship. Unlike in the science fiction stories from back then, the bridge was not built into the bow of the ship, but in the core where it is the most secure from any asteroid strikes and with the central location allowing for faster response during emergencies.

Unlike the other parts of the ship, there were noticeably fewer players roaming around the halls. Following the signs, Marcus walked past a heavy metal door and entered the administration office with everyone in tow. A receptionist looked up and smiled. She wore a crisp blue jumpsuit, a crewman’s uniform, pressed and folded with perfect creases and bore a gleaming pip. “Hi! How may I help you?”

“We would like to set up a clan.” Marcus said, “And we would like for the light of the stars to recognize our formation.”

The receptionist looked at all of them, passing searching gazes at each one. “That is no problem, sir. Given that your clan name would be available in the database and after a small fee, you can have your clan established in short order.”

“The name is Last Man Contingent,” Marcus said, and the receptionist typed it up. She then looked up, beaming.

“Congratulations, the name is available in the database.”

The next steps were simple after the confirmation. All Marcus had to do was pay for the fee and have an officer come down and recognize their organization in the form of a small ceremony and a certificate. With that, the clan Last Man Contingent was established.

Attention!

Collective member fame tallied.

Congratulations! Clan levelled up

Clan Information

Last man contingent

Clan level: 2

Clan Fame: 1052*

*Clan fame is the collective fame of every member of the clan.

Acknowledgments: Light of the stars (Independent)

Allies: None

Members: 9

Base location: None

Territory: 0/0

Vehicles: 0/1

Hired Personnel: 0/5

Given that Marcus had a dozen goblins under his employ, it seemed like it wasn’t counted towards the hired personnel. One more point for running his own mercenary company. “Doesn’t look much.” Marcus muttered after looking at the guild level. “Would I be right to assume that we would have gotten it levelled higher up if we had this established before the fight?”

“It should.” Anna replied, then grinned. “Are you planning on levelling it up?”

“We won’t look for fights, but if it comes to us, we’ll make sure we’ll be the one finishing it.” Marcus replied. Then, realizing how cheesy it was, looked over to the rest to find them grinning.

Anna chuckled. “Okay.”

“Besides, it’s not like we could at the moment.” Marcus shrugged. “Better if we stay low for now and just build our positions stronger.”

“What’s our next move?” Ylenka asked.

“Right now? Imma go get a barbecue. You guys wanna come with?” Marcus replied, leading out the door and through the hall, only to be ambushed by Soapbox as they neared the lift to the higher levels.

“Hey, I’m Soapbox. I’m kind of the reporter around here and am looking to get to know the rising rookies. Can I ask some of your time for some questions?”

“Nope. Busy right now.” Marcus replied, passing him by.

“How about a short statement? You’ve placed third and second on both pistol and rifle courses at level one, beating other players that ran the course at higher levels. Do you think that skill beats level every time in the game?”

“I just got lucky. And luck beats anything.” Marcus replied. Soapbox was about to ask for another, only to be distracted as a flood of players passed them by as they neared the lift. Everyone in the newly formed Last Man Contingent filled into the elevator, leaving no room for Soapbox. Marcus could only grin and wave as the elevator door closed and take them up to the level above.

There, they got to the store and found that improvement had been in place. What had been a simple stall on the side of the market turned to a real restaurant with two floors and more employees. With the increase in profits, Malinka was able to call in her children to work in the newly built restaurant, thus giving it more capacity. This lies the problem with Marcus. His supply stayed mostly the same.

This forced Malinka to increase the price of their products once more, even doubling it. The price increase drove away some customers, but to the richer player base it was still relatively cheap and very worth it, thereby keeping the demand high.

Players lined up to a sort of drive through area for a quick grab and go, opening the queue for others looking to enjoy their meals would enter the restaurant and eat their meals at the table.

Taking their seat on the second floor, it gave a good view of the street below. Marcus looked down at the players and NPC milling about, like watching a river flow. The crowd below followed its own natural current, making it very interesting to watch.

“I like this place. Cozy. I never noticed this place the last time I came through here.” Anna said as she looked around the interior. Unlike the outside wall made of metal, the interior was well lit, the walls were covered with a brick facade with beautiful paintings. The floor was made of some gray laminate, populated with cushioned chairs and wood tables.

“It’s because it used to be just a stall on the side of the path.” Ylenka replied, “You can say that Hartdegen had a large hand in improving this place with his business ventures.”

“I barely did any work.” Marcus shrugged. “I deliver the goods, and Malinka does everything else while I get a cut. It’s good seeing she’s moving up.”

“Ah, here he is. My favorite customer.” Malinka said, as she came up the stairs holding a covered tray she laid on their table. With a flourish, she opened up the cover, revealing a large side of ribs dripping with juices. “On the house,” she proclaimed.

“Thanks!” Marcus smiled. Malinka smiled back, then turned to leave.

“Wow! You think I’d get the same house treatment if I come back here?” Anna said, watching Malinka descend to the first floor.

“I hope not.” Marcus grinned.

“Then I guess I should just keep you around then.” Anna replied.

“Let’s just dig in. get your buffs, level up. Make your clan leader proud.”

Attention!

Prime Barbecue ribs

Prime ribs soaked overnight over a special blend of marinate and cooked under carefully controlled fire. From the meat quality, the ingredient’s potency has been strengthened and extended.

-30% Stamina consumption rate (600 min)

+15% health regeneration rate (420 min)

“Okay. Here’s the thing.” Marcus replied, “Ylenka had been privy to my setup with Malinka, the owner here. It’s likely some of you might have some of your suspicions too. The reason I was looking for help fighting the SRT was all because of this.” Marcus said, waving at the restaurant.

“Right now, the supply I have access to is barely able to supply this restaurant. My cut is decent, 400,000c per week, enough for one person but paltry to a clan. As of right now, we’re in the best position to scale it up, maybe sell them directly to the clans for a bigger price, or other cities.”

“So here it is. My first order as the clan leader would be for you guys to scout out a location for us to take as our territory. These are my requirements.- “