Corpo Age

Chapter 228: Aurora Corporation

I watched as Thorne continued to free numerous corpos from cell after cell. Still trying to decide how to interpret the new information I gleaned from decrypting the files on the terminal.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have all the time in the world.

Soon, all the prisoners had been freed and assembled, waiting for us, their rescuers.

While I walked toward the crowd, I couldn’t help but notice their despondent expressions. They weren’t exactly brimming with excitement after being saved, but I brushed that up to people responding in their own ways.

I quickly made my way to Thorne to have a quick huddle before we proceeded.

“How do they look?” I asked. “Any difficulties you foresee Mil and Ella having in evacuating them?”

“No, they’re physically fine, but some of them are pretty out of it. Our backup is almost here, so we should keep moving to subdue the crew, right?”

“You’re right. The rest of the crew must’ve noticed something by now.”

I turned to face the crowd.

Whispers instantly filled the bay, with various questions being shouted out for me.

“Wait! Where are you going then? Aren’t you people here to rescue us?”

I looked down and hesitated for a brief moment before answering.

“The ship isn’t entirely under our control yet. We’re going to change that. Please stay calm and wait for instructions from our people.”

The whispering didn’t die down, but no one showed signs they would be venturing out anywhere by themselves, so Thorne and I left to finish up this mission.

While we snuck around the ship, disabling as much of the crew as possible to turn them over to our employer, my mind couldn’t help but drift toward the implications of the information I learned.

The list I found was a simple list of employees. Many of them were among the captured, so they all worked for the same company. The problem was that this company was called the Aurora Corporation.

It wasn’t a name that rang any bells at first, but upon searching through everything I had encountered ever since I installed my cybernetic optics, I found that it was one of the clientele of the research laboratory I helped raid in the past. It was also where I found Thorne and Claire.

There were several other companies listed, but it was very possible Aurora Corporation was the one responsible for my two friends’ kidnapping that resulted in Thorne’s mom passing away.

Save this for after the mission. No point in dwelling on it now.

I slapped myself on both cheeks to focus on myself, happy that the power armor dampened the sound, so Thorne hadn’t noticed.

It was time to finish the job before breaking any news.

The rescue mission ended smoothly, and with the help of our allies, we had enough room to rescue all thirty-eight prisoners and fifty-seven pirates.

It had gone so well that we even captured their vessel, bringing it with us back to Soluna.

Spoils like this normally fully belonged to the mercenaries, doing whatever they wanted with it. However, after reporting the situation back to our QG, we received a special request from the employer for the ship. In its place, they would amply compensate us for the market value of a comparable ship.

Neither we nor Mil’s group complained about the arrangement because liquidating the ship was something we planned to do anyway. We were two separate groups of mercenaries, so there was no way for us to split one ship as it was.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

The sum for a spaceship for in the millions, but as someone who wasn’t affiliated with a corporation, the high taxes and fees suddenly reduced that number by an order of magnitude. It really highlighted how much my company benefited from its status as a D-Class corporation.

The money wasn’t what I cared about, though it was nice to have a healthy sum under the name of my new alias. I focused on our main objective as our ships flew back toward the moon.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I exited from the cockpit and went straight into the cargo bay where we temporarily held all the former prisoners. Our small ships weren’t designed to accommodate so many people, so they had to make do with the wide-open area of the cargo bay.

It didn’t help that our allies, Mil’s group, declined to accept any of them onto their ship, giving me excuses that it was my operation. I could tell they just didn’t want to oversee what they presumed to be potential issues, and just take it easy.

I soon made my way into the bay, where I found their large group sitting around a large blanket someone had laid. Someone had salvaged it from the pirate ship, so I wasn’t complaining.

“You corpos looking pretty miserable for people who just got saved.”

They didn’t react as they continued to stare around with lifeless expressions.

“Ha, typical corpos,” I taunted. “I guess not all companies can be like that upstart corporation from Aegis. Their employees actually look like humans instead of the emotionless robots like you lot.”

My efforts netted me a few curious looks, but none said anything more. I decided it was futile to force-feed them information, so I quickly changed the topic.

“Anyway, it’s food time! Our mess hall only has room for a dozen of you at a time, so decide quickly who will come first and follow me.”

I planned to slip them more information about my Halls Corporation over the meals, and hopefully, some of them would come to engage me for more information. It was normal for them to be skeptical about it, but it was important to be a known quantity to them first, before the next step.

Even if they wouldn’t join, they would still be important pieces for my plan. I needed them to spread rumors about our company to drum up their desire to work for me. Word of mouth was a powerful marketing tool that could never be underestimated.

Once the rescued were done dining in shifts, I finally had some time to rest from all the preaching I had been doing. It was only for a short while because I had to prepare for my next talk with my friend.

After finishing a milkshake, I strode back to the cockpit and got into the seat next to my co-pilot.

A few moments of silence passed by between us before I started calling him using our company’s internal systems. Our entire conversation wasn’t going to be vocalized for discretion, and because I included Claire in the call.

Once both of them connected, I immediately got straight into it.

“You two, I found something that should be brought to your attention, but I want you two to mentally prepare yourselves first.”

“Ha, as if we are the ones that normally get emotional and run off to do stupid things. That fortunately isn’t our domain,” Claire said as she gave me a meaningful look.

“Is this something related to our recent gig?” Thorne asked.

“Gig?” Claire parroted. “What kind of crazy job did you guys accept this time?”

“It’s not the mission that was crazy,” I explained. “It’s the identity of the employer.”

Without saying another word, I sent out the files I found from the pirate ship’s terminals.

I didn’t need to see my two friends to be able to tell their gaze intensifying at every word they read.

While I had ignored the issue after rescuing Thorne and Claire, I was sure both of them did their research during their own time. They were at the research facility for some time, so they were more clear on which companies had hired the facility just based on the experiments they experienced.

There were only so many companies in each segment of the market. There weren’t more than a dozen or two companies that sold SAIDs or other niche markets of neural cybernetics.

None of them said a word about Aurora Corporation after I broke the news. They just silently reviewed the information I provided.

“Rollo,” Thorne called out.

“Yes?”

“I need some time alone.”

“Yeah, no problem, but we can’t delay dealing with our employer for that long once we return to Soluna.”

“That’s fine. Just give me until then.”

With those words, Thorne ended the call. He stood up from his seat and walked out of the cockpit, leaving me alone with Claire still on the call.

“Whatever Thorne decides, I support,” she suddenly proclaimed. “Keep me updated.”

With that, she too disconnected, leaving me truly alone.

I spent the time looking more into Aurora Corporation and the other potential candidates who made use of the research facility’s services. It was the perk of having Lanus manage everything. It didn’t need my constant attention to steer our vessel.

We eventually made it back to Soluna, and we had to deal with the mess of escorting three dozen people across the city. We were told we had to deliver them directly to the doorsteps of our employer, Aurora Corporation.

Just as we were docking, Thorne returned to the cockpit to share his decision.

“Rollo,” he muttered.

“Yes?”

“Do you mind if I make a really selfish decision?”

I didn’t hesitate for a moment, as I suspected he would arrive at this conclusion.

“No. No, I don’t.”

Thorne had helped me along for as far back as I could remember. He was one of the pillars that kept me straight in this world. It did wonders to have people you could trust. In the beginning, I admit I was abusing the fact that the young man didn’t have anywhere else to turn to, but it was undeniable we had built up a friendship.

The idea of going to war for a friend didn’t trouble me as much as I thought it would.

It was personal for Thorne. If I didn’t have his back, he would still charge into the fray alone. There was no way I was going to let that happen. Not when I had the power to do something about it.

The whole point of establishing my own company in the beginning was to retain my agency, to make my own decisions. I wasn’t going to be shackled down for reasons like it would affect our company’s business operations.