Jericho Vane spent the full day perched high on the rusted storage tank, observing the desolate landscape and the movements of his crew. The sun—a pale, exhausted orb in the toxic haze—had finally set, leaving the sky to the lurid glow of the two moons. The air was colder now, pressing down on the encampment like a physical weight.
His mind was operating on the barest necessity. He had spent the afternoon mentally reciting sections of the Colonial Bar's Code of Ethics—a low-impact, repetitive task designed to continue the painful, fractional growth of his INTELLECT. He needed more data on his immediate assets: his crew.
The three primary members Jericho needed to fully dissect were: Grizz, the pure physical brute; Liss, the cynical, profit-driven pragmatist; and Zek, the twitchy coward whose motivation was solely avoidance of pain and death.
Jericho slipped down from the tank, his movements still clumsy but less jarring than before. He walked directly to the fire pit, where Liss was cleaning her energy rifle and Grizz was sharpening a crude vibro-blade. Zek hovered nervously on the edge of the light, constantly glancing at the perimeter.
Liss was the first to look up, her expression a mix of suspicion and a new, calculating respect. She was used to Vane's weakness; the man standing before her now was a terrifying void of certainty.
"Boss," Grizz grunted, not a greeting, but an acknowledgment of hierarchy. "We moving out at midnight, right? Blackstone ain't gonna starve forever."
Jericho ignored Grizz's impatience. He addressed Liss first, focusing on her transactional mindset. "Liss. Your motive for service to the Cobalt Scar. State it."
The question was so unexpected, so formal, it caught her completely off guard. Most bosses dealt in threats or crude promises; Vane was demanding a declaration of contract.
"Motive?" Liss scoffed, wiping oil from her rifle. "Same as yours, Boss. The Scar pays better than the Scraplands do. I want enough credits to buy out of this system, buy a farm plot on a low-gravity moon, and never see a gun again."
"A singular goal," Jericho observed, the lawyer cataloging the ambition. "Escape. Profit-driven, low-risk optimization."
He turned to Grizz. The brute, confused and annoyed by the intellectual language, was glowering. "My motive is the only one that matters, Vane. Power. And coin to back it up. If I ain't the biggest thing moving in a room, I ain't happy. The Scar respects strength."
"Dominance," Jericho confirmed. "Physical hierarchy. High-risk, high-reward strategy. You are comfortable with chaos, Grizz."
He then looked to Zek, who visibly recoiled under the scrutiny. "Zek. Your motive is unique. State it."
Zek stammered, his eyes darting to the darkness. "I—I just want to live, Boss. I want to survive the next week. I just do whatever doesn't get me shot. Please, don't let them shoot me."
"Self-preservation," Jericho concluded. "Zero-risk strategy. Highest compliance, lowest initiative. A useful asset for stealth."
The sheer, cold analysis of their base desires, spoken aloud as if reviewing legal clauses, was unnerving to the thugs. It was as if Vane could see into the operating code of their lives.
"What's your motive, Vane?" Liss challenged, her curiosity overriding caution. "The old you, it was just enough synth-alcohol to forget the last failure."
Jericho held her gaze. He couldn't reveal the truth—the crushing shame of his failure to protect Claire. He gave them the answer of the New Vane, the ruthless, distilled logic of a man building a fortress.
"Acquisition of assets," Jericho stated simply. "I acquire assets, and I acquire authority. Chaos is inefficient. I require order to acquire."
Grizz sneered, but Liss looked thoughtful. The old Vane was a liability fueled by alcohol. The new Vane was an economic engine fueled by cold logic. For Liss, that made him a superior investment.
SYSTEM PROMPT: COGNITIVE ANALYSIS OF HOSTILE ASSETS COMPLETE. INTELLECT HAS INCREASED TO 9.02.
The tiny gain brought a fresh throb to his skull, but the data was worth the pain. He understood their simple, human drivers now. He could manipulate them.
He changed the subject, moving to the core of the plan. "The Borealis Cache—the asset we are moving toward. It is a prize for the Scar, but more so for us."
"The Cache?" Grizz asked, lowering his rifle. "That's three territories over. Cobalt Scar's never talked about that one. It's too far."
"It is currently classified as abandoned corporate property, per Colonial Law 4.3," Jericho informed him, citing the legal clause he had painfully memorized. "The Scar is blind to the legal reality. They see only the walls. We will acquire the land through paper before they acquire it through bullets. Zero risk."
Liss caught the implications instantly. "If we secure that property through 'paper,' we control the entry point for the Scar's expansion. We leverage the asset, Vane. We become essential."
"Precisely," Jericho affirmed. "I give the Scar a contract they cannot breach, and we become the indispensable local regulatory authority. Acquisition through jurisprudence."
This was the hook. Jericho was using his legal knowledge to turn his disposable gang into indispensable agents. He wasn't promising chaos; he was promising permanence and profit without the risk of a firefight.
He spent the next hour reviewing the Blackstone Outpost raid plan with Liss and Zek, emphasizing stealth and positioning—methods the original Vane would never have considered. Zek, the coward, excelled at mapping the stealth routes, driven by his deep desire to avoid confrontation. Liss appreciated the high survival rate of the plan.
As the midnight hour approached, Jericho moved to the front of the formation. He had chosen to lead the infiltration team himself (Liss, Zek, and Roric) while leaving Grizz and Vex to secure the escape path. This neutralized Grizz's brute force where precision was needed and kept the volatile element away from the delicate operation.
Before moving out, Jericho addressed the entire crew, his voice a low, final whisper against the wind.
"The contract is simple: maximum leverage, minimum force. Zero casualties. We are shadows tonight. If you break the contract, you break the system. And the system will break you."
He didn't know if the thugs could see the underlying Latent Circuit, but he was enforcing the simple, fundamental truth of his philosophy. He was not threatening them with his strength (16 STRENGTH), but with the absolute, cold finality of the law.
As he moved out into the darkness, blending into the rust and shadow of Aetheria IV, he felt the familiar, low-grade throb. But now, it was accompanied by a thin, cold thread of control. He was ready for the first decisive step in rewriting his script.
PLAYER: JERICHO VANE - ROTE-BOSS
STATISTICS:
STRENGTH: 16
AGILITY: 12
ENDURANCE: 18
INTELLECT: 9.02
WILL: 8
LUCK: 5
UNIQUE MECHANIC:
THE CIRCUIT BREAKER (CONCEPTUAL AMENDMENT)
LATENT CIRCUIT: UNSEEN (PREREQUISITE: 15 INTELLECT / 15 WILL)
PROGRESS: 0 PERCENT
MISSION LOG:
PRIMARY MISSION: SECURE THE BLACKSTONE OUTPOST (ACTIVE)
EVENT TIMER: PLAYER INFLUX (GLOBAL LAUNCH) - 4 YEARS, 2 MONTHS, 9 DAYS.