Business Proposal

While Fate was clearing up the last of the rebels, Autumn had arrived at the Shyv's office in the Shyviate Offices. The office took up the entire floor, just like the apartments on this planet. Unlike the apartments, the Shyv's office was huge room instead of multiple smaller ones.

The floor was soft velvet carpet and what little bit of wall was visible was granite of a rich blue color. Nearly every section of the walls had bookcases, paintings, statues, rare objects, and pictures on or against them. Along the wall, every ten feet or so were the Shyv's cybernetic Honor Guard.

The floor was occupied by dozens of tables surrounded by four or five chairs each; a wide hologram projector in the middle of the floor that took up over a quarter of the floor space, but was only about waist high; and of course, the desk of the Shyv. The desk was made entirely of blue Jenghang Crystal, a particularly rare kind. The crystal was opaque, so at certain angles, it just looked like sparkly stone. On it was an office phone, a stapler, a stack of papers, a small printer, an ink pot with a quill inside, and a desktop computer.

Behind the desk was a throne made of gold, with silver patterns throughout that depicted the Ancestors' escape from the Milky Way and their colonization of the Solynus Galaxy. It also had the Mystarian solar system on one arm and the Fildian solar system on the other.

Behind this throne was the only part of the walls devoid of decoration, allowing the blue granite to compliment the silver and gold of the throne. This part of the wall had two more Honor Guards. These guards, along with the rest in the room, were watching Autumn with suspicion, always holding their KX5s or P-X10s at the ready.

On this throne was the most influential man in the galaxy, Jeffrey Palar, Shyv of the Solynus Galaxy. Shyv Palar had short silver hair and golden eyes, like all those with Palar blood. He was at the age of 45 but still looked to be in his early thirties.

As appropriate for a man in his position, he had a commanding air about him, and eyes that were kind but stern. He was an understanding man, but not one capable of mercy. It was this man that was currently looking at the information Autumn had brought him using his computer. His eyes lost that kind look to them the more he read.

When he was finally finished, he looked up at Autumn, who was still standing in front of the desk in her Styx Tactical Armor. "This is grave news indeed. Fortunate that I hired your organization when I did. If we were even a day later in receiving this information, we may not have had adequate time to prepare."

Turning to the guard behind him and to his left, he said "John, inform the Shyv Council of this. Tell them to start preparing the Collective for war immediately. I want conscriptions sent out, fighters and weapons manufactured, and our scientists working double-time to find any edge we can get."

The guard nodded, rushing off to the elevator. The guard that was to the left of John moved into his spot, and every member of the guard not behind the Shyv adjusted themselves so they were an equal distance away from each other.

"Your organization will receive much more work from me in this coming war, I assure you." Inserting the drive he obtained from Autumn into his computer, he typed away for a few minutes before taking the drive out and handing it to the assassin. "Take that to whoever runs the Hand of Styx, will you?"

Pocketing the drive, Autumn asked, "did you need anything else, sir?"

"No, you're free to go. Make sure your 'Null' friend exterminates every last one of those roaches. Betraying the government is one thing, but throwing humanity itself to the dogs will not be tolerated."

Nodding, Autumn left the Shyviate Offices, heading back to her ship to wait for Fate to get back.

Fate punched a rebel's head with his mech's fist, crushing it into paste against the wall. 'That's the last of them,' he thought. Luckily the rebel leader was a 'win or die' kind of person. He had set all doors and exits to lock themselves in the event of an attack, so the few cowards who tried to escape despite knowing this found themselves cornered with nothing to do but wait for death.

Why the man would make it so much easier to wipe out his rebellion, no one would know, although Fate suspected the man knew if it came to this point, the rebellion would have no hope anyway. The man probably thought the extra 'motivation' would help squash any opposition that went against the rebels.

Obviously, the man had been wrong.

With all the rebels dead, Fate went to work checking every crate and container in the lengthy base and many warehouses. Using the many explosives he found, he rigged the entire place to blow at the push of a button. Exiting the mech in the main area where the fighting started, Fate stared at it for a bit. The mech was painted the standard construction colors – yellow, with black joints.

It was a bit scuffed and scratched from the fighting, with some dents here and there from a few Hydra grenades. Currently, the chest part up to the gap was retracted down, enlarging the gap to about five feet. This, plus the small rungs on the left arm and leg, allowed people to easily slide in.

'…Fuck it,' Fate thought, hopping back in. 'I'm bringing this with me. I'm sure the Jumper can fit it.' Fate made his way to one of the lifts in the many warehouses, ready to leave this mass grave behind.

When he made it out of the warehouse, having unlocked the doors using the rebel's computer, he got a fair distance away and flicked the switch on the detonator, walking in the other direction. The whole warehouse exploded into a massive conflagration behind him when he did so. Fate knew the many other warehouses scattered around the planet did the same.

Back at the Styx Hideout, a few days later, Fate and the other four members were gathered around one of the TV screens, looking at the information on the drive the Shyv has given Autumn. "It's an… interesting proposal," said Maya. She made a weird face. "I don't really get why he'd do this though."

"It's obviously what he sees as the best way to keep an eye on us," said Tom. "He can't have assassins running around causing chaos during a war, and killing all of us would cost hundreds, possibly thousands of men he could use for the war."

"Still, making us an official branch of the government is exceedingly strange," replied Nikolas.

Indeed, the drive contained a proposal that the Hand of Styx becomes the Shyv's personal shock troopers, to be deployed on the most difficult missions. "He's offering to pay us more than twice what the five of us make in a month every two weeks," chimed Autumn. "I may not be as good at math as Tom, but I know a good deal when I see it."

"So, do we accept this strange offer, or not?" asked Maya.

"… I think we should think it over," Fate told them. "He didn't give us a timeline to accept, so I say we mull it over for a couple of days."

The rest of the group agreed, and they started talking about the possible benefits and drawbacks. The talk extended well into the night, and they would have many more over the next few days.