O.C. Saar
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Omega Release | Chapter 12: The Rust Reaver
🕑 Added 2025-06-02 18:12:01 +0000 UTC“That’s not the reaction I was hoping for,” I said, my shoulders sagging at the mix of disappointment, disgust, and pity on his face. I told my mask to disappear.
“What did you expect? You’re supposed to be a legend!” Aren said, almost pleadingly. “Not some weird, drunk fuck-up who is just passably good at fighting.”
His begging did not move me. “I apologize for disappointing you,” I said bitterly. “Now come on, we have a job to do.” Aren looked crestfallen, which served only to annoy me further. I snapped at him. “Hey. Get your act together. We’re about to risk our lives, and I need the person backing me up to be focused. No, I don’t match your idea of who the Rust Reaver is. Tough luck. Life is full of disappointments. Now, can I count on you or not?”
Something seemed to stiffen in the boy’s spine. He stood tall and nodded seriously at me. “Right, sorry. Yeah, I’m good.”
I nodded back. “Excellent. Now give me a couple of minutes, and we’ll head off.”
I walked up to my desk and turned on the display. I went through my assets and filtered them to what I had gained since leaving the Orphanage. I flagged all items ranked with a common quality or below to be automatically sold to the system.
My eyebrows shot up when I saw the list. Not bad. Not bad at all.
[ASSETS GAINED]
3,286 Credits.
[Alabaster Ceramic Knife] (Uncommon)
[Revolver of the Lily] (Uncommon)
[Sniper Rifle of Lamentation] (Uncommon)
[Vanguard Armor] (Uncommon)
2 Gold coins
23 Silver coins
13 Copper coins
Credits earned from auto-selling: 1,442
None of the equipment was helpful to either of us, so I put it up for sale, netting us an additional 2,435 credits. All the items sold would enter the reward pool for missions generated through the system. All in all, we got 7,163 credits. Almost a whole month’s worth of money. Not bad, indeed. I sent the kid 2,000 of those credits, more than a fifth of our earnings, but he killed one of our attackers and warned me of another, so he more than earned the reward.
The kid looked ecstatic at the notification of his income. “That’s more money than I’ve ever had.” He said with sparkling eyes. “Maybe we should go kill more of those assholes.”
I rolled my eyes at his eagerness. “You still have a few years before you get your watch, so you won’t be able to loot them without help. Besides, there are better and safer ways to get money. If someone comes after you, sure, kill them and take their stuff, but seeking out people to kill is a quick way to get marked as a Blackjack and find yourself dead in a ditch somewhere.”
I got up and motioned to the kid to follow me. I walked to a nearby shelf, took what looked like an open-face bike helmet, and handed it to Aren. “Here, a gift.”
[Helmet of Awareness]
Rank: Official Product
A helmet manufactured by the Venatus Corporation. The [Clarity Field] subroutine allows the wearer to perceive sights and sounds as if they were wearing nothing at all while providing a protective field that limits the strength of impacts on the wearer’s head. Auto-adjusts to fit the wearer.
“Venatus Corporation: Products engineered for protection.”
Modified by Gallyfon Ronda.
This helmet’s protective field has been modified with a [Visual Scrambler] subroutine that stops any electronics from clearly perceiving or recording the wearer.
“Gallyfon Gadget Adjustments. We turn your stuff into better stuff.”
“What’s this?” Aren asked. I sent him the screen, and he put it on happily. “A protective helmet. Neat!”
Oh, right. Without the access code, the kid couldn’t see the second half of the item's description. I sent that over to his Novas next, updating the information screen.
His grin widened. “Oh. Now that is handy.”
I shrugged. “Can’t have the Priests or Cameras recognizing us after what we’re going to pull, and I don’t need it now that I am wearing my old stuff.” I started walking to the door.
It seems like he started getting over his disappointment at my state since he began to barrage me with questions. “Speaking of which, is it true that your shoulders have tiny rocket launchers hidden in them? And do your boots have thrusters to accelerate your kicks? And that your gauntlets have hidden tonfa in them?”
I snorted. “The last two are kinda true. Well, the last one used to be true, but you should know that I stopped using the tonfa when I got my title.” We got on my bike and took off, heading for the nearest transport center. I pulled up the details of my equipment and sent them his way.
[Hood of the Rust Reaver]
Rank: Rare (Unique)
A dark red hood crafted by Sister Silver. The fabric is lined with a high-quality nanomesh layer that significantly reduces any impact. Comes with a summonable mask made of nano-composite titanium with the [Locked Eyes] subroutine. The [Locked Eyes] subroutine allows the user to highlight and track targets for as long as they remain in sight of the user. When the mask is active, the hood’s [Visual Scrambler] subroutine can be engaged.
“Watch your head!”
[Shoulderpads of the Rust Reaver]
Rank: Rare (Unique)
A pair of dark red shoulder pads crafted by Sister Silver. The shoulder pads are made of nano-composite titanium covered in Ferronir hide. The [Blood Boost] subroutine can be engaged to give the user an injection that temporarily increases perceptual, physical, and cognitive speed by 50% for five seconds. If the subroutine is engaged more than once every hour, the user will experience severe backlash at the end of the boost.
“I’m warning you, if you overuse this, it's gonna hurt.”
[Coat of the Rust Reaver]
Rank: Epic (Unique)
A dark red coat crafted by Sister Silver. The chestplate underneath is made of interlocking nano-composite titanium plates covered in Ferronir hide. The [Hunter’s Ward] passive subroutine allows the chestplate to emit a field that absorbs part of energy-based attacks and dampens physical-based attacks. Energy-based attacks will be weakened until the armor’s energy cells are filled, and physical-based attacks will be weakened until the armor’s energy cells are emptied.
Comes with multiple retractable utility compartments.
“I bet the system marked it as epic because of how many pockets it has. Rings, I love pockets.”
[Gauntlets of the Rust Reaver]
Rank: Rare (Unique)
A pair of dark red gloves crafted by Sister Silver. The gloves are made of layered nano-composite titanium scales covered in Ferronir hide and come with a retractable grappling hook gun for each arm. The [Spider’s Ascent] subroutine significantly dampens both the grappling hooks' sound when fired and impacting a surface.
“Now you can use those clumsy hands of yours to climb walls!”
[Greaves of the Rust Reaver]
Rank: Rare (Unique)
A pair of dark red gloves crafted by Sister Silver. The greaves are made of interlocking nano-composite titanium scales covered in Ferronir hide. The [Rabbit Hop] subroutine allows the user to activate thrusters hidden in the greaves once every five minutes to enhance a leap in an explosive boost or increase sprinting speed for ten seconds.
“If you get in over your head, it's okay to run!”
[Boots of the Rust Reaver]
Rank: Rare (Unique)
A pair of dark red boots crafted by Sister Silver. The boots are made of interlocking nano-composite titanium plates covered in Ferronir hide and shock-absorbing gel soles. The [Silent Flight] passive subroutine dampens the sound made by these boots.
“They can’t shoot you if they don’t know you’re there!”
[Set Bonus] - [Shroud of Rust]
Rank: Epic (Unique)
A set-bonus item made by Sister Silver. The shroud looks like a fabric cloak but is, in fact, a cloud of durable and shock-absorbing dark red Ultrawave Nanomesh particles that appear from emitters hidden in [Shoulderpads of the Rust Reaver] and [Hood of the Rust Reaver] when all six pieces of the [Rust Reaver Set] are worn. Its [Rust’s Embrace] subroutine allows the [Shroud of Rust] to surround a target and heal them, even bringing them back from the brink of death at no energy expense. This subroutine can be used once every three months.
“Be safe out there. Love you. - Silvie”
I stared at the last line for a heartbeat that felt like an eternity before clenching my jaw and closing it, deciding not to send Aren the last window.
“Man, these are awesome. How come all but one are marked as only rare?” Said Aren as we parked and dismounted the bike. I input a few commands, and the floor below my motorcycle descended, taking my bike with it.
“Who knows?” I shrugged, walking into the transportation center and heading towards an empty platform where a square-ish vehicle awaited us. I didn’t want to mention the set bonus. “Ratings are not direct indicators of usefulness. My armor gets the job done, and since the pieces are above Uncommon quality, they come with an auto-clean and auto-repair function by default. What more would I ask for?”
We got in the windowless monorail car and got comfortable on the soft seats as my bike was loaded in the storage compartment beneath us. “Fair enough,” Aren said. “Why did you quit using the tonfa anyway? Those are the weapons that made you famous.”
I snorted at that. “That’s precisely why I quit using them. How much do you know about how I got my title?”
“I know you became famous after you and Sister Silver eliminated the Roaring Wheel gang, and the Clans decided those would be your titles. Never really heard the details as to why. Just thought it was because it sounded cool.” He said while exploring the car’s nooks and crannies.
I grimaced. “The Roaring Wheel tried to fuck with the Steel Wyrm clan. Those junkies kidnapped the son of one of the Wyrm higher-ups for money. They ended up killing the poor kid. So, Silver and I, eager to make a name for ourselves, took the mission to wipe them out.”
I started sorting out the equipment we got from the Orphanage and putting it away into different compartments of my chest armor. “They had taken over an old steel foundry and used it to produce their drugs. We went in and wiped them out. I still used my tonfa back then, and their blades caused quite a mess in every room we entered. It took us about six hours to wipe them all out, and when we finally left the compound, I was covered in blood, but Silver and her black robe were immaculate. She slaughtered the Wheel members using her wires while at the same time using them to prevent any blood from touching her. The Wyrm representative that met us went in to check we hadn’t left any survivors, and when he came out, he said that the blood had already dried in the dry heat and winds the drug manufacturing produced, and was flaking off the walls and ceiling. Said it looked like it was raining rust. So we were dubbed the Rust Reaver and Sister Silver.” I smiled mirthlessly at the memory.
Aren turned to me, a little bit of respect in his eyes. “To me, it sounds like using the tonfa was pretty effective. It doesn’t explain why you’d stop using them.”
“Yeah, well, I had promised the woman teaching me to use the tonfa that I wouldn’t use them to kill someone. With people, I could use them only in defensive or non-lethal ways. I had been using the tonfa's blades exclusively on beasts until then, only killing people with guns." I clenched my fists, the memory of that day seared into my brain in perfect clarity. "But when I saw what they were doing with the kid's body, I couldn’t stop myself. I needed to get my hands on the bastards." I slowly exhaled, letting the tension bleed out of me. "When my teacher learned of it, she understood why I did it, but the rules were the rules. She kicked me out of the dojo and requested that I not use the tonfa to take a life again. To respect her wishes and ensure I never found myself again in a situation like that, I stopped using the tonfa in battle and focused on my sharpshooting.”
“Wow, that’s quite the story,” Aren said, my recounting of that mission making him go a little pale. “Guess I’m glad I’m not bound by those rules, or I would already be in trouble." He cleared his throat. "Well, anyway, how long will it take to go to the Underside?”
I snorted at the sudden change of topic. “It will take thirty minutes to reach the outskirts of Sector 16. Then we’ll descend for another thirty minutes. Once we emerge in the Underside, it will take around two hours to get to Zone 31. So, around three hours. You can take a nap if you want. I’m certainly due for one.” I said, and a timely yawn escaped my mouth. The monorail car’s doors closed, and we immediately started moving, the walls turning into giant screens that showed the environment around us. “If you want to play around with the screens, you can make the walls show whatever landscape you want or show the exterior. Just don’t start playing games on them that would wake me up, yeah?”
Aren looked overwhelmed but nodded. “This is all really cool.”
“But?”
“But… three hours is a long time. I was told we could get to the Underside in half an hour at most.” He started playing with the displays, changing them into weird, alien landscapes. One of them was something called a “meadow” from old Terra. Seeing so much grass, flowers, and trees made me slightly uncomfortable. The only place I knew to have this much greenery was the surface of the Inner Ring. And nobody had heard anything from them in hundreds of years.
I turned the kid out and lay down on a couch. “We could, but we’d have to go through the Otherside, and that’s a little hot right now, what with us killing five Track goons. They’ll be up in an uproar. And to be honest, I can’t justify the cost of transporting my bike by disassembling it here and reassembling it when we get there and back. We’ll get to the site with time to spare either way, and if we succeed, we’ll have plenty of time to get back to your boss. If we fail, we’ll probably both be dead.” I stretched out and put a pillow under my head, getting comfortable. “Since you’ve got some more credits now, get something to eat from the vending fab, and then get some rest, too. We’ll need to be in peak condition to pull this off.”
“Alright,” said Aren, his mouth already sounding full.
With my wisdom dispensed and my young charge suitably distracted, I closed my eyes and let myself drift off. Hopefully, tomorrow, I would still be alive and could finally have a proper night's sleep.
