Chapter 14: Business

With mask donned, Ruby walked alongside Silver with full confidence as they strode into the camp like they owned the place.

"GENTLEMEN!" Silver announced loudly, and all at once weapons were trained on them, but Silver didn't bat an eye. "Now, no need for that. Where's your captain?"

"Right here," A man stepped out of the curtains of the main hut. He wore a dark green pirate outfit clothed in a ballistic vest like some sort of military leader.

Silver eyed him up and down, he wasn't someone he recognized. Among pirates, Nova knew most of the people on the most dangerous person's list, and this man wasn't one of them.

"Silver Flame of the Solar Flare pirates, what a surprise. What's one of the most wanted men in the galaxy doing here?" the man drawled.

"Hm, can't say I know you though," Silver was glaring at him through the mask.

"Captain Zorak, a pleasure. Still haven't said what you're here for." He waved his hand and his men's weapons went down.

Silver nodded, "Mhm, I'm sure. Can we talk inside? It looks like it's about to rain," he glanced up at the dark clouds in the even darker sky.

"Where are my manners, come on in."

The interior of the hut was lined with guards encircling a set of chairs that sat around a bonfire. Several Faunus were tied up and chained to the floor while an elderly man with wolf ears was held under the watch of two blades around his neck.

Ruby tried her best not to break out and kill these guards but Silver quickly noticed her fists shaking in rage and grabbed her hand. Not a single word was uttered but the simple action was enough to steady her rage and send her heart fluttering.

As they were guided to the seats, it wasn't until they had to sit down did he let go of her hand. Not something that went unnoticed by Zorak.

"My, the great captain Silver fancies his own crew? I always heard you were a heartbreaker."

"You heard wrong," he responded curtly, "And she's not a slave, so I don't own her. She's her own person."

Ruby was not expecting that response from him, but there wasn't a hint of hesitation in his voice.

"Interesting, and would the lady introduce herself?"

"None of your business," she responded coldly.

"Noted," Zorak sat down in the larger of the chairs, "So… down to business then, what brings you here?"

"Well, I happened to notice that some trespassers invaded my territory and decided to take up residence here…"

All at once the semi-boisterous atmosphere surrounding Zorak shut down like someone slammed the metaphorical door.

"I didn't realize this was your territory…" he spoke low, leaning forward in his chair.

Ruby witnessed Silver don a dark aura around him as he sat upright, folding one leg over the other and clasping his hands over his knees. Nothing physically changed about Silver, but he felt… different.

The Silver she'd interacted with, even fought against was a fiery and at times light and warm person, but this was anything but that.

"No, you didn't. Not that I like advertising it, but then again, no one was supposed to know about this place." Silver narrowed his eyes behind the mask to Zorak.

The man stiffened and began twitching for his knife.

Silver pretended not to notice, "Curious, mind telling me how you found this place, and exactly what you're doing with these people?"

"I don't know what you're implying, we found this place by pure chance. Looking for a planet to re-supply when we happened upon this village. Pirates will be pirates, ahaha…" Zorak trailed off with his excuse.

"Except you're not pirates." The statement left Silver's lips and Ruby noticed Zorak visibly gulp, subtle but she could see it with her eyes, this man was feeling fear.

Why was Zorak quaking? Judging by their situation, it was two of them and dozens of the enemy… so why did Silver act like they had the upper hand?

It was then the bonfire crackled and leapt into the air, casting a shine over Silver's mask and Ruby saw his eyes behind the orange tint. They were cold as ice and darker than the depths of space, yet within them held a simmering fire of rage that threatened to overwhelm whoever was caught in their sights.

It was Silver's real, unbridled rage boiling behind those eyes and so intense it drew out a person's instincts, like an apex predator staring down the bottom of the food chain. His mere stare was enough to trigger a fight or flight response.

Zorak's training and experience, whatever they were, had honed his senses, and those senses were now telling him the same thing as Ruby's. Run and hide or fight, yet, they were also screaming that one wrong move and he was a dead man.

"You've caught me," Zorak managed to squeeze out of his self-constricting throat, "W-We're mercenaries. No affiliation, just travelling looking for the next hire is all…"

Silver didn't say a word as he calmly unfolded his legs and leaned with his elbows on his knees, arms hanging in the space between his legs.

"L-Look, I-I apologize, w-we didn't know. Silver, we'll pack up our guys and leave… just give us until morning, our ship needs refuelling…" That was a blatant lie. If they had a ship, the Solar Flare's scanners would've picked it up in the atmosphere or on the ground. These men had been deliberately dropped off here.

"You get 1 hour," Silver glared, realistically he was giving them a chance to scramble so he could dig for more info.

"Sir, why are we heeding this guy? He's just one man, and that chick with him, there's thirty of us, we can take him!" Someone from the back said.

All at once, Zorak's eyes flashed, loading his pistol he turned on his own man and shot him in the head, his body dropping to the floor as blood and brain splattered on the back wall. "Anyone else wants to say anything?"

"Takes real guts to down your own man, smart move," Silver commended coldly, "That gives you an extra fifteen minutes…"

"PACK IT UP BOYS!" Zorak yelled as he got up.

Silver offered a hand to Ruby as he got up from his chair, "Let's go, give them some… space… in the meantime, we'll take a look around."

As they were walking out she whispered to him, "Are we really trusting him to leave?"

Silver snorted, "No, not a chance."

"Sir, are we really just going to leave?" another soldier whispered to Zorak, now that Silver had left the hut.

Zorak looked at the captives. The Faunus were all shaking but looking at him with defiant gazes, "Sure, not before we execute them… send word to command that we've been compromised…"

"That's Shane's job sir, but he's still in his tent, apparently something came through from command…"

Zorak went pale, "Make sure Silver doesn't enter that tent we can't afford for him of all people to find out that…!"

*BANG* A gunshot rang out.

Silver and Ruby exited through the main hut, the UFSH captain looked back toward the people cowering inside, "I don't trust him with them, we should go back and take them out."

"We could take them all, but risk the lives of the captives in the process," Silver sighed, "Need him and his goons out of the tent before we make a move."

True to their word, the so-called mercs were packing up at once, dozens of them moving in droves out of the main tent while the others began to move crates.

Ruby suddenly heard something ring through her radio like words muffled in static, "Hey, I'm getting some weird frequency on my radio. Like I'm receiving a message through my suit but it's not from us…" the base of her neck prickled where the suit plate hummed.

Nova raised an eyebrow, "What channel is it on?"

"Not sure I… need to triangulate the source, it's feedback from…" her eyes darted around behind her mask. "There, that tent." She pointed toward a large militaristic canvas overlapping with a tent structure at the far end of the village.

Silver nodded as they snuck into the shadows, darting around out of sight of the mercenaries and made their way to the tent.

Ruby held him back, "It's reading clearly… wait this is a UFSH channel!" her eyes went wide.

"Mobile Task Force: U06, we've intercepted a distress signal coming from your planet. It was sent out yesterday. Judging by recent reports from Commander Onyx, it seems Silver has kidnapped Captain Rose and the four Exo-Wielders of the Black Rose. Your new mission is to…"

"N-No way…" Ruby gasped as her eyes went wide, "There's just no way!"

"What is it, Rose?" Silver asked concerned.

"T-These people… they aren't mercenaries… they're UFSH!"

"Then this place wasn't found by chance…"

Silver heard everything he needed to hear, all at once he strode into the tent with Eclipse drawn.

Inside was a thin miliary-clad man with glasses, his head covered by a pair of thick headphones that seemed connected to an advanced radio set-up most likely bouncing off a nearby satellite to receive transmissions from the UFSH.

Silver shot the transceiver as the blast rang out across the camp, the young man jumped back in surprise, "WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"You should really learn to make sure your signals are secure…" Silver taunted as he grabbed him by the collar and threw him out of the tent.

At the same time everyone from the main tent filed outside with weapons raised. Zorak was looking down from above with a nervous look on his face.

"You lied to me," Silver glared up at him, "I don't appreciate that, but what else should I have expected from dogs of the UFSH!"

Zorak swallowed hard, "ATTACK!"

"You people should have followed my advice and run while you had the chance." Silver activated his suit.