19 Party

"Father! What happened?" Jeanne exclaimed as she ran towards Luke. Several other teens who were observing the children play quickly took them away to the upper floors. There were only several members who were uninjured. The rest were either already bandaged or had their injuries still open, leaking out blood.

"Luke, are you okay?" Kate ran from the kitchen.

The uninjured members quickly helped injured members sit, some of the youths quickly brought warm water and some alcohol with bandages.

Luke was covered in blood, his left arm was bleeding, from the way it looked it also appeared to be broken. Taking a deep breath, he started talking. "I am fine, just a scratch." he said as he put out a weary smile. "Apparently someone managed to get rid of Talon gang in one go, this commotion spurred the organizations. It seems like someone was planning a big takeover. Several other gangs started an all-out war. We were trying to head over to Talon's territory to ask some questions before one of the gangs attacked us. It seems like even Big Six is involved in this. Be careful, Kate, Jeanne, do not go out." Luke said before sitting down. They had lost some of their strong warriors. There was definitely someone pulling the strings behind the scenes, it was probably one of the Big Six. Although they appear to be working together, they were always plotting against each other. In the end, if there were fewer organizations to share your profits with… richer you get.

Connor and Miles were still sitting by the counter. As Connor heard Luke saying that someone took down Talon in one go, his lips curled into a smile. Jeanne and Kate were tending to Luke and other injured members of Goldburn.

'It appears like I triggered some sort of a secret mission or something. Well, at least it would be if it was a game. I guess.' Connor thought, he was not expecting such a big scale war to start just because he took out one of the gangs in this city ridden with many. Though, he was fine with it. 'This all-out war would cause severe damage to possible obstructions to my plans. If there were no obstructions to face,... It will definitely be better for me.'

"So who was it that attacked you?" Connor asked Luke as he walked near him. Luke was stupified for a second, he looked at both Kate and Jeanne. "He is the one who eliminated Talon." Jeanne said, smiling. Luke narrowed his eyes. He eyed Connor. For him, he did not look like someone who could take down a known gang all alone. "It was the Skulls. Apparently, they were claiming the territory of Talon as we got there, they attacked us without any warnings. We managed to get away because they somehow managed to anger the Ruby Merchant Group and were attacked by them, giving us time to escape." Luke replied.

'Skulls, Ruby Merchant Group?' Connor had noted the names in the back of his head but he had no idea who they were. He then turned to Jeanne. "Who are they?" he asked.

Jeanne thought for a bit and started talking. "I think Skulls was a gang formed by an ex-mercenary band. I never encountered them on this side of the city, so I don't really know much about them but from what I have heard, they mostly deal with humans. Brothels, slaves, that kind of thing. Ruby Merchant Group is one of the Big Six. They mostly focus on trading. I think they were supported by Gemrich, henceforth their name, Ruby. They also have a monopoly on the blacksmith industry in Carcer. If Skulls managed to anger Ruby Merchant Group, they must have somehow attacked one of their shops." Jeanne replied.

"What do we do now, Luke?" Kate asked. Most of their members were injured, if someone attacked them they would probably stand no chance.

"I don't know. We should lay low for a while, our injuries will take quite sometime to heal." Luke answered, pointing at some of the injured men. "Father, what are we going to do about the children who are out there amidst the war?" Jeanne shouted, garnering the attention of many in the inn. Luke frowned. "Jeanne, we can't help anyone when we are in a situation where we can't even help ourselves. I know you don't want them to get hurt but there is nothing we can do. You and your friends need to stay here." he said, pointing at several men sitting near the tables. "Your Uncle Hans and Torvik are already badly injured. It will take them several months just to even walk without pain again." Luke's tone changed drastically as he was uttering the last few words. Torvik and Hans were his close friends, they were the ones who protected him after his arm was broke in the battle a few hours ago, Torvik even jumped towards a slashing sword just to prevent Luke from dying, he paid the price with his right hand. Hans was not better off too. His left calf was cut by one of the attackers, he would not be able to go out in the field ever again even after he heals. With them injured, there would be even fewer people to watch Jeanne doing her shenanigans. Keith and several other young teens were not strong enough to protect her so Luke had been secretly sending some of his close friends to watch over Jeanne all this time.

Connor was listening to the conversation. 'Jeanne is too naive. This is how characters lead to their or their friends' death in the movies. Come to think of it, I can now recruit 3 more soldiers.' Connor remembered. He would have 3 more friends now that he had ranked up. He also wanted to check the weapon selection.

'The vehicle unlock might be a bit overkill for now… It would draw too much attention.' the HMMWV was a lot bigger than the quadbike after all. Although one there was one thing Connor was wondering, previously when he had unlocked the quad bike, there was a word in between parentheses that stated the quad bike was unarmed, he did not see a similar word for the HMMWV but he could not check it now.

'I need to get some privacy before recruiting.' Connor said to himself, he did not want to reveal his trump card to anyone.

"I will be back in a few minutes." Connor said as he walked towards the door, he turned and nodded towards Miles telling him to follow him.

"Wait! You can't go! It is not safe out there!" Jeanne shouted behind Connor and Miles. She had found a perfect candidate for her group. Connor was the strongest person she had seen so far. Although she did not witness Miles' strength, he was wearing the same equipment as Connor, she assumed that he would probably be on the same level. She wanted to recruit these two more than anything, especially in a time like this.

Connor frowned, he stopped his steps but did not turn back. 'Are you saying that to protect me or yourself? How naive can you be?' he was getting annoyed at how Jeanne was acting. "I'll be back." Connor said with a weird accent, before walking out with Miles.

….

Several minutes later, Connor found an empty alleyway. He told Miles to stay put and watch for any movements. Connor quickly opened his recruitment screen. He saw that the recruitment quota had increased from 1 to 4, he clicked the big recruitment button several times, suddenly 3 soldiers appeared in front of him.

"Private Irene! Reporting for duty, sir!"

"Private Frost! Reporting for duty, sir!"

"Private Evan! Reporting for duty, sir!"

Amongst the recruits, there was a female. This surprised Connor a bit, from what he had read about Warzone female soldiers mostly appeared at headquarters and did not handle field work. But he had no problems with it, for him, more loyal soldiers were definitely better.

'I hope they are not as silent as Miles.' Connor thought while shaking his head, smiling.

"Welcome to the party." he said.

A notification popped up in front of him.

<You have formed a fireteam, you can manage your fireteam loadout through the Fireteam Management menu.>

<Unlocked: Fireteam Management>