Corpo Age-Epilogue

Claire - Halls Corporation

As sunlight leaked through the edges of the blinds in her apartment, Claire woke up once again to another bright morning. She drowsily went about her routine and only truly woke up when she took her first sip of morning caffeine. Opening her eyes wide, she observed the rising sun on the backdrop of Elevate City.

Traffic was busy as always, with vehicles zooming by both on the ground and in the sky lanes between buildings. Thankfully, the view was familiar enough.

Depending on who you asked, some would say a lot has changed ever since some AI took the reins from the corporations, but if you asked Claire, she would beg to differ. For her and the rest of Halls Corporation, business continued as usual. There may have been additional inspections, and some disarmament arrangements had to be carried out, but for a company that had been growing so rapidly, they barely had anything to worry about compared to those that had been entrenched for generations.

However, the atmosphere in the company never felt the same as before. The lively energy that made them think there was a bright future ahead of them was gone. The feeling of being able to overcome any challenges dissipated. All that was left was work.

Claire exited her suite and only needed to walk across the compound before she reached the main building. On her way there, every person she passed bowed their heads to her and greeted her good morning. They did so with a smile, a genuine one that wasn’t only a gesture to stay in their boss’ good grace. It was all due to their company treating their employees well.

In fact, their workplace culture was brought to highlight by the CM-GOV—or just GOV, as most people call it nowadays. It was the reason Claire felt so few changes had happened. All the other corporations that were still intact were forced to meet new standards that used the Halls Corporation as a benchmark.

Waiting for her in her office was a familiar young man with a bulky build that threatened to burst out of his clothes. His skin glistened in a way that Claire could tell was unnatural, as if it was too good to be true. There was no doubt in her mind, though. She had known the man for what felt like her entire life, and she knew the man had more cybernetic bits than organic bits.

“Thorne, don’t you have something better to do than spend your mornings in my office?” Claire said as she plopped herself into her seat.

“No. Not much to do. The city is being cleaned up. Security is becoming less of a concern with each passing day.”

“Lucky you. Sounds like you’re about ready for retirement, old man.”

Thorne let out a soft chuckle as he shook his head, not bothering to argue.

A soft glow in his eyes indicated he was browsing something on his optics as Claire ignored him and got to work. To her regret, there was never a lack of paperwork, no matter the business environment.

A few hours passed quickly as the two sat quietly in the office, each doing their own thing. As the time for lunch drew near, Thorne finally broke the silence.

“Are we really going to auction off parts of the business? Rol—We’ve worked so hard to build it all.”

“Look, Thorne. Even if the corporations are defanged, a majority of their personnel remain. If we continue to operate as it is, it’s going to draw a lot of eyes. It doesn’t help that the public knows our founder created the GOV of all things. Everyone’s looking at us carefully for signs of a backdoor we left in it.”

“That’s ridiculous. GOV is an AI, not some static program. If we did something like that, people would’ve found it by now.”

“Don’t complain to me. Irrational fear is still fear. Nothing I can do about it.”

A long sigh could be heard. Just as Claire was about to say something to comfort her friend, everything in their vision turned red. Their optics were taken over by a priority alert. However, the message didn’t have any written on it. It just displayed four digits, ‘1402.’

Instead of being confused, Claire and Thorne instantly shot up from their seats and exchanged looks of disbelief. They nodded at each other being dashing toward the door. They scrambled out of the office under the confused gazes of their employees. Heading up the elevator, they reached the rooftop door just in time for one of their company’s VTOLs to land.

Jumping on, the pilots didn’t immediately take off. They waited on the roof for a couple of minutes and soon new figures emerged onto the rooftop. They all boarded the plane without any fuss, and soon, there were a total of six of them.

Once they were seated, the pilot’s voice sounded out from the speakers above them.

“Is this everyone?”

“Yeah, go ahead,” Thorne replied.

Right on command, the VTOL took off right away. It was one of the few perks corporations retained for now.

Few other parties could afford such expensive modes of transport and the GOV hadn’t done anything drastic, like confiscating people’s wealth or handing out money. Instead, it worked on job opportunities, fair pay, and encouraged employers to adopt profit-sharing schemes with their employees. They did this put enacting harsh taxes on those who didn’t participate while giving incentives to those who did. It was literally the stick and the carrot method.

Settling in, the occupants wordlessly enjoyed the view. Claire regarded each of them carefully. Across from her was naturally Thorne, but Leo, Lana, Lucy, and Flo were all there with her. These were the core employees who had their trust. When they noticed her gaze, they simply nodded amiably toward her. It was as if no words needed to be said. They all knew what they were here for.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

The leaders of the Halls Corporation only got to enjoy the view of the city for a few short minutes before they approached the landing pads at the base of the space elevator. They nervously tapped their fingers against the seats while looking up at the colossal structure before them.

Wordlessly, they disembarked and made their wait to the spaceport. The arrival section was bustling with people returning from space and with their families coming to greet them. It was all thanks to their new government taking control of various infrastructures and then instating more reasonable prices compared to its previous era.

“This is a lot of people,” Thorne muttered. freeweɓnovel.cøm

“It’s what happens when the shuttle from Aegis back to Earthside became free for those who were stranded due to indentured service,” Claire explained. “People are rushing home in droves while those who were a little better off now find themselves able to afford a vacation off-planet.”

“Plenty of Cy-sec specialists who pissed off the wrong corp are returning, too,” Leo added. “Isn’t that friend of yours going to be coming back as well, Lana?”

The girl nodded, but before she could say anything, Flo, the intimating former mercenary, interjected.

“The same goes for mercs or anyone who had to deal in corpo back dealings,” she said as her eyes veered toward Lucy, the intel director for the Halls Corporation, as if seeking confirmation.

It only elicited a shaky nod from her, but Flo grinned at it nevertheless.

The world had started to thaw from its cold calculating ways as a colorful assortment of emotions washed over the entire planet and began to spread toward to outer colonies.

With a topic to discuss, the group spent some time chatting about the changes that took place, especially from the viewpoint of the regular folks. They had been holed up in the compound for the greater part of a year to avoid the chaos, so they had only held about the new changes, but rarely saw it for themselves.

Lost in their conversations, the hours quickly passed. They checked the time every few minutes, which made the wait feel a lot longer than it needed to be, but eventually, their awaited time finally arrived.

The next batch of new arrivals flooded the terminal. Everyone carefully scrutinized every person who came out of the arrival gates. If they didn’t have advanced optics, their eyes would’ve definitely dried from keeping them wide open for so long. However, they didn’t find anyone of interest. They waited and waited while exchanging troubled looks.

“Maybe it’s the next—”

Before Thorne could finish his words, he felt something tap on his shoulders. He turned around to find a hooded person behind them. The stranger brought a finger to gesture for them to stay silent and then proceeded to slowly walk away. The group followed without hesitation and was soon led outside to the passenger pickup area.

They silently waited there for several minutes before a yellow car pulled up before them. It was a self-driving car with no one else in it. Once they boarded, the hooded stranger took out a cubed device, and it began to light up. A moment later, everything became quiet.

It was only then that Claire broke the silence.

“Rollo?”

“What gave it away?” the man replied as he pulled down his hood.

However, the face revealed wasn’t one they were familiar with. He had a beard and looked much older. Even his skin tone was different. Picking up on his companions’ confusion, the man quickly explained.

“It’s a long story, but as you know, people think I’m dead. I’d like to keep it that way.”

During the ride back into downtown Elevate City, I went over everything I had experienced during my year of absence.

Claire and Thorne had an inkling about my plan prior to my death, but I left out the details as a precaution. As for the rest—well, I didn’t have the chance to inform them of the plan, so they really raked me over the coals for it.

As exciting as it was to live in my new stealth ship, living an entire year in space kind of sucked, and I was excited to be back. I would’ve done so earlier too if it wasn’t for the constant nagging from Krai.

“That guy kept going on and on about how stupid it’d be to risk discovery just because I didn’t have the patience to wait a few more months. I should’ve refitted another ship with the same stealth capabilities or something.”

“Where is he now?” Claire asked.

“Who knows? Dropped him off at Aegis, and we agreed to part ways. It’s better this way. For us to disappear into the background.”

“Yeah, along with your company, too,” Thorne added.

“That, we can just start a new one under a new alias. The CM-GOV knows about our arrangement, so that shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“I thought you said it had no backdoors in it?”

“It doesn’t. The AI just agrees it’s better for Rollo Halls and Krai Kovac to disappear permanently. Our existence would create instability. People would want to get to us in order to abuse the backdoor they believe we have.”

“A new company?” Claire asked. “For what?”

“Medical research, space colonization, who knows? I have plenty of stuff I want to do, and they all require funding. People, too. Can you get Vin to discreetly join us? Hmm, or maybe we’ll go to him. I’d like for the wasteland to be accessible to me.”

“That—I thought the only reason you started a company in the first place was so the corporations don’t have you under their thumb,” Claire asked with a frown.

I could immediately tell she dreaded the work I would drop onto her lap. Not sure why she was so worried about that. I only did that in urgent circumstances. Which wasn’t that often. I think.

“Nope. Through and through, I wanted a business of my own. Doesn’t mean I want to work all day through. Call it a half retirement, half hobby type of business.”

My two friends exchanged looks for a moment before bursting out in laughter, while the rest were shaking their heads wryly.

“Sure, sure. That sure sounds like you.”

I shook my head as the surrounding scenery changed from the ocean surface to the bustling metropolis filled with bright lights.

No plan had been set for my immediate future. This was the perk of having no imminent threats breathing down my back. I was free to pursue whatever I wanted, and that was how I liked it.

The origin of the system was still a mystery, but I’d be a fool to stop making use of it after having already done so for so long. I just needed to ensure I would be making use of it for the right reasons.

For a moment, I tried diving deep into my memories. To a time before I arrived in this world. I remembered feeling a similar way as I did now, when I was about to start a new chapter of my life by starting a business.

What type of business did I want to start then? Hmm, I can’t seem to remember.

Well, it doesn’t matter. As long as I have great company to help me execute my ideas, the money will naturally come.

Money didn’t solve all problems, but not having any money gave you many problems. It also motivates—a powerful driving force that will hopefully bring us to a brighter future. With a bit of guidance from a, hopefully, incorruptible government, I’d think to think the odds are on my side.