The galaxy is massive, even after all these years it still hasn't been fully explored. There are always uncharted planets with their own species, wildlife and fauna. Some planets have been made into interplanetary hotspots, some are in full chaos due to wars. But there are no single governments, each planet has their own rules and regulation, what may be legal on one planet may be illegal on others. Armies are not common, only the most powerful planets have those. So the more common fighters in the galaxy are pirates or Mercenaries. This story though, follows the incredible story of a mercenary guild called Tesera. This is their story.

---

On board the Tesera cruiser

Orion:
As Orion browsed the major lists of merc contracts available, he sipped on his coffee.
'The new recruits need something challenging but easy at the same time... ahh here's one' He thought to himself. The contract was for helping a team of archaeologists explore a newly found ruin on a recently charted planet. The reward was any salvage the team found they could keep, and on top an additional 2 million Gio. The job was simple, easy and pretty rewarding. He grabbed the ship loudspeaker mic,

"Good morning, evening or whatever time of the day it is all. I want the team ready to go and in the control room in 10 minutes. Orion out."

Jett:
As Jett sat meditating in his quarters he heard Orion call everyone to the control room he whipped his tail over to his gun and grabbed it.
"About time." he quietly said to himself. He got up and covered the horns that reside on his head with his scarf and placed his gun on his back. His three Katanas resided on the wall were placed in his sheaths and placed on his belt. He opened the door to his quarters and proceeded down the hall into the control room.

"Orion give me a sit rep before everyone else arrives." As Orion explained the situation Jett sat at his usual spot and listened intently.
"So we're testing the new recruits capabilities?"
"Very much so."
"So the normal evaluation or the hardcore one?"
"The latter please."
"Roger that."

They finished off their conversation as everyone else started to arrive...

Jake woke up by the usual method. Twenty minutes before he was suppose to he felt a giant roar right in his ear. Jake jumped up with a start and looked next to his bed and saw the culprit looking up at him. The Lion seemed rather pleased with himself. He looked like an old Terra lion except for the whole being made of metal and packing heat. From what Jake knew of the past, he knew that this was not how they use to be. Kubwa huffed at his handler and Kimya walked over. The lions clearly wanted him up. "Alright! Alright! I'm up... Lord... " Jake said jumping up. The Lions walked off and Wa sat down next to Jake. "What? What am I missing?" He asked as an image appeared in his head. It showed that he needed to be in the control room."Thanks, Wa..." He grumbled pulling on his shirt and walked out the door with his pets walking behind him.

A few minutes later he walked over to the control room. The lions sauntered behind him as he walked by himself. He was communicating with the trio just as he walked. He was in his own little world.

Allen & Beth

Woke up, he was on a good sleeper and was slightly annoyed by the fact that there was no morning or day or night in space. He sighed, raising his left hand to rub his eyes, laying there for a moment to settle down. He had just arrived with his friend, Beth, and was quite shy the day they had arrived, though he sat up, moving the blanket off him and getting off the bed, and for a moment he looked around, seeing Beth, snoring, loudly, beside his bed, and a cabinet in the middle. He could tell it was very early in the morning, or so he thought, right outside was a planet, and it was at its dark side so he could guess it was morning, night, what ever. So he grabbed a towel, and some clothes and went off to take a shower. It only took exactyl 15 minutes for him to finish, once he got back into the room he began slipping on his oversized sweater, almost skin tight jeans, and his normal converse shoes. He yawned, stretching out his arms, seeing Beth just now waking up as she did her usual routine. He yawned once again, thinking of a way to cut time. Looking around his room and on the cabinet was his sword and Beths weapons. He opened one of the drawers and grabbed a belt that is used to hold his sword. He put on the belt and putting his sword on the left side of his hip. About 20 or 10 minutes passed when he saw Beth, he smiled waving, still annoyed that he was atleast an inch shorter. " Suuup. " He said, sitting on the bed and waited. Finally the annoucenet was heard, telling the new recruits to go to the control room and so he did, walking right behind Beth all the way there.
He laughed, saying a few dirty dick jokes that made Beth call him weird a few times. Though once they got there he saw..a..familiar face? "J-..Jake?" he asked, seeing the man with the trio of dogs beside him.

Jake sat down at the table and started to pet his lions as he waited for the rest of the group to show up. He started to whistle to them as he waited. He had work he had to do and had no idea why they had been called here. He could have used a bit more sleep over sitting here doing nothing at all. He could not figure this out as to why he was here. Jake looked at the lions for a few minutes before he noticed a voice saying his name. He looked up and was shocked. "Allen? Allen! Hey man!" He said jumping up. The two lions jumped to their feet as their handler did. Wa just stayed down. "Allen! I thought I would never see you again!" He said pulling Allen into the hallway and hugged him. "I am so glad to see you again! How have you been?" He asked as the lions wandered out and watched the man confusion on their faces.

Jordan

Jordan sat in one of his charging booths, a chair that he sat in and it simply charged his suit whilst he relaxed. He thought about all the times when he would fight and come out unscathed with his old squad from SHEATS, and wished that there could be a team that ever worked as well together as they did. That team was a miracle.
When he finished charging, that's when he was called down. "Heh. I heard we're getting a few new recruits today. Better head on down so I can show the newbies how things get done 'round here." He said, heading down to the control room, grabbing his gear along the way.

Weiss

Weiss stared off into space (literally) through the window that was so conveniently placed next to her bed. She sighed. Somewhere out there, the rest of her kind was suffering through hardships that she was all too familiar with, and she abandoned them. It wasn't fair, but she didn't want to go back. Not yet. She wanted to return whenever she became able to pull her race from the ashes and begin again. She sighed once more when Orion ordered everyone down to the control room, and got up out of her bed. She changed into her combat armor, took her equipment, and headed down.

June

June sat in the mess hall with a tray of food in front of her. She felt hungry, but she still had a hard time mentally adjusting to having to eat multiple times a day. Her kind could go on a meal a week and that was perfectly healthy and normal. "Ugh..." She groaned, pushing the tray away and laying her head on the table. Not to mention human food looks dreadful, she thought to herself. She heard Orion's call to the control room and looked around. "No one's here, eh?" She said. She casually pushed her tray off the table, knocking the food into the floor as she got up to prep and head down. On her way down, she noticed she was behind Weiss, but said nothing. She didn't want to talk right now.

Well, she certainly had come a long way. Fought in a dozen wars and held the line in three cities. Survived urban, door to door combat in at least six downtown warzones and if she was a proper soldier instead of a mercenary she probably would have made it to an officer rank by now.

Not bad for the child of potato farmers.

Hearing the announcement for all members to gather at the control room, Isabel snapped the last pieces of her Light Machine Gun together, having been doing some maintenance on it in anticipation of seeing action. Getting up, anticipating a briefing - not a direct situation into combat - Isabel only holstered her pistol over a casual outfit of t-shirt and jeans before heading out, heading towards the communication room and seeing Weiss in full combat armour already, as well as June.

Well, she thought to herself, somebody's eager.

Weiss

Weiss looked over her shoulder and saw June and Isabel. She already got to know June, so she stopped and waited for Isabel. She waved at June as she walked by her. When Isabel caught up to her, she started walking agin, smiling at her. "Hiya!" She exclaimed. "Are you another new recruit? Man, I love getting new guys! I'm Weiss. What may I have the pleasure of calling you?" She asked excitedly. She could tell that the new girl was a bit unprepared. Sometimes they were deployed directly following their briefing. Yet somehow Weiss gathered through observing her demeanor that she could probably handle herself even without armor. But who knew?

June

June waved back at Weiss as she walked past. Thank goodness it wasn't her she wanted to talk to. No offense to Weiss, she was really nice, but June just didn't want to talk right now. She looked around to see if anyone else was coming toward her, and she started to drift off into her memories of her old hone. She quickly shook herself out of it, however, thinking that she needed to forget that life in order to start a functioning one here.

True, Isabel could probably handle herself without most of her weapons - she had enough experience by now to get by with her pistol, and her shotgun and her LMG were, admittedly, for full blown battlefields. Turning to Weiss, she was a bit surprised, not thinking that the rest of the mercenary company would get to know her yet - she had expected to be treated more or less as the cannon fodder she had fought as - skilled and talented cannon fodder, yes, but still cannon fodder nonetheless.

"...Ocelot." she finally returned the smiled. "Isabel Ocelot. Pleased to meet you Weiss."

Realistically, when considering her "mercenary reputation" name she had originally went back to her favourite past time. As much as "Revolver Ocelot" sounded as badass as she liked, she did not carry around a revolver - and her primary weapon was a light machine gun. She had considered various things, but no matter how much she wanted "Light Machine Gun Ocelot" or "LMG Ocelot" sounded much more like something a young child would pick for his name on an online video game rather than an established mercenary.

LaXnyd said
True, Isabel could probably handle herself without most of her weapons - she had enough experience by now to get by with her pistol, and her shotgun and her LMG were, admittedly, for full blown battlefields. Turning to Weiss, she was a bit surprised, not thinking that the rest of the mercenary company would get to know her yet - she had expected to be treated more or less as the cannon fodder she had fought as - skilled and talented cannon fodder, yes, but still cannon fodder nonetheless. "...Ocelot." she finally returned the smiled. "Isabel Ocelot. Pleased to meet you Weiss." Realistically, when considering her "mercenary reputation" name she had originally went back to her favourite past time. As much as "Revolver Ocelot" sounded as badass as she liked, she did not carry around a revolver - and her primary weapon was a light machine gun. She had considered various things, but no matter how much she wanted "Light Machine Gun Ocelot" or "LMG Ocelot" sounded much more like something a young child would pick for his name on an online video game rather than an established mercenary.

Weiss

"Ooh... Like that Earth cat?... I think it's from Earth anyways..." She put her hand on her chin and thought about it. She knew she had heard that term before, and it was definitely a feline animal, but where it was from seemed to escape her mind. She wasn't very knowledgable when it came to other worlds' inhabitants and culture anyways. Being from a wasteland planet kind of limits your ability to travel.

"I don't know." She concluded, then quickly went on. "Where are you from, Ocelot?" Weiss asked, genuinely concerned about her teammate. She believed it was important to get to know people you work with- to her at least. Especially if you were putting your life in their hands. They were approaching the control room door.

As much as Isabel wanted to explain that it was a reference to the character "Revolver Ocelot" she figured that, with Metal Gear Solid being as ancient as it was, there would be no way she would have the time or patience to explain the origins of the humble video game. She knew that there really was a cat called Ocelots, however - having deduced as such from the character's dialogue in the games - so she simply let Weiss believe the idea of it being a cat.

"Masara." she answered. "Quiet colony world. Not a lot of traffic and chances were you were a farmer or someone working in the few small towns the planet had." she explained. "It wasn't a very exciting place."

Of course, there was the time the slavers attacked, but she didn't know if Weiss would know about that. After all, it was a small planet with a minimal population and there were much bigger conflicts for the public to be concerned with. "How about you?" she asked, feeling that it would be rude for the conversation to be focused only on her and thinking that since Weiss was trying to get to know her, she should try and do the same.

Weiss was slightly disappointed when Ocelot didn't answer the Ocelot question, as she was extremely bothered by the fact that she couldn't put her finger on it. She didn't show it though, as she was still eager to get to know Isabel. "Oh. I hope you're not offended if I say I've never heard of it. I've only heard of a select few worlds in my time here." She said, giving herself an excellent lead to follow up with an answer to the next question. "Sounds a heck of a lot better than my home though. I'm from Torcerria; have you ever heard of it?" She asked as she entered the control room with all the others. Weiss gave a look that implied she'd be willing to explain it to her if she hadn't.

June

June entered the control room before Weiss and Isabel had. She looked around the room to see who all was present, and her focus stopped on one man in particular. He was wearing the same suit of armor as he was wearing that day. The African-American "Demon", as her people called them, who had played a large role in killing her closest teammates and leaving her to live for some inexplicable reason.

She stared, jaw dropped, at the man, and her instincts kicked in. She feared he would recognize her, but just as she went to go stand as fa away from him as possible, he saw her and waved, giving her an odd look. She then quickly straightened herself up and caught her cool as she came to the realization that the man wouldn't recognize her anyways. She looked entirely different than she did that day. She sheepishly smiled and gave a quick wave back, and prepared to be briefed.

"It's alright, Masara's a small backwater place. I'd be more surprised if people have heard of it." she assured Weiss. After all, nothing exciting ever happened there and it was just one planet among millions.

"Torcerria?" Isabel asked as they approached the control room. "I can't say I know much about it. I think one of the passing pilots said something in the bar back home, but that was too long ago. Sorry." she apologized. Most of her information on the outside world - prior to joining the mercenary business, of course - came from the talk - and outright bragging - of starship captains and crew back home and she knew that those were as reliable as a cheap gun sold for 50 Gio.

LaXnyd said
"It's alright, Masara's a small backwater place. I'd be more surprised if people heard of it." she assured Weiss. After all, nothing exciting ever happened there and it was just one planet among millions."Torcerria?" Isabel asked as they approached the control room. "I can't say I know much about it. I think one of the passing pilots said something in the bar back home, but that was too long ago. Sorry." she apologized. Most of her information on the outside world - prior to joining the mercenary business, of course - came from the talk - and outright bragging - of starship captains and crew back home and she knew that those were as reliable as a cheap gun sold for 50 Gio.

Weiss

"It's not that surprising that you don't know much about my home either," she said. Her tone became a bit more somber. "My own kind destroyed our home long before I was born," she started. "About one hundred and fifty years ago, five different factions had formed, and each wanted to overthrow the present governing body and usurp control. The war ended with a marginal victory for the government, but the war destroyed the landscape of nearly every corner of the world. The government was so weak and incapable of putting down the anarchy that arose that they eventually dissolved as well, leaving the remaining population to fend for themselves in a lawless world."

She brightened back up the moment she finished, and exclaimed, "At least, that's only what I know. Pretty hard to learn about the history of your planet when you grew up in a Wasteland. People stopped writing historical texts a long time ago." She giggled at her joke. "Occasionally we got off-world mercenaries coming to scavenge some of our lost technology, since we had been advanced enough at that point to have some technology that the galaxy doesn't even know of yet today, but they were mostly hostile toward us." She finished her story and looked around at who all was already here. She figured there'd be more, but she shrugged at the small revelation.

Jett was quietly sitting near the boss, he was monitoring the behaviour of all the new recruits that were before him. Checklist in hand he was making sure that there were no physiological scars, Tesera units had to be completely sane otherwise they didn't know what would happen during missions.
"So far so good Orion, did you want to start us off?" he asked looking towards barely visible figure. Orion hasn't said anything since the announcement but simply read the data pad that held the mission briefing. Jett grabbed the ship mic for himself making sure that anyone else who had to arrive was quick smart about it.
"Any one who doesn't show up for the briefing doesn't get paid, that's the rule people." he spoke with a harsh voice over the mic. Then he addressed the mercenaries who were standing chatting.
"Shut your mouths and listen up cause we're only gonna say this once. First, new recruits welcome to Tesera, you may have heard of us you may have not heard of us, that doesn't matter now all you need to know is that you're now one of us." Usually by now recruits had a question to ask but so far no hands were raised.
"Second, the mission we've been assigned is pretty easy but we don't know what to expect, the mission is on the newly charted planet of Ferul seven, we're escorting a team of archaeologists uncover a ruin. Orion will now explain more, but first any questions?" His voice stern, Jett didn't feel like putting up with stupidity today, so he hoped the questions weren't annoying.

---

Razlo drifted a few feet above the floor of his dimly lit room, suspended in mid air. He kept the artificial gravity in his quarters toggled off as a matter of preference, it was easier on his body and he found it more convenient most of the time. At the moment he was occupying himself with taking inventory of his gizmos, figuring that the boss would have some work for them coming down the pipes soon. It took more than a little while to fit everything nice and neatly into their proper places.

Just as he was finishing his check over his gear, Orion's call went through the ship's speakers. "Right Proper" Razlo muttered to himself with a sly grin as he grabbed hold of a railing and spun himself right side up. With a hand gesture he triggered the magnets on the soles of his boots, fastening him down to the cabin's floor with a metallic *clunk*. A few short steps took him to his door, where he lingered for just a short moment before sliding it open and pressing out into the hallway. He frowned as his body suddenly had weight again, shaking his head. Why the bloody ground-pounders were so enamored with it was beyond him.

---

A short walk brought him to the control room and the awaiting team. Some of them he'd had the pleasure (or displeasure as the case occasionally was) of meeting, while a handful were new faces to him. More importantly though, it seemed like he was late. With a coy smile he held his hand up in a gesture of apology and bowed his head slightly but said nothing. After he'd gotten passed the faux pas of his entry, he ran his gaze over the new blood and found himself grinning like a fox in a hen house. He'd been in more or less the same circumstances only a few months ago, and that somehow struck him as highly entertaining. Now was not the time to mingle though, so he shut his gob and waited for Orion to start his explanation.

Weiss

Weiss did not ask any questions, she only grinned and slipped on her displacer glove in anticipation. She was itching to get something done, and maybe show the new people how Tesera does things. She looked around at all of her fellow veterans, still smiling, expecting all of them to be just as relaxed about this mission as she was. She continued to listen to Jett for further details.

Jordan

Jordan didn't say anything either. Since he has been with Tesera longer than anyone here aside from founding members, he knew how the company did things. Jordan, being so relaxed, was the first to take a seat in the room, leaning back and relaxing in a chair. He still listened to Jett just as he had done for the past seven years, but this would be one of the easiest missions he would ever take part in with the company. That he was sure of

He turned to look at the new girl who he caught staring at him earlier. He couldn't help but think that he should know her. He just had a feeling... But he couldn't place who.

June

June couldn't think of any questions she could possibly have yet, so she simply shook her head and shrugged. This sounded pretty simple and, judging by the veterans' behavior, they thought so too.

Well.. this is something. Where exactly am I? It's dark. Let's see... can I- ah, damnit. Okay. I'm inside of something. What is that something. Surrounded by metal... feels like I'm sitting on... leather. Oh. I see.

Mjolnir hummed to life at the flick of a button on the overhead switchboard, the exo letting out a strained groan as its joints pressurized and depressurized, steam hissing out from release valves. Sven blinked quickly as the warm red light flooded the cockpit, the command console and switchboard's white LED glow searing his retinas. The light only hurt his eyes though, the only pain in his head from where he smacked it earlier trying to stand. So no hangover. Today would've started well if it weren't for the warmth on The warm sensation on his forehead meant he was bleeding. He wiped to confirm. Red. Confirmed.

A swipe of the hand across Mjolnir's console brought it down to its knees as the back plating hissed and opened wide allowing its pilot to climb out and land on the garage bay floor with shaky legs. Sven surveyed the room, everything in place, bar Mjolnir who was now abandoned in the center of the room. There was a drained bottle of scotch by his workstations and if memory served him right, he had been working on Mjolnir last night. The pile of cigarettes at the base of his workstool testified to that. Cool. Now I know what I did, then. And no hangover. Better than most days. Sven wasn't wearing a shirt and the burn that covered most of the left side of his chest, from the pecs to the shoulder, where plasma had melted armour to his skin was painfully visible. One of these days he'd make an effort to get a skin graft. Make himself at least a touch more presentable. At least, that was a lie he often told himself. Across from the burn was a tattoo of a black serial number printed above his right pectoral which read "0000832"; it being his assigned number during the prenatal period of his life where he was chemically altered in an artificial womb. Sven rarely went into explaining the serial, still bitter over his origins.

"Good morning, evening or whatever time of the day it is all. I want the team ready to go and in the control room in 10 minutes. Orion out." Sven groaned and scanned the bay for a shirt, only finding a white wife beater mostly burned to a cinder. Right. Accidentally set myself on fire last night. Well, looks like he was on the Skins team today. He glanced through the bay, double checking that there was no disaster waiting to happen the moment he stepped out. Satisfied with his survey, he took his leave and broke into a slow jog toward the control room. "Any one who doesn't show up for the briefing doesn't get paid, that's the rule people." spilled out from the speakers scattered through the ship, drawing a grimace from the Nordic Martian. It wasn't the pay he really cared about. He had enough to get by for a decent amount of time. Before he joined he lived on a diet of meat, carbs, liquor, supplements, and scrap metal. Now the only new addition to his near spartan lifestyle was cigarettes, which he could certainly afford. The thing that got to him was the threat to dock what was rightfully his after a hard days work. Completely unacceptable.

He reached the door, which slid open with a muted hiss, and slid inside, sealing the door behind him. Of course, most of the crew was already in their gear. Sven made eye contact with the boss man and made a brief two fingered salute, which was probably more insulting than it was polite given his current dress, or lack thereof. The dried blood caked to his forehead probably didn't do much to impress the boss either, now that Sven thought about it. Oh well, at least he was getting paid now.

Always look for them silver linings.

Ralen awoke from a concentrated trance just in time to hear Jett's last call. She glanced down at her left arm, she'd been focusing on seeing how far she could get the ether crystal to spread. After several hours focus only just past her elbow was covered in the hard blue substance. She sighed, better but not by much. And it would now take over an hour for it to go away. She grinned a little, a little bit more for the new kids to be freaked out about besides the glowing blue tattoos.

She stood, strapping the long katana like sword to her back, which with one closed unmovable hand was quite a feat, and made her way to the control room. Thankfully she wasn't the only last one in she caught a glimpse of Sven's disheveled and seemingly bloodied form slipping in. The door slid closed before she reached it, so she tucked her crystallized arm behind her back and stepped in. She gave an apologetic look to Orion and Jett and settled against the wall keeping the arm well hidden. Hopefully they both would understand.

Weiss

Weiss looked over as Sven came through the door, mid-brief. It was like him to be late, but for him to be shirtless? He was probably just being narcissistic. She rolled we eyes as he closed the door and gave what appeared to be a mock salute, which she ignored and turned her attention back to Jett. Just then, Ralen entered as well. She turned to see her there as well, and began to seriously wonder if the team was actually capable of surviving a mission as simple as this.

Jordan

Jordan didn't even turn to look who had come through the door. He took Jett's pause as an opportunity to speak, and he did so casually, with a hint of disappointment. "Late again. Sven." He made sure he said it loudly enough to be heard by everyone. Surely he knew that he was not being a good influence on the new wave of fresh meat. He assured himself that Jett would discuss it with him later, then turned to see why on Earth the door opened again. Ralen stepped through the door, and Jordan cocked his head slightly at this. Usually it was Sven. Sven or Razlo. Mostly Sven. Everyone had their moments though, so he just shrugged and let this one slide.

---

Razlo's grin flattened smugly as Sven filed into the room a little while after he had, and he tipped his head to the man. Since joining up with the company, Raz had made a game of trying to be as late as he could while still coming in before Sven. He'd messed up now and again in the first few weeks, but for the most part he had it down like clockwork now.

There was a nagging urge to take a dig at Sven, but it died out when Jordan spoke up. One cut at a man for being late was a bit of good fun, but any more than that just comes out as anal-retentive bitching. Raz just about turned his attention back towards the briefing when he caught an eyeful of the last late party. Now that was a bit different from the usual.

"Catching up on your beauty sleep, love?" he teased Ralen in a chipper voice, painting his face with a broad toothy smile. "Might not be my place to say, but I don't think you need any." he added with a wink.