[IC] The Depths of Deception

[EliteCommander]

The large room was mostly silent, save for a few approaching echoes coming from the hallways. It was a moderately large warehouse room, but was packed with crates and a few vehicles, though they were arranged in organized rows. The silence was eventually broken with the source of the echoes, a group of eight Rothians, entered the room. They were all mercenaries, armed and armored, though they were hardly alert. Their equipment was all varied, showing that they had no sort of uniform among them, though they were all wearing basic combat armor with hard plates over vital areas and a tough, flexible material over other parts. The group walked casually towards the center of the warehouse, chatting amongst themselves.

"All I'm saying, sir, is that it's a bit ridiculous that we have to sweep this entire warehouse because of a power failure. This building has to be the most run-down on all of Rothia, it wasn't sabotage, the boss is just paranoid. We should just go back to our game." One of the mercenaries commented.

One of the mercs, the obviously annoyed leader, rolled his eyes back at the other merc. "For the last time Nhix, this is the first thing the boss has actually asked us to do all week. She pretty much just pays us to stand around and do nothing, so we'll just look around here for a few minutes, then, once we find nothing, you can go back to gambling away your money. Now, everyone split up into twos, look around a bit, then meet back here in five. Nhix, you're with me."

The group dispersed throughout the warehouse as ordered, lazily glancing through the numerous rows of boxes. The room was dark, with the only illumination coming from the moonlight that cast itself through the few windows near the ceiling, and the lights mounted on the mercenaries' rifles. The mercenaries carried on idle conversation as they walked through the rows, with most of them giving up and returning to the center. Even the leader came back a minute or so early. The group of six waited a few minutes for the remaining pair, but they were gone well after they should have returned.

Frustrated, the leader shouted into the darkness. "Get your tails back here you two, we're done here." The Rothian expected to hear them sprinting back, but there was not a whisper from their direction. "Mirisna, Halax, get over here! We. Are. Leaving." This time, the rest of the group stopped their conversations to listen for a response, but the warehouse was dead silent, and they could not even see the glow of the lost mercs' flashlights in the darkness.

The leader, now sensing danger, raised his weapon in a combat ready position and signaled for the others to do the same. "Everyone, eyes on. Something's wrong here." The group of six headed towards the side of the warehouse where the two other mercs had been, all alert and ready to fight.

"Alright, split up three and three." The leader commanded, so the group split to cover a wider area. They each scanned the area thoroughly for either their friends, or the thing that caused them to go missing. Other than the mercs, the room was at a standstill, and as the minutes passed, they grew more and more nervous. Their minds were starting to fill with the gruesome possibilities of what could lie in the darkness; some of them were trembling slightly, while others started shouting for their lost friends in an effort to speed up the process of finding them. Eventually, the silence was broken by a sharp noise, then gunfire from one of the groups. The leader, who was in the other group, sprinted with his team to the source, but were met halfway by two of the mercs running towards them.

"Sir, we saw, uhh, something. I...I lost track of it. We need to go, we need..." One of the mercs said quickly and frantically, with his eyes constantly darting around the room looking for movement.

"Calm down Nhix, what did you see? And where's Vehr?" The leader interrupted.

"What? I...I thought she was behind me. I don't..." The merc began, but before he finished, the group heard the sound of something hitting the floor behind them, so all five turned their rifles towards the source and fired, hoping to kill whatever monster was stalking them. The green glowing orbs of fusion energy, however, did not find their target and simply melted holes through some of the crates in front of them.

When everyone finally ceased fire, the leader quickly pressed a button on a device attached to his armor, but was disappointed to only hear static. "Comms are down, Skral, I want you to run to the boss' office and let her know we have an intruder. Go!"

A few seconds passed without so much as a hint of a confirmation from the merc, so the leader turned around to see a terror before him. Skral was lying dead on the ground only a few feet behind them in a pool of blood. The others were understandably stunned and overwhelmed with fear.

"She...she's dead, by a...stab wound? One of the mercs observed, with horror in his voice at his last few words.

"What, a stab wound? But then...by the rings, whatever it was was right behind us, and we didn't even see it! I...I got to get out of here, this...this isn't worth it!" One of the mercenaries shouted before leaving in a sprint towards the warehouse's exit.

"Nhix! Nhix, get back here right now, that's an order! Nhix!" The leader yelled with a mix of anger and desperation.

"Should...should we go after him?" One of the remaining mercs asked nervously, but then, almost on cue, they heard a loud scream coming from the deserter's direction.

The leader sighed and shook his head slightly. "No need."

The other two looked around nervously, shining their lights on anything they saw as movement. "W-what should we do, sir?" One asked.

By this point, the leader was visibly shaken. Everyone he knew seemed to be dying around him, and he was yet to even see the one responsible. He had never experienced a situation like this before, never experienced fear like this before.

"I don't know, just...just let me think!" He said, his voice filled with anxiety. His breathing was rapid and his heart rate through the roof; his mind was so muddled with fear that he couldn't think straight. It should not have come to a surprise to him when something appeared above his two remaining men from a sort of black mist. The being literally fell upon one of the mercs and hit him in the back of the head with enough force to kill or incapacitate him immediately. The other mercenary tried to respond, but the fast acting attacker, who the leader now saw clearly as another Rothian, grabbed the arm holding the rifle and twisted it hard enough to break it at the elbow. The merc screamed in pain, but his cries were cut short when the attacker brought the merc's head down onto his knee.

The leader initially had his rifle trained on the attacker, but he was too afraid to fire, too afraid to run, and too afraid to speak. He backed away as the mysterious Rothian slowly walked towards him. If the obvious skill of his attacker was not intimidating enough, the long glowing blade in her hand could cut through his armor in a second. After a few tense seconds, the leader dropped his rifle and backed further away with his hands in plain sight.

"This isn't worth it, I...I surrender." He cried before tripping over a small crate and falling to the ground. He looked up at the Rothian, who was still slowly approaching. Her face was mostly shrouded in darkness, which made her red eyes all the more menacing. "Please." The leader said in a soft, strained voice. The last thing he remembered seeing was the the Rothian suddenly moving for a kick, then his visioned darkened as he slipped out of consciousness.

Rareth looked down on the mercenaries with disdain; they were hardly a challenge for one such as herself. Most mercenaries on the planet could scarcely be considered professional as they often had little more combat training than the average citizen, and they only stood out because they were willing to fight for money. They lacked honor, discipline, and, most importantly, loyalty. It was rare to meet one that wouldn't accept a bribe, not that it was ever really necessary to pay them off.

After shrugging off her scorn, Rareth moved towards the exit of the warehouse and toward the building's offices. She had already disabled the automated defenses, and with all of the building's mercenaries either dead or incapacitated, there was nothing left to get between her and her target.

Rareth walked calmly through the offices past rows of abandoned rooms towards her intended target. She had scouted the area before dealing with the guards, so she knew that the office she was looking for was, predictably, at the end of the hall. Though she kept her senses attuned to detect the presence of any possible threats as a precaution, she knew that there was only one other conscious being in the building.

Upon reaching the end of the hall, Rareth found a door that, unlike every other door in the building, was not only functional, but had impressive security features: including an advanced holographic lock and a thick metal frame. It was blatantly obvious that this was where her target chose to hide, since the door alone probably cost half as much as the entire building. With a slight chuckle, Rareth disappeared into a black mist and reappeared on the other side in a display of teleportation that rendered the expensive security measure laughably obsolete. Inside, there was a single Rothian sitting at a desk across the room, though she nearly jumped out of her seat when Rareth appeared. She was wearing formal white business attire with simple colored designs, but the fear and anxiety in her eyes made her seem anything but professional.
The Rothian grabbed a handgun on her desk an pointed it straight at her assassin, though her hands were shaking uncontrollably. As Rareth calmly started to walk towards her, she tightened her grip on her weapon and almost pulled the trigger, but then sighed in resignation and put down the weapon. "I know I can't kill you, so I will make you a deal. I don't know who hired you, but I will pay you double to leave me alone, I don't care if..."

The Rothian's offer was interrupted when Rareth approached the desk, not because her target spoke, but because she simply sliced her blade across her neck, completely decapitating her. Rareth had never been one for speaking to a target before a kill.

Rareth sheathed her blade in the scabbard on her back, knelt down to the headless corpse, activated a device on her wrist, then held it close to the corpse's scales. A few holographic sensors scanned her for a few seconds to check both her DNA and vital signs, then sent confirmation of the kill to Rareth's superiors.

Normally, Rareth would attempt to recover the corpse for a proper funeral, but there were still a few guards active on the exterior of the base. Hopefully, at least one of the mercs would care enough to deal with the body. Rareth stepped over to the window and lookout out over the courtyard in the front of the building. The guards seemed to be working to restore power, so they were adequately distracted to allow for her to easily escape.

Rareth teleported through the glass and quickly grabbed onto a small ledge, then scanned the area above her. Fortunately, there were plenty of pipes and other edges she could grab on to, so she was easily able to scale the building without having to expend the energy to teleport to the top. Once on the roof, Rareth pressed a button on a device on her forearm, which immediately activated a holographic display. She quickly cycled through a menu and called her ship to her via its autopilot programming. In under a minute, her ship, which was a fully armed Rothian military dropship, flew directly over the base, much to the surprise of the guards in the courtyard. Several of them fired on the vessel, but its shields were easily able to absorb the small arms fire and allow it to safely land next to her on the roof. She entered the ship, took the pilot's seat, and sped away from the base before the guards could organize any real response.

The flight back home would only took roughly half an hour, due to both the speed of the dropship and the relative proximity of her target to her home in the city of Threria. Normally, an operative as skilled as a Datius would not be assigned to such an easy mission, but since the target happened to be located so close to Rareth, it only made sense to send her. Rareth found no pleasure in the assignment and was glad when she finally saw the city on the horizon. The lights from the skyscrapers and vehicles flying through the city made it like a beacon in the night. The entire city was situated atop a small cluster of mountains in the area, which caused it to absolutely dominate the landscape. On a clear day, Threria was visible for miles in all directions and was considered one of the most scenic cities on Rothia. Due to the uneven terrain on which it was built, most buildings completely lacked a ground floor, and everyone in the city either flew from place to place, or walked along the various bridges and walkways that connected most buildings. It was no surprise that Threria was known as "The City of the Sky."

Since Rareth had governmental priority, she was able to avoid standard lanes of traffic and make it back to her home quickly. She lived in an upscale apartment on the top floor of a skyscraper in the center of Threria, complete with its own private landing pad, and it was all provided and payed for by the Rothian government as long as she remained under their employ. She stepped out of her ship and up to the apartment's entrance. The small camera above the door scanned her for a moment, then automatically opened the door once it had identified her.

"Welcome home, Master Rareth." A voice said as soon as she entered.

"Thank you, Thavrin." She responded unemotionally before heading towards the living room. "Thavrin" was the name she had given her apartment's central computer. While not a true A.I, it was programmed with its own personality and could respond much like a Rothian. Many homes had such programs, though Rareth's was particularly advanced. It helped not only to manage her affairs, but every bit of technology in the apartment as well.

On the way to her living room, she was stopped by a small, floating, three-armed machine that served to keep her appartment clean. "Would you like me to take your armor to be cleaned, madam?" Thavrin asked.

It was at that point Rareth noticed that the front of her combat suit was stained green with dried Rothian blood. She had not payed attention to it before, but it was now at the front of her mind; a reminder of the lives she had taken that day. She was proud to be a Datius, proud to serve the Rothian people, but of everything she did, killing was the one thing that she could not take pride in. Although she had always been told that the lives she took would in turn save countless more, that her work helped to keep all of Rothian space safe, she still had trouble justifying the act of taking a life that would not have otherwise ended. Some of the people she killed were thousands upon thousands of years old and had certainly not always been the threats they were now; surely there was some way to return them to being law-abiding citizens? Rareth only ever killed when she absolutely had to and used non-lethal takedowns whenever possible. There were a few guards she had been forced to kill because they resisted in a way that directly threatened her life, and she regretted each death.

"Madam?" Thavrin asked again, causing her to quickly snap back into reality.

"Oh, yes. Thank you, Thavrin." She removed her armor and gave it, along with her weapons, to the machine, which immediately carried them away. She quickly returned to her thoughs, however, as she entered the main room. There were several tables and chairs, along with a single couch on one side of the room. The walls were shiny and white, though there were paintings of wildly different styles scattered about on the walls. There were also displays protecting swords and other melee weapons from different cultures and species, dating from many different points in history. One side of the room had large windows stretching from the roof to the floor that looked out over the city, separated by a few support struts. Her apartment had far too much furniture for one person, the best technology money could buy, and other luxuries she never had before attaining the rank of Datius. Granted, most of what she had was paid for by the government, but she still purchased some of the nonessentials herself. Still, she saved most of what she earned, so she would have plenty of money once she retired from the life of a Datius.

Rareth slumped down lazily on her couch, which faced one of the large windows. For a while, she simply looked out across the city, watching cars racing through the sky, watching people enjoy Threria's night life. Even the rings of Rothia seemed to be brightened by the city lights. It was certainly a spectacular view, but she had lived in the apartment far too long to be impressed by it anymore. It was now simply just another feature of her life.

Rareth sighed, wanting to distract herself from such melancholy thoughts. "Thavrin, bring up the entertainment center." She ordered. Immediately, a large holographic display appeared in front of her, thanks to the numerous hologram projectors scattered throughout her apartment. It was an expensive system, but with it, she could access her apartment's computer from literally anywhere in her home. She scrolled through lists of movies, shows, and anything else she could find for a while, but nothing seemed to appeal to her at the moment.

After closing the display, Rareth laid back on her couch with a yawn, too tired to even move to her bed. "Thavrin, cut down the lights."

"Of course, madam." Thavrin responded. The computer turned off the lights in the room, then activated the polarized windows, causing them to turn near completely opaque, blocking out the light from the outside. Rareth laid for a while in the dark, sifting through her own thoughts before finally managing to drift to sleep.

[cqbexpt]

Double post please ignore.

[cqbexpt]

Triple post really.

[cqbexpt]

"Graaahhhhh, F-Fuckkk." These string of words were quickly followed by a pair of coughs accompanied by the sound of something squishing. Shan had taken a 50 caliber bullet in his upper chest just below his neck. The round had punched through his shield and just about completely ignored his chest plate almost going straight through him. Luckily only about half of the actual round had managed to make it into him. His fatigues were completely soaked through with dark blue blood, It was even seeping out onto his chest now. Shuo himself had taken a round in the shoulder but it wasn't bleeding nearly as much.

"If we turn back we're just running straight back into that snipers cross hairs and their buddies following us." Renti said in a rather harsh tone that translated well through the comms. She was currently digging around in one of her side pockets for a canister of quickly expanding medical foam but to no avail. She decided to resort to just keeping pressure on the wound as another wet sound came through Shan's mic as he attempted to breath. Shuo turned back to the bleeding member of his squad. The blood didn't phase him but the severity of the wound made his eye twitch. He turned back to look out the door that was their only escape. It lead onto a cat walk where the top half was glass and the lower half was some form of metal.

"Looks like we're crawling then. Tether Shan to you and we'll go across the cat walk and get to the east side of the building, should keep that sniper from getting a beat on us." Shuo said looking forward. To the left of him was a wall made of concrete reinforced with metal. Most buildings past 150 stories were rather sturdy and this building was no exception. Shuo leaned up against the wall and pressed his body against it as hard as he could. He began slowly peaking up towards the lip of the window just above him and he looked out towards where he thought the sniper was firing from. As he peaked up his eyes and face plate quickly adjusted to the setting sun in the background of this tall city. He was easily 500 stories off the ground but this fact didn't phase him. His eyes quickly tracked to a building close to half a kilometer away from him. The building looked smiliar to this one. Big windows that reflected his own building in their bronzish way. He looked about 15 stories up from where he was and saw the muzzle flash. He ducked down just as the bullet dropped his shield and ricocheted into the ceiling. As a bit of concrete dust fell down he had an idea.

"On my mark we're gonna move as fast as we can to the other building and signal for evac got it?" Shuo said back to Renti who nodded in compliance. Shuo switched his comm channel to his commanding officer's. "Sigma Actual this is Sigma 2-1 I need air support on the Kiwizaka Industrial building 518th floor. We are pinned by a sniper and have a Code Blue, we are on our way to exfil now but need this to get there how copy?" The channel crackled for a moment while he waited for a response.

" This is Sigma Actual, all fast movers have been pulled from the area air support is denied. We have authorized Orbital though and your request has been cleared for that. Our angle is no good however and we WILL hit your vector." Shuo knew this was bad. The strike would pass through the building above him in order to hit that building. It would begin collapsing on them if he decided to go through with it. Quickly Shuo checked Shan's heart rate, it was slowing down.

"Renti change of plans we are running to the other building. I'll grab his feet you grab his torso. Shuo withlist crouching moved over and grabbed the feet of his comrade. Just as he came off the wall another shot hit the wall to his right. " When you hear them authorize count to 5 then run." Renti nodded and grabbed hold of Shan's torso just as he coughed up more blood. "Sigma Actual bring the rain."

"Sigma Actual copies all, prepare for strike." 5....4...3....2....1..Shuo and Renti both shot up into a near full out sprint with Shan between them. A shot rang out and landed just in front of Renti piercing through the wall just in front of her, spraying her with shards of metal. Then a loud crash and crushing sound rang behind them. It sounded like a bomb had gone off, If he wasn't wearing a helmet he would very well be deaf right now. Shuo forced himself to keep his eyes ahead and focus on holding onto Shan. He heard the building behind him begin to crack a little and begin to give way. "Fuck." was all that he could muster.

1 week later...

"As per your review and my own you are hearby cleared for combat. Welcome back soldier, expect reassignment within the next 48 hours." His officer Passive Extreme saluted him and Shuo returned the salute. "At ease, until your reassignment you are entitled to full rest and recreation. You've earned it." With that his officer turned sharply on his heel and began walking down the hall. Shuo stared blankly at the leaving Masulu until he rounded a corner at the end of the hall. Shuo's eye twitched then he pushed himself back into his room and pressed the console to the right of the door and it slid closed. As he lifted his arm to do so he felt a dull pain in his shoulder from where he had the bullet removed. Human weapons annoyed Shuo to no end considering they left material and weren't just energy like everyone else. For the most part the wound had healed thanks to disposable nano bots and modern medicine. There wouldn't even be a scar in a few days and the nano bots would run out of juice and exit his system.

He cracked his neck by moving it to the side and then turned around. The apartment they had set him up in was a corner room with large windows looking out into the Glorious Conquest's inner city. It was filled with large buildings and aircraft flying between them. Several buildings were linked together like the building he was in not a week ago. Infront of the windows were a set of large soft couches and chairs. Too the left of that was a well folded bed, old habits die hard. To the right of the couches and a little towards him was a small kitchen with all the things he could ask for. But he didn't really care about any of it. The only thing that mattered to him was the city itself. He walked over to the couch and jumped over the back and landed on his back. He looked to his left while he was laying down and just looked at the city. All that they had accomplished was culminated in this place. And that gave him peace.

[Balmung1100]

"Hey captain, when the general asked for a distraction, why'd he send both of us?" Asked Neroi Irathoi, a corporal with the Spec Ops.

"He probably hoped you might learn something about precision explosives." Bit said calmly as he placed another explosive at the base of the abandoned tower across from the Terethion Corporation's headquarters.

"Really? So he wants you to teach me how to blow things up carefully?" Neroi asked.

"No, he sent you with the wrong person for that. Sure, we could carefully plant the explosives and simply collapse this building, but when he asked for a distraction...he said he wanted it to be a big one." Bit replied. "Granted, I'm sure he was just exaggerating, but I won't pass up an opportunity to light up the sky and shake the ground."

"Are you sure about that? If you know he's exaggerating, wouldn't it be wrong to overdo this?" Neroi asked ignorantly.

"I'd rather use too much than not enough." Bit replied as he primed the detonator.

"Wouldn't that be a waste of the Corps' resources?" Neroi asked.

"Look kid, just shut up and get running. I'm setting the timer." Bit said as a harsh beeping sound began slowly and began to quicken in pace.

The pair sprinted from the building and made their way to the Spec Ops outfitted Kiratiori as quickly as they could. Once the aircraft lifted from the ground and burst forward, the deafening roar of an explosion sounded and shattered every window in the general area as well as spreading massive amounts of debris.

Neroi fell to his knees holding his hands over his ears while Bit simply stared with a smirk on his face.

"I think I could have done more...oh well, too late now." Bit said with a sigh as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Damnit Bitheroi! I said make a distraction, not a disaster!" General Rukon said over the Comm link.

"You know good and well that if you give me access to an explosives cache of that size and ask for a distraction I'll deliver and then some." Bit replied with a chuckle. "Well, aren't you guys wasting a perfectly good distraction just waiting there?"

"Fine Bitheroi, but you'll hear about this in debriefing."

Neroi finally got up and glared at Bit.

"Well kid, probably a good time to get your ears checked." Bit said simply.

[baskets]

“Doctor Ricard, the parts you needed came in with the last supply ship. Do you want me to-”

“Start putting 35C together, yep. Sooner we can get that prototype finished the sooner we can field test this bitch and get the design out before the contract deadline. And how many times do I have to tell you, Jacob? Cut the ‘doctor’ shit. It’s Coin.”

“Yes, of course, Dr- uh, Coin.” The intern scrambled about the cramped lab, presumably looking for 35C’s design specs. Coin shook her head. Jacob Delin was smart for a 19 year old intern, but the kid’s nerves got the best of him far too often for him to make it very far. Well, Coin figured, he was still young, and a bit naïve. Hopefully he’d outgrow his flaws and actually put that talent of his to work.

Coin reverted her attention back to the holographic display at her desk. The screen was a mess; a list of unread messages in the top left corner, a calendar filled with tasks that needed to be completed with impossible deadlines in the top right, images of potential designs and modifications taking up most of the bottom half of the screen, and an article about Earth’s latest fashion trends filling up whatever space was left. And somehow, Coin’s attention was divided between all of it.

“Coin, this barrel doesn’t fit. It’s not to spec,” Jacob’s voice resounded from the back corner of the lab.

Coin chuckled. “Flip it around, Jacob.”

A pause. Then, “Oh. That… makes a lot of sense.”

“You’re damn right it does. That’s the magic of using your head, bud. You’ll get there eventually,” Coin teased. She hit a button on her desk, closing the display. With the 35C finally assembled, there was nothing more important than her newest baby.

The 35C - or XM45.35C, as the contract officially termed it - was by no means a revolutionary design; it was simply Coin’s response to a planetary militia-level market that was crying for an assault rifle that spoke to their needs rather than those of a trained military. Low maintenance, easy to handle, and packed full of punch. It was a simple weapon for the simple man. Coin smirked. That wasn’t a bad tagline. She’d have to remember to suggest that if the weapon actually got picked up to be marketed.

Coin’s train of thought was broken as Jacob tripped over a pile of scrap that was lying around. She winced; she’d have to clean up her lab soon. Looking around, the place was a mess. You’d pretty much have to climb over a mountain of metal to get from one side of the lab to the other. Coin maneuvered her way to Jacob; thankfully he hadn’t yet loaded the weapon, or it might’ve gone off and actually caused some serious damage. She took the rifle from Jacob in one hand and helped him up with the other.

“I know it’s a mess in here, Jacob, but you’ve been my intern for as long as I’ve been stationed on this ship. You know better than anyone what kind of a mess this place has gotten into since I moved in,” Coin reminded him as he tried to clean up after himself.

Jacob almost flinched. He never handled any kind of reprimand well, no matter how light it was. “I know, ma’am, I’m sorry… I just got a little carried away,” Jacob mumbled. He motioned to the rifle. “35C’s all done. Just like you said, less than ten minutes to put together. Easy.”

Coin smiled. It was mean of her to think so, but if Jacob could assemble a weapon in that time, a militiaman could do it even better. It had taken him almost an hour to put together her custom rifle, and that was with the design right in front of him. “Sick. I’ll take it down to the range as soon as I can book some time with the quartermaster. Good work.” Coin took a moment to examine the rifle closely. She threw the sling over her shoulder, aimed down its sight, and swung it around to test the weight distribution. Everything was in order. A single shot, medium-ranged powerhouse for the everyman. Hey, that was a pretty good tagline, too. Coin set the rifle down on her desk and sat down in her chair. It was a swivel chair; a classic, and Coin’s favorite toy behind really big guns.

“So with the 35C all done, do you want me to get working on that targeting computer the marines on board were asking for?” Coin heard Jacob ask from the back of the room again. He loved that corner; it probably had to do with the feeling of security he got from the mountain of scrap that separated him from Coin.

Coin toyed with that task in her head. Recently the marines on the ship had been complaining that their scopes weren’t cutting it any more. They just couldn’t take down targets at the firing range like they used to. Coin scoffed; those scopes were years old. Nobody complained before. Then six months ago she gets assigned to the ship and hey, what do you know, the scopes aren’t worth shit, and Coin is tasked with integrating a targeting computer into each of their scopes to “promote more accurate fire under all circumstances.” Any statistics student will tell you straight away that correlation does not imply causation, but that was a coincidence that was too convenient for Coin.

“Nah, let it hang for a few more days. Or a few more months, hell, I don’t really care. I know when I’m being fucked with, and you should too,” Coin called back flatly. She kicked her feet up onto her desk, leaning back in her chair. “Let’s just take a break for now. We’ve been prepping for 35C’s arrival all morning and we could use the time off. Go grab lunch or something.” She closed her eyes in peace as Jacob stumbled his way out of the lab.

When she was sure she was alone, Coin brought up her computer display again. She studied her list of tasks for the month; there was nothing pressing, besides that damn targeting computer. Coin played with the the idea of giving the marines a copy of the targeting computer she used on her own rifle. She spun around in her chair, turning to face her own rifle and sidearm that was waiting in a display case on her wall. Damn, what she’d give to have a reason to use those again. It’d been way too long.

[Kyelin]

Somewhere on the fringe world [REDACTED], 2832 hours

The sun had set hours ago, when this assassin guy finally got under way. Many times, had Captain Dalkus wanted to just run in, unsure if the guy could even be trusted. And every time, the same response from him, in the same, raspy voice, like he had asthma or something:

"Just a little longer."

Then, the same guy showed up moments ago out of nowhere, standing right behind him and scaring the shit out of the Tempu. Dalkus back handed his first mate, a human, and scolded him. "Open your fucking eyes, Travis! He could've killed me, you know..." The lanky man nursed his bruised cheek, and backed away, hands up defensively.
"S-sorry cap'n. I swear, I looked away for like a second, and then... HE was there."

"Whatever. He's not that good..." Dalkus turned to the man, and drew his pistol. "Is the way clear?" The Tempu pirate had grown rather impatient, and was beginning to smell a trap. The Skull Jackers hadn't had a successful raid in ages, and were running low on supplies, not to mention actual money or new blood. And then this guy shows up, claiming to fix all their problems in one night? Bullshit. Something's not right.

There was a brief pause of what felt like a minute, while the silent man in front of him just continued to rasp ever so quietly and not move, arms crossed almost as if in deep contemplation. Then, he spoke, raising a finger. "Just a liiiiiiiittle longer..." Dalkus let out an angered growl.
"FUCK YOU!" He then turned to walk away and casually waved his hand at his men. "Kill him. This punk thin-" Without warning, there was a distant, rumbling shake, as a very large explosion took place. Dalkus turned back to the mercenary, and stared at him in anticipation.

"Now, you may go... Remember, take as much loot as you like. But once you and your men have all you can carry in a single trip, don't come back. Or you'll be in trouble. And no survivors, make it messy. We need to send a message."

The pirate smiled, and nodded his head in joyful agreement. "Didn't think you were the real deal, but you shut me up. And sure thing bud. Just quickly, though: Awfully convenient you showed up, right when we were going to raid this place. ANd you don't even want a cut? Who sent you, merc?"

The figure looked up, and his face port went from a light green to red, as he casually remarked. "A mutually interested party."

Operational report for "Fortunate Timing":
Location: [DATA NOT FOUND]
Agents and Parties concerned: SpecOps Field Agent 'Opus', [REDACTED]
Mission Status: Completed. No casualties

Closing Brief: Agent successfully compromised another target facility's security systems, evacuation ships and emergency distress beacon communications, bringing the total number to four. Raiders known as the [REDACTED] assaulted facility, neutralizing all staff. Footage has been leaked to mass media sites all across the sector, and [REDACTED] have finally withdrawn all mining operations in these systems due to the backing out of all major investors. Expansion into these systems has been approved.

Notes: Opus has been deemed fit for reassignment, as a result of these successful operations, back to his original duties. Recommend green lighting of Operation "Phantom Trail".

[Lightbox]

Silence rang out throughout the small metal corridoor that Vince occupied, he was only a simple goon working for the Starclaw crime syndicate but he felt that he had an important task, he was one of the many Starclaw guards station on this part of the International Space Station 7. The syndicate had a small but important base of operations here primarily used for human and alien trafficking, they had good access to the black market here allowing them to easily sell slaves and body parts and the scum here would pay greatly for their wares.

Vince's feet ached from standing all day he let out a yawn tired from doing nothing and feeling suffocated by the sheer boredom but still he kept an eye out like he was instructed. He carried a rothian pistol which in a humans hands was certainly not a pistol sized weapon but in a run down pure metal corridor they all carried energy weapons to avoid ricochets and deafening noise. This entire area of ISS7 was fairly run down... it was hidden deep in the bowels of the station and was in dire need of repairs and upgrading but it was the best place for a crime syndicate to hide, a dangerous and horrible place noone would usually like to go in however they did often have to deal with homeless people but well their main trade was the trafficking of people and their bodyparts.

Vince stared at the other end of the corridor lost in his thoughts until what sounded like a scuffling above him snapped him awake, he looked up at the ceiling. He knew there were air ducts running above this part of the place but with how sound echoed around this area he couldn't tell if it was that or simply someone the floor above him, while he pondered a metallic clanging sound and then a light thud rang out behind him. Gripped with fear vince turned round to see what looked to him like a human woman, the figure had long black hair and grey eyes and a beaming smile.

"Hey there!" august said as he then grabbed Vinces head and slammed him hard into the wall creating a loud clanging noise as head smacked into metal knocking vince unconcious. The small door at the other end of the coridoor opened and two guard spilled in one after the other. Quick as a flash august drew his pistol in his left hand and fired a shot aimed at each of the guards chests. The first bullet hit true and slammed through the guards body armour into his heart sending him down onto the floor lifeless. The second shot showed the inaccuracy of quick shooting as it tore the second guard neck and slammed into the metal wall behind him sending out a deafening shockwave of sound vibrations throughout the corridor resulting in a absolutely horiffic cacophony of noise stunning August. Blood trickled out of Augusts ears as his eardrums burst from the noise... he stood in stunned silence as small amounts of steam flowed from his ears indicating that his implants had slowly began to repair his eardrums returning hearing to him. This was not the first time he had been deafened by his own ballistics but it still sure as hell hurt and stunned him.

August then proceeded through the door behind him that the unconcious guy had been guarding still a bit dizzy from the stunning noise and knowing he had to be quick before he was swarmed. He entered into a large office and immediately saw a well dressed man holding a large and bulky looking gun. It looked like some sort of prototype human made gun trying to use sovereign plasma technology, these things could be found on the black market for hefty prices but often had their fair share of flaws. The man was dressed in a black suit and had slicked back blonde hair and a scar over his left eye. This was the man august was looking for, Janus Little, the overseer of Starclaws ISS7 operations. The man had a wicked grin on his face as he spoke.

"The great bounty hunter August, man i've been looking forward to getting to be the one to kill you" he let out a creepy laugh "I've been an avid fan of your work man, hitting all those rival gangs and syndicates for us, wow you certainly get a lot done in a short time. I'm gonna kill you and mount your head on my wall you girly little prick!"

August frowned at the man breaking from his usual carefree and happy look "Janus Little you are under arrest for your horrific crimes against humanity" he exclaimed drawing his sword and then smiles "And by arrest i do of course mean the death penalty"

"Why you little..." janus yelled as he opened fire on august, plasma bursts flying wildly across the room as he struggled to keep the poorly made weapon under control, August lept and rolled to the side dodging the bursts, there was next to no cover in this room and he knew he wouldn't be able to dodge the blasts forever, not with how unpredictable that guns accuracy was. He ran straight at janus leaping to the side again when janus swung his gun round, August fired a shot as he lept which smashed into the desk causing janus to be distracted long enough for August to quickly roll get to his feet and quick as a flash get close to janus smacking him across the face with the butt of his sword. Janus dropped the rifle as he fell to the ground but quickly drew a knife out of his pocket and got to his feet standing ready like he was going to rush august. Seeing what looked to be a fun melee fight august holstered his pistol as janus rushed at him a lot quicker than expected, August managed to dodge but the knife brushed his cheek leaving a small cut. He stepped back now annoyed someone had managed to get a cut on him using such a barbaric fighting style as small amounts of steam came from the cut as it quickly healed up leaving no trace. August then sliced his sword at janus easily swatting the knife out of his hand but once again underestimated his speed as Janus then proceeded to duck underneath the blade flinging himself to where his rifle was and pointing it at August.

"Time to die kid" he growled menacingly as he pulled the trigger. They both stood there for a few seconds as nothing came out of the guns barrel, Janus desperately pulled the trigger again but all that sounded from the gun was a harsh beeping sound that sounded like some sort of warning siren. August smiled as he sheathed his sword "Rule 1 with shoddily made guns, wear protective clothing" he said as Janus's rifle burst in a small explosion showing its wielder with plasma burning him apart. August then put took out a small communicator "Targets down, ready the shuttle please" he said as he walked toward the door. He stopped as a magazine caught his eye, he saw himself on the cover of it which was something he was still actually getting used to "Man thats really not the best picture" he muttered as he then exited the room and then exited through the air ducts to make his escape.

[Muttonhawk]

Another day, another set of out of touch idiots...

A shift in force awoke Shiva from her idle thoughts as the dropship slowed to their destination. All around her, her squad was in a similar state of mind. Hunched in their seats, lazily looking to the ship's door. Except the leader. Puffed up lieutenant Kherod stood between them all with one hand holding his slung plasma rifle and the other holding onto a rung on the dropship's ceiling. "We're half a minute out! The mechs have breached a hole in the wall for us to enter. Remember, search and destroy. These fools are armed and have fought our brothers in the sovereignty before. Give mercy only upon their surrender. When they do surrender, use the stunners. We are not here as executioners."

"Even with Suture-Bitch around, sir?" Bigmouth private Daiutan responded, "She can just heal them up to cover the evidence of us shooting them, right?"

Shiva looked up at Daiutan with as much distain as she could get away with. She had suffered her fair share of genuine arses in her life, but simply talking back would always make it worse when badly timed. At least this one was as competent on the field as his superiour rank suggested. It wasn't as if this was the worst nickname she had ever been given as well.

Gruff lieutenant Kherod paid no heed to Daiutan's words. "Unit! Am I understood!?"

"Yes sir!" They all responded, including Shiva. With a satisfied look, Kherod turned around slowly and steadied himself as the dropship slowed to a hover and let in the orange light of the planet's dawning sun.

For a while now, some tempu and masulu pirates had been holed up in a hidden bunker on this planet, staging raids on nearby colonies and ambushing freighters. Thanks to an informant, the location of the base was now known and Shiva's squad was one of three tasked in clearing out the interior.

In predetermined order, the entire squad leaped up and jogged down the ramp with their weapons raised and scanning their surroundings. The dropship's engines whined loudly as it hovered a few feet off the ground, then changed pitch to power up as it lifted away following the signal of the squad leader. To Shiva's left, a pair of medium mechs strode proudly, scanning the rocky surroundings for any signs of trouble. Their previous impact was evident in marks of smoking charred buildings and even a flaming light mech that had been painted with various pirate insignias. On the order of her leader, she ran with her squad towards one of the holes blasted out of the face of the main bunker. Another hole was made for the second squad, and the third squad hung back for cover and support, and to check for survivors from the initial attack.

The clearing operation proceeded like a well oiled machine. Soldiers took rooms, corridors and corners with such practiced precision that they almost looked like programmed machines. Most people they found were unarmed and surrendered immediately, earning a shock to the neck to render them unconscious. There were only three incidents of hiding gunmen, none of which were equipped to breach the squad's shields. They earned a quick death a burst of plasma fire.

Shiva liked this part of the mission. Not because it was exciting, or because of the killing. It was mostly because she didn't have to deal with her squadmates treating her like dirt. None of them wanted to die if they were injured here, and none of them wanted to be caught out of line during a mission. The danger remided them of that, and it was one of the few things that gave Shiva a little empowerment. Off the field, she had always been treasonous scum and always would be.

The real fight came when the squad reached the storage warehouse. In a last ditch at their priorities, the armed pirates had set up some makeshift fortifications from their crates of loot and were pinned down by the other entry squad approaching from the other end. Shiva's squad threw a smoke bomb between themselves and the fortification before they entered the warehouse to try and get to cover quickly, but they didn't count on the pirate leader sporting an illegal custom shifter rifle and black-market EM-detecting eye implants. Daiutan was the one to pay for it, with the first couple of shots supressed by his shield and the next three hitting his stomach and his leg. He limped to cover and shouted the one word that Shiva had been hoping to hear from him as soon as the words 'Suture-Bitch' had left his mouth on the drop ship.

"MEDIC!"

Shiva perked up and laid down some supressing fire in the general direction of the fortification, before running with a hunch to the pile of crates that Daiutan was leaning up against. "Well well well, lucky I'm not here as an executioner, right sir?" She said patronisingly as she opened up her surgeon's kit and evaluated the wounds.

"Shut up and patch me up, Tasthagk!"

"Oh? Where did 'Suture-Bitch' go? You seemed awfully-" Daiutan convulsed as Shiva administered stinging antiseptic spray on his new burns, "-fond of that one, weren't you? Don't worry though, stay still and little miss Shkitliktuit will make you feel aaaall better." Shiva stopped with a motherly look to concentrate as the neutrium around Daiutan's wounds bent to her power. Daiutan felt uncomfortably itchy as his burnt flesh began to close over and repair itself. Daiutan would have not have suffered any less physically with Shiva's treatment if she had said nothing, but the chance to take Daiutan's pride down a notch was too much not to take. Once she was done, there only remained a few charred holes in Daiutan's armour. "There's a good boy, now let's finish this mission, shall we?" She patted him on the top of his helmet roughly and took her place in cover again.

---

"Reassignment again? Sir, I did not do anything wrong, it's not my fault Daiutan didn't like my medical treatment, it was to procedure!" Shiva protested to Kherod while she read the memo on her datapad with him in front of her. Funnily enough, in the barracks her antics didn't attract any attention. It was as if the rest of the squad had known beforehand and had been told to shut up. It's not as if they cared anyway, none of them especially liked Shiva.

Even though he betrayed nothing in his stony expression, Kherod was probably the one with the most distaste for Shiva's past. He had been looking for an excuse to get rid of her ever since she was assigned to him three years ago. This one seemed to fall into his lap. "Tasthagk, this was not about the mission. You performed as expected as a soldier of the sovereignty. This order is from Army Special Warfare. You will report to hangar bay seven with all of your belongings at 0630. It will be a long flight where you're going."

Confused, Shiva remained standing silently as Kherod turned and walked off. When he was out of sight, she sat down on her bunk and reread the memo. What the hell does the ArmSpecWar want with me?

[Balmung1100]

Bit sat at the controls of the specialized Kiratiori and read over his new orders.

"So much for going to help the general." He said with a long sigh.

"Those are some high tier orders sir." Neroi commented as he read over Bit's shoulder. Something that almost earned him a shot to the head.

"Yeah, well they aren't yours." Bit replied angrily. "Get your ass in the deployment pod and prep for a hot drop off."

"What? Why can't you just land on the roof?" Neroi asked urgently, obviously not a big fan of the quick deployment pods.

"I could give you a list, but we only have fifteen seconds. Get in there before I force you in there with some det charges."

"Er..I'll just be getting in there now." Neroi said as he entered the pod and closed the hatch.

"Good." Bit said as he tapped into the general's comm channel. "Sir, sorry I have to go in such a hurry. If it's any consolation, I'm dropping off Neroi now."

"Captain, you better have a damn good reason to-" The General began before being cut off by the sound of Neroi's pod bursting in from the floor above.

"Just received a top level order sir, tier zero." Bit finished as he cut off the transmission and fired up the fighter's engines. Within seconds he exited the colonized asteroid field and turned the autopilot on.

[cqbexpt]

"He's gone Shuo....What do you want to do?" Renti said solemnly. Shuo gave a glance back at his comrade. His face plate was totally cracked in and the table he was on was covered in blood, just like him. The round was still buried in his chest plate which they hoped would slow the bleeding. It was a risk to take the body with them but they couldn't leave him or his suit just here.....

"Set him to detonate, take this whole building down with him if you wish. LZ is 30 more floors up." Shuo said then pausing for a sec. Renti nodded taking her hands off the wound. She took a cable out of her wrist and hooked it into a slot in his. She began setting his suit to overload. Hopefully the blast killed all the human scum below them. Shuo then turned back to the 3D display he had up. They had a UAV doing thermal scans on the building for them now and it showed some humans trying to traverse rubble below them. He counted 7 there and another 12 a few floors down. He exhaled through his nose sharply and swiped the display away. He put his left hand back on his rifle and looked back to Renti, who was retracting her cable.

"We're good to go." Renti said in a rather blank tone. Shuo nodded and exited the large apartment they had entered and came up to the stairs. He was ready to be done with this place.

1 week later...

Shuo was sat on the edge of his bed ready to start his day. He had yet to receive reassignment and more than likely he would be sitting around for more than a few weeks before he was shipped off anyways. He would need to figure out where he could get a work out in as he didn't like sitting around doing nothing. He pushed himself off the edge of his bed and began straightening it out and tucking the edges in. He stepped back and looked at the neat bed and made sure it was perfect. He then turned on his heel and went to the kitchen and grabbed some fish out of the fridge which he ate quickly with his hands.

After eating Shuo went over to the couch and sat down. For a moment he simply stared off at the city. Then he heard a ring at the door. He got up and walked over to the door and then opened it. A Tempu women in dress fatigues stood at the door whom Shuo had a good few inches on. "Sixth echelon Shuo Yuyun?" She said with a air of confidence.

"Yes, you have him." Shuo said noticing that she had a mark of tenth echelon on her shoulder. He quickly saluted and added a "Mam" to the end of his sentence.

"At ease soldier." She said. Giving a quick return salute."May I come in?" Shuo nodded and moved out of the door way gesturing inside. The Tempu walked inside the apartment and Shuo closed the door behind her. "I'm here to give you your reassignment." She said looking around the room and not at Shuo.

"I figured as much. Though I'm wondering why my CO isn't here, mam." Shuo said knowing that technically he was out of line but people in his position generally got away with little of it.

"Because the mission you are being given is.... well rather important. My name is Petand and I'm going to cut to the chase here as I have a few other things to do before I'm redeployed myself. You're being assigned to a joint species team.." She said as she set a data pad down on the kitchen counter. there was something on it but he couldn't read it from where he was.

"Excuse me mam?" Shuo said with a bit of disbelief. He walked over to the kitchen and leaned on the table with both of his arms.

"When this was first brought to me I had a hard time believing it myself. But this is from 12th, your going to be heading our representation on this team. You also leave today." She said scrolling the data pad with one hand and holding it in the other.

Shuo blinked for a second and then responded. "That's quite short notice mam. Where exactly am I going to anyways?"

"Pax. You leave in 4 hours aboard the SV Furious Assault, a Heavy cruiser. Your armor and weapons are already on board, you just need to be there on time with your go bag. Understood?" She said standing up straight and lifting her pad off the table. She then began making her way to the door. Shuo got up and made it to the door just before her. He pressed the console and opened the door for her. "Oh and it's on level 421 dock 9, by the way."

Shuo gave her a salute as she left and she returned with a "See ya." Shuo was rather confused by what had just happened but he cleared that thought quickly and began packing. He hoped he had enough time to grab some of the "coffee" stuff on his way down there. He got hooked on it a few months ago and hadn't had any since he was deployed last month. One thing was for sure though, this was going to be interesting.

[Hailfire]

Ashley rolled through space, the great ocean of stars swirling around her as she experienced a rare moment of tranquillity. All was silent save for the light patter of space junk bouncing off her skin and the sub-zero temperatures soothed her on her way. As with anything however, it was not to last and moments later the peace was disrupted by a voice over her onboard coms.

"ISS 7 to vessel, please identify and state your business." It said, simple and efficient albeit heavily accented. Ashley sighed, her moment lost and then dropped out of possession with a jolt, the feeling of her consciousness leaving the Hummingbird and returning to her vessel not unlike a punch to the chest.

"ISS 7 this is Hummingbird landing for business reasons. Sending the digital identifier now. It's been a while Andy!" Ashley replied chattily. Even with the slight distortion from ISS 7's dated radios Ashley could recognise that voice and she'd learnt a while back that the accent came from a large island in south eastern earth, Australia she thought.

"Roger that Hummingbird." Came the enthusiastic response. "Y'know I was told not to expect you back. Heard you encountered some issues at the Virtus borders." he continued. Then there was a pause before he got to his next and most important question, presumably to look both ways over his shoulders. "Have you got the goods?" he asked.

"Yep!" Ashley retorted quick as a Rothian energy bolt. "One bottle of Masalu's finest coming your way the moment I am on board." Of course the alcohol was no-where near the quality of Masalu's finest but Ashley had long ago learnt that either Andy and his men didn't know the difference in quality or simply didn't care. Drinking Masalu spirits was not unlike playing russian roulette anyway unless one also possessed a Masalu constitution and so Ashley figured she was doing them a favour, not to mention saving some of those all important credits. Regardless this transaction had proven beneficial in the past and so she had made it a habit. Moments later Ashley heard what she wanted to hear.

"Right. I'll get you to the front of the cue." Andy said. "I'm afraid that's still a twenty minute wait today as Starclaw's been hogging all the docks since their leader died so sit back, relax and await further instruction." he instructed.

"Understood ISS 7." Ashley confirmed. "One last thing Andy. What happened to the infamous Mr Little?" She queried.

"Would you believe their saying Jayrin Augustin herself turned up to take him down?.. Probably just infighting but that's they're story and they are sticking to it. Anyway, that's all I got for time right now, there's another ship on the line."

"My thanks." Ashley finished before pushing her seat back across the cockpit floor and immediately regretting the action. "And good riddance to Mr Little." She thought. Ashley had never liked slavers and still cringed at the memory of the one slave run she had made before committing to never do that again.

Ashley's muscles were feeling tense and rubbery after prolonged disuse and a check of her wrist computer showed she hadn't done anything besides pilot the Hummingbird for four days straight, all of which she had spent possessing the Hummingbird and neglected even sleep to do so. For the second time in five minutes Ashley sighed and as if on cue her stomach rumbled. Turning off the artificial gravity to minimise strain Ashley headed over to the microwave-like device in the far back corner of the cockpit, inserting a small grey dishwasher tablet of "food" and awaiting the beep before nibbling at the tiny, tasteless and textureless morsel for nutrients. More often than not Ashley's body felt like a liability and she had often pondered in her moments of idleness if it would be possible to replace the weak flesh with the crisp, clean and efficient technologies she was so in tune with before then dismissing the idea as expensive and ridiculous. Food still in hand she headed off to the "bedroom".

Little more than a converted storage unit Ashley's bedroom was far from luxury. The walls were decorated with "cultural" tempu wall art, little more than splatters of colour that looked remarkably similar to the colourful collection of clothes now floating around the room. Near the far wall was a large mattress bound to the floor with a set of bungie cords and in the closest corner a portable showering unit Ashley had stolen from a music festival some years ago. Stripping down to her skin Ashley stepped into the shower wearing only her old UN dogtags which remained perpetually nestled in her bosom. The water began to flow, cleansing Ashley of days worth of secretions with the water bouncing off at any and all angles in the zero gravity environment, droplets hanging in the air like jewels until and even after the shower was turned off. Once she was done Ashley towelled off, dressed in her baggy combat trousers, white tank top and brown leather aviators jacket then returned to the cockpit just in time for Andy's call to dock.

ISS 7 was a dated space station from the early era's of human space flight, a relic and showing it. The international space station had been built in orbit of Saturn as a ship refuel point for long distance expeditions and still bore the original and faded inscription NASA on it's topmost surface, the meaning of the letters lost in the passage of time as was the stations original purpose. Long distance flight technology had rendered the station obsolete and with the increasing privatisation of space some entrepeneuring individual had purchased the station and re-branded it Cloud 7, turning it into a hub for tourism and filling it with casinos and clubs. Whilst the tourist division still insisted it be called Cloud 7 by the time Ashley arrived it would have been something of a misnomer. The attractions within were rarely more than a front for some criminal business within and the tourists attracted frequently awoke from their first night with a headache and zero possessions. Ashley approached the dock slowly, the outer edges stations opening blackened with soot and even rusted from eras of exposure to rocket burners. Ashley had never decided if she loved or hated this place.

[Kyelin]

Location: [DATA NOT AVAILABLE]
Time:[DATA NOT AVAILABLE]
Priority: One

"Operation Veil... Do you remember anything about it, Agent?"

Whatever this place was, it needed a few lights, though it probably wouldn't help Opus identify the Dirophyd on the Holo. Most likely, it helped to hide the distinguishing features of whom he was addressing now, who also happened to be a complete stranger, and probably really important. The dead giveaway for this was the bizarre circumstances in which he had been forced to take a mild amnesiac before getting on the rendezvous ship. The last thing he heard the soldier greeting him say was "You know I don't know where you're going."

Obviously, this wasn't standard procedure for completion of the mission and, apparently, after finishing this, there had been a change in protocol. Normally, he would report back to Strike Operations HQ, in a small outpost to be debriefed, but now... Amnesiacs are weird. When coming out of it, you just snap to the next space in time, much like a day dream. Being drugged wasn't that strange, but this was something else.

"Of course not, sir. Protocol for that mission was all personnel involved had the event wiped. I do not recollect a single detail about that mission, sir." Opus had his hands behind his back in a formal stance, a stance that felt like he should probably maintain in front of this guy. Probably out ranked the agent. Or would kill him for something as inoffensive as as a slight slouch. He'd heard rumors that these guys could be crazy, if they were real.

"Hmm... You see, that is the problem..." The projected Dirophyd moved his hands smoothly as he talked, and spoke in an deliberate, slow tone, of a man who had very thoroughly planned to say these next words in such a way that no detail was given, yet all of it was. "We had assumed that the mission was, to a degree, a success. All objectives were complete, after all. No, the main issue we have, is that... Well, you can see where I am going with this. It was, perhaps, a mistake to wipe your memory of the event. And now, we need you to, say, tie up some loose ends."

The man paused, and waited for those words to sink in, and continued. "You will be re-assigned to, what we believe, a unit that may unwittingly be heading towards the same goal as us. Your orders are simple: Follow the orders given by that team leader, whatever they may be. At least until we say otherwise. Now, you will be released from our custody. And be ready for us."

---

Opus snapped to the next point in time, which was in a standard Kiratiori cockpit, orbiting an unknown gas giant in what the agent assumed was the middle of nowhere. Right now, his main plan was to recollect his thoughts, and figure out what to do next. One thing stood out the most: A holo HUD of a predetermined autopilot route that he couldn’t change. So, unsure of what lay ahead of him, and with no other options available to him, Opus initiated the ship, and warped to wherever his destination was.

[Muttonhawk]

The small harshly angular spacefaring transport looked lonely in the empty hangar as Shiva clomped towards it. As she approached it, the echo from the clapping of her footsteps along the floor were completely drowned out by the whirring of the engines starting up. At the base of the gangway on the craft's flank was a lone masulu officer that Shiva had not seen before. As expected she noticed his eyes wandering to the mark on Shiva's head before addressing her. "1st Eschelon Tasthagk?!" He said over the engines.

Shiva put down the rigid case that contained all her worldly possessions and straightened up. "1st Eschelon Tasthagk reporting, sir!"

"You're twenty seconds early!"

Although she didn't show it, Shiva didn't know what to make of the man. She opted not to respond.

"At ease, come aboard!" The officer beckoned Shiva up the ramp and turned to board the transport.

Taking a breath, Shiva redjusted her weapon holstered on the small of her back, retrieved her bag and climbed aboard behind the officer. The gangway raised itself shut behind her, blocking out the sound of the engines to a faint whistle.

"Glad you could make it, Tasthagk. I'm 10th Eschelon Desrick, I've been tasked to facilitate your transport to Pax." The officer held his hands behind his back and spoke in a more casual tone than Shiva was used to from officers so high up. He took a seat on one of the comfortable looking seats and gestured for Shiva to do the same. "Please, get settled in. It's a long trip."

Shiva was too busy wondering what was on Pax that warranted reassignment there. She had never been to Pax before. She hadn't even been in an officer's transport before, let alone seen a 10th Eschelon this close up. She stood dumbstruck until Desrick spoke up again. "Is something wrong, Tasthagk?"

"Er, no sir," She apprehensively took off her weapon holster and took the seat across from Desrick, placing her bag and gun at her feet, "I just... this is the first I was told I was going to Pax, sir."

Desrick rolled his eyes. "Pah, trust some credit-for-eight helmet hair 5th Eschelon with being transparent. He only gave you the memo, didn't he? Didn't think to tell you more?"

Shiva kept a blank, if confused expression. "No, sir."

"Then I have some explaining to do, Ghirex?" Desrick spoke into the communicator on his wrist, "We're secure, take off when ready."

A faint "Roger that, sir" could be heard through Desrick's earpiece and both Desrick and Shiva leaned slightly in one direction as the transport began to move. Desrick readjusted and held his elbows on the arms of the seat, weaving his large fingers together in front of his face. "This isn't like the last few reassignments you've had, Tasthagk. You're going to be part of a new initiative by Assembly to help strengthen relations with the other nations. A single, joint effort, interspecies, military team."

"Wait, sorry, I'm going to have to stop you there." Shiva raised a hand up to her shoulder level, "Why have I been picked for this?" She pointed to her tattoo, "I thought this big traitor sign on my forehead meant I was only here to serve my time. It's been twenty-four years, and I'm not allowed a promotion until I serve for fifty, aren't those kind of positions for spec ops elites or something?"

Desrick gave a sly look. "Technically, you're not being promoted, just reassigned. And even though not many like to admit it, as a convicted traitor you've saved more lives than you have taken." Desrick pointed his thumb over his shoulder, "Back in ArmSpecWar, I couldn't find a better candidate. Your record shows consistent work both off and on the field, you keep cool under pressure, not to mention that magical affinity you have makes you dependable." He leaned forward in his seat, "You're the best combat medic in our entire armed forces."

Once again, Shiva was utterly dumbstruck. No one had given her any praise in years, and now a 10th Eschelon was saying she was the best combat medic they had. This wasn't right. She blinked and stared at Desrick with skeptical look. "Is this some kind of joke, sir?"

Still leaning forward, Desrick shook his head. "Not a joke, Tasthagk. This is one hundred per cent real." He leaned back and pushed a button to extend a hidden drawer that held a couple of masulu sized drinking vessels and a flask of drink. He poured a couple of glasses, passing one to Shiva, who just held it and looked into the liquid in thought, pondering this new feeling of importance. Desrick continued, "I was surprised how easy it was to convince your CO to have you transferred, but apparently you don't get on with your squad so well."

"More like the last ten squads."

Desrick laughed quietly, "Any more questions?" Desrick gulped down his share of what Shiva smelled to be some kind of spirit.

"Yeah," Shiva looked up, "who am I going to be working with?"

Desrick poured himself some more of the spirit and shook his head. "That's where my clearance ends, I'm afraid. You'll find out when we get there."

[reganza]

"Were here, now pay up." Dante spoke in a calm tone. It was a job well done. The desert planet was crawling in bandits, but no one messed with them. Dante was large and intimidating.

"Here how is 200 credits?" The merchant had rugged look to him, buisness wasn't good and he looked very stressed. Yet he kept on with job, even if it would kill him.

"200 cre- God damn it! Do you know who I am? I have the strength of two men! Surely I deserve way more!"

"Okay okay...I don't want any problems here, 400 credits?"

"That's better." He took the credits and made his way into town. It was shit hole, prostitues and low street thugs walked the streets. Grafitty and litter were everywhere. This was not a town that normal people would want to be in. But Dante was strong, and not someone to be messed with. People tend to leave him alone, if they don't they usually were found dead the next day. Dante found himself if front of bar, he had a long days work. A drink didn't sound to bad. He opened the door, the air was very cloudy from all the smoke and the bar reeked of alcohol. This wasn't the best bar, but it would do.

"Gimme your finest drink, I don't care how much it cost, I can pay for it."

The bartender handed him the drink, Dante put it to his mouth. He drank it, it burning in his throat made him squint his eyes. It tasted like crap but it was obviously strong.

"Bartender ano-" Dante was interrupted by a couple of thugs surrounding him.

"We don't like you rich folk 'round here!" The group looked fairly young, but obviously drunk, They weren't much of a threat.

"You sure you wanna mess with me?!" He said as he got of the bar stool, he grabed it and threw it at one of the thugs, it hit him in the head and he came crashing down.

"1 down 4 more to go!" Dante reached for his knife, the leader approaching him. Dante reached his hand around his back and pulled him into the knife, it went into his stomach with ease. The other 3 looked at each other and ran off. Dante sat at another bar stool and sighed.

"Where was I? Oh yeah, another drink!"

[baskets]

Coin awoke sluggishly, the incessant beeping from her desk pounding in her ears. She took a moment to reorient; how long had she been asleep? A quick check of the clock on her desk told her twenty minutes. Damn. Coin didn’t sleep often, but when she did, she was probably in her lab. Coin fondly remembered the time the crew had auctioned off her bunk since she used it so little. It was a good joke looking back, but it wasn’t so funny when Coin dropped into her bed after four sleepless days only to land right on top of the mess sergeant.

Oh, right. The beeping. Coin leaned towards her desk, checking the display of her computer. It was… a summons? Captain Tyson wanted her on the bridge ten minutes ago. Shit. Coin did not need to get chewed out yet again for being late to something because she was sleeping. She hopped up, her swivel chair rolling off and crashing into a pile of scrap. Coin disregarded the mess; she had better things to worry about. She took a moment to fix her hair and her lab coat before heading out of her lab.

As Coin stepped out into the corridor, she heard more beeping coming from her waist. Coin spun around several times before realizing the beeping was coming from her communicator. “Get yourself together, woman,” Coin muttered, fitting an earpiece and responding to the call. “This is Ricard.”

“Coin, it’s Jacob. Where are you? Captain’s been calling for you. He searched me out to get to you,” Jacob spoke hurriedly into Coin’s ear.

“I’m on my way. If he asks, I was working on that targeting computer.”

“You and I both know that’s bullshit, Doctor. Get your ass up to the bridge now,” a deep, monotone voice replied in place of Jacob’s. Shit. The captain was on the call too. Jacob could’ve at least given her a heads up.

“Yes, sir, on my way, sir,” Coin responded, closing the call. If she was going to get chewed out, it was not going to be over a goddamn phone call.

--

Coin stepped out of the lift onto the bridge, saluting Captain Tyson as soon as she approached. “Sir. Sorry I’m late, sir.”

Tyson was silent. He folded his arms, a look of slight confusion on his face. Coin’s mind raced. If she wasn’t being yelled at by now, then this was serious. What could be more serious than the captain finding yet another reason to yell at her for something?

“At ease, Natalia. I’m… not quite sure what to make of this.” Tyson stopped talking, holding Coin in silence. Natalia? Coin was definitely not on a first name basis with the captain.

Intrigued, Coin couldn’t help but raise a finger. “Um, what to make of what, sir?” She stepped forward slightly, trying to get a read on the captain.

To Coin’s surprise, Tyson chuckled in response. “You can finally stop calling me that, Natalia. I’m not your commanding officer, any more.”

Coin stepped back, bringing her hands to her chest and twiddling her thumbs. The captain’s ambiguity was unnerving; he was typically very to the point. At least she didn’t have to call him ‘sir.’ He was a good man, but Coin hated Tyson as her captain. “What do you mean? Am I getting reassigned to a different ship?”“Yes and no. You’re reassigned, but this isn’t like any reassignment I’ve ever seen. This comes straight from the top. Someone in the upper brass made it my responsibility to get you to Pax. No details included in the order, except that you’re going to be part of a cross-species team.” The captain smirked. “Looks like they finally decided it’s time that your decade of schooling paid off.”

Coin stepped back, shocked. Did she hear that correctly? A cross-species team? Pax? If she was being sent to Pax, that could only mean that she was getting reassigned to some team under the Assembly’s jurisdiction. Damn, hopefully she wasn’t going to have to play any politics. She raised a finger again, “How long do I have to pack my things?”

“Your intern has already taken care of your private belongings, and any delicate equipment in your lab will most likely be sent back to a research lab somewhere. Report to the hangar bay and I’ll get you on a shuttle to Pax,” the captain replied, simply walking away from Coin, signaling the end of their conversation. Some things never change.

Coin stepped back into the lift, wrapping her head around her reassignment. A cross-species team based on Pax meant that this was probably the biggest assignment she’d ever be given. She knew this was definitely not something to screw up, but what exactly was she trying to not screw up? What was this team’s purpose? A number of possibilities ran through Coin’s head, but she resolved to wait until she learned more about the team.

[Fatal Error 1337]

The drop ship shuddered as it hummed through the atmosphere, jostling the seven Rothians inside. Six wore standard combat armor and five held their standard issue Micro-Fusion rifles, one was a marksman holding a beam rifle, as they sat strapped into the rumble seats along either side of the drop-ship. The seventh, Srath, was sitting closest to the main hatch and wore a much heavier armor with weapons mounted on either shoulder and two pistols that were large even by Rothian standards.

Srath had noticed that soldiers would develop rituals on the flights into combat areas, mostly they would habitually check their equipment or stare at nothing. Either lost in thought or trying not to think at all. Srath found himself performing the second often, going over the plan that had been laid out before the flight.

Smugglers working for Alex Wise who were delivering weapons to militants who'd been raiding long range cargo vessels just outside the Rothian Defense Forces response range. They'd clear the vessel before they arrived and never left any survivors. The drop was being made at an abandoned deuterium mining facility on a moon orbiting the systems gas giant. Scans had shown that the weapons were being stored in the buildings southern loading dock where there was a large walled courtyard, probably where haulers would move the deuterium off-world. They'd also shown a dozen men guarding the weapons and it was unknown how many raiders would be arriving.

Not wanting to risk warning the raider and smugglers that they were coming, they'd been sent ahead along with five other drop ships of soldiers from the far side of the moon while the frigate that dropped waited outside of scanning range. They then flew in at low altitude to avoid any warning systems they'd set in place, landing only a few kilometers from the facility. They'd been waiting three days for the raiders to arrive, waiting for the spy drone in orbit to track their approach. Finally they'd got the signal, a mid sized unregistered freighter was making its way to the facility. Once it had landed they began their approach, Sraths' team was on point to secure the courtyard for the other drop-ships while the frigate moved in to prevent any ships from escaping.

"30 seconds to drop." The pilots voice coming through their helmets.

They all unbuckled themselves from the rumble-seats, standing and holding safety bars as the ship banked hard and began decelerating. Sraths' heart began to speed up

"10...9...8...7..."

He felt adrenalin begin to spike through his system as he drew one of his sidearms, holding the safety bar with his other hand.

"6...5...4...3..."

On 1 the ship jolted as it landed on the ground, the door lowering to create a ramp to the ground. Harsh sunlight streamed into drop-ship along with sand that had been kicked up by the engines. Srath could feel the hot air blowing in through his armors neural interface just before rounds from human weapons began pinging off the ship. Some making it through the door as it opened and ricochet inside, some colliding with their shield causing small flares of energy to appear around them. The indirect shots weren't causing damage, but when the door had finally opened fully they started taking direct fire. Though inaccurate the smugglers were firing enough for some rounds to find their mark, several striking Srath but doing minimal damage to his enhanced shielding.

Rushing from the ship Srath saw the courtyard, small dunes had formed within the walls that the smugglers were using for cover. More were standing on the roof of the southern part of the facility behind the dunes, firing even more wildly than those closer. There was a decrepit land hauler 50 meter away that would shield them from the smugglers, but they had to get there first.

"Take cover at that hauler!" He shouted over the constant crackle of shots from the dune.

He slowed to a walk, drawing his second weapon as the others kept making their way to cover. He'd draw what fire he could until they made it to cover, he used the suit-link to target the smugglers at the dune. The weapon on his left shoulder snapped to each target firing off five round bursts so quickly it appeared as if only one fired. He added to the fire, using both his high powered sidearms to send bolts of angry green energy into the dune, sending up clouds of sand that obscured them. Slowing had also made them focus more of their fire at him.

More rounds began hammering his shield, enough to start draining it at an alarming rate. He broke into a run following his squad mates behind the vehicle as more rounds smacked into his shield or hit the ground creating small explosions of sand. Finally behind the massive wheeled vehicle with only half his shields power remaining he checked on his squad.

"Status?" He asked through the helmets communicator over the sporadic fire from the dune.

"All green." Replied his 2nd, referring to the squads remaining shield strength.

"I'm going to move up the dune on their right, want suppressing fire on them while I move. Ream." He said, gesturing to their marksman. "I need you to engage the targets on the roof."

"Yes sir." he replied, he immediately set about finding a position that gave him an angle on the roof of the facility without exposing himself to those on the dune.

"Ready? Fire!" He shouted just before running around the corner of the vehicle.

Bolts of green energy began lancing into the top of the dune sending up showers of molten glass, yelps of pain could be heard as the weapon fire stopped. A split second later a solid beam of green scorched its way through the air, slamming into one of the smugglers on the roof almost 300 meters away, knocking him to the ground ten meters below and scattering the others. Srath crested the dune, seeing the cargo vessel and the raiders loading large crates into it as quickly as they could. To the right he could see the smugglers who'd been firing it him from behind the dune, they'd ducked down trying to get away from the energy blasts being fired by his squad.

One of the smuggler saw him and turned his weapon on Srath, Srath in turn aimed his dual hand-cannons at him. The smuggler was firing fully automatic, his first few rounds going wide. Srath fired both weapons at the same time, kicking in his hands as they sent two angry green bolts of energy scorching through the air. One missing by only a few centimeters and hitting another shooter in the leg, the other shot striking the center of the firsts' chest. With one dead and another screaming in pain, clutching his seared leg, the others paused for a moment unsure what to do. Once Srath pointed his weapons at them they threw theirs down.

Just before Srath could say anything he started taking fire from his left, a short and well aimed bursts hit his shield draining a chunk. Srath dropped to a crouch while spinning to face the shooter, one of the militants had opened a crate and was firing from a prone position behind part of the cargo ship. Srath snapped off a few quick shots in his direction to suppress him while readied the Fusion Cannon mounted on his right shoulder. The smugglers on the dune who could took advantage of the distraction, running downhill toward the facility. Taking another well aimed burst while the cannon locked then fired sending a massive beam of glaring green energy into the militant, overwhelming what little shielding he had and vaporizing most of his head and torso. An overheat warning appeared on his HUD showing the cooling time until it could be recharged.

"Dune is clear, move up!" He called over comms. "This is strike team 1, LZ is clear." He signaled to the other drop ships.

With the arrival of over a dozen more Rothian soldiers the remaining smugglers and raiders had lost the will to fight. A couple of smugglers had tried to escape in their ship but the frigate had made it within range of the planet by then, having its fighters force the small runner to land in the frigates' hangar. Srath was finishing loading the last of the illegal weapons onto one of the drop-ship when his comm beeped.

"Thane here." He said answering the comm.

"This is Captain Krom, I need you back on the ship. I have a transmission here from R.D.F. Command that pertains to your new assignment."

'What?' He thought. 'I never applied for a transfer. What the hell is going on?'

"I'll be right up." He replied before the channel was cut. He moved up to the cockpit where the pilot sat. "Change of plans, looks like I'm hitching a ride with you to the ship." He told him.

"Aye sir, strap in and we'll be off." The pilot replied, tapping a few controls that made the engines begin to hum.

Through the flight, all Srath did was try and think of anything that could have happened over the last year that could hint as to why he was being transferred. Thinking of nothing he decided it could wait until he could talk to the captain. He'd likely at least have some answers to his questions.

[cqbexpt]

Shuo had all but his helmet on. He and his squad had just come out of the armory and were ready to go at a moments notice. But they were about to be given their final breifing. He walked through a metal door way just as the door slid open before him. His squad following close behind. He came up to a table that was somewhere over 4 feet high. At the other end of the table was an older looking Malusu women in her dress uniform. Though it was a different color and style to his own, he guessed she was Intelligence. " Good evening soldiers, I'm sure you have all been over the intel multiple times now and the mission info. However we just got new intel on our objective."

The table infront of him lit up with a dark blue surface to it with a grid overlayed on top of it. Suddenly a human tied to a chair with a bullet wound in his head appeared on screen. "Our advance teams confirmed yesterday that our defector was caught and executed by the Mother bear yesterday. However they have confirmed the integrity of his cerebral back up. However they were unable to obtain the device itself. So this just became a smash and grab." Suddenly the hologram became the image of a building hundreds of stories tall. "We have the floor down but we are unsure how many vectors are actually in the building. Intel suggests close to 500 throughout the floor above 100. We intend to begin bombarding the building close to your arrival and after. We should be able to sneak your drop pods in under the cover of the bombardment."Suddenly the hologram added 3 long green cylinders to the projection." You will be inserted here and climb 5 floors to reach where we believe the intel to be. After that you will go up another 20 floors to this connector and cross buildings. We will level the building once you leave it and you will extract on the landing pad on this building." She said pointing to the building that had appeared to the left of the original one." Any questions?"

2 weeks later...

"Welcome Shuo Yuyun to the space station Harmonious Amity! It seems you are due to hanger 27b on deck 72. Please enjoy your stay on Pax!" The female Tempu said to him in the most upbeat tone he had heard in the last month. He grabbed his bags and began leaving the processing area. He began looking around at the sharp and clean blue on white architecture with the floor being a thick sort of glass looking at more sharp architecture except this had seems with many pulsating blue lines with what looked like beams of light traveling along them. He looked back up and saw stalls which were being used for picking up of recently transported gear. It didn't take him long to find the elevator that could take him down as he had found out he was on deck 81. The elevator was mostly glass except for one wall and the floor and ceiling. He walked into the elevator alone and went over to the touch pad on the wall and selected deck 72. The elevator immediately began to plunge downwards. To his left and right he could see hangers and overlook the public reception area which was a huge open room that was round in shape. The roof you could use to see out at Pax. It was a rather green planet with lakes dotting it's surface.

Just as he finished looking at the planet the elevator stopped and Shuo turned to face the door. It slid open and revealed a rather average Sovereign hanger. White with blue again immaculatly clean. There were several drop ships landed in the hanger and a few larger ships equiped with FTL drives. A Masulu man in his dress uniform approached him from the left and called his name withlist walking towards him with his hands behind his back. "Ah Shuo Yuyun! You arrived just a bit earlier then I would have thought! Anyways once your new squad mate arrives we can finally get this whole operation under way." The Masulu had a marking of 10th echelon on his sleeve. Shuo quickly dropped his bags and saluted the officer.

"Sir, I arrived as fast as the clearance would allow." Shuo said holding the salute.

The officer laughed."Well then we'll make sure to speed it up next time then! At ease. 10th echelon, Xiask." Just as Shuo dropped his salute another vessel began to pull into the hanger."Ah that should be our new arrival. The officer on board is a old buddy of mine let's go over and greet them shall we?" The officer said as he began walking over to where the ship would land. Shuo was used to this behaviour from certain officers but usually when it came to important things the straight edge officers were the ones handling him. He decided to put that thought out of his mind and go meet his new squadmate.

[Muttonhawk]

"Three minutes early, we're making good time." Desrick looked up from the clock on his datapad, "Eyes up, Tasthagk, end of the line."

Shiva looked up suddenly, having dozing off despite not wanting to sleep. The entire trip took a solid ten hours straight. Even with how far FTL travel had progressed, stops at refueling stations, other errands Desrick had to run as a cover for picking Shiva up, and border clearances meant that every couple of hours or so Shiva could look out the window and see another portion of space, few of which she recognised. Desrick himself wasn't much for conversation, but Shiva wasn't expecting him to be. It seemed as if he was constantly doing some kind of paperwork with that datapad he held. Unbeknownst to Shiva until the latter portion of the trip was the truth of the matter. Desrick had recently learned human numerals and was trying his hand at that old grid puzzle they had. What was it called? Suchotu? It just looked like a mess of symbols to Shiva.

"Finally," Shiva breathed, retrieving her baggage. She couldn't get up fast enough to stretch her legs again. After a quick moment securing her holster around her waist and shouldering her bag, she followed the Desrick and the pilot to the gangway. The door lead out to a hangar that was of familiar design, but made from strange materials and with a clinical reflectiveness. This one of course had more vessels in it than her origin.

Desrick held himself straight and walked with authority out onto the deck. "Welcome to Pax, Tasthagk. The heart of the assembly." Shiva hardly had any time to look around before Desrick's tone changed. "Uh oh."

Shiva looked at the back of his head, standing behind him. "Something wrong, sir?"

"Nothing," Desrick turned his head to one side to speak to Shiva while keeping his eyes ahead, "Just an old friend."

It was then that Shiva noticed the other two Masulu men walking towards them. A 5th eschelon and another 10th eschelon by the looks. She didn't recognise either of them any more than she did meeting Desrick. Shiva prepared to lower her bag and salute if needed. Desrick's approach was less serious.

"Didn't think I would see your ugly mug so soon." Desrick said, looking amused. He looked over to the soldier accompanying him, "Is this 5th Yuyun? Good timing, I brought his squadmate."

[Leon5431]

A low thud resonated throughout the large high rise apartment followed by a series of similar thuds. The apartment was rather luxuries, it's main door led into the living room where there was a fine sofa and a pair of arm chair pointed towards a television that took up a good chunk of the right wall. In the middle of the chairs there was a wooden coffee table with a built in holographic display in it's center. On the far side of the room there was a large window over providing a beautiful view of the city. Also on the far side of the room were a pair of stairs that led down a short ways to small area with four arm chairs gathered around another table with a holographic display built in and a television on the wall in between the stairs. Built into the window on this level was a automatic glass door that led out to a patio with some more furniture set out a few of the chairs facing away from the apartment looking out over the city. Also on the patio was a medium sized pool that had a panel that could be activated to slide over and cover the pool making it look as if there were nothing there but empty patio.

Back inside to the left of the living room was a kitchen outfitted with all the modern kitchen appliances one could ask for. On the same side of the room as the entrance was a small mini bar stocked with a wide variety of alcohol from multiple different planets and civilizations. To the right of the television set and furniture in the living room was a door that led into a private office with it's own desk with a built in holographic display, a television multiple shelves and a window overlooking the expanse over the city below. Back in the living room and to left of the kitchen a little ways, was a staircase that led up to the second floor where upon ascending you would be immediately met with a room with another sofa and a pair of arm chairs facing a television set to your right and a rather large holographic set up to your left. To the right of the holographic setup was a pair of doors that led to two guest rooms each room outfitted with a bed, a table with a holographic display built into it and a pair of arm chairs around it as well as a dresser, nightstand and Television set. Back in the main room of the second story and to the left of the furniture and tv was a door that led to the master bedroom. The master bedroom had a window that overlooked the city below and carried over to the right wall and overlooked the patio below. The room had a rather large bed that was currently unmade at the moment, a walk in closet, a television set with some arm chairs and a table-holographic display, two dressers and a large shelf unit.

Back to the main area of the second story and opposite of the stairs that led up to it was an open door that led to a personal gym, the current source of the repetitive thuds that reverberated throughout the apartment. In the middle of the gym hovered a heavy punching bag made of a foam material that could be set to multiple different density settings. Standing opposed to the punching bag was a male Rothian with black and white scales wearing nothing in terms of clothing. The Rothian stood in a offensive stance with his fists raised and rapidly struck out at the punching bag before him, each punch created another dull thud that reverberated throughout the room and apartment.

"You haven't done anything wrong or anything to piss off the brass, right?" Asked a voice from a portable holographic display, the small orb hovered around the Rothian displaying the image of another Rothian this one distinctly female. As could be seen she had dark green scales on the top of her head and yellow scales along her neck and chin. The top of her military uniform could barely be seen at the angle she was at.

"No I haven't done anything that I know of to piss anyone off." Replied the male in a steady and calm voice. "Has Zyku said anything about this?" He continued to ask. All the while his gaze never shifted from the bag in front of him.

"No, if he knows anything he hasn't said a single word. Though now that we are at base I will get a better chance to actually talk to him about it before we get shipped back out. We will only be here for the next two days." The girl said her attention seeming to be grabbed by something off screen.

"Alright, well, I don't think I am in trouble, I am probably just being reassigned to another squad or who knows maybe even promoted." The male said shrugging slightly as he did. As he finished speaking he went into a series of quick jabs that made a rather rapid series of thuds as his hands hit the bag once her finished his barrage he stood up straight and rolled his shoulder then neck before looking over towards the holographic display that settled in the air to his left.

"You promoted? Yeah right, don't make me laugh." She said with a teasing grin across her face.

"Oh yes cause me being promoted is such an unthinkable thing." He replied sarcastically.

"There is no way you are getting promoted before me. I have been here longer then you have and I haven't gotten a promotion, you can wait your turn." She joked back her grin never fading as she spoke.

"Sorry Terra, I guess command just knows I am the better soldier, I think I heard they wanted to send you back to basic training." He retorted seeming completely serious as he spoke.

"You know being big headed won't get you any closer to finding out why it is you have been reassigned Telmeck." Terra said in mock annoyance.

Telmeck smiled and rolled his eyes before responding, "Or maybe I am being reassigned because I am not big headed enough." He joked.

"You're an idiot." She replied in a bland annoyed tone.

"It takes one to know one." Telmeck replied using an age old quote and grinning childishly.

Just then the sound of a door sliding open came through on Terra's side and her eyes turned away from the screen. A voice quickly spoke up soon after, "Terra, Zyku want's to see you it has something to do with our next mission." Said the voice.

Terra nodded her head before responding, "Alright, be right there." She said before looking back to Telmeck. "Alright stupid, duty calls, we can't all enjoy some extra leave time like you." Terra joked as she sat up in her bed. "You take care of yourself, I will try to talk to you again tomorrow." She said as she stood up.

"Yeah yeah, you take care of yourself too and watch your back out there i'm not around to drag your ass out of trouble if you get yourself into a mess." Telmeck replied.

"You and I remember our times in the field distinctly different." Terra commented with a skeptical and teasing expression. "Alright talk to you later." She said as she grabbed some things off screen.

"Take care of yourself and good luck." Telmeck replied before the transmission ended the holographic display vanished just as an automated voice announced that the transmission had been terminated.

"Yeah yeah yeah." Telmeck said to the device as he reached out and grabbed it switching powering it down before turning to the punching bag. He activated the display and sent the hovering bag to deactivated. The bag then spun around and floated to a corner of the room where four more bags of it's kind were lined up, as it reached it's spot in the line the device deactivated and the bag slowly lowered to the floor.

Still holding the hologram projector in his hand Telmeck stretched his arms first one arm over the other in front of him and then one arm after the other behind his head. As he did he felt the tightness of his muscles, it was a pleasant sensation it was not as much as it would have been if he had actually come in to workout instead he came in for his morning routine. As he finished stretching he began to make his way out of his gym tapping a few keys on the keypad on his way out so the door would slide shut behind him before stepping over and setting the hologram projector in its place by the main holographic display system he had set up.

He then turned and made his way down the stairs into the main room then down the second set of stairs and out to the patio. Once outside he stepped over to the pool and jumped in. As he broke the waters surface droplets were sent in every direction, the warm water rushed in on him in an instant bathing him in a pleasant relaxing sensation as it did. He held under water for several seconds before breaking the surface of the wavy water once more. With a deep pleased breath he filled his lungs and opened his eyes looking out at the view before him.

It was a beautiful sight, the morning sun shown brightly on the horizon bathing the city in it's light and painting the sky a beautiful orange as it slowly made its ascent. The cities hundreds of tall towers reflected the sunrise with every correctly facing window. Less vehicles then usual made their way through the streets as they went about their mornings, for some they were finally returning home for others they bid their home farewell and went out to begin their day. As most of the cities this day and age it seemed it's "streets" never slept, at all times there would be some type of vehicle soaring through the spaces between the rising towers.

For several long moments Telmeck was captivated by the beautiful view, this was one of his favorite things about both his apartment and waking up this early, he had a front row seat to one of natures greatest beauties. Eventually he forced himself to the edge of the pool and pulled himself out. Once free from the waters pleasant embrace he walked over to the railing of the patio and leaned on to it.

When he was in the field there was never any time for him to admire the sunrise or sunset of a foreign world, his gaze was never fixed on the nature of the world but rather those that inhabited it. But here, here he was able to take all the time he wanted to stop and stare to get lost in the beauty of a peaceful world where not everyone in sight was an enemy. He could breath easy and relax. It was nice but it felt foreign, he had become so used to the day to day stress and toil that came with his position as a soldier let alone a spec ops. He had grown so accustomed to it that his time almost felt wasted and he felt a constant air of unease that there was something important he should have been doing. This feeling was only amplified by the fact that he was pulled from his squad and put on leave early, he couldn't help but feel uneasy and anxious.

His mind drifted as he stood on that ledge, the water on his scales slowly drying in the morning sun. What if the others get hurt and I am not there to help them? What if something with the mission goes wrong and they get trapped or worse. They will be down a man and their possible deaths would be because of me because I wasn't there to help them or die along side them. He thought nervously. The images of all of those soldiers he had watched die in the many years of his life slowly blinked through his mind in some form of heart wrenching slideshow. This was part of his life, it was something every soldier had to accept, that comrades will die, sometimes no matter what you do, it is a cruel and bitter thing to know that a comrade died even when you tried to help them, even more so when you start thinking of how you could have better helped them. That was a line of thought every soldier should avoid even in some places a line of thought everyone should avoid.

He had lost enough comrades in his long existence to know that should the worst come to worst he would eventually come to terms with it. Though he was confident, they were a skilled team, they were all spec ops for a reason and would not go down easily.

Telmeck let out a long sigh as he pushed his thoughts back to the hear and now. He pushed himself off of the rail and made his way back inside. By this point he was completely dry so he made his way to his room where he began the process of finding some clothes to wear. He stepped into his walk in closet and began looking over every last available outfit for him.

"One annoying part about being on leave...having to find legitimate clothes to wear. I can't just go around in my uniform or armor like I could when on duty. No now it was either clothes or no clothes, but I always get odd looks from non-Rothians when I wear no clothes so I would rather wear something." He said aloud to himself as he looked.

His wardrobe was less like that of the usual Rothian society, instead of the flashy and expensive clothing that usual Rothians wore he stuck to a more subtle style of clothing. He ended up selecting a pair of dark grey wants with a white long sleeve shirt. When he was clothed he rolled the sleeves of his shirt up till they were slightly longer then that of a normal shirt. Once pleased with his outfit he collected his wrist computer and went down stairs.

As he reached the base of his stairs he glanced over to his kitchen and thought about grabbing a bite to eat but decided against it, he would be able to make some food where he was going. As he made his way to the exit he opened up his wrist computer and made sure to seal the pool deactivate any lights he had left on and lock any doors he had left unlocked. Once done he made his way out the front door locking it behind him before heading towards one of the buildings many elevators. He then took the elevators down to a sort of parking hanger where the building residents stored their vehicles. After finding his own he climbed in and set a course for his destination.

Being still fairly early he was able to make it to his destination in a goof amount of time, the serious morning traffic was just beginning to settle in. His vehicle landed on the private landing pad and he climbed out. He then made his way over to the apartment's entrance and was scanned just as he always was. Upon completion of the scan the door opened for him and he stepped in being greeted by the voice of the apartments AI.

"Good morning, Telmeck." The voice said in greeting. "I should inform you. Master Rareth is presently still asleep. Shall I wake her?" The AI asked.

Telmeck smiled lightly and shook his head, "Hello Thavrin. That will not be necessary, I can wake her." Telmeck answered

"As you wish sir, she is currently asleep in the living room." Thavrin said before falling silent once more.

"Thank you Thavrin." Telmeck said before making his way from the front door heading further into the apartment. Eventually he reached the darkened living room where he spied the sleeping form of Rareth on the couch. Telmeck smiled and chuckled softly, "Looks like someone had a late night." He said quietly before making his way towards her as silently as he could. As he reached her side he slowly crouched down beside her softly placing a hand on her shoulder he then gave her a few shakes being as gentle as he could while still being enough to wake her.

As she began to stir he smiled softly, "Come on sleeping beauty, you'll sleep the morning away at this rate." He said teasingly.

"Thavrin, go ahead and set the windows to a medium tint so we can get some light in here." Telmeck requested.

"Yes sir." The AI responded before manipulating the polarized windows until they were tinted enough to let a small amount of light in.