Getting equipped

"Good now let me continue. The servers will be in one of five rooms" Emily goes on like the argument never happened and we pay close attention to her explanation. The holo table lights up in the shape of the building we're going to infiltrate. A simple company office building. It looks a little like a shelter made purely of stone with no windows. A massive stone rectangle.

On the massive stone rectangle are dividing lines that show the different floors and the 20th floor is lighting up in five different locations. The colours are slightly different for each one. Bright pink, bright green, dark blue, Black and white. Other than the white marker they were in the four cardinal directions in what appeared to be sealed off rooms.

The white marker on the other hand was a little ways away from the stairs and though the room was sealed off like the others in what appeared to be secure walls it also had a couple entrances. One north and one south.

"These are the possible rooms for the servers. They all possess both the necessary cooling facilities and level of security to be able to house the servers and we would be unable to detect them. Once you place the USB I'm about to give you into one of the employee's computers it will show you a colour and that will be the correct room. Keep in mind we can't be in contact with you unless you create a breach in the shield so if at this point you feel continuing the mission will have too high a chance of failure, we would like you to retreat and bring the USB back to us so we can use it to learn about the employees and take down the branch with their help. " Emily's explanation finishes with her handing out two USBs. One to me and one to Marianne.

I originally thought they were going to only give one of these USBs to me so I can use it as another way to reign in Marianne but apparently they trust her enough to hold onto this. That or they just wanted to give us a spare anyway and didn't want to provoke Marianne's anger any further so they made it look like they trust her.

"If however you decide the mission is worth continuing it will be mostly improvised but we can give you a summary. You will likely make it up to floor 20 without much issue using either Tommy's speciality or your stealth suits. Once you're there you need to place the USB in one of the servers. It will then attempt to download as much as it possibly can of their data and your job is to make sure they don't get to wipe the servers while that happens. Oh and you'll need to keep yourselves alive too." Explains Emily smiling a little towards the end. Of course this isn't going to be easy.

I'm guessing the reason Emily's smiling like that is… "I should mention that as soon as you insert the USB people will notice and you'll have the whole security force converge on your position. Your job is to eliminate anyone who spots you and protect the servers for as long as the USB needs. It shouldn't take long but you are free to remove it should you believe your identities or lives to be in danger."

Yep there it is. We're going to have to fight off what will likely be an amount of guards several times our own numbers all trained by an assassin who knows the most annoying things to do in a situation just like this. Oh I'm loving this already.

Not only that. We're going to have to eliminate them all. Since apparently revealing our identities is as much failing the mission as dying is. How exactly are they going to make what is clearly a break-in look like it wasn't one of their competitors?

My unspoken question was quickly answered by Emily's explanation. "We would also like you to grab a few of the guards bodies and take them with you. One will do if you must keep it at that but ideally we want the same amount of corpses as there are members in this team. They will be our red herrings so to speak."

So they're going to play this off as an internal struggle. A few missing guards and a lot of missing company secrets. Get the right guards and it could cause them to focus on internal threats which means they can do even more with the information they get from those servers.

Even if we pick clearly loyal guards though while the company would think it's the competitors it would still be a good story for the public. Whistleblowers taking down the big evil Flux corporation.

"That's about it for the explanations. For everyone but Lumi anyway. Lumi your job is simple. Fly them onto the planet. Fly them off it. The latter will likely be a good deal more difficult as you will be fighting off both Flux's goons and the security forces on the planet. If you manage to lose them however come straight here and we can drive them away if they manage to track you." Emily turns to Lumi and gives her a quick rundown of her own job before turning back and facing us with her smile that makes my skin crawl.

"Finally I have a few gifts for you all." Emily exclaims with what to everyone else probably looked like an innocent girl's smile. To me it looked absolutely horrifying. That is the grin of an evil and twisted mind and I truly have no idea how anyone would be comforted by that.

Once her mouth curls at the corners seeing my shaking we all see a group of robots not dissimilar to the ones who brought our stealth suits come through the door. This time though they're holding something akin to toy boxes. They're rectangular and have that engine like flap on the top of them that most toy boxes have. The difference being the toys.

Each 'toy box' was marked with a certain symbol on it. Presumably the symbols represent each member of the team. They honestly all look adorable. Mine is an angel with indistinct features and wings of black on the left and red on the right with a similarly coloured halo on it's head.

Ha this looks like something Soph would make. She always wanted me to have a brand like this. I take a quick peek at the others to see what their 'toy boxes' looked like and more specifically I focus on the symbols.

Marianne's is fairly obvious in hindsight. A honey bear that resembles a really old cartoon with a jar of it's favourite substance in a pot and licking some of it off it's hands. As I do a double take however I notice what it's holding in it's left hand and the look in it's eyes. Though it seems to be happily munching on honey at first glance…

It's holding a firearm in it's left hand and it's eyes are that of a predator. There's a dim shadow over them not quite visible on your first viewing but easily noticed on the second. It's eyes are almost glowing eerily with a predator's light as they stare into your soul while licking the honey in it's other hand like the scenes in movies where the weirdos lick their weapons.

Deciding that symbol fits her to a T and is a little too much to look at I quickly divert my attention and look around at the others. The first one to come to mind for comfort is Tommy's so I take a look.

His is strange. It seems like a combination of an incubus and a succubus. With the black leathery wings of a succubus and the tight chesty sports bra on the upper half of it's body. But then it has the incubus' trademark horn on it's head and the pants are a pair of boxers despite the chest clearly straining against the sports bra.

That's just weird. It seems like a mish-mash of the two races. Sure they're similar and it's been debated whether they're actually the same species but they're still very different and yet his symbol makes their fusion look somewhat natural.

Genuinely curious now I look over at Dede to see what their symbols look like. It turns out to be far less exciting than the others. They only have one box between the two of them and the box's symbol is just a volcano on top and an iceburg on the bottom.

I guess they wanted to go with the whole fire and ice motif since they kinda fit it. But at the same time it's not like Dahlia really fits the ice theme that well. I feel like that one was a bit lazy to be honest.

Until I look closer and notice the carvings on the ice. The ice is actually encapsulating a number of different people. Children that seem to be playing around. A temple with what appears to be a person waving out of the front though obviously they're indistinct given how small these symbols are.

A number of other interesting scenes play out within the ice and yet they're frozen in time as though the ice froze it's own entire world whole. The volcano on the other hand has people clawing at it's mountainous height. They're also indistinct but they appear to be raising their hands towards the volcano and some of them also appear to be jumping into the volcano or the volcano is splashing magma on them and they're dying.

It's actually quite a gruesome scene looking at it closely. Yeah this wasn't lazy at all. In fact I'd say theirs is the most detailed out of all of us. Delilah doesn't seem to care though given that she's already reaching out for the box lid while the rest of us are just staring at everyone else's symbols.

I turn my attention to the final symbol to try and keep the surprise of what's in the boxes for myself a little longer. Lets just ignore any sounds coming from Delilah's direction and hope that's enough for me to not make out any exclamations she makes about the stuff inside.

The final symbol is on Lumi's box and Lumi herself appears to be staring at the symbol intensely just as I am though obviously she's closer to it so she might spot some details I cannot. Her symbol is a castle. It's light blue colouring and apparent reflectiveness suggests that it's made of some sort of transparent material. Presumably glass or ice.

The castle is extremely intricate. You can see the massive walls surrounding a number of spires all shooting up into the presumed sky of the image. The walls are detailed in a way that something this small has no right to be. The bricks are each carved into the box in minute detail even what looks like frozen icicles to connect each brick to each other.

The gates in front are the biggest thing you can see. Even the spires hiding behind the gates pale in comparison to the detail on the gates themselves and their sheer size in comparison to everything else in the image give them a certain gravitas that makes it dominate the space in your mind it occupies.

The gates are the typical arch type you see in old castles and are connected to the rest of the wall by the same type of icicles that connect the bricks making up the wall. Only this time those icicles are on a far larger scale.

They appear to worm their way around the area connecting the wall and the gate through the whole part that connects the two. Not only that but they also extend a good amount of space into both the wall and the gate.

In front of both the gate and the walls are a number of humanoid figures. Some have tails similar to Lumi's own and others are normal humans. There are even depictions of what I assume represent us as they all have our own unique colour schemes and themes.

All of these humanoid creatures are banging on both the gates and the walls with apparent fervour. There are even some who are carrying pitchforks or other primitive weapons. These weapons are mainly mixed among the people with tails but there are also some normal humans with these pitchforks in their hands.

Other implements of violence are spread throughout the crowd but we don't appear to have any on our own depictions. There are certainly some with tails and some humans that don't have any sort of weapon but they are the minority.

All of the people with the weapons are pointing them towards the castle gate and clearly trying to swing at them. Yet despite all the violence just outside the gates, the walls even the inside of the castle all look perfectly pristine despite clearly being made of a fragile material.

Of all the symbols I think this one makes the least sense. Sure the rest of us have symbols that represent us. I don't really see myself as an angel but it perhaps best fits my brand. Tommy certainly does fit that image though I'm not sure how naturally he mixes the two together like that. Marianne is called the honey bear so that also fits.

Not sure about Dede's but I can see Delilah being represented by a volcano pretty well. Just waiting for her to erupt is about how we all feel on this mission and the idea that she's already left a few bodies in her wake makes a lot of sense when you think about it. I still can't decide on Dahlia's though.

Regardless they all represent us in a way that makes sense. Whether it be brand or personality but Lumi's appears more like a story. A scene of something truly horrible and frankly fantastical that wouldn't happen in the world today so it doesn't really make any sense to me.

In the next second however I remember that I wasn't supposed to be listening to delilah as a squeal from her direction all too clearly enters my ears. "Hoooolllly shi-" before she can scream any more her partner covers her mouth but when I look over startled by the noise they both have dumbfounded expressions on their faces.

We all appear to make a decision almost like a hive mind and instantly open our own boxes before Delilah can spoil more of the surprise. Clearly something interesting is in there and it would be just plain criminal to find out what from Delilah's clearly delighted squealing. We definitely didn't open up the boxes because we couldn't hold back after hearing how happy she of all people was with this…

Cracking open the lid I saw something that at first had me puzzled. Why would Delilah be so surprised and happy about receiving this as a gift? That was the first thought that came to my mind and it was instantly blown away by the second when I took a more detailed look at what was inside.

'This is so expensive are they really giving this to us?' That thought dominated my mind as I looked at the veritable pile of cash incarnate in front of my eyes. A treasure trove any mercenary would do more than kill for.

The box was filled to the brim with weapons. Lasers, knives, swords even another suit. This time the suit was clearly geared towards combat given what it was equipped with. But that wasn't what surprised me. That was what confused me. Why would anyone be so happy about receiving new gear.

Then I realized. This is all top of the line from Frame Products Ltd. Meaning this is crazy expensive and not something you can pick up off the street. This is a weapons cache of the most top of the line products imaginable.

I even recognize the models from whispers in the mercenary community. The laser is a type 1. A drab name perhaps but this company isn't known for it's branding or marketing. In fact they do surprisingly little marketing. It's almost like they only want customers who are in the know. It's a weird way of doing business.

Regardless of their business practices however the type 1 is a name whispered of in most circles as the best laser currently on the market. The bullets are thin and consistent. No matter how many times you fire you'll get the same laser shot every time.

There's even a full auto mode that allows you to keep the laser on continuously almost like a laser saw. Of course the light condenser would break if you kept that up for too long but with the type 1 too long is like a few hours constant usage.

It can practically become a ridiculously powerful laser sword with an unlimited range for a few hours. It's ridiculous. Of course that's more of a gimmick feature and no one would actually use such an expensive weapon for that.

The real draw comes in the consistency. Having a weapon that won't fail you no matter what, not to mention the battery not running out practically ever, is a lifesaver. It's like you're in an FPS with infinite ammo.

There are others that are practically infinite but only the type 1 is known as the infinity gun in the mercenary world. It's other features include: The light from the condenser is incredibly dim to the point that you'd have to be in the darkness to spot anything at all. Meaning it's great for sneak attacks.

An interchangeable target reticle changed manually, by voice command and even a set of buttons on the side of the laser to change the reticle to your personal favourites. The aim assist on the weapon is also extremely good and it maintains itself through self-replenishing nanites.

They can't create more of themselves because that would be a bad business model even by FPL(Frame Products Ltd.) standards but still they can repair broken nanites and they run on a perpetual power source.

That's just the laser too. There's clearly more stuff in here. The sword that's said to cut through everything but the most hardy of battleships. The combat suit that I've never even heard of. All of this amazing gear is right in front of me and described as a gift.

Any mercenary not drooling at this situation shouldn't have become a mercenary. Delilah appears to agree if her shout is anything to go by and looking around at everyone's faces they definitely agree. Even Marianne is smiling with the corners of her mouth. She and Lumi are the least expressive of us all and yet I can see the smiles tugging at both their lips looking at what's inside their little 'toy box'.

Actually this isn't a toy box any more. This is a straight up treasure chest. "I do hope you enjoy our complimentary gear for this mission. Those of you who stay on after the mission will be able to keep your gear. I'm afraid those of you who wish to distance themselves from us will have to return the gear once the mission is over but we will obviously still reward you with the promised compensation regardless of whether you work with us again or not." Explains Emily with her usually kind smile turning into a satisfied grin.

This one surprisingly doesn't make my instincts scream danger at me. So Emily can make expressions like that. The normal ones without any malice behind them. That was the idle thought that came to my head as I turn away from Emily and the others and stare into my own treasure box.

After a little more staring at our boxes and getting over the shock of what we just gained Emily eventually speaks up to dismiss us. "Now that we've given out our gifts I have nothing more to say to you. If you have any questions about the mission I will remain here for the next hour though I will be busy so make them quick. Otherwise you're all free for the next week to do as you please. You may also use those gifts during that week even if you are yet to tell us whether or not you'll stay on." Emily dismisses us all with a little speech.

She starts walking towards a door in the corner of the temple hall that is presumably only for employees. Just as she's about to enter the door she turns back and says with a cheerful grin and a happy wave befitting her age. "Have fun everyone!" With that cheery goodbye she leaves us and enters the room.