Old Enemy

From the black void of his sleep, he could hear loud whispers, unable to understand a single word from it. As he tried to understand it more, more noises could be heard, but from a different source.

His eyes opened quickly, the pain from his injuries was gone and he found himself sitting with Ella, leaning on a wall of the camp. Clara and the others were tossing out any equipment they found from the tents and armored structures.

Jacob snapped his fingers, seeing a new problem.

[Energy: 20/100]

'Damn, only one more use left,' He sighed, it was just the first mission and he was now down to one more shield. 

Ella sat close to him, just enough for him to feel her breath hit his face. Her mace rested on her lap. While Jacob was on the grass next to him, both covered in blood and small bits of metal. 

The smell of smoke hit his nose, noticing that the team had burned many parts of it, hoping to destroy the area before leaving.

Ella woke up alongside him, hastily looking at her arms and body, surprised that she had survived, she turned to Jacob, her eyes widening much more.

"Wait, we both survived that!?" She asked in confusion, looking around at the camp, realizing that they won the fight.

"Wow, I'm glad we did. Next time though, please don't move so far from the group, you came out with worse wounds than me," She leaned her head on the metal wall and let out a deep sigh. The fight was over and they could get a few minutes of rest before finishing their next task.

Clara walked towards them, surrounded by different-sized purple screens.

"Well done, you earned some pay and rest. Once you are ready, start helping us remove the equipment." Clara ordered.

"Yes, ma'am!" Ella hastily got up, following her orders and running to Zeph and Rin.

As Jacob got up, Clara got closer to him, examining his body while glancing back on the passing words on her screens.

"You have more endurance compared to a normal person, must be from the glitch," Clara explained, typing away and turning back to the growing pile of devices and weapons.

"We managed to get some interesting gear for research, and the material Allen needed for his research. Once you are ready, head to that command tent and get the important information from there." Without another word, Clara walked away.

He snapped his fingers, recalling what Clara said about the money.

[1000 credits received!] A small text box appeared before vanishing in a few seconds.

'Not bad, not good either,' He groaned, happy that he received some decent pay, but disappointed that it wasn't enough.

'Beggars can't be choosers though, I might get more if we finish those other objectives,' Jacob stood up. Just then, the drone that watched over them flew by, inspecting every part of the outpost.

—---

Jacob passed by the pile of equipment, seeing advanced devices being thrown into a pile, each being torn apart or destroyed by the team to not let the enemy use it again. Behind Clara though was a smaller pile of devices, all unknown to Jacob. From weapons to drones, and just normal devices that he was unsure of what their purpose was.

—----

He got into the tent at the center of the camp, it had more armor and resembled a military house, cleaner and more maintained than the others. 

Metal tables and shelves were filled with stacks of papers and a few guns. Computers and servers were still alive, giving a blue glow to the inside of the tent.

'Wonder if I could play games on these things,' Jacob chuckled, putting his hand on one of the computers. His thoughts were interrupted by the muffled noise of the team destroying the electronics outside. 

'Waste of devices could have snatched a phone or something from that pile, oh well,' He sighed before finishing the order Clara gave to him.

He searched the papers, all of which bore a single stamp on them.

CITY G

The papers were hard to read, written in a way that professionals or something a military would use, quickly making Jacob bored just by staring at a few words on each of them. After staring at a few tablets and papers filled to the brim with letters and numbers, Jacob threw them down in frustration.

"How am I supposed to know which ones are useful or not!?" Just as he angrily slammed another folder, a tablet revealed itself from the pile of papers and other electronics. It looked different than the others, with a screen glowing yellow, seemingly important compared to the other blue-screened tablets.

He grabbed it, focusing more on reading what was written on it. As he read further, translating the complex professional language that City G and its soldiers used, he started to understand what it was about.

After a few minutes, he understood what it was about, it was a report on the City H bombing! 

"Once done, report back to town to prepare for the next mission?" Jacob read the text on the tablet.

'What town?' 

With something useful, Jacob rushed out. But his view was obscured, as the pile of devices from earlier was burning brightly. Jacob coughed violently, walking past the fire towards Clara, busy taking down notes and typing on her screens.

"What is it, Jacob?" She turned to Jacob as he approached. He hastily handed her the tablet, taking only a few seconds for her to understand what was written on it.

"Interesting, plans, and seemingly related to that explosion," After speaking, she walked to the tent, with Jacob behind her as well as the drone.

—--

Back inside, she wasted no time in browsing the hundreds of folders and tablets scattered around the place, even attempting to access the computers, but with no success.

She browsed each one in just a few seconds, taking in all the information with just a glance before tossing it aside. 

"Ms Clara, are you even reading the papers?" Jacob chuckled awkwardly.

"I am, you get used to this when you work a desk job," She let out a dry chuckle in response. The drone hovered next to her, staring at each paper she read, taking in the information as well.

After a few minutes, she finally searched the entire tent, finding a few more papers, along with some tablets with a similar yellow tint on them.

 'Good thing they have a yellow tint made this entire thing easier than I thought,' A voice came from one of the screens, speaking incoherently to her before stopping after a few seconds.

"Alright, we have what we need, we will burn the rest of this and move again," Clara ordered, and the two began tossing out the rest of the tablets and folders into the fire outside.