Planning The First Steps

Adonis frowned.

"They really made sure that we didn't get anything extra."

Zenos shook his head.

"That's why how we handle this situation is important."

Damien nodded.

"Alright, let's talk about all of our needs. First and foremost, we need food."

He pulled out his two bars.

"We still have food right now and have just eaten. This means food isn't our immediate concern. So long as we complete the next mission soon, we will have credits to buy food when it matters."

Killian tilted his head.

"If we complete the mission..."

Damien sighed.

"Yes, that is why I propose we spend all of our Personal credits on buying bullets. That way, we can greatly increase our chances for the next mission. As for our team credits, we should save them."

Killian's face twitched.

"If we used the team credit to repair our suits, it would let us take another hit."

Zenos furrowed his brows.

"But if we hold off and use it later we can repair our suits after they are completely destroyed. The value of that credit would be fully taken advantage of."

Damien raised a finger into the air.

"If we use the credits for every single drop of value we will probably die before we get to use them. However, needlessly wasting what we have will doom us. We have already wasted too much of our ammo."

Adonis held his chin with his hand.

"So we just buy bullets?"

Damien shook his head.

"We buy the bullets that will be most useful to us."

Damien lifted his hand, keeping it as a fist. He raised one finger.

"The first situation is to clean up. Using our method to kill them stealthily, if one of us messes up, we may have to shoot them. Certain bullets are better for these types of situations."

Damien raised a second finger.

"The second situation is a possible emergency. Sometimes we won't be given a choice to take it stealthily. For example, when the gate opened and the flower was alerted. The flower then called for some creatures, forcing us to face a large number of enemies at once."

Damien raised a third finger.

"The third situation is a mutated monster, or any situation that calls for high penetrating bullets. This is apparent in our fight with the flower. If not for the sniper bullet that Zenos used, we may have been unable to kill the flower altogether."

Zenos nodded a few times.

"We should tell each other the prices for ammo, that way we can optimize our usage of credits. A magazine for my sniper costs me 2 Personal credits. 4 shells for my snub-nosed shotgun cost 1 Personal credit."

Damien rubbed his hand against his chin.

"For me, a magazine for my assault rifle costs 2 Personal credits and a pistol magazine is 1 Personal credit."

Killian shrugged his shoulders.

"A magazine of shotgun shells for 2 and one for the smaller gun is 1."

Adonis scratched the side of his head.

"My big gun costs 2 credits for ammo and my Deagle costs 1 credit for ammo."

Damien rubbed his forehead.

"Alright, let's rank the three situations by importance. I believe that the third situation, bullets with high penetrating power, is most important. If we encounter some mutated monster that won't die from normal bullets, those bullets will be our only chance at living."

Zenos nodded.

"I see no problems with that. I will buy them after we finish planning out our budget fully."

Killian tilted his head to the side.

"The second situation sounds pretty important. My shotgun still has five shots left over which should deal with a decent amount of pale-skins."

Damien nodded.

"Yes, the only problem would be range. If Adonis gets ammo for his light machine gun then that should be covered."

Adonis raised his head.

"The recoil of that gun is very hard to control, so the bullets will go everywhere."

Damien waved dismissively.

"That is fine, since you are using that in emergency situations that won't be too big of a problem as the enemies should be all over the place."

Damien sighed.

"Alright, that leaves me and Killian to buy bullets for our secondaries to take care of the first situation. Remember to use those 5 shells well Killian."

Killian nodded.

"Got it."

Damien put one hand on the floor.

"Any objections?"

There was a moment of silence. Damien stood up.

"Alright, let's buy some ammo."

He thought of the Personal shop and bought two magazines for his pistol.

Emmett's voice cheerily called out.

"Your purchases will be available in your specific compartment!"

The door to Damien's compartment closed and when it opened, two fresh magazines were inside.

Damien scoffed.

"Well, that's convenient."

Damien took out the magazine for his pistol and replaced it with a fresh one. After putting away the two magazines, he took a mental note of which one was full.

The other three compartments closed shortly after, then opened with fresh bullets.

After everyone had put away their bullets, Killian narrowed his eyes.

"Are we ready to go?"

Damien looked at him.

"Are you not tired?"

Killian smiled.

"Yeah, but if we complete the mission we can get more stuff sooner and repair our suits, right? Our food is quite little, you know?"

Damien sighed.

"We should at least rest first. Who knows if we will even have enough to repair our suits?"

Killian frowned and pointed to his stomach wound.

"So I'm just supposed to deal with this the whole time?"

Damien narrowed his eyes.

"Frankly, you will probably have to deal with more injuries later. Only the two of us got injured now, but chances are, things will only get worse."

Killian slammed his fist against the wall.

"Fuck, not even soldiers had to deal with shit like this, they would at least get time to recover after being injured."

Damien was silent for a few moments.

He then clenched his fist.

"We aren't soldiers. We are slaves that have to fight for our right to live. Taking a break means starving to death."

Killian opened his mouth, then closed it.

He sighed.

"Then why are we even trying in the first place? ...We are going to die sooner or later anyway."

Damien frowned.

"We were given a second lease of life. I don't care how your first one went, or if you were the one that got rid of it."

He looked at the ceiling.

"But even if we are in hell, it's a chance to start everything over. Only a fool would reject it."

Killian leaned against the wall and slid down until he was sitting.

"Well, I want to be a damn fool."

Damien sighed.

"Get some rest, we are going to need it."

Zenos cleared his throat.

"Emmett, Is there anything for us to sleep on?"

Emmett's voice rang out.

"Yes, you do!"

The corner of Zenos' lip twitched.

"...What is it?"

Emmett responded quickly.

"The floor!"

Zenos' face twitched.

"I suppose we will be spending a long intimate time with the floor from now on."

Adonis shrugged his shoulders.

"Is sleeping on the floor all that different from the bed?"

Zenos sighed.

"It is quite different for me, but whatever. Be it the floor or bed, there are both things one can sleep on."

The four of them took an uncomfortable rest.

...

After a few hours passed, they woke up.

Adonis yawned loudly.

After rubbing his eyes, he saw that everyone else was awake.

"Ah, we all woke up at the same time."

Killian rubbed his head.

"Because you were so damn loud."

Adonis shrugged his shoulders.

Damien shook his head while rubbing a knuckle against his temple.

"Anyways, we should set off soon. Time won't wait for us and neither will our hunger."

Damien felt his wrists were still sore and a faint ache remained in his arms. Including the cuts on his palm, he knew that his condition did not befit him to go on another mission.

However, he knew that there was no choice in the matter.

Damien tried to move the hand that had been pierced. He was unable to move both the middle finger and ring finger, but the others worked fine. It was still enough to shoot a gun, but the recoil would probably be very painful.

Despite that, Damien was not upset. His body was in much better condition than he expected. From his experience, injuries like these would make the affected part numb and sometimes the entire body sick from an infection. Damien was not sure how his body recovered as much as it did, but he wasn't complaining.

Damien walked into the transmission shuttle and let the mechanical bindings wrap around him.

Adonis cracked his neck and did the same. Once he sat down, Zenos methodically walked up and sat in his seat. Killian was last, he slowly stumbled over and sighed before sitting down.

The shuttle door closed, but instead of the sudden jostle like the four expected, Emmett's voice chimed in.

"Alrighty! You will now have two labs to select from, please discuss and vote for the lab in your mind! If votes are tied, then one will be randomly picked."

The mechanical bindings around everyone's mouth were released and a holographic display appeared in front of their eyes.

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Lab Code: 0002

Difficulty rating: 0.5

Rewards: 1 Team credit, 2 Personal credits, and new purchasable physical strength increase!

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Lab Code: 0003

Difficulty rating: 1

Rewards: 1 Team credit and 4 Personal credits

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