First Mission

Orion got out of bed grabbed his sword and headed out to the showers.

After washing himself Orion headed out to the mess hall where Elaine was with the rest of the team, except Orion couldn't see the serpentine.

"Orion, you hungry?" said Elaine

"Yeah but I'm getting sick of MREs, also I never asked why don't we have a cook? I know all the other squads have one but why don't we?" Orion said.

"No don't worry it's not MREs today, Sith cooked for us some celebratory dishes from her culture, even I don't know what that means but I'm hoping it's at least good. Honestly, I don't know why she is been so secretive about this I didn't even know she could cook. About the culinarian thing, it's a very long story." Elaine said after which Orion could see the serpentine woman come in.

"Orion, good job finishing your training," Sith said while she was holding a pot, putting it down on the table in the center of the room. "Don't expect me to cook for you often, this is just a gift from me for your first mission with us. This is a dish from Agkistrodon a village deep in the swamps of the serpentine territories where I grow up. The meal consists of salrium oil fried fish and shrimp, paired with rice in a seaweed soup," Sith added as she left to get the fish and shrimp.

"Elaine, I know you said there will be a briefing on what the mission will be but could you tell me what type of mission it will be?" Jack asked.

"I'll start the briefing after we finish eating, so I suggest you help Sith with getting dishware and utensils," Elaine said to Jack who then walked off to the kitchen.

A few moments passed and both Jack and Sith came out of the kitchen with Sith holding a pan, Jack holding 5 plates and bowls with one hand, and in the other held the cutlery he was asked to bring.

Sith put the pan down next to the pot and opened the lid of the pot, the smell that came off of the food in the pan was savory and there was a pungent green scent coming off of the soup.

"Everyone please sit down, Jack could you quit just standing there and pass the plates and utensils to everyone," Sith said while looking at Jack who was just spaced out next to the table.

"Right, sorry I'll pass them around, so we can start eating," Jack got startled and responded. Jack passed around the plates and the cutlery.

Sith put food on everyone's plates and bowls, after which she said "now that everyone got some food on their plates, let us eat".

Orion looked at the food in front of him and took a bite of the fried fish. The fish had a crispy outside and then inside was melted in his mouth, it was a bit spicy and the seasonings added a sweetness to the savory fish meat.

'This fish is great, I need to try the shrimp next,' Orion thought, picking up a fried shrimp putting it in his mouth.

The shrimp's coating was creamy and the meat had a rich robust flavor a stark difference from the fish, the 2 complemented each other perfectly.

The next thing Orion tried was the soup, it had a salty earthy flavor that cooled the mouth, most likely from water mint. The seaweed in the soup was salty and unlike expectation, it was crispy. The rice was also good making the soup have more substance and to even out the heavy salt flavor of the rest of the soup.

'All in all, this is one of the best dishes I have ever eaten in my entire life, I wonder why Sith doesn't cook more,' thought Orion while he continued to eat the food in front of him.

After the group finished eating the food Elaine said, "guys let's all thank Sith for making us this great breakfast even though this seems..." Elaine got hit on her side notifying her to stop talking.

"Thank you for the food, Sith," everyone said to Sith.

After half an hour of eating and another 10 minutes of cleaning up, "listen up everyone, our mission today is to catch and interrogate this woman," Elaine said while taking out a picture of the woman, she was a dark elf with a scar running down her eye and had a missing arm, "this woman here is called Kai Deucha and she is the head of security for the Dunkirk Cartel, they specialize in the slave trade industry, which is strictly forbidden in Federation land, and weapon industry. However, that's not why we are after her. Our sources say that she holds vital Information regarding the Celestial race's plans against the Demons the Federation is allied with. Since Kai doesn't know our names I told Jack to set up a meeting to purchase weapons from her cartel," Elaine continued and then grabbed a crystal from her pocket and placed it on the table.

The crystal lit up and projected a schematic of a warehouse, "the plan is simple, Jack and I will meet with Kai and the dealer, Jack will be carrying a bag full of coin and I will be acting as his guard. Eric, you will be in charge of setting up explosives underneath key escape routes through an old mineshaft that the meeting point is built on top of. Orion, you will be back up, and you are to stay on the roof until when you hear the explosives detonating, then you are to throw some smoke potions which you will be supplied with. Then lastly while the smoke is up Sith you are to silently kill all the guards while there is still confusion, which will then leave the dealer and Kai alone so it will be easy for me and Jack to take them hostage. Any questions?" Elaine said.

"Yes, how exactly do I use the smoke potions?" Orion said.

"You just throw them and when the liquid hits the air it turns to smoke, Any other question? No, good" Elaine explained.

"The meeting is in 4 hours so we need to head out," Elaine said.

The group was almost at the meeting place as Eric split off from the group early saying "When do I need to detonate the explosives?".

"Eric you are to detonate the explosives in exactly 30 minutes and then come quickly, if there are more people than expected you will be needed," Elaine said to Eric who was now leaving.

The rest of the group split to get in their positions. Orion, unfortunately, didn't find a ladder to the top so he opted to use his sword instead. Orion grabbed on the chain which was attached to his sword and throw the blade to the top of the building, the blade cut into the metal roof of the warehouse, and after checking that the chain was safe Orion climbed to the top after which he got into position next to the skylight.

After 25 minutes a group of 20 people carrying crates could be seen going inside of the warehouse, "Mister Drake if could present us with the money we will be on our way quickly," Said the dealer.

"First show me the weapons, I need to know if they are of good quality if am to pay, surely you understand as a businessman yourself," Jack said.

"But of course, boys show the man the goods," the dealer said to his goons and promptly to men came carrying a large crate opening it and showing a large array of magic rifles and melee weapons.

"We have 10 more crates like this one outside," the dealer said.

"Okay a deal is a deal, here you go," Jack said while he handed the dealer the bag he was holding.

After inspecting the contents of the bag the dealer said "what's the deal here? There are only copper coins inside this," and immediately after loud explosions were heard from behind them collapsing the floor at the entrance from where he and his men came from.

No longer than a moment passed and glass could be heard shattering and a lot of smoke appeared. A second passed and screams could be heard from within the smoke, making the dealer ask "What's going on, who are you people".

Not saying a word Jack grabbed a knife from his side and grabbed the dealer putting his blade to his neck.

"Stop talking and you might live," Jack said.

Elaine grabbed her saber charging at the confused Kai who then took out a magic pistol from her side but it was already too late and Elaine slashed at her hand causing her to drop the mana gun. Elaine with the back of her saber hit Kai in the face knocking her out.

By the time the smoke dispersed the thing was over and the mission was close to completion, all that was need to do was extract the information out of the target. Orion grabbed his sword and stuck it in the metal near the skylight and climbed down the chain, once he was on the ground he pulled hard on the sword causing it to go through the metal and fall to the floor.

Orion then walked over to Sith whose lower half was curled around a woman's body, he then asked: "Sith what are you doing to that woman?".

"Sorry, it's a habit I got when I was younger when I use to go out hunting prey, see when I was about 14 years old my village got destroyed in the war that happened 10 years ago, most of the time I didn't have time to cook food since the wetlands of Serpentes was a very dangerous place for a little girl, so I would eat anything I could get a hold of whole. So from time to time that instinct would come out and I would eat something or someone whole and that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be dead," explained Sith looking rather embarrassed and unraveled herself from the body.

"Oh...... Okay then," said Orion looking kind of nervous.

Elaine and Jack were in the center of the room compared to Orion and Sith who were near the entrance.

"What do you want to do with this scumbag, Elaine? I think we should just kill him," Jack said.

"We don't have a use for him might as well," Elaine said.

Almost instantly, the man was heard screaming, "NOOOO! I can be of use, what do you want, I have money, do you want money?" Said the dealer.

"That's not what I want, tell me where you get these weapons from and we will let you go free," Elaine said to the desperate man.

"We get them from old wars after the fighting was over, there is no need for a lot of weapons if there is no fighting, right?" The man said.

"Okay, where do you store the weapons before selling them?" Elaine asked.

"We keep them at the Ren dock's storage warehouses, out in Bronzeback," answered the man.

"Jack kill him, we got no use for him now,"

"Yes ma'am," Jack said.

"Wait no I could be useful just don't k....." The dealer said being interrupted by the blade that slit his throat.

"Jack, where exactly is Bronzeback?" Elaine questioned Jack since he knew most of the continent's cities and such.

"I'm pretty sure it's on the east coast, near Plunty's bay," Jack said cleaning his blade on the dead man's shirt.

"Yeah really I love that place, remind me next vacation to go there with you guys. I'll need to pass that information to... Jack who is in charge of that area, again?" Elain said.

"I think it's Head Admiral Jenkins," Jack said.

"Right I remember now. I hate that guy but I don't remember for what, well it doesn't matter I'll tell him when we get to the base. Are you ready to go Jack? If so lets group up with everyone else,"

Elaine picked up the target and walked to Sith and Orion with Jack close behind her.

"What do you want to do with the bodies?" Sith asked.

"It's fine leave them alone, when we get out of here ill call a cleanup crew," said Elaine to Sith while jumping to the other side of the collapsed floor to the outside.

The others did the same and Orion spotted Eric coming from their left side. Now that all of them were together, Elaine said, "All in all this mission went a whole lot better than I expected, good job everyone, let's go home. I'll call a cart over so everyone go and wait by the road."

Everyone headed off to the road and then Orion was stopped by Elaine.

"Good job on today's mission, but I know you saw a lot of death today, how are you feeling?".

"Honestly, I just kind of ignored that fact and focused on what I was supposed to do. So you asked how I feel, I'm doing fine. Are you ready to go back home?" Said, Orion.

"Yeah I am, let me call a cart real quick though," Elaine said pulling out a black circular runed stone from her pocket, which Orion know was a communication device that was linked to the mana network of the city to establish connections with others, this device was known as a Black Mirror.