Mission start

Thanks to the annoying salt in our faces we can barely see it but there is in fact a ship. Or at least I think there is. "All I can see from here is a metal something. That supposed to be the ship?" Complains Delilah loud enough that I can even hear her over the loud storm of salt raging around us.

She was right though. From my current position all I could see was a metal glint in the air. As we walked towards it however we the vague outline became clearer and clearer until eventually we got a good look at it.

"I was expecting a more posh or perhaps fanciful design but this actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it." Mused Tommy. He wasn't shouting like Delilah but he was clearly heard over the storm all the same for some reason. Or at least I clearly heard him.

The ship was in actuality fairly similar to a space train. It looks a little like a long metal train cart with a number of submarine like windows on it's side. It didn't even make much noise as it touched down. At first I thought the low rumbling was just an extra part of the storm until I realized it was probably the ship blowing up salt from the floor and into our faces.

The gush of air and even more salt hit us in our faces and we all appeared to grimace at once. The ship landed in front of us horizontally and the furthest left part of the cart appeared to have a door big enough for a single sentient to pass through. It even had space for wings and such not that any of us had that particular issue.

The door itself was a little like a vault or submarine door. It was round and didn't quite extend all the way to the floor. Presumably we'd have to watch our step as we entered given that when the door opened there'd still be a little wall we had to step over. Near the top of the door was another submarine like window. Round with metal lining and what appeared to be but was definitely not glass.

Now that I think about it we call them space trains but they also have quite a number of similarities with submarines don't they? I ponder this to myself as the door swings open. There isn't a sound that indicates as such but luckily we're all focussing on the door so we notice it's open fast enough to stop in place and watch the stairs extend out from the bottom of the door.

Since the spacetrain is kept slightly off the ground through it's landing gear it would've been a right hassle to get up there otherwise. The stairs folded out a little like those old rope and ladders you would sometimes see used on helicopters in western movies.

Except instead of folding out loosely as rope does these stairs folded out like metal sheets. One sheet would jut out that looked quite thick then another would come down from that one and though we couldn't see it I imagine another would come back around to it's back and up again. Finally the sheets would cover the sides and one complete step. Then this would continue until eventually.

A small poof was all the noise it made as the final step made contact with the ground and built itself. Of course we didn't hear that noise so it was a practically silent process to us. Though maybe those with better hearing such as Tommy, Marianne and Lumi might have heard it but I wouldn't count on it.

The staircase was clearly only made for one person and there was no robot coming out to welcome us this time. We were so used to it at this point that we actually did wait for a robot to come out of the door but nothing happened after a few minutes and we realized there was no guide this time.

"So who goes first?" I ask as I look at everyone's faces. There wasn't any apprehension or anything among us so it was really just who would get to sate their curiosity first. Sure we were properly tense for the upcoming mission but it's not like staying off the ship would stop the mission from happening. We were already at the point of no return by now.

"I guess I'll go then." I said receiving a who cares look in return for my question. I probably made it sound like a big endeavour to them now that I'm thinking about it but it doesn't really matter. This isn't enough to scare off a bunch of elite mercs.

With that thought I put one foot on the metal step in front of me and instantly heard a creak. It was certainly worrying that it was creaking at my footsteps when I was likely one of the lighter members with Lumi probably being the only one lighter than me.

Regardless I knew this sort of ship and was aware that the stairs were actually built for heavy loads despite being hollow so my boots made clacking noises against the metal followed by creaks loud enough that we could actually hear them as I made my way towards the door.

Once at the door I took a step inside and saw that while the outside certainly wasn't as posh as Tommy thought the inside might be even more so. This is only a transition point and already I can tell the sheer ingenuity of it's craftsmanship.

Normally transition areas on space trains just look like a little metal box with one door on each side. While it still kept that same design the feeling of the place was remarkably different. There was no metal. Well it was clearly made of metal underneath but the parts that I can see where incredibly well done.

The floor had an exquisite carpet that my feet sunk into like the carpet was made of slime. It perfectly supported the contours of my feet and surrounded them in a sort of warmth and cuddliness that I couldn't quite describe.

The walls on the other hand were painted all different colours and clearly had some sort of work done to them. There were all different symbols plastered over the walls and they were clearly made of a stone or perhaps plastic like material.

The main colour scheme was a bright blue on black approach and each of the symbols followed this motif. The symbols themselves were of all different kinds. Flowers, guns and even a painting of one of the saints. The namesake for this galaxy Saint Abby appeared to take up the majority of the wall directly in front of me.

Her face was serious and she wore a pair of glasses that are utterly redundant in this age and likely her own. She was the only image that wasn't following the black and blue colour scheme of the rest of the room and she was painted in various shades of red, black and white. Her business suit was a pure black with the occasional grey and a red handkerchief folded in her pocket like Tommy's.

Her trousers were similarly black with lines of white running down their length in a sort of striped pattern. Her shoes were a pure black with the white only used to show the reflection of the room around her on the pristinely maintained shoes.

She stared at the person walking through the door, in this case me, with a glint of appraisal and intelligence in the eyes behind the glasses. She honestly looks like your typical smart character but I know better. Her red hair flowing down behind her to the shoulders and beyond gives a good indication of the will behind that intelligence of hers.

Looking to the walls and doors on either side of me revealed different results. The flowers were all roses or some similar variant with thorns and all the petals were alternating bright blue and black while the stems of every single one were a black pure as night with stars floating around inside.

The guns meanwhile were old fashioned style rifles. Black and blue once more though this time the blue wasn't as bright and the black was mainly used with the trigger and it's guard. The rest of the hunting rifle appeared to be varying shades of blue. I wonder what's up with all the blues and blacks. Perhaps it's a company thing?

Realizing I'd been standing in the entrance gawking for quite a while and the others were likely to turn up soon I decide not to embarrass myself and I turn my attention to the doors. The door on my left was metal and clearly uninviting. Like the one we entered through with a big difference. There was a vault like mechanism attached to the door and above that mechanism a sign.

The sign reads 'cockpit. Unauthorized personnel DO NOT ENTER. On threat of purging from the ship.' Well at least they're clear in their instructions. So I turn to my right to see a far more welcoming door. Ok I know you needed to make it obvious but this is just…

The door wasn't made of metal or wood or anything like that. In fact it appeared to be made out of the same fabric that made up the carpet on the floor. The carpet on this door was an inviting blue with clouds floating around in places across it's surface.

The clouds almost seemed to part in the middle of the door and be ushering me inside. Yep I think I'm supposed to go right. With that somewhat obvious course of action decided I head towards the sky door and look for the handle. Only to not find one.

Ok this is ridiculous. You're so inviting then you don't give me a means to open the door. Approaching the door itself however is apparently enough to give me the answer as the door moves to the side and straight into the wall as I approach.

Of course just because all the doors up 'till now were manual doesn't mean there aren't any automatic doors. She probably made it so inviting because she realized people like me might think that since there isn't a handle you can't open it and then they'd be stuck.

With a bit of a rye smile I walk inside and instantly it's as though the world around me changed. The first thing to spring to mind is a ball or old ceremony. The ceiling is radiating light from a few chandeliers that appear to be made of extravagant metal and glass. They are mostly clear with a few golden lines that shine throughout the chandelier and it looks absolutely dazzling.

The place they're lighting up however is even more old fashioned than the chandeliers themselves are. The floor appears to be the same carpet as before that's no surprise but the rest of the room. On each side of me is a row of chairs that look a little like church pews except covered in padding.

In between each pair of these pew like seats is a clearly posh wooden table that appears to have been smoothed and sanded to perfection. There isn't a single spec of dust or any such thing on the tables or in the carpet. There is however a bowl of various fruits lined up on each table along with what looks to be some sort of tree root or something in a bowl with various seasoning and condiments next to them.

Now that I think about it we probably haven't had lunch yet and it will take a while to travel all the way to Machina so I suppose this is supposed to be our lunch. The even more surprising thing however is when I sit on one of these seats I look to my side and see one of the windows we saw from the outside.

It's probably not real but it's still amazing we can see through it. Even weirder was the material of the wall around the window. "Is that wood?" I mutter to myself thoroughly confused as I look at the walls and ceiling now that I notice it.

The whole place appears to have wood lining the walls and ceilings. The wood itself looks like a nice mahogany or some sort of replica. The table is slightly lighter but thinking about it I run my hand across the tablet and feel it's surface.

Not a single splinter, not a single bump. The whole table is perfectly smooth and actually feels rather nice to the touch. I also smell a distinctly natural scent drifting through the air. It's a lot more pleasant than wood should normally be but it also has a hint of that wooden smell. As I'm admiring the table however it appears that everyone else has caught up with me.

I turn around to the sound of the door sliding into the wall once more to reveal Tommy who followed in after me and appears to be looking around himself. I wait for him to process his surroundings before I can call out to him however he appears to see me sat down first and walks over before sitting on the opposite side on another of the chairs.

He doesn't even make a sound as the chair contorts to match his body and helps him sink into the cushions like an embrace. Now that I think about it. I start bouncing up and down a little and find the chair to be surprisingly springy.

Tommy looks at me confused and I realized that must've looked really weird so I just wave a hand to have him ignore my actions. Don't worry it's not embarrassing. It's not. Definitely… Tommy appears to ignore my inner turmoil and takes my waving at face value as he starts up a conversation.

"I was totally wrong about this place huh?" He says presumably talking about his comment that the place wasn't posh or fanciful.

"Yeah but you said that it would make sense if it wasn't right? Isn't this a bad thing for the mission. Though don't get me wrong I really enjoy the comfort." I reply leaning back into my chair and calming down once again.

"Well I guess if the outside looks normal it'll probably be fine. But our cover is a bunch of mercs hired for a job right? Sure that's actually true and a fairly easy role to pull off for most of us but would hired mercs really get such extravagant transport?" He asks sounding not quite doubtful.

"Well like you said the outside's normal enough right? Should be fine. I wouldn't want to give up the comfort anyway and most of us probably think the same way. Sure we'd put up with it but Mainframe's trying to recruit us so I imagine this is a show of her generosity or something." I mean yeah I don't think mercs would have posh transport but it's only the inside that's posh right. He/she has clearly given us as many concessions as possible so we enjoy this.

Just as Tommy opens his mouth to reply the door slides open with a familiar whooshing noise and I crane my neck to see the second person to follow me in. I'm somewhat annoyed I didn't pick the seat Tommy's using now.

The next person to enter is Delilah and she seems delighted. She's quickly followed by her partner who just seems impressed but otherwise composed. "I thought this would be such a pain to travel in but this place is awesome. We even get food." She squeals almost like an excited child and bounds over to one of the tables before plopping into a chair like she owns the place and picking up one of the fruits in the bowl that looks similar to an apple.

Her partner calmly sits across from her and picks up a fruit herself. Hers is more akin to a pink strawberry though but she nonetheless starts to eat. I heard that strawberries go pink when they go off but this is a posh place and I doubt they'd serve us rotten food so that's probably some nearby planet's speciality or something.

Next to enter is Marianne. She always dominates a room the moment she enters and immediately Delilah shuts up and chews on her food while her partner continues to eat calmly. I meanwhile just stare at the entrance waiting for Lumi to enter while Marianne seats herself at the table across from us on the left side.

Delilah by the way seated herself as far away from us as she possibly could. She's on the left side of the train and all the way on the other side of the room. It's not surprising really. As it turns out when Lumi finally enters she takes the same approach.

Even in this clearly warm area she's still wearing that coat. She sits in the right hand side corner across from Delilah and I see the barest hint of a scowl from Delilah as she chews her apple with enough force to break a piece of the apple off.

Marianne just sits quietly across from us with her eyes closed and clearly has no want or need to engage with the rest of us during this flight. Then again it will be a while so perhaps she's going to try something. I have to remember that we're on the mission now and that makes me commander if only in the fact that I have the ability to stop Marianne from getting out of control.

Thinking about that fact gives me a headache and suddenly I'm not looking forward to this journey so much. I turn my head back around to face Tommy and give him a quick help me stare only to get a callous shrug in turn and I sink further into my chair.

Suddenly I hear a rather loud voice resound throughout the room from the corner furthest away from us. "Wait does that mean we have to escape or even worse blast our way out in this thing. It's a fancy transport ship sure but it's still a transport ship. No matter how good the pilot that's…" I could hear Delilah shouting from her table and everyone apparently turns their attention to her.

We all realize what she means but this was kind of what we were expecting. Marianne, being the one who best handles her answers in everyone's stead. "Did you think we could get a fully combat equipped ship past the guards? Even merc groups don't bring fully armed ships into this territory." She explains in her usual booming voice.

She sounds like she's reprimanding Delilah despite there being no hint of disapproval in her tone. She seems almost genuinely curious why Delilah would believe we'd be capable of getting a ship like that anywhere near a planet like Machina.

"But what about if…" Mumbles Delilah before falling silent. She's not the only one however as everyone else falls silent at the interjection of someone who doesn't speak up much.

"This ship is combat capable. It does not have the same capability as a battleship at a similar price range and size but it IS capable of combat. Did you not spot the weapon sliders on the hull outside? Or the fact that the wood around is hiding the shield generators and reinforced plating in between the outside of the ship and the area we are currently in? I can assure you that I am capable of easily dispatching a number of ships while piloting this transport. Though if we run into a medium-class or higher military ship there is a possibility I will run into issues." Explains Lumi coldly before once again lapsing into silence as everyone stares at her agog.

If our pilot says so then I have to agree. Still I didn't spot anything that could be considered a weapon and I definitely didn't notice the way the ship was built. To be honest I didn't really pay much attention but still. I guess this is Lumi's expertise and why she's here.

Still I decided that asking Lumi any further questions about the ship is redundant and will only cause friction in the team. So I try to change the subject. "Since Lumi says the ship will suffice that's that. More importantly does everyone understand their roles in this mission?" I try to put on my serious face towards the end and I'm not sure if everyone understood that I was trying to keep things on track but they all turned to face me regardless.

Until Marianne spoke up. The moment she did everyone's attention instantly turned to her. Her presence alone was enough to catch the attention of an entire room and now that she spoke up everyone completely ignored me. "The roles are simple. Myself and Amelie will be our vanguard. Our job is to escort Tommy to the servers on the 20th floor. His job is to make sure we get there without getting spotted." Marianne gives me a challenging glance daring me to speak up and interrupt her before continuing.

"The Dede people will be in charge of operator support and on-site distractions. Since Mainframe can't access the place from the outside once we reach the 10th floor and neither can they their main job is reporting changes in situation to Mainframe who will report to us when she can. Should we need a distraction it's their job to make sure we all get out safely." She gives Delilah and Dahlia a look that screams 'don't fail me' from her eyes and finally turns towards Lumi.

Her eyes soften a little as she looks at her for some reason as she finishes her explanation. "Little Lumi's job is to fly us out should we complete our mission. Failure is not an option but in the case we do she shall also be in charge of preserving our lives. Do us proud little one." She says gently to girl hiding in a coat in the corner. Marianne's surprisingly gentle with kids huh?

Still this isn't good. Aren't I supposed to be in charge of stopping her. If she ends up taking command like this it could cause serious issues for me later if I have to contradict her orders. I have to speak up here even if I really don't want to. "Should things go awry it is our job to get everyone out safely. Losses are not acceptable on this mission as a loss of life would be a failure in and of itself remember that."

I tried to keep my voice authoritative and give it the same gravitas that Marianne had and while it gets a round of nods from everyone except Marianne I still feel like she definitely explained things better than I did and won them over a bit more. I still have to act confident though because that's what a leader's supposed to do.

Marianne meanwhile just glares at me for interrupting her and essentially inserting myself into her command structure. I almost instinctively cower from that gaze but I have to keep myself steady for both the team's sake and my own. If I show too many signs of weakness what little authority I have will crumble.

So I sit tall and straight trying to ignore the glare from Marianne as we slowly approach the station. I was a little too nervous to eat anything but everyone else appeared to have enjoyed all the offerings given so I feel somewhat annoyed by my lack of action in that department.