The actual registration details were trivial—literally a case of approving access to my ident, and my RI filled out the form for me. I checked it over, made a couple of corrections, as RIs were notorious for blind spots between minor details, and I approved it, pinging it across and getting a standard employment contract back, complete with penalties for collateral damage. I winced at that part.

The RI flagged a few lines; I got them clarified. Boom, the deal was done. And while I’d been doing that? Julius had called out to the room, informing the sixteen hopefuls milling about that there were spaces opening up.

They were told that they would be going on an evaluation mission, under an experienced soldier and guild evaluator, and that there would be limited numbers taken. Also, absolutely no responsibility would be taken for injuries, damages, or death sustained while trying out for the guild.

As he finished that, he turned to me and waved me forward, stepping back.

“Your team, your pick,” he said simply.

“Fucker,” I muttered, stepping up. “Coulda warned me.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” he whispered through a smile, and I glared at him.

“Right!” I barked, stepping forward and automatically falling into parade rest. “I am Sergeant Kabutt, Harry to my friends, and Sarge to you maggots! This here is Reign!” I nodded to her, and she gave them all a little wave, leaning against the wall to the left.

“Reign is God as far as you are concerned. I will lead you, but she will evaluate you and me equally. I, too, am joining the guild today, and believe me, I’d rather you all died than I got my boots dirty for nothing, so, this is how it’ll work.

“I will direct and lead you. You will obey. We will kill any specters we see, rescue civilians, and return here. Reign will give us all an evaluation, and provided you pass her evaluation, you may be admitted into the guild. If, however, you fuck up my evaluation? I’ll take you out back and shoot you myself. DO YOU GET ME?”

That last bit I barked at them, and among the sixteen, three called out automatically, “We get you, SIR!”

“You three!” I snapped. “Front and center.”

The three shuffled forward, and I nodded, smiling despite myself. Two women and a man. The women seemed to be sisters, both half-orcs by the look of them. I remembered seeing them earlier. The man was a full-blooded human. All of them wore ragged but serviceable clothes, and carried standard-issue assault rifles, each with a handgun on their hip. And the two women had swords over their shoulders.

“Watch yourself with them,” Julius whispered, turning his back on the group so that they couldn’t see his lips and leaning in. “The sisters are lethal, but they’re also fucking unstable. Get too worked up and they go off the rails. That’s why they’re here and not already in. Had a warning about the pair from the Noxious Ten.”

“Who?”

“Another specter-hunting guild.” He sighed. “They used to be in a team there, lost the rest of the team and they got booted out. Happened twice now, so nobody wants to work with them.”

“And the man?”

“Not connected to the loss as near as I know. Lasted three months in the army, failed on physical training. Some genetic defect means he can’t integrate with mods, so the army booted him, and he’s been roaming guild to guild.”

“I’ll take you three,” I called out. “The rest of you, dismissed.”

“Fuck’s sake, man. This is bullshit!” one of those not picked shouted out, waving his arms. “You some orc fucker? That it?”

I opened my mouth to respond, then saw the way one of the sisters looked to me for approval. I nodded, and she casually pivoted and punched him in the face.

Once.

He hit the floor, unconscious and as if his bones had been liquified, making me grin. A left hook like that I could respect.

“Okay, you three, this way,” I ordered, leading them over to where I’d been with the reception staff, getting them into a line and ready. Each got hit with the various forms and so on while I moved to the side to speak to Reign and Julius.

“It’ll be easier to work with a team that responds automatically to orders than it will to an untrained group,” I explained, getting a nod from Reign and a shrug from Julius.

“I used to think that. Now I prefer experienced mercs to soldiers,” he admitted. “That’s my choice, though, so! Your patrol route should take about three hours. It’s all underground, and while most of it is in the lower sections, floor by floor of the bio-farms, there’s a few old tunnels that loop them, and you can clear them as well. Ideally? A small number to wipe out and you all get some experience in the tunnels.”

“Got some of that,” I muttered, before squinting at the three as they stood uncertainly. “Over here,” I called, and they moved quickly, stopping before us. “Okay, we’re going to be in the tunnels, so a standard sweep formation. But it’s going to be darker than a corpo’s soul in there. Goggles?”

“I’ve got some but…” the man, whose name turned out to be Hobbs said.

“But?”

“But they’re a bit shit,” he admitted. “Ten meters.”

“Fuck.” I grunted. “You two?”

“No goggles but scopes,” one of the sisters said. The pair, clearly used to being mixed up as they were identical, had helmets with them, as well as their body armor, with a streak of paint down the middle of each. The one on my left introduced herself as Gessh, and had a streak of red from top to tail, and the one on the right, Luna, had blue in the same way.

Luna nodded, and I grunted.

“We’ll need three pairs of goggles from the guild stores, and comm units,” I said to Reign, who sighed and nodded, then flicked her gaze at their rifles in a blatant hint. “Uh…ammo. Tell me you’ve got plenty of…”

“Half a mag,” Luna said.

“Each?” I asked, then winced at the look on her face. “And some ammo for each please, Reign. Hobbs?”

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“I’m good.”

“You’re all carrying the same model rifles, and all here at the same time. Clearly you know each other, so…?”

“I’ve known her for years,” Luna said cheerfully, nodding at Gessh, and I snorted.

“Yeah, all your life, right? Like sisters?”

“Damn, he’s good,” Gessh rumbled, before grinning as well.

“And you, Hobbs?” I asked.

“I joined the Noxious Ten a month ago,” he said. “I’ve done four patrols, all no-shows. Then we hit a nest and it all went tits up. Only two of us survived and the team lead claimed all the loot for himself, including our shares, because ‘I had to be rescued by him.’”

“Right?”

“There were three left,” he spat. “We took down over a hundred. There was a ghoul leading them, and he just strolled in at the end, threw an EMP grenade and that was it, all over.”

“Where was he during the fight?” I asked.

“Fuck knows. There were ten of us originally. He vanished, and they came in on all sides. And then, when it was all done, he turned up again.”

“So?”

“So I quit. The bastard was blatantly hiding, thought I was dead when he claimed to be the only survivor, and he’d thrown in an EMP without checking. If the team had been alive? That’d have taken half of them down. He didn’t even look.”

“What did the Ten do?” Julius asked grimly.

“They said I could make a formal complaint, but I wasn’t getting paid, so I took my gun and walked.”

“We were leaving anyway,” Gessh admitted. “We got in the shit and went…Look, we carry swords for a reason, okay? The fight goes nasty and it’s in close…we’re strong, so why not make the most of that?”

“What happened?”

“I killed one of our side.” Luna hung her head. “I thought he was dead, piled on by a load of them, and I was swinging. It was a mess of teeth and claws and fucking implants. I just…I swung too hard and I never saw him. The assessment RI highlighted it, and I…I never even knew until afterward.”

“We understand if you don’t want us,” Gessh said after a second, squaring her shoulders.

“Will you follow orders?” I asked, and they all nodded. “Then we’re all here because we need to sort ourselves out.”

“We ready?” Reign handed the goggles and bullets out: nine magazines, three for either of the girls, and three were offered to Hobbs. He shook his head, and I reached out and took them instead.

“I’m not turning down free ammo,” I assured her, getting a knowing smile. “Shall we?” I nodded to the doorway, and Julius pinged me a map of the route, as well as a silent reminder that Reign would be watching, and evaluating, all of us.

Two and a half hours, three trains, and a long walk later, we eventually reached the patrol area. Reign was apparently well-known to one of the guards at the entrance to the bio-farm, who took a cursory glance at our idents before waving us through.

“Once you’re all members in good standing, we get to bill transport costs to the client,” Reign offered with a smile as we walked across the short distance to the main entrance.

I didn’t care though, not about that at least.

“What the hell is that goddamn smell?” I stared around in shock. It was worse than that time the entire squad caught blue fever and we were quarantined in our barracks. Three days in a small space with all six of us shitting and throwing up every few minutes.

By the end of it, we’d all chipped in together and had the rooms fumigated and all soft furnishings—which there weren’t many of; it was the army, after all—were burned unceremoniously.

“And that’s how you spot a first-time visitor to the bio-farms!” Reign laughed. “You’ve got sensory input linked to your mods?”

“Yeah…”

“You should be able to adjust it. Here, use this.” She sent me a compressed datapacket, and I eyed it dubiously. “Seriously, it’s not a virus. Fuck’s sake, I’m about to go hunting specters with you. Believe me, I want you at your best right now.”

“Okay…” I agreed, but still, I had the RI assess the package.

Confirmed:

Datapacket contains adjustment commands to alter sensory input to new preset levels.

I squinted, then thought fuck it, and ran it, making sure I could undo it with a thought if need be.

The smell intensified, then shifted, lessening, before a sudden burning sensation and prickle in my nose that made me want to sneeze, and then…fresh baked bread and vanilla pods.

I hesitated, took a deep lungful, and relaxed.

“Damn. Hot damn,” I said. “What a difference!”

“Nice, right?” she asked, and I nodded, before looking at the others, and the distress on their faces.

“I take it you’ve not got any brain mods?” I asked, getting shaken heads as my only response. “Fair enough.” I sighed.

“Here, it’s not as good, but it works.” Reign passed out little pots that she’d picked up from a dispenser by the door. “Smear it below your nostrils. It’s minty.”

A handful of seconds and the others had done so, relaxing marginally as they did.

“Right, so once we’re in here, we need to pass between the workers’ sections first. There’ll be people in here, not specters—or at least there better not be—so keep your weapons on safe. Once we’re past there, we get a lift down to the first level, and the evaluation begins. Good luck, everyone,” Reign said, and I nodded my thanks.

“Appreciate it,” I said softly, and she smiled as she led the way, pausing for me to send our job ident to the door controller.

“Oh, believe me,” she said firmly. “If possible? I’d love nothing more than for you to all get full marks and join us full-time. More teams mean more backup and a generally easier time for everyone.” She turned to make sure I was listening before going on. “That said, Kabutt, I’d rather fail you all than put a team out in the field that hasn’t got what it takes. You fuck up here? It’s on you. You get a pass and then fuck up later? That’s on me—that’s my rep that’s ruined, and maybe my ass that’s left out hangin’ in the wind.”

“And it’s such a nice ass too,” Luna quipped, getting a glare from Reign.

“You often interrupt private conversations, recruit?” she snapped.

Luna swallowed hard.

“Sorry, Assessor. I assumed that if it was private, it’d have been on a single party sub-vocal.”

“Never assume.” Reign glowered at her. “And next time you reference my ass, it better be when you’re holding a goddamn drink out.”

“Uh…yes, sir,” Luna replied, frowning.

Reign turned away. The assessor shot me a wink when she knew Luna couldn’t see.

I hid a smile, already liking Reign, strolling along with her as we passed row after row of wide, shallow tanks.

Glancing in, I quickly looked away again. The foul mess before me bubbled as it was force-fed massive amounts of growth hormones. Its pale skin slowly shivered as pseudo-muscles shifted and massaged the slab, six meters on a side, ensuring an even distribution of the flavor.

I saw the marker, and instantly knew that my days of eating Royal Porkin’ sandwiches were damn well over. The sight of that mass of flesh, like someone had skinned a whale, then set it to bobbing in a shallow tank, would never leave me.

“You looked in?” Reign asked me, and I nodded.

“Yeah, never again.”

“That’s what I said,” she offered. “My kind, we’re usually pretty easygoing with plant-based, you know?”

“Yeah?”

“Trust me. You don’t want to see the fields of brocciflower.” She shivered slightly. “Three days before I could bring myself to eat anything, and by that point? Fuck it. You learn to get over it. You want my advice? Whatever it was you saw, order some as soon as you’re back to your digs tonight. Eat it, force it down, and you’ll get over it. Otherwise it’ll stick with you.”

“I’ll remember that,” I muttered. “I thought nothing would put me off after eating army grub.”

“Yeah, I bet.” She laughed. “You’ve seen this stuff on ’casts, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Hell, at school we were taught where food comes from. It’s just…”

“It didn’t look or smell like that,” she agreed. “Believe me, I know.”

While we were talking, we passed a handful more of the vats. All of us made the point of not looking in. As Reign and the map led us to the far lift, the five of us stepped in and sent our idents and job details to the RI again.

This time, when the RI accepted the details, it unlocked a section of the lift, and a new pad slid forth.

Please confirm acceptance that no injury, damage, nor loss of life sustained on these premises are legally the responsibility of Bio-Corp.

We all had to send a second indent confirmation and press a thumb to the scanner. But that done, the lift finally moved, passing down into the undercity.

“No offense, people, but I hope you’re ready for this,” Reign called out, moving to the back of the group and pulling a helmet over her head. Six separate lights triggered on the front, making it look as if she had glowing insect eyes watching us all. “As of now, recording date and time-stamped at twenty-one hundred and eleven minutes, sixteen seconds, I confirm assessor status has been logged for the guild Vigilant Heart.”

That said, and with each of us getting a request from her RI to accept recording access to our senses, the fun really started.

“Begin.”