As the group began crafting their plan, it was decided that they needed to move sooner rather than later. As they strategized, it became obvious that losing Torran significantly impacted their future plans. Not only was did he have a combat-oriented skill set, but he had been preparing others to deal with the realities of the Integrated Worlds for a long time. Deebo was a tech support and data analysis specialist, Kore was an expert prospector, and Millie had been in politics for the last 15 years. That meant with their current group they only had person who was proficient in direct combat situations, and while she was tougher than some, she was was a bit of a glass cannon. If they didn’t make any additions they were walking into an apocalypse scenario with no firepower.
“We need to be on Earth at last five years ahead before Onset.” Deebo insisted. “Being there within a couple of days would be best. We need all the time we can get to make this thing work.”
“I hear you Dee, but don’t you think it’s important to survive what we are trying to prepare everyone for? Remember how it is pretty much the worst experience of everyone’s life.” Yash said
“We all survived last time. Besides Millie wasn’t just the high level guild bureaucrat that everyone assumes her to be.”
Kore and Ash looked appraisingly at Millie. “So MVG” Kore started, “What were you then? Some kind of Guild spy?” He chuckled at the thought while Yash continued to state at her.
“I wasn’t a spy per say. I like to say I engaged in proactive counter-espionage…”
“What the heck does that mean?”
Deebo quickly cut in, “It means she killed other spies Yash.”
“I didn’t just kill spies. I gathered information in order to thwart any operations that would hinder guild progress. It mostly was the work of a politician. Sometimes politics had to have a more pointed ending.”
Kore guffawed at this. As everyone stared at him he added “Pointed. Because she stabbed people. You know what, nevermind.”
“See, we are all set. We should get ready to go by weeks end.” Deebo insisted
“We still have a problem. Just because I’ve taken care of a few loose ends doesn’t mean that I am anything like skilled in dealing with the beasts and monsters that come with frontier worlds.”
“How different could it be. Killing something is killing something.” Deebo kept pushing
Millie snorted in derision before retorting “I have plenty of experience stabbing and killing humanoids. Do you think that in any way makes me capable to hunting a creature three times my mass?”
“Well, how did you come through it last time?”
“Same as you guys.” she nodded at Kore and Deebo. “I had help. A lot of help actually. If you don’t recall my brother is a pretty well known tank. He might have gone all in on this xenophobic pogrom now, but while we were trying to survive he put himself in the way of anything that tried to hurt me. I just waited until they weren’t paying attention to stab them back. I don’t see anyone who can do that here.”
“I want to try and go more direct confrontation this time. I’ve had enough resource harvesting for multiple lifetimes.” Kore threw in
“You can use this opportunity to do whatever you want Kore, but do you know what to do if a giant mutant creature is running at you.” Millie questioned
“Errr… hit it.”
“Your confidence is astounding.” she replied sarcastically, “Maybe you should hit it, but do you even know how to do that? We live in a world where the majority of people whoop the shit out creatures or other people for a living and we want to make the decision to figure it out on our own?”
“You’re right, You’re right… I was just trying to be helpful.”
“What we need is Torran.” Yash pointed out
“Doesn’t seem like he was very interested in hearing out the whole proposal.” Deebo said coldly “So screw ‘em.”
“Don’t be so bitter D, we don’t know why he didn’t make. Maybe he just go caught up in stuff and forgot.”
“Please! We have the Interface in our frickin’ heads and we all knew that everything was going down today.”
“Settle Down!” Millie snapped. It was the tone of someone experienced in leadership and everyone snapped their mouths shut simultaneously. “Let’s slow down for a minute and talk this out. Does anyone know people who might want in. Normally I would say I will handle all the recruiting, but you guys are what I came up with in years… not to mention I burned most of my bridges in the process of extricating myself from guild clutches.”
“We still need to talk to Torran.” Yash insisted
Millie held up her hands placatingly “I will find him and talk to him. Dig through your contacts and think see if you might know somebody who would want in. We will meet back here tomorrow night. If you someone you know wants in bring them and we will vet them as a group. It is going to take a unanimous vote to get them included. There is no point grabbing someone who might just cause problems down the road.
“Someone who could heal would be nice.” Yash interjected “I don’t plan on getting hit. But if I do, I wouldn’t mind having someone around who could put all my pieces back together.”
Everyone nodded in agreement. They talked excitedly about what they thought this new adventure would be like before splitting ways to see if they could wrangle up another party member from their contacts.
Morning rolled into afternoon before Millie finally ventured from her home. She knew Torran slept in when he was in Varanthis and that there was no way he would wake up if he didn’t want to. After a moment's thought she decided to message him via Interface rather than just show up at his house unannounced.
Millie: Where you at. Need to talk to you.
Torran: I’m at the company office. What do you want?
Mille: Where were you this morning?
Millie: …..
Torran: Stuff came up
Millie: Meet with me and tell me about it.
Torran: I’ve only got like, 15 min. Meet me at at old Hooch’s in 20.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Millie: Fine. See you there.
Good thing I messaged, Mille thought as she flagged down a passing taxi, I would have bet anything that he would just now be waking up. Normally she preferred walking everywhere and with her stamina it was never a problem, but Tor was all the way on the other end of the city and it sounded like he was busy. Probably not a good sign for him wanting to change up his life…”
Minutes later the cab pulled up to Hooch’s Mercenary Supply. Despite the mercenary supply in its name, the store had long ago been converted into a bar for Mercs to drink at when they were off duty. It also served as a place where people looking to hire could count on meeting Merc units looking for work. Millie knew the layout of this institution intimately. She had spent a lot of time here, hiring Mercs for both covert and overt action. She walked briskly past the bar into a room at the back of the establishment where she finally saw Torran.
“You look like shit.”
“Thanks Mil, you know how to make a guy feel great about himself.”
“Just bein’ honest. Where the heck were you this morning. I thought you wanted this chance to get to somewhere before everything went to shit.”
“I did. I do. It’s just…”
“Just what Tor?”
“With you out of the picture, some of the crews that get used for under the table work decided that it was ok to act against VanGuard. People assumed that when you went out, there would be some chaos in the ranks. No one told me because they assumed I was sentimental towards the guild because of how often we were together.”
“I don’t get why this matters to you…”
“It was a massacre MV. Who did you leave in charge when you left. Whoever it was doesn’t believe in using the velvet glove. They spread misinformation and setup a trap. It was brutal. Some companies are just gone. My guys, I guess they sent in a hundred of our best. Only twenty-seven made it out. We lost seven of our commanding officers.”
Millie’s face contorted in anger “Why the hell would they move against VanGuard just because I was out of the picture and how don’t I know about it?” After her outburst she calmed down a little “I am sorry for your losses Tor, I really am. I just don’t get it.”
“All involved are keeping this hush-hush. It will leak eventually but for now word hasn’t gotten out yet.” He paused a moment before continuing “You just don’t realize how much you were keeping people in line over there. Word is that it is going to get ugly. People are saying your brother’s beliefs are pretty mild compared to the direction some of the board members want to take the guild.” Millie saw the sadness in his eyes as he went on.“I can’t leave Brightfire, not with it falling apart like this. I’ve spent too much time here, put too much work in to let it just die. If it was in good shape I could walk away but now…”
“I get it. I guess you are getting a new challenge anyway. I’ll let you get to it. We could have really used you though.”
“Wait… Mil, I think I can help you with that. I know a guy, he is a member, was a member of another Merc company that got throttled in that ambush. Well anyways, the company is folding and he wants a fresh start. Says he ‘needs a break from killing shit and having shit try and kill him.’, That was a direct quote by the way. He started off in an exterminator crew. He went into Hives and dungeons with a group and wiped them out for free for years until someone told him that Mercs get paid to do that. I think he regretted switching from the crew. He didn’t have the heart to kill people. Has the skill for it for sure, but never really wanted to put people down.”
“Can you send him to my place tomorrow night. I am not saying that he is in, but we will talk to him.”
“Sure thing MV.”
“It’s gunna be a bit before we see each other again Tor. Make sure your still in one piece when I get back.” With that, Millie got up from her seat and started her walk home.
The following evening
“Alright everyone. Let’s get down to brass tacks here. Anyone have people they are trying to include in this foray into the unknown. Tor coming?”
“You know he would be here if he was in Deebs. Something came up and he can’t leave Brightfire right now.”
Deebs scoffed “Whatever, he just doesn’t have the sack for it.”
“That’s not it” anger built up in Millie before she pushed in back down. “He gave me a recommendation though. He said the guy is good people who needs a break from the merc grind. He should be here shortly.”
“I got someone too.” Yash said surprising everyone. To the best of their knowledge, the only time she pulled herself away from mana experimentation these days was to see members of the current group.
“Who?” Kore asked, “I didn’t think you even talked to anyone else besides us.”
So much for subtlety, Millie thought.
“You wouldn’t know her. Its someone who I worked with on the frontier. A healer, a combat medic in fact.”
“Man, you weren’t messing around Yash. How did you get a combat medic to consider.”
Before Yash could respond there was a thumping at the door. “I got it” Mil said before quickly moving to answer. There were two figures, a man and a woman, standing in the doorway. The woman was tall, thick and covered in scars. She had blazing red hair to go along with her pale-white skin. She looked like the statue of a war goddess come to life. The man next to her was not what Millie pictured a respected mercenary to look like. He had a ruddy complexion with long limp brown hair, he came off as vaguely animalistic. Slightly taller and thicker than an average humanoid, there was no feeling of violence or danger leaking from him as so often happened from others of his mercenary brethren. “Please come in. The rest of the crew is anxious to meet you both.”
The two moved to the table and the group quickly explained the exact parameters of what going to a new world would be. Although Millie and Deebo had been reluctant to share the details earlier, they knew they couldn’t hold anything back with so little time before everything went into motion. After explaining their goals, they began interviewing the newbies to see exactly what type of people they were potentially taking with them. It turned out that the woman, Lota, wanted a change of scenery for personal reasons. Despite her scars she was an attractive woman, her family was in their 4th generation of Integration and, as was common practice, they were attempting to arrange a politically beneficial relationship for her. The problem was that Lota had no interest in any type of relationship at all, other than as a combat healer in her squad. As her parents applied political pressure to have her removed from squad after squad, she had begun looking for a way to get out of their sphere of influence. She had actually come to Varanthis to try and find transport to a different sector, one where her family would have less influence. In running into Yash, she was pleased to find a way out of her predicament. The four original members voted her in with alacrity. It’s not that healers were particularly rare, but the ones who were willing to step in and heal as things went to shit were rarer than a virgin in a whorehouse.
The man was the tougher call for the group. The interview had been… unique. Ultimately they had voted to include him, but the vote had not gone as smoothly as the vote for Lota. The main reason that they hesitated to include the man was his reticence to reveal anything about himself. They did manage to get him to tell them some about his specialties, it turned out that he was a capable front line fighter along the lines of Tor but he hinted that losing fighting skills wouldn’t impact him tremendously. It felt like torture even getting him to tell them his name, Dexan.When push came to shove, they still trusted Torran and if he recommended him than they wouldn’t turn down his advice.
Now that everyone was secure in the makeup of the group it was time to plan their exodus.
“I am ready to leave immediately”
“We know Deebo. You’ve made it abundantly clear that your are ready to be underway.” Kore said with an eye roll. “Don’t you think you should see if anyone else has business they need to take care of before we disappear from everyone we know for several years with no chance of contact.”
“I need a week.” Dexan abruptly interjected putting an end to the banter between the two.
I will be happy to bring him if he can get these two idiots to shut up that easily Millie thought with as she scanned the rest of the group. “Any issues with leaving in a week?”
“I, ahh, well I will need somewhere to stay under the radar then. If we are not leaving immediately I worry that my parents will move to ensure my compliance with their wishes. I didn’t leave much room for doubt that I was planning on ignoring their interference in my life, and they made it clear that it was their duty as parents to make me the best me I can be. If you know what I mean.”
“You can crash here if you want Lota. I will be in and out. I still have some financial things to tie up before I go, but I will set security to let you in and out freely.”
“Thanks Millie, you don’t know how much I appreciate that.”
“Fine. One Week. Everyone better have everything wrapped up by then. Make sure you know what skill each of you are going to bring with you. I am setting my Interface to notify me in 124 hours. Anyone who isn’t here is left behind.”
“Don’t have to be an asshole about it.” Kore muttered under his breath as the group split up to take care of their last pieces of business before they left the Integrated Worlds behind.