The three operators stayed in the restaurant until noon and exchanged weapons, equipment and plans for the upcoming mission. Shortly before 1 p.m., Blurr had said goodbye and arranged the meeting point for Seraphim and Stray Badger. So it happened that both members of the team were waiting at a collapsed building and, to their amazement, could see how someone flew in on a drone.
"Yooo, are you the angel people?" He could hardly be understood when the drone landed and the engines howled and hummed. "We are." came only as an answer until he finally turned off the damn thing. "Great, Blurr has already let me in, I've put a few gimmicks in the area so that we have backup. Are you ready too? And nice rifle!" The torrent of words rushed over Aurelia as she tried to perceive the guy in front of her as Blurr's right-hand man. In vain.
He was tall and in good physical condition, with a sidecut that was a shorter version of Mary's hairstyle in a deep burgundy. He looked to Aurelia like someone from southern Spain or Greece, but it was difficult to assess. The problem with his appearance was that he grinned like a moron and happily jumped from foot to foot while he was texting Mary. Her pleading look was so heartbreaking that Aurelia caught his attention. "So you're Badger?" "Yep, that's me. And my little buddies, the my-" "Yes, yes, ok. We are both ready and the customer arrives at the meeting point in 15 minutes. Let's go, it's just around the corner, but I want to be there before the others" "oh that's going to be hard, because they're all already there Vern27 and his goons have been waiting for a while, don't seem to trust you two hehe. But hey, that's nu-" "Damn. Ok Mary, put on your most menacing face and you badger... Please shut up for a moment. Thank you" "U got it Boss." Badger saluted and opened his left hand. Hundreds of small drones buzzed out of it, spreading around him and Seraphim. They were so tiny that they were barely visible in the air. Mary curiously tried to grab a few, but the things were damn fast. "What is that?" she asked. "This is my little cloud of protection. A little extra protection in case something goes wrong." Before the Stray member went into an unnecessarily long explanation, Aurelia began to march with a brisk step towards Vern27. Behind her Mary, who had her gigantic weapon casually on her hip and gently stroked it with her hand, and Badger next to her, with a little song on her lips. Aurelia would strangle him. How the hell could Blurr stand him?!
The place where the deal would take place was a large open field with only a little rubble in the middle. And that's exactly where Vern27 stood with his beatable face. He was wearing an expensive looking suit and a total of 8 beefsteaks were placed around him. Each of these goons consisted of at least 350% muscles. And they wore clothes to emphasize them, presumably as an intimidation tactic.
"Welcome, I've been told you're working under the name Seraphim, is that correct?" Mary answered in front of Aurelia, sounding even smokier and scratchier than usual, "We are." Aurelia would get weak knees if she had to face Mary straight. She was really good at it. "Aurelia!" Raya tore her out of her thoughts and she remembered that she was the boss here. "I'm DEUS EX. We have samples of goods with us. Do you have the money?" "Of course. Then show me." He wiped over the rubble and Aurelia could use it as a makeshift table. She placed one of each of the pieces and then stepped back so that the buyer, Vern, could look at everything in peace.
He took his time. A LOT of time. His gorillas stood stoically behind him and radiated professionalism, as much as that was possible with them. Seraphim, on the other hand, was not so confident. Aurelia stood uncomfortably in place and waited impatiently, Badger had laid down on the floor and was humming to himself while he watched the clouds above him and Mary... Well, she behaved as expected. Nervously, she kicked back and forth, walked a few steps, or fiddled with her holster. We make a really good impression.
"All right, Deus Ex." Vern27 stood up and put away his diagnostic tools and measuring devices, "I'm surprised that it's really all real. How much of each? I'm going to buy everything from you, we're both going to make a lot of money here."
Aurelia was just about to calm Mary down with a light touch on the arm when Vern27 finished and explained that he would really buy everything immediately. "We have five of the 'Legacy Arts Okuli Evo' eyes, two Reflex co-processors, and four of the Cyberdecks. All in all, it has a market value of 500,000 neuros. We made up 60%, so nice round 300k. I accept the money and as soon as my Cybermancer has checked it, the drone flies off with the goods. Objections?" Aurelia was surprised by herself at how cold she had been able to act. She would afford a small reward for this if she had the opportunity.
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"Aurelia. The money came. 300,000 and 20,000 extra with the hint, small bonus for the boss of a new group. I checked the money and everything is clean." Aurelia put her arms on her hips and pretended to be reading something on her HUD, "Everything clean. Goods are coming." She had said it not only for the buyer, but also over the radio for Bär and Parker. She sent the 300,000 directly to Bear so that he could do the distribution and wondered what her share would be, Bear, Parker and Aurelia were of the same opinion that everyone would get a third after the Strays were paid. Mary would be paid by Aurelia herself.
The drone was not far away and took only two short minutes to hover just above the ground and drop the box. One of the musclemen immediately started to open the lock and after a quick count he gave it ok.
Vern27 clapped his hands contentedly and then held out his right hand to Aurelia. She hesitated only for a second, then reached for it. "If you ever need to get rid of something again, here are my contact details." She saw the info on her HUD and Raya sorted it directly into her contact book. "Here's to good deals in the future," Aurelia replied, trying to ignore Vern's face. It was almost begging to be missed. But she had to resist the urge.
Luckily for them, after a few moments, he turned to his goons and ordered them to load the box, when suddenly a black van came around the corner and opened the door for the box. Seraphim stopped and tried to look impressive, while Badger sat cross-legged on the ground and plucked wilted grasses from the earth.
When the van was out of sight, Aurelia was grabbed from the side and a Mary beaming with joy shook her, "300,000! You didn't tell me that there was so much money at stake! Ahahahahaha" She went into an almost mad laugh and Aurelia couldn't resist and joined in.
"Well done you two." came from below. Badger stood up and patted his clothes. "But you were a little too restless, Mary. You either have to become much more relaxed, or double your energy and play the madman, you know, the powder keg next to the open flame. But otherwise, you were great. Especially your cold Deus, really felt the air getting cooler hehe"
Aurelia didn't know how to react to this and decided to just shake a hand with Badger, "Thank you for being there. Also give Blurr my thanks. We have to go back now. Until, soon maybe?" Hopefully not. But she only said that in her mind.
After a few empty phrases, the Stray Techie finally left the newly founded Team Seraphim. That had to be celebrated. And so is the successful deal. Mary was still beside herself with joy and asked, "What's my cut?" Her eyes sparkled like stars and Aurelia asked Bear.
After a moment she turned to Mary, "After all the deductions, Bear Parker and I each got 80K." "EIGHTY THOUSAND?! Wow.... that... that's a lot of gravel." "What do you think about the fact that we open a bank account for Seraphim and we put all the profits in there. And if you need money, you have easy access to it. As long as there are only two of us, there shouldn't be any trouble, what do you think?" Aurelia could have sworn that it was physically impossible for Mary to open her eyes any further, but apparently with black magic she made it possible and threw her arms around Aurelia's neck. "Then I can get the Children decent food and maybe even a better location." Aurelia couldn't help laughing, she was more happy about Mary's reaction than about the money itself.
"Mary?" Aurelia had to break free from the iron grip of her team member and gave up after the third attempt. "I'll let go in a moment," she murmured in Aurelia's shoulder. "Okay. But tell me, will you continue with me Seraphim? Could procure even more neuros. Wouldn't that be something?" "YES! Absolutely. Today was such an exciting day and then I met new people and I made money."
BOOM
A blow, as if from a falling mountain, fell on Aurelia and Mary and tore them both to the ground. Aurelia hit the earthy ground and felt her bones break, despite her armor. Aurelia didn't understand what had happened, she just felt that she was suddenly lying on the floor, Mary a little next to her, in an unnatural position. Her legs weren't right, Aurelia's fog-filled mind couldn't tell what was wrong, like the arms they were bent in the wrong directions. They lay in a crater as if a meteorite had hit their feet. A cloud of dust, dirt and smoke darkened the world and reduced visibility to a minimum. Her hearing was damaged and she could only hear a dull hiss, as if the entire world was trapped in a horrible image of smoke and suffering.
Aurelia's eyes were only able to see a distance of a few meters, but after a short time she noticed movements. Shadow-like beings staggered through the cloud, tall and with long tubes under their arms. And they came closer. It looked as if after a short wandering around they would march directly to the still dazed nun. They came closer and closer until half of them turned to Mary and made her their target as well. With every passing second, the beings became more recognizable. Not monsters, but humans and the pipes had to be weapons, because they were aimed at Aurelia and Mary. Before she could even think about moving, they were surrounded by dozens of special forces, dark green visors staring down through the smoke with a posture that showed that everyone still had respect for Aurelia's abilities, despite her condition. That meant they knew who she was. Aurelia recognized the armor of the soldiers and only managed to utter one in a raspy voice: "Oh fuck man."