Planning

As the sun came over the horizon, signalling a new dawn and a new beginning. Sej went to the kitchen like any other morning and came across Cara and Sam. Henry could be heard singing from the shower. Sej made himself some toast. This was regular toast like you could get from earth. Even though the culture of the planet. Castian was different when the earth was first conquered, samples of food and culture were spread through the galaxy and recreated. Even certain plants were grown in different environments and mutations occurred. That was a slow process and many items from earth were excluded like butter and jam because there were better alternatives. Bread and toast, however, spread like wildfire.

Henry soon came and made himself a simple breakfast. "Hey guys, I got some things that we need to discuss." Sej began this conversation on a shaky start. The rest of them looked at him and became curious about his behaviour.

"I have found a way to earn some coin if you know what I mean." Sej continued while changing his way of talking. He wanted to create an atmosphere similar to those he saw in movies that involved heists.

Sam saw that his friend was acting strangely and replied, "Hey buddy, did you sleep well last night. Cultivators have to sleep too."

"No, no nothing like that, I just found us a job, it will be very lucrative" Sej was not ready to give up his charade just yet.

Cara seeing this, looked at his toast which Sej slightly burnt and spoke to Henry and Sam, " Did you too poison the bread"

Having given up at this point, a slightly annoyed Sej ranted " you guys are no fun at all." Only for laughter to enter his ears. The team was mocking him. They all came from the earth so they got some of his meaning. They were just mocking him. "So what's with the pirate acting, should have got a new eye patch and a parrot." Caras sweet voice projected.

"I was not a pirate but whatever, anyway, I have taken the liberty to solve our financial crisis. The question is do you want to participate."

"You make it sound so bad sej, what are you planning," Henry asked. "I am planning a heist."

The group was surprised by what they just heard. Sam recovered first. "See you insane, you want to start stealing. What could possibly give you that idea? Do you want to get everyone killed?"

"don't overreact Sam," replied Sej as if it was not just last night where he was having those same thoughts. "Listen, you don't have to worry so much. It is a quick and easy job. We just need to go and get the goods and I will take care of the rest." Sej continued while going back into heist mode.

Cara was the next to calm down followed by Henry. "If you say it's safe. I am in." Cara surprised the others with her straightforward reply.

"What's got into you" Henry shouted. "This is crazy." His veins were popping out of his forehead.

Sej took back control of the situation. "Calm down everyone, let me explain."

Everyone turned to listen to him at this point. " Look, we all know that it is hard to gain any progress in cultivation if we just play by the rule. Look at Sam brother for an example. His progress is slow as he does not have a reliable background in the sect. The Apail family can not influence the sect to a large degree. While hunting, we learnt that in this world, our new world. Risk and reward go hand in hand. So we can stick to hunting and wasting time where we could still die, or we can take a bigger risk, and earn far more."

Silence reigned in the area. "I'm in," Cara said again like she already knew about what was going to happen.

"What did you have in mind" Sam seemed to be considering the option.

"Materials, specifically scorched metal. There is a scorched metal mine 300 west of here in a small town called 'Fiere'. all we need to do is just get into the town's warehouse, steal what we can and get out. Don't let anyone see us and we are good."

"What if they see us?" Henry asked.

"Just don't let them, we will plan everything down to the smallest detail ok," Sej replied.

"How should we begin then-leader?" Cara questioned. "I have a guide for

Thieves that we can use. Here, let's take a look together" Sej placed the parchment on the table so the group took a look at the parchment and quickly went to the instruction sections.

The instructions started in ways to plan a theft. It went on to explain that the first step to planning a heist was to collect all the information about the target. This included the current price of the goods, where to sell the stolen property. Who are you stealing from and what is defending the item that was to be stolen.

Next one must use this information to create a plan to get to the item undetected. This includes travel from divergent locations to and from the site of the heist. After all of someone tracks your movement, then even if they have no proof of a crime, just you being in the area will make you a suspect. This is especially true for people of a different organisation.

Next was the actual theft itself. Had to have a plan to steal the item. This plan can be made and changed on site but it is better to plan beforehand if you have the information. In the team's case, travelling 300 miles would take at least 2 weeks. This is if they had taken the major transport stations. So they would not be able to come up with a plan right at this instant.

Henry went out to buy a map while Sam went out to buy some scorched metal. It is safer to get the information needed by buying the item than just asking around about it. It may lead to suspicion. Plus Sam could give the metal to his elder brother who may have a use for it.

Cara who could be considered the calmest of the three was given the most important job of finding any information about the 'Fiere' town. Sej was assured that she was the best person for that job and as for himself, he went to buy storage rings, many of them. The need for the rings was for 2 reasons. The first was for the stolen property. The second was for hunting beasts. As the trip would take at least 2 weeks there and another 2 weeks back. The next month would have already begun, meaning that the group would have to complete their mission again and could collect their allowance.

Using hunting could be a good excuse for why the team left for so long. As long as the group killed some beast on the way there and back, it would be a good alibi. Sej used the group fund in which 25 essence crystals, he brought 4, 300 cubic meter space rings. That should be enough for all the scorched metal and the previous rings could be used for hunting.

The team soon came together for a second meeting to share what they had found. The buying was already confirmed by Sej, so they did not need to worry about that. The rest of the group was curious but Sej refused to mention who. Sam confirmed that the material was common and there were several major mines and many minor mines around the planet. Stealing some of the metal could very well not cause a major issue as the metal was on the cheaper side. Though this was true, it was only sold in small quantities and any large purchases saw a massive increase in price as it would most likely be brought by other major powers or the Apail family.

Cara found out that the town of 'Fiere' was owned by a subsidiary family to the ash fall sect. The family was called the 'Beakers' and their patriarch was a second stage essence gathering cultivator. That could be a dangerous threat to them if caught but Sej was not too worried.

Finally, Henry managed to get a general map of the surrounding 500 miles of the capital of the planet. The map showed a large city area in the centre followed by a large area of scattered forest with some villages and towns every 10-30 miles. These were scattered and tended to be near mines or forests which a few in the open plains. These towns were for farmers to live and plant grain and other crops

The team started to plot the route to the town 'Fiere'. This route would try to minimise exposure for what they were planning but they were new to be thieves.