lll
"Erik..." The red haired young man in the corner stepped out and voiced his opinion, "These fleets are 5 light-years away. It is a waste of time sending us there just to show our faces."
Erik responded with a wave of his hand, "I never intended to. Actually, another matter has grabbed my attention." With the snap of his fingers, an image appeared above, a space facility built within an asteroid. "Colony Fleet HH- 2153 built this facility for scientific purposes. It was an investment that's gone south." He raised an eyebrow and waited for the youngsters to digest the information. "138 scientists manned this station until it went offline in the year 2180 AD."
"Lemme guess," Ender jumped in, "Were here to collect our money."
Jikein tapped his Falcon and pondered on the information displayed on his left eye, "It's almost 50 thousand miles away from our current position."
"I'm assigning the twelve of you..." Erik went to his black leather chair and sat nonchalantly, "under the cover of a rescue operation. And also to investigate the cause of the facility's malfunction."
"But it's been 95 years, are those scientists even alive?" Ender asked, dubious to the real motive of the operation.
"Your real mission.." Erik sighed, "is to retrieve a package containing another mutation of the Arcy Virus."
"But sending the twelve of us might endanger your security." The red head stated.
"You're the best units in my command," Erik smiled, "But I have other assets in my disposal." He waved a hand and rotated his chair, "Your Falcons will brief you more about the mission data. Dismissed."
The youngsters poured out from the room but didn't have any slight idea as to what to do next so they stood guard on the entrance until Erik's image appeared on their vision and scolded them, "Oh, for fuck's sake! Go and enjoy yourselves."
Each groaned and scratched their heads as they moved out in an orderly line. They soon found themselves in a canteen which served military personnel.
Sitting on a white texted rectangular table, available for 15 people, the red haired young man studied the mission data on his left eye, "So I'll be acting as the team Co-leader, and Jikein will stay on standby for the leader position."
"I hope you don't get cocky with that, Bane." Ender sniffed.
"Ha-Ha-Haha!" Bane the red hair, conveyed an evil laughter.
Androids served them steaks of meat which they divided amongst themselves. Though their eyes are wary. Ten paces across them is another throng of agents from the Cedar Syndicate and Clan Velcaz.
"Velcaz fucks!"
They could only shrug their shoulders after hearing one of the Cedar agent mutter a curse after seeing a lavishly looking young man, dressed in Velcaz military officer uniform, strutting on the isle with his squad.
The twelve had their cheeks puffed as they chewed and enjoyed the food until the anticipated commotion made them turn their around. Multiple Cedar agents stood face to face with a Velcaz Death Squad in a provocative manner. They threw curses at each other. Inevitably, punches were thrown and it escalated into a brawl.
They considered for a moment to break the fight. They are all part of the security, after all. It was still hard to imagine that the securities who are meant to protect their designated areas are the ones who are fighting.
"Hey! Break it off!" Ender roared, and jumped into the fray.
Bane was about to follow but Jikein stopped him and the rest not to intervene. It was later on that Ender will be strangling Jikein for abandoning him.
Securities poured into the canteen, struggling to contain the violence within. It almost took an hour before they successfully restrained the personnels involved, including Ender.
>><<
<<>>
2400 Hours, Earth's Timeline
The twelve stood on the Rygorant Private port as they took a last debrief from Bane, while Ender was still choking Jikein.
"We will make a wide detour to the 2153 Space Station." Bane started, "At approximately one month, we'll arrive at our destination because we can't use our particle thrusters due to the clusters of asteroids in our path, so we will be staying in our pods. The fleet will press on and briefly stop at the Fragna System to investigate a planet called Acar. Scientists will perform an Orbital Drop to study the habitat for any possibility that it can sustain human life. Hopefully, this will give us time to catch up."
With that, they marched to their designated craft. The 100 meters long FR-200 Rygorant series, with bird like features, came to view. It's a standard issue of the Syndicate for large scale Orbital Drops, air and space voyages.
They stepped into an enclosed metal cube which then carried them up and fixed itself as part of the craft.
>>Synchronization Complete!<<
A feminine voice announced. Bane sync his Veik to the main system of the craft, and sent all the mission data.
As they gathered around their pods. Ender broke the silence, "I heard a rumor that the Company Seldom, recently added another extension in the Edge."
"That is?" They all asked at the same time.
"It is called Infinity Connected." Ender answered with ecstasy, "Are you guys going to check it?"
"I don't know.." Bane was the one who answered, "I might make another run in Ka'ampf. I almost cleared it last time."
"Yuh, me too."
"Eighteen kills, two more to go."
A satisfied smile crept up on a corner of Jikein's lips. Satisfied that he cleared Ka'ampf before these guys did, even with his limiter turned to zero.
"Come on guys. Let's all check it out." Ender winked at them. "It's a VRMMORPG, which means we can team up."
They shrugged and entered their pods as the procedure for their suspended animation commenced while the FR-200 blast off into space.
>><<
<<>>
In his room, Erik stared at his ancient computer as it displayed the twelve units he just sent.
*****
-----
SA Black and Blue(SAB2)
Jikein K.
>>DISPATCHED<<
-----
SA Blue(SAB)
Bane C.
>>DISPATCHED<<
-----
SA Blue(SAB)
Ender E.
>>DISPATCHED<<
-----
SA Green(SAG)
Gab W.
>>DISPATCHED<<
-----
SA Green(SAG)
Heinz G.
>>DISPATCHED<<
-----
SA Green(SAG)
Trav V.
>>DISPATCHED<<
-----
SA Green(SAG)
Kim J.
>>DISPATCHED<<
-----
SA Green(SAG)
Quill S.
>>DISPATCHED<<
-----
A Red(AR)
Blaire G.
>>DISPATCHED<<
-----
A Red(AR)
Farren C.
>>DISPATCHED<<
-----
A Red(AR)
Flint R.
>>DISPATCHED<<
-----
SA Red and Blue(SARB)
Irene L.
>>DISPATCHED<<
>>UNDERCOVER<<
-----
*****
With a quick swipe of his hand, their presence and information from the AI core disappeared.