We got lucky Baba Yaga is the curious type, otherwise we would not have been able to report back.

  'Grunts in acknowledgment'

  I know we can just stay here and fight, but we are too close to the city and we know their defenses are weakened right now. Just hold the line.

  -Conversation between Rogal and Leman at midnight, 2057

  I crouched low behind the concrete wall next to the window, heat hammering in my ears. I need to calm down, or I would miss her approach. I checked my mag, twelve rounds out of twenty five. Would it be worth it to reload? No, I needed to be accurate, not spray and pray.

  I heard the sound of crushed glass from outside, but I knew it was a trap. I turned left and moved as quietly as I could towards the claymore I had set up. It was my only chance. Then, I heard the clinking of metal behind me. I pushed myself into a full sprint, diving into the executive office, aiming behind me as I landed, then bounce a bit, coming to a stop behind the claymore.

  An explosion rocks the previous room, sending papers flying. The doorway is obscured, I search desperately for signs of movement, or stillness.

  Then, I hear it. The shift of friction, of movement. It's so close to me. Then it clicks. Above! I lurch my rifle up, about to pull the trigger when bullets rip through the ceiling tiles above me.

  “Bullshit! Jill, how the fuck were you in the ceiling?” I yell, respawning in the post game lobby.

  “Better question, how the fuck didn't we hit her once in a four v one?” Roger complained.

  B26 was an excellent sandbox shooter, doing so much to equalize the power between players, yet her raw talent still left us in the dust.

  And this was before she has had any actual combat training.

  Jill simply smiled, spinning a knife in her hands. “Hey, what can I say? Three of you were desk jockeys for the last ten years. Only Buddy gave me a challenge with all that bulk.”

  This was our twentieth game, and the only one where we all went after her. She wiped the floor with us each time, not once breaking a sweat.

  We exited the game, finding ourselves back in the garden, sitting in special Mesh chairs. Roger got up in a huff, making his way towards the kitchen to get a drink. We all follow.

  “Seriously, Jill. How did you get from the outside into the ceiling? That should not have been possible.” I growl.

  “Such a sore loser my little brother is. Very well, your big sister shall enlighten you.” She starts, cracking open a soda. “I set it up earlier during my fight with Buddy. I deflected one of his grenades to detonate on the wall over there. Well, there and a few other places. Then, once I narrowed down where you were, it was a simple deduction to know you had a trap setup in the office. So I bypassed it.” She said with the most smug smile I have ever seen.

  “A monster. She's a monster. And you are planning on giving her professional training?” Cody mumbled, raving like a mad man.

  Jill threw an arm around his shoulder, giving him a quick hug.

  “Alright, children. It is getting late. Let's go burn the van, yes?” Baba Yaga stepped in, reminding us of a very important event. We all sobered up, then drained out drinks.

  Baba Yaga led us to the garage, where we saw the van was sitting atop a pile of logs and wood sticks. I could see that it was also coated in an oily substance.

  “Put on your armors, children. Not only will this burn hot, but the smoke is very toxic. Your suits will protect you.”

  We all switched to combat mode, and I saw everyone's armor for the first time. Roger had quite a bit of padding on his form, protecting his limbs and torso, and his helmet looked windswept , with five spikes sweeping off the back of his head. The padding was smooth, yet slightly darker than the rest of the material.

  Cody looked like he was in a skintight meshsuit, with a simple rounded helmet. No decorations, no flair. His Mesh Avatar was probably where his focus was at.

  Buddy was in a heavily padded suit covered in pockets and syringes. His helmet looked like a knight's helmet, yet his suit reminded me of modern combat armor.

  Jill looked very unique. Her arms and legs armor was transparent, showing off her cybernetics, her torso was perfectly androgynous, decorated with various sharp angles. and her helmet was a demon's facade, like one of those old Oni masks people would wear to Anime Conventions.

  All the armor was silver with some black highlights and detailing, with blue facemasks.

  “So, who takes the honors?” Baba Yaga asked, holding up a lighter.

  Without hesitation, we all turned to Roger. He had to drive it for years, look after it, maintain it, and live in it. As the driver, he was also the designated mechanic, and he could never leave the van during a mission.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  He nodded, accepting the lighter. He stepped forward and stopped just in front of the van. “This place was as much my home as the old dorm was. Aside from our memories, this is the last remnant of our old life. From here, we enter a new Era. An Era where we are in control of our lives, where we can protect what we want with our own strength. And nothing will ever take that away from us.”

  I couldn't see their faces, but I imagine it was the same as mine. Hardened, resolved, with the understanding that if anything threatened to take away our new life, antithesis or human, we would fight like demons to protect it.

  Roger flicked the lighter. Then again. He looked at it, adjusted his grip, and pushed a button as the flame lit. I didn't even chuckle once.

  He tossed the lighter into the pile of wood, and instantly the flames lit up to consume the van. He stepped back to join us in our line as we stared and the fire. Shit that heat was strong, but no one stepped back, so I stayed put.

  The van was melting at a visible pace. The glass shattered, scattering around the pyre. The old logo of our job caught fire, burned to ash and dust. Then the lithium battery ignited and we all stepped back as sparks flew. The statement was made, and lithium fires were no joke.

  From a safer distance, we watched the van turn into a pile of slag. Then, the fire died down, the metal cooled and hardened, and the garage had very obvious soot burns on the concrete. Was it concrete? No, thoughts for later.

  Baba Yaga nodded, “Keep your masks on and head inside. Head to shower and activate the self cleaning function inside. I will clean up here.” Her thick Russian accent was tinged with pride and humor as she shooed us away.

  *********************************

  I awoke on my new bed, under the covers made of some micronanite weave, and just felt warm and comfortable. I checked the network and saw that Morrigan had finished ten floors in the two days since she started working. She made an adjustment to have the new material portal be in the loading bay next to the power plant. I wanted to go take a look at it later, cause how often do you get the opportunity to observe a portal?

  Ok, well, everyday if your parking garage requires you to enter one if you want to come or go. The blueprint mentioned that in order to safely transition between the building and the outside, the best way was to simply go through a portal. Something about sheer fracture forces and compression sickness, which makes me wonder how she would have dealt with it if I didn't have portal tech… Nah, she would have bothered me to get the tech no matter what, so it was probably in her plans the entire time.

  After finishing my morning routine, I make my way to the garden. We decided to designate the section closest to the kitchen as our normal dining area, yet I was surprised to see only Baba Yaga in the kitchen.

  “Good morning, General,” she says, waving me over, “Come, sit. Soups done.”

  I sit as she places a bowl in front of me. There was soup in it, chicken and dumplings even. As I dug into the large bowl, I asked, “So, where is everyone? I know I slept in, but I figured they would as well. New home and all.”

  “You didn't check the family schedule, did you? And Cody worked so hard on it, too.” She shook her head.

  I cleared my throat and took another bite of the soup, opening the app Cody had us install last night.

  Oh, they all had classes with their mentors today. For the next three days, in fact, only due to be returning at night. We'll, most of them. Jill has night training tomorrow night.

  “Huh.” I mumble as I take another bite of soup.

  “Take the day to walk the base, then go to the DM Screen. Morrigan needs to talk to you.” Baba Yaga said. She knows I don't do well alone, or with no tasks. So, I finish the soup and make my way to the elevator next to the kitchen.

  I decide to go from the bottom up when exploring, since the DM Screen is right below me, on the second floor. Ninth ninth floor? I check the building map to see what floor it is. Morrigan decided to number things going down, with the top floor being the first floor and going down from there, ending at the seventieth floor. Humorously, the floor below that was the ninetieth floor, descending from there like normal.

  The seventh floor was very busy, converting rock into usable materials at a staggering speed. They were flowing in through one of four industrial elevators. However, I noticed something interesting. There were more materials going into a line to produce swarm dice than to produce workable materials. Those swarm dice were moving upward through one of the industrial elevators in pallets. A quick count showed that each pallet could hold fifty dice, and each load was six pallets.

  I made my way up to the storage floor and saw that it would be impossible to count swarm dice as the shelves extended the entire length and height of the floor. A handy screen was at the elevator entrance, however, that held the information I sought.

  Currently in storage were fifty combat swarms of the Assault swarms, one Generator Swarm, one Scout Swarm, and one Defence swarm. The defence swarm was a new addition to the combat swarm line up, I noted. There was registered space for thirty Fabrication pairs, but those were obviously in use at this time. Registered space for sixty collection swarms, which was a lot, but made sense. Each collection van had a collection team, and the rest were helping with the movement of materials in the tower. There were Scout Swarms, defence swarms, Builder swarms and Generation swarms as well, a proper army being developed. And not even five percent of storage was occupied.

  From here, I made my way to the power plant. A long hallway extended from the elevator to an observation room. There were a few screens with readouts for power generation, usage, and stability. There was no screen into the reactor area proper, nor any doors. Rather boring. I would need to ask about that later, big machines deserved to be seen. The loading bay was very empty, a few vans being unloaded, but space for hundreds more. The Portal structure was finished, and looked, well, boring. A band of pure white metal encircled the back wall, leaving a conspicuous stripe. I guess the mechanisms were in the walls. That said, it was massive. Four hundred feet long, even. Crazy.

  The hydroponics floor was similarly empty, with only a few dozen tables set up. It was enough for the living area, but nothing else. I was very confused, as Morrigan projected that this place should have been at least half full by now.

  I skipped the lab and made my way to the second floor, exiting into the training area which was operational enough for the five of us, I observed as I made my way to the DM Screen.

  It only had one entrance, a thick airlocking mechanism with numerous safety precautions and enough firepower to liquefy an intruder in moments. Entering the Screen, I saw that it was nearly complete, a few walls bare where servers and screens were obviously supposed to go. As I approached the large Tactical table in the center of the room, Morrigan condensed next to me.

  “Welcome to the Screen, General! I would like to give you a more comprehensive tour, but things are dire and we need to act fast.”