With the advent of reversed engineered Samurai Tech, the war for corporate espionage and counter-espionage spiked in complexity rapidly, turning from office workers being bribed to a near constant armed conflict raging across the globe.

  These are the most common measures that a company is required to have in this day and age; Hardpoint turret emplacements at every entrance, patrolling guards of either human or robotic nature, biological scanners and IFF tags....

  -Espionage and You: How to begin planning to take over your rival.

  Jill

  “For a test mission, the difficulty setting seems pretty high.” Cody grumbled.

  “And yet, it's also the best time for it.” Roger countered. “Plus, you gotta admit, while our skill level may be a bit lacking, we are seriously over-geared for this.”

  He was right, as usual, I thought. Victor all but shooed us out of the house so he could play on the Tac Sim tables, or something, while his- no, while our other siblings got their upgrades as well. He didn't let us go empty handed.

  Besides the gear Morrigan constantly updated for us in the armory, Victor gave us new toys in the form of Class II nano combat suits, and this new squad shuttle.

  While the outsides remained unchanged, the basic performance and specialties had grown spectacularly. The predatory smile still hadn't left my face.

  “If you don't mind, Roger, could you go over the mission information Hilda sent us?” Buddy asked, “It always felt better when you did that for us.”

  Chuckling, Roger obliged, “The mission type is search and extraction, target is an agent of The Family who is in hiding within Fabrio‘s Munitions.” A map of the building opens in my augs.

  Fabrio's Munitions are one of the four companies that supply the city's defenses, namely the personal defense weapons and ammo of the men and women who maned the walls. The building in question is their main HQ, a twelve story affair with a hover pad on the roof and twenty anti-air emplacements.

  “His mission was to investigate the trail of gear being misappropriated from the walls, which as it seems originated from the company as a whole.” He continues, “Last known location was reportedly this building, infiltrating as part of the janitorial staff. We do not know where he is in the building, nor do we know how heavily guarded it is. We have been given the all clear for weapons hot, and freedom to infiltrate as we see fit.”

  “We know he is alive due to the panic gear he was given, a type of stasis-foam-chamber with an activation alert that surrounds the user and replaces a wall, floor, or ceiling chunk, hiding the user within and camouflaging itself with its surroundings.”

  A new file was downloaded into my augs, “What you just received is software designed to detect the foam in close proximity, about twenty feet unhindered, or five feet through obstacles. We have been provided the release code for the foam, as well as medical equipment for him if he has been injured. Questions”

  Cody raises his hand, "Any idea how we will be graded?” he asks with a smirk.

  I shake my head, “Since Hilda was the one who gave the mission, I can guess some of them. How much noise we make. If any of us get injured, which I highly doubt will be possible. The survival and state of the target and whatever data he obtained. And possibly how much other data we can obtain from the site.” I say, seeing Cody pump his fist at that last one.

  Roger clears his throat, “We have three points of infiltration. The front door, the hover pad, or a wall.”

  “Once we get close, I should be able to override the IFF for the roof landing systems, getting flagged as important so the AA doesn't shoot us out of the sky.’ Cody offers. I can hear in his voice the excitement to try that option.

  Buddy nods, “Probably the safest choice, since we will need to use this shuttle to escape with the target once we get him. While we could have it drop us off and maintain a hover pattern, that would still leave it open to the AA.”

  “Plus, evac will be faster if it is already on the roof.” I say.

  Roger smiles and nods, “Roof it is. Cody, let me know once we are within range for you, I will maintain distance until you're done.”

  We still have a few minutes before then, so I let my thoughts wander. Today was supposed to be the day of Blizzard's party, and some fucking corpo types pushed to have it happen despite her death. They argued that since everyone was already on the city and the venue was already paid for, it should be used.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Quite a few Sams decided not to attend, yet a large amount of corpo reps and Family bureaucrats made up the numbers. One of which being Fabrio's Munitions CEO and his chief of security. Office would be full, obviously, boss plays while the rest slaves, but security will be lacking with the chief gone.

  Hilda called us up and asked us if we wanted to do something more interesting than attend that, arguing since I would kill someone either way, might as well be productive about it.

  It was rude, but true, as if we had to go mingle with corpos, they would say something to piss me off. And since Victor wouldn't be there as a calming force, Roger or I would inevitably kill someone.

  So here we were, in a new shuttle, with new gear, on our way to save someone, which was a rare job in our previous line of work.

  “Got it.” Cody said, pulling me back to reality, “Damn, their ICE sucks, probably could have cracked it with my old stuff, but now? It's all mine already.” His voice filled with pride and giddy excitement. “AA won't be a problem for a while, alarms will be silent from the landing pad and roof entrance. Once we get inside, I should be able to disable internal cams and comms. Sands this is amazing, like butter in hot stew.”

  I wrinkle my nose at that. Butter did not belong in Babushka's stew.

  “Landing in 30! Once the door opens, we rush the entrance. We clear floor by floor, take out only those who are a threat. It's a rescue, not an extermination. Stay together, no heroics!” Roger shouts. He didn't need to, the cabin was sound proof from the engines, but he was also excited so I wouldn't rib him later for it.

  I felt the landing gear engage and the back door slides open as we rush out, Buddy first, then me, followed by Cody and Roger.

  Rushing the executive elevator, it opens for us as we pile in. Buddy opens a hardlight shield to cover the entrance as the elevator seals itself from the cooling heat of the evening.

  “Cams down, floorplan obtained. Server room is on the seventh, security is right next to it, and comms run off a closed channel. No alarms yet, but I need access to the security center to shut them down.” Cody reports.

  Roger nodded, “Seventh it is. Weapons hot, guys.”

  The elevator descends slowly, then dings loudly, announcing our arrival to the entire floor. As the door opens, two guards in medium bullet resistant vests and rifles peer into the elevator from either side of the opening.

  I lunge at them, arms shifting into blades that glow red, rapidly shifting to white. I slice through their helmets as if they aren't there and their bodies hit the floor soon after.

  I move ahead of Buddy and the others, bouncing on the balls of my feet as they shift into more lupine forms for better explosive speed.

  A patrol of two more guards round a corner, and two muffled shots ring out behind me, opening two burning holes in their heads.

  I nod, approving Roger’s and Buddy’s accuracy, plus the firepower and stealth capacity of the plasma weapons Morrigan made for us.

  We arrive at the security room door less than a minute after entry to the building, and to Cody's, and mine, annoyance, the office uses actual, physical keys!

  ‘Fuck this,’ I think, as I slash through the reinforced steel door's hinges, and kick it down.

  Roger and Buddy enter, firing four shots in rapid succession. Entering behind them, I see three guards at a table, slumped over, and one at a security station with a hole in his side.

  Cody rushes to the station, shoving the corpse aside. “Why the fuc- this thing is ancient! Pre-thirties! Doesn't even have a wireless connection.”

  “How problematic, Sp- Cody?” Roger asked.

  We all stiffened a bit, as we catch Roger about to use Cody's old code name. We never agreed to not use them, but we all understood it implicitly to not use them again.

  “We need to come up with new ones.” I mutter. I see Buddy nod slightly, and I see Roger slump a bit.

  Cody shook himself a bit, “Problematic? No, this does make it easier, kinda. The entire security system is hard wired to this console, which means so long as we keep this room secured, the alarm should not be raised. That said, I don't see any comms systems.” He says, scratching the back of his helmet.

  “No comms? That can't be right.” Roger mutters.

  Agreeing with Roger, I move to the table of dead guards and search them for anything strange while Cody connects to the augs of the guy who was at the station. The guys only had his vest, helmet, side arm, some keys, and a plastic thing on his shoulder. “Nothing on them. Anything in their augs?”

  “No. The only network in the building is for the civie side, nothing for the guards.” Cody responds.

  “Annoying, but fine,” Roger says, “Cody, Buddy, move to the servers, gather everything you can. Jill, sweep the floor, see if the target is here, take out any guards you find. I'll stay here and monitor the cams, relaying info to you guys.”

  We split up, trusting each other to get the job done. However, I get to use one of my new toys as I will my armor to activate. I feel a small rush of electricity on my arms and legs, looking down to see the nanite armor becoming invisible. I smile in spite of the annoyance from the previous room.

  I jog around the floor, bouncing and skipping in glee. I even poke one of the security turrets pointed at a stairwell, giggling at how the rudimentary sensors cannot detect me.

  I then slice through it, letting its bulk slam into the ground to try and attract attention to myself.

  As I move into an ambush position behind a corner, Roger shouts on the comms, “Sweet fucking Sands! Their comms are those plastic boxes on their shoulders! Jill, you have incoming, and so will I soon. They called in to report the loud sound, but I since I don't know how these stupid things work, I can't report back!” Roger sounds both heavily annoyed and slightly panicked. “Cody, how's the servers?”

  “Considerably more high tech than their security.” He snorts, “Download will be done in five, Buddy has the door, and we even found the target. He's in here, merged with the floor. He is not injured, but is unconscious and dehydrated. Buddy had him tied to his back.”

  “Good work, guys! Shit, I see every guard in the building converging on this floor. Jill, hold off that stairwell till Cody's done, then everyone, regroup with me at the security room. Once together, we rush to the roof.”

  “Regroup on me,” I say, “this stairwell connects to the roof, safer than the elevator.”

  “Understood!” They all say.

  I move in front of the door, hearing the thumping of boots reverberate from beyond the door. I shift my blade back into my arms, and shift my right arm into its more ranged form.

  As I aim at the door, revving the barrels of my arm, I smile.

  It feels so good to be this deadly.