Boris yawned heavily. He and Timothy, or Tim as all the others called him, had been watching this house for the last month and they were getting bored out of their minds.

He didn't sign up for this job and, as far as he knew, Timothy hadn't either. It was some top-secret mission that had to be kept a secret from everyone and required a Blood Oath to make sure that things stayed quiet. But the actual job itself turned out to be extremely boring and tedious. He felt really cheated on that part.

Still, there were a lot of upsides to the job.

The credits he got were massive, which was really nice in his opinion. He had come from a low income family and went out of his way to go into the military because he wanted stability and to be able to support his own family one day. He just needed to find a good wife to marry now.

He wasn't anything special in the academies he had attended though. In fact, his performance was quite awful.

Even now his Marital Prowess rank was only at Praefecti, and it was mid-stage at that. Quite pathetic given his age of twenty seven years and the fact that he didn't even bother to attempt Mecha Piloting.

But what could anyone expect? He was, first and foremost, a coward. He couldn't bring himself to actually go to the front lines of combat. He only enlisted because the pay was stable.

He had no idea that his Inborn Ability were be so valuable to the military that they would assign him this special job.

His Inborn Ability was Spirit Link. It allowed him to connect with multiple people through their Spiritual Self's and share information with a thought. While there was technology that could do this as well, it was far more valuable to have someone with that ability during covert missions, much like this one, where they had to keep any signals to a minimum.

It was just that no one told him it would be this boring!

Sure, the credits he got for this line of work were impressive and he would be able to live comfortably for at least two years with this one month of work, but still!

Boris had not expected such tedium.

If it wasn't for Timothy being a veteran at this sort of work and having brought several different card games, he would have gone mad by now.

Boris played his hand, a Full House, with a big grin on his face.

Timothy looked utterly disgusted when he saw what Boris place as he threw down his three of a kind.

Boris laughed lightly as a red light was lit up next to him. He turned his attention to it with an arched brow. The only time that light lit up was when he was being contacted for some update on the mission they were on. He picked up the old-style receiver and put it to his ear while saying, "Lynchpin here, over."

From the other side, a feminine voice came out that said, "Mountain to Lynchpin, disturbance has been detected. Let all the moles know that something is in the area and they need to capture that something alive. Top priority."

Boris frowned. He had been out here for so long and he didn't see or hear of anything strange yet. He doubted his orders as he cast a sidelong look at the small building he was in. He then responded with a slightly arrogant tone, "Lynchpin to Mountain, there has been no signs of activity. Please clarify with details."

The woman's response was cold, "Mountain to Lynchpin, do your job and do not question your orders. The source of the disturbance must be captured alive even if all of you die in the process. This is the command of the Emperor. Reinforcements are on the way just in case, cutting connection."

There was a static sound from the other end of the receiver as Boris' frown deepened. 'The Emperor?'

Timothy looked at him and his expression turned odd. He then asked, "What's wrong?"

Boris returned his look and then sighed heavily. Afterwards, she said, "Something appeared nearby and we have to capture, basically." He stood up and stretched loudly before he turned around and walked to his bunk. He started to rummage through the bags he had on it loudly as he continued, "Supposedly, it's the Emperor's orders himself. But I doubt that." His tone changed to disbelief as he added, "I mean, come on, we're on Ordin Prime here. It's not like there's any super terrorist group or hidden enemy running around. Why would we get a direct order from the Emperor while we're out in the middle of nowhere?"

He continued to rummage through his things, expecting Timothy's usual curt response. He pushed aside his box of Union Chocolates that he had brought, it was still half-full, revealing his blaster beneath it. He pulled out the blaster and dropped the energy cell pack into his hand to check how much was left in it, a standard action when arming oneself. He nodded in satisfaction to himself when he saw the pack was full.

He then noticed that he didn't get a reply yet and that it was still silent in the tent.

This caused him to straighten up. He then turned around and asked, "What's wron-"

He didn't get to finish his question as Altair buried a spider leg through his skull, killing him instantly.

Altair had already skewered the other man with two legs silently from behind. Now that the other man was killed as well and, as he shadow creatures had given her no other pings of warning within the little building, Altair dismissed her extra limbs and walked to the bag Boris was rummaging through.

'I guess they know I'm here but don't know where,' she thought to herself after hearing what Boris had to say. She had been waiting for a few minutes outside the building for her chance to ambush them. As a result, she heard a lot of their back and forth banter. The only useful information she got was that they knew she was there but didn't know where.

She had also apparently killed the person who was supposed to let everyone know she was here. That would buy her quite a bit of time and make her escape easier, or so she hoped. However, she knew that more people were coming so she still couldn't dally about.

Altair kicked the blaster that had fallen to the ground and it drew her attention immediately. She kneeled down and picked it up, its heavy weight causing her brow to furrow.

'This is like those ranged weapons that keep knocking me unconscious,' she thought to herself as she examined the inside of the barrel with one eye. She turned it around after not seeing anything interesting inside it while humming in interest. 'Such a strange design for a ranged weapon,' she thought as she put it down on the bed next to the dead Boris.

She then pushed Boris' body aside and looked into his bag. Her eyes caught the familiar chocolate logo on the box and she smiled broad to herself. It had been a long time since she had such junk food. At the place that Marissa arranged for her she didn't have any chocolate, so this was a pleasant surprise to her.

She immediately tore the box open, pulled a bar out, and tore it open with her teeth. Then, she started to eat the candy-bar at a slow pace while a delighted smile placed on her face at the familiar and sweet, but deep, taste that melted into her mouth. She hummed in delight as she made several pockets on her clothes that could hold some candy bars and proceeded to pack her clothes as full of them as she could manage with her free hand while eating the candy bar with her other hand.

Once she was sure that if she added anymore she may have problems moving, she looked back at the blaster and nodded to herself. 'Might as well give that a try. I got some food supplies here that should last me a few days, at least. I'll have to go with what I have for now.'

She tossed the wrapper of the eaten bar aside and her chocolate covered fingers wrapped around the grip. She then lifted it up with one hand and pointed it at Timothy's corpse the same way she remembered them being pointed at her. Her finger brushed the trigger and she instinctively pulled it.

She yelped as the force that was sent through her body caused her to be launched backwards a step while the blaster fired a green bolt at Timothy's body. The blaster itself fell from her hand and landed loudly onto a rock, cracking the barrel and sending a spark to the side.

Altair blinked as her arm felt numb. She turned her attention to the blaster on the ground and rubbed her arm several times to try and get some feeling back into it. She frowned at the stupid thing and kicked it away lightly. It barely moved.

She then turned her gaze to Timothy's body, where a large burn mark had pierced through most of his torso. Around it was scorched black skin and Altair's frown deepened when the smell started to permeate the room.

She didn't like that weapon. Sure, it was strong, but she didn't believe it suited her well at all. She also figured she needed some training with it before she would be able to use it properly. Perhaps there was a way to reduce its power so it didn't hurt her arm so damn much.

In either case, Altair left the small building that was built into an outcropping. She looked around the dark forest near her and continued to move in the direction she remembered traveling through before. She only hoped that she was remembering it right or she would probably wind up somewhere she didn't want to be or mean to be.

Altair had no idea that the attack she launched on Boris was felt by everyone within his squad. All thirty of them knew immediately when he died because they all felt a sharp shooting pain through their minds at the same time. It wasn't that they felt the attack Altair had given him, it was a side effect of his Inborn Ability being cut through death.

For most of his squad, they were veterans and knew immediately what had happened.