“If you say so.” He stood, using his maul to hoist himself up. Either he was growing too complacent or Ava was particularly light on her feet. Though, given what he had seen of the fox’s abilities it was probably the latter. “When are we heading out?”

“Just about an hour,” she responded her expression shifting to a more straight forward demeanor.

“Is there a reason this mission needs to be executed so soon after the previous one?” Marcellus asked.

Ava’s face turned down. “A number of reasons….” She trailed off.

The sound of a magazine being slapped into place split the air between the two of them. Tivon stood laying his rifle on top of his shoulder. “First. Caelum will be reinforcing their garrisons all throughout the city soon. Second. We are running low on ammo – and more importantly – explosives with enough kick to do the third job.” Tivon stood over Marcellus. “And third, pretty boy. Because I say so.”

Marcellus turn fully to face up to Tivon. He had his hammer in hand for a moment before resting it in its sling. “You’re the boss.”

Tivon gave a grin that was that he was appeased but his eyes held a hint of danger in them. “Damn right.” He turned on his heel and walked back to the tables, tail raised in a high curve that clearly showed his pride at the moment.

Ava let go a breath. “Ever since you two met a few days ago I’ve felt like you might go at each other at any moment.”

Marcellus shrugged. “I won’t be the one to throw the first punch.”

Ava let out a small bark of laughter. “That’s nice to know though I’m sure the same can’t be said for him.”

She was right. As big as Tivon was his ego might be larger still. This was not a problem though. The military was full of similar people. In the end a job was a job and the pecking order was the pecking order.

“Declan, how are those IDs coming?” Tivon called out.

“Finishing them up now,” came the high melodic but clearly worn out alto of Declan’s voice. A moment later he padded over with a hand full of ID bands. “These should do fine in getting us to the upper levels without issue.” Declan began handing them out, saving Marcellus for last. “H-Here’s yours.”

Marcellus took the band without much thought and put it on. A thought of concern came to him. “Caelum security has facial and retinal recognition surveillance. These bands are fine and all but how do these prevent those security measures?”

“Well that’s simple enough. While I was making the IDs I hacked into their surveillance grid and planted a little something of my own. Whenever our IDs are flagged it will direct them to fabricated profiles for each of us.” Declan explained, a hint of pride evident in his voice.

“You aren’t worried that they will catch on or trace it back to us,” Marcellus inquired.

“Nah, they haven’t yet. And I made tracing practically impossible with the amount of finagling I did,” Declan responded.

An idea came to Marcellus. "You can't hack the security at the location we are heading to?"

Declan shook his had. "Different framework. Inaccessible from here. But if I can get close enough to hijack a signal I can remote hack on-site. Which... is the plan anyways."

Marcellus was not entirely convinced, but they have gotten this far without detection. He had never worked with a computer anything past the basics so what did he know? Perhaps the kid really is just a wizard with code. “If you say so,” he relented.

Tivon cleared his throat. “Alright then,” he started as he began to pack his rifle away.  Removing the magazine and bayonet from his rifle, placed everything in a thick looking case that was most likely designed to prevent scanning. “From here we split up and meet at the rail in half an hour. You all know the drill. Ava, make sure pretty boy here doesn’t get lost.”

Marcellus could feel Ava give him a look but did not acknowledge it.

Tivon looked around making eye contact with each of them, even the newcomer. “Be careful. Stick to the plan. If you get separated or shit hits the fan make your way back to the yard, lose any tails you might have on your tail, and get home safely. No heroes. Stay alive,” he said with sincerity, weight, and authority.

Marcellus had to hand it to the guy. A prideful ass he may be, but he cared. He could not help but feel a spark of respect for the man.

A a devilishly whimsical smile played across the panther’s face. “Let’s go work a miracle.”