Getting into the basement of the warehouse revealed an underground base that was established purely to execute this mission. The underground base was in a series of storage rooms. They were previously the type that would have been used to store maintenance items or spare parts for the boiler that kept the warehouse warm. Now it had been converted through a series of wires and cables and other devices that the trio simply didn't recognize into a high-tech underground base. They had a super computer which was there to overwatch the entire city during the assignment. It was set up with a series of their own micro drones observing key areas of the city, tracking the guards' movements and always keeping a watchful eye at a decent distance from the Ministry compound.
"Well, come on then, love. Take a seat along the wall there," the woman gestured without looking at the chairs lining the back of the room's wall. The woman had her hair half shaved and chin length on the other side, but somehow seems strikingly beautiful nonetheless. She also had an eye patch on her left eye, with a wicked scar peeking from beneath the upper edge of the patch ending in her eyebrow. Fiona hurried and took her seat as she felt the others attempting to push past her to get into the room.
"Holy crap! Did you see her?"
"Yeah, I'm not blind, idiot, but don't say it out loud."
"I'm pretty sure we're stationed with Scarlett; this is going to be a really important assignment, then." The group of new Agents gossiped as they entered the room and all found a seat.
"Now, to address the elephant in the room: before we get to it, yes, I am Scarlett. No, I'm not going out with any of you, and if anybody asks how anything happened to me, I will fucking kill you. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, ma'am!" the new agents answered in unison as though they were still recruits.
"Yeah, knock it off with the yes ma'am. You're not in training anymore; a simple nod will do," Scarlett replied to them, turning back towards a rather large screen with a number of different computers and devices hooked up to it.
"Well, here's the assignments progress in a nut shell. So far, we progressed to figure out where they'll have the documents in the form of a dossier in a filing cabinet. The good news is I think we'll actually be able to get it. The bad news: one of you is going to have to risk breaking into the principal's office at the Military University. I don't think it would take a genius for them to figure out that you're not a regular student if they catch you breaking into the principal's office. Especially if they figure out exactly what you were looking for," Scarlett said as she brought up a video feed on the screen of the Military University's principal's office from outside of the window.
"Excuse me, Scarlett, but how are we seeing through the window right now? What kind of tech do we have at play here?" Chibaya asked her.
"The Rebellion leaders really splurged on this assignment. We have 15 microdrones at play, giving us live feed at all times in City 118. We only run 10 of them at a time, and have five on reserve. That way, if one of them is getting low on battery power, we can have them swap out with a charged one. We've been running this base with a skeleton crew so far. The men you've seen are all there is, save for two additional who are deployed right now at the edge of the city to do exactly that. They are changing a drone out, a risky job considering the Military patrols the area regularly." Scarlett pulled up a different feed showing a drone gradually approaching two men outside of the city's walls. Both of the men wore balaclava masks. Isamu gave a puzzling look, then said, "I guess there's no point in us fifteen wearing masks. Seeing how we're going undercover into the city, we'll have our faces exposed for the entire length of this assignment, I would assume."
"On that note, you'd be correct," Scarlett looked down at a file that was in front of her on the desk. "Isamu, is it?" she questioned.
"Yes, I am Isamu; you have it right." The meeting carried on until it was time for their scheduled rest before entering the city. They concluded that a different trio from the group of fifteen Agents would be assigned to getting the dossier out of the Military University principal's office.
After that, "So, based on whatever we find, who's going to be assigned to do what then?" Fiona asked, putting up her hands in a questioning poise.
"Well, love, it looks like you and your two friends there beside you just signed up for it. If it's a person, you're going to be assigned to get as close to them as possible. The goal is to either recruit them into the Rebellion or, at the very least, to gain their trust. That way, at the opportune moment when we exfiltrate, you can convince them to come with you. If it's something other than a person, I'll have to get a message to you with one of these." Scarlett walked up to Fiona after giving her the answer and handed her a mole device.
She then went down the line of chairs and gave one to every Agent of the Rebellion. "This is a coded Communications device. You'll be given a cipher inside of a book that will give you the access to decipher the messages. Whenever a message is sent to you it will be played audibly; you need to record down what the message is, and then use the cipher to decipher the message. I assume you've all been trained and how we do our ciphers?" The group finally nodded instead of answering her.
"Good, I like quick learners. The same goes for if any of you run into trouble or have something additional to report about the mission: you're to use the mole device. They're all preprogrammed to automatically send the message out through the dark web when it connects to a government mobile network. Those will be found in any of the major government buildings such as the Military University itself. The reason why we're using their buildings is because of their firewall protocols. They prevent people from communicating from City to City and hinder the Rebellion's communication over long distances. Only Military and Government buildings have firewalls that give access to anyone who has gained access to the building. Everyone clear on how our comms work for this assignment?" More nods of agreement throughout the room.
"Good. Well, I'm famished. Let's have some rations before we begin our plan to sneak you into the city."
"Wait! Sneak us into the city? I thought we'd be sleeping here for the night?" Another one of the agents said to Scarlett.
"Welcome to the Rebellion, love. You see, everybody needs their mission done yesterday, and you'll never not be on the move."
After that the meeting concluded and they went into another room where some tables were laid out with chairs around them and boxes of rations were stacked in the corner. The rations weren't like anything they had seen before. Each one had a specific set of instructions on where to place the package and how to activate the cooking protocol that was inside of it. Some of the Rebellion agents had to set it on a piece of metal, and steam inside the package would puff up and then the corner would peel open slightly. It would reveal a fully cooked meal. Others would have to place the package inside of a large bowl or cup. Then, after following the instructions, the package would simply melt and boil away, leaving a hearty soup. Others, who weren't very hungry, would simply take a nourishment tablet. Nourishment tablets were rectangular shaped and highly compacted food that, after swallowing, would expand, giving you roughly the equivalent of a sandwich inside of your stomach.
"Man, these Rebellion rations are pretty cool," Isamu said while blowing on his Ramen soup.
"Yeah, I can't believe that I'm having simulated steak and eggs for dinner," Chibaya beamed as he cut into the simulated meat. "Best sim meat I've ever tasted," he said after taking the first bite. "I'm completely stuffed. I can't believe the nourishment tablets are actually that filling. The thing was tiny." Fiona rubbed her belly.
"Okay, it needs to be said. Fiona, cover your ears." Chibaya didn't actually wait for her to do so; he simply placed both his hands over her ears to her dismay. "Scarlett has the hottest body I have ever fucking seen. I mean it, she's phenomenal!"
"I still heard you, moron!" Fiona shouted while elbowing Chibaya in the solar plexus, making him grunt. He quickly pulled his hands off of her ears to grab his mid-section. "Oof! Fiona, that's one Savage elbow you got there," Chibaya complained.
"Maybe next time you won't put your hands over my ears or blatantly sexualize our superior."
"Yeah, like I said before, Chibaya, I'm not blind! I can see that she's very pretty," Ismau said after finishing his bowl.
"Fifteen minutes and then we begin our infiltration. Finish up those rations," one of the masked men said, entering the room quickly and then leaving just as fast.
"I wonder exactly how they're going to be getting us into the city? It's not like you can just walk in the front gate waving."