The squad hauled the crate up the roof hatch and with a final heave, it landed with a thud.
"Okay, it's not too heavy." West said as he was the first onto the roof.
Everyone made it onto the roof quietly, and then shut the hatch with a delicate click.
West heaved the crate onto his shoulder and held onto it.
"Plan of escape?" Oregon asked.
"The woods are dense on that part of the perimeter wall. I'm thinking we get across and use the trees as cover. We should be able to cross over and get to our rendezvous point with no issue." West explained.
He led the group to the edge of the roof and looked down.
No sign of a guard, but it was a good ten foot jump across.
"Ten and I will go across first, then Michigan and Oregon will heave it over to us." West directed; putting the crate down. Him and Ten lined up to the edge of the roof, and then took a running start.
They leaped across and once their feet touched the wall, they curled inward and held the wall, to ensure they didn't fall.
They stood up after getting themselves steady on the wall and motioned for the crate to be tossed.
Michigan and Oregon cradled the objective and heaved it over to their partners.
West and Ten grabbed hold of the crate, but suddenly lost their footing and plummeted onto the other side of the wall - out of sight.
The rest of the squad heard the rustling of leaves and twigs snapping as the two of them fell.
"Geezum." Virginia cringed.
"Think they're dead?" Nevada teased. Michigan stifled his laugh and Oregon sighed. They all leaped over to the wall, and then looked down.
Leaves and branches blocked their view.
They carefully walked along the thick branches and descended the tree; coming to the ground to see West picking up the crate.
Ten was brushing the dirt off his armor, grumbling with each leaf he picked out of his creases.
"Good job." Virginia said in a teasing tone.
"I landed with grace." West said, smugly.
"My ass broke the fall." Ten whined.
"Let's get going." West charged into the woods with everyone following him.
"479-er, sending you our coordinates for an evac." Michigan said over the radio.
"Roger that." 479-er responded.
The squad came to a clearing next to a lake, and finally sighed with relief.
"Nobody noticed us. Good job, team." West said, giving a thumbs up.
The team craned their head to see the familiar Pelican come into view. It hovered over the water as the back part opened.
Everyone walked onto the ramp amd inside the belly of the ship. West secured the crate before taking a seat and putting down the harness.
The Pelican rose and shot into the air, heading for Mother of Invention.

Everyone stood on the bridge in silence as The Director came into the room. The Counselor followed behind him, acting as his shadow.
"I'm very impressed with what I saw tonight. Excellent work." The Director complimented. "The objective was achieved, and most importantly, with no indication we were ever there."
The Director paused for a moment as he looked at the Freelancers standing at the table.
"Agent Virginia." The Director said her name, and she felt herself grow more tense.
"Yes, sir?" Virginia asked.
"I was quite impressed with your actions tonight. You were a lead example of quick-thinking. You are quite clever." The Director complimented her, putting her anxiety to ease.
"Thank you, sir." Virginia responded, sounding almost robotic.
"I hope we can continue this streak of successful missions. You are all dismissed." The Director announced before turning to walk away and exit the bridge with a quiet Counselor close behind.
"Good job, girl." Oregon said as he playfully bumped his hip into her. Virginia laughed bashfully.
"Thanks."
"I think that deserves a beer. Who's in?" West asked as he looked around the room.
"Nah, I'm beat. But, you guys go have fun." Nevada said, followed by a yawn.
"Yeah, I'm gonna go to the medical observatory and see if I can get the nurse to check out my ass." Ten laughed before limping out of the room.
"Well... I'm in." Michigan said.
"Same." Oregon said.
"Count me in." Virginia added.
"Awesome. Let's go." West smiled.

As everyone made their way past the locker room, the doors suddenly opened and out came more Freelancers.
"Yo Wash. York. North. You guys up for grabbing a beer?" West asked them as he patted each one on the shoulder.
"What's the occasion?" York asked.
"We had a successful mission. The Director was quite pleased with us. We thought we deserved a night out." West explained.
"Sure, I'm in." York said, smiling.
"I'll come, too." Wash added.
"Nah. I'm good, but thanks for the invite. I'm gonna try to get some rest." North waved and walked off to his room.
The group waved goodbye, and made their way to the transporter that would lead them to where there wanted to go.

Mother of Invention hovered in orbit of a planet called Delious.
The group was able to use a transporter for the evening and enjoy a night out.
Delious was known for several of their cityscapes and advanced technology. It was often joked to be known as the planet with 'Tokyo-On-Crack', due to the amounts of civilians, city structures and elements.
It had various shrines and temples sporadically placed on its planet, with various natural hot springs.
At night, the city was alive with various lights and hustle.
Everyone always seemed to be going somewhere...

"So you pulled the brake and let it crash into the wall?" Wash asked Virginia.
She gave a laugh.
"Yep!" Virginia felt proud of herself.
"I wish I could have seen that." Wash chuckled before taking a sip of his beer.

The Freelancers found a nice dive bar known as 'Dee Hole'.
They lined up at the bar where there were empty seats. A few locals were in the corner, playing a game of billiards, while a few other tables were full of couples. A stage with a single microphone was off to the side, where a D.J. sat to convince people to participate in karaoke. A lone civilian sat on the opposite side of the bar, leaning over his drink. Music played over the speakers; someone's choice from a classic jukebox.

Oregon, Michigan, York, West, Virginia and Wash sat at the bar, ignoring the few glances as they had entered. They were obviously not from around here.
The bartender served them quickly, and then went to indulge in conversation with the lone drinker at the other end of the bar.
"You should have seen her, Wash." West chimed in. "Our Miss Virginia is quite amazing."
Virginia found herself nudging hin with her shoulder.
"Oh, stop!" She giggled and then took a swig of her beer.
"Yeah, you should have seen her in the locker room earlier." York laughed.
"Oh, trust me. I heard." West said as he began to crack up laughing.
"South was ready to kill her." York shook his head, laughing as he brought his glass of whiskey to his lips.
"Hey, if she wasn't such a twat, maybe I'd play nice." Virginia smirked.
"Oh, lord." Wash said, shaking his head. "I don't understand how it seems all the female Freelancers are in competition with each other." Wash then sighed and drank his beer.
"It's just natural, Wash. Only one queen bee in a hive." Virginia explained.
Oregon spun around in his seat, which caught the rest of the group's attention.
"Anybody up for some karaoke?!" He was grinning ear-to-ear.
"I fell off a 30 foot wall tonight. Did I land on my head?" West asked the group.
"I don't think so. Why?" Michigan asked.
"Because I'm pretty sure I heard someone suggest 'karaoke'." West then locked eyes with Oregon and laughed, then the two of them rushed to the stage.
"Oh, this is going to be good." York chuckled as he leaned his elbows back on the bar.
"I'm recording this for blackmail." Virginia admitted.
The two Freelancers surrounded the microphone as the music cut out and changed to their choice.
Everyone at the bar cheered and laughed, watching as they posed and danced for the song.
This was life... and it all seemed perfect...

Once back on the Mother of Invention, everyone parted ways to go to their rooms.
Virginia walked alongside West, whose room was close to hers.
"Virginia?" West said softly.
"Yes?"
"I wanna tell you something." Virginia looked at West as they stopped outside her door. He brushed some strands of hair back and looked down at his comrade.
"If you wanna tell me my singing sucks, I'm thoroughly aware." Virginia smirked. West smiled and chuckled as he shook his head.
"No, it's not that." His eyes stared intently into hers. "I just... I hope you see how amazing you are."
"W-What you mean?" Virginia could feel her face grow hot.
"Well... when I watch you when we're on our missions, I almost can't take my eyes off of you." West glanced at their feet before reestablishing eye contact. "You never seize to amaze me."
Virginia smiled.
"Thank you, West." She felt her heart rise into her throat as West leaned over and planted a kiss on her cheek.
"I mean it, Sienna." He rose a hand to rub his thumb along her freckled cheek before turning to go to his room.
Virginia watched him walk away, and then quickly turned to go into her room. Her heart fluttered wildly.
The man she looked up to, admired... her mentor... teacher...
She tried to brush it off, telling herself that he was just giving her a compliment, but as she laud in bed that night, she couldn't help but replay it all in her head...

Several days had passed and the squad was called to the bridge by the Director.
"Thank you all for coming." The Director said as he stepped to the table. "I have another mission to give all of you, since you all did such a remarkable job on the last one." He nodded his head to West. "Go ahead."
"Thank you, Director." West returned the nod, and then turned his attention to the table. "This is a big job."
The projection turned on in the middle of the table, and a train track materialized into view.
"This is a freight train called 'The Steel Pony'. The last cart attached to the train is carrying valuable products of great importance to Project Freelancer."
"What products?" Nevada asked.
"It's not of your concern to know, but just know of its importance." The Director said sternly. Nevada lowered his head.
"Yes, sir." Nevada responded back softly.
"This train is heavily guarded. We will need to bring our A game." West explained as he showed the route of travel for the train. "The plan is to get aboard and detach the train car. Once it has come to a stop, we get onboard, remove what we need and bring it on home."
"Is 'Mum the word?'" Asked Michigan with his arms crossed.
"Probably not. We will have to detach the carts from each other with a detonator, so noise will be expected." West gave a shrug. "As long as we get what we need out of there, we will have obtained our objective." West looked up at his squad.
"The products have these unique symbols on them." The Director explained, pulling up a projection of a symbol with a series of swirls and circles. "There's two of them."
"Any questions?" West asked with his hands on his hips. The team stood silent. "Good. Let's move out."

479-er kept the Pelican hidden within the clouds as she tailed the train.
"Alright, we're 20,000 feet in the air. Can't risk getting any lower or they may detect us," she explained.
The squad strapped on their jet packs.
"I think we'll be good." West smiled.
"Roger. I'll get ahead of the train and you all can dive bomb." 479-er pushed on the power, and exhilarated ahead of the train car.
The back end of the ship lowered down, and everyone was met with a cool breeze. The sky was gray and growing darker as the sun had gone down for the night.
"Alright team, you know your parts. Let's do this!" West waved each Freelancer off of the ramp and they plummeted towards the ground with their jet packs ablaze. West followed behind as they flew downward, seeing the unsuspecting train come into view.
The clouds parted as they sliced through the air. Everything came up fast towards them, and as they neared the last car, they lessened the fuel on the jet packs. Once they hovered above the train car, they activated the magnetization at the bottom of their boots and dropped a few feet onto the roof.
They crouched down once they landed, feeling the air push on their backs violently.
Thank God for the magnets...
"Nevada, get to work on uncoupling the train." West directed and Nevada gave a nod. Nevada stepped carefully along the roof of the car and to the end; looking down at the hitch. Sparks occasionally flew from below when metal scraped against other metal.
Nevada flipped forward and dropped down quickly past the viewing window. He could hear murmuring from within the car. He maneuvered his body downward and mounted the tiny explosive to the hitch.
"Alright, we are good and ready. Expect some fireworks, people." Nevada announced as he pulled himself out from between the cars. He backed his way up to the wall, making sure to stay out of view of the window. "3... 2... 1." Nevada counted down and pressed the detonator in his palm.

BOOM!