Mongrel's place was close to Seth's as they where in the same squad.
The door looked older then Maria's "Clearly she cleans hers more"
Mongrel answered the door and hurried in Seth.
"I have been waiting for you man, What took ya so long?"
"I was resting"
"Sure sure, well while ya rested I had a look at all the Mutations we could get before we returned to the main worlds or the main fleet"
"How do they look?"
"Scares. The only mutations they have are very basic, almost non combative. Clearly they are not expecting the scouts on the ships to change themself on assignment"
"How many scouts are on this ship?" Asked Seth passing around the room as he spoke.
"One. Ya self, hahaha, but there are about 20 mongrel-half scouts like me on here" Replied Mongrel, while trying to hold back the rest of his laughter at the question. Scouts were hard to make and a precious resource that had been invaluable in fighting the Druin. If they could make more they would stock whole ships with them, but as they couldn't they found it far more effective to have them fight on multiple fronts.
"What do they have?"
"One that enables you to see better in the dark"
"That could be useful"
"It is the same as ya basic mutation. It is made for mongrels to have, that is almost all of them"
"Anything I can use?" said Seth as he stopped pacing to look at Mongrel.
"Nope"
"What do they have on the main worlds?"
"They have more muscle fibers, 10% more then you currently have, increased reaction time, bone density. Whatever ya can think of is on the main world" replied Mongrel nonchalantly as he truly did not know all the mutations available on the main worlds, but was sure these would be among them.
"I don't have such variation left in the mutations, I go through without the main mutation being upgraded. What are the enhancing options?"
"This is an interesting one I may also get. It places a small amount of liquid metal under the dermas of ya skin. Ya become heavier, but you can tank hits a lot better and scouts can get a version where ya would be able to control the metal and move it"
"How would that work?"
"I don't fucking know" replied Mongrel in a huff.
"Okay, okay, sorry, that sounds like the best one" said Seth raising his arms in surrender. Mongrel had already told him all he knew about the mutation.
"Yeah, but ya would have to do some work to gain control over the metal"
"We have the time. What can it block?"
"It acts as a secondary shield. Everything a shield can block the base one can block as well. For ya it should block a bident" Said Mongrel after calming down.
"Really that powerful?"
"Yeah it is a new metal they discovered. They cannot get enough for ships yet but they have enough for upgrades"
"Anything else I could use?"
"A nerve enhancement"
"What does that do?" Asked Seth as he had renewed his pacing around the room with new vigor.
"Not sure what it does but they say it will increase ya reaction speed"
"They would be very useful but I would need to upgrade my current mutation or simply settle for the enchantment"
"What conditions must ya meet to get the base mutation change?"
"I would need to accomplish at least 3 more missions like the last one. Then I would have a track record and could change or enhance my mutations" or accomplish a really big feat on my next mission thought Seth to himself.
"So, impossible to do now"
"Without a faction backing me, yeah"
"What about the enhancement? I meet my quota for missions and can get another one" Said Mongrel, happy he could finally get his hands on something new.
"I can get one new enhancement, probably two to three if the General reports the amount of Druin on base and the amount killed accurately"
"Enhancements won't help ya much, ya are needing something that will enable you to survive"
"It will have to do for now" replied Seth before he began to talk about less important matters, mostly speculation about upcoming missions that the Harenae faction would put them through.
...
The secretary stood there unamused as she watched me waiting for the General to be finished. I had arrived on time, 15 minutes early and was now waiting for the General. His office just had the secretary out front and two chairs.
The office was small, Seth had been in it many times. The old ships did not waste space with opulence, due to the Druin coming closer to the home world.
The receptionist kept clicking her tongue when she got bored, an annoying habit for Seth who was forced to listen to it for the time being.
The secretary finally stopped clicking her tongue "the General will see you now"
"Seth walked into a room almost completely filled with different screens and computers, "General, Sir, how are you?"
"Seth, come sit down"
"Thank you Sir"
"Shall we get down to the debriefing? I was already debriefed by your commanding officer, Maria Blackwood, and just need to get it from you too" General Maple was nice, he was always nicer then he expected, the only problem was when Seth was not looking or the General thought he was not looking an expression went across his face that he was unsure what it was.
"Of course Sir. I infiltrated the east side of the base through a problem in their shift change we identified while monitoring the outpost and then snuck in, killing Druin in my way before eventually taking out the outpost communication hub"
"And then?"
"Then i made my way to the main gate"
"Why not back to the east were you came in?"
"The weakness we spotted only happened on a certain rotation of guard that would not have occurred for another three hours sir"
"So you had to go out the main gate?"
"Yes sir, that had the least security as most Druin went to the communications hub to apprehend the suspect that blew up the hub"
"To capture you"
"Yes sir"
"What occurred where you had to blow up the main gate?"
"The Druin outpost had a lot more personal than we had anticipated before touch down on planet. The main gate had too many Elites for me to make my way through them even with a distraction"
"Did you call in for the destruction of the gate?"
"Yes sir"
"You had command at the time?"
"Yes sir"
"Why didn't beta team back you up?"
"We broke from standard procedure and didn't use beta team to extract with force as the outpost had many more Druin. For the safety of Beta squad only me and Mongrel got in close to the outpost"
"Thank you Seth"
"No problem sir"
"I would like to reward you for the infiltration of the outpost with more Druin than was known"
"Thank you Sir"
"Unfortunately, as you broke protocol at the outpost and disclosed your ships location to enemy forces I cannot. But you will not be punished for the two breaks in protocol as they resulted in the defeat of the largest outpost to date. Well done soldier"
"Thank you sir"
"You may go and get some rest"
"Thank you sir, be well" said Seth after saluting the General before he left the office. 'Damn stingy bastard, making up reasons to not reward me for this mission. I guess I should be thankful he didn't find a reason to punish me'.