From there, the topic moved to discussing the enemy forces gathered at the Sanctuaries. The anti-Federation factions had stationed a fleet of considerable size at all ten Sanctuary Planets, every one dwarfing the squad they’d assign to me. Mostly it was a theory crafting session—those factions weren’t supposed to have any idea that the Sanctuaries existed, and they were not generally known to be enough of a unified front to build such formidable defenses around them, or known to have people on their size capable of shutting them down.

After quite some time of that discussion going nowhere, Varstithon moved to the final topic of short-term planning. By now, out of an odd mix of stress and boredom, I’d eaten rather a lot of the admittedly amazing pastries that had been brought to the meeting.

“Lheticus and Mewiabu, this part particularly concerns you two. For this to work, we need the entire allied team to be stronger. But unexpectedly, the Tower has handed us an opportunity to make you all much stronger.”

I nodded. “You mean the second message. ‘Killing the Kinetice grants AP.’”

He nodded back. “Precisely. And with the safe zones gone, the Kinetice have swarmed the Area in record numbers, showing unprecedented aggression.

For now, you’ll engage in standard planetary liberation missions at your discretion. I also intend for you all to continue the Floor clearing plan. Even for those who gain a great deal of AP elsewhere, such as with the Constant Competition, clearing the 5th through 9th Floors is battle experience that cannot be substituted for, especially on Extreme difficulty. As before, the timeframe will be left to Bruzigan, but sooner would be better. Once you’ve all cleared the 9th Floor, you should start heading in the general directions of your assigned Sanctuaries.

Now, Mewiabu and Lheticus. The two of you have only cleared half the solo Floors so far. This means you have even more of a need to gain AP from the Kinetice, and quickly, to help you clear the remaining two floors in a short time. I expect to receive a lot of reports on liberation missions you two have enacted from Bruzigan.

I know that you were expecting to spend a total of two years in training, but circumstances have forced our hand.”

He looked at Edwin. Edwin cleared his throat. “Tower contracts are binding, enforced by the Tower, but it is possible, as with normal contracts, to void them in whole or in part with the consent of both parties. I’m sorry to ask this of you, but I need to renegotiate your contracts with you both, to allow for your immediate deployment.”

I nodded. “I understand. We’ll take care of it directly after the meeting, then.” Mewi only nodded.

“You’d better go now,” said Varstithon, “you too Edwin. And the rest of the team. We’ve only got the plans for the rest of the army to go over now, there’s nothing left to discuss that you’ll benefit from hearing. You should all get to your ships and get going.”

“We’ll catch you up on the troop dispositions and everything later,” said Clatenis to Edwin, for once not displaying a trace the smug ironic humor he’d been replete with the last time we met.

“I know, old friend,” said Edwin, and got up to leave with us. As I, Mewi, and the other team members passed the front of the room, Varstithon handed us each a sealed mission dossier. Mine was burgundy red, and marked with a rune that indicated Fire mana. Mewi went after me. His folder was ocean blue, marked with a rune for Water mana. Inside these folders he’s handing out are the locations of the majority of the ten Sanctuaries. It seems as though the opposition faction somehow got its hands on this information, but it’d still be bad if it got stolen from us somehow. We’ll each need to guard our files carefully.

Edwin got into the same armored vehicle as us. I didn’t waste any time. “So, Edwin. You realize, of course, what it means that all six members will be departing Satslik with separate fleets.”

Edwin was deadpan. “You and Mewi will be separating again, yes.”

“And you realize, of course, that this is something I am extremely unhappy about. Not to mention the fact that I’ve basically been pressured into this crazy mission. And you realize, of course, what that means.”

Edwin’s sigh was that of a man who had just had an expected shoe drop. “All right, how far do you want me to bend over?”

----------

There were only two things I really wanted, but they were major ones. The first wasn’t terrifically hard to convince Edwin of—cutting our time of service in half. My opening offer was that plus immediately being able to leave Grosstin if the war somehow ended early. He talked me down to 5 years plus time spent travelling to a Dimensional Gate for the purpose of clearing a Floor, and the one hour spent clearing each Floor per floor. I got him to add a stipulation that the time added should not exceed four weeks—which should happen anyway unless there was some BS loophole I was missing. So just in case there was, I closed it.

It was the second thing I wanted that was difficult. Grosstin, like most factions, maintained a private database of information its members had gleaned about Area 1, the Tutorial, and Floors 1-9. The problem was that contracted members didn’t usually have access to it. There was a process of requesting information, and for a top member like me it would usually be granted, but they couldn’t actually view the database. But I wasn’t confident in being able to ask the right questions.

I wasn’t used to haggling, so I’d made the mistake of simply stating what I really wanted at the start. Fortunately, it turned out that I’d overstated it.

“Full unrestricted access to Grosstin’s item database is out of the question. As I’m sure you can imagine, fortunes in items are traded between factions on an almost daily basis. The contents of an entire section of our database are beyond any price.”

“Edwin, Edwin,” I said, trying to be reassuring, “cutting into Grosstin’s profits isn’t even on my mind. I give you my affidavit that I only want the information for personal use. I need to know more about what kind of items are out there. We can add an NDC clause to this section of the new contract, even.”

“Even for that much, I’d still rather take the Tower’s penalty for breach of contract. But if what you truly care about is the items themselves and their properties and nothing else, if you agree to one more concession, perhaps...”

“Go on...”

“The item section of the database entails more than just the items themselves. Many items, equipment especially, are unique or have a very small known quantity. In many cases we record who owns the item in question where we can as well. If I gave you full access, you’d have that information too. But it sounds like you’re not interested in that part.

Grosstin’s database system uses six different access levels. Full unrestricted access to one or more sections is Access Level Delta. The next level down, Access Level Gamma, is similar, but excludes information, such as the identity of rare items’ owners, that is deemed too sensitive. That’s the highest access I’m willing to give you. Even that much is normally only given to members of Grosstin who have joined the faction permanently and earned a high degree of trust.”

I thought about it for a moment. “Add in a clause that any of my requests for ‘sensitive information’ only regarding item names, properties, and Tower descriptions will automatically be approved and you have a deal. Oh, just as a thought, I’d like first right of retention and privacy rights on all my Floor reward items from now on, too. Surely that won’t be a problem compared to the rest.” It could be a big problem for my work-in-progress plan if I didn’t get this, though—and I’d almost forgotten to ask for it.

Edwin was silent for another minute. “Very well,” he said eventually, “I’ll begin drafting it personally right now.”

“Wait, what?”

“Creation of official Tower contracts can be done through the menu, if you know how. And time is of the essence. I know you’ll want to read it thoroughly, so we don’t have time for my subordinate at the army base to do it for me.”

As I was reading through the new contract, Mewi spoke up. “Hey, why aren’t we using a teleportation gate, anyway?”

“Except for the Dimensional Gates that are controlled directly by the Tower, they’ve been shut down as a precaution. The enemy factions have already begun making moves on Satslik—not against you, but elsewhere, hitting us where we’re weaker, or they think we are. Until we can have all teleportation gates fully monitored, there’s too great a risk of them being used in ambushes and swift sneak attacks.”

The Federation military base came into view just as I was finishing double-checking the new contract. I’d found nothing untoward. Edwin’s signature was already on the third line on the last page. With mild difficulty, since there wasn’t really a table to work with, I signed the first line, and with a nod at Mewi, handed it to him to sign the second.