It was finally happening! All the painstaking work and preparation Raymond had to make was finally going to pay off. 

Raymond was never an ambitious person. He was generally content being the prodigal son, not having to worry about managing heavy company matters. Although his father wanted him to take on a more proactive role, Raymond always found a way to avoid it. Thanks to his sister.

In the beginning, Raymond barely took part in any corporate matters. Handling the most basic of tasks. Signing stuff here. Confirming stuff there. Firing a few people here and there. The tasks that didn’t require much thinking - those were his responsibilities. His sister assigned a lot of aides for Raymond that would handle the more complicated matters.

And that’s how things were going until Raymond met Jio. To Raymond, Jio was the mentor he always wanted. Jio gave him direction and pointed out things that Raymond missed in his daily life.

For instance, Jio was the one who pointed out that his sister was making aggressive moves that could affect his share ownership in the future. Raymond was enraged that no one pointed it out. With all the yes-men around him, Raymond expected at least someone to bring up such shady matters!

It was at that point that Raymond realised that the people around him weren’t truly his own. They answered first to his sister. This was a frightening thought! In his lifetime Raymond never imagined that he’d be thrown into those brutal sibling rivalries that were central in most commercial dramas. He didn’t think his sister would snub him like this. In fact, he didn’t get why she was even doing this?

Jio told Raymond that rather than confronting his sister and allowing her to raise her barriers, it was best to counter-attack. And that’s what Raymond did. The first thing Jio told him to do was to become more involved in his sister’s business. No matter the position.

Although, with his identity as the CEO’s younger brother, getting a cushy job wasn’t a hassle. He did get a good job, but he was posted in some Rank 3 system in the frontier. What a sneaky move by his sister! Keeping the threat away from home base; that’s what Jio called it.

No matter! Jio gave him a plan of action. First, Raymond had to attain some achievements on his own. With his past as a wasteful scion, there weren’t many executives willing to rely on him. They felt his sister was more stable as a CEO. 

And that is why Raymond was here in this shithole. Jio found out through some obscure channels that there was a Halcyon research facility in Eaton I. Raymond hadn’t even heard of the Hartwell system, let alone the planets in it. After a superficial search, Raymond had a clearer picture. Halcyon was hiding their most prized assets in the least obvious place in human space.

Raymond discussed with Jio about how to approach this. Jio said that since his sister still had eyes on him, Raymond should ditch everyone except for people that he truly trusted and take them to the frontier planet. He should hire help locally so that it couldn’t be traced, and then get rid of them so that there weren’t any breadcrumbs for his sister to follow.

To that end, Raymond had everything prepared. Although he was a little apprehensive about hiring those rabble fixers, they had surprisingly come through and provided decent results. In his limited experience, he had never seen any group so efficient and quick. Two full weeks hadn’t even passed and they were already ready to move on with the job.

Raymond was a little sceptical about the quality of their efforts, but after consulting with Raúl, he realised that it was at a professional level. Too bad that he couldn’t keep them around. Jio had once hinted that for any successful corporate climber, they needed to cultivate a strong and loyal shadow-force… or something like that anyway.

Raymond imagined a group of lithe, skin-tight black-clad figures vaulting across city skylines. Assassinating targets with high efficiency, and performing death-defying missions for his sake. The thought itself gave him a semi-.

But that cripple completely shattered his dreams. He’d have to find equally capable people from elsewhere. Apparently, there were four more members - three guys and one girl - in the group that he hadn’t seen in person. He’d caught glimpses of their projections through the hologram communication channel he’d tapped into. Jio always said to keep an eye on the help, regardless of how much you trust them.

When he saw the girl, he seriously wanted to rethink the whole disposal plan. She was spectacular! Her proportions were impeccable, and the best part was that she was probably all-natural. Raymond was slowly getting fed up with all the artificial beauties around him, even though it was nigh impossible to see any signs of surgery or implantation. Ironically it was that exact fact that sort of turned him off. He knew deep down, that the women he was with weren’t exactly like this from the beginning. But that girl. That girl was perfect, naturally.

He considered simply recruiting her under him by throwing money at her. But then again, after losing her brothers he didn’t think she’d be inclined to work under their killer. And even if she did, Raymond would end up having difficulty getting hard with her in the room. The thought of simply abducting and subordinating her through neural reconditioning did flash in his mind. But Raymond had his principles. Sex had to be consensual, otherwise, it would be no fun at all. And he didn’t want to mess around with empty shells. There were already sex droids that felt like that, and Raymond had graduated to organic and sentient territory back when he turned 18.

Anyways, things were going great. Raymond could already imagine himself sitting behind a lavish desk at Nova Corp. HQ. Raymond quickly rubbed the drool escaping his agape mouth and turned his attention back to the spent woman who lay before him panting for breath, all covered in sweat.

---

The experts - the ones that are at the top of their field in any profession - had strict rituals that they adhered to. These rituals were developed over time, as they rose in their field of expertise. They were obscure and unintelligible, yet the experts followed these established rituals down to a T.

Why? To them, these rituals provided some form of comfort. It made them feel assured that they would face success in the tasks they were about to attempt.

But that doesn’t make any sense! The experts are considered so because of their high level of skill. Why would they perform rituals to boost their chance of success? Are they all hoaxes?

No. It is because they are at the highest point in their particular field that they turn to these obscure rituals. If their skills cannot rise any higher, then they can only turn to arcane or metaphysical means to gain an additional edge.

Then does it work? Do these rituals affect the universe on a grand scale causing things to line up perfectly, resulting in success? Of course not! The rituals provide the experts with peace and focus. It helps them align to the perfect frame of mind to approach the tasks. It is simply a psychological tactic to self-hypnotise themselves.

Each expert has their specific ritual. For some, it is passed down from their masters. But for those who don’t have one, these rituals are borne out of practice, coincidence, and patterns.

---

Horace was sitting in front of his computer, geared up for the upcoming job. He had already scanned through his mental checklists, making sure that all the required gadgets were ready and the necessary information was accessible at a moment’s notice. 

Byron would arrive in 30 minutes. That left Horace with 25 minutes to go through his ritual. Every time Horace attempted a complicated job, he would take 25 minutes to follow through with his now established ritual to psyche himself up.

Without wasting any more time, Horace went down a rabbit hole of folders and found the videos he was looking for. As he scrolled through the file list, searching for the perfect video, he thought to himself, ‘I guess I should transfer these into my bio-implant. I won’t have to access my computer then.‘

His pointer finally hovered over a video, and following a double-click, it opened.

Horace put on his headphones and fully focused on the computer screen.

The video opened up with a man peeking out of his windows into his neighbour’s apartment. Every day he would see his neighbour working out in a tight lycra outfit, accentuating his neighbour’s figure.

With each progressing day, the amount of clothing covering his neighbour’s body would decrease. Until finally, he saw his neighbour completely naked. The sight threw the voyeur into a loop. That was until the neighbour looked up into the man’s eye. The man was expecting his neighbour to scream in horror, but all he got was a provocative and sensuous smile. The neighbour called out to the man by hooking the finger and slowly curling it.

The man, unable to hold himself any longer, rushed out of his apartment and ran to his neighbour’s. He knocked in anticipation and waited. The door slowly opened, revealing his neighbour completely in the nude, with his massive penis hanging between his legs.

His neighbour pounced onto the man and dove in for a passionate kiss. The man deftly carried his neighbour into his apartment and placed him gently onto the living-room table.

After thoroughly exploring his neighbour’s mouth with his slithering tongue, the man lowered himself and went down on his neighbour’s towering member, all the while struggling to push it in an extra inch. The tip threatened to breach into the deepest parts of his throat.

The man continued to pleasure his neighbour orally for a few minutes. Running through a series of stock techniques. The neighbour then reciprocated while the man stripped.

The two then seamlessly made their way into the bedroom, where their sexual escapades continued for 20 minutes.

Horace watched the entire pornographic video, without shifting an inch from his seat. His penis was threatening to breach through his trousers, but Horace did not act to quench the growing heat within his body.

This was his ritual.

Horace had been adhering to this ritual since 4 years ago after he accidentally started watching a pornographic video right before a job. He lost track of time after he figured that he would have just enough to rub one out. Unfortunately, he got called right as he was about to finish. Surprisingly, he found that his performance during the job was incrementally superior. Even Simon commented on it. Ever since then, Horace started collecting pornographic videos of different flavours, meant for different kinds of jobs.

Theft called for subtlety and secrecy. Perfectly aligned with passionate and sensuous pornography.

---

“Tsk… you’re getting harder to clean Tonya. The sand really does a number on you, looks like we’ll have to get you a new spring mechanism.”

Nathan gently put down the cleaned rifle receiver on the table before him and beheld the systematically disassembled rifle.

He tenderly caressed each part as he continued, “I can’t help it. They don’t make parts for you anymore. I’ll probably have to source a forge.”

Nathan paused for Tonya’s response. He nodded, “I know what you mean, the last one we got made locally didn’t even last half a year. We will have to look outside this system.”

His hands moved fluidly as he picked each part on the table and adeptly assembled them. “Today’s a big one Tonya, we gotta be on our A-Game! The payout is huge!”

Nathan chuckled at his rifle’s elated reply, “Hey now let’s not count our chickens until they’ve hatched.”

Just as he finished assembling Tonya, his hand froze in place. His expression darkened. “You want me to what? NO! Absolutely not!”

Hearing Tonya expound on her last statement, Nathan vigorously shook his head, “But… Tonya, how could you do this to me? After all, we’ve been through?”

Tonya tried to calm Nathan down. To which he replied with a suppressed whimper, “Please don’t leave me. I’ll do anything…”

Nathan listened to Tonya’s justification, but he wasn’t fully convinced, “Yes, I know that modern rifles perform far better than you ever will. But that doesn’t matter to me. You were my first Tonya!”

When Tonya finally told him the real reason for why she wanted to leave him, rage started to boil from within Nathan, “But this is my choice, not yours! I chose to walk the path of vengeance, you don’t have to make concessions for my sake. Even after I leave this planet. Even if I’m facing an army of reinforced soldiers whose armour you can’t pierce. I will never leave you, Tonya.”

Nathan adamantly shook his head and stood up from his seat in a fit of rage, “STOP IT! I am not going to leave you! End of discussion.”

Following a quick second, Nathan’s burning gaze was smothered into one that held a coaxing calmness, “No, no! Don’t cry. Sorry, I screamed at you. It’s just… I can’t even imagine living without you. The mere thought itself is tearing me apart, Tonya.”

Nathan lovingly patted Tonya as he murmured pleasing words to soothe his agitated girl until it was time to leave.

---

Karina was wearing a towel and was drying herself after taking a shower. There were only 30 minutes left before Byron arrived, and she couldn’t waste any more time, lest she lost the opportunity to go through her ritual.

Karina locked her room door and then shook it vigorously to verify that it was properly locked.

She then moved towards her dresser and opened the bottom-most drawer. After reaching all the way in, she slowly pulled out a length of rope with a knot in the end, that resembled a noose. 

With the rope in hand, she moved towards the door once again and nudged it to double-check that it was locked. Once she was satisfied, she dropped the towel covering her body and tossed it into the laundry basket near the room door.

With a nimble leap, Karina made her way onto her bed and lay down in a comfortable position.

She carefully pulled the noose over her head and around her neck and re-checked the integrity of the knot.

With the untied end of the rope in her left hand, she reached down towards her clitoris with her right.

She first started in the periphery, and gently rubbed the clitoris. As it started to moisten, she moved her index and middle finger in a rotating motion towards her vagina.

Slowly she started to increase the force with which she moved her fingers, while simultaneously pulling the rope in her hand causing it to gradually tighten around her neck.

Her vagina was growing increasingly wet, as fluids started to ooze out with gusto. She nimbly hooked her fingers inside her vagina and encroached slowly towards her G-Spot. 

At first contact, her body twitched as a surge started to build up from her pussy. In response, she pulled the rope all the way, causing it to fully tighten around her neck.

Her eyes opened wide, and her tongue burst out as a dangerous yet sensuous feeling resonated inside her.

She started to nudge her G-Spot at a higher frequency.

She was starting to grow increasingly suffocated as the pressure elevated around her neck. But she didn’t show any signs of stopping, she was getting close.

She let go of the rope and moved her left hand towards her breast. She pinched the nipple of her left breast and twisted it periodically.

She shoved her fingers deeper and pressed abruptly, causing the surging heat to erupt into a violent orgasm. Her toes curled and she grasped her bed sheets tightly. A strained moan escaped from her.

Her body went into a seizing motion as fluids excitedly sprayed out from her vagina.

Gasping for air she quickly undid the knot around her neck and sprawled on her bed.

As she slowly caught her breath, Karina started to laugh uproariously. She picked up the Holo-Comm Device on her bedside table and checked the time.

There were only 10 more minutes left till pick-up. 

She quickly stood up, pulled off her bedsheet and threw it into the laundry hamper with her towels. She then retrieved her black skin-tight bodysuit from her dresser and put it on.

Once she was ready, she went through her checklists once again and made sure that all her gadgets were inside her backpack and there was nothing out of place.

Satisfied, she left her room.

Almost simultaneously, two other doors on the same floor opened up at the same time.

Horace stepped out with his heavy backpack, while Nathan was carrying his rifle case.

Karina looked at her brothers, and her brothers looked at her.

With a nod, the three of them made their way towards the exit.

It was time!