The sun shone brightly and cast its bright rays down to almost every corner of the large rocky land, more commonly known as the Highlands by the inhabitants of Mountiduman. Mountiduman was a small guild run outpost nestled at the bottom of the Highland cliffs bordering the Mountain Streams region not that there was much difference, Where as the highlands was higher up an consisted of more rocky plateaus with towering cliffs and the summits covered with deteriorating forest, weathered rocks and plenty of waterfalls falling through the endless sea of clouds that surround the summits. While on the other hand the Mountain Stream area had many scattered mountains which seem to sprout out from the rich green valley with a large beautiful mountain stream streaking a path through the landscape fuelled by waterfalls from the Highlands, which unlike the highlands it made the Mountain stream abundant in resources.
Usually Mountiduman was a quiet outpost, consisting of a guild hall, blacksmith and a local shop, there were a few houses for a few hunters and Guild members, but really that was all that there was besides the large wooden fence and lookout towers that surrounded the outpost. Today however was not the norm as the town seemed to be bustling with people running in and out of the outpost carrying boxes and what not, all the commotion was due to the large convoy parking not ten meters away from the gate, where a large man stood barking orders from a top the first wagon to all those around, only stopping when another man clad in standard guild Guardian U armour called to him from bellow, "Excuse me Captain Ibiki" came the voice of a man who seemed to hold the utmost respect for the one he was addressing.
Only after surveying the happenings of his convoy with his only good eye, did the captain finally turn to his patiently waiting subordinate "Report Lieutenant Morgan!" came the rough voice of the aging Captain. With a quick salute the lieutenant began with his report, "Sir, the second Lieutenant and I have completed the checks on the inventory and all is accounted for and tied down, Sir". After eyeing his first lieutenant for a few more seconds the now forty year old captain rubbed his eye patch with the palm of his hand out of habit and proceeded to look around the convoy searching for something, something that he did not find. Turning back to his subordinate, he spoke with mild irritation, "Are those blasted hunters here yet lieutenant?"
The Lieutenant turned his head to the side quickly, hoping to see the sergeant he had sent to fetch the hunters, but alas there was no sign of her, turning back to the Captain who in the progress was busy checking his own guild Guardian U armour, "Sir, no sir. I have sent Sergeant Mel to fetch them sir." Atop the wagon the large captain grabbed his bald head with his large hairy hands and seemed to almost be trying to crush his own skull with them.
In the distance Capt. Ibiki could see 2nd Lieutenant Colt walking towards him and 1st Lieutenant Morgan, while he was heading towards them he straightened out his Guardian U armour, not much was different between his, Morgan and Ibiki, just the stripes and stars on the shoulder pads, where as Capt. Ibiki had three silver stars with two red stripes behind it, Lt. Morgan had only two stars and two red strips, Lt. Colt only had one star over two red lines. As the Second Lieutenant got near the wagon he stopped and saluted the captain, "You may report Lieutenant!" "Sir, The Men are ready and awaiting your orders, also Sergeant Mel has reported that the hunters are on their way and should be arriving in the next ten minutes, SIR!" the lieutenant reported with a stern voice while his long silver hair whip around behind him as the wind picked up a bit. "Well done Lieutenant, line the men up, I'm on my way."
"Sir, yes Sir" replied Lt. Colt before turning on his heel and marching back to where the troops were standing, giving him a minute to line up the troops, the captain then jumped from the wagon landing perfectly on the ground before turning and marching towards the middle of the convoy to address the troops, with Lt. Morgan only two steps behind him. Coming to a stop at the centre wagon he turned and climbed up the wagon. The ladder led to the top of the wagon where it housed the Ballista weapon on its roof and Ballista's ammo inside, plus most various ammo rounds for the five gunners and one Gun-lancer in the platoon.
Once on top the wagon Capt. Ibiki eyed the eighteen troops holding the rank of Private that stood before him, twelve of those male and six female all wearing basic Guardian Armour with only one yellow star inside a red rectangle on each shoulder pad signifying their rank as Privates in the Guild. Once he was done scanning the troops he put his hands behind his back and spoke with a loud voice "As I'm sure most of you are wondering why you are here, well the answer is that the Guild elders have ordered me to assemble a platoon. The reason for this platoon is to investigate the loss of communication with an expedition team that travelled to the New Land; communication was lost with the team presumable a month after they arrived as it is a two month journey and so far only one messenger ship has returned, the rest have disappeared without a trace, so the guild has decided to send us the guild knights to investigate and report." Pausing in his speech to let his words sink in, he watched as some seemed to become excited while a few seemed to get nervous which would not do.
Deciding he had given the troops long enough, he continued "Now the plan will be as follows, from here we will set out in a South Westerly direction towards Loc Lac city where we shall restock and pick up an elder scrivener by the name of Dr. Dracenstein and his team, plus I have requested for a healer team to be there for the rest of journey. Now once we leave Loc Lac we will head to Fort Flame Dune by way of desert ships, once there we will be joining with another platoon, after we have done final preparations we will set out for Jumbo Village where we will board a guild vessel which has been special modified as to help with any large sea monsters, the last stop in our journey before we head to the New Land will be Moga Village where we will collect a High Rank hunting party that the guild elders recommended for this trip" stopping to catch a bit of his breath and taking in the looks on his troops faces, especially when he mentioned the famous doctor's name.
Looking at the troops who still stood like statues as he talked, well except for the facial expressions, not really wanting to say what he was about to say, "Now as I'm sure some of you know the guild did request any volunteer hunting parties here in Mountiduman to join us and help with any beasts we may encounter. So far we only have two teams one consisting of HR 5 hunters and another team with HR4 and HR2. This is the only time that the Guild will allow such low ranked hunters on an expedition like this and while I know a few of you just like me really don't see why we need them, this is the Guild Elders' orders and so we must continue." Seeing the looks of agreement that were sent his way, he knew eighty percent of the troops where sharing the same feelings as him and lucky the hunters hadn't arrived yet or there would have been more trouble than was needed.
Taking a moment to think about what formation he was going to use, he let the troops stand while he though, after a minute or two he was finally done deciding, "Okay now listen up, the formation will be as such, 1st Lt. Morgan you will take four troops of your choosing to the rear wagon, except Privates Jacob, Smith, Riley and Brandon as I will place them, That said I want Gunner Pvt. Jacob on the roof of the rear wagon as rear look out." Stopping so that Lt. Morgan could select the men of his choosing, and move to the rear wagon, while Lt. Morgan selected the four troops Pvt. Jacob picked up his Maelstrom Light Gun and pack from the ground in front of him, he then headed to the last wagon to take up position.
Once Lt. Morgan had left with the four troops of his choice, Capt. Ibiki turned to the remaining troops and continued, "Next I want Lieutenant Colt to select six men to cover the four middle wagons, while I want Pvt. Smith manning the Ballista." Once again stopping to let the Lieutenant select the troops he wanted while Pvt. Smith climbed up next to him and stood next to the Ballista, only once Lt. Colt had positioned his men where he thought they would be of best use, did the captain continue, "now finally I want the last men next to the front wagon by me and I want Riley and Brandon to scout the front, no go and await my orders once I get to the front." The rest of the troops left to the front where they stood together waiting for the captain.
The Captain smiled before turning to Sergeant Mel "You will be at the second last wagon as the Felynes seemed to have taking a liking to you and request that you be there protector, is this satisfactory?" even though it was phrased as a question Sgt. Mel knew there was no other answer than "Sir, yes Sir!" And with that she watched the captain jump down from the wagon and turn an leave, she watched him for a little longer as his large muscular body walked away from her, then once he was near the front wagon she turned and headed for the mobile kitchen, sighing, she really was not in the mood, while she did not mind the Felynes at all its just there was the single one in the group that seemed to love getting a rise out of people, him being the black with whites spots known as Smoke.
While the Captain was placing his men, his first Lieutenant walked up next to him, "Sir, the hunters are here Sir" was the deep voice of Lt. Morgan. Without even turning the captain spoke in a mild irritated voice dripping with sarcasm, "So nice of you all to grace us with your Great tardy presence!" the hunters seemed to be caught off guard for just a moment before the largest one of them all clad in Gravios Armour, fired back a response, "I wouldn't talk like that to us you old guild geezer, you needs us since it's obvious that a simple velociprey would make you his bi...;" The large hunter's voice seemed to have disappeared when out of nowhere a blade seemed to pierce his neck, not enough to do any real damage, but enough to draw blood.
The muscled hunter cautiously looked down at the weapon to find the tip of a red gunlance, slowly following the barrel of the lance down towards the hands of the one holding the weapon, there calmly stood Lt. Morgan holding the his Scissor Cannon gunlance as if nothing was wrong, "I'll have you know that the man that stands before you now is a great man and once was a great hunter that held a higher guild rank than you before he joined the Guild Knights. So for your own sake, I advise you shut that gigantic bug catcher you call a mouth, before I fill it with a round and your team mates will have to clean what's left of your head up off the ground with chopsticks." came the icy voice of the Lieutenant before he smiled coldly and then in one swift motion the gunlance was gone from the hunters neck and strapped to his back.
The rest of the hunters stayed dead still while the events had been going on, right now they were re-evaluating the Captain as he slowly turned around to face them, "Well now that Lt. Morgan is done with the pleasantries, I will explain the formation to you." The captain checked to make sure he had the hunters undivided attention, which strangely he did, "Well the large guy with the big mouth and his te..." "Mike!" the large hunter interrupted, "Really now, I thought it was cannon fodder up until now, strange I wonder what gave me that idea." Cpt. Ibiki shot back in a eerie cheerful voice, "Well Hunter Mike, you and your team will be in front of the convoy since you are the higher ranked team, and you?" the captain asked pointing to the other hunter group, in a second a young man stood forward wearing Conga armour and a Battle Helm, "My name is Bernhart Steve" came the man's voice, "Well Steve you will be at the rear will Lt. Morgan here, his such a fun guy don't you think." Again the strange eerie cheerful voice the captain used seemed to send shivers down most of the hunter's spines.
With everything all said and done the hunters went to the positions they were assigned, some in a better mood than others, the lieutenant saluted his captain and returned to the rear. The not so young captain climbed the ladder up to the top of the first wagon, once there he bent down and picked up his Valkyrie Great sword and sheathed it in place, sighing he thought 'this is going to be one long bloody trip.'