a/n: Case starts the story of the mission in Sylvalum.
Gentle swears, giant sand worms, too many OCs.
All the glorious landscapes belong to Monolith Soft, but these chucklehead OCs are mine.
The objective of the mission was to inspect, retrieve and replace Frontier Nav probe 412. As much corrupted data was to be recovered before replacement, with emphasis on keeping the probe as intact as possible.
FN412 was right on the upper edge of the Great Sand Sea, where the rib-cage of rock formations ended and the last stretch of spore desert opened up with nothing solid between you and the enemy's smoke in Cauldros. In New Los Angeles, they'd told Case that the probe had been wonky for a day and a half. Pathfinders could have fixed it in 20 minutes flat, and shredded the probe in the process. BLADE wanted to see what was going wrong, and for that they needed all the parts. That's why they'd tapped the Reclaimers instead. She'd be the senior member of the team, with a brand new specialist and skell they could barely spare, plus two extras.
Case hadn't been that far north in a while, since before even she'd been booted from BLADE, and she'd forgotten how clean and soft everything looked in Sylvalum. The probe site was on a broad high dune, covered in delicate white puffs. On a clear day, you could look back to Lake Ciel. The whole team had been enjoying the peaceful surroundings when a giant white sabula worm shot straight out of the sand and arched high overhead, the triangular flanges that framed its mouth flicking in and out. The rookies had yelped and even Case had laughed in surprise, but the creature dove back into the desert floor. Case waited for it to return, but she didn't see it again that trip.
Team consisted of four Reclaimers. Case (sniper/knife), team leader. Carlos Jenner (assault/longsword), Hannah Kim (Gatling/shield), Trace Whitson (sniper/javelin). Jenner and Kim had experience in areas 1-3, Whitson area 1. One skell. Mastema, heavy, standard layout with emphasis on ranged and area attacks, tuned for mechanical/gravity attacks.
Jenner and Kim were steady if new. Jenner had a chip on his shoulder, but Case had ignored his opening antics, focusing on the Noctilum mission he and Kim had just returned from, and he had calmed down fast. Kim looked so sweet it made Case's teeth ache, but she'd insisted on giving Jenner's rifle a thorough going over for him before they'd left NLA. "Go sharpen your sword of something, baby. This thing is a piece of cake after mine." She'd twinkled over at Case. "Don't get me wrong. I love the Lin Lee Koo Combo. Poof, boom, bang. Us K-pop idols know what works."
Case had swapped out her assault rifle for the mission, on account of Whitson. They were clearly the weakest member of the party, having only done a handful of missions, all close to New Los Angeles, but the team needed them. Trace specialized at data retrieval. Their job would be to pull as much raw data off the probe before the rest of the team touched it. They were shy at first, but once Case had shown that she wanted to know about all her new teammates, they had been eager to discuss the glories of Frontier Nav and their hopes to someday join the Pathfinders. Trace knew they were weak on the ground and had been worried about it, so Case had chosen to mirror their build, at least in ranged gear. She had also chosen them as skell pilot, because you don't have to be good to stay put and blow stuff up effectively when you were riding in a Mastema.
Funny, but the big problem had been names. Case and Trace sounded too much alike, especially when barked over lo-fi helmet mikes. Trace had looked miserable when the team considered the options. No way did they want to go back to another name. Case hadn't liked it either, but she was about to bite the bullet. Deep breath, she'd told herself, you can say it, just throw the word "head" before your name, and problem solved. Jenner had jumped in before either had taken the hit. "Easy-peasy. Boss, Jenner, Kim, Trace." He covered his mouth and mimicked distortion. It worked, if only barely, and Case decided she loved this team.
Travel by air for area 1 and ocean, changing to ground in area 4. Weather clear in areas 1 and 4, light rain over ocean. No enemy alerts or engagement. Check in with temp station prior, no reports of activity. Team and station noted lack of presence and response from large and medium mechanical enemy (Xe-dom, Oc-serv) on flight through Sylvalum.
That had been weird, although the others hadn't noticed. Couldn't have noticed, really, jammed as they were in the passenger compartment located on the back of the skell. Case was riding up front, in the jump seat next to Trace, keeping up a gentle chatter designed to sooth the rookie. Trace hadn't dropped to ground travel immediately, standard procedure for Sylvalum because anything flying tended to trigger the towering Xe-dom that patrolled the pathways through the dunes. Case hadn't said a thing, because it was better to find out how well the team could handle themselves. But they'd clipped right past one of the big black grinders with no response. Trace had slammed to the ground immediately and hit the accelerator to get the hell out of the way. "It didn't spot us. How did it not spot us?!" they'd wondered squeakily.
Case had wondered as well. She'd also wondered why they'd only seen one. There should have been several on their trip north, but they only encountered that one, right at the land's entrance. She'd asked the BLADEs at the temporary station, but they'd had no clue either. They'd sent in a report the day before, saying the same thing but getting no explanation, and they were starting to get nervous. It was kind of sad that good news on Mira felt like a bad omen. Maybe that was why they were more careful when they reached the probe.
Upon arrival at site, Whitson swept site and probe for traps. Both were clear. Case and Jenner scouted immediate area while Kim assisted Whitson with data retrieval process. At 0842, while on northern sweep, Jenner reported enemy movement. Case confirmed and requested assistance immediately.
Instead of letting the team hang out, picking flowers and watching Trace whisper to the probe, Case had ordered Jenner to slog north of the site, to the bottom of the dune, while she'd fanned wide to the southwest. She'd reached the crude road formed from the relentless criss-cross of Xe-dom, currently weirdly empty, when she heard Jenner yell. He'd spotted the invasion first; a turn of her head towards Cauldros and a hard glance had clued her in too. It had sparkled like the foam of a metallic tide. There were so many of them, Case didn't bother to try to count. After the first hundred, it doesn't really matter.
They'd called for help. Mayday, pan-pan, SOS, the works. Case had yelled into her radio on general once, then had ordered Trace to jump in the skell and keep calling for help, because Case needed every spare breath. Running up hill the long distance to her team through soft spore sand felt like every slow-motion nightmare Case had ever had.
Enemy was too close for safe retreat. Team grouped around the skell and prepared to observe and defend until relief arrived.
The enemy was a long way away, and even the slowest of heavy skells could have taken them back to the temporary station at least. ECP could worry about the probe another day, and her team could do a better count of enemy with friends at their back. Case had boots full of spores and the other three in sight when an order had unlocked in her earpiece. "Remain at location and observe. Delay engagement as long as possible." Her spine reacted like somebody had yanked a leash, but she had her expression under control when she reached her team.
She had her expression under control now. Lila didn't need to know that part.
an: Yes, yes, in game there isn't a passenger compartment on skells, but COME ON! In my XCX your team doesn't magically follow up mountains by jumping, okay? And wow but the view from FN412 is pretty, if you don't mind GIANT WORMS AND KILLER ROBOTS PHOTOBOMBING YOU (when they aren't gravity bombing you as well).
Next up: Bored now. Let's see if Gwin is more coherent. If he isn't, we'll have more Case Explains It All.