Chapter 29
Jungle Rumble
Zero's trip to the medical bay proved to be quite refreshing considering all that had happened recently. Frankly, she was amazed at the fact that she had actually managed to stay in one piece ever after such a close call in the volcano; had Iris given up on trying to reach her, her life expectancy would not have looked so good. Even though she had managed to overcome the melee unit before it could cause any more harm, the thought that she would have to get back on the field so soon after her last mission was all but reassuring.
While she still refused to say it, the current situation was really beginning to get to her and her mind wandered far more often than she would have liked. The Repliforce still hadn't made its move and seemed content to let the hunters deal with the ravenous mavericks, while they strengthened their position within the north hemisphere. Also, to make matters worse, a maverick hacker had succeeded to infiltrate the Maverick Hunters main computer while she was gone and had even managed to steal crucial data from their database before being destroyed by X, who had already left to investigate the claims that an unnamed group of mavericks had taken residence within an abandoned bio lab on the edge of Able City.
For some reasons, Zero had the feeling that this hacker had probably come to finish the work that Theta had started weeks ago, which only gave more credit to the words uttered by Magma Dragoon before he was destroyed. At least, the female reploid was happy to find out that Iris had decided to stick with the hunters even though it was obvious that doing so would probably put her at odds with her brother and the Repliforce; but, when Iris came to visit the female hunter while she was undergoing repairs, she seemed to be strangely calm for someone in her situation.
And so, with those thoughts still fresh in her head, Zero entered the briefing room to get the details of her new mission. From what she could see from there, Signas still hadn't lost his frown from last time and hastily beckoned to her as she approached. He said. You sure like to take your time, don't you?
The female reploid replied. Oh, please, don't take that tone with me; consider yourself lucky that I even bothered to show up when I knew that you had some really bad news for me.
The tall officer sighed and went on, not really paying any attention to what she was saying. Whatever, let's just focus on the issue at hand. It would seem that some members of the Repliforce have been involved in some unusual skirmish occurring within Point 3302…
So, what are we talking about exactly? Mavericks? Mercenaries? Mechaniloids?
We only know that whoever is retaliating against Repliforce, is severely outnumbered and won't hold for much longer if they can't get any help soon.
Zero shrugged. So what? I hardly see where this is going.
YOU, are going to locate this group and discover if they could be potential allies against our common enemy; if they agree to help, organize them and make sure that they succeed to wipe out their pursuers before Repliforce can send any more reinforcements.
What do you expect me to do? I'm not exactly the best leader you have on hand you know…
Signas shook his head and answered. The whole area is covered in dense jungle, which will make it very difficult for Repliforce to locate them; and since we don't have any other guerrilla specialist on hand, you'll have to do.
Oh… THAT's reassuring.
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As usual, it seemed like the hunters had absolutely no intention of wasting their resources on locating what was as likely to be allies as another group of insane mavericks; back then, Zero wondered if she wouldn't have been better off shutting her mouth rather than complain to Signas that she would need far more mens to handle this mission, which only encouraged him to send her on her own to deal with them.
At least, he wasn't kidding when he said that Point 3302 was covered in thick jungle, this place had so many perfect hideouts and a ridiculous amount of ambush spots that she probably could last for a while without anyone ever knowing of her presence. From there, it was a simple matter of scouting her surrounding in the hope that she could find this group before Repliforce did.
Aside from the usual rustling of the leaves, this jungle was pretty calm for a battlefield; she would have expected to see burned vegetation all over the place but found the place to be relatively intact… At least, until she came upon a very peculiar sight…
It was about half-an-hour after she had been transferred here and she seemed to have found clues that someone had hastily left this place for a more favorable spot; aside from a minimum of supply left behind by the previous occupants of this camp, the female hunter found some cleverly concealed burn marks similar to those caused by standard buster guns, which suggested that there were probably many more traces of struggle in the vicinity.
Not too far away from there, the female reploid was surprised to find that the vegetation wasn't as thick as she would have expected in this region and she could have sworn that she had heard voices coming from over there two minutes ago.
The red hunter hoped that those voices might belong to one of the members of the group she was seeking, but she couldn't have been further from the truth. There, she found a large group of at least a dozen reploids that seemed to be busy securing their surrounding. Zero spotted one of them and incapacitated him before he could reveal her presence.
Fortunately, the bushes around her were quite tall and Zero was free to observe what they were doing before she was interrupted by an angry voice coming from afar. Hurry up you idiots! I want us to be able to move as soon as the messenger is gone!
At this point, even Zero could figure out that these guys were up to something; and since they weren't aware that she had been watching them, she figured that she could wait there until this messenger showed up.
Within the next twenty minutes, the female reploid heard the angry voice repeatedly barking orders at its subordinates who didn't seem to be too wiling to oblige. But it no longer mattered, for that three tall reploids came from afar to meet with the leader of the unknown group of reploids. Luckily, it seemed like the location of their meeting was supposed to take place not too far from her hideout, which meant that she would be able to listen to them without fearing discovery.
However, Zero wasn't ready for the shock that ensued when the leaders of both group came; it was almost as if she had seen a ghost since these guys were probably the two last reploids that she would have expected to find here. Web Spider stepped forward to meet with the other group and impatiently awaited for the other leader to do the same; which, to make matters worse was none other than Colonel, accompanied by two other soldiers of Repliforce. The spider-like reploid spoke. Took you long enough, don't you have any idea of how risky this kind of meeting is? Don't you remember that we're not the only ones here?!!
Consider yourself lucky that I even bothered to come in person. I must be brief, so how is the fight coming along?
Perfectly. What else did you expect? With me in charge, we'll have those guys scrapped in no time.
Colonel frowned, probably to demonstrate his skepticism. Really? Then why did you request for reinforcements? What happened to the last ones?
From what Zero could tell, it was obvious that Web Spider was lying when he said. They were hmm… ambushed…How come? You are outnumbering them three to one, surely you know that I will not tolerate any kinds of incompetence from my officers.
But…No more excuses Spider! The General is expecting results. Do I need to remind you're the one that disobeyed our orders by attempting to wipe them out in the first place?
It wasn't my fault!!! It was…The tall officer interrupted him and harshly replied. Silence! I will hear no more until I see results. You have created this mess; therefore, you're the one who's going to clean it. Repliforce will not waste their resources in this futile conflict any longer!
The female reploid noticed that the spider-like reploid was scratching one of his hands, when he mumbled something that she didn't quite catch; what were they talking about anyway? And how the hell was Web Spider still alive?
Now get back to work, and silence them, permanently; WE cannot afford to have this group join forces with the maverick hunters, understood?
Yes sir…
Colonel turned around, with his soldiers still keeping an eye on Web Spider, who seemed to be cursing heavily under his breath. However, something caught the tall officer's attention and he stared right in the female hunter's direction. Zero completely froze under his gaze and couldn't even bring herself to run since she thought that the others might notice her if she made a single movement. One of the other soldiers caught up with Colonel and asked something; the tall reploid declined and turned back in Web Spider's direction. One more thing Spider, if you fail to carry out these orders, don't bother crawling back to Repliforce. Succeed or don't come back at all.
And so, the three reploids from Repliforce left and were transferred backs to their own headquarter. Once they were gone, Zero heard Web Spider yelling. Damn you! We had a deal General!!!
The female reploid left as soon as the nearest guards joined with the main group and hurried before her luck turned on her. She could have sworn that Colonel had spotted her within the bushed and to be honest, she was certain that she was done for; but maybe… he did spotted her, but preferred to let her off the hook this time around. At least, that's what she wanted to believe.
Unfortunately, the red hunter didn't get very far; as soon as she entered a clearing with an open view, she felt that someone was spying on her. It was far too quiet; Zero reached for her saber and jumped straight ahead right before a buster shot dug a hole right where she used to stand. The female reploid quickly dashed ahead while two other shots came in her direction; however, she was soon stopped by three camouflaged reploids that blocked her way. She tried to turn around but soon found out that she was surrounded by a total of five reploids, all armed with buster rifles.
Seeing that she had absolutely no chance to escape this situation, the female hunter dropped her saber and raised her hand so that they could see that she was no longer armed. Three of them closed on her and tied her up so that she wouldn't try to struggle, even though she was currently in no position to argue…
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Unknown location within Point 3302…
After willingly surrendering to the five reploids that had ambushed her, Zero followed her captors back all the way to their camps. From what little she could see from the back of the one that was carrying her on his shoulder, this camp couldn't have housed more than half-a-dozen reploids, though appearances were probably deceiving since they managed to capture her so easily.
They soon reached the gate and asked for someone by the name of Mira to come and see what they had caught. Strangely enough, peoples within the camps didn't seem to notice her, probably because she wasn't the first to be brought here in this fashion.
About five minutes later, a female reploid with short black hairs joined them and examined the female hunter more closely. From what Zero could see, since they had dropped her on the ground, this Mira was wearing a thin white armor with small teal lines scattered all over her body; she had two buster guns hanging down from her waist and the female hunter could clearly see that she was wearing a pairs of headphones that were attached to a glass visor that went down about to her nose. Strangely enough, something seemed to have troubled this girl since she turned back to her captors and yelled. You dumbass!!! Don't you even recognize her?! Hurry up and untie her!
Even though the other reploids didn't quite seem to understand what she was saying, they simply obeyed and helped her stand up. Aw… Geez… Sorry ma'am.
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Well, here we go with yet another chapter. I got to say that I've been quite busy lately, but fortunately, things seems to be working out rather well for me as I just managed to obtain an internship within a nice company and that most of my late work has been dealt with.
Also, I have a special announcement to make; I am going release a brand new story for the holidays. It shouldn't interfere with this current project since this other story will mainly serve as a mean to train me to make smaller stories that doesn't span over 50+ chapters and also tell me if I can manage to write something without working on it at regular interval. As for what this new story will be about, I'm afraid that I won't tell you until I'm done with the first chapter even though most of the preliminary research have been completed; but if my hunch is right, it should be great, so make sure you consult my profile when the time comes.
Preview: After her rather unpleasant trip to the camp of the rebels, that had been fighting the Repliforce, Zero learn that Web Spider's betrayal runs far deeper than she had expected and that something is amiss with those rebels. So, in order to discover the truth behind Web Spider's motives, our hunter is finally ready to turn the tables back in the rebels favor. Who are those rebels anyway? What does Web Spider have in store for Zero? Next Chapter: Jungle Rumble (Part 2).
