Getting it out of the way first, Capcom and all other relevant companies own everything other than my characters, I own nothing else.

So... this chapter is long overdue, at least in my opinion. I won't give some long winded reason as to why I disappeared. To short form it, the third Covid-19 wave brought another lockdown to my area, which closed my store to only curbside pickup. Problem is, this last wave has made my store busier than the last two waves combined. I have very little free time outside of work, and what little free time I do get, I can't spend on writing, due to my younger brother using my office space, which is the only place I can actually put full focus on writing, to complete an at-home college prep course...

As it stands, my current writing schedule consists of drinking a coffee before bed then spending about two hours doing crappy writing, which I edit and improve on my breaks/lunch during my work shifts. It's pretty exhausting, but I don't want to just ignore this story completely.

Hopefully, assuming the lockdown doesn't get extended, the government will open the stores back up to in store shopping sometime this month, giving me more time to spend on writing without sacrificing sleep.

On to reviews:

Kaien1123: You got it right, the Field Team Leader was named after his voice actor in the game! And I know that it seems pretty linear and canon right now, I promise that my plans only loosely follow the original story. I want to expand on the world a fair bit, and add more to the story, might even add in new locales along the way.

TheDino27: Glad to see you like my story, and sorry that I disappeared. I'll go along each point in the end author note.

To my other brother in all but blood Storm.

Gaia POV

"Welcome to Astera." was all Mercer said to introduce me to my new life. Simply put, I could only stare, completely awestruck at the sight.

The now named Astera was very, for lack of a better word, resourceful in how it was built. It seems the Research Commission, instead of letting them rot, used the old ships that delivered the previous fleets to make up the foundations that Astera was built on. Beneath the wooden boards that we stood on, multiple fleet ships stood strong, their original purpose served. Somehow, they were even able to gut and flip one of the fleet ships upside down, then suspend it above the area we stood, acting as surprisingly effective cover from both the shining sun, and any potential weather. They even used it as a way to rig up lanterns to provide light. Waste not, want not I guess.

A hand landed on my shoulder, most likely Mercer's, a quick glance confirming so. The Field Team Leader nodded his head forward, gesturing for me to keep moving. Mercer stepped ahead of me, ready to guide me on where to go. Before I could follow though, two shouts of my name stopped me.

I couldn't even turn around to see who called me, as a second later, arms wrapped around me, hoisting me off my feet and into the air. Not long after, a second pair of arms engulfed me.

A small smile grew on my face, as I knew exactly who the two that grabbed and hugged me were. With what little wriggle room I had, I shifted my hands to begin patting the arms holding me aloft, sayin, "Aiden, Elise, come on you guys. You know it's gonna take more than a freak volcano to take me out."

I was quickly set back down, though only Elise let go of me. Aiden continued to hold on to me protectively. I honestly can't blame the guy though. One of the biggest fears that he let me in on, was being unable to do anything as he lost someone close to him.

Elise, having calmed down, began explaining what had happened. Apparently, the current Elder Dragon making the Elder Crossing, a massive volcano looking beast called Zorah Magdaros, had risen up right between the Fifth Fleet ships! The best guess as to why was that Zorah was following the same underwater channel that the ships were following. The channel is the only way for the ships to safely reach the New World, as it cuts directly through the massive underwater currents that surround the continent. The ships would get torn apart if they tried sailing through those currents.

Zorah had caused many casualties and even more injuries. An exact count hadn't been totaled yet, though it would be coming sometime today, as any Hunter's that hadn't made it back yet would be declared either MIA or KIA, depending on how they had been when last seen. Most will probably be declared KIA however, since I been knocked out, and easily farther than any other Hunter from Astera. Downside of traveling by Raphinos, can't really control where they go...

Elise went on to explain how Aiden and her had panicked at first when I was first thrown from the boat. They had calmed down slightly as they had seen me escape from Zorah via Raphinos. When I hadn't made it to Astera that same day though, they grew worried. Elise finished with how they had begged for a search team to go out to look for me, and other hunters of course. They were unsuccessful in doing so, and were prepared to head out themselves when Mercer stepped in, volunteering to search for lost Hunters himself.

Before we could talk more, my two friends were called away to help with some injured Hunters. Elise quickly apologized and dashed over. Aiden hesitated for a second before letting go, throwing me a silent nod before dashing over himself. It would take a bit for him to calm down, but eventually he would and he'd be back to his normal self.

Seeing as I was no longer occupied, I quickly rejoined Mercer, who was waiting for me patiently, a small smile on his face. Giving him my thanks, we continued on, Mercer guiding me further into Astera. It only took roughly five minutes before we reached out destination. It was abundantly clear that we had arrived when Mercer dashed forward, telling me to wait where I was. It seems he was reporting to the higher ups. It seems the one in charge was a grizzled old man of a Hunter, short grey hair and stubble of the same color crept down his cheeks. His skin was heavily tanned, with several heavily faded scars littering his face.

The man wore complex looking leather armor, though I noticed the same reinforced leather patch over the shoulder that Mercer had, must be a sign of leadership or something? Metal armor covered his arms and shins, with thicker plates on the right arm, and left knee. He wore a diverse leather belt with extra pouches and rope, in addition to the normal pouches, the scoutfly cage, and the normal Hunter's carving knife sheathed on his back. Separate strips of leather fell from the belt like banners, two of which were blank leather while two were stylized to look like the First Fleet banner.

I cut my observations short when the man fully stood from the table he was leaning on, which overlooked the, what I'm assuming to be, dock of Astera. Seeing as the man and Mercer were approaching me, I quickly did the Hunter's salute, recognizing the old man as a higher up.

"Gaia, meet my grandfather, Yusen. He is the Commander of Astera, the one in control of everything in Astera." Mercer stated proudly. I was very glad I was already saluting, but still straighter still, if possible, and gave a clear "Sir!"

Letting out a chuckle, the Commander motioned for me to be at ease, letting me relax my slowly cramping back. Those stupid salutes kill your back if you stand in them for longer than a few seconds. What followed was a debriefing of pretty much everything I already knew, just in more detail and with a few extra tidbits that didn't seem too important in my eyes. Normally, I would start tuning things out if I already knew what was being talked about, but the Commander's gruff voice, not to mention sheer presence, absolutely demanded attention, so not once did my focus waver.

It took what felt like forever, but eventually, the Commander finished his debriefing. No idea why he would debrief me, this should have been done with the Fifth Fleet Master. The Commander then sent us off with the slightly unnerving words. "Listen for a loud horn going off. It means a council is about to commence, and I need you there due to you being stuck in a unique scenario. I plan to deal with it afterwards."

While this shook my nerves slightly, I didn't let if affect me too much. And so, for the next hour, Mercer gave me a tour of Astera's main areas. We started with the Workyard, where we first started when we arrived. It acted as the main hub for where Hunters prepared for hunts. They could purchase supplies for hunts here, pick up small jobs to do alongside assignments from the Logistics Division, and off to the side of the Workyard was the main area for the Researchers, including a spot for studying monsters captured by Hunters. The Workyard also acted as Astera's only port. Next up was the Forging Area, or the Smithy as most called it. Built into the side of a cliff, it was far more industrial than the rest of Astera. Leading it was the Second Fleet Master, a gruff but jovial man covered in scars and missing an eye. He was originally a Hunter, but got too injured to continue hunting, but instead of returning to the Old World, he stayed in the New World, healing up before he trained himself to forge and upgrade gear despite his injuries.

The Canteen was next, where Hunters could eat a filling meal before hunts to give them the energy to fight. An extremely buff Palico with a scar over one permanently closed eye simply called the Meowscular Chef was in control of the Canteen. Obsessed with working out, he used a broken Palico greatsword as a chef knife. Rumor has it, he was originally the Palico partner of one of the First Fleet members before he was injured during a hunt, and was unable to continue fighting properly. I can't really believe that considering he moves easily, as if he was never injured.

The final stops were the Gathering Hub, a sort of party spot for Hunters. It was located in the ship stranded atop the mountain, called the Celestial Pursuit. And the other final stop, which wasn't really a location was the living quarters for the people of Astera. Instead of being one distinct location, the living quarters were spread across Astera. The quality of the living areas differed as you crossed Astera. Newer Hunters were usually bunked together in rooms on the lower levels. I was bunked with Aiden and Elise down by the Workyard, in one of the store rooms of the older ships, refurbished to be a bunk room. The more experience a Hunter gathers, or in other words, the more valuable the Hunter, the better the living area quality. Apparently, some of the top Hunters had entire parts of ships refurbished into top quality living quarters exclusively for them, sometimes even complete with Palicos playing instrument!

The end of the tour found Mercer and I back at the Canteen, enjoying some refreshing drinks while Mercer regaled me with some of the stories he had of Astera, and answering any questions I had remaining, which were none. "-so that's how the Meowscular Chef dove off the Workyard dock, chasing the sun glint being reflected off his own sword! We had to fish him out of the water usi-"

Mercer's embarrassing story involving the Meowscular Chef, much to said Palico's dismay, was interrupted by a blaring horn ringing out across Astera. The Field Team Leader gave me a quick look and nod, which I just as quickly returned. We both knew what the horn meant, it was almost time for Council meeting to begin, and we had to get there.

Thanks to Mercer's familiarity with Astera, it took less than ten minutes to get from the Canteen, across Astera, and to the meeting area on the other side of the Workyard, which was located on the other side of Astera, at the very lowest level.

Having reached the meeting table, Mercer and I stepped up. Also at the Council was, of course, the Commander. Also included was the Second Fleet Master, the Meowscular Chef, the Head Researcher, who I never got to meet as he was too engrossed in his research, and the three heads of the Logistics and Resources division, who were too busy coordinating the chaos of the Fifth Fleet arrival to introduce themselves back during the tour. A little ways behind the Commander was what looked to be a Hunter. They sat cross legged, and wore a mix of metal plate and green scaled armor, with a mini First Fleet banner hung like a tassel from their chest. Propped up against their shoulder was what looked like a longsword, enclosed in a sheathe made of the same green scales as part of their armor.

Seeing as apparently everyone had arrived, the Council began. For the next hour and a half, I stood bored as hell as the rest of the Council discussed matters which didn't really matter to me, but thanks to the serious nature of the Council, and also the Commander's attention grabbing voice, I was able to stay focused for the entire duration. The only real information that stood out to me was the casualty count. Just under a third of the entire Fifth Fleet was confirmed as either dead, or too injured to remain in the New World or continue as Hunters, Handlers, or whatever else. Of the remaining two thirds, roughly half suffered enough injury that they would need time to heal before they could be put on light duty. The remaining half only received minor injuries and could be given their duties immediately.

The other information that I deemed important was that, amongst those that died was the, at the time, current Fifth Fleet Master. Seeing as the Fifth Fleet needed a Master to act as the Council representative, and also take charge during larger operations, they couldn't leave the Fifth Fleet without one, but they also couldn't just choose someone at random, so instead, Mercer would act as a temporary Fifth Fleet Master until one was chosen properly. I truly did feel bad for the original Fifth Fleet Master. I had never met the guy, but he was apparently a pretty jovial gunlance user, though he had a fifty foot pole up his ass when it came to rules.

Nothing else really stood out to me, so I just remained silent the entire Council. I was ready to take a nap by the time it ended, though was snapped out of it when the Commander approached. Before I could stand in a Hunter's salute, the Commander waved me to be at ease.

In his usual gruff voice, the Commander began speaking. "With the Council finally over, I can deal with your scenario. To put in bluntly, we have no one to partner you with. There are no more handlers available to pair with you, we can't pair you with another A-list Hunter Handler combo, and all other groups are either at capacity, or have an A-list hunter already paired to them. Problem is, we can't leave you without a partner."

I could feel some dread beginning to form, but squashed it down with a heavy swallow. Remaining silent, I waited for the Commander to continue.

"However, thanks to your... unique... skillset, we might have a different solution available. Physically, you are well off, and you have beyond exceptional mental capability. Your skills with a weapon, though, are extremely lacking. As it stands, you only made A-list ranking thanks to your physical and mental prowess. So, hopefully, my plan is to pair you up with two... allies... of the Research Commission..." the Commander trailed off at the end.

Seeing me about to question him, the Commander gave a quick sigh, and began explaining, "These two aren't Hunters that fall under the Commission. Instead, they are considered allies of the Commission. We can't order them to do anything, but instead have to request their help if we need it, otherwise they do their own thing, and help the Commission of their own volition. I won't fully explain why they aren't Commission Hunters, though they used to be, until the Commission and Hunter's Guild nearly got them killed and they separated from us. My plan is to request that these two take you under their wing and train you. I can't ask them today, as they have spent the last few days in the local wild, making sure nothing comes to investigate the usual chaos of a fleet arriving at Astera. They will be here tomorrow, so I'll make the request then."

With one of my main questions answered, I asked my other burning question, "But why pair me up with Hunter's not a part of the Commission? Wouldn't it be easier to pair me up with one of the more experienced Hunters that fall under the Commission's banner?"

With a quick breath, the Commander began explaining, "There are two main reasons. One, is to hopefully better our connection with the two. As I said, the Commission and Hunter's Guild nearly got the two killed thanks to our negligence, so they separated from us. They eventually came back, but at the start our, for lack of a better term, relationship was rocky and tension filled at best. Now, we are far better off, but the relationship has a lot of room to improve. Second reason is, you are one of the best candidates to be the next Fifth Fleet Master, and they could train you to be one of the best fleet Masters out there."

This severely caught me off guard, leaving me a stuttering mess. I couldn't even form a proper sentence to question the Commander's apparent insanity. Seeing as I couldn't question him, the Commander answered my unspoken question.

"We need someone with more than just weapon skills, which can be taught easier than how to be a leader. Plus, you already have some of the necessary skills to be a good Fleet Master. I noted your great mental capabilities and decided to screen you for any leadership skills, testing you the entire time you were here, and I had Mercer observing you as well. You already have the observation skills needed, you know to respect those above you, and based off your two friends comments, have a great strategical mind when needed. Mercer also mentioned how you didn't panic when you got caught between two large monsters, and had the smarts to come up with a plan to get to Astera, even with little to no gear. You only lack respect from the rest of the Fifth Fleet due to you lack of weapon skill. Once you gain those skills, you should start gaining the needed respect. We also want a Hunter as Fleet Master, as most of the remaining Fifth Fleet is made of Hunters, and a good leader leads by example."

Seeing as I was still pretty heavily shocked and thrown even more off guard by the Commanders legitimate reasoning, I stupidly stuttered out, "B-but why not pair me u-up with another-er Fleet Master, or even M-Mercer, they are l-leaders, and could still tr-train me to use a weapon-on?"

Letting out a chuckle at my shock, the Commander simply stated, "These two have more time to train you than anyone else, and are better fighters than anyone else in the Commission. Plus what few leadership skills you are missing, these two have in spades. They'll hopefully teach you all that and more. That's what comes with, potentially, being trained by Astera's Twin Ace Legends, the two youngest Ace Hunters in recorded history."

And with that my mind completely shut down.

And with that, the third chapter is finally finished. It took way to long, and too many nights of staying up to around 1am, but its finally out.

As promised to TheDino27, I'll go through each point you made.

-Glad to see I can please a grammar nazi, being somewhat of one myself.

-I wanted to try to change up the usual trope I find of, MC can use weapon but lacks other skills needed, or MC has no skills whatsoever. However, Gaia is still human with emotions, and is prone to some stupid mistakes to defend her pride, like calling someone an idiot for an accidental insult, though I do plan for Gaia to be a bit of a spitfire once she opens up more.

-I try to do that, since I hate cutting during the action. I wanted to keep going with this chapter, but as you said, cutting at natural points with anticipation of what happens next is important, so I ended earlier than wanted cause I found that point.

-The humor is something based off me, as when I'm in a seemingly hopeless scenario, real world or otherwise, I default to sarcastic and slightly insulting humor. No idea why, it just happens, and I reflected that onto Gaia, who was faced with a large, unknown monster (even if it was only a Great Jagras) completely unarmed, then was later caught between said monster, and a larger, far more dangerous monster. Sounds like a pretty hopeless scenario to me. But trust me when I say that these won't happen often.

-Two reasons for this, one, I'm getting some world building for the first locales out of the way now since I will spend a bit more time here than the other main locales, so doing that saves time later. Second, this is natural for Gaia. She is naturally curios and observant. Subconsciously, she takes note of her surroundings and what she sees. It's her above normal mental capability at work. It might not be as much in the future as it is now, but do expect some more information than what is probably normally given with my story. Its just me keeping Gaia in character.

-Trust me when I say that this story will be branching out far more than canon, I'm just using the original story as a sort of guide to keep myself on track with progression. There will be more to it than just canon.

It was probably a bit egotistical for me to expect a big audience, I know. But my old stories got far bigger than I thought they would, and was guessing that some of those readers would check this out. That and, big is subjective to each person. For me, even just a mere 100 views is big to me, and this has over 200. A few reviews and follows is big to me. I don't want to come across as egotistical, and I write this story because the two characters that will be introduced next chapter originally started out as just characters created between me and my brother to play MHW with, that we, as a joke, made backstories for them, that turned to fully fleshed out characters with their own personalities. From there, this story was created. I wrote this because I enjoyed doing so, and because to not do so would be an insult to the efforts of my brother and I to establish Gaia and the other characters. If people get enjoyment out of the story along the way, all the better.

Okay, reviewer response over. I'll be heading out for now fellow Hunters, Handlers, and Researchers. So stay safe, you hear? -Ace Hunter Nov