Hourly Challenge: From the Ground

a/n: H.B. takes his trainee Veena the OC on one last mission before she's a registered Pathfinder. They're planting a Frontier Nav probe. Miranium comes from the ground, right?

All the good things belong to Monolith Soft, and if I don't name the two extra OCs I don't have to keep them.

H.B. looked at his Pathfinder team with righteous disappointment. None of them were up to planting a Frontier Nav probe, the simplest job assigned to his division. One was chattering into her comm device, oblivious to the mission. The other was leaning against his long sword, half asleep, in such a careless manner that even Frye would have had words with the man. Both of them were an insult to the integral nature of Pathfinding.

At a slight distance, Veena was inspecting the edges of the area, a serious expression on her face. Her dark eyes missed nothing, he was sure of it. Even if she'd never planted a probe in her life, the trainee was the shining star of the group. H.B. gave himself a pat on the shoulder for that. Veena had been tagging along with him for a month, and he was almost ready to recommend her for the division. He'd organized this outing mostly to give her the final experience needed to complete the prerequisites.

The typical instruction program would have begun with this task, but H.B. had never been in favor of accepting the typical. He couldn't avoid the humdrum either, and so there they were, ready to place a probe on the edge of a sparsely-occupied area of Noctilum. The Prospectors were excited to add a node that would connect two high-producing probes into the greater web. Unimportant as this point on the map might be in itself, it formed part of the greater future of NLA.

H.B. cleared his throat and decided that he would provide a refresher class for everyone in the party. "Before we plant the probe, may I have your attention?"

"Okay, absolutely, let me call you back, the wind's starting to blow," the chatty BLADE said into her device. She closed the screen but didn't pocket it. She nudged the sleepy BLADE, who lurched slightly on his toes. He dragged his eyes open, scraped his chin with the back of his fist, and looked unhappily at his team leader.

H.B. frowned at Chatty and Sleepy. He hadn't learned their names in NLA, and nothing they'd done during the journey had increased H.B.'s interest. "Ahem. I have a quick query. Where would you place the probe?"

"What is this, a pop quiz?" shrilled Chatty.

"Humor me."

Sleepy scuffed the sand below his feet. "Here's fine. Soft. Get it done, man."

H.B. glared at Chatty, who was already peeking at her screen. She looked up into the surrounding silence. "Oh, yeah, sand's bad. We need something harder or whatever." She had dropped her gaze back into her hand before she'd finished her sentence.

H.B. looked at Veena with exasperation. Surely she would have something intelligent to add. He was not disappointed. Veena was looking pointedly at the edge of the clearing, studying the terrain next to a rocky outcropping. Even without words, she had given him the correct answer, and diplomatically as well, not speaking so as not to outshine the veterans, sorry as they were. He was proud of her. Probes were most durable when located in specific conditions. The ground next to large rock formations tended to be more compact, the "something harder" that Chatty had mentioned.

He smiled and started to walk towards the location. Then he stopped in his tracks. Veena wasn't moving, and she had quietly pulled her dual guns out, not her standard weapon but she'd switched when he'd gently suggested that they hardly needed a second assault rifle in the party when he was around. He froze and took the time to scan the area himself. A slight breeze ruffled the petals of the wildflowers spread around the rock. No matching breeze caressed his skin. His glance met Veena's and he slowly brought his shield forward.

The mortifoles rose into the air as a chiming curtain of violence. H.B. blocked their opening acid attack, leaving Veena free to cloak their unworthy colleges with a quick round of Ghost Factory. Their useless teammates protected, the two of them were free to focus on the gratifyingly obvious task of clearing a meadow of flying floral enemies.

a/n: It would serve H.B. absolutely right if I turned Veena into an over-powered Ether Blossom Dance monster. It would probably also keep him alive. Either that or she switches to Gatling gun like her good buddy Frye and Mr. Secretary himself. Thoughts?