It's been far too long. I'm sorry. Red Ring Reimu !g/OFHYXEWQ 2011/03/08 (Tue) 10:30 No. 136053 "It's good to see you again, Hunter Ricrist. I see you brought along company to assist you in this mission."
You found yourself in front of the Principal in short order, without realizing it. You also happened to bring Reisen with you, who's just behind you, without thinking much of it. You don't know how difficult these missions might be, but having backup is always a good idea.
"Yes, I hope you don't mind, I expect these missions from you to be very difficult."
"It's fine, in fact this operation is open to all hunters. It is just you that is the beneficiary to this group." Beneficiary? What does he mean by that? Before you can ask though, the Principal continues on with the briefing. "Allow me to get straight to the point, however. A way to the Central Dome was opened by our military recently, however upon investigating our research crew was reportedly attacked by large groups of hostile wildlife. There has already been numerous casualties amongst the military to these violent beasts...so I would like you to head the expedition to exterminate the enemy party waiting there."
"So what is it that you need us to do?"
"Simply clear out the surrounding area of aggressive wildlife and our teams will take care of the rest. It is something we need to leave up to you Hunters." You're quite curious about that notion. An entire army can't handle a pack of vicious animals so they send two lone mercenaries out there instead? Sounds fishy to you. You'll wait and see, however. "My secretary, Marisa, will brief you on the rest of the details." With a short pause after closing his eyes, the principal says one last thing to you. "...I'm counting on you."
He's counting on you, he says. He sounds so serious and forlorn when he says it.
Silly humans.
You turn around and look at Reisen, who was standing away from you and the principal behind you. You motion her to come over to the secretary desk with you and she obliges. There, Marisa fills you in on the mission details.
"Right, I'll brief you on the mission the principal wishes to give you. It's quite simple, orders are to exterminate the giant wild animals that are running rampant in front of the central dome. They are unlike anything else where on the surface and are highly dangerous." Marisa looks almost as if she's lecturing you on this. You feel a little undermined. But at the same time, it feels totally different to how she greeted you last time. Something must be on her mind. Or maybe it's just her being a dumb blonde. "Well, I'm sure 'great' and 'excellent' hunters such as yourselves are well equipped for such battles. Just take the teleporter and break a leg. Just don't do that literally." Yeah, just her being blonde. God you hate blondes.
"Right. Reisen, let's go then." Your partner nods softly and turns towards the exit. You're about to head down the same path until Marisa gets your attention once more.
"Uh, hold on. Do you know about the Hunter named Reimu?"
"...not that I can recall. Why?"
"Well...if you find her whereabouts, please report to me immediately. Got it, ze?"
"...sure thing."
Reimu...strange, you've never heard that name before. Yet, it sounds so important...you better keep an ear out for this. Well, figuratively.
You carry on with Reisen down to the surface level of Gensokyo. The part of the forest you're sent to with her is vastly different. The geography is quite rugged, and the foliage is much thicker. You must be much deeper into the Magic Forest then your previous jobs have sent you. Shortly after beaming down, you look up at the sky. A dark, thick overcast hangs overhead. The color of water vaguely visible within the folds of the clouds covering the sky.
It's going to rain soon.
"Ricrist..."
"What is it, Reisen? You're not getting cold feet now, are you?" You ask her, noticing she is holding her rifle a little differently. The emotion on her face is quite real, but you still have a hard time reading it. It's common thing amongst Androids, even such as real as Reisen. However, you can tell the look she gives you when she turns over to you. She looks rather serious.
"Are you fully aware of the story behind the Hakurei 1?"
"I believe it was a colony departed from our previous home planet to scout out for a new habitat for the humans who built us." Your wording, as you already know, isn't any more or less correct in a political sense of the term, but even though Reisen is asking you seriously, she is a member of your own 'race' so to speak, so you believe she knows what you're saying. "The second ship that we just left carried most of the civilians and population, while the majority of the government and military was on the first one."
"That is correct," Reisen starts saying as she nods. "The Hakurei 1 was built in such a way that it could be easily dismantled. It was used to build what we know as the Central Dome, set up right here in this forest. It was meant to be the base of operations for the government, as it carried the entire military, most of our colony's scientists and many, many politicians." When she finishes telling you this, something strikes you suddenly.
"The entire military...so what you are saying, is that the current fighting force the government on the Hakurei 2 has right now..."
"They are all draftees. Inexperienced in the ways of combat. It is as such why we're here, as Hunters."
"So we're basically pawns to the government now, doing all their dirty work for them..." Reisen closes her eyes a bit regretfully.
"So be it as it may, we are all they have at their disposal at the moment." Part of you no long feels like going on. The rebellious side of you, that little piece of programming that tells you right from wrong, is saying that something is fishy, and that the Principal isn't telling you the whole truth. However, a job is a job and your programming inherent to your working habits overpowers this suspicion. You can't help though, to continue speculating.
"So the Hakurei 1 was designed to be our preliminary migration vessel. But no one from the Hakurei 2 has been able to contact anyone from the first ship since it landed and built the dome."
"Yes, it was intended to be the first populated colony here on Gensokyo. But as no confirmation could come in from it shortly after it arrived, the Hakurei 2 could not land." Reisen then looks at you again, opening her eyes once more. "If there is no one inside the Hakurei 1, then there is no doubt that there are no survivors here on Gensokyo, especially with these wild animals about...don't you agree?"
If that's the case, then...why are you down here in the first place? Although, something else does strike you as a bit odd. Reisen has been looking at you quite intently, and confidently.
"Before we go on, may I ask how you know all of this? You seem to know a lot about the Hakurei 1, despite obviously not having been on it." Choosing to ignore you and instead, brush off your question, she readies her weapon, looking outward towards the goal.
"If you must ask, that is classified information. But if you were going to take missions from the Principal himself, I wanted you to be sure of what you were getting yourself into before it was too late." Your own sword in hand, you believe now would be ample time to get the mission started.
"In that case, there is no need to say anything more. I know what's coming to me. I've known for a long time."
Yes, there was a time where you believed everyday would be the same mundane job over and over again. Then when you got older, you stopped. Now, in your guild of Hunters, you knew that was death lurking around every corner.
"There! Ricrist, behind you!"
Slash.
"Reisen, nine o'clock!"
Blam.
"Cover me!"
"I'm on it!"
Despite your differences as androids, the two of you make a good team of short ranged power and long ranged skill. Before long, most of the aggressive animals have bit the dust. You can see the Central Dome now. The large building is certainly huge. Thought not as big as you expected it to be. Perhaps the Hakurei 1 wasn't quite as big as the Hakurei 2. You think however, you've cleared a path here.
"I think we're done now. That was quite simple."
"Don't say that, Ricrist. You'll jinx us."
"I believe in no such thing."
As if right on cue, you feel the storm coming in. The light drizzle that started when you began fighting monsters has now turned into pouring rain. Due to your age, it dulls some of your senses a bit. Not by much though. Reisen, who appears to be a much newer model, is probably much more immune to the rain.
Which is just what you're about to be thankful for.
"Ah...Ricrist. Do you see it?"
"See...what?"
"It's coming..." Then, she practically snaps. "...! Get away!!"
Just as you're about to move, she grabs your wrist and high tails it out of there. The speed of her escape is just barely enough to keep both of you from being flattened by a massive beast, easily three times your size. The behemoth would easily dwarf a racast. With two small glowing eyes and two utterly gigantic horns, you can see that it's no ordinary animal. It's head looks as if it has merged with it's shoulders, bringing them out of proportion along with it's arms. The mighty limbs attached to said shoulders looks as if they could heave boulders four times it's size.
This is going to be no pushover.
"Ugh, Ricrist-"
"No time!"
With a swift movement, you get back up and pick up your sword, and take a swing at the monster as it flings it's hardy fist at you. Your blade meets it's knuckles with a terrifying clash. Despite putting all your strength into your swing, you nearly feel your arms snapping in two. Due to this, you're not quite ready for another attack. But while you only have one sword, the beast has two arms, and it's second arm is ready to lay it's meat into you.
"RICRIST!"
You don't have any time to react to the fist flying into you, but Reisen in meantime had her rifle ready. Just as you look to see the fingers curled up and ready to bear into you, you feel a sharp damage point enter into your upper back, causing you fall face first into the ground and barely dodging the knuckle sandwich you were about to eat. While you're trying to get back up, you hear a couple more gunshots and the behemoth above you growling very angrily. By the time you get up, you see that it's walked over you and started tumbling over towards your frightened partner. You can't save her though, as your weakened state causes you to get up and reclaim your weapon far too slowly. You have no choice but to watch as Reisen is backed into a wall, shooting the beast randomly in a panic before she is quite literally swatted into the wall like a poor defenseless fly.
"Urgh...!"
"Reisen! Dammit!"
If there's one thing you can't stand for, it's seeing one of your own comrades taking a brutal bullet for you. That should have been you that got bench pressed. Now, you're about to return the favor.
With your sword now drawn again and the monster's back turned to you, you give it one more go. You lay the sword down edge first straight through the giant's back. You cut a long gash down it that'll permanently disfigure it's rear side. Despite howling in pain, it still has enough attention span to swiftly turn around and take another swipe at you. However, you're much better prepared as you deftly block it with your sword planted into the ground. The two of you exchange a few more blows until you manage to roll under it's feet for one ending execution. Before it can turn around, you leap up into the air and onto it's back, plunging your weapon down into it's flesh. Even from your position, you can see your sword grotesquely vomit out the beast's bloodied mouth. After removing your sword and stepping back onto the ground, the massive animal flops onto the ground lifeless. The threat is dead.
All things considered, you took it's hits rather well. Of course, this is likely because it was sufficiently weakened by you and Reisen before you even took one it's bulging fists to the face. Your dear partner on the other hand, wasn't so lucky.
You prop her back up, sitting against the wall she was flattened against. She appears to be 'unconscious' for the most part. Although not really 'unconscious' more then her systems having an emergency shut down. The likely case is that she took such an intense amount of damage all at once that her systems shut itself down in fear of important circuitry receiving shock damage and permanently destroying her system, or her 'heart' if you will.
It's a bit less comparable to being 'unconscious' when put that way, but compromises have to made when comparing two totally different species.
Her body is lifeless. But upon closer examination, she still has power coursing through her. It should be safe, but on the other hand, you also don't know her all that well yet.
[ ] Attempt to turn Reisen back on
[ ] Take her back as-is