On your way to the edge of town, you consider your options and decide to go on the mission. After all, Tendou has human needs, like food, and you will need more fuel eventually. Wandering the wilds when there is a city right here would be shortsighted.

You'll just have to be careful dealing with the people there. Though that's mostly a problem for Tendou to deal with.

Let's go meet Mouse. We should at least find out what kind of mission it is.

If it sounds like some kind of suicide mission, you just reconsider your options then.

Having settled on the path ahead, Tendou nods a few times in the cockpit, and responds, “Yeah, let's just do what we can.”

It's only a short way on that you spot another ray frame in the distance, between two buildings. It takes a better look once you get closer to ID the unit though. It's an Ocelot, with the torso of an Arctic Fox.

Or perhaps it's the other way around. An Arctic Fox with all of its limbs replaced, like yourself. It's hard to say, exactly.

The person leading you on the ground simply points, then runs off as the other huge machine turns in your direction. You pick up a radio communication, simply broadcast out to the whole area. It's audio, so you give a small beep to alert Tendou, before playing it through the speakers.

“You're Strider?” a woman's voice comes.

Tendou looks up a bit, then responds, “Yeah. Mouse?”

Hold on, I'm figuring out how to do that.

Tendou is looking, presumably at you, quizzically, while you dig into your basic comms unit, checking how to make it send out an unencrypted, open wave broadcast like that, without a specific target. It takes some prodding, clearly not having been designed with it being specifically in mind, but you soon find a way to make it work.

Thankfully, you work fast, so he barely has to wait two seconds for your follow up.

Alright, I've got it.

You slide your words along the monitor to draw Tendou's eyes, from the center where you normally show them, off to the side, near where you've been leaving your weapon and ammo status displayed at the far edges. Then you change the message.

I'll put comms over here for now.

Then you trace out a couple lines to delineate the section, and log a transcription of her message, in case he ever wants to check again it later.

Alright, speak again.

“Yeah. Mouse?” He sounds a lot more stiff this time, the way he's repeating his words instead of just saying them naturally. You take the message anyway, and broadcast over the surrounding airwaves.

At the same time, you log his message too, and add on a note beside it, that you're going to put a button on-screen that he can hit to just send a message. That way, he won't need to tell you every time he wants to broadcast something. He can just indicate visually by tapping that.

It takes a little work digging through the image data you've collected, but you manage to put together something approximating a radio antenna and pop that into the comms box for him to see. He's starting to nod when you receive another message and play it.

“Yeah.” That's it. Tendou is just beginning to question the overly short message when Mouse opens her cockpit and pokes her head out past the still-lowered shroud to wave at you.

Tendou does the same, opening the cockpit while you pull your shroud up. But she misses his initial wave, ducking back into her own cockpit long enough to get her own armor plating lifted out of the way.

Once the pair of pilots can properly see each other, Tendou waves again. “Hey. So, uhh, what's this mission about exactly?” he asks. If it wasn't for Pilot Assist pointing it out, you wouldn't notice the shift in his demeanor. Apparently his heart rate is elevated and sitting posture is more rigid than normal.

You can't particularly say why though. His apparent nerves aren't reflected in his voice, and he looks like there's nothing wrong, so you let it go for now and pay attention to the woman for her explanation.

“Boa went out yesterday and never came back. We're supposed to go look for him.”

“Oh, alright,” he responds, surprised by the simplicity of the request. “So, where are we looking for him?”

“Don't know.” She shrugs, before leaning back in her pilot seat and sighing. “I was told he left through this gate, so south, southwest maybe?”

“Wait, like...” he leans out of the cockpit, to turn and point, out across the expanse of wilderness in that general direction.

“Yeah.”

“So... uh, how are we going to do this?” Tendou asks.

“Well, we can start off by just heading out, see if we can find a trail. He's in a heavier ray, so depending on where he walked, there might be tracks left somewhere.”

“Mm...” Of course Tendou looks concerned with that plan. “Alright then,” he agrees anyway. He slides back, and closes the cockpit, signalling Mouse to do the same.

Looking up briefly, he whispers, “Can you just keep comms open for now?”

Sure, I'll broadcast everything you say in realtime now. Just give me some kind of signal when you want me to stop.

He nods. Then after a short pause, while you get that set up, he speaks again.

“So, we're just starting out that way?” and he points southwest. Like earlier, a broadcast comes back, and you immediately play it.

“Yeah, let's get going.” You both set off, working your way through the remaining buildings while moving toward the lightly forested surroundings.

“So it's Boa, right? He's in something heavy? What kind of ray are we looking for?”

“Yeah, Boa, he's in a modified Cobra. It's more of an upper-medium type, ten-meter class. Dark blue.”

“Wait, a dark blue Cobra? Does it have, uhh, uhh...” he squints, trying to remember, and you jump in to help him out.

Elaran

“Does it have Elaran arms?” If it's the right one, then that is the ray you saw on your way into town yesterday.

“Yeah, that's the one,” Mouse confirms.

“I actually saw him on my way into town!” Tendou says excitedly. “It was actually pretty far south from here. I can show you the spot.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Oh my god, please. If we actually have a starting point, that'll make this way easier.”

“Sure, over this way.” Stepping into the lead, Tendou turns south, starting to zig-zag through the increasingly ruined buildings as you tread further from the still-operating city center. You expand the rough map of your surroundings for him, and after some thinking back mark out an area in red, where you think you saw the Cobra.

Moving at a good clip, you get there after a short while. You turn in a circle, Tendou looking over the surrounding area intensely. “Yeah, this was the place,” he confirms. “I was...” A few more steps. “Here. He was over...” and you turn, pointing, “there.”

“Let's check it out,” Mouse adds in, as you both walk over.

“So, he was walking this way...” You take a few steps forward. “He went past these buildings, got to the treeline here, and went this way. With Mouse falling in at your side, you start to walk the way Boa went.

“Good, good, I can work with this, Mouse says, her frame's head quickly swiveling from side to side. Before long, she takes the lead instead. “Should be over this way...”

You follow along for some time, before Mouse finally stops. “Not picking up anything obvious, give me a minute.” She goes still, and it's unclear what she's working on for some time. Tendou looks around, brows furrowed, then reaches over and taps the broadcast button you made earlier. That's a good enough signal for you, so you close out the open comms.

Comms closed now.

“Alright. What's she doing?” he asks, eyeing the statuesque frame from the side.

I can't tell. Probably using a sensor of some kind, but it's nothing that I'm able to pick up.

“Mm, alright, guess we'll just wait.” He gives a small nod of acceptance, then leans over and taps the button again, so you open comms once more.

You have to wait a couple more minutes before Mouse finally speaks again. “Alright, it looks like I'm getting something toward the west, let's try that way.”

When you begin walking again, Tendou asks, “So, what kind of sensor is that?”

“Seismic,” she answers simply. “Some ray frames are heavy enough to leave an impression on the rock beneath the ground where they walk. It's tricky and you have to know what to look for. Doesn't really work on all rock types though, but with some luck, and some skill, it'll usually work out.”

You've hardly walked two hundred meters when you find a giant footprint, and she adds on, “Of course, soft ground is always best,” with a chuckle.

You follow the footprints further, until they disappear on hard terrain once more, and again rely on her seismic sensors. Like that, you pick up the trail, and continue to follow it off into the wilderness.

The trip is slow-going, with as much time stopped on segments of hard ground as following normal tracks. Each time you stop, Mouse spends minutes searching out the apparently miniscule traces of movement to follow and find the next lead. “This is why I'll always have a job,” she comments along the way.

You're a few hours in, coming up beside a pretty sheer cliff face, when she finally curses. “Damn, I'm not getting anything this time.”

“Well, he was going this way, so he probably kept moving along the cliff,” Tendou guesses. “Unless you think he scaled it?” It's a pretty high cliff, taller than you are. With a thruster assisted jump, you could clear it, but only just.

“Hmm, I doubt it...” Mouse grumbles. “He'd be too heavy to make it up without leaving some kind of damage. Let's keep going this way.” With that, you continue on, moving slowly while searching for any visual signs.

Unfortunately, a half hour of carefully treading along the cliff-face, and nothing presents itself. You end up giving up and returning to where you lost the trail.

“Where did you go, Boa...?” Mouse mumbles, while both of them stand and look around. After a short time, Mouse opens her cockpit. She grabs some kind of handle and hops out, despite the height. It turns out to be some kind of pulley, with a line that slows down her descent to the ground below.

“Hmm?” Tendou slides forward, then opens his own cockpit. Looking up at the edge of the cockpit, he grabs at a similar looking handle and gives it a pull. It comes out, a thin line connected to it. He steps up to the edge, sitting on it uncertainly, and holds tight to the pulley's handle, sliding off.

As soon as he goes over the edge, Tendou starts to fall, slowed the same way she was. He reaches the ground with a small stumble, hesitantly releasing the handle, which hangs in place, swinging slightly on its long wire.

Tendou walks over to where Mouse is standing, saying something to her that you can't hear from where you are, and the two of them spend some time looking around, pointing between the cliff and scattered trees.

Then Tendou points at a low crevice, and begins walking over that way. Mouse stands with her hands on her hips, continuing to frown at the surroundings, until he runs back over, much more excited this time. That prompts both of them to climb back into their ray frames. While she does so with ease, Tendou looks over the pulley handle briefly, before hitting something on it which causes it to reel in, scooping him up from the ground with a distinct yelp.

He makes it back up safely enough, flopping into the pilot seat with a loud huff. “Don't know if I'll get used to that,” he comments, shaking himself.

Did you find something?

While you couldn't make out their words, that looked to be the case. He nods quickly, opens his mouth, then gives an uncertain look. Oh, right, he did well catching himself there, actually.

Comms are closed.

You note that, then add a marker for him over by the rest of the communication logs, so he can always tell at a glance.

“Over there,” he points, “it looks like the gap might be just big enough to squeeze through. Maybe he went that way.” That sounds promising, but when your group approaches, it doesn't turn out so well.

“No way,” Mouse says over comms, “We might be able to get through there if we really try, but a bigger frame like his would never make it. Not without leaving half his paint on those walls, at the very least.” She's right, it would be a tight squeeze for you, sliding through sideways while simultaneously ducking, because the gap is only seven or eight meters tall.

“Damn, I thought I was on to something there...” Tendou grumbles. You walk over to the crevice, leaning to glance into its darkened depths, and give the wall a shove-

It moves.

Tendou comes up short at the controls, then gives it another test. It feels like it rocks a little whenever you push against it. “Hey, hey, this moves!” he shouts excitedly.

“It what?” she questions, coming over to look.

“Check this out, when I push here, this part moves.” He pushes harder, and you can tell this time, this section of stone isn't one piece with the rest of it. It's more of a boulder, just resting against the cliff. With enough force, and Mouse joining in to help, you roll the boulder a little bit, uncovering that the crevice is just a little bit wider at the base than it initially appeared.

“Think he could get through there?” Tendou asks.

“He... might. Don't know why he would though,” Mouse answers uncertainly. “But it's not like we have any better leads. Let's take a look.” She kneels low, shoves her arm into the gap, and pauses briefly. “It opens up further inside, can't say how far it goes though.”

With a surprising amount of work, she gets her ray down on all fours, needing to crawl to make it through the area at the base of the crevice. With much less trouble, Tendou does the same, and you both squeeze through the gap.

Everything is dark briefly, as they crawl through. Then, as described, the narrow tunnel-like section opens up again, and you even get a little light to see by. It looks like some cracks overhead let it filter down into here. It doesn't last long though. You soon reach another low spot, the ground pitching up sharply as well, so you have to continue to crawl through the gap, uphill this time.

It takes a minute, and then you're out. Bright sunlight arrives as you arrive, apparently, on the far side of the cliff. Standing and looking back at it, Mouse comments, “It must be a gap between two sections of the rock face. Look.”

From this side, it's easier to tell some of the cracking is more visible here. “So, I guess we keep going?” Tendou asks, turning to look at the path ahead. And it's much more of a path. The ground here is much more rough and craggy, you've just found a slightly more flat strip where nothing is too steep to navigate, given your size. The whole area is only a dozen or so meters across before the rocky terrain becomes becomes largely impassible.

You set off once more, and immediately know you're on the right track when there's a small tree trunk, shattered into splinters like it was stepped on. The damage even looks to be the size of the footprints you've been following.

Moving on, it turns out this area has many branching paths, but they all branch backward, from the way you came. The path ahead remains clear, intermittent footsteps or other signs of passage leading you on.

It's not ten minutes later when you find Boa. You immediately recognize the Cobra in the distance when the winding crags turn to bring him into sight. You both pick up your pace, approaching quickly, until you stop. Boa's ray is very clearly damaged. The legs hang limp and lifeless, so he's dragging himself forward with just his arms, ever so slowly coming toward you.

“Hey! Some help?” Boa immediately broadcasts.

“What happened?” Mouse asks, advancing much more slowly now.

“Hex. Got a lucky cheap shot before I took it out. Now I can't walk.”

“Are there any more?” She's already drawing the gun from the holster on her back, so Tendou does the same, pulling out the Mitchell. You check her weapon, silently outlining it with a popup for him to look over.

He glances over the description, seeing that it's a Fira MKII marksman rifle, and decides to move up, taking point with his shorter range weapon.

Thankfully, as Boa is telling you that he took out all the hex himself, none pop out to prove him wrong. You arrive at his downed ray, look all around, and the area appears safe enough.

“Can you help me get out of here?” he requests.

“Sure,” Mouse agrees easily enough, “but why were you all the way out here in the first place?”

“Just clearing hex,” he answers nonchalantly. “Too many in this area, so I was trying to get rid of them. Hit more resistance than I expected though, one got behind me.”

There's a pause, then you receive another transmission, this one from Mouse, but encrypted, and only for you. You make sure to let Tendou know, before you play this one.

Closed channel message from Mouse.

“Sounds like he was up to something. Think we should check it out?”

Tendou glances to the side before speaking to you. “What do you think?”

But you don't have a chance to answer before Mouse sends another message. “No, no, nevermind,” she backtracks, “not part of our job. We're just supposed to bring him back with us.”

There's a pause, just long enough for you to come up with a response to Tendou's question. Investigate your suspicion, or get out of here?

At the same time, Tendou mutters, “Why does she sound like she wants to check it out?”

----------------------------------------

[ ] Look into this further

[ ] Take Boa and go

[ ] Write-in