After a day had passed and the hunters were all settled in, had their injuries taken care of and had their rooms. An air of peace and calm seemed to take over. Especially since the bustle of the city had been replaced by the quiet of space thanks to their stationing aboard the Aurora Space Platform.
The hunter's peace was soon interrupted though when over the intercom they heard “Commander X requests the following hunters to report to the mission briefing room…” the speaker reeled of a list of names. Within 5 minutes the hunters were standing in the room anxiously awaiting to find out what was going on.
“Congratulations rookies on your first battle. No doubt many of you will do very well here. While it's unfortunate that we had few casualties, thankfully not much damage was done to the surrounding areas. Though Hunter HQ was fairly damaged in the attack, the teams are hard at work rebuilding it better than ever.” X stated.
“The first mission I want you guys to go on is set in New York.” X stated as he turned to the mission computer behind him and it flickered it on, displaying a write up of the missions and a graphical representation of the terrains of the area.
“There is a maverick general leading a small army of mechaniloids through the area causing damage. Track that maverick down and stop them before they cause much more damage to the area and people in the area. I'll have a bit more for you once you're in the area. Hunters… Good luck.” X finished his briefing and the hunters hurried to the teleporter.
After the Hunters arrived in New York, X opened the communication lines. “This is your first real mission in an urban environment… Try to avoid damage to the surrounding buildings because the more damage you do the more we have to cover and our money supply is limited in lieu of the last weeks events. But as for the mission, the maverick should be close by, confront and capture if possible, the mechaniloids will likely be large in number so be careful. X out.”
The hunters progressed quickly, following the rather large trail of destruction left in the wake of the maverick force. They engaged some of the force that had gotten left behind and was currently picking away at the area. Buster shots and saber slashes took them out, though they didn't want to waste a lot of time focusing on just a few that were left while the maverick got further ahead and did more damage. So they took careful shots, picked their targets and ignored small mechaniloids that weren't causing much damage until later when they could be picked up by a support team later.
While the hunters pursue the maverick, they can hear several explosions racking the city. Then they hear the telltale crack of a building beginning to collapse. Another explosion was heard by the hunters and this one was much closer. Soon a third explosion resounded and it was extremely close. Then the ground exploded under their feet, creating a gaping hole in the ground, and the maverick leaped up from underground.
“my name is Bombardier Panthieron and I'll be here to kill all of you.” he growled.
The battle with the maverick didn't last a very long time. Despite being a tough sounding maverick and having an immensely powerful attack, he proved to be actually extremely weak. (Most of his ability was geared for offence rather than defence.) After destroying the maverick, one of the hunters reached down and grabbed the maverick's weapon data. It only took a few seconds for the transfer to complete and the other hunters to receive the weapon.
At once X opened the communication channel and explained what happened. “Sorry hunters in the rush for this mission I forgot to tell you of one of your armour's abilities. Whenever you defeat a maverick and touch their weapon module, your armour will automatically acquire it and spread it to every active hunter. So this way no matter where you are if the others defeat a maverick general, you'll get the power they get too.”
With the maverick general gone, the hunters finished mopping up the mechaniloids in the city. During the clean up they noticed more of the strange blue 'blood'. One of the hunters opened their comm and asked about it. All hunters then heard: “If you find any more of that blue 'blood' be sure to get a sample and bring it back to base. They are still analysing the first sample but we could use another sample to compare it to. There may be some differences and anything we can get to help figure out what it is and what it's for would be useful.”
This mission was originally set to occur at the same time as another mission (the third chapter specifically) but what actually happened was those on this mission finished first and then later joined the other mission. But for sake of story this has been modified so that this mission came first and then the jungle mission came next.