Several days after defeating Solarion Vineyard the hunters were again gathered in the Aurora's meeting room. Instead of Signas, who had originally mentioned the mission to them, X was present.
“Hello everyone.” X started.
“Signas wanted to be the one to give this mission out… But he had some other work to attend to so he left it to me. So… I suppose we better get started then.”

X turned the screen on behind him and it began to display some data.
“In this mission you'll be headed to south Africa. Your objective is to help rescue the locals from a maverick base in the area and collect any illegal supplies they might have. We don't have much intel on the base right now. We only know it's in the area somewhere. Our scouts are still searching for it and they should have more to report back soon.” While X spoke of the area, the map behind him zoomed in and displayed a circle indicating the region the maverick base was suspected to be in.

“You'll start the mission tomorrow so take some time to get equipped. The area where you're headed is extremely hot. So if you're sensitive to heat you may want to pack extra cooling. That's all for now.” X finished the short briefing and left.

The next day the hunters assembled in the meeting room again. X was again at the front already.
“I hope you're all ready” He stated.
“The scouts have reported in and we've got a fix on the maverick's base. So we're teleporting you in and then getting you close via dropship. This base is heavily populated with maverick forces. And to make matters worse they are equipped with new weapons and armour. So be careful because it is currently unknown as to what these weapons are truly capable.” X paused for a moment to let what he'd stated sink in.

“Synchronize your clocks for 3 hours after arrival. Another shuttle will be there in 3 hours after you are dropped off to pick you up and any illegal supplies you recover.” stated X.

The hunters complied quickly and set their clocks. Within 30 minutes the hunters arrived at the drop off point. While they descended Zero chimed in with some final comments: “Activate your clocks now. Don’t get left behind. And the shuttle is being prepped now so it will be ready in time for the pick up. Once this transmission is over go into radio silence.” The hunters piled out of the dropship, and the ship flew off leaving the hunters in the middle of the desert.

“Mission start” said one hunter to the others.

The desert was hot and the sand dunes were high. Little wind was about so it made for relatively easy walking, despite the heat. Several of the reploids had made arrangements to bring ice weapon chips and water to help cool off which helped ease things. As they continued toward the encampment's location they noticed that there were no signs of maverick activity at all. Even as they got closer to the base.

Several of the higher ranking hunters seemed nervous about this fact while the rookies of the group didn't seem to notice or care and instead just kept quiet. The group snuck into the encampment and gathered near the doors of one of the larger buildings. A few seconds later, on queue, they broke down the doors and went rushing into the building. The only thing in the building was an automated holographic message which was sitting in the middle of the floor.

“Greetings hunters, my name is Terra Groundhog” the message stated, having started automatically. Revealing the maverick general in the area to the Hunters. “I am in control of this facility… Though you pitiful hunters will never find it again after I kill you” and with those words the ground rumbled and a monstrous machine burst out of the sand dunes, sending one of the nearby buildings crashing to the ground while the hunters scrambled outside to see what the heck was going on. “Later hunters” he called as the monstrous ship began to move. Aboard the ship gigantic guns started to appear from hatches and take aim at the hunters.

“That explains why the base was so hard to find… It was a giant ship they kept moving around.” One hunter stated. “Hey, less time talking and more time catching up.” Another shot back.

With that the hunters scrambled to get to the giant ship as it moved, dodging shots from the cannons as they fired. Several of the hunters returned fire to take out some of the cannons and make it easier to get aboard. Soon enough all the hunters had made it onto the ship.

One of the hunters took a shot at one of the ship's treads with the Explosion Crash weapon and caused the whole tread to break down. With that the ship began to slow while smoke billowed from the side of the ship as machines inside futilely kept running and trying to propel the ship forward. The ship eventually came to a grinding halt in the sand.

“Ah, what have you done to my ship” Terra Groundhog shouted as he burst from the deck.

Terra began to use the ruins of the ship to burrow in and out of, popping up from spots all over to take shots at the hunters. After he had jumped from yet another hole in the hull, one of the hunters shot down in after him. He began to use his Explosion Crash to cause the inside of the ship to collapse and to help block off the routes that Terra could take to get around inside. Others also began to use their weapons to limit Terra's mobility. Some hopped inside the ship also and helped there.

Soon the routes were extremely limited and Terra reappeared in the only visible open route to the top of the ship, angry that they would block his routes. He fired several drills at the Hunters who simply leaped out of the way to dodge the clumsy attack.

More hunters hurried inside the ship. One got a glancing blow that caused Terra to fumble. And that same Hunter used the opportunity to slice Terra's chest wide open… Leaving an icy trail to further rip the wound open. Terra managed rise enough to get some shots off even striking the hunter who sliced him open first, at the cost of another hunter plunging swords into his back. Terra slumped forward, but the damage to the hunter caused their team to whip into a frenzy and rip Terra apart. Ensuring that the maverick was truly dead.

With the destruction of the maverick the insides of the mobile base stopped entirely and all the inside doors opened. Upon investigation for further mavericks they noticed more of that blue blood they had encountered on other missions. They also found several plans for machines and long complex codes written on scraps of paper. The codes seemed to be highly advanced chemical cocktails. The hunters gathered them all up and placed them into a bag to deliver to their R&D section.

One of the hunters turned to the ruins of Terra Groundhog and noticed the sparking core still partially intact. They grabbed the weapon core and acquired the data. Soon that weapon data was made available to all the active hunters.

The clocks that the hunters had synchronized beeped, indicating that the time had passed and the shuttles would be arriving. Within seconds of that beep the roar of giant engines was heard overhead and a highly specialised team swept in and began attaching hooks to the machine. While the hunters loaded themselves into the shuttles they saw the giant mobile lab being raised up to be carted back for Hunters to comb through in even more detail.