Maven and Lilly waved goodbye to Gray and Geoff as they drove off and out of the city once more. Gray and Geoff may not have received any merits from that 'quest', but they both giggled like idiots looking at the lipstick marks on their cheeks.
Geoff was more careful about avoiding large pot holes this time and thus they didn't get stuck again. As they approached the base Geoff brought the truck to a stop and parked it about 1 kilometer away from the entrance. Looking at each other dejectedly, Gray and Geoff wiped the lipstick marks off of their cheeks and then continued the rest of the way to the base.
__________
After paying the extra 20 merits for using the truck overnight, Gray and Geoff decided to say that they blew the almost 400 merits on feeding orphans in the city for a quest if they were asked about what happened. After splitting the 40 merits for renting the truck for two days they both ended up paying 214 merits each.
"We'll have to do some extra matchmaking to make up for our losses, but in the end it shouldn't hurt too much as long as we only do it just this one time." Gray thought to himself. Gray and the others had never tried matchmaking without a team so Gray wasn't sure what would happen.
Geoff and Gray met up with the rest of their team near the board about 30 minutes later than was originally planned, but this time Gray didn't get yelled at like last time because they had at least said they were going to be late in advance.
"Hey, you guys want to try a mission instead? It's not that I'm bored with matchmaking, I just want to try something different." said Geoff.
"Hmmm, a change of environment is often beneficial when one feels apathetic with the status quo." remarked Caleb. Everyone was used to Caleb at this point so it no longer phased them.
"Ok, then let's see what they have to offer!" said Gray.
__________
Gray and the rest looked at the mission board to see what was available. Currently 5 missions were available, none of which were taken by the only other team on base at the moment.
"Hmmm, so it looks like we got three missions that are the standard patrol type, one that is clearing out a nest of animals that are ravaging farmland, and the last one that is a raid type on a suspected pirate depot. Personally, the last two sound the best to me, but I know the first 3 will be the easiest." said Gray.
"Clearing out a nest of animals with our mechs seems a little overkill... what is that little stick figure next to the mission list mean?" said Geoff
"The best kill is overkill!" said Yurika proudly
As usual everyone ignored Yurika.
The attendant overheard their question about the stick figure icon next to the mission and said "That icon means it is a soldier mission and not a pilot mission. You can still take it, but you can't use your mechs."
"Oh, that makes sense. Problem is we don't have any weapons." said Gray.
"That won't be an issue. As players you will be allowed the use of any standard sets of soldier gear for the duration of the mission from the base armory."
"What are the sets?" asked Geoff
"The current standard sets are Assault, Engineer, Heavy Weapons Expert, and Medic. Every set comes with a Beretta M9-five sidearm and a combat knife. If one of the 4 sets of equipment do not meet a player's needs, they are free create their own based upon the available stocks in the armory."
Yurika's eyes seemed to twinkle slightly when the Heavy Weapons Expert set was mentioned, but everyone wisely pretended not to notice.
"Ok, so everyone in favor of one of the patrol missions raise their hands." said Gray.
Only Stacia raised her hand as she looked at the others slightly embarassed that nobody else wanted to do the easy missions.
"The animal lair clean up mission?"
Yurika and Geoff raised their hands for this one, which surprised Gray that Geoff would want this one over the raid since Gray was hoping for the raid and figured Geoff would too.
"And lastly the raid mission."
Gray and Caleb raised their hands for this one.
"Ok, so we got a tie for the raid and animal lair eradication. Stacia, since you were the odd one out, would you place your vote with either of those two or abstain?" said Gray.
"I will do whatever everyone else wants." Stacia said meekly.
"Ok... in that case... leave it to luck and flip a coin?" suggested Geoff.
Everyone nodded in agreement, and felt their pockets for a coin. They realized they had no money after a minute of looking. Caleb looked on the ground and found a wide flat pebble and scratched one side of it with another stone.
"Scratch up is heads, scratch down is tails." said Caleb.
Gray took the stone from Caleb and flicked it in the air with his thumb, caught it, and opened his palm revealing a scratch up.
"Heads it is!"
Everyone nodded, but then got confused for a moment.
"Heh heh, whoops, guess we should decide which mission is heads and which is tails." Gray said sheepishly.
"Heads raid, tails purge" said Caleb
Gray nodded and flipped the stone again, caught it again, slapped it down on his other palm and then opened his palm.
"Tails!"
Yurika seemed especially excited for this and everyone agreed it was fair so Gray selected the local animal next cleanup then read the description.
"Mutated rats have formed a nest near a local farm and have been attempting to burrow under the electric fence protecting the pasture. It is only a matter of time before they breach the fence, please destroy the nest before this happens!" said Gray "This sounds like a standard search and destroy mission without much searching needed."
Gray and the others headed for the armory to select their loadouts. Yurika rushed ahead and said "HEAVY! I WANT HEAVY WEAPONS!"
"You don't even know what it has yet Yurika, the guy doesn't even know why we're here, and now I think you've scared him!" said Stacia calmly.
"Can I get a list of the standard loadouts as well as a list of the available gear for custom mission loadouts for soldiers?" Gray asked the clerk at the armory.
The clerk nodded, tapped his armlet, then swiped a document over to Gray which Gray shared with everyone else on his team.
Standard Load outs:
Assault: M16E Assault rifle, heavy body armor, 7 clips of 5.56×45mm NATO, Beretta 90-five with 3 clips of 9x19mm Parabellum rounds, 2 Flash and 2 Frag Grenades, 1 combat knife, field medical kit.
Engineer: HK G76C Carbine, medium body armor, 5 clips of 5.56×45mm NATO, Beretta 90-five with 3 clips of 9x19mm Parabellum rounds, 3 frag grenades, 2 blocks of Cocrystal HMX explosives with remote detonator, 1 combat knife, field medical kit.
Medic: M16E Assault Rifle, light body armor, 11 clips of 5.56×45mm NATO rounds, Beretta 90-five with 3 clips of 9x19mm Parabellum rounds, field surgeon kit, powered stitching gun, 1 combat knife.
Heavy Weapons Expert: XM196 Exoskeleton mounted Gatling Gun, Powered exoskeleton armor, 2000 round storage in the backpack, Dual Desert Eagle Mk 3s with quick loading rails mounted to exoskeleton arms fitted with 6 extra clips of 0.50 rounds, but not combat knife.
Gray finished reading the lists and had to ask "Hey, the Heavy Weapons kit seems a little... stacked... like REALLY stacked compared to the others. Are we just allowed to use it?"
"Of course, provided you complete the training for the usage and field maintenance of said weapon systems. It will also cost 50 merits to rearm and recharge all of the guns and exoskeleton suit." said the attendant.
"Oh, so basically it's not economical to use it on easier missions." Gray said while looking at the rewards for completing the missions. "We get 150 merits for completing this one, splitting it 5 ways means we each get 30, so you'd use up all of that reward and then some just by taking the heavy weapons."
Yurika really really really wanted the heavy weapons. "Grraaaaayyy..." said Yurika with puppy dog eyes, she grabbed Gray's arm and hugged it against her chest while pleading "Pleeeeaaaasseee, I really need it!" as she started to squeeze Gray's arm tighter.
"Stop! You need to take the course anyways so you can't get it even if he says yes!" said Stacia while getting flustered for some reason.
Yurika let go of Gray and pouted while crossing her arms saying "Spoilsport..."
Geoff and Caleb both looked at Gray out of jealousy and Gray shrugged while thinking "What did I do?"
"O...Okay, let's just pick a few standard loadouts based on the information we have, Caleb, information is your specialty, right?" said Gray.
"Knowledge is, information is not my forte but applying knowledge based upon a given set of gathered intelligence would be a much more apt way to describe what I am good at." said Caleb
"Uhh, okay, so what do you think we should take given the nest is a bunch of giant mutated rats?" asked Gray.
"The information about the mission didn't specify that they were giant mutated rats, just mutated rats, why do you conclude they're also giant?" replied Caleb.
"Because mutated rats are always giant and even regular rats are giant rats in just about every game since like ever." said Geoff
"Fair point... in that case I would recommend 2 assaults, 1 engineer, 1 medic, and a custom loadout with a flamethrower. Rats are afraid of fire and we will need a wide-area of attack weapon to be able to clear them efficiently. The engineer can use explosives to destroy the nest once the rats are cleared from it." said Caleb.
"I have to agree with your assessment, I'm assuming we all know who wants the flamethrower of course..." said Gray as everyone turned to stare at Yurika who looked giddy for some reason.
"Unfortunately flamethrowers have been discontinued by the military since 1978 in our world's history, so it's probably the same for this game too." commented Gray.
"Let's just ask and we'll try and find some napalm or some kind of thermobaric explosive that can burn away the nest if needed." said Geoff
Yurika ran up to the clerk and asked excitedly "Do you have any flamethrowers?!?"
The clerk hesitated for a moment then said "Y...Yes we do... the M9 FC is a modern flamethrower that was brought back into service based on the old M9 design to help flush out jungle insurgents from operation Jungle Fever back in 2070. The M9 FC sports a special backpacks designed to hold special cartridges so as to reduce the weight of the weapon while a new Napalm FC mixture is the main flammable agent that is used with Nitrogen as the propellant. The backpack itself contains a nitrogen extractor and compressor that can refill a propellant take slowly over time if needed. The FC stands for 'Flash Chilling' as this napalm mix has been engineered so that if it meets with the counter agent, it will become as inert as water and thus make it able to douse fire as well as it can set fire. You can have 12 seconds of continuous fire with one cartridge and each backpack holds 5 cartridges of Napalm FC and 3 propellant cartridges. This can all be yours to use for 5 merits!"
Gray and the rest stared amazed at the clerk as he gave what ended up being a sales pitch for the flamethrower expecting him to ask for the next contestant to come on down. The clerk coughed to himself and said "Ahem, yes, we have a flamethrower."
Gray and Geoff took the assault roles, Stacia took the Engineer, and Caleb took the Medic role. Stacia was probably more suited for medic but she said she feels sick when she sees a lot of blood even in a game. Yurika obviously wanted the flamethrower.
"Okay, let's load up and head out then!" said Gray as Yurika caressed the flamethrower while whispering to it.
Gray saw this and thought "Psychotic chick with a flamethrower in a dense forest, what could possibly go wrong."