"Alright everyone, let's head out! We need to find the perfect spot if we hope to stand a chance in this battle!" The voice of the leader of this survey mission shouted out to everyone as they marched through the Arid Mesa. His armor looked more ornamental than actually designed for combat, being covered in fancy gold filigree and decorative bits. His cape fluttered in the wind lightly as he walked, the thin fabric equally for decoration rather than providing any kind of protection with how easily it could be cut through. On more than one occasion it had actually proven to be a downright hindrance to its own wearer, being blown over his shoulder and into his face.

He gave off an air of importance along with a distinct attitude of thinking he was the most important person here yet was probably the least important one there. Whoever placed him in charge of this mission either was just as incompetent as he was, or was pressured into it somehow. Likely by his family who was a well regarded noble family back in Sol City.

In any case, everyone had to follow the orders of Sir Vay.

Blue didn't mind as much as the others who stifled groans at having to follow someone so grossly underqualified. That was mostly because Blue didn't even realize the situation, just doing what they were told, happy to be on the expedition, naively innocent. They lifted up a heavy crate easily and put it on their shoulder to start walking out into the sands and rock, but then spotted someone else in the crowd they recognized.

Blue walked forward and stopped just behind the hooded, masked figure. "Plague, is that you!? It's been so long!" They greeted her excitedly, waving their free arm in friendly greeting. Maybe she'd seen them before the start of the walk, but hadn't been able to recognize them since they'd gotten a new suit of armor after the two of them had met on their adventure to assist in solving the problem of a giant Elder Ooze wreaking havoc in the Marsh Flats. Now they'd finally met again, all the way on nearly the opposite side of Charon!

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: From the east they came
Participants: Exactly two (you and one other, the other does not need to be interested in the guild)
Location: Indicated by Hunt Dossier
Post Requirements: 5 post per person, 200 words per post
Reward: Quest Completion
Description: You will be accompanied by a member of the Survey Corps who will assist in the studying and recording of an area while you assist in clearing out the area of any debris and choosing suitable locations for artillery, such as ballista, catapults, or trebuchet. You will assist in setting up these devices and even test firing them, marking range, force of impact and other vital information. The locations of these devices and the information gathered will be crucial in assisting the guild with the hunt to come. So, lend whatever help you can in establishing an advantageous battlefield.

This was beginning to get comical in the stupidest kind of way, it seemed that no matter what the chemist tried to do, life always found a way to completely fuck her over, tossing her into the worst situations. It began with her accidently getting roped into fighting off some giant monkey monster in the frozen ass crack of Charon, joining a guild she did not even realize was a thing. Then, when she thought the guild was going to pay her for the hard earned work, they instead shipped her off to the Arid Mesa, a hot, dry waste land. What was worse was that it seemed like everyone else around her was excited to be here, happy to set up a base so that eventually they could hunt trolls. 

This was where Plague drew the line, there was no way in Solaria's sunny hell that she was going to trek across the desert to fight a group of fucking trolls, nu uh, no way. So as the leader of this regiment began to speak, trying their best to inspire the group, Plague was frantically looking for a way to sneak out, wanting desperately to dip and stow away on a ship headed back to Frost Gale. This part of the world was not for her, sweat already dripping down her masked face and escalating the stench that was already starting to stink up the area. So as the entire group was entranced by their speaker, eyes glued to the shiny armored Ranger, Plague decided to flee, slipping out the back and headed for the coast. 

"Plague, is that you!?"

She froze in place, why did someone here know her name? That was not supposed to be a thing, she had tried so hard to keep her name out of peoples mouths, and yet here, in this god forsaken place, someone recognized her. Plague's first instinct was to pull her knife and slit the person's throat, which might have helped in her getting kicked out as well, but as she turned on her heels to face her recognizer, a fully armored individual came into view. She squinted her white glossy eyes from beneath her mask trying to make out who this was and why they knew her name. At first she did not realize who this was, running through a short list of people she knew in her mind, but after a moment, it clicked. 

"BLUE! Is that you? Holy stinky blue goo I never thought I would see you again!"

Blue was one of the very few people that she had met in her travels that she actually liked. They viewed life differently than most and had helped her in rescuing a creature she was very fond of. Without thinking about it the olive green clad girl dashed back into the group and slammed right into Blue, giving the armored knight a massive hug around their metal legs. Maybe life was starting to feel bad for her, for out of all the people she could have run in to her, it was Blue, one of her most favorite individuals. But before either of them could speak to each other or react to her random outburst, the guide for this group yelled out at the top of their lungs. 

"Alright Winged Expeditionary Force, lets move out!"

"Hey, I'm not stinky! I smell good! I think..." Blue said as they returned half of Plague's sudden hug with their one free arm. They hadn't expected the hug, but then again, they never did expect a hug. Not even from their family. Hugs were just such a strange concept to the ooze, but they weren't unwelcome. They felt kind of nice even if they were weird. They also weren't actually sure what they smelled like. Blue didn't have much of a sense of smell as an ooze, having no nose, or at least not a real one.

Sir Vay's shouted command sounded out through the crowd and everyone else started moving. Blue and Plague would have to talk as they walked along. Blue adjusted the crate on their shoulder one more time before turning and walking next to Plague.

"Yeah, it's me! Oh, but I made up a new name, so everyone else calls me Wolfe. Or Geoff? But you can still call me Blue. A lot of my other friends still do. Oh! I made some new friends! One of them, Astrid, she even made me this new suit of armor! Isn't it great? Gosh, it's been a while. So much stuff happened since we fought that big ooze in the swamp! How have you been doing? You make any new friends or anything? Oh, wait, we both got into the WEF!" Blue literally pronouncing it "weff".  "I didn't know you joined too! That's an anything, right?" Blue spouted off both their own news and questions about Plague's latest activities excitedly, just wanting to tell her everything but also wanting to know everything Plague's been up to at the same time.

Plague started to move with the crowd, following her old comrade as he too went with the masses. She was so distracted by seeing an actual friend that she had completely forgotten about this hunt nonsense, choosing to unknowingly walk right into their scheme. Blue spoke a lot, a small hint of excitement in their voice as they went on about all of their accomplishments and new friends. Plague nodded, entranced by his words and his shiny new armor. She had the opposite luck as her oozy friend, with most of her adventures ending in disaster and very little people in her life that would call her a friend. That's when she remembered, her actual initiation test for the guild. 

"Oh fuck yeah, I almost forgot about that! Well I didn't really join this guild, not on purpose at least. I was looking for work in Frost Gale, just doing some good community service, and found a ranger that needed help with something. It was a good offer so I said fuck it! Turns out he wanted me and some elven woman called Cirice to fight a giant ice monkey. It was crazy. But here I am, on another whirlwind adventure through Charon. It's nice to see you Blue!"

By now the group had made its way into the interior of the mesa, setting up a campsite for their team to begin their job. The young chemist was so wrapped up in story telling that she didn't even see the front of the group come to a stop, more intrigued to learn more about her armored friend. 

Blue listened to Plague tell her stories as they walked along, enjoying the conversation. Blue had a similar story of how they joined the Expedition Force, by fighting a big baloth with someone. But, they didn't expect to hear another familiar name in Plague's story.

"Wait, you know Cirice too? She's one of the new friends I made! She didn't tell me about joining the WEF or fighting a giant ice monkey. That sounds awesome. I want to could fight one too. Did it taste good? You think there are any around here?"

They received a few side-eyes and looks of confusion from some other expedition members nearby who overheard the conversation between the two weirdos with hidden faces, one of which was talking about wondering how a giant ice monkey might have tasted and hoping to fight one in the Mesa. The others certainly hoped they would not. Nightcaller trolls were already more than enough to deal with for them. Blue didn't even notice the looks though, as their attention was on Plague.

"We'll stop here for the night!" Sir Vay called over the crowd as the sun was just beginning to set. They were better off setting up a temporary camp and putting up some defenses rather than try to walk on through the night, when the trolls were more active and could see better than the predominantly human group in the dark.

This wasn't a perfect location for a proper base camp though, so their scouting would continue in the morning. In the meantime, the group was glad to get some rest and food was handed out. They were a decent ration, but in the insatiable ooze's opinion, they were incredibly meager. Blue looked to Plague with an idea.

"I'm still hungry. You want to sneak out of camp and go find something to eat?" Blue whispered mischievously.