Arknights: When Hunters Meet (A Tacet x Projekt Red novel)

Chapter 16 - Northern Expedition Part 1 - Projekt Red Route

~~~At the Feet of Mount Tenebris~~~

-I am glad you could come so quickly. I have a possible mission for you.
-You personally called me doctor Kal'tsit. I wouldn't have thought it was for just the possibility.
-As vital as it is, it's still optional.
-Lay it on me doctor.
-As you may know, Rhodes Island operates many departments and outposts all over Terra.
-One such outpost has gone dark, I require immediate investigation and assessment.
-What more can you tell me?
-It is one of our outposts in the far north, on the low side of a mountain not far from the east coast. It is the most remote foothold that Rhodes Island has.
-I feel there is a catch for being optional in the first place.
-You will be paired with Projekt Red.
-... what was that outpost researching, doctor Kal'tsit?
-The local fauna, ecosystem and atmospheric conditions. Nothing unethical was being conducted there if that is what you are implying.
-However the last reports I had received from them were unusual. We lost contact just the day before.
-How large is the relief team?
-Just you and Projekt Red, if you accept the mission.

I quickly realised this was not a simple rescue mission. It barely touched ''assessment''. We would be a kill team more than anything.

-That is not a relief team doctor.
-It is not, I do not expect the outpost to be recoverable. And I expect trouble most and foremost.
-And for that I need a small and fast moving elite team.
-I would have sent Swift, but Red is the only one available. And I won't send her in alone.
-Projekt Red can take the worst out whatever it may be.
-And you. You are a survivor, you are sharp, and you are better than you let go. I know you will be the operator best to assess what had happened there.
-Do you believe Reunion has marched all the way there for a free base and prisoners for bargain?
-Possibly, but unlikely. We would have had demands sent by now.
-I see.
-Operator Tacet, I know that you have had a bad experience with Projekt Red in the past. If you do not believe you can work with her as a team then you have the option to refuse the mission with no consequences.
-''Is that what you call being killed, just a ''bad, past experience''?'' I asked amusedly.

I chuckled and continued still in an amused voice.

-If it weren't for my gift to keep me fresh enough for you to resuscitate and pump me full of blood again I would have been gone then and there.

Flashes of the time when I reached Rhodes Island came back. The fight with her. Her killing intent. Everyone just watching. Yet, I felt no fear. I felt no hate. I felt no shiver. As I recollected those memories I only felt the thrill of the fight, and my admiration for that alluringly cold-blooded killer.

-But I meant what I said then, I hold no grudges.
-Did you interview anyone else before me to give this mission to?
-No, you are the first.
-I accept the mission doctor.

She nodded acceptingly at my decision.

One hour later I was already on an Osprey like aircraft, flying fast to the inhospitable north. I was inside the four-person snowmobile like car that the aircraft was carrying. I was strapped in the driver's seat while reviewing the mission's files on my PDA or phone like device. It was a measure of safety, though I was sitting not so safely in a leisurely manner with one leg spread out of the cab, having left the door locked in the open mode. Lord knows I experienced not one, not two, not three, but four crashes inside of an Osprey back in the End Wars. If something went wrong with the aircraft now then I wouldn't be banged around like a rag doll and squished to a pulp between the interior frame and the beast of a machine I was in.

The outpost was as far from civilization on Terra as it could be at that point, at least that far up north. At the base of an imposing mountain named Tenebris and near a gulf by the frozen sea called Insmouth. I had received the full schematics of the structures present there and their interior. And I was in the process of memorising them diligently. If things got dicey then I would know the best escape route out of there. I had also received full access to the last months reports received from there.