Arknights - Final Dawn

Arrival

"Doctor? Wake up please." I hear Shining soft voice as she pokes my cheek. I open my eyes and I see Shining's eyes peering into mine while a ghost of a smile graces her face.

"Shining? What's the time right now." I ask while doing some stretches to get rid of my body's stiffness. I let out a small moan as I could feel and hear my bones popping and I looked towards Shining, who has a slight blush on her cheek, after I was done.

"10 minutes until we reach the site, doctor." Shining answers as her blush recedes. I nod at her and take a glance at everyone else, who are wide awake and standing while looking at us.

"Perfect. Everyone! Recap of the mission plan; Main objective is to locate the source of the anonymous energy, which is designated as "Trypt '', and either secure it or destroy it. Expect Reunion to be at the site, with the new leader "Apoth '' confirmed to be there so the secondary objective is to either capture or kill him and any Ursus we find there are to be ignored and kept away at all costs. We only got until tomorrow's sunrise to complete this mission so let's get this mission over with as fast as possible, though the VTOL needs to head back to be assessed and refueled so no air support during the mission. Also, if for some reason the mission goes south, a backup squad will arrive tomorrow morning, so everyone grabs a flare gun with ample ammunition to signal your location to the backup squad. Due to how dense the forest is, radio contact with each other is virtually impossible unless we get to an open field. Any questions? No? Good, remember to never panic and rely on your instincts to get yourself and the squad out alive." I look at each one of my operators as I get up, praying that all of them make it out alive after this mission, to go back home and wait for the day Oripathy is cured. I can see the grim looks plaguing all of them, even Skadi with a rare serious look on her face, and their grips, oh so slightly tighten on their respective weapons.

"We have reached the location doctor. I hope to see all of your faces back on this aircraft, so you better not die out there!" The pilot's voice reaches our ear through the intercom in a hopeful tone.

"You heard the pilot, double check your gear everyone. I will not permit any sort of mistakes that will jeopardize this mission and your safety will always come first. So, entrust yourself to me and I vow that I will bring you all back alive no matter what!" I give out what I hope is an encouraging speech to them, with my arts helping me a little bit. Each of my operators back straighten a bit more and their eyes become more determinant so I can consider my speech a success.

The VTOL hovers over an open plain and slowly descends, with the radar working perfectly in detecting if enemies are nearby, though no red dots pop out. Once the VTOL touches the ground, the ramp opens and Mountain jumps out first, followed by Platinum, who is keeping watch on the surroundings. Shining walks out, with her arts primed to heal anyone and Skadi joins the fray, slowly walking out from the VTOL. Seeing no attacks coming at us, I headed out from the VTOL and the rest followed suit.

The VTOL ascends after its passengers have departed and flies off once it reaches above the tree lines.

"Hey doctor, where's the tracker? I didn't see it while we were inside the VTOL." Ayerscape questions while watching for any movement in the forest.

I take the tracker out of my coat and show it to him. "Here, I took it while everyone else was busy." A moment spent on turning the tracker on, and it was now showing us the direction we needed to go with a yellow dot blinking in the screen.

"Tracker telling us that we need to go on that path over there." I point towards the path to our left and we start moving in a loose formation of diamond shape with Eyja and me in the middle of it and our scouts moving separately up ahead of us, concealing themselves in the shadow of the trees. I keep glancing around us, feeling like we are being watched even though nothing strange pops out and no sound from our surroundings.