Forty Years of This [Monster Hunter World]

Chapter 24

"We're trying something called 'capture and release.' Some research folks evidently really like doing that, and we want this place up and running for all of those egg heads once they get here." The Second Fleet Commander directed the First Commander to a platform near the eastern gate of Astera.

"What's to stop the monsters from just... rampaging and killing the researchers?" As far as he could tell, there were no safety precautions, and a grumpy anjarth could burn it all down on a whim.

"That's where the botanist comes in. He's been working on that tree of his, but he's been brewing different tranquilizers with the hope of getting one that can last long enough to handle a monster and be readministered without killing it."

"That's it? You're depending on drugging a dragon to keep it quiet?"

"Yup! But also the restraints the workshop has in the works. We've taken measurements from some of the past hunts when the hunters don't go crazy and cut up the monsters on the field to the point there's nothing left but..."

"How are the new weapons going?"

"A few hunters have caught on to them. One gun lance exploded in an pukei-pukei's side, but the hunter was ok. Gave him an earful for not maintaining his weapon properly. I've started refusing the hybrid weapons to hunters until they've worked with both a gunner weapon and a lance.

"I've got some ideas for some more trick weapons, as the hunters started calling them. One fellow mentioned having a long sword that could split into two blades, but I'm not sure the value in that given how it would mess with the structural integrity of the primary sword. Someone else was talking about a bladed whip, but I shut that down pretty fast. Whips don't do shit against monster hides. Those are tools used on soft skinned creatures. When driving a beast, they're not even meant to hurt. When driving a man..."

"The only real monsters in this world are our fellow people?" The Commander shifted uncomfortably. It was a phrase he'd heard the Quartermaster say time and time again when ranting about the politics of the old world.

"Yeah. Sure. Monsters are innocent creatures. They don't have the intelligence to be cruel or evil. But what I was getting at is that a whip is ineffective at best. What I want to work on is a way that'll identify the monsters after we've caught them. I've heard of something called 'banding' that they use in the Old World. Basically they attach a colored band to the monster's leg, fin, whatever, so that a hunter or researcher can identify the monster from afar without having to capture it. The researchers tell me that's useful if you want to track a monster around and see where it's been going, so it's my job to make it happen."

"Have you already put in a request for the materials?" This was the first the Commander had heard of a plan of action forming.

"Wrote up the paperwork this morning for some of the preliminary stuff. I'm not sure how much of a priority your man will mark it, but I don't think it'll be very high."

"Do you need it to be a high priority?" Things that came first were things they needed to live. Hunters were encouraged to return with items that could be put towards feeding, housing, and taking care of the commissioners. When expanding, things like iron went first towards construction materials and then to weaponry. Anything beyond that was requisitioned by priority, and it was the two quartermasters who typically decided the importance of each item, but both the Commander and the Second Commander could overrule their decisions.

"We've got six years until the Third is supposed to set sail," the Second Commander said with a grin. "I'll let your man and my quartermaster figure out how important it is. We still need a way to transport any captured monsters..."

The Commander's attention drifted as he surveyed the work going on around them. Fourteen years they'd been in the new world, and in that time not only had he had several important personal events, but Astera had truly come together. The Celestial Pursuit was nestled high in the mountains above them with a massive waterwheel in the waterfall below it. Half a dozen ships had been repurposed into housing with a proper canteen a stone's throw away. They built a boardwalk at the ocean's level, but given how the ocean had sunk before, he wondered if they'd be building a third level even further down. They'd at least need a dock. If they wanted, Astera could be more than a research outpost... it could be a town. It could be a colony.

"... What do you think of that?" The Second Fleet Master looked at the Commander expectantly. Snatched back to the present, the Commander briefly ground his teeth in thought.

"I think you'll hammer out the kinks and make it work." He internally cursed himself for not paying attention at the very end, but it seemed the Second Fleet Master hadn't noticed. "Just don't forget to write it all down so we have a record of it."

"What? You think I'm made of paper?" The man chuckled and shook his head. "I'll make sure to do that."

When the Commander arrived at the canteen later that evening, he was surprised to see the Admiral's son frying up meat with the chef and her crew. He was surprised to see that the man himself was missing, but no one else seemed bothered by his absence. His son was busy trying to show off to some of the younger commissioners (who were still at least half a decade older than him), and his palico companion was working hard to perfect the amount of salt in a soup, but the Admiral was not there.

When no one else was bothered, the Commander let it slip his mind and instead turned his attention to the company around him.