Forty Years of This [Monster Hunter World]

Chapter 29

Few supply ships arrived in the five year gap between the last of the Second Fleet and the first of the Third Fleet. The fresh faces that joined the Commissioners in Astera called themselves 'Cuspers' as they did not feel that they belonged to either fleet. On paper, they were a part of the Second Fleet, but in reality they were their own thing.

Most of the Cuspers were young things in their early twenties or late teens who had sought to make futures for themselves through the Commission's pay checks. Five years in the Commission would be enough to start a life properly for those who came from nothing, and by the time they were done and sent home, they were still young enough that they would be ahead of their peers.

The only problem the Commander noticed, was that many of them were his daughter's age, and she had begun to take an interest. His daughter didn't have proper peers for most of her childhood (as even the Admiral's son had returned home on one of the Cusper ships), and she was a bit of an oddity to the cuspers. He worried that she'd end up like the Quartermaster-- stiff and unapproachable-- but after a few failed attempts at friendships she got a handle on things. She made friends, she played at romance, and ultimately the Commander just felt like a dad watching his little fledgling jump out of the nest.

On her sixteenth birthday, she swapped from the long sword to the much heavier and unwieldy greatsword. On her eighteenth birthday, she moved to the even heavier and more unwieldy switch-axe. She ultimately returned to the longsword after her first hunt, slapped a hand on her father's shoulder, and said, "No wonder you almost got eaten."

She was almost as tall as the Commander, and though he knew he had nothing to do with that, he still felt a swell of pride. His daughter had grown into a powerful young woman and an excellent hunter. With the Quartermaster leading her education, she was well read, well versed in science and mathematics, and a very worthy potential successor to his own role as Commander of the Commission.

But she had no interest in that. Five years after the elder crossing, the Third Fleet arrived. And on the flag ship was a very quiet, very gentle researcher who would steal her heart away.

The Commander of the First stood side by side with the Commander of the Second and the Admiral as the flagship of the Third Fleet, The Heart's Endeavor, pulled into dock. The Commander of the Third, a wyverian woman, stepped off onto the dock, and for a moment the Commander of the First felt a shock of intimidation. She was intensely elegant. The way she moved, the way she held her censor with the delicate smoke rising from it, none of these things spoke of someone who expected to rough it in a new land with minimum accommodations, but the Commander realized that Astera wasn't what it used to be.

She smiled appraisingly at the three men before her. No doubt, the Commander mused, they looked like three burly ruffians who'd put the place together out of sheer will rather than careful thought, and to a degree, that would be right. Her smile never faltered, not even when the Admiral greeted her loudly with a bellow. She responded quietly, and with that her fleet began to unload.

That evening, there was a feast, as had become tradition when a commander arrived or returned, but this time the Commander didn't drink. Every time he saw the Admiral pounding down beer, he couldn't help but remember the noxious hangover he'd gotten a decade prior. He'd stay sober this time. There was too much work to do in the morning.

When he called the council that morning, the Admiral was still drunk.

"The Second Commander, our Forgemaster, has been preparing a holding platform for living specimens," the Commander began. "In addition to that, he's been preparing bands for capture and release. We've cleared land for your flagship to establish the research headquarters by the holding platform."

"That is all very well and good," the Third Commander said. "But it is my desire to make the research base a mobile operation. As I understand it, you have several unconventional engineers among your ranks, a few of which undoubtedly could make that a reality."

The Forgemaster idly pulled at his beard as he thought. "Aye. We have a few loose screws. I know of a few off the top of my head who would love the challenge, but why? What's the purpose of a mobile base?"

"Is it not obvious?" She raised a thin eyebrow.

"No. I mean, sure, there are obvious advantages, but if you say you want a mobile base without why you want a mobile base, you'll get something you have no use for. A ship is mobile. A ship on wheels is mobile. What's the purpose of it? Where does it need to go?"

"I see. I mistook your question to be a challenge. The base needs to go wherever hunters may. The idea is to take the research to the lands and to the monsters themselves rather than take the monsters to the researchers."

"Go ahead and draw up your preliminary requirements. I'll find some engineers and architects to devote this to."

The meeting adjourned shortly thereafter, and as the Commander stepped away from the table, he nearly bumped into a wyverian man from the Second Fleet. He stopped, let the man pass, then looked back at the Third Commander. It took him a moment to place the man as one of the Second Fleet's few researchers and half a second longer to recognize his visible family ties to the Third Commander.

As he walked away, the Commander's mind drifted back to the family he'd left in the Old World. They were largely strangers to him now, but he wondered how he'd greet them if any of them arrived in Astera. Would he gently smile like the two siblings behind him did? Would he stiffen defensively? Would he really ever see any of them again? He stopped, frowning. His letters home and their letters to him had swiftly dwindled after his first few years in the New World, and he never gave it much thought, but he was suddenly afraid of becoming a complete stranger to them.

He would write home for the first time in years that night.