GFL2 Story/1-2/Script

Scene 1

Groza: We've begun a full vehicle self-diagnostic. Estimated time of completion is at 08:12.

(I stand before the full height windows in the ops room. Right now, all is quiet outside.)

Commander: ...A series of Collapse storms, mistakes in the weather logs, errors in our map, our mission information being leaked... This is all too much of a coincidence.

Groza: —Commander, do you suspect that this attack was planned in advance?

Commander: It has to be. Who's the nearest environmental information broker?

Groza: Our purchase logs indicate that the trading partner is a B.R.I.E.F. subsidiary. The information itself is tagged as common data with no special providers.

Commander: And who issued the contract?

Groza: When the assignment was handed down, the client was listed as anonymous. It was transacted through B.R.I.E.F. HQ, who only provided basic information on the client and their parent organization.

Groza: The payout for this mission was very high. Many bounty hunter teams fought over it, but it ended up falling into our hands in the end.

(Groza stops what she's doing and turns slightly to look at me.)

Groza: ...We are currently disconnected from the internet, so we cannot obtain further information. But given what we know so far, this mission isn't much different from other such missions in the past, aside from the abnormally high payment.

Commander: ...

Commander: Let's get our comms back up and connect to the internet so we can replenish our supplies and fix our MCV first. ...We also need to purchase a new body so we can reactivate Krolik. Perhaps Nemesis' strange instincts can help with that.

Nemesis: ...Shadows wander in the fog at night... A sharp corner...

Commander: Er... Okay?

Nemesis: ...

Groza: There's a horde of ELIDs approaching, threat level II to III.

Commander: Wipe them out.

Scene 2

Groza: Diagnostic complete. The vehicle has sustained 49% damage. |Nemesis is helping Mayling perform emergency repairs, but it will be difficult since we are experiencing a severe parts shortage.

Groza: At the moment, the only available Tactical Dolls are myself and Nemesis. We might have a hard time if more ELIDs of a higher threat level show up or if the Varjagers manage to catch up with us, Commander.

Commander: In any case, let's get the MCV moving first.

Groza: Destination coordinates?

Commander: While I want to carry on towards ZJKK32E-U8PB4Q, given our present situation—

Groza: Hmmm...

Groza: We've been in similar situations before.

Commander: ...?

Groza: Back when you had just become a bounty hunter in the contamination zones... This feeling of not knowing what to do when trying to complete an assignment was a frequent occurrence.

Commander: Back then... Haha.

Groza: You have changed a lot since then.

Commander: So have you—

Commander: Though I'd say you're a lot more like how you "used to be" right now.

Groza: ...

Commander: When I first entered the contamination zones, I was still doing things the old way... Only after being taken advantage of multiple times did I realize... I'm no longer the "Commander" from before.

Groza: ...You will always be the Commander, Commander.

Commander: Even when I couldn't even use the most basic B.R.I.E.F. reception system?

(I think back on the years when things were the most difficult.)

(In the beginning, I was on my own. Back then, being a bounty hunter wasn't a respectable profession. I was just taking private cases aimlessly, living like there was no tomorrow.)

(Then I took in Groza, and we rescued Mayling together.)

(Soon afterwards, B.R.I.E.F. was founded, and bounty hunters could finally start operating through an official channel and follow proper procedures. Thanks to that, we slowly got the Elmo up and running.)

(Groza has seen me at my worst, and yet she has stayed by my side as a stalwart companion.)

Groza: Well, it was only a month of being a wanted criminal for ordering contraband because you couldn't tell the difference between the private networks of underground brokers and the URNC public internet, thus accidentally sending your order to a URNC government department.

Commander: ...The signal in the contamination zones is terrible. It's hard to avoid mistakes when you keep jumping from one network to another.

Commander: Still, now that we have B.R.I.E.F. to coordinate things, the communication codes for underground broker networks and the URNC internet are now clearly demarcated, so sending your messages to the wrong recipient probably won't be too—

Groza: Commander, it's the URNC internet.

Commander: It's from a "beacon", a signal tower that the Great Wall Railway Garrison has set up in contamination zones!

Groza: The drones must have passed over a train of the Great Wall Railway on the way back, so the beacon cluster ought to be nearby.

Commander: Move out! Our destination is the beacon cluster!

Commander: We'll "borrow" their equipment to restore our comms and internet access. That'll be a good start.