[center][h2]The Adventures of Steve Thaddeus somerset, in...: "I don't think I should be doing this..."[/h2][/center]

"We've arrived, Mr. Somerset," A voice said, waking him from his slumber. "The transit ship to carry you to A-0001 will arrive in a few hours, and you'll be notified on your PDA when it's here. In the mean time, feel free to utilize any nearby facilities until the time comes."

"Uhhh..." He replied sleepily, "Can I stay on the ship for a while? It looks warm outside..."

"Of course, your luggage is still with us." The pilot replied to him, "We'll have to hand it over when the ship arrives so we'll be staying here the whole time as well."

Steve squinted as he looked outside. He didn't happen to like jungles. The one thing he truly disliked was warm weather and humid weather was by far the worst kind of hot weather. The air was always stuffy and it always felt like he couldn't breathe properly. The ship he was flying on was technically a delivery ship but of course it still had a good cooling unit. He was on it because he was getting a transfer from the Hunter's Guild X-6000 branch to the A-0001 branch, but since he was the only one getting the transfer they just sent him on the delivery ship picking up some cargo from the X-6000 branch and going relatively close to where the A-0001 branch was.

The Hunter's Guild names their branches for the particular planet or system their research centers on. Many of the branches are temporary, and once research on a specific area is completed the whole branch is dismantled and deconstructed. There are exceptions such as the X branches which are almost guaranteed to be permanent, as even if research completes access still has to be restricted so the branch remains. There are more and more permanent branches as the restriction level increases, but the branches that don't really restrict public access at all are the most temporary. Amongst these is the Hunter's Guild A-0001 branch.

The A-0001 branch isn't actually the least publicly restricted branch, rather they are the face of the Hunter's Guild research sector. The A-0001 branch is in fact a huge starship which carries all necessary equipment and personnel they might need to study their research priority A-0001. It was the first branch created by the Hunter's Guild, designed to be an all-purpose general research facility. They planned to create more like it but quickly realized that they would most definitely need more specialized equipment in most of their sites.

That being said, the A-0001 branch is by no means lacking in research capabilities. On board are some of the greatest scientists the Hunter's Guild can offer. The A-0001 branch is used as their preliminary surveillance of a research target to see what priority it should have if it's not immediately obvious, and what kind of staff would be most suited for the task. Currently the A-0001 branch has been given the task of studying the recent calamities, being the representatives of the Hunter's Guild. Due the seemingly mobile and seemingly unknown nature of the threat, this would be the most optimal way to go about researching it.

Steve was being reassigned to the A-0001 branch mostly because there was some room and you could never have enough researchers in there. He was just an internt until recently so it wasn't like they were grabbing him for his superior skills, although he doubted there was another researcher there that could dropkick someone as well as he did.

Suddenly, there was a large screech and a [i]bang![/i] from the top of the ship. The coldness in the air faded as the lights flickered for a second before returning to normal. He quickly looked out the window and saw a ship breaking up under fire.

"Our cooling unit was hit!" A crew member said, rushing into the cockpit. "Not much else seems to be damaged, sir, but we should take care to raise the shields!"

"Must have been a stray piece of shrapnel, hold on." The captain said, rapidly pressing buttons on his control panel.

A blue layer of energy appeared around the ship as a few more pieces of shrapnel came down. They weren't that close to the ship so they didn't really have that much to worry about. Steve saw a man parachute out the back with a large bulky looking... stasis pod? He hit the ground running and the gunship that had destroyed the mysterious man's ship came in behind. There was a small building between Steve's ship and the action so he could only really see in what direction he seemed to be going in.

"Uhhh, does this happen a lot?" Steve asked as more guys came down and started chasing him.

"No, this shouldn't be happening at all..." The captain said, bringing up several holographic interfaces. "Nothing announced from anywhere..."

"Alright cool, can I borrow the emergency personal shield unit from here?" Steve asked.

"Mr. Somerset, I cannot with good conscience let you go out there on your own," The pilot said, turning around. "It's far too dangerous for a researcher!"

"Naaaahh, it'll be fine." Steve said, slinging on the shieled unit over his lab coat. It was sort of a back-pack like affair and it happened to be just his size. "They're not going to want to cross the Hunter's Guild. I'm assuming the symbol on this thing isn't just for show. Well, technically it is but you get my point."

The Hunter's Guild logo was clearly visible on his lab coat even with the shield unit on. He was also pretty confident in his cardio which he'd been working on in his spare time as an intern. Ever since he was told he had good drop kicks he'd wanted to capitalize on it a little bit so he'd upped his stamina somewhat.

"Don't worry too much, I'll be back eventually." He said.

He took out through the open door of the ship without looking back. He had a forcefield that could take a few hits, and he had some diplomatic immunity which would give him a few kicks. Yeah, it was probably going to be fine.