Wednesday, 13th of Dawnstar Moon, 2021)
The day of the mission soon came, and Jack was already packed for the mission ahead. Jack packed Fire Maiden and Stone Cutter in a case while putting clothes and basic necessities like a toothbrush. Jack was using a duffel bag to hold all his stuff, while he attached a set of sheathes to the duffel bag for Stone Breaker and Fire Maiden. He finished packing his stuff around Noon, some time before the transport ship would arrive. The transport ship was picking his team up around an hour later, so he should probably head to the docking bay soon. Jack decided to go to the docking bay early just in case. Jack arrived there after a couple minutes of walking, and sat down at a metal chair, watching as different teams passed by him. Jack didn't know what else to do, so he pulled out an instruction manual for his mechanical leg. Jack pulled off his mechanical leg to examine it's advanced instructions. Jack read that there's apparently this 'super mode', but it's advised against its use. Fun fact about Jack: he's not smart, so he looked into how to turn this super mode on. According to the manual, there is a kind of switch inside the calf of the leg. If flipped on, it turns on super mode. Jack was about to open his leg, but then he heard a gasp. Jack looked up from his leg to see Damini looking at Jack in shock before she realized his leg was mechanical.
"Ah, sorry about scaring you, I lost my leg a little while ago." Jack waved his hand nonchalantly, who had a bag full of stuff she needed, as well as some kind of metallic claws on her side. "So you decided to come here early too?"
"Indeed I did, I wanted to plan a bit before the mission began." Damini informed Jack whilst taking a seat in one of the chairs beside him. "I did some digging into the farm where we're going to. The land it's from isn't close to any factories or any battlefields, so nothing could be tainting the water. Any other ideas?"
"Maybe someone is intentionally poisoning the cow feed, maybe they want to sabotage the dairy farm for whatever reason?" At this point, Jack was better off picking at straws, and Damini appeared to be okay with that idea being a legitimate theory.
After five or so minutes, Mifu and Eve arrived with their bags. Jack noticed how Mifu was only carrying her sword and a basket made of straw that was weaved together. Closely behind Eve, some kind of robot was following her, carrying a toolbox for her. After all four of them met up with each other, the transport ship arrived and landed in the landing bay. All four of them were surprised at the ship, which looked like a smaller version of a sci-fi ship from any sci-fi film in existence. It landed at the docking bay, and the doors opened. Mifu, Damini, Eve, Eve's robot, and Jack entered the transport ship. Jack noticed right away how empty it was. It only consisted of four chairs on each wall, and the driver's cabin was cut off by a wall and a metallic door. Jack took a seat at one of the chairs, and Mifu sat beside me. Eve and Damini sat on the opposite side of Jack, with Eve's robot carrying all the luggage. After they buckled themselves in, Jack heard the sound of the ship refueling, gearing turning, and the sound of gas entering the tank. A couple minutes passed before the ship finished refueling, and they began taking off. Jack pulled out his phone to begin playing games on his phone to simply pass the time.
(Later)
After three hours of flying, they arrived at the farm where the mission was to take place. Jack looked out the small window that allowed him to see outside of the transport ship. The ship slowly lowered itself onto a freshly harvested wheat field, which must have been cleared out to allow them to land. Jack watched as the jets that lifted the ship into the air created powerful gusts of wind that scattered the remaining plant life away from the landing zone. Jack looked at the farm where the incident was supposedly taking place. The place had fields almost as far as the eye could see, but Jack noticed there were some buildings scattered about, almost all of which were small houses, barns of varying purposes, milk barns, cattle corales, silos, and a single processing plant in the distance. The transport ship landed in the empty field, so the four of them got out of their seats and made their way to the back of the transport ship. The doors opened slowly, tilting downwards to also create a kind of plank for the four students to walk down as they exited the transport ship. When they exited the ship with their bags and Eve's robot, the door closed automatically and the transport ship left them at this farm.
"So...how long are we gonna be here for?" Jack wondered out loud as he watched the transport ship leave the group, pretty much stranding then in the Holy Kingdom of Christus.
"We're going to be here for three days, we have that much time to finish the assignment." Eve answered whilst adjusting her glasses. "If we finish our assignment sooner than three days, then we're free to wander around until the transport ship picks us up at three in the afternoon in three days."
"It would be impolite for us to keep our client waiting, we must go speak with them so we can begin our assignment." Mifu wasted no time in leading them towards a house that was closest to the barn. Mifu took out her phone and looked at it. "That house looks like our client's, so let's head over there."
All four of them made their way towards the house, and right away they all noticed that there was someone outside. It looked to be a cross between a man and a catfish. Actually, there were two! The first person was around 7 feet tall and looked like your average person, except their head was that of a cat fish's. His skin was similar to that of a cat fish's, and he even had a tail sticking out from his jean overalls. He had rubber boots on his feet, which Jack was assuming are webbed like his fingers are. He also had the signature catfish mustache that swayed in the wind. On the porch of the old looking farm house was an old rocking chair was another catfish person, but way smaller and older.
"Oh howdy, are y'all those Guardians we hired?" The catfish man spoke in an accent that made him sound like a redneck. "Nice to meet y'all, name's Billy Bob, and that there is my Mama Bobba. Say hi to the nice Guardians Mama Bobba!"
"W-What...???" The elderly woman couldn't hear that well from her spot on the porch. "O-Oh, are those your friends from the big city, son?"
"No Ma, these are the guardians I hired to help out with the cattle." Billy was patient with his elderly mother's hearing. "Remember? The cows were getting pretty darn sick?"
"Ooohhh, it must be something in the feed." The mother of the redneck catfish man guessed, and while it's not entirely out of the question, they still were not sure what exactly the cause of all this is.
"I'll explain to them what the issue is Mama, you go ahead and sit right here where you are!" Billy set his gardening tool against the wall of the rickety farm house. "Now follow me you guys, I'll show y'all to the infected cattle. I hope you guys have your walkin shoes on, cause this is quite a distance!"
All of them followed the catfish along a dirt path, which was uneven and somewhat hard to navigate with Jack's prosthetic leg, especially since he still hasn't gotten entirely used to it yet. Lucky for Jack, Mifu helped him out by ensuring the pace wasn't too fast. Mifu was even kind enough to lend Jack her hand when he needed it. They followed Billy for a couple minutes and after those minutes, Jack noticed a pungent smell. It smelled horrible, like the corpse of a skunk was dying and being held right in front of Jack's face as a torture method. It was so bad, Eve put on a gas mask that had a tube connected to her robot's chest. Damini held her nose with her fingers, Mifu held a cloth over her mouth and nose, and Jack used his sleeve to cover his face.
"What's that smell?" Damini questioned, while looking around the area to find the source of the awful stench.
"That smell is the infected cattle, which is over yonder." Billy pointed down the hill they were standing atop of, and there we saw a horrible sight that could only be the source of the smell.
The sight they were looking at was a fenced off region of the farm that had three sets of fences surrounding it. Connecting the innermost fences were a series of vertical steel beams which appear to be holding up a steel roof, making it look like a house without any doors, flooring, walls, windows, or anything else a house would normally have. Underneath this steel rooftop, there was a disgusting pile of something that was a dark, blue green color and honestly looked like it would fit into a Lovecraft novel. It's skin was solid, yet it was somehow bubbling like boiling water. Jack noticed that there were dark blue/green colored hoofs, cow heads, horns, and tails sticking out of the mess until I realized something.
"These are all the infected cattle, aren't they?" Eve figured this out much faster than Jack did. "So a side effect of the infection is that they're merged together like this?"
"Only if we put em next to each other." Billy answered while he gestured to the remains of the cattle. "If we put em together, they become that. On the other hand, if we separate em, they just have the weird color and smell. They also melt for some reason, leaving behind nothing but bones."
"Is there any chance we can see this melted form?" Mifu asked the redneck, who thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Why is that?"
"Because me and the boys use some tractors to move the infected cattle to this old hay barn because it was far away from everythin else." Billy explained, which was indeed the best option. "We also made sure to wash the tractors because germs n stuff."
"Alright, so I guess this will be all we have to work with." Eve sighed as she and the robot walked towards the infected cattle.
"Wait, Eve, be careful, it might be infectious!" Jack warned the girl whilst still covering his mouth, and in response, Eve simply looked at Jack.
"If it was infectious to humans such as us, then Billy, his mother, and his friends would have been infected a long time ago." Eve informed me. "Even if it was a delayed response kind of infection, they would have shown some kind of response. Besides, I have a gas mask."
With that said, Eve and her robot approached the massive glob of dead cows, and Eve appeared to be controlling her robot with her mind. Without giving it any orders, the robot extended the tube connected to the gas mask and his chest while jumping over the three fences towards the infected cattle. The robot then took off one it's fingers, which then stiffened and hollowed out to create a kind of makeshift beaker. The robot turned three of it's fingers into these makeshift beakers. The robot scooped up whatever substance the cows were now into these makeshift beakers. The robot then returned to Eve with these beakers before turning its body into a table filled to the brim with lab equipment and an O2 tank. It did all of this without Eve muttering a single word.
"Nice work, Mechantium." Eve congratulated the robot before she used the microscope to examine the substance that filled the beakers to the brim.
"Mechantium?" Did Eve seriously name her robot? And why that name of all names?
"Mechantium is the robot that Eve built when she was first able to hold a wrench." Damini informed the confused Mifu and Jack. "Of course, she improved it over the years, and it's completely different compared to when she first built it."
"I take it you two were friends when you both were younger?" Mifu asked the lioness, who chuckled before she shrugged.
"Of course, I'm her girlfriend." Damini chuckled as she sat on the grass beneath her feet. "Billy, you can go back to your house or whatever. Eve is gonna take a while."
"So what are you gonna do?" Jack asked Damini while shoving his hands in his pockets. "I feel bad for leaving Eve to do all of this alone."
"We'll sit down, Eve's a Scientist Class, so this kind of work is her speciality."