[Deleted]

The frigid winds battered across this now tundra like plains far worse than it had ever before. Having to shield their eyes in fear that the flowing ice around that foreign rock may shred them, two generic humans stood outside the immediate danger zone, three synthetically reinforced coats in tow. They were ready to brief the volunteers upon their mission. The two weren't exactly soldier material, but what more could the Lifesphere afford in expendable foot soldiers? They were here on duty, for a reason. It was either they stood here and took this now, or faced these conditions worldwide. At least they weren't toads... Something sinister was brewing upon that shortened peak, clearly over half of the rock was submerged into the ground, possibly a mountain in and of itself, had it not been for being wedged several hundred feet into Li's crust.

"What time is it?"
"Twenty-One-hundred. They should be here any second."
"They should be here any second."

The two still stood strong, the sinister energies within that frozen, blizzard-rock still raged on, ready to freeze this place under a layer of painful frost if left unchecked.

---

So now the true test reveals itself.
To brave not just the peak.
But the fears within your own mind.
To show the world you are no more than just a mere mercenary or warrior.
You are heroes.
But this is unlike anything you've seen before.
Stat checks are bound to fail.
Paths are bound to be blocked.
But you will finish this quest.
One way or another.

[TheSpatialWeeg]

Rulue walked around the plains like nothing was ever happening...well, sort of. She already braved loads of harsh weather conditions (in her basic clothing no less), but this one..felt much stronger for some unexplained reason, therefore, double attention was needed. And also a layer of winter gear. She already knew of the coat that the folks would offer her, but better safe than sorry, that's what they say.

...Funny how she heeds the advice when it was mouthed by her in person.

It didn't take too long to find the two figures next to the rock. "So...are you the folks with the mission briefing?" Hah, no wonder they needed help. "I am Rulue. Fighting Queen Rulue, and you shall address me as such for the remainder of your lives."

[Mari]

"The Fighting Queen?" a girl's voice asked as she approached from behind Rulue.

If one turned to investigate they'd find Raffine making her approach. Her gaze swept across the gathered recruiters and Rulue, taking in the situation for a moment while she closed the remaining distance between the bunch of them.

"Well! I wish our reunion could have been on a sunnier day, but I suppose this'll have to do~" Raffine continued after the moment passed, smiling delicately at the other. She then turned her full attention on the recruiters, giving them a mildly impatient look. C'mon step it up you're too slow

[Deleted]

"Kgh. The weather's really picking up..." Squall thought to himself while casually walking towards to the group of people. 

    Finally making his way over to the group next to the rock, Squall nodded to the girls before proceeding to talk to the two men that he had been notified to report to for instructions. It's best not to question the logistics of this land; if they wanted to let little girls be mercenaries and fighters so be it, it wasn't his position to protest. The weather was certainly chilly, but it wasn't quite as bad as what Squall had been through; junctioning the Shiva GF makes one get quite used to frigid temperatures.

    "Squall Leonhart. I assume you'll be in charge of our mission briefing?" He asked the two "normal looking" humans, thinking them to most likely be the mission's informants due to how securely dressed and prepared they appeared to be.

[Deleted]

"Rulue."
"Yup, and the rest."

The two turned to one another, one handing the blue haired fighting queen a custom fit coat laced with internal heating units, and a GPS. The left one nodded, before turning to Raffine, handing her the same gear, less apprehensive this time. Finally, they nodded to Squall, as if recognizing him from somewhere, handing him the last coat and GPS. As they finished passing out the gear, the higher ranking one, almost identical to his friend, began explaining the scenario.

"Okay, so, we've been briefed on what this thing is, how it got here, et cetera. Which is not at all. Your job is to scale this thing with whatever means necessary, and find out what's causing these storms. We've been told if you can recover the energy pulses' power source, and return it, there's a bonus in the works. High magic readings have been detected from within. If you need to make an emergency Evac, there's a switch on the back of each of you all's GPS's, flick them all, and stand outside, the beacon will do the rest. We expect this to be used in dire emergency, or when your mission is complete. We clear?"

The other stood back, gearing up to head back into the tent that was just made visible by the snow clearing a bit, the eye of the storm had moved forward, and then began to retreat, as if having a mind of its own.

[TheSpatialWeeg]

"Ah, yes, the feeling is very much mutual, Raffine."

Finally someone she knows and actually likes. Raffine was a girl that reminded a lot of herself in her early days. Now, she wasn't going to project herself onto the girl. No, that would go against what she stood for. She grew up and found solace on her lack of magic power via martial arts, and she was going to let the kid 'discover herself' as well, in a lack of a better term.
She briefly looked at Squall, who just gave out a singular nod to them and approached the guys with the mission briefing. He was pretty nicely dressed, fashion-wise, but personality-wise left a lot to be desired. Was he timid or anti-social? Or just the type of person who focuses on the mission? ...Eh, no matter, it's not like she's gonna partner up with him often.
Receiving the promised coat and hearing the fellas say the rest of the mission, she nodded and hand-waved. "Yes, yes, we got you, scale the thing, find the cause of the storms, et cetera,et cetera, et cetera." She said nonchalantly. Rulue apparently wasn't in a pretty decent mood.
Putting on the coat they gave to her, Rulue proceeded to eye the thing they're supposed to scale. "Hm...are you both getting the feeling we're gonna do something terrible?"

[Mari]

"Hmm... Well, the disembodied murmuring in those messages might be of concern. For all we know, it could have come from some sort of eldritch monster." Raffine mused aloud in response to Rulue's question.

Though it was a perfectly valid point, one had to question where Raffine had learned to be genre savvy like that. It wasn't the kind of conclusion one reached naturally. Did she know something about what was going on? Raffine reluctantly took the suit. It was irritatingly unflattering. What, was the rule of glamorous not good enough for this stinkin' mountain?! ...Ah well. She very reluctantly put on the suit and adjusted it for what little additional comfort she could get out of it, taking a step forward. "But I suppose if we don't investigate, someone else will." Raffine went on to lament. Better to send the best if the mission turned out to be some sort of lovecraftian horror.

[Deleted]

    Squall did his best to tune out the conversation between the two girls while slipping on the winter gear over his regular clothes, removing gear for a moment before fitting it back on top of his newer attire. He preferred keeping to himself in these kinds of situations and focusing on the task at hand. Already he was searching for the safest and fastest routes up the blizzard-torn mountain before pocketing his GPS.

    Silently waving and signalling the 2 girls, Raffine and Rulue, to follow him, Squall began steadily but surely walking towards the slope and barely engraved path up the mountain to complete their objectives. In his mind he was making a mental checklist of the necessary and unnecessary objectives he and the group needed to complete while here while also keeping a close eye out for any dangers. There was no way that they were going to get up this land-mass without some form of a resisting force of fiends or monsters, so it'd be best to stay on his gaurd at all times...