I do only own my OC´s, but not their call names. RWBY and some names belong to their respective owners
It was an ice-cold winter morning. So early that it was still dark. He, a soldier of Atlas, leaned with his back against the opened door of a Bullhead, arms crossed and waiting impatiently for his comrades.
But it was not a common soldier, given to his complete black armor, but for the blue marks on his breastplate and the light blue visor of his helmet, that also glowed lightly. His helmets design is the same as from the old robot forces of Atlas, the atlesian knight-130. While his breastplate looked the same as the ones of the other soldiers of Atlas, his legs got more armor compared to the common soldiers. Furthermore was his weaponry uncommon. He had a shotgun on the right side of his back and the same pistol at his right side the common soldiers carry with them. But additionally to that he had and a katana in its scabbard at his left side, the scabbard tightened on his belt, same for the holster of his pistol.
Finally the squad of this uncommon soldier arrived. "I´m sorry you had to wait, Zeal", a soldier in a similar armor aside from the marks, which were rusty red instead of blue, gasped. "It´s alright, Sev. You are in time." After a brief look on his clock shoved on his HUD he corrugated himself: "Well, almost at least."
He turned now to his whole team: "Cougar Squad, we got a new mission from General Ironwood himself. The Schnee-Dust-Company found an extremely rare new sort of Dust and was able to win some bit of it. Our objective is to pick up the Dust and bring it to our research center. The location of the mine is on the east side of a Mountain deep south in Vale. Something is unclear?"
A loud and clear "Sir, no, sir" in unison was the reaction.
"Good. So we can get going." "What? Now?", one of his men, Scorch, asked tiredly. "No, tomorrow. I got you lined you up in your complete armory just for fun. Of course now!", the team leader retoured sarcastically, bugged out because of this stupid question. "You heard the Major guys, so move into the Bullhead", Sev intervened. "Copy that, Lieutenant", the rest of the unit said. With that Cougar Squad boarded the Bullhead, Sev and Zeal at last.
After everyone was on board the doors shut close, the engines howled and the aircraft took off.
The many hours long flight to the Dust mine was quite uneventful. The dawn has arrived as the Bullhead was about to land at his destination. The members of Cougar Squad prepared to leave. As the doors shut open they were greeted by a young woman in a typical Schnee-employee dress with a friendly smile.
The woman had middle-long black hair which went her shortly under the shoulders. Even one of her eyes was covered by her hair. Her eyes had a beige-golden color which literally illumined one.
"Welcome to the mine side Delta-07. Am I right with the suggestion that you are Cougar Squad?", the woman said with a soft and friendly voice. "Yes, ma´am", was the short answer, which came through the filters of the helmet of the leader. "Perfect. So please, follow me this way", the employee said as she gestured over to her left side. Zeal, as chatty as he was, nod only in response and followed her with the rest of his squad.
Suddenly a voice was heard inside of his helmet: "Wow. Cute, beautiful and sexy at the same time. Rare combination. I like that." Zeal would remember this voice for the rest of his life. It was the one from Sev, his chief officer, who obviously left his com channel open. Zeal couldn´t help but to make a comment: "I only can agree on that, Sev." "O-oh…uhh…y-you heard that?", the addressed stuttered. "Yeah. And it seems I am not the only one", Zeal stated and gestured to the woman who looked embarrassed to the floor as she stammered a "Thank you" which was hardly hearable. "The next time you think something out loud, make sure your com and micro are not open", Zeal advised to the still embarrassed Sev. Zeal opened a private com channel to Sev. "Don´t you wanna know her name?" "Of course I want." "Well then just ask her." "Yeah, you´re right." Zeal closed the channel, but the woman seems to be able to read minds. "Cinder", she said barely noticeable. "Excuse me?", came from Sev.
"My name is Cinder Fall, it´s an honor meet you" she said with this soft and even a bit erotic voice of hers as she turned her head and her gaze fell directly on Sev. As it done so she winked at him. "M-My name is Sev, and the honor is completely on my side", Sev said blushing and a bit nervous. "Sev? Never heard a name like that", Cinder half asked half stated. "W-well, it´s just my call Name, you know? As sorry as i am, but we mustn´t tell anyone our real names", Sev answered while he looked at the floor. The woman then spoke in a really gentle and sweet voice: "It´s alright, Sev, rules are rules. I understand that", and gave the armored figure at her side a reassuring smile.
After a short period of their walk in silence Cinder spoke again: "We´re here." "Where?", the same soldier who asked a dumb question a few hours ago asked. "Here", and she gestured with her hand onto a little silver suitcase. "Such a little?", this soldier asked again. Zeal was clearly nerved and spoke up before Cinder could: "I said in the briefing that it is extremely rare Dust, what means that there is not much of it, got it?"
"Y-yes sir", Scorch said feeling bad for asking. "Good", Zeal said as he picked up the suitcase, "is there something we have to know about the Dust?", Zeal asked Cinder. "Uhm yeah, you should not open the suitcase. We found out that the Dust have a uncommon high radiation level." "Anything else?" "No" "Alright, thank you. So let´s get going!" "Do you mind if I walk with you to your ship?", a certain woman asked. Zeal smiled a little bit and wanted to answer but he was not fast enough. "Of course not, ma´am", Sev answered instead. Zeal couldn´t help but chuckled at that.
In the time of the few minutes long walk silence lay over the squad aside from Sev and Cinder who chatted frisky. Zeal had to smirk at this, his friend obviously liked this young lady very much, and he can fully understand him, she was just in his Age, in her early twenties and extremely beautiful.
As they finally reached the bullhead Cinder passed a little paper to Sev which included her Scroll number. "If you have some free time", she said and winked again at him. He blushed really hard at this suggestion, or what he understood from it. She turned now to Zeal: "Please be careful. We lost contact to some mines in direction to Atlas and we still don´t know what exactly happened there", she stated concerned. "Thank you, ma´am. We will look out", Zeal acknowledged the warning. He turned to his fellow men while he strapped the suitcase on his back: "OK squad, move out!" "Yes, sir!", the squad shouted in unison. The squad waved goodbye and got ready to board the bullhead, as suddenly the alarms set off. And as if to confirm the alarm, another employee came running and screamed "Grimm Attack!", followed by a few Beowulfes.
The employee stumbled and fell to the floor, now facing his Grimm looking death. He shut his eyes close in fear and held his hands in front of his face, and heard a gunshot. As he looked up, he saw the Beowulf, which stood a moment before right in front of him, with a coin thick hole between his eyes. The man looked behind him to see a soldier with black armor and crimson red markings with a drawn sniper rifle. The sniper took aim again and shot the other few Beowulfes down which chased the man. After the sound of gunfire died away Zeal spoke up: "You two stay at the bullhead. We defend the area." "A-a-alright", was anything the terrified man could mumble, while Cinder wasn´t so scared and gave a clear "understood" as reply. That was somehow strange to Zeal, but now was not the time to care about something like that. "How many other employees are here?", Zeal asked Cinder. "Just three others" "Alright. Lockdown, go for a high position. Hawk, stay here. The rest of us look for the others. Move out!" "Roger!" was heard from seven helmed persons. Everyone drew out their weapons and six soldiers ran off while Lockdown jumped onto the bullhead and laid down. "Don´t you worry, we´ve got this" Hawk said to the two employees. Once Lockdown was in position he gave every Grimm he saw a headshot.
In the meantime the rest of Cougar Squad went out to search for other survivors. Zeal made a few unfortunate Grimm which happened to cross his path eat blasts of his shotgun. At this pace it wasn´t long until they found the other three employees given to the fact that this was a pretty small and new founded mining side. With the other three they made their way back to the bullhead. After their arrival Zeal announced their next step, speaking extra loud to get heard over the alarms: "Listen! We all have to board the bullhead and evacuate from here ´cause the Grimm won´t stop coming. I know it´s going to be narrow, but it´s either that or Grimm. So, any complains?" Zeals blue visor looked in the round. No one dared to negate Zeals voice of authority, so "No, sir" was the only audible response. "I suggest the civilians sit down in the lap of soldiers to save some space. Now let´s get going!" At this command Cougar Squad started boarding, starting with Hawk, the pilot. Zeal and Lockdown went in after the Schnee employees and fought off a few incoming Beowulfes. After everybody found a seat, Cinder found herself on top of Sevs lap (much to his pleasure), the engines of the bullhead howled to action and brought them in the air and away from the overrun mining side.
"Set course back at Atlas", the Major ordered. A dulled "understood" was heard out of the cockpit.
After half an hour unpleasant flight time, except for Cinder and Sev, who chatted the whole time, the alarm went suddenly on. Zeal got immediately up out of his seat and went to the cockpit. "What´s our status, Hawk?", he asked with a trace of concern in his voice. "Not well, sir. We got gripped by a missile." "What?! We are over a forest far away from the kingdoms. How is this even possible?" "I don´t know, sir. All I know is that there is rocket on our track. She is fast and comes closer and closer." "Damn it", Zeal sighed, "do we have Flares?" "Yes, sir." "Then let us hope it is a heat-seeking missile." "And if it is not?", the pilot asked worriedly. "Well, then we have to parachute down and make our way to Beacon Academy if we don´t want to die up here", Zeal answered. "I tell the others to get a parachute, and you should get one yourself." "Yes, sir." Zeal went out of the cockpit and spoke to his men and the civilians: "We got gripped by a missile. She is chasing us and is a lot faster than our Bullhead. Everyone get a parachute and prepare to skydive!" The Squad done as commanded and lined up in front of the door. "But, what´s with us? There aren´t enough parachutes for the five of us" Cinder asked concerned. Before Zeal could answer Sev spoke up: "You´ll fly with us, of course. Just hold on the guy you´re flying with and leave the rest to us." Zeal had to chuckle again at his best friend and chief officer. But then their situation came to his mind again. "Hawk, open the door and get over here", the squad leader ordered. "I-I can´t, sir. The door locks are jammed! Furthermore, all of our systems are down!", the pilot started to panic.
"Damn", was the only thing Zeal had to say. After a short time he started: "Well, if the door won´t open by itself we will help a bit. Scorch, get over here!" Yes, sir." one of commandos moved to Zeal. He had the same black armor with golden marks. "Give me a door breach!", Zeal ordered. "And try to not blow us all up", he added. "I´ll try, sir", Scorch said with a little smile. Zeal only rolled his eyes. After half a minute Scorch finished his work. "Explosives are in place, sir. I've checked them completely." "You sure that won´t blow us all away?", one of the other men asked. "Pretty much", was the response from Scorch. "How much time left, Hawk?", Zeal shouted. "More or less a minute. And I would say less."
"OK, so now get over here", the Major ordered. The pilot done so. "Get as far away as possible!" The whole squad and the civilians went into the corners of the room. Sev was the closest one to the door. "Take cover!", Zeal shouted as he hit the button that caused the explosions to do their job. The demolition set blew the door up and pieces of it flew outside of the aircraft. The men of Cougar Squad jumped one after another out of the aircraft. First one solo, then the five with the civilians followed by Hawk and Zeal at last. Just after Zeal got a bit away the rocket hit its target and blew up the entire bullhead. Suddenly, a great piece of scrap metal hit Zeal in the back and in the back of his head. Thanks to the shield of their armor and his Aura it didn´t cut his head into half, instead it knocked him out. A cry of pain was the last thing he remembered before everything went black.