Journal Entry, March 28th, 2035.
Sergeant Adam Quincy Jones, Sharpshooter, Menace Team.
You know... life really sucks.
Now, before you lay into me for complaining, hear me out. Life bloody sucks. This is coming from a veteran of the Old War, the one that lasted all of 3 blessed months. Sure, this is better than living under Advent's heel, but goddammit, it's not by much. Food's even harder to come by, half the men we're training with are wet blanket cunts, batshit crazy, or stupid kids. Sometimes, you get one of those ones that's all of the above, like Walker. That fuckin' idiot doesn't know his arse from his elbow. Luckily, Central's made sure word of mouth about yours truly gets around, so I get my due respect... and my fair share of getting mocked as 'gramps' or 'daddy' or something of the like.
Not my fault I've been kicking alien ass since some of those twats have been in diapers. Chief Engineer Shen was a wee tadpole when the world officially went to shit, I remember it like it was yesterday. God, I miss Raymond, thinking about it. He always took care of us grunts. And even Vahlen had her moments of brilliance- even though it wasn't her specialty, she made a point of checking in with the head of Medical whenever someone was interred.
Up until today, we never had closure on Vahlen. But as of today, we just might.
You see, about two weeks ago, we found the crash site of an old friend. The old Skyranger. Big Sky was nowhere to be found, but there was no signs of a struggle there, either. Maybe he got out. But that wasn't what caught us by surprise. What DID was that these guys had contact with Vahlen. RECENT contact. As in, a day before. We got some loot out of it, but... I'm still worried. Things are getting worse on my-OUR end. We need Vahlen more than ever. That's why I'm so glad we intercepted her signal. She sent out some sort of... distress call or something. We triangulated the position of it, but... God, I hope she's alive.
I see very little hope for XCOM if she isn't. Bradford's pinning everything on this. He isn't saying so, but I can see it in his eyes. It was something of an open secret that he was close to the woman, although how anyone can be close to that prickly bitch is beyond me. No one's had the heart to tell him this is probably a lost cause, besides Tygan. Never thought I'd approve of that little quisling, but for once he has a point. Didn't stop Bradford from chartering this mission himself. He's got the best of the best. Lieutenant MacAuley, myself, Corporal Nikos, and Private Delacroix.
Anyway, the El-Zed's up ahead. I'll update when this is over.
It was a surprise to no one that Bradford insisted on being the first one out of the Skyranger's door. No one was thrilled about the man taking the field, especially because, since the Commander was locked up in his office all day, that meant Bradford was for all intents and purposes, in charge of XCOM's day to day operations. Adam was the least thrilled of them all- at this point, it seemed Bradford was shaping up to be his only friend. Sure, he and Shen were cordial, but Bradford was the one anchor he had back to the Old World, back before things went to hell. Adam had volunteered for this mission the moment he heard Vahlen's name because he knew more than anyone that Bradford would go running like mad. Everything else just fell into place.
Adam looked back to his squad- he'd worked with MacAuley back at the start of the revived XCOM- with Jane, he added with a mental kick in the ribs- when the team was assigned with smacking down an ADVENT convoy. It didn't go all according to plan, but MacAuley had managed to make it work. He was a master at pulling people together, even if they really, REALLY didn't want to BE together. The Aussie'd taken to wearing a pinned up boonie hat, lined with bullets. He said it just felt comfortable, plus he 'had to make it glaringly obvious to everyone on Earth that I'm Australian'. It definitely looked right on him, even if the camo looked silly. Black and grey.
Behind him, Alexios Nikos and Declan Delacroix checked their weapons, with Declan drawing one of the axes they'd found from the Big Sky wreck. Ugly, but Declan'd been training with them for the past week, day in and day out. He could use them consistently now, he said. In the meantime, Adam noted that Alexios looked nothing like he'd expected him to.
"Thought you'd be shorter," he said, vocalizing the thought conservatively. Considering that Adam was 6 foot even, he wasn't used to be looked down at, but the 6'4" Greek managed it.
"I get that a lot," came the equally conservative reply. The specialist brushed past him, calling up his Gremlin- Murphy called it HAV-C, or "Havoc"- to scan the area. "I'm not getting anything unusual," he said. "Got a lot of snakes crawling around, but... other than that, nothin'."
"Whaddya think's up with that?" Declan asked," I ain't never seen this many damn snakes in all my days."
"I dunno, that's what we're here to find out."
As Firebrand closed up the door and the squad formed up, Tygan made contact via HAV-C. "Biological readings in this area are... erratic, Central. In addition to multiple species of alien fau-"
Bradford threw up his fist, causing the squad to stop dead in their tracks. "Hold on, Doctor. We've got something."
Alexios stepped aside, looking down as Bradford walked forward. "Yep. PDA. Looks like an older model. Like, 2020s old. This body..."
The PDA crackled to life, albeit only displaying static and shoving out distorted audio. A woman's voice, urgently ordering someone to get the hell out of dodge, and take some important data with them, straight to Bradford.
"Vahlen," Adam muttered under his breath, looking over at the Central Officer, while the other three men simply looked at the cave ahead. Adam couldn't blame them for not being that concerned. They'd never met Vahlen, wouldn't recognize her if they saw her. Other than this mission, it was a safe bet they'd never would have had anything to do with her in their entire lives. There was more pertinent matters at hand, however- what data could she possibly be holding onto? Old XCOM records? Intel she'd collected after the war? Something else entirely? Nobody was sure, but all 5 were just about ready to find out.
"I had hoped to meet my predecessor under less extreme circumstances." Tygan interrupted. "Still, I have tracked her signal to an area not far ahead."
"Right. Let's do this, team."
Bradford pocketed the PDF, and motioned the team forward, minding the gap as the small outcropping they landed on fell off into a dusty, sandy metal landing pad. It hadn't been used in a fair amount of time, considering the state of disarray, but... ADVENT would have been more thorough. They wouldn't have left bodies, let alone skeletal remains with sensitive data on them. Something happened inside this cave, that much was obvious, including the sight of the big loading bay doors leading to some sort of dimly lit chamber... and a pair of Vipers wielding strange, crossbow-like weapons.
"Aren't those..." Declan started, looking over at Alexios, who was carrying a similar weapon himself.
"What was this 'Vahlen' doing here, Central?" the Greek asked, quietly, lining up a shot on one of the Vipers.
"I don't know, but we need to find out. Adam."
Adam raised his sniper rifle, taking aim at the second Viper. "Hit it on 3. 1. 2."
With that, a loud burst of compressed air, followed by a loud bang from the sniper rifle, and the two Vipers were sent flailing back, one of them pinned to the wall by the bolt from the new weapon, while the other's brain matter was currently painting a small wall panel that was once upon a time a door control.
"Well, that woke the neighborhood," Declan stated conservatively, breaking away from the group and headed towards the chamber past the now-dead Vipers, the rest of the squad trailing behind him.
"Hopefully there isn't much further resistance. It's strange that it's just Vipers around here-"
"And snakes. Look," Alexios interrupted the Central Officer, pointing at the small diamondback currently writhing under his boot.
A loud hiss determinedly NOT from Alexios' new friend rang through the cavern, followed by a low, echoing chorus of hissing from further in the cave.
"Oh, bugger," Adam muttered, diving behind a large set of canisters and looking up at the holographic displays that provided the only light in the room. "What the bloody hell are these? A Berserker, a Viper, and... what even is that thing?"
"Tygan's trying to upload Vahlen's logs that were on that PDA. Until they come through, we've got no idea what's going on," Bradford responded. "In cover, now!"
Alexios set up behind a small window, patting HAV-C reassuringly as Declan took to the wall next to him, peeking just over the threshold into the cave itself.
"Hey, Central! That there is a LOT of snakes!"
"About to be none," retorted Murph, who stood up next to Adam, propping the base of his rotary cannon on the canisters, aiming down the cave at the source of the noise. "Adam and I will keep an overwatch here- Central, you take Lex and Dec and move in, try to draw them into our line of fire. Adam, head to that door on the other side and get ready!"
Adam nodded. Murphy was a soldier, like Adam himself, and he carried himself like one even in a confusing, intel-dark situation like this. No wonder Hitman Team spoke so highly of him. As he bolted for the other side, sliding behind a computer terminal and raising his rifle, he could already see Vipers crawling out of the walls. He'd finally noticed what was unusual about them, besides the obvious weaponry. They were *tiny*, and their scales looked... smooth. As if they were molting. As if they were...
"Central! These snakes are tinkers!" Adam shouted over.
"Say again?"
"These Vipers aren't fully grown!"
"Why the hell would they not be?" Declan asked, grabbing one of the axes on his back and clipping his shotgun to the mag strap on his belt.
"I don't know, but they're still a threat. Let's clean 'em up, team." Bradford seemed unfazed by the revelation, shocking no one, and simply opened fire, with Alexios following suit behind him. Declan ran out into the corridor, disappearing from Adam's sight, although he could hear the sound of a heavy blade burying into flesh, followed by a shotgun blast, and the panicked rasp of dying Vipers. Murph's cannon roared to life just as Declan entered Adam's view, hoisting an axe over his head and flying at one of the Vipers on his side, burying the axe deep into the alien's skull. Adam fired a round, managing to fell a hostile that was attempting to flank the Ranger, while Declan himself, unable to free his axe from the skull of the Viper in time to face the next one, simply threw his spare axe like a tomahawk, impaling a Viper through the chest with a crunch of bone giving way under the weighted blade.
"Jesus, they're comin' in hot!" Declan shouted, finally managing to dislodge the nearest axe before pulling out his shotgun and firing a blast just out of Adam's view. The firing was still hot on Murph's side, although Alexios and Bradford had already broken off, and Murph was starting to advance into the cave itself. It was probably a good time to move in, so Adam did, drawing his pistol and running forward, just in time to confront a gaggle of Vipers trying to slink through what appeared to be a makeshift research lab in the center of the cave. Adam fired his pistol at one, sending it flopping lifelessly to the side, while Declan gave another a shotgun blast that sent it crashing back through the window it was slinking out of. Alexios' bolts pinioned another to the wall, while Bradford, sword in hand, neatly decapitated one at a full sprint, before jumping into a flying boot to another, which he followed up by burying his blade in its head. The last Viper burst out from the doorway behind him, only to be lit up by the entire fireteam at once.
And then it was completely silent in the cave.
"... yeesh," Declan finally spoke up, walking over to his other axe, still embedded in the chest of the Viper he'd slain, making a grand show of stomping and kicking at the damn thing to dislodge it. Annoyed, Murph went to assist him, the two men jerking the blade out with a spray of greenish-yellow viscera. "Ah, fuck!"
"Wuss."
"Shut up, Murph, you're an outbacker, you prolly bathe in your own shit."
Adam spun his pistol around his finger before holstering it, approaching a very frustrated Alexios and an equally worried Bradford. "What's going on?"
"Tygan can't get the damn logs. There's some kind of interference coming from deep inside the cave. There's temperature distortions down there, too. Think, we're in the middle of the Sonora Desert, right?" Alexios explained, pointing at the LED screen on HAV-C. "Well, here's the thing. Part of the cave we're in now? It's naturally a bit colder due to the shade. About 85 degrees. About 20 yards in? Below fuckin' freezing. It's not a glitch, either. Tygan's picking it up too on the remote scan. Something's fucking with all of our systems in here."
"Well, let me play the devil's advocate here. What if it really is that cold?" Bradford asked.
"Then I don't know what sort of feat of scientific gymnastics had to occur to make that happen," replied Alexios, "and I'm not exactly thrilled to find out. We have no signs of those things in the atrium here. What if they're further down the cave?"
"That would make sense. Cold storage. Maybe they're just cadavers in cold storage..."
"Central! I've managed to decode one of Vahlen's audio logs. I'm going to send the playback now."
"- this is truly astonishing! This specimen doesn't seem to require physical nourishment of any kind, but seems instead to feed off of... I'm not sure. When presented with prey, it will still attack them, and be sated after the kill, but it has yet to physically consume anything. This is also interesting in regards to their unique physiology- the specimen appears to be in some sort of half-space between solid and gas, yet not a liquid, apart from this bony armor making up part of its physiology. This armor has proven impervious to all but Subject Alpha's attempts to damage it, and even then, it's proven an even match for Subject Alpha when in close combat. I b- wait. Why is... Collins, get away from that-!"
The assembled team turned to look at each other in unison, then further down the cave.
"I'm not goin' down there," Declan stated, taking a few steps back.
"Yes, you are," Adam replied, grabbing him by the arm.
"I'm... goin' down there..."
"Reload your weapons and stay on your toes. It sounds like whatever this thing is, it's a tough son of a bitch. If it's still here... we're gonna have a hell of a fight."
"Central! I'm picking up a signature matching Dr. Vahlen's own further into the cave, around the epicenter of the sub-zero pocket in the cave. Be advised- I'm detecting at least one life form moving rapidly around the area- too rapidly to be a human."
"Oh, lovely." Adam looked over at Bradford. "Well, Central?"
"Follow me."
Say what you may about Bradford, but if the man was gonna order you to your death, he was gonna march there with you.
By the time they reached what once was supposed to be some sort of enclosure, save for the fact all the glass was broken and the damn thing was covered from top to bottom in dead Vipers and ice, the team's nerves were about fried. And that was BEFORE they started hearing the hissing.
"Well, it looks like the Viper's still here," Bradford whispered. "Nikos, Delacroix. Left side of the window. Adam, you and I will wait on the right. MacAuley, get ready to put a grenade in there."
The Aussie maglocked his cannon to his back, grabbing his Grenade Launcher and cocking the contraption before taking a knee and bracing it. "Ready."
"Let's go."
Adam followed Bradford to their waiting point on the ledge, the two elder statesmen watching the icy hellscape. A single skeletal form lay in the middle of the small enclosure, holding what appeared to be a PDA.
"Is that..." Bradford started.
"I'm unable to identify at this range."
"Right... So, we have to go in there. Let's move. Murphy, see that small plateau, here? I want you on top of it."
"Got it!" the Aussie replied, only to visibly flinch at the deafening sound of a loud, shrill shriek, and the sound of ice breaking under something. "What the-"
"Get in position!"
Murphy scrambled to climb up the raised rocks as the rest of the team spread out around the wall of the enclosure, ducking behind stones in an attempt to conceal themselves from whatever was going on. All they could do now was observe as the hissing grew louder, and much closer to them.
"If you see it... light it up."
They saw it, alright. Specifically, Adam and company watched in awe as the Viper from the display was thrown sailing through the air, landing a bloody, battered mess a few yards ahead of the squad. Following right after it was a... mass of black in the vague shape of some sort of canine, but standing upright, like the mythical werewolf. It charged the fallen Viper, pinning it to the floor as it struggled to fire off bursts of icy air from its throat, freezing the arm of the thing assaulting it, before said thing shattered its own arm as if it were just an everyday routine. Sans one arm, it continued to hold down and tear at the Viper until it stopped its resistance... and then proceeded to look right at the squad, growling lowly before letting out a loud, piercing howl.
"What the FUCK IS THAT!?" Declan shouted.
"PUT A GRENADE ON IT! NOW!" Bradford ordered.
A puff of smoke, and a frag grenade arced through the air, smacking directly into the face of the black beast, which proceeded to completely ignore the fact that it had just been slapped in the face with a grenade, and roared again directly at Murph, who seemed equally undeterred on the exterior (although Adam highly doubted the man wasn't about to piss himself.). Declan fired the whole tube of shells from his shotgun at it, obviously hitting, but nothing was really happening, the beast was only getting angrier, and turning its attention to Declan.
"Keep hitting it while it's confused!" Bradford commanded, breaking off to the right to draw its attention, headed straight into the middle of the ice. He motioned to Alexios and Adam, and while the latter seemed to instinctively run towards the big beast before turning on his heel and running back towards Murph's perch, Adam wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. His eyes darted between Alex, the beast, the body in the center of the enclosure, the Viper attempting to slither awa-
The Viper was still moving!?
Far from Sonora, Arizona
Remnant
Strange things happen on Remnant. Such is life. This was an established fact amongst the general population, and especially amongst huntsmen/huntresses in training such as Team JNPR.
Seeing a random purple tear in the air in front of him was probably the second strangest thing Jaune had seen in his entire life. And he'd seen VERY strange things in his 16 years on Earth. It bears repeating, this was the second strangest thing on that very, very, very long list. Especially when he heard what sounded like gunfire, men screaming at each other, and a Grimm. He'd called a team huddle almost immediately after seeing this, leaving JNPR to examine the anomaly as a unit.
"Can I-"
"Absolutely not," interrupted Ren, stepping just between Nora and the purple thing for emphasis. Weird how those two were so in tune with each other.
"You guys hear it too, right? The gunfire? And I'm pretty sure that's a Beowulf on the other end."
Pyrrha nodded. "It seems like it. So, what should we do?"
"We should touch it!"
"Nora!"
Jaune sighed. "We don't even really know what it is. For all we know it could be just like... I dunno, like, maybe like a recording? We can't interact with it, but we can listen to it?"
"Then by the time we figure out where these people are, they could be dead. Nora-" Ren grabbed Nora's wrist out of midair, just short of her brushing her finger against the edge of the anomaly, which rippled slightly around her finger.
"So, it's a tangible thing?" Jaune reached out himself, more towards the black center of the anomaly, which proceeded to spread open around his fist, revealing SOMETHING on the other side. A cave, covered in ice, and what appeared to be a Beowulf, which was now turning its head towards them. "And... it's two way, it's two way, two way!"
"What the fuck's goin' on over there!?" someone shouted.
"It sounds like someone's sayin' something!"
"OI! DON'T COME IN HERE! THERE'S A BIG BLOODY WOLF-THING-"
"Alright, that seems to settle this then. Let's see what we can do." interrupted Pyrrha, attempting to push into the purple mist and promptly disappearing in a flash of light.
"NOW can I touch it!?" Nora asked, indignant.
Ren sighed aloud, shaking his head morosely. "I suppose we don't have much choice. Let's go."
Jaune was the next one to go in, light flashing in his eyes as he suddenly felt... light. Like he was made of air, before suddenly crashing back into a solid state in the middle of a bone-cold cave. The Beowolf was right in front of him, not too far from where it appeared to be from the other side of the purple thing. He heard it again, twice, the flashes of light at his back indicating that Nora and Ren made it through, before the purple light over his shoulder completely disappeared.
"It closed!" Nora shouted, turning away from the very pertinent threat in front of them.
"That's... not good."
"Don't worry about it for now. Let's focus on what's in front of us!" Pyrrha turned to the group of men that must have been the source of the shouting earlier. "We're here to help!"
"Crucified CHRIST, woman, what are you WEARING!?" one of the men, a tall blonde clad in black and a small stocking cap, shouted, pointing directly at Pyrrha with his free hand as he kept his pistol trained on the startled Beowolf.
"Is something wrong?"
"Just shut up and kill that thing!" one of the men, a grizzled-looking old fellow with a sword on his back, ordered, and the other four men's attentions focused on the Beowolf. Evidently, he was the one in charge around here. "Bullets don't hurt it!"
"This will!" Nora shouted gleefully, Manghild shifting into its grenade-launcher form in her hands as she took aim at the Beowolf.
"Bloody FUCK THUNDER, Central, I want one of those!" a man in camouflage shouted. "Wait, where's the-"
"Focus!"
As Nora let a carpet barrage of grenades fly, the man in camouflage whipped a large minigun off of his back and began firing at the creature to divert its attention, the combined firepower from the two heavy weapons staggering the creature long enough for the man with a pistol to line up a shot with the rather large revolver. "Someone put another grenade on it!"
"'nade out!" cried another one of the shooters, a man in stark white armor with a pair of hefty axes on his back, as he pitched a grenade like the world's deadliest baseball in the general direction of the Grimm, landing right beside the beast. The explosion did some damage, but this Beowolf was obviously a bit older and tougher than most- its armor wasn't even cracking under the punishment it was suffering.
"Hey, Pyrrha! I think we're gonna need to get closer!"
"Right!"
"Why the FUCK are you guys using swords and shields!?" Grenade Guy asked, seemingly ignorant to the hypocrisy inherent in his statement, as he had his hand one one of his huge axes.
A man with what appeared to be an odd, sideways crossbow nodded to them, motioning for the little hovering robot next to him to fly at the Beowolf, letting out short arcs of electricity and causing the Grimm to swat after it, intent on bringing it down to the ground.
"D!" the man shouted, and Grenade Guy- err, 'D', ran in, pulling one of his axes off his back and leaping into the air, burying the weapon into the armored head of the Beowolf, who responded by turning with its good arm and attempting to tear him open with its claws. His target was surprisingly nimble for a man his size- he leaned back, barely avoiding the claws as he drew the second axe and let out a war cry as he smashed a second, two-handed swing into the neck of the Grimm, a trail of black ichor flying alongside the blade.
"That looked like it hurt! Keep it comin'!" the commander ordered, and D quickly dove out of the way of another strike, his axe sticking to his back with a loud click as he removed his shotgun from its place on his back, and began firing while backpedaling towards JNPR. Well, if that wasn't a call to action...
"Hit it!" D shouted, and Pyrrha immediately complied, sending her shield flying into the face of the Beowolf, dislodging the axe stuck there as the Grimm howled, shaking its head and resuming its pursuit of D. While the aforementioned soldier turned on his heels, drawing his axe with one hand while holding his shotgun in the other, Jaune went in, sliding to a stop with his shield up as the Grimm took a wild swing downward, slamming harmlessly into Jaune's shield and cracking the ice below their feet. D jumped in once more, firing a single shot from his shotgun and giving a wide, spinning slash with his axe, before dropping to the ground to avoid being sent flying by the Grimm's backhand. Taking the opportunity presented by the creature turning, Jaune rose to his feet, and plunged Crocea Mors into its back, the Grimm's evil essence quickly starting to ebb as it dropped to its knees, and fell to the cave floor in front of D, who proceeded to drop his head, laying on the icy cave floor.
"Hoooooly capital f-u-c-k, weirdos," he half-gasped, grasping for his axe and placing it against his chest. "Oh, lord, I'm dead. I'm somehow dead and all y'all beat me to hell. Or worse yet, you're part of my punishment."
"Funny," Camo muttered, looking over the kids. "The fuck are you doin' 'ere?"
"We were in the Emerald Forest on a mission, and we saw that purple cloud thing just sitting there. We heard gunfire, and figured we should help you guys out," Jaune explained, only to be met with raised eyebrows, and the man shifting his gun towards them.
"Hey, hey, hey, Murph- they're human."
"Stupid humans. Who the fuck comes into a combat zone wearing a keyhole top or god forbid, a bloody corset?" Pistol Guy asked, pointing firmly at Pyrrha. "And what the fuck even are those weapons- that shield mess, the fuck was that?"
"I literally do not give a SINGLE shit, because that was some SICK business right there," D interjected, kipping up to his feet with axes in hand. He holstered the ungainly weapons before grabbing his shotgun off the ground. "Y'all rude as hell, not even giving these people an introduction before you start pointing guns at them. I'm Private Declan Jean-Robillard Delacroix, but you can just call me Declan."
Declan pointed at Pistol Man. "The crumpet-eating assclown with the fixation on your combat attire, or lack thereof, is Sergeant Adam Jones."
"Fuck off."
"No, you."
Camo raised a hand, sighing. "Right. I'm Captain Murph MacAuley. The boss man over there is Central Officer John Bradford. Lad over there with the drone and the bolt gun? That's Corporal Alexios Nikos."
"Pardon?" Pyrrha looked over at 'Alexios.'
"What, you never met a Greek?"
"No, that's just... an odd coincidence."
"What's an odd coincidence?"
"Well," Jaune spoke up, stepping a bit forward, "she's Pyrrha Nikos."
The soldiers all looked at Alexios, with Murph making a slight jerk of the head towards Pyrrha.
"Completely coincidence. It's not that uncommon of a last name. You know, 'Nike'? Goddess of Victory? Nikas, Nikos, Nikones, et cetera, et cetera..." Alexios explained, before turning back to Pyrrha herself. "Santorini. You?"
"I have no idea what you're referring to."
"You're not from Greece?"
"I... don't know what that is."
The man raised an eyebrow, cutting his eyes at Murph, who simply shrugged. "What abouts the rest of ya?" Murph asked.
"I'm Jaune Arc."
"Hi! I'm Nora! And this here is Ren."
"Greetings."
Bradford grabbed something off of a frozen corpse in the center of the room, holding a hand to some sort of earpiece before looking over at the team. "It's not Vahlen!"
"Shite!" Adam cursed, punching his thigh. "Now what?"
"I wanna find out where that fuckin' corpse went. Look," Declan called, pointing at the now-empty space that the Beowolf occupied. "Gone! Without a trace!"
"Grimm dissipate upon death," Ren explained, looking over at the Central Officer. "Your men don't already know this?"
"The hell's a 'Grimm', son?"
JNPR and the team of soldiers looked at each other in silence for what Jaune could have sworn was an eternity and a half. This was... strange. Portal in the middle of the woods takes them to a random ice cave, with a bunch of guys using guns and primitive melee weapons against a Grimm, which they don't even know what it is. None of them had very normal names, none of them looked normal- all of them had to at least be in their late twenties to early thirties, on top of the drab palettes and general seeming lack of... Aura. Were they in some kind of foreign country or something?
"Hey, uh, where exactly are we?" Jaune put voice to one of the many questions in his head.
"The middle of the Sonora Desert, in Arizona. United States. "
"The where, the what, and the United Huh?" Nora piped in.
"Okay, let's try this from a different angle of approach. Where are you from?"
"I'm from Vale," Jaune answered.
"The three of us are from Mistral," Pyrrha added, pointing behind her at Ren and Nora.
"Never heard of either of those places. You guys?" Declan asked.
"No bells ringing here," Alexios replied.
"Nothing. We'll figure this out, but, until we do, you four are coming with us," Bradford stated, which caused Adam and Murphy's heads to snap towards him.
"John, what the-"
"Adam, these kids have no idea where they are, and are currently in the middle of the desert. We can't just let them sit here. We're going to bring them back to the Avenger and find a way to get them back home, but until then, they're our guests. We'll make sure they're fed and taken care of at Grace's Peak. Clear?"
"... not gonna take a 'no' on this?"
"That's a negative."
Adam rolled his eyes with a loud, heaving sigh. "Wonderful. Alien whips out a psionic portal, and out comes the first bloody babysitting job I've had in 30 years. I love my job. Love it, love it, love it."
Murphy harrumphed before slinging his gear back over his shoulder. "Kids can have our seats, Central."
"Hey, hey, hey, I did NOT volunteer to stand up after this-" Declan started, striding over to Bradford with fire in his eyes.
Journal Update
As my American 'friend' would put it, what in the jumping jungle monkey FUCK just happened?
We go into a bloody cave, full of Vipers barely up to my neck, the cave's bloody freezing cold and full of dead bodies and ice, and then this 'Grimm' or whatever it's bloody called just takes a SHIT all over one of Vahlen's apparent 'test subjects,' damn near kills the thing before turnin' on us. If it wasn't for that bunch of kids we'd be dead. A bunch of KIDS. I don't know how in fuck all we're supposed to deal with this mess. We don't have the facilities or the manpower to babysit a bunch of kids...
...unusually large and semi-anachronistic armaments nonwithstanding...
Whatever the case, I'll have to cut this entry short. There's a little ginger monkey pretty much jumping over my shoulder trying to see what I'm writing. Will finish my recap of the day's events tonight.
Note to self: lock the fucking door.
