Olivia's hand went up as they reached a clearing. Halt. "Quiet." She said. The team lookout, Olivia, was a tall and stern-looking girl with sharp eyes and a sharp mind, her body all hard edges and lines. The rolled up sleeve of her too-large white trench coat and the magazine belt tight around her waist revealed just how thin the girl was. The coat fanned out above and below the two buttons at her waist, showing her black combat skirt and ice-blue t-shirt, which matched her ice-blue eyes. Her face further lent to her serious demeanor, her pale color, thin lips, and tiny nose made her look cold and intimidating. The only warm feature of the girl was her dark red hair, which fell to her waist in a very tight ponytail with ice-blue bands every few inches. Much like her wardrobe, Olivia is very tight and controlled, and usually doesn't speak much more than a word or two if at all, and when she does, people listen.
"Listen." As both their earlier conversation and footsteps died, they at last took notice of the forest around them. After the last fallen leaf had settled to the ground, the total absence of their own sounds allowed the silence of their surroundings come forth and hang over them. There was no wind in the leaves. No bird calls. No squirrels dashing through the branches. The sounds of the forest they had patrolled so many times before had slowly vanished. "Hear it?" asked Olivia.
"Hear what?" answered Erol.
"Exactly." said Olivia.
All of them finally noticed it, they were all visibly bothered by the unnatural quiet of forest around them. This was the quiet that unsettled the mind. This was the sort for which one will imagine sounds to fill the void and comfort the troubled mind. There was a quick rush of air ahead, a short rustle of leaves. "Grimm," warned Olivia, as she drew her straight sword. All of DOVE followed suit. Shortly after she spoke, she saw tall black hide between the trees at the far end of the clearing and more to the team's right. "Ursi, few." She added. Two Ursi emerged from the trees ahead and began gaining speed.
Confident with his teammate, Dorren called over to Erol "Just a few Ursi, looks like your line of work Erol." Erol only turned back to Dorren with a look of disdain, his face an unspoken "Really?" "Get out there, we didn't get a good spar in this week and the warm-up will do you some good." Erol felt a small chill as he heard that. He would most certainly trade fighting a few relentless, growling Ursi before sparring with Dorren any day. Dorren and Erol had been sparring almost since Team DOVE's inception over a year ago, Erol winning a sparse few times. When they began, Dorren could easily smash through his guard despite his shield, but has since become less of a problem. These Ursi would be like the fall breeze on his shield compared to Dorren's massive greatsword Monolith.
Erol was a much smaller young man than Dorren, as most of them were. Being of only an average height and build, he was actually about as tall as Olivia but considerably more hardy. When he joined Team DOVE he was nowhere near the point he was today, the physique beneath his full body armor a direct result of sparring with Dorren and desire to become his equal. He held a calm face until he turned and started toward the Ursi to let the anger reach his face. He resented Dorren's leadership, not for its quality but its mere presence. His brown eyes narrowed and teeth gritted in anger, he charged toward the Ursi.
Olivia turned back to Dorren, who only nodded. She switched her grip on her sword and planted it hilt-first into the sheath. The sword was pulled further inside and the blade split down the middle, spreading to become the arms of an already strung crossbow. At the same time, the sheath was unfolding to become the stock and she reached to pull a bolt clip from her belt. She slapped the magazine into place and was looking down the sight while her partner was still running to meet the Ursi. Midway between the them and the Ursi, Erol planted his feet and yelled "Come and die!" "He would," thought Olivia as she zeroed in the distance, Erol will move little from that position. She heard the two in front, and was fairly certain at least one more was to the right of Erol's position and prepared to intercept the flanker. "If he isn't an idiot, he should have his own Surprise in store for them."
Erol had yet to draw Tiger, instead his hand reached over his shoulder. When the charging Ursi reached only a few meters from him, his hand flashed forward and one of his tomahawks was already en route to the left Ursa's head. Erol followed through with the motion to reach for Tiger at his waist. The left Ursa tried to duck away from the tomahawk, only to still catch it with its shoulder, miss a stride, and tumble. The right Ursa continued without its partner, already committed to the assault. The Ursa made a hard right swipe, using the momentum of its charge. Erol stepped left and let the swipe glance harmlessly off of his shield. Now standing to the Ursa's side, he took Tiger in a low arc that connected gruesomely with the Ursa's back leg, nearly removing it with one swing.
As the Ursa lost balance, Erol switched targets to the Ursa that still had his axe in its shoulder. It was recovering, and swung its good arm at him, only to be blocked and have a second axe buried through its shoulder and well into its torso. With a choked cry, the Ursa was rapidly dying. After some effort, Erol removed Tiger from the Ursa as the still live one began hobbling to help its now fallen friend. Crippled as it was, it unsuccessfully tried to fight back as Erol easily maneuvered to its side and severed its arm. Then its head.
Erol put away Tiger and leisurely made his way to the Ursa that still had his axe. He had removed the axe from the slain beast and began working it back into the rig over his shoulder when a third Ursa stormed from the trees only a short distance from Erol. Olivia, already prepared, had began quickly lining up a shot when Dorren put a hand over her crossbow. The broken concentration made her jump, she turned to Dorren with a curse on her lips when they all heard the frightening, sharp report of Surprise. Erol was ready.
It was an older Ursa too, with much thicker plating and spikes than the dead two. When they all turned to see the expected carnage they were not surprised. The Ursa was largely intact except for most of its torso, now a gaping cavity created by Surprise's fearsome blast. Surprise was the high-powered high-scatter shotgun nestled behind Erol's shield, just under his arm. The gun was largely useless at a distance, but its unanticipated and convenient location yield devastating results in very close range.
"Playing dumb, even I could barely tell you were acting," jested Dorren.
He made a pouting face at Dorren. "I knew it from the start, when Olive says a few she means more than two."
"Yeah, at least give him some credit." added Vi.
"Oh, so you aren't a moron..." said Olivia. Vi had began to speak when they all realized what had just happened. They had all just heard the closest thing to a joke from Olivia; and Erol was the target. Dorren and Vi burst out laughing, and Erol couldn't help but laugh at the situation. Even Olivia cracked and smiled. She can't have him call her Olive and get away with it.
Dorren became more serious. "Really though, I saw that you were on to them and baited the last one out. Good work." Erol just nodded and gave a short "Thanks" as Dorren continued, "We all check the rest of the clearing, there may be more." They walked a quick circle at the edge of the clearing and found nothing else in the area. During the round, Olivia edged closer to Dorren. All she said was "Lucky."
As they reached their entrance to the clearing again, Vi piped up, "And I was really hoping the Deathstalker was hanging around..." She sounded almost disappointed. Vi was the team's Dust user, who rather than casting on the fly preferred to focus her power to devastating effect. She is the shortest on the team, almost a head shorter than Olivia and Erol. Unlike her teammate Olivia, nearly everything about her is warm and inviting; her face rounded, her skin fair, and hair a bright golden blonde. She was cheerful, adventurous, and her eyes burned red like her favorite kind of Dust.
"I just want this to be over with... we've been wandering all damned day." complained Erol.
"Patrolling," Dorren corrected. Second-year students at Beacon Academy were required to make bi-weekly patrols of the forest surrounding the bustling city of Vale for either a specific mark, which was their case, or general population control. He checked his scroll, it was almost 2 P.M. and they had been out since morning. "Now does seems like as good a time as any for a break, any in opposition?" No one argued.
Team DOVE took a seat beneath some trees at the edge of the clearing. As per usual Dorren and Vi made idle chatter, Erol sat by, occasionally adding in his commentary and Olivia took stock of their surroundings while listening in to the conversation. It was a beautiful day, outside of the fast-decaying corpses of the Ursi nearby. The sunlight filtered through the trees, creating mottled shadow patterns on them all as they lazed in their own way. The early fall leaves were beginning to change, they would have a slight rasp to their sound if only the wind would blow. Then Olivia noticed, or rather continued to notice the still silent forest. She continued to look all around, she even checked the sky for an incoming Nevermore but found nothing, and then her gaze settled on the moon.
It was not unusual, actually rather common to see it during the day patiently waiting for its bright, lofty partner to set. Something seemed different, though; something was just off. It was the strangest feeling, something one has seen their whole life exactly the same, which has since been violated. This unease drove her to look even closer, until she saw it; what looked like a little star right next to the moon. "Dorren needs to see this," she thought, and stood up. This got everyone's attention, and she motioned for them to do the same and then pointed to the sky. One by one, they eventually noticed the little star. They all stood mystified, questioning what it could be. "It can't be a star," Dorren said finally. "Those don't just appear out of the blue." His musing went unanswered.
As they were beginning to lose interest in their little star, it twinkled for just a moment and then winked out of existence. This immediately recaptured their attention, their star was no star at all, but a meteor or a comet and had just crashed into the moon. As they watched in awe, a tiny plume of debris grew from the crash site. They all stood in silence and watched the plume slowly expand. A few minutes after the impact, the silence was broken by Dorren's scroll. It was Professor Ozpin, their Headmaster. "Good afternoon, how fares your mark?"
"It still lives, we've seen no trace of the Deathstalker from the reports." said Dorren.
"Too bad. Have you been looking to the skies today?" Questioned the Headmaster.
"We just were, you killed the moment," joked Dorren.
Ozpin chuckled. "Apologies. Moment or not, you have a new task assigned by the Academy itself, consider this your briefing. We know that as of a few minutes ago, a small celestial body impacted the moon at high speed, propelling debris from the moon in all directions, including toward us here on Remnant. Calculations have just finished and place a relatively large shard of the debris to land in your vicinity tomorrow morning. Rather than show the academy's hand in the matter we have elected to keep our staff on site and only arrive very shortly after the impact while your team gets there first and secures the area. Students, this objective may be the single greatest astronomical development in our time, but if our theories are correct it may prove to be much more than that. Needless to say, you are now conducting Beacon Classified Business, not a word leaves myself and your team. Following this call, you will receive coordinates for a camp favored by Hunters and Huntresses, as it is an easily defensible point and is recommended for your overnight stay. Dismissed."