Chapter 3:

Once they were all aboard it took them just under six hours to reach the outpost. As they circled above the landing platform they looked down at the facility. It was quite small and apart from a couple of watch towers containing machine gunners on the outer perimeters, the outpost had very little in the way of defensive measures.

As they landed Night hoped down from the air ship.

"I'm surprised it took them this long to call for help." He said taking in the workers heading towards the mine shaft.

"I can't believe there was anyone left to call for help." Silvia muttered stepping down behind him.

She had changed on the ride there, in plain view of the rest of the team, and was now wearing a suit of tight fitting brown leather that griped into her curves and somehow even further complimented her body. As usual her tail was protruding from a small hole in its lower back, and in her hands she carried a pair of large assault rifles.

"believe it or not," Said Yorna, stepping from the ship and walking ahead of the group. "this is actually a common sight in the dust industry. People like the Schnee family run countless small mines like this one, pay minimal wages to their workers and allow them to work in such dangerous environments that only people with no other choices ever willingly work in them."

"That's horrible!" Cried Amber rushing after her. "how do they get away with it?"

"It doesn't help things that most of their workers are Faunus." Silvia said mournfully, watching as a fox eared miner walk past her.

"Exactly. No rich person ever got what they have by giving more than they got. They keep every cent of the profits for themselves without considering their workforce." Yorna replied turning to face them. "The real problem is that when these places are inevitably attacked by Grimm, or White Fang extremists, they're so scared of losing their precious products that they immediately call us to clean up their mess."

"And that takes away from the time we could be spending dealing with less idiotic issues." Night said sternly, examining the woodlands that surrounded the outpost. There was a short pause as Yorna watched him apprehensively. She'd read his file and couldn't help but remember why Ozpin had decided to place him as team leader.

"You sense something don't you?" she asked. She'd been told to trust his sixth sense. And she could tell something was wrong.

"We're being watched. There's something over in those trees over there." he indicated with his finger. "I think we should dig in here. Set up defences and wait for nightfall. These people are going to need our protection tonight."

Yorna nodded and turned to the rest of the team. "Alright, we don't have that long to prepare so we'll need to work quickly. Amber, I want you to get the some dust crystals from the mine and set us explosive traps around the area. Be careful I don't want you getting blown sky high. Silvia I want you to get up to those machine gun nests. See what improvements you can make to their weapons. Then stay up there and do what you can to amuse yourself while you wait for further orders. Light, start unloading the equipment from the air ship. You only have half an hour before it leaves so make it quick. Night, I'm going to need your help setting the automated turrets up in key positions. If we work together we can have this done before dusk. Right, Get to work"

The group separated setting about their individual tasks. After light unloaded the ship it departed, and he went to the second of the two machine gun nests to upgrade its equipment. Amber did as she was instructed, setting up over a dozen dust mines around the area.

While they had been working, Night had worked out the forces they were dealing with. They were being watched by more than one creature. From the breathing that he could hear there were at least 5 and they were most definitely Grimm. For all he knew there may be an army of them out there.

By dusk they were as prepared as they could be. Light had even brought out a bolt action rifle from a case, and was now positioned up on a machine gun nest, with the sights trained on the surrounding trees.

Silvia stood on the other, her assault rifles ready to fire, and in the centre of the clearing stood Yorna and Night, their weapons ready, with Amber positioned in a nearby building ready to give assistance.

All that remained now was to wait.

Every few seconds Night couldn't help but glance at Yorna. "You want to ask don't you?" she said still watching the forests.

"Ask what?" He said turning back to the trees.

"The rule that Beacon students never go on missions outside of their team is one that has always existed." Night couldn't help looking at his feet. "This mission had broken a lot of rules, but the rule of teams is an immutable one."

"So your point is?" he asked keeping his voice level.

"You want to ask me what happened that means I longer have a team to fight alongside." She wasn't asking him. She knew exactly what he was thinking.

There was no point in him denying it. It was all he'd been able to think about all day. "Something must have gone wrong."

A sad smile crossed her face "My team was one of the most promising that Beacon academy had ever seen. It was our leader who truly made us what we were. She was one of the greatest huntresses I ever met. Strongest I'd ever seen before, Or seen since. She once challenged one of Signal academy's Professors in a one to one challenge. He was a Scythe wielder, and even then at only 14, the fight lasted over an hour. They fought each other to a standstill." She chuckled at this. "Never one to give up was professor crow." Her face fell. "He'd be ashamed if he was to see what became of her. It was our first mission. A search and destroy class mission. We were ordered to clear a forest like these of all Grimm that called it home. After two days fighting we found an Ursa. She fought harder than any of the other Grimm we'd found. Only after we eventually killed her did we find out why. Nearby we found a cub. She'd been fighting to defend it. Our fearless leader had always been a fair person. She never gave anyone or thing any more or less than they deserved. She refused to let us harm this creature. It was newborn and hadn't done anything to harm anyone. What should it be punished. When we tried to reason with her she wouldn't hear a word of it, and when one of us tried to force her out of the way, she fought back. He was injured severely and she fled with the creature into the night. None of us have seen her since. For all the promise she showed, for all the skill she possessed, she was too fair. We lost her to herself that day. I still remember her face. That pretty face. Her pale skin. But more than anything I remember those eyes. One brown, one purple. Like something from a fairy tale." A single tear rolled down her cheek.

Night realised that she wasn't the only one that had shed a tear at the story. He shook his head, wiping away the dampness from his face.

"Where is she now?" He said covering up his tears.

"I don't know. She turns up ever few months. We hear reports of a girl accompanied by an Ursa cub being spotted in the forests defending groups of Grimm. There have even been incidents where she's killed students from the academy."

"How do we not know about this?"

"Naturally they don't want something like this coming to light, and so they cover it up." She spat with disgust. "It's pathetic!"

The words were cut off by a howl, and from the forests the Grimm began to pour. The attack had begun.