It's me, ya boi, backseat reader… writing a story
Wooo
Sorry this is short but next chapter should be long and important!
Anyway and important thing I want to state.
*ahem*
I HAVE THIS THING PLANNED UP TILL THE ENDING OF VOLUME 5 AND FROM THERE I DUNNO WHAT I SHOULD DO, WHETHER I SHOULD WAIT FOR THE NEXT SEASON AND IN THE BREAK PUT IN A BUNCH OF LIKE CUTE ONE SHOTS.
OR SHOULD I JUST LIKE MAKE UP THE STORY? IF I DO THIS IT WILL PROBABLY BE VERY TERRIBLE
Anyway… that's a future me problem.
This chapter is just some world building and the embers that will be stoked into the fire of plot
Let's go
~§~
Tanith groaned internally as she stood in the combat pit. Part of huntsman training was learning how to deal with some aerial situations such as nevermore quills and some other boring shit she memorized in class. Normally this wouldn't be that bad. But she had been chosen to teach the class.
The whole freakin' class.
In the center of the pit was a pile of pieces of metal, clearly taken from actual bullheads, with the large solid barbed quills sticking out of them dangerously. Glynda stood in front and spoke to the class.
"Morning students, today as you can see is not a normal combat class but instead an important and vital lesson in bullhead safety. Here to teach this is one of our resident pilots" she held a hand out to Tanith "This is Tanith, callsign Hunter"
"Sup" she said simply giving a little wave.
Glynda frowned "Quite, and she will be teaching you…"
Tanith let her voice trail off into the background as she looked into the rows of students. She recognized Team RWBY sitting together near the back, there leader Ruby seemed to be doodling something down and Weiss was glaring at her while Yang and Blake were listening in mild interest. She looked next to them and saw team JNPR. Jaune and Pyrrha looking on in interest- Pyrrha looking irritated and occasionally glancing at Jaune who was looking like he hadn't slept in days and was slightly slouched over- while Nora seemed to be non stop whispering to Ren. Then looking into the shadows she spotted a familiar figure grinning down at her, the little light shining off her blue feathers giving Elster away.
Elster gave her a thumbs up then pointed to another part of the room. Confused Tanith looked over to where she was pointing and saw God sitting there, his dark eyes staring at her with a gleam of amusement in them. That filled her with confidence. God will be watching.
"… and now I leave you in Tanith's educated hands" then Glynda walked off to the stands to sit beside God.
"Right, sup… ugh" she scratched her head "Can someone tell me the characteristics of a Nevermore quill?" She asked her audience deciding to copy what her engineering teacher had done.
A few hands shot up.
She pointed to Blake.
"They Are sharp and are very strong and barbed able to pierce through several inches of armor"
"Yes, very good" said Tanith as she walked over to the pile and dragged one of the sections out, the quill buried up to the feather in the plate. "A bullhead has five to six inches of armor depending on the area and I'm afraid anymore would cause difficulty flying so sacrifices must be made, this armor is effective against all hand held weapons fire unless dust infused and will protect for most explosives. However Nevermore quills are sharp and not very wide and launched with a lot of force and that force spread over such a small area means that the quill will pierce the armor bit if you survive that the barbed section is the bit you look out for" she tapped the quill.
"There are two methods to remove the quill" she explained as she reached over to a nearby tray and pulled off a pair of gloves. "These are on board every bullhead as standard equipment" she said as she put them on "this is the way maintenance crews do it when a ship is docked, but it takes a lot longer then the other way" she then placed her hand on the quill and to show them it was safe rubbed the glove over the barbs. "Absolutely fine" she nodded to herself.
"Can anyone tell me which way they think the quill should be pulled?" She asked
Several hands shot into the air.
"Ugggh, you" she said pointing to a student with lots of armor
"You pull it towards you" said the student confidently
"No, that is how you end up piercing your abdomen and plus pulling the quill deeper into the ship making it stuck" she explained as she grabbed onto the quill. "What you do is you grab it and push, if your lucky it should start sliding out, but then it will get caught on the barbs" she demonstrated as a barb stopped the quill from moving. "Here you have several options. 1) you cut off the barbs individually, we only do that typically in the hangar when it's parked but it's the best way to remove them. 2) you take a sharp object" she picked up a knife from the tray "and cut through the quill" she showed the cutting motion and the slow progress it made.
She stood up, bored with that method. "That's the boring method that the maintenance crews use for their own safety" she brought over another piece of metal from the pile. "As huntsman and huntresses I assume you all have some form of armored feet?" She asked as she looked up at her audience.
She was met with nods or noises of affirmation.
"Alright, I'll demonstrate this method then I'll talk you through it" she said as she stood the piece of bulkhead up.
She took a deep breath then focused on the quill, she then quickly delivered a sharp kick to it causing it to bend slightly. After a few kicks it broke off and fell to the ground, she then delivered a stomp to the end still in the metal and it shot out the other side.
She stretched and then looked back to her now very interested audience. "As huntspeople I'm expecting that your in better shape then me and can probably sever it in one try but that's the general method that all pilots prefer, gets rid of the problem easy"
"Now the idea behind it is to get it as close to the wall as possible without kicking the wall, now while the quills are tough their not fucking-"
-Glynda choked in surprise-
"Titanium and the fact that their stuck and shouldn't move around much is an added bonus. The problem is that if you mess it up you'll end up damaging the bullhead further if you don't regulate your force"
She indicated the hole left over "it's even better if you have a semblance that you can use to repair the hole and other damages to the bullhead some examples being, heat, magnetism and creating a blockage with dust or… anything really is incredibly useful" she indicated the pile "now you try it"
The students all stood up and went down into the pit to take their own piece of metal to try out the kick method.
She walked between them as they all did it, correcting when necessary.
She walked past Yang who did it with such force that when she slammed her foot down into the stump of the quill she physically dented the piece of metal. She looked at her handy work then saw the the disapproving look on Tanith's face.
"What? I did it perfectly!" She said frowning
"Yeah, you did, you also dented the ship and if that area contained a fuel line possibly caused the ship to leak fuel" she said as she indicated the damage.
"Oh, wait, I can fix that" she said as she leaned over it and her hair suddenly lit on fire and the area around her heated up.
Tanith watched in fascination as she focused the heat around her onto the metal plate and slowly melded it back into shape, sealing the hole as she did.
She looked back to Tanith smirking.
Tanith shrugged and smiled throwing her hands up in the air "fuck it, sure. Good job" she said as she turned and continued down the line of students.
She stopped again in front of a huge armored kid as he effortlessly kicked the barbed spine off but then on his stomp used too much force tearing his foot through the metal. He then pulled it out making the big hole even bigger. He smiled confidently as he looked at her.
"I'm not even going to say what you've done wrong here" she said as she looked at the gaping hole in the metal shaking her head and walking away.
~§~
"Alright" said Tanith as everyone sat down "for the most part that was good, just remember that you don't need that much force to get rid of the rest of the quill" she nodded to herself.
Then frowned and turned to Glynda.
"What else am I supposed to teach them?" She asked confused
Glynda looked irritated while God chuckled beside her. "Your now supposed to talk about what to do in several worst case scenario's" she said scowling
"Agh, yes the depressing power points" said Tanith remembering flight school talking about these sorts of things.
"Okay" she said the the room at last "what should you do if your pilot is wounded to the point that they can no longer fly or killed?" She asked cheerily
Several hands shot up.
"Yes" she said pointing at Yang
"Grab the controls and fly yourself" she said grinning
Tanith smirked remembering her first job with RWBY.
"For the most part, yes" she said to the disbelieving silence "flying a bullhead isn't hard. But I also didn't spend two years learning how to fly just to tell you that, there's a lot more to it which I won't bore you with. So you have the controls and can fly easily, well done. Now, how do you land?" She asked pacing with her hands splayed open.
"Extend the landing gear and push the ship towards the ground" called out a voice.
"Yes, that's the correct answer" said Tanith nodding "but there's a twist. 1) how do you know which control- and trust me, there's a lot of the bastards-"
Glynda coughed loudly-
"-extends the landing gear? 2) how do you go down, it's easy to fly in a straight direction, but to land and take off? To fly up or down? That's more complicated. And finally 3) unless your setting down into a Grimm infested death zone how are you going to get landing permission and avoid being shot down without tuning the radio to the right frequency?"
Silence reigned over the room.
"Alright- Glynda, do we have a projector or something I could… project with?" She asked
Glynda typed something into her scroll and the room darkened slightly as a projector turned on and took up the flat wall above the entrance to the changing rooms.
Tanith quickly linked up her scroll and pulled up an image of the inside of her bullheads cockpit.
"This is my bullheads cockpit" she explained and using her scroll she zoomed in on a switch with a light above it, currently turned on. "This little switch is what controls the landing gear, when the light is on they are extended, when the light is off they are not extended" she then zoomed back out and zoomed over to the fixed radio of the bullhead.
"Every bullhead has two radios" she explained "one that is built in and the pilot has one on their belt" she patted her own radio as she glanced at Elster in the shadows who was still grinning. "Using these you can communicate with an air traffic controller and they will be able to talk you through how to land" she said happily
"Any questions about this scenario?" She asked the room.
Ruby stuck up her hand and Tanith pointed to her.
"What if there are enemies around the bullhead?" She asked.
"Right, unless there in front of the bullhead it's up to you guys to get creative and do that famous Hunter jumping from one target to the next thingy"
She could see Elster laughing quietly and shaking her head up in her corner.
"But if there is a threat in front of the bullhead then you pull these switches" she zoomed in on three overhead switches that were currently in the off position. "These open the actual weapon bay doors and lower the weapon out of the compartment and turn off the safety" she said as she pointed to each one individually listing its purpose. She then zoomed in on a trigger on the joystick "and you can guess how to fire it"
She then brought up an image of a standard bullhead armament "this is the standard VTL 3 – bullhead's armament, shoots 3 heavy Caliber rounds a second and has a range of 100 meters" she then switched over to a video of her testing out her bullheads armaments.
"Most pilots- me included- like to personalize their bullheads with different weapons. I switched out that standard armament for this" and she played the video and watched as a mini gun lowered out of the weapon hatch before slowly beginning to spin, then with a roar of pure hellfire a stream of bullets shot forth like a stream of fire and proceeded to disintegrate the cement block. The roar stopped and the whirring of the gun slowed down to a stop and the video ended.
"Right, next scenario. Crashing!" She said cheerily.
"There are two types. Solid land and liquid land. Liquid is pretty easy because all Bullheads are built with added floatation devices, after that… isn't part of my lesson, go talk to you survival teacher about that, however note that all bullheads come with a flare gun as standard as well. Next is solid land which is fun"
She brought up an image of a bullhead parked "Now as I stated earlier your standard bullhead has about five to six inches of armor depending on where you point to, this all over should protect you from hitting the ground but parachutes are also standard for a bullhead but if the pilot actually knows how to fly you won't be lucky enough to use them" she brought up an image of a bullhead wing, jet included.
"Strangely enough these bits are important so try not to tell anyone but literally everyone already knows that, except Grimm unless their old. So often these are the reasons for crashes as AA fire or an older more experienced Grimm will tear them off and send you into a death spiral" explained Tanith as she brought up an image of a sheared off wing.
"Now what any good pilot will do if a wing is torn off is pull the jet- the thing producing the thrust- out of a vertical position because that makes the bullhead spin in a way that can cause the cockpit window to face the ground directly. The pilot should put it into the horizontal position so that way you start cartwheeling horizontally, this is called a 'flat spin'. Now what I'm about to say will sound like a joke but if you decide to stay in the bullhead instead of jumping and doing your huntsman thing here's what you do. You sit down, strap on a seat belt and read a book or an in flight magazine, this is to relax your muscles so your less likely to be hurt" she shrugged "I don't know why but it's saved my life more then once in real scenarios" she looked at there shocked expressions "All part of the training to teach you not to panic and all that"
"Right, next scenario" she switched over to an image of an intake fan "this little shit-"
-Glynda coughed more agitated-
"-sorry. For all our advances the Grimm still choose to be ass- difficult… difficult, they choose to be difficult and the smoke they sometimes produce when they die will clog up the air intakes, now if your pilot is down and flying through the smoke is the only option then" she switched back to the cockpit image and zoomed in on an overhead switch "this switch will shut the intake fan and switch over to an emergency oxygen supply… so what's the problem? The problem is that the intake coverings are delicate and if they are… say used by a bunch of little kids to try and climb your bullhead- just thinking off the top of my head- then they are likely to be difficult and not close" she looked up at the students "What do you do?"
Several students looked blank in thought while some looked bored.
"Yes, you" said Tanith pointed.
"Kick it?" Said Blake.
Tanith smirked "Yes, you kick it, that encourages it to cooperate, luckily for you your all huntsman and huntresses so you'll probably figure out how to do that during flight"
"Ugh, think that's everything" said Tanith shrugging.
"*cough* weather *cough*" Glynda very obviously coughed out.
"I've just had a sudden thought to talk you through weather" she said sheepishly as she saw Elster shaking her head smiling as some other students laugh.
"So for the most part the bullhead is a sturdy vehicle, able to take a few hits, so sun, rain, snow and hail offer no problem to the bullheads armor. However, fog is a dangerous weather for a pilot because you can't see anything, you have to rely on either your motion sensor and assistance from an air traffic controller, but that doesn't help with the Grimm who don't have a motion sensor or a helpful air traffic controller so a Grimm may collide with you. But other pilots should be competent"
"Now, I'm sure you've all heard that lightning is attracted to metal objects, let me just tell you now, that is absolutely false. A lot of science mumbo jumbo as to why, don't ask me I'm not a science person I'm just a pilot but even if the bullhead is hit by lightning you'll be fine because the bullhead is covered in lightning protection which channels the lightning from where ever it strikes and exits at the tale to continue doing its lightning thing"
"Okay, that's everything" said Glynda hurriedly as she took center stage "I hope you were all concentrat-"
Tanith stopped concentrating and looked to Elster who gave her a thumbs up and then disappeared into the shadows.
~§~
Afterwards when the students had left to go prepare for their day trip God called out to her as she was about to climb into her bullhead.
"Great work out there" he said in his deep voice as he smiled at her
"Thanks, sir" Said Tanith smiling back
"I was worried it was going to be boring and like one of the lectures back at aviation school. But no! You were confident in what you taught and were able to communicate that knowledge over to the class easily and effectively"
"Thanks sir, but I don't think Glynda would agree" she said blushing under the praise
"Yes, she was muttering through the whole thing and grinding her teeth. But who cares if a teacher starts swearing? I mean the students are doing it anyway so it's not like we can protect them from it eh?"
"Hmm, I always thought that flight school lessons would be interesting if they were aloud to swear, especially at students" Said Tanith nodding as she thought back to the classroom
"You say that like you didn't pay attention but I know you did" he put his hands in his pockets "I know because I didn't know half of what you were talking about"
"But?... didn't you go to flight school?" Asked Tanith confused and concerned.
"Yes" said God nodding "but was never good at flying, was exceptionally good at maintenance and strategy"
Tanith shuddered thinking back to the lessons on strategy and the 3D holograms of scenarios with how to position you frigates and bullheads and what formation to fly in and blah, blah, blah. She always just charged head on guns blazing. Surprisingly this worked more then it should of but the other students would give her weird looks and the strategy teacher one day pulled her aside and begged her not to become a strategist.
"Yes, I was never really good at that" Said Tanith shaking her head
"Well, I was top of my class, pincer movements and flanking and all that. What strategy did you use?"
"I was terrible at strategy, would just send them in guns blazing" she said shrugging
"Ah, that explains a lot" said God nodding
"Like what?" Said Tanith putting her hands in her hips
"Like how you chose to actually fly these things rather then command them" he said nodding at the Bullhead
"Yes, always wanted to fly. Plus the people trying to go for your position were… no offense sir… but they were all stuck up assholes"
"Yes, we can be a bit like that can't we?" He said nodding "well have a good trip and fly safe" Said God walking away.
"Weird man" muttered Tanith as she climbed in and started up the engine. Then lifting off the ground, she and two other bullheads flew out of the hangar into the sunlight as she flew up the cliff face and landed on landing pad 2 before turning off her engines while she waited. Eventually the class showed up in there combat attire and she opened the doors allowing several teams to climb on and fit into the enclosed space, Glynda also climbing in she noted.
Then she heard someone walk up behind her to stand in the open door.
"So… you know who that Faunus was at the back that you kept looking at?" Asked Blake suspiciously as she leaned against the cockpit door frame. The rest of the bullhead filled with the noise of excited students talking of the day trip.
"Hmm?" Hummed Tanith in question as she started up the engine
"The Faunus, in the back of the room, you kept glancing at her like you knew her, but I've never seen her round here before" said Blake
"Oh, Elster? She's the air traffic controller" said Tanith as she lifted the bullhead up into the air.
"Okay" said Blake, something in her tone making Elster turn to look at her eyebrow raised
"You… got a problem with that?" She asked questioningly
"No" said Blake still staring at her intently
"Is it because she's a Faunus?" Asked Tanith scowling
"No… it's nothing" said Blake as she turned and left.
"Well that was…"
"Extremely awkward because you left the radio on" Said Castle amused over the radio
"He he ehhhh, well that's gonna make things awkward in the future" said Tanith rubbing the back of her head
"I dunno what your talking about I'm gonna have so much fun with that" said Castle evilly
"But what if she starts thinking your like… a bad person" Said Tanith
"Well… I don't think it will escalate that badly. Maybe she just had a bad experience with Faunus or was raised to believe they are evil… but I would expect that behaviour of Weiss" said Elster
Tanith hummed then opened up her display "alright Castle where am I headed?"
~§~
"So, where should I land?" Called Tanith into the main compartment
"What does it look like down there?" Asked Glynda coming into the cockpit
"Red" said Tanith, then looking back she saw Glenda glaring at her "There's a bunch of trees, a bunch of red trees" said Tanith dryly turning back to the window as she scanned the terrain and activated the scanner.
"Thank you for the astute observation Hunter" said Glynda growling
"Well my astute observation has found a clearing up ahead that can fit two of the bullheads then there's another clearing a few meters away and that can fit the other bullhead" said Tanith as she checked the scanner.
"Yes, that will do Nicely" said Glynda irritated as she strode back into main compartment. Tanith shrugged and extended the landing gear as she slowed down and lowered into the clearing.
The trees around them began rustling as the jets of the engine sent up a draft and rustled the leaves some tearing off from the trees.
She calmly turned off the engine and stretched in her seat, she was concerned that Castle had been unusually quiet during the trip. Maybe there was something big going in that required her full attention.
The door opened and the talking students all stepped out talking excitedly, she watched as Glynda came forward and began telling the students what they were doing. Tanith stepped out as well but simply leaned against her bullhead and watched as they received their orders and everyone was handed glass jars and told to collect the sap.
She inhaled the clear forest air and looked around at the red leaves as the breeze blew through them creating a sound similar to that of a wave crashing upon a beach.
"Argh, that is really uncomfortable" said a familiar and unexpected voice behind her.
She quickly looked back into the bullhead and saw Elster standing there stretching and cracking her bones.
"How… what… where?" Said Tanith confused as she looked around the Bullhead.
"Ohh, I have my ways" said Castle
Tanith looked at her feet and saw the floor panel that she was shifting with her foot. "Your not actually supposed to get into that part of a bullhead" said Tanith confused "and honestly I don't want to know what you had to do to get there" said Tanith as she leaned against a wall again. Elster jumped out and leaned next to her in the shade of the wing.
"So, why do we need the sap?" Asked Tanith as she watched the students walk off into the forest.
"For the Grimm classes, Grimm love the stuff so its excellent for lures and traps" said Castle as she looked at some students grabbing the sap.
"Right… and why are we here to get it, why not hire a whole workforce to work the forest?" Asked Tanith as the students soon disappeared into the forest.
"Because the Grimm are attracted to it, so these forests are crawling with them"
"Wait… are they?" Said Tanith looking into the red forest "then why have they left the pilots with no security"
"Hey, I'm here"
"Does anyone else know you're here"
"No, no one saw me"
"Right. Would it be bad if they saw you?"
"Glynda probably wouldn't be happy"
"I don't think Glynda does happy"
"No I swear I saw her laugh once, I think it was with Ironwood when they were taking a walk in the garden"
"Holy shit. The general Ironwood, commander of the Atleasian military and the headmaster of the atlas hunter academy made Glynda laugh" Tanith closed her eyes and rested the back of her head against the bullhead "Cute, I ship it"
"Yeah, There's definitely something going on when I walked by late one night but before I could spy further Ozpin found me and told me it was rude to spy on other staff, when I asked why he had a pair of binoculars he told me he was ship watching before laughing... then breaking down into tears" Elster shook her head "weird man"
"Ozpin is sooo playing match maker" Said Tanith smiling then she frowned "Elster… what are you doing here?"
Elster placed a hand over her heart and let out a gasp. "Honestly, How rude!"
Tanith rolled her eyes "You know what I meant. Why are you here?"
Elster let out a huff as she crossed her arms "I dunno… I enjoy spending time with you and…" she paused and took a deep breath before looking directly at Tanith with a blush "I think that I'm-"
She stopped talking as she turned her head to the side suddenly.
"You think that you…?" Asked Tantih questioningly and really wanting to know what she was about to say.
"I think I hear something" she said as she turned towards the forest and cupped her hands behind her ears. "Loud stomping, screaming"
"Grimm attacking the students?" Asked Tanith concerned as she stood up properly
"By the sounds of it"
"Should we go and… help?"
"Sure, got nothing better to do" said Elster shrugging
They began running towards the sound of the loud stomping and growling. Finally running into clearing they took in the scene. There was an Ursa Major with its paw slowly crushing Jaune who had his shield up protecting the massive armored man while other students just watched.
"Are they fucking crazy?" Asked Tanith as she noticed the other students just staring and doing nothing. She quickly brought out her pistol, even though she wanted to laugh at pointing this 9mm pistol and an Ursa fucking major.
"They might be, but I'm pretty useless at the moment. Alright, while it's distracted you-"
Elster was cut off by Jaune suddenly swinging and cutting off the Ursa head in one fell swoop, it's body crumbling and falling to the ground as well.
Jaune smiled to himself before helping up the armored boy and pulling him close muttering something before walking over to his friends who were all congratulating him and patting them on the back.
"Do you ever feel like you missed something important?" Asked Tanith
"Like a main character coming to a realization and defeating some sort of evil? Yeah all the time" Said Elster
"Wait. What! No, I mean clearly there's a story behind this" Said Tanith
"You work at a huntsman academy, get used to it" Said Elster as she grabbed the back of Tanith's jumpsuit and began dragging her back to the bullheads
~§~
Blake watched the Faunus and Tanith walk back into the tree line. Well she watched the Faunus drag Tanith back through the tree line. Her bow covered up whatever they were saying so she simply followed them with her better eyesight.
"Hey Blake! Wasn't that awesome?" and suddenly her Partner collided into her and swung an arm round her shoulder.
"Hm? Oh, ugh yeah" she said as she tried to see if she could spot them after her partner colliding with her had caused her to lose sight of them.
"Woah, you just agreed with my use of the word awesome, that's not a word in your vocabulary" said Yang in shock as she looked at Blake in concern then followed her eyesight into the woods "something in your mind?"
"No, it's nothing… just spaced out for a moment"
Blake let the groups excited babbling wash over her as she descended into thought.
Back in the theatre Tanith had kept glancing at the Faunus woman… Elster.
She had first seen her during the beginning of that aviation lesson, while looking on in mild interest she had seen Tanith look up into a corner and her eyes widening in surprise, following her gaze her eyes also widened in surprise when she saw the bird Faunus woman in black cargo pants and a grey jacket grinning at her and give her a thumbs up. Then she had pointed to the other person Blake had never seen before an old man in the stands and Tanith had seemed to grow slightly nervous.
And then on the trip over before they took off Blake had asked her about the woman and Tanith told her, her name and when they had all gone off into the forest she had turned back when she heard talking only to see Elster climb out of the bullhead they had just been riding in and she didn't remember seeing her in there.
Something fishy was going on… and when that something involved a strange Faunus that Blake had never seen before walking around campus and given her recent… departure from the white fang… it probably wasn't good
~§~
Boom! Done! Bit shorter then usual but it's still an important chapter because it introduces the plot I'm going to be doing and adds a bit a lore to situations later on.
Next chapter is an important one! Big stuff happens and then we go to Volume 2