Edge of Life
Chapter Four
Fort Independence
A large Atlasian military force crept through the night, hoping to catch their prey unawares. They stalked a rouge group of faunus, although it was more like a small army of insurrectionist faunus.
These beasts used to be peaceful, even after the Great War. But recently they had started to become increasingly violent, it started with just beating up the occasional human, then it became the occasional murder. All this the kingdom of Atlas was willing to overlook to a degree, as long as the faunus still served the country in some way or another.
But it went too far when about 200 faunus declared themselves an independent kingdom and took control of the lightly manned fort Independence dubbing themselves the White Fang. From then on their numbers swelled with faunus from all over Remnant. They were currently nearing 2000 able bodied fighters and almost 400 civilians.
The Atlasian government has had enough by this point, so after many failed attempts to breach the fortress and defeat the defenders, the Atlasians contacted the world famous bounty hunter Argentum Mortem to deal with the problem.
Argentum Mortem was one of the best fighters in the world, also one of the best bounty hunters. He was infamous for his brutality and his cold uncaring demeanor. No-one knew what he looked like because he always wore a complete silver armor shaped like a minotaur that gave him monstrous power. He stood at an intimidating 6 foot 9, and the suit had glowing red eyes, reminiscent of the Grimm that infested the world. He also had a voice synthesizer, making whatever he said come out as a cold and disturbing cackle. He truly was a being to be feared.
Currently, he and 400 Atlasian black ops troops were crouched just shy of 100 meters away from the walls of the fort, they were waiting for artillery units to get into position about a click away.
"Sir! Units are in place, what are your orders?" Came the voice over the radio, speaking to Mortem.
Mortem didn't say anything in response, he pulled out his scroll and started typing something quickly. After a few moments, he put the scroll away and then spoke back into the radio ."The static barrier is down, target zones D-4 through F-4."
There was silence on the other side of the radio for a few moments, the soldier on the other side pausing at the order. "I... yes sir."
Next to Mortem, the second in command sputtered angrily and snarled at Mortem. "Intel reports that's where the civilians are! We can't bomb them!" Even in the low light, Mortem could tell that the man's face was red with righteous anger, indignant at the mere thought of such tactics.
How cute.
"Listen here runt, we will bomb who I say to bomb, and we will do so without you." Not a second later Mortem's arm shot out and grabbed the other man by the throat, the older man flailed and struggled against Argentum's grip but less than 3 seconds later a sickening snap rang out.
The body let out a dull thump as it was dropped to the ground and kicked aside.
"Anyone have a problem with that?" The armour clad boy asked, half hoping someone would.
The silence seemed to stretch out, none of the battle ready combatants saying anything to the armoured beast in fear of inciting his anger.
Cowards. Smart, but still cowardly.
A hail of explosions rained down nearby, faintly screams could be heard, but they were mostly drowned out by the explosions; the thunderous booms shattering the calm night air.
"Bullheads! Converge on the walls! Now!" Screamed Mortem into his radio, excitement pumping through his blood.
Instead of a reply, at least 20 of the armed aircraft swooped in from seemingly nowhere and started firing missiles that lit up the night with violent dust explosions. The explosions tore what was already a gaping hole in the wall into a large open area of flattened glass from the heat, as well as killing any of the defenders unlucky enough to be on the walls at the time.
"Third battalion! Charge! Kill the animals!" Ordered the silver monster as he grinned under his helmet, relishing in what he was about to do.
A group of around a hundred men charged through the gap in the wall, only to be met with a staggering amount of the rebels, it quickly turned into a massacre. The Faunus had rushed to the hole in their defences en masse, over 1500 were currently packed in; utterly slaughtering the third battalion.
But that was just part of the plan.
"Artillery!" The blonde haired merc snarled into the radio. "Hit the gap in the wall with everything! Now!"
"But sir! Our men are still-" the officer on the other side tried, but was cut off.
"Now! That's an order!" screamed the mercenary, if that fool made them lose...
In lieu of a response, a hail fire of dust explosions bombed the remaining troops that had charged the wall, killing them all, as well as at least half of the faunus defenders.
But Argentum Mortem wasn't done, there was more fun to be had. "Bullheads 1 through 5, do your duty! Now!"
With little hesitation, 5 Bullheads swooped in and made a kamikaze run into the main building of the fort; they were unmanned, but only Mortem himself knew that. He had an image to upkeep after all.
The resulting explosions tore through the tower that had stood in the middle of the fort, with the command centre destroyed the rest would be easy pickings. The explosions wreaked havoc, heat waves blasting across the night killing hundreds and leaving the survivors confused and hurt.
Time for the real fun to begin.
"All units! Move in! Kill the fuckers!" With that final command, all remaining ground forces of the Atlasian attack group charged into the battle, Mortem included.
When they got there it was absolute chaos, what was once a mighty fortress containing thousands, was now a crumbling structure with pitiful defenders. Mortem reveled in the battle, swinging his arms around him with his wrist blades fully extended, Faunus around him died in droves. Any of his own soldiers foolish enough to get in his way were also cut down, their bodies shoved aside in favour of more things to kill.
But not all of the defenders were weak and confused, one bull Faunus, presumably a lieutenant, was swinging a red sword left and right, each swing was killing more of the Atlasian troops. Mortem didn't particularly care for the halfwit soldiers he was leading, but the bull man was obviously a level above the others… killing weaklings was fun, but killing someone that could fight back was even better; the look of utter defeat and failure that crossed their faces… it was the best thing in the world.
So when he charged the bull man and punched him square in the face it wasn't because he was a good commander, no, it was because it looked… fun.
The bull man was quick to leap back into action, as he flipped off the ground and charged the beast in silver. With a mighty swing of his sword and a battle cry that was barely audible over the sounds of the ongoing battle, the blade came down on the mercenary's shoulder, any other man would have lost the arm, but it just left a trail of sparks that soon dissipated. Mortem grinned under his helmet, the bull man was strong… but not nearly strong enough.
"Oh, that stung." Mortem informed the now gaping man, "It almost felt like you were trying to attack me, but I couldn't quite tell."
"I- you beast!" The Faunus cried, swinging his blade once again.
But Mortem was done playing, the battle was wearing on and there was so much more he could do. With a speed that belied his massive frame Mortem dodged the swinging red sword and stepped into the other man's guard; a glowing ball formed in Mortems hand and was blasted into the bull man's gut in less than a second, sending him flying off into the rubble of the former command centre.
The small confrontation had lasted only about a minute or so, but the battle was drawing to a close already. corpses littered the ground and fires raged through what remained of the once mighty fort. Argentum's on men were dying in droves, only a few dozen still left standing; but that didn't really matter, as long as the job was completed in the end.
But one thing caught Mortems attention, wandering among the burning buildings and the broken and bloody bodies was that a girl, around 12 or 13 with hair as black as the sky above them. Little cat ears drooped sadly as her amber eyes washed over the sights before her. She looked completely dead to the world, her spirit battered and broken at the sight of the misery around them.
This could be fun.
Mortem walked to her, the glowing red eyes of his helmet shining in the darkness. He stepped into the girls vision and slowly paced around her now still form. "Do like what you see girl? It's quite the sight isn't it? All this chaos, this destruction, it's... beautiful."
"Why? Why are you doing this? What did we ever do to you?" the broken girl asked, her two amber eyes unwaveringly staring at him.
"To me?" Mortem chuckled, "I have no issues with your people, I couldn't care less. But Atlas wanted you and your petty 'Independance' gone. I was simply the best man for the job." He raised his left hand and a glowing orb of power formed, ready to blast her into the next dimension. "It's just business after all. Now die like the rest of your people."
But it wasn't to be.
Moments before the blast could leave his hand a loud war cry echoed out, and less than a fraction of a second later a red sword struck Mortem between the armour plating on his forearm and hand.
The appendage slid off Mortem's arm freely, the aura within dying and fading away even as the now maimed bounty hunter howled in agony.
but the pain was fleeting in Argentum's mind, anger began to overwhelm his senses; how dare some vile animal injure him so? Rage filled every pore of his body, Mortem turned to see who had wounded him, red clouding his vision. What he found was the bull man from earlier, but now he was covered in scrapes and cuts, and he had blood flowing from a wound in his stomach.
Before Mortem had a chance to kill the scum that had injured him so gravely, the bull Faunus threw a small disk shaped object that latched onto the silver armor of the mercenary. He grabbed the black haired girl and threw her to the ground and used his body as cover.
"YOU FILTHY ANI-" Whatever else Mortem was going to say was cut off.
A blinding flash of an explosion followed as the disk object revealed itself to be a grenade, It blasted the silver commander back at least 20 meters, Mortem would have immediately risen and killed the bull man but he was robbed of this chance because he was thrown into a nearby stone structure that collapsed around him.
That didn't stop him though, with a feral scream of rage the ruined building exploded away from Mortem, chunks of stone blasting through the air and crushing anything in their path. Mortem towered over the broken building, his body shaking with adrenaline and rage; his vision tinted red.
But the target of his anger was gone, nowhere in sight.
Mortem howled in anger and his aura reacted, blasting away anything not firmly attached to the ground. This had been a failure, with just a glance around him Mortem could see that all his men were dead; either slain by the Faunus or by the now approaching Grimm.
Argentum hissed in displeasure, one of the glowing red lenses of his helmet were also cracked down the middle. He would struggle to fight off the Grimm with only one hand, he couldn't allow his vision to be impaired as well.
The boy snarled furiously as he removed his helmet, air hissing as the metal was removed. When the helmet was fully removed and clipped to his belt, the feared bounty hunter glared at the Grimm. His twin blue eyes narrowed dangerously, his face showed no fear despite his youthful features; he looked no older than 13, his face smooth and unmarked.
"Hey, mister! It's time to get up!" The annoyingly chipper voice of Ruby announced loudly into his ear, snapping the merc into wakefulness.
Solus's eye snapped open in an instant; not fully realizing where he was or what was happening. Thinking he was still back at Fort Independence, he grabbed out at Ruby's throat and pinned her to the wall, with his other had raised with his hidden blade extended, ready to kill.
But reality came crashing back into the sleep fogged mind of Solus when he heard the whimpers coming from the girl before him. She clawed at the hand that held her, silver eyes widened in shock and pain as she tried to free herself. He quickly dropped her, the younger girl fell to the ground coughing and stuttering apologies for waking him, but he didn't care, he was too busy looking at his own hands deep in thought.
It was just a dream, calm down, I'm not that person anymore.
When Ruby had finally managed to stop coughing, she looked up at the man she had yet to know the name of, she gasped in horror at what she saw. From her position on the ground she had an almost perfect view of his face; there was a deep scar that ran down his face, she saw the eyepatch he wore, and upon closer inspection she saw that the scar was only half because of whatever terrible injury that maimed the man; the other half was likely from the operations that would have mended his skull and knit the broken flesh back together.
Trying to cover her horror at the terrible scar that maimed man's face she quickly started speaking, "S-so umm... you never t-told me your name..." all was said rather quickly, hoping not to incite his anger.
Solus snapped out of his thoughts as she spoke, his single blue eye narrowed slightly at the girl as she got to her feet. "It's Solus, now move out of the way. I need to prepare for initiation."
He pulled his hood up and brushed past Ruby, but she wasn't deterred, Ruby started following him, talking incessantly. "So, what school did you go to before? I went to signal, my uncle Qrow is a teacher there and he's really nice, oh! And he uses a scythe just like me!"
I haven't been to school since I was what? 7? 8? Happier times...
"I haven't been to school for a long time." He said honestly, hoping the girl would leave. "Now leave me to prepare." He finished as he stepped into the locker bay.
Before any more could be said by Ruby, a blonde blur rushed up to Solus and snarled, "Stay away from my sister!"
Solus didn't care to respond or even react that much at all really as Ruby was dragged away by the angry blonde. The stupid girl could take her, Solus certainly didn't want to put of with Ruby for any longer than strictly required.
Ruby yelled out apologies as she was dragged away but Solus had stopped listening, he had seen that Scnhee girl again, and he really wanted to kill her; but... Ozpin would gut him if he killed a student. So all Solus could do was antagonize her.
Filthy Schnee's, why did the bitch have to come here?
"Hey you!" He yelled getting her attention away from the armoured red head she had been talking to. "Yeah you, you filthy Schnee scum, why don't you just die?"
Witty.
While the white-clad sputtered indignantly in rage, the red-haired... amazon spoke in her defence "Come now," she said in a placating tone, "surely there is no need for such hostilities, can we not make peace for the past and be friends in the present?"
"Peace? With this bitch?" Solus waved his hand towards Weiss. "I'd rather castrate myself than friends with a Schnee whore." He sneered at the furious expression the pale girl held.
"You ill-educated rapscallion! How dare you slander the name of my family! We are the premier providers of dust to the world! And you bad mouth us?!" She spat in a positively acidic tone.
"You and your family are responsible for the Vacuo Massacre!" Solus hissed, fighting the urge to wring the girls neck.
"And you would believe the words of a deranged mad man?! Now please, leave my sight you peasant, I've wasted enough time with you!" With a final huff of fury Weiss stalked away, too lost in her anger to realize that Solus had mentioned a secret that was only known to the Schnee family.
Solus' was furious, the filthy Schnee thought she was better than him? He'd show her.
The red haired girl Weiss had been talking with prior to Solus' arrival stood still for a few seconds, slightly unsure of what exactly to do.
Eventually, she settled on trying to speak to Solus, "So umm... my name is Pyrrha what's yours?"
Solus sneered, he didn't want to speak with anyone that was friends with a Schnee. With a grunt as he walked away, Solus just said: "It's Solus."
A/N
And that's chapter 4
That dream Jaune had was when he was about 13 ish and was still a total arsehole, well he's still an arsehole, just slightly less of one. Maybe.
Anyway, betcha weren't expecting him to so… bad, the dream itself speaks volumes about his personality because he wasn't fazed in the slightest when he killed his own men, and he was about to kill the girl (who I'm sure you've guessed is Blake).
Jaune is really a shitty person, isn't he?
But there's hope yet! He is trying to be better… well not better, just less… prickly.
And wow, Jaune really does hate the Schnee family… can anyone guess why? If someone does guess why he hates them then I will happily answer any question with complete honesty, even if the answer contains huge spoilers for the rest of the story. So questions like "how did Jaune lose his eye?" or hell, even something like "how's the story gonna end?" will be accepted.
EDIT: 12/7/2016 Just correcting a few things, trying to bring the early chapters up to the same standard as the later ones.
Ok, enough rambling please leave a review, catch you next time.
