Yeah so I know this hasn't been updated for a while. I don't really have a good excuse this time. Most of it was actually finished a long time ago, but I just never finished the last few scenes for some reason. Sorry about that lol. Anyways there's a link for music that goes along with the story somewhere in the middle. I wasn't able to post the full link but if you copy and paste it into google, the youtube link should show up. Obviously, you don't have to do it, but it works pretty good imo hahaha. As always, all reviews are welcome! Thanks!

"Checking comm links, Copy?" Buck spoke into his mic.

"Check." Romeo replied.

"Check." Mickey echoed.

Buck didn't even bother waiting for a response from The Rookie as he knew he probably wasn't going to get one. "Mickey, I want you to contact the Headmaster and tell him about the situation."

"Already did." Came Mickey from the other end. The younger ODST was sitting in front of the monitor screen back in their dorm room. "There should be an airship waiting for you at the airstrip."

"Roger that." Buck was now exciting the main entrance of the school and sure enough, a Bullhead could be seen in the distance. Romeo and The Rookie were following close behind him. "Can you tell what we're dealing with exactly?" Buck asked Mickey.

Mickey switched the settings of Camera 4 on the screen to night vision. He could make out small, dark shapes. He zoomed in until he could make out distinct features. "It definitely looks like one of those Grimm things." He reported. "And by the looks of them it looks like they're..." Mickey pulled out a dossier Ozpin had provided them with that included all the different types of known Grimm. "...Beowolves." He read as he found a matching image to what he saw on the screen.

"Should we be relived or worried?" Buck asked.

Mickey briefly scanned through some of the notes on Beowolves. "They're labeled as low-threat. Doesn't seem like they should be too much of a problem. But it does say they're kinda fast, so there's that."

"Ok got it. Have there been any major changes at the target area?"

"Nope, still five of them. They seem to be sniffing around a lot though. Might be looking for something."

"Alright, keep us posted. Out." Buck finished the transmission. He had arrived at the airstrip now and stepped into the Bullhead. The pilot inside turned around and greeted him. "Evening sir, I'm Gerry. Ozpin's assigned me to be your personal chauffeur. How can I be of service?"

"Gerry, I need you to take us to the location of camera number 4." Buck said.

"Camera 4 it is then!" Gerry saluted in an overly-cheerful fashion. "Get your boys onboard, we're about to fly!"

Buck cast a dubious glance at Gerry from behind his VISR. Was this seriously supposed to be the guy that they'd have to rely on for air support? He better not get us killed. Romeo and The Rookie climbed into the Bullhead after Buck. Buck gave Gerry the thumbs up and the airship lifted off and turned towards the emerald forest. Buck looked out the side bay door as the transport zipped by the tree-line. Romeo let out a sigh. Buck rolled his eyes as he knew exactly what was coming.

"Man, it hasn't even been two days and we're already back to doin this shit. I honestly should've just stayed with my desk job." The sharpshooter muttered bitterly.

"We could always just drop you back off at the school if it's too much pressure for you to take." Buck said with a straight face. "Want me to hold your hand?"

Romeo let out a short laugh. "Don't get your panties in a knot Gunny. We all know how much I'm needed here. Right Rookie?"

The Rookie merely shrugged.

Now it was Buck's turn to sigh. Romeo was no doubt the cockiest ODST he had ever met, and that was saying a lot. It was only all the more irritating that he was also one of the most-skilled. Most people would expect an ODST with Romeo's stat-sheet to be relatively modest. At least he listens, Buck thought.

"Attention all passengers, this is your captain speaking, we're about two minutes away from our final destination, hold on to something tightly so you don't lose your marbles!" Gerry called back into the passenger bay.

The ODST's exchanged a glance. "What the fuck is up with the pilot?" Romeo whispered under his breath.

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Buck suggested.

"You're a real comedian Gunny."

"You know I try."

The Bullhead lurched midair as it came to a hover position. Then it began to descend into a clearing in the forest. "This is as close as I can get you," Gerry called back. "There's not another clearing big enough around here."

"For real? You'd think that headmaster guy would be a little smarter about where he sets his shit up." Romeo grunted with contempt.

"It's a little bit strange." Buck agreed. Truth be told, there were a few things that Buck had found strange within the first days, but he couldn't quite get his mind to wrap around the bigger picture yet. He'd have to continue looking into some things later on.

The Bullhead touched down. Buck nodded to his squad. "Alright, let's go." The ODST's hopped out of the transport.

"Good lucks to you all, I'll be covering your behinds from the air. I'm on frequency 2, so give me a ring and I'll be there in a Zing!" Gerry yelled as he lifted the Bullhead into the air once again.

"I swear, another stupid ass comment and I'm fighting him." Romeo muttered.

"Stay focused." Buck cautioned. He pulled out his scroll and activated the tracking system. The positions of each camera around the school had been synced with it already. "Let's move." Buck began moving towards the direction that his scroll indicated with Romeo and The Rookie following closely behind. Camera 4 was shown to only be a few hundred meters away.

A transmission came in from Mickey. "Hey Gunny, I've lost visual on those Grimm things. They might have backed off." Mickey had tried rotating the camera 360 degrees as well as switching back to thermal imaging, but detected nothing.

"We'll continue to the location and scope the area out." Buck decided after thinking for a second. "I want to be sure they're gone."

"Roger that, I'll keep an eye out for any other signs of activity." Mickey responded back.

"Copy. Out." Buck cut his mic off.

"Why would we do that?" Romeo protested. "If they're not there anymore then our job's already done. Problem solved. Let's go back."

"But what if they are still hanging around and the camera just couldn't catch them?" Buck challenged as he ducked under a tree branch. "The headmaster would find another one of those Grimm things on campus and we'd get fired. You know what that'd mean for us right?"

"Yeah yeah yeah, you've said all that before." Romeo waved dismissively. But he had to admit Buck had a point. Getting kicked out of Beacon would mean they'd have no place to stay, nowhere to go, and no money to use. They'd probably be better off in jail. Romeo realized that they needed to take their job at the school seriously. Taking a long breath, he polarized his VISR and activated his night-vision. Isn't this just great?

Buck ordered them to stop behind a medium sized rock about fifty meters short of the camera's position. "Romeo, I want you to set up here. Me and Rookie are going up to check the perimeter, watch our backs."

"Gotcha." Romeo acknowledged. He set his rifle up and leaned down behind the rock. "Damn, couldn't you have picked somewhere more comfortable though? Shit feels like a big hard cock."

Buck motioned for The Rookie to follow him and the two ODST's slowly moved forward until they were directly below the camera. It was positioned atop a tree in the middle of another small clearing surrounded by a small hedge. The Rookie realized that Gerry was right. There was no way a medium-sized transport could land here. "Mickey, can you see us on your screen?" Buck quietly asked through the headset.

"Yeah, I see you guys. But that's about it. Still no movement or heat signatures. Like I said, they're probably gone already." Came the response from Mickey.

"Ok. We're going to check the perimeter real quick then we'll be on our way back."

"Copy. I'll have eyes on you the whole time."

Buck turned to The Rookie. "Flank right Rook, I'll go left." The Rookie nodded and split right. Buck switched on the flashlight attached to his M7 and moved along the left side of the clearing. He checked the ground for footprints and scanned his surroundings trying to pick up movement. "All clear." He called over to The Rookie. But as Buck turned, he realized The Rookie was motioning for him. "What do you got?" Buck asked as he approached. The Rookie indicated a small break in the hedge. Twigs were snapped on the ground and it looked like something had forced its way through. Buck examined the bushes for a few moments. "Let's take a quick look on the other side." He told The Rookie. "If it's clear then we'll call it." The Rookie nodded. After you.

Buck carefully stepped through the broken hedge and aimed his M7 so that the flashlight shown directly in front of him. The Rookie tagged behind him closely. "I can't see you anymore Gunny." Came Romeo's voice over Buck's earpiece. "Where'd you go?"

"Hold tight." Buck ordered. "This shouldn't take long. Just make sure nothing follows us."

"As long as you make it quick, there shouldn't be a problem. Because I'm not tryna stay out here for an hour. Who knows, I might just fall asleep." Romeo chuckled smugly.

"Like hell you will." Buck swore under his breath. Then his flashlight caught a reflection in the distance. Exchanging a glance with the Rookie, he cautiously approached the object. It was a sword of some type. The Rookie shined his flashlight on it as Buck bent down to take a closer look. His eyes widened as he saw the sword was covered with blood. A trail of more blood led even further into the darkness. The ODST's followed the trail into another clearing, where they found themselves in shock. There were four bodies littered around the ground, all of them bloodied and unmoving. It was an ugly scene. "What in the world happened here?" Buck wondered out loud. He could tell that these weren't civilians. They had armor on and three of them had weapons in their hands. Buck guessed the sword he found belonged to the fourth one.

"Gunny, you went too far." Mickey called in over the comms. "I can't see-"

Mickey was cut off mid-sentence. Buck took off his helmet and tapped his earpiece. "Mickey, can you hear me? Mickey, respond, over." No response. "Romeo?" Nothing. Buck put his helmet back on. He had no idea how, but somehow they had lost signal. A sudden growl made Buck look up and he found a pair of glowing eyes glaring back at him. The eyes grew bigger until the full body of a massive beowulf came into full view.

Buck fired a quick burst. The bullets knocked off some of the creature's armor. "Rookie, fall back! Alternating cover fire, we need to regroup with Romeo!"

Music: Halo Reach Soundtrack - Lone Wolf

The ODSTs turned around and bolted back towards Romeo's position, taking turns firing short bursts behind them at the beowulf. Under normal circumstances, Buck would've opted to engage the thing directly before taking a better examination of the bodies back in the clearing. But he had no radio contact and no direct experience with Grimm in full blown combat, so he went with a more cautious tactic. He tried reaching out to Mickey and Romeo again, but the line was still down.

The Rookie glanced back to see that the Beowulf was quickly gaining. Knowing that it'd catch up with them before they could make it back, he pulled the pin on one of his frags and held it in his hand for two seconds before spinning around and throwing it at the Beowulf. The grenade hit the Grimm in the shoulder blade and detonated almost instantly, throwing it to the ground. The Rookie couldn't tell if it was dead or not as they made their way back into the hedge line they had come out of.

"Romeo!" Back hollered. "You still here?" The only answer Buck got was three shots from Romeo's sniper going off in the distance. Buck cursed. "C'mon Rookie, on the double!" The two troopers sprinted towards the gunfire. A smaller Beowulf burst from the tree line out of nowhere and head-butted Buck to the ground. The Rookie gunned it down before it could do anything else. But as soon as Buck was able to get back up, three more Beowolves came charging at them. The ODSTs were ready this time. Buck and The Rookie silenced one each with their guns but the third one was too fast. It went at The Rookie full speed and tried to swipe him with its claws. The Rookie managed to roll to the side at the last minute and dodged the attack. The ODST then switched to his sidearm and planted a two rounds into the beowulf's head. The armor-piercing bullets went right through the Beowulf's protective plating and silenced it. The Rookie reloaded a clip into his M7. Buck was out of ammo aside from his pistol.

Then something bigger appeared. Buck recognized it as the same bear-like thing Romeo had killed a couple of days ago, only this one was much bigger. "Jesus, we're attracting the whole forest!" Buck exclaimed. The Ursa dove for the ODSTs, who rolled in opposite directions to avoid it. But the Ursa managed to catch a part of The Rookie's M7 with its claws and stripped it from The Rookie's hands.

"I'm going to distract him!" Buck called over to the Rookie. "Go for the kill!" The lieutenant directed his attention towards the Ursa now. "Alright, come on you son of a bitch!" He yelled so that the creature could hear him. He shot at it with his pistol, but the rounds were only knocking off small pieces of armor. The Ursa began preparing another charge at Buck as The Rookie managed to sneak around behind it. He pulled the pin on his last frag and rolled it on the ground towards the Grimm. The frag came to a stop right under the Ursa and exploded. The Ursa was slightly lifted off the ground and fell on its back, snapping its armor, seconds later it evaporated.

Simultaneously, a second one crashed through the trees. The Rookie pulled out his combat knife. The 2 adversaries circled each other. Buck jumped back into the fray with his pistol. The creature roared in anger as the rounds knocked off its back armor. Buck popped the pin and rolled his own frag towards the Ursa. The Grimm saw what it had done to its companion and ran from it, but was caught by the shockwave and rolled over. The Rookie seized his chance and charged, knife pointed for the creature's neck. It saw him coming and swung an arm, batting The Rookie away and sending him tumbling through the forest floor.

To Buck's dismay, the Ursa managed to flip itself back over. He had used up all of his ammo and was now helpless as it towered over him. The Ursa charged again and Buck leaped out of the way. He desperately scanned his surroundings. The only chance he saw was The Rookie's M7 lying on the ground a few yards away. But the Ursa charged him before he could go for it and the ODST was forced to dodge again. "Oh nuts." Buck muttered under his breath as he felt himself back into a tree. He could only watch now as the Ursa turned around and brought an arm up for the final blow, went stiff, and dropped to the ground, dead. A human figure stood in its place, holding up a sword. Buck stood in amazement as he couldn't believe his luck. His life had just flashed before him and yet he was still alive somehow.

He noticed that the forest had quiet down significantly. The ODST guessed the rest of the Grimm had either retreated or had all been killed. Buck then directed his attention to the person who saved him. He didn't really know what to expect from him at first. But he definitely wasn't counting on the other person to suddenly lose his composure and start jumping up and down with unreserved excitement.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! I did it! I did it again! Me, Jaune Arc! Slayer of the beasts! Hero of the people! Number 1 in the hearts of ladies!..."

Buck frowned in slight amusement as he watched his savior, who sounded like some little kid, continue his rant. The ODST doubted that he had even been noticed. He decided he'd make his presence known. "Hey buddy." Buck walked up to the boy.

"Crusader of the-yikes!" The boy flinched and fell onto the ground, losing his confidence almost immediately. It was actually quite pitiful for Buck to watch.

Jaune scratched the back of his head nervously. "Heh heh how much did you see?"

"All of it."

"Awwww." Jaune whined. "You're not going to tell anyone are you?"

Buck shrugged. "What's there to tell? That thing was going to kill me and you killed it first. That my friend, makes you a hero." The ODST held out a hand. "Names Buck."

"I'm Jaune." Jaune took the hand and Buck pulled him up from the dirt. "And thanks."

The ODST briefly examined Jaune. He had armor covering his chest and shoulders and a utility belt with a sword and sheath. "I'm guessing you're a student at the academy then?"

Jaune nodded. "Yeah...technically."

"What are you doing out here so late?"

"Well, my team and I were actually on our way back from a trip, and like, we heard the explosions and gunfire and stuff... so I just figured that you know..." Jaune felt himself stumbling for words. Talking to strangers wasn't his forte.

"So you thought you'd come down and check it out." Buck finished for him.

"Well...yeah, basically."

"I'm glad you did, good job kid." Buck could tell that Jaune was the type of person who needed some major confidence boosting. He wasn't surprised when Jaune tried to take away his own credit.

"Oh, I didn't really do that much honestly. You should see the rest of my team when they fight. Wait hold on, I should probably call them real quick." Jaune pulled out his scroll and made a call. "Hey Pyrrha..."

Buck turned back around to take a closer look at the Ursa, but once again, the body simply dissolved into thin air. Buck shook his head in wonder. "What the hell did we get ourselves into?" There was a slight rustling behind him as The Rookie stumbled out of some bushes. "You all good there Rook?"

The Rookie shrugged. More or less.

"Hey Gunny." Romeo's voice sounded in Buck's ear. "You copy?"

"Romeo." Buck responded immediately. "Your comms back on? Where are you?"

"Yeah, they're back. I have no idea where I am though. Some little kids came out of nowhere and pretty much killed the whole forest."

That must be this kid's team. "Are you still with them?"

"Yeah, one of them's talking on the phone right now. Kinda cute, actually."

Buck rolled his eyes. "Hey Jaune, can you tell the rest of your team to meet us here?" He addressed the boy.

Jaune nodded. "Sure. Is it about that guy they found?"

"Yeah, his name's Romeo, and he's a real charm." Buck said the last part with plenty of sarcasm. Jaune didn't seem to notice though. Buck decided he'd check up on Mickey. "Hey Mickey, the comms are back on. How you holding up?"


"There you are Gunny! Jesus, I've been trying to reach you for the past thirty minutes." Relief washed over Mickey as he heard Buck's voice.

"Yeah we ran into a little situation, it's cleared up now though. We should be back up there pretty soon, I'll fill you in on the details later. How are the cameras looking?"

"Well I'm at the airstrip right now because I was going to go after you guys. But I'll head back and check them. There's no alarm going off on my pho-I mean scroll though, so it should be fine."

"I'll see you soon Mick, out."

Mickey took a glance at the empty Bullhead on the airstrip. I don't even know how that thing works anyways. He thought ruefully with a small smirk. The hallways were quiet as Mickey made his way back into his squad's room, which didn't really come as a surprise. He figured that the students would all be asleep this late at night. And after such a stressful situation, the ODST was looking forward to relaxing a little bit himself. He took his helmet off and set it in his locker along with his M7 and sat down in front of the screen to do a brief scan of all the cameras.

A small scuffling noise made him turn around. There in plain sight were two men dressed in black suits and tall hats along with red shades. Mickey could tell that they were trouble. He guessed that they had snuck in through the window, seeing how it was wide open. The two men froze upon realizing they had been noticed.

"Um, can I help you guys?" Mickey slowly got up from his seat, instantly on edge. He mentally blessed himself for not putting away his pistol just yet.

The intruder farthest away reached for his gun. But Mickey was quicker. A suppressed shot from his m6s sent a single bullet right through the man's head. The second thug pulled out an axe and aimed an overhand cut. It was a slow and poorly coordinated attack and Mickey easily side stepped it. He swung his right arm and dealt a knockout blow with the butt of his pistol. The second thug sagged on to the floor as a third climbed in from the window.

This one pulled out an axe too but proceeded to throw it at the ODST. Mickey spun out of the way and the axe slammed against the screen; shattering it. The thug charged towards Mickey at full speed. A backhanded arm from the ODST sent him stumbling into the wall. Mickey closed the distance before the thug could recover and pinned him against it. He pointed his pistol to the side of the other man's head. "You better have a good explanation for all of this buddy."

The door swung open as Blake and Weiss burst in, weapons in hand. They had heard the axe smash into the screen and were coming in to see what had happened. The first thing they saw was Mickey holding up a gun to another person. "What do you think you're doing?! Let him go this instant!" Weiss demanded roughly.

Mickey was caught off guard by the sudden entrance and stared in slight shock for a brief moment. All he saw were two girls dressed in pajamas with weapons in their hands. It looked so ridiculous that he could almost laugh; if those weapon's weren't pointing at him. "This isn't what it looks like." He tried calmly.

"I don't care." Weiss said sharply. "Let him go."

Mickey quickly analyzed the situation in his head. He obviously couldn't use his pistol against mere students, and the weapons they had looked extremely sophisticated which made him doubt he could take both of them at once, assuming they knew how to use them. The only close range weapon he had was his knife, and that was definitely out of the question. He knew retaliating would put everything at risk, and frankly he was kind of tired. He decided he'd just go along with it. "Ok, ok." Mickey slowly pulled his gun back and released his grip on the thug. He put his hands up and let his pistol dangle from a finger.

The intruder instantly seized his opportunity and ran for the window.

"Hey!" Weiss snapped. "Where do you think you're-?"

For his scrawny size, the thug was surprisingly quick and managed to jump out of the window before Weiss could finish her sentence.

"There he goes." Mickey sighed. "Fantastic." He slid his gun back into its holster and let his arms down at his side.

Weiss turned a piercing glare to Mickey. "You. We're taking you to see the Headmaster this instant."

Mickey gave an innocent grin and spread his arms wide. "Without even listening to what I have to say first? Come on."

Weiss was unwavering. "You can tell it to the Headmaster when we turn you in."

"Actually, I think we should hear him out." Blake finally spoke up. She had been quietly examining the room and had reached a conclusion. She was curious to find out if she was right.

"What? Are you out of your mind?" Weiss was incredulous.

Blake gave Weiss one of those looks that read 'trust me'.

Weiss held her friend's gaze for a few seconds, then rolled her eyes. "Fine." She turned back to Mickey. "You have two minutes."

Mickey told them the whole story from when he first got into the room. He also told them about his squad and their job at the school. It took way more than two minutes to explain but no one really seemed to notice. "And that's pretty much it." Mickey finished.

Weiss narrowed her eyes while Blake looked thoughtful. "I was a little bit off." The faunus girl said. "I thought you were a visiting huntsman who needed a place to stay, not a security guard."

Mickey chuckled in amusement. "I'll take that as a compliment, I guess." He then grinned ruefully. "Still though, couldn't you have said something a little earlier? Maybe the guy wouldn't have gotten away then."

Blake shrugged. "I wasn't sure if I was right or not. You could've been a serial killer on the run and they could've been the undercover cops trying to catch you."

Mickey's grin grew wider and he nodded slightly a few times. "Fair enough. It's no big deal though. I still got this guy right here to give me some answers." He indicated the thug lying on the ground he had knocked out.

"And the one you shot back there." Blake pointed out the body of the first intruder.

Mickey laughed. "I'm kinda surprised you guys aren't freaking out over seeing a dead guy right now to be honest."

"I've seen way worse." Weiss assured.

Blake nodded agreement. "Same."

Mickey raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you guys a little, I don't know...young?"

"You're not so old yourself." Blake countered.

Mickey laughed again. "You're definitely getting on my good side right now. I'll give you that."

Blake responded with a small smile.

"So how long have you been here exactly?" Asked Weiss. The edginess gone from her voice.

"Just got here last night actually." Mickey replied. "Don't you recognize me like at all? You bumped in to me while I was on my way in remember?" Mickey had thought that the girl with the white ponytail seemed familiar. It wasn't until now that he recalled their previous encounter. But the sad eyes he had seen the day before were now replaced with ones of indignation.

"Um excuse me, but I don't 'bump' into people." Weiss scoffed. "I may have 'passed by' you, but those two can hardly be considered the same thing."

"So you do remember then?"

"Yeah, somewhat." Weiss thought for a second. "Weren't you with some other people?"

Mickey nodded. "Yeah that was my team. And for the record, you ran into me pretty hard." He finished with a smirk.

"Oh be quiet you!" Weiss snapped.

"It's Mickey." Got some attitude I see. Nice.

Weiss crossed her arms and abruptly turned away. "Hmph! Who said I wanted to know what your stupid name was?"

Blake rolled her eyes at Weiss before addressing Mickey. "I'm Blake, nice to meet you."

"Pleasure's all mine." Mickey said cheerfully. "What about you ice queen?"

Weiss outwardly sighed. How original. By this point she had probably heard that nickname at least a thousand times already. "It's Weiss."

There was a brief moment of silence. "Well, I should probably get this place cleaned up." Mickey indicated the mess in the room. "You guys can go back to sleep now, I don't think there'll be anymore surprises."

"We we're never asleep in the first place." Weiss corrected. "You started making all this racket before we got the chance."

"It's a good thing no one else woke up though." Blake remarked. "That could've gotten out of hand."

"No," Weiss shook her head. "It's a good thing Yang didn't wake up. I'd hate to see her angry this late at night."

"Oh trust me I know." Mickey muttered to himself as Blake and Weiss went back next door to their own room. He remembered how Yang had chased Romeo around half the school during lunch. The ODST chuckled. What an idiot, honestly. He picked up his scroll and called Ozpin to tell him what had happened but there was no answer. He tried again, still nothing. Mickey hesitated. The only other staff member he had been provided with as a contact was Professor Goodwitch, and she had gotten pretty pissed at the squad earlier. He knew she probably wouldn't be very fond of him calling her at this hour. Fuck it, I don't have a choice. Mickey made the call.

Two rings. "Hello? Professor Goodwitch speaking."

"Hi, Professor Goodwitch. I'm Mickey with the security team." He could hear her sigh almoset immediately from the other end.

"Yes? What is it?"

"Well," Mickey scratched the back of his head. "It's kind of hard to explain but..."


"Jesus." Romeo gaped as he surveyed the scene with the bodies on the ground. "They won't feel that tomorrow, that's for sure."

"Yeah it's pretty nasty. This is where we first ran into that Beo-thing." Buck explained. Him, Romeo, and The Rookie were taking a closer look at the massacre in the forest. Team JNPR was with them earlier, but Jaune had barfed as soon as he saw and smelt the bodies. So it was decided that it'd be better if they just waited for the ODSTs at the landing zone.

Romeo shook his head. "Surprising how they couldn't even out do a bunch of teenagers."

"You mean Jaune's team?"

Romeo nodded. "Yall should've seen it. There were all these wolves and bears and huge ass snakes and shit. I knew I was done for. Those kids came and killed them all like it was nothing. Never seen anything like it."

Buck looked back at the bodies. "Then how did these guys die like that."

Romeo shrugged. "All I know is that we clearly not fit to deal with these things, not after what I saw."

"I would agree." Buck said as he knelt down next to the closest body. There were scratches and bite marks all over the man's body and a lot of his armor looked like it was ripped off. But there were some wounds that stood out. They weren't in sets of threes or fives like the other ones and they certainly weren't teeth marks. These were single thin cuts. Neat and precise. Buck found them in sensitive areas where tendons were located and one more right across the neck. There was no doubt in his head that that was the killing strike. He examined the other three bodies and found similar cuts, all undoubtedly belonging to the same weapon. It was becoming clear now. "They weren't killed by the Grimm." Buck concluded.

Romeo frowned. "What?"

Buck motioned for his squad. "Come over and look at these." He pointed out the cuts to Romeo and The Rookie. "Looks like it was caused by a sword of some kind right? Maybe a dagger?"

"Yeah, I see, I see." Romeo agreed. The Rookie simply nodded.

"Exactly." Buck stood up. "These people were killed by another person. It was probably staged to look like something else."

"Then that means there are people out here that are even more dangerous." Romeo exclaimed. "Where the hell did we end up?"

Buck spoke into the comms. "Not only that."

"The comms are back on." Romeo realized.

"This was where they went down earlier right?" Buck asked The Rookie, who nodded in confirmation. "It wasn't due to a bad signal or malfunction then." Buck continued. "The only other way for them to go out would be a jammer, and you'd have to do that manually."

Romeo was starting to understand where Buck was going with all of this. "So you're saying then..."

Buck nodded. "We weren't out here alone."


At the edge of the Emerald Forest stood a lone robed figure. A hood obscured almost all facial features. The person was speaking to someone else on their scroll.

"There's been a complication." Came the voice on the other end. "The bodies were discovered."

The robed figure inwardly sighed. Good help was getting so hard to find nowadays. "Was the primary objective completed?"

"Negative. There were too many unexpected factors."

"And the secondary objective?"

"No idea. We lost contact with team B as soon as they entered the school."

The robed figure was seething with silent rage.

"Do we have new orders then?" Came the voice from the other end.

"No, pull back, it's too late now. I'll have to figure out something else." The robed figure hung up the phone, then realized someone was running up to them.


The thug still couldn't believe his luck as he continued running away from Beacon. Good thing those students are so clueless. He thought smugly. All he had to do now was debrief with the boss and he was done for the night. He saw the boss at the edge of the forest, just like they had agreed, and slowed to a walk as he approached.

"The primary objective was failed." The robed figure spoke icily. "Let's hope you have better news."

The thug shook his head. "We were spotted as soon as we entered. The other two are probably dead. I had to abort."

The robed figure nodded a few times. "So you failed the secondary objective?"

The thug shrugged. "Yeah, basically. But I did manage to kill a few of the students." He lied. "I think that calls for a promotion, don't you?" The only thing the thug got for an answer was a sudden stabbing sensation in his abdomen. He gasped in both shock and pain. "Ahh...how...could...you?" He struggled to get the words out.

The robed figure showed no remorse. "You've proved yourself to be a deserter and you failed the objective. I have no more use for you, but I'm sure you'll make a nice snack for the Grimm. Goodbye."

The thug collapsed as he felt himself bleed out. His vision began to fade. The last thing he saw was the robed figure walking away into the distance. Then, nothing.

I recently found out that you can respond to reviews through PM, so i'll probably be doing that from now on. But for those who don't have an account:

Guest on Nov. 3: That is actually really helpful information, thanks bro! I actually did a bit of research and yeah there's a halo book called dirt, and it talks about what you described, if you're interested in that lol.

SilentWatch: You're going to have to find out because that's still a few chapters away ahahaha. But good call on ONI. I can tell you that they'll be heavily involved. That's about it though lol.

Guest on Nov. 23: Yeah dude, those books are really good. I hear you tho my nig, there'll be a lot more interactions as the story progresses. :)