A/N

Made some practically unnoticeable changes to the previous chapter. Just a few continuity changes and some other stuff.

"Alright," Ozpin said as he sat down behind his desk. "Lets hear this story of yours."

Augustus had just been through a bit of a culture shock haze. He'd never seen a building like this. He'd seen buildings much larger than this. The TRAXUS Plutonium refinery comes to mind. He'd seen castles, or at least recreations of them on a few worlds. But he'd never seen a castle of this scale and shear... awe. Massive hallways, skyscraping towers, the magnitude of this place was just unparalleled. And it was empty.

Probably out for the season.

"Colonel." Glynda said, drawing the man out of his thoughts.

"Oh, yeah. Perdón, just thinking for a minute." He said returning to the world "Where do you want me to start?"

Ozpin and Glynda shared a look for a moment.

Damn, they do that a lot. He though. How much communication can you have with just a look? There's no way they're not married.

"Well," Ozpin started, "the beginning would probably be a good start."

Alright this whole thing of being all vague and shit is pissing me off. He flashed a small grin. "Well, I was born on May 9, 2367, on the planet Senolca IV. It's a mining planet..."

Augustus' sarcastic tone faded. Wait, they actually want me to tell my whole story? Seriously? "Wait, do you actually want me to tell you my life story?"

"If you fell inclined. I'm not going to be particular on the information you're will to give us."

"Oh, okay. Well, in that case, I'll explain the conflict and how it got me here. De acuerdo?"

They stared at him for a moment. Shit. I'm speaking broken English again, aren't I? He asked himself rhetorically. "Sorry. Agreed?"

Glynda responded with a conformation while Ozpin simply nodded.

"Well, it started about one-hundred fifty years ago. In 2215... about, the Core Systems were expanding and the Five Systems Defense Pact was creating problems for the Coalition. With major political turmoil erupting in the against the IMC, so they have to put a hold on the development of some two hundred odd planets, moons, other things. All those colonies spent the next hundred plus years to develop however they wanted. Things in the Core calmed down, the IMC didn't come back, and the Frontier continued to do whatever it wanted. Well, recently, things in the Core are heating up again. They want more weapons, more ships, more guns and bombs and bullets.

"So, with a massive new demand in material, they remembered all those rich planets that they colonized so long ago. Well, when they came back, they found us."

Ozpin nodded. "You resisted."

"No." Augustus replied. "No, they resisted. I joined the IMC."

That shocked the two of them. He just sat there, nodding. "I joined them."

"I was young, I needed money, and I wanted revenge. When a Militia Force attacked my home planet that had an IMC uranium mine. They destroyed the mine, leveled the town, and the IMC rebuilt everything. To a eight year old, that made them seem like the good guys. So, when I turned eighteen, I signed up for the IMC Marines. I was an Anti-Titan specialist, Senior Petty Officer. Then, I killed a Militia Pilot, and I ended up becoming an IMC one myself. Few years latter, I provided back up for an hit on a suspected Militia armory, and the pendejos incinerated the daylights out of it."

He stopped. Ozpin noticed this. In fact, he'd noticed that Augustus had remained mostly neutral throughout the ordeal. As if his story didn't faze him. He's not ashamed of his past. He doesn't hide from it. "I take it you changed sides because of this?"

"Almost." He pointed. "I changed sides when, after it was discovered the armory didn't exist, and no repercussions were levied against the perpetrators. That's the difference between the Militia and the IMC."

Ozpin finished for him. "You take responsibility for your actions."

"Exactly."

"So, after that adventure, I decided to join up with the Militia."

"And they just let you in?" Glynda asked.

"They're desperate. All I had to do was show up. They didn't trust me for a while, but it worked out in the end."

Except for the part where you crashed here. Ozpin thought.

"Except for my last mission, of course."

"Yes, perhaps you could explain how you crashed."

"I didn't." the Colonel replied with a grin. "Your planet got my ships way, remember."

Marmaglas XIII

IMC Naval Refitting Station Mazu

"Captain Itō, would you please get your ASS to the Bridge, ASAP!" blared the speaker.

A Yamato woman, just under a meter tall, came sprinting down the hallway of the Virgil-Class Light Freighter NCS Winter Nights. No less than three minutes ago, she had been enjoying the longest continuous sleep in the past two weeks when an alert came over her PERCOM, informing her of a situation that needed her immediate attention.

The 726th Pioneer Squadron had been in the Far Regions for about six months now, and had made significant progress in sabotaging the IMC 5th Fleet's attempts to refit its self. The 726th was one small part of the Militia 12th Fleet's plan to cause as much damage as possible to the IMC's 5th Fleet by attacking as many critical locations at the same time as possible. Currently, it was the 726th's objective to disrupt the IMC's infrastructure by attacking one of their largest Naval Docks in the Far Regions. It was currently in he process of repairing six Malta-Class Battle Cruisers, and two dozen Messina-Class Corvettes. But there was one ship in particular that had been the pinnacle of exuberance was a single ship. The Vienna-Class Destroyer IMS Hastings.

"Are you sure?!" CPT Itō demanded as she burst through the doors to the bridge.

One of the Fire Control officers replied, "Yes, ma'am. It was confirmed by October Team when they intercepted IMC comms."

The Winter was currently waiting just outside the range of IMC scanners after deploying a thirty man team to the planet ten hours ago with the objective of advanced reconnaissance. She was expecting them to report back in a few more hours with information on a plan to steal a large missile payload and detonate it on the station's magazine. What she was not expecting was to hear that the Winter's archrival of the past three years was situated at the docks.

"Ma'am, Lieutenant Brown wants to know if we should prioritize the Hastings as a primary target."

This was where Captain Itō's job became difficult. On one hand, she should continue with the plan, and go after the station. It would delay the repair of vessels there, which was a lot of firepower being removed from the equation. However, the Hastings was a solid fighting force in it's own right, and it was fully functioning as far as she was aware. But, it still wouldn't be here if it didn't need to be. It could be restocking supplies, probably to continue it's chase of the Winter Nights. Such a resupplying would be delayed if the station was destroyed.

"Tell Brown to proceed with the operation. The station is priority."

"Yes ma'am."

A grin came across the Captain's face. "And tell that redneck son of a bitch that if he deviates from the mission I'll get his mother to scold him in front of the crew again."

"No repeats of the Bandria mission, Captain?" A new voice entered the bridge.

Itō tuned to see a tall, thirty year old Latino man wearing an OD green-orange shirt, IMC digital cargo pants, and a Pioneer Orange-and-Gray.

"Ah, Viridis." Itō said. "Finally managed to join the living, have we?"

"Last I heard, it was your name being shouted over the intercom." the Colonel retorted. "Getting a little senial, señora?"

A few snickers bounced around the bridge, before the Captain felt the need to correct the Lieutenant Colonel. "Last I checked, you're ten years my senior, old man."

"Bahh..."

The bridge was now sharing a good laugh, before getting back to the task at hand. It wouldn't be long before 1LT Brown's team would need recovery, and the rest of the crew would need to be on the ball if they were going to pull this off. After a few minutes of prep, it became a waiting game. Holding out for the call for EVAC, the anticipation on the bridge was building like the wind of a tropical storm cascading into a hurricane.

"Alright... Captain! We got the call! October Team is requesting recovery."

"Commence Jump. All hands; battle stations." Her favorite thing she got to say being in charge of her own ship.

The space in front of the ship seemed to distort into an expanding pale blue light, warping the stars around it. The ship lurched and jarred as space and gravity were forced around the hull of the massive hulk of metal. As the shuttering came to a halt, the massive gas giant Marmaglas filled the viewport. Just down to the lower right of their view, was a large tan and orange dot. The 13th moon of Marmaglas was a very volcanic moon at some point in it's history, but was now terraformed into a relatively fertile world, with large lakes surrounded by habitable zones, divided by large deserts as one neared the equator. If it wasn't already a moon, one could easily have mistaken it for an Earth like planet.

"Helm, full speed, into orbit. Take one-half roll, set orbit path at course 215.75 and wait for further orders." Itō projected orders with the skill of a Naval veteran of her caliber. Six years in The Chair had made her a stellar performing officer. "AC, dispatch all Hornet-IIs, defensive formations. GC, get Bravo Company in the hangar and be prepped for a hot extraction."

After barking out a few more commands to get everything in motion, she turned to face the Colonel. "Viridis, who's ready for Titanfall?"

His expression had long since turned serious and was now in a stance of 'almost attention'. IMC habits die hard, she assumed. "Mick, Tash, and myself can be good to go in three. And we still have Brown's in the drop bay."

"Greene and Grígora still out?"

"LN-3945 and RT-7013 are both still in need reactor replacements."

"Tell those two to get prepped, and you get geared up. You're on standby."

The Colonel gave a quick salute, and walked away. After a few minutes more of watching a dozen craft swarm around, the crew got the command from 1LT Brown that the charges had been set, and they were ETA fifteen minutes. A lone Goblin dropship was being chased by a large squadron of Phantom attack aircraft. A classic Brown scene, the man had a shtick for stealing IMC equipment. Last week, he managed to lift a mostly completed Reaper with a full payload of Ticks.

"Tell Bravo to stand down, and alert the hangar for a... Brown entrance."

A voice came over the INCOM, laced with a recognizable drawl. "You friggin' Jap broad! Don't nev'r bring my Ma inta 'is!"

"And if I do, you inbred hick?"

What a coincidence that she said that, not a second later a large white and orange puff came from the station. The communications were then filled with laughter. "'At'll happen to ya! Ha!"

No sooner had the hillbilly responded, had the Colonel gave his own addition to the exchange, merely letting out a perfect rendition of a Grito Mexicano. "Es muy bonito, amigo."

"Alright everybody," came the Captain regaining control of the conversation, "let's get out-"

"Contact! Contact! Hastings is Oscar Mike!"

The entire bridge crew snapped to the TAO, who was looking at the Captain. As one by one, the crew looked out the viewport, the saw the large, sleek grey mass of ship move out from around the debris field. Like a wolf creeping out of the woods, the Destroyer approached with a silent yet daunting presence. "Forget her. Primary objective is complete, we're out of here."

Once the fighters were finished docking and the ambitious pyromaniac was secure, the Captain gave the order to pull out of the system, and the ship turned around and proceeded ahead full speed. The navigation team had almost just started inputting return trip Jump route, when a radar technician spoke up. "Radar lock alert! She's targeting us!"

"What!" Itō panicked. "They're more than six thousand klicks out. We're out of range of anything that would do damage."

"They must have something ma'am."

At that moment, three miniscule blue dots blinked into existence, and began streaking towards the Winter. All of the fighters were in the hangar, which left the point defense system to pick up the slack. The problem, they had a limited field of fire to the direct rear of the ship. Two of the missiles were intercepted in a hail of plasma fire. The third was determined to persevere though, and collided in a flowery blossom of horror to the engines. Damage Control went into overdrive.

"Fucking Mother of Crist!" came the DC officer. "Decompression in all engine compartments, Engineering Quarters F-12, and Cargo Bays F-3,4,6, and 7. Minimal compromising in the hull. Compartment system is in effect."

The engineers soon came up with an unsettling report of their own. "Engines are at 40 percent operation."

Over half of their propulsion gone, in competition with a ship that was already faster than them. Hopefully, their firepower could make up their slack. Point for point, the Virgil-Class Light Freighter was outfitted to out gun ships comparable to the Vienna-Class Destroyer. It had a more advanced missile targeting system, more effective railguns, and a better countermeasure system. However, the most important keystone of it's defense, was it's maneuverability. In a straight out slugging match, there was no telling what would happen.

"How soon can we make a Jump?" The Captain was, doing as she did best, breaking down the situation. They need out as soon as possible. One major aspect of Pioneer doctrine was don't pick a fight you don't think you can win.

"We'll have an assessment in few minutes, ma'am."

"Contact closing. She'll be in firing range in T minus 3."

Her options were clear. They were going to be duking it out.

A/N

Alright guys, sorry for the delay. Had some writing to do for classes and got caught up in some college drama. How do normal people deal with this crap?

I'd also like to take this moment to say no offense for the terms used by my characters. But hey, this is rated T, so yeah.

Also, as I asked a while ago, if anyone well established head cannon about Menagerie and Blake and her family, I could really use some input.

Finally, comments and criticism is welcome. A thank you shout out to nopeite nopeite nope, the fan of this story.

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