It was a few days after Christmas and by now it was a common sight to see Jorge and Pyrrha holding hands at all times and Jorge hadn't slept in his own bed in about as long.
Kaaniack was settling into his new room nicely. He spent most of his time with either with Sasha or with team RWBY. Nora had also taken Sasha as her niece always telling her the "auntie Nora was here". Whenever she would arrive to play with her.
Kaaniack and Yang had an ongoing challenge to see who could get the other flustered first. Much to her chagrin, Yang lost those challenges. It was the fact that Kaaniack didn't mind getting flirtatious with her that really messed with her. Normally she was seen as the unreachable prize. No one had the courage to really try to compliment her without being either a douche or a terrified wimp. Neither of which was good for pick up lines.
But Kaaniack had a different approach he was confident but he wasn't arrogant and he also knew how to talk to women. It seemed obvious that it was important to know when to sound serious many men have a hard time conveying just how honestly they mean it when they tell a girl that she is beautiful.
Kaaniack understood this so whenever Yang started to make any progress he would simply look her in the eye and say some like. " you are just stunningly beautiful and I don't think I tell you that enough."
And then he would walk away leaving Yang a blushing mess. It annoyed her that he knew just what to say and how to say it to get under her skin. And she was still trying to find a way to get through to him.
While those two were seeing how close they could walk to the ocean without getting wet Jorge and Pyrrha had both jumped in headlong. They were the talk of the school. After all, when the two undefeated first years are seen holding hands and kissing it tends to start rumors.
Some said that she and Jorge were always a couple but they hid it in order to be put on the same team. Some said that Jorge was a bodyguard hired by her parents to protect her. The craziest one that Jorge heard was that he was really a 23-year-old Atlesian spy named Jeffrey Easton sent to spy on the best that Beacon had to offer in order to help win the vital festival tournament.
All of these rumors spread from the fact that Jorge didn't exist on paper until he arrived at Beacon and he had done nothing but crush every obstacle that was placed in his way. It didn't help that he was able to use any weapon he was given. It was noted that the biggest flaw he seemed to have was that he was aggressive and that when provoked he could be very wrathful.
This was of course seen as him either being a protective boyfriend, an overzealous bodyguard or in the case of the Jeffrey Easton theory it was a false flag to make him look more like a teenager who had anger issues.
He and Pyrrha normally didn't mind the rumors. They never caused them any problems, well there was that one time that Nora tried to break the legs of the person who was spreading them.
But they talked to Nora about it and that was that she wouldn't do it twice.
Now Jorge and Pyrrha stood in the stables playing with Mareko, she was excited as always. She had tried to climb up the front of Pyrrha leg when she saw her. They had just started to wear her out when a sound could be heard from the door.
They both looked to see who it was expecting Kaaniack since he was the only other student with a pet in the stables but they instead saw a man who looked to be about forty years old. He was wearing a denim trench coat just like the one Jorge wore only his was much older and it was clear that it had seen many more miles. His beard was long and obviously unkempt along with his shoulder-length hair. Both of which were black with subtle streaks of grey in them.
" I am looking for Jorge Telmarvak?" the man said. He had a package in his hand that was wrapped in a brown paper.
"That would be me," Jorge said stepping out of the stall to answer him. "Who are you?"
The man chuckled and said. " I am Galmaron, and I have a gift from a friend." he held out the package to Jorge. And when Jorge took it he said. "It is a signal generator when you are in need during battle activate it and help will come." without another word the man turned and walked away.
After he had Gone they opened the package and saw a box with a green button that had a red cursive T on it. The button was locked by a pin that had to be pulled out before it could be pressed.
Using one of his knives Jorge cut off the back and saw that inside was just a signal generator like the man said. He still wasn't sure that he would ever use since it could be sending a signal to anyone but he was glad to know that it wasn't a bomb. He delicately put it back together and carried it back to his dorm with Pyrrha in tow.
He placed it on the shelf and got an emergency signal from school. It was team JNPR's shift as the on-call backup so they weren't allowed to train or leave campus and now that they had been given the alert they all headed for the docks.
Jorge and Pyrrha got there the same time as Nora and Ren while Kaaniack who had added himself to the team JNPR group alert beat all of them there waiting with Sasha. he had his armor which looked like it was heavy metal plates on his knees, elbows, shoulders, and chest. It was heavy armor for an aura enhanced student but no one was going to argue with him.
He carried a lever action rifle that compliment Jorge's rolling block nicely he also had a long case that probably held another long gun. They boarded the bullhead and buckled themselves in and asked the pilot where they were going and who they were helping.
"Fort Vindobona, team RWBY" the pilot answered as he took off and was flying at an amazingly fast speed pushing his bullhead to its limits.
The mention of their sister team plus the urgency with which they were moving left an uncomfortable silence over the cabin but no one broke it. This was the calm before the storm and it needed to happen.
Jorge and Pyrrha wordlessly and thoughtlessly interlocked their fingers. Ren and Nora did the same while Kaaniack tucked an orange scarf into the back of his belt. Jorge recognized it as Yang's scarf and wondered if they really knew how it looked for Kaaniack to wear Yang's scarf into battle but that was for after the battle.
The rest of the ride was smooth and pasted fast and soon they were getting landing directions from the Valetian fort.
They were on their final approach before they were attacked by a gargantuan nevermore. The animal ripped off one of the wings in a single attack. They were crashing and the pilot was doing all he could to save them from the crash.
Since they were all buckled into a chair or in Sasha's case buckled to someone who was buckled in the crash was jarring but thanks to their pilot they survived and managed to avoid landing on their sides or top.
Jorge rushed to the cockpit only to find the pilot dead. He headed back out to see that his team was assembled and waiting for him to give an order, there were too many Grimm to kill but the fort was about two hundred yards away. They might not be able to make but they had to try.
"To the fort," Jorge said. And with that they took off running for the gate when they got there they saw that the Grimm too close and that the fort couldn't open without letting the Grimm in as well. "Prepare to fight, we have to hold here," Jorge said turning around and starting to open fire with his rifle. Pyrrha, Nora. Kaanicak put down his extra case and did the same with Ren and Sasha preparing to fight the first Grimm to make it into their range.
Suddenly the doors opened and a man on a motorcycle came roaring out and charged the Grimm. He drew the wave off the children and they made it inside the fort so that his sacrifice wasn't for nothing.
They made their way up to the upper wall were team RWBY was waiting for them, Ruby had her rifle out and was laying down covering fire for the man on the bike.
It was a large bike that looked like it was designed to look like an Ursa. He had a long lance in his right hand and whenever a Grimm would get into range he would jab the lance into the beast and then the lance would retract. A moment later the Grimm would explode and the man would stick his now shortened lance into his bike before he would hold it back out and extend it back out.
He was drawing the Grimm away from the fort and once they were away and the gates where resealed a tall man who was looking over the rampart fired off a flare.
Once the flare had popped in the air he threw away the pistol and brought up his right hand in a salute before swinging his hand down and thumping a now-closed fist on the front of his left shoulder twice before holding his upper arm out at ninety degrees from his chest and his lower arm he held straight into the air ninety degrees from his upper arm.
The man on the bike returned the salute before riding into the swarm of Grimm and disappearing into an explosion that destroyed most of the mass.
The man on the wall turned to look at Jorge, are you Jorge Telmarvak?"
Taking a step forward Jorge said "Yes sir," Jorge saw team RWBY behind the man slowly making their way down the wall Ruby had folded her rifle back down and looked extremely downtrodden
When the man continued Jorge gave him his attention once more. " I am colonel Anaxandridas Atlas special forces," he pointed to a man who looked to be cleaning his rifle. "That is Robert McCann. He is with the Valetian Foreign Legion. He is my second in command. I know that it isn't protocol but we are way past protocol here. Are any of you snipers?"
Jorge raised his hand and Kaaniack raised his as well. The colonel pointed at the main tower and his point was made. He wanted them to do overwatch for the fort.
They nodded and then took off at a light run for the tower. They ran past several men many of which looked either sick or injured. Once they were in the tower they saw that it was a good vantage point and if it wasn't built for snipers then it was built for observers.
They both set up with their rifles Kaaniack with sharps that he had in a case and Jorge with deusbane.
"How much ammo do you have?" Kaaniack asked
Jorge pulled open his duster to show that he had three bandoliers of ammo. "Who made your rifle?" Jorge asked
"It's and R&A sharps," Kaaniack said as he went prone with his rifle placing a box of ammo next to him. He left the now open case next to him and Jorge saw several boxes of ammo inside.
Jorge setup looking in the opposite direction saying, "this could be a long job so keep your eyes open until told otherwise."
He heard a grunt that sounded like an acknowledgment so he put his hearing protection in and returned to his own rifle. He had his rifle propped up in a stand that allowed him to lean against a crate while still looking down the scope. He would need to move if he wanted to turn his gun to his left but he could do that and he may be here for a while.
Suddenly Kaaniack opened fire but Jorge didn't move. The thing he was shooting at may be a diversion. After he heard Kaaniack's gun run dry and heard that he was furiously reloading he took out his ear protection and turned to see what it was.
He saw a massive nevermore that was almost at the fort. It swooped down and grabbed what looked like a radio tower and flew off carrying the now crushed tower in its talons. It flew back out through Jorge's line of sight so he got on his gun and got ready. He loaded what a proximity sensitive HE round. They were expensive but getting rid of this thing would be worth it.
He lined up his shot and squeezed the trigger there was a blast that made his ears ring reminding to put his ear pro on next time. But for now he was on the sope and he wouldn't leave it until that bird was dead.
He saw the shell explode to the left of the nevermore which was what he wanted it made the bird turn to his right. So he fired another one and now the bird was flying perpendicular to him. He loaded an HE round that was designed to penetrate and then explode.
He aimed and offered a lead on the target before firing. He saw the bird lurch to its left once more before it began to slowly descend. It may not be dead but it was out of action and it most likely wouldn't live very long.
He heard a sound at the hatch and turned to see Ren coming up with a couple of walkie-talkies. "You two are going to need these," he handed them the walkies and then continued. "By the way, that thing just destroyed our only means of communicating with the rest of Remnant we are gonna be here for a while."