A Soldier No Longer
Chapter 9: Cat and Mouse
Beta read by: Trusty McGoodGuy
Winter knew that she was one of the best.
She had trained for many years in the Atlesian Special Operatives Academy. All of her instructors were world renowned legends in the fields that they taught. They taught courses such as stealth, survival, medical treatment, tracking, and of course, combat.
Right now though, Winter was wishing she had remembered more of the lessons from tracking class.
After speaking with Locus, she had run off to the nearest abandoned building, a warehouse near the edge of town. It had been a good starting point, but unfortunately she didn't have anything to go on other than instinct. No signs of movement, or secret markings...nothing.
Choosing to rely on her stealth and instinct instead, which she told herself was not just guessing, Winter jumped up onto the roof, careful not to make a single sound.
Seeing a skylight on the roof, she decided to peer through the glass so that she could see what might await her on the other side. All she saw was a single White Fang insurgent in a sleeveless jacket with the red wolf head symbol patched to his shoulder, bandana and goggles draped over his face.
The Faunas seemed to be working on planting something. Winter assumed it to be some sort of bomb. Immediately the Schnee knew she had to stop whatever nefarious plan this insurgent had before it was too late.
She had quickly raided into the abandoned warehouse through said skylight, deciding to take the shock and awe approach so that the Faunas insurrectionist would not have time to set up any defenses.
As she descended from the skylight like some sort of archangel, the insurgent looked up from what he was doing to spot the Atlesian special operative bearing down on him like a bird of prey. In an instant, the he was already dashing for the door, with Winter in hot pursuit.
He zipped out of the warehouse and into a nearby alley in an attempt to shake his pursuer, with no luck. Just as Winter began to gain on her target, he turned another corner and was out of sight. Within seconds, Winter had made it to the same corner, expecting to find the insurgent on the other side.
Instead she found nothing but an empty dirt street with nobody on it except herself. No footprints could be found either, whoever that faunas was, he was either incredibly fast or extremely stealthy.
Drawing her sabre, she swiftly leaped onto the roof of nearby flat top, hoping to catch a glimpse of her prey. Winter stalked across the rooftop, scanning the surrounding area for even a hint of where her target might have gone.
Nothing.
Sighing, Schnee realized that she had lost her target.
"Let's just hope that the rookie is having better luck than me." She thought to herself as she sheathed her sabre.
Locus was not doing much better than his comrade.
Despite the fact that scanning from the belltower meant he could cover nearly the entire town, it didn't mean he would be able to find Uwe immediately, or at all.
Because of the fact that Santa had no prints, face, or any real information to identify Uwe apart from the other female Faunas in the town, he couldn't find her. The alien construct could read the minds of humans, but only when they were within extremely close range.
What's worse, it could be possible that of all the female Faunas scanned, none of them were Uwe herself. Even one the most advanced A.I's in the galaxy had its limits.
"Target not found." Santa stated blankly.
"No suspicious activity detected within the area either?" Locus questioned.
"No suspicious activity has been detected." Santa replied.
Pausing for a moment, the mercenary considered what else the faunas terrorist could be doing that could separate her from the other female Faunas of the town.
Just then, Locus' scroll began to ring, snapping him out of his thoughts. He reached for the magnetic latch on his waist that holstered his scroll, quickly unlatching it. Popping open the holographic screen, he saw that Winter was the one calling him. Locus hit answer.
"You are clear for communication." Locus said.
"Bell tower is the center point. White fang member spotted. Location is zero-four-zero at 1.3. Male. He was setting up a package before I intervened. Target escaped." Winter reported, military code making it so that only Locus could understand what she was saying.
"Understood. Calculating bearing now." Locus said as he began to triangulate the position that Winter had given him. The belltower was obviously the center point that Winter had given him. Zero-four-zero is the bearing, and 1.3 is the distance in miles.
All of this information put together meant that a White Fang member had been spotted 1.3 miles southeast of the bell tower. That meant that he was at the warehouse on the edge of town.
"Position located, heading there now." Locus confirmed as he began his descent from the top of the bell tower, ending the call as he did.
Invisibility still activated, Locus reached for the same floor hatch he has used to traverse to the top of the tower.
CRREEEAAAKK
Without warning, the hatch opened by itself, revealing an old man with a toolbox and maintenance uniform.
Immediately, Locus retreated to the farthest corner of the belltower, he knew well enough that if he were to be spotted somewhere he wasn't supposed to be, people would begin to ask questions. All Locus could do was watch as the old man began his inspection.
Slowly the man walked around. Suddenly, he froze, worrying Locus for a split second before the repair bent over and picked up a shiny metal object off of the floor of the tower.
"Soda cans, again? Darn kids, thinking they can use the bell tower as their little after school hideout. Ah well. Better clean up this mess and get the bell oiled." The old man stated to no one in particular.
Time started to fly as the old man labored away all the mercenary could do was sit and observe.
For an entire hour, Locus did just that. But finally, the repairman concluded his menial tasks before he packed up, sliding down the same ladder he came through. Three solid minutes later, Locus did the same.
Dashing across to the last coordinates Winter had given him, Locus spotted Winter herself, with a very cross look adorning her face. Before her comrade even had a chance to uncloak, Winter was already chastising him.
"Where were you?! I've been waiting here for over an hour!" She yelled in Locus' ear.
"A repairman showed up, I couldn't even move until he finally left!" Locus shot back, keeping his voice steady in an attempt to avoid any more arguments. Thankfully, she couldn't see the scowl hiding behind his helmet.
"And you couldn't just sneak past him?" Winter interrogated.
"The only escape point I had was the floor hatch, and he would have known I was there the second I opened it. Don't you think it would be the least bit suspicious to find two bounty hunters being somewhere they shouldn't be?" Locus reasoned.
"Gah! You really are a nuisance, I hope you realize that." The Atlesian Specialist disparaged, pinching the bridge of her nose.
RING RING RING
"Is that yours?" The mercenary questioned.
"Strange, I'm not scheduled to have a debriefing with Ironwood for the next seven hours." Winter disclosed.
Pulling out her scroll, the Atlesian saw that it was not General Ironwood trying to contact her, instead it was an unknown caller. Winter glanced at Locus worryingly, an unknown caller during an op was never a good sign.
Swiftly, Winter swiped the answer button on the scroll, putting the call on speaker.
"This is a secure Atlesian channel. Calling this number without clearance is a national offense." Winter announced confidently into the receiver.
A calm collected voice, garbled by a voice changer replied instantly. "Having two Atlesian operatives on Mistralian soil without government clearance is also a national offense, Ms. Schnee." The voice on the other end of the line said.
Winters eyes widened whilst Locus sent a few silent commands to Santa to begin tracking the call. Locus was more than familiar with communication lines being hacked, but it seemed the miss high and mighty wasn't. He'd be lying if he said he took no enjoyment out of that.
Shocked, the Atlesian quickly yelled back into the receiver. "Identify yourself, immediately!"
"You know, just a few minutes ago one of my men reported to me. Said he had been chased out of the warehouse he was operating in. He also mentioned that he had failed to complete his objective because of your interference." The voice said, ignoring the command.
"So you must be part of the White Fang if he was one of your men." Winter put together.
"Correct. Now thanks to that setback, I have to get involved in this little operation personally." The voice explained.
"You're Uwe, aren't you?" Winter asked.
"Close, but no. I'm not Uwe. Good try though."
"So you're confirming that Uwe is involved in the White Fang." Winter realized.
"Took you that long to figure it out? I thought you specialists were smarter than that." The voice taunted.
Finally, Locus spoke up. "What are you planning to do in Sunnulus?" He asked in a serious tone, buying the A.I. more time to track him.
"Well well. The lapdog mercenary can talk. I'd tell you, but that would ruin the surprise, now wouldn't it? But I will tell you this; you're gonna see a whole new point of view when we're done here." Ranted the voice on the other end of the line.
"Where are you, now?" Winter seethed.
"….I'll be seeing you soon." Concluded the voice as the line went dead.
As Winter pocketed her scroll, Locus began scanning the surrounding the area once again, this time for surveillance equipment. He spotted at least three security cameras in multiple directions. All of them were looking straight at him and Winter.
"He has controls over the cameras." Locus whispered, making a subtle shake of his head to point them out.
"How? All the cameras in town are controlled in one place!" Winter pointed out.
Locus groaned as the camera's no doubt picked up her voice. His annoyance made even worse as Santa overlayed a map on his HUD, pointing him directly towards the village's security center.
A silence fell over the two as they realized that the hijacking of camera controls could only mean one thing.
Winter unsheathed her sabre and bolted towards the camera control center. "Damn it!" She cursed as she ran, with Locus following behind, MAAW in hand.
Looking down and to the right from her vantage point on the roof, Winter spotted the open backdoor. The door was still open, which could have meant any number of things. All that truly mattered though, was that it was a free entrance.
Silently, Winter hand-signaled that the door was open, which meant that it was likely that there were White Fang inside. Locus acknowledged with a curt nod. Slowly and professionally, the two operatives sneaked up to the door. Winter went in first, with Locus quickly following suit.
The Schnee tensed up as she entered, expected to find multiple White Fang operatives on the other side of the door waiting for her. Instead, she saw nothing but frayed electrical wires and some large computer screens displaying the footage from the cameras that Locus had detected earlier.
Swiftly, Locus progressed towards the center of the small house-like building. As he turned the corner at the end of a hallway, he noticed a desk with a computer on it. What intrigued the mercenary, was the body slumped over said desk.
The mercenary's quick blitzkrieg pace slowed to one of caution. Steadily advancing on the body, he had Santa scans the room for any possible threats that could be nearby. Nearing the body, Locus reached out to the body with one hand, turning it over to see if he or she was still alive.
In the nanosecond after Locus turned the body over, he realized three things that all pieced together. First, the body was not dead, it wasn't even unconscious, she was fully awake and waiting for Locus. Second, she was a Faunas. A snake Faunas to be exact, which meant that she might be White Fang. However the third and final clue confirmed that she was indeed a member of the Fang.
She was grasping a dead man switch.
Locus already had his gun raised but couldn't pull the trigger due to the switch. The Faunus leapt to her feet, and her eyes locked with Locus' even though his gaze was hidden behind his helmet.
Winter entered the room calmly, her sabre sheathed.
"The rest of the compound is clea-" She began. She didn't get very far before she noticed the Faunas in the room. In the blink of an eye, The Atlesian had her weapon of choice brandished. As Winter unsheathed her sabre, the Faunas rose her left hand to show the dead man switch.
"Ah ah ah. I wouldn't if I were you." The Faunas warned, waving the detonator between her fingers. Seeing the switch, Winter hesitated for a moment, before stepping back.
"How many explosives are connected to that switch, Uwe?" Winter inquired.
"Do you really want to find out?" The now-named Uwe challenged confidently.
"….Why are you doing this? Why the explosives?" Winter questioned after a moment's pause.
"I knew I wasn't going to be able to just run as soon as that call to you was made, which is why I decided to rig some crates full of explosive dust beforehand. I only rigged one or two...or 30" Uwe revealed.
"What about the other Faunas that live here?" Locus questioned.
"I had some of my comrades warn them beforehand. They're well away from harm I can tell you that much. We're not savages, we don't kill our own for no reason." Uwe reminded.
Winter sighed. "….What do you want?" Winter asked, defeated.
"You two are going to leave this town, you're going to go crawling back to whatever pit you came from and tell your boss that I was never here and neither was the White Fang." Uwe demanded.
"And what will you do if we come back here with a full strike team?" Winter threatened.
"Then I turn half this mining town into powder. You really want to gamble with that many lives? Go ahead, you've done it before." Uwe taunted, a hint of aggression in her voice.
Confused by the Faunas insurgent's last remark, Locus turned to Winter. "What does she mean by that?" The mercenary questioned.
Winter only stood there in silence, brows furrowed, eyes locked with the terrorist in the room.
"You know damn well what I'm talking about, Schnee. Question is..." Uwe commented as she turned to Locus. "…..Are you going to tell him?"
I know I said I would have this chapter out sooner, but to the two and a half people here who actually care (including that one guest who was disappointed in me for not putting it up during November), sorry I guess.
Anyways, I completed this chapter on the 30th of November, but it probably won't be up until at least tomorrow (December 7th) because a beta reader needs their time to edit, you know.
Oh! And before I forget, I'm thinking of writing a new fanfic. Won't be telling the premise yet, but it does revolve around team RWBY, and my beta reader already knows what it is.
So uh, yeah. Seeya next chapter. Have a day or something, I dunno. Oh and remember to leave a review.