A/N: Well, not much to say up here other than I'm sorry I didn't update on Tuesday afternoon AWST. I spent all weekend at my friend's farm, tearing and refitting a second-hand car. We bought it, took out the rear seats, and made it much lighter. Was a fun weekend.
Anyway, onto the heist!
Even as used to this as he was, Flare still reveled at the sensation of the air rushing past him at high speed, as he plunged through the evening sky towards his destination. Having just dropped from his ship, he directed himself towards the facility that sat below him.
The thrusters on Flare's boots burst to life with a quick pulse of energy, and it illuminated the sky like another star dotting the clear night. It was a good thing none of the robots were programmed to look for odd light sources like his. It was, according to Vier, moreso that the robots were designed with various aircraft detection software.
Flare wasn't an aircraft, which was why they didn't spot him. He also wasn't visible, which made it almost impossible for the AK-200s to detect him.
The guardian snuck across the top of the tall walls that surrounded the facility, rounding past the massive anti-grimm emplacements and crawling past patrolling robots, frost visible on their metallic chassis as the weather fluctuated between deep cloud cover and freezing cold snow.
Ten minutes of slowly sneaking through the cold atop the walls, Flare found his entry point. The entry point was a small vent lodged in the side of the wall, barely big enough for the guardian to squeeze into, were he to try.
Firstly, however, he had to get the vent open. That would be the harder part of the entry, as it was securely screwed into place in the wall, and the screws were frosted over, the metal ice cold from the ambient temperature that the facility experienced, so far north.
Flare wanted so desperately to pull out a grenade and just blast open the vent, but at that point he might as well shoot himself in the head and save the facility guards the trouble. He wasn't geared up for a long-winded raid on a quote-unquote allied military research facility, and even if he was it wouldn't exactly be the most diplomatic of things to do when he was attempting to get the atlesian general on his side.
It was slow going, dangling off the edge of the wall and slowly using gravity as leverage to unscrew the frosted vent hatch, but Flare resolved himself to put in the effort, and he was soon rewarded as the vent, with three screws removed, ker-chunked itself off it's mounting points, swinging in the wind, supported by the fourth screw, the lower left.
Flare, not one to waste time on such a time-critical mission, quickly and deftly slipped inside the shaft, squeezing through. He was glad Vier had dematerialised Infinite Solution, because if his robotic companion hadn't, Flare either wouldn't have fit, or he would be making a very loud clanging noise as he descended the wall inside the cramped ventilation shaft.
Even as it was, Flare was finding it incredibly slow going as he pushed and pulled his way through the ventilation shafts, making his way further and further down into the depths of the facility.
Twenty minutes of crawling and Flare finally managed to find an empty room on the other side of a vent. A swift kick and the vent popped off it's bolts, and Flare quickly blinked out, catching the hatch before it could clatter on the ground. It was a shame no one was there to see him, due to the sheer fact that it was an incredible display of awareness and ability. No one would ever believe him, were he to tell the story. Then again, advertising the fact he broke into a secret military facility wouldn't be a smart thing to do.
He was in a rather large supply closet, filled with various things one would expect to find in a standard supply closet, and things one would definitely not expect to find in a standard supply closet. Around the room were shelves, stocked with paper, pens, printer ink and various other office supplies, along with crates of dust, various weapon models, ammunition types and other forms of explosives.
This was, without a doubt, the most dangerous supply closet in the history of Remnant, if not the entire universe itself.
Of course, it just had to be sheer misfortune that Flare chose this supply closet to tumble into, because looking directly at him was an incredibly shocked scientist.
No one had ever accused Lillith of being slow, stupid, incompetent or otherwise unintelligent. No one ever had any reason to believe otherwise, and Lillith never had to try to convince people she was smart.
The only problem was the fact that all that intelligence was book-smarts. She, and many other people who knew her well, would never claim that she was the most social of people, let alone a massive socialite.
So when the message arrived on her scroll, she had read it, read it again, read it a third time, and then promptly retreated into the academy's workshop.
Tera had no idea what was making her teammate so upset, and it was pretty damn obvious she was upset, regardless of how many times Lillith said she was fine, stumbling the words out between sniffles.
Iren was asleep, conveniently, blissfully unaware of the predicament that Tera was in, and Flare was missing-in-action, their leader completely unavailable. He was out of signal range on his scroll, too. Or it was turned off. It was more likely turned off.
"Lillith, c'mon. You gotta talk to me. Something is wrong, and you can't just shut your teammate out because you don't want to talk about it." Tera demanded, her teammate hunched over a desk sketching away at a sheet of blueprint paper.
"I'm -sniff- fine, Tera." Lillith replied, sniffling. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve.
"Sure you are, Lily." Tera said, dripping sarcasm. "At least tell me what you're working on?"
"Just a few things to -sniff- tide me over until I feel like sleeping." Lillith said, not looking at Tera.
"See you tomorrow morning then, Lily. Get some rest." Tera sighed, waving over her shoulder as she left the workshop.
Closing the door behind her, Tera turned to see her sister.
"She doing any better?" Cerulea asked, and Tera shook her head.
"I couldn't get anything out of her, she just clammed up. Then again, I'm not exactly the most personable person. Shame Flare isn't around, he'd be a great help." Tera replied, walking alongside her sister.
"Where is Flare?" Cerulea raised an eyebrow at the mention of the absent leader.
"Ceru, if I knew I'd've gone and grabbed the elusive bastard." Tera said, hands balling into fists. "I just hate feeling useless, you know?"
"Trust me, Tera, I know." Cerulea replied, wrapping a comforting arm around her sister.
The two walked in amicable peace towards their respective dorms, prepared to get some rest before the beginning of their second semester.
Cerulea split off, waving a goodnight to her sister as Tera waved in return. Now alone amongst the darkened evening halls of Beacon, Tera didn't head towards her dorm. Instead she made her way to the staff offices, namely Ozpin's office. He always said he had time for students, so she was hoping that extended to the current time.
Five minutes of walking, and a short elevator ride, and Tera stepped into the small room that joined the elevator with Ozpin's office.
"Enter." Came the voice over the intercom, and Tera stepped through the doorway.
"Sorry to bother you, Professor Ozpin." Tera greeted, and the headmaster waved away her concerns, gesturing to a chair opposite his desk and reaching for his mug of coffee.
"What can I do for you, Ms Verdant?" Ozpin asked. It was likely he already knew, the man was a mystery.
"Where is Flare?" Tera wasn't one for exercising politeness, and this was certainly not one of the exceptions to the rule.
"I'm afraid I have no idea where your team leader is currently. Mr Archid is proving to be rather elusive, if I must say." Ozpin said, and Tera quirked an eyebrow.
"How is he being elusive? Are you tracking him?" Tera asked, anger leaking into her voice.
"Not I, Ms Verdant, but the Atlesian Military is rather… concerned with his skill level, for a second year. General Ironwood is, or rather was, having him monitored, but they lost him quite quickly." Ozpin explained.
"So he fights a bunch of White Fang and suddenly he's so good Atlas is worried?" Tera exclaimed.
"Not quite, Ms Verdant. But that is the gist of it, in a more simple summary." Ozpin nodded along with what he said, sipping at his mug.
"What is it then?" Tera stood up from the seat she had taken, hands slamming on the table.
"Ms Verdant, please bare in mind that there is nothing I am able to do about this. What General Ironwood does is out of my jurisdiction. If he wishes to monitor a student as a potential threat, than he may do so, and nothing I say will be able to stop that." Ozpin said, placing the mug down in front of him.
"At least tell me who it is the general has following him." Tera asked, and Ozpin smiled.
"I'm afraid it isn't who, Ms Verdant, but rather what. And as for what, I am unable to tell you." Ozpin said.
"Thanks for the help, Professor." Tera said, as she walked out of his office. The moment she was in the elevator, she muttered to herself. "Completely useless."
Flare wasn't having the greatest luck with authority figures either, as it happened. Of course, he had to be the authority figure in this situation, so to speak. He had to pretend to be an evil thief with no compunction about killing civilians.
"Move or make a noise and you die." Flare growled, and the scientist didn't move or make a noise. So far so good.
"Who are you?" The scientist tremored out, quietly.
Flare answered by smacking the scientist over the back of the head with a blink assisted strike, the man crumpling from the sudden impact.
Flare left the man where he lay, and quickly stalked over to the door, peeking through the crack.
Somewhere, somehow, a divine being had decided to take mercy on Flare, as across the hallway Flare could see a heavy metal door, labeled clearly with the words 'SECURITY CENTER'.
Of course, it wouldn't just be a stroll down a hallway, as he could see six AK-200s, all armed and on high alert, looking for intruders.
Flare closed the door, and turned to think. "Vier, how accurate is the facial identification software on those AK-200s?" Flare asked, and his AI companion quickly accessed the relevant files.
"They… don't, Guardian. That's odd." Vier replied over the internal link. Flare could feel the frown.
"Well, that certainly makes this easier." Flare said, as he reached down and took the labcoat of the unconscious scientist. He quickly put it on, pulling the shemagh down like a scarf.
It was now or never, Flare supposed, as he opened the door into the hallway, quickly closing it behind him.
'Act like you belong here. Confidence is key.' Flare thought, as he held himself upright, shoulders back and head held high.
He walked down the corridor, the robots not paying him any attention. It was good that he wasn't carrying any visible weapons, as no doubt that would set off the alarms. He made sure not to look directly at any of the cameras, or any of the robot's faces. No sense in leaving a trail right to him.
He reached the door to the security center without trouble, which he was thankful for. Of course, his good luck couldn't last forever, and faced with a thick steel door with no visible access point was certainly a sign of his now apparent lack of luck.
"So, now what?" Flare subvocalized, Vier picking it up through the internal channel.
"Honestly, Guardian, I'm out of my depth here. Try knocking?" Vier replied.
Flare did so, rapping his knuckles against the tough metal. His luck hadn't run out, after all. He was certainly due for a massive case of bad luck soon, but he wasn't complaining. You could only test the fates so much.
"Yeah Doc, whaddya want?" A gruff voice came from inside, the metal door swinging open on pneumatic hinges. The hiss gave way to a tall man, decked in Atlesian combat armor.
"Just visiting." Flare said, shemagh donned, as he materialised Infinite Solution into his hands, pointing the business end of it's shotgun form at the chest of the guardsman.
The guardsman quickly threw his hands up in the air, and backed towards the rear of the room.
"All of you get up or he dies." Flare said, attempting to intimidate the other two guards.
They did so, and from the colouration on their armor Flare deduced that the guard he was holding hostage was the senior of the trio. The three of them had yellow trims, but the one he held had a bronze insignia on his shoulder, compared to the blank shoulders of the other two.
The door behind Flare hissed closed, courtesy of Vier accessing the systems whilst Flare had the guards busy.
"All three of you, lie on the floor with your hands on your heads. Toss your weapons to the side. Now." Flare commanded, and they did so, flinging their pistols to the side.
Flare decided leaving the three guards awake was pushing fate too much, and quickly removed their helmets. The senior guards, a man of about forty, looked back, only to have the butt of Infinite Solution smack into his forehead, rendering him unconscious. The other two had similar luck, and soon the three guards were decommissioned.
"Vier, you take care of the computer systems you haven't already. I'll get the safe." Flare quickly stalked over to where he could see the safe, a large metal box mounted into solid concrete with even more solid steel bolts. It was an old safe, using the oldest method of safe locks, the combination. This could take a while.
He bent down, and began slowly working his way through each potential combination. It would've been much easier if he had a helmet, with the technology that he possessed, but that was what this mission was about in the first place.
Vier, of course, finished way before Flare did, as Flare spun the combination wheel to the four position, than the one, then the one again.
This was going to take all night.
Lillith had finished her first sketch of the new weapon she was designing. It wasn't by choice, but she was still content. As long as she put the reason behind why she was designing weapons in the back of her mind, she could do so without worrying.
That didn't mean that there wasn't a lingering shadow in the back of her mind. She could feel it, always there, always lurking.
She'd hurt people. She knew that. They were bad people, but that wasn't really an excuse. Most people wouldn't feel guilt about what she had done, but she wasn't most people.
It was late, Lillith knew that. But she had work to do, and if it wasn't done soon it would build up, and build up, and then who knows, maybe she'd just boil over and she'd k-.
"Focus, Lillith." She reprimanded herself, shaking her head.
She could feel the shadow still, lurking like a spectre.
She began drawing another page, another weapon. She'd always loved weapons, the way their intricacies connected, forming a device capable of saving lives. Of course, that wasn't the purpose of a weapon.
A weapon was designed to kill. It didn't matter if it was to kill Grimm, because inevitably it would be pointed at a fellow person. Ten times out of ten.
That was a thing she had noticed. With all the weapons she had made, and had been told to make, she had noticed a pattern, and created a theory.
The Grimm weren't society's biggest threat. Society was.
What would happen were the Grimm to be extinguished, the threat that had loomed over the heads of human and faunus-kind for all their existence to simply vanish.
People were inherently greedy. They were wrathful, lustful, envious and gluttonous. They were all seven of those so called sins, and yet no one ever seemed to care.
It made her uncomfortable to think about, the fact that there had been wars fought in the past, even with the threat of the Grimm lurking about. To think that the threat of Grimm were a variable that hadn't stopped a war was terrifying, that the concept of self-destruction would never stop even with an outside threat.
It made Lillith's head hurt, and that just made that guilty wraith, the shadow, the spectre, linger.
So Lillith sat in the dimness of the workshop, and designed killing machines. Blades of sharpened steel, guns of overwhelming firepower.
And as she sketched, as she drew and designed, thought and theorised, she sobbed.
Because the apple never falls far from the tree.
"Finally!" Flare exclaimed, as the safe cracked open, the heavy door swinging wide on it's hinges.
Inside sat two things. The first thing was a small slip of paper, with '589' written on it in red ink.
The second thing was completely unexpected.
"Vier, is this what I think it is?" Flare asked his companion, who hovered over his shoulder.
"I believe so, Guardian." Vier replied.
The two stared at the small purple icosahedron that sat atop a black satin cushion, completely out of place in the hardened steel of the safe.
"That's a damned legendary, isn't it." Flare marvelled at his luck.
"Guardian, as much as I enjoy stealing from a military facility, are we done here?" Vier asked.
"No, of course not. This shouldn't be here. We still have another engram to retrieve." Flare said, grabbing both the engram and the slip of paper, dematerialising both.
"Of course, Guardian. Why did I even try." Vier sighed, as he too dematerialised.
Flare closed the safe, and quickly checked the state of the three guards.
"Still unconscious, good. Sleep tight, gentlemen." Flare said, as Vier opened the door. Flare re-donned the labcoat, and placed the shemagh against his neck like a scarf once again.
Before Flare walked out he dematerialised Infinite Solution, returning it back to his inventory, before he walked out of the security center, oozing confidence.
His next stop was the server room, and thanks to Vier accessing the security center's systems, he now had a very detailed map leading him exactly where he needed to go, with the minimum amount of guards.
Of course, it wasn't going to be a straight shot without any guards, as Flare found out as he rounded the corner.
Two yellow-trimmed Atlas guards stood at the door to the server room, rifles at rest.
Flare made a decision. He hoped it would work.
"Soldiers, I need access to the server room. If you would accompany me?" Flare addressed the two soldiers, as he walked up to them.
The two guards looked at each other, caught off guard by the sudden appearance of what they assumed was a scientist.
"Come on, chop to it. I have quite a few projects in progress, and I'm sure your commanding officer will not be happy to hear you are delaying progress." Flare said, making a series of guesses.
Flare's luck was holding out, as the two guards quickly snapped to attention, and stepped to the side, one of the two accessing the keypad next to them and entering in a code Flare didn't catch, the door to the server room hissing open.
Flare strode in, not looking at the two guards, but he still noticed how they both followed him inside. The door slid closed with a pneumatic hiss, and Flare walked over to where Vier was directing him, quickly accessing the server.
"Um, Sir, you can't access that server without direct authority from the head of facility." One of the guards said. His voice sounded naive, and Flare could tell that he was a recent graduate of whatever bootcamp Atlas had.
Flare quickly formulated a crazed-scientist persona. "Nonsense, soldier. I have the correct authority."
"Sir, the head of facility has to be present for authority to be validated." The older, more gruff soldier said.
"I have a note from the head of facility in my left pocket. Could one of you grab it, I'm rather busy at the moment." Flare said.
The older guard nodded to the younger one, and he walked over, reaching a hand into Flare's pocket.
Of course, he didn't find anything, but he wasn't given much of an opportunity as Flare grabbed his arm and spun him around, other hand on his blade, which he placed against the younger guard's throat.
The older guard was quick on the draw, pistol out of it's holster and pointed at Flare.
"Hold your fire, soldier." Flare said, Vier dematerialising the shemagh only to rematerialise it on Flare's head, covering his face.
"You cowardly bastard." The older guard spat. Flare could feel the younger one tremble as he felt the blade press against his neck, between the seams of metal on his chest and his helmet.
"Tell me where the head of facility is and I'll let him go." Flare said, staring at the older guard through the slit in the shemagh.
"He's in this office. Now let him go." The older guard answered.
"Thank you." Flare blinked behind the older guard and wrapped him in a chokehold. The younger guard stumbled from the lack of a knife against his throat, and Flare quickly spun, using the older guard as leverage to dropkick the younger one into a rack of servers, whilst still maintaining the chokehold.
Even as the younger one fell, the older one buckled underneath the aura-enhanced chokehold. A few precious seconds of his trachea being forcibly closed, and the older guard went down, stumbling. Flare released his grip, wrenched the older guards helmet off and smacked him in the face with the handle of his knife.
The younger guard had clambered up from where he was sent flying, and had untangled himself from the cables. Flare darted over to him and grabbed him by the arm, wrenching it behind him and forcing him to his knees.
"Give me your armor. Now." Flare growled. It had intimidated a scientist, so why wouldn't it intimidate a young naive soldier?
It would. The soldier quickly complied, and tore off the armor. Left only in his underclothes, Flare quickly choked him out, the young guard quietly scrambling in resistance.
After the unpleasant business had been conducted, Flare dumped the labcoat on the unconscious young guard, and donned the Atlas soldier armor. This would be useful to keep, should he need to infiltrate another facility, and he made that mental note.
"Guardian, I have the first part of the code, and the vault location." Vier said, the internal link making Flare shiver slightly.
"Good. Let's get moving." Flare said, placing the helmet on his head. "Vier, can you link up with this helmet?"
"Of course, Guardian. I assume we aren't just leaving now, even though technically you have a helmet?" Vier asked, as he linked up to the soldier helmet.
"Pfft. Of course not, Vier. Why would we go to all this trouble just to steal any old helmet?" Flare rhetorically asked.
The second last place he had to visit was the head of facility's office. That wasn't too far a walk, and Flare grabbed a rifle from the older guard, along with a pistol. Quickly hooking the rifle to his back, and slotting the pistol into it's holster on his new belt, Flare left the room.
He began walking towards the head of facility's office, head held high and walking stiffly, as if he was at attention at all times. He passed by robots, who didn't pay him any attention, and he walked past guards, who nodded to him.
He was glad to not see any senior officers, as he still wasn't able to recognize the insignia that they wore, and what distinguished what rank.
After a few minutes of walking, he reached the office. He walked up to the door, and knocked.
"Enter." The voice was light and feminine, and as Flare walked inside he saw a woman sitting at a desk, typing away.
"Ah, the head of facility is currently not busy. Is he expecting you?" The woman, presumably his secretary, asked.
"No, he isn't. Do you mind if you tell him I'm waiting, I have something important to talk about with him." Flare said, adopting a slightly deeper tone.
"Of course. One moment." She said, before she leant over and pressed a button. "Doctor, you have a visitor. A guard. He says it's important."
There was an indistinguishable response, and the secretary waved Flare through. "Go on in, he'll see you now," she said.
Flare followed the instructions, and walked through, opening the door to the head of facility's office.
"Yes? What is it? You said it was important?" The doctor asked, eyebrow quirked.
Flare closed the door behind him. He looked at the doctor, an aging fifty-something man with ginger hair, frizzy and unkempt. Flare noticed the nameplate that sat at his desk.
"Doctor Polendina, correct?" Flare asked, confirming the doctor's identity.
"Yes, yes. Who are you?" The doctor asked.
Flare felt a pang of guilt. "Doctor, I'm afraid I need the third part of the vault code." Flare said, and the doctor looked confused.
"What could you possibly need that for?" The doctor asked.
Flare felt the pang of guilt throb harder. The doctor was a civilian. He shook it off and drew his pistol, aiming it at the doctor.
"I'm sorry, Doctor. I'm not asking again. Give me the code." Flare said, pointing the pistol at the doctor's forehead.
He could see the sweat on the doctor's forehead, and the old man staggered backwards.
"Ah. I-i see. Of course." The doctor stammered, and he reached into a drawer in the desk. Flare quickly flicked the safety off the pistol, in case the doctor was reaching for a weapon, but the doctor withdrew a small grey scroll.
"Allow me to just…" The doctor opened the scroll, and placed his thumb against the screen. A few seconds passed, and the screen lit up green, and read 'F7F'. Flare took the scroll from the elderly doctor's hand.
"I am sorry for this, Doctor." Flare said, and he struck the doctor on the head with the grip of the pistol, the doctor slumping into his leather chair.
Flare stuck the pistol back in it's holster, and he left the office. The secretary spared him a glance, and Flare nodded. The secretary assumed everything was fine, and went back to her screen.
Flare, now armed with the full code and the location to the vault, had only one destination left.
The vault itself.
Ooh, ending on a rather exciting cliffhanger if I do say so myself. The next chapter will be out sooner rather than later, I think, unless something comes up.
Other than that, I really appreciate all the reviews I've been getting. They all help, and the few ideas people have been suggesting have been really interesting.
Destiny 2 comes out for PC on Oct 24 here in Australia, and my brother bought it and is lending it to me when it comes out, so I'll be adding a few D2 elements soon. Should be a fun few days, as long as my PC can handle it. I'm really sick of being broke.
Anyways, as always, see you next chapter
~AFatFlyingWhale
