A/N: And lo, on the twenty-fifth day, Dr. Amish did look down upon his creation. And on that day, in a voice barely above a whisper, he did say, "Let there be Aura."

And there was Aura. And Dr. Amish saw the Aura, and it was good.

Mr. Bradford,

It's good to finally get in direct contact with you. I would like to extend a thank you to your Dr. Vahlen for setting up a stabilized data stream for us to communicate with one another. I trust the draw on your resources isn't too great.

I wholeheartedly agree with your suggestion, and have begun to call in the necessary favors to fulfill your requests. I expect this to take no more than ten Remnant hours. To my understanding, this unfortunately comes out to roughly five days on your end, but it is the best I can do. In addition to the supplies you listed, I've taken the liberty to requisition a… specialized gift from a good friend of mine. I believe your Dr. Vahlen will know what to do with it when it arrives. Just do me the favor of keeping my hunters out of the loop until she has finished the proper modifications. I think it will be better for all parties involved.

I will let you know when the package is ready for delivery. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further requests or additional information that you believe I should be aware of. I am always available to offer assistance as best I can.

Best of luck,

Ozpin

Blake held up her mechanized fist, signaling for Strike Eight to stop advancing.

"Contacts. Scannermines show about twenty x-rays patrolling the UFO."

Ruby, relieved to be back in action after her painfully boring stay in the Medbay, stood next to Blake at the top of the hill overlooking their target. Aside from the few glowing lights coming from the craft and the occasional debris fire, the dark of night concealed Strike Eight's enemies from the Lieutenant's watchful eye. The night's cover served as a two-way street, however: the aliens wouldn't be able to see them, either. By the time they did, Ruby figured Strike Eight would be standing on top of a pile of alien corpses.

Behind her stood a team of seven other XCOM operatives, though tonight the title of 'Remnant hunters' felt more appropriate. They still carried a fair amount of XCOM-brand equipment, but neither their armor nor their weaponry carried the proud stamp of 'Made in the USA.' Except for Blake and Yang, of course, since they still wore their MEC suits out of necessity. Ruby, on the other hand, sighed in happiness as she felt the light, comforting feel of her combat skirt around her hips and her beloved cape on her shoulders. As the Lieutenant looked back at Strike Eight, she reminded herself just how good her friends looked in their own outfits. Shen's engineering crew even tried to include the squad's MECs in the new makeover, surprising Blake and Yang with custom paint jobs for the two hardware platforms they wore for every mission.

Finally, after four (maybe five… Ruby stopped counting) long months, Dr. Vahlen cracked the code on Strike Eight's Aura problem. Ruby felt energy surge through her as the Meld implants scattered throughout her body provided a counter field to the natural Auric suppression found on Earth. She remembered the excitement in Vahlen's voice over the intercom when she requested RWBY and JNPR's presence in her lab. Once they arrived, she happily introduced them to the new piece of technology she developed, and proudly informed them that she could commence the installation process immediately.

She operated on Ruby and Yang last, as she wanted to proceed much more carefully in light of their Aura-sensitive Psionic injuries. As it turned out, the doctor's intuition proved correct: Yang had to spend an extra half an hour under the knife, and Ruby's surgery took a whole hour longer than normal. Where Vahlen could simply "open up" all the Auric pathways on the other hunters, she had to carefully limit the energy increase for Ruby, lest it react badly with the psionic energy rattling around in her noggin. Even with Vahlen's painstaking care, Ruby complained about a mild headache afterward while the rest of her friends reported no negative side effects.

If it wasn't for the fact that Ruby stumbled upon a rather… explosive conversation, she never would have known about Jaune's involvement in the breakthrough.

"You did WHAT?!"

Everyone walking past the barracks stopped and curiously turned towards the source of outrage from within. The excitement Ruby felt at being officially discharged from the medbay by Dr. Vahlen quickly drained when she instantly recognized Pyrrha's voice. Dear, sweet Pyrrha, whose dulcet tones usually served as the cheerful voice of reason for her team (as well as, upon occasion, Ruby's own). Much to Ruby's dismay, she couldn't remember her friend ever being this angry, and shuddered to think what could be the cause of such outrage.

"Pyrrha, listen. Just calm down, I-"

The sound of Jaune's voice suddenly helped clear a few things up for the leader of Strike Eight. If anyone could get on Pyrrha's nerves, it would be her partner. Even so, the extent of Pyrrha's anger usually extended to a frustrated groan or a balled-up fist. This sounded like her fury was soaring to new heights.

"Calm down? Calm down? Oh, I am very calm right now, Jaune Arc. So calm, that I will be calmly dragging your ass somewhere more private so that I may continue to calmly scream at you for the next ten minutes, followed by a week of calmly ignoring you. WHY WOULD YOU KEEP THIS FROM ME?"

"Pyrrha, please!"

A small crowd gathered around the entrance to the barracks by the time the very-angry redhead stormed out. True to her word, Pyrrha held a firm grip on the neck of Jaune's shirt, and Ruby watched her fellow leader hang limply in resignation to his fate, his boots sliding loudly on the concrete behind him. As they passed, Ruby could practically see storm clouds brewing in Pyrrha's eyes. Whatever Jaune told her, it incensed the Mistralian far beyond anything the poor idiot had done thus far in their budding friendship. Jaune, on the other hand, had eyes that gazed up pleadingly at Ruby the moment they locked on to her presence. She could practically hear him say, 'Ruby, please! Do something, anything, to save me from Pyrrha's warpath!'

So against her better judgment, Ruby began trotting alongside the wrathful Pyrrha Nikos, "Uh… hey, Pyr."

"Not now, Ruby."

"Jaune screw up again?"

"Yup."

"Pretty badly, from the looks of it."

"Oh yes. Absolutely."

"This… wouldn't have anything to do with our visit to Vahlen's lab this afternoon?"

"On the contrary, it has everything to do with our visit to Vahlen's lab this afternoon."

"Ah…" Ruby grew quiet for a moment, though she continued to keep pace with her two friends. Once more, despite every fiber in her body telling her not to, she opened her mouth, "Do I want to know?"

"No, Ruby. You do not."

Ruby looked down at her feet, shoulders slumped, "Okay… can you do me one favor, though?"

Pyrrha stopped walking, though her firm grip on Jaune's collar remained. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and replied with an even tone, "Depends what the favor is."

"Just… don't kill him, okay? I'm sure he had his reasons, and I think we all kinda like the guy. It would be a shame if you murdered him." Despite the heavy undertones of their conversation, Ruby struggled to suppress a giggle when she looked back and saw the shocked look on Jaune's face. It probably did sound weird to hear two of his friends talk about his death as casually as if they were discussing the quality of the oatmeal served at breakfast.

Pyrrha remained silent for a moment, then, "Regardless of his reasons, I make no promises. Now please do me a favor and leave. I need to have a serious conversation with my partner."

Ruby watched her squadmates continue down the hall. Every operative and base personnel they passed turned their head to watch in a mixture of awe and amusement. While the scene before her certainly looked comical, Ruby did feel concerned for Jaune. She watched Pyrrha turn into an empty room and slam the door behind her before following in the huntress's footsteps. Ruby didn't want to eavesdrop on the conversation, but she did want to be nearby in case she heard shouting or something. Regardless of the fact that they were from team JNPR and she RWBY, they were her subordinates on Strike Eight.

Upon reaching a patch of wall reasonably close to the closed door, Ruby sat down on the floor. People walking by cast odd looks in her direction, but she paid them no mind. Instead, she tried to focus her attention inward on her Aura. She knew that she had nowhere near as good control over her raw Aura as someone like Ren, but it still couldn't hurt to practice flexing her soul's muscles a bit while she waited.

Twenty minutes passed, and Ruby could still hear the sound of muffled voices from within, though they fortunately didn't sound heated anymore. Whatever sparked this, it seemed the two of them definitely had a lot of words for each other. Not that Ruby minded, since it seemed Jaune had a bad habit of keeping his partner out of the loop. Maybe after this event, they'd be closer as partners and better able to fight as a team. Or maybe they'd be something more? Ruby's cheeks turned a light shade of pink at the thought of what the two might be doing behind that closed door.

At thirty minutes, Ruby noticed the voices had died down. She wanted to make sure that the two were okay, but she wondered if she'd be interrupting something by checking on them. Her officerial instincts overruled her imagination of a tittering schoolgirl, so Ruby approached the door and gently knocked.

"Everything alright in there?" She asked. After five seconds with no response, she knocked again and repeated her question. Still nothing. Very carefully, she turned the handle and cracked the door open to have a peek. Inside, she saw her friends on the floor, side by side against the back wall. The two of them were sound asleep, with Pyrrha's head resting against Jaune's shoulder. Ruby's eyes grew wide, and she quietly closed the door once more. Until her friends walked out an hour later, Ruby stood guard outside the room to make sure no wandering busybodies decided to take a curious peek.

Ruby stole a quick glance at Jaune and Pyrrha. The two stood side-by-side, swords and shields at the ready with matching looks of determination on their faces. It relieved Ruby to see Pyrrha looking happy and confident rather than frustrated and upset. She made a mental note to talk to Jaune later and ask him how he managed to calm down his partner, since that sort of advice would probably come in handy with Weiss from time to time.

The petite huntress turned to face her team, smiling brightly and brimming with confidence, "Alright, team. Everybody still knows how to kick it Remnant Style, right?"

Nora giggled and gave Magnhild a few practice swings, completely ignoring Ren's incredulous look as he was forced to dodge his partner's powerful blows, "Yes, ma'am!"

Yang looked over her modified Kinetic Strike Modules. Since Shen's engineers didn't have the time to make a MEC-scaled version of Ember Celica, Yang settled for taking a second rocket fist and allowing the base nerds to attach a pair of Reflex Cannons to them. She only needed to twist her wrists like so, and the shotguns would discharge. The only downside to the addition lay in the fact that her massive hands lacked the dexterity for a reload, and so she had to accept Nora's offer to be her ammo buddy when the cannons ran dry. Yang didn't mind, though: the two of them shared similar views regarding raw power vs. finesse, and Yang knew Nora would have her back no matter what.

"Ready to party, boss."

Ren gave his weapons one final check before stowing them in his sleeves and pooling Aura into his hands, "Ready."

Ruby looked at her partner, "You all set?"

Weiss rotated the revolver chamber on Myrtenaster until a light blue cylinder locked into place. She returned Ruby's look with a grin, "Absolutely."

"Good." Ruby slammed her beloved Crescent Rose into the ground and looked through the weapon's brand-new SCOPE. The sight's active HUD linked with Blake's Battle Scanners and marked the Mechtoid pod patrolling closest to Strike Eight. Two mechs, four Sectoids, and a Commander? Child's play. Ruby lined up her rifle with the Sectoid Commander.

"Let's see how these guys react to Vahlen's latest toy. Four? If you would be so kind as to carpet bomb the squad after I mark the location…"

"Standing by to deliver payload."

Ruby pulled the trigger, and watched her Dust round penetrate the Sectoid Commander. A moment later, the alien glowed a bright white before exploding in a shower of chunked rest of the squad immediately responded to the attack, with the Mechtoids warming up their plasma coils while the Sectoids scurried to hide behind their mechanical bullet sponges.

"Target's marked… or what's left of it, anyway. Toast 'em, Four."

Yang leaned down, and the dual grenade launchers on her back hummed to life. The Devastator's on-board Battle Computer calculated the requisite trajectories and adjusted the MEC platform's firing angle accordingly. Yang cracked a grin when she saw the word 'LOCKED' flash across her HUD, "Raining fire."

The muzzle flash from the two launchers briefly lit up the top of Ruby's hill, and she watched the blinking grenades sail through the air and land directly on top of the Commander's splattered corpse. In a flash of green plasma, three of the four Sectoids fell lifelessly to the ground.

"Vanguard team, move in. Six, provide covering smoke."

Weiss, Blake, Jaune, and Pyrrha began sprinting down the hill. As they raced towards the rattled Mechtoid squad, blasts of pink smoke erupted in front of them. Weiss rode on the back of Blake's frame while their friends from JNPR ran alongside them with shields raised. Plasma burst through Nora's haze all around them as the alien mechanicals made an attempt to return fire. One shot struck Jaune's heater shield dead center, causing the hunter to stumble back from the force of the blow into the safety of one of Nora's clouds. He shook off the jarring effects of the heavy plasma before making an effort to catch up to his teammates.

"Minimal damage." He reported, "Though I'll have to clean the burn marks off my shield after we get back."

The other three reached their targets mere seconds later. Weiss flipped off of Blake's back as her teammate slammed a hardened fist into the first Mectoid, crushing it against the UFO's wall. With a wave and a thrust of Weiss's rapier, a glyph appeared beneath the second mech. The pilot panicked and tried to backpedal, but found its machine's legs to be encased in ice. The remaining Sectoid tried to scamper away, only to have its escape cut off by a red and gold spear impaling itself inches away from its face. Before it even had a chance to reverse directions, Pyrrha's shield struck it square in the head and sent the alien sprawling. The huntress appeared a moment later, magnetically pulling Miló back to her hand before driving it through the Sectoid's chest.

Ruby watched her friends commence melee with the first alien contacts and felt a twinge of envy. It took a great deal of self-control not to pick up Crescent Rose and zip down there into the thick of combat. She reminded herself that having half of the squad stay back to watch for additional alien pods offered a better tactical advantage than ordering everyone to run headlong into close range. From here, she could gather superior intelligence and assess the battle's progression accordingly.

Yang's grenade launchers cycled to prep another pair of explosives for launch while Nora reloaded Magnhild's ammunition. Ruby watched Ren meditate next to Yang, amused that he could remain so calm even as a fight raged down the hill. His calm demeanor vanished instantly, however, and Ruby noticed him tense up. Her mild concern turned into alarm when his eyes shot wide.

"Behind us…" He whispered. In a flash Ren leapt to his feet and pulled StormFlower into his outstretched hands. He flung himself away from where he sat moments ago and unloaded a hail of bullets into the empty space. A Seeker materialized and crashed into the grass from Ren's assault, but quickly recovered and shot forth towards its target. Rather than run away, Ren charged his enemy and dropped into a slide, raking the sharp talons of his weapon along the Seeker's lower extremities as the two moved past each other. The robot's powerful tentacles barely missed Ren and left deep furrows in the ground as it slowed to a halt to turn and face its opponent once more.

Ruby gritted her teeth. Just her luck that a pod of Seekers was onboard the UFO. Why hadn't the Hyperwave Relay picked up on that? Whatever the case, where there was one, there must be others.

"Three!" She said over the intercom, "I need a scanner at my location, ASAP."

"We have a Code Tokyo." Yang helpfully added, eliciting a sigh from her sister.

Within seconds, a small scanner flew up the hill and powered up, revealing five other Seekers. One in particular looked very large and very angry.

"Ooooohhhhh boy, that does not look good."

The seekers swarmed forward. Ren still remained locked in hand-to-tentacle combat with the first contact, leaving the remaining three huntresses to deal with the newcomers. Nora leapt forward and slammed her hammer into the alloyed skull of the lead Seeker, crushing it into the dirt and sending sparks flying. A second capitalized on the sacrifice of its brethren, wrapping a few coiled members around Nora's waist and legs while she remained distracted. It didn't pull her into a suffocating hug, but it kept the surprised huntress immobilized.

"Nora!" Ruby cried. She moved to help, but yelped as plasma fire from the big one forced her to take evasive action instead.

"Let. Go!" Yang's fist connected with the Seeker holding down Nora, her Reflex Cannon discharging at the moment of impact and ejecting wired circuitry through the back of the robot's skull. It's grip on Nora, though loosened, still managed to pull her along as the impact from Yang's fist sent the Seeker sailing through the air.

Ren's fight continued on. The Seeker's four tentacles versus Ren's two meant that his agility was the only thing keeping him from a literally crushing defeat. He dodged over a swipe from two directions, and unloaded a few more bullets into the construct before stabbing it again. A lucky swipe caught him off guard and sent him tumbling before he managed to roll back into a fighting stance. The Seeker flew at him, and Ren jumped high with his legs tucked to his chest. As the target passed beneath him, he delivered an Aura-charged double kick to send it crashing to the ground. He landed on top of his foe and drove StormFlower's twin blades deep into the base of it's neck.

"Four, handle the big one. The rest of us will keep the other two off your back."

"Understood. HEAT Explosives primed and ready."

Ruby zipped over to Nora and helped untangle her friend from the dead Seeker's heavy tentacles. The two of them readied their weapons and assessed the remaining pair of targets. The two robots floated above the fight, searching for an opening to exploit while using the safety of the skies against their enemies' melee weapons.

Nora laughed sadistically, "Hah! Stupid squiddies. Don't they know the first rule of Remnant weapons?" She aimed her newly-shifted grenade launcher into the sky and chambered her first grenade, "It's also a gun, ya dumb metal heads."

Grenades erupted around the fliers while high-velocity sniper rounds smacked into their plated frames. While the concussive blasts from Magnhild successfully knocked the Seekers out of the sky, Ruby noted that her targets were resistant to her Dust-infused bullets.

The Lieutenant keyed her mic while Nora got to work pulverizing the first grounded Seeker, "Note to all operatives: robotic targets seem to be resistant to all types of ballistic attacks, whether they're infused with Dust or not. Use Remnant munitions on soft targets, but switch to Plasma technology otherwise."

A pair of shotgun blasts pulled her attention back to the battle on the hill. Yang's explosives left definitive marks on the armored hide of her foe, but the massive Seeker appeared to be made of sterner stuff than its allies. As it flew in to wrap its tendrils around Yang's frame, the MEC pilot held it off by throwing a punch into its gaping maw and discharging her Reflex Cannon upon impact. She capitalized on the advantage of her momentum and followed up with several more shotgun punches, each one knocking back the giant Seeker as it tried to regain its balance. The tides turned as it managed to wrap one thick member around Yang's arm, and her counter-punch was accompanied by a feeble click.

"Oh hell. Gun's dry." She confirmed, her voice a combination of frustration and apprehension. The Seeker sensed the shift in its opponent's flow, and wrapped its remaining extremities around Yang's MEC with renewed vigor. The appendages tensed, and Ruby got the sense that the only thing stopping the MEC's armor from collapsing was Yang's Aura.

"Central, when was the last time you saw a Seeker latch onto a MEC?" Ruby asked.

"Never." Bradford responded, "Though I've also never seen one quite this big."

"This really hurts." Yang commented dryly. Ruby readied Crescent Rose and leapt up to her sister's aid. Because the Seeker wrapped itself so tightly around Yang's MEC, Ruby couldn't get a clean slice at any of the appendages. However, she did have the opportunity to bury her scythe's tip into one of the arms and discharge plasma into the robot's face at point-blank range.

The Seeker roared in rage and disconnected from the MEC, immediately following with an attempt at wrapping Ruby in a death squeeze. In a flash of rose petals, the young huntress vanished where the Seeker attempted to grab her, instead reappearing in the air above it. With a burst of speed courtesy of Crescent Rose's recoil, Ruby streaked down at the monster and cleaved one of its arms cleanly in half. She backed off and watched Yang close in on the Seeker, her visor glowing a deep red.

As the robot tried to back away from the enraged pilot, Yang stomped down hard and pinned one of the tentacles to the earth. She reached down and grabbed the other two, yanking them in opposite directions while the robot's dense alloys groaned in protest. Yang took her free foot, planted it on the Seeker's neck, and once again pulled hard on the two appendages. With a snap, they ripped free, and the Seeker wailed helplessly at its continued mutilation.

"Nora. Hammertime."

Nora looked up from her latest kill and saluted with a grin, "Batter up!"

Yang gripped the Seeker's last member and used it to swing the robot like a bolas before launching it at her teammate. With a giddy yell, Nora slammed Magnhild into the Seeker's head and sent it flying skyward. Despite the complete lack of a sun anywhere in the sky, Nora shielded her eyes from an imaginary light source as she tracked her victim's progress through the air. Yang, however, had other plans for her friend.

"Nora. Fastball Special."

Ruby sighed, "Four, you know very well that Rule 24- aaaaaaaaand there she goes."

She watched the now-airborne Nora rapidly catch up to the soaring Seeker, raise her hammer, and send the crumbled remains of the robot back to Earth with a massive explosion. A few angled grenade blasts later, and Nora neatly landed next to Yang, a wide smile playing across her face.

"Oh man, I don't know what the Doc put in that Elerium Dust, but it is totally awesome!"

Ruby couldn't help but return Nora's energy with a smile of her own. The Seekers taken care of, she returned her attention to the battle below while Nora set about reloading Yang's shotguns. Blake reduced her Mechtoid target to a pulverized mass of twisted metal, and Ruby saw the Pathfinder helping the other three take down the second pilot. Pyrrha wielded Miló in its rifle form and used it to pepper the Mechtoid's face plate with Dust rounds, forcing the pilot into a protective stance and leaving it exposed to an offensive by Weiss and Blake. The former continued to drastically reduce the alien's mobility with ice glyphs while the latter seized the opportunity to pelt it with punches.

As she scanned the surrounding area, Ruby noted a small herd of Mutons stomping around one side of the UFO towards the engagement and a squad of Floaters flying in over the top.

"New contacts inbound, Vanguard." She warned, "Mutons from the left and fliers from above. You should wrap up with that Mechtoid and- CONTACTS ON THE RIGHT."

Ruby's heart skipped a beat when a squad of Thin Men appeared from literally nowhere, Plasma Rifles raised and aimed at her friends. In the split-second before they fired, Pyrrha immediately turned to face the threat with Akoúo̱ raised to defend herself while Blake finished off the Mechtoid. Her metal plating would be enough to easily shrug off any damage from the ambush, but Ruby worried about Weiss. Her partner spent a lot of stamina supporting Blake and possessed no shield of her own. Out of the four members of the Vanguard team, Weiss found herself in a legitimately bad position. As the highly-accurate infiltrators fired their first salvo at the team, Jaune leapt to the rescue.

Because he lacked any way to provide ranged support against the Mechtoid, he found himself unable to help and was forced watch the one-sided fight play out. As a result, he had the time to notice his friend's vulnerability and react to the Thin Man squad. Jaune slid in front of Weiss with his shield raised as plasma slammed into XCOM steel and Remnant plating. A few stray shots struck the hunter's exposed legs, and Ruby saw him wince through her scope.

"I'm alright, but that really burns." He said through gritted teeth, "Seems like Plasma isn't completely ineffective against Aura."

"Sounds like we might have to wear protective armor after all." Ruby answered, suppressing a sigh as she sniped her first target with an Elerium round, "At least you're okay."

Ruby silently signaled for her three squadmates to counterattack the Mutons and Floaters while the Vanguard team dealt with the Thin Men. Nora and Ren dashed down the hill while Yang primed two more grenades. Below, Pyrrha and Blake returned fire on their smartly-dressed foes. The Thin Men ambushed the operatives from good cover, but Pyrrha needed little more than a well-placed Dust round to kill one. Blake's Particle Cannon fired shot after shot at the concrete cover shielding her targets, and the aliens soon found themselves in need of better positions.

A clockwork glyph glowed beneath Jaune's feet, and he felt a surge of energy rush through his body. He turned back and saw Weiss smiling. If he didn't know any better, he would've guessed she genuinely appreciated his help against the surprise attack.

"Don't forget that they detonate when killed in melee." She advised him, "Run quickly."

Jaune didn't need to be told twice. With Crocea Mors at the ready, he zipped towards the Thin Men while the world around him moved at a snail's pace. He reached the first one and sent it flying with a shield bash. Without losing step, he shifted direction towards the second. He skewered it through the stomach before yanking his sword out and stepping into a spin that finished off the alien with a clean decapitation. Jaune wasted no time in sprinting to get clear of the impending explosion, and he slashed the third alien as he dashed to safety. Seconds later, the wood and dirt behind him vaporised in a green flash of plasma.

The first Thin Man stood up, dazed from Jaune's attack, only to get pinned against a tree with Pyrrha's spear through its throat while Blake blasted the third with a powerful shot from her Particle Cannon. Pyrrha swiftly advanced under the cover of her shield as her spear returned magnetically to her grip. Weapons at the ready, she confirmed that all targets had been taken care of.

"Actual, the Thin Men have been dealt with. What's the status on the other contacts?"

"Six is keeping the Mutons suppressed with explosive fire while Eight is distracting the Floaters. Recommend Two and Five engage the football team while Three and Six get to the roof."

Two months ago, and Jaune would have been over the moon at the prospect of getting paired up with Weiss. Now, all he could think of was that Ruby's choices seemed tactically sound to him. He used his jeans to wipe the alien blood of of Crocea Mors before running back to regroup with Weiss. On his way, he saw Pyrrha jump up onto Blake's back, and he gave her a confident smile when they locked eyes.

"I don't know what Vahlen did to you," Weiss started when he caught up with her, "But it's good to see you finally hitting your stride. Ready to gut some Mutons?"

Jaune gave his sword a few test swings before grinning, "Do I get to slow down time again?"

"Unfortunately not. That glyph in particular is quite taxing. It was my way of saying 'thanks for bailing me out.' "

The duo dashed towards the sounds of exploding grenades and angry aliens.

"You'll have line of sight once you round the UFO's edge." Ruby advised them, "Of course, this means they'll have line of sight on you as well."

"Understood, boss." Jaune and Weiss slid into cover next to Nora, who greeted them with a wink.

"Welcome to the party, kiddos! We've got six bad guys over that-a-way. How do you want to handle it?"

Weiss took a quick peek around the edge of their cover. Thanks to the sounds of the Mutons grunting and Ruby's occasional suppressive shot, Weiss gained a pretty clear idea of where the aliens dug themselves in. She rejoined Jaune and Nora to lay out her plan, "I think our best bet is to go in hard and fast. Jaune is strictly melee-"

"… Don't remind me." He interjected with a sigh. Jaune, while very happy to wield Crocea Mors into combat, felt a little naked without his Plasma Dragon. His first taste of a firearm made him realize just how much he needed a ranged option for his hunter loadout. Obviously, a Light Machine Gun would be too bulky to be an efficient addition, but he needed something.

"- and I'm sure you're aching to break some legs." Weiss continued, "The issue is getting in close without getting fried by plasma, though I may have a solution to that."

She keyed her mic and asked Yang, "Four, you up for some Freezerburn?"

"You know it, babe."

"Who you calling 'babe,' Four?" Blake asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know? Ready to bring the heat when you are, Two."

"I'll keep them suppressed while you're casting." Ruby added, and a barrage of bullets from Crescent Rose kept the Mutons pinned down shortly thereafter.

Weiss stepped out of cover, coated Myrtenaster in blue Dust, and slammed it into the ground. Ice began to solidify around the point of impact and rapidly grew outward towards the ducking Mutons. Her ice field finished, Weiss withdrew her sword and dropped back into cover.

"Four?"

"Here comes the Grim Reaper."

Once more, Yang's launchers fired, and the two explosives arced towards the point of impact. At the apex of their flight, Jaune watched them explode in midair. He was about to say something, but the blast of sixteen micro rockets carpet-bombing the clearing cut him off. The three hunters ran out from cover, Jaune leading the charge with his shield at the ready. Overhead, Ruby continued to rain down sniper fire as her friends closed to melee range.

Nora kicked things off with a bang, as usual. Magnhild came down on the first victim, blasting the alien muton sideways into its partner and sending the pair towards Jaune. The knight yelped in surprise and ducked under the flying Mutons before plunging his sword into the face of a third peeking out from behind its cover. Weiss's revolver switched from blue to a light amber, and pulsing energy ran along the length of her rapier. With practiced agility, she leapt forward and slashed a fourth Muton as she passed. The gash she left behind glowed white before gibbing the alien's arm entirely.

Yang let out a low whistle, "The Doc sure worked a miracle with that Elerium Dust, didn't she?"

"Told you!" Nora yelled back.

Like a bear chasing after her prey, Nora pounced on her initial victims. The first one's helmet flattened with a sickening crunch under the force of Nora's hammer while the second swung its gun around to shoot the huntress at point blank range. Before it had the chance, Magnhild exploded once again and sent Nora flying back to safety while knocking the Muton off-balance long enough for Weiss to blast it in the back with an Elerium bolt. A roar from behind caused the two huntresses to turn and watch Jaune unleash an unrelenting flurry of sword blows against one of the remaining aliens. Most of his strikes glanced off the Muton's armor, but the alien kept backpedaling in the face of Jaune's assault.

Its partner properly distracted, Nora and Weiss focused on the last Muton of the pack. The former leapt high into the air while the latter charged down low. The Muton, in a last-ditch effort to remain alive, deployed its defensive shield. Weiss, having no means to quickly get passed the new cover, kicked off of it and flipped away to clear Nora's blast zone. Sure enough, her teammate dropped the hammer and sent the Muton sprawling from the blow. Her target now vulnerable, Weiss ran in and riddled the alien's back with innumerable lacerations. A gurgled wail marked the end of Jaune's fight as well.

"Actual, this is Two. Mutons have been dealt with."

"Three reporting. Floaters are down."

"Fantastic!" Ruby said, "And we managed to pull them all out from inside the UFO, leaving more material intact for the salvage team. Let's regroup and perform one final sweep before calling it in and heading back to the Skyranger."

Even if a few modifications would be necessary to combat the alien technology, Ruby realized she hadn't felt this happy in months. Finally, she could show those stupid aliens what a Remnant huntress was really capable of. And if they knew what was good for them, they'd run back to whatever hole in space they crawled out of before coming to Earth.