Chapter 21

Ruby rubbed her eyes and waited patiently. She had been up since four in the morning collecting supplies for their mission, including all new camping equipment, a new propane stove, wet weather gear, dry weather gear, and cold weather gear since she remembered how the climate of the North Coast could change suddenly and without whim or warning. It was about nine-thirty, later than she wanted to leave, but she understood it was a Monday, and not even the retired Valean Army General she had borrowed some equipment from wanted to get up as early as she did. She stared up at the side of the residence building, eyeing her way up to the top of the roof where she had instructed Raven to start her morning the usual way.

By jumping off the roof.

"C'mon, Rae… this time…"

From the far end of the parking lot, she could only barely see the figure at the edge of the roof jump from it, and a flutter of black feathers followed it down. As the feathers dispersed, she saw the little black bird swoop down from the building, cruising towards her with a fair bit of speed. Ruby sniffled and stood up, grabbing the blanket she was sitting on and opening it in her arms. She caught eyes with the bird, who locked in on her, twisting its tail to reorient itself in the air and hoved closer with both speed and precision.

"You got this, Rae. Show me…" she put a foot back and prepared for impact. "...A clothed roommate!"

A metre before impact, the bird exploded into a flurry of feathers again, and Ruby closed her eyes to avoid getting any poked into them, again. All one hundred and seventy five pounds of her partner slammed into her chest at close to a hundred kilometres an hour, knocking the wind clear from her lungs and pushing her back on her feet.

"Oof!" she tried, barely able to stay upright.

She wrapped her arms around Raven and covered her with the blanket, and set her back down on her feet. It took a moment for her partner to get her bearings again, but when she did, she took the blanket in her own hands and stood up straight, keeping herself completely covered from the chin down. Ruby grinned.

"Nice landing."

"Eh, I've done better."

"Yeah, but we stayed upright this time. You're getting better at flying, I think."

Raven chuckled to herself.

"Yeah, it's… much more intuitive than I thought it would be."

"Maybe you've always been a bird, masquerading as a person."

The tall woman shrugged.

"Well, I've never laid any eggs, so I doubt it. But I suspect my brother might have started life as an avian."

Ruby laughed.

"Why, you've seen him lay an egg?"

"Next best thing, I've seen him preen himself. He has this nervous twitch where he chews at his arm hair instead of his nails."

"Yeah, that's pretty weird, I'll be honest."

"Honey, you ain't seen nothin' yet."

They snickered for a second, and Ruby put her hands on her hips with a sigh.

"Right, clothes. How'd you fare?"

"I'm a little scared to check."

She shrugged.

"Let me peek, then."

Raven rolled her eyes, but pulled the blanket open just a hair, revealing the black lace of one of her straps over her shoulder. They sighed together.

"Nope, just my underwear." Raven paused and looked all the way down her front. "And my boots and socks, apparently."

"That's definitely progress, I think."

"At least my girly bits are covered this time."

Ruby scratched the side of her nose.

"Hey, uh, slightly related question, why are you wearing lace? We're going on a mission."

"You said dress comfortably, this is the most comfortable underwear I own."

"True, but you're not going to sweat very well in that."

"Oh, yeah. Guess not."

"Don't worry, I thought of this, so I packed your duffel bag for you. Tai's bringing it down in a few."

Raven raised her eyebrows.

"That would explain why it was already packed. You really are on top of things."

"I try my best." she grabbed the small bundle of clothes at her feet. "Here, go put this on."

"Cool, thanks."

She watched her partner disappear behind a particularly thick tree for a few moments. Ruby could hear the telltale sounds of someone, namely Raven, trying to force their feet through pant legs without removing their boots. To be fair, she didn't blame her. Raven's recently-purchased combat boots took a good five minutes to lace up each, so taking them off just to put a pair of pants on was a longer task than she figured was necessary.

"Hey, Mere?"

Ruby looked over at the tree.

"Yeah?"

"What exactly is this you've given me?"

"Mechanic's coveralls. Keeps the grease and grime out."

"Alright. Why's it so itchy, though?"

Ruby smirked.

"It's wool. Wool keeps the heat in better, and doesn't freeze when it's wet."

"Are these antique?"

"Yes, ma'am. Original Great-War era."

"This shirt, too?"

"No, that's off the shelf. Didn't want you to sweat yourself to death."

"Fair."

After a few moments, her partner returned from around the back of the tree, the extra-large set of coveralls pulled up her legs like pants and tied off around her waist, leaving the grey Krieg-brand breathable t-shirt exposed. Ruby eyed her up and down, impressed by how just about anything looked good on her partner.

"There, that's alright, eh? Not too loose on you?"

"It's not bad." Raven rubbed her nose. "Kinda wish I was wearing pants underneath. These feel like they're gonna chafe."

"Trust me, you won't wish that once we get moving. I'm not wearing pants under my coveralls."

"Yeah, you hardly wear pants anyways."

She chuckled and smacked her partner.

"Shut up, Raven."

"Ack!" Raven giggled, recoiling. "Nice jacket, by the way."

Ruby beamed, brushing off her shoulders.

"Thank you. It's my Officer's Greatcoat. This was kinda expensive, but it's very comfortable."

"So why do you get to wear the Officer's clothes?"

"...Because I'm the team leader, and technically that would make me a Commissioned Officer, since I have a Commission, that's you and the boys, under my authority."

Raven scratched her temple and picked at her teeth with her tongue.

"That's a fair answer actually. Speaking of, where are the boys?"

"Tai should be down in a few minutes with the bags, and you left Qrow up on the roof to jump next."

"Oh yeah, I told him to wait for your signal."

Ruby shrugged and looked back to the dormitories, where sure enough, there was another figure up on the roof of the building.

"Grab the blanket, will you, Rae?"

"Got it."

Ruby stuck her fingers in the sides of her mouth, and tried to whistle.

"Whhhhhhhhhhffff," she paused. "Shit. Hang on. Whhhhhfffffffff"

"Having trouble?"

Ruby frowned at her own hands.

"Yeah, apparently. I used to be good at this."

"Want me to do it?"

"Go for it."

Raven grinned and stuck her index finger and thumb between her teeth. She let out a piercing whistle that must have cut through the valley like an air-raid siren that lasted a good twenty seconds or more.

"Holy shit, Rae. How the hell did you do that?"

"It's just practice, Summer. Remember. Bandit tribe. Gotta be able to alert your allies."

"You'll alert the enemy too, whistling like that."

"The benefit outweighs the price, we found. Kay, hold on, here he comes."

Another bird came swooping down from the top of the building, at a significantly higher clip than Raven had used. Ruby stepped slightly aside in case the collision sent the twins flying. Raven bumped back her stance, holding the blanket out in front of her to catch her brother. She saw her nose crinkle for a moment, and a brief twinge of pain flashed on her face.

"Y'alright?" Ruby asked. The bird was almost on top of them

"I'm fine, I just- ack!"

Raven's left leg suddenly collapsed from under her and she fell sideways, out of the path of the bird, which sailed over her body with force. They both turned just in time for the bird to turn back into Qrow and watched him slam head-first into a tree trunk. He fell to the ground like a sack of bricks, crumbling into a heap of pain and groaning. Ruby hadn't even had time to laugh before he stumbled to his feet, an angry look on his face and only his boxers and cape on his body.

"I thought you were gonna catch me!" he roared, out of breath.

"My leg cramped up! I fell over!" Raven shouted back, climbing back to her feet.

"Sure, sure! You just wanted me to hurt myself!"

"I didn't!" she turned to Ruby. "It was an accident! Summer'll vouch for me!"

Ruby put her hands up.

"Hey, don't drag me into this. But yeah, she genuinely fell over, I think."

Qrow crossed his arms, a frumpy look on his face.

"Now you're both against me!"

Ruby threw her arms up in the air.

"I'm not against you! Where's your stupid partner?"

"I'm right here." came a voice from over her shoulder. "Are those mine?"

Ruby turned around to see Taiyang, dressed in the grey coveralls she had given him, walking leisurely over with three duffel bags hung over his well-bolstered shoulders. He was chewing gum, and had his hat on a non-approved direction with the bill facing backwards. Ruby frowned, but didn't have time to retort as he pointed over at Qrow.

"Are what yours?" Qrow questioned.

"Those boxers. Pretty sure they're mine."

Ruby's eyebrows perked up.

"I dunno what you're talking about."

"See, I put a set out on the computer chair last night in preparation for today, and I'm pretty sure they looked like that, and funnily enough they were missing off the chair this morning."

"These are mine, they were in my drawer."

"What's the inside of the waistband say?"

"I'm not gonna show you that!"

Taiyang stopped walking and let the bags fall off his shoulder. With a crick of his neck, he rolled up the coverall sleeves to show off the well-defined biceps and the still-healing armband tattoo wrapped in cling film.

"Oh yeah? You wanna bet on that?"

"Alright, fine, I took them off the chair, just don't hurt me."

Tai stepped forward and directed his pointing finger at Qrow, his bulging, muscly arm ending up right in Ruby's face. It was hard to not stare at, and to not watch the veins in his bicep contort and engorge as he clearly flexed his superiority in his partner's direction.

"Then you better take them the fuck off," he said, smile never wavering. "Before I come over there, and pull them off."

Raven stepped in and grabbed him by the forearm. Gently. Ruby noticed the god-like restraint she had to not run her fingers up and down Tai's well-built arm.

"Tai, just let him wear them. He's a stupid idiot moron, and he knows better. Just- just let him wear them for today, I'll make sure he wears his own tomorrow."

"But those are my favourite pair, Raven. They're the softest ones. They're micro-modal… whatever the hell that is."

"I think it's bamboo, Summer makes me buy the same stuff. I'm sure there's an outlet store we can go to on the way to buy some more. Right, Mere?"

Ruby nodded, finally back in the conversation.

"For sure, we're gonna have to stop for lunch and dinner anyway. Alright, if you children are done arguing about undergarments, we'll go for breakfast now, then we'll go get the truck and the AA gun, and we'll hit the road. We all cool with that?"

"I'm cool." Raven said, picking up her bag.

"I'm down my favourite pair of underwear, but I'm cool." Tai said, rolling his sleeves down and grabbing his bag.

Ruby looked to Qrow, still buck-naked save for the underwear and cape.

"Alright, fine. I swear you guys have it in for me."

/.../

"Alright, boys, mount up."

They approached the brown-green truck sitting patiently in the shade, its canvas cargo cover flapping gently in the breeze. The gun attached to the pintle hitch was nearly the size of the truck itself, and was covered by a large burlap sheet that clung to the long barrel.

"What the hell is this, Summer?" Raven asked, coming to a stop next to the side of the truck.

"Our wheels for the next week. And our armament for the mission."

"The hell kinda gun is that?!"

Ruby gleamed and skipped to the gun, mounted to its wagon carriage on very non-original highway tires.

"This, ladies and gents, is the venerable BoFors forty-millimetre auto-cannon, mounted on an anti-air platform. These guns are so good, they've been in constant service for the past eighty years in all theatres of conflict. All sides use them, and all partitions of the armed forces use them. They're fitted as tank guns, anti-tank guns, gunship cannons, soft target cannons on battleships, anti-aircraft guns like this one, and as fortification emplacements on army bases and secure facilities."

"Damn, eighty years, really?" Raven put her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, the BoFors corporation really uh, wanted to make money. Basically it's an upscaled twenty-millimetre auto cannon that they were already making, and it's not like it got any less effective over the years. You can't really do better than twelve and a half kilometres of effective firing range."

"Holy shit."

"And when the bullets explode at the end of that distance, who cares if you're even close to accurate. You'll see when we pull the cover off, the sights are more of a suggestion than a useful tool, especially with how fast this thing fires."

"Cool," the tall woman strode alongside the truck attached to the cannon. "This the same vintage?"

Ruby nodded and skipped along beside her.

"Little younger, seventy-three years old."

"Why's it so ugly?" Qrow interrupted.

Ruby shot him a glare.

"It's an army truck, it doesn't have to be pretty."

Raven continued, walking around to the front.

"Is the steering wheel on the wrong side?"

"It's on the right side, Rae."

Her partner paused and rolled her eyes.

"You know what I meant, why is it on that side, aren't you supposed to drive on the other side of the vehicle?"

"Well, not this vehicle. This is called a Valean Military Pattern truck, or VMP. They were exported to Vacuo during the Great War, where our allies drive on the left side of the road, with the steering wheel on the right side of their cars. So the trucks that were designed and built here have their steering wheels on the right side to accommodate the market they were being sent to."

"Oh. So, if it was exported, why is this one back here?"

"After this truck served its time as a Light Anti-Aircraft Tractor, or LAAT, it served as a relief supply truck following the end of the war. When the relief effort was over, it was brought back to the North Coast and sold surplus to a farmer who used it as a grain truck for forty years, before making its way into the hands of a friend of mine, a retired Valean General who restores these old VMP trucks."

Raven blinked a few times in disbelief.

"And he just let you have it?"

"Well, yeah. I explained to him what I was doing, who I was, who I worked for, and what I needed it for. He was happy to lend it to me, on the condition that it come back in one piece with a full tank of fuel. I assured him I could."

"Right. And this was your first choice to tow an AA gun up to the North Coast?"

"Yeah, absolutely. This is the correct truck for this gun. I mean, sure we could get there a little faster if I had rented a modern dump truck or something, but this will still go reasonably fast for what it is."

Raven crossed her arms and smirked.

"How fast is 'fast', sunshine?"

"Eh, about fifty miles an hour. That's eighty kilometres per hour. The truck's gauge is in imperial."

"Better than I thought."

"It's gonna be loud, though." Ruby confessed.

Raven's smirk drifted to a frown.

"How loud?"

"Why don't we hop in and find out? You boys get in the back, there's a pair of seats up by the cab and radio communication headsets so you can talk to us. C'mon, hop in."

With a clap of her hands, they all diverged to their assigned positions, Tai and Qrow ascending the bumper into the back of the truck, and her partner circling around the front to the left-side door. Ruby climbed up the right side steps and pulled open her door, slipping her fingers inside the little leather flap on the window to access the latch. The seating position was extremely weird, as the footwell was only wide enough for two pedals, meaning the gas pedal, which was more a button than a pedal, was positioned below the brake and clutch instead of to the right of them. She adjusted herself in the canvas seat and tried to get comfortable again as Raven knocked gently on the window on her side. Ruby looked over.

"How the hell do I get in?"

"Oh, the latch is on the inside of the door, lift the flap."

"Oh, neat." she said, following the directions and slipping inside the wide, all steel cab. "This is a nice truck for how old it is."

"Yeah." Ruby said, waiting patiently for her partner to notice the glaring issue with the inside of the truck. It didn't take too long.

"Uh." Raven said, pausing as she looked at the area between the seats. "...Is that the engine?"

"Yes it is, the Sanus flathead V8, ninety-five horsepower of fury right there."

"Cool, but uh, my question was more 'why is the engine in the cab with us and not under the hood'?"

Ruby reached over and grabbed the can of starting fluid that was up on the dashboard.

"Well, you see Raven, the design of this truck placed the cab directly over the engine, which allowed the cargo bed to be longer on a short wheelbase truck compared to the standard long nose style trucks of the era."

Raven frowned at the motor.

"Again, cool, but shouldn't there be something, oh I don't know, covering the engine? I can see the ground through the middle of the cab."

"Yeah, there is supposed to be a cowl covering it."

"Why is it not?"

Ruby reached over and started to unwind the wingnut on the top of the air breather.

"She developed a bit of a fueling issue on my way from the restoration shop, and it was more convenient for me to just take it off so I could more easily access the carburetor to smack it with a screwdriver."

"What the hell does that do?"

Ruby paused.

"It's a long explanation, but it does fix the problem. Here, hold this, and don't tip it over, it's full of oil."

She pulled off the truck's breather assembly and handed it to her partner, and proceeded to spray most of the can of starting fluid directly down the carburetor. Satisfied, she capped the can and stuffed it under her seat, and pulled out the two pairs of ear defenders stashed there. She handed one pair to Raven, who smirked.

"These don't look period correct."

Ruby chuckled.

"Shut up, Raven. Just put them on, or you'll go deaf."

The woman did as instructed, pulling on the bright yellow defenders over her ears and seating them so they blocked out the noise of the outside world. Ruby did the same, and reached up through the wooden steering wheel and flicked on the ignition.

"Okay, CONTACT!"

She grabbed the starter lever and pushed it forward, engaging the starter motor and turning on the solenoid. The huge six-volt starter groaned as it turned the septuagenarian engine over and over, coughing out its skinny exhaust pipe. Ruby pulled out the choke lever and pumped the weird gas button on the floor, and coaxed the V8 to finally fire up. And when it did, they were both nearly knocked out of their seats by the noise it made.

"Holy shit, it's loud!" Raven yelled from her side of the cab.

"This is just idle speed! Wait 'till we're moving! Put the air cleaner back on!" Ruby shouted back.

"Okay!"

Raven did as instructed, and Ruby turned her attention to the bank of switches on the dash. She had already forgotten which ones did what, as the labels had fallen off years ago, and just elected to flip all of them to the on position. She saw the idiot light flicker on to tell her her headlights and taillights were on, and left it at that.

"Alright! We're good to go!"

"There aren't seatbelts, are there?!"

"This truck predates seatbelts!"

"What do we do if we crash, then?!"

"We're loaded with three tonnes of ammunition, head trauma or a broken neck is the least of our problems if we crash!"

"Oh!"

"We'll be fine, I just won't crash!"

"Okay, I trust you!"

Ruby laughed, inaudible over the din of the motor, and grabbed the forward-leaning gearstick with her left hand and forced the heavy clutch to the floor. She wiggled the stick for a moment, pushing it into where first gear should have been, but got only a loud grinding noise and a terrible vibration back up through the stick and up her arm.

"It's there somewhere…"

She pulled it into second, then ground it back into first, where it finally engaged.

"There we go! Hold on to your hat!"

She let up slowly on the clutch, feeling the antique truck start to roll forward and pick up the inch of slack in the towing eye with a loud bang of metal on metal. As soon as she was rolling, she planted her foot to the floorboards and wrung the engine out to its governor, managing a measly ten miles per hour through the parking lot.

"Holy fuck! You weren't kidding!"

Raven's yell was barely audible over the colossal sound of the engine. Without their ear defenders on, the one hundred and twenty-nine decibels of engine noise would make them deaf in a matter of seconds. She let off and changed up into second gear, having to grind the transmission a little as the unsynchronized unit was far, far less forgiving than the one in her SUV.

"Yeah!"

Summer!"

Ruby looked over. Raven was pointing down into the engine hole.

"What's up?!"

"There's fire coming out the side of the motor!"

Ruby chuckled and glanced down to the exhaust manifold. There was in fact, fire coming out between the manifold and the block. Not a lot, but it was definitely there.

"It's external combustion!"

"Is it safe?!"

"Do I look worried?!"

Raven grimaced a little, but lightened up quickly.

"I guess that's fair!"

Ruby smiled and pointed the antique truck towards the parking lot exit. She subconsciously reached for the turn signal lever under the steering wheel, even though there wasn't one as they approached the end of the parking lot where it met the road. As her foot left the accelerator and reached up for the antique non-assisted brakes, the engine boomed and backfired up through the carburetor, filling the cab with plumes of white smoke.

"Shit! Hit the-!"

The engine choked out, out of fuel, and they rolled to a stop halfway turned onto the road. Ruby paused and brushed her bangs out of her eyes and back behind her ear and the ear defender strap. She glanced over at her partner, who looked back at her through the hazy cab.

"Okay, when you hear it make that noise, smack your side of the carb with that screwdriver there."

Raven nodded and grabbed the instructed tool, and did as she said, making a dull ringing on the aluminum part.

"So what does this actually do?"

"Unsticks the float."

Raven blinked back at her.

"Uh, yeah, that doesn't help."

Ruby brushed her off and fiddled with the choke position lever under the dash.

"There's a floating piece of plastic that controls the flow of fuel into the carburetor that's getting stuck in the up, or closed, position. Smacking it with a screwdriver gets it to fall back down and open up, giving the engine more gas."

"Can't you fix it?"

"Oh, absolutely I can, but that means taking the carb apart, and that takes like an hour. We're meeting Glynda and her team for this mission up in Cairn, they're up there doing some Junior Detectiving with the highway patrol. We're gonna grab them there and go up to the North Coast together."

Raven scratched her head, adjusting her ear defenders.

"Cairn, eh? That's what… seven hours away?"

"Yeah, we'll meet them for dinner. I'll rebuild the carb over dinner, there's an overhaul kit in the toolbox on the front bumper."

"So seven hours of this shit, huh?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Can I open the roof hatch to let the smoke out?"

"Please do."

Ruby pushed the starter lever forward again and pumped the gas button, firing the old truck back into life, and waited for her partner to sit back down again.

"Summer, there's a machine gun up here!"

Ruby laughed and ground the old truck back into gear and pulled them out onto the road, getting slowly and deafeningly up to speed. Her partner finally got the hatch to stay latched open and slid her long body back into the seat.

"Yeah, it's a .303 Bren! It's really just for show, but it does work! That ammo's hard to find, but I managed to scrounge up three hundred rounds!"

"I mean why is there a machine gun up there?!"

"Intimidation!"

"We're pulling an anti-aircraft gun!"

"That's not scary unless you're an aircraft, a machine gun is scary all the time!"

Raven seemed to mull this over in her head for a second, before shrugging and giving in.

"Alright!"

"Hold on! We're gonna be here a while!"

"Okay!"

"If you wanna listen to music, push the little button on the outside of your right ear cup, it's BlueTeethed to my phone already!"

Her partner did as instructed, fiddling with her button and waiting for the music. Ruby pulled out her phone from the pocket of her greatcoat and pressed the play button on the screen before handing it across the cab to Raven, who took it gently. Ruby reached up and turned her ear defenders on as well, and was immediately pleased by the opening to 'Fat Bottomed Girls'. She glanced over to Raven, a little embarrassed.

"Nice choice!"

Ruby's cheeks flushed.

"Thank you, this song reminds me of you!"

"Hey!"

She laughed.

/.../

It was dark, and the six-volt headlights barely illuminated the highway in front of them, like fireflies in mason jars. But it was enough to see forward, and that's where she was going. Taiyang was in the passenger seat now, having traded with Qrow only an hour before, and had his feet up on the windshield frame after having swung his window panel outward to give himself some air. This was a much needed reprieve from the smoky air that had been the norm since the morning. The only good parts had been after dinner when Ruby had finished rebuilding the sticky carb and put the cowl back on the engine, giving them some privacy from the flame-spitting lump. She turned to her passenger.

"We should be getting close! How far are we from the turn off!?"

Tai, somehow in the process of a snooze in the thunderous cab, woke up and looked over.

"Whassat?!"

"I said 'How far are we from the turn off?!' You have the map on my phone!"

"Oh, hold on!"

Tai sat up straight and grabbed her phone off the top of the cowl, where it had vibrated a square of brown paint off just from the few hours of contact. He picked it up and turned it on, spinning it in his hands until he could read the screen properly.

"Like a kilometre, and it's on your left!"

"Thank you!"

Ruby let off the gas and let the big truck coast, the weight of the AA gun pushing them along down the road. Without turn signals, it was hard to let people around her know of her intentions, and clearly the flashing of high beams in her rearwiew mirror indicated that the person behind her didn't appreciate not knowing what was going on. It wasn't her fault she had a top speed of eighty. That was the speed limit anyway. This impatient person had squeezed their car in between the gun and Glynda's team, and was now staring directly at a sign that read 'Right Hand Drive Vehicle, No Turn Signals', yet was still upset somehow. Ruby ignored them and looked for the opening in the fence along the left side of the road. She saw the gate loom into view, and fed in the brakes to bring the truck to a slow roll, having to fight and double-clutch into the lower gears.

"Can you squawk Glynda on the radio, get her to open the gate for us?!"

"I got it!"

Tai grabbed the radio off the floor of the cab and flipped it on.

"Big G, can you pull alongside and get the gate for us, over?!"

There was a pause.

PSHHT "Yeah, no problem."

Ruby slowed the truck to a crawl, fighting it back into first gear. She barely could see in the sideview mirror a pair of headlights pull out into the oncoming lane and pull around both the angry tailgater and the gun, driving up alongside them and steering towards the gate. Ruby stopped, ignoring the horn blaring behind her, and waited for Bart to climb out of the passenger seat of the HJ60 Ruby had leant to Glynda and her team. She fought with the truck's seventy-three year old four-wheel-drive lever for a second, grinding it back into low range with a lot more effort than was normal for her own truck. With the gate finally open, she waited for Glynda to drive her SUV through and pull off to the side, before carefully crawling the big VMP truck forward and cranking the huge non-assisted steering wheel around to the left, having to fight the crabbing action from having all four of the truck's off-road tires biting into the pavement. She barely missed the left side of the gate with the gun trailer, as the passenger side mirror was no bigger than a postage stamp and wasn't exactly pointed in the right direction. Once she was through the gate, she heard an angry squeal of tires and some more horn blaring as the angry driver took off into the night.

"Alright, it might get a little rough!"

"I can handle a little ro-"

At that moment, the front passenger side tire fell into a rut in the dirt road, made by a much larger and much heavier truck. It wasn't so much as he was bounced out of his seat, but the roof of the truck came down to meet his head, bouncing him back into his seat, which then launched him right back up into the ceiling again. It was lucky she had a steering wheel to hold on to, or Ruby was sure she'd have done the same.

"-Ow!" he managed after scrambling back to his butt.

"Watch yourself! I said it would be rough!"

"Maybe drive around the bumps!"

"Aw, but that's no fun!"

Tai grumbled and grabbed his seat frame and held on for dear life as she pointed the old truck at a particularly rocky-looking incline. It was hard to tell in the dark, but she figured the truck could climb it. Forty-five inch tall tires tended to climb whatever you pointed them at, regardless of how much weight they were bringing with them. Besides, trucks like this one towed guns like this one up this very hill seventy-three years before during the Great War, so what's to say it couldn't do it now? She held her foot onto the small, funky accelerator button and trusted the extra-low gearing to not tear the truck to pieces as she felt the front end start to hop on the rocks.

"Hold on tight!"

"Don't kill us, please!"

Ruby laughed and gripped down, bouncing erratically as the truck gripped and bucked its way through the rocky hill, spitting watermelon-sized rocks out behind the tires and into the front fenders of the gun carriage. It was a struggle, especially with less than a hundred horsepower and something to the effect of eleven tonnes of total weight, but they made it, cresting the top of the hill to find a well-lit grassy plateau covered with anti-aircraft guns and siege mortars as far as the eye could see in both directions. She spotted a young-looking woman in a corporal's uniform holding a clipboard, who turned to see her coming and waved her through to an empty patch of grass near the middle of the wide field. Ruby waved back and pointed herself into the requested spot and finally, after ten solid hours of noise, shut the truck off. She took a second to breathe.

"There we are. We've arrived."

"What do we do now?" Tai asked, sitting up straight and pulling his ear defenders off.

"Now, we set up camp and go the fuck to sleep."

"Oh, let me tell you, I'm ready for that."

"C'mon."

Ruby fell sideways out of the cab, barely landing on her feet with her boots facing the correct direction. Her joints were in anguish from the seating position, and she tried her best to stretch them back out to the correct shape. The young Corporal approached, and Ruby made sure to smile and shake hands, like her dad was always telling her to do. Funny thing, since Taiyang was literally standing next to her.

"Hi, good evening," she said, remembering to use a firm grip. "Sorry we're so late, it was a long drive. My name is Summer Rose, this is my team, we're from Beacon Academy."

"Thank you for coming along, My name is Corporal Cordovin, welcome to the North Coast."

Ruby squinted, and eyed the girl's platinum blond hair and sharp cheekbones. She was awfully familiar.

"You wouldn't happen to be related to a Major General Cordovin of the Altlesian Artillery, would you?"

The young Corporal nodded.

"That would be my aunt Carol. You know her?"

Ruby did her best to not show disdain.

"I know of her. I've worked in conjunction with her in the...past."

"Oh, small world, huh?"

"Too small. Who are we reporting to while we're here?"

Corporal Cordovin tapped her clipboard to her chest and looked around.

"Well, I'm in charge of the volunteers and of B battery, which is this stretch of guns here, but since you're Huntsmen in training, I guess you should be reporting to General Bishop, up in the command tent."

Ruby nodded, seeing the expansive green tent about a kilometre to the west.

"Any other school teams here?"

"Two from Shade, Two from Menagerie Prep, three from Atlas, and one from Haven."

"Cool, I assume we're the last to arrive?"

"No, actually, you're the second here after MenaPrep. We got calls from all the other schools that they wouldn't be in until midnight or oh-one-hundred."

Ruby crossed her arms.

"Huh. Bunch of slackers. Where's MenaPrep?"

"Down in the water below the cliff face. They brought two PBRs with twenty-millimetres."

"They brought PBRs and we're not even going to drink any?"

Corporal Cordovin frowned and stuttered.

"N-no, no, it means Patrol-"

"I know it means 'Patrol Boat, River,' I'm just being funny."

Ruby watched the young Corporal go a little red behind the ears. She was kinda cute, despite having her hair slicked back into a tight, military-issue bun and the faintest hint of makeup on.

"O-oh. General Sharp mandated no alcohol on this maneuver, so I wasn't sure what you meant."

"I'm just pulling your chain, Cordo." she jived, watching the young Corporal flush. "But hey, our campsite is technically school property, not the army's. And once we're all settled, there'd be a fifth seat around the fire waiting for someone to come occupy it. If you catch my drift."

Ruby winked. The Corporal made a little noise, before straightening her back.

"I-I have p-people to coordinate right now, Miss R-Rose. Raid starts at oh-five-hundred."

"Ten-four, Cordo. Don't be a stranger, eh?"

"R-right."

The young Corporal turned and scurried off, clutching the clipboard to her chest like it was a stack of textbooks. Ruby chuckled to herself and turned back to her team, who had unhooked the gun and spread out its stabilizers. She saw Raven, who seemed to be frowning at her.

"What?" she asked, feigning innocence.

"I thought you only flirted with me."

"You have a boyfriend," she chided, pointing at Taiyang. "You jealous?"

"I mean, a little. I thought we had something special, Sunshine."

Ruby sauntered over and leaned against one of the gun's stabilizers.

"Oh trust me, Rae, you take up all ten slots on my list of favourite people. It's a shame you're not bi."

"Summer, please, you're making me uncomfortable…"

"S'my job, hun."

Taiyang interjected by leaning in between them.

"You know, guys, I'm right here. Summer, as much as I love and respect you, can you please wait until we're not doing something incredibly dangerous like shooting at ten million Grimm to try and sleep with my girlfriend?"

Ruby relented.

"You're right, sorry, buddy."

"Don't worry about it." He said, slapping her on the shoulder. "You'll get her one of these days, champ."

Ruby laughed as he left to go finish digging the gun in, leaving her alone with Raven, who was fully red in the face.

"Summer!"

Ruby turned back, using her most innocent doe eyes.

"Yes, my love?"

"You're a menace!"

"You're goddamn right."

/.../

The sun had barely started to crest the edge of the horizon at this hour. It was good bird-watching weather, if you could forget that that kind of bird she was on the lookout for weighed on average sixty tonnes and had a wingspan of a hundred feet or more. She sniffled, peering through her antique Atlesian-issue stereoscopic rangefinder out at the sea. There was nothing out there just yet, and the observation radar was still showing a blank screen this morning.

"Something's not right." she muttered to no one.

This was supposed to be the day. And it was supposed to be at this time of day that the Nevermore made their migration. She pulled her eyes off the vision blocks on the rangefinder and stared over the horizon with her bare eyes. There was nothing out there. And it worried her.

"Fuck…"

She collapsed the rangefinder and laid it into its padded oak case and shut it, flipping the clasps closed. She picked up the case and turned her back to the cliff and marched back over to her campsite. The fire had gone out severely hours before, and all that was left was a pile of grey ash and warped bottle caps. Ruby grimaced, ignoring her mild, creeping headache, and put the rangefinder in one of the folding chairs set up around the firepit. She rolled out a kink in her back and put her hands on her hips, looking around at the empty bottles, their labels all written in Atlesian that surrounded her campsite. The Atlesians might have showed up late, but they sure had shown up with a damn good time.

"Oof… Why did I let myself get dragged into that?"

She sauntered to the otherside of the campsite where their tents were set up in the shade of the big army truck. She coughed, squinting, and approached her partner's tent. She heard a gentle and soft snoring from within, and almost felt guilty as she reached for the zipper. It slid up with that familiar sound, not loud enough to wake the rest of her team, but loud enough to stir Raven in her sleeping bag. Ruby stuck her head into the tent and peered at her partner, who's fabulously fluffy hair took up most of the other end of the tent. Ruby grinned at her.

"Hey, Rae? You up?"

There was a groan, and a pair of scarlet red eyes barely opened to look at her.

"Huh? Summer?"

"Yeah, it's me. You awake enough to help me with something?"

"Mmmff."

Raven sat up. Ruby's eyes were understandably drawn down to her partner's chest, clad only in the soft black lacy bra she had already chastised her about wearing on this mission. One of the straps had fallen down her arm, and it clearly didn't bother the tall, chesty woman enough to fix it. Or cover herself with her arms like she usually did in these situations.

"Whaddyouwant?" she managed out.

"I need your help with something out here. Do you know where your brother is?"

Raven squinted over at her, her eyes not wanting to work just yet.

"Not in his tent?"

Ruby shrugged.

"Not unless he's four inches thick, his tent collapsed at some point last night. He ain't in it."

Raven grabbed her forehead and rubbed her temples.

"Oh yeah, that guy from Atlas fell on it last night. Uh, I can find him if you like."

"Actually, I think I know where he is. But get up, I'll need both of you for this."

"Kay. Gimme a minute."

"Yup."

Ruby retracted herself from the tent and stood up, the dawn light cutting a dull orange glow across the North Sea that reflected up and into her eyes. She stood pensive for a moment, listening to Raven dress herself in the constricted tent. After a moment, the zipper flap opened up again and Raven emerged, standing up to her full height with a groan and quite a lot of joints cracking. She had her coveralls pulled all the way on this time, buttoned up in the front all the way up to the collar. Ruby didn't blame her, it was chilly this morning.

"Arrite. What's up?"

"Can you go find your brother? I think he's with Atlas Academy. I vaguely remember him following a girl back over there. But fuck if I remember what she looked like."

Raven sighed and pursed her lips.

"I'll do my best. Think I know who you're talking about. Did she have a tail?"

"There's no faunus at Atlas Academy, are you nuts? If she had a tail, it's because we were hammered."

They both pinched the bridges of their noses and stood in silent agony for a moment.

"Yeah." Raven finished. "I'll go find him."

"Thanks."

The tall woman turned and stumbled for two steps before steadying herself. She disappeared behind the antique truck and wandered off in the direction of the other school's campsite. Ruby waited patiently until her partner was well out of earshot, looked around for anyone else that might be watching, and stepped over to her own tent, still zipped up tight. She tapped her knuckles gently on the fabric front flaps.

"You can come out now, coast is clear."

There was a rustling from in her tent, followed by the zipper opening very slowly. Ruby looked down at the young woman, her platinum blonde hair no longer pulled back tight on her head, was instead loose and hanging down around her shoulders. Ruby smirked down at her.

"Sleep well?"

"Don't know how you want me to answer that."

Ruby shrugged and pulled out a hair elastic as the woman stood up.

"Here, tie your hair up. And do up your tunic, I see blue lace."

The woman flushed, but complied, doing up the buttons on her uniform and brushing herself off to attempt to flatten out the wrinkles in the rough wool. Ruby rolled her eyes as the woman pulled her hair up into a loose bun.

"Sorry."

"S'not your fault. S'my fault, actually. Go wake up your signals troop. I think we have a problem."

"Okay."

Ruby sniffled and escorted the young woman from her campsite, barely in time before her partner came sauntering back with her twin slung around her shoulders. Ruby put on her best innocent face, difficult with a hangover, and greeted them as they came back into view. Raven's attention was caught by a movement in the distance that Ruby tried to distract her from.

"Was someone just here?" Raven asked, stopping and righting her brother.

"No, of course not, don't be absurd."

"You sure, Mere?"

"Completely sure. Just me here, Rae."

Raven shot her a sly look.

"So that wasn't the Corporal you just snuck out of here, then."

Ruby pointed an accusatory finger.

"I don't kiss and tell."

"Really."

"Well, there wasn't even any kissing to tell about, she passed out after a couple of PBRs so I put her to bed in my tent and slept in the back of the truck with the ammunition. Your brother's bad luck must be rubbing off on me."

The tall woman smirked and adjusted her twin on her shoulder.

"Must be. That's not good for your back, Summer."

"I know. Where'd you find Qrow?"

Raven chuckled and smacked him on the back of the head to wake him up.

"Uh, he was in some Atlas Academy girl's tent with most of his clothes off."

"Oh my. And her?"

"She was naked."

Ruby chuckled into the back of her hand.

"You get a good look? What'd she look like?"

"Lot like you, actually. It was a little spooky."

"Yeesh, at least one of us had some good luck last night." she eyed Qrow, who had come to again. "You awake in there, buddy?"

"Huh?" he fizzled out, rubbing his eyes. "Whasssup?"

"Think you can fly this early in the morning?"

"Fly?"

Ruby clicked her tongue and leaned over on one leg.

"Yes, Qrow, fly. Can you do it?"

"Hang...over…"

"And who's fault is that?"

"Oof."

Ruby turned to her partner.

"What about you?"

"I think so."

"Alright, you and Qrow need to do some recon up above the clouds. I need to know what's up there."

Raven looked up, and pulled Qrow's hair back so he too could look upwards.

"Up to the clouds, huh? How high is that?"

Ruby sniffled and rubbed her nose, and pulled out a laser ranging device from inside her coat. She fiddled with it for a second before pointing it skyward. The device thought for a few seconds, before beeping and lighting up the little LCD display on the back.

"Two clicks to the bottom of the clouds. Can't tell you how thick, mind you. You might be up there for a few minutes. Use the cliff to transform, but be discreet about it."

"Gotcha. C'mon, Qrow. You heard her."

"Alright, whatever." he said, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

"Don't make me wait for you, loser."

Raven turned and dragged her brother off to the edge of the cliff, leaving Ruby alone once again in the campsite. She powered off her laser rangefinder and slipped it back into the pocket of her coat and circled around, kicking a cloud of dust and hearing the sounds of the twins turning into birds over the edge of the cliff. Her uneasy feeling lessened as she heard the last tent opening to her right. She turned to see a familiar blond head sticking out of it. She smiled.

"Hey, good morning, buddy."

"Hey yourself, Summer."

Taiyang stepped out and stood up. He didn't have a shirt on. Ruby stared.

"Uh…"

"Seems like everyone else is up already. Heard you talking to Raven a few moments ago."

Ruby stared. Tai's abdominals stared back.

"Uh huh…"

"So how'd your night with the army brat go, kiddo?"

Ruby stared.

"Beautiful… chiseled by the gods…"

Taiyang sighed.

"I'm gonna put a shirt on."

"Thank you."

After a second for him to do just that, pulling on a dark grey breathable shirt, he turned back to her.

"That better?"

"Much, now I can focus."

"Oh, come on, I know you're just jonesing me."

Ruby gave an evil smile and smacked him on the shoulder, avoiding the still-healing tattoo by a big margin.

"Damn right I am."

Tai rolled his eyes at her and reached back into his tent, pulling out a hardshell guitar case and resting it against the side of his tent. Ruby frowned as he popped the clasps open.

"So how'd your little fling with the Corporal go?"

"God, everyone wants to lecture me about that this morning."

"I just wanna know what makes you happy, kiddo."

Ruby shivered.

"Stop calling me that, it makes me feel weird. And she passed out before I could even scoot closer to her on the log, so I put her to bed in my tent and slept in the back of the truck."

"Ouch." he said, pulling out the very expensive cherrywood instrument and sliding his head through the strap.

"Yeah, Qrow's bad luck ended up in my hands last night."

Tai did a quick tune of his guitar, getting it well within a quarter semitone of four-forty hertz.

"You want me to rough him up a little?"

"Nah. I mean, he managed to get himself a girl for the night, some pretty young thing from Atlas Academy, I think we should, or I should take one for the team just this once."

"That's awful polite of you. Who'd he end up with?"

"Some brunette who apparently looked like me enough to get Rae to make comment. We can't remember if she had a tail or not, but I'm pretty certain there's no Faunus students at AA."

"Huh."

Tai plucked out a few quiet chords on his guitar, doing some careful fingering to get a little melody in C minor going. Ruby sniffled, arms crossed.

"Actually, that's not true, I can think of one Faunus I used to know at Atlas. She didn't have a tail, though. Her animal trait was that she could colour her skin and do a convincing impression of a human, so no one bothered her about being an animal."

"So, like a chameleon?"

"Yeah. She was the dungeon master for a D and D campaign we had going. Pretty dorky girl, big thick bottle-cap glasses, but she was really smart. Com-Sci major, I think. It's been a while since we've had a campaign."

Ruby did her best to ignore the fact that in the current timeline, this faunus was one years old.

"You played D and D?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Nerd."

"Tai, you been to my laboratory, you know that already."

"I know, I just wanted to say it out loud. SO, we sure this Faunus isn't the girl Qrow ended up with?"

Ruby chuckled.

"Nah, she swung for my team."

"Oh. Well, then did you ever…?"

"Oh, no, we were fundamentally incompatible."

"In what way?"

"Three main reasons, number one; I was human, number two; I was in a relationship at the time, and number three; I wasn't my other friend Blake Bell…." she paused, biting her tongue. "...sprout."

"Blake Bellsprout?"

Ruby nodded.

"She was a Faunus, too. Anyway, me and this girl got along fine when we played together, but her tastes in women were specific."

"Huh."

A chill breeze cut through them from over the cliff, making her shiver and making him briefly stop strumming his guitar. Ruby bit her tongue in anticipation. The twins had been gone an awfully long time, they should have been back by now. She tried to change the subject to get her mind off it.

"Why'd you bring your guitar to this mission?"

Taiyang shrugged.

"Figured there's be down time to practice. We're gonna be here for a week, aren't we?"

"I mean, yeah, I suppose. I just- that's a four thousand lien guitar, and this is technically a warzone, I would think you wouldn't want it to get damaged."

"It's just a thing, things can be replaced."

"Yeah, but four thousand lien, could buy a nice used car for that kind of money. You could make a downpayment on an apartment. You could have a reasonably nice vacation to Mistral for that much."

"Oh, I know, but-"

There was a sudden whoosh to their backs, followed by two heavy thuds. Ruby spun around mid-thought and found the twins scrambling to their feet in two little clouds of black feathers. Ruby grinned.

"Oh, hey, you're ba-"

"They're above the clouds, Summer." Raven panted.

Ruby paused.

"What?"

Her partner gasped for breath and gripped at her coveralls. Qrow did the same, down on his knees in the grass.

"The Nevermore. They're up above the clouds. Probably four or five kilometres up. Whoof."

Ruby turned her eyes upwards. The grey cloud cover seemed otherwise unobtrusive from down here. Her breathing hitched as she glanced over at the radar array downwind of them.

"They're using the obscuration of the clouds to avoid the tracking radars…"

Taiyang leaned over her shoulder.

"How though? I thought-"

"Those radar arrays are designed to track low-flying Grimm like Nevermore that don't normally exceed a one or two kilometre flight ceiling. They don't have the wave energy to penetrate up through the clouds."

"So how would the Grimm know to fly higher?"

Ruby paused to think.

"They've learned."

The sound of someone running over caught her ear and made her turn around, and she caught sight of the young Corporal sprinting into their campsite, hair still not done up into the army-issue style. At least her tunic was tucked in again. She came to a stop with her hands on her knees, desperately out of breath. Ruby frowned.

"What's up? What did Signals say?"

"We got…" she panted. "...A transmission from the local small aircraft field. They got a wall of green on their radar moving in from the north."

Ruby's eyes opened wide and her face paled.

"Ah."

"Summer?" Taiyang questioned. "What does this mean?"

Aircraft tracking radar was significantly more powerful than Grimm radar, and could easily see upwards of thirty kilometres into the air no matter the weather and no matter the astrological conditions. Grimm radar worked by scanning for and detecting the peculiar heart rhythms of Grimm by how the changes in air density at low altitude differed from those of humans and other animals. At altitudes above two kilometres, the radars were entirely ineffective at picking up those fluctuations.

"It means 'Battle Stations', Taiyang."

"Ten-four."

A siren went off behind her.

It was time for action.