James grunted as he held back the summoned Grimm, it was stronger than he expected. Weiss having cooled down from her outburst was shocked at what just happened, she ran multiple scenarios through her mind about what would have happened had the General not intervened. The woman who Weiss targeted was on the floor with her arms in front of her, seeing that she was not dead immediately got up and fixed her dress while being carefully to not aggravate the glowing light blue Grimm that was struggling in the General's arms.

Weiss immediately deactivated the summon and stood there hanging her head in shame, the woman she targeted on the other hand was less than thrilled about having her life threatened. She dreaded what her father would do, what Whitley would have to say about her but most of all she was worried about what Winter would think about her if she were to find out.

"Arrest her!" she bellowed with righteous fury in her lungs.

"Normally I would" James checked his coat, it was torn in the places where the Grimm rammed into him, this was his favourite coat damn it! "But unfortunately she's the only one making sense here."

"She tried to kill me!" James smiled and the dusted off his coat, "You brought it upon yourself."

"Insults aren't a cause for such dangerous assault!"

"First of all Miss, you have Aura as do most of the people in this room and judging by the shape you are in, and believe me the dress hides nothing. You practice enough with your aura that you can easily have survived that blow. I doubt any of you are that neglecting of your own safety to not cash in on a resource as precious as Aura. Which means the injuries would be very little" James pointed at a pair of gloves thrown on the floor in front of Weiss, "You challenged her."

"Excuse me?" the woman had calmed down enough that her tone was softer than before and filled with actual confusion.

"According to Atlesian law, 'a duel between two people having Aura is officially stated to have begun when one of the two parties had thrown a pair of gloves on the ground in front of the other' and within that duel all thing done by one party to the other with the exception of killing blows is completely legal."

"But that law has been removed as far as I'm aware General." the woman's husband, a man owning a law firm intervened, probably trying to save face, "And such a dangerous act could have not only injured her but others as well, which means by law you are required to arrest her."

"Actually no, that law still applies on private property not in public spaces or government property." James turned around and looked at Jacques who had already arrived at her side, "Well Jacques you do own this property don't you?"

"Yes, and I apologise for my daughter Mr and Mrs Mortimer, believe me I will definitely chastise her about this incident."

"Thanks for the party Jacques; I truly enjoyed my time here."

With that James holstered his weapon and proceeded towards the exit, his upper lips formed into something resembling a smile that said that the person was quite satisfied of themselves.

/-/

"What in the hell were you think thinking? You nearly cost us our entire reputation, all the money and resources I've poured into you all gone to waste! Tell me o daughter of mine, what was going through your mind when you did that?"

"I... I'm sorry... father." Weiss could barely get a word out, she had never in her life reacted like that. Weiss was too busy going over her actions to even form coherent words.

"You know Weiss, I did not wish to do this to you and believe me I have been considering for some time despite the fact that you're my heir."

"Consider what exactly?"

"As of right now you're no longer the heir, your brother Whitley would be better suited for this work. His academic scores are beyond what yours and Winter's was at his age, I've handed him control over a factory down in Mantle as a test."

"You never tested me like that!"

"You're right I didn't, but Whitley has done impressive work so I figured why not test him? Not only has he increased the production output of the facility." Jacques moved towards the window in Weiss room that overlooked their little estate, he could see dozens of cars and bullheads leaving. "But he has also managed to cut down costs and his employees have all said they rather enjoy working under him."

"So you're just replacing me?"

"Yes, your brother has been chasing after this position ever since Winter left and you started training to become a huntress, you may hate me Weiss but I think Whitley hates you as much as if not more than you hate me. You left him here with a mother who wastes her day drinking and a father who... " Jacques stopped for a second, "And a father who by my own admission have neglected you all a bit too much. For now you'll be staying here in the mansion, all your activity has to be approved by me first, remember you brought this upon yourself."

"But you can't lock me in here, people will wonder where the Schnee heires-" Weiss stopped herself, she wasn't the heiress anymore. "If you behave yourself I'll consider letting you continue training here in Atlas Academy."

Jacques closed the door behind him but did not leave, he stayed at the door conversing with someone but Weiss couldn't care less, she had been replaced by her little brother who apparently hated her. She hated herself for losing control, she hated herself for isolated her brother, and she hated herself for allowing her mother to fall into her drunken state. In that moment she hated everybody and she blamed everybody but she most of all she hated herself in that moment.

Hearing the sounds of the door opening she dried her tears as best as she could, but anyone would be able to tell she had been crying due to her messed up makeup. She sat up on her bed and pulled her feet in after taking her shoes off; she sat there cross legged waiting for the person to enter. She still felt betrayed at what her father did, but she was more afraid that now she would forever be stuck underneath her father's thumb.

"Hello dear sister." Whitley walked in with an insufferable smile on his face, "Dear oh dear, don't cry now... someone with a beautiful face like yours shouldn't cry."

Whitley took his shoes off and climbed on the bed as well, he took out the handkerchief in his pocket and dried her tears, Weiss shied away from her brother's touch a bit, they hadn't been this close in a long time and she was rather suspicious of her brother now that her father told her everything, but then again her father was quite adept at lying.

"Now I assume that father broke the news to you." he wiped away the lines of mascara trailing down her face and mixing with the other constituents of her makeup, "And I take it he wasn't that kind in how he delivered it but don't worry I'll take care of you."

"Whitley do you really hate me and Winter?" her brother immediately stopped what he was doing and the icy faux smile on his face dropped immediately. "Now why would you say that?"

"Father told me."

"Father is quite the straight faced liar, quite one of the best in Atlas."

"Is it true though?"

Whitely grabbed his sister by the chin and the straightened her hair as best as he could, a chill ran down Weiss' spine but she was frozen in place.

"I won't lie by saying I don't carry any resentment for you and Winter, Winter left the two of us when she joined up with General Irondong and then you started to push me away when you began training for a huntsmen academy. But at the same time I can't hate you forever." he then stood up on her bed and opened his arms gesturing to the walls of the room, "All of this was supposed to go to you, but now It's mine. I've had my taste of revenge sweet sister, your tears are enough. Now I suppose we can make up, if you're willing that is."

Whitley folded his handkerchief and then put it in his pocket and then hopped off the bed and put his shoes on, he headed for the door but stopped when he opened it. He let a breath out and then turned around.

"If you wish to escape like you did before then come to my room, I can help you with that."

"Why should I trust you? And what's in it for you?"

"There's no reason you should trust me, as for the second reason it would solidify my position as the sole heir, to be the one better than you or Winter, it's the chance for me to be the Schnee that everyone loves and knows."

"Can you get me out of Atlas?"

"Where will you go?"

"Look can you or can you not get me out of Atlas?"

"Hmm, I'm sure a pilot friend of mine who delivers supplies to Argus could take you there, from there you can go wherever you want. But he's not available right now, you'll have to wait a few weeks. If you want more details then you can come visit me in my room, good day Weiss."

/-/

Marrow wiped the sweat off his head for what seemed to be the umpteen time ever since he got on the boat, Vine seemed as cool as ever, except that he was sweating, a lot. His teammate's grip around the suitcase remained as tight as ever.

"Why'd we have to go on this mission again?"

"We were the ones who were selected, that's why."

"Yeah but don't they have ambassadors for this kind of stuff? You know professionals who know how to act when interacting with people?"

"We're the only ones he trusts that would make it back alive to Atlas, especially with her agents on the lookout everywhere, and also the fact that the two of us wouldn't look that out of place here in Menagerie allowing us to blend in and not draw too many eyes from the locals."

Marrow turned and looked at his partner, his unnaturally pale skin and rare eye colour meant that he could easily pass as a Faunus. He himself already possessed a tail, he could now see why the general chose the two of them, and between his semblance and Vine's rather calm and collected nature this mission had a high chance of success should things go normally as planned or if they were 'interrupted'.

The streets of Menagerie were filled to the brim with people, Faunus of all shapes and sized and different animal features, and curiously enough not a single human in sight. Vine's expression didn't change much, but Marrow could tell by the way his eyes went from corner to corner that he was rather impressed and interested by everything around him. They continued walking for a goof fifteen minutes before they realised that they were lost, they decided to ask for some directions before Marrow reached for his weapon upon seeing hoods that he had seen commit hideous crimes.

"Don't" Vine held his hand. "You'll blow our cover."

Marrow looked on at the two White Fang members standing there in public and distributing leaflets while smiling, no doubt try to get more people to join their organisation. He calmed down and then let go of his weapon and let it hang from his back, Vine removed his hand as well and pointed in another direction.

"From what I understand they do charity work around the island, building homes, clearing out the jungles for more land, protecting the outer villages from Grimm. It's understandable why they have such a large support base here in Menagerie."

"Still doesn't excuse them of the crimes they do elsewhere."

"Indeed this doesn't absolve them of their crimes, for now let's focus on our mission."

It took them a few minutes more of asking before they could finally find their way to the Chieftain's house. 'Chieftain' the word left a bad taste in his mouth for some reason, Vine had always despised people who wielded absolute authority, he realised that he was a bit of a hypocrite in that case since he supported General Ironwood's plans of eventually establishing a global government whether people wanted it or not.

For now he had to prepare Menagerie for the oncoming war on Salem and make sure they were on the right track. They made it up the unnecessary amount of steps and arrived at the door of the Chieftain, the two guards asked what their business was and they simply flashed their licences saying they were here to deliver a message to the Chieftain. The guards stared at each other unsure of what to do, in the end they decided that one of them would go inside and alert the Chieftain while the other waited outside with them.

"So the two of you are huntsmen?"

"Specialists to be specific but yes we're huntsmen."

"Specialist? What's so special about you guys?" the guard half jokes, Vine started before Marrow could open his mouth. "We're specialise in hunting not only Grimm but other huntsmen as well, and I guess you could say we're better at dealing with human opponents than most other huntsmen."

"Huh, I suppose that makes sense. So what about you wolf boy? What's life like in the big floating city?"

The door opened before Marrow could get the chance to talk, the other guard walked in and let them know that the Chieftain was ready to see them. The guard led them into the mansion; Marrow sniffed the air and smelled the rather homely and natural scent of the wood the house was made out of. After a few twists and turns they were led into a room where the Chieftain and his wife were sitting at a table.

"Ah Gentlemen come in, would you like some tea? Why don't you go and fetch some tea for our guests my dear?"

"Right, would you boys like anything on the side? I have a pack of the most scrumptious Mistralian sweet bread saved up, would you two like some?"

"We don't want to bother you too much Mrs Belladonna."

"Alright then, what about you dear would you like anything?"

"No, just what I usually have."

Vine and Marrow sat down at the table, the Chieftain asked the about their jobs and what's happened so far ever since the CCT fell down. Kali arrived with the tea and Vine's ever neutral face burst into a small smile after tasting her cup of tea.

"So what did you two wish to talk about?" Vine looked at Marrow and he nodded in return, he put the briefcase on the desk and the two Specialists both scanned their fingerprints and entered their respective codes, to Ghira that level of security seemed a bit excessive but who was he to judge when he hadn't even seen the contents of the briefcase yet. The briefcase was opened and Vine pulled out the sheet of paper, placed it on the table and turned it around for the Belladonnas to read.

"The Atlesian Council wishes to start official relations with Menagerie, this means increased trade, investment and travel between the two nations."

Ghira slowly pulled out his glasses and read through the treaty slowly, he was sure to read every single line and subsection as to make sure his people weren't going to be pulled into surprise debt traps or anything. He went over the paper thrice, thankful that his guests were patient enough to wait for him. After reading it for the third and final time he put the paper down and let out a deep sigh.

"What you are willing to give us is nothing short of every available opportunity for us to have better lives and improve our overall standing with the world, but what you ask in return is nothing short of impossible. Sorry gentlemen but I cannot get rid of the Fang without serious repercussions."

Marrow and Vine again looked at each other; Marrow shrugged and gestured towards Ghira.

"We expected that we would hear something like that Mr Belladonna." Vine spoke joining his hands together, Marrow than cut into the conversation. "And we can't blame you if you haven't heard since the Fang controls all forms of mass media on the Island."

"Haven't heard what exactly?" Ghira asked, caution filled in his voice.

"The truth about what really happened at Beacon." Marrow then pulled out his scroll and played a video file titled 'Beacon courtyard cam 1'.

Both Ghira and Kali leaned on the table and looked at the video, what they saw shocked them to their cores. Hundreds of unarmed students were running away from Grimm and they were being gunned down by White Fang members, some of them begged for their lives to no avail immediately to get shot right after. For Ghira this was very much like his worst nightmares come true, the organisation that he had created for peaceful co-existence with humans had now turned their weapons on the protectors of both humans and Fanuskind.

"I believe that's enough for now Marrow." Vine spoke in a soft tone, he tended to do that based on the situations he found himself in and as of right now the sombre tone in his voice perfectly conveyed his sorrow at the loss of life on such a large scale.

"I knew that Sienna had become more radical but I never expected her to go this far, this won't win us peace! They will only see us and fear us as monsters because of this!" Ghira banged his hand on the table in anger, some cracks and splinters appeared where he put his fist in the wood.

"And what about Blake, I hope she isn't wrapped up in all of this?" Kali didn't show any visible fear on her face but the tension in her voice could have been detected by even a child.

"She's fine dear, my contacts in the Fang say she ran away in the middle of a mission and hasn't been back ever since. And please fetch my pen would you? I think it's about some time we forced some changes around here."

/-/

"Are you sure we're not lost Jaune?"

"Perfectly sure, so how's the ride Ruby?"

Ruby held onto the reigns of her horse for dear life, she had never ridden a horse in her life before. And if she wasn't wrong, her dad told her that they were supposed to be taught how to ride and care for one in their last year at Beacon. Unfortunately that was now next to impossible due to the fact that the school had now blown up. Nora and Ren weren't that hot on their mounts either, Ren was constantly adjusting himself in his saddle and Nora pulled her horse too hard every now and then only for Ren to correct her. Jaune was riding his horse as if it was the most normal thing in the world. How did he even do it? She cursed in her mind at Jaune's perfect ability to balance himself on his horse.

"Sooo... Ren, how are you doing back there?"

"I would say fine but at the same time I'm not fine, my butt hurts. As for Nora she's... let's just say she needs to get used to the idea of being on a horse."

As much as Ruby hated riding on a horse she was thankful that Jaune was mindful enough to buy them from a local village with his money, apparently the boy had been saving up all of the allowance that the school gave the students. Now they could get to Mistral without having to spend nearly an entire year walking across Anima, she imagined how dumb it would be had she and the gang decided to walk the entire way there.

They rode like that till midday when the sun was at its highest in the sky, Jaune took the horses to a nearby pond where the horses could have their fill of water and after they were done he let them off so that they could feed on grass. Ren started cooking a light meal for them to eat while Nora occasionally bothered him or ran off doing her own thing, Jaune began reading again from an old dusty book he had picked up somewhere on their journey.

Ruby laid there looking at her new teammates, she wondered how her sister was doing right now, had she tried on the new arm that the General had sent? She was having doubts to her newly declared 'mission' now, she knew that there had to be more to Cinder's plans, someone would not go and attack a huntsmen academy like that without there being more to their plans.

"Jaune?"

"Uh huh?"

"Do you think what we're doing is right?" Jaune closed his book and turned to her, he was not wearing his armour or his cereal hoddie with the cute bunny face on it, he wore a dark grey undershirt that rather accentuated his figure and Ruby had to admit they were quite distracting.

"You mean running away from school and our friends and families without any explanation? No Ruby that's not right, but at the same time we can't just sit on our asses and wait for a clue as to why what happened, happened falls into our laps."

"Why do you think she did it?"

"Who Cinder?"

"No, Pyrrah. You were there right? The night when she... " Jaune's fists tightened around his book till his knuckles were bare white. "I'm sorry I shouldn-"

"NO! No. I can't keep it bottled in, it's only going to kill me from the inside."

"So how exactly did she die?"

"I thought you saw what happened? You went all... " Jaune made laser sounds while gesturing from his eyes to the area around him, Ruby laughed at the rather childish antic. It lightened her mood a bit and she could tell that Jaune's face brightened up as well. "Did anyone ever tell you that you have a great laugh?"

The comment took Ruby by surprise; she started blushing red till she looked like a ripe tomato. Did Jaune like her or something? What would she do? Does she say no? How woul-

"I'm just messing around with you Rubes."

"Haha, very funny let's tease the girl who has social anxiety."

"Anyways, you didn't really see what happened there?"

"No, I mean I didn't have to see it happen to know what happened. I mean I heard your screams and saw only you standing there and then the whole silver eyes thing happened."

"Did you ever get an explanation from your uncle as to why your eyes work like that?"

"No, not really. My uncle just gave me an explanation on what exactly they do not how they do it."

"Shame, it could be useful on the trip."

"So Jaune? About Pyrrah?"

"Right, well when we got up there and started fighting with Cinder I could barely keep up with Pyrrah, I mean she was crazy fast bouncing from spot to spot while managing to land as many as hits as she could. I bashed in whenever I could but then Cinder started using that weird dust casting of hers, Pyrrah had the upper hand till that moment. Then it was all downhill for her there till she broke her Aura and landed a shot at her heel, I tried to intervene but Cinder just pushed me away with a flick of her wrist, that dust casting of hers nearly burned me alive after breaking my Aura."

"I'm sure you tried your best Jaune." Ruby patted Jaune on his thigh, trying to assure him.

"Then, she shot her in her chest. And she just faded away; it was almost like she turned into ashes. Part of why I came on this trip was for answers, but If I'm being honest with you Rubes, I think the main reason I came on this trip was to make Cinder pay."

"So back to my question Jaune, do you really think we're doing the right thing?"

"From what I understand Rubes, right and wrong are very interchangeable, I'm sure Cinder must have thought that she was in the right for destroying a whole Huntsmen academy."

Jaune got up and left without saying another word, from what she could gather from asking Ren and Nora Jaune had taken Pyrrah's death very hard. He blamed himself for not being strong enough to stop Cinder from killing Pyrrah, and he had apparently trained nonstop ever since he recovered from his injuries he suffered during his fight with Cinder.

They continued travelling shortly after, that night Jaune led them into a small little secluded spot under a huge tree, he volunteered to take first watch and would not budge at all. They all reluctantly allowed him to take the first watch. For the first time in her life that night, Ruby prayed, she wasn't sure who would hear her but she prayed for her sister, her teammates and most of all she prayed in hopes that whatever God or cosmic entity that existed out there would allow Pyrrah to rest in a blissful afterlife.

/-/

The only thing more complicated than war is marriage. War is not just about sending troops to fight enemies, it's also about overreaching strategies and doctrines, the correct ones can often make or break a war and James Ironwood or rather Vincent was glad he wasn't tied down to a woman and several children who saw him as their father.

"As you can see General in a few months time they already have increased reflex skills, better hand to eye coordination and increased strength and stamina, unfortunately they still don't match anything like a professional Huntsmen's."

"That's all well and fine Doctor Lemon, the point here is to create Pseudo Huntsmen who can fill in the gaps till a specialist or an independent huntsmen arrives to stem the flow of the tide. Anyways Doctor, I can't help but notice that most of the subjects are human, care to explain why?"

"Well sir, to be frank with you Faunus DNA is rather complex and very little understood; it's ever constantly changing from subject to subject. There's very little consistency and similarities in the DNA of two different Faunus if one was to analyze their genetic material."

"Hmm, well now we know for sure that she's not racist."

"I suppose she just moved up in our list."

"That's a shame; it makes our already limited pool of recruitment even smaller. And you said it's mostly adult males who can reach the required level of physical fitness?"

"Yes, even with Aura they can't really catch up to their males counterparts. Huntresses are an exception mainly because of lifelong body conditioning that they're able to go toe to toe with their male counterparts, adults who have never used their Aura before it was awakened don't stand much of a chance."

"Damn shame that limits our recruitment pool even further. Anyways what's the ETA on their first deployment?"

"Once I've finished the neuro implants then we can begin test deployments against Grimm."

"Good, good. The situation in Mistral is escalating further than we predicted, we'll need all the people we can in order to shore up our defences."

"Shore up our defences for what exactly General?"

"The details are classified Dr Lemon, but let's just says it's concerning the people who caused the fall of Beacon."

"You suspect that they will hit Atlas next?"

"Yes, but it's probable they go after Mistral or Shade Academy first, anyone of them is probable. I'll let you get back to your work Dr Lemon."

"Sir" she nodded and left the room. James planted his face in his hands, he was dead on his feet. He had been awake for the past three days overseeing the current battles happening in the Mistralian Jungles. The Bandit Alliance were being pushed back slowly but surely but they were making them bleed for every inch for that they took, a bombing campaign ensued on the occupied cities and oddly enough there were barely any Grimm, that made him even more paranoid that usual.

"You should get some sleep."

"I can sleep when I'm dead, for now we need to figure out how to minimise huntsmen casualties for the Mistralian Forces."

"You think Leo is behind this?"

"If you mean 'Is he deliberately ordering his huntsmen to walk into ambushes' then yes, it's most definitely him."

"We can take him out, a strike team can definitely take him head on, especially since he's ordered most of the Academy's teachers to go out and join the Mistralian military in reclaiming the lost land."

"And create more butterflies that we have to deal with? No, we've already thrown this timeline off its feet, it's best that we try to keep it as close as possible to the original so that we don't get caught with our pants down."

Vince could hear James grumble at the back of his mind but eventually quite down, he picked up his scroll and placed a call.

"General sir." Winter saluted him from the other side of the screen; he saluted back and then eased back into his seat. "Give me a status report on the situation there Ciel."

"It's clear sir, so far the Branwen Clan has stayed in its place and from what we could find out so far they've rejected every offer to join the Bandit Alliance. As for the land, we've managed to secure it after Atlesian forces cleared out the place but we have a problem sir."

"What kind of Problem?"

"Refugees sir, they're flocking to the construction site in great numbers, so far there's over twenty five thousand people out there sir. The relief funds are taking care of their basic needs so far but I'm not sure we can keep them around here for long sir, especially if we want to keep things hush-hush about the launch platform."

James sank back deeper into his chair and let out a deep breath, if he kicked people off the property then that would mean bad PR for Fabrica Industries, and bad PR meant that it was bad for business which meant that he would have access to a lesser amount of resources.

"What if we hire them?"

"Hire them to do what exactly?"

"The guns that we've supplied to the Mistralians are the same ones we're going to use to arm the Mantle Armed Police right? We can use this conflict as a field test for our newer models of guns, which means we can set up a supply depot here instead of getting the weapons all the way from Atlas."

"The companies that are producing the current guns won't like it though; we're effectively handing over their profits to a new corporation that just popped out of nowhere. But to be fair that would ease down a lot on logistics."

"Sir?" James turned his attention back to Ciel, "Are you okay sir? You just spaced out there for a moment."

"I'm fine Ciel, do you still have the specifications and blueprints that I sent you?"

"Are you suggesting that we set up factories here sir?"

"Clever girl, and yes that would take care of the refugee problem and help simplify the issues of having to transport guns deep into the Mistralian Jungle."

"But sir wouldn't that give 'her'... " Ciel placed a heavy emphasis on the last word. "More chances discover our plans?"

"While it's certainly a risk that her agents may discover the launch pad and what we're doing it won't give them any clues regarding our final plans. The satellites themselves will arrive long after you've constructed the launch pad."

"As you say sir and regarding our future employees I'll need additional funds to set up extra housing for them and their families."

"Don't worry about the funds, I'll wire them to you."

"I'd also like to report that the Mayor Goldberg has given us our first contract."

"Oh? Do tell me about it."

"It's an upgrade for Mantle's sewer system. Do we go forward and add the backup heating lines like you ordered or do we wait?"

"No, no. Proceed with the installation of the backup system as planned, it's interesting as to why Goldberg would start on improvements now when's he's never done anything every time he's been in a position of political power other than the occasional distraction or cheapskate wall repair."

"Well... about that..."

"What? Did he tell you anything?"

"Only that he realises now when he's dying does he regret everything he's ever done, so he's working to improve the conditions of the people who he took advantage of. His words sir, not mine."

"This could work to our advantage, Goldberg has been part of the upper class cabal for years. If we can get him to gather evidence on our behalf then we can get the ammunition we need to overthrow the current ruling class like you planned."

"Isn't what we have from Ozpin's intelligence network enough?"

"No, we need more than that if we're going to convince the people. We'll need a direct confession from Goldberg and a recording of the cabal's meetings, If we can convince Goldberg that doing this would absolve him of his past sins or something along that tune then we would have the political authority needed to transform Atlas and the world by convincing the people that we're the only ones who can be trusted to rule."

"You're saying we should become an authoritarian regime?"

"From what I understood this 'Napoleon Bonaparte' of yours did the same thing and saved his nation from political anarchy and foreign invasion. Mankind and Faunus need to be united under a single banner if we're to stand any chance against Salem's force but no, once the secret's out there won't be much need to be the one in power but until then i suppose we'll have to walk his path."

"And the fact that the only one he trusted was himself became his hubris later on, he got deposed and exiled Twice! Twice!"

"Sir, you spaced out again"

"Sorry Ciel, You can sign off now if you wish. I have other matters to attend to."

"Sir" the young woman gave a salute and then signed off. James leant back and let out a deep sigh, this job was getting to his nerves. He tried closing his eyes and getting a small nap on his chair before his scroll began ringing again.

/-/

'The Chophouse'. Fort Krieg, 0130 hours.

"As you can see sir the new range of vehicles that you requested is now finished and ready to be deployed."

"Hmm, give me the summary Pietro, I need to catch some sleep."

"Alright then, over there is the CV90. A CV90 has a crew of 3 and can transport 6-7 soldiers, allowing it to mobilize troops much quicker. It's armour is rather thin and can be penetrated by heavy autocannons and likely a Nevermore's feathers from the sides and rear. But it will do it's job as an armoured fighting vehicle."

The tracked vehicle had its armour slanting downwards from the turret and its hull and armour was designed using the latest advancements in dust forged alloys. Pietro pointed at the second vehicle that was parked right next to the CV90.

"The Granatkastarpansarbandvagn 90120 self-propelled mortar, the two barrels on top are actually for reloading by sliding out, dropping the shells into the barrels, and sliding back down. Believe it or not, it's cheaper than breach loading mortars sir."

The self propelled mortar had a shortened barrel with multiple holes for the explosive rounds to launch out of or like the good doctor described for reloading.

"And last but not least we have the M1 MLRS or like the engineers and crew around here like to call it, the Katushya. These are the first of many more to come and so far all the units equipped with them report that dealing with Grimm has been much easier with these by their side."

"Good job Pietro, but can we reschedule the weapons demonstration to tomorrow afternoon? I desperately need some sleep."

"Of course sir."