Disclaimer, I do not own RWBY

Chapter 7: Any landing you can walk away from

Nora yawned and rubbed her bleary eyes, doing her best to fight off the sleepiness. Several days of back-to-back Grimm extermination missions were taking their toll, all she wanted was a nice warm bed and twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep, but rest would be eluding her for a little while more. "What do you think they want from us this time?"

"More Grimm in need of extermination probably." Ren replied. Keeping his back straight, arms clasped behind his back, he was the picture of discipline. But a closer look at his face belied the fact that he was just as exhausted as Nora.

"Ughh man…" Nora's shoulders slumped and Ren gave her an awkward pat on the back.

Ren looked about with a grim expression. It wasn't just them feeling the strain, other Atlesian squads were huddled around tables and benches, most just trying to get some rest before the next inevitable deployment. Everyone was being run ragged and hopefully there'd be a lull soon.

"If it's not Grimm, it's bandits. If it's not bandits, it's terrorists. And if it's not terrorists, it's some kind of accident disaster thing. It's like the world is trying to bleed us dry." Nora complained.

Ren paused in step to consider Nora's words, an uneasy feeling settling in the pit of his stomach. "Enemy action?"

"…Feels like it. There's coincidence and then there's this." Nora waved her hands, gesturing to the exhausted personnel around them.

"I don't like it, I don't like it at all."

"Mm… maybe the general will have some answers. Come on." Ren shook his head and started walking again. Speculation here wouldn't do them any good, better to see what the general had to say first.

Knocking on the door of the office, Ren pushed it open and stepped through with Nora. "General, you wanted to see us?"

Winter looked up from her desk and offered them a tired smile. "Ah, you're here. Apologies for calling you so soon after your last mission, but we need you in the field again."

"Yessir, just point us at whatever needs smashing." Nora tried giving a cheerful smile, but exhaustion meant it soon slipped from her face.

"We'll do whatever we can to help general." Ren nodded.

"It's not an extermination mission this time, more of a… search and rescue." The grim expression on Winter's face was telling. Ren suppressed a sigh, odds were good it was going to be a retrieval mission instead of a rescue one.

"Two days ago, one of our scouting teams reported finding something out near the Grimmlands and they were given the greenlight to investigate further. Contact was lost due to a heavy blizzard that's since subsided, but we haven't been able to re-establish contact with them." Winter continued.

"I'd send out my men, but we're a little shorthanded right now. I hope you don't mind helping us again."

"We're freelancers General Schnee, but we're still huntsmen, of course we'll help." Nora said, receiving a smile from Winter in return.

"Thank you. I understand both of you have been completing missions as a two-man unit for a while now, but given how many back-to-back missions you've been on, I'd prefer if you have some backup on this one. They should be waiting for you in the briefing room already, I'm sure you'll be glad to see them again." Winter said and nodded a dismissal.

"Them general?" Ren asked.

"They happened to be in Atlas and available for a mission and so Team RRYBN has been reformed. Go on, I'm sure you all have a lot to catch up on." Winter shooed them off with a wave, shaking her head as Nora vanished out the door fast enough to give Harriet a run for her money.

"Do we know what to expect down there?" Blake asked and Vine shook his head.

"There is a sizable concentration of Sabyrs in the area according to aerial recon. But due to the snow and tree cover, we're lacking info on what else might be down there."

"That's not a lot to work with. Any tracks would have been wiped out by the blizzard too…" Yang frowned.

"We can do it, let's get out there and find those missing hunts-" Ruby began. Then the door slammed open and she was nearly bowled over by an orange streak.

"Gurahgh!" Ruby squawked when Nora picked her up and embraced her in a bone crushing bear hug.

"Woo! It's so good to see you all again!" Nora squeezed even tighter and Ruby swore she felt her ribs crack from the pressure.

"Nora please, she needs to breathe." Ren chided and tapped her on the shoulder, getting her to release her victim. Ruby stumbled backwards woozily and collapsed into her seat, gasping for precious air.

"Heh… you're coming with us then? Alright, Team RRYBN is back together again!" Yang pumped her fist in the air while Blake cracked a smile and offered Ren a nod.

"Ahem." Vine coughed, getting the five of them to look at him sheepishly.

"I'm sorry, but we're pressed for time, I'm sure you can all catch up on the dropship later."

Once all of them had taken their seats and no more interruptions was forthcoming, Vine began the briefing. "Right, now that everyone is here, I'll go over the mission again. Two days ago, we lost contact with Captain Rust's scouting unit, all attempts to contact them since have failed. Last night one of our aerial patrols spotted their crashed dropship a few miles from their last known location, that will be your starting point."

"Was there anyone on board?" Ren asked.

"Negative… ah, there were no bodies onboard at least. The patrol didn't manage to comb the rest of the area due to the presence of several Megoliaths. The crash site is still intact and it's the best place to begin the search." Vine answered.

"Do we know what caused the crash? Engine failure, Grimm attack…" Blake trailed off as Vine's expression increased in severity.

"The dropship was shot down. According to footage recorded by the patrol, something, probably a missile hit the ship's underside and knocked out the engines." Vine said.

The five members of RRYBN exchanged an uneasy glance before Blake broke the silence. "Do we know who could have done that?"

"No. I know it's obvious but it still has to be said, Grimm don't use weapons. Someone is down there and actively hostile to us. As of right now, we don't know who they are or how many of them are there, so watch your backs." Vine replied.

"Rust is one of the best scouts Atlas has, a few Grimm and some bandits aren't enough to take him down. Find out what you can down there, but if things get hot, retreat. I don't want to have to explain to the general why your team went missing too."

"Got it, but don't worry, you can count on us." Ruby gave a thumbs up.

"Knocked out the engine he said, the whole wing is gone." Yang muttered, staring at the dropship's wreck. Half buried in the snow, the thing was a mess. It's right wing had pretty much been severed, bits and pieces of it scattered all over the area.

Contrary to what they had been expecting, no hostiles came rushing out to greet them. No sudden anti-air fire, no sudden ambush, hell not even a single Grimm to be seen anywhere. Just a crashed ship in the middle of a lightly wooded area with some broken trees.

"Did you find anything inside?" Ruby called out as Ren and Nora exited the wreck.

"A lot of dried blood in the cockpit, but no bodies. System's fried too, can't get to any of the flight recorder's data." Ren said grimly.

"No bodies could be a sign they had a wounded pilot and moved them elsewhere though." Nora tried to stay optimistic.

Blake tuned out the chatter to inspect the missile impact site. Blackened and warped metal marked where the wing joint used to be before it was ripped off. Turning back to glance at the treeline, she frowned and tried imagining how the crash happened.

"Odd, there should be more damage…" She muttered.

"Did you find something?" Yang strode over to stand by her side.

"Maybe, this crash doesn't add up. There are too few damaged trees and the ship is in too good condition, I don't think the dropship was flying very fast when it was hit. Probably in the middle of take-off or landing." Blake sounded out her thoughts.

"Possible… but the impact, it's like the missile hit from right… underneath?" Yang tilted her head quizzically.

"Yeah, and that doesn't feel right to me. If there were hostiles, the dropship wouldn't be trying to land. Shot down on take-off? Rrgh…" Blake growled and scratched at her hair in frustration.

"I wish we had more to work on."

"Me too Blake, me too." Yang commiserated.

Continued searching yielded nothing except spent shell casings hidden in the snow. Enough to tell some kind of battle was fought in the area but not by who or against what.

"So, where does this leave us?" Nora asked once RRBYN regrouped under the shade of a tree.

"Hmmm, the dropship was hit on take-off or landing, then it crashed here. No bodies but a lot of blood, wounded must have been moved… no signs of any bodies buried nearby, right?" Ruby asked, getting nods from the rest in response.

"Okay, so maybe Captain Rust and his team are still alive and taking shelter somewhere. Are there any buildings or villages or anything at all nearby?"

"There's nothing on any of the maps, and I didn't see anything from the air earlier." Nora answered.

"Maybe not above ground. There's an old dust mine around here somewhere. It was abandoned long ago, before the Great War." Blake began.

"The White Fang wanted to use it as a base a few years ago but those plans never went anywhere, it's possible the mine is still intact and Rust headed there. I'm not sure where it is exactly, but there should be some markings we can spot from the air."

"That's as good a plan as any. Let's move team, we got people to save." Ruby nodded.

"Has the banshee shut up yet?" Mercury asked as Jaune returned to the Manta's cabin.

"Eh, somewhat. Dumped her in storage and duct tape is such a wonderful thing. Bloody hell, Malachite sure can scream." Jaune winced and dug a finger in his ear.

"So what now?" Mercury asked and Jaune shrugged.

"Good question. We gotta get back to Vale first at least. Then we can try to work out whatever the hell is going on here."

"Ngh…" A small groan got their attention. Emerald was slowly coming out of her catatonia.

"You with us Em?" Mercury waved a hand in front of her face slowly until Emerald batted it away with a growl.

"Piss off Mercury. I… where… where are we?" She blinked and looked about in confusion.

"You're on the Manta, we're on the way back to Vale now. How you feeling?" Jaune replied.

"Back to… Vale? The mission! Malachite!" Emerald scrambled to rise only for Mercury to gently but firmly push her back into her seat.

"Easy, easy. Mission's done, we got Lil Miss in storage. What's the last thing you remember?"

Emerald frowned and forced her mind to piece her scattered recollections into a coherent whole. "Lil Miss was trying to escape. I chased and… I stabbed her! Oh god, I stabbed her in the neck! B-blood everywhere!"

"Breathe! Breathe. Slowly." Seeing her start to hyperventilate, Mercury clapped both of his palms on either her cheeks, tilting her head up until she looked him in the eyes. He repeated his command to breathe slowly until Emerald started calming down.

"Yes. Deep breaths. Nice and slow. Like that." Once he was sure Emerald wasn't in danger of relapsing immediately, he released her.

"I… I stabbed her." Emerald whispered.

"Uh huh, good news is she's not dead. Somehow." Jaune said.

"What? But-"

"Yeah, a fricking banshee is what she is." Mercury said.

"Anyways, you good now Em? You just shut down for a bit after we got you on board."

"Y-yeah… yeah I'm good now. Just…" Emerald winced and reached up to rub her neck, it was still sore from Lil Miss's iron grip around it earlier.

"Not used to people strangling you after you stab them in the neck."

"Uh huh." Mercury spoke for both Jaune and himself but Emerald ignored their dubious stares.

"I don't want to talk about it alright. Just… can we get back soon so I can get… this m-mess off me?" Emerald's voice held a tremor as she lifted her blood arms, showing off the drying blood still coating them.

"…Sure. We're over the Mistralian countryside now, still got a few hours of flying left before we reach Vale. For now, this will have to do." Jaune decided not to press Emerald any further and handed over a wet towel to scrub some of the blood off. Whatever was affecting her was personal and there wasn't any reason to go digging deeper.

Mercury's face scrunched up, looking like he had something to say. After a moment of deliberation, he sighed and shook his head, returning to his seat without a word.

The three of them lapsed into an uncomfortable silence, their own thoughts deafening in the void. But before it could become unbearable, trouble found them again.

Something exploded outside and the Manta lurched sideways, dropping through the air like a rock. Jaune promptly fell out of his seat while Emerald and Mercury barely managed to hang on. Their airship made another sudden turn and Jaune found himself crashing into the wall.

"Ahg! What the hell!? GREY!" He shouted.

"We're taking enemy AA fire." Came the monotone response over the intercom.

"Fuck! Who's shooting at us now!?" Jaune cursed and grabbed onto a railing to keep himself upright. Staring out the window, he could see the explosions in the air from enemy fire.

"Can we shoot back or something!?" Mercury yelled.

"We're already in their AA net, if we turn to try and shoot back it'll give them more chances to knock us out of the sky." Jaune replied, feeling his stomach do several flips as Grey forced the Manta to fly in ways it was never meant to.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit…" Mercury muttered over and over while hanging onto his seat for dear life. Sitting pretty while someone else used them for target practice sucked to hell and back, but there was nothing any of them could do except wait out the storm.

After fifteen minutes of hell, the Manta finally ceased with the insane aerial acrobatics and levelled out. Emerald took a cautious look around and noted the shuddering. "Are we out of it? Why are we still shaking?"

"I don't see anything outside… ah hell we bleeding smoke." Jaune muttered. Doing his best to suppress the urge to hurl, Jaune rose and staggered towards the cockpit. Upon the door sliding open with a hiss, he was immediately greeted with a host of warning lights flashing.

"What's happening now?"

"Engines took some damage, controls are stiff and we have a fuel leak somewhere. Going to have to land for repairs or we'll crash." Grey replied.

"Shit, alright, let's try to get a bit further away before landing. I don't want whoever was shooting at us swarming before we can take off again. Getting Malachite back for interrogation is number one priority right now." Jaune said.

"Understood." Grey nodded and returned their attention to keeping the stricken airship flying for just a bit more.

As the Manta hit another bumpy stream of air, Jaune's stomach flipped again. Possible enemies in the area aside, he sorely missed having dirt beneath his feet, they stayed like this any longer and Vomit Boy would be making a comeback tour.

"Bad news, we took a hit and we'll need to land for repairs." Jaune said once he returned to Emerald and Mercury.

"And if can't fix the ship?" Emerald asked.

"Then it's a long walk back to Vale." Jaune shrugged.

If flying the damaged Manta was rough, landing it was even worse. Their ship had taken quite a fair bit of damage and their landing gear had jammed. The only solution was a 'belly' landing and Grey's solution could be summed up with the word 'jank'.

With no landing gear, damaged controls and one busted-nearly-non-functional engine, trying to land should have resulted in a flaming wreck. But Grey just barely managed to slow the descent by overloading the onboard anti-grav generators, providing just that bit of extra lift to avoid pancaking immediately. After which, careful timing of the engines provided enough variance to 'skip' across the ground and bleed off momentum that way until they slowed to a halt.

Needless to say, it was one hell of a bumpy landing and only just barely a step up from a crash. Once the battered door opened, Jaune burst out of the airship and made a mad dash for the nearest bush. A shaken Emerald and Mercury exited moments later while Grey was the last out, staying behind to power everything down for repairs.

"Ugh, my legs feel like jelly." Emerald complained.

"Eh, any landing you can walk away from, right?" Mercury shrugged, face a little paler than normal.

"Please, at least try to have some standards." Emerald shook her head with a sigh.

"Still… how are we going to fix this?" Mercury stared at the damage to the Manta in disbelief. The rear was pockmarked with holes from the shrapnel and one of the engines still leaked smoke even after being powered down. Their 'landing' had also done a number on the ship's underside, all in all, the Manta looked like something dug out of a scrapyard than a state-of-the-art Atlesian weapon.

"Doesn't have to look pretty, we just need to get it airworthy." Jaune said once he was finally feeling well enough to rejoin them.

"And how do we do that? I'm not a mechanic." Emerald folded her arms.

"I ain't no airship tech either, but I've had to put my legs back together a few times. I'll see what I can do." Mercury said.

"It'll have to do, there should be some spare parts inside, just have to patch the leak and we should be able to limp home." Jaune nodded.

"Haaah… might as well check on our cargo too."

"And what about me?" Emerald asked.

"You and Grey keep watch for enemies. Whether it's Grimm or whoever shot us down, we're sitting ducks here until we get airborne. If the Manta takes anymore damage, we're cooked." Jaune said and received two nods in return.

Jaune turned back and shot his heavily damaged ship a glance. "Ugh… I really have to stop doing my own missions."

"So, this place was abandoned like a thousand years ago, right?" Nora asked sarcastically.

"Not quite that far." Ren responded in a deadpan.

"Then… what's with the brand-new door?" Nora gestured towards the matte grey reinforced blast doors sealing off the mine entrance. Some effort had been made to camouflage it, but up close it was impossible to mistake it as anything other than a recent addition.

"Looks like someone is using the place as a base after all." Blake muttered.

"Think this is what Captain Rust found? This sure as hell wasn't built before the Great War." Yang said.

"Mmrhg…" Ruby let out a non-committal grunt.

"Shall we try knocking? Doesn't look like anyone's coming out and we don't have the time to wait around."

"Since there's a 0% chance anyone inside is friendly, how about we just get to breaking and entering?" Nora punched her palm and grinned.

"Agreed." Ren said.

"Let's just try knocking first, okay?" Ruby sighed and approached the giant doors. No sign of any cameras or some kind of intercom to use, shrugging, she rapped on the doors with her knuckle. No response as expected.

One minute… two minutes… five minutes. Nothing. Ruby sighed and her shoulders drooped, gesturing to the doors, she stepped aside and let Nora pass. "Alright, you can knock Nora. I'll just send a message back about this door first."

"Whoo, let's do this!" Nora cackled as lightning surged around her, amplifying her strength greatly. Giving a few practice swings, she gripped Magnhild's handle tight and swung with all her strength. The door held if only just barely, Nora pulled back and grinned upon seeing the massive dent in the metal.

Magnhild crashed against the door again and again, further denting the metal and causing the doors to start crumpling inwards. Unable to withstand this kind of punishment, the doors finally gave in and the mishappen twisted mass of metal crashed to the ground, completely torn off its mechanical supports.

"Open sesame!" Nora bowed and waved the rest of them in through the gap. The inside of the mine was surprisingly well lit, electric lights had been installed on the ceiling and their fluorescent luminance banished the shadows.

"Definitely in use, I'll go first." Blake drew Gambol Shroud and thumbed the safety off. Keeping her eyes peeled for any traps or possible ambushes, she made her way inside, the rest falling in behind her.

"How far down does this mine go?" Yang asked. The path ahead sloped downwards and seemed to go on forever.

"No clue, this place was never a 'big' mine. The dust deposits were too deep underground for technology back then to make expanding easy. But… I don't know if whoever's using the place now has excavated additional tunnels or not." Blake replied.

"I guess we'll know in-" Blake's ears twitched as she picked up the faint sound of machinery at work in the distance.

"Anyone else hear that? It sounds like… a factory of some kind."

"I don't hear anything, but you have the best ears out of all of us." Ren said.

"Who'd build a factory down here? Won't that cause the place to collapse?" Ruby asked.

"Mm… let's go find out." Yang muttered.

The tunnel ended at an empty elevator shaft. Power to the control had been cut but a little bit of jury rigging by Nora and some lightning dust allowed them to start it up again. The elevator platform rose up from the depths of the mine and brought with it a startling discovery.

Blood splatter all over the steel floor and hundreds of spent bullet casings lying everywhere. Several empty magazines also lay among the mess.

"What the!" Ruby recoiled in shock.

Ren picked up one of the discarded magazines and inspected it closely. "This… they're for the new AL-72 rifles. Maybe our missing Atlesian team came this way."

"Uh… you think they hit a dead end?" Nora grimaced.

"A-ah, no dead bodies so, that's still a good sign." Ruby tried staying optimistic.

"Mmm, looking at the blood trail, someone dragged off the bodies. And since there's no blood up here, it must have been downstairs." Blake said.

The five of them lapsed into silence. An encouraging sight, this was not. But there was no turning back now. Yang silently hit the controls and the elevator began to descend.

"It is a factory." Nora whispered as the ride came to an end. Where the platform ended, the factory seemingly began. While it wasn't particularly large, comparable in size to some of the smaller assembly plants in Atlas, the fact that it was down here in an abandoned dust mine at all was a cause for serious concern.

"Ah crap, dead end it is." Yang spotted a lone Atlesian soldier collapsed against a wall, large pool of drying blood surrounded him. Several bullet wounds in his chest and one in his helmet's visor put paid to any hopes of his survival.

"So that's where the blood trail leads." Blake glanced at the floor, the blood splatters syncing up with the lift perfectly.

"But where is everyone else then? Someone dragged the body over there, so where are they now? I don't see any workers too." Blake surveyed the area, finding nothing but automated machinery. No workers or overseers or guards anywhere to be found.

"I don't like this, I don't like this at all. Everyone stay alert." Ruby instructed.

"Do we have an ID on the body? We still have to find out what happened to Captain Rust, if this is where his team ended up."

"Wait one." Nora knelt by the corpse and searched it for any identifying marks. Biting her lip as she moved the bloody mess about, she uncovered a wallet and a broken scroll.

"Nametag and ID has this as… Peter. Just Peter, no last name."

"Peter… shit, he's a member of Rust's team." Yang said upon checking the name list given to them.

"What do we do now sis?"

"…We have to continue, the others might still be alive. We'll call… we'll call someone to pick up the body for a proper funeral once we're out." Ruby averted her eyes, bitterly wishing they'd made it sooner.

"Damn it!" Yang growled and punched the wall hard enough to leave cracks in the stone.

"What the hell are they building here anyways? Mechs?" She strode over to one of the assembly lines and grabbed an unfinished piece off it. If she didn't know better, she was holding a robot arm in her hands. Upper arm, forearm and a hand minus fingers, it definitely looked the part, closer inspection of the 'hand' portion revealed five sockets for where 'fingers' should have gone.

"…I think this is a leg? It's almost like a skeleton, isn't it?" Nora plucked another piece off the assembly line and held it up.

"It doesn't feel like metal. Yep, definitely not." Nora said as she snapped the 'shin bone' in two just by flexing it a bit, exposing the circuitry within.

"…You don't think this was what was being smuggled on that SDC train, do you? Weiss was saying something about strange mech parts, wasn't she?" Blake frowned.

"I don't know, but we're getting to the bottom of this one way or another. Come on, let's go." Ruby fixed a glare on the machinery before shaking her head. Conjecture and assumptions wouldn't help right now, they needed answers, and they needed them fast.