Jaune sat in his office, finally his troops had found and captured the last of Menagerie's forces. He sighed and pulled up some documents to begin filling out a report for General Ironwood, he would be pleased they could start sucking the small nation's resources for the war effort. Speaking of the war Jaune wondered how the main conflict went.
Currently Atlas was allied with Vacou instead of Mistral this time, and the united kingdoms brought their full wrath down on Vale and Mistral who quickly allied with each other to fight the great force opposing them. Atlas had the knowhow and military resources, while Vacou provided the numbers and foodstuff needed to make a military, a terrifyingly large military. But Vale was a kingdom of manufacturers, they had the ability to mass produce and quickly it also helped the sheer size gave them numbers and many soldiers. Mistral was the same, they had many many people as well as the ability to Manufacture so they quickly made a strong stand even against their well prepared opponent. Unfortunately their comeback didn't happen soon enough and some territory had been taken… territory like Argus. So some families had a choice to make. Let atlas absorb them and risk killing their family members when attempting to retake it. The other choice they had was defecting to Atlas and swearing loyalty to them in order not to have your family torn apart… the latter was what the Arc family had chosen.
Jaune sighed again, sometimes he thought Saph and Terra weren't worth this. But deep in his heart he knew he didn't mean that. Why the second great war had started no one quite knew, technically it was started by Atlas and Vacou's unprovoked attack. Some theorised tensions rose after the grimm stopped being a problem and it became rare to even see one. The kingdoms, filled with hunters with nothing to do, joined their respective militaries. Two Hunter academies closed while Atlas and Vacou turned their's into military academies, Vacuo restoring law and order with a swift and flawless change. Jaune knew about Atlas' as he had attended it once upon a time. He got up and walked over to the large glass wall in front of him. The view from his ship was normally beautiful but this view was one he hated, a city burning, a city burning by his orders.
He would be glad to be gone from here, but at the same time what horrible thing would the General have the young Colonel do this time. He had destroyed dozens of villages, as a foot soldier all the way up to Colonel… and everynight the faces haunted him. He walks back to his desk and hits his intercom button
"Sargent" Jaune said sternly
"Yes Colonel Arc!"
"Tell the captain to land my ship. I wish to survey the damage personally." he ordered
"Yes Sir!"
Colonel Jaune never saw much action anymore, he disliked simply planning from the side of the battle. He preferred to see actual combat, at least then he would be able to see the people he killed. If he was promoted to brigadier general he probably would see even less action. He hated it, the less action he saw the easier it made it for him to kill. Simply ordering the extermination of a village or a city was easy, he never saw his victims, never heard the screams, and never remembered the faces. A jolt from the floor told him the ship was landing, The general saw fit to give Jaune this task, A mere Colonel the task of taking over a full nation. A small and weak nation but a nation nonetheless, The general had deemed the nation so low a threat level that he thought his brigadier generals would be better suited elsewhere, while his father, a lieutenant general, stayed loyal by his side.
Honestly the general treated Menagerie as more of a large city than a nation, hence he only sent 4 warships with Jaune and 50,000 troops.But Menagerie never saw Jaune's attack coming. He was swift and brutal taking out weapon creators, any fleet they may have had was quickly destroyed and the border villages were taken while the cities were quickly sieged. And Jaune only looked from a window in a ship as he ordered the death of hundreds of Faunus who had the guts to fight back. He wished they would have just surrendered and accepted the occupation… but he was not so lucky. He was surprised to hear the army of Menagerie was only about 20,000 strong so even with his small forces he still vastly outnumbered the enemy. An attack on Vale or Mistral would typically see a retaliation of equal force to his own so this was… pathetic to say the least. When totaled his losses only numbered in the hundreds, 897 to be exact. The siege of the capital Kuo Kuana was a joke only lasting 2 days before his soldiers forced their way in. most of the other cities only lasted a few days at most too. They had not the forces to defend, nore had they prepared the supplies necessary to last out a siege.
Walking over to his planing table Jaune turned it on and overlooked his battle plans… so underwhelming that most of them were never used. In fact the entire nation was underwhelming. But that was supposedly good, it meant less resources from Atlas needed, less damage to the city full of exploitable resources, and less casualties on both sides. Good for everyone right? Well to be honest Jaune was afraid due to the low Menagerie casualties, it only meant more people that could raise a rebellion. Jaune sat down and grabbed his face full of guilt for his most recent thought, when had he stopped thinking of death as bad? When had he started thinking more death would mean peace.
"Colonel Arc." He heard someone say from his doorway. He turned on his heel to come face to face with Major Neptune Vasilias, one of his subordinates from Vacou. He led one of the legends Jaune had command over.
"Major Vasilias. At ease." he says looking up at the boy roughly his age. Even though they were around the same age Jaune had advanced ranks much faster due to vastly superior skills and his father being as close to the general as he was. After all, all Arcs were destined to be great heroes and leaders not simple foot soldiers, in fact Jaune was a God of war. The Gods of war were Atlas' most powerful and well known soldiers. The Five members are as follows, Nicolas Arc, Colver Ebi, Jaune Arc, Winter Schnee, and Penny Polendina. All were the most powerful toops Ironwood had at his disposal. They were also part of a large propaganda campaign glorifying the war act by Atlas. While Jaune, Nicolas, and Clover were all path forgers, and earned their titles breaking though thousands of enemy soldiers, Winter and Penny were more specialized, they didn't lead leagons or anything like that, but had independent assignments with small death squads. While all the Gods of war were known, the actions of the first 3 were known and praised. While the two females of the group were figureheads, no one knew exactly what they did but they were praised nonetheless.
As strange as the title was, it wasn't an unusual thing for the nations, Vacuo, Vale, and Mistral all had similar groups with different names.
"Thank you sir. I have come to inform you we have landed. My fellow Majors will be waiting for us except Majors Ayana and Katt. They are still rounding up the last of the enemies." Neptune said
"Hmm, Sage and Neon? Where is the Lieutenant Colonel?" he asks wondering where his right hand woman currently was.
"She will be meeting us on the ground Sir."
"I figured as much, I just wanted to make sure she was alive." he says
"Yes Sir, she is alive and well."
"Good, it seems I was right in having her oversee the siege."
"Yes Sir, it seems you stratagess were flawless like usual." Neptune praised.
Jaune just sighed again he hated being praised for killing people. His hand moved over his Saber, the midnight crusader. It was black metal weapon with red markings on it and a golden hilt. The blade could be coated with dust if needed, a gift upon his ranking of Major. He also had a revolver gifted to him by Ironwood himself, it was just called his revolver as he hated the general and would never bother naming a godforsaken weapon he got from that heartless damn man (Though he did find the weapon useful once and a while… not that he would ever admit it.)
"Thank you Major. Shall we go meet our comrades?" he asks walking out the door of his office
"Yes Sir," he said, following his superior.
Finally at the exit Jaune straightened his blue tie and adjusted his long white coat before stepping on the exit ramp avoiding the supply carriers bringing more aid to the field doctors. And there it was told where his loyal Majors, Sun Wukong, Scarlet David, Flynt Coal, and Kobalt Singrid (Idk Random last name the character never got one) sadly Ivory had died on their last mission. But it did lift his spirits a bit to see his Lieutenant Colonel, Weiss Schnee approaching him.
"Sir," she salouted.
"SIR!" The others followed suit and also saluted.
"At ease," he said calmly, raising his blue gloved hand.
"I am happy to see you all completed your tasks fast and efficiently." he says walking towards them "I must admit I am most impressed with you Lieutenant Colonel Schnee" he says placing his hand on the shoulder of his closest friend and right hand woman, they had been together since the academy and she had been by his side as they rose through the ranks.
"Thank you Sir, but your praise may be misplaced, the city was poorly defended and ill prepared for our attack, and your detailed plans were the key to victory." She praised him, he simply smiled but then deflected
"No, we must truly thank Majors Wukong and Katt for leading the special ops infiltration group collecting data on Menagerie's weaknesses. Sun straightened and bowed
"If it's for my homeland I will do anything." he says, he was a faunas but was born in Vacuo, he had no affection for these people who lived here.
"Now I wish to be briefed by each of you as we travel to the major cities here." he starts walking towards a waiting bullhead.
"SIR!" They all said in unison, quickly walking behind him. Just then his scroll alarm rang and he pulled it, seeing a call from Major Katt. He answered it quickly.
"Major? How is progress?"
"Not good sir, the enemy troups have been ralied again and a bull faunus with a red sword is leading the charge. I hate to admit it but I doubt I can beat him and humbly ask for your personal assistance." she replied, fear in her voice. Jaune hated most of the military and had earned a bit of a reputation as a ruthless punisher of failure under his command.
"How disappointing." he says cooly a dark glare crossing his face "I will be there shortly Major Katt, and for your sake when I arrive you had better have a good excuse for this incompetence" with that he hung up and boarded the bullhead ordering the pilot to bring him to Major Katt's location. For the entire ride everyone was silent as Jaune was fuming with anger.
"Be calm my love." Weiss whispered to him while taking his hand when they neared the city.
"I am calm my dear." he says, accepting the hand holding. "But failure to complete such a simple task is unforgivable Weiss," He says, gritting his teeth.
"I know my darling but this has been her first mistake under you, shouldn't you show some leniency?" she asks, rubbing her thumb across his hand.
"Suppose I treat her differently than the rest, it sets a bad example for my troops and doesn't show them failure is unacceptable." he growled
"I understand, do as you will." she finishes giving him a gentle kiss on his cheek. One thing most had forgotten before that moment was Jaune and Weiss were currently engaged to be married. It started as a political move by her father, and was accepted by Jaune's father, at the age of 19 while he was a Major and she was a capitan they were betrothed. They had been friends since their private days and that is what motivated Jaques to make the move he did. After a brief stage of awkwardness Jaune and Weiss had fallen into a comfortable romance, Admittedly it had no love at the start of it, but they continued to grow closer and finally the day he became a Lieutenant Colonel at 21 he could safely say he loved her. She was good for him and calmed him, she managed to save a few soldiers from his wrath even. And she loved him, he was strong and brave as well as incredibly loyal, something she admired greatly. Even if sometimes she saw what he did to punish failure as a little too far, she couldn't argue with how efficient his troops were.
They arrived at Major Neon Katt's position and Jaune jumped off the bullhead drawing his sword. His Majors and Weiss followed suit drawing their own weapons. He quickly found Major katt at the back of her troops commanding and shouting orders but when she noticed him she froze before starting to slightly shake with fear. She snapped to attention
"Colonel Arc Sir!" she shouted, the soldiers near her also snapped to attention.
"At ease. What is the situation Katt" he asks quickly
"While we still greatly out number the enemy, they seem to be using suicide tactics to drive us back even with their small numbers, and their leader is the main problem, he is strong and has a powerful semeblence that is putting the hurt on our numbers." Jaune glared at her
"And I thought our casualties would actually manage to stay below 1,000 today, I guess I was wrong. I will kill their leader myself. Have your troops back away and use heavy artillery to cut down the enemy before they reach us, once they start to retreat send our full force in using tear gas and grenades first to disorientate the enemy then slaughter them." he says heartlessly as Neon winces at the casualties remark. "Weiss take over command here, do what you see fit. Coal, Singrid with me." he finishes ordering before running off to find this leader on the and pull him aside.
After seeing a flood of darkness Jaune walks over, finding a squad of his troops severed at the hips. He looks up at the readhead bull faunas and sees he wears a mask that looks like a grimm. He sees Jaune and runs out of the battle field into a nearby forest, with Jaune in hot pursuit. They run through the forest till coming to a hill overlooking the battle field. Adam stops and turns facing his opponent.
"I take it you're the leader who rallied back the defeated troops." Jaune says coldly
"Yes, and I must admit it's an honor to be faced by a Colonel, oh wait, no it's not. Why not send your leader to face me!" he yells. Jaune's face grows incredibly dark and cold.
"I am the leader," he growled
"Ha a Colonel sent to destroy a city?" he asks
"No I was sent to destroy the entire nation." he says "You're all so weak atlas would never take you seriously enough to send anyone higher than me" he says
"How dare you. If you really are the leader then I'll kill you and show that damned Atlas to take us seriously!" he shouts, rushing forward. Janue dodges the first swing of the man's sword and parries the next one. He would admit this man had skill but nowhere near an Atlasian trained Colonel had. He toys with the bull for a while either dodging each hit or parrying them with ease. This made the bull enraged and he began to glow black again. That's when Jaune decided to activate his own semblance. Jaune's semblance was an incredibly rare kind, it was known as a force of nature, the most powerful kind of semblance someone could possibly have. It was fitting that his class of semblance was called a force of nature, its name being nicknamed the unnatural disaster. His ability was to cause natural disasters naturally. He could make it storm, ignite blazing fires, and hail, or make the ground tremble with an earthquake, or even make lava erupt from the ground. His semblance was one of the reasons he was so respected and feared, he could face leagons by himself without ever even lifting his blade. Jaune stomped his foot and the ground cracked as Adam's attack was fired off target into the air. He fell knee deep into a red, bubbling substance that burned his legs off. The Bull faunus screamed in pain before Jaune severed his hand and kicked him back with the midnight crusader, the red katana falling to the ground still in Adam's hand
Jaune walked to the dying bull and lifted his head by his hair.
"What is your name filth?"
"It's nothing you deserve to know! you atlassian trash." he struggled to say
"Look what you sent your comrades into." he says, jerking the man's head up to see as the heavy artillery and mini guns mowed down his troops until they ran for cover. Then the Atlasians advanced thundurus matching heard for probably miles.
"You sent them to their deaths. See you in hell" he whispers into his ear. Adam hears the cocking of a gun and with a loud bang Jaune kills him.
"How incompitant was Major Katt?" he growled, "This was a simple task and should have been easy to deal with." he says, sheathing his sword again.
"Sir, please don't be too harsh, the enemy ambushed them." Kobalt says, trying to ease his commanding officer's anger. Jaune turned slightly on his heel and met the major's gaze with a bone chilling glare.
"Don't let your personal feelings for your academy mate excuse her mistakes." Jaune says quietly but in a voice that gives no room for argument.
"Sir," Kobalt says, backing down.
"Back to the main assault, hopefully they are making progress." He says walking down the hill towards his men. Once back on the front lines Jaune makes his way to find his next target. Neon Katt.
"MAJOR KATT!" he yells over the sounds of war. He looks around trying to find her but then gives up and pulls aside a normal foot soldier "Where is the lieutenant Colonel?" he asks
"She is currently at the rear sir!" the soldier says was a salute before turning back to his regiment joining back in the march forward. Jaune orders his two majors to the front lines to help conduct the troops from there before making his way to the back. He finds Weiss at a battle table giving instruction over the various radio channels she had access to. Major Katt stood behind her observing quietly why she wasn't in the battle he did not know… It made Jaune angry. She let her soldiers die then when she was relieved of command she still didn't join the battle risking her life with them. He stormed over to her and grabbed her by her collar.
"HOW DARE YOU STAND HERE! WHY AREN'T YOU IN THE BATTLE!" he says, tossing her to the ground. He pulls out his revolver prepared to kill her for treason. But Weiss stood in front of him
"Jaune," she says sternly "I ordered her to remain here to wait for her punishment. I didn't want her ruining anything more today." she explains. Jaune still angry sighs, he puts away his revolver and calms down.
"I'm sorry." he says "I overreacted"
"Yes you did." she says "Please don't shoot her. I ordered her."
"I won't,'' he says,looking almost sorry. "Please continue carrying out your orders, I shall deal with her fairly."
Weiss looked a little skeptical but nonetheless went back to commanding the troops. He looked back down to the cat faunus and glared.
"I will deal with you shortly." he growled before turning and heading to the planing table Weiss stood at. "How goes the battle?" he asks
"Very well, we have them on the retreat." she says looking at the drone footage from above seeing the menagerie troops fleeing from his men. "I want them all captured or killed, I don't care which you chose, I simply don't want them around to cause future problems. I'm going to the capital to meet with the surviving leaders of this miserable 'country' to see if they have truly submitted. Notify me when you are done here. Leave Vasilias here for the clean up. I'm taking Katt with me."
Weiss nodded with a solute and Jaune walked away. He looked to two soldiers still near the rear, a wordless message telling them to follow him. He grabbed Neon by the arm pushing her into the grasp of his two guards.
"With me," he commanded.
"YES SIR!"
He boarded a waiting bullhead and flew back in the direction of Kuo Kuana. On the ride back Weiss messaged him that the battle was over, only simple cleanup to do and she would join him soon. He had the bullhead hover over a landing pad in the capital as he jumped out. He turned to the two soldiers who escorted him and Neon,
"Bring her to my ship! To the brig! I'll decide what to do with her later!" he yells over the roar of the engines, they nod having heard him and the bullhead lifts from the ground again. Once he was sure the city was truly secure he would have his flagship hover over this city as not only a convenience, but also a intimidating show of power. At least until they sent a leader for the city and he was sent on another war path.
His troops who met him all instantly stood at attention.
"SIR!" they said
"At ease." he remarked walking past them, they fell into step following him.
"The City is secured sir, all citizens of the city under an enforced house arrest."
"Good. What of the leaders of this nation?" he asks as a report was handed to him, lazily looking over it.
"All three members of the Chieftain's family remain alive. Their head general Sienna Khan was detained by Lt. Colonel Schnee and is under our custody and heavy guard in the local jail."
"Well done soldier, for now I wish to report to general Ironwood of our astounding success and receive new orders. Continue to hold them under heavy surveillance. I doubt I'll have to deal with them at all, so why alert them to my presence if it's unnecessary."
"Yes sir, I'll lead you to our current command center."
He was led through the streets filled with white uniformed soldiers, tanks, and heavy artillery being moved into place. He smiled and everything was going well, perhaps he would get some leave for his work. Finally they came upon a heavily guarded building, it looked like a manor.
"Is this our current base of operations?" he asked
"Yes sir, it is the Chieftain's manor. They remain here in heavily guarded rooms under constant surveillance."
"I see. Lead me to a room where I can make contact with the general though."
" Yes Sir." the man nodded leading him into the building. There was damage though the home signifying some struggle occured, yet to highly trained atlas militants it was nothing they couldn't face. He was led to a private room, an office obviously where few computers were placed and a planning table had been brought in.
"Leave," he ordered. The soldier nodded and with a solute exited the room. He placed his scroll on the table connecting it, before dialing the General's secretary. He waited and was eventually put through.
"Good evening, Colonel." he heard a familiar voice
"Good evening grace." he greeted the elderly secretary. "Please put me through to Ironwood."
"Of course sir." she said with a smile. And a moment later he was looking into the face of general James Ironwood.
"Hello Jaune." James greeted. "I presume you have an important report. "
"Yes Sir, I am happy to report we have taken control of Menagerie." he states with no emotion on his face. The General raised an eyebrow.
"Already? Impressive Colonel. I assume you require new orders."
"Yes Sir." He replied.
"Very well. You are to remain there and govern Menagerie." the General stated.
"S-sir?"
"We can not afford to lose this new territory. Atlas can produce food for ourselves, and Vacuo has been helping. But the fact remains we do not have the means to wage a war for extended periods besides that, if we lose Menagerie so soon after taking it it will show a sign of weakness. This is a direct order Arc, as one of Atlas' Gods of war I expect you to protect our new land without fail."
"Yes Sir." Jaune said through gritted teeth. He gave a quick solute and the call ended. In a rare moment Jaune lost control and the ground began to shake, as the sky darkened the lightning began to crackle. It seemed Jaune would now be in charge of, the Occupation of Menagerie.
A/N: Hey ya. This is just something that came to me and I had to write. I'm taking a small break from my other stories right now. Writers block for them has never been worse. I'm actually also in the process of writing another new story requested by one of my readers. So look out for that. But yeah depending on the reaction to this I might continue it. Please fav and follow. Drop a review if you feel like it. Thanks until next time.