Dominion, Barracks
October 15th, 1255 Local Time, 2552
Humanity's medical technology was leagues above what it had once been. Diseases like Cancer were easily treated in the span of a day, and major wounds could be healed within a far shorter time than natural healing could accomplish. Still, having your lung shredded took some time to heal from, and while Yu had suffered wounds before, she had never taken a hit that bad.
She'd been in a coma for three whole days, which the Doctors had deliberately maintained in order to keep her unconscious while they attempted to piece her respiratory system back together. Of course, she didn't remember anything too well, but her whole body ached, and Doctor Chase had said she was lucky to be alive and had only avoided death thanks to some speedily performed first aid from one of her squadmates.
Even though she was only allowed to leave Sickbay in a wheelchair, it was leagues better than just sitting in bed all day. Even if turning the wheels caused her to run out of breath alarmingly fast, it was not going to stand in her way.
Just because Nathan took the opportunity to lie in bed all day doesn't mean I'm going to! She thought. She was a Helljumper, she fell from space in a tiny metal coffin for a living, a nasty wound would not stop that.
She wheeled her way down to the Barracks, stopping for a break twice, and taking a cargo elevator to avoid the ladders. The Navymen that she passed gave her an odd look, it was easy to guess that most of the crew knew what had happened. Still, none of them offered to help her, which was reassuring, that told her she looked like she could still handle herself, which she could. But when she reached the Barracks, she found most of her squad sitting around one of the tables, with Nathan and Fairfire halfheartedly playing a game of cards.
"Hey, Liz!" She shouted, at least, to the best of her ability. It took a considerably larger effort than she expected, and the noise that came out of her mouth was far more similar to a squeaky toy than a proper shout.
She was surprised to see them all stiffen up, as if in shock or fear. Fairfire's reaction was the most confusing, she visibly flinched, as if struck with some sort of unseen weapon. They all turned to face her, their expressions matching their posture.
"Hey uh… hey Yu." Fairfire awkwardly replied. "It's good to… I'm glad you're ok."
What the hell is up with them? Yu thought. She rolled herself over to the table, and got a better look at everyone.
"Good to see you too, Sir." Yu replied as she wheeled her way over. "The Doc let me out for a bit, so I figured I'd stop by while I've got the chance."
Fairfire's facial expression wavered immensely, it was readily apparent that she was trying to keep a straight face, but was clearly struggling. "That's... that's good."
"You uh, alright there, Liz?" Yu asked, noticing the dead-serious looks from Meadows and Nathan. It was so awkward that she couldn't help but chuckle at their unusual behavior. "Someone didn't die while I was gone, right?"
"Yeah… we're alright… we're all fine." Fairfire said, her voice overwhelmingly shaky. "I'll uh… be right back, I've got to use the head."
She darted off, much to Yu's immense confusion. She turned to Meadows and Nathan, hoping for some answers. "Alright, what the hell is wrong with you guys? You look like I just came back from the dead."
"You… kinda did, Yu." Meadows pointed out. "We uh… didn't think you were going to live for a while there."
A chill ran down Yu's spine. That was certainly unsettling to hear. "Yeah well, I didn't. So can all of you just… knock it the hell off? You're freaking me out here…"
Both Nathan and Meadows looked at one another, exchanging some sort of unspoken communication before they both turned back to her. Meadows opted to speak while Nathan maintained a facial expression that looked like he was holding a live frog in his mouth. Had it not been for the apparent seriousness of the occasion, she would have laughed.
"Do you remember what happened, how you got wounded?" Meadows asked, notably gentle with his words.
"I got shot." She curtly replied. "It was a nasty hit, but come on, you guys get wounded all the time!"
Again, Nathan and Meadows exchanged a silent glare, and Yu was starting to become annoyed. "Look, whatever you've got to say, just say it, I can take it."
Meadows visibly braced himself before he spoke. "You… you should probably ask Liz..."
"Dude!" Nathan immediately protested with surprising fury. "What the fuck?! What the hell is that going to change?!"
"Well… this is her responsibility…" Meadows gently replied.
What? Yu asked, feeling more confused than anything. "Wait a-"
"It's not her fault you moron! It's her Semblance, it was fucking with her head!" Nathan argued, interrupting Yu in the process.
Meadows narrowed his eyes at Nathan in return. "You don't know that! None of us know that!"
"What… what the hell did I miss while I was out?" Yu asked, but neither of her squadmates were listening to her.
"So what, you think she just lost her shit in the field?" Nathan rhetorically asked, his voice rich with irritation. "Fairfire's led us through hell how many times now? That's not something she would have done!"
"She still did it Nathan, you have to admit it." Meadows replied with a sense of calm, well-contained anger about him.
"She's not a fucking liability!" Nathan shouted back as he stood up from his chair, Meadows quickly doing the same.
Yu eyed both of them, recognized that there was some sort of bad blood between them, and rolled her wheelchair back a bit.
What the fuck happened? Yu thought, annoyed that she couldn't even get a word in. She tried to raise her voice to interrupt their bickering, but again, she failed to make anything other than a squeak.
If her squadmates did hear her, they didn't respond. What had started as a bickering match had evolved to a full-on argument now, and whatever issue they had was now dominating their minds. The rest of the Marines in the Barracks awkwardly glanced over, clearly not wanting to get involved.
Screw it, I'll go ask someone else what happened. Yu thought. She turned herself around and left her two squadmates to yell at each by themselves.
Dominion, Starboard Armory
October 15th, 1259 Local Time, 2552
After Jorge left to help Lieutenant Clark with some sort of logistical issue, Ben was left alone to continue stowing the Covenant weapons. Thankfully, Curie had finished working on her earlier assignment, and was free to join him in the Armory. Even though she couldn't actually help him stow the weapons or perform repairs, she did know a great deal more about them than he did. But with a moment of quiet, Curie had taken the liberty of calling one of her new friends from Beacon.
"Wow! What does that one do?" Ruby ecstatically asked, her excited expression visible on Ben's datapad, which he had propped up against an ammo container so that she could talk face to face with him and Curie.
"Uh… this is a grease gun…" Ben awkwardly answered, looking at the tool with some newfound doubt. "It uh, greases things."
"Oh." Ruby replied, unashamedly disappointed. Granted, he and Curie had been introducing her to some of the Covenant weapons, at least, the ones that the UNSC didn't intend to keep secret, so her expectations were certainly justified.
"Do not feel discouraged Miss Rose, I can see how its appearance would give off a more exciting impression of its capabilities." Curie said. "You also do not have a point of reference for most Covenant weapons, so your confusion is well justified."
"Thanks Curie." Ruby said before someone else in the room said something to her. "Oh, Weiss wants to know if what she said was helpful."
Ben returned his attention to the plasma rifle that he had partially disassembled, that question was outside of his domain of expertise. It actually seemed that most of what Ruby had to ask was either outside of his knowledge or he simply wasn't allowed to answer. Still, she didn't press him for anything that he wasn't allowed to tell her about, at least, once he explained the potential consequences of him doing that.
"You may tell Miss Schnee that the information she provided was greatly helpful and that she has our sincerest thanks." Curie answered. "And If I might add something, you may also tell her that Specialist Schnee should now be able to answer her calls, now that she has returned to the Dominion."
Ruby sternly nodded. "Got it, hang on just a moment."
She put the call on hold as she presumably went to go talk to her teammates, leaving Ben and Curie alone once again.
"It's nice to hear from her again, I was afraid we would not be able to contact one another." Curie said, her expression making her relief very clear.
"It is." Ben said. "Although I don't know how I feel about her learning about Covenant weaponry."
Curie looked at him with a bemused expression. "Why, are you afraid she is going to come aboard and try and take some for herself?"
Ben huffed with amusement. "I'm not sure if Huntresses can pull off a mission like that."
Curie looked at him with an expression of mild frustration, so he opted to give his genuine answer.
"It's not up to me to decide what information is classified and what isn't, but it is my duty to keep that information protected regardless." Ben explained.
"Well, according to the Camberman Resolution passed by ONI Section II in 2544, none of the information that she has learned has violated information secrecy protocol." Curie pointed out.
Ben nodded, he could trust Curie to stick to her orders. "I understand, forget what I said."
But before Curie could say anything else, the bulkhead to the armory unexpectedly opened, and someone in a wheelchair rolled in. Ben stood up and saw that it was Yu, she closed the airlock behind her and started rolling towards him.
"Hey Ben, mind if I ask you something real quick?" She asked, a notable hint of exertion in her voice. In fact, now that he was looking, he could see that her cheeks were a bit red.
He glanced at Curie, who silently nodded to him, confirming that she would continue to talk to Ruby while he saw what Yu needed. "Not at all, what's on your mind?"
"What the hell has everyone else in the squad so riled up about?" Yu asked. "Meadows and Nathan were bickering like in-laws, and Fairfire looks… scared."
Why come to me for this? Ben fought the urge to sigh, personal issues were not something he was used to dealing with. It was clearly important to her though. But judging by what she was saying, he quickly deciphered the issue. "Do you remember how you were wounded?"
"I don't." Yu answered. "The Doctors said that they were busy when I asked and that you guys would explain it."
Ben fought the urge to shake his head, apparently it would be up to him to bring his squadmate up to speed. "Corporal Fairfire attempted to execute a POW, you intervened and saved their life, but were shot by a sniper in the process."
Ben felt himself flinch as he watched Yu's face shift at the revelation, he had limited experience with soldiers having their world flipped upside down, mostly in the form of Spartan III candidates who failed to make the cut. Her face matched that expression perfectly, but she quickly recovered from the shock and adopted a more stoic disposition.
"D-damn…" Yu muttered. "Any idea why the Ser-... why Liz did it?"
"I couldn't say for certain, there's some rumors about her Semblance causing a problem somewhere, but that's just a rumor." Ben answered. "To be honest, you should probably just ask her about it."
Yu slowly nodded as she processed the information. "I… thanks, Ben."
"I wish I had better news for you." Ben said, hoping the sympathy in his voice was clear even through his helmet.
Yu didn't say anything else, she turned herself around and left the armory without further incident.
"You know, you have a habit of being blunt about this sort of thing." Curie somewhat cynically pointed out.
"It's better to be blunt than dance around the issue." Ben argued. "Is Ruby back yet?"
"Not yet, but I imagine she won't be much longer." Curie answered.
Sure enough, Ruby returned at that exact moment. "I'm back, Weiss said thank you for the news."
A muffled voice shouted "I did not!" in the background on the other end, prompting an expression of irritation on Ruby's face as well as a stern response. "Well, maybe you should have!"
Curie chuckled at the small confrontation, gaining Ruby's attention again. "I am happy to hear that, Miss Rose, but you should not feel a need to lie on your teammates' behalf."
"It's… well, it's not really a lie…" Ruby argued. "Weiss just has… people problems."
Curie outright laughed, and Ben added a slight chuckle of his own. "I am sure that Miss Schnee is perfectly capable of speaking for herself, but I appreciate the concern."
There was an awkward moment of silence as Curie's hologram rippled faintly, before restoring to normal. Apparently Ruby must have picked up on it, because she raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Hey Curie, what did you just do?"
Curie cocked her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"You did a… flickery, thing." Ruby pointed out.
"She does that sometimes." Ben interjected. "It's a part of being an A.I."
Right? He silently added. But Curie gave him a nod of confidence, and his own concerns were dashed.
"Heh, Sorry, I haven't met very man-" Ruby paused, her eyes widening for a second before she coughed into her fist. "A-anyway, it's been nice catching up with you guys, but we have classes in a few minutes."
"Do not disrupt your personal education just to socialize with us, Miss Rose." Curie said. "We will have plenty of chances to talk in the future."
Ruby smiled at her words. "Sounds good, talk to you in a bit Curie, bye Ben!"
He gave a grunt of acknowledgement as she ended the call. Curie turned to look at him with a slight look of disapproval. "You really can't muster the effort to say goodbye?"
"Is that a social thing?" Ben jokingly asked.
"Ha Ha." Curie replied, although her expression gave away her own faint amusement. "Now then, let's get these Covenant weapons squared away."
Ben had no complaints, and with her help, it was easy work.
I think I could get used to easy missions. Ben thought.
Dominion, Sickbay
October 15th, 1310 Local Time, 2552
"Here you go Corporal, now please, let me get back to work." Doctor Chase said, before gently gesturing Fairfire into the lobby.
We can make super-strong robot limbs, but not a headache pill that goes to work right away, typical. Fairfire thought, rubbing her temples as she thought about what had brought on such a sudden, intense headache. I swear, if this is a side effect of Aura I'm gonna scream.
Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by a familiar huff of amusement. "You look like how I used to look every morning."
Fairfire turned and saw Winter sitting on the bench next to hers, halfheartedly reading through some decade-old magazine that, judging by the cover, was about terraforming glassed worlds.
Fairfire perked up slightly at the sight of the Specialist. "I didn't know you were back, ma'am."
"I was gone for a single mission, you all act like I went on a long-term hunting expedition." Winter said, her voice containing a faint hint of annoyance, but also amusement. "Still, it's good to know I was missed."
"You certainly were!" Fairfire happily replied. "I'm sorry to say I haven't made much progress on my Semblance…"
Winter lowered the magazine and turned to face her directly. "That's to be expected, this isn't going to happen overnight you know."
How long is this going to take then? Fairfire thought, but she stayed silent, she knew that Winter had no answer to offer her.
"Don't mistake my reassurances as an encouragement to be lazy, it's a simple fact of how Semblances work." Winter quickly added. "Some people never find their Semblance, and there's a theory that some people might not even have them."
Fairfire raised an eyebrow. "Even with an activated Aura?"
"It's a theory Corporal, one that I don't put much stock into." Winter said, her expression making it very clear how she felt on the matter even before she finished speaking. "Still, that is a possibility that you should be ready to face."
Fairfire let out a long breath, not a sigh, but a stressed exhale. "I… don't think I could face that."
"Because you need the excuse?" Winter stated, her voice devoid of accusation. "You don't solve a problem by finding a way to make it irrelevant, you solve it by actually finding a solution."
Fairfire thought it over while Winter continued to speak, her voice stern, but notably more gentle than their earlier lessons.
"I've never done anything like attacking a prisoner, I couldn't tell you what to do to earn forgiveness from your comrades." Winter said. "But stressing out over it won't help you, finding a solution will."
Fairfire sighed. "What if there is no solution?"
"There is always a solution, if you cannot find one, then you're approaching your obstacle the wrong way." Winter said. "Atlas exists because people hundreds of years ago did the impossible, and made the wasteland of Mantle hospitable."
Fairfire gave a somewhat undignified snort of amusement. "You know, you would make a great motivational coach."
Winter actually laughed, which was, to put it bluntly, really weird. She'd always seemed somewhat stony and hard to approach, so hearing her genuinely amused by Fairfire's dumb joke was very unexpected. It wasn't loud or undignified in any manner, the laugh equivalent of a polite clap, but it was reassuring.
"I don't believe that anyone has ever said that to me before." Winter admitted. "Although I admit, I don't do this sort of thing very often."
"Maybe you should." Fairfire suggested. "Maybe once all this is wrapped up and we've all got some shore leave, you, me, and Corporal Sato can go for a ladies' night out!"
Again, Winter politely laughed, which Fairfire found quite heartwarming. "Oh, I'm not so sure…"
"Think it over, it's gonna be a while before that happens anyway…" Fairfire said, trying not to be pushy.
"I certainly will." Winter said with a smile.
The daughter of a war criminal and a genuine war criminal, man, we'd make the world's shittest superhero duo. Fairfire thought. Or maybe we wouldn't be so bad… If I can talk to Yu that is...
Atlesian Soil
October 15th, 1323 Local Time, 2552
The Atlesian military uniform was tight, stuffy, and far too formal looking, Tyrian absolutely hated it. But Salem had instructed him to infiltrate the local garrison, and that meant that even if he had to do so wearing nothing but a garbage bag with a few holes cut out for his limbs, he would have happily done it. There was no duty that was inglorious when it came directly from the Queen herself.
The uniform did its job, obviously, he looked nothing like an Atlesian soldier at even the slightest examination, but at a glance, he blended in, which was all he needed. Sometimes an Officer would stop him and ask for his identification, which was certainly inconvenient, but they couldn't really do much to actually stop him. A swift stab with his stinger here and a slash with the Queen's Servants there and the obstacle was gone.
Why do they even have these guys? He thought as he stuffed yet another lifeless corpse into a dumpster. But he gave a happy shrug once he realized that it didn't matter, it just meant that his task would be accomplished much faster. He'd already left a small gift for the Backup Radar array, one that would ideally detonate along with all the rest.
The clean streets and alleyways steadily gave way to the more untamed wilderness that dotted the coast of the city. A good distance away from the city itself was his next target. The largest Radar tower in the immediate area, built as part of an early warning system for the city in the event that a large force of Grimm was inbound.
It also allowed Atlas to monitor a sizable portion of the sea, which ran directly against his Queen's plans. Without it, Atlas would be left blind in one eye, and its defenders would struggle to respond properly. Tyrian bit back his urge to laugh, biting so hard his tongue bled. The sweet taste of his own blood reminded him of what his Queen would do should he fail. Such an impossible idea, he could never fail her, for if he did he would not be the perfect servant, and he was the perfect servant.
Failure is impossible! Tyrian sternly reminded himself.
The defenses for such a critical strategic location were surprisingly lacking, and presented little in the way of a challenge for Tyrian. The half-dozen Atlesian soldiers all fell before they could fire a shot, or even raise the alarm.
"Okay Doctor, let's have a bit of fun with one of your new toys…" Tyrian said with a cackle as he withdrew a small metal cylinder from his pocket. He'd tried to explain what exactly it was to him, but Tyrian hadn't really been listening, all that mattered to him was that it made a big explosion with lots of fire. It was the largest of the explosives that he had been given, and purpose-built to eat away at the durable base of the tower.
He briefly pondered where to put the device, before settling on leaving it atop the helmet of one of the guards. Before he could place it however, he discovered that apparently he was somehow still alive, but he could barely breathe, and didn't even try to move.
"Aww… there there…" Tyrian said, patting him on the shoulder, the soldier's eyes drifted to meet his own, but they found no mercy. "Do you think you can do me a favor?"
The dying soldier only wheezed in response as Tyrian decided that perhaps he shouldn't be playing with his food. He wound the timer like Doctor Watts had instructed, placing the bomb onto the soldier's lap.
"Hold this." Tyrian instructed, before he bolted away, cackling all the way.
Not done yet, now for the rest! Tyrian thought, gleefully making his way for the next Radar station. It would not be long before Atlas discovered their dead soldiers, so he would need to move quickly.
As he walked the streets of the city, he couldn't help but grin, a vision of fire filling his head, his Queen's vision.
UNSC Dominion, Bridge
October 15th, 1335 Local Time, 2552
Every time that General Ironwood thought that the UNSC had run out of surprises, he was proven wrong. The first surprise was the true extent of their ships weaponry, where Commander Richard showed him the capacitors for the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, as well as one of the missile silos for larger weapons systems. It was also what they would use to launch their nuclear warheads, a weapon that Richard explained as being considerably deadlier than even the main cannon.
Although he had already been made aware of the existence of such a weapon, Richard took the time to explain how it worked, and the potential long-lasting effects of actually using them. They had two kinds of nukes, the larger missile-delivered "Hyperion" and the smaller "Fury," which Richard described as not dissimilar to a nuclear grenade. The scariest part of the weapons to him was the "Fallout" leftover, radioactive particles from a nuclear blast that caused contamination that could last decades or even centuries. While Remnant had known about the concept of radioactivity and its potential health hazards for some time, knowing that it could be weaponized in such a devastating manner worried him greatly.
To think, they developed weapons like this before they even left for space… Ironwood thought, wondering just how bloody Earth's history truly was. The Grimm-free planet sounded less and less like paradise by the day.
They also took a brief detour to inspect the UNSC's captive alien, an Elite, as the UNSC called them. Although Winter had shown him images of the creature, seeing it in person was very different, as it was currently sleeping in a rather undignified manner. Although Richard insisted that actually speaking with the alien was currently a bad idea, but he also promised that Ironwood would get a chance to speak with it in the future.
They walked through many of the other decks and systems of the Dominion, including a gymnasium, the Barracks, the Foundry where they produced their own spare parts and apparently even some limited equipment, and most impressively, the ship's reactor. The UNSC apparently had such an impressive understanding of their strange radioactive materials that they could use them to produce practically bottomless energy. When it was all done, they returned to the Bridge.
"This ship is truly impressive." Ironwood said, not at all ashamed to admit that he was in awe. "I couldn't even begin to imagine constructing a vessel like this, let alone something even larger."
"The Dominion is a light frigate back home, designed to ferry troops and support the heavier ships in battle." Richard said, although Ironwood had already known that. "Out here… well, we're happy to have the naval advantage."
I bet so. Ironwood grimly thought. He'd heard more about the UNSC's naval battles with the Covenant than he honestly would have liked too, he wasn't entirely sure that he could imagine a whole fleet of ships like the Dominion getting ripped apart so easily. "And we're happy to have you."
Richard gave him a small, but genuine smile. "I can certainly think of worse places to get stranded than Remnant."
That's because you don't know the truth. You don't know about Salem. Ironwood thought. Then again, with weapons like these, and orbit capability… maybe they could put her down for good. I doubt Ozpin has ever tried such… devastating technology on her.
He decided right then that the UNSC in some form, perhaps even just Richard, needed to be inducted into Ozpin's inner circle. He now understood Ozpin's optimism, why he had been so hopeful about the UNSC. "Commander… there's something else that we should discuss, probably in private."
Richard cautiously raised an eyebrow. "Is something wrong?"
Ironwood wasn't exactly sure how to answer that question, but found a vague enough answer that he could work with. "There's something important that I believe you, Headmaster Ozpin, and myself need to discuss."
Richard and Bradford glanced at one another before Richard answered. "Headmaster Ozpin-"
Richard was interrupted, however, by one of his bridge officers. The woman who was manning what was apparently some sort of communications station. "General Ironwood! There's a priority transmission on the Atlesian Emergency Band, you might want to come listen to this."
Ironwood quickly discarded the difficult subject that he was failing to properly bring up, and walked over to the officer, followed closely by Richard and Bradford. "What's the message?"
"Here General, I'll play it back for you." She said, quickly typing in a command. A moment later, a panicked, but vaguely familiar voice could be heard over the radio.
"This is a general distress call to all Atlesian Military forces and active Huntsmen." A woman said, her accent giving her the impression of being a member of Atlas's more well-off citizens.
Cordovin. Ironwood suddenly remembered, she was the commander of the Atlesian Base in Argus. She had something of a reputation of being an incompetent beaurucrat in the military, but Ironwood had never known her well enough to make his own judgement.
"There has been a terrorist attack on our primary Radar system, and we are now under attack by a massive force of Grimm, Level Eight or higher. We require immediate reinforcements from any available forces." She said calmly but firmly.
The Bridge went dead silent as the transmission repeated itself, once, then twice. Finally, Ironwood broke the silence. "It's looped, cut the transmission."
She did as he asked and ended the transmission as Ironwood turned to face Richard and Bradford. "Commander-"
"Well General, it looks like we picked a hell of a day for a visit…" Richard stated, a newfound determination on his face.