"What do you think we're here sir?"

"Don't ask me, ask the asshole with eyeliner."

"What about the scary sexy lady?"

"Shut it, we're going to go out to help him soon, so grab everyone else and your kit, because we're going to be his shadows to make sure nothing bad happens."

"He already has his shadow though."

"Shadow of a shadow then, get to work."

Sabyr Brigade member to another Sabyr Brigade member. Sources unknown at this time. [REDACTED] is working towards seeing who sent this. Considerations to plant a covert source inside. End log.

Chapter 11: Impromptu

"Training ended, and now we get three days of leave," Finch mashed the buttons on his controller, his legs thrown up on the couch lazily. "Well, tomorrow we get three days of leave. Just gotta hold our leave from us just to fill out some paperwork. Typical."

Jaune tossed a set of dice from his hands, letting them roll down on the board in front of him, "Just something to do with the manning. Not enough units on standby in case something goes down right now. We got a company of Contractors standing by for QRF, then the SOG guys who I'm pretty sure are gearing up for an operation, then the guys who're supporting them. They just have us here in case shit pops off somewhere."

Sitting in the common room, his section sat in various positions around the room. Thistle sat across from him, staring intently down at the boardgame laid out in front of both of them. Meanwhile, Finch and Jay were at it again on the game console, playing their fighting game to exhaustion and back. The two sisters lounged on the side, contently watching everyone else while they chatted quietly. There were a few other Contractors around the room, but Jaune didn't know them that well, besides that they were from another platoon in their LAV company.

"Shit, they have the QRF company for whatever that is. I just want my leave already," Finch shot back, his eyes locked onto the holographic display in front of him. "Speaking of SOG, those guys are some absolute badasses."

"Cocky bastards," muttered Jay, just loud enough to be heard across the room.

Thistle quickly made his move on the gameboard, before looking over his shoulder at Jay, "Still angry about losing that fistfight with one of them?"

"Alright, he was a super small dude, how could I know that he's actually one of the top instructors in hand to hand combat?"

"Well, I don't know," Thistle scratched his chin, seemingly deep in thought. "The fact that every single one of them is said to be on a Specialist's level. And those fuckers are our Special Operations dude, do you expect them to lose to you in a fist fight?"

Jay shrunk back into the couch, refocusing back onto the screen in front of him, which displayed a rather mocking "PLAYER 1 WINS" along with a pirouetting character. Finch patted him on the back, speaking some thinly veiled insults. However good natured they were, it didn't stop Jay from leaning over and putting Finch into a headlock.

Vi snorted from her seat, tossing some chips into her mouth, "Yeah, those guys absolutely destroyed us on the final exercise. You know what? Two weeks spent training the hardest we can, we go onto the final exercise thinking we're the top of the world. I hear that our opposing force will be these suped up super soldiers. Guess what happens? We get fucking obliterated by them first thing. So how come you thought it was smart to challenge one of these fuckers to a fistfight?"

"Alright, alright," Jay held up a hand in surrender, his other arm too busy holding Finch in a headlock. "I learned my lesson. Don't challenge guys who are in the SOG. Lesson learnt. Can you forget about it now?"

"Hell no!" laughed Thistle. "You think we're not going to leap on the chance to constantly rag on you for doing dumb shit?" Vi tried in vain on the side to stifle her laughter with a hand.

Jay turned his pointed glance towards Vi, "Aren't you the one who drove us straight into an ambush? "

"Hey! That wasn't my fault that we were ordered to move there," Vi shot back, face flushing red. Lavender giggled besides her, patting her sister on the back.

"You're the one that overextended us, and got us hit by a rocket."

"Point taken," Vi grumbled, closing her eyes as she leaned back into the couch she was sitting on. "I'll still like to point out we won after."

"Just because we razed the town to the ground," Jaune said, tossing his dice yet again onto his gameboard. It wasn't going well for him. Thistle had killed most of his units and Jaune was down to his last few. "While we just sat around on our asses and watched as the SOG guys hunkered down. You crewmen were having a grand old time blasting off your cannons."

"Still won that engagement," Thistle put a finger up.

Jaune snorted, "Yeah, and they ambushed us with a missile right after."

"I shot one of them, and they didn't even find me after," piped up Lavender, setting her chin on her hand, looking at him with amused eyes.

"Do you expect me not to remember the part where they just decided to shred your specific part of the treeline with machine gun fire?"

"Pft!" Lavender looked away quickly, waving a dismissive hand at him. "If they can't pin me down with rifle fire, then it doesn't count."

"You got shot by one of their snipers later," Jaune looked back at the board in front of him, deciding to try and surprise Thistle with an obscure tactic he'd seen once. "We all just shot by their snipers right after actually."

Lavender harrumphed, crossing her arms at him, "Alright, fine. They found me and we all got completely destroyed. Are you happy now?"

He snorted, "I was happy earlier. Now I'm just amused."

"Argh!" a paper cup flew at his head, which he promptly dodged. "You suck. This is why you're the one who led us into the village and got absolutely destroyed by the SOG."

Thistle unknowingly moved his piece right into his trap. Jaune just grinned as he looked up from the board, "I still managed to last longer against them than you guys."

"Don't remind me," grumbled Jay from his spot on the couch, his eyes still fixed on the fighting game in front of him.

Everyone chuckled at Jay's clear annoyance, before returning to whatever they were doing before. It wasn't long before the door to the common room burst open, however.

"3 Section," Razz strolled casually into the common room, a calm mask over his face. "Gather around here and drop whatever the hell you're doing." Razz turned to the few other guys in the common room, "You guys better report to your Section leaders, they're going to be looking for you guys right about now. Get to it."

As the other Contractors in the room filed out quickly, Razz walked over to his gathered section, "Congratulations guys. Just because command couldn't get your leave sorted out, we're now being slotted in to support a raid in the city." Razz turned his head away and grumbled softly, "Should teach them to hurry it up with that shit."

"Wait wh-" Jay asked, his brows furrowing into a point.

"Calm down and sit down," Razz pushed Jay back into his seat. "So damn impatient you lot..."

Razz cleared his throat, "Alright, I'll give you the short rundown. The unit that was going to assist the SOG in their raid that was being kept under wraps was just pulled to do a special assignment of some sort. Don't ask me what, I don't know either. What matters, is that they don't want to pull the QRF force for this, because they have another mission going on that they need to be high alert for. So they combed through the list of units still here, and they realized our entire platoon hasn't left yet."

"So congratulations guys," Razz clapped his hands together, pushing himself off the table he was leaning on. "Just because you spent two weeks training to be discount SOG, you'll now be taking part in your first nighttime Direct Action raid. Don't worry about doing any high speed shit, we'll probably just be watching the perimeter and making sure no one escapes. All good here?"

Thistle raised his hand, not even waiting for Razz to respond before talking, "Sorry, what the fuck Sergeant?"

"I don't want to repeat myself Thistle," Razz massaged the bridge of his nose, groaning as he looked up at Thistle. "Do you want to make me repeat that?"

Thistle slowly lowered his hand, his already open mouth slowly closing. Silence for a second. He blinked hard once, looking back at Razz, "Alright, just took a second for that to filter through my head."

"Good," Razz started back to the door. "Now the proper briefing is in an hour because Alabaster needs to scramble together one for us. This is just a shitty Warning Order. The actual raid is in three hours, so get your fucking kit together and meet in the ready room." With that, the Sergeant quickly retreated from the room.

Looks around the room. All of them wearing expressions of "What the fuck just happened?" Jaune himself sat in his seat dumbfounded. Could they even pull their unit like that? No, of course they could, they still hadn't been released from work technically and they had signed a contract essentially saying they were now owned by the company. Didn't Razz say something about three hours until the r-

"Get up!" Jaune shot to his feet, startling everyone else in the room. "You heard the Sergeant, three hours until the raid and one hour until the brief. We needed to be kitted up yesterday!"

Jay shot up almost immediately, scrambling to get to the door and to their kitroom. His glazed over eyes told the story as to why. Jaune could get used to be instinctively getting scared of a loud voice. Shame it wouldn't work on the enemy. Finch was the next to follow, and soon everyone else was up and moving.

Thistle of course, lifted himself up like he was an old man getting out of his wheel chair. He cracked a sly grin at Jaune as the rest of the section sprinted out of the common room.

"Mastering your Instructor voice already?"

"Fuck off," his eyes flitted to Thistle. "And get moving too."

Thistle walked casually past him, "Love it when I get you to swear. Always fills my heart with such jo- ow!"

Thistle cringed away as Jaune reared back his hand again as to strike, "Told you, now let's go."

"Jeez, when did you start taking your job so seriously?" Thistle started towards the door, walking slightly faster.

"Since I fucked up, now let's go."

Thistle turned his head back as to reply, then snapped his eyes straight forward again.

Quickening his pace to stay side by side with Thistle, he slapped his back roughly, a small smile growing on his face, "Don't worry, I won't go all serious on you. Now let's go before they yell at us for taking our time."

"Fuck you too."

Jaune just snorted.

/ - /

Cedric breathed out slowly, letting the crosshairs settle on the cat Faunus walking towards the entrance.

"Cat and monkey Faunus, you got 'em?"

The clicking of a camera shutter beside him, "Yep, two more faces to the photobook. Doesn't matter anyways because we're going to roll up all these assholes right after."

"It's just in case Iris," Cedric let out a breath, before taking his eye off the scope of his sniper. "Incase the SOG guys somehow let some of these dudes escape. Which I somehow doubt."

"And all they would have to do is send you in and I'd bet you'd be able to take down that entire place," Iris took the camera from her eyes, turning to look at him. "You're like, thirty SOG dudes into one. Also bet you could take whatever they had in that giant, secret container they brought in yesterday. How much you bet it's some secret weapon they've been developing? What about nerve gas?"

Cedric reshouldered his rifle, "You think too highly of me Iris. I'm a simple man who goes and kills whatever you point your finger at. I, however, still cannot raid an entire warehouse of terrorists by myself and manage to control every single one so as to not let one escape. Also, whatever they brought in would likely fuck everyone's day up, or maybe it's just a stack of strapons for a giant terrorist orgy."

"Pft," shuffling beside him. Another click of the camera. "You're underestimating yourself. I've seen you do raids with the other Commando-types on the team before. You're a fucking monster. You never actually told me what you did before this, care to tell now?"

Ah, his past. Well, it was in his contract with Striker Group that nobody was to know. They even made him go through their basic training to keep up his cover story, which was annoying at first, but then he never would have met all his… friends? He wouldn't have met them, which is a nice bonus he never expected.

"Another time Iris," Cedric kept his eye glued to his scope, tracking a plainclothes White Fang member as he paced back and forth, welcoming the next two recruits inside. "Let's just focus on this for now."

"I sure do love a man with a questionable background who refuses to answer questions about his past," hummed Iris, leaning over to his ear. "Sounds like the plot to a shitty movie or something."

Humming pleasantly, he reached over to punch Iris in the arm, hard.

"Ow," Iris said, sounding very unhurt and with a tinge of laughter in her voice. "I'll have you know Contracter, even if for some reason the higher ups are interested in you, that still won't protect you from me later."

"Kinky," Cedric rolled his eyes, still peering into his scope. Now the recruiter was pacing around aimlessly, keeping watch down the roads with a very attentive eye. "Lieutenant."

Iris giggled slight, turning quickly back to the window and raising her camera back up to her face, letting her hands cover her face, "Maybe. What do you think about going undercover in there? All alone, surrounded by terrorists. The dude that's doing it must have giant balls."

"I know him," letting his rifle come away from his face, he reached down to make sure he still had something, something necessary in case everything went to shit. "Best asshole I've ever met."

"Better than me?"

Cedric lifted up his rifle- his other rifle. This one was an assault rifle. Dependable and relatively powerful in the right hands. As his Intelligence instructor had beat into his head, hope in one hand, shit in the other. Never go into anything hoping for anything. So he was hoping that nothing would happen that would require him to run in with the assault rifle, but things tended to go wrong. Cedric glanced at Iris, who was still looking through her camera, "Nah, you're not an asshole. You're nice."

"Best nice person you ever met?" Iris glanced over at him with a bemused smile. "What are you gonna do with that? I thought you were against the idea of storming that place by yourself."

"Hope in one hand, shit in the other," Cedric racked the bolt on the rifle, setting it down on the table. "Always have a plan for when shit goes bad. Also, guess you're the best nice person I've met. Not that I've met many nice people."

"Hmph," Iris went back to her camera, the camera shutter clicking as she photographed the people below. "Nice to know. Back to work now Contractor."

Breathing in and out slowly, he picked up his rifle again, starting to track the next few faunus entering the warehouse, "Yes ma'am. Next one's coming up, horns and the dog..."

/ - /

"Fuck, couldn't they have at least given us a bit more warning for this?" groaned Jay in front of him. The LAV rumbled along the unseen road outside, the cars outside likely making way for the military convoy. "First raid we go on and we didn't even know a few hours before."

"Impromptu raid Jay," Jaune grinned from his seat right next to the ramp. He'd be one of the first out of the LAV, better to know the immediate situation. Also to get shot. But he was confident his Aura could stop most things, which he'd come to know the limits of in his many training sessions with Alabaster. "Supposedly our first dip into the world of Special Operations."

Jay started fiddling with something on his machinegun, before looking back up at him, "If Special Operations get called to do a mission one hour before it happens, I'd like to go back to being a normal Contractor, thank you."

Turning around to look around the compartment, Lavender and Finch were also sitting there, as usual. Staring down at his tablet, Finch randomly flicked something around on the screen, while Lavender leaned back on her seat, watching and listening to everything with a small grin.

"Too bad," Finch said, still looking down at his tablet. "We're now stuck in this life with the highspeed low drag operators. Next is we all become Huntsmen and go on some dumbass adventure across Remnant."

"Oh don't remind me of Huntsmen," groaned Jay, rolling his eyes, "I was out drinking in a bar, and I hear this one dude shit talking PMCs. So I go over and ask what's his damn problem with Contractors. Calls us mercenaries and cut throats. Says that we do anything for money. Fucking asshole I swear."

"Did you punch him in the face?" piped up Lavender. "Wait no, that's Thistle's thing."

His headset actuated, filling his ears with the sound of Thistle's voice, "Hey, I heard that. For the record, I don't punch everyone that pisses me off, only most."

"Oh I nearly did," said Jay, ignoring Thistle's interruption. "Asshole kept spouting shit on how Contractors don't have as much training as Huntsmen. Turns out he was also a Huntsmen. Utter shit I swear. He looked like he couldn't hold his weapon to save his life."

Jaune cocked his head, "So they aren't as cracked up as they really are?"

"For the record, he started the fight."

A long and exasperated groan, "For god's sake Jay. Did you get away at least? No wait, of course you got away. Otherwise we already would've known about this."

Jay snorted, raising his hands as if he was an old storyteller, "Alright, let me tell you about my epic fight with a dumbass Huntsman..."

/ - /

Iris pouted as she looked down on the warehouse in front of them.

"When's SOG going to finally come? At this rate, everyone inside will have already been given five guns and taught how to commit terrorist attacks in Vale."

Cedric laughed a little at her expression. It wasn't every day when Iris got exasperated. Usually she was in control of things, and things were her operation. But when that control got taken away? Well, she acted like a petulant child who didn't get what they wanted. Cedric found it amusing, their team members found her bitching entertaining, and the Major just laughed and moved on, only fuelling her complaining.

"Things like this take time," Cedric swung his sniper around the side they were covering. The welcomer had gone inside only a bit before, and if the loud cheers inside were any indication, they were really riling them up for something. "You can't exactly fit eighty something guys in these warehouses without those guys noticing."

"Dual prong assault," said Iris, laying her head down lightly on her arms. "One prong by air, and convoy by land. Simultaneous takedown. Nice and clean. Problem is, they're taking so damn long that I bet whoever they have out there watching for cops is gonna call us in five kilometres away."

"Eh," he planted his crosshair on the tinted windows across from him. Nothing overly interesting, though he couldn't see much of anything inside. "We've already taken care of any spotters there might be."

"Sounds ominous, how come I didn't know about that?"

"You aren't privy to the operational side of things as much as I, Iris. As the foremost Wetworks specialist on this team, I have a strong working relationship with the other people in Wetworks. You," he turned to poke Iris hard in the shoulder, "are a mere targeter who sometimes dips her toes in wetworks."

She clasped her heart as if she was offended, "Wow, I'm hurt by you shutting me out of the boy's club. Whatever will I do? Maybe do your job so much better than you could do it."

"Shutup."

"I'm the one who gives the orders around here, not the other way around."

"Still, please shutup," Cedric put his eye back on his scope. "We're working right now."

"Ugh, fine," some shuffling beside him. "Such a killjoy."

/ - /

"...so then I take a swing at this guy, dude just stands there and takes it! Doesn't even bother to dodge." Jay was well deep into his story now. Even Finch, ever engrossed in watching his drone feed, was looking away and listening intently to the story. "So I slam his guy to the ground. Apparently his name was Dee or something, but his fighting was absolute shit."

"Worse than yours?" Lavender giggled into her hand. "I don't remember you doing too well with the SOG guys."

"Yes," Jay rolled his eyes at the combined snickers. "He was even worse than me. For the record, that SOG guy is a CQC instructor, so that was unfair."

"Hey," Thistle's voice came over their headset. "I once got into a fight with someone named Dee. Some dude with spiked brown hair and a mace?"

Jay pressed down on his radio, "Same one. Was he cocky as hell?"

"Yep. Got into a fight with that dude too. Figured he would've learned his lesson not to mess with us by now."

"This is Razz," came the Sergeant's terse voice, the wind clearly audible on his headset. "Don't get too cocky. Just about your everyday Huntsman can still kick all of our asses, and there're Contractors who couldn't hurt a fly. So don't go around thinking everyone's a fucking useless asshole. Do that and it'll get you killed one day."

"Hear you there Sergeant," said Jaune. "Pretty sure most people in Beacon can beat us in fair fight."

"Exactly why we don't usually like to fight fair," Razz replied. "Get ready down there, we're going to be coming up on the target quick. Stay sharp."

"Roger," said Jaune into his headset. Turning to the rest of his section seated in the LAV. "You heard him. Get ready."

"Alright Jaune," Finch quickly stowed his drone tablet in his pocket. Noticing Jaune's raised eyebrow, he replied. "Alabaster has access to the drones too. He has his own drone operator too, so it doesn't matter."

Jaune gave him a thumbs up, "Alright."

For all the apprehension, Jaune knew not to hope for anything eventful. Nothing would likely happen, and they would just end up sitting around at the edge of the Area of Operations waiting for something exciting to happen. First raid, and they end up playing second fiddle to SOG, holding the perimeter for the actual guys to do the job. Well, it's certainly better than being attacked by a psychopathic Huntsman, was it? He still had the sinking feeling that Tyrian had actually let him go, for whatever perverse reason. Whatever, he needed to focus on his job now.

/ - /

"I spy with my little eye, something grey," a bored sigh.

Cedric gave a small smile, "Is it the wall?"

"Which one?"

"All of them."

"Fuck it," a clatter on the table as the camera dropped from her hands. "Close enough. When's something going to happen? SOG's going to take forever at this point."

Cedric breathed out, taking his eye away from his scope again for what must've been the fiftieth time, "Is this what happens when you don't get to coordinate your own team? Constant bitching and complaining about where the raid team is?"

"I still say you just go in now and take them down."

Just then, the lights streaming through the windows from the warehouse went out.

"What the fuck?" he muttered, reshouldering his sniper rifle. "Grab the radio and start reporting to the Major."

A chair sliding back, and some shuffling around as she dug through their pile of equipment. "Where the fuck did you put it?"

"Don't fucking remember, I'm just the guy who pulls triggers," Cedric zoomed in his scope in the window, trying to make out what was happening inside the darkened warehouse.

Two Faunus suddenly crashed through the window he was looking through. His mind briefly registered that they were the two Faunus he had seen only a bit ago, before realizing that they had crashed through the very same window he was watching.

"Holy fuck!" he shouted, immediately pulling his eye away from the scope to get a better look at it. "Someone just jumped out of the window, get the Major on the radio now!"

"I'm fucking trying to find it!" Iris scrambled around beside him, before finally raising up a small handheld radio. "Got it! Guardian, this is Watcher 4, we got movement on our sector, two squirters-"

Just as if the world wanted to spite him, a giant fucking mech smashed through the wall, running straight for the two squirters that had just ran out of the window. The thing was massive, a mech similar to the images of the new Atlesian Paladin that had been making rounds in the Intelligence circles. Emblazoned on its arm was some sort of red symbol, but it was too quick for Cedric to see.

"Are you fucking kidding me!" he swore, immediately standing up in his seat. The mech soon ran out of the small field of view afforded to them by the room they had set up in. All the remained in sight was a giant, gaping hole in which many White Fang were running out of…

Fuck.

Cedric snatched up the assault rifle by his side, leaving the sniper rifle on the table. Iris kept speaking into the radio, before looking at Cedric beside her, throwing on a plate carrier.

"-we have a fucking mech on the loose, over," she gave him a once over with her eyes. "The fuck you planning to do Cedric?"

"Doing what you kept joking about," Cedric rushed towards the door, yanking it open as he flicked off the safety of his rifle. "I'm going in to make sure no one escapes. By myself." and just like that, he was out the door.

Iris looked between the door, likely leading to danger and possible death at the hands of numerous terrorist, or to stay at the hide site and continue giving updates to the Major from there.

Her decision was made when she snatched up her own rifle, there purely for self defence. She knew how to use it, but it wasn't exactly on the same level as Cedric, or even most normal Contractors. Dashing out the door, she brought her radio up to her mouth, racing past the shocked SIGINT guys.

"Guardian, this is Watcher 4. We're heading in to contain the White Fang from escaping, over!" she clipped the radio to her belt, praying like hell that they wouldn't get in trouble later. "You better know what you're doing, Cedric." she growled as she ran past yet another SIGINT guy.

/ - /

Razz sat, turned out in his hatch, letting the wind blow into his face, feeling like the king of the world driving on the city highway.

Alright, maybe it wasn't quite the same, with his crew helmet, and goggles, but it was close enough to the feeling. There wasn't quite anything like riding on top of a LAV, feeling the wind blow past your face. It was too bad his section's bad jokes kept ruining the moment, and also his concentration.

"How does each branch in Striker Group use the stars?" came Thistle's ever present voice on the crew comms.

"How?" responded Vi.

"Ground Branch sleeps under the stars, the Naval side navigates with them, and the Airwing rates their hotels by them."

"Not funny Thistle," growled Razz. "That shit's the stalest joke ever. Can you come up with something better?"

"Alright, alright," Thistle responded. "Give me a moment."

Razz scanned around him again. Cars passing by, they made way for the LAV, which was at the front of the convoy. Driving on the city highway, they were nearing a residential district, and so closer to their target. There were VPD cars somewhere in the middle of the convoy, just there to observe and provide official authority for things. He snorted as his mind went to other things. Why did Vale even abolish their military? He was pretty sure it would be cheaper overall to just train up their own military, rather than pay for their services. Maybe it was that if they hired them, they could say that neither their border guard or precious Huntsmen had taken any casualties, while widows and children wept over his colleague's body.

A fist he didn't know was clenched slowly loosened, and his jaw gently relaxed. No, now wasn't the time to think about that. Not right before an operation, where it could distract him, and cost someone their life. Just like it had only a few weeks ago…

Thankfully, a radio transmission broke up his thoughts, "All stations, this is Stalker Actual." it was the SOG element commander, a Lieutenant Colonel riding in with the air element in a Bullhead. "There is one times mech, likely an Atlesian Paladin, running around in the streets. It seems to be chasing something, unknown at this time. Trying to get eyes on it right now, acknowledge, over."

"Stalker 1 Actual, acknowledged, over." came the first SOG platoon leader's voice.

Alabaster spoke next, in a terse voice, "Stalker Actual, this is Raider 3 Actual. Say again, it's a Paladin?"

"What the fuck?" Razz quietly muttered. He switched his primary channel quickly to the section's intranet. "This is Razz, apparently we have a giant fucking mech..."

The words died in his mouth as he heard a faint stomping in the distance. Suddenly, a mech came to a halt in the middle of the intersection they were coming up on, before immediately dashing straight onto the highway, right at their convoy, and right at his LAV.

One mech, emblazoned with something red on its arms, two people jumping around on the cars, and a highway full of civilians. A car flew past his head, launched by the giant mech's careless steps, which sent vehicles flying in all directions.

"Contact front!" he shouted into his headset, transmitting on the platoon net. "Thistle, light 'em up!"

It didn't even occur to Razz to go back into the turret. The more firepower that was arrayed against the behemoth in front of them, the less damage it would do later. So he reached forward, grabbing the pintle mounted machine gun, and pointing it straight at the mech. He leant on the trigger, spewing forth a hail of bullets. All of them pinged harmlessly on the fast approaching mech.

"Vi, pull to the left and get spacing for the convoy," he ordered into his headset.

"Roger!"

The turreted jerked suddenly, the barrel soon trained on the mech, which wasn't less than a few hundred metres away. The cannon fired, the mighty fireball coming from the barrel not doing justice to the sheer power of the cannon. Yet, the only effect on the mech was it jerking around a little from the 25mm rounds.

Some moved behind him. Razz whirled around, drawing his pistol instantly. It was a cat Faunus, a Huntsman-like weapon in her hand.

"Who are you, and what the hell are you doing on my LAV?" he yelled, shoving the pistol straight into her face.

"Who are you?" snarled the faunus back. "You don't look like the police..." her eyes flicked up, before widening in horror. "Look out!" and a moment later, she was gone.

Razz turned back to the front, and not a moment too soon to see a giant mechanic fist heading straight for his LAV. His face slammed into the turret as the LAV was launched through the highway barriers that were present. Razz held on tight to the LAV, realizing that not seatbelting in wasn't the best idea, as his body flew out of the LAV.

So as the ground grew ever closer beneath them, or above them, it depended on what time he decided to look up—or was it down?— he wondered whether he'd live.

After all, his Aura wasn't exactly a thing he talked about often. Not when it was his only spot of weakness.

So he finally accepted his fate, albeit swearing and yelling the entire way down, as the LAV landed straight on its top, with Razz's full body underneath.

/ - /

A headache struck Jaune.

Among most of his injuries, the headache was the foremost thing he noticed. Yes, his LAV had just fallen… somewhere. Why, he didn't know, but as they said, Aura was a hell of a thing. Otherwise, his biggest worry might not have been his headache.

Opening his eyes, he blinked a few times and looked around. The top was crushed and crumpled, and his body tugged upwards on his harness. No, it was tugging downwards, they were upside down. His ears rung with a low drone, even with his headset, and everyone else was in a similar state of halfway conscious.

"Everyone alright?" he yelled out, looking at everyone else in the compartment.

Lavender groaned beside him, "Think I'm good. You guys good?"

"Yeah, I'm alive at least," came Jay.

Finch unclipped something on his chest. It was probably the thing holding him in place because he immediately dropped onto the roof of the LAV, "Alright, I'm pretty sure we're upside down." he said as he sat upright- or upside down from Jaune's view, rubbing his neck.

"Already got that Finch," Jaune carefully unclipped himself, lowering himself down onto the roof of the LAV. "Alright, let's get out and see what the hell happened, because all I got was Razz said there was a mech and then we got launched somewhere."

Jaune went to press the manual release button for the ramp. Something clicked open, but the ramp barely budged when he tried to move it. A quick look at Jay, "You're the strongest dude here, help me."

With the combined strength of both of them pushing on the door, they managed to get through. Jaune immediately swung his rifle out and looked around. Just a whole lot of unnatural smoke and fog… and the sounds of a battle going on in the distance.

The first thing he did was grab his bag that was strapped to the side of the LAV. Thankfully, it looked to be fairly intact, along with Crocea Mors, which luckily hadn't fallen off.

"Everyone, set up a perimeter around the LAV. Jay, grab the rest of the section from inside and drag them out. I'll try and contact the Captain," as everyone went to scan the dense fog, Jaune gripped his radio tight in his hand. "Raider 3 Actual, this is Raider 3-3, come in, over."

Only static.

He tried again, pressing down on the transmission button, a slow feeling of dread building, "Raider 3 Actual, this is Raider 3-3, come in, over."

Nothing still. He tried again, "Any station on this net, this is Raider 3-3, we were knocked off the bridge, come in, over." his finger came off the transmission button, the only thing audible was the low drone of static through his headset. There was no way that his radio couldn't reach the platoon, it was a bigger one than the ones they used for intranet comms, and it could reach quite a way.

"No fucking way," he breathed. If they were here- no, there could be multiple forces that had jammers. It wasn't as if it was a exclusive technology, was it? He shoved the radio back into a pouch, before reaching for his section radio. "This is Jaune, you hear me on the net?"

"I got you, coming in staticy though," said Lavender, looking back at him from her spot only a few metres away. "Really feels like our first mission, does it?"

Kneeling on the ground, Finch kept his eyes pointed outwards towards the fog, his eyes quickly darting from spot to spot, "I don't like this man. It's unnatural."

Jaune rushed over to Finch's side, taking a knee next to him. "Can you still connect to your drone? Or not."

"Oh, let me check..." fumbling a bit, Finch finally pulled out his tablet. "Uh, nope. Got nothing here. No signal to the drone I had up. Looks like we're being jammed on all frequencies. I'm pretty sure I can try and work around it, but I'll need some time."

"Alright, get to it," Jaune patted Finch on the back, before moving back to the destroyed LAV. What used to be a mighty military vehicle was now a crumpled piece of metal, a large hole in the side, with twisted and crumpled metal surrounding it. Jay stepped out of the open ramp, pushing the slack ramp up as he dragged out two bodies. Jaune's throat tightened as he rushed towards Jay.

"Are they alive?" he said, kneeling down to touch Thistle's pulse. It was there, definitely.

"Both of them," grunt Jay as he dragged out Vi's unconscious body. "Can't find Razz in there for some reason. Must've fallen out at some point."

"Well that's great," he muttered. There was an explosion in the distance, or rather, multiple explosions. "Wonder what's going on over there?"

"Vi!" Lavender shouted as she turned back. Abandoning her position, she ran to her sister's side, grabbing her shoulders and hugging her tight. Jaune didn't stop her, he just continued scanning in her abandoned sector for her.

"She's alright," Jaune said quickly, motioning for Finch to come back to them. "Just we can't find Razz for some reason or another."

He winced as another explosion sounded in the distance. If it was their platoon, they definitely needed to investigate. If it was something else? Well, it was something dangerous, and their job was to run into danger. A glance down at Thistle and Vi's unconscious forms. There was no way they could bring them in, and no way they could just leave them there. Jaune quickly ran through his thought process.

"Lav, Finch, stay here," he snapped, pointing at the two. "Jay and I are going to see what's going on with the explosions in the distance. You guys pull security on these two right here and try to start working on getting comms back and your drones working again. There's a chance of us losing radio comms with you guys so don't get immediately worried. Only when you see a body fly past you." he grinned grimly at the end. Nothing like dark humour rubbing off you from everyone else. "We're probably dealing with a mech, so stay alert."

Before anyone could protest, Jaune was already dragging Jay further into the fog, towards the sounds of battle. Before long, they were slowly walker through the fog filled area.

"You sure this is a good idea?" Jay said softly, sweeping a patch of the fog with his machinegun. "Splitting up the team like this, I mean."

"At least this time, no one's left by themselves," Jaune said, still walking forwards towards the sounds of battle. "They can take care of themselves if anything goes down there."

"Whatever you say, Jaune," was all that Jay said, turning away to watch his side. "Wait, I think I see something."

True to his word, a giant mech stumbled out into the fog, it's giant arms sweeping the area around it. Entirely grey, on its arm was the red White Fang symbol. Shit, when did the White Fang have access to goddamn mechs?

"Get you launcher out," he whispered to Jay, backing away ever so slightly. "Don't engage yet, we definitely can't take this ourselve-"

The mech turned to face them, its guns already pointed straight at them.

Jay was in the middle of pulling out his launcher when he realized the same thing as Jaune, "We're dead, aren't we?"

Before Jaune could respond, he heard a familiar voice, "Ladybug!"

A red blur sped forward, hooking its… scythe? Jaune's eye's widened when he recognized the distinct red cloak, the giant scythe, and that fact that there was also another person there who looked strikingly similar to Blake. In amazing speed, the two of them sped around the mech's legs, hacking and slashing at them, before leaping up in the air, and coming down its arm, leaving behind a one-armed mech.

"Holy shit," said Jay, fumbling to take the rocket launcher off his shoulder. "What the hell are we doing Jaune?"

Jay looked at him with a lost expression. Team RWBY was here for whatever reason, fighting a mech with a White Fang symbol on its arm. Why? Jaune sure didn't know. Just then, someone with a bright yellow mane—he recognized her as Yang—leapt up on top of the mech, and started punching the top of it.

"Deploy that fucking launcher, and shoot it as soon as you see an opportunity," Jay nodded at him, unfolding the rocket launcher that was strapped to his back. Jaune reached up for his radio. "Finch, this is Jaune, you read me?"

"I hear you Jaune," static was interspersed through the short transmission, though it was still readable. They had given them new radios for intra section comms that could fight through jamming. Shame they hadn't for their longer range ones yet. "What do you need?"

"Just checking in. Do you have your drones set up yet?" next to him, Jay shoved a round into his launcher, aiming it right for the mech in front of them, who'd just thrown Yang through a concrete beam. He winced as he expected a highway to come down on them. Thankfully, nothing did, good engineering on the architect's part.

"Negative, still working on it."

"Roger, we're engaging the mech now, out," the mech's arm unfolded as Yang fell through the air. In one swift movement, Yang was sent flying. Jaune laid a hand on Jay's shoulder. "Hit 'em now Jay!"

There was a loud thoomp! as a concussive shell blasted the rocket out of the launcher, before the rocket ignited, and flew towards the mech, homing in on the side that had just got its arm blown off. Jay started reloading the launcher for another shot, letting the tube drop to the ground as he scrambled to grab another missile. "Mind helping me with this Jaune?"

He scrambled over, helping Jay pull another missile out of its container, a small plastic tube. Yanking a missile out, he handed it to Jay. He turned up to look at the mech, only to see its arm slowly turning into a gun shaped thing, pointing directly at them.

Fuck.

In a snap second reaction, his arm went to Crocea Mors strapped to his backpack. A practiced movement. His shield mechashifted out in front of him as he pushed Jay to the ground. His ears drowned out every other noise as he came to a stop with his shield fully extended, only focusing on the noise of the energy shot coming right at him. The blast of sound from the initial shot, the slow whizz of the blast. Finally, it hitting him.

Only, it never did. Jaune peeked over his shield, to see the former love of his life, Weiss Schnee, standing with her rapier raised, and an ice wall in front of him. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, letting her rapier slowly drop.

"Who just do you think you ar-" Weiss blinked hard when she saw him, turning fully to face him. "Jaune? What are you doing here?"

"Uh," standing up, he quickly sheathed Crocea Mors and swung up his rifle again. "I joined a PMC and we were going to raid a White Fang meeting when a mech appeared out of nowhere and punched my vehicle off the highway." Jaune turned back to Jay, "Get that thing loaded and ready to shoot."

"What?" Weiss stared at him, gaped mouth.

Jaune shrugged, peaking out of the icewall to take a look at the mech, just in time to see Yang shatter the mech's arm with one punch. There was a saying somewhere probably, that Huntsmen were bullshit. "Let's just say it's more than complicated. Let's just focus on killing this big ass mech first."

"Hmph," Weiss said, giving him a once over. "It seems you've grown since you were kicked out. We'll discuss this later then." she dashed away at an inhuman speed back to Ruby, who was yelling various commands at her team.

"Who the hell was that?" Jay asked, shoving another rocket into his launcher.

Jaune peered out of the icewall put up by Weiss. Yang swung straight towards the mech on a ribbon, nearly hitting it, but the mech dodged out of the way, "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the SDC and a student at Beacon. Also used to be a crush of mine."

"The fuck?"

"Don't ask, long story."

Patches of ice started suddenly appearing on the mech's surface, blossoming to spread across the mech. Soon, the mech's legs were covered in ice, immobilizing it to the ground. The mech tugged on its feet, trying to move, but it was too late for it. Yang swung around on a ribbon, flying towards the immobile mech with his fist reared back, ready to smash the mech to pieces.

"Do they even need us?" asked Jay, lifting her rocket launcher up to aim at the mech. "This girl is about to destroy that thi-"

Yang dropped out of the air suddenly, her body jerking from something, sliding to just at the mech's feet.

"What the fuck?" Jay shifted around on her knee, bringing his rocket launcher to bear on the mech. "Did she just drop out of the air?"

If to answer his question, four cloaked figures appeared next to the mech, seeming appearing from thin air, as if they had some kind of invisibility tech. The white cloaks sparked a familiar memory, and not a very happy one. A round cracked past his head, and Jaune ducked down behind the icewall Weiss had left behind. Soon, rounds started impacting all around them.

"Get down!" Jaune yanked Jay down behind the icewall, which was already being chipped at by their new unknown enemy. "Start lighting them up with your machinegun Jay."

"Gotcha there!" Jay quickly dropped his launcher on the ground, unslinging his machine gun and laying down on the ground. The sound of a cyclic machinegun filled the air as Jay let loose. Turning around, Ruby and Weiss were staggering back from bullets hitting them. In the distance, one of the cloaked men was effortlessly beating Yang into a pulp with his machete. Masked, and wielding a bladed weapon, that one stood differently than the rest, more like a Huntsman than a highly trained bandit. Yang slung a punch at the cloaked figure, which they diverted with a casual flick of the wrist. Slashing into her midriff, he sent her flying towards them.

"Finch, this is Jaune, do you read?" he yelled into his headset. Jay yelped beside him, clutching his face. Jaune twisted to look at Jay, "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Jay raised a hand up, lifting up his machine gun to move. "Fuckers got me in the face."

"Alright, get your launcher ready and prepare to hit that mech," Jaune said. Jay gave him a thumbs up.

His headset crackled with a barely recognizable voice, "Jau… this is… drones up… read..."

Drones, ready. It was all he needed, "If you got those drones ready, hit the fucking mech now!"

Just static for a response.

He'd have to hope that Finch had gotten the message. Glancing around, Jay was busy readying his launcher, team RWBY was trying to fight the now freed mech and the likely Sabyr Brigade bandits. In a flip, Ruby landed right next to him. Jaune let a burst off at the Sabyr Brigade troops, barely acknowledging the scythe wielding reaper next to him. She, however, did acknowledge him.

"Oh my god, Jaune!" Ruby gasped, her silver eyes going wide. "What are you doing here?"

A quick glance to her, "No time! Fight these guys first!"

"Uh, alright, got it!" she disappeared into a red blur, speeding towards the rest of her teammates.

Jaune swung out his shield, deploying it in front of him as the icewall broke, "Jay, get behind me!"

"Roger!"

A bullet pinged off his shield. Soon, dozens of bullets were pinging off his shield. He gritted his teeth, pulling his pistol to fire back over it wildly.

"Clear backblast!" yelled Jay, hefting up his rocket launcher.

Jaune gave a quick look around, "Backblast clear!"

"Firing!"

A thoomp! as the rocket flew out. The motor ignited, driving the homing missile straight into the mech. It staggered, pieces of it breaking into pieces. But, it was still standing. Jay yowled behind him, a sharp impact as he fell butt first on the ground. Even more rounds started hammering against his shield, and more nipped at his feet. RWBY wasn't doing too much better, the precise, concentrated fire from the high power rifles biting at their Aura. The mech started to run towards the embattled Huntresses, his giant feet not showing a bit of damage.

Suddenly, there was an explosion. Jaune peeked his head to see the mech start to stagger back from a giant fireball enveloping it. Then, more fireballs. Jaune noticed the small drones crashing right into it. Looking around, he could almost see all of them circling around, diving in one by one.

Finally, an explosion knocked it off its feet, where it laid, a smouldering mess.

A man emerged quickly. Distinct bowler hat, bright orange hair, and white trench coat, there was no mistaking Roman Torchwick. He raised up a hand, and the Sabyr Brigade men around him stopped firing.

"Well, well, well," Roman said loudly, starting to clap. "I suppose good help arriving late is better than those animals the entire way through. At least you Sabyr boys can fight."

The response of the Sabyr Brigade man wasn't audible from so far away, but Roman's response came back loud and strong. Jaune slowly unclipped a flashbang from his vest. It would be a decent distance to throw, but definitely still doable.

"Don't worry, they would've found out eventually," laughed the thief, looking towards them. "My, you kids surely just are persistent. Though Mercenary over there is new."

Yang growled, raising her fists and punching forward, shooting a round directly at Torchwick. The Sabyr Brigade men immediately raised their weapons but Roman held up a hand with a grin on his face. At the last second, a woman dropped down and unfurled an umbrella, blocking the shotgun blast entirely. She lowered it to reveal mismatched pink and brown eyes.

"Ladies? And gentlemen of course," Roman gave a little salute to them with his typical cocky grin. "I'd love to play a bit more, but I'm afraid we'll have to go. Neo, take it away."

The girl bowed, a killer smile painted across her face.

Now or never.

Slipping the pin from the flash bang, he chucked it as hard as he could towards the criminals, before hiding again behind his shield.

Bang!

He peeked up again, expecting to see all of them stumbling around, blind. Instead, he rose to see disappearing shards of an illusion of some sort. A Bullhead appeared out of nowhere, Torchwick waving a cheeky goodbye as the severe Sabyr men stood behind, their expression hidden by their masks.

Weiss looked around, "Well, you could say that girl made our plans, fall apart," snickers from only Weiss, and only her.

"That wasn't very funny," Jaune strolled up to the four of them, folding up his shield and strapping it to his belt again. He glanced back to see Jay dusting himself off. "You good?"

"Yeah," Jay gave him a thumbs up.

Yang put her hands on her hips and stared right at him with a frown, "What are you doing here Vomit boy?"

Jaune ignored her and looked at the disappearing Bullhead, "Think you can use your launcher to take that thing down?"

Jay stood up to look at the Bullhead, "I could try, but there are too many support beams and it's getting too far away now."

"Gotcha."

"Are you ignoring me?" Yang grabbed him by his shoulders. "What are you doing here Arc, you got kicked out of Beacon at the start of the year! Don't tell me you've decided that's enough training to go running around as vigilantes. How'd you even afford all of this gear anyways?" she motioned to all of the kit he had on him, as well as the high tech helmet he wore on his head.

"Ahem," Jaune coughed into his fist, staring right back at Yang, straightening his back. "If you would let me go, please."

Yang backed off, staring at him intently. Ruby, however, stared at him with her bright, silver eyes.

"Where've you been Jaune? You haven't been responding to any of my texts," Ruby stared at him expectedly, while the rest of team RWBY watched.

"Yeah… about that," Jaune looked around quickly. Jay just shrugged at him. Bastard. "I was sort of feeling down then, if that makes any sense."

"Then why not after that?" Ruby cocked her head. Damn her for being observant. "Oh, are you still feeling… down?"

"Yeah, we'll go with that," close enough to the truth anyways. "Jay, go secure the wreckage. What were you guys even doing where?"

As Jay walked off towards the destroyed mech, Blake was the first one to speak, "Doing the job the police wouldn't do." she snarled, "taking down the White Fang."

"See, that's funny," he said as he walked away from them, and towards Jay, who was inspecting the mech wreckage now. "We were actually just about to raid the White Fang place, when we got word there was a mech running around town. Funny how things happen like that, hey?"

Blake flinched, staring at Jaune apprehensively, "You were?"

"Yep."

Weiss stared at him oddly, seemingly looking him up and down, "You've definitely changed, Arc. Hey! Don't walk away from us! We're not done with you yet. You snuck into Beacon with no Aura, got kicked out, and just show up? You need to explain all of this."

Jaune turned around, his mouth already open to retort, when his headset was filled with a familiar panicked voice, "Guys, this is Lav. We found Razz, he's injured and needs help! We're back at the LAV."

A curse formed at his mouth as he started sprinting back to where the LAV wreckage was. Jay followed behind, and RWBY tagged along, albeit at a slower pace.

Coming to a stop just in front of the LAV, his eyes locked onto Finch and Lavender standing over Razz's still body, ignoring Thistle and Vi laid against the side of the LAV, they would live. Lower half crushed and crumpled, there was a blood trail drawing a path from the overturned LAV.

No, no, no. No fucking way.

He slid next to Razz, placing his hands on the Sergeant. Breathing, alright, that's good.

"I found him underneath the LAV," came Lavender's distraught voice. "God, I- I don't know..."

"Fuck," he whispered as he let his hands rest of Razz's barely living form. "Fuck, fuck fuck!"

A series of gasps behind him, Jaune just ignored them, and focussed on Razz.

"Please you tough asshole," something wet was filling up in his eyes. "Live you asshole." Jaune's head snapped back around to RWBY, who was standing there dumbfounded, "Do something useful and pull security!"

They scurried off immediately, their eyes wide and stunned expressions on their faces. They numbly went away, leaving the section to Razz.

Razz head twitched, before his eyes opened, "Hey guys, what's up?"

"Sh," he immediately hushed. "Save your strength." Lavender handed him a dressing, which he immediately went to try to apply it to the Sergeant.

"Guess I'm going to die," Razz coughed hoarsely into the air. "I've always had a small Aura, just played smart and wore the gear they gave me. Also, the vehicles protected me well, so that helped. Guess my luck would run out eventually."

Tears started to roll down his face. No fucking way. Razz seemed invincible, like some god figure in their training. No way someone could die this easy. The tears started to come loose now. Everything was falling apart again.

"Jaune?" Lavender gently touched his shoulder. "Something's happening with your hands, and it's helping."

He opened his eyes, and true to her word, a light sheen of light wrapped itself over his hands, and a similarly coloured sheen of light started spreading over Razz's body, covering up all of the ripped flesh there was.

"What the hell?" Jaune muttered.

Razz raised an eyebrow, a small grin on his face, "Already feeling stronger kid. Pretty sure you have some sort of bullshit healing semblance. Should've become a doctor or something, and get paid the big bucks."

"Raider 3-3, this is Raider 3 Actual, come in, over." Alabaster's voice came through his headset.

Jaune immediately reached up for his radio, "Actual, this is 3-3. We got a man down and several other injuries, requesting immediate medevac, over."

"Roger, Stalker 1 is coming up on you times now. We'll be with you soon, over."

"Thanks Actual, 3-3 out."

He could already see the men rushing in from the distance. Garbed in black clothes, with skull masks, they rushed past RWBY, keeping man watching each of them, and soon two medics were by his side. The medics quickly placed him on a stretcher, taking the Sergeant away, probably to somewhere else. Jaune didn't care, Razz was safe now, he was going to live.

First, the laughter came only a little at first, but soon, he was crying from his laughter. Sitting by the LAV, everything was alright now. Thistle was next to him, laughing along with him, maybe not as much, but laughing nonetheless.

Thistle looked over at him, "Heard you took down a mech."

"We all did, and RWBY did most of the work anyways."

"Who?"

"Oh, tho-" his words died when the SOG platoon leader was roughly shoved away by Yang, red eyed and had already deployed her shotgun fists. Twenty guns came up all at once, all of them pointing at the Huntresses.

The four Huntresses stood in a ring, surrounding them in an L shape were twenty of the best and brightest operators that Striker Group could muster. Meanwhile, Jaune and his beat up section sat in the middle of it, sat by their destroyed LAV.

"Holy fuck, we just want to question you!" yelled out the SOG platoon leader, already drawing his pistol.

Blake bristled, staring right back, "We're not criminals! You have no right to take us in!"

He probably shouldn't have spoken so soon.

Spicy misunderstanding.

I originally intended for this to extend to resolve in the same chapter, whatever way it'll go, but hey, it's at 10k words and a day before I have my deadline. So uh, yeah cliffhanger. Also, I'm writing this the day before I upload, so please be easy on me.

Also, school just went, yo what's up want like, all of the damn homework at the end of the year? So yeah, I'm going to have fun because I spent the entire weekend writing this thing.

I read every review, and reply to ones that have legitimate questions or stuff, and saw a few guest reviews.

For how and why Jaune managed to escape Tyrian, yes, Tyrian is way more powerful than Jaune. I did touch on Tyrian being a fast boi, because he disappeared infront of Jaune's eyes a few times. They managed to escape the belltower because Tyrian was showboating and the gas grenade they left as a surprise. As for the sprint across the field? Well uh, let's just say a cannon round hit him in the face a few times. Also, canon Jaune basically never improved from a someone who can just take a few hits.

Could that make more sense? Yes, definitely, but I planned and wrote that in a week. I'm improving as I go.

I appreciate any review, so leave them down there. Aloha Snackbar.

Tophat out.