Week late, sorry. To compensate I got a chonky chapter for you all. If it happens again I'll alway put an announcement out of my discord.
discord gg/8gbF2TJ (Link in profile if you want to copy paste).
Onto the chapter.
"We're missing drones?"
"I… think so. The inventory count came up a few short, though you know we got officers that always ignore the sign-out sheet."
"Fuck, count it again. I'll go… I'll go yell at the TOC to see if any of them took out any drones without signing them out."
"What concerns mean is that all of the missing drones are the Daggers. The explosive ones."
"You sure? I mean, if anyone stole them there's no way they could control them. They're finicky fuckers. Hell, there are better drones to steal if they want to sell them."
"Shit, I dunno man. Anything could happen."
"Alright uh… you inventory it again, and I'll go yell at people until I find out nobody or someone took drones without signing them out."
"Gotcha will do."
"Keep this quiet for now, will you? Don't need this exploding if we can deal with it ourselves."
"Will do, Sergeant. Will do."
Chapter 21: Honeypot
"What the hell was that?"
Jaune swung his head immediately to the source of the explosion, pulling away from Pyrrha who just took his hand.
Likewise, a gasp spread through the dancefloor, the students turning to look through the windows out towards the noise.
Then the little piece of his brain that handled sound recognition clicked.
It was an explosion.
And he was away from his vehicle.
"Fuck!" he started pushing through the throng of students, grabbing at the rifle slung behind him, beelining towards the exit. "Make way! Get out of the fucking way!"
"What's happening?" came Pyrrha's voice. Level and calm. She was training to be a Huntress, after all, it wouldn't do for her to freak out at an attack. It was that reason why Jaune didn't get trampled in a panicked rush for the doors. The Huntsmen-inTraining inside didn't immediately start panicking. Rather, they stared through the windows with calm and level expressions, some already pulling out their scrolls. What for, Jaune didn't know, but his priority was getting the hell away from here and to his LAV.
A glance back, "I don't fucking know. Just… just keep everyone in the dancehall, do not let anyone out!"
While they were capable combatants in their own right, the last thing Striker Groupneeded was hundreds of students sprinting around adding to the chaos. God forbid find any attackers in that chaos.
Without another word, he sprinted away, rifle in hand and head twisting around scanning for anything, anything at all. The sight he saw made him pause for a moment, but that moment was over in a split second as he redoubled his sprint towards his LAV.
Big, giant, goddamn fireballs.
Multiple of them, lighting up the sky in an orange glow. It bathed the ground in a surreal orange tinge. No, only one was tingeing the ground in a surreal glow. That one had to at least stretch at least fifty metres in the air. What caused that? There was no way Beacon had that much Dust stored in one spot. At least if they did, it was definitely not in the direction the explosion was. But Striker Group had an ammo dump nearby filled to the brim with…
Fuck!
"Thistle, this is Jaune, do you read, over!" he yelled into his radio.
Static.
Jamming too? Dammit! Was Sabyr Brigade here?
His LAV came into sight just around the corner, street lamps illuminating it in the twilight. The turret swung back and forth, the gun menacingly scanning the surroundings. Jay was kneeling on the back, machine gun sweeping around. The LAV kept abruptly driving back and forth, starting and stopping at random intervals. Jaune let a grim smile come to his face. Any RPG man would have a hard time to draw an exact bead on the LAV, which was the intended result of the maneuver. Vi couldn't be trusted to give them a smooth ride, but at least she'd keep them alive.
Jaune made out Jay turning to face him in the low light, "Jaune! Get the hell back over here and back into your hatch!"
"Then tell Vi to stop the LAV and let me on!" he yelled back, grabbing a handle on the side of the LAV as it stopped, pulling himself up. Jay gave a glance, before sliding back into his air sentry hatch. Planting his feet on top of the LAV, Jaune banged his fist against the hatch a few times. "Thistle, stop turning the turret so I can get in!"
The turret stopped turning, and Jaune yanked back the commander's hatch and lowered himself straight in.
Thistle looked over from beside him as Jaune plugged his headset into the LAV, "Didn't you say something about nothing happening right now?"
"Fuck you too," Jaune set his rifle down behind him, grabbing control of the commander optics. Flipping a few switches, his headset crackled with the intercom of the vehicle. "Mic check, you guys read me?"
"Yeah, dumbass," said Vi.
Thistle gave him the middle finger from beside him.
Flicking a few switches, he set his left ear to the radios on the LAV. Before, presumably the jammer was preventing his short-range from reaching them. If it was the same as the last time, the LAV radio would burn through.
A staticy voice broke through, "This is 3-2, we see the Bullhead docks on fire, interrogative, what are further orders?"
"3-2, Actual, if there are casualties, move to assist. Otherwise stay put. 3-3, this is Actual, I say again, do you read? Over."
He thumbed the PTT button, "Actual, this is 3-3, we're being jammed. Short-range is ineffective. I'm seeing a whole lot of explosions, unsure which to respond to, over."
A moment, "Start moving towards Point Alpha and standby for further order, out."
"You heard him, Vi," Jaune said on the intercom. "Get moving to the CCT, or Point Alpha as they call it."
The LAV lurched forward, the rumble of an idle engine turning into a whine. After a moment's thought, he stood up in his seat, throwing open the hatch and popping out into the air. Leaning forward, he took hold of the pintle mounted machine gun, fitting it snugly in his shoulder. They needed every gun in the fight, and he was confident in his Aura to protect him if any enemy sniper decided to take a shot at him.
It was standard procedure for every Contractor to have their radio listen to two levels above them, so that was why Jaune heard the conversation between the TOC and Alabaster.
A different radio squelch this time, "Beacon Main, this is Raider 3 Actual, what is our priority to respond to? The CCT or the explosions, over."
"3 Actual, this is Main. Send two victors to respond to the explosion, stay by th-"
The transmission cut off, only to be replaced by static. In the distance, another explosion bloomed, the shockwave sweeping over his vehicle milliseconds later.
"Main, say again. You cut off, over," came Alabaster's voice.
Just more static.
All this played out as he twisted his head from side to side, scanning the fast moving surrounding to find anything. Anything at all that stood out amongst the urban background. If he faltered, it could very much cost the lives of his crew, and that was something he couldn't accept.
"3-3, this is Actual," the sound came through his right ear, on the platoon net "I need you to move to the TOC to check up on them. They cut off, over. 3-2, move to investigate the detonations, carefully, break."
"You heard him as well as I did, Vi," Jaune shouted into his mic. "Switch destinations, we're heading to the TOC."
The LAV abruptly stopped on a dime, immediately starting to turn to the left, "Are you fucking kidding me?" came her voice, "We passed the fucking turn to there a hundred metres back."
"I don't give a fuck, Vi, get moving."
Thistle's chuckle came over the intercom, "Shit, you suddenly turn into a hardass? What happened to nice guy Jaune?"
The LAV finished its three point turn as Jaune twisted his whole torso around to look behind. Jay was still poking his machine gun and head out of the air sentry hatch, "It's because Beacon is blowing up. How the hell are you joking right now?"
"Because it's my way of fucking coping," replied Thistle. "If you care to pop back down you'd see my shaking fucking hands."
"I would if I didn't need to be on the pintle," came his hurried reply.
Thistle snorted, "You don't. Just get Jay to cover with his bigass machinegun he insists he needs."
"You suck," replied Jay.
Jaune blinked a few times, trying to make out targets within the darkness shrouding the buildings and streets around him, but it was too damn dark! With a swear, he quickly pulled out his NODs out of its pouch, clipping it onto his helmet. Flipping it down, it clicked on, filling his vision with a green tint, immediately illuminating the previously dark spots.
Didn't help with the whole motion blur problem though.
A radio squelch in his headset. This one was the secondary radio in the LAV set to the company net. Then came Alabaster's voice, "All stations, this is Raider 3 Actual. Beacon Main is presumed… KIA until further notice. I'm taking command. All Raider elements are tasked to respond to the explosions and assist with CASEVAC, break."
Pause, "Knight 1, this is Raider 3 Actual, message, over."
Knight was the Infantry Platoon callsign, he recalled. They had something like four sections active tonight. The LAV turned the corner, turret turning first, and the rest following.
"3 Actual, this is 1, send it, over."
"Roger, leave one section at Point Alpha, task the rest to sweeping the immediate area for whoever the bombers are. Get another to start moving to assist my platoon in taking care of the places hit by whatever the fuck is causing all these explosions, over."
"3 Actual, this is 1, wilco, over."
"Roger, out."
Jaune swivelled his pintle machine gun to scan the passing building side. More and more heads were poking out of their windows to look at them. Students blearily taking a look outside their dorms to see what all the commotion was. Some even stumbled out, gaping at the LAV speeding past. As all of this filtered in, one thought came to mind.
How the hell were they supposed to find who did this? Would they just be wearing a catsuit with a mask, while suspiciously sneaking around? Fat chance. If Sabyr Brigade was involved, they'd be slightly more subtle. Another explosion out in the distance. Maybe a secondary detonation, or maybe another bomb.
"We're coming up on the base times now!" Vi's disembodied voice said. "Just around the corner here."
Thistle spoke, "I've got money on a fucking radio malfunction. We even got evidence of jamming."
"We'll see in one second..." his voice trailed off as the TOC came into sight. "Oh God."
The base was a blazing mess. The prefab building that should've been the TOC was torn apart, its thin metal walls twisted and bent at all angles, the top half just not there anymore. A thick column of smoke trailed up from it, while the screams of the wounded shrilly rang out in the air. The area where they'd normally park their vehicles was just a pile of flaming wrecks and overturned LAVs. Past the fence, uniformed men and women ran around, desperately dragging bodies away from the flaming wrecks. Craters marred the previously pristine concrete ground. It was like a cluster bomb was just dropped on it.
There was a moment of panic when he thought of it. Maybe they'd hit an undetonated bomblet, but then he relaxed slightly as he realized a clusterbomb wasn't likely. He'd seen a few clusterbombs dropped in training, and if it was, most of the base wouldn't exist.
"Holy fuck..." muttered Thistle as the LAV came to a stop just before the metal gate.
Jaune waved a hand above him, cupping the other around his mouth "Hey! Someone get this fucking gate open!"
One Contractor looked back, running quickly towards the gate, throwing it open with a press of a button. Jaune leaned down to look at him, "Hey! What happened here?"
"I-I don't know!" sputtered the Contractor, head jittering around. "I was just standing guard and the fucking TOC exploded! I think I heard a buzz or something, then the motor pool fucking exploded! Fuck, everything exploded man!"
"Shit..." Jaune looked around. Wounded laid on the ground in front of their barracks building… which had a hole blown in it. The medical aid station just off in the distance was in a similar state to the TOC. So no going there for casualties… there was only one other option. "Get your guys to pull security around here! We're going to load up everyone we can into this and try to get them to the Beacon Hospital!"
The Contractor numbly nodded, reaching up to his radio and turning to watch the road coming into the compound.
He keyed the company net on his radio, "Raider 3 Actual, this is Raider 3-3. TOC is confirmed destroyed along with an unknown amount of the base. Estimated… eighty percent. Unknown casualties. Medical Station is destroyed. Requesting to ferry wounded on my victor to Beacon Hospital, over."
"Affirmative 3-3," came Alabaster. "Try to get as many victors up as possible to move casualties, and make contact with all forces on base and get them updated on the situation before moving out with the casualties, over."
"Roger 3 Actual, out."
"Jay, dismount and load the wounded into here and help get as many surviving vehicles up as possible," Jaune spoke into his intercom. "Thistle, keep watch. Vi, keep the engine on. Got it?"
His crew sounded back with affirmatives, voices shaky. Jaune didn't blame them, because his legs shook like there was an earthquake as he climbed out of his hatch to the sight of his fellow Contractors blown to pieces, limbs lying around haphazardly, and men and women screaming out in pain.
Jaune tightened his hold on his pistol grip as he ran to the rows of wounded Contractors, desperately being worked on by a few medics.
Someone out there had caused this.
Someone that could be caught.
Jaune clenched his jaw. That was for later. Now would be trying to save some lives.
/ - /
"What do you mean we can't leave?"
"But Headmaster, there's literally an attack going on outside, are we really going to leave these mercenaries to deal with it?"
"What are we going to do if a bomb goes off in here? Sit and take it? With all due respect Headmaster, I don't think staying in here is the best idea."
"You're going to let those mercenaries boss us around?"
Headmaster Ozpin sipped his coffee mug calmly in the face of his student's protests.
By his side stood Pyrrha, who told him just a few minutes ago about what Jaune told them to do. Surprisingly, he did as Jaune ordered. It did help though, that Ironwood liked the suggestion too, and pushed heavily for it when she mentioned it to him. When she asked for a rationale, he responded that his soldiers were out searching the area for the perpetrator, and it wouldn't help if hundreds of students were wandering around searching for them.
As the students started questioning Ozpin, Pyrrha could feel the doubt crashing down on her.
Was it really wise to keep them all here?
Should she have listened to Jaune?
Obviously, he improved, but they trained since childhood to do this job. Jaune only really started training half a year ago. There was a definite gap in experience she had to admit, however much she loved him.
"Students," Ozpin finally spoke. Everyone who was previously shouting quieted down. "Be it as it is, sending you out to deal with this situation may have you catch the perpetrator… or make it worse."
"Why? We're trained for this!" blurted out one student.
Ozpin did not scold him, rather give him a raised eyebrow, "What if the attacker puts on a disguise and hides among you? Could the Striker Group men, or even you, pick out an infiltrator when the whole school is up in arms?" a chuckle. "I may like to think I have a good memory, but I'm not as disillusioned as to think I can remember every student in my school."
"What about everyone else in the school? You seriously can't think holding us here is going to stop every other student from coming out of their dorms and looking!"
Ozpin nodded at Ironwood.
The General's face was of a look befitting the occasion. Serious with an edge of haggardness hidden below his mask, "I have my troops going through telling everyone to stay inside. We're taking select student teams to assist us in the effort, which does not include you. Now if you'd excuse me," Ironwood pushed his way through a protesting clump of students and stopped in the exit. "I have orders to give, and affairs to put in order." Ironwood left without turning back.
Ozpin sipped his coffee, face calm as ever to the outside. Internally, he cursed Ironwood for leaving him to contend with his students.
As the student's protests grew ever more vocal, despite the ever looming presence of Professor Goodwitch, Pyrrha took a step back, quickly backing away from the growing mob.
A decent distance away, she let out a sigh, slumping against the wall behind her.
"Well, this turned from bad to worse."
Pyrrha turned to see Weiss sitting down in a chair lined up against a wall.
"Come, sit, might be a while until we're allowed to leave."
So she did, taking a good look at the heiress who used to vie for her attention oh so many months ago, "You don't seem particularly upset at being kept in here."
She hmphed, "That's because I know better than to lose my composure in an argument against the Headmaster."
"You don't agree with them?"
A scoff, "I do. Sitting around here doing nothing while there's an attack going on outside doesn't sit well with me. We're training to protect people after all. It'd be amiss to just let this go on outside without interfering," Weiss didn't flinch as another explosion boomed in the distance. "But the Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company should not be seen publicly arguing. If I chose to voice my grievances, I'd voice them in private."
"And you're voicing them with me here?"
Weiss didn't miss a beat, "This is what I'd consider private enough for these kinds of matters. It would hardly be a scandal if someone overheard me talking with you about this, but it's not something I'd say in front of the Headmaster."
They sat for a bit, the frustrated yells and shouting of the students gentle white noise compared to the cracks and bangs outside. Her trained ear told her that they weren't anything big like the first ones, but more likely secondary explosions. Twiddling her thumbs, she looked back over at Weiss, who sat forlornly in her seat, "Do you think he'll let us go and search for the attackers?"
Sigh, "I wouldn't think that the Headmaster is so fickle as to change his mind due to the protests of his students, but I'm not so confident to say that I really know how that man thinks."
In her mind, she kept rolling over what she just said to the Headmaster, how she told him about Jaune's orders, and how seriously he took them.
What did Jaune do that Ozpin himself followed his parting order?
Meanwhile, Ozpin himself stood in the middle of the exit, sipping at his coffee, while his Deputy stood stalwartly besides him. In face of the shouts, protests, and sudden quieting as Goodwitch glared at them, Ozpin stood stone-faced.
It made him wonder why he trusted the judgment of Jaune over his own. Which held him long enough to be convinced by Ironwood of keeping his students here…
Ozpin frowned for the first time that night. The dancehall was the last place he needed to be… his place would be to responding to the attacks on his school. Brothers forbid, it was Salem making a move on the…
"Students," he called out suddenly, quieting the entire crowd. "I will need to depart with Deputy Headmistress Goodwitch to help take care of affairs. I trust that everyone here will remain in this hall barring extenuating circumstances? If you dare break this order, Goodwitch here will take care of punishment."
The students collectively shivered.
A sweeping glance back and forth. In all likeliness, the students would follow through with the order. Whether or not they did break the order, it didn't matter too much. All he'd need to do was sense the Relic to see if they had it on them or had been close to it.
Without another word, he turned and left the dancehall, Goodwitch alongside him, leaving a crowd of confused and arguing students in his wake.
/ - /
Cinder Fall was, by all definitions, a power hungry, manipulating psychopath.
She didn't think she was a psychopath though, which was cast in doubt immediately by her wide smile at the sight of her handiwork.
The famed Striker Group was sent running with their tail in between their legs by a few bombs here and there. Well… there was also her special surprise, but that was another matter. She snorted as she crouched on top of the roof. All this talk, all this analysis, all this touting as the best Private Military Company there is, and they're defeated this easy? Perhaps it was the same as Huntsmen. More to inspire the public than for actual function.
Typical.
She watched from her concealed position as faraway Contractors streamed out of the CCT entrance. Twenty-something armed men stormed out, fanning out as they made their way through the streets below. No LAV either. Her plan seemed to have worked out to every last detail.
The suffering and pain she just caused never came to mind. Well, it did, but only in the most detached and analytical view, with a bit of pleasure put in.
"Neo, report," she whispered into her earpiece, pressing herself low on the rooftop.
Three clicks. Pause, one click. Another pause, one click
Good, she achieved most or all of her objectives and got away cleanly. Cinder knew that Neo wouldn't be able to be relied on anymore, as she likely was already on her way out of Beacon and back to Roman.
No matter, not like she needed her for this part of the operation.
"Emerald, report.'
The sounds of yelling and arguing through the earpiece concerned her for a moment. Not out of concern for Emerald, but out of concern that her lackeys might've blown the mission. She was reassured when Emerald went ahead with a smug voice, the earpiece distorting ever so slightly. A frown. Watts assured her the earpieces wouldn't be affected by his jamming. Apparently, he was wrong, "Hey, Mercury, what do you think about all this talk about them wanting to go out and try and find the attacks?"
A moment of pause, "Huh what? Oh! Yeah, it's crazy. Ozpin and Goodbitch went and fucked off to who knows where. Told us to stay here. Big Iron said that if we went out to search for the attackers it'd make it difficult for the mercs and soldiers to find 'em. Crazy, is it not? Who the hell would think someone could just infiltrate us and blend right in?"
"Yeah. now the students are arguing about if they should ignore their orders and go out anyways. I'm pretty sure if they hear another big explosion they'll go out regardless."
Cinder got the implication, "Neo, are you still there?"
One click.
"Excellent, do you have another package left?"
One click.
"Coordinate with Emerald and Mercury to get the dance out of the hall and flooding the streets Beacon. Emerald, Mercury, try to push for them to go out and search when I say so. Got it?"
One click.
"What d'ya say we go over there and argue our case?" came Emerald's voice.
Mercury responded, "Yep, I don't feel good doing nothing here."
Cinder smiled a little, before pulling on a facemask. Striker Group liked to put cameras on every single one of their Contractors, and even Watts couldn't access their system and reliably delete every copy of the footage. So, she opted for a more practical mask at concealing her identity.
Then, she rolled off the roof.
Landing in like a cat, she dashed forward into the cover of the shrubbery around her.
It was an ordeal to sneak her way past the patrol of Atlesian soldiers. They walked around with a purpose, calling out to the students peeking out of their dorms to get back in. The rear soldiers followed up by scanning the building sides with their rifles. She might've gotten caught if they paid just a bit more attention.
However, her experience shone through and she made it to where she wanted without incident.
Over the bush, she peered at the CCT entrance. Four Atlesian soldiers stood around it with their rifles up and scanning. Perhaps it would've been too much to ask for them to keep only one soldier on each entrance. In any case, it wouldn't be too much of a detriment provided everything Watts gave her worked.
So she had a fair chance of this working out.
They were decent at watching their angles, but unfortunately for them, their position had quite a few blindspots. Their elevated position and numerous pillars blocked their line of sight, so it was to their detriment as Cinder dashed across the plaza to the bushes just beside the entrance just as a guard looked back.
Needless to say, the Atlesian soldier was quite surprised when she popped out of nowhere.
The armour clad soldier let out a cry that was cut off as her heel found the gap in his mouth, forcefully kicking him back. Her bow materialized in her hands as her heel landed back on the ground, and she quickly a bead on the furthest soldier.
Twang!
The next second she broke apart her bow, twirling her now twin swords in her hands. Turning now to the closest soldier standing next to the wall, she slashed at the soldier's twisting body. A yelp of pain emitting from him as Cinder followed through with thrusting her sword back into the soldier's chest. The aura flickered, then finally shattered as the sword plunged into his stomach, protruding out his back.
A small Aura, pity.
The last soldier had finally turned around, bringing his assault rifle to bear. Even with his half mask, his panic was naked to all that watched.
"God fucking damm-"
An unfortunate circumstance for him that his reaction time wasn't as good as hers.
Twisting around, she yanked her sword out of the dying body of the soldier she just stabbed, stepping forward with terrifying speed, jumping up to deliver a sharp roundhouse kick to the side of the head.
Cinder winced as a bullet cracked off her chin, snapping it back ever so slightly. She got revenge as the soldier crumpled to the ground. Nobody would notice the singular shot among the chaos outside. Hopefully.
All done, now to make sure they are down.
Only one was still writhing around on the ground, the rest still or bleeding out. They wouldn't be able to call for help on their radios. She made sure of it. So she paced over to the still conscious soldier, slamming her heel down on his head.
He stilled.
Cinder quicked repeated the same with the rest of them. She was in a rush, but not overly so that she'd chance one standing up and shooting her in the back. Afterwards, she quickly kicked them into the bushes.
It would've been easier just to kill them, but that was unnecessarily messy and would've taken time. She certainly didn't want to be caught outside of the CCT with four dead bodies around her
She mulled over this in her head as she walked through the doors, letting her weapons dissolve into the air.
It was messy. Maybe one would wake up before she was done and the situation would get far messier, but it was already far messier than she wanted, so what was a bit more?
Carefully closing the doors behind her, she squinted in the darkness. This was not normal. Why would the lights be off?
"Keep your hands where we can see them and present identification immediately! You're currently inside a restricted space!" came a voice from within the darkness. Quietly, her attentive ears barely picked up the next part. "Get on the radio with the mercs. If it even works."
A killing hallway, of course, Striker Group would see fit to implement something like that when taking control of security.
She, however, knew that this killing hallway was less of a hallway and more of a short passage.
It'd be hard, but not impossible. Their first mistake was not immediately opening fire upon her.
The outlines of the two Atlesians soldiers could barely be seen, the sparse light coming in reflecting the barest amount on their white armour. Only their heads and torso were exposed, their rifles rested on concrete barriers that had been installed weeks ago.
She knew where they were, and that was all she needed.
Confidently, she started walking forward. There'd be no talking, for that could be traced back to her.
"Hey! Stop where you are and place your hands on your head!"
She complied, stopping a mere five metres from the barriers. A pitiful amount of space for a supposed killing hallway, but the architecture favoured her in this case.
A confused tone in the soldier's voice as he shuffled towards her, "Alright, uh… stay where you are and turn around."
So she did.
Closing her eyes, she listened.
And listened.
Clack clack clack.
The soldier's boots made a sound with every step until he was right behind her.
"Alright, do you hav- argh!"
She twirled around, materializing her blades in her hands and driving one straight into the man's carotid artery. Lunging forward, she leapt at the last moment over the concrete barrier, barreling straight into the other guard.
"Please spare me! I have a-"
One thrust silenced him.
A lot more killing done today than she would've liked. Less for her morals and more for the amount of attention she'd gain. Oh well, what was done was done.
Casually, almost as an afterthought, she pulled out a card with her gloved hands, letting it drop on top of the dead body underneath her.
On it was a picture of a snarling Sabyr Grimm.
Without another thought, she continued walking down the short hallway.
Pushing through the doors again, she was met with yells.
"You there! Stop where you are!" one differently clothed man yelled. Striker Group. A gas mask hung on his vest, and a hand was at his radio. "This is Knight 1-3, we've got an intruder in the CCT, requesting reinforcements, over!"
Cinder glanced around. Four Striker Group men stood in a half-circle around her. All of them donned gasmasks save the one on his radio. One of them even grasped a cylindrical device on one hand, expression hidden by the gasmask.
She continued walking forward. Slowly, but steadily.
"Oh fuck this! Light her up!"
Four rifles started firing at once.
A billow of gas shot out of the gas grenade bouncing to a stop next to her.
Well, this would be an interesting fight.
/ - /
"Alpha Team, this is Bravo Team, you guys read us? Over."
On the top floor of the CCT, Contractor Wilkins knelt next to his manpack radio with the handset pressed against his ear.
Only static met his response.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Wilkins slammed his handset back onto the manpack. He glanced around. The three other members of his fireteam knelt around the room, pressed up against their cover of choice, all watching the singular elevator that came into the room. "The fucking long range doesn't even work anymore!"
His machine gunner turned back to look at him, "What the fuck? I thought it was powerful enough to burn through the jamming shit!"
"Yeah, talking to Actual doesn't work either. Fucking piece of shit radio. I left the border guard to get good kit, not this garbage," Wilkins shoved the manpack away, poking his head up to rest his rifle on his little piece of cover. "Now we're stuck up here with no comms to the outside. Great."
"No way to get down but that fucking elevator, eh?" the sole faunus member of his fireteam spoke up, monkey tail wrapped around his waist. "So what are we fucking doing Wilkins?"
"Sit here until someone comes up that elevator or the radio works again," he said, grabbing a flashbang and setting it down on a nearby table. "That or we die."
His grenadier grunted, "Real cheery man, real cheery."
The floor indicator on the elevator lit up, displaying a number one in bright yellow.
Everyone in the room stilled.
The floor indicator ticked up steadily, getting ever closer to their floor.
"Hold your fire," he ordered. "It could be Alpha Team sending a runner up or something."
"Yeah," came back his grenadier, readying his underbarrel grenade launcher. "Or it could be the person who's the reason we can't contact Alpha Team."
The Faunus Contractor snorted, "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst yeah?"
"Fuck, if this dude got all of Alpha Team, do you really think we could take 'em?" the machine gunner commented. "I personally don't want to die."
"Shut the fuck up man," Wilkins snapped. "It's probably just a runner from Alpha Team."
"Then why are you pointing your rifle at the door?"
"Because it doesn't hurt to be prepared. Also, turn on your fucking helmet cams if you haven't already. If it is an enemy, then we can leave something for command to look over," collectively, they all reach up to their helmet, pressing a button that activated their integrated helmet cameras.
Finally, the elevator floor indicated their floor.
The Faunus Contractor gave a grim smile, "Ready to fucking die?"
"You know it," sighed the machine gunner.
The elevator doors opened.
He had to squint to really make sure he saw what he saw.
Nothing.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" yelled out the machine gunner, standing up from his position to lean forward at the empty elevator. "I was ready to die over nothing? Fucking re-"
In a split second, a black clad woman lunged out of the elevator, bow drawn back and aimed exactly at the machine gunner.
The choked cry of pain was hardly paid any more attention as the assailant sprang forward, covering the distance between her and his grenadier in mere seconds.
Gunfire erupted as the three remaining Contractors opened fire. Wilkins bent down, grabbing the carry handle of his radio before starting to back up, hip firing his rifle all the while. Thunk! His grenadier shot off a shot, which was promptly sidestepped by the woman before an explosion racked the rear wall of the room.
The grenadier's cry of pain was soon cut off.
His rifle stopped firing, and he was met with the sound of the firing pin dropping on an empty chamber.
Fucking wow. I should really get a drum mag or some shit so this just… wouldn't happen.
He ducked behind a computer terminal, dragging the radio manpack beside him. Absentmindedly, he slammed in another magazine.
The sharp crack of a stun baton being extended, then the voice of his Faunus Contractor, "Alright bitch! Wanna fucking go? Come and fucking get some!"
Heavy footsteps, Buzz, the fleshy impact of metal on flesh, twang, crash.
No more sound from his overeager Faunus Contractor. No taunts, nothing. Just the quiet footsteps of heels on metal.
Well, that's great, isn't it?
Guns wouldn't work, their stun batons didn't work, the CS gas wouldn't work until he was long dead, and he was fairly sure he wouldn't be getting reinforcements. What did that leave him with?
He gripped a cylindrical device attached to his vest.
He never thought he'd be going out like a White Fang fanatic, but he was here, and this was what it was.
A thought came to him. If he was going out, might as well give the radio another go. Attract his assailant while he was at it. Get two birds with one stone.
"All stations, this is Knight 1-3, we have an intruder in the CCT, we've taken heavy casualties, requesting reinforcements, please acknowledge, over."
The tip of a blade tickled the nape of his neck.
Slowly, he craned his neck around and got the first real look of his assailant.
Black dress, a full black face mask that concealed her face. Her curves were something that if, wasn't holding a sword to his neck, would've tried to get the number of. Both hands held a sword. Curiously, she had a belt on, which had a curiously small boxy object with multiple antennas on it. A radio, maybe, but there were too many antennas to be one.
His manpack only returned static again, and even stronger than before.
It didn't take much of his brain to solve one plus one equals two.
A sadistic smile came to his attacker's face, the sword already rearing up to deliver her attack.
An internal sigh. He pulled the pin of his fragmentation grenade, tossing it lightly behind him as the handle clattered to the ground. The woman had a surprised expression as the grenade bounced to her feet, perhaps not initially registering it for what it was at first.
Maybe it would kill her, maybe it wouldn't.
As a last ditch effort, he concentrated all his aura into his back. If she knocked him out, and the grenade went off, he was as good as dead. If it didn't and survived? Well, he had to hope this woman wouldn't finish him off. In any case, he closed his eyes and took a moment to make peace with himself.
Sorry mom, should've listened to you.
Then everything went black.
/ - /
"Keep your hands on your head and do not move!"
Ruby Rose expected many things after seeing the strange lady hopping across rooftops, and then the explosions.
What she did not expect, was being accosted by a bunch of Striker Group contractors.
The bright lights from their rifles nearly blinded her, steadily concentrating on her out of all people. Why her?
Alright, maybe she might've seemed a bit suspicious just walking around after half of Beacon blew up, but what was she supposed to do? Go back to the dancehall? No! She remembered seeing the lady heading in the direction of the CCT, so she went to investigate.
Did she hide when she saw all the men streaming out of the CCT? Maybe.
Did that mean they had the right to arrest her when a few of them found her skulking around fifty metres from the back of the tower with Crescent Rose?
Nope!
"Keep your hands on your head and get on your knees!"
Where was Jaune? He could get him out of this, couldn't he?
Footsteps, then she was suddenly shoved to the ground with a knee one her back. She cringed a bit as Crescent Rose was sent skittering across the tiled ground when the man yanked it off of her.
The Contractor roughly grabbed her wrist, pulling it around her back. Then he asked, "The fuck were you doing over here?"
"I was trying to help!"
He grabbed the other wrist, pulling it into a pair of gravity bolas, "Fat fucking chance. No-"
"Hey you there, stop!"
Ruby craned her head to see what was going on.
Flashlights jerkily pointed away from her and towards a woman crouched down at the base of the CCT, dressed in a catsuit and a full face mask on her. She glanced at them, expression invisible under her mask
"Put your hands up and stay still! Do not-"
The woman darted away, sprinting away from them.
"Open fire!"
Eight rifles opened up at once, all towards the woman who was running away. Likewise, Contractors sprinted past her, pursuing the mysterious woman.
The one on top of her cursed, grip loosening on his Gravity Bolas.
"Hey," she spoke up, grabbing his attention. "I'm a Huntress here, I have a speed semblance. If you let me go, I'll catch her for you!"
After a moment of hesitation, "Fuck it." he patted her on her shoulder, which… was weird but alright. "Go get 'em."
She didn't realize the Contractor had placed a tracking device on her, which was the only reason he even considered it, but that wouldn't matter anyway.
"Thanks!" she popped up, giving a grin to the Contractor, in a burst of her semblance, she now had Crescent Rose transforming into her hands, her impaired balance doing much to destroy her cool image. "I'll get her for you, promise."
Turning to the direction the woman ran, she activated her semblance.
There!
Speeding past the Contractors, who moved in slow motion, she came to the masked woman.
If anybody would tell you she tripped, she did not trip! Her heels were just… giving her balance issues!
Whatever the case, it had the masked woman and Contractors surprised at the short Huntress stumbling around in heels holding an oversized scythe.
That surprise was wiped away as Ruby started shooting.
Masked Woman was surprisingly agile, skillfully leaping, flipping, and even blocking with her hand until she was a good distance away, from which she pulled a canister from her belt. A trail of dust flew through the air from it, which formed into ice shards mid-air, all pointing towards her.
In vain, Ruby tried to dodge, but unfortunately, her dodge was much less cool due to her stupid heels. Instead, she practically stumbled aside, twirling Crescent Rose to block the rest.
Cinder drew three arrows in her bow which came out of nowhere, aiming them right at her… before her head twitched and she flipped away yet again, the supersonic bullet whizzing by barely missing her.
Oh! The Contractors were still here!
Emboldened, she put on a burst of her semblance, running right up to the woman and rearing back for a slash, and then…
She heard the buzz at the last moment, her silver eyes imperceptibly flicking to see a small blur heading straight for her, and the woman dashing back with three arrows drawn on her bow.
Boom!
An explosion and she was tossed back, the orange red fire blossoming in front of her. She could feel her Aura shudder, and then shatter like glass as she was thrown onto the ground, flipping and rolling until she stopped, lying face up to the sky, Crescent Rose just a few feet beside her.
She clutched her head, ears ringing. Pain. Just… pain. Scrapes? She forced her head up, before pushing her body upright. Her aura was definitely gone, evidenced by her scraped up arms.
"Don't let that fucker get away!" shouted one of the Contractors, stopping just metres away from her, before raising his rifle and letting off a burst. Then, he put a hand on his radio. "All stations! This is Knight 1-1, we have an attacker moving southeast away from Point Alpha, requesting reinforcements on our location, over!"
Ruby glanced at the running Contractors. Their flashlights were turned off, and instead small goggle looking things over their eyes.
It looked like they were now completely ignoring her.
"Hey, you!" she twisted her head to find a Contractor pointing a gun at her. "Keep your hands in the air, and who the fuck are you?"
Oh, come on!
/ - /
"Knight 1-1, this is Raider 3-3, we're oscar mike. ETA two mikes, over," Jaune let go of the PTT button, rechecking again that the pintle mounted machinegun was loaded and ready to go. "Vi, fucking punch it to the CCT. We got ourselves a live one. Thistle, if you don't nail this fucker right in the forehead I'm disowning you."
As the LAV accelerated down the road, Thistle spoke back, "What if I hit 'em in the eye?"
"Disowned."
A snort over the intercom, "Fuck you."
He glanced behind him, where Jay still poked his head out of the air sentry hatch. They would've had stretchers strapped down behind with the wounded of the attack. Had they not just dropped them off at the hospital, they might have not been able to respond to Knight 1-1's call for help.
Jaune asked himself if he would've diverted anyways even with wounded on his vehicle.
Luckily he didn't have to deal with that anyway. Just deal with the person behind the attack.
"We're one klick out," came Vi's strung out voice.
He regripped the pintle, planting the stock right in his shoulder. Reaching forward, he flicked on the IR laser, letting a long laser stream out from his barrel, visible only under the ghostly green illumination of his nightvision.
Now, more than ever, his frag suit weighed heavier than a sack of bricks, even when he was just standing around. A light sheen of perspiration made itself known when it tried to seep past his ballistic glasses and into his eyes, only to be wiped away by a gloved hand. He shouldn't have been sweating in the cool night air, but he was.
They screeched past the last building blocking their sight, and then came the CCT. He, however, was less concerned with the feat of engineering and technology beside him, and more with the scattered teams of Contractors running around with their rifles pointed everywhere and even their flashlights flicking on every so often.
They rolled to a stop beside a lone Contractor approaching them, on his arm a patch that read, "K15".
Jaune quickly leapt out of his commander's hatch, landing on the ground in a crouch before raising his NODs, "You're Knight Actual?"
The man shook his head, "Knight's Platoon Warrant. Our unit uses a different radio SOP than yours. Anyways, I need you to search around the grounds in that thing. We saw the attacker head off in the southeast before we lost her. Our drones are still gone and radios are still jammed so we're not finding her that way. I'm betting she's exfiltrating off a cliff or something. Airspace is currently restricted and we got the MANPADS teams up now, so she ain't getting away on a Bullhead."
"What do they look like?"
"Black catsuit, female, mask, that sorta thing. You good to go help us find this asshole?"
A grin and a nod, "We're good."
He was just about to continue talking when something caught his eye. Behind the Warrant, he had to blink a few times to make sure he really was seeing what he saw. Ruby was being marched around with her hands behind her back by a Contractor. What the hell had she been doing? "Hey, Warrant, you see that girl over there? She's definitely not an attacker. I know her personally and she can be vouched by just about any student here."
The Warrant followed his pointing hand to Ruby, "Huh? Well, we're just detaining her just in case. If she's innocent, we'll process her out and she'll be fine."
"Hey, Jaune!" Ruby apparently spotted and recognized him, even under the darkness. "Can you uh… tell these guys I'm a good guy?"
Jaune called back, "They're just doing that to make sure, we're all on edge tonight."
"Uh, okay!" and then she was taken away, albeit a bit more gently.
"Alright Warrant," Jaune flicked open his ruggedized scroll, displaying a map of Beacon. "Show me where you think she's fucking going."
Just then, a yell of anger rang out in the night air. Almost immediately, the LAV turret turned, the Warrant and Jaune grabbed their rifles and stepped out from behind the LAV to see what the anger was for.
A horde of students flooded the square in front of them. Rocket lockers rained down from the sky, popping open to give their owners their weapons. Several teams of students clad in their dance dresses and suits, with their exotic weapons pushing up against a fireteam of Contractors. Barbs and insults were yelled out by both sides and they walked past each other.
There were so many.
They were like a swarm of lemmings, running aimlessly in packs to places they thought they needed to go, regardless of what was around them.
"What the hell do you think they're doing?" he asked quietly.
The infantry Warrant sighed, dejectedly letting his rifle drop down on his chest, held up by his sling, "Searching for the same person we are, with barely a quarter the coordination."
"How much do you bet the attacker is blending in with them right now?"
"Fifty fifty depending on who's the attacker. I'd normally say they couldn't change that fast, but I've seen crazier shit."
Without another word, he climbed up onto his LAV again, dropping into the commander cupola and just poking head outside, "Vi, take through those fucking students until I tell you to stop."
She complied wordlessly, and they drove through, garnering a few choice words from the Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-Training they passed until they found the person Jaune wanted. They stopped just beside her, the tires screeching to a halt as Jaune gave the command.
"How fucking hard is it to keep everyone from going out!" Jaune immediately leapt out of the LAV, coming face to face with a shocked Pyrrha Niko, along with the rest of team PNR. "Now there's at least a hundred people just walking around and we've lost our attacker! How the fuck are we supposed to find her with all this?"
"I-I tried my best! I told Ozpin and all. He got everyone to stay for a bit, but he had to leave to go do… other stuff. I don't know. Then everyone just decided to go out collectively! I couldn't stop them, I'm sorry!"
"He left no one with authority behind?"
"No!"
Nora looked like she was about to punch him, Pyrrha was on the edge of tears, and Ren was as calm as ever.
Jaune glanced around and then sighed, rubbing his face and looking at Pyrrha's nearly tear filled eyes again, "Sorry, I… didn't mean to yell at you. This is just a whole lot of fucking bullshit..."
PNR nodded understandingly, Nora's expression becoming less anger and more… well anger not directed his way.
"Fuck me," Jaune turned, missing Pyrrha's reddening face, and climbing up onto his LAV turret. "Well if you're going to be out and doing shit like this, try to organize yourselves into groups and ask some Contractors what you can help with." a shake of the head, "God knows there's a lot of casualties that need to be transported."
He plugged his headset back into the LAV as he settled back in, "Vi, start taking us around the perimeter. If the attacker is trying to escape through there, I want to catch them."
"Roger," came her tight voice.
Jaune clicked his PTT button, "Raider 3 Actual, this is 3-3. We're going to do perimeter sweeps until we find something. The Beacon students are out in mass now, so I hope they can PID people who don't belong, over."
A sigh escaped his mouth as the LAV lurched forward. He pulled down his NODs, and reshouldered his pintle.
He held out hope that they'd find the one behind the attack that had caused so much pain, but deep down, he knew he wouldn't. Nobody here would.
/ - /
The military vehicle, a LAV, they called it, drove away into the night. Cinder stood beside Emerald and Mercury, dressed in her midnight black dress, wielding nothing in her hands. She officially was a martial artist, because wielding Midnight here might get her a faceful of teargas and flashbangs.
"My, this is terrible," she said, looking at the smoke pillars in the distance. "This was a far greater deal more exciting than mine. At least we got to dance, though."
Emerald took the coded message for what it was. A fight, as expected, and the virus was uploaded, "We need to help."
Cinder glanced over at the Contractors standing around in the distance, "Them, I think."
Her green haired lackey blinked in surprise, "Really them? But… you just..."
"Shh," she became strutting towards a pair of Contractors standing around, her two subordinates following along. "It's not expected, is it?"
Mercury rubbed his chin, "She has a point."
At this, Cinder smiled. There was no point, but it would get Emerald riled up, and that was good, because then she would try to compete with Mercury, and she'd strive to do better, "Yes, I do. Now let's ask them, shall we?"
She stopped next to the Contractors, garnering a surprised look and a sudden twitch from their rifle up to point at her. Well, it wouldn't have been the first time they shot at her. She put on her best concerned mask, "Hey, this is all..." she gestured around, "Terrible. My team and I want to help with anything we can. I understand if we can't help you hunt down the ones responsible, but is there any way we can help?"
The Contractor looked at his friend, "Should we..?"
"Fuck it, why not?" the second one shrugged.
The first one turned back, pulling out a scroll to reveal a curious 3D map of Beacon. Ah, this was what Emerald was reporting back. Interesting, but not useful for her. "Alright, the TOC was hit pretty hard, and they got a lot of casualties. So, we're here," he tapped on the red dot on the screen. "And the TOC is here," he tapped on a spot further away. "Know where that is or do we need to give you directions?"
"Yeah," Cinder nodded, concentrating on the scroll. "I do."
"Great. Basically, get over there, help carry wounded or whatever else they tell you to do. Do as they tell you, and they should tell you where to bring the casualties. Got it?"
"Yes," Cinder turned back to her team of two. "Let's get going you two, we have lives to save."
So they ran off, leaving the two Contractors to confusedly stand around.
"So," Emerald said while running beside her. "What's Mint up to?"
Cinder glanced over at her, "Mint's taking care of her mother well. She's also doing wonderfully in fights, so she'll be good to join us when her mother's condition is well."
Mercury snorted, "I'm sure she's doing well, the pint sized devil she is. Probably happy as hell and eating ice cream."
"I'm sure she is," Cinder smiled.
Translation, Neo performed and completed her objectives to a T, and got out safely.
Cinder internally smiled, but not outwardly. They did everything they needed to do, and more, while giving Striker Group a bloody nose. Oh, they'd tighten up security, but it wasn't like she needed to do anything more here, did she? Not until the Vytal Festival, when most of Striker Group would be busy guarding that anyways. Ozma wasn't here to challenge her. Probably because he was off guarding the Relic, fearing that this was all a distraction to steal it.
Their drones would be online by now. Their larger jammer was carried by Neo, which was probably turned off by now, long gone along with Roman's attack dog herself. Cinder's personal jammer was destroyed by the Contractor's last present to her, a grenade. A pity, but ultimately inconsequential. Striker Group would try to search with their ace in the hole of drones, only to find nothing.
All in all, it was a successful operation.
So they ran. The team of villains made their way to the Striker Group base, where they oh so ironically helped tend to the wounded. The irony wasn't lost on any of them, though all of them stifled any humour that came to them, for fear of breaking their cover.
They would continue doing the same thing throughout the night. Helping the same people who Cinder fought hours ago. Treating the wounded, carrying the wounded, helping search for the nonexistent attackers, and helping organize the chaotic and haphazard Huntsmen horde.
Ruby would later be cleared of any wrongdoing later that night, released to reunite with her very much angry team, who she had to convince not to attack Striker Group out of spite. They'd also assist in helping the battered Contractors.
Team PNR would do much the same, often overlapping with RWBY.
The First Years would have their first sight of the wounded and dead. Some stoically looked on, others puked, and others struggled on, telling themselves they were helping. The older students were well experienced in these matters already, and so looked on without a major reaction.
They'd all look back, and look upon the Contractors less with fear and more with pity. They saw these Mercenaries at their lowest points, and they weren't some bigger than life heroes. They were human and faunus like everyone else.
Striker Group themselves? Well… they searched fruitlessly through the streets of Beacon. They wouldn't find a trace of their attacker.
They were humiliated, battered, and weak.
And they were fucking angry.
Armed Bullheads were on station a mere hour after the attack. Constantly, they circled overhead. Their racks of rockets and guns more than intimidating to the people below. Add to that they were doing constant shows of force, if anyone was to attack them, they'd meet a fiery death. Their drones flew fruitlessly around the Beacon grounds and beyond, hoping to find a trace of the masked attacker.
Jaune Arc and his LAV, The Rocky Laser Beam, would drive around pointlessly. They knew they wouldn't find anything, but they did anyway. They had to do something, anything, or they'd go crazy.
At the very end of the night, when Striker Group declared the attack had gotten away, Jaune would climb out of his LAV, take off his helmet, and throw it as hard as he could against the ground, yelling out in frustration.
At the base, the Infantry Captain, having been woken up, would walk through the wreckage that used to be the TOC.
He'd walk through the debris, picking his way through the destruction, until something on the ground caught his eye. Bending down, he'd pick it up to inspect it to make sure it really was what he thought it was.
It was a wing of some sort, with part of a plane body attached. The Captain recognized it as part of the Dagger suicide drone. Many people used it, but it was also in Striker Group's inventory. On the wing was a circle of some sort, likely the calling card of whoever made it.
What caught his attention though, was the words emblazoned on the part of the body that survived.
PROPERTY OF STRIKER GROUP
The Captain looked up at the sky, letting the piece of the drone drop to the ground.
Overhead, the very same drones that had caused this carnage flew overhead, well under the control of their pilots, and definitely not crashing down onto them.
The Infantry Captain just had one sentence to say in response to everything he just saw.
"You've got to be shitting me."
Hey uh, yeah. Sorry for being a week late.
I announced this in my discord, so join. Just add the dot.
discord gg/8gbF2TJ (Link in profile if you want to copy paste).
We're a whole bunch of degenerates, so even if you're not a degenerate, come join so I can see a number go up and have my monkey brain release happy chemicals. If that doesn't entice you, we've got a fair number of writers, some better than me, so join for writing advice. And uh... if you don't join I'll commit many warcrimes.
Besides that uh… review so I can see number go up and monkey brain happy.
Will I ever be a week late again with a chapter? Probably, I won't lie. School just switched my physics class to five days a week, so I'll be busy doing that.
Anyways, review or I will murder your bunny waifu Velvet horribly. Cough Cough.
TopHat out.