[Subvert]
There was something to be said about the state of the Atlas group, they didn't look very civilized on arrival, not after what they report as a non-stop push through an impressive story of Grimm working together to achieve some kind of blockade and supply line.
Jaune hesitantly believed them, not wanting to make any rifts between the only two groups of humanity that either of them knew of.
Besides, the story had some credibility as well, there needed to have been a radical change to overwhelm all the kingdoms seemingly over night. This seemed like a good explanation.
But thats the thing, he didn't have much information about stuff like that, world communication was the first to go down, so it was all guesswork and speculation.
That needed to change, hopefully soon.
Jaune was busy in his office, going over reports from last night, they had done a bunch of admin tasks when Atlas arrived, stuff like equipment tallies and head counts.
Getting up Jaune decides that he could do sleepy Pyrrha a favor and get them both some breakfast, she deserved something nice.
Slipping on his gear -Jaune never goes out into public without his armour and sword- he makes his way down the many underground hallways towards the glorious food.
There was a small smile on his face when reaching the parking lot that was now repurposed into a cafeteria, there were just so many people!
Jaune had missed the feeling of being around a large and safe gathering of humans, his Vale group was nice, but always felt like they weren't at full capacity, having lost members over the years to various threats.
But now? There was not only just a few Rover defects but an entire convoy of Atlas rebels! It filled his heart with joy and hope when the three groups could be clearly seen mingling in the cafeteria.
There were people all over the place who seemed to be finding relatives or friends they haven't seen in a long time. Or even making new ones.
The most noticeable was Ruby and Weiss, having a box of strawberries between the two of them and speaking at a rather high volume, telling stories and generally catching up on lost time "-and after that explosion I no longer hated mushrooms so much!" The laughter Ruby supplied to the punchline Jaune only caught the tail end of, was very wholesome.
Deciding that they could carry on without a rude interruption by himself, Jaune turns away and makes eye contact with the next unlikely pair.
Dime and Penny. Dime having had a makeover, getting some much needed skin and some more humanoid looking limbs, Penny having some obvious copies of said new limbs as prosthetics.
It was... An odd reunion that neither of them must have expected, long lost sisters? Cousins? Jaune didn't know.
Dime was patiently waiting for him to turn around and Penny was awkwardly fidgeting with her new arms a few steps behind, trying not to make eye contact with him.
Dime was the one to break the silence "Greetings Jaune, may I ask where Pyrrha is? Penny wishes to amend any broken ties between themselves that may exist." Jaune then remembers how exactly Penny got sent back to Atlas to begin with...
"Oh no, I mean... uh..." Not knowing what to say was not a feeling Jaune was used to having, being the leader usually meant being sure about what action to take, and he fit the role pretty well after all the needed experience found its way into his lap, but this? He didn't think anyone would be fully prepared for this.
Quickly looking around Jaune delayed for some much needed time to think.
Seeing a savior approach he holds up a hand to greet Bastet in a small wave and a silent cry for help.
"Sir, your meal." Was the greeting he received in reply.
Taking, then shifting the meal to Dime Jaune came up with a new plan with the new resources received on the fly "Pyrrha is asleep right now, so take this to wake her up, three corridors down that way and then top floor."
The transition was a little awkward... But he doubts a socially neglected Dime would think much of it.
Penny seems to take it well, probably expecting the worst case scenario of him refusing to cooperate.
Her fears were... He didn't want to say unjustifiable, since allowing two people with beef to meet in private usually didnt end too well in his experience over the years... but Jaune didn't think he could deny Dime a small favor like this.
The robotic duo head off to grab a beverage before following Jaunes directions, hopefully they can make some amends.
Bastet ruins the silence with her next question "So what context am I missing? Its not like you to be so... flustered?" Jaune coughs into his fist "I wouldn't go so far as to call me flustered, but to answer your question, those two girls aren't exactly human, and the one was ripped in half by my partner back before the world went to shit."
Standing still for a long moment Bastet just stares into the middle distance to think about that in his context, back when death wasn't the norm.
Also, inhuman? In what way?
"I dont think I fully understand Sir, want me to get you another meal? Maybe a drink? Jaune shakes his head, she was too giving sometimes "no need but thanks for offering, you can go enjoy your own food without me bothering you anymore." Nodding Bastet leaves with one last comment "are we going to be doing a scan later? They said they were being followed by a horde after all."
Jaune nods and waves her away "we both heard that explosion yesterday. No swarm would survive something like that, but it would attract any and all zombies in the surrounding regions." Left unsaid was that they weren't much of a threat most of the time but still required a scan to check how many they needed to prepare for.
Both go their separate ways, Jaune finding himself a good filling meal and Bastet to eat her own.
When he arrived at the cooking hut they took one look at him and started to prepare a little something extra on the side.
It was the little things like that that made living with the heavy responsibility of leading so many lives bearable.
Spying a nice calmer corner Jaune goes to sit down there, sliding his tray next to the sole occupant of the makeshift table.
It was William.
Jaune started with something light for breakfast conversation "So, have you been practicing?" William was startled, being in his own little world before Jaune had interrupted.
There was something wrong, his eyes darted to the sides to check his surroundings, even checking over his shoulders before responding.
"Y-yeah, your guys are good teachers." Jaune takes the praise oh so humbly "they are the best of Vale after all." But after seeing the jest go over his head Jaune lowers his voice several octaves "so what's wrong? Trouble in paradise?"
The reaction William gave wasn't what he expected and didn't smooth Jaunes worries down at all "its... I don't know how to talk about it."
Just as he was about to get this problem out into the air somone came running over to him "Jaune! Sir! We got reports from the hunter gathers that just got back! There's a car heading strait for Vale and its brought company!"
It only took two heartbeats for Jaune to act, getting up Jaune swipes a last bite of his meal before answering "what are we dealing with?"
"Seems to be a large horde of zombies sir!" He wasn't quite standing at full attention but it sure felt like it at the moment with how tightly strung Jaunes border control was acting.
Jaune has delt with this situation many times before and reacted quickly "Have a team of specialists ready for interception immediately! We don't let anybody die today! Not after receiving such a boost in morale!"
The general mood of the cafeteria was stunned, everyone was temporarily living in a mindset of peace and rest after Atlas arrived. It ended now he supposed.
Seeing Ruby reach for her weapon Jaune nods at her, she was the best for the job, along with some helpful defensive semblances that would keep the zombies off the vehicles flank.
They had a buggie specially built for out running the zombies, and Ruby had a special job of transplanting everything over into that buggie even while on the move, all the cars being slower than her.
Wintrer intercepts Jaune before he can make it out the Cafeteria "what's happening? What's with all the commotion?" Jaune curses under his breath, not really having the time for this, so he rushes the explanation "we got another horde, Zombies this time."
Winter nods and start gathering her people, but honestly, Jaune thinks Vale has got this situation under control. "Listen, Winter, let Vale handle this. Your guys are exhausted. Don't make them fight a battle that isn't theirs." Winter had a frown, but sees the reasoning, probably too tired to argue about it herself.
"So these... zombies? Aren't a big threat?" Jaune paused, actually taken by surprised, but he should have realised Atlas would have been unfamiliar with them.
Winter continues with an explanation "we have seen a few in passing, But we always avoided them just in case." Jaune supposes that having a mobile home makes life easier in some ways.
"Well, most zombies are just civilians with Grimm strength, but the occasional Predator amoung them can have Aura too." Winter was wide eyed "so... Would those have been Hunters before turning?"
Jaune nods, liking how quickly Winter absorbed information even when tired "which means they sometimes have a semblance too, the only saving grace seems to be that all Predators have very little Aura, and can't use it for a semblance more than once or twice before running out."
Winter doesn't seem to take that last bit so well "but the soul..."
Having wasted enough time as is, Jaune slides on his helmet and apologizes for having to leave so abruptly "sorry Winter, duty calls."
It was hopefully going to be over soon, a quick rescue mission then a short trip home with a few extra members to bulk up humanities numbers.
They really couldn't afford to let these strangers die, all lives were just too valuable, and was the major reason he had to kill that rover leader in the first place.
Jaune and Ruby ended up jogging down the long exit and entrance tunnel, they would be meeting the specialist team at the end, after that they would head out to the nearest garage to find their buggy.
The Vacuo "car" looked very bare bones and had a large ground clearance with huge wheels originally designed for deep sand and dunes, but in this case, will help with avoiding zombie corpses.
They had to wait for Bastet to catch up but the Team ended up being five people strong, himself, Ruby, Bastet and a duo of peculiars that when asked, wouldn't give anybody their real names.
So everybody just called them Doodle and Bugs, after their respective professions of buggy driver and drawing semblance.
Jaune was surprised the names have stuck for so long, but at the same time, kind of got how it happened.
"Let's get moving people" He didn't have to raise his voice at all, there was an air of certainty and readiness in the small group of five that translated well to the communication side of things.
The guy working the secret entrance checked a periscope before starting to open the hatch for them, it was purely a precaution, they had a secure perimeter for a few blocks in every direction, but it never hurt to be sure when dealing with the last thing separating the hideout to the outside world.
They didn't waste any time and beelined for the buggy.
Bugs hopping into the driver seat with Bastet as his trusty navigator, they pull away with Doodle, Jaune and Ruby in the back, having nothing but a roll cage and brown tarp as cover.
Navigating the streets were completely fine until reaching the outer perimeter. This was where they left most of the roads trashed, filled with other car wrecks and rubble to keep it both low profile and slow down any intruders.
Obviously, they kept a few back ally paths just a little easier to travel, but without knowing new Vale by heart you wouldn't get very far using them.
The roar of the engine was oddly soothing and nostalgic, a sound all of them could credit to surviving past dangers.
In no time they left the city with directions received from Bastet in the navagators seat, no doubt using her semblance to guid them to the horde.
She raises her voice to comment over the noise "Jaune! The hordes pretty big!" That was a little vague but gave him an idea, if it was bigger than the usual they face it was getting too large to quickly deal with, they would be using the city as a warzone later it seems.
Yet the plan didn't change, they would still be faster than the horde, perhaps even more so when its larger.
"Proceed" was his final reply, directed more towards Bugs than Bastet.
Ruby pipes up next, as they make their way outside Vales tall but ruined walls "so how many strays are we picking up today?" Jaune motions with his hand in dismissal "only a single car apparently, but its still important."
Ruby raises both hands with her palms open above her head "no need to stress that on me and you know it, what's up?"
It was a little annoying at how well they could read each other after so long, but honestly it never stayed that way, it was usually a good feeling and Jaunes worries at other things were just bleeding through. "Theres an awful lot of hordes recently, not to mention a whole lot of mouths to feed now."
Ruby had her own turn to throw a dismissal his way "pft! We can manage! Abie has it under control and you know it."
Jaune supposed it was just the shock of so many people from beacon showing up at once that has him on edge, he half expected Ren and Nora to show up nex-
"Contact!" His thoughts were discarded on the spot, focusing back on the small farm truck escaping an ever growing cloud of dust.
There was a small red light stolen from a police car on the top of the buggy that they switched on, the iconic sound wasn't there but it would hopefully be enough to guide these survivors to safety.
At the same time, Doodle started furiously sketching the upcoming landscape with an added wall that didn't yet exist, ready to "print" his creation when they had secured the guests.
Bugs starts to expertly drift a lazy turn, timing a synched speed and distance with the unknown truck.
The back of the dingy farm truck was chock full with supplies and even had some guy on top, looking shocked at their arrival.
He looked pretty familiar now that Jaune thought about it...
Ruby grabs Jaunes shoulder and shouts over the increased noise of the closer horde "give me a boost!"
It was time for him to do his job, he would be pumping his semblance into Ruby as she in turn carried him with her semblance, the results were, for a lack of a better term, neck breakingly fast.
It wasn't for the speed alone though, it allowed her to break down more matter into her semblance at any given moment, meaning she could shift right through the truck, all the supplies and any humans on board with ease.
The transfer was over in nano seconds.
The left over truck immediately shifted position to hovering off the ground where Ruby decided to leave it, fell at speed, then swerved and started to tumble into the hordes reach without anything of importance being left behind.
"Thats always amazing!" Ruby shouts above the sound of a wall being snapped into reality with a loud clap of displaced air "we need to do that more often Jaune!" He was still busy getting his stomach in place to respond.
So one of the new guests do it for him "Jaune!?" Another, this one a higher pitch seemingly responds to that as well "Ruby!?"
And just when Jaune thinks it couldn't get any more confusing he heard something of a whole different level of reality shattering "Big brother!?"
Jaune could only muster both a small curse and a blessing to the brother gods watching down on him. For those voices were unmistakingly Ren, Nora and his little sister Amber.
The way back to Vale was spent mostly in a blurred shocked state, with a continuous line of questioning to verify if this was even happening and not some kind of fever dream.
By the time they got to Vale the majority vote had been that it was indeed all real, unless they had all impossibly joined each others dreams... The other guess of it being the afterlife was quickly thrown out the window when nobody could come up with a cause of death.
Weiss who waited at the entrance, was greeted with a huge group hug threatening to spill out the back of the buggy.
Mostly familiar faces unloaded from the vehicle but there was some unknown girl stuck to Jaune, who in turn was picking her clean off the ground protectively, Or was it possessively? She couldn't tell the difference at the moment.
Nora beelines for Weiss next, sweeping her off her feet and twirling around not once, but twice before dropping her back down all while throwing around incomplete sounds with no meaning.
Ren comments from his calmer distance "I did not expect Weiss to be here, would it be possible for...?' Jaune takes a moment from embracing his sister to look up at the unasked question.
"She wasn't at first, she arrived not so long before Weiss and the rest of Atlas, Pyrrha was apparently stuck in beacon for the past five years." Ren frowns at that, not sure how Pyrrha of all people would be stuck, but instead asked a more important question "where could we find her? I think a team reunion is in order."
Jaune makes a motion with his head for Ren to look behind him.
Nora and Weiss may not have know what surprise "attacked" them with an embrace but Ren had an idea when he turned just in time to catch the three dangerously tipping girls.
There was just too many reactions going on all at once, with multiple people breaking down into tears of joy and even the odd tease of someone else being lost or taking too long to get here.
-"Hello again!"
-"you dolts!"
All said with affection.
Jaune absorbed it all, yet his mood stopped rising and slowly but surely went back down, the more the excitement wore off the more he started to feel an ugly shift.
It was rising like a foul sicknesses bile and left an ugly realisation in its wake.
This, as happy and pure as it was, wouldn't last.
None of it would, with hordes just like the one on the horizon creeping closer day by day, it was only a matter of time before they would be over run.
Humanity as a whole was dying, slowly being picked off and going extinct. Systematically exterminated by a seemingly endless horde, being supplied by a mysterious blockade to the Northeast.
His old friends, new friends and now even his sister were always going to end up as Grimm chow. Unless he did something about it. Unless he took action and did something nobody in history has ever accomplished.
He had to take the fight to the Grimm. But how? He did not know, but the means would have to catch up if they wanted to be relevant to the ends, because he would stop at nothing to save the people he loved.
He talked over the happy conversation easily, his serious tone cutting through the mood "Ruby, Weiss, get everybody to the cafeteria, I am calling for a meeting."
Ruby looked confused and asked for clarification "everybody?" Jaune nods quickly "every Human, Faunus and Robot in Vale" It took her a little moment to get over the suddenness of the request but after so many years of following his orders it was almost second nature to trust him by default.
"Right, let's go Weiss." They head off to collect everyone as Jaune turns back to the small group "get Amber some medical attention by Abie, but I still want you all in that cafeteria in twenty minutes."
"What are you going to be doing?" It was Bastet to ask him the question "I am going to be preparing my speech."
True enough Jaune was in the cafeteria with them waiting for everyone to arrive, outskirt scouts and sentries being the last to arrive.
What could he say? What would you tell a group depending on your level headedness? In a situation like this Jaune needed to keep everyone alive, not get them all scared for the future.
But it was this or not having a future at all...
It was the tuffest decision he has ever made in his life, his dads voice was soft in his head, like a gentle breeze, the memories of him telling tales of the Arc achievements throughout history.
None of those even compared to what he was trying to do, there was nothing to base any safeties on or any kind of guarantee that its possible at all.
Yet he couldn't sit idle anymore, the amount of people in his safety has more than doubled and he was feeling the pressure, he could see indeviduals starting long term relationships, expecting Vale to be around long enough to start a new life.
He needed to do this. Or die trying.
Looking up from his table, he noticed everyone ready and waiting for him, patiently yet charged with curiosity.
Getting up onto the table he spreads his arms to the crowd "Greetings everyone, I hope the integrations are going well, but we have more important matters to attend today!"
There was a general mutter of affirmation, they seem to get along just fine, that was good.
"You may well already know about the zombie problem on the horizon and yes its the biggest yet, but I feel confident in saying it will be taken out easily... But I fear we won't be as ready for the following, or the one after that!"
There was a confused mumble starting from the crowd, uncertainty already? Jaune should have expected it.
"Atlas brings news of a Grimm supply line to the Northeast, spanning over the ocean and into uncharted territory, we all heard the explosion required to stem the tide just for them to escape, its not going to be easy for us to pull the same trick!"
The crowd was shifting uncomfortabley and there were doubt's swimming clear as day through the minds of his people.
"So there's only one real option!" It was clear how they were hanging on his every word, waiting for him to solve this dooming problem.
"We take the fight to them!" Jaune punctuated his words with a fist being thrown into his open palm, the sound of a gauntleted hand striking another bangs out loudly with Aura enhanced force.
Immediately there was chaos, people raising fists in approval, people shouting out madman and loon, there was a divide as well, he could see how many people from Vale is on his side versus the clear hesitance from Atlas.
Not that all of Atlas was against it, he could see many people ready to fight, who fought to free themselves from the train and would fight again to secure a future outside it as well.
He called apon those over the crowd "not all need to fight! Yet we will do just that! no matter what gets in our way! We follow this supply line, find out where these bastards come from and destroy the source!"
It sounded fine at a glance, and in the moment people were swept up in the adrenaline but Jaune knew just how faulty his plan actually was.
He needed to scout out the mission ahead, they needed more intel to start planning an attack, or even what they are attacking in the first place.
"So we stand against these zombies today! And tomorrow we start our quest for survival! We gear ourselves for war!" Most of the crowd was in agreement now, having started to chant in a messy crescendo.
He hoped this wasn't his biggest mistake yet.
It was almost dark out when the dust clouds rolled into view from the penthouse of Jaunes room, the large crowd of zombies were splitting, where some Predators had mobility semblances or had some kind of advantage over the regular zombies.
Looks like the tricky threats were first. Perfect, that would mean fighting at full strength for the most dangerous part of the operation, apposed to having fought through the entire horde just to get the dangerous semblances last when the defenders were low in Aura.
All the fortifications were deployed and ready way before the arrival, there was no orders to give out. so he stayed seated, sitting on a backwards chair right in front of the giant windows, heavy arms crossed over the backrest.
"Please tell me you have a plan?" It was Ruby who had spoken, she was sitting cross legged on his bed, watching him watch the horizon.
"Of course I do, we use our resident angel to incapacitate the majority of the weak ones, then use our front liners for the rest." Ruby frowns and pipes up again "thats not what I asked."
He knew what she really asked, but he didn't have a real answer for her, so he decided to change the topic a little "are you sure our engineers are safe out there? They are going to be pretty important in the near future."
"Don't you think for a second that you can avoid it for long. But yes, the engineers are on site and safe as can be repairing your Bullhead." Ruby pauses but gets over whatever plagued her "are you really going to be using a shoddily fixed Bullhead to follow the Grimm supply line? It... Sounds dangerous at best... And it worries me."
By the time Ruby was done speaking she ended up whispering, barely loud enough for Jaune to hear over the vast distance that was his room.
Letting out a small sigh Jaune gets up and makes his way over to her, now with her legs tucked up to her chest and arms wrapped around her knees.
"You know as well as I do how safe we are going to be, if Ren or myself run out of Aura before finding the truth we turn back, no risking it." Jaune gently grasps both Rubys cheeks in his armoured hands, leans down, and plants a small kiss on her forehead in sincerity.
"Stop that, you know how Pyrrha feels." Her words told him to stop, yet her tone sounded so sad about it.
He wouldn't push it, allowing her time to come to a decision, Ruby seemed to think what they had was wrong, that "going behind Pyrrhas back while she wasn't there" was somehow maliciously planned on their part.
They hadn't really sat down and talked about what they were, their "relationship" had just naturally evolved over time, from close dorks to survival buddies, to comforting eachother over the years when there was just simply nobody else left to do so.
Jaune stepped away, he needed to tend to the front lines soon anyway, he would let her catch up in her own time, Ruby had speed to spare after all.
"Well, just keep in mind that I don't think Pyrrha herself actually has a solid idea of what she wants, and don't go thinking you did something wrong either." Ruby looked away, avoiding eye contact.
That was fine, they had time to work everything out, nobody was going anywhere.
There were more immediate problems at hand, so he hurried up with it and left using the many different ways down to the tunnels, sliding poles and ziplines for the fastest route.
Passing worried faces in the tunnels, he spent valuable time to stop and boost morale through indevidual conversations.
Spending as much time off the front lines as possible he started his treck to the outer walls late.
By the time he got to the outer walls it was dark out, having lost a clear visual on the dust cloud, so he gave the order to light the place up, torches and bonfires are lit along the wall and throughout the open field in front of them.
There were extra faces on the wall today, Atlas and their combat group were a welcome addition, but Vale made the first move.
"you ready? Need me to top up your Aura?" The woman to his right shakes her head in the negative, before spreading her wings wide, ready to take flight.
She was some kind of large bird Faunus, but everybody was convinced she was an angel. She herself called her semblance Devine Intervention, not helping the rumors much.
Jaune supposed it was otherworldly, but he wouldn't see her as anything other than a faunus with a flashy semblance, some people just wanted to believe in deities.
When she started to glow a soft warm gold colour and lift off the ground, it wasn't with her wings. They were still as the rest of her.
She pulsed the not-so-holy light in a short bright wave, it washed over the surroundings and lit up the darkness permanently.
In the split seconds during the pulse she had risen higher and further out, her wings that had previously been lazily put to her sides were now fully spread wide along with her arms.
The glow increased further, making it hard for anyone to directly look at her, and if you did you would only see the silhouette of a very angelic form.
Just as the light seemed to reach a critical mass, everyone brought up makeshift shields or hid behind cover.
She lurched forward directly into the gathering horde, and burst in a brilliant blaze of soundless light, all the better for hearing the screech of burning zombies.
The light went far and wide, temporarily changing the daylight hour for a few seconds.
The damage was brutal to zombies without Aura, purging flesh and muscle away from bone to completely microwave them into uselessness.
Predators were better off, having tanked the brunt of the attack on Aura, but leaving them with less chances of using a dangerous (and expensive) semblance.
That was the only major area of effect semblance Vale had, and usually that would be enough to gorrila tactic in the rest of the cities maze like death trap.
But there were a lot of Predators left, even some mutants who survived the attack even without Aura, using grisly Grimm flesh suits for protection.
Just as the faunus woman was about to retreat a hail of bone spikes shoot off from the new corpses, every dead zombies arm, leg and rib was used in the attack.
No doubt the work of some kind of Predators semblance, seems like an apply-and-forget type of deal, with him using Aura earlier to charge up an ability inside objects, thats then triggered whenever a circumstance was met, in this case dying it seems was the trigger.
There was an awful lot of high speed projectiles.
Many hit home even when she dodged and weaved through the majority of the spikes.
Other semblances joined in from both sides, Doodle and some other assortments of barrier-class semblances sprung up to help while the zombies sent some direct fire in the form of acidic spray and a dark clearly unnatural light-bending laser of some kind.
It missed the angel but phased right through all the defensive semblances it hit, showing off how powerful it would have been.
The area was in chaos, lightning, winds, more bones, rocks and even some clones sprung into action from all sides of the conflict, luckily the Predators had less Aura and couldn't make a large ammount compared to a humans.
This was what a war between souls looked like, what the colour war would have turned into if not for a one sided victory.
Parts of Vales walls started to crumble and collapse after taking a very solid hit from a semblance enhanced hit. Taking a squad of Hunters and Predators with it.
Jaune immediately got to work saving any survivors, Ruby coming in to relocate him in seconds.
As the battle progressed there were more and more things coming into play.
There was some kind of blanket effect over the Predators now, it looked similar to how viewing things through water would be like, it seemed to weaken attacks coming in.
Abie was joining the fight now, having her plant semblance help with vines and thorns to slow the advance of the mutants while also using vines to distribute pain killers and general aid like bandages.
There was a dark cloud forming above the wall, the thunder and lightning brewing and ready to strike down on them.
"To the city!"Jaune calls the retreat, putting out his hand for Ruby and activating his semblance before she even picked him up.
The duo was a strong force multiplier, relocating everyone that couldn't move faster than normal speeds and topping up Aura for indeviduals with important semblances whenever possible.
The downside was that Jaune and Ruby were running out of Aura fast, and would have to either play it safe or retreat from the battle completely.
It didn't take long for the battle to migrate inside the walls and into the many blockaded roads and skyscrapers.
"Sir, reports from Bastet give an all green!" He was laying low behind the front lines, saving his small amount of Aura for if something or someone went critical.
All green was brilliant news, means the mini war was going heavily in their favor, he expected nothing less from his effective fighting force.
Just as he was about to roll up his maps and battle data there was a growing scream, a ball of grey shifting faces spawning from thin air vaguely in the center of the room, it increased in volume and grew in size abruptly then imploded into a small group of zombies and Predators with a single mutant bigger than an Alpha Ursa.
Well, looks like someone had a weird teleportation semblance.
Arming himself just in time to catch the first zombie on the flat of his sword he pushes back and sends it to the floor with a squelching thud.
Looking around he didn't see anyone but the messenger, who had minimal combat training and had a very odd semblance that wouldn't help him in this fight.
"Go, I need you to get me some backup." The guy hesitates so Jaune raises his voice the second time "I'll be fine! Get me an Evac immediately!"
The messenger melts into the floor, off to do his job when Jaune had no time to use the boxy radio on the table, and speaking of time, the messenger escaped with none of it to spare, since his last location was enveloped in mutant muscle a second later.
Jaune ignored the big Grimm for now, he would be able to deal with it safely after the smaller ones are delt with. Namely the Predators, since they were the wild cards that needed culling.
Deploying his sheild next Jaune charges the teleporter, it seemed to be giving another Predator a piggy back ride, it was an odd sight but Jaune assumes they had some kind of synergy with their semblances... Perhaps some kind of space awareness for the teleporter? Since Jaune doubt's they looked through a window that didn't exist on this fortified floor.
He bashed his way towards them, wanting to secure the integrity of their defensive battle lines and the safety of the more civilian folk.
Just before reaching them they started to smudge like clay figures and start a delayed teleport Jaune lunges, wanting to cut them off from running.
It doesn't work out like he thought it would, he was dragged with the teleport just before his sword could make the plunge through them.
His new environment mattered not for now, since Jaune still had a job.
Turning and resuming the charge Jaune notices the lack of Aura, They must have spent everything already.
It was clear as day when somebody ran out of Aura, having slower movements and visibly softer skin when interacting with the environment through stepping, touching or even Jaunes own sword penetrating the chest of one and strait though into the stomach of the other on its back.
He was sent to the ground a moment later, a few regular zombies having tackled him with enhanced Grimm strength.
The bite marks on his chest plate were going to need some fixing when they got back to base after all this.
Just as he was about to use his sheild to punt these zombies into the nearby wall a laser came from above him (he was prone on the floor, so more like behind him) and hit the zombies in the head when possible, spraying Grimm bone armour mixed with human bits all over Jaune.
Looking up and behind him he sees that he was in an alley next to a main road, the main road having a Oxjaw parked and firing off further down the main road and out of view with its rapid fire rotary laser canon.
What actually helped him was Weiss, standing on the crew compartment with a bunch of other Atlas indeviduals wielding standard laser rifles "Jaune!? What are you doing fighting in the streets? Weren't you holed up in a command center!?"
Nodding he explains quickly "Predator had a teleportation semblance."
As he was given access to the back of the Oxjaw with some Glyph stairs Weiss replied with another question "Had?"
He laughed freely "yeah! Turns out taking me along for the ride wasn't good for his health!"
Once on board he lowered his volume back down, yet still having to be loud enough to be heard over the Oxjaws canon "does this thing have radio?" Weiss nods and motions for the open hatch.
Quickly climbing down and taking directions from an injured woman in the bunks he found the radio in the operation compartment behind the driver.
He doesn't have much experience with these so he just says whatever came to mind "Hello? This thing working?" An instant response came through with a slight crackle "reading you loud and clear, over."
Good, but he wasn't going to bother with radio discipline when he was going to mess up anyway and spoke freely into the device "Reporting a compromised forward headquarters in district C4, Revoking orders to secure it, tell that messenger I made it out just fine!"
There was a moment of silence and a reply comes through again "roger that, Forward HQ compromised, relaying intel now"
Nodding even though the guy on the other side couldn't see that Jaune turns away and makes his way to the roof again.
They had a battle to win.
Jaune woke suddenly, everything felt slighty off, texture was lacking, lighting was unnatural, emotions were high.
His silk sheets slide off of his armour flawlessly, smooth as the action should always be.
Armour in bed? It had dried blood on too?
Getting out and looking around he noted that his room was dark, heavy curtains closed and left no natural light for him to use, the only source being a dim and dying solar lamp in desperate need of charge.
He spots movement at the corner of his eye, the other side of the bed had a lump in the sheets and an unmistakable red main poking out.
"Pyrrha?"
"I bet you hate me."
That... Her voice never sounded so... Ethereal before, did it? Something wasn't right.
"You never even tried to save me."
That wasn't true, he-
She- no. it, started to scream and distort into imhuman shapes, back going angular, legs bending smoothly.
Her face turns to look at him, neck turning impossibly, face made up of many smaller and smoother faces shifting.
Deathly pale and very red Grimm eyes stared into his soul.
There was a ripple and space expanded before imploding inward again instantly, pulling him into wakefulness.
He gasped for air as he sat up suddenly a second time.
It was just a bad dream.
Everything was fine.
Looking around resulted in nobody being spotted, Pyrrha having left early it seems.
The events of the past few days catch up as his mind sorts itself out.
It took most of the night before yesterday to exterminate the rest of the Grimm from Vales borders. The rest of the next day was spent recuperating and regenerating Aura as fast as possible.
That meant reduced activity and a lot of sleeping for the foreseeable future. Everyone also had to pay a trip to the medical bay to reduce the amount of work the Aura needed to accomplish naturally.
Some were going to be staying longer than others.
Others weren't going there at all, and would be having a burial later tomorrow when everybody could attend, as well as finding all the corpses for the graves in the first place.
The worst injury had left the a person chemically bonded with a concrete pillar, it had been synthetically placed through his torso due to a Predators semblance dealing in nasty and exotic forms of teleportation.
Anywhere else and a vital organ would have been completely replaced by the malicious construction material.
Poor guy didn't even see the bastard that got him.
He felt calmer now, the concrete problems and anger somehow making him feel more in control than a dreams cheap tricks.
Taking a sip of his bottle of water by the side of his bed refreshed his mind and got rid of the dry feeling in his mouth, sleeping that heavily and for so long did that to a person.
Checking how much Aura he had resulted in a nice stable amount, having no major injuries to heal meant his Aura felt near full after a day and night of solid rest.
People did comment on how fast he replenished Aura as well, he assumed it was some kind of percentile based regeneration on his total pool, that was his going hypothesis anyway, but he was no scientist.
Speaking of scientists, his engineers should be almost done with those Bullhead repairs.
In the early days they had found the company based in Vale that delt in vehicle manufacturing, along with a bunch of other things like weapon testing and development.
He was speaking of Adel Aerospace of course, leading Vale branch in military hardware, overshadowed by Atlas and their mighty semi-automatic Industry, yet still had some really accomplished engineers under their employ.
Before the end obviously, now its just a dusty complex that they loot for ammunitions whenever they were short or running low on spar parts.
They couldn't even fix any of the technology without the help of the Atlas engineers, who were now gladly helping out in the name of staying off the front lines and free meals.
Getting some fresh clothes and his under-armour leathers he changed quickly, feeling the hunger set in and pang at his empty stomach. He just had to mention free meals didn't he?
To distract himself as he made his way to the cafeteria he went down the mental list for todays goals.
Todays plan was simple; Eat, gather the scout team, scout this Grimm origin, come back, then plan the hell out of how to deal with whatever they found.
Jaune just hoped its that simple.
The cafeteria was pretty empty, so he wasn't disturbed much on his way to the food hut, receiving and giving out polite waves as he went.
This time, he requested for a premium. Coffee.
The chef looked around carefully, checking if anyone saw the hushed exchange before pulling out a small kettle to place above the even smaller camping stove.
They both acted like nothing was wrong, no highly suspect dealing was happening at all.
"So, lovely weather we have today." The chef gave him an odd look, motioning to the dull gray walls illuminated by nothing much at all.
Jaune nearly face palmed.
He blamed his tired mind and hungry stomach. Jaune didn't try his hand at small talk after that and just waited for his meal and hot beverage in silence.
The sweet aromas did a lot of good for Jaunes frayed nerves and doubts, it was a wonder what food could do to a human body.
After collecting and testing the coffee he was ready to take on the world, turning to look for a seat he needed someone that wouldn't try to steal or even comment on his almost illegally rare resource known as boiled bean juice.
It took a single glance to find a table that would be without judgment.
Penny and Dime.
He didn't know what they were doing, tinkering by the looks of it, but he sure as hell wouldn't pass up the opportunity.
Sliding in across from them didn't seem to gather much attention other than a glance and nod.
That worked for Jaune, he was sure whatever they were doing was helping them grow closer as... He was just going to make it easier on himself and call them sisters.
They had a broken scroll out on the table, and Dime had been messing with it to some time now, while Penny gave small comments every few seconds.
After some time -and almost after his meal was done- the screen lit up.
They had fixed the scroll? Impressive
Then it spoke.
The scroll buzzed out with a very synthetic voice "hello, Penny."
Jaune thinks his curiosity deserved a little bit of an explanation "so what are you two doing over there?" Dime doesn't look up from the scroll but Penny was also being shifty even when looking like she wanted to tell.
"Jaune! I have gotten really good at programming, its sensational! I managed to make complex conversation bots to keep myself busy during captivity." Jaune responds carefully "right, so this chat bot is running off a broken scroll?"
Penny looked back at the scroll when it suddenly piped up into the conversation "Greetings, Jaune, my device seemed to be fixed by a semblance." Dime pipes in to give clarification for the scroll "it was mine."
This was weird, but nevertheless he continues "how does it know my name? Did you program that in?" Penny shook her head "it logs all conversation data and filters names of people and places into its known conversation topics."
"So it learns?" Jaune asked dubiously.
"Precisely! This one in particular is new, but my first one is almost four years strong now and can hold a conversation really well! Even going as far as to construct a crude personality to increase chances of me talking to her in particular over the rest!"
She was animated about this, but he supposed Penny and Dime really don't have other robots to talk to like himself that had other humans did they? Their entire race was just themselves. It was no doubt lonely.
Wait... Personality?
"How many of these did you make?" Penny stops, her eyes blink rapidly multiple times "I don't know, you see... When I made them, it was to use processing power too keep me from having to think about Atlas... So I just made as many as possible, even giving a few the power to make more for themselves- within reason of course."
Interesting. Some fun little project in the apocalypse.
"I would love to stay and chat you two, but I have a mission to accomplish." Getting up and taking his dishes to the hut Jaune starts his long journey to the working engineers.
The team he decided on taking in the end was Winter for the pilot, having experience in her own private airship and would also be an Atlas representative, Then Ren for his semblance with himself to top up Ren if needs be.
They were only taking three members for the cost effectiveness of Rens semblance, hopefully they could do the trip without triggering any Grimm.
He had to wake up the hatch handler from a nap, but everything else was fine as he made his way out the tunnels and down the many streets and wrecked buildings.
Jaune let his eyes wonder and drift through the ground floor of all the huge glass buildings, peering inside and spotting nothing of value, the skyscrapers around the centre of town was picked clean early into the apocalypse and left everything looking ghostly empty.
Like nobody has lived here for decades.
It sometimes even felt like its been decades too.
His thoughts are discarded as he makes his way out the richer part of town and into the old industrial district, closer to the sea and all the very helpful fish.
He remembers the tales team RWBY had about the docks, those were fond memories, but he passed those to further chase his goal.
Coming up into view was a huge complex wedged between Vales large Northern wall and the coast line, the gate was wrecked but you could still just see the sign reading: "Adel Aerospace; Combat Testing and Development." Followed with a lot of warning and hazard signs.
This wasn't the only property owned by the Adel's, but the others were all mostly factories of some variant, manufacturing cars, airships and even boats to a lesser extent...
Ignoring the signs and passing through the gaping hole, Jaune follows the noise of distant power tools until he finds the group he was looking for.
The first thing Jaune noticed was how incomplete the repairs looked, having a lot of the machinery and eletricals exposed with open panels.
He looked around for someone in charge, he was told the Bullheads were found in storage where they were kept in relatively good conditions, without battle damage.
Finding the guy behind a desk and blueprints he calls out "what's going on here? You said to expect fast maintenance and that it wouldn't take more than a day?"
The Engineer looks up from his intense study of the documents and straitens up fast "Oh! Uh, sorry sir, all I know is that we started to do more than was strickly necessary to get it flight ready."
Frowning Jaune presses for answers "what do you mean by that exactly? How long until the Bullhead is ready?" The engineer was fidgeting now "We implemented some... Extra designs that should increase performance sir, it should be ready tonight or tomorrow morning."
Okay... That was fine, Great even, that didn't extend the wait too long and he gets to regenerate more Aura during his wait.
But the reason Jaune pushed for this to complete soon was simple, they couldn't plan anything without knowing what to plan for, and every day they were stagnant is a day of wasted supplies, work time and morale... All being things they didn't have a lot in abundance when under siege by the Grimm.
He guessed that he couldn't change anything now, and standing around watching was an even bigger waste so he got moving again, heading to the medical bay this time.
It was back amongst the hideouts many tunnels so Jaune decided to take a different route back from where he came, just to have some variety.
Passing the new water purification project Jaune waves at the younglings crouched around the salt pans, learning and messing around with the few overseers.
It firms his resolve and the need for action.
Jaune made it to the med bay in no time after than, his powerful steps moving him like an unstoppable force.
Looking around he finds Abie working at her medicine bench, concoctions brewing and giving off strange smells.
"Hello, I don't want to bother you much, just want to know where I can find my sister" Jaune made it clear that whatever she was making was more important that talking to him "room A3 was the quick reply.
Giving a wave as he parted from her probably wasn't the best choice since Abie didn't see it, having gone back to her work.
Oh well, not as important as room A3.
Knocking on the sliding door before entering after a soft "come in" sounded out, Jaune made eye contract with Amber, his youngest sibling.
"Big brother!" She had almost jumped strait out of bed but he managed to dash froward and negate the "need."
"Hi, Amber." Jaune brings her into a fierce hug for all the time missed.
She was so much bigger than he remembers, last time they had seen each other was before Jaune ran away to beacon. A different time, a different way of life.
Putting thoughts to words Jaune pulls away and gives her a once over "You've grown so much! What had Mother been feeding you! When I get ahold of whomever thought growing you up was a good idea I swear-"
Jaune didn't get to complete his "rant", having to deal with the cutest giggling Amber ever.
He delt in warm smiles.
"Jaune! I missed you so much! Where did you even go!?" oh right... He didn't even say he was going to Beacon, the note that he left his family was just as vague as his old dreams of becoming a hero back then.
"Oh you wouldn't believe me! I went to Beacon! I made these awesome friends and and became an epic fighter!" She was wide eyed.
He was obviously just playing it up for her, Amber -like himself- liked to listen to their dads stories of the rise of hunter careers.
"Oh oh! I unlocked my semblance Jaune!"
Now that was news! Very interesting development indeed.
Jaune was on the case instantly "so which Arc semblance did you get?" Amber was just waiting for him to ask, ready to blurt it out the moment he spoke "Mind!"
Oh dear... And Jaune thought himself lucky with getting Soul...
"Thats... Wow Amber! when was this!?" He couldn't resist giving her some heat pats for the achievement.
But yeah, this was a huge development for the party. The Arc name was reknown throughout history for the stellar combat performance and it wasn't based off luck. No, there was a hereditary semblance helping generations to come with easy training techniques and tips.
Unlike the Schnee semblance thiers had a bit of freedom, there were three you could inherit; Mind, Body and Soul.
All three were powerful and helped entire villages fight back the hordes it their own way... But Mind was considered the most rare, boosting the mental capacity of an indevidual similar to how his Soul semblance boosted Aura.
Amber allowed for increased reaction times, planning, research and general information heavy tactics.
Body -that was the most common- Boosted physical strengths and stamina, but was different in application than Mind and Soul in the sense it was a wide area of effect, and dirt cheap. Making for an almost passive bonus to not only an army, but escaping civilians.
"I got it while being kidnapped by those spider Grimm." Her voice weakens towards the end of that sentence but she pipes up again "but saved me! And now I can be useful! Even to you!"
And that she could be indeed. There was potential here.
Hey folks!
Big thanks for reading and a hefty pat on my own back for completing the first arc! Expect the second arc to speed up a lot in terms of story progression, maybe even a few time skips later, but nothing too large.