[Spoil]
Jaune ended up sleeping in the infirmary, not having had the heart to leave Amber as he put them both to sleep with stories of his Beacon life and all the happy things that had happened to him in that time.
Like how he got to show off his dancing skills and that one crazy food fight.
He woke up earlier than her, even after he had fought a grueling battle not even three days ago.
She must have been more hurt than she was showing, Amber was always like that back home, always trying to make Jaune worry less about his youngest sister.
It didn't help her and just made him want to protect her more for the cute effort.
Shifting the stiff muscles in his neck with his hand Jaune got to work, getting up and heading to his office.
Juane had a flight to revise, he had been planning it ever since the idea came to mind, but needed to hash out some finer points with the help of a map.
The stairwell was empty as he made his way up, many people were sleeping in late and recuperating.
After climbing up stairwells for a good two minutes Jaune made it to his office. It was a small thing, nothing like his huge bedroom on the top floor way above.
The one large thing in the very rectangular room was the map of Remnant on the far wall. It had many pins and notes all over, with a greater number of those closer to Vales borders.
Vale itself had a smaller scale map pinned over its own location on the larger wall mounted map, making it seem like a zoomed in section as if he was on a scroll.
That alone had more markings than the rest of the world, things like the hideout rooms, fortified buildings, important looting locations such as Vale Central Hospital and Adel compounds.
It was honestly quite busy.
It made the city look alive.
The feeling had more truth to it now thankfully, but it was still a stretch to call it such a thing.
Taking his time to wake up nicely Jaune gets out a box of rations for breakfast, hidden in his desk and technically for situations a little more important than these. He would replace the emergency food later, what he needed now was to not get distracted.
Jaune had already planned the basics, it was a simple matter of flying above the Wraiths line of sight, having huge blind spots directly above them came in handy whenever a person managed to find a way to fly during the apocalypse, which wasn't often and usually reserved for lucky semblance owners.
Along with flying out of sight, they would obviously be using Rens semblance to mask emotions, something they would no doubt have little control over if what they find is anything like Jaune had in mind.
Reaching into another drawer Jaune got a more portable map of Remnant for mobile use, he would plan the route on his way to get a change of clothes from his room.
Jaune made his way back to the stairs and got to work with a map in one hand and food in the other.
It was all strait forward until he followed the direction of the blockade to a bank of heavy fog far out at sea, on the Edge of Remnant.
Jaune chuckles at the name, always thinking the dead zone on all the world maps looked more like a large hole than an edge, the sentiment probably came from those without modern world maps.
It had so many names like The Edge of Remnant, Cursed Lands and Hell being the most popular, but everyone could agree on one thing.
It was the supposed home of Grimm, maybe even the origin or breeding grounds for the dark creatures.
He was not the first person to try explore the unknown, many had tried and failed to pass the unnatural fog on the border of this land.
The fog itself was apparently noxious, but the Grimm within it were the real threats, tales of huge and cunning beasts devouring entire fleets of ships was common amongst coastal villages and songs of brave explorers.
Almost like the Wyvern that had attacked Beacon.
Jaune didn't like it one bit when tall tales of drunken sailors don't seem so far fetched anymore.
Jaune was getting real tired of his own train of thought, always distracted and worried for what was to come.
He couldn't really blame himself but it was still annoying nonetheless.
Reaching his rooms last stairs Jaune pushes passed the cloth draped over the entrance without thinking, not used to sharing and distracted with his maps.
Nothing happened at first, just him stalking over to his chest of clothes with his eyes glued to his map at hip height, allowing him to see where he was stepping and still work.
There was a rustle of sheets and two voices calling out "Jaune?" He looked up to see both Ruby and Pyrrha peeking and speaking at the same time from under his blankets.
He didn't expect that, but it made sense that Pyrrha would ask someone to sleep with her again... Jaune honestly thought it would be Nora to insist but maybe she had other plans for herself, possibly including Ren if Jaune wasn't reading the new mood between those two wrong, but he was no expert and couldn't really say for sure.
All very interesting, but nothing told him why they both looked like they got caught with hands in cookie jars.
"What's up?" They looked at eachother for a second before Pyrrha just ducked back under the sheets leaving Ruby to speak by herself.
Blinking once, he paid close attention to Ruby's next words "could you maybe grab myself an extra shirt while you are at it?" That wasn't all that uncommon coming from Ruby she liked to sleep minimal, but when Pyrrha mumbled something and Ruby speaks again its a little bit weirder "for her as well."
What did he walk into now? Combat situations were hunting him down even in his bedroom it seems.
His eloquent response amounted to a quick "uh, sure."
Jaune opened the chest and took out his biggest shirts, tossing them between the two girls who he assumed lacked some clothing, he wasn't going to torture himself by trying to work out how much clothing.
The grey and dark red shirts were scooped up and sucked away in different directions.
Ruby didn't even wait for Jaune to turn around before starting to move out of bed, luckily Jaune had known she would do something hasty and had turned before the shirts even hit the bed.
His view of morning Vale through the windows was slightly obscured thanks to the half hearted reflection of the bed behind him... Thankfully the windows weren't reflecting perfectly in the current lighting so the image was blurred at best.
Shifting his eyes again Jaune decided to look at his maps this time, hopfully he couldn't go wrong with that action.
"Sorry about that" Jaune felt the need to apologize, for barging in without thinking.
"N-no!" Pyrrhas voice was just a little shaky "Don't apologize, you didn't even see anything anyway?" He swore that sounded more like a question than a statement, and he was going to purposely ignore the small hopeful undertone.
Gods damn it, all he needed was a fresh pair of clothes!
Ruby thankfully cut in "Well, going to go grab my own clothes now, Pyrrha you want something? My clothes could fit you now, perhaps a bit short but size should be no problem." Just like Ruby to not feel any morning fatigue.
Ruby seemed to be taking a small risk with using her semblance as a way to hide herself when traveling through the hideout. Sneaky.
"Yes, thank you Ruby" there was a short pause as Ruby displaced air on her way out and before Pyrrha spoke again. "You can turn around Jaune, please don't let me hold you up any longer, you looked busy."
Sighing in relief Jaune continued with his original goal and picked out a fresh shirt, jeans and everything in between.
Jaune apologized again before grabbing everything and relocating to the bathroom to change.
He was surprised to come back to Pyrrha still sitting on his bed without Ruby being back, she was sure taking her sweet time with that speed semblance.
Pyrrha had been grabbing the ends of her new grey shirt, fists tugging at the hem to cover more of her legs which were knee-to-knee and flattened to the bed around her, feet folding in behind her and neatly tucked away.
The pose was similar to how Mistral citizens sat at tables, but just without the legs directly under oneself, Jaune had to admit it was very cute.
His concentration was sharpened when Pyrrha spoke "so what were you doing with those maps? I thought you would have a route planned already?"
Even Pyrrha knew what was up it seems, she was always like that back in Beacon too.
"Oh, you know... Busy work as I wait for Ren and Winter to wake up." He shifted a chest plate strap that was feeling a little tight as he spoke.
She didn't look convinced.
He needed to distract himself and Pyrrha until Ruby got back or he was going to say something he would regret. "Sorry about being so busy and not having time to catch up, you know how it is with the end of the world and all that."
Jaune immediately noticed the frown on her face before she spoke "I don't actually... What exactly happened?"
Oh gods, he messed up, now he couldn't think up an excuse to avoid an explanation...
"Its a long story, one for another time, but the short answer is this" he took a moment to position himself on the edge of the bed a respectful distance away before continuing.
"So after you went into that machine-" Pyrrha interrupted him before he could continue "that machine was Dime before her semblance."
That... Raised many questions but he pressed on with the explanation that Pyrrha must have been wanting to choke out of somebody by now.
"After you were put into Dimes pod it gave an estimate time of a week before the transfer would complete" Jaunes eyes drifted off into the middle distance and he had the look of someone recalling a distant memory "I still remember Ozpin and the science team being heated over this back then, it was some kind of mulfuntion but they couldn't release you since they knew from experience with the other maiden that half a soul wasn't a damage you could wake up from."
Pyrrha immediately started talking as he finished "actually, it wasn't a malfunction, Dime had purposely stopped the transfer."
Juan's chuckles "okay, why don't I skip ahead since you seem to know more than me about this?" Pyrrha nodded, eager to find out how things went down.
"So there was an attack on the school with the White Fang dropping off peculiar Grimm and even this huge dragon thing bigger than beacon tower." Jaune scratched his cheek with a frown and continued the tale "we beat them back, Beacon was ruined but we beat them, Ruby used her eyes to weaken the large Grimm but was sent into a deep unnatural sleep for her troubles."
Pyrrha wants to ask about these eye shenanigans, but sensed there was more to it, the story not yet depicting the same thing she saw outside the window.
"Myself and Ruby where in Vale Central Hospital when the second wave hit, this time the Grimm weren't supported by White Fang but cyber warfare." Pyrrha raised her eyebrow at that "what's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, for one, the robotic military turned on us, but it was more than that, power went down, the wall turrets went down and there were all sorts of Grimm threats at once." Jaune brought up his hand to count them off as he spoke "Goliaths and Golems breaking down outer walls, Serpants from the bay and all the average avian Grimm you could think of, but just larger Alpha types that were waiting for an opportunity just like this."
Pyrrha absorbs the information, getting the strategic situation in her head before sighing "you didn't stand much of a chance."
"Thats not even all, the zombies started sprouting up in all the resistance groups still fighting or hiding, we were now under a biological attack amidst everything." Jaune had a way of making it sound hopeless.
"So how did you win? It seems impossible but you are still here in Vale?" Jaune chuckled and shook his head.
"We didn't win, we ran, Beacon had dispatched all the bullheads for evacuation, Ren and Nora knew I was with Ruby while she slept so we were the first to be picked up, we left Vale to die." Pyrrha was speechless.
Hunters... It was their job to keep people safe... Pyrrha had hated when she would be tested with those situations of "try save the village thats impossible to save or escape with as many survivors" she would always argue the teachers on how she could save them anyway, but this was one she knew was pointless.
"Yeah, I know, it wasn't my choice at all, it was my choice to come back later though, when everything calmed down we looked for stragglers and supplies." Pyrrha admired that, most people wouldn't have gone back at all.
"But we got ahead of the story a little, on the way out during the sexomd attack Ren and Nora's Bullhead went down and crashed in the ocean, we didn't even know until we landed and-"
Ruby had sneakily entered when they were both busy and was the one to interrupt Jaune "you know from here on out it doesn't matter Jaune, Pyrrha, Just know it was a harsh life of survival for the rest of the years you were away and that some people had to resort to..." Ruby Interrupted herself as well and tossed some extra clothes over to Pyrrha "here take these, also I hate to ruin Jaunes fun but his team is ready to leave."
Jaune didn't look that disappointed in the slightest to Pyrrha, but then again, he was so hard to read at all nowadays.
They were on the landing pad in no time, everyone was wishing them a safe flight and to come back safely.
Winter felt like she was under a lot of pressure as the pilot, but she was strong enough to push those worries down and under control.
Doing flight checks and switching on engines they were going to be making history very soon.
In the cargo hold behind her she could hear worried voices of people saying goodbye, almost as if they were already dead.
Winter couldn't really blame them, she herself got similar treatment from Weiss earlier and in private.
There was a double thump of somebody hitting the hull, just strong enough to let Winter know it was ententional, and that it was time to leave.
Flicking the switch to close the cargo bay there was a little bit of commotion as everybody said their last emotional farewells in raised tones.
Winter gently throttled up the elevator, feeding more power into the engines and taking them directly up into the air VTOL style.
As she rotated the engines slightly to drift out of the landing zone and away from the city, Jaune and Ren make their way into the flight compartment finding the seats made for them.
Originally, a bullhead had just two seats in the cockpit for the Co-pilot, but they had to add an extra for Jaune positioned slightly behind and in between both original pilot seats.
The triangle formation allowed for Jaune to reach forward and touch either of them if necessary, also helped Rens semblance a little bit by not having to work over time extending his range through the cargo hold. It was a small thing but everything helped.
They all got comfortable because this was going to take some time, the Bullhead had custom modifications that increase speed and fuel efficiency, yet they had no real idea of how much flying would be happening. There were many factors that could force a landing or reroute.
"Everyone strapped in?" Winter got two small confirmations before she nods in turn, tilting the nose North she takes the Bullhead out of hover mode and picks up speed rapidly.
It took them many minutes of tense silence that felt like hours before the silence was broken "what do you think we are going to find?" Ren was asking and Jaune jumps on the chance to lighten the mood "I bet a hundred Lien we find Grimm."
Ren just scoffed "you got yourself a bet, after all... I wonder what you are going to use that Lien on huh?"
Jaune had a small smile at that "you still paying up." Ren waved his hand to ward off an invisible fly "Yeah, yeah. Sure thing."
Winter cut the bullshit "Focus you two, Ren, I hope you are scanning that radar as hard as I am. The moment we see contacts we put up your semblance."
Jaunes smile fades and he gets to business "actually, let's wait until we are a little closer than maximum radar range, thats a little far and wasteful of our reserves."
Winter frowns at that and makes her concerns heard "hope you know what you are doing, I promised Weiss I would come back alive."
Jaune nods, but doesn't say anything to that, they all made promises that they had little control over.
They quickly found themselves flying near the crater of the ammonium nitrate and dust explosion, it wasn't a deep crater all things considered, its width was more impressive.
It was awe inspiring, humanity being able to deal that ammount of damage? It was bigger than any bomb in history and killed a horde bigger than most old myths liked to boast.
Everything was flattened. The small amount of trees in the area were shredded, dam walls being broken and flooding past the gentle hills of the area into the nearby lake. The farm warehouses were gone too, any fertilizer left in the storage being caught in the explosion and no doubt making it bigger in turn.
Ren was the first comment "Wow, did you guys really do that?" He directed the question to Jaune but he just shakes his head and points to Winter "it was Atlas, a last ditch effort to escape."
Winter deflects it as well "I still struggle to believe Weiss and Hackler managed to pull it off with the resources we had access to. We had little to no hope without something like that."
The silence creeped up on them again after that and it stuck around until contact with the first Grimm was made "We got the Grimm Blockade on long range radar! Its massive!" Jaune leans in to inspect the equipment, in the same boat as Ren when it comes to having seen the scale of the supply line. The green grid had many red dots and many more popping up the closer they got.
Were those dots counting flying Grimm in total? Or just Alpha Wraiths? Because there was a big difference between the two from what Jaune was told.
"Ren, Keep your semblance off unless we reach effective weapon range, that seems to be ruffly the same distance as a Grimms ability to slightly sense emotions." Jaune follows his order with another "Winter take us to six thousand metres and avoid that range at all costs, I don't want us near this blockade at all."
Both nod and keep tabs on instruments as they raise the nose of the Bullhead, aiming as high as possible without threatening an energy stall.
They also slightly aimed off to the West to give them more time to climb to a higher altitude, while still staying within radar range of the blockade stretching off in the same general direction as they were now traveling.
This part of the trip seemed to take the longest regardless of the actual time involved, it was first contact, nerves were high strung.
It didn't help that they were physically traveling slower than when flying in a strait line.
They reached the desired altitude and flattened out, gaining more speed before turning in to fly above the blockade.
Ren checks then relays what his instruments are telling him "Grimm formations are holding steady, nothing straying from the group."
Jaune nods "then we reach the fog wall before going stealth."
Winter was thumbing the defensive armaments trigger through the safety to keep her nerves under wraps.
It was getting darker by the time the fog came into view, yet the sun still backlit the wall in an almost dark purple shade.
There was something deeply unsettling about the way the light shifted too, shapes and patches moving so slowly you could almost convince yourself its just your imagination.
Jaune had an idea "Ren, scan that fog for any Grimm."
There was no doubt in his mind that there were Grimm in that fog but wanted confirmation on size or numbers to cool his nerves regarding the unknown.
Ren ruined his plan with a simple "Uh..."
He forced his tone down into a calmer state before speaking out loud "What is it?" It still came out strained but Ren didn't even pay attention "Jaune... I can't pick anything up, the radar is convinced we are flying towards a mountain."
That's... Odd...
The fog wall started to curve up and away, making a large dome as they approached, having effectively forced them to move through it eventually.
"Let's get half way over before dropping in" Jaune received two nods in understanding and they pressed on after putting up Rens semblance.
The Bullhead was sufficiently protected from the noxious fumes but when they were plunged into a purple hell it didn't feel so safe at all.
There were movements immediately, what looked like tails here and wings there, all lazily moving about.
Except they were huge, they spent a solid thirty seconds patiently watching a thick tail pass the cockpit window, gradually getting thinner as it flew away to their left and ending with a deadly looking barb at the end that almost clipped the Bullhead.
Ren whispered out a question, afraid to even speak normally "What was that? Never seen a Grimm that long before... And that was only the tail?"
Jaune was sweating bullets and couldn't answer him, too busy getting small flashbacks from the Wyvern during the Beacon defense.
He felt confident in saying it was even bigger.
Winter spoke before he could "We need to leave."
He flinched at that, almost bringing up his hand to use his semblance against a threat that wasn't something he could combat with his soul.
"No we can't, we need to get to the bottom of this once and for all, Ren is too specialized to let up, we won't ever get a chance like this again." He placed his shaking hands on both of their shoulders and squeezed harshly. "Grimm are dumb, they are going to treat the Bullhead like a floating rock when they feel no humans."
Ren looked like he wanted to argue that but kept his mouth shut, Jaune didn't possibly know what part of his reasoning was faulty, but Ren knew something he didn't.
Winter didn't like it too, but couldn't find anything wrong with the reasoning either.
Jaune chuckles without a trace of humor "Now let's speed up, Ren can't keep this up forever and I only have so much Aura to spare."
Winter takes a deep breath and pushes forward into the unkowm.
It clears up after a minute, fog thinning and leaving only a hazy air.
Leaving them to witness an army marching. Relentlessly pushing forward to the coasts of this black volcanic continent and where they no doubt get picked up by Alpha Wraiths.
There was every kind of Grimm imaginable and even some that they haven't seen at all. Thousands apon thousands of them.
This was only one side too, Vales "little" invasion force. Jaune didn't want to see the other parts of this land mass that were closer to the other kingdoms.
He caught something on the edge of his vision, it was some kind of spherical Grimm with many wings...
Looking closer Jaune corrects himself.
It was an Eyeball with a countless number of long and short wings standing at attention not flapping against any wind or air current.
The iris was what made it scary, it was a Grimm core, in all its unprotected glory, dark red energy pulsing through the thick black tar that was liquid Grimm. Perpetually crying the evil biological mystery over the rest of the bone white eye.
It was looking directly at them.
And not just the Bullhead, but through the cockpit glass and at the interior, inspecting for humans that it was expecting.
Impossible.
The Grimm knew what a Bullhead was? Or more specifically, where to look for a human in an airship?
Raising his voice Jaune makes sure to impart the importance "Winter! Evasive actions!"
Immediately she barrel rolls the Bullhead to the right and drops altitude to gain speed.
Just before they lose eye contact with the Grimm its red glow increases as the tar thins, pure malice in red light form builds up and unloads in a brilliant display of power.
The unfocused beam barely missed, blood red arcs of crackling energy rip and tear at the Bullheads dancing hull in pure spite.
"What the fuck was that!" Nobody was sure who said it and nobody knew how to answer as they pulled up out of the dive to once again face the new threat.
Winter had already deployed the rotary canon during the dive and the nose mounted gun roared in turn, yet seemed worthless in the contrast of the Grimms last high pitched attack.
The many smaller wings fold in, somehow blocking the high caliber ammunition with ease, not even seeming scratched by the effort.
Winter took the blind spot for what it was, she pushed the throttle way up and closed the distance, she wouldn't be able to dodge forever and needed to end this before she ran out of speed to perform fancy maneuvers that cost precious energy.
The Bullheads gun jammed.
Honestly she should gave expected something like this from a recently mothballed Bullhead.
The Grimm immediately unfolded the small wings and started to charge up a new blast.
Winter wasn't done yet "Jaune get to the side door! You are going to be delivering one hell of a final blow!"
There was a surprising amount of noise for her to shout over, with the Bullheads damaged hull howling through the wind and the wine of unnatural energies from the Grimm eye.
Jaune was about to follow orders and unstrap from his seat when Winter places speed Glyphs around the Bullhead wherever possible after pointing slightly under the Grimms position.
Creating an ethereal runway of increased speed Winter accelerates beyond anything a normal or experimental Bullhead would ever achieve.
The G-force sent everyone thudding back deeper into their seats as they successfully manage to dodge the second laser.
The Glyphs left behind shatter as the beam pierced through them like they never existed in the first place.
The spawned road paved the pathway to victory, with a gentle upward curve it got them to rise up behind the Grimm.
At the apex of the arc Jaune unstrapped, having to combat less forces now in the almost hovering speeds.
Jaune calls out to Winter as he made it to the door "Let me guess, drop my heavy self sword first into the Grimm?"
Winter nods "that and more" taking no more time to get on the same page he starts the sky dive.
Immediately there are glyphs being placed to speed him up, accelerating him as much as possible in the relatively short distance.
The Grimm had tried tracking them and had ended up floating upside down by the time they reached the desired position, but that was seconds ago and the Grimm had a tight turn radius thanks to its nature of being a floating ball of eye spinning on the spot.
It locked gazes with Jaune, he wasn't going to make it at this rate, be it because of a red beam or the eye simply moving to either side.
The red glow starting to crack through the inky blackness once again and suggested the more aggressive option for the Grimm was chosen.
Damn it. Not good.
With himself plummeting down to Remnant via gravity Jaune had no means of dodging mid air, no fancy semblance or weapons.
The glyphs were his best bet, yet none were being summoned to give him something to redirect his trajectory with.
Just as the thought passed there was a large glyph quickly forming above the eye, its size was bigger than anything Jaune has seen yet, it would have cast the eye in a huge shadow if there was enough light from above to do so.
The tentacles shot out first, grabbing and twisting the eye in its many grips, the laser went wide and disapated harmlessly.
Then he landed, amongst the friendly white tentacles he made a home for his trusty blade, biting deep into the soft flesh of the eye. Jaune thought it wouldn't kill the Grimm because the core was on the other side that got twisted away by Winter, but his hands and arms follow the blade deeper as the body gets sliced open easier than a fresh Beowulf pups muscle.
The screech was heard but unseen from any form of mouth, it echoed around him endlessly.
He was broken from his amazed daze as a summoned tentacle wraps around his waist as the eye was let go, droping down to the dark lands far below.
Jaune looked up just to see the bullhead about to meet up with him, and to see the summon in its whole form for the first time.
It was a Wraith, pure white and comparative to two bullheads in size.
The tentacle extended and released its hold just as the Bullhead flew past at low speeds, sending him through the doorframe and into the arms of Ren.
"That was a little too close for comfort! Remind me not to let any of you plan next time!" Jaunes voice was drowned out by the small chuckles and atmosphere of achievement, its not every day you find a new species of Grimm and get away with it.
Winter doesn't even wait for them to buckle in before accelerating again, they could handle a little turbulence, it didn't actually accelerate fast anyway since its original design was based off the very bulky and slow Bullhead after all.
Ren speaks up after the excitement dies down a little "what direction are we supposed to be going? None of the maps are working anymore..." After fiddling with some flickering screens he speaks again "Actually, no navigation instruments seem to be working anymore."
"No worries, I haven't lost track of direction yet." Winters words shouldn't have been surprising, yet Jaune felt the many smaller aspects of her semblance are always forgotten.
Granted, its been a long time since he had to fight alongside or against a Schnee, so it was a little understandable that he was slow on thw uptake.
Ren must have connected the dots faster than Jaune since he was already nodding and asking the million Lein question "so which way are we headed?"
Winter just pointed and replied with a simple "West."
It was strait ahead, also where there was a mountain range coming into view, amazing pink crystals highlighting it against the ever growing darkness.
Ren thinks out loud for the rest of them "It curves, could be some kind of natural barrier or defense, perfect for a nesting ground."
"Think we found what we came for" Jaunes words were echoed in feeling as Ren and Winter nod in agreement.
There weren't many avian Grimm nearby, most likely busy at the edges of the continent transporting all the land based Grimm.
They rise up and gently curve over the lowest rocky peak, the lighting immediately brightens with even more ambient pink and purples.
The mountains did indeed wrap all the way around and made an imperfect circle, cradling what humanity has been seeking for their entire existence.
There were... Pools? Portals? Scattered around hazardly, they couldn't tell what exactly they were from this distance but they knew what they were doing.
Jaune managed to see the closest one spew out a small Goliath, before it joined the endless shifting mass of bodies leading to cracks and tunnels in the mountains.
It... Was soul crushing to watch...
No way were they going to kill everything here, nor did he think killing them would even solve anything with these pools seemingly endlessly spawning.
Yet... Something was wrong, why were there no defenses? Or flying Grimm in any meaningful number?
The moment Jaunes words of "Feels too easy" left his mouth there was the sound of an alarm going off in the cockpit.
Both Ren and Winter look back at him with distain before Winter pulls back on the joystick, going for an evasive maneuver once again.
The alarm was the laser warning system, triggered when a missile was locked onto your aircraft. This was not an alarm they were prepared to hear in the middle of what they would have expected to be an inhuman and technology free land.
"What is going on!?" Jaunes panicking was ignored as Winter jabbed at a few buttons and switches, deploying countermeasures and adding more vector control by unlocking the Bullheads engines from the forward flight mode.
The crazy g-forces involved were nothing like they have ever felt until then, blood pressure was threatening to knock them out but Winter was nothing but an excellent and experienced pilot, having trained in the military before even owning her own private airship.
The missile was closing fast, but already Winter felt confident in her escape, the harsh turn and tinfoil looking cloud defense was textbook evasion protocol.
She had already started to look for the origin of the missile.
There, sitting halfway up a mountain there was a building, a castle even.
The dark glass and unforgiving stone left nothing but an evil beauty, having arches and detailed spires reaching further up the mountain fit for a cathedral.
That was all well and good, but Winter was more interested in how there was a landing pad, with a few Bullheads and a missile turret implacment jutting out the one side.
Said turret was of an obvious Atlas design, built with a rack of four ready shots...
"We need to leave ASAP!" Winter had already dived, needing the extra speed after her harsh turn to avoid the first missile.
This left them bellow the line of sight for the turret, but close to the ground and no way to get over the mountains without pulling back up.
Then Jaune yells at her "pull up!" She had already been doing so, having seen exactly what he had, a ground based Grimm tall enough for them to possibly collide with.
Wait...
Checking out the direction the Grimm was going she turned the Bullhead towards the crack in the mountain, the cavern having a faint light peeking through from the other side.
Swerving to avoid Grimm in the path Wintwr gets ready for the dangerous move about to be performed.
Flicking hover mode on while still at high speed and turning the Bullhead on its side allowed her to exert a lot of turning force by rotating the thrusters.
It wasn't exactly the most perfect maneuver, having clipped a jagged rock on the cave roof as they curved through the oddly bent tunnel.
But they made it, past the Grimm and darkness.
There was a stiff and anxious silence on the way back, the Bullhead had received major hull damage, no visible leaks yet, but a lot of plates were ripped off and exposed naked vulnerabilities.
Yet it was almost soothing in comparison to the earlier madness.
There was not a single word spoken between them through the whole trip back to Vale. Too many silently thought questions, unknowns, threats and possibilities.
"Ren? Are you okay?" It was Nora.
Himself and the rest of the scouting trio had landed on Vale soil deep into the night, nobody having had the peace of mind to sleep and had spent the night in their respective happy places.
Except Ren, who didn't have a happy place, just had a sleeping Nora. She was awake now, thankfully, and Ren needed some happy time.
"Not at all Nora."
She didn't even ask why, just getting out of her bottom bunk and climbing up to his top bunk on the other side of the small room.
"You need a hug?" He didn't respond, but the look on his face was all the invitation Nora needed, those eyes bleeding with uncertainty and worry.
"You know you can talk to me Ren, if you need to vent I am always here with you." Her kind words almost on par with her warm touch.
He leaned in, embracing the constant support and love she had always provided to him throughout his entire life.
Her hand came up to untie his long hair, then used the freedom to run her fingers over his scalp even when Ren had to hunch into her to stay at her height.
He took a deep breath as the tightness in his muscles starts to edge away, the smell of a person who just got out of bed somehow becoming his favorite smell in the entire world at that very moment.
"Thank you." The simple whisper conveyed more meaning than anybody passing by would have ever comprehended.
It was more than just for this action, for everything ever done between them no matter how insignificant, making them all the more meaningful in quantity.
Not to say they had no quality to begin with, no, it was quite the opposite in fact. It was just so easy for people to categorize them so, when they actually meant the world to Nora and himself.
"Whatever you found, I am sure we can over come it."
He felt the strangest urge to yell at her, to tell her it was impossible, that it was so much worse than they and thought.
But that was impulse and he shut it out in favor of enjoying her comforting words no matter how false.
"Jaune has called another meeting already, wants everyone to know what you guys found." She sounded odd, her calming facade was cracking, Nora could tell when something has changed.
Ren tries to come up with an excuse "Jaune has been up all night like myself no doubt, he must have come up with a plan already, thats our fearless leader for you."
Nora takes the bait and nods in understanding, not at all fooled by the flimsy lie but didn't want to deal with it now.
"Let's get going and see what Jaune has to say." They both get up and make their way to the cafeteria after getting ready for public and the rest of the day.
Ren and Nora were some of the last to arrive, having to wait only a minute before Jaune once again gets up on a table.
Jaune starts off with tired humor "I'll keep this brief."
A few Beacon students chuckle from the crowd, getting the atmosphere to break up just a little bit.
"We have successfully infiltrated the Grimm lands for the first time and made it out alive, this is a feat humanity hasn't yet achieved and will go down in history."
There was a decent clap of hands and a few cheers at that, progress was sweet.
But reality was bitter, Jaunes voice lowers and calms down "we do not have any more good news to share, just more complications from here on out."
The crowd was waiting in suspense as he continued "As well as seeing many different kinds of Grimm never before ducumented, there was their spawning grounds... Giant pools of black liquid that would just have any Grimm imaginable walk out."
The murmurs threaten to raise to full blown questioning, so Jaune hurried up and finishes everything important "we also found civilization, some kind of fort with modernized technology from Atlas, they tried to shoot us down."
The murmurs broke into loud questions all overlapping, things like "who are they? Why are they there?" And all the in between.
He raised his volume, single handedly drowning out the crowd "we know not of who they are or what they are doing! For all we know it could be an unknown malicious kingdom that created the Grimm, maybe even the gods themselves, but there is one thing we do know!"
The crowd was silent at that, not knowing what to say to such an absurd concept.
"We now know the origin of the Grimm and the possible generals that guide them have a physical presence on Remnant! They can be destroyed!"
Yet there were less people convinced this time around, most just panicked at the unknown, having nothing to base their trust into.
"We will be calling a meeting between the higher-ups and construct a battle plan!" The crowd was starting to doubt him, he could tell. "This will take some time so don't expect us to go to war soon, but we will be victorious in the end!"
Jaune was banking everything on this, he felt like his people were half way to enacting a coup.
The only thing holding this all together was the five years spent building up authority with the best decisions.
Later after heads cooled the real meeting was called.
They ended up using Jaunes bedroom as a place of meeting, everyone important to large scale efforts were in attendance regardless of how much they wanted to contribute to the actual plan of attack. People like the head engineer, Dime and Abie.
It didn't take long for them to set up seating and reach an awkward silence.
It was broken by Weiss "Somebody mind breaking down what happened?"
Winter was the one to answer her sister "the infiltration into the land of Grimm was simple enough with Ren, but we had to quickly deal with a Grimm smart enough to realise what a Bullhead should be carrying, then made it into a circular mountain range after dealing with it."
She took out a water bottle and had a quick sip, unknowingly building suspense for the small crowd "Inside, there were pools of dark liquid, they seemed to be creating Grimm at an unholy pace."
"We were then shot by an Atlas turret from what I am calling the Monistary, a big mix between a castle and gothic cathedral." That got some murmurs, but everyone stayed level headed, now wasn't the time to interrupt.
"We made it out safely by using a rather large tunnel at the foot of the closest mountain, leaving us in this current setting and speaking with you."
Well, nobody could blame Winter for being short and precise, even if she was leaving out a lot of detail, but that would be beaten out during the many plans and theories about to be used.
Winters follow up of "Any questions?" got several people speaking at once.
Jaune interrupts and finds a solution "why don't we start going clockwise from Winter?"
Everybodies eyes slide over to the city planner, poor guy shifted uncomfortably under the gaze of everyone in the room.
"U-uh, what was the building like? Surely the Grimm would have eroded its foundations even if unmeaning?" Ren, who was here for being the third eye witness supplied the answer.
"It was built away from the Grimm's path, set into the side of a mountain roughly half way up." The planner must have forgotten all the eyes on him for he spoke more confidently "did you see any construction damage on the surrounding area? Where any potential equipment would be placed during its assembly?"
Ren looks to Jaune and he looks to Winter, all three shaking their heads in the negative.
"Interesting, must be ancient then, for the rock to have been eroded away already."
He spaced out after that, seemingly done with his questions, the next few minutes went by collecting data and futher catching everyone up until the first plan was proposed amidst the many questions. It was understandably the armory manager and part time explosive expert Hackler to do so "what's stopping us from bombing the pools?"
Jaune answers before anyone can get into an argument "Well, for one, we are low on dust, and another being that there are simply too many pools, that also seem to have some kind of regenerative ability on top of a numerical might, just like the creatures of Grimm themselves."
Hackler doesn't push, understanding what his craft can and can't do on demand.
The question did help to turn the conversation towards the goal though. The information was starting to be questioned and prodded for exploits.
Weiss had the next interesting question of "do we even know if that Monistary had any humans inside? What's stopping the Grimm from pulling the same stunt back in Fort Clark?"
Winter answers to the best of her ability "well, nothing concrete but the Bullheads on the landing pad were fully serviced and looked flight ready, the Grimm didn't do the same in Fort Clark." Everyone seemed to agree that was the case.
Jaune asked if there were supplies like fuel on the pad as well, to which Winter recalls more small details supporting the theory that something has kept the area maintained.
There was a moment of silence as everyone waited for another question regarding the signs of human activity.
The head hunter gatherer was the next voice to be heard and he didn't sound all too calm when faced with the known variables "how exactly do they live in that Hell anyway!? Its absurd to even entertain the idea of them co-existing with Grimm!"
Juane throws up his hands in a placating show "listen, it doesn't actually matter who or what is there, but theres something pulling the strings, something planning and plotting behind the Grimms army transportation and intelligent invasion."
He grudgingly nods at Jaune to continue, so he does "if we can storm that building and kill everything that moves we could cut the head of the entire Taijitu."
Jaune gets a little worked up and goes further on a small rant "it could render the entire Grimm supply lines useless! Maybe even give us a real chance to rebuild!"
Winter, who has been frowning the whole time cuts him down "And with what manpower exactly are you going to 'storm' the Monistary and kill unknown opponents with?" Winter pressed the importance with another short "did you see how much Grimm were crawling around? Ren can't sneak an entire army into the Grimmlands."
Jaunes enthusiasm deflates, he slouches in his seat slightly and whispers out a small "I don't know."
Abie agrees in true medic fashion "its bad enough half the population are zombies, I don't want to send everyone off to die."
Many were agreeing and even frowning at Jaune to even suggest such a thing, his eyes shift to the full wall window, looking past the city and into the blurred distance, figuratively spying all the zombies aimlessly traveling the great expanses of land between villages and cities.
Dime happened to be there, standing awkwardly of to the side with her new and improved body- wait.
Jaune had a crazy idea.
"What if the rest of humanity weren't zombies?" Everyones heads turn to him in confusion, Wiess even asking to repeat himself respectfully.
"What if, we could save them all in the process?" People were hooked, family and loved ones lost to the plague brought back? Sign them up!
Except Ren raises a good point that was on everybodies mind "how do you suggest we do that Jaune?"
His mind was racing, pieces in his strategic mind were falling into place, ideas thrown out almost as fast as he was coming up with new ones.
Ignoring the rest of the people Jaune singles out Dime "Dime, is it possible for you to rip away a chunk of human body and still save a brain?"
Many people were giving him strange looks now, most of them didn't even know Dimes profession or true nature.
Dime had a poker face in full effect and didn't have it crack when Jaune put on the pressure "what I am trying to ask is; Could you create Cyborgs from Predators!?"
There were many things going through the minds of everyone in the room, most practical and some even on the ethical side already.
Dime simply answered with "I can certainly try, I would need the Predator incapacitated for the procedure, and find out how it all works on the Grimm side of things."
Jaune nods once excitedly "so you need to perform research, but the idea is sound?" People started to ask questions but Dime answers first "I believe I could extract a Grimm parasite from the brain yes."
Jaune was hyped again, this may fix the number disadvantage.
Weiss speaks up "uh, Jaune... Where are we going to get Predators? We killed the surrounding population a few days ago?"
Jaune shakes his head in the negative "not all, we have yet to touch the island of Patch, a well known retirement home for hunters, in other words, a perfect place to hunt Predators."
There wasn't many comments on that, because the Atlas and robot representatives didn't have much more knowledge on Patch and Vale dwellers knew too much.
True enough Bastet comments after a long silence "are you sure about this? We could just plan a trip for the nearest village?"
Jaune scoffs "Patch is the nearest village." But he understands the worry, a hunter retiring to patch had a very high chance of either having a stupidly powerful semblance due to surviving the naturally dangerous career, or having retired early due to a team losing too many members to remain functional.
In the end it all boils down to most Patch dwellers overly dangerous when being controlled by beings of hate. It wasn't going to be an easy hunt.
But Jaune was taking a calculated risk, the payoff was that the people they would save are a lot stronger, also less randomized and won't waste time saving someone that can't help them.
Maybe he was being cruel or harsh, but they wouldn't win this war otherwise, some people didn't seem to understand that.
The idle chatter about the latest development went away as Jaune spoke again "okay people, even if you are apposed to the idea of taking the fight to the Grimm, this Patch bounty hunt is something that is both less risky and goes towards its own separate goals... Any volunteers?"
The head hunter gatherers hand raises high "I personally have family on patch and can guarantee the help of some of our group who I know are in the same position."
Jaune was hoping somthing like that was going to happen, other people would get on board when their friends were invested.
"This meeting is over until we further develop the plan, no need to run circles around the little infomation we have, all I want from you today is to get as many fighters involved with this Patch trip as possible." Everyone got up at their own pace, filtering out and departing with various moods, mostly dull or purely just contemplating with a small portion of hopeful mixed in at the prospect of saving lives.
His plan was looking a lot better now, but it was still a little touchy on how to reach the end goal, stuff like what transportation he would be investing in for the army and a similar list of obstacles longer than Jaune would have liked...
He was very much almost winging the future of humanity, but his fallback was that they haven't invested too much that they can't back out still.
Jaune had a feeling he was wrong, he had interacted with the unknown and lived to tell the tale... It was all a recipe for disaster.
If you were wondering why I was taking my sweet time on this chapter; I made the big mistake of rekindling interest for not one but two old games I played a lot in the past. (Mostly Starsector with Dirt 2 on the side)
Anyways. Gonna end it here with a huge thanks to those who decided to take the time to read this, and a quick sorry for anybody who felt like they were waiting too long.