Nora had enjoyed Grimm hunting with Jaune's sister. Clearly her fearless leader's bravery did not merely run in the family, it positively galloped. She thought that Amber and Port should exchange notes and in particular Port should learn from Amber how to be concise.
Nora had not appreciated before how important trusting your bullhead pilot was in conserving aura. For most of the afternoon she and Amber had been jumping out of the bullhead, taking out Alpha Grimm and then jumping back into the bullhead before the others could confront them.
Amber explained that she had worked with the pilot and gunner regularly in the past and that they were used to her ways. Besides which giving themselves ten-minute rests to recharge their aura seemed to work. Amber explained that she thought of it like interval training.
She had also been brainstorming ways of taking advantage of Nora's semblance. Apparently, there were some back up electrical generators in Kulsa which might be a way of triggering it. In the past Nora had used main electricity to trigger her semblance, but Ren had said that the risk of triggering a town ride power crash were too great. The thought that she might be able to trigger it with little or no collateral damage was an intriguing one.
During one rest period while they were flying to attack a Beringel, Amber explained why she disagreed with the view that Grimm were stupid, "Ok, they may not have intelligence in the sense that we recognise it, but they are cunning. Most attacks happen at night and when they have the chance of take advantage of cover, they take it. That is why there are no forests within ten miles of Kulsa. At the best of times, it is a Grimm magnet and anything we can do to give us fair warning of an attack is a good thing."
Nora asked, "Why have so many stopped outside the city and are not attacking despite the two of us attacking them?"
"Waiting for critical mass, taking advantage of the dark, giving the city defences less chance of using the machine guns to reduce their numbers and ratcheting up the tension inside the city. If you were a civilian just imagine the effect of seeing this lot waiting patiently for night to fall."
Amber then spoke to the pilot of the nearest Bullhead, "On my mark fire at the Beringel and stop firing after I and my colleague jump."
She turned to Nora, "The aim is to use the gunfire to distract the Beringel and we then take it from behind. You hammer its head, and I will attack its neck immediately afterwards."
The strategy worked and Nora in the next rest period asked, "How do you tackle a Nuckelvee?"
Amber looked at her, "Frack, you were at Kuroyuri. They are very rare, thank whatever gods may exist. I have not fought one, but if I had to deal with one, I would use a team of four to take it out including two hunters with a spear or large arrow specialism. I would take the head shot myself."
Nora nodded happily. Knowing that she was with someone who had an idea of how to kill any monster was very cheering.
Later Amber checked the time and said "Time to recharge the aura. We also need to refuel the Bullhead before the airport closes. The strategy is to evacuate it just before dusk and trust in the lack of emotions being generated resulting in the Grimm leaving it alone."
As they flew towards the airport the huntress frowned. "I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing. There is a disproportionate number of Grimm facing the Faunus quarter and the flying Grimm are overwhelmingly facing that area of the town."
Nora said, "The closer they are together the easier to whack them."
"True, but also the greater the risk that they will overrun the defences. Once they are within the walls then the deaths multiply exponentially."
Just then there was the sound of a small bang and both turned their heads to see a plume of smoke rising from the city walls. Amber went to the communications circuit, "Amber Arc here, can someone tell me what just happened at the road gate in the Faunus quarter?"
She turned to Nora and said, "There is an emergency generator dedicated to the airport kitchens. I think no one will complain too much if we crash it."
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Lisa Lavender was trying to balance the conflicting emotions and motivations which were passing through her. Just ten minutes ago, she had been reveling in having had an exclusive interview with Pyrrha Nikos which had not been as bland as her normal meetings with the press. She had also been looking forward to filming Kulsa being successfully defended from a Grimm attack. The people she had been meeting expected that would be the result especially after the mayor announced a curfew and banned demonstrations.
Her team had edited a shortened version of the interview with Pyrrha for the evening news and sent it with some clips of Sun Wukong meeting and greeting the Faunus in Kulsa to Vale where no doubt it would be redistributed to Mistral and Atlas. She hoped that she had not overdone her reaction shops and on camera moments, but she knew this was her big opportunity to become an international celebrity
He team had been lent a secondhand car by the LGDF to assist them in covering the Kulsa operations to help them get around the Faunus sector together with a driver. She had been surprised at the amount of cooperation which Chief Arc had authorized, but supposed the woman was pragmatically playing the percentages. Lisa had been determined to try and be open minded about the Mistralians and the way she had been treated and the access she had been given inclined her to give the benefit of doubt to the LGDF at least.
Still, she was a journalist and when she saw Professor Pink and the students dashing out of the LGDF building she had ordered her team to follow them and film out of the window of the car. They had been only fifty yards behind them when the world seemed to come to an end. The camera operator had carried on filming. She wondered whether looking through the viewfinder meant that he could pretend it was not really happening.
Now she was reporting on the aftermath of a terrorist incident. She knew enough to know that the damage caused by the explosion had put a significant part of the town at risk of being overrun by Grimm. It also meant that there was a small risk of her and her team dying or being seriously injured.
It had come as a shock to her that she had immediately dismissed the option of making for the gates out of the Faunus sector. She reminded the camera operator that if the footage he chose to shoot was too graphic it would never be shown and being too intrusive risked angering the locals.
To be fair to him the nearest either of them had got to a similar situation before had been after the attack on Junior's Club Mistralian and the bodies had also all been of terrorists and had by the time filming had been possible covered by sheets. Even then they had not been allowed to show the footage showing the more bloodstained of the defenders.
Rumour had it that Beacon had recruited two of the bouncers and a good friend of theirs after seeing their part in the combat. That was a story she would be investigating after the trip to Mistral was over
Her being on the spot meant that there was little point in the authorities arguing too strongly that it was an accident rather than sabotage. This was confirmed by the fact that the Professor from Haven and six students had been rushing to the site and had been one hundred yards from the explosion when it happened. In addition, judging by the distribution of the debris, the seven of them had fully unleashed their auras just before the explosion.
She saw the grey-haired boy and the monkey Faunus dash off down a side road. Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune Arc and the green haired girl were checking on the wounded and dying while the Professor was talking into his scroll, no doubt passing on the news.
The blue haired boy who had tried flirting with her last night ran up the road towards them and said, "Miss Lavender, can I look at the footage immediately before the explosion in slow motion?"
She saw no reason to decline the request. The footage had been transferred directly to the editing equipment. She watched the eyes of the young man. He had clearly spotted something and asked for the tape to be paused. He then called over Professor Pink. The Professor came over still talking over his scroll.
He looked at the paused footage and the Professor and the student exchanged glances. Each then used their scrolls to take a photograph of the image.
The Professor paused and then said, "Could you go back ten seconds and run the footage at half speed." She did but they did not ask her to pause it again.
The professor looked at her and said, "Could you send the footage to my scroll? I will then forward it to LGDF headquarters in Kulsa and Ansel and to the academies."
She acceded to the request. If she wanted to keep filming cooperating with the authorities in relation to reasonable requests was a good idea
She asked the Professor what he thought had happened, He looked at her carefully and said, "I know that your job requires you to report the fact of the incident and perhaps it is better that you do so rather than let the rumour mill make this even worse than it is. Please give me ten minutes to make an initial report. This is off the record and any official announcement will have to come from the LGDF or the city authorities. For your own safety and the safety of the citizens of Kulsa, I would suggest that you avoid speculating too luridly as fear attracts the Grimm. We have reason to suspect a single perpetrator acting alone has set off an explosion designed to prevent the gates to the road being fully closed. Obviously, it is too early to confirm that theory or the extent of the damage. However, it is clear to me that the left gate is fully intact and that there is no reason to believe that the walls themselves are seriously damaged."
The man then left her after confirming the material had been uploaded. She thought about what she would say to the camera. She suspected that he had more than the ten minutes he had talked about. While this was news, it was not a town in Vale and the fact that the victims were Faunus further downplayed the importance in Vale news terms.
She wondered what it was in the frame which the student had paused at which was of interest to them. It was immediately before the explosion, but it mostly seemed to consist of Faunus workers going about their daily business and the Professor's party. However, she spotted that just before the explosion the grey-haired student had been looking in a different direction to the rest of them.
She replayed the footage at ¼ speed. The man seemed to look away, stop running and then say something to the rest of them. She worked out what he had been looking at and saw a young woman wearing a service store uniform was in his line of view and seemed to be holding something in her hand which she did something with just before the explosion.
She called over the producer and they magnified the image of the young woman. She was holding a scroll and the hand holding the scroll and the was the only part of her body not shielded from the gate by buildings. She did something to the scroll and immediately thereafter the explosion happened. The girl dropped the scroll and started to move. Just then the camera operator had reacted to the explosion and was focusing on the destruction, so the woman moved out of shot. By bad luck, the footage did not have a good view of her face. A scarf covered the lower half, and a beret hid her hair.
She sent the zoomed in footage to Vale with a message to hold releasing it until she gave the go ahead. She then raced up to the Professor and showed him the footage. "Sorry, Professor, but I worked out what you were looking for. You may as well have the full footage before I release it. I am afraid that the face is mostly hidden."
The man grimaced and said, "Thank you. Miss Lavender. I would appreciate discretion at least for the time being. I assume the footage is in Vale. Will you accept a tradeoff between allowed to remain filming and not broadcasting this particular scene tonight?"
"Yes. If you could let your colleagues know that arresting me will result in the footage being released in Vale, that would no doubt help matters."
"I suspect you are bluffing, but I will advise the authorities that it is not worth calling it."
As they turned away from the Professor, she realised that despite the horror around, her main emotion was that of excitement. She had a scoop in that she had footage of a terrorist incident occurring and if she got through the night alive, she would finally be treated seriously as a journalist. Looking around her the rest of the crew seemed to be feeling the same way.
Growing up she had chosen to become a journalist after reading the autobiography of Kate Goldhorn who had covered the Faunus wars for the Vale Times. She had expected Eric, her director, to feel the same as her as he was also had ambitious, but even the make-up artist who had a young family back in Vale seemed more excited than afraid.
Part of her also knew that if she fled, she would be permanently regarded as a coward. Colleagues would have said her decision was the right one for her and her crew, but deep down would have despised her. Perversely enough those who would have fled themselves would condemn her most.
She was overwhelmed by the responsibility. There was no footage in existence of the fall of Mountain Glen or Kuroyuri. In the first case the Vale council had ordered all journalists out of Mountain Glenn at the first sign of trouble and the few who had disobeyed had not survived. In Kuroyuri there had been no journalists.
Now the technology was so much better, and she could stream footage directly back to Vale using the CCT network at least until the authorities switched it off. She was going to cover a full-on attack on a major town with some of the strongest hunters and hunters in training in play.
She was also aware that her footage would throw a stone into a cesspool. If a human terrorist attack resulted in the destruction of the Faunus quarter of Kulsa than the White Fang would have to fight off the volunteers with clubs. As a TV journalist Lisa knew that a ten second clip was worth ten thousand words. A clip showing a human setting off an explosion which left Faunus vulnerable to an attack was worth a three-volume blockbuster.
Even if the Grimm were repelled without major loss of life, the impact on public opinion would be huge. Seeing the burning gate and the dead Faunus had made her want to vomit and angry at the perpetrator of such destruction and she was focused on doing her job. What effect it would have on everyone else was something she did not know.
She also suspected that the Professor from Haven thought he knew who was responsible for the attack. The fact that he had not initially asked for a close up of the individual could be attributed to him not wanted to give her an idea of the true story, but she bet that he had seen something there she had missed or had information which had led him to expect an attack was coming from a particular source.
Suddenly her feeling intensified, she was going to die tonight and that was scary. However, her fear of professional shame for running away meant running away was impossible. She suddenly took in the carnage in front of her and fell her to her knees and lost her lunch. She heard someone screaming, "The Grimm are advancing" and found herself unable to move or think.
Just then she saw the young man with a pink strip in his hair who she remembered from the night club in Beacon and who had looked after the civilians in the convoy this morning. The man stopped running, knelt, placed his hand on the ground and then started concentrating hard. She found her feelings of fear disappearing but at the same time the excitement also started to reduce. She took deep breaths and felt her heart rate coming under control.
She realised that two competing semblances were affecting her. This meant that the perpetrator was likely to be a hunter or a hunter in training themselves. Perhaps the professor had recognised a student or an ex-student. If she lived through the night, she had an exclusive story which was almost worth dying for.
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Jaune had been horrified by the effect of Raddock's semblance. All the old doubts that he was a fraud and was not worth respect or loving had suddenly overwhelmed him. He looked around and virtually everyone was either screaming or curled into a ball. Professor Pink looked like he had been poleaxed.
Suddenly his emotions went back to normal levels of self-doubt. He looked round and saw Ren kneeling with his hand on the ground. It was obvious that Ren had activated his semblance. He looked around and saw that people were getting back to a normal or at least what counted as normal when an unexplained explosion had taken place
He went over to Ren and placed a hand om his shoulder, "Well done, Ren. You are nullifying her semblance."
He tried his best to convey the sincerity of his respect for Ren. He felt his aura powering up and his spirits lifting further. He looked around to see everyone around him acting more positively. The uninjured were helping the walking wounded and comforting the badly wounded. The walking wounded were telling their helpers to attend to the more badly injured. In the distance he heard ambulance and police sirens blaring.
He was taken aback when Ren looked up at him and said "Jaune whatever you are doing, carry on doing it."
"This is all you, mate."
"It is not. I can promise you that. Keep your hand on my shoulder."
Professor Pink who a few seconds ago had looked like a deer caught in the headlights approached them, "I think you have just unleashed your semblance, Mr. Arc. It is a form of Aura Amplification. Perhaps we can talk about it tomorrow."
The professor looked round and shrugged, "I am starting to wish that the Police Chief had detained her. That is the look of a women who has guessed the truth. I am going to have to persuade her that the feelings of panic were down to delayed feelings of shock."
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At Haven Professor Lionheart was watching with horror the footage being forwarded to him by Professor Pink and the news that a student of Haven had been responsible for weakening the defences of Kulsa.
He felt impotent. He had tried calling in what favours he could over the last two days to strengthen the response in Ansel, but he had been painfully obvious that the presence of Pyrrha Nikos in Ansel had been of more use than him. The truth was that tomorrow morning the hunters of Mistral would be fully mobilized and on their way to Ansel generally and Kulsa in particular, but tonight they would not be enough to protect civilians.
He turned to the person behind him. "Watts, are you certain that this has nothing to do with your mistress?"
"Our mistress, old chap. Not that I know of. Her view is that Mistral is quite capable of tearing itself apart without her overt intervention. It suits her and you to have the White Fang and the Branwen Tribe making trouble and the less that she is seen to interfere the less likely it is that Ozpin or Ironwood will intervene."
Lionheart nodded. That was his view as well. Vale was having to deal with his companion's skills at using the scroll network to sow paranoia and Atlas had recently focused on dealing with its own White Fang problem.
Watts continued, "Tyrian is making trouble just to stir the pot further and to show how little the central government cares about the provinces. Her policy here is just to give an occasional push to let the government fall by itself."
He paused and said, "I would have known if we had subverted your student to go on a one-woman revenge mission. It does not suit our mistress to bring attention to Haven Academy or to suggest to the White Fang that she is anti-Faunus."
"But I am going to have to deal with the repercussions of this."
Watts laughed, "Leo, think about it politically. I have little doubt that the girl never respected you. Let me loose on her internal scroll history and I have no doubt I will find messages finding her thinking that you are a White Fang glove puppet. Indeed, I expect that I will find messages suggesting that she was encouraged in her deplorable anti-Faunus views by Professor Aqua."
Lionheart paused to think. Aqua was the leader of the traditionalist members of his staff and had the closest links to the Human Supremacist part of the Mistral government. "Arthur, please do investigate. Anything I can do to mitigate this disaster for Haven will be of help."
Watts laughed, "I will be amazed if I cannot find evidence to allow you to purge Haven of Aqua and his most fervent supporters and tarnish the reputation of his friends in Government. After all, if the government has refused to back your attempts to reform Haven, they can hardly blame you for the consequences of such refusal."
Lionheart said, "I have copies of my correspondence on that matter. I will refresh my memory."
Watts said, "I would recommend that you spend this evening being seen to concentrate on calling for more support for the LGDF in Ansel. I will check your records for that correspondence. I presume you also kept attendance notes of the off the record conversations"
"Yes, although I was quite guarded."
"My dear Leo, I suspect you are doing yourself an injustice. I believe that I will find that when anyone honest reads between the lines, it will be clear what was happening."
Watts was quite certain that even if there were no smoking guns in the system now, by the time he had finished with it there would be. He just had to check with head office that his boss approved of his idea. Unlike Cinder he did not believe in guessing what Salem would like.
He could not resist the urge as he left to farm the computer records of Haven to mention to Lionheart, "I do hope Cinder's protégés perform well. Dying in defence of Kulsa would be overdoing the cover story. Perhaps best not to mention this to her until we know what happens tonight."
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In Ansel, Claire Arc was running for a bullhead. She had decided that considering the breach in the gates she needed to be on the ground at Kulsa to make the right decisions. Reynard could deal with the LGDF in the rest of Ansel this evening which mostly seemed to be under control. Marian was on a flight back and could bully the politicians in Mistral.
She had called the twins and asked them to bring Team ABRN with them and had asked Professor Port to send as many of the hunters and trainee hunters with him to Kulsa as possible. She had also sent a message to Professor Goodwitch in Beacon asking her if there was any of the secondees who had a semblance which would be of particular use in finding the rogue huntress in training.
She prayed to whatever gods that might be out there that not too many members of her family would die tonight. While she could trust Nicholas not to be too foolhardy, the children were all too brave for their own good.
She was glad that Nicholas had unlocked her aura in their first year of marriage and had encouraged her to practice her landing strategy. She smiled at one of her co-passengers, Gordon Tulip, who had arrived from Mistral a few hours ago and had brought along four additional hunters with him.
He and they had volunteered to be paid at standard rates which was well below what they could have demanded. She had agreed but had told them she would fight to get them paid at war rates. They had volunteered themselves for what was looking like the worst Grimm attack in Mistral since Kuroyuri.
At least knowing that someone had been deliberately maximizing negative emotions explained why the number of Grimm surrounding Kulsa was so high and why it included Grimm which had not been seen in Ansel for decades.
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Glynda Goodwitch received the messages from Chief Arc and had spoken to Professor Lionheart. She was upset at the thought that a huntress in training was risking the lives of civilians to revenge a wrong done to her family.
Still, it was quite clear that Fox Alastair was needed in Kulsa. If anyone could locate someone who was hiding with an aura it was him. She called Professor Port and passed on the request and her recommendation that Fox at least be assigned.
He explained that Raven had visited, and that Tyrian Callows might be approaching. He was sending away Yatsuhashi because although he was a deadly fighter, he was vulnerable to Tyrian's capabilities. He had reluctantly also sent Fox although he did say that Team CVFY were used to fighting with Fox being able to coordinate them. He explained that on balance that saving a village of 3,000 Faunus was less important than saving an area of a large town with 60,000 Faunus.
Shortly after she had talked to Peter, Ozpin arrived having cut short a council meeting on receiving a message from her. He thought hard for a moment and then rang Peter himself.
"Sorry Peter, but if the bullhead has not yet departed, please send Taiyang and Ruby with Fox and Yatsuhashi. First, neither of them are suited to dealing with Callows, but are first rate at killing Grimm. Second, Raven may intervene at Kulsa to save Ruby or Taiyang as Callows will not be there. Make it clear to the hunter team there that if Callows does turn up, they should leave him to you and tell Coco to only engage him at long range and use her entire semblance when she fires that gun of hers. Velvet should also be told to only use the long-ranged weapons in her repertoire, and both should take evasive action if he approaches them."
His voice softened, "Best of luck Peter. Still if there was one final match, I know who I would place my bet on."
As he ended the call, Glynda could have sworn that there was a hint of a tear. She patted his shoulder and he held her hand.
"I hate sending people to die. You would have thought by now that I would be used to it."
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In Atlas General Ironwood was having a rare feeling of guilt after having spoken to Lionheart. He still did not trust Leo totally, but he could sympathise with the Lion Faunus's sense of betrayal and failure. He thanked Leo for warning him and promised to keep the information secret although he accepted that Leo was probably right in saying that it would not be possible to keep the news from spreading.
The events of today were an object lesson in unintended consequences. He had connived at the death of Umber Raddock for the greater good of Atlas. The man had a dangerous semblance and his activities had corrupted and tarnished the reputation of the Atlas multi-kingdoms. His death had also allowed Ironwood to infiltrate the White Fang and eventually destroy its operations in Mantle and Atlas.
There was no denying that Mistral had paid the price for Atlas's safety. While his agent had assured him that he had only been responsible for killing those who would have been liable to the death penalty for their actions under Atlesian law, he had been judge, jury and executioner in implementing such justice.
Certainly, he had been partly responsible for an increased professionalism in the White Fang's activities in Mistral as the people who worked with him learnt lessons from him. Other intelligence had suggested that Adam Taurus had felt the need to demonstrate that he was at least as effective as the new golden boy and Taurus did not have the same scruples about killing the innocent.
He reassured himself that Winter and Clover had vouched for his agent's bona fides, but he knew that Marrow had more doubts. Marrow knew him better than the rest and had raised the concern that the Faunus had his own agenda. Still, that was true of all double agents and so long as he only indulged it in a manner which was not evidently inconsistent with Atlas's interests, he did not begrudge the Faunus settling his own scores.
He dismissed the doubts. Clover and Winter had a more realistic view of the world and respected the Faunus agent for keeping his humanity or was it Faunusity despite his actions while Marrow was frightened by the fact that his good companion was capable of ruthlessness.
He was glad now that he had sent Winter to Mistral. He sent her a message in code ordering her to join the defence of Kulsa. He could rely on her sense of duty to do her best to reduce to a minimum any addition to the indirect victims of the necessary steps he and she had taken to defend the security of Atlas.
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Magenta Raddock suppressed her desire to scream with frustration. Her plan had been so close to working perfectly. She cursed team Bloody Nuisance. They must have told Pyrrha Nikos about the dust she had appropriated for the greater good. What had she ever seen in that group of poseurs? They talked the talk about respecting their roots but, in reality, they were too frightened to do more than sing the songs.
She took out her purse and looked at the photograph of her Uncle Umber. With tears in her eyes, she kissed it and whispered, "Uncle, by Copper's mighty hammer, you shall be revenged." She still remembered the last time she had seen him. He had given her father money to pay off his mortgage and to put her sister through university. He had also given her a gift token for the Haven weapon shop which had allowed her to buy her pistols.
Then the fake Atlas officer had come to the house, had spoken in those clipped Atlesian tones, and then taken him away for his own safety. Uncle had been worried about her father and the rest of the family and had told his bodyguards to leave him to the soldiers and to keep them safe.
She remembered how over the next few days it had become clear that he had been duped and a few weeks later his body had started to be delivered to the SDC offices in Mistral.
She breathed deeply. She was certain that she had done enough damage to ensure that the gates could not be closed. She was certain of that. Undoubtedly everyone in Animal Town knew that by now and like the cowards they were would be bricking themselves.
She did her bit to fan the rumours as she wandered through the streets. She had even told the truth that a huntress in training had used her powers to doom the Faunus Quarter. She had decided against blaming Pyrrha, but that street rat Emerald made a good target. No matter how posh she pretended to be now, Magenta could tell where the elocution lessons had failed to hide her origins.
Lie Ren, the traitor to his species and to Mistral, could only be in one place at once. If she kept moving and activated her semblance for a few minutes only each time, she could still attract the Grimm and by the time he had reached the place she had been she would be gone.
She hoped that he would be so careful in looking after the Animals that he would not realise that she kept going back to the walls and focusing on the humans at the human gate. She doubted that the gates would be opened to allow the Animals to evacuate. Those gates were under the control of the police chief, and he at least knew the proper way to treat the Animals. Even if he ordered them to be opened, she would bet that the orders would only be obeyed in a dilatory manner.
Just in case she had started a rumour that some of the humans who had conspired with the bomber were waiting for the Faunus to enter the gap between the two walls before opening fire on them with machine guns at point blank range. With luck the Animals would not dare to try and escape the trap.
For the avoidance of doubt, the aim of the last section is to show that someone who does terrible things is not a villain in their own mind and not to say that they are justified objectively in doing these things. For those of you have been reading my Cardin story I will continue it after I have finished with the Kulsa part of the story as they will be reacting to the events in Kulsa.
In relation to some other POVs, it is not unreasonable for people to worry about knock on consequences for them or their wider interests or to have to make difficult choices.