Cover art by /u/JazzRen47
The war with Menagerie had nearly reached its second birthday. Nearly two years since the attack on Amity Arena. Nearly two years since the government told everyone the war would be over quickly.
Now, nearly two years in, the Atlesian front was stuck in a deadlock and the army in Mistral was in a free fall retreat with no end in sight. There hadn't been a day without retreat ever since the fifth month of the war. The Mistralian army, the only ally Atlas had, had collapsed through a mixture of internal corruption, poor morale and non-stop attacks on their conscript army. There was even talk of revolution in Mistral itself. Law and order on the frontier had completely collapsed as well, giving the Atlesian army another headache in the form of bandits and Grimm.
Atlas was most certainly alone in their fight against Menagerie. So, the Kingdom of Atlas was frantically seeking a silver bullet to win the war and prevent a disaster on the scale of the Great War. The end of that war had toppled a monarch, a fate the military did not wish to share. For now they'd been moderately successful in suppressing the news back home, but the army was demoralized and even civilians in the twin cities had begun to realize this war wasn't going exactly to plan.
War support remained high nonetheless, but it wouldn't forever. Eventually they'd learn about the Advanced Recon Battalion being wiped out. Eventually they'd learn about the disaster at Kuchinashi. Morale would crumble. So, the military lied. They had footage edited, censored, doctored. The war according to the CCT was a drastic success.
As Watts noted, today's special on the war was explaining how the ARB was driving a path through southern Mistral. How silly a claim, because he was the one who'd edited the video footage.
"Here in south Mistral, near Kuchinashi, the boys in the Advanced Recon Battalion are fighting it out with the faunus and have been gaining ground."
A nonsensical lie produced by the script the military gave the media to read out tonight. Watts watched as his doctored footage played. A soldier with short sleeves and faded shorts gave a peace sign while walking onwards. The soldier's gun hung loosely to the side.
"Recently, this regiment, from the 23rd, has been rotated out of the fighting for now."
There were no rotations. There weren't enough soldiers, there wasn't enough time, enough resources, to give the troops some rest. It was either fight or retreat.
Watts smirked as the camera panned so quickly as to avoid showing the burned out husks of Atlesian artillery. The real footage was actually captured during one of those now commonplace retreats. The soldiers on screen weren't even from the Advanced Recon Battalion as such a thing had no meaning any longer. The ARB as a combat entity had ceased to exist months ago. All that was left was a mixture of survivors and various combat units that were barely functioning. Over the past three months, Atlas had lost fifteen thousand men, seventy heavy pieces of artillery, two airships and two hundred machine guns.
The broadcast kept running. There was footage of a soldier of a moderate distance from the camera, firing on an unknown position. Arthur couldn't recall if the footage was staged or if they'd really captured some live combat. For some macabre reason, audiences in Atlas and Mantle devoured such footage. It was exhilarating to them.
As the broadcast began finishing up, the lights in the viewing room began to brighten up as the assembled group of people slowly rose. "Another good broadcast Dr. Watts" Dr. Slate yawned. It was late night and the Special Divisions research regiment was hard at work trying to discover the silver bullet Atlas needed.
Arthur hated Dr. Slate, who so often took credit with his own ideas, but Arthur was not one to deny any praise coming his way. "Naturally" he replied with smug superiority.
"Well, see you tomorrow" Dr. Slate yawned again before walking towards the exit of the viewing room. Dr. Pine and Polendina followed suit, waving goodnight as they left.
Dr. Viola Valois, the eccentric girlfriend and coworker of Dr. Watts was waiting at the door as well. "Coming too?" Viola asked. Arthur shook his head.
"No. I'm heading back to the lab to work on a few projects."
"Then I'll join you!"
Watts blushed, still unused to their closeness. "A-alright." The pair left the viewing lab together, edging close but not too close to one another. There was an air of awkwardness that couldn't be shaken off yet. Even after they'd started dating (something which they decided best remain unknown to their coworkers) they'd remained the same as always. Awkward, nervous, unsure of their own emotions.
The walk from their viewing room to the primary lab facility wasn't all that long. Yet it felt like an eternity. Nervously, Arthur slipped a hand into Viola's. The other scientist didn't say anything but she did grip back tightly. The two only separated when the lab doors opened.
"Welcome, Doctor Watts, Doctor Valois. Authorization codes recognized" a monotone voice beckoned from all around them. The resident A.I construct in their cozy, special ops black site in the middle of the tundra.
"Core," Watts began, using the formal name designated by the military for the A.I.
Valois nudged her boyfriend and coworker. Watts sighed and then said "Carrie. I'd like you to bring up all the current data and workstation for the Ring project."
"Of course Doctor Watts." The sounds of humming machinery and a light rumble revealed the various tools and technical data necessary to Arthur's rings.
He was nudged again. "Thank you, Cor- Carrie" he corrected himself before finding a seat before his half finished ring. Viola pulled up a seat beside him after bringing two cups of coffee. They worked for hours. This was their element yes, but together, outside the confines of the army and their job, work became joy.
"The bottleneck is here" Valois pointed out, a slim finger tapping the main screen with all the technical configurations. "It can't handle the power draw when interacting with a larger system without failing. Unless you can mitigate that, I can't see this ring, let alone any other rings being made."
Arthur paused in his chair. "Expanding the power source isn't an option. Too much and it will become unstable. If it's far too small then we can't power it or expand its range of ability" Arthur summarized. Watts thought long and hard about possible solutions. I could reroute the power. Effectively minimizes the draw on each ring by keeping them off when they're not being used. But then that wouldn't expand its capabilities. Arthur drummed his thin fingers on the sleek white lab desk. He'd never faced a problem he couldn't think his way out of. Then it hit him. Epiphany.
"What about ping ponging it?" he posed to Viola. The woman's eyes lit up.
"That's genius! On their own, the rings can't supply enough power to work, but if they constantly bounce off each other to spread it out evenly. It won't overload like now. With multiple rings, you'd be able to handle the flow of information far more effectively. And if they're damaged, they can all still operate. Brilliant!" she gushed over their idea. In a moment of pure excitement she leaned in to kiss Arthur. To her surprise he kissed back. It was their first.
"At the end of the next month, there will be a checkup on the main Project Sapphire and Forhe development base's. The brass wants the Engineering Division alongside the regular army to evaluate its progress" Dr. Slate explained to the scientists in the conference room.
Project Sapphire. One of the silver bullets Atlas was looking for. At the start of the war the Kingdom was absolutely confident that the new Atlesian Airfleet would crush Menagerie and the faunus forces in Solitas with ease. In a brutal display that couldn't be doctored or censored, the main faunus heavy gun punched a hole straight through the hull of the flagship of the fleet. The burning wreckage of that ship dominated the center of no man's land.
To the credit of the military, they'd immediately began looking for solutions to the airship problem. Project Sapphire, alongside Project Forge were the two best possible answers. Sapphire was the experimental shielding program meant to protect the vessel via hardlight dust. Project Forge was the effort in creating a new, more durable armor plating for the airships that was both light enough and tough enough to withstand direct shots. Both had top secret testing facilities out in the tundra and both had some of the kingdom's greatest minds working there.
"Dr. Valois you will be visiting the Project Forge base" Slate informed the woman without looking up from his scroll. "Dr. Watts, Sapphire is yours. I want detailed progress reports. No stone unturned."
So you can take the credit Arthur thought bitterly. The rivalry between the senior scientist and junior one had broken out into a full out hatred over the course of the year.
What broke the camel's back was Slate presenting the automatic rifle designs as solely a work of his own devices, rather than the joint effort between the pair.
It bothered him to no end. No, bother was too weak a word. It burned inside of him with a raging jealousy. No. Slate is the one green with envy. He takes my work, my contributions and presents them as his own! All he's ever done is claim the genius of others as his own!
Arthur glanced over to his girlfriend Viola, who had just been vested with the authority and responsibility of monitoring the progress of the entire kingdom's chances of winning this war. The eyes of the military were on her now.
Sometime after the meeting ended, Arthur caught up with Viola outside the conference room. "Well, I'm being sent in two days. You?"
"Three."
"Then…" he began slowly, thinking very carefully. "What about a date? Before then I mean."
Viola smiled. Arthur was taking initiative and she adored it. "I think that would be excellent. I've wanted to go to the High Royal Restaurant for ages."
Arthur's green eyes lit up in joy. "I'll schedule it now." The doctor pulled up his custom black scroll, the one the military didn't have tabs on, and tapped at it. Did he skip the reservations list with the tap of a button? Perhaps. But it was worth it anyway. The pair walked down the hall together.
"I wonder what James is up to" Viola mused idly before Arthur shrugged.
In the distance there was a faunus, who wore a pot helmet and had an old Mantle M-90 rifle from before the Great War. One of the earliest bolt rifles the world had ever seen. It carried one paper wrapped cartridge in the chamber and had no magazine to feed rounds into. In essence, it was a relic.
Yet it was not an uncommon sight. The army of Menagerie had sent these faunus villagers captured weaponry over the years, but always their oldest caches. The best equipped faunus had post Great War Era rifles, the luckiest managed to plunder the newest semi-automatic A-30 rifle. A clip magazine of six rounds, it was the most common weapon the Atlesian army fielded. It was reliable in snow, dirt, mud and rain, but struggled in humid conditions like southern Mistral.
Some in the Atlesian Army prefered something in the middle. Not semi-automatic, modern weapons of war, but not old antiques unfit even for a test fire. The M1-2 rifle. Telescopic sights, clip magazine, bolt action.
A sniper's weapon.
The lone faunus in the distance heard the gunshot before it struck her. Small ears that resembled a moose flicked up lightly before a high-impact bullet shredded her brain and blew a hole straight out the side. A dark red splatter painted the snow and mud as the body spasmed and dropped down.
The dead faunus was not alone. A companion, male and with sharp lion's teeth, ran over to the body and let out a shriek that was cut short. A second gunshot in the frigid air plastered the faunus trench with a mixture of brain viscera, chunks of bone and whatever sizzling flesh was left at the exit wound.
"As I was saying," Feldgrau interrupted between the gunfire while Vine was peering at Tortuga's sniper. "How do you know so much about the Specialists when you're just a private in the army?"
Vine, absentmindedly added his own question. "What exactly did you mean by calling yourself Ironwood's second favorite pet?" Feldgrau elbowed him.
Tortuga laughed and ran a hair through his head, slouching down from his firing position. Eventually the faunus would pinpoint him and return fire. He'd be long gone.
"Clover is his first. He's a good dog, by his master at all times. But me? I'm the other dog who's kept hidden away."
He slipped his sniper over his shoulder and smirked. "But that dog is the more dangerous one, kept in his cage."
Feldgrau looked annoyed, glaring daggers at Vine for wasting her question with something silly. "I know enough about Specialists because I know enough about the Commander. We go back. James wanted me to be one, just like him and all the other huntsmen. But I'm not one." Tortuga shrugged.
Tortuga patted his weapon lightly. "No one else can hit a target like me. So that's why I'm here." The sniper leapt up and kept moving down the line without a word.
"Hey!" Feldgrau snapped, rushing after the man. Vine followed with a sigh and a "Wait!" They'd lost the sniper among all the other army regulation uniforms, only finding the man by his dark brown hood. A series of mortars exploded from down the line, just where the three of them had been earlier. As Tortuga expected, the sniper's position was found and blown to pieces.
Tortuga sat down on a mound of frozen dirt and snow. "You're a very persistent specialist."
Feldgrau caught her breath before speaking. "So, what do you do for the Commander that makes you his number three?" There was wounded pride riding on the line. All the Specialists, regardless of what they said, always felt above the regular infantry.
To have some soldier insist that they were intimate with the Commander over herself harmed her ego without realizing it.
"I kill people really well. With this." He raised his sniper lightly.
Feldgrau got pissed at that. "No shit. We're all killing people. It's a war! Cut the shit private." She pulled rank on the soldier. Tortuga shrugged and leaned against the trench wall. His head nearly popped over the edge. Nearly.
"Huntsmen aren't the only ones with semblance's you know?" he murmured, slinging his rifle up and looking down the scope. He'd led the two specialists to his next sniper nest. Staring down his telescopic sight, Tortuga's eyes flashed.
"Hey! We're not finished!" Feldgrau shouted, rushing out a hand to grab Tortuga. The sniper looked up, stepped back and let the specialist fall past him and hit the ground. Then he leaned forward, took his position and fired off three quick shots. Across the barren field, three faunus had been killed.
Vine looked at the bickering pair and wondered further about what Tortuga had meant. He likens himself to a dog. Himself and Specialist Ebi. But Tortuga isn't a specialist, nor an officer. Not even an NCO. So what is he?
"Hey, long neck, did you know that Atlas didn't even have a sniper corps before this war?" Tortuga didn't look away from his sights.
"I-" Vine stammered. He hadn't known that. Frankly all he knew about sniper's was that they got paid more, fed more and died more often than everyone else.
"Thought so" Tortuga fired off a fourth shot. He worked the rifles bolt up, back and then forward. A hot shell casing was ejected and twirled onto the snow, cooling off instantly. The sniper put his hand over the casing to prevent any steam from emitting. "This army has so few of us, you know? And half of them are dead. The other half are in Anima, preparing to die. That leaves a handful here." Tortuga smirked as he shifted his positioning to follow a target. He fired and ejected the next casing. "So when the Commander finds one that's this good and loves what he does?" Tortuga shrugged and loaded a magazine clip for his rifle. Five more rounds slid into place.
Feldgrau spat, sitting up on the ground. "That doesn't make you valuable. It just makes you a psycho killer."
Tortuga looked down on her with a sneer. "How do you think you end a war?" the sniper snarled.
Glaci Feldgrau rose to her full height, her head sticking out of the trench and her aura shimmered with activation. Their potential fight was broken when a hail of bullets hit her aura and caused her to duck and cover.
"Shit, they zeroed us already" Tortuga snapped, grabbing his rifle and hitting the muddy ground just in time, for a mortar exploded just in front of his firing position. Vine pulled out his rifle and hit the deck. "Did either of you catch where the shots were coming from?" Tortuga shouted. Vine shook his head and Glaci frowned.
The specialist had her weapon at the ready too. "Ok" Tortuga began. "Draw their fire. I'll take care of it."
"What?" Feldgrau shouted, incensed. "I'm not being your goddamn bait you fucking private!"
Vine growled and took iniative, rushing out of the trench. He was met with a flurry of bullets that slammed into his aura. The gunfire at once ceased flying over Tortuga and Glaci. Vine dived into a shell hole, bullets hovering over him. He fell into mud and snow, his uniform becoming dark brown. In the brief moments that Vine drew the enemy's fire, Tortuga took a shooting position, located the shots and fired off four rounds in quick succession. The shooting stopped. "Run back Vine, I have you covered" Glaci shouted and opened up with her A-30.
Vine started running back and shook after enemy fire came back at him, but with less frequency and more erratic in pattern. Glaci shouted something and a gunshot went out. Tortuga's fifth round dropped the last faunus shooter. Vine dove into their own trench. The skirmish ended.
Panting, the specialist rose with the help of the sniper's hand. "Nice work" Tortuga said. "But we should probably get out of here before they bomb it to hell."
The trio retreated from the position until they were a good hundred feet away. Panting and with her hands on her knees, Glaci took a sharp breath before berating the sniper. "That was reckless. Vine could have been killed."
Tortuga glared daggers at the specialist. "And? He could have been killed yesterday. He could be killed tomorrow. So what? The only way anyone ever leaves this war is through a body bag. It makes no difference when."
"You're a twisted fuck, you know that?" Glaci snarled. It appeared that their fight from earlier was about to resume.
"Officer present!" Vine interrupted and snapped to salute. The other two soldiers stopped and did the same.
"That's enough!" Ironwood shouted. All three soldiers turned their heads to see the commander and Clover standing behind them. Ironwood towered over everyone but Glaci. Beside Clover was Specialist Celadon Galehorn, she had her rifle in hand and there was a faint smell of hot dust coming from it. There had to have been fighting nearby.
"Feldgrau, Zeki, you should be ashamed of your conduct. Return to your dugouts. Tortuga, with me. I need you for a briefing."
Glaci looked furious but said nothing other than "Yes sir!" She fumed when she saw Tortuga stick a tongue out at her while walking away with Ironwood.
Clover, James, Galehorn and Tortuga walked all the way from the firing trench to the communication trench where the commanders dugout was. Inside, Tortuga sat down beside Ironwood and slumped down, putting his rifle to the side.
"What the hell was happening between you three?" Clover started in his questioning. James let the other man dig into Tortuga. In fact, James decided now would be the best time for a shave.
"Sir," Tortuga replied, raising a hand to stop Clover. "Specialist Feldgrau was combative and aggressive towards me from the start. She felt personally offended that someone with my lowly rank had a closer connection with James. We came under attack and Specialist Zeki ran to draw their fire. Specialist Feldgrau misliked my plan, sir."
Clover groaned. Tortuga always did this with Specialists. He liked prodding at them and playing up their egos.
James interrupted Clover, shaving cream still on his face. He raised a brow while speaking. "And what connection might that be, Private?" the Commander glared at the sniper. Tortuga looked anywhere but Ironwood's piercing blue eyes.
Galehorn said nothing and stood at attention the whole time. She was attentive though, missing nothing. "You got me into this army…." he murmured under his breath. "You're the reason I have anything at all. You use me to kill all sorts of people the army otherwise can't." Tortuga looked up at the commander finally. "Isn't that something?"
James kept observing Tortuga. "Maybe. But this isn't the first time you've kept angering my specialists. We are in this fight together, Tortuga. We have to work together to beat the faunus" the commander explained. "Please, Tortuga. I will speak with Glaci and Vine but this is the last time I want to hear about you getting into fights with Specialists. Am I understood?"
"Sir yes sir!" Tortuga said, saluting his superior officer.
Ironwood allowed himself to smile. "Now that's over with, I have a mission for you. You too, Galehorn. Tortuga, this is Specialist Celadon Galehorn. She's been my go to for extensive recon, and has been serving as my personal secretary lately."
"What happened to Kiona?" Tortuga asked abruptly. The commander's secretary was a staple figure, and a good friend. It was Celadon's turn to answer.
"Killed, I'm afraid to say. The commander, Clover, Kiona and I were stuck fighting some few miles up the line for the last couple of days. Kiona didn't make it." She spoke matter of factly with little emotion. In fact, it was like she was the opposite of Glaci, who spoke with nothing but emotion.
"Almost sounds like you don't care…" he muttered to himself. He couldn't tell if Galehorn had heard, the woman gave no sign of it, but Tortuga couldn't be sure.
"Unfortunate as Specialist Kionas' death may be, Galehorn graduated top of her class when it came to theoreticals and academics at her combat school. She's been a tremendous help."
Tortuga could see the bags under his friend and superior officers eyes. It wasn't the first time. Ironwood had the tendency to do it all his own or at least try to until Clover stepped in to help. Then the Commander would be able to get some sleep, eat or drink. Tortuga grimaced. He didn't like seeing Ironwood push himself to extremes to try and win the war all by himself.
But someone has to be that beacon of hope, don't they? Someone has to bear the sins, burdens, dreams and desires of everyone beneath them. Someone has to be the one to make the calls. Otherwise, how can we sleep at night? Tortuga wondered.
"Pleasure to meet you" Tortuga finally said aloud and raised his hand to the Specialists. Galehorn shook in kind.
James smiled again, relieved that they at least weren't at odds immediately. "Well, let's get started." While still shaving, Commander Ironwood placed his scroll on the table and tapped a few buttons revealing a layout of a portion of the faunus line. Several images taken by reconnaissance dotted the blue glow of the projection.
"Over the past few weeks, recon has taken these pictures of what we've started calling the Thicket" James began explaining to the group. "It's got the highest concentration of faunus machine guns and a few miles back, one of their big cannons."
Clover interjected with a comment of his own for context. "The same one that took out our flagship." Ironwood nodded in response. Everyone had lost someone on that ship when it went down. Tortuga examined every picture, every readout, with pinpoint accuracy.
"So what's the mission sir?" he finally asked. James continued and explained in detail.
"Command is planning a major attack on the Thicket to try and destroy the cannon and move airships into the field. Intel suggests there's a major arms depot there as well. Theoretically, we could be able to disrupt their flow of artillery shells and speed up our ability to launch future attacks."
"You mean being able to outlast the attrition?" Tortuga said what everyone was thinking. Ironwood sighed and nodded.
"Yes. If we can outlast them, command believes we have a shot of closing this front and shoring up in Anima before things get worse." In a rare moment, Celadon spoke up.
"If command wants to attack the Thicket, what's our mission?" she queried, asking the true question on both soldiers' minds. James answered in turn after raising a hand to silence further questions.
"I convinced command that a frontal assault should be delayed in favor of a four man team of Specialists sent in to destroy the cannon. Your mission will be to eliminate the arms depot, destroy the main battery, and return with any other information you can find. Specialist Galehorn is your number two. Pick two others. You have a week, Tortuga. I can't get Major Grey to delay any longer."
Tortuga slowly rose and then snapped his arm into a sharp salute.
"Yes sir!"
Ironwood saluted back, as did Clover.
"Synch mission clocks as soon as you leave. Time is critical" Clover told the pair and put a hand on the sniper's shoulder. "Give 'em hell soldier."
Tortuga smirked and lifted his sniper rifle back over his shoulder and left with Galehorn. The woman was short and stocky but with a toned, dark body.
"I have to wonder," Galehorn began. "Who are your picks?" Tortuga turned his head slightly with a sinister smile. He knew exactly who was coming along for this mission.
"Let's go get them, specialist."
As always, please leave a review with your thoughts. The two others are Vine and Glaci, if it wasn't obvious.