Let's get down to business.

Enjoy

[Chapter 5]

Beta: Engineer1869

Jaune's PoV

I'm in over my head. That's just about the only thing that comes to mind - I'm in horribly over my head.

I got to watch in abject horror as the rest of my squad got either blown off course, their pod attacked by a frankly immense nevermore, or just getting hit by lightning. I mean, really. The AID woman's pod just got hit by lightning and that was the last we saw of her during the drop at all.

Of everyone involved, my pod was the only one that didn't get assaulted, or otherwise knocked around. That wasn't to say the landing was easy - far from it. I definitely am going to be feeling those aches and pains for the next few days. But compared to the rest of my squad? I probably came out the best.

I found myself in the city center - we had picked a large public park as our landing zone, easy to hit and distinguish from the rest of the burning city around us. That, and it was an easily identifiable landmark in the sea of otherwise bleak and burning buildings around us.

I stopped to check over my kit one last time. As well as that, I activated the beacon on my pod. It probably wouldn't help, but the theory was that it would go a ways to helping the rest of my squadmates find me - or if not them, then someone else. With that done, I started to look around. It wouldn't do me any good to sit here in the open. While the park made an excellent landing zone, it was far from somewhere good to hunker down and hold out while I waited for the rest of the squad to get here.

My eyes were drawn up to the cloudy sky above, rain pelting down relentlessly atop us. There were no Grimm to be seen, something I felt was a little odd. The way this whole deal had been pitched to us was Vale being a warzone, a hellscape ruled by Grimm and a few pockets of human resistance, but I saw none of that. It was quiet, if you could ignore the heavy rains and the occasional crack of thunder and lightning.

"Wonder what it was all like, before the Grimm showed up." I mused to myself, shaking my head as I scanned my surroundings. I'd need somewhere to shack up for a bit.

It didn't take long for me to find the best place for that - it was a large office building, right across the road from the park. Of all the buildings, it was the tallest. I couldn't tell you what it was for, only that it had a clocktower built into it. It definitely had seen its share of combat and destruction already, but it was leagues better than some of the burnt out husks of buildings that surrounded it, and definitely better than the middle of an open field with only a few trees and benches for cover.

The inside of the building wasn't all that much nicer than the outside. There were a few bodies, and more bloodstains than I cared to count or think about in truth.

As I made my way deeper into the office building, I heard a low guttural growl come from somewhere behind me. "Oh sonuva…"

I dropped down to the ground, only just barely avoiding having a large beowolf crash into me. "You have got to be kidding me." I popped back up, shouldering my assault rifle as the wolf skittered across the ground and wheeled back to face me, snarling as it started to coil for another charge.

I squeezed the trigger, a burst of bullets barking from the end of the rifle. The Grimm was still coming, and took another two bursts before it finally went limp, though that didn't do anything to stop it as its dissolving body crashed into me, sending me toppling down.

That was when I heard even more crashes and howls. "Oh for the love of…"

I rolled off to one side, getting out from under the now mostly dissolved Grimm. I could see several glowing red eyes starting to appear, all baying and growling, demanding blood.

I didn't hesitate to pull a grenade off my belt - it wasn't any sort of fancy dust grenade, but a simple flashbang. I pulled the pin, lobbed the grenade at the oncoming pack, and turned tail to book it. I didn't know quite where I was going, only that I needed to put space between me and them.

I found my way to a set of stairs and didn't hesitate for even a moment to wrench the door open and start leaping up the stairs, three at a time. Alarms started going off, though it didn't sound like it was a building-wide alarm. Something more jerry-rigged to the door specifically. Even in spite of the alarms though, I could hear the Grimm behind me starting to gain rapidly on me.

"Shit, shit, shit…" I muttered, still leaping up stairs as many as I could at a time, stopping only briefly to spin about and unload a few bursts from my rifle into them, trying to slow the creatures of death and destruction down as best I could.

It wasn't doing much. They were still gaining rapidly.

"Duck!" Came the cry of a new, unknown voice. I didn't have time to really process what I was doing, and reacted on instinct, hitting the deck on one of the landings. There was a brief moment when all I heard were the Grimm bounding up the stairs after me…

And then came a rush, almost like a bullet flying overhead. I blinked, rolling off to one side to pick myself back up.

Fighting on the stairs, and cleaving through the horde of Grimm like they were nothing was a woman, early twenties or so. Though in spite of that she was still short, maybe five foot flat. She had no helmet on, her short black and red hair let to hang free. Her armor was a dark red, almost as though it had been stained with blood. It took me a moment or two, but I knew what that armor was.

That was HUNTER armor.

The woman was a storm of steel. Her weapon seemed to be some kind of scythe that also had a gun? Some kind of high powered rifle, if the deafening echo of each shot was anything to go by. In reality, it was bullshit. HUNTERs and their special mechashift weapons. Why go so complex when simple works just as well?

I shook my head, watching her for just a moment as she ripped her way through the Grimm like she was born to do it. I shouldered my rifle, taking aim lower down, putting round after round into the Grimm fighting to bust their way up the stairs.

And just like that, it was over. Almost as soon as it had happened, the fighting subsided. The Grimm were all dead and dissipating. The gunfire stopped, and the red blur slowed down, turning to look up at me.

She offered a smile and a little wave, turning right back into that red blur. Before I knew it, she was right there in front of me. "Good to see you, Helljumper. I saw your pod crash outside, but couldn't risk leaving the Specialist wounded and alone."

I nodded slowly. "Ah, yeah. Er, yes, ma'am. I'm part of squadron Hotel-138, the park was our landing zone, though most everyone else got blown off course."

"No need to call me ma'am or nothin'. Just call me Ruby, please." She smiled, offering a hand out as she shifted her scythe-gun back into a… Small box. The wonders of mechashift, I guess. "As for your squad, I know. I met up with a Specialist from AID who said as much. She's got some real nasty wounds, but she should be fine… I think."

I blinked at her, taking the offered hand. "Sure. And ah, Jaune. Arc… But what's this about a wounded Specialist?"

"Well, she said much the same as you did. Winter Schnee, shadowing Hotel-138 on an important mission." Ruby shook her head. "That was about all I got from her before she passed out." She started leading me up the stairs, all the way up to the top of the building.

The top-most office actually seemed almost… Pristine. Untouched. We were inside the clock part of the tower now. There wasn't much to see in the office, other than a large wooden desk that was currently playing the role of stretcher for the injured Winter.

The woman I had seen get hit by lightning - or rather her pod - she definitely looked like she'd had better days. The HUNTER - Ruby, gotta remind myself of that - had clearly done some haphazard bandaging. Probably cleaned the wounds and tried her best to stop the bleeding.

Emphasis on tried. The bandages were soaked through with blood.

"Well, Specialist. Let's get you patched up."

That's another chapter of Helljumper down, done and dusted. A little short, yes, but hey! We get to see Jaune and where he's at during the drop. He's got Ruby and now Winter.

Sorry about it being so late in the day, I had a lot to get done today. That said, this wasn't seen by Engineer ahead of time because I procrastinated all weekend, so if y'all find mistakes or anything that's on me, not him.

Next Chapter: Friday, November 18th

Till next time, this is Valres signing off.