James Ironwood looked over the latest results from GAS-training exams and the results aren't as he was hoping. Out of the hundred plus students, only three managed to pass, and they're all first year students. The written portion should not have been too hard but one look at the tome Winter Schnee considered basic knowledge for GAS members had most students running back to regular Hunter and Military classes, those are the ones who saved themselves a week of cramming for the test. Only Ceil Soleil and half the members of team Team-FNKI, I should have never let Arc help name teams, arrived to take the test, others turning in their manuals days prior.
Rising from his seat General Ironwood made his way to the Gas Station to give out new orders for an up coming project for Mantle
Gas Station
"Back away from the fresh paint and you don't get hurt." Oscar threatened the intruder, holding a plasma wrench to the back of Ceil who was inspecting the fresh paint on Oscar's green car. "Who are you and what are you doing near my car?"
Ceil turned around snapping into a perfect salute.
"I am cadet Ceil Soleil, candidate for the Guard Attack System Team and first year student. I was admiring the detail work of the car, sir." Ceil noticed the badge pinned to Oscar's clothes marking him as a pilot. "Will you be heading the class?"
"And I'm Neon Katt!" Cheered a cat faunus with a tail near the line of fresh from the factory cars, all five cars blank and with default dust engines.
"So you're the three that passed Winter's test?" Oscar received a nod from his fellow students.
"You know it." Commented Flint Coal doing a few finger exercises on his trumpet as he sits on a crate of parts.
"Then that means you three will be helping with some light repairs," turning to yell for the two, only to find Penny mere inches from his face. Oscar jumped back from fright, accidentally letting the tool in his hand fly off somewhere. "Penny! Don't do that!"
"I am sorry co-pilot Oscar but I have come to report that the Mrgas unit and Frostbyte unit have returned with the remains of the Ace-Zorps." She explained as only a green-gorilla Zorp like Sloen's but somehow looking more powerful docked with K-9 and Mrgas. Oscar made his way over with the candidates following behind him.
Getting to Mrgas docking station Oscar could see his big brother already on his couch, located in the elevator now at the bottom of the docking station, with most the Ace-Ops just outside it yelling at Jaune about something. Harriet being the most vocal.
"What the hell Arc! You didn't have to destroy our robots!" She exclaimed trying to get around the barrier made by Winter, that explains why her hands aren't around his neck in her maddened state. Jaune simply shrugged his shoulders.
"What can I say? You shouldn't have challenged the champ." Hare tried to redouble her efforts in punching the barrier down.
"Are we interrupting something?"
"Nope." Jaune answered while looking to Oscar and the candidates, missing Winter use her glyphs to throw the Ace-Ops out of the Gas Station. Jaune glanced at the new people anxiously.
"So, welcome to the Gas Station! Here we design, build, and modify both robots and cars. With that said, for my class you will be working on designs to upgrade your Atlas Guards but before that you will be assigned to a pilot team until after the Vytal Festival. Winter if you would do the honors?"
Winter stepped in front of Arc while looking over who Jaune assigned to who.
"Neon Katt will be assigned to Skalgar, your results from the test have shown you will do well for the auxiliary weapons systems. Flint Coal assigned to K-9 for analysis and testing, Ceil Soleil will assigned to team Mrgas for programming and engineering. Dismissed."
Splitting of into their groups Ceil is led over to the prototype Mrgas, as Ironwood would meet the group at the head.
Beacon Academy
Team-RWBY had practically declared Beacon's underground parking garage as their designated hangout, not like anyone at Beacon but Yang and Bleiss actually had a vehicle to drive. Ruby is at her workbench doing calculations to make a giant Crescent Rose for her Skalgar, Blake was reading a book in a quiet corner somewhere, Yang is working on her bike, and Bleiss is looking over the galactic net for an engagement gift for Jaune.
"Boring, boring, boring." She repeated as she scrolled through different worlds until a peculiar looking world got her attention. "Now this is a ring for a man!"
She exclaimed getting the rest of her team's attention.
"What's got you excited? Jaune got a new action figure out?" Yang asked as she remembered the long line she and Ruby had to stand in just to get the new Jaune action figure with 'Rock-On' action grip. Bleiss quickly closed the Galactic Net, hiding other worlds from her team. It still might be a bit to soon to trust them with secrets outside of Remnant even if she and Ruby are now getting along.
"It's nothing. I have a few calls to make, Blackguard Robotics doesn't run itself."
Space
MRGAS destroys another asteroid, breaking it into small enough pieces to be collected by Frostbyte, Ceil sat in the passenger seat next to Jaune. Try as she might she could not keep Jaune's cheers of excitement out of her hearing as he and Specialist Schnee collected more material to strengthen Mantle's walls, on the orders of General Ironwood of course. Oscar wished he could have tagged along but because Skalgar has yet to be outfitted for space travel he is the designated defender.
Another explosion and shout from Jaune interrupted her coding. How does Specialist Schnee put up with him? She asked herself yet again after actually meeting Remnants first space soldier. Loud, obnoxious, and overbearing are just the few words she would use to describe the grunge pilot, but the main word that best fit this, this, animal is 'messy'. The way he ate after getting the mission could more than attest to that, there could be no one worse on Remnant.
"Captain, is it necessary to yell every time?" Ceil asked rubbing her temples.
"Um, yeah. Makes it more fun that way and don't call me captain. I ain't into titles."Jaune explained having Mrgas cleave another space rock in half with GCM. (Giant Crocea Mors) "You need to learn how to relax a bit."
"Relax! IM IN SPACE! How am I supposed to relax we weren't trained for this yet." Ceil slammed a fist down accidentally hitting one of the many buttons. Mrgas' shield opened up revealing another gun barrel. The gun fired missing Frostbyte by mere yards, Winter never noticed the misfire or the light of explosion hundreds of miles out.
"I don't remember installing that?" Jaune scratched his head slightly, retracting the new weapon.
"I'm so sorry I didn't mean to do that!" I'm dead! Ceil could not keep the horrors of Oscar's warnings about what happens to people that mess with Jaune's car. Oscar told of how a woman scratched the paint on Mrgas foot back in Jersey, with her car door out of her mind. Jaune didn't hesitate to pulverize the woman's Schnee Dust Company owned car.
Ceil could see herself in the drivers seat of that car right now.
"No big. Nobody got hurt, loosen up a bit. Here, try this." Jaune reached into his pocket pulling out one of his handheld games. She wanted to throw the damn thing back at his face. How this slacker not only made it into the program but is also considered the top pilot, she will never know.
"Alright Jaune. That should be enough to start running tests for science teams."
"Already? But I was just starting to have fun." Jaune and Mrgas rubbed the back of their heads before childishly kicking another space rock. Frostbyte looked like a mother admonishing her child as she crossed her arms, showing Ceil just how Winter can control Arc.
"Yes, already. The test will take several hours to complete and in that time we can look over the structural integrity of Mantles walls to start construction of the dome."
"Aww man. Why did I agree to this?" Jaune complained as Mrgas and Frostbyte readied to go back to Remnant.
"Because you have liked Mantle ever since they asked you to be in their next parade." Winter answered.
"Who asked you?" Jaune shifted gears, throwing Ceil back in her seat far enough that she couldn't touch the screen. Winter answered his undeclared challenge for a race as the two robots swerve around, flip over, and simply destroy more asteroids on their way home.
Beacon
Bleiss finally finished her business about buying a ring world, it didn't cut as deep into her space bank account as she had originally thought, in fact if her math is right she got the place at a steal. That is never a good sign, now she is in the garage trying to reach her sister so SHE can check on Bleiss latest investment.
"What do you want." Winter asked crisply. It may seem rude but Bleiss only tends to call when she needs a favor. Bleiss decided to get to the point.
"I need Mrgas." Bleiss let the statement hang in the air for a moment and was startled when her sister started laughing uncontrollably. It took a moment she final stopped before looking at the screen again.
"No, really Bleiss. What do you need."
"I need Jaune's car."
"Are you crazy? What ever could you need The MRGAS unit for?"
"We'll for your information. I just bought a ring world for Jaune as an engagement ring, he'll be so impressed, but the problem Winter is that I got the world at such a low price that I need to check it out and see why. I think it needs power or something, my translator was having trouble deciphering the rest."
"Why don't you use Wildfyre to go?"
"Because the place is to far out and Wildfyre doesn't have deep space capabilities and unless that can be fixed before the weekend... I need Mrgas."
"How am I even supposed to get Jaune to lend me his car?"
"Do I have to do everything? Tell him your taking it to get it hand washed somewhere but hand him a plate of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets while doing it."
"Are you sure that will work?"
"It's food and Jaune, you do the math."
"Fair."
Mrgas
Winter could not believe it worked, she held the steering wheel to Mrgas in her hands, her sister in the passenger seat and Cadet Ceil in back. Jaune practically threw the keys at her, it's not like she doesn't know how to drive Mrgas anymore. Arc made sure of that before they left Jersey and now she's glad he did after somehow winding up smack dab in the middle of a mind field in space. Slowly steering Mrgas around several as she tried to maneuver around them.
"Bleiss, you don't know how much you owe me right now." Winter growled through her clenched teeth safely making it to the other side.
"And I'll pay you back. I just need to check out this world and make sure it good enough for Jaune." Bleiss tried to defend distracting Winter for a brief moment, she turned to chew her sister out for reckless endangerment. Winter never noticed MRGAS foot scrape one mine before explosions rocked the occupants around as MRGAS was thrown into more mines.
Winter was able to wrestle a semblance of control of Mrgas, managing to straighten him out but could not avoid more mines as alarms blared.
"Could you please avoid the mines, Ma'am!" Ceil tried to plead.
"You wanna drive!?" Winter snapped back be fore her sister pointed out something.
"There!" Bleiss exclaimed seeing the ring world. Winter did her best to steer MRGAS for a soft landing but thank Jaune he made the robot so durable.
Ring world
After recovering from the paralyzing fall into the worlds gravity, Winter brought MRGAS to his feet as she scanned the immediate area for life. Then she placed her head in her hands, just imagining what Jaune will do to her if there's a scratch on his pride and joy. She new for a fact one punishment is cleaning ALL the robots with nothing but a toothbrush. She hasn't done something like that since boot camp.
"Ceil, run a diagnostic scan of Mrgas, see what the damage is." Winter prayed for Jaune's brand of minor damage, damage that can be buffed out or painted over.
"Reading say damage is minimal ma'am." Ceil reported in a meeker tone, not wanting to draw the specialist's ire again. Crashing on a ring world millions of miles away from Remnant is supposed to be minor? Winter wanted to question.
"Good then we can take a look around," Bleiss glanced at her new world. " But I don't think we'll find people anytime soon." Winter piloted MRGAS to hover above the ground, as it looked very unstable.
"Scans indicate no life readings." Reported Ceil once again. She took the lead and ran a scan without being ordered.
"Thank Atlas. I won't have to fight anything." Winter breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Your just scared." Bleiss teased only to receive a withering glare from Winter.
"It's not your ass on the line if Arc finds out we went for a joyride in his car!" But try as she might Winter could not ignore her curiosity of the new world around them, her inner archiver wanted to take a closer look at the towers.
"Wonder what these are?" Everyone noticed the cracks running along each building and even a few holes in others. Taking the holo-screen for herself Winter tried run a deeper scan.
"There doesn't seem to be anyway in and no power either but judging by the architecture and alloys involved, this place was built by a highly advanced race. Ceil took note how to run deep scans as Winter worked through the information before hand the screen back.
"If their so advanced where are they now?"
Mrgas got closer to one of the towers before dropping to the ground briefly, before the ground caved in dropping the heavy machine into a mechanical cavern, Winter flipped on the headlights to reveal the room filled with corpses of other giant robots, likely built with artificial intelligence as there are no visible cockpits, and giant webbing.
"Dead giant robots, this can't be good." Ceil complained under her breath, That's it when I get back home I'm dropping this program.
"Guess we know what happened to the locals." Bleiss commented. "What that funk all over them?" She asked seeing a robot wrapped up tight on their current path.
"Just looks like a giant web." Winter answer having MRGAS pull the web down, to be followed by cacophony of sound as more robots fell into the pile of webbing. Suddenly a giant mechanical snake centipede thing rose high above Mrgas out of the pile. Hissing, snapping, and drool falling from it mandibles.
"Woah!" Winter yelped as Mrgas jumped back slightly. "See there is always something to fight!"
The giant snake bug lunged forward knocking MRGAS on it's back before rearing up again, MRGAS threw his right arm in the path of it's mouth. The beast clamped on tight before MRGAS slammed his arm on the ground and used the other to pry the thing off. Winter tried to back away from the stunned alien monster, another giant bug threw itself at the blue giant and wrapping around not just the robot but a pillar he was knocked into.
Winter hit the jets dragging the creature wrapped around Mrgas up the pillar before hitting a button, Mrgas arms flexed out loosening the giant bug. Jumping to a distance Mrgas awaited the monsters next lunge, grabbing the bug Mrgas bent the alien in the wrong direction over his shoulders exposing it spine and killing it. Throwing the the corpse into a box activated something as the world lit up.
"Ma'am readings indicate what you just hit is a power source." Ceil brought up the deep scan while Mrgas faced the downed bug. Bleiss felt repulsed at the site of the thing but couldn't help but notice how it used once, not be living challenged.
"I thought you said there was no life here."
"There isn't. It's obviously nonorganic, likely silicon based. That's why the scan didn't pick it up!" Ceil explained frantically. This screw up could cost us our lives. She lamented internally, the General will likely kick her out of the academy all together let alone the program. She would have to work in the family store selling watches if that happens. Not again! She already developed a weird obsession with time because of it.
"Yeah, yeah. That's great but let's get out of here. I'll just cut my losses and buy Jaune a new car frame." Winter guided MRGAS topside before seeing a secure spot to park Mrgas. "Winter what are you doing?"
"Running another scan on the building now that it has power. These seem to be data storage drives!"
"Like computers?" Ceil asked hollowly, the sound of ticking in her imagination already driving her to the abyss.
"Wait! See if there's games, I can still make this work." Winter continued through the information.
"Looks like evolutionary chart, social structure, and an entire history of an alien race. This is an archive world!" Winter exclaimed with sparkles in her eyes, like Jaune when he polishes his belt.
"But no games? Come-on that's lame! It's just an interstellar library and you know what happened last time I went to a library."
Indeed Winter could remember thirteen year old Bleiss climbing the bookshelves of the Atlas Public Library, when she reached the top something happened that caused the shelves topple into a domino effect, Winter's once slender form saved her life as she passed through two shelves unharmed. Since then Winter has forbidden Bleiss from stepping foot into another.
"They always put the good stuff too high." Bleiss tried to defend her small stature.
"Maybe one of these towers has information for a problem Jaune is having?" Winter questioned aloud. "Or maybe a way to beat the Grimm for good."
"Even if there is, there's like, gazillion towers. It would take forever to check each one." An echoing screech interrupted the two sisters. Winter spotted the the giant alien bugs charging at Mrgas head on. Winter readied Mrgas for another fight. MRGAS jets ignited getting the bugs attention directly on them.
"Ma'am, stand down!" Ceil yelped after looking deeper into the bugs. Winter lifter her foot off the gas as if it just snapped at her toes. The bugs seemed to crawl around Mrgas completely ignoring his existence.
"What is it Cadet?"
"The creatures, they're attracted to energy. Those stalks work as sensors allowing them to track down pray kilometers away."
"So they're like Grimm but instead of negative emotions it's different forms of energy?" Bleiss asked wanting to understand and getting a confirming nod from Winter. "Could they sense aura? It would have too for one to attack us the second time. So why can't they see us now?"
"The towers power output is hiding the Mrgas unit in plane sight." Ceil answered getting some wind back in her sails as she tries to make up for her error. "Hopefully they'll just ignore us."
The screen began to glitch as gauges began to plummet and MRGAS powered down enough to keep life support systems running.
"We're losing power!?" Winter exclaimed.
Ceil tried to look for the problem while the screen worked correctly and getting warnings from the core chamber. "Ma'am the core chamber has been breached!"
Ceil pulled up a short recording of a much smaller bug's body run across the camera before it lost power.
"What was that!" Bleiss shrieked as Winter lost color to her face.
"Something got on board 5.2 minutes ago and the alarms lost power 15.8 eight seconds after entry."
""WHAT!""
"It must be in an infant stage to sneak aboard."
"One of those things is in Jaune's robot!" Winter took a moment to breathe before composing herself. "That thing is likely responsible for the malfunction. I'm going down there to check on things but I'm going to need back up."
Winter and Bleiss both looked to Ceil.
"Hold on! I won't know what I'm looking at down there." Ceil tried to deny the responsibility.
"Bleiss is the only other one that can pilot Mrgas, consider this field training for the mechanic course. Bleiss, MRGAS doesn't have enough power for a prolonged fight. Use your head conserve power, stay concealed and don't damage any of those towers! Let's go Cadet." Winter ordered, removing Crocea Mors before climbing into the backseat to open the hatch in the floor board leading to the body.
Inside MRGAS
Winter pointed her flashlight to and fro as she and Ceil walked the surprisingly spacious halls of Mrgas. The pilot specialist could see the down cast expression the recruit wore and noticed how she tried to not make eye contact with her. Winter stopped in her tracks prompting Ceil to do the same.
"Is there a problem recruit?" Ceil tried to look away from Winter with hints of shame but the woman's gaze kept her locked in.
"These last few hours have shown me I'm not cut out for Guard Attack Systems team. I couldn't run scans to warn you about the minefield, I even failed to scan for ANY type of life on an alien world; like the Manuel advises. After today I wish to resign," a hollow chuckle escaped through her lips as she shook her head. "I don't even know how I passed your test."
"You didn't." Winter stated calmly, catching Ceil off guard.
"What?"
"Let me clarify. You passed the logistics and problem solving aspects but failed the hand-eye coordination and engineering we require. Ironwood was ready to send you back but Arc spoke out for you, and with Jaune not only being the one to design everything from scratch but also being Remnants Champion. His words carry weight with the General. He promised to bring you up to standard and do you know what happens when an Arc makes a promise?" Ceil shook her head.
"They keep their word." She stated, continuing their march to the core. "Ceil? what do you remember about the core chamber?"
"The core is the primary source of power while the Aura storage system is actually a booster system. The only way the get the chamber is to get through there." Ceil pointed to two slabs of metal that block the entrance if they were closed.
"Correct. Where did you learn that? I never put it on the test."
"Jaune explained how the internal systems work on the way back."
"I see Jaune is already living up to his part of the deal and if he can do that then a I can have faith in his decision." Winter smirked before crawling through what amounted to a hydraulic-press.
Outside
A giant bug started slither towards Mrgas making color drain from Bleiss face as she could see the disgusting details inside of those mandibles. It turned away seeming to sense nothing, Bleiss ran a hand over her brow before letting drop on the button setting in the arm rest. A flare flew off and exploded behind Mrgas getting the creatures attention again.
"Fuck!" She exclaimed as the aqua-blue centipede slithered up the body. Bleiss grabbed the game controller, MRGAS grabbed the armored worm with one hand under its jaw before the left foot stomped down, his other hand grabbed hold as well before he began to twist his torso round 360 degrees pulling the spine apart.
Meanwhile: Inside
As Ceil crawled through the metal wall, it began to move. Winter safely on the other side reached in and snatching the girl out before rounding on the camera at the top of the entrance way.
"Bleiss! We're still in here!" Winter raged. "And I told you to conserve energy."
"Sorry, had to pull out the Magno-Flex."
"That better not be what I think it is!" Winter handed her personal sword over to Ceil. Letting Bleiss drive Mrgas is one thing, letting anyone else use Crocea Mors is just asking to be stuffed into one of the many guns and shot into the sun from MRGAS. The two entered the hallway leading to the core, the quickly spotted a of tiny alien bug no bigger than Winter's boots which she used to practically tap dance on it. "Bleiss we got it."
"But the power is still being drained."
"There must be more. A lot more" Ceil commented as she and Winter spotted a small cluster spread throughout the hall crawling along pipes and wires leading to the core. Winter summoned beowolves to attack them along with Ceil, it didn't take long to rid the hall of the pests.
The two finally made it the core chamber only to see a large bug birthing more of the infant stages.
"I'll handle this, watch my six." Winter ran forward punching the Queen caste several times before throwing a round house kick. The Queen released an echoing screech getting the attention of any nearby bugs, outside several giant bugs crawled towards Mrgas as if to attack.
"Winter whatever you gotta do hurry!"
"I'm working on it!" Winter exclaimed swinging Crocea Mors down only for the blade to bounce off the harder scales of the Queen. Ceil dealt with the little ones that tried jump on Winter from behind, trying recall what little training she had in weapons. Right foot, left foot, keep my body lowered, as I'm move forward, and keep my eyes on them.
Ceil sliced one in half as it lunged, another three were stomped into a cybernetic paste, so focused on her own battle she did not notice Winter and herself slowly inching back to back. When they touched Ceil yelped before throwing a left hook behind her, Winter glanced over her shoulder only to fall limply to the floor knocked-out.
The Queen paused as did Ceil both looking to the prone form of Winter. Could today get worse?
Apparently it could as the Queen reevaluated Ceil as the immediate threat, said girl yelped noticing the beast begin to chase her. Throwing the sword seemed like a good idea at them time but now the damn Queen is wedged in the hallway, snapping at her face. The location the bug is stuck gave her a stupid idea.
"Bleiss, Magno-Flex."
"Finally." MRGAS reached out grabbing the three bugs before killing a total of four with the move. Ceil stared at the decapitated head of the Queen before kicking it with all her frustrations for the day, breaking it into smaller pieces.
"This ain't so tough." Going back to the core chamber, Ceil found Winter waking back up. She rushed over to help, Winter groggily asked.
"What happened? I thought I was winning?" Ceil couldn't let Winter know the truth.
"The Queen sprung a sneak attack but I took care of it, Ma'am" Ceil answered snapping into a salute and sweating nervously. Winter rubbed her jaw lightly before applying her aura.
"Right let's fix this core."
Ceil made sure to pay close attention. Everything that followed was uneventful and they quickly made back inside the cockpit. Winter sitting in back as her head was still spinning.
"What happened to you?" Bleiss asked after seeing power restored
"I let my guard down." Winter answered as Bleiss looked out the window.
"We got company! Hold on." MRGAS reached again this chopping off a length of the bug with his other hand. MRGAS exposed a bit more the spine in the piece in his hands before swinging it around as an impromptu nunchuck.
"Waaahaaaa!" Bleiss sounded off like a martial arts movie. "BAH-TOOOOH!"
Mrgas swung his weapon over his head before lashing out cutting down two other bugs and punching a third. One lunged off the top of a tower on to be caught by the mandibles before being pulled apart. Mrgas jumped into the middle of a group of alien bugs punching and kick until two latched themselves onto his fists. Bleiss aim the two at another group before firing off both hands to set off an explosion of bug guts. Even more began to slither around in their place.
"Bleiss, there's just too many of them."
"I got'em on the ropes, just give me a few more shots." Bleiss floored the gas having Mrgas grab two crawlers by the tails whipping them them both against the ground, both of their heads exploding. Mrgas stood to go after another but was dog piled from above. Bleiss picked up another game controller, hitting a combo, Mrgas chest-lights began to heat up with a blinding light incinerating any pests with in a mile. Bleiss began to dust her hands off as Jaune has done many times before until everyone felt a shaking.
"What was that?" Ceil asked in a whispered tone.
"With any luck, Jaune's stomach." Winter tried to joke. Looking out they all could see more bugs surfacing as the shaking intensified.
"This is bad." Ceil commented.
"Well, at least it can't get any worse." Bleiss said for once trying to be the positive one. Until an even larger quaking began and a humongous alien bug Queen rose higher into the sky than any recorded Grimm to date.
"You gotta be kidding me! What is with this place." Bleiss yelled as she and the other two tried fiend the 'Get the Hell Out of Here' button. When they couldn't find a specially marked button or switch, the Mega-Queen and her children approached the robot. Ceil noticed them coming for the robot before covering her eye and slamming her hand on a jumble of buttons. Warnings flashed as Mrgas rose up to the center of the world flashing with Jaune's aura.
"Winter, what's going on!"
Running scans shed some light on the situation.
"Ceil just activated a storage expulsion. Meaning she just released the raw aura stored inside Mrgas."
"To us? Nothing. To everything outside, I have no idea." The aura around Mrgas grew larger and larger until, four columns of light shot off to different points of the ring before spreading out to encompass the world. The three shielded their eyes from the blinding light, not noticing the gargantuan silhouette of a knight stretch out behind Mrgas.
Coming done and landing safely the three simply stared around seeing nothing left of the bugs.
"We need to remember that." Winter stated before dragging Bleiss to the backseat and taking her rightful spot.
"Ma'am, should I begin a report for Ironwood about this?" Ceil asked already cataloguing the unofficial mission.
"Yes. And be sure to mention it a Team-Gas claim, not Atlas."
"Ma'am?"
"The General has assigned Team-Gas to represent both Mantle and Atlas. He has been on a campaign to strengthen ties between the two as of late."
"Roger." Ceil replied continuing her typing as Winter guided Mrgas to the minefield.
"Ceil, I want to show you a I have for Jaune." Winter pushed activated GCM before hitting a button that opened up the shield in a familiar fashion to the quickly paling cadet. Jaune already knows! MRGAS unleashed a lone stream of of energy creating a domino effect, safely setting off the space mines. "Better than a Ring World full of ring worms any day."
"You sneaky bitch!" Bleiss gasped. Wondering when her sister found an interest in Jaune.
"It's just to say thanks for Frostbyte! Don't read into it." Winter defended while trying to hide a small blush and avoiding eye contact with Bleiss, that answer was not good enough. The two began to fight in the narrow cockpit and as it grew a random button was hit bringing up a video on loop on the main display.
Repeatedly the video shows the moment Ceil punched out Winter. The sound of the two fighting quieted down, setting alarms off in her mind as she tried to ignore what was going, until she glanced at Winter.
"Uh-oh, I'm gonna get strangled!" Ceil cried before being choked off by Winter wringing her neck, nearly enough for her fingers to interlock. All while Bleiss made sure to save the video for herself and send a copy to Jaune.
Gas Station
As Jaune both redesigned not only Mantle's new dome but also new Zorps for the Ace-Ops. The S-Force designs aren't cutting it for aura storage systems. He closed out the image of the dome to focus on the Zorps.
"Oh, come on. I can design two different robots but I can't design a decent giant transforming animal. What's up with that?" Running another simulation of the Ace-Zorps against Mrgas had the same results. Completely one sided when the fuel kicked in, Mrgas stood over the remains of the Zorps throwing up the rock-hands. Closing out completely he stretched out on his couch, moments later his scroll buzzed with a new message from Bleiss.
It can wait until after my nap. Hopefully Mrgas is back, all nice and clean when I wake up.