Solar Flare
Chapter 5: First Mission

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of the characters involved except team MRTR

Merc slid up to the corner edge of the warehouse and peeked around, barely moving an inch as his head rounded the corner. He saw two figures wearing black shirts and pants with white armor and grimm-styled masks. He pulled his scroll up to the side of his head and whispered. Both had large dust rifles.

"I'm outside the warehouse, two hostiles outside, both armed with rifles, advise," Merc whispered.

Rylee's voice came in from the small device, "Hold position, Tyler's on his way, he'll cause a distraction, take advantage of the confusion,"

Merc nodded to himself before replying "Understood,"

He waited, counting the minutes in his mind, and just as he was lifting his scroll to ask where Tyler an explosion echoed from the far side of the alley leading to the warehouse's entrance.

"What was that?" One of the two masked figures asked, his voice identified him as a male.

"I don't know," The other figure replied, a woman.

"Let's check it out," The male said as he waved his gun in the direction of the explosion.

The two rushed off to investigate and Merc took the opportunity, dashing forward he lifted his scroll up to his face, "Change in plans, they left to investigate. Moving forward while they're gone. Take them out,"

"Roger that," Tyler's voice came through.

Merc wasn't sure, but he thought he heard two faint gunshots and the sound of cracking ice in the distance, but he couldn't let himself be distracted now: he needed to focus. Standing against the personnel entrance door he inhaled deeply, holding it for a few seconds and clearing his mind, before exhaling slowly. He pushed on the door lightly, the metal creaking faintly making him wince, but it was open enough so he stepped through. Quickly ducking down behind a large crate positioned by the door he took a look around the warehouse. Figured wearing uniforms and carrying swords and other firearms similar to the ones outside were scattered throughout the building.

Merc produced his scroll and set it to give a live feed to Rylee's before scanning the room, keeping his movements minimal and slow. Scanning one way then back he ended the feed and put the scroll to his ear.

"Did you get all that?"

"Yes, we've got an idea of the building's layout. Hold position and we'll be there soon,"

Merc nodded to himself as the signal cut off and he pocketed the scroll. He then set himself to silently wait. While he sat there he watched with a keen interest as the uniformed figures opened large shipping containers and hauled out what appeared to be mechanized combat suits.

"Interesting…" Merc said to himself as he produced his scroll and began to take a video recording of the process. Snapping pictures frequently as well.

He continued to spy on the strangers when he heard a faint creak behind him. He quickly pocketed his scroll and ducked into the shadows beside him, glancing over his shoulder he sighed in relief as he saw his team enter into the building cautiously. He gave a short, low whistle that got their attention and they ducked into the cover of the crates beside him.

"Any changes?" Rylee whispered as she squatted down next to Merc.

"Not really, they've unloaded a few of those mech suits from those shipping containers but that's all they've been doing," Merc pointed at the mech suits situated on the other side of the room.

"I wonder what they're up to with those,"

"No idea,"

"Those are Atlas Mechs!" Tyler whispered aggressively as he spotted them across the room.

"Do you think they're stolen?" Merc asked him.

Tyler shook his head, "No, from what I've been reading Atlas is selling them out as a way to help alleviate peacekeeping duties in the other kingdoms, our friends there must have had a face acting for them to buy those,"

"So we've got some questionably obtained high-end Atlas tech, that could be a problem," Merc put his hand on his chin as he considered their options.

Before he could begin to formulate a plan their attention was drawn to a figure as he kicked open an office door that was attached to the wall some meters in the air. A simple alternating staircase led down to the warehouse floor from the small room.

"What's taking so long people?!" The man shouted as he strolled down the stairs.

"Who's this now?" Merc asked, more to himself than his team.

"That looks like Roman Torchwick," Rylee responded.

"The criminal thug who's been robbing dust shops?" Merc asked her.

She nodded, "At least from here it does, but I can't be sure. It certainly sounds like him if those surveillance videos are anything to go by."

Roman turned the last bend in the staircase and twirled his cane around his arm, using the butt of it to push his small bowler hat up out of his face.

"Status report please," He said sarcastically.

One of the uniformed figures stepped forward, "Mr. Torchwick, we're still in the process of unloading the mechs and-"

He was cut off as Roman sighed, "I can see that… how close are we to being done?"

The man looked over his shoulder to another of his colleagues and they held up five fingers.

"Five more minutes sir, it seems the last mech is being unloaded now,"

"Finally," Roman twirled his cane around his arm before setting it down on the ground and leaning on it.

"Any news on that explosion outside?"

"No sir, we're still waiting on our exterior guards to investigate and report,"

"Well tell them to hurry up, we can't risk anyone finding out about our operations here,"

"Yes sir," The figure turned and reached into his pocket to produce a scroll as Roman walked away. He approached one of the mechs and smiled to himself as he ran his hand down the large piece of machinery.

"Oh what we plan to do with you, this'll be fun," he said to himself.

Merc and his team, having watched the exchange from afar, were having the exact opposite reaction.