Once the airship had touched down and everyone exited, Blaleria now Blake with her bow on her head to hide her ears with a book open and reading from it as she walked to the school taking her time wearing her jeans and dark blue and black jacket with a red coloured T shirt.
She is still deeply paranoid about Yang seeing and recognising her as she fears she'll hate her for what she's become and for not trying to find her sooner...
As she walks and reads, she hears a oh to familiar voice of Wenoa filling her sensitive ears, lowering her book she can see she's yelling at Morticia, daughter of Mortarion for what appears to be knocking over several expensive looking carry cases of here and she comments to herself "just as arrogant and vain as ever..." she closes her book and makes her way over to them.
Weiss is wearing her regalia albeit a different version to the one her demi Primarch cousins would be familiar with, her trousers are of the typical Atlas whites with dark blue accents, her jacket and under shirt are of same colours with the jacket being accented and from me in purple and gold with her hat being the dry same side brimmed hat with the imperial feathers sticking out of it with the white one, the one belonging to the wings of Sangunius which shone with a noble light.
"Do you have any idea how dangerous and expensive dust is? Watch what you are doing you dunce!" Ruby who is very socially awkward and despite being of Mortarion's blood does not keep stoic but instead starts to squirm and almost weeping with shame "I'm... Sorry... I can help clear it u..p?" She says with a shrugged shoulder standing up.
Weiss simply picks up one of her dust vials and holds it right up to her face with it leaking a small amount, this causes Ruby to sneeze and hard causing it to detonate in her hands sending ruby flying and Weiss having to use her kine shield to not have her hand severely burned.
Blake rushes over to help Ruby to her feet as Weiss recognises the death guard legion symbol on her cloak, the skull surrounded by a reef of thorns with a rose in the skulls teeth and recoils a bit as a very uncomfortable memory comes back causing her to turn away from her.
Blake offers "I can help you if you need..." She's cut off by the heiress snapping " I don't need help, just go away before you cause any more trouble"
Blake, after helping Ruby up walks away rolling her eyes as Ruby jogs of, too embarrassed to face Weiss and eventually comes across Jaune Lupercal who is alone and is on the phone to someone.
Getting closer Ruby can hear what he is saying.
"For maidens' sake! How many times do I need to tell you Barriston, triple the security on the supply routes and dust shops! For the time being we need to focus on just that as crime is really low elsewhere in our territory, Jaune out" he closes the call and grumbles in Chthonian to himself when Ruby finally has the chance to speak.
"Well, well, well, long time no see Jaune" this has Jaune spinning on his heels to face her and her goes wide eyed with surprise " holy shit Morticia? "
Nervously she corrects him "I use Ruby now.. anyways! So tell me, what have you been up to?"
the two are walking together in a sparsely populated areas of the school's courtyard "wow you got a town going? That's awesome!" Ruby excitedly says looking up at Jaune due to his father large bulk and hight as he responds "well yes, that's how Qrow found me, the council wanted to make the town and it's services ECT legal so they sent him as the representative. Not the 1st time I've built up a town or city of what are effectively feudal tech level peoples"
"Oh yeah I forgot you managed to get the Emperor's attention with that action, bravo by the way I never got the chance to congratulate you on that when we 1st met" she says skipping along with him with a happy warm smile as she got along really well with him in the past as Jaune chuckles nervously "yeah... But hey I got this relic"
He finishes pulling his relic power how of his back and grips it causing it to spark to live with a yellow energy which causes Ruby to start staring at it with a predatory grin as technology is her muse.
"Wow... this this is awesome... I never got the chance to see this thing in action."
Jaune smiles putting it away "Do you still have Iron Rose?" Ruby smiles with glee "yes although it's really badly damaged...just about got it fully functioning just need to replace armour panels" Jaune raises an inquisitive eyebrow "what happened to you anyway? Last I heard you were with Morta..." He stops as he realises, he left just before Isstavn when the betrayal was about to happen...
Ruby winces is it hearing her dad's name "I don't want to talk about it" she says completely dead pan and coldly.
Pyrrha is sat down on a bench clicking through her scroll idly waiting for the 1st tasks and initiation directions to start, she is flicking through old family pictures most of them are almost all of her and her mother, Lotara Sarrin in particular her photos in her Atlas air force uniform being given command of Iron woods largest airship in his military "I'm glad you found a job mom, you deserve to do what you do best."
the photo in particular is the day Lotara passing out parade form the Atlas military trials, something Pyrrha had to spend a few months convincing her to swallow her pride and remind her that this isn't the imperium of man or the conqueror anymore and they both needed to blend in or risk discovery by potentially hostile forces.
"I'm just proud you succeeded, even if you had to break a few dozen noses in the process" she comments out loud as she then sees a picture of her mother holding Pyrrha as a baby with a proud look on her face, one of the rare instances of her being proud of something other than the conqueror which brings a smile to her face.
She's about to scroll to the next few pictures when over the loud speaker's professor Ozpin's voice can be heard "would all new arrivals please report to the assembly area."
Closing her scroll she gets up and smiles eager to begin her career as a huntress and do some good for this world.
Once all of the new arrivals are inside the assembly hall Yang reunites with Ruby whispering in high gothic "you're not going to believe this, Valkyrie is here to.. still no sign of Blaleria.." she starts of happy but gets really sad at the last bit looking around quickly at any sign for her as she's only ever seen her face up to the hair line before.
Ruby ever sympathetic says "it's ok, I'm sure she'll meet you soon, she's probably just paranoid, remember what Qrow said? She fought in the siege of Terra after all. If it's as bad as he said it was, she's probably traumatised, Valkyrie?! I miss her, her feasts were the best" she says the last past lamenting the fact it's been years since she's been to one.
Nora is stood beside Fenria and Ren as the announcement is made, the two of them have been quite good friends for a few years now having met in a videogame store. when the two of them met she instantly saw shield captain Arslan who was the leader of her protection attachment especially with Ren's stoic nature and he and Arslan sharing the same colour, the two hit it off and have been inseparable since.
Jaune walks up beside Ruby and Yang with the later scowling at him and has her wings, which are all tipped in ceramite ready as she's still really sore form the news from her father's death. "Oh, hey Ruby, hey Yang, I saw the commercial you did, I wasn't expecting to see you, still look as radiant as ever." He says trying to be nice and is genuinely making an effort to be apologetic for what happened to her farther and legion as well as the imperium.
Yang tensing her fists says "piss off, save that charisma BS for your team LUPERCAL" Jaune defeated puts up his hands and backs away disappearing into the crowd with his head down as Ruby looks at her cousin disappointed "Yang...you know he's innocent, Qrow spent weeks scrying his memory, he tried to warn and do what he could, he'll be watched his dad descend into that madness knowing dam well there was nothing he could do to save him."
Yang grumbles "doesn't matter, you lost your dad too because of the path HIS lead him down. He's got to earn my sympathy and kindness." Ruby rolls her eyes "aren't you supposed to be the nice one?" Ruby departs from Yang to stand with Jaune to reassure him.
Meanwhile in Atlas...
Captain Sarrin is stood on the bridge of Ironwoods ship looking at a live TV broadcast of Ozpin's opening speech but paying attention to the crowd scanning it as she would for ships in the void for her daughter and if possible, any of the other demi Primarch and has only spotted Ruby and Yang so far when Ironwood himself walks in.
"Captain Sarrin, I trust you are doing well?" He says in a friendly greeting to the venerable old captain who is well into her 40's who still proudly displays her red hand mark on her new uniform and not even ironwood has managed to coax the meaning out of her and has gotten a lunch when he asked her about her last.
Sarrin who's voice still burns with the rage and battle thirst she was famed for responds "I'm as well as I can be commander, my little girl is about to join these "hunters" I'm unsure about it this is the right path for someone such as her, she's of a proud heritage commander. "
Ironwood places a hand on his subordinate's shoulder, being one of the few people that could do this without getting shot and says "speaking of, Qrow is still breathing down my neck for information on anything "imperial". He's going to figure out who she is eventually Lotara."
The greying but still very beautiful and more than able to kick arse captain responds "that PSYKER is going to have to figure it out for himself, I don't trust his ilk, I've lost too much to risk losing my only remaming link to my previous life and lay it in the hands of a sorcerer and a drunkard at that" her tone is very distrusting one and filled with disgust.
Ironwood sighs shaking his head as Lotara does the same thing but slightly leans into the commander as the two have an "interesting" relationship to put it mildly as he says "hmmmm, I do understand your concern but he has dedicated himself to defending this world."
Lotara responds "understood commander but I've seen what the sorcery he commands can do if unleashed, it cost me my previous command, my daughters shield is made out of the only part of its hull I retrieved."
Winter walks in soon after "General, we've got a problem." Ironwood answers " speak"
Winter then resumes "we've just had a hardware train been raided, White Fang up and in force. But there is an anomaly, there's a single bourse image taken by one of the paladins " she uses her issued scroll to display it and after a few seconds the holo table flickers to life.
Sarrin and Ironwood turnabout and they both see a checkerboard pattern paint scheme as Ironwood says "this doesn't match any known records of these 'giant's' we have, it would seem Qrow's database is incomplete or out of date, we have new a player or players in town. Fantastic, I thought having Menagerie possessing 150 of them is bad. "
Winter politely corrects him "they don't, they seem to have completely shifted to exclusive Grimm hunting and dropping of captured criminals"
Sarrin grumbles "in either case we need to start prosecuting our campaigning against them! We need to flex our might on them and put these rebels in the ground where they belong, I'll do it myself if given half a chance and a fleet and troops to do it with."
Ironwood sighs "I understand your point captain Sarrin, but do remember the Grimm are attracted to negativity and if we go with your suggestion, we'd do infinitely more damage than we would do good."
Sarrin turns back to her desk and picks up her own scroll and lays it on the table to display a standard MK3 armoured astartes, a world eater. "Astartes are second to none in close quarters and ranged, I commanded one of their vessels and seen what they are truly capable off once unleashed onto a target. We need to protect our supplies and assets better I suggest we convince the Night Lords on world that Qrow informed us about to guard our most sensitive assets, they are a terror legion with the skillset to bring entire nations to their knees."
Winter is taken aback when she responds "the whole point of Qrow's project is to keep "imperial stuff" out of the public eye, what happens when these astartes get killed, captured or get videoed and or pictured in action? Especially against Faunus? We would be catching the full weight of the suspicion and ire of the rest of the world when peace is as sensitive as it is. "
Ironwood sighs deeply "hmmm...I'll consider both options for the future, for now we step up security and double warehouse guards, that will be all operative Winter and Captain Sarrin" he makes a swift exit from the bridge leaving Sarrin alone with Winter with the former sighs to herself.
"Hmmm... My point still stands, to use a phrase form this world "you've got to break a few eggs to make an omelette"
Winter collects her scroll and answers the former captain of the Conqueror "I to understand what you mean captain, but do remember this isn't your imperium. Simply swinging a sledgehammer blindly at one's issue is a swift way to make sure one has to sweep up the pieces"
Winter leaves the bridge leaving Sarrin alone to watch the rest of Ozpin's opening speech using it to calm herself as she thinks "you had best do your best by your students under your care or you will have to answer to me wretch"
Meanwhile in Adam Taurus's HQ...
He stands looking over maps on his table in the dimly lit tent, candle light flickering in the breeze with a hot mug of Coco on the table when Ilia, a Cameleon Faunus walks in "Adam, there's a visitor for you. It's the giant he's back form his mission with Caroline's group"
Adam looks at his subordinate and says "send him in, thank you IliaIlia"
She leaves but very quickly Adam can hear and feel the tent get smaller as the 7 and a half foot tall yellow armoured astartes enters the tent having to visibly squat down. Adam doesn't know what pattern of gear he's using but it is a full battle plate of MK7 Aquilla wielding a stalker bolter of the GGodwin pattern with a 1 handed power axe hanging from his hip with his helmet being a relic MK2 crusade pattern.
"Mission successfully completed, minimal casualties."
Adam raises ann eye under his mask asking "minimal casualties? Explain" the astartes pulls his helmet of his head revealing his damaged face, when he arrived,, he was severely wounded in his head with his brain exposed when he was found by Adam and a crew of White Fang who were incredibly experienced and possesss ann advanced healer who helped him recover in return for him aiding them.
Due to his brain damage brother Barandor running mostly on what he already knew and because of his chapter''s quirks felt compelled to help those who had saved him.
Barandor answers "multiple wounded, they will be out of action for months even with your aura healers" he says with a dead pan tone as his voice is slightly slurred. "Dammit, you did well Barandor regardless"
Barandor moves closer to the map and pints out several locations "from the vox chatter I picked up they are stepping up security along seveeral routes, heavy walker units"
Adam grunts "fuck, you'll need to go on more missions than I'm afraid, I'll have orders for you within the hour"
Barandor answers in moment's "I have my rituals to observe, I will not partake in missions for the time being" he turns to leaving the candle light revealing his scarred face with a metal plate replacing the bone of his skull on the left side of his cranium, Adam knows his dust roads won't succeed without massive casualty with the security getting stronger.
"Can't you do those on these missions? We need you Barandor"
Barandor about turns and grabs Adam by the throat and hoists him against a pillar holding his power axe "I'm not your tool to use as you see fit, I give you aid because it is you and your faction that have saved me from an unfortunate death, do not make the mistake of thinking I'm a simple-minded fool BOY" he drops him and departs the tent holding his neck as he grasps his throat catching his breathe.
To be continued in part 2...
Notes;
Heres my discord server!
/y2eMsvj3pQ