King of the Gold Mountain Glenn
It seemed like just days after the dance that the first years were given their first missions.
On one hand, that seemed quite fast.
On the other, it wasn't too long until the Vytal Festival, and the tournament of course, so Weiss could, mostly, forgive Beacon.
At least there wasn't too much that happened before the headmaster called the entire year to the auditorium to select their mission, aside from an unexplained explosion in the ruins of Mountain Glenn.
The explosion had been the first that most people, Weiss included, had heard of Mountain Glenn, as the Council had hastened to reassure the public that it was just the reactors in the old expansion project failing after all these years without any maintenance.
Something Weiss knew to be a coverup – there was no way for a Dust reactor to still have Dust left to explode after running that long without refuelling and the safeguards would have lasted much longer before destabilizing the Dust if it was turned off.
"Any preferences for mission?"
Rubys cheerful question interrupted Weiss' thoughts.
"Anything with Grimm to fight?"
Of course that was what Yang would be interested in.
"Anything about Mountain Glenn?"
"There is an investigation mission for Mountain Glenn..."
"But will there be Grimm?"
"Uh, yes, it says there have been Grimm there since the fall of Mountain Glenn..."
Weiss winced. She had suspected that was what had happened, even with the Council report claiming 'it was decided to allocate resources elsewhere', given that she could vaguely recall her family being approached about funding something similar with Atlas.
The idea that all plans for major expansions for the kingdoms were cancelled because of one such project being overrun wasn't exactly a happy one, but Weiss comforted herself with the fact that smaller settlements, such as SDC mining camps, often went unnoticed by Grimm.
In fact the mining camps were often nearly as secure as the cities, seeing as they only needed to defend themselves from one approach.
"I'm not sure... it doesn't seem like this will actually help anyone..."
"Ruby, the explosion wasn't from the reactor. Unless the builders skimped on it to a serious degree," Weiss allowed, "which could mean bad things for Vale as a whole. I doubt any of the other students have anywhere near the same degree of knowledge about Dust and its applications or safety requirements as me."
"They assign teachers with us," Yang pointed out. "Won't whoever shepherds the team know all about the Dust reactor?"
"Maybe," Weiss granted, "but I doubt they will have grown up around Dust like I have."
"Well," Ruby decided, "if you're sure you can find out what really happened..."
[]
"Does anyone know how Zwei managed to stow away?"
Nobody answered, Ruby just giving Drei a certain look.
He had been involved in packing for the mission, despite the fact he didn't exactly have or need anything on the mission for him.
At the time she had thought he was just being helpful, but seeing as that was the last they saw of Zwei, who they had been intending to leave behind as the mission should be fast enough that they didn't need someone to check on him.
It was nothing her dad hadn't done before after all.
"On a different mission this could be a good outcome," the teacher going with them, doctor Oobleck, stated in his characteristic high-paced speech. "Of course, if we were going to track down Grimm or other targets Drei would, due to his ability to fight as well, be a better choice as tracker. Instead our mission merely requires us to use the provided map to reach and investigate the reactor- that's odd," he said at a more reasonable rate, looking at the map on his scroll properly for apparently the first time, "there doesn't seem to be a reactor marked on here..."
Weiss nodded. "I had suspected something was up. After all, Mountain Glenn was pretty much attached to Vale still, so why did it need a separate reactor?"
"You seem to forget that reactors have a limit to how much power they can generate over a specific period of time, and even without expansion projects Vale has required multiple reactors to be constructed to supply enough energy for the inhabitants of the city, even after Beacon had its own reactor constructed for the academies use and that of the CCT. The lack of a reactor on the map is a concerning sign, given they likely intended Mountain Glenn to house multiple reactors to cover the potential deficit of Vales reactors rather than simply feed off Vale. The map does indicate a hub for the power connection, which is the most likely place to solve this mystery."
Ruby nodded along slowly, eyes fading from the speed and length of the explanation.
"Right, we're looking where they would have built the reactor..."
The doctor considered this. "Yes, that is one possible interpretation, seeing as if Mountain Glenn was to feed power back to Vale they would need high-capacity wiring to withstand the energy contained, and the only signs of such cables are leading between Vale and the hub, assuming the map can be trusted at least."
"Um, if we've already agreed that there should be a reactor around somewhere but it isn't on the map, doesn't that mean we can't trust the map?"
The doctor nodded at Rubys point.
"Indeed, the map has likely been doctored, but the chances of the responsible party being able or willing to conceal the actual positioning of the main power cables is exceedingly low. It is much more likely that there is something in the actual design of the reactor they wished to conceal. Maybe some new design they didn't want people to be able to copy from examining the plans. Human greed has been responsible for far worse for much less."
"So whether or not the map has been doctored the most likely place to find a lead is where the reactor should have been built," Yang summarised. "In that case, what are we waiting for?"
"It is always good practise, regardless of whether the mission is practise or professional, to establish a base camp before risking an engagement with Grimm. Excepting of course missions where the whole point is to evacuate civilians or other potential victims as quickly as possible."
"In case we need to fall back right? Sometimes it's more important to fall back and stay alive so we can help people later," Weiss agreed.
"What sort of Huntresses would we be if we fell back before we complete our mission?"
Weiss sighed. "Ruby, Mountain Glenn has already been abandoned. The only people here are us. If we got ourselves killed here it won't help anyone, while if we fell back we'd be able to help people later."
"I still don't like it."
"It is unlikely that we shall need the base camp for such contingencies, but it is always best to establish good habits before going solo on a life and death mission. There is another value in a good base camp. It provides somewhere to evacuate injured civilians to give them medical attention if necessary, which is why so many teams leave someone behind to construct a camp while the rest head into combat."
"You mean it isn't just to keep ourselves safe?"
[]
With Ruby finally convinced of the importance of practising constructing a base camp it wasn't too long before they had it assembled.
The camp was simple, seeing as this was a practise mission and wouldn't see any civilians in need of help nor, unless things should go seriously wrong, any of them needing medical attention.
The camp was mostly a group of camouflaged tents, made of a particularly sturdy material that was mostly kept for Huntsman usage.
There were some perimeter alarms that went along with the tents, but no real defences.
After all, if a camp could be protected by anything that could be set up as quickly as such camps needed there would be no need for Huntsmen.
The fixed defences for the cities were, of course, very different, built up every year, the original generation of turrets having taken the sacrifice of countless Huntsmen to build before they could rely on the defences holding long enough to build more without involving Huntsmen.
With the camp ready it was time to head into the city.
[]
"There aren't as many Grimm as I'd have thought," Ruby commented as they walked through the empty streets, a whimpering Drei at her side.
Not that the streets were completely empty of course.
There were many signs of how people had once lived here, only to evacuate.
If they could.
"Grimm don't tend to stay concentrated in one place once the negative emotions that drew them in are no longer present," Oobleck pointed out. "Once the evacuation was complete there was no reason for them to stay, and in fact if professor Salem is to be believed it was no longer possible for them to survive here. As such they spread out to naturally concentrations, however the unusual nature of facing the risk of a Grimm ambush in an urban scenario makes attempts to reclaim the land more dangerous than claiming land from the wilds, quite aside from the dangers posed by the proof that the defences were less than effective and the knowledge that the Glenn has fallen before. There is a reason that each Kingdom has only one major city after all."
"Is it much further?"
Oobleck consulted the map.
"The reactor would be in that building ahead, so I would say not."
"It does look like for a reactor," Weiss commented, "but I don't see any signs of an explosion."
"Come to think of it, why didn't we head to where the explosion happened to start the investigation? Surely that would be better than just trying to find the reactor."
"Ruby, how do you think they would have located the explosion without an investigation? The best they could do without any sensors running in the area is tell that there was an explosion at all."
"I'd have thought a great plume of smoke would make it easy to spot."
"The smoke might be easy to spot, but at best that leaves a line on a map to search, and even then not one that's very precise."
"So anyway, now we've found the reactor, what next? I mean, how do we get in?"
"The council provided a list of security codes for the entire settlement," Oobleck explained, "with them we can access anywhere we might need to go."
"Wasn't the whole problem the reactor going up in smoke? Between that and the way they no doubt cut Mountain Glenn off from the cities grid I strongly suspect the codes will be useless."
"An excellent point," Oobleck allowed, "but there stands the possibility that the reactors were left online deliberately to reduce the weight on the cities grid for as long as they could run without maintenance. In that case there would still be a power supply available."
"Or they might have been in too much of a rush to disconnect and shut down," Ruby suggested optimistically.
"One way to find out. What's the code Teach," Yang called as she approached the door.
"Miss Xiao Long, I think I should be the first to the door. There could be Grimm inside."
"Hey, out of all of us the only ones who don't need to set their weapon aside to get the door are me and Drei, and I think you've noticed how he doesn't have hands."
"A good point, but nonetheless I have more experience-"
"And I can turn any ambush against them. If anyones going to be ambushed, best for it to be me."
Her point was met with a sigh as he gave in and provided the code.
As it turned out there weren't any Grimm waiting inside, nor was there a reactor inside.
The building, as it turned out, housed the main power cables in a basement floor, with a control room housed just above to manage the power throughout the settlement. Above that was some kind of computing facility, a number of databanks, old and beyond repair, as though waiting for a CCT tower to be built.
A placement that, Weiss had to admit, made a certain amount of sense.
This was the last place that would lose power, making it a good spot for a backup CCT.
The problem was that with the state of the databanks there was no way to track where exactly the reactors could be.
Well, aside from following the maintenance hatches of each internal cable and hoping they picked the right one.
In the end the facility was a total loss and they had to leave.
And that was when they ran into trouble.
[]
Between the reports of an explosion at Mountain Glenn and his people no longer checking in, Adam Taurus had determined it was necessary to investigate the situation personally.
He had been... less than keen to spend more time so close to the city than he had to, and had left it to his underlings to manage the business Fall had required for her... assistance in his crusade.
He had been... less than pleased to learn that not only had his people been placed under the command of scum like Roman Torchwick, a human with no sense of honour or greater purpose than just lining his pockets, or that he had been taken by the Huntsmen, placing his entire chapter of the White Fang at risk.
As he'd feared, the train they'd been planning to use to... draw the Huntsmens attention had been destroyed in the explosion.
As was its nature, the explosion had destroyed much of the evidence he could have used to locate the party responsible, leaving his people to search the entire Glenn for those responsible.
He was, of course, leading a team personally, leaving his most loyal lieutenants to lead their own search parties.
But now he couldn't help but smile at his luck.
Here, before him, the party of Huntsmen who must be responsible were leaving the central reactor.
He loosened Wilt in Blush as he prepared for his chance at vengeance.
AN: Sorry about how long it is since the last chapter. January is always a busy time, but Covid extended that the February, then there was more and more stuff getting in the way.
And sorry if the title doesn't seem to fit perfectly, there can be difficulties in finding an appropriate name for a chapter that fits both events and the 'Grimm reference' theme.
As a final note, I had set up the Torchwick turncoat thing so that the... less competent shall we say, members of the White Fang in charge of the train would blow themselves up so there was no reason for the investigation mission from canon. Then I realised they would need to investigate the explosion...
