Best possible version of yourself chapter 9
AN: hello again everyone welcome to this new chapter that is once again quite a bit larger than the limit I gave myself for it while not covering the entirety of what I originally intended. I do hope it is an interesting read, so good luck with it and let me know in the reviews what you think of it afterwards.
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Physical training room, Arc and Pines rifles complex, Vale
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As the last of the prospective troops files into the room, Jaune stripes off the name off the list before he closes the door before he moves to the front of the room, with several crates lying behind him. As the crowd is still slightly whispering, Jaune follows Spirits advice ''Attention!'' at this they turn towards him, now almost entirely silent ''Good day to all of you and welcome to your first melee combat training session. While in the future, this will mostly consist of training your skills with blades in the form of the cutlasses you'll be assigned.''
An interested murmur spreads among the crowd, as a number of people get the idea of themselves standing victoriously over a disintegrating Grimm with a sword in hand, sadly enough for them Jaune breaks this image by continuing ''However training somebody in how to effectively use a sword takes longer than the not even a full week we have till you all will march into a fight in our first trail mission, with us still needing you to know how to actually fight back if the Grimm get in close. So instead, I'll be drilling you all into how to use your bayonetted rifles as a spear in close quarters.''
At this he pulls the cover off of one of the crates behind him, before pulling out one of the rifles. ''These are going to be both your dispenser of ranged metallic death on your enemies and the thing that saves you when the Grimm get close enough for them to hit you. Take good care of it and it'll take care of you in return. Form a line and once you get your weapons form a line four deep, for melee purposes all the ones I have here are essentially the same, so you can all fight out who gets which exact rifle once you arrive on the firing range.''
As he starts handing them out and they move to their places, though it does take some shuffling where after everyone has gotten their rifles Jaune has to move them around a bit more to make them all have a decent range of motion while still allowing them all to see him. ''Okay now that everyone is in a correct spot, I'll start showing you basic motions for using your weapons. Watch carefully.''
He takes a defensive slightly crouching stance and holds the spear, one leg ahead of the other and the spear held up in a slightly tilted defensive position, with the butt of the spear towards the ground and the spear itself aimed forwards to a degree where it is on roughly equal level with the ground, with said butt almost stabbed into the ground ''This is a very basic defensive stance only really useful when in formation with others in the front line doing the same stance, while the line behind just stabs forward. This is especially useful when stopping a large charge of younger Beowolves and other similar sized Grimm that, with the strength multiplier of the rifle with its butt buried into the ground you can hold in place long enough for the man in the line behind you to finish it off by stabbing it several times all the while it injures itself further by trying to keep moving forward in spite of the bayonet stuck into it.''
He turns towards the group that was for the most part intently watching him before he continues ''While this is not the most effective way for skilled troops fighting with spears, especially bayonetted rifles used as spears, it is very useful to use in combination with teamwork to get people to combat effectiveness in close quarters without requiring months of specific training. So now to practice this yourselves, first two lines step forward.''
As he instructs the group he also assists them in forming up before he gets them to start aiming the stabs from the second line over the shoulders of the partially crouched first line. After he has instructed them to keep trying on going from regular standing to formation he moves on to the other lines and starts instructing them in similar formations.
After all groups have done this for about ten minutes he orders the front line of the first group to switch places with the second line, which is followed by him giving similar orders to the other group shortly afterwards. Another ten minutes later he orders them all to stop and go stand in a four line deep formation again. Once they're back in place he starts again from in front of them ''Okay, so now that everyone has at least some knowledge of this formation, we will go onto getting yourselves familiarized with the weight of your rifles. For this we'll hold runs with them in our hands around the room for five minutes, at which point I'll give you a minute to rest before we run another five minutes, this time with the rifles slung over your shoulders.''
A good number of them look ready to complain at this, and while Jaune is content to ignore that, Spirit knows its better to stamp that into the ground right now, causing him to ask for and being given control again. This however causes a shift in stance to accompany the personality shift, causing them to give him somewhat strange looks ''Before any of you little shits start complaining, this is only very basic training to get you accustomed with your weapons. Out in the field you'll be sprinting while carrying not only that rifle, but also a helmet, sword, spare ammunition, rations and whatever other equipment and weaponry you need for that mission.'' At this point he glares at the ones that looked ready to complain.
''So if you are going to start complaining about running for a few minutes while carrying only this indoors, you might as well leave right now and head back home where it is safe and comfortable, since you'll be useless to us in the field anyways. Am I clear?'' While formulated as a question, the sternness and cold anger in his tone take away any wish to talk back among the troops, though none of them take his offer to leave. At this point he nods, seemingly satisfied, and hands back control to his younger self.
''Good to know that,'' at this point the shift in personality causes them to stare at him ''Please move towards a portion of the wall and stay at least a metre away from the man closest to you and aim the bayonet aimed towards the ceiling, this isn't going to be a competition of speed but some of you will be faster than the others. We don't want anyone injuring themselves during a collision.'' They quickly do as they are told, hoping to avoid causing a re-awakening of the angry drill sergeant they just had, though they make sure to avoid the section of the wall where he stands.
Jaune meanwhile shouts ''Start'' while clicking a timer on his scroll, before he joins them in running, spear in hand. The five minutes pass in relative silence, besides the grunting of some of the less fit or physically strong of the troops, with luckily nobody managing to injure themselves or anyone else with the still attached bayonets. After the five minutes are over he signals for them to slow down and stop, which they quickly do. ''Now while we rest for a minute, I'm going to explain how to dis-attach and store your bayonets. Before anyone asks why we didn't do this earlier, I wanted to as much as possible recreate the balance your rifle will have while combat ready in the field, which includes an attached bayonet.''
He moves over to the man closest to him and asks him for his rifle, which is promptly handed over. He then proceeds to very slowly and visibly undo the clamps and lock that keep the bayonet in place before storing it in the same pipe just under the barrel of the rifle that the hilt of the bayonet was placed into before. He hands the rifle back with a nod to the man before walking around the room and assisting the others in storing their bayonets, before walking back after seeing the timer is almost over. Moments afterwards, he commands ''Sling rifles!'' at which point they sling their rifles over their shoulders, before they start running for another five minutes.
A similar pattern follows for the next hour and a half that the lesson takes up, him instructing the recruits in something, followed by a fairly short physical exercise to train in the basics. After the last exercise, learning a decent stabbing motion with the rifles while keeping your footwork steady, is done, he orders the now tired soldiers to be back into formation ''That went fairly well for the first day, I now want all of you to dis-attach your bayonets again.'' He waits the moments it takes for them to undo the bayonets and store them back into the rifle before he starts up again ''With that done, you all have a break of ten minutes in the cafeteria with some hot and cold drinks being available, before your instructors for firing practice will pick you all up there. See all of you again at lunch, after which you will do some more PE before having a second firing practice session. After that, both your group and the other will have a combined tactics and Grimm information class.''
As they leave the room to get something to drink, Jaune stores up the crates that contained the rifles into a hidden closet to the side before pulling out a bottle of water and drinking from it while also grabbing an apple. While the exercise is of course meant for the troops, it doesn't change the fact that he has to show them off first and participate in them with the group, to get them used to seeing him as their commanding officer, and in ten minutes he'll get another group where roughly the same will happen. And while the training of an individual class wouldn't help him much anymore with his current physique, almost constant physical training for close to six hours each day will certainly help him. As he finishes off his food and drink he looks at his scroll, realizing he should probably go and pick up the other group for their physical training.
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Fire-arms practice
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The range is silent as the group is taught the basics of fire-arms safety on the range, only load your weapons once you're in position at one of the firing stations, keep your weapon aimed down your own lane, make sure to check if you've used up all ammunition inside your weapon before leaving the firing station, andsoforth. The group is in luck, since there are enough stations for a bit over half their number to fire at once, all the while under instruction of a sniping focused huntress and two SDC trained Atlesian sharpshooters, who while under less extreme training than their military counterparts, still know enough from their version of bootcamp to effectively instruct new recruits on the best ways to learn how to use a rifle as beginners.
First the new recruits watch the trio take turns shooting and reloading the two different rifles, while the other two explain what is being done and pointing out stances and movements that can be used in the field, in addition to information on when and where these stances can be more useful. Afterwards they first have the group all train on and off with the bolt action MAS-36, taking note of who are better shots and which ones show off the previous training and experience a number of them claimed to have during the interviews.
After the second group has used up their allotted ammunition and everyone has had a chance to show off their skill, or lack there-of, with the rifle, they sort everyone's paper targets before giving them all a chance at using the semi-automatic in the same two groups, with the same amount of ammunition as the previous rifle. After the second group is again done, the three of them go through the results while they let the group get better acquainted.
''For the most part, the results are as expected. Overall better accuracy with the bolt action, but especially with the range at which the targets where stationed this accuracy advantage was more than nullified by how much faster the group could empty the allotted twenty rounds into the target with the semi-automatic. Overall most of the people who claimed to have previous fire-arms experience did better than those who didn't, though some have either over-estimated their capabilities or boasted to make themselves sound as more appealing options to hire.''
Both of the cousins nod at her statement, but Thomas them brings something to attention ''For the most part that last is true, however for one the opposite is very much the case.'' He pulls up the targets of Ashley Allard, with the semi-automatic one being a decent bit better than the rest however the bolt action one is the most attention pulling ''She shot the centre area enough to just rip the entire thing to pieces in addition to being one of the fastest in both racking the bolt and reloading the rifle of the entire group. This is the kind of firing I expected to see from a military sharpshooter, not a wildlife hunter.''
She nods in return ''True, during dinner I'll try to get her to talk about how she got so skilled at it. It's probably nothing, but with no paperwork and these skills, we can't exclude current or past White Fang membership. As long as she's not currently part of them, she will be a great addition, especially since her past will have taught her how to handle travelling in the wilderness either way. Probably won't get definitive answers on this for a while though.''
The three sort through the rest of the papers, figuring out who to assign what rifle for now, and who to re-assign a new one as soon as they have more rifles available. Most of the better and more consistent shooters are given the semi-automatics, however the best shots are assigned the bolt actions along with the less capable ones, hoping to get the higher quality ones them more specialized sharpshooter rifles in the future.
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Later that day
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''Keep running all of you, a pint of sweat lost here will save you losing a pine of blood against the Grimm one day, there's only five minutes left.'' A high number of the recruits groans tiredly as they had already been running for seven minutes and were more than halfway through their second physical exercise session of the day. Jaune himself was also starting to feel the burn in his legs after having done the morning routine with two groups and now already being almost an hour into the second session of the second group, and is feeling thankful that he'd only made the first day this hard to test everyone's general capabilities in addition to weeding out anyone that had managed to lie their way through the entrance exam.
A few minutes later a soft alarm chimed in his pocket from his scroll ''Start slowing down,'' as he said so the group dropped from their tired running, at this point honestly mostly jogging, into a walking pace before shortly afterwards ''And stop, do some stretches first, afterwards you can all rest for the next few minutes.'' As everyone did their stretches he looked around for a bit, before deciding now is time for the question he and the others had decided upon.
''Anyone that has had enough of the exercises and has now decided this isn't for them can speak up, pack their bags and leave. You'll keep a part of the advance pay but you will not be recruited by us.'' As he lets the statement hang in the air and looks around he sees people thinking on it, but all quickly shake their head except one, who looks somewhat angry instead, so he nods in the woman's direction. ''You look like you've got something to say, tell it now please.''
As he says this he recognizes her as the Faunus woman who claimed to be a hunter and marksman, Ashley Allard ''We've all signed up to fight Grimm outside of the city walls, the chances of us quitting simply from having to do some exercise safely indoors is just straight up insulting in my opinion.'' As she says this, a number of the others murmur in agreement, though some of the ones who had put some thought into the offer now make effort to not be noticed.
''Which is exactly why I stated the question, to make sure everyone I had here would actually be willing to put in the effort needed to become capable of surviving in combat outside these walls.'' As he looks around one last time he smiles ''It is good though that all of you are willing to stay, it shows promise for the future.'' After this he goes to the closet and grabs a tray of bottles of water, handing them out to the group before he starts talking again ''You all have a break for a few more minutes while I go and grab some equipment for our next exercise.''
As he walks out of the room and closes the door behind him, he can hear the groups voices as they speak quietly enough to not be heard through the door, smiling and shaking his head before he walks over to a small office shortly down the hall where he opens the door and closes it behind him to come face to face with Oscar, and as soon as he realizes who just entered Wizard appears as well. Spirit appears as well next to him ''So weren't you supposed to be training Whitley?''
''I've trained him all morning and remember he's never had to do much in the way of physical exercise before in his life, if I trained him any further he'd probably either break something or have a heart attack.'' After which he fires back ''Weren't you supposed to be training our new recruits?''
''I gave them a bit of a break, will get back to it in a few minutes. In the meantime however I wanted to check in on a shipment of targets in the shape of various Grimm I ordered yesterday.'' As he finishes the other young man steps aside and lets him access the computer while their older versions converse in the corner of the room, after a minute or so Jaune sighs ''And apparently they haven't managed to gather the items for shipment yet, it should arrive in two days early in the afternoon. I'll go back to my group and let them know their break is over.''
As he heads back and opens the door to the room he is pleasantly surprised by the relative calmness of the group, having expected to arrive back to shouting or some kind of mayhem after the stories spirit had told about large groups of combatants being taught. 'That is at least in part due to the specific students rather than because of combat education in general. A large portion of the more shall we say, interesting, events happened due to Nora, Yang or Cardin being bored with most of the out of school problems happening due to Blake's White Fang obsession and Yang picking a fight with somebody or something.'
While Spirit was explaining, Jaune had walked towards the centre of the room ''Okay everyone, break time is over. We're starting back up again, but this time we're going to once again go over what stabs can be used effectively to finish off already wounded Grimm.'' At this point they all move to stand in formation again while Jaune stands in front of them. Once they're in place he orders ''Fix bayonets!'' at which point the by now less exhausted recruits all scramble to follow the order.
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Second firing practice session
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After the first session had several more rounds of shooting to ensure the decisions on assigned equipment were made correctly, the rifles are handed out during the second session in accordance with the decided upon assignments. After a bit of grumbling from some of them about who got what, the group is silenced as they're assigned into groups for target practice again, with two of the instructors going around assisting the group currently firing while the last starts giving the remainder an explanation on how to maintain their rifles and tips about how to use them. After about fifteen minutes, the groups are switched up.
This continues for three quarters of an hour after that first switch in the same pattern, at which point they stop for a moment to instead give a short explanation on how to load new ammunition into spent magazines and how to quickly sort out clips of ammunition and keep both the magazines and clips safely contained and stored while on the move. After this is over, the group goes back to shooting practice, however now one group is shooting for fifteen minutes while the other watches to try and learn from both their accomplishments and their mistakes before the roles are switched up after those fifteen minutes.
At this point however the instructors very quickly realize they're almost through all their assigned ammunition, causing them to fall upon a backup plan for the next half an hour, causing her to signal both of the Paulus cousins, who quickly leave the room. ''So now that everyone has had a good number of chances to train their aim, I'd like everyone to take a moment of rest and look over their rifles using the tips we've given you.'' At this point the Paulus cousins return with a cart of maintenance and cleaning equipment for the rifles.
While they oversee the progress she leaves the room and heads to meet up with Oscar, who she finds sitting around a table with Whitley in his small office, quietly discussing how the training of the day went. The two of them look up towards her the moment she enters ''We have a problem, we don't have anywhere near enough ammunition spare if we want to train their ranged capabilities for the entire week while still having a good amount of ammunition leftover for an actual combat mission.''
Oscar nods, understanding ''We did consider there being a high chance of this, we'll have to buy several more crates of them, will your grandfather have enough or should we look to buy somewhere else?'' She doesn't even have to think, he has half of his warehouse full of this ammunition type since it is one of the both most well selling products and easiest to get your hands on.
''He should still have over a hundred crates so we can easily buy some more from my grandfather. Twenty-five additional crates would probably see us through the week and give us enough remaining to equip them for a large battle.''
The two young men look at each-other for a moment before nodding, at which point Oscar turns back to her ''Please ask your grandfather if he's okay with us coming over after dinner tonight to pick up that number of ammunition crates for our rifles then, in addition to seeing if he has some ammunition for the grease gun and Vale's service revolvers.'' The other two look at him with questions in their eyes ''The grease gun used the same type of ammunition as the rifle I appropriated from a criminal and with how little of it Jaune had in the first place he is bound to be running low on revolver ammunition.''
The two others nod in understanding before Auburn takes out her scroll and contacts her grandfather, who is both happy to hear from her and happy that she's secured him another sale. ''I'll have everything ready by nine in the evening, twelve crates of . rifle ammunition, one pack of grease gun ammunition and one pack of .44 service revolver ammunition.'' That would give them 12000 rounds of rifle ammunition, and 100 rounds each for Jaune and Oscar, which should be enough for now.
She thanks him and says her goodbyes before ending the call, before turning back to the two teenagers ''With that done, I should probably head back to the firing range and tell the Paulus cousins the good news.'' As she leaves the room however she turns around for a moment and gives a smile and wink at the two teenagers ''Bye cuties, see you at our dinner tonight.'' Before actually leaving the room, seeing a slight blush on both of their faces.
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TAGIC (Tactics And Grimm Information Class)
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Jaune, Auburn and Oscar stand in front of the large room that has been turned into a lecture hall, with the new recruits sitting in the benches as if students. ''Welcome all to this lecture, today I'm going to explain some things on Grimm, this first week these classes are essentially just going to be imparting a basic level of knowledge on the varying Grimm types, how to prepare for encountering them in the long run and some tactical manoeuvres that can be useful in dealing with the varying different types of them. First let us go over the Grimm that is most common around the Globe, especially in Vale, though it has a variety of slight differences in appearance around the world for a variety of reasons that have never been certainly established.''
At the end of his statement Auburn starts up the projector, causing several large images of each slightly different looking Beowolves to appear behind her before she picks up where Jaune left it off ''These are some of the numerous different ones and though they oft have visual differences from one another, they are usually roughly the same when it comes down to it: Fast moving cannon fodder who mainly fight by using their claws to slash at people or biting their targets, with occasional attempts at ramming people into the ground first.''
At this point she steps back and Oscar takes over instead ''While in a one on one fight any decently trained, unwounded combatant will beat a regular Beowolf, the problem is that Beowolves are one of the few Grimm that is almost never alone and instead travels in a pack. The only way for you to encounter a lone Beowolf is that it escaped alive from somebody else killing the rest of the pack, the chance of which is small since they will usually charge such an individual in a suicidal charge.''
At this point he takes a momentary breath while letting the silence hang and he meaningfully looks around the room ''This means that you should never assume a Beowolf to be somewhere alone. If you see one, anywhere from three to a dozen others WILL be nearby ready to claw out your eyes the moment you let down your guard.'' By this point all the students that had previously dismissed the youngest of the three as little more than a rich brat who bought this commission drop said opinion while shivering from the furious stare given by him and diligently take notes.
At this point Jaune takes over ''One of the most effective ways of facing down against large groups of Beowolves is to dig a large straight trench with either wooden spikes or some kind of flammable liquid in it to wound or kill a number of them, slowing down the initial advance while giving you more time to shoot at them and making the group as a whole a better target for heavy weapons.''
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That evening during dinner
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Even with just about everyone, including the 'officers' to the extent they were eating at the same time, the dining hall is barely halfway full, a good sign for the future. With most having only known one another for a bit more than a full day, groups haven't really formed yet and everyone is instead just eating and having small talk with the others that happened to sit at a table they joined, though one woman is sitting somewhat isolated from the others at a corner table and seemingly happy with that fact. A moment later however a moment later her happy silence is disturbed by the sound of a chair being pulled out across from her, causing her to look up from her dinner.
There now sitting in front of her is one of the range instructors, Auburn something, wait had her family name actually been mentioned in the first place? ''Hello there Ashley, you don't mind me calling Ashley right?'' The answering nod gets a smile in return ''Thanks, I feel its always easier to talk to people with their first names rather than having to be all informal with the family name. My name is Auburn, like you might remember from our introductions early on in the firing practice.''
The other woman looks at her with some confusion and slight suspicion before shrugging ''It's not like there's anything against it, sit down if you wish.'' As she does so, Ashley gives the woman a good look over, not finding any obvious Faunus traits nor anything else about her appearance she recognizes as standing out physically. She once again shrugs before continuing to eat in silence while the woman sits opposite of her.
After a few minutes Auburn starts up again ''So I saw you were pretty good at the shooting range, heard from the bosses you were a hunter who also helped the local militia before moving to Vale?'' The other woman looks up at her with a raised eyebrow before nodding ''So anyone train you to be that good, or do you just have that much experience shooting wildlife and Grimm?''
She seems to think for a moment as she chews before answering ''A bit of both, got a good amount of training from my father and grandfather teaching me the basics, but I only got actually good at it after they both died and I had to take up hunting for the town so we'd get enough meat. When it's do or die, you usually learn pretty fast.''
Auburn hums in acknowledgement ''So what's the hardest non-Grimm animal to hunt?''
Ashley is visibly thinking for a moment as she eats some more before she answers ''Probably a large brown bear I had to hunt at one point, though it was less because of the animal itself and more the fact that it was hiding in a cave I had made my temporary camp, thinking it safe only to get ambushed by the bear while my rifle was slung over my shoulder.'' At the other woman's interested look she continues talking after letting an appropriate silence fall while she eats another bite to make it more dramatic ''So you see, I…''
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Next day
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Jaune once again stands in front of a group ''Okay since today both groups will only have one session at the firing range, we'll be doing a marching exercise for the next two hours. Everyone will grab the kit we've prepared for you'' he points at a large pile of gathered backpacks with helmets attached, all the backpacks being a pure black. They had found out that apparently the SDC hadn't been as thorough as expected when cleaning out the place, with one storage shed full with bedrolls, backpacks and various other pieces of noncombat equipment being discovered when they where looking into some issues with the fire alarms the evening before.
''After which you'll march to the central plaza before we will do a two hour march to a store where we'll be giving each of you grenades, water canteens, a military spade and a Great War Vale paramilitary armband before heading back. Before any of you ask, yes we could just have them brought here but then we'd have gone to a DIY shop and filled your backpacks with supplies from there that we'll need in the future.'' Everyone looks at him, with a decent number having a look of horror at the thought of having to walk for a full hour with a bag of cement in the backpack ''I see from your eyes that everyone prefers this, good. Grab your backpacks and get to the courtyard, otherwise I might change my mind on where we're going.'' The group rushes forward to grab the backpacks, causing Jaune to smirk before he leisurely walks to the courtyard.
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At the shop
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While a number of them are looking through the options available, of which there are only one of two for the items they need but the illusion of choice is given, Jaune heads over to the owner ''How many crates of rifle ammunition can you get us in the long run? I'll expect us to need between twelve to fifteen crates a week for several months, and while you have a high number of crates with this type of ammunition I assume you don't own enough to supply that high an amount every week in the long run since others will also be buying at your shop.''
The older man nods in return ''That is true, however I do know the owner of a factory that still produces it however he's only allowed to directly sell in bulk to long term companies like mine that have been a part of Vale for long enough to be at least somewhat trusted. As long as you send me a list of how many crates you'll need the week before I'll be able to get you up to fifty crates of ammunition. Additionally I managed to contact one of the few factories still producing MAS-40's that also sells the things instead of just for local usage, they'll have a shipment of one-hundred here by this time next week.''
Jaune nods ''Convenient, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. Can I order ten crates for next week right now? It would be good to get that over with now. Additionally, if you've got any, can you get me some training grenades as we leave?'' The man nods and quickly write it down on a piece of paper before putting it into his pocket. At this point however he looks up and his eyes widen.
''It was nice talking to you, and I'll hand you the training grenades after your men are done, but now I need to get back to your green recruits before they blow themselves up.'' At this he runs off, while Jaune is stumped by the words for a moment before turning around just in time to see the man grab a grenade out of somebody's hands before shouting in their face ''You absolute buffoon, don't grab a grenade by that, if the weight remains on it for too long you'll break it causing the grenade to fall while potentially going active, do you want to blow all of us up?''
An hour later they're all back at base where they are then gathered in the courtyard ''That went well overall, nicely done. You're all dismissed, go store your bags in your rooms before you go to ranged practice. This afternoon we'll have grenade throwing practice with training grenades to introduce you to the art.'' He salutes them all and gets clumsy salutes in return before they walk to their rooms.
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Several days of training later, during breakfast
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The group of Jaune, Auburn and Oscar sits around a table, waiting on Whitley as Oscar asks the question on all of their minds ''Either of you know why he called us here?'' They both shake their heads ''I guess we'll figure it out when he gets here then. Though him calling this and then being late to it is a bit strange if nothing else.'' As both of the others shrug the door is opened and Whitley rushes in looking somewhat haggard and mumbling to himself.
Before he can say anything more Jaune stands up, grabs hold of him and carefully brings him to his seat before sitting him down and handing him a bottle of water ''Calm down for a moment Whitley, you look like you need it. Once you are calm you can explain this far more easily to us.'' Whitley nods for a moment before drinking the water and calming down a bit. ''Better now?'' Whitley blushes slightly as he nods causing Jaune to grin at him before Jaune goes to sit down again ''Good, now tell us what has you so worked up.''
During this moment Wizard in Oscars mind is laughing his ass off while young Oscar sits there with slight confusion but trying to keep a straight face, while Auburn smirks slightly at the scene. After a moment Whitley schools himself however and begins ''The reason I was and am still so worried is that Vale has just sent out a distress call to all huntsmen and PMC's currently available in the city itself. The small city of Verdun two-hundred kilometres north of Vale sent out a distress call. While it isn't under direct threat yet, a force of more than eight thousand Grimm has gathered less than an hour travelling distance North of the city and from what surveillance devices and preliminary scouting can see is only growing.''
Everyone is shocked out of any merriment to be had from the previous moments before Jaune slams a fist down on the desk, with Oscar quickly noting Spirit has taken over ''Damnit, our troops aren't anywhere near ready to face off against such a large force in the open, even with the support of other groups, neither will most troops that can be scraped together in such a short period of time…'' a grim determination appears in his eyes ''But what if we didn't face that out in the open.'' He quickly opens several drawers before finding a map and throws it onto the table ''If we leave as quickly as possible and can get airlifted in, we might be able to get to the old Great War defensive lines just a kilometre North of the city. With the support of the local militia and whatever other groups Vale can scrounge up before the Grimm attack we can hold them there in the narrow passage until the national militia and huntsmen teams can be mobilized to support us.''
The other three nod as Wizard now in control of Oscar speaks for all of them ''If we can convince whomever commands the militia relief force of that it could help a lot, but now we need to get the men ready and to the assembly point. Whitley,'' the younger man turns to him from where he was still looking at Jaune ''Go with the Paulus cousins, get the bus ready, get the support staff to load in any and all ammunition and spare weapons we have and notify the National Command that we're joining in. Meanwhile Jaune, Auburn and me will rouse the troops and get them there as fast as possible and explain the situation to them.''
Everyone nods before they rush out the door, with the three of them rushing into the dining hall ''Drop the food and drink, fill up your canteens with whatever water you can before grabbing your equipment, a city is under threat of the Grimm and Vale's calling on all soldiers available. This isn't a drill! I repeat this isn't a drill!'' The recruits sit there in silent stupor for a moment before almost as one they finish off whatever drinks they had in one gulp and rush to the water dispensers, filling up their canteens before rushing back to their barracks to gather their equipment.
At the same time Whitley and the Paulus brothers plus the logistical personnel they have are rushing to fill the bus with the ammunition crates they've got left before Whitley and the Paulus's rush off to grab their own equipment. Within fifteen minutes the bus is loaded with both troops and equipment, heading down towards the military airport as the officers go down the ranks to ensure everyone in the bus has their equipment before Jaune announces ''Good, everyone strap on the armbands and helmets over your jackets, that way we are all easily identifiable.''
Within a few more minutes they arrive at the airport and Jaune jumps out the door, handing over their license to the gate guard ''We're here as part of the re-enforcements for Verdun, where do we need to go?'' The woman points to a group of roughly fifty bullheads readying to leave on a platform a few hundred meters to the right as she rams the button to pull up the bar stopping immediate entry.
''Runway five through twelve, go through with the entire bus we'll stash it for you once the airwing has left.'' Jaune nods his thanks before jumping back and shouting the information to the driver who drives the bus over immediately. Once there Jaune can see a man in a either a lieutenant-colonel or colonels uniform and while the others rush the troops out of the bus he heads over to him.
''Officer, we're Arc and Pine's rifles, ready for duty.'' At which he salutes the man, who returns the salute. ''We've got roughly fifty combatants and half a dozen support personnel. We've got spare crates of ammunition, weapons and food to bring with us.''
''Good, we need everyone and everything we can get, load the supplies and yourselves into those five bullheads, we're leaving in five minutes, here'' he gives Jaune a bag with comms ''Communicate with us with these once we've lifted off, the tactical situation will have to be discussed while on the way. Only the larger ones can react back, most of them are listening only.'' Jaune nods before running back to the bus and helping his men load in the crates of ammunition and joins the rest of the officers in one of the bullheads, handing the earpieces for communication out to them.
Moments later they lift off, with Jaune quickly gulping down some airsickness pills provided by Oscar, giving him a thankful nod in return. Shortly after take-off he can hear the voice of the colonel over the earpiece. ''This is lieutenant-Colonel Maurice Gamelin calling all forces, answer if present and able to react, Regiment of the Cross,'' an affirmative is given, ''Patch Company'' an affirmative is given here as well ''Arc and Pines rifles'' Jaune replies with an affirmative of his own.
''Okay good, as far as we can tell the main force of the Grimm haven't moved yet but a group of flying Grimm already did a probing advance but was repulsed by the local militia so that can change at any moment, we'll arrive at the city within twenty minutes. If any of you have a plan you'd prefer, mention it now, else we'll just have to man the walls of the city since once we're there we don't have much time for it.''
Jaune speaks up ''I propose that if we have enough time to reach and man them we hold at the Great War defences with most of our forces, if I remember correctly everything is kept almost entirely as it was back then while the trenches are regularly maintained. If nothing else, it'll strengthen the morale of the men and allow us to hold far enough from the city to not worry about civilian casualties, but close enough to retreat there should something go wrong.''
It is silent for a moment as he hears muttering from the other side of the line, probably the lieutenant-colonel discussing the proposal with his officers before he hears a chorus of muffled 'yes' at which point the man speaks up again ''Overall a sound strategy, even with any issues caused by time the terrain will still be littered with shell fragments and uneven ground to slow down the Grimm advance and it gives us a clear firing area of at least 800 metres along the line, longer than that at most places. The only issue is that a gap was created in the line create an overland supply route after the war.''
He lets that sink in for a moment before continuing ''I'll need all your groups to send half of your trained close quarter combatants with active aura to assist me holding that open area, have the other half dispersed among your men in case the Grimm reach our lines, Arc and pines you along with the Regiment of the Cross will hold the left flank in support of the local militia, my men and Patch company will hold the right flank. I'm sending the information through to the local commander and the changes in drop off area to the pilots. Gamelin out.''
Oscar looks at the others in his group ''I propose Jaune and Auburn go to assist in holding that open ground, me and Whitley will just go and disperse among our men to hold the left flank. Auburn as a fully trained huntress and sniper will be a great supporting power and Jaune, well while not a bad shot your main strength is being an almost unmovable wall, which is somewhat wasted in a trench.''
The others nod, at which point Jaune shrugs and gives the bag with earpieces to Oscar ''Then you'll have to be the one to hand these out to the troops. The larger ones can react back, the smaller ones are listening only.'' They sit silently for most of the time that it takes to reach Verdun as they are drinking a bit and readying for a major battle. Once the pilot announces that they're almost there Jaune puts a hand on Oscars and Whitley's shoulder ''Good luck you two, be safe.''
''Same to you.'' After this he steps out of the bullhead with Auburn and starts moving towards the road through the rough centre of the line, where he can see a small group of around ten people gathered around Gamelin, who once they get closer they can see is armed with a submachinegun and sabre, the former in his hand while the latter is sheathed on his side. With them however Jaune sees several people that Spirit goes silent upon seeing, in the same manner as what happened when he recognized other people from his past.
As he finishes speaking with another uniformed man he turns towards them as the other man walks away in the directions they've just come from, nodding to them as he walks past them. ''Good to see the two of you, as said I am Maurice Gamelin, overall commander of this operation. The man that just walked past you is the leader of the local militia, Major Marron Weygand. Next to me'' at this he points towards a team of four of what could only be either huntsmen from their outfits, ''Is team CFVY, a team from Beacon set to enter their second year in a week. They're all the huntsman support Beacon could spare on this short a notice, two more teams should join in with the re-enforcements.''
''We're Jaune d'Arc and Auburn Rochefort, of Arc and Pines rifles.'' The general nods to him while the two trainee huntsman teams give them a lookover ''So what is the plan? I assume we're only holding this last line since we have too few troops to hold the lines further ahead?'' The Maurice nods before a voice can be heard behind Jaune and Auburn.
''Jaune d'Arc you say? From the Ansel line of Arcs I presume?'' Jaune turns around to see seven men and one woman in full plate armour approaching them, lead by a man with his helmet under his arm, all with shields in their left hands and a tunic with a cross on it over their armour. ''Gris Dupont, commander of the Regiment of the Cross, the successor of the knightly order founded by your famous ancestor and his sister. If we both make it out of here alive I would like to discuss some things.''
Maurice nods at them all and nods his head ''So far all of you at least look competent, good. My apologies if I'm a bit short with all of you but I just got the information that the reason the Grimm were waiting was that they were waiting on roughly three thousand Ursa and Nevermore worth of re-enforcements, though luckily mostly Ursa minor and the smaller nevermore variants. They started marching in the cities direction a few minutes after our bullheads took off. We need to hold our positions for at least one hour, at which point Vale's airship and bullhead mounted relief force will arrive.'' As he speaks a loud boom can be heard from behind him, followed by several more, causing him to smile.
''Luckily the combination of that waiting time and our positioning caused us to be able to prepare and re-arm the old stationary artillery and anti-air batteries leftover in and around town, which while outdated are still powerful pieces that we have a functional supply of ammunition for.'' At this everyone in the group gives a mixture of smiles and smirks while a cheer can be heard among the men in the trenches from the sound of artillery support. ''Arc, you said you had support personnel with you?'' Jaune nods causing the man to smile.
''Good, send a few of them to the supply depot behind us and have them run ammo runs for the AA guns near the trenches, while some civilians are assisting, most of the braver ones are already assisting in manning the AA and artillery positions or the walls to hold off any Grimm that manage to get behind us, freeing up more of the actual militia to join us on the frontline.'' Jaune nods and contacts Oscar to get the orders done.
After he is done with this and the officer has finished sending off a last check with the troops in the trenches, the officer begins a speech ''Brave men and women that have joined us here, I thank all of you for standing with us. We are under approach of the Grimm, Remnants eternal enemy. We may feel fear once we see their number, but do not retreat unless given orders to, even if the odds look overwhelmingly in the enemies favour. We are currently in the best position to fight them off we can be, with our only option of retreat being to fight in the middle of a town full of civilians.'' He lets it rest for a moment before continuing.
''It is for them that we are here. We are here to defend the people of Verdun from another onslaught of horror racing down at them, alike seventy years ago during the Great War we shall make a stand and hold back the tide of enemies. This time however, they aren't monsters in human skin, but the actual monsters instead who will unthinkingly rip through the civilians and murder them down to the last man, woman and child. We are all that stands between them and a horrific fate, so hold the line since, FOR THEY SHALL NOT PASS!''
Upon hearing the war cry that all of Vale learns to associate with Verdun, it is repeated, both in the trenches and by the men and woman near the lieutenant-colonel. In the distance, the first flying Grimm start being visible as dots in the sky which quickly grows to an almost wave like formation in the sky, the individual Grimm making it up invisible from this distance. Everyone does last minute checks on their ranged weapons before aiming at the now visible enemy while Gamelin watches them through his binoculars ''They're arriving at the extreme engagement ranges of the AA canons, fire at will.''
More heavy booms can be heard as a small number of explosions start peppering the air around the large horde of flying Grimm while Auburn aims her rifle at them as the air bound Grimm seem to speed up their flight somewhat, before a bit over two minutes after the canons have started firing, Gamelin sends another command through his earpiece ''They've reached extreme engagement ranges for machinegun AA and snipers, fire at will!''
Auburn opens fire next to them while the AA machineguns in and closely behind the lines now also open up, the air is lit up by all the shots fired and explosions can be seen among the flying Grimm again. Moments later the first Grimm on the ground start being visible in the distance, causing the riflemen to start opening fire on the ground and the machineguns along the lines that had been aiming at the flying Grimm now turn back towards the ground and after cooling down and reloading for a moment while waiting for them to get into better range, open up as well.
Jaune and the knights all draw carbine rifles and open up on the approaching Grimm horde, with Coco changing her handbag into its minigun form before opening fire as well on the approaching horde. It very quickly becomes clear that this much firepower is making a serious dent in the force of Grimm, with it barely advancing on them simply from how much of its frontline keeps dying. However just as Jaune starts feeling confident in his mind while Spirit has taken control of their body, a giant nevermore makes itself loose from the flying horde and increases speed dramatically while screeching out a cry that exerts an almost physical force, before Gamelin desperately orders ''Drop the rifles, form a shield wall with overhead coverage! All troops in the trenches, take cover!''
They do as ordered, though confused while at least most of the troops in the trenches follow the order as well. Jaune ends up at the left side of the shield wall since his shield is a smaller format than the others, five of whom kneel at the front with the shields in front of them while four of them hold their shields as slanted cover extending from those frontal shields while Jaune and one other each cover the side. Not even seconds later hundreds of impacts can be both heard and felt on the shields, in addition to pained screams from several places nearby.
''Drop wall, everything with high fire-rates aim back at the flying Grimm, take out the large nevermore now! How many of the AA canons did we lose?''
''One canon is destroyed, but a third of all crew has been injured and four have been killed.''
''So far two wounded on the right side of the trench line, three wounded on the left side.'' Gamelin says as he hears the numbers ''send crew members of the destroyed gun to replace the ones on the other guns, aim everything besides fucking rifles at the air, aim the canons at the fucking giant bastard another volley of that and we won't have anything left to fight back with!''
As every machinegun, canon and even all sharpshooter rifles are aimed back up at the flying Grimm the ground bound ones, now faced with far less fire start advancing across the field rapidly, especially on and near the road, though still losing high numbers from rifle fire, especially as they get into more combat effective ranges of everyone's ranged weapons.
The giant Nevermore releases a horrible scream of pain as it can be seen that one of its wings was blown off and both its legs were ripped off while it has holes bleeding black sludge all over its body while it starts crashing down to the ground, ramming itself into the mountain before disintegrating. The effect start very quickly being seen among the flying Grimm, as they start becoming less coordinated than before, while the feather fire now only flies down sporadically towards whatever is the closest to them, leading to little more than sporadic fire at the trenches that mostly misses the target.
''All non AA units, aim back at the hostile ground forces.'' Most of the machineguns quickly switch back to firing at the approaching Grimm horde, which while still a distance away in most places is now getting close near and especially on the large road. Gamelin joins the firing while Velvet uses her box to recreate Coco's minigun and starts spraying the Grimm with shot. Luckily on places besides the road the Grimm now also start running into the remnants of barbed wire lines and anti-Grimm trenches with wooden spikes in them, slowing down the advance of the flanks in addition to causing wounds as Grimm stumble and get run over by their 'comrades'.
As the Vanguard of the Grimm approaches Jaune readies to blunt their advance as a Beowolf rams itself into his shield only for him to anker his leg into the ground with aura before bashing the shield upwards, giving him easy access to the Grimms almost unarmoured stomach, which he takes advantage of by stabbing forward through the Grimm before ripping it out in a sideways slash, followed by another bash of his shield, throwing the disintegrating Grimm to the side to be replaced by one of its brethren for said beast to immediately lose the paw it tried to slash forward with before the motion downward also fluently cuts off its leg, unbalancing it enough for the push from the Grimm behind it to toss it to the side throwing it into the path of Velvets imitation minigun as she rips through any Grimm trying to flank them with Gamelin supporting her with a mix of gunfire and sabre attacks, Coco doing the same on the other side with Yatsu ripping any flanking Grimm to pieces with his giant sword while Jaune and the knights hold the centre of the line with Auburn and Fox jumping in whenever a Grimm threatens to break through or jump over the line.
The knights are all slamming Warhammers downwards, breaking Grimm into thousands of pieces while holding the horde back with their shields. Jaune meanwhile uses his shield to block attacks, slashes off limbs and stabs through the enemy before ripping out his blade through the sides, before bashing them away into the crowd of Beowolves and Ursa behind them to certain death. This rhythm is continued for some time, however after what feels like an hours' worth of fighting but is more likely closer to fifteen minutes, the Grimm stop trying to crash through the line and start pulling back, creating space for a dozen Ursa Majors to march through, standing taller enough than even Jaune and all the sizable knights for a wall of shields to no longer function, instead Fox, Gamelin and Yatsu charge forward and form a tip of the spear while Gamelin activates his semblance, causing his blade to glow before he slashes it downwards, creating a wave of flames that burn the legs off the central Ursa and wounds the two next to it.
Jaune and one of the knights jump forward to assist, while Coco and Velvet rip one to pieces each with their miniguns before being forced to turn to keep up the fire to stop the Grimm from getting into the nearby trenches, as Fox keeps the central group of Ursa busy by pelting them with shockwaves, allowing Yatsu and Gamelin to get in and chop off their limbs before finishing them off. Jaune meanwhile jumps in front of an Ursa trying to ram Fox and rams his shield into its attacking paw, throwing it to the side before using a heavily enhanced slash to bite into the beasts neck, the aura sending a slicing shockwave through that beheads the beast.
As the threat to the formation is quickly finished off, mostly by the central trio, Gamelin throws a belt of active grenades into the Grimm tide that is rushing forward again before they move behind the openings in the shieldwall again, which closes off before the chaff Grimm in the form of regular Beowolves and Ursa minor can recover from that explosion, while giving them some fire support before quickly moving to their previous positions.
While all this is happening it has become clear from the sounds of metal clashing against bone and flesh that all along the line the troops have been forced to engage the Grimm in close quarters, before hundreds of explosions rock the battlefield, weakening the advance of the Grimm significantly as the wounded ones throw the lines into chaos before the next grenade volley finishes many of them off, while gunfire can still be heard of troops shooting into the enemy in close quarters. Even as the Grimm engage them again however, the tide is turning in favour of the defenders.
While now fighting up close, many of the Grimm have already either died or been heavily wounded enough to be easy pickings for their more intelligent opponents, while the continued artillery fire is ripping through what remains of their reserves and back line. To top it all off, almost all of the Grimms air support has been taken out and the sound of engines in the distance bodes the end of the last remaining among their numbers as gunship mounted miniguns open up into the last of them while rockets fly downwards to finish off what few Grimm there are left away from the frontlines, as fresh re-enforcements jump out of others and charge in firing their rifles and giving support to the beleaguered defenders.
Shortly afterwards Jaune chops off the right leg of an Ursa, bashes is into the face with his shield, sending it tumbling towards the ground before he stabs his sword through its stomach and rips it in half. The tired young man then looks around for more enemies, but sees that the horde is gone, disintegrating into the air as the last remnants are being cornered and essentially slaughtered by multiple of the now numerically superior defenders, including two of his men stabbing bayonets into an Ursa's shoulders, forcing it to the ground and allowing a knight with a morning star to crush its chest, causing it to disintegrate.
Next to Jaune the tired knights fall to the ground, while the man that lead them in battle shouts into the comms ''This is lieutenant-colonel Gamelin, all but the last stragglers have been defeated, the battle is won!'' While cheers can be heard across the line, they quickly fall silent as the troops look around themselves and realize there are many wounded and some dying allies near them, causing the tired men and women to shift to carrying the wounded out of the trenches into the open to allow medics to more easily treat them.
Jaune sheathes Crocoa Mors before joining them in this effort, not realizing he himself has a gash on his face from where one of the final Grimm managed a slash through his almost gone aura until one of the medics he carries a wounded woman to grasps him by the shoulder and forces him to sit down so she can look through the wound to see if it is infected and just how bad it is. One thing goes through his mind however as he follows the medics orders and also allows the younger Jaune to take back control, while this was a victory, as far as Spirit knows no battle like this happened before the fall of Beacon in his own timeline… What has changed so much?
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AN: I'll end this chapter here, I hope it was a fine read, thanks again for everyone that sends in comments, I appreciate them, the suggestion for more visible AN's is especially a good idea, I'll try to keep it in mind. Next chapter, we're finally getting to what I think you were all waiting for: Beacon Academy. Though first it will deal with the aftermath of this battle. Now onto the review
team zephyr: sadly FFN doesnt do pictures beside profile pictures and book covers, so if your wanting to post supplementary images, then your gonna wanna post it on sites like AO3 or wattpad. but beside that, great chapter. although I do recommend using bold font for the Authors notes at the beginning and end of the chapter, because that makes a great distinction between the authors words and the words of the chapter. also, line breaks that go all the way across help in the same issue. but still, great chapter!
Answer: Yeah that was the case last time I tried it, but since that had been years ago I had hoped that since then the site had updated or changed something to allow it, but apparently not. Honestly I stay with this site, since I know somewhat how to use it and can remember my password for it etc, unlike what I would need to for a new website, especially since this writing is a hobby unlike for some others and as such I mainly do this to share something that I like myself and might be interesting to others so I don't want to make it overly complicated by having to figure out how to post and update on multiple websites in different systems while keeping track of where I did update and what document I can use for what site.
Thanks for the reminder, I did use the bold text a few years ago but since starting this story have forgotten to do so, that is a good idea to make it more clear what is what, and thanks for the compliment, I hope you liked reading this chapter.
Resume AN: And that was it everyone, I hope to see you again next time and send in a review with any questions or comments you might have.
