I do not own anything relating to RWBY and Battlefield 1. RWBY is belonged to Rooster Teeth and Battlefield 1 is belonged to DICE and EA. All names mentioned in this fanfic belong to their respective owners.
The ideas in this fanfic belongs to me.
All criticisms are welcomed, especially the ones that are constructive.
(After some months of learning his way and watching the show and playing the game, I hope that I won't disappoint.)
"Headmaster Ozpin... Professor Glynda... we... we are extremely sorry for causing so much trouble...", Ruby sobbed, tears about to roll down her cheeks.
To say that team RWBY felt horrible for the damage they caused that night would be a massive understatement. Being the team's leader, Ruby felt it was her duty to take the blame for her team's action. After all, it was her incompetence and bad decision making that caused innocent people to lose their lives that night.
"It is okay, Ms. Rose. Let bygones be bygones, okay? We cannot change what already happened, what we can do though is to use this incident as a lesson to better ourselves.", Ozpin smiled.
Ruby and her teammates nodded at his words. Before they go, Blake spoke up. "Headmaster, may I request that we have access to the names of the victims?"
Ozpin looked at the cat faunus with a sad smile on his face. He already knew what she was planning to do. "Of course, Ms. Belladonna. But why do you want to know their names?"
"I...", she started, but then her eyes darted towards her teammates, their faces had that sad smile of understanding. "I mean, we would like to pay a visit to each of them. After all, we are the ones responsible for their current state."
Ozpin didn't say anything for he already expected this answer, so he only nodded and gestured for them to dismiss.
The next hour was spent in relative silence. After Eli dropped the bomb that was the total property damage and casualties that team RWBY unintentional caused when they pursued the stolen Paladin, nobody, even Nora, really had the mood to strike up a conversation. So all they did were grab some drinks, snacks, go for the restroom or just stay chilling at their respective seats.
"Everyone here? Good, shall we continue with the adventure of Big Bess and her crew?", Eli asked and was pleased to receive nods of confirmation from the people of Remnant. Bringing up his holographic console, he hit the play button, which caused the screen to light up once again.
The scene began with the Big and mighty Bess rolling down a dirt path in the middle of the night when suddenly the tank started to stall then come to a stop, its engine shutdown entirely.
"Oh come on, another breakdown?", Nora sighed loudly.
"Can't really blame them.", Qrow shrugged while taking a sip from his flask. "They did say that the Mark V is not reliable at the beginning."
Inside the tank, Townsend lost his balance and fell down because of the sudden stop. Edwards immediately left the driver seat and went to check on the engine.
"Jesus, Bess. Give us a break, give us a break.", McManus dejectedly groaned.
Nearly everyone's heart broke at the sight of McManus, despite being a douche most of the time, on the verge of breaking.
"Poor guy...", Pyrrha muttered sadly.
"That's what war does to you.", Ironwood said solemnly, his eyes and facial expression showed sympathy for the tanker in question.
"I mean I would be the same like him after witnessing two of my close brothers in arms died in the same day, experiencing a near-death artillery bombardment on my position, facing an army who wanted nothing but to see me dead by myself, and dealing with the tank, the only thing that keeps me alive, breaking down two times in the same day.", Torchwick voiced his opinion. His input was met with various nods from the audience, albeit reluctantly.
The engine blew out a small amount of hot steam while Edwards was checking on it, forcing him to turn away a bit.
"What? Edwards, what?", commander Townsend asked, a hint of impatience in his voice.
Edwards finished diagnosing what happened to the engine, stood up and came to Townsend's side to report. "Sir, she needs new sparkplugs."
"Well, they're so fucked.", Yang sighed and shook her head.
"Swe-!", Ruby gasped and presented her swear jar to her sister, but to her surprise Yang already put in the jar some lien cards before the little Rose could even finished her sentence.
Off to the side, Summer and Qrow chuckled at the sight of the non-blood related twins. Summer even shed a small tear before quickly wiping it away, making sure that nobody saw it.
Blake and Weiss frowned at their teammate's negativity. "What makes you think that? If all they needed were few sparkplugs then they could simply get some and replace the faulty ones, right?", Weiss asked the blonde brawler.
"It's because they're in the middle of a war, Mini Ice Queen.", Qrow answered while smirking at the glare that Winter was sending his way.
Weiss blinked. She didn't put into account the fact that the tankers were still fighting a war and they were all alone. Silently cursing herself, she and the rest of the audience turned their attention back to the screen.
Townsend closed his eyes and turned away briefly before turning back towards Edwards.
"Check... Check how far that village is.", Townsend ordered and Edwards immediately did what he was told, while the commander closed his eyes again and winced in pain, hissing as he clutch his wound from earlier that day.
Edwards emerged from a hatch on top of Big Bess and held a pair of binoculars to his face. The screen changed to a first person view inside the binoculars as Edwards was doing a quick recon on the village afar.
"Can you see it, son? Can you see the village?", Townsend asked from inside.
"Yes. Yes, I see it.", the rookie driver replied.
"Yes! They can go to the village on foot and ask the people for help!", Ruby exclaimed excitedly.
The other students also brightened up at the sight of the still intact village on screen, meaning that the German troops hadn't occupied it. Or so they thought...
The adults, however, narrowed their eyes at the screen in suspicion.
"It's too quiet... strange...", Winter mumbled to herself.
"Indeed, Specialist Schnee. Throughout this viewing, it shows that Big Bess and her crew had been constantly moving deeper and deeper into enemy territory. Why would a village this deep behind enemy lines can be this quiet?", Ironwood narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
"And what about our tanks? Can you see any of our tanks down there?", Townsend asked again as Edwards was scanning the village. A familiar blocky shape in the form of a Mark V tank came into view, although there were certain differences about this specific tank.
"Is it just me or has anyone seen those patterns somewhere before?", Jaune wondered while trying to search through his memory. He definitely had seen those camo patterns somewhere but couldn't put his finger on it.
"And that black cross emblem too. It also looks very familiar.", Pyrrha added.
Down below, Neo and Torchwick just sighed and shook their heads after hearing such idiotic words. Of course they looked familiar, those are freaking marks of the German army!
Upon seeing the Mark Vs, Edwards slowly put down his binoculars in disbelief.
"Edwards?", Townsend asked again as he didn't hear his driver's response.
"Yeah,", Edwards replied, "but they are not ours anymore."
"So that means...", Neptune trailed off.
"Those tanks had been captured by the enemy.", Scarlet finished his partner's sentence.
"They are now trapped in hostile territory.", Sun concluded.
The last member of team SSSN, Sage, nodded to his team leader's observation. "If they want to fix Big Bess, I believe they need to sneak into that village and find those sparkplugs from those tanks we just saw."
Everyone, mostly the students, couldn't help but felt worried for the tankers. Sneaking through a forest with dense fog coverage was marginally easier than sneaking through a village full of enemy soldiers.
Edwards slowly walked back to his commander's side and crouched down. With a heavy sigh, Townsend said to his two subordinates. "Sounds like whatever Bess needs is down in that village."
McManus glanced at Edwards then back at Townsend before turning to the tank driver.
"Alright.", the gunner tiredly said. "Let's go, Edwards."
McManus tapped Townsend on his shoulder then glanced back to Edwards before standing up. "Let's go", he said.
"Good luck.", Townsend said as the commander looked directly into Edwards eyes. The driver then stood up and followed McManus, leaving Townsend alone in the tank.
Outside, McManus had already exited Big Bess and walked towards the tank's rear with an SMLE MKIII bolt action rifle in his hands. Edwards then followed suit with a Mauser C96 in his hand, gently closing a side hatch after he had exited the tank.
"Come over here.", McManus slung the rifle on his back and ordered Edwards, who after sparing another glance down the village began coming over the gunner's position.
"That tank is going nowhere and he'll be dead by morning. We're fucked.", McManus said.
"Wait a second...", Winter's eyes hardened at the gunner's words. Was he going to do what she's thinking?
"So you're just going to turn tail and run away, huh?", Ironwood growled. He was never fond of traitorous and coward bastards. To abandon your mission as well as your teammates, one of them was dying at that, was the lowest level of cowardice a soldier could become.
"I take back what I said earlier about McManus.", Pyrrha shook her head in disappointment.
Others also shared the same view as the two Atlesian officers. Saying they all were upset at what McManus was implying would be a major understatement.
"I really hope that Edwards isn't going to listen to him and also abandon his commander.", Summer huffed.
Edwards became visibly upset after hearing what McManus just said and glared at the gunner, "What's it, you just gonna abandon the mission, are you?"
"Don't you get it? Finch, Pritchard, all of us – we've been fucked all along!", McManus hardened his gaze at Edwards and retorted.
Now the driver was just pissed. He came right up to McManus face and gritted his teeth, "If that's what you want, McManus, then just go."
"That's our boy!", Qrow exclaimed while nodding approvingly and had a shot of his alcohol.
"I knew he ain't some kind of pussy! Hey man, gimme some of that!", Torchwick said to Qrow, who reluctantly poured a shot glass and passed it to the criminal.
Next to Torchwick, Neo bewilderedly looked back and forth at Qrow and her partner in crime. Why did he start treating a hunter of all things like a long time buddy?
Their heated conversation quickly escalated. McManus intensified his glare at the young rookie driver, now also pissed.
"Don't you ever talk to me like that. I've run more fucking missions than you have had hot dinners, son!"
"He has every right to talk to you like that, you damn coward!", Yang eyes briefly flashed a crimson shade before turning back to their usual lilac as she shouted.
"Having more experience doesn't justify your cowardice.", Blake glared at McManus as she gritted out.
At the back, Eli silently snorted at the cat faunus' statement. She was the one who chose to run away from her past and her problems instead of facing it, after all.
Having decided enough was enough, Edwards pointed at the space behind McManus and gritted out before turning around, "McManus, just fucking go!"
At that, McManus turned away from the driver and walked away, effectively abandoned his comrades and the mission.
"So much for we're all in this together.", Edwards dryly said. "Alright. Find the parts. Get the tank running. Don't die."
"Sounds simple enough.", Jaune shrugged at the driver's plan.
Ren nodded to his team leader's assessment. "Indeed. I hope he will succeed in this."
"And I hope he will break McManus' legs later on.", Nora silently growled... while stuffing her mouth with pancakes.
The young driver started making his way down towards the village. On the way, he came inside a windmill and climbed up the stairs to the top, where he arrived at a small platform that provided a great view of the entire village down below. Pulling out his binoculars again, he surveyed the enemy soldiers' position and found what he was looking for: a salvaged Mark V tank engine.
"I guess that's how he's going to get new sparkplugs for Big Bess then? Get them from those salvaged engines?", Weiss asked as she continued to observe.
"Right on the money, Ice Queen!", Yang chuckled to herself as her response earned her a glare from the young heiress.
Close to them, a certain android in disguise was deep in thought as she analyzed the situation.
"From what I can gather, Edwards has to get the parts he needs without opening fire as his pistol isn't suppressed.", Penny voiced her observation out loud. "That means he can either stealthily kill the guards with his melee weapon and get what he needs, or he can just silently get the sparkplugs without being spotted."
Exiting the windmill, Edwards started to hastily make his way towards the village where he just saw the first salvaged engine. Upon arrival, the young driver immediately took cover behind a house and peeked. Just a few meters from him, a soldier was having a cigarette break, a bit further from him two soldiers were warming themselves next to a small fireplace and they seemed to be having a conversation. Edwards then took out a cartridge and threw it, prompting the guard near him to leave his position to investigate.
"He's using the same strategy from before!", Ruby excitedly exclaimed, earning herself giggles from her teammates and headpats from her mother.
"You know what they say, Kiddo. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.", Qrow chuckled.
However, there were two individuals who did not really enjoy what's about to happen.
"Awwww, another stealthy segment? It's boringggggggggggggg", Nora whined while Yang just pouted.
"With his current equipment and the nature of his mission, stealth is the only way to go.", Ozpin said while sipping his coffee. Despite knowing those two girls preferred violent ways of dealing with threats, the headmaster of Beacon Academy couldn't help but shook his head in slight disappointment.
"If it helps lifting your spirits then know that the upcoming battle will be an epic one.", Eli chuckled.
After making sure that the German guard had gone out of sight of the other two soldiers, Edwards crouched down and silently walked towards his target. The rookie driver then raised his shovel and brought the sharp edge down onto the guard's head, killing him immediately.
Most of the audience, sans the criminals and the Atlesian officers, shifted uneasily at the kill. Despite knowing it's war and it's a do or die situation, they still couldn't come to terms with the act of killing fellow humans.
The young tanker then sneaked into a small shed and walked through it, bringing him way closer to his objective. Unfortunately, the front of the engine was facing towards the two guards standing next to a small fireplace. Also a bit further down the dirt path was another German soldier that Edwards didn't see from before, though thankfully this soldier was facing another direction so he wasn't that much of a threat... for now.
Edwards then went prone and crawled underneath a salvage tank to avoid detection. He then pulled out another cartridge and threw the lure towards the side of a stone house, making the two soldiers to go and investigate the sound.
Once the coast was clear, Edwards quickly moved towards the front of the engine and carefully removed the sparkplug he needed.
"Nice one. One down, three to go."
"It seemed... pretty easy to me.", Ruby spoke out her thoughts as she munched on another cookie.
"Never judge a book by its cover, sweetie.", Summer reprimanded her naive daughter. "At first glance, it may seem that all he has to do is sneaking around and get the parts, but with just one wrong move and the consequences will be great."
"I think Little Red knows a thing or two about wrong moves and consequences.", Torchwick sarcastically snickered, causing multiple people to glare at him.
"You should be grateful that I don't have my weapons here, jackass.", Qrow snarled at the crook.
"I will personally cuff your hands and throw you into a maximum security prison as soon as we're out of here, you worm.", Ironwood gritted his teeth, beside him Winter nodded in agreement wholeheartedly... and menacingly.
In response, Torchwick and Neo only shrugged off the glares and smugly smirked at the others. "We would love to see you try, General.", Torchwick said with a big smile on his face.
Edwards then sneaked away from the area undetected and hid behind a house. From there, he saw another part of the village and much to his displeasure, more hostile troops in the area... a lot of them.
Just like before, he took out his binoculars and observed. The whole place was basically a small fortress with sandbags, barbed wire, machine gun placements, and anti-tank field guns.
"You were saying, sis?", Yang smirked at the little huntress-in-training, whose cheeks were now red in embarrassment.
"It's definitely more difficult now.", Pyrrha nervously said. "With that many defenses, he will need to be extra careful in order to evade detection."
Ren also shared the same view as the redhead. "I wonder what kind of strategy Edwards' going to use in this situation."
Instead of going in and search around like a headless chicken, Edwards decided to take his time and observe the village from multiple different angles in order to pinpoint the exact location of the engines. First, he climbed the stairs up onto a nearby windmill and look around with his binoculars, finding a salvaged engine in an open field. Then he started to move around the village and observed from the distance, finding another engine in a much larger courtyard, though there weren't that many guards there so not a really big problem for him. A quick recon later and he finally found the location of the last engine: in a small yard but way darker than the other two and had lots of cover.
"A very fine strategy, I must say.", Ozpin smiled.
"Find the objectives' locations first before going in. This is something most of our students lack when they are going on missions.", Glynda sighed and pushed her glasses up.
The students from Beacon and even from Haven laughed nervously in embarrassment after hearing the Headmaster's assistant comment. They couldn't deny what she said just now since they all had the same shortcoming.
Satisfied, Edwards began to jog towards one of the engines' location. Unfortunately for him, one of the nearby guards heard the noise he was making and decided to go and investigate.
"Uh oh...", Neo held her scroll towards her partner in crime, who only chuckled and nodded his head.
"He's made a mistake already.", Sun shook his head.
"It's not like he has any other choice.", Weiss retorted and surprised many by defending the young driver instead of criticizing him. "If you pay attention then you'll see that the sun is coming up."
Ruby then realized what her teammate was hinting towards and unconsciously dropped her cookie as she gasped. "Which means that Edwards is running out of time!"
The audience was now growing worried for Edwards. Time was running out and he's still needed to get three more plugs before heading back to Bess.
Edwards stopped when he reached a house right next to an engine. Peaking around the corner, he saw two soldiers standing by a small campfire talking to each other, so he planned to lure those soldiers away so he could safely reach the engine. Just as he was fishing his pocket for a cartridge, he suddenly heard a noise behind him, a distinct noise of a pistol's hammer cocking back.
"Lass es fallen.", a voice softly said behind him, accompanied by the sight of a (possibly captured) barrel of a dirty and muddy M1911.
"Shit!", exclaimed Sun.
"It's the soldier from before!", Summer gasped while putting a hand towards her mouth.
"So... he's doomed?", Jaune asked wide-eyed.
"No.", Winter calmly said, although her tone was a bit tensed. "There's still a chance for him to get out of this situation."
"How? He has a gun to his head! And he doesn't have aura!", Yang shouted incredulously while looking at Winter like she just grew a second head.
"Hand to hand combat.", Ren calmly said, all eyes turned to him. "Although there's a gun aiming right at his head but the distance is too small. He can still overpower the German soldier."
"That boy's right.", surprisingly, it was Torchwick who said that. "From my experience, the rookie still has a chance. That is if the German doesn't decide to just execute him then and there."
That didn't help with the students' unease of the situation. But now they knew that Edwards still had a chance, they all paid extra attention towards the screen to see what the young driver would do.
Edwards dropped his pistol onto the muddy ground. He then slowly turned around and faced a young German soldier, who still had his pistol pointing right at his head, its cold barrel touching his forehead.
"Vats a British doing here?", the German soldier asked with a raised eyebrow, his voice a near-perfect English. "No matter. I will end you right here."
However, just before pulling the trigger, the German showed Edwards a sad smile. "I really wish ve could have met in anozer circumstancez."
"He... what?", Blake asked in shock and confusion at the words of the German, who's supposed to be Edwards' enemy.
"What does he mean by that...?", Neptune asked with a small voice, unable to fathom what he just heard.
"Does that mean that the soldier there does not like what he was doing?", Penny wondered.
It was then that Eli decided to answer all of their questions with a single sentence. "'Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die'. Herbert Hoover, 1944."
After hearing that, everyone, even people that prefer violence like Yang, Nora and the criminal duo, understood the words of the young German soldier as well as his sad smile. They all felt bad for the unnamed soldier, some even showed sympathy for him.
However, Eli's words were also a jab to two persons in the crowd, namely Ozpin and Ironwood.
'I'm not like that. I'm not sacrificing people's lives for some petty competition. Right?'
"Vat's your name?", the German suddenly asked.
"Edwards.", the rookie driver replied. "Daniel Edwards. Yours?"
"Friedrich Weber."
Edwards closed his eyes and nodded in gratitude before opening them. "Alright Friedrich. See you in hell."
Most of the Remnant's natives could not help but felt bad for the young men. At the end of the day, they were just following orders.
Summer hugged her two daughters close to her as Ruby was sniffing at the short but heartbreaking conversation onscreen.
Qrow and Torchwick sighed and downed a gulp of alcohol.
Nora pushed aside her plate of pancakes and hugged Ren, who hugged her back with a sad smile on his face.
Pyrrha's eyes spoke of great sadness as she leaned onto Jaune's shoulder, who tried his best to comfort her by putting an arm over her and whispered some comforting words, though he himself also did not like what was about to come.
"See zou soon, Edwards.", Friedrich sent Edwards another sad smile before returning to a stoic demeanor. He then pulled the trigger with Edwards still staring at him.
*Clicked*
The audience flinched at the sound but then recovered and stared at the screen with wide eyes. Edwards was still standing there.
Friedrich pulled the trigger again but the gun didn't fire. He then realized that the gun was jammed, probably because of its state.
Edwards immediately capitalized this opportunity and snatched the pistol out of the German's hand. Before he could yell for help, Edwards punched his windpipe and unsheathed a knife from Friedrich's hip. He then pulled the German soldier close and thrust the knife right into his chest, making Friedrich spitted out blood and stopped resisting.
Edwards then slowly lower the dying German down onto the ground, the knife still plunged in his chest. With unsteady breaths, Friedrich slowly raised his shaking hand and pointed towards a pocket on his uniform. Edwards searched said pocket and pulled out two items: a small pendant and a small notebook. He opened the pendant and inside, to his surprise and immense sadness, was a small photo of a beautiful lady. Switching his attention to the dying German, Friedrich only smile at him and nodded his head once, before he slowly closed his eyes and stopped breathing.
The smile was still there on Friedrich's young face.
The theater was silent, aside from some muffled sobs. If the previous conversation between the German and the British was not sad enough, this scene definitely did. Most of the girls there cried at the scene, even matured ladies like Glynda, Winter, Summer and Neo could not help but sniffled a bit.
"Dear Oum...", Neptune closed his eyes and shook his head in sadness.
"The fighting and killing were all horrible, but this? This is just too much, man.", Scarlet sighed.
"It is a blessing that Remnant never goes to war ever again after the Great War.", Sage silently muttered, though it was loud enough for his teammates to hear.
Everyone took a moment of silence to give a quick prayer to the deceased young man. Despite him being an enemy, he's at heart not a bad person. He was just another soldier who was doing what he was ordered to do, so he still deserved respect.
"This is horrible...", Ruby sniffled, a noticeable crack in her voice. "Everything about this is horrible. None of those soldiers deserve to die like that!"
Ironwood, despite being a military general, agreed with the little girl's statement. "We should be thankful that wars are so terrible."
"How could you say that?! Why should we even be thankful of something as terrible as wars?!", Blake stood up from her seat and snapped at the general.
Winter was about to defend her superior but Glynda beat her to it. "Miss Belladonna, what general Ironwood meant is that by knowing the true nature of wars as terrible, we will never go to war with each other to solve conflicts."
After hearing the explanation, Blake suddenly felt ashamed for jumping into conclusion without giving more thoughts into what Ironwood said. "I'm very sorry for my behavior, professor Goodwitch, general Ironwood.", she apologized and sat down, beside her Weiss held her arm and gently rubbed it to calm her.
"Are you okay?", Weiss gently asked.
"Yeah, I'm okay... It's just...", Blake sighed and flashed her teammate a tired smile. "It was my fault for blindly accusing the general like that."
The young heiress only smiled back as a reply. She could relate to the cat faunus in this since not too long ago, she was also a person who liked to accuse people and jump to conclusions.
After a short while, everyone started to calm down. "Are you okay?", Eli asked, earning nods from everyone present. "Good. Let us get back to the show, shall we?"
Edwards stared at the corpse of the young German soldier he just killed. He really wanted to give him a proper burial but he still had a mission to accomplish. The young driver pocketed the items and offered the late Weber a quick prayer, then he dragged the body into the house and lay him down respectfully. He then carefully removed the knife from the German's chest, put both of Friedrich's hands onto his chest, and put the knife back into the sheath as well as the malfunctioned pistol back into the holster of the deceased German.
Everyone smiled and shed a few tears at the young tank driver's action. Despite being enemies, Edwards still showed respect to other fellow soldiers.
"He didn't leave poor Friedrich lying in the mud.", Summer smiled and wiped away a tear in her eye. "That speaks volume about his character."
"Couldn't have said it better myself.", Qrow smiled lightly at his former teammate's statement as he took a small sip from his flask.
Returning to his previous task, Edwards picked up his pistol he dropped outside and hid behind the wall. Thankfully, the soldiers nearby didn't hear the commotion just now as they were still chatting with each other. He took out the brass cartridge and threw it, successfully attracted the attention of both of the soldier. However, unlike last time, only one of them moved to investigate the noise.
"That's troublesome.", Yang frowned at the young tanker's dilemma.
"I'm sure he has some trick up his sleeve.", Penny said after a quick analysis. "So far, Edwards has proven himself to be a very competent soldier with great adaptability to situations."
"Indeed he is, Miss Polendina.", Ozpin said while sipping his mug of coffee. "Were he to exist here on Remnant, he would make an excellent Hunter."
"Or even a fine Specialist just like Miss Schnee here.", Ironwood added and gestured to his most valuable soldier, who beamed at the praise.
Silently cursed at his bad luck, he took out another cartridge and threw it into a steel barrel further away from his objective. The cartridge impacted the barrel with a loud bang which attracted both of the guards to switch their attention towards its direction. This time, both of them decided to go and check it out.
Edwards wasted no time and silently made his way towards the salvaged engine. After a quick check, he took out another sparkplug and quickly retreated back into the house.
"Halfway there."
"Two down, two to go.", Jaune muttered.
"Edwards still needs to finish his task fast. Time is running out.", Weiss grumbled but there was a hint of worry in her tone.
Weaving his way through the houses, Edwards finally arrived at the huge courtyard where the second engine was situated. A quick peek showed that there were only four guards there... and they were all standing a good distance away from the engine.
Being members of the military, it came with no surprise that the two Atlesian officers were disappointed with the German troops onscreen.
"What are they thinking, having so few guards and covering so little space of the courtyard like that?", Winter shook her head with a sigh.
"That level of incompetence is just mind boggling.", Ironwood shared the same look as his subordinate.
Eli frowned at the general's remark. Truth be told, Germany of this era, despite its equipment being outdated, could wipe the floor with the joke of an army that Atlas had... if the robotic soldiers were taken out of the equation, of course.
"To their defense, it's late in the war so it's understandable that their forces were spread thin."
That, however, wasn't enough to change the duo's opinion. "That doesn't excuse their lack of discipline.", Winter scoffed.
Realizing that further arguing was futile, Eli just rolled his eyes and kept silence.
Carefully hugging the wall of the courtyard, Edwards managed to blend himself well with the darkness and made his way towards the engine. Finally reaching his destination, Edwards dropped to the ground and began to crawl. He could just reach the sparkplug right there, but just to be safe, he fished out a cartridge from his pocket and threw it towards the group of guards. The round landed on the street outside the courtyard with a resounding clank, making two of the guards from the group to go and investigate. The young driver then stood up and searched the engine a bit before he found and unscrewed what he was looking for.
"Just one more."
"Just one more component and we're outta here.", Nora exclaimed with a small yawn. Being an explosive girl as she was, it's normal that saw this segment boring.
"Thank Oum...", Yang sarcastically sighed, her teammates sweat-dropped at the blond's behavior.
Edwards retreated into the vast open field outside the village and started to make his way towards the final engine. To say that the engine's location would be a walk in the park would be an understatement. When he arrived at the yard, he saw that there were only two guards standing next to a small house and a few crates, possibly ammunition crates. He was about to lure the guards away with his cartridge when suddenly...
"Mein Bauch tut weh...!", one of the two groaned while he was bending down, both of his hands clutched onto his stomach.
"What did he just say?", Penny asked as she didn't understand the language. Though from the guard's posture, she had a rough idea as to what was wrong with him.
"Is he... having a stomachache?", Pyrrha guessed uncertainly.
"My stomach hurts.", everyone turned their heads towards the host. "That's what he said."
Ozpin chuckled in amusement. "Well at least Mr. Edwards won't have too much trouble now."
The other guard just laughed as his buddy dropped his rifle and rushed inside the house. Shaking his head, the guard turned and walked away from the crates and took out a cigarette, before lighting said cancer stick and had a quick break.
Edwards snickered lightly at the sight before steeling himself and sneaked towards the engine. Silently he removed the needed component and retreated back outside of the yard, returning back into the darkness.
"That's all of em, now back to Bess.", the young driver muttered to himself.
"Yay! Now he can fix the tank and get back to ass-kicking!", Yang cheered with the other students also excitedly agreeing with her.
"Swear!", Ruby exclaimed loudly and pushed the jar towards her sister.
"That word wasn't even a swear.", the blond brawler rolled her eyes but still threw in the jar some lien cards.
"Finally! I'm dying for some actions now!", Torchwick said excitedly as he puffed out a small cloud from his cigar.
"Damn straight!", Neo raised her scroll.
Edwards quickly made his way back towards Big Bess. This time, instead of weaving through the houses, he chose the outside perimeter of the village. Utilizing the trees and shadows of the vegetation, he moved past all of the houses without alerting any guards of his presence. Finally, after a few more minutes of jogging, the shape of a familiar and imposing Mark V started to appear from the morning fog.
Everyone sighed in relief as the rookie crewmate arrived at the tank. However, one of them didn't share the same sentiment as the others.
'Why am I having a bad feeling about this...', Qrow thought to himself.
Just as Edwards put his hand on the hatch handle, he heard some rustling behind him in the bushes. Turning around, his eyes widened considerably at the sight of a lone German soldier running out of the bushes and bayonet charged him.
"Oh no!", Jaune gasped loudly.
"That's an ambush!", Ruby followed suit as she shrieked.
The crowd gasped in shock at the sight of Edwards being charged at. Some even turned their heads away as they couldn't the bear to see their favorite character being stabbed.
"What are you doing, you dunce?! Shoot him!", Weiss suddenly shouted in great worry.
"But him firing will alert the entire village!", Blake retorted, also worried for the fate of the young tanker.
"Doesn't matter! At least he will have time to fix the damn tank and fight back!", the young heiress heatedly shot right back, some tears started to appear on her eyes.
Acting on pure reflex, Edwards tightly grabbed the bayonet with both hands just as the blade was about to pierce his chest. However, the force of the charge was still great and it knocked him down on the ground, his hands still refused to let go of the bayonet.
Unfortunately, the situation was deteriorating fast. Edwards tried his best to at least shifted the pointy weapon away from his face but the German soldier applied more force, making the bayonet slowly move towards the young tanker's face.
It was clear who had the advantage.
Nobody dared to even muttered a single word. All held their breaths as they watch the struggle between the two, though it was clear who had the upper hand in this.
Glynda Goodwitch put both of her hands up towards her mouth as she stared in shock at the fight. Next to her, Ozpin scrunched his face as he watched Edwards holding the bayonet and struggling for dear life. 'You can do it, young man.'
'Don't you die on me now, son.', Ironwood thought to himself. The general was now on the edge of his seat.
The bayonet was now mere inches from his left eye socket. The struggle was so intense that neither of the men heard the sound of boots running on the muddy ground towards them, accompanied by a loud cry.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
And the sound of a blade piercing flesh entered everyone's ears.
The audience flinched at the sound, thinking that Edwards was killed. To their surprise, however, it wasn't the tanker that was stabbed and killed but the enemy soldier.
"Whoa! What the...!", Neptune exclaimed loudly.
"Who did that?! I don't see anyone else!", Jaune asked as he breath out a big sigh of relief.
"Was it the commander?!", Pyrrha also asked as she frantically searched every corner on the screen for the identity of the one who came to the driver's aid.
The German soldier dropped to his knees as the one who bayonet charged him put a foot on his back and kicked him away, letting the corpse fell on the ground. The savior then came to Edwards' side, crouched down and grabbed his hand in assurance as the rookie still lying on the ground gasping for air. The camera then changed to show the face of the mysterious person.
"Is that...", Summer gasped along with the majority of people there.
"Unbelievable...", Glynda muttered to herself.
"What a surprising twist!", Qrow, Torchwick and the boys of team SSSN (sans Sage) shouted with a laugh.
"So you had a change of heart, huh?", Ironwood said to himself while chuckling in amusement. Though that didn't mean he would forgive the man for deserting.
"I lost my way back there.", McManus said with a small grin.