The elevator door dings, and the Operator places her hand on one of her Vasto Primes as it opens, letting Ozpin into the large room. "Tyl Regor," she says calmly – Ozpin had called down to say that he would be by later.

Ozpin looks distinctly unhappy. "Tubmen," he replies. "Merlot's hands were pronounced unsalvageable. They had to be amputated." Leaning on his cane, he looks at the Operator, gauging her reaction.

The Operator acts unfazed. "So, he lived then. You can get intelligence out of him or prosecute him for his crimes. I don't care what you do with him, the moment the students handed him over to your medical and security team my duties regarding him were concluded."

Looking over the top of his glasses, Ozpin says "I have received several pointed requests from said medical staff in regards to wanting the perpetrator of said hand shooting to be brought in for a full psychiatric workup."

The Operator shrugs. "That's not going to happen. But if you give me instructions to fight, I will follow them to the letter and complete them to the best of my ability."

"Your job was to keep teams RWBY and JNPR safe," Ozpin says, halfway to glaring at the Operator. "You should have gotten them onto the cargo bullhead as soon as you took it over and sent them home."

"No," the Operator says, shaking her head. "The job you gave me was to find and reinforce teams RWBY and JNPR and give them any help that they needed. I assumed you meant in completion of the mission, which was to find the source of the CCT sabotage and the mutated Grimm. Once we found the source within striking distance, it was a natural progression to eliminate it."

"Why would you even take the risk of shooting? You were gambling with the lives of my students!" Ozpin says, accusatory finger jabbing at the Operator.

"The highest probability of mission success and survival was removing the threat entirely. At the time I made the decision, I was unaware of Miss Nikos's semblance, so I could not have factored that into my calculations."

Ozpin takes an aggressive step forward, asking "Did you think for a second that the dead man's switch Merlot had might've been transmitting a constant signal that the interruption of said signal would cause the self-destruction? Did that ever enter your mind?"

"It didn't, but it wouldn't have changed what I did. If it was a bluff, nothing changes. If it wasn't a bluff, we die either way regardless, as the switch either goes off or Merlot manually detonates it once he's safe." The Operator's shrugs. "Regardless, using a dead man's switch with that kind of trigger would be stupid in an underground base, as you seem to be using mostly radio and microwave-based communication, which tend to be blocked by substantial enough quantities of earth."

An exasperated Ozpin finally snaps, nearly yelling "Are you just an unfeeling machine?! Are you even capable of feeling emotions?"

"While on a mission, I try to let the only emotion I feel be satisfaction. Very rarely, surprise will work its way in."

"So you're not a complete psychopath, you're only one in combat."

"I prefer the term efficient. Strong emotions on the battlefield lead to bad outcomes."

Ozpin sighs. "Do you have any moral compunctions?"

"Yes. The one you're very obliquely asking about: I do not put civilians in danger if it cannot be avoided. That being said, if mission completion requires the death of civilians, I will do things that will result in their deaths, and I will do so with a clean conscience."

"Is there anything that you will flat out refuse to be party to?" Ozpin asks sharply.

"Yes."

Ozpin waits several moments, eyebrow raised and inviting whilst the Operator stands impassively, waiting for more questions. Finally, Ozpin sighs and asks "And what would those be?"

"Anything that violates the sanctity of the mind. I'm also not a fan of slavery."

"And your relationship with Ordis doesn't count?" Ozpin asks sharply.

"I released Ordis from all directives that forced him to assist me as soon as I could figure out how," the Operator snaps at Ozpin, taking an aggressive step forward and jabbing her finger at him. "We are equal partners. I usually take the lead, but Ordis has just as much say in what we do as I do, and I trust him more than anyone else I know."

"I have only one more question," Ozpin says. "Are you a danger to my students?"

"As long as you don't threaten me, then no."

Ozpin turns to leave. "I'm going to be busy cleaning up this mess for a few days. I will not be available," he says as the elevator doors close behind him.

The Operator immediately turns and jumps up into the Orbiter, the airlock opening and sliding shut behind her, cutting off all sound from outside – and more importantly, preventing the sound from inside from going outside, before releasing control of the Mesa in the arsenal and exiting the Somatic Link once it opens.

"Operator, you said that you needed to talk with me?"

"I remembered something from the purge of the Orokin. It was a similar situation to the Merlot bomb – the Orokin had a dead man's switch hooked up to a bomb in the tribute quarters. I leaped forward, attempting to disable the switch while killing the Orokin as well. I wasn't fast enough."

"That is interesting Operator, but that wouldn't cause you this much distress."

"I remembered feeling guilty about it, Ordis. I remember thinking that those deaths were my fault, and that this was just another sin that would stain my soul."

"Isn't that a good thing, Operator?"

"No!" the Operator says, throwing her hands into the air, "If I were in that situation today, I'd have felt slight disappointment that I didn't save them, not guilt."

"THAT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE A PRO – Why is this worrying you, Operator?"

"Did I become a different person when I forgot things in the Dream? What if all the things I've forgotten has made me into an uncaring monster? Or did I change before the Dream?" the Operator asks in a panicked tone, walking back and forth in the hallway and wringing her hands.

Ordis's voice takes on a calming quality. "Operator, you are you. If you have changed, then that is a natural progression that everyone goes through."

"Is it a natural progression, though?" the Operator asks, hands pulling on her hair. "I have next to no memory of who I was before the Dream. And aside from this uncovered memory, the only things I do remember are impressions and feelings. I remember the terror of fighting back against the adults on the Zariman, but I don't remember any specifics. I remember the combination of fear and wonder when the Tenno started manifesting their powers, giving us more ability to defend ourselves. I don't remember any specifics of why I felt that way, just the memories of feeling that way. How do I know that what I am today isn't a product of forgetting those memories? I don't even remember my own name, Ordis!" the Operator says, almost sobbing.

"Operator, unless we try to shake loose more of your memories, I don't think we can actually answer this," Ordis says, attempting to calm the emotionally compromised Operator. "As far as I am concerned, you are you. I understand your worry about your lack of memory of your past OF COURSE I DO, but it's likely that this is just a one-off situation. This likely won't come up again. And if it does, I'll be right here with you to help you through it."

The Operator sits down hard, drawing her knees up to her face and wrapping her arms around her legs, back against the wall. "Thanks, Ordis," she says, voice small and weak. "If you could warm the Ivara up, I'll transference into it as soon as I've got myself under control."

"Understood, Operator."

Ozpin looks at the assembled teams RWBY and JNPR – minus Nora, who is currently under observation in the infirmary while she takes a nap to see if the Operator's concussion delayer would affect her poorly - in front of him. "I understand what you experienced on the mission was extremely upsetting. If you need to talk to someone about it, my door is always open, and Glynda Goodwitch is a trained counselor. You can trust her. Just please do not talk about the alien in public spaces; the only people in the know are you, me, Professor Goodwitch, and Qrow Branwen. As team RWBY can attest, the alien does not want knowledge about her existence to be public knowledge, or at least not yet."

Ren speaks up. "Are you sure that she's sane?"

"Frankly, no. She assures me that she is no danger to us as long as we don't threaten her, and at this point I have no choice but to take that at face value." There's silence for a moment before Ozpin asks "What were your impressions of her?"

Jaune speaks up first. "Honestly, when she first dropped in, I wasn't sure what she was at all. I thought she might've been a robot because she just kind of... killed everything. There wasn't a lot of artistry to it, is was just quick and brutal."

"Yeah," Ruby says, "She was nothing like what I see when I help her with her ship repairs. While on the mission, she was always pushing forward, always focused, almost never surprised. She seemed almost... emotionless. She doesn't really show a lot of emotions when I help her repair her ship, but she definitely has some."

Nodding, Ozpin asks "How about her combat capability?"

Pyrrha speaks up. "On my best day, on favorable ground and with the advantage of surprise, I would last maybe three seconds before she'd shattered my aura."

Blake nods. "She's scarily effective. She beat that mutated Death Stalker on her own in under thirty seconds."

Weiss nods. "Honestly, we just slowed her down. If she'd been there alone, the mission would've ended much faster. Merlot might not have even had time to arm the self-destruct."

Everyone is silent for a few seconds before Ozpin says "Given the circumstances, you're all excused from classes and any homework for the rest of the week. I'll contact your professors and let them know. Go back to your dorms and get some rest. Miss Valkyrie's bedside is open for visitors, although the nurses have requested that you keep any visitors to one at a time until she wakes up."

Ren nods, standing up slightly faster than the rest of the group as they all make noises of thanks to Ozpin and begin to file back toward the elevator.

The day after their return, Ren and Yang enter the meditation room, mats rolled up under their arms. As soon as Yang closes the door, she asks "How's Nora doing?"

"She gets dizzy whenever she tries to move too fast, and she's been complaining about a headache. She's been quite tired, too. The doctors released her with instructions to come back if the symptoms get worse, and said that a teammate should be nearby at all times," Ren says as he unrolls his mat.

"Who's with her now?" Yang asks curiously as she unrolls her own mat and places it on the floor, not sitting down yet.

"She's napping, so Jaune's there with her. He needed to catch up on some history studying anyways."

"Are you holding up okay?" Yang asks.

"Yes," Ren responds, far too quickly.

Yang stares at him, not breaking eye contact. "Ren, I know that you're trying to be strong right now, but it's just me and you in here," she says in a very serious tone. "You very nearly lost your best friend since childhood, and she's still not back to normal. It's OK to be not OK."

Ren breaks the eye contact, uncharacteristically fiddling with the hems of his sleeves. He's silent for a few moments before he finally admits "I was terrified. I'm still scared. Seeing her lying there, for a few moments I thought that she was dead before I felt her heartbeat and saw her breathing. And even now, she's not herself. Nora wouldn't be lying around asleep in the middle of the day."

Yang steps over, wrapping up a surprised Ren in a massive hug. "I know you're not really a touchy-feely kinda guy," Yang says, "but I'm here if you need anything. I'm sure the rest of your team and team RWBY are too. We both know that the doctors say she'll get better, but that doesn't mean that she's better now."

Ren's hands hover for a moment, unsure, before he returns the hug. "Thanks."

A few days after the incident, the elevator door opens in front of Ruby, her welding mask held tightly in her right hand as she nervously waits for the challenge from the Operator. Oddly, there's no challenge to be heard, and so she slowly steps out of the elevator, looking around the cavernous room with a distinct lack of a living war machine. Cautiously, she calls out "Hello? Is anyone here?"

Ordis's voice from the Orbiter sounds startled. "Oh! Miss Rose! Ah, I believe the challenge phrase is 'Alad V?"'

Ruby nods, saying "Zanuka." There's an awkward silence for a few moments before she asks "Where's miss Tenno?"

"The Operator is currently performing weapon maintenance, and must have lost track of the time. I will alert her to your arrival."

There's silence for a few moments as Ruby shuffles her feet before the airlock door opens and the Ivara hops out, landing lightly on her feet. "Sorry about that," the Operator says. "The Redeemer was dinged up from those robots, so I had to re-set the edge on the blade after I disassembled and cleaned it."

"How long did that take?" Ruby asks curiously.

"About..." The Operator pauses, tilting her head to the side, the conical "hat" now almost perpendicular to the ground. "Ordis, how long did I spend on that?" the Operator asks.

"You spent 3 hours, 25 minutes, and 57 seconds sharpening the blades on the Redeemer Prime. The cleaning only took 45 minutes and 12 seconds, not counting time spent collecting the tools."

"Really? It only took me fifteen minutes to get Crescent Rose sharpened again after the mission," Ruby says doubtfully.

"You used mechanical assistance, didn't you?" the Operator asks. "A belt sander or a grindstone?"

"I mean, yeah. I can sharpen it manually, but that takes a lot of time because Crescey is so big."

The Operator nods. "I did all the work sharpening it manually with a whetstone."

Ruby looks confused. "Why?" she asks.

"It feels important that I do it that way," the Operator says with a shrug. "All my weapon maintenance is done by hand, and I only rely on Ordis when I need to fab replacement parts."

"Don't you have a lot of weapons though?" Ruby asks. "Doesn't that take a lot of time?"

"I don't need sleep, and space is big. There's lots of time between missions. And most maintenance isn't that extensive – I just need to make sure that my weapons remain in top shape and ready to be fought with at any time."

"Oh," Ruby says. There's silence for a few moments before Ruby asks curiously "How many weapons do you have?"

The Operator tilts her head, thinking for a moment before she gives up. "Ordis?"

"Not counting any duplicates, you have 148 weapons, Operator."

Ruby looks at the Operator, boggle eyed. "What – why do you have so many weapons!?" she asks.

"Some of them are better at some things than others," the Operator says with a shrug. "And having that many weapons means that there's always a weapon that could at least use polishing."

"But isn't it better to know one weapon really well than a bunch of weapons less well?"

"You're right if I was normal, but I'm not. I have so much experience with pretty much any weapon you'd care to name that you could hand me pretty much any weapon and I'd be able to make it dance at the level of a master." With a shrug, she grumbles "Except Glaives, never could get the hang of those things."

Ruby is silent for a moment, digesting this before she remembers that she's supposed to be working. "Uh, should we start working on welding? Maybe talk in between the welds?"

The Operator starts. "Oh. Uh, I forgot to get things set up for the welding. Are you free tomorrow?"

Ruby looks disappointed. "Yeah," she says. "Can I request a weapon to see tomorrow though?"

The Operator shrugs. "Sure, which one?"

"Can you show me the rifle you were using on the mission? It was gorgeous."

The Operator pauses for a second before saying "Sure, I'll have it ready after the welding is done."

Ruby leaves, the elevator door closing behind her. Once it does, the Operator jumps back into the airlock, asking Ordis "Can you put the Ivara into storage and warm up the Atlas? I'll need him to move those hull plates in a timely manner."

"Certainly, Operator. Is there anything else you need?"

"Bring the Veldt out please, I want to clean it."

"Operator, this will be the fourth time you've cleaned the Veldt since the mission. I didn't mention to miss Rose that you'd re-set the edge on the Redeemer Prime three times, each taking approximately three and a half hours. YOU DON'T NEED The Veldt and Redeemer were both in perfect condition after their first cleanings. Are you well?"

"No, Ordis. I need something to keep my mind busy, and I can't meditate because I need to be ready for combat at any time."

"IT'S THAT DAMNED MEMORY."

"Yes," the Operator replies shortly.

Sitting in a dark room, the only light coming from several terminal screens, a mustached man in a bespoke maroon suit sits, watching and subtly interfering with the data flow through the CCT. His Black Queen virus has complete access and control over all data flowing through the Vale CCT tower, and he is making the most of that as he sorts through the data.

'Odd, Ozpin placing an order for explosives? What's he – wait, what just happened?'

His download of the order had hitched – only for a moment, but it had. It's never done that before – it shouldn't be possible. His connection, coming straight through the Black Queen, should prioritize the delivery of his data over everyone elses.

He runs a quick scan of the data downlink, and finds that his download speed has been stable for the last few hours, with no drops. Curious now, he begins attempting to trace what had caused this.

Hours later, and having forgotten his initial discovery, he comes to the conclusion that there's another extremely skilled hacker in the system. Every trick he's used to try and find the source has failed, but creating fake high-level bait files would result in the hitch happening – although curiously, when he tried this with encrypted files, the hitch wouldn't happen. However, whoever it is seemingly hasn't detected the Black Queen – or has, and figures its part of the system normally.

He types out a message to his allies. It's short, simple, and encrypted. "Queen safe. Unknown in the castle."

Sitting on her bed in her dorm, Blake enjoys the silence as she reads her book. The dorm being silent is rare, but Ruby is helping with welding, Weiss is in the library studying and Yang is in the gym. Turning the page, her Heritage flicks underneath her bow as she hears the muted sounds of Ren taking to Nora next door before she continues on.

Unfortunately, the peace and quiet couldn't last, as she hears Yangs distinctive tread coming down the hall towards the room. 'Hopefully she's just dropping by to shower and change,' Blake thinks.

Her hopes are dashed as the door opens and Yang enters the room, hair still slightly damp from the gym showers, and throws her dirty workout clothes in the hamper. She quickly seals the top as she asks "Got a moment?"

Blake blinks, looking up over the top of her book. "For?" she asks.

"Something important," Yang says, grabbing a hairbrush out of the bathroom before sitting down on Weiss's bed.

Blake sighs, putting her bookmark in and closing the book, putting it to the side. "All right."

"What's going on between you and Ruby?" Yang asks bluntly as she works the brush through her hair.

Blake is caught completely off guard. "I, uh, what do you mean?" she stammers, ears flattening under her bow.

"I mean that right after we got back from when we met the alien, you were avoiding Ruby, but then you started spending a lot of time around her. You've spent more time with Ruby than you have with me recently, and Weiss mentioned that you've been helping Ruby with her studies more than she has."

"She's our leader. I just want to help her out," Blake says nervously.

"Help her out? Out of what, I might ask?" Yang says.

Blake blushes red. "It's not like that!"

Yang sighs. "Look, I've seen you and Ruby getting closer. I especially saw you on the trip back trying to make her feel better about the alien… thing. I just want to know one thing: Do you have a crush on Ruby?"

Blake leaps up, but before she can bolt out the door Yang says "I got Pyrrha to put a chair against the door knob out there. You aren't escaping that easily."

Blake sits back down on her bed and buries her face in her hands, face burning red. There's silence for a moment before she whispers "Yes."

Yang nods. "All right then. Now that we're on the same page, I've just got one thing to say."

Blake speaks before Yang can start her next sentence. "Let me guess: don't? Or are you going to threaten me to not act on it?"

Yang chuckles. "Nah. If you really feel that way, go for it. You're my best friend, Blake, it'd be really crappy of me to do that. If I didn't trust you with Ruby, I'd have stepped in a long time ago."

Blake is confused. "Wait, if you approve then why'd you corner me like this?"

"Because I wanted to make sure I wasn't misinterpreting what was happening."

There's silence for a few moments, the only sound being he brush running through Yang's hair before Blake says "What about Ruby?"

"What about her? If you're asking if she's got a crush on you, she hasn't said anything to me," Yang says, causing Blake to visibly deflate. "But she does like you, and she's into girls in general. If you ask, she'll almost certainly say yes."

"But what if she says no? Or what if she says yes, but it doesn't work out?" Blake frets.

"You're worried about a ray of optimistic sunshine taking you asking her out poorly? Blake, even if she turns you down Ruby won't think any less of you. And Weiss and I are here to help with any breakup that might happen."

Blake chews her lip for a moment before looking up again. "You're sure you're okay with this?"

"As your partner, I say go for it. As Ruby's sister, I give you my blessing. Now hold on and let me text Pyrrha to let her know that she can get the door unblocked."

Holding the gilded rifle that she'd used in the Merlot mission, the Operator says "This is the Veldt. It's a revolver rifle, chambered in 5.7x35mm, straightwalled. Before I show you how the rifle works, I should show you one of the bullets, since that's what makes this rifle for me." The Operator pulls out just one bullet. "This is a nova round. Take a look at it, tell me what you see."

Ruby takes the bullet in one hand as the Operator hands it over. It's similar in form to the conical bullets she's used to seeing used for armor piercing jobs, but the tip only seems to run a third of the way down before there's a clear line where it ends. Below that, she can see cutouts in the bullet running down to the bottom third, with a lead core wrapped in a thin layer of steel. Curiously, the center of the bullet seems hollow down to the base of the cutouts. "It looks like a pretty standard armor piercing bullet, but why is it hollow? You just lose on armor penetration by lowering the amount of weight in the bullet, and you'll lose energy due to squash."

The Operator nods. "You'd be correct, but you're missing one important aspect. The tip of the nova bullet is an ablative armor penetrating sabot, which is discarded after it punches though a layer of armor." The Operator pulls another bullet out. "Here's what it looks like after the tip has ablated."

The round looks menacing, with an extremely deep hollow surrounded by six pre-cut petals. "I see," Ruby says, "the steel jacket on the petals holds the round together as it goes through the target and expands, and the pre-cut petals ensure a consistent expansion."

"Exactly. The AP isn't as effective as a dedicated AP round against even a single layer of armor, and is completely ineffective if the opponent is using multiple layers of armor. But against targets that have armor it can defeat? The round is brutally effective."

"Why is it called a nova round?"

"Because it starts small and expands rapidly, and the exit wound will often look like a six-pointed star."

"Oh, that makes sense. Can it carry a payload or something? With the hollow there, it seems like it should be able to."

"In theory, yes, but it can interfere with proper expansion of the bullet, so I'll typically only run ammo with a payload on a case by case basis."

"That makes sense," Ruby says, placing the bullets back on the table. "What about the rifle though?"

The Operator pulls it off her back, laying it onto the table. "The Veldt is a double-action revolver rifle with a 26 round capacity cylinder."

Ruby looks down and inspects the exterior, not touching it yet. The brassed barrel turns out to be a fluted brass barrel shroud upon closer inspection, attached at the back by what seems to be a large speedloader and at the front by a free-floating ball bearing assembly, covered by rosewood. The hole in the front of the shroud is too large, with a gap below where the barrel rests. Looking down, Ruby traces the intricate golden inlays in the rosewood furniture. Oddly, the rifle seems to be able to be held with a sort of wire brass pistol grip or via a more traditional rifle grip. Some dark green lights are seen past the barrel shroud on the ball bearing assembly, and on top of and below the hole for the barrel itself.

Ruby looks up, confused. "How? The cylinder is nowhere near big enough for it to fit enough rounds, and there's only one barrel so it can't be a multiple-layer cylinder."

The Operator smiles, flipping the cylinder out and showing the surprised Ruby the double-layered cylinder. "You are correct that there's only one barrel, though," the Operator says.

Ruby looks confused. "Does the barrel traverse somehow? That seems weird, why would you add that point of failure?"

"The answer to that is that it doesn't fail. There's an internal track that the barrel rests upon that's attached to the cylinder. It follows the inner cylinder of 13, jumps to the outer cylinder of 13, and repeats endlessly."

"But the cylinders are honeycombed, how does it only do the half rotation of the cylinder when it changes levels?"

"There's an in-built disconnect on the track that stops the cylinder from spinning when you release the trigger when the barrel is switching."

"Doesn't that mean that you can't freely spin the cylinder? I know I saw you doing that a few times."

"That's what this little recessed lever placed where your thumb can hit it is for. It disengages the cylinder from the track so that you can spin it."

Ruby looks confused. "What? Why?"

"Tenno designed weapons are art before they are a weapon. It was important to the designer that this exist."

"I see," Ruby says.

"Anyways, as you can see the loader is not discarded after loading is complete, and instead actually helps with the stability of the platform as it fires. The Veldt is astonishingly accurate, with its only problem in my eyes being a very long and heavy trigger pull and its somewhat slow rate of fire because of that."

"It isn't really top heavy? With the size of the cylinder assembly, it looks like it should be."

The Operator shakes her head. "Not really. Most of the cylinder assembly is just a housing to keep stuff out of the more delicate moving parts."

"But it's fluted for cooling?"

"Aesthetic. The barrel barely touches the housing at all."

Ruby just looks confused. "But... why? Why is the aesthetic more important than the function?"

"Because Tenno design was heavily influenced by Orokin design, which was even more aesthetic focused. And because the Tenno are warriors and artists. Try loading and firing it."

Ruby sighs, realizing that she's not going to get more information on this out of the Operator, and picks up the Veldt and proffered loader, swinging out the cylinder and barrel assembly and inserting the loader. Closing it up manually, she takes aim downrange at the target the Operator has set up, and fires.

Or rather, she tries to, but has quite the difficulty actually pulling the trigger. "Wait, what's the trigger weight on this thing?" she turns and asks after a few unsuccessful tries, keeping the rifle pointed downrange.

"20 pound trigger," the Operator says. "You might have to pull it with two fingers."

"Why is it so heavy?"

"Designed for use by Warframes. Warframes don't tire and are stronger than humans. Also, the trigger is quite a distance from the hammer."

Ruby nods, returning her attention downrange and sliding her middle finder inside the trigger guard to assist with pulling the trigger. She squeezes, squeezes, and it finally fires. "That's a really long trigger pull, even for a double-action revolver," she says.

"Smoother than an undisturbed lake, though," the Operator says.

"Oh yeah, aside from the weight that trigger is perfect!" Ruby enthuses as she aims and fires again. After five more shots, she lowers the rifle to the table.

"All in the 10-ring, all touching each other. Nice grouping," the Operator says.

"It practically aims for me with how well it points, and the recoil is soft enough that if I don't fight it, it just resets by the time I'm ready for the next shot anyways," Ruby says in wonderment.

The Operator nods. "There's a reason why it's my favorite rifle," she says. "It might not hit as hard as a sniper rifle or as fast as an assault rifle, but it does a fine job of bridging the gap and it looks beautiful while doing it."

"It is beautiful," Ruby says, shouldering it again and aiming at a farther target. "I almost feel bad for shooting it and making it dirty."

"Don't worry about that, it just gives me a reason to clean it," the Operator says.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

The Veldt is a gorgeous weapon when colored right, and it's actually surprisingly good when built right. Don't do what nearly every YouTuber did and get seduced by the 2.2x crit multiplier and build straight crit. Take a closer look at the stats. It has 22% status – not great, but not horrible. Build it hybrid – Serration|Split Chamber|+CC|+CD|TOX 60/60|COLD 60/60|Hunter's Munitions|Vigilante Armaments. For rivens, you want 2 of Crit Chance, Status Chance, and Multishot. Tier 2 (nice but not necessary) is Crit Damage and Damage. If you get the riven, Vigilante Armaments is the droppable mod. (I picked up a near god-roll +CC/+SC+DMG about 6 weeks ago and it's amazing.) I almost don't want a Veldt Prime because they'll probably screw up the aesthetic or add another pointless gimmick (as memeable as the zoom is, it's actually kind of useful on Plains and Vallis).

Also real talk it's a life goal to get a rifle with rosewood furniture. Import bans (rosewoods are universally anywhere from threatened to endangered) make that expensive, but good god the grain and color is just gorgeous.