So this time we are reintroduced to someone we met in Beurling's trailer so if you want to know that happened then check it out.
Also this one has been delayed as internet issues have been a pain.
Now it has been asked but sorry no James Ironwood is not in an active role in this, the story is 55 years before the main series and if he was in the army at 18 he'd be 73 at the time of RWBY, now i'm not saying it's impossible but if Ironwood is that old then he's looking good for his age and i want his secrets. Will he turn up in another way, we'll see.
Also check below for the character inspirations and i hope you enjoy.
Frenda woke up to Maple handing her a cup of coffee "Time to get up sleepy head." she spoke with a smile. Frenda sat up and took the cup of coffee "Beurling and Tomoko up?".
"Yeah, we got about two hours before we need to get to the landing pad, so don't be long." Maple yawned still a little tired, as she headed out the room.
After having stretched, showered and changed, Frenda came out into the main room to see Tomoko and Maple checking their guns, Beurling was busy loading all the extra ammo she could into her leather back pack. Maple was checking her sights making sure the rear sights, which were flipped up, were in the correct position.
Once the team was ready, they made their way to the landing pad where they were met by Tammy who was busy putting a motorbike into the transport while Fídi was watching her headmaster struggle with the bike.
"You ready to go?" Fídi asked when the group came up to the transport.
"Yep, ready and rearing to go" Frenda replied with a smirk.
"I like the enthusiasm." Fídi smiled "Just don't get cocky now, pride come before a fall."
"Oh, come on Fídi, their just excited." Tammy spoke as she finally got the motorbike in its correct place. "Now let's get aboard, we need to get going."
The team walked on to the transport that was packed with Tammy's motorbike on one side, which Frenda now noticed had the Falcon in a cage mounted on the back, once again the Falcon watched the team intently.
"Anyone else get the feeling the Falcons sizing us up for lunch?" Frenda asked aloud.
"He does that to everyone." Fídi answered "You get used to it."
Once the students and teachers were in the transport the transports door closed and it took off, Tammy and Fídi were on the other side of the transport to the team who were busy catching up properly on their holiday's after their first year.
"So how was the family?" Beurling asked Tomoko.
"Good, sister and mom are still their usual self, still worrying about me." Frenda and the others noticed that Tomoko had never once mentioned her dad, although none of them ever asked about it, they suspected it wasn't a positive story.
"Did you tell them about the…you know?" Beurling asked.
"I kind of had to, my sister walked in as I was changing and saw the scar, which led to a whole bunch of questions."
"Oh right." Beurling spoke looking at the floor.
"Hey." Tomoko smiled placing her hand on Beurling's shoulder while smiling warmly "It's ok."
Beurling smiled back. Frenda shared a knowing look with Maple before asking "How was the tribe?"
"They are good, Aada is finding the responsibilities I put on her a bit daunting, I worry I've put a bit too much on her."
"Hey, I'm sure she's fine, besides if you picked her to look after them then they're in good hands, I got faith in your judgement and I'm sure they do to." Frenda spoke to her leader who smiled at her words.
"Thanks, I just worry about them, I left so I could get better and go back to train them, not leave them to be stressed."
"Hey, they've had you to look after them and they trusted you, now trust them not to crumble without you guide them for a short period of time, so no more doubting ok."
Frenda saw her leader smile, even though Maple and Beurling usually looked after herself and Tomoko it didn't mean the roles couldn't be reversed every now and then.
After a few more stories mostly on Beurling's time with Klara and Frenda's minor incidents getting involved in fights in the city, which caused Maple to hold her head in her hands and groaning. The team then heard a cry from behind them looking back they saw Tammy feeding the Falcon which was still in its cage.
"Sorry for the interruption." Tammy apologised.
"Does the bird have a name?" Tomoko asked.
"He's called Sam." Tammy replied which got Sam to respond.
"Why you bringing him?" Frenda asked.
"Oh, I use him to scout, even on my bike he's much faster than me."
"How's that work?"
"Training, you'll see." Fídi spoke up "She's had the bird since I've known her."
Tammy smiled "He's my oldest friend, we've been through a lot."
"So, anything on this Atlas force we are working with?" Maple asked.
"No, now until I say otherwise, I want you all not to wonder off by yourselves I don't trust these people fully yet, especially around our Faunus members, so Beurling, Frenda I want you to stick to your partners like glue." Tammy explianed. "Any other questions?"
When no one else spoke up Tammy went back to her seat, the rest of the flight went without incident and after a few hours the group heard they were coming up for landing.
Once the ship touched down the door opened. To reveal the base, all around was aircraft and trucks, all around were soldiers some were loading stuff. As they stepped off the transport, with Beurling helping Tammy get her bike off the transport, Frenda noticed a group of three soldiers walking towards them.
Two of them looked like typical soldiers, but the third looked familiar to Frenda like she knew him.
"Excuse me, but which one of you is the head master of Shade academy." asked the officer. Then it hit Frenda as to who the officer was.
"That would be me." Tammy responded "And you are?"
"Captain Sininen Spee." Frenda spoke to the surprise of all around.
The officer smiled "Hello sis, guess we're working together then."
"Just try and not get hurt this time." Frenda retorted.
"Hey that was your fault with your bombs." Sininen replied "Anyway, there will be time to catch up later, the Colonel is waiting for you, so if you'll kindly follow me."
The six of them followed Sininen to a dull grey building, once they were inside the team noticed quite a few looks mostly directed at Maple and Tomoko.
"Guessing they haven't seen a lot of Faunus." Beurling spat quietly.
"Faunus are in the military, but they tend to be in segregated units under a human officer, only officers and guests are allowed in this building, so they are likely popping veins right now." Sininen spoke with a satisfied grin.
Just then they came to a pair of double doors before they entered Sininen spoke again "I hope you're ready, the major is quite the pain."
Once they opened the doors, they saw a series of benches and desks in front, it reminded Frenda of being in school. At the far end was pair of officers their white and blue uniforms clean and well maintained. The first was a male, he had an eye patch on his left eye, a scar on his left cheek and seemed to be smiling about something.
The second was a woman, Frenda got an immediate cold and judging feeling from her, a feeling that was reinforced by the glare she was giving Maple and Tomoko. It was then further reinforced by Beurling muttering under her breath.
"Pardon?" Maple asked.
"I know that woman." Beurling whispering her words.
"How?" Frenda whispered.
"I may or may not have punched her into a wall, when she was hounding a Faunus before coming to Shade."
Maple sighed but kept quiet as the officers were coming up to them and Tammy stepped forward to speak to them.
"Good morning." spoke the man as she held out his hand "Lieutenant Colonel Ironclad, Second Atlas light infantry."
"Do you always smile like that at a formal greeting." Tammy asked shaking his hand.
"I'm not smiling ma'am, a bullet in the war from a soldier of Vacuo, one of your raiders I believe, broke my jaw, stuck the smile on for free."
"Oh, not one of mine I hope."
"Ah, so we were shooting at each other in the war then."
"That an issue?" Fídi asked coming up to stand next to Tammy.
"Not in the slightest." Ironclad laughed.
Tammy smile back "You'll do fine."
"This is Major Violet Steel." Ironclad introduces the woman standing next to him.
The major shook Tammy's hand before she glanced at the team. Frenda got the idea that this Violet person was thinking why on earth Faunus were here and this made her blood simmer slightly. Then her gaze fell on Beurling.
"You!" shouted the Major, walking past Tammy and Fídi.
Beurling sighed and took a step forward "Yes, its me."
"What the hell are you doing here?" The major spat "Shouldn't you be in a cell for assaulting someone or something?"
"Apparently my team and I are here to clean up one of your messes." Beurling retorted, stepping between the major and her team while crossing her arms.
"You're a huntress?" the major scoffed "Vacuo must be getting desperate."
"Not as desperate as you apparently, needing our help." Beurling glared at the major "What happened, to busy stuck in a wall to do your job right."
"Beurling, stop." Tomoko grabbed Beurling's wrist "We need to work together."
Frenda then saw the major give an evil smile. "Oh boy, here we go." Frenda thought to herself. True enough her prediction came true.
"At least your puppy dog knows who's in charge, though I'm not surprised she's holding your leash."
"What did you just call her?" Beurling growled through gritted teeth. As Tomoko moved in front of her to hold her back in a hug like hold. Frenda had to admit if it wasn't that Maple had grabbed her shoulder just as the major spoke, she'd be swinging with Beurling right now.
"Beurling stand down!" Maple shouted keeping her grip on Frenda's shoulder.
"Major, apologies." Ironclad ordered.
"Sir?"
"You heard me, or would you like a demotion to cleaning the latrines for the rest of your career."
"I apologies." The Major spoke through gritted teeth, Frenda got the feeling that the apology almost caused physical pain.
"Apology accepted." Beurling spoke though she too looked like she'd just been burned by accepting the apology.
"Now that we're all up to speed, shall we begin?" Ironclad asked.
The major nodded and left the room, Frenda's brother motioned for the team to sit down only Tammy remained standing next to Ironclad.
Frenda sat next to Maple with Fídi and Sininen sitting next to them Beurling and Tomoko sat behind.
"I told you the major was a pain."
"You weren't kidding." Frenda growled. "Beurling and I were going to rip her in two."
"Who says I'd let you help." Beurling added.
"Hey, I'm not going to let you have all the fun beating the racists."
"How about you don't beat anyone in a base full of armed soldiers." Maple sighed. "We're not trying to start the war again, thank you."
After a few minutes a horde of soldiers entered the room. They looked much less smart then Ironclad and Violet but they looked much more ready for a fight Frenda thought, as they entered, they went to their seats filling up the room, some were giving glances at Tammy and the team mostly to Maple and Tomoko earning glares from Beurling and herself.
"Now I remember why I left Atlas." Frenda thought.
"Are we all in?" Ironclad spoke.
"Yes sir." Violet saluted.
"Good now we will begin." Ironclad spoke as he pulled down a screen that was attached to the wall just then the lights dimmed and a projector turned on "Now, two days ago an Atlas transport was shot down on its way here, it crashed landed here, sadly the crew were killed in the crash." Ironclad spoke while pointing at the map "The transport carrying the crew and this young woman who was not found, this is who we are looking for."
The projector screen switched to picture of a woman. She had rather pale hair and baby blue eyes, she also had white top on from the screen and a light blue headband. The picture then turned to the map again.
"We will fly to this abandoned fortress here and then have to drive to the area we believe the woman was taken." Ironclad continued. "Our mission is to rescue her and any other prisoners they have captured."
"Sorry sir but what are they doing here?" Spoke one of the soldiers nodding in the team's direction.
"They are huntresses from Shade Academy plus one of their teacher and the headmaster, they are out guides and experts in this area." Ironclad spoke "And you will listen to them and give them all due respect."
"Including the servants sir?" asked the soldier. Frenda could almost hear Beurling's teeth grating.
"Yes private, even the Faunus and you will not refer to them as servants, I already had to scold the major for such behaviour and I'm sure that the huntress with the beret will be more than happy to argue the point with you."
Frenda looked behind to see Beurling standing, her flames ignited and glaring at the soldier who immediately shrank back to his seat once he noticed.
"Now I'll hand you over to Professor Tammy Eda Laurent, headmistress of Shade Academy to give you a briefing on the group of bandits we'll be dealing with and anything else you need to know."
Tammy took a step forward "This group of bandits, are called the Scorpions, they are mostly, sadly, former soldiers of the Vacuo army from the war, when the war ended Vacuo was cutting the army down and this left many former soldiers unemployed, to survive they turned to banditry, so do not let the word bandit fool you, these are vicious fighters and they will kill you." Frenda found the sad look Tammy gave as she was talking about the bandit rather peculiar, but they fought in the great war and Tammy had fought in the war to, so Frenda put it down to a sense of brothers and sister in arms.
Frenda suddenly felt a chill down her spine, she remembered that name that was the group they had faced that day at the settlement with SHAD, the one that had got Tomoko injured. On one hand she was raring to get some pay back for last time, but she also remembered that the group had been quite the challenge. "Still at least we got the jump on them this time." she thought to herself.
"Why can't we fly straight there and drop on top of them?" the Major asked.
"Their base is built into a mountain, with an overhang to cover the fortification forcing you to land in front of them, the only way to get to them safely is on foot." Tammy spoke "Plus we will need a base close by to deal with any wounded."
"How many we looking at?" Beurling asked.
"Unknown, we know they have about a thousand five hundred, but weather they have more or not is up for debate."
"Any more questions?" Ironclad spoke. When no-one spoke, the colonel spoke again "Right, we go in thirty minutes, captain Spee, I'm given to understand you know one of the huntresses here."
"Yes sir, she's my sister." Frenda's brother spoke while standing up.
"Good, then you'll be attached to the huntresses for this trip to act as liaison." Sininen nodded. "Let's get going." Ironclad spoke, as one the soldiers stood up and started filing out the room.
"Looks like your stuck with me again sis." Frenda heard her brother say.
"Better you then the major, come on." Frenda spoke as she followed her team.
Once all the soldiers were ready, they started to file into their transports. Frenda and her team mounted one and took off first, leading the fleet of transports.
"How many troops are you bringing?" Frenda asked her brother as she looked out one of the windows.
"The colonel thought about one hundred and fifty would be enough." Sininen spoke looking back into the transport "So you going to introduce us?"
"Oh course, Maple my lead and partner she's the one with the headband." Frenda spoke, Sininen offered a hand to Maple who shook it.
"You don't seem to have issue with Faunus then." Beurling spoke up.
"That smoker with the beret is Beurling and sat next to her is Tomoko." Frenda spoke up "Careful with her she hates Faunus racism."
Sininen smiled "I think we'll get on great then." he spoke shaking Beurling and Tomoko's hand "And to answer the question I don't have an issue with Faunus, it would be quite hypocritical of me to do so seeing as I'm married to one."
The team looked at Frenda "Yes it's true." Frenda spoke.
You can almost hear the walls in that building screaming as Beurling and Violet were squaring off.
Character inspiration three this week:
Ironclad: He is based of the Character captian Fredrickson from the Sharpe books and TV show he is also based off a real life captain Aarne Edward Juutilaninen, both of them were heavily wounded in the story and real life respectively and were not scared to get into the fight.
Sininen: his name is blue in Finnish and he is loosely based off Hornblower the TV show version.
Violet Steel: Yes she is related to Blau. It won't be mentioned but she is Blau's older sister and they are both inspired by Cordovin, although Violet is slightly more capable.