How about another quick chapter before I drive up to Grandmas house for Thanksgiving?
Chapter 18: New threat on the horizon
Unknown
"What's the status of Cinder?" A man asked.
"She's been compromised and is under Atlesian military custody." A second replied in an annoyed tone.
"Useless bitch." The first commented with a hint of anger.
"Now gentlemen, there's no need to be concerned." A third, calmer and more authoritative person said. The other two turned the man sitting behind his desk with his hands clasped together.
"She was unable to upload the virus and Ironwood has already updated the Atlesian battle network with significantly improved defense protocols." The first one argued.
"Although it would've been nice if it was uploaded then and there, it's only a minor setback. We can easily create a new one and upload it at a later time." The third man calmly explained.
"What if Cinder or her cohorts say something during an interrogation?" The second asked.
"She knows better than to say anything to the Atlesians. As for the other two, they're useless and won't be a problem." The first replied to him.
"Still, we should make sure they never get the chance." The second one argued.
"We'll deal with her at a later time. For now, we need to press forward and commence the next phase." The third one started. "Since Cinder is out of commission and we have no other assets in Vale at the moment, we'll need to get ahold of that Torchwick person she was working with and make sure he continues on with the plan."
"It'll be done sir." The first one replied.
"Provided everything goes accordingly, either Vale, Atlas or both kingdoms will request that more Atlesian forces be stationed in Vale for the festival." The third one continued.
"Considering that the people of Vale are upset about the Atlesian forces already there, adding additional troops will benefit us in the long run." The second added.
"Speaking of which, I understand that it was a training evolution between Ironwoods forces and an unknown group of men that caused this friction between the two kingdoms by exposing the empty words of Atlas to Vale and the rest of the kingdoms. Did you happen to find anything about these unknown men?" The third asked the first man.
"I'm afraid we haven't." The third raised an eyebrow. "We've scoured deep within all of Vale's databanks and only found heavily redacted files on them. We're already expanding the search parameters to the rest of Remnant, but it's not looking good." He explained.
"Redacted to the point that we can't get anything on them?" The second asked the first.
"The headmaster of Beacon, Ozpin, has a unique protective encryption on their files that seems to block any remote hacking we can do from here. If we want to get in, then we'll either need him to unlock it or we'll need someone to get direct access to his personal computer and disable it from there." The first one reiterated what the intelligence guys told him.
"After Cinder's stunt, Beacon is going to be locked down tighter than Schnee Manor." The second commented.
"Then perhaps we get someone on the inside to do it for us." The third one said.
"Who do you suggest?" The first asked.
"Not 'who, but 'what'." The other two gave the third a curious look. "If I remember correctly, Ironwood took an Atlesian scientists pet project with him to Vale. A Dr. Polendina if I'm not mistaken." The two looked at the third while he pulled up a picture of a young girl followed by schematics for what looked like a robot. The two then realized that the girl was the robot. "While the new virus is being created, have them find a way to "convince" her to hit both Ozpin's computer and the Atlesian network." The third said with a hint of smug satisfaction.
"Creating the viruses isn't the hard part, it's getting them uploaded. The one to get into the battle network and subsequently the CCTV requires you to upload it manually from a terminal. The one for Polendina's project can be done remotely, but we can't do it this far out in our location. Someone within Vale's city limits has to remotely upload it." The second one explained.
"If necessary, we'll send some of our own men to Vale to complete the task. But we'll cross that bridge when the viruses are ready. Until then, get ahold of Torchwick and make sure he continues the operation. Wire him more money if he's reluctant." The third ordered to the first.
"And if he still refuses?"
"If he values his miserable life, he shouldn't refuse." The third replied. As the first one left to contact Roman, the third then turned to the second. "In the meantime, keep searching every nook and cranny for anything on those unknown forces. It's not a major priority, but it certainly deserves our attention."
"Yes sir." The second one said before leaving the third one alone in his office.
"Hmm. Interesting names. They don't appear to follow the color rule." He thought to himself will looking over what little information he has on the Russians.
Torchwick's Hideout
"Where is that damn woman?" Roman asked his partner Neo, who only shrugged in response. Ever since he was "recruited" by Cinder, the feeling of being stabbed in the back and left for dead has constantly hung over his shoulder. The money was nice for the work they've been doing, considering it's been non-stop. Gathering up every bit of Dust in Vale, using the black market and the seedy underbelly of the city to smuggle weapons to terrorists and stealing Atlesian military equipment. He's no stranger when it comes to questionable tasks for money, but the logical side of him fails to see the purpose behind all this activity. It doesn't help that Cinder hasn't told him jack shit about anything. His scroll suddenly rang, but it was a video call from a number he didn't recognize. Assuming it was Cinder, he pushed the button to answer. "Is that you Cindy?" He answered with mock politeness.
"I'm afraid not." A male voice replied, causing both Roman and Neo to look at the screen in surprise. What they saw was only the upper half of a man, however his face was hidden in the shadows due to the lighting, most likely done on purpose. The only thing notable was that the man was wearing a gray, military looking uniform. Of where or who it belongs to, they had no idea.
"Sorry officer, but this number is no longer in service." Roman taunted before ending the call, thinking he was a cop. The screen was black for only a few seconds before the video call returned, leaving the two surprised on how that happened.
"I'm not a policeman and if you hang up on me again, you'll end up in Cinder's current position." The man said in a threatening tone.
"How did you…never mind. What happend to Cinder?" Roman asked with Neo watching.
"She has been captured by the Atlesians and now the responsibility of continuing the operation lies on you, Torchwick, Roman. Age 32, born in Vale, Six foot three, 185 pounds, green eyes and orange hair. Dropped out of school at age 17 when mother became terminally ill and resorted to petty theft to finance her treatment. Arrested after failed robbery of convenience store and sentenced to 8 months in jail. Discovered mothers passing during fourth month of incarceration. Multiple arrests by the Vale Police Department and wanted for several counts of robbery, racketeering, hijacking, counterfeiting, arms trafficking, kidnaping, ransom, arson, assault and homicide…just to list a few examples." The man said with a hint of amusement while Roman and Neo were stunned that this guy knew so much.
"Um okay, are you going to explain how you have all that information or are you going to continue to be the mysterious figure who knows it all?" Roman asked, sarcasm dripping from his lips, but with hints of anger about the mentioning of his mother.
"Simply put, we can hack scrolls, and have eyes and ears everywhere." He explained.
"Fair enough. Now what's this about Cinder being captured?" Roman asked.
"Nothing that concerns you, but like I said, with her no longer in the picture, you're going to have to continue her progress." Roman motioned for him to continue. "The Dust you've been collecting, are they at their destinations?"
"Yup, half of it went to the White Fang base in Mountain Glen, and the other is stored in those warehouses for ANTIFA to access later. Which reminds me, why am I supplying two terrorist groups that hate each other's guts?" Roman casually asked.
"Now Roman, you of all people should know that asking questions will get you nowhere." The man sarcastically mocked.
"You know me so well." He replied with his own sarcasm,
"Of course we do. Now back to the subject, I need you to oversee the White Fang at Mountain Glen to make sure those fanatics don't screw this up."
"Not like those ANTIFA guys are any smarter." Roman commented.
"True, but after careful consideration, the White Fang operation requires more careful timing and precision, thus having the higher probability of failure." Out of the two, ANTIFA is slightly more competent than the White Fang. But like Roman said, it's negligible at best.
"I don't know, working with a bunch of angry Faunus in a dead city inhabited by Grimm seems awfully dangerous…" He decided to test his luck, sensing that without Cinder, he's this guys' only option.
"Check your account." Neo pulled up their account on her scroll and they both were shocked at the extra 10 million lien that was added.
"Well when you put it that way…" Roman started, but the man interrupted him.
"Head over to Mountain Glen as soon as possible." He said Flatley.
"You got it." Roman replied with a smile.
"Remember Torchwick: If you screw this up or try and fuck us over, we will find you and we will make sure you disappear from the face of Remnant…forever." The man said in an ominous tone before ending the call. Roman's smile turned into a frown and he let out a deep breath.
"Maybe we shouldn't have joined Cinder so eagerly." He said to Neo, who nodded in agreement. "The money's nice don't get me wrong, but I have a bad feeling about that guy. And if I'm having bad feelings about someone, then you know something's wrong." Once again Neo nodded with a concern look on her face. "Well we bit off more than we can chew, and now we're stuck doing the biddings of I assume, Cinder's boss. Maybe when this is all said and done, we cash out and go retire to Mistral or Vacuo?" He asked Neo who smiled and nodded in agreement. "Come on, let's get going."
Ozpin's office, a few days later
With Cinder and her crew locked away in an Atlesian holding facility, Ironwood and Ozpin were momentarily afforded an opportunity to breathe easy. Though interrogations haven't been going well, it's nice to know that the virus they found on Cinder's scroll wasn't uploaded into the tower. Greg also ended being correct about their scrolls being jammed that night, when they found jamming devices on Emerald and Mercury. There's devices out there that can block scroll calls, but the one's those two had were heavy duty, state of the art devices that no normal person should have access to. Since then, the network defenses have been upgraded and hopefully they can get Cinder talking. Until then, they'll have to keep their eyes and ears open for more of Cinder's allies.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to send Ruby and her team to investigate a possible White Fang base in Mountain Glen? I mean, what if they find something?" Alex asked.
"Bartholomew knows that they're on a scouting mission and will take the necessary steps to ensure team RWBY's safety." Ozpin replied, admiring Alex's protective nature.
"All I'm saying is that me and the guys could've done the scouting." Alex pointed out. Ironwood then stepped in.
"True, but there's a good chance that they may not find anything at all, unlike the confirmed threat Schnee found out while on patrol." Ironwood said, looking over at Winter.
"There's been strange reports of excess trucks and personal in and around these warehouses over by the Northeast perimeter wall of the city near Forever Fall." Winter started off while pointing to a map of the city. "Additionally, police reports say that dozens of people have gone missing recently, and they've been identified as people who live close by to the area." Alex didn't like the sound of that. "While on patrol, I have confirmed that there are indeed armed personal working around that area close to the wall. Due to the area being mostly isolated, they're able to move about without interference from the general populace and local authorities. It's possible that there maybe a link between them and the missing people, but we can't confirm it. And finally last night, there was visual confirmation that the armed personal were members of ANTIFA." Winter finished, leaving Alex pondering about the mention of the terror organization.
Anti-Faunus Action originally started off in Vale and was a direct response to when the White Fang became more violent and started attacking businesses and neighborhoods. Believing that the police weren't enough to protect them, a bunch of people came together to form a militia that would be used to counter White Fang attacks. The group was originally called Anti-Fang Action, due to the now radicalized Faunus group. Unlike the White Fang, ANTIFA didn't have a central leadership structure and was limited only to Vale. As the White Fangs attacks continued worldwide, other ANTIFA chapters began forming in the other kingdoms with the same goal to protect innocent Humans from the attacks. Eventually, the leaders and founding members of these different chapters decided to meet up and talk about solidifying their movement under one banner with the intention that they can confront the White Fang head on, and possibly end the violence. However, disaster struck when a bomb went off at the hotel the leaders were staying at, killing all of them. The White Fang sent out a response saying that they would never work with Humans and hoped that the attack would break up the group.
But it didn't. The attack led to ANTIFA uniting underneath the leadership of some of the groups more radical members who pointed out that trying to work with the Faunus will go nowhere and will lead to more deaths like their original leaders. Soon enough, they became more militarized and changed the name from Anti-Fang Action, to Anti-Faunus Action. The new leadership declared that Humans and Faunus cannot coexist on Remnant and in the end, only one species shall remain on Remnant. White Fang and ANTIFA skirmishes became a new norm that left members of each group dead and of course, the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. And just like that, ANTIFA started acting like the people they were originally protecting other people from.
"A terrorist group hanging around an isolated area, moving trucks in and out, with people missing, all near the perimeter wall that keeps the Grimm out of the city? Surprised you guys didn't go in guns blazing." Alex commented to Ironwood and Winter.
"As much as I would, I can't just have my troops moving around the city kicking down doors and blowing up buildings. There's already enough tension between us and the locals." Ironwood said in an annoyed tone.
"Plus, I'm sure those guys probably have a vast network throughout the city, keeping watch if your forces are going to move in or not." Alex said.
"They get one whiff of our troops moving towards them, and they're going to bug out before we can get there." Ironwood admitted, knowing the days of conventional fighting are long gone.
"I guess that's where me and the guys come into play?" Alex asked with a smirk. He was wondering if they were going to ever going to do military operation since their…demise.
"We need someone to go in and find out what those guys are up to, and if possible, put a stop to it." Ironwood said. It didn't take long for Alex to come up with his reply.
"Okay. When do you need us ready?" Alex asked. Despite no legal obligations, it's his moral obligations of being a soldier and protector that overrules any objections. Greg and the others have similar values.
"As soon as possible. Get yourself and your men geared up and meet over by the docks where you'll get a quick overview of the area." Ironwood replied. It was then that Winter stepped in.
"Sir, with your permission, I think it would be best if I were to accompany Sgt. Volkov during this operation." Winter said, gaining looks from both Alex and Ironwood. "I have an extensive knowledge of the area and can provide valuable combat support."
"True, having an Aura user would help us out." Alex started off. "But I think you also want to go looking for those missing paladins, right?" He asked, smirking at Winter. When Alex heard about how the military "misplaced" a bunch of new experimental weapons, Alex couldn't help but chuckle. Only the military can somehow lose track of giant fighting robots. It made him feel a little homesick.
"While yes, I do want to locate them just as much General Ironwood does, it doesn't change the fact that you four don't have Aura and that there's a good chance that you may be confronted by former Huntsmen." Winter pointed out. After sitting in during his lectures, she'll admit that the combined knowledge of the four was something unexpected, but not unwelcomed. New tactics and strategies were always nice to have on hand. Additionally, she found herself participating during the physical conditioning and unarmed techniques. As it turns out, she and Alex are about evenly matched when it comes to fighting unarmed, where the fights can go either way. By now, she has a strong respect for the Russians and their unique abilities they bring to the table.
And of course, her respect and admiration for Alex also increased. A strong capable fighter with a natural knack for leadership, in addition to being clever and resourceful, is someone Winter can tolerate. His professionalism and maturity were other traits that Winter liked about him. It perfectly balanced with the friendlier, caring and wittier parts of his overall down to Remnant personality. In short, she can describe him as the perfect soldier who can balance between work and play and is much more sociable and personal than she is. But the one thing she'll never say out loud and hates herself for thinking about it, is that she'll admit Alex is not…bad looking. He's tall, though she has a few inches on him but it's not really noticeable. A strong and lean athletic build from what she can tell, and a face that she reluctantly admits, is quite handsome. She would hate for a fine young man and worthy adversary to meet an untimely death at the hands of a rouge Huntsman.
"How thoughtful of you Specialist." Alex cheekily replied, earning a slight glare from Winter.
"She may have a point, but since you'll be in charge of this operation, the choice is up to you." Ironwood addressed to Alex. He thought it over for a few moments, weighing his options.
"Even though me and the guys have a way to compensate for a lack of Aura, it doesn't change the fact we can't leap across large gaps or do crazy acrobatics and what not. And I have seen the usefulness and versatility of Specialist Schnee's Semblance in action, to which she is very skilled and graceful with." Alex addressed that last part to Winter, who accepted the compliment while keeping her aloofness on the outside. "With that said, Greg is obviously going to provide overwatch and sniper support from an elevated position, so he won't be running around and clearing rooms. Likewise, from what I can tell from that warehouse area, it's going to be very cramped and confined, and Ivan's machinegun may not be the best weapon to use in close quarters, so he'll be stationed with Greg, ready to bail us out if necessary. That just leaves me and Nick doing the legwork in a very large and unknown area. An extra set of hands would be helpful" Alex explained.
"I take it that's a 'yes'?" Ironwood asked, and Alex nodded. He then turned to Winter.
"First things first, you need to get into a more comfortable and conspicuous uniform for this operation. Bright white will not do." Alex addressed to Winter, who kept a straight face.
"We don't have any uniforms with your unique camouflage design, but we have an all-black variant of the field uniform." Winter replied, understanding his logic.
"Better than bright white. Speaking of which, I'm sure you've noticed that we wear balaclavas?" She nodded. "You may want to follow suit and conceal yourself." Alex said.
"Is that really necessary?" Ironwood asked.
"Well one, she has bright white hair that sticks out. Two, she's a well-known and recognized person thanks to her family and her military status. And three, there's a good chance that if they notice her, they'll assume the Atlesians are on the move, and suddenly your troops are going to become targets to random attacks, or they may increase attacks on civilians and blame it on the increased presence of troops in the city." Winter took another moment to think about what Alex said.
"I don't suppose you have another of those balaclavas on hand?" She asked, agreeing with what Alex explained.
"I can loan you my spare one." He simply said.
"Anything else?" Winter asked.
"Yeah, your sword. Bring it with you but consider bringing a ranged weapon that can have a suppressor attached to it. Shooting ice and fire from your sword isn't very stealthy, unless you want to get close up and stab everyone." Alex commented. Winter's abilities are powerful and cool to look at, but they're a little to flashy and attention grabbing for Alex's liking.
"The fact that you assume this is going to end up in a firefight is slightly unsettling." Winter replied.
"Will it not?" Winter looked over to Ironwood, who gave her a serious look.
"I'll see if I can find a suitable sidearm." She said, not wanting to address his question.
"I can provide whatever support and equipment you all may need." Ironwood added.
"Thanks General. Alright, let's get geared up and meet at the docks in 15 minutes." Alex said to Winter, who nodded in agreement.
A/N:
Next couple of chapters will be getting back into the action. This was just the set up.
Remember to show how thankful you are for what you already have by trampling and fighting random strangers for Black Friday sales.
Hawk out.