You can ensure the safety of your defence if you only hold positions that cannot be attacked – Sun Tzu, Art of War

Waking up beneath the bitter patter of rain on her tarpaulin Ruby sat up. She had slept surprisingly well given the anxiousness that plagued her mind at this moment of revolution. Looking around from beneath the waterproof fabric she spied that most soldiers were still asleep but some had already come out in their armour to secure themselves some breakfast.

Putting on her Black armour she donned the hood of the camouflage smock she'd been issued and with her mess kit in hand headed over to the congregation of soldiers. The mud was fortunately not too thick but slimy enough that she nearly tripped a few times on her journey to what appeared to be a re-purposed hot dog stand.

"Vegie or No Vegie, she was asked by the man behind the counter with a can opener"

"Non-vegetarian" replied she

"Right, here you go" said the cook as she was handed a can of some kind of stew of beans and Vienna sausage.

Making her way back she managed to avoid the slippery parts by traversing via the gravel trach which wound not too far from her squad's camp. Seeing one of the five tents open up she was met with the squad leader's keen eye "Good morning Overseer" said the woman groggily

"You too squad lead, what is the plan for today?"

"I think they're going to broadcast our declaration of independence on live TV worldwide so that Atlas cannot ignore us. That will be at like eight or so; perhaps pack up your tent and arm up meanwhile? As you can see we won't be up for a while"


Following the woman's advice Ruby packed up her sleeping bag but kept the groundsheet and tarp over her head; she ate the lukewarm stew in silence, watching the cap slowly come to life as the time towards the broadcast neared. Eventually the rain stopped and seeing no reason to remain under her tarpaulin she took it and the groundsheet down. Now fully packed up and with her mess kit washed and ready to go, she walked over to the resto of the squad; most of them eating or packing up their tents.

"Attention!" Yelled an officer walking by their tents, "y'all need to be at the command bunker ASAP! Get moving!"

Nobody stopped to question him and Ruby found herself running full speed along with the rest of the squad to the bunker. A large portion of the soldiers were already lined up there; some packed and ready for combat, others were closer to her squad in that regard "Hello Men!" Began the General "today is a historic day for our nation, we will finally be free of Atlas!" a cheer erupted from the men and he continued "Now should they chose the peaceful route we will meet them with open arms, however they could also attack in order to 'reclaim' their former lands. And I am personally betting on the former, I expect each and every one of you to take at least ten of those fancy pants bastards and their tin cans to the grave with you, if you don't I will dig down to hell and strangle you alive! Do you understand men!?"

"Sir yes Sir" replied the soldiers in front of him

"Good, now squad leaders to me; I'll tell you where your squads' posts are. Everyone else dismissed!"


Although she technically didn't have to Ruby stayed behind with her squad leader along with a majority of the other Overseers and even a few regular soldiers. They all gathered around the general and he began to speak up once again "Now the places you will be posted have been sent to your scrolls, the real reason I've asked you to stay is to share the results of some testing with you. We have obtained some Atlas armour and one of their latest Knight 200s and the results show that… our Breaker Rifles cannot penetrate their armour, not even talking of our handguns or the new MR37s"

The comment was met with almost universal hushed whispering before the General waived for them to calm down "However, after putting the armour on a mannequin with bones and organs in it we have found that while a round to the head will not penetrate the armour it will simply snap the soldier's neck, as for a chest hit we have found that it will often crush the ribs. Causing the soldier to suffocate if they don't receive immediate medical attention. As for the arms or legs they will either be torn at the ligaments or even snapped off"

This was certainly a relief to the whole group as they all felt visibly more at ease as the General continued "Handguns are however completely unable to do damage unless hitting an unarmoured area, same goes for the MR37 and any other rifle chambered bellow 9.23mm. fortunately we are mostly armed with Breakers so this shouldn't be much of an issue. As for their Knight 200 androids it is pretty much the same thing as with the soldier's armour. In other words shoot as normal unless you have something below 9.23mm in which case avoid firing unless in CQB in which case spray the bastards and pray to god you hit a weak point. That is all, any questions?"


There being none we swiftly left and headed back to our own little camps. Arriving a mere moments later we saw two new faces, one carried a large 20mm Anti-tank Rifle while the other assumingly carried the ammunition given the size of his bag "You 2-2 Echelon?"

"Yeah" answered one of the now packed up and ready soldiers "You with us?"

"Yep, I've also been assigned to hand you this" He handed a large Crate to the man "You are to take this and mark it on the map somewhere as a resupply point for our forces"

"Will you be setting up with us or elsewhere?" interjected the squad leader

"Nah we'll be in one of the windows of this place" he took out a phone and tapped on a building to the left of ours "The street will provide us with a long sight range and you're not too far to the point where you can't save our asses if shit goes down"


Just then several trucks arrived and began ferrying troops to wherever they needed to go. But given the proximity of their assigned location they decided to just walk "Hey that's old lady Quenzo's place, I heard she does good cookies and stuff" noted one of the soldiers "Hey leads, can I get us some? I mean they'll spoil if no one eats them"

"Alright Addams, but leave her some lien as compensation and don't break in if the door is locked"

Luckily for them the door wasn't locked and Ruby soon got to enjoy a rarity she hadn't eaten since Beacon "Ohhh…" she made an almost raspy sound "Give me some…"

The Addams man certainly didn't question that when she was given the bag it only remained full for about thirty seconds before being blown away by the morning wind.

As a result once in their position She was left with a huge sugar withdrawal and the others constantly mocking her for being a glutton while eating the remains of what bread or other things Addams brought "Hey shit up y'all, the broadcast is about to begin!"

Everyone crowded around the telly they'd found and watched intently as the speech began…


The screen showed a map with all the kingdoms in white and a new one in Red

"Hello People of Remnant, we are the Citizens of a new Kingdom known as Mycelle. When Atlas abandoned us back in 1996 they thought that we would all die, they thought that we would succumb to the hordes of Grimm. Well they were wrong. Now we have built a new nation from the ground up and it is now time for us to formally declare ourselves to be a sovereign state! No longer will be at all be governed from the far shores of Atlas but from the wide green planes of Mycelle!

And thus with pleasure do we as the state of Mycelle declare independence from Atlas!

Long live our state and may we be welcomed into the world with open arms!"

And with that the broadcast was over. The time of conflict would now arise.


Jacques Schnee sat in his office pondering the message which had just appeared on almost all TV channels worldwide. 'Those miners declaring independence? Ha' he laughed to himself. That land was rightfully his and despite not having much dust the amount there was still worth a decent sum of money. "Servant, call me General Ironwood"

The servant nodded and called up the General on the screen in front of him. The General did not seem to be too pleased with the disturbance and satirically asked "A pleasure to see your face disturbing me. What do you want"

"Well" replied Jacques slyly "I believe there may be a way for you to repay your debts to me"

Immediately interested the General replied "And what would that be Mr Schnee, not to 'rescue' your daughter I hope"

"Of course not, I wouldn't waste my time on that. You saw the news broadcast?"

"Not personally but I had my subordinates describe it, it is not every day a new player emerges"

"Of course, but the land they happen to be on is mine and I could use your help in… moving them away from my land"

"Look, you know I can't declare war on a sovereign nation out of the blue. They'll have my head!"

"I was not suggesting that. I just need to borrow some of your forces into temporary Schnee employment. They will be paid and all"

"Sigh… very well, will two battalions suffice? Yes and one ship to transport them but nothing massive"

"Yes, it should be enough to crush them. Consider your debt annulled once you send them to me" and with that the screen turned black.


Oh, the things I do for you guys. Writing during exams and all.

Anyway, I need reviews to improve my writing so how about giving me one?