A/N: I own nothing. All licences still belong to their actual owners. I'M BACK. life got wild for a bit there, back to work, no internet except at the bar, and a bunch of other shit to do definitly put me behind schedule. I should be back to normal weekly posts from now on. Today we have some familiar faces, some game changes, and Steele embraces his inner psychopath to deal with a new enemy. All feedback is welcome and I hope you enjoy.
Morning had come fast and hard for team RWBY, nobody had slept well with Blake out on her own and the revelations of the night before. They had set out to find Blake within minutes of waking up. Steele had split from the girls as they went with the more pedestrian style of searching, bouncing from roof to roof at full speed was much more his style. It was around the third hour of searching when Steele took himself a break.
It was completely pointless; Blake was beyond their ability to hunt down if she didn't want to be found. Until then it was just a game, running in circles around the city shouting for her like a lost pet, making enough noise to let her get away before they found her. Yet here he was wasting his time hunting for stray cat in the city. The only consolation was that Vale was gorgeous, a complete contrast in visuals to what he was used to. Vale had personality, colour, and a certain organic feel that wasn't seen often on the frontier. Steele was enjoying the view and variety of obstacles that broke up the monotony of bouncing over the roofs looking for any sign of Blake.
Steele had no idea what building he was sitting on, but it was brick, actual god damn brick. He had seen pictures of the stuff before, he had seen some mock-ups that looked like it, but this was the real deal. In his armour he had no way to actually feel it, but he was still strangely enthusiastic about it. He had packed a series of small snacks and energy bars to keep him going without the stims that he was starting to suspect weren't as good for him as they had been; the less he relied on the stims the better. He had taken his helmet off and disconnected his hydration pack- which he had filled with some local sports mix powder: SUPERHUNT URSA, the optimal blend of electrolytes, proteins, carbohydrates, and energy boosters. Mixed with microscopic Ice and Lightning Dust. Never loose your edge, trusted by Huntsmen in all four kingdoms. - so he could drink while he munched. Phyrra wasn't a fan of what he considered performance fuel- fan of water and properly balanced meals that she was; it made sense for the kind of fighting she did, one or two fights a day, none over five minutes. The fighting Steele was used to was a different animal entirely, one where you fought for hours at a time without a chance to have a proper break, if you were lucky you got shorter 15 min fights.
Steele was happily munching away on a energy bar and watching the people of Vale as they went about their lives, there was a café across the street that seemed to get some decent traffic and definitely had some cute staff. Enjoying the break before he got back to hunting down- or at least pretending to- Blake. That plan went out the window when the repaired IMC radio sparked to life, the voice of his Apex contact coming through. "I'm surprised that you haven't put any posters up, isn't that what your supposed to do when you lose a pet?"
Steele pulled the radio from his belt, not willing to give up on eating just to have a conversation with a complete psycho. "I don't appreciate the comparison of my friend to a common house-trained animal. I'll let it slide if you have something useful to say."
There was a pause before she started up again. "I have a lead you might be interested in, a large operation that the White Fang is going to be conducting tonight. Before I give you the details, you're going to do us both a favor. I'm sending you the coordinates of some interesting comms chatter. Report back once you've taken a look, then we can talk more."
There was a small chime on his pad indicating he had received the coordinates. Steele sighed before putting his helmet on and getting off his ass. He took a long drink from his hydration pack- even being properly balanced with water, it was like sucking sour paste off a 1000v battery in a snowstorm- as he looked out towards the waypoint out in the forest.
He grabbed Justice and launched off. Parkouring his way through the city before using his grapple to clear the wall and cross into the forest. He had XR drop in and meet him about a click in, making their way to the way point together. There wasn't much in idle chatter, both of them focused on the mission and on helping Blake. Steele wasn't expecting what they found.
Four graves in a perfect line, each marked with a cross and an IMC helmet. The graves were fresh, no more than a day old. Only a few hours on foot from the city walls, the poor bastards probably had no idea how close they were to safety. Steele looked around, finding a set of footprints in the undergrowth. "XR, lets give these a look, see if we can't find some survivors." If there were survivors, they would hopefully be friendly. If not, he would deal with it personally. Things got interesting when they uncovered a pair of Titan tracks, one light, one heavy weight: a Ronin and a Legion?
He followed the tracks for another hour before he found the remnants of a bivouac. No tents had been placed, instead there were a cluster of 9 wooden shelters. They had been removed poorly, improperly scattered and the ruins uncamouflaged. it wasn't hard to track them from the camp, very fresh tracks from the Titans made it easy to follow the group. From the tracks and the shelters, Steele figured he was looking at around a company minus worth of riflemen, rounded out with Specters and supported by a pair of Pilots. All said and done, perhaps 120 infantry with Titan support; he would have had trouble with that back home, not here, not with his newfound capability.
He heard them before he saw them, it was hard to move that number of troops quietly. He made sure his hands were out to his side as he approached, he kept a hand on Justice, holding it by the middle so he could bring it to ready quickly. "Friendly coming up behind!"
"Pilot in the bush! Someone get eyes on him!" Steele's announcement created chaos, despite his declaration of being friendly-and the blue HUD markers.; either the person in charge was paranoid, or they were uptight as all hell. He found himself surrounded minutes later as they scrambled to cut XR and him from any escape. At the very least he got the Titans right, between the riflemen and the two Titans, he was at far higher risk from the Titans.
"HOLD, HOLD. He's FRIENDLY. For fucks sake, STAND DOWN." A Sergeant came running up from the rear, waving his hands around in an attempt to get the weapons pointed anywhere except for Steele. Steele recognized the Sergeant.
"Johnson, that you?" it was the IMC defector who had fitted Steele with his weapons for the AWS, which meant that these were now Militia forces. Friendlies, he let out a sigh, he hadn't been looking forward to a fight.
"Damn good to see you kid, how's the kit treating you?"
"Better than good. Look who's in charge here, I can get you to civilization. Good food, good beds, the works. I just need to know you all are on side."
Johnson waved him over as the Legion stomped up with the cockpit hatch opening up to reveal another familiar face. Steele called out to her. "Annie! How big was the portal to get you all sucked in? Did Dr. Suliman make it out?"
Annie dropped down in front of him. "Steele, right? Sorry about the rough welcome, but our IFF is still fucked up from yesterday. That stunt you pulled ruined just about everything on the ground a few minutes after you went through. The Dr. got out on the carriers before we were able to jump out, we think we were the last people to get sucked through. We turned around to do a low pass over, tried to extract you, well you can see how that turned out."
Steele had started to get excited despite himself, if this group had made it through, then maybe Greene had made it through. But by the end of her description of the situation he had realized that there was a very low chance of that having happened. It was probably for the best; he didn't want Greene out here this far from home.
Annie carried on. "I've been put in charge on basis of having the biggest gun, and Johnson had already been running the defectors for a while. Between the two of us we set up a functioning chain of command. We're more than willing to band together as a part of the Militia if you can point us at someone with an actual rank."
Steele was glad to see them, more so to know that they were willing to carry through with the defection. "The situation here on the ground is a bit more complicated than you might think. Let me call in some transport and I'll explain as we go."
Steele pulled out his scroll and called Beacon for an air lift, the size of his request surprisingly not getting any questions. He ended up asking to speak with Ozpin anyway. "Mr. Steele, I must admit to some curiosity about why you would need to speak with me on a weekend."
"I found a hundred and twenty people from my side of the gate. I need a place to put them. Do you know anyone or anyplace I can house them long enough to work out the details of getting them permanently settled?" Steele got down to it without any preamble, he really didn't have time between hunting for Blake and dealing with this.
"Bring them to Beacon. We have enough room for them and I'm sure that I can arrange for something more permanent during the week. I do hope this detour hasn't set you too far behind in the search for your teammate."
Steele's blood ran cold for a second. He knew Ozpin had his eyes on things, but that was just damned creepy. He brought the group up to date as they waited, recounting his experiences with Auras, Semblances, Dust, and the Grimm. He did his best to explain the Kingdoms and what was going on with the Faunus and the White Fang. There were surprises all around, everything he explained to them was met with shock; with the exception of the Grimm, some specimens of which had come through the portal before. For Steele, the surprise came when they gave him their story.
For the Defector group it had only been a day. When the portal detonated it was a mad scramble for survival, they had still been in the air when they got pulled through. Debris and the force applied by the portal had crippled their transports and sent them careening towards the ground. Between the survivors of the crashes and those that had managed to evacuate, they had landed with about twice their current number. The following hours had been a desperate running firefight, IMC loyalists that had been pulled from the ground put up the first part of the fight. Then came the Grimm, any IMC loyalists left had fallen in line and joined forces as they made a retreat. They had set up camp after the Grimm had mysteriously stopped attacking, taking stock of their few remaining soldiers. They had only been able to bury four of their men, patrols had been sent out in an attempt to recover the bodies they left behind. According to Annie, their total strength was closer to 400 riflemen, 200 mechanical infantry, and 8 Titans.
It was a much larger force than Steele had expected and a quick message to Ozpin sorted it out. Annie called the patrols back in to get them ready for transport. Steele dismissed XR into his phase pocket when the first Bullhead arrived. "Look guys, I'd love to hang around, but one of my teammates is missing after she ran off during an argument. One of my contacts in the area promised me a lead if I checked out your comm traffic, good thing for both of us that I did. But I need that lead, I don't like the thought of one of my teammates out on their own."
Steele took them as far as central Vale before he jumped out of the Bullhead, Ozpin would be meeting them at Beacon to sort them out- or a representative at least. He landed on the same roof that he had been on before his detour. Parking himself down for another snack, he could see this becoming a regular spot for him to relax and enjoy the city. A good view of the water, good view of downtown, and a low risk of observation. The café itself would be a less creepy spot to hangout on reflection.
Once Steele had settled in, he grabbed his radio. "So… 600 assorted IMC defectors and robots out in the Emerald Forest, we both missed them showing up last night how, exactly?"
There were a few seconds before she replied. "last night? You're sure about that, course you are, you would have spoken to them. I knew it was a sizable force from the chatter but had no idea it was that many. Yesterday? That doesn't make sense. Unless… maybe, ill fill you in when I know more."
Steele was confused, but that was a standard state of mind for him since he arrived on Remnant. But he couldn't help but notice that he still didn't have his lead. Much as he liked the idea of a large group of friendlies, he wanted his lead on Blake. "About my payment. You promised me a lead."
"The docks, there is a massive SDC shipment coming in tonight that the Fang is planning to steal. Dust by the shipping container, and a container full of undisclosed prototype Altesian mech suits that Atlas is bringing in illegally ahead of the Vytal festival. If your friend is going to end up anywhere, its going to be there. Do me a favor, if a fight starts, make sure the suits get destroyed and make it public. The Fang is going to be moving in about an hour after dark. Be advised, the Fang is trying to replicate the capabilities of Pilots. Two candidates are going to be accompanying the hijacking. Out."
That was exactly what he was looking for; the who, what, where, and when. If Blake was still against the Fang, then there was a good chance she would show up. if she had rejoined the Fang, there was also a good chance of her being there. Of course, she could end up involved for a completely unrelated reason-she was a Huntress in training, and that came with a talent for finding trouble; especially team RWBY- or not show up at all. It was a lead, not an answer.
It took some work for Steele to hunt down exactly which dock the shipment would be arriving at, he ended up having to break into one of the dockmaster offices and hack in with the Infiltrator. Then it was the waiting game, it would be amateurish to not post a Recce element for an Op like this. Not that the Fang had impressed them with their professionalism. That wasn't going to stop Steele from doing things properly, get there early, get eyes on the environment, hunt down the opposition.
Getting eyes on wasn't the hard part, neighboring docks had plenty of good observation points. A crane made a great starting point. The dock in question was barely more than an open square surrounded by handling equipment and berthing on one side and warehouses on the others. The environment was going to change when the freighter arrived in a few minutes according to the files he had pulled, if they followed their own protocols, then the crates would all be stacked up with a clearing down the middle.
Steele did it properly, he cloverleafed it- falling back and pulling in to get a view from each cardinal direction that he could- he changed his angle, scouted out Infil and Exfil routes, scanned the roofs and windows for snipers and Fang recce elements. Nothing, fucking nothing, from the Fang at least. By the time he was done scouting the dock workers had unloaded the freighter and he hit the jackpot, Blake had showed up with that monkey Faunus from earlier. Steele settled in to watch the situation unfold through the scope of the DMR.
Steele sat for hours, not risking alerting anyone to his presence. The Monkey Faunus fucked off a little bit before sundown, a complete lack of observance of the principals of stealth. Steele was tempted to go down to Blake for a bit, but he wanted to see how this played out without his interference. The Monkey Faunus came back a little bit after dark with a hand full of what looked like apples. Things kicked off seconds later.
A Bullhead came in fast and low, landing in the clearing between the stacks of containers. Within seconds there were around a half dozen Fang uniforms walking around setting up the groundwork. Then one of Steele's HVTs showed their face; Torchwick himself. Steele moved his sights right on to Torchwick's temple, chambering a new mag of his prototype Aura breaker rounds. Before he had a chance to take the shot, Blake was in the way, holding her sword to Torchwick's neck. He sighed and opened his scroll, calling all of team RWBY in one go.
"Docks, NOW. Listen for the fighting, Blake is in over her head. I'm moving into support." Blake had let herself get surrounded as she made some impassioned speech about not working with people like Torchwick. Steele was about to move in before another group of Bullheads arrived overhead. He packed up at full speed having been spotted by the Bullheads, as he fell there was a massive explosion from where Blake was. He wasn't concerned for her; she had a strong Aura and new what she was doing.
Things got hectic fast, he jumped down from the overhead crane that he had been camped out on and cracked off a single shot towards the Fang grunts that had dropped from the Bullhead; To his satisfaction the round killed three of the four that had been lined up. this was fighting unlike any he had seen before; everyone was superpowered. In the time it took him to reorient himself, Blake had disappeared, the Monkey Faunus was fighting Torchwick, and about thirty White Fang grunts had filed into the area alongside the two wannabe Pilots.
Steele left Torchwick to Blake and the other Faunus, he knew where he was outmatched and Torchwick was beyond his abilities. He broke off firing Justice from the hip across the line of Fang grunts in an attempt to suppress them long enough to regain the initiative.
It didn't work. While the grunts were in fact suppressed, the Pilot imitators knew to push forward and keep the pressure on. Thus started the chase. Steele ran, jumping up onto the walls of the containers and throwing out a holo-pilot to confuse his pursuers. They traded shots as they leapt and ran between the containers, during the brief flashes of combat Steele was able to get a decent idea of how they were equipped. They didn't have helmets, instead they used a modified version of the standard Grimm mask with a digital visor. Their jump-kits were more like jetpacks, less maneuverable but much faster on a straight line. Steele heard XR come crashing down nearby. "XR! Deal with the infantry, keep them off of Blake. I've got these posers."
XR's answer was a withering burst of gunfire. Steele jumped around a corner right into a group of grunts that were taking cover from XR's little rampage out in the main area, he took the chance of engaging them. There were six of them, he landed next to two of them that were slightly separated from the main group. He slid in, delivering a leaping knee strike to the first targets jaw. Steele followed through by dropping and sweeping the second's legs out, leaping with his off leg and twisting. in one movement pulling his Smart Pistol, taking aim, firing at the remaining four, and letting his leg swing around and deliver a neck breaking kick into his second target.
One of the Pilots crashed into Steele as he landed. Big mistake. Steel drove his hand with the Smart Pistol into their stomach repeatedly, pulling the trigger with each punch. His opponent managed to drive a knife into Steele's side before Steele could break their aura, as soon as he did, he swung for their jaw. Steele put single round through their jaw, finishing the break. He pushed them off as he readied a grenade and shoved it into their mouth, sealing their jaw closed before scrambling away.
Steele pulled the knife out, gasping in pain as it came out. Staggering to his feet, he readied himself for the second Pilot. There was an explosion to his side as the grenade went off, and a burst of green lasers above his head intercepting a flight of Bullheads that crashed down around the dock with ground shaking force. There was a large crashing sound near him and then the distinctive sound of a Titan melee fight. "Pilot, I am engaged with a Titan analogue. Requesting Pilot assistance."
"Hang on buddy, I'm on route." Steele pulled his Archer in one hand, Keeping the Smart Pistol ready in his other as he ran. There were at least another dozen Fang foot soldiers between him and XR, the Pistol making short work of them. It was a gauntlet of spinning red target indicators and muzzle flashes, incoming fire was not in short supply until he ended the shooters. He slid past the end of the containers to the sight of something very similar to a Titan without hands in a slugging match with XR. This had to be the mech that his contact had warned him about.
It had been an even fight until a Firestar cut into the side of its cockpit and an Archer missile caught it in the leg. Steele jumped up onto it, slapping a satchel charge onto its hip as he clambered higher to empty Justice into the arm joint. Before he had the chance, a Bullhead crashed into the containers near him, shaking him loose from the mech. Steele hit the detonator, cutting the leg out from under the mech. XR followed it up with a burst of grenades and a devastating punch that laid the mech out, XR pulled his XO-19 and emptied it into the cockpit. There was an explosion as the Pilot ejected, flying out towards Steele.
Steele took the chance. He jumped up and caught the Pilots head between his legs, twisting and dropping them to the ground. As they landed, he pulled one of his knives and shoved it through the back of their head. Giving the blade a final twist to make sure they were dead.
Suddenly, the docks were silent. There was no fighting, no screaming of men in the middle of a fight or lying wounded. Not the rumble of distant engines. It felt off to him, but this was his first real open battlefield on Remnant. He had pulled dozens of ops, assassinations, raids, ambushes. His targets hadn't always had their auras unlocked, but some had. This was the first time he had dealt with something akin to a Pilot, but with superpowers. He had fought the Pilot in the forest, but they were no better than they would have been back home. It shouldn't have felt different or significant, but it did.
"XR, pack up before the police get here; all this is bad enough without a giant robot to rachet the tension up. Good work out there pal. "Within the minute the docks were swarming with police and Huntsmen all asking uncomfortable questions about what had happened here. By the time they were done with him, team RWBY had gotten together again. He came back to Wiess being her normal self. "…12 hours. That means that I've had 12 hours to think about this. And in that 12 hours, I've decided… I don't care." Then again, maybe Weiss got her shit together.
There were more words, more heart felt outpourings of friendship and teamwork, and even a few tears. But team RWBY was back together.