Time for a new chapter!

Not much to add to this AN. How's everyone doing? I'm in the middle of university right now, so I'm fairly busy. Didn't stop me from getting this chapter out much quicker than my previous ones! :)

Kingdom of Vale

City of Vale

Beacon Academy

Headmaster's office

Fiscal documents were the bane of his existence.

Truly, while there was no one more proud of how far humanity has come than him, he still sometimes missed the days where he used less direct methods of influencing the march of progress. Hermit-Ozpin hadn't had to deal with training material allocation and budget reports.

Thank the gods for Glynda, lest he have no time of his other responsibilities. Unfortunately, even she couldn't handle all the legalities of running one for the four world-renown Huntsmen academies, a fact that was becoming increasingly evident as he glanced at the barely diminished stack of forms on his desk.

Grimacing, he realized he couldn't put them off to a later time either, not with the council looking for any excuse to strip him of what little authority he still had over the upcoming Vytal festival. James may have taken over security for the event, but he'll be damned before he got even more due to overdue tax forms of all things.

So no, idly sipping from his cup of cocoa, he resolved himself for a long night.

The beeping of an incoming call interrupted his brooding. Glancing at the caller he raised an eyebrow. The head of the Valean Rangers rarely contacted him for the sake of pleasure. Slightly concerned this would result in more paperwork, but at the same time eager for a distraction, he accepted the link.

"Marshal Mulberry, to what do I owe this occasion?"

A gravelly voice responded from the speaker.

"Headmaster Ozpin, my apologies for the interruption. I'm not intruding on anything important, am I?"

Ozpin spared a glare back at the stack of paperwork on his desk.

"Nothing too important. Is there a problem?"

"A potential one. Right now its more of an irritant, but if it turns out to be something bigger I'd like to nip it in the bud."

"Oh?"

"A village out in the Green Expanse is reporting that one of the local support towers abruptly went dark some hours ago. Gave them a real fright for a few minutes. Thankfully It turned back on shortly after, but the town's concerned nevertheless."

Ozpin suppressed an eyeroll.

"The green expanse? Let me guess. They sent a group of their people to check it out, likely consisting of the majority of the town's guards. Said group got slaughtered by the Grimm, save for a few survivors. Those survivors then fled back to the town, unintentionally leading the grimm right to them, and now they need some huntsmen to come save them."

He heard a slight chuckle from the other end.

"Good guess, but for once no. They wanted to send a team out, but the support tower in question happens to be a few days march. Even those nutjobs realized that leaving their town defenseless for days on end was a bad idea."

"Ah…So for once they were smart and called you."

"Indeed. And normally I'd be all over it. We've certainly got the manpower, what with Atlas in town. But uh… well, somethings fishy."

"fishy?"

"You know how politicians are. Cut corners on anything they think they can get away with. But those towers? Those aren't one of them."

"I'm aware. Public would rip apart any pencil-pusher foolish enough to try."

"Exactly, those towers are designed to operate as long as possible and with as little maintenance as possible. Rated to last a full decade between maintenance cycles. And this one had a check-up just last year."

The headmaster grasped the implications immediately.

"You think the cut-out was deliberate?"

"Possibly. Who knows? It came back online quickly enough, so maybe it was just some damn squirrel that poked its head where it wasn't supposed to. Honestly, I'm hoping it's something as simple as that. Because if it's not…"

Mulburry's voice tapered off, and Ozpin grimaced, finishing the implication.

"-Then we've either got a Grimm smart enough to realize the towers mean something, or a bandit group trying to pull a case blackout."

The room was silent as the two men process the situation, before Ozpin spoke again.

"Very well, I'll send some of my students."

"Much obliged, Headmaster. Again, it's probably just a squirrel or some-such, but I'd prefer not to take the chance."

Ozpin waved the apology away.

"Think nothing of it. I'd much rather send a huntsmen team then risk rangers getting massacred or held for ransom. Caution is always a prudent strategy."

"Agreed. Good day headmaster."

"And you, Marshal."

Clicking the link close, he ruffled through the various reports in-front of him till he found Beacon's team roster. A quick glance through the document elicited a frown. As he feared, the Grimm's recent surge was already showing effects. His 3rd and 4th year teams were still dispatched on their midterm exams, what should have been simple search and destroy missions turned into weeks-long affairs. His 2nd years were no better. Some have returned, but many haven't yet. And those that had were still recovering. It would be rather cruel of him to send them back out, especially if the Marshal's suspicions were correct.

The frown deepened. He would have to send a 1st year team, a fact that left a bad taste in his mouth.

'But who to send?'

It would have to be one of the stronger 1st year teams, undoubtedly. One powerful enough to handle an unexpected elder Grimm or bandit tribe.

Looking over the listed 1st year teams, there were only two teams that fit those criteria, those being teams JNPR and RWBY.

Glancing over the two teams, he considered the possible results of sending one or the other.

Both were capable in combat, consistently scoring high in Glynda's tests. And he had personally selected both teams' leaders, having high hope for each.

On one hand if team JNPR was sent, such a mission would help cement Mr. Arc's leadership skills and success against such obstacles would improve his self-esteem. But on the other, save for initiation, said leadership skills had yet to be tested in a real-world scenario.

Ms. Rose, however, has already led her team in a major incident in Vale, engaging and defeating one of Atlas's new heavy mechs.

Yes. Team RWBY would be sent. Testing Mr. Arc's leadership abilities can wait for a less risky situation.

Tapping his link again he spoke.

"Glynda, would you please send Ms. Rose up to my office?"

"Of course headmaster, I'll send her up."

Kingdom of Vale

Green Expanse Region

Materkind Forest

In route to TCC secondary support tower #447

"Hey Blake, want to hear a joke?

"No, no more."

"There were nine copies of Blake on a boat. One jumped out. How many are left?"

"Yang, please, stop."

"None, they were all copycats!"

Yang glanced in the rear-view mirror, watching as her triumphant exclamation was met with varied reactions among her team. Blake buried her head in her hands in tortured embarrassment. Ruby rocked back and forth, whimpering, "make it stop," over and over again. And though Weiss remained completely still, Yang could see her eye begin furiously twitching.

'pah, they just have no appreciation for my genius.'

Honestly, the way Yang saw it, they should have seen this coming. Exercising her comedy skills is a wonderful use of spare time, and you'd be hard pressed to find more spare time than on a 15-hour Bullhead flight. Looking out the windows can only entertain a girl for so long. They should have brought a board game or something.

Heedless to their torment, she continued, "What do you get when a Mistral cowherder meets an Atlesian doctor?"

Weiss's voice sounded out, "Yang, if you say another word I will go up there and stab you."

Yang pouted at the rear view, where she could see Weiss glaring daggers at her. Truly, she was lucky the heiress didn't have an eye-based offensive semblance. She's pretty sure she'd have died multiple times over the last few minutes if she had. Ice queen earns her name yet again. Honestly, if she got any colder she might become ice-olated.

Chuckling at the further proof of her genius, she filed that one away for future use before responding.

"Weiss, I'm the pilot! You can't stab the pilot!"

Amazing, her glare grew even colder.

"It's on autopilot!" she all but snarled.

"So it is," Yang readily agreed, "but do you trust the AP to guide us through the next flock of nevermores we run into?"

Weiss turned pleadingly to Ruby, "Ruby, please, it's not murder if the leader orders it."

Ruby stared sorrowfully back at her, "I can't", oh how heartbroken she sounded, "Dad would get angry at me."

Weiss continued pleading, "He would never have to know!"

Ruby continued hopelessly, "The bullhead has internal cameras!"

At that the two collapsed tearfully on eachother, wallowing in their misery.

Yang snorted.

'Drama queens'

Blake looked at her overly dramatic teammates for a moment before catching Yang's eye.

"So how much further we got?"

Checking her instruments Yang let out an excited whoop.

"Just ten minutes to go girls! Then we're out of this tin can and kicking-", a glance at Ruby, "butt! We'll be kicking butt!"

Instantly the two girls ceased their bawling- 'knew it' -and let out happy sighs.

"15 hours", muttered Ruby, "15 horrible hours."

Weiss nodded in agreement, "I'm never getting on another Bullhead again."

Ruby began nodding as well, "Yes, never again."

Blake regarded the two with a bemused expression.

"You both realize there's still the return tr-", only to be interrupted by Ruby's finger on her lips.

"No. Do not take this from us. DO NOT TAKE IT!"

Blake just rolled her eyes before lapsing into silence.

Ruby looked around the cabin before nodding to herself.

"Alright team. Since we're so close let's do a mission recap!"

Yang butted in, "What, you don't want to spend the rest of the time listening to my amazing jokes?"

Resolutely ignoring her sister, Ruby continued onwards, "Professor Ozpin has put his faith in us to investigate CCT support tower number 4-, uh…, 474?

"447", Weiss corrected with an unamused expression.

"Right! Number 447! This tower went down last night for a few minutes, and the headmaster wants to check whether it's been tampered with. He said it was probably just some forest critter that got in the wires somehow, but, there's a chance that it could be an elder Grimm!", Ruby's tone got progressively more eager towards the end of that statement.

"I still don't believe that", Yang added from the cockpit, "If it's old enough and smart enough to attack a tower, you'd think it'd do more than simply turn it off for a few minutes."

"It could be trying to draw out a response", Weiss pointed out dryly.

"It could have done that by destroying the tower", Yang argued, "someone gets sent out regardless of whether it was offline just for a few minutes or offline permanently. Both draw out a response, but the option two also screws with nearby towns. No way a Grimm would go with option one."

Blake frowned, "Yang's right. A Grimm turning off the comms for a few minutes then just turning them back on just doesn't make sense."

She grimaced, "Ozpin also warned that it might be a case blackout. As much as I hate to say it, that seems the more likely of the options."

Yang glanced over her shoulder, "Case blackout's bandits, ain't it?"

"The blackout is the time period between 1 AGW and 9 AGW, where bandit tribes began using the newly installed CCT towers as centerpieces of their crimes. The Great War had caused many towns and nomadic tribes to turn bandit to survive, as most of their guards had been drafted into the kingdoms' militaries. Once the Great War ended, the Atlas military would install the CCT towers and their supporting towers under heavy military guard, as the Grimm surge caused by the Great war was still extremely prevalent. Once the towers were installed, however, all four kingdom's militaries began downsizing, with most of their remaining forces being dedicated to containing the Grimm surge. Bandits immediately began taking advantage of the situation, manually disabling CCT support towers. When the local villages would send repair teams they were then captured by the bandits and held for ransom. The villages, without the ability to call for help would be forced to either pay the ransom or risk getting overwhelmed by the Grimm. Many villages try to counter this by sending their repair teams with an armed escort, but that just resulted in the escort being captured as well, further depriving the villages of valuable defenses, putting them at even greater risk. The Blackout finally ended in 9 AGW, as with the Grimm surges finally dying down the Kingdoms' militaries and the newly-created huntsmen organization shifted their focus onto the bandits. Over the course of six months over 300 bandit tribes were either driven off, imprisoned, or outright exterminated. The campaign saw a minor resurgence of Grimm activity, but that was quickly contained before it could get out of hand."

The three other girls stared incredulously at Weiss.

She looked back at them, mildly offended, "What?"

Blake held up her hands in surrender, "Sorry, I just… never took you for a history wiz."

She scowled, "Much the military support for the campaign was provided by Atlas. Pretty sure we spent more time learning about the Blackout in school than we did the Great War. It's a far less shameful part of our history. Anyway, a case blackout refers to a bandit tribe using the same tactics as the Blackout age bandits."

"Well", Yang drawled with a grin, "be elder Grimm or nostalgic bandits, best get ready cause team RWBY is in the -holy shit! Girls get up here!"

The three members in the cabin exchanged concerned looks before dashing into the cockpit.

"By the gods…"

"Wha-"

"That's a lota boom."

The clearing they hovered over was eviscerated. The ground was charred and burnt; craters edged with superheated glass dotted the landscape. Even the treeline was not spared, filled with ash and blackened trunks. In the center of the clearing stood the support tower, seemingly untouched save for the disconnected interface panel.

Ruby gazed at the devastation before speaking, "Alright, Yang, land in-front of the tower. Blake, did you ever interact with any of these towers back with the White Fang?"

She cringed but nodded, "I did."

"Alright, good. You check it out. See if you can find any sign who messed with it. The rest of us will spread out and search for any clues for what happened here. Keep an eye out for hostiles."

"On it"

The Bullhhead did a once-over the battlefield, searching for signs of life or Grimm. When nothing made itself apparent, it twisted and lowered, landing infront of the tower with a muffled thump. The four girls immediately jumped out, weapons primed and at the ready.

The sound of the wind and the gentle crackling of smothered flames greeted them.

Ruby gave a quick nod and the team split up. Blake turned and dashed to the tower, crouching there and beginning to fiddle with the interface. Ruby activated her semblance, blinking up and back in a flurry of rose petals and landing on the top of the tower. She shifted Crescent Rose into sniper configuration and began scanning the surroundings. Yang jogged into the treeline, ducking between charred trunks and clumps of ash, while Weiss calmly walked around the inner clearing.

After a few minutes of tense silence, Ruby called out, "Anyone see anything?"

"I have nothing but ash and glass."

"Ditto. I think we missed the fight Rubes."

Ruby frowned, "I don't see anything either. Blake, any clue on the tower?"

"It was a upload."

"An upload? That's it?"

"Yes, or at least as far as I can tell. No tampering, just one hell of a USB transfer."

"What'd they upload?"

"I… have no idea. We'd have to get some actual technicians in here to find that out."

"Why would they want to-"

"Ruby! Found something!"

Weiss's shout interrupted their conversation, causing the two to frown to each other before jogging (or in Ruby's case, jumping) over.

They quickly met with Weiss, and as Yang joining them a moment later, she gestured to the ground before her, "Body."

The team eyed the corpse, with varying degrees of discomfort. Death was very much a part of the life they had chosen, but that didn't mean they had to like it.

And, to be honest, it was a fairly tame death as far as Grimm went. A quick claw slash across the throat, letting the individual die to blood loss. Not pleasant by any stretch of the imagination, but not nearly as bad as what most Grimm will do given some alone time with a dying human.

"Beowolf. Minor by the shape and size of the claw marks. Must have been busy if it didn't stop to finish him off."

"What's that armor? It looks vaguely Atlesian, but…"

"It's not Atlesian", Weiss verified, as Ruby reached down and drabbed the man's weapon, "The helmet's shaped completely wrong and the armor looks more like plastic than metal."

"Could be experimental", Blake pointed out.

Weiss scoffed, "And just decided test it in the middle of Vale?"

"They sent the Paladin protype."

"Exactly, and it immediately got stolen then went on a rampage through the city. You think they're stupid enough to try it again?"

Awkward silence.

Weiss glared at them, "You are all insufferable."

Ruby, still fiddling with the weapon spoke up, "Guys, this weapon is weird. It seems to have two different ammo slots, I can't find any dust indicators, and the thing's barrel is larger than anything that could be in the ammo packs."

Yang glanced at it, "Energy weapon maybe?"

"That's my guess, but I can't tell for sure because it doesn't show the dust type" she replied, glaring at the weapon, "Besides, I can recognize Atlesian particle guns, this ain't one."

Yang shrugged, "Shoot it. See what happens."

Weiss and Blake exchanged glances.

"Are we sure that's… wise?"

Yang grinned, "Course I am! I mean just look at this place! I'll eat my boot if it hasn't already been fired."

Weiss deadpanned, "Yes, look at this place. Scorched devastation all around dotted by craters meters wide. It is obviously the safest weapon ever constructed."

Yang just grinned, "That's why we shoot it away from us."

Weiss's eye twitched.

Ruby shrugged, turned, and aimed at a tree stump on the other side of the clearing. She pulled the trigger, and a crimson blaster blot lashed out, impacting the stump and causing it to burst apart in a puff of ash.

Ruby looked down at the gun in her hands in wonder.

"It's a laser rifle", she said in an awed tone.

Yang regarded the crumbled stump with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, at least we know its Atlesian."

Weiss nodded warily, "So it would seem."

Ruby, still marveling at the energy weapon, gave herself a quick shake before focusing on her teammates, "No it isn't."

"What?"

"Its not Atlesian. Can't be."

"What do you mean?"

"I told you, I know Atlesian particle weapons, not enough to construct my own, but enough to recognize one when I see it, and this isn't one. No, if anything, that shot looked more like one from the primary batteries on Atlas's aircruisers. This being Atlesian would mean they've managed to become efficient enough with burn dust to build infantry-scaled laser rifles, a weapons tech so inefficient and power-hungry they need to mount it on capital ships."

Weiss sighed, rubbing her forehead disappointing, "She's right. If Atlesian had managed to advance that technology so far so quickly, they'd be shouting it from the rooftops."

Uncomfortable silence descended on the group.

"So", Yang eventually said, "What now?"

Weiss shrugged, "Mission's complete, I guess. Mysterious group with advanced weapons came here, downloaded a copy of the Net, got into a fight with the Grimm -judging by the lack of Grimm in the area, won said fight-, and left.

Blake glanced around the battlefield, "It seemed to be a pretty big fight too. There might be some more bodies around. Might be smart to grab whatever we can."

Ruby nodded, "Right, so we'll grab some pieces of this poor guy's armor and his gun, and any other samples we find, get some pictures of the area, then head home.

Yang grinned menacingly, "The 15-hour ride home."

The noises she heard her teammates make were without a doubt exclamations of joy.

Center of "Solum" nebula

"Remnant" system

Hiding in shadow of "Remnant-2a"

Star Destroyer- Grey Wolf

Bridge,

"The 909th's getting massacred. Latest reports have over 2,000 troops either KIA or MIA. That puts the legion's casualty rate over 70%. The remainder of the legion are scattered across the station and barely holding out."

"And the Admonitor?"

Parck ran a hand through his hair, grimacing as his figure flickering on the holotable.

"Still heavily damaged. We've patched our sublight engines enough to give us limited maneuverability, and we managed to get shields up to a paltry 10%, but there are still dozens of holes in our hull and most of our remaining weapons are liable to explode if we try firing them. We'll get blown apart if we tried to close in on the station. And to top it all off I lost almost a third of my Tie complement in the initial reinforce attempt. We need reinforcements."

Thrawn's mouth bent in the slightest of frowns as he looked through the holo-pics Parck had sent as the call began. Images of the droid hordes as they charged towards the camera flashed in-front of his eyes.

Pellaeon too was looking at the pics, his figure on the holotable glaring down at the datapad in his hands.

"I see what you mean. The level of ferocity these droids display is startling. If the legion is not reinforced, or, should that prove unfeasible, pulled out they will be most certainly overwhelmed."

Turning towards Thrawn he continued, "Grand Admiral, the Chimaera remains fully operational. Requesting permission to reinforce the Admonitor.

Thrawn didn't speak, instead continuing to focus on the datapad before him. Only the slight frown gave any hint of his emotions as the pics shifted before him.

Finally, his eyes narrowed a fraction and he looked up at the Parck.

"The commandos succeeded in their mission. I assume you've studied of the new information we've gained access to?"

The captain appeared startled for a moment before recovering.

"About the planet and its…inhabitants? Briefly sir. I was more focused on the current situation."

"Of course. However, did it shed any light on the droids you now face?"

Parck nodded, "Yes sir. I believe these droids to be creatures of Grimm."

Pellaeon frowned, "Are you sure of this? The Grimm the commandos encountered were, or at least seemed to be, organic in nature. A twisted mockery of organic form, but very much organic."

Parck begin tapping at his datapad, "All of them are. However, when I realized there were no Grimm variants of mechanical nature, I instead searched for Grimm that could affect technology. And very quickly I found this."

One more tap and a figure appeared on the holotable. It was tall, roughly eight feet, though at least 2 of those feet were empty air, as the seemingly hovered in place. Much like the Grimm the commandos encountered it was primarily black, broken only by the stark white bones covering portions of its body, those in turn possessing crimson markings etched into them. Its humanoid frame was offset by its lack of legs, and abnormally long arms which ended in needle-point claws. Its main body appeared to be some sort of shall or cloak, the top of which came up in a hood over the creature's head, shadowing its face leaving only a single molten yellow eye to shine through.

"This… is a Geist. A variant of Grimm capable of possessing inanimate materials. Anything from trees to rocks to metals. And apparently, to ancient Rakatan droids."

The room was silent.

"Well… that's troublesome."

Pellaeon's blunt summarization caused a slight quirking of Thrawn's lips.

"So it is."

He gazed at the Geist for several more moments before shifting towards his officers.

"We still have much to discuss, but for now we will have to continue this conversation at a later date. Captain Pellaeon, the Chimaera is to depart for the Rakatan station at once. Assist the Admonitor in reinforcing the 909th, and establish a beachhead on the station. Priority is on conserving as much of the Admonitor's remaining forces as possible. Once the beachheads are cemented, don't push forward until you're certain of success."

Pellaeon and Parck nodded, speaking at the same time, "Understood sir."

"Good. Contact me once the beachheads are secured. You are dismissed."

Snapping of a quick salute, Pelleaon's figure faded from the holotable.

Parck regarded Thrawn for a moment before speaking, "If I may sir, what will you be doing?"

Thrawn arched an eyebrow and gesture towards his datapad.

"We now have access to an entire planets worth of information and culture. A culture that seems to have been influenced by the Rakatans at some point in their past."

His lips quirked into a small smile.

"There is much to learn."