AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry about the delay-technical difficulties. Somewhat short chapter, but setting up for the future.
Building 103115 (Photo Lab)
Joint Base Beacon, Wisconsin, United States of Canada
9 May 2001
Ruth Lionheart yawned, an act that people who did not know her well would find terrifying. She would extend her tongue and expose pointed teeth. She smacked her lips loudly, took a drink of coffee—tea she found to be too weak to keep her awake—rubbed her eyes, and went back to work.
Normally, Ruth would find this work to be exciting. Gun camera films were often that: activated when the pilot pressed the trigger, all aircraft had a small camera that showed where the bullets or missiles went. This was to prevent anyone making victory claims they had no right to make, as well as gain valuable information about the enemy. Sometimes they were exciting, recording for posterity an epic air battle, and sometimes they were boring—a split-second of an enemy aircraft shortly before it exploded. Either way, even the most avid military historian would get bored after the twentieth repetition.
Nowadays, instead of wet film, gun cameras recorded everything on the aircraft's computer, which could then be downloaded and viewed digitally, though some older aircraft still used VHS tapes. Ruth counted herself lucky she didn't need to use that. Normally, a team of enlisted men would go over the gun camera to determine who shot down whom, but Lieutenant Colonel Glynda Goodwitch had been so disgusted over Ruth Lionheart's debauchery in the club that she put Ruth in charge, in top of her other duties. Ruth didn't know what the big deal was—so she had kissed everyone in the club, including the Lieutenant Colonel; she was affectionate! Scarlet David was amused rather than offended that she had offered to marry him. Of course, there was her proclaiming loudly in gruesome sexual detail what she intended to do to Scarlet when they were married, and offering to prove that Faunus were anatomically no different than humans. Goodwitch didn't get upset when Yang and Nora showed their bras, Ruth thought grumpily to herself. And Em tried to kiss Cinder!
Oh well, Ruth decided. Complaining wasn't going to get this done any faster. She would review each kill at least three times, then hand it off to the enlisted men for processing and release to the public. Once all that was done, the pilots would be formally notified of their new status. Not that the process made much difference, since kill marks had already been painted on aircraft. Ruth knew it was more or less a formality.
Ruth yawned again, then brought up the file labeled Fall Cinder Maj USAF F-15C, which held Cinder's downloaded gun camera films. She had been kidding with Ruby Flight and Emerald; Cinder actually had not said a thing about the gun camera, and didn't seem to care that she had made ace. Her F-15's nose only had kill marks because the crew chief insisted on it. It was more Goodwitch who was riding her to quit fooling around and get it done.
She clicked on play and leaned back in her chair. There were the GRIMM kills Cinder had gotten west of La Crosse, in full color, and they were boring. It was all missile shots and Beowolves and Ursai being blown to pieces; nothing remotely interesting. At least Nora had some interesting film, and Weiss' was pretty fun. She settled deeper into her chair, lamenting to herself that it was a good thing there were plenty of witnesses to her half-kill of the Nevermore, since her gun camera film had burned up with her Jaguar. I really need to adjust the seat in my new one, she mused. Sure was nice for the RAF to get me a new one so quick…guess they could've given me a bloody Harrier or something, though I would love to get me paws on a Typhoon—
Ruth suddenly sat bolt upright in her chair and hit pause. She stared at the image in the screen, then reversed it, then restarted it again. "That can't be right," she said quietly. She watched it three more times, then a fourth just to make sure. "What the actual fuck…" Quickly, Ruth printed stills from the gun camera shots, then closed the file. She threw the stills into a folder and grabbed her hat.
One of the airmen assigned to the photo lab looked up as she dashed through the front door. "Ma'am?"
"Don't wait up!" Ruth yelled back. "Got to run an errand!"
Cinder Fall and Mercury Black were just entering the Visiting Officers' Quarters when Ruth caught up to them. "Hello, Ruth," Cinder greeted her. "How are you?"
"Not good," Ruth replied. "We've got a spot of Barney Rubble."
"What?" Mercury asked. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Not here." Ruth motioned them inside, and they all went to Cinder's room. She opened the folder and spread out the stills. "What's this, then?"
Cinder picked them up. In the luminous gunsight of a F-15 was a shot of a Panavia Tornado F.3. The stills showed cannon shells marching the length of the aircraft from just behind the rear cockpit to the twin engines, then fire spurting from holed fuel tanks and smoke from shattered engines. The last still showed the Tornado in a terminal dive, burning from the cockpit back. "Isn't that Fox and Velvet's Tornado?"
"Yep," Ruth said, staring at Cinder. "And these were from your gun camera films, Cindah."
Cinder hesitated, then sat down on the bed in shock. "They…they can't be."
Mercury stood at parade rest, his hands behind his back. "Ruth, you're crazy. Cinder didn't shoot down Fox and Velvet."
"Don't take the piss, Mercury!" Ruth snapped. "That's what it shows!"
Cinder was shaking her head, her raven hair falling over her left eye more than usual. "But…that can't be right. I didn't shoot them down. I couldn't have."
"It's your gun camera film," Ruth insisted.
"You sure it's not yours and you're just trying to shift the blame?" Mercury said.
"Oh, fuck off, Merc. I was either with Nora and Yatsu or getting me arse shot off by a Nevermore."
"Then you doctored them—"
"Mercury, enough." Cinder waved him to silence, then returned her attention to the Faunus. "Ruth, I swear to God I didn't do this. Are you absolutely certain it was me?"
"Yes." Ruth took a breath. "Cindah, look. There's been a lot of weird things happening since we got here. Merc, you trying on Weiss for a tidy at the dance—you claimed you were pissed, but you were sober. Em's been acting all strange since La Crosse, like she's hiding something from alla us; you chundering in the bushes after you disappeared from the dance, Cindah…"
"What are you saying, Ruth?" Cinder asked. Mercury took a step forward.
"You've been leaving me out. I don't really feel like I'm a part of this flight. Like you all just tolerate me. I get that me accent is enough to make someone go daft, and I'm a furry Faunus, and I've got a north and south on me that needs closing." At their expressions, Ruth translated, "I've got a mouth that I can't keep shut. And now this." She motioned at the gun camera films.
Cinder reached out and put her hands on Ruth's shoulders. "Ruth, I'm sorry. I can't speak for Mercury or Emerald, but I have never wanted you to feel left out. I imagine it's hard being the only Faunus in a flight of humans. And I know you lost your mother in that awful accident with the Red Arrows not long ago." She looked at her boots. "I'm not exactly the most personable person in the world, I'll admit. But you can't think I would shoot down Fox and Velvet. I wouldn't."
"But you did." Ruth didn't sound entirely convinced of it now.
"I don't know what happened…maybe in the heat of battle…" Cinder put a hand on her forehead. "My God, maybe I did. It was so confused up there. They could've crossed my three-nine line, just saw a shadow—" she referred to the line from three o'clock to nine o'clock on the imaginary clock face that fighter pilots used for direction "—and I just opened fire." She checked the timestamp. "Four seconds…yes, that has to be it." Cinder looked horrified. "Oh my God. Friendly fire. I shot them down."
Ruth picked up the stills. Blue-on-blue friendly fire incidents were uncommon in modern air combat, but far from unknown. The stress of air combat, the confused nature of the La Crosse battle, the feeling of GRIMM everywhere, the final run on the last Nevermore. It could've happened, Ruth thought to herself. She weighed the stills in her hands. I'm supposed to tell Ozpin. But it could've happened to anyone. "I can't," she said quietly.
"Can't what?" Mercury asked.
"I can't tell anyone. It would ruin your career, Cindah."
Cinder shook her head. "You have to, Ruth. There has to be an investigation."
"No." Ruth gathered up the stills back into the folder. "Cindah, I'll delete the file. Besides, how would Fox and Velvet feel? To get gunned down by their own side. 'Least this way, they think it was the bloody GRIMM. Besides, no one got cacked, so it's fine, yeah?"
Cinder chewed her bottom lip. "That's true, but still…"
"Nah. I'll burn these. Creamer Flight's little secret." She turned to Mercury. "You solid with this, Merc?"
He hesitated for a moment, hands still behind his back. "Yeah. I'm cool with it. I won't tell a soul, Ruth."
"That's a lad." Ruth was taken aback when Cinder hugged her. "Steady on, Cindah!"
"Ruth, I am so sorry you felt this way. I will make it up to you, I promise." Cinder stepped back and fixed her hair.
"That's fine, then." Ruth grinned at them. "Better get back to the lab, then. Your other kills check out, Cindah. You have seven. Merc, you have four." She threw them a salute and went to the door. "Check you later!"
As soon as the door closed behind Ruth, Mercury let out a breath and brought his hands out from behind his back. In one hand was twisted the power cord for Cinder's television. "Thought I was going to have to choke that bitch." He turned to Cinder, his voice just above a whisper. "Cinder, she knows. She's going to tell Ozpin. We have to kill her."
Cinder sat on the bed. Her entire expression had changed from terrified confusion to cold calculation with the skill of an actress. "No, we don't. She's not telling anyone."
"You think she actually bought your bullshit?"
Cinder stared at him. "Yes, I do. Because Ruth sees what she wants to. That's how we've gotten this far, Mercury! People want to believe what they do, even when the truth is right in their idiot faces. As far as she knows, I accidentally gunned down Fox and Velvet in the heat of battle. She doesn't think I did it deliberately." She snorted. "I should've led them another half-second, then I would've put the damn shells through their heads." Then Cinder shrugged. "Though I guess I'm the biggest idiot here, since I forgot about the gun camera. It's not like I've had to pay attention to it in years."
"I don't think we can take the chance," Mercury insisted.
Cinder got to her feet and advanced on him. "And what were you going to do, Mercury? Strangle her with that TV cord? That would completely blow the mission, you fucking moron! How would we explain a dead, strangled Faunus in my bedroom? We were having weird sex and she hanged herself?" She stabbed him in the chest with a finger. "Use your head, Mercury. If she does go to Ozpin, I'll claim the same thing—it was an accident. What are they going to do—give me a letter of reprimand, like you? I doubt they'd even do that. Not with everyone wetting themselves over Vytal Flag right now. Friendly fire. That's all it was."
"So you really think Ruth will destroy the evidence?"
Cinder laughed. "Of course she will. She wants to be our friend, you dumbass. She wants to please people, just like her idiot father." She waved it off and lay down on the bed. "Don't worry about it. Ruth is no threat. In fact, we can work this to our advantage."
"If you say so."
Cinder puffed up her pillows. "I do. And I'll remind you who's in command here, Mercury. Now plug the TV back in. I want to watch Juniper fight Bronze. If we're going to still pull this off, we need to know who's vulnerable."