Chapter 8
"Should I just wear my usual combat outfit?" Thought Jack as he wondered what to do. "Or should I just use one of my more casual outfits." He then looked at a plain white shirt and black pants. Jack was contemplating to himself as he wondered what to wear for his get-together with Coco. He was, unfortunately, snapped out of his thoughts when he heard alarms coming form the city. Walking to his window, he saw smoke coming from the city. Quickly, he put on his combat uniform, grabbed his gun, and ran out to catch a bullhead. Along the way, he encountered Neptune and Sun, who were also running out to catch a bullhead.
"You guys heard the alarms too?" Asked Jack as they ran to the docks.
"Yeah." Said Sun. "What's going on though?"
"No clue, but it can't be good." Said Jack as they made it outside.
"Think it's the White Fang?" Asked Neptune.
"Possibly, But I don't think that they'll try something like this." Said Jack as they got on a bullhead and told the pilot to take them to the action. As they flew to the action, they spotted team JNPR there as well, on another bullhead.
"Looks like, we're not the only ones getting in on the action." Commented Sun.
"Yeah." Said Jack as he readied his rifle. "Let's hope that we don't need this many." As soon as he said that, they spotted several Nevermores arriving to assist the Grimm on the ground. "How did those get here?"
"No clue." Said Neptune as he rubbed his head. "There's no way that those can get this far into the city before huntsman are sent into eliminate them. Heck, with the Atlas ships here, the Nevermores wouldn't even get near."
"Unless there's enough negative emotions to attract them." Said Jack, remembering that lesson from Atlas academy.
"Yeah, and with the panic in the city, that must be enough to attract even the strongest Grimm." Said Sun with grim certainty.
"Then we better get this contained quick." Said Jack as he placed a sniper scope on his rifle before taking potshots at various Grimm. As soon as they got near the action, however, he quit with the sniper fire and jumped down along with Sun and Neptune. Taking off his sniper scope, he unleashed a hail of bullets at various Beowulfs as Sun took to getting up close and personal with his nunchunks/shotguns. Neptune, however, took a similar approach to Jack, firing his weapon in it's ranged configuration while occasionally changing to melee mode whenever a Grimm got too close. While reloading his rifle after emptying a clip on an Ursa, Jack was jumped by a Creep Grimm. As the thing tried to bite his head off, Jack grabbed his emergency knife and stabbed it in the head. Unfortunately, it didn't die. In fact, it only enraged it more. Just when it was about to successfully bite Jack, several feathers were suddenly impeded into it, which then killed the creature. The one that threw the feathers then kicked the thing off Jack before hauling him to his feet.
"You're not that good of a fight, are you?" Asked Xayah as Jack widened his eyes at seeing the woman from the ball. Before he could say anything, Xayah pushed him away before throwing several daggers at a Deathstalker. The feathers, somehow, managing to pierce its strong armor and killing it after hitting vital points. "Now's not the time for twenty questions. Get to fighting!" Yelled Xayah as she threw feather after feather at any Grimm that got in her sights, all managing to kill them with a single hit or several for the bigger ones. As she was distracted with another Death Stalker, a Beowulf charged at her, oblivious to Jack aiming at it. Before it could take a swipe at Xayah, the Beowulf took a bullet to a head, which caused it to jerk away from Xayah and die somewhere in her vision. After killing the Death Stalker, she looked at the dissolving Beowulf and then at Jack, looking somewhat impressed.
"Not bad, but…" She then threw several feathers behind Jack, scoring kills at several Beowulfs and Creeps. "Not good enough." She said with a smirk before jumping and firing many feathers at a similarly large group of Grimm that were arriving from the entrance that a crashed train made. As Jack looked in shock at her skills and powers, Ruby managed to land besides him.
"You saw that?" Asked Ruby, similar surprised and shocked, but also in awe.
"Yeah." Said Jack before the two opened fire at a Ursa trying to sneak up behind them. "Let's get back to work." Nodding her head in agreement, the two charged at any Grimm that made it to the surface. As the battle continue to rage on, reinforcements arrived in the form of the new Atlas combat robots, professor Port and Goodwitch as well as team CFVY, much to the relief of the combatants as they were starting to get tired form the continuous assault. Well except Xayah, who seemed to be as energetic as ever. When Coco arrived in the field, Jack was in awe at her weapon. A massive minigun, that somehow was kept in a much smaller bag, that pierced even the strongest Death Stalker armor. After running to her in an effort to talk to her, he managed to shoot at several Creep with his backup pistol before stopping near her.
"Is this your idea of a get together?" Asked Coco in amusement as she opened fire at the Grimm coming from the breach. "Because you just went up a few points in my book."
"Seriously!?" Asked Jack incredulously as he opened fire. "We're facing a Grimm invasion and that's what you think about?"
"C'mon, live a little." Said Coco as she sprayed a suppressing fire on the Grimm. "There's no reason you can't have some fun in battle, especially on one like this." She then stopped when she spotted Glynda marching toward the breach, taking out any Grimm that charged at her with ease. She then used her semblance and began to seal the breach, returning everything to the way it was before the train broke everything. With the remaining Grimm being taken out by the Atlas robots, everyone began to celebrate. Congratulating each other for a job well done. However, Xayah, who was on a roof, yelled down to everyone.
"Too early to celebrate people!" Yelled Xayah as everyone looked at her. "The real battle is coming now!" She then summoned a couple of feathers and got into a fighting stance. Before anyone can ask her what she meant, the ground started to shake. Then the recently repaired breach, opened again to reveal the machine from before coming out, getting out with ease.
"Oh yeah." Said Ruby with a nervous chuckle as everyone stared at the giant robot in shock. "Forgot about him." As the robot got out of the breach fully, more Grimm ran out and the fighting began anew, except a giant robot was added to the equation on the Grimm side. While the Grimm were relatively easy, only the weaker ones this time because apparently the strongest went first, the giant robot was making things worse. It was taking potshots at any Atlas gunships that fired at it, the guns proving useless as they weren't equipped to take on an opponent this well armored. After taking out a large group of gunships in a single shot, the remaining gunships pulled off in order to get out of range. With the air threat gone, it turned toward the ground threat, which were proving to prove effective against the Grimm. It was about to open fire at them when it's gun jammed again by an external source. It then turned toward to the source and saw Xayah firing at it's optic with multiple feathers. The first group didn't do much, neither the next four, but the sixth managed to break through and pierce it's optic. While it was damaged, the machine still had a backup optic along with various other scanning tools in case the main optic was damaged. Discarding the currently useless weapon, it got out a grenade and threw it to somewhere in the city, taking out several city blocks. It then brought out a rocket launcher from nowhere and opened fire at an Atlas airship. It then fired and the rocket blasted toward the airship, which was trying to evade the rocket. Unfortunately, the rocket was too fast and it impacted against the engine block, causing the ship to fall toward the city of Vale. Fortunately, the crew managed to steer the ship away from the city and into the ocean. Meanwhile, the students and huntsmen and huntress were fighting against the large machine, to no avail.
"JUST! GO! DOWN!" Yelled Yang as she punched on the machine's dome head, having gotten there with assistance from Blake.
"Uh…question. Why isn't this thing attacking us?" Asked Neptune as he and everyone else with a gun fired at the machine, whose armor was taking it with ease.
"It must think we're not worth the trouble." Said Jack as he fired an entire clip at the big thrusters on it's back. "And why are we firing at this thing with these useless bullets!?"
"*Growls* He's right." Said Coco with annoyance. "We're just wasting ammo." She then took off her glasses before squinting for any weak spots on it. "If only we can do more damage to that damaged eye of it. Then maybe."
"Don't bother." Said Xayah as she appeared out of nowhere. "That thing has redundancies in case anyone tried to attack its main camera."
"Then how do we beat this thing!?" Asked Sun.
"You can't. Now with what you'd got now." Said Xayah. "However, I can do something against it. Just give me time." She then rushed toward the machine, who was continuously destroying Vale.
"What the heck does she think she's going to do to it?" Asked Weiss in exasperation as they saw her jump to the top of the machine. They then saw her talk to Yang, who looked reluctant, but then jumped off. Everyone then watched as the machine suddenly jerked when Xayah had injected something into it's damaged optic. The machine then suddenly went ballistics, firing its rocket launcher at everything, some missing and some hitting buildings. Then, as sudden as it's random firing, it stopped and fell down, its optic shutting down. Seeing her work done, Xayah disappeared in a cloud of feathers, but not before giving everyone a mock salute. As he looked around the carnage before him, Jack wondered what the heck is going on.
Few hours later
Ozpin's office.
"This is exactly what I was trying to tell you Ozpin!" Yelled Ironwood as he tried to rein in his temper. "If we'd had just sent in my men, none of this would have happened."
"I'm afraid not, James." Said Ozpin, though his voice held some uncertainty in it. "The outcome would have been the same, only with more casualties on your end."
"*Sighs* But they would have prevented the train from breaching and perhaps even destroy that machine." Said Ironwood. He along with everyone else was shocked beyond belief that the White Fang had a giant mech robot that put the recent Atlesian Paladin to shame, both in firepower and size. The recently captured White Fang prisoners and Torchwick were refusing to answer, apparently smug and happy that their plan went better then expected, which seemed to spread fear. Which it did as many were afraid that Vale wasn't as strong and safe as once thought. Outraged at this debacle, the council of Vale, with recommendation from the Atlas council, removed Ozpin from being in charge of security for the Vytal festival and appointed Ironwood in charge. Though he would have been alright with this, Ironwood knew that it was a hollow gesture as he didn't have any answer to how the White Fang acquired such a machine or if they had more. They managed to acquire the machine from before, apparently disabled. They've been trying to figure out what makes it tick, to no avail.
"Speaking of that machine." Said Glynda. "Do you have any information about it?"
"I'm afraid not." Said Ironwood, recomposing himself. "Whatever metal it's exterior armor is made out of is so dense that our most powerful cutting tools aren't cutting through. The only way we're getting anything out of it was from that damaged optic and even then, we're not getting much. But what we have is that it isn't human made. The technology is so advanced that it can't be made by humans. Not even Atlas is close to its technology."
"So, are you saying that the White Fang acquired alien technology?" Asked Glynda, sarcastically.
"It's the only possible explanation." Said Ironwood. "I'll tell you more when I acquired more data on it. In the meantime, I have to ask the Atlas council for more reinforcement. The toll on my men on that battle was…severe."
"How many did you lose, James?" Asked Ozpin, fearful of the numbers. Ironwoods just had a pined look before answering.
"Fortunately, most of the men on the shot airship survived the crash. I have men extracting them now. But most of my gunships and pilots were destroyed. So, while the damage isn't as extensive as it could have been, it still left a large gap in air power." Explained Ironwood.
"What are you planning to do then, James?" Asked Glynda, worried for the answer.
"Well, I severely doubt that the Atlas council will spare too many troop after this, but I'll try and get as many men here as possible." Said Ironwood. "Now if you'll, excuse me, I need to send condolence letter to the family of my dead men." With that, he left, with Ozpin and Glynda looking at him with sadness.
"What do we do now, Ozpin?" Asked Glynda. "What If the White Fang have more of those things?"
"Then, we'll need to acquire information on that." Said Ozpin. He then brought out his scroll and sent out messages to several teams. "*Sighs* I don't want to do this, but…the greater good demands it." Glynda just sighed to herself before leaving. Soon, Jack, team CFVY, SSSN, JNPR, and RWBY arrived, wondering why they were here.
"Excuse me, sir, but why are we here?" Asked Jack as they all looked the headmaster, who just sighed before looking at them all.
"A mission." Said Ozpin. "As you all know, a giant, walking machine of great power had recently destroyed a large portion of Vale." Seeing them nod, he continued. "So, I ask you all to go back to the Mountain Glen and figure out if the White Fang have more of them or at the very least some information about that thing." Hearing this, everyone looked surprised at this. Some looked excited at the prospect at going out on the field, others were unsure, and everyone else was against it.
"Sir, with all due respect, wouldn't it be better if a professional huntsmen/huntress team be sent for this?" Asked Jack with several others nodding their heads in agreement.
"C'mon Jack." Said Yang with a teasing voice. "We can handle ourselves."
"Miss Xiao Long, while I admire your courage, Jack is correct in being afraid." Said Ozpin.
"He's right, Yang." Said Weiss. "Did you forget that we all barely did any damage against that thing. The only way we beat it was because of that Atlas specialist, Xayah."
"Who?" Asked Ozpin with a raised eyebrow.
"Xayah." Said Ruby. "She's an Atlas specialist sent undercover to figure out what the White Fang is doing. She had the credentials and everything. All legit."
"I see." Said Ozpin, reminding himself to ask Ironwood about this. "Well, back to the topic, normally I wouldn't give this assignment to just students. But, given the fact that most of our huntresses and huntsmen are busy with other assignments, I'm afraid I have to, given the fact that time is most likely of the essence. So, please, do this for me. I'll be sending Oobleck and Port with you as well." Everyone just looked at each other, unsure of what to say, when suddenly Ruby walked forward with Jaune.
"We'll do it." Said Ruby with a smile, which Jaune did as well. Seeing this and not to be outdone by first years, Coco did the same. Sun then walked forward, not willing to be cut out of the action, despite protests from his teammates. Seeing this, Jack did the same, though he had a feeling that he was going to regret this. Smiling at their courage, Ozpin then ordered several bullheads to escort them to Mountain Glen along with Oobleck and Port. When they left, Ozpin contacted Ironwood.
"What is it, Ozpin?" Asked Ironwood as he was flying back to his ship.
"A question, Ironwood." Said Ozpin. "Do you send a specialist undercover against the White Fang? One called Xayah?" Ironwood looked surprised and confused at this question.
"No, Ozpin. I didn't. Why are you asking this?" Asked Ironwood. Ozpin then frowned to himself.
"Then it appears we have another group. Miss Rose has said that the only reason the machine fell was because of this Xayah character and that she had legitimate credentials of an Atlas specialist."
"What?" Asked ironwood, getting up. "We need to find this woman now. If she had those then…"
"I'm afraid that we have no way of finding her. She most likely disappeared after the battle." Said Ozpin. "But don't worry, I'll help you with this."
"Thank you, Ozpin. I swear to you, this Xayah woman will regret ever making fake credentials." Said Ironwood before disconnecting. When he did, Ozpin just sighed to himself. Things were getting messier by the minute.
Meanwhile
Unknown Location
"Xayah, do you have any idea what you did?" Asked John as he was looking at Xayah with a handful of others looking at her. Their location was unknown, but the room they were in appeared to be a meeting room, with a high-tech table that displayed various holographs as well as several monitors among many other highly-technological things. Though a few of the figures were unknown, the ones that were recognizable were Sona, Solaris, Ahri, and Irelia.
"My job." Said Xayah, not caring what the consequences her actions were. "I saved those people from that machine. So, what? That thing was part of an old scout ship. So, there's no need to be worried."
"*Sighs* Just because it's wasn't in the system, doesn't mean that an Internecine won't detect its defeat." Said Solaris, disappointed that Xayah ignored this.
"She's right, Xayah." Said Irelia. "This happened before. If any sufficiently advanced technology or sufficiently powerful magic is detected, then an Internecine will…"
"Activate and create more powerful droids, I know, but there isn't one here, right? The scans said so." Argued Xayah.
"Honestly, Xayah." Said John with a shake of his head. "This is why people are clamoring for your court martial. You're too reckless and don't learn from the mistakes of others, not to mention your own." Before she could argue, a speaker then suddenly came to life.
"Uh, sir. We got a situation here." Said the speaker. "Scans indicate that an Internecine is up and running."
"What!?" Yelled Xayah in disbelief. "But the scans…"
'Scans were wrong." Said the man in the speaker. "Things beginning to churn up. What do we do?" John just stared at Xayah, who looked in shock, before looking at Solaris.
"Get admiral Zorah on the comms. We're going to need more men." Said John. Solaris just nodded before leaving. "The rest of you get ready for a fight. Cause that Internecine is going to make one. As for you Xayah." John then walked up to Xayah as everyone then left. "We're going to discuss this further." With that he left, leaving Xayah to ponder on what she had done.
Sometime before
Mountain Glenn
Underground city
"This is where they found it, right?" Asked Neptune as he and everyone else looked around for any information about the machine and if there were more here. Upon arriving, team RWBY took everyone to where they first spotted the machine. Upon arriving, they saw that the place was abandoned, no stray White Fang in sight. Assuming they had left, everyone began to strip the place for anything about the robot.
"They had to, I don't see anyway they can transport such a machine without anyone noticing." Said Blake as she scoured the area.
"Well if they had, they sure did a good job hiding it. There's no evidence that something was dug up." Said Coco as she looked through the remains of the White Fang base.
"Yeah, not digging marks or traces. They sure did a good job if they unearthed that thing or built it here." Said Jack.
"You honestly think, that thing was dug up?" Asked Weiss as she looked at Jack.
"Yeah. I mean, Atlas isn't anywhere near the technology for that machine and we're the de-facto kingdom for weapons research." Said Jack.
"So, you think it's alien?" Asked Weiss, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, I do." Said Jack as he went back to searching. Before she could retort, loud rumbling forced everyone to stop what they were doing. Using his semblance, which was something akin to a military scanner, Jack spotted the rumbling was coming from somewhere in the city. Upon gathering everyone, the teachers took the lead as Jack instructed them where to go. Upon arriving to the source, they were shocked to see a midnight-colored bunker with it's door open in front of them.
"Was that part of the city, sir?" Asked Weiss as they looked at the bunker.
"I'm afraid not." Said Oobleck as he examined the structure. "It's much to advanced to be human-made and it's appeared to lead deeper underground.
"Well, we're on a mission to uncover information about that robot, I say we go inside." Said Port. Before anyone can disagree, Port heroically charged inside. Sighing at his co-worker's antic, Oobleck went in followed by the students. Upon arriving they were amazed and a bit terrified at the architecture of the bunker. The design of the hallway was unlike anything they have ever seen. Unlike designs they were used to seeing, where appeal, comfort, etc. were placed in mind, the hallway was designed with a lack of windows, little in the way of actual lighting, the coldness they were feeling, and the efficient use of space. There was nothing wasted or anything in the design of the hallway. Everything was used to its absolute limits. It was honestly something that freaked them out, seeing something so admirable, yet so alien was a unique experience for them. As they walked, Jack got scuspiouc along with everyone else.
"Something not right, Coco." Said Jack as they walked, hand in rifle just in case.
"Yeah." Agreed Coco as she looked around, her handbag ready to turn into her Gatling gun. "Why is this place opened and that rumbling. If this thing was the cause, then somethings fishy."
"Think someone wanted to lead us here?" Asked Velvet, hearing the conversation.
"Seems like it." Said Jack as he inspected the walls, amazed at the texture and wondered what the material was. Eventually they stop when a closed door, or rather what seemed like a door was in front of them and with no way out other than the way they came, they all looked at each other.
"So…we just go back?" Asked Sun to no one in particular.
"Really. But I wanted to have some fun." Whined Yang as she pouted. Before anyone can argue with her, the door suddenly opened.
"…Ok, I say we leave." Said Neptune before turning around to leave. Yang, however, grabbed him and made him stay.
"C'mon, you big baby, what can go wrong?" Said Yang before going inside.
"A lot of things." Said Jack before going in as well. Reluctantly, everyone else went in. To their surprise the door led to big hallway with the only visible light source on a single glowing console active.
"Most intriguing." Said Oobleck as he walked to the console while still keeping his guard up.
"Okay, this is weird." Said Jack as everyone followed. "A single object in a room with the only visible light source on it? This may be real life, but isn't this a tad suspicious to you guys?"
"He's got a point." Said Weiss. "Even I saw my fair share of B-rated movies to know this seems off."
"True, children. That's why I'm doing this." Said Oobleck with a smile as he approached the console. As his hand began to go near the console, he suddenly jumped back and launched a fireball from his thermos at something. They all heard some metallic growls before the more lights activated. To their surprise, a biped machine was looking at them with blue glowing optics that had electricity coming out of them. It was around 9 feet tall. It had a gray color scheme for its armor plating with distinct translucent areas where energy seems to flow perpetually. The head was V-shaped. Its weapon was a halberd with three blades, all placed in a tri-formation, which seemed to have a gun barrel in the middle of the blades. The machine growled before blasting Oobleck with its halberd, which it did so by pointing the tip of the gun barrel at Oobleck, firing a spread of lasers, similar to a shotgun blast. Fortunately, Oobleck, having thought ahead, dodged the blast in time. The energy beams destroyed the console. The machine then fired again at everyone else, which they dodged with ease.
"Ice flower!" Yelled Ruby before impeding her scythe in the ground, followed with Weiss summoning a white circle in front of Ruby's weapon. She then proceeded to open fire, the bullets being covered in ice dust. Normally the bullet covered with the dust would have created ice around the point of impact, which would then immobilize the target once sufficient rounds hit it, but this time, to everyone's shock, some kind of barrier was protecting the machine from the bullets, turning them into energy before absorbing said energy.
"Well, that's just great." Said Jack before throwing a grenade at the machine, who then proceeded to blast in mid-air. "Any more ideas?"
"Hmm…I got one!" Yelled Porter before charging at the machine, who stayed still, as if it was watching him. To it's surprise, Porter just rammed right into him, trying to tackle it to the ground. Unfortunately, the machine didn't budge, far too heavy to be taken down so easily. Looking confused at the slightly fat man, the machine was even more confused when it saw him smirk. It then looked back at the others to see the lanky man coming at him with his flaming thermos, watching as he fired several fireballs at its face, slightly disorienting it. While it was distracted by the sudden flash, Oobleck and Port fired both their weapons at it, which was soon followed by everyone else's once they were out of the way. The machine's shields held out for an impressive amount of time before dying, indicated by a flickering light. Now recovered from the sudden flash to it's optic, the machine charged at them, swinging it's halberd. Everyone sidestepped out of the way, but Ruby, her weapon imbedded on the floor to provide stability, was caught in waist by one of the blades, the very tip catching her. The blade went right through her aura, ripping her flesh with ease. As she watched her sister fall to the ground, Yang turned to the robot with red eyes. Screaming in anger, Yang charged recklessly at the robot, punching it with all her might on the head. To everyone's disbelief, the armor held, though had a large dent on the right side of the head. Stumbling in surprise, the robot just slashed at the arm that hit it, cutting above the elbow. Too enraged to feel the pain, Yang just kept punching at the machine, eventually making enough dents in the armor that she punched right through and hit the power core, causing it to glow brightly. Seeing this, Yang tried to get away, but the inevitable blast happened much sooner than anticipated, resulting in Yang being caught in the blast. Once the resulting smoke had faded, Blake and Weiss ran down to Yang. They gasped in shock at seeing shrapnel and burn marks on her backside. As they were tended to her along with several others, who rushed to help her, Port, Jack, and Coco were looking at the remains of the droid, which was only pieces. As Port picked up the remains of the head, Jack walked up to him.
"We should go." Said Jack as Port got up, tossing him the head. "If not for Yang, then for everyone else because there may be more of those things."
"Much as I hate to say, I agree." Said Port before turning to Jack. "Miss Xiao Long needs medical assistance and a proper hospital now." He then rushed toward Yang and instructed everyone to head up to the surface. As everyone began to help Yang and Ruby up, Coco and Jack were looking at the head while going up.
"Think that was the only one?" Asked Coco as they walked up to the surface.
"I don't think so." Said Jack while inspecting the head. Eventually he spotted a speck of light inside it. Faint, but just enough for him to see. Curious, he dug into the head and pulled out the light, revealing it to be a chip. "Ozpin would want something like this." Said Jack as he looked at the chip.
"Yeah. Same with Ironwood." Said Coco. "Who you giving it to?"
"Ozpin." Said Jack, turning to Coco. "Ironwood may be a good guy with good intentions, but he's not well known for handling things discreetly. And something tells me that this situation requires that." Coco just nodded her head, agreeing with his reasoning.
Much later
Jack's room
"Can't believe that Ozpin is out with the council and Ironwood." Said Jack as he stared at the chip he pulled from that robot's head. Due to the injuries sustained by Yang and Ruby, Ozpin was forced to tell the council and Ironwood of his little side-mission. To say they were furious was a bit of an understatement. They were all currently conversing with Ozpin right now, likely thinking of removing him from Beacon academy for this. Sighing to himself, Jack then heard a knock on his door. Curious, he opened it and, to his surprise, Blake was there with a determined look.
"Something that I can do for you, Blake?" Asked Jack. He and her didn't interact much, beyond some talks about the White Fang.
"Yes." Said Blake before barging in and looking at Jack. "My teammates nearly died during that mission, they're in the infirmary right now, getting treated."
"I know." Said Jack with true regret. He wished that he was able to do more. "Any word on them?"
"Just that Yang will need a prosthetic for her missing arm and that she need at least three surgeries to get rid of the internal bleedings, shrapnel, and to save her internal organs." Said Blake, regret in her voice. "Ruby is more better. She just needs to a blood transfusion. She'll most definitely survive. But Yang…"
"Yang is pretty tough." Said Jack, interrupting her while holding her shoulder. "She can survive this, right?"
"I'm not sure." Said Blake, hesitantly. "But I hope so. But right now, I need your help."
"My help?" Asked Jack, confused. Blake then looked at him seriously.
"You took something from that robot, right?" Asked Blake seriously. Seeing him nod, she continued. "I want you to take that thing and get whatever you can from it."
'What, why?" Asked Jack, shocked. "This should be given to Ozpin as soon as possible. Maybe even Ironwood, not matter who misguided he is."
"I know." Said Blake. "But I need to know as well. My teammate and partner nearly died against that thing and I want to know if they're more of those things out there. And I know for a fact that you got an amazing degree in engineering, the ones that matter to this situation." Though she was right, Jack was still reluctant to do so.
"Blake." Started Jack. "This goes against everything I was taught at the Atlas academy. Even if I agreed to do this, how am I going to decrypt an alien chip that should be incompatible with any Remnant technology."
"You're going to do it, Jack." Said Blake with a serious face. "Please." Hearing her pleading tone, Jack sighed before bringing out his scroll and the chip.
"This is going to be a waste of time." Said Jack before placing the two objects on his desk and going to get some material. "But I guess I can make a backward compatible device that can help. Won't guarantee that it'll do the job."
"Better for you do to something than nothing." Said Blake, grateful that Jack was doing this. As she watched him work, she let out a small smile. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it." Said Jack as he bought the necessary material. "I want to help. But this is an impossible task, Blake. This is literally alien tech. It shouldn't work with Remnant tech."
"Just try." Said Blake. Throwing his arms in exasperation, Jack went to work on trying to make a device that was able to make the chip compatible with his scroll. After several hours of finding enough material and many failed attempts, Jack slammed his fist in frustration, waking Blake up in the process.
"Got anything?" Asked Blake as she looked at the mess that was the result of Jack's attempt to decipher the chip.
"No." Said Jack before throwing his latest attempt into the trash, after scavenging for reusable material. He then proceeded to make another one. "I told you this isn't working. This is the last time, Blake and that's it. Better for Atlas techies to do this."
"I know." Said Blake. She then eyed all the wasted material on the desk and floor. "Sorry about making you waste all this."
"It's okay." Said Jack as he tried again. "Needed to get rid of some stuff anyway." Thinking to himself, Jack tried to insert the chip into the new device, one made from the mistakes off all the past ones, which were rectified for this thing. The chip fitted perfectly into the slot and soon the device began to sure in life as it connected the chip to his scroll. The two looked in awe as the scroll began to try and download as much information as possible from the chip. Unfortunately, the device soon sorted out and gave away, blowing up in the process. Having taken cover from the blast, Jack looked in frustration at the destroyed chip and his scroll's black screen.
"Well we tried. Nothing we can do now." Said Jack. "And now I have to go explain to Ozpin that the chip is broken."
"I'm sorry." Said Blake with regret. "I didn't mean to get you in trouble."
"It's alright." Said Jack. "I've been there before." He then remembered all the times that he got in trouble with his history instructor, a certified racist to Faunas, about his lessons on Faunas. Needless to say, he got so many detentions from that man. "You have a good night. Don't worry about the mess, I can deal with it." Reluctantly, Blake then left, leaving Jack to handle the wrecked room. After cleaning up and placing his scroll on the now clean desk, Jack immediately slumped on his bed and dozed off. Unknown to him, however, his scroll began to lit up and data in an unknown language was showing up on the screen.
Meanwhile
"How did those kids manage to get in here?" Asked Xayah as she and several others were investigating the bunker.
"Better question is how they managed to get here before us." Commented a large humanoid with a strange mask. It was clearly a he given his form, but wasn't human nor any recorded Faunas type. His skin was light and was reptilian-like. What made this thing clearly different from Faunas was that it had large, dreadlock-like hair on the back and side of it's head. That and he was much larger than any normal Faunas and human, going over 7 and a half feet in height. He was heavily armored with a gun on each shoulder.
"Between the time that it took our scanners to pick up this particular bunker's signal, and rounding up a response team, it's reasonable to assume that they had enough of a head start." Said John as he surveyed the aftermath of a battle along with several other men in large, bulky armor. "What's the report?"
"Well." Started a man in one of the large bulky, red-armor as he looked at John with his faceless, glass visor. "Scans indicate that a battle had broke out between a Mil, likely a generation two model, and the students of Beacon academy. Students must have overwhelmed the unit and taken its memory core as it's not here. We also managed to found an arm here, sliced off by a bladed weapon. No evidence indicates that the victim was killed or anything."
"Anything else?" Asked John as he looked at Xayah and the humanoid man.
"Negative. Console is completely trashed." Said the man. "However, what we did uncover from the security cameras is that the droid had pulled some files out of the console, then proceeded to destroy it when the students arrive here. Must have been something important."
"Indeed." Said John. "Alright, remove any evidence of our presence here and follow standard procedure when dealing with local natives." The man just nodded before meeting up with his colleagues. John then walked up to Xayah, who looked a bit ashamed.
"Look, John I…"
"Xayah." Interrupted John. "I think of you as a friend. You helped me so many times over the last few years even since I got my memory back. But if you keep doing stunts like this, I can't protect you from the fallout, neither can Sona or her mother."
"I know." Said Xayah.
"Then just follow this order. Keep an eye on that boy, Jack. Cameras suggest he may have some sensitive data. Take it from whoever he gives it too and eliminate them if necessary."
"Got it." Said Xayah before taking off in a plume of feathers.
"Were you really going to recommend her court martial, old friend?" Asked the humanoid being.
"No." Said John. "She's a good person with good intentions. She just acts too recklessly sometimes."
"Reminds you of a certain friend of ours, doesn't it?" Said the humanoid with amusement.
"Yeah." Agreed John. "But, unlike her, he actually takes necessary ones." Sighing to himself, John went outside, hoping to get some fresh air.