[A/N: This chapter is shorter than the rest, but I'm out of stockpiled material, so my updates will be slowing down. Meaning that you guys get to sit in suspense waiting for chapter six! Muahahaha!
As always, hope you guys enjoy!
With her paperwork done for the day Amelia heads up to her house and grabs her vest, rifle, and black cloak before pulling a very lazy Sierra out of bed.
"Come on, get dressed! You can't lounge around in your underwear all damn day!"
Sierra looks at the time and sighs through her nose before walking over to her dresser.
"'Fatigues?'"
"I don't care, you can wear that new skirt if you want, just get dressed, we're going to welcome Ruby to Beacon and you need to be there so you can hear the introduction, you are attending after all."
"'Ugh, do I have to go?'"
"We'll swing through a cafe when we're done."
"'Alright.'"
Sierra puts on a frilly black 'combat skirt' and grabs her parasol from next to her bed with a pouch of shotgun shells before tying her hair in its typical twin tails.
"My little assassin." Amelia sighs and pulls her hood up as she opens the door.
"'Nope, that's Neo. Subtlety isn't my thing.'" To prove her point Sierra racks the shotgun in her parasol, loading a fire Dust infused shell into the chamber.
Amelia rolls her eyes at the theatrical flare of her daughter, and they quickly board a waiting Bullhead that flies off towards Beacon once they're inside.
When the bullhead arrives they jump out while it's still ten feet off the ground, and they both land gracefully, with Sierra using her parasol to slowly float down.
"I still don't understand how you did that." Amelia shakes her head and leads the way.
"'Simple, I fused the fabric with gravity Dust.'"
"There is nothing simple about fusing fabric with Dust."
"'Seems pretty easy to me….'"
"Who taught you?"
"'Uncle Jacques.'"
"Oh….that explains it. He was fusing stuff with Dust ever since his second year in Signal. His uniform is fused with Dust."
Sierra twirls once and holds her open parasol on her shoulder, smiling like a maniac.
Suddenly Yang and a bunch of her friends zip past, too fast for Amelia to get Yang's attention.
"Damn it!" Amelia scuffs her foot on the ground in frustration,
They keep walking around trying to find Ruby, until they hear a Dust explosion in the distance.
"When in doubt, follow the sound of explosions."
They walk towards the courtyard, and when they get there Amelia takes note of the crater in the middle of it, along with a very irritated white-haired girl yelling at Ruby.
"Oh dear, it would appear that Ruby managed to anger a certain Schnee heiress." Amelia has Sierra head to the welcome ceremony and approaches with her hood up.
The Schnee is too busy chewing Ruby out to notice her approach, but Ruby sees her, and throws a glance her way that says 'HELP!'.
"Hello Miss Schnee, are you finished berating my niece?"
Weiss jumps and wheels around, her hand on her rapier, and her grip on the weapon tightens when she sees the hooded figure standing mere feet away.
Amelia pulls her hood back to show her face and opens her cloak, showing the patch on her right shoulder.
Weiss suddenly removes her hand from the rapier and clasps her hands together in front of her respectfully.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Ellis! I did not realize it was you!"
"It is quite alright Weiss, I did sneak up on you after all. What did my niece do this time?"
"She wasn't looking where she was going and fell onto my luggage, then she must have gotten some Dust in her nose and almost blew us up!"
"Then it was not her fault correct? One of the clasps on your cases must not have been secured."
Weiss suddenly looks incredibly indignant, and Klein scrambles to load her bags back onto the cart.
"Come along Ruby, you don't want to be late for the introduction ceremony."
Ruby skirts around Weiss and follows Amelia, who pulls her cloak back around her as they walk.
"So…Angel….why did you call me your niece?"
"Simple, if I had called you anything else she likely would have continued yelling at you. I have business connections with her father, so she treats me with the utmost respect, as per her father's orders."
"Oh….okay! Thank you!"
"Don't mention it, I'm just doing my duty."
They walk past a rather green looking blonde and into the front doors, with Amelia leading the way.
"Man this brings back memories!" Amelia grins the entire time while they head to the arena, where the main student body is waiting.
"Alright Ruby, there's Yang, I'll talk to you after things are over."
"Okay! See you in a bit!"
Ruby walks over to Yang, and Amelia walks over to the side of the stage, choosing to stand in a dark corner while she listens to the same speech she had heard during her second year.
To no surprise Sierra makes her way over to her mom, choosing to stand next to her instead of with the other students.
"You know, it would do you well to go meet new people, might finally find some friends who aren't contract killers."
"'But…social interaction. You know I'm terrible at breaking the ice.'"
"Yes I know, but you're going to be assigned to a team anyway, so why not find some good candidates?"
"'You know I hate it when you're right…'"
"I know."
Finally Ozpin finishes his speech, and while he's walking off the stage Goodwitch gives instructions to the students.
"Well hello Ozpin, it's been a while."
"Indeed it has, what brings you here today?"
"Just accompanying my daughter here, and little Miss Rose, I figured I might scout for any possible recruits while I was here."
Ozpin smiles at her joke about recruiting and pushes his spectacles up his nose.
"I see…well, if you would visit my office when you have the time, I have an important matter that requires attention."
"Of course, I have a few things to do once I'm done here, but I'll make time tomorrow to meet you."
"Well, if you would excuse me, I do believe I have some administrative duties to attend to."
Ozpin walks off, followed by Goodwitch, who gives Amelia a respectful nod as she walks past.
"Hey Angel!" Yang calls as she walks over with Ruby close behind her.
"Hello Yang! Are you done leaving Ruby in the dust?"
"Yes…sorry…."
Amelia smiles and claps Yang on the shoulder. "Don't apologize to me, apologize to her."
Yang turns around and hugs Ruby. "Sorry sis."
"Apology accepted, if you get me some cookies next time we go to town."
Yang groans and pulls Ruby's hood up. "Alright fine."
Sierra hides behind Amelia, but her mom is having none of it, and grabs her shoulders before steering her so she stands in front.
"Who's this Angel?"
"This is my youngest daughter Sierra, she's also attending Beacon."
Yang steps forward and offers her hand. "Nice to meet you Sierra! Your mom has helped us more times than I can count."
Sierra hesitates, but gathers her wits and confidently shakes Yang's hand.
"'Nice to meet you Yang. Mom has told me all sorts of stories about you two. I hope we can partner up.'"
Yang looks at Amelia suspiciously. "What stories did you tell her?"
"Oh you know…just the fights you got into at Signal."
Yang eyes her for a minute, but the adult's hard silver eyes give no secrets, and she looks away from the intense gaze.
Suddenly Amelia's scroll buzzes, and she rolls her eyes before taking it out.
"Oh great….well, I'm sorry to cut this short. Next time you two are in Vale come up to the base and hand them this, they'll let you in."
Amelia hands them both a card and quickly jogs away, expertly weaving through the crowd of people until she gets outside, where a bullhead is waiting.
"What's the situation?" Amelia's 'voice' is serious as she walks into the headquarters.
The soldier up on the raised platform gives her a salute. "Your mother is waiting in her office ma'am."
She returns the salute and walks down the hall, entering the door that has a black rook painted on it.
"You rang?"
Janet looks up from the tablet she's holding. "Yes, Kimberly's convoy is four hours overdue, and we haven't heard anything from them."
Amelia's heart jumps into her throat as she strides forward and looks at the map on the tablet. "Where."
"Firing range Golf, when we last heard from them they were on the MSR and returning to base."
Amelia clenches her fists to steady their shaking. "Tell Viper flight we're wheels up in twenty. Search and Rescue setup for half the planes, CAS for the other half."
Janet leans over and grabs a different tablet, her fingers dancing across the screen. "They're getting ready now."
She looks up, but Amelia has already gone out the door.
Amelia quickly climbs up into her A-10 and gets settled in, beside her on the flight line are a quartet of A-10's, painted black with red accents to resemble Grimm and identify the flight they belong to; Viper flight, the best pilots in the company.
In one motion Amelia plugs her helmet in, turns on the radio, and begins her startup phase as four pilots dressed in black flight suits sprint down the flight line and climb into their aircraft.
{Viper one checking in.}
{Viper two checking in.}
{Viper three and four checking in.}
"Angel checking in, I hope you all have your shit together today, we're saving the colonel's sister."
{One of the founders? Which CO?}
"Armor and artillery."
{Roger that, only the best for the captain!}
Amelia grins the entire time she's finishing her start-up.
{Viper lead reporting all Viper elements ready to roll.}
Without a word Amelia takes off her parking brake and eases the plane out onto the taxiway, past the four others, which take position behind her.
While taxiing she grabs her scroll and sends an order to clear the runway, watching a flight of FA/18's stop and wait for them to pass.
"Viper lead let's not wait around, kick it forward when you get on the runway."
{Viper copies.}
With small inputs from her rudder pedals she guides the plane onto the snow-dusted runway and throttles up, blasting the snow away in a white cloud behind her.
The five planes form up at five thousand feet, just slightly below the clouds so they can search the ground for any sign of the missing convoy. It takes an hour to find them, four columns of inky black smoke rise above destroyed tanks in the road.
Amelia quickly binds her TGP to her eye and scans the vehicles for any survivors, but there's no movement.
The lead destroyed vehicle has snow piled up on the plow, its turret laying upside down in the ditch some ten yards away from the hull.
"Castle we've found part of the convoy! Get Bulldog and her best over here NOW!"
It was brought to my attention that I need to put in definitions for some military lingo that I use, so here is the stuff that I feel I need to explain.
MSR - Main Supply Route. Typically a highway.
CO - Commanding Officer. The head honcho, top brass, the person in charge of it all on base.