AN: Here's the new chapter it's a bit longer at 3k then most at 1.5k so enjoy it. I may not update next week because finals but I'll try. Um once again tell me what I screwed up so I can fix it.
As the ceiling gave out team CFVY got a surprise in the form of four paratroops and a large bomb. It didn't help that two of them had been attempting to listen in on the conversation too. Yatsuhashi jumped in between the two groups in a futile attempts to shield his team. He had no idea why but that device just felt off, like his soul was being torn from him. The two Faunus of the team were utterly terrified of it, there animalistic instinct told then the cylinder was bad, really really bad. It stayed silent for a minute before A groan was heard.
"Are we dead?" Asked one of the soldiers.
"Alright let's get moving before." Adam stopped talking when he realized they were in an occupied room. Krauss stood up and Screeched in Italian
"You know nothing!" And dropped a flashbang followed by a smoke grenade courtesy of Wilhelm. In the cloud of smoke the four airborne grabbed the warhead and stumbled through the door and into the mass of students that had gathered in the hallway.
A few minutes ago
Ozpin was about to make his rounds and check on the "extra" team. He really needed to come up with a name for them. As he was turning the corner he spotted Krauss slip into their dorm. 'Odd, what are they doing up so late?.' He thought as he walked up to knock on their door he paused when he heard raised voices.
"16km I think? Either way we are well and truly fucked if this goes off." Ozpin suddenly felt ill.
"What are we going to do with this then? Bury it?" Ozpin composed himself and knocked twice. The other side was silent. Suddenly a bunch of footsteps were heard.
"Mr McCarthy I would like to have a word with you." A sudden lurch in the floor followed by the sound of wood breaking and a loud crash as what he presumed to be the paratroopers crash through the floor. Ozpin sighed as He ran down to the staircase and descended a level. He had made it about halfway before he heard a shrill yell in one of Krauss's other languages followed by a bright flash and an incredibly loud bang some more screams were heard as the hall slowly filled with students. After ten seconds the door burst open to reveal the four soldiers carrying a large cylinder wreathed in smoke.
"Mr McCarthy what on remnant are you doing!" Adam looked and saw the disturbingly calm visage of the head master.
" Uh waste disposal?"
Krauss walked over and whispered. " That's a nuke, I don't know if it's armed but we need to bury it deep. Now." Ozpin paled running through options he settled on both the least desirable and the safest option. Letting out a curse in old valean he decided to run with it as a fail safe.
"You four with me And bring that "Waste" with you. NOW." The paratroopers quickly followed dragging the nuke behind them. The crowd slowly dispersed after that.
After fifteen minutes the got to Ozpin's office. They dragged the bomb into the elevator, and Ozpin punched in the code for the vault. As the elevator descended. Ozpin's mask slipped and his fury was unleashed on the soldiers.
"HOW IN THE FUCKING HELL DO YOU HAVE A NUKE! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING! IF THAT HAD GONE OFF."
Krauss broke into his speech. " YOU THINK I'M NOT AWARE OF THAT! ADAM FOUND THAT SITTING ON THE FLOOR, WHAT WERE WE SUPPOSED TO DO!" The two men stared each other down for the rest of the ride. When the door pinged open Ozpin asked again
" Why do you have that."
Adam answered. " last night Krauss went down to the workshop to try upgrading one of our rifles. The rest of us went down to the rang to get some practice in at about 2330 we turned in for the night Krauss was still working down at the upgrades. At 0400 Wilhelm woke up to relieve himself and found that sitting in the middle of the room. I Recalled the sergeant and we found out what it is you know the rest." Ozpin turned to Krauss.
" Do you have any idea what its yield is?"
Krauss sighed." I think it's a W59 witch puts it at 1 megaton. How deep are we?"
Ozpin answered "About four kilometers why?"
"An airburst is deadly to about 16km but if it's buried down here it should only collapse the school at worst." The conversation moved on to if it went off what could they do to minimize casualties and if they should ever use it against the Grimm.
About midway through a hour of conversation Ozpin collapsed. A collective oh shit was muttered.
"I need to get away from that warhead." Said Ozpin
"Krauss, Wilhelm drag that thing as far away as you can." The two saluted Adam and began dragging right it towards Amber's casket. Ozpin's mind went into overdrive. What would happen if they saw her? if the bomb's casing wasn't intact and poisoned her? If it went off, what would happen? That warhead was just...wrong. Ozpin had never felt that leaching poisonous pull with ANY THING before. The radio that Adam held blared
"Adam there something down here. I have no idea what it is but it is sticking to the shadows."
An angry Adam turned to Ozpin. "Ozpin what else is down here?" Ozpin knew he was cornered here there was no chance of him wiggling out of this
"In the vault we are hiding a." A gunshot broke the Silence.
"CONTACT!" A voice screamed from down range. Several more reports followed.
Wilhelm's voice came through the radio "We've been engaged returning fire."
" Oberjäger what's your attacker?"
"Don't know but it's definitely not the Grimm. Krauss took a round From it he's fine though." Ozpin pushed himself up and began to quickly walk towards the gunfire.
"Ozpin what are you doing you don't have a weapon!" Ozpin merely flipped his cane around. And continued Adam muttered a creative curse under his breath and ran to catch up with the aging headmaster. They heard the reports of a C96 and Krauss's M45. When they finally saw the rest of the fire team the three men paused. Jonathan said what was on everyone's mind
"What in the hell?"
"Why do you think Ozpin got sick like that?" Asked Wilhelm.
"Well from what I remember Ozpin saying from when we first met was that remnant doesn't really have any radioactive isotopes. So maybe the radiation effects them quicker or something." The two stopped to adjust there holds when the distinctive boom of a shotgun announced itself. Krauss flew back his side smoking.
"CONTACT!" Yelled Wilhelm.
He grabbed the dead man's hold on the back of Krauss's armor and dragged. Krauss was coherent enough to try covering them with his M45. He saw a shape moving in the shadows. He snapped up the 45 and fired. The bullet screeched down range and impacted a silver field.
"We've been engaged! Returning fire." The sharp reports of Wilhelm's 96 mixed with the duller pops of Krauss's 45. The shotgun boomed again narrowly missing Wilhelm. The near miss caused him to lose his footing. As he fell back a sword flew past his face in a glittering arc.
" You boys shouldn't be down here." Said a slurred voice from the shadows. Wilhelm was screaming into the radio for backup. Krauss saw the massive blade bearing down on him. He fired twice and the slide locked back. The glittering silver aura just barely seemed to stop the 45s
"Qrow! Stand down!"
The sword paused mid strike.
"Ozpin? They snuck into the vault they could be spies for Her as far as we know!" Ozpin angrily replied "Do they look like anyone from Remnant. They're all 7 feet tall for Oum's sake. There even dressed in a uniform with rankings on it! Do you really think She would send out her agents like that!"
"Ozpin who even are these people and what is that thing? It's like pure evil in a can." Asked Qrow. Krauss answered with no small amount of pain in his voice.
"That is a W59 fusion warhead for a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile with a yield of about one megaton of conventional explosives." Qrow didn't really know how to respond to that so a
"What?" Sufficed.
"It's has the same force as 2204622621 pounds of TNT." Ok the wheels in Qrow's head were turning but had no traction.
" You shoot bomb you blow up Beacon and EVERYONE dies a horrible death. Now if someone could give me a bandage before I bleed out." Finished a very much bleeding Krauss.
"Johnathon you have the medic kit right?" Asked Wilhelm. Jonathan nods and went to attend to Krauss. He pulled the connecting tabs apart and slide the 50 pound vest off of Krauss. Krauss said in a measured voice
"No painkillers." Jonathan nodded and reached into the Field kit.
"This will probably hurt a lot." said Jonathan as he bandaged the wound. Krauss started swearing in a strange mix of pseudo latin and Russian.
"Who even are you people? asked Qrow again. "Paratroopers. The the youngest over there is Wilhelm with the 8th Fallschamjägers. Krauss is from the 101st Airborne like Johnny boy and I but he's eh what seventy was it?"
"Seventyfive but close enough."
"Seventy five years in the future on what is probably the start of world war three the rest of us are are from the last years of World War Two." Explained Adam.
"Your soldiers then. Damn what kind of army goes about not giving armor and aura to their men."
"where we come from nobody has aura. A single bullet is all it takes." Qrow decided to take a drink. "Sounds like fun."
Krauss muttered."you have no idea."
Ozpin looked at all of them and said. "I only keep one thing in this vault. in an attempt to hide her from the world so she could recover." He motioned for the group to continue." I assume you all know what a fairytale is." The men nodded. "There are truths behind any fairytale. This one is unfortunately completely true, the story of the four maidens. Four women blessed with true magical powers."
Krauss muttered "Pysker stupri." Under his breath.
" The four maidens were known as summer, spring, winter, and autumn. And they used these powers to help and heal the world. Eventually they were forced into hiding by power hungry lunatics. Until recently they have remained safe."
"You just said recently. Why do I have a feeling like I'm getting sent to the eastern front?" Asked Wilhelm.
"Just two months ago the fall maiden was attacked and something unprecedented happened. Part of her powers were stolen. Normally the powers transfer to the last person they held in their thoughts at death. If the person is male the powers are randomly given to some other young girl." Wilhelm asked.
"So You're keeping the Fall maiden down here then?"
" yes until we can find someone willing to take on that duty that is."
"You mean someone from the school."
Ozpin grimaced. "Most likely yes." Wilhelm's face was deep in thought.
"What if we just killed them?" No one expected that.
"Wilhelm that's crazy." Said Krauss. Trying to explain the idiocy of the statement.
"No listen, we gather all four in a far off place, under a mountain, or in the ocean and detonate that nuke, it should probably kill their souls, and by extension their powers should be." Adam added his two cents
" um Wilhelm I think you let your inner SS slip out there." A slightly angry Wilhelm retorted.
" It would rid remnant of this problem once and for all!" Krauss said
"You can't sentence four girls to death like that! This is literally what was He doing with the Jews. You should know better then us any Final Solutions do not work." Jonathan suggested.
"What if we tie the detonator to fall heart rate when she dies she will take her attacker with her. "
Qrow did not like the idea." And if she flatlines at random? I'm willing to take risks but this is way too much."
Krauss said" Then we give someone here the detonator and the codes."
Ozpin said "Give me the code. I will insure it can not be used improperly ."
"Then I will take the clacker." Said Adam. "As a weapon of the United States that warhead technically belongs to us, and the ranking officer of the US I will hold the weight of its detonation."
Krauss attempted to persuade him otherwise." What! No, that thing doesn't have the strength to breach through two kilometers of rock and steel."
"I Am well aware of that fact Sargeant, if that thing goes off, I will be the one to do it and I will gladly die doing it." The six stood there in front of the two most powerful weapons on the planet. Adam broke the silence.
"Krauss, where is the rifle you were upgrading?"
"Um I may have left the Granad in the armory."
Adam was not pleased."Sargent you left a rifle and ammunition, in the open, in a school for teenagers!" Krauss was starting to feel the heat.
"Well I told Ruby to watch over it."
This did not help him"William. You are aware of Ms. Rose's love of weapons are you not." Said Ozpin.
"eh no… I'll be right back!" With that he broke off to not a sprint to the elevator. The sounds of his jingling gear faded into the distance.
"Ozpin what does my niece have to do with this?" Said Qrow his voice dangerously low.
"Qrow nothing bad has happened. Sergeant Krauss was found bleeding out among his dead comrades by team RWBY a week ago. From the sound of it the Sergeant was upgrading one of team. I don't actually have a name for your team yet Adam."
Adam shrugged. "Call us Fireteam Airborne, it's our job after all." Ozpin nodded.
" Like I was saying, he was attempting to upgrade a rifle when Adam recalled him, he Must have seen her on his way back." Qrow was still unsatisfied but gave in. Adam suggested that they all return topside, and so they all slowly shuffled to the elevator.
Krauss was panicking in the elevator praying that Ruby hadn't done anything stupid. The doors opened with a ding. Krauss raced down the hall towards the armory. What he had failed to realize was that he reopened the shotgun wound. He arrived to see Ruby still standing guard, The pieces of the Granad neatly laid on the side of the bench she was tuning Crescent Rose on.
A out of breath Krauss asked." No one touched the rifle right!" Ruby was unfortunately too invested in her weapon to notice him enter and jumped at the sudden noise, and let out a small scream.
"Kyyyaaa!"
And fell to the floor. She looked up to see an out of breath and bleeding Krauss leaning on the doorframe. "Krauss what are. Oh Oum you're bleeding!" Krauss's face scrunched up in puzzlement and looked to his side, it was indeed bleeding again as Ruby had pointed out, and started to hurt again.
"Damnit Jonathan just bandaged that. Never mind it I'll be fine."
He said waving off a concerned look from the little reaper. Krauss moved to pack up the rifle when an idea hit him. Somewhat literally in this case. He had fumbled one of the upper barrel cover pieces and gotten smacked in the head with it. Krauss looked at the wood and the scope.
"Why did I not see that earlier." Ruby was naturally confused at what he was talking about. "Hun?" Krauss scrambled through a small pile of tools looking for the scope rings. After finding those pieces he picked up a set of files. And began filling a pair of grooves that would accept the rings. In 15 minutes he had finished the mounting." I feel really stupid it took me 12 hours to figure this out."
Ruby said "You could have asked me if you needed help. I made Crescent Rose myself."
Krauss looked up from the half assembled rifle.
"Thanks I'll remember that for next time."
Krauss went back to rebuilding the M1 and was nearly finished when Ruby asked "What was your team leader so upset about?"
Krauss clicked the final piece on and thought carefully about his answer. "Ruby you're well aware I'm not from around here. This morning something from my home appeared, something that would if misused, would bring unparalleled destruction to Remnant. it would be like a second sun chose to land on you planet. So Ozpin and our team hid it deep. instead of most of Vale being destroyed, only Beacon will suffer damage. I want you to understand if I or anyone from Airborne tells you to run, you grab your team and run like a cat out of hell. You may survive then."
Ruby was somewhat frightened at what Krauss was saying. "You're not making any sense Krauss."
"I can't say more, it's above both our pay grades." And with that he left.
