Happy Valentine's Day to all the single folk. To those who have partners I shake my fist in impotent rage.

Chapter 9

The work was as physically and mentally taxing as Jaune had feared it to be. The people they were tasked with turfing out their homes were not bad people, not were they unpatriotic, but they were in the band of people that could have been termed "undesirable" in a very cynical kind of worldview. They were the elderly, the disabled, and those who suffered from long-term sickness. It was impossible not to feel some anger when he met their confused gazes and explained, in a brusque manner, that they were being rehoused. It was impossible not to think he deserved their scorn when they shouted back that it wasn't fair. He wished it stayed as scorn because some, the elderly especially, simply wept. They cried, shuffled about, picked up their belongings, and limped out of their homes into the cold air and the promise of a rough temporary encampment.

Jaune hated it. The rest of the squad hated it as well, and he was sure the workers breaking down the houses hated it – if they knew anything at all – but that didn't change the fact he had no answers to give the homeless and angry people. All he could do was hold out a hand at them, bark orders, and try to make it clear he didn't want to be doing this any more than they did. Not that it would comfort them any.

It's to beat the Grimm Queen, he told himself. It's for a good cause – a great cause!

How many times had they been told that when asked to put up with more and more horrors? How many parents had been told that when their children were taken away for war and never returned? There were a lot of "necessary evils" in the arcology, all of them needed, and all of them for the safety of the people of Remnant, but that didn't stop them being evils. One only needed to look at the gallows on display on the walls each morning, and the bodies of traitors, cowards, and corrupt officials that lined it to understand the truth of that.

About the only mercy was how quick the workers were at breaking the houses down. They were like ants picking apart the body of a larger insect, tearing down walls, breaking down metal, and stacking it all up onto the back of several flatbed trucks that had pulled up. Phoenix Squadrons held a rough perimeter around it and shouted at anyone who came close.

No one dared make a play on an armed six-foot man; the same couldn't be said for Ruby. Small, slim, female, and young, it didn't take long before an old man – possibly a veteran – came in and swung a cane at Ruby's head. Jaune needn't have called out a warning because the huntress caught it on her wrist, twisted to disarm, and then brought it back up like a sword to tickle the underside of the veteran's throat.

"Back away, sir," warned the huntress. "I will not warn you again."

"I bled for this country. My children died for it. And my wife and I can't even have a home to call our own?"

"A temporary camp-"

"Don't give me that! We'll be left out in the cold to die! A footnote in the newspaper; that is what we'll be. My squad didn't die for this! What has become of Vale that this is how it remembers its former soldiers?"

"Thank you for your sacrifice, sir," said Ruby. "Now step away."

Anyone watching might have been appalled but Jaune could hear the frustration in her voice. It wasn't as aimed at them as the elderly couple must have thought; Ruby was furious. It had to be at the mission. He wished he could tell her it was all okay, or that this would be worth it, but he really couldn't. Nothing was a guarantee at this point.

/-/

"Well, I fucking hated that." Nora was the first to speak once they were loaded up in an APC and on their way back to the Project Terminus base. Their vehicle was at the bark of what had now become an armed convoy – five flatbed trucks and four APC's. They hadn't been the only ones doing this which didn't make Jaune any happier about what was going on.

"I think we all disliked that one," said Yang. "Fuck's sake. We shouldn't be kicking people who have served out their homes. What's the point of it all?"

"We know what the point of this is," growled Ruby.

"Not that. I meant what's the point of serving with such distinction if you're just going to be thrown away afterwards? Vets deserve better. They've survived this shit."

They did deserve better, and yet what someone deserved and what they got wasn't necessarily correlated. Older people fell into two categories in the arcology – useful and useless. The useful ones had something to pass on and taught valuable lessons in schools and academies, while the useless were former soldiers of not much rank or skill who did nothing more than eat, drink, and take up space.

That wasn't how he'd put it and it wasn't how anyone else put it, but it was the cynical view that he knew pervaded much of the arcology's culture. The same went for those who couldn't work for one reason or another. There were always those who would ask why they had to work hard so others didn't have to. Jaune had been taught to have a very strict view on that by his parents – that those who couldn't work because of things they couldn't control were fine, but that those who wouldn't should be hated. Sometimes the lines blurred. He wished they could here, because this felt like kicking a cane out the hands of a blind man.

"All I'm saying is this better work," said Nora. "If this ends up being some waste of time and it turns out we kicked those people out for nothing then I'll… then I'll…"

Then she'd what? They were soldiers – huntsmen cadets – and they couldn't disobey orders. They didn't have the right to. No one said it, though. They all knew Nora was venting, and it wasn't like her words didn't resonate with all of them. By the time the convoy made it back to Project Terminus, they were driven ahead and loaded off to cut a new perimeter as the trucks were unloaded. That was less stressful, though only because it meant stopping military personnel and construction personnel for ID. Those were two groups who understood fully the need for it, and he never once faced questions or complaints.

"Phoenix squadron!" barked a huntsman. A proper one and not a cadet. "You're being relieved. They have need of you inside."

Yang saluted for them. "Sir, yes sir!"

There was no use asking what they were needed for. The man either didn't know or wouldn't tell them; either way, they had orders and they were to follow them – not ask why. The five of then arrived at the doors and were scanned in by another squad working their own job from before. Jaune made sure to stand patient and still as they were scanned one by one, while others aimed weapons at them. The soldiers were tense. Safeties were on, but thumbs lay close by ready to change that faster than Jaune could react. He approved.

"All clear. Head on in."

Weapons were lowered. Bodies stood aside. Doors opened. Jaune walked in behind Ruby, eyes adjusting quickly to the low light inside. There was adequate lighting, but it was very high up in the rafters and it struggled to illuminate the place as well as it could have. Standing spotlights had been arrayed instead where engineers were working on machinery, or where scientists were pointing things out to one another, the engineers, or arguing with soldiers carrying things.

One such engineer waved them over while looking down at a clipboard. "Who are you again? I'll tell you where you're needed."

"Phoenix squadron," said Yang.

"Phoenix. Phoenix. Right, I have you. Looks like the eggheads want to talk to you. Don't take any shit from them, hear? They've had my people run ragged for their own amusement." He shot Yang a pointed look. "Don't take it, yeah?"

"That bad, huh?"

"Brawn and brains aren't mutually exclusive but these assholes act like it is because asking them to do any hard work might as well be pointing a gun to their heads. I'll be surprised if you're not relegated to making coffee. It's through there." He pointed to a door guarded by another checkpoint. "Secondary scans. Biometric as well."

"Noted. Thank you."

The second scans were a little more thorough even though the soldiers there had seen them come in and thus knew they'd been scanned before. Better safe than sorry. This time they had to surrender their weapons – "None allows in, ladies and gentlemen. You are entering a no-weapons zone."

"What if my fists are my weapons?" asked Yang.

The lead soldier laughed. "Then shove 'em up your ass. Your fists won't be a problem if they can't ignite anything."

Combustibles, then. Or explosives. Jaune had thought it was to protect the scientists or the secrets within, and maybe it was to a degree, but then they wouldn't let huntsmen in who could fight in hand-to-hand more than well enough to kill some researchers. No. This was because there were things on the other side that would go "boom" if a round was discharged.

Once they were through the door, they were caught in an airlock which glowed red with neon light. A faint hiss was their only warning before a fine mist of liquid began to spray over them. Jaune closed his eyes against it and wished he could close his nose. It smelled soapy, but about 50,000 times as pungent as actual soap. Ruby gagged as a little got in her mouth. Once they were thoroughly disinfected, the light shone green and the doors ahead unlocked, spilling their damp forms out into white corridors sterilised from floor to ceiling.

Winter Schnee awaited them with a clipboard and a faint smile. "You're here. Pardon the sterilisation but we're dealing with volatile substances back here. You have all been disarmed, correct?" They nodded. "Good. Please do not touch anything you do not understand – actually, best not to touch anything. Are you familiar with dust?"

"No," said Yang, sarcastically. "We've never heard of the stuff."

"Really? Well, dust is-"

"We know what dust is, ma'am," interrupted Ren. "It was a practical joke. May we ask why and for what purpose we've been asked to come through here?"

"Ah, right. Well, you're here to act as an additional layer of security for my family. Myself, my mother, and my sister are being transported to a testing site. It's somewhat remote. We'll be having an armed escort. Mother can tell you more. Follow me."

Jaune caught Yang's irritated expression and shook his head, silently agreeing with her. Too much chatter, not enough detail, and a severe lack of necessary information. Winter had raised more questions than she answered, which wasn't what they were used to in the forces. He was reminded yet again of Glynda's comment about them growing up different and not understanding how the military worked. Obviously, Winter Schnee had been through a very specialised education that outclassed their own – that was a given – but did she really believe they might not know what dust was? Every weapon they used was fuelled by it, as was basic electricity, heating, and vehicles. Jaune was a former engineer for crying out loud; he could disassemble and reassemble a dust-powered engine. It would have been one thing if she were insulting them as jarheads, but she'd actually believed they might not know. Ridiculous.

"Engineering was right," whispered Ruby. Jaune nodded.

"Tell me about it. Do you know what dust is? Really."

Winter Schnee didn't hear them. The tall woman in the white coat kept walking and talking, giving out far more information than she really should. "You can see all the dust crystals around here – large, unrefined pieces." Crystals, some as big as he was tall, stood strapped onto wooden pallets. They were wrapped and padded with cotton and cloth to protect them. "You wouldn't believe how difficult it was to source crystals this large. Dust is usually refined into powder, and even mines wouldn't normally cut crystals this large from a deposit. They'd be broken down first for safety."

There was a third and final checkpoint which they were scanned through, and this time they had to wait behind a group of researchers angrily bemoaning the waste of time as they were searched over. The huntsmen doing it kept straight faces but Jaune could tell they were annoyed. He stood, arms out, for them to pat him down, and accepted their pleased nod with one of his own, walking through with his squad to the final room. Inside were many more researchers around a table but also, to his surprise, General Ozpin, Lieutenant-General Goodwitch, and several other ranking officers Jaune did not recognise. He didn't need to however, and promptly saluted with the rest of the squad.

The officers saluted back, albeit without the same rigid stance, and General Ozpin waved them over toward Lieutenant-General Goodwitch. Honestly, Jaune was relieved to be receiving orders from a familiar face. Some of those people at the table were big positions in the arcology – the kind of people a soldier did not want to see.

"Team," greeted their XO. "I trust this is confirmation enough of my clearance." There was more amusement to her tone than recrimination. "I'm sure you're wondering as to your role here, what with so many big names in attendance. Don't worry. Your involvement is minor. We're conducting a weapons testing and exhibition for several key individuals to prove the viability of Project Terminus. The security of such an important task, as well as clearing the test zone, is being left to far more experienced squads and official huntsmen. Your role is simply to escort select research personnel to and from aircraft, and to make sure none of them get lost in the event of an attack."

Shepherding, then. Babysitting. There were nods all around at the orders, which were far more concise than what Winter had given. As a first year cadet team, they really weren't qualified enough to be involved in this beyond such a small role, and he was sure their involvement at all was because they had been unintentionally given details on the project. The XO must have passed the fact up the chain. From there, there was only two ways to deal with the leak – kill them or keep them involved. Killing their team off would be pointlessly wasteful, so the powers-that-be must have decided to take them on as a low-priority assistance squad to the main project.

It was probably good for their life expectancy all things considered, as sending them out to die against Grimm now ran the risk of one of them becoming rotted and thus passing classified material over to Salem.

"Is there anything we should be aware of, ma'am?" asked Yang. "Or anything we should be careful not to overhear or learn?"

"It's a little late for that in the eyes of command. Simply keep to your silence and report to me if you have concerns or questions. Your record thus far speaks in your favour – but be aware you're in something bigger than you have any right to be. Be on your best behaviour. Avoid combat if it comes to it as well - your priority will be safe extraction of the research team. Nothing more. And do not ask questions. You are here to guard, not to learn. The weapons testing is not for your benefit and we don't have the time to explain it to you."

They saluted as one. "Yes ma'am!"

/-/

All in all they were in charge of five specific individual – charges, Yang called them – and that was enough to give each of them one researcher to look over. Jaune, by design or chance, had bene given the youngest – Weiss Schnee. The very same girl he had carried from the downed aircraft, and whom Sun had teased he should try and steal a night with. His partner's grinning face flashed through Jaune's mind and he tensed up. It hadn't been two days since his loss. It felt like longer because they'd been on missions ever since.

A singular large transport aircraft had been landed that they shuffled the researchers onto while others moved large containers and cargo into the back. An escort of eight smaller ships would protect them, and it might well be needed given the increased Grimm activity. Jaune made sure his charge was strapped into her seat and had a helmet on before he saw to himself. The slim girl watched him like a hawk, pale blue eyes narrowed.

"You're the one who brought me off our downed ship. Is that right?"

"I am, ma'am."

"Weiss. Ma'am is my mother. I wanted to thank you."

"Just doing my duty, ma- Weiss." He'd been given no indication of how he should treat her, so polite deference seemed safest. "I apologise for the loss of your father."

"Thank you. My brother died as well. In Atlas." Her eyes closed and she let out a quiet sigh. "I always disliked him. Mocked him for being an idiot. And then he pushed us onto the aircraft and stayed behind to die so we could escape. I felt like such a fool at the time. A monster."

Weiss said it like it was the worst thing imaginable, and he supposed it might have felt that way. He'd lost three sisters already, along with more squads than that. It wasn't that he saw it as a competition, but it felt like another example of their different upbringings. Weiss was allowed to feel bad about her brother's death even a week or more later, while he and his squad were on missions the day after Sun's. Given a researcher was measured by their mental ability, he supposed it made sense to protect their mental health.

"Wasn't there another member of your team?"

"He died," said Jaune. "Two days ago. Grimm."

Her already pale face paled even further. "I-I'm so sorry."

The flight was undertaken in silence. At least between the two of them. The other researchers chatted with one another, and he heard Ren and Nora speaking under their breath. Yang looked to be catching a nap while she could and Ruby was deep in thought, so Jaune just looked out the window as they flew over the forests of Vale and in the direction of the coast. It was the opposite direction to the Great Wall, which hopefully meant away from any Grimm. They didn't go too far however, as distance inevitably meant danger. In truth, they took off from Vale and flew a scant few miles before coming down again in a clearing that had rather obviously been bombed clean for this purpose. The ground was pitted with craters and there wasn't a shred of vegetation that remained.

"Helmet and mask on," said Jaune.

"The test site was hit with numerous incendiary bombs. The Grimm Rot spores will have been burned away."

"That doesn't change anything. Mask on."

Weiss Schnee looked ready to argue, but something about his expression stopped her. Instead, she nodded and fiddled with a button to seal her helmet with a quiet hiss. He did the same with his, and then held his seat as they came in for a quick, and rough, landing.

The escort ships had already created a perimeter by landing and disgorging huntsmen, who had in turn taken up positions around the area. Any one of them was as strong as half of Phoenix Squadron, and it really did feel like they were surplus to requirements. Jaune stepped off with Weiss and snapped a salute to General Ozpin as he approached. He simply nodded back, leaning heavily on his cane as he took careful steps on the churned up soil.

"As you were, cadet. I trust the terrain suits you, Researcher Schnee?"

"It should be good enough, sir." Weiss looked around with her arms crossed. Though she said sir there wasn't the same respect in it as Jaune had shown. Not that General Ozpin seemed to care. "A little rough in places but we can shore it up. The crystals need to be level with one another if the array is to work properly."

Jaune winced at being dumped with yet more classified information. The CO caught it and smiled faintly behind his visor, and waved his hand to dismiss the concern. It seemed that they were in deep enough at this point that they'd be spared any punishment.

"You have a construction team and engineers for that. I'll ask you to follow Cadet Arc's orders when it comes to your own safety. If he orders your retreat, you are to obey him immediately. Luckily, it seems our diversionary tactics have drawn the Grimm away for now. I hope this testing proves successful, Miss Schnee. Lives have already been lost to enable it."

"It will be successful, sir," promised Weiss. "There is a reason the Grimm Queen attacked Atlas."

"Very good. I'll look forward to the showing."

Various forklifts had come out the back of the transport now with the same wooden crates he'd seen before. Six feet high in places, and only two or so wide, they were transported to spots around a flattish piece of ground that Willow Schnee had selected, and then were set down where she commanded. The various researchers fussed about them and had them opened up to reveal big, wrapped crystals of dust. No big surprise there given what they'd seen in the lab. What was a surprise was the fact that they were being placed down in something resembling a circle, with a far larger crystal in the centre that looked to have been modified in some way.

The edges were too sharp to be natural, and too angular to have come from rock. It started thick at the bottom and then angled into a spiked tip. The crystal was being angled diagonally on its side by having a huge amount of dirt and soil dug out to let it sink into, then patted back down around it so that it was balanced at a forty-dive degree angle.

"That's the focusing crystal," explained Weiss. "It's to direct, for lack of a better term, the energies gathered in the rest of the array."

Jaune could have groaned. "You shouldn't be telling me this."

"You're here. That means you have clearance. You're going to see it anyway. You might as well understand it. Dust contains power – this much everyone knows. Dust is fuel, which means it has its own untapped energy source. We looked into that. Our goal was to find a way to make dust more efficient, make it work better or last for longer. Even a few extra percentiles of efficiency would have made a huge difference in Atlas. Instead, what we found was a way to trigger it that differed from how dust is traditionally used. It's all to do with light. You're aware that light contains energy?"

"We do learn more than just how to shoot things in military school. Physics is mandatory."

"Good. So, light has energy but the amount of energy in ambient light is obviously very small. Or not enough to be a threat unless you bake yourself beneath the open sun. What we learned is that light has the potential to store a lot more, however. Again, the sun for instance. We already knew that light could store and collect energy. This is a known factor. What we didn't realise was just how much ambient energy existed within an unrefined dust crystal, or that light could be used to collect it."

Jaune watched as Willow and Winter Schnee talked to the various commanding officers, and he expected they were receiving a very similar briefing to him right now. He still wasn't sure if he shouldn't be telling Weiss to shut up, but, as she said, he'd be seeing it anyway. The how and why didn't so much matter as the fact whether it worked or not, and Salem could glean that from the heads of anyone here if she got hold of them. I'll have to make sure I'm never captured now. EX-Pill the moment I'm wounded. Or eat a bullet. Great.

"The crystals may look uneven and roughly cut but everything has been mathematically designed so that the light, shone in at a specific angle, will bounce about within for the longest amount of time collecting energy before releasing it toward the central crystal. They've all been carefully selected and fit so that this releasing of energy will happen at roughly the same time. The light – a green laser light, not natural sunlight – will collect almost all the energy from each dust crystal and transfer it to the central one. It's a truly staggering amount of energy condensed into a narrow beam." A brief horn was sounded. "Ah. You're about to see it."

With the sounding of the horn, the construction crews backed away and the CO's also took to a healthy distance. Weiss and Jaune followed, meeting up with the rest of Phoenix Squadron and taking a safe position some two hundred metres away from the dust crystal array. There was no barrier to hide behind, and no one looked overly concerned, so Jaune stood beside Ruby with his hands linked behind his back.

"Ahem." Willow Schnee cleared her voice. "The test will begin in a moment. I would advise everyone to put down their visors and switch to bright-light settings. The light may be blinding otherwise."

Hands came up to helmets and Jaune saw the world around him dim as the lens adjusted to block out intrusive light. It wouldn't protect you if you looked directly at the sun or a flashbang, but it would cut out most glare and reflections. Several machines were remote-controlled up to the crystals. They looked like miniature tanks with treads and a single turret. That must have been the green-light laser Weiss mentioned. There were eight in total, the same amount as the surrounding crystals. One for each, and presumably to shoot at the same time.

"Test commencing in five. Four. Three. Two." A whirr sounded from the tanks. "One. Begin!"

Jaune couldn't see the lasers fired point-blank into the crystals, but he could sure as hell see them light up like beacons. The crystals glowed simultaneously dull and bright green, with dull toward the edges and the brightness within flickering like fire. It wasn't static and moved around erratically, seeming to bounce off the crystal walls again and again, growing brighter as it did. The eight dust crystals let off wisps of smoke as energy barely contained burned off as heat and steam. A sound that was indescribable reached his ears. It was like a whirr but inverted, an absence of noise, like air being sucked back into something.

That sound turned to an almighty crackle as the light finished its allegedly mathematical bouncing and found the designed exit point. It crackled like lightning, arcing and jumping to the central crystal and striking it at eight points simultaneously. If it had been loud and bright before then this was eight times worse. The crystal lit up enough to have Jaune covering his eyes and Ruby hissing.

Then it was released.

The sound was deafening. It was both a horrific THOOM that sucked more air in, and also an explosion as all nine crystals – eight surrounding and the focusing one in the centre – burst into sharp fragments of dust and exploded across the field. Jaune jumped in front of his charge and braced himself against the fragments, many of which shot overhead. One or two pelted off his body armour as hot as ash.

That wasn't what really drew the eye, however. Ahead of them, where the focus had pointed, had once stood a tall mountain. He said once because it was gone now, reduced to so much smoke and rubble where the beam had struck it with an insane degree of force.

"That concludes the live test," announced Willow Schnee. "The first testing of Project Terminus is concluded successfully." The woman turned to the assembled officers, many of whom were stunned. "I trust this performance satisfies you all."

There we go. Now I'm off to have a romantic date with myself.

Next Chapter: 28th February

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