Chapter 3: C-Stoff, T-Stoff

Beta Read By: Trusty McGoodGuy

With the Red Bear and the White Knight having encountered each other in a less than stable than matter, negotiations were begun. Officially, the Atlesian airships had been sent over because they had detected activity in what was once their airspace.

Airspace that now also belonged to the great red bear.

Since the two civilizations air spaces overlapped, it was a confusing eight hours to decide who had what and where it was. Where the soldier and rifle stopped, the diplomat and the politics started.

Politics, the bane of every soldier across any world. It was what dictated what a soldier was limited to and how he had to do it, which sometimes made it a lot easier for their enemies to exploit.

But right now, it was all that was keeping the two militaries from engaging in an all-out shooting war.

While the politicians talked it out among their fancy wooden board tables and glasses of water they never drank, the soldiers from both sides were on high alert. At first, they had been itching for a fight, ready to defend their respective homelands at a moment's notice.

But eight hours of waiting had begun to fatigue them all.

Finally, after a lengthy cessation between politicians and smooth-talkers, they came to terms. The airspace would be evenly divided between the two nations. Hostilities rose and fell quickly.

However, not all of the Nations and Kingdoms had the luxury of being separated by a massive ocean.

Australia? Menagerie? No longer just islands.

Where the Outback once rested, was now replaced with the faunus dominant nation.

Unlike the other kingdoms, however, Menagerie did not venture forth in curiosity to take on its new neighbors. Fearing the worst, Menagerie instead dug in fortifications across its territory and prepared for what they believed would be an all-out assault by the country encircling their borders.

Realizing the risk to themselves, the Australian military quickly mobilized its tank battalions and lend-lease air force to form a perimeter as a team of diplomats would be sent in. Whether or not they would succeed in their goals remained to be seen.

Austra-Menagerie Border, 12 hours Post-Combine

Bumping along the uneven rock-filled wasteland of what used to be the Outback, a small convoy of two Australian G-Wagons and an M113 hauled a team of diplomats with a skeleton crew of soldiers to protect them. In all likelihood, if the new people wanted them dead, they would likely be so within just a few minutes.

The negotiators were fine with that, of course. They had been told the risks of the job when they first signed up, but they paid it no mind. A good negotiator wouldn't have to worry about any of that.

"Alright, Mr. Soren. This is what's going to happen."

The aged desk-jockey was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts as the Australian captain briefed him and the rest of the convoy on what the next thirty minutes of his life would look like, and how would shape the future of his home country forever.

"We're going to drive straight towards the frontline of what appears to be a very prepared defense force. We don't know where they came from, all we know is that they are well-armed, likely well trained, and have animal features."

"What do you mean by 'Animal features'?" Soren asked.

The Captain tried to figure out how to explain to his assigned VIP what he meant without sounding like a complete lunatic. Opening his mouth and raising his index finger, he gave up halfway through. Instead, he just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he explained.

"Look, I know I sound like a nut when I say this, but I mean that they have these weird body parts all around them like some animal would have. Snake skin, dog tails, cat ears..."

A young corporal in the rear car snorted over the comm-line. "Pffft, Animals features? What are they? The 8th furry battalion?"

This, of course, earned him guffaws and chuckles from the rest of soldiers aboard the G-wagons.

"I'm sorry Jo-annis. If you'd like to say that to their faces and maybe start world war three in the process, be my guest." The captain quickly retorted, quickly shutting up everyone on the comms.

"As I was saying, spy satellites couldn't get much info in the 12 hour time window we got, so we're mostly gonna go in blind and pray that they're not stupid enough to shoot at a team of diplomats." The captain briefed further.

"And if they do?" Another soldier in the cabin asked worriedly.

"I think we all know what happens then. Let's just hope Mr. Soren is as good as they say." The captain replied.

The other soldier widened his eyes and exhaled, as he looked impassively out the window and into the desert. "Bloody..." The soldier didn't even bother to finish the rest of his sentence.

Suddenly, the brake lights on the G-wagon in front of Soren's lit up, and the convoy slowly lurched to a halt. Swiftly, each trooper hopped out of their vehicles and formed a defensive perimeter as they had learned in basic training.

"Alright, everybody. Now since we're technically in their territory, all we have to do now is wait for them to arrive so we can discuss terms." Mr. Soren reminded.

And arrive they did.

In the distance, George Soren saw the speckled dots of three aircraft flying at low altitude directly towards to convoy from the west. They flew very quickly, kicking up dust and sand in their wake.

As they got closer, their engines tilted backward, slowing them to a near standstill within just a few seconds. As the Australian troopers cautiously readied their weapons, the advanced aircraft landed in a triangle around the parked convoy, opening their side doors simultaneously to show their own team of diplomats.

The first thing they noticed about each other was the difference in race. The Australians noted the fact that these people were only faunas, or "animal people" as they had simply called them. At the same time, the faunas recognized the Australians as all human.

Cautiously, the faunas diplomat approached the small meeting area, as George Soren and his colleagues advanced to it as well.

Soren began. "Off the record, I'm going to assume you and your people have no idea what's going on either."

"You wouldn't be wrong." The faunas diplomat replied. Now that he was closer, Soren could point out the fact that this person was aged like himself, but also female. What interested him the most is that this woman possessed what appeared to be cats ears.

"Let's introduce ourselves." She suggested. "I'm Alcea Belladonna from Menagerie, and you are...?" She questioned.

"Geroge Soren of Australia." He quickly replied. Negotiations were a tricky and delicate matter. You had to play the game, and in this game, there was no room for cheating or error.

"I see. I know this is a loaded question Mr. Soren, but can you tell me what your countries views on racial equality are?" Belladonna questioned.

"Why such a straightforward question?" Soren sidestepped. While the answer was obvious, he had to be careful. If they were victims as his first thought was, then Australia's equal rights would be a boon in establishing friendly relations. If they were supremacists however…

"I'll explain later perhaps, for now though, I'm afraid I'll have to be blunt and ask you to answer the question."

"Racial tensions aren't really existent in Australia. We really don't care who you are as long as you help the community and don't start trouble. That's putting it in very basic terms, at least."

"I see. Menagerie wishes to keep the land it has in return for trade routes and peace." The cat faunus said. She knew that asking for too much on the first day of negotiations was a rookie mistake.

"Australia can likely accept these terms. I'll take these requests to our leader. In the mean time, Australia also wants trade routes, so we can get that out of the way now. We also would like to share history between nations. Australia would like to know more about Menagerie, and I'm sure you'd like to know about us in kind."

"What exactly are the specifics of 'sharing history'?" Alcea questioned.

"We'll likely start out by sending over crates of educational tools. Books, documentaries, technology to play said documentaries. When we trust each other more, we could send over some of our historians to guide you." George proposed.

"Hmmm. I see. Well, the first day of negotiations are known to be short, and I suppose it's about time for me to depart." Alcea reminded.

"I'm sure we can pass your requests. Well, it's about time for us to depart as well. The pleasure was all mine." Soren said as he extended his palm to shake Belladonna's hand. Alcea smiled and shook his hand in kind.

Shortly thereafter, the humans and faunus returned to their vehicles, excited from their first contact with each other. George Soren slammed the door to the backseat of his assigned G-wagon, smiling at his accomplishment of a successful first contact.

And then all hell broke loose.

BOOOOOM

The lead G-wagon in front of Soren's exploded. The blast threw the transport a solid 20 feet into their air as if it was a child's toy before it landed roof-first, crushing everything inside. The horrendous creaking of metal being twisted and sheared in the explosion could be heard for miles around.

The blast was large enough to have rocked Soren's transport. Shrapnel was sent flying towards the windshield, only to be stopped by the bulletproof glass. The sheer concussion of the blast blinded Soren for a moment before his vision returned, blurry as it was.

When he looked up, the only thing Soren could hear was ringing in his ears, as well as the distant screams of men, and the sound of rifles. His heart sank when he realized what was happening. The three bullheads quickly departed, strangely enough, they weren't shooting back at the Australians.

But the Australians were certainly shooting back at them.

With no one else in the area, it only made sense that the faunus had blown up the G-wagon and everyone in it.

Two faunus armed with swords rushed back to their bullheads, but long before they could reach it, they were cut down by a hail of 5.56 rounds. The first one fell immediately, but the second one appeared to shrug off a couple of bullets before some sort of white energy enveloped him, and he fell as well.

When that the captain realized that the battle was over, he yelled into the comms for the drivers of the remaining G-wagon, as well as the M113, to "Get us the fuck outta here."

The two remaining vehicles of the Australian convoy quickly egressed to friendly lines.

As the captain looked back, he could see a pair of F-18's flying overhead, presumably chasing down the bullheads that had exploded their lead vehicle. Few people saw the fighter jets, fewer cared. Morale had gone from 100 to 0 in the course of three minutes.

"Hey...Why did they shoot at us in the first place? Wasn't it your damn job to make sure they didn't do that?" A young soldier sitting next to Soren asked, anger boiling in his voice.

"Hey, lay off. Negotiations went well, It isn't Mr. Soren's fault." The captain piped up, ordering his subordinate to close it.

"Then why'd they do it?" The private asked.

Soren looked out into the empty desert that encompassed what used to be the outback. "I don't know..." He replied, his voice was hollow with fear.

Whoops, guess the captain kinda jinxed it when he made that crack about world war three earlier. Tee hee hee.

Anyways, I'm back from RTX (and from the dead), but before we discuss RTX, some of you may have noticed that I changed the title for chapters 2 and 3. The reason for that is because I was going to have an Atlas-Russia negotiation scene, but it didn't really pull together, ya know? So I just decided to gloss over it.

Now on to RTX, oh boy was that fun. I got to meet Neath Oum, Adam Ellis, and MurderOfBirds. If Y'all don't know who Murder is, go check him out on youtube, he's a pretty...emotional...guy when it comes to RWBY.

Anyways, I'm out. Seeya next chapter.

-Writen