Chapter 7: Memoirs of a Medic

Journal Entry 001

This is combat medical officer Cinna Barr of the Independent Menagerie Army. This is the beginning of my little journal. I thought doing one of these would be a good idea since…. Well…. That thing happened. Also because being a soldier means waiting around twiddling your thumbs for hours on end, so I guess I also need some sort of past time as well.

Some of the people are giving it the nickname "Combine." You know, because our world combined with theirs. I think it sounds stupid, but if it catches on then whatever. I don't really know what else to say. Going to sign off here.

Journal Entry 002

A lot of people are pretty riled up today. Some forward scouts radioed back recently and it looks like these new lands are filled with humans and only humans. Guess we aren't just an independent island kingdom anymore. Ugh. That's gonna be a mess.

Also, Alcea spoke out in the city square today. She said something about how we as an independent kingdom should be wary of these new arrivals, but at the same time, we shouldn't immediately try to completely and utterly antagonize them.

I guess that's some pretty good advice. Not like everybody's going to listen to her, though.

A lot of people are gearing up for an all-out war. Handing out weapons, setting up walls, mobilizing what combat vehicles we have. Honestly, who can blame them? The last time we had a nation this close to our borders, it was Atlas and well…. That didn't go so well, to say the least.

Mostly it's a lot of the younger generation that's got their gears in a twist. They're young and bold and brash and honestly somewhat stupid. But they're also patriotic and willing to fight.

I would know. I was just like them when Atlas invaded.

It's been causing a bit of a rift between them and the older people, however.

A lot of the older generation fought during the Atlas insurgency, they know what it's like to fight. They know the risk of losing people, and they don't want to have to make enemies where they don't have to.

We'll survive, though. No matter what happens. We always have.

Journal Entry 003

People from the new lands surrounding Menagerie radioed in this morning. They're going to send some ambassador to negotiate with us and are asking us if they want to meet and where.

A lot of people want to make a lot of different calls on that.

Some people want to send out our own team of diplomats to negotiate with them. Others don't want to meet with them at all. A few of the more aggressive ones even want to use this as an opportunity for a pre-emptive strike.

Honestly? Meeting them face to face might be for the best. We're supposed to at least try and make friends with them, so as much as most of the faunus would hate to take that kind of risk, it might end up being for the best in the long term.

Of course, my squad has their own different opinions on that, but that's their right. Luciole's a bit too trusting for my taste, Onyx wants to use this as an opportunity to strike first, Lieutenant Ramie is…..well...she's pokerfaced. No telling what her opinion is on the matter.

Doesn't really matter either way. At the end of the day, Alcea and the council make the final call, no one else.

Here's hoping they make the right one.

Damn it. Have to go. Looks like Luciole tripped on the barbed wire while setting it up. She didn't activate her aura, either. I'm gonna be cleaning her cuts all night, aren't I?

Journal Entry 004

Looks like I got a date with destiny.

Commanders were coming around today, picking up recruits for a mission. Apparently, they're gathering some of the best of the best to act as a bodyguard team.

A bodyguard team for who? You may ask.

Well, that's the big kicker. Apparently, Alcea herself is going to hop on a bullhead and go down to some place in no man's desert to go negotiate with these humans. They won't tell us where, though. Not sure how that's going to turn out, but hopefully it all goes over smoothly.

They picked Luciole to go. She can be a bit introverted and awkward but she knows how to keep her cool and she's a damn good fighter. I'd know myself, I've sparred with the little speed demon a few times. Maybe it's her jackal faunus traits.

They didn't pick Onyx or Ramie to go, though. With Onyx it's pretty obvious why, but it kind of baffles me why they didn't pick Ramie, I mean it's not like I'm trying to pick favorites, but Ramie's an even better fighter than Luciole. Weird. Maybe command knows something I don't.

Oh, and I'm going too. Command wants my medical skills because if someone gets hurt, I'm apparently one of the best combat medics in Menagerie. Hah. Who knew?

I better start packing up my medical equipment. We leave in an hour.

I think this is going to go well.

Journal Entry….Ugh.

The whole situation went out of the frying pan and into the shit.

It was going so well at first. Luciole was super optimistic on the ride over. I mean we get there, we all get to our positions as planned. The foreigners are there too. Foreign soldiers armed with rifles. They're there waiting for us with two cars and some weird looking armored vehicle.

That damn armored vehicle with the big gun on top of it.

Alcea and that asshole... They start talking. I couldn't really hear what they were saying. I was stationed in the bullhead in case things went south because that was the plan, and me being a snake faunus doesn't exactly translate into me having super-hearing.

So negotiations end and we all get back to our vehicles. At this point, a few of us are eager to get out of there because the tension was running high.

And then one of the foreign cars exploded and killed everyone in it. The thing went flying and landed on its roof. Just like that. For just a split second, we all just kinda looked around at each other, wondering if one of us did that.

And then they started shooting us.

Alcea's Rangers, her most trusted personal guards, the ones who were standing next to her at all times. They evacuated her to our most heavily armored bullhead and took off. The ones who were still caught on the ground stayed behind for a small bit to cover them.

Two of our people got taken out. They were too far away to recover, so we had to leave them. Not like it would have made a difference, they both died right then and there anyway.

I fired a couple of potshots at their soldiers with my rifle. I wasn't really aiming, I was just trying to get them to take cover so they'd stop shooting at us for a second. To get them to stop shooting at Luciole mostly.

We were almost all on the bullheads. The first two jets already left. Our pilot had the engines hot, and we were about ready to egress the hell out of there. Luciole was the very last to get on the transport. She was too damn brave for her own good.

She covered every other faunus while they retreated while shooting back at the foreigners. After what seemed like a gods damned eternity she finally started to run for our transport.

And I'll never forget this. I distinctly heard the foreign commander say "get on the bloody 50 cal!" to one of his soldiers. Immediately after I see a soldier get on the big gun on top of the armored vehicle they had.

I saw him aiming at Luciole. I tried shooting at him, but my bullets just got deflected by the armor. He started shooting and Luciole caught got caught in the fire and….

Damn it all.

Thank the gods that her aura took most of the bullets, but a couple of them managed to pierce her aura. We managed to get her back to the bullhead and get out of there but...she was bleeding. Bleeding bad. I did everything I could for her.

And I remember her looking up at me while I was working on her. I remember that she looked down at her wounds and started screaming, she tried to say something to me but she was in so much shock that she couldn't form a coherent sentence.

We had some of their enemy fighter planes chase after us. They fired some missiles, but we popped flares and chaff so that missiles couldn't lock. For some reason or another, they didn't chase us after that.

About 2 minutes into the ride back home, Luci passed out and hasn't woken up since. She's still alive in the infirmary though. Doctors are working around the clock to keep her alive, but things don't look too good.

It's almost midnight. I've been writing too long. I need to go to bed.

Journal Entry 006

Luciole died this morning.

We tried everything we could think of, but one of the bullets ruptured her half her lower organs. Luciole managed to wake up before she passed. Her family was there. Her sister and nephew among them. I could see her talking to her sister with her final breaths. I have no idea what she said to her, but whatever it was caused her sister to burst into tears.

At 0846 Menagerie time, Luciole Takata was pronounced dead.

I feel sick. I'm going to stop writing for now.

Journal Entry 007

It's been 48 hours since the whole situation went into the trash can.

A lot of people in the council are already calling for a declaration of war. I even saw most of Luciole's family calling out for revenge in anger. Alcea seems somewhat reserved, though. She pointed out that as far as the foreigners were concerned, we struck first. She doesn't want to declare war immediately.

Her popularity in Menagerie as a whole has gone down because of that, and it shows. She has managed to get few other council members on her side, despite that. So until the war ready side can get two more votes, Menagerie can't officially declare war.

In the meantime, we've cut off all communication with these new lands.

Onyx was livid when the news first broke. He was about ready to trek across the desert by himself and kill as many foreigners as possible. He's never really trusted humans, and after what they did to him when he was just a kid, who can blame him?

Ramie was still wearing that damn poker face as always. I never know what she's thinking half the time, anyways.

The Menagerie military has also begun to conduct an investigation into everyone who was at the diplomatic meeting. They think one of us blew up that car and caused that interkingdom incident, and honestly, they're probably right.

Who knows what they're going to do to the idiot that started this whole thing. Life in prison? Whatever. Inspectors will be here to interrogate me in an hour or so.

Journal Entry 008

The interrogation went as well as it could have, I suppose. They went through everything I owned, including this journal. They didn't find any dirt on me, though, so they just apologized and left.

Meanwhile, Alcea is planning to be at a very important summit that's happening next month. Apparently, every kingdom and "nation" is getting together in Vytal to find out what the hell is going on.

Not like it will matter though, I don't think Menagerie or this "Australia" will ever fully trust each other again. Oh yes, apparently their kingdom is actually a nation called Australia. Honestly, there's nothing that some old combat medic like me can do about this anymore.

I'll just have to let the chips fall where they may.

Combat Medical Officer Cinna Barr. Signing off.

End Journal Logs.

Back to the castle. Yes yes. Back to my Queen. My dear Queen. She will be so proud of me once she hears of my accomplishments in her name.

The doors. The big wooden doors. She will be waiting for me on the other side. She always has. I have to pull myself together. Now is not the time to look like some common fool! Now is the time to look prim and proper!

I went through the doors before I even knew it. There she was, as always.

"Hmmm, Tyrian. Your smile seems wider than usual. Do you have something you wish to tell me?" The queen asked.

"Yes, mistress. I successfully planted the explosives on that car, just as you asked! The humans and faunus no longer trust each other..." I nearly burst into laughter just reminding myself of the wonderful news.

"Well done. Ensuing deception and spite where we can is one of our hallmarks, and one of the keys to our eventual success. You are dismissed, Tyrian."

She didn't give me a reward, she never did, she never would. She didn't have to. After all….

Working diligently for the Queen would be its own reward….

AN

Yup. I had an idea with this chapter and I decided to go through with it. It actually ended up turning out a lot better than I thought it would, but how well it ACTUALLY turned out is up to you guys.

In any case, I haven't had an official plan for the future of this story, but with all the things on my plate in terms of the plot already, I don't think I'm going to need one just yet.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter.