Golden thorns chapter 40
She was a tall, slim woman with short, dark blue hair and pale skin. She wore a close fitting pale white body suit with blue sleeves and had a dark brown pack slung over one shoulder. It wasn't big. She approached the shuttle with a furious expression on her face, waving her forearm in a circle at the pilot to indicate lift off. Coran realised what was happening and ran round the side of the shuttle to where his team were, but they had also worked it out and were climbing into the crew bay.
The shuttle lifted off as, who Coran presumed was, the huntress threw her bag into Devlyn's chest, knocking him down onto the deck and winding him. To Coran's dismay the ship was lifting off too fast. She wasn't going to make it. She broke into a run and held out her hand. Coran grabbed hold of the webbing in the roof of the cabin and leaned out with his hand. She took a run up and leapt forwards. For a moment it looked like they were going to miss but she caught his wrist and hauled herself into the ship. Dusting herself down, she turned to the team and smiled warmly at them as Jo and Marie slid the bay door shut.
"Sorry about all that. Didn't mean to cause so much drama right at the start of the mission." She held out her hand "Azura Fayna, most people call me Az, and I shall be your huntress for this mission" Coran reached out his hand and started to speak but she interrupted him. "no. don't tell me." She looked him up and down. "Tall, dark haired, face locked in an expression of permanent scepticism. You must be Coran"
"Heh, she's already got you down pat, Cor" Devlyn chuckled, heaving the bag off of himself. She turned to him.
"You're easy. Devlyn Lazarus, am I wrong?"
"Nope. That's him." Coran answered, a smile of his own forming. The huntress then looked past the boys to the girls stood behind them.
"Hmm… the girls. Let's see, blonde, pretty and quiet. Marie. Sassy hip pop, untidy bun and red highlights. Jo?"
"Right again, Miss" Devlyn said, impressed.
"Oh please. I'm not a teacher Devlyn. Call me Azura. Anyway, it's nice to know that my intelligence dossiers were accurate for once. Lesson one. Intel is never trustworthy, but it's always better than nothing."
"You have dossiers on us?" said Coran cautiously.
"Cool your jets, tall, dark and suspicious. It's mostly based off of your school reports and whatever else Ozpin deigned to give me. Nothing sinister." She patted his shoulder amicably.
"Well you seem to know a lot about us, which puts us at a bit of a disadvantage don't you think?"
A sharp heeled boot stabbed down into his foot as Jo stepped in front of him. He heard her whisper something along the lines of "be nice or else" before turning to the huntress and saying "please excuse my ill-tempered friend. He has all the manners of a Boarbatusk and is just as stubborn."
"Don't worry about it. It's good that he doesn't immediately trust what he sees. That's going to be very useful over the coming week. Speaking of which, I suppose I should tell you what you've gotten yourselves in for."
"That would be nice." Devlyn said as they strapped themselves into the harnesses. She stowed her bag in a locker but remained standing, grasping the webbing above their heads. Raising her voice above the whine of the engines she began her briefing.
"Our target is the Ferrock mine to the south west of Vale. Back in the day it provided around seventy percent of the armourers and industry in the city. It was owned by the Tarrion Corporation, big multinational mining firm, until about eighteen months ago when the miners busted into a nest of cave Grimm. Of the twenty strong shift that was sent down there only three of them made it out into the larger tunnels. After that little mishap Tarrion was forced to close down the mine for 'safety reasons' cough lawsuit cough. Anyway, now Tarrion wants that steady cash flow back so they've requested a Hunter to check it out to see if the Grimm have moved on or not. That's where we come in."