Sorry for the wait, here is the next chapter in this exciting and heart throbbing series...just kidding.

(Zero) I was pondering a later scene in the book and I think I will be able to grant your request as it lore friendly (sort of) adds your regiment into the plot. Hopefully at least, if you want to know more send me a PM or something.

Disclaimer: I really don't own RWBY.

Anyways as always please read and review!

The Soldier's Battleground

ザー・ソールジュズ・バタルフィールド

Chapter V: Into the Night

Jaune looked around the rather cozy home that he currently was standing in. Nothing about the building showed that it had been touched by the war raging outside. Well that wasn't entirely true, some people were milling about with various states of clothing and equipment on them or lying near them.

The fact that these men and women would be the ones to carry out the dangerous mission spoke of their courage, if he were to be completely honest with himself, having actual soldiers to execute the mission would have been preferable. But considering he had never fought with these people before, perhaps they had some fighting experience. Giving them the benefit of a doubt was something he could do. That, and it was better to think this than the other option, which was going into a dangerous battle with rookie soldiers.

A conversation to his left drew his attention to the young woman that had greeted Tukson and himself when they entered the house. He took in the appearance of the young woman, her outfit consisted of a creamy off-white shallow v-neck blouse with what looked to be long sleeves, but that was hard to tell as it was covered up by a light grey tweed jacket, a charcoal scarf was also wrapped around her neck. On her legs she was wearing dark grey slacks that had a vertical black stripe on the outer side of each leg, and covering her feet were black riding boots.

The equipment that she was carrying consisted of a sheath of sorts that hung from her back with a strap that went from her right shoulder to the left side of her waist. A black leather holster was strapped to her right thigh with ammo pouches for the weapon on her opposite thigh. A knife holster was tightly strapped to her left boot. But besides all that, something did catch his eye, was a dull grey half-face mask that sat atop her head.

Jaune recognized the face mask as an experimental type of armor that some soldiers used to protect their eyes from debris. The masks usefulness were very limited, so the majority of soldiers decided not to wear them as it was just an unneeded weight that they didn't want to carry. Why she decided to wear one was beyond him, but if he had to take a guess, if she put the mask over her eyes and pulled the scarf up to her nose, then no one would be able to identify her appearance if she was seen. But if that wasn't the reason then he would just have to ask her sometime.

As Jaune was observing Blake, she was talking with another fellow fighter, from the corner of her vision she saw that the Atelsian Lieutenant was studying her. A few seconds later his gaze shifted towards another resistance fighter, and after studying them for a few moments his gaze moved onto the next person. She decided to copy what he was doing and started to take in the appearance of his uniform and equipment. He wore the standard equipment of the Atelsian military soldier. A brown coat and pants that looked like they had seen better days was covered in light speckles of mud and dirt. Leather combat boots where being worn on his feet and strips of cloth where wrapped from his ankles all the way up to his knees. A harness known as a webbing, held a good amount of ammunition pouches. A brodie helmet that was on his head when he first came in was now hanging off of his belt. Slung across his back was a rifle that she had never seen before, but then again it had been a good while since she had seen an Atelsian soldier, they had probably gotten new equipment and the rifle was one of those.

Overall nothing really stood out to her about his appearance or equipment, but in her line of work, looks could be deceiving. The resistance group she was a part of had sent Tukson to locate, find, and convince allied forces to send soldiers that could help them with destroying the bridge. To the disappointment of some, only a single soldier had been brought back by Tukson. That either meant nobody believed Tukson and had sent a random soldier, or this young man was worth a group of soldiers. Hopefully the later was the case, as they needed all the help they could get in the upcoming battle.

Still, past experiences had made her trust in strangers quite fragile at best. Not to say she didn't trust anyone, but the world was a cruel and unfair place. This made for her to have a skeptical and a somewhat introverted personality. But then again, what she lacked in her social life, she made up for it in reading. Whenever she had the time, she found herself immersing herself in any book that she was able to find. Books never betrayed you or let you down, unlike a certain someone she had previously served under.

Blake was pulled out of her thoughts when the Lieutenant cleared his throat. Along with everyone else in the room she focused her attention on him to see what he wanted to say.

"Well you all know what you are doing here. I was sent by my commanding officer to help you destroy a bridge. With that, does anyone have a layout of the area around the bridge, I want to see what type of defenses were going up against." His thoughts drifted towards a certain female he had meet previously.

'You know maybe Major Ozpin should have sent Corporal Valkyrie instead, the girl with a pension for pancakes and explosives, then again, maybe she doesn't have the subtlety needed if we need to stealth this mission.' Jaune saw another blonde young man raise his hand into the air.

Blake looked at the other blonde as well and nodded her head. The young man grinned before stepping forward and pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket. Scratch that, he had pulled out what looked like a banana momentarily, before sheepishly putting the fruit back into a pocket.. He reached into another pocket and pulled out an actual piece of folded up paper.

While her facial expression remained stoic, Blake was sighing internally at the act her comrade had just pulled. She stole a glance at the Lieutenant to see what his reaction was, but all she saw was the young man extend a hand to the other blonde.

"What's your name lad?" The other blonde male smiled as he grasped the outstretched hand.

"Sun Wukong, a pleasure buddy!" A firm handshake was made before they dropped their grasp on each other's hands.

The Lieutenant unfolded the paper and laid it out on a table nearby. "Alright, what are we looking at for the enemy presence?" Sun leaned on the table and pointed at a spot on the paper.

"Well I wasn't able to get a really good look as I didn't want to be seen. But I went out a few nights ago and was able to locate two guard posts near the entrance on both sides of the bridge. Other than that, there are guards that regularly patrol the river banks, so getting to the bridge will be a bit of a challenge no matter how you look at it." Sun pointed towards various points on the map as he was talking. Jaune followed along and took in everything he was being told by the resistance fighter.

"We thought we could do a frontal assault, but we don't have the men or equipment to pull that off. Besides, if we executed that plan, we would be dealing with enemy soldiers defending the bridge. And let's not forget those who are on the other side of the river."

Jaune's face took on a thoughtful look as he surveyed what they were up against. Having a bridge that crossed a river was indeed a valuable asset, but then again, a destroyed bridge was also valuable asset depending on the person. Seeing how the lines on both sides hadn't moved in months, and the chances of a bridge behind friendly lines being blown up was nil, perhaps the enemy presence wouldn't be as large as it could be. Hopefully that was the case as dealing with a large amount of enemy forces could and would overwhelm this resistance group.

"What are the patterns the guards follow as the patrol the riverbank?" A bit surprisingly Blake decided to insert herself into the conversation. "They patrol in two's along this route here and here."

Jaune noted the route's and narrowed his eyes. "How long is their shifts?" Sun spoke up this time. "As far as we can tell, they change the guard every six hours or so. The first shift starts at midnight and change's around six in the morning, the next is at noon and so on."

Jaune looked down at the watch on his wrist for a second before looking up and addressing everyone in the room. "The sun doesn't rise until around seven in the morning this time of the year. When the guards change shifts in the morning that is when we will strike. That will give us a small window of darkness to plant the explosives underneath the bridge before first light hits. And since the shift just changed, they won't be suspicious when we take out the guards."

His gaze swept the room as he talked. "I need some volunteers to help with planting the explosives. Also we need people in place to deal with the guards if need be." After a few moments of silence and no one raising their hands, Sun slowly raised his hand in the air. With a few more hands following shortly afterwards.

Tukson and Blake raised their hands as well. "We'll deal with the guards and watching your guys back." He gestured between himself and Blake who nodded her head.

"The Atelsian forces will be attacking tomorrow right after dawn. We'll plant the explosive later tonight and wait for the attack to happen in the morning. Once our forces break through the Empiric lines, reinforcements will no doubt be called up from the rear. We'll blow the bridge when the enemy is crossing. The frontal assault as well as a bridge blowing up in their faces will cause chaos in the enemy ranks. We can use that distraction to fall back and let the Atelsian military do their work." A few more details were discussed before Jaune looked up to see everyone in the room nodding their heads at his plan. He turned towards Blake and asked her a question that he should have asked earlier. "Where are the explosives?" She gestured towards a door. "I'll show you, but before that, everyone get yourself some rest we'll need to be ready to execute this plan later this night." Sounds of agreement could be heard as the group of men and women broke off from the table and made their way to various parts of the house to get some shut eye.

"This way, I'll show you the room." Jaune followed behind the young woman as she opened the door she had gestured to before, and after walking down a short hallway they found themselves in a small room with wooden crates along the wall. Blake walked over to one and opened the lid to reveal the contents inside. Sticks of dynamite lay close to one another and Jaune found himself impressed at the amount that the resistance fighters had procured.

"Well I'm no demolition expert, but I think this will do the job quite nicely." He picked up one of the stick and gave it a quick look over to see how the quality was like. Seeing nothing wrong with the stick in his hand he put back into the box before his eyes shifted over to black haired woman beside him. "I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but things don't always go according to plan. I said what I thought would work in this given situation, but I think it would be prudent to be ready to change a few things if the need arises."

Blake meet his gaze and nodded her head before turning around and walking away from the crates. "I suggest you get some rest Lieutenant." She said curtly, before leaving Jaune in the room by himself. He shook his head before also making his way out of the room. He walked a few feet before slowly sinking down in the hallway with his back to the wall. He leaned his head back against the hard wood wall and closed his eyes.

The plan would be put into action in a few hours, and the lives of thousands rested on his shoulders, the responsibility he was given was immense and not wanting to dwell on the nerves one could get from this. He opened his eyes and decided to check over his equipment one more time. You could say it was a small habit of his whenever there was some down time to be had, as it helped keep his mind off of all the killing and explosions that he usually heard when he was in the trenches.

Pulling out his trusty melee weapon, Jaune gazed at the blade and pondered how the knife wasn't permanently stained red with all the blood spilled on its blade. He couldn't help but think how the young man. No, boy from the countryside had changed in the gruesome muddy battlefields. Some part of himself died the day he took another person's life. Glory or adventure didn't exist in this war, only death and despair.

"You know if I survive this war, I think I'll become a school teacher." He snorted. "Maybe I can help teach the next generation to avoid war." Ruefully shaking his head he pulled out a piece of cloth from his coat and started to wipe the blade. Even though the blade was spotless of all dirt and grime, the act of cleaning his knife was almost therapeutic in a way, and helped with keeping his nerves in check. A few minutes later he put the knife away and pulled out the sidearm at his side and started to fiddle with the piece as he went about wiping down the cold piece of metal.

A heaviness in his eyelids made him put away the pistol and close his eyes. Soon sleep embraced him and he slipped off into oblivion. For what seemed like an intangible amount of time, Jaune found himself in blackness before a single voice made him crack open his eyes, but instead of seeing a hallway he saw a blue sky with a few clouds lazily floating in the air. Jolting up he was meet a laugh from behind him which made him turn his head to see who made the sound.

He got his answer when he saw a young woman leaning against a staff. He studied her face briefly, she had a light brown complexion, with short straight brown hair, and brown eyes. Overall, she had a rather lovely appearance about her. Still going to sleep in a hallway and then waking up on a dirt road made some questions float to his mind, but before he could ask them the young woman addressed him.

"Before you ask the question, you are dreaming, your body is still laying peacefully in a hallway, you haven't moved at all. I wanted to talk to you for a while, and I thought this would be a good place to relax."

Jaune took in the area around him and saw that a wooden fence separated the road he was on and a grassy field. A forest in the distance could be heard with the sounds of birds chirping. The overall environment was peaceful and calm. His gaze focused on the woman as he slowly stood up and faced her. "If I am dreaming, then who are you? I don't think I've ever seen you before."

She smiled, "No Jaune this is the first time we've met, but hopefully this won't be the last time either. Now if I may, I want to ask you a question. Why do you want to live?"

Jaune crossed his arms as he pondered the question. A simply answer would be because he didn't want to die, but he suspected that wasn't the answer she was looking for.

"Well when I first joined the war, I admit I entertained thoughts of glory and honoring my ancestor's name. But after my first battle I knew that war was a gruesome and bloody thing to behold. Now I fight this war not for the heroism, but because I never want my family to experience the hellish conditions I've had to go through. I also have the soldiers under my command who are also like family to me, and I would like nothing better than to get them all home safe and sound. If that means I have to die so that that happens, then I have no doubt in my mind that my family will understand my decision. Does that answer your question?"

The young woman stood up from leaning on her staff. "Do you truly mean that?"

Jaune put a hand over his heart and raised his other hand in the air. "You have my word as an Arc." She studied his face for a minute before her eyes twinkled with an emotion that he couldn't quite identify. "I see, well Jaune I've found what I was looking for, perhaps we'll talk again some other time, but for now you are needed elsewhere."

Jaune took her statement that he was going to be waking up soon, but before that happened he had one more question to ask. "What's your name?" She opened her mouth and replied but he couldn't hear what she said as she smiled before waving and mouthing goodbye to him. His vision went white as he heard another voice calling out him.

"Lieutenant it's time." Jaune found himself in the hallway he had fallen asleep in. Looking up he saw Blake gazing down at him. He quickly brought his legs in and pushed himself up into a standing position. Glancing down at his watch he saw that it was 0500 in the morning, a few hours before the attack was scheduled to happen.

"We need to get moving soon, it will take a while to get into position before we can e9xecute the plan." Jaune nodded at her suggestion and he soon found himself in the room where the mission plans were created a few hours ago.

People were doing last minute checks over their equipment before the plan would be put into motion. Once everyone was ready, Blake and Sun walked in with a few satchels and some arming wire. Sun walked over and handed him one, glancing inside he confirmed that it was some sticks of dynamite and some strips of cloth to help secure said explosive to the underside of the bridge.

Soon the all the lights in the house were turned off and a pale light streaming through the windows bathed the occupants inside. Jaune looked over to see the raven haired woman slip her mask on and pull up her scarf to her nose before donning a newsboy cap on her head. Their eyes meet briefly as she nodded to the group of people. Everyone hastily made their way out into the cold damp night.

The small group of people quietly made their way across fields and roads stopping occasionally to hide from passing enemy troops. Everyone's breath could be seen exiting their mouths as the weather was cold outside. Jaune looked up and gazed at the shattered moon that bathed the ground with its pale light. As he heard the sporadic gunfire coming from the trenches grow quitter, he found himself going deeper behind enemy lines. A sense of excitement coursed through his veins. Having been stuck in the same trenches for months, the scenery he was used to was mostly mud and decaying flesh. Walking through the grassy fields and abandoned farmland was a nice change of scenery. Still the silence of the night was also eerie in its own right and he found himself listening for any sounds that didn't come from the group he was with. A fist went up into the air signaling the group to halt. Everyone crouched down and Jaune slowly made his way up to the person who raised their hand.

Blake had signaled the group to halt behind a low hill and noticed the Lieutenant crouching next to her. "What did you see?" He asked in a hushed tone. She pointed towards the hill. "Right over this hill, there is a ditch leading to a road. Some open field separate us from the town. No guards have ever been seen patrolling this area but stay low." She whispered her reply. The Lieutenant gestured towards the others. "They know this right?" She nodded before lifting her head above the small hill, she scanned the area one more time before signaling the group to follow her. She crawled over the hill and into the ditch on the other side before quickly making her way across the road into the field on the other side.

For Blake, the darkness that night provided was comforting to her as she was able to move in the shadows unseen and undetected, and with her Faunus traits, seeing things in the dark was not a problem for her. Of course that came in very handy when locating the enemy and staying out of sight. Which lead to her stopping the group once more as they approached the outskirts of the town. She pulled out her knife from its sheath and motioned for Tukson to follow her before stealthy making her way down a dark alleyway. Nearing the end of the corridor she paused and listened for any footsteps approaching. She didn't have to wait long before what sounded like two people conversing in hushed tones neared her position. In a voice that was barely audible she told Tukson to take out the outside guard while she would take the closest one if they were seen. A miniscule nod was her reply and she waited for the patrol to pass.

Meanwhile, Jaune found himself laying low on the ground and staring into the dark alleyway that the two had disappeared into and waited for their return. A few minutes passed by before a shadowy figure could be seen coming from the alleyway and Jaune subconsciously moved his hand to his knife, his caution was put to rest when a familiar figure gestured for the group to follow before disappearing back in to the darkness. He relaxed his grip on his knife as he stood up and quietly made his way with the rest of the group to where the young woman had just disappeared into.

Tukson peered his head out of the alleyway and looked both ways before gesturing with his hand that the coast was clear. The small group made their way across a narrow street before finding themselves in another small ditch hiding from view. Jaune looked down at his watch and noticed that it was almost time for the guard to be changed and he motioned to Blake and pointed at his watch. A subtle nod was all he got as she tapped Tukson on the shoulder and the two once more disappeared from the group. Jaune looked at his watch and waited. A good amount of time passed before 0600 arrived and he gripped the strap of his satchel in anticipation for the dangerous part he was about to play. About five or so minutes later Tukson reappeared and pointed at him. Jaune released the strap and made his way over just in time to see Blake pulling an Empiric soldier out of the street.

Jaune crouched along the ground as he slowly made his way towards the riverbank. So far no other guards had been seen and the plan was going great so far. Sliding down the rather steep riverbank Jaune quickly made his way towards one of the support pillars for the bridge. He pointed at a resistance fighter and motioned towards another part of the bridge. Soon everyone in his group were quietly strapping the dangerous munitions onto various parts of the bridges support legs. The bridge itself though was big enough to support traffic going both ways and was a good length. So even though blowing up the support legs on each side would help cripple the bridge. The only way to truly destroy it, was by also setting explosives onto the support legs that were in the middle of the bridge.

While Jaune wasn't the strongest person around as he had a few men in his company who beat him in that aspect. He did have lots of stamina. Back in his hometown, whenever he got into a fight with someone who was bigger and stronger than he was, wearing them out was his way of winning, and that trait came in handy at the current time as the only way to get the explosives out to the middle of the bridge was by hanging from his hands and since he didn't want to fall into the river and alert the enemy he was glad that all his training was worth something.

Carefully climbing under the bridge, Jaune looked down and saw his feet dangling above the cold waters and his grip tightened as he made his way out to the middle of the bridges support legs. After a few tense moments he reached the middle and quickly attached a few stick of dynamite before hooking up a firing wire into the explosives. A small grunt made him look over to see that Sun had also made his way to the middle of the bridge and was going about setting his explosives. Soon both of them were done and with a thumbs up to each other, slowly made their way back over to the riverbank.

As the lieutenant and his group did their part in the mission. Blake found herself scanning the surrounding area for any signs of enemy presence. Finding none she turned her gaze to the pair of people hanging from their arms as they were making their way back to the riverbank. She was not surprised that Sun had gone to the middle of the bridge to plant explosives. He did love to hang on tree branches and the like when possible. But seeing the lieutenant as the other person came as a bit of a shock. Perhaps Atelsian troops were stronger than she previously thought, in her opinion, being stuck in a trench for months on end wasn't a great way to exercise the body, unlike her profession were moving around a lot made for great exercise. While she observed the two finally make it back onto dry land, a few voices made her gaze flinch to a building near the bridge.

A single Imperial soldier walked out of the door rather tipsy, if she had to take a guess he was probably a bit drunk. But that didn't matter as the man drunkenly walked towards the riverbank and the group of resistance fighters planting explosives. If they were seen by the man, things could get ugly very fast. Reaching behind her back, she grabbed the weapon and charged.

The enemy soldier had finally made his over to the riverbank and was currently in a staring contest with the people below, but before he could yell a leather cord wrapped around his neck and he felt himself being yanked backwards. Not having total control of his legs he felt his balance slip and he rather hard onto his back. He looked up just in time to see a masked person raising a blade into the air. He couldn't even scream, as a hand came down on his mouth and soon a searing pain bloomed in his chest as a cold piece of metal plunged through his heart. His eyes shot wide open before slowly fluttering closed.

Having been privy to the whole scene. Jaune was impressed how quickly the masked woman had taken out the enemy soldier. He was trained in a number of weapons back in the day, but he had never seen someone use a weapon like she did. Still, he could see the advantage of the weapon as it was capable of tripping or hurting someone depending on how it was used. He wondered how proficient she was with the weapon as she smoothly slide it back behind her back.

Not wasting a moment, he quickly climbed up the hill and helped her move the body out of the open before anyone could see the corpse. Now that the crisis was averted, Jaune dug a shallow trench in the dirt road to hide the wires coming riverbank. Being a nice distance away from the explosion and certain death was a needed. He finished hiding the wires just in time as gunfire and the sounds of battle shook the earth. Looking down at his watch, he saw that the attack had begun. Now the only thing left to do was wait for the enemy to cross the bridge with reinforcements.

That wouldn't happen for a good while, as the Imperial forces held their ground against the advancing Atelsian troops. But after about an hour or so the lines were wavering and the request for reinforcement were made. Soon the sounds of trucks could be heard by the resistance group and everyone's nerves were bathed in adrenaline. Now that daylight had risen, Jaune was able to hear and see a few military trucks crossing the river. Instead of blowing the bridge when they were crossing, he waited for them to pass as that few of trucks was not carrying nearly enough men to reinforce the frontlines. A tap on his shoulder made him look at the still mask covered young woman.

"Why didn't you blow the bridge?" She whispered quietly.

"That wasn't enough troops to destroy, we'll wait for the main force." She nodded at his answer and soon enough a large group of men and equipment could be seen on the far side of the river. Jaune glanced at Blake and gestured to the plunger box. While the mask covered what her reaction was, Jaune saw the young woman put both of her hands on the plunger stick in preparation for the big surprise. "Wait until some of the soldiers cross the bridge as the explosion will still take care of them." He whispered as he raised his hand into the air. "On my signal, blow the bridge."

A few seconds passed as the Imperial forced made their way across the bridge, completely unaware of the danger right below their feet. As soon as a fair amount of them had made it to the other side, Jaune lowered his hand and Blake shoved the plunger down quickly before covering her ears.

The explosion never came...

Mwahaha! Cliffhanger! I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter!