Chapter 10: Springtide Sneakers

Weiss inspected the symbol on the side of the vehicle, it read UNSC. "What does that mean?"

"WOah look at this thing!" Ruby spoke, she, with effort, held a red gun/SMG of sort. It had some strange marking on the side. "Where's the ammo?"

"Maybe it's uses Dust ammo" Blake felt the gun's texture, it was cold and studded. "But where's the magazine then?"

"Lasers." Yang muttered

"Impossible, not even Atlas has been able to create pure dust related weaponry, maybe dust bullet casings but not pure dust" Weiss observed the two blue pieces on the front

"What about this yellow one?" Yang called out, she was holding a yellow rifle, it definitely had more of a rifle's shape, yet no visible magazine to speak of. "What's this button do?"

Yang pressed the button and it shot out a casing on the top of the rifle "...is it broken?"

"I don't think so" Weiss picked up the little cylinder and inspected it "This isn't dust..."

"Something like it?" Ruby set down her weapon, she was walking over to Yang, when her eyes locked on a bigger weapon set down on a crate. "WHat's that thinG?"

She hovered over the weapon, it was probably some rocket launcher of sort. They had two barrels, but how'd would one reload it without lugging 10 barrels on your back "This thing's huge!"

"hAh" Yang mumbled

Blake walked towards a crate, it was covered under a cloth of some sort, she pulled it away and saw the same UNSC symbol. But this time she could see some words under the globe "Hey I think I found what UNSC means."

"United Nations Space Command..." Blake wondered "Space command?"

"Space?" Weiss asked "The Only Atlas space project is the 'Light Beyond' project but that's just satellite-related"

"Maybe Atlas isn't the only one making Space projects..." Yang mentioned

"But that's- That's Impossible! How would another kingdom make a space program without other kingdoms knowing?" Weiss knew this wasn't possible, suddenly she heard some crystal-like noise

"Woah! This thing has Spikes o-or Needles?" Yang held a weapon of sort, it had some protruding pink needles on the top "This thing's wicked!"

Ruby peeked over to the top balcony and saw what looked like Magnus' stuff "What's over here..." Ruby walked over to the crates and saw it had a different symbol on them, it was triangular and had a circle behind it. "Hmm."

The rose teen noticed a strange weapon, it had a large blade in the back, and in the front it held a large barrel "Woah...it's like a blade-grenade launcher thing" Ruby passed her hand across the blade "Cool..."

Blake noticed a weapon of sort, it was the Judge's weapon. 'Jury' "They actually did kill Kieran..."

"You knew him?" Yang asked, grabbing the weapon

"Yes, kept on preaching on how he'd bring his Judgement upon humanity, he had a prophet-like mentality" Blake explained "They even formed a little sub-group in the white fang, but it wasn't really prominent."

Weiss's scroll suddenly rang, it was a message from Jaune, he was supposed to keep watch. The Spartans were coming. "We need to get out, now. The Spartans are coming"

"But how, there's no backdoor?!" Ruby squeaked

Blake noticed the vent on the wall, it seemed to lead outside "The Vent!" The Team ran over to the vent and opened it, crawling in just in time. They quickly made their way through the dusty metal vents and dropped outside.

"You think they saw us?" Yang huffed

Weiss listened in through the vent "No, I don't think they did, barely"

"Hey Hannah, where'd you get your 'Valkyrie' nickname?" Jirou asked

"Oh yeah, well it started with my family's farm, My dad had taught me to fly the duster over the crops, I was sorta great at it." Hannah explained "I ended up enlistin' as a UNSC Pilot, got some more professional trainin' and I flew quite a bit, only ended up being shot at once and as you can see…I made it, ended up earning the name 'Valkyrie'. One day a Spartan recruiter came around, this was when they were just developin' the Stinger helmet and they chose me as a perfect fit

Xavier whistled "Definitely sounds like you got the pilot experience"

"OH definitely, though I've always wanted to Fly one of those Hannibal Wasps" Hannah thought of flying the Hannibal variant of the Wasp, it had replaced the usual bullets and rockets for Plasma based Bolts and bombs.

Magnus chimed in the conversation "I've actually seen how ONI wasps perform"

"Any different from normal wasps?"

"The bullet are just explosive really, maybe some armor improvements and faster rocket launchers but it's more or less a direct upgrade from the usual"

"So what do you all think of Ironwood? " Jirou spoke "He's definitely preparing for something"

"Think so?" Hannah asked

"Of course. These Grimm Beasts, the students are trained to fight here…If his army are amassing such an arsenal. That means the Grimm are getting stronger somehow"

"Maybe they're lead by something" Magnus mentioned "Or someone, things don't naturally get stronger like that"

Damian was thinking about something, a hypothesis he probably knew was wrong, but given the situation, he may be onto something.

"You think the Forerunners here have something to do with the Grimm?" The blue spartan asked.

"Exactly, maybe they're an experiment gone wrong?" Xavier inquired

"But since when? The Grimm have clearly been here for a long time, given the academies around Remnant" Jirou kept talking, Damian's forerunner theory was right but something just wasn't clicking right.

Hannah thought of something "If this is a forerunner planet, where'd the monitor go?"

"More importantly, are these Builder Forerunners or Warrior servants? If they're Warrior servants we may have to deal with the Prometheans." Damian asked "Sentinels were bad enough, but Knights, Soldiers, Crawlers and Watchers? That's worse"

"Absolutely." Xavier agreed "We're gonna need some heavier artillery if they start bring out those other knight variants, you know, like the red or blue ones"

Magnus turned to their ONI warthog, it was a scout variant so it didn't have mounted turret. "I have an idea on how to make some heavy artillery "

-Undisclosed Location-

-Weeks Later-

-Atlas-

Myra analyzed the codes on her screen, they weren't like anything she'd seen before, completely foreign to her and maybe even Atlas.

The symbols were transmitted by the flying construct of sort, the larger construct kept walking around the containment area it was in.

Tests were conducted to the construct, such as giving it an artifact that had a similar appearance to it. The construct I'm question kneeled to it and grabbed the artifact, fusing it into it's arm. "What are you trying to tell us?"

"Any progress Myra?" Sanith spoke

Myra scoffed "No, I can't even read these"

Sanith leaned onto the containment chamber's glass "Got any theories?"

"I'd bet it's trying to talk to us, maybe even ask us why he's kept here."

Sanith stared at the large construct, it was looking around the room, maybe unsure of it's surroundings and trying to find a way out

"Wait wait, it sent something" Myra leaned into her screen

Sanith hastily walked over to the scientist and leaned next to her "You know what it says?"

"Only one way to find out." Myra lifted her hand and pressed the new symbol on the screen, it promptly sent a signal to the nearby Holo-table and displayed a location of sort.

The duo slowly walked to the table, in a slight awe at the holographic landscape before them, Sanith spoke first. "Where is this?"

Myra walked over to the Holo-table's controls and tried to zoom out, the landscape shrunk while revealing more of the surrounding area. "I think I know where this may be."

"Where?"

"The Dragon's Head." Myra answered, The Dragon's head was located just above Mistral, in the frost ridden lands.

"What do you think it is?" Sanith asked

"No clue, but it definitely must be something important" Myra then zoomed into the landscape, there was a structure sticking out of the ground.

"I'll get a team ready to investigate" Sanith began walking out the room

"No, report to Ironwood first" Myra instructed "He'll want to know about this"

-Ironwood's Quarters-

"Are you certain that your information is correct?" The General asked

"More than certain" Sanith spoke from the phone

"Very well. Get a team ready, ensure the area is safe, then we'll send a group to investigate" Ironwood told "Keep it light, you may not encounter any danger aside from Grimm"

"Yes sir"

"Alright then, dismissed" Ironwood hung up the scroll and set it down. He then had a thought.

The Spartans had some sort of Hardlight shielding technology, could they have experience with these Ancients? If so, how long have they been active without him knowing? The team going into the structure wouldn't be able to gather any useful Intel right away…

But the Spartans…maybe they could.

Ironwood grabbed his scroll again, he'd have to make some calls.

-Beacon library-

Glynda sat on one of the library's tables next to Damian. Who was listening to the teacher. They were reading about some folklore of Remnant "Of course, some of these Grimm are considered mere legend"

Damian nodded "I see, very interesting"

The rest of the Spartans also sat next to them, they were reading books of their own. Damian's eye caught a topic on the Computer screen. "Hey, what's that about a forge?"

"Mm? Where?"

"Above the fairy tales, The Springtide Forge" Damian put his finger on the topic

"Oh" Glynda clicked on the topic's link "The Springtide Forge is a Mistral legend"

"A Forge?" Magnus peeked over next to the two, the rest also listened in

"Yes, the Springtide Forge is a legend with some verity to it" Glynda explained "It's said to house a Magical forge in which the metals used are near invincible, embued with the touch of gods"

"I wouldn't believe it at first, but there is some, as I said, verity to it. Explorers have found ancient weapons and armors that to do match the descriptions of The Springtide forge…yet they are different."

"How so?" Jirou asked

"Some are built differently than the ones that match those of the Springtide Forge" Glynda kept teaching the history of the forge "Most theories just assume it was a highly talented blacksmith that created the weapons and armor, but there's is many aspects left open to speculation"

"it wouldn't to have anything to do with the seasons here I'm readin about?" Hannah humorously asked

Glynda gave a soft chuckle "Perhaps it may"

The conversation was cut short by Glynda's scroll ringing "Pardon, I'll have to take this." She stood up and walked away nearby

Damian kept looking into the artistic renditions of the Springtide forge. His eye suddenly caught a topic of Atlas "Well well well, let's see what this is about"

Damian clicked it and it showed a giant floating city, above what the picture said was a city known as Mantle. "Huh, why do they got a floating city?"

"To presume their power?" Jirou suggested

"Compensating." Magnus mumbled

Hannah looked through the topic of Mantle "Says here Mantle is quite the shithole"

"Of course it'd be, the rich people are at the top lost likely" Xavier spoke, he turned over to where Glynda had walked to. She seemed calm on the phone, suddenly she looked annoyed or frustrated, telling by her pinching the bridge of her nose "Glynda looks kinda mad"

"Definitely" Damian chuckled

"Oh, act normal she's coming"

Glynda walked over to the Spartans, still having her annoyed look "Well…Ironwood came and wishes to see you"

"We already said no to his offer?" Hannah asked

"He says that this isn't about the offer, but rather a favor he asks of you" Glynda sighed

The Spartans looked each other for a moment, they nodded in unison and looked back at Glynda, Xavier was the one to speak "Alright, we'll hear him out."

-Ozpin's office-

"Spartans, I appreciate you coming today" Ironwood introduced "I'm not here to try and persuade you into Joining Atlas's military, but I do wish you could assist us"

"Okay, what's the situation?" Xavier spoke

"Now, we seemed to have uncovered a structure of sort. Now, usually we'd simply send a team, clear the site and send in people to research. But this is a different situation" Ironwood placed his scroll on Ozpin's table, showing the structure in question

"This structure bears similarities to one of your…technologies, specifically the hardlight shielding tech"

Damian slight raised his arm, summoning the hardlight shield "You mean this?"

Ironwood was impressed, hearing of it was fascinating, but seeing it… "Yes, you have experience with these Ancients?"

"Yeah…we usually call them Forerunners but yes, we have experience" Damian answered

"The reason I called you here is because I wish to ask you if you could join a team I'm sending to investigate, as you could provide much needed support to them"

Magnus looked at the holographic structure "How many and how well trained are they?"

"it will be a team of 5 joining you and 5 more keeping guard outside, highly trained, plus a Huntsman." Ironwood told "You may have encountered him before, Sanith Viento?"

"Oh yeah, yeah the one from the train" Xavier nodded

Magnus cut into the conversation "You sure this squad will be enough?"

"I have absolute confidence they'll be enough"

The Spartans looked at each other, all silently agreeing to this mission

"Spartans if I may…" Ozpin spoke out, everyone in the room listened to Ozpin "This is something that is highly sensitive, you are venturing into a lost relic of history. Ensure that the place is not damaged badly"

Ozpin lifted his cane "I do not know what sort of experience you have with these Forerunners…, but if it is hostile. Don't hesitate"

Damian smiled "No need to tell us twice."

-Beacon Campus-

Ruby sat down near some pigeons, she grabbed a piece of her snack and threw it at birds. The birds started to comically pile up on the new snack "Huehuehuehue!"

"Ruby" Weiss called out "Come on, we're going to try and see if we can find more about the Spartans"

"I don't think we'll be able to get in again." Ruby slowly said, her gaze was looking behind the heiress

"How so?"

Ruby pointed to the Pelican flying out of Beacon "I don't think they left the door unlocked this time."