Chapter 23: Walnut
The young lieutenant had never been in an actual combat situation before, but part of his training included a working knowledge of the International Threat Assessment Scale. He first turned to the two enlisted men who brought up the rear of the four person group. "You two, report to the bridge. See if there's something you can do to help. There's no reason that it should take three of us to escort Ms. Schnee to her room." They saluted, and hurried off to the command deck. Then, he refocused his attention on Weiss. "Let's keep moving."
Their pace quickened as the alarms continued to drone on over the speakers that were more accustomed to playing classical music than military sirens. "I mean no disrespect to your father by sending my two subordinates away, but I would consider keeping them here to be an inefficient use of manpower."
She agreed. The young officer's decision was most probably the correct one. But she also had no idea what kind of danger a threat level of five actually posed to her, so she asked. "Threat level five… What's that mean?"
"It's an internationally accepted scale for the perceived threat level of an incoming Grimm attack. One is negligible, ten is… overwhelming. In this case, level five most probably presents a danger to us, even in this ship. I can check the threat assessment report once I've seen you safely to your room." The young man's ability to rattle off facts pertinent to her question, while the alarm was still blaring over the speakers, and soldiers were mobilizing in the halls was an admirable sight to behold.
I guess that's what they train these guys for, she thought. They continued down the long hall until they reached the very last room on what would be the exterior side of the hull. The lieutenant entered a code on the security pad next to the door, and watched as it disappeared along tracks that left it cleverly hidden inside the thick bulkhead. He quickly ushered Weiss into her room, and then followed behind her. Her first impression of her new quarters was that it had been lavishly decorated, and bore a striking resemblance to the room she grew up in as a child. A large window gave her a view of the city below, and even Beacon, although it was dark and difficult to see. The alarms suddenly faded into little more than background noise as the officer entered the code again, this time from a keypad inside the room. The door slid closed into a secure, locked position.
He immediately reached to where a holster might have been, if he had been issued a sidearm. Instead, it was used to hold a scroll. Weiss saw him unbutton the tiny pouch, and remove his communications device from it. He immediately went to work tapping in clearance codes and pulling up information about the severity of the current situation. "How are you doing that?" She asked, recalling that the CCTS had gone down days ago.
He didn't break his concentration in trying to find the report that would expand his understanding of the incoming Grimm attack, but he did have the answer that Weiss was looking for. "All Atlesian warships house a medium-range communications array somewhere on board. This ship was built from the same basic design as such a warship. Therefore, it can act as a hub that scrolls can use to communicate with each other. Any time a combat situation presents itself, a report is filed that details everything an officer might need to know before entering battle. It's still no substitute for a missing tower, though. We can't call home without the long-range capabilities of the CCTS towers."
That explains it. That's how my father was able to call me before I left to get Qrow's gift. I saw the ship overhead, I must have been within signal range. The idea of being reconnected with her father irritated Weiss, but the localized scroll network provided an undeniable strategic advantage that did not exist before the arrival of her father's ship. "So, lieutenant…" she began, before realizing that she did not know his name. She paused briefly, but eventually decided to just continue her thought anyway, "Did you find your threat assessment?"
"Walnut. Everyone calls me Walnut... I'm reading over the report now, give me just a second." Weiss tried to hide the childish smirk that appeared on her face upon learning that this officer in the Atlesian Military was called... Walnut. He noticed the smile, and stopped reading for a moment. "It's not my real name. But it's a good compromise when you have a name like Wallace Nutt." He went back to reading his report, smiling, "My parents had a sick sense of humor. I guess it must run in the family. My dad's name is Chester. They call him Chestnut."
Weiss was now laughing almost obnoxiously. "I'm so sorry! This is terribly inappropriate, it's just that this is probably the most uplifting conversation I've had in days." The laughter was apparently contagious, because Lieutenant Walnut joined in with a light chuckle. Even still, he just kept on reading the lengthy report. Under normal circumstances, he would have been rushing to the bridge with the rest of his squad, but his orders were clear. He was to stay with Weiss until such a time that Mr. Schnee arrived to speak privately with his daughter.
"It's fine. Everyone thinks it's funny, and I've found that life is so much more enjoyable when people are laughing. Besides, you haven't even heard my mom's name yet."
She was still trying to control her immature smile, but decided to take a shot in the dark, "Coco?"
"Not a bad guess… It's Hazel. My dad actually married a woman named Hazel, making her Hazel Nutt." He just shook his head at how ridiculous the given names in his family must have sounded.
Weiss didn't even know this young man, but almost in spite of the tragic state that the world was in, she had developed a certain respect for an officer of his age who was able to transition smoothly between work and casual conversation. Just as the laughter in the room died down, a large griffon rammed its head into the window, startling the two young Atlesians inside. The world of remnant apparently had a cruel way of maintaining balance between its positive and negative forces.
Weiss jumped back, both away from the window, and into reality. The laughter she had shared with Lieutenant Walnut had been therapeutic, but this intrusion into the jovial atmosphere that they had created was evidently a sign that it was time to turn their attention back to the dangers that they were faced with. Weiss reluctantly steered their conversation back to the report. "So, what did your report say about this attack?"
The griffon tried once again to break the glass, but failed to realize the density of the clear barrier. After all, this was more or less a converted warship. Knowing this, Walnut had chosen to ignore its repeated, futile, attempts to break in. He turned his attention to the startled heiress, and made an attempt to give her some assurance that she had nothing to worry about. "The glass on the hull of ship of this classification is six inches thick. That thing isn't coming in here." Almost defiantly, he moved closer to the window, looking through it in all directions as if he was trying to locate something.
Weiss still wasn't convinced. The Grimm she had seen were relentless, and most of them were defiant until the end. "What are you doing? Get away from that window!"
"I'm trying to confirm the information in my report. Threat level five indicates danger to all Atlesian units, this ship included. So there has to be something bigger than that griffon out there somewhere." He scanned the skies to the best of his abilities in the dark, but found nothing.
Speaking from experience, Weiss informed him, "I can assure you that there is something bigger than that griffon out there." It tried for a third time to break the wall of glass, but didn't even draw a reaction from inside the room. "Have you ever seen a giant Grimm Dragon?" Weiss joined her friend at the window, clearly emboldened by the confidence that he showed in his own safety. She pointed to the faint silhouette of Beacon Academy in the distance. "On top of the big tower. I can barely make it out in the dark, but if you look really close, you can see the outline of it."
Walnut looked for a few seconds before he thought he could finally see it, but he never had the chance to confirm what Weiss claimed was out there. "I just don't think I can see-" The entire ship suddenly jolted downward.
The two were briefly suspended in a state of low gravity, as the ship abruptly tilted downward near the nose section. As its stabilizers restored balance to the ship, they came crashing back to the floor, but immediately scrambled back to their feet. "What in the world could have caused that?" Weiss asked. From their vantage point, neither of them had a view of the front portion of the vessel, only the side. Weiss had flown quite a lot in her childhood. It was one of the, in her opinion, few perks of being the daughter of a dust mogul. But the sensation that she got from her father's ship shifting in such a strange way was unfamiliar to her.
Before an answer to her question could be given, the public address system activated again. "Threat Level adjusted to six. Large Grimm on the bow. Prepare for evasive action. Repeat. Threat Level six. Large Grimm on the bow. Prepare for evasive action."
"Never mind that I asked," Weiss said dismissively as her previous question had been resolved. "Can't they just shoot it off of us?"
Walnut looked rather distressed as he heard the report over the intercom. "They're going to try to shake whatever landed on us off by moving the ship. The weapon systems on this vessel have been significantly stripped down compared to a full-fledged warship. It would be tricky to hit whatever is out there. These ships are normally armed with a high powered laser, but this particular one utilizes a large caliber cannon. It's less expensive, and requires less power to use. It's a good option for defense on a civilian ship, such as this one. The problem is… the gun is mounted on the nose of the ship. We'll have to be pointed almost right at our target to hit it. Assuming that it can fly, that could prove difficult."
She understood, but by this time, Weiss had become fed up with being completely helpless in this extravagantly decorated room while there was a battle raging all around her. "I can't stay in here like this any more. You have to let me go out there and try to do something. I've been training for things like this for-"
His rebuttal was swift. "Absolutely not. You can not go out there Ms. Schnee. My orders forbid it. And besides, you don't even know what's out there."
Before Weiss could argue her case, she felt a shift below her feet as they began to move. At first it was only a slight change in her equilibrium, but after a few moments it became clear that they had accelerated to a cruising speed. "I wonder if that's enough to...get…it…"
Her voice trailed off as loud blasts and accompanying bright flashes began to light up the sky. Clearly, the ship had opened fire on something. Although she couldn't see what the target was, it was clear that their maneuvering had worked. In any case, she scurried to the window to try to observe whatever was happening. Just as she did, an enormous Nevermore flew past, not more than a few feet from the window to their room. It had apparently been exposed to the cannon fire that she had observed moments before. Both of its right eyes were closed, and a large black circle surrounded them, most likely caused by an explosive shell impact. Each flap of its massive wings seemed to cause more of a struggle than an upward thrust. The great bird was losing altitude as it flew out of sight.
Weiss tried for a few more minutes to locate the Nevermore in the skies above. She had assumed that it would continue to circle the ship, even if it stood no chance of victory. Wherever they had maneuvered to, she couldn't find it… or any recognizable landmark, actually... It then occurred to her that the ship was still moving quite quickly. "Aren't they going to turn back to chase it?"
Her guard gave his best explanation, without knowing anything authoritatively. "It looked wounded as it flew past, I would guess that we'll call it a day and move along."
Weiss quickly remembered why she did not want to be aboard the ship longer than necessary. "Move along? To where? Aren't you still evacuating units from Vale?"
"Your ship was one of the last to arrive, which is fortunate. If you hadn't been on board, I would still be standing at attention in the docking bay. Our eventual destination is the capital, but this may just be a tactical maneuver to distance ourselves from high concentrations of Grimm."
Weiss hated the confines of this… prison. She had no tactical awareness, no ability to move about the ship freely, and no assurances that she would even be permitted to leave if she so desired. "We can't be leaving. I made a promise to my friends… I'm not going anywhere!"
Lt. Walnut just stood near the door, looking rather solemn. "I don't know... what I can tell you to make you feel better about this... But I can not allow you to leave this room until your father arrives."
The latitude she was not being given aboard an SDC ship was mildly annoying to her. "So let me get this straight. You're not here to protect me, you're here to keep an eye on me?" As the words came out of her mouth, Weiss began to reconsider the reason that she was on the ship. Initially, she had been willing to give her father a chance at reconciliation, but if the ship was leaving Vale, and if there was truly nothing that she could do, then her visit amounted to little more than a trap.
"I'm really sorry, Ms. Schnee. You must understand that I have my orders. If I disregarded-"
Yet again, the PA system announced their status. "Imminent attack repelled. Grimm threat reduced to level one. Repeat. Imminent attack repelled. Grimm threat reduced to level one."
With the danger apparently cleared, surely, it would be safe to leave the room. "Wonderful! Now it must be safe to leave this room, which I will be doing as soon as you enter the code into that keypad."She regretted challenging her new friend's authority, but Weiss was not about to be carried back to Atlas aboard a glorified prison ship.
"I'm very sorry," and it appeared that he genuinely was. "That door does not open under any circumstances without your father's direct consent." He thought for a moment. "Ms. Schnee, I assure you, if I could-"
The anger that had become pent up in Weiss burst out in a sudden explosion. "Stop calling me that! I hate it! Call me Weiss. Call me Ice Queen. Call me… literally… anything but Schnee." The first outburst had not sufficiently cooled her off, so she decided to try a second. "Isn't there someone back home who you would give anything to protect? Your parents, or friends? Maybe you have someone special. I don't know. The point is, I would sacrifice anything to protect MY friends, and right now I'm being ripped away from them. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
Wallace Nutt was taken completely by surprise. Their interactions up until that point had been predominantly friendly. He didn't understand what Ice Queen meant, exactly, but the point had been made. There were people back in Atlas who he would fight tooth and nail to protect. Everything she had made some sort of emotional connection with him. The thought crossed his mind to let her go, but the consequences of doing so would likely mean the end of his military career. He waged a war inside his mind, emotion clashed with duty. Fortunately for him, but significantly less so for Weiss, fate intervened.
The door to the room retracted into the bulkhead, and Mr. Schnee appeared in its stead. His words were concise. "Lieutenant, you are relieved. Return to the bridge and await new orders."
Walnut was not prompt in responding to this command, as he was still shaken from his scolding from this man's daughter. After a moment of collecting his thoughts, he dispassionately marched out of the room, offering only a sullen "Yes sir," to his council-appointed superior.
When he was adequately distanced from the room, Mr. Schnee looked at the young woman standing in front of him, and spoke again. "Come with me."