After the hunters had returned to their room in the inn and changed into their hunter attire, they set off to deal with the mercenaries. Malcolm was in the lead, still clad in his Atlesian armor, followed by Nora, Ren and Jaune and Ruby bringing up the rear. Jaune could tell though, Ruby was still shaken by seeing that.
"Ruby? You ok?" Jaune said turn to Ruby, a caring look on his face.
"Y-yeah...I...I'm fine," the young huntress replied.
"Ruby...we both know that's a lie. Do...you want to talk about it?"
"Jaune...I saw it happen. I saw that guy take...take his own LIFE. Right in front of me. Why? Why would he even do that?! If we took him prisoner, it's not like we would torture him! We're not monsters!"
"We're not...but these guys seem to be. Maybe he just...broke down from what he's done. Maybe it was some...weird mantra, like a cult or something. I...I honestly don't know…"
"But you didn't see it. You didn't see him die...I did! I know I should be used to this because I'm a huntress but…."
"Ruby," Jaune cut her off, "no one ever gets used to seeing people die. Yeah, people might not show it openly but...they're still affected by it. Shaken by it. "
"That won't be the last time...will it? The last time someone...dies...I mean."
"Sadly...it won't be. But...the sooner we find out, the sooner we can stop them from taking more lives."
Ruby smiled weakly and nodded in response. "You're right. Thanks for the talk Jaune."
"You're welcome."
Soon enough, the retreat came into view as well as two soldiers guarding the door. The group of five hid just out of the sight and maneuvered around them. Malcolm managed to find one of the side windows that wasn't locked that led into one of the guest bedrooms. The room was empty in terms of occupants but there were a few rifles and helmets near the beds. The Faunus soldier climbed in through the open window and motioned for the others to follow. Nora almost gave them away by dropping Magnhild but Ruby quickly caught it before it hit the ground.
"Might wanna be more careful with this Nora," Ruby whispered.
Nora rubbed the back of her head and stuck her tongue out at Ruby jokingly. Malcolm kept going, trying to find any soldier he could question about this "Venarox" he heard the assassin mention. The way the Jaeger put it, it sounded like some form of weapon but the specifics were still a mystery. He opened the door and peeked out into the hallway, noticing a shadow originating from further down the hallway. He turned to the four hunters accompanying him and said, "Alright. Jaune, Ruby, you're with me. We'll head left down this hallway. Ren, Nora, you head right. If you find anything that could help grab it. "
"Got it!" Nora whispered, saluting to the ex-soldier.
"There's no need for that you know."
"Yeah, I know. I just prefer to."
Malcolm let out a small sigh and opened the door further, leading Ruby and Jaune down the hall to the left, towards the shadow while Nora and Ren moved further right. Malcolm stopped at the doorway and carefully looked inside to see one of the soldiers, his back facing them, and working at a console that certainly wasn't there before. Malcolm handed his rifle to Jaune and then drew his collapsible sword. He then silently snuck up on the soldier and held the blade to his throat.
"What the-?!" the soldier yelled as he felt the cold steel against his neck.
"Alright buddy, you have about five seconds to start talking. What are you REALLY doing here?" Malcolm demanded, holding one of the soldier's arms behind his back while pressing his blade to the man's neck.
"Like I'll tell a faunus mongrel anything."
"Wait….how did you…."
"Your scent...unmistakable. All Faunus...you have a certain stench about you...fitting for a bunch of lowly mongrels."
"You really want to piss me off don't you?" the ex-Atlas soldier said as he increased the pressure on the blade. But because of the anger that was building up, he didn't take notice of what the soldier just said but Ruby did.
"Wait...scent? You can tell he's a Faunus just from smell? Wouldn't that make you a Faunus too?" Ruby asked, only to get a laugh from the soldier.
"Hell no! I'm not one of those animals! Doesn't necessarily mean I'm human though."
"Ok cut the crap. Now tell us why you're here," Malcolm said as both anger and annoyance began to show in his tone of voice.
"Like I said...Faunus...you'll get nothing out of me. Might as well kill me now."
Malcolm merely sighed, let the soldier go, and then knocked him out with a powerful right hook, cracking the visor.
"Ok...search the room. I'll move this one out of the way."
Meanwhile, Ren and Nora found the dining room, which had been converted into a large commander center-like room. No one was there so they decided to forgo remaining hidden and began their search for anything at all that could tell them about what the mercenaries were truly here for. Ren took the left side of the room while Nora took the right.
While searching, Nora found a strange symbol, drawn in chalk, on one of the walls. It was three overlapping circles with strange smaller symbols written the circumference of the them. Nora wanted to call the smaller symbols letters but she just couldn't tell. If they were letters, they were of some alien language she had no clue about. She took out her scroll and took a quick picture of it, making sure to keep the flash function turned off. She was still fascinated by it and she couldn't help but ask questions in her head. What was this symbol? What did it represent? Or was this some strange mercenary art project? Whatever it was, hopefully it might help shed some light on the mercs.
Ren wasn't having the most luck while searching either. He found one of the merc's rifles and examined it. Despite the mercenaries' claims of being from "all four kingdoms" this rifle wasn't a model he recognized. Being a huntsman, one has to have a good knowledge of weapons including maintenance and the model and make of the weapon in question. This one in particular though, it was completely new. The rifle itself was made of what Ren assumed to be chrome but painted black to fit the mercenaries' motif. The design of it was very angular and rigid, a small row of decorative spines running the length of the top side of the gun. The weapon was surprisingly light for the metal that it was built from.
Ren went to see what kind of Dust the gun took. He opened up the ammunition compartment and found the cartridge powering the weapon, but it wasn't a Dust cartridge. It did have a red crystal inside the power cell but unlike normal Dust ammo, which was normally cold, this ammo was searing hot even though it seemingly hadn't been used. A fresh cartridge and it already feels like it's been used. That's not normal for Dust, Ren thought to himself as he continued to examine the rifle, Even fire Dust is cold until you bring out the latent power. Unless...this isn't Dust. Ren held on to the energy cell and continued his search. As luck would have it, he found something about the weapon Malcolm told them about this Venarox. The full name of the weapon was the Venarox-44 Anti-Aura Mobile Artillery cannon. According to the report-and the obvious part of its name- the weapon was designed specifically to fire "Argent" shells with specialized payloads,payloads that can destroy any being with an Aura. The way the report was written, it sounded like Aura was some alien force to these people. Like the Jaeger had said before, "I don't have an Aura? Well I must lack soul," but that couldn't have been true.
Soon, Ruby, Jaune and Malcolm joined back up with Nora and Ren in the control room.
"Hopefully you guys had better luck than we did," Jaune said with a sigh.
"You have no idea guys," Nora said with a smile. "Ren found one of their rifles and some paper about the weapon. And I found this," she said in an over-the-top reveal sort of tone of voice as she showed them the symbol on the wall.
"What is it?" Ruby asked, tilting her head a bit.
"No clue," Nora replied, "Maybe these guys have a weird idea of interior decorating?"
"No, I don't think so. I think I saw another one on the here, in another of the soldier quarters. I'm not sure what it's for but...if they have more than one it must have some significance," Malcolm said taking a closer look at the symbol.
"What about the weapon?" Jaune asked as Ren presented the report on it.
"It's called the Venarox-44 Anti-Aura Mobile Artillery. It's some kind of specially designed tank cannon that fires something called 'modified Argent shells'. Supposedly...they target any being with Aura and...vaporize them," Ren said as he read the report on the weapon.
"Anyone with Aura would be killed? How is that possible though?"
"Apparently...it's all thanks to...Doctor Nero Merlot, the head of Merlot Industries."
"What?! How is that possible? He vanished around the same time as his company went under at Mountain Glenn and that was years ago!" Jaune exclaimed.
Before Ren could continue however, they heard two more mercenary soldiers heading their way. The group of five moved quickly to find hiding places. Malcolm hid behind one of the consoles on the far left wall. Ruby, Jaune, and Ren hid beneath the main table where as Nora…
The soldiers walked into the control room, rifles in hand and went about their routine.
"So, any word from the Jaeger yet?" the first one said as he walked over to one of the consoles.
"Nothing yet. It's not like him to report in and brag about killing someone," the second said, following the first. Neither of them noticed the strangely human shaped silhouette with a lampshade on its head.
"Yeah. The Jaeger always reports in saying 'Another notch on the blade.' I'm just glad not all of them are like that. If they were...by Argent I'd put a bullet in their heads. Every single one of them."
"Honestly if they were like that...they wouldn't be a unit in the legion."
"True enough I guess," the second one said, a hint of boredom in his voice.
"At least we only have to do this for one night right? The whole skeleton crew job?"
"Yeah but I'd still prefer to be IN the escort. So much more fun. Watching them all burn."
"Again, true."
"Hell this little skeleton crew isn't even that big, that's the bad part about this. You, me, the two guys out front, the one checking all the of the temporary living quarters and then the other three in the Secondary Comm Center. That's it. Out of a thousand men, he chooses us. We chosen few out of a thousand."
"Quit whining. You remember to pack up those shield generators?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll get to it."
With that, the two soldiers left the control and the five intruders in hiding let out a collective sigh of relief once they were sure the men were out of earshot.
"Nora...I will never understand how they didn't see you," Ren said with a small smirk.
"I told you before, stealth is my specialty!" the redhead said proudly, placing her hands on her hips.
"You heard that though. A thousand men. Where the HELL could they be hiding a thousand men on this island?!" Malcolm asked, more concerned than anything.
"He's got a point there…" Ruby said in agreement.
"Maybe...they're underground?" Nora blurted out.
"What?" Malcolm responded.
"Well if I was a crazy-evil military leader-something I often fantasize about minus the evil, ask Ren- I'd want my soldiers to have a base that no one could really see. Have there be some...natural disguise or something that hides the entrance to the large base under the ground."
"Wow that...that makes sense. Subterranean base that no one in a village could find because they lack the technology. It's….it's brilliant."
Nora smirked proudly at that and said, "I've played a lot of Remnant: The Game after I saw Ruby and her team play it back at Beacon."
"But that brings up another question," Malcolm continued, "if they've had enough time to build a permanent base on Patch….how long have they truly been here? It would've taken years for a base of that scale to be completed and it certainly would've been noticed before now."
"And how do they have help from Doctor Merlot? I mean I know the guy's not that good-he did make mutant Grimm after all- but this? A weapon that can kill someone just if they have an Aura? Why would he even MAKE something like that?" Ruby asked, now confused as to why and how the mercenaries got the help of that madman. The last time she had to deal with Merlot and his pets, not only was Team RWBY still together, but he was messing around with Beacon's security and almost blew them up with a bomb in Mountain Glenn. Of course, she never met the man in person but at the time, she thought of giving him a good beating for what he did. Maybe Yang's way of solving problems had rubbed off on her a little bit.
"I don't know...but what's important is that these monsters plan to test the weapon on Arroyo but they won't succeed. We're going to stop them and destroy that weapon. First...we're dealing with the rest of the skeleton crew here," Malcolm responded.
"Also, might wanna take those shield gizmos they were talking about. Could help in the long run," Nora said hefting Magnhild over her shoulder.
"Good idea. Me and Nora will get the generators. We'll deal with any 'mercenaries' we see," Ren said drawing StormFlower from its holsters.
"Yeah! Time to break some legs!" Nora cheered as she readied Magnhild.
"Right. We'll deal with the other soldiers if they see us. Make sure they don't get a call out to Lazu," Malcolm said as he drew his collapsible sword.
With that, the team split up again. Ren and Nora followed the way the two soldiers from before took, hoping it would lead them to the generators while Ruby, Jaune, and Malcolm headed to the Secondary Communication Center.
Nora and Ren soon found the second of the two troopers preparing to move two metal pyramid-shaped objects which could only be the shield generators. If they didn't know how to make them work then surely there was a manual around they could borrow. They could hear him mumbling something about Lazu but couldn't hear the exact details. Before he could pick up one of the generators, Ren nodded to Nora who grinned as she snuck up on the soldier. She readied Magnhild and swung down on the soldier's head, an audible crack being heard but whether it was the helmet or the soldier's head was up for debate. He fell to the floor with an audible thump as Nora put Magnhild back in its dormant form. She then picked up both of the devices and carried them over her shoulders.
"Well how about this for a prize? Whack a merc, get two shield generators," she giggled to herself.
Ruby, Jaune and Malcolm had found the Secondary Communication Center, or as some of the mercs called it, the SCC, and what they found wasn't good. There were three soldiers present, making a report via video call to Commander Lazu.
"So, nothing?" Lazue said with a raised eyebrow.
"Correct, sir. Ever since his deployment, the Jaeger hasn't made radio contact. Perhaps the worst has happened?" one of the soldiers implied.
"If he has indeed perished….ready the failsafe. No one must get a hold of our technology."
"Understood sir. "
"Aside from tha-," Lazu stopped himself as he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. A small reflection of light. The light itself no doubt came from the video screen but the reflection…
"Sir?" one of the soldiers said, trying to see if the connection was bad.
"Apparently...you're not as good at stealth as you thought...," Lazu said, his expression becoming an angry glare. At that, Jaune, Ruby, and Malcolm came out of hiding and attacked the soldiers.
"What the fu-", the first soldier was cut off when an Atlesian collapsible sword was thrust into his neck, staining the blade with blood.
One of the remaining two reached for his weapon but was too slow as Ruby used Crescent Rose to smack him into the wall, cracks being heard from his direction. Ruby then came to the realization what that cracking noise was. Because these people somehow lacked Aura, they had no extra defense against an attack like that. One of the cracking noises must have been his bones. And considering how hard she hit him and where she hit him-in the neck-...she guessed that the blow had broken it somehow. That was the first person's life she had directly taken. Sure there had been all the White Fang grunts back in Mountain Glenn but she didn't kill them herself. They were killed off by the countless Grimm that had flooded the tunnels not her. All she did was knock them off the train with Crescent Rose. She was used to killing Grimm; they were monsters with no emotions, no soul, with only three things on their minds: murdering, eating, and more murdering. But humans? Humans had souls, they had emotions, they had people who would miss them when they passed. She tried to rationalize it by saying to herself mentally that if she didn't, he would've killed her and so many others.
Jaune had the same train of thought when he thrust his own blade into the the third mercenary's chest and he slowly faded.
"Well...well...well," Lazu said, his voice calm as if nothing happened, "judging by the look on your faces, those were the first lives you've taken. Well get used to it. If you wanna survive what's coming...you'll need to kill a lot more than just one life," Lazu said, a grim smile forming on his lips as he chuckled.
"And what exactly IS coming,Lazu?" Malcolm said, pointing his blade at the screen.
"Well...giving you the full details would spoil the fun! But...I can give you the broadest idea. War. War is coming. And oh is it going to be FUN! I can hear it all now! The blitzkriegs, the offensives, the sniper fire which will TEAR soldiers to pieces! It's like a symphony to me!"
"Ok...before you didn't seem that bad apart from that shooting someone in the leg because you didn't want to talk. Now you're just insane!" Jaune says sheathing his blade.
"No, I'm as sane as I've ever been. The insane ones here are you three and your two friends, who are no doubt still sneaking through MY facility. The REASON you're insane is because I already know what you're going to say to the question I'm about to ask."
"And...that question is?" Ruby said hesitantly.
"Will you just surrender and die?"
"Wait...don't you mean surrender OR die?" Jaune questioned.
"Do I look OR sound like a man who would show mercy Mr. Arc?"
"...good point. You were just talking about how war's a symphony for you. Also...going out on a limb here...if you like war so much…"
"No," Lazu cut him off, "I don't know where she is. Even if I did, I wouldn't share the location. That bitch will die soon enough...but by OUR blades, not yours. I can promise you that...for that is my master's wish."
"But...why would your boss want her dead?" Ruby asked, tilting her head a bit.
"If you're referring to Mister Nix, let me clarify: there never WAS a Mister Nix. If there was...he probably died years ago. Nix is just a cover name my master uses when he interacts with you humans. And before you ask, no, he's not a Faunus either."
"Then what are you? And how are you able to control the Grimm?" Ruby asked as she put Crescent Rose back into its dormant form.
"The method we use was gifted to me and another by our master, the greatest practitioner of this art, taken right from a Tome of Salem. As for what we are...well...that would spoil the fun but trust me when I say this...we're a whole lot worse than the Grimm. I'll see you all tomorrow...when I walk over your burnt corpses," with that, the transmission was cut off and the three warriors were left to wonder about the true identity of these decided that they'd gone too long without answers. He walked over to the corpse of the soldier that Ruby broke the neck of with the force of her scythe.
"Eh? Malcolm, what are you doing?" Ruby inquired as she walked after the soldier.
"Something just dawned on me. We've never seen these guys without their helmets on-the grunts I mean. Not ONCE have we seen one without it. There must be a reason for that and since this one won't need to hide his face anymore...I say we take a look." He undid the clasps for the helmet and slowly pulled it up. What was underneath the mask could hardly be described as human or Faunus. Whatever this...thing...was, it had unnatural blue skin, almost as if the creature had suffocated much earlier. Its teeth were sharper than those of a Grimm; its eyes were a solid teal color with no pupils. Small ridges, ending in horns, curved back against the sides of the creature's head. Malcolm quickly moved back from the corpse, throwing the helmet aside, his eyes wide in shock.
"W-what...what is that?!" Ruby shouted, terrified of the reveal.
"First those...Wraiths...now this thing?! What's next a Grimm gorilla?!" Jaune exclaimed as he pointed at the body.
"We...we need to warn the others. The village, the militia. Jaune, find the rest of your team! Ruby, with me! We're clearing out these...things from my village! "
"Right!" Ruby reached for Crescent Rose and had her weapon transform back into the massive blade. Ruby, Malcolm, and Jaune ran out of the SCC and split up again.
Ruby and Malcolm encountered three more soldiers soon with two of the soldiers drawing blades and the third opening fire with his rifle. When the two with blades rushed Ruby, she blocked both strikes with her scythe. She knocked both of them back and swung right through the two of them. Ruby kept telling herself that these were monsters like the Grimm but...smarter. They planned on destroying an entire village, ending all of these lives, just to further their own diabolical war machine. The two soldiers slumped over, dead, and soon the third followed as a Dust bullet impacted and went through his skull, making his head jerk back and then keeled over, blood pooling beneath him. The pair kept their weapons out and rushed on to the next fight. Fortunately there weren't many soldiers left to deal with. As they rushed back outside to deal with the last two guards, they came across the one Malcolm had knocked out earlier. He hadn't gotten his bearings yet but that didn't stop Malcolm from impaling him in the chest through a chink in the armor.
However, one of the guards outside had come inside for a shift change that would never come. If he continued on his current to his next post, he would run into Jaune. Jaune soon saw the soldier and now that he knew what was under that mask-literally and metaphorically- he drew Crocea Mors and got into a fighting stance. The soldier stopped and growled at him like an animal before drawing his own blade and shield. A single silent moment passed before the soldier roared and rushed Jaune, swinging the blade in an attempt to decapitate the blonde hunter. Jaune ducked, just in time, and did a sweeping kick, knocking the soldier off balance and on his back. Jaune jumped on top of the soldier to try and stab him but the shield blocked him. Both of them struggled to either keep up or break the defense. After a while, Jaune managed to move the shield away and stabbed the mercenary in the same chink Malcolm did. He heard more gunfire from outside but that quickly fell silent.
"Jaune!" shouted a familiar voice.
"Nora! You got the generators?" Jaune said, turning to Nora and Ren, carrying the generators.
"Yep! Cracked some poor guy's head though I think…"
"They're not men...these things aren't human and they're not Faunus either."
"Eh? How can they be neither?"
"I'll show you later, come on!"
The three rushed outside to find Ruby and Malcolm after the latter had finished off the only soldier left in the base. Jaune had explained to them that these soldiers weren't men and for some reason only Lazu seemed to be human but even then it could be a disguise. Nora wanted to see this "monster soldier" for herself so Malcolm unmasked the guard he had just killed. Sure enough, it was the same creature under that mask with blue skin and horns. Nora was just as shocked as they others were when they first saw the hideous truth. With the skeleton crew dealt with, the group rushed back to the village to warn them of the coming danger but all the while, Ruby couldn't forget the words Lazu said, how he had gotten the power to control Grimm. He said his master was the "greatest practitioner of the art" and the fact that he even had it was a gift from that master. He also mentioned a "Tome of Salem." Who was this Salem and how was it possible she could control Grimm in the first place to write it down?
Meanwhile, in Lazu's base, he grabs his helmet while turning to one of his high ranking officers. "The Venarox is ready?" the commander questioned as he donned the helmet.
"Yes sir," the officer said, stroking a finger across a holographic pad showing statistics of their forces. When he does another image shows up depicting a small two-man vehicle with a cannon-like weapon attached to back of the machine. Orange text beneath the image reads"Type-47 Infantry Support Vehicle, aka 'The Lich mini-hover tank'" and a small "x2" next to said text. "As are the Liches," the gold-visored soldier stated with a nod.
"Excellent...then we move out at dawn. Has there been any sign of her yet?"
"None, sir..at least not on Patch."
"Details, lieutenant!"
"There was...a small incident on the mainland. One of our supply depots was recently attacked."
"Who was manning it?"
"The depot was guarded by 44 White Fang men. No high-ranking officer on site."
"Casualties?"
The lieutenant didn't respond for a moment as he checked the holo-pad.
"Well?" Lazu asked, impatience creeping into his voice.
"Zero...sir."
"...Zero? No one DIED?!"
"Correct...all of the guards were knocked out and then apprehended by the remaining presence of Huntsmen and law enforcement. With the CCTs down, a written message, attached to a kunai, was delivered to the acting Huntress in charge-Glynda Goodwitch- detailing the location of the depot. Apparently, the supplies were destroyed and the computers wiped. No doubt, the latter was done by one of the guards on site."
"As if the zero casualty statistic wasn't weird enough. Alert the listening post. Tell them to keep an eye out for any ninjas."
(A/N: And now we have the truth behind the mercenaries! They're neither human or Faunus but something else. Much like the Wraiths were based off of Doom 3's Wraiths, the design of the mercenaries' true form was based off of the design of the Phantom Guard from the first Darksiders game. Alongside the other two revelations of Lazu knowing Cinder and a White Fang depot being destroyed but with no casualties, things are just going to get more interesting. Next time, we have the Battle of Arroyo itself. As always, read, review and enjoy.)