Not playing fair against the enemy? Soldiering!
Chapter 17: Wet Work
Vale Docks, Vale
It was another night on the docks of Vale. In one of the warehouses, a White Fang cell watched over their precious cargo of Dust that they recently acquired.
"I'm telling you, man! The entire brigade was wiped!" a White Fang grunt exclaimed to his partner. It's been a few days since they heard from the team that was sent to find out what happened to the Sabertooth Brigade, the same one sent to retake a human military outpost. When the team reported back, everyone was shocked. The entire division was gone, and there was not a single thing left to salvage other than a Grimm mask. This quickly caused fear to spread across the White Fang's Vale division.
"Fuck man..." his partner replied, "Those damned humans will pay for that."
"Tell me about-HRK!"
"What the-GRK!"
Both grunts fell to the floor, dead on impact, their necks marked with a red slit. Behind them stood Eadrass Marr, his grey-plated armor giving him a better mask in the darkness. After making sure no one heard him, he continued to sneak around, avoiding grunts left and right and only stopping to kill anyone he can't avoid.
Avoiding yet another patrol, he hid in a secluded area of the warehouse where he deployed a circular recon droid. The droid silently powered up before it flew off, following the Mandalorian's control directive.
Finally, he found who he was looking for. The cell commander was sitting on a chair, watching over his subordinates to carry on with their task. It was just Eadrass' luck that the man was at the center of the warehouse, surrounded by his men. While pondering what to do, he decided to recall his droid to avoid detection. Then, it dawned upon him that he may not be able to carry out the mission as he originally intended.
Drawing his twin WESTAR-35 pistols, he prepared himself to face the music. Double-checking his backpack, he silently began to recite his battle creed before he prepared to jump. Everything slowed down for him as he began to wonder how he received this mission.
It started in Azure's classroom...
Beacon Lecture Hall, Beacon Academy
"Right... and time! The simulation is over! Drop your scrolls!" Azure shouted as he observed the 1st year team leaders finally lower their scrolls, now waiting in anticipation for their rating from the stern Leadership professor.
On his scroll, Azure began reviewing the list of scores and recording each team leader's performance. The class grew nervous as his face shifted to impressed, to disappointed to downright angry. Then, the moment everyone was waiting for, was the result of their small simulation.
The Chief of Security soon began to explain, "Now, let's have a recap of what we just did. What you people just went through, is a simulated battle against the Grimm in the Emerald Forest. The twist for this challenge is that you're on limited supplies without any aid."
He then pulled out a board and began to write the words: "logistics management" before he continued, "As future hunters, you should realize that you will have assignments where you do not have the luxury of unlimited supplies all the time. As such, during the battle, you would experience scenarios that would affect your ability to proceed in the simulator. Do anything wrong, and you'd find yourselves in a sorry state afterward."
The students nodded as Azure rechecked his list again. Flicking on his own scroll, he linked it to a nearby projector terminal before speaking again, "Now that your simulator is over, allow me to introduce the Top 15 of this simulator, and yes, this does count towards your grades, and again, yes, this does apply to the other 3 academies."
A series of small squeaks sounded off, their tone very much expressing concern and fear. The Chief of Security paid no mind to the minor commotion as he finalized the results.
"Right, let's start off with number 15, Cardin Winchester. Decent management of resources, sometimes questionable reasons for spending them, and foraging supplies from the environment. Good job, however, do make sure to check any plants out for poison," Azure began, as he eyed the young leader of CRDL with the slightest hint of a smile.
The humbled leader became not-so-humble and puffed his chest out with a prideful grin. Behind him, a Toro guardsman shook his head at him. The Marshal soon decided to carry on, "Right, next up..."
From there on, the professor listed more students, some from Beacon, and some from the other 3 Academies. This went on for a while, with each name coming with reasonable and polite criticisms from the white-coated gentleman. Finally, after much wait, the top 3 team leaders were all that was left.
"Listen, good people, these 3 have done quite a lot of things right during the simulation, so anything wrong could be a good learning point," the Marshal reminded as he began to list off the three.
"On our third spot, we have Miss Fall from team CMEN... Who fucking named your team again Miss Fall?" The hall erupted into a fit of giggles as the Chief eyed the four students.
The laughter stopped when a guardsman yelled, "SIIIIILENCE!" Several other blue and white-armored soldiers glared at the students, silencing them.
The leader finally spoke up, a look of disdain plastered on her face, "Apologies for the commotion this caused. CMEN is actually pronounced as Cement, but my immature teammate made a joke about it, and now it seems the rest of the students found it amusing..."
Azure shook his head, muttering to himself, "And I thought my the 69th was immature...", he then raised his voice again for Cinder and the class, "Very well, Miss Fall, good handling of the bug challenge. However, I do advise against using it with fire. The forest can only burn and stay for so long."
The amber-eyed teen nodded before sitting down again. Her eyes showed anger and Azure honestly could not blame her. This wasn't the first time he had to deal with immature team names, or more appropriately, one of the first regiments he took command of as a Colonel, the 69th Regiment of Scouts. He really did not like that memory...
"Anyways... for our 2nd place, we have Ruby Rose of team RWBY. Excellent management like the rest of the 15 listed, but one thing I noticed is that you spend more time focusing on weapons than socializing with possible sources of supplies like the village."
The leader in question nodded before looking away sheepishly upon mention of her rather socially awkward attitude. The Marshal then looked at the class before clearing his throat, "Now, for our Number 1 spot. I expected him to be on the list seeing as I personally train him every now and then. Jaune Arc, team JNPR, congratulations young man. Your balanced execution of strategy and resource allocation allowed you to handle the situations presented to you well. Not flawless, but I'd say your overall outcome did yield the best results I've seen."
The blonde knight blinked at the words before smiling, "Thank you, professor."
As Azure continued discussing his lesson to the class, a Guardsman eyed a figure near the private office of the room. The grey helmet already gave away the figure's identity and made the guard shift from his position. He went unnoticed by the class as he approached the office door, prepared to handle the new guest.
In a whisper, he began to talk, "You're not due to arrive yet, sir."
"I like to stay ahead of the timetable, helps in most situations," responded the figure which earned him a disdainful look from the soldier.
"Suit yourself sir, but the Marshal would rather you stay more hidden," without another word, the Toro Guardsman marched back to his post, leaving the grey-armored figure to continue watching the class.
Said class was actually ending already, with Azure giving the students additional instructions, "Take note people, your simulators got updated to accomodate additional challenges. Your task is to try and do these if you have free time, and if you want to ask me personally about the challenge, my office hours are until 5 in the afternoon."
As the class began to pack up to leave the room, the Marshal added in, "Oh, and I believe your dance is due this weekend. Try to enjoy the night, and before you even mention it, no booze. I don't have to explain why it's not allowed."
Several mutters of damn echoed in the hall as the students walked out. Azure waited until the last student left before he returned to the lecture hall's desk. As he carefully rearranged the papers on the desk, he spoke to the unannounced guest in hiding, "I'm impressed Marr. You managed to give 2 squads the slip before you were spotted and called out by my men."
The grey-plated Mandalorian nodded as he walked out of the office door, "Not for a lack of trying Marshal, I had to pull out a couple of tricks to avoid detection."
"I know."
"..."
Around the hall, the squad of Toro Guardsmen locked the doors as they allowed the two men to converse. Azure soon pulled out a datapad, and handed it to Eadrass. The latter took it as he began to read through it, each section containing information for his next mission.
"White Fang activity is increasing in Vale," the white-coated officer explained, "Even more so after their defeat at Outpost 327."
Eadrass continued to read the file, "And what do you want me to find?"
"You're being sent to a recently taken warehouse. The Fang have prepared a recent shipment to deliver somewhere else and we need you to find where they are going."
"Alright then, do I have backup?"
Vale Docks, Vale
Soon, the warehouse was a mess of blaster bolts and dust rounds as Eadrass flew into the warehouse's center, earning him the attention of the White Fang. The confused grunts were startled by the intruder, but before they could raise their guns, the Mandalorian opened fire.
Yellow bolts hit their marks, each shot was a White Fang member dead. In the midst of the confusion, a dust crate dropped, releasing its contents on the floor. The purple color signified the dust being gravity based. Catching his eye, Eadrass shot the dust-covered floor with a charged shot, igniting the dust's properties.
More crates flew and ignited, causing panic with the White Fang.
"What the hell is going on?!"
"Fucking hell where is this guy?!"
"Over there! On the r- HARGH!"
"They got Trevor!"
"We need to get out of here!"
Eadrass landed on his feet at the center of the warehouse. The Faunus commander finally had his eyes on him as he yelled, "There he is! Get him!"
More grunts rushed the Mandalorian with an assortment of weapons. Some wielded swords, others wielded clubs. With the challenge presented before him, Eadrass drew his beskad, a sharp blade made of Beskar, and twirled it in his hands as he waited for the Faunus to get in range.
The first grunt went for an overhead strike and was easily blocked by the Mandalorian who delivered his counter with a punch to the gut. The Fang member yelled in pain but was cut off when Eadrass shifted his blade to stab him in the shoulder.
Another one tried to slash at him, but he merely used his gauntlet to block it before cutting him across the chest and kicking him down.
2 grunts tried to attack him at the same time but felt their feet lift from the ground as the skilled warrior used his jetpack and grabbed both of them and threw them to another small group.
It was a one-sided slaughter as each Fang member met the blade of the Mandalorian. During the fight, a White Fang sniper kept himself still as he waited for the opportunity to shoot their intruder.
As he lined up a shot, he failed to notice a white and red-armored soldier line up his own shot from outside the warehouse window.
A blue blaster bolt found purchase in the back of his skull, killing him as he fell down. Eadrass did not pay mind to the sniper as he kept his eyes on his target. The cell commander found himself cornered, his men all dead on the floor as he watched his grim reaper stalk towards him. His helmet emphasizing his killer intent with each step.
Before the commander could raise his weapon, Eadrass rushed him, knocking his gun from his hands. The latter drew one of WESTAR pistols and pointed it at the now kneeling Faunus.
"Y-you human scum! You'll pay for this!"
He did not receive a response as the Mandalorian studied his objective.
"Tell me about any activity your group is planning," Eadrass demanded coldly, pressing the barrel of his blaster against the temple of the Faunus.
"I-I'd rather die than tell you- ARGH!" the cell leader began but yelled in pain when the grey-armored warrior slammed his blaster across his face.
"Let me rephrase that, tell me everything about what you're working on here."
"Are y-you deaf human?! I said I'd rather die- AARGHHAHAHAHAAAAARGHHH!" the commander tried to reply, but finally reached the end of Eadrass' patience as he shot his stomach.
"Guess I'll look at your files instead," the Mandalorian mused as he walked away from the commander.
The latter winced as he watched the warrior walk away from him. Seeing one last chance to fight for his kind, he tried to get up and charge the Mandalorian. It was the last thing he would decide as the grey-armored warrior aimed at him and shot him again. This time, it went through his heart and skull as he dropped dead, the scorch marks showing just where he had been hit.
Eadrass gave him one final look before he walked away, musing to himself, "Your cause is a noble one. It's unfortunate that your actions stray you away from it."
Silence met him as he began to search the warehouse for clues.
...
Eadrass left the docks in silence as he held the files Azure would need to continue his shadow operations. His extraction point was close, an ominous alleyway across the warehouse.
As he snuck around, he heard a blaster click and was met by a familiar voice, "Should've watched for the sniper sir."
The Mandalorian turned to meet the sight of Captain Hound and his team of ARC Troopers of Foxtrot 9. The team leader's signature color scheme remained hidden in the shadows, as he continued, "Shall we exfil Commander Marr?"
"Yes, we got what we came here for," the Mandalorian replied as he followed the team of ARC troopers into the shadows, never to be seen by anyone outside of the Aurek Corps.
Beacon Academy, Beacon
At Golf Shed HQ, Azure watched over the security feed of the Academy. The night patrols were moving around per their routine. The 1st platoon of the 5th Fleet Marines half company remained at their posts, waiting for their hour to be up before they were relieved.
Such was the usual routine of the Beacon Security Force to ensure the safety of the Academy and its students.
Before he could do anything else, a clone field officer approached him with a datapad. The Marshal accepted it with a small thank you before he read the contents. Whatever it was, it made him look away from the datapad as he began to issue orders.
"Besh-6 and Captain Murray on the line, tell them Operation Firecracker is a go," he said. His orders were met with a "Yes sir!" as the HQ command staff moved to follow their orders.
It was time to find out more about the White Fang's operations.
We see more of the new character Eadrass Marr and I have to say, I think I did a better job of writing his integration into the story than last time. Anyways, find out more as Azure calls in the GAR's Bravo 6 and the 5th Fleet Marines move in to conduct Operation Firecracker on the next chapter of RWBY Security!
Until then, this is where I get off. Stay frosty folks because that's soldiering!