Ch. 17 Field trip
"Students! Line up! I hope for your sake everyone is here or you'll all be running laps around Beacon until the rest shows up!"
Professor Goodwitch stood in the shade the academy cast in the morning sun. In front of her was the entirety of first year students. Luckily for all involved nobody overslept, though it was debatable whether they were simply excited or so afraid of the strict professor that they dragged themselves to rolecall by any means necessary.
Team RNJR stood ready and mostly awake. Nora in her excitement couldn't fall asleep and was currently leaning on Ren napping.
Jaune was fully decked out, his arsenal of weapons strapped to his body. He'd even finally made a sheath for Atra Aurora. It was a simple leather thing hastily put together from leather and it now hung from his belt. It was only while he was making it that Jaune realised he could probably make a proper scabbard into a weapon in its own right, kinda like Blake did with her weapon. That was a thought for another time though as he had a limited time to do this.
It was either he made the sheath or he'd have to lug around a naked blade. He could of course reveal his semblance, that was always an option, but at this point he'd rather keep it close to his chest. With the Vital festival officially announced recently he had agreed with Ruby that it was a nice ace up his sleeve to have.
Jaune was lost in his thoughts, as Goodwitch walked up to them with a clipboard. Her expression turned taut when she saw Nora. Though after a few seconds she just marked RNJR as present and moved onto another team.
Coincidentally the next team was BSMT. While their team leader looked no worse for wear, despite the morning hour they had to wake up at. Her partner on the other hand, while presenting herself well, showed telltale signs of not getting enough sleep. A look shared with many present students.
Then there was the other pair Maroon and Cocra. As soon as Goodwitch saw them she furrowed her eyebrows.
"Miss MacMahon, miss Tailor… Are those… picnic baskets?"
"Yes, professor."
Goodwitch let out an exasperated sigh "Why?"
"The instructions told us to prepare to the best of our abilities."
"It also specified a survival exercise and not, as I'm sure you'll agree, a picnic."
"Extra food provisions is all, professor."
"Very well then, I suppose there are worse things you could have brought."
And with that she marked BSMT as present.
As soon as they were no longer scrutinised the two went for a quiet high five and started quietly going over the plan of the day with their team.
Jaune looked on in amusement at the other team's antics. When they said picnic he really imagined a packed lunch and a blanket or two to sit on. And they did pack those along with their normal packs, but when the teams started planning the two nutcases decided it was a good idea to bring an actual picnic set, basket and all. Yang and Nora jumped on the idea immediately. Sky was vehemently opposed to Yang bringing one on account of Goodwitch being… well… Goodwitch and Yang's tendency to argue with authority. On team RNJR's side the voice of reason came in the form of Ren informing the others that should Nora be in possession of a picnic basket, they would likely arrive at the destination with an empty one.
So, yeah. Maroon and Cocra packed two picnic baskets with mostly sandwiches (despite Nora's insistence on pancakes) and decided to test their luck with the professor. Weiss voiced her disapproval but otherwise made no effort to stop them. Maroon teased Weiss extensively about being just as excited for a picnic as the rest of them.
In the end Goodwitch was less of an obstacle than expected, though Jaune suspected that she would rectify further instructions to prevent such tomfoolery in the future.
"Now then, RNJR, BSMT, you'll share a transport. You're leaving from pad four. Now get a move on."
Nora was startled awake, almost falling to the ground when she lost her balance and nearly pushed Ren over when she grabbed him for stability. Jaune meanwhile went to pick up his and Ruby's bag, noting that they were perhaps the most overprepared team.
Team RNJR decided to err on the side of caution. That is to say Ruby jokingly mentioned the possibility of this being some sort of a test and Nora went on an extensive tangent expanding on the idea. In the end it was Ren who ended the debate the two were having by pointing out they might as well take the camping gear they used while out on the road and Jaune could put his camping gear to its intended use. Jaune was speechless as sass from Ren was exceedingly rare. Ruby on the other hand latched on the idea and started packing up her own bag for camping, just in case. As the team leader, she was of the opinion that it would be a good training exercise to haul around all that gear while on a mission.
The teams prepped in different ways of course, some even electing to have no baggage and go with weapons only, though most teams had at least one bag between them. BSMT was one of the teams that took the one bag approach, that is if you disregarded the picnic baskets. Team SWNY took the middle route with two decently packed bags and then there was RNJR with four bags packed like they were supposed to travel to the nearest settlement on foot.
As soon as Nora picked up the other two bags, all eight of them hurried to leave the professor's sight. Ruby spared a look at team SWNY who were the last to arrive (no doubt thanks to Yang) and were still waiting for Goodwitch to send them to their assigned landing pad. She was a little surprised to see Cardin picking up both their bags without being prompted. Maybe Jaune managed to knock some sense into him after all.
When the two teams arrived at the landing pad the bulkhead was already revving up its engines and getting ready for takeoff. As soon as all eight of them hastily boarded the intercom came to life with the scratchy voice of the pilot.
"Buckle up kids. We've got less than five minutes till takeoff. Oh and a fair warning, the witch wants me to drop you off a few minutes before I go in for a landing. So ya know, be ready when I say jump. You don't want to be onboard when I land, the last guys that did that got two months of detention."
The pilot sounded like an older guy but that was normal and a good thing. Most pilots that flew Beacon training missions were retired from official duty and that meant they survived a good few years transporting active huntsmen, dropping them off in the middle of danger zones and sometimes Grimm hordes.
Just as they all strapped themselves into their seats the intercom roared to life again "One minute till takeoff!" The sound of the engines was deafening as the doors were only now beginning to close. Jaune scrambled literally at the last minute to take his medication before they went airborne. Having no water handy to chase the medication with, he bit down lightly on the pill, cracking it between his molars slightly before swallowing it dry. It tasted disgusting when he did that but Jaune knew from experience that this made the pills kick in faster.
As they took off Jaune's stomach lurched and he felt his mouth salivating as his body prepared to puke his guts out. Luckily the medicine kicked in before he did and he was left with nothing but cold sweat on his forehead to remind him of the brief moment of panic.
"Jaune? Did you forget to take your pills?" asked Ruby from the seat to his left.
"Nearly did. Got it in time though."
"Wow Jaune, you weren't kidding huh, I don't think I saw you that panicked since you thought you forgot to hand in your history assignment." added Nora from his right.
They had arranged themselves in the same sitting order they usually went for and now sat in an arrangement that made it difficult to speak with anyone but the person sitting next to them or the people opposite them.
Speaking of people opposite Jaune, that would be Weiss.
"Arc, please tell me you weren't just about to throw up all over me."
"I wasn't. Once I took my medication anyway."
"How? There's no way you have motion sickness this bad!"
"Well, my aura doesn't appear to help. I don't know, I just get sick flying. Though I heard it's not as bad if you're the one piloting, so maybe I should get a licence."
"Ok, fine. Whatever. Just know that if you ever throw up while I'm on board the same aircraft, I will stab you."
"You know what? That's probably fair."
Jaune didn't really think that of course, he was under the impression that Weiss was trying to joke and lighten the mood. The rest of her team however knew better than that. First of all, Weiss would absolutely stab him if that happened and more importantly, if this was meant as a joke it would be a well timed one, something Weiss has repeatedly shown herself to be incapable of.
Blake actually stopped herself midway through nodding along to Weiss. She was surprised at how often she found herself agreeing with Weiss on things recently. The Schnee heiress was growing on her. Blake smiled to herself before voicing her agreement.
"You know, I'd probably stab you too."
"Hey! Rude!"
"What, so it's only fair when Weiss does it?"
"No. I said it's fair if I get stabbed. As in once. I draw the line at multiple stab wounds in addition to already suffering motion sickness."
The flight went by smoothly as the two teams exchanged pleasant banter. The small windows showed occasional glimpses of other transports against the blue sky and later against the mountains that formed a natural barrier between Vale and Forever Fall. The rocky cliffs being one of the many reasons for Vale's geographical location and its success as a settlement and a kingdom.
As the cliffs gave way and red light reflecting off the leaves filled the cargo compartment, Blake zoned out from the ongoing conversation. This forest was the place where she reached her breaking point with Adam. She didn't think it would affect her like this but she was sure she could compartmentalise well enough to push these thoughts out of her mind once they exit the transport.
Right on cue the intercom came to life again. "Heads up, you'll be jumping in maybe ten minutes so pack up. Don't forget anything on board, you'll not be getting it back until we return to Beacon. Now your objective is to find one of three airdropped crates. There'll be a blue signal flare marking each one. Then you gotta get the jars from the crate and fill them with sap. One bottle of sap per person. There's spares in the crates but try not to break them ok.
We'll be dropping you all around the same area so if you wait around the crate, you're likely to meet other teams. The witch wanted me to remind you that big groups attract more Grimm so don't cluster up too much. What else… Oh yeah! The transports are going to land in a clearing a bit back southside. You're to get there at 2000 hours at the latest. There'll be a two hour window before that to make your way there, there'll be signal flares. Should be everything. You'll get the instructions on your scroll in a minute, but it's a good habit to go over that info before you exit, just in case something happens to your scrolls."
"Thank you sir." replied Ruby.
"Just doing my job. You don't survive as long as I did if you ignore protocol. Anyway I'm gonna open the doors. Last piece of advice: Jump when ready, but make sure all of you are ready to jump. Don't want to land only to find yourself alone. Oh and be ready for rain, it may not look it now, but I have a feeling."
"Thanks again."
"Good luck out there kids. I expect you to come back alive, so don't fuck that up."
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
So it may seem like I exaggerated the title a little bit, but the point was that once they are on the ground it's a mission rather than a field trip. So yeah, fieldtrip done and the mission begins. Hope it doesn't rain...
On an unrelated note, hope you're looking forward to the next chapter: Ch.18 At least it's not raining...