I'm back. Here we go.
Cover Art: Mysterywhiteflame
Chapter 14
It was closer to midday when the four members of Team JCKP made their way back to the quarry holding the fake White Fang. The sun was high in the sky, burning down on them, and he hoped it would disincentivise anyone down in the quarry looking upward. It obviously hadn't disincentivised them setting up patrols outside, but Penny was able to detect them via their radio chatter and point them out. Her Semblance really was far more useful than he'd given it credit for.
While it was bright enough to see, Jaune couldn't say he was rested, and the same probably went for the others. Sleeping on loose rock and stones had left him with a sore neck, and a cramp in his shoulder that just wouldn't go away. The leather strap holding his borrowed SMG in place against his chest didn't make it feel any better. Couldn't Clover have sent them out with a tent at the very least-? Or had that been taken down with their pretend aircraft? Jaune sighed glumly and rubbed at his eyes, doing less to clear them and more to rub sandy grit into his skin. It itched painfully.
"Looks like they changed shifts," said Flynt. "Half asleep, half awake."
"All ready to come pouring out if we make noise," said Neon. "This really is bullshit. It'd be one thing if they were actual amateurs, but they're not. They're trained military. Look at their patrols. Every single one of them is on comms."
"Can we impact that in some way?" asked Jaune.
"I can't with my Semblance," said Penny, "but if we took out the antennae down there then they would presumably lose signal."
"That's not going to go unnoticed," said Flynt. "This isn't some video game where they'll blame noises on the wind or animals. The exact moment their comms network goes silent, they'll figure out the base is under attack and come sprinting back."
He was probably right. It would have been nice to cut off communications and believe that would make things easier, but these were people – not stupid AI working to the benefit of a player. Any action they took would be considered with all the training and experience these soldiers had, which was a lot. It might paradoxically be better to leave their comms up both to save time and also offer more in the way of distraction. If people were shouting over one another to give orders then that'd confuse things.
"Best thing we can do is take down the leader," said Jaune. "They have to act dead if we tag them. They probably have some chain of command but the wider we make it, the more confused things will be." He paused and eyed the anti-air vehicle they were supposed to destroy. "Or we can focus on the objective and hit hard and fast."
"And hope for the best?" asked Neon.
"I'm really out of ideas," admitted Jaune. "Sorry."
"It's cool." The faunus chuckled under her breath. "I'd rather have you say it than tell us everything is under control and send us in to get our arses kicked."
"Same," agreed Flynt. "No one is expecting you to pull off a miracle here, man." He sent Jaune a stern look, a reminder of their candid talk in the baths. Stop holding yourself to unreasonable standards, it seemed to say. Jaune nodded back. "We're a team," said Flynt. "If you're out of ideas, it's up to use to pitch in. I say shock and awe."
Jaune nodded. "Go on."
"I have my Semblance and the visual affects of it can be disorienting. Neon has her speed and can deliver the payload to the AA unit. Penny can hack stuff, and you can tank like a champ. It's not a fancy plan, but they're all basic soldiers and your aura is large enough to tank some hits. Only rubber bullets after all."
"Those still hurt!"
"Yeah, well, unlock a useful support Semblance and you can stay back and look dapper like I do."
"Dapper, he says," joked Neon. "Like he's never looked at himself in a mirror."
"Says the girl who looks like she fell headfirst into a paint factory."
Jaune laughed quietly with Penny. He probably should have told them to be quiet but he appreciated the attempt to break the tension running through him, and he was sure they were the same. Pre-fight jitters. Or pre-op. Whatever he was supposed to call this. They were training to be Specialists, and this plan of theirs sounded so very clumsy.
"Any other ideas? I'm open to more."
"Honestly, I've got nothing," said Neon. "And the longer we wait the more advantages they'll have again."
"I agree," said Penny. "While a full-on attack is by no means ideal, we have the advantage of aura and melee training. Though I believe I should enter with Jaune. My Semblance will be of some use but I can multi-task easily enough, and we should push what little advantages we have."
"Aight." Flynt worked his instrument out. "Let's get this show on the road then."
/-/
Shock and awe.
It was an often misunderstood saying and Jaune blamed movies for it. To be fair, he hadn't truly understood what it meant before coming to Atlas. He'd thought it was about catching the enemy by surprise and then capitalising on that moment. It couldn't be further from the truth. For one, shock and awe didn't require the element of surprise at all. Most people knew you were coming, and if they didn't then you really didn't need a fancy a strategy anyway. Just roll in and win while your opponents were unprepared.
Shock and awe was actually more about the application of overwhelming firepower, or ability, in such a way that it shocked the enemy with its sheer overwhelming presence. It was about demoralising and destroying any sense of cohesion and willingness to fight. It wasn't efficient, not often, because you weren't using "just the right amount" of force to deal with the problem. You were using all of it. You were looking at a single nail, putting away the hammer, and bringing out a tank. You were looking at five untrained terrorists in a house and surrounding them with five battalions' worth of men, five aircraft carriers, five hundred planes and enough ordinance to win a war.
You were overwhelming the enemy by such a fantastical margin that it shocked them to their core, created such awe that it became terror, and left them so shaken that they knew fighting was pointless, and that they should just give up. It was about creating such a sense of hopelessness that the enemy gave up on the spot.
That was hard to pull off with four people.
Hard, but not impossible.
They couldn't rely on technology, numbers or land and air superiority, so their only option was to overwhelm with what they had – their training as huntsmen, their aura, their Semblances. In the same way that a tank rampaging toward a man with a stick could be considered overwhelming, so too could a huntsman with aura shrugging off your bullets like they were nothing.
It was with that in mind that Jaune and Penny threw themselves down into the quarry.
They could have taken the slopes and they could have opened with covering fire, but they didn't. The first sign the defenders had of an attack was the two of them slamming down like meteorites, kicking up a cloud of dust, and then of rubber bullets pinging out with wild cracks. Numerous soldiers were "killed" in an instant, forced to cry and fall down and stay in place while the rest scrambled to react.
They reacted quick, Jaune would give them credit for that. He and Penny came under return fire within seconds where most people would have been shocked stiff. The two of them were forced to split up by the fire, and that was probably for the best. Together, they could put teamwork to the test, but if they wanted to cause disarray then they needed to hit as many different parts of the defence as possible. As Jaune sprinted and fired one-handed, he heard the blaring of Flynt's instrument and more cries of warning as rainbow light and clones began to spread around the lip of the quarry.
Neon's job was to get to the AA vehicle and disable it, while Penny would use her blades to cause as much chaos as possible. Jaune squinted his eyes as the dust cleared and was pleased to see he'd memorised the route well. He was right in front of the cabin that they'd seen people coming in and out of to rest – the barracks, effectively. There were already people trying to rush out and Jaune sprayed them down. They yelped and tried to lay down as instructed, only to find they were now blocking the door and at risk of being trampled by those behind. They would probably have rolled aside for safety's sake otherwise, but the moment of hesitation was all Jaune needed. He raced forward, leapt over the downed people and landed inside the barracks with a wild and panicked grin.
"Surrender now!"
He opened fire as he shouted it, which kind of defeated the point, but his blood was running high and given there was no risk of death he wasn't sure they'd have bothered giving up anyway. Sure enough, his aura took several hits as he hosed the sleepy defenders down, hitting many while they were still stumbling off the bunks or looking for weapons.
It was a massacre even as he took as many shots as he dished out. His aura made all the difference, and it was draining. Not fast. The rubber bullets took off less aura than real ones would, but it would have been much too dangerous for them all to be firing live rounds in a situation like this. It wasn't fair for them, but then neither had the mission been fair for their team, so it was unfair for everyone. Jaune finished off the barracks and checked his scroll, counting himself at about half aura. Had it been live-fire rounds, he figured he'd be in the red or even literally on the floor in a puddle of red.
A muffled explosion outside told him Neon had hit her target. Now all they needed to do was "sabotage the base". What that entailed he didn't know but causing a mess and knocking down a bunch of their people ought to be enough. Jaune exited the barracks and sprinted toward the comms building with the antennae on top. He pushed flat against the wall by the door, reloaded his weapon, and stepped back to plant a foot on the door and split it open. The door slammed in a fraction of a second before the person inside stabbed a blunt-ended polearm into Jaune's face.
Stars exploded in Jaune's eyes and pain across his nose. He staggered back, tripped and fell over the railing and off the ramp leading up to the box-like portacabin. He landed on his back, stunned for a moment, but the sight of the person vaulting the barrier and coming down atop him had his body rolling to the side. The man slammed down with what a two-handed staff, both ends of which were coated with thick metal, turning it into a double-sided club-staff of some sort.
Since when does a soldier use a weapon like that? Does Atlas have melee specialists in the ranks?
Rather than ponder, he rolled to his knees and brought his SMG up, releasing a burst before the staff swung and struck his weapon, ripping it from his hands. It didn't stop the three-round burst striking home, however.
Aura did that well enough. Flashing across the man's body.
"Wha-!?"
"For the White Fang!" roared the masked faunus, refusing to play dead and instead racing forward to drive a knee into Jaune's jaw. "Rally, brothers! Rally!"
Jaune landed on his back again and scrambled to his feet. He drew Crocea Mors and deployed his shield, crashed one against the other to loosen his muscles, and charged. Shock and awe dictated ant resistance be dealt with immediately, but as he lunged and stabbed and tried to bat the man down with the flat of his sword, he found himself easily parried. Worse, the man wove into his guard and struck his shield with one end of his mace, then twirled it along with his own body to bring the other end around with force enough to hit his shield and still send him skidding back. Worse still, sparks of golden light from where the club had impacted sent electricity crackling down Jaune's arm, numbing his nerves. The golden light wisped around the man's weapon as he brought it up behind him in a relaxed and confident grip. Dust didn't act like that. It was a Semblance.
This was a huntsman.
"Oh, fuck you, Clover. Fuck you so hard." growled Jaune. Louder, he shouted, "Huntsman! We've got a huntsman!"
"I think your friends have noticed," said the huntsman, smirking beneath his mask. "Go on. Take a look. I'll wait."
Jaune backed up and peeked around, and sure enough they'd noticed – because there was more than one huntsman. Penny was in a wildly frantic battle with a huntress, and there was no doubting what she was because the fight looked like a blender of knives and swords. Neon was already face down, pinned under the knee of another man, while Flynt was engaged in a Semblance-based firefight between his instrument and a huntress hurling blasts of air with her bare hands, blowing up the lip of the quarry with every throw.
"Damn it, Clover…"
"I'll offer you a chance to surrender," said the huntsman.
Jaune wished he could take it. "Try and break off!" he shouted. "Retreat-urk!"
The staff appeared in his stomach almost too quick to perceive. Aura dampened it, protecting him, but that didn't mean the air wasn't blown from his lungs. The stave twirled and came down above him, and he only just managed to get his shield up. It still knocked him to his knees, but at least it hadn't hit his spine. Jaune swept his sword at the man's legs but he hopped back and used the superior range of his weapon to stab the butt into Jaune's shield again. His Semblance activated, causing a localised explosion of electrical energy that tingled up and down Jaune's arms. He gritted his teeth against it, gnashed his jaw, and threw himself at the huntsman.
He wasn't going down without a fight.
/-/
"Well," said Clover as he looked over the four of them. "You didn't go down without a fight."
"Fuck you," rasped Flynt, lip bloodied and eye blackened. "
"Ah, ah, ah. Fuck you, what?"
"Fuck you, sir."
"That's better." Clover smiled benignly and clapped his hands together. "Well, I'm going to call this mission a pyrrhic success. You did disable the enemy base and bring down the AA, which would allow for the area to be safely bombed. On the other hand, you were all captured or killed in action. What have you learned today? Other than that I'm a bastard."
"That Intel can be wrong," said Jaune. He scowled. "We know that, though. You've told us enough times."
"Yes, well, there's a difference between academically knowing it and experiencing it. You'll remember this. In every situation going forward, you'll remember that one time you thought you had perfect intelligence and how it all went wrong. Better you learn that here than in the field where someone dies. This was based on a real scenario, remember." Clover's smile fell. "I led this mission, and I lost my closest friend. She died buying us time to fall back. Cut down and executed by the White Fang."
Jaune didn't know what to say. No one on the team did.
"Missions go wrong all the time," continued Clover. "There's not much we can do about that. You were tested on a mission gone wrong during the last assessment and you handled yourselves well. This time? Less well, but acceptably. The mission was completed even if you didn't live to tell the tale. There are times when that will be enough."
"Then… are we still in the programme?" asked Flynt. "We're not being kicked out?"
"The Specialist Programme doesn't kick people out for making mistakes. If you're winning all the time then your training clearly isn't being tailored properly. We learn more from our mistakes sometimes." He sighed. "That said, this wasn't some unwinnable mission for you. Was it unfair? Yes. Was I deliberately obtuse? Very much so. The team were instructed to have one member outside at all times however, so you might have been able to spot them with more adequate scouting. That's where you failed. You took the briefing I gave you as factually correct, forgetting the part where I literally said you were show down unexpectedly out the sky. That was your cue that intelligence was compromised or incorrect. If it weren't, your transport would have been aware of hostile airspace."
Jaune looked down angrily, but he wasn't sure if he was angrier at Clover or himself. The clues had been there and he'd failed to spot them. They all had, but then it was his job more than it was theirs. Clover was right to say this was a lesson well-learned, because Jaune wasn't sure he'd ever forget it. The bitter tang of failure mixed with the angry twist of his own mistakes.
Neon raised her voice weakly. "Are we losing our dorm…?"
Trust Neon to keep her eyes on the big picture.
"You're not being demoted," said Clover. Neon slumped in relief. "Simply put, we'll only have space available when the actual assessments happen a month from now and people are all being swapped around. Take this as a warning, though. Your assessment will be harder than theirs. It'll be on the level of this. And that time you'll be held accountable for any failures. This is your wake-up call, children. The path of a Specialist is much harder than that of a huntsman. You knew that before, but you didn't understand it. Now you do. Now you see what we mean. This?" Clover gestured to the team of qualified huntsmen. "This is me being generous. Remember that one month from now."
None of them had anything to say. Clover nodded, satisfied with that, and turned away as the transports landed in the quarry basin. "Everyone on board. You've lessons tomorrow and you're not permitted to take extra time off."
/-/
The ride back to Atlas was done in mostly silence. Every now and then Neon or Flynt would try to speak up but since no one was in the mood the conversation would inevitably fall flat. As they got off the Bullhead, Flynt gripped Jaune's arm and whispered "It's not your fault" into his ear. The man squeezed his arm and added, "We all got fucked up, man. Don't pin this on yourself."
He appreciated it, he really did, but if this was all their faults then they each needed to assess what they'd done wrong. They were each a part of the problem, which meant while he wasn't wholly responsible, he was at least in some way to blame. Some of them more than others, but himself most of all. At least Flynt had come up with a plan.
Jaune smiled as best he could and promised he'd be ready as well before retreating to one of the many simulation rooms. He booted them up and fought against the robots, setting them at such a high level that they wiped the floor with him and the safety mechanisms had to chime in fifteen minutes later and forcefully end the bout. He knelt, one hand to the ground, sweat dripping from him and his aura, which had recovered back up to half, all the way down at the bottom again.
"Again!" shouted Jaune.
"Error. User "JAUNE ARC" aura levels too low to commence simulation." replied the machine.
Jaune growled and slapped his hand against the ground. He considered throwing his scroll away so it couldn't tell his aura, but it was the frustration talking. He didn't want to spend the night in the medical bay, especially not if the others would want to know why. He stood instead and ran his hands through his lank and sweaty hair. This hadn't helped work off his frustrations as much as he hoped it would.
"There's not much to gain in competing against opponents too strong for you."
The voice came from the corner of the room and made him jump. He turned, surprised, to see Ciel Soleil push off the wall. She was in her usual pale blue top and dark blue skirt. Her bold blue eyes were on him as she walked forward.
"How long have you been there?"
"Long enough to see you punishing yourself via the simulation."
"I was working my frustrations out."
"By allowing the bots to work you over like a slab of meat?" Ciel crossed her arms. "I didn't realise you were a masochist."
"I'm not-" began Jaune. Ciel interrupted him.
"We both know exactly what you were doing. You feel responsible for what happened and you're punishing yourself because it makes you feel better. Penny told me about your mission. She also expressed worry about you, enough that I felt compelled to seek you out lest you do anything foolish." Her lips pulled down into a frown. "Though I found you too late to prevent that. You realise that your team's failure is not entirely your fault, don't you?"
"I know. We all made mistakes." Jaune sheathed his sword on the third try. His hand was shaking. "That doesn't mean I can't be upset at my own. I bet the others are beating themselves up as well."
"When one says that, they usually do not mean literally beating themselves up."
Ciel followed him as he left the simulation room and stepped outside. The evening air was cold on his sweaty skin, which he needed right now. Jaune walked to a grassy lawn and sat cross-legged on the cold grass. Ciel stood behind and off to one side, uncaring of how they might have looked.
"Given what Penny told me, the mission was close to unwinnable."
"Clover said it wasn't. There were clues we could have picked up."
"And this was a valuable lesson that has taught you to find them in the future. You've clearly learnt it if your mood is anything to go by. Be proud of yourself for that rather than berating yourself for what few could have hoped to achieve."
Jaune shook his head. "It's not about the mission. Not wholly."
"Then what is it about?"
It was about his performance, not really in the leadership department where even he could admit he hadn't had much of a chance, but in his ability to be of use to the team outside of that. Everyone else had something they could offer, be it Flynt's Semblance for control or Penny's skill or Neon's speed and faunus attributes. Even when they couldn't help with command, they were still valuable members of the team, whereas whenever his leadership fell through he was of limited use. Flynt had called him a tank, and he supposed he was, but this wasn't some mmorpg where he could politely ask the bad guys to focus on him. If he couldn't present himself as a serious threat then their enemies would target everyone else.
And, ultimately, it all stemmed from one thing. His lies. He'd faked his transcripts to Beacon that got him accepted here, and his team were paying the price for it. That he'd managed to find a niche via being put in charge was a relief, but there were times when his team needed a fourth teammate more than they did a strategist.
"Have you ever felt like you're too weak compared to everyone else?"
"Yes," said Ciel.
He scoffed. "Liar. You're one of, if not the, strongest people in our year."
"I did not come out the womb at the top of my class!" said Ciel with uncharacteristic irritation. He felt her knee dig into his back as she gave him a sharp kick for warning. "Did it not occur to you that I might be as good as I am because I work hard?"
"Of course. I-"
"Then," interrupted Ciel, "did it not occur to you that I might work as hard as I do precisely because I have been humiliated before…?" It hadn't. Jaune looked back and up to where Ciel was facing away, her jaw tight and eyes fixed on the distance. "Some people are born strong, and some are hard workers. And then there are those of us who became strong to prove something to someone. Ourselves, maybe. Or other people. Such a selfish motivation serves no one, and it doesn't change much either. It didn't change much for me."
"But… you're strong…"
"Did that help me any?" Ciel's eyes flicked back to his and then away again. She sighed, and her shoulders slouched. "I decided I would become strong when I couldn't take the name-calling. Pathetic in hindsight. So, I became strong. I worked hard until I could beat those who had insulted and bullied me. They will never do that again, I told myself. They'll stop now." Her eyes closed and she scoffed loudly. "Something certainly did change. I went from being called weak to frigid. From cowardly to arrogant. From a pathetic weakling to a pathetic loner."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"You're being put down by your own voice. But ask yourself, will it go away if you were suddenly as strong as I? Would it really stop criticising you, or would it just find something else to criticise?"
He wasn't sure. He'd always been self-critical. Never good enough, fast enough, handsome enough, strong enough, smart enough. It was what happened when you had so many siblings, some of whom were already more successful than they had any right to be.
Saphron was starting a family, Coral was a genius, Jade and Hazel were athletic.
And he…
Well, he had a penis.
That was really the only thing he had going for him that was different from his sisters. He was a dorky, unpopular, unspectacular boy who didn't have much going for him. Honestly, he didn't deserve the position he had here in Atlas, and he said so.
"Why?" asked Ciel. "Your team runs well. They – you – have been invited into the specialist programme. Are you really this blind to your successes?"
"I'm not blind. I just think they could have managed this without me. And even if they couldn't that doesn't change the fact I'm the weakest person in the year, Ciel. You can't look at me, compare me to anyone else, and say they're worse. Every assessment – even initiation – ended with me flat on my ass. I almost cost my team their chance to even get into Atlas. We only did because of the technicality of Winter's trick about teams attacking one another."
That didn't feel like something he'd achieved so much as something they'd lucked out on.
"Deficiencies are something you can work on."
"What do you think I was doing tonight?"
"That was not working on your deficiencies," snapped Ciel. "That… That was self-mutilation disguised as training. Had I witnessed an instructor doing that to someone I would have reported them for abuse!"
"Look, I'm just in a rough mood. This won't be something that repeats."
"I should hope not because Penny is worried sick about you."
Jaune laughed. It probably wasn't the correct response if the way she bristled was anything to say, but he couldn't help it. Maybe having the shit beat out of him really had improved his mood. Maybe he did have to worry about becoming a masochist.
"Fine. Fine. I'll stop. I just had to work it out my system."
"There are more productive ways to work out stress. You could have asked me to spar. Or Penny," added Ciel, almost an afterthought. "I am not so busy that I cannot spare time for a… for you. You have my contact details."
"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the talk."
"Will I see you tomorrow for our jog?" asked Ciel.
"Yeah. I'll see you then."
He trudged back to his dorm not quite in high spirits but a little higher than he had been. Flynt and Neon were playing cards when he entered, and they grinned wearily at him, as tired mentally and physically as he was. Maybe they were all dealing with the same problems in their own ways. Jaune walked over to Penny's booth, set into the wall, and leaned his arm above it. His partner looked up at him inquisitively.
"Hey," said Jaune. "I just wanted to say sorry for making you worry."
Penny blinked owlishly at him. "I do not understand."
"You told Ciel about our mission, right?"
"Yes. Is that something I should not have? Captain Ebi did not say it was confidential."
"I doubt there's any issue. I just mean that you told Ciel you were worried and send her out to look for me. I wanted to say sorry for making you worry."
"But I didn't say that. And Ciel excused herself from talking to me the moment I mentioned your reaction to the test."
"You didn't say you were worried about me?"
"Should I have been worried?" asked Penny. "You told us you wanted to get some last-minute training in."
And Penny, naïve as she could sometimes be, had taken that at face value. He figured Flynt and Neon knew that meant he had to blow off some steam but come to think of it, Penny did tend to misinterpret sayings sometimes. It didn't surprise him that much that she'd not only have worried, but completely missed it in the first place. But Ciel wouldn't have once Penny explained his mood to her.
"Huh…"
"Is something wrong?" asked Penny.
"No. Just realised something a little surprising is all."
Maybe he wasn't the only one who liked to tell lies every now and then.
Ciel getting caught out because Penny is a clueless little lemon.
Next Chapter: 14th January
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