Here we go.


Chapter 22


Weiss Schnee double-checked the dust containment units for what felt like the hundredth time and reported her findings to the bridge. She received a "copy that" and had to hold herself back from checking them yet again. They were fine, and that wouldn't change in a matter of minutes, but Weiss needed something to keep her mind off what was coming, and she felt less afraid when she could be busy.

Yet again she reminded herself that fear wasn't the same as cowardice. That huntsman, Jaune, had said so, and if he felt fear but went out to fight the Grimm then she could be no less a hero for being afraid and doing this. It wasn't fear that made someone weak; it was whether or not they gave in to that fear, and she was here, in the exosphere, trapped within a metal cage made in a desperate hurry by the arcology of Vale.

It was honestly a miracle any of them had survived launch.

"Researcher Weiss Schnee," a voice spoke into her earpiece. "We have a disturbance in sector E6. You're closest according to your last report. Would you be able to check it for us?"

"I'm on it, Bridge," she replied, happy to have something to be doing. "Is it just some anomalous readings?"

"A large amount of coolant is being used. Too much too fast. We want to know why."

Hm. Unusual, but not immediately alarming. The station was obviously producing a lot of heat in order to keep them alive, and it was likely a faulty bit of engineering or some damage caused in the launch. Weiss made her way down a cramped corridor toward the area.

Project Terminus had been made with function over form in mind, so many of the corridors were claustrophobically cramped, with metal walkways clanking underfoot and exposed wiring sticking out the walls. They hadn't had the time or resources to make it pretty, and every moment wasted meant more lives lost. No one on the team had begrudged the cramped and uncomfortable conditions when it was on the ground, but here, in what was essentially low orbit, it felt ten times worse. And this was coming from someone as short as her. Weiss didn't know how Winter and Willow coped.

Stumbling off the uneven walkway, Weiss landed in a hexagonal space where several vertical piped were being used to pump dust through the station. There was a whistling sound that worried her, but it wasn't in the outer wall or the decompression would have made it crumple like tinfoil. Also, they'd spent most of their attention on making sure the shell was armoured and rigid.

"Bridge, I'm at the area and can hear whistling. I think there's a leak somewhere."

"Noted. I'll have a repair crew dispatched. Can you locate it?"

"I can try." Weiss edged between the pipes. The air was hot, and that was with coolant already being deployed. She squeezed between the metal pipes until she found a part where she could see wispy hot air blowing out. "I've found it! It looks like a crack. Wait, the metal is peeled inward. That shouldn't happen if the air blew the metal out and broke it."

"It shouldn't," agreed the man on the bridge. "Can you see the cause?"

"There's a small dent. It's inward as well, like something hit it." Weiss touched it and hissed. The metal was hot. "Bridge, I think someone struck this with a wrench or hammer. There's denting on the metal, and I had to squeeze in to find it. The damage is hidden as far back as you could realistically hide it."

There was a long silence on comms, likely from the man passing on her warning to someone in command, her mother, and getting orders back. Eventually, he replied. "Copy that. We're dispatching a security member with the repair crew. Are you safe?"

"I… I think so…"

"Remain where you are. The saboteur is unlikely to return."

The line went dead, and Weiss was left to huddle in the gap between the pipes and tremble. There was an enemy on board, someone either captured by Grimm Rot or just a psychopath who wanted Project Terminus to go down. The thought was horrifying, and those tight, claustrophobic corridors now felt so much worse. What if it was a Grimm?

No. No. It couldn't be. A Grimm wouldn't have needed to hit a metal pipe like this to make a small dent; it could have torn them in half. There was also no way a Grimm would fit through the narrow corridors. They'd done every check they possibly could on everyone working here, including blood tests, but it was possible someone had been infected in the defence of Vale, and that they'd all been in too big a rush to take off to identify it.

It would be dealt with. They'd have to call everyone to one spot and test them, then the perpetrator would be executed on the spot. They'd likely refuse to show up to the roll call anyway, implicating themselves by their absence. Then it'd be a matter of hunting them down through the facility. There were only limited places where they could do any real damage, and those were all sealed off. It was honestly fortunate they'd been forced into such minor acts of sabotage like this.

Heavy footsteps echoed on the metal walkway in the corridor to her left, and Weiss Schnee hid back among the pipes, shaking like a leaf. It might be the security and repair teams, but, if so, she was sure they would be calling out. Instead, a single man in a loose-fitting engineer's uniform trudged out of the corridor with a bag filled with tools. He let it fall with a clank of metal.

Was this the person sent to repair the damage?

They grunted and dug in their bag, not seeing Weiss in the dark corner. Even lighting had been uses sparingly, with only a single dim light in every room. It was easier to have people use chest-mounted torches found on military vests instead if they needed to do any work. The man came out with a metal device, then brought out a metal tube of dust and screwed it into place. He twisted a few nozzles and tested it once, and a small beam of harsh light flickered out the end.

A dust-powered plasma cutter.

That wasn't going to repair this at all! He was going to cut the pipes open! She had to stop him!

Weiss edged around her pipe as the man crouched down to start working. Her heart was in her throat, but she crept out from safety toward his tool bag which she could see, in the dim light, had blood on it.

He'd killed someone and taken it off them after realising it would be too hard to smash the pipes open any other way. Weiss trembled, not really liking her chances against a large man but knowing the whole world was depending on her to do something. The fate of the human race. Teeth gritted, she darted out and snatched for a metal wrench, almost shrieking when the act caused the other tools to clank and clink loudly.

The man's plasma cutter stopped and he turned her way, but Weiss had already brought the metal wrench around in a two-handed swing.

He got his arm up in time.

There was a sickening crunch of bone and a meaty crack as she brought the tool against him, but he grunted like it was nothing more than an inconvenience and lunged for her. Weiss screamed and brought the wrench around again, catching the right side of his face this time and drawing blood. It didn't stop him barrelling into her and dragging her to the floor. Blood pooled from his face onto hers, but his gloved hands found their way to her throat and began to squeeze. His face was hideous, manic, stretched wide with a bone plate having grown through his skin, tearing it in places. He was more monster than man.

And he was choking the life out of her.

Weiss flailed and kicked and smacked her wrench into him over and over, but, like the Grimm themselves, he didn't care about pain. He was also more than twice as heavy as her, and she couldn't dislodge him. Weiss' lungs screamed as she failed to draw breath, and her motions became sluggish. Darkness crept in, and tears ran freely down her face.

I'm not brave, she thought, cracking in the moment. I'm a coward after all…

A gunshot cracked in the far corridor and the man's face burst out sideways in a spray of gore. He toppled off her, and Weiss drew in a painful breath, gasping and coughing as she rolled onto her side. She didn't even have the strength to get away, and just curled up hacking and coughing as boots echoed on metal.

"He's down!" shouted a man.

"Make sure."

"Don't double-tap him. We miss a shot in here and we're all dead. Stab him. Cuff him, too, even if he's dead. No chances." The man who had spoke knelt and a hand touched her shoulder. "Researcher Weiss Schnee. Are you okay?"

Weiss garbled out a crooked and scratchy answer through her abused throat. Desperately, she pointed. The man followed her finger and said, "Repair crew, you're cleared to enter. We have one leak at the back and a small one on the front from what looks to be a plasma cutter. Luckily, she managed to distract him before it could get much worse." He lowered his voice and swung his gun on a strap over his back so he could pick her up. "Good work, miss. It was brave of you to face him."

Weiss tried to choke out that she hadn't felt brave, but the man couldn't understand her words.

"Rest your throat. I'll get you to medical. This is Sec1 reporting to Bridge," he said, speaking louder. "Threat has been neutralised and VIP has been secured safely, injured but alive. Damage is being repaired. I'd suggest a full lockdown of critical areas and scans of all souls on board. There may potentially be more of them."

"Copy that, Sec1, but we don't have the time. We are in the viable operating window and may be called upon to fire at any moment. You're instructed to defend the weapons systems and execute anyone who tries to under without authorisation. Sec2 is being dispatched to the dust deposits to guard there."

"That will leave the Bridge undefended."

"We are locking in coordinates and on our path, sir. Bridge's survival is no longer a necessity."

The soldier paused, taking that in. Weiss couldn't understand how someone on the bridge could say that, or how they could sound so unafraid. Was it only her who felt fear? It wasn't fair. The man holding her eventually nodded. "Understood, Bridge. Remnant Invicta."

"Remnant Invicta."

"I hope you don't mind being brought to weapons," he said. "I can't detour to medical."

Weiss nodded. Anywhere on this space station would be the same soon, and she might as well rest where she would have some modicum of safety. As she was carried away, Weiss looked back to see the other guards stabbing the corpse on the floor over and over, making sure the infected engineer was well and truly dead.

She hoped he was the only one.

/-/

Ruby loped ahead, crouched and peered around a corner, then waved her hand in the all-clear, giving Jaune his cue to jog forward. It was only logical that she would take point, being better than him in almost every way, but also just much smaller and sneakier. He was a bulky infantryman carrying an SMG, and his feet made the damp floor squelch loudly.

The interior of the "Hive" as they were calling it was a disgusting place. It was organic matter, but it didn't seem to be alive as far as he could tell. It didn't move, wasn't warm, and didn't react when they cut into it. If anything, it was more like someone had taken skin and muscle, crafted it into leather-like sheets and stretched it around. What they were inside was indisputably organic, but more in the sense that it was a building crafted of flesh rather than a living creature.

That was good to know because it at least meant they weren't going to be eaten alive, or that the place wouldn't suddenly start reacting and crushing them. Outside, the sounds of warfare were oddly muffled by the many layers of flesh. Audible, but low and humming, like it was happening many miles away.

Ruby ran ahead again and stopped at the next corner, and she took much longer than normal to signal him to follow. Jaune waited, though. He trusted her experience. When she did motion, it was with her hand significantly lower to the ground, telling him to be quiet. Jaune made his way slowly toward her, crouching low and taking careful steps. When he was behind her, he tapped her back once to let her know, and she motioned with her finger that he should look. He peeked around the corner.

Ahead of them, a chamber opened up. There was nothing in it because this metaphorical house of flesh didn't have furniture, but it was more like a crossroads. A wide open space with many tunnels like their own leading off it, eight from what he counted. They didn't part like a star, rather the room was rectangular and there were four tunnels on the west and east side of it, roughly evenly spaced apart. In the centre of the room lay a single figure, humanoid, with blackish armour. A huntsman. Face-down and unmoving.

Jaune brought himself back and met Ruby's eyes. She signalled inside with two fingers, then signalled her hands clapping together like the jaws of a trap, before raising an eyebrow through her glass visor. Jaune shrugged, then pointed to himself and motioned inside to spring it. Ruby shook her head quickly and pointed to herself, then made a running motion with two fingers to suggest she was much faster than him, and far more able to escape any danger unharmed.

It was hard accepting that, but he had to. Ruby wasn't some child to be kept away from danger; she was a huntress, a soldier, and a better one than him. Jaune nodded and Ruby skirted around him and entered the chamber. He took a kneeling position at the doorway, weapon ready. She was cautious on the approach, scanning every corridor with her gun as she took slow steps forward. The person at the centre was already dead, so there was no hurry. Ruby even angled her gun and helmet up, ready for anything hidden on the ceiling.

Nothing happened as Ruby approached the body and knelt, carefully turning them over with the barrel of her rifle and keeping her weight on her back foot, ready to run. The body was turned over, but it only confirmed what they already knew. The person was dead, their visor caved in and their chest torn open. It was obvious a large Grimm had gotten to him. Or her. Impossible to tell.

A dark shape appeared in the far corridor and Jaune jumped out, weapon aimed. Ruby dove back and brought hers out as well, but the threat did the same, bringing up a rifle and taking aim. The three of them stared one another down, before the soldier, alive and masked, held up his left hand, fist upward.

Slowly, Jaune and Ruby lowered their weapons, and they did the same, walking into the chamber proper. They'd found another person who had made it into the hive, and they looked to be in one piece.

They didn't speak to one another, not when there was a lot of risk they'd be overheard. The man, his dark skin visible behind his visor, pointed to himself and back the way he'd come, then held up two fingers and then used both hands to gesture the fingers moving apart. He'd been separated from his partner, or they'd chosen to separate to cover more ground. Ruby pointed to the corpse but the man shook his head, then pointed at them inquisitively.

Jaune shook his head back to tell him this wasn't one of theirs. Whomever it was, they must have gotten in early and then been caught here. The new soldier pointed to the corridors on the western side and shook his head, then pointed to the ones on the east and nodded. Jaune personally agreed. Judging from their angle of approach, they'd entered on the east side of the hive, which meant keeping an eastward baring should bring them deeper inside, while west would go back outside. Ruby agreed to but gestured to the four tunnels and shrugged.

The soldier shrugged back, then indicated himself and picked one. His piece said, he brought his weapon back up and headed that way, leaving them. There was little time to chatter with the battle raging outside. Jaune and Ruby let him go, but Ruby headed to the entrance of his tunnel and drew her knife, carving an X into the fleshy floor.

It was a good idea, and sure to mark off for anyone who came later which way they'd gone. Jaune drew his knife and marked the next one along, then gestured for Ruby to come that way with him. He didn't want to split up, and neither did she. Ruby loped up with a grin behind her visor and took point once more as they entered the dark tunnel. There was no lighting inside this fleshy beast, so they'd had to use their torches from the first moment. That was why making as little noise as possible was important. The Grimm would see their torchlight the moment they came into view, so the two of them had to compensate in different ways.

The tunnel took a downward slant, though thankfully not as steep as the one they'd entered through. The air was noticeably warmer, which might have meant a heat source or might just have been a sign they were further away from fresh air, Jaune was grateful for his mask's filtering properties, because the air here was likely fetid and dank.

It might also be contaminated.

They were in the midst of a hive where the Grimm Queen herself resided, so the chances of Grimm Rot were very much above average. Jaune hung close to Ruby, the two of them making good distance only to freeze up as gunfire – much closer than the battle outside – sounded to their south. The lone huntsman they'd let take that tunnel had made contact with the enemy. The battle was loud, chaotic, but swift. The gunfire ceased and there was nothing more. Maybe he'd won and moved on, but Jaune didn't hold much hope.

Ruby's arm shot across his chest, stopping him. Ahead of them, there was a turn in the tunnel, and there was a shadow there. Ruby clicked off her torch and he did the same, the two of them crouching low in the hopes they wouldn't be seen. Two red pinpricks walked by the end of the tunnel, and they held their breath.

Then it turned to them, roared, and charged into the tunnel.

"Shit!" growled Ruby, opening fire.

He was soon after.

Their muzzle flashes lit up the fleshy corridor in place of their torches, riddling into the strangely small Beowolf as it loped toward them. This thing was maybe a quarter the size of what they usually dealt with, likely designed for these narrow tunnels. It had bulkier arms, a smaller head, and it was oddly susceptible to small arms fire, being torn down onto its chest after only a few seconds of firing, and then dispatched with a few more shots to the head.

Jaune reloaded while it faded away into dust, breathing heavily. Their cover was shot now, so he spoke out loud. "What was that? That has to be the weakest Beowolf I've ever seen."

"Same. It was pathetic. Maybe she's limited on available space her, or maybe it's an older variant. Maybe they need time go grow once they're out the hive. I don't know." Ruby reloaded after he had, discarding her few remaining rounds in the magazine. "We can't stop now. They'll be coming."

He knew that, and they ran together this time, abandoning stealth to make distance as howls and roars sounded around them. The Grimm were signalling one another. They were mindless beasts, but even mindless beasts could react to a roar and converge. They came out from the tunnel into a T-junction and turned right, away from the louder noise to the left, and jogged on. Another Beowolf blocked their path, but it went down easily as well. Too easily. Jaune didn't suspect a trap because the Grimm Queen didn't need to lay one, but he didn't like how simple this was.

Ruby's idea of juvenile Grimm needing room to grow had some merit, if only because the typically sized ones would have never fit in these cramped tunnels. If they were near some kind of spawning ground however then they might face them in larger numbers. This was the Grimm Queen after all. She wasn't going to be defended by just three or four Grimm.

His fears might as well have been prophecy. They broke out from the tunnel into a wide chamber in which five Grimm resided. Impossible odds, even for most real huntsmen, and yet when they opened fire, two Grimm fell almost immediately. They were weak, immature and vulnerable. One lunged for him, but Jaune was amazed to find he had the space and speed to dodge back, and the thing's claw dug into the fleshy floor, trapping it. He killed it with a burst of fire to the neck while Ruby dispatched another.

But six more poured in, two of them coming from the very tunnel they'd come from, and then four more. Jaune ran out of ammo and couldn't find space to reload. He slung his SMG back and lashed out with his knife instead, roaring out his fury as he carved through the neck of one and stabbed another in the eye socket, killing it. The Grimm that had taken Sun would have never died to such paltry attacks, yet these did. Ruby was darting between them with ease.

They both knew it wouldn't last. They were going to be overwhelmed by numbers more than they were by anything else, and Jaune shouted out, "Go deeper! Find the source!"

"NO!"

"Damn it, Ruby! We'll both die here!"

"Then let us both die!" she screamed back, killing another Grimm. "I'm not losing everyone. You promised! You go ahead!"

They both knew that wouldn't work. Ruby was faster, smaller, and much more agile than he. Only she had any chance of really breaking out of this melee and escaping. Jaune snarled as a claw bit into his back armour. While they might not be as resilient as most Grimm, they were still strong enough knock him forward and tear a chunk out his armour.

"Ruby!"

"No." She was defiant and stubborn to the end. "You're not my CO and I refuse." Ruby managed to break out and bring her back against his, the two of them standing alone in an island of drying Grimm, surrounded by many more. Jaune took the chance to reload, as did she. "The tunnels are packed full of them anyway, Jaune. I can't run when there's no room to squeeze through."

"Then we both die here."

"We were going to die here anyway; I'd rather die with you than alone."

He couldn't help but feel the same way. They'd never had much of a chance, but their distraction here might buy time for others to plant the signal and destroy the Grimm Queen. Jaune brought his SMG up and opened fire. Between them, they cut down at least twenty of the malformed and weakened Grimm, but their weapons ran dry and they were forced to draw knives and go to work, killing several more.

There were just too many, however. Jaune took a claw to the leg and dropped to one knee with a grunt, then he was borne down by a tackle, dragged low as a claw came down and shattered his visor. Yet again, it splashed across his face, but his one remaining eye survived the shards even as the skin around it was cut into.

The beast opened its maw above him, but, instead of biting down, it vomited up some foul material that splashed across Jaune's face. He tossed his head, forcing his lips shut, but it seeped inside his nose and skin. Feeling it wriggle across him, Jaune threw his head back and screamed in fury.

A presence slammed into his head like a mallet, driving all rational thought from his mind.

A loud, booming voice sounded.

"OBEY!"

Jaune's fingers scrabbled for his EX-Pills before the rot could take hold, but the voice came back, deafeningly loud, hitting him harder still and rattling his brain in his skull. Darkness swept in as consciousness was torn away from him. He heard Ruby scream his name at the last, but all he could do was sink.

"OBEY!

Not like this…

"OBEY!"

"N-Never…"

Jaune Arc slumped on the floor, Grimm Rot seeping past his lips.


Next Chapter: 5th September

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