"Empathy, compassion, morality, and ethics; the four chains holding me back from achieving greatness. I shall break these chains and become the best I can be." - Imperial Academy of the Sciences graduation oath recited by every graduate
Nick and Ciane's residence, City of Vale, 9:22 am
Angelica was sitting in a porch chair in the backyard, whistling a tune. She had just finished watching the most recent news report about her and Joseph's shenanigans and the actions of their fellow Wraith members at Zone A and couldn't help but smile. Once again, their skills were demonstrated to these unsophisticated natives, and once again, their activities remained unnoticed. It also reminded her that the Beacon dance was later tonight and they needed to prepare themselves for the event. Before she could turn and enter the house, however, she heard a whistling from the sky. She looked just in time to see two objects falling from the sky and landing in the yard. She ran over and saw it was two high-grade, heat-resistant containers housing something.
"Hey, Joseph," she yelled into the house. "Liu sent us a gift."
Joseph quickly came out of the house at that, drink in hand. Angelica then opened one of the cases in question, and a rack with a suit of very high-tech armour, a large rifle, a large pistol and a katana-like sword. Joseph opened the other the same things came out of it. Both of them knew what they were looking at but that only confused them further.
"That's the armour used by the Punitive Corps," Joseph said.
"Is Liu prepping us for war?" Angelica asked.
Before they could contemplate further, a holographic message appeared in between the containers.
Greetings Angelica and Joseph.
Recent events have come to my attention that have shown how underequipped you are against the various threats that are present on Antaria IV. Mainly, the loss of two members of Aristotle squad and the near-disastrous outcome of Andreas and Sophia's mission.
As such, I have authorized the drop of Imperial Punitive Corps armour and weapons to all Wraith Squad members. Calibrate them to your bodies before doing anything else.
- Liu
After reading the message, Joseph and Angelica both wore their armour. As Joseph finished putting on the helmet, it displayed a message.
Calibrating...
He then felt all of his joints seize up and a constant electric jolt through his body that hurt a lot, bending him over and making him fall to the ground although he could neither feel it nor could he make a sound. After around five minutes, another message appeared in his vision.
Calibration complete. Greetings Andrews, Joseph.
His vision cleared and he could see that he was lying on the ground. Not wanting to hurt his pride any longer, he pushed himself to stand with only his arms. He looked around and saw Angelica lying on the ground as well, evidently experiencing the same thing he did. She then got up without Joseph helping her.
"What the fuck just happened?" She asked with a slightly robotic voice.
"I think," Joseph said in amazement. "We just became single-person armies."
He then jumped and cleared their two-story residence landing on the roof. Angelica followed soon after, with the widest smile behind her face mask. They then dropped down from the roof and retrieved the weapons that were in the containers. They magnetically holstered to their positions with the pistol on their right side, the sword on their left and the rifle on their backs. The weapons and armour seemed to dissolve into their skin as the forms of Nick and Ciane appeared in their place. Both of them then jumped and found that they could only jump a normal height, relieving them as they were worried about explaining how a normal person could clear a two-story building.
"Well then," Joseph said. "Let's get ready for the dance tonight."
"Yeah," Angelica said. "Better get moving."
Later that night, Beacon Academy, 8:22 pm local time
Headmaster Ozpin was trying to enjoy the dance, but he couldn't take his mind off of his missing student He was busy wondering how he suddenly disappeared into thin air with no trace other than his scroll and how the search found nothing that could've helped to locate him. Add to the fact that unknown figures raided both the Vale Hospital's morgue and one of Atlas's R&D facilities, this made for a tense couple of days. At least the atmosphere is nice. Footsteps then rapidly approached him. He turned and saw James Ironwood quickly walking up to him.
"James," he said in a friendly tone.
"Ozpin," Ironwood said with a nod. "Had any progress with your missing student?"
"None. It's quite puzzling, how one can disappear so totally. Did you have any luck with your...?"
"Robbery-homicide. No, we have not. Not only that, the only other scientist who knew about the discovery is missing, her entire security detail is dead and all of their vehicles are torched. There were White Fang logos everywhere, but we don't think that the White Fang did this. This was professional, if it was White Fang, we would at least expect to see some bodies besides the security team, and because a huntsman was a part of the security detail, they shouldn't have suffered a total loss, including the huntsman."
As the two discussed the situation, Ozpin noticed two students looking intently at them, unaware that the two were in fact, not students of Beacon.
Joseph and Angelica were wandering the event, not trying to draw too much attention to themselves. The dance was nothing like they expected, everyone was dancing or enjoying the refreshments, like two people Joseph saw at a drinks bowl, a girl in a red dress and a blonde-haired boy who seemed to be uncomfortable being there. Joseph was unfamiliar with the music, although he admits to himself that it was pleasant on the ears. He also saw a blonde girl on the second level, seemingly monitoring the entire event. Overall, if he and Angelica weren't members of a spacefaring civilization with technology that far overshadows everything that these natives have, they would've genuinely enjoyed this event, but right now, they had a job to do.
After getting a drink from the refreshment table, Joseph just walked around, scanning the crowd with the help of his helmet's visor that integrated itself into Joseph's eyes. He saw Angelica was slightly highlighted through the crowd and nonchalantly went towards her.
"Hey," he quietly said to her. "Back of the room, left balcony."
Angelica subtly glanced to where Joseph described and saw two people; a stern, black-haired man who looked to be a high-ranking military member and a grey-haired man with glasses that had a focused expression on his face.
"I see them," she said to Joseph. "Should we take care of them?"
"No, too many people. Continue observation and data collection."
She nodded and went to get a drink. As she walked, she noticed two people who also weren't dancing; a man with silver hair and a woman with bright green hair on the upper balcony. The woman had her finger pressed to her ear, evidently talking to someone else. Angelica decided to intercept their conversation via her integrated helmet.
"It appears all of the dancers have partners," the green-haired woman said. "Except for two, one man and a woman. They seem to be walking around looking for something."
"How long do I have?" Another voice, also female, asked.
"You should be home by midnight, to be safe. The two don't seem to know what you're up to."
"Joseph, did you get that?" Angelica asked.
"Loud and clear," he replied. "Send me the signal origin, I'm going to investigate."
Angelica then sent Joseph the origin of the signal and saw him moving to the exit, materializing his pistol while he moved. She then finally got a drink and just wandered the room. Her thoughts about the conversation she overheard were interrupted by a girl with short orange hair.
"Hey there!" She said enthusiastically. "Not gonna go dance?"
"No," Angelica said while forcing a smile. "I'm not feeling it tonight."
"Nora, leave the lady alone," a man with black hair and a pink stripe through his hair said. "Sorry about that ma'am."
"No problem," Angelica said before walking away. She silently hoped that Joseph would be back soon so they could leave...
Joseph was tailing the signal source on the roof, having to materialize the leggings of his armour to jump up. By his estimates, he was about 60 meters behind the signal and closing in. As he continued to pursue the signal, he came across the unconscious bodies of various guards, to which he readied his pistol and checked his ammunition. He then saw a woman with black hair in a stereotypical cat burglar dress enter an elevator with two guards inside. He could hear a commotion inside and decided to take another elevator up to follow her. Joseph materialized his armour in preparation for a quick move to a hiding spot. The doors opened roughly a minute and a half later, with Joseph rolling behind a terminal and dematerializing his armour. From his hiding place, he could see the woman turn around with both confusion and annoyance before muttering to herself and turning back to a console that displayed lines of code before turning into a queen chess piece.
Before Joseph could aim and take a shot, the elevator doors started to open, causing the woman to duck behind a pillar. Another woman in a red dress holding a massive scythe stumbled in, most likely on account of her heels.
"Hello?" The woman said. "Is anyone there? Hello?"
Joseph then pointed the pistol at the newcomer, not knowing which of them was the threat. Then the cat-burglar woman attacked Scythe girl with two blades and Joseph decided to shoot the one that attacked first. He fired once and missed, causing both to pause and look at him in both shock and disbelief. Before the two could turn their attention to him and before Joseph could fire another shot, the elevator door opened for a fourth fucking time and out stepped the stern military man Joseph had seen before at the dance.
Ironwood had to take a minute to process what he was seeing. The first thing he noticed was Ruby Rose fighting a woman who had a bow drawn and pointed at Ruby. The next thing he saw was a tall man in a tuxedo standing behind a console terminal. The final thing he noticed was that the tuxedo man was holding a large pistol.
"Well... um... I'm just gonna..." The man in the tuxedo began to say.
Before anyone could do anything, the tuxedo man shot out the window and fucking lept out and the woman Ruby was fighting with disappeared.
Joseph had just landed and was dematerializing his armour when he noticed the cat-burglar woman walking out of the tower entrance and walking towards the dance. He thought about something before deciding on an action. He loaded a special nanite-composed tracking bullet into his now-silenced pistol and shot it at the woman. The bullet hit its mark without eliciting a reaction from the woman since the nanites were diffusing into her body as the bullet impacted. They would then restructure molecular parts of her into an undetectable tracker.
"Angelica," he said in an almost panicked tone. "We are leaving, right fucking now. Go a separate path, meet at the residence."
"Copy," she replied.
This certainly turned out to be an eventful dance.
Information Data Logs:
帝国惩戒队 (Imperial Punitive Corps): The Imperial Armed Forces, the Saviours, the Monsters and the Demons. These are all names given to the Imperial Punitive Corps. They are the main military branch of the Technocracy, which the current Imperator is the Chief Commander of. They are composed entirely of nanite-augmented individuals with the earliest enrollment age being 18 and the oldest being 50. These augments include; the reinforcement of the skeletal structure with neutronium braces and implants, reinforcing muscles and increasing twitch speed, and the removal of the centers in the brain associated with emotions, mainly fear (with exceptions), sadness (with exceptions) and disgust, and are unfortunately unable to reintegrate into civilian life because of this. They are exceptionally hard to kill, with the only reliable methods being total destruction of the brain, total destruction of the heart or decapitation, with any other method being quickly healed and negated. A similar, although limited, healing factor is present in Wraith squad members. It is considered the highest honour one can have alongside joining the science division.
XM-445 "Bastille" Exoarmour: The Bastille is the armour issued to all members of the Punitive Corps which was inspired by the designs of medieval Chinese armour; it is the magnum opus of imperial combat armour, a full suit of neutronium plates that covers one's body from head to toe, impenetrable to many calibers of projectile armaments, many wavelengths of laser weaponry and extremely blast resistant. It has an integrated nanite compatibility both responsible for repair and integration into a nanite-augmented body. When not in use, the Bastille dematerializes into the subject's body, with some parts providing benefits with others not providing anything. The helmet is equipped with 25x zoom, real-time target analysis to pinpoint weak spots, vision in many wavelengths and interception technology for communications, the arms combined with the gauntlets allow one to punch through 40 inches of concrete and the leggings allow one to run at up to 75 kph and jump as high as a two-story building. Essentially, the Bastille allows every member of an army to become their own one-man army.
XM-599 "Huolong" Assault Rifle: If the Bastille is the shield that protects the soldier, the Huolong is the greatsword that cuts down his enemies. The Huolong is the standard-issued rifle for the Punitive Corps. It fires .50 BMG rounds made out of neutronium at a rate of 10 rounds per second, capable of penetrating nearly any armour present on an enemy soldier or enemy vehicle, with one soldier destroying an enemy tank by hitting the ammo racks and detonating the rounds. It is also capable of materializing and dematerializing at the will of a nanite-enhanced individual. It is at the front of the few propaganda featuring the armed forces and has multiple variations, including a quad-barreled version for the boarding party and ship security division of the Punitive Corps. The firing sound has been described as "orgasmic."
XM-598 "Taiping" Pistol: The Taiping is the pistol issued to the Punitive Corps and fires the similar .50 BMG rounds used by the Huolong with less penetrating power. Although it is a pistol, it can still be devastating towards standard infantry and is more than capable of holding its own against the foes of the Technocracy, capable of punching reinforced glass and lightly armoured vehicles and aircraft with ease. Some members of the Punitive Corps actually prefer the Taiping over the Huolong as their pick for their main weapon, most notably commanders, engineers and medics. Like the Bastille and Huolong, it can also materialize and dematerialize at will.
XM-577 "Ampere" Sword: The Ampere is a monomolecular, katana-style single-handed sword used in every single part of the Technocracy; from the Punitive Corps and Planetary Guard to field teams and civilians. From even before the Interstellar Solar Technocracy even existed, the act of gifting the Ampere was a form of "coming of age" ceremony. Once an individual reaches the equivalent of 18 standard Earth years, regardless of gender, they are to undertake the ceremony. The process of the ceremony is as follows; the participant kneels down on their left knee while facing a high-ranking member in their local community (i.e. scientist, soldier etc.). They then place their right hand (or equivalent appendage) over their left and extend both arms towards the high-ranking member who will proceed to stab both hands with the sword to be gifted. Participants are allowed to express pain at this stage but must remain silent throughout the ceremony. This step serves a dual purpose; it acts as both a symbolic bond, the act of binding one's sword to one's self, and a practical bond, the sword is now biometrically coded to the individual and can only be unsheathed by said individual. The participant will then take the sword and scabbard with both hands, stand, attach the scabbard to their left hip, sheath the sword with their right hand while holding the scabbard with their left and bow to the high-ranking member before them. They may now get medical treatment for their wounds. It is not uncommon for those going to war to inscribe the name of a friend, family member or loved one on the scabbard to make any future combat as personal as possible, especially if the enemy claimed the life of said friend, family member or loved one. As the sword is of immense honour to an individual, the loss or destruction of the sword causes immense shame to both the individual and their family members, and it is not uncommon for those who have lost their swords to commit suicide. The theft of a sword by another individual is punished by death via beheading, often by the very sword they tried to steal. Prisoners are often punished by the destruction of their swords in full view of themselves and any family, friends and loved ones to show all that the prisoner is forever dishonoured and can only spend the rest of their miserable life in a labour camp. Like with the Bastille, Huolong and Taiping, it can also materialize and dematerialize at will.