The Bullhead came to a stop mid air over a clearing. Out of both doors lept teams RWBY and JNPR. Their landings were distinct to say the least.
For the former Ruby activated her semblance and corkscrewed down before rematerializing. Weiss caught herself with a glyph just before the ground. Blake used the ribbon attached to Gimble Shroud to halt her drop before flicking it loose. Yang dropped like a rock and slammed into the ground forming a small crater.
Turning they found Ren, Nora, Jaune and Pyrrha were all crouched and scanning the forest on their side. The first three with their Lancers and Phyta with Miló. After the Bullhead had pulled away and they were sure nothing was popping out to meet them they lowered their weapons. Yang snorted, unable to stop herself.
'You guys know that any Grim would have been waiting before we landed right?' She asked, switching Ember Celica to its compact storage mode.
'Any Grimm nearby. Those further away would have been heading right for us. No point risking them catching us unawares,' Ren replied, putting his Lancer on his back and pulling out his custom Talon autopistols.
'Come on. This is just a quick job. No need to be so tense.'
'It's standard procedure to be on alert during insertion. It's one of the times anyone risks being exposed to attack,' Jaune said, checking the map on his holo-vambrace.
Yang snorted again, 'Really. Insertion? Exposed? Am I the only one that's picking up on this?'
Weiss sighed, 'You're the only one whose mind would go there.'
'Hey don't single me out like I'm the dirty one. We all know what "Reading material" Bla-' Yang was cut off as a hand slapped across her mouth.
'We. Know. Nothing,' Blake said firmly, her eyes narrowed, 'Nod if you understand.'
Yang nodded and the hand was removed.
'So um… Aren't we meant to have a call from Dr Oob-,' Ruby chipped in.
'Students! Are you receiving me?' Dr Oobleck's voice called in their ears. Startling them as they adjust the volume.
'You're coming through Doctor. A little static but we read you,' Jaune replied.
'Superb. You are in the north most sector of the Emerald Forest. There are three security centres that monitor the area. You are to check each for malfunctions and clear any Grimm you find.'
'Is there anything specific we should be looking for?' Blake asked.
'Signs of damage or even tampering,' Dr Oobleck answered, 'The centres should report back active detections and passive reports. But they've been reporting errors then showing as fine before the errors repeat.'
'Tampering? Who would mess with the sensors?' Weiss asked.
'Any number of people might. Smugglers trying to use the area to transfer contraband. Illegal resourcing operations seeking . Or even thieves trying to steal from the ruins in the area.' Dr Oobleck listed off.
'There are ruins out here? Like with treasure?' Nora remarked.
'Of a sort. There are a number of ancient ruins in the Forever Fall forest. Two of the security centres were placed there to help keep an eye on some of the sites. Should you encounter any artefacts that might have been unearthed please take a photo and document it. That will help us find out if anyone has removed something.'
'Copy. We're to inspect the security centres and attempt any repairs needed. Along with checking for any signs of illicit activity,' Jaune confirmed.
'Yes. Should you need any assistance please don't hesitate to call. We'll be monitoring you from here,' Dr Oobleck confirmed.
'Okay then. Let's get going. First site is this way,' Jaune said pointing up the path.
They set off at a brisk walk. The trees were vibrant green around them. In the distance they could see the start of the Forever Fall forest with its red leafed trees.
Along the way were a few Grimm, nothing really worth worrying about. Just some packs of Beowolves and two pairs of Ursa. Against eight Beacon students they were small fry.
Reaching the centre they found it tucked away inside a cave. The machine had a number of cables that ran out and into the ground outside. Likely to the sensors it was connected to. Part of the roof had collapsed inwards and dented the machine itself.
'Rex see what you can do. We'll keep watch,' Jaune said, taking up a position in the tunnel they'd entered through.
A bleep of agreement came from above them and Rex shimmered into view. The robot unfolded and flew down to examine the machine.
Ruby let out a small squee at the sight, 'This is still so cool. I get to go to school with a robot.'
'Ruby I don't think Rex cares about if you think he's cool,' Weiss said.
In reply a sad whistle came from the flying robot as it pulled the casing open and started to inspect the internals.
'See Weiss he clearly does care. And he is the coolest Robot I know,' Ruby declared, folding her arms.
Weiss shook her head, 'Those sounds could mean anything. Besides, how many robots do you know?'
'Uhh. Personally?' Ruby queried, scratching her head.
'Of course personally,' Weiss folded her arms, 'You don't know any others do you?'
'Errrrrrrr. Perhaps.'
'That would also make him the lamest robot you know,' Wiess pointed out.
'Ohhhh. Right.' Ruby coughed into her hand, 'Well as leader I declare Rex the coolest JACK at Beacon.'
'Once again. He is the only JACK at Beacon. One too many if my father had anything to say about it.'
'What does your dad have against JACKs?' Yang asked.
'There was an incident a few years back. An assassin tried to kill him and the First Minister of the COG. A JACK intervened and stopped the attacker,' Weiss answered.
'So he gets saved by one and that makes your dad hate them? Weird guy.'
'This wasn't just another lone attack on his way to the office,' Wiess shook her head, 'This was a charity gala. The cream of Atlas was there. Under the protection of SCD security. And the day was saved by in his words a "Flying toolbox with a stun gun that liked to whistle." not a proud day.'
'And if nothing happened it would have been another night of drinking and stuffing their faces. What's there to be proud of in that,' Blake muttered.
'Excuse me?' Weiss exclaimed, 'My fathers life was at risk. What if it hadn't been a single faunus? What if the White Fang had managed to get a bomb inside. We're all just lucky that the fanatic was stopped before anyone got hurt.'
'You say that like what came after didn't happen. Or were you so busy comforting your father you missed the crackdown in Mantle. People were dragged from their homes by MPs. Thrown into cells and interrogated and for what? How many children were sent to bed not knowing where their parents were?
'I'm sure any arrest would have only been carried out if someone was known to be involved with the White Fang,' Weiss affirmed, folding her arms.
Blake clenched her fists, 'Nearly everyone in Mantle will have known a member at some point. Former or who might have joined later. But that's enough to cut off their heating and spray them with water to force them to disperse when they protest isn't it?!'
A gowl from the cave entrance behind them caused the observers to turn. Rex shot upwards and vanished as his cloak activated. A Beowolf stuck its head through and stared at them. More precisely at Blake and Weiss.
'Guys,' Jaune called readying his Lancer.
The two of them ignored him. The others drew their own weapons.
'Guys!' He tried again louder.
'What!?' Both shouted, turning to look.
The rest of the pack had started to creep into the cave. More than two dozen all at once. Red eyes focused on the two most negative people present. For a moment it was quiet and still.
The first Beowolf leapt forward with a roar breaking the spell. At once the clearing devolved into a series of fights some less than an arms length apart. There was no cover, no path of retreat and no option but to fight.
They fired into the incoming Grimm. Bullets, shells and shotgun pellets helped to thin out some of them. But even as they started to crumble and fade another one would push the fallen ones aside.
'We need a plan!' Jaune called.
'Can't blast without risking a cave in!' Nora shouted back, working the action of her Gnasher shotgun.
'None of us can move rock so digging is not an option!'
'I have an idea!' Ruby shouted 'Weiss can you make some walls? Funnel them into one path?'
'Yes but I'll need a moment,' Weiss called launching another fireball at the Beowolves.
'Go we'll cover you!' Yang yelled as she stepped forward.
Ruby and Weiss fell back as the others kept the Grimm at bay. With a series of vague hand gestures from the former and earth dust glyphs from the latter they made a wall with a channel through it. Once it was done Ruby called for them to retreat.
'Come right through and get to the sides!' She ordered.
'What about the Grimm? They'll be right behind us!' Blake asked.
'Don't worry about them! I saw this in a movie once!'
'That is not as comforting as you think it is.'
'We don't have a choice. Fall back as you run out of ammo. Don't stop or look back,' Jaune said.
First Nora called out as her Gnasher went empty. Then Blake as Gambol Shroud clicked dry. Yang and Pyrrha ran out at nearly the same time.
As each one turned and darted back the line at the entrance got smaller. Finlay it was just Jaune and Ren holding the Grimm back. They kept back stepping as they fired into the wall of Grimm.
Half way they too ran out and turned to run the other way. As they did they saw Ruby's plan. She had deployed Crescent Rose driving the blade into the rock. With it braced she could use higher powered rounds.
'Drop down! And keep down!' She called, putting her eye to the sight.
Next to her Weiss cast a boost glyph in front of Crescent Rose's barrel. Further boosting the energy of each shot. Ren and Jaune dropped to the ground. The Beowolfs charged towards them. Ruby fired.
The first shot bisected the leading Grimm… and the ones behind it. The change from condensed darkness to dissipating smoke was nearly instant. Ruby cycled the bolt and fired again and again.
Each round tore through the monsters. Trapped and funnelled into a single kill box while lacking the intelligence to stop the Beowolfs just kept coming. The others were not idle; each was reloading their weapon and getting ready.
'I'm out!' Ruby shouted, pulling the spent magazine out.
'Lets do this!' Yang shouted charging in alongside Nora.
The fight was finished in moments. What Grimm remained were few enough that by the time Blake and Pyhra had followed there was little to do but watch. Two brawlers in close quarters was not an easy battle.
Instead they both paused to help Jaune and Ren up. The boot marks on their backs showing where Nora and Yang had run over them. Ruby freed Crescent Rose and ran over.
'Are you alright! I can't believe that worked! I mean I thought it would b-' She babbled.
Jaune held up a hand, 'We'll be fine. Thanks for not saying that before and don't worry about it.
'Let's never do that again,' Ren added.
A soft tone came from above as Rex dropped back from his hiding spot. The robot darted back to his work rewiring the Security Center.
'Is anyone else confused as to what just happened?' Weiss asked.
'What do you mean? We kicked butt!' Ruby declared.
'Don't you remember Professor Ports' lesson on social Grimm? A pack that large should have had an Alpha. But I didn't see one.'
'Now that you mention it. No, I didn't see one.' Jaune muttered.
'I mean it could be they just lost it to another team,' Yang suggested.
'Perhaps but why leave the rest here? We should check in with Dr Oobleck. He might know if anyone else noticed something strange,' Weiss said, pulling out her scroll.
She tried to dial Dr Oobleck. For a moment her scroll played a dial tone then it cut off with a hiss. At the same time a sharp screech came over their ear pieces.
'Ahh! What was that?! Feedback!?' Yang shouted, pulling the ear bud out.
'No. Much worse,' Jaune replied, checking his holo-vambrace, 'Jamming.'
'What? You must be mistaken,' Weiss shook her head.
'No. Whatever's doing it, just cut off CCT and radio. Looks like there might be someone out here after all.'
'So what do we do?' Blake asked.
Jaune held up a hand counting down as he spoke, 'Three options. One we head to the other Security Centers. That was our mission. We finish the original objective and then try to leave. Two, we try to restore communications. By marching away from the signal source or having Rex try to fly far enough to make a connection. Three, we find the source and stop it. No matter the reason, it's clearly being done to hide something. If we pick the first two we might miss the chance to stop whatever is going on.'
'The first option makes the least sense. We can't march around pretending nothing is happening. But rushing in when we might be out of our depth is also stupid. I say we leave,' Weiss said, folding her arms.
They all started trying to argue the merits and risk of each option. After a short time Nora slammed Magnhild into the ground, silencing them. She waited to be sure then put her weapon away.
'Let's not argue about this. Why not just put it to a vote. We all get a say,' She held up a finger, 'But if we pick an option you don't like, you still have to go with the winner.'
'What? That's not fair. Why would we go with the plan if it's stupid?' Wiess protested.
'For one we have a better chance of a better outcome sticking together. And second if leaving won but the losers chose to stay you'd be upset. So, no splitting the party and no backing out because you don't like the outcome. Now. Hands up if you want to keep pretending nothing weird is happening and carrying on?'
No one raised a hand. Nora tapped Magnhild on a flat rock like a gavel.
'Sorry. Always wanted to do that. But that is a no for plan one. Votes for running till we can call for help?'
Weiss, Blake and Ren raised their hands. Both Blake and Weiss exchanged looks of uneasy support. Nora made a show of counting them off.
'That's three for plan, get out of here. Which means plan, go break the legs of whoever's doing this wins by default,' Nora declared.
'I hate this,' Wiess signed.
'Too bad. You lost, now get your game face on.'
With the "vote" done they set off out of the cave. Right outside Rex checked the direction of the jamming signal then headed off from it at an angle. Team JNPR opted for holding their weapons at the ready but lowered whilst RWBY kept theirs unfolded. They'd passed into the Forever Fall Forest now.
'Why aren't we heading for the source? I thought it was that way?' Weiss asked, pointing off towards where Rex had first indicated.
'We're triangulating it. Rex will track how much the bearing changes as we move and let us know whe-' Jaune was cut off by a bleep from Rex followed by a chirp from his vambrace, 'When he's plotted the source's location. Looks like an old harbour in the ruins. If this map is right of course.'
Blake shrugged, 'That makes sense. Anyone wanting to transport their spoils would want to use a ship. Less likely to attract attention.'
'Okay then. Let's go find our bad guys,' Ruby proclaimed hefting Crescent Rose.
'Well they're not quite guys,' Weiss whispered a few minutes later.
'Oh you know what I meant,' Ruby whispered back, looking through Crescent Rose's sight.
'Shh,' Ren hushed them both.
Below the verge that they were hiding behind were the ruins. Whilst their original builders might be lost to time. New residents were making themselves at home.
Groups of androids were marching about. Most were red and black armed with doubled ended glaives. The rest were white and black and were lugging some sort of heavy barreled gun with both hands.
What they were doing was as concerning as it was confusing. Clear cells with all sorts of Grimm were being stacked up and loaded aboard a ship. The craft sat low into the water with its upper body just poking out.
'Why are they trapping and caging Grimm?' Yang asked
'No clue. But I've seen androids like that before. Some company the SDC bought out made them,' Weiss muttered, 'Marlite. Merlow. Merlot that was it.'
'So they're from the SDC?'
'No. The company does have a Grimm sciences division. But they wouldn't be working like this. They'd contact it out to a smaller firm.'
'Ruby don't stay up there too long. We don't want to get spotted,' Jaune said looking at a view from above. He'd sent Rex up to scout and was trying to plan out their approach.
'Its fine. They're not going to see me. One is looking right and me an-'
A rapid chatter of gunfire cut her off. Ruby rolled backwards just as the rounds kicked up the dirt where she'd been. More bullets followed forcing them to back away from the crest of the verge. A rank of the white androids had stopped their tasks and were marching closer firing in bursts.
'They're behind us!' Ren shouted, aiming into the trees.
'When did they pull that off!' Yang yelled, raising her fists.
As they spoke the melee androids came into view. They had snuck closest their armour blending in with the red trees. They raised their glaives but didn't close further now they'd been spotted. That still left a ring of blades between the students and the trees.
Further back a group of the white ones pushed through the shrubbery took aim and fired. But rather than fire a hail of bullets each launched a canister from their weapons. There was nowhere to go with the ones below bracketing them with fire and no cover to use.
The canisters burst open mid air unfurling into weighted nets made of purple cords. Ruby used her semblance to phase through the one aimed at her. Blake left a clone behind that evaporated as the net impacted. Pyrrha deflected her's off Akoúo̱.
They were the only ones not to be captured. The others were engulfed by the nets and knocked down. Before any could struggle free the weights started to emit a purple glow.
In an instant the nets went from entangling to crushing. The gravity dust within amplified the weight further as those trapped tried to use their aura to escape. One by one they started to pass out as the nets broke their aura. Jaune, seeing the outcome, reached to the left side of his chest plate and pulled a switch set into it before he blacked out.
'Jaune!' Pyrrha shouted, deflecting a second net.
'We can't help them. Just try to- Ah,' Blake cried out as two of the red androids slashed at her. She left back letting another clone take the hits.
'Guys! I need some help!' Ruby cried out trying to fight off four of the glaives. She cut two of the blades off with a swing of Crescent Rose. The androids simply flipped their weapons around and resumed their atack.
She was the next to fall. Pressed into close combat and surrounded, Ruby refused to run. She didn't want to abandon her friends. The androids' blows broke her aura then one struck her across the head with the flat of its blade.
'Ruby!' Blake wailed.
'Blake look out!' Pyrrha warned too late.
The androids around Blake stepped back allowing the ranged ones to fire freely. Blake used her semblance as much as she could. Clone after clone was torn apart by the hail of fire. Any attempt to run was headed off by the ring of glaives.
Soon enough she was too slow, too tired. A bullet caught her shoulder. She spun for a heart beat before more rounds hammered into her side. Blake was winded and once more a red android stepped in to knock her out once her aura broke.
Pyrrha stood alone. Surrounded and outnumbered. She'd faced odds like this before. And there was no reason to hold back. Her team was counting on her.
She spun and launched Akoúo̱ outwards. Guiding the spinning shield with her semblance she beheaded the nearest rank of red androids. The rest backed up as she brought the shield back letting the white ones fire again.
Pulling on the broken android bodies Pyrrha slammed them together into a rough barrier. The strain was immense, her semblance worked best when she'd touched the objects she was moving. Even so she'd bought a few more seconds.
Drawing Miló she fired off at the androids that moved around her newly built cover. Their heads came apart easily and their movements were predictable. With this distance she should be able to-
A series of blasts turned the pile of scrap into flying debris. Pyrrha crouched behind Akoúo̱ as the storm of metal tore over her. The white ones were firing grenades now. She couldn't stay here; the others were helpless.
Charging to close the distance she shifted Miló to its spear mode and drove it through the chest of one. Its neighbour let go of its weapon and tried to strike her head. Dropping to a crouch she switched Miló again to short sword and cleaved the second one's leg and arm off.
She was doing well. Too well. The androids numbers were thinning out. Which caused them to change tactics in response to this higher threat.
The next grenade struck the one she'd pierced in the chest. Turning it into a point blank cloud of fragments. Pyrrha lept backwards eyes closed and guard up. her aura dropped sharply by the attack. Another red android stepped close aiming to gut her.
She knocked the weapon aside and cut one of its arms off. Its remaining hand released its weapon and wrapped around her back pinning her to its chest. Before she could break out of the grapple the android exploded.
The last part of her aura protected her from the blast. But no more. All the students of teams RWBY and JNPR were unconscious one way or the other. The androids stood over their forms for a moment waiting.
For a moment the jamming stopped as they called home. Their orders were updated. They were to bring these new subjects back with the others. Then the jamming resumed.
Dragging their new captives back to the ruins the androids threw them into the same clear cages as the others. Then set about clearing up their destroyed siblings. They would cover their trail as best they could. Leaving any search party little to go off.
'What do you mean they've gone missing?!' Qrow shouted, slamming his hands on the desk. A drop of coco bounced out of the mug on top landing on the surface.
'Shouting will not change the situation. So please don't raise your voice. I know you're concerned but the moment I hear anything more you'll be the first to know,' Ozpin said, wiping up the spill.
'I warned you the northern areas are being invaded. Why isn't the army out there! Call James! Have him send in the fleet! DO SOMETHING!'
'Qrow that's quite enough.' Glynda said firmly. 'You were already an insubordinate drunk. Befo-'
'Before I got my head messed with,' Qrow snarled, 'Well why was I out in the middle of nowhere with no support. Oh right, because we keep hiding the problem until it can't be hidden anymore.'
'I have half a mind t-'
A ring from the desk cut off her next words. Ozpin held up his hand for quiet before reading the screen. He nodded to Glynda who quickly stepped out of view. Once he was ready Ozpin tapped to accept the call.
'First Minster Emmerich. To what do I owe the pleasure?'