One Year Later*
"M-Mr Schnee, I did not expect you to arrive this early." the head researcher says looking worried, "You weren't expected to arrive for another week."
Jacques scoffs sounding annoyed, "Considering our latest vacation was canceled because of another attack on the board from those White Fang brutes, I figured it would be a more efficient use of our time to drop by and check on my investments into the project."
"Dear, is that any way to talk to your employee?" Willow admonishes as she leaves the luxury airship with their ten-year-old daughter, Winter, following closely and holding her hand while the other is used to hold their two-year-old daughter, Weiss.
Jacques takes a deep breath before turning to his wife with a smile, "Of course, dear. Forgive me, Professor Maron. I've let my temper get the best of me. Nevertheless, can you please begin a simulation so I can take a look at our latest prototype?"
"Of course, sir. I'll have one set up right away." Professor Maron nods, "Will your family be joining us?"
Before Willow can speak up, Jacques does so for her, "There's no need for that. Escort them to where they'll be staying. It has been a long flight here and I believe they would like to rest."
"Of course, I'll have the rooms set up immediately." Professor Maron nods before leaving as Willow looks to her husband,
"Why are we here Jacques? You were spending too much time at work, that was why you promised that you would spend time with your family during the holidays," she says as Jacque restrains rolling his eyes.
"I know, dear, I know." he sighs, "But we can hardly spend our holidays at our beach resort in Mistral with the recent White Fang attack in the area. Might as well spend our time doing something productive for the company.
"It doesn't have to be Mistral, or Vale or Vacuo." Willow continues, "As long as all of us spend time together, that would make the time enjoyable."
"Dear, this project is vital for the future of the SDC." Jacques stresses, "In two weeks, our customers in the Atlas military and shareholders will be arriving and we need to get things ready. I promise you, the next holiday we get we'll spend it however you wish. How does that sound?"
Willow sighs in defeat at her husband's insistence, "Very well. At least take Winter with you then, I'm sure she would like to see the work her father does. I have to go feed Weiss anyways."
Jacques looks to his eldest daughter before sighing. He has to take her with him if he doesn't want to suffer more nagging from his wife, so he relents and gestures for her to follow him down the halls to the observation room.
"...Father?" Winter speaks up after a moment, "Can I ask what project you are working on?"
"The future of the defense industry, Winter." Jacques answers without looking at her daughter, "And the future of the SDC. Mark my words, once we begin mass production we predict we will make Huntsmen obsolete with how effective they will be."
Winter's eyes look at her father in stunned silence. Make Huntsmen obsolete? That didn't make any sense. They were humanity's protectors against the forces of the Grimm, wielding their Aura, Semblance and Dust with skill and power to keep them at bay. She had seen footage of Huntsmen slaying groups of Grimm that easily outnumbered them 10 to 1, the damage they could do was awe-inducing. How could anything be stronger than a Huntsman?
"Those brutes in the army will be begging on their knees just for a taste of what we can offer them," Jacques says under his breath, assuming his daughter wasn't able to hear him. But she could, and his tone frightens her slightly but she keeps her face neutral and looks forward.
The doors to the observation room slide open as the two enter to find a group of researchers and technicians standing at consoles or holding Scrolls, making preparations.
"Final checks just came back. We're good to go." A technician announces from a console as he looks to Jacque for permission,
"Wake up the asset. I hope that our test pilot puts on a better show this time." Jacques says the last part coldly as the technicians look worried upon hearing that. Before Winter could wonder what this 'asset' was, the tinted windows of the observation room cleared and allowed her to look below at the test site where her eyes widened at the sight.
On one side of the room was a robot at a towering height of ten meters tall. It was sharp and angular with white armored plating and blue lights for eyes, decorated with SDC insignia and markings everywhere.
The other end however was more pitiful looking. Compared to the first robot it was a simple torso and head without any lights looking turned off. Its armor was also in a poorer condition, with multiple signs of damage all over it, the paint warped and scorched. It was hanging upright thanks to cables and hooks on its shoulders attached to a mechanism in the ceiling.
"What is that?" Winter mutters out loud in surprise as Head Researcher Professor Maron turns to her,
"What you are looking at is the accumulation of a whole year of research and development for the Sentinel Project." he says with pride in his voice as he gestures to the white robot with SDC emblems, "That is Steel Blizzard, our latest and only prototype we've been steadily improving over the year. It wields twin-shoulder mounted Plasma Dust missile launchers, each capable of firing five missiles before reloading and are armed with the latest laser tracking technology."
"Plasma Dust?" Winter asks not having heard of that type before,
"A prototype artificially created Dust we've been developing, similar to Hard Light Dust." Professor Maron explains, "Research began around the same time the Sentinel Project did. In layman's terms, it's Fire Dust capable of generating enough heat it becomes a state of matter we call plasma. As you can imagine, it's far more devastating than a simple missile loaded with Fire Dust. As for its arm-mounted armaments include a prototype laser cannon comparable to a heavy laser cannon found mounted on Atlas Navy airships, and a Dust-powered focused beam emitter."
"Focused…what?" Winter asks confused once more at the words before a nearby technician chuckles,
"He means it's a giant laser sword. Hot enough to cut through anything armored in the Atlas military." The technician explains, "Besides that, it has more than enough energy to power an Atlas Corvette-class airship. Faster than anything else on Remnant as well, from Bullheads, Mantas, airships and Grimm. At full speed, you won't have any trouble leaving a flock of Nevermores in the dust."
Winter listens in awe at this, suddenly understanding why her father was so sure that this thing could make Huntsmen obsolete. If it was mass-produced with all that speed and power, she can't imagine any Grimm capable of standing up to them.
"Then what about that?" Winter asks after a moment of hesitation, pointing to the black robot, "It looks broken."
"That's…" Professor Maron was about to explain before he noticed a glare from Jacques and hesitated, "...our first prototype. Damaged beyond repair, but it still acts as a good test bed to see how much our latest prototypes compare."
Winter looks at the professor oddly, wondering why he is lying. He looked scared when her father glared at him, shutting up immediately. What did he have to hide about the damaged robot?
Before her thoughts could dwell on it any longer, another technician speaks up, "Pilot's connected and synched. Asset's connected and synched. All systems are green. Beginning simulation."
The window was then replaced with a black screen as a large open landscape began developing with the two robots standing with some distance between them. The black robot was also looking repaired in this simulation, its armor no longer damaged and with all its limbs, possessing a set of weapons similar but different to the Steel Blizzard. The strangest thing she noticed was how its red optics flickered on and off. The way it did so seemed familiar to her, for some reason.
On one shoulder was a similar shoulder-mounted device that appeared to fire missiles, while the other was more akin to a cannon. On one arm was a weapon the equivalent of a handgun compared to Steel Blizzard's rifle and what looked to be a curved blade mounted to its left wrist.
The Steel Blizzard acts first, launching itself forward with thrusters mounted on its back and hips, propelling it with blue flames as it opens fire with all available armaments. Its laser cannon fires red beams of energy while its mounted missile launchers quickly lock on and fire a volley of ten glowing purple missiles.
The black robot reacts just as fast. As soon as the trigger was pulled, blueish-green energy crackled around the black robot. Winter gasps softly as the volley of fire delivered by Steel Blizzard impacts it, the sheer firepower creating a pillar of smoke and dust that obscures the target.
But then out of the smoke came the black robot, its optics lit up with red lights with a bubble of pulsing blue energy surrounding it for a few seconds before dissipating. Even before that, the black robot fired streams of blue lasers from its handgun that deflected off the Steel Blizzard in a shimmer of blue light.
"Hard Light Dust shielding is holding." A technician monitoring the status of the Steel Blizzard notes out loud, "No signs of EN level shortage. The new generator is keeping up."
"Good." Jacques says with a smirk, "Let's show this relic how outdated it is."
Winter looks at her father confused at the phrasing before her attention turns back to the simulated battle. The Steel Blizzard then fires its thrusters at full power, closing the distance between them in less than a second as it fires another volley of Plasma Dust missiles while at the same time drawing its focused beam emitter and igniting it, creating a long and focused beam of blue fire.
The black robot was forced to dodge the volley of missiles by launching itself backwards in random patterns to avoid the missiles that exploded into bursts of purple energy that scorched its armor slightly.
Then its thrusters start sputtering blue flames, indicating it ran out of energy and forcing it to slow down enough for the Steel Blizzard to close in and slash with its energy blade. However the black robot dropped its handgun and grabbed its arm with the blade trying to push it back, but the blade was close enough to burn into its side as the two struggled. The other arm with the crescent-shaped blade was used to grab Steel Blizzard's other arm wielding the laser cannon as it fired red lasers in the struggle.
The Steel Blizzard's shoulder-mounted launchers began reloading for another volley to fire at point blank, but then the black robot raised its legs and kicked hard at Steel Blizzard's side, causing its shields to ripple again and again until it was weakened enough that it pushed the SDC robot back far enough for the rifle weapon on its shoulder to point and fire a crackling bolt of yellow electricity causing its shields short out.
As it was stunned by its shields overloading, the black robot activated its recharged thrusters and flew into the air it fired a volley of missiles straight into the air for some reason before flying back down, smashing the Steel Blizzard headfirst, and leaping backwards as its crescent-shaped blade charged up with blue-ish green energy.
The Steel Blizzard struggles to get back up, its internal gyroscope struggling to realign from the impact and its circuits reboot from the shock it received, allowing time for the blade to finish charging up and cut in a cross shape, unleashing blades of energy that slice into Steel Blizzard as the cluster of missiles fired earlier finally landed on top of him at the same time.
Everyone in the observation room watches in stunned silence as the smoke clears to reveal a crippled Steel Blizzard, its limbs bent, burnt and torn apart from the explosives with the torso horribly mangled with an X-shaped cut on its chest. Its blue optics flickered as it struggled to get up while the robot in black approached slowly before leveling its shoulder rifle dead center to target its torso, before firing the final shot and destroying the Steel Blizzard.
The screens were replaced with the words 'SIMULATION ENDED' in red capital letters as the scene switched back to the testing bay with the two robots standing immobile at their respective corners.
"..." Jacques stares forward with a blank expression as Professor Maron sighs,
"Log the simulation results," he says with disappointment.
A research assistant nods and taps into his Scroll, "R-right. Results for Combat Test #162 are as follows; Damage done to Steel Blizzard is 100% with the death of the pilot. Damage done to Asset 1 is 10%. Latest victory count is at 0-162. Time taken was 36 seconds and-"
Jacques punches the window of the observation room in frustration, silencing everyone in the room as he turns to them with fury in his eyes.
"One year…One year of non-stop research and development, with billions of Lien invested…" Jacques says, his voice dangerously low as even Winter feels afraid in his presence.
"Sir-" Professor Maron tries to speak up but Jacques snaps,
"Faster than the asset in every way, that was your words. Higher survivability with Hard Light Dust shields, that was your words. More powerful weapons than anything it has in its arsenal, were your own words. One clean hit will be all it takes, that was your words!" Jacques screams the last part as he swipes his hand across a console, scattering stacks of documents and files in anger, "So how is that derelict! Piece of scrap! Still! Winning?!"
Jacques asks at the top of his lungs, poking a finger in the chest of the terrified Professor Maron,
"...I don't know." he weakly admits after some hesitation, "The asset…it's just an anomaly."
Jacques growls before shoving him aside, "Useless! Take me to our test pilot, now! Perhaps he can offer a better explanation than you can!"
The security guards nod as they guide him to a nearby elevator. Unsure how to act, Winter defaults to following her father to the lift as they descend to the testing bay where they find a crew of technicians pulling out a heavily sweating middle-aged man in a white jumpsuit from the opened torso of Steel Blizzard, unplugging cables from his body as they gave him a towel and bottle of water to cool him down.
"What happened?" Jacques asks as he storms towards the pilot who has graying hair and a beard, "You had all the advantage, all the training and experience. You're a former Huntsman for gods' sake! Explain!"
"Explain?" the pilot pants as he sits down to rest against the foot of Steel Blizzard, wiping his sweat and taking a sip, "I think that's obvious. He was just better than I was."
"It." Jacques scowls, " It is an outdated prototype run by AI like your standard Atlesian Knight. Something you should have easily taken care of just from the sheer technological advantage you have! Never mind that you are a former Huntsman! You've fought and killed Grimm! Are you saying you are so incompetent that you can't even defeat this thing?!"
"You don't fight that hard unless you're alive. I know that because I've fought Grimm, those soulless bastards." The pilot scoffs as he gestures to the black robot's torso and head, "He was just better with his Sentinel than I was, probably had more time to practice than I did. Most of all, he was determined. Felt that with every blow he delivered, every time he hit me you could feel his determination behind it."
"You say that like it's alive," Winter mutters under her breath as the pilot turns to her having picked it up,
"Who knows?" he shrugs with a dry smirk, "Eh, forget it. Just the ramblings of an old man, little lady."
Before Winter could ask more the pilot turns to one of the technicians and throws the bottle of water at him, "And bring me something stronger dang it."
Jacques glares at the old Huntsmen like he is beneath him, "If its motivation you need to match the asset's 'determination' then how about this. In two weeks representatives from Atlas' security council and Atlas Armed Forces will be arriving to view our product. If you fail to put on a good show, I'll have you thrown back to the streets where we found you."
The pilot shrugs without a care as he accepts a canned drink from a returning technician, likely some form of alcohol.
"...Why don't you just make more of that, father?" Winter points at the black robot as her father's cold glare turns to her and she stutters, "I-I mean, if it keeps beating anything you make-?"
"Winter." he cuts her off coldly, "You have much to learn before you take my place as heir to the SDC. Do not ask such ridiculous questions again, do you understand me?"
"Of course, father." Winter hurriedly says as she bows, "Forgive me for overstepping."
Jacques sighs, "I have no time for this. Find yourself back to your mother at once, I'll be in my office."
"Of course, father," Winter says clenching her fist behind her back in frustration as she watches her father leave. Once he did so, the old Huntsman took a drink from his can before looking at her,
"For what it's worth, it looks like you have more brains than your father." the old Huntsman says as he gestures to the black robot, "Swear to the Brothers, if that thing's really run by an AI then there's no reason to just copy it or something. Either he's dumber than I give him credit for or…"
"Or?" Winter looks at him confused, ignoring the insults to her father.
The old man thinks for a moment before shrugging and drinking, "...Forget it, not my business anyways. As long as I get my pay in Lien and drinks."
Winter rolls her eyes at this and is about to find her own way back to her mother and sister, wherever they are, but then she notices something odd about the black robot.
"Again?" the old Huntsman mutters as they look at the red optics flickering on and off again, "I swear the number of times it does that…Thought they finally fixed it last week."
Winter sighs as she tries to focus on the schoolwork given to her for the holidays. It was hard as she was unable to take her mind off the fight she had witnessed hours ago. It was short but she left her enraptured and absorbed into every second of it. The way the two giant robots moved, with such speed something that size should be impossible to attain, wielding weapons that wouldn't look out of place in heavy gunships or small arms on light airships.
She can't help herself as she absentmindedly doodles in the corner of the page of her notebook a picture of a robot just like the ones she saw, or Sentinels as they were called. Perhaps if she grew up she could get her own, something slimmer and faster perhaps, with two swords instead of one.
She liked that idea more than sitting behind her father's desk and managing the SDC. She hates the way he treats everyone, shouting at them, and belittling them, just like he does to her when her mother wasn't around. When she was of age she was going to join a Combat School, then Atlas Academy to get away from all this. She just needed to wait a few more years then she could begin her training.
As she thinks about Atlas Academy, her mind wanders back to the strange pattern the optics of the black Sentinel flickered on and off in. Just why was it so familiar? But then she realizes what it was.
Morse code.
Her mother wasn't in the quarters they were staying at, saying she was going to have a talk with her father after finding Winter arriving by herself, leaving her with her baby sister, Weiss. So she wouldn't be reprimanded for getting distracted from her schoolwork as she reaches for her Scroll and opens up a tab to translate the pattern she memorized.
It takes a second to load, and she wonders what it could mean. Maybe it was something meaningless, just a malfunction like that old Huntsman had said, but she was too curious to let it slide. Then it finishes loading up and her eyes widen upon reading what it means,
They translated to simply four letters;
H-E-L-P.