:/Secure_Vox_Packet_4223312/:
-Transfer,_Eyes only-
\\-Imperial courier, Long Rider [authentication A7T3R6D0]
/ dest.. Fist of Iron, 52nd Expeditionary fleet.
-X Legion Astartes, Lord Manus commanding.
· PRIORITY ABSOLUTE
· Conclude operations and stand by for re-tasking. Re-direct crusade vector towards sector 125422
· Further instructions to follow
\\Prepare to receive His Majesty. Estimated arrival -=- Inconclusive. 3-4 months
- Warp storms delaying transit. Finish current compliance actions and await His arrival.
:End data..burst/
Kad could see the plateau did have a few strong factors that made it an excellent choice for a settlement.
Thick walls of rock surrounded the flat center blocking vision of what might be inside from a distance. There was only one way in from the ground, up a large concrete bridge that gently sloped up into the valley. A good kill zone to trap anything approaching with ill intent.
Their destination was nestled in the bend of a river surrounded by it on three sides the water didn't totally reach the base of the walls, and the bright green forest grew mostly right up to the edge on the far side.
The center of the plateau had been cleared and flattened down as well as the nomads could manage. Several levels of terraces for the village farms were being prepared staggered up both the outside and inside of the stone walls.
A few foundations and outlines for new buildings of various sizes had been laid but nothing more had gone up yet in the soon to be village. Several trains of large ground vehicles and trailers parked together in a circle. Several dozen adults and older teenagers were spaced out working all over the valley. Groups of children chased each other around.
The other aircraft began their descent to the soon to be settlement. the one carrying the Hunters circled a few more times observing this place.
"Does this place have a name?" Russell asked, shouting over the howling wind and screaming engines.
"Bright top." Qrow answered, "It's never been settled, but a few times it's been used to defend the city."
Sienna laughed, "Yeah that's the boring name. Some people still call it the Butcher's Slab."
"Well… yes," The Huntsman admitted, "But let's not dwell, shall we?"
The bullhead touched down halfway between the ramp and the encampment. The two chaperones had no idea how their teams would interact so decided to keep them relatively separated for the time being. Qrow led CRDL into the village, and Sienna took APRC out to the plateau entrance.
Kad stretched a little rolling his shoulders while the five of them stood at the top of the ramp looking out over the vast expanse of forest, the river gurgling quietly beneath them.
Sienna spoke to the team while she raised a pair of binoculars to her face and surveyed the area,
"Welcome to the first day of the rest of your lives kids. I want you to pick a direction and circle around the plateau. See if you can find any Grimm signs and evaluate the likelihood of their climbing up the walls. Please be thorough, lives depend on the safety of this place."
"What are you going to do?" Co'Balt asked
"Look around some more and then talk with some of the villagers and Qrow. You're not going to need my help. Just don't split up. Off you go…"
"Go on, give them a hand."
Qrow directed his four students to where the bullheads with all the farming supplies were being unloaded. People were already sorting and stacking crates in preparation for the long tasks ahead of them. The Huntsman heard the four youngster start whispering disgusted complaints to each other, but thought nothing of it. He had more important things to do than babysitting.
Like finally catching up with one of his best friends.
An elderly woman leaning heavily on a tall twisted staff of wood shuffled out of one of the ground vehicles. She was shriveled with age, dressed in thick cloaks and furs, with very grey dreadlocks bound behind her head. But her eyes were full of life looking at the Huntsman expectantly.
"Come on now lad," She called out to him with a smile, "Show some respect and accommodate the old, I'm not walking over there."
She bent her fingers summoning him closer. And he gladly obliged. Qrow took her left hand in both of his and gently shook it smiling at his old friend.
"You look good Jade." He told her
She laughed out loud and tapped his shin with her walking staff. "I look three steps from death, but maybe not if you can lie that convincingly…"
Jade sighed and her voice in softened in weariness, "Thank you for this place Qrow, we may not have lasted another year out in the wilds."
He waved his hand in dismissal, "Anything for family you know that."
These people were always good to him and Hunters in general. Taking them in when any were wounded or tired from fighting the Grimm out beyond the cities. They were never hesitant to share their knowledge of the ways of the wilderness. Qrow knew it would just have been a damn shame if they had disappeared like so many others.
The old woman smiled and spoke again, "Speaking of family I don't see your lovely nieces with you. Are they out with Sienna?"
"No," Qrow said, "I don't know what they're doing right now. And I wasn't going to get them anyway."
Jade shook her head slightly, "That's the way of the world isn't it. Come, share some tea and tell me what finally drew you out from Patch."
"Just a moment…"
Cardin slammed the last crate down next to the others that his team had dragged from the airship, glaring at the villagers who were standing around clearly not helping. He didn't know what APRC was doing but he didn't see them busting their asses as glorified movers.
Their Huntsman approached, holding a ragged rolled up piece of parchment gently tapping it in his right palm while he surveyed their work. He appeared to be satisfied and held out the scroll to Sky, the one standing nearest to him.
"Here's a map of the valley. Apparently there were a few rifts to the outside back in the old days. Go see if any are still around." Qrow ordered.
"Are you coming with us?" Dove asked.
"To do what? Run a few laps round here. Sorry, been there, done that." He quipped, "I have planning to do. Be sure your done by sunset."
As he walked away Cardin snatched the document away from Sky, his team crowded around him and tried to make sense of the faded lines and script.
"Shouldn't be too bad." He told his team.
"Shouldn't be to fun either…" Russell moaned.
The river was deep but it wasn't running very fast, anything could have easily crossed it at any time. Across on the other side team APRC had so far only seen trees and undisturbed tall grass no sign of anything at all. Back on their side of the river it was mostly flat shale fragments and sand from the cliffs which stretched to the sky over their heads.
The temperature dropped several degrees as the moved over into the shadows each of them had tried climbing up at one point or another but so far hadn't gotten further than a few feet. The rock was fragile. Meaning that even if there were any natural handholds those didn't last long if something heavy tried to climb up.
Aside from a few ancient spent shell casings there wasn't anything interesting around. The team was still moving cautiously but they were slowing down somewhat. Co'Balt knelt down by the water's edge and brought a handful up to his face and sniffed it cautiously.
"You're not seriously going to drink that are you?" Alicia asked
In response he noisily slurped up a mouthful, and then shook the excess off of his hand.
"Seems fine." He told her,
"If you drop dead later don't come crying to me."
He laughed a little, "Duly noted."
Jaxon was in the lead, his mind actually on the job. Which was why he stopped and stood motionless and looking across the river, Co'Balt and Alicia weren't paying attention but Kad stepped next to the Faunus and immediately noticed what had drawn his teammate's attention.
It wasn't hard to miss the large low slung lizard Grimm lying in the weeds on the opposite bank. Which lazily turned its long white head towards the four of them. The Leatherback's scaly lip curling in disgust while scenting the air.
Kad brought his hand up to the hilt of Ignis, Jaxon aimed his rifle. The Grimm didn't move it just sat there watching the two of them.
"Think we should leave it alone?" Jaxon asked his leader.
Kad never got to answer suddenly cut off by a surprised yell from Alicia.
Co'Balt had filling up a canteen from the river, unprepared in the whirlwind departure from school. But water wasn't the only thing he had drawn out of the stream. As his hand breached the surface another one of the Leatherbacks exploded from the depths, jaws opened wide to drag him down.
If it hadn't been for his semblance it would have certainly caught him.
In a sudden moment of panic and wild yelling he flashed backwards and crashed into Alicia. His ax was pinned behind him and Alicia yelped in shock stunned for a moment unable to reach for her knife pinned beneath her teammate. The two of them tried to scramble to their feet but just kept getting in each other's way. The Grimm snarled and lunged up the riverbank.
Jaxon moved. Uzipho cracked, bullets glanced off of the Grimm's armored forehead, disorienting the monster.
Co'Balt shoved off Alicia and the ground, right hand taking his weapon off his hip. The Grimm focused again and reared up hissing. He spun and with both hands slammed Keila into the side of its head. The blade bit deep into its brain cutting an eye in half.
Alicia jackknifed to her feet and looked over the river. The wakes of more submerged Grimm were heading right towards her team, black scaly hides well camouflaged in the deep. One of their heads broke the surface briefly before sliding back down.
"Get behind me!" Kad shouted as he moved forward to the river bank, his massive sword in both hands.
Alicia made a plan…
CRDL all simultaneously looked up at the sound of gunfire and yelling that echoed over this side of the wall.
"Should we…" Dove started to ask, but was instantly cut off as Cardin pushed him aside and scrambled up to the top of the terraces. Tramping through the tilled soil with no regard for damage. The team followed their leader to the top of the wall, eager to break the monotony of their search for the rifts.
The first Grimm to reach them shot out straight at Kad. Ignis fell in a burning arc and cracked into its head. Five more of the creatures were wading out of the water hissing and swiveling their heads looking at their prey.
Before they were even halfway out there was a blinding flash of light as Alicia acted. Several bolts of blue light flew out from the knife Detergeo clutched in her hand and flash froze the Grimm in the river. The trapped Leatherbacks shook and howled unable to escape.
Cardin couldn't help but laugh and his team did too, sarcastically applauding as well. Team APRC looked up to their new audience.
"You taking notes or what?" Jaxon yelled up at the four of them.
"Oh please. Show us how it's done." Dove answered.
Co'Balt spun Keila up and braced the ax's head into his shoulder racking a slug into the shotgun chamber. He fired four times into the head of the closest Grimm. Smoking bone blood and brains flew backwards into the unfrozen river.
Jaxon shifted Uzipho into a spear and drove it down a monster's throat. The Leatherback hacked and coughed as the blade twisted and cut deep until it slumped forward dead.
Kad raised his sword back over his left shoulder and struck. Slashing through the forehead of one Grimm and then cut the next one in half on the upswing. The red blade burnt up under its short forelegs and through its chest cavity and head.
Alicia stretched out her right hand holding her knife, pointing her fingers as she focused her semblance. A glyph shimmered into existence like a collar around the last beast. As her finger tips closed together and the lights crisscrossing the glowing red symbol closed together. The Grimm's head fell to the ice with a dull thud.
Kad rested his sword back on his right shoulder looking up at the other team.
"What are you guys doing?" The giant asked, as the rest of his team got back to their task at hand eager to move away from their fellow trainees.
"Lookin at rocks, lots of rocks." Cardin replied.
"Sounds fun."
"Unbelievably…."
Inside one of the group's large communal vehicles in a small furnished dining area, Sienna snatched the steaming cup of tea out of Qrow's hand as he brought it to his mouth to drink. Jade laughed at his outraged expression.
Qrow scowled "Rude…"
"Bite me." Sienna replied.
Jade smiled "Enough children, save it for when the sun goes down."
"Not tonight Jade." Qrow said with half a grin.
"Come now, I wasn't implying anything Qrow."
"No I mean I have somewhere to be."
The elder woman didn't think she heard the young man quite right, "What?"
"I need to get to Mountain Glenn." Qrow told her.
"Are you serious?"
"Deathly."
Shocked silence settled over the room for a moment before both women began angrily voicing their opinions at the same time.
"What load of shit is this?!" Sienna snarled,
"You're nuts!" Jade exclaimed,
"Why would you leave? There is too much to do."
"What about your trainees?"
"Calm down, Calm down." Qrow said, holding up both of his palms to stop the barrage of questions.
"What is going on?" Jade asked bluntly.
"I have a job to do."
Dubious and outraged Sienna pressed her colleague again, "What damn job Qrow? I though you finally remembered this,"
She cast her left arm in a broad circle, "Was your job. Isn't that why you finally crawled off of Patch?"
"Well you might be half right. I'm not like Bartholomew by a long shot." He said with a chuckle and sipped at a new cup of tea he had poured while talking. Sienna crossed her arms and sulked backwards into her armchair.
Qrow tried to explain himself, "Almost a year ago now Ozpin contacted me, he wanted me to look into a few things. First I declined, obligations you know. But then Ruby was suddenly accepted into Beacon, and the headmaster at Signal didn't have any more star students for me to mentor..."
He paused, running through his own logic one more time, "So I took a good hard look and found there was really nothing keeping me at Signal any longer. And so here I am back in the fray. Like I said, I never really caught the teacher's passion."
Jade was still angry at the thought of him leaving her people right at this critical time, "But then why did you come here?"
"The marshal and the review board wanted to make sure I was fit for duty," Qrow told her, "Once they finally figured out I was active again anyway. Ozpin wasn't able to convince them otherwise. So here I am."
Sienna found her voice again, "But there's nothing over there but gnawed bones and Grimm."
"Exactly."
That explanation only earned him more confused looks. Qrow continued,
"Someone has been stirring up trouble in the city. Raiding cargo shipments and stealing all the Dust they can. And the White Fang has thrown their lot in with them. I've been tracking their leader, the one who facilitated this little 'merger'."
He held up both hands and twitched his index and middle finger emphasizing that word, "But they've gone to ground and I can't find them. Ozpin however did manage to figure they've got something going out in Mountain Glenn. He's sent Oobleck and a team out. I'll meet up with them and be back in a day. Simple recon."
Sienna leaned forward in her chair taking in this information, then quietly huffed in resignation. Qrow was hurt by the anger in her eyes unable to put words to how bad he felt about dumping so much extra responsibility on her. But they had very little time, and this was the best he could do with it. The whole situation was just awkward and crappy all around, but he hoped that his old friends would pull through and cover for them.
"Sienna I…"
'No…" She cut him off, "It could be worse. Just a little warning next time would be nice. And you can tell Ozpin I expect to be there when you put these guys down."
"Deal."
The day dragged on into late afternoon. APRC finished their circuit around the walls, as did CRDL. And they each reported to their Hunter in turn.
Sienna and Qrow were pleased. The outer walls would be hard to climb and the crevasses through them had all been filled in with concrete at some point in the past. So with orders to settle in for the night both teams left to build fires and arrange sleeping positions.
On the opposite sides of the vehicle circle of course.
So that left Qrow and Sienna standing in the growing darkness next to an empty bullhead which Qrow was going to commandeer for his trip. They had finalized his plans. Going to the abandoned city would only take a few hours and he would be back by the next evening.
"Are you going to break this too your team?" Sienna asked,
Qrow shrugged, "They'll deal with it. Plus you'll keep them in line, this won't take long."
"Alright… Good luck Qrow."
He held his arms open, trying to look sorry some more for his terrible planning. Sienna smiled almost wistful and the two embraced each other briefly before Qrow boarded and started the engines…
"Just one plane."
Jaxon tracked the disappearing airship with his binoculars until it disappeared beyond the walls. None of his team paid attention to his observation, Co'Balt and Alicia were sitting and talking with Kad as he started to build up their small fire with bits of wood they had spent an hour collecting.
"I never saw anyone use glyphs like that." Co'Balt told Alicia trying to strike up a conversation.
"I use mine more like barriers and solid objects. I can lift people and break falls but that's about it. I've had a lot of practice with unorthodox placement."
"You never figured out if you can do anything else with them?"
"Ehh not really, a couple generations kind of watered them down. Course they say no one ever truly knows the depth of their aura or semblance. But I really don't know if I could."
"Well you never know what you can't do until you've tried." Sienna spoke as she walked out of the shadows, carrying a large green backpack and a folding chair which she opened and sat in, to the right of Co'Balt
He was the first to notice her dark mood. "You have the furrowed brow of a very worried person."
"Well grown up stuff. Don't worry your pretty little head." She casually roughed with his hair for a second. Sienna opened up the pack and began pulling out ration packs and a few bits of fresh fruit to the team.
"There has been a slight change of plans…" She said after a moments putting together her speech.
The four of them perked up when she spoke those words.
"Unfortunately Qrow has had to leave on urgent business so I'm in charge of everything now." She explained, "Which that means you're going to have to mix with your yonder friends some more tomorrow."
"Where did he go?" asked Kad.
"You don't need to know, sorry kid. So eat up and figure out a watch schedule. There's an old gun nest by the entrance, set up there."
With that Sienna stood and left the pack on the chair. Co'Balt spoke up when she was out of hearing distance.
"This is bullshit! First…"
"Shut up!"
Kad spoke softly but his voice seemed to drown out everything else, even the little insects chirping in the bushes fell silent.
"We'll deal with it. We'll just deal with it. Go to sleep I'll take the watch, don't bother coming to relieve me I'll be fine."
So the giant stood and left their firelight, swiftly becoming just another shadow out in the night.
A/N A lot of set up, but just wait, as I said now the fun begins. Thanks for your patience.