"Jace Arc and Gina Newman..." Ruby mused quietly as she looked at the tags that labeled the two carriages in the room. Both were fast asleep, having been cared for by Miss Black earlier, and all bundled up looking comfy. She sighed lowly, before slinking away from the two carriages and waltzing around the penthouse with little care in where she went. She hated that so much was changing so quickly. She hated change in general so the rapid pace that everything was jostled and thrown around so haphazardly and bulldozed through these past few days to get to where they were was certainly enough to put her in a somewhat foul mood...

Midnight being present and caring for her improved her mood a little, but as hard as she might try to hide how upset she was, she couldn't mask it forever. Going to Wolf's was a nice, very slight return to her old schedule. She just wanted to return to her old routine, she wanted her mother, father and sister back, but only found herself more and more upset the more she reminded herself that the former two were dead, and her sister was likely dead too.

Grumbling angrily, she tried to find something, anything to get her mind off her old family. Thinking about it all would only hurt more, and she needed to direct her focus onto something she liked, something she had a passion in, something-

"Heads up, kiddo." She snapped her head up to the sound of Marcus's voice, and her eyes beamed in joy as he tossed her his disruptor rifle, the cell noticeably absent. Ruby only just barely caught it, and immediately went to retrieve a towel so she could lay it out and disassemble the weapon over it, figure out more of this devastating weapon's secrets...

"Now..." Marcus mused as Mercury carted in the seismic charge and a good handful of other sensitive technologies. He motioned for his son to bring it forward, setting it all down on the table and pulling a seat out for himself and his son, before sorting through all the technology. After making note of each piece and organizing it all in a coherent manner, he pushed the bomb aside to where it would be just out of the way but within reach, and began his lesson.

"Alright mi'boy, y'know what we got here?"

"A bunch of cables, a remote detonator, a signal link, and a calibrator, right?" Mercury perked up slightly, noting that a lesson was now underway.

"Yeah. Do you know how to use it all and get the signal link properly fitted to the seismic charge?"

"Uh... n-no, I don't..."

"Not to worry, Mercury my boy! I'm gonna teach ya how to do it right!" He ruffled his son's silver hair, before turning back to everything present. "Now, seismic charges work a little differently than other explosives. They're sonic weapons, technology unknown to this world. This variant of seismic charge is one of the lower yield ones, but it can still easily lay waste to a city."

"Uhh... and how exactly is that 'low yield'?" Mercury asked with a nervous look on his face.

"You'd be surprised just how small a city-scale weapon's explosive radius is in space combat." He informed, before turning back to the bomb. "Higher yield ones can punch a continent-sized hole in asteroid belts, and there have been sonic super weapons in the past that could devastate entire planets. So like I said, as far as large-scale sonic weapons go, this one is pretty low-yield."

"Wow... that sounds powerful..."

"You'd best bet it is, Merc. Now, where was I...?"

"You were saying that they worked differently than normal explosives."

"Ah, that's right! Now..." Marcus picked up the signal link, setting it in front of Mercury. "We need to get this-" he pointed to the item he'd pulled over. "-calibrated to that." He gestured with his free hand to the bomb. "This Seismic Charge is already a remote detonated variant, but the link and the remote detonator aren't calibrated to be able to receive or send the right signals to detonate the bomb. Even if we rigged the signal link to the bomb and triggered the detonation, it wouldn't work."

"And that's what the calibrator is for." Mercury deduced, pulling the device to himself.

"That's right, and the cables are so we can properly rig the signal link. Even if we calibrated the detonator to the bomb itself, it wouldn't trigger the detonation. Tech is too incompatible. That's why we got the signal link. It doesn't so much receives signals as it does adapt them. It's a link between incompatible tech, make sense?" Mercury nodded his head vigorously, before turning his attention back to the bomb.

"So... calibrate the bomb to the link, and the link to the detonator, right?"

"Oh? Are you so sure about that?" Marcus tested, receiving a confident grin from his son.

"I am. If you link the remote to the explosive's signal and not the other way around, it won't be able to pick up or detonate other explosives you want to blow up when you push the big red button."

"Haha! Atta'boy!" He pat Mercury on the back a few times before pulling everything together. "Now, I want you to do it all. Don't worry, son, I'll walk you through every step of the way."

"Thanks, dad... now..." Mercury took the calibrator in hand and started getting to work under his father's guidance. With enough time, patience and practice, Marcus hoped he'd see his son do it all on his own some day... but for now, he was content to let this be some bonding time with his son he'd for so long neglected...

The disruptor truly was such a marvel of technology, Ruby thought as she finished disassembling it and looking over everything. She'd always been so fascinated in weapons technology, but her mom and dad never let her touch their weapons out of concern that she'd hurt herself. Nonetheless, even if others couldn't make heads or tails of something, when it came to weapons, she just did. Her mind just seemed to click with that, as she'd learned what everything did and how they worked in both her mom and dad's weapons just by seeing them disassembled or field stripped, and it seemed no different with these weapons.

Of course, there was some tech in there that she just didn't or rather couldn't figure out. Tech light years ahead of what Remnant had. Nevertheless, she had a solid understanding of most of it all, and anything she didn't understand...

"Hi sweetie, do you need anything?" The soft, gentle voice of Miss Black reached her ear from behind, and she looked back with a big smile plastered over her face, her foul mood from earlier seemingly gone entirely. Whenever there was something technological that she didn't understand, she was right there to help her out. As far as weaponry went, Miss Black, in Ruby's eyes, was a bonafide genius. It was like she knew everything there was to know about weapons and advanced technology, which made her extremely helpful in learning. Just as well, she knew how to make it all too, not just understand it, and she was always just so nice. She also made her dinosaur chicken nuggets earlier and they were super tasty, so in her eyes, Miss Black hadn't done much to prevent herself from becoming idolized.

"I asked da... uh..."

"Sweetie, you keep making that same slip up, but I don't think Mister Midnight would be opposed to you referring to him as 'daddy...' but you do seem to have gotten rather attached to him. Can I ask why?" She asked in a soft tone, sitting cross-legged beside Ruby and resting a hand on her shoulder. The child sighed.

"I've always gotten super attached super quickly whenever someone tried to understand me, or didn't treat me like I was different or weird." Ruby mumbled, just loud enough for Miss Black to hear. "Mommy and daddy, they always treated me different than Yang, my big sis. Like I was... special, or something. I hated being treated like I was different than everyone else, still do. They even made all my decisions for me... I didn't have any say then. They said they'd let me make decisions for myself when I was older, but Yang got to make those same decisions on her own at my age. It's like they didn't trust me or something... but Mister Midnight..."

"Has protected you and treated you in a more normal manner, like a father treats their daughter." Ruby nodded her head, before shifting in place a bunch.

"He treats me like how mommy and daddy treated Yang... like how I always wanted to be treated. I love my mommy and daddy... but they never understood me."

"Well, someone wired so differently such as you are can be difficult for normal people to understand." Miss Black nodded her head, receiving a confused look from the girl.

"Wired... different?"

"Forget I said anything, it's just a hypothesis on observation. Anyways, you shouldn't keep yourself from calling him how you feel him to be, it'll just keep it awkward." She advised, before looking down on the disassembled weapon. "Now... you were saying as before?"

"Oh, right! I asked Mister Midnight how Disruptors work awhile back, but he couldn't answer the question... do you know?" Ruby snapped back to her original question while looking up with hopeful eyes.

"But of course! Now, where to start..." she tapped her chin a few times in contemplation, before snapping her fingers just a few seconds later, "oh yes! On the most basic level, Disruptors work by consuming a large amount of blaster gas, such as tibana gas such as what we use and synthesize for ammo. Its generated in a similar manner to that of a regular blaster, but it is different and uses a lot more gas. The internals are very different, though, and the beam undergoes a drastically different transformation to form the disruptor's shot. The result is the short-ranged but devastating beam you're already familiar with. They creat an energy wave consisting of disruptive, nonharmonic energy pulses that excite a target's molecules to the point that it destroys the bonds that hold their constituent atoms together. It's believed to be quite painful, but nobody has ever actually survived being shot by a disruptor... so that really can't be confirmed since nobody has, well... survived getting shot." She informed, before tapping her chin again with a smug grin evident. "Disruptors are also useful for bypassing energy shields, and as aura works in a similar manner to an energy shield, it all but ignores that too."

"Wow! I didn't quite understand all of that but I think I understood most of it! That's so cool! Can you show me how everything works?! Please?" Ruby blurted out, drawing a small laugh out of the woman.

"Alright, Ruby, let's get to educating you on the wonderful world of disruptor weaponry!"

He was hoping to turn in for the night, but had become preoccupied with other duties such as making sure everything was going smoothly in their currently limited motor pool. A total of five MRAPs, one of them his own, one Marcus's, the other three belonging to the others, four eight-wheeled APCs with .50 caliber heavy machine guns and 7.62 LMGs, the two LMTVs that the Armorer transported all her equipment with, three yachts, and a single, heavily armored, turreted and tracked vehicle with a 120mm main gun and some other, lighter armaments in total. It was obviously a tank of some sorts, but did not know the name given to it by these people, nor the technical specs of it, not that it necessarily mattered at the moment.

"Mand'alor, it's a pleasure to meet you in person." A smaller, heavily built man approached him, extending his hand for him to shake. He has short blonde hair and blue eyes, with light scarring over his left cheek and a chunk of his right ear missing. "Casus Rylanor, I'm one of your combat-ready Mandos' sibling. Pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise, Casus." He took the man's hand and gave it the firm shake he was hoping for. "Do you need something?"

"Me and the three boys over there operate this tank, did that our whole careers in the Atlesian Military. Twelve years on my end, they're all at 5, 7 and 8."

"How long ago did you serve?"

"About twenty years retired now. Your warrior is my little sister. Was only in grade school when I was finalizing my dd 214." He informed, before setting a hand on the tank and giving it an affectionate pat. "Atlas discontinued the use of tanks eight years ago. Sold all ones they still had. Me and my old crew were all from here, bought our old tank at an auction. Spent the last few years restoring this old girl to her former glory and loading it for bare."

"Armored assets are always beneficial to any fighting force, so it'll be a welcome addition." Midnight nodded, knowing just how useful a tank with a good crew could be in a real battle. "How experienced are you and yours?"

"We all have Excellence in Armor honors, and as a crew we've served in seven separate deployments, six of them combat. Counter-terrorist operations. Enemy had armored assets just like us. We've traded fire with the enemy on 121 separate occasions, and have a confirmed tank kill count of 448." He informed, gesturing to his crew mates not too far away as they each busied themselves with a separate task around the motor pool.

"Quite impressive, to be sure. Is your armor ready for action?"

"Affirmative. We're ready to engage any target on a moment's notice, Mand'alor." Midnight nodded again in satisfaction, before looking the vehicle up and down a few times, a curious thought settling on his mind.

"What's the tank's nomenclature and specs?" The question made Casus perk up slightly, before running down the list...

"It's a updated and up-gunned variant of the ATC-101 from the Great War, the ATC-101A2 SEP v4. Oh, the ATC part stands for 'Advanced Tank Complex,' by the way." He informed, before continuing. "It's main gun is an L/60 120mm smoothbore cannon, and it can fire Sabot, MPAT, canister, and Hunter Killer missiles due to the electronic activation of ammunition. Gunner has a .50 caliber coaxial MG, loader has a 7.62 rotary machine gun, and commander has 20mm MG on a CROWS mount. Two spare barrels for the .50 cal stored inside, including one spare for the 20mm. Other armaments inside include two 6.5mm service carbines for myself and Vaughn, our loader, and the .45 caliber handguns we all carry on our persons for if the crap really hits the fan."

"Good weaponry, what about the vehicle specs, like the engine, weight distribution, vehicle weight?"

"2500 hp turbine engine. Total weight unloaded is about 80 tons, just under 83 fully loaded and crewed. Can still reach a top speed of 50 mph governed on road, 60 ungoverned. 16.4 PSI weight distribution on the treads. Tank is fifteen feet wide, thirty six long, with a standard ground clearance of 19 inches. Standard height is eight feet, but because of the hydropneumatic suspension height has a little wiggle room. Treads are each three feet wide, rubber pads at the bottom makes them damage the road a little less." He started, before moving on. "It doesn't have XUA package equipped, but it adds a few more tons of experimental explosive reactive armor, or ERA if you don't have the time, to the skirts and sides of the turret, and Beskar panels to the front cheeks of the turret and hull."

"It adds what." Midnight deadpanned, an unamused look crossing his face which was somehow easily read even despite his helmet concealing it.

"Atlas lacks the proper means to make anything smaller than tank armor with Beskar, but we ourselves don't have that part of the XUA package. Those panels cost a fortune, y'know?" He explained, before pulling himself up on top of the hull of the tank. He bonked the front of the turret a few times, before giving a short laugh. "Otherwise, the armor is a combination of rolled homogeneous steel and composite plate, in different areas respectively. Front cheeks and some sections of the skirts are composite, as well as a few sections on the side of the hull to protect ammunition stowage. Rest of the armor is steel."

"Seems a good vehicle all round. Very well, we'll greatly appreciate your fire support." Midnight finalized, shaking the man's hand once more before taking his leave. He'd given every vehicle a once-over now, the tank was the last thing on his list, and now that it was out of mind, he could finally kick back and relax for awhile up in the penthouse.

He was sharing the Penthouse with the Black family, not that he minded as Marcus had made himself a fast friend. That, and Ruby could interact more freely with Mercury, which while not as important as not dying wasn't exactly low on the priority list. The child needed to interact with her peers at least enough to learn to get along with different kinds of people, after all.

He walked in on the back end of what seemed to be lesson time in the penthouse, which had seemingly become something of an impromptu classroom as it seemingly became a sort of hub of activity in his absence. Miss Black was teaching a number of foundlings, Ruby included, the ins and outs of their weaponry, while Marcus taught others how to properly handle explosive ordinance in just about every given manner. While those two taught their trade, Aaron and the rest of his squad taught other useful skills, such as tactics and survival skills.

Overall, it seemed the clan was productive before anything else, which suited him just fine. However on his end, he was still a great many hours sleep deprived from when he fought alongside his brothers against the Separatists, and hadn't yet caught up on his hours... not that he ever really believed he would in his lifetime, but that was beside the point. He was tired, and wanted to get some sleep. He doubted anyone would object to him getting some rest, so while he did regard everyone with a wave, he didn't really say anything as he marched up to his room and started settling down in his bed...

He'd been asleep for about an hour before he was awakened by the sound of the door quietly creaking open, but didn't really jump up and into a ready state as he already knew exactly who it was. Rolling his eyes behind the mask, he lifted the blanket a bit, and the child came running, stuffing herself up against him just as he lowered the blanket.

Wrapping at arm around her somewhat protectively, he kept a sort of half-watch with one eye open until the child was fast asleep maybe twenty minutes later, before following in suit without hesitation...

She woke up before Midnight, but decided to just stay put awhile, keep her guardian company. Surely he wouldn't mind, and in her mind waking up alone always felt so sad and would make her cry most times. Hence why she loved her teddy bear so much, though she'd admit she was far more fond of her armor-clad guardian than she was of even her previous teddy.

"I wonder what you dream of... Mister Midnight..?" She mused to herself in a hushed tone so as to not accidentally wake him... but locked up slightly when she noticed him shifting about in a restless manner, as if he was reliving something unpleasant... was he?

Picking herself up on all fours, she set a hand on his breastplate and looked into that black visor of his, hoping so see... something, anything. She really wasn't sure what she was hoping she'd see, but all that greeted her from that black glass was her own, worried expression...

He growled lowly as he rolled off his back and picked himself up from the ground, brushing the red sand out of the chinks in his armor and feeling around for his DC-15 blaster rifle, grinning as he lifted it up to scan his surroundings with as he rose to a knee... only for his smile to be wiped right off his face when he saw that the front half of the blaster was missing. Not only that, but all his brothers were...

"What..? N-no, you guys..." all around him, his brothers lie dead, sprawled across the ground and under the debris of the crashed gunship, the one closest to him missing the lower half of his body entirely. Looking down upon himself, he trembled in horror as blood has been splattered all over his own armor, and bits of grey matter from another of his brothers had stuck to and got lodged in the gaps in his armor. "We're all dead..."

Dropping his blaster to the floor, he limply swung his head back and forth, taking in every body lying unmoving across the canyon floor. He noted that the Jedi that boarded his gunship was very dead, with only his lower body sticking out from underneath the gunship, the rest flattened and left little more than a stain on the sand. Standing upright, he was able to get a better view of the battlefield, at least what he could see within this damn canyon.

For the most part, the canyon was calm. There weren't any battle droids marching down the sand towards him, and most of the carnage seemed to be overhead in the skies or far away on a larger, more open playing field. Still, the sounds of carnage roared through the air, deafening even so far from where it took place. But he wasn't foolish enough to think of himself as safe. He was still in a war zone, and there was no such thing as "safe" here.

First things first, he needed a weapon. He found it in the Sergeant's DC-15A carbine, though he had to pry it out of the dead sergeant's hands that seemingly locked up upon death, but he managed. Second, he needed to find his way to the frontlines. He knew he wasn't a Commando, so there was no way he could survive on his own so far away from the battlefront, and an ambush would most likely take his life with little trouble.

However, as if it were completely out of nowhere, a terribly battle cry echoed off the walls of the ravine, and before he could even react, he felt his feet leave the ground as something grasped him under the armpits. Not losing grip of his carbine with either hand, he wrenched his arms around and managed to aim the gun up in his panic, firing straight up without hesitation.

And with a single shot, the native that tried to drag him off was killed in an instant, dropping him and leaving him to plummet about twenty feet to the ground, hitting it with a roll to break the fall but also ending up with his face in the dirt. Grunting painfully, he rose to his feet and turned around to continue on his way-

"ACK!" He screamed as a sharp pain raced diagonally across his body from his left hip to his right shoulder, throwing him back down to the ground with a spin. He'd only gotten a split second sight of his new assailant, but he recognized them as one of the Geonosian Elite.

Landing on his front, he gasped painfully as he hit the floor, looking for anything he could use to turn the tide. With standard armaments, he wouldn't stand a chance against a brute like this! Besides, his carbine was knocked away with the strike, not that it would do him any good. It might've helped if he could see anything, but the strike disrupted his helmet's computer and all he could see was a distorted and digitized static. He wanted to rip off his helmet so he could see what was what, but he didn't have enough time before the next attack.

Finally, his hand settled on come sort of textured, metallic cylinder and his thumb over some sort of button. He didn't know what it was, for all he knew, it might be a weird pipe just as well as it could be his severed barrel, nevertheless, gripping the cylinder as hard as he could, his thumb pressed into the button, and he swung wildly as he flipped himself onto his back-

*SCHHHHHT*

A look of surprise crossed his face as his enemy howled in agony, before the sound of two things hitting the floor hard crossed his ears. Panting lowly, he used his free hand to rip off his screwed up helmet so he could see clearly. Much to his shock, somehow the Geonosian has been bisected across the waist, with his upper half having fallen back and the lower fallen sideways, the cut on both ends being already cauterized somehow...

"What the..?" He mused, before turning his attention to the weapon in his hand. Bringing it back around, he stared in silent awe at the ice blue blade in his hands, marveling its power without a sound. It's faint hiss reached his ears like the call of a friend, beckoning for him to carry on and push forward.

He sighed quietly, wondering just what kind of punishment must await him for being in possession of such a weapon while being just another nameless face among millions identical. Eventually, though, he pushed the thought aside, picked himself up, found a new helmet, collected his Sergeant's Carbine, and shut off the laser sword, clipping it onto his belt. He might not know how to use the blade like any Jedi, and he might not know how to deflect blaster bolts or use the Jedi's weird magics, but he'd take any weapon that could effectively kill any enemy in just one good slash.

So, with a slight limp but fiery heart and unbreakable determination, he collected his fallen brothers' tags, and began his journey back to the battlefront...

Tap tap tap-

"Ugh..." Midnight groggily fluttered his eyelids open, taking in the sight of the child sitting right beside him. She was resting a hand on his breastplate just beside the three ammo pouches, tapping a finger every half-second or so with a concerned look on her face... or so he thought it was concern. Reading a child's expressions was a little different than reading an adult's... more obvious, and that threw him off a little sometimes.

"Oh... morning, kid."

"Mister Midnight! You're awake!" She greeted his awakening with as big a hug as she could muster, catching him slightly off guard but not necessarily phasing him too much. He ruffled her hair in response, before pulling himself upright and swinging his feet over the side of the bed. The digital clock on the bedside table read 0820, telling him it was still about mid-morning.

It suited him just fine, in all honesty, though admittedly he would've preferred a later wake-up. Nevertheless, he had another day to prepare everyone for the coming operation, and to possibly bring in new recruits if the enemy was bold enough to attack this place again. To his knowledge, their previous attack exhausted most if not possibly all the senior-most Grimm in the area, and dropped the Grimm Activity Level considerably, so the chances of an actual notable assault on the city he believed to be fairly slim.

Nevertheless, it wouldn't do to let his guard down. So, arming himself with all his weapons and making sure all his armor was set right, he scooped up Ruby, and headed out the door, ready to tackle another day...