Chapter 6:
Some New Toys.
This chapter is not: Into the Tundra, that will be next chapter. =-Disclaimer: RWBY is owned by Roosterteeth not me. Copy and paste
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Winter finished the retelling the report. The Beacon huntresses had been quiet and respectful while she was retelling of the events over an early breakfast. She gave them a few more minutes to absorb/reflect on what they had learned as she finished her own breakfast.
"This is a very detailed report, of the events, usually sightings of him are just rumors about him being spotted and he practically never speaks. If the Atlas government, or at least General Ironwood is going after him, then, does this make this the first time that a government is taking action in regards to the Winter Knight?" Weiss asked.
Winter shook her head, "There are several official reports where governors of cities have sent hunters or investigators to find him after a sighting, but nothing ever came of those endeavors. This is the first time that we are have asked for help from outside the continent to find the Winter Knight. The General was able to convince the Council to let him send his operatives to Edoras to investigate the events that transpired. He did have to embellish necessity for the security assessment to alleviate concerns and suspicions, but his true objective was to look into this most recent sighting of the Winter Knight."
The girls nodded in understanding, the General, Headmaster Ironwood finally had a good excuse to look into the mysterious individual who had been wandering through his kingdom for the last decade.
Building a castle so that you have walls to protect them others, that's not the mindset of a hunter, or psychopath, or a hermit, that's more like a protector. Can it really be you? Luna thought. Her thoughts were interrupted as Winter continued.
"With the software installed on your scrolls from the holotable, I will also be able to constantly track each of you from here and as well as monitor your status. Since I am in charge of this mission, I will be sleeping here since there is a private dormitory connected to this room for these types of scenarios and another specialist will rotate in, so it won't always be me on coms."
"What is the big ruckus in Atlas that has made the Council demanded all of Headmaster Ironwood's time?" Ruby was pretty curious about that, she knew that search and rescue missions that sanctioned by members of a Kingdom's Council were seen just under priority one requests. Especially since General Ironwood was putting a lot of resources the search for the Winter Knight. "It has to be pretty important if it took him away from a mission he was supposed to be overviewing."
Winter grimaced before she answered, "A settlement was overrun by grimm just a few days ago and the Council is still dealing with the fallout both politically and economically."
There were gasps from the four huntresses. A Kingdom losing a settlement to grimm wasn't new or unheard of, it disheartening as well as something that less happened in the Kingdom of Atlas. While there were fewer attempts for trying to establish new settlements than in the other three kingdoms, the attempts that were made in Atlas had a far great chance at being successful in the long term. One factor that was helpful a large presence of military and huntsmen that would be stay until the settlement was firmly established, and afterwards it would be up to the settlement how large of a huntsmen and military presence they would continue to stay afterwards.
"It would seem that the Winter Knight was in the nearby area when the one of the evacuation convoys was attacked and they stumbled across him when they were fleeing the battlefield, and he decided to give them his aid. It is the concern about the security of other settlements that have the same or less security than the fallen settlement that has caused the General's time to be monopolized by the Council."
"So, what you're saying is that Glace was in the right place at the right time?"
"That is the most likely scenario, yes. And the governor of Edoras has compensated Azula for her hardship as well as her willingness to share this information regarding the Winter Knight. But it is now time to get you equipped for the mission. General Ironwood called in a favor and he was fortunate that it came through, we have secured you vehicles to use during the search."
"What kind of vehicles are we talking about? Heavy armor, something quick, moderate all around but comfortable?" Luna probed.
"Snow speeders, built by Dr. Pietro Polendina himself, whom I will be introducing you soon. Dr. Polendina will tell you in detail about his vehicles. He is—"
"Considered the brightest mind in all of Atlas, and potentially all of Remnant, he has a few offices around the city considering his expertise in multiple fields is always in demand." Weiss interrupted, she then realized she had cut off her sister and mission overseer. "I apologize Winter, I shouldn't have interrupted."
The Specialist causally waved it off, "It's alright Weiss, I know you have always wanted to meet him."
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Winter took them to an into a mechanical workshop that was relatively close to Atlas Academy, engines, microchips, and other assortments of technology laying around the room. When they entered, the first thing that they noticed was a darker skin man wearing a green flat cap in a hovering wheelchair. He was constantly moving around the room grabbing different tools for a complicated cubeish looking piece of technology he was working on. He was so focused on it that he didn't notice that they entered, until Winter cleared her throat to announce their presence.
"Ah, Winter, you've arrived a bit earlier than I expected."
"It is 8:53 Dr., you do remember that we were coming to meet you today at 9, right? Or did you stop looking at the clock around an hour ago." Winter replied coyly,
The Dr.'s eyes widened as he glances down at his watch, and then laughs, "Is it really that late already? Well now, I guess I should show you what you my gift to you so that you can cover the entire area James has you searching."
He pulls out a remote and presses a blue button on it. A large rolling door in the wall of the workshop opens up to reveal four motor vehicles. Despite the many differences, Ruby couldn't help but think of the similarities to her sister's prized motorcycle, Bumblebee.
They were long and sleek, single seat vehicle, they were painted grey with a red stripe running down the length of the vehicle, and they definitely looked fast. The entire speeder measured out to 14 feet long, but unlike Bumblebee, it had two sets of motorcycle handlebars, a higher centered set and a wider lower set, there was not windshield, or wheels for that matter.
"I call them BARC Speeders, its short for Biker Advanced Recon Commando Speeder. These are the first prototype models that I have been able to complete, the main engine uses gravity dust as repulsion to hover off the surface. I used a more powerful version of this technology that makes my chair hover, unfortunately they are prototypes have not been tested yet. Currently, I am not sure on how to improve on the model or even how they perform. I guess you could say that it was fortunate that James called in a favor for you."
"My daughter and I actually just finished building these not too short while ago, and I have been too busy to ask Ironwood if he could lend me a few of his pilots to test them out."
"Some things that were included into the speeder are: ground distance tracking, auto stabilizers, and radar. It does have some armaments, twin pair of 30 caliber high velocity machine guns mounted at the front, since it is a is the first model, I didn't equip it with heavy armaments."
As he is talking, a young girl with orange hair with a pink bow and a bright green dress walks into the room. As she enters she notices the huntresses and waves at them.
Pietro notices her right away, "Oh, hello there honey. Everyone, I would like to introduce you to my daughter Penny, she helped me build these hoverbikes, she will give you the demonstrations on how the work considering I don't feel well enough to leave my chair." He chuckles at his own joke.
"Salutation fellow huntresses, my name is Penny, it is an honor to meet all of you." Penny boldly approached the huntresses and greeted each one with a hand shake and a smile.
"Hi there, I'm Ruby,"
"Weiss Schnee, it is an honor to meet the daughter of the daughter of the famous Dr. Pietro Polendina."
"Likewise, I consider it honor to meet you as well."
"Hello Penny, my name is Pyrrha."
"Sup, I'm Luna."
"Meeting such wonderful people such as all of you is just sensational!"
Both Pyrrha and Weiss recognized that despite her appearance as a civilian, Penny had a surprisingly strong grip, like one that they had experience from Nora. But they chose not to comment and politely opted to observe instead.
"Now that you all have introduced yourselves, Penny if you won't mind, could you show these girls how to work the speeders?"
"Of course Father, it would be my pleasure." His daughter replied with a big smile on her face.
Penny sat down on one of the BARC starts to explain the multitude of functions on the hoverbike to the huntresses. Despite her awkward first impression she gave to the Beacon huntresses, she gives thorough and clear instructions that the team is able to understand and remember. Penny was more than happy to go back and explain anything that the girls had questions about. By the end of the demonstration, the team is confident that they know how to operate the speeders.
As Penny is talking to the Beacon huntresses, Winter makes her way over to Dr. Polendina's side.
"Dr. if you don't mind, are you sure it is a good idea to introduce Penny to outsiders this early?" Winter whispers, "They don't have clearance to even know her."
"I am quite positive that this is a good idea Specialist Winter." The Dr. responds in a low voice, "Penny is still learning and this is a perfect experience for her, she hasn't had a chance to interact with others who would be of similar age. While she may be teaching them, she is still observing and learning lessons from them that I can't teach her, and the sooner she learns these lessons about how she should interact with others, the better it will be for her in the future."
"If you say so doctor." As they tuned back to watching Penny with the huntresses.
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"Unfortunately we do not have a big enough area around here for you do test runs, so the testing phase will be during your mission." Penny finished.
"I want to thank you Penny and Dr. Polendina. I wouldn't worry too much about how they will perform. With your reputation in engineering alone, I trust that you would not let us use something that you were not confident would get us through our mission." Weiss smiled at him.
Pietro gave her a warm smile back and tipped his flat cap back at her, "Why thank you for your vote of confidence Ms. Schnee."
Ruby had a mischievous smirk as she looked over one of the speeders, "Yang would be so jealous right now if she knew what we were going to use."
Back at Beacon
Yang's smile drops into a frown before she flips to the left to dodge a hammer strike and jumps back to avoid shards of concrete flung into the air from the impact.
"What's wrong Yang? Not having fun anymore because you realized you can't beat me?" Nora laughed as she twirled her hammer around menacingly. She then batted a large chunk of debris on the floor at the Brawler and rushes forward. Yang smashes through the chunk of concrete and flips out of the way multiple hammer strikes that followed, the Brawler fires her right gauntlet to gain some more distance.
"Not a chance Lighting Bolt! I just got a feeling like I am missing out on something awesome."
Yang fired off three rapid shots at Nora and then fired behind her to launch herself towards the Warhammer girl. Nora hit the ground with her hammer and pushed herself off the ground to avoid the shots, as she landed Nora tried to swing Magnahild to counter the incoming Yang blitz, but the Brawler was already in her guard. Yang grabs hold of the shaft and the two powerhouses shove against each other trying to submit the other through raw power.
"It MUST be your sister and rest of the team! We'll ask them what they did when they get back."
Nora then headbutts Yang, stunning the blonde for a moment. The moment was all Hammer girl needed to break the deadlock and land a devastating blow with Magnahild.
Yang didn't have a chance to dodge and was forced to take the hit. She was knocked back across the arena floor. She recovers and grins back and activates her semblance, her hair burst into flames and her eyes turned blood red. "Cheap move there Nora. I'll get you back for that one."
Seeing her teammate getting serious, Nora quickly pulls out a small lighting dust crystal and breaks it in her hand so she could absorb its electrical charge, powering herself to match the Brawler. "Maybe, maybe not." She taunted with a wide smile.
The floor of the arena continued to crumble from the impacts of the forces beyond nature.
"I think that next time I let those two spar again, I will just launch them into the Emerald Forest and then check up on them after half an hour." Ren contemplated out loud as he watched the two titans going all out, destroying the arena in the process.
"You will have to ask the Headmaster or Professor Goodwitch for permission, so they know that Beacon isn't under attack when those two level half the forest." The fellow ninja replied,
"Blake, be realistic, it would be more like 1/6th, since Grimm inhabiting the forest and would be the main focus of-"
The next explosion also shook the stands overlooking arena. "-That."
"It shouldn't be too hard, I doubt that the Headmaster wants repairing combat arenas to part of Professor Goodwitch's daily routine, and he can't stop students from sparing. After all this will already be the second time this week that one of the arenas will have to be repaired." Blake added.
"I will put in a request after lunch so we have permission to send those two into the Emerald Forest whenever we want."
Back in Atlas
After learning how to work the BARC speeders from Penny, the four huntresses were outfitted with their cold weather gear. Each one doing their own thing to test the suit's capabilities.
"Wow, these suits are really comfortable." Ruby as she started jumping and running with quick bursts of her semblance to test her mobility, which she was very happy to feel that it didn't hinder her movements at all.
"And it fits perfectly underneath my armor." Pyrrha agreed, she was lightly stretching to test the flexibility of the suit
The Mistal Champion was preforming stretches with both the suit and her armor on to test its flexibility. She was thankful that the suit was slim enough that it did not catch on her armor as she stretched.
"I know right, and with these speeders, we should be able to find him in no time." Luna was double checking her bladed Franchi SPAS-12. Being from the Kingdom of Atlas, she had worn similar suits like these before, and this one was the most comfortable by far.
"While aura does have the ability to prevent us from freezing out there, none of us could go an entire day without this gear, it is also proper attire to have warm clothing such as this." Weiss said while adjusting her combat attire skirt
"The planned LZ for you is at the base of the mountain range if the pilot can get you there before any blizzard forms, if not, you will be dropped off as close as the pilot can safely get you to the mountain range. Since this is just east of Edoras, he will likely attempt to pass between the mountain passes instead of going around, especially if he is not concerned about the threat of grimm." Winter explained. "Good luck, the mission will officially start when you are on the ground again."
The huntresses pushed their speeders on the aircraft, and chatted for a bit as they took off
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Glace steadily climbed higher, he had been through these mountains a couple of times before, but that was years ago and he always seemed to get lost when it came to finding the shortcut through the mountains. The area itself was already prone to snow storms even without his presence and it made everything look the same.
Oh well. It's not like I'm in a hurry to get anywhere. He thought glumly
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Weiss was nervous, but she did her best to keep her breath steady. After all, she was a Schnee, Schnees were not allowed to show weakness, only strength. She proved that when she became team leader. But the thing the Heiress had learned since then Initiation, was that there were many different ways that strengths could manifest. While she was powerful as a huntress on her own, having the others fight alongside her, made her unstoppable. She had to learn what it meant to grasp at that strength.
Luna gripping the side of her seats firmly, she clearly was not enjoying the flight.
Ruby was checking her snow speeder, if anything to stay away from her. Despite how immature and childish the reaper was, well is, she proved that she could be an expert in weapons and similar advanced mechanics.
"Hey Pyrrha," Weiss asked, "I have been meaning to ask if you don't mind me asking, why don't you think Headmaster Ozpin didn't choose you to lead our team? You showed great prowess for leadership during our Initiation."
"Because it's not something that I am actually good at. If I had stayed in Mistral and had gone to Haven, I would have automatically become a team leader. Others may be willing to follow me just because of my fame, but the problem is that I am a warrior, I am not a leader. I have a feeling that our Headmaster saw the same thing when he made his choice."
Traveling halfway across the world to go to another academy might have also helped." Pyrrha didn't add.
When aircraft landed, Luna shakily got up and took a deep breath of relief. "Finally, ready to go Pyrrha?"
Pyrrha just nodded as the pilot came on the intercom.
"Look alive Huntresses, we have landed at the Secondary LZ now. The blizzard that we saw on the reports beat us to the mountains and it is now too dangerous to land at the Primary LZ." He announced to them. "This is as close as we can get you. Good luck and…" as he spotted their speeders, "Have fun Hunters."
The girls revved their speeders and guided them off the aircraft.
"This is the best day ever! We're on our first mission as huntresses!" Ruby exclaimed, flopping back into the snow flailing her arms and legs, making a snow angel.
"What about the day that you arrived at Beacon?" Luna asked, remembering was the day she got to meet her idol, Pyrrha Nikos, the Champion of Mistral.
Ruby jumped up defiantly, "It would have been if Yang hadn't abandoned the moment we got there and then I met Miss Improperly Packaged Dust Queen, who made me EXPLODE!"
Weiss grimaced at the unpleasant memory and took a few deep breaths to calm down and not lash out at her partner. They were both had some fault in that accident, she didn't secure her dust and the red reaper had a mild allergy to dust… dust used by huntsmen… as well fuel and the most important source for energy on the planet.
"I suppose we all could have had a better start to Beacon." Pyrrha said evenly, remembering being swarmed by fans even before the Headmaster's introductory speech.
"First impressions aside, it's time to start the mission," Weiss agreed as she calmed down, she then activated her coms ear piece, "Winter are you there?"
The older Schnee responded almost immediately, "I am here Weiss, is everything alright?"
"I am calling in and wanted to report that have been dropped off at the Secondary Landing Zone because the weather worsened faster than anticipated and are beginning our mission."
"Copy, keep checking in as you complete your search grids to report what you have seen and encountered. And please, stay safe Weiss, remember even we are unsure of what you will encounter out there."
"I will Winter, I am a Schnee remember, I can take care of myself, and I am not alone out here, I also have my team with me as well."
Weiss ended the call and nodded for her team to start. The huntresses got on their speeders, pulled their googles over their eyes and sped off towards the mountains.
"It is because you are a Schnee that I am worried so much." Winter said quietly after the call ended.
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AN:/
Sorry for the wait everyone, as it turns out, my original planned put too much into this chapter. It forced me to break this single, much longer one into more, smaller chapters than I originally planned. So, I technically have been working on 3 chapters this whole time.
The next chapters should come out relatively soon.
Next Chapter, for sure this time: Into the Tundra