Chapter 36 – Menagerie – A Little Light Exercise


The morning after their first visit, Chief Ursulus met Garek and crew in his office again. He poured each of them a drink, and Garek waited until the others had a sip before enjoying his.

"I've considered your offer, and I'm willing to go ahead with some pre-planning. Tell me what you need, and let's see what we can do about at least breaking ground," Ursulus said as he motioned them to their chairs.

Garek felt like cheering, and his ears perked. "Alright. For the Combat School, the needs are pretty modest, but we want it to convert cleanly to a full Academy with little fanfare, so we need room to expand."

Ursulus frowned at that. "That's going to be a problem inside the valley. In case you haven't noticed, pretty much every inch of habitable land inside this big-ass fishbowl we have is spoken for."

Garek shook his head and gestured with his glass. "Not a problem. In fact, while having the Combat School outside the valley itself is a little less ideal, having the Academy outside is beneficial to us. Students want Grimm to fight. We just need to keep them out of the school grounds."

"Well, that broadens it a lot. But transport that far out will be an issue." Ursulus looked a little more relaxed now, and was rubbing his stubbled chin thoughtfully.

"In case you haven't noticed," Garek retorted smoothly, "Haven Academy's on top of a big-ass mountain, Atlas Academy floats in the air, Shade is built into a mountain, and Beacon is separated from Vale by the Emerald Forest full of Grimm. Nobody drives or walks to most of the Academies."

"Huh… never thought about it. But surely you'll still need to truck building materials in."

"I'll…" Garek's confidence faltered a little, and he felt the others looking at him. "Well, honestly I'll have to get someone to advise me on that. Apparently it can be done because it's been done."

Ursulus shook his head. "You have no idea how expensive this is gonna be, sonny."

Garek steeled himself. There wasn't any way he was backing out now. "We'll get it done. If we have to downsize our plans, or slow down, we'll do that. But this… this is critical to our plans."

Ursulus didn't seem convinced, but he decided to change the topic. "So back to the location, what are you looking for?"

"Well ideally, we'd want it either near the interior mountains so we have fast access to the desert for training areas. But Shade already boasts that. So, we were thinking," he nodded to the others, "of making it focus on coastal Grimm defense, and that's something none of the other Academies seem to specialize in."

"And that puts it on the water. Nice." Ursulus considered, took a sip of his drink. "I like the way your brain works."

"Right. So, we need some place that's defensible, but close to the water, and outside the main valley here but not too far away. A land route in is better than not. And it'd be helpful if the CCT 'relay' was incorporated into the campus too, the way it is at the other Academies. It'll also give us the ability to better control access to it."

Ursulus scratched at the base of his ear, and reached to a large round bin behind him full of rolled up maps, one of which he pulled out and unrolled to reveal a large, colorful rendering of the nearby coast. "Alright. That gives me something to work with. Let me show you some options." He pointed to a spot just east of the city. "Here, we've got a level of cliffs above the coast where a spur of the interior mountains curves north all the way to the sea. This is Kuo Kuana's natural eastern border. You could put the bullhead pads and the relay here on this high point." He pointed to another spot. "Only downside is, you'd have to have a hell of a staircase or something down to the water."

Garek stared. "You know, I think we need an aquatic faunus in on this. Is there anyone you can trust with this part of the discussion?"

"I might have a few people in mind. Let me think about it. We can pull them in later after we get our first look at the site."

"We?" Garek blinked.

"You think I'm going to miss the opportunity to put my eyeballs on the site of Menagerie's first Huntsman Academy?!"

Garek looked at Reggie, who shrugged. "Alright, but you should handpick a few men if we're planning to land. We might run into Grimm."

"Teach your grandmother to suck eggs, Huntsman, I've been on Remnant twice as long as you. Anyway. There's another spot little further east, on the other side of that plateau, there's more jungle in the way, and Grimm, but it has more room for growth, and there's a nice shallow bay there, instead of the steep cliffs.

Garek stared at the map. "What if… we split the difference. That plateau extends here." He pointed at the map. "And if we put the bullhead and CCT just at the eastern edge, and the campus on this narrow spit between the plateau and the bay." He drew lines with his fingers "We put an anti-Grimm net across the mouth of this part of the bay here on the north." He pointed to where the bay narrowed, almost making a separate inlet. "And then we build a wall between the plateau and the bay here to the South. That gives us fast access to this jungle area here for training, and we can use the plateau as a natural barrier to the east for that. And it gives us full access to the rest of the bay for training against aquatic Grimm in shallower water, where the larger ones won't be able to slip in without being seen, but it's deep enough to deter anything land-based smaller than a Goliath, and it'll slow those down enough that we will see them coming a mile away."

"What about flying Grimm?"

"Always an issue, except for Atlas. But they tend to be either loners, or smaller. You just don't get hordes of flying Grimm attacking."

"You know best on that. I'm starting to like this," Ursulus said, nodding at the map.

"So who do we have to buy the land from?" Garek queried.

Ursulus snorted. "Buy?! That land is worthless unless someone settles it. This isn't Argus or Atlas, Huntsman. If you want that land, Menagerie will grant it to you."

"Well not me, that's the next step. We need to set up a nonprofit for the school, and start soliciting donations."

"And again, that's where I start asking questions. How the hell are you going to get these funds?"

"We've got some big names in mind. But it's too early to say."

The aging chieftain gave Garek a long careful look, set his drink down, and cross his arms. "You have to give me something."

Garek's crew all looked at each other. "We don't have final agreement yet," he said, finally.

"I'm not going to tell anyone. I want this as much… no that's not right. Kids, I'm an old man, and you're giving me the chance to see a Combat School in my lifetime. I want this more than you do."

"Go ahead, Garek," Reggie prompted. Sophia nodded.

Garek took a deep breath, and leaned forward, Ursulus matching him conspiratorially. "We think we can get Lionheart to sponsor the School, and eventually serve as Academy Headmaster," Garek said quietly, and when Ursulus didn't speak, but just blinked a few times, he continued, "and we're going to do a bait and switch on parts of the funding. We're going to do fundraising for upgrades to Haven Academy, and then…"

The older man inhaled sharply, leaning back. "My gods… we're getting Haven's hand-me-downs…"

"It's not that bad…" Garek protested.

"Not that bad!? It's incredible!" Ursulus stood and began pacing behind his desk. "If you can pull that off, you're essentially exporting Haven to Menagerie! And no one will realize that it's Academy-level gear, because it's 'cast-offs'." He grabbed the bottle and poured another round of drinks. "I take it back, Huntsman, what I was thinking about you. Sure, there's holes in your planning big enough to run a Goliath through, but you've got some creative thinking between those fuzzy ears of yours." He laughed. "So, you have Lionheart do a campaign to upgrade Haven's capabilities, which gets the support of the Council there, and the elites across Mistral… and the used gear just… gets sold off for a song?"

"Donated, a lot of it."

Ursulus was staring off into the distance. "And with Huntsmen… comes the ability to take and hold territory outside Kuo Kuana. We can… we can lure some prospectors in to survey for Dust." Reggie made noise of surprise, and Ursulus looked at them. "You didn't know? There should be deposits out here in the central desert, but we can't survey for them, because we can't afford the professional escorts to keep the teams alive. SDC would be the big boys for taking that risk, but they know we won't roll over, so they won't invest. But if we can get our own dust deposits… that attracts investors. And Engineers. They import heavy equipment, which means an upgraded port nearby." His eyes were practically glowing. "Maybe a rail connection to the interior, like Argus has…" He was looking from the map to the people in front of him in awe. "In a generation, we'll be expanding, and self-sufficient. And we'll have an argument to annex these." He pointed on the wall to a map of Anima nearby, specifically to a series of settlements along the southern coast. "Those are Faunus-majority towns. We basically run them now. Mistral Council doesn't even tax 'em, and doesn't fund 'em. Too far from their main transport routes."

Garek looked at Sophia, who shrugged but looked wary. "I mean, doesn't Mistral claim all of Anima?"

"Nominally sure, but they can't rule 10% of it. We aren't much better, but with this, those settlements matter more to us than them."

"Is this… going to start a war?" Sophia asked, hesitantly. That was not what they were going for.

Ursulus barked a laugh. "With what army? We barely have a militia, no air-based weapons, and no armed ships. We aren't going to fight them. We'll barter for it. Maybe a discount on Menagerie Dust if we find it. Maybe favorable trade terms on seafood."

Garek felt himself slump slightly. "Okay… thanks… I was getting worried there."

"I know you've not lived here, Grae," Ursulus rumbled, "but the people here… we came here to get away from that kind of conflict. We're not warlike. We aren't gonna start the next human-faunus war." He frowned. "Atlas might, though, if we get to big for our britches."

"I think we can head that off," Garek said, with more confidence than he really felt.

Ursulus appraised Garek, then his eye was drawn to Reggie, who gave a curt nod and added, "We're working on that too."

"Holy hells…" Ursulus rubbed his hands together. "I'm starting to… to dream. This is… if I hadn't seen that bullhead you kids arrived in, read your profiles, I wouldn't have bought this. Crazy sumbitches, I think you can actually do this." He took a deep breath, then another drink. "Okay next order of business. What's in the warehouse?"

"Oh that," Sophia drawled. "Nothing much. Just a few state-of-the-art luggable CCT repeaters." She laughed and waved a hand around fluidly. "And by state-of-the-art, I mean my own custom design using modified last generation gear. And by luggable, I do not mean portable. We'll need to place them via bullhead or crane. But based on signal strength, I think if we replace your current repeater with one here," she pointed on the map to the hill between the Chief's residence and the harbor, "we can improve your local bandwidth by fifty percent. And then we put another here on top of that plateau where the school will be. A third one on this island here halfway to Anima. And then a fourth one in one of those settlements you pointed to on the Anima coast."

"Lushu would be perfect for that, location-wise, but that's probably going to be one of the harder ones to negotiate, because it's a pretty thriving city and is already class-segregated. Might be able to swing administration of the lower city. The upper city is on a plateau above the ocean."

"That may still be perfect. We can lease some space on the plateau for the repeater. We get those four running, and I think we can already double your bandwidth and keep ship signal all the way from Lushu to here."

"That's… huge."

"Baby steps, Chief. Baby steps," Sophia said. "We still have to figure out security and maintenance on those systems." She pulled up documentation on her scroll and showed it to him. "The crates are more or less self-contained and pre-hardened. The mast here extends up and telescopes out to get above the tree-line. A random Grimm should ignore it, but it might get raided by pirates or bandits."

"We'll set up patrols around the Island."

"Good. That leaves technicians. Who maintains your current relay?"

He looked embarrassed. "We… uh… there's a technical school you passed on the main drag here, the kids there volunteer to keep the relay running."

"Oh…"

Garek felt yet another punch in the gut regarding just how much work they needed to do.

"Yeah."

Sophia shook herself. "Well, looks like Gazelle Comms is going to be hiring a few graduates, then. We'll need to beef up security there too." She gave him a long look. "Not because we're worried about sabotage, but because we don't want anyone slapping in any insecure hardware. All our stuff is heavily vetted. I've even made some modifications so that standard Atlas gear won't even work with our stuff. That's not to say a competent faunus with a soldering iron couldn't reverse it, which is why I don't want just anyone having access."

"I'm starting to see the issue. I'll start looking into assigning some of my personal security on that. When do you think you'll get the CCT Relay installed?"

"As soon as you assign us that security and we can get one of those stupidly expensive lorries to bring it over. Might need to check the structure to make sure it can handle the weight. What's that building it's sitting on?"

"Heh, that's the technical school."

"Well, that's fucking convenient."


The rest of the day was spent with Ursulus calling the staff of the Kuo Institute of Technology, which was little more than a glorified set of classrooms, labs, and admin offices in a two-story building, and then dragging in one of Kuo Kuana's few structural engineers, who after some discussion with Sophia determined that while the building's roof could handle the weight, they didn't have a crane available large enough to get it up there. "We don't use cranes much, most of the housing around here is built stick-frame from the ground up. Even the current CCT relay was assembled in place."

"Not a problem. Hey Reggie,"

Their resident expert pilot crossed his arms. "I am not landing a bullhead on that building, I don't care how much you pay me."

"Wasn't gonna ask you to, dummy. How do you feel about playing sky-crane?"

Crystal looked terrified. Reggie just scoffed. "Like someone caught me sleeping with their wife, Soph."

"Oh c'mon," Sophia crooned, teasing him. "You're always bragging about your smooth piloting skills."

The engineer interrupted, "That's a specialized skillset, ma'am. You shouldn't pressure-"

"Nah, he's just playing hard to get, aintcha Reg?"

The older man rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I can do it. But I'm demanding hazard pay."

Sophia just laughed, and turned to the engineer. "How soon can you have the space ready?"

"Uhh… I… that is…"

"Roberts, this is priority work," Ursulus said. "You'll be paid double your normal rates if you can get that site ready. I've already talked to the director of the institute. They are literally drooling over that bandwidth increase. This is for all of Menagerie." He gave him a pointed look.

The engineer threw up his hands. "Fine, I'll pull my crews and we'll get on it. Jeez, who lit a fire under you, Ursulus? We don't ever move this fast."

"We don't ever have opportunities like this, and I'm too old to sit on my ass. I could die of a heart attack next month."

The man realized he wasn't laughing. "You're serious."

"Deadly." His voice took on a sharp tone that they'd not heard before. "Have the site ready by tomorrow. Anything gets in your way, call me and we'll have it removed."

"You got it, Chief." Roberts walked away, face slightly pale and tapping out his first call on his scroll as he went.

Ursuline's face softened immediately. "Alright, what's next?"

"We need to set up on that island," Sophia said. "Any natives?"

"On Atlantia? Nope, just Grimm."

"Perfect. Garek, how do you feel about showing me how a Huntsman does business," Sophia asked with a grin.

"Uhhh… we usually work in teams for something like this."

"Don't you have Reggie and Crystal to back you up?" The three looked at each other. "Well… I mean I know you guys have been training."

"Looks like it's time we figured out how to work together," Garek said. "Ursulus can you spare any folks? Or know anyone with Huntsman-level training?"

"I know a few retired Huntsmen that I can convince to join you. What exactly is the goal?"

Reggie spoke up. "We scope out the site from the air today based on Sophia's specs, and find a spot clear enough for a good LZ. As soon as we get the system here online, we go in there, clear and hold a perimeter."

Sophia continued, "We can put the module on a rolling skid, and slide it right out the back, just need to make sure it's where we want it cause Reggie'll throw a fit if he has to play skycrane twice." She smirked at her friend. "Then we fire up the integrated generator, raise the boom, boot it up, and connect with the system here. That'll cut a couple hundred kilometers off the hop from Anima, and should boost bandwidth another 10%. Even better once we get the Lushu relay operating. Once we get the Combat School up, we'll add the permanent relay, that'll eventually put you on par with Vale or Mistral." Ursulus looked like he'd start drooling any second. "I'd like to get a look at that plateau and bay after the island. Reggie you game?"

"Burning a lot of Dust." Reggie held up a finger and thumb, rubbing them together in the universal gesture. "Be ready for the bill when we have to refuel here. But yeah, we can swing by there on the way back from the island."

"I'm coming with you kids. I have to see this," Ursulus left no room for argument.

"Alright, let's head out then. Meet you at the bullhead port?"


A couple hours later, Reggie was at the controls, and they were working their way around the coast of the large island to the north of Menagerie. "Western shore'll give us the best Line of Site, but we can work with any site that works," explained Sophia.

It took them another hour to find the spot they liked, on a northwest peninsula of the island. The peninsula started from the highlands at the center, narrowed and slowly fell as it went west, and then a large gash had been weathered across it, cutting off the rest from the main part of the island unless you wanted to climb up the cliffs on either side, then it rose again and flattened out at the top. "That's perfect." She consulted the map. "Right in the sea lane where the ships come through, too." There were a few Grimm to be seen wandering, but most were on the main island. "Think they can jump that gap, Garek?"

"Some of 'em. But that'll be the last thing they do. We can hold them there while you guys get set up, no problem."

"Alright" she marked that spot on the map. Let's have a look at that bay east of Kuo"


An hour later, they were hovering over a shallow bay of clear-blue water. "Holy crap, that's gorgeous," Garek breathed.

Sophia pointed back west. "Those cliffs are full of caves. Grimm in there?"

"More fun for the students," Garek smirked.

"Huntsmen are fucking weird, Garek. And you're the weirdest."

He shrugged. "Most of the time, bandits are scarier than Grimm. And a rogue Huntsman is terrifying. There's worse things in the world than a pack of Beowolves."

"That water is so clear… I can actually see the fish in there," Crystal murmured.

"What's that?" Sophia pointed at a group of black shapes cruising through the crystal-blue water.

"Ah, those are Grimm. Hard to tell what from this altitude but they aren't big. Bay's too shallow for any Jawzer, Leviathan, or Sea Feilong.

"We get Grimm in our own harbor from time to time, but they're pretty easy to avoid except for the capivara, who try to climb the damn bulkheads," Ursulus added, neutrally.

The bullhead was flying in a lazy circuit around the bay when an alarm sounded. "Proximity Alert."

"Bogies inbound. Crystal take fire control."

"Aye aye capn," she quipped, and enabled the bullhead's defense systems as a swarm of lancers headed in and were quickly dealt with using a few well-placed airbursts.

"Good job, ensign." Crys rolled her eyes.

"Well, now we know what lives in those caves," Garek said.

"Heheh. Wrong tense," Crys laughed.

"Oh, I bet there's more in there. Lancers are pretty territorial, and we look like a flying competitor."

"Enough fun here," Reggie said. "Want to see the top of that plateau for the Bullhead port and CCT relay?"

The bullhead soon spun up in a slow lazy spiral, topping the plateau. "Whoah, nice view," someone murmured.

The highest point was their side where it fell in cliffs to the bay they'd scoped out already. From that edge, it sloped gently downward toward Kuo Kuana for about a kilometer, before falling sharply and transitioning into the valley itself. A bamboo and wood palisade separated the foothills of their plateau from the valley proper.

"Have to see if we can get a tramway or lift installed to move light gear and people," Garek suggested.

"There's a place north of Atlas in Solitas that uses big cables and runs these cars hanging off it between the settlement and these hot springs further up the mountain," Reggie added helpfully. "That might be an idea. Keep people off the ground-based Grimm, but we'll need defenses against airborne."

"Yeah. Yeah. I like that," Garek said. "That's a good thought. We can use that for everyday cargo and people moving, and save the bullheads for emergencies. Might still need a road or rail during construction. Even put a tramway on the other side to get down to the water."

Ursulus piped up with his two cents. "What if you put the Combat School up here, and when you expand it into a full Academy you put the Aquatics facilities down there along with anything else that makes sense?"

"Huh… that's more defensible, except for people down at the bay."

"Thought of a name for the Combat School yet?" Ursulus asked.

"Hadn't thought that far ahead. Vale tends to use names that talk about guarding, Mistral is about safety."

"Something faunus. Ears, horns, claws," Sophia suggested, pointing at her and Garek's features.

"What about Talon or Tusk?" Ursulus suggested.

Garek grinned. "Oohhh, I like that. Something only Faunus have, to combat the claws and teeth of the Grimm. I like it."

"Horny Academy," Sophia said, deadpan.

"Sophia…"

"What… I like it."

"Pete's rubbing off on you in all the wrong ways."


Next day, the engineer contacted them. "Roof is prepped. Invoice inbound."

By the time they had rigged the module and gotten the Bullhead hovering at the site, they were drawing a crowd. "Not every day you see a bullhead hovering over Kuo Kuana," Roberts commented, "This'll start gossip."

Ursulus eyes narrowed. "Let it. Just as long as it's gossip about Local technical institute upgrades communications. We'll handle the rest later."


The next day, a bullhead came in hard and fast on the island spot they'd picked out north of Menagerie.

"And... touchdown. Clear!" Reggie yelled.

Garek, Crystal, and the three retired Huntsmen from Kuo were the first out. Garek taking point, backed by one of the locals. Crystal had her select-fire rifle held safe a dozen paces behind Garek, scanning the perimeter. The other two, a Huntsman and Huntress paired up, beginning a sweep of the cliff-edge and working their way clockwise.

Reggie left the pilot's seat, grabbed his own rifle, and began climbing up the side of the bullhead, taking point on its roof and setting up overwatch.

"Alright, let's get ready to roll. Faster the better," he heard Sophia yell as the rear hatch began to slowly drop."

The first roar of Grimm came before they even got the hatch fully opened. First one, then two, then a full dozen Beowolves came charging toward them from the vegetation on the other side of the crevasse, red eyes locked on the faunus and humans.

Reggie had faced Grimm before when he'd worked with the Atlas Specialist team that had then been called Wildcard. They'd trained and worked together for two years before they'd done their first real operation that encountered Grimm, and it had been a harrowing experience. He'd gotten used to the adrenaline and the fear, and learned to tamp it down and focus.

But it had been a while. His heart hammered as he watched the Grimm charge forward, red eyes focused on the first ensouled creatures they could reach.

Which would be Garek.

True to his predictions, they leapt as soon as they reached the crevasse, and not a single one made it across.

But that didn't stop them. From the sounds, one or two missed footing and screamed their rage as they died bouncing down the cliff face. But the rest were snarling and growling, echoing as they climbed and clawed their way back up.

Reggie steadied his breathing, and smiled slightly as he saw Crys take a knee about fifty paces behind Garek and the Huntress that was working with him. In his peripheral vision, he saw the other pair continuing their patrol. They have to have heard, but… they aren't rushing to help, he realized.

That should have been his first clue.

The first Beowolf to stick its head over the cliff got Cats Paw through the roof of its mouth when it opened it to roar a challenge, and fell back. The second caught a quick triple-tap of dust rounds from Crys between the eyes.

Reggie felt a sense of pride well up. That's my girl.

Then six clambered up simultaneously. Crys swung her rifle to the left, ranging in on one, but had to hold her fire when suddenly Garek was right in its face. A second jumped up behind him, and Reggie zeroed in on it, only to pause as the green-haired huntress, grinning like a madwoman, hooked its head with her flail and tore it completely off, swinging around to block the swinging claw from the one behind her.

And Garek had teeth bared in something between a smile and something feral, as he buried his rapier in the eye-socket of his, and then vaulted over the shoulder of the huntress to nail the one that she had just blocked.

Reggie eased his finger away from the trigger of his rifle, and saw Crys tilt her head slightly, giving him half an eyeball before taking a more relaxed posture as well.

Huh… that was… a dozen beowolf. Let's say two missed the jump. Garek and Crys killed the first two, and now that was another three between Garek and that Huntress.

Over half the beowolves were down, and he'd not been needed yet. He glanced to his left, and the other pair had almost finished a full circuit of the cliffs, periodically glancing over at the battle… well… if you were being charitable, that was taking place closer to the mainland of the island.

"Holy shit…" he heard Sophia mutter somewhere below him on the now-lowered ramp. Any efforts to offload the module had apparently stalled out.

There was another roar from the thick forest on the other side of the crevasse, and a pair of Beringal emerged.

"Not a lot of Grimm!?" Reggie complained. He was going to have to ask for clarification on what that actually meant.

"Airborne!" yelled the Huntress running perimeter, as a flock of juvenile Nevermore crested the cliff face to their north. He spared a glance that way, and saw the short-haired blonde drop to one knee, spin the barrel of her rifle, and fire a round that burst right in the midst of them. Over half of them dropped and began to dissolve immediately.

The Huntsman with her turned to the bullhead. "What are ya'll waiting for? Get that stupid thing deployed."

"Shouldn't we wait until its safe?" Yelled Sophia, slightly hysterically.

The redheaded Huntsman that was looking back frowned, glanced up at Reggie, and then back down to Sophia. "Lady, this IS safe. There's no way this pissant group is getting anywhere near you guys." He shook his head. "Sorry, I forget. You folks are civies. Listen, this is light practice. Just do your business and we'll keep them from bothering you."

Light. Practice.

Reggie turned back to his right at the crack of a rifle. The Beowolves were all down, but one of the Beringels had gotten within Crys's range, and she began sending single rounds downrange at it. They were using what Garek had nicknamed "Grimm Piercing Rounds" that tended to do decent damage if it hit a bony plate, but if it hit Grimm flesh, it would bury itself several inches before it exploded, causing serious disruption to Grimm anatomy.

She was able to methodically take the one down before it reached the crevice. But the second leapt over it with a roar, coming down right on top of Garek and the Huntress's position.

The Huntress rolled off to the left, while Garek crouched for a second, and then seemed to just flow to the right. The Beringel landed with a roar of rage and triumph… and then pain as it found itself hamstrung on both legs at once, before falling backward roaring off the cliff when the Huntress put the long handle of her flail against its chest and pushed.

Reggie swiveled back to the left and found the two Huntsmen there talking while scanning a surprisingly empty sky that direction, and then back to see Garek and the Huntress clap each other on the shoulder with a grin.

The bastards aren't even winded. He caught Crys's eye as she safed her weapon with a fierce smile. She'd bagged two of them completely on her own, and was rightfully proud of herself.

Reggie hadn't gotten a shot off.

He heard the sounds of metal rolling on metal below, and the man-high module came grinding out of the bullhead's hold, tearing the turf and burying the rollers as it ground across the soil before halting. "We're clear! Ramp up!" He heard the helpers clamber back up into the bullhead, not wanting anything to do with the insanity outside, as Sophia entered a keycode that popped open a control panel, and enabled access via her scroll. She entered more commands, and he heard a hum as it began powering up. A set of legs began to extend from the bottom of the cube, digging deep into the ground and levelling the entire machine. Then a round plate separated itself from the top, turning out to be a large cover that was now extending into the air atop a series of telescoped tubes. The cover began to articulate and then separate into a series of concentric rings spreading out in opposite directions, one toward Kuo, and one to the north.

The humming grew louder.

There was another roar from the jungle.

Reggie realized with a surprise that he was not anxious. He glanced idly toward the greenery to see another group of Beowolf charging across the clear terrain, and heard the crack of Crys's rifle again. One round at a time.

Behind them lumbered an ursa, slowly gaining speed. But there was no way it was going to make that gap.

"Fucking stupid animals." He muttered. "Thank the gods."

It only took Sophia thirty minutes to get the relay fully deployed, operational, and locked onto the signal of their newly installed Kuo CCT relay. It wasn't doing a lot of good at the moment, but it would allow ships to receive signal hours earlier. And when they got the module operating at Lushu, that would change.

In the time that took, they'd killed at least a dozen juvenile Nevermore, a couple dozen Beowolves, two Beringels, and an Ursa who refused to accept the fact that it couldn't reach them and just roared at them from the other side of the steep-sided crevice until ranged attacks brought it down and it dissolved. Reggie had even fired the killing blow that time, but it was a little anticlimactic.

He gained a new appreciation for what a fully trained Huntsman could accomplish that day. Would he have been in trouble had it been his old team? Probably not. They'd had a good defensive position, and the Grimm had a bottleneck. The aerial ones would have caused problems, but he could have jumped inside the bullhead and taken care of those if needed. If he'd had Wildcard prepped right, he felt he would have been able to handle the mission.

But it would have been at least a little dangerous.

To these Huntsmen, it was… Wednesday.

He thought about how Crys, Garek, and that Huntress had worked together. Pretty well in fact, once Crys realized she couldn't provide close fire support because his reaction time was faster than hers. But she could thin out Grimm before they got to him, and watch his back while he waded in.

Need to talk to Foxtrot and Charlie about that. They need to incorporate Huntsmen into the team. At least one for close-in support.

After they had loaded up and were safely in the air, he amended his thought. But first, I need to turn us into a combat team. We should have known ahead of time what that was going to be like, how to best use a mixed team.

He'd be ready next time.


[A/N And another chapter in the bag. Got to show off the difference between experienced and trained huntsmen, working as pairs, compared to how Reggie and Crys would work with Specialist training. It was a bit of a wakeup call for Reggie, and will impact both how he approaches training, and he's going to be talking to his buddies over in Team November in Atlas.

Fact is, most of the action we've seen in RWBY V1 through V9 canon was barely trained (but very talented) kids facing Grimm (with a few exceptions like Ironwood fighting Watts). An experienced Huntsman should make minced meat of a handful of Beowolves, and with good strategic placement, it shouldn't even be a challenge. A civilian on the other hand would be terrified, and die a horrible death. Well-trained Specialists are somewhere closer to Huntsmen in capability in ranged combat, but they can't handle close-combat the same way due to not having aura and relying only on body armor.

As a side note, a recent guest review on CH35 commented that the story had too many OCs. Frankly, it's hard for me to fault someone for pointing out the relatively large number of OC side characters in this story. In my defense, most of the story so far takes place in Argus and Menagerie, where very few named characters existed in canon, and takes place up to a decade before V01, when even fewer canon characters are useful to the story so far. This made it difficult to not make up a swath of OCs to fill in those gaps. If this is a concern, I may be able to allay some of your fears by saying that at this point in the story, all the major OCs (Selene, Garek, Reggie/BA, Sophia/GNU, Pietro/Pete, Crystal, and perhaps Chieftain Perine Ursulus, and a handful of Sanctum teachers and kids) are now named and introduced. From here on out you'll increasingly see canon characters being introduced as major plot elements, rather than OCs. I can't do much retroactively, but I will make an effort to tone down additional OCs.

And as always, I do appreciate feedback, including feedback like that.