Ch. 56 Fate of the lucky
Specialist Ebi Clover walked into the interrogation room with a smile. He had a feeling this would go well and when you're as lucky as him that kind of feeling tends to be right.
"Good morning, corporal Blackwood. I'm specialist Ebi and I'll be conducting this interview."
"Is it morning? Can't tell - no windows around here… wait I still have my rank? I thought I got fucked for what I did."
Ebi kept up his smile. She was crass, but that tended to be the case within the army.
"Not necessarily, corporal. As far as we can tell you were following direct orders and we can't exactly fault you for that."
"Yeah, well they were stupid fucking orders. I wouldn't be in this much shit if I refused them and I would be dead if I completed them."
So she isn't likely to cover for her command, thought Clover.
"Oh? Why do you say that?"
"Blondie said so, and dammit I think the civie was right. I'm not the sharpest, but I had time to think, ya know."
"...so you'd say he saved your life?"
She looked pensive for a moment.
"Fuck, I guess he did. Don't suppose you'd thank him for me."
"I'll be sure to pass that along. In the meantime would you be willing to answer some questions? Or perhaps tell me anything that might help us?"
"Airgiod sent me to die, I'll tell you anything you need to see him behind bars for good."
Clover smiled. Jackpot.
=O=O=O=
Ironwood could feel a headache coming on. It wasn't anything new, the advisory meetings he was required to attend usually caused as much.
Then again normally he could safely ignore some of their advice as they didn't have the full picture.
This time however the problem came directly from the people he was supposed to be in charge of.
"Stop your ceaseless bickering! If you have nothing relevant to say then stay silent. Once again, during the investigation into the matter of the Forever Fall insubordination, direct orders surfaced with my digital signature on them that I didn't sign off on. In fact I gave orders that directly contradicted those with my digital signature!"
There was a moment of silence before someone spoke up. It was Chief Charles Holzkohle, head of the science and R&D division.
"Sir, to do something like that the perpetrator would need a high level of technical knowledge or a fairly high access credentials of their own. Outside of the people in this room and members of the council I don't believe there are many who could have done this."
The general looked pensive for a moment before coming to a decision.
"What about the R&D department? Would they have the combined technical knowhow necessary to falsify these?"
"Potentially, yes, though I highly doubt they woul…" before Holzkohle could finish defending his department, Ironwood interrupted.
"Audit all of their activities in the coming two months before the Vital festival and in the time since. This could have led to war with Vale. As it is, we're on thin ice only thanks to the good relations with the Arc-Rose pair."
"Speaking of… them… care to elaborate on what they've been doing?" It was Chief Hopea Aronen, head of human resources. No doubt waiting to discuss the Schnee debacle.
Ironwood sighed, this would be a long day.
=O=O=O=
"So how far along do you think we are?" asked Yang.
"Well, we're doing fine in terms of supplies if that's what you're worried about." supplied Ren in a fairly neutral tone while looking at the map.
"That's not what I meant…"
Nora walked up behind Ren to peer over his shoulder at the map. "Well we've covered the majority of the distance, but in terms of time? Let's just say the terrain is only going to get worse from here. So guess what that means!" She along with Ren had the most experience with travelling across the wilds.
Yang just frowned at Nora, knowing exactly what Nora wanted to hear.
"Walking?" asked Pyrrha, only recently having caught on the apparent inside joke Ren and Nora had going since before Beacon.
"WALKING!" Nora proclaimed in false excitement while Yang groaned and turned her glare on her partner.
Ren looked pensive for a few minutes before deciding to voice his concerns.
"Out of curiosity Yang, how long did you think this would take?"
"I don't know, okay? I grew up on Patch, where you can walk around the whole coast in a few hours."
"It is a shame we couldn't take your bike along for the journey…" added Pyrrha, oblivious to the sour look Yang was giving her in return.
"Yeah, shame…"
They walked in silence for a bit more before Nora alerted them to a change in scenery.
"Hey, look! A town!"
"That's strange, there shouldn't be one for a few more days still." replied Ren, once again looking at where they were on the map.
"Are those buildings damaged?"
"We should look for people!" exclaimed Pyrrha and ran off, Nora following suit.
Yang was more measured in her reaction, waiting for Ren to fold up the map and put it away.
"It's been like this for a while."
"What makes you say that?"
"No smoke, no burning smell or smell of blood. Uncle Qrow taught me that."
"We should still look it over." decided Ren, showing more emotion that she was used to seeing.
"Yeah, just saying. Let's go."
By the time they all joined up, Nora was found standing in front of an overgrown sign.
"Look, I found something… Oniyuri?"
"I've heard that name before… Can't remember where though." added Pyrrha.
"I can." supplied Ren.
"Well care to enlighten us then?" asked Yang.
"Think of it as Anima's Mountain Glenn, except Oniyuri was never finished. The rich elite that started it thought it could be a new kingdom. And many believed it would be. I know my parents did."
"What happened?" asked Yang.
A shadow fell over Ren's face before he replied in a low voice.
"What always does… The Grimm came."
=O=O=O=
The R&D department of Atlas military was in a state of chaos. While an impromptu audit was underway everything was supposed to come to a halt. Unfortunately for some researchers that was not entirely possible without letting months or years of research go to waste.
Especially the biochemical and medical research was doing everything they could to stabilise what they could and handing over paperwork to be allowed to continue working on their respective projects.
Little of this mattered to Ruby, to her it just meant that it would be more difficult to find the man she needed to meet as no one had time to answer her questions or give her directions. Eventually though she found the relevant department - Material engineering.
"Hello?" Ruby called out to the seemingly empty space.
"Hmmm? Ah, my apologies. I'm a bit busy with some paperwork right now… most everyone else is on forced leave. What do you need?" it was only then that the man looked up.
He was fairly young as far as researchers went, only in his mid twenties. His hair was silver white, much like that of the Schnee family, but his eyes were a piercing obsidian purple.
"Um, I'm looking for Jeremiah Holzkohle?"
"I am him, unfortunately there's not much I can help you with while the audit is happening. All research is on hold."
"Actually, I have the necessary paperwork, I just need to borrow your lab to test some material samples."
"Sorry, who are you again?"
"Ruby Arc Rose…"
"...oh…OH!" his eyes practically lit up in recognition "I thought you looked too young to be here. Of course the Rose and Arc patents, I'm familiar with those. Ran a few tests myself in my off time." As he spoke, several obsidian coloured clockwork limbs materialised around him, shifting the paperwork to the side of his table, bringing him blank forms which he started filling out "I heard you're involved in project P.E.N.N.Y. now. Terrible thing that happened to her, never met her before but I'm sure she's a fascinating individual. What are we waiting for, hand over the paperwork and I'll show you around. Heard you and Arc got married, congratulations by the way."
Ruby's head was practically spinning as the man spoke quickly. For a moment she wished she had let Jaune take care of this, but then reminded herself that Jaune was busy manufacturing parts for Weisses prosthetic.
"So, what are we testing today? I'll admit I already have the data for the patents you filed, but they don't quite match what you outlined in the patent. What methods did you use for testing if you don't mind me asking?"
"Oh, uh… Ballistics?"
"Ballistics?! Oh, of course, you're both primarily huntsmen. Of course provided you did the maths right there is nothing wrong with that. That brings up the issue of why we didn't manage to replicate your results fully. Say did you do anything different when making the materials? Anything not mentioned in the patent?"
"Um, I suppose all our samples are hand forged by my husband."
"Hmm, perhaps an unknown reaction with his Aura? Or maybe the craftsman's intuition plays a part in the above average quality. Sorry, I believe I strayed off topic there, what did you say we were testing?"
"A new type of Dust alloy. We got our hands on some naturally occurring Polarity Dust."
"Ah, a mix of Gravity and Electric. Those are difficult to mix even in a lab setting." Jeremy nodded in understanding "Of course there wasn't really much use for that type. Well what can you tell me about it?"
Ruby frowned a little before answering.
"Not much, there's a lot of red tape in Atlas that I'm not used to yet, so despite keeping the rights to the patent, our involvement with Penny means I can't say much for now."
"Ah, I assume you're not going to be testing its more esoteric properties today then?"
"No, we've got those figured out, just standard stress testing to see if it's at all suitable for its intended application."
"A shame… Just one more question though, I assume you managed to get the Polarity dust fairly stable? If it burns out as fast as your Burn and Electric alloys then I don't see it as viable for much of anything that just the Dust couldn't do as well."
Ruby contemplated whether it was alright to share that tidbit, eventually deciding to trust the overzealous researcher.
"Let's just say we did manage to solve that issue."
Jeremiah smiled, his curiosity sated for now.
"Splendid! Shall we move onto the testing then?"
=O=O=O=
As the four students continued to make their way through Oniyuri they couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. It was simple enough to convince themselves that it was just the abandoned city, but the feeling of being watched didn't go away.
Ren was the first to pull out his weapon when their observer deemed it to show himself. Jumping over the wall he lashed out at Yang with his bladed gauntlets, only barely missing as Yang parried with her own. When Nora swung her hammer at him, he jumped and used the momentum of her swing to propel himself onto a roof. He stood up there, looking down at them, seemingly unperturbed by the four students aiming their weapons at him..
"Well, well, well, if it isn't our Fall remnant? Oh it is such a pleasure to meet you in person. And your friends as well of course…"
"Who are you!?" shouted Ren.
He jumped back down from the building, slowly walking towards them as if he didn't just attack them moments ago.
"Who I am matters not to you or you…" he said pointing at Ren and Nora. "You could have been interesting…" he pointed at Pyrrha. "But who I am only matters to you." he finally faced Yang.
Recognition took hold of Yang's expression. "You work for Cinder."
"Ha! For her, hardly… but I suppose you are on the right track. Unfortunately for you, we already have a Fall maiden. And that makes you an unneeded asset."
And just as he finished his words he lunged at Yang again, this time blocked by Pyrrha's thrown shield. Tyrian just laughed and continued his assault, unperturbed by the students' attempt at stopping him.
Dodging bullets as they came and keeping himself close enough to his adversaries that grenades were a no go. The only time he seemed caught off guard was when Nora switched to Jaune's spear and used her semblance to power up.
But Tyrian just grinned and adjusted to her increased speed easily. It was on his fourth pass at Yang that he pulled out all the stops.
As Yang blacked his blades he managed to overpower her and push her off balance.
Yang's eyes widened as Tyrian spun around revealing a scorpion sting thrust straight at her heart. Before the attack reached her however a familiar figure landed between them, parrying the sting with ease.
Qrow gave her a smirk before speaking up "Hey there Firecracker."
=O=O=O=
Okay, so first let me adress the obvious diference to cannon. Ruby was to be taken alive because of her eyes, Yang has no value alive since she's a part maiden. As for the two Holzkohle men, I'll just point out that they're important and leave the details for you to read later. Wouldn't want so spoil much, just keep them in mind, I tend to not make OC characters unless they have their use in the story.
As for real life, I've been really busy. I have so many ideas and so little time. But hopefully I'll have more time in the near future.
It kinda sucks to have ideas for beyond the end of this fic and knowing it will take a while to get there.
But hey if you want to support me you can do so on P a treon . com (slash) OlympianScribe
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch. 57 Where luck fails