General James Ironwood's office was silent as those gathered around watched the array of holographic display monitors. Marrow and Elm were there, as were Coco, Neptune, Cardin, Penny, and the General himself. The drone footage playing upon them wasn't particularly good, but it was somehow much less awful than any of them had expected. Grimm were indeed stalking through the streets of Mantle, and several buildings were burning, partially demolished, or both… but the number of bodies in the streets was strangely low, and the patrolling monsters were moving in small, isolated packs. It was nothing like the full-scale invasion that Salem's assault had started as, and save for sightings of a few large grimm, the threats out on the streets were entirely manageable. The monitors showcasing footage of the skies over the city were mostly clear, with only a few packs of smaller airborne grimm circling overhead and no sign of the massive whale-like creature that had been seen hovering over Argus. Even the view out to sea was mostly bare, though the smoke from the port town was clear on the horizon.
No one in the room wanted to jinx the upcoming operation, but they were all thinking the same thing- it looked like there was a chance at taking back Mantle.
"…this isn't an invasion force," Marrow finally said, keeping his eyes on the monitors. "She's pulling out of Sanus. She's pulling out of Solitas. Astrid said she's sending Cinder to Vacuo… so either they're about to hit Vacuo hard, Astrid is lying, or… Salem is up to something we can't even fathom. That's the possibility that worries me the most. How do we stop something we don't know has started? Where else could she even be?"
"You know the answer," James said solemnly as he walked around his desk to join the others, arms folded behind his back. "We don't. We focus on what we can see in front of us and make what small gains we can, praying that it's enough to weather the coming storm. If it isn't… we tried. We did the best we could with the information we had. Glynda's going to begin surveilling the area around Beacon and looking to see if the grimm really did leave, and our best option here is to begin taking back our home. Should Salem strike Vacuo with her full army… we'll have to do our best to support Sun from here and send as much artillery through portals as we can manage. Even if our progress in Solitas ends up meaning little, speculation and debate will mean nothing. We need to get moving the second Raven returns from Mistral and give Kali the green light to move on her end. Coco- has your team decided what you're doing?"
The celebrity huntress gave James a nod, pausing only a moment to lock eyes with Neptune and Cardin before giving her answer.
"…we're basing ourselves here. We'll drop into Mantle with Marrow, and if and when things are relatively stable, begin hopping around Remnant as planned. Professor Goodwitch's idea of bringing us back to Sanus was a good one, but… that was before we had a momentary truce with Astrid, or even knew she was somehow still alive. If the grimm have left, we aren't needed over there to map out empty lands and checkpoints. Not when we could be saving lives, however few, in Mantle."
"More lives than you might expect," Penny chimed in. The android's eyes were projecting conical green beams and swirling with a display of measures and figures upon their lenses indecipherable to any living being. "Analyzing the drone footage we have from Jacques and the military and extrapolating the data, it would seem that roughly 14% of Mantle's remaining populace has been slain, accounting for the apparent deaths of all members of the White Fang previously known to reside in the city. With the invasion slowing down, that number will increase slowly as we wait. This is not an ideal outcome, but not nearly as catastrophic as expected."
Neptune exhaled sharply, looking almost sick as he rubbed his neck with a gloved hand.
"And, uh… can you take a guess at how many would be dead if we hadn't evacuated Mantle and brought Atlas up into the sky like we did?"
Penny paused, leaving the atmosphere of the room thick with tension as she seemed to try to analyze the question.
"…given the numbers of grimm we saw during the evacuation, had Salem not pulled out and instead been successful… we would be in the mid-70s at present."
"A cold comfort," Elm replied. "One that we shouldn't let distract us from the matter at hand- is there an actual plan for how we're going about this?"
"There is," Marrow confirmed as he looked to his superior. "General Ironwood and I spent much of last night hashing out the details and preparing a mockup of what's about to happen. Field leaders of the Academy volunteers and military personnel should be going over it with their squads as we speak. General?"
James swiped a small device from the edge of his desk and pointed it at the floating holograms, pressing a few buttons to switch over the displays. As the drone footage faded out, a blue 3D map of Mantle manifested in midair and several locations began to blink steadily, highlighting a few landmarks throughout the city. One rectangular patch in particular was blinking a bright green, and the map zoomed in to show what appeared to be a flattened stretch of land.
"Frostflow Park seems to be mostly devoid of grimm at this point in time as they focus on scouring buildings for survivors. Most of the trees have been knocked down or burned away, leaving it as a wide, level area in which we can establish a temporary base. We'll be dropping heavy stationary artillery upon the rooftops of buildings surrounding the park and sending all of you in with an army of robotic soldiers, mech suits, and tanks to establish a perimeter. Weiss will take care of distribution and the dropoff of dust caches as you advance through the city. Consider Frostflow your home base from which it would be easy to evacuate and even easier to box in defensively. The effort to take back Mantle begins there."
The holo-map zoomed back out to show the city at large, the other landmarks beginning to blink red against the contrasting blue. Marrow turned to the group and nodded, gesturing vaguely to the display behind him.
"Once we're got a perimeter established and our drones begin erecting a base, we'll bring in the military and Academy students and begin splitting into squads. Each squad will be manned by two of us- Elm and I, Coco and Neptune, Penny and Cardin- and begin sweeping quadrants of Mantle to rescue survivors and liberate key defensive positions. Once that's done… we all meet up and head for the port to allow those from Argus in to help, or to head out and help them, whichever the case may be."
"Of course, this is the ideal," James cautioned. "This is what's going to happen assuming everything goes according to plan. I don't think I need to tell you that it will not."
"Right," Marrow resigned with a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. "Which is why we'll all have a direct line to Raven to come and bail us out as needed. That being said… Raven cannot be down on the ground with us for this. Even if Salem's only using reserve grimm down in Mantle, which we're still not sure of… Raven's a massive target. I don't doubt that Salem would throw everything she's got at trying to disable our little get out of jail free card, on top of potentially getting a set of Maiden powers if Raven should die in the field."
"Right. Let's avoid dying in the field," Coco suggested. "This all sounds solid, so I'm sure it's going to turn into a massive clusterfuck and we'll be left scrambling. If that's all, I'm gonna go start shotgunning coffee to get my Semblance turbo-charged for the initial dropoff."
"…is that seriously how that works?" Marrow asked, raising a brow.
"More caffeine, more strength," Coco answered with a shrug. "Give me enough cold brew and I'll punch off a goliath's faceplate. Or have a heart attack. Whichever comes first."
"Let's try to avoid that, too," Neptune replied with an uneasy grin. "I don't know if I can drag your body through the streets while holding off grimm."
"Penny can handle it," Coco joked as she gave the android a nod.
Penny turned to face Coco, her eyes returning to something resembling those of a human as she looked the huntress up and down.
"…affirmative. Your frame is slightly underweight for a woman of your height. Hauling you would be easy."
"…I like her," Coco declared immediately. "Come on, people. Let's go do our pre-game rituals and get ready to kick some ass."
"Someone's happy now that her boyfriend's awake," Cardin muttered as he turned toward the office door and began to make his exit.
"Yeah, good dick'll do that," Coco said as she clapped an arm around the boy's shoulders. "Maybe we should get you some."
"…fuck off."
Marrow rolled his eyes and put on a smirk as he watched the trio from Sanus leave the room with Penny.
"Kids."
"Kids indeed," James agreed as he approached the faunus and continued on toward the door. "I need to meet with Cinnamon and Daisuke to sort out the situation here in the city, in terms of housing for the refugees. It's… not going well. I leave this in your capable hands."
"I'll handle it," Marrow asserted as he gave James a quick salute and then moved to follow. "You have my word."
"Marrow?"
The faunus paused just before the door, letting the General walk on through without him. As the door slid shut, he turned to face Elm, who had remained inside the office.
"…what's up?"
"I… just wanted to talk, if you have a moment," Elm offered as she moved to sit on the edge of James' desk. "Between Aces."
"Of course," Marrow agreed, sounding surprised by the proposition as he walked closer. "Something on your mind?"
"A lot, actually," Elm warned. The woman made a soft noise of frustration and shook her head before giving the faunus her full attention. "With Clover out of commission and Harriet gone, I… I've been doing a lot of thinking, on my own. Thinking about our time with the newcomers and the way that they've changed things around here. Thinking about how poorly I've handled everything since you signed on with us."
"What are you talking about?" Marrow asked with a nervous laugh. "You've always been a reliable frontliner, a-"
"That isn't what I'm talking about," Elm interrupted, gripping the edges of the desk with her fingers until her knuckles turned almost white. "I don't… talk to any of you. I never have. About what I'm feeling, about my problems, my thoughts on the situation… ever since we lost Vine, I've stayed quiet, played my role out in the field, and otherwise kept mostly to myself. That isn't enough anymore. Not for me, and not for you, now that you're leading us."
Marrow remained quiet for a moment, thinking over the words before giving Elm a small nod.
"…I didn't want to push you out of your comfort zone. Same with Harriet- I should have made more of an effort to get us all to connect and make sure you were heard sooner."
"I didn't want to be heard," Elm reminded. "Don't pin this on anyone but me. Working with Jaune, though, he… brought up some good points about how I've been hurting the dynamic of the Aces. How keeping to myself and just going with the flow isn't selfless- it's selfish. Seeing you with Weiss, and so many others with people they can openly rely upon as lovers and friends… I want that, too. I need that, to stay functional throughout all of this. So… I guess this is me saying that from here on out, expect me to be more vocal and actively helpful as we move through Mantle. Expect me to be more than a colleague. I want to be a friend, if you'll have me."
Marrow's tail began to gently wag all on its own, though he made no effort to stop it.
"Of course! You don't have to say anything more, and don't feel bad about taking a while to get to this point. Channel that energy into what's ahead," Marrow suggested. "Maybe we should go do weapons checks together and just… talk for a bit? Catch up?"
Elm pushed off the desk and cleared her throat, feeling a little embarrassed as she walked forward to join her companion.
"You know… I think I would like that. Let's go."
Author's Note:
Next week… the crew leaves for Vacuo.
-RD