Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or its associated characters. The characters in this writing so far are mostly original characters, but I make no claim over the existing characters.

Chapter 15

PVP

Grayson's Perspective

"Captain!" I shouted as Evelynn went down, a hole burned through her chest. I crawled over to her, unable to stand with my left leg refusing to work correctly until LIWI could heal it. I scrambled over and propped myself up above her while I examined her injury.

The blast had gone through her chest armor, narrowly missing the spinal cord and burning out a chunk of the heart. The heat of it had almost instantly cauterized the wound, so she wasn't bleeding out as fast as she would have otherwise, but she was still only seconds from death.

"LIWI!" I shouted, "I need you to give her all the healing you've got!"

Already on it!

LIWI called back, and golden healing light radiated from my palms as I worked on more mundane treatments.

The battle raged on behind me, the report of gunshots, sizzling of lasers, and the clanging of swords creating a distracting din of commotion behind me. I spilled my medical kit on the ground, then reached up and pulled the emergency release straps on Evelynn's armor to allow me to work on her wounds. She had a small hole directly through her torso, and I could have seen straight through it if her heart and lungs hadn't sagged to fill the new empty space within her.

LIWI's healing worked from the inside out, repairing the heart, but she would still likely perish if I wasn't able to prevent her from bleeding out into the dirt, or if her internal organs were damaged any more by their exposure to the outside world. Evelynn was rapidly becoming delirious, muttering under her breath as her head turned side to side, sweat rapidly forming on her forehead.

I worked as quickly as I could, spraying down the wound with liberal amounts of disinfectant with one hand while applying a chest bandage to both the entrance and exit wounds with the other. The smart bandage expanded towards itself gently, avoiding common issues with packing chest wounds by linking both bandages together within the body.

While the back of my brain was busy panicking, the logical portion of my brain asserted itself. I was dimly aware of my own fears and worries, but my hands steadied and my heart rate calmed as I fell into a rhythm.

"How's the healing going LIWI?" I asked, no longer able to see the injuries her heart had sustained.

Not good, the heart isn't working with me, I keep regrowing it and it keeps trying to tear itself apart.

For the first time in a while LIWI seemed genuinely worried. Panic spiked again in my mind for a moment, but I forced it out of my head and sat back to think.

"There must be something in the wound, maybe a piece of her armor or something. It's probably touching the heart, causing it to damage itself when it beats."

Okay, so what do I do about it?

"She needs surgery, can you keep healing her if I leave you with her?"

Sure, it's not a lot of damage, it's just in a very dangerous spot. If I don't have to do anything else I can heal her for hours before I start to run out of energy.

"Alright then" I said, drawing my pistol again. I unclasped LIWI and buckled him onto Evelynn's waist, then swapped my revolver to my right hand and sheathed Green's sword.

"Keep her alive, I'll get us out of here."

Wait!

I heard him call out to me, then his voice fell silent within my mind as I broke contact with him.

I stood, turning back to the battle. Lieutenant Lord had followed our flare, and was currently engaged with Logan in heated melee combat. With his aura low, Logan couldn't use his semblance to take control of Lord's weapon, so he was currently on the defensive, using my sword to block the incoming attacks.

Lord swung low with his battleaxe and Logan stepped backwards, striking the weapon behind the blade to add to its momentum and send the Lieutenant off balance. Captain Ripley leapt over Lord's head, baring her teeth and slamming downwards with her longsword in a double handed grip. Her form was sloppy, and she didn't see Logan draw a smooth black pistol from a holster on his left side as he parried with my sword in his right hand.

She followed up with a flurry of swings, chopping her weapon like she could make up for lack of technique with raw aggression. Logan sidestepped her latest attack, then separated himself from her, throwing my sword at her face to distract her as he gained space. She blocked the spinning weapon and snarled her anger as he escaped her grasp.

Logan responded by bringing the pistol up with his left hand, rapidly squeezing the trigger and sending six shots straight towards her, each tipped with a different type of dust. Fire, lightning, frost, gravity, earth, and glass dust all struck in a second, shattering Ripley's aura with a resounding crash. The slide of his weapon locked back, indicating it was empty, so Logan spun the pistol back into the holster smoothly, drawing a second one with his right hand and lining up for a kill shot.

A fire dust round spat from the barrel, but was intercepted by Lieutenant Lord's multi hued shield as he stepped in between the combatants. He motioned for Captain Ripley to get to cover, then held the shield up to provide her cover. I ran up to join the Lieutenant, wondering where the hell Captain Hill had gotten to. Logan calmly reloaded both of his pistols as Captain Ripley gave an angry huff, upset that she was out of the fight, then stormed away to safety.

I brought my own weapon up as Lord dropped the shield and charged in, firing a shot not at Logan, but at his weapon. The slug round I had loaded into my revolver caught his right pistol in the barrel, knocking it out of his hand and sending it skidding away in the dirt. I took aim at his other weapon, but my shot was blocked by Lord as the two clashed.

Lieutenant Lord swung with his axe, and Logan brought his arm up to block. The blade connected squarely with Logan's forearm, shattering the last remnant of his pure black aura, but was still stopped by his armor. With his left hand, Logan fired two shots into Lord's torso, catching him in the flexible plates guarding his stomach beneath the hardened chest plate. Lord's aura also shattered in a bright coral blue explosion.

I finally got the angle I needed as the lieutenant pulled back and took another carefully aimed shot, knocking the second pistol from Logan's hand. I couldn't bring myself to go for a lethal shot, not just because Atlas wanted him alive, but also because somewhere inside of me he was still my friend. As Lord struggled to withdraw his ax from Logan's vambrace, Logan took hold of the handle of the ax with his newly freed left hand. He headbutted the Lieutenant, then yanked backwards and ripped the axe from his grip.

Lord staggered back, clutching his crushed nose as it began to spray blood onto the ground. He blinked, looking up too late as Logan swung the axe home into his gut, slashing through his armor and ripping a massive gash into his stomach.

"No!" I shouted, firing the last three shots from my revolver. They all hit Logan's armor, sending him staggering backwards, but not putting him down. Lord looked surprised as he reached to feel his wound, holding his intestines in his hands as they spilled out of him. I had an uncomfortable flashback to only a few hours before, when Lieutenant Lord had given the same wound to a WoF soldier. I had been able to save the soldier, but with LIWI busy keeping Captain Stone alive I wouldn't be able to save Lieutenant Lord. The Lieutenant staggered a few steps backwards, then slumped into the dirt.

I heard the soft click of a revolver hammer as Captain Hill emerged from a tent, having apparently been hiding inside it for the last few minutes of the fight.

"I have you dead to rights" He said to Logan in his vaguely spanish accent. "Do not move." Logan looked between the two of us, then set his jaw.

"Your aura is down too, asshole." He spat.

"This is true" Hill replied, "But I am armed, you are not. If you move I will certainly shoot."

A small smile crept over Logan's face, then he dove backwards, tucking himself into a roll as Hill fired at him. Two shots caught him in the left leg, one penetrating his armor to score a hit. Another shot deflected off of his chest armor, and a fourth connected with his left vambrace as he brought it up to protect his face. The last two shots went wild, impacting uselessly on the dirt. I frantically worked to reload my revolver, but my speedloaders had been attached to LIWI after I had been forced to remove my armor, and now I only had a collection of loose shells to load into my weapon.

Logan's hand closed around his pistol on the ground, and he brought it up to fire at Captain Hill. The captain blanched, then dove for cover behind the nearest thing to him, Lieutenant Lord's body. The first shot from Logan impacted Captain Hill in the arm, causing him to cry out in pain and drop his empty weapon. Two more shots hit Lord's armor, causing his lifeless body to jump with the impact.

Logan stood up on his injured leg, grunting with the pain, seeking a better line of fire on Captain. In response, Hill reached up and pulled Lord's body up over himself like a child pulling a blanket up to protect himself from a monster. I abandoned trying to reload my weapon, instead charging Logan. I drew Green's sword as I charged and swung it downwards to knock the pistol from his hand. I tried to pivot into a slash towards his head, but he leaned backwards out of my reach.

I pressed the attack, but even with his injured leg he was still able to react far faster than I could without LIWI to enhance me. Despite my initial attack putting him on the back foot, he quickly adapted by sidestepping my overhead slash and lashing out with a jab to my ribs. The comparatively light blow still knocked the wind out of me and nearly broke one of my ribs. He followed up his attack by grabbing a fistful of the fabric of my undersuit and hauling me into a judo style throw. The move sent me tumbling away from him, and I lost my grip on Green's sword as I hit the dirt floor of the encampment.

He rushed me as I recovered my footing, slowed by the bleeding wound in his thigh. He still closed the gap remarkably quickly, throwing sloppy but powerful and fast punches at my head. I backed up, searching for space as he attempted to overwhelm me with his superior speed and strength. I ducked under a cross, and delivered an uppercut to his jaw, snapping his head back and throwing off his vision so I could deliver a quick follow up kick to his wounded leg.

He shouted in pain as my foot connected with his thigh, forcing the bullet in his leg to shift and further exasperate his injury. He reached out to grab me, but I ducked again under his arms and danced backwards away from him. I wasn't used to fighting someone who was both taller and bigger than me, usually I had a reach advantage when I fought against members of team SGGE or other soldiers. Now I was forced to try to adapt my fighting style against a much stronger opponent.

I struck outwards with two sharp jabs as I backed up again, but paid the price by taking a solid cross to my jaw. My head snapped to the side as I rolled with the punch, but before I could adjust my guard I caught a jab to the ribs and another to the nose.

My nose crunched as Logan's fist drove into it, spraying blood onto my face and starting a persistent and distracting drip into the back of my throat. I responded with a snap kick to Logan's torso, hitting his armor but forcing him backwards and off balance. I followed up with a pump kick, leaping into the air with my right knee up, then dropping it and twisting my hips to bring my left leg around in a roundhouse kick to connect with Logan's jaw. My titanium plated boot struck him squarely on the jaw, and he reeled backwards away from me. I planted my feet, and struck out with a side kick, needing more powerful kicks to deal any real damage to my opponent.

I hit him in the side, just to the side of his breastplate, and he brought his guard back down to protect his body. I brought my foot back down to the ground, then followed through with a combination I had practiced hundreds of times, sidestepping with my back foot and pivoting to bring my front foot up and around my body to strike out with another kick. Logan had recovered from my first combination, and caught my foot in one hand. If I let him keep his grip I would be forced to the ground, so instead I jumped forwards off my back foot, pulling myself into him and striking at the top of his head with my elbow. I hit him once, twice, three times, before he reached out to grab me by the neck with his other hand.

Now holding me by my foot and throat, he lifted me up, then slammed us both into the ground. The wind was knocked from my lungs as I hit hard, and my back involuntarily arched as my spine protested in pain. He maintained his grip on me as I struggled to get my legs between us to drive him off. Logan leaned to the side, spitting out blood and a tooth that I had knocked free with my roundhouse kick, then glared at me with an angry expression.

"I was trying to be nice, for Gary's sake." he said, his voice dripping with irritation. "But you're becoming a lot more trouble than you're worth."

With that he reared back and delivered a punch to my face. My head snapped back, impacting the dirt beneath me and causing my brain to whiplash back and forth inside my skull. A second punch hit me, causing my vision to blur heavily. I tried to raise my arms up to block, but he pulled them down with his left hand, before delivering another punch with his right. I collapsed backwards into the dirt, my awareness flickering in and out as my brain tried to preserve itself from the repeated heavy impacts. I dimly felt his weight lift off of me, and opened my eyes to see him stagger over to where his pistol lay discarded in the dirt. I struggled to sit up, my body not wanting to obey me. He bent down to pick up his weapon, then turned back towards me, raising the pistol.

"Sorry it had to come to this, Grayson."

Silver Forge, Captain Stone's hammer, flew through the air with a deep humming sound. The exposed marble core smashed into the back of Logan's head, shattering into a half dozen chunks as it impacted. The gun dropped from his hand and his eyes crossed as he collapsed into a heap, the off switch in his brain firmly pressed by the strong impact. I looked up, past Logan's crumbled body to see Evelynn, standing a dozen feet behind him breathing heavily. LIWI still glowed brightly around her waist as he flooded her with healing, and the yellow light caused her golden eyes to radiate reflected light. Her expression was firmly set as she watched Logan hit the ground. My vision swam and my head pounded from the repeated impacts I had taken. As soon as I realized the threat had passed, it was like my brain hit a shutdown switch to preserve itself, and I passed out.

-/-

Not even a minute later I was slapped painfully awake. I blinked, trying to focus my vision on Captain Stone standing over me, a deep frown creasing her expression.

"Fix him, will you?" She said to nobody, and a moment later I felt LIWI's healing flow over me, mending the injuries I had taken during the fight. As I healed I saw Evelynn wince, then clutch at her heart. She breathed deeply, her face screwing up into a mask of pain as whatever piece of shrapnel was embedded in her chest ripped into her heart now that LIWI's healing was no longer keeping it at bay. She sank to one knee as the last of my wounds healed, sweat beading on her forehead, then gradually recovered as LIWI switched back to healing her instead.

I shook my head to clear the last of the cobwebs. I was fairly confident I needed to be evaluated for a concussion, but for now I would be able to get back on my feet. Evelynn took one last shaky breath and stood, offering me a hand up. I accepted the hand and rose to view the carnage.

What struck me first as I regained my bearings was the smell of blood, it was almost pervasive, emanating from where we had fought the majority of the standard WoF infantry. A few sporadic shots rang out from the other end of the camp where Sergeant Green and Major Fin were presumably still fighting the remaining soldiers. The only other significant source of noise was the Bullhead burning in the center of camp. The night was otherwise quiet, with any wildlife scared into hiding by the violence.

Examining my more immediate surroundings, my eye was drawn to a sudden movement as Captain Hill extricated himself from underneath Lieutenant Lord's lifeless body. Lord's face still bore a confused expression, as if he couldn't believe what had happened, and steam rose from his exposed intestines as the heat of his now cooling body was exposed to the chilly night air. Captain Stone strode with purpose over to where Captain Hill was working to free himself, and reached down to grab him by the collar of his customized uniform. She hauled him bodily up with one hand, not even phased by the effort required to pull the full sized man out from underneath another. Captain Hill struggled to get his feet underneath him, thrown off balance despite Evelynn's comparatively diminutive size. She jabbed a finger in his face, millimeters from his eye.

"Coward" She spat, "You should have fought to the end."

"My aura was broken!" Captain Hill whined defensively, "I could have been killed!"

"Good" She replied, her voice a combination of hate and disgust. "The world would have been better for it." She released her grip on him and shoved him backwards.

"Your team can carry your own casualties." Evelynn declared, pointing towards Lieutenant Lord. "I'll take the prisoner."

With that she gathered the shattered pieces of her hammer, then slung it on her back and hefted Logan up onto her shoulder, walking towards where Eugene had set up his sniping position. The image of her small frame carrying the comparatively gigantic Logan would have been comedic, if I hadn't been worried about her agitating the shrapnel near her heart.

I walked stiffly over to where my own weapons had fallen in the scuffle and collected them. Captain Ripley returned a moment later with Major Fin and Sergeant Green in tow, having apparently run off to get reinforcements after Lieutenant Lord had covered her retreat.

"It's over?" She asked with a pouty expression "I wanted to get some payback!"

"Your teammate is dead." I said flatly, pointing to where Hill was trying to gather up Lord's body without getting blood on himself. I couldn't bring myself to match Evelynn's aggressive energy, instead feeling a dull ache in my throat and chest as I forced myself to put Lord's death behind me for now.

Captain Ripley shrugged at my comment, seemingly unaffected by the death of her teammate.

"He knew the risks." She said nonchalantly, "We all did when we signed up to be huntsmen."

Sergeant Green caught my eye with a grim expression, then nodded to where Evelynn was fading from view out into the darkness. We set off to follow her, jogging to catch up. On the way out of camp I reached down to scoop up one of the hybrid technological magical weapons Logan had been using, intent on studying the design. When we caught up with Evelynn I could hear her muttering under her breath

"I don't care how you're doing it, you just need to keep it up until I get back to base." She paused, presumably hearing a response. "No I will not take it easy, find some effort, or I'll kick your sorry ass to the curb and find someone who can get this done right." Randall looked at her, puzzled by her comments to the night sky.

"Ma'am?" he asked "Are you feeling alright?" Evelynn sucked in a sharp breath as her foot caught on a rock and she stumbled.

"I'm fine." She replied angrily "Make yourself useful and carry this asshole for a minute."

She passed Logan to Sergeant Green, then sent him on ahead to meet up with Eugene at the rappelling point back down the cliff to the vehicles waiting below. We were back where I had landed after being thrown from the Bullhead, and I was busy collecting and re-equipping the scattered pieces of my armor. I slid the right shoulder piece up my arm, clicking it into connection with the chest piece and feeling the micro servos lock the two pieces together at the joint.

Evelynn approached me as I worked, offering the left arm, which she had fully assembled. I gratefully accepted it, sliding my arm into the opening at the shoulder all the way down into the fingertips of the armored gloves. I continued assembling the armor, clasping the rest of the right arm as she stood guard to ensure we were not surprised by any surviving soldiers from the camp. Finally, she spoke to me.

"What is LIWI, Grayson?" Evelynn asked, turning her head to look at me. Her arms were crossed over her damaged breastplate and her posture was distinctly hostile.

"Uh, that's classified?" I offered weakly. It was a shitty excuse and we both knew it.

"Bullshit" She spat, "You manage to do insane things every time we go on an op, and yet every time you survive. When we first attacked that storage depot, we met up in the hallway. You had a dozen bullet holes in your armor, covered in blood, and yet you were fine. When we fought Dalia Nickel the ground disintegrated to free us from her semblance, but I've never seen you do that before. I was shot through the chest just a few minutes ago, and I've still got a chunk of metal that I can feel digging into my heart with every beat, yet I'm standing here, stronger than I've ever felt in my life."

I attached the right glove to my arm and flexed the servos, trying to avoid her judgemental gaze.

"He's talking to me now, Grayson. How is that possible?" She probed.

I clicked the last piece of my armor on and went to don the helmet, but she grabbed it, holding it between us and looking into my eyes.

"Don't lie to me Grayson, what is he?"

Memories from Gary flashed through my mind in an instant, memories from when he had learned what happened in the past when magic was discovered. Every time a maiden's power was revealed to the world there was no end to the people who would hunt them down seeking the magic for themselves. I knew how much damage could be caused if it was discovered that instead of trying to kill a maiden and steal their powers someone could simply take LIWI from me and force him to help them replicate his spells. It would inspire an arms race between the four nations, each competing to acquire and study any magical items they could get their hands on, each willing to kill for it.

I met Evelynn's eye, I could see she was searching my face for a way to trust me, to know that I wasn't keeping secrets from her. At the same time I was searching to see if I could trust her with the knowledge I was burdened with. Finally, after what felt like ages but was only probably a few seconds, I made up my mind.

"I can't tell you" I said, "I wish I could, but I just can't. I understand that it's a problem, but I hope you can trust me anyway." She held my gaze a moment longer, then nodded and released her grip on my helmet. I donned it, then sighed quietly with relief as I no longer had to weather the pressure of her stare peering into my non existent soul.

"Fine," She replied, more resigned than angry, "But when we get back to Atlas you're finding whoever you need to find in order to get me read into this program. I can't work with someone I don't know." With the last of my armor recovered, we strode off into the darkness to join the rest of Team SGGE.

We descended the cliff without incident, Evelynn fast roping down Lieutenant Rivers grappling line while I activated the feather fall system in my armor. Fortunately she hadn't become suspicious of the extra features of my armor, though I wasn't sure how long it would be until she figured it out if LIWI didn't keep his mouth shut. I met back up with Eugene and Randall at the bottom of the cliff as I helped them load Logan up into the back of our vehicle.

"Are you guys good?" Eugene signed to me as I worked on administering a tranquilizing agent to Logan to keep him unconscious. I finished up my work, then turned to him and signed my reply.

"It was pretty bad up there, she's not happy, but that's partly my fault." He shrugged.

"She'll get over it, don't worry. I'm sorry I wasn't more help, I lost track of you guys after the Bullhead crashed, then the other group needed my help."

"It's not your fault" I signed back as I strapped myself into my seat, "It was too chaotic, our plan sucked, and they knew we were coming. I'm just glad we made it out at all."

Evelynn climbed into the passenger seat next to Sergeant Green, then motioned for him to gun the engine, not waiting for team FRIL to load up into their vehicle next to us. Randall gave a thumbs up, and we set off towards the evacuation point. As we rode in supernatural silence I could see Evelynn speaking to LIWI in the front seat. I hadn't yet learned to read lips unfortunately, even though my sign language had been progressing well, so I couldn't tell what she was saying.

-/-

After about forty five minutes of driving we arrived at our destination, a small clearing about thirty miles outside of Argus, and settled in to wait for our ride to come pick us up. A minute later Team FRIL's vehicle pulled into the clearing with us and Major Fin dismounted, storming over to where Captain Stone stood.

"Captain Stone" He said loudly, irritation obvious in his voice "We must discuss your behavior regarding members of my team." Evelynn didn't respond, instead continuing to stare out into the darkness.

"Captain!" Major Fin practically shouted. "Your behavior is unbecoming of an officer of your rank, you will address my concerns or I will see you brought up on charges of insubordination when we return to Atlas!"

Sergeant Green and Lieutenant Rivers stiffened, rising to their feet. Noticeably, Rivers' hand hovered on the grip of his rifle as he waited to see Evelynn's response. Captain Stone slowly turned to look up at Major Fin, giving him a look of pure disdain as she addressed him.

"I'll be happy to discuss the behavior of senior officers on this mission during the debriefing. Major." She put heavy emphasis on his rank. "But for now we are in the middle of an operation, and you are compromising our position by continuing to shout, so please shut up, and go sit down." Captain Ripley stepped forwards angrily at the implied insult, but Sergeant Green stepped forwards as well, intercepting her and placing himself between Ripley and Stone.

Major Fin huffed and sputtered, repeatedly attempting to start a sentence, but each time abandoning the thought in the face of Captain Stone's indifferent demeanor. After a moment, he backed down, visibly calming himself.

"Very well, captain" this time it was his turn to emphasize rank. "I will be filing a detailed report of your actions here tonight, expect repercussions." Evelynn simply nodded, then turned back to stare into the darkness.

Major Fin stormed back to his team, joining Captain Hill who had stayed safely behind the driver's seat of his vehicle. I caught Lieutenant Rivers' eye and motioned for him to go speak with Captain Stone.

"She needs to talk to somebody she can trust," I signed surreptitiously, "You should talk to her." He nodded, and silently strode over to join her. Sergeant Green and Captain Ripley continued to size each other up for a long moment, but eventually Ripley backed off, moving to join her team leader. Sergeant Green released a held breath, relaxing his semblance, then turned to speak with me, ushering us to the edge of the clearing so we wouldn't be overheard.

"What's going on with the Captain?" He asked quietly. "Something's got her pissed off since the battle, I know it's more than losing Triple L again, so what gives?" I sighed, and would have run a hand through my hair if I wasn't wearing a helmet.

"Well," I began. "It's got to do with LIWI and all the classified stuff I can't talk about. She's pissed that I won't tell her about him, and rightfully so, but I don't know how to deal with it."

He nodded wisely.

"Let me impart some NCO wisdom on you," He offered.

"We're the same rank" I interjected with a raised finger.

"Shut up." He replied, holding up a significantly less polite finger. "My wisdom is this, your leader doesn't trust you, so get her to trust you."

I made a face.

"Gee thanks" I replied. "I hadn't thought of that."

"I'm serious," He said with a grin. "Go do something that proves you're trustworthy, have her back. She'll come around."

I looked over to where Major Fin and his teammates were in hushed discussions, likely scheming to blame every failure of tonight's mission on Captain Stone.

"You know what?" I said to Randall. "I think I know what to do." He clapped me on the back.

"Atta boy," he replied cheerfully. "Go get 'em."

I strode over to Major Fin, approaching him from behind. Captain Hill looked up at my arrival, nodding with his head to indicate my approach to the rest of his team. Major Fin turned to me, a dark expression on his face.

"Ah, Sergeant Phoenix" he said with forced politeness. "What do you want?"

I gestured to Captains Hill and Ripley.

"I want to tell you that your team fucking sucks." I said, then pointed squarely at him. "And that it's your fault."

"I beg your pardon sergeant?" He said indignantly. Behind me I heard Sergeant Green slap his forehead and mutter a curse under his breath.

"You heard me." I insisted, continuing to dig the hole I had made for myself. "Captain Ripley has zero tactical sense, she just swings at whatever is in front of her with no regard for team tactics or battlefield control." Ripley bristled at the comment, angrily clenching her fist. I pointed at Captain Hill in the vehicle.

"Captain Hill is a coward who sacrificed his own teammates and mine to save his own sorry hide." Hill shrank down in his seat, attempting to avoid the confrontation he could feel brewing. Finally I stuck my finger right in Major Fin's face, crowding out his vision as I loomed over him, emphasizing the few inches of height I had over him.

"And you, you're a terrible leader, you critique loudly in public and never offer praise. Every other sentence out of your mouth is a veiled insult. You develop shitty strategies that waste valuable resources. You encourage distrust, disinformation, and discordance among your team. And worst of all, when someone is actually competent like Captain Stone, you blame all of your failings on her."

I took a breath, Major Fin's eyes were practically bugging out of his skull with rage. I had probably accomplished my goal, but I figured I better hammer it home just in case.

"The only reason any of us made it out of that camp tonight is because Captain Stone fought her way back from the brink of death to bring down Hephaestus. If she hadn't done that while Captain Hill's sorry ass was hiding under his own teammate, then he would have killed all of us. While you were off attacking a freaking munitions depot like it was an executive suite, we were actually fighting our target. Captain Stone gave everything she had tonight, and if you do so much as file a report even suggesting that she was anything less than stellar I will go dig up every personnel complaint, shitty tactical decision, logistical failure, and casualty under your command. I will find every single screw up you have ever made in your entire career. Then I'll file it into a nice clean slide presentation and have it on General Ironwood's desk by morning."

I finished my tirade by jabbing my power armored finger into his chest, pushing him back slightly despite the distinct strength difference between us. A vein pulsed on Major Fin's forehead.

"You don't have the requisite authority!" He insisted angrily, but I could see panic in his eyes, which made me wonder just how much dirt he was hiding in his past.

"I'm special forces Major," I replied "I don't need authority, I simply do what needs doing. Think about that the next time you want to throw your weight around."

With that I turned on my heel, striding purposefully away from the major as the gentle whine of distant aircraft engines became audible in the distance, signifying the arrival of our extraction. I had probably just made myself an enemy for life, but if it helped to shield the rest of SGGE from Major Fin's meddling then I hoped it would be worth it.