Chapter 102 - Menagerie - Stretching Their Wings

Year 74VE, January

Cover Art by Mi Chumi

Breakwater Mission Center

Today was the first use of Breakwater's Mission Center, and Nagata was headed there, this very moment.

It was standard practice that the Academies, not the Kingdoms' ruling councils, managed and tracked Huntsman assignments. This was because Huntsmen and Huntresses, while citizens of a Kingdom, were considered to be outside its direct jurisdiction when conducting official business. This was in part because Grimm didn't honor administrative boundaries, and in part to emphasize that Huntsmen were not tools of state, nor were they a military or militia beholden to a ruling government.

Atlas had long blurred that line, allowing Huntsmen to hold commissions in the Atlas Military, and were blurring it further, rumor had it, by creating a team of Specialists with Huntsman licensing inside the Atlesian military chain of command. Leo said the other Headmasters were aware of this. Nagata wasn't happy about that news, and he knew Menagerie's fledgling Council wasn't either, but Atlas was going to do what Atlas did.

But even in Atlas, with its authoritarian tendencies, Huntsman contract management was mostly self-administering. Jobs were posted by individuals, municipalities, and organizations, and then Huntsman teams or solos grabbed those job assignments if the compensation matched or exceeded what they felt reasonable.

But in rare cases, a managing Headmaster would hold a mission back from the public board, or would assign a special mission to a specific team based on information only they had. Those were managed solely by the Headmaster or their Deputy from their private offices.

Breakwater was an oddity at the moment. They had so few Huntsmen, and so many needs, that at least for the time being all missions would be coordinated through Breakwater instead of being openly posted. And Gazelle Communications's head, Sophia Keene, had suggested a mission control of sorts, likely based on her own clandestine operations center, partway into Breakwater's construction. Lionheart and Ursulus had both endorsed the 'adjustment' wholeheartedly along with a few other changes. Ursulus' lead Engineer had been less happy, and with a lot of cursing had turned one of the planned conference rooms in the Administration Building into the heart of Breakwater's Huntsman operations and made the other requested changes.

Today was the day they proved or disproved its effectiveness.

Director Nagata entered the Mission Center and took in its details. A handful of people were milling about, mostly Gazelle Communications' recently trained Menagerie employees doing checks on the systems, but others would soon arrive. One entire wall of the room was a large digital map of Menagerie with symbols representing the locations of key assets. Population centers, the Academy itself, available aircraft and merchant marine vessels, CCT infrastructure, and both Licensed Huntsman teams and Academy teams were all marked in various symbols, colors, and lines. It was early Saturday morning, and currently, all of the Huntsman and Academy Teams were staged either at the Aquatics Center or the bullhead docks waiting to depart, save for the veteran Menagerie Team HKKA (Haka), whose icon was located just outside Kuo Kuana's walls, performing their regular Grimm patrol duties around the city's perimeter.

Soon the other icons would disperse. One group from the Aquatics Center heading out to sea. A second and third grouping leaving there would head East and West along the coast. Two sets of Bullheads would leave the Breakwater bullhead docks, one heading southwest toward the intra-mountain valleys, a second and third would stay together and make southeast to the highlands just inside those same mountain ranges.

He took a deep breath and turned to the left, where a second wall showed the current status board for Huntsman missions, teams, mission status, and Aura levels. Some of that information would update in real-time, assuming they could maintain CCT signal. Others would only update intermittently when a signal could be grabbed.

MISSION: Kuo Kuana Standard Grimm Patrol

THREAT ESTIMATE: Low

Team HKKA (Haka) - STATUS: Active - AURA: 100/100/100/100

MISSION: Interior Tablerock Recon

THREAT ESTIMATE: High

Team RMPT (Rampart) - STATUS: Active - AURA: 100/100/100/100

Team DOWS (Dowser) - STATUS: Active - AURA: 100/100/100/100

Team DE (Deet) - STATUS: Active - AURA: 100/100/100/100

TRAINING MISSION: Highland Relay Site

THREAT ESTIMATE: Moderate

Academy 2nd Years SMBR (Sambar) - STATUS: Active - AURA: 100/100/100/100

Escort Instructor Cassie Kanana - AURA 100

MISSION: West Bay (Keikai Kuana) Survey

THREAT ESTIMATE: Moderate

Team MGRV (Mangrove) - STATUS: Active AURA: 100/100/100/100

Academy 4th Years BWFN (Bowfin) - STATUS: Active - AURA: 100/100/100/100

MISSION: Atalantia Beachhead

THREAT ESTIMATE: Moderate

Team SMOK (Smoke) - STATUS: Active - AURA: 100/100/100/100

Academy 3rd Years FHOM (Fathom) - STATUS: Active - AURA: 100/100/100/100

TRAINING MISSION: East Bay (Lua Kuana) Survey

THREAT ESTIMATE: Low

Academy 1st Years FRCL (Fractal) - STATUS: Active - AURA: 100/100/100/100

Escort Instructor Salt Boudda - AURA 100

TRAINING MISSION: Vaimani Valley Survey

THREAT ESTIMATE: Low

Academy 1st Years SCRV (Scarab) - STATUS: Active - AURA: 100/100/100/100

Escort Instructor Daisy Alenta - AURA 100

UNASSIGNED / AVAILABLE

N/A

UNAVAILABLE

N/A

Four Huntsman Missions involving five Menagerie-licensed teams and two upper-classmen Academy teams.

Three Training Missions involving a 1st or 2nd year Academy team with instructor escort.

All running simultaneously, he mused sourly.

He'd questioned that. It seemed to him that they were stretching their resources. But Lionheart had reviewed what they wanted to accomplish, discussed the likely hazards with the veteran teams and the rest of the Academy staff, and had reassured Nagata that, if anything, they were overstaffed for each mission by at least 50 percent.

But Lionheart isn't here to greet the body bags if we're wrong. I am. He eased into a comfortable chair at the head of the table. I'm not cut out for this job , he thought sourly for the thousandth time.

He eyeballed the microphone in front of his seat and reviewed the imagery shown centrally on a holographic display in the middle of the conference table. Video footage from whoever on each Huntsman or Academy Team was capturing it. He'd be able to watch some of these missions in real-time, again subject to CCT signal availability and bandwidth. They fully expected to have issues with that, for some of the missions. Keene's technicians said they'd try to strike a balance between image quality and frame rate if things went hokey, but to be prepared for dead-air on some of the missions..

They'll be fine. Leo says they'll be fine. Cassie, Daisy, and Salt say they'll be fine.

Hell, even Lt. Fisk is confident.

He felt acid roil in his stomach. So why am I losing my mind here?

Nagata was, frankly, relieved when the first individual holographic screen, sitting on the table in front of one of the empty seats, flickered to life.

"Leo," he nodded toward the image. The Haven Headmaster had agreed to keep a terminal open via one of Gazelle's secure devices, just in case, during the entire weekend. Not that he could do anything from Mistral City if things went poorly. But still, the presence of the future real Headmaster of Breakwater was reassuring, and he'd be available to curse at when things went to shit.

"Nagata," Leo said warmly. The sound of a clicking cane and footsteps heralded the next group of attendees, which Leo also greeted. "Ursulus. You look like you could use a vacation."

"Long past that, Leo," the old bear faunus said dryly. "I'll be lucky if I can still get out of bed before I retire." Behind Chieftain Ursulus, Nagata could see Provisional Councilwoman Keleme Moaga, who represented the interests of Kuo's business community. Behind her was the head of Menagerie's Merchant Marine, Admiral Isoro, if you could call the head of Menagerie's tiny fleet of armed coastal defense ships worthy of the title.

A second screen flickered on, showing the image of White Fang Representative Ghira Belladonna, calling in from Mistral City.

And then a third screen. Provisional Councilman Clarity Tahiri was connected from his bayside residence, and represented the interests of Menagerie's aquatic faunus, who were getting a lot more respect and attention than they had a few short years ago.

Nominally, according to Menagerie's Constitution, Chieftain Ursulus held full and final authority over Menagerie's government, subject to a recall vote to prevent tyranny. No such vote had been required since Menagerie's founding. So it was more in anticipating of future concern, and to prevent him breaking under the strain, that he'd taken the unprecedented step of using that authority to actually cede some of it to a council with a rotating Chairmanship, a Chairmanship which he still held, at least through the middle of the year.

The entire provisional Menagerie Ruling Council, along with the head of the Merchant Marine, present either in person or remotely for this room's inaugural use. They wouldn't all stay online or in the room the entire weekend. They'd agreed to rotate 'supervising' the missions.

Supervising, Nagata thought with dry humor. More like sitting on our fat asses stressing out. He glanced at Lionheart's image. Except for Leo, damn him. This is old hat for him.

"Nagata, this is your ballgame." Ursulus nodded toward him as the old faunus eased down into the chair with creaking joints..

Dammit.

He took a drink of water, and steeled himself. "Alright, does anyone have any last minute changes or reservations?" He waited a few heartbeats. "Any world-ending meteor strikes or Atlesian battle fleets incoming that will take this cup from my lips?"

There was a smattering of laughter, most heartily from Lionheart.

Dammit dammit dammit.

He leaned forward, and clicked the microphone in front of him. "All team leads, you're green to go." To his right, he saw Admiral Isoro type out a few messages on his own scroll, providing the same orders to the watercraft under his command.

And on the map, icons began to disperse. Bullheads lifting off one by one. Watercraft forming up and easing out to join larger ships waiting offshore.

It was Saturday morning, and the clock began to tick.

Breakwater Bullhead Docks

Standing just outside the bullhead docks, Garek cursed silently, his wife at his side. "Didn't even get to hug her, and can't watch the damn mission either," he groused.

Selene squeezed him but kept her silence. The truth was, she was no happier that he'd not been allowed to maintain watch with the leaders of Menagerie in the Mission Center, and she was equally disappointed that Cinder had been too excited to allow her parents to properly wish her a successful mission.

Though they had already done so previously, at her dorm room.

But still.

Intellectually , she understood.

Emotionally was another matter entirely. Their child was going into danger without them.

Nagata had made it clear. These missions were a Breakwater operation. And while Cinder, their child , was participating on one of the training missions, Garek Grae was neither a member of Menagerie's government, nor was he a staff member of Breakwater Academy. He was the Headmaster of Cove Academy. And none of his Combat School students were prancing around outside Kuo Kuana's walls. Most of those were visiting friends or family in the city, with a handful of residents staying on campus. Keeping an eye on those was his primary responsibility.

On top of that, he had several new faculty members to welcome today, scheduled to arrive from Lushu within a few minutes of these bullheads clearing out.

So he and Selene just stood there, and watched their daughter's bullhead disappear over the mountains to the southwest with stomachs full of jitters.

And then the sound of a single, larger craft roared in, curving around the main campus from the east and easing down. The passenger door opened, and four individuals, three of them his age and one significantly older, filed out with carried-on bags.

Garek consulted his scroll, to ensure he could match faces with names correctly.

The first out was Aisha Verdant, a dark-haired, dark-skinned woman with azure eyes. She was close to him in age, on loan from Oscuro Combat School in Vacuo. Her expertise was unarmed combat styles.

Next out was Kent Azulent from Pharos Combat School in Vale. The short, stocky man had a short fringe-beard and shaved head. His background was in Grimm Studies, though some of that wouldn't directly translate to Menagerie. Garek was still considering what to do about that.

Third, from Kōtai Combat School in Kuchinashi was Kirobara Watan, a tall woman with long straight-black hair and almond-shaped brown eyes who moved with a dancer's grace. Her expertise was apparently weapons forms, though she also claimed to be expert in team tactics.

And last of all, the Atlesian, Thorvus Storm. Storm was stooped and aged, with thick glasses that gave him an appearance of constant bewilderment. His area was weapons design and care.

He was also, according to the briefing materials that Chieftain Ursulus had provided, highly connected to several influential people in the Atlas Military. That concerned him. Hell it concerned the entire council. But he'd supposedly been chosen by Headmaster Ironwood himself, rather than having volunteered, so either Ironwood was playing games with them, which Lionheart said was unlikely, or he was legit.

Hope we haven't let a snake into the henhouse, Garek mused, though he kept his welcoming expression. "Ladies, Gentlemen. Welcome to Menagerie." The four bowed or nodded as was their custom. "I want to introduce my wife, Selene Grae-Lumerent. She makes sure all the paperwork gets done."

The Mistralian, Kirobara, gave a crooked smile, eyes widening in mirth. "Ah, the true authority of any campus."

Fair. Fair. "Most likely," Garek drawled. And you don't know the half of it. He nodded to the bullhead, which campus staff were already unloading. "Was your flight alright?"

"Fine," the Valean, Azulent, replied. He eyed the buildings over Garek's shoulder. "So this is Cove?"

Garek gave a noncommittal head bob. "About a quarter of it's Cove," he clarified. "The rest is for older students and adult training."

"The videos didn't do it justice," Kirobara observed, eyebrows raised. "It is quite beautiful."

"Rather hot, though," Azulent added.

Aisha Verdant snorted. " This isn't hot ." She would think so, being from Shade. "It's quite humid , though," she plucked at her clothing, which was beginning to stick to her. "Are the nights cool, at least?"

Garek shook his head. "Not really. Too much water around. Keeps the temps steady."

"Hot and humid." the older Atlesian grunted. "Take some getting used to." He sniffed. "Salt in the air, too. Plays hell with the mechashift, I'd guess."

"So I'm told." Garek affirmed. "Your larger luggage will be delivered to your rooms. Shall we?" The rest nodded, and he turned, Selene leading the way.

As they began walking toward the campus, Thorvus Storm continued, "I'm told you have an Aquatics program here?"

"That's right," Garek replied.

"Now that will be a challenge. Mechashift in saltwater?" The older man shook his head, glasses reflecting the tropical morning sun. "I'll have to spend some time at this Aquatics Center of yours, testing various treatments, materials, and sealants."

Huh. Right to it. "I'll send you the class schedule, so you know when it's not in use."

"DId I hear correctly that Patricia Plum is here?" Kirobara asked, interjecting. As a fellow Mistralian, Garek probably shouldn't have been surprised the two might be acquainted.

"She is. She volunteered to teach some of the… uh… post-Combat School students rather than Cove level"

The Kotai Combat School instructor gave him a look. "You can call it an Academy in front of us , Headmaster Grae-Lumerent. We aren't idiots ."

"Crap. Sorry."

"Perfectly fine, youngster," the Altlesian interjected. "You'll get the hang of it." He grunted. "Now the real question is, where's the staff's local watering hole?"

Garek blinked, and heard Selene laugh. "I'm not sure… that we have one?"

"Oh they didn't invite you, huh?" the other teacher, from Pharos, said with a laugh. He nudged the Oscuro instructor with his elbow, and she grinned as well.

"Uhh… maybe not?"

Thorvus nodded. "I'll find out. Might even invite you, if you're not too much of a tyrant."

Garek paused for a second, noted the grins and nods from the others, and began to realize something.

These people know each other, at least casually. They run in the same circles, even if they worked in different kingdoms.

Huh.

Breakwater Mission Center

"Looks like SCRV and Alenta have reached their landing zone in Vaimani Valley," Ursulus observed before an hour had passed. They had the closest mission, and it could only be reached by air. "How's the signal holding up?"

The technician, a young man with a long, bare tail, replied immediately. "Signal looks decent, Chief. The relay we installed last year in the pass is nominal."

"Nominal. Will we be able to keep signal the whole way?"

"Not enough for video, Chief. But we'll be able to get signal for Aura updates,"

They watched live video, courtesy of Daisy's camera, as the first year team disembarked and shouldered their packs, consulted with each other, and then headed east in a diamond formation. Huntress Alenta waited until they were a few dozen yards ahead, and then followed them, to the sound of a bullhead taking off behind them.

Nagata watched as the icon for the bullhead returned back the way it had come, back to Breakwater.

Crap.

. . .

Thirty minutes later, a few of the council had already excused themselves, asking to be notified when the non-Academy missions were close to their destinations.

Nagata realized he was stuck between boredom and fear. It sucked . He glanced at the board. All Auras still at 100%.

He glanced over at the map. "Team FRCL and Boudda are entering Lua Kuana bay, along with their Merchant Marine escort," Nagata said to anyone who cared to listen.

Lionheart's screen flickered back on, and he peered at the images on the central holographic screen. Instead of live video, the technicians had switched to a series of still images because of the distance, with signal relayed off one of the ships. "Looks like a nice flat area there on the east shore."

"Yep," He leaned forward and activated audio feed, and spent some time listening to Team FRCL discussing their game plan, and relaying that information to the ship's captain, who bore easterly. "Looks like they decided the same." He noted with satisfaction that neither Alenta with SCVR nor Boudda with FRCL had spoken a single word. Let the kids forget they're even there.

. ..

Ursulus returned, and Nagata stepped out to use the facilities. When he returned, Admiral Isoro was back in the room.

"Atlantia flotilla is reaching the south cove there," he gestured to the map icons. "Things should get interesting. That island has never been culled, other than when we were setting up the relay on that peninsula."

"Wish we could have just made a bullhead pad and set up base there," Nagata groused.

"We need more options than that," Ursulus replied, and the Admiral nodded in agreement.

Menagerie - Atlantia Island, South Cove

Team Fathom (FHOM) was Menagerie's premier Academy-level aquatics team, and were in their third year. Team Leader Fiona Fleck hailed from Vale. She was joined by three members who'd seen significant action when they'd helped drive off the Black Bones pirate flotilla the prior year. Roderick "Hot Rod" Elema was also from Vale, while the other two, "Doc" Otto Awks and Marco Malacos were native-born Menageriens. The latter two were able to deal with land-travel, but much preferred to be in the water.

They'd spent two hours aboard the MMS Dreamscape cruising toward the island, and they were nervous and excited. Their job was to establish a beachhead in the cove, and then hold it against water-based Grimm, while licensed Huntsman Team Smoke (SMOK) established and held a land perimeter.

And behind them would come a dozen members of the Menagerie Merchant Marine, a half dozen Kuo Militia, and a handful of civil corps who had volunteered to begin clearing land and constructing stockade walls and a pier in the cove.

Menagerie was setting up a physical port on Atlantia Island.

The Powers That Be had apparently discussed just having a base at the top of the peninsula, but that would have only been accessible only by air. And Kuo still had a very limited fleet of airships, even if you included Breakwater's.

But Menagerie did have a merchant marine fleet, and a port would allow them to base at least one boat there, extending Menagerie's zone of protected sea and ensuring no one else claimed Atlantia Island out from under them.

Adding to that, a sea invasion was the primary threat to their precious relay on Atlantia, not an attack by air. So, a waterside base of operations, which would eventually become a security base, was the right move.

Might also turn into a settlement, eventually.

But the first step was to get a foothold ashore and keep it against the Grimm.

Breakwater Mission Center

"Look at them go," Nagata breathed. Because of the proximity of the relay, they were getting live video feed of this particular operation, and it heated up quickly.

They watched in awe as Team FHOM dove into the water before the ship was anywhere near the shoreline, escorting the watercraft into the cove, even as members of Team SMOK provided cover from the ship.

"Here come the Capivara!" SMOK's Team Leader yelled, and Nagata reached for his flask full of liquid nerve solvent.

During the next few minutes, several other members of the Council returned physically or virtually to see the action, and their presence eased Nagata's anxiety somewhat. And as he watched Team FHOM and SMOK easily cut through the Capivara and a few other minor aquatic Grimm, he felt it ease further.

But he still couldn't tear his eyes off the rapidly approaching beach, seen through the camera of SMOK's Team Leader, a young faunus woman named Sepheron.

And then with a jolt, the low-draft boat grounded itself on the sand, and SMOK charged out. Behind them, they could hear Lt. Fisk barking orders to the Merchant Marine and militia.

And then Councilman Tahiri spoke up, right in the middle of the action at Atlantia. "The Highland Team is about to disembark."

Nagata sighed. This was what he'd fretted about.

Too much going on at once.

Menagerie - Northern Highlands

Two bullheads came roaring in over the last of the coastal ranges, and circled a location that had been pre-selected based on geography. It was not so much a plateau as it was flat extension of the coastal range that jutted out into Menagerie's interior. A single small stream flowed out from the north, through a shallow ravine, and then poured over the edge in a waterfall. The only significant greenery was along that stream's banks, though it wasn't exactly desert here. Not yet.

2nd Year Academy Team Sambar, led by native Menagerien gerbil faunus Saber Rodenta, gripped their weapons. Their task was simple. Their bullhead would land and they would disembark, then take and hold position, accompanied by Huntress Kanana, while a second bullhead delivered another one of Menagerie's precious CCT Relays that was slung beneath it, similar to the one on Atlantia Island.

Once Huntress Kanana activated the relay, it would allow Kuo Kuana to have basic CCT coverage a little further into Menagerie's interior.

Team SMBR wasn't nervous though, not yet , because until the relay was deployed, they would have two bullheads full of licensed Huntsmen, ten total, either on the ground or hovering nearby.

But that would change once they'd completed their initial tasks.

Breakwater Mission Center

"Team SMBR and Kanana are on the ground. Still no video feed, just stills," Tahiri announced. He'd volunteered to keep track of that team. They were less worried about FRCL and SCRV, the two first-year teams. The interior of Menagerie was the big unknown here. Noone had sent exploration parties, much less Huntsmen teams , into the Menagerie Interior for decades.

No one's been out there since Nicholas Schnee, curse his family, Chieftain Ursulus groused. Wish I had the full reports of those expeditions instead of vague decades-old summaries. He shook his head. One problem at a time. One at a time.

A few minutes later, a technician announced that they had uplink / downlink, and were establishing video relay with the relay.

When the cameras on the relay finally activated, Nagata sucked in a breath. "Holy shit, that's a lot of Grimm."

And it was. A wave of small-to-medium sized Grimm were hopping or running across the semi-arid landscape, converging on the relay's location. Converging on the Academy Team and bullhead on the ground.

"Airborne bullhead is engaging," Admiral Isoro said evenly, listening to his scroll. "Pilot and gunner say they can keep them thinned out. Team RMPT is disembarking to support the students."

Dammit all to hell, Nagata thought.

Over the next thirty minutes, they had a front row seat, Atlantia Island all but forgotten, of a pitched battle. At times it was hard to see what was going on, but from what Nagata could see, the Grimm ranged from as small as Frillnecks to as large as Slasher-Jacks, and in numbers that were higher than they'd planned for.

Fire from the bullhead rained down on them, thinning them out as they came in waves toward the relay's position across the sloping shoulder of the mountain range. At the same time, ranged fire from Team RMPT and SMBR reduced their numbers further.

Nagata watched, white-knuckled, as the two teams' close-in fighters engaged those that made it through, only tearing his eyes from the video feed to check the status board.

And watched as first one, then another, and then one by one the Aura of eight members of SMBR and RMPT began to fall incrementally.

"It's fine," Lionheart said from his comfortably remote location across an ocean, attempting to reassure them. "Nagata, seriously, you have to accept that this is how it goes. Huntsmen take Aura damage when they fight. It's the point of training with Aura. You let it take the damage, so that you don't. And you've got a second bullhead with six more licensed fighters just overhead. They're probably more pissed than you are worried right now."

"Dammit Leo!"

"It's fine…" the lion faunus soothed again. "Pour yourself another drink, Nagata. Another fifteen minutes, and you'll see what I mean."

. . .

Admiral Isoro cleared his throat agai. "Academy Team Bowfin and Licensed Team Mangrove are entering Keikai Bay."

" Whose fucking brainchild was this?" Nagata cursed. "I'm going to wring their damn neck when this is over."

Lionheart just laughed and, on the other side of the screen, lifted a glass.

Safe from my fingers around his neck, a continent away.

Bastard.

Menagerie – Western Coast - Keikai Kuana bay.

4th Year Academy Team Bowfin BWFN, led by Rhino faunus Brook Gage, eased into Keikai Kuana Bay aboard the MMS Explorer. He wasn't nervous, because he had a fully-licensed aquatics Huntsman team backing his team up, and because his own team was awesome.

Keikai Kuana, he'd been briefed, had been a second option for establishing Menagerie's primary settlement after the Faunus Rights Revolution. They'd eventually settled on Kuo instead specifically because it was more isolated from the inter-range valleys, had a natural barrier on the east, and because the bay was shallower and had a narrower opening, which impeded larger Grimm.

But now, they were going to have another look at that site.

He glanced around at his teammates. Wrona Ulf was a wolf faunus, originally from Vacuo. Like him, she'd come to Menagerie seeking opportunity when things hadn't gone so well back in the Kingdoms. The other two, Fleet Lua and Nalana Nagata were native Menageriens.

Hell, Nalani was the Director's niece .

"Don't let Nalani get hurt," he muttered to himself. "Bad freaking day if she gets seriously hurt."

"You okay, kid?"

Brook leaned over the side, to find Huntsman Mau Naia, Team Leader of MGRV, easily keeping pace with the boat. "Just thinking too much, I guess."

"Don't sweat it, kid. I've been talking to the pods all the way here. No big aquatic Grimm, which means Raja and Vaisa can back you up on the land. Me and Grizz will manage the water."

"Right. Right." Brook eyeballed the gradually approaching shoreline and frowned.

"Seriously, kid. It'll be fine. Between us and the Merchant Marine, we're golden. Worst case, I'll bribe some of the local dolphins to run interference for us."

That got his attention, and he glanced back at Mau. "Uhhh what do you bribe a dolphin with."

Mau rolled his eyes. "Man, you do not wanna know."

Ohhhkayyyy…

He turned his eyes back to shore. It looked like a nice bay. Basically a more open version of Kuo, but without the buildings and stuff.

And if Menagerie continued growing at the rate they were, Chief Ursulus had decided that it was time to at least get a start on a foothold at Keikai.

Menagerie – Tablerock

It had taken more than Lionheart's predicted fifteen minutes, more like an hour of pitched combat to thin out the Grimm to the point where they felt comfortable letting RMPT reboard the second Bullhead and bear further south, deeper into Menagerie's interior.

That left the 2nd Year Team SMBR, along with Huntress Kanana, to do mop-up and guard the relay until they returned. But to Lionheart's credit, none of SMBR had taken more than minimal hits to Aura once things stabilized.

Piece of Cake, RMPT Team Leader Ruru thought. The owl faunus was now up front with the pilot and gunner, both loaned from the Menagerie Militia. His eyesight in the daylight wasn't any better than theirs, but as mission lead and Team Lead of RMPT, he felt a responsibility to keep an eye out anyway.

Ten licensed huntsmen in two bullheads. Six of his mission complement were veteran huntsmen who had immigrated from the other four Kingdoms in the previous year. Four, including him, were newly licensed out of Cove Aura Training Center, before its unofficial transition to Breakwater Academy, though even those were experienced Aura users before registering with the new facility, mostly in their mid-twenties.

Most of them were nervous now. The interior of Menagerie had a reputation. A vicious reputation. The only one not nervous might have been his one-armed teammate, Pororo, who just looked grimly determined. The orangutan faunus had a bone to pick with Grimm, and he'd been freaking demonic in how he'd torn into them back at the CCT Relay.

Got to keep an eye on him, Ruru mused . Make sure he doesn't do anything suicidally aggressive.

They'd already accomplished the first part of their mission. Get Team SMBR on the ground, and cover them until the relay was activated and the Grimm thin enough to move on.

Now they were moving on to the second goal, to perform an aerial survey of the borderlands where the scrub highlands transitioned to interior desert, identify a defensible position with water, and establish a beachhead there long enough to evaluate how significant the threat of interior Grimm actually was .

There were no civilians or militia with them other than the pilots and gunners. No engineers to build walls or set up a bullhead pad. Not this time. Instead, the first of the fully-armed bullheads would land and discharge six Huntsmen while the second provided air cover, and then the bullheads would swap positions to allow the remaining four Huntsmen to disembark.

Technically, a single bullhead could have carried all two and a half teams, but they were taking no chances. No huntsman or civilian had set foot in Menagerie's interior in decades, and their experience with the relay site, close to the mountains, had demonstrated that the Grimm out here were numerous, and homed in on faunus like nothing they'd ever seen before. It was possible they'd have to withdraw if it turned out to be too much.

A third part of their job was to ensure that if Grimm in the region were to be attracted to anyone, it would be these fully trained Huntsmen, and not the cadre of students protected by Cassie Kanana back at the relay site.

They'd eaten lunch on the bullheads. If the last site was any indication, they wouldn't get much downtime to cook when they finally picked a landing zone.

Breakwater Mission Center

"Nagata, take a break. That's an order," Chieftain Ursulus growled.

It was well into the afternoon, and Nagata felt like he was about to pop an artery.

But still. "You know what, Urs, if I'm not mistaken, you're not technically my-"

"The Chief is right. And I am functionally your superior," Lionheart's image said. "Go grab something to eat. Take a walk. Read a damn book. You're killing yourself here."

Nagata glared at the status board instead.

Thirty five souls. Huntsmen, Students, and Instructors.

All my responsibility.

Some of them showed Aura dipping into the yellow, though they seemed to be recovering gradually. Of the three 1st and 2nd Year teams, none of their Instructor escorts had been touched yet. They'd held back, as instructed, waiting to see if they were actually needed. Trying to get the kids to forget they were even there as a backup.

He cursed. "Fine. I'll do it. But you'll ping me if things go to shit."

"You'll be the first to know," Leo said smoothly.

As he forced himself to walk out of the room, he heard the Admiral update the rest of the occupants. "Lt. Fisk says that they've got the Atlantia port perimeter fully established, and the workers are starting on the palisade."

. . .

Director Nagata managed to stay away for a full hour, and found that he'd indeed needed it. He walked around the campus, and caught sight of Headmaster Garek, the title made him chuckle inside, showing the new Combat School teachers around.

Good. Yeah.

He frowned. Gave you the wrong damn job, Grae. Shoulda given you this one.

When he finally made his way back to the Mission Center, he was shocked by what he saw.

The status board looked like shit.

"It's not as bad as it looks, Nagata." Lionheart called out as soon as he noticed the Director enter the room.

"The hell you say!"

Team SCRV had taken serious hits. To the point where Cinder Scoria's Aura was near zero, Sarah Tourmaline and Vernal Branwen's not far behind. Rosso Aukei's hovered just between red and yellow.

And that wasn't all. Teams RMPT, DOWS, and DE were all running between yellow and red, and the Admiral was yelling something furiously into his scroll.

On top of that, Team SMBR had also taken additional hits to Aura, and one of its members, Rolf Lionine, had a status of "Non-Emergency Medivac Requested."

Of the other teams, most of them appeared to not have taken any significantly worse damage than the last time he'd seen them. But-

"What the hell happened out there?!" Nagata demanded. "You were supposed to notify me!"

Lionheart spoke up, taking responsibility. "Nagata, you can sit the hell down before you fall down," he waited until the Director was seated before continuing. "Frankly there was nothing you would have done that we weren't handling, and by the time we had a minute to breathe, things had pretty much stabilized."

" Stabilized?! One of my student teams, the one with the damn cake of a mission, is in the red, I've got twelve damn Huntsmen, two and a half teams , knocked around, and a 2nd year team is requesting a medivac !" He stared at the status board again, and noted with some relief that all the Auras were climbing rather than dropping as they updated.

And none of his peoples' statuses had changed from Active , other than Rolf on Team SMBR which sat at Disabled even though his Aura level was improving slowly.

"All the Huntsman that we sent to Tablerock, and both bullheads, are inbound to SMBR's location now," Lionheart said. "I made the decision to recall them, once we realized none of us had a decent picture of exactly how dense the Grimm out there had gotten on the scrub-desert border." He shook his head. "Nothing like that anywhere in Anima or Sanus, I can tell you that." His image turned back to Nagata. "They're going to pick up SMBR and return to Breakwater early. Alenta has requested pickup for SCRV also."

"My kids-" Nagata started.

"Are okay, Nagata," Chief Ursulus replied. "As hard as it is for me to understand, Leo has convinced me. Look at Alenta and Kanana's Aura levels."

Nagata peered at the status board.

Kanana's was at 97%.

Alenta's was untouched at 100%.

"If those kids were ever in serious danger, you can damn well bet that Kanana or Alenta would be in worse shape. Alenta never even considered them in mortal danger, Aura or no Aura, though she has some things she wants to chat with you about." Ursulus took a deep breath. "I know it's hard for you and me to accept that, but I'm going to trust Leo on this one. He's lived his life in the world of Huntsmen missions. And when Alenta called for a ride, she was calm as a cucumber. They'll be exhausted , and probably banged up, but nothing that Aura, a good night's rest, and a lot of food won't fix."

Nagata stared some more. It made sense, mostly . He could see it.

But still.

Good thing Garek Grae wasn't in here, though, he'd have been losing his sh-

Oh shit.

"You say SCRV is headed back in?"

"Yep."

He sighed. "Message Grae so he isn't surprised by his daughter's physical condition when she gets off the bullhead.

. . .

By nightfall, all of the 1st and 2nd year teams, along with the Tablerock Mission teams, were safely back at Breakwater, either in their dorms or, in the case of Rolf Leonine, in the infirmary. Rolf had a broken leg, but nothing they couldn't handle.

Of the three student teams, all of them had been handled pretty roughly, but all appeared in better spirits than he would have imagined, except for Cinder Scoria. That worried him, though Alenta had pulled him aside and said things might be better come morning from what she'd seen.

The Huntsmen and their two bullheads, on the other hand, looked a little more somber. "How bad was it?" he asked the RMPT Team Leader. "We can do a full debrief tomorrow if you want."

"It was pretty ugly, Director," Ruru said bluntly. "As soon as we got low enough to even think about landing, the Grimm seemed to just come out of the damn woodwork… or stonework in this case. At least a half-dozen varieties. We burned through half our remaining ammunition thinning those out enough to feel comfortable landing." He shook his head. "And then a second wave arrived just as we unloaded the second bullhead's teams." He looked at his superior with something approaching regret. "I made the call to load back up. There were just too damn many of them. Ran one bullhead dry of ammo for cover fire while we got everybody loaded on the other, and even then it was a close thing, Director."

"Dammit," Nagata started to turn away, but the Huntsman put a hand on his shoulder.

"Director, we'd like your permission to reload and try again tomorrow morning.""

Nagata stared at him like he was insane. "Have you lost your mind?!"

Ruru grinned. "Nah, just… don't like getting run off like that." He sobered. "My teams want a rematch, sir. We've got a feel for what we're dealing with now. We just need to work a little smarter, be a little more cautious."

Nagata goggled at the owl faunus. "Gods-be-damned madmen . All of you."

"Certifiable, Director. It's why we do it."

By Sunday evening, the remainder of the teams had declared 'mission accomplished' and returned to Breakwater.

Thirty-five souls that he'd been directly responsible for, plus a dozen or two others, merchant marine, militia, civil corp, that weren't directly his, but…

They'd all come back alive.

That included Ruru and his twelve, who had gone back out that morning , landed at the relay site closer to the mountains instead of at Tablerock, and had spent an entire day venting their rage at being sent packing from their primary target on the sporadic herds, packs, and waves of Grimm that were drawn to their presence. By the end of the day, they'd returned, exhausted, Auras generally in yellow, but with satisfied expressions.

No one had died. Hell, no one was seriously injured , bar the one broken leg, and Dolly, the campus nurse, said that with Aura Rolf would be healed up within days.

As for Nagata, he felt like he'd been run over by a truck. He'd barely slept Saturday night, knowing that he still had teams at Atlantia and Keikai Kuana on the western coast of Menagerie. But they'd reported that the Grimm there were manageable, and had been able to sleep in shifts and hold them off while the others did the work required. A rudimentary pier and stockade at Atlantia, and a detailed site survey at Keikai.

And now they were all safely back on campus or in their homes in Kuo.

He managed to get the door to his suite open, hands fumbling with his scroll against the lock, and began loosening clothes on the way to his bedroom.

And gave up on changing, opting to crash face-first into his bed's welcome, pillowy surface.

Should have joined a bandit tribe, he thought as he surrendered to unconsciousness. Woulda been less stressful.

[A/N] Thanks to Shadowstorm-Vash and Rookie80! Glad you folks enjoyed how I depicted Pyrrha's Semblance being "compelled" and my headcanon science behind it!

And in this chapter, we get our first taste of Menagerie's interior, and boy does it suck. And poor Nagata, he didn't sign up for this. He's gonna be ecstatic when Lionheart takes over next year. Lionheart, for his part, purposefully took on some of the responsibility and load here. While he was definitely the least rattled, even he was somewhat surprised by the numbers and ferocity of Grimm in the interior.

A couple of return OCs mentioned here. I did a lot of work fleshing out the student and licensed huntsman teams. We saw Brook Gage again, the rhino faunus from earlier. We also saw Mau and the aquatic faunus from the Black Bones chapter, as well as the previously-mentioned one-armed Faunus with a grudge against Grimm.

Most of the "native" Menagerie names got their inspiration from color-based names in various Polynesian languages in keeping with Rooster Teeth's original decisions.

Regarding the Grimm density, I'm working off my own headcanon that Grimm spawn 'naturally' from both Ancient Grimm and subterranean pools on somewhat regular basis, and they don't really age (mature or become more dangerous) nor do they die naturally without the presence of prey (Aura-bearing creatures). In most Kingdoms, they regularly wander into populated areas, and are thinned out by Huntsmen or militias. But here, the natural boundaries of the mountains prevented that from happening as much, and as a result the Grimm population of Menagerie's interior is a little ridiculous at the moment. But with time and effort, that will change as it reaches a new equilibrium, and the interior becomes more accessible and less apocalyptic.

Teams RMPT, DOWS, and DE though will be wanting payback at some point. Nobody puts Huntsmen in the corner.

Hope you found this enjoyable. It kinda blew up in scope, but I glossed over a lot of the play by play combat in favor of a broad brush approach to cover more ground and give the feel of what Breakwater is facing.