Hello Hello!
I hope you enjoy this chapter! I call it a 'Mission Archive' chapter. It is canon to Remnant Light, and everything that happens is part of the main story, but they are intended to be a glimpse into the usual schedule of the Fireteam when things aren't happening all around them.
I want there to be a couple of Mission Archives in each Kingdom, as it gives me the chance to show off all the cool Kaiju Grimm that Mister_Crocodile and I cooked up!
THUD THUD THUD THUD
Jaune yawned as he sat in the chair of his Ark, heading towards the blipping dot on the Map that floated near his face, on one of his holographic screens.
It was early in the morning -glancing down at his wrist, a quick check of his watch showed a disgustingly early 07:45- and he was still wiping some sleep out of his eyes as Crocea Arca stomped its way towards a village called… Something.
He pulled up another screen on his right, letting his Aura walk his Arc forward, having checked that there were no major obstacles in his way, and checked the mission briefing he had been sent again.
Mission Priority: Urgent
Potential Danger Rating: Low 1 - Low 3
Fireteam Assigned: JSBYRR
Partnership Selected: [Jaune Arc] - [Lie Ren]
The village of Rouen has contacted Beacon about the potential sighting of Grimm activity near their main hunting grounds. You are to travel to Rouen and investigate the disturbances, reporting your findings back to the local Ark Tenders.
If you discover a Grimm that you believe to be beyond your capabilities or that presents a strategic weakness for your partnership, retreat immediately and contact Beacon HQ. Support elements or reinforcements will be sent to your closest tenders' location to aid you.
May your Hunt be fruitful, and your losses few.
Admiral Ozpin.
Rouen, that was it.
Jaune glanced over to the camera that showed him Ren's face and smiled at the boy, who for all his own tiredness, seemed just as excited as Jaune felt. This was their first mission as partners! Yes, they had done one as a full Fireteam earlier in the year, but they had done a lot of training since then, not including the whole Survival Class mishap they'd gone through.
"So, what do you think we'll find when we get there?"
Ren hummed at Jaune's question, his head bobbing back and forth along with the movement of his Ark. Jaune let him think, and after a moment or two of silence, Ren spoke. "Best case scenario would be that a fallen tree made the markings they found, but…"
Jaune smiled and sighed as Ren trailed off. "But that would be way too easy, right?"
Ren nodded and snorted softly, his eyes glancing over at his map a moment before Jaune's own let out a small beep as well. "Entirely too easy, indeed. It seems we are almost at Rouen, how are you doing so far?"
Jaune knew why Ren was asking him the question, and he didn't feel bad about it. Ren had done him far too much good for Jaune to be annoyed at the boy for worrying about him, especially since Ren knew how inexperienced he truly was with his Aura and… Everything else, really...
He shot Ren a thumbs up with his own arm and the arm of his Ark. He wasn't a master at piloting by any means, but he was starting to get the hang of all of this 'fine motor aura-control' stuff that the books he'd read talked about.
"Doing alright. No major mistakes just yet, and my Aura is… Got more than enough left but it was flowing a little fast, thanks for reminding me to check, I let my control slip a little."
Jaune wrenched control back from Aura again as Ren gave him a slow nod, a smile on the other boy's face. Jaune still didn't know why Ren was so chill with the fact that Jaune had been a civilian without Aura on day 1, but he was grateful for the boy's help every day.
A comfortable silence fell over the two of them as their Arks trundled along. They were getting close to Rouen, the notification from their maps having been their Ark's onboard systems connecting to the minor CCT Node in the middle of Rouen.
CCT Nodes only appeared in towns and villages that were expected to last or were close enough to Vale proper to have a quick response time from Beacon and wandering Huntsmen and Huntresses.
Domremy had one as well, and Rouen was a similar distance away from Vale, only about half a day at full walking speed… An Arks full walking speed, that was.
The town of Rouen quickly came into view, the tip of the CCT Node blinking with a bright blue light that would have helped direct them to the town if it wasn't still early enough in the day for Ren and Jaune to see clearly.
Jaune could feel himself getting more and more excited as he saw a car exit the main gate of Rouen, headed in their direction. This was it! Their first proper mission as Huntsmen began now!
"Alright, Ren, let's disembark."
Ren doesn't respond but Jaune can see Stormflower moving into a kneeling position next to him, both knees on the ground as a hatch of the back of the cockpit opened and allowed Ren to climb out and hop down to the ground with a few well-placed, Aura-infused jumps.
Jaune was decidedly not as confident in his Aura control as Ren seemed to be and allowed his Ark to go down on one knee, opting to climb down the much safer ladder that was soldered onto the plating of the cockpit's hull.
He did jump off before reaching the bottom when he was comfortable with the height and his ability to take the hit, however. He may not be 100% confident in himself, but as a Huntsman, especially as the leader of his fireteam, he needed to look confident to both his teammates and the civilians.
It was probably for the best that he had jumped, as he landed and got himself steady again just in time for the car to pull up in front of Ren and him. Although calling it a car felt a bit underwhelming, to be honest.
It had looked small when they were in the cockpits of their Arks, but the Arks were around 40 meters tall and made anything look small in comparison. Now that they were outside of their Arks… They could see just how massive the vehicle in front of them was.
Jaune wasn't great at measuring height just with his eyes, but knowing that Crocea Arca was exactly 40 meters let him go off where the vehicle made it up to and make a guess that the vehicle was about 12 meters tall and wide enough to be one of his Ark's feet.
A loud hydraulic hiss escaped the vehicle, a hatch on top popping open. A moment later, a middle-aged man in a set of overalls and goggles stepped out of the car, walking over and holding out his hand to shake, and Jaune did so.
"Hi there, are you the Ark Tender for Rouen?"
The man laughed at that, but Jaune could somehow tell the man wasn't laughing at him, just at his question. "Not the Ark Tender, but the boss of those bastards, yeah. The name's Grey Sun. Not Grayson, just… You know what doesn't matter. Gonna assume from those shiny new Arks you got that you're the Beacon students?"
The man let go of Jaune's hand and quickly shook Ren's as well, and Ren nodded in response to the man's question. "Indeed. We were told that for the remainder of our time here the Ark Tenders would be our point of contact… But we don't intend to stay long."
Grey nodded at Ren's words, likely having expected that they would want to get out and search for the Grimm right away. "That's fine, you aren't required to physically enter Rouen for you to be 'checked-in' for the mission. Just my having met you should be fine. But before you go, let me top off your Arks."
The man pulled out his scroll and tapped a few buttons, and some large tubes were ejected out of the vehicle behind him. "Dust tubes. Just attach them there and there on your Arks and we can refuel them back to 100% for you. Never a good idea to fight a Grimm on half a tank!"
Jaune and Ren glanced at each other before shrugging and picking up the tubes, connecting them to the slots that Grey had pointed out. As soon as everything was connected, rumbling noises started to escape the vehicle and Jaune could see the fuel meter for his Ark going up on his Scroll.
Grey was focused on completing the refuelling process, and Jaune and Ren were happy to just sit and wait. It was only about eight minutes later that their scrolls pinged, and Grey's Dust carrier shut off.
"Alrighty then, that's my job done, time to let you boys get on with yours. The ravine we started seeing the markings around is over to your east, you can't miss it. Been odd noises coming out of it lately, that's part of what drew us near to check it out and why we spotted the gouges in the ground."
Grey climbed back on top of his vehicle and slid his bottom half into the hatch up the top, grinning at the both of them and waving. "Best of luck out there kiddos! Don't be stupid, alright? Be a terrible waste of Dust if you bit it out there, haha!"
With that morbid joke, the man disappeared into the hatch again, and the vehicle was rolling its way back to Rouen proper in minutes. Looking over to Ren, Jaune held out a fist and smiled. "You ready to go kick some butt?"
Ren lightly tapped his fist with his own, a small smirk on his face. "Indeed, I am. I've been itching to pilot again since we finished our first assignment. Getting to kill another Grimm… This will be very cathartic."
They separated back to their Arks after that, climbing back up -or jumping back up in Ren's case, the agile bastard- and in no time at all, Crocea Arca and Stormflower were headed East, the early afternoon sun to their backs.
"You hear anything so far?"
Ren hummed as Jaune's voice came through his Comms unit a little grainy, but shook his head. He was deep in the ravine while Jaune initially stayed up top to keep a lookout for him, as Ren was the only one who could go incognito amongst the Grimm.
"No, unfortunately. I can see why the townsfolk called for Huntsmen, however. This ravine is practically torn to bits."
It was true. The walls of the ravine were covered in scratches and furrows and all manner of destruction that was clearly made by the claws of… Something. Or something? Many were different sizes and depths, potentially indicating that there were multiple Grimm of varying sizes and strengths.
'That rules out any of the Large Grimm, which is good because I don't think we could handle one of the truly massive ones ourselves. And if it swarms… In Anima only really Beowulfs and Lancers ever form packs, but this doesn't seem like either. The scratches are too high up for Beowolfs and too long for Lancers.'
"You alright down there still?"
Ren blinked at the image of Jaune, the only remaining bit of colour in his Ark as the rest of it stayed a muted black and white, indicative of his Semblance acting upon it. Letting out a sigh, he nodded, getting a relieved smile from Jaune for it.
Tranquillity was a wonderful Semblance, especially for someone who intended to fight the Grimm… But it came with the downside of not just shielding his emotions but shutting them off altogether, meaning he could get distracted by intellectual challenges easier than he could normally.
It was something he had trained for years to mitigate, but one couldn't just force their emotions when under his Semblance and have it work to counteract the side effects. A shame to be sure, but no Semblance was perfect.
While he thought about how to respond to Jaune, he kept moving, slowly, through the ravine, and eventually, a cavern opened up to his right. "I am fine. However, I believe I may have found something. I am going to head slightly deeper, maybe 50 meters or so under this canopy. I will be out of your line of sight for a short while, so don't panic."
Jaune pursed his lips, clearly uncomfortable with the idea of sending Ren in by himself, but Ren just smiled at the other boy. It felt fake when he was under the effects of his Semblance, but it worked all the same to show that he shouldn't worry.
"Fine, just be careful. And call out immediately if you need me down there."
He nodded, turning his attention to the cavern, and took a step forward, and then another, and another, until he could finally look up and not be able to see the whites and golds of Crocea Arca as he entered the cavern.
Taking a quick glance at his Aura meter, he calculated that he had about another 10 minutes or so of full Semblance Usage before he dipped under Combat-Ready levels of Aura. That being said, he tapped a few buttons on his command consoles and a 6-minute timer appeared underneath his map.
Moving forward again, he stepped into the darkness of the cavern to investigate further.
Jaune was nervous.
Crocea Arca was, unfortunately, far less suited for entering the tighter caverns of the ravine than Stormflower was, and that had relegated Jaune to 'lookout' as his partner entered the caverns alone.
Add onto that Ren's higher skill when it came to combat in general, and Jaune felt a bit useless. He was meant to be a Tank-y kind of fighter, but with Ren down there by himself, Jaune wasn't tanking at all, he was just… Waiting.
He knew that this was his own fault. If he was better at piloting, maybe he would be able to be confident enough to head into the caverns as well, but with Crocea Arca being both bigger and wider than Stormflower, and remarkably less mobile, he didn't know if his nascent combat skills could let him adjust to the cramped spaces.
Although cramped was kind of a weird way to describe caverns large enough for Arks to walk through at all, seeing as they would need to be at least 40 meters tall if not more…
"How are you doing, Ren?"
The image of Ren in the screen that floated next to him was a bit laggy and static-y now that there was a thick layer of dense rock in between them, but his voice, which required far less bandwidth, came through fine, if a bit quiet.
"I am seeing increased signs of Grimm activity… I believe that this area might be some kind of lair, or nest. It depends on what kind of Grimm they are. I sincerely hope they aren't Lancers, as their ability to increase their numbers over time could prove disastrous in these tight caverns."
Jaune blinked at that, not knowing how on earth Ren could say that with a straight face. Okay, he knew that Ren's semblance affected his and other people's emotions, but it was always weird to see it in practice. When Ren turned up the power on his Semblance, it kinda felt like he was talking to a computer.
"That would suck, yeah. If they are Lancers do you think we'll have to head back and call Beacon?"
He heard Ren let out a hum at his question before there was silence for a moment, and then Ren spoke again. "I believe that we would, yes. Someone like Weiss, with her Area of Effect capabilities, would be better suited for a Lancer swarm. Depending on if it has a Queen or not, it might even require an upperclassman, like Coco Adel and Gianduja's Gatling Gun."
Jaune didn't know exactly who Ren was referring to, he didn't really interact with anyone outside of his team much, having too much to do to really focus on socialising, and the one time he had actually tried to put his foot forward regarding making friends outside his team, Fireteam CMSN had made their disinterest clear.
But he knew that at the very least Ren was on speaking terms with Nora's team from his times hanging out with their teammate… It was kinda odd to realise that Ren was one of the most social people on Fireteam Jasper, but feeling weird about that also felt kinda mean.
"Well then let's hope it's not Lancers. I don't think Yang would ever let us live it down if we had to tag out of our first-ever mission."
There was a small laugh from the other boy. "Indeed, I don't wish for that either… Hmm, Jaune?"
There was a tone to Ren's voice that immediately set off alarm bells for Jaune, and he felt his jaw tense. "Yeah, Ren? What's up? Did you find the Grimm? What kinda is it?"
Jaune got the answer to one of his questions as the sounds of flapping wings echoed out behind Ren's voice as he responded. "Yes, I have found a small flock of Ravagers. They still cannot see me, of course, so I am safe for the next… 2 and a half minutes or so, but the noise of my footsteps seems to have riled them up. Prepare yourself for combat."
The emotionless way Ren said it did not blunt the spike of adrenaline Jaune got from hearing those words, and he felt his entire Ark shuffle slightly as he rolled his shoulders, nodding to himself.
"Good to know, thanks for the warning. Do you need any help getting out of there?"
"No, I should be fine."
He could already see Ren's camera getting clearer, which meant that the boy was likely already almost back outside, but it was still good to check. His camera cleared up completely a moment or two later, and a moment after that, Jaune could see Stormflower hoofing it out of the caverns.
He didn't even get the chance to welcome Ren back to the surface before the flapping of wings reached his ears, slow and powerful enough that he could see the sparse plants and debris at the bottom of the Ravine getting blown around.
WOOOOOSH!
Ren had only just started to get Stormflower to clamber its way back up the Ravine when the Grimm erupted from the caverns, quickly flying up and reaching the open at the top of the ravine, and Jaune came face to face with his first Ravager.
It wasn't quite as massive as a Leviathan, probably in the upper part of the "Small" category of Grimm… But even a small Grimm was a giant of unnatural size for something supposed to look like a living creature.
The first thing he noticed about it was its giant wings and the way its bony Grimm armour plating created the illusion of a snout on its face. It was essentially a giant bat with claws larger than Jaune stood tall, and the flaps of its wings blew so much wind around him that he could feel it trying to push his Ark over through his Aura.
It seemed that Ren was right when he said that he had riled them up, unfortunately, as his time to think was cut short as he saw the Ravager pull its head back at the sight of him. Jaune could see its throat bulging outwards like it was building something up.
Crocea Arca raised its shield and Jaune readied himself to take whatever hit he was about to receive… Only to wince and let out a bark of pain as a blast of pure sound slammed into his Ark.
It didn't do much but hurt, luckily, although he did see the screens around him -including the one that gave him any kind of sight outside his Ark- fizzle slightly before restabilising a moment later. Within that time, the Ravager had darted forward, and Jaune was only just able to get his shield up in front of the Ravager's claws, the grating sound of Grimm-bone on metal echoing around him as his shield took the brunt of the attack.
Jaune swung Crocea Arca's sword at the Ravager and internally cheered as the blade sunk deep into the side of the Ravager, who was still right in front of him attacking his shield. It let out an unholy screech that caused his screens to shimmer slightly as whatever it was doing affected his digital systems, but he could already see smoke pouring out of the wound he had created and knew that meant the Ravager was on its last legs.
It tried to fly away but the wound Jaune had given it stopped it from flying fast enough to avoid the follow-up thrust from Jaune's sword, stabbing into the 'chest' area of the Grimm and causing it to start dissolving as it finally died.
"Hah! Haha! Ren, I got it! By myself, even!"
He looked over at the camera that showed him Ren's face and saw that the boy was no longer in black-and-white, meaning that he wasn't using his Semblance anymore, and he looked focused on his own fight.
"Excellent work, Jaune. But be ready, there will be more soon. I saw around a dozen of them down there, not including their Flock Leader, which will be the hardest fight."
Jaune glanced over and saw that Ren was saying this while standing over two slowly decaying Ravager corpses and fighting a third, putting it down a moment later. The good mood from his first solo kill felt a little blunted at the sight of Ren so effortlessly outclassing him, but he shook it off. He was getting better, and that was all he needed. Of course, Ren was better than he was, the boy had years of using his Aura and training for this over Jaune.
With his self-deprecation over and his focus regained, Ren's words proved prophetic as another wave of Ravagers appeared a moment later. The Flock Leader hadn't appeared just yet, but that was honestly a good thing because Jaune didn't know if he would be able to fight one by himself.
Luckily the Grimm's single-minded obsession with killing Ren and him had caused the smaller, faster Ravagers to rush forward. Ren had said there were about a dozen, and they had killed 4 so far…
Jaune heard the flapping of wings again, this time far more prevalent as he found himself surrounded by three of the remaining Ravagers. Crocea Arca leapt forward as Jaune saw all three of them charging up their sound attack, his sword pointed straight ahead as he stabbed it into the throat of the closest Ravager.
It exploded from the sudden pressure release, the sonic wave that rushed over Jaune, far more muted as it spent most of its energy detonating the top half of the Ravager. He still let out a groan of pain as a small amount of tinnitus entered his hearing, but the extra space he had created caused the other two Ravagers to miss, having seemingly intended to surround him.
His momentum from his kill was in the direction of the ravine. Unable to stop in time without having his Ark skid into the ravine, Jaune pushed Crocea Arca's strength to its limits as he used his speed to leap Crocea Arca over the ravine, landing on the other side and skidding to stand alongside Ren, who was already done with the four that had attacked him and was taking potshots with his Ark's guns at the Ravagers that had attacked Jaune.
Jaune gulped as he reached over to the part of the controls he hadn't given a try with yet, activating the in-built cannons that all Arks -even one as generic as his- had equipped. He knew that he wasn't capable of hitting shots with quite the same amount of accuracy as his teammates, but he didn't need to be accurate to use the shells he had requested.
Ren's Anti-Grimm bullets were already tearing through the defences one of the Ravagers, and the other one didn't fare much better as Jaune's fragmentation round exploded in its vicinity, shredding its wings to bits and embedding shrapnel all over it, smoke already drifting out of the impact zones as it fell back into the ravine it was flying over.
It let out one last screech as it died, and Jaune winced as the sound hit him and Ren, a grunt from the other boy indicating that it hurt just as much for him too. Breathing deeply, Jaune checked his Aura and saw that it was better than he had expected after getting hit so much. Maybe Ravagers were just more of a threat to technology?
Their breath weapons/sonic attacks did seem better suited for that, having not done much real damage to either Rens or his own Ark. "Do you think that's all of the little ones?"
Ren nodded at him through the camera and let out a deep breath of his own, even though he looked far less exhausted than Jaune felt from the combat. "Indeed, which just leaves us with the Flock Leader… Ah, and there it is."
Jaune hadn't needed the warning, the heavy sounds of flapping wings and scratching claws having been audible since his fragmentation round had gone off… But the Ravager's Flock Leader was impressive even if he had been expecting it.
No matter how 'small' the other Grimm had been, this one was comfortably in the "Medium" size of Grimm, being taller and wider than about two of its friends put together. Its blood-red eyes glared at them through its bony mask with such pure hatred that Jaune could feel it.
And its throat was expanding just like the little ones had.
"Scatter!"
Ren was already moving as Jaune shouted, his Stormflower's colours draining away as his Semblance activated and Crocea Arca pushed as fast as it could to the side. The fact that Jaune was the only one the Grimm could see at the moment proved to be unfortunate, however, as the Ravager only had to track him, releasing its Sonic blast directly in his way.
Jaune gasped in pain as his vision went blurry and his ears started ringing like a bell as his Ark's systems seemed to do an impromptu restart. He saw his screens come back online a moment later, but he still felt like he needed to vomit even as his Aura started working on the damage to his eyes and ears.
"Jaune!"
Ren's voice barely got through the static his system was dealing with, but it seemed that his being targeted had worked for something, at least. When Jaune's eyes refocused he saw that Stormflower was currently standing on the Ravager's back as it flopped to the ground, his Arks guns smoking, having just eviscerated the Grimm's skull from behind, where there was no armour plating.
It started to dissipate quickly after that, and Stormflower landed with a giant 'SLAM!' as its 'footing' had vanished from under it. "Jaune, are you alright!?"
Jaune groaned as Ren's voice stabilised a little more, and he nodded to the camera that had only just come back online, his stomach calming down as the need to vomit left him… But that was probably because he had already vomited in his cockpit. "I'm… Bleugh… I'm fine, Ren, don't worry. Just took a fully charged blast from that thing head-on… I feel like how my mum describes hangovers."
Stormflower stood next to him as Jaune brought Crocea Arca into a crouching position to let it sit without his direct control as he took in deep breaths, his head absolutely ringing but slowly getting better.
After a little while, Ren seemed to calm down as no further Grimm attacked them, and Jaune saw Ren's focus shift back to him now that there were no Grimm around. "I… I feel I must apologise, Jaune. If I hadn't of used my Semblance, it might not have gone for you exclusively, and it would have likely missed, reducing the effects…"
Jaune just held up a hand to him to cut the other boy off as he retook control of Crocea Arca and pushed it back onto its feet. "Don't. Just… I'm fine. You may have more experience than I do but we're all students, right? A mistake or two is fine. Plus, it's better that this happened against a Grimm that can't outright kill me with a charged attack like that, right? Would have sucked if this was a Leviathan."
Ren's face lost some of the serious look about it as he spoke, falling back into his calmer resting face as Ren smiled at him.
"We are far too far inland for a Leviathan, but… Thank you, Jaune. I will endeavour to improve so that this doesn't happen again. I commend you for your durability, as well. Ravager flock leaders have been known to knock Huntsmen with lesser Aura's out with blasts like that."
Jaune just laughed as he checked his Aura and saw that it was still draining at an increased speed due to it taking the brunt of the attack and then helping him regenerate back to normal afterwards. "Then I'm super glad I have a big Aura, I guess. Even if you would have killed it either way, I'd rather not have to tell the team I got knocked out on our first mission."
Ren chuckled under his breath and nodded once. "That would have been unfortunate. Your study sessions with the girls are taxing enough already, they would kill you if they pushed you any further."
Jaune scratched his cheek, embarrassed about being directly called out about all of the help his team was giving him. He tested Crocea Arca's limbs a couple of times and found that his balance had returned fully. He started to head back towards Rouen, and Stormflower quickly caught up to Crocea Arca and kept pace.
"Yeah, you're right about that. I've been meaning to ask, actually. You've all helped me a lot, what sort of repayment do you think I should do? I bought Blake some books but I'm blanking on what to get you and the others."
He heard Ren hum at his question and saw him tap a finger to his chin as Rouen came into view in the distance. "I hadn't thought about it, to be honest. Allow me to think over my own, but I do have a suggestion for Weiss at least. I saw this device while out in Vale…"
With their mission completed and logged with Beacon, Jaune and Ren entered their dorm room exhausted but fulfilled in a way that Jaune could honestly say he had never felt before.
But as soon as Jaune opened the door he froze, looking at the sheer chaos in front of him.
He hadn't been able to hear their scuffling from outside due to the good soundproofing Beacon had in its walls, but he could see that Yang currently had Weiss pinned to the ground on her stomach with her arms above her head. There were clumps of deep-blue ice melting off of Yang's hair as the girl grinned and laughed all fake-evil-y.
"I win! Mwahahahaha!"
He glanced away from the scene, honestly so used to Weiss and Yang brawling at this point that it barely registered for him. Looking over to the other Partnership, he saw Blake staring lovingly at her books on the bedside table… Over Ruby's head as the girl showed her 'X-Ray and Vav - The Supreme Menace - Volume 12…' One of the worst books in one of the worst runs the two heroes had.
Ruby's attention was stolen by Jaune and Ren's entrance, however, and she grinned, darting over with her Semblance and starting to pester them about their mission, jealous that Ren and he were chosen for the first one their team received.
Ren swiftly deflected the questions in his direction and laid down on his bed, leaving Jaune to the swarm of girls who wanted to know every detail of the mission they had just got back from. If he didn't owe so much to the boy he would have called them even for it.
But as much as his voice was sore after answering all of their questions for at least an hour and a half before getting to go to bed… He didn't really mind.
He loved his team, and it was great to be home.
I hope you enjoyed that chapter!
How did you find it?
See you all next week as we start to dive into the second half of my 'Volume 2!'