Author's Note: This chapter gets into exploring some more of the original concept I started with, that being the way huntsmen are treated on a battlefield, and the strategies they can employ.

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 20

Reforged

Green started collecting weapons while I saw to the wounded. The WoF military issued basic field medical kits to their soldiers, so I could avoid using magical healing or my own medical supplies most of the time. I also gathered some of the less wounded soldiers onto the overturned bus in the square, then bent the doors to keep them contained. If they were healthy enough to fight back then I supposed they should probably be healthy enough to treat their own injuries until I had dealt with the more seriously wounded.

While working, I found a medic whose right arm had been broken during the fighting. He looked to be somewhere around his late thirties, and was trying to apply a splint to his own arm with one hand while maintaining pressure on another soldier's gunshot wound with his knee. He didn't seem to notice me striding over to him, his tongue poking out from the corner of his mouth as he tried to tie a knot with just his left hand. I crouched down and took hold of his right wrist and shoulder, LIWI understood my intentions intuitively and I could feel magic pooling in the base of my palms. His arm was fractured in two places, and the bone needed to be reset if it was going to heal properly. He looked up at me as I took hold of his arm.

"Who-?" he asked, cut off as I suddenly yanked his arm straight, forcing the bones into the correct position. He shouted in pain, attempting to twist out of my grip, but I reached up with my right hand to take hold of his collar and pin him in place while the magical healing mended his bones back together.

After a few seconds the injury was healed and he stopped thrashing. From experience I knew that the pain would linger for a few minutes, but would have faded to a fraction of what it was before. I used my control over his collar to force him to make eye contact with the expressionless visor of my helmet.

"I want your help" I told him in Mistrali, speaking clearly and precisely to cut through the haze of pain and confusion that would be clouding his mind. His eyes stopped searching the area for an escape and instead focused on me, so I continued, "I don't have time to provide medical attention to all of your people here, I am offering you the opportunity to help. Do you understand?" He sucked in a shaky breath through clenched teeth, then nodded.

"I'll help" he said bitterly. His right hand, now freed from my grip on his wrist, reached down to his right pant leg where a sidearm and medical kit sat. I watched patiently as his hand moved past the holster of his weapon and instead withdrew a tourniquet from his medical kit. I nodded, then reached down and took his pistol, safing the weapon and tossing it towards where Sergeant Green had a collection going. I pointed my index finger at him, still looming over him in my powered armor.

"If you do anything other than give medical attention, I'm going to snap that arm right back in half, you got me?"

"Yeah, I got you" he said gruffly "Now let me do my job please." I released his collar and he immediately shifted over, applying the tourniquet above the gunshot wound of the soldier next to him.

Satisfied, I strode over to another group of casualties and began working to treat their wounds with mundane healing. I couldn't risk using up too much of LIWI's magical reserves this early in the day, and beyond that I just didn't want a bunch of uninjured enemy soldiers in this camp while friendly forces were still trying to advance through the area.

Green continued getting all of the various weapons in the camp gathered into a large pile, then supervised the ranking soldiers in the camp as he forced them to raise a white flag to signify their surrender. I kept working, using LIWI's enhancement to my dexterity to rapidly and efficiently apply bandages, tourniquets, splints, and even stitches in a few cases. The enemy medic was also useful, helping me triage and treat the worst wounded soldiers as he forced the soldiers to self diagnose and remain orderly while we worked on them. Finally, after fifteen minutes of uninterrupted work Sergeant Green called out to me, indicating that friendly forces were arriving in our sector.

-/-

With the most critically injured soldiers dealt with, I left the medic to his own devices, joining Green on the makeshift wall they had built out of crushed cars and broken concrete. The main mechanized battalion was marching in neat orderly lines directly at us from the north, weapons raised but not firing. At their current speed I estimated they would arrive in a few minutes. Meanwhile to our west two scouts wearing light armor and carrying minimal equipment were bounding towards us, moving from cover to cover as they approached, clearly not trusting the white flag. Green nudged me and pointed to the two scouts, who were still several hundred yards out.

"Is your wingsuit still in one piece?" he asked, motioning towards where I had retracted the sturdy canvas back into the sides of my armor. The suit had anchor points on my ankles and wrists that could quickly self detach, allowing a micromotor to retract most of the canvas into a tight wrap that mostly was out of the way of my movement, which was how I had been able to drop straight from flying to fighting earlier. I nodded, confused.

"It's fine" I replied.

He grinned, then motioned to the top of one of the surrounding roofs.

"Awesome, I'll keep things covered here, you go drop in on our boys over there and give them the Team SGGE hello."

I just looked at him with a blank expression.

"The what?" I asked. He continued grinning as he explained.

"Just go drop out of the sky and land next to them, make a big dramatic entrance under controlled circumstances. It's an incredible morale booster for the troops. I mean think about it, what inspires more confidence in your elite forces than a man dropping from the sky and telling you not to worry because he already killed or captured all the enemy forces."

"You plan that shit in advance?" I asked, dumbfounded. He just grinned wider.

"Sometimes I stay up late at night and practice one liners too." His expression became more somber as he regarded me. "Look," he continued, "I'm not joking about the morale thing. You and I have been on both sides of a huntsman fight, we both understand just how much a single person can change the tide of a battle. But that battle isn't going to be won unless your side truly believes that they can win. What did Captain Stone do when she came across your squad being ambushed?"

"She insulted Flynt, called him 'Sparky'." I recalled. "Then she maneuvered him into a one on one fight away from the rest of us." He clapped me on the shoulder, holding up his index finger to demonstrate his point.

"See?" He asked, "She took away his intimidation factor by mocking his abilities, then allowed your squad to regroup. Were you ready to join back into that fight? Or did you want to keep your head down after he left you alone?" I shook my head.

"I took a shot at him.' I replied, "he got away anyways, but as soon as I could I got back into the fight." Green used his demonstrating finger to poke me solidly in the chestplate, emphasizing his point

"Because you were inspired." He said. "Your squad was at a breaking point, ready to throw in the towel and retreat, but instead you saw the Captain kicking ass and your head was right back in the game. Trust me, Stone and Rivers have been fighting alongside infantry from the day they graduated Atlas Academy. They never had a normal huntsman experience, fighting Grimm and peacekeeping on their own. So they learned right out of the gate how to keep their soldiers in the fight." He poked me again, twice, to hammer home his points. "That means you take the hits they can't, and you show them how to keep fighting, no matter what happens."

I nodded, and reached down to strap my wingsuit clips to my wrists and ankles again, getting ready to do my best impression of a flying squirrel. Green handed me his grappling hook, and I held mine in my free hand. Green gave me a two finger salute, tapping his forehead and stepping back as I fired both grappling hooks up to the roof of a six story building between myself and the scouts that were approaching. I set the hooks to their maximum retraction strength, and zipped into the air, my shoulders aching from the strain even with my armor taking the brunt of the weight.

I zipped up and past the rooftop, releasing the hooks and clipping them to my belt as my momentum carried me almost two dozen feet higher than the rooftop as my trajectory transitioned into a parabolic arc. Then at the apex of my flight I extended my arms and legs, allowing the canvas of my wingsuit to catch the air.

We can go faster!

LIWI shouted gleefully, and I felt a sudden burst of wind behind me propel me forwards, catching my wingsuit and speeding me up as I flew towards the approaching scouts. They were hyper fixated on the fortifications now, and didn't look up as I flew towards them. Thanks to LIWIs gust of wind I reached their position while still about fifty feet up in the sky, and activated the release on my wingsuit, allowing it to rapidly retract back into its holder. I tucked and dove down, activating my feather fall system at the last moment so I landed with some speed, but not heavily enough to risk injuring myself.

I crashed feet first a few yards behind the trailing scout, tucking into a ball and rolling to spread out the impact, then bouncing up to my feet and jogging off the last of my momentum as my wingsuit retracted. The scouts had stopped their advance when they had seen me launch from the enemy fortifications, but relaxed after they saw the Team SGGE patch emblazoned on my armor.

"Gentlemen," I greeted them casually, then pointed at the fortifications ahead of us, "Checking out that fort up there?" The lead scout nodded, reflexively looking up at the sky to see if any more huntsmen were going to drop out of the sky.

"Uh" he mumbled, "Yes sir. We were sent to investigate the fighting we heard over here before the main force attacks. We weren't expecting to find any friendly huntsmen." I pointed up the street to where Sergeant Green had now climbed back up onto the wall and was waving towards us.

"Not to worry private" I read his rank, "Team SGGE captured the fortifications, your forces should be clear to advance." The trailing scout looked towards me with shock.

"The four of you took out that whole base?" He asked with some minor awe. "But they had armored vehicles and machine guns and rockets and everything!" I shook my head.

"The two of us actually" I corrected him, "The rest of our team is busy clearing out some other sectors to our west to make sure that you aren't flanked on the attack." The scout's jaw legitimately dropped, and I finally understood what Green had been talking about.

The lead scout was more put together, nodding and rising to his feet.

"We still need to see it for ourselves sir, our orders are clear, get eyes on and report back." I gestured out towards the captured base, welcoming them towards it.

"Be my guest."

I led them to the fortifications, much faster now that I was drawing any potential fire, allowing them to jog instead of bounding from cover to cover. The scouts checked over the area, verifying that it was properly secured, then left at a rapid pace, running back to deliver their report. Green and I settled in to wait, allowing the enemy soldiers to have food and water from their stockpiles at the medic's insistence.

The mechanized infantry arrived first, slowly and methodically marching through the debris and into the square. The majority of the soldiers were Atlesian androids, now able to be deployed after Hephaestus had been captured, but the command ranks were still filled with human and faunus soldiers. Green hopped off the wall to greet them, organizing the hand off of the prisoners and weapons to the ranking officer while I waited for the scouts to return with the rest of their force.

Hey, don't we know him?

LIWI created a small tug of magic at my shoulder. I turned to see who he was talking about and spotted a familiar figure working with the enemy medic to reset a broken leg.

"Wilks?" I asked.

Aha! It's hard to remember some of the stuff that happened when I was damaged, but I knew I remembered him.

I hopped off the wall, heading over to where the young medic was busy securing a makeshift splint. He was attempting to straighten out a piece of rebar to allow the metal to be used to secure the leg, but wasn't making any real headway. I strode over to him, holding out a helping hand.

"Mind if I help?" I asked. He looked up at me, squinting into the sun behind his glasses as he tried to make me out, but passed the piece of rebar up. LIWI surged my muscles with a small burst of magic and I forced the rebar to straighten back out, then handed it back to him.

"Thanks sir," he said, aligning the rebar with the soldier's leg and securing it.

"No problem, but I'm not a sir, I work for a living Private Wilks."

Wilks looked up at me in shock, and I removed my helmet, grinning at him

"Grayson!" he shouted, rising and pulling me into a hug. "I heard you were working with Team SAGE full time, but I couldn't find out anything about what you guys were doing!" I extricated myself from the hug and gestured to the Team SGGE logo emblazoned on my armor.

"Actually I'm a legitimate member now," I told him, "They promoted me to sergeant and added me to the roster full time as a replacement for Lieutenant Amber." He looked disheartened when I mentioned the Lieutenant, likely thinking about the day we had been ambushed. A moment later he shook off the melancholy and gestured to his own rank insignia.

"You aren't the only one" he said, indicating the second chevron on his rank.

"Corporal huh?" I asked, "They give you that for good behavior?" He shook his head with a grin,

"Nope, they gave me it for hauling you all the way back to Atlas practically single handed." He held up his cybernetic right hand, rolling the wrist and waggling the fingers to emphasize his point, "Literally, as it turned out."

I examined his arm, pleased to see that it was of good quality. He seemed to be accepting of the prosthetic, which was good.

"It looks good on you" I told him, "Really brings together the badass veteran look." He shrugged.

"I don't know about badass" he said, "You guys are the ones who took over this whole place without us." I looked at him with mock indignation.

"Excuse you?" I asked, "Don't sell yourselves short, you guys were about to do the same thing without aura to block bullets for you. That's way more dangerous in my opinion."

I looked around, checking that the other medical staff could handle the rest of the injured soldiers. They had already established informal triage stations and I could see some of the officers discussing options for prisoner transport. The android units had taken over guarding the prisoners, and the rest had assumed defensive positions along the walls, taking up the same positions that the WoF forces had been about to use against them just a short while ago. I clapped Wilks on the back and led him over to where Green had just finished detailing a report to one of the field commanders.

"Sergeant Green!" I called out to him, "Meet Corporal Wilks, he's the medic that saved my life." I left out any mention of the actual failed rescue mission itself.

Green greeted Wilks with his signature easy going smile, shaking his hand.

"Good to meet you Wilks." He said cheerfully, "Sergeant Phoenix speaks highly of you, and I heard good things in Captain Stone's report as well." Wilks rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Oh wow," he said sheepishly, "I don't know about all that. I just try to do my job."

A soldier on guard duty called out the approach of the light infantry brigade, and I apologized to Wilks.

"Duty calls," I told him, "But I'll see you around alright?" I offered him fist bump, then set off with Sergeant Green to join the impromptu leadership meeting that was being formed between the commanders of the different units.

"You're pretty good at this whole morale boosting thing" Green whispered to me as we moved to join the leadership.

"What?" I asked. He jerked his head towards where Wilks was being questioned by a half dozen soldiers about his conversation with us.

"That kid is gonna be a legend to his unit now, you know at least three of them heard you say he saved your life right?" I shook my head, I hadn't noticed anyone close enough to overhear us.

"Well they did," Green continued. "That's going to help keep spirits up as we move further into the city. Knowing their medic has an endorsement that strong is going to make them more confident, less likely to break when they come under fire." I shrugged, not entirely convinced. "I guess," I replied.

-/-

We joined the leadership under the shade of an awning that was mostly intact, hanging out over the entrance to a building. The heavy infantry had a captain and his first sergeant, and they were currently greeting the lieutenant who had been sent from the light infantry to coordinate with them.

"Huntsmen, good to have you here" the captain greeted us. "We're glad for the support, that's for sure, mind if I ask what your mission is here?"

Green shook his head.

"Not at all, captain." He replied "We're on a search and destroy op, our orders are to make sure this section of the line collapses."

That was entirely true, though Green obviously left out the fact that we were hunting down Helios. I followed up Green's comment, laying out one of the plans that we had discussed prior to our deployment. I brought out a map of the local area on my scroll, showcasing the local area and highlighting several key enemy positions.

"As I'm sure you're aware" I began "The enemy is dug in deep in these positions. Now, normally Sergeant Green and I would harass them, making resupply difficult and generally reducing their combat capability with our superior mobility." Green nodded his assent and I continued. "But we're on a time table, and now that your forces are here I'd like to propose an alternate strategy."

The heavy infantry captain, some variety of wolf faunus by my reckoning, leaned in and studied the map I presented.

"Go ahead" he said after a taking in the strategic picture.

"With the numbers we have here and two huntsmen we can take their westernmost position with only a few hours of hard fighting." I pointed out an apartment complex that the WoF was using as temporary barracks. "Sergeant Green and I will open the assault with explosives and a strong alpha strike, allowing your forces to close the distance before their defenses recover. If all goes well then we can capture or kill up to twenty percent of the forces they have in this region."

The captain nodded thoughtfully, exchanging a quick look with the other infantry leaders. After a moment he gave his answer.

"Normally I wouldn't consider assaulting a position like this without heavy armor support or at least double the forces we have now. But this is a solid enough plan, and we have the element of surprise for now. If we wait for reinforcements then the enemy will have time to learn we've broken through their initial defenses and send for their own reinforcements."

The Lieutenant from the light infantry brigade nodded his agreement, and the Captain turned back to us.

"Alright Sergeant" he said confidently, "Let's do it."

Evelynn's Perspective

I sprinted forwards through a wide street directly on the metaphorical heels of the wall of rubble I had built from the damaged and destroyed buildings surrounding us. Bullets pinged off the wall in a constant barrage that sounded like a hailstorm as I charged at full speed down the four lane street. I held Silver Reforged low in one hand as I ran. No matter how light it felt to wield, the hammer still had significant mass, and swinging it while running could throw off my gait.

Nearly silent bullets flew over my shield as Eugene covered my advance, and I knew that each one was a kill shot without needing to check. Reaching out through my semblance I could feel the front of my shield being turned into tiny pebbles by the continued onslaught, so I pulled more debris from around me as I ran to fill in the shield, allowing the weaker portions to fall away and be filled in by the new material. I estimated that I must be close to the position I was assaulting now, so I slowed the wall slightly, allowing me to catch up. My right hand pulled the concealed trigger on the haft of Silver Reforged, activating the dust projector built into the head of the hammer. Orange fire dust began pooling in the magnetic holding system, and I formed a small opening in my rock shield to stick the head of the hammer through.

Grayson had called it a 'murder hole' after I had used it during the assault on the munitions depot, but I considered it to simply be a good use of my available equipment. I aimed at where I knew several Waffles were hiding behind sandbag barricades and released the trigger. The dust shot spat out with minimal recoil, and I was rewarded with a loud explosion and screams of pain from the other side of my barricade. I fired twice more, each time turning my angle of attack so that I destroyed a new area of the enemy defenses, then retracted the hammer head as I neared the building I was assaulting.

It was some sort of fancy tailor shop, three stories high and presumably filled with a lot of expensive fabrics. At the last moment before reaching the building I sent the wall of rock in front of me shotgunning outwards, pelting the defenders outside the building and shattering what was left of the floor to ceiling windows that made up one wall of the storefront. With my vision now unobstructed, I took in what was left of the enemy defenses in a second, still charging ahead at full speed.

All the defenders on the ground floor were either dead or incapacitated, with the most movement being a few that were clutching at broken bones or trying to unbury themselves from debris that had landed on them. One particularly bold soldier fired a shot from a second story window. It impacted me center mass, my aura blocked the shot easily, but it still stung, though oddly less than I was used to.

In exchange for shooting me, I hefted Silver Reforged and hurled it into the window frame, right where the soldier had ducked to hide from return fire. The one hundred and sixty five pound hammer burst straight through the comparatively fragile wall, crushing the soldier on the other side. I saw a vapor trail follow Silver Reforged into the second floor, which told me that Eugene could see more targets in the building.

Still running, I used my semblance to swirl together a pile of rocks in the street behind me, then ran straight into one of the supports for the building, leaping up and managing two steps on the pillar before jumping up and away. The rocks I had summoned leapt into the air to meet me as I backflipped up and away from the building. I landed feet first on the mass of rock and allowed it to carry me directly into the opening in the wall that Silver Reforged had made. The entire maneuver was theoretically unnecessary, but it gave Eugene time to recognize my intention to storm the second floor, allowing him time to react and avoid shooting me in the back.

I crashed through the hole in the wall, sliding to a stop surrounded by broken wood and plaster with Silver Reforged sitting beside me, handle pointing dutifully straight up to allow me to grasp it without reaching down. The lights were off inside the building, and I instinctively squinted as I tried to make out the interior while waiting for my eyes to adjust from the bright sunshine outside.

"Get her!" I heard someone shout in Mistrali, and I dove to the side instinctively as a hail of gunfire erupted from every corner of the room. I flung a hand out towards where the voice had come from, ordering Silver Reforged off the floor and into action. The hammer rocketed towards its target, and I heard a satisfying crunch as it slammed into the bright muzzle flashes, pinning the unfortunate soldier to the wall and likely killing them. A hail of bullets struck my arms, legs, and torso, and my aura shield came on so strongly that I was practically glowing purple. Another silent bullet whizzed through the opening and a second gunner dropped with a shout.

I hit the floor in a tumble and immediately threw myself forwards, trying to close the distance between me and the nearest soldier while simultaneously dodging as many of the shots as I could. I ordered my hammer to crush another soldier, buying me precious seconds to half crawl half dive forwards. I finally got close enough to the soldier that his friends couldn't shoot without risking hitting him, so I shoved off the floor hard enough to send me rocketing several feet into the air. I twisted as I flew, landing feet first in front of the enemy soldier and delivering a vicious punch to his jaw.

He rocked back, knocked unconscious by the hit, so I ducked around him and wrapped my arm around his neck as he fell. I propped him up as a human shield, trusting that the Waffles wouldn't want to shoot one of their own, or if they did then I was trusting that he would catch enough of their bullets to keep my aura up. I could already feel that the combined efforts of controlling the wall of rubble outside and blocking that many bullets was bringing me close to half aura. I had been foolish to attack the second floor without proper support, but I had been downright sloppy by allowing them to shoot me as many times as they already had.

My eyes had finally begun adjusting, and I could make out five more soldiers in the room with me. Four of them were taking the opportunity to reload their weapons, while a fifth trained his weapon on me with shaky hands. To my right was a fancy privacy screen for the dressing room, the kind that was basically just a few panels on hinges and could stand on its own. Seeing my opportunity I reached down to grip the unconscious soldier's belt and grasped his collar with the hand that had him by the neck. I stepped forwards, allowing his limp form to drop, then stepped and pivoted into a spin. I made one full revolution with him extended to build momentum, then released him to go flying towards two of the soldier's who had just finished reloading.

At the same time, I sent a piece of rubble that had followed me into the second story flying to crash into the weapon of the one who had been waiting. I ducked and sprinted to my right behind the privacy screen as gunshots rang out from the last two soldiers. Bullets shredded the flimsy wood and splinters exploded behind me, but I sprinted forwards faster than they anticipated and leapt up to the wall. The interior wall was curved slightly, and I ran along it for a few seconds before gravity managed to pull me down. Just before I would have been forced to drop from the wall I kicked off, flying through the air and delivering a vicious roundhouse kick to the temple of the man whose weapon I had disarmed. His neck made an awkward snapping sound and his head flopped backwards as my foot made contact.

"No!" Another enemy shouted, but I carried through, landing in a crouch and rushing the pair who had been shooting at me a moment ago. One brought his rifle to bear, but I ducked under the barrel, my ears ringing as the automatic weapon discharged right next to my head. Without slowing down I punched my right fist into his torso, feeling ribs crack and break under the force of my hit. Then I lifted my right leg and pivoted clockwise on my left heel as I turned to deliver a reverse kick to the side of the second soldier. The impact threw him away from me, and he went out the window, his heels catching awkwardly on the shattered window sill before he fell with a scream.

The last two had managed to untangle themselves from their friend's unconscious form, but I summoned Silver Reforged from behind them. The unyielding hammer slammed into the one on my right, bowling him over and I guessed breaking his clavicle from the way he twisted and fell, screaming in pain. The last soldier got two shots off, both pinging off my aura as I swung my hammer into his skull, obliterating it and leaving only a crushed stump where it used to be.

I breathed heavily, eyes darting around the room and hearing tuned by adrenaline to listen for the smallest sound. A metal *thunk* sounded from the wall I had burst through and I turned, leveling my weapon at the hole. A moment later I relaxed as I recognized Eugene's grappling hook. He pulled himself up and into the hole, rifle raised and ready to help protect me from the occupants of the building.

I forced a smile as I saw the concerned expression on his face, giving him an 'okay' sign with one hand to indicate that I was alright. He also released his own pent up breath, nodding and lowering his weapon. He stepped into the darkness of the interior and crouched down, taking up a watch position where he could see the exterior. I set down Silver Reforged, allowing the haft to reach straight up to its full six foot length. Then I strode over to him, entering his cone of silence and crouching next to him.

"That's target three" I signed, "Just one more to go before we link up with the tanks." He nodded, and I turned to jump back out into the street, but he grabbed my wrist to halt me. I looked back as he signed a quick message to me.

"Be careful please. I can only do so much from the backline." I smiled again at his concern, this time for real.

"Haven't you heard?" I asked, "I'm bulletproof." With that, I leapt out into the open air, calling my warhammer to meet me on my way to the street.

-/-

We advanced through the city together. I stayed on the ground while Eugene used his grappling hook to move rooftop to rooftop. He urged me several times to join him, but I always felt safer down in the dirt, surrounded by the rocks and rubble of the beleaguered city. As we neared our next destination I felt a sudden gust of wind behind me and heard a crackle of energy. I spun, weapon ready, to see Harriet had arrived wearing some sort of dull brown cloak over her uniform.

"What's with the getup?" I asked, and she looked down at it, then back up to me.

"It's camouflage," she replied, "I already can't engage targets with you guys because someone might report that I'm here, so I figured I might as well go the extra mile and put this on the reduce the chance that somebody spots me." She pointed a finger to our east, where Randall and Grayson were fighting on the other front. "Your teammates are doing well for themselves, they took down a heavily fortified position for the infantry. And your new kid, Phoenix? He managed to drop a huntsman." She actually sounded impressed, which was unusual for her.

"Which one?" I asked, curious.

"Argon Flynt, so not overly impressive as far as takedowns go, but at least he's got a fighting spirit."

"Crap" I thought to myself, I had missed the opportunity to bring Flynt down the last time we were in Argus, now Grayson of all people was showing me up. "Captured or dead?" I asked.

"Oh extremely dead" she replied, "He nearly took his head off."

"Huh." I thought to myself.

"Grayson doesn't usually like killing." I said aloud. "I haven't asked him about it but I've seen him go for non lethal options even when people were actively trying to kill him." Harriet shook her head.

"From what I saw he pretty much executed Flynt, more power to him I say." I took a look around the corner I was hiding behind at the enemy encampment that sat between me and the armored division Eugene and I were supposed to link up with.

"Alright," I said to Harriet, "Thanks for telling me. Are you going to stick with us or head back to team two?" She cocked her head, also looking around the corner to see what lay ahead.

"They won't be engaging anybody for at least an hour from what I can tell, so I figure I'll hang out here for a while to let my aura recharge." She nudged me with an elbow, "Plus I figure I better watch you two as well if I'm going to be able to write an accurate report."

"Report?" I asked with mild concern.

"Yeah" she replied, "I'm supposed to evaluate your team's performance on this mission. My higher ups want to know if they should keep working with you or if we need to start retasking the rest of the Ace Ops to deal with this." I thought back to the last few days, several pieces of information now finally clicking into place.

"Is that why you let us make the plan by ourselves?" I asked. She pointed a single finger gun at me

"Bingo" she said cheerfully, making a clicking sound as she mimed firing the finger gun.

"Great" I replied, "That's exactly what I need right now, more people watching everything I do." Harriet shrugged sympathetically.

"Blame Major Fin for writing such a good report about you."

I turned back to her with shock.

"He what?" I asked, not sure I had heard her right.

"His report about you was positively glowing," She confirmed. "At least compared to what he normally puts down about huntsmen he works with. He absolutely tore Sergeant Phoenix apart, and he was none too kind to your other team members, but he didn't have even a single negative thing to say about you."

"Alright, I guess Grayson really did scare him straight. I'll have to keep that in mind." I thought to myself, mentally filing that information away.

"Is that why you were assigned to us in the first place?" I asked her, trying to figure out how far back this had gone.

"Not quite." She explained, "I actually originally was supposed to guard Hephaestus. But, once command got wind of that report, they decided to see if it was a fluke. So here we are."

I blew out a long breath, and noticed that a strand of hair had fallen in front of my face at some point. The hair jumped and twisted as I exhaled, so I reached up and tucked it back into the rest of my hair as best I could. I ran the hand over my eyes on the way down, trying to order my thoughts and determine whether or not I was happy about the way things were turning out.

On the one hand, having Ace Ops command watching us was an easy way to get in an incredible amount of trouble if things went wrong under my command. On the other hand, it was an incredible opportunity to excel, and it could mean getting our team assigned to real huntsmen work in the future, the kind of work that made a real difference, and not just babysitting inexperienced infantry units like we had been doing before the war. Plus, if we were kept working for the Ace Ops then that only increased our chances of being assigned to go after Hyperion.

Seeing my dilemma Harriet put a calming hand on my shoulder.

"Relax Evelynn," she said reassuringly, "You've been crushing it so far. Just keep it up and you'll have enough pull with command to get away from Team FRIL for good."

That sounded appealing to me. I made up my mind there and then to make sure that Team SGGE excelled today, and that started with taking down this next outpost. "Alight Harriet," I said with more confidence than I felt.

"You've got yourself a deal. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to kick some Waffle ass. We'll talk after if you're still around." She nodded, and zipped away from me in a flash, leaving me to coordinate with Eugene.

We sketched out a quick plan on a notepad, prioritizing our targets and coordinating our assault to sow the maximum amount of chaos. Then, with my aura fully recharged, we set to work.