[h3]Cobalt Chideta & Diamond Frost[/h3] No good. Either this was Remnant’s way of saying it hated the four of them by openly stacking the deck of coincidences against them, or this was a trap. As if the lack of communications wasn’t enough, Diamond’s attention was drawn to a deafening boom and an eruption of smoke from the forest. She could only hope it was their teammates causing it rather than falling victim to it. “Alright. Gizmos don’t work, then it’s time to fall back to more prehistoric means of drawing attention. I was hoping to save these for the night, but given the situation...” she shrugged as she reached behind her, fetching one of the boxes of flares. “Noise and fireworks, this oughta draw attention.” she said as she lobbed the whole box to the air, assisted by a push from her dust. When it reached the apex point, the ex-thief focused her aura and set all of the flares off, creating a big white flash in the sky accompanied by a screeching whistle of a sound. A few minutes after Diamond had fired the flare, whether she was paying attention to the screen on the turret’s control panel or not, the machine began to hum with life. Powering on, its vulcan barrel slowly raised itself. On the panel, it read: Connection re-established. Defensive parameter reboot, complete. Priority; Wall Security. Secondary; All Hostile Targets Warning! Unidentified incoming aerial craft detected! Engaging all targets as Hostile! But, it wasn’t the only turret powering back on by themselves. In fact, all of them were. Of the ones nearest Cobalt and Diamond, all of them were focused on one thing. The airship that had taken them there. The very same airship that was to be their reinforcements in the instance of an emergency. The very same airship that thought they were in trouble and were coming to their aid. It didn’t take long. Once they were remotely powered on and warmed up, their turrets began to spin up as they auto-loaded their destructive ammunition. In a short few-second bursts, the turrets fired upon the airship with a skull-shattering and air-igniting… BRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Slicing the airship into flaming pieces with their laser-like stream of bullets. And just like that, the turrets ceased. It was over in a matter of seconds. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ [h3]Oswald Connoly & Emerald Felicia[/h3] Witnessing the bright explosion of Diamond's flare box, Oswald’s heart dropped. “Emerald….we have to go. And go [i]fast[/i].” Pointing up at the light, Oswald cursed. “That looks bad.” Emerald was already running, though she looked pretty winded as she did so. As Oswald and Emerald chased after the source of bright light in the sky, a single creature that had been stalking them since collapsing the cave lunged from behind a tree and straight at the feline faunus. Whatever it was, it attempted to slam its large body into her and rake her with its claws before rolling away and ‘fleeing’. Disappearing once again into the surrounding forests just as quickly and quietly as it came. Emerald, already in a weaken state and focused on where she was going, noticed the creature little too late. She turned to face the creature and gasped in surprise just as it was upon her. She’d barely had time to raise her arms up in defense as the creature raked her. She let out a cry as the claws tore through her arms and torso, falling onto her side. She opened fire with a shotgun as the creature retreated but she was hardly aiming properly. “Nghhh!” It stung, it stung really bad. She hugged her chest and clucked her arms together but it wasn’t doing much to help, she was bleeding from her arms and lower torso. “O-Oswald!” Teleporting to Emerald’s side as she fell, Oswald rapidly grabbed her and pulled the girl into his chest. “I got you. I got you, kitten, don’t worry.” Cradling Emerald, Oswald made a beeline towards Diamond and Cobalt, ignoring everything but the bleeding girl in his arms and his destination. “It’s just a...scratch.” Emerald squeaked out with a painful expression. Truth was she was starting to feel a little dizzy, but she wanted to look tough so she didn’t mention it. “Just stings a lot...I’m sure it’s not as bad as it...looks.” She was in fact trying not to look down at her arms which were probably now covered in her blood. She didn’t like seeing her own blood. Oswald sent an unworried smile down at his teammate. “Oh, yeah. It’s nothing serious, I’m sure. Just wanna get out of the forest before I get you all wrapped up. You’ll be fine.” Inside, however, Oswald’s mind was screaming, his mental condition was rapidly deteriorating, and the floodgates were about to open. All it would take was one or two more mishaps on this godforsaken mission, and he’d blow a gasket. “Diamond is gonna throw a fit when she sees me.” Emerald smirked for a moment before going back to her pained expression. “Oh boy, I’m probably fucked then.” Sighing as he remembered Diamond’s threat, Oswald decided to pick up the pace a little. His facade wasn’t going to last much longer. “Haha...yeah you’re definitely…” Emerald’s voice trailed off as she closed her eyes...just for a second. So dizzy. Stopping short as Emerald’s voice trailed and her eyes closed, Oswald looked down at her before cursing. “Dammit, Emerald, don’t stop talking. Just...keep yourself awake, alright?” Setting the girl down in his lap as he took a seat, Oswald quickly ripped a large chunk of his sleeve off before looking between his makeshift rag and the wound. [i]This isn’t gonna be nearly enough. Fucking Grimm stealing our shit.[/i] “Emerald, you wouldn’t happen to have any medical supplies on you, do you? I noticed you managed to keep most of your stuff when those Ratatosk got us.” Emerald grimaced before looking at Oswald. She’d blacked out for a moment, either from the blood loss, or the pain, or probably both. “I do have a few things in my pack yeah…” Impatiently grabbing Emerald’s pack and opening it, Oswald found the aforementioned supplies rather quickly. Bandages immediately presented themselves to the swordsman, and Oswald grabbed his blade, grimacing. “You might not like what I’m about to do. Sorry.” Quickly and carefully drawing his sword through Emerald’s shirt, he separated the clothes from her body before cutting them away to the side and leaving her back bare. “This is gonna hurt, by the way.” Using the piece of his shirt and Emerald’s clothes to dab away some of the blood not near the wound, Oswald grabbed the bandages and began wrapping them around her back, careful not to leave much space open to the air. After treating the cuts to her back, even if in a rough and imperfect manner, Oswald repeated the process for the damage her arms had suffered. Lifting Emerald once more, this time keeping her torso nearly vertical in the bridal carry, Oswald started to run once more. Almost as an afterthought, he activated the distress beacon on his headset. His mind wasn’t in the right place, but they needed to get back, and quickly. With her wounds no longer exposed to the open air, the pain Emerald felt had lessened, it didn’t sting as much as before.. “I feel a little better now…” “Good. Now we really have to get back.” Oswald gave a curt nod as his face slowly hardened. His resolve was breaking, especially now that Emerald was feeling better. It was only then that Oswald’s mind was able to focus on what had happened. The crashing, flaming airship was the perfect icing on the sewage cake that was this mission. However, he couldn’t say that he was particularly surprised. After the events of the previous week, Oswald had been in a near-permanent state of dread, even if his extracurricular activities had managed to stave off some of the after-effects of the massacre. “You know...this really wasn’t how I thought this mission was gonna go at all…” Emerald said as Oswald carried her through the forest. “I thought we’d be the ones doing the hunting, not the Grimm.” She laughed. Shaking his head with a sigh, Oswald responded tersely. “I seem to have a habit of drawing bad luck to everybody but myfuckinself. If this shit keeps up, I might just drop out and go rogue, do shit on my own.” “No you can’t give up...who would have your back if you were all alone!?” Emerald protested. Oswald could only shake his head in protest as he thought out his response. “You’re kinda missing the point there, Emm.” Echoing in the forest was the slow straining of wood. It was clear from the splintering and snapping sounds that something was delimbing a tree branch. Ripping it off of a random poor tree. There was a loud crack, and then silence. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. More of this shit?!” Looking in the direction of the noise, Oswald groaned. Emerald’s ears twitched. “That doesn’t sound friendly…” After the few minutes of silence, there was a sudden loud crash near their position. Something had clearly tore off a tree branch and tried to hit them with it, but missed by a wide margin. “God fucking damnit! I’m gonna raze this fucking forest to the ground when I get my hands on some fucking Dust!” Screaming in anger, Oswald held more tightly onto Emerald and forced himself to move even faster. No matter how much his body tried to protest, he couldn’t stop. Not now. Something was pleased. Something was happy. The human was becoming more and more rage-filled. It could smell it. It could taste it. Feed off of it, thrive off of it. The emotion the human was exuding was glorious indeed. But it couldn’t stop, it had to keep going. Follow after them, shh quietly. Silently. Watch them. See how they react. It wanted revenge but it had to do it right. Wait for the perfect moment. Now! Same as before, the large creature pounced at Oswald but this time indirectly. Going at him from an angle to try to take out his legs to throw him off balance and to the ground. Whether it connected or not, it didn’t allow itself to be seen and promptly vanished into the familiar territory of the forests around. Oswald felt something strike him near the neck as he ran, knocking him off balance and forcing him into a controlled fall onto his back. The handles of his shield dug painfully into his back, but Oswald was more concerned about Emerald than the pain he was suffering. “Emerald, you...you alright?” Wincing as he spoke, Oswald forced himself to sit up a bit, but even he couldn’t do it immediately with that amount of suffering he was enduring. Emerald oofed as they fell over, “I’m fine...what about you?” Emerald, despite being injured was now more alert and listening intently for movement around them. They were being stalked and they needed to take care of it before it picked them off. Despite the stinging protest of her right arm she grasped one of her weapons. “Can you even shoot those damned things without Aura?” Frustration evident in his voice, Oswald slowly moved Emerald off of his body and stood, drawing his weapons with a grimace. “Also, you might want to invest in some kind of protective armor or clothing, if draining your Aura is going to happen frequently.” Emerald stood up slowly, resisting the urge to cry out in pain from doing so. “The shotguns use regular ammo or dust...so I can shoot…” Her arms didn’t want to move much though, it was gonna hurt to use them. Not to mention the rest of her body. “That doesn’t sound like a bad investment...I just need the money to do it...maybe upgrade my cannon to not be so...greedy with my Aura too.” “Just talk to Diamond, she’ll hook you up.” Looking around cautiously, Oswald’s mouth disappeared into a thin line. “Come on out, fuckers. I’ll give you something to eat!” Only now did he notice the tendrils of darkness completely enveloping his body, radiating outwards as if trying to free themselves from his body. For Oswald, at the very least, his Aura was very representative of his soul’s energy, and this visible expression was a warning to him as much as it was to the Grimm he was calling out. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ [h3]Esther Vanhomrigh[/h3] Carnal yawned, lazily leaning against his machine gun as he stared down at the forests below. Ski was a bit more professional as he dutifully focused his attention where it needed to be. Stovetop still wordlessly sat across from Esther whose eyes were still glued to her Scroll. Duckie and Gorilla were simply doing their job, responsible for the control of the whole flight when something caught her eye that caused her to look down at her console. Some blip on the radar briefly appeared before vanishing. Aggravated, she tapped at the screen. Gorilla sat up and looked at the same radar. [b]”What’s up, Duckie?”[/b] The pilot made a short growling sound. [b]”I don’t know. Something just popped up for a moment. It wasn’t real big but it was large enough to have our instruments pick up on a heat signature. Lost it though…”[/b] Gorilla hmmed before turning in his seat to call out to the two gunners. [b]”Ski! Carnal! You two see anything out your gun ports?”[/b] The two gunners looked at him then each other, before turning to peer out of their open windows. Ski shook his head. [b]”Negative. Nothing on my side.”[/b] Carnal almost leapt out and over his gun when he spotted it, the bright ball of light in the sky. The flare Diamond fired. [b]”Hey! Got a possible signal flare on my side! Starburst pattern!”[/b] Esther practically flew to Carnal’s side and shoved him out of the way to look through his assigned gun port to see. Stovetop at her heels. Esther turned to bark at the pilots in the cockpit, [b]”What does the Eye see?!”[/b] Gorilla pulled up the feed from the spherical camera located on the underside of the bird. [b]”There’s too much interference, I can’t get a clear read on the ground!”[/b] Esther stormed her way into the cockpit. [b]”Get us in closer!”[/b] Duckie protested. [b]”We don’t know what that is! We didn’t give them any flares to-”[/b] Esther brought her face closer to the female pilot’s. [b]”You. Heard. Me.”[/b] Duckie froze for a moment, glancing at Gorilla on the other side of Esther. [b]”Aye.”[/b] As she obeyed and turned the airship in a straight path towards the flare, Esther whirled out of the cockpit and got to the back. As she walked, she issued more orders to the others. [b]”Chase, Michael! I want eyes and ears open, Condition 1 your weapon systems! Antonio, drop the back ramp!”[/b] Carnal and Ski nodded at her and loudly shouted [b]”Aye, ma’am!”[/b] as they turned and got to looking over their machine guns. Stovetop walked to the back with Esther and palmed the controls to drop the back ramp of the airship. [b]”Vanessa!”[/b] Esther turned to face Stovetop as the ramp was slowly being lowered. [b]”I know what you’re thinking! I know you’re worried about them, but we didn’t give them a flare to use! That could be something else, that could be anything! What if it’s some sort of trap, think about this for a moment!”[/b] Stovetop yelled over increasingly loud roars and howls of the whipping winds. Esther just slowly put her gloved hands to her ear as she stared at him, her hands hovering over a headset of the same make that she gave to the team of students. Pressing and holding a button on the headset, she tried one more time to hail the team on the ground. [b]”Team CODE this is Vanhomrigh, radio check! I say again, Team CODE this is Vanhomrigh, radio check! What is your current situation and position, report in! I say again, what is your current situation and position!”[/b] She removed her hand and waited for a response. Nothing. Not even static. Stovetop finished lowering the ramp and walked over to Esther, placing a hand on her shoulder. [b]”Vanessa, listen to me! This isn’t like you to just act the way you are acting!”[/b] Esther reached up and gently removed his hand. Speaking, her voice was clear but soft. Yet, it still retained its stern tone. [b]”Antonio. Get me a pack.”[/b] [b]”Vanessa, but-”[/b] [b]”Antonio.”[/b] The two of them stood still for a moment, in silence. Esther begged her comrade, something she rarely ever did. [b]”Please.”[/b] Stovetop backed away from her, lingering as the airship got ever closer to Cobalt’s and Diamond’s location. [b]”...Aye.”[/b] Going into the belly of the ship, he walked away as Esther looked over herself to make sure her weapons were secured to her. Gorilla was growling, smacking the damned camera feed in a futile attempt to get it to work right. [b]”What in the hell is going on with the Eye? Fucking thing just never wants to-...”[/b] Bringing his face closer to the screen, his heart sank. Shooting out of his chair, he hit the harness release for Duckie and ripped the surprised pilot from her own seat as he yelled out at the top of his lungs. [b]”EGRESS! EGRESS! EGR-”[/b] Gorilla didn’t quite get the third repeat of what he was saying out, as the airship was cut in half starting from the cockpit toward the back. Stovetop only needed to hear the first one as he spear-tackled Esther out the back of the ship, the two of them hurtling towards the earth below as the two halves of the ship fell apart. On a collision course toward Diamond and Cobalt. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ [h3]CODE[/h3] The shiver that ran down Diamond’s spine as she heard the turrets move had nothing to do with the dust fused with it. She got ready to grab Cobalt and pull them under the construct where she hoped it would have a blind spot, but when she saw it, she saw that wouldn’t be necessary. That, however, didn’t help with the bad feeling. As she followed the length of the barrel, she realized what its target was. She thought of sending another signal, but it was too late as the turret roared to life and scuttled the airship in seconds before coming to a still again. If there was time to, Diamond would have probably wondered how a craft designed with combat in mind could be taken down so easily, but she had more on her hands. Too much, in fact. “Just so you know, not knowing what to do here - perfectly adequate reaction!” she hollered over to Cobalt, her ears still ringing a little from the cannon fire. Taking a few breaths to try and calm down, she tried to get her priorities straight. But fates didn’t even allow her that, as she noticed a large chunk of flaming metal heading towards them. She tapped Cobalt’s shoulder, pointed at it and yelled at him to run, as did she, whispering a prayer. She didn’t know any prayer against being crushed, so she opted for one of long life: [center]“I am an indestructible stronghold. I am an unshakable rock. I am a precious stone. I am the luck of the week. May I live a hundred times a hundred years, Each hundred of them apart, as I summon their boons to me. May the grace of the Divine be upon me!”[/center] Cobalt's jaw dropped as everything went to hell in a handbasket and their only way out was torn apart by rogue turrets. Time slowed down for him as his Semblance activated involuntarily. He watched the ship explode in a bright ball of flames and saw the bullets slowly tear through metal. Then time resumed its normal flow, his ears were ringing, Diamond was motioning to run, he decided to oblige her with little hesitation. He grabbed her arm, that way they wouldn't get separated, and he ran the hardest he's run in the past five years. He wasn't one for religion, but if he was he would be praying to every god in existence. The gates of hell had opened and Cobalt and Diamond were staring into Satan's soul. It seemed like they avoided the worst of it, although a few sharp bits landed on Diamond’s neck, splintered when what was left of the aircraft crashed to the ground. She briefly worried about what happened to the crew, but they seemed to be geared up on the roboteching level. Surely they got out. If not… Her thoughts were interrupted though at the spectacle before them. The rest of their team seemed to have trouble of their own. The ex-thief wanted to ask whether the hastily made bandages on Emerald are Oswald’s definition of taking care, but seeing their defensive stance opted to join them in it instead. “What’s the holdup?” “Grimm, in the forest. Got Emerald after she drained her Aura destroying a cave that appeared to be their primary refuge. We’d have run more, but I got knocked on my ass. As it turns out, 400 pounds of person running on two legs is remarkably easy to trip.” Oswald gave Diamond a nod as his head continued to twitch around, not unlike a meerkat’s. “My question is, how the hell did [i]that[/i] happen?” Jerking his head towards the direction of the crashed airship, Oswald snarled his question, only half-focused on the conversation at hand. “Remember Davis, the guy who got us the lay of the land? FUCK THAT GUY! The turrets were set to target everything in the area - and no, I didn’t turn them on - but they came in for a short while on their own. Oh yeah, and our phones don’t work! Next week, recon mission, please!” Diamond growled, her eyes joining on the lookout. “I assume you didn’t have time to disinfect those?” she asked, nodding towards Emerald. “Unfortunately not. Stopping the bleeding was my first priority. Cuts aren’t too bad, but they were a little deep. She’ll need proper medical attention at the very least. First, we need to find out how to get communications back online. Which I’m sure will require going back to the town. God dammit, this whole job is NOT what any of us signed up for!” Stopping to look at Emerald, Oswald frowned. She’d be fine, as long as they got back to Beacon quickly enough. Heads would roll, that was for sure. The only question was whose head. “Comms can wait a little. How about you and Cobalt keep an eye out while I haul Emmy back. Then you two comb the debris for survivors, bodies and blackbox while I pick a few locks to see if some of the houses have half a decent medkit, agreed?” Only giving a vaguely agreeable grunt and a look at Cobalt in response, Oswald nodded. Cobalt had a few cuts on him as well, but nothing incredibly serious. He was absolutely fuming at how this mission had turned out, a simple extermination has turned into the biggest clusterfuck he has ever been in and they were going up against an enemy on par with lower level human intelligence. “You do that Diamond. Try to find out where Davis is if you can as well. He's got hell to pay if he gave us bullshit intelligence.” Cobalt straightened up and looked out at the debris all over. “I hope those guys survived. I liked them. Move out.” “Lead the way, Cobalt. I’ll be right behind ya.” Oswald’s face could only be described as feral at this point. This mission was already shaping up to be a repeat of last week’s, but this time with a Beacon professor and their only means of egress as casualties...not to mention how much worse Emerald’s injuries could become without proper treatment. Emerald had her weapon still trained at the trees, she had a gut feeling that the Grimm was still watching them. Eventually she lowered her gun, she was too tired to hold it up anymore. “I think it’s still out there…” She sounded pretty out of it. Loading the Kitten on her back, Diamond looked at their path. Not that far, but through still flaming debris. Well, at least no Grimm would have lived in the impact zone. She cursed herself for not being able to heal others with her aura - she wondered if that was because of her past, it [i]did[/i] seem like something ‘pure’ people had an affinity for. “Ready when you are.” Cobalt watched Diamond and Emerald wander off and turned back to the carnage before him. “All right Oswald, first priority Is finding survivors. Second priority is medicine and first aid supplies, anything else is lowest on the scale of priorities. Let's move out.” Cobalt walked to the wreckage and began looking for survivors. Oswald gave another grunt in response to Cobalt, falling in behind him. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ From within the burning wreckage.. [i]Coughcoughcough![/i] An arm wrapped in protective armor and clothing shot out from a pile of refuse and debris. The large hand belonging to Gorilla clutched and grabbed at the nearest stable object to pull his hulking frame out from under large sections of the shredded airship. Once freed, he grabbed at his neck and pressed a button. With a pneumatic [i]hiss[/i] his damaged helmet unlocked and released itself from him. Gorilla pulling it off to discard it and taking in large gulps of fresh air as he wiped his watery eyes on his forearm. Looking up and around the wreckage, he called out to his brethren. [b]”Michael!”[/b] Another coughing fit. [b]”Chase!”[/b] He struggled to his feet, bits and pieces of his gear falling off of him. An annoyed voice replied. [b]”Hey! Alex! I’m over here!”[/b] Gorilla, his true name Alexander, breathed a sigh of relief. At least one was alive. Shouldering past large burning sections of the ship, he rounded a corner and found Carnal struggling in his gunner’s harness. Softly chuckling, Alex shook his head and made his way over to the entangled machine gunner. [b]”Damned! Fucking! Harness! Gaaaah!”[/b] Alex grabbed Carnal and promptly backhanded him. [b]”Ow! Hey! -The shit was that for?”[/b] Carnal rubbed the side of his face. [b]”Stay fucking still or you’ll make it worse.”[/b] Alex pressed the switch that was the emergency release for Carnal’s harness and down the gunner went. [b]”Oof! Awgh…”[/b] Helmet also damaged from the crash, the gunner did the same as his friend and removed his helmet. Taking in deep breaths, Carnal - true name Chase, checked himself over. They both seemed to be okay, save for a few scratches here and there. [b]”Woo! What a ride, huh Alex? Hey, have you seen Duckie or Sk-...”[/b] Looking up at his dark-skinned friend, he immediately knew something was wrong. He was staring straight ahead, as still as a statue. Peering to the side of Alex’s legs, he saw that a bit further away was the section of the ship that was previously the cockpit. Falling silent, Chase looked away and up at something that caused his own eyes to grow wide. A dark understanding then draining any expression on the blonde-haired and blue-eyed Chase as he sat there on the ground. The two stayed there for a while, in solemn silence. As the wreckage of the ship continued to burn and smolder around them. Chase made an angry face as he placed a hand to his forehead. [b]”Gods damn it…”[/b] Across from Chase, sat Ski or rather Michael. Michael was sitting in his harness, caught in it just like Chase was. His back was to him, but his head peered straight back at Chase. Tilted in a curious way that almost asked ‘What’s wrong’? During the crash, it was clear what had happened. One of the straps of the harness ended up wrapping around Ski’s neck in such away that upon impact, his neck was snapped. Severing the vertebrae connecting his head to the rest of his body. Alex didn’t need to investigate what used to be the cockpit as he could see from where he stood, the body that was slumped over the sparking control panels. He hadn’t noticed at the time, but when the first burst of gunfire tore through the ship, Duckie had been its first target. It explained how the airship crashed in the way that it did. Had she been alive during the first few volleys of turret fire, they may have ended up in a better position. Though, it was clear that wasn’t the case here. Even with all of their tech and armor, they were nothing without a Hunter’s protective aura. The turret fire made mincemeat of their pilot. Parts of her lay about, scattered and essentially ‘mush’. --- There were more of them. More Hunters. More problems. More troubles. It couldn’t take them all on alone, it knew that. It hadn’t even gotten started to learn the feline faunus and the human with the sword and shield. Now these two? No, it couldn’t do this. It was smarter than that. It needed help. The creature that had been antagonizing Emerald and Oswald then decided to make its swift and silent retreat. It would be back later with more of its brethren. When night falls, that is when they would return. When night falls, that is when everything will happen. It needed to return home and rest. To sleep and regain its energy. With no fanfare or further action, the mysterious Grimm vanished. Bothering the team of Huntsmen no longer.