Looked like the gate wasn't worki--

!

It was fast enough that, for a second, the last member of the JCL trio had reason to believe that he might have just been seeing things. That heightened nerves had created an apparition in the thick, heavy air that they had been trekking through upon their approach. That his instincts were telling him to be wary, if not entirely being forthcoming with the information.

On the other hand, this is an S-Rank Mission.

I shouldn't chance it.

"Did anyone else see that?" he asked the group, tone low and cautious. "Something moved near that corner."

According to the briefing, they were coming in with the knowledge that they weren't alone in the slightest-- that the Distillery had multiple Grimm afoot, if not already on top of them.

Therefore, they couldn't afford being surprised.

---

Sterling Johnson -- Defending a Caravan

"Well that's fucking ugly!" the silver-haired Atlesian quipped unnecessarily through the rushing wind, one palm sneaking into a pouch full of small metallic spheres and imbuing them with his Aura. Flinging them out into the air around him, he immediately sent them whizzing at frightful speed, tiny metallic bullets headed straight towards the eyes of the Deathstalker.

If nothing else, that'd have to distract the thing.

Gren Orchid

"I didn't. I just wanted to give you a little something." Gren gave Shiro another one of his award winning smiles as Sapphire showed up. Gren hasn't really spent a lot of time with the team captain outside of training and classes, not since they went out to party. Gren introduced his parents to her, after making it clear she was his leader, not his girlfriend. Awkward time for all, Gren was actually quite happy they didn't spend too long with them before his father or mother started something. Thinking about them brought a smile to Gren's face as Shiro asked about Abel. "Abel? Not sure. He wasn't in bed when I was making breakfast, so-" Speaking of the devil Abel arrived, his breath heavy. If Gren had to guess Abel lost something and had just found it. He'd offer him some tea, but unfortunately Gren only had a cup for himself and Shiro.

Now that everyone was gathered Team Swansong left for their mission. Gren handed out the rebreathers, at least to the ones who didn't bring their own. Sapphire also handed out what looked to be earplugs for Shiro and Abel, but not for Gren. Jokingly he called her out. "What? No presents for me? No wonder why you're not my girlfriend." Gren's joke was quickly ignored however as Sapphire announced her Aquaphobia. He was going to make another crack, but refrained from doing so. Sapphire may have a legitimate reason for it so he wasn't going to disrespect it. That being said, this wasn't going to be good considering their enemies.

Another thing that caught Gren's attention, mainly out of vanity, was that Sapphire mentioned that Abel was in charge if for some reason she is out of commission. He didn't show it, but that somehow annoyed him. Mainly stemming from the fact he thinks himself a better leader, and knows that Sapphire chose Abel because she doesn't trust him. To be fair, Gren made it evidently clear to her that her mistrust was not misplaced. He was only disappointed that she still doesn't trust him. "Oh well. I could still advise Abel if it comes to it. Basically the same thing really." Gren didn't know a lot about Abel. He was going to need to do something about that later.

"Sounds good. Of course, it'll be best if you stay with us. No going out and taking on the boss on your lonesome, eh?" Gren joked, trying to hide his annoyance with a backhanded reference to Sapphire's fight with Pops. Moving on, Gren felt there should be something said about the Sirens they were going to face. "Now anyways, I can't say I know a lot about Sirens. As Sapphire said, they use some sort of singing to hypnotize you, so be sure you have your earplugs in. But because of that make sure you're paying attention to everyone else too: We won't be able to hear each other with the earplugs in. And yeah Abel, they're aquatic. That'll make you rather vital if this fight goes south. My God Eater can use it's Terror Form just fine underwater, but it's Destruction Form, my range combat, won't be possible. My rockets would just fizzle out and my bullets won't go to far. And obviously my flamethrower won't really work. But your spear should work mostly fine, not to mention your electricity semblance would allow you to do more damage to them than I could underwater."

Gren than took out his new Scroll, placing it on the floor so that it could create a holographic projection of the town they'll be visiting, with the coastline as well. "Not only that but I swim like a minivan, so either bring the enemy to the sea floor keep it near the surface. I can use my semblance to walk on water, but it won't really help me once I go under. Additionally, while our biggest priority is to take out the Siren, this isn't just a kill mission. There are some missing people, and assuming that the Siren didn't kill them we should do our best to find them or their remains. Here," Gren zoomed in on a cluster of boulders at the coast. "Is was the last location of the most recent victim. Report says she was lost among the rocks, but I bet there's a Siren somewhere lurking there. This area is slick and from what my research found, occasionally submerged by the tides. Also, while the Siren is only the most recently called out threat, I think it'd be safe to assume that there are other variants of grimm nearby which may also prove to be a challenge. Can't say for certain what kind, but keep your eyes open nonetheless, eh?"

This thick air was taking time to get used to, but eventually he managed. He did find himself getting tired a little more quickly, but it wasn't too much of an issue. Looks like being the leader meant he got the flare gun too to use in case of an emergency. As the trekked through the area, they eventually came to a gate, with a terminal beside it. He began examining the terminal, but all he gathered was that it was off... He had no deep understanding of the parts within. Maybe Cian had better luck?

"Hey Cian, can you take a look at this?", he called over to her. Though as he did, Luke blurted out that he spotted something around the corner, and the moment he did, Jack also looked... Or rather, he looked before Luke said anything. His keen senses felt it too, and his eyes caught the movement...

"That couldn't be a survivor... I don't think they'd skulk around in the shadows like that. We should keep an eye out, might be some kind of sneaky Grimm", that said, they shouldn't go looking for it either unless they absolutely have to. If it was the sneaky kind, they would try and ambush the team.

"Well... let's see what we can do about the terminal", he said, referring not just to his team, but also Bastille.

When Abel arrived, Shiro was a little surprised to see him so flustered. It was seemed so unlike him. Had he been busy with something else beforehand? Ah, well. Nonetheless, it seemed his friend was having a rough morning. So, what was Shiro to do? Well, he already had his fill of Gren's tea. He was sure Gren wouldn't mind if he offered what was left to his pal and thusly presented it to the large human with a warm smile. Once all were present and accounted for, Sapphire gave the command to head out. Shiro relinquished the tea into Abel's possession to consume as he quietly following alongside his teammates.

Airship -> Trawl

Team Swansong all loaded up and en route to their mission location, the effects of the tea Gren had given him quickly wore off. Any moment of peace and quiet and Shiro found himself fading in and out of consciousness. His head sleepily bobbing before repeatedly jolting himself awake and shaking his head to try to cling to the living world. When Sapphire handed him and Abel a pair of earplugs, he took them without thinking and stared at them in his hand. It wasn't until Sapphire gave her explanation that he figured out what she had given it to him for. Unfortunately, they were regular earbuds. Unfit for his faunus ears. Rummaging through his pack in front of him, he came to realize that he had completely forgotten to bring his own pair and left them behind at Beacon.

"Gah, I'm such an idiot!"
Shiro berated himself.

Frowning and trying the earbuds on anyways, he was a bit worried when they wouldn't stay in very well and constantly fell out with the slightest movement. Removing them for now, he tried his best to not let on that they weren't fitting right. Listening as Sapphire spoke, Shiro realized two new things about his team leader. 1. She was afraid of water. 2. The person that she trusted the most out of the three of them appeared to be Abel when she named him their leader should anything happen to her. The tidbit about her having a phobia of water and drowning was interesting to say the least. He just shrugged when Abel was selected as the backup or co-leader. It didn't matter much to him. Looking up as Gren handed them all a newer version of the Rebreathers he had crafted, Shiro looked over the device in his hand and chuckled.

"Man, this would've come in handy a little while back."
Shaking his head, Shiro found the mask a home in his pack and put it away.

Yawning, Shiro struggled to remain awake, but only really caught bits and pieces of Gren's words. He and Sapphire seemed to be going over details, plans, advantages and disadvantages. None of which clearly got through to Shiro. Sapphire can't swim, got it. Gren sinks like a rock, got it. Something about some of Gren's weapons functioning and not, got it. Grimm. Missing people. Yawn. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He got the basic gist. To avoid letting on that Shiro preferred to just enter into a temporary coma, he decided to chime in about what he could contribute.

"I'm a pretty good swimmer myself, so if we need to go underwater I can tag-team with Abel. I won't be able to use my Dust attacks underwater, but everything else should be fine. On land I can maybe tag with someone else to track down the missing people. Really, it's all up to Sapphire where she wants to put me."

Him speaking probably only served to clearly show to everyone that he was ridiculously and unexplainably tired. His speech slurred and mumbling here and there. That was it. That was all the energy he had at the moment to utilize. Yawning again, Shiro immediately clocked out. Pulling his pack into his lap as a makeshift pillow, he stuffed his face into it as muffled snores were heard coming from him.

"Out here, it's either our imagination or a Grimm." The comment was more curt than anything Ben usually said, but he wasn't exactly in a joking mood. Their mission was a hell of a lot more difficult than he expected, and after seeing the Grimm scans he wasn't taking any chances. He kept Artorius and Lawnslot at the ready, eyes panning slowly across the landscape outside the refinery. Everything was still. Without any sign of their new friend, the land was as still as the grave.

But that was more worrying. If a Grimm had seen them without attacking, then they were dealing with a smart variety. Would have been a whole lot nicer if it was just a pack of Beowolves. "Amy, keep your ears open."

"Is the terminal off or locked, Jack?"

"Let me see Jack just make sure to watch my back." Cian commented as she went to work on the gate as far as she could tell it was locked but how can she bypass it was the question. This mission was going to hell no ways to avoid that but the faster she could get this gate opened the better. "The Gate seems to be offline Benjamin so we will be needing to find a power source." She commented once more if she was going to get the gate working than she was going to need it powered on first.

She had to remain alert and aware of the vicinity around her that was going to be easier said than done with the situation as is things didn't seem right and the supposed figure that Luke saw worried her. It could be a grimm but who knows survivors are going to be nigh impossible but it didn't help the situation.

"So whats the verdict you want to look for a alternate route or try to locate a alternate power source?" Cian questioned as she let her hands grip byakko tightly.

Grimm already, then.

He wasn't sure what he expected, really. He'd have liked to believe he wasn't the type to be so delusional as to believe they wouldn't be running into Grimm early and often after reading the mission summary, so there wasn't any point in trying to act as if it wasn't what he'd (been) signed up for. Even so, something about the knowledge reaffirmed the point that this mission was S-Rank. That it was dangerous.

That there's a real chance we could be... rather, we are walking into a nest of them, and could lose somebody.

...

No.

That wasn't happening.

"So what's the verdict? You want to look for a alternate route, or try to locate a alternate power source?"

He blinked, tearing himself from some anime-esque inner monologue about refusing to let the fear of danger stop him or a solemn vow to do his level best to protect them all with his life, and looked out towards the area again. An alternate power source...

His eyes kept finding themselves drawn back to that one mangled truck. The hood roughly torn off, inner workings of the engine exposed.

He blinked again, and it dawned on him like it does upon one who's just figured out a puzzle in a game, all at once in a manner obvious enough to make one wonder why he didn't immediately know.

"Do you think the battery from that truck would provide enough juice?" he asked.

Lauren Negasi

"Maybe for a little bit, but people don't tend to charge the batteries in vehicles. They only charge them when they're well and crapped out," said the person on both teams with the most experience inside a vehicle. "There's no telling if it would have enough juice long enough to get us all inside. It would only take a second, but that's a big door. If it slams down on someone's back because of a lack of power...well. Yeesh."

She stood back and surveyed the terminal briefly. She recognized a few parts, typical security lock stuff, just through shared DNA with garage doors she'd broken into. This was industrial grade, though, and more competently designed.

"I could give it a try. But I've seen enough horror movies to know that we're gonna be tinkering on it and then turn around to see some apocalyptic beast staring us down ready to snack. Soooo, Cap, what do I do?"

Estelle looking to her right as her male teammate attempted to distract the deathstalker below them. The air attempted to push her back but she did not stray. Her advanced, owl-like eyes taking aim at her target. She unsheathed her weapon, placing the blade horizontally in front of her. She channeled her aura for a few seemingly silent moments.

“Cover me.” She shouted out at her teammates over the whirring of the aircraft. She leapt out into the air, using her semblance to increase her weight, quickly plummeting down onto the surface, her aim to provide a killing blow to the deathstalker below them.

---

The airship transporting VGNB set them down just outside of a large city, known to the team as Zephyr. It was well known for being part of the region where many noble houses were located, Nuit, and Dodici being the chief two. The flight over had taken awhile and for some time, they were able to see another Beacon airship transporting team JESS not too far from there own, as it was also headed towards Beacon. The intel that had been available was, they had Bianca's letter and their wits.

A message would be sent to Napoli's scroll from Ozpin,

To: Napoli Fiordilatte
Subject: RE: New Mission
Message:

Mr. Fiordilatte,

Strings have been pulled. I expect a full debriefing upon your return. Best of luck.

~Ozpin

Sangue Naga - Brewing Storm

Sangue took a deep breath as she continued following the group of hunters sent to find survivors in a miserable-looking area. Considering that the mission was one of the few dangerous missions she took part in so far, she knew she needed to pay extra attention to the smallest of details. At the moment, however, every hunter seemed to be doing everything she could possibly do: be on the lookout, find things that could be used to their advantage, and progress through the mission with abilities aside from straightforward battle.

The red-haired woman kept one hand on her blade as she remained silent, standing close to Luke Schwarz to observe the idea he pointed out.

"It would only take a second, but that's a big door."

UUUU.

However, he definitely heard her point about the battery being of dubious energy content. The tone spoke of experience, experience that he, a lover of bicycles who had never ventured outside of his own school district before Beacon, never had the pleasure to acquire. It certainly seemed very much along the lines of something he would do. If his battery was still providing power to the car fine, he would have no reason to worry about it, or even remember it was a factor in his hypothetical car's performance.

Not the most pragmatic person, am I? he noted wanly in light of this. Nonetheless, what was important was that he got her point.

Back to the topic at hand.

"We don't all have to tinker on it though, right? Couldn't some of us watch eachother's backs? I'd like to think we're all a bit less hapless than the average horror movie cast..."

An honest question, asked with no disrespect.

Well.

None to non-fictional characters.

"Hmmm... Well some of you can work on the truck, it'll only take around two to extract the battery, so just another two to watch it. We should split up into two parties, one party will try and get the gate working, and the other will find another way in. We have radios to contact one another anyways in case something goes sideway too", he suggested. The last part would be which team goes scouting for a new entry point, and which team stays for the gate. Luke was right, it wasn't going to take all of them to get the battery out. There were also eight of them here in total too.

"If we both manage to succeed on our assignments, we'll simply meet up inside. This way we can cover more ground more quickly", and they would be in their full teams of four not to mention. They should be safe from all but the strongest of Grimm if they do their part in combat.

"Splitting up is stupid." Benjamin said bluntly. "This is an S Rank mission, your team is understaffed, and they gave us a fucking Senior Team to back us up. If you want to take your team elsewhere, I can't stop you. But I'll tell you 'I told you so' in Hell."

"No, we should stick together. Lauren, you and Kuze should see if you can get it open. If we're at it longer than five or six minutes, we look for another entrance." Bastille's leader didn't look back at his teammates, instead keeping his eyes on his surroundings. No sign of anything else since, but they'd been on the ground a few minutes and already seen an unidentified entity. Didn't bode too well for what came next. Tactics ran through the back of his head, numbers and probabilities most people would think were beyond him.

Kuze and Lauren were working on the door, which left six- No, five, available Hunters. Mokuren wasn't present. Which was a real bitch for their chances, to be quite honest, but he worked with what he had. With no Grimm on the outside, good chance they were inside. So...

"Sangue, you and Jack should keep an eye on the door. If they get it open, we don't know what'll be on the other side. You guys have some of the fastest reactions here, you can handle anything that jumps out. Luke, Amy and I can watch the surroundings. One of us for each cardinal point that's not the door."

"Any objections, or can we live up to Luke's expectations?"

"As one of the two token hot chicks in this horror movie, I motion we go with Cap's plan. Splitting up tends not to bode well for my archetype's chances. Especially because I'm the slutty one."

Amy smirked slightly, turning her attention back to the environment around them. Of the party, she almost certainly had the best senses. If something tried to creep up, she'd know.

Gratia Mindaro - You've Got a Friend in Me

The Dodici Cosca. Filthy mafia types who had their disgusting little tendrils in nearly every corner of the world. Protection rackets, drug smuggling, robbery, weapons trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, human and Faunus trafficking ... oh they had it all. Slimy little maggots who saw themselves (and unfortunately, were) as above the law. Utterly untouchable. "Community-minded". Gratia Mindaro knew them. She knew them well. She had seen their branches expand into her docks. Her home.

They weren't some two-bit shitty gang of lowlifes who thought they were oh-so-very special because they could intimidate people away from their "territory" up in the northern slums. They weren't some local Central Mistralese famille who straddled the line between "neighbourhood watch" and "organised crime syndicate". These were members of a fucking transnational group that made everyone else look like fucking nothing. Ants to be stepped on.

Her fists tightened, crushing the letter in her hands even further. Nuit had managed to rub two brain cells together and stolen some scrap of the organisation's papers to write on it. That was how they knew it was the Dodici Cosca who had been responsible.

That was how she knew who she had to punish.

It didn't matter if they were mere ants compared to such a group.

It didn't matter if they were only four in number.

It didn't matter if the organisation's Zephyr headquarters would be heavily guarded.

It didn't matter.

They had taken Nuit.

"What will be the plan of attack?" she said, voice tightly controlled, devoid of all emotion.

aND thEY wOuLD PaY.

Lauren Negasi

"Ain't she just romantic?" she asked no one in particular with usual good cheer, scooting over beside Cian to examine the power box. Deftly, she let her fingers dance a few inches above its inner workings and made a low noise to herself.

"Hellooo, sweetheart." The noise in Lauren's voice was slightly higher and huskier this time, not unlike the happy sounds normally emitted by a certain hawk Faunus at the same landing zone. "Normally I'd take the time to buy you dinner first, but I came with friends and we have a curfew, so I've only got time for something trashy."

Was someone gonna grab her that battery or what?

"Let me see." Cian said as she took a closer look at the exposed gate workings. It would be best to grab a battery but problem was that they were iffy at best without a solid charge they would be more of a hindrance than anything else yet it was the best option they had at the moment. "We need a battery one with a suitable charge at least enough to open the gate. So here is the question does anyone happen to have a battery or know where to get one?" Cian said as she continued with her options while it was limited she had little choice but to keep at the gate this was not going to be easy. "My weapon probably has a battery that could work but in the long run it would limit my options to just one mode and I would rather not do so considering the mission and not this early." She decided to say it was true she had a battery that could easily be ejected from Byakko but it would cause the weapon to be stuck in that one mode for the remainder of the mission. "So once more whats the verdict without a battery there is little that can be done. While I have one its best not to use it all things considered."

Virgins don't die in horror movies!

A response to Desire's words that he dared not utter aloud. A response that many could qualify for, but felt the pains of an unspoken stigma that made their admission an embarrassing one. And while he took a small amount pride in the fact that he was somewhat self-aware, moreso than quite a few of his peers, some social habits simply died hard.

But more importantly than all that:

I have to say my piece on this.

As a second opinion from our team.

"I'm sorry, Leader, but I think we should go with Ben here." he replied, meeting the flighty speedster's eyes with his own. "Splitting from the herd's just inviting the Grimm here to be more bold about attacking all of us, especially once we leave eachother's sight. The power we have in numbers would be suffering a severe blow. One team of four or one team of three is a lot less threatening than a team of seven."

He motioned to his ear, tapping the lobe twice. "You remember the earpieces we had last mission, right? We don't have access to constant contact with everyone now, and that's just asking for somebody to get into a 'we're at soup' situation. Two walkie-talkies between seven people isn't much to work with, and it'll be much harder to keep track of everyone's position if something happens."

He folded his arms, cotton and steel weaving together across his sternum, expression morphing to that of a wizened sage. "And, you know, like the others have been saying: Splitting up's always what they do in horror movies. And they always die." he raised an armored finger, gesturing to the height and stature of his point. "We should abuse this knowledge."

It was right around then that Cian piped up, reminding everyone that they needed a battery for this to work.

"Right, I'll head out and grab it. Who's coming with me, and more importantly, who'll be watching us?" he asked.

"Ehhh?", he could argue that even if this was an S rank mission, there was no reason they shouldn't perform to the best of their options. Playing safe was fine, but playing it too safe was not. To play too safe was to let opportunity slip through. It was more imperative that they don't, due to this being an S rank. Not going around for another exit was fine, but they still needed more information.

"Then we should at least have a scouting party go around the nearby area. All our knowledge of this place is literally just this truck and the gate at the moment, just the fastest of us should go, me included, maybe just two since we're not looking to fight", the scope of the splitting up was changed to much smaller scale. He didn't get the whole horror vibe from this place like everyone else did, so his fear was less grounded in a horror flick, and more in lack of information. They needed more information on this area.

Escort Mission

Olivia sighed. "I'd agree with your friend here. Stealth and subtly would be best: I don't want fighting in the streets. If you must defend yourself or innocent lives do whatever you must, but rest assure that those responsible for these recent string of crimes will be punished severely. Dying wouldn't be the worst thing to happen to them once we have our hands on them." Of course Olivia only said that to maintain a strong image of authority: the worse they'd do is put them behind bars for a good thirty years and charge them for multiple robberies and property damage. Can't sue a corpse after all.

With no other questions Team Kiss was allowed to leave. Meeting them outside the entrance of the Police HQ was a green-haired woman who seemed quite excited. This was Officer Midori. "Hello! I am Officer Midori! I'll have been assigned you help you however I can today. First off I'll be taking you to your first location near the Red Asphalt District. I wish I could tag along, but I have my own routes to patrol, but if you need anything just call my number!" Officer Midori than passed out her business card to everyone. She seemed to keep a pack on one of her breast pockets, as it was fairly obvious from the rectangular outline on her rather tight chest.

Dropping off the team at the Red Asphalt District there wasn't any unusual activities at the moment. Lots of car garages were open and people were getting to work. There was the distance sound of an ice cream truck somewhere in the neighborhood. From the reports they were given the Vale PD suspect most of the criminal activities, or at least something connected to it, was somewhere within this general area. It'll be up to Team Kiss to find it.

Capture The Fort

At some point Team Redingote finally got together and were sent on their mission. They had no one watching over them, only given a briefing from the mission board itself: The Hunter Outer Post Jeager had been lost some time ago due to a massive swarm of Grimm, everything from a tide of beowolves to a unusually organized army of Harpies, with everything outside and in between. Fortunately there has been a break in the grimm's occupancy and they are at their all time lowest, and do not seem interested in maintaining control over the fort. Thus Team Redingote task will be to eliminate all the Grimm currently occupying Outpost Jeager as quickly as possible. Beacon cannot afford to send additional assistance to this distant outpost: They suspect that more Grimm will arrive if a full force approaches, resulting in a blood bath that will drain more resources than necessary. Thus, they trust in Team Redingote's ability to be a force of destruction and purify the fort of it's grimm blight.

Other information included some interesting gadgets in Outpost Jeager: Assuming that they haven't been destroyed by Grimm there should be a vault of dormant robots deep within the fortress. It is unlikely that all of them are combat capable: those were likely destroyed during the initial assault. Those that remain however would be a great asset to repairing and reinforcing the fortress once it is cleared out: most if not all of them are construction based robots programmed to repair and recycle materials to maintain the Outpost's upkeep. There is also a secret vault hidden within the Outpost, however there was no additional information aside from the fact that it was not opened even during the attack. Records of what was inside has been lost, and thus Team Redingote is allowed to investigate if they wish. However because of the lack of information about what was inside, it is suggested that they maintain extreme caution should the discovery prove dangerous.

The last bit of information regarded reinforcements: Once they have taken the fortress they should try to reactivate the generators and restart the communication hub, assuming that it still exist. If it doesn't or that they cannot reactivate the generators, Team Redingote were given a portable generator. While it lacked the energy to power the entire fort, it should have enough to power a radio hub long enough to send a message back to the nearest Hunter Outpost for reinforcements. As they must amass a large enough force to occupy and potentially defend the fort against further grimm attacks, reinforcements may not arrive until two to three days. Team Redingote will be expected to hold down the fort during those few days.

As the airship containing Team Redingote were flying towards Outpost Jeager, they were also given a last minute bit of information: While there isn't a large amount of grimm present, there is still a large enough amount that the helicopter cannot safely land near the outpost without getting swarmed by grimm, both ground and air based. Thus the Team was given two options: They could land about a mile away from the fort and travel the rest of the way on foot, or the airship could fly right over the fort long enough for the team to drop and begin their assault from above. Parachutes were provided (For cowards).