[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]Whoever set up this operation was a complete and total fucking idiot. [break][break]

There was absolutely no point in hitting a small, coastal city and wasting the element of surprise against such a soft target. If one were to attack Mistral via its northern coast, you attacked Argus and then used the train to make it to Mistral before anyone could react properly to your presence. You wouldn’t make it the entire way before the tracks were sabotaged, but you’d get a good distance for free. It wasn’t like Kerch had any major resources, either. It had farmland and corn, but that was basically it. No dust mines, no regular mines, no stone quarries, nothing. It probably had a river monitor gunboat or two, but those would have been destroyed by the locals before any invaders got their hands on them… and even if they did it wasn’t like they were very useful considering they were not very seaworthy in the ocean. [break][break]

Though it wasn’t like the Council’s response was any better. With the complete and utter lack of a standing army and Argus too scared to make a move that would leave its own city vulnerable, they offloaded all the responsibility to other people. They had convinced people that it wasn’t their job to actually fix the problem, but to deputize other people to do so. That ensured as much as possible that if any liberation mission went south it would be the other party who got the blame for botching it rather than the Council getting the blame for providing absolutely zero resource for a foreign attack. [break][break]

If this even was a foreign attack. If it was the government of Atlas, they would have brought much more men and hardware, storming through northern Mistral in a few days most likely. Argus and Wind Path would be the only speed bumps, and they had inside people at Argus and Wind Path could just be surrounded so they couldn’t help anyone else and sieged. Unlike Mistral, Atlas had a professional military and would have no doubt leveraged that for an easy first few days to weeks. Instead, what they had was apparently an invading force that couldn’t even crush a village of several hundred civilians within the first few days… so it sure as hell wasn’t Atlas. [break][break]

Well, it didn’t really matter who it was at this point. Kerch was rich enough to have an actual fortified structure sitting there that they could use to hold out for a few days at least, probably, so it was just a matter of making it there and clearing the way before the last holdouts got captured or killed. The fact that there was no messaging coming out was also weird, frankly. There were no demands, and no manifesto put out before the fact at least that she was aware of. Nobody had any idea who these people were or what they were doing there, which was weird. Usually the type of militant psycho who would do something like this loved the sound of their own voice and spreading their message, but here was just radio silence. [break][break]

This entire situation was one of the few things that would make someone like Knight rush, and they were on the road within thirty minutes of when she first found out what was happening. The Argus Limited was making a trip, but it was delayed for much longer due to having to wait for the trainees to get ready – hours, most likely. It was just faster to get in the car and start zooming along with a solid head start. [break][break]

She packed her civilian kit, which was a bit different than her usual work gear. For one, there was no mask, and the armor was much more bog standard for her cover profession as security slash bounty hunter. Fugitive Recovery Agent was stamped across the ballcap she was wearing as well as on the back of the Kevlar vest she wore as body armor alongside the optional side and neck protection added on. She had her ballistic goggles over top of the ballcap for now, but easy to pull down if needed. This one was a brand new model that even had a fan included to reduce the fogging, which would have been very helpful in Vacuo but was still very useful in case she needed to use her semblance a lot due to both the fact that it was summertime and the fact that if she let loose her semblance fully the temperature immediately around her would increase significantly and cause a lot of fogging inside even goggles that were specifically designed to minimize it. She wore dark gray pants, reinforced at the seat and knees along with a wider belt area to easier slap on a duty belt with her ammo, gloves, and other assorted equipment. [break][break]

Instead of her regular sidearm, she had a single point sling and a shorter barrel lever action shotgun across her chest. Five rounds was the compromise for its fifteen inch barrel, allowing it to be used in much smaller spaces than a regular shotgun. It wasn’t as accurate, either, but that also didn’t really matter at the ranges she’d be using it. On her hands she wore gray fingerless, hard knuckle gloves that allowed her to use her semblance and use her fists as an actionable alternative to the swords she usually favored. [break][break]

They didn’t actually go inside of Argus due to the heavy security restrictions and the time waste that would have been, but they did get close enough to hear some of the chatter from the city. They had gotten there before Haven, which meant that they would be the first ones in to assess the situation. The Argus Limited hadn’t arrived yet but was supposedly going to within the next half hour. That provided a nice cushion of time to be able to do things and make a positive difference before the collateral damage unit came in and just blew everything up around them. [break][break]

They approached from the South, still in the vehicle, leaning towards the right towards the neighborhood of Snowplace – thankfully Kerch was one of the cities big enough to have tourist maps. It wasn’t long before they realized that driving by car was a fucking terrible idea in this environment, because both Red and Knight would key in on different things in their surroundings. Gray eyes would notice an abandoned campfire, and then seconds later the burnt bedding and supplies next to it in the farmland beside them. [break][break]

Red would, on one of her scans, look even farther right to notice a gunboat in the river chugging along in the distance. It was moving downwards, away from the city, but given the current rate of its movement it wouldn’t hit anything populated until well after the trainees were due to arrive. The gunboat was certainly nothing like Mistral used, it was packed with too many armaments that sacrificed speed and was more heavily armored with what looked like metal outer plating protecting the cannons that was above what a coastal village of this caliber would need. [break][break]

Knight would notice it seconds later and grimace, because they hadn’t even made it to the first buildings yet. It was just the farmland in either direction, but thankfully they were close to a patch of corn that would conceal the car from the ship pretty easily. [break][break]

”Car’s gonna get broken into regardless of where we put it, so make sure you get all your shit out. Right in the corn fields and hope the boat didn’t see us. There’s nothing nearby so we should just let Haven take care of the boat and hope it stalls them for long enough to make a dent here.” [break][break]

Before they left the car, Knight cycled through some radio channels and found some of them had noise… though it was unintelligible at the moment. ”If we can steal some intact radios, or whatever they’re using, that would make things a lot easier.” They couldn't really see anything from there, so they had very little information at this point. If they kept moving forward, though, they were bound to run into some enemy combatants at some point. [break][break]

SPOILER: Click to show

2 Events triggered this post, with both being information ones. One gunboat is now moving south, which will remain consistent in other threads.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]1376 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]1376 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

B Semblance, D Weapons, C Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, D Stamina, D Exhaustion, D Martial Arts

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Life in Mistral had been peaceful so far. Peaceful enough, that she often didn't know what to do with herself. So, when the first truly serious situation that she intended to throw herself at ended up being dealing with a hostile takeover, she was surprised. Red was expecting something that fit with the subterfuge that came with such a hotbed of corruption, not that she really had a clear picture of what it might be. Having a crisis that was so familiar was strangely comforting as much as she hated to think of it like that. The town was large enough and fortified enough that it sounded like it wouldn't be completely overrun so easily, so odds were there were probably some survivors even if they were trapped in the city. They had no way of knowing if this armed force would try anything else either, so stopping them as quickly as possible was important. It was the kind of mission that Red took with no hesitation, and she was glad to see that Knight was actually in a hurry about it too.

She did her best to get them as close to the town as possible as quickly as possible without being outright reckless. That meant taking a slight detour towards Argus because the path there was more well traveled, and therefore had more structures for travel, than a more direct path to Kerch. It was faster in the long run, and gave her some time to figure out how to approach the town proper. The car looked like shit on the outside, but she had put a lot of care into it and she knew how to make it go. It wouldn't be as fast as the train when it came to getting to Argus, but it also wasn't being delayed by a very group of Haven trainees, and it was far more capable of handling the off-road trip to Kerch. And that trip would almost certainly have to be mostly off-road because the roads were probably being watched.

The real problem was that Red's geography knowledge was near zero, especially for places she had never been to. The path to Argus was easy enough since any standard scroll with an internet connection could read off the directions to her while she drove, but getting to Kerch involved some fumbling with maps and the occasional bit of course correction from Knight. Her time in Vacuo had gotten her used to navigating terrain with far fewer landmarks than this. Eventually, she settled into a nice path between a road and a river, staying between them and hopefully in a position where it'd be difficult to see them from either location. There was only so much she could do in the open, but there was a ton of corn out here she could use as cover.

Though it was a bit hard to see in all this corn. Her eyes were scanning further from the car than she probably should have been, trying to keep a consistent distance away from the road and the river. She slowed down considerably once she spotted the gunship and didn't keep driving for much longer after that. There was only so much she could do to keep a car quiet and hidden, so it was safer to go on foot at this point.

Red's gear was considerably lighter than Knight's. The only weapons she carried were her gloves and boots, neither of which even looked like weapons. She wasn't trained in proper weapon use, and didn't fight enough to make her want to weigh herself down with anything else. Plus, she was good enough at weaponizing her aura that she could pack a pretty serious punch even without a heavier weapon. Her armor was equally as light, and easily concealed under her clothes. She still didn't want anyone seeing her face here, especially given she kept running into Haven students in the capital and it was making her paranoid about being recognized because of how distinct her features were. A full mask wasn't really viable without looking stupidly suspicious, so she went with a fashion allergy mask with a cute face and rosy cheeks sewn into it. It wasn't the most common accessory, but it was common enough that she had seen it a few times on people walking around town. Between that, some tinted goggles, and the rest of her baggy clothing, she wasn't showing any skin at all.

"Alright," she nodded at Knight's suggestion.

Her gaze lingered on the gunboat for a moment. If she could get on it she was sure she could do something. There were only so many ways a ship like that could be built, and she was practically dismantling it in her head. The odds of her being able to approach it without being seen were already slim enough. The odds that she'd be able to sneak on board and get to the squishy underbelly of a metal ship where she may not be able to use unexpected entry points were slim to none. As much as she hated letting it go, it was slow and she could accept they may not be the best team to take it down when there were others coming.

It made her wonder why they even picked a place like this as their target in the first place. Knight said there wasn't a lot out here, and having seen it for herself now, she was inclined to agree. She wasn't one to assume that her enemies were stupid, so her mind kept reaching for something they might be after and had been doing so for most of the drive up. The gunship and old campfire meant that their target may not be in the town itself, but that didn't say much. Information was sparse enough that speculation wasn't productive, and she managed to keep her mouth shut about it this time. She needed to focus.

"Being able to hear them talk would be nice, but shouldn't we be avoiding trouble if we can? We don't know how many of them there are." She paused. "It might be easier to get into the town if they don't know we're here I mean. I'll keep my ears open."

For the time being, she was forgoing any kind of hearing protection. Her ears were far better than her eyes, and would give her a better chance of noticing anything dangerous. For the time being, she stuck pretty close to Knight, even though it meant moving more slowly than she could otherwise. Though, she was perfectly content listening to any orders Knight had if she wanted her elsewhere.

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1113/1113

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]”Nah, if anything it’s better if we draw a decent number to see what their coordination is like.” [break][break]

This was not how Knight had been acting since they got to Mistral. This is how she used to act in Vacuo, where she would with absolute confidence attempt to bulldoze her way through problems. Manipulator semblances were as much about mental state and focus as they were about raw power, and any deficiencies in either of the first two can lead to that power being uncontrolled in some way. At full blast, the consequences of that would be devastating in anything resembling an urban area. [break][break]

”I’m going to open the car door and see if I can figure out if the boat is looping back or not. I want you to go forward and see if you can find a way in. Radio is most important, though. Not going to be able to move around the city without something. If we have to have a big fight without information, it’s better to be outside the walls so I can attack freely. If you hear cannons go off, assume I fucked up and double back.” [break][break]

A tightly packed interior city and fire didn’t mix well, and Knight had no desire to try it out. The aura loss of fighting without her semblance in those close quarters would not be worth it, especially if the enemy was numerous enough to just whittle it down to nothing over time. They had combat vehicles and came from somewhere else… so they likely had decent weaponry that could dent her aura. Without a good look at equipment and uniforms, though, she wouldn’t be able to tell where they came from or what they were capable of. [break][break]

Once she saw what they were packing, then she could make a decision of how much of a threat they were. Even if they were a ragtag bunch of idiots, that bunch of idiots could be a huge threat if they had a bunch of artillery and the ability to aim it with decent effectiveness. They could also be pretty dangerous if they had a bunch of those boats along the coast, using them to counter any resistance encountered… Well, they would be dangerous, but if most of their firepower was close enough to the shore to be hit with Knight’s semblance their fleet could be torched in short order. Air power would be much more detrimental, though thankfully she hadn’t noticed anything flying above the city. [break][break]

She opened the car door carefully, making as little noise as possible and lowered the ballistic goggles to put them on as she closed it behind her. She let her shotgun hang on the one point sling as she carefully walked forward to peek out at the gunboat as it meandered down the river. Now that she had a better look at it, the thing was more dangerous than she thought initially. It was pretty big, frankly, and had easily a dozen people just in view. They were too far away to make out more detail than that, though. Just kind of bloblike figures to be honest. None of them noticed her, or the vehicle. If they had, they certainly had the ability to shoot one of those cannons over at them. [break][break]

She didn’t know if any other villages connected to that river but figured that any that did would be on high alert given the circumstances and could probably handle one gunboat even if the worst happened. No village was so poorly defended that just one of those could breach through unless someone on it had a strong semblance… which was unlikely enough that she wasn’t going to go out of her way to rush towards it and commit to a big fight right then and there. If they had someone with a semblance that strong, they would have started with Argus. [break][break]

Because they didn’t, they were missing something. Whether that was numbers, equipment, or something else really wasn’t the issue… the issue was that because they were missing something there was a really good chance that there were survivors inside the city that could potentially be saved. That was, frankly, priority number one. The best way to do that could only be found out with more information, especially about enemy capabilities and their leadership. If this was a large bandit tribe or something, for example, taking out the leader could have a disastrous effect on the enemy’s organization and really win the entire conflict in one fell swoop. [break][break]

It would be nice if things were that easy for once.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]770 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]2146 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

B Semblance, D Weapons, C Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, D Stamina, D Exhaustion, D Martial Arts

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Red thought for a moment before nodding. She very rarely suggested going in guns blazing, if only because she had no guns to blaze. Even if she didn't consider her martial ability mediocre at best, she had a very defensive semblance and could really only engage enemies one at a time. It wasn't viable for her to fight groups, and she preferred to avoid fighting whenever possible. Her skills were more focused on maneuvering and spying. Being able to get into places and do something before anyone noticed. It only made sense that she tended to think in those terms first.

Her thoughts weren't too different from Knight's, she was just thinking in a different order. Getting in and helping the survivors was her first priority, and drawing very little attention would be useful for that. A radio would too, but there were high odds that their presence would be reported, or at the very least there'd be a bit of screaming, before they could secure it. There were only so many places the attackers could be hiding hostages if they were keeping any, and if they weren't and the survivors were just hiding, they wouldn't know where those people were anyway. Part of her was still hoping to avoid a large scale fight because that could get dangerous and messy, but the more she thought about it the less likely that seemed. There was no guarantee that only capturing the leader would be enough, and this force did need to be stopped before they tried something like this again. It wasn't unusual for her to defer to Knight whenever she didn't have any strong objections, but in this case she agreed it was probably the best course of action.

"Understood."

Thus, Red darted off towards the town. She was moving considerably more slowly than she was capable of in order to avoid disturbing the corn she was hiding in too much, but that was still pretty fast compared to how most people moved. The route she took was closer to the road this time. If there was a gunboat on the river, they probably didn't need people on foot looking around that area, or at least that was her logic. If they were looking for trouble to some degree, then it was more likely that it'd be on this side of the corn fields. If they didn't have a radio she could at least report their position and go around, and there was still some value in knowing how the enemy was moving outside the town too.

Visibility was still low, but it was more important for her to hear than to see until she got closer to the town. The way she had the oversized hood on the featureless set of clothing she wore on mission bunched up in a way that let her ears stay more vertical than normal. They were still being pushed down a little because they were way too big to let them be completely upright, but like this they could at least swivel around properly. Even in an open field, if there was trouble, she normally heard it before she saw it. She had some amount of faith in her ability to hear movements.

That wasn't to say she was paying no attention at all with her eyes. They had seen a couple of signs that there was activity out here, and she wanted to look for more. Red wasn't an expert tracker by any means, she wasn't even average, but she knew a few signs to look for that might give her some indication of which direction they were moving. Maybe. At the very least, she knew what to look for to look for to determine if someone had been through an area. Broken corn, twisted leaves, footprints in the dirt, weird looking grass, that sort of thing. There wasn't a whole lot to see in this area, but maybe that's because they were traveling on the nearby road. Or maybe she just missed it. She could believe either.

By the time her ears picked up something interesting, Knight had disappeared over the horizon and the town was coming into view. It sounded like talking. Red stopped moving for a moment, trying to determine the sound's distance and direction before heading there. Sure enough, there was a group of three irritated looking men and one of them was talking into a radio. They were in a clearing, so she couldn't get close enough to hear what they were saying, but whatever it was they didn't seem very happy about it. That was amazingly fortuitous. What were the odds that she'd find a pretty easy target with a radio right after they were talking about it?

"Found a radio," she contacted Knight after backing off far enough to feel comfortable talking while still keeping them in her sights. "I won't let it out of my sight."

She could describe her route well enough. It wasn't very complicated and it had a major landmark to follow in the road. Her sense of direction was decent in the sense she generally knew which direction she came from and was unlikely to get turned around. Red had no intention of engaging or doing more than keeping a safe distance to watch them in case they moved. Once Knight arrived, her top priority was running in there and grabbing the radio so that Knight could attack without worrying about damaging it. She could see what else was needed from her after the radio was safe.

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928/2041

[Alina Rybalka]

[nospaces]

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[attr="class","nikki99"]

[break]

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[attr="class","nikki100"]

[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

[break]

[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

[break]

[attr="class","nikki109"]While she was waiting, Knight decided to take a look at the abandoned camp near where they had stowed away the car. The makeshift firepit was filled with dirt, and it looked like the person had managed to snag an actual blanket that they left at the site. They had a pretty standard, if destroyed now, tent on the site as well. The tent was ripped through and partially scorched, which was probably done after the fireplace was kicked out due to the complete lack of burnt corn around the camp. [break][break]

This wasn’t an invader camp, because it would make no sense for them to have one this small and not have full control of this area very quickly. More likely, this was someone who either fled immediately or was already outside of the walls when the city was attacked and had to make a quick escape. Because there were no signs of blood, even when the faunus crouched and actively looked for them, it looked like the person had gotten away at least in the short term. [break][break]

An update came up much sooner than expected, and for a moment Knight’s body tensed as she expected the incoming transmission to be something negative. That tension quickly turned into a loose smile as Red had somehow already found an enemy radio. Luck was on their side today, it looked like, which was a beautiful thing. The only thing she was required to do then was make it over there without getting caught, which was easy enough with directions. [break][break]

It was hard to say she had a visual in the corn fields, but she didn’t really need to. All she needed to do was be close enough to hear what was going on, and she could just step out of the corn and take aim when ready. ”Ready when you are.” she’d whisper into her comms as she reached the end of the directions given. As Red got closer, she’d hear the lieutenant yelling at someone over the line about being in the wrong place. Apparently, someone was supposed to meet them out there, but their loss was her gain. [break][break]

It wouldn’t take long for Red to get back on comms to tell her to step out, meaning she got the radio one way or the other. Knight didn’t see how, and she didn’t much care for the process as she stepped out of the corn fields and took only a second for gray eyes to find their targets, and a snap of the fingers later meant they were turned to ash where they stood. They were in combatant armor, with what looked like older style weapons that might have been old surplus from the Great or Faunus Wars. Either way, with a working radio and that type of equipment meant that they were fair game and there wasn’t much of a point to letting them survive long enough to call for reinforcements. She had honestly expected them to have their auras unlocked, but it seemed like they didn’t for some reason or another. That explained why they started with Kerch instead of Argus, at least. They would’ve been ripped to shreds by the city’s defense systems. Because the enemies were scattered about farther away from the corn, she didn’t need to fine tune her control so much and there was visible scorch marks on the soil around where the enemy soldiers used to be. [break][break]

”Thought they'd have aura. We need to move, they’ll be here soon. Pick a direction, we can sort out the radio once we’re in a decent spot.” [break][break]

Having one party being cut off that abruptly while using the radio was sure to raise some questions, and they needed to be far enough away to fiddle with the radio safely to see if they could get anything useful. If they weren’t using any form of code in their communications, then this might even be easy in terms of finding out some critical information like where their leader was located, who the fuck they were, or where they were keeping their prisoners… if they even had prisoners. Not a great thought, but one that was pretty realistic given how much these guys wanted to cosplay the military without being one. If this was the Atlesian military, there’d be giant robots everywhere shooting lasers and killing everything in sight or something.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]729 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]2875 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

B Semblance, D Weapons, C Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, D Stamina, D Exhaustion, D Martial Arts

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Red waited patiently for Knight to get into position, not taking her eyes off the other people and their radio. Or at least as much as she could manage with all the corn around. Fortunately, they didn't move and the likely leader of the group was still yammering away when she got confirmation that Knight had arrived and was ready. She sent an acknowledgement and started creeping as close to the enemy group as she could. It was a slow process, but this wasn't something she wanted to rush. Ultimately, she was about to make her presence known to three armed men and she needed to be prepared for that.

Fortunately, they were distracted and only one of them had their weapon drawn. The other two would therefore take a moment before they could retaliate, and one of them would take even longer given he was holding a radio right now. They were close enough together that it wouldn't too hard for her to deal with for the short period of time she needed to. There was a well not too far away that she could hide behind too just in case they did try to shoot at her before Knight had the clearance she needed to strike. She was close, had a good angle of attack and retreat, so there wasn't much left to do but to run at them and get the radio she was there for.

She bolted out from behind the corn, closing the distance in moments. One hand went towards the one weapon that was drawn, sending it into the man's leg, and the other went for the radio, hitting it hard enough that its momentum would carry it through the lieutenant's when she used her semblance on it, so she could catch it. It was easier than trying to get him to let go of it. The radio went flying through his hands, then resolidified so she could catch it. From there, she ran behind the well and crouched, the entire engagement only taking a few seconds because of the speed she could move at.

"Go!"

And with that, Knight struck and they were little more than ash on the ground. Red stiffened and blinked. She was just as surprised as Knight that they didn't have aura. She knew that they were going to be attacked (she was counting on it even because if she had to swipe the radio completely on her own she would have approached it differently), and she knew that they were probably going to have to be severely injured if not outright killed, but it still caught her by surprise. It was wrong to say she wasn't used to death, but she doubted it would be something she'd ever be truly comfortable with. The way Knight, and a lot of others, could so easily hurt people wasn't something she'd ever be able to do she still didn't understand how they were able to do it. The way Knight was able to casually shrug and go oops like she had spilled some milk and not just ended three peoples' lives was something she found a bit disturbing too.

Ultimately, she was used to it. This line of work demanded it of her, and while she didn't feel good about it, she was able to get up and move on pretty quickly. Stiffly, she stood up and took her place a short distance away from Knight. Close enough that they'd still be able to talk, but far enough away that if one of them got caught in something the other wouldn't. She paused to think for a moment before responding, but the answer was pretty clear to her.

"Let's keep moving towards Kerch. We should hurry and get inside."

There was some risk in heading straight towards the enemy after a communication was abruptly cut off, but Red wasn't sure if they could afford to wait around for their suspicions to die down. That was the risk in going for the radio, but hopefully it would pay off. For now, she silenced it to avoid drawing attention to themselves before they were in a safer position. Once they were reasonably safe, as safe as they could be in a place like this, she'd start fiddling with it to see what she could find.

---

722/2763

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]Straight towards Kerch was fine, because fast was better than good at this point. Truth be told, Red could have picked any direction and Knight would have been fine with it. Her level of assertiveness and control varied between mission to mission, largely based off of how much she expected to use her semblance. The less she expected to use it, the more room she had to take an active role in decision making. The more she expected to use it, the less time she had for doubts or second-guessing herself. It was less an emotional state thing and more of a train of thought thing, because with a semblance that could turn a human being into ash in less than a second the margin for error was nonexistent if the primary goal was a rescue. One miscalculated shot and there might be nobody left to save, so all of her attention and focus was given to making sure that didn’t happen. [break][break]

One of the most important things to keep in mind, with that in mind, is distance. Another is obstacles, because the attack would need to go the right distance and be maneuvered around anything in its path. Sure, she could potentially try and blast through any obstacles, but in a corn field that would also likely mean setting off fires that would be counterproductive. Increasing the intensity of the flames to the point to where objects would turn to ash rather than burn was possible, but only at the cost of more aura. Wasting aura when the enemy likely had multiple armed gunboats and who knows how many land vehicles at their disposal was stupid, because the big aura drains should be used on those rather than individuals without aura. [break][break]

Ultimately, Knight never had a problem with the act of killing. She very rarely felt remorse for it, either. Not counting those who were just psychologically unfit for combat, there were two general types of soldier. The first and most common was the type who could only kill with adrenaline coursing through their veins. Getting shot at, punched, or attacked in some other way got their blood pumping and put their body into fight or flight mode. Instinct and training both kick in, and they fought and killed to preserve either their own life or the life of others. The second and less common type was the type of person who could kill cold, many of whom ended up fighting at long ranges one way or another. These people were ones willing to pull the trigger on people who posed no immediate threat to them from near safety. Their targets oftentimes weren’t even aware there was an enemy nearby, and often died surprised. The ability to kill someone ‘cold’ was rarer, but the type that Knight always was. [break][break]

The way she always thought about it was that engaging in a conflict was a choice, and she wasn’t going to feel bad about the consequences for that choice. If someone thought Kerch would be an easy capture with a limited town guard, limited defense systems, and a low population and got dusted for their troubles… fuck ‘em. There was less than no reason she should give anyone who raised arms against her any courtesy they would never extend to her. If she loses, she dies. If they lose, they die. If someone wasn’t okay with that risk, then they should have never opted in to begin with. [break][break]

They managed to avoid reinforcements, but as they got closer to the wall the sound of mechanical rumbling was starting to become noticeable. It was still faint at this distance, but it definitely sounded like they had something big and mechanical nearby. The wall wasn’t all that thick, despite being stone, and the rumbling was definitely coming from somewhere nearby. [break][break]

”Pick a spot. I’ll guard while you fiddle.” she’d order in an emotionless voice. That rumbling could be any number of things, and if they could get some intelligence before crossing over that would be nice. With Red’s semblance, they didn’t exactly need to use the entrance which limited the number of enemies nearby. This allowed them more than enough breathing room, in theory, to get the radio working and see how much value it had for them. If they were all para-military types, they would be laid out in some sort of formation that made a bit of sense. Random stretches of wall were rather pointless to guard when most of the potential attackers would come to the gates… but the issue was more the loose cannons or the slackers who wanted to dick around in the middle of nowhere where nobody would notice their absence. A large enough group of them could last long enough to sound an alarm, and she supposed that would be one way to figure out what the rumbling was. Not the best way, but a way.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]820 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]3695 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

B Semblance, D Weapons, B Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, C Martial Arts, D Stamina, D Exhaustion

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Sinopia DeStellanova]

At first, she moved fairly stiffly, more because she was caught off-guard than because she was disturbed. If she shut down every time Knight incinerated someone they wouldn't be able to work together. She disliked even hurting someone's feelings, let alone hurting them physically. Much of her training early in her career in Vacuo was around eliminating those moments of hesitation when it became necessary to cause harm. Even though it was normally only a fraction of a second of hesitation, in life or death situations that could make a huge difference. Much of how she dealt with that, as well as her anxiety and emotions, was done somewhat like meditation. If she didn't think she could be prepared to handle what might happen or do what was necessary, she didn't come, or at the very least, didn't get directly involved. She wasn't stupid enough to think that they could handle a situation like this without at least some people dying (it would probably be lots of people really), so it only took a matter of minutes for her to regain her composure and move on like nothing happened, save for that unpleasant feeling in her stomach.

Making decisions was never something she was comfortable with, but she was more than happy to try and take the burden off of Knight as much as possible. She generally waited until Knight made it clear she should take a more active role just to avoid making things awkward, but this was the second time she was directly asked to decide something and they were a place where they would likely have to fight in close quarters. Red fidgeted with the radio a little and nodded as she tried to figure out how to handle all of this. She always felt like her decision making was considerably slower than Knight's, and the idea that one bad decision, or a decision that came too slowly, could screw over the entire operation always overwhelmed her. But it was something she was trying to work on, and had directly told Knight as much, so she took a deep breath and looked around.

The wall was made of stone, so entry would actually be pretty straight-forward. They wouldn't have to fight their way through a choke point for one, and she doubted anyone would be expecting someone to come through the walls. Certainly not without destroying the wall, and not only could she get them through without damaging the wall, but she could do it silently. Easy enough. Unfortunately, she had no way of knowing what was on the other side, and the mechanical noises coming from Kerch were concerning. But she was getting ahead of herself. They had a point of entry, so she didn't need to look for one. She could afford to take her time with the radio.

So, she prioritized avoiding being seen. It looked like they were getting into a residential area, probably where the people that worked the farms lived. She opted to go into a small storage shed not too far away from the wall. She wouldn't be able to see much here, and her hearing would be usable, but limited since she'd be listening to the radio, but as long as Knight was watching the outside she wasn't too worried. It's not like she had to worry about cornering herself in a wooden building anyway, and making it so no one would have a line of sight to meant she could focus.

Or focus as much as her brain would let her. It was already trying to figure out next steps, since it seemed like Knight wanted her to take a more active role in decision making, and it had already been trying to piece together what was going on here and what these people were trying to accomplish by raiding this town, and she was finding it difficult to quiet her mind down. She fiddled with the radio and tried to pick up any chatter from inside the walls. The first step was to see how much they could learn, and her brain was satisfied with that for the moment.

---

692/3455

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]Guard duty was always boring, but Knight had never minded the mundane nature of the duty. If everything went well, you were just alert for nothing, and life would move on. It didn’t look like they had a large presence outside of the city, which could have simply been luck or because they hadn’t bothered to keep a presence outside of the city after the initial attack because resistance was crushed so early. [break][break]

It made sense, because it wouldn’t take more than an hour or two to drive everyone in the outlying farms out. It also stood to reason that most of their people would be guarding the gates to prevent anyone from coming inside so they could do… whatever it was they were doing. Red got the radio working without much effort and happened to get a connection right when there was a transmission starting. [break][break]

”Victory 2, Victory 2. This is Justice 6, over.” [break][break]

”Justice 6, this is Victory 2, over.” [break][break]

”We have failed to secure the fort and have been pushed back, awaiting further instructions, how copy? Over.” [break][break]

”Lima Charlie. Standby and wait for next transmission from Harbinger, over.” [break][break]

”Wilco, out.” [break][break]

The interaction itself was easy enough to understand. Justice 6 was a lower ranking person or team reporting up to Victory 2. Victory 2 either didn’t have the ability or chose not to give orders based off of the information given, that Justice 6 had failed in their attack, and passed the buck to Harbinger. Knight was in the same audio channel Red was using to catch the audio and found herself with a smile on her face. The fact that they were pushed back meant that the city wasn’t entirely taken over, and moreover that there was an active resistance element still active in the fort. [break][break]

That smile was still on her face when she entered the shed to discuss next steps. ”We need to make it to the fort before the next attack. Ideally we’d get in before it, but helping to fight off the next one would give them a reason to voluntarily let us in and work from there. Don’t know how good our map is, but now’s as good a time as any to find out.” [break][break]

There was a second’s pause before she continued with the how. ”If the map is right, which is no guarantee, we could continue outside around the two checkpoints---nah. Too much time that way on foot, and phasing here is out of the question. We’ll go back to the car and sacrifice it to get there faster. It doesn’t matter if people see us on the outskirts if we make it near the outside wall, yeah? We’re going to lose it anyway, so might as well lose it doing something useful rather than having it stolen.” [break][break]

Moving through an occupied city consisting of tightly packed buildings was dumb, and so was walking around on foot caring about getting there safely rather than getting there on time. They had the means to all but guarantee they made it there on time, so they were going to use that means until it no longer existed. Shifting her body to look back outside the shed, she couldn’t see anything or anyone that might be in their way. Granted, she couldn’t see anything in the corn fields but the good thing about that was nobody else could either! Perfect planning.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]570 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]4265 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

B Semblance, D Weapons, B Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, C Martial Arts, D Stamina, D Exhaustion

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Sinopia DeStellanova]

It didn't take too long to find something, and she was really glad she was able to hear that quickly. There was still resistance in the town that the attacking force hadn't been able to break, which meant getting into the right place could protect a lot of people, if not outright turn the tide of the battle. Provided they hurried. Red nodded at Knight's assessment and wasted no time in getting back up and out of the shed. The corners of her mouth might have tugged upward a little, but otherwise her expression remained neutral. She was glad they found this information, but only insofar as it would further her objective to help as many townspeople as possible. Most missions were an exercise in suppressing her emotions as much as she could manage, and only focusing on what would improve their odds of victory. Trying to let anything else in tended to have bad results, as evidenced by her reaction by the unexpected deaths earlier. The more dangerous the situation and the more likely she was going to have to do something she wouldn't necessarily like, the more focused she tried to be.

Having a more direct objective than trying to figure out what the hell was going on and what they could do to help was doing wonders to quiet down her over-active thinking. Suddenly, trying to figure out the invaders' motives seemed less important, and it was far easier for her to stop running the events of a little while ago through her head repeatedly. Instead, she could focus on something more concrete, like how they were going to get there and how the people in the potential castle (if the label on the map was any indication) might react to their presence. Fortunately, she had no sentimentality for any tools she used, no matter how familiar she was with them or how long she worked with or on them. They existed to be used, and the only reason to be sad that one might have to be left behind was that it was going to cost money to replace them.

"Agreed. I'll get us there as fast as I can, but I doubt I can go that fast without drawing attention. I don't have any weapons on this car, so I'll be relying on you."

She tried not to think about the implications of that request. It was fine. She knew going in that this was inevitable, and that taking too long would only get more people killed. As much as she would have liked to enter stealthily, if the map was right, the castle was on the other end of town. They would have to cross an entire town, probably fairly densely packed with buildings, without knowing where enemies were, and they would have to do it on foot. That would take awhile even for her if she was alone. That was a fine plan when they didn't have a specific target and didn't know what else to do, but that wasn't the case anymore. Prioritizing the lives of the people attacking the town over the people living in the town wasn't acceptable to her. Still, the people they were fighting were still people, and it was difficult for her to shake those feelings. She always hated how hard it was. That's why it was better to try to avoid feeling anything at all in situations like this.

At first, she kept pace with Knight, at least for a little while. She was concerned that someone would be heading in that direction because of the radio they stole and needed some time to calculate the risk of her going off on her own. This area was open without too many distinct landmarks, so it might take a bit for them to be able to regroup once they separated. Long enough that she may have to deal with trouble on her own for at least a little bit. But it hadn't been that long since they swiped the radio, and if reinforcements were coming from the other side of the wall, then they would have more distance to cover. If they were still fighting inside the town, then how many people could be outside? Putting it like that felt like begging fate to fuck her over, but it seemed like she'd be okay if she grabbed the car on her own and then came back for Knight. At the very least, it seemed like a reasonable risk for them to take to save a bit of time since she could get there faster on her own.

"I'm going to go ahead. I'll bring the car back in this direction."

Unless Knight had any objections, she'd run off and try to get to the car as quickly as possible, hoping that she wouldn't have too much trouble finding it in all the corn. She didn't sprint at her top speed, still trying to make some effort to remain somewhat hidden, but she went as fast as she could manage without making too much noise. Red still kind of remembered where she parked relative to the river, so after a bit of wandering around she managed to stumble across it. Didn't look like anyone had tried to break in yet fortunately, so she was able to get in and start driving back towards Knight. Until Knight was in the car, she was going to take it fairly slow and avoid being seen, but once they were back together, she was going to make sure they had some distance away from the wall to avoid alerting literally enemy in this place before booking it towards were the map suggested the fort was.

---

953/4408

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]When Red wanted to head off to get the car herself, Knight let her. It made sense, given how much slower the wolf faunus was compared to her partner. Without her aura, she was probably worse than average in most respects. Her physical strength was pathetic for someone in her line of work, and that transferred over to other physical aspects as well. Her mobility was close to nonexistent, especially compared to many others with their semblances unlocked. It was kind of funny, really, because for the most part one of the most aggressive fighters on Remnant could only ever fight someone when they chose to be fought with. [break][break]

With no speed, little stealth, and no realistic way of getting anywhere with any speed by herself aside from louder vehicles the option to disengage was always there. Offense, frankly, never suited her skill set despite the fact that she was constantly forced into that role. Defense, especially on a raised environment like the battlement of a fort, would be the absolutely perfect use of her skill set. An enemy that was forced to move towards her, especially out in the open, was a dead enemy ten times out of ten. [break][break]

It would be a wonderful change in the amount of agency she had in any given situation, which was usually close to nothing… like now. She was stuck waiting to react to whatever happened next, unable to be proactive due to constraints on mobility and intelligence. Red didn’t seem to encounter much in the way of resistance and brought the car back surprisingly quickly. Of course, getting from here to there was going to throw all pretense of stealth out the window. Adjusting the goggles a bit on her face, she’d get in but immediately get the window down so she could lean out the window so both her head, right arm, and a good chunk of her torso were outside. Thumb and middle finger were pressed together, but even after adjusting her position several times during the ride it looked like the only people they passed were ones too far away to make a difference. [break][break]

They were still shot at, of course, but from distances where only like maybe four of the dozens of bullets shot in their direction actually did anything. Knight didn’t actually get a good luck at any of the groups, what with the dirt being flung around by the tires or the constant vision obstruction from both corn and other objects being in the way. She wasn’t altogether listening to the radio at this point, but it was clear during the ride that they were spotted and there was an unknown number of enemies converging on their location within the next few minutes. [break][break]

”With any luck, we’ll at least be on the right side of town.” she’d note as they got closer to the wall, the bouncing and constant direction changes not bothering her so much due to prolonged exposure to similar situations before. ”They’re really disorganized out here, and they don’t have rockets. We got lucky so far, so that’s good.” she’d add, pretty thankful that no rockets had been sent in their direction and that the effort to surround them took longer than it took for Red to floor it to their destination… or at least approximately to their destination. All the walls outside looked exactly the same, and nothing poked up over the outer wall to give any real clue as to what was inside. [break][break]

The car went to a stop almost bumped up against the edge of the wall that Red thought was near the castle, and Knight kicked the door open hard enough that it slapped against the stone outer wall and almost came back and hit her. From there it was just linking up with Red and making sure they were in physical contact while scanning behind them with her right hand ready to snap and attack anything that managed to get close… but it looked like they had enough of a head start to phase right on through. [break][break]

They were not near the castle, but it was at least within their range of sight because of the heavily damaged interior wall around it – still standing, but barely. The next attack would knock it down and wipe out their first line of defense completely. They had phased in behind some buildings, but quickly heard the sound of others nearby. Knight immediately held up her left hand in a fist to indicate a freeze, because they were too far away from the castle – maybe like half a mile – to actively fight their way past. It was more of the military garbed guys, with one of them talking through the radio on a frequency theirs wasn’t connected to. [break][break]

Something about hostiles being spotted outside the walls, and for the gates to be shored up before the next attack. These guys had newer weapons than the last ones, but still not anything that could be considered cutting edge or anything. Faunus War era Atlesian weapons, from what she could see in the space between the buildings. Gray eyes narrowed at that, because they sure as shit weren’t Mistralian manufactured weapons… too good for that, frankly, which made her gray eyes narrow as the gears inside of her head started turning. [break][break]

If they could afford last model Atlesian gear, then they should have more than enough resources to take down a city like this in an hour. This didn’t make any sense. Despite it not making sense, however, she still crouched down and didn’t make a sound. Aside from peeking over the corner of one of the buildings just enough to get a visual, she hadn’t moved a muscle. The enemy soldiers weren’t focused in her direction, anyway, which made things easier. They just needed to wait for them to fuck off and hope they could make it to the fort in time to be of use. [break][break]

She was worse than useless here and deferred completely to Red on how to proceed as per usual in urban environments. With no ability to see, no mobility, and no ability to use her semblance without causing a giant flash of light… well, she was a hindrance until they made it to the fort. Her job, at this point, was making herself as light a hindrance as possible until it was her turn to do things again. Once the patrol had meandered off, Knight turned her gray gaze to Red and simply waited for instruction. They had at least a half mile to go, and the closer they could get without causing a disturbance and keeping the enemy focused outward instead of inward the better this would go for everyone. All she needed to do is not jump the gun and fuck up their cover until they got there. Easy enough if that was the only thing she had to focus on, which it was.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]1161 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]5426 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

B Semblance, D Weapons, B Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, C Martial Arts, D Stamina, D Exhaustion

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Going out in the open like this, dropping all pretense of stealth and knowing she was going to attract the attention of everyone around her, always made her tense. No matter how much she told herself it was necessary, it always felt stupid. Her skills were better suited to avoiding attention, and if she was able to use those skills to the fullest, the mission tended to be cleaner. Less fights, less risk of injury, easier escapes. But she had already decided that this was what she was going to do, so she hunched over the steering wheel, holding it tightly enough that her knuckles turned white, and went.

Until they reached their destination, the only things that mattered were obstacles immediately in front of her and the walls of the town. The former so they wouldn't crash into something and die, and the latter so she would know when they were close to where they were going. She avoided driving directly through the corn when possible because an inconveniently placed rake could be legitimately dangerous at these speeds, and she'd have trouble seeing something like that in those conditions, but otherwise didn't care much about the terrain itself. She didn't try too hard to keep the car steady either, but she didn't need to. She'd driven through worse, and a place flat enough to have a bunch of corn fields wasn't going to pose much of a challenge. Red couldn't tune out the gunshots, Knight, or the radio entirely, but she could do it well enough to focus on her task. It helped that most of the radio chatter she could hear was about them rather than anything useful.

Once they arrived she let out a breath she wasn't aware she was holding and got out of the car with more grace than her partner did. The wall was intimidating. Not because she thought she'd have any trouble getting through it, but because she didn't know what to expect on the other side. One of her greatest fears in going into missions mostly blind like this was that the people doing the apparent bad thing had a good reason to do it. With the motive unclear, that thought niggled at the back of her head, but she opted to come anyway because she couldn't think of many good reasons to conduct an amphibious assault on an unsuspecting town. Either way, it probably would be a literal warzone on the other side if the radio conversation that drew them here was any indication, and she had to be ready for that too. The maneuver itself was at least easy enough that she could do it with no thought. She wasn't sure how thick the wall is, so she prepared for as thick as she'd be able to jump through, got a good running start, then grabbed onto Knight before jumping and phasing them both through the wall, making sure the jump was high enough that they wouldn't phase through the ground as well.

What she saw on the other side erased any fear that she might have been doing the wrong thing. The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder, fire, and burning flesh. The buildings were relatively in tact in the area immediately near the wall, but if the lights of the fires were any indication, the areas near the sea and near the walls of where the castle was were not faring so well. In other words, this place was likely only spared because there hadn't been much need for activity in this area yet. It wasn't surprising. It wasn't close to any gates, and was a fair distance away from the castle itself. There wasn't much to secure in this area, and thus not much reason to come here aside from the occasional patrol. Red's expression remained stoic, but she unconsciously balled her hands into fists and started moving without her usual stiffness.

When Knight signaled her to stop, she did so and closed her eyes, assuming that Knight would be looking around the area. This let her focus on her other senses for a moment without being distracted by what she was seeing. It was fairly quiet. There were gunshots in the distance, but it sounded like a small skirmish rather than what she would expect from a large scale battle, and they were quite far away. She could hear the footsteps of the patrol Knight likely stopped for. The sound of dogs barking and other animals running. The sound of the wind rustling through the trees. Nothing particularly dangerous. Though there was a strangely sweet smell in the air, suggesting the use of dynamite, but these buildings were in far too good of shape for it to have been used on them. Might have been the used on the wall given its sorry state. For the time being, she could proceed normally.

Carefully and quietly, she climbed onto the nearest roof once the patrol passed enough for her to move without being seen, easy enough to do given how small the houses were on the outskirts. It wouldn't give her the best vantage, but it was good enough to peek over the corners and make sure no one was there. She motioned for Knight to follow her as she moved from building to building, trying to find a clear path towards the castle. It'd be easier to guide Knight from up here rather than expect her partner to climb up with her.

While they moved closer to the castle, she was trying to avoid trouble as much as possible. Knight couldn't fight as effectively here, so it was safer to assume that any fight would be a bad fight. Right up until she saw a group with prisoners. It would be easy to justify abandoning them to get to the castle more quickly, but she didn't want to. There were five prisoners, given their hands were tied they were clearly prisoners, and six enemies surrounding them. Most of the prisoners had sustained some kind of injury, the least of which was just a black eye, and the worst of which had been shot multiple times. Given how they were looking around and the kinds of injuries they had, Red wouldn't be surprised if they were captured in the last battle around the castle. The wounds looked fresh at least.

Six enemies would be hard to deal with when Knight couldn't use her semblance freely, and she couldn't with prisoners around. Most of the buildings in the area were in pretty bad shape, but were still standing, save for one which had been almost completely demolished and now surrounded the prisoners. Unfortunately, that meant that the area was pretty open, and there were enough prisoners that she couldn't easily swoop in and rescue them before anyone noticed. The area was surrounded by barbed wire as well. Metal in other words, and thus not something she could phase through. Except for one place: by the walls of the buildings that were still standing. There was still some by the walls, but it wasn't as thick, and one one particular building, it was all shoved into a window to keep it in place. High enough that one particularly lazy soldier was sitting down and leaning against the wall. That was something she could work with. The rest seemed focused enough on whatever their commanding officer was talking about over the radio that she would have a little bit of time to do something, so she motioned to Knight again and started climbing down the side of the building she was on.

"There's prisoners up ahead. Five. Guarded by six people. I think I can grab one of the guards. Follow me."

Unless Knight objected, she'd lead them into the building next to the camp, making sure to be as silent as she could. It was more important to be quiet than fast for the time being. The window she was looking for was easy to recognize, and given how half asleep this guy looked, she doubted he would have moved before she got to the other side of the wall he was on. She hadn't heard any movement at all, just the constant chatter from the radio, so that was a good sign. Once she was in place, she nodded to Knight and gave her a moment to try to look intimidating if she was inclined to do so, then reached through the wall to grab the guard, being sure to cover his mouth and grab the weapon leaning against him so it wouldn't clatter to the ground. Before he knew what was going on, he was suddenly on the other side of the wall, away from his allies and surrounded by people that were clearly not his friends. Red made sure to keep a good grip on him, using the stun function in the buckle of her glove if necessary.

That maneuver meant her feet would be stuck in the ground for a moment, but she could pull them out quickly enough. It was probably better than trying to jump this close to the camp when she was right under a window. Someone would probably notice the guy was gone, but given how quiet in inattentive he was, she wouldn't be surprised if it took them a few minutes.

---

1563/5971

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]In a situation like this, lethality was kind of pointless for the moment. There was a difference between not having an issue with the act of killing and bloodlust for its own sake. Lack of lethality did not mean lack of violence, however, and while Red kept the man phased through quiet Knight drove her left fist under and slightly to the front of the space between his ninth and tenth ribs. The force would go upward towards the shoulder blade and spine directly onto his liver, which immediately made his body spasm in pain as his body started to shut down and he went limp from the sensory overload. As a major, unprotected organ that had a tremendous amount of nerves running through it… liver punches were extremely effective in getting someone to go limp in an instant. [break][break]

It would be a simple matter at that point for Red to put him to sleep with no resistance, and for Knight to then continue to ensure that he didn’t make any noise while Red saved the prisoners. Well, saved is a relative term. Even if they were all moved into the building without anyone noticing, they were still in an occupied city with wounds that Knight sure as hell couldn’t do anything about. Making it to the fort would be much harder with a group of people who were even less stealthy than she was most likely and more likely to be injured and move more slowly. [break][break]

It was a risk Knight wouldn’t have taken, but she went along with it once the call was made. She wouldn’t have taken it because if their approach to the fort was delayed for too long, it would be destroyed and everyone inside the town would likely die anyway. The possibility of being discovered and having to fight their way over would slow them down considerably and introduce a tremendous amount of danger and aura drain into the mix, but that was fine. It was better to be united and go full force into the wrong option than be divided and take the right one. Introducing doubt just lowered the chance of success overall, so she was fine with taking the risk. [break][break]

When Red released the guard, Knight would pick him up enough to get in position for a blood choke to keep him in a state of coming in and out of consciousness for as long as needed. The guards on the other end of the wall were focused on other things, so Red would be able to move for a little over a minute before the prisoners would be checked by anyone else. This provided a long window of time for her to operate, provided she could keep the prisoners quiet when she was moving them. Any noticeable noise would get someone to notice, and soon after it was realized people were missing more enemies would swarm the area in short order. [break][break]

The main reason she didn’t kill the guard at this point was because it would make more noise. They wouldn’t have time to interrogate or get anything out of him, and a flash of light wouldn’t be useful. A neck snap wouldn’t be useful, either, mostly because he could gasp out something as it happened and potentially alert someone. If the enemies cared even the slightest bit about each other, having him unconscious but alive would delay reinforcements coming much more than a corpse would because they would have to get him awake and potentially to a medic depending on how many times she had to reapply the blood choke. [break][break]

It wasn’t done with any malicious intent or extra force, but rather the bored reapplication of a textbook technique that was useful for the situation. She ended combat as quickly as possible because most of the time it was just fucking boring to her and being essentially forced to continually reapply violence to the same individual was a chore much the same way as doing laundry was for most people. Training to get better, whether that was more control or better technique was one thing… but this was just fucking boring. [break][break]

She didn’t bother to absorb any facial features from the guy, mostly because she didn’t care. He had a protective helmet on and some standard-ish gear for a paramilitary outfit to protect against dust propelled bullets and some basic dust. He was also clearly left handed, given that the pull from that one was stronger and more instinctive every time he started to flicker back into consciousness. He frankly smelled like shit, too, like he hadn’t showered in over a week. The smell of smoke, sweat, and general body odor was certainly not a pleasant thing to experience. The fucker was also drooling when he was knocked unconscious, which was annoying. Knight fucking hated having shit like that on her, but in this case it was unavoidable given that the alternatives were worse. [break][break]


There was nothing that the enemy guard could do to get away or prevent the blood choke from happening again the moment he regained consciousness, and thus there was no resistance or chance of failure. If they were forced to fight in the open without her semblance, she would feel the same way. It would be a tremendous amount of effort and time used on something suboptimal while their real objective was in the distance. With any luck, it wouldn’t come to that and they could slip away before the people outside noticed what the fuck was happening. Talking was a luxury they couldn't really afford at the moment, so Knight just did her job to the best of her ability so this risk didn't go sour because of her.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]950 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]6376 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

B Semblance, D Weapons, B Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, C Martial Arts, D Stamina, D Exhaustion

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Her plan initially had been to slowly find ways to pick off the guards, or at least lure them away from the area, and then try to rescue the prisoners when it was safe. Relatively safe anyway. It'd be slow, but it'd avoid a fight and would hopefully mean the prisoners wouldn't get any more injured than they already were. That wasn't ideal when they were dealing with an unknown time limit, especially since having to escort a group of people would slow them down, but she couldn't just abandon them. As long as she was in charge, she wanted to try to save as many people as possible. She was tired of watching people die.

Besides, she wouldn't be very useful in a large scale firefight anyway. The noise would almost certainly overwhelm her senses very quickly, so she was better off on the outskirts of the fight. Normally that meant sabotaging enemy equipment and supplies, but helping refugees and survivors was a reasonable thing for her to do instead. If worst came to worst, Knight could go ahead while she figured out what to do with these people.

But first she had to get them out of there, which looked like it might actually prove easier than she thought. She stood up and carefully leaned towards the window while she took a moment to pull her feet out of the floor, and ignored everything going on behind her. The guard she abducted was the only one between her and the prisoners, and the only one that was beside them had moved up to listen more closely to the radio. They were pretty excited about something going on further north, but she couldn't quite make out the context while only hearing half of the conversation. It did make a fine distraction though. She fully expected everyone to stop being distracted by something so simple quickly, but even once her feet were out of the ground they were still settling in around the radio. One of them even started pulling out food. That was careless of them. She thought that they'd notice one guard missing, but they weren't even keeping an eye on the prisoners. Normally, Red was overly cautious and rarely took risks, but that went out the window when other people were involved. She still avoided taking unnecessary risks, but she was far more likely to capitalize on opportunities that looked dangerous.

So, after taking a moment to listen for any other footsteps and verifying that there were none, she took a deep breath and went through the wall herself. Her semblance had an obvious visual tell, it turned anything she was phasing translucent and orange, but it wasn't bright and it didn't make sound. It meant that anyone that saw it would likely connect it to semblance use, but it wouldn't affect her stealth. All she could do was hope that the prisoners would connect her suddenly appearing through the wall with the guard disappearing through the same wall, and thus wouldn't feel the need to make any noise. She put her finger to the cute curly mouth stitched into her mouth and briskly made her way over to them.

Going out like this made her feel so exposed. There was no cover, and she couldn't have been that much more than a dozen meters away from the closest guard. She had to keep telling herself that the guards were distracted and she was going to have to get close to help the prisoners no matter what she did. Taking this window meant that they could get out of here faster and get to the castle faster. Doing this a more methodical way would take a long time, and if they were too slow they may not be able to save anyone at all. She kept repeating that mantra while she moved and while she used her semblance on their restraints as a quick way to get them off. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling she was putting people in unnecessary danger by doing something this reckless.

With the prisoners free, she hoisted the most injured one onto her back and supported another with her shoulder. As long as they were touching her she'd be able to get them through the wall pretty easily. It was just a matter of getting to the wall quickly enough to get through it before one of the guards had the presence of mind to actually turn around and make sure everything was as okay as they thought it was. And they had to do it without being heard. That would be difficult to do when the one hanging on her shoulder had an injured leg. The prisoners were a lot better at moving silently than she expected however, and they managed to form a line to help the guy to the wall, and get him to it fairly quickly. From there, it was just a matter of moving everyone through. Once through, she let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding and tried to piece together what to do next.

They couldn't stay here. It was only a matter of time before someone realized the prisoners were gone, and then there'd be people searching the area. The strategy for movement she had been using with Knight up until now, with her scouting ahead from the rooftops and then telling them the path to take. She'd have to account for how much slower the group would be now, but that was doable. It just meant that someone else had to carry the person she was, but one of the less injured prisoners was capable of that. They'd just need to get a little bit of distance before she started climbing just in case the guards were smart enough to turn around soon. But from there, she'd go back to trying to lead all of them towards the castle.

Before leaving, she pointed at the guard gurgling in Knight's grip, and then pointed at a closet. Normally she'd shrug when silently making a suggestion like this, one where she didn't really care if Knight did something else, but she was trying to seem less indecisive.

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1035/7006

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]It was kind of amazing how well an official looking uniform worked. She honestly never expected it to have this much of an impact when she came up with the idea of getting it, it was just a way to use a disguise to get into places she wouldn’t otherwise be able to and a plausible cover story as to why she was in Mistral. It was kind of crazy to see how well people reacted to it when exposed to such a stressful situation where first impressions meant basically everything. [break][break]

The look of relief on the faces of the people entering when they saw her gear was almost alarming. The instant trust and relief that the person that was currently manhandling one of the guards was visually on their side was palpable. The people looked exhausted and had varying levels of injury from cuts and scrapes to one dude with a legit broken arm to the most injured one having some sort of leg injury that prevented them from walking. [break][break]


The one with the fucked up leg was a middle aged dude who looked about as bad as you would expect someone who probably had a few bones fractured from rough beatings to look like in terms of pain and exhaustion, but managed to crawl over enough to ask the question that was probably on everyone’s mind. “How many did they send?” he asked in barely above a whisper, obviously hoping for some sort of mass response that would never come to a place like this. [break][break]


”Enough.” was the immediate response, and one that seemed to calm down the others as well. She raised her voice just enough for them to hear but the wall to block, which wasn’t hard given the location. It wasn’t a lot of information, but the delivery was so cold and distant that it came across that she wasn’t the slightest bit concerned about the situation or her ability to resolve it. ”Anything we need to know?” she’d ask, hoping that they might have seen something that might have been useful. Instead of the mute silence she was half expecting, multiple former prisoners offered up information that ranged from great to know to useless. [break][break]


”I think a few of my ribs are broken.” [break][break]


”They have a big boat with some major cannons.” [break][break]


”Most of them seemed to go towards the Mayor’s Fort.” [break][break]


”I have diabetes.” [break][break]


”I really need to use the bathroom.” [break][break]


”They shot all the faunus.” [break][break]


”They can barely speak properly, probably not military.” [break][break]


”Yeah, the dude who was yelling at us sounded like some backwoods Atlesian.” [break][break]


”Yeah, I couldn’t even understand what they were saying most of the time. “ [break][break]


”I really need to pee…” [break][break]


”Just pee, then.” [break][break]


”I can’t with all the peo—“ [break][break]


”Just piss yourself while we’re moving. We don’t have time.” [break][break]


She had forgotten how much shit like this annoyed her after essentially being isolated in Vacuo for so long. The fucking nonstop useless chatter was annoying, like they wanted to be handheld through every single basic action. If the guy wanted to risk their life to take a piss alone, that was their prerogative and they were fully capable of making that decision by themselves. She didn’t need to hear the stupid stream of consciousness bullshit that came along with that decision-making process verbally. [break][break]


The flash of annoyance went away quickly, though, and was unlikely to come back regardless of whether the chattering continued. Mental lapses were dangerous when semblance use was on the table, and if it would have happened when she was using it, she might have well overcharged it and caused some issues. If they had cannons coming from the sea, her timing and execution would need to be perfect in order to even attempt to counter it with fire. [break][break]


When Red got the last one out, Knight followed the suggestion and deposited the guard in the nearby closet and let him wake up whenever he was going to wake up. With any luck, he’d start screaming and yelling and drawing attention in the exact opposite direction of where they were going. Some of the survivors looked to her for direction, but she just pointed at Red to indicate that they needed to follow her. It was fairly easy to communicate via gestures that she wanted someone that wasn’t the guy crying about needing to pee to carry the older man with the fucked up leg. [break][break]


When she got a second, she’d transfer over the relevant information. ”Boat with cannons. Faunus killed. Atlesian enemy.” Everything else was just fluff, and the last part wasn’t even confirmed. She didn’t put any doubt in it, though, because there’s only a few accents so thick that a typical Mistralian would call unintelligible and Vacuoans didn’t tend to have access to very many warships... so that narrowed it down a bit.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]815 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]7186 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

B Semblance, D Weapons, B Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, C Martial Arts, D Stamina, D Exhaustion

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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