Chapter 2: Operation Blackout Bird

Navajo Shade sat in the bullhead, on its way to the slave auction. Fredin and his goons had promised a huntress in training, and he was not one to waste this opportunity. He was from one of the most prominent families in vale damnit! A shade capitalises on every chance he gets!

"Mr Shade, we're almost at the auction. Put your mask on." Navajo looked at the person who said that. A corrupt huntsman by the name of Cedric Machalite. He'd been hired by his father as the family bodyguard, but he was effectively his since only Navajo called on his services often.

Feeling the bullhead jerk as they landed, Navajo put on his mask and walked out the door. The other auction goers were staring at him. Some in suspicion, others in muted awe. He may not have been able to see their faces with their masks on as well, but he could tell by the vibe they were giving off. It was understandable after all, most travelled using ground vehicles, while he was the only one to use a bullhead. It suited his needs, only taking 2 or 3 high quality slaves, but most importantly, it projected status. It let the others know he was important, and made it only so those who were worth his time (or at least those who thought they were worth his time).

Navajo walked into the building, Cedric by his side. The guards acknowledged his existence, letting him pass. Locating the manager of this operation, Mr Navy Fredlin, he made his approach. Fredlin noticed his presence, and turned to face him.

"Ah, if it isn't one of our valued clients, I assume you are here for the prize today?"

"Of course I am, Dealer. I hope it's as you promised, for your own good." Navajo made sure to use Fredlin's codename. It was, after all, bad business to call your contacts by their names.

"Not to worry dear client. This batch of goods I can stake my reputation on."

"I hope so, that last auction was a real disappointment."

"Oh don't worry dear client, you'll see for yourself."

Navajo took a step away from Mr Fredlin when Credric suddenly took out his weapon. Before he could ask what Cedric was doing, his gun mechashifted into its melee form, a scythe, and ran around a turn. A slashing sound was heard, and a heavy thud dropped to the ground. Navajo's blood went cold. Someone must've been eavesdropping. Rushing over to where Cedric was, he and Fredlin found the body of an AK-130 lying on the ground. Cedric looked up at the two of them. "I saw the damn thing staring at us. When I looked at it, it tried to run."

"Dear client, I suggest you keep your hound in check." Of course Fredlin would try to deny anything, Navajo thought. His business was close to collapse. He couldn't afford any "incidents". He was already lucky that only he and Navajo had witnessed what Cedric did. Credric turned around and pointed his scythe at Fredlin. "We have a potential security risk on our hands, and you're not gonna do anything about it?"

"Hold, Blackstar." Navajo ordered Cedric, using his codename as well.

"Boss, yo-"

"I am certain." Cedric simply sighed, knowing the young boss's mind was set.

"Now then Dealer, I have faith that it was merely an unfortunate coincidence, right?"

"Yes of course, valued client."

"Then, perhaps there's a way you could show it? Because it is not quite apparent to me."

"Of course, 20% discount on the goods you purchase today." Navajo, snorted, he could definitely milk him for more.

"50% percent"

Fredlin winced slightly, "25%"

"40"

"35%"

"Done. Now Cedric, let us get going."

"You got it boss." There was that tone. Cedric's sarcastic one, more specifically.

Walking away from the area of the incident, Cedric finally voiced his concerns. "Boss, shouldn't we get out of here?"

"All will be fine, Blackstar."

"If you insist, but just in case, I told you so."

Ok, that was really freaking close.

I mean, I was expecting good security for the VIP, but I didn't think there'd be a freaking huntsman guarding this guy. Dear god, I nearly got bisected. Good thing one of the botboys was nearby, but now I can't use the hostage plan. Not right now at least. Welp, looks like I'll have to fall back on plan B.

Making my way over to the holding area, I quickly scan through for the guards' locations. It looks like they're all standing around, doing their job. The power box is, of course, relatively well protected. There's 3 guard squads here, and 1 more guarding the power box. Each squad has 1 faunus guard, so I'll have to make them priority targets. The botboys are being called to the auction room, so me being here is just going to raise suspicion.

Ok, action time. Now, just walk up to the power box, nothing to worry about. The guards at the powerbox saw my approach and pointed their weapons at me. "Hey, what're you doing here, you piece of scrap?"

I pointed at the power box, and made a gesture that I was here to fix a malfunction with it. The guard seemed to understand what I was trying to tell him.

"Damage? Uh, ok then." The guards then made way for me.

"How the heck did you understand the thing?" one of the other guards asked.

"I'm good at body reading and sign language."

This is it. No going back now.

One of the guards had a sudden realisation. "Wait a minute, you don't have any tools. How are you going to fix the power box?" I just gave him one last glance before my right arm transformed into a blade and stabbed the power box.

The whole room went pitch black. There were some yelps of surprise from the slaves, but the guards were freaking out.

"What the shit?"

"Who knocked out the lights?"

Acting immediately, I extracted my blade arm and swung it at the guards. I managed to hit 3 of them, causing painful, but not fatal, cuts to the torso. Then, I pivoted on my left foot and punched the fourth guard, knocking him out cold. The human guards were still panicking, but one of the faunus guards saw my actions.

"Shit one of the bots killed our guys!"

"Open fire!."

Gunshots rang out as dust rounds were fired in my direction. I quickly took cover and transformed my left arm into gun mode before peeking out and returning fire. The guards resorted to pinning me down with suppressive fire, while their comrades advanced on me.

Huh, pretty advanced tactics for a bunch of goons.

Anyways, I need to end this asap. So copying a move I saw from Star Wars Rebels, I charged at one of the squads while firing at them. They managed to hit me a few times, but thanks to my new robot body, I can handle a few dust bullets. I managed to snag one of them, before the others took cover, but it was too late as I was already in melee range. I stabbed one of the guards non-lethally and shot the other 2 with my rotary hand cannon. I turned to face the next squad and repeated the same tactic, but this time performing a side jump using one of the cage bars, bending it in the process. The slave inside managed to crawl out of the cage and rushed to grab a gun from one of the downed guards. This time, I shot 2 guards down and CQC'd the remaining 2. For the third squad, I instead shot at them with my hand cannon while bending the cage bars, allowing more slaves to escape. The earlier slave I rescued was also now carrying a gun and was shooting at his former captors. Knocking out the last guard in this area, I started searching for the huntress in training. Now would be a good time for her skills.

Ah, there. In the middle of the room. She looked at me as I approached. Ignoring her stares, I bent the metal bars, letting her escape. She climbed out and nodded at me. "Thanks for the rescue. Can you hear me through this thing?"

Huh? What's she talking about? I tilt my head in confusion, showing her I wasn't sure what she was talking about.

"Oh, it's probably an auntonomous unit. Note to self, find this thing's programmers and thank them."

Wait a minute… Does she think I am programmed to do this? I mean, to be fair, the only other sapient robot in RWBY is penny. And honestly, I'm not even sure which era we are in right now, so she may not even exist until, like, 80 years later or something. Still, I feel very offended right now. The huntress in training simply walked off and grabbed a mechashift weapon from one of the incapacitated guards. My guess is that it was her weapon and it was taken by that guard as her trophy.

"It's good to have you back, Verdant Embrace." She spoke to her weapon. It looks like a pistol fused with a whip, as if Gambol Shroud had a cousin who lived with Glynda Goodwitch. The other freed slaves were already looting for better weapons and opening more cages.

As much as I would like to say mission accomplished, there's still that rogue huntsman with the VIP. If I were to have any chance of escaping, we'd need to deal with him.

Oh well, things are going well so far. I'm pretty sure we can just drown him in gunfire, Imperial Guard style. At least after we deal with the botboys since they're probably gonna be hostile.

"Going once, going twice, sold!." Navy announced. The auction had been going well so far. He was making good sales which should be enough to clear his debt. He was about to move on to the next item of auction when one of the guards approached.

"Sir, we may have a problem. The guards in section 8 aren't responding to our calls."

Navy's face darkened. Section 8 was where the Beacon student was kept. If the guards weren't responding, then she might have-

No, he wasn't having it. This was going so well so far, he couldn't have it ruined at this most critical time. He leaned back and whispered to the guard, "Have every spare guard we have check on section 8, but do not activate the alarms."

The guard nodded and relayed his orders. Releasing a hitched breath from his nose, Navy went back to the auction. His business had never been so successful before, damnit he couldn't fail now.

How unfortunate for him then, that a displaced being in a metal body would bring it all crashing down for him.