Aftermath and Reward
The voice he had only recently met was now talking to him once again, the moderator, as Hanns calls him, was genuinely surprised at the ursa major being defeated in such a way.
'Well, well, well moderator. I didn't expect you to show yourself again.'
"The same goes for me, you know. I hadn't thought you would fight the beast."
Hanns took the time to let his tank get repaired while the moderator spoke to him in a mellow voice.
"When I placed that limit on your squad and crew, I had been planning on unlocking it when you needed help, so I had made an ursa specifically able to take you down but not strong enough to outright destroy you. I wanted you to be desperate enough to call for someone else."
Hanns was staring attentively at hud, the moderator wanted him to desperately call for help. Why trouble himself with that?
"Cause it'll be fun to watch."
'So since I just defeated it you didn't know what to do?'
"Yes! I made the ursa strong enough to pierce parts of your armor and made it as smart as if it were a grimm that lived for 100 years. I was confident that it was good enough for you to want help. I even planned on making that cat you met earlier come to your aid!"
Hanns was perplexed. Did the moderator think that Hanns was supposed to be desperate enough? I mean he did panic a bit during the fight but never to warrant calling for help.
"Don't lie to yourself Hanns, I distinctly remember the moment you waited for your death until you figured something out."
'Ok fine I was scared alright? Happy?' Hanns reluctantly admitted.
'Hold on, if Blake was supposed to come then how'd she fight? It's late at night out and I doubt she could be of any help when she'd be in her pajamas sleeping or reading.'
"That's the point, my friend! Blake wouldn't help directly but do you remember what made you have a harder fight?
Hanns thought about the earlier fight. He had armor that could ignore damage unless it was from the top. He had a solid strategy on ursae. He had the firepower if only he could have hit anything if it wasn't for the darkne–.'
'It was the night! Fauneses had night vision!'
"Precisely! She couldn't help but she could tell you where. It would be like a tank commander directing the gunner to where he should hit and when. The moment would make you unlock the crew and squad functions after the fight!"
'So now that I defeated it by myself I can't get those anymore?'
"Bah! You honestly impressed me, you earned it. This is why I brought you here, you know? Anyways now that you killed it, I hadn't planned any rewards."
'What kind of reward can I get?'
"You'll get the RP and SL but I could grant you the ability to communicate if you want."
Communication would be great for Hanns but would that be what he could only hope to gain? If he was going to get a reward, he might as well get the best he could.
'Verbal or in other means?'
"Hmmm, why not cover everything on that? I'll give you one-way telepathic communication and verbal communication. Here, try them out."
Suddenly the hud flashed white as Hanns felt a sudden warm feeling washing over himself. He could make out something changing from within. Readying himself at how he would sound like he started to speak.
"Attack the D point!" A young man's crisp-sounding voice was let out from the tank as a voice came through a ww2 era radio. Hanns took a second to take in what he sounded like before realizing something.
'This sounds like the voice from the radio messages from war thunder!'
He had long missed spamming out that certain command and the line was the first thing he thought of saying. It was symbolic for him as a war thunder player to have his first words be those. His happy thoughts were interrupted by the hud flashing a message from the moderator.
"Well it seems you're happy with my choice, I'll leave you for now. Goodbye, my friend!"
[Mission Accomplished]
Air Targets Destroyed: 0
Ground Targets Destroyed: 1 / 100,000 SL
Enemy Kill Assist: 0
Critical hits: 1 / 10,000 SL
Hits: 4 / 2,000 SL
Zones Captured: 0
Battle Time: 2:31 3,000 SL
Activity: 100%
Reward for winning: 25,000 RP 15,000 SL
Achievements: 5,000 RP 20,000 SL
Total: 30,000 RP 150,000 SL
Modifications research: 5000 RP
Vehicle research: 30,000 RP
Time: 5:10 Convertible RP: 20,000 RP
SL = 26,106 → 176,106 SL
MOD RP = 0 → 5000 RP
VEHICLE RP = 1,373 → 31,373 RP
CONVERTIBLE RP = 9,028 → 29,028 RP
GOLDEN EAGLES = 0
Hanns was euphoric, he could already think of the many choices he could pick among the german ground tech tree. Immediately clicking on the tech tree he viewed each vehicle meticulously.
What did he need for now? Rushing through the medium tanks would be foolish. What he needed this early into the game were options.
The fight earlier showed him the value of being able to choose his fights, his not being able to reverse fast enough forced him into the fight so he would need a dedicated light tank with good reverse gear.
Another was the fight with the nevermores, sure he got lucky at the beginning but it took way too long to take down aerial enemies. Which led to him wasting his time. He could resist and even completely nullify their attacks all day but he still needed to fight back effectively. So he needed a dedicated anti-air vehicle.
Looking through the technology tree he settled on two choices. The Sd.Kfz.234/2 and the Flakpanzer I for the choices respectively. He could live with his medium tank for general travel but he could get more options for missions.
He first had to get 4 more vehicles in the I rank so he first bought Flakpanzer I for 4,000 RP and 2,100 SL
SL = 176,106 → 174,006 SL
VEHICLE RP = 31,373 → 27, 373 RP
Next, he bought up towards the Sd.Kfz.234/2. He needed to buy the previous vehicles before getting towards it though so he spent RP and SL.
SL = 174,006 → 154,906 SL
VEHICLE RP = 27, 373 → 6,673 RP
Finally, he fully modified his current tank since he was going to be using it. It still could work so he didn't need to upgrade his medium tanks.
SL = 154,906 → 152,206 SL
MOD RP = 5000 → 540 RP
Today was already a long enough day, he just wanted to rest his mind after a mentally exhausting journey. He needed to go back towards vale, he didn't need to enter the city itself but he could use its presence to avoid grimm randomly clawing at him while he tried to rest. They couldn't hurt him but it was still annoying, to say the least.
Trying to navigate in the dark he let out bursts of fire to somewhat get a grasp on his whereabouts as he moved through the ruined battlefield he left the forest in after his battle with the massive ursa major.
As he followed the compass south towards the city he could see the lights of buildings illuminating the area. Arriving at the hill he officially met Blake as he turned off his engine and felt himself close his metaphorical eyes and finally slept as he felt the freezing breeze touch the metal plates he had.
In Atlas…
A tall and stoic-looking man was currently sitting in his pristine-looking office. He had been staying up all night gathering the forces he thought necessary to secure the machine he had been shown by Ozpin through videos.
He had been looking through the same videos and photos over and over again, looking for anything that he could recognize from the technology Atlas had. He had a lot of scientists immediately cross-reference their archives in their lab with the tank the moment the video had been sent.
It could be technology undiscovered during the great war or it could be from an ancient civilization that lived before the creation of the 4 kingdoms, he thought. Its design and the wheels it had were curious.
There wasn't a moment where the Atlesian general had been asking close friends, contacts, and associates to get their opinion on how this machine had been made.
He even had doctor Pietro Polendina, the scientist who created Penny Polendina, look over the machine's apparent consciousness. He was the one researching man-made souls and the head of robotics research. He had shown the photos and videos directly to Pietro personally. At the sight of this, Pietro promptly fainted before waking up an hour later.
The tank had no discernible technology to give the thing a consciousness at least to the footage he had gotten. It was very different from whatever robots Pietro personally had a hand in seeing or making.
He needed a deeper dive into the machine for him to find out, meanwhile, Ironwood was organizing a team of expert pilots and specialized teams to make sure to capture the machine.
They were to strike somewhere around noon which will give them ample time to prepare and instruct the formed teams ordered to restrain the object.
Ozpin would not interfere as long as he kept Vale out of the situation but he was confident that the Atleasian forces could execute the operation successfully. The units he put in place were the best of the best after all.
"Are we clear on the plan?" Ironwood was going over the information on the holographic table.
"Crystal, sir." A fair-skinned young woman with blue eyes and long white hair tied back in a bun stood across the Atlesian general. Dressed in a white military uniform of Atlesian design.
"You are free to go, specialist Schnee." Ironwood said as he closed the hologram on the table.
After dismissing his most prized specialist he could finally rest after staying up all night creating this plan.
'We will finally have the edge against her.'
Salem, as he heard from Ozpin, was the one who unleashed the scourge called grimm throughout Remnant. He'd have seen first hand the atrocities the grimm made throughout the years it fought against humanity.
Once they could secure the machine, Ironwood can finally equip Atlas to protect the world from her cruelty.
It didn't cross his mind that forcefully dissecting and containing a sentient machine could be considered cruel. This won't matter for him, it's a small sacrifice for the world. His conscience was clear, at least for him.
'It will all begin tomorrow.'
Ironwood stared into the frigid snow covered landscape far away and the city lights flickering away in the night. He had steeled himself for what's to come in the near future.