The Calm

Hanns had woken up feeling great. The events from yesterday finally fully settled in his mind and he could let his theorist's brain think hard about what to do now. He looked through his hud to see that the two easy tasks were now turned into medium missions.

'Hmm, the easy missions got me about 2000 RP and 5000 SL each. How much should I expect from the medium ones? Double perhaps even triple?'

It was a guaranteed source of income for Hanns, farming grimm by searching the area will get worse over time. If he wanted to get more SL and RP from doing battles he needed to go beyond the area of Forever Fall which is problematic for Hanns.

Throughout yesterday, he had already emptied the surrounding area of grimm. It would take even more time to wait for the grimm to repopulate or migrate back into the area.

For now, he could just move to another side of the walls surrounding the city of vale but the rewards would vary depending on how much grimm there'd be. Daily missions and Events were his most stable income right now so he had to finish them until the 22-hour reset time was up.

Looking through the bottom of his hud, Hanns now eyed the newly unlocked crew slot he was given as a reward for beating the gigantic ursa major.

[1# Crew Status:]

[Notice: No vehicle assigned to this crew]

[0/??

Afflictions: ??]

'So I just need to find a crew, should it be filling up all the crew slots or can I just make one person man the guns or drive the tank by themselves?'

Hanns could select tanks that he already unlocked and somehow make a crew drive it around. He needed some people to help to test out its limit along with the squad function. Blake and her team could help him test it out but today was probably the day of their initiation so he didn't know if Blake had the time. She could probably help Hanns test it out during the night but he would rather have the entire team fully comprehend the squad and crew mates functions.

Hanns pushed all of those thoughts to the back of his mind for now. Looking through the tech tree he scrolled through the various tanks and eyed the requirements for the Tiger H1.

[Notice: Rank III is locked]

[You need to purchase 5 more vehicles of the II rank.]

'Hmm, I could go for Pz IV H and unlock 3 tanks that way. I'll go through the SPAA vehicles to get the first II rank available. As for the last tank, I'll just get the Marder III or something, though I won't use it.'

Hanns did some quick math and determined that he'd need around 60,000 RP and maybe 150,000 SL to get all the requirements for the III rank. Then he'd need 26,000 RP and 110,000 SL to get the Tiger H1 itself. He still didn't know how long it would take for him to grind it out but he was planning on finding out today.

Hanns took note of the plan of action he would do to finally get a heavy tank, he couldn't wait to finally be a moving bunker of death but he had to farm for that.

[Bulls Eye: Make the required number of critical hits 0/26]

[Hard Targets: Destroy the evolved versions of enemies 0/4]

'Right, time to go.'

Hanns switched to his Sd.Kfz.234/2 for its faster and better handling as he traverses further along the walls of the city of vale where the grimm had not yet been annihilated by Hanns.

Using the gunner view to get more distance to see, he could work out roaming bands of grimm idling along the edge of the forests surrounding the city of Vale. A few beowolves, ursa, and boarbatusks lurking around their respective species. It was easy to spot now that it was day, he could easily spot black masses moving around in the contrasting crimson landscape of Forever Fall.

5 hours later…

SL = 152,206 → 201,738 SL

MOD RP = 0 → 7,845 RP

VEHICLE RP = 6,673 → 20,586 RP

CONVERTIBLE RP = 29,028 → 39,643 RP

Hanns had at first only wanted to do the medium missions but seeing all the undisturbed, juicy, and easy sources of SL and RP in the form of various grimm made him unable to resist mowing them down with ease. The new tanks he got were speeding up the process of farming. Unlike last time when he was limited to what type of targets he was going for. Armored targets took way too long while airborne ones were nearly impossible until he got lucky to get a few shots in.

Now that has all changed.

Whenever he had seen nevermores he switched to his Flakpanzer I and whenever he saw harder armored enemies he used his Sd.Kfz.234/2. For the other grimm, he just stayed still and let them beat themselves up trying to go through the Panzer III F's armor.

The only kind of difficulty he had faced was when 3 alpha beowolves along with their respective packs coalesced into a single spot. He used his Sd.Kfz.234/2 to drift around the horde of enemies and took out their entourage of beowolves until he was only left with the alphas.

They tried the same strategy from the last time he met alpha beowolves but this time his experience was different. When they all attacked from different directions at once, he just backed away and drove backward, switching through his gunner and driver's view to navigate through the woods while cackling maniacally at their inability to reach him.

He danced around the beowolves for a while eventually getting bored and just shot them with a single round each until they all died. He didn't receive any kind of damage from the 5 hours. He wiped out another area of grimm in a fraction of the time he used to do it.

'It's so much more efficient to grind now thanks to the Sd.Kfz.234/2. I should just switch to driving this around permanently but there's always the chance the moderator decides to put down Godzilla on my ass. So I still need to use either mediums or heavys while in dangerous territory.'

'I still haven't accepted the rewards for my medium missions, so this much RP and SL is definitely great for five hours of grinding.'

Looking through his hud, he accepted the rewards for the medium mission and awaited the SL and RP to go to his account.

[Daily Mission Finished]

SL = 201,738 → 221,738 SL

VEHICLE RP = 20,586 → 25, 586 RP

'Nice! 5,000 RP and 20,000 SL is amazing for a medium mission.'

He clicked through the notifications and accepted the other medium task. He would seriously be investing in some special tasks if mediums gave this much. Maybe try to get some events to shop up while he was grinding. Moderator could be nice and place another big grimm for him to take down.

[Daily Mission Finished]

SL = 221,738 SL → 241,738 SL

VEHICLE RP = 25,586 → 30,586 RP

He had enough RP to go halfway into the requirements for rank III Hanns took a look at the Pz IV line and bought three vehicles until he reached Panzer IV H.

SL = 241,738 → 171,738 SL

VEHICLE RP = 30,586 → 2,486 RP

'Alright, this'll be my default vehicle until I get the Tiger H1.'

He clicked on the Panzer IV H and once again felt his entire body change and morph into the new tank. He was enjoying the fact that every time he changed into a vehicle he could feel his entire body popping out metal parts from himself and switching into another vehicle, it was therapeutic since it felt like a masseuse just massaged him for a day straight.

Hanns whistled to himself with the new tank he was in. It was thicker at the front by a larger ratio. The gun he felt kept getting longer and wider. It would pack a very intense punch, its armor piercing capability was very high and its post penetration was amazing. Enough to go through 100-millimeter thick steel armor at over a kilometer. Not only that he had access to an HE shell that could wipe out entire armies of grimm just from the explosive mass and shrapnel that it would spew out.

'Man, is this how Miho Nishizumi felt when she was in her version of the Panzer IV H?'

I should test out this cannon at something, though I need to find another pack of grimm. He looked around with his sights but kilometers away were just filled with red leaves littering the floor and no more grimm in sight.

'Man, I'd have to go further and further away just to find something worth testing this out on.'

Suddenly while looking in the distance trying to look for grimm he spotted a small fleet of what looked like airships and bullheads flying in the sky with dozens of arms displayed on them.

'It's 2 months too early for the Vytal festival so why the hell are the Atlesian fleet moving towards Vale.'

Hanns thought for a moment.

'Was it Blake? Did she reveal me? No, it's Blake we're talking about. I can't see her doing that to me. Since when did Atlas find out about my existence?'

He thought of the possibilities before concluding.

'Was I being watched the entire time?'

He peered through the scope of his gun and looked carefully among the walls of Vale. There he spotted a glint from the lens of a tiny camera impeded in the walls themselves.

'So that's how. Ironwood must've been notified by Ozpin and is now moving around his navy towards here of all places.'

Hanns inwardly frowned.

'Was this the first response someone would make if I didn't even do anything remotely hostile towards anyone other than grimm? If they had eyes on me the whole time and I was exposed this early, they would have enough to know that I was a friend, not an enemy.'

Hanns looked back at the camera inside the walls.

'You've got your work cut out for you Ozpin, perhaps it's time to show the world why Ironwood isn't exactly the most competent person to put in the leadership of an entire army and nation.'

Hanns gazes back to the dozens of spider droids being carried by the small fleet along with airships filled with what he assumed were soldiers. They had their own lives, he thought.

'If it's for what I have in mind then I maybe I can try-,'

He pauses.

'No, I need to not show mercy.'

Hanns vaguely remembers clips of Ironwood and his eventual downfall to being crazy. A man with goals they were willing to follow at any cost can be both good and bad. He needed to be stopped, in more ways than one. Though Hanns himself didn't realize that they were in a similar boat. Killing a few soldiers wouldn't faze Hanns. It was for a good cause for him after all.

'A few broken eggs is a small price to pay for an omelet.'

Hanns was a normal person, but even he succumbs to desensitizing himself towards matters of war. Civilians were people to him, but soldiers? They could only follow, willingly follow at that, a man that was certain to have intentions.

'Show no weakness. He'll try to come back, knowing him.'

He mentally readied himself. He was disappointed at the soldiers, no one would be bringing that many massive droids for a show and tell in Vale, not with the events of canon still being months away.

With all that in mind, Hanns still held some doubt but was overshadowed by his desire to try and prevent Atlas' destruction.

'Okay... if they resign themselves to trying to do this. Then I hope the world won't blame me for fighting back too much.'

Hanns once again peered through his scope, now with the rangefinder estimating the range of one of the Atlesian ships flying through the air. He took note of the Atlesian bullhead carrying a massive droid underneath it.

'Spider droids... at least they didn't use too many soldiers...'

After the rangefinder calculated its approximate distance, Hanns directly aimed at one of the bullheads and felt the spark inside himself.

He lets out an ear-shattering boom as he fires off a shell into the distance toward the airship. The sound thundered and reverberated around him, the air got warmer as the shell spun and sped off into the distance, curling in leaves and kicking up dust from the power of the gun.

Hanns felt the recoil from the gun pushing the entire tank backward. His suspension buckled from the intense firepower he displayed. In the distance, the pilot of the bullhead could only live to see the few moments of his life flash orange and red.