Remnant - XXV

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Requested By : Gib

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"Don't wanna."

"Must anyway." Sever rasped quietly, trundling along the beach with the small girl sat on his shoulder. She was dressed in a new, brown sundress and black stockings, gifts from a mother who had lost her daughter and didn't need it. Ignoring that matter when it made him feel… Something, he added,"School important."

"Why?"

"Do not know." He answered honestly, "Master say, though. Master make clear, you go to school."

"I don't have to listen to him, though."

"Have to listen to me." He countered, "And Lady Kali. Both agree with Master."

"Ugh." She sighed, "Fine…"

"Good." Sever nodded, "Matter settled."

The 'school' was a simple thing, and one of several made for the younger fleshlings- Children, that was, to attend. Built beside one of the parks scattered along Harmonex's beach, it was little more than a pit. Seats surrounded a platform at its center, about teen feet down, where a middle-aged Faunus was speaking to another, older woman with long gray hair and horns that sprouted from just above her forehead and curled along the bottom edges of her jaw. There were already a couple dozen children, all at most eight cycles old, who chatted and played amongst themselves around the amphitheater.

Until Sever stepped to its edge and cast it all in his shadow, which put an end to the play and chatter and drew their little eyes to him.

"Sever!" The old woman called out, drawing his eyes from them to her. Smiling warmly, she said, "I was told you and young Aqua would be coming today."

"Yes." He knelt and raised his hand to let the girl step into his palm, thumb curled up for her to hold onto it while he lowered his hand to the ground. She stepped off his hand easily and he said, "Keep her safe, Teacher."

"With my life, of course." She nodded and turned her head, "And besides me, we have a Huntsman here today, too."

"A Huntsman?" He turned to look at the man and cocked his head.

"Y-Yes, well, an unlicensed one, because of… Laws, but I've fought Grimm for years." The man nodded, running a hand through the shaggy mane around his head and straightening his red and brown robes absent-mindedly. Waving, he introduced himself, "Leonardo Lionheart, at your service."

"Sever."

"I invited him to teach the young ones about Aura and the Grimm." The woman said, "You're free to sit in, if you like."

"Cannot." He answered, standing and explaining, "Patrol to do."

"Please stay!" Aqua called, bouncing beside his foot and chewing her lip while she stared up at him. "It'll be fun!"

"Cannot." He repeated, turning, "Will come for you later. Be… Be good."

"I will…"

He nodded and turned away, stomping out into the shallow water and turning to head towards the eastern coastline, where he'd been assigned to patrol for Grimm.

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"Shockwave!" The familiar, booming voice called out to him as he stepped onto Menagerie's Square and turned to find the man standing in the midst of a wide garden that ran behind the manor. His wife was beside him, holding a parasol that kept the tropical sun off of her and otherwise enjoying the garden. He waved him over with a dirty hand and a grin, "C'mere."

"Ghira." He rumbled as he reached them and knelt beside the brightly flowered garden. Looking it over he hummed, "The garden is coming along well."

"It is, yeah!" Ghira boomed, turning and pointing at one corner with a sigh and grunting, "Those herbs you gave me aren't faring so well, though."

"Oh?"

"Think I need to water 'em more. You said they're a river-side species, after all." Ghira shrugged and crossed his arms while Kali came over to join him and nudged him in the ribs. "Ah, right, uh, well… We didn't ask you here to talk about the garden, much as I appreciate you sampling plants for me, Shockwave. Which, uh, thanks again, by the way."

"Think nothing of it." He rumbled, "I was already sampling them for pharmaceutical studies."

"Ah, yeah, well…" He grimaced, then flicked his wife a sheepish smile and turned back to Shockwave, "We wanted to tell you that, well, we're pregnant."

He felt his processors grind to a halt as he jerked his gaze around to them and rumbled, "What?"

"We're having a baby, Shockwave." Kali explained, resting a hand on her still-smooth stomach and smiling widely. "I've had a feel for a while, but… Well, you can't be sure until you're a while in."

Slowly, head spikes flicking agitatedly, he leaned down and reached out to her with a finger. When she looked confused, he rumbled, "May I?"

"I suppose…"

"Thank you. Hold still, please." Gently, he brought his index finger around in front of her and scanned her in a low intensity burst, which would pose no risk to the fetus. The readings came back instantly, and he relayed, "Three point three micro- Weeks. Three point three weeks. Genetic signature and chromosomal pattern… Indeterminate at this time. Forty six percent female allocation quotient, thirty one percent male, remainder unaligned."

"You can tell all that with your finger?!"

"My internal systems are highly advanced, modular, and capable of taking in depth readings of items with a mere touch." He answered as he withdrew, "I could have done the same scan with my optics. But such would have been more intense, and thus, run a four point seven percent risk for damage to fetal development. More acute sensors were required to eliminate any risk."

"Ah…" Kali beamed suddenly and said, "It's a girl, then?"

"Indeterminate at this time." He murmured as his mind raced, running through a hundred facts all at once and tallying statistics.

'Menagerie's medical development - rudimentary.'

'Presence of maternal clinics - negative.'

'Presence of maternal care physicians - minimal.'

'Method of birth and post-birth trauma care - unknown, but likely rudimentary given other factors.'

"Unacceptable."

"Excuse me?!"

"Menagerie lacks a hospital." He rumbled as he rose, scanning Menagerie and cataloging its space. "Maternal wards, trauma care, fetal care, vitamin management centers - all absent. Unacceptable mistake. I must rectify."

"Shockwave, it's fine-"

"Human risk with minimal medical care during birth, high." He rattled out, head jerking as he ran over his possible construction sites and time frames to clear and rebuild. "Maternal mortality of pre-industrialized Earth during births, high."

"Shockwave-"

"Construction sites limited." He went on, turning and gazing back towards Harmonex, calling up his plans in his mind to serve as a topographical map. "Harmonex - better locations. Traversal time - twenty minutes. Unacceptable risk. Seven point nine percent chance of catastrophic incidents during traversal. Unacceptable, unacceptable."

He registered incredibly mild damage to the side of his head and turned, staring down at Ghira who held another rock in his hand and a deep frown. Quietly, he called out, "Calm down, Shockwave."

"I am calm." He answered before realizing what he had done. That he had panicked. Raising his hand, he looked at it, curling and uncurling it slowly. "But… I was not. Anomalous…"

"Shockwave," he turned to regard Kali, who smiled warmly up at him and shook her head, "you don't have to be so scared. You've been here for a few years, now. You have any idea how many babies have been born since you got here?"

"Two hundred and eighty seven." He rumbled, "Approximately, at least. Based on Menagerie's population density and stressor factors related to the war which would drive more recreation copulation-"

"Okay, so, the answer is three hundred and fifty or so, actually." Ghira cut in with a snort of laughter, "And everyone's turned out fine enough. We can do this. Have been for years."

"Perhaps…" He rumbled, reaching out and tapping into every Scroll in the city. Processing their information, he said, "Twenty seven women died in child birth in that time. Infants - eleven. Unacceptable risk. I have to do something."

"Shockwave, you've already done so much." Kali said, "We couldn't ask you to do more."

"You are not asking." He countered, "I am demanding to do it."

"But-"

"You are my… Companions." He cut her off, shaking his head, "I will not risk losing either of you to statistical probabilities. Particularly not those which I am perfectly capable of curtailing. Please, allow me to do this."

"I…" Kali smiled and sighed, shaking her head, "I won't say no, then. Not if you're that set."

"Thank you." Ghira added, "With everything going on, we… Didn't want to add more weight to your shoulders."

"You add none." He murmured, turning to leave, "I carry more than you could ever give to me."

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Sienna stepped into Shockwave's tower with her arms folded over her chest and a sigh. He was waiting for her on the base level, working mechanically at one of his machines, but he didn't turn as she climbed the ramp to stead at his head level. Instead, he simply grunted a polite, "Sienna."

"Shockwave." She grunted back, cocking her head and watching him for a moment before asking, "What'd you want?"

"To speak to you." He finally paused in his work, hand frozen partway through a task, and flicked a look over his shoulder at her. "Kali is pregnant."

"Oh." She blinked, and then blinked again as she realized what he'd said. "Wait, Kali's-"

"Indeed."

"That's… that's wonderful, Shockwave-"

"It is also dangerous." He grunted, picking up a small machine and turning to present it to her. When she didn't take it, he turned his hand over and dropped it into her hands. It looked like a box, and was about the size of her head, with an opening on either end. Quietly, he explained, "This is a food processor. Cooked food goes in, and is processed into a paste more compatible with infant physiology."

"Okay…"

"It will be useful for Kali." He answered, turning and returning to his machine to work on something else. "More importantly - the war."

"What about it?" She asked, resting the box against her hip and holding it with a hand.

"Brief me on the current status."

"Uh, okay…" She murmured, confused but more than used to Shockwave's "Everything's going according to plan. Bases all along Vale's coast are being set up, just… Waiting on the comm units to do the rest of what we discussed. Why?"

"Kali is pregnant." He answered, as if that were an explanation.

"Yeah, that… that definitely explains why you'd ask."

"Forgive my distraction." He turned, head level with her where she was standing from where he was kneeling. "I… Do not want her child to be born into a war, Sienna."

"Neither do I." Sienna frowned, "But what can we do about it, really?"

"I believe it is time that we take the initiative, and end it on our own terms. Past time, as a matter of fact." Shockwave explained, "Ghira would dislike such a decision, but he does not command the authority of most of the Faunus' fighting force."

"No, he wouldn't." Sienna nodded, "And no, he doesn't. They love him, hell, everyone does. But when it comes to fighting?"

"They listen to you." He nodded, turning back to his work and continuing, "Which is why I called on you."

"Why do I get the feeling I don't like where this is going?"

"Because it entails going behind their backs, and on the offensive, to end this war." He answered sharply, "Which is why I dislike it as well. But I feel I have no choice in the matter. It has gone on long enough. Now, for Kali's child's sake and the sake of every child to come, I believe it is time we end this."

"You have a plan?"

"In the forming." He answered, "But I do have a target already chose,"

"Atlas?"

"No." He answered, turning, "Mistral. From which Atlas draws most of its raw material support. Namely, its food. If we cut their food supply-"

"Atlas will break."

"Precisely." He nodded, "But to do this requires a wide-scale operation. The likes of which I do not have the manpower to conduct."

"You can't just make more Insecticons?"

"I can." He nodded again, the spikes on his head and shoulders flicking and flattening before he went on quietly, resignedly, "But the matter of problem is Energon, our fuel. I can produce plenty for those I have, and will expand in preparation, but for an action such as this I would require thousands. By my estimate, forty thousand. Which I simply cannot maintain. Not without turning half of Menagerie into nothing more than an Energon farm. Which would wreak havoc on the planet's climate."

"You can do that?"

"Indeed." He rumbled back, "And rather easily. I have… I have seen planets reduced to toxic ruin by similar means. All life, choked out by… Fools with more ambition than understanding."

"I-I see…" And it sounded way closer to his heart than Sienna had expected, too. Way too close to ask about. Instead, she asked, "You need my men, then. Right?"

"I do."

"You have them, then." Sienna nodded, "Let's finish this."

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"Paladin One, ready for drop." Corporal Azure reported as her machine sprang to life, the display in front of her lighting up with signals and reports as they all came online while their new Manta-class heavy transport angled to a stop a dozen feet above Mantle's tundra flats. "Paladin Two, Three, check in."

"Paladin Two, green."

"Paladin Three, green."

"Roger." She nodded, "Manta One, we are ready to drop. Request you to gunship-overwatch."

"Roger, Paladin One. Relaying request." A moment passed as the heavy transport came to a rest and the bay doors below the three Paladin-2s. "Atlas-Command has green-lit your request. Manta One will rise to two hundred feet and circle. Requests available on channel two. Transferring out now."

"Confirmed." She answered, "Safe flying."

"Safe hunting." Manta One answered, "Out."

A moment later, the overhead clamps secured onto their machine's shoulders released them. As they fell, they extended their legs, bending with the landing to absorb their momentum and then spreading out as Manta one lifted up and pulled away. She turned to watch the stubby, blocky gunship-transport vanished into the clouds overhead and, doubtless, used them to hide from any Grimm that might be lurking in the sky.

"Gladius." She grunted, calling her squad to attention, "Landing status."

"Green."

"Green."

"Confirmed." She murmured, "Begin tracking protocols. Paladin Two, launch UAV. begin scanning routine."

"Yes, Ma'am." Paladin Two answered as the pod on its back, where her own missile launchers were, opened to release one of its UAVs."

Paladin Two was their reconnaissance unit, and fell back as the UAV lifted up and vanished into the sky. Unlike her unit, it didn't have missile pods, trading them for the UAV bins. Like her, though, it had been outpiffted with a Particle Projector Cannon, which could melt a target at a few hundred meters, and a simple auto-cannon for shredding smaller targets. Unlike him, though, she didn't have flak shells. She had anti-armor.

"Targets sighted." Paladin Two reported, "Four hundred meters, south. Fifteen small Grimm. Sabyrs, I believe."

"You 'believe'?"

"Movement patterns match." He countered hotly, "Sabyrs or similar. Recommend orienting toreceive, they're moving towards us."

"Broadcast target location." Paladin One ordered, "Paladin three, tie in targeting. I want mortars on it."

"Understood, Paladin One." Paladin three, their heavy weapons platform, grunted. Like her unit, his Paladin-2 was fitted with a PPC on its left side. But unlike either of the other two, it had the large, anti-armor large Javelin missile system on its right arm. And mortars instead of her internal missile pods. Mortars which could unleash holy hell at approximate eight hundred meters.

The dull 'whump, whump, whump' of a dozen mortars firing in quick succession. The fifteen motion signatures on her panel, broadcasting from Paladin Two, vanished in a flurry of motion and static that cleared after a few seconds to show most had been killed. From fifteen, only four remained.

"Gladius, fall into combat formation." She grunted, "We're closing and eliminating the Grimm."

"Confirmed." They both reported as she turned, loping across the tundra. As soon as she was in range, she used the UAV's targeting transmissions to target a pair of Sabyrs running close together and opened up with her auto-cannon.

As he screen washed in static from the sudden uptick in motion brought on by the rock and snow exploding around the Grimm, she grinned.

She adored the Paladin systems.

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