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Jaune's nerves were shot thoroughly, watching White Fang grunts check their weapons and sparse, almost useless armor in the massive hangar-like thing on the back bottom of the frigate. On either side, he could see the small doors leading to the guns mounted on the sides of the ship. At the back, huge hydraulic arms held up the bay door at the back, and several stolen Squire frames lumbered toward them in preparation. They'd charge out with their Aura-enabled allies to attempt to establish some form of beachhead. He was sitting on a crate near the back by the stairs, rubbing his head as the headache built up behind his eyes like a steady drum beat. Neo ran up beside him, smiling excitedly at the fighting to come. That excitement died off quickly when she saw his state, and she crouched down so she was sitting in her heels and looking up at him cutely with her mouth slightly open and pink eyes watching him.

He smiled thinly, reaching out and patting her head affectionately, "Hey, Neo. I'm fine, just a bit of a headache with so many people around, and they're all nervous too." He rolled his neck, looking around with a grimace, "Just feels… uncomfortable, I guess. It's kind of hard to explain."

"Do you want me to go get your helmet?" She asked, cocking her head to the other side.

"No." He sighed, crossing his arms and leaning back, "I have to get used to it. My ability is too important when I'm fighting to wear it, so I can't. And out there, this will probably be worse."

"A lot worse." She agreed, nodding sagely and standing up. Closing her eyes and shrugging, and she would have looked so cool if she wasn't only coming up to his shins at the moment, thanks to the size of the box he was sitting on. "You'll be able to feel every cut, bullet and crushing blow everyone feels. I'm kind of jealous."

"You shouldn't be." She nodded, accepting it completely, and he was reminded of how troubled Neo was in the end of things. And once again, he accepted it, hopping off the crate heavily as he sensed Cinder's approach behind him. "You know when we'll be landing, Cinder?"

"Sneaking up on you is almost entirely impossible, even in a crowd." "Which is exactly why you are so valuable." She stepped past him, brushing against his shoulder with Emerald and Mercury on her far side. "To answer your question, the Atlesian base already called us a few times for validation of our credentials. Fighters are in the air even now, and we'll be under fire shortly, I'm sure."

He nodded nervously, "Where are we at?"

"A small fortress called Castle Fort." She sighed, cocking her hip and resting a hand on it when he gave her a face, "A stupid sounding name, I know, but it's called that because the man who it is named for was named Fort." "Which doesn't detract from the blasted naming scheme being utterly stupid."

"What's the terrain like? You never covered this in the meeting yesterday. And you interrupted our quality time anyways, even though you didn't." Neo asked, Jaune 'translating' the message over to Cinder with a few small edits to the question, while she stared at her uninterestedly.

"Mountainous, and forested heavily." She pulled out her Scroll, pressing a few buttons before showing them a short feed cycling over itself.

The castle was old, made of dark stone bricks forming a circular wall around the inner castle. Two towers stood on either side of the gate, twenty feet taller that the walls around it. Soldiers were on top of it,white uniforms and armor standing in contrast to the black stone and brown wood of the fortifications. Mostly stone, but inside wood supported it. Like most old Valean forts and castles, and this was definitely that judging by the dark colors that Vale preferred in its older fortifications, it was built by finding a large hill, cutting the top away and replacing it with a fortified position. Surrounding it, the forest sprouted up at the base of the steep hill around a hundred yards away.

Cinder pointed to the base of the only approach one could really make to it on foot and en masse, a countermeasure sought after as much as the hill by Old Vale to ward off the Grimm. "We'll be landing here, the trees will be crushed under our ship's weight so don't worry about it. Then we go up the hill, and take the castle."

"What about the Grimm?" He asked quietly, the ship shaking again. More violently this time, and hard enough that Cinder actually moved slightly. "W-Won't they be a problem for us too? They always attack if a fight takes too long."

"Oh no, not at all." "My Mistress is watching us even now, she won't allow the Grimm to intervene no matter how much they wish to." The ship shuddered lightly, different from the others, and the ramp lowered the other half faster. "Now, do your best, Jaune. Most of these soldiers are base recruits, stationed where the Grimm are weakest. This should be easy." "Especially with your whore on your heels."

The Squires lumbered out in front of them, rounds impacting them lightly from light rifles and sentry guns up the hill, firing through slits in the walls as their allies further up couldn't quite aim at them where they were under the nose of the ship.

Cinder grabbed his arm as he made to step forward, jerking him to a stop, "I never told you your jobs here." He gave her a look, somewhere between trying to be firm and a grimace as he yanked his arm free from hers. "You and your harlot get into the castle, open that gate. We need the castle intact or we'd just blast the walls in with our cannons." "And we have to keep the Grimm a secret, for now at least."

"Got it." She nodded, and he turned to Neo, the Squires behind him forming a wall of steel and firing back with their large, arm-mounted cannons, trying not to damage the walls by aiming at the dirt and flinging it into the air to block their sightlines. "Can you get into the castle?" She nodded, and he added, "Can you get us into the castle?"

"Maybe, yeah. We get to the gate, I can jump inside. Then I get the gates open." He grimaced and she shrugged, "I can't take you in too without ending up on my back. And not in the fun way either."

"Alright, we'll get there." he looked at Cinder who had been watching with a patient, amused face, "Tell the Squires to support us, and send Mercury. We need the help, but we can do it."

She snapped a finger at the silver haired man and he sighed exaggeratedly, stepping forward, "Oh fuck me, I actually have to work with the little blonde shit?" "Ma'am?"

"Follow him, help him get the gates open. I'll order the Squires to go with you." He nodded and she stepped past him, Emerald turning as she approached, "When it's opened, Emerald and I will lead the advance." She turned, looking at Mercury with a small smirk, "Don't fail me. I can't hurt Jaune, but you I can punish." "And your little servants at the castle, of course, Jaune."

Taking a shaky breath, he looked at the Knight closest to him, cockpit turned enough to see him, and nodded. The two stepped out simultaneously, lumbering forward in front of the trio, and dozens of Atlesian Garrison Force soldiers and small Atlesian Knights opened fire on them, the small arms fire doing little against the mechanized Squires' heavy armor. They slogged forward, the dirt under them softened by the rounds slamming into it around them and ahead of them as they advanced, and behind him the ship's cannons boomed as it tried to blast the few Atlesian gunships out of the sky.

As they approached the castle, Jaune felt his nerves fraying even further as the nervous and frightened - as well as wounded already - men and women inside grew closer, and Neo grew more and more manic at the coming prospects for herself. One of the Squires in front of him shuddered as a missile hit its leg, almost caving in right away but barely managing to stay upright and moving, and they finally slid into the small indent that the gate rated in, grates sliding back above them as a few soldiers started firing down at them.

Head pounding, legs aching, and sweat pouring off him, he grabbed Mercury's shoulder and wrenched the silver-haired assassin to face him, "How high can you jump?" When he turned to check on Neo, he sensed her vanishing away.

"What?" Mercury asked in surprise, raising an eyebrow at him and looking up at the ceiling, the wall outside only slightly higher than it but still at least fifty feet up, "Not that high, kid, no way. I can close maybe thirty on my own, but the wall is a good bit higher than that." "And even if I made that jump, my legs would malfunction from the strain if I started fighting right away."

Jaune turned, clambering up the closest Squire - the one not damaged - carefully and banging on the window. The pilot inside shook his head, punching a button so that the machine opened forward and up, "Are you insane? I'll get shot with this thing open!" "Crazy Dust damned Humans, why does Adam let them work with us?" "What the hell do you want?"

"I need you to fling Mercury into the air, before they start dropping bombs on us through those holes in the roof or something." The pilot just stared at him from behind his mask, and Jaune sighed, "Look, he has Aura, it'll be fine. Your partner over there is damaged, he won't survive any more explosions. So just do it. I mean, so what if a random Human gets smashed against the wall?"

"Hey!" Mercury yelled, standing close enough to make out the conversation over the gunfire and the sound of metal and stone slamming into the Squires' armored sides. "I care!"

"Fine, Human, have your friend climb onto my gun. I'll fling him high as I can." "Holy shit they really are insane…" Jaune nodded, dropping down and stumbling, and Mercury dragged him upright as the Squire lumbered forward slightly.

"Mercury, climb onto its cannon arm and it'll throw you up." Jaune ordered, pointing at it with his sword, "When you get up there, you don't have to do much, just keep them busy until Neo can get the gate open."

"How long will that take?" "And why the hell am I the projectile now?" Mercury demanded, looking at the machine anxiously if a bit interestedly.

He could sense panic in the castle, and pain, alongside Neo's utter joy and a sensation he only felt when they were in bed or she was killing things, and Jaune sighed, "A few minutes, maybe? I don't know, she feels like she's enjoying herself in there." Mercury gave him a look and he continued, "She won't leave me out here, I'm too damn useful to her and Roman for her to risk me getting hurt."

"Fine." Mercury grumbled, rolling his shoulders and climbing up the machine. He stopped at its shoulder, looking back at him, "You better tell Cinder about this crazy stunt!" "Maybe then she'll take it easier on me."

Jaune just nodded.

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Mercury barely kept his breath as the machine's arm shot upwards under him, flinging him high into the air. At least twenty feet higher than needed, and he rolled his eyes before using his legs to launch himself at the wall. An unlucky Atlesian looked up just in time for Mercury to slam into his chest hard enough to crush his ribs and send blood shooting out of the soldier's mouth.

Turning, he kicked the droid who'd been next to him into the air and spun, turning the machine into a projectile and slamming it into two soldiers further down the wall hard enough to kill them and hurl them from the wall entirely. Another soldier turned, firing at him, and he ducked behind a woman in light armor, the rounds tearing her apart. He yanked her rifle from her, using it to gun down the soldier who'd killed her in a long burst and turning to the soldiers by the grates in the floor, firing at them as he charged.

Surprised, they barely put up any fight before he reached them, gunning down four of the six as he went. The last two he kicked off the wall, letting them fall to their deaths. An Atlesian officer down the wall said something to his men, half of them charging him with the uniformed officer behind, and he sighed.

At lest this job was fun.

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Neo looked at Jaune, spinning Mercury towards him, and smiled as she closed her eyes. After a moment, the sounds around her shifted, and she opened her eyes on a small courtyard on the other side of the stone gate. Soldiers and droids ran around, carrying ammunition, wounded, corpses and so on down from the wall and up, trying to supply the fight. Clearly panicked, she knelt behind several small crates by the gate and smield when she saw why.

Aside from one man at the top of the building inside the castle, leaning on a railing outside a door leading into the last and talled part of the building, and a few officers commanding the men no one here had any rank worth anything.

"Cinder was right, I guess. Mostly fresh meat, probably an initiation posting to get the used to garrisoning." Smiling to herself, she slowly drew her sword from her umbrella, watching a woman nervously ru towards her crates to get something. As soon as she leant over the crate to lift it, Neo lunged up, pressing her lips to the woman's for a distraction and dragging her over the crate in one motion.

By the time the woman actually managed to realize that this woman did not belong here and tried to separate from the kiss, Neo was straddling her. She pressed the blade against her throat and shushed her, the frightened woman staying quiet as she worked at her helmet for a few seconds until it came away.

The woman's face was pretty enough, pale with short-cut blonde hair and blue eyes framed in a young face, all dirty from the fighting and frightened from Neo's knife. After a second of Neo appraising her, memorizing the facial patterns enough to copy it, she spoke, "W-What do you want?"

Neo rolled her eyes, gesturing around them as though it were obvious, and the woman opened her mouth to say something Neo ignored while she thought. "Jaune would want me to let her live, but killing her would be more fun…"

After a few seconds she sighed, laying the blade beside the woman and clasping her hands around her neck. Her pretty blue eyes widened attractively and Neo smiled, watching her panic and enjoying the way her arms flailed under Neo, slapping away at Neo's legs and rear while she rested her knees on her shoulders, making sure she couldn't actually fight her in any real way. Neo leaned in close, listening to her gasp and watching the panic on her face until she passed out, and a few more seconds of choking the limp woman in case she was faking, before sighing and sliding off her. Grabbing some rope lying on the dirty stone that the crates were on, she tied the woman up and closed her eyes.

When she opened them, she stood calmly, disguised as the woman completely. Hefting the crate, she carried it over to the man by the gate, who nodded as she approached, "Private Hestia, what took you so long?" Neo made her best show of being frightened, flinching back, and the officer sighed, "Look, just get inside the keep, grab the rockets inside, and get them on the wall, alright?"

She nodded, turning and running through the keep's door. Inside she was pleased to find it mostly empty other than a few unarmored soldiers carrying crates to the door. She followed two into a storage room, and when they turned with a crate between them, she flicked out her sword arm. They collapsed quietly, aside from a few wet gasps that no one would hear, and she turned back around in time to catch a young private around the throat, slamming him against the wall by the door.

"The hell you doin'? We're under-" He demanded, choking out at the last sentence as she squeezed hard on his jugular and held her Scroll up.

"Tell me where the gate's controls are, and you get to live. Don't, and I'll kill you like these other idiots that wouldn't tell me." He looked over her shoulder, eyes widening when he saw her handiwork. That they hadn't even been asked wasn't something he needed to know. "You going to answer?"

After he nodded eagerly, she relaxed her grip enough for him to breathe and let him catch his breath before he answered, "D-Down the hall, last door on your right in the corner, the gate officer should be there. Just swipe his keycard in the machine and you should be able to open it." His hands shook on her arm as he swallowed nervously, "I-I'm new here, so there might be more, but that's all I know."

She nodded, choking him out the same way she'd done the woman earlier and tying him to a crate. Slinking down the hallway, she slid into the small room at the end of the hallway he'd pointed out. Inside, two droids were standing behind a man in his seat, watching the screen closely. Smiling, she flicked her blade out and cut the power cable running to the closest droid's processor. The other turned when it fell, but she kicked it over and leapt on top of it, stabbing into its chest until it stopped moving.

She froze when she felt a gun pressed against her back, smiling slightly, "Who the hell are you?"

She allowed her disguise to fall, turning and smiling up at him with brown eyes. He flinched when she blinked and they changed, and she ducked as the pistol fired, the round burying itself in the wall. He turned to yell, and she stood, her sword sliding between his ribs on the side and through both lungs. He collapsed and she followed him down, straddling her prey as he coughed, and leaning in to press herself against him closely, enjoying the moment and twisting the blade tightly.

Once he was dead she gave him a sweet kiss for the show and stood, taking the keycard off his waist as she did and moving to the machine. After a minute of looking and testing, she smiled as the gate slid open and Jaune ducked inside.

She hoped he appreciated her not killing everyone at least, she hoped as she turned, adorning her disguise again as she ran from the room and towards the door she'd come in through.

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Jaune ducked under the gate as it lifted, blocking the butt of a rifle as he came up and swinging on instinct at the surprised man's chest. He felt Crocea Mors cut through the man, both in the mental and normal sense, and grunted at the sharp pain at the man fell. Turning, he saw the two Squires lumber in, using their lighter chainguns to open fire on the Atlesians as they ran for the cover of the keep.

Neo appeared there, cutting down several in a few fluid movements, and she saw his sickly look as she ran at him. The walls and courtyard firmly theirs, he turned to see the rest of the relatively small White Fang force - only really about fifty in total, counting the ones meant to loot from the base - trudging up the hill with Cinder at their head.

Mercury dropped off the wall on the inside as she approached, and CInder smiled at him, "Splendid work, Jaune. Absolutely splendid, you managed to take the castle virtually on your own." "I must admit, I hadn't expected such a resounding success… But good work regardless."

"It was mostly Mercury and Neo, Cinder." He admitted quickly, trying to ignore the men around him and holding his head in his hands. "I… need to go back to the ship, I feel… everything."

Cinder, for once, actually looked a touch sympathetic and laid a hand on the small of his back hesitantly, "I know, Jaune, but this is our job. We're almost done, and hopefully there won't need to be much more killing." "At least not on your part." "I need you here though, as a display of our taking this place without losing anyone."

Around them, Jaune watched White Fang soldiers man the walls temporarily, scavengers looting the dead and wounded of weapons, ammunitions and armor they could use, and a few people sketching out the keep itself, for future sieges and raids. "O-Okay, Cinder, I'll try and stick it out."

Neo jerked on his arm hard, and he turned to see her smiling at him with an unconscious woman lying behind her, "I did something for you, Jaune."

He looked at Cinder, the other woman shrugging in confusion at the unconscious body and the clear question in his look, then to Mercury who rolled his eyes and threw his hands up. Turning back to her, he looked at the unconscious and bound woman, "Neo, what did you do for me, exactly?"

"I could've killed her but I didn't. I let her live just for you!" He blinked a few times before chuckling, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and hugging her. She curled into the hug, pleased at the praise and affection she was getting, "There's a guy inside too!"

"She didn't kill a couple people, even though she wanted to, since she didn't need to." He explained tiredly to the other three people, Neo nodding excitedly like a kid who'd brought her test home with an A on it. He ran a hand through her hair, the girl pressing into it like a cat, and sighed, "At least she's trying."

"I'm going to go and demand their surrender before the Fang start planting bombs on the keep." Cinder said quickly, sounding defeated in an odd way. "I have an agreement to uphold." "Annoying as that may be."

"What should we do with her?" He asked Cinder, gesturing at the Atlesian woman lying next to him.

Cinder spared her a glance and rolled her eyes, snapping her fingers at Mercury and Emerald, "Drag her to the ship and lock her in an interior room until I figure out what else to do with her." "Why didn't I bring a prisoner ship? I should have known Jaune would cause a headache there."

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