Arclight Foundries

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"You're going to be late, babe." Coco teased from his bed, n.a.k.e.d from the waist up, sitting on the edge and watching him frantically sprint to and fro getting dressed and checking his backpack. Smiling, she added in a sing song voice, "Unless you wanna skip, and hide from the general in bed with me. Never know, he might never find you."

"I won't be late." He argued weakly, turning to look past her at the clock on the end table beside the hotel's bed.

"You will be if you keep ogling my t.i.t.s like that, even if they are perfect little scoops of heaven." Coco teased, grabbing the perfect little orbs in her hands and squeezing them to draw his eye. He couldn't exactly argue with her - they were perfect after all, unblemished and firm like the rest of her due to her career choice - and only pouted in answer, earning a bright laugh. "Toss me a shirt, will you? I would hate to keep distracting you."

"No you wouldn't, you love distracting me alost as much as you love teasing me." He accused gently, plucking one of her tight little tank tops from the top drawer of a dresser and playfully pitching it at her face.

"Who says I'm teasing anymore?" She pointed out, tugging the tight shirt down over her bust and then leaning back on the bed, arms behind her while she stretched. He could hear her back and shoulders, recently healed and stiff still, popping as she did. Sighing with relief as she straightened, she added, "I made a joke about letting you do whatever you wanted to last night, and I let you. Didn't I?"

"Yeah…"

"So I'm not teasing, dork." She finished, rolling her eyes and standing, unsurprisingly unconcerned with how n.a.k.e.d she was below the waist. Grabbing a pair of loose but good looking khakis from the end of the bed, she tugged them on and continued, "I don't make empty gestures. You know that."

"Yeah, I do, Coco." And he did, too. Not a single thing she'd ever said, not one word she'd ever breathed or one tease she'd ever made, had been something she wouldn't own up to if he challenged her on it. "You're one of the most open people I've ever met, and I love that about you. And before you ask, yes, I love that more than your behind."

"A-And my t.i.t.s, Lover Boy?" She stammered, blushing at his sweet words like she always did and then scowling when he sniggered. Grabbing another of her shirts she turned and snapped it at him like a towel, barely missing while he laughed and danced out of reach of the scowling woman. "Take your licks like a man, Jaune!"

"Aren't you the one that's supposed to take licks?"

"Not what you said last night, you sonuvabitch!" She laughed, leaping over a bed with Huntress agility when he tried to hide on the other side and pushing him against the wall with a hand. The other dropped the weaponized laundry and grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him in for a gentle, albeit hungry kiss, that lasted several long seconds before she pulled back. "So," she started, "gonna take your hands out of the back of my pants or you want to be late?"

"Dunno, it's kinda nice, but I need money, so..." He hadn't even realized they'd gotten there, really, too lost in the woman's lips then and now with trying not to stare at the pert peaks at eye level, the two of them threatening to poke his eye out or tempt him to stay.

"I mean, you could always say you weren't feeling well." She offered, running her fingers through his alost too long hair and smiling. "I can message him, say you were feeling a little hot to the touch. So I had to nurse you back to health."

"Coco…" It was a very tempting thought, really, but he needed to get things sorted with Ironwood so he could get back to work. Partially because he didn't want to mooch off Coco forever, and partially because, well… The flesh was weak, he supposed. "Rain check? Maybe reserve the spot for when I get back from base?"

"I dunno, there's this cute bellhop I saw last night…" She faux-threatened, leaning down to let him kiss her this time and then pulling back. Plopping onto the bed, more to make her softness jiggle and see his reaction than any other reason he was sure, she laced her fingers behind her head and sighed comfortably. "Go on, get to work, babe. Suck you later."

"Don't you mean 'see you later'?" He asked, already anticipating her grin and the l.e.w.d gesture she made, a hand forming an 'O' shape and her tongue pushing against the side of her cheek to tease him. Laughing, he rolled his eyes and knelt to pull on his boots and start lacing them up, "Got a message that warned I might be late. Contract stuff to go through, apparently."

"I already did that, though?" The question in her voice there was clear, and all he had to answer was a shrug. Which, it turned out, didn't really relax her at all. Sitting up, she turned on the bed, all sense of playfulness and s.e.xiness gone. Now was a Huntress, shoulders sloped and rigid and hands clasped in front of her while her mind worked and her mouth talked, "Jaune, babe, if Ironwood is trying to change the contract he drew up post-fact then I need to go with you. Just because Atlas got you your heart doesn't mean we need to let them play games with us."

"I don't think he is, Coco." Jaune assured her, grabbing the other boot to lace it on as well and talking while he did it. "His message very explicitly said it was not about my contract with Atlas, but rather about order placements, and provisional protections for me."

"Protections?"

"I'll be an Atlesian contractor. Or rather, a contractor for Atlas, I guess." The difference was minute, but he'd been told that the people he'd possibly need to be worried about would care about it. So he would work on making it, if only because he'd been advised to, wherever he could. "Working for them can be dangerous, so they want to break down how my protection works and doc.u.ment it. Then they have to pick my honorary rank, so I can be registered with the military. Then we need to-"

"Okay, okay, I get it. I was just worried someone not named Coco was takin' you for a ride, babe." She laughed, sliding from professional, lethally edged Huntress to her playful self like liquid down a slope. Or the soft edges of her curves, the less 'pure' part of him chipped in now, watching her flop back onto the bed, and seeing what the movements did to all of those soft curves and edges. Either ignoring his eyes on her or enjoying them, she went on, "Just nervous about all of this, I guess."

"Nervous?"

"I mean, yeah. It's, you know, a big move, this kind of thing. A huge change in investments, priorities, publicity, the whole nine and ten." She sighed when he hummed unsurely, looking at him past her own bust, the young man leaning against the wall in his best white shirt and dark slacks. Arms crossed, he gestured for her to explain and she did, "You're going from a normal engineer here in Vale to possibly one of the biggest arms and industry suppliers to Atlas out of the entire Kingdom of Vale, Jaune. And I'm your chief investor and your girlfriend."

"I'm not going to be that big, Coco." He laughed, more to blow off the puff of anxiety that had bloomed in his stomach. A very unpleasant sensation, but one he was quickly rid of, and hoped to do the same for Coco. "It's just my armor, nothing else. Vale has plenty of arms designers, and factories for them to work in, and they do most of the exporting. I'm not that important, even if Ironwood likes me as a person."

"Jaune… The factory district was f.u.c.k.e.d in the attack, and outside the City of Vale, throughout the Kingdom's lands, the negativity drew even more attacks." She explained, putting it to him gently for fear of a reaction he couldn't guess at. It wasn't like he'd get angry at her for the Grimm attack, so he was confused, even if he wouldn't point it out. "Whole settlements were wiped out before Atlas could intervene, even if most of what was 'wiped out' was just structures."

"What are you getting at?"

"Look, okay, so Moss and Berg was the biggest PDW and close support weapons manufacturer in Vale, right?" He nodded, more than recognizing the name. Shotguns, grenades, military equipment like knives and armor for militia-garrisons, and even the little Atlesian bullpups that most soldiers fielded in the Kingdom were all made by them. "Well, their entire family lived in a village way west of the City, with a private villa right in the middle and the factories circling the perimeter."

"Yeah, they modeled it after a smaller, scale version of Vale, since they were so far outside the City and tucked up against the Wall." The Kingdom's Walls, after all, contained so much n.a.k.e.d forest and open plains, with disparate settlements set up.

It meant Grimm could foster, cropping up somehow out in the woods, though no one knew how. But while it meant a lot of open, grimm filled ground, it had a lot of up-sides. Like the ability to grow and log areas, to sustain the population's need of wood. Mining settlements towards the mountains, quarries, the Great Wall had been built to encompass a vast amount more land than could be reasonably occupied so it could handle spacing for as much of it as possible.

Many large scale factories had also set up out there, at the Kingdom's request, to both clear up infrastructure - it would be hard to travel in the city if thousands of trucks were coming and going daily to fed the industrial beast - as well as to set up small, garrisoned forward bases from which militaries could be supported and operations run into the wilder land. Along with those factories came workers, and thus families, leading to villages. Soldiers and Hunters added to them, often returning to these places. Patch was one, kept secure to watch for sea Grimm, and as a place to get wood and make safe harbor for more sh.i.p.s available without having to go into Vale.

A necessary set of risks, for the set of benefits it offered, he'd been taught growing up.

"Moss' entire family was killed when Grimm overran the defenses, and Berg's was shot down trying to escape. The droids did it, in the couple hours it took for Penny to get them back under control." The news struck Jaune like a fist to the stomach, and Coco must have seen it for she smiled gently. "Moss and Berg Manufacturing is being nationalised to Atlas, Jaune. Along with Opel vehicular, whose family are either dead or unwilling to inherit and selling it, and Red Baron Flight Technologies."

"Gods…"

"You need to be ready for him to ask you to help redesign, or reverse-design maybe, some of these things." Coco explained, her anxiety suddenly becoming clearer for him. "If you negotiate it, you could make yourself the new name in weapons, armor, whatever you want. It's all up to you, how big you get, now."

"I didn't…" He swallowed and took a breath, forcing the anxiety aside and relaxing a bit. Only superficially, of course, the panic was still there. Only now it was controlled just enough he could think. "What do you think I should do?"

"Honestly?" He nodded, "I think you should look over whatever needs redesigning, take what you like and article it, and then re-nationalize the rest back to Atlas."

"Let them make the factories and stuff." He nodded, running a hand through his hair and sighing. Grimacing, he asked, "Are we sure they'll ask me to do all of that?"

"All of it? No way, babe, not on your life." He relaxed a bit at that at least, and Coco stood to close the distance with him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and resting her forehead against his ther.a.p.eutically. "But armor, advanced weaponry like what the Specialists probably ordered, that sort of thing? Yeah, he'll offer you some of that, and if you like it you should try your hand."

"Yeah… Dust sake, I thought today would be simple." He sighed and leaned forward to press his lips to hers, a brief peck of affection rather than the heated, hungry ones she'd sought earlier. She felt the difference and reciprocated, pressing herself against him for the pure warmth of the action, and his arms circled to the small of her back.

"Better?" She asked when he pulled away, beaming a smile at him and an eyebrow raised sarcastically. As though it was meant to ask 'as though it couldn't be after a kiss from me'. "Or do you need my lips somewhere else to help you relax?"

"Maybe when I get back." She laughed but winked, not quite promising but clear that she'd be willing if he asked for it. After another second, and another quick peck, he asked, "While I'm gone, can you get in touch with my dad? I sent messages, but I haven't gotten anything back from Ansel just yet."

"Communication channels still buggy?"

"Yeah."

"Sure, then." She nodded, pushing away from him and letting out a breath. While she talked, she pulled the edges of her pants loose and dropped them, grabbing a nicer pair of brown jeans to wear instead. Not that Jaune minded the view whatever the reason, of course. "I'll head down to the CCT when I go out to get some stuff today, drop a message in if I can. What time you think you'll be off work?"

"Eh, probably evening." He couldn't be sure, really. Not now, with what Coco had pointed out for him, as much as he probably should have been able to figure it out himself. "Why?"

"Eh, just thinking about dinner." She waved him off, grabbing a nicer button up to wear and pulling it on over the tight, nearly see through tank she'd been wearing up until that point. "Text me when you know? I might be able to pick you up. Might be able to catch a movie, or something to eat, or maybe spend the night with my head between your-"

"I'll text." He laughed, the woman rolling her eyes and smiling warmly as he scooped up is heavy, military backpack full of notes and files and turned towards the door. Waving a hand over his shoulder he tentatively called back, "See you when I get off, babe. Love you."

"Love you too, make sure to drink water before you get back!" He laughed at what that meant and pulled the door open, stepping out into the hallway and sighing contentedly.

Finally, he turned to leave and head to the Atlesian base for his meeting, before he wound up even later than he already would be. Damn Coco and her long legs distracting him… And also, of course, the news she'd given him. News he was still kicking himself over not figuring out on his own beforehand.

"Hey! John, right? Hold the elevator, please!" Richardson, the 'cute bellhop' Coco had joked about, called out as Jaune stepped into it. The blonde rolled his eyes at the incorrect name but stuck his foot out regardless, catching the elevator door on it and forcing it to open for the large, old man to come puffing into the elevator like Father Christmas at his summer job. "Thanks, John."

"It's Jaune."

"Well that's what I said, isn't it?" The old man blinked tired, wrinkled blue eyes at him from over a bushy white beard and Jaune snorted a laugh. The man returned it, and the two settled into an oddly familiar silence while the elevator descended. When the door finally chimed and opened to let them out in the atrium, the old man waved him away, "Good luck with your meeting, John. And remember your old friend Richardson, eh?"

Laughing, he waved to the old bellhop and stepped outside into the cool air of Vale. Around him, on the streets and along the walkways, soldiers and droids moved amid and around crews of workmen in a variety of Kingdom's uniforms, coming from or going to repair sites. He saw and recognized splashed of color from all four or the great Kingdoms, many disparate construction companies, security firms, and even some of the larger settlements in and out of the Walls of Vale. With the realization that, in fact, Atlas was innocent of the charges levied against them, everyone had come together. And so, before his very eyes, Vale was rising once again.

Beautiful to watch from his hotel window, or a restaurant even.

Not so much when he had to walk through it to get to the Atlesian base, though.

'But at least I can walk it, now.' He reminded himself, smiling widely as he started the trip. 'That counts for something.'

The Atlesian base he'd been told to meet Ironwood at was a new building, constructed at Vale's request to better protect the priceless CCT in the wake of the first attack that had targeted it so blatantly. The move was still controversial, even with Atlas' clear advantage in the military aspects and the technical ones of protecting, garrisoning and maintaining the CCT under new security protocols. That wasn't the controversy, though. Everyone knew all these facts, and if they hadn't then the Valean Council had made clear that with all the damage, they couldn't afford to wait and Atlas already had everything they could want in order to ensure the location was kept safe.

No, what was controversial was that the entire area around the CCT's tower had been essentially given to Atlas outright, and all construction rights therein had come with it.

Where once had been devastated shopping buildings for four blocks in all directions, an Atlesian fortification had quickly cropped up. Five buildings set inside a smooth, circular wall four stories tall and three men wide, with armor crenellations, tower bastions capped with anti-air batteries every thirty feet. Above them, behind armored partitions, movable gun emplacements, and a litany of other advanced defensive systems, he could see the occasional reds, blues and greys of patrolling Atlesian soldiers.

At each point where the main roads had formerly moved towards, and then circled around, the CCT massive, armored gateways had been built up with long, fenced line routes for people to take to submit paperwork for entry on one side. On the other, the road was left open and vehicles were checked before being allowed to go in. A slow down, to be sure, but in fairness they had paved a wide road around the outside wall as well, so you could take it to get around if you wanted and not need to pass through the checkpoints. So people who were in these lines were probably there to use the CCT, or something else inside the Atlesian compound.

Along with, of course, the fact it left twenty feet of flat terrain b.a.r.e around the base of the wall for the guns to aim down on if need be.

"Name?" A woman asked, wearing Atlesian armor with red underpinnings that marked her as an officer. Beside her, two men in blue stood, ready to intervene if he tried something untoward or open the gate if he was allowed in.

"Arc, Jaune." He introduced, phrasing the name the exact way Ironwood had told him to and fishing in his pocket. The guards tensed but he didn't worry, drawing out the little silver identification card that had been delivered to him and handing it to the woman. "Here for a meeting with General Ironwood. He's, uh, expecting me."

"Forester, run the name and ID card." She ordered, handing the little things back to the man who took them and turned away, pressing a hand to his head to talk to the officer inside the wall who served to liaise between them and whatever records requests they needed. Jaune wasn't sure of the details and didn't have time to think of it because, to pass time or vett him herself, the woman asked, "What kind of meeting are you here for?"

"General Ironwood wants me to help develop arms and armor for the military, after the Battle of Beacon." He answered simply, "I'm the one that made the armor that saved Penny, if that… If that means anything to you."

"Arclight?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Checks out." The second said as he rejoined them, offering him the card and a simple, respectful nod. "Good work on saving our asses, Arc. You ever head downtown, find me 'n my boys, we'll buy you a drink. Or twelve."

"Maybe, yeah." If he ever went downtown to drink, that was, though he doubted that sincerely. He'd not been allowed to drink before, with his heart, and so he'd not really developed much taste for alcohol or getting drunk. But he wouldn't say that to the man's face, of course, and be rude for no reason. Instead, he asked, "So can I go in?"

"Yes, Sir. I hope you have a productive meeting with the General." The woman nodded, stepping aside and waving him in, the two men with her opening the chain link gate for him to step through.

Inside, the fortress was typical Atlesian fare. The five buildings spread out to either side, curving with the wall, while the CCT tower loomed high over it all, Bullheads buzzing around it protectively and to land on the roofs of the buildings. The contents of those buildings he didn't know, or ask, instead following the directions he'd been given and heading into the CCT tower.

"You are Jaune Arc, correct?" He heard as soon as she stepped in, before his eyes could even adjust to the dimmer interior after the brightness of the sun outside. A dark-skinned woman stood by the door, wearing a blue and white uniform pressed at the seams, and he nodded to the question. "I am Ciel Soleil, a junior staff officer attendant to General Ironwood, through the Special Weapons and Development department. Or the SWD, if you prefer the acronyms."

"I'm… Afraid I don't recognize the department name." Not that that would be weird, really. He wasn't exactly Atlesian or military, so it made sense not to recognize it.

"We develop advanced, specialized weapons and equipment I am not at liberty to discuss openly." Or at least, he supposed, not in the foyer of a busy and bustling telecommunications building. Seeing his continued confusion and apprehension she added, in a lower voice, "Such as certain nearly deceased women, who you are more than acquainted with, given you were inside her."

"Oh. Oh!" He blinked, suddenly realizing what she meant and scowling petulantly. First Coco, then Yang once she'd found out, and now even the Atlesian military? It was too much, surely. "I wish you all would stop referring to it like that, making it sound dirty when it really, really wasn't."

"I am merely relaying the facts of the matter accurately, Sir." She argued, satisfied that he understood who she was now and turning away from him. Waving a hand over her shoulder, she beckoned him to follow her and added, "Come on, now. We're nearly late as it is, and I will not allow you to amend that into impropriety."

"It's not that big a deal…" He was on time as it was, and at worst might be a couple minutes behind. Not something the General would care about, he figured.

"General Ironwood has the protection of not one, but two Kingdoms to see to, Mister Arc." She called back, looking over her shoulder to glare at him until he nodded understandingly, soldiers and staff parting in front of the young woman like water around a rock. Regardless of his nod, she elaborated, "His time being wasted is the same as taking lives yourself, whether you stick the knife in or not."

"I get it, you're right." He nodded again, this time more emphatically, "Sorry."

Inside, the CCT was still largely Valean in design, and moderately damaged in places. Several times, they passed uniformed Atlesian workmen replacing sections of the marble wall that had been riddled with bullets or marked by claws. Carpet, too, was rolled up in large sections and replaced with fresh, the duo often walking just behind the men rolling it out. Heavy wooden doors lined the wall to either side, where they'd not been destroyed or weren't being replaced at least, but behind them he didn't know what to expect.

Call rooms meant for people to use the CCT, probably, if he had to guess.

Eventually, they reached a wide, guarded elevator and the end of their walk and the woman explained for his benefit, "This leads directly to the CCT management office, which has been repurposed as the temporary command quarters of the garrison. Unil better accomodations can be made, or this changed into a better layout, this express elevator goes to the three floors that make up the Management Offices."

"Uh… Cool?"

"Quite." She nodded, seemingly pleased with his simple, unsure statement.

With that, they rode the elevator up for a couple minutes in silence, whatever played the cheery elevator music he'd expected not working. Instead, all he heard was the gentle banging and clanging of an elevator's systems working and the box they stood in moving. An eerie sound, even for Jaune who made similar contraptions on occasion, and a good explanation for why they bothered with the music in the first place.

Without it, he almost felt like he was riding to his execution, as silly as it sounded.

"Here we are, Sir." Ciel remarked coolly when the door slid open on a small sitting area, with couches to either side, simple white lights, a warm brown carpet and a singular potted tree beside the elevator door. Across from the elevator stood a sturdy oaken door, which the Atlesian pointed to helpfully, like she expected he might get lost somehow without her directions. "Humble lodgings for the General, as you can see, but he is waiting inside regardless. Please, hurry along, I have places to be."

"You're not coming?"

"Why would I be?" She asked in return, as though it made no sense for her to go into the meeting with them.

"I… Don't know." He sighed, when he realized he'd only asked why she wasn't going in with him because he'd already assumed she would be. An assumption without reason, as his dad always said, was an assumption that would bite you in the a.s.s. Smiling, he apologized, "Sorry, I'll get out of your hair. Have a nice day?"

"And the same to you." She nodded, waiting until he stepped out to press a button on the panel and order the doors closed.

"Have a nice day? Gods, I sounded so stupid…" He was just nervous, he supposed. A meeting with Ironwood was an incredibly big deal, after all.

He was one of the single most powerful men or women on the planet, in charge of more men and resources than Jaune would probably ever understand. A little bout of the nerves was, to him at least and his opinion was the only one he cared about for the moment, reasonable enough.

"Ah, Arc." He heard before the door had even fully opened, the General sitting behind a desk across the surprisingly small office and offering him a smile. With a hand, he waved the young engineer in, "Please, come in. Ciel let me know you were here, I've been waiting for you to get here. Pardon the mess though, please, I've been… Very busy."

"No problem." Not like the spartan office even had much dirtiness to it for him to pardon, really.

Bookshelves lined one wall, a wide window made up the other that let him watch an Atlesian gunship laze by, and the man's desk sat across from the door. A few folders sat on his desk, and presumably signed papers sat in a small metal container at the front edge of the metal piece of furniture, which was a simple design he'd seen the like of at markets across Vale. Knowing the man, Jaune was sure he'd probably just bought them in bulk to stock out the managerial needs of he and his staff.

"Please, then, sit." He did, pulling back the rolling office chair and feeling very much like he was sitting down for an interview as he did. Once he was comfortable, and had set his backpack beside his feet, the man asked, "Did you enjoy your walk? If you'd asked, I would have sent someone for you."

"No, no, I… I kind of liked getting to walk." One of Ironwood's brows rose at the statement and Jaune shrugged, answering the unasked question. "Long walks like that were on the long, long list of things I couldn't do. So getting to now is… Nice. I enjoy it."

"I should have expected that answer, I suppose. You're a man who has entire venues open to him now, aren't you?" Jaune nodded with a smile and Ironwood laughed and reclined in his seat. It was a surprisingly warm sound, Jaune decided upon hearing it. And he sensed it was a rare one, too, sadly enough. Raising his gloved hand, he flexed his fingers and remarked, "Believe you me, young Arc, I sympathize more than you could know."

"Yeah, I guess it makes sense you would." He was curious about the man's incident, too, but he wouldn't brach it. To do so seemed impolite, and like it would sour the mood regardless of whether Ironwood mattered. "How, uh, how are the repairs going?"

From there, several minutes of comfortable conversation passed by between the two men. Eventually, Ironwood had warm Atlesian coffee and cinnamon cakes brought to them, delivered by a woman in a well fitted white uniform who didn't meet his eyes when he looked at her to thank her. He let the icy woman go, though, instead turning his attention to the coffee and taking a long sip.

"So, I think pleasantries are all well and good, and I enjoy your company, but as you know I have much to manage given my position." Jaune nodded at the older man's words and he sighed, like he'd expect - or hoped, maybe - for the young blonde to argue against it. Grabbing a folder on his desk, he flipped it open and began to talk. "First and foremost, you've agreed to sign on with Atlas as an engineer. Correct?"

"I guess, yeah…?" His confusion must have shown on his face, because the general reacted to it, so he rushed to cut in. Before the general could make assumptions he wouldn't like, even if he himself couldn't think of any such assumptions. "I mean, I already signed the paperwork, had it reviewed, that sort of thing. So I don't understand the question?"

"Ah, I see. They're merely formalities I technically have to personally detail for you, as the Atlesian officer standing and presiding over your contracting." So it was covering his and Atlas' a.s.s, in the most generous way he could put it since he liked both of those things. At the explanation, the general nodded and asked simply, "Are you aware of the clauses of secrecy you may be placed under, forbidding you to share information either on your own work or work given to you?"

"Yes."

"Do you understand that, as a licensed Atlesian official, you may be subjected to potential terroristic attack?" That question drew a spark of anxiety but, having already agreed to it previous, he nodded and answered that he did. "Finally, do you understand that you will be accorded an honorary military rank for record keeping, and will be assigned bodyguards to assist you in your operations and protect you from the previous threats?"

"Yes, I do."

"Very good, then legally speaking, we're done with the formalities." He turned the folder towards him and added a pen on top of it, nodding at both. In that same dry voice, he droned out the next legal set he was probably required to say. "Please sign that, it's a statement of legal consent that you have answered my questions in the affirmative. I'm obligated to inform you that, should you contest your consent as stated previous and to that which has been stated previously, this will stand as a waiver that you consented at all counts and your claims will be dismissed."

"Okay, I, uh… I got that." He nodded, and signed his name where the man pointed out after he skimmed the paperwork. Coco would have his head if she found out he signed a receipt for his lunch without checking the print first, after all. Closing the folder, he asked idly, "So, what now? Uh, I mean, Sir?"

"You don't have to salute, or give Sirs and Ma'ams, Jaune." The man chuckled, taking a sip from his coffee and reclining again while his mechanical hand flicked open his Scroll and sent a quick message. "As for what happens next? We get you uniformed, and you get escorted to your new workshop here on the base."

"Uniformed?"

"Well, you are at least technically an officer. Albeit a science one." The man laughed, standing and waving a hand towards the door. With a wide smile, he informed him simply, "I believe strongly that you will quit enjoy the bodyguard I've assigned you. He comes well recommended, with a fine track record of exemplary performance during the Battle of Beacon. And you know him, as well."

As if on cue, the door opened and a massive, tan-skinned man lumbered in with a displeased face. Like the people he'd met outside, he wore the simple white and grey dress uniform of an Atlesian soldier, with a large, blocky pistol strapped to the outside of his right t.h.i.g.h. Unlike them, though, he sported another weapon slung across his back, in the form of a large chainsaw with a guarded grip.

"Arc." Banesaw nodded, smiling thinly at him. "Been a while since we saw each other. Glad you didn't wind up dead."

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Will Craft Nex :

I'm glad you like it. XD

Hells Maji :

Such was the point. Think of it like this, Jaune is not a combat character, and this sells that. He makes mistakes easily, doesn't know how to fight in the least, and never will be a Huntsman.

THIS ill.u.s.trates that, and served the plot points needed to move forward.

Sentinal Slice :

Glad you're liking it~

Lawlance :

Yep, it's not over~

Infrequent updates, because this is a fun project for me that I do on my off time, but not over.

Bomberguy :

This is a sequel story, not the same story. Arlight Foundries ended, and Arclight Engineer started up. I just posted it into the same story because… Meh, I figured why not? Continuation of the same story, albeit the next step to it.

Radioactive Rabbit :

Good news, friendo~!

Uber Ghidorah :

After the Fall is a RWBY bok recently released that is from CFVY's perspective. In it, it is revealed that the side character Coco Adel is gay, or at least bi though I am fairly sure she's meant to be gay. I haven't read it as yet, though.If you look it up, you can find more details about it, if you are so inclined. Personally, I just found it funny and ironic.

Omega Delta :

They're coming, but this is right off the back of the other story, with not much time passing between. Things are still a bit rough around Vale at the moment.

Typhonyx :

In canon, the logic behind bringing along RWBY and co was multi-faceted. Ozpin was clearly setting up people to be his 'next wave' of Hunters and servants, and Jaune and Ruby were among them. Along with probably Blake. But they are packaged with, for one, Pyrrha though that fell through, and then their teams.

Ozpin still needs that second wave here, that's all.