I totally regret starting to write this story without a clear plot and ending in mind… V_V

Chapter the Tenth: In which a Mission is undertaken, a Colony is infiltrated, and a horrific Development discovered.

"Ants. I hate ants."

Slate sat muttering in the aft section of a bullhead hovering some 500 metres above a large nest of Myrmidon Grimm. Yasmin playfully punched his shoulder as she sat down beside him.

"Suck it up you big baby. See this as a therapeutic experience – you get to kill a whole nest of 'em. Play nice and I'll even let you have some of my kills." Further to the back, near the loading bay doors, Flora and Xander was busy hefting several large stones towards the opening.

Setting a boulder down, Flora hopped up on it to rest.

"… This would've been so much harder to do without our semblances." she chuckled.

"From 150 kilograms down to barely a tenth of it, all with minimal costs to our stamina." Xander kicked lazily at the boulder Flora sat on, before sitting down on one of his own.

"So… why did we bring these along in the first place?" Flora leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"You'll have to wait a few moments while I coordinate a drop zone with the pilot."

As Flora returned from the comms near the bay doors, her team was already gathered.

"Okay, so here's the plan: We all know Myrmidon nests are some tough nuts to crack – literally. Their walls are practically impervious to standard-size calibre arms. So I thought – 'if the problem can't be solved with guns, we just need more guns!' long story short, I went asking around for the biggest boulders we had around beacon and gathered them as ammunition." As she talked she paced back and forth in front of her friends like some sort of military commander.

"Basically, we're going to use mine and Xander's semblances to increase the yield and impact of the rocks, hopefully it'll be enough to poke some holes in those nest walls so we can get to slaughtering them all." Grabbing a hold of the boulder closest to the ramp she motioned for Xander to help her toss it overboard.

"On the count of three, I'll be making it light enough for us to lift, then we throw it and you'll increase the velocity downwards while I cram it with as much mass as I can, got it?" Xander nodded as he gripped the other end of their first improvised projectile.

"Three… two… one! Go!" as soon as they had thrown it out, it lagged a bit in the air until Xander made it hurl downwards at an impressive velocity, only aided by the increase in mass from Flora. Seconds later, it impacted the roof of the colony with a loud, thundering boom, cracking open a hole in the large structure.

"Yes! It worked!" She indicated the next boulder in line.

"Again!" They repeated the process several more time, raining down boulders on the hive like a man-made meteor storm, each hit with the force of a medium-sized bomb. Flora looked over the edge of the ramp, down at the colony.

"That should do it. Get ready to jump! Make sure you spread arms and legs wide to slow yourself as much as possible!" And with that, she jumped backwards out of the bullhead.

After a few seconds of freefall, the team landed in the murky depths of the colony, their improvised entry holes their only source of light in the near pitch-black cavernous nest.

"Damn, didn't think of that. Rookie mistake. Slate, Yasmin – would you do me the honours?"

"Can't imagine how dark in here it must be for you guys…" Yasmin chuckled, indicating the dog ears on top of her head before realising they could probably not see her joke.

"Anyways…" she let tiny sparks of electricity dance in the palm of her hand. She quickly found two sticks of wood, of which she handed one to Slate to ignite as she did the same with hers. Following the tunnel they had infiltrated through, they descended deeper into the colony.

Coming upon a larger room, they realised that their improvised torches would not illuminate further than a few metres in.

"I got a bad feeling about this… Yasmin, can you see anything in here?" The young girl frowned.

"I wish I didn't."

The entire chamber was filled with myrmidons, crawling everywhere and swarming over a large, bloated, creature in their midst – the Queen Myrmidon.

"We're going to need backup." Yasmin noted with dismay.

AN: It's funny how the original Plan was for Yasmin to be the focal character and the main viewpoint in the story only for DesertFlower to completely hijack the show. xD

I wonder who's gonna get sent in as backup, hmm? :3

I do not own RWBY, that's RoosterTeeth and Monty Oum.