March 4, 2021

"Lieutenant Rose," said Jaune, dressed in formal military attire, at a special meeting of his company at Beacon Academy at 4:07 P.M. "Do you accept the addition of Sergeant Penny Schumacher Polendina into your platoon?" He stood beside Penny as Ruby and the rest of the company stood before him.

"I do, sir," Ruby replied as she rendered a salute to him. She then turned to Penny and stood at ease. "Do you, Sergeant Penny Schumacher Polendina, accept this position in my platoon?"

"I do, ma'am," Penny replied as she rendered a salute to Ruby before returning to at ease.

Ruby then continued. "Do you promise to protect every member of this platoon with your life, as well as every other hunter, soldier, sailor, marine, coast guardsman, or airman you come across?"

"Yes, ma'am," Penny replied.

"Welcome aboard," Ruby told her as the company clapped. She then hugged Penny and whispered to her, "Welcome home..."

Penny smiled and told her, "I always knew Vale felt more like home to me than Atlas."

"Alright," Jaune said. "Now that we got that out of the way, let's get to our mission briefing."

At 9:38 P.M., Ruby's platoon arrived at a small borough towards the southern end of Vale, near the twin walled cities of Apamea and Sparta. They landed in a transport plane at a small airfield that served the rural county the borough was located in. Their mission was to hunt a nasty infestation of Grimm nearby consisting of several nests.

At 10:12 P.M., Ruby led a team consisting of herself, Yang, Blake, Weiss, Penny, and Ren to attack one of the nests, which was located in a clearing deep in a forest. Ruby led from the front.

As the gang walked through the woods, their weapons ready to go, Blake said to Weiss, "So, we can finally have more than 3 officers now?"

"Yep," Weiss replied. "It was announced yesterday. The city and the VCVFA have agreed to let volunteer companies possess as many captains and lieutenants as they like, though only the 1st captain can have their own car though. We voted to hold elections for the new officers' positions on the 10th."

"I heard from somebody else that we're gonna expand the firehouse soon," Ren told the group as he cleaned one of his StormFlower guns.

"Oh yeah," Weiss replied. "That vote will be on the 10th too. They want to split up our rescue-engine into separate engine and rescue units to hold more firefighters. My dad told me about it."

Ruby then suddenly shushed the group as she whispered, "Wait!" As the group paused, they all heard the distinct rustling of leaves nearby. "I think that's the Grimm." She then aimed her rifle down in the direction of the rustling as everyone else got into position.

Through her scope, Ruby saw a black shape in the near distance. Suddenly, it turned towards Ruby. Yang said, "Is it Grimm?"

"Yep," Ruby quickly replied. "And it's coming right at us!"

Penny immediately sprung into action. As her back opened up and her knives got into position, she said, "Permission to fire, ma'am?"

"Permission granted," Ruby replied as she and Blake stepped out of the way.

A ball of light then formed as the knives vertically spun around in a circle above Penny. After about 3 seconds of this, Penny thrust her arms forward, and a beam of light shot through the forest and directly into the path of an incoming Ursa Major. As the beam hit the Ursa Major, it roared and fell to the ground before being blown to pieces and disappearing in a haze of smoke.

"We just alerted the other members of the nest," Yang said. "Let's go get 'em."

Meanwhile, at base camp, Jaune oversaw operations. As he looked at a digital map of the area on a computer, he heard a radio nearby squawk, "Lieutenant Rose to Base Camp!"

Jaune immediately picked up the mic on the radio and replied, "Captain Arc on, go ahead, over."

"Do we have any air units, preferably heli units from the Army, in the area?" The background of the transmission seemed chaotic.

"Standby at this time, over." Jaune then walked over to Velvet, who was manning a computer and another radio, and asked, "Sergeant First Class Scarlatina, are there any helicopter units in the area from the Army?"

"I'll check," Velvet replied as she typed away at a computer, looking for info on a Hunting Corps intranet. As she looked at available units from other branches, she said to Jaune, "There's a Battalion of attack helis based about 33 minutes flying time from here that are part of the 300th Aviation Regiment of the Army."

"Perfect," Jaune replied before going back to the original radio and saying, "Base Camp to Lieutenant Rose, over."

"Go ahead, sir," Ruby replied frantically.

"We got a Battalion of attack helis 33 minutes away in flying time from 300th Aviation," Jaune said. "Do you need them to respond to your area, over?"

"Affirmative," Ruby replied. "Also, send us a second team of hunters to our coordinates, over."

"Roger. We got your approximate coordinates on the computer. We'll send them out. What conditions are you dealing with?"

"We got... Agh shit! We got at least 17 Grimm combatants, 5 are KIA at this time. We believe this is the original nest of the 3 we are supposed to destroy. Staff Sergeant Lie Ren (A/N: They say Nora and Ren's names in full over the radio as to not confuse the two of them since they share the family name Lie) is injured, but his injuries are not severe at this time, over."

"Roger that. Help's on the way." Jaune then ran over to grab his Crocea Mors from the table before sliding it into its sheath. He then checked his pistol by taking out the magazine and looking to make sure if there were enough bullets in it. He then said to the camp, "I'm going to Ruby's position. I'll be right back."

March 5, 2021

"Well," Ren said as he stood up from a wheelchair in front of a military hospital in Vale City at around 10 in the morning. "It wasn't a break, thank God." As he did, 2 nurses took the wheelchair back into the building.

He was surrounded by Nora, Jaune, and Ruby, who agreed to help him back to his home. Nora, holding her and Ren's daughter Leona in her arms, said, "So it was just a sprain and a scratch?"

"Yep," Ren replied as he walked over. "It was fixed easily. The gash from the claw healed itself due to aura, and the sprain went away with a temporary active healing cast."

"Good," Jaune replied. "Well, in other news, I got a call from Signal, and they want me to start teaching there full-time starting in August this year. They're gonna stick me in a 13-to-14-year-old Command class."

"Ugh," Ruby replied. "I always hated Command classes, especially in Signal. It was literally just an hour of the teacher talking about military command structures and how to give and receive orders. At least in Beacon we began to receive semi-relevant training on how to be a commanding officer. But, here I am, a recently-made commissioned officer." The rest of the group laughed in agreement. "Please, Jaune, be more energetic than my teachers there."

"I'll try," Jaune said back.

Then, Leona reached out to touch Ren, causing him to hold out one of his fingers for her to grasp onto. He said, "Your daddy's okay, Leona. Your daddy's okay."

Leona then smiled and laughed. Ruby said to Jaune, "She's cute as hell."

"You can say that again," Jaune replied. "A lot of love went into that baby." He did not realize how what he said could be taken differently than what he meant.

Nora then burst out laughing at Jaune's remark, saying, "Oh my God, do you realize what you just said?"

Jaune paused, and then realized what he said. "Oh... I didn't mean for it to be sexual at all, guys." He then paused again. "I should just stop talking right now, right?"

March 10, 2021

"Alright," Winter said as she began the company meeting in the ballroom. "Tonight, before we do anything else, we must get to elections for the new company officers' positions. Now, if you have not heard, the city and the VCVFA has now allowed volunteer fire companies to have as many captains and lieutenants as they want. The social officers and the fire officers have decided to set the number of captains at 3 and the number of lieutenants at 9. We have found candidates for all of the open positions."

"The sheet to vote is in the social office," Hermann said as he pointed to the social office, located to the right of the ballroom. "And before we begin, I want to clear up any confusion. First off, only 1st captains can have their own car and respond with red lights and sirens. Second, we are only holding elections for the 2nd and 3rd captains, and the 3rd through 9th lieutenants. Spots already taken will not be up for grabs until the regular elections in December."

"Alright," Winter said. "Go vote." Everyone attending the meeting then stood up and formed a line into the social office to begin voting.

In line, Ruby, behind Yang and in front of Denis, said, "It was honestly about time they did this."

"Yeah," Yang replied. "Having only 3 officers was bad, especially in large companies like us with... How many guys do we got here?"

"88 as of last week," Denis replied. "58 people attended tonight's meeting."

After about 10 minutes, the voting was all done. Winter said, after sitting down and casting her ballot, "We will now have a paid firefighter count the votes."

The paid captain of the ambulance, who was sitting near the social office, then stood up and said, "I'll make sure it's done soon." He then walked in and closed the door to begin.

"Onto other business," Alfred said. "Tonight, we will have a hand vote to expand the station and buy a new rescue and a new engine. This will be three separate votes. Arthur, your turn to speak."

"Thank you," Arthur Kirkridge replied as he stood up. Behind him and the social and fire officers was a slideshow presentation on a computer projector. "This presentation will detail what we have agreed upon for the expansion of the firehouse, plus the 2 new pieces of apparatus we will be buying." He then used a clicker to move to the next page of the slideshow. That page was a detailed map of the expansion, showing the exterior and the interior. "We will be tearing down the 4-story apartment building next to us, which hasn't been occupied in several years due to foundation issues, and we will build a 2-story addon next to the truck bay. It will primarily consist of another bunkroom on the second floor with fire pole and stair access to the ground floor, plus several extra rooms we can use for storage. The first floor will contain the new bay for the rescue, we hope. It will have more space for gear lockers as well."

He then clicked to go to the second page, which showed the plans for the new rescue. "This will be a heavy-duty walk-in rescue to be built by Avex Manufacturing. It will not be an engine-rescue. It will carry 10 seats in the front cab, 9 with SCBA, in a setup similar to Truck 201. In the back, we will have a walk-in body that can be accessed from the rear only. It will have 6 seats with SCBA along the right side of the cab inside, as well as 4 seats without SCBA at the end of the walk-in cab behind the front cab. We will have 6 extra SCBAs carried in the inside compartments behind the sideways-facing seats, plus a rack of 10 sets of turnout gear across from those seats. This may seem like a lot of seats, but the fact is that we are getting a lot of people to show up to fire calls, so those 20 seats may go relatively fast."

Ruby said to Weiss, "Woah... That's a huge rescue."

"It sure is," Weiss replied.

Arthur then clicked onto the next page, detailing the replacement engine. "This will be the primary replacement for Rescue 201. It will hopefully be an Avex Manufacturing engine. It will carry 10 seats, 9 with SCBA, in the same layout as Truck 201. Its pump will be rated at 3000 gallons of water per minute, and its tank will hold 1000 gallons of water. It will hold 6 preconnected side-mounted attack lines in the same setup as Truck 201 and will hold not 1, but 2 5-inch supply lines plus a 2 1/2-inch line for either supply or secondary attack out of the back hosebed. It will hold a rack of 10 sets of turnout gear on the right side of the hosebed. The left side will carry 3 hard suction hoses in case we need to draft from a river or the canals."

Finally, he went to the final page. "The costs listed are the costs of the addition, the new trucks, and the new equipment we will buy for them. We will also hold a fourth hand vote to buy a gear rack for Truck 201 to fit more spare gear on it and free up a compartment."

"Thank you," Winter said. "Now, all in favor of the addition, raise your hand." She then counted all the hands that had arisen in support. "All opposed, raise your hand." After counting zero votes for opposition, she said, "Any abstentions?" After counting a few abstentions, she said, "Alright then, the measure to expand the firehouse has been approved."

Then, the paid captain counting the votes came out of the social office and said, "I counted all the votes."

Winter then stood up and walked over to him, saying, "Thank you." She then read the total tallies off of the sheet. "Okay, allow me to announce the results of the special election as follows." She then walked back over to her seat and sat down before saying, "As of today, the 2nd Captain of the Vigilant Fire Company is... Me? Oh my..." She then laughed. "Thank you..."

The crowd before her then clapped in congratulations of her. Weiss said, "You rock!"

Winter smiled and gave a thumbs up to her sister in response before continuing, saying, "The 3rd Captain is Julian Sagefield." After a round of applause for the 18-year veteran, Winter said, "The 3rd Lieutenant is Michael Kirkridge." After another round of applause, Winter said, "The 4th Lieutenant is Amhlaidh Egret." Another round of applause followed. "The 5th Lieutenant is Dafydd ap Llewelyn." A round of applause for the 9-year veteran followed. "The 6th Lieutenant is Eva Tietz." Eva, a 14-year veteran, a cousin of Weiss, and Alfred's daughter, smiled as another round of applause followed. "The 7th Lieutenant is Matthew Goldstein." The audience then clapped in appreciation of the 7-year veteran. "The 8th Lieutenant is Ling Hua Qiao." The 11-year veteran patted herself on the back as the audience clapped for her. "And last, but most certainly not least, the 9th Lieutenant is Ross Key." The youngest of the bunch, he was 19 years old and had 7 years of experience.

Hermann said, "Let's give a thunderous round of applause one last time for our new officers, shall we?" The entire crowd, including the newly-elected officers, clapped and cheered in response.

VFC OFFICERS AS OF 2021:

1st Captain: Arthur Kirkridge (Age: 54. 38 years in the VFC.)

2nd Captain: Winter Schnee (Age: 28. 16 years in the VFC.)

3rd Captain: Julian Sagefield (Age: 38. 18 years in the VFC.)

1st Lieutenant: Hermann Schnee (Age: 53. 41 years in the VFC.)

2nd Lieutenant: Alfred Schnee (Age: 50. 38 years in the VFC.)

3rd Lieutenant: Michael Kirkridge (Age: 30. 18 years in the VFC.)

4th Lieutenant: Amhlaidh Egret (Age: 34. 17 years in the VFC.)

5th Lieutenant: Dafydd ap Llewelyn (Age: 24. 9 years in the VFC.)

6th Lieutenant: Eva Tietz (Age: 28. 14 years in the VFC.)

7th Lieutenant: Matthew Goldstein (Age: 25. 7 years in the VFC.)

8th Lieutenant: Ling Hua Qiao (Age: 25. 11 years in the VFC.)

9th Lieutenant: Ross Key (Age: 19. 7 years in the VFC.)