At all times your enemy may try and usurp your position.

Take care to not to allow them any traction, whether in discussion or combat.

When in doubt, confer with your commander.

-IMC Field Operations Manual, Chapter 2 Section 3

"-and so, if you will please submit to the requests put forth by this unit and its compatriots, the IMC shall annex this planet and you will have yourselves a time-share in the core worlds and three coupons to a drink shop that only exists one day per year. Furthermore-"

It just wouldn't stop talking. Endless patriotic bull about rewards and bonuses, all lies of course. Every sentence, every word, made Ellis' job much harder. Ellis didn't want to completely decommission the thing, on account of its stellar thesaurus function, but this was getting out of hand. He had to do something.

Luckily, he didn't have to.

Widow, after a loud fit of laughter, was on top of her game. Her data-knife in one hand, her other barely covering the amused smile on her face at the robot's antics, she walked behind the DSC and roughly inserted the knife into the data transfer port on the back of its head.

"-tlawing of chicken pe…" The robot finally stopped its rant, the code injection from the data-knife causing the robot to enter a quiet self-diagnostic mode to scrub its memory.

Ellis wasn't sure how exactly the data-knife worked, even after all of his service with the IMC. The last person he asked had claimed the things worked on belief and a pilot's dreams, but that just sounded ridiculous. It was clearly pure magic that the things worked. Who makes a knife that can't be used as a knife, anyways?

The sound of Widow and Graves dragging the DSC off to the corner of the room brought Ellis out of his thoughts. He turned back to the man standing behind the desk at the back of the room, mind set on concluding business with this planet.

"So what your friend said; is all of it true?" Ozpin looked merely amused at the spiel the DSC had given him, his expression seeming to scream 'you'll take our world from our cold, dead hands.' It was remarkably unsettling.

"Um,"

'Don't fuck this up. Remember what happened on Demeter.'

"You see,"

'Not gonna get attacked by a legion of shitty spectre knockoffs, nope.'

"…Sorta?"

Ozpin raised an eyebrow at Ellis' awkward statement and walked around to the side of his desk, the same smile on his face the entire time. His hand went into a side compartment in the desk.

'Please don't push the Release Killbots button, pleeeeaaaase don't hit that button.'

Ellis' body tensed in expectation for the inevitable battle to the death with a horde of terribly made robots that spouted off awful one-liners from ancient movies. Ozpin chuckled quietly at the defensive stance of the pilot, his hand returning from the compartment with a second mug filled to the brim with some kind of warm drink.

"Do you drink tea?"

The question caught Ellis off-guard, his face passing through confusion and settling back on seriousness.

"Sometimes." Ellis cautiously replied.

"Then, please, let's sit and discuss these… 'terms' like reasonable persons."

Ozpin gestured to a wooden chair in front of his desk. Ellis, still wary of the man's actions, sat down in the chair with obvious reluctance on his face. Ozpin shifted to speak to the woman, her face still in a state of shock and anger.

"Glynda, would you show this man's… what is your name?"

"Ellis"

"Thank you. Would you show Mr. Ellis' friends to an empty dorm room? Make sure they are comfortable. They may be with us for a time."

'What is that, a code for 'Hey, send these guys to the death-trap room'?'

The woman grumbled a short confirmation to the grey-haired man, her face switching to contempt and anger. She walked back to the elevator, gesturing for the remaining pilots to follow her. They looked back at Ellis, searching for advice. Ellis sighed and threw his hand up toward the elevator and woman.

Reluctantly, the other pilots shuffled toward the elevator. Equally reluctantly, Ellis turned back to Ozpin when his team had boarded the elevator. The grey-haired man placed the mug of tea onto the desk for Ellis. Ozpin returned to his seat, sipped his drink, and gently set his mug down. His hands came together and covered his mouth.

"So you want our planet?" Ozpin's bluntness of speech kept throwing off Ellis' concentration.

"Uh… Well… Not us particularly. Our… bosses are the ones who want your planet."

Ellis grabbed the mug of tea Ozpin had given him, taking a small sip to test it for any poison or otherwise. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Ozpin giving him an amused smile.

"The tea has no poison, if that's what you are worried about."

"I-wait, what?" Ellis had confusion written across his face. "How did you know what I was doing?"

"The look is the same that one of my old teammates always had." Ozpin had the same smile on his face as he mentioned his past. "How is the tea? Not too strong?"

"Uh… I… um…" Ellis was not used to dealing with kind and considerate individuals. Most of the leaders he had met prior to now were either insane, corrupt, greedy, or some combination of the three.

'This guy is hiding something.' Ellis took a larger sip of the warm tea.

"I can assure you, I am hiding nothing."

Ozpin's statement took Ellis by surprise, making him cough out what little of the tea he had just drunk.

"Excuse me?" Ellis coughed.

"Your face is surprisingly easy to read."

Ellis sighed. "Guess that's what I get for expecting a helmet to always hide my emotions."

"You wear your helmet a good amount?"

"Whenever I'm not showering or sleeping."

Ozpin gave Ellis a sympathetic smile, and then took another sip of his drink. Ellis shook his head, getting his mind refocused.

"How the hell do you keep doing that!?" Ellis said, exasperated at the other man's reading of his thoughts.

"Doing what?" Ozpin said innocently.

"Reading my mind, getting me to tell you things! It's freaking me out!"

"All I am doing is having a friendly conversation with a man who wants to take our planet from us."

"Uh… right. About that." Ellis had realized the purpose of Ozpin's questions: to gain information about the IMC's plans. "Can I just tell you the truth?"

"Of course."

"The ship that brought us here detected tons and tons of wildlife on this planet and most of this planet was covered in shadow or something. Don't remember the technical term for it. In any case, our job was to come in and clear this place out so the miners could land and start drilling. For some reason your city didn't appear on the scan, and we landed in the middle of it. One thing led to another and now I am here telling you about this."

"Mhm…" Ozpin was listening intently to Ellis' tale, nodding his head in understanding.

"Personally, I don't like the idea of uprooting a whole damn planet, but the IMC is constantly looking for new fuel sources."

"And they won't leave us alone unless we do what they want, correct?"

"Essentially, yes."

"And they are looking for a new fuel source? Something like…Dust?"

"Dust?"

'I've heard that term before…'

"A naturally occurring energy propellant that is used in almost everything in our world. I can provide you with more information if you wish to know more about it."

'Dust. Eyebrows. ZERES. Oh, shit.'

"Soooo, this Dust stuff. What exactly does it do? Like say, could you singe your eyebrows off if you aren't careful while handling it?"

"I suppose you could. As for what it does, as I said, it is an energy propellant. I can get you some materials from our library if you or your team wishes to learn more about the thing you want to take off this world."

"Yeah… yeah, that would be much appreciated."

"Back to your 'terms' now, yes?"

"Uh, sure."

Ozpin looked expectantly at Ellis.

"And they are?"

"Oh, right!" Ellis' mind shifted back to the original speech he had prepared. "We will give you one week to either arrange transport off this world or to prepare a reasonable sample of the fuel source you call Dust for IMC scientists. If you fail to do either of these things within the time-frame, the IMC will take this planet by force."

Ozpin had the 'come and take it' smile back on his face as he gave a counter offer.

"Understandable. But I request that you and your team stay on our world for the full waiting period. I will grant you access to the city, academy, a large allowance of Lien, and the services of my tailor."

"You have a personal tailor?"

"Not personally, he is just a very good tailor." Ozpin sipped his drink as he waited for Ellis' response.

Ellis was in thought for a good minute as he considered the deal Ozpin had offered. A thought crossed his mind and he looked back up at Ozpin.

"Why do you want us to stay?"

Ozpin sipped his drink, placing it onto his desk before answering Ellis' question.

"I want you to see what our world is like. What you will be ruining by destroying the civilizations that have developed here. I want you to see what we can do."

Ellis squinted his eyes in suspicion at the headmaster.

"With all due respect, Mr. Ozpin, I don't think the IMC cares what your world can offer, except for the fuel."

"I didn't say I wanted the IMC to care."

"Then what do you mean?"

"That's for you to find out over the next week, isn't it?" A light came on Ozpin's tablet. "Now then, shall I take you to the room you and your team will be staying in for the week?"

He didn't wait for Ellis to answer. He was already walking toward the elevator when he asked Ellis the question. Of course, it didn't seem like a question, more like an order. Ellis sighed and got up from his chair, moving to follow Ozpin back into the elevator.

The pair of leaders walked down the empty nighttime hallways of the school toward the dorms. Ellis hung back from Ozpin, still suspicious of his intentions. Ozpin paid Ellis no heed, walking calmly down the halls of his academy.

Ozpin stopped suddenly, causing Ellis to nearly trip over himself. Ozpin gestured to the door he had stopped in front of.

"Here are your accommodations for the week. We hope they are well enough for emissaries from the stars."

Ozpin opened the door for Ellis, gesturing him to enter. He entered, and was immediately glomped by Zeres Melrin.

"Holyshitpopsithoughyouweredeadordyingandjackpunchedmeandihadanawesomedreamandtherewereexplosionsandotherstufficantrememberandthenoliviapunchedmeinthenutsandithurtsawholelotthenwidowsaidiwasstupidand-" The maniac clung to Ellis, spouting off huge amounts of speech at what seemed like hundreds of words per minute. Ellis was not impressed.

"Melrin?"

"Yeah, Pops?" Zeres paused his unstoppable rant to listen to what Ellis had to say to him.

*CRACK*

Zeres clutched his face in pain. "OWWWWW! OW OW OWWWW! Why'd you punch me in the nose?"

"Because I don't like having my squad hanging on my leg when the last time I saw them, they were unconscious."

"Uh…"

"Just go sit down, we've got… new information on the situation."

"Alright…" Zeres scrambled onto one of the open beds in the room, rubbing his nose to make the pain go away.

"Listen up team," Ellis called his squad as he closed the door behind him, "we've got new intel and we need to go over it real quick."

"Yes sir!" Graves' face lit up at the sight of Ellis.

Once everyone was settled into the room, Ellis began.

"So, we've given and been given ultimatums. On our side, they leave the planet or provide the egg-heads on the ship with a sample of the fuel source they call 'Dust' within one week, or the IMC is gonna come knocking on their door."

"Why are we going to tell the IMC?" inquired Widow, cocking her head at Ellis' statement.

"I never said we were going to call the IMC, but we get paid to clear planets, and the guys in the ship get paid to get fuel. And I'm pretty sure the guys on the ship won't really give a damn about ideological bull like what Ozpin is giving out."

"So, we're effectively going to betray the IMC by our actions?" Graves looked confused. "How will we get off this planet when we are dead?"

"We are going to try and keep the suits off this planet. I'd hate to be the one who ordered an orbital bombardment of an uncharted colony full of civilians."

"Yes sir."

"You mentioned that we were given an ultimatum, Pops. What is this ultimatum?" Spade asked, rubbing Zeres' nose as she did.

"Correct, we were." Ellis took a deep breath. "We have been told to stay on the planet for the duration of the waiting period. In other words, we are stuck here for one week."

"Hey, at least we can take care of some of that whole 'wildlife problem' thing, right?" Zeres nose had turned a much more healthy shade of red, allowing him to contribute to the discussion. "Kill some stuff, have some fun… what's the harm in that?"

"Shut up, Melrin! Ellis isn't done talking!" Widow berated her squadmate for his brashness. Her heart was in the right place. Ellis sighed and continued.

"Sorry, Widow, but Melrin is effectively correct." Widow's face dropped at Ellis' remark. "Ozpin told me that we are to, essentially, enjoy the planet while it's still here."

Widow looked at Ellis in complete disbelief, her mouth completely agape. Spade quickly broke the silence.

"Did he say how exactly we are to go about our enjoying of this world? It's not like I packed my travel toothbrush and everything. Or, anything, come to think of it."

"He said we are going to have access to the city and school to wander around in, plus a large amount of something he called Lien. No doubt it is this world's money."

"Anything else?" Graves looked expectantly at Ellis, her face concerned at the thought of staying on this planet for the week.

Ellis thought for a moment.

"He also said he would call his tailor for us to use."

"Ooh la la! This Ozpin guy certainly knows how to treat a lady!" Spade rested her chin on her hand and fluttered her eyelids as she complimented Ozpin's gifts. Ellis sighed.

"We can worry about all this intel in the morning. For now, we need some rest. That includes you, Melrin."

A disappointed groan issued from the hyperactive explosives expert. Quickly, each squadmember claimed an empty bed for themselves. The stoic listener that was Jack broke the silence as they all settled into the comfortable beds.

"By the way, Mark… where's the DSC?"

In the dark office of Beacon Headmaster Ozpin was a forgotten machine. Hacked and dragged off hours before, the robot only finished its self-diagnostic routines just now.

"Self-Diagnostic Cleaning complete." The Mark II Diplomatic Spectre Chassis chimed out to no one. "Would you like to send the recent function, system, and audio logs to the primary server for parsing? Please say yes or no."

No one answered the lonely robot. Several minutes passed before it finally settled on its default option.

"No answer chosen. Automatically sending logs to primary server for parsing, please standby."

A/N And that's another chapter done. More chapters to come as soon as I can make them!

Review, Follow, Fave, Potato. See you later!

Review Response Time!

Grimkid98: Sorry to disappoint your lust for roboticide.

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The rakiat: I will allow this race idea. But we all know who would win. (Spoiler: Best Girl would)