Two soldiers walked through a forest until reaching an odd-shaped tree, in which they stopped to rest. One a short, scraggly man with a security guard uniform, the other a tall, slightly chunky man with the same uniform. The two were supposed to be on perimeter patrol, defending Utility Now Labs from an unknown threat.

"Hey Mekh." The Tall one called to the slightly shorter one.

"Yeah?" The short one responded as he pulled his water bottle to his mouth and drank.

"You ever wonder why we're here?"

…They were supposed to be doing that, but they heard from Paul in the break lounge that this was all just a drill in case someone actually did try to steal the Rithmamawhatever it was called. Mekh, really wasn't paying that much attention during the assembly.

Mekh seemed to think about it for a second. "It's one of life's great mysteries isn't it? Why are we here?" He put the water bottle into his backpack's water slot and continued. "Like, are we a product of some giant, cosmic coincidence? Or is there really a God, watching all of us, with like, a plan for us and stuff?" he sighed. "I don't know man, but it keeps me up at night…"

The tall man looked at his partner with a confused face. "What? I meant like, why are we out here? In this forest? What's all this stuff about God?"

"Oh…" Mekh silently retreated back, trying to reel back in his existential rant.

"Do…you wanna talk about it?"

"Nope!" Mekh rapidly said.

"O..kay…Anyway, I meant, like, why are we out here, in this forest? And further more, why is our secret government facility located in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees?!"

Mekh looked behind him to the towering building. A large and very obvious blight on the green, lush wooded area around it. "Oh yeah..Kinda makes you wonder why we're doing our secret investigation in the forest and not deep in some mountains.."

"Yeah."

A silence fell between them as they looked out ahead to more wooded area.

"Alright ladies, enough yappin' we got a war to win!" A strong voice came from behind the two.

The pair turned to the source. A man in a head Security Guard Uniform began walking towards the two with about 10 other people behind him.

The two stood at attention in panic whilst picking up their backpacks. "Sir!" They said in unison.

"Enough with the Sir stuff! Ship Wars, RWBY, and uh any other thing I forgot to mention!" The man walks past the two and the group behind him follows.

Mekh and the other man clutch at their heads as a sharp, stinging pain begins to appear. "Ahh..What the…chief?" Mekh comes to and remembers that this was all in fact, an Anomaly Zone. He was a soldier for the small Nation of Smoke, and was currently in a match against that one Bee soldier who said she could take on the army of Smoke all by herself.

"Yeah, now shut up! We have confirmation on the Bee." The man, "Chief", continued walking on with the group of, now 12, security guards following him. "Picked up on our scanners the enemy ship landing in a nearby patch of woods." Chief smiled and turned towards the group. "Any of you ladies wanna take a fun guess as to which patch that is?"

Mekh raised his hand but his taller friend lowered it.

"That's right! This one! So our job is to take out that Bee before she makes it to the lab, where we have the "Flag" stored in the tallest level of the Tower!" The man continued walking.

"Wow, sir. That was very…informative…" Mekh muttered to himself.

Chief clutched his hand in the air to signal the troop to stop, they obeyed just as they reached a clearing in the forest. The Clearing was peaceful, even with the sharp and intimidating futuristic ship placed in the middle of said clearing. The Ship looked insect like, fitting in with the Hive's incessant want to keep up a theme. A little ways away from the ship stood a rather tall woman in the middle of a flower bed wearing an intimidating Bee helmet. She crouched down to observe some flowers and…the bees pollinating said flowers.

The Bee soldier was wearing a typical Cat-Suit along with a light tactical vest. Her black catsuit had a bright yellow line running down from her hip down to her heel on the left leg.

The Chief instantly signaled them to get down for cover. The troop, collectively, laid down in a stealthy fashion, hiding their noise with the nearby chirping of a cricket.

"Now, men," a small ahem was heard from the back of the group. "And Mia, don't be fooled! Our enemy might just be her, but that don't mean this will be an easy fight! Not by a long-shot. We'll need our maximum effort from all of us, and we can't for one second-"

"I say we fight at her one at a time." A soldier said, but of course all the soldiers were wearing security guard uniforms so the scene looked more like a group of security guards lying down on the floor of a forest.

"Dude, what the hell?" Mekh turned to his partner.

The Chief stopped his planning and looked behind his shoulder to the soldier stupid enough to suggest that, which in turn caused the other soldiers to do the same. "Pardon?"

The Soldier, still not realizing he had said something extremely stupid, continued. "Yeah, our only weapons are a baton and a taser, each. If we go one at a time we can tire her out better." He reasoned. Mekh face palmed.

The Chief looked at him. "Boy!" He reached behind him, grabbed the soldier by the arm, and dragged him forward. "Now you look me in the eyes and tell me you want to charge a Bee soldier trained in one-to-one hand to hand combat one at a time!" He began shaking the soldier.

"Uh…yes?" The shaking stopped.

"Fine. Everyone, instead of charging at the Bee to outnumber her, we will instead attack one at a time in a relay! And Private, uh, what's your name, son?"

"Beryy, Beryy Awesome, sir."

"Of course it is…Private Beryy here," He slapped the soldier's back. "Will be the first to go!" The other soldiers looked confused. "Alright, Beryy, go get a victory for Smoke!" Chief encouraged.

Beryy nodded and stood up from the shrubbery. He took out his taser gun before he began sneaking around to get an advantageous position to surprise attack.

Mekh looked at his partner as he sneaked away, he crawled up to the Chief. "Uh, sir, are we really gonna attack the Bee one at a time?" He asked. "Because that sounds like…a bad idea…"

"Course we ain't." Chief said as he pulled out some binoculars. "Just wanted Private Beryy to see the error of his stupidity." He looked at the Bee soldier with a sadistic smile. "Once Berry gets smacked around a little, we overpower her with a group surprise attack. Cause there's one of her, and 13 of us!"

Psiah crouched over the flower bed. She sighed as she looked at the bottom left corner of her helmet's radar system. A blip. She stood up to look around, or at least pretend to. She knew exactly where the enemy was, all of them.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" A loud voice came from behind her.

Psiah sighed. Idiots, the whole lot of them.

In one fluid motion, she dodged to left and avoided a taser shot and pivoted on her left foot to spin-kick the incoming enemy. The hit landed, hitting the soldier in the head sending him to the ground causing him to drop the taser gun, already used up.

Psiah looked at the man on the floor. A security guard. She cracked her neck and took a fighting stance as the soldier stood up.

Beryy stood up, still slightly dizzy from the hit his jaw took. He reached to the sheath on his belt holding his extendable baton and flailed it to the right to unfurl it. He took a stance.

Psiah sized up the weapon and the man, as she did so anything she focused on highlighted and presented a pop-up with more information. She shook her head lightly to dismiss the pop-ups.

'1 and half foot-long baton. Simple steel. No modifications. Let's do this.' She extended a hand out before bringing the fingers towards her to taunt.

The soldier, being a background character, took the bait. He charged with his baton and swung downwards to the Bee soldier. She backed out and easily dodged a few more attacks before seeing an opening in the soldier's franticly wide swings.

She took one step forward, breaking her attacker's focus for just a second. That second was more than enough as Psiah used her open palm to strike Beryy's jaw upwards, lifting him off the ground a bit. Before the soldier could recover, she turned on her feet and with the momentum, punched the soldier in the chest. The hit caused him to be launched back several feet until he hit a tree. Upon impact with the tree the Soldier's body began glowing a bright blue hue before shattering. The shards floated upwards before disintegrating mid-air.

Without hesitation, Psiah reached into her utility belt and pulled out three throwing knives and placed them in between her fingers. She turned to a bush, the same bush the small Smoke troop was hiding behind, and nodded.

"B-Beryy.." Mekh trembled as his friend evaporated into thin air.

"She knows we're here…Now! Now Dammit!" Chief instructed. The Soldiers all stood up and charged.

Psiah turned to face the horde of Security Guards. In a swiping motion, she threw the knives hitting two soldiers in the shoulder and one in the knee. She took a stance and smiled under the helmet.

Two soldiers approached her with their taser guns pointed at her. With only a small time-frame, she ducked under the shots and swept at their legs, effectively knocking them down. While crouched the Bee soldier leaned back and flipped backwards to kick an incoming enemy and avoid the downward swipe of a baton.

Psiah needed to disperse the group, thankfully, she knew how. She reached into her tactical vest and pulled out a round object with a pin in it. She threw the grenade at the crowd approaching her.

"Hit the deck!" A soldier yelled, making a few soldiers who hadn't been paying attention disperse, some while diving away from the grenade.

"No you dunderheads! It's a f-" Psiah, with a surprising amount of speed, charged at the one leading the assault and punched him across his face, sending him flying a few feet away and shattering his body like Beryy's. The Soldiers looked as their chief had been taken out. Without direction, they resorted to charging on the Bee soldier hoping that outnumbering her would be enough.

Psiah sighed under the helmet as she pulled out two small, curved daggers.

The first soldier approached and brought his baton down only for Psiah to parry it and quickly turn around to stab the soldier's arm, she kicked him away and turned. As he backed down another one stepped up to attack her. Psiah punched the approaching enemy in the chest, sending him back a bit, before slashing at their abdomen. She high-kicked the soldier in the jaw and then brought it down on his head, making him shatter under her heel.

She turned as she blocked a punch from a guard with no Baton. 'Dolt with no weapon means-' She ducked before she finished the thought, causing the guard who she blocked earlier take his friend's double attack that was intended for Psiah. 'Dolt with two..'

A buzzing noise emitted from the Bee soldier's helmet. Both Soldier's standing over her look down only to be hit with a metal contraption that came from the Bee's back, a pair of metallic wings, lifting them a few feet in the air. Psiah quickly sprang up and split kicked the duo causing them to shatter.

The Bee soldier landed and took a fighting stance. After watching their troop of thirteen quickly whittled to a measly seven people standing, the horde of security guards stood their ground.

"Fine. I'll come to you." Psiah said but thanks to her helmet's communication disrupter it came out as a series of Buzzes. After recognizing that her sentence didn't quite hit the intimidation factor she had hoped for, she sighed and rushed towards the seven soldiers.

Time seemed to slow down as she looked at the scene ahead of her. The soldiers were approaching her in a line formation. It'd be hard to sidestep away from them or duck under their attacks. More so, if she charges at any one of them to try to pierce their defenses the other 6 will fold in around her and surround her. While she could take them all down she needs to take as little damage to finish the mission and her goal.

Psiah looked at the seven soldiers in front of her. The third and sixth soldier from the left were the one's she lodged a knife into their shoulders. The first one from the left was the one who's arm she stabbed. From the corner of her vision she could see some movement from behind the wall of people, and even further back in the bushes was one soldier. Time resumed as she decided what to do.

She kept her charge as the soldiers took out their taser guns. 3. They aimed at her but stood in place. 2. They fired on her position. 1.

Psiah jumped high, assisted with her suit's wings, as the taser shots collided and tangled amongst themselves. Upside down, time slowed down as she saw her two targets, the female soldier who she stabbed in the knee, and a short man hunched over a radio. In one motion she threw her daggers with great force at the two targets.

Just as Mia reached her hand out for the undetonated hand grenade, she felt a sharp sting in her head for just a moment before darkness and the sound of glass breaking.

Mekh had stayed back in the bushes despite the chief's orders to charge. He just saw his friend "die" in three hits! That Bee soldier could wipe them all out! Staying further back only helped prove his point s he watched three more people shatter, one of them being his chief. After his chief died he attempted to contact base. After finally finding the base's signal he heard two more shatters.

"This is Private Mekh Aplayz, contacting Smoke headquarters! We need back-up! I repeat, we need back-up! We-" That was as far as he was able to get before a dagger pierced the radio and his hand pinning him to the tree behind him. Mekh cried out in pain as his hand was now pierced at the palm and plunged into the tree behind him.

Psiah landed just as both Knives made contact with their targets. The screaming from the pinned Soldier snapped the Soldier line out of their stupor, making them turn around.

"Alright, it's been fun, but I really need to wrap this up." Psiah said, but once again her helmet only projected her speech as buzzes. Psiah's wings folded back into her vest.

The soldiers watched in a mix of horror and curiosity as the Bee soldier opened her arms and from her sleeves came long, thin, sharp blades with many joints. The blades were painted Yellow with each edge having a lining of black. The joints came undone turning the blades into a whip like weapon made of many small razors.

The soldiers stood still, too scared to move until one finally yelled out in a powerful battle cry and charged. The soldiers, finding a new impulse, charged as Psiah jumped into a wide spin move slicing at the soldier's legs and abdomens with her dual whips.

The soldiers fell to their knees.

It was time for Psiah's finishing move. The whole sub was watching and now was the time to demonstrate the power of the Hive. Psiah retracted one blade whip, leaving one left unfurled. She flung her right wrist making her whip wrap around a Smoke soldier's throat. The bladed ropes cut at his neck as the soldier desperately tried to pull it off. Psiah shook her arm a bit and one by one the joints began to straighten out the whip into its original stinger form, crushing the soldier's neck in the process. With a shatter the soldier is gone and in his place floats shard like lights that soon too, disintegrate.

The Bee soldier turns from the sight to look at the remaining Soldiers, shaking in fear. Some even crying. She could show mercy, show that the Hive isn't a violent or cruel Nation without cause. But doing so shows a weakness, a weakness she can't afford in a Ship War. She buzzes a sorry as in one motion, she shatters the remaining six soldiers with a flick of her arm.

Mekh, who had witnessed all this, panics and begins to pull on the knife as his survival instinct kicks in. He knows he'll live, he knows none of this is real, he knows it will all be over soon. But his eyes and hands tell him that this is it…and that thought scares him the most.

Mekh grabs some sleeve and chews on it as he begins to pull the knife from the broken radio and his hand. He grits his teeth as the pain courses through his system until he yanks the knife out. He pulls his hand out from the tree and begins running, not even bandaging his hand. He runs as fast as he can but only gets a few feet before he feels a stinging pain wrap around his ankle and tug him down. Mekh claws at the ground only in vain as he's dragged closer and closer to the massacre site. He can feel an intimidating presence behind him as tears begin to well in his eyes, both from the pain and the fear. He turns around to see the daunting figure of a Bee soldier staring him down.

The soldier reaches for his taser gun and shoots the Bee Soldier. The hit lands on Psiah stomach, the Bee Soldier observes as the machine makes some noises, but she doesn't flinch. With one hand she pulls it out and yanks the gun from Mekh's hand, tossing it aside. The Soldier resigns to his fate as he holds his hands up.

"I-I-I yield! I y-yield! P-please! I-I'll leave you alone! I'll tell you anything! Please!" He stutters through sobs.

The Bee soldier seems to think it over before pressing a button on the side of her helmet, pulling back the plates on her Mask to reveal insect like eyes on a human face. Two small antennae protruded from the Bee Soldier's forehead. She blinked.

Mekh's eyes widened, still stained with tears, as he saw the Bee soldier's face. He winced as the Bee soldier tightened the bladed whip around his ankle. "Sorry! It's just your face is very, unique!" He nervously laughed.

The Bee Soldier looked unamused. "Where. Is. The. Flag." Psiah didn't ask, she ordered.

Mekh could only mutter a confused look until the blade whip tightened once more.

"The Flag, Ship Wars?" The Soldier beneath her doesn't speak. "I believe in this Anomaly Zone it's disguised as the Arithmamalloy?"

Mekh finally finds his words. "TH-THE TOWER!" He yells. "Th-the Chief said that the Flag was located on the top of the tower." He points behind him to the tall, futuristic sky scraper. All at once the pain rushes to his brain as he looks at the hole all the way through his palm. "It's at the top! H-here!" He throws his ID at her, she catches it with ease. "My ID can get you far, just don't kill me. Please."

Psiah pocketed the ID and sighed.

Mekh feels at ease as his ankle is released. The whip retreats back into the Bee soldier's sleeve and she extends her other hand out to the fallen soldier.

He smiles, looks her in the eyes as he takes her offered hand before feeling a sharp sting in his chest. He begins shaking as he looks from the Soldier's insect eyes down to her arm all the way to the long stinger reaching along his arm, and piercing his chest. He coughs up some blood as it begins lighting up and disintegrating.

He looks back up to the Bee's face. "W-why?" He weakly mutters.

The Bee Soldier's helmet simply closes, silently delivering her answer.

Mekh feels weak as he closes his eyes and hears the sound of glass shattering.

"That was scary…" Generic says as he looks to the screen. He feels cold all over, despite wearing his heavy cloak.

"No honor. That is not a way anybody should lead." Whale criticizes as he looks up at the large screen as well.

Torrasque finished his notes. "It seems that the Bee's arsenal consisted of knives with those whip blades being her main weapon. But that's just her so I don't think it wise to assume that they'll all be the same."

Sergeant Rade Blunner grimaced. "If that was a Pun, I swear…"

"I don't think it was." Strike says as he looks around.

The AAA were in one of the ten sections of the Commons Area at the moment. A room separate from the Broadcasting Room, but not too far away. Connected to the Dining Hall, this was often the place where Representatives and the like, got to watch the battle with a meal. Sometimes the battle could last all Four days needed. Though not usually.

The AAA had come together at a table to eat and watch the fight. Scope out the competition. Just like every other faction was doing.

"Yo, I was gonna ask if this is where the cool kids sat, until I realized who was actually sitting here." Celtic called out as he set his plate on the table.

Whale rolled his eyes. "And if this is the loser's table, then what does that say about you, who sits here?"

Celtic chuckled as he took a bite of his bread and turned to the large screen displaying the Bumblebee v Smoke War. "An opportunist. Not many people come here because of the scary dude with the scar, a revolution participant, and a Whale War Monger." The group slightly recoiled back as they were called out. A quick look around confirmed that this area, slightly lower than the rest, was deserted except for the AAA. "Face it, ya'll are the unpopular kids. So, I just came here to watch the fight that really matters, because I can actually speak my mind here without people trying to shut me up just so they can protect the Bee's fragile egos." He turned once more and looked at Generic, pale in the face and slightly shaking with his plate of food untouched.

"Woah, what's gotten into you, Newbie? First time seeing some action?" The Strategist didn't talk. "Heh, this is only the surface of the barrel, trust me. You see enough shootouts; you eventually calm at the sound of bullets." Celtic said as he turned to the screen to see the rewind of Psiah stabbing the wounded soldier on the ground, begging for mercy. "Harsh."

Whale rolled his eyes. "Very deep, thought provoking stuff, I'm sure." He coldly said. "But seriously, this area is AAA only!"

Celtic smirked. "Aw, that's cute. You think this little Alliance of yours is legit. Face it, Beluga Boy, this alliance is flawed. Look around, you only have your Jaune ships here. I thought McDouggal and Jannis were part of your alliance? Yet where, pray tell, are they?" He pointed behind him to a table where Jannis was sitting, eating and chatting with other Representatives, big smile on his face while McDouggal was also talking with Nitesco.

"Just saying, yesterday is when you two dunces declared Lancaster and White Knight on your friendship list. It's no coincidence that around that time, Arkosian support dropped, drastically." Celtic's watch displays a holographic screen showing a popularity poll.

Whale's eyes widen as he sees the numbers.

"Lowest of all the Big Four…" Strike mutters as he clenches his fist.

"Want my professional opinion? Ditch the Losers, you'll get to sit out on a lot of future drama, nothing is official yet until Friday, and your support might go back up!" Celtic smiled as he closed the panel.

Whale looked mad. "Alright, that's enough!" He stands up at the same time as Strike and Rade. The three loom over the Hacker.

Torrasque looks over to Generic, slightly shaking. "Hey, it's all right. Once we announce the full plan tomorrow their ratings will go back up, and so will ours." He places a hand on his shoulder and reassures the Strategist. "Everything in your plan will work out."

The Two Whale humanoid's return back to the table with their trays of food and sensing the atmosphere, pop up behind Celtic.

"You have no idea what our plans even are, Falsum Coronam," Celtic's eyes glare as Strike mentions the name.

"Watch it" He interrupts the Pilot Oligarch.

"You're not the only one who can come up with clever nicknames." Strike says as the two leaders stare each other down. "You can't make assumptions as to what our goals are, you call me a puppy when you are worse. You are an Apathy ship, you claim your place at the top and celebrate the fact that you are uncontested. When in reality, no one cares!" Strike retorts back. "You are uncontested because no one thinks there's a better option for your characters so they don't give a flying fuck! Then you get up on your high horse and speak about fighting oppression! HA! Don't make me laugh!"

Celtic stands up, causing everyone else to tense up and the two who were sitting down, to stand up as well.

"Doesn't change the fact that you are, and forever will be, a Puppy." Celtic glared back.

The tension was thick in the room, the Bee fight completely disregarded as neither side gave way.

"HEY GUYS COME HERE!" Slip Snap popped out of nowhere. The tension disappeared as the group turned to the cheery voice.

"What is it, Slip?" Rade turned to his second.

"The guys who were dying in the screen are dying in real life too!" He smiled. "Come on!"

A look of confusion spread through the group as they looked between each other before silently deciding to follow the Warrior.

"Jannis. McDouggal. You guys might not want to miss this." Whale said to the two.

The pair looked at each other before excusing themselves from their own respective conversations and following the AAA.

As the group followed the White Knight Champion Celtic hung in the back, still keeping pace. Generic approached him.

"Uhm, Celtic, those popularity polls, how'd you get 'em?" The strategist hushed his voice a bit so as not to be heard from the group.

Celtic smirks. "I've got my ways, the Renorian army isn't just a big shield manufacturer. Why, you want info, Newbie?"

The Strategist looks ahead to the group following after Slip Snap. "It's for the Alliance, I need to know what the political sphere is like if I'm to make correct battle decisions."

Celtic thought it over. "Okay, fine. I'll give you the database knowledge. But you owe me a big one." Celtic smiles as he swipes on his Net-Watch.

( ^ o ^ ) b Carl appeared on Generic's Net-Watch for a second before a new folder appeared on the Strategist's screen.

Celtic rushes off to join up with the group. "Pleasure doing business with you, Newbie." Generic also speeds up to catch up with the group.