Welcome to the Great Dunes of Vacuo, where everything is sweltering and anything that can't move is crushed by the roaming titan known as the Mountain.

Within an abandoned settlement, bodies of both Vacuo soldiers and Children followers dot across the area. A harsh battle rages on in the center by a fountain. From a nearby shop, a follower with a rifle ducks under a window while the sound of gunfire and metal clashing can be heard outside. He peaks his head over to see if he can get a clear shot on the enemy.

*THWACK*

A bolt flies out and penetrates his skull the moment he pops his head over, killing him instantly as he falls to the floor. Back to the fountain, only two members of team NDGO remain to fend off a handful of remaining Children forces.

Nebula Violette, leader of team NDGO, purple hair a mess and clothes tattered from combat, swings her crossbow around and takes aim for another target. She spots a follower on a roof preparing to open fire upon her. Quickly taking aim, she fires another bolt at the gunman. Striking him in the throat, he stumbles about before falling off the roof and to his death.

By her side stands Gwen Darcy, hair untouched and clothes fairly torn, the only thing seeing significant damage is her armored skirt. A few throwing knives dot across her skirt as several of them have previously found their way into her enemies. She grabs another throwing knife, twirls on her heel, and flings the slim piece of metal at a charging foe wielding a hatchet. Starting to run low on those knives now.

The other two members, Dew Gayl and Octavia Ember, are sadly no longer by their teammate's sides to help them. One being caught in an explosion early in the battle, the other gunned down by a sniper. The remaining two fear they won't last long as well.

Gwen holds three throwing knives in one hand, ignited with fire dust, and tosses them at two rushing followers with their guns barely at the ready. Before they could take aim, two of the knives embed themselves into the chest of one and immediately ignites him, causing him to flail around and scream as the flames burn away his flesh. The other, a woman, quickly dodges the third knife and takes aim at Gwen with a rifle.

Before Gwen can react, the follower unleashes a barrage of bullets on her. Her aura absorbed a few shots, but after continuous combat, that was all it could take before shattering. The rest of the shots soon tear through her flesh, ripping inner organs apart in seconds, and causes her to let out a surprised and painful wail before a bullet strikes her in the head. She falls to the ground in silence as her body just bleeds out onto the dirt.

The follower soon swings her rifle to the second target, only to be met with a yellow bolt in the shoulder. She immediately convulses as the lightning dust takes effect and roasts her from the inside out.

Only a handful of followers left, Nebula continues to fight by herself. No teammates, no soldiers, all dead. Reinforcements won't arrive for another two hours. So she fought on like a mad woman. A few shots make their mark, either deflected by her aura or just tore through her skin. Nothing fatal, but painful none the less.

Running low on bolts, Nebula shifts her crossbow into a sword and counters an incoming dagger from a charging follower. Sword skills slightly better since the Vytal Festival, she overpowers her opponent and impales them in the chest. She quickly dodges out of the way of oncoming gunfire as her sword changes back into a crossbow. Less than half a dozen followers left now.

After several long minutes of hell, the last follower falls dead to Nebula's crossbow bolts. Several seconds of silence pass by as she scans her surroundings for any more enemies, on edge the whole time as she's panting while sweating bullets. Finding no enemies, she suddenly sees Gwen dead on the ground. She soon realizes that all her friends are now gone forever...... That's a depressing thought.

Tears welling up in her eyes, she tries to shake off the shock and goes for her scroll to report. Thankfully still in one piece. She turns around and looks over to the fountain just behind her. She dials a few buttons, places the scroll up to her ear, and-

*bang*

A bullet flies across the settlement and penetrates the back of Nebula's skull, exiting out the forehead along with blood and gray matter. The force of the shot sends her careening over the fountain edge and into the water with a resounding splash. Over time, her blood begins to soak into the water as she just floats there.

Just outside the settlement, several armored humvees are parked on a dirt road. Sitting in the turret of a humvee is a faunus woman with an albino-like complexion, dressed in nothing but dark combat armor. A rifle with a smoking barrel tight in her hands as she just stares through the scope to her now dead target.

This woman being well known by locals as the savage of the sands, leader of the Ramal Bandits, the chameleon temptress, and the spearhead of the Children's operations in Vacuo.

Be’inik’isik’asē layi Chhle l lau n.... Or just Becky, for those that don't have the time to pronounce her real name.

Becky sets her rifle down in the humvee as she continues to stare at the ghost town of a settlement.

Becky: "sigh" Sooner or later, they're gonna start running out of kids to throw at us... Oh well.

She slams her hand twice on the roof of the humvee, signaling the driver to head back to base. As the vehicle turns around, she twirls a finger in the air to signal the remaining forces on standby to make their way into the settlement.

On the way to her base, Becky turns her head to the left and spots a behemoth of stone off in the distance slowly walking away. The monstrosity that has been terrorizing Vacuo for the past few months, the Mountain. She raises a hand and makes a finger gun gesture, pointing it at the Mountain. She "shoots" it once and goes back to facing ahead. The wind whipping her pale white hair back as they continue to drive.

An hour of driving later, the humvee arrives to an absurd structure. A large vessel that almost looks like an elongated iron ghetto with mounted guns and landing strips. With wheels.

On the side of this land ship is a spray painted sign in bright blue coloring, "OLD RUSTY".

The humvee makes its way around to a ramp and drives up into Old Rusty's interior, passing by vehicles of all kinds parked about. Finally coming to a stop, Becky dismounts from the humvee with her rifle and starts making her way further into the ship to her quarters. Several of her own bandit members and Children followers pass her by as they go about their tasks. The ones that actually know Becky quickly move out of her way before they're even twenty feet near her.

A few minutes of walking later, Becky makes it to her quarters in the tallest section of Old Rusty. Nothing says superiority like looking down on everyone from a high vantage point that everyone can look up at. Unlike the rusted metal style of the entire ship, her quarters look marginally cleaner. A bronze texter room with an array of weapons and trophies scattered across the walls. She mounts her rifle on an empty rack and makes her way to a table with a terminal on it. She clicks on an icon with the words "right_hand_tool" under it. Without delay, someone immediately answers with a gravelly voice.

Vuil: Vuil here, boss. What do you need?

Becky: Report. I've been hearing that Atlas finally got fucked a few days ago. What happened?

Vuil: That's right. While you were away, a lot has happened. Those Cult Kiddies actually managed to take down and concur the military powerhouse of the north. They still have to deal with that Bansher thing-

Becky: Yeah great. Did they finally send anything useful our way? Airships? High grade explosives? Competent fighters?

Vuil: Yes to all three. We have an airship filled with new gear and troops to help out.

Becky:.... I'm sorry, Vuil, I think my hearing has gone to shit from all the sand in my ears. You made it sound like we're getting a singular airship.

Vuil: Yeeeaah. These things take forever to build, you know. Even with the super factories from Atlas. Given what they've went through to get them, I'm surprised they're sparing anything.

Becky: Oh. My. Shit. Do these assholes even know what's going on!? Besides the fucking Mountain being a pain in the ass; the Vacuo government is pulling some Wolfenstein shit with their new gear all of a sudden, the Children's "specialist" Goken has gone missing for over a week now, and we've already used the last of our ballistic missiles to lure the Mountain away from Old Rusty! So unless they've sent an army and a shit ton of missiles, we might as well bail out of this war before we end up with several caps up our asses.

Vuil: U-um, from what I've been told, we are recieving multiple stockpiles of missiles and several new specialists. All within a battle class dreadnought as well.

Becky: Fantabulous. That's a start, I guess... What about that bigass train from Vale, has that arrived yet?

Vuil: Our scouts haven't found any trains arriving at any of the military compounds, or even near the border for that matter.

Becky: Damnit, I wanted to pull off an old fashioned train robbery! Fuck it, that can wait. When will this dreadnought arrive?

Vuil: Less than a day.

Becky: Sick.

She disconnects the call and makes her way to her bed, shedding away her combat armor until she's only in a tank top and shorts. Scars old and fresh littered across her form. She jumps into her bed as she lets out a relieving sigh.

Becky: "siiigh" I should have showered first...... Sleep more important. Bathe later...

Within seconds, Becky clocks out to sleep. Ignoring the bulkhead violently vibrating from Old Rusty's artillery cannons going off.

----

Within a super secret Children base in a super secret location, the Dynamic Trio arrive to Tollgerr's presence with the super secret data.

p0zi0ner: Yo, Tollgster, we're back! And we got the files to that Vytal Remembrance thing.

Regret: And I found a new gun! I shall name it Browny.

Warlider retrieves the data chip from his person and hands it to Tollgerr.

Warlider: I hope it's worth it, we had to kill a lot of people to get this thing. Not that I mind, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat just for the hell of it.

Tollgerr: If done in the name of the Father, anything is worth it. Besides your utter lack of discretion with the mission, you have done well to complete it.

Warlider: Bitchin'. So what's next? Does it involve more killing?

Regret: Please tell me it involves more killing.

Tollgerr: Your disturbing excitement is noted..... Actually, yes. Yes there is something that involves just that.

The three let out a momentary cheer as they let him continue.

Tollgerr: Have any of you heard of the flora situation in Mistral?