RWBY: Just A COG In The Machine

Glowie Piece of Shit

After the night of respite it was time to move to the mine.
Isaac had just finished reciting his usual Creed as the group arrived at a large blast door that was littered with SDC trailers and transport vehicles in front of the large metal door that had a dirty, worn, sign the front that read "SHAFT 237". The only sign of anything friendly being in the area was a pair of SDC Atlas Knights standing in front of the blast door.
"Where is everyone?"
Fox asked.
"Perhaps they know."
Yatsuhashi guessed as he motioned toward the mechanical soldiers.
As the team walked toward the Knights, Coco was the first to speak up.
"Hey where is everyone?"
She asked the Knight.
"All biological workers are assigned inside the mine unless dictated otherwise by the site manager."
A Knight with red markings, said in its mechanical tone.
"And where is the site manager?"
Coco asked, her eyebrow raised.
"He assigned himself the task of gathering more security and support."
The Knight said.
CVFY sighed in disappointment, knowing the manager will most likely never return.
"Well at least we know where everyone is."
Isaac said.
"Can you open the door? We're a team from Beacon. We got a call for help a day ago."
Velvet asked.
"Affirmative."
The Knight, now identified as the leader of the two Knights, said and moved to an ID scanner and plugged itself in.
The heavy doors opened, revealing a disturbing sight. Several bodies, clad in dirty miner garb that had an extra layer of blood, covered the floor in a way that seemed like they were trying to escape out the blast door that never opened. At the end of the cluster of miner bodies started the string of armed bodies.
These bodies wore white SDC combat armor that was torn to pieces and was caked in blood and gore.
Velvet gasped in horror and covered her mouth, Coco's mouth hung open in shock at the sight, Yatsuhashi on the outside tried to remain static but inside he was saddened and disgusted at the deaths of the miners and the guards that protected them. However the thing that stood out were the hints of glowing liquid on the bodies.
"What's going on guys? What do you see?I can only sense a bunch of blobs."
The blind huntsmen said.
"Nothing good."
Isaac said grimly, not even sparring the bodies a second glance as he walked through the hill of bodies, inspecting the glowing fluid.
Isaac walked to one of the dead SDC guards and turned him over with the barrel of his Lancer, the guard's chest cavity opened up from claw like appendages and his face in a permanent state of horror.
"What are you doing?"
Coco asked.
Isaac remained silent as he inspected the body.
He noticed there were hints of the glowing fluid on this body, same as the vast majority of the others.
Isaac thought about the possibilities but shook his head at the thought.
"No. They can't be here. Why would they be here? What are the chances?"
Isaac muttered to himself.
"Isaac? Are you ok?"
Velvet asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.
The Gear sighed put his own hand on Velvet's before getting up and facing CVFY.
"Ok. There is something going on and I pray that I'm wrong. But in the instance that I am right I need you guys to stay here and pull security. I'll move further in and find what killed these guys and kill it."
Isaac told CVFY.
"That wouldn't be wise."
"Yea. What makes you think you can just go in there all alone and come out ok?"
Yatsuhashi and Fox asked.
Isaac took a moment before answering.
"I think something from my world came here some how."
CVFY took a moment to absorb what Isaac had said.
"Like one of those Locust things?"
"Worse."
Isaac replied to Coco's question.
Down the tunnel a creature roared that sounded like something between a human and a monster.
"No matter what you say you are not going down there alone."
Velvet said adamantly.
Isaac weighed his options and decided to bite the bullet. If the parasite was here then they had limited time to deal with this and assess how much of it there was.
"Ok. Fine. Fox and Velvet come with me. No offense, but Coco and Yatsuhashi, you are not suited in tight spaces. Plus we still need rear security. But you two, stay on my ass and you do what I say when I say it. Understood?"
Fox and Velvet nodded.
"Good. Now move."
Velvet thought about Isaac as they moved through the dark tunnels. Luckily Fox was blind anyway so this had little to no effect on the dark skinned teen, while Velvet was a faunus and had a natural ability to see in the dark.
Through these two, they saw Isaac act on edge. If so much as a water drop hit a stone he would immediately snap toward the sound and stare at the specs for a moment before moving on. He wasn't telling them the full story, that much was clear, but it was what he was on edge about that made the pair worried. If it could make their hardened Gear like this, what would they find?
Did they even want to know?
When they got into what looked like a staging post for the miners the team stopped to look around at their surroundings. Next to the cavern entrance there was a large sheet metal building that looked like it was torn into and with the splatters of blood on the windows the occupants were torn to pieces from the invaders. Outside was no better as a few bodies dotted the cavern, most looked to have been pounced on from behind in an attempt to flee while few others look to have attempted to fight, if the tools and the odd gun or blade was anything to go by near the corpse in question.
Carts loaded with raw dust crystals on rails were everywhere. Some were spilled all over the ground. Entrances to other portions of the mine looked to branch out from this point.
What sounded like yelling combined with a animal like scream echoed through the chamber. The teammates immediately became alert and looked everywhere for the source until their eyes fell on a tunnel nearby, the very end glowing with a shade and texture Isaac immediately knew.
"What was that?"
Velvet asked in a low tone, phasing Ruby's scythe into her hands.
"Lambent."
Isaac growled out.
"Kill them at a distance."
"What if I can't do that and how do we kill them if they do get close."
Fox asked, the feral sounds getting closer with each passing second.
"Hit em and run. Don't let their blood inside of you or you die slowly, choking on imulsion."
Isaac hissed as he ran and pushed a cart over in front of the tunnel and readied himself on the cart for an enemy that he never thought he would see again.
The first to turn the corner was a Lambent Beowolf. The two members of CVFY looked at the mutated creature with a mix of horror and disgust.
The armored Beowolf roared, imulsion dripping from its jaw, and charged at the team with its infected brothers close behind.
"Die mother fuckers!"
Isaac yelled in rage as the horde descended. Fox could only watch as his teammate cut down droves of the mutated creatures.
Velvet and Fox saw Isaac's advice in action as the corpses of the fallen Beowolves exploded upon death.
The trio quickly backed away as their position began to be overrun by the screaming Beowolves.
Fox slashed one across the face and planted one of his red blades into the Beowolf's jaw and into the brain. The, now dead, Beowolf began to slightly glow brighter before Fox immediately withdrew his blade and kicked the creature away, the body exploding on a pile of rocks and leaving a puddle of imulsion and faint traces of dark Grimm blood and meat. He grimaced at the after effects of the death before moving onto a trio of Lambent and had their throats immediately sliced open before exploding themselves.
Meanwhile Velvet sliced her way through several Lambent Beowolves and shooting any that were out of reach. Despite her efforts, the Lambent descended on the faunus and leaped. Velvet changed to Weiss' rapier and erected a ice wall under the Lambent Grimm that impaled their bodies on the ice before detonating, shattering the ice and slowly melting it with the heat of the infectious fluid.
Velvet's breathing increased as the Lambent numbers didn't seem to dwindle as they kept flowing in quicker than she or Fox could kill them. She saw Fox slow down as he cut down yet another infected Beowolf and, luckily, was only shoulder bashed into a crate of unrefined dust.
Velvet copied Yang's shotgun gauntlets and rushed the Grimm, the area of effect weapons combined with Velvet's mimicked rage of the blonde brawler, quickly clearing out their numbers around the blind teen.
She helped her fallen teammate to his feet before she fearfully set her eyes on the unwavering Lambent Grimm.
In an effort to get the Lambent's attention off of his team, Isaac mowed down dozens of Lambent Grimm at a time, his Lancer's barrel glowing red from the constant use.
One had its legs blown off and crawled to the Gear in a mindless attempt to kill him. The wounded Grimm soon fell pray to Isaac's chainsaw bayonet, imulsion gushing out as Isaac roared in anger inside his helmet, before kicking the beast down for it to explode.
Isaac was no more on Remnant, a place where he almost thought he could live a life of peace.
Now he was back in the Locust tunnels.
Back to the Locust War.
Isaac ducked under the claws of one Beowolf and quickly drew his snub pistol and placed the barrel under the creature's jaw before pulling the trigger, dark brain matter and glowing imulsion shooting out of the skull. Isaac kicked the body away before dashing away into a caged mineral deposit to reload his Lancer.
He closed the doors and held both his Lancer in one hand and his snub in the other. He glared at the approaching horde under his helmet.
"Come on you glowie fucks! Come get a bite of the only Gear you'll ever see!"
He yelled through his helmet, his voice echoing throughout the chamber.
Whether it was the loud nature of his voice or the emotions he put into it driving a small bit of instinct from the Grimm, the infected Grimm ignored the struggling and exhausted members of CVFY before joining the others in killing the lone Gear.
They descended like flies to a corpse as Isaac snarled at the Lambent and fired everything he had into the horde. They completely surrounded the cage, making it impossible to miss for the Gear inside. Their numbers fell rapidly as they had fist sized holes rapidly blown into them.
However due to the weight of the Lambent Grimm, the bars slowly began to bend inward and give way. One group of bars began to be so weak that they snapped as one Beowolf tore it out and roared in a brief moment of triumph, only for a snub bullet to tear half of it's glowing, morphed, face off and detonating.
Imulsion flowed and bullet casings rained to the rocky floor as splatters of the glowing fluid covered the Gear.
"Come on you glowie sons of bitches! Is that all you got! You can kill my team but you can't kill a one lone Gear! Come on fuckers kill me! Kill me!"
Isaac taunted over the gunfire.
Fox and Velvet climbed up the roof to the main building and watched the carnage Isaac created.
Velvet watched with worry and horror as her newly found love taunted his enemies in rage and sorrow. Fox has similar feelings but had them for his friend and teammate. The things he was yelling was also unsettling as they, and the rest of CVFY, didn't truly know how Isaac's team had died, only that they died in combat most likely and against these "Lambent".
Isaac threw the gates of the cage back as he stepped into the imulsion and blood mix under his boots. His eyes quickly fell onto a lone Grimm, bullets riddling it's body and unable to move, but still alive.
Velvet and Fox climbed down to join Isaac as he stalked the Grimm survivor.
Isaac revved his chainsaw bayonet before plunging it into the guts of the Lambent and tearing it out and kicking the volatile body away.
"Isaac?"
Velvet asked shakily.
He didn't move an inch as the Gear continued to stare at the remains of the destroyed bodies of the Lambent Grimm corpses.
"Isaac. You alright?"
Fox asked in a unsure tone.
"We need to find the source of this or else the Grimm will be the least of you're worries."
Isaac said in a low voice.
"Why? What happens? It looks like the Grimm just glow and are a little more volatile."
Fox asked.
"It's because this shit will get inside of you and the next thing you know you are killing your family and friends to stay alive before they have a chance to tear your insides out."
Isaac growled.
"Or you would be fighting for every scrap of life you can squeeze out while everything with a heartbeat glows and screams for your blood."
His hands tightened around his weapons as the memories from the war flooded in.
"We HAVE to find the source of imulsion that turned these Grimm here or your world will look just like mine."
Isaac said as he reloaded his snub and holstered it before he did the same with his Lancer and pulled out his Gnasher and walking from where the infected Grimm came from.
The two members of CVFY hesitated for a moment before jogging to catch up with the Gear.
If there were any doubts about the nature of Isaac's claims from being from an entirely different world then those claims were extinguished immediately.
Velvet saw Isaac was loosing it. She could hear his ragged breath beneath his helmet as Isaac moved with a purpose into the tunnel.
"What where those things? They weren't normal Grimm."
Said Fox.
"Lambent. its what happens if you're exposed to imulsion for a long period of time. Imulsion is the stuff leaking out of those infected Grimm back there. Back on Sera we used imulsion as a fuel. We didn't know about it's parasitic nature until it started to feasting on whatever we had left. It turns everything with a beating heart into nothing but an animal. The Lambent can adapt. They learn how to use weapons from the memories of their host and it will only get worse from here unless this parasite is locked away."
"Why can't we just destroy the source?"
Fox asked.
Isaac scoffed under his helmet.
"It took damn near everything the COG had left to invade a island named Azura to end our own war. When I left that wasn't much. There was only several thousand people left out of billions of us."
Velvet and Fox took in what Isaac had told them. If he and his people had been fighting things like his for 17 years with everything his people could throw at them  then there was little doubt in the Remnant natives minds that if a war on the scale the COG fought broke out here on Remnant then there would be nothing left of human civilization.
The more and more the trio descended into the tunnel the more and more evidence the Lambent infection had spread from the imulsion on the walls to the corpses and blood filled dug out halls.
And the more and more they walked the more that the members of CVFY worried about their young COG veteran.