Team SRDS (Stardust)

Chapter 26: The Pit

Next day,
Northern Vale Airspace,
11:23:56 hours

The Bullhead's engines hummed as they propelled the aircraft through the azure skies. It was headed to a drop-off point just outside the northernmost settlement of Vale, even further north of Mount Glenn. The Bullhead's occupants, though anxious, were endowed with a day of combat training, a full night's rest and most relevantly, clearance for a safehouse called The Pit. General Ironwood and Headmaster Ozpin had further agreed that they would have access to any Atlesian Military assistance they needed.

Currently, SRDS and RWBY were quizzing the details of the case amongst themselves. A simple activity, but one that sharpened active recall and association-building.

"Last question... for one million Lien," Diamond said, his pitch rolling as if the Bullhead was alternating between a nose dive and flying flat.

"I will break your face if you keep talking...like that," Sigbjorn said, mimicking Diamond.

"Hey!"

"Ugh, stop interrupting yourselves and just get on with it!" Weiss said.

"Someone's in a mood," Yang said.

"You would be too if you were on a winning streak!"

"But you're the only one keeping score," Ruby said.

"Question, please!"

"Alright, alright. Name of the safehouse that was just attacked?"

"Safehouse Pi!"

Steele, who had taken to re-examining their files after a few rounds, flipped a page and spoke, "Says 'Psi' in here."

Weiss was even more shaken than when she learned she wouldn't be able to bring all of her suitcases.

"NOOOO!!!!"

"Looks like arrogance was your downfall," Blake said with a smirk as Weiss glared daggers at her.

"I think with that we've covered just about everything we know so far," Ross said.

"Pretty good job, everyone," Diamond said.

"And we've got some time to kill until we get there, don't we?" Yang asked. "In that case, I've got a question. If Silver knows how you and Atlas operate, why do you say that The Pit is going to be safe?"

"Same reason it's not a good idea to stay there too long," Steele answered. "Atlas likes to regularly liquidate and move around safehouses. They do it to make sure that they remain, well, safehouses and to prevent any rogue agents from gaining access to Atlas tech/info. Initially, I did think Silver might know its whereabouts, but it shifted only a few weeks ago, so it's highly unlikely he knows the exact location even with his Semblance."

"So that's why we're carrying most of our equipment," Ruby said.

"Yep. It's pretty sparsely furnished so that it's easier for them to change locations," Ross said.

"Also because Hunter gear tends to be unique and thus needs more specific and rare components which we have to take care of ourselves," Diamond said.

"Speaking of setting up, once we finish, we should pull up a list of businesses in the area," Steele said.

"Ohh, right, the shell corps," Ross said.

Cornell Cloud had written down a list of all the third-party companies that he'd be meeting with regarding the new trade policy. As SRDS and RWBY found out while researching, most of them seemed to be legitimate businesses, but the others hadn't seen a difference in profits before and after the policy implementation. Most of these companies did not have a foothold in their markets, were not well-known and had not issued any explanation for the above incongruency.