Chapter Thirteen: Recon Mission

Sienna Khan tapped her finger against her throne, a hodgepodge of irritation, concern, curiosity, and worry written on her face and broadcasted through her body language.

She opened her mouth, looking at two of her best scouts and recon agents, young as they were.

"This is completely voluntary, no one would blame you for refusing. The Badlands are avoided for a reason, all that go their find death, nothing more." She tried, she really did. Two months ago Kuo Kuana had been feeling tremors. They were small and mostly in the far off distance, soon the egg heads managed to figure out what was going on. It wasn't a earth quake or some mining drill.

But bombs.

She could only think of one group that had access to that many explosives to consecutively bomb something for months on end.

Those masked madmen.

And yes, she meant madmen; Atlas wanted to find everything about the terrorists that killed Jacques Schnee and stole whatever got Ironwood in a tizzy about, this included their race, and what little DNA evidence was left after they blew showed that these men were human, not faunas.

That bit of news was promptly smothered, but her operatives found out and just so happened to leak that fact.

A bit pissed at first that she got played by a bunch of humans, before cooling off, they were dead and only one of them was left right?

Then the bombs started and waves of nasty Grimm start evacuating from the north east! Grimm running away from something was just considered impossible unless a Grimm FAR more powerful had died or something was interfering with their habitat.

And these weren't your average Beowulf or Creep either, but Satyrs and Satyr Lords.

Tried and true monsters that could kill dozens of Beowulf's or Creeps with ease, let alone the Lords. Those were up there with Nuckelavee's level of terror.

She lost a lot of good men fighting off those things, and now she was curious, too curious and need answers for those that died.

Thus here she was, one Blake Belladonna and Ilia Amitola, both of them her greatest scouts. Yet now she was faced with a moral dilemma.

Whatever was up there was scary, if these two were any older she might not have cared much, just two people giving their lives for the cause.

But Blake was practically her godchild and despite her infighting with Ghira, she wouldn't take it out on Blake.

Along with the fact that they were so young. Blake for her part was just turning sixteen in a few months.

And yet needs must.

"We are ready Lord Khan!" The two girls spoke with devotion. Their pride being stepped on by her concern.

"Listen to me damnit!" Sienna snapped, the two girls flinched back, eyes widening and realizing that this wasn't her being worried or patronizing, but an actual attempt at dissuading them from this path.

"I have no idea what is going on up there, but whatever it is scares Elite and Lord level Grimm from their nests. This isn't just some spying mission, but going into enemy territory with no backup, no information, and no preparation, as we don't know what even to prep for! I need answers damnit, but I can't just send my goddaughter and best scout off to die!" Sienna seethed briefly as the two White Fang members simply digested her rant.

"We'll do it." Ilia Amitola said, Blake looked alarmed before controlling herself, however fear could be seen in her eyes.

Sienna sighed. "Very well. You leave at 0700 tomorrow."