Chapter One: Contact
A/N: I'm back with a new story! So, I was looking to do a Sci-Fi AU for a while, figured I may as well write one up here. The girls here will be venturing across the stars for this one, fighting both the alien Grimm threat and the White Fang. Ships in this will be left up to a poll again, at least concerning Ruby. Also my poll for ships in the Battleship!AU will be open until Saturday, May 7th, so go ahead and read the first two chapters of that and vote for who you want to see Ruby paired up with!
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Fort Beacon Control Tower, Vale City, 1000 hours, 7th day of the 12th cycle.
"Unidentified ship this is Fort Beacon Control, state your business at once or be fired upon." Glynda said through her earpiece, monitoring the radar and the other screens about her, trying to piece together precisely what was happening.
About one hour prior, a large, unidentified mass entered Valean airspace from low orbit, blowing past Valean Navy airships and spacecraft as it headed for Fort Beacon and Vale City itself. Glynda had already scrambled crew, arming the fighters and bombers under her command, the Adjustable Multiple-Reentry Attack Craft (affectionately called 'karma' by their crews) ready for takeoff at a moment's notice. She was waiting, hoping she wouldn't need to send them out and into the air while still so green, having just finished training to be part of the Beacon Corps, a special unit based out of Fort Beacon to keep the Kingdoms safe and stable.
It wasn't until too late that she realized the threat had arrived, that her hand had been forced.
"This is Haven Naval Base! We are under fire from unknown assailants! We need support, I repeat we need-!" The voice was cut off by an explosion, along with static. Multiple aircraft broke off from the larger ship as it hovered above Vale City, wreaking havoc along the military outposts and the civilian sectors of the city.
"What the hell is happening?!" "Fire fire fire!"
"Vale City PD requesting support! We cannot hold them, they're breaking through! Fall back into the city!"
Glynda ran to the PA System of the fort, smashing the red button next to it that set off all of the alarms throughout the city. "All units scramble! We have unknown assailants attacking the city and the surrounding forces, be advised do take caution, police an military units are still fighting. This is not a drill, move move move!" She set the PA system to loop before she herself took off, looking to find her own way to manage the city, preferably from an airship, so she could visually see her units taking the fight to this assailant instead of being stuck on the ground and looking through projections.
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Fort Beacon Hangars, 1015 hours, landing pad 6.
Ruby Rose had been waiting for this day for the past four years. The day she got to fly on her own, to show everyone that her and her ship, Crescent Rose, belonged here despite the fact that she was two years younger. To show that she belonged in command of RWBY wing, with the resident heiress watching her for any fouls. She wanted to make it to being a Captain like her father, or a Vice Admiral like her mother.
What she didn't expect was to see Crescent Rose armed, its sleek crimson form carrying missiles and bombs, the repeating dust cannons situated below her cockpit and the machine guns on her wings armed and ready for combat. She had been in warzones before, and she did not want to experience it again.
"C'mon guys! We can do this, let's get to it and see where we can help!" She shouted, climbing up and into her ship, going through flight checks on her own and with her wingman, Weiss. Her helmet had hurt her ears at the beginning of the training, but she had been given a chance to get a helmet modified specifically for Faunus like herself, and now her and Blake both wore one and were noticeably more comfortable.
"All units check, this is RWBY One heading out, we're going to make a run on the big ship, give backup to the airships in the vicinity." She said, receiving confirmation from Glynda and the rest of her flight, along with the news that CFVY flight would be joining them, and that the airship dispatched to help was her own father's, Taiyang Xiao Long. The eight aircraft took up position on either side of the sleek airship, clearing a path from Fort Beacon towards the unidentified ship.
It was massive, as big as a Remnant-class cruiser, and it was entirely black, with a ridge of white along its sleek form ending in what appeared to be armour, white with running red ridges seeming to pulse with energy. The girls immediately dove in, their eight ships firing all they had along with the airship supporting, tearing chunks from the ship.
After the last missiles and bombs had been loosed, and the skies had been cleared, Vale City was still burning, and there were distress calls coming in from off planet and from the island of Patch, along with reports of fighting on Atlas and Menagerie. The unknown ship careened downwards, exploding in on itself. And then more came, another ship and another ship, and an even larger one. The Valean Defence Force had rallied at this point, the highest ranking officer taking charge. Summer Rose had been on shore leave, her own battlecruiser in low orbit having been brought down and fighting alongside that of her husband's, while a battlecruiser joined them from an Atlas fleet that was in the vicinity.
The fighting went on well into the sunset, the girls landing only to refuel and resupply. The second enemy ship went down, tearing a new ravine into the plains around Vale City, as VDF forces moved in to secure it. Hours of continuous fighting, cannons and laser fire lighting up the night sky as fires ravished the cityscape, and by the time the moons rose only four combatants remained. Summer and Tai's ship held the line, both nursing wounds and aflame, and the intruding ships looked worse off, having taken fire from ground forces and the Valean surface fleet.
As the second alien ship fell, the third seemed to glow, as if catching aflame from the inside.
Ruby flew right past it, dropping another load of bombs onto the craft and speeding away as her parents fired broadside after broadside into it and it began to fell. Then all went dark for a solid half minute, craft falling from the sky and electronics scattered before rebooting, countless craft both alien and Valean falling to the surface. When the power returned, bolts of energy and numerous missiles flew from the newcomers, heading towards Summer's battlecruiser.
She could only watch, helpless, as her dad's ship moved to block the fire, explosions rocking the vessel as it gave as good as it got before splitting in two and crashing to the surface, crumpling and exploding on impact. She couldn't register feeling, couldn't think coherently, couldn't hear the screams, and couldn't hear anything except the last words from the dying ships.
"I love you, my flowers, my dragon. Show them your thorns, your claws."
And so she hardened in that moment, her heart became steel as she bore down on the alien vessel, strafing back and forth along its length, hitting it everywhere she could until her own craft was crippled, alarms blaring in her helmet and tears stinging her eyes as the ground came quicker than she could react, the last thing she heard before impact and blackness being the cries of her sister, her teammates and friends.
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A/N: And that's a wrap! Also I plan on making this a bit of a horror story, if I can think up a well enough plotline, but for the most part it will just be adventure and tragedy, and hurt/comfort. I'll have a poll for this one up shortly! Probably the same ships as my Battleship!AU minus Weiss, because her and Yang are going to be a thing in this.