Ruby was nervous. No, anxious. Standing in the dropship, her left hand hooked onto a support strap above her, she looked out the dropships left side at this strange planet. She wasn't afraid of the battle to come, she was ready for it. She just wanted to be on the ground already. Her team had been in the dropship for roughly ten minutes now, zooming over the red surface of Geonosis. As if on cue, she heard their pilot come onto the comlink feed.
"We are five minutes out." He stated calmly, alerting the team to make sure their gear was in order. "Looks like the DZ could be pretty hot too." That wasn't good. "How hot?" Ruby inquired. "Nothing you can't handle Eight-Three."
That gave her frustratingly little to work with. Ruby allowed herself to look over her team, her family. There was RC-1104, nicknamed Weiss, clad in her white armor with red trim, sitting calmly on her bucket seat, inspecting her DC-17 blaster rifle. Weiss was the team's resident slicer, and was also a damn fine field medic. Next to Weiss sat RC-1170, who had chosen the nickname of Blake. Blake was the squad's sharpshooter, and her armor was almost completely black except for a few violet stripes that ran down the sides of her legs and the front of the helmet, outlining the t-shaped visor. Blake was a fantastic shot, and lived for the hunt. She didn't like to talk that much however, which had led to some issues for the team whenever it had first been created. Across from Blake stood RC-1126, nicknamed Yang. Yang was covered in a black and yellow color scheme, and was the squad's demolition expert. Where Blake preferred quiet, Yang would never shut up, which concerned Ruby, as Yang was being very quiet. Suspiciously quiet.
The cause of her brevity was revealed as loud rock music played over the team's secure comlink suddenly, and Yang's helmet perked up. Ruby could picture the shit-eating grin that lay behind her scorch marked helmet.
Fuck, Weiss is gonna flip. Ruby thought, as Weiss was a stickler for rules and regulations, and playing music over a comm channel was very much against regulations.
"Mind turning that shit off?" Weiss barked at Yang. "What's the matter Four? Don't like my taste in music?" Yang asked in a mockingly insulted tone. "We both know that playing personal music over a comm feed, especially in a combat situation, breaks various regulations, namely Rule 23b, subsection Alph-." Weiss started to shoot back, before Yang interjected. "But breaking rules makes it more fun Weissy!" "I believe operative Oh-Four is correct, Yang." Blake added her opinion to the rapidly deteriorating conversation. "Oh so now you're against me too Blake?! I've been betrayed by my own teammates! I should have kno-." "Alright guys, lets calm it down. Weiss, I don't think anyone will reprimand us for playing some music. Yang, cut the music when we're one minute out. Got it?" Ruby jumped into the conversation, setting the team straight. Both Weiss and Yang nodded their agreement, while Weiss stared at Yang for a few seconds more before going back through her gear.
Come on Weiss, let it go. We don't need to have this happen again. Ruby said to herself, memories of fierce arguments resurfacing, caused by Yang's cavalier attitude clashing with Weiss' by the books mentality. Blake tended to stay out of the fights, leaving it to Ruby to solve the disagreements alone. RC-1183 looked back out at the blurry landscape, clad in black armor, covered in various red patterns, and her custom made rose emblem emblazoned upon her right thigh. The team's leader began to prepare herself for the coming battle. This isn't training anymore, these girls are relying on you. Get it done. The words echoing in her mind were very similar to ones spoken by her training sergeant, after she had expressed her doubts in being promoted to team lead. She had never been truly comfortable with the position, believing that the other girls would have been better leaders, but her Sergeant had assured her that he had made the right choice in promoting her, and that she would "do a fantastic job, because if you fail your entire team is fucked." While obscene, the Sergeant's words had gotten the job done. Ruby would not fail her team, because the stakes were simply too high.
"One minute out." Their pilot relayed, and Yang, true to her word, cut Red like Roses short mid guitar solo. The girls began to prep for their drop, getting the fast ropes ready. Ruby and Weiss got set up on the left side of the gunship, while Blake and Yang stacked up on the right. Flak began buffeting the ship, and a nearby gunship was hit, going down hard to the red sand and dirt.
"Fuck, anyone know which bird that was?" Yang asked, and everyone shook their head. Hopefully they had made it out, but the ship had hit the ground hard, too hard. No one could have survived the blast that followed. "Wasn't us. That's what matters." Blake added with her characteristic dark demeanor. "You are just a ray of sunshine Seventy, you know that?" Blake didn't reply to Yang's barb, merely looking over the landscape.
"Five seconds!" The pilot barked out, with some urgency in his voice. Clearly he didn't relish the thought of sticking around with this much anti-air fire attacking them. Ruby didn't blame him.
"Okay team go go go!" Ruby ordered, as the team began their fast rope descent to the surface. As soon as they were on the ground Ruby informed the pilot. "We are boots on ground, I repeat, we are boots on ground." "Good luck down there." The pilot responded before flying off.
The DZ was indeed hot, as blaster fire assaulted the team, crimson lasers flying past them as they dove for cover. "It would appear that the enemy is aware of our position." Weiss deadpanned, crouching next to Ruby behind a rock that was for now, the only thing between them and the enemy.
"Right, return fire! Blake and Yang, draw their fire, while we take them out!" Wordlessly the two commandos carried out their leader's orders, rapidly dashing from cover to cover as the battle droids focused their fire on them. Ruby counted ten battle droids atop a ridge, peppering the team with fire. As soon as their fire shifted to Blake and Yang, Weiss and Ruby popped up, and began taking out their opponents. The droids were no match for their precise shooting, and soon their little slice of the battlefield fell silent, but the sounds of war could still be heard nearby. The squad regrouped at Blake and Yang's position, reloading while their leader opened up her comlink.
"Advisor this is RWBY-Actual, we are on the ground and have eliminated enemy forces. Requesting orders." "Actual this is your advisor, you have been tasked with eliminating nearby enemy anti-air positions. Your HUD has been updated with the guns locations. Get on it Actual."
"Eliminating guns huh? Sounds like the need for some high explosives, if you ask me." Yang stated as the squad began their approach to the guns. "Every situation would be solved by high explosives if we asked you." Weiss replied, taking the rear of the team. "You say that like it's an issue." "Just make sure you don't over pack the ordnance this time, ok?" "One time I mess up Weiss. One time!" Yang shot back indignantly. Ruby, at the front of the team, raised one fist, causing the discussion to stop, as the team halted behind her.
"Problem boss?" Weiss asked, clearly getting anxious being out in the open of the canyon. "We've got movement up ahead. Get set." Ruby then moved forward, turning a corner, spotting a group of five Geonosian warriors. "Drop 'em" Ruby ordered, as blasts of plasma shot out from the team's location towards the warriors, killing three immediately. The fourth began to charge the team, but was killed by a well-placed shot to the head, courtesy of Blake. The fifth leapt at Ruby, attempting to gore her with his staff. Ruby dropped her blaster as she sidestepped the strike, grabbing the staff with her right hand and pulling the warrior towards her. The warrior stumbled forward, off-balance, as Ruby deployed the vibroblade housed in her left knuckle gauntlet, and rammed it into the warrior's throat. Twisting the blade, she yanked it out, allowing the body to drop unceremoniously to the ground, gurgling softly. Ruby bent down to pick up her rifle, while motioning the squad forward.
"Let's move like we've got a purpose here team!" Ruby ordered. "The longer we take, the more of our ships are gonna go down." "Roger, moving forward." Blake responded, taking point for the team. The team moved forward wordlessly, picking up the pace as they realized that Ruby's words were true. The sounds of war grew closer, more specifically, the sound of Trade Federation anti-air guns firing their salvos. Cautiously, Blake looked around the corner of the canyon wall, observing the area in front of her. There a door built into the canyon wall, and it looked like the complex beyond the door led into the main facility, where Team RWBY would wreak havoc upon the Trade Fed war machine.
Unfortunately entering the complex would be harder than the team had originally thought, as the door was protected by what seemed to be a hard-light barrier. The door was guarded by roughly a dozen battle droids, with a complement force of two Super Battle Droids. The SBD's would be a tougher nut to crack, but not impossible. The squad had prepared for this.
"What have you got for me Seventy?" Ruby inquired, as Blake was still the only one with eyes-on the target. "About twelve battle droids, and two supers." "Alright team, we'll play this by the books. Yang, I need you to toss an ECM det in-between the supers, Blake, I need you to attack the supers as well, focus fire on the one on the left. Target its weak spots. Weiss, you and I will take out the battle droids. Use a thermal detonator to thin the herd. We good?" Three helmets nodded in unison. Alright, no time like the present. "Let's move!" Yang sprang into action, vaulting over a wall while simultaneously prepping an ECM detonator in her hand. She landed behind a rock, throwing the ECM det in-between the supers, arcs of lightning assaulting the droids as the detonator went off, disrupting the supers and buying her team time. As soon as Yang made her move Blake was right behind her, slapping the sniper attachment onto her DC-17 rifle. The beautiful thing about the "Deece," as it was affectionately called by the troops using it. She began attacking the super on the left, shooting at its shoulder joints to knock its arm off, rendering it useless. While Blake and Weiss were dealing with the supers, Weiss and Ruby dashed to cover, Weiss hurling a thermal detonator at the group of battle droids. Ruby began spraying the droids down with burst fire from her rifle, dropping the droid effectively, as the detonator blew up in the middle of the group, taking out five of the droids instantly. Weiss also began shooting at the droids, working from the left of the group, as Ruby was working from the right. Within seconds the droids were all down, and Ruby looked to her other teammates to see how their situation was progressing, and was pleased with the results. The first super was down due to Blake's precision shooting. Yang had joined in with her Deece, attacking the remaining super. The super fell, succumbing to the withering fire of the two combined commandos. The battlefield fell silent, save for the sounds of the anti-air guns.
"Alright team, good work. Now let's get to work on this door." Ruby was startled to hear a burst of plasma fire behind her. She quickly turned, only to see Yang standing over one of the supers, her head cocked to the side, holding her blaster out with just her right hand, finger still on the trigger. Smoke began to rise from the newly born hole in the back of the super's cognitive unit. "Making a mess Yang?" Weiss asked, turning around and facing the anti-air complex. "Rule 17 Princess. Always make sure they're dead." "It looks dead to me." "It is now."
Ruby smiled to herself, allowing the bickering to die down on its own. Now she had a new problem. How was she supposed to get through this barrier?