Chapter II: The Quicksilver Encounter

A/N: And I'm back! I've had a strange amount of inspiration for this fic, so here's the second chapter! Anyway, here's the kind of ships team RWBY is using. All are more or less heavily modified, and said modifications will be explained and made sense of. Ruby herself is using the equivalent of a US Montana Class Battleship, albeit with 12 25-inch main cannons in four triple turrets, along with side mounted 15-inch batteries and dual-purpose 10-inch cannon (it's all Ruby's crazy design). Yang's ship is mostly based on the IJNYamato, except with more anti-air defenses and the shells modified to fire airburst rounds. Weiss' ship is based off of the German Navy's Tirpits battleship, and Blake's ship is based off of the British King George V class battleship. Anyways here goes the second chapter! This is also the first chapter with an actual name.

Now that the A/N is out of the way, story time!

Despite the initial outcry at the defection of a certain tri-coloured captain, Ruby had put faith in the shorter girl. At first, it was out of a simple innocence, what did Neo have to gain by telling a lie while being held in the heart of the enemy? Then, the desire for revenge, to not allow anyone else to get hurt, took the fore and she jumped at the opportunity. Despite the current weather, calm and overcast, she could tell that an enemy force was inbound.

Weiss' melodic voice had come through not minutes earlier informing her of Mercury's squadron, his ship visible on her radar, surrounded by what appeared to be four other ships, by Weiss' guesses the mystery ships were battlecruisers. Ruby had kept her squadron within the shelter of the island chain, their own silhouettes blending in to the darkened background, the islands essentially swallowing them in their own radar signatures.

Yang's ship, the Ember Celica, had been placed at the closest point to Mercury's small squadron. Her ship's 18-inch cannon having airburst rounds designed to tear apart a ship's superstructure and deck, and her side armaments designed more like shotguns firing slugs, to punch the holes in and out. Weiss was camouflaged a few hundred metres away, Myrtenaster's 15-inch cannon ready and waiting to join Yang in the ambush, torpedo tubes standing by to launch their deadly fish. Blake's Gambol Shroud laid back with the Crescent Rose as if nonchalant, Ruby herself trusting Blake to follow her into battle when they finished off the battlecruisers, which were essentially smaller battleships with less armour.

Line Break: A Few Hours Later

Ruby's head snapped forward, looking up from the wheel her hands ran along, the same wheel from her mother's ship the Rose's Thorns,that she had recovered from its final resting place. Distant sounds of thunder rumbled towards her and the other battleship, the only indication that this was not natural weather being the bright orange glow in the steady distance.

"Bring us out into the open, signal the Shroud that we are to start the bombardment." She would say, hands rising from the wheel and giving the command before returning to their spot, lurching forwards. Each captain of a Beacon-class ship put their own attributes into it. The Ember had excellent armour all-around, the Myertenaster was highly adaptable and flexible, the Shroud was surprisingly sneaky and brisk for its size, and the Crescent Rose was amazingly fast, despite being one of the bigger ships in the world. In no time, the two stragglers of RWBY squadron arrived to see the Ember duking it out with two of Mercury's battlecruisers, a third a flaming wreck behind her ships, listing heavily on its side from what appeared to be repeated hits by Myrtenaster. The Gambol Shroud moved in to help Weiss finish off the last of the battlecruisers while Ruby herself chased down the Quicksilver, Mercury's flagship. In the chaos and quickly darkening battlefront, it wasn't until she was within two hundred metres of the ship that she realized just exactly where the fiend had gone.

Line Break: On Board the Quicksilver

After the ambush by Yang and Weiss, Mercury had abandoned his comrades, looping around the island to get at the rear of what he thought were only two ships. It struck him by surprise when a fourth ship (his panicked captains had radioed him about a third joining), this one with even larger cannon, seemed to rise right in front of him from thin air.

"Hard to port! I want all of our turrets brought to bear on that ship!" He said, his voice stern, yet laced with thinly veiled surprise and outrage. He knew the colour scheme of the ship, the name Crescent Rose. His superiors had told him that another Rose prowled the seas, her thorns even more dangerous than the last. Before his ship could get its turrets to bear, bright lights filled his vision, cracks like the loudest thunder and as bright as miniature suns filling his vision.

Line Break: Aboard the Crescent Rose

Ruby's hand flew forwards, the signal for 'Full-Speed Ahead'. She would not give the enemy time to react, time to bring their powerful cannon to bear on her creation. They would feel her anger, her wrath at having to put her friends, her family in danger. And, as a bonus, Mercury would be guinea pig to two of Ruby's designs. The front of her ship had a large ram, almost bladed at the fore, designed to slice through weakened armour.

Her fist raised, spinning in a tight circle, She had invented her own form of hand gestures for her ship, so that she could give commands without a voice. Now, her glorious 25-inch main cannon, six of them, were brought to bear on the gleaming Quicksilver. The two aft turrets, C and D, turned to face the port and starboard sides of the ships. With a massive roar and flash of light, her forward two turrets, A and B, discharged all six of their cannon, tearing through the Quicksilver like a warm knife through warm butter. Fires lit all across the other ship, in one case one of the 25-inch shells tore straight through the side armaments and exploded on the other side.

Significantly weakened, Ruby's ram sliced the ship clean in two, her side armaments peppering the insides of the ship. Her C and D turrets let loose one volley each on the two halves, explosions rocking the ship as shells designed to destroy bunkers tore through wood and thin steel innards. As quick as her duel with the infamous Mercury of CRME squadron began, it was ended. Her ship suffered next to no damage minus that from the collision, and it appeared damage and casualties to RWBY squadron as a whole were light.

She would have to thank the Ice Cream Captain when they returned home. That woman had saved lives today, and helped them strike what she hoped was a critical blow to Salem's forces, the loss of almost a fleet's worth of heavy ships sure to be some form of setback.

One message went out over stilled waters, elation seeming to be held in the quick flashes of light from the Rose, along with the quick dits and dots traveling over the Morse receivers in each ship.

"Let's head home. Cookies are on me."

A/N: So, chapter two! I hope I did okay with the naval scene, I'll have to keep on working on it. I'm hoping the next chapter will be a bit longer, as it will be at the Beacon Naval Base, and there I can show you just what each ship is like.

Also, the poll for ships for this story (Ruby x …) is on my profile! It will be open until Friday, May 6th 2016, at which point I will write chapter three and lay the groundworks for a ship/tri-coupling! Thank you for reading, let me know what you think in the reviews! Follow, Fav, Pm me with any questions.

Have a good evening/day,

Anna