A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away
STAR WARS RWBY
EPISODE II
A Daughters Revenge
It is a dark time for the Rebellion. Fearing retribution for her defection from the Empire, WEISS SCHNEE and RUBY ROSE join the Rebels hiding on the ice planet of Hoth.
Meanwhile, BLAKE BELLADONNA and YANG XIAO LONG seek refuge on the scarred planet of Menagerie.
Arrayed against them, GRAND MOFF SCHNEE searched tirelessly for his disgraced daughter and the Imperial Inquisitorius hunt mercilessly for the escaped Inquisitor and force sensitive bounty hunter….
The Ember sat nestled in between a dense, blackened forest on the face of Menagerie. The planet was a barren, laser scorched rock for the most part. Powerful storms rolled through the planet, delivering dangerous lightning and harsh winds. The Empire had turned the planet into a graveyard, the remnants of what once could have been lush countryside or a modern metropolis was reduced to dust.
Yang had found the remnants of a forest to hide the Ember in. The trees were bare, most of them baring scars of fire. Sitting in the shade of the ship Yang tried to meditate, something that should come so easily. The task was literally sitting and breathing, how hard could it be. While Blake was able to enter a force induced trance, enabling herself to be more connected to the force, Yang hadn't been able too.
For Yang, it was simply boring. She itched to move, to run through the dark forest. That was where Yang found peace, in the moment with her body focused on something, she could think clearly. With a groan Yang fell back onto the ground, staring up at the cloudy sky. It would rain soon, at least she had an excuse now for not meditating. Stretching her neck she pulled on her vest and belt that had been discarded for comfort.
The months of being on the run had kept both her and Blake busy, leaving little time for more Jedi training. Now though it appeared they had found a place that shielded them from the non-stop hunting of the Empire. Blake had said something about the planet sending echoes of pain in the force, strong enough to hide their own echoes. Yang still hadn't felt it, but she knew that she didn't want too. Being here, on Blake's home world caused her much pain, pain she had failed to hide.
Yang walked back inside the ship, finding Blake eating a meagre meal in the common area. "You won't be able to learn if you can't focus for more than a few minutes," Blake chided as she slurped her soup quietly. Yang rolled her eyes as walking over to the food station to get herself a drink.
"It's about to rain, would rather not be caught in one of those storms again," Yang replied as she searched for a clean cup.
"Excuses, excuses. Both in my Inquisitor training, and the holocron's lessons, fighting distractions is an excellent method of learning," Blake murmured between sips.
"What about you? I won't stop you if you feel like taking a stroll out in the storm," Yang said in retort, Blake shook her head with a smile,
"Once you master this Yang, it will all come more easily." Yang pursed her lips, annoyed with Blake's know it all attitude. She stared at the spoon sitting in Blake's bowl, taking a deep breath she tried to pull it towards her, the spoon only jittering slightly. Yang scowled, her irritation with her inability reaching a high point. In an instant the spoon leaped from the bowl, splattering a small splash of soup on Blake's face. Yang caught the spoon and smiled, Blake reverting to her usual monotone look of irritation.
"See, I think I have a good handle on things," Yang said confidently. Blake wiped her face and stood,
"Yang using your emotions like that is not the way to do it. Remember our fight, losing yourself to your anger, if you keep doing this it will be harder to regain control."
Yang watched as Blake walked back to her room, her head leaning back to rest against the wall behind her. Yang knew Blake was right, she had seen in Blake what happened if you let your emotions consume you. Yang was an emotional person, she didn't want to suppress what she felt all the time, but she couldn't let herself become what Blake had been. "Maybe the rain won't be so bad this time," Yang said to herself, unconvinced. Setting the cup back down Yang turned and stalked back outside, determined to try again.
I wager Valkyrie Ridge!" Nora cried as she held her cards close to her chest. Jaune stroked his chin, eyeing his cards carefully,
"Fine, I bet the Arc Plains."
The two players played their cards, the Sabacc table filling quickly. Jaune's head quickly hit the table in defeat, the cards immediately falling in Nora's favour. "Haha! I am Queen of this planet!" Nora bellowed as she stood triumphantly. Ren, Pyrrha, Sun and Neptune all laughed, watching the game as they all leant on the surrounding fighters. For the last few days the squadron had passed the time with Sabacc, betting their claimed lands instead of using real credits. Having done several sweeps of the planet, Ace Squadron had scouted out the surrounding landscape, laying meaningless claims to the land around them.
In the end, all of Hoth looked the same. Endless plains of ice, accented by snow covered mountains.
Ruby worked on her A-wing off to the side of the game, occasionally looking up to check on the progress. She had lost both Weiss Way and the Rose Hills early in the game, Nora turning out to be a surprisingly proficient card player. Weiss had refused to take part, instead spending more of her time with the other Rebel officers, all planning the future of the behind her Ruby heard the sound of a foot tapping against one of the metal panels laid out over the ice. Turning around Ruby looked up to see Weiss, wearing her thick, fur lined coat. "Hey there," Ruby said with a smile. Weiss looked down at her expectantly, Ruby only continuing to smile at the ever impatient Weiss. "Well?" Weiss said leaning closer to Ruby who stood to meet her eye to eye.
"Ugh, it's good to see you," Ruby said as she tried to puzzle out what Weiss wanted. Weiss rolled her eyes and pointed to her coat. Ruby looked down at the badge attached to right pocket of Weiss' jacket.
"Yeah, you're a Captain?" Ruby said with a puzzled look on her face. Weiss' hand slapped into her forehead, sighing with a sudden exhaustion.
"I told you I wouldn't wear it until I got a real command, a captain is not a captain without a ship."
"Wait, does that mean..." Ruby said with a growing smile, Weiss returned the expression,
"Yes I have finally been given a command, well, sort of." Ruby embraced Weiss tightly, the captain reluctantly returning the hug.
"Congratulations! It's about time they gave you a ship,"
"Well, not so much giving, as giving me permission to find."
"What does that mean?" Ruby laughed, Weiss waved a dismissal.
"It's not important now, seeing as neither of us can leave the planet. At least though, I now have a hypothetical ship."
"Better we are safe here than out getting hunted by more bounty hunters," Ruby said reaching down to grasp her father's lightsaber.
"You still haven't gotten that thing repaired," Weiss said regarding the damaged hilt hanging from Ruby's belt with a distasteful grimace. Ruby shrugged,
"Ren hasn't been able to figure out how to fix it yet, the bounty hunter on Cato Neimoidia really did a number on it."
"Well I rather that weapon get hit rather then you," Weiss commented. Ruby grinned, leaning in to peck her on the cheek,
"Love you too," Ruby said jokingly.
Grand Moff Schnee sat in his captain's chair aboard his Imperial Class star destroyer. His mechanical hand tapped away on his arm rest, his impatience building as he waited for another one of the Emperors tools. The pneumatic hiss of the bridge door marked the arrival of the Inquisitor. The Grand Moss spun his chair slowly, a frown set firmly on his face. "My Lord," the slender, black clad woman said as she bowed. "Inquisitor Cinder, what is it you want. I doubt you came here just to exchange pleasantries."
Cinder nodded, a disturbingly serene look on her face. "I have come to find your daughter," Cinder speaking as though she were doing the Moff a great service. Schnee laughed,
"You Inquisitors have already failed to do that. Your reliance on that misguided religion is sad, and a thorough waste of my time," with that the Grand Moff turned back to look out over the bridge. Cinder's serene expression turned dark, her eyes glaring at the back of the Moff's chair.
"You misunderstand me, I am not here to assist you. I am taking command of the search, she mayb have connections to another traitor."
Schnee clenched his mechanical fist, the black glove straining. "I think not," The Moff siad through gritted teeth. Cinder strolled up beside him, seductive smile on her face. Tracing his jawline softly Cinder whispered,
"I am afraid this is a direct order form the Emperor himself. Now, set a course for the Imperial fleet, Lord Vader is said to have found the Rebel base, where your daughter is no doubt hiding."
"Ruby," Ren's calm voice carrying down the hall. Ruby stopped just before her room, turning to see Ren walking towards her,
"Ren, what can I do for you?"
"I think I may have fixed your weapon," Ren said as he handed over the lightsaber. Ruby had given him another shot at fixing it, and hadn't expected him to be back so soon.
"Thanks, that was pretty quick," Ruby said as she turned over the hilt in her hands. Ren nodded,
"It's an old piece of technology, very complex. There is an issue however,"
"There always is," Ruby said as she clipped it back on her belt. Ren smiled,
"It seems to need a crystal to focus the energy beam, the one that was in there was shattered by the blaster bolt."
"Well I will keep on the lookout for one." Ren let out a chuckle and gave a mock salute as he turned and left. Ruby keyed the door open and stepped into her small room. Hopping onto the uncomfortable bunk that served as her bed. In her hands she held her father's lightsaber, studying it as she often did. What little research she had been able to do had turned up little new information. Her father had likely been a Jedi, some ancient warrior destroyed by the Empire. What that meant for Ruby, she didn't know. At the very least she was comforted by the fact that her father would have been proud that she was fighting the Empire.
The door to her room opened again, Weiss stepping inside. With a sigh of relief she shed her jacket, turning up the room's heater slightly. Sinking down in the rooms second bunk Weiss shut her eyes. "Another tough meeting?" Ruby asked, Weiss nodded as her hands rubbed her temples.
"We are in a very bad spot, it is only a matter of time before the Empire finds this place, and we don't have a solid backup plan."
"We'll figure it out, we always have," Ruby said optimistically, her gaze now focusing on Weiss. Weiss returned the look,
"You haven't had a negative thought in your life have you?"
"Gotta stay positive," Ruby said with a beaming smile. Weiss grinned, but only for a moment. Her face fell back into its usual pout,
"You would think with this being a cold climate planet htye would have two person bunks."
"Why?" Ruby asked quizzically. Weiss rolled her eyes,
"Body heat you dunce," Weiss said teasingly, causing Ruby to blush. "So what was wrong with that thing?" Weiss asked as she studied the hilt, eye twitching as she remembered Adam's saber. The Rebel's had managed to repair the damage to the eye, returning its sight, but Weiss had chosen to keep the scar. "Ren said it needs a new crystal,"
"A crystal? That seems rather primitive," Weiss said with a frown. Ruby nodded idly, eyes focused on the hilt as she slowly took it apart. Weiss laid back and shut her eyes again, Ruby absorbed by her interest in the weapon. Weiss had helped investigate the origin of the weapon when she had free time, a favour to Ruby. Her Imperial education had only touched of the Jedi very briefly, simply referencing them as traitors.
A thought quickly passed through Weiss' mind. Reaching under her bunk she pulled out the small bag that contained all her possessions. Most of it was stuff picked up during her time with the Rebellion, souvenirs of her short time fighting the Empire. The few things she had brought from her old life ended up at the bottom of the bag, discarded more easily than the memories of what she had done. She found the necklace tucked into her old imperial jacket. The simple silver chain ended with a single light blue gem, a prize her father had given her after his conquest of Menagerie. "Try this," Weiss said as she tossed the necklace to Ruby, who only just managed to catch it in time. "Your necklace? But it's so pretty,"
"I wasn't going to wear it anytime soon," Weiss said dismissively. Ruby hesitated, but eventually broke the crystal off the necklace. While the wiring and some of the finer components were too complex for Ruby, who was used to fixing her ship, the general design was easy enough to comprehend. With a click the crystal slotted into the now exposed chamber. Reassembling the lightsaber Ruby stood, holding it away from her body. With a click of the activation button a thin silvery blue blade sprung from the hilt. "It works!" Ruby cheered triumphantly, turning to look at Weiss reaction.
Weiss simply nodded, making sure she was as far away as possible from the blade. Ruby shut off the blade, happily falling back into her bunk. With that the two decided to grab some sleep, something that they had been lucky enough to enjoy plenty of due to the boredom of their current assignment.
A loud beeping awoke the pair a few hours into their rest. Ruby groaned and rolled away from the noise, wrapping her blanket more tightly around herself. Weiss blinked away her drowsiness, reaching for the comlink sitting on the table next to her bunk. "This is Captain Schnee," Weiss said groggily.
"Captain Schnee, this is General Rieekan, report to the command centre immediately," The authoritative voice of General Rieekan ordered.
"Yes sir," Weiss said as she threw the covers off herself and grabbed her coat. "Ruby, wake up, this might be serious,"
"What?" Ruby said with eyes half open, blanket still pulled firmly over her body. Weiss rolled her eyes,
"Ruby I have a bad feeling about this, get your fighters ready, trust me."
"Fine," Ruby said with a groan as she quickly grabbed her flight gear.
Weiss stepped out of the command centre, a stream of people following her out, all running off to prepare. The Empire had found them. A probe droid had gotten luck and now the Imperial fleet would be bearing down upon them in a time frame predicted to be a few hours. Weiss had been given command of a transport ship, her mission was to rendezvous with the one of the several Rebel fleets currently hiding beyond the Outer Rim. A few ships form the fleet had been called in to hold off the Imperials while the Echo Base evacuated, but with what little defences they had, Weiss predicted a slaughter.
"All troop carriers will assemble at the north entrance. The heavy transport ships will leave as soon as their loaded, only two fighter escorts per ship. The energy shield can only be opened for a short time, so you will have to stay very close to your transports," Princess Leia said as she walked in the middle of the group of fighter pilots. "Two fighters against a star destroyer?" A pilot said unconvinced of the plan.
"The Ion cannon will fire several shots to make sure that any enemy ships are out of your flight path. When you have gotten past the energy shield, proceed directly to the rendezvous point, Understood?" The princess asked with a clam and steady voice.
"Yeah," replied several of the pilots, Sun speaking up the loudest from beside Ruby.
"Good luck," Leia said before leaving the pilots to disperse to their ships. Ruby broke off with her squadron in tow, heading towards their fighters.
"You heard her, we are splitting off into groups of two for now. Sun your with Neptune, Jaune your with Pyrrha, Nora your with me," Ruby ordered, Nora giving an enthusiastic salute as she matched pace with Ruby. At the southern entrance, where Ace Squadrons fighters were held, Ruby saw Weiss ordering the various personnel and equipment into her transport.
"Good, you're finally here, I want to be able to leave as soon as we are cleared."
"My fighters will be ready," Ruby said confidently. Weiss continued her ordering, her checking of the supplies. Ruby waited patiently until Weiss took notice that she was still there, Weiss turned for a second and noticed her,
"What is it?"
"Just wanted to say good luck, and be careful out there," Ruby said as clasped Weiss' hand. Weiss sighed,
"You too."
Ruby headed to her fighter, jumping up and into the cockpit, waiting for the order to fly. "The first transport is away," a voice echoed through the busy evacuation. Cheers sprang up everywhere, only stopping the evacuation for a second. Ruby ran through a check of her combat systems, hoping the Ion cannons fire would mean she didn't have to use any. "This is General Rieekan, transports will be leaving two at a time, transport three and four prepare to fly out," the Generals voice coming through Ruby's ship. After another fifteen minutes of waiting, the slow rumbling of the coming Imperial walkers being constant, Weiss received the order to fly.
"Ace One," Weiss now calling Ruby by her call sign, "Transport Ten and Eleven are leaving now, follow us out."
"Copy Transport Ten, Ace Six with me, Two and Three with Transport Eleven" Ruby giving Nora the thumbs up as they both started their engines. Lifting off the ice covered floor the four fighters flew out of the base behind the slow moving transports. Shooting out over the white landscape Ruby could see the Imperial walkers moving closer to the base, her scanners picking up Rogue Squadrons airspeeders trying to slow the hulking metal behemoths. She was more than happy that Ace Squadron hadn't been sent on that suicide mission, but at least they had the best down there. Ruby's scanners picked up a group of TIE fighters flying just above the energy shield. "Transport Ten I'm picking up a group of eyeballs,"
"Copy Ace One, keep them off us, these transports don't have enough firepower to hold them all off."
"Ace Two, Three, stay with the transports. Six we are dealing with the eyeballs," Ruby pulling her fighter ahead of the transports. Sticking close enough so that they made it through the gap in the shield, Ruby marked the three TIE fighters. Slipping through the atmosphere Ruby and Nora broke away from the group, heading on a direct intercept course for the enemy fighters. Ruby fired early, her shots having little chance of hitting the TIE's, but at least it would draw attention away from the transports. As she had predicted, the TIE's fired back, now both parties being in range. Ruby juked out of the lines of fire, Nora's slower ship not managing to dodge all the fire, but her deflectors held. The Ruby vaporised one with a quick twin linked shot through the cockpit, Nora blasting away the other two, reducing them to nothing but dust.
"All clear, returning to the convoy," Ruby report as she swung her A-wing back towards the transports. In front of the small group of ships a star destroyer materialized from hyperspace. Just as quickly as it had appeared, several colourful blasts of ion energy shot from the planet below.
Weiss watched with horror as the star destroyer got closer. Looking over the hull of the grey ship she noticed the twelve pointed snowflake painted in white alongside the Imperial crest. The ion bolts sparked just before hitting the star destroyer, hitting something else floating in space. Weiss' eyes widened, "Move away from that destroyer now, the ion cannon missed," Weiss shouted to the pilot.
"Yes ma'am," the pilot said with equally wide eyes. Her father had used shuttles to intercept the ion bolts, he probably had several readouts of the trajectory of the shots after the other star destroyers had been hit. It was genius, and like always, her father had thought of it just before she had.
"Ace One, the ion cannon missed, follow us away from the star destroyer,"
"Sure thing," Ruby said with a worried tone. Weiss quickly sent out a message to Echo base,
"This is Transport Ten, the ion attack missed, beware sector three-seven the star destroyer is still active,"
"Understood Transport Ten, my ship is on the way." The cool collected voice caused Weiss' eyes to grow even wider,
"General Ozpin!"
"The Beacon is standing by to assist," he said with his usual composure. From Weiss' right another ship flew into visual range, this time the familiar sight of the Mon Calamari cruiser Beacon its red turbo lasers firing. The transport convoy banked towards the friendly cruiser, the pilots trying calculating new hyperspace co-ordinates.
Ruby breathed a sigh of relief as they flew past the Beacon. Behind her the star destroyer opened fire, battering at the Rebel cruisers front shields. "Ace One we are having trouble calculating a new jump, continue on our current course away from the star destroyer and slave your hyperspace controls to my ships."
"Sure thing," Ruby said causally as she flew up alongside Weiss' ship. Weiss tracked the battle that was happening behind them as best she could, her scanners slowly falling out of range of her father's ship. Suddenly the Beacon's systems went critical, the image of the ship on the small display growing red. "What?" Weiss said, surprised at the sudden damage Ozpin had taken.
Ozpin held the armrests of his chair tightly as the missile hit the hull of his ship. The explosion tore away most of the front hull, the white and blue explosion causing him to squint. "Sir! We just lost life support system!"
"General! The weapons are down!"
"We just lost the engines!"
The cries of his crew quickly informed him that the ship was lost. The single missile, something that there scanners had not been able to identify as any type of know missile, had shattered his ship. Standing confidently in the face of defeat General Ozpin spoke, "Evacuate the ship, it is lost. Record the scans of that missile, we need to discover what it was."
"Weiss!" Ruby said with shock as she turned her ship around to see the devastation. The Beacon was dead in space, pieces slowly falling away as escape pods shot in every direction away from the now derelict craft. Weiss stared in horror at the reports,
"Ruby, return to formation, we need to leave."
"But the General," Ruby said quietly, in defeat.
"Nothing we can do Ruby, if we had a bigger ship," Weiss said with anger, the image of her father's smile imprinted in her mind.
"Captain we are getting a message," the transports pilot said as the image of General Ozpin came onto the display.
"Captain Weiss, take these scans, they are of the weapon that hit my ship," Ozpin said uncharacteristically quickly.
"General, I-"
"There is not time Captain, they have a tractor beam on my escape pod. Find out what that weapon is and stop i-" Ozpin was cut off abruptly, his image turning to static.
"Captain the star destroyer is moving after us again, we need to jump to hyperspace."
"Then do it pilot," Weiss said as she rested her fist against the screen.
"We can't make it too the rendezvous from this position," the pilot said with frustration. Weiss pursed her lips, anger quickly rising.
"Fine then," Weiss said as she pushed aside the pilot, entering in her own co-ordinates. "There you go, now get us out of here," Weiss said as she moved back to her station. "Ruby we're not going to the rendezvous, prepare to jump,"
"Weiss we need to get Ozpin!" Ruby shouted, gripping her controls fiercely, trying her hardest to not to fly straight at the star destroyer.
"I wish we could, but that's my father, we wouldn't last a minute."
Ruby held back her tears, one hand falling away from the flight stick. "Ace's, we are leaving… Prepare to jump,"
"What about Ozpin, we can't leave him," Nora said sadly.
"It's Ozpin Ruby," Sun pleaded.
"I know… But we can't win this one," Ruby said quietly, the comms becoming silent as the four fighters reluctantly formed up for the jump.
Several hours later the convoy emerged form hyperspace, everyone quiet, thinking about Hoth. Weiss had barely moved from her chair, her mind busy thinking of her father. She doubted he would kill Ozpin, the General had the potential to reveal a lot about the Rebellion. Her father would however kill him eventually. Then he would return to searching for her.
"Captain, we are here," the pilot said slightly confused as to where exactly they were. Weiss broke out of her pondering, looking out in the graveyard.
"Weiss, what is this place?" Ruby asked,
"The sight of an old naval battle of the Clone Wars, now it's used as a dumping ground for the Imperials. I learnt about this place a long time ago, at the academy. I told high command about it, but we didn't have time to come and salvage anything."
"Good thing we brought a salvage team with us," Neptune added sarcastically. Weiss smiled as debris drifted apart to reveal her prize. Sitting in the mess of scrap metal and half destroyed ships, sat a nearly fully intact Venator class star destroyer.
The four fighter pilots eyed the battleship immediately, almost preparing to attack the unidentified vessel. When they saw it was dead they all figured why Weiss had brought them here. "We will get that ship up and running, then we are going after my father. We will return to the fleet with General Ozpin and an operational battleship."
Determined smiles sprouted on everyone's faces. The convoy floated through the graveyard of ships, marking possible pieces that could be used to rebuild the Venator. Weiss took a deep breath as her transport glided over the old warship. The imperials had discarded most of them; the ones they kept were mostly used for training purposes. Its firepower was only slightly less than that of an Imperial class star destroyer, its design also left several areas exposed and weakened in contrast to the newer model. Weiss didn't know if it would be enough to take on her father, and whatever new weapon he had created. She did however, trust in her friends, trusted Ruby. Together they would rescue Ozpin, or die trying.
WE ARE BACK! Turns out it was not that long of a break. I blame all of you wonderful people and my love for Star Wars for that, so thanks guys and gals. Episode 2 is going to be bigger and better and I cannot wait to show you guys more. For those who are worried about shipping (either for or against it) there will be romance in this story, it's not going to have fluff chapters or long fluffy moments, but this is Star Wars, there is always a little romance. Anyway, it is a pleasure to write for you, so look forward to...
NEXT TIME: The training of a Jedi! And Weiss' first Rebellion command!