Ruby was clinging to her seat as flack exploded all around their Valkyrie. She and her team, along with team JNPR and team CRML were sitting in the transport as it flew through the air taking them to their first Live Fire Mission. She had been so excited at the prospect of being part of a real battle. Even if the battle was already over and the enemy was retreating.
Next to her was her sister he was practically bouncing in her seat at the chance to finally fight the enemies of the Imperium. On Ruby's other side, Weiss was trying her best to hide her fear and discomfort. Next to Yang Blake was calm and collected, if Ruby had to guess this wasn't the first time Blake had been under flack fire.
Across from her Jaune was holding so tight to his restraints that Ruby was sure they might be slightly dented. Ruby felt a bit sorry for her fellow team leader. Next to him Pyrrha was doing only a little better, but it was clear that she was close to being a bit sick form all the movement. Ren was just as still as Blake, and Nora was just as excited as Yang.
Then sitting up to the back of the hull was team CRML. Ruby could be sure that Corvus was sleeping this whole thing off, how she didn't know, but she was of it. Megan was in the nervous camp if the consent mumbling of 'We're going to die' was anything to go by. Surprisingly Fulgrim was remarkable adjusted to the whole thing. And Leman was… Ruby was pretty sure he might be out cold.
"Okay kiddies…" In the middle of the hull a hologram of Commissar Flint flickered into view. "… this is your first Live Fire Mission, sixty three hours ago the Town of Slausbough had been besieged by Orks, this was a stupid move as this town is protected by Knight House Hawkshroud. The Knight House sent two Knights in response and with them came three companies of Vale Praetorian Guard and four squads of Blood Angels, so for us the battle is basically over. The Orks have been beaten back but… these are Orks. And the attacking tribe is the Groffs, so… there's a lot of them." Flint sighed. "Right now, Knight lord and lady Seriths are handling the bulk of what is left of the horde. Your job is to hang on the flanks and handle the bands of orks that try to flank around. Your three teams are to report to Sergeant Hookroot, he'll be your commanding officer for the remainder of the battle. Good luck out their Aspirants and don't die… I have enough paper work to deal with already." With that the Commissar flickered out of view.
"Landing zone in sight!" The pilot yelled back to the teams. There was a bit of rough bumps as the air transport flew back down to the surface. Ruby only opened her eyes once the sound of the boarding ramp started to extend down. Ruby quickly undid her safety harness and rushed out of the Valkyrie.
"Land! How I missed you!" She yelled out as she touched the ground with her mask as if she was kissing the ground. Jaune and Megan both ran out of the airship, the rest of Aspirants all followed their more grateful companions with Leman stumbling out last. When Ruby finally looked back up she was amazed at the sight before her. She was standing in a real Imperial Guard encampment. It was a box of sand bags, defense lines, and barbwire with a machine gun tower at each corner and three small pre-fabricated bunkers in the middle set up in a triangle. All around them were men and women of the guard in the standard Vale Praetorian uniform. But to Ruby's surprise, many of them were glaring at the Aspirants.
"Um… I don't think they are happy to see us." Jaune said nervously. The Aspirants quickly moved towards the bunkers in hopes of finding their commanding officer. The went straight to the bunker with the guard outside.
"Halt, State rank and purpose." The guard said as he stopped the Aspirants at the door.
"Aspirant Squad leader Ruby Rose." Ruby said giving a quick salute. "We are here to report to sergeant Hookroot for orders." The guard scowled at the teens and with a quick grunt opened the door and led them inside.
"Sergeant Hookroot, the Aspirants have arrived." He said as he entered with the Aspirants following him in. Ruby quickly took in everything, it was dark with the only light coming from the open door, the few terminals turned on, and the holo-table detailing the battlefield. And standing over the holo-table were three men, the first looked to be a Administratum official if his clothing and auto-quill were anything to go by. The sight of him made the fact the battle was already over that much for apparent to the Aspirants. The second man was a normal man in a Vale Praetorian uniform, they all quickly assumed that he was the sergeant but it was the third person that was the one to turn around and approach them.
"Is that so…" They all looked up to the Beastmen in a slightly looser version of the standard Vale Praetorian uniform. He was a Gor, a full blooded Beastman. Cloven feet, fur over his legs and lower body, huge strong arms, goat face, and large curled horns. "… something you'd like to say?" His voice was deep and rough but it clearly commanded authority. The Aspirants all quickly shook themselves out of their shock.
"No sir, Aspirant Teams, RWBY, JNPR, and CRML awaiting orders." Corvus said before any of them could make the mistake of pointing out the stupidly obvious fact he was a Beastmen. Corvus had lived with Gors, Ungors, and all other strains of Beastmen long enough to know that one thing they all hate is baseline humans pointing out that they are different. Sergeant Hookroot grunted approvingly and motioned for the three leaders to join him at the Holo-table. Ruby, Jaune, and Corvus.
"I won't lie, I and the rest of my men aren't happy to have you here with us." Sergeant Hookroot said as he and the other guardsmen glared at the three. "Aspirants are known in the Guard as disaster magnets. You all have a talent at making what should be casualty free assignments into bloodbaths." Ruby and Jaune began to shrink from the glares they were getting while Corvus shrugged it off. "But I need to use everything I can. Felix." The sergeant nodded to the man next to him.
"Lord and Lady Seriths are handling the orks…" The Holo-table moved to show the battle taking place just outside the walls of the town. Two Imperial Knights cleaving through tides of greenskins, and then torching them with their massive flamers. "… but every now and then a warband brakes off. Whether they are running away or are trying to flank doesn't matter. Our job is to kill as many as we can." The Holo-table moved back over to them with the guard encampment in the middle. The landscape was jagged and ruined from the recent battle.
"Your first orders Aspirants are to clean out this small group of Orks that have taken this small hill." The map pinged a nearby hill about half a mile from the encampment. "The Orks there have a flack cannon, I'm sure you felt its payload on the way here. Destroying the cannon is your first order and kill as many as the greenskins as you can." The sergeant said as his man walked over to a rack to retrieve a Vox-caster for the Aspirants. "I assume one of you knows how to use this?" Jaune raised his hand reluctantly. "Good, you will be in charge of keeping communications clean between you Aspirants and here, so that means I would advise you to stay in the back of the line for combat." At that Jaune's face light up and he performed a very eager salute.
"You can count on me sir!"
"Emperor's finest my ass." The guardsmen grumbled as he dropped the Vox-caster in Jaune's arms.
"Aspirants, do the Emperor proud and try not to get us all killed." Sargent Hookroot said before he dismissed the Aspirants. The Team leaders saluted and returned to their waiting teams outside.
"So, what's our orders?" Nora said as she bounced over to the leaders hope in eyes at the chance to fight some Orks.
"We are to take out a ork encampment out on a hill about a half mile west." Corvus said as they approached the teams. "Our primary objective is the ork flack cannon."
"Are we going to have any support?" Megan asked.
"They didn't tell us, the sergeant just basically pointed out our mission and told us good luck." Ruby shrugged, she wasn't that worried. Between their aura, Aspirant armor, and superior fighting skills, she knew that they would be able to handle any Orks.
Taldeer dropped down from the air vent with the grace only a former Elder Farseer could ever hope to obtain. She scanned Ozpin's office for anything that might even hope to suggest that she was being monitored. Seeing nothing present did not mean she let down her guard, this was Ozpin after all. You don't become Primarch of the Alpha Legion without learning to hide things like cameras so well that not even a Farseer could hope to find them.
But she knew that even if she was caught there wouldn't be any real punishment. Ozpin wasn't the kind of man to be that harsh for things like sneaking behind his back… so long as your motives weren't a threat to the Imperium or his students. And Taldeer's weren't. She just wanted those pictures back. They were hers after all.
The Eldar glided over to the small file cabinet behind his desk and after quickly but carefully going over to make sure that it wasn't bobby trapped or bugged, she opened it and began going through the files in hope of finding what she was looking for.
She had to find those pictures. She quietly berated herself for even taking them in the first place but she worried that he would forget about her. She knew in her heart and soul that wasn't true but he did need to be reminded that there are other things in his life beyond the Temple.
She was about to give up on the cabinet when the gods favored her with a small sound of a click that shouldn't have come from anywhere. Taldeer smiled as she swiftly found the false bottom but what she had found was not what she had came to find but a file on one of the Aspirants. Or at least she thought it was Aspirant file. It had their name on it but it was much larger then any first year should have.
"Keep the suppressive fire on!" Jaune yelled out to his team as they all took shots at the bunkered down Orks. They had yet to get to the flack cannon camp but had run it to a small band of Orks on the way. Right now Jaune, Ren, Nora, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Megan were hunkered down in a trench firing on the Orks. They were trying to keep the greenskins in one spot long enough for Corvus, Leman, Fulgrim, Yang, and Pyrrha to circle around and hit them in close combat.
"Nora, right flank… three of them are charging!" Ruby called out from the scope of Crescent Rose. Nora nodded and switched from her las-rifle to her own personal weapon. Quickly sending out a few rounds of Dust grenades on the charging Orks. The Aspirants didn't wait to see if the assaulting Orks had survived but continued to fire into the both the Orks in cover and the small dust cloud just to make sure. Ruby checked through inferred and saw that one of the Orks had survived and was charging quickly through the las-fire. There wasn't enough time to warn her friends so she quickly sped past them and shifted her weapon into its scythe form. She could already feel the missed shots from the entrenched Orks fly by her but these were Orks, their aim already sucked.
"WAAAGH!" Ruby heard the incoming ork bellow. She raised her scythe just in time to block the incoming slash from the massive ork's sword. Well… that would be generous. It was more like a hunk of metal with a sharpened edge. But it was big and the ork was strong so it made the weapon as deadly as a ork weapon could be. "Puny humy' I'm gonna choppy a up in ta bits!" The ork pressed its strength onto Ruby. She quickly parried the sword and sped around the ork. Her first attack was a slash across the ork's back, her blade cutting through the rough leather and poor armor that the ork had. The ork roared at the attack and quickly turned around with a swing of its sword only for it to hit the dirt ground. The beast angrily looked around for its opponent. It never found it as Ruby brought her scythe's blade down on its head, killing it.
"Ruby! Get back!" Jaune called out once she had finished off the ork. Ruby sped back to the trench her fellow Aspirants were hunkered down in.
"Sorry, I just…"
"Never mind that, just get back to scoping out the enemy." Jaune barked back. Ruby was momentarily in shock that Jaune had suddenly become so commanding. But she quickly recovered and returned to her previous job of keeping an eye on the Orks' movements.
Angron was watching over the third year class. They were sparing with each other, today was boxing. By this point in Aspirant training all you had to do is instruct them on the type of training and they would do the rest. All he had to do now was to watch them and make notes on their performance. He would later send them a detailed report on their missteps and flaws with some advice on how to fix it if he was feeling generous. But today he was a little distracted. Ruby had been sent out on her first Live Fire mission.
He wasn't worried about her getting hurt. Not at all, she was strong like her mother. She would fly through the greenskins without getting a scratch on her. He was sure of that. Completely sure of that fact. But some part of him, a small and tiny part of him was deeply concerned over the remote possibility that she could get hurt.
He would find that exact Ork that hurt her and rip him to pieces, then he would get one of their mad doctors to fix it back just so he could rip it to pieces again. and he would do this over and over and over and over again. And over again! Then he would beat her CO in to an inch of his life for putting her in danger. Then he would knee Rob in the nuts because funny. Then he would hunt Ozpin down for sending her off on a Live Fire mission in the first place. Then he would burn down all of Vale because he felt like it.
But none of that would happen because Ruby was Summer's daughter and as such was far too strong to ever get hurt by some ork trash.
Leman was having the time of his life. He smirked as he pulled Gerl out of the head of another Ork. Jaune's plan had worked perfectly. He, Corvus, Fulgrim, Yang, and Pyrrha all surprised the bunkered Orks who were not ready for a close combat fight. That quickly changed as they were Orks after all. They all picked up the nearest and heaviest object they could find and began fighting the Aspirants.
The only problem was the fact there were a lot of Orks. The humans were outnumbered ten to one. But that quickly changed and in Leman's opinion it wasn't that big of a problem. In the first seconds of the fight he killed three Orks, two with gut shots and one with a slice to the head. Then he hit a wall of green meat. Leman had gotten the Nob, the biggest of the ork band. He never saw it but he was sure that Yang was so jealous.
The fight was amazing. The Nob actually knew what he was doing. It would block Leman's hits and actually dogged a few of his shotgun shots. The only one that had hit him was the first and it wasn't to its face. It did leave a nasty hole in the Ork's armor. But in the end Leman had walked away from the fight victorious. He really wanted to take the Ork head as a trophy but it was to large to haul around the battlefield.
But just as he was thinking about placing a beacon for him to track down the head later his Wulfen senses kicked in and screamed at him to take action. He snapped his neck back and saw Yang being cornered by three Orks, Leman at first didn't understand why he felt so worried for her safety, it wasn't like she couldn't handle herself against three Orks. But then his ears picked up the sound of creaking metal, Leman looked up and saw that the wreak of a ork fighter plane was hanging over Yang and the Orks, the sound he heard was the wing of the plane starting to fall apart from its own weight.
Completely without thinking, Leman shifted his swords into one great sword as he charged towards the Orks threatening his unaware friend. His body already changing into his more beastly state, allowing him to cut clean through all three of the Orks in one powerful swing.
"Hey! I could've…"
"Get down!" Leman roared as he dove to push Yang out of the way of the falling wing. The wing crashed down into the ground sending out a cloud of dust through the trench. " 'cough' ya okay?"
"Yeah… 'cough' … can you get off me now." Yang asked politely as he did just save her.
"Aww… do I have to?" He said in his normal Leman way.
"Do you want to be punched in the face?" Yang quipped back.
"Fine… you win." Leman said as he reluctantly pushed himself off Yang.
"Would you two quit with the glaring." Horus groaned as he rubbed his forehead.
"She started it." Qrow grunted out, his glare never lessening.
"And I will finish it." Senguinius retorted. The four other Primarchs present groaned at the two's childish actions. For as long as they could remember the two of them had always disliked each other for some unexplained reason.
"Enough with this…" Ahriman slightly demanded. "Hurry up and find some random reason for the two of you to leave so you can fuck each other in some broom closet."
"We will do no such thing." Senguinius flashed red from Ahriman's words. But despite her protests that was exactly what the rest of them knew was going to happen. It happened every time the two of them met. They would have a glaring contest, argue about some inane thing and then sneak off and to have sex, then they would return and awkwardly avoid any contact with each other.
"Primarch Baal and Primarch Branwen's conduct is not the subject of this meeting." Rogal Dorn said getting to the point as always. "We are here to discuss the recent raise in Word Bearer cults among the citizens."
"Yes, thank you Rogal." Horus sighed. This is why he like having Rogal in meetings. He always made sure that it would be productive and keep the non-essential chitchat down to a minimum." For being Primarchs, they were very good at being distracted by their social lives and especially their peer's relationships. Sometimes it felt like he, Dorn and Yarrick were the only sane ones. "Ozpin, anything from the Alpha Legion?"
"Investigations are currently underway. I have several plants within former Word Bearers contacts, but I have yet to find a way into the former legion itself. When Yarrick reforged the legion he had the unintended side effect of depleting the traitors of everyone in their ranks that might possibly be sympathetic to us. So at the moment we are without a solid line of information."
"Great…" Horus sighed in frustration. "… Ahriman, how goes the investigation into Lorgar's activities in the Archives?"
"We know that he mostly spent time looking into the founding of the Imperium. But then he suddenly switched over to what we know of Grimm. It was at this point that he started moving towards the more… troublesome tomes. Those concerning the Grimm Gods. But it's hard to figure just what he was doing in those, as Primarchs are the only ones with clearance to read them."
"Keep looking into it, I'll see if I have time to assist. Qrow, have you made any progress concerning… her."
"I still don't know why you guys asked me to do this, but I've made… some work on this. I've seen her… for a second." Qrow said before taking a drink from his flask. "Then poof… she was gone."
"Well that is better than we have done in recent times." Ozpin sighed. It had been years since anyone had made contact with Salem.
"Dorn, how are Imperial defenses on the Word Bearers front?"
"Unknown."
"Can you give a bit more detail."
"Yes."
"..."
"Please do so."
"The Word Bearers do not siege cities… they infiltrate them and spread chaos. I do not see the reason for my being here."
"Senguinius, how have the anti-traitor operations proceeded?" Horus said ignoring Dorn's question.
Yang was running through the trenches. The Aspirant teams had reached the ork encampment. It was a made into a downed Ork Battle Wagon. It was locked up tight and well defended. The sound of the Flack cannon firing rang out all around her. This was what she lived for, the small bar fights and school training fights had nothing on the real grit and sweat of a real life or death battle.
The blood pumped through her veins as she moved between the trenches. Yang turned around one of the corners and found herself running into a pair of screaming Orks. Both charging at her, their weapons raised, the sound of them firing their pistols toward her slightly ringing above the Flack cannon. Yang smiled as she ran faster towards the greenskins. Once she reached them, she ducked under their swings and with one shot to each of their toothy jaws killed them. Yang had quickly found that her punches to their heads were the fastest way to kill the ork. It might be quick but there were a lot of Orks so that didn't matter.
But right now she was looking for her partner. A Ork charge had separated the teams and now they were working together to get back to each other. Flares were not an option as that was just asking for the Orks to come for you. Yang's internal Vox-com was only picking up static on all the channels and that meant that either Jaune's Vox-caster had been damaged or worse… the Orks had a Weird Boy with them. Yang remembered from Instructor Ports lessons that static on all Vox channels was a sign that one of the most unpredictable and potentially powerful beings on Remnant was nearby.
Yang decided to take a risk and popped her head over the trench. She couldn't see anyone else but could see that there were a lot less lights in the ruined Battle Wagon. Most of the Orks must have come after them in that last charge. It was good for later but right now Yang needed to find her partner and her sister… and maybe Weiss too.
Then things went quiet… or things turned quieter. Yang snapped her head to the Battle Wagon and noticed that the Flack Cannon had stopped. Yang frowned under her armor's mask, she had missed a fight. She continued to look around and to her surprise and slight disappointment there were no more Orks. She quickly pulled herself out of the trenches and after taking one last look for any Orks began moving towards the ruined battle wagon.
"Yang! Do you hear me?" Yang stopped at the sound of Jaune over the Vox-com.
"Jaune, I hear you. Did you guys take care of the Flack Cannon yet?"
"Yeah, where here at the battle wagon. Ren, Fulgrim, and Megan are still missing but everyone else are here."
"I'm already…"
"WAAAGH!" Yang turned around just time to block the power klaw that was about to cut her in half. "I'm gonna gut you little humy!" The Ork snarled into her face as it pushed the talons of its power klaw on her arms. Yang buckled under the sheer strength of the massive Ork. Down on one of her knees as the ork savagely chuckled at her apparent weakness. "Take dat little humy…" It said as dropped the pistol in its other hand and grabbed on to her face mask. Yang struggled to fight back as the Ork squeezed harder on her head. She felt so angry, this ork was going to beat her, this single ork was going to beat her because it got behind her and was able to pin her. Yang suddenly felt a surge of anger and power flow through her body. It felt different from her normal Semblance, but she was too distracted with her current situation to notice.
Yang pushed back on the power klaw, knocking the ork stumbling back, taking Yang's mask with it. The Ork glared back at her and roared in rage at taking its early victory from it. It charged forward again, throwing the mask to ground and picking its gun back up. Firing at Yang as it moved back toward her, but her Aura blocked all of them. And once the Ork returned to pointblank range, Yang ducked under the swipe of the Power klaw and landed a single rage enhanced punch to the skull. The sound of the Ork's hard head cracking under the force of Yang's punch could be heard easily. The Ork skidded back a few feet from the punch. It began pulling itself off the ground But Yang was so on top of the beast and continued to beat down on the ork. It was only once the ork's skull had opened from all the damage had Yang stopped.
"Now stay down…" Yang panted as the fight had taken more out of her than she thought it should. All throughout the fight she never noticed that her veins had turned a bright red for the briefest of moments. "Hey Jaune, I'm on my way to you guys."
Ozpin had just returned from his meeting with his fellow Primarchs. The subject of the meeting had been the Word Bearers and from his perspective it had gone well. But meetings about to the traitor legion did not fix the problem of the traitor legion. His thoughts were still on the Word Bearers even as he opened the door to his office. But to his rare surprise he found someone sitting in his chair.
"Taldeer? What are you doing here?" Ozpin said as he entered his office and approached what should be his desk. Taldeer just continued to look at Ozpin and only answered by pushing forward a file that Ozpin instantly recognized. "What are you doing with that?" Ozpin said with his even rarer accusing tone.
"I was looking for what belongs to me and I stumbled on it." Taldeer leaned back in his chair. Her face unreadable even for him. They both continued to do nothing but stare at each other, both waiting for the other to make the next move. The air in the room was not hostile but certainly tense. "I never pegged you as a hypocrite Ozpin… but… after reading this. You have some gall to lecture Angron when you are no better than him."
"Its still kickin'!" Gritrot announced to its fellow Gretchen as it kicked the down ork.
"But look at dat hole in its 'ead!"
"Its all squishy 'nd outside."
"Shut up you gits! Da Doc wants any that are still kickin' and dis one still kickin'!" Gritrot barked at the other Gretchen. They all grumbled but did as they were told… at least until they all had a chance to back stabbed Gritrot for being a bossy git. They all swarmed the hulking ork and began dragging it to a certain Mad Doc.
Codex-Astartes for the Common Man
By Roboute Guilliman
Based off the Codex-Astartes by Roboute Guilliman
Chapter Forty Three, Imperial Knights
Imperial Knights are both far from the armored men who rode in on houseback in to battles for the honor of their kingdom and yet they do share many similarities. Modern day Imperial Knights now ride massive battle mechs into glorious combat. Standing three stories tall, the Imperial Knight combat walker is one of the most fearsome war assets the Imperium has at its disposal.
However, the main issue with the Knights is that they are not within the normal chain of command. Imperial Knights belong to Knight Houses. All of whom are allied with the Imperium but do not take direct orders from the High Lords. Instead they follow the rules of the Honor-Bound. A agreement between the founders of the Knight Houses and the Emperor himself. Ever Knight House is honor bound to fight in any full scale war the Imperium wages. The Knights Houses are honor bound to come to the defense of the Imperium. The Knights Houses are to only receive tithes from towns and settlements that are under their protection during peace time.
The Knight Houses respect the Honor-Bound and many base there lives around the many tenants that have been added to it. These rules deal more with the day to day behavior than anything else. Only the rules stated by the Emperor are to be followed in absolute. However, the culture surrounding the Knight Houses is very much in the opinion that unless you follow every rule of the Honor-Bound then you are nothing but a dishonorable plebeian.
Author's notes
So a bit more action. I am going to say I know I'm not that good at it. I have a hard time at dragging out fight scenes. I better at plot outside of action. And I'm best at characters. But this is Warhammer and RWBY is action is needed.
Second, the Blake pairing polls is still going on. You can find it at the top of my profile page. Please vote.
Reviews
Ollanius Pious – PM
Nemris – Thank you, and the night lords will be for much later. Sorry but right now is school years and then legions
Mr. Green37 – PM
Pacer287 – thank you for reading and reviewing.
Darkerpaths – Well you got a bit of action, there will be more next chapter but Action is not my forte.
Smurphy1999 – thank you