AN: Hey guys. Sorry this took so long to upload. I had meant to post this earlier but life in general and my emotional outburst had me too pissed off to get any writing done. TheAtlanteanKing brought up a good point during some brainstorming that the VKS: Beacon as a Heavy-destroyer was not going to cut it. The stats I had posted placed it better as a Heavy-crusier. So now the Beacon has been given an upgrade. Other than messing with the actual weapon count it has, no other changes have been made. I have changed the previous chapters to reflect this change as well. Also I know I didn't actually describe the Beacon. I'll be dealing with that presently along with an over all description of a Hawk-fighter. As well as bringing in a few other OC characters.
Thanks as always TheAtlanteanKing
I am always accepting missions, faction/races, or disposable OCs.
I DO NOT OWN RWBY IT IS THE SOLE PROPERTY OF ROOSTERTEETH PRODUCTIONS
VKS: Beacon's log: Commander Ozpin Reporting
Star date: March 10, 3287
Location: The Borders of the Beta Quadrant
With our crew finally aboard we have made the jump to the border of the Beta Quadrant and are now running preliminary scans of the sector we are in. So far our scans of the area are clear but we are on the edge of known Grimm territory so they may not be clear for long. I have decided to let the crew rest awhile longer since we are still within the range of support the Vale Fleet can provide.
Captain Rose has already called a meeting with his squadron leaders to begin running combat patrols and drills. He has been joining them in their drills. I have never known Martin to give an order that he himself would not follow. His brother Thamior has already begun running our two marine battalions through boarding simulations for when or if we run into enemy instillations or need to repel borders ourselves. It's my hope we won't always need to fight but one can never be too carful in deep space.
Chapter Six – First Contact
Three days earlier
When the Beacon began to make the jump to the borders of the Beta Quadrant the CAG had ordered that Hawk squadrons Red and Black be the first on the roster for combat patrols around the perimeter of the Beacon. Before Blake and Ruby left however he told Ruby exactly how he felt about the fight that had happened earlier that day.
"1st Lt. Rose because this was your first offense you are going be pulling double duty shifts for the next week. You will also be helping Ensign Chen with the repairs to the mess hall equipment." Martin told her.
"B-but sir!" Ruby stuttered as she tried to argue.
"The other option is to be confined to quarters for a week on half rations." Martin saw her gaze drop to the deck. As much as it pained him to see her like that he couldn't afford to play favorites.
With three planned jumps and with four hours in between each jump it would take three days in order to make it to the Beta Quadrant. The Beacon could make the trip in one jump but at the end of the jump it would take almost three hours for the reactors to cool down enough before the ship could move without fear of a reactor breach leaving them vulnerable to anything waiting for them. Breaking the trip into smaller jumps allowed them to still react should anything be waiting for them at the end of the jumps. In the mean time though they would be running combat drills and patrols during each break reroute to their destination.
"Y-yes sir." Ruby sighed dejectedly and left the ready room and made her way to engineering. Blake followed her out planning on getting so reading in before her shift started.
Then Martin noticed the smirk Yang had. "Don't think you're in the clear 2nd Lt. Rose. You are also pulling double shift and helping with the repairs."
"Damn it." Yang grumbled.
Martin just raised an eyebrow before asking, "What was that 2nd Lt.?"
"Yes sir." She replied before heading out of the ready room to engineering in help her sister with the repairs. Weiss followed her out as well and began making her way to the gym as she planned on getting some practice in.
Then he went over the scheduling for the Osprey and Falcon drills and patrols. Just because they weren't always going to be needed didn't mean they would get off without training. Phoenix' pilots were not going to just sit around.
"CVFY squadron you and your Ospreys will be running formation drills in tandem with the Hawk patrols. The reason is two fold. One, you can never have too much practice. Two, if something does show up you'll already be in the vacuum and can respond immediately if necessary."
"Is there a limit on payload Captain?" 1st Lt. Scarlatina asked.
"No nukes. Other than that whatever your birds can handle is allowed." Martin replied. The Beacon did in fact have a supply of nukes but they were only to be used as a last resort and would only be prepped if mission info specifically recommended them.
"JNPR squadron your Falcons will be running loading drills with the marine battalions. By the time we reach the Beta Quadrant I want you to be able to fill your birds to the limit and be out the launch tubes in thirty seconds."
"That seems a bit much Captain." The green and white clad 2nd Lt. of JNPR squadron said.
"You would be surprised at what you can do if you set your mind to it 2nd Lt. Lie." Martin said. "That should be everything for now. Dismissed." As Martin stepped from his podium the remaining eight pilots snapped to attention. Martin returned the salute and began making his way to his quarters to change into his off duty clothes. Then he made his way to the starboard side hangar bay that held his Hawk.
It had been a few years since he had been in the cockpit of Resurrection and he felt like he was getting rusty. Even though the last flight he had made in a Hawk had been at the academy only a few weeks ago, it had been in an unarmed run of the mill average Hawk-fighter. It hadn't been his Hawk. Martin planned on joining the first patrol when the first break in the jumps happened and He wanted to make sure he remembered every inch and detail of his craft.
As he approached the hawk Martin couldn't help but admire the craft. It was white from nose tip to engines with gold spiraling throughout it forming flames at certain places. As with the other Hawks in the hangar Resurrection was forty feet in length with a thirty-foot wing wingspan. From the nose to just before the cockpit the Hawk was four and half feet wide with the front of the cockpit sitting ten feet from the three engines. At the front of the cockpit the Hawk began to widen until the cockpit was five and half feet. The wings angled sharply from the middle of the cockpit before angling back from the wing tips towards the rear of the cockpit. Reconnecting exactly at the rear of the cockpit. The dorsal wing topped at only five feet in length and met the body of the fighter at a right angle, only a foot from the rear of the cockpit. With a depth of only eight feet the three engines while stacked pyramid style had a snug fit. Thankfully the bird was not meant for long distance travel. That snug fit meant the engines would over heat if pushed full out for more than a few minutes. That still never stopped Martin from pushing himself and his fighter to the point of pulling 4Gs for extended periods.
"Alright lets see if you made it with all your parts intact." Martin said as he pulled out some of the tools he had brought along and rolled up his sleeves. As he started working he noticed an extra part in a place where it didn't belong. "Who the hell put a stabilizing gyro on my ship?!" Martin was one of only a handful of pilots crazy enough to fly without a stabilizing gyro. It tended to inhibit some of his wilder flight patterns. He didn't notice Chief Winchester and his deck crew leave the hangar bay in a hurry.
Present day
As 2nd Lt. Highwind completed her second circuit of her patrol route. She looked out at the Beacon. She had been assigned to many Cruiser-class ships in the past but this one for some reason held her attention more than the others. While the Paladin-class heavy-cruiser looked at first to be just a standard heavy-cruiser. Closer inspection would show that wasn't the case.
The VKS: Beacon was fully armored in three meters of dust-hardened alloy. Armed with an aura shield generator if it was pushed to the limit the Beacon could take massive hits and sustain only minor damage. As Highwind circled to the nose of the ship to restart her patrol run she could see the barrel of the Beacon's main weapon just barely sticking out of the lower half of the ship. A Dust-Accelerator-Cannon. It fired depleted nine and a half meter long Dust-slugs at thirty thousand meters per second. The ammunition itself was curtsey of the ship's twin reactors. Instead of jettisoning the waste it was recycled and used to arm the weapon.
Unlike traditional ships the bridge and medical bay were located in the heart of the ship instead of at the front, with engineering and the reactors behind them. The remaining areas and systems such as weapon conduits, crew quarters, labs, mess hall, hangar and launch bays, and the gym as well as all the other recreational facilities were spread throughout the ship and made up the remaining space of the thirty decks. Coupled with the ship having to be built around the DAC in order for it to function and that the hangar bays could be retracted or extended when needed gave the ship the appearance of an over sized assault rifle missing its magazine.
As she was thinking about the ship, Reaper, one of the squad members of Black squadron interrupted her thoughts. "So is anyone else hoping for some action today?"
"Reaper cut the chit chat." Blake, call sign Shadow, the leader of Black squadron responded curtly. "He isn't wrong though I could use some action as well." She thought.
Then her short range DRADIS picked up thirty objects swiftly approaching the Beacon's location. Followed at a distance by a much larger signature. Some of the smaller objects fit the description of Beowolf fighters while other slightly larger craft were Ursa boarding ships. In those numbers that could only mean that the larger creature was a Nevermore-class grimm. The raven-haired pilot had gotten her wish.
"This is Shadow to Beacon actual. We have multiple Grimm inbound. Beowolf, Ursa, and Nevermore-class." Blake said trying to keep calm though there was a slight quiver in her voice. Weather it was from excitement for the coming battle or out of fear because this was her first real fight she couldn't tell.
There was just a flash of white and gold as Resurrection entered formation with the fighters of Black squadron with Red squadron behind them ready to deal with any Grimm that got past them. The CAG's voice came over the fighter's comm system broadcasting to all the fighters.
"This is Phoenix to all fighters. Get into attack formation and prepare to engage. I want all of you home by dinner so no heroics. Good luck and good hunting everyone." As Martin double-checked his weapon and shield systems he received a message over a private channel.
"That goes double for you Phoenix. Last I checked I still owe you that dinner and you can finally answer the question of why a pilot is the brother of a marine." Summer said.
Martin could feel the smirk through his comms. He chuckled and braced himself for the on coming dogfight. "I don't know what it is about me she finds so interesting but I'll be the last to complain. No way she'll get more than interested though." He thought.
Recently Martin had found himself stuck on the idea that Summer might never see him as more than a friend. Though the fault was mostly his for actively trying to keep things between them professional. Good thing Wolf, Ruby, Yang had a plan to fix his views and push Summer past the point of just being interested. Ruby, Yang, and Weiss' voices clicked over the comms as they relayed their orders to their squadrons as they entered formation.
"This is Demon to Red squadron. We are the net on this one. If anything gets past Black, White or Yellow squadrons you blast them out of the vacuum!" Ruby said. In Martin's opinion she sounded a lot more eager than she should have been.
"This Ice Queen to White squadron. We are on Osprey detail. If you let a single one of those bastards near the Ospreys before they reach the Nevermore you'll answer to me before you answer to the CAG." Weiss chilling remark made her pilots shudder. They were not going to let anything happen Coco and her squadron if they could help it.
"This is Pyro to Yellow squadron. We are on clean up duty. Anything Ice Queen and her squadron miss is fair game. Anyone who doesn't bag a kill gets to see me when we get back to the barn." Over the last three days Yang had been drilling into her pilots that each one of them would at least get one kill per engagement. It had started with seeing who could destroy the most asteroids. The last jump had placed them in an asteroid field and they had to clear most of them away before the Beacon could jump again. Apparently the leader of Yellow squadron was tired of killing asteroids.
DRADIS - Direction Range and Distance
1st Lt. - First Lieutenant
2nd Lt. - Second Lieutenant
DAC - Dust-Accelerator Cannon
CAG - Commander of Air Group