Chapter 13: Union at War
Mag-Lev train 341, Atlas.
8:09 am.
The Mag-Lev train 341 was carrying over 290 passengers onboard, hauling a cargo shipment of tech for Aletian Paladin units. In the 7th car, where there were civilians present inside, Penny was resting her head in a seat across a cyborg-super soldier, none other than Carson himself. But Carson knew that the reality they were in wasn't real, so he decided to tell Penny that as she started to wake up...
" Hey, you're finally awake." Carson said.
" Ugh, where am I?" Penny asked with a tired voice.
" Right now, you're being rebuilt in the under levels of the Blossom Club." Carson explained.
" What?" Penny asked in a shocked tone.
" Oh, I'm sorry, your memory core got damaged on impact." Carson explained. " Let fill in the gaps for you, Ashlyn and Jupiter were taking you back to Beacon when you were attacked by two unknown assailants and you were torn to shreds by a wire trap set by assassins that then tried to kill Xavier. The girls brought your broken body to Reina, so she's got you undergoing repairs and receiving some upgrades as well, so she's got me teaching you to use them." He explained.
" I'm getting rebuilt?" Penny asked.
" Yeah, your CPU is currently hooked up to a computer so I can teach you how to use your new upgrades alongside my teammates. Where do you think we are now?" Carson asked.
Penny slid over to the window to see that they are in Atlas since they were passing by Bottimere Park...
" We are currently in Atlas, as we are passing Bottimere park, home of the magnificent Bottimere gardens." Penny said in her normal tone.
" Yes, we are currently riding Mag-Lev train 341." Carson said.
Penny immediately developed a scared look on her face, until the rear of the train exploded violently, sending the car behind them flying towards them. She covered her face, fearing that car was going to hit her, when everything froze still, and Carson appeared walking up to her...
" Several months ago, the White Fang's Atlas chapter attacked Mag-Lev train 341 with the intent stunting the development of the Aletian Paladin program by destroying the experimental guidance tech with a bomb that they had managed to sneak aboard the train without no one knowing. The explosion killed the majority of the passengers and crew, excluding a young girl who was shielded by her mother from shrapnel at the cost of her life. The incident had set the program back, but also crippled Mag-Lev travel in the kingdom as the people were consumed by the fear of another attack taking place. This gave the fang power, but tonight that all changes." Carson said.
" What do you mean?" Penny asked.
" We're are going to change all of that. The goal of this simulation is to stop the train from going boom." Carson said, as they were transported to an abandoned factory under siege by the Military.
The scene Penny had seen was Aletian soldiers engaged in a firefight with white fang militants, only to be suffering losses upon their initial arrival thanks to gun nests set up in the towers in the courtyard. Carson was walking up just as the scene of two soldiers about to be crushed by a flying truck...
" Time: 6:30 am, four hours before the train went boom. Aletian Security forces received an anonymous tip that the chapter was here, but faced hell upon arrival, as gun nests carrying enough firepower to tear a city apart were grinding them to dust." Carson explained.
" Yeah, but we're gonna change all that." A cybernetic soldier said as she appeared behind Carson.
" This is Rei, she is our sword expert in the unit. She'll be teaching you the ropes on your new offensive capabilities." Carson explained before disappearing.
" So, you're the Aletian bot Reina's putting back together." Rei said.
" Yes." Penny said.
" Good, listen to my instructions and you'll get through this part of the sim." Rei started. " Your swords and wires are now made of Diveridium, a metal that cannot be polarized, which means its resistant to magnetics. When it's cooled after being assembled, it is virtually indestructible. They can also cut through any material, including metal, so why don't you test them out on the towers where the nests are." Rei said before the sim restarted.
Penny immediately leapt into action, using her swords to decimate the towers in a violent fashion. She and Rei pressed forward into the warehouse and encountered more hostiles, until they arrived in a room full of Aletian Knight 200's and airborne attack drones.
" Hey, you want to see something cool?" Rei asked.
" Sure." Penny said.
Rei walked over to a drone, raising her hand up to it, resting it on the drone's head. There was a slight spark, followed by the drone rising up into the air, then moving in the direction that Rei had directed it, which had Penny amazed.
" You interfaced with its CPU." Penny said in an amazed tone.
" Yeah, so can you when the techs have done their work." Rei said.
" Huh?" Penny asked.
" One of your upgrades allows you to interface with other machines, taking control of their actions and operations. However, you cannot interface with multiple machines at once, otherwise you'll burn yourself out." Rei explained before gesturing Penny to try.
Penny walked over to one of the Aletian knights and repeated the same hand motion that Rei did for the Drone, causing the knight to spring to life, stepping out of its charger. Penny backed up and it did the same, as if mimicking the robot girl's movements...
" Wow, it's like I can see what it sees." Penny said, raising and lowering her arm while the knight did the same.
" I know right, but a word of advice, do not interface with a bot that is infected with a computer virus, otherwise you'll be infected with it too." Rei said.
" Okay." Penny said.
Penny then used the bot tov destroy a generator in order to let the Aletian troops in, and the simulation paused all of a sudden, which Penny noticed Rei clutching the side of her neck in pain. Penny rushed over to see if she was alright...
" Hey, are you alright?" Penny asked, resting her hand on her shoulder.
" Do you remember Carson telling you that only one little girl survived the train explosion?" Rei asked.
" Yes, he said the girl survived because her mother sacrificed herself to save her." Penny said in an emotional tone.
" Well, you're about to learn something new, that girl was me." Rei said, shocking Penny.
(This is a flashback moment of Rei's, so she'll be narrating during it.)
(Narration by Rei.)
It was only 15 years ago, when the original Paladin idea was being developed. The experimental guidance tech on the train was for prototypes that they had been developing, so they placed it on the Mag-Lev in order to avoid suspicion. I was only 6 years old when I was on vacation with my parents, Ryou and Katami, alongside my younger brother Keichi, as we were taking the train to the Bottimere Gardens, without knowing what was going to happen...
Mag-Lev train 341
Hyperion City, Atlas.
15 years ago.
6-year-old Rei Cydan was sleeping on her 34-yr-old mother's lap, while her father and brother sat in the other seats. Rei was just waking from a nice long nap, looking up at her mother's beautiful face...
" Did you sleep well sweetie?" Katami asked.
" Yes, mommy." Rei responded.
" Well, we're nearly at the gardens." Ryou pointed out.
" Yes, your flower club is going to be impressed with the photos you are going to get." Keichi said.
" Yes, the-" Rei said when the train cars behind them exploded.
" The last thing I remember was the brightness of the explosion that had just occurred, killing every person in the back of the train. I remember everyone screaming violently in horror at what happened and as it unfolded. I thought my whole world was ending when the explosion happened, but the sight I was going see as I came to was never going to leave my mind." Rei narrated.
As Rei had come to after hitting her head, she was in a completely dark train car as all lights were out. The entire car reeked of death and char, and Rei immediately realized that she was underneath the dead body of her own mother. Tears began to well up her eyes, but she couldn't let out the sounds of her sobs as her chest was in too much pain, so using what strength she could muster, she slid herself out from underneath her mother's body, seeing the large shrapnel pieces in her back.
" Mommy?" Rei said before clutching her chest in pain.
She stood up carefully, looking at herself to look at her damage. The flower wreath she wore for the trip was on the floor in tatters, her bright blue dress was torn and blood-stained, blood was also trickling down her left leg and soaking into her white sock. There was a severe cut on her neck, along with another cut, only smaller and it was found underneath her left eye. This was the current state that the 6-yr-old was in, and instinct was telling her to get off the train but carefully...
" I saw that there was a bright light shining into the car, illuminating the scene for me to see. All I could think about was the pain that was wracking my body and getting off the train fast in case of an explosion." Rei narrated.
The injured 6-yr-old limped her way towards the opening, hoping it was a way off the wreck. She stepped over the pieces of either the train or the passengers, reaching the opening, which lead out into the city, where firefighters, police, and military were setting up a perimeter around the wreck of the train, locking the area down. One of the soldiers and his superior were directing fire trucks, when he spotted the bloodied and beaten girl...
" HEY!" The soldier screamed, crossing his arms and pointing at Rei.
" You only do that when there is an airship is above us." Carson explained.
" Well then, look!" The soldier exclaimed, pointing at Rei still.
The soldier's superior officer was in fact Carson himself before he had taken up employment alongside La Reina. He turned around to see what his underling had been pointing at, only to see a bloodied, bruised, cut, and crying 6-yr-old standing amidst the wreck of a Mag-Lev train...
" MEDIC!" Carson screamed to one of the firefighters.
He immediately rushed up to the injured girl was limping towards him, then falling into his arms after he arrived in front of her...
" Hang in there kid, you're gonna be fine." Carson said over and over again.
After explaining what had happened, Rei looked up to see that Penny had a shocked look of concern on her face. She immediately shrugged it off, convincing Penny to push forward with the sim, so they pressed forward to a room with a security console.
" One fun fact, you now have the ability to interface with other machines, like computers." Rei explained. " Just place your hand on the computer, and you're in the system." She added.
Penny placed her hand onto the console, seeing into the entirety of the White Fang's computer Network. She then brought up an image of the bomb that was used to destroy the train.
"They used a White Phosphorus explosive with sensors on it that would set it off in case it is tampered with." Penny explained as Carson reappeared.
" Well done you two, you had just completed in 15 minutes what took Atlas soldiers 40 minutes to do." Carson said.
Rei disappeared as Carson and Penny were transported to a new firefight scene, this time it was located in a train yard where the Aletian troops and robots were engaged in a firefight with more White Fang troops. The environment paused as Carson appeared alongside a young man who was a cybernetically enhanced soldier like Rei.
" 6: 51 am, Atlas forces converged on a train yard that the White Fang were using as a staging base for the train attack. They faced heavy resistance, even the two-horned devil himself made an appearance once until he wussed out. Because of their delay, Train went boom. You'll working with Hoyt here for this part." Carson said.
" Nice to meet you kid." Hoyt said.
" Salutations." Penny said.
" Cheery." Hoyt said as he looked at Carson.
" Just get her through this." Carson said before disappearing.
" This is where the fun begins, kid, you ready?" Hoyt said.
" Yes." Penny responded.
" Good, all you have to do is point your sword at that guy's gun and think of fire." Hoyt said.
" Okay." Penny said, raising her sword as the sim resumed.
She pointed one of her swords at the white fang soldier's gun while thinking of fire, causing the gun to explode, leaving her speechless at what she had just did.
" That little trick is called Immolation, it allows you overheat your opponents weapons." Hoyt explained.
They pressed forward with the sim, combating White Fang militants in the train yard building, until they reached a room with another large console. Penny was curious, why was a large console at the end of each part of the simulation...
" What's got you confused?" Hoyt asked.
" At the end of each of these scenarios, there's always a large console." Penny said.
" Well, this one isn't easy." Hoyt said, as they began to hear machinery.
They looked forward to see a large, black and red spider robot drop down in front of them, blocking their path to the console. Penny was using her swords and devastating plasma attacks on the spider while Hoyt used his shotgun and abilities to lay down cover fire. With a combined Immolation attack, they overheated the Spider from the inside, causing it to explode into thousands of pieces.
" What is the point of this part?" Penny asked as they approached the console.
" The Aletian soldiers discovered that they had an informant in the company that had assembled the Mag-Lev, an informant who aided them in smuggling the bomb onboard. So this console's got the info we need." Hoyt explained.
Penny knew that she had to interface with the console, so she did so and uncovered the identity of the informant as Karla Redford, age 23, technical programmer for the company.
" I got it, I got the informant's identity." Penny said as Carson reappeared.
" Because of that woman's corrupt actions, the train went boom. Well done kid, you just got one final part before the finale." Carson explained.
They were then teleported to the scene what appeared to be the scene of a military police raid on a wealthy individuals apartment. Carson appeared as the simulation played out...
" 7:01 am, Military police are sent to the apartment of Samuel Beckett arrest Mrs. Redford for treason, but what they had faced was not what they had expected." Carson said as the doors to the apartment exploded ina barrage of gunfire, freezing the simulation.
" What was she doing here?" Penny asked.
" That's because she was having an affair with Beckett behind her husband's back." A voice said coming up from behind them.
" Penny, this is Taylor Marretti, he'll be working alongside you for this part." Carson explained.
" How you doing?" Marretti asked.
" Pretty good." Penny responded.
" Well, Redford killed Beckett after he found out about her involvement, so she reprogrammed his personal security bots to defend her." Carson explained before disappearing.
" Well, this the final part before the big finish, so the goal is rather simple, don't let Redford escape." Marretti said before the sim resumed.
Penny jumped in front of the doors, using her swords to shred the security sentries. Redford responded by jumping out the window, landing on the balcony of the opposite building, with Marretti and Penny giving chase. They chased her over moving trains, balcony to balcony, until Penny tackled her into a thing of scaffolding, injuring her in the process.
" There is something extra you should know about your interfacing ability, you can also interface with the implants of other people, but at a price." Marretti explained.
" What?" Penny said in an emotional tone.
" The person you interface with dies as a result. She has the information we need..." Marretti said, hinting to something Penny wasn't going to like.
" You want me to interface with her, don't you?" Penny asked.
" We have no other choice, you'd basically be giving her mercy while getting the information we need." Marretti said.
Penny placed her hand on the side of the dying Redford's head, interfacing with the implant in her brain. She combed through the information in Redford's mind, learning the exact method of how they had smuggled the bomb onboard the train. She lifted her hand off Redford, who looked as if she passed away peacefully, and Marretti looked at her with a concerned look.
" You alright?" Marretti asked.
" Yeah, I'm okay." Penny said.
" Were you able to get what we need?" Marretti asked.
" Yes, she hacked the train's security bots for them to move the bomb." Penny explained as Carson walked up behind Marretti.
" Well done kid, you're ready for the final challenge." Carson said.
Penny and Carson then were standing atop the fast-moving Mag-Lev train, and Carson was calibrating his own watch...
" This is the final part of our lesson, but its gonna be a challenge. You're gonna be on a timeline of 17 minutes, that gives you plenty of time to get to the bomb and find a way to stop it." Carson explained.
" Okay." Penny said.
" Good luck kid, you beat this, you'll wake up out of this." Carson explained.
Penny jumped through the skylight, combating the hacked robots throughout the car until she arrived in the cargo hold of one car, where the bomb was sitting in the middle of the car, counting down. Penny immediately thought out her options in how to stop the bomb from destroying the train. Penny then hacked into the controls systems of the Magnet plates underneath the car and reversed them, tearing the car in two and saved the 290 onboard. The bomb exploded, and she leapt into Carson's arms as he was standing in front her...
" Hey, it's all over." Carson said.
" Where am I?" Penny asked.
" Now, you are underneath the Blossom Club." Carson stated.
Penny looked around to see Rei, Hoyt, and Marretti standing next to Reina and a large group of technicians and engineers. She rushed over to a mirror, causing a feeling of excitement to rush over her as she was put back together by the kind people around her. She went around the room, hugging the individuals who were involved in the reconstruction process...
" Hey sis, Xavier's about to give a speech to the knights." Salazar said as he entered the room.
" Ooh, I do not want to miss this." Rei said, exiting the room.
" That kid is a badass." Hoyt said, following Rei.
" Hey guys, wait up." Marretti said.
Penny followed everyone out of the room, into a large area where Xavier stood atop a large platform with Ashlyn and Jupiter, and he was in an actual Knight's uniform, matched to the design that Ashlyn had put on the robotic arm when they had assembled it for him, with his original helmet resting at his side.
" KNIGHTS, LET IT BE KNOWN THIS DAY, I DO NOT ASK FOR THE POOR, OR THE HUNGRY, I DO NOT WANT THE TIRED AND SICK, IT IS THE CORRUPT I CLAIM! THAT YOU CLAIM! BY THE TIPS OF YOUR SPEARS, THE BLADES OF YOUR SWORDS, BY THE BASH OF YOUR SHIELDS, THE SLAM OF YOUR HAMMERS, AND THE CUT OF YOUR AXES! THE FUTURE IS TO BE WRITTEN BY THE FREE, NOT THE INSANE, NOT THE CORRUPT, NOT THE SINNER, AND NEVER BY THE GRIMM! WE ARE THE VANGUARD TO THE FUTURE OF THE FREE! SO THEY MUST KNOW WHO WE ARE!" Xavier screamed.
" WE ARE THE SOLDIERS OF THE TEMPLAR, WE ARE KNIGHTS-TEMPLAR!" The knights responded.
" GOTT MITT UNS!" Ashlyn screamed.
Penny watched as all of the thousands of Knights carried the chant of " Gott Mitt Uns!" throughout the room in a simultaneous fashion. Even members of Reina's staff carried the chant themselves, so Penny met up with Xavier after the speech, in which he was drinking water after screaming a lot.
" Xavier!" Penny exclaimed.
" Penny, good to see that you're back together." Xavier said.
" What was that speech for?" Penny asked.
" We've got two separate hordes of Grimm converging on the city and Beacon, except the Beacon Horde has White Fang Support." Ashlyn explained.
" The White Fang are involved?" Penny said.
" The Aletian forces at Beacon and the students have pledged their support to us." Jupiter explained as the Knights began to load up into Skysaber assault airships.
" Cinder will know the force of a Union at War." Xavier stated.
" Cinder, that student from Mistral?" Penny asked in a confused tone.
" She isn't a student Penny, she's the one responsible for all of this." Xavier explained.
" What?" Penny said.
" She's the one responsible for the wire trap that ripped you apart." Ashlyn said.
" She's the reason Yang and I got seriously injured in the Mountain Glenn incident." Xavier explained.
" She was Roman Torchwick's employer." Reina said.
" She's now causing enough chaos that Grimm are currently converging on the city and Beacon." Carson added.
All of these things angered Penny, as people suffering was the one thing that she despised the most. She followed alongside the group as they had converged on a Holo-table that had an image of the city and Beacon...
" Do you have a plan to deal with the converging Grimm?" Salazar asked.
" We are going to suppress the Grimm Hordes that haven't arrived in the city with ARES, and the army we currently have is going to be split into two groups. One group will converge on the city and aid Ironwood's people that are present there, while the second group will converge on Beacon and stop the White Fang before they succeed." Xavier explained.
" Who will lead the First Group?" Reina asked.
" I was thinking your brother could do it." Xavier said.
" Are you sure Sentinel?" Salazar asked.
" I agree with the kid, you've got experience with this kind of stuff." Carson said.
" So it's decided, Salazar will lead the force that will converge on the city while I lead the force going to Beacon." Xavier said.
" My sister and I are going with you." Ashlyn said.
" Agreed, Penny, you will probably want to come along too?" Xavier asked Penny.
" Yes." Penny said with an angry look on her face.
" I'm going too." Rei said.
" Are you sure Rei?" Carson asked.
" If the White Fang is involved, I've got a score to settle." Rei said.
" Can't argue with that." Xavier said.
" What about Selene's team?" Reina asked.
" Let STMD run wild with the baddies down in the city." Xavier said.
" Agreed." Salazar said.
" Let the Battle for Vale begin!" Ashlyn exclaimed.
They were decided on a strategy that would ensure them victory over their enemies on this night. Team STMD loaded up into an airship that joined the skysabers heading for Vale, with Salazar's personal gunship at the tip of the spear. Xavier, the girls, and Carson's team loaded into an airship of their own and left with another group of skysabers that converged towards Beacon, leaving Reina to contend with keeping the club's members present in the building safe.
" He's right, Cinder will know the force of a Union at war." Reina thought.
This chapter concludes with The army of the Knights-Templar mobilizing into both Beacon and Vale to defend it from hostile invasion by both The Grimm and the White Fang. The title I have chosen for this chapter alludes to song Union (Slopes of St. Benedict) by the band Sabaton as the Aletian forces and the students of Beacon have forged an alliance with the Knights to ensure the survival of the world they know. The next chapter is going to be told through the point of view of a drunken and demoralized Cinder who is telling the story of the Battle of Vale and Beacon to an unknown individual. We are nearing the end my readers...
WAIT AND SEE.