A/N: Yay early update!11111129094! Yeah, like I said, won't be doing Wednesday updates until about the second week of February. Sorry, but exams are a pain. Additionally, I've changed my name from Brother-Sergeant Rafen to ElysiaDreaming, to better reflect my lack of focus on 40k (I seriously need to get back there .-.). Other than that, enjoy!

-ElysiaDreaming

Black Dragon

Chapter 15: Through Adversity to the Stars

"A good soldier follows without question. A good officer leads without doubt."-SSgt Lucas Bastogne, Kay'Dyan Guard

Him

Someone please explain to me how the hell I managed to end up here. One day I'm in my bed doing my best to catch some sleep, and the next I'm stuck inside a train car on the run from quite a few people who would like nothing more than to severely maim me. I'm no coward, but I have to say that I find such a prospect…disconcerting, to say the least. If there truly are gods who run Remnant…they have an interesting sense of humour.

After getting shot at by twenty-odd people and nearly getting splattered by a train, you'd think that my troubles would be over, right? All we need to do now is grab a plane from a nearby airfield and make a run for it. What happens next is up in the air right now, though. It's either going to be a clean escape into the wilderness, which by the way I strongly agree with, or an attempt to stop this war from escalating. Guess which one will involve getting shot at again?

Considering this is Blake's plan, however…that's right. Both of them. Now I generally have no problems with my Faunus partner, (I'm doing my best to think of her as strictly a partner right now. Don't push me.) but her plans have a nasty habit of involving hectic combat. And, combined with the Blood Moon and our resulting loss of Aura…we're fucked.

"Blake, when you said 'aerodrome' I thought you meant a civilian airport. What I didn't expect was a frakking Valian Forces Base!"

Yeah. Turns out that VFB Cold Lake is rather close to the railroad line. It's a hundred kilometres north-west of Vale proper, and four hundred to the south of Forever Fall. On the bright side, it puts us outside of the range of Valian air defences. On the downside, it's a fucking military base.

"Ren, calm down. It's the only way we can easily grab a few Vendettas and Harassers, after all. After that, we can—"

…Those are combat aircraft. Which none of us can fly…right? Oh, this should be good."

"Hold on. You want us to steal Valian military hardware and expect to get away with it? That on its own is the craziest thing I've ever heard from you. Assuming we manage to escape Valian airspace intact, what do you think the EVTO is going to think about this? The world is at WAR, Blake, and as far as Xi'An is concerned we're hostile aircraft. We'll get blown out of the sky! And can any of us even fly a Dustplane? It's a lot harder than a Vessna, you know."

I end my little rant, temporarily out of breath. The others are looking at my partner and me strangely, but I ignore them. We might be rather outside the law right now (seriously. I can't even begin to comprehend how fucked we are.), but common sense still needs to apply somewhere.

Blake is completely unfazed, however, bow twitching slightly in the wind. Am I the only one who can notice it? Focus Ren.

"As a matter of fact," she starts with smirk, "Yes. I can fly a Vendetta in combat just fine, and know the basic controls on a Harasser. I do believe that Yang here also is capable of piloting a Harasser, and I know you can fly a Vulture. A Vendetta has the same basic controls and principles, just a bit slower and bulkier. Satisfied?"

I stand there for a moment, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. Where the hell did she learn that from? Damn. I swear I was better at hiding things than that…

Oh she's walking off. Time to follow.

…I can practically FEEL the smugness radiating off of her. If I didn't love her so much (not like anyone is ever going to hear about that—not even her), I'd probably try to shoot her in the back right now. As it is, I find myself once again trying and failing to fight my gaze away from her swinging hips and rear. Stop staring at her ass you pervert! Though…that's not a bad thing to stare at…

Well, guess my conscience just decided to follow certain other parts of my body in near-single-minded pursuit of my beautiful Faunus partner.

…she just won, didn't she? Oh, this should be fun.

I sigh, somewhat forcefully slamming a clip into my rifle and sheathing StormFlower in my sleeves. If it comes down to a fight, a fight is what I'm ready for.

Those shoulder pads Blake made for me feel sort of unnatural, to be honest. I usually fight without armour, relying on my Aura and speed. Given the Blood Moon, however, it pays to be a little more careful.

On the other hand, this plan is anything but careful. We're outside the base proper right now, in the middle of yet another forest. There's a low wire fence running along the trees, almost as an afterthought rather than an actual deterrent. It'd take little effort to simply climb a branch and leap over, something that we've already decided. How to find a plane, on the other hand…

Evidently that's something that Blake has decided to figure out on the fly, seeing as she's already over the fence. I quickly follow trying not to wince as a stray branch jabs me in the cheek. I ignore it to the best my severely strained nerves can go, instead landing in a crouch and instantly bringing Ashen Jade to my shoulder. There's silence, the forest suddenly still.

No Grimm yet, I suppose.

Of course, the blissful peace lasts only for a moment before Yang for some reason decides to rip down the fucking fence. Go figure.

A distant klaxon starts blaring, drowning out the sounds of the fence crashing to the ground.

"…Yang? I appreciate your directness, but I think you need to learn the meaning of 'subtlety'."

She doesn't say anything, giving me a little smile and a wink as she shrugs melodramatically. The movement cocks her gauntlets, a single shotgun shell ejecting from either. I sigh again, looking to Blake for a bit of guidance. She consults her scroll for a moment, opening up the small white device. I honestly don't want to know what modifications she did to it, though I suspect it far surpasses the original.

After a second, my partner starts moving to what I assume is the north. We had vaguely studied a map of the airbase earlier, though my sleep deprivation has left my memory rather fuzzy. Still, the majority of the hangars are that way, I think. Oh gods, I hope she knows what she's doing.

The siren cuts off suddenly as we run through the forest, loud shouts echoing and getting ever closer.

Considering our lack of Aura, I'm not too thrilled with the idea of fighting through half the Valian Army just to make good our escape. Not that anyone else here cares, though. Gods, and I thought I was reckless.

Trees whip by me, a sea of wilting green and fiery orange obscuring my vision—and hopefully that of our pursuers. By now the guards must have found our point of entry, a ravaged fence and crushed foliage courtesy of Yang and Nora showing them our path. Normally I'd just ditch them and run off in the opposite direction, but something tells me that's a terrible plan.

Oh shit, they brought dogs. That's….not good. Hopefully the Dust in the air is screwing with their smell just like it's messing with my lungs, but I doubt it. We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of fugitives right now; a five year old could track us with little trouble.

Sunlight is streaming through a gap in the trees ahead, making me squint my eyes a little even as I pick up the pace. The forest ends here, giving way to tarmac and a large open field. The eight of us jump into a drainage ditch to avoid being spotted, giving me a chance to quickly survey the area.

A few low tents and wooden buildings stand fairly close by, perhaps offering us some cover in the event of a firefight. I wouldn't trust their walls to last more than a few bullets, though. They're most likely made by the lowest bidder, not to mention how powerful a couple assault rifles can be. Ignore them for now, then. A little further ahead is a long taxiway, lit up with blue lights. It intersects an even longer and wider runway, this one surrounded by slightly larger white lights. Most Dustplanes like Bullheads and Valkyries are VTOL, so this must be the Harasser base. Now if I just follow the lines…there!

The hangars are at the very end of the tarmac, about five hundred metres or so away from where we are right now. Normally that'd be easy, but seeing as there's about twenty odd soldiers and a pair of sentry towers in our way…this should be fun.

I drop back down into the ditch as a file of troops exit a nearby tent, brushing a bit of dirt off of my clothes as I do so. The others are looking at me almost expectantly, though Weiss seems rather cynical. What do they—oh. They want a plan. Well, fuck.

C'mon Ren, think! I start telling them about the base's layout, scratching a rough outline in the dirt as I speak.

"We're fifty metres away from the nearest barracks. There's a squad of soldiers on the far side, probably getting yelled at by a junior officer judging by his high voice. That's good, as chances are he'll panic easily. Around ten tents are behind it, with five metres between each row. Ten metres behind those is a tower with a machine gun, with a second tower is a hundred metres to its left. The main path to the hangars runs in between them. There's a guard post blocking the path, and three guys manning it. I think I heard another squad of ten or so men on the right of the first tower, and who knows how many are in the tents.

"The hangars are a hundred metres behind the guard post, with no obstructions or cover of any sort. If we make it that far, all opposition has to be neutralized. We'll be shooting to wound, I hope. They're not. Stay safe."

A passage from the Tactica Imperialis comes to mind, even as the thoughts race around my head. It's meant for larger armies, but I'm pretty sure it can work here.

If you are strong, feign weakness. If weak, pretend strength. Whatever your position, conceal it from the enemy, and he will waste his armies fighting his own phantoms.

I got this. It's crazy, but I got this.

"…Nora, you did bring some flashbangs, right?"

Her

Pfft. And Ren says my plans are crazy. At least mine don't involve charging blindly into a base full of armed soldiers. Then again, I forgot to factor Yang and Nora into the equation. Ugh. Their idea of subtlety is loudly shushing everyone before storming in. Not that they need subtlety to get a guy, though. Seriously, does all their food go to their…? Ahem. Now's not the time to be jealous, Blake.

Ugh. Anyways, as one of our team's pilots, I'm stuck waiting in an unoccupied tent waiting for hell to break loose. After Ren explained his plan to us (I wasn't admiring him while he was talking. Honest!), the eight of us scattered to the winds. I'm not too sure I agree with his idea, nor do I know what's taking Nora so long to start, but I'm glad for the time with Ren. Alone. Just the two of us. In this tent.

…I seriously need to stop reading Ninjas of Love. I swear it's getting to my head.

I nervously eye my partner while he's looking at his watch, doing my best not to drool while staring at his body. That shirt of his hugs his body pretty well, giving me quite a view of his muscles. …Not that I'm staring, of course.

…Oh gods. He caught me staring. No. Don't blush. Don't blush. Don't—gods damn it Blake!

And now he's blushing. We're both blushing. Oh, this is awkward. Think fast, Blake. How can I get out of this situation? …Yeah. I'm clueless.

The sound of a grenade explosion followed by profuse small-arms fire puts me out of my misery, Gambol Shroud leaping into my hands. Nora hard at work, I see. A half-dozen soldiers sprint past the tent's door, not bothering to look inside in their haste. So far, so good.

The sharp bark of an anti-tank rifle echoes from farther away, along with the shorter staccato of a hunting rifle. That would be Ruby and Pyrrha, I suppose. Another dishevelled squad runs by, as oblivious as the earlier one. That's thirteen in total. Just gotta wait a few more…

A high-pitched whine followed by a small explosion resounds from up ahead, accompanied by louder bursts of shotgun fire. This attracts a final group of nervous soldiers, fumbling with their V7-R's and nearly tripping over themselves.

That's my cue, I suppose. I snap Ren a messy salute before stepping out, a flashbang primed in my hand. Those poor soldiers will never know what hit them—which is the point of the exercise. I judge the distance and release the grenade in my hand, the slim metal orb arcing down to land just in front of them. I duck back into the tent for a moment, its thick canvass dampening the grenade's effects.

When I step out again with Ren in tow, the troops are blinking futilely and disoriented. They're easy prey for the both of us as we lay about with abandon. I bring my fist to the temple of one, knocking him out even as I sweep another's legs out from under him. Ren follows, giving uppercuts and bruises to the soldiers. We don't tarry long, though.

We do the same for a second group, taking them out while they're attempting (and failing) to target Weiss. Jaune appears next to her, shield pockmarked with bullets. Ren fires a few bursts of shots into the air, chucking a frag into an empty tent then running towards the hangars. We follow, picking up Nora and Yang on the way.

I don't know about the others, but I recognize this tactic. Pretend to have overwhelming force, and the enemy will be demoralized and disoriented. Then, while they're reeling, make good your escape. The only problem with this, however, is minimizing casualties. Then there's the danger of getting shot down as we flee…

Eh. I'm not that bad of a pilot, right?

Ruby and Pyrrha join us near the mess hall, the latter saying something about 'leaving a little surprise'. I'm not too keen to find out what it is, although thankfully they reassure me that they haven't hurt anyone *too* badly.

The guards in the towers open up on us almost as soon as we break cover, thumb-sized bullets streaking past us and leaving frighteningly large holes in the pavement. We return fire, attempting to knock down the flimsy wooden posts with overwhelming application of firepower. We're half successful, managing to make the one on the right collapse thanks to Nora's grenades.

The one on the left remains standing, however, and continues to pour lead at us. Damn. We're almost there—fifty metres, then forty, then thirty, then—! Pyrrha goes down with a shriek, crimson spilling out onto the tarmac. I hear Jaune shout her name, see him bring his shield up as he goes down on one knee beside her. Dammit, not now! Not when we're so close!

Ren shouts orders at Yang in Xi'anese, unperturbed by the casualty. He brings up his rifle, firing a few bursts at the gunner before jumping away. I deflect a salvo of shots away from him with my cleaver, spinning the steel around in an aegis.

The sentry switches his aim back to Jaune and Pyrrha, bullets clanging off his shield and kicking up chips of rock with every impact. Meanwhile Yang leaps upwards, having gotten in too close for the machinegun to engage her. She starts climbing the tower, finding handholds in the wire and using the wooden supports as steps. The rest of us keep running, pausing only to lob a flashbang into the guardhouse before continuing.

Jaune picks up his partner in a bridal carry and resumes sprinting, the flow of bullets staunched. Yang had managed to swing up and incapacitate the gunner with a fist in the face and a knee to the groin, jumping back down in time to cover her fellow blond.

There's about a dozen soldiers far behind us, attempting and failing to run us down. Those poor, sorry idiots. Even without Aura, a well-trained Hunter is more than a match for the Valian Army.

We manage to make it to the hangars in more-or-less on piece, letting Nora bust the doors open with her grenades before knocking out the startled technician trying to threaten us with screwdrivers and wrenches.

The hangar is a large building, spanning perhaps three hundred metres in width and length. It's populated by about fourteen aircraft of varying make and type, along with a multitude of cowering workers in coveralls. I ignore them, my eyes instead focusing on the signs on each of the aircraft. I skip over the ones under repairs, nervously eyeing the exposed armaments and haphazardly strewn fuel tanks.

Now, a Harasser can seat two, a Vendetta fourteen. There's eight of us, though each aircraft should have a pilot and a weapons officer to be at its most effective. A Vendetta's rather slow and ungainly compared to a Harasser, so we should take two fighters and one Dustplane to maximise our efficiency. That means six in the cockpits, and two riding in the Vendetta.

Seeing as there's two people who I most definitely do not want near the controls…

"Ruby, Nora. Get inside this Vendetta and don't move. Ren, you're flying. Jaune's your weapons officer. Pyrrha, you're flying this Harasser with me. Yang and Weiss, you have the other one. Go!"

We scramble aboard the aircraft, disconnecting stray wires and hoses. I think an engineer tried to fire at us, though given the lack of lead flying through the air he probably forgot to toggle the safety on his pistol. I close the canopy as Pyrrha gets settled behind me, locking the armoured glass dome and lowering a constrictive helmet onto my head.

The heavy steel feels markedly painful on my ears, evidently designed for humans rather than Faunus. I can't even remove it either, seeing as there's an HUD displayed on the visor. Ugh.

"Pyrrha, all settled?"

Her voice comes on after a moment of fumbling with the radio, her Mistrallian military training showing through.

"I'm good."

I nod invisibly, changing the channel to broadcast to the others. Hmm…seeing as the military can probably listen in on us, it might not be a good idea to disclose our identities.

"…This is Nightshade to Venator flight, over. Callsigns are now in place. Sound off!"

I can barely hear Yang's response over Ren's muffled laughter, with my partner trying and failing to turn his chuckles into a cough.

"Hmm...callsigns, eh? Sunfire reporting."

Ren clears his throat, Jaune's mirth audible even through the microphone. Am I going to regret this?

"Black Lotus here. Orders? Over."

Oh. OH. Well then. Pyrrha starts bursting out laughing behind me, prompting me to give her a smack on the knee as I start speaking into the mic.

"Taxi out, Black Lotus taking centre. Feel free to clear a path, if you need to. Take off on your own time. Out."

Seeing as the hangar doors were blown off their hinges by Nora's…enthusiasm, it's quite easy for me to taxi the Harasser onto the runway. Granted, there were about twenty odd soldiers waiting for us with V7-R's levelled, but a quick warning burst from the nose cannon is enough to send them fleeing for their lives. Pfft. Shoddy discipline.

I line up the fighter on the runway, going through what little of the checklist I can remember. Engines, check. Flaps, check. Rudder, check. Weapons, check. Ailerons, check. Brakes, check. Elevators, check.

Good enough for now, I suppose. I can't resist getting in one last cheeky remark, though. Think of it as payback for shooting at me, if you will. I depress the mic button, transmitting to Cold Lake Tower.

"Harasser Mike Foxtrot Sierra Four Two Niner to Cold Lake Tower, over. Requesting permission for takeoff for Venator Flight, over."

The controller responds with a stream of rather inventive expletives, along with a shouted threat to shoot us all down. And they call us the savages.

"Thank you, Cold Lake control. Mike Foxtrot Four Two taking off, out."

I immediately cut the link and gun the engine, a cone of fire appearing instantaneously in the rear. I give it a moment, then release the parking brakes. The plane shoots forward, thundering down the pavement and gaining speed. I slowly ease back the control column, letting the plane gain lift and take to the skies.

The front wheel lifts off first, followed by the rest of the fighter. I'm pressed back into my seat as the Harasser passes five hundred kilometres an hour, climbing almost vertically into the air. I try to look behind me, Ren's Vendetta already in the air. Yang looks like she's off to a shaky start, though thankfully she manages to get airborne just the same.

Ren's dreamy voice comes on again, though the image is somewhat ruined by what I assume is a gagging Jaune right behind him. Still, it's something.

"Black Lotus here. So, Nightshade…where to?"

A/N: Hai. So yay, more references! The ones from last time are in order:

epigraph's 'author' is from 40k
2. XV-88 Broadside: also from 40k, it's the most annoying piece of heavy support EVER.
3. 5 stages of grief.
4. Harasser: Well, since Atlas is now based on the UK, and the brits made the Harrier (first ever VTOL fighter), might as well give them the first jet. Harass is nominally a synonym of harry.
5. Once more unto the breach: Shakespeare's Henry V, before the siege of Harfleur

And the ones in this one are right here:

Adversity to the Stars (The motto of the Royal Canadian Air Force)
Cold Lake (There's a Canadian Forces base in Alberta called Cold Lake, it houses my nation's F-18's)
3. We're not exactly the most inconspicuous band of criminals right now…(Episode 16.)
4. Tactica Imperialis (Warhammer 40k book of tactics for the Imperial Guard)
5. The callsigns (Black Lotus is from Command and Conquer, Nightshade is a name for the Belladonna flower, and Sunfire is Yang's nickname in You are right…NOT's story It All Began With Sunfire
6. More of an inside joke, really. Mike Foxtrot is a military term for motherfucker, where Mike is NATO Phonetic of M, and Foxtrot is for F. For instance: Romeo Echo Mike Foxtrot, AKA Rear Echelon Motherfucker (the logistics guys)

TheBurningWorld: Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, there's probably a reason why this ship isn't common (people seem to prefer hot, steamy Yuri. I won't judge.) but I'm proud to say that I'm doing something (somewhat) original (ish).

Chrisman174: ...Such references. Much legit. Wow.

Thanks to all those who've favourited/followed. I'd name you all, but the keyboard I'm using right now sucks and I'd probably miss someone.

As always, read, review, and ENJOY!

-ElysiaDreaming