Chapter 20,
Knights of the Inner Sphere
"Why is the game updating..?" Ruby wept, her head lying on her keyboard.
"Ugh, I don't know... It hasn't been that long since the last one, has it?" Yang asked as she tossed an empty shotgun shell into the air and caught it, "Yo, Blake. You find anything?"
"Not much..." her partner answered, looking down at her scroll, "The information just says the grayed-out faction tab will finally be open. At the least it seems like a minor update."
"The faction tab? That seems a bit pointless since we've already chosen our factions." Weiss stated, "Did you find anything on the lore?"
"Did I ever..." Blake said grimly, taking a breath, "Most of it isn't pretty... Basically, all of the Great Houses are locked in a massive civil war for total control of the entire Inner Sphere."
"You know, that's something that I'm confused by," Yang spoke up, "Just how big is the Inner Sphere? I mean, we've been on a bunch of maps, but only a few of them look alien, so just how many planets are we talking about?"
"Enough to make a sphere?" Ruby suggested, a large sweat drop forming as she received bored looks from her teammates, "Uh... H-hey Look! The game's patched! Let's start playing! Heheh..."
The girls quickly started the game, noticing once they were brought to the mechlab that the faction tab could indeed be selected.
"Alright, time to see what's so special about this button!" Yang said as the girls each clicked on the tab. They were all taken to a new screen that had what looked like a pie-chart with all six faction emblems on it; Steiner and Marik on the left, Kurita and Davion on the right, Liao at the bottom and Rasalhague at the top. They also noticed the four Clan emblems on the edge of the Rasalhague slice.
"Um... What exactly am I looking at?" Weiss asked, looking at her friends who were just as confused as she was.
"Well... Clearly this is supposed to be a map of the Inner Sphere..." Blake said as she searched her thoughts, "But I'm not quite sure how to measure it..."
"And what's with all these dots everywhere? It looks like a screwed up strawberry." Yang said as Ruby quietly used her scroll wheel to zoom into the map.
"Uh... You might wanna look at this..." the three girls looked over at their leader, who was still scrolling. They copied Ruby's finger and zoomed into their maps, their eyes becoming wide in realization as names began appearing over each of the dots.
Weiss held her mouse button to drag her view across the map, reading the names, "Wait... Are each of these dots..."
"Are all of these things planets?!" Yang cried, scrolling back out and gazing at the entire map, "There's gotta be hundreds! This is the Inner Sphere?!"
"It's... Enormous..." Blake said in awe, "I... Didn't expect..." lance RWBY slumped back in their chairs, dumbfounded at the discovery of where they had been fighting.
"I feel so small..." Yang said, unsure of what to do next.
"Not used to that feeling, are you?" Weiss told her, but didn't bother looking for a reaction. Yang was too shocked to respond while Blake sighed, not caring that her scroll had fallen to the ground.
The three girls sat unmoving for moments until they heard the tapping of keys next to them. They looked over to see Ruby typing quickly on her keyboard, only stopping when she noticed her friends staring at her, "What?"
"What do you mean 'what'? How are you not surprised by this?!" Weiss exclaimed, "This whole time we've thought the Inner Sphere was one or maybe even a few planets, but it's actually hundreds!"
"But that just means there are so many more cool mechs!" Ruby beamed, her eyes shimmering, "Besides, look what else I found!"
"I don't think anything else in this game can beat this..." Blake groaned.
"Not even officially becoming lance RWBY?" she teased, getting the attention of her teammates.
"What do you mean? Aren't we already lance RWBY?" Yang asked as Ruby grinned.
"Yes! But now! Friend! Sister! Weiss!"
"Really..?"
Ruby ignored her teammate's complaint and continued, "For too long we have been fighting anonymously for the Inner Sphere! Mere phantoms of warriors as we stand against all injustices! But no more! Because, along with showing us our home in this virtual world, we now have the ability to create our own military unit!" after speaking she clicked her mouse button, sending an invite to her teammates.
"An invite to the 'Team RWBY' unit?" Blake read, accepting along with Weiss and Yang.
"Yeah! Isn't it so cool?!" Ruby said as she began bouncing up and down in her seat, "It's like we're a real group in the Inner Sphere! With our own tag and ranks and everything! Can we start a match now? Please! Pleasepleasepleaseplease!"
"Alright, alright." Weiss said, receiving a quick hug from her leader before the younger girl clicked to find a match, almost immediately being put into one.
Tourmaline Desert
Game Mode: Conquest
Win Conditions: Collect 750 Resources, Destroy All Enemy Players, On Time Out Most Kills Win
"That was fast." Yang observed.
"It's probably because of the update." Blake told her, "I imagine a lot of people are playing right now since they can make their own unit."
"Wow! Look at all the units!" Ruby said, looking at the short unit tags next to most of the players' names. Weiss, Blake and Yang looked for themselves to see the four letter tag Ruby had set for their unit.
"You set our tag as RWBY?" Weiss asked, raising her eyebrow.
Ally 4 All: o7 all you beautiful people!
"Well, yeah... What else was I going to put?"
Enemy 1 All: o7
Enemy 8 All: what does o7 mean?
Weiss just rolled her eyes as the game began. The girls were quickly able to locate each other and reform, following their team as they made their way to the theta capture point.
Enemy 1 All: salute
"Huh, check this out. We got a Hellslinger and a St. Ives' Blues with us." Yang told her teammates, catching the attention of one in particular.
Ally 4 all: a salute
"Really? I wanna see!" Ruby's mech dashed through her team until she could see the two Hero mechs, "Oh, neat! The Hellslinger looks so cool!" she continued admiring the Battlemaster's dragon camo until sparks flew from its shoulder, the tell-tale sign of a gauss slug.
"Over there!" Blake said, firing her PPC and AC/5 across the desert.
Ally 1 Team: lights go cap
"Okay, it looks like I have to cap points." Ruby told the others as she began running away from her team towards epsilon.
"Be careful, Rubes!" Yang called as she ran into theta with a Griffin and the Hellslinger, shooting at a Firestarter as it peeked over a granite ridge.
"Aren't I always?" Ruby asked sweetly, receiving a cold stare from Weiss.
"Don't start with that. Please?" she said as she launched her LRMs at an Atlas while a Catapult and Quickdraw followed the enemy Firestarter into the theta point.
"Whoa! Okay... Getting to be too many mechs in here!" Yang grunted, firing her LB-Xs at the Catapult as it returned fire with its two gauss rifles.
"Yang! Aim for the Catapult's side torsos! If you can get a critical hit on its gauss rifles, they'll explode!" Blake explained, firing at the Catapult's left torso herself.
"Oh yeah! And my little beauties have a higher crit chance!" Yang grinned as she advanced on the enemy mech, firing continuously at its left torso, stripping the armor away as it fired again.
Yang's computer: Head, critical damage.
"Heh... Lucky shot! Take this!" she yelled, firing another alpha-strike, her mech's heat rising. She glanced up at the Catapult's read-out as one of the gauss rifles turned red moments before its side torso exploded, bringing the heavy mech down, "Woohoo!"
"Good job, but there's a lot more left!" Weiss said as she activated a coolant shot to keep her mech online, firing her PPC and medium laser at a Jenner. The light mech shot its six small pulse lasers at her mech's legs, entering within the minimum range of her PPC, "Ugh, that's it. I'm buying a new mech."
"Aw, come on, Weiss! That's quitter talk!" Yang told her, firing at a Warhawk and stepping back to cool off.
"That's easy for you to say!" the heiress responded, losing her mech's right torso as the Jenner shot at her weak rear torso before a Timber Wolf came to chase it away, "My mech can't do anything at close range!"
Weiss' computer: Right torso, destroyed. Right arm, destroyed. LRM, destroyed. Medium laser, destroyed.
"Well, you gotta do what you gotta do." Yang shrugged before running back into the brawl, "Just make sure your new mech's a good one!"
"I wonder if I'll be able to find another good Cicada..." Blake muttered as she helped Yang with the Warhawk, firing at its damaged center torso. It turned away but came face-to-face with a Dire Wolf, the larger Clan mech destroying it with its ultra autocannons.
"Epsilon, fully captured! Moving to sigma!" Ruby announced as she sped out of epsilon, shooting off a few AC/2 rounds at an enemy Atlas that was advancing on theta, her shots doing little damage at over 1,000 meters.
"Thanks for the update, Ruby." Blake said, firing at the Atlas, "Let's keep them occupied so that we win by points!"
"Can do!" Yang answered, shooting an Awesome as it advanced on Weiss. All she could do was retreat and fire her PPC as the enemy mech advanced, launching its four SRM 6s.
Weiss' computer: Center torso, critical damage.
"Weiss!" Ruby cried, pausing in front of sigma.
"It's okay, Ruby." her partner said as the Awesome's missiles reloaded, "I'll have a much better mech next time." Weiss didn't have to wait long once the Awesome entered her minimum range, overheating as it fired its SRMs and large pulse laser, destroying her torso. She sighed and disconnected, planning to enter the store while her teammates continued fighting.
Blake's computer: Left torso, critical damage.
"We may be down one, but we're not out!" Yang said, destroying the Awesome's rear torso and turning back, only to hear her mech's missile warning.
"Yang! Take cover from the missiles!" Blake told her partner as she traded shots with the Atlas.
"I thought you were my cover!" Yang cried, twisting her torso against the stream of Clan LRMs.
"My ECM was destroyed!" Blake said back as the Hellslinger destroyed the Atlas' right torso, "The Atlas' LB-10 destroyed it as soon as my armor was gone! That weapon is deadly against structure!"
"Which do you think is better," Weiss began, "An LRM 10 with artemis, or an LRM 15 without artemis?"
"That's not helping, ice queen!" Yang burst, finally reaching the cover of the theta resource collector and glancing up at the score, seeing her team in control of four points, "Nice job on the capping, Ruby!"
"Thanks! I'm glad a Locust is helping me!" she said, following the slightly faster mech to the last capture point, "Shouldn't the other team be trying to cap too?"
"It doesn't look like they have any interest in that. All of them are focused on us." Blake calmly said after the enemy Atlas was destroyed, letting her mech cool down before firing again at a Quickdraw that destroyed the friendly Dire Wolf.
"Yeah, that's right! Run away!" Yang called after a Firestarter, shooting her two autocannon weapons after it, the shells hitting the fleeing mech's back.
"Just a little bit longer! We just hit 680 points!" Blake announced as she turned to block a Nova's two PPCs.
Blake's computer: Right torso, critical damage.
"Get lost you damn light!" Yang growled, firing her LB-Xs at the enemy Jenner as it shot at her center torso, its pulse lasers slashing over her cockpit for a split-second, "Ruby, please tell me you're at kappa!"
"Just about!" her sister said, watching the Locust enter the capture point as a second Firestarter came into view, "No! Watch out, Locust!" Ruby fired her medium lasers at the enemy mech, the Locust adding its large pulse laser. The enemy mech's four medium pulse lasers struck the Locust, destroying its leg before Ruby activated her jump jets, flying into the air and dropping right between the two mechs, taking another hit that was meant for the smaller mech, "Whew... That was close..."
"How big to you think a Catapult's side torsos are?" the others didn't even hear Weiss' question due to either exhaustion or excitement.
"Yang, let's retreat now!" Blake said, hitting the Jenner with an alpha-strike.
"No way! We're almost the winners, so if I'm going out, I'm going out fighting!" Yang exclaimed, overriding her mech's shutdown and firing non-stop at any enemy mech she got in her reticle. Her mech's structure began flashing, indicating the heat damage being caused to her mech. Yang could feel a sweat drop roll down the side of her face as though she could feel the stifling heat inside her cockpit. She let out a large sigh of relief when everything stopped and the victory music began to play.
"Yang! You're alive!" Ruby said happily as they were taken back to the mechlab.
"Hey, don't act so surprised! It takes a lot more to take me down!" Yang grinned as Blake clicked on the faction tab again and stared intently at the map, "Hm? What's up, Blake?"
"Nothing... I'm just still amazed by this map..." she admitted, gazing as she zoomed-into the fractured circle.
"I know, right?" Ruby said, looking at her own map, "To think... All the stuff we've faced... The grimm... The White Fang... I can't imagine what it must be like on all these planets..."
"But remember, Ruby. This is just a game." Weiss told her, saving the changes to her new mech, "It's not like there's actually anything going on between the planets."
"Not yet, anyway..." Blake suddenly felt three pairs of eyes on her as she started feeling uncomfortable, "I mean in terms of the game! There has to be some reason for adding this map and giving players the ability to create units."
"Well, whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be no problem!" Yang said, checking the time on her scroll, "After all, we're RWBY! The greatest team in Beacon and the most powerful lance in MechWarrior Online, right?"
"YEAH!"