A Cold White Day
Pt. II
She saw, but could not believe what she was seeing through the binoculars. Off in the far distance was their target, a military camp that had reinforced walls erected around it to protect a series of anti-air turrets that was swaying back and forth, scanning the sky for a potential target. Everything was going according to plan; that was until the strike force had sent a reconnaissance team to give them an idea of what they were going up against. Unfortunately, the Mistral army had a few tricks up their sleeves.
"How in the blood-soaked, dust fucking hell, did Mistral get their grubby hands on Paladins?"
While Petty officer Resdea's response to the current situation was uncultured and vulgar, she was not wrong. Sitting just behind the wall that marked the camp, two Atlesian Paladins stood between guard towers. Their white plating was painted in the colours of Mistral, a rough camouflage of deep blue and rich green in different shades and shapes, breaking up the rigid form of the mechanical war machine. To make matters worse, an oversized cannon mounted on the shoulders of said mechs made even Weiss start to rethink their approach.
"I don't know, but those railguns are going to cause us even more problems if we don't figure out a way around them quickly." Weiss backed away from the bank, letting a sniper take her spot and sight in the area of operation. The addition of the railguns to the stolen Paladins extended the effective range of their anti-air defence to beyond the turrets, making them able to pick them off even if the Bullheads were skimming across the ground, as was the original plan. "So, what are our options?"
The members of the Shock Troopers squad 'Argo' and herself stood in a loose circle, each of them was throwing ideas out and shooting them down just as quickly.
"Well, our Paladins can't out fire those things, they'd get pegged before they're in range of our guns."
"Snipers could maybe get a handful of guys before they find their nest and take it out with those damn guns."
"We can't call for an aerial bombardment from the Dreadnaughts without running the risk of them getting shot out of the sky," Weiss added her own plan, as well as why it would not work. They were all silent for a number of moments before one of them perked up and snapped his fingers.
"We could drop a deuce..."
For all the gods above, Weiss cursed whoever she had pissed off since right after a soldier had said that, her hearing had gone. What she wouldn't give to make the ringing in her ear drown out everything just a few seconds before he said that, now it was the only thing running through her head as she tried to play off her disabled hearing. She watched as the soldier in black armour began to speak to the others, explaining the plan to nodding heads. Weiss feigned interest for long enough to try and get her hearing to come back before the explanation was over, but the plan was simple, and everyone turned to her for confirmation.
"I'm thinking..." She had to focus on making sure her voice was even as the ringing continued in one ear and absolutely nothing from the other. With no end to the ringing in sight, Weiss suppressed a sigh and nodded to the Shock troopers to get the plan started. She really did not like this plan, but she was out of options that would not out her injury. She watched as they all started to load up into one of the Bullheads, weapons ready and some extra munitions added to each person for an extended firefight.
Slowly, the ringing began to finally subside, much to her relief. Being able to hear out of only one side of her head was a vast improvement over none. With everything in motion around her, people got up from their stations, a few soldiers catching a few minutes of sleep while others munched on ration bars before getting mobilized. "Go grab some tin cans, we need the extra firepower for this one."
"You won't," Resdea chimed in, "Grab some people with actual skin. I'd rather have someone who can think watch my back rather than those high tech can-openers." She pushed her helmet over her head and stalked into the Bullhead. For a moment, Weiss was about to go rip her a new one, pulling rank if she had to when she remembered that Penny's true origin was still a top secret by Atlas command. Looking back, she saw the woman staring at where Resdea was standing with sad eyes.
Walking up to her, she placed a hand on her shoulder to draw her attention. "Maybe it'll be better if you lead the ground forces once we take care of the Paladins and turrets." Weiss watched as her green eyes shifted slightly, the movement so subtle she nearly missed the lens like apparatus that functioned as her iris shifting to focus on her.
"Perhaps, it would be best. I'd much rather lead the ground assault than-," Penny interrupted herself with a hiccup. "Than be with- you in- the Bullhead-" Weiss just raised an eyebrow and nodded, there was no time to question the android of her odd behaviour, there was a mission to complete.
Getting onto the Bullhead, she took her seat and looked around at the specialized airship that the Shock Troopers travelled around in. One after another, they all loaded up and got into their places, leaving twelve soldiers seated with safety harnesses keeping them there. With everything ready and everyone strapped in, the Bullhead began to take off in the opposite direction of the Mistrali emplacement. The minutes ticked by as everyone began last minute weapon checks and hugged them close to their chests. The shock troopers seemed to be at ease while the general infantry kept shifting nervously.
"So, what exactly is, 'dropping a deuce'?" one of the GI's asked.
"Well, it's when we-"
"Shh!" Resdea interrupted with a grin on her face, her eyes covered by the helmet, "Don't ruin the surprise." A few of them laughed and got ready.
The minutes ticked by as the Bullhead got higher and higher. A blaring noise filled the cabin as a light began to blink from one of the walls, illuminating everything in an amber glow. The Shock Troopers all pressed a button on their helmets and facepiece slid into place, sealing their heads from the airless cabin. The GIs followed suit with their own helmets, unsure what exactly was about to happen. Weiss, however, did not wear one of the soldiers' helmets. She pulled a small mask from a pouch and strapped it to her face, allowing her to breathe as they continued to climb higher into the sky.
When another buzzer echoed through the cabin, everyone looked up at the speaker as it began to speak to them. "Alright folks, this is your captain speaking, we have reached our cruising altitude and will take twenty seconds to reach our destination. Please make sure your belongings are secured, your trays are in the up and locked position, and thank you for flying air Atlas." While Weiss could not see anyone's faces with their masks in place, she could feel the confused looks on the GIs as they looked between herself and the Shock Troopers.
"Brace yourselves and try not to get whiplash," Weiss shouted as she pressed her head against her headrest and gripped her harness tightly. Then it started. The sensation of weightlessness, the feeling of her stomach floating in her body and the tickle in her chest. Just as quickly as it came, it was made worse when the whole Bullhead began to drop. Everything shook, her smaller body threatening to slip out from the straps holding her in.
Over the few people screaming for dear life, she heard laughter coming from the Shock Troopers. One of them was kicking their feet while laughing, another was chanting some military marching song that came from the Shock Troopers, something about descending into hell. Finally, she looked over at Petty Officer Resdea, who was staring right at her. With a single motion, she gestured to her eyes and then pointed at Weiss. Before long, the pilot's voice came back, stating that they were landing in ten seconds.
As the countdown began, the Shock Troopers got their weapons ready while Resdea was shouting over the sound of the Bullhead dropping. "The Generals and politicians like to think they are the ones who win battles and sway the tides of war! But they're wrong! It's us! The soldiers who do what it takes and win it for them! It's our bodies being thrown against the enemies over and over again, and we will save this damned world for them with two things!"
Then, all of the members of the Shock Troopers all shouted over the sound of wind rushing past the hull as it dropped. "Boots and blood!"
"BRACE!"
Weiss seized her body up and stiffened her neck as she pressed it against the back of her seat. Not even a second after the command came out, the Bullhead activated its engine and blasted out in the opposite way, dead stopping the freefall. She felt the safety harness struggle to hold her in as the momentum tried to throw her all over the inside of the Bullhead, but she managed to make it out with only a small bump to the back of her head when she jumped around a bit.
The back door opened and the safety harnesses all released themselves so everyone could charge out. The Shock Troopers all jumped to their feet and rushed out, followed by Weiss. The regular soldiers took a brief moment to collect themselves before rushing down the ramp to follow suit. Outside was chaos, the Mistrali soldiers were all running to and from cover, getting ready to attack the Atlesian troops that had suddenly appeared. Grenades were thrown and bullets were fired in all directions, keeping people pinned behind cover and making an opening for Weiss to get into cover.
First things first, however, the Paladins needed to be taken care of.
Rushing to the first one, she saw three of the Shock Troopers rushing with her, giving her covering fire as the stolen Atlesian mechs began to turn around to face them. The massive weapons mounted onto their shoulders weighed them down considerably, making their movements sluggish and slow; which gave Weiss time to raise her hand and flick her sword, creating a defensive glyph to block a hail of auto-fire from the wrist-mounted machine guns. Bullets bounced off the spinning white glyph as they charged forward, one of the Shock Troopers pulling something from his belt.
Spinning a small satchel in their hand, they released it at full swing and it flew over the barrier Weiss had erected and stuck to the mech at its waist joint. The soldier then pulled a small switch out and pressed the lever, setting off the satchel charge and blowing a hole straight through the steel. With the excessive weight of the mech, it collapsed at the waist and fell to the ground on the other side of the wall, leaving the path clear to the second Paladin, which the other team of Shock Troopers were already approaching.
The plan came together effortlessly, the regular soldiers were keeping the Mistrali pinned down while the elites were taking down the anti-air platforms so the rest of the army could roll up in Bullheads and take the fort with overwhelming numbers. With three shots from stolen DPGs, the second Paladin was nothing more than a smoking pile of scrap metal. Without needing to give the order, the troopers began to charge the anti-air guns to disable them; Weiss was about to join them when she got a call over the comms.
"Schnee! Get ya pale ass over here now! Some bitch with swords is carving us up!" It did not take long for Weiss to find where Reseda had been, and finding the person she was fighting was just as easy. One Shock Trooper was on the ground, his blood splattered in the dirt, as Reseda was using her rifle to hold two thin swords at bay. Using glyphs to run above everyone else, Weiss slipped a glyph between the two women and separated them before landing between them.
"Go take out the turrets, I'll take care of her," Weiss ordered as she stood up straight and stared at the woman before her. The fact that she had a sword in each hand meant she was not just a regular soldier. The Mistrali uniform was unkempt with the sleeves rolled up past her elbows. Her loose top exposed a large scar across her neck, and scaled skin marking her as a Faunus. Even more interesting was the mundane alarm clock that sat on her hip, seemingly out of place.
"Well, looky here, the famous Weiss Schnee." The woman grinned, revealing a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth that did not sit well with Weiss. "This must be my lucky day."
"Stand down and surrender," Weiss called out as she readied herself in her stance, "This base will fall and you'll all die if you don't."
This sent the woman into a fit of giggles as she thrust one sword into the ground to keep it there while she pulled the clock from her belt and began to wind it. "That's rich, coming from someone in your position..." She set the clock back on her hip and pulled her sword back from the ground.
"I warned you, it's only a matter of time before this base is under Atlas control." Weiss tensed her body, getting ready to attack.
"Well, I just hope you don't have any regrets," the woman said as she pressed the button on the clock, a gentle ticking noise adding to the sounds of war around them, " 'cause this will be the last sixty seconds of your life."
With the woman not willing to surrender, Weiss shot a string of glyphs to the woman and charged forward with her sword thrusting out. The glyphs made quick work of the distance between them as the tip of Weiss's blade was aimed right at her face. She made no attempt to dodge out of the way and just stood there, staring her down. The blade aimed true but stopped just before the blade touched her skin. Wide blue eyes saw the yellow shimmer of her Aura stopping the blade dead. A large, knowing, toothy grin formed on her face, knowing her trap was sprung.
In a flurry of blades, the two women began a careful dance with each other. Back and forth, Weiss tried to keep the woman on defence, but whatever was keeping her blade at bay continued as her opponent allowed some attacks to slip through harmlessly to slip in for a quick thrust. Pushing away from her, the Specialist tried to keep her distance, only for her to follow her, the grin on her face only growing wider with each wild attack.
The tick-tock of the clock continued as Weiss found herself quickly on the defence, explosions and gunfire only broken up by the shouts of soldiers going back and forth. She went up to block an overhead swing of her sword, only to have to jump out of the way from a sudden thrust to her gut. Pulling a glyph to her hand, Weiss tried a different tactic she had once used to beat her sister; to simply stop her opponent with gravity. As the woman fell to her knees, the blades were the only thing that was holding her up while she tried to fight it.
With a breath, Weiss watched the woman struggle to stay upright, her bright, yellow eyes staring her down. Spinning the chambers in her weapon, Weiss readied her fire Dust to burn her to the ground. Just as she was about to stab her weapon to the ground, adding the flames to her prison, Weiss saw the quick movements of her eyes go from her to something behind her. She did not turn fast enough to stop the soldier from putting a barrel up to her head and pulling the trigger.
Weiss only had a brief moment to focus her Aura so the bullet did not kill her instantly. The power behind it threw her to the ground as the ringing in her ear came back tenfold. Disorientated and with the strongest headache she had ever had, she tried to get to her feet; only to have her arm kicked out from under her, sending her weapon sliding across the ground. The same foot knocked her onto her back and stomped down on her plated chest. The woman from before grinned a murderous smile as she held the clock up and dangled in front of her.
Without sound, the woman's mouth moved as she talked. The bells on the clock shaking violently as a yellow shimmer floated across her body. The Mistrali soldier laughing as he kept his weapon trained on Weiss. The woman slipped the clock back onto her belt and brought her sword to bear. Just before she could deliver the killing blow, the look on her face changed from murder to shock and surprise as a blade poked through her stomach. Everyone looked at the sudden sword for a moment before the woman was hurled through the air and thrown across the base.
Standing behind her was Penny, her swords floating out behind her like wings as the sword she used slid back into place. The Mistrali soldier turned to shoot at her, only for him to take a green laser through his chest, dropping him to the ground instantly. Looking around, she could see Atlesian soldiers and Knights gaining ground in the base as the Paladins they brought with them took up places where the Mistrali Paladins were, keeping watch and taking care of any more heavy weapons platforms that remained. Without any sound coming in, it all looked very out of place and disjointed.
A hand grasped her arm and hauled her up onto her feet. Meeting Penny's eyes, she could tell she was saying something, but Weiss did not know what. The pain in her brain made her flinch as she gripped her head, her flesh tender where her Aura had deflected the bullet from earlier. She tried to walk away from Penny, but she kept hovering around her, worry clear across her face. Looking out into the base, she saw Mistrali soldiers being paraded out with their hands above their heads with weapons aimed at them carefully.
With a strange popping noise and a strange sensation, her hearing came back in her good ear just in time for someone to yell 'fire'. All at once, the soldiers opened fire onto the Mistrali that surrendered to them. Their blood painted the wall behind them as their bodies fell to the ground. Weiss stared in disbelief as prisoners were so heartlessly executed before her eyes. She had killed people, she would be the first to admit that in this senseless war, but those people had been fighting her; it was either her or them. What she saw was simply slaughter.
She could not look at those bodies any longer. Sharply turning, she picked up her weapon and was about to demand who ordered that massacre when Penny stepped in front of her. "Specialist Schnee! Are you okay?!" Her voice was loud and slow, making sure to enunciate each word carefully.
"Yes, Penny, I'm fine." Even as she said that she grimaced from the pain in her head.
"That is good to hear, I was starting to get worried since you were not responding to my earlier comments,"
"Sorry, Penny. I was a little disoriented," -a statement not far from the truth.
"Well, I am happy to inform you that the base is now under Atlas control!" Penny's cheerful attitude was far too much to take at this very moment, so she ignored the salute the girl gave her. Instead, her attention was drawn to Petty Officer Resdea, who was walking up with her helmet tucked under her arm and a cigar in her mouth. The tip of it glowed as she took a deep breath in and blew the smoke out of her nose.
"Nice work, Schnee. Thanks for the assist," she said through her cigar.
"Why did you kill those people?" Weiss demanded.
The shock trooper blinked a few times before pulling the foul-smelling stick out of her mouth. "Orders are orders, Schnee."
Shaking her head, Weiss pointed to where the bodies were being loaded up and catalogued to be shipped back to Atlas for burial or sent somewhere to be stored until they could be buried in native soil.
"Who gave you the order to execute prisoners of war?"
Reseda just shrugged as she took another deep inhale. "Someone up high, that's all I got." She then pointed at Weiss, making sure she heard what was about to be said. "While you were up on the ship, we got some new shit the Mistrali are pulling. Suicide bombers all chanting about immortality in death started popping up all over the place, posing as people who surrendered, so the order came down to dispose of them and let whatever god they're worshipping now sort 'em out."
Weiss was painfully reminded of the grenade that nearly killed her not too long ago, and the dangerous whisper that came from the dead woman's mouth. With nothing else to do, Weiss reached up and opened the communications channel to the Mantle of Responsibility. "This is specialist Schnee, objective secured."
She released her hand and looked out to watch the mass of ships starting to come into view. The only thing that was left now was Mistral itself...
A/N: Sorry again for the delay, but it's finally here.
Big thanks to StreetAngelJ for his continued work on making my story as best as it can be!
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