It's a Job
Chapter 18: Shock and Awe
Ruby had gone into fights about every way imaginable. Cars, aircraft, horseback, motorcycles, even boats on a few occasions. But this, this was a first. Crouched on a dust car the size of a mini-van, she was riding a rolling bomb straight into the middle of the enemy. If they survived this, it would be one for the books. Weiss leaned out of the trolley's control box, and shouted over the motor's throaty growl.
"We're about three miles out. Eyes up, they probably have patrols."
Yang emerged beside her, and gracefully jumped from car to car until she landed beside her sister. "Beautiful day for it," she commented, gesturing at the rocky and wooded terrain they were winding through. The sun was out, and what was left of the morning dew glistened on the pines. "You really gonna let Blake go through with this?"
Ruby shrugged. "Short of breaking her legs and locking her up in town, I don't think we can stop her. And in the end, I wouldn't even if I could. She's had a rough time of it, previous choices and affiliations notwithstanding. She is aware of the risk, and if this is how she wants to do it, well, that's her call."
Yang nodded. "I don't mind admitting I was wrong about her. Her choices brought about their own punishment, and she's obviously been loyal enough to us. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I genuinely wish her the best."
The trolley lurched as it rounded a corner, and started up an incline. The ground fell away on their left, and from their higher elevation, the girls had a panoramic view of most of the island.
"Nice place," Yang remarked. "I'll have to talk Weiss into opening a summer resort after-"
"Yang! Look!" Ruby grabbed her arm. "Down there, a mile out!"
Yang's good mood died as saw what Ruby was pointing at. A dark mass appeared to be flowing up out of two open mine pits and moving in the direction of the town. It could be only one thing, and they both knew.
"Oh boy. That's a lot of grimm." Accurate estimation was impossible, but Yang knew that given how far away they were, a horde that looked that big had to number multiple thousands, at least.
"We gotta warn JNPR." Ruby jumped to her feet, and flashed back to the trolley control cab.
"Rose! What's wrong?" Weiss could tell immediately something was badly amiss.
Ruby was already dialing on her Scroll. "Grimm," she responded tersly.
"What? Where?"
"Hello, Jaune? Jaune, we got a problem. There's at least a few thousand a grimm headed your way, coming up out of to strip mines between the town and the mountain." Ruby pointed out the window for Weiss's benefit as she spoke.
"Understood. Estimated time of arrival?" Jaune asked calmly.
"Half an hour for the fast ones," Ruby replied.
"Arc? This is Schnee." Weiss leaned toward the Scroll. "We're too far out to beat the horde back to town, but I have a plan that may thin them out for you. That said, it may not work, so prepare for the worst. Get everybody you can inside the dust bunker. If the defense fails, it should be able to withstand the claws of these monsters, at least for a while."
"Will do. Keep us informed. Arc out." The call went dead.
"Ok Weiss, what's the plan?"
"Belladonna! Get in here!" Weiss shouted back to where Blake sat on the rear car. Blake left her position and jumped forward to join them in the cab. "Take the controls. When I signal, pull the brake lever for exactly two seconds, then release."
"Ok... What's happening?"
"No time to explain, just do as you're told," Weiss snapped. "Come on, Rose."
Weiss and Ruby left the befuddled Blake and rejoined Yang on the front car. "Ok, here's the play. We're going to uncouple the front dust car, and divert it at the next junction. The track will take it downhill into the closer dust mine. I'm going to disable the autobrakes, so by the time it reaches the end of the track it's going to be moving so fast catastrophic failure will be almost inevitable. The chain-reaction explosion should wipe out enough of the grimm to give JNPR a fighting chance."
Yang grinned. "Dust, I love my job. How are we going to divert the car?"
"There's a switch box at the junction, less than a mile ahead. It should have manual levers we can use. Rose, can you get there fast enough to throw the switch for the car and then set it back for us?"
"Absolutely." Ruby's feet practically itched. She could do this.
"Good. Go now. Don't worry about the car, we'll take care of getting it ahead of the train."
Ruby took a deep breath, and jumped. She hit the ground in stride, and vanished in a blast of rose petals. The train fell away behind her as the picturesque blurred into a mosaic of blue, green, and gray. Her feet skimmed over rock beside the tracks, and Ruby silently counted off seconds. She knew approximately how far she could travel for every second of semblance used, and after she estimated two-thirds of a mile, she left her speed drop off.
"Ok. Re-assess. There. That must be the switch box." The railway split a hundred yards further ahead, with one track turning right toward the mountain and the other dropping away towards the pit mines. Ruby covered the distance with another burst of speed, and slid to a halt beside the control box. A sweeping blow from Crescent Rose took care of the lock. She gripped the junction control lever inside, and worked it back and forth to ensure it functioned properly.
The train was visible again, the roar of the engine growing louder as it barreled up the incline. Ruby saw Yang down between the cars. Her sister yanked the coupling pin free, and Weiss gave Blake the signal. Sparks flew as Blake set the brakes, and the front car pulled away from the rest of the train. Weiss twirled her rapier, and a red glyph sprang into being on the dust car. The car accelerated rapidly, and the gap between it and the train widened. Ruby double-checked that the switch was set correctly, and waited. The runaway dust car shot past her, and turned down the incline with a screech of over-taxed axle bearings. Throwing her weight against the lever, she set it back in time for the train to stay on course.
"All aboard!" Yang whooped as she rolled past. "Last stop, total destruction!"
Ruby took a running start, jumped, and used a pair of rifle shots to boost herself onto the last car. She made her way forward, and joined Blake.
"Ok, Ruby, what in the world was that all about?"
"Grimm horde down below. We're about to drop some warheads on the foreheads."
Weiss and Yang swung into the cab, and Ruby stepped over to make room. "Grab a hold of something," Weiss warned. "If this works like I hope it will, it's going to register on seismographs."
The four girls held their collective breath for what seemed like an hour, but was probably less than a minute. Then, there was a brilliant flash far below near the first mine. A second flash followed, then a third, and then a blinding explosion ripped apart the morning sky. A mushroom cloud a thousand feet high blasted up from the mine. Lightning bolts fought with ice blocks the size of cars as exotic elements chain-reacted in a out of control firestorm of unbridled mayhem. A shockwave of pure energy rippled across the island. The train shook as the sound reached them, a boom so deafening that Ruby was certain her ears would never quit ringing. Blake, with her sensitive faunus hearing, looked positively traumatized.
Yang cheered. "Now that! THAT is what I am talking about! W00T! We need to work together more often!" She clapped Weiss on the shoulder hard enough to make the smaller girl's teeth click.
Weiss brushed her shoulder off and nodded in satisfaction. "A year's worth of dust, gone in smoke, but that should thin the herd enough for the townspeople to survive." Weiss opened a folded map and pointed. "Now that the fireworks display is over, we should be coming up on the mine rail yard. We'll use the same accelerate and divert strategy to cover our entrance. Xiao-Long, use that motorcycle you're so fond of to get ahead of us and throw the junction... here. Rose, you're fastest. Ride with her that far, and then get the switch box outside the main yard. You'll send the car around the yard, and we'll blow it on the far side by the main entrance. Rallypoint is the freight elevator... here, and from there we go up into the mountain. I'll plant remote explosives on the cars before I launch them so I can detonate at the correct location. Any questions?"
"Let's get on with it!" Yang knocked her fists together. "This is way better than the boring plans Ruby comes up with."
"At least it's a plan, which is better than you usually have," Ruby retorted. "Let's do it."
"Good luck, you two," Blake said with a nod as the sisters stepped out of the control cab.
Yang had chained the motorcycle Blake had "borrowed" to the back of the tram engine. Now, she undid the chain and straddled the seat.
"You're going to ride it off the train?" Ruby asked. "Who am I kidding? Of course you are."
"Of course I am. You coming?"
"Ahh, why not. Not going to live forever, one way or another." Ruby reluctantly climbed on behind her sister.
"That's the spirit! Grab hold of anything but the hair, and don't look down!" Yang gunned the engine, and the motorcycle shot forward. Ruby involuntarily closed her eyes for a split second as a unsettling weightless feeling assaulted her insides. Before she quite adjusted, the motorcycle thumped down in the rocky railbed. Yang held the throttle wide open, fishtailing violently and showering rocks behind them. The rear wheel finally found purchase, and the motorcycle accelerated like it had been shot out of a cannon.
"Wheee! It ain't Bumblebee, but it's good enough. Having fun back there?" Yang shouted over her shoulder.
Ruby was not, but she wasn't going to give Yang the satisfaction of hearing her say that. Instead, she gripped tighter with her knees and tucked her head down to get her face out of the way of Yang's blowing mane. For someone who spent her life zipping around at superhuman velocity, Ruby had never enjoyed riding with Yang in any kind of motor vehicle, and probably never would.
"Eyes up, sis! Trouble ahead!" Yang's warning barely reached Ruby's ear over the roar of the motor. Shaking her head to clear Yang's hair from her face, Ruby looked to see what the matter was. Three armed men had appeared around a bend in the rail line, but the real story was the beowolf that loped along beside them, acting very much like a overgrown police dog.
Yang hunched down over the handlebars as they bore down on the patrol. The men scattered, and the grimm went with them. Ruby brought Cresent Rose up to fire, but they flashed past the bushes into which the men had vanished so quickly that target identification was impossible.
"Yang! Yang, stop! We have to track them down and keep them from warning Watts!" Ruby shouted over the motor.
"Too late for that!" Yang yelled back. "We stop now and we could walk right into an ambush. We have to hit the switch boxes, no matter what."
Ruby leaned back, not at all pleased with being at the mercy of Yang's decision not to stop. Now they had hostiles behind them. She wasn't worried about the train, Blake and Weiss could take care of themselves. But they were headed into enemy territory, and-
"Ahh!" Ruby shrieked in suprise as Yang wrenched the handlebars to the left and sent the motorcycle flying up over railroad. The beowolf slammed down behind them, its claws swinging just out of reach.
"Dust, Rubes, I really thought you were going to shoot that thing. Didn't you see it on the rock?"
"Shut up and try to keep it steady!" Ruby ground her teeth in embarrassed frustration as she tried to twist her weapon around to fire on the pursuing grimm. The first shot flew in front of the beowolf, and it darted to its left, further out of the sweep of her gun.
"Yang! Brakes!" Ruby trusted her sister would understand, and Yang did not let her down. Rock sprayed around the tires as Yang locked the brakes. Ruby twisted hard to her left, hitting Crescent Rose's release as she swung the weapon over Yang's head. The was a satisfying crunch as the charging grimm impaled itself on the blade.
Yang gunned the motor, and they shot forward again. Taking one last look to ensure there were no further pursuers, Ruby turned forward to see what lay ahead. The railroad had turned, and ahead of them was a small wooden shack. The rail line split there, one branch heading to the dust loading facility and the other to the mine's barracks and administrative area. Not keen to repeat her mistake of missing the beowolf, Ruby scanned the shrubs and rocks beside the switch box hut.
"Yang! Bushes! Right side!" As Ruby called the warning, the crack of a rifle slug snapping past them left no doubt as to the intentions of the guards ahead.
"Here we go!" Yang whooped. Raising her right arm, she began peppering the trees with gauntlet blasts. Then, to Ruby's horror, she raised her left hand as well.
"Yang! Are you out of your mind? Steer! Steer!" The motorcycle wobbled dangerously as Ruby tried to bring her weapon to bear.
"I am steering!" Yang shouted back. "Now hold still, you're throwing me off!"
"You're going to throw us both off if you don't drive the freaking motorcycle!" Ruby screamed.
"I'm sorry, I can't hear you over how awesome this is! Brace for impact!" Yang reloaded Ember Celica in a flawless blur of motion, and continued her barrage.
"Impact?! Screw this, I'm out!" Ruby pushed off the motorcycle, calculating her risk of injury was lower if she jumped than if she stayed on the out-of-control vehicle.
"Tuck and roll!" Yang shouted over her shoulder.
"Ooof!" The rock in the ditch beside the railbed was just as hard and sharp as Ruby was afraid it was going to be. She somersaulted forward, rolled twice, and came up on her feet. She looked up just in time to see Yang and her motorcycle collide with the front door of the switch hut. The door imploded with a shower of wood splinters, and Yang disappeared inside. A tremendous crash resounded from inside the building, and the entire structure shook.
"Idiot." Ruby growled. "Someday we're going to be picking her up with a tablespoon."
"Move in! Suppress the shed! Go! Go!" Ruby ducked low in the ditch as a half dozen White Fang emerged from the foliage on the opposite side of the track, assault rifles raised. Aura or not, Ruby was at a distinct disadvantage. The situation became more urgent a second later when the advancing squad opened fire on the switch hut, shredding the building with a torrent of bullets. Ruby held her cover in the ditch, calculating that Yang, reckless as she was, had a plan.
"Reloading!"
"Oh. Now I get it."
Yang exploded through the ventilated wall of the shack, and grabbed the nearest soldier by the throat before he had a chance to scream. She picked him up, and hurled him bodily into the next two men. Ruby popped out of her ditch, and took aim on the faunus farthest from Yang. Cresent Rose thundered, and the faunus fell without a sound. A pair of shots from Ember Celica silenced the last two White Fang, and just like that, the battle was over.
Ruby ran down the tracks to where her sister stood over the three fanus she had knocked down a few seconds before. "A decent warm-up round, don't you think?" Yang greeted her cheerfully.
"No, I don't," Ruby retorted. The rush of battle was over now, and Ruby couldn't suppress her annoyance at her sister's casual recklessness. "Assuming you planned any of that, at least have the courtesy to share it with the rest of us beforehand, yeah?"
Yang laughed. "Come on, Rubes, live a little."
"That's kinda my goal, and you aren't helping. And what are we going to do with them?" Ruby nodded at the three fanus Yang was holding at gauntlet-point.
"I figured you would want to decapitate them before you move on to the next switch box," Yang replied with a devious smirk.
"W-what?" One of the men gulped.
"Oh yes," Yang continued dramatically. "You think she carries that scythe around for show? Not hardly. But lucky for you, she's in a hurry now because I threw my switch while you idiots were emptying your guns and she was just standing around wasting time. So if you could tell her something that could speed her on her way to the next rail junction, maybe I could convince my bloodthirsty little sister to leave your necks unsevered. Well? How about it?"
The three fanus couldn't talk fast enough. They all had something to volunteer, each trying to talk over the other in hopes of winning a reprieve. Yang motioned for silence with an angry exclamation. "You're wasting our time! You! Talk!" The man gulped, and pointed past the shredded switch house.
"Th-there's a path through the trees there that will shortcut you too the other junction. But there's probably a patrol coming."
Yang nodded. "You heard the man, Ruby. And I hear the Weiss Express behind us. Better hurry."
"You're not... going to kill us, right?" The man asked hopefully.
"No, I don't think that's going to be necessary," Ruby replied, making pointed eye contact with her sister. "I think we can lock you in the switch house and go about our business. Don't you agree, Yang?"
Yang shrugged. "I was gonna crack their skulls after you left. You know, quick, clean, quiet. But if you'd rather I don't, I'll make an exception this time. Call it an apology for the motorcycle thing."
"Works for me. Do your best stay out of trouble, if that's even possible. See you at the next junction." And with that, Ruby turned and jogged for the tree line.
The forest around Ruby was quiet as she made her way along the forest path. The trail led over a low ridge that the rail line snaked around. Directly on the other side of the ridge was the rail junction outside of the mine's rail yard. She would emerge within two hundred yards of the back door to Watts' fortress, and if she exposed herself too far ahead of the arrival of the train her situation could become precarious. The White Fang and whatever remained of the traitor mercenaries would be at maximum alert, and after the events of the previous half hour, expecting an attack.
Ruby paused, and slipped into a cedar tree. Something felt off. Just like the night when she killed the taijitu, Ruby held perfectly still, willing herself to blend into the environment, every sense tuned for danger. The crack of a breaking stick reassured her that her instincts had not failed her. Someone was coming.
"Clumsy ox!" The angry whisper was barely audible.
"Shut up, human, or I'll feed you to the lancer."
"Whatever, freak. Maybe send your pet down ahead and see who's been knocking off our patrols, huh?"
"Both of you shut up or I'll slit your throats. Skirmishing formation! Move!"
Ruby peeked out of the tree, and glimpsed a line of armed figures approaching through the pines. She couldn't tell how many, but 8 or 10 was likely. And what was all that about a lancer? The giant insectoid grimm were not native to this region, but she couldn't rule out the chance that somehow they had one under their control. Stealth was her best option.
"Thermal contact! 20 meters! Collapse right!"
Or not. With a frustrated curse, Ruby pushed herself out of the tree and readied her weapon. "Thermal optics. Wonderful. Let's see if it helps their aim."
Rose petals scattered as Ruby went on the offensive. Heedless of the branches that tore at her face and clothes, Ruby ploughed through the undergrowth at maximum speed. Gunshots shattered the quiet of the forest, but they sounded warped and muffled to the speeding huntress. Everything snapped back into full clarity as Ruby slid to a stop behind a tall pine.
"Where'd she go?"
"That way, idiot!"
"It's a huntress!
"Push! Push! Don't let her slip away!"
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," Ruby muttered grimly. She had intentionally ran past the end of the patrol, and now her foes were all lined up. Ruby took a a deep breath, and attacked.
The first soldier never knew what hit him. A blur of red flashed past, and his head rolled in the pine needles. Someone screamed a shout of warning, but it was too late. The Reaper was among them. Ruby pushed her semblance as far as she dared in the confines of the forest. Her feet dug furrows in the ground where she planted her heels to take a sharp corner. Sawdust and bark flew as she used the blade of her scythe to swing around tree trunks. Blood stained the forest floor as one by one, her enemies fell.
Ruby tracked the targets around her with skill honed through many years of combat. "Three remaining."
"Two left."
"One left."
A final burst of speed, and she bore down on a fleeing White Fang operative. Ruby swung, but the faunus was fast and twisted as the blade whistled down. Ruby missed the clean killing blow she had aimed for, and instead nearly severed her target's left arm. The faunus went down with a shriek of pain. Ruby set her feet, throwing dirt into the air as she slid to a halt and spun around. The faunus was up already, and drew a short sword.
"Come on! I'm not afraid of you!"
Ruby sized up her badly injured but defiant opponent. A young fox faunus man, a boy, really. He moved with the twitchy speed common to his particular race. In his eyes there was no fear, only rage and hatred. And for some reason, Ruby hesitated. She did not enjoy killing. Behind her lay a trail of cooling bodies, and ahead of her would be more, but she did not relish one second of it. It was an unpleasant reality forced upon her by violent lawbreakers standing between her and her job. If she kept it impersonal, then she could ignore her accusing conscience. But now, her victim had a face.
She deflected his first wild swing with mechanical ease, but made no effort to counterstrike.
"Drop the sword, and you can walk away." She made the offer warily, circling just out of striking range.
"Run? Now? What kind of coward do you take me for? Die!" He charged again, swinging wildly, but blood loss was making him unsteady. Ruby effortlessly ducked his onslaught.
"I don't want to kill you. Walk away, there's still time for you to get help." Ruby tried to reason with the faunus.
"You didn't seem to mind when you were butchering my friends! Typical human, half a liar, half a murderer. The Matriarch will condemn your soul. Come on! Your death is closer than mine!"
A crash in the trees above made Ruby spin around. Too late, she remembered the lancer. The giant hornet cut through the forest canopy like an armored missile. Crescent Rose caught the grimm's razor sharp mandible as it fell, deflecting the deadly bite. Ruby twisted out of the way as a stinger the length of a man's forearm stabbed past her, its tip dripping with venom.
"Die! Ahhh!" The faunus charged. Ruby saw it all unfolding in slow motion. He had dropped his sword, and in his right hand he clutched a grenade. And the grenade had no pin. Caught between a suicide bomber and a giant lancer, Ruby's options were limited. The faunus crashed into her, burying his shoulder in her chest and trying to pin her against the grimm. Thinking fast, Ruby buckled her knees and let the impact throw them both to the ground. She landed under the lancer. Moving with lightning speed, she grabbed one of the bony legs and pulled with all her might. The deadly stinger plunged into the dirt mere inches from her face as Ruby drug herself under the lancer. She almost made it to the other side of the grimm when the grenade exploded.
"AhhhOoof! Owww..." A nearby pine tree caught her as the explosion tossed the huntress across the forest floor. Ruby crumpled into the pine needles, her aura low and her body throbbing. "That hurt."
Cresent Rose lay beside her. Ruby rolled to her knees, gripped the weapon, and stood up. That had been a disaster. Yang would have been furious at her for hesitating like that, and as she surveyed what remained of the lancer and the faunus, Ruby couldn't help but agree. She had lost focus, and nearly got herself killed. There was no room here for hesitation or mercy. She had a job to do, and that was all that mattered.
The distant roar of an engine reminded her she was on schedule. Weiss and the train were closing in. Stepping gingerly around the bloody, smoking mess, Ruby set off at a brisk jog. The path opened onto a rocky hillside. Fifty feet below, the rail line split. A switch box identical to the one she used her earlier in the day stood beside the track. A large metal building was visible 500 yards down the track, sitting at the base of a towering cliff, marking the beginning of what Ruby took to be the loading yard. The area appeared deserted.
"Odd there's not more security. Oh well, here we go."
Quickly descending the slope with with series of jumps, Ruby reached the switch without incident. The box was unlocked, and she reached inside and threw the lever. The switch rail slid into place with a metallic snap.
"Ok, all set, and not a minute too soon." The train rumbled into view, now depleted to one car in front of the engine and two cars behind. Ruby nervously waited by the switch, anxious to be moving again. She could just feel a sniper lining her up as she stood in the open. She was relieved when front dust car abruptly accelerated away from the train, propelled ahead by a swirling red glyph. The car rumbled past her, and Ruby reset the junction. The train reached her a few seconds later, and she reboarded the engine with a graceful jump.
"Have a little trouble up there?" Yang called from her perch beside Weiss atop the lead car.
Ruby shrugged, not wanting to go into detail. "Nothing I couldn't handle."
Yang vaulted back to join Ruby on the engine. "I wasn't talking about the White Fang. I was talking about your hygiene."
"My hygiene?" Ruby asked in confusion?
"Didn't your mother ever tell you?" Yang reached under the fold of Ruby's hood and produced a bloody fox ear. "Always wash behind your ears."
Ruby scowled as Yang tossed the bloody fragment over her shoulder. "That's not funny, Yang, on any level. Zero of ten. Don't tell Blake."
"Don't tell the faunus about what?" Weiss asked as she joined them. Ruby noticed the heiress's forehead was beaded with sweat despite the chilly morning, and though she was trying to hide it, her breath was coming in short rasps.
"Not important," Ruby replied tersely. "Don't worry about it. You ok?"
Weiss stood a little taller, trying her best to look every inch a calm and collected professional. "Pushing three loaded dust cars in less than ten minutes isn't easy, Rose. Don't you worry about me, I'm fine. We're almost there. By now our two diversion cars should be at the workers camp and the front entrance. When I detonate them, it should cause enough destruction and chaos to keep a good portion of Watt's people off our backs. We'll dump the last cars in the yard, they'll be useful if we have to escape in an emergency situation."
Yang cracked her knuckles as what was left of the train approached a chain-link fence that marked the outer boundary of the dust loading yard. "No guards yet? Guess maybe with how things have been going, they just don't have any guards left to send. Let's find a place to park this thing and go introduce ourselves."
Jaune Arc's motorcycle skidded to a halt in the cloud of dust. He disembarked without shutting off the engine, and jogged over to the jeep Lie Ren and Nora were using to organize the defence.
"Couple thousand, at least. Don't know how many Weiss killed with her improvised bomb, but it wasn't enough. They've got flyers, and we can expect the first beowolves in under fifteen minutes." Jaune delivered the news with deadly serious professionalism. "The odds are not in our favor."
Ren digested this information with characteristic calm. "I've already given the milita orders to move everybody inside the dust bunker at the dock. The hospital is not going to be evacuated in time. We could make a stand there, but if we lose there's nobody to defend the bunker. We abandon it, and we sacrifice everybody inside. We try to move them in combat, and we risk compromising the bunker. It is a difficult situation."
"We'll fight," Jaune replied without hesitation. "The odds are poor, yes, but even if we lose it's the outcome that endangers the least people. The bunker has perimeter defenses, and enough dust stored inside to fire almost indefinitely. If we can destroy the majority of the horde, what's left of the militia and the mercenaries can hold the bunker."
Pyrrha nodded as she joined them. "Abandoning the hospital is not an option. We'll do what we can, for as long as we can."
Nora jumped out of the jeep, hammer over her shoulder and a sadistic grin on her face. "Let's go! Some people might call this outnumbered, but I call it a target-rich environment!"
Ren narrowed his eyes, giving the team the calculating stare they had all seen so many times. "Not counting any security forces that stay with the hospital, the four of us are going to be outnumbered 1000 to 1. I know that the three of you are among the best in Remnant, but this is a suicide mission. And before any of you bring it up, I utterly refuse to go to the bunker while you fight at the hospital. I know I can't fight like I used to, but I can shoot, and I'm not going to walk away and leave you all to die."
"There's no decision to make," Pyrrha stated matter-of-factly. "We hold the hospital, all of us, whatever it takes. We have an obligation to try. It's our job."
The other members of JNPR nodded in agreement. "Ok then." Jaune took a bandolier of grenades out of the Jeep and threw it over his shoulder. "Ren, you've got the inside. Organize whatever shooters we've got to cover choke points and entrances. Nora, you're in front of the main entrance. It's wide open, and the best route for their heavies to make a run on the building. Pyrrha, north side. There's a lot of windows there, and we're going to need your speed and ranged firepower to hold that side of the building. I'll take the opposite side, and block the street so Nora can't get flanked. Any questions? Let's do this."
Cinder Fall slid off her boarbatusk and patted the beast on its tree-like leg. "Go. I will call you when I'm ready." The grimm lumbered away, passing through the stream of monsters that was creeping inexorably through forest. Cinder didn't want to risk that particular boarbatusk in the battle. It was a highly trained work of art, and mounts like that took time to craft. As for the rest of them? Well, Salem's reserves were endless. She turned, and looked at the formation of faunus that stood behind her. Their coal black eyes stared back at her, and seemed to see everything and nothing at all at the same time.
"Let it begin," she whispered. "Kill. Sink. Burn. Destroy. Leave no foe alive."
The faunus scattered, moving with silent, rehearsed purpose. The grimm coalesced behind them, and distinct battle formations grew out of the column. "Yeeesss... together... unstoppable."
Cinder wasn't sure if any of them could understand her words anymore, but her words helped her focus her thoughts, and she had no doubt they could understand that. A contemptuous smirk twisted her face. She had dreamed of this day. Now was her time to show everbody her superiority. Bloodlust was good, but Tyrian let it consume him. Science was good, but Watts worshipped it. Self-serving manipulation was good, but Reinhart never saw a good beyond his own betterment. She was the ultimate blend of rage and cunning, the finest tool in her Queen's arsenal. Remnant would tremble before her.
"Let it begin."
"This is freaking creepy," Yang muttered as the train rumbled to a halt. "Where the devil are they all hiding?"
Ruby couldn't suppress a shiver of unease as she hopped off the engine. The loading yard was quiet as a church on Monday morning. They had come prepared to fight their way in. The chances of nobody trying to stop them had seemed so remote it hadn't even been considered.
Weiss set the brake on the engine and joined Ruby. She fingered her detonator, looking as uncertain as the rest of them. "I don't know what to make of it. Watts can't possibly have been this sloppy. If this entrance is undefended, there has to be a reason. I'm going to hold off detonating until we get a feel for what is going on here."
"Good call," Yang agreed. "Now let's get out of the open, I feel like somebody's watching me."
Drawing her rapier, Weiss led the foursome toward a hulking metal door set into the mountainside. The rock towering hundreds of feet above them added to the eerie, oppressive atmosphere. They crossed three more rail lines, making their way between partially loaded dust cars, forklifts, and crates. There was no sign of workers, and no sign of where they may have gone. The yard appeared to have been abandoned mid-operation.
Weiss stopped at a control panel beside the door and produced her Scroll. "Cover me. I can override the security in a minute. There's going to be a large freight elevator be on to the store. We'll take it up to the communications and testing floor, where I'll bet anyting we will find Whitley, and probably Watts."
Ruby and Blake took positions behind a dumpster as Weiss started working on the door. "You still want to go through with this?" Ruby asked her servant. "There's no shame in backing out of a fight you can't win."
"Don't try and talk me out of this," Blake retorted. "You'd do the same for Yang without hesitation. This is my shot, Ruby. If I don't take it and something happens to my boy, I'll never forgive myself."
Ruby nodded. "Ok. I'll watch your back in there as much as I can, Blake, but if you don't make it, I want you to know that I'll do what I can to find your boy when this is all over."
"Thank you, Ruby. You're a good person. I wish people like you were the rule instead of the exception."
"Hello, Miss Schnee." A man's voice crackled from the control panel, oily and professional despite the garbling of the speaker.
"Watts." Venom dripped from Weiss's tongue.
"I have to say, I admire your persistence. I expected that lunatic Tyrian to finish you off last night. I did not expect you to come all the way up here. This will pose some inconvenience, but the outcome is not in question. Goodbye, Miss Schnee."
"I'll be saying my goodbyes when I have my fingers around your throat, and I swear I'll have the life choked out of you before noon today!"
"You'll forgive me if I find that scenario highly unlikely. Now if you excuse me, I think you're about to have more pressing concerns."
"He ain't kidding," Yang warned. "We got movement on the far side of the yard."
"Hold the line. I'm blowing the cars, then I'll get the door. Detonation in 3... 2... 1..." Weiss clicked her button. They all braced for an earth-shaking explosion, but instead all they heard was two quiet booms in the distance.
"Well that was anti-climatic," Yang observed. "What happened?"
"Oh, I'm sorry." Watts spoke up again. "I should have mentioned that I defused your little bombing plan. It cost me a pair of nevermores to fly your cars to a safe distance, but I assure you..."
"Rahhh!" Weiss screamed in rage as she drove her rapier through the speaker.
"Incoming!" Blake warned.
Automatic weapons fire rattled from the train cars. Guns sounded so much different when you were in front of them, Ruby reflected as she swung Cresent Rose up to return fire.
"Grimm! Looks like an ursa, coming up the track!" Yang called.
"We're sitting ducks here!" Ruby shouted as the gunfire intensified. "Weiss! We need that door open!"
"Working on it! Just keep these rats from shooting me in the back, okay?"
This was sliding out of control, Ruby thought as she mechanically shot and reloaded. Watts had outsmarted them again, and if they were all going to be dog food if they didn't get out of this trap immediately.
"Ursa's closing in! I got this one!" Yang broke cover and braved the rainstorm of bullets to charge forward and meet the massive grimm.
Ruby glanced over to see her sister dodge under a massive blow, but she didn't have time to watch the duel. For every White Fang she or Blake shot, another popped up to take his place. Her aura had already stopped a couple of bullets, and it was only a matter of time until Blake took a hit.
"Weiss! The door!"
"It's stuck! The heiress screamed back. "I've got the mechanism running, but it won't open! It's like it's jammed from the inside!"
"Of course it is. What else can go wrong?" Ruby growled. In a louder voice, she added "Do you have a Plan B?"
"Already doing it. Stand clear, it's on our side."
"What's on our- oohh..." words failed Ruby as she looked over her shoulder and saw what was unfolding behind her. An enormous white glyph spun on the ground in front of the door, and a spectral knight at least 15 ft tall was climbing out of it like it was some sort of otherworldly manhole. The shimmering entity carried a broad shield and a massive sword. It stood, drew its arm back, and delivered a gigantic strike to the sealed door.
"I... just... need... time..." Weiss gasped out. She stood with one hand raised, eyes closed, and a look of intense stress on her face. Ruby could see she was pushing for semblance to its extreme limits, and after accelerating the train cars, this task was taking everything she had.
The summoned knight continued its assault on the door as Ruby returned her attention to the battle. Yang had killed the ursa, but three beowolves had entered the fray and were pressing her back towards the door. Ruby casually shot one through the forehead.
"Mind your own business!" Yang screamed without turning around.
"Your welcome!" Ruby shouted back.
"Uh, we got trouble," Blake called.
"As opposed to what we have now?"
"Yes. Much worse. Look!"
Ruby looked, and then looked again to make sure. Two behemoths were lumbering down the rail line from the direction of the front entrance of the mine. They were probably boarbatusks, but were half again as large as anything Ruby had ever seen. Their faces were obscured by a prow-like metal nose, and plate armor covered their sides. Turrets bulged from the front and top, and heavy caliber weaponry bristled threateningly from firing slits. Ruby assessed her options. She doubted her weapon could do much more than scratch the paint on these walking fortresses. Even Yang with all her prodigious strength would be badly out matched. If they had some room to work, they could probably grind one of them down. But they didn't have room, and there were two of the monsters.
Fate tipped in her favor as Weiss's knight finally cracked open the door. It wasn't much of a gap, but it was enough.
"Yang! Door's open! Come on!" Ruby shoved Blake ahead of her as made for the door. Weiss leaned heavily against the wall, sweating profusely and wheezing. The knight turned, and assumed a defensive stance in front of its master. Yang broke away from the beowolves and sprinted for cover. She boosted herself forward with blasts from her gauntlets, covering the last thirty feet in a long jump. Blake slipped through the crack in the door, and Weiss stumbled after her. And then, the boarbatanks opened fire.
Ruby and Yang would have been blasted to paste in a matter of seconds had it not been for the intervention of Weiss's spectral guardian. The knight bounded forward, soaking up the onslaught with its shield and buying a few precious seconds. Yang shoved Ruby inside, and joined her a second later.
"You ok, Weiss?" Yang looked at the flushed and panting girl with concern.
"Forget it. My paladin will only buy us a minute at most. It's strong, but not that strong. We have to move right now."
The freight garage was fifty feet long and about thirty wide. Hand carts loaded with dust ore filled the room, ready for transfer to the trains. A wide elevator took up half of the far wall. The girls hurried through the dimly lit room. Ruby could not wait to get out the garage. One misplaced bullet would turn all that dust ore into an inferno.
"I hope you have better luck with the elevator then you did the door," Yang commented.
"Guess we'll find out," Weiss replied as she pulled out her Scroll and went to work. As she started typing, the chaos outside abruptly stopped. "The paladin has been destroyed," Weiss said simply. "They are coming."
"Let 'em try. Cover the door!" Yang leveled both gauntlets on small opening they had just passed through. A figure darkened the opening, and Yang fired. They heard a scream, and light streamed through once again. Twice more somebody risked the entrance, and twice more Yang blew them away.
"Guess they got the hint," Blake observed when no further attack was made. "I hear the elevator coming."
"Yes, it's only three floors-" the rest of Weiss's words were lost in an almighty crash as one of the armored grimm bulldozed the door.
"COVER!" Ruby screamed as monstrous head plowed into the garage and the turrets swiveled to fire. High caliber automatic weapons ranked their end of the room as the doors crumpled to the side and the boarbatusk forced its way in. White Fang swarmed in behind it.
"Are there gunners in there or is it doing all that by itself?" Blake shouted.
"Who cares? We're screwed if we can't take it out!" Yang yelled back.
"Elevator's here! Go, I'll cover you!" Weiss stood up, and a dense, intricate black glyph spun in front of her. Spreading her arms, she held a shield 10 feet wide in front of the team. The others needed no urging. They made a desperate sprint for the elevator, and Weiss backed up behind them. Ruby punched the 'UP' arrow, and the doors ground shut. Hundreds of bullets rattled off the metal doors as the freight elevator lurched upward.
"That was too close." Ruby exhaled deeply and wiped her brow. "Thanks, Weiss, you really bailed us out there."
The white-haired girl staggered against the wall of the elevator and let her back slide down until she sat on the floor. "I- I- need a break. That was too much, too fast. I'm not sure I can do anything like that again today."
"With any luck, we won't need it," Yang said. "But we'd have been toast without your glyphs. Good work."
Weiss waved a hand tiredly. "It's what I do. We get into a boxing match with an ursa, I'll let you take that one."
A dull boom resounded below them, and with an ominous shudder the elevator stopped.
"Now what?" Yang groaned.
Weiss was on her feet in an instant, and the look on her face made the other girls realized something had gone seriously wrong. "The dust ore! If those idiots set it on fire, we will be sitting at the top of an explosion measured in kilotons. We have to get off this elevator, now!"
A second, sharper explosion gave urgency to her warning. Yang pointed to a hatch in the ceiling. "Ruby! I'll boost you up!"
A blast from Ember Celica tore the hatch off its hinges, and a second later Ruby stood on top of the elevator. "There's a door just above us! Yang! Get up here and you can force it open!"
Yang jumped, caught the edge of the hatch, and joined her sister. The sliding doors above them were at shoulder height, but Yang had no problem finding a grip. Setting her jaw, she forced one door open a couple of feet.
"Ok, good enough. I'm going up," Ruby said. "Blake! Help Weiss up through the door and then get up here yourself!" Ruby scrambled through the exit, but as she did so the most powerful explosion yet shook the mountain. The elevator car slipped a yard lower in the shaft. Weiss, halfway through the hatch, nearly fell back in, but Yang caught her and lifted her bodily onto the roof of the elevator.
"Ruby! Catch!" Calling on her superhuman strength, Yang threw Weiss up to where Ruby waited. Ruby caught Weiss by a forearm, and the two girls tumbled backwards into the corridor outside the elevator.
"Yang!" Ruby scrambled to the door and looked down. Blake was just joining her sister on the roof the car, but the elevator was starting to creep downward and acrid smoke was wafting up around the car. "Come on! Jump!"
Her warning was too late. The car fell ten feet, and flames licked around the edge.
"Yang! Come on!"
For a split-second, Blake made eye contact with Ruby. The faunus nodded and shrugged, as if to say, "Oh well, we tried."
Then they fell. Weiss dragged Ruby back from the edge as the elevator vanished in a scream of tortured metal and a blowtorch roar of burning dust. A tremendous explosion turned the elevator shaft into a blast furnace.
"Get off me! Let me go!" Ruby beat against Weiss's grip with grief-stricken desperation.
"It's too late!" Weiss screamed, pinning her to the floor with remorseless strength. "It's too late, and you'll just die with them!"
Ruby still struggled, but the creeping cold of logical acceptance took the strength from her blows. Weiss held her until the fire subsided, then released her and slumped to the floor. Ruby crawled to the charred, smoking edge and looked down, desperately hoping for something, anything, that would give her hope Yang and Blake were still alive. But there was nothing, just the crackle of the flames a hundred feet below.
"Ruby?" Weiss was exhausted, but she forced herself to sit up and look at the huntress that sat crouched ten feet away. "Ruby, we can't stay here."
There was no reply.
"Ruby. Can you hear me?"
"Yes."
Slowly, Ruby Rose turned to face her. The huntress was a mess. Her clothes were dirty and ripped in more than one place. Soot smudged her pale skin and blackened the red highlights in her hair. Weiss knew that she couldn't look much better. The last fifteen minutes had been a meat grinder.
"Do you think they suffered, Weiss?" The question was so blunt and unexpected that for a second, the heiress was at a loss for words.
"I hope not," she replied after a short pause. "It wouldn't have been for long, anyway. Try not to think about it. Whatever happened, they're at peace now. Both of them."
"You called me Ruby."
"Huh?"
"You've never used our first names before. It's always been Rose or Xiao-Long or Belladonna. And you couldn't even be bothered to use Blake's name most of the time. To you, she was nothing but 'slave' or 'faunus'. Well, she's dead now, not that it matters to you. I honestly hope her Matriarch is real. She deserved better than she got."
Weiss walked over to Ruby and offered her a hand. The huntress took it, and Weiss helped her up. "Look, Ruby, I'm sorry. I don't say that very often, but I'll say it to you. I'm a proud, cold, calculating Schnee. I suppose I could blame my upbringing, but that would be a lie, because I live this way intentionally. I don't make friends easily, but believe me when I say that I think I could have been friends with Yang, and even Blake too. They were good people. I am so sorry for your loss, and if we make it out of here I'll do whatever I can to help you."
Ruby nodded, and shook the hand that Weiss held out to her. "Thank you, Weiss. I mean it. Now let's move, we've got a job to do. Yang would tell us that if she could."
Weiss nodded. "They probably think we all died in the elevator. That could give us the advantage of surprise."
Ruby set her jaw. "I don't care about surprise. I'm going to do exactly what I saw my sister do once when she was in the same position we are now."
"And that is?"
"Kill 'em all."
Author's Note:
"We all die eventually. The real tragedy is those who never lived."
I make no apology for this story. The final chapters have already been outlined. This will not be for the faint of heart. Beware the quiet ones, because when they snap, it's scary.
If you want to see something with a happy ending, go read my other story, "Before Their Time"
One other random thing. "Enemy of my Enemy", Chapter 15 of this story, got about six times more views this month than any other chapter, and it appears the views are coming from Canada. If somebody out there is re-reading chapter 15 over and over, I would honestly like to hear from you.