Book 2, Chapter 1

Firefight

A/N: This is your warning ahead of time. This chapter contains some acts of extreme violence and brutality comparatively to the rest of my writing. If you are not comfortable with this, read only the beginning and end of the chapter. You have been warned.

It was a pleasant day at Beacon, all things considered. The sun was shining bright, the air was clean, there was a gentle breeze, and it sat at a pleasant eighty degrees. There was scarcely a cloud in the sky to mar the beautiful day, and accompanying it was the large amounts of activity that naturally occurred on such a day, such as rugby, soccer, or baseball.

However, it was hardly a pleasant day for one person in particular. No, there was nothing pleasant about the day to her. After all, having your world views flipped about so violently that it made you doubt your allegiances was sure to ruin anyone's day, pile having to adopt a completely foreign fighting style to stay in the game? She was not amused.

The files that Ruby sent her were too big for a scroll to unpack, so she had to upload it onto her personal laptop instead. She'd made the careful choice of labeling it as porn, since she sincerely doubted Ozpin wanted to be flashed by a twelve incher if he did somehow have remote access to it, it was only natural. However, finally unpacking it all, looking it over, she learned there were a great many things she couldn't overlook.

"Genocides... persecutions... slavery... subjugation... human testing... everything I swore to stand against as a huntress..." She muttered with a dead look in her eyes. She'd only just been released from the hospital about a week ago after being bedridden for the better part of a month, and already a part of her wished she'd never been released, or that the files would've been corrupted in the transfer. Ignorance is bliss, as the saying went, though she knew just as well that ignorance was the chief reason for the hatred of her little sister's kind...

She looked over to the helmet that sat on her desk, marveling at the pristine restoration that the Beacon Forgemaster had accomplished. She had herself a Reaper Arms Co. Mercenary Helmet in perfect condition. Better yet, it belonged to someone she felt she had to make amends to, giving it an extra measure of importance to her. Of course, it was no longer Ruby's. She'd already set Ruby's personal scroll as a contact, and seen her in person. She knew the girl had a new helmet, and she knew that Yang had her old one, and was planning on using it. That being said, she felt that the new color scheme of gold with a brown trim and lilac visor was a better fit for herself.

New Saunders was now also aware of the impending attack, but in action, still seemed to suggest ignorance of it. It was likely all part of some larger plan, but all she knew is that she was no longer interested in the kool-aid that Beacon was offering her.

"Countless massacres carried out by hundreds of hunters... hunters praised as heroes... to think my favorite tale of heroism was nothing but an act of terror... and to think they had the evidence to back up the claim too..." She was disgusted. Her favorite tale, the tale of the four legendary hunters of old facing down a horde of ten thousand... the tale she was told was that it was a large Grimm horde that threatened a city. But, to think that the truth was them massacring ten thousand pariahs just trying to band together and make themselves a place for their own kind to thrive...

"And to think that's just the tip of the iceberg... to think that much of our modern medical knowledge came from... Ugh... I can't even say it..." the grotesque images of people torn apart and sewn back together as an abomination right out of a horror flick haunted her mind, people's heads cut open for a zipper to be placed in... two people cut in half to be stitched together as some sort of conjoined horror... just thinking about it all made her blanch, made her glad she'd not eaten anything yet.

"And to think... to think it's all still happening to this day... to think it's happening right under our noses and right in front of us, and nobody cares..." Yang hugged herself tightly as a shiver ran down her spine. The most recent event had only happened just after Ruby had left for New Saunders, which made Yang more relieved than she'd ever been accepted. If she hadn't, then she too would've met the fate of all the other Pariahs who resides in the downtown district of Vale had... to think that Ozpin would order all of their organs forcibly harvested... truly, it was all too horrifying to her, but she was just glad that Ruby dodged that bullet.

"I cannot follow that madman... I swore an oath to protect people... we all did, as Hunters... but..." Yang clenched her fist, easily crushing the pendant all initiated into the IHA received upon acceptance to one of the academies. "The very society I swore to protect... the comrades who shared my oath... how many lies do we live? I can't be the only one who sees this injustice, surely there must be more who decry this barbarism?"

She couldn't help but let a few tears loose, horrified by the revelation after revelation. How could she fight for these people, when they committed such atrocities upon innocent people in the daily? Police ignored virtually all crimes committed upon pariahs, and the "good people" she swore to defend were almost all universally devils towards them. Rape, murder, enslavement... she was horrified to learn that it was yet commonplace to this day for such evil deeds to be committed upon these people... and to think that those who committed these atrocities had the law to back them up when their victims fought back...

"Enough." She growled, harshly shutting her laptop, looking over to the helmet that sat on her desk. "I swore an oath to protect people... not just humans, not just faunas. I swore an oath to protect everyone... but in my ignorance, I failed to realize that not only had I failed spectacularly at this, but so have all my peers, all my predecessors, and so will all our successors. I cannot, and will not continue down this path with a clear conscience."

She opened her hand, looking down at the crushed pendant that "honored" her commitment with a disgusted sneer. Ten thousand years of oppression followed the footsteps she followed, oppression she and every other hunter swore an oath to stand against, no matter the odds.

"I swore an oath... and that oath was a lie." She stated firmly, casting the pendant into the ground. "I am a huntress no longer... the thought of following their footsteps leaves nothing but a foul taste in my mouth, now... no more... I'm not standing for this anymore. For all the good they've done for everyone else, the treatment of Pariahs is beyond forgiveness..."

She held a hand over the freshly healed wound in her chest, grimacing lightly as there was still some phantom pains there. "It took being on the receiving end of the cruelty to truly understand this... but my eyes are open now." She stood up, tucked the helmet under her armpit, stowed her personal laptop in her satchel, and made a quick double-take to make sure she had everything.

Once she was sure nothing was missing, she threw the satchel over her shoulder, waved her little room goodbye for the last time, and stepped out into the hallway, shutting the door behind herself as quietly as possible. From there, her plan was relatively simple. Walk out the courtyard, get transport down to the city, board the train to Patch, and hail a transport to New Saunders from there...

Of course, easier said than done, the last part. Travel to and from Vale and New Saunders was still grounded, and VDF elements were present on the island. If she was going to secure transport, it would be through the Mercenary Guild, and it would be through a pretty heated extraction, too.

Nevertheless, if Ruby was any indicator, then she knew that they would be up to the task, if not raring to go for a fight with the VDF. Though it only stood to reason that Ozpin would probably put the pieces together, especially since she'd be traveling well beyond the range permitted as a student not on a mission. She'd have a few hours before people were sent to find her, and it would not take them long to do just that.

Fortunately, she'd had time to think it out, and knowing that she could no longer brawl her enemies like she used to, she'd bought a blaster rifle with what money she did have, and a couple simple mods to go with it, a reflex sight, a longer barrel, an angled fore grip, and a recoil pad. Offer some cover, she was sure she could hold her own for awhile, at least long enough for New Saunders to respond...

"Alright... I'll just have to have faith, I guess... Ruby, I know that our history has been a rocky one, to say the least... but right here, right now, all my bets are hedged on you..." of course, she wasn't expecting them to come to her rescue for free... but an updated layout of the academy, including the secret passageways and entrances in case of invasion was nothing if not enticing. Throw in a copy of some pretty juicy-looking encrypted files she'd had Blake unknowingly pull off the Headmaster's computer via remote intrusion, and she was more than certain that they wouldn't be able to resist...

The call to action was so sudden, and without a doubt unexpected. She didn't know what was going on, but all she knew was that as she rushed down to the rallying point at the southern docks, it wasn't other rookies heeding the call to action. No, she quickly noted that she was the only rookie present in a crowd of veterans, leading her to question just what she was being called for?

The order had come all the way from the top, from the actual President of all people. "Special Order 51" as it was called in the message, and though she had memorized her General Orders, the former were just far too numerous to memorize all of. So, upon boarding the Osprey Gunship, a huge, yet oddly nimble VTOL with heavy armor, big guns and high grade energy shielding, and finding herself a seat, she immediately went about asking what exactly was happening...

"Rogue Hunter requesting evac. We don't by any means like these individuals, but it's in the interests of New Saunders that we exfiltrate them from hostile territory." A veteran of the Arc Knights answered her question, loading up a supercharged power cell into his blaster rifle. "It's almost always under heavy fire, and things often go wrong, hence why they don't trust an operation like this to newbies."

"That means that your captain put you down for Veteran Status, kid!" Another one, this one from the Mantis Warriors called to her. "Hope you're ready for a meat grinder kid, because I guarantee we're going in hot when we get there!"

Ruby simply nodded, snapping her helmet on and looking over all her gear. If this was really gonna be so dangerous, then she couldn't afford to not know exactly everything she had on her, and the exact amounts of what she did have...

"TOUCH AND GO, TOUCH AND GO! MOVE MOVE MOVE!" The pilot roared back to them, and they all sprung into action, snapping to their feet and facing the door. She watched as maybe a dozen tiny drones spread out, each stopping on the small of another mercenary's back and raising an energy shield over them, with herself being no exclusion.

Twirling her pistols in both hands, she firmly grasped each as the doors swung open and the light turned green. Instantly, all aboard raced out and directly into a hail of incoming gun and blaster fire, the last hopping out just as the gunship raced off the shore, just barely skimming the water before shooting back up into the air with maybe five or six mantras on its tail.

Keeping her attention on the battle ahead, rushing forward up the beach alongside the other veterans and firing away at the soldiers in the tree line. She found herself glad that she had a shield, because if not for it she would've been killed within seconds of touching down, likely never even getting a chance to find cover. However, she found it nonetheless like the rest of the mercenaries present. They hadn't moved far up the beach, only up enough to seek shelter behind clusters of rocks and boulders where the rogue huntress was seeking cover.

Looking left as she threw herself down behind the rocks behind the rogue, she watched as one of her fellow mercs rolled out of cover, throwing a cluster of grenades over a wide area with a single sweep of his arm, before drawing his pistol and blasting every one of them just as they hovered above their enemies' cover and reducing them all to meaty chunks, demolishing their cover in the process.

She watched as another seized their opportunity, vaulting over her cover and rolling over the dirt, firing away at the soldiers scrambling to regain the advantage before loosing an absolutely massive barrage of micro missiles from her body, with every other missile finding its mark and claiming a life, the others nailing into the environment and creating a veritable storm of shrapnel.

"Let's go, Devil!" One with a jetpack called, and she sprung into action with him. Whipping to her feet, she flew forward alongside two other mercenaries, fearlessly charging through the firestorm and into the carnage. Shifting her weight up at the last second with the others, they flew over the mass of Vale soldiers, spraying them with all consuming flames as they engulfed the defensive position in a massive inferno before dropping down into it themselves.

She landed on one of the soldiers, staying upright as she planted her feet in his face and chest and dropping into a roll just as he hit the floor, turning back and putting a bolt through his head. His helmet didn't do a thing against the hyper-powerful plasma, and it burned a hole straight through his brain, killing him in a heartbeat.

Keeping low, she fired away through the smoke, dropping soldier after soldier and trying her hardest to avoid the incoming return fire. She could only dodge so many, however, and she soon found herself with a broken shield, relying on her armor to tank hits for her. It was mostly glancing blows she suffered, but those that did his head on certainly hurt enough that she was certain they'd bruise where they hit.

Just then, the she watched in awe as the column of incoming reinforcements were cut down one by one by a stream of blaster fire. She cast her gaze back to view a tall merc standing atop a blaster-marked boulder, letting rip with her rotary blaster cannon on the soldiers.

Just then, both herself and the other mercenary were thrown back by an explosion, the source they could only guess must've been artillery if the force was anything to go by. Pivoting herself midair, Ruby forced herself out of the trajectory of her fall and shot up into the air. As quick survey of the battlefield revealed all she needed to know, which was that it was utter chaos.

Still, despite the chaos, none of the other mercenaries showed any signs of concern or fear. Each one was magnificent, each a veritable one-man-army as they boisterously faced down each incoming wave...

"Ruby! Down here!" She cast her gaze back, startled by the call of her name. Audibly, she groaned as she beheld none other than her sister, wearing her old helmet, recolored to fit her own...

She shot down, pivoting herself upright at the closest second and landing in a crouch beside the rogue. She hadn't clearly made out who they were beforehand, but now she could very clearly see just who it was. To her great surprise, she saw the bimbo using a blaster rifle, firing away on the Vale Defense Force soldiers.

"We'll have to catch up later, Ruby!" Yang yelled over to her, before dropping into cover to avoid getting hit in the face with a rocket, opting to just let it pass and strike the water a ways behind them instead. "At first it was just my own team... but then Ozpin sicced what feels like the whole VDF on me... I think he knows what I got."

"And what exactly the hell do you 'got?!.'" She yelled back in response, though instinctively ducked down as the whistle of artillery neared, blasting the area behind her to smithereens. Looking back to the skies, she readied herself, locked onto one of the two oncoming bullheads and firing off her rocket. This time unlike the last, the missile flew true, striking the fuselage of the higher carrier and reducing it to a flaming wreck. The burning hull continued to soar, though it's trajectory was more like it was just sailing and rapidly dropping. It crashed into the other, lower carrier, taking it down with it as it crashed into the cliff face above them with a fiery explosion.

She was at least glad that everyone nearby had the sense and speed to react, lunging away and avoiding being flattened by the falling wrecks...

"Ruby, hind!" Yang called out, bringing Ruby's attention to two squads of troopers who looked like they were trying to flank them. Raising a single blaster pistol, Ruby fired at the leading soldier, burning a hole through his heart before firing again, striking the soldier behind him through the forehead and making his lifeless body slump back against his comrade. Before she could fire a third time though, a blue blaster bolt raced out from her left, nailing the third through the throat, followed by a loud, shotgun-like boom and a shimmering explosive projectile flying over their heads.

Reacting swiftly, She fired on the projectile, striking it over their heads and killing them all with a large air burst explosion. Looking down at the shooter, she watched as her sister picked herself up and turn to face the rest of their enemies of the day, trying to fire but finding her rifles battery out of charge.

"What, not used to using a blaster?" Ruby mocked as she ejected the empty canisters from her own and replaced them with deft hands. Twirling them for a little flare, Ruby threw herself to her left, rolling upright out of the lunge as she easily avoided a mortar shell and retaliated with a flurry of precise bolts while her sister struggled to reload her blaster.

"I'm not used to these weapons, Alright?!" She bit back in response, dropping back down as a wall of bullets sheared away a whole inch from the face of the rock she used as cover. "I knew that he'd respond forcefully, but this is just overkill!"

"Ahaha! Hunters are stepping afield!" One Mercenary called, making Yang go pale while Ruby shot up to see them. A mad smirk played across her face as she saw a whole strike force of forty hunters emerge from the fires of Mantras dropped by the Osprey deeper in the forest.

"Alright! Now this is more like it! Devil, you're up, show e'm what a Pariah can do!" The merc with the cannon roared over the roar of battle, waving up the other Mercenaries who'd taken to cover to join the fray. In response to her call to arms, a cacophony of booming warcries emerged from their ranks as they all rushed forward to meet the Hunters in close quarters.

"You got it!" Ruby rocket up into the air and immediately began peppering them with blaster bolts, only grinning with deepening satisfaction as they all met her barrage head on, blocking or dodging every bolt. "Good... no fun if they die easily! This is a Veteran's battlefield now! If you have even the slightest doubt of your own skills, step the hell back and pick off the stragglers!"

The hunters met their charge in kind, emerging from the flames and shadows of the tree line to meet their rivals in the center of the battlefield. The battle cries of both sides roared loud enough to drown out the cracking gunfire and the boom of artillery, the smokescreen rising from the dust kicked up in the brutal melee reduced visibility to near zero as the two sides clashed mercilessly against each other...

Ducking under a sword swing, she blasted her opponent in the shoulder before washing him over with a shower of flames, kicking him down and shooting his chest a moment later. Spinning on her heel, she just barely managed to duck back in time to avoid having her head removed from her shoulders, and before she could act again, her new enemy swung their second blade, knocking both blasters out of her hands. However, Ruby simply shot forward her whipcord launcher, wrapping the steel cable around their neck and yanking them down, releasing the cord as only a second later, another mercenary emerged from the smoke with an E-Tool and buried the serrated edge in her downed foe's back, splashing blood all over his armor and visor.

Rushing forward, Ruby grabbed a hunter who had one of her comrades on the ropes by the hood, pulling him back and striking with all the force she could muster across the back of his head with her opposite fist. Assisted by her plated gauntlets, the force was easily enough to shatter the back of his skull and violently rattle his brain. She let him drop to the ground, content to let the impact-induced seizure and brain damage finish him off. Ducking low and throwing a leg back, she deftly avoided a huntress with a sword who sailed overhead while driving her heel into the abdomen of an unsuspecting hunter with a sort of mace shotgun, throwing him down and leaving him vulnerable for her allies while she picked up a large rock from the ground. Stamping her foot down and pivoting it, Ruby avoided another slash from the huntress and responded in kind, taking advantage of the momentary break in her defense and delivering a left hook with the rock in hand across her temple, bringing her down to her knee as she dropped her weapon and clutched her badly bleeding head. Not waiting for someone else to steal her kill, Ruby kicked her down and kneeled on her chest, bashing her face with the rock over and over again, not stopping until her head was reduced to little more than a stain on the floor.

Standing upright, Ruby snatched a handful of sand from the beachhead below her and spun on the ball of her foot as she extended her leg out. Snapping upright in her spin, she blinded the next hunter with a cloud of sand to the eyes, before grasping him by his still extended wrist and by the shoulder and pushing him back slightly while cocking her own head back, and pulling him back in, letting her head shoot forward like the hammer of a firing gun striking the firing pin of a bullet. A cloud of blood escaped her victim's forehead as the bone behind the skin shattered under the brutal impact, rendering him as good as dead as he slumped to the ground and blood trickled from his open mouth.

Something broad hit her back, though not hard enough to wound, so she knew one of her comrades needed her help. Pulling the knife from her belt, she pushed her left heel back against her comrade's, ducking low and allowing him to roll over her back, the sound of a blade just barely scraping his armor filled her ears as he traded sides with her, leaving her new opponent open and an easy kill as she grasped the woman by the collar and plunged her knife up through her throat, cutting through her vertebrae, before ripping it out the side and throwing her to the floor.

Another cacophony of explosions rattled the scene as the artillery rained down once more in their position, throwing all off balance yet doing nothing to stop the brutal melee. Agonized and fearful screams emerged from the dust that threatened to suffocate all, blood splattered across the sand in crimson splashes, and severed limbs flew through the air as the battle raged on.

Taking advantage of an opponent writhing on the ground with a missing leg, Ruby descended upon her like a terrifying bird of prey, plunging her blade into the woman's sternum and sawing downwards with the serrated edge, showering herself in the spray of blood and giving herself a mortifying visage as she reveled in her hapless prey's agonized dying cries. Rising from her doomed victim, she drew her blasters back to her and riddled an overconfident foe who'd left his chest exposed for an overhead swing with blaster bolts, leaving a dozen cauterized holes burnt through his torso and abdomen...

*KABOOOOM!*

Ruby grimaced as she was thrown on her chest by a massive explosion, groaning in a pained manner as she rolled on her back to see what was going on-

"Uurah!" A huntress sprinting at her roared her cry, a pickax in her hand and a desperate look across her face as she began to swing down for her chest-

*Shink!*

The pick flew by her head, burying itself in the sand just above her shoulder and by her head as a long blade protruded through it's users chest. Ripping itself out an angle, the user spun her around and cast the blade aside, before grabbing the screaming woman by the thigh and under the armpit and, in an horrifying display of both brutality and strength, ripped the woman in half. Casting both ends aside, the top trailing its intestines as it hit the dirt, the massive mercenary she'd seen wield the blaster cannon offered her a hand, and helped her to her feet.

"Haha! So the rumors were true, Devil! You're a natural hunter killer!" She boomed with laughter as she swatted another hunter's weapon out of his hands, before shooting forward with a hand and plunging her thumb into his eye while grabbing his head. As if the most casual thing in the world, she placed her opposite hand on his shoulder, and ripped his head off, kicking the lifeless body back and casting the head that still held part of the vertebrae attached aside. "They call me Brute! Wanna guess why?"

Ruby shot past her, burning a hole through a warrior behind her's head. It looked as though the soldiers were too scared of a little friendly fire, and had taken to trying to join the melee. Whipping her arm back, she fired again, taking another life before spinning on the ball of her foot, throwing her leg up and striking the blade out of a soldier with her armored heel, landing on the ball of her foot and spinning again, striking the soldier across the face with the top of her foot with enough force to snap his neck.

"Bailey 22, what's your status?!" Ruby roared, touching a finger to her communication unit on the side of her helmet as she'd found herself a small break in the carnage.

"The Artillery has been vaporized, and the Mantras blown out of the sky. Retreat now to the beach for exfiltration!" The pilot answered, drawing a nod out of Ruby. She didn't need to tell anyone more about the standing orders, since they were all on the same frequency. Throwing herself back, she fired a volley of bolts into the center mass of three oncoming targets, rolling over her shoulder at an angle to change the way she was facing before blasting off and out of the smoke with her jetpack.

Looking towards the beach, she watched several of her comrades sprint across the beach carrying their wounded or dead, with several ahead of them unburdened by a body taking a knee and firing back on the gathering mass of regrouping soldiers. Dropping down a little earlier, she grabbed her sister by the collar and blasted off again, taking her along with her as she shot into the landing gunship. Flipping herself upright, she lightly scorched the floor panels of the gunship, and set both herself and her sister down gently inside.

Looking back, she rushed for the open door and began firing away at the distant mass of enemies, doing her part to help cover everyone boarding. She didn't have to wait long, as within a few seconds, everyone was aboard, and the gunship took off...

She grit her teeth as their gunship continued to swerve back and forth, up and down. The VDF has pursued, making their ride back a very bumpy one, not to mention a dangerous one. So dangerous it was, that they didn't even bother closing the door, instead opting to just take the extra guns to fire back from the Mercenaries inside.

Dropping down to all four, Ruby fired another rocket from her Jetpack, her intended target swerving out of the way but the missile striking the Mantra behind it anyways...

Her eyes widened as her intended target opened up its rocket pods, knowing that it had obtained a lock. Acting on desperation, Ruby fired her blaster, the bolt deflecting off the frontal plating. However, before it could fire away, she watched Brute step in front of her and spin the barrels for a moment, before loosing a single, massive blast into the gunship at close range. The bolt struck, practically disintegrating the cockpit of the gunship and leaving the rest to plummet into the sea.

The rest of the Mantras suddenly slowed, before seemingly halting as they continued onwards, and turning tail...

"Hah! Take THAT you assholes!" Brute taunted them, not that they could hear her. Ruby simply chuckled, as merely a few seconds later, two more Ospreys soared by them, angrily chasing away the pests that badgered the wounded brother of their duet.

"Looks like we've entered friendly air, now." Ruby mused, before looking at their geographical location on her scroll. "Heh, yep. We'll be at New Saunders within the hour."

"Oh thank the Brothers..." she heard her sister mutter, before turning around and watching her slump down in one of the seats. "I can't... I know I was going rogue, but all that, for one rogue huntress? Why?"

"It's because you were coming to us. The helmet is a dead giveaway." Ruby answered, crossing her arms after sliding her pistols back into their holsters. "Vale never officially ended the war with us. I've read that events like this one aren't even the worst of their kind, and yet the war still hasn't pushed back over its cold status in eighty years... that'll be changing soon, though."

"And I'll bet you're looking forward to it, huh?" Yang sighed, taking the helmet off and setting it in her lap as she laid the rifle down below it. She didn't meet Ruby's gaze, instead looking down at the bodies of the five Veteran Mercenaries who didn't survive before looking over to the dozen injured, several of which would need to be getting cybernetic replacements for missing limbs, or parts of limbs hacked off in the carnage.

She shuddered at the sheer scale of brutality that was unleashed in such a short period of time, and wrapped her arms around her torso as she contemplated just how much worse it would be at the prospect of an Invasion...

"Ruby... please... you have to find a way to stop the Invasion from happening." Yang pleaded, still looking to the injured. "If the Invasion happens, the brutality of the battlefield today will pale in comparison to what will come."

"Don't need you to tell me, Yang." Ruby spat back, looking out the open door of the Osprey. "I'm already doing everything I can to make Vale and Beacon with it fall before they can make their move. You just sit back and watch..."

Ruby sighed, moving her hands to her hips and looking to her wounded comrades as well, nodding to them a sign of respect, one they eagerly returned. Within the hour, they'd land back home, back on solid, friendly land. And, from there?

From there, Ruby would drag Yang straight to the Student Council herself...