"This… sucks… so much ass," Yang growled at yet another empty cabinet. The night vision mode was a huge help but it didn't make the task of scouring through dark offices, bathing rooms and praying chambers any less boring or difficult.
"Patience is a virtue," Blake sighed, also in the same predicament. "Would lie if I said it's not frustrating though."
"No one said it'd be a walk in the park," Weiss threw a dirty piece of cloth over her shoulder, rummaging through a closet. "I simply got lucky last time."
"I bet," Yang slammed shut another cabinet. "Probably should've bought a few scout drones, Weiss."
"Not a bad idea," Blake concurred.
"Yes it would be helpful," thetrader stood up from crouching position. "Alas I didn't have the time to make official request to security services."
"Should we call it quits?" Yang asked. "It doesn't seem like we'll get anything out of this dirthole."
"We have few more chambers left," Blake replied, Weiss nodded. "It would be insulting to know that we left but the artifacts we seek were in the last room or something."
So far the only findings they had was the coat Weiss now wore and an old red scarf.
"Let's check the lab chamber," Weiss pointed to the door leading to the hallway.
"There's a lab?" Yang raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it supposed to be a temple of old religion?"
"If you bothered to read on history," Blake chided. "You'd find out that this temple had both scientists and scholars of old faith: best of both worlds."
"Huh."
The group moved to the second to last door and slipped inside. The room was vast, like three living rooms combined in one. Two tables with microscopes and 3D printers on them, glass closets and counters with computers, were spread out along the walls. Immediately they noticed that the glass closets weren't empty. The contents were stacks of journals and papers.
"Bingo," Yang whooped and flew to the closets, Blake joining her in searching.
Meanwhile Weiss moved to one of the computers, ripping off a part of a power cord, scraping off the insulation on the port and attaching a retractable wire from her suit's wrist. The computer screen flickered and slowly lit up, the system block revving back to life. The display on Weiss's mask showed a draining battery symbol, her suit giving the juice to the computer. Hooking up a wire from other wrist, Weiss started breaching the defenses.
"Let's see," Weiss's suit AI assisted in breaking through the old firewall and she started copying all the documents she could find.
"Yo Weiss!" Yang called out. "Check this out! The annual reports of Solitas's Grimm Conflict/The Great War."
"Old journals, records of the residential research and reconnaissance team," Blake clarified.
"Tales of the end, no doubt," Weiss muttered.
"Pretty much," Blake slowly flipped the pages and read out loud. "Year 2158, November 17th. The Grimm got tougher, the machine isn't working as well as we'd hoped."
"The machine?" Yang echoed.
"Probably a defense system," Weiss mused.
"Most likely," Blake said and closed the journal. The howling of the blizzard grew stronger as the Faunus looked at where the window was supposed to be. "Are you done?"
"Almost," Weiss answered without turning away from the screen. "Once I'm done with this and we check one last chamber, we're out."
"Sounds like a plan," Yang stretched and did little physical exercises. "My back will 'thank' me for all this crouching, tomorrow."
"The temperature is dropping," the suit boomed. "Negative 55 degrees."
"Fantastic," the blonde sarcastically seethed. "Weiss, Blake and I will check that last chamber. Once you finish all that stuff, meet us at the main gates."
With a wave of the hand from Weiss, Blake gathered all the paperwork and put them away in a small backpack. Yang peered through the door and stepped back into the hallway. Once the black 'n yellow pair disappeared into the darkness, Weiss ripped the cords from the computer, shutting it down, and moved back in the direction of the entrance.
The chill on the skin was felt much more intensely now, even with the suit's help. Weiss shivered ever so slightly but otherwise kept a watchful eye on the blizzard and the illusive horizon. Taking an opportunity, she gave the Solitas Temple a look-over. It was far cry from its former glory but it was still something to marvel at. The spires reached at least forty meters high and even with one of them crumbled, the shadow they gave off was massive.
"Hey Weiss?" Blake's voice rung out. "We're done here. Nothing of note. Are you at the gates?"
"Yes," Weiss replied."I will try to ping "The Defiant" and plot our course back. The blizzard erased our tracks."
"Okay."
"I'll wait-"
A booming roar pierced the air and the trader felt her body vibrate at the sheer volume of it.
"Weiss?"
"Something's here," Weiss whispered, ducking into a snow pile. "Hurry up."
"We're on our way," she heard Yang say.
"Unknown energy signature detected," the suit informed. "Direction: south-east. Approximate distance: 500 meters. Exercise caution."
"Uh-huh, thanks."
"Come on!"
Blake and Yang raced down the corridor, weaving around the corners to reach the entrances.
"Maximum speed mode: engaged," the suit supplied.
The pair felt a small jolt of electricity touching their skin, their sprint speed noticeably increasing, the walls around them starting to blur and blend.
"Alert: unknown energy signature detected near the site."
"Oh wonderful!" Yangbit out between pants as they kept sprinting.
Thirty or so seconds later, the pair reached the gates and flew outside. They found Weiss crouching beside a big snow pile. Blake and Yang slowed down, ducked their legs and slid next to her.
"Weiss! You okay?"
"Shh!" Weiss pointed in the direction of the red dot on everyone's display map. "Keep quiet and move it, we need to sneak away from whatever it is out there."
"Okay, so how do we do it?" Yang asked.
"Really? You never sneaked out from your house, for example?"
"Completely different situation!"
"We keep low to the ground and crawl to the side of this thing's location," Weiss explained and started crouch-walking to the right. "Just hold onto that backpack. We didn't go all this way just to lose it."
"You're awfully calm," Blake pointed out, crawling beside her, Yang not far behind.
"I had time to think it through."
"You had?" Yang raised an eyebrow and looked to the left, towards the supposed creature's location. "When?"
"On the way back to the gates."
"Wow."
"We head directly south," Weiss informed. "We have about a kilometer ahead of us."
"Can't you just remotely order your ship to hone in on our beacons?" Blake asked.
"I did. But I don't want to risk upsetting our guest so I had "The Defiant" land a kilometer from our position."
"You're assuming there's only one 'guest,' though," Blake argued.
"It is possible there's a group of them," the trader relented. "Anyways, we keep moving like this for now."
Another roar cut off the sound of the blizzard. The trio started to quicken their pace but still kept low. Yang slowly cracked her neck and fingers and Blake checked her blade, attached to a magnet holder on her back. For a while, they kept going like this, following a dotted route towards "The Defiant," the temple's silhouette disappearing in the wall of snow behind them. The roars continued and Weiss noticed the red dot on the map moving to the location of the Solitas Temple, implying the creature had moved in for a closer look.
"Alert: energy reserves are diminishing," the suit warned.
"That's just great," Yang groaned.
"Yang, quiet..!" Blake hissed.
"We only have approximately three hundred meters left to go," Weiss said. "Bear with it."
Soon, the girls noticed the ship's form in the distance. Heaving a sigh of relief, they allowed themselves to stand a bit more upright. Alas, it wouldn't last. A new red dot appeared on West-side of the displayed map. Approaching at high speed. Directly towards them.
"Run for it!" Yang yelled and jumped up. "Weiss, get the ship ready!"
Weiss started sprinting, hand on the hilt on her belt. Blake kept to her right, unsheathing her katana and staring in the dot's direction. A completely new sound rung out, a howl. Seconds later, the Faunus saw a flash of black figure, sprinting towards not them but the ship.
"It's trying to cut us off the ship!"
"Not gonna happen!" Yang raced ahead of them.
"Yang, don't!" Weiss reached out towards the blonde.
The creature suddenly jumped and changed its direction towards Yang mid-air. In that moment Blake noticed scarlet lines and something akin to frost running all over the monster's body: Grimm. Bipedal, body faintly resembling a raptor. Landing, the Grimm immediately took off and closed the distance, ramming the blonde and sending her flying. It suddenly clicked in Faunus's head:
"It baited her," Blake realized. "This thing made us think it'll take out the ship or prevent us from getting on board… The bastard manipulated our sense of urgency."
"Yang!'Weiss tried to run up to the blonde but was stopped by Blake, who grabbed her by the waist.
"It's okay Weiss! Yang can handle it! Go and start the engines!"
Against her better judgment, the trader made a break for the ship, casting one last glance at the blonde. Blake still kept close to her in case another visitor shows up. Opening the ramp, Weiss ran to the cockpit, Blake remained guarding the ramp as she dropped off the backpack.
"Fuckin' hell," Yang groaned, elbows on the ground. "What happen-"
The Grimm didn't let her finish the thought, swiping at the ground, at her. Yang shifted her bodyweight, planted her feet and pushed off it. The blonde made a backflip and stood up, the claws barely missing her, striking the ground and getting stuck.
The raptor didn't have time to react as Yang charged it and reared her synthetic arm backwards. Striking at the Grimm's neck, Yang's fist made contact with a crunch. The creature was down but not for the count, as it struck at Yang's legs with its tail, making her stumble and fall.
As the Grimm recovered and again struck down at the girl, the claws aimed straight at her head, the suit jumped in: "Hardening engaged."
The claws bounced off the helmet's surface, Yang used the given chance to hit the Grimm's knee, breaking it in the process. The raptor wailed and limped backwards but did not fall down. The blonde looked at her hands and noticed how the hexagonal patterns on her suit were pulsing with blue color.
"Neat." Yang grinned and moved towards the Grimm who started to back up. "Get back here, you little shit."
In last ditch effort, the raptor used its good leg to jump off the ground and pounce the blonde. Yang sidestepped and grabbed it by the neck.
"GG, you dickbag."
And with that, the blonde wrapped her left arm around the Grimm's torso, put her knee up to the chest and right arm on its neck. With one last push downwards, Yang felt the creature's neck vibrate as it broke. Dropping the body with misting eyes, the blonde fell back to the ground, exhaling three times. The Grimm started evaporating, the black smoke didn't even have the time to lift up in the air as it was swept up by the blizzard.
What seemed to be a moment of victory turned into chaotic mess as something whizzed above Yang's head and struck The Defiant's left wing. A searing hole could be seen forming on it. As if something burned its way through. Looking in the opposite direction of the blast, the blonde's eyes widened at the sight of a winged creature bigger around half the size of the ship, heading their way. Another Grimm.
"Must've been the one from before," Yang thought.
Weiss recovered after she was thrown to the ground by the impact. Looking out the cockpit window, she saw the flying creature: bone mask, thin skinned wings and blue lines on its body instead of red, and ran back outside. Yelling Blake to back her up, she grabbed a case that was laying in the cargo hold and headed towards Yang.
"Yang, we need to go now!" the trader screamed as she clutched the case. "Get your ass back here!"
"What's the damage?!" Blake caught up to her.
"Not critical I think!"
Yang scrambled and ran to the ship. Another bolt flew past her: a lightning stroke, and hit the ground next to her. As she was thrown to the ground, the creature changed its altitude, rising higher and struck again, hitting one of the ship's engines on the back. The blow was glancing but it was enough to send the trio's hearts up their throats. Weiss kept sprinting until she was closer to the creature and ducked, sliding on the solid snow.
Pressing a button on the case's handle and opening it up, she threw away the damned thing and grabbed the contents: a silver-colored rifle with a huge muzzle. Sliding her sword hilt into the rifle's handle, the gun whirred and lit up like a Christmas tree. Aiming at the creature's wing, she pulled the trigger.
The rifle started drawing energy from the trader's other weapon and gathered a huge ball of energy in its barrel. The second later, a white beam shot out, almost overpowering the surrounding natural light and pushed all the fresh snow away from the white-haired girl. The beam missed as the Grimm feigned and circled around the ship.
"Whoa what the hell is that?!" Yang marveled at the weapon, running towards Weiss who was still ahead of her, near the vessel.
"Never mind that!" Blake, who was just few meters behind Weiss, waved at her to hurry up. "We're out of here!"
The wyvern however, had different plans. Dodging another beam, it charged a beam of its own. Weiss, seeing that, pointed her rifle slightly above the Grimm's head. Shooting ahead, she effectively parried her opponent's attack as the two beams hit each other and exploded. The shockwave sent both the party and the wyvern tumbling. Blake, being the most stationary one, flew dozens of meters back, hitting the ship's fuselage and cracking her helmet, the suit informing: "Suit integrity compromised. Seek immediate repairs." The visor now had a big crack, letting in the freezing air and Blake's eye started to rolled after falling to recover. Weiss was the most stable because she immediately dove to the ground prior to the explosion.
The Grimm was barely able to rotate itself to not hit the ground. Weiss quickly crouched and shot before it could recover completely. The attack hit the wyvern's wing and it crashed down on the ground with a thunderous thud. Taking out the hilt out of the gun, Weiss turned it on, the blade springing to life and bathing everything in blue light as she charged at her target.
"What the hell is she doing?!" Yang thought, helping Blake stand up.
"We need to help her…" Blake mumbled, her voice distorted 'cause of the cracked helmet.
"How?!"
"Surround, cripple it even more, finish it off," Blake listed. "If it lives or moves we won't be able to fly off the surface."
"Shit."
Taking few breaths, the Faunus drew her blade and ran into the fray with Yang backing her up. Weiss kept jumping and rolling as the wyvern kept swinging its wing-claws and tail.
"Weiss!" Yang called out. "We'll distract it, cut off its wings!"
"Understood," Weiss back stepped away from the Grimm as Blake and Yang closed the distance.
The Grimm turned its neck to look at the trader, tail at the ready. Distracted. Blake's suit enhanced her speed albeit not fully, she ran up and slashed down hard on the creature's left hind leg. The black inky liquid spurted out and landed on her cracked visor. The Grimm shrieked as it jumped away and counter-attacked the Faunus.
The splatter didn't help visibility as she got hit by a wing, launching her off. Aside from wing getting knocked out of her, Blake didn't feel any more damage sustained as she stood back up. Yang jumped at the level of the Grimm's face and tried to punch it. Didn't work as she got swatted away and the blonde's fall was broken by the snow.
The wyvern then started looking around, searching for its third target. In an instant, it heard a distinct chirping hum as it felt the harsh sting in its wing. As it looked at the appendage, it saw the wing split in half and fall apart. With a booming roar, the Grimm started thrashing around and spewing the black liquid on the ground.
As it did, it noticed a grey blur speeding between its claws, well one claw and a stump. A second flash of pain, the second wing is done for, slithering apart. Another ink fountain. The beast fell down and the last thing it saw was Weiss, running up to it and landing one more strike. Then all it saw was darkness as it felt its eyes lose their shape and sliding out of their sockets.
"Holy shit!" Yang exclaimed, holding Blake up, as she saw Weiss blind the Grimm.
As the wyvern's squirming subsided, Weiss turned around to face the pair. Yang whooped and Blake gave small thumbs up, still a little disoriented. The moment was short-lived however, as the Grimm jolted and shot its head up to Weiss and barely closed its jaw around her left side of the body. Before the blonde and the Faunus could say anything, the trader jumped to the right, the beast's teeth grazing and breaking through the coat and suit, inflicting a slash wound. A splash of scarlet painted the snow as she rolled on the ground.
"Weiss!"
Yang made sure Blake would be fine on her own and went ahead to assist Weiss, drag her out if need be. The Grimm mostly went limp, breathing heavily as the blonde approached stilled Weiss. The sight wasn't nearly as gruesome as she feared but if she didn't do anything, the white-haired girl would bleed out fairly quickly. There was a gash just below Weiss's ribs and few smaller cuts stretching from said gash towards her shoulder. The blonde reached into the coat's pocket to fish out the old scarf they found and wrapped it around Weiss's mid-section while putting the trader's weapon into the pocket. Blake slowly walked up, covering her cracked side of the visor while wiping off the other, smudged one.
"We've gotta go," she urged, helping Yang by placing Weiss's arm over her shoulders.
"Ugh," they heard Weiss grunt. "Wha' happened..?"
"You got bitten and you're bleeding" Yang shushed any other questions as she took Weiss off Blake's hands and bridal carried her to the ship. "Don't talk for now."
"M'kay," Weiss mumbled as she passed out again.
Blake glanced at the beast, laying still but not dead. For a second, the Faunus contemplated trying to finish it off as not to take any chances but ultimately decided not to act on the thought. Her eye started to sting much more intensely now as she walked off with her companions.
"Think we can steer the ship without Weiss?" Yang asked as she removed her helmet after placing Weiss on the cargo hold's floor. "Neither of us exactly flew one before."
"I don't know," Blake removed her helmet and closed the ramp.
"Holy shit Blake," Yang placed her hands on Blake's head to stabilize it. "Your eye."
"It's fine, it just stings."
"Your bloods vessels have burst!" Yang took Blake's hand and led her to a crate, making the Faunus sit down.
"It'll heal," Blake waved her off. "Weiss's condition is more pressing matter."
"… Okay," Yang sauntered to the trader and picked her up. "I'll get her to the kitchen."
With that, she walked off as Blake took off her suit, leaving it on the floor along with her weapon and picked up the backpack. Checking the hull for any damage, the black-haired girl followed the pair.
"Oh-kay," Yang exhaled, placing Weiss on the empty table and moved to search for a medkit. "Let's see."
Finding a brand new, shining blue and red box with white lines on it, the blonde rummaged through it and found an anesthetic, antibiotics syringe and the same kind of spray of medigel as the one they used at Beacon. Curious. Closing the box, Yang removed the scarf and carefully lifted the trader, undressing Weiss down to her waist, removing her torn black shirt completely. Applying the spray she could feel Weiss squirm at more than likely feeling of a burn rather than usual stinging.
"I'm going to the cockpit," Yang heard Blake's voice and footsteps behind her. "Try to lift off."
"Sure it's a good idea?"
"Nope."
Shaking her head, Yang put down the spray and picked up antibiotics syringe. Giving Weiss the shot, the blonde girl went back and picked up few black matte synthetic bandages and placed them on Weiss's chest and ribs, the bandages tightening up around her form.
With that, she picked Weiss up and went to the white-haired girl's room. Laying the girl on her bed and covering her with a blanket, Yang went to the cockpit.
"So how's it going?" Blake heard Yang ask and hiss of a door.
"Better than I hoped, worse than I'd like."
"That's not vague at all," Yang sat down in co-pilot chair.
Blake pressed buttons as she kept watchful eye on the figure of the Grimm in the distance, "We're shit out of luck. Can't remember how Weiss started up the ship for the life of me."
"Could always try her Scroll," the blonde's comment made the cogs in Blake's head to grind to a stop.
"That… could actually work."
"Welp, so much for leaving Weiss alone," Yang joked and moved back to the living quarters.
Two or so minutes later, the blonde girl returned with aforementioned device. Unfortunately the Scroll was locked, "So, how do we do this thing?"
"Give it to me," Blake grabbed the tech piece. "I'll run a bypass."
"Ah."
Summoning the system screen, Blake typed in several commands. The Scroll then rebooted and was a clean slate. Accessing the remote control app, she scrolled through the list of commands.
"Aha," Blake commented, finding the "Launch Sequence" option and pressed it.
The console lit up and The Defiant shook as the engines began the burn sequence, warming up the frozen exhausts. There were more tremors than the girls would like, indicating that at least one of the four engines was shot. The vessel started slowly lifting up as the Faunus's primary goal was to just get to the lower atmosphere.
"We'll need to check you too," Yang suddenly mentioned. "The eye thing I mean."
"You have more than enough expertise on the medical science."
"… Yeah," Yang flexed and looked at her synthetic arm.
Blake noticed the Grimm starting to move so she moved to the other side of the cockpit and sat behind the stick responsible for forward turrets. At the press of a button, the ship eviscerated the wyvern in a hail of molten metal rounds. The carcass's dark smoke mixing with the blizzard wind in a grey tornado. Yang whistled as she perched her legs on the console.
"Should've started with that."
Yep, my first fight scene. It sucked, I know.