Chapter Two: Action Far Too Early In The Plot, Complete With Convenient Plot Devices
To say that the Beacon Combat and Engineering Academy's dorms were well-equipped was like saying a blue whale couldn't be deadlifted by a four-year old. The garage alone had laboratories and testing facilities most could only dream of. Currently, the majority of the occupants seemed focused on finding the longest interval of time they could scream in panic for, until their voice gave out, that is. The current record is four minutes and sixteen seconds. The record holder, who happened to be named Cardin, was passed out, occasionally letting out terrified whimpers. Cardin was a bully. Ren and Nora accidentally caught his body with their feet on their way out. Accidentally, honest.
"Jaune and Pyrrha are checking in on Mistral's side of things." Nora announced, swiping through notifications as they quickly strode toward the garage elevator. "Pyrrha says her folks are calling council, no word back from Chateau d'Arc yet…"
Ren sidestepped another panicking gaggle of students. Though he and Nora were outwardly calm, their background was different from most, and he was fairly sure their internal dialogues weren't far removed from the outward actions of many. "Any word from team RWBY?"
"Ruby and Yang are going to meet us in the garage. Weiss's family is being… difficult, and Blake is headed toward the hub to monitor the public reaction. Make sure no one uses this as an opportunity to stir up trouble."
Ren frowned. "Isn't that Goodwitch's job?"
"Proooobably~," Nora sang, twirling around a sobbing senior, "but she was walking towards the bullheads when I last saw her. Maybe she got a call-in to the city?" A distant explosion, followed by a purple haze around the projectiles, seemed to confirm Nora's hypothesis. The riots appeared to be starting. "Ah, well. I've keyed up our gear! To the Nora-Cave!"
Ren could only chuckle at his friend's antics. At the least, the elevator would be free of shrieking classmates…
Unbeknownst to the elevator-occupying duo, a trap was about to spring upon them, though it was most assuredly not the intent of the trapper to catch them. Salem, the Witch, archnemesis to Ozpin And All He Held Dear At Any Given Point, needed to strike now, at the heart of his power. Granted, Ozpin would be expecting such an attack, and most likely had contingencies for everything liberally scattered around his academy. Which is why she had instructed her subordinates to strike at his students. After all, at least some of them would be trying to do something to stop the Brother Gods, and that most decidedly would not align with Salem's current goals. Oh, indeed they did not, she thought to herself, glowering at nothing in particular from her throne of darkness, which was decidedly not an office chair one of her minions had picked up for her. Cinder and her team would strike at the youngsters who played at being heroes, and in doing so would leave Ozpin without any sort of think tank or political credibility. Oh yes, there was no way that this could fail. None of them would anticipate such a bold move. A blip on her monitor indicated Cinder was ready to strike.
Ruby and Yang were waiting for them at the garage. The two sisters, already bedecked in combat gear, were in the process of greenlighting their vehicles, though calling them vehicles was a grand disservice. Beacon provided nothing but the finest for its students, and giving engineers highly advanced technology and a goal of making advanced vehicles was bound to yield unforeseen results. Thus, many of the craft created were less vehicles and more combat platforms that happened to be able to traverse vast distances. Bumblebee and Rose In Bloom both happened to resemble conventional motorcycles, but they placed within the top 10 for aerial maneuverability while still in beta phase.
"Heyo!", Yang called from under Bumblebee. "Guess the end of the world will save us from finals, eh guys?"
Ruby sighed. "That's the fourth time I've heard that joke in the fifteen minutes we've known about this."
Both Ren and Nora winced. Yang had… eclectic… tastes in humor. Walking over to their respective storage alcoves, they strapped on their weapons and began final initiation sequences for the motorized masterpieces which were their vehicles. While under normal circumstances it would be quite odd to come fully armed to the headmaster's office, there was the very real possibility of being called in to stop riots. There was, after all, no telling what people would do with a semi-definite set number of days left.
As Ren and Nora's weapons and vehicles powered on and synced in a gratuitously long fashion, Cinder began powering up her own vehicle, the Glass Slipper. Her forces, positioned all around the academy, were ready to strike, having assembled throughout the chaos. And to think, Watts had mocked her choice in choosing the revolutionary White Fang to manipulate. Honestly, their leaders had been remarkably easy to sway even before the Brother Gods went public. The guaranteed political upheaval was more than enough to get them to pledge to Salem's cause. And now, everything was finally clicking into place. Now, all she had to do was-
What the hell was that noise?!
"Ren. You didn't." Nora was beside herself with glee.
Sighing to himself, Ren nodded. "I did. Do you like it?" The fabulous introduction music played as their vehicles came into view, illuminating them with musical splendor and convenient spotlights. Ruby shook Yang violently, excitedly exclaiming that they needed to do this for their own vehicles. She was right. All vehicles of this caliber should get this kind of treatment. Long-drawn out descriptions are a necessity. Speaking of, the duo's vehicles finally came into view. Nora vaulted into her… well, it's very hard to describe. Imagine a sports car fused with a tank, and gild it in scrollwork and runes the likes of which would have been the envy of all Asgard, and you come close to the Brunhilde. Such a mass of firepower within such a small volume should have been impossible for the safety of the multiverse, but when one got down to it, the laws of physics gave quite a bit of wiggle room, room that Nora had been more than happy to exploit. As she fired up the antigravity circuits, Ren slid into his own vehicle, the Jade Comb. Looking closer to a mix of a pagoda and sport-car than anything else, the experimental Dust-Fusion Drive gave it quite a punch, even if it wasn't as demolition-oriented as the Brunhilde. Nothing was. That was just a fact. The incredible musical stylings came to a close as all four of the intrepid engineering expeditioners brought their incomparably cool craft fully online, and an exit track appeared, courtesy of your everyday holoprojectors. The fearsome foursome rocketed out of the garage, still as-of-yet unaware of Cinder following close behind.
Cinder, for her part, was rather nervous. Salem definitely hadn't anticipated such a quick response from the student body, and if the students were actually using their heads, what would that say about the full hunters? She couldn't afford to hesitate. Keying in a sequence on her closed channel, she pushed the Glass Slipper after those abnormally irksome students who'd been in the garage with her. Smirking, she powered on her weapons. First quarry.
Just as Ozpin thought the day legitimately could not get any worse, perimeter alarms shot up all around the academy. Opening several holograms, feeds of White Fang members opening fire on the academy's residents made his blood boil. Beyond that, he felt a rather large sense of incredulity at the speed with which Salem had made her move. She'd have had to have this planned out far in advance to foster such a large-scale assault. And Glynda was out in the city… no matter. He still had plenty up his sleeves. Faster than was anatomically possible (magic did have its uses), calls were sent out to his faithful staff, and any hunters in the area. Almost immediately, replies back from Professors Port, Oobleck, and Peach confirmed they'd already engaged the enemy. A deluge of notifications from students showed they weren't taking this lying down, either. A certain miss Belladonna was doing a rather fine job coordinating a response between multiple teams. He patched her hub network into his own, and began aiding in the direction of defense. It had to be enough. Salem was trying to force him onto the board far too early, so she could see what he was still capable of. He couldn't surrender an advantage like that now, and yet, if it came down to it…
It had to be enough.
They'd made it halfway to Beacon Tower's landing pad before Cinder struck. The Glass Slipper let loose a huge barrage, landing notable hits on all four vehicles, and would have likely knocked them out of the sky if it wasn't for the dust shields on each vehicle, programmed to spring up when enemy attacks were detected. Caterwauling alarms sounded in the cockpit (or helmet HUD) of each student, as they frantically tried to figure out just what the hell was going on. Ruby, being a team leader, and so having to sit through extra (read: booooooring) tactical classes, was the first to get her bearings.
"Alright team, we've got one immediate bogey. Target has a custom vehicle, reading high capacity for speed and power. Maneuverability unknown. Options, people!"
As soon as the channel was open, visceral curses spilled from Yang's feed. "Option one! Four of us, one bogey. Encircle and destroy!"
"No go," called Nora. "Reading hostiles converging on our location, syncing formation with bogey! Recommend evasion toward Beacon Tower!"
"Formation is non-applicable, too many hostiles and unknowns." Ren's voice was crisp, though there was an element of nervousness behind it. "Pair evasion, radio silence would be safer."
"Confirmed!" Ruby smirked. They did have potential for good, balanced pairs. "Yang, with Ren. Nora, with me! Use altitude-changing tactics, avoid engaging more hostiles if possible!"
A shout of "Confirmed!" rang through the comms as the four paired off and immediately started some frankly unhealthy-looking evasive maneuvers. Cinder cursed under her breath, deciding to follow Ruby and Nora, while directing the majority of her mini- that is to say, her trusted followers, after Yang and Ren. That ended well for them. Oh yeah. Definitely.
Ren and Yang formulated a plan immediately, thanking their training profusely. Ren rocketed the Jade Comb to a frankly ludicrous height, then nosed downwards so his forechasers faced the ground. Meanwhile, Yang jetted into the middle of the White Fang squadron, letting loose a burst of EMP pellets to disable as many craft as she could. Shooting forward, Bumblebee blitzed out of the (now rather slimmer) group of fighters as if it hadn't been there in the first place. Now, these were trained revolutionary pilots. They had strategy and professionalism. They also had quite a lot of adrenaline. Guess which won out? Mentally, Ren thanked Yang for laying out his targets for him. He also thanked trimester one's final project.
The Quantum Fractal Targeting Apparatus was the culmination of Ren and Nora's blood, sweat, occasional tears, and truly demonic amounts of coffee. Thanks to the global network of hunter-devoted satellites and servers (open to students, courtesy of Ozpin, who apparently had nigh-limitless funds to throw around) quantum supercomputers were available to every hunter, anywhere on the globe, practically begging to be used. So, as one does, Nora came up with the idea to use them for multifaceted real-time targeting. Ingenious on it's own, but when combined with the Dust-Fusion Drive Ren had been working on, it was nothing short of a piece of art. Faster than any mortal could even begin to comprehend, algorithms locked on to the White Fang fighters, directing gravity dust-shielded plates to precise angles in order to refract in precisely the right way. The Dust-Fusion Reactor within the Jade Comb spiked, releasing a beam of energy right into the firing receptacles. Said energy promptly refracted off of the Fractal Array, and hit the engines of each White Fang fighter dead-on. Smirking to himself, Ren swooped back down to Bumblebee and resumed a drunken path towards Beacon tower.
Nora was having an overall O.K. day. That is not to say she wasn't enjoying herself. Brunhilde had its own Fractal Array, and White Fang fighters were dropping like flies. The sleek craft from earlier was proving annoyingly difficult to hit, but Brunhilde itself had barely a scratch, the thick armor coating it making it nigh-impervious to most attacks. The fact that the world might very well end soon did put a damper on things, as well as the fact that her school was under attack. So, it was to be expected that Nora was quite angry. The complex dogfight she was in did go quite a way toward improving her mood, however. This was so much better than the monthly war games. Glancing toward her HUD, she noticed Ruby was having a tougher time of it that she was. Rose In Bloom was by all rights a highly formidable craft, well suited towards weaving in and out of masses of enemy fighters; its high caliber arsenal was clearly meant for knockout shots. Ruby herself was an incredible pilot, able to go faster than any other student while still maintaining deadly accuracy. The pilot of that sleek craft targeting them was definitely giving her a run for her money, however, and between that and the sheer number of White Fang ships, Rose In Bloom had taken a lot of good hits. Nora wasn't going to take that lying down. Smashing a very large button (the fact that it had a 'please no' note from Ren only had something to do with her choice), she grinned as a myriad of rockets deployed from previously-concealed slots, homing in and demolishing almost all of the remaining White Fang craft. Honestly, she could have designed something better in her sleep. They were all so bulky, probably repurposed troop deployment. Or not-so-repurposed came an irritating voice in her head, one with unfortunately sound logic, as evidenced by the mass of explosions coming from the ground. Striking another button with a very disproportionate amount of force, she swung Brunhilde in front of Rose In Bloom, her ablative dust shielding flared to life, just in time for her to smash into whoever's craft that was. It didn't crumple, which was disappointing, apparently it had decent shields, but it shuddered violently, and at least the bow had a few good squish marks. Checking her flight path, she found that they were almost to Beacon Tower. Suddenly, two long metal spikes shot out of the other fighter and latched onto her own.
Well, shi-
Qrow loved to fly. Honest. Aerial combat was one of his favorite things in the world. However, he really didn't like having to go sub-orbital. He'd been part of the generation that pioneered the technique, hell he'd been part of the first team to do so, but the experience was always jarring. Fortunately, Harbinger II was more than able to do so when needed. Currently, the vaguely scythelike craft was sliding through the stratosphere like a… a hot cooking utensil through a dairy product of some sort. Flying standard, it would have taken Qrow at least four hours to get back to Beacon Tower. He was currently set to break his 11-minute record. Harbinger II was handling it like a champ, decelerating to a semi-sane landing velocity with no muss and/or fuss. Suddenly, one of a myriad of possible alarms began to blare in the veteran hunter's ear. Glancing at the provided code, Qrow swore. Loudly. One of Salem's personal suckups was here. He'd been able to trace most of their craft at one point or another, and this code showed one of their newest. Cinder Fall. Glancing at a different readout, his heart stopped. She was right on top of Rose In Bloom. She was next to Ruby. Qrow punched through the troposphere with all the grace of… a male mammal used as a food source through some sort of dinnerware establishment. It was a good thing too, as Cinder had managed to temporarily short out most of Brunhilde's defenses. Nora wasn't quite sure how. Regardless, she was able to glide onto Beacon Tower's landing platform, even if she was violently cursing out Cinder all the way. Ren and Yang were closing, but they wouldn't be able to make it in time. Cinder lined up for the kill shot as Ruby desperately tried to evade. Flipping a red switch labelled 'WIP', Qrow poured on the power to the engines. Harbinger II's scythelike exterior wing structure was enveloped in a blade-like structure, which was subsequently coated in plasma. Launching into a spin on his x-axis, Qrow slammed into Cinder with devastating effect. While not destroyed, the Glass Slipper was torn almost to shreds, and barely fell away under its own power. Cinder was alive, and looked to be escaping. Unfortunately. Qrow didn't have time to chase after her, especially with all the crazy happening on the ground. Saving lives took priority. Patching himself into student comms, Qrow rang up the four craft around him.
"So, kids. Are you off to see the Wizard?"
-Author's Explanation. The Quantum Targeting Fractal Array uses satellites to lock onto targets, before moving fractal plates within the Jade Comb (or whatever craft it is installed in) to separate and reflect an energy shot generated by the fighter out and to those targets. The Fractal Array is the part of the system within the craft itself.