Chapter 7:
Gatecrashers
"Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy."
"There is a meeting taking place at 2100 hours. It is located in the warehouse district and is a recruitment meeting for the White Fang. We will be observing this meeting and seeing if we can learn any future plans of the White Fang. This is a stealth-op. We will only intervene if there is imminent threat to anyone or if there are any High Value Targets present. However, it is not our main target. Our main targets are four strongholds spread across the city.
With the meeting happening these strongholds will have a reduced presence at them. That means we can have an easier time infiltrating these bases and gathering intel. I will be monitoring the meeting to keep live updates on it. This information will be labelled classified and accessible only to Lieutenant SPARTAN B-312 of Fireteam NOBLE and Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy. This op and any supplementary details shall be filed under the title Operation: BACKBREAKER. It begins at 2030 hours." Rho finished the briefing. Gazing around the room at the gathered faces. Six, Ozpin, Glynda, and Azul. They had an hour before the op started. Rho disappeared from the desk.
Six and Azul made their way to the elevator. Both heading to the ground floor.
Azul spoke up. "I'm going to get some food before I start the pre-flight checks. You?"
"Weapons Hall Armoury." Six replied. "Requested custom ammo. Going to test it."
"Alright."
The elevator reached the ground floor and the two split up.
The Weapons Hall was expansive with a high roof. Dozens of workbenches lined the room and at the back of the room stood the man Six was there to meet.
He looked up from the documents he was reading at the sound of Six approaching.
"Ah, Noble Six, I once again wish to remind you that this isn't my job."
Six walked up to him. "Harold."
He looked up into Six's visor before sighing and leading Six to another room.
"Fine, let's get this over with."
He brought Six to a bench with two magazines on it. One matching his DMR, the other the Magnum.
"I took the round specifications you gave me and the magazines you lent me and I made these." He held up the DMR magazine. "They're powered by Fire Dust and will fit your weapons." He turned and held the magazine to Six's chest. "If you like these and want more, ask someone else to make them. Or get Ozpin to pay me more." He placed the mag back on the bench. "I have lesson plans to do, students to grade, and make sure they don't hurt themselves when performing upkeep. I do not have the time to make custom ammunition for you. If I got paid for it, I could make time." He glanced at Six. "Makes sense?"
"A fair request." Six gazed at the Magnum mag. "What's their penetration?"
"I'll take you to the firing range."
He picked up the magazines and led Six to another large room holding the firing range. He placed the magazines on the bench of one of the stalls. Six placed down his DMR and Magnum next to them, making sure they were unloaded. Harold grabbed a remote and activated the range. Two targets popped up.
"What armour density do you want?" Harold asked.
"One inch."
Harold pressed a button and a slab of metal lowered in front of the targets.
"Ready?" Harold asked, placing plugs into his ears.
Six nodded, picking up the DMR and loaded the UNSC rounds.
"Firing, Standard."
Six took aim at the centre of the first target. He pulled the trigger, the bullet struck centre mass. Six removed the clip and loaded the Dust rounds.
"Firing, Dust."
He took aim at the second target, repeating the process. He placed the DMR back on the bench.
Harold brought the targets forward so they could inspect them.
"Your bullets, which I would love to analyse, went straight through. My ones, broke through, but are not as good as yours. In my defence, I had about 4 hours spare this last week to do it." Harold looked at Six. "Thoughts?"
Six thought about it. "They aren't as good, but they'll suffice when I run out."
"So you want more?"
Six nodded. "Yes. I'll forward your requests to Ozpin."
"Fantastic, shall we try the Magnum now?"
Six nodded.
I climbed into the Bullhead, the time had come, Operation BACKBREAKER was beginning. The first target was the furthest from the warehouse on the Northern side of the city. The Pyrite jostled as it took off from Beacon's landing pads. The ten minutes it took to reach the drop-off location went by quickly. The Bullhead hovered over the roof of the building. I dropped out, landing onto the roof, cracks appearing under me. I changed my armour colour to Black and Dark Blue, to help blend into the darkness.
Azul flew off to the local landing pads. And I began making my way to the target building. An old three storey office building. Soon it came into view and I clambered up to the roof. I pulled out the DMR and approached the roof access door. I pulled the door open, the lock putting up little resistance.
"Count?"
"Eight. Five on the second floor, one on the first, two on the third."
I crept down the stairs to the floor, my eyes on the motion tracker. The active camouflage unit helped me keep hidden. There was a light coming from under a door down the hallway. I made my way towards it. There was a voice from the other side of the door.
"Yeah, everyone's on their way over already, we're staying back…Because I want to sleep…It'll be over by ten thirty,"
They were talking about the meeting. I slowly opened the door, on the other side of the room was a faunus in casual clothes, sitting with his feet up, talking on a scroll.
"…I've been up for the last three days,"
I slowly walked up behind him.
"…Alright, I'll call you when I wake up…Bye Cal."
The man closed his scroll, I placed the DMR down and grabbed the faunus into a rear choke hold, knocking him out in seconds.
I wasn't planning on killing of the faunus this time. Ozpin requested it, this was inside the city, people would take notice of the deaths and He didn't want the Grimm to be drawn in. I accepted the request, Once finished I would be calling into the VPD to arrest the White Fang members. I would just have to pull my punches.
The second faunus on this floor was in the next room. I picked the DMR back up and approached the door to the next room. I knocked on the door and stood beside it, Active camouflage hiding me still. I heard footsteps approach the door before it opened with the other faunus sticking his head in.
"Yeah Finn?-"
I swung the butt of the DMR into the faunus' forehead, taking care to only knock them out, I caught them before they could crash to the ground.
The motion tracker indicated that the five on the second floor were in the same room in the centre of the building. I began making a plan of attack.
"Attention Spartan."
"Rho."
"Structural scans indicate that the floor above the group is weakened. A sufficiently heavy object impacting above it should make it collapse.
"Affirmative Rho."
I made my way to the room above the five members. I waited until the tracker showed there were none below me. I jumped up and tucked in the air. As I came back down, I thrust my feet and hit the floor with force.
Shocked faces looked up as I came crashing through the ceiling. The floor didn't stop me as I went crashing through that floor as well, the bodies of the faunus following behind, knocking them out as they impacted the ground floor. I landed in a crouch, having Rho check the faunus' vitals. A shout came from one of the other rooms and a faunus came running in. I looked up at them and stood. The locked up at the doorway, they appeared to panic before their eyes rolled into the back of their head and they collapsed.
I went back to the third floor to grab the faunus still up there.
"Any intel?"
"Nothing we don't already know."
"Alert the VPD."
"Affirmative Spartan."
I brought the two back down and left the bodies where they crashed down. I left for the next stronghold. An abandoned underground train station situated four kilometres south-east of the first location.
It took me about a minute to get there. I found the entrance and began making my way inside. Turning Night-Vis on to aid my infiltration. The scan showed there were only three White Fang Members still present.
"Why was the station abandoned?"
"It used to go to the Mountain Glenn settlement. When the settlement was abandoned, the tunnels were sealed and the stations abandoned as well."
I crept further and further into the station. The area was cold and there was an oppressive silence. I checked the motion tracker and paused, the faunus had disappeared from the motion tracker.
I stopped. The silence dragged on. My night-vis faltered.
I ducked, a figure sailed over me, landing on their feet in front of me.
"You lost, Human?"
He dashed at me, night-vis failing, I evaded to the side.
"Si-x!" Rho called, sounding distorted. "They can disrupt electronics!" Rho cut out.
I leaned back, the faunus narrowly missing.
"Th-ey knew we were here!" Rho got out.
The faunus sprang from the shadows in front of me with a flying kick, I caught it though I had to take a step back. I tilted my head to the side, narrowly missing the thrust of a Greatsword. I pushed Contact One back into the darkness and spun to hit Contact Two behind me, though I hit nothing but air.
The two contacts backed off. I closed my eyes and focused. I could hear the footsteps of one of the contacts. The other I couldn't hear. Must have a sound dampening ability.
I felt an impact on my left side and turned to the direction, blocking the swing of a staff with my right forearm. The footsteps grew louder behind me, I grabbed the staff and brought it around to block the swing of the sword. Gunfire impacted my chest and I let go of the staff to evade the gunfire. Contact One was back on the offensive, constantly swinging their staff. I blocked each blow, they planted the end of the staff into the ground and leaned the other end in my direction. I leaned back, narrowly missing the shot that came from the end of the staff. They swung again, another gunshot coming from the staff.
Contact One, close range, uses staff with a gun in each end. Is able to mask all personal sounds.
Contact Two, close range, uses greatsword, possibly able to disable some electronics.
Contact Three, uses automatic rifle, same possible semblance as Contact Two.
I listened as footsteps rushed me from behind, I turned and raised my arms to block the sword swing, Contact Two planted a foot in my chest and did a backflip, the claymore they held split into two as they landed. They charged again, I weaved around the slashes they made with their twin blades. They made a few more slashes before I caught one of the blades and pulled them close. I pulled them up and hit them with a headbutt, cracking their mask and reactivating the motion tracker, A red blip was behind me, I quickly lashed out with a kick to Contact One's stomach, sending them back into the dark.
Contact Two, close range, Claymore, splits into two thinner swords, can disable electronics. Current Priority Target.
Contact Three opened fire again, I drew my Magnum and returned fire. They ducked back down into their cover. I turned to where Contact Two was sent. Night-vis still wasn't reactivating.
They appeared on the motion tracker again. At the edge. I looked towards one of the tunnels and activated the hologram and camouflage modules, sending my hologram into the tunnel. My night-vis finally reactivated. I holstered the Magnum.
"The Human's running!" I heard Contact One yell.
"I'll find him!" Contact Three responded.
I moved into the old station office, next to where Contact Three was. Now sitting in a meditative pose. Contact Two came walking over.
"Found it?" Contact Two asked.
"Not yet. Can't see anything with my eyes. Sai is cursing up a storm."
Contact Two leaned against the window above me.
"They really packed a punch, I need to rest."
"I don't blame you."
Contact Two sighed. "It had some stuff in that helmet I could disable."
Anything else Contact Two would have said was muted as I grabbed their collar, smashing through the glass, before pulling him through and slamming him into the wall.
Priority Target Down.
Contact Three screamed and crawled backwards.
"Gel!"
I stepped through the broken window and started walking towards her. She crawled backwards, cries of fear escaping her. She kicked at my shins once I was close enough, I caught her leg. With her cry of 'NO!' I dragged her towards me and sent a punch to her head, breaking her aura and knocking her out.
Contact One returned from the tunnel, having heard the screams of his comrade.
"Marillo? Gel?"
He saw me standing over his friend. I turned to face him.
"You-! I'll Kill You!"
He sent an angered swing at me. I caught his staff and bent it with one hand, throwing it away after. He threw a wild swing, I caught the punch then did the same with the other arm. I lifted him up and slammed him into the ground, breaking the tiles and his aura. He tried to stand but a quick kick stopped that.
Stronghold two down. Two more to go.
I gathered the three White Fang members and left them near the station entrance. The VPD again being alerted.
"Attention, the meeting will start in five minutes. Currently there are Two-Hundred and Forty-Three persons present though more are still arriving. Sixteen persons present with outstanding warrants."
I made my way to the third target. The building was a well-maintained apartment complex. Most of the occupants were completely unaware of the White Fang members residing alongside them. I walked in through the foyer.
"What's their location?"
"Floor Five, Room Twelve. The meeting is starting."
I drew my DMR and made my way to the stairwell. I climbed the floors until I reached floor five. I opened the door slowly, scanning the room for any of the insurrectionists. I slowly made my way to the door. There was a creak at my side before one of the doors opened, the woman freezing up at the site of me. I turned my gaze to them.
"Stay inside." I stated.
They quickly nodded before closing the door again and locking it.
I stood outside the apartment, listening to the voices inside.
"Yeah, I was told to go to Mountain Glenn."
"Why?"
"Well, all I know is it's in three weeks."
I knocked on the door. One of the White Fang came to answer it. Before they could I kicked the door, knocking it into them and the wall. I entered the room, DMR at the ready.
"Get Down!"
They all dropped to the ground, I dragged the one hit by the door out next to the others.
"Six." Rho spoke up.
"What is happening in Mountain Glenn?"
"Six!"
"What Rho?"
Before Rho could say anything Azul's voice came over the radio.
"SIX! There's an Atlas Paladin rampaging through the streets!"
That got my attention.
"Get to my position now."
"I'm already on my way!"
I turned to the four.
"The VPD are on their way. If you try and leave before they get here, I will find you."
I re-holstered the DMR and ran for the roof, bursting out the door as Azul arrived. I jumped into the Bullhead and we took off for one of the raised highways. My armour returned to it's original colours.
"What happened?"
"Roman Torchwick, a wanted criminal, gave a speech at the meeting, he took notice of two persons in the crowd and they took off, he pursued in a stolen mech suit."
I saw the various vehicles thrown around the roads. Some of the occupants were slowly crawling out of their overturned cars. The sight made me angry.
"Emergency services have been called." Rho chimed up.
"I have eyes on it!" Azul called.
I made my way into the cockpit to observe the Mech. It threw more vehicles, some flying off the highway to the ground below. We watched as it was tripped and fell from the roadway.
"Open the bay and get me over it."
I made my way to the back of the Bullhead and waited to get into position.
"Check on the victims." I told Azul. We were over the Mech as it began walking towards four familiar children.
"You got it!"
I jumped.
Ruby looked over her team then back at Roman in the Paladin. They had this.
She pointed forward, directing her team. "Freezer-!"
Before she could finish her sentence an object crashed down onto the Paladin before rolling off in front of them.
"What the hell?" It came from the Paladin.
The object stood, revealing the orange and red form of Noble Six, bringing his rifle to bear.
Ruby stepped forwards. "Hey-!"
Six turned to Team RWBY
"STAY BACK." His voice was cold and emotionless. Ordering them to stay where they were.
Six turned his attention back to the Paladin, firing three shots into the cockpit of the mech. Roman punched at Six who rolled under it to the Paladins legs, shoulder checking one of the legs, forcing it back. Two more shots were fired, Six returned the rifle to his back. He climbed up the front of the Mech until he was on the cockpit. He began punching the cockpit door, denting the metal.
Roman brought one of the arms up to Six.
"GET OFF!"
The arm lunged for Six who backflipped off the mech, over the arm. He landed back on the ground. Roman recovered and threw a left hook at Six. Instead of diving out of the way he crouched while a blue aura surrounded his armour. The fist impacted Six, instead of sending Six flying the metal bent as it hit him. He quickly stood, the aura popping, the Paladin locked up, Six tackled it again, forcing it onto it's back. He crouched atop the Paladin. He began striking the cockpit, crushing the metal beneath his fist.
The Paladin reactivated, standing quickly. Six flipped onto it's back, he grabbed a ball from his belt and pressed a button on it, igniting it into blue fire. He stuck it to the back of the Paladin and leaped off. The ball exploded in blue fire, instantly melting the back of the mech.
The Paladin fell, defeated. Roman crawled out of the mech, His back horribly burnt from the heat of the explosion.
Six drew his rifle again.
The only thing Ruby could do was watch.
"Roman Torchwick!" Six called. "You are wanted on charges of theft and grand larceny in the kingdom of Vale. You are under arrest."
Six paused in his approach of Roman Torchwick, suddenly turning to the side and firing. The Roman on the ground shattered, a Bullhead was revealed in the direction Six shot, Roman being carried onto it. Two new gunshot wounds appearing on his arm and shoulder. One impacting him in his lower back.
Six watched the Bullhead go before making his way back to Team RWBY.
Ruby zipped up to him.
"That was so cool how you did that! You were punching it and it tried to hit you then you did a flip over it and-"
"Get on the ground."
What?
"What?"
"Get on the ground. You are under arrest."
Yang walked angrily up to Six with red in her eyes. "Hey! We helped take him down."
Six looked over to her.
"How many victims?"
Weiss and Blake came over now.
"What do you mean?" Weiss asked.
"How many victims?"
The members of Team RWBY looked between each other.
"Your reckless actions have claimed the lives of fourteen people and have left twenty-seven more injured." He took a step back and raised his weapon. "Lay down your weapons."
Ruby looked to her teammates before she slowly took Cresent Rose from her holster and laid her on the ground. Her teammates slowly doing the same.
"Back away with your hands up."
They did so.
"Get on the ground."
Ruby gazed at her teammates as she heard the sirens grow closer.
This is something that always annoyed me with Painting The Town. They took the battle through a highway, throwing cars everywhere but at no point did they stop to check on the occupants. It seriously always annoyed me.
Here's a bonus from my original planning out of the story a few years ago. I was thinking about keeping it but I decided against it. It is Six killing Neo. The reason I cut this from my plan going forward is because I couldn't think of how to make it work, and it was more shocking for the sake of shocking instead of progressing the story:
He was holding her clean off the ground by the throat.
She stared into his unforgiving visor. She looked into his cold expressionless face and in that moment she felt FEAR.
She looked into this unforgiving visage and spoke her first word in a long time, laced with fear.
"Mercy."
She stared into his cold expressionless face for what felt like minutes before she got an answer that terrified her.
"No." Came his cold, hard, toneless voice.
With the sound of shattering energy, she never registered the piercing blade in her stomach as she slipped away.
Have A Nice Day!