Volume One, Chapter Five
Death is the Only Victor
The Surface… After two years, I still barely have words to describe it. One came to mind the first time we went up…
Death…
That day really set in that this was our home, and any doubts or hopes this was all a ruse were wiped clean by nuclear fire.
What Earth was capable of before the war… And yet they chose annihilation.
I hope Remnant hasn't fallen like Earth has.
"There! All caught up." Summer spoke with a hint of annoyance as she stood by Khan, arms folded.
Yang readjusted her pack, leaning over to Weiss and whispered, "So you did jinx us… Mom's weird friend is here." Weiss could only see a sly smirk.
"Oh shush!" Came a snarky reply.
Khan just stroked his beard, "Hmm… Tragic as the implication of this terrorist group's plans are, perhaps fate intended for this to happen?"
A scowl distorted Summer's face, "No way! What, you think these kids were needed more here… In Moscow?! Instead of growing up normally on Remnant?"
Khan remained unfazed, "We can never predict how life will turn out, Summer. One whose path has taken a turn is often initially disoriented. But as time passes, and the path continues steadily in its new direction, there is a tendency to believe that it will remain so forever, with no further turns." He gave out a calm glance to Summer. "Nothing is further from the truth. A path once bent is always susceptible to new changes. Particularly when the change came from manipulation… by an outside force."
Team RWBY could only just stare, and blink. "That…" Ruby said. "Makes a stupid amount of sense."
Weiss started to massage her temples, "Wonderful, first thing he speaks and my entire world view gets torn down… again!" She mumbled.
Summer temper continued to boil, "Arrgh! Khan, you coming to the surface too?"
He cupped his hands together and nodded, "Our paths have aligned in the same direction, yes…"
Her eye twitched, "Then fucking shut up with that creepy bullshit of yours! We're going topside, and these kids need to focus… not philosophically question everything around them, like you do."
Khan shrugged, "As you wish."
"PRIGOTOV'SYA! NA VASHI STANTSII!" Bellowed a guard.
Summer threw a warning over her shoulder, "Get ready kids…" she donned her Spartan helmet, feeding her weapon and silently jerked the charging handle.
The Hanza guard post worked like startled ants, Ruby was fascinated as one readied an emplaced machine gun, while two others were being strapped with layers upon layers of armor. They were then armed with large improvised weapons, when little coughs of fire escaped their nozzles she understood it's use.
Awoooooooooooooo. Awoooooooooooooo. Sirens sounded as machinery came to life, yellow warning lights flashed and twisted above them. The monstrous Hermetic gate separating them from the surface groaned as electricity and hydraulics laboured to open it.
Like her team, thundering drums roared in Ruby's chest. Her right hand started to shake a little, gripping her new holstered pistol in an attempt to steady herself as the portal to the apocalypse began to open.
A rush of wind circulated as the opening grew. Finally the door swung open. Light flooded the tunnel ahead, the only natural source coming dimly in from around a left bend. Hanza sent forth it's armored sentries beyond the gate while the others stayed behind sandbag emplacements, rifles nervously scanning for threats.
"Put' chist! Idti!" Barked one of them.
"Udachi, spartanets." A younger guard wished, Summer only nodding.
"Load 'n' lock, girls. Move out" Summer knowingly slipped back into her Militaristic tone, knowing that they would need harshness equal that of the surface to push through its nightmarish scenery. She strutted forward, followed by Khan, while the teens quickly checked their new weapons over, making sure they were primed and ready.
As they began to pass the guards, Weiss quizzically wanted to try something, giving a wave she said, "Spasibo… Uh, do svidaniya?" A small smile could be seen through the visor of one of the armored sentries as he nodded.
An eyebrow of Blake's stood up as she looked at her, Weiss shrugged, "Just practicing." She winked with her unbandaged eye while her face pulled a small smirk.
Since Summer was already ahead of them, they rushed to catch up. But in their haste, they started to notice a peculiar smell in the air, the two sisters could almost make out the smell of freshly mown hay like that of the farms from Patch. Then a tightness in their chests, as if someone's hands began to grip at their lungs and slowly constricted them. They met Summer around the bend at the foot of three large escalators.
The Rose Matriarch's gaze was being pulled up the disheveled and decaying mechanical stairs, face sodden with mixed emotions. As her eyes distantly looked on to the heavenly beams leaking down, biting back at the darkness behind them, her grip on her AKM tightened.
A slowed, frozen voice spoke, "You feel that? That tightness… like the air itself is trying to kill you. I'm only going to say this once, girls. This world… It doesn't belong to humans anymore. By their own actions, they have casted themselves into exile underground. What was once a thriving city… is now a deadly wasteland, where even the air is toxic. Ruby is your leader, yes, but from here on out you are to follow my instructions… or you will die! Are we clear?"
Not deciding to check their reactions, She grabbed the mouth of her faceplate and sealed her helmet, her voice now distorted by the voice diaphragm of the helmet. "Like I showed you… Gas masks, on."
Ruby, Weiss and Yang secured their GP-21, PPM-88, and PMK masks to their face before pulling the straps over their heads and fastening to their sizes, once properly sealed beanies were reapplied. Blake had to remove her ushanka to do the same, making sure her cat ears sat comfortably between the straps of her own PPM-88.
"Ah, you are Faunus. In truth, I had not fully believed our good Sergeant. It is humbling to be proven wrong." Khan said as he strode past all of them as he pulled his PPM-88 on over his head and drew his AK-74.
Blake just blinked, "Umm… Thank you?"
"Perhap another time - under better circumstances - we can discuss the fascinating details and intricacies of your race?" He spoke as he started the hundred foot climb up the dormant escalators.
Awkwardly, she replied, "O-okay…"
"Khan…!" Summer warned but was ignored.
Halfway up the mighty steel steps, Ruby looked down past her team, back to the dark depths of the Metro.
Her breath still laboured some due the confines of her new Gas mask. "These train stations sure are deep…"
Weiss was much the same, "Hah… If I remember right, Hunter said we were about a hundred and twenty feet deep."
"Almost like these Russian people were expecting an apocalyptic war to happen…" Blake pondered coldly.
"Well… yes and no." Summer's voice echoed from above, "Originally, they built them deep to not crowd the city above, to avoid basements and sewer systems… and other stuff."
"Stuff…?" Weiss curiously asked.
She shrugged even as no one was looking, "Moscow is old. Human history on Earth is way more extensive and detailed then Remnant. Moscow alone has a thousand years worth of dungeons, tombs, and man-made secrets buried here. I've actually been in a few… creepy as shit, but pretty cool to explore. Unless the Mutants made a nest there, then you're in trouble."
"That does sound pretty cool…" The Blonde Brawler mumbled to herself.
Summer finished her climb, turning to look down upon her charge of teenagers, "But to answer your question; when Nuclear weapons were first used by the United States, it shocked everyone. Even their allies. It may have ended one war, but it helped spark another one, a cold war of ideologies, politics, and proxy wars using smaller nations as puppets… Not to mention the Nuclear Arms Race that went on during that time."
As Weiss cleared the steps, stumbling a little as one gave way, she looked to her new superior with a frown. "Wait wait wait. This planet invents a world-killing weapon, and then enters an arms race to see who can make it better?! That's insane!"
"Insane. Perhaps. But to drop your guard when your enemy holds a dagger to your throat is the surest way to the grave. The hunter would not drop their spear when confronted with a saber tooth, Nor would a nation's leader put themselves at risk by not building the biggest bombs possible." Khan said as he slowly peered around the corner of the subway entrance to the main station lobby.
Summer stalked past Khan, rifle at low-ready. "He's right Miss Schnee. Each side would puff their chests to deter the other from attacking first. As for the Metro, it was discovered that these stations were deep enough to avoid the poisons of the Nukes, we call it Radiation. So old stations were converted with life support systems and bunker doors like the one downstairs. And newer ones were dug deeper and deeper. All part of Moscow's Air Defence Network."
Khan gave a dark chuckle, "Sergeant Rose, could I get that in writing that once again you admitted that I was right?"
She stopped mid-step in front of the main doors, shooting him a glare and spat, "Idi otsosi chlen…!"
Yang was glad for a short distraction, these topics were making her feel like crap, then… she realized something, 'Hang on… Having to learn a new language means I get to learn a whole host of new curse words… ehehehe' No one noticed her grin, since only her blue eyes could be seen through the triangle eye ports of her PMK mask as they briefly flashed violet before returning to their dull blue.
"Now, here we go…" Summer slowly stepped through the door, its face revealed to be charred black on the outside.
Ruby and her team followed, with Khan tailing behind. The Huntresses-in-training stepped out the front door and down the short steps that stopped just behind large stone pillars that gave them good cover from any passing mutant. They had expectations, of course, from what they'd seen in fiction back on Remnant and heard by the Adults on what this Apocalypse would look like.
All Lies.
An apparition to a truly nightmare-like reality. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang looked out into Komsomolskaya Square, gas-mask covered eyes leaking fear and sorrow. The world of the Surface was a frozen, time-locked jungle of steel, stone, and bones. Everywhere, even the buildings, just screamed death… The abandoned city of Mountain Glenn could never hold a candle to this wasteland. Every window, from buildings to cars, had long since been obliterated. Some of those machines still bared its passengers' bony remains, fewer still had its driver's fingers still clutching to the wheel.
The buildings around them were just as horrifying, barely showing what once was under the ice and snow. Skyscrapers that once stood tall and mighty, now projected mere shadows of the past; one could be seen just barely keeping upright, its superstructure ripped open and gutted on the side. Another nearby was nothing but a spiky honeycombed mess, its glass skin disintegrated by the sheer and total destruction.
Ruby tear's were beyond control, she collapsed to her knees, overwhelmed by the ultimate devastation no fifteen year old should ever bear witness to.
"Oh… My… Gods..." She breathed out of her mask.
Weiss's thoughts could not comprehend that this destructive power was man-made, because of her Father and Winter, she knew the ins-and-outs of the Atlas military and their tactics. Their contingency plans would never even dream of escalating violence this far should conflict with the other kingdoms break out again. And then a thought crossed her mind; If both sides held these Nuclear weapons in their arsenal, then this devastation and destruction is completely mutual. Making this kind of war utterly pointless! There can be no winners to this conflict. Only…
"Only death can claim victory here…" Her whisper barely escaped her mask.
Blake tried to take a step forward to support her leader, but felt a crunch under her new combat boot, she soon regretted looking down. Beneath her boot laid the crushed forearm to a skeleton. It was smaller, female perhaps. Her bony cadaver positioned like she desperately tried to claw her way into the station. She felt numb, weakness infecting her legs, Blake almost fell over had Khan not been there to catch her.
"Oh my." He said, "Are you alright, young Lady?" Blake tilted her head up to him and slowly shook a 'no'.
The last of the colour drained from Yang's eyes, going from a dull blue to a lifeless gray as She collapsed down next to Ruby and hugged her with one arm. Forcing her eyes shut as she tried to get her own breathing under control.
Summer turned when she heard Ruby's weeping, as soon as she saw her daughters on the ground crying she motioned for Khan to watch the skyline before rushing over and pulling Ruby, Yang behind one of the pillars and embracing both of them. "I know, I know what it looks like, but you can't think about it right now, there are Mutants everywhere so we need to keep moving."
"How ma…" Yang lost her words.
A frown formed in Summer's visor, "Huh?"
"How many died in this war?" She pleaded to her Mother.
Weiss and Blake looked over to the Spartan for an answer as well, she could only look away. "Seven… Billion… At the time of the war, Earth was home to seven billion people."
Weiss gasped, "Gods…! Remnant doesn't even have a fraction of that!"
Summer continued, "Twelve million lived here in Moscow. But only two hundred thousand made it underground. Even then, thanks to mutant attacks, war, disease, famine, only forty thousand or so remain in the Metro."
"That's horrifying!" Said Blake.
Summer shrugged, "It is what it is. Come on, we have to move." Pulling her two daughters upright, She shouldered her weapon and marched out into the wide streets of the square.
It was then a gale flooded the streets, its hallowed cry wailed a sickening sound as it rushed over the group. Frozen fangs bit down on any exposed skin while trying to dig deep into the double layers of winter clothes they wore. Each young Huntress shivered to the mighty Russian winter, Blake giving a silent prayer of thanks to the late merchant for giving her the ushanka she wore. Even Weiss noted how colder it was compared to Atlas, only unsettling her more as to how foreign and otherworldly this place was.
As they began to move on through the square, weaving through the husk of cars, buses and trucks. Every now and then, they would come upon more human remains, some whole, some just scattered bones and jawless skulls. The girls shivered and convulsed each time, this was so like and unlike the White Fang they found under Mountain Glenn; just a sea of death. But Ruby's heart froze when she spotted two small forms in the backseat of a car… This was infinitely more terrifying than Mountain Glenn.
A menacing roar was carried by the wind, Summer's head snapped skyward then to a nearby bus, "Hide! Hide, kids!" She sprinted over, dragging Ruby and Yang into the shadow cast by the old bus, as Khan did the same with Weiss and Blake.
"Why are we hiding?" Weiss demanded as Khan forced her down to the ground.
Summer brought a finger to her faceplate, "A Demon's nearby. Now hush!"
The six of them waited in silence for what felt like hours before they heard the roar again, this time much closer as the Demon swooped overhead and landed on the building they had just come out of, leaving them exposed if it spotted them.
"That's it?" Yang asked. "We've taken an Alpha nevermore, this should be easy."
Yang went to stand only to get yanked back down by Summer. "And if it breaks your mask or carries you off to who knows where?!" she whisper-shouted at her daughter, cowing her and forcing her to remain hidden.
After a few more minutes the Demon must have heard something as it turned around, facing north as it roared once more, jumping off the back of the building as it took off.
The group slowly emerged from behind the bus as the Demon flew off, and continued west, coming into a clear section of road where a massive hulking tracked vehicle with a cannon they could fit their heads down had bulldozed the cars away.
"What is that thing?" Yang asked.
"It's called a Tank, it was a powerful war machine the countries of this world used to fight each other about one hundred years ago, at least that's what the Colonel's told me." Summer said as they walked through the tanks path.
"Why would they need something lik-" Ruby was never able to finish her question as she felt a crawling sensation come over her and was just able to activate her aura.
Just in time to stop a 7.62x54mm round from punching a hole straight through her chest.
Ruby was thrown to the ground, her head impacting on the hard road as her world for the third time since arriving here, went dark.
The rest of them heard the crack a split second later as they all watched with horror as Ruby fell to the ground.
"SNIPER!" Summer shouted and raised her rifle and began to fire on full auto into the building she suspected the shot had come from, joined by Khan a moment after.
"RUBY!" Yang screamed and she rushed to her sister's side and felt for a pulse, finding one she breathed a sigh of relief before her eyes turned red and her ponytailed hair started to glow. As she turned to stand, only for Summer to yell at her.
"Stay down and get Ruby to cover!" She shouted as she and Khan pulled Weiss and Blake down into cover behind a row of rusted out old cars. Yang joined them shortly after as she dragged Ruby by the collar to safety.
"She's not waking up, what do we do!?" Yang asked as she looked to Summer with large pleading eyes, having no idea what to do in her frazzled state.
"Khan, where is he!?" Summer whisper-shouted to the man as she reverted back to speaking Russian, seemingly ignoring Yang's question.
"Hilton Hotel, fifth floor, near the right side. How do you want to handle this?"
"You're staying here, Watch the girls and make sure Ruby's okay. I'll deal with this guy." And before waiting for a response Summer stood up and looked at the fifth floor of the tower in front of her, and vanished in a cloud of white rose petals.
"HA! The cripple is down and it looks like that blond one is a mutant, did you see how her hair lit up!? Herr Sturmbannführer will be happy to hear we killed two subhumans AND a Spartan in one day!" The Sniper boasted to his spotter who was resting next to him looking through an old ranging scope.
"Ja you got that right, now keep your eye on- Where did the Spartan go?"
The sniper quickly re-sighted in on his targets and like his spotter had said, the Ranger was missing and all that was left in their place were some slowly falling rose petals.
"What the hell is going-"
The sniper was interrupted by the sound of boots hitting the ground hard behind them. Quickly turning around they both froze. Before them stood the figure from all the Red subhuman propaganda. The Reaper of Red Square holding her blood red fire axe.
With a wordless cry she raised said axe over her head before bringing it down onto the two Nazi soldiers.
Ruby's eyes sprang open, sitting up and taking a deep breath through the filter of her gas mask that quickly turned into a rabid coughing fit as she looked around for what had caused her to black out, reaching for her weapon, jostling her arm and causing her to cry out in pain.
"Ruby!" Blake exclaimed.
Yang immediately pulled Ruby into a bear hug, "Oh thank Gods You're okay!"
"Yang, can't breathe! Also, arm! Arm!" Ruby weezed out, causing Yang to let her out of the hug and instead start fretting over her.
"Are you okay, Does anything hurt, what about your head does it feel alright!" Yang rapid fired questions as she acted like a mother hen towards Ruby.
With Yang's help, Ruby scooted over to lean against the rotted tyre of a car, gasping from the pain she spoke, "Arm… murdering… head… spinning" she drew a heavy breath through her filter and tried to calm down. "But okay. What happened?"
Khan came over to check on his young charge, "A Sniper tried to kill you."
Panic struck her instantly, "What?!" she shrieked before she quickly began to scan the surrounding buildings as her own experiences and sniper mindset taking over.
"Do not fear young one, this will not be our grave. your mother has likely already dealt with the culprits, now we must wait for her return." Khan said as he sat against one of the cars like nothing was wrong.
Metal battered and groaned as a new weight was added to the car roof above where Khan rested from. Summer had returned, leaping off the crushed car roof onto the frozen street. Ruby and her team looked over the former Huntress, the fear of an unseen enemy was washed away, terror-stricken faces latching onto a fresh source of horror.
Weiss gasped, a soft voice escaping her mask, "Oh Dust…!"
Summer had returned with new additions to her gear. A new long rifle, not unlike the AKs the girls have seen, was slung across her back. She carried her axe's shaft just under the blade and pick. In her other hand was some sort of crumpled red armband. Then they started to take in the most prevalent component of her attire.
Blood. Blood stains had been sprayed all over her uniform and combat gear. The darkened red ickor dribbled over the left side of her visor, covering her eye like war paint. Her axe head was caked in the same oozing liquid. It took all of Ruby's strength not to flinch and cower as the menacing figure of her mother started walking towards her, her boots leaving red imprints in the snow after each step.
She reached for her injured daughter, tilting her head to look over her. The way she let go of a sighed breath through her helmet broke her intimidating aura, her shoulders dropped loosely as her eye shined with an unseen smile, "Thank goodness, you okay sweetie?"
Ruby could only deftly nod, words lumping in her throat, clogged by the sight of her mother. A sight she only seen once before, a sight that came with a warning. Khan raised himself from the snow and icy mud, clearing his throat a little.
"Summer?" She nodded in acknowledgement, "Care to enlighten us of who our fallen adversary was?"
She unfolded the armband she held, a white circle at the center held a stylized R, "Nazis…" She then distastefully threw the armband at Yang's feet.
"Bastards were laughing about shooting Ruby since she was a 'cripple' and were going after you next because of your hair glowing. They'd rather shoot children for having 'deformities' than an armed Spartan…" she said looking up at Yang before going back to fretting over Ruby.
Once again the object of horror of the girls changed. From the blood covered Summer to the idea people would be so horrible as to kill a child over a broken arm.
Ruby began to cry, she'd not only been shot at, but people had been targeted just for having a broken arm. Without care for the blood she clung to Summer while the rest just slumped in their hiding places. Processing what had happened to them.
Yang's eyes still blazed an ember, firing heated daggers down at the discarded garment. Bringing her knee up, she drove her heel into it, grinding the armband into the snow and cracked asphalt of the square.
"I… I'm guessing that's their sniper rifle?" Blake hesitantly questioned.
She was quiet, keeping her back to Blake and Weiss, she glanced back up to the hotel. "Just a souvenir… Couldn't leave behind a perfectly good rifle for the Nazis to recapture."
Weiss meekly raised a hand, "M… Um, Sergeant Rose?" they all looked at her, "I-uh… You're a Huntress, right…? I'm just… curious? Uh, um. Are you always so quick to nonchalantly kill another human being…?"
"Nazis aren't people." Summer said without hesitation. "They're twisted and broken, no better than the Grimm."
The four of them all went stock still, their faces going pale under their masks and their breath catching in their throats.
"H…How can you say that…?" Ruby eventually managed to choke out, the visions the Dark Ones gave her violently coming to the back of her mind's eye.
Summer hid her eyes as she turned and started walking back in the direction of the Hilton, softly remarking, "You haven't seen one of their prison camps. And I pray you never do."
Khan cleared his throat and stepped up behind the young Huntress team, "Follow along kids, and pay attention to your filters." He stated as he replaced his own.
Their journey on the surface continued on past the Moscow Hilton, the city's battle scars and deformities forever painting a picture of hopelessness on the younger members of the group's mind. Finally, they reached the Garden Ring highway.
Or… it was the Garden Ring. But nature had taken it back through time, and water. The central six of its ten lane road had turned into a frozen river. Weiss approached the edge, noting the odd color a lot of the ice held, a dirty, sickly green hue pockmarked the floating islands flowing with the current, even many icicles held the same disfigurement.
Khan stood beside her, looking out over the view before them, "Beautiful, isn't? No matter what we did to her, Mother Nature still perseveres. Even turning the Garden Ring back to it's medieval roots as the defensive rampart of old Moscow."
"Careful, though." Summer warned, "I would suggest no accidental dips in the water up here. And I don't mean because of the cold."
Yang and Ruby couldn't look at her fully, averting their gaze everytime they caught a glimpse of the red stains on her uniform. Ruby questioned everything that tried to reason why her beloved 'Super-Mom' would spill blood so lightly. Her memory unconsciously wandering back to her nightmare before leaving Remnant.
"She could understand us… but refused to listen… Killing our kin in her path…"
She shook away the thought, all those bodies she saw, no way her Mom was the cause. Ruby was pulled from her thoughts by a sudden series of rapid high pitched clicks coming from the device on Summers belt.
Summer pulled the army green contraption off her kit and waved it in the direction of the river. It rescinded by toning back louder and harsher clicks, "That's why. This is Radiation girls, like I told you before it's like a poison… Err… more like heat actually, it burns anything organic it touches and the only way to protect yourself is to stay away from it or wear heavy lead lined clothes." The device suddenly spiked as a gust of wind swept down the radiated river. "So let's take my own advice and move on before none of us can have kids…"
Khan nodded before turning right and heading north. "Good advice, Now let us find a way under this river before the Watchers find us."
"Where are you going?" Summer snapped at him.
"North to Dry station of course, it was my understanding you wanted to avoid the red line, all that is that way is red line stations." Khan said as he gestures past Summer to the south, where she wanted to go.
"But… Dry is… Gah I hate it when you're right!" Rankled, Summer moaned as she slouched and marched off after the man, team RWBY following in their wake.
"Why exactly don't you want to go to a 'Red' station?" Blake asked Summer as they followed her.
"That's uh… a complicated question-" Summer started before being cut off.
"She is a criminal of course. Wanted in the whole Red line!" Khan said cheerily from the front of the line.
"What?!" The whole of team RWBY said in unison.
"Khan please stop-"
"Our mom is not a criminal!" Yang snapped at him, though less passionately than she might have less than an hour ago.
"Ah but it's true. But then, what is a criminal? Merely someone who does not follow a society's rules. Your mother for instance, her crime is merely siding against the Communists in a pointless war, nothing more."
"So… what exactly did you do that angered this Red line so much?" Weiss asked, much to the annoyance of Yang who looked like she just wanted this conversation to end.
Summer seemed to mirror her daughter's feelings but answered anyways "The Reds are obsessed with anything from before the war to do with their ideology and went to war with Hanza over it. When the war turned against them they launched suicidal attacks on a station called Revolution square, I and a small team of Rangers were there and helped defend the station. The Reds think I'm solely responsible for them losing that battle. So now I'm wanted in their territory." She finished with a sense of finality, ending the conversation there.
But then Khan decided to open his mouth, "Indeed. After laying waste to scores of the Communist soldiery, she aptly earned the moniker Reaper of Revolution Square. At least that is what I heard."
"Reaper as in the Grim Reap-" Weiss started.
"Khan, Shut up! Everyone just shut up! This isn't important and this isn't the place for this conversation to begin with." Summer said finally, leaving no room for argument and cutting Weiss off.
Like back in the hospital, Ruby hastily retreated to the safety of Yang's back. While the other teens just barely audibly gulped.
"Geez okay, didn't mean to get pushy…" Yang muttered.
Blake was about to say something in her team's defense when she spotted something. Something that didn't blend with the decades old toxic wasteland, something fresh, and was still bleeding…
Her eyes went wide and a finger snapped to its direction, "Look!"
Summer and Khan noticed first and jogged over, kneeling to the new found corpse. It had been left to lean against the brick column of an iron gate.
Summer examined the frozen cadavre with interest and worry; His face was just gone, peeled back to the chin and leaving nothing but a bloodied skull with ears. With a hand missing, the right arm had been chewed up to the forearm, while an entire left leg was devoured. Worry came back to Summer's mind, a corpse this fresh meant that the killer was nearby.
Summer reached for his neck and dipped under the collar, "Stalker…" She announced as she read his dog tags, "He's from Hanza." she curled her fingers to rip the chain from the dead-man's neck. After stashing it, she began to search his gear, "Let's see what you had on you."
"Are you looting a dead man?!" Weiss' shocked voice shouted out into the world.
"Lock it down, Schnee!" Summer barked back, "Or do you want more potential rifles suddenly gunning us down?"
She couldn't argue back, so Blake took over for her, "Why are you looting this man's gear?"
"Because it would insult him if I didn't…!" Summer replied back, "He's a Stalker, These crazy, brave guys come up to the surface every day to scavenge scrap, ammo, anything they can dig up to help their Home Station and the Metro. This poor Bastard's mission would've been in vain if we don't take what he has to further our own journey."
Ruby, still somewhat sticking close to Yang's personal bubble, hesitantly spoke, "So-so… He's like a Huntsman? And we're finishing what he couldn't?"
"Hmm… Not quite, but close. Still, he risked life to help other people, and now we are those people… Aha! A clean filter! Thanks friend… who needs it?" Summer offered to the group, Yang raised her hand.
"It was time to change mine anyway." Summer tossed the filter into her daughter's hand, who then unscrewed her old one and replaced it into the side port of her PMK mask. As she was about to discard the old one, Summer ordered otherwise.
"Ah-ah. Save it. We can sell old filters for a bullet or two to someone who will clean it and refill it with charcoal, albeit, it will be less effective, but still useful. Now let's see… hmm, food rations are gone - proklyatyye mutanty - Woah… a spare universal charger, nice! Ammo… wow, still in its box, must've found a gun store still packing; point-three-eighty auto, not our caliber - seven-six-two mag for Miss Schnee, here…" She tossed the magazine to the heiress.
Summer sighed, "Who knows what the future holds for you four, but if you're ever up on the surface again, or, gods forbid… alone up here, keep an eye out. Stalkers usually have camps and caches of supplies hidden throughout the city. We Rangers keep outposts up here too. Find one, and you'll have no trouble with spare filters and ammo."
"So who are the Rangers?" Ruby asked while trying to avoid looking at the dead stalker.
Summer nodded as she started pulling the man's leaded vest off "Well… we have a few different names depending on who you ask. The Order, Spartans. But our official name is the Rangers of the Order. The militant arm of the Polis government. We keep the peace in the Metro and protect it from outside threats… Come on!" She pulled the vest off as the ice buildup broke apart.
"We protect Polis and Polis gives everyone neutral ground to hash out their problems."
"You're a soldier…? What about being a huntress?" Ruby asked
"Ruby…. Look, it's complicated. When we get to Polis I'll-" Summers cut off by a sudden drawn out howl causing Summer to stiffen before dragging Yang and Ruby down behind a car next to the river while Khan did the same for Weiss and Blake before any of them could react like huntresses and do something stupid.
Blake peaked through the rusted out husk she was hiding behind before she went pale and ducked down.
A pack of dog-like mutants filled the street. Moving down from the north and going the way RWBY, Summer, and Khan had come from. Like a torrent, a wave of teeth and fur rushed down the street, bounding off rusted car roofs of Moscow's once lively traffic.
The pack practically filled the street as they moved past. All of them moving together towards some unknown goal.
As the pack passed Yang shifted to look at Blake having her little panic attack. Shifting her stance and raising her shotgun. As the last of the pack moved through. As she shifted, an echoing crack cut through the air. A moment later the ground gave out beneath her, sending her down into the river bed.
Summer and Ruby spun around as Yang fell. Watching as she hit the river bed and was sent down stream right into a chunk of concrete and rebar.
"YANG!" Summer shouted before she vanished in a burst of rose petals, appearing next to her in the river.
"Yang?! Yang look at me!" Summer said urgently
Yang gasped, turning her head to reveal her cracked, now useless mask, her handheld uselessly over the largest hole "can't… breath…"
Summer's eyes widened. Wrapping her arms around her daughter and once again using her semblance to warp out of the water next to Khan and the rest of team RWBY.
"Her mask's broken, Khan, get them to Dry Station! I'll meet you at the Shack!" Without waiting for a response Summer activated her semblance again and was gone, leaving a pile of white and yellow rose petals. Leaving Weiss and Blake stunned while Ruby uselessly reached out to her mother and sister as they vanished...
The Shack was one of the many hideouts and outposts the Rangers had tucked away in Moscow. Once in history it served as a family's air raid shelter as Hitler's Jackboots marched on Moscow. In peacetime, it served the people as a converted watering hole with decently priced swill and a warm atmosphere. Then, after the Great War of Two Thousand and Thirteen, and a decade of dereliction; the Rangers of The Order saw fit to give it purpose again. Pressurizing and restoring it to some manner of a shelter. Supplies were kept in newly added lockers and a tall cabinet safe that belonged to the bar.
A storm of footfalls thundered outside the front door, barreling down the old stairs. Bursting open, the Spartan raced inside, frantically kicking the door shut behind her. Yang clung to her like a child, her arms locked around Summer's neck and shoulders, her face going purple, raspy breaths gasping for air.
Air! Though stale and musty, she could taste clean air, her lungs opened up - demanding and being rewarded with a gulp of fresh-filtered air before coughing from being overworked. Summer shuffled over to an old and worn coffee couch, laying down her shivering daughter on the seat. She rushed to one of the lockers, pulling out a medical kit and small oxygen cylinder with a clear plastic mask attached to it. Strapping the mask to Yang's head, she turned on the small cylinder to feed her fresh air and control her breathing.
Yang laid there in a daze, barely even registering Summer's presence. Her instincts couldn't understand it… She saw it! The Sky, the clouds, the sun! But each gasp of air she took in was rejected. Now… Here she laid, underground in a dark, dilapidated Bar. Darkness never felt so comforting before, Yang brought her hands up to look at them, Ember Celica rattling as her hands vibrated with fear, severe burns were all across her hands and arms, and she could feel them all across her body. Her Aura working over time to heal the damage done to her skin from the toxic, irradiated water, flickering and flashing across her body like she was taking constant damage even after being taken out of the water.
"W-What happened…" She weakly said as she regained her breath.
"You fell into the stream and broke your mask. It looks like you got some pretty bad burns, probably from chemicals or some nasty radiation." Summer pulled the small device from her belt that was clicking steadily before she flicked it off, once dry it stopped.
"Khan's bringing the others here now. Just rest okay?"
"Okay mom… Okay" Yang laid back, looking at the worn concrete ceiling. She never would have considered that a comforting sight before but… This world really was nothing like Remnant.
So here it is! Our first surface chapter, it's shorter than normal but I hope it's just as impactful. There were multiple cues to a lot of different things that I can't list them all from this chapter. For those curious types, the mentioned PPM-88 mask is actually the mask you use in-game. But anyways, let's move on to my esteemed colleague.
I hate this chapter. No really I do. It's been soo disjointed and Ghost and I have been pulling each other in different directions. But short of starting all over again this is the best we could do. For those of you that didn't write this and see every tiny flaw from page one to 15. I hope you enjoyed. I'm gonna go cry now.
Also the penal colonist still can't write Dialogue so that's still 90% me. BULLSHIT! You're 60% at best Farmboy!
Zekken182: Hope you can save the dark ones from the missile strike and make ruby to understand their message since she can be sympathetic to their unintentional madness of their telepathy
Aheh… I'll say this Buddy; SNAFU
LoneEagle745: Can't wait to see team RWBY finally going to see the surface and maybe meet Artyom in the process.
Hope You enjoyed it, we make sure to not pull our punches in writing this story.
Guest: Me gusto el capitulo
I don't speak Spanish, but how about some Old Norse? Þökk!
Renko93: Pretty good so far, hope we will see Artyom sooner or later.
Well we're a step away from Dry now, only this time, Khan will have an entourage.
The shits gonna hit the fan something nasty next chapter, remember! Artyom brings more than just a message of the Dark Ones, especially for poor Summer.
Look forward to a Bloodbath next chapter. And don't forget to help us grow by sharing this story, leaving a review and following/favoriting us!
See you next time in "The Reaper of Revolution Square".