Chapter 67
"So… that's it then?" Yang grumbled to Adam. Blake had gone to retrieve her weapon, with Ilia right behind her.
"So it seems. I know you might not be able to trust them, given the… arm situation." Adam winced. "So I can't blame you if you keep an eye on them. Just… give them a chance to prove themselves."
"Fine. I'll watch them. You can be their little saviour if you want."
"Thank you. If this works, we'll be stronger for it."
"True. I'll give that they aren't bad." Yang let out a frustrated sigh. "I'll call Ruby, tell her what's happened."
"Got it."
Yang stepped away and tapped her earpiece. "Ruby. This is Yang. We're alright here. How's it going over there?"
"..."
"Ruby?" Yang swallowed nervously as the earpiece crackled.
She wasn't responding.
"Adam! We have a problem!"
His face hardened. "Damn it. Alright, let's move. Blake, Ilia. Sorry, but we need to hurry and meet up with the others."
"Okay." Blake replied with an apprehensive nod.
"Let's move." Yang said as she rushed into the forest. They had to hurry.
Stay safe sis.
"... Assume the base knows!"
Adam's voice cut out immediately after.
"What do we do?" Oscar asked nervously.
Ruby thought for a moment. "Weiss is already out of range. Until she comes back in we can't warn her. If the base knows, they'll probably send people out here. So… get ready for a fight I guess."
"They're probably going to send some Manta's our way, so we need to prepare some air defence." Jaune added. "We… aren't too good at that." He winced slightly.
"Yeah." Ruby nodded. "Until Weiss gets here, it'll probably be up to Uncle Qrow, Pyrrha and me. Unless you think your grenades will work Nora?"
"Maybe." She replied, shrugging. "I can try at least."
"Okay, then everyone else should focus on supporting us." Ruby ordered.
"Three defending and four attacking." Jaune mused aloud. "Alright. Ren, on Nora. I'll stick by Pyrrha. Oscar, be ready to help Ruby."
"Okay." Oscar nodded.
"Got it." Ren lightly stretched.
"Sure." Qrow grumbled.
"I'll pull them down for everyone to hit." Pyrrha added.
"With that sorted, we should take cover in-" the ground shaking caused Ruby to stop. They all looked around confused.
And then it shook again.
And again.
It was almost rhythmic. Boom. Boom. Boom.
And then the source of the quakes revealed itself:
A massive mechanical humanoid, larger than many buildings. It didn't have a head and one of its arms was a cannon, but it was undeniably built to model humans. Ruby swallowed audibly.
Why do they have a mecha!? She had to focus. She had to quell the increasing desire to pilot one herself. I don't have time to want one damn it!
Shaking herself free of such thoughts she turned to her friends. "Well… that's not what we planned for but we can manage. Same as before, those of us with range or mobility can strike it, others on defence. Pyrrha, try to slow it if you can."
"Got it." Pyrrha nodded. "I'll see if I can't break that cannon too."
"Don't try too hard. Everyone needs to stay mobile."
"You!" A familiar voice crackled over a loudspeaker. Cordovan! "You damned brats! You dare to attack the Atlesian Military! Did you think we would let you get away with it! You! You! Yoooouuuuu!"
The cannon arm came up, its barrel beginning to spin as a cold blue light shone within it. "Scatter!" Jaune roared. They all jumped away, just in time. The cannon fired, sending a streak of light piercing into the ground where they had stood. Where the light hit massive walls of ice formed.
If we get hit by that, we're done! No way we'll be able to break out in time! Ruby scrambled as the cannon went silent. Now was their chance.
Qrow had flown up high above them, trying to get the drop on the mech. Nora and Ren opened fire, trying to pin it down or distract it. Jaune took Pyrrha's hand and used his Semblance to boost hers. White light poured from him, turning into red as it entered Pyrrha and then turning black as she poured it into her Semblance.
The groaning of metal filled the air as she tried to warp the machine to keep it from moving.
"You! What are you doing!? Why isn't it moving!?" Cordovan roared, seemingly unsure what was causing the fault. Pyrrha smiled as sweat poured down her face.
Ruby dashed forward, becoming a blur of crimson petals. She zipped over the ocean and landed on the metal surface of the raised cannon. Crescent Rose barked as she ran down the length of the arm, firing at the glass cockpit. A Hardlight shell appeared, blocking the gunfire.
"Dang it!" Ruby murmured.
"What did I miss?!" Weiss' voice came over the earpiece, shocked and dismayed.
"Revenge! That's what we missed! Ha ha!" Maria shouted in response. A moment later a dozen missiles went flying towards the mecha's back.
It tried to turn and knock them out of the sky, but instead, all the machine could do was let out a metal screech. Pyrrha had damaged its ability to turn. Explosions lit up over its back, causing the shell of Hardlight to flicker slightly.
"Now! Go for it!" Ruby shouted and charged further up the arm. A crow passed her by before it turned into her Uncle. With a yell he slashed at the cockpit, trying to break in. His hits failed to make it through but he did manage to keep her distracted long enough for Ruby to get on top of its 'shoulder' area.
Taking a moment to breathe, Ruby looked back to the shore. Weiss was now on the ground, preparing to throw up walls of earth or ice to block incoming attacks. Ren, Nora and Oscar had jumped into the stolen Manta, which was now coming back around above her. Pyrrha looked dead tired, having dropped to rest while Jaune tried to regenerate her Aura.
We aren't doing bad, but we aren't doing well either. We need to end this. But how?
Ren and Nora dropped down onto the hull near her, quickly joined by Qrow. "Got a plan?" Her Uncle asked.
"Maybe. If we can get in here, maybe we can stop this."
"How do we do that?" Ren asked.
"There's got to be an entrance somewhere…"
"Do we have that kind of time?" Nora looked worriedly at the cannon.
"Qrow, try and see if you can find its shield generator. Nora, Ren, you two go after that cannon. I'll search for an entrance."
With a nod, they split up.
Almost immediately Ruby could hear grenades going off, followed by the sounds of Stormflower firing. Ruby zipped across the surface, dodging the mechs off-hand as it reached up to squish them. "You damned children! You'll pay for disrespecting the Atlesian Military!"
It was as she dodged another hand strike that her earpiece crackled. A voice tried to come through, but Ruby was too busy to pay attention. If it was important, they'd repeat it.
"Incoming!" Maria called as she launched another salvo of missiles from the Manta. Another half dozen streaked down, exploding against the arm trying to squish her. As the mech shook and the arm pulled away to swat at the Manta Ruby finally saw it.
A hatch.
"Over here!" She called. Nora and Ren came running just as Qrow returned.
"I found it!"
"Got it! Take Ren and try to destroy it! Nora, help me!"
Ruby stuck the end of her scythe in between the hatch and the metal around it and began to try to crowbar it open. Nora arrived and helped, the stronger girl causing the metal of both hatch and blade to creak.
And then, with a loud explosion, the Hardlight shell shattered. The Manta dived from the sky towards the mecha's back, heading to retrieve Qrow and Ren.
"Rrrraaaaaaaa!" The girls shouted, putting all their might into shifting the hatch. And then a cloud of darkness appeared around Ruby's beloved weapon and the door they were trying so hard to open. Pyrrha reached out and broke the locks holding the hatch shut. With the sound of metal snapping it finally opened.
Ruby panted and wiped her face. "Damn… Pyrrha is way too good with that…"
"Yea she is!" Nora grinned and jumped in. Ruby rolled her eyes and followed.
The interior of the mech seemed to be made up of tight, small corridors. Space was a premium here it seemed. There weren't any internal defences nor any soldiers waiting for them. Just cold walls, the muffled sounds of battle from outside and a heavy thrum as the cannon charged and fired.
Soon enough they came to the cockpit, a larger open area with several seats placed all around. In the centre near the front was a more closed-in space with a large seat. Sat there was Cordovan, shaking with rage.
"You dare to set foot here?"
"We do. All we wanted was passage to Atlas. We didn't want to fight over this."
"The borders are closed! What don't you get about that? Nobody can pass!"
"Cordovan… you have a job to protect Argus. That's a vital mission. But we have one too. We have to reach Atlas and speak with the General. If we don't, Atlas could fall. The world is in danger. Please, help us."
"You think you can just say the world is in danger and I'll let you go?"
"Yup." Ruby said, popping the p. Cordovan turned in her seat, looking at them like they were insane. "Ironwood would want you to let us pass."
"What do you know of Ironwood's wants?"
"Probably a bit more than you do. Qrow Branwen is my uncle, and he's worked with Ironwood plenty of times. They're friends."
"..."
"Cordovan please, just let us pass."
"..." For a long moment, they stared at each other. Finally, with a defeated sigh, Cordovan reached over and pressed a button. The thrum of the cannon faded as it lowered itself. Ruby let out a relieved sigh.
"Thank you."
"Just go."
Ruby nodded and made her way out, Nora giving the old woman a wave before following. Outside the salty sea air felt welcoming to Ruby.
"Okay guys, we've got a chance to leave now. Let's go before she changes her mind." She reported into her earpiece to the cheers of her friends. The Manta came in to pick them up, just as Yang's voice came over the earpiece.
"Ruby! Is that you?"
"Yang! Are you guys alright?"
"Yeah. We're on our way to the pick-up point. We uh… we have some extras. Are you alright?"
"Yeah. We had some trouble but-" A long, loud horn sounded in the distance. It sent a shiver up the spines of all of them. "Oh no…" The alarm continued, on and on.
Grimm were coming for Argus.
"I know we're on a time limit, but is this okay?" Jaune wondered aloud, looking to the back of the Manta where Adam's new friends were stood.
"Jaune, he's vouched for them." Pyrrha replied from her seat.
"I know but…"
"Let's trust him, okay?"
"Okay…" Jaune sighed. "How are you feeling?"
"After disabling a giant machine and then fixing the damage I did? Spent. If this was a smoother ride I'd probably have fallen asleep."
"Right. Well, hopefully, that mech thing can win this battle." Jaune bit his lower lip and looked out the front windscreen.
Outside was a mess. Gryphons, Nevermore and Manticores were battling Argus's fleet of Manta's and gunships. It was going well. The issue wasn't that.
It was the massive beast that was currently embroiled in a duel with Cordovan's mecha. It was even, for now. It couldn't last though. The mech had already taken a lot of damage and its shields were destroyed. Every hit it took was disastrously damaging and it was too big to dexterously avoid them.
We need to do something, or Argus might fall. If it falls… he didn't want to think about it. Saphron, Terra, Adrian, Chrysanthos and Helena. They were all in the line of fire if they failed. So how could they win?
"We need to give Cordovan a chance to finish it…" Jaune couldn't think of anything, however. It was like something was slipping by just out of reach.
"If we need to slow it…" Ruby whispered. "Damn it…"
"Ruby, you've got something?"
"Yeah. Weiss, I need to get close. You have a flying summon, right?"
"I do. A Queen Lancer. What's the plan?"
"I use what I was born with." Ruby opened the door, causing wind to blast through the cramped shuttle. Weiss knelt down as a shimmering glyph appeared beneath her, with another appearing outside. From that second glyph came a massive wasp-like Grimm, the Queen Lancer. Ruby jumped onto it.
"Hold on!" Weiss ordered a moment before commanding her summon to fly towards the giant Leviathan. The Manta rose up as the summon flew away, providing Weiss with a birds-eye view to command from.
"We need to keep the Grimm off of us!" Jaune ordered, heading towards the open door with shield in hand. He may not have a gun to use, but he could at least protect Weiss. He was quickly joined by everyone except Maria and Oscar, who were piloting the Manta.
Ren, Nora, Pyrrha. Qrow, Yang, Adam and Blake all opened fire, their various types of guns barking in quick succession. A hail of bullets tore through any Grimm that attempted to challenge them.
And then there was a flash of brilliant silvery-white light from near the Leviathan. They could all see the monster's skin be turned to stone from the light.
It faded, revealing Ruby stood atop a hovering summon in front of the petrified Grimm.
And then the stone cracked and shattered as the Leviathan broke free. It roared in triumph and gazed down at the girl who had caused it.
"Haaaaaa!" A voice crackled over the coms. Cordovan.
The massive mech raised its non-cannon arm, which had at some point transformed into a massive drill, and impaled the Grimm upon it. With an extremely loud whirring sound, the drill tore through the monster and quickly turned its insides into mulch.
The Grimm fell, dead.
Ruby returned with a look of success and disappointment. "Let's go." She whispered as she shut the door.
The Manta pulled away from Argus and set its sights on Atlas.
A/N: So, Colossus fight and Argus is done. Not overly much for me to mess with. Just Pyrrha making it a heck of a lot easier with Jaune boosting her. Gods her Semblance is op sometimes. Anyway, the big changes were last chapter. Well, more big changes next chapter perhaps. Hehehehehehe. However, you'll have to wait a bit longer for that one! I'm taking next week off for my birthday. Yay. Just had to happen around the same time we have another COVID outbreak here. Ugh. Thankfully NZ is an island nation so we should be pretty good. Plus it's in the north island and I'm in the south island, so I'll probably be fine at least. Hopefully, we can leave lockdown quick this time.
Anyway, I'll see you guys next time! I hope you enjoyed it!