Ok, so last chapter might have been a bit too violent, but then again it is Tyrian we are talking about and what Jacque did only added fuel to the fire. At least Robyn was able to give Mantle the Dust they needed after Jacque's plan to get the people to vote for him. I swear, I hate that guy.
Unfortunately, it seems that Season 2 of the Bad Batch has been moved to the fourth of January next year. I don't get it; they said the season would air in Fall of 2022 and said the release date was the 28th of September and now they want us to wait even longer to see what happens to the rest of Clone Force 99. Well, it won't hamper my Bad Batch story I'm working on.
Before I continue, I want to say I went back and made a few changes on some chapters. As of now, the SE series are now the MG series, took a que from Project Wingman with how the designated the MIG-21, MIG-29 and MIG-31 as MG-21, MG-29, and MG-31. Figured it would make it easier for you all to understand.
Speaking of planes, it's time to get back in the air. BlindFaunusGirl, what you told me you dreamt of once, you'll be seeing it this chapter and I hope you like it.
Now, onto the reviews.
Q: I won't spoil anything about Ironwood or the Empire, but you are right about him being a dictator and control freak.
Monster King: Thanks.
Jack Smith1: Yep, shit is heating up, but as for Tyrian and Watts plans, you'll have to wait and see. But, that clone captain from the Bad Batch you mention, I've given that some thought and he'll be appearing. Just remember this is primarily a legends story.
Luffy L Deathwalker: No, Galen will not be telling Ironwood the identity of the Fox. Why reveal the identity of an ally who's doing right by the people of Mantle? Glad you liked the interaction between the two.
Spartan-626: Yeah, I kind of got carried away, but I'm glad you liked the reference to Predator. You'll see more of Winter and the Fox next chapter. I promise.
Capt. Schroller: You make valid points in regard to the TIE's and lightsabers, but when it comes to the TIE series, they can outmatch the most skilled pilots by outnumbering them. I did not even consider Mordred until you mentioned her, that actually might work.
Silverfox3456: Which Battlefront 2 are we talking about? The 2005 or the remake that left a lot to be desired and put more focus on multiplayer than a decent campaign? Glad to know what the dogfights would be and yes, the AT-TE and Juggernaut are in this story, I've used them already. 'Rage of the Darkside' huh? Interesting name.
The guest reviewer from several chapters: Sorry, I don't speak Spanish.
BlindFaunusGirl: Yeah, I think I went a little overboard with Tyrian's 'hobby' last chapter. But I can assure you that you will like this chapter. It has that thing you mentioned you saw in a dream.
Songs this chapter are 'Unbreakable' by Bon Jovi, 'Danger Zone' by Kenny Logins, 'Mighty Wings' by Cheap Trick, the Top Gun theme, 'Fighter' from Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, 'Faceless Soldier' from Ace Combat 7 and 'Glacial Skies' from Ace Combat: Zero.
Onto the intro.
(Start Rise, Tv version by Madkid)
(The camera moves fast over the frozen tundra of Solitas before it shots up to the floating city of Atlas and the city of Mantle below it. As fighter jets fly past, the title card is revealed with two lightsaber blades surrounding it.)
Remnant Unleashed
In this empty void, I found the way to light. Can't find my way in this lingering world. Searching fo the answer- the one that I can trust in. I'm just wandering around.
(The title card vanishes as a shot of Ironwood addressing his followers is shown, standing in full military gear. Among them is Galen and his team, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Lop, Faye, Kara and Zett, the students wearing new combat clothing. Behind them in the corner with their helmets off are Rex and his brothers who eye the general with suspicion.)
Yeah, still stuck in the shadow ey, But I never follow that. This pain at last soon will pass. Turn into my own unbeatable strength. This guy or that guy -dead or alive by hiding alone, can't survive. I don't want to lie to myself.
(Behind Ironwood are his Ace Ops and Winter who then dissipate into mist before being replaced by Jacque who has a devious grin on his face, while Whitley and Serra stand behind him looking at each other with worry. The scene then changes to Mantle where Boba, Robyn, Ahsoka, the Fox, Maria, Grogu, Pietro, Penny, Artoria and the Happy Huntresses look up towards Atlas, Robyn crossing her arms before looking at a picture of her, Ray, Neo, and Amber.)
Keep on the fight, get right I'll never lose and cry. Keep run up day and night. Time to rewrite. No matter what anyone say's I find my way. Never go away.
(The Grimm charge towards from the tundra as Galen, Ruby, Jaune and their teams ready for their weapons for battle only for Ruby, Jaune and their teammates to vanish into mist while soldiers appear behind Galen and his team aiming their weapons at them. Galen's eyes are shown and then narrow as he ignites his lightsabers.)
Now, nobody can stop me no way. I will make sure not to forget those precious things. Yeah, I'll take a stand, get back all that I've lost. Rise suddenly in this word. (I don't look back yeah.)
(Galen and his team then charge in, now fighting a top a speeding train in the tundra against the Ace Ops while droids attack both groups. Galen slashes a droid and counters an attack from Harriet, Rose dodges Elm's massive hammer, Arthur clashes blades with his cousin, March trades fists with Marrow who looks unsure of his choices as Vine's giant hands try to swat away two human shaped machines flying alongside the train, with Clover trading blows Rex at the front of the train.)
This repetition will repeat 'till the end. And the regret that's still lingering in my head. Time to get it all back, now turn over. Rise suddenly in this world.
(The scene changes once again as Teams RWBY, JNR, Domino Squad, the Bad Batch, Fordo, Alpha, Cody, Waxer, Boil, Kara, Faye and Able fight against the Grimm which then change into Imperial troopers as the shadows of Vader, Palpatine, Barriss, Jacque, Watts, Maul, Salem, Emerald, Mercury and a mysterious robotic figure loom over them. Ruby's face turns to fear before her eyes shine and a silver light engulfs the screen before the title card returns.)
(Song ends)
Disclaimers are the same as always. Please enjoy.
Chapter 104: Ruby's Wings
"Are you certain that it was Jacque's men who were dumping Dust into the sewers and killing the people living there?" Ironwood asked Galen the morning after he and the Fox discovered Jacque's plan.
"It's just like, Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Crosshair, and I said. Jacque's security forces were actively destroying all the Dust he refined by dumping it into the sewers and were murdering the 'squatters' to avoid any witnesses." Galen told the General, standing in front of Ironwood's desk in his office with Clone Force 99 behind him.
The day after their journey into the sewers, Galen told Ironwood everything that happened in the sewers, leaving out the parts about Robyn, Ruby tagging along with them and learning the Fox's true identity. "It seems that Tyrian is still alive, and I have no idea how he's still breathing. I killed him myself in Anima and confirmed the body was dead." He added.
"Having a supposed deceased serial killer working for her has given Salem an edge. With Tyrian killing those who are strongly against my actions, she's framing me and making me look like a murderer, someone who would even target children!" Ironwood snarled, slamming his fist down on his desk. "I'm going to have the Atlas systems triple their firewall protection. Whoever deleted the data on the terminal must know more about the systems more than I do. I won't allow a virus to turn my military against the people."
"Perhaps you should take a better look in the mirror, General." Crosshair said, taking his toothpick out of his mouth. "Everyone living in Atlas is sitting comfortably without a care in the world, while the people in Mantle are barely able to scrape by, struggling to stay alive day by day." The enhanced sniper pointed out.
"Yeah, I got to agree with Crosshair on this. I've heard a lot of the regular soldiers talking about it. While Robyn has calmed them down and kept them from rioting, everyone seems to hate you. They're calling you a tyrant and other names I don't plan on repeating." Hunter agreed.
"What the people Mantle think of me doesn't matter. I'm not worried about my public image, I'm more concerned about how Tyrian got into Mantle and who he's working with. Someone was able to remotely shutdown the sentry turrets in the sewers and without them, the Grimm can enter the city through the underground." Ironwood said in anger.
"Maybe if you didn't rely so much on your computers, you could have actually done something about the guns! I mean, I don't know how many Grimm we killed down there, but there's always more of them. I'm just glad we didn't run into any of the Manti or Arachnid Grimm. We wouldn't stand a chance against all of them." Wrecker pointed out.
"The fact that you appointed Penny as the Protector of Mantle when they already have Robyn, her huntresses and the Fox protecting them says that you don't trust the people of Mantle. You think one of them could be loyal to Salem and while your concern is understandably it is illogical." Tech said. "The people of Mantle see it as Atlas trying to interfere with their lives. It's how many worlds saw the Republic presence on their worlds during the war, but it only resulted them in being targeted by the Separatists and led to the invasion of many of these worlds."
"Then what would you suggest I do?" Ironwood demanded.
"The answer is logical." Kalani said as he walked into Ironwoods office. "Rather than force the people of the lower city to bear the brunt of the Grimm attacks, assist them in protecting the city. Provide them the supplies they need to defend themselves from the Grimm, Salem's droid army and the White Fang." The super tactical droid explained.
"The White Fang is gone! Ghira Belladonna and Sienna Khan have taken control of the organization and Adam Taurus is dead!" Ironwood countered.
"Negative. Adam Taurus is still alive and hundreds of White Fang forces retreated from Argus after the battle. It is possible that he has formed an alliance with Salem and has pledged his loyalty to Salem in order to wage his war against the humans." Kalani said, pressing a few keys on a datapad he was holding and showed it to Ironwood. "Many White Fang members were once miners in the SDC mines, who suffered harshly under the oppression of the SDC foreman who ran the mines. Seventy-two percent of those members played parts in robberies of the SDC and military equipment, giving the White Fang the weapons and Dust, they use in battle. Many of them are also survivors of illegal Faunus hunts that have been conducted by the SDC and its business partners, partners who are just as questionable as the SDC is today. Many of these workers turned terrorists are from Mantle who thought that by working for the SDC they would have a better life, but they were wrong and were either terminated or joined the White Fang. This problem also stems to you."
"I had nothing to do with those hunts or the SDC operations! I would never condone these sorts of actions because of the actions of Jacque and his business partners!" Ironwood exclaimed.
"Yet you haven't acted against them because the Schnee Dust Company is the biggest producer of Dust in the world. Without it, the people wouldn't have any weapons or ammo to fight the Grimm." Galen pointed out.
Ironwood was fuming at the disrespect he was being shown by these people. True, he knew of the SDC and its partners conducting these illegal hunts, but because of the SDC's role in the world, he couldn't do anything or else risk a shortage of Dust. "I will take full responsibility for my actions once the tower is complete and the world knows about Salem. For now, our focus should be on the tower and making sure that the election runs smoothly. You're all dismissed. Except for you, Galen. I want to show you the new aircraft we have been developing since Beacon." The General told his guests.
Hunter shrugged his shoulders and led his squad away with Kalani following them. Leaving Galen alone in the General's office before he and Ironwood soon left the office and went to one of the hangers at the academy.
Inside the hanger were eight new aircraft. Two of them featured an uncommon variable geometry technology and forward swept-wings, vertical stabilizers, weapons bays located between the intakes underneath the aircraft, a single 20mm cannon and two tri-dimensional thrust vectoring engines. Their top speed was Mach 2.5 and featured stealth technology more advanced than the Longsword and Broadsword.
The third aircraft had a sleek, angular design with variable geometry sweptback wings, high output engines, four tail wings above and below the four engines, underwing hard-points for missiles and an internally mounted 20mm cannon in the left side of the wing. The top speed was Mach 2.1.
The fourth aircraft featured swept wings, twin engines, an advanced ECM system, tactical laser strutting atop the airframe and canards. It wasn't a stealth aircraft, as its top speed was around Mach 2.4 and its twin hardpoints under its wings were a dead giveaway. The plane also had an internally mounted 20mm cannon.
It was considered the twin of the firth aircraft which was an improved version which featured a reinforced airframe, TLS hydraulics a minored targeting systems and internal mirrors. Both planes featured the same engines and measured at a length of almost twenty-four meters, a relatively small aircraft, but one that carried more firepower than the Longsword and just as fast as the Dagger.
The sixth aircraft featured many similarities to the fourth and fifth, with twin engines equipped with thrust vectoring technology and a vertical stabilizer on the bottom of the aircraft and had a similar weapons loadout when it came to missiles, but that was where the similarities ended. The fighter featured the traditional cropped delta wings, lacked any sort of rear stabilizers and instead of a cannon was equipped with laser cannon. The top speed was close to Mach 3.
The seventh aircraft had an angular body like the third plane, with improved stability and mobility with slightly reduced armor. Its top speed was Mach 2.2 and had an armament of a single 20mm cannon mounted in the nose, air-to-air missiles, a tactical laser system and bombs.
The final aircraft was a twin-engine carrier-based fighter with a delta wing configuration in a sort of 'kite' formation, twin dimensional rudders, featured porous ceramics and an electromagnetic-wave absorbing meta-materials which were lighter and more durable than conventional stealth coatings. The planes armament consisted of two 30mm cannons, external pylons for missiles and three experimental weapons bays which held more missiles than the Broadsword or Longsword combined. The top speed of the aircraft was Mach 2.2.
What Galen noticed was that four out of the eight aircraft lacked any sort of cockpit, making him wonder how these planes would be flown without a pilot. "These are the X-02 Wyvern, X-02S Strike Wyvern, XFA-27, ADFX-01, ADFX-02, ADF-01 Falken, ADF-11F Raven and CFA-44 Nosferatu. The newest additions to the Atlas air force." Ironwood said.
"Some of these planes look like they don't require a pilot." Galen stated.
"They don't. The ADFX-01, ADFX-02, Falken and Raven are drone fighters. Only the XFA-27, X-02, X-02S and CFA-44 require a pilot, until we can produce them with onboard A. I's that can completely replace pilots, allowing them to operate the planes from the safety of Atlas or the airship." Ironwood explained.
"How did you build them?" Galen asked.
"After the Fall of Vale, we recovered the remains of any imperial fighters that were still intact and reversed engineered their technology to produce these aircraft. The technology of the TIE series is far more advanced than anything before and with these fighters, we can reduce the loss of pilots in battle." Ironwood said proudly.
This caught Galen by surprise. "You used imperial technology to build these things! What the hell where you thinking!? The Empire will use that to their advantage and take control of your weapons!" Galen yelled.
"I have already taken precautions to avoid such an incident from occurring." Ironwood answered calmly. "The A.I.' systems are protected by the most advanced firewalls Atlas has ever created. Anyone who tries to take control of them remotely will be locked out of the system and their location tracked. I will not allow anyone to take control of these fighters for their own means."
"What about if someone hacks directly into the systems?" Galen questioned. "Whoever designed that virus clearly knows more about cyberwarfare then you think. These 'planes' are nothing more than advanced droid fighters that can be reprogrammed with the right coding. You're only endangering Atlas and Mantle with these damn things."
"That is why they will not be protecting the Kingdom, but rather protecting a weapon that will be our first line of defense against enemy capital ships." Ironwood said, still convinced that the four drone fighters would be enough. "That is the other reason I called you here. I would like you, Dante, Commander Tano, Hitman Team, and several pilots from the 501st and 502nd squadrons to investigate this."
He pulled out his scroll, placed it on the ground and pressed a button before stepping back as a holographic display of a massive complex of eight massive cannons. "Many people may not know this, but Atlas, Mantle and the rest of the continent have been plagued by meteor showers that have caused great death and destruction. Fifty years ago, Atlas created Stonehenge, a series of massive railguns designed to shoot the meteors out of the sky before they could cause any damage. These guns are controlled by eight-thousand, one-hundred and ninety-two super computers, requiring no human or faunus operators to control them. They proved useful in protecting us from an asteroid shower thirty years later and have since been sitting out in the tundra rusting away." Ironwood explained.
"Alright, so why bring this to my attention now?" Galen inquired.
"These cannons are powerful enough to cut an airship in half with a single shot, the ideal weapon for destroying enemy ships before they can land on the continent." Ironwood said. "I've decided to reactivate this facility for the defense of the kingdom and planet. However, I need to know if the facility is intact, but I can't spare any troops to inspect the facility. That is why I want a squadron to investigate the ruins and see if they are salvageable."
Galen looked at the hologram of Stonehenge. A weapon system of that size would definitely punch through the shields of a Star Destroyer once it was in range, but the idea of using such weapons could also backfire if someone were to hack into their systems and take control of both the drones and railguns. "I retract my offer to fly one of these new aircraft. Sorry, General but I'll stick with aircraft I know I can depend on and not some machine programmed to follow orders. As for the guns, how far away is the complex?" he asked.
"I'm sorry to hear that, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway, the XFA-27 and the others aren't ready for combat yet." Ironwood said, disappointed that Galen's combat data wouldn't be used to improve the drones. "As for the complex, its five hundred miles away from the kingdom, close to the western mountains."
"I lead this mission." Galen said, getting the general to smile. "On one condition. Ruby flies with me as my wingman in my starfighter."
"Out of the question. Ruby will be staying in Atlas to continue her training to master her silver eyes. I can't risk having her be killed or captured by Salem." Ironwood protested.
"So, I was right. You're using Ruby's training as an excuse to keep her from getting killed before she can kill Salem. You're treating her like a prisoner and a weapon. She's a seventeen-year-old girl, not some weapon you can recall with the push of a button with some programing." Galen scolded, rolling his eyes. "She fought long and hard to become a huntress and the moment she gets her provisional license; you forbid her from taking any missions so long as she is accompanied by one of your soldiers or not fighting the Grimm. She can take of herself."
"I will not risk her safety by allowing her to partake in a dangerous mission." Ironwood said firmly.
"You don't get it, do you? Ruby isn't a soldier of Atlas, nor is she one of your huntresses. She's a huntress of the Kingdom of Vale and a Jedi. She's allowed to follow her own path and make her own choices. She's not at your beck and call. She's coming with me on this mission and that's final." Galen snarled, walking out of the hanger. "Have one of those S27's ready for me, loaded with a dual loadout of XMAA's. I've got a feeling we're going be facing a lot of hostiles." Ironwood just frowned and watched as Galen left the hanger, giving him of all people orders.
After he left the hanger, Galen headed for the training room where Ruby, March and Harriet were training with their semblances or in Harriet's case, trying to prove that she was faster than the both of them in every aspect. "She's really competitive, isn't she?" Galen said to Rex who was watching the 'competition' as Harriet had called it.
"They've been at this since they woke up. Harriet didn't even give Ruby a chance to get her strength back after her lack of sleep. She's been out of the game for so long, her skills are rusty. I don't know what Ironwood is thinking, leaving Ruby out of these missions because her eyes are the only way to defeat Salem. He's a damn idiot." Rex said in agreement.
"I'd take that back if I were you." Harriet said, having heard Rex's statement. "The general knows what he's doing. Keeping the kid here, away from the action. It keeps Salem from learning that we know her weakness and will make it easier for us to kill her. She's better off training here, where she can't run off like the kid she is."
"I'm… standing… right… here… you… know…" Ruby panted in between breaths, before collapsing to the floor.
"You see her as a kid? Is that it?" Ahsoka questioned, walking into the training room, dressed in her armor and with Fordo by her side. "Training can only get you so far, but unless you actually use that training in actual combat it won't count for anything, considering she hasn't even used her training against the Grimm or any enemies at all." She pointed out. "Master Skywalker may have been protective of me, but he always trusted me enough to take care of things on my own. Sure, I may have been stubborn and butted heads with him, but I used his training to survive in the battles I've been through and have grown from it."
"You have no idea what you're talking about." Harriet scolded.
"Actually, you don't have any idea what you're talking about." March said, still full of energy. "Hardcase told me that even after all their training on Kamino, they still hadn't had a taste for real combat yet. Those troopers made it through battle by using what they learned in their training to fight and though not all of them came out of it alive, they still used what they learned. Same thing applies to my sister and the training she received from the Mandalorian's."
"You all talk a big game, but at the end of the day, you're still just kids." Harriet scoffed.
"Hey, we might be kids, but we've been through a lot more than you and your 'friends' have been." March stated. "We stopped a Grimm invasion, saved Haven Academy, found out that the head of the SDC was conducting illegal mining operations, put an end to a smuggling operation involving both Faunus, weapons and ammo, destroyed a prototype submarine carrier and held back a White Fang invasion of Argus, while all of you have been just doing whatever the general has ordered you to do." March argued, counting off each of those events with his fingers.
"You're still just kids." Harriet said again.
"Yeah, but I'm faster than you and Ruby put together. No offense, Ruby." March said with a shrug of his shoulders before demonstrating his semblance by running a few laps around the training room so fast, that no one could track him, even swiping Harriet's weapon in the process. "See what I mean?"
"I didn't join the Ace Ops to babysit a bunch of kids." Harriet scoffed, grabbing her weapon back from March "You think that winning a few battles makes you Huntsmen and Huntresses, then you're even more foolish than I thought you were."
"Then why don't I show you what a trained Jedi can do." Galen suggested, tossing his lightsabers to the side and cracked his knuckles. "You and me, one on one. No weapons, no semblances, no aura, no force. Just you, me, and our fists."
"You're not worth my time." Harriet scoffed and started to walk away.
"Sounds like some's chicken." March teased. That got Harriet to stop in her tracks and turned back to face March. "You're walking away without accepting the challenge. You say it's not worth your time, but the fact you're walking away says you're just afraid of Galen's skills."
"I'm not afraid of anything." Harriet shot back.
"Then prove it." Galen demanded, cracking his knuckles and took a fighting stance. "Show me that the Ace Ops aren't all talk."
Seeing this challenge as a competition, Harriet deactivated her weapon and tossed it aside, cracking her knuckles. "I'll show you why we're considered the best Huntsmen in Atlas." Harriet chuckled, ready to enjoy this.
"You going to just brag about your skills or are you actually going to fight?" Galen challenged.
Harriet was quick to respond by running towards Galen, her right hand in a fist and drawn back ready to slug Galen across the face. Much to her surprise, Galen caught her fist and kicked her feet out from underneath her. Harriet quickly leapt back to her feet and jumped onto one of the blocks in the training room, leaping off it and diving towards with a spinning kick.
The kick hit Galen's face, sending him to the side, but quickly brushed off the hit like it was nothing and raised his arms up in a blocking position, defending himself from Harriet's punches which were like a machine gun with the trigger held down. "I thought we agreed no semblances." Galen said.
"The enemy won't play fair, so why should I?" Harriet chuckled, continuing her barrage of punches that kept Galen on the defensive. "Is that all you can do? Defend yourself from my attacks? You're not all that tough like I thought."
Galen didn't respond and waited for Harriet to let her guard down, long enough for him punch her in the ribs. Harriet staggered for a bit, before she got her second wind, charging at Galen again. Galen back flipped several times out of the way, noticing during one of his flips that their fight had drawn a crowd of Atlas Academy students who were interested in seeing one of the Ace Ops take on the Demon Lord, some of them even placing bets on who would win.
Harriet noticed this and smirked, eager to show the Demon Lord of the Round Table his place. Again, she used her semblance to increase the speed of her attacks, landing dozens if not hundreds of punches and kicks on Galen, who continued to defend himself without getting the chance to attack his opponent.
Galen didn't pay much attention to it, but his moment of distraction left him open for Harriet to kick him into one of the blocks, before using her foot to pin him to the block like he was prey. "Let yourself get distracted and you wind up dead." She scolded, pressing her foot on Galen's stomach hard to keep him down. Her over confidence in her skills left her wide open when Galen grabbed her foot and twisted it, almost breaking her bones before he slammed her against the wall, without using the force. "What the hell!"
"When you have a CQC trainer like the Ghost of Mandalore as a teacher, you learn how to fight without a weapon, something that you neglected to consider. You think I can only fight with my weapons and the force and that was your big mistake." Galen said. "Stay down, you've lost this fight."
Harriet wasn't about to let some punk from Beacon show her up, so she leapt back to her feet and dashed towards Galen once more, only for Galen to slug her across the face. "You're moves were predictable at best. A novice would have fallen for your ploy, but I'm no novice." Galen said, slugging her across the face several more times, giving her a black eye before he kicked her in the stomach, then kicked her again in the head, did a spinning side kick, the knocked her back into a block before he delivered a final punch to her face and knocked her to the ground.
"You cheated! You used the force to see my movements!" Harriet accused.
"No, you telegraphed your moves, and they were easy to read. I kept my word and didn't use the force, unlike you." Galen said simply, before he walked away.
Harriet wasn't about to accept her loose and the moment she got back to her feet, she lunged at Galen using her full semblance. This proved to be a mistake as Galen dodged her attack and struck her in the arms hard enough that the bones in her right arm were broken, causing her to scream in pain. "You're the one who attacked me after the match was over. You said it yourself; the enemy won't play fair and I in turn repaid you for your breaking of the rules." Galen told the Ace Operative before he walked away to collect his lightsabers.
The students who were watching the fight moved aside to allow him to pass, heading for the airship pad where he took a bullhead down to Mantle, leaving behind an angry Harriet.
When he landed in Mantle, he walked towards the section of the wall that needed a lot of repairs where he found fifty-four clone troopers with teal blue markings on their armor helping the people of Mantle and the happy huntresses repair the wall with the supplies they had. The leader of these clones had the same teal blue markings as his men and a teal blue pauldron while their hair had been shaved short at the sides.
Howzer, the leader of these clones spotted Galen and walked towards the young Jedi. Like the rest of his men, Howzer was among the clones who hadn't removed their inhibitor chips before Order 66 was issued, but like himself and the platoons he commanded they never pulled the trigger and executed their Jedi general, having been assigned a relief supply mission to Ryloth after the planet was attacked by pirates.
They made their delivery when they heard of the Jedi betrayal but despite the inhibitor chips still inside their heads, something made these clones realize the order didn't make any sense at all and tried to ask for further clarification about the order from command but received no reply before their medical frigate came under attack by a squadron of pirate fighters and was sent a drift into space, disabling the hyperdrive and engines. Thankfully, Kalani was able to recover the ship and its crew who put themselves into stasis pods after drifting for six months, trying to repair the ship.
Kalani explained that during his planned droid rebellion, he removed the inhibitor chips of these troopers but kept them in stasis when he realized that his planned droid rebellion would fail and escaped with the clones. However, the clones remained in stasis after Kalani's ship was split in two by a Nevermore's feathers, sending the half of his ship with the clones crashing into the Atlas tundra while his half landed in the village.
While Galen, Robyn, Ruby, The Fox, and the Bad Batch were trudging through the sewers, Kalani and the rest of Team RWBY found the location of these pods and brought them back to the safety of Mantle, where they unsealed the pods and briefed the clones of the current situation. Surprisingly, Howzer and his men were more than willing to assist the people of Mantle and help their brothers in their fight against both the Empire and Salem.
"Glad you could make it, kid." Howzer said before he noticed Galen's bruises. "You look like you picked a fight with a gundark."
"More like a superpowered gundark named Harriet." Galen clarified as his aura healed his bruises as Robyn walked over to join them, now wearing chest armor that looked similar to what Jango Fett wore before his death, a gift given to her by Boba. "Ironwood has developed new aircraft and some of them are drones. He's planning on using the drones to protect some kind of complex called Stonehenge. A large complex of railguns he plans on using to attack imperial capital ships." Galen told.
"I don't see how that's going to help our situation. Stonehenge is far away from the kingdom and those guns have been rusting away for years. Can't really see how much help they'll be when the Empire starts landing troops, not to mention Dust isn't of much use of Remnant." Robyn shrugged. "Those settlements in the west, some of the people living off grid said they saw movement out near that place when they were on the train coming the Kingdom." She added.
"Sounds like I'll need to do some investigating about this movement before Ironwood launches our recon flight. Still, Ruby's not going to get any stronger if Ironwood is keeping her locked in Atlas for what he claims to be 'protecting her from Salem's followers who will kill her before she can master her powers.'" He muttered to himself.
He felt a tug on his leg and looked down to see Grogu smiling at him. "Hey kiddo." Galen said, picking up the little guy in his hands. "I hope he hasn't caused you too much trouble, Miss Hill. He certainly seems to have taken a liking to you."
"Not surprising." Maria said as she walked towards them. "When I first found him, Grogu immediately held out one of his fingers to me and even though I was blind, I could still see that he was still only a baby, and I couldn't just leave a baby to fend for themselves out in the world with all the Grimm and you know who." The Grimm Reaper explained.
"Weird how you would find him out in the middle of nowhere." Robyn said, wondering who it was who managed to get Grogu onto Remnant when the Jedi were being hunted down. "As for the kid, he hasn't been any trouble at all. He mostly just plays with Onyx and sleeps, but I do take the two of them out in the city so the dog can get some exercise. Grogu loves riding with the big guy." She assured as Onyx came over, sitting by Robyn's legs.
"I'm just glad he hasn't caused you any headaches." Galen said with relief. "Is my Shark ready?"
"It's all loaded up. That Dust you gave us really helped out a lot of people and some of it was even refined into fuel. If that stuff had gotten into the reservoir, we'd have a lot of sick people down here. I had it brought to the western gates, but I don't think it will get you all the way to Stonehenge. One of those Hellcats of yours would be better and faster, but that's just me."
"Thanks for the advice." Galen said.
"You sure you don't want any backup? My men can handle the situation here and you might run into some trouble along the way." Howzer offered.
"Tempting offer, but no thanks, Captain. The less attention I draw to myself, the better. Besides, you're needed here." Galen told the Captain, leaping over the nearby fence and landed on a freight train that was heading towards the western gate.
Standing on the roof of the freight car, Galen looked around him and saw hundreds of freight cars bearing the SDC logo sitting in sidings, no doubt loaded with refined Dust with snow building up around them. He could understand Ironwood's fear of the rest of the world blaming Atlas for what happened at Vale, but to cut off the Dust trade to the rest of the world was taking it a step to far. If the Empire or Salem were to attack now, all that Dust would be destroyed, and it would cause a lot of damage to the planet.
Just before the train reached western gateway, Galen jumped off the freight train and entered the garage where dozens of Schnee company trucks and civilian vehicles sat idly by. He didn't waste time in giving his buggy a once over before he hopped into the driver's seat, turned the key, and started the vehicle up. Carefully maneuvering his vehicle out of the garage, he waited for the large metal doors to open before he pushed his foot down on the petal and drove out into the tundra, leaving the so called 'greatest Kingdom' behind as snow was kicked up by his tires.
He hadn't gone very far before his Scroll rang. He glanced at it and saw that the caller was Ironwood himself. "I don't have time to deal with the General." He said and ignored the call as he continued to drive through the tundra.
As the snow kicked up from his vehicle's powerful tires, Galen heard the horn of a diesel engine not far from his position. His vehicle came to a complete stop, allowing him to take out his Scroll and used the camera function to scan the tundra for the source of the horn. He found the source sooner than he thought.
Ten kilometers ahead of him, a passenger train was under attack by dozens if not hundreds of humanoids looking robots with twin blasters on each arm, attacking the train some of which even had jetpacks built into their bodies. At first, he thought the attackers were Super Battle Droids but the metal casing around the machines told him they weren't battle droids. "Either Atlas lost more of its prototypes, or these are new machines that went haywire. Either way, I can't just stand by and watch those people get killed." Galen said to himself, gunning his vehicles engines to full power and sped towards the ongoing battle, once again ignoring the incoming call from Ironwood.
The unknown machines continued to fire at the train while the passengers ducked down to avoid getting killed. Save for one of them, a girl with blonde hair and green eyes, wearing thick red and silver armor, while on her back was a bullpup machine gun with blades on the barrel. "You metal bastards really know how to ruin my day." The girl snarled, walking to the end of the train car she was in and exited the car, her machine gun in hand. The unknown robots turned their attention towards her just as she fired off a burst that hit one of the flying robots in the jetpack before it spiraled out of control and crashed into the ground. "Here I am, trying to enjoy a nice peaceful train ride, hoping to see my sister and cousin when you scrapheaps decide to use us for target practice. Well guess what, Mordred Penwolf doesn't like getting ambushed and anyone who ambushes me, is going to die!" she declared, leaping off the train and firing her machine gun at the robots which soon started to fire at her.
One robot curled up into a ball and rolled towards her, uncurling from its ball form, and would have smacked Mordred aside had the girl not slashed the machine with her machine gun which she changed into a sword and then punched right through its torso, leaving a large hole in the center of it. "Is that the best you guys can do? I've seen White Fang shitheads fight better than you." She taunted.
The unknown robots didn't respond as they continued attack the train and Mordred. Running towards the robots, Mordred swung her blade and cleaved one robot in half, twirled it around and cut one down the middle before she leapt into the air and grabbed onto one of the jetpack wearing machines, pulled out a pistol and fired a couple of shots into the machines thrusters, before it exploded in mid-air. A blast of fire slammed into her armor and caused her aura to shimmer before she noticed multiple large red cube objects, with four boosters on each of the bottom corners, a missile launcher and quad-directional rotating turret on the top and bottom arrived, dropping off more of the unknown machines which now outnumbered Mordred a hundred to one. "Well shit! This is not what I was expecting." She cursed, looking at each of the transports at the forces they dropped off. "Alright, who's first?"
One of the robots was about to fire at the girl, but the sound of an engine caused them to scan for the source of the sound before leaping overhead was Galen's shark which landed on the ground with a thud, turned sharply and opened up with the vehicles machine guns, cutting down multiple robots as the passengers on the train found hope that the Demon Lord had arrived to save them. "Well, how about that? The Demon Lord of the Round Table himself has arrived to give me a hand. Guess Artoria wasn't kidding after all when she said he had a knack for appearing at the right place and time when you needed it." she smirked.
"You know Artoria Penwolf?" Galen asked as he exited his vehicle and ignited his lightsabers.
"Know her? I'm her younger sister, Mordred Penwolf. Anyway, let's talk later. We've got some walking piles of junk to take down." She smirked. Just then, one of the unknown cube shaped machines launched a volley of missiles towards them, but Galen used the Force to catch the missiles and sent them back at the machine, destroying it in a massive explosion. "Guess she forgot to mention you were one of those Jedi. That just makes it more interesting."
(Unbreakable starts)
Galen didn't waste any time in sprinting towards the machines which open fired at him, only for their shots to be redirected back towards the shooters or away from the train, cutting the machines into scrap metal while Mordred used her swords gun mode to down the airborne units staying behind to see the Demon Lord at work.
Bullets flew over his head as Galen cut down more of unknown machines, before he threw his lightsabers towards several of the airborne units followed by a powerful surge of Force Lightning that fired the targeting systems of several robots, causing them to turn on their own allies. Catching his lightsabers, he grabbed one of the machines and crushed it like a soda can and threw it into another of the cube like objects, destroying it and multiple machines near it.
"Time to cut loose." He quipped, sheathed his lightsabers, and drew his gun in its machine gun mode and opened up on the machines, using the laser sight to track each target as the spent bullets fell to the snow. "Yep, I'm acting just like Hevy and Hardcase." He smirked, his finger still pressing the trigger as the barrels rotated and he unleashed death upon the enemy.
"Where the hell did you get a weapon like that? I'm kind of jealous." Mordred praised as she loaded a new magazine into her weapon, shifted it back to sword mode and use it to block enemy fire. Some of the enemy fire managed to graze her and caused her aura to flicker, the same applied for Galen but to Mordred's surprise, Galen actually moved up while firing his weapon, occasionally dashing out of the way of enemy fire while focusing his efforts on the machines.
Galen rolled out of the way once more and fired a long burst from his weapon before the ammo clip ran dry, forcing Galen to either reload or change modes. He choose the latter and changed his machine gun into its rifle mode, attaching a canister to the weapon and fired. One aerial unit crashed into the snow, a standard unit was shot to pieces, one of the boosters on the last two cube objects was blasted and four aerial units were smashed into the ground. Mordred whistled impressively as she watched Galen decimated the enemy force while the train behind her was starting to move, albeit slowly. "Damn, this guy is one badass huntsman." She chuckled.
Galen holstered his weapon before he drew his lightsabers once more and slashed at the robots as they attempted to encircle him. Dozens of machines were cut down before he called on the force and unleashed a powerful telekinetic explosion disintegrating the ones closest to him while the ones not directly near the explosion were destroyed. "Is that all of them? I was expecting more." Mordred said, almost disappointed.
Her disappointment ended when coming over the hill was a small, four-legged mechanical spider covered in the same white armor as the other robots with a large twin-barreled cannon on top of it arrived on the scene and targeted Galen. Laser fire from the machines cannon forced Galen onto the defensive, but because he launched a full-frontal assault on the other machines, his aura was dangerously low and almost in the red. Mordred would have offered he assistance, but the last two cube machines were starting to go after the train. Grunting, she shifted her sword back into its machine gun mode and targeted the boosters while also trying to avoid the missiles being sent towards her. One of the missiles impacted close by her location and practically drained her aura completely.
Galen saw this and called his semblance, shouting Mordred's name and transferred all of his remaining aura to Mordred while the spider mech continued to shoot at him. His aura gone, Galen was vulnerable to a fatal hit, but the Demon Lord wasn't done fighting yet. His eyes narrowed as he thought of Ruby, the time they spent together and what she meant to him before he charged towards the spider mech and leapt onto its head, slicing its cannon off before stabbing his sabers into its single optical eye. With its targeting system gone and its damage severe, the machine began to emit a warning sound indicating it was about to explode.
Reaching out with the force, he lifted the machine up and hurled it towards the final cube machine, destroying the both of them just as Galen's aura recharged and the train was out of sight.
(End song)
"Damn, sis wasn't kidding when she said you were a complete monster. Although, I think you're more of a badass than a monster. No, monster is what we describe the Grimm." Mordred whistled, impressed by Galen's skills. She then looked back at the tracks that were damaged from the fight. "Looks like the railroad is going to be fixing these tracks up. The damage combined with the cold isn't going to make it a safe journey for anyone heading west."
"Tell them to send me the bill." Galen remarked, grabbing a piece of one of the wrecked robots and looked at it. "These are definitely not CIS droids, but the design was clearing inspired by the B2's, rocket, and destroyer droids." He mused, tossing the piece to the snow before he moved onto one of the more intact machines. "Tech will want to have a look at this."
He loaded the body of the robot onto his shark and was about to continue his journey to Stonehenge when Mordred stopped him. "If you're planning on heading to those old railguns, you're wasting your time. Some of those machines that have been appearing all of the globe have just recently taken up shop there. Plus, there's a nasty snowstorm heading this way, so it'll be impossible for you to see anything through all that powder. Might as well head back to the kingdom and report this to the general." Mordred told him, standing by the passenger side of the Shark. "Seeing as how all my luggage is still on train that left after I saved their asses; you think you could give a girl a lift to the kingdom?"
Too exhausted to say no, Galen got out of his vehicle and tied the robot body down on the back of his vehicle before he got back into his vehicle with Mordred siting beside him, turned around and drove along the tracks. "Arthur and Artoria never said anything about another sister or cousin. Are you the black sheep of the family or something?" Galen asked.
"Ha. That's a good one!" Mordred laughed. "No, I'm not a black sheep, I'm trying to forge my own path and haven't had much contact with the family since I lost my old Scroll to some quicksand in Vacuo. Still got my license though, even though I haven't fully graduated from the academy yet."
"You haven't graduated?" Galen said in surprise. "Your skills made you look like a veteran huntress who clearly has seen her fair share of combat."
"Yeah, well I was there at Beacon helping cover those civilians evacuate out of the city. Took down quite a number of those bucketheads that didn't give a damn they were targeting an evacuation center before we were told to abandon, so I know what my sis and cousin were up against. I didn't like it that the general didn't bother to send any help to the kingdom that he practically turned into a target, so I went AWOL as the military calls it and offered my services to the guys trying to retake the city and academy. Met a few of those Jedi that were running the show, even some of those Mandalorian's." Mordred explained as they crossed a bridge.
"So, you left Atlas and decided to go to Vale to help retake the city? Wouldn't that brand you as a rogue Huntress?" Galen inquired.
"It's not like I betrayed the kingdom and gave our enemies some military secrets. Ironwood just loves making people who don't support his goals as enemies when they have their own paths to follow. Seriously, you don't know how many graduates he spoke to and said their skills would be useful to the military and actually joined the armed forces. Hell, he's even drafted a couple of students and some of them ended up getting killed because they weren't ready for the kind of combat the army faces." Mordred scoffed, just as she noticed the kingdom in the distance. "Better grab my luggage from the station before I forget. By the way, you hear about Raven Branwen? She disappeared."
"Raven disappeared?" Galen said in shock. "How?"
"I don't know. I heard rumors from some of the people in Anima, around the villages that were targeted by her tribe. They said she was either killed by the Grimm, went crazy after the injuries she sustained at Haven or just vanished. I don't know which to believe, but I can tell you this much when I crossed swords with her before Haven, she's not the kind of person I'd want to face again in combat." Mordred answered as Galen pulled his vehicle into the garage, waited for the large doors to the city opened up and drove Mordred to the station where she collected her luggage. "Thanks for the lift, see you around."
Galen said goodbye and drove his vehicle to the eastern gate, parked his vehicle and untied the robot before he called for a bullhead to pick him up. He then decided to check his scroll and found that he had eight missed calls from Ironwood. "Better see what the good general wants." He mused to himself.
When he returned to the academy, he handed the robot over to Tech before he headed to Ironwoods office where he found the general and Clover waiting for him. "Let me guess, you're pissed that I ignored your calls? Well, it's like I told you, I'm not one of your soldiers and I don't take orders from you." Galen said.
"Actually, this has to do with Harriet." Clover corrected. "She's in the infirmary with some broken bones and gave us quite a vivid description about what happened during your fight. So, maybe you could fill in the blanks and tell us what exactly happened."
That's just what Galen did. He told the two of them about Harriet breaking the rules for the match, using her semblance to increase her speed, and even attacking him after the match was over which resulted in her broken bones. "I hope you are proud of yourself, because now the mission to Stonehenge will have to be postponed. Harriet was supposed to accompany you, seeing as she is one of our best pilots and the right candidate to pilot the X-02S. Without her, the mission won't be underway until she has recovered." Ironwood scolded.
"For your information, General." Galen snarled, practically feeling like he was forced to say that title with respect. "I have someone else in mind for my wingman. Secondly, I've just heard that someone or something has just taken over Stonehenge, probably some of Salem's forces which means the mission is far more dangerous you thought. I don't need someone who treats everything as a competition getting in my way and screwing everything up."
"You're thinking about Ruby, aren't you?" Clover guessed.
"Out of the question. Ruby Rose is…." Ironwood began before he felt an invisible force wrap around his neck and started to choke him.
"If you say that Ruby is far too valuable to be sent on a mission like this, then you're an even bigger idiot that I thought. She's not a weapon and she can make her own choices." Galen snarled again, having finally lost his patience with Ironwood. "I'll see to her training personally, as I always have when it comes to the force." He then released Ironwood from his grip and left his office. "You know, the old me would have snapped your neck or thrown you out the window. But that's not who I am anymore." He reminded.
Students of Atlas Academy walked by chatting with each other or going to their classes when they spotted Galen walking down the hall and everyone moved out of his way, as if they were afraid of him. "Guess people have been talking about my fight with Harriet since I left." He said to himself as he turned the corner to the cafeteria and grabbed burger, fries, and water before he took a seat alone and ate his food.
"Don't take it too personal." Clover said as he sat down and joined Galen with the same food on his tray. "The General has been like this for a while now. I think Beacon changed him and lately, it seems that some of his orders are causing more harm than good. Not just for Atlas, but for Mantle as well."
"If you think that, then why don't you leave?" Galen asked, taking a bite of his burger. "Seems to me that unless you're ordered to protect the people, you'll just leave them to die. No wonder Robyn doesn't trust the general."
"Maybe, but it's better than just living on the streets." Clover said. "I've never really told anyone this, but I wasn't born in Atlas. I was actually born in one of those settlements outside the kingdom." Clover began, causing Galen to almost choke on his water.
"You weren't born within the Kingdom's limits?" Galen asked.
"Yeah. My parents were huntsmen, but after they graduated, they decided to focus on helping out the settlements that everyone in the kingdom seemed to have forgotten. To them, they were 'fools who thought they could survive out in the tundra without an effective government to support themselves'. Heh, the people who said that were proven wrong when the settlements all formed a council of their own that prioritized the needs of the people rather than the influential citizens. We had a lot of support from the railroad, the trains would stop by the settlements dropping off supplies and even pick us up to go to another settlement, so long as we were standing by the tracks when they arrived." Clover continued. "Anyway, a couple of years after my parents graduated, I was born and while did enjoy living out in the tundra, I couldn't just help but want a better life for myself. Things weren't perfect, but I had a family or at least I did before the Grimm attacked. From what I gathered, the SDC sent someone out to the settlement, trying to 'persuade' the Faunus living in the settlement to sign up and work in the mines, saying they would get all the same benefits as the other miners, but some people didn't actually believe in such an offer and urged them to leave. This was around the time Jacque took over the company and I was only seven years old, so you can imagine my fear when the arguing and violence. My parents took me and hid me in the cellar of our home while they went to fight the Grimm, but they along with the SDC guards that came out were killed by the Grimm, along with almost all of the settlement."
"I'm sorry for your loss, but how did you survive?" Galen asked, sympathetic to Clover's past.
"It's better that I show you, rather than explain it." Clover told the Jedi.
After the two finished their meal, Clover guided Galen to his quarters and pulled out a chest from underneath his bunk, opened it and revealed a set of Mandalorian armor. "Before you go thinking my family is from another world, that's not the case. But back to my story, I kept myself silent until the Grimm managed to pry open to door to the cellar and went looking for me. I thought for sure I was going to die, but someone saved me. A Mandalorian who was stranded on the planet after his ship crashed. He killed the Ursa that would have sliced me up like an onion before he took me away from the burning remains of the settlement and raised me as his own. He taught me everything I know about combat and even helped me unlock my semblance. By the time I was seventeen, I decided to join Atlas Academy and my savior gave me the set of armor you see. It's not made of Beskar, it was made using what he called durasteel although less resilient and less expensive than what most Mando's wear. Anyway, I graduated the academy and found a place in the military, finally having something I could work towards. I've taken this armor to get modified over the years but haven't found a time to wear it." Clover finished.
"That's another person who has a connection to Mandalore. I'm starting to think they came to Remnant just to hunt the Grimm." Galen mused. "Does Ironwood…"
"No, the general doesn't know about this and quite frankly, I don't want him to know. Aside from keeping Ruby from taking any missions, I think she'd be a lot stronger if went out with her team." Clover answered. "Speaking of the general, you had a lot of guts doing what you did to him. You know he might brand you a criminal or write you down for insubordination, if you were military."
"It's like I told Ironwood, I'm not one of his soldiers, same goes for my team and my friends." Galen reminded the leader of the Ace Ops, who put his chest and armor away. "I'll handle Ruby's flight training, she handled herself well as Ahsoka's gunner in the Razgriz Strait, I want to see her in the cockpit, and I think R4 could use a new friend."
With that, Galen left Clover's quarters leaving him a lot to think about as he made his way to Team RWBY's quarters. "Clover is a lot different than most of the Ace Ops. He's better than Harriet and doesn't see everything as a contest." He said to himself before he arrived at the door to Team RWBY's room, knocked on the door and waited.
"Just a minute." Weiss's voice said from the other side of the door. Galen stepped back and waited for Weiss to finish whatever she was doing before the door opened. Out of the room came Weiss, dressed in a navy-blue sleeveless dress with an opening in the back that exposed a portion of her back and an opening below the skirt, with long gloves of the same color, black mesh stockings and heels. "Sorry it took me so…" she began before she noticed it was Galen. "Oh, Galen. Sorry, I thought you were Arthur."
"You two going on a date or something?" Galen asked.
"Actually, yes. Arthur and I are going out. We haven't been on a proper date since the festival in Mistral and I thought, it would be nice to get away from everything. Salem, the tower, the election, my father, and such. We're going to dinner, and I figured it would be nice. But you're not here for me, are you?" Weiss answered and asked.
"Well, I'm sure Arthur will say you look good in that dress. Have you seen Ruby lately? I wanted to talk with her about something." Galen asked.
"I think she went with Ahsoka to check on her Starfighter." Weiss said.
"Thanks and have fun on your date." Galen said and left Wiess alone for a moment before Arthur arrived for their date.
It didn't take Galen long to find Ruby and Ahsoka working on the maroon and white striped Jedi Interceptor in another hanger with R7 running a diagnostic scan of fighter's systems. "Hey, Ruby." Galen called out.
Ruby heard Galen's voice and looked up to see her boyfriend walking towards her and Ahsoka who had just put down her welding torch. "Hey, Galen! What's up? I haven't seen you since this morning." She asked.
"Yeah, well things have been interesting for the day. Anyway, I think it's time for you to learn how to fly a starfighter." Galen said.
"I GET TO FLY A STARFIGHTER! AWESOME!" Ruby squealed in excitement. "Uh, won't Ironwood be against this?"
"Let me worry about Ironwood and you worry about your training. I've got a mission in a few days once the snowstorm finally dies down. Ironwood wants me to check out something called Stonehenge in hopes he can use it against both Salem's army and the Empire." Galen assured, looking at Ahsoka. "You, Ahsoka, Dante, Hitman Team, and few pilots from the 501st and 502nd are coming with me on this mission. Something has already set up shop at the target and we'll need more than just one fighter for the mission." Galen explained as R4 rolled up to them after running checks on the Azure Angel. "Your first lesson starts now. Get in the cockpit and get airborne. R4 will fly you out over the tundra before you take control. I'll relay my instructions through your Scroll but remember this isn't a video game." He reminded.
"Duh, I know that. Video games give you a restart button, you only get one life." Ruby assured Galen.
"It's not a joke. Anakin taught me a lot about flying a fighter and there were plenty of times when I thought I would actually die. Flying isn't as easy as you think." Ahsoka added.
"Yeah, I know that." Ruby assured the two Jedi before she took a deep breath and relaxed her body. "I can do this. I'm not just a Jedi, but a Huntress and I need this."
"Then get your butt in the cockpit and wait for R4. Remember, let him take you up and wait before you get a feel for the controls. I'll see what I can do about getting you some targets to practice against." Galen said with a smile. Ruby smiled back before she entered the cockpit of the Azure Angel and waited as R4 slotted himself into the astromech slot and guided the ship into the air.
In no time at all, Ruby and R4 were hundreds if not thousands of feet above the Solitas tundra. "Wow, this is awesome." Ruby exclaimed.
"Ruby, you hear me?" Galen's voice said over the scroll.
"Yeah, I read you. I've been in Bullheads and airships before, but this is completely awesome. It's like I'm a Nevermore flying over the entire world." Ruby said in awe.
"Alright. R4 is going to turn control over to you now. He's your copilot so make sure to listen to him if something's wrong with the ships systems. Remember, you're responsible for keeping each other alive." Galen reminded the young girl.
"Got it." Ruby said as R4 handed control over to her. "I've got control."
"Alright, try to get a feel for the controls. I know how much you've been siting in the cockpit and looking over the controls when you're not training." Galen instructed.
Ruby did so and practiced pitching and turning the fighter in various directions, following Galen's instructions to the letter, and listened to her copilot. "This isn't too difficult." Ruby remarked.
"You've haven't flown in a large-scale dogfight with some of the Empire's deadliest special operations squadrons. Those pilots had more skill and experience than you and I put together. Hell, I think some of them might have fought alongside Ahsoka and Anakin in the war." Galen told her. "Alright, so it looks like the good General has gotten his hands on some droid fighters that are surprisingly in good condition. R7's already switched them to training mode, so their lasers won't be lethal. Let's see how good you are in a dogfight. Remember, it maybe a mock battle, but treat it as if it were real." Galen advised.
"Send up the droids when you're ready." Ruby told Galen and waited until the dozen vulture droids were airborne and flying towards her before they split off. Ruby picked out a target and went after it, keeping her fighter lined up behind the droid fighter before she pulled the trigger and downed the droid. "I got one!" she exclaimed.
"You just got the drop on them, that's all. Remember to check your surroundings and be aware of what you're up against." Galen reminded, as two vultures came in firing their training lasers at Ruby. Thankfully, the angels' shields held as she watched them fly past her. Turning and banking after the fighters, she quickly caught up with them and fired another burst from her cannons, downing the second fighter while the third fighter trailed smoke and crashed into the tundra below.
Four of the remaining nine droids got on her tail and fired at her, but Ruby pushed the Angel down to the tundra, accelerating at the fighter's top speed with the droids following her. At first, it seemed like Ruby was going to crash into the ground, but at the last second, she pulled back on the stick and leveled out just inches above the tundra while the droids crashed into the tundra, pulling up only too late. "Wow, Jek was right. Weapons don't win wars. The mind is powerful, and I can outthink the droids." She mused, quickly climbing to three-thousand feet.
The last five droids flew in perfect formation directly behind her, also firing their cannons at her and forced Ruby to execute a series of random and evasive maneuvers, allowing her to get behind the fighters, putting them right in her sights. The droids however, made a dive for the tundra before they flew into a narrow ice canyon. "That is going to be a tight squeeze." Ruby said to R4, who beeped in confidence in Ruby's piloting. "You're right, R4. They won't have enough room to maneuver either, so that makes the odds even for the both of us." She smirked.
The droid's formation became tighter as they flew through the canyon while Ruby closed the gap between her and the droids before she pulled the trigger, sending a burst of cannon fire towards the droids, blowing one to pieces while fragments from it knocked two more out of the sky which then slammed into the canyon walls. The last two put full power to their engines, but Ruby continued to pursue them, firing off bursts of cannon fire when she was close enough to them.
Both droids soon met their fiery ends as they crashed into the canyon ground below, while Ruby climbed out of the canyon. "That takes care of those droids." She smirked.
"We confirmed the droid's destruction on our end too, Ruby. Return to the academy. It's getting dark outside so training will have to continue tomorrow." Ahsoka said over the Scroll.
"Heading back now." Ruby acknowledged, not even considering the possibility of executing a barrel roll or some other kind of fancy maneuvers that she saw in the movies and brought the fighter back to Atlas, landing safely in the hanger. Exiting the cockpit, she sighed with relief before she looked to Galen. "Wow, that was awesome and so exhilarating. I really felt like I was flying in actual dogfight!" she exclaimed.
"Just remember, you still have a way to go before you're a full-fledged pilot. You may have been able to deal with a few training droids, but it's a lot different when you're in an actual dogfight." Ahsoka reminded the young girl.
"I know. I just want to do my part and make sure the tower is completed and I want to do my part in the fight against Salem." Ruby said, determined.
"That's a good answer. We need all the pilots we can get, with so many pilots being replaced by Ironwoods new drones and joined the rebellion, MSDAF and Vale Air Force, we need all the skilled pilots we can get. You're still a rookie pilot, but you've got protentional." Galen praised, making Ruby smile before they went back inside the academy.
By the time night had fallen, everyone was asleep, except for Watts who managed to successfully hack his way into the militaries systems and successfully implanted something into the systems of the four drone fighters and the mass-produced drones. "Let's see how the General deals with this little problem." He smirked, shutting down his computer before he himself went to sleep.
His actions however, caused a disturbance in the force that was felt by Ray, Luke and Neo who had a feeling they would be in the air sooner than they thought.
A couple of days later, Dante's F22 was being serviced by the ground crews. His disregard for Ironwoods orders to return to Atlas when he picked up the distress call from Argus nearly resulted in his court martial but thanks to the words of Commander Cordovin and the pilots of Hitman Team, praised Dante for his actions during the battle having saved many lives and shooting down multiple enemy aircraft despite the damage he sustained.
The charges were dropped, and he was promoted from Lieutenant to captain. With the promotion, came the charge of commanding the newly reformed 118th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Mobius Squadron. All pilots were to be chosen personally by Dante who wanted to restore the name of Mobius Squadron after all of the negativity it received over the years. However, the pilots would be flying newer aircraft including the newer prototypes once they were finished.
"So, you're the new Captain of Mobius Squadron?" Clover said as he walked over to Dante, dressed in pilot fatigues and a helmet in his hands. "You've certainly earned it after all you've been through. Couldn't ask for a better squadron leader than you. You're better than the old squadron was."
"You're coming on this mission, sir?" Dante asked.
"Yeah, I got an F35 all fueled up and ready for takeoff, loaded for air-to-air combat." Clover answered.
"Thought you would be flying the Scimitar over there." Dante shrugged, glancing to the F14 in the hanger nearby.
"I've got a feeling that it's going to be needed by another pilot and his back-seater." Clover smirked.
"Who would that be?" Dante asked. Before Clover could answer, Ruby and Galen walked to their fighters, the Azure Angel and an S27 with a gray and black winter-styled camouflage, it's underwing pylons loaded with two XMAA's while four more missiles were loaded underneath the planes central body and two short-range missiles were secured to the wing-tip pylons. "Ah, I have a feeling it would be them."
"Well, what are we standing around for? We've got a mission to complete and we're not going to complete it just standing around. Let's get going." Ruby exclaimed as she climbed into the cockpit of the Angel, with Galen doing the same, dressed in a flight suit with his helmet already on his head. After much deliberation, Ironwood relented and decided to allow Ruby to take part in the mission to investigate Stonehenge, much to his irritation.
Once they were granted clearance for take-off, the two stealth fighters, S27 and two starfighters took to the skies and headed west in the direction of Stonehenge.
Two hours into their flight, they rendezvoused with Hitman Team, Mio, Yoshika, Shizuka, Hikari, Sadako, Takami and Kanno in their own planes. "Galaxy Eyes to Mobius One and allies, we got you on radar. Glad you could join us. We haven't spotted any aircraft on radar, but we're monitoring the situation closely. Anyway, keep heading on bearing one-five-five to the west. Stonehenge should be coming into view soon." The Sicario AWACS reported.
"Roger that, Galaxy Eyes and thanks for the update." Dante replied, R8 keeping close attention to the radar for any sign of enemy aircraft. "Keep me posted if you see anything buddy. I do the flying; you do the rest." He said to his copilot who beeped in response.
Ruby told R4 the same thing as her eyes scanned for enemy fighters as the flight flew over a mountain. Though she had completed her flight training, she couldn't help but feel that something was off. As she continued to scan the sky for enemy craft, she spotted something below them at six o'clock. "I've got something below us. I can't make it out, it looks like an airship or maybe a fighter." She called out.
"Wait there! I'll take a look." Mio said over the radio and dived towards the unknown contact. As the Dagger Kai dived to the target, it suddenly changed course and turned towards them flight of fighters, revealing it to be a massive formation of Vulture droids. "Confirming contacts! Vulture fighters! I say again, the contacts are Vulture Fighters!" Mio shouted.
"We must have jumped one of their patrols by accident!" Takami thought.
"Well, we ain't going to let them report back about us. Let's take 'em out!" Kanno shouted excitedly and pitched her F2 over in a dive, followed by Yoshika, Shizuka, Hikari and Sadako who weren't going to let Kanno get herself killed.
"Starkiller to all pilots. Engage the enemy." Galen instructed.
(Fighter Starts)
"You heard The Demon Lord. All pilots, weapons free!" Galaxy Eyes ordered.
"Mobius One, form an element with me and Hitman Team. Major Sakamoto, take the Karibuchi sisters and hit the enemy on the right flank. Miyafuji, Shimohara, Kanno and Hattori, him them on the left. Galen, you, and the kid take them head on." Clover ordered as he pitched his Broadsword over and engaged the enemy fighters, with Dante and Hitman Team following close behind him.
"Roger!" the other pilots said over the radio and broke into their respective flights. Yoshika, Shizuka, Naoe and Sadako dived at the enemy fighters at top speed, each of them firing their cannons at droids, downing five craft with a single pass, but this forced several droids to break from the formation and pursue them. One Vulture was directly on Sadako's tail, forcing the rabbit Faunus to jink her F20 in every direction to avoid the deadly laser fire.
The Vulture matched her move for move but was soon downed by a missile from Shizuka who then launched another missile at a second Vulture droid, destroying it despite it's attempts at evading the missile. "Sadako, watch that crossfire! We've got multiple bandits approaching fast!" Shizuka shouted into her radio, firing off a burst from her planes cannons that ripped right through a third Vulture without even noticing her.
"Understood!" Sadako replied and fired two QAAM's at a pair of Vultures. One fighter was destroyed but the second fighter evaded the missile and made a dive for the tundra below, only to be blown out of the sky by a three-second burst of gunfire from her cannons. "So, these are the machine versions of the Grimm? It's no wonder we were offered a contract to protect the shipments of the SDC." She mused, firing a third missile, and downing her fourth fighter.
"More like those SDC pilots don't have the balls to dace an enemy like this! They might have the best aircraft and weapons, but when they get into the combat they panic and get themselves killed." Kanno gruffly replied, her F2 chasing after two Vultures several kilometers away from where Sadako and Shizuka were engaging the enemy.
The Vultures tried to shake their tail, but Kanno stuck to them like glue as the missile tone in her headset crackled, followed by two of her XMAA's which tracked their targets and turned them into fireballs of scrap metal. "Yeah! Top that, Hikari! I just bagged two fighters without so much as batting an eye!" Kanno boasted, unaware that the enemy had managed to get behind her and was now shooting at her. "Damn it! I got three on my tail! I need some damn backup!" she cursed.
Lucky for her, Yoshika spotted the three fighters and sped towards them, her gunsight already tracking one of the enemy fighters as she got into range. Compared to the regular F2's, the F2's of the 501st and 502nd were equipped with a single 20mm cannon, rather than the standard two cannons, but gave them the same ammo count as if they had two cannons. Pulling the trigger, the dog Faunus fired a five-second burst of hard-hitting shells that slammed into one of the droids, blowing it to bits while the last two were shot down by two of her XMAA's. "You're clear, Kanno!" Yoshika called as she dived after another pair of enemy fighters.
A pair of QAAM's launched from Mio's Dagger Kai slammed into two Vultures before the Major pushed her aircraft to full speed as Hikari called out that she had hostiles on her tail. Four Vultures were directly behind her and were firing their cannons whenever she attempted to make a break for another direction, boxing her in. Positioning herself behind the Vultures, Sakamoto opened up with her 20mm's, raking one of the fighters with gun fire and forced the other three to break off their attack on Hikari. "Thanks, Major. I think now would be a good time for me to upgrade to a faster aircraft, like the F4 or an F20 like my sister." Hikari said with relief in her voice.
"That's up to the commander!" Mio told the younger Karibuchi, firing another pair of QAAM's at two of the enemy fighters. One of the Vultures was destroyed by the first missile, but the second missile missed its target. However, the missile sharply turned around and slammed dead center on the second fighter, sending it down in flames. The third fighter was quick to retreat, but this time Hikari downed the fighter with her cannons. "Good shooting, Hikari." Sakamoto praised.
Hikari smiled at the major's praise, diving towards a single enemy fighter she picked out and dived towards it. The target reticle on her HUD went from green to red as the missile tone rang through her ears. "Fox 3!" she shouted and launched a missile. Her missile tracked Vulture and slammed into the fighter, destroying it in a massive fireball. "Target splashed."
Suddenly, her fighter shuddered as something hit her plane. A Vulture droid had managed to get past her and was coming towards her from the right. "I took a hit, but I can still fly." She said, assuring her sister who she knew cared for her safety a bit too much.
Takami gave chase after the fighter that attacked her sister and was quick to down the droid with a burst of cannon fire, followed by a missile that she launched at another fighter that managed to overshoot her. "There are too many fighters! We can't complete our mission like this!" she called out.
(End Song)
"Sakamoto! Take your girls and check out Stonehenge. We'll handle the fighters. As long as one of us completes the objective, the mission will be completed." Clover radioed as he banked his F35 into oncoming enemy fire, forcing the attacker to overshoot him. "Besides, we got the Ribbon Fighter and Demon Lord with us. We can handle this."
Ruby heard Clover's statement and watched as the pilots of the 501st and 502nd or as they liked to be called, 'Witches' headed towards Stonehenge, leaving them to contend with the droid fighters which were now reinforced by Tri-Fighters. "Reinforcements approaching, they've got us outnumbered!" Ruby exclaimed.
(Mighty Wings starts)
"We might be outnumbered, but we've got more firepower. Take 'em down!" Prez said as she headed after the 'Witches' since her fighter was almost out of missiles. "Give them some for me, Hitman."
"As if you had to ask." Diplomat smirked, his MG-29 racing after a flight of Tri-Fighters. His headset crackled as Peter launched a salvo of XMAA's. His four missiles streaked towards the droids, tracking their very movement, and adjusting their trajectory before they slammed into the fighters. Three of the four fighters were destroyed, but the fourth one managed to evade the fourth missile and turned sharply towards Peter. "Oh great! This thing looks like it's going to try and ram me." He complained sarcastically, switching from his missiles to his guns and pulled the trigger.
The Tri-Fighter braved the 30mm shells before it was in missile range and launched a pair of missiles of its own before exploding. "Target's down, but those missiles it launched are tracking me!" Peter exclaimed as he dived towards ground, hoping that sudden change would force the missiles to lose track of him. He was wrong as the missiles dived after him, gradually picking up speed as they drew closer and closer to him. "I'm going to guess these are those 'discord' missiles intel told us about. The ones that deploy those buzz droids when they explode. Well, I'm not about to let them slice up my bird." He stated and pulled the stick back hard into his gut, leveling his aircraft out while the missiles flew past him and slammed into the ground. "That takes care of those nuisances." He sighed with relief before he climbed back to join the fight.
Comic's twin cannons roared to life as she and Monarch riddled a pair of Tri's with their guns. "I've got eyes of a few incoming fighters. Let's take 'em, Monarch." Comic told her flight lead and banked in the direction of the incoming fighters. Both of them unleashed a volley of XLAA and XMAA's that created a wall of missiles, slamming into eight enemy fighters and sent them to their doom. As Evelyn scanned for new targets, she spotted the 'Witches' coming back from the direction of Stonehenge. "Comic to Sakamoto. Where's the fire and what's the status on Stonehenge?"
"Stonehenge has been overrun by enemy forces! They were on us the moment we penetrated the perimeter around the damn thing! They already had aircraft airborne even before we arrived! Damn bastards!" Kanno cursed.
"Not exactly the words I'd use, but Kanno's right, we used up the rest of our missiles when they launched their fighters. All we have left are our guns!" Yoshika added, flying in formation with the rest of her squadron.
"Roger that, Miyafuji. I'll get in contact with the General the moment we clear the airspace. All pilots, break away from this airspace and head back to Atlas. We've done what we've set out to do." The AWACS pilot shouted.
"Copy that!" Ahsoka replied, pushing her fighter's engines to full power and gave chase after a pair of Vultures. Her cannons roared as laser fire ripped through the frames of the Vultures, blowing them up in mid-air. Cannon fire from behind her bracketed her ship as a couple of Tri-Fighters moved into missile range. "I'm not going to fall for that." She said to herself and jinked her fighter hard left in a full one-hundred and eighty degrees turn, getting behind the fighters and downed them as she did the Vultures. "Ruby, watch yourself with these Tri-Fighters. Their missiles are loaded with Buzz Droids, and they can cause some major damage to a fighter's systems, and they are deadly to astromechs." Ahsoka advised.
"I hear you, Ahsoka." Ruby replied, barreling through the fireball of her fifth kill of the day. A flight of Tri-Fighters flew past her being chased by Monarch who downed them with the last of his XLAA's, but the flight lead of Hitman team didn't see the Scarab fighters that had just arrived and were now gunning for Monarch. Turning the Angel in the direction of the fighters, Ruby launched a salvo of concussion missiles that turned the Scarabs into flaming metal, saving Monarch, and giving her four more kills. "I think I'm already an ace today." She said to herself, firing her final volley of missiles at a couple of Tri-Fighters that were approaching her in a head on pass. Her missiles knocked the droids out of the sky while her cannons roared as another droid flew past her nose, her twelfth kill of the day.
Clover smiled at Ruby's skills as he fired the last of his XMAA's, destroying several enemy fighters. His 25mm cannons roared to life as he shredded a Scarabs shields to nothing, followed by the fighter spinning out of control into the ground below. "Clover to all pilots. I'm out of missiles and I think I've taken a hit. I'm breaking away." He called out, but before he could head back to Atlas, he spotted several enemy fighters making an attack on Ruby who jinked everyway she could. Breaking left, he dived after the fighters and opened up with his cannons, raking the fighters with shells. Two of the fighters were shot down, another two were sent spiraling to the ground after the damage they sustained and the fifth one broke off it's attack on Ruby. "You're cleared, kid." Clover called out as he headed back to the kingdom.
Dante had used up all his missiles and had about only four-hundred and eighty rounds left for his cannons. A Buzz Droid had managed to slice into his weapons systems and disabled the hybrid feature for his guns before R8 took the droid out. His HUD showed the distance between him and a few fighters that were in his way. Seeing no other option, he turned to engage the enemy fighters, downing three of them and using up the rest of his ammo. "I'm out, returning to base." He called out.
Monarchs' cannons rattled as he filled a Tri-Fighter full of lead, sending it into a death spiral before he fired his last missile at a second fighter. With two more kills to his name and only a handful of 20mm rounds left, the leader of Hitman Team headed back to base, leaving only Galen and Ruby behind to deal with the remaining attackers.
Galen's missiles were all used up, his 30mms had only three hundred rounds left a piece and he had already taken severe damage from several enemy fighters and now the rest of them were literally forming a wall directly in front of them, cutting off their escape route. "Ruby, form up on my wing! We're going to carve a path through those fighters and break away." He called out.
"Roger that!" Ruby called out as she formed up alongside Galen's wings and waved to Galen, signaling she was ready to proceed. A second later, 30mm and laser cannon rounds flew towards the wall of fighters, knocking multiple enemies of the sky, but not without scratches.
(End Song)
When they landed back at Atlas Academy, the S27 was badly damaged and covered with carbon scoring while the Azure Angel suffered some damage as well, but not as severe. "Wow, talk about banged up." Yang said as she and the rest of Team RWBY walked towards them. "What happened out there, Galen? I thought you were the Demon Lord, yet you come back with a plane more beaten up than when someone stole my bike."
"Droids. They're guarding Stonehenge and were already airborne before we could even get close to the installation. Something was wrong with the plane to; the controls didn't respond the way I wanted them to, and I ended up wasting more ammo than kills. At least Ruby proved herself in actual combat." He explained, casting a glance at Ruby who smiled.
"Well, now that this matter is settled. It's time to proceed with the assault to retake Stonehenge." Ironwood said as he, Winter, Artoria and a reluctant Mordred walked towards the group. "This is the perfect chance to test the Falken and the other drones in combat. They'll engage the enemy while the Ace Ops take the new aircraft and clear out the enemy." The general said.
"That's not a good idea, General." Mordred said. "I heard from some of the people on that train and they said that whatever those scrapheads are doing at that place, they'll be expecting a large-scale attack. Hate to say it, but you might just want to back it in. Not even Warlock Battalion could hit all those enemies even if they had four dozen battalions."
"I didn't ask for the opinion of a dropout." Ironwood glared, getting Mordred to scoff.
"Actually, you're both right." Rex said. "The enemy will be expecting a large-scale assault, but what if we make it look like a one-man assault, distract them and then send in the calvary?" the clone captain suggested, his eyes glancing towards the F14 in the hanger. This F14 had a grey livery and black tail wings with specs of yellow and on the tail wings, was the symbol used by pirates of old, the Jolly Roger. "That bird over there, it hasn't been modified to be a single-seat fighter yet. It still requires two pilots, one to fly and one to act as their 'RIO'. With the right armaments, it can hit the enemy hard and distract them while the rest of the assault force takes the guns."
"And who would fly this mission. I already have the Ace Ops assigned to fly the CFA-44, XFA-27, X02 and X-02S. There aren't anymore pilots available." Ironwood said.
"Have you been living under a rock since Beacon fell? Wake up, General! You got the Demon Lord here and if what I heard is any indication, that shrimp in red isn't such a bad pilot herself. I say let them fly the mission." Mordred said.
"I will not have…" Ironwood began before Winter stopped him.
"Sir, with all due respect, you are not Ruby's father. She can handle herself well on both the ground and in the air if what Major Sakamoto said is true. She's a natural pilot. Second, I recommend that Mobius One accompanies Galen and Ruby on this mission. His Longswords weapons bay can be loaded with standard missiles, and he can carry the weapons pods for the XMA8's. They will be facing large numbers of fighters, so they'll need all the firepower they need to face the enemy. Besides, they'll be facing the most danger and they can back out of this mission if they choose." Winter pointed out.
"I agree with Winter on this, General and I think we should also call for reinforcements. Commander Skywalker's squadron, the Galm and Garuda Teams along with Miss Nikos are on the planet and would be very helpful in this mission." Artoria added.
Ironwood took a deep breath and weighed his options. Both Winter and Artoria made valid points, but he was still fearful of letting Ruby take part in this mission, believing that Salem knew about her eyes and was already planning to capture Ruby. They needed Stonehenge and there weren't anymore pilots he could spare. Finally, he relented and gave up. "Send a message to this Commander Skywalker. Have him, his squadron, the Garuda and Galm Teams here within five days. I want them here by the time we finish the modifications to those aircraft. Contact Sicario and have their squadrons ready for combat." Ironwood ordered, walking back to his office while Clover headed back to the academy.
"I got a feeling we need more information about what we're up against." Cody voiced with concern before he turned to Galen. "Did you really try and choke the General?" he asked.
"He shouldn't have made me angry. If I were my old self, I would have snapped his neck. But I'm not that person anymore." Galen said, heading back inside the school to change out of his flight suit.
The modifications to Galen and Dante's planes took some time to complete, but by the time the five days had passed, both the F14 and F22 had their secondary cannon removed to increase the ammo capacity for the remaining cannon and both planes had two external stealth weapon pods attached to them holding the XMA8's that Winter mentioned. The pods underneath the F22 carried forty-eight missiles each, giving Dante ninety-six missiles while the pods underneath the F14 carried thirty-six missiles each for a total of seventy-two missiles. All together both planes carried a total one-hundred and sixty-eight XMA8's. In addition, the weapons bay of the F22 carried twenty-four extra short-ranged missiles while the F14 carried two short-ranged missiles and four XLAA's.
Such a payload would seem impossible to most people, but for the people of Atlas they could make the impossible a reality. As Dante climbed into the cockpit of his Longsword, he watched as Galen and Ruby walked to their plane. Both of them wore the same flight-suit with Ruby's being the same color as her hood. "I feel the need. The need for speed." She said with a laugh.
Galen chuckled before he looked to Dante. "I just got word from Trigger. He and the others are going to be a little late to the party. We'll have to make do with two fighters until they arrive. The 501st and 502nd also ran into some trouble, so we don't have any reinforcements." Galen shouted.
"Fine by me. As long as we don't have to worry about Harriet competing with us for who get's the most kills. Girl really needs to stop taking everything so seriously." Dante said, putting his helmet on and sliding the visor down and waited as Ruby and Galen readied themselves as well.
"Hey guys! Guess who's in the control tower? Just wanted to wish you guys' good luck before Artoria and I head into the city to meet an old friend who asked us for some help with a show their planning. Give 'em hell, flyboys." Mordred praised.
"We'll give it to them alright." Galen smirked, before he powered up the F14 and rocketed after Dante who was the first one to take off. Once their altitude restrictions had been lifted, the two planes headed west for Stonehenge.
At the massive railgun complex, a large detachment of droids was working to put the railguns out of commission for good. The detachment included Hailfire droids that were positioned as anti-aircraft batteries, multiple droid enforcers, tanks, artillery guns and droid walkers surrounded the complex while Vulture Droids, Tri-Fighters, Scarab fighters, Hyena and Trade Federation bombers and HMP gunships sat behind the armor.
Battle droids patrolled the grounds before one of them spotted two aircraft approaching the complex at high speed. "There's something coming, I can't quiet make out what it is." The droid said into it's commlink as the fighters got closer and closer to the complex.
The tactical droid in charge of guarding the guns looked through its own binoculars and spotted the aircraft and quickly raised the alarm. Only seconds after the alarm was raised, sixteen missiles streaked towards the complex, destroying several fighters on the ground before they could even take off. The two fighters zipped overhead as the tactical droid ordered the fighters to purse the attackers, only for another droid to report that a large battalion of Timber Wolf and Rhino tanks, missile crawlers, republic gunships and hundreds of enemy fighters were approaching their position from the direction of Atlas. "Deploy our forces, defend this position at all costs. We cannot allow the enemy to take guns." The droid instructed.
(Glacial Skies starts)
"Looks like they did their jobs." Elm smirked from the cockpit of the X-02. "Time for us to join in on the fun."
"Just remember, we have to capture the guns intact or else or defense imperial capital ships will be rendered useless." Vine reminded the hammer tooting Ace Operative from within the cockpit of the XFA-27.
"And you need to remember that I'll be getting most kills out of all of you. I'm the one piloting the X-02S with dog boy here." Harriet pointed out while Marrow sighed in annoyance that he wasn't flying one of the new aircraft, let alone the only ADFX-01 that was built with a cockpit before it was rebuilt as drone fighter.
"Cut the chatter. The ladies from Sicario and the boys from the rebellion aren't here yet, so we got to keep the enemy busy. Elm, Vine Harriet, and Marrow, protect our forces from air attacks. I'll deal with the hostile armor and keep the Menhir boys covered." Clover instructed his fellow Ace Ops who then broke off into their designated formations while Clover pushed the CFA-44 to max power and armed his All-Direction-Multi-Purpose Missiles or ADMM's, a prototype missile developed solely for the CFA-44.
His HUD projected the target lock on the enemy units both in the air and on the ground before he hit the fire button, sending out dozens of missiles that destroyed enemy units as the next load of missiles was being loaded into his weapons bays. However, an enemy gunship managed to get on his tail and opened up on him, forcing Clover to jink his aircraft in various directions as the droid vessel continued to fire at him. Clover's semblance soon kicked in as the gunship flew past him and right into his gunsights, where he treated the enemy craft to a barrage of 30mm cannon fire.
The enemy gunship caught fire and slammed into the ground as several ADFX-01's and 02's moved to engage the air born units just as the gunships and bullheads came in for a landing. "Menhir 5 to Ace Lead, dropships have landed and are deploying forces now, we got some enemy mortar tanks that have us dead to rights, think you can take them out for us?" one of the Menhir 5 tank operators asked over the radio.
Clover responded by climbing to six-thousand feet, turned his aircraft in a one-hundred and eighty degrees turn and dived towards the aforementioned mortar tanks and fired off another volley of missiles from his weapons bays, destroying the hostile armor and allowing for Menhir 5 and it's allies to advance further towards the guns.
Menhir's 6 and 7 were getting hammered by the Octuptarra walkers' heavy cannons. They had already lost three Timber Wolfs and the accompanying infantry units were getting decimated by the homing spider's laser cannon, vaporizing the Atlas infantry like they were Grimm. Lucky for them, the 'Witches' and Hitman team arrived on scene and began to provide close-air-support.
Hartmann, Georgette, Krupinski, Sadako, Shizuka, Lynette, Hikari, Eila, Sanya, Comic and Diplomat unleashed a barrage of rockets, air-to-ground missiles, and bombs on the enemy ground forces while Sakamoto, Yoshika, Charlotte, Nipa, Sasha, Francesca, Barkhorn, Minna, Rall, Rossmann, Kanno, Takami, Perrine, Mara and Monarch moved to engage the enemy fighters and bombers that were targeting the ground forces.
Perrine formed up alongside Mio's wing, along with Yoshika and Monarch, gunning down a flight of Hyena bombers with their cannons while Francesca, Charlotte, Barkhorn and Minna got on the tail of flight of enemy gunships, blowing them out of the sky with a volley of missiles.
Rall, Rossmann, Kanno and Takami unleashed a barrage of XMAA's on a flight of enemy fighters while Mara ran another fighter down with her guns. "Let's show these Atlas boys how we ladies can fly." Mara said to the 'Witches' who had grown to trust Mara after she single handedly took down a hostile airship with only her guns.
"We don't need any mercenaries helping us." Harriet scoffed, turning the X-02S in the direction of a lone Hyena bomber that was about to drop its payload on Menhir 7. Her gunsight tracked the bomber as Marrow checked if they had a tail as she pulled the trigger, riddling the enemy bomber with bullets before is exploded in mid-air. "That's another for me."
"I think you mean another for us, and we've got several fighters on our tail!" Marrow corrected and pointed out as several Scarabs dived down from eight 'o'clock high, firing their cannons at the X-02S and forcing it to jink to the right. Several Raven drones moved to intercept the enemy fighters, but they were quickly brought down by several buzz droids from several recently launched discord missiles. "It doesn't look like the drones are doing so well against the enemy fighters." Marrow observed.
"Just do your job and I'll do mine." Harriet snarled, taking out all her frustration and anger towards Galen out on the droids. Banking around to the left, she got behind the Scarabs and fired another volley of XMAA's that sent the droids down in flames. "Harriet to Elm, I'm ahead of you in kills."
"Sure, you are, Harriet. But doesn't that include Marrow as well?" Elm asked playfully, running down a couple of Hyena bombers with the X-02's cannon. Three of the bombers spiraled down in flames and crashed into several enemy tanks while the other three exploded mid-air. "Looks like those guys really managed to lure the enemy fighters away. I guess even droids take the threat of the Demon Lord and Mobius One seriously." She quipped, firing a salvo of XLAA's in the process and downing a few more enemy craft.
"Both of them are high priority targets and have given our forces and those who have fought by them a moral boost. They inspire hope in them and will follow them anywhere." Vine corrected as he downed a Tri-fighter with a missile. He soon started to scan for targets when he spotted several enemy bombers making a run for Menhir 6. Quickly, he turned the XFA-27 hard right and got behind the bombers, firing four missiles at once along with a fifth missile, downing five enemy bombers with his missiles before he finished the last one off with his guns. As the sixth bomber went down in flames, he watched as more Falken and Raven's went down in a similar manner before the rest of them suddenly broke away from the airspace. "Vine to Clover, somethings wrong with the drones. They're breaking away and heading in the direction of Galen, Ruby, and Dante." He called out.
"That can't be right! They should be following their programing and focusing on eliminating the enemy forces around the guns." Clover exclaimed in shock. Before long, all of drones soon broke off from the battle and headed after the three decoys. "Clover to command! The drones are malfunctioning! I repeat, the drones are malfunctioning! They aren't responding to any commands and are heading for Dante, Ruby, and Galen! Please advise, over!"
"Ironwood to all pilots. Continue with the mission, we'll deal with the drones from Atlas. Take control of the guns and then focus on the drones!" Ironwood ordered, much to Clover's annoyance.
Clover didn't like it and changed radio frequencies to the 'Witches'. "Clover to Commander Minna. The new drones aren't responding to their programing and are going after the Demon Lord and Ribbon Fighter. Can you spare a few fighters to give them some back up?" he asked.
"I copy. Barkhorn, Charlotte, Rall, Francesca, Rossmann, Nipa, Sasha and I will move to assist." The leader of the 'Strike Witches' as they were now being called moved to assist with Mara following suit, allowing Clover to return his focus to the current battle and unleashed another volley of ADMMS on the enemy forces.
(End song)
The Strike Witches and the pilots of the 502nd who were being called the 'Brave Witches' weren't able to move to assist Galen, Dante, and Ruby right away. Their planes had taken damage and were low on ammo, so they head back to their own Flying Fortress airship to for refueling and rearming.
Two hundred miles away from the ongoing battle, Galen, Ruby, and Dante were surprised the find that the enemy fighters that were pursuing them had suddenly vanished from both their radar and sight. "Uh, do droid fighters had some kind of stealth capability that no one knew about?" Ruby asked from behind Galen's seat.
"No. At least, not that I know of." Galen admitted. "Droids never abandon their mission unless the objective is complete. Why would they retreat when they have the numbers?" He asked aloud.
"Your guess is as good as mine but…" Dante began before all three of them heard R8 beep in alarm. "Wait a minute. I'm picking up contacts coming from behind us."
Both pilots turned their aircraft and saw a massive formation of ADFX-01's, ADFX-02's, ADF-01 Falkens and ADF-11F Ravens approaching them at a steady pace. "I thought the drones were programed to protect and defend Stonehenge?" Ruby questioned.
"Maybe they completed their objective and came to assist us? They probably took out the fighters that were chasing us." Dante suggested.
(Faceless Soldier starts)
Galen wasn't so sure about that, noticing the red lights emanating from the areas where the cockpits would be. Suddenly, the alarms in his headset came to life as he saw a streak of white contrails coming towards them. "Hey! They have radar lock! Evade!" he shouted and banked hard, breaking the missile lock, as did Mobius One. "Why are they shooting at us?"
"Shouldn't the IFF thingy be marking them as allies?" Ruby asked.
"Modern IFF is connected to the Atlas strategic system. They can't be spoofing our systems because they can't be decoded!" Dante explained as R8 beeped in alarm again. "They're not spoofing our IFF, they've been hacked!"
"What!? They've hacked!? How?" Ruby exclaimed in surprise.
"I don't know, but they're working in coordination and at the rate we're going, we're not going to get out alive. I've already received word from Clover, we got a couple of Strike Witches and Brave Witches pilot in route, but they won't get here in time!" Dante exclaimed from nearby.
Another missile flew towards the two pilots, forcing them to dive to the tundra to avoid the missile lock, but the drones continued to follow them, firing both missiles and guns at the two of them. One Raven was hot in Galen and Ruby's tail, forcing Ruby to look back as the drone fired a missile at them. "They're firing, break right!" she shouted.
Galen did so and the missile impacted into the ground below them, sending up a cloud of snow and dirt as the F14 was pulled up hard to avoid slamming into the ground. The Raven drone followed suit and matched Galen maneuver for maneuver, firing off a burst of cannon fire whenever Galen flew into its gunsights. "Damn it! Ironwood must have used the combat data from other pilots to give these machines an edge in combat! I can barely outrun them!" he cursed.
"Missile!" Ruby shouted, hitting the switch that controlled the flares and dropped a few of them, causing the missile to go for the flares instead of the aircraft. The explosion from the missile covered the drone's optics with snow as its prey maneuvered through a tight canyon while the drone slammed into the canyon wall and exploded. "At least they don't have windshield wipers." Ruby joked.
"Galen! Ruby! We've got no choice but to engage the drones! R8 just marked them as hostile. Take them down." Dante said over the radio as they climbed out of the canyon, forming up on Dante's left wing as the swarm of drones approached them head on.
"Copy that." Galen replied and armed the XMA8 pods. "In range. Fox 3!" he called out and launched a salvo of missiles towards the drones. Dante followed suit and fired a salvo of his own, downing a total of eight drones between the two of them before the swarm of drones broke off. "They're trying to separate us. Mobius One, maintain formation and don't try to single out a single drone. They out number us and the only way to survive is to work together." Galen advised.
"Wasn't even thinking about abandoning you, Galen. You're one of the best damn pilots on Remnant and the Demon Lord." Dante replied over the radio as two drones approached them head on. One ADFX-01 and one ADFX-02. Both drones were in perfect position to fire a missile, but the two pilots quickly riddled the drones with gun fire destroying them before they could be destroyed. "There's no way I'm getting replaced by a machine."
"Heads up! We got three on our tail!" Ruby called out as three Falken's dived after the two of them raining deadly laser fire down on them. "Since when do Atlas drones have lasers!?"
"Since Ironwood decided to use imperial technology to construct them." Galen answered, banking after the fighters with Dante and fired another salvo of missiles at the drones. The three drones were reduced to flaming wrecks, but a single Falken had managed to slip behind them and fired a missile that exploded directly by the cockpit. Luckily, the cockpit wasn't shattered, but one of the instruments exploded and sent debris into Galen's face, causing him some pain. "Damn it!"
"Galen! What happened?" Dante shouted.
"That missile exploded and some of the instruments short-circuited." Galen explained as blood started to pour from his wounds. "I've got blood leaking into my eyes. I can't see to well." He shouted.
Ruby saw this and knew what she had to do. "Galen, I'm opening the cockpit."
"What are you crazy?" Galen shouted.
"You can't see with blood in your eyes. I'll fly, you use the force to keep me updated on the enemy's location." She said, already opening the cockpit with the force. "You've got to trust me."
Galen did trust Ruby and once the cockpit opened, he waited for Ruby to give him her hand, climbed up and into the backseat while Ruby took over flying the fighter, both of them making their way carefully across the plane's airframe, at several thousand feet in the air one misstep could spell certain death. "Make me and your mother proud." He said to his girlfriend who smiled.
Once the cockpit was closed, Ruby pushed the F14's engines to full power, targeting a group of ADFX-02's that managed to separate Dante from them after the switch. The four drones failed to notice Ruby as she moved into position and fired a volley of XMA8's, two missiles for each drone. The four drones were destroyed, but a shot from a drone coming in from below hit Dante's weapon pods, forcing him to detach the pods before they exploded. "Great! I've lost my weapons pods! Now all I got are the regular missiles." Dante groaned over the radio.
"You've still got that hybrid cannon, right? Use it and save some ammo!" Ruby reminded.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that." Dante chuckled. Ruby watched as Dante's bullets were switched to laser and burst of laser fire downed the drone that destroyed his pods.
The drones continued to swarm them as missiles and cannon fire lit up the sky around them. Ruby fired off two more volleys of missiles that knocked a few drones out of the sky, but like Dante the weapon pods underneath their F14 was destroyed. "Oh, great! We just lost our missile pods!" Ruby shouted in alarm as the destroyed pods were detached from the plane then exploded.
(End song)
Dante surveyed their odds and saw that they would be shot down before they could even return to Atlas. "Galen, Ruby, listen up. R8 and I will draw their fire make an opening for you. Once you see it, get back to Atlas. Ironwood needs you guys more than I do." Dante instructed.
"We… won't… do that…" Galen said in pain.
"You've got no choice. You're a sitting duck out there with only two missiles and who knows how many rounds left. I'll buy you more time and keep them focused on me. Listen, if I don't make it back, tell Artoria, Weiss, Winter, and Whitley that I love them and am proud to be a part of the Schnee family and tell Artoria, that I love her in more ways than one." he said, turning his F22 in the direction of the enemy forces.
"Why don't you tell them that yourself, Mobius One." A familiar voice over the radio said. Over a dozen enemy drones were then soon shot down by missiles and laser fire.
(Start Danger Zone)
The source of the fire was the Galm Team, Rogue Squadron, the pilots of the 'Witch' squadrons, Mara, and the Garuda Team, the last of whom were now flying Strike Daggers with a dark grey livery. "Hope you don't mind us being late. We had a little trouble getting airborne, but we're here to save your asses." Charlotte said over the radio.
"You're timing couldn't be better." Ruby said. "I think we got an all-star cast here."
"All fighters, pound the hell out of that battalion and don't get shot up in the process." Ghost-Eye called out.
"You heard him boys and girls, time for these drones to dance with the angels. Give them hell!" Trigger shouted, pushing his new Strike Dagger to top speed after a Raven. The Raven's faster speed made it difficult for him to close the distance for a gun kill, but Three Strikes sent a missile right up it's engines, blowing it to bits of metal. "I really hate drones."
"Don't we all?" Neo quipped as she fired of a few rounds from her Strike Daggers cannon, riddling a Falken with bullets which then spiraled out of control and crashed into the ground below. Laser fire from another Falken directly on her tail, forcing her to break to the left, forcing the drone to overshoot her and leaving it vulnerable for Mara to gun down with the Shinden's cannons. "That pilot, she's strong in the Force." Neo said to herself before she picked out a formation of ADFX-01's and unleashed a salvo of XMAA's, destroying three of the four fighters. "Someone's not getting away. Mickey, I got a bandit with your name on it."
"Solid copy, Countess." Mickey said into the radio and gave chase after the enemy unit. His F14 put on full power to catch up with the drone before launching a missile that slammed directly into its engines, blowing the drone in half. Another bandit, an ADFX-02 flew right past his cockpit and Mickey gave chase, lining his plane up into gun range. His finger was poised over the trigger as the bandit zig-zagged to avoid being shot at, but that's what Mickey was waiting for and then pulled the trigger, riddling the bandit with bullets before it exploded in a shower of metal. "Splash 2."
The squadron leaders of the 501st and 502nd fighter wings formed up wingtip to wingtip as they dived after a formation of Falkens that broke away from the combat and headed back into the direction of Stonehenge. "Ghost Eye to Commanders Wilcke and Rall, those Falkens are carrying thermobaric bombs, just one of those bombs could burn a horde of Grimm to dust, I don't want to imagine what it will do to the ground forces, prioritize those drones and take them out before they reach Stonehenge's defensive perimeter!" the AWACS operator shouted through the radio.
"Pursuing targets now." Minna replied, pushing her Longsword to full power with Rall following her. Both of their weapon's bays were open and their new XMAA's were armed and ready. Compared to the original XMAA's, the new ones could now target up to six aircraft. Once in range, the two squad leaders fired a wall of these new missiles towards the drones. Ten of the twelve Falken's were destroyed, but the last two had dropped flares to trick the missiles targeting system while they continued towards Stonehenge. "Rall, switch to guns and get in close!" Minna shouted to her fellow squadron leader.
"Roger that, Commander." Rall replied and hit the switch, selecting her guns, and moved in close behind the drone. The target reticle hovered over her target as it tried to evade and counter her moves, but the drones programming made it so that it would continue towards its objective regardless of the danger, precisely what Rall wanted it to do before it flew right into her sights, allowing her to gun it down where it then disintegrated. A second explosion from nearby confirmed that Minna's target was destroyed as well, allowing both pilots to return to the battle.
Barkhorn, Rossmann, Sasha and Nipa chased after a formation of sixteen ADFX-01's which had already downed several other drones with their tactical laser in an attempt to shoot them down, something that Barkhorn noticed to be very strange. Even if they were drones, the IFF would indicate the other drones as allies which would prevent them from firing. It was almost as if someone wanted these drones to be destroyed. She shook that thought out of her head and formed up with her squad mates and fired a volley of XMAA's at the fighters. Twelve of the drones disintegrated upon missile impact, but the four remaining drones evaded the missiles and broke off into groups of two. "Meister, with me! We'll take the ones on the left. Nipa, Sasha, take the ones on the right!" Barkhorn ordered, turning to engage the enemy fighters with Rossmann as did Nipa and Sasha.
Her plane was recently damaged from a burst of laser fire from a Falken but was still flyable as she closed the distance and opened up with her cannon, destroying one of the ADFX-01's while Rossmann took the second. "Target's splashed!" she called out, followed by Nipa and Sasha who reported the same thing.
Charlotte and Francesca ran down a couple of ADFX-02's with their cannons, sending them into death spirals before they picked out a couple of Raven's and moved into attack position. Coming in from below, they fired a pair of XMAA and XLAA's at their targets, blowing them up as the wreckage fell to the ground below. "Nice work, Francesca. We always make a great team!" Charlotte cheered.
"You said it, Shirley!" Francesca exclaimed in agreement, calling Charlotte by her nickname before they gave chase after another group of drones. Their cannons ripped them to shreds as they leveled out from their climb and continued to fight.
Mara, however, was in trouble. Some of her missiles failed to connect with the enemy and a stray shot from one Falken had damaged her secondary weapons bay, keeping it close and preventing her from using the missiles in her bay. With only short-ranged missiles and her cannons at her disposal, there was little she could do in this dogfight, especially considering the hostiles on her tail. Eight Ravens were chasing after her and had completely boxed her in, preventing her from making any escape. Another Raven was coming directly at her from the front and Mara knew that if she didn't act fast, she would be killed. Gritting her teeth, she pulled the trigger and fired her cannons at the incoming drone, sending it down in flames before the Raven's behind her were taken down by laser fire.
She gazed back as the X-Wings of Rogue Squadron saved her life and broke into groups of two, engaging the drones with piloting she had never seen before. She knew that some rebel pilots were imperial pilots who defected to the rebellion after certain situations that left them questioning the morals of the Empire, so it wouldn't surprise her if not all of these pilots were former imperials. However, her eyes turned to the lead X-Wing. She couldn't explain it, but something told her that pilot was a lot like her.
In his X-Wing, Luke dived after two Falken's, downing them with his cannons before he picked up a tail himself in the form of three Raven's. "Artoo, increase power to shields." He ordered his faithful copilot who did as instructed as he took his X-Wing into another dive, flying close to the side of the mountain below them. The Raven's cannon fire kicked up rocks, snow, and dirt as they tried to hit Luke, but the son of Anakin Skywalker managed to lop around, get behind them and down them with his cannons. "Artoo, mark the location of one of those wrecked drones. Something about them doesn't sit right with me."
The Galm team launched all of their XMAA's, downing a dozen plus drones, then gave chase after the drones that managed to avoid the missiles. Working in coordination with one another, the three pilots fired a barrage of laser fire that wiped out the remaining drones before they targeted another group of drones, their numbers already depleted by eighty percent.
Ruby wasn't watching her allies as she kept her focus on a single Falken directly ahead of her and Galen with another one their tail. With his eyes still partly blinded by blood, Galen used the force to sense when the enemy unit was about to fire, calling out to Ruby who moved in the direction Galen called out, avoiding yet another missile launched at them.
Ruby banked hard right as the missile flew past them, keeping the lead unit in her sights before she acquired a lock and fired a missile, the missile slammed into the Raven, causing the drone to plumet towards the ground before it disintegrated into flames. "Splash one!" she called out, calling her twelfth kill of the day.
The second Raven maneuvered itself into missile range, forcing Galen to dump the last of their flares to force the missile off of them, while the Raven itself flew past them and into attack range. "Fox 1!" Ruby called out and fired the last missile, but the Raven dumped it's on flares, confusing their missile and forcing Ruby to switch to the gun.
"Ghost Eye to all pilots, enemy forces are down to about ninety-five percent. Starkiller! The last of the drones are going after you. Mobius One has just exited the combat airspace, take out the last of the drones." Ghost Eye shouted into the radio as the last four drones converged on Ruby and Galen, all of them Ravens.
"Copy that." Galen said. "Bank right, missile on our six." He called to Ruby who did just as instructed, the missile however was a QAAM and continued to track them as they dived into a canyon. Weaving between the canyon walls, Ruby hit the brakes and turned sharply one-hundred and eighty degrees to the right, firing the planes gun at the missile before she increased their speed and flew towards the drones.
Even before she was in range, she pulled the trigger and fired the planes cannon spitting out hundreds of rounds at the remaining drones, downing one of them while damaging the second one which then crashed into the canyon walls. "Splash 3!" She called out.
"We still got two fighters left!" Galen reminded her as the last two Raven's opened up with their own cannons. Some of their shots peppered their plane, but the couple piloting the craft kept on their run as Ruby fired another burst of cannon fire, downing the third Raven.
The last Raven climbed out of the canyon and towards the open sky, getting Ruby and Galen to give chase as they climbed higher and higher into the sky. "Ruby, we're going to stall out! Level out and let the Raven come to us!" Galen told his girlfriend.
"Got it!" Ruby said and leveled out at twenty-thousand feet while the Raven kept on climbing until it turned and sped down at them, positioning itself for a missile shot. The missile wasn't fired as Galen reached out and grabbed the drone, holding it in place while Ruby turned the plane sharply to the right and headed towards the drone, firing the last of the rounds in the cannon and destroyed it.
"All fighters have been splashed. Stonehenge has been secured. All pilots, return to base and get yourselves some rest. You've earned it." Ghost Eye congratulated.
(End song)
Adrenaline was still coursing through Ruby's veins before she breathed a sigh of relief and looked back to Galen. "So, how did I do?" she asked.
"You did good, Ruby. You did good." Galen said with a smile as the formation of fighters headed back to Atlas.
And done.
So, for those that haven't figured it out, the new planes are original planes from the Ace Combat series, half of which are drone fighters using imperial technology that Ironwood was able to reverse engineer to create.
Speaking of Ironwood, it seems that Galen is starting to lose his trust in the General, can't really say I blame him. Ironwood is keeping Ruby a 'prisoner' in Atlas Academy because he fears that Salem will target Ruby before she has a chance to master her powers and use them against her. Maybe and this is just me, that's the reason she used a Silver Eyed warrior to created that Hound in Volume 8.
And he's not the only one, Harriet's defeat at Galen's hands will certainly affect her opinion of him in the future. At least Clover understands Galen's concerns. You may notice a few similarities with Clover's back story to that of Din Djarin. Please keep in mind, that Clover was raised by a Mandalorian warrior, but is not a Mandalorian. The armor he was given was a gift, same as the pistols and don't worry, they will be used at a later date. I have plans for Clover.
So, the new robots are essentially the KG Death Bots from Jak 2 and 3. Figured I would include those machines as prototype Atlesian Knights that the SDC created before the AK-130's and AK-200's.
Plus, side, Howzer from the Bad Batch and more of his unit are on Remnant and are working with Robyn to protect Mantle. We also have a new character, another member of the Penwolf Family, Mordred, basically the same girl from Fate/Apocrypha. Voice actress is Erica Lindbeck, a fellow Bostonian, former girlfriend of Billy Kametz and the voice of various characters in film, animation, and videogames, such as Cassie Cage, Magilou and Futaba.
Second, Ruby is now a pilot, and it seems that Dante might have feelings for Artoria. Bet you didn't see that coming
Third, Luke, the Garuda and Galm Teams, 501st and 502nd fighter squadrons and Mara have returned. Expect a meeting between Luke and Mara in the future, but I'm not sure how their relationship will be handled. I'll take any ideas you might all have.
Sorry, this took so long, I was putting a lot of effort into this chapter and probably got carried away.
Anyway, next chapter will be the double date I mentioned several chapters ago, so expect some romance, magic, some action, and such. For those who gave me a suggestion for the semblance of the magician, thank you very much. Oh, and also be prepared for an Elton John song used in a certain Disney movie.
Until then, please read and review and if you have any magic tricks you'd like to see, please leave them in your reviews, I have a few down, but could use some other ideas.
