BATTLEFIELD
An Atlas drone was keeping watch of the ship that the Ace Ops had entered the battle from, when the spear of a lancer Grimm pierced through it and dragged it off as the fighting kept raging on in the battlefield.
Peering outside, Ren nodded to the others and jumped out of the bullhead, followed by Jaune and Yang.
It was pure chaos, with Grimm engaged with Atlas soldiers, a large congregation of sulphur fish also were gathered up outside of Monstra's mouth, likely to keep anyone from getting too close.
Jaune raised his shield while ducking, stopping a lunging Beowolf from tackling him as the gravity dust in his shield activated again, blasting the creature away.
Ren slashed through anything that got too close and shot others that he saw would get in his way, mainly the smaller Grimm were moving for him as he ran.
Yang on the other hand, fired a powerful blast that blew the head off of an Ursa before dodging a fireball sent from a Manticore that was quickly blasted apart by a ship that was making another pass.
"We only have one shot to get in there!" Yang insisted as she came to a halt, looking up at Monstra's gaping mouth.
"We're entering there?!" Jaune seemed skeptical before Ren walked over, having masked their whole group from Grimm detection.
"We should be invisible." Ren assured as he fired a single grapple shot from one of his Stormflower guns, the blade successfully wrapping around an upper tooth.
Jaune took hold of Ren's shoulder, while Yang nodded and fired off a shot behind her that propelled her upwards the same time that Ren and Jaune made their own ascent.
The trio landed in the throne room now, looking around.
"Interesting architecture choice." Yang commented.
"Guys, stay on alert!" Jaune insisted as he drew his sword out again when a Beringel dropped in from the ceiling.
Yang let out a sigh. "Guess I should have figured she wouldn't just let us waltz in here." she readied her stance at the same time as Ren.
The waves upon waves of Grimm were clearly starting to overwhelm Atlas's forces as a group of Sulphur fish swarmed around a paladin that was firing on a Megoliath, disabling all of it's weapons and leaving it open to the Megoliath's tusks, that ripped through the mech.
A few soldiers were gathered around a tank, opening fire on all of the Grimm that got too close while the tank fired rounds into some of the distant larger Grimm., one of which being a Sphinx that was blown up by a direct hit.
"Hold the line!" Winter insisted to the soldiers around her as she blocked a Manticore's fireball with a glyph.
The Ace Ops were handling themselves fairly decently in the midst of this battle, with Harriet speeding through groups of Grimm that were gathering around soldiers, killing them all just with her semblance alone.
Elm fired two rockets at an encroaching Megoliath, the resulting explosion's blast radius also caught some Grimm as she quickly transformed her weapon into it's hammers form and ran ahead. "CHARGE!" she yelled.
Marrow was shooting at some Centinels that had just spit acid onto a tank when something caught his eye. It was a bright rainbow speeding past him.
"Never Miss a Beat, Never Miss a Beat!" Neon swung her ice dust nunchucks around, freezing various Grimm to the ground, creating openings for incoming soldiers.
"The kids are here?!" Marrow looked horrified as Neon dove herself behind a tank where Flynt was, looking battered and bruised.
They were both wearing the standard soldier uniforms. "I froze as many of them in place as I could, Flynt." Neon stated.
"Good…" Flynt looked up at the sky. "I'll help out with anything from above." he climbed up onto the tank and blew into his trumpet, a blast of electricity knocking a Teryx out of the air.
What he didn't see was a fireball from an oncoming sphinx. It struck the tank directly, sending him flying off of it and into the field, his aura shattering from the impact.
"FLYNT!" Neon skated over to him as fast as she could.
Marrow grit his teeth now, ready to run to their aid when Harriet stopped him. "Focus on the job." she insisted.
"Our job was to prevent this from happening!" he glared at her. "These kids aren't ready for this!"
Harriet balled her hands up into fists as she watched Neon desperately fighting to keep the Grimm away from Flynt.
"You keep off of him!" she sped around Flynt in a circle while he struggled to sit up on the ground.
A powerful screech echoed through the battlefield, that caused many soldiers to suddenly slow down.
Neon fell over, landing in a tumble on her knees in front of one of the Grimm that had caused this disruption.
"W-What was-"
"Apathy." Harriet glared forward at a few Apathy that had managed to slowly approach their forces
"STAY!" Marrow used his semblance on them to prevent them from doing any further damage.
Thorn was thrown in the direction of those energy sucking Grimm, and dismembered the lot before Vine caught it in his hand, now standing in front of Neon. "Fall back." he commanded them as Harriet stumbled to her knees on her skates.
Flynt and Neon both retreated back while Marrow let out a sigh of relief, unaware of the Sabyr Grimm that was rushing him from behind.
Thankfully, he didn't have to worry as an icy blade cut right through it.
Standing behind Marrow, clad in a military uniform, while still wearing her beret, was Ciel Soleil. An Icy blade was protruding out of her watch as she stood behind Marrow in a firm stance. "Ciel Soleil, reporting in, Ace Operative Amin."
"Thanks for the assist." Marrow nodded and transformed his weapon into its boomerang form, throwing it at an approaching Ursa Major, cutting its hind legs off, and leaving it open for Ciel to fire off her blade into its head.
She nodded and ran ahead of him, firing off small bolts of electricity from her watch and dodging around projectile attacks from the various Grimm on the battlefield.
Vine rushed in after her and did his part to shield her from oncoming attacks, while also cutting down other Grimm along the way.
Winter summoned her flock of nevermores to disorient some approaching Beowolves, while some soldiers threw grenades out into the battlefield.
The lights of explosions were a common sight here as Elm fired more rockets off towards the base of Monstra's mouth that killed some Grimm before they could fully emerge from the sludge.
Ironwood was watching the ongoing battle intently, from out his window and on his scroll with footage from the various drones that weren't destroyed.
His eyes narrowed at something that caught his eye. He saw Vine spending more of his energy defending as many students and soldiers on the battlefield as he could, rather than keeping to his objective, which was holding his position.
"Operative Zeki, return to your position. It's not your duty to be providing support-" he was surprisingly cut off.
"With all due respect general, what sense does it make for you to let your forces die like this?" Vine asked him while Ironwood watched him toss a boarbatusk halfway across the battlefield. "I'm simply doing the most strategic thing, which is keeping our forces alive. If we lose distance, then so be it. We'll make it through regardless. Our tanks, paladins, and knights should be more than enough to hold the line."
"Operative Zeki, let me reiterate your commands, you are to-" Ironwood found himself interrupted by a pair of officers entering his office.
"Sir!" they saluted him.
"What's the update on the situation down in the command center?" he asked.
"Watts has been broken out and Hill and Branwen are missing." the female officer explained.
"We managed to recapture Schnee though-" before the male officer with him could continue, he was cut off.
"I don't give a damn about Jacques Schnee. Tell all of our men down there to find Hill and Branwen now!" he commanded as the two officers left him.
He paced around his desk now, and stared out the window again. "I knew what had to be done… Yet I didn't do it…" his hands balled up into fists before making a call out. "When you have the missing prisoners recaptured, bring them to me for their termination." he instructed before another call rang out on his scroll.
"Sir, our bomb is ready for deployment!" an engineer exclaimed.
"Excellent, I'll have it shipped out at once." Ironwood affirmed before calling the Ace Operatives again.
Alarms were blaring all through the command center as soldiers frantically scanned around the halls along with some Atlesian Knights. "Figures that Jimmy doesn't want to let us go." Qrow grit his teeth.
"If that comms message is anything to go off of, we can't afford to be captured." Robyn agreed as she readied her stun baton. "Just follow my lead if you want your weapon back."
"On it." Qrow watched as Robyn turned a corner and jammed her stun baton into the back of an Atlesian Knight, electrocuting it until it dropped to the ground.
Qrow followed in suit, ducking behind another door frame as he watched some soldiers walking by.
"The General's sounding more unstable." the younger sounding soldier looked down as he walked.
"Could you blame him? I mean we've got a full scale attack on our front door steps!" the older one reasoned.
"But sending kids out onto the battlefield when we're still here? Why would he need us here anyway?!" the younger soldier was perplexed.
"Look, I'm not here to question more orders, just follow them, besides. The enemy's taken interest in this facility too, given that 3 of our prisoners are on the loose." the older one stopped for a moment. "Wait a second…"
The younger soldier looked around too. "What?"
The older man lifted his visor up and scanned around the room with his eyes. "Nothing…" he shook his head and the pair continued down the hall.
"Jimmy's gone too far now…" Qrow grit his teeth while he followed behind Robyn, nearing the security room.
Robyn held a finger over her mouth as another pair of soldiers were standing guard outside the security room. She made a few gestures to Qrow who nodded.
"Hey there!" Robyn stepped out from around the corner as the soldiers aimed their guns at her.
"Stop right there!" one of the guards held her at gunpoint.
"Look, I just wanted to talk to the general." she stated while holding her hands up, the stun baton still in her hand.
"Well then, you're in luck. We're under orders to bring you to him." one of them chuckled while taking out a pair of gravity bolas for her.
"Yeah, I think I'd rather see him on my own terms." Robyn threw her stun baton at the soldier who was aiming at her while Qrow ran in from behind and wrestled with the other soldier, his arm wrapping around the other man's neck.
Robyn caught the stun baton and swatted the rifle out of the soldier's hands.
Annoyed, the soldier produced a knife from his belt and stabbed at her. Robyn side stepped the initial stab as the soldier spun the knife around in his hand and swung it at her, clashing with her stun baton now.
She had managed to strike him a couple of times, but his armor absorbed most of the damage from her attacks as he kicked at her, only for Robyn to respond with a kick to his knee, forcing his foot back down before she more harshly swung the stun baton at his head, catching his neck and electrocuting him until he was out of it.
She panted, leaning on a wall as Qrow was already at the door, opening it up with the other soldier's hand before dropping him to the ground.
In the room was a congregation of 4 guards that were watching some of the camera footage. They all turned towards the door as it opened, seeing Qrow standing on the other side of it.
"Hey fellas, just here to get my stuff." Qrow cracked his knuckles.
The Ace Ops had all gathered at their initial drop off point upon the general's instructions.
"Come on, Juan…" Marrow cursed under his breath as during this whole time he was hoping to get some confirmation from Yang's group of the success of their rescue mission.
The ship with the bomb finally flew in, the hangar door opening as a few soldiers flooded out to enter the battle.
"Everyone, ready the payload!" Winter instructed as Marrow stopped her.
"Wait, your sister's friends are still in there!"
Winter kept going. "They knew what they were walking into and we had a deal. They have until we get there to get what they came for and go."
Marrow stepped in front of the bomb as Harriet and Elm also got into position. "What's the hold up, Marrow?!" Harriet yelled at him.
"Do you guys NOT remember that those kids are still in there?!" Marrow pointed out. "Can't we give them just a little more time?!"
"The longer that thing's there, the more everyone's in danger!" Harriet argued.
"As much as I'm not comfortable knowingly making this sacrifice, Marrow. The bigger threat is Monstra." Vine reasoned with him while getting into position as well now.
Winter took a deep breath and put a hand on Marrow's shoulder. "I'll tell Weiss what we had to do to her friends when this is all over…" she resolved now as she unsheathed her sword after preparing the bomb for their charge with it.
"And you'd probably do the same if Weiss was in there too." Marrow pushed past her, making her eyes widen as she turned back towards the battlefield.
"If it meant saving more lives." she responded before leading the charging Ace Operatives who began to run towards Monstra with the bomb in tow.
Made sure no Grimm got near the Ace Operatives as they hoisted the bomb up and ran at Monstra, firing ice shards through some apathy, impaling a boarbatusk with her parrying dagger and speeding around the Ace Operatives to intercept a pack of beowolves with a spiky wall of ice.
"Keep going!" she pressed as Marrow struggled more, but found himself held up a little by Vine who nodded to him.
Some accompanying soldiers also made the trudge more easy since they drew away some of the Grimm as they inched ever closer to Monstra.
Winter enhanced herself with time dilation and sped towards an approaching Megoliath, spinning around in a circular cutting motion, leaving a large red gash in it's thick hide that she quickly exploited by creating another glyph on the ground beside it and spawning out a large jagged glacier from it, impaling it.
Before anymore progress could be made on getting that bomb into Monstra, something unexpected happened.
Things seemed to have grown silent for a moment before a sudden explosion erupted out of Monstra in a single focused blast of energy that fired forward, ripping off the top of one of Atlas's many skyscrapers.
The blast was bright enough to clear the stormy sky, parting the clouds above Atlas and everyone saw it.
Ironwood shielded his eyes as he saw it from his office, Ruby's group, who had just returned Penny to Weiss's room were also surprised by this blinding light.
Cinder, who was flying through the city with Watts still in tow, watched in shock as Monstra was blown up by this powerful blast.
As the dust settled from the blast, the Ace Operatives and Winter picked themselves up.
"Target eliminated, excellent job, Ace Operatives." Ironwood congratulated them. "Report back to Atlas Academy at once." he hung up.
"W-What the hell just happened?" Harriet stood herself up.
"That wasn't us…" Elm stared back at the bomb that was still in their possession.
"Load it up." Winter commanded. "We'll tell the general what happened when we get back there."
Marrow fell to his knees, holding his hands over his mouth. "They're…" Vine put a remorseful hand on his shoulder.
The faunus pulled himself back to his feet. "I know…" he stared at the slowly dissolving remains of Monstra.
The Ace Ops started to leave the scene, remorsefully, with even Harriet letting a few tears fall from her face despite not outwardly showing any other emotions.
Their ship took off towards Atlas Academy ahead of other ships that were being called back with the battle mostly won, leaving what was left of Monstra behind.
Commentary: So we get our big battle set piece here! The main focus being the Ace Ops and Winter this time around.
The bit with Yang's group entering Monstra is something I felt like was really missing in the show, and thanks to some cut scripts I found out that they were supposed to enter Monstra through the Mouth, which it sure IS a good thing Salem was taking a lovely stroll around Monstra instead of chilling on her throne like I've had her doing most of the volume.
The cameos in this chapter were some I was all too eager to throw in here, obviously the FNKI ones were in the show, but I definitely did give them a little focus, which since their fate is ambiguous in the show, I'm likely going to leave it ambiguous here. Also the biggest cameo surprise I had was Ciel Soleil! Yep, she made a return appearance here, I honestly couldn't help myself in giving her at least one appearance here where she got to do something cool. Which, I did make her weapon that watch she always looks at, I felt like it made sense. Which I'm sure another question you might have (or not) is where the two members of Team FCSA that are stuck up in Atlas are out here. Well, that is something you'll have to wait for the answer to.
But yeah, the Ace Ops are definitely really starting to see the strain Ironwood's putting on Atlas, at least Vine and Marrow clearly are... Harriet's too stubborn to admit anything, and Elm is more or less on autopilot about it all.
Finally there's the big blast to address... I'm sure you're already VERY well aware of what that was. I honestly like that route, because it does make it seem ambiguous about what happened to Yang's group, something we're going to see next time.