Chapter 3: Ambush At Mountain Glenn

"I'm sorry, what?" Weiss looked at Doctor Anne Greene with consternation. She was an odd woman, at least by her estimation, with her long red hair and comically thick glasses. At least the sterile white of the Gladius's medical bay reminded her of Atlas.

"Did I stutter?" Greene asked, "You and Miss Rose have a mental link. It's clear as day from these readings." She waved her hands at the brainwave readings on display on the screen in front of them, as if that explained everything.

"I think we're going to need a little more than that, Doc." Ruby said.

"Indeed." Weiss said tersely.

Greene looked back and forth between the two pilots before shrugging and launching into an explanation. "Alright, then. How much do you two know about the old Mark Three Mecha?

Ruby took a moment to order her thoughts, then answered. "They were the first Mecha to actually be effective against the Grimm. Because of the mental strain it took to be hooked up to one, they had to be piloted by two people, connected with a neural link."

Greene grinned, "As expected, Ruby, you know your stuff. Now, here's the wrinkle. The neural link tech was hilariously untested, it was rushed cause the Grimm were about to overwhelm us. Turns out, any children the Mark Three pilots had... well, had a unique genetic mutation. This mutation made them genetically predisposed to have limited telepathy, but only with someone else with the mutation."

"Am I right in assuming that there aren't exactly many children of these pilots?" Weiss asked.

Greene nodded, "Yep. You two are the first I've seen that actually have a link."

Ruby rubbed the back of her head, "What exactly does this mean for us? I mean, are we going to be like... really good friends, or something?"

The doctor pushed her glasses up her nose, only for them to fall right back down. "Don't know, to be honest. I've heard of some with the link who became lovers, but I've also heard of some who became mortal enemies. It all depends on you two."

A rather uncomfortable silence descended, until Greene cleared her throat. "Anyways, I'm clearing you two for duty, so have fun with that." She turned back to her terminal, making it clear that the conversation was over. Ruby and Weiss left awkwardly, and made their way towards the crew quarters.

"So, what have you... heard me think?" Ruby asked tentatively.

Weiss rolled her eyes, a time honored Atlesian expression of sass. "So far? Just pew pew." She hesitated for a moment, then added, "Also, recently when I let my mind wander, I've started... daydreaming about you." She glanced at Ruby, whose face had been overtaken by a blush. "Not that that means anything! I barely know you after all!"

Ruby giggled, at least Weiss was kind of warming up to her, maybe. "So, you're saying the Ice Queen has a heart?"

Please don't call me that.

Ruby flinched as the thought from Weiss reached her. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that you don't like being called that."

Weiss sighed, "Well, you know now, so I can only hope that you do better in the future. Now, I have a question for you. How were you able to keep up with me? My GLYPH Drive is supposed to be able to outpace anything using the Oobleck Thruster Assembly."

Ruby grinned, it was tech talk time! "That's because I've overclocked Crescent Rose's reactor! Faster top speed, more responsive! The only downside is that I had to do away with a lot of the armor I would normally have so I don't overheat."

Weiss hummed. Same as her, really. The only downside to the GLYPH Drive was that when she used the Field Mode, it generated a lot of heat, and ate a lot of power. It was designed to replenish said power quickly, but it was still a concern in long battles. "I think it's safe to assume, that due to the similarities between our Mecha, and our... unique communication abilities, we're going to end up as wingmates."

Ruby nodded, "Yeah, that sounds like a choice Jaune would make. He's a wizard when it comes to tactics."

For Weiss, reading between the lines had been an essential skill for weaving through the pit of vipers that passed for Atlesian high society. "But not at combat."

He's gotten better...

Ruby leapt to the defense of her friend. "Just because he got into the Academy unconventionally doesn't mean he's bad! Sure, he could be better, but that doesn't keep him from being a good leader!"

Weiss had to concede that point. From what little she had observed so far, Jaune made competent command decisions, and he had come up with the idea for the task force to hunt down and expose the Revitalists. "I suppose." She said neutrally.

"Just wait until we have our first mission." Ruby insisted, "I'm sure he'll surprise you."

Considering the odds that were laid out against them, as Weiss understood them, she fervently hoped that he did.


"The Admiral will see you now, Lieutenant."

Jaune nodded his thanks to his father's secretary. They were nearing the end of the month long process of refitting the Gladius for its new mission profile. Since the usual patrol routes were no longer their order of business, it was being refitted as an assault frigate, rather than as the patrol frigate it was previously commissioned as. More armor, more weapons, and most importantly, proper launch tubes for its Mecha complement, which maxed out at twelve.

Jaune squared his shoulders and headed in, the double doors sliding aside to grant him entrance. Julius Arc was never happy with all the plastic and metal used in most military buildings, but as commander of Vale's Military, he could get away with decorating how he liked. A dark hardwood floor and dark green walls served as the base of the room's decor. One side of the room was covered in bookcases, while the other served as the location of a display case holding the various medals that he had earned over the course of his career.

Julius sat at the mahogany desk situated toward the rear of the room. Jaune swore that he could hear his old man sigh as he walked up. That wasn't surprising, considering that he had never been supportive of Jaune being a Mecha pilot. In fact, he had forbidden Jaune from submitting his application to the Academy. It was only due to him getting scouted for his gaming skill that Jaune had been able to pursue his dream. Julius had not been pleased. They had argued about it for hours that night, in the end, Julius had allowed Jaune to try, with the caveat that he would succeed or fail on his merit alone.

Jaune wouldn't have it any other way.

Julius glanced up from his terminal, "At ease, Lieutenant." Jaune relaxed his posture, and waited for his dad to have his say. "I'm giving the members of the Inter-Kingdom Unity Task Force priority on any part requisitions or upgrade requests."

"Thank you, Admiral." Jaune said, adhering to military discipline. The Valean Federation was not kind to accusations of nepotism, so Jaune took great pains to make sure there wasn't any reason anyone could make a complaint. "Any word on if Mistral or Vacuo will be joining us yet?"

Julius chuckled, "No word from Vacuo, but they're stubbornly isolationist. Mistral has sent me a list of potential pilots, there's a group of three that come as a package deal I like. I'll send you their files for your approval."

Jaune blinked. "My approval? Since when do I get to make those kind of decisions? I'm only a Lieutenant, after all."

Julius sighed again, "Not anymore, son." For the first time, Jaune's eye was drawn to the small case on the desk that his dad was fingering. "You've been promoted to Lieutenant Commander. Normally we'd do something more formal then this, but after talking with Ironwood, we want to keep things as hush hush as possible."

"Right." Jaune muttered as Julius rose and crossed over to him to pin the new rank insignia to his collar, as was tradition. Unlike Atlas, which used a pip system for ranks, Vale used renditions of weapons. The Lieutenant Commander insignia was a Saber and Main Gauche crossed.

After he was done, Julius laid a hand on Jaune's shoulder. "Jaune, please be careful. The Revitalists are crafty at best, devious at worst, and they have the benefit of Atlesian technology. I don't want to have to bury my only son because some rank and file pilot with a Beam Rifle got lucky."

Jaune softened his posture further, nearing his everyday posture. His dad dispensing with rank meant that he was talking to him as his father, not as his superior. "I won't tell you not to worry, Dad. But it's like I tell Ruby and the others, when we're out there fighting, before anything else our number one priority is to keep each other safe. Everything else comes second."

Julius tried and failed to suppress a smile, "Learned that from video games, did you?"

Jaune grinned, "Something like that."


Upon hearing that he could board the Gladius again, now that the technical staff had done their work, Cardin made a beeline for his quarters. He had a job to do, for his new employers. He activated his terminal and found that Navigation was already plotting the FTL course that would bring them to Amity. Idiots.

While Cardin's FTL course plotting was mediocre at best, it was easy enough for him to plot the best ambush point. The course took them right by an asteroid cluster. Perfect. He opened up his messages, and found one from one of the Revitalist's code slicers, they had sent him a virus that would cause the Gladius to drop out of FTL at the coordinates he specified. He took a comm spike that he had obtained from a public access fabricator and inserted it into his terminal.

He cracked his knuckles, then sent a confirmation message back, along with the ambush coordinates. This was just too easy, soon enough he would be well shot of these bleeding heart equality preachers and finally able to do what he felt should've been done to begin with. Get rid of the Faunus, and bring order to all. It made perfect sense, why hadn't he thought of this sooner?

Within minutes, there was another message, titled Listen while sleeping. It contained nothing but an attached audio file. Cardin shrugged. He wasn't expected to be on duty unless there was an emergency anyways. He transferred the file to his Omni-scroll, slipped his earbuds in, and flopped onto his bed.

Cardin groaned, it was just one of those hokey this will help you sleep audio files. Whatever, as long as he got what he wanted.


Glynda prided herself on her ability to expect the unexpected, but even she was surprised when the Gladius dropped out of FTL, especially since she was almost pitched out of the captain's chair before the inertial dampeners kicked in. "What the hell just happened? Helm, where are we?"

"We dropped out of FTL just outside of the Mountain Glenn debris field, ma'am! Cause unknown!"

"Thank you, Ensign Paris." Glynda said. She immediately got on her Omni-scroll and made a call. "Engineering, this is Goodwitch. Why aren't we moving?"

An image of her Chief Engineer, Onyx appeared, "I don't know, Cap'n!" The black haired man shouted some orders at some passing crewmen then returned his attention to Goodwitch, his wolf ears twitching. "The FTL Drive just shut off in the middle of transit, we're still assessing the damage." His report was punctuated by a shower of sparks in the background. "Best case scenario, we'll be underway in two hours, but don't count on that, unless I've got a miracle in my back pocket."

Onyx's picture winked out as he disconnected. "Captain?" Ensign Cooper, their sensor specialist spoke up, "Because we slaved the convoy to our navicomputer, they came out of FTL right with us. Also... there's another ship out there, coming out of the debris field."

"Onscreen." Glynda said, only to be treated to a view of a frigate making its way out of the debris field, flying White Fang colors. "We're going to have to fight our way out of this, Commander, get ARYS (Artemis) Lance out there, Cardin too. We're going to need all hands on deck." Damn it, are they after the Amity construction convoy? There's a lot of supplies, so that could easily be the reason. But how did they knock us out of FTL?

Commander Peach gave the order, then rose from her chair. "I'm going to go down to engineering to see if I can lend a hand. Maybe I can help them shave some time off of Onyx's estimates." As she left, Jeanne Arc entered the bridge, taking her position as Bridge Control for the Mecha.

"Ma'am!" Cooper said, "The White Fang ship isn't responding to warnings, and they are launching their Mecha!"

"So be it." Glynda muttered. She hit the button on her chair's console for ship-wide communication. "Red Alert! All hands to battle stations!"


They'd been compromised somehow. That was the only explanation for the sudden ambush, but as Crocea Mors was being moved into its assigned launch tube, Jaune didn't have time to ponder the how or why. He only had time to focus on the objective in front of him, thankfully that was simple. Keep the convoy safe. His preflight checks were completed, and he had the green light from Control. There was only one thing to do.

"Crocea Mors, ready for launch!" Jaune yelled.

The catapult mechanism triggered, sending him flying out of tube as he heard similar callouts from his lancemates.

"Crescent Rose, online!" Ruby was as gleeful as she ever was when she launched, but Jaune knew that she understood the gravity of the situation.

"Myrtenaster, all systems nominal." Weiss said.

"Ember Celica, Good to go!" Yang crowed.

"Executioner, ready to rock!" Cardin said.

Jaune gasped as he exited the tube and was shot out into space. The launch tubes were a far cry from running and jumping out of the hangar deck. He slammed the throttle to full acceleration, sending him hurtling towards the White Fang Mecha formation. "Control, i need a tactical analysis of the enemy."

Jeanne popped up to his upper left, "I've got you, Jaune. These are new models, or at least new to us. Be careful." Jaune glanced at his sensors, his lancemates were arrayed behind him in an arrowhead formation, and the White Fang Mecha were coming straight for them and not the convoy. Yet.

"Pick your targets, but keep your heads on a swivel." Jaune said, "If any of them make a run on the convoy, all other targeting priorities are rescinded." After receiving acknowledgment from the others in the form of double clicks of their comms, Jaune deployed his Heat Swords and dove in. A purple hued Mecha with chunks of armor missing met his charge with a barrage of fire from its handheld machine gun. Jaune jerked out of the way and brought his Autocannon to bear, only to find that his enemy had disappeared.

"Jaune, behind you!" Yang called out. Jaune whirled around just in time to catch the White Fang Mecha's Heat Machete on his gauntlet shield. He plunged his other Heat Sword into one of the gaps in his opponent's armor, then ripped the super heated blade out and up through the arm holding the Heat Machete that was digging into his arm. After removing the offending weapon, Jaune hit full reverse, and fired his Autocannon, delivering the finishing blow. "The purple ones are faster, watch out for that!" Jaune said.

Yang grinned, "Copy that, boss!" She opened fire on a blue Mecha with her Scatter Cannons, pumping it full of rounds until it blew. "The blue ones are tougher, guess that's to be expected."

Out of the corner of his eye, Jaune saw the Gladius vectoring, it was never a good sign when the warships danced while their Mecha were engaged.


"Ma'am, the White Fang ship is vectoring towards the convoy." Vermillion said, "I recommend we counter."

Glynda glanced at her tactical officer, "Agreed. If they want to show their teeth, we'll show them ours. Helm, plot an intercept course. Guns, open fire as soon as you have optimal firing solutions."

Glynda tapped her finger on the armrest of her chair, as the Gladius inched closer and closer to the White Fang ship. She knew she wasn't going to flinch, but what about the enemy commander?

"Ma'am, they're breaking off." Paris reported.

Glynda drew in a breath. "Good. Guns, hold fire, but don't clear your targeting data. Helm, keep us between them and the convoy."

One of the gunners spoke up, "Ma'am? Why don't we fire?"

"Because, if we fire after they back off, then they'll make a desperate gambit. We don't want that, we want them to realize that this ambush will cost them more than they want to pay. Control, how are things going out there?"

Jeanne winced. "Ruby's in trouble."


Things were not going how Ruby had planned at all. If they were, then she would've taken out that red White Fang Mecha with a single shot from her Railgun, but she had waited an instant too long to fire, and it had retaliated with a shot from its shoulder mounted Anti-Materiel Rifle. Ruby's shot had impacted the shield on its left arm, blowing it clean off. Her enemy's shot had blown Crescent Rose's right arm off at the elbow, and her Railgun along with it.

"Oh, crapbaskets." Ruby whispered as she was assaulted with a barrage of warning messages. Her only chance now was to close with the red Mecha, and hope that her head-mounted Vulcan cannons could find an opening in her tormentor's armor. She charged, trusting in her Mecha's maneuverability to keep her safe. Without any hesitation, she sent Crescent Rose into what Mecha pilots called the weave.

The weave was shorthand for advancing on a target with erratic motions to confuse automatic targeting and befuddle any attempts at manual targeting by other pilots and ship gunners. It did the trick, enabling Ruby to dodge more sniper fire from her assailant. As she closed in, it opened fire with its machine gun. Using her damaged appearance to her advantage, Ruby drifted left, making it look like she had lost control before breaking right. She came up right behind the red Mecha and opened fire with her Vulcan cannons.

"What now?" Ruby lamented when another warning message blared across her HUD. When she read it, she went pale.

Missile Lock.

She darted away, and frantically looked for the offending Mecha. It took a few precious seconds, but then she spotted a blue Mecha bearing the White Fang insignia. Then it fired, sending a missile straight at her. She tore away from it, then twisted around so that she could get a bead on the missile with her Vulcan cannons. She blew it out of space without much issue. Ruby glanced at her sensors, where was the sniper?

She was quickly reminded by by a 210mm bullet tearing through Crescent Rose's chassis.

As soon as the new barrage of warning messages hit her, Ruby knew she was in danger. Her drive capacity had been reduced to forty percent. "This is Ruby, I need-"

Before she could finish her call for help, two bolts of blue energy lanced through the circling vultures. "What would you do without me, you dolt?" Weiss said.

Two more White Fang Mecha of the purple variety took aim at Ruby, determined to put her crippled Mecha out of its misery. "I don't think so." Weiss hissed. She interposed her Myrtenaster between them and Ruby, then dashed at them. As they opened fire, she activated her GLYPH Field, causing the bullets to harmlessly vaporize before reaching her. After the shield dissipated, she ignited her Beam Saber and dispatched the first one with a single stroke. She turned to find that the other one was fleeing back to its mothership.

Then she heard Jaune's voice over the comm, and somehow wasn't surprised at all. "Cardin, get back here! That's an order!"


As Yang shot a missile that eliminated one of the now fleeing Mecha, Jaune repeated his order. "Cardin, break off! NOW!" Cardin was doggedly chasing one of the sniper Mecha, his Autocannons firing away. He was also straying much too close to the White Fang frigate. "Can it, Arc. I just have one more animal to put down..."

Cardin's racist declaration was cut off as some of the frigate's guns opened fire on him. Jaune swore, as he immediately recognized the Ion munitions. Cardin tried to dodge, but his Executioner was just too bulky, thanks to all of its extra armor. He took one of the Ion rounds full in the chest, and his Mecha went limp, only for two of the retreating Mecha to snatch him up and begin to drag his unresponsive Executioner into their hangar.

"NO!" Jaune roared, even though he actively despised Cardin at the moment, if the White Fang got any information out of him, it would blow their operational security wide open. "PCM, ACTIVATE!"

Jaune frantically looked through the tactical options presented to him, searching for one that would let him save Cardin, even if he didn't deserve it.

There wasn't one.

"Jaune, let's get out of here before their gunners decide we look like their next souvenirs." Yang said.

Jaune wheeled around and followed Yang back to the Gladius. Technically their efforts had been successful, both the convoy and Gladius were unharmed, but in Jaune's opinion, the cost was far too high. The professors at the Academy had said that he'd get used to seeing comrades die, either by his order, or from disobedience.

Jaune wasn't sure if that was a good thing.


Cinder smirked as the access hatch to the cockpit of Cardin Winchester's Mecha was opened. Those fools didn't even realize that they didn't have anything resembling operational security from the start, thanks to her exploiting Cardin's hatred of Faunus, and making several... adjustments to his his psyche. It was truly incredible what could be done with subliminals in a simple audio file.

The hatch fully opened, and Cardin exited, coming to a stop right in front of Cinder. "Cardin Winchester, reporting as ordered. Pretty slick move disguising as White Fa-"

Cinder had no time for idle prattle. "Solider."

Upon hearing the trigger, Cardin immediately dropped to his knees. "Ready to comply."

Cinder smiled, she loved when a plan came together.


A/N: Oof. Not every mission is going to be as cut and dry as that first one. People are going to get hurt, victories will feel hollow, and defeats will leave scars. What matters is how the heroes bounce back from it.

Yes, those three pilots that are a "package" are Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora.

"What about Blake?" Oh, she's in this too. Don't you worry.

Even with a super computer that is designed to anticipate every possible tactic, sometimes there just isn't a perfect, painless solution.

Until next time... wait, what's that sound?

Rage, Wilt... MOONSLICE!