I do not own anything relating to RWBY and Battlefield 1. RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and Battlefield 1 belongs to DICE and EA. All names mentioned in this fanfic belong to their respective owners.

The ideas in this fanfic belongs to me.

All criticisms are welcomed, especially the ones that are constructive.

...

Right after the words left Blackburn's mouth, the scene changed again, this time showing the cloudy afternoon sky of France. A squadron of a dozen or so RAF warplanes, mainly Bristols and Camels, flew by as the camera followed, all armed and ready for war.

"Now that's what I call a squadron.", Torchwick whistled, clearly impressed at the display.

"This time the boys won't get ganged up anymore!", Yang energetically said with a wide grin. Everyone around her also agreed... except for team's RWBY resident smart girl, infamous party pooper, queen of uptightness, and heiress of Remnant's most powerful corporation.

"They won't fly this time, I'm sure of it.", Weiss huffed, drawing many eyes towards her. "After the stunt they pulled few minutes ago, I would not be surprised if their Commander decided to have both of them grounded."

The white-haired girl's comment made Ruby groan in exasperation. "Why are you always so pessimistic, Weiss? Cheer up, it won't kill!"

The girl in question frowned in return and retorted. "I'm being realistic, not pessimistic."

The view then focused on one aeroplane, a Bristol F2.A to be exact. In the plane were two airmen, a pilot and a tail gunner. Even though their faces were hidden behind pairs of aviator goggles and leather hats, everyone still recognized them.

"Before we knew it we were back in the air.", Blackburn narrated.

With a smug look on her face, Blake turned to face the SDC's heiress. "You were saying, Weiss?"

"I... wha... but how?!", Weiss semi-shrieked in disbelief, her face red in embarrassment. "They broke the rules by flying into somewhere they were not supposed to, Wilson said that himself!"

"Sometimes the rules have to be bent if the end results prove to be beneficial for the overall cause.", General Ironwood calmly explained. "A leader must be flexible in their decision-making process. If you just keep playing by the books, you will end up nowhere in both your career and life."

The adults among the audience nodded in agreement, while the youngsters, especially the ones holding the title of team leader, memorized the words of wisdom from the General. Nobody could refute the man, as what he just said was very true on so many levels. He also made Eli, a person that by now everyone knew for sure was a very wise man, impressed with his short speech.

"Our mission; to clear the way for the bombers so they could blow that fortress all to hell.", Blackburn continued as the view switched to an aerial overview above the battlefield. Even from this height, the audience could see dead trees all over the place, which indicated that before the war, this area used to be a lush green forest.

Fires and craters of all sizes were also visible, which meant that the fighting had been going on for a while now, maybe long before the planes even showed up.

Last but not least, in the upper-left corner of the screen, the target of the assault. With no clouds or fogs cover, everyone was treated to the sight of the grand structure.

"They will need a lot of firepower to level that monster of a structure.", Summer commented with wide eyes.

Down below, her former teammate Qrow nodded. "Yup, combined arms tactics will be very useful in this case."

That comment from the Huntsmen veteran raised a lot of eyebrows as they all turned towards him. Confused by the weird reaction, he curtly asked. "What?"

"You don't look like a type of person to know about such military tactics, Branwen.", Winter replied with everyone around her nodded in agreement. Even his own relatives also shared the same opinion as the Ice Queen.

It's pretty understandable for everyone to think that way, though. For a man who was barely sober all the time to know about military tactics was kinda surprising.

"For your information, I was once a teacher at Signal, so knowing those kinds of stuff is pretty much my job.", Qrow indignantly huffed and took a swig of alcohol from his flask as everyone just snickered and turned their attention towards the screen.

The scene switched again, still in the sky but much lower compared to last time. German barrage balloons could be seen everywhere, though they all were just staying in one place. British and German planes were also seen engaging each other on the screen, with explosive flak rounds mostly coming from the German side detonated mid-air as they tried to shoot down the adversaries, painting the skies with numerous small black smoke.

"First, we'd have to down their barrage blimps. Jesus. Imagine being a lookout on a blimp. Bad luck, Fritz."

"Yeah, no joke", Jaune nervously said. "I would rather be an infantryman on the ground than be a stationary target in the sky like that."

Further from team JNPR, Sun voiced his agreement. "Damn right, man. I would gladly turn myself into past tense if I knew I was selected to be one of those unlucky bastards."

Although most of the people there knew the monkey faunus was not serious when he said those words, his teammate Scarlet frowned in agitation. Thanks to his personality, the redhead was able to see through his team leader's self-centered personality and habits, especially his tendency to abandon the team for some personal business. It would not be far-fetched to say that Sun would one day go through with what he just said, and Scarlet would be there to witness it.

"Next, we'd have to deal with their anti-aircraft trucks", Blackburn said as the view switched to that on the ground, showing a group of three armored trucks armed with a QF 1-pounder "pom-pom" autocannon on the back of each vehicle. The trucks themselves were unmoving, unlike their guns which were sweeping the sky for hostile aircrafts.

"The assault was already in full swing when we got there. We'd have to deal with all those defenses, then escort our bombers to the target when they arrived.

"Hey, I noticed that Blackburn also mentioned 'bombers' seconds ago. What are they, anyway?", Penny tilted her head to the side as she tried to think whatever that word meant.

"Oh! Oh! Are 'bombers' mean people who bring explosives to the target and blow it up? If that's the case then sign me in!", Nora excitedly exclaimed, with people sweat-dropped at her antics.

Meanwhile at the back, Eli stared at the hyperactive girl with caution in his eyes. Trying his best to stay calm, he carefully explained. "No, Nora. 'Bombers' in this context means 'aircrafts that carry bombs'. When they arrive at the target, they will drop those bombs to obliterate said target."

Nora slowly nodded in understanding with an 'ohhhh'. "Though not the kind of bombers I imagined to be but it still sounds like a job for me.", the orange-haired girl replied with a big grin on her face.

The scene then changed its focus back to Blackburn and Wilson's Bristol as they, along with other British aircrafts, headed towards the fireworks.

"Tall order. But victory here could change the course of the whole damn war, they said."

"Also said by every single general and stuff in history", Torchwick sarcastically said with a shrug. "'This will put an end to the whole conflict', they said. 'We're all gonna go home after this', they said. My ass."

The others, minus Eli, Ozpin, and his partner in crime, scowled at the criminal after hearing what he just said. None of their scowls could match the Atlesian officers' though, as Ironwood openly spat. "You better watch your mouth there, you filthy, low life, good-for-nothing criminal."

Said crook just shrugged off the insult in response and went back enjoying his favorite cigar. Off to the side, Ozpin looked like he wanted to say something but decided to keep his mouth shut and lower his head slightly in shame. Deep down he knew the criminal was right. Throughout history, he himself had witnessed numerous instances where military leaders promised such false hopes in order to motivate troops to fight. Hell, Ozpin himself also used such tactic back when the Kingdoms were at each other's throats.

He would be a massive hypocrite had he refuted Torchwick's words.

"Safe to say, Wilson was less than thrilled.", Blackburn said, his voice was full of sarcasm.

As if to prove the gambler's words were all true, Wilson piped up with clear nervousness in his tone of voice. "Now we're actually doing this, it feels really dangerous."

"Trust me. And buckled yourself in maybe.", Blackburn casually replied, making his gunner as well as some people in the audience raised an eyebrow. It was pretty understandable to have such a reaction, though, as only the ignorant, the naive, and the crazies would wave a dangerous situation like a literally killing field off with such casualness.

As the pair got closer to the area of operation, Wilson gave the pilot an objective. "Down those blimps, clear the way for our bombers!"

"Easy enough. Watch my back!", Blackburn replied as he jerked the yoke to the left, narrowly dodged the bullets fired from an incoming Fokker. The maneuver also made the triplane to fly past Blackburn and Wilson's Bristol and enter the British gunner's line of sight. Seizing the opportunity, the man wasted no time firing his Lewis LMG at the German triplane.

The angry .303 British bullets left the barrel of the weapon and slammed itself onto the Fokker's tail, decorating it with holes while also ripping off the triplane's elevators and some pieces of the horizontal stabilizer. Although Wilson was not able to down the aircraft in one burst, such major damage to the aircraft's control surfaces was equal to a kill itself.

"For a mere machine gun to tear apart that aircraft's wings like that, the ammunition used must be something else entirely.", Neptune commented, the rest of his team also agreed with a nod of their heads.

"Actually, the ammo used was not something too special.", Eli replied with a shrug. "Just some good ol' .303 British ammo. Very popular rimmed rifle cartridge back in the day but is considered obsolete by today's standards."

That information immediately made Ruby's silver eyes lit up with glee, as usual. She jumped up from her seat and turned to Eli. "Can I have a look at one of those ammo later, Eli? Maybe I can find a way to further improve my baby!"

Instead of granting the young Rose access, the host immediately denied her. "No, Ruby. Your Crescent Rose's caliber is basically the same as .50 BMG, or 12.7x99mm, in our world, and that cartridge is also used in anti-material rifles. Even though the .303 British is way smaller than the cartridge you use, the way we design and make ammo is leagues different. I'm not going to bore everyone with the technical and scientific details but in short, letting you tinkering with our world's ammo will literally turn Crescent Rose from an anti-Grimm rifle into an anti-material-and-personnel rifle."

Eli's speech proved to be every effective as Ruby slowly sit back down, the disappointment on her face looked like that of a puppy after it was denied of its treat. With a frown on her face, Yang turned to Eli and glared at him. "You don't have to be that blunt, you know."

"I'm sorry, but there's literally no way to sugarcoat it.", the host sighed. "We put a heavy emphasis on piercing and stopping power when we design our ammunition, so that we can put down the target as fast as we can. Remnant's ammunition on the hand? Your ammo design makes it that by the time a cartridge leaves the barrel, the ki...ne...tic..."

Eli slowly trailed off when he noticed that Summer, Ruby, Neo, Ironwood, and Winter were all furiously taking notes of what he was saying on their respective Scrolls. He also noticed that Penny was staring intently at him, meaning that she was secretly recording his speech. It seemed that those people noticed they were caught not-so-secretly writing down the words that left their host's mouth as they all slowly and sheepishly put away their devices and settled down on their own seats.

"Christ...", Eli silently muttered under his breath with a heavy sigh.

With the immediate threat swiftly dispatched and none of the German planes noticed them, Blackburn went full throttle and flew his aircraft directly towards the barrage blimps. The blimps were basically practice targets for the man as just like during the earlier training session, they were all big stationary targets as if to say 'I'm over here! Please, shoot me!'

Seeing that he was within gun range, Blackburn opened fire on the nearest blimp before quickly switching his target to the second one. The rapid transition made it looked as if both of the targets were destroyed at the same time as two big fireballs engulfed the blimps, with the second one happened only milliseconds behind the first.

"Goodnight Vienna!", Wilson excitedly yelled.

The men on other blimps took notice of the Bristol and fired their machine guns at the aircraft. Streaks of bullets flew past the British plane but none of them scored a hit, as the American pilot expertly dodged all of them while still keeping the targets in his sight. Before long, all stationary targets were eliminated.

"I find it hard to understand the logic behind those blimps", Glynda uttered with a frown. "All I see are massive wastes of money, resources, and human lives. In other words, the blimps are just over-the-top graves for men being sent up there."

The audience took few seconds to mull over the words of the blonde staff member of Beacon Academy. They knew that Glynda was not wrong as in their eyes, these blimps were technically fancy coffins for the German soldiers. After a short while, Pyrrha broke the silence by adding her piece. "Ms. Goodwitch is right, these blimps are indeed over-the-top graves just like she said."

"The question is why, though. Why did the Germans even invest their resources into building such hazardous things?", Ren said with some hints of confusion on his face.

Eli cleared his throat to gain everyone's attention. Once that's out of the way, he began explaining as short and easy to understand as he could. "Those blimps, like Blackburn mentioned before, are barrage blimps. They are large blimps tethered with metal cables used to defend against aircraft attack by damaging the aircraft on collision with the cables, or at least making the attacker's approach more difficult."

"So that's why Blackburn needs to take them down... to make way for the incoming bombers.", Blake said as she nodded her head in understanding. "That begs another question, though. If the blimps' job was to essentially lift giant metal nets to block incoming aircrafts, then why did they send those men up there with the blimps?"

Eli was about to explain further but Jaune jumped in. "Earlier, Blackburn said something about 'being a lookout'. Maybe the Germans needed people up there to observe the enemy aircrafts so that the guys on the ground could accurately position the blimps and the nets?"

The blond's answer earned him a laugh from Eli, and for a second he thought he was wrong so he sheepishly looked down. What the host said next, however, was not what he expected. "You're right on the money, Jaune! No wonder Ozpin chose you as team leader! Very good tactical observation!"

The leader of team JNPR was taken aback by the compliment, and some of his peers also seemed surprised by it. The adults, on the other hand, weren't that much, as they had already known the boy was right when he said his piece; not to mention the wise words he said during "Through Mud and Blood".

"Flak guns taking positions below!", Wilson yelled so that his buddy could hear him.

Sparing the ground a quick glance, Blackburn could see what his gunner was talking about. Sure enough, anti-aircraft "pom-pom" guns on the back of armored trucks were all busy leading their shots in order to take down the British aircrafts as fast as they could, their barrels spewing lead nonstop.

"I see them!", the pilot declared.

"Let's put them out of action, quickly!", Wilson exclaimed before going back to his job, which was warding off any Fokker that snuck behind them with his machine gun.

Blackburn banked the aircraft to the right and lined up his approach. Although being divided into groups of two, the positioning of the anti-aircraft trucks made them easy targets for the approaching Bristol. All Blackburn needed to do was to conduct a simple strafing run and his objective would be completed.

However, unlike last time with the barrage blimps, two German Fokkers noticed the British aircraft and could see what it was about to do. The pair of red and white painted aircrafts quickly dispatched they own preys and flew as fast as they could to intercept the Bristol. Wilson also noticed the incoming Fokkers, though, and he took the initiative and fired upon the pair. A stream of .303 British bullets whizzed past the pair of German aircrafts, one of which got hit multiple times mainly on its engine, making it spill oil and catch fire. The pilot was forced to jump out of the doomed Fokker as it plunged towards the ground before opening his parachute to slow his descend. The other Fokker, despite getting hit in the wings and body, managed to disengage and flew away.

"Nice shot, Wingnut!", Blackburn congratulated his gunner, who smiled in return.

"Thanks! And for the last time, it's Wilson!"

Most of the audience laughed and chuckled at the small banter between the two. It was kinda refreshing to see some positivity amidst such a dreadful scenario.

The Rackham impersonator snickered a bit before getting serious again. Lining up his targets, Blackburn fired his machine gun at the stationary trucks. The anti-aircraft trucks were taken by surprise as bullets from the Bristol's Vickers machine gun pierced through the weak armor of the trucks, hitting the ammunition stored inside before turning them into balls of flame. On the bed of the furthest truck, a single soldier tried to turn his autocannon towards the incoming Bristol but it was too late, as the .303 British bullets turned him into Swiss cheese before hitting the 37mm fuzed high explosive shells just beside him. The resulting explosion and its aftermath... was not pretty, as aside from the obvious metal debris, human parts also scattered the ground.

"We got it!", Blackburn exclaimed as he pulled up and flew away. Behind him, Wilson congratulated with a cheery smile.

"Nice work there!"

The audience was a bit disturbed at the gory display but chose not to comment on it. After witnessing the gruesome scenes in "Storm of Steel" and "Through Mud and Blood", they had kind of gotten desensitized to all the killings and maiming on the screen.

However, it was pretty clear that some of them still hadn't gotten used to the horror of war yet. Ruby subconsciously scooted closer to her mother, Pyrrha unknowingly grabbed Jaune arm although he didn't notice the gesture, and Weiss would occasionally divert her eyes towards the edge of the screen.

Those people were the most noticeable examples.

After flying to a somewhat safe airspace, Blackburn looked towards the lead aircraft, a Sopwith Camel, as its pilot was sending a hand signal telling the remaining British aircrafts to fly up. The scene then changed to reveal a squadron of five Caproni Ca.5 bombers flying in, with the fighters from before acting as escorts.

"The bombers are here!", Blackburn announced.

"Follow the bomber formation in! Keep those fighters off of them!", Wilson loudly instructed over the noise of wind.

"Piece of cake Wilson! Prepare to be left in awe!", Blackburn replied with a confident smirk.

"So now they have to protect these bombers", Winter commented with a slight frown. "Are these bombers incapable of defending themselves or something?"

Eli sighed as he knew that explaining everything about the bombers would take forever, so he resorted to an extremely short answer with lots of corners cut. "Since explaining the whole concept of bombers and their design philosophy would take forever, I will give an extremely abridged explanation, so expect the lack of details."

Receiving a nod from the Specialist, Eli began. "The whole point of a bomber is to carry and deploy tons of bombs or other weapons such as torpedoes and cruise missiles, the last type of weapon is seen on later, much more modern models of bombers. Because of the heavy payload bombers have to carry all the time, engineers have to reinforce the overall structure a lot more than other types of aircraft as well as design them bigger in order to gain the needed lift, thus leads to bombers have poor versatility when compared with fighters. As for defense, the Caproni Ca.5 bombers on the screen are equipped with two machine guns, one in the front and one in the back. However, since these bombers are not as versatile as our boys' Bristol here, they cannot dodge the incoming fire from the German planes, hence the escort and protection from friendly aircrafts."

"But why not just give them more firepower to defend themselves, though?", Summer voiced her question. "That way, when the escorts get lured away from the bombers, they still have the means to protect themselves from the enemy."

Eli simply shrugged in response. "Technical limitations. The Great War that you've been watching was the first modern war in history that saw the rise of mechanized warfare, which means that every war machine that you all have seen so far are very primitive compared to today's standards. But thanks to this war, lessons and experience were gained and newer, way better contraptions were invented, vastly improved the fighting capabilities of not just bombers, but every single instrument of war in general."

While some people in the audience were awed at the fact and could not wait to see the contraptions that Eli mentioned, the others were horrified. They could not understand why their counterparts in another world would take the, in their minds, weapons of mass destruction and make better ones just so that they can take lives more effectively. It was as if they were not satisfied with killing millions of fellow humans so they kept finding ways to kill more.

That last fact scared the people of Remnant the most, particularly Ozpin. He had lived long enough and witnessed enough wars and conflicts, which was why he never wanted his planet to be consumed by the flames of total wars.

Blackburn and the other British pilots slowed their aircrafts down and kept their distance from the bombers so that when the German Fokkers inevitably came to intercept, it would be easier to chase them down. Such tactic had its own downside, however, as it would leave the bombers vulnerable to enemy attack for a short amount of time, and if the bombers weren't lucky they would be shot down in that time frame.

German planes eventually flew in to intercept the bombers, and the British flyboys immediately went full throttle to give chase. However, they weren't fast enough to chase the Fokkers away as they managed to score a kill on one Ca.5 bomber. Thankfully, its crew managed to jump off to burning wreck and parachute to safety.

"We've lost a bomber! They have to make it to the fortress or this mission is bust!", Wilson reminded his pilot.

"I know! I know!", Blackburn replied heatedly as he focused on the enemy aircrafts. When he got within gun range of the closest Fokker, the gambler fired his machine gun. The initial bullets did not bring down the aircraft aside from ripping some parts off of it, but when the aircraft turned to evade, the German pilot accidentally exposed himself to the incoming fire. A shower of hot and angry .303 bullets shredded the poor man to pieces, killing him instantly. With no pilot to control the Fokker, the aircraft spiraled out of control before slamming into the ground shortly after, accompanied by an explosion.

"Got 'im!", Blackburn triumphantly exclaimed.

Everyone flinched when they saw the German pilot's demise. Despite knowing that the German Empire was the quasi-villain in this war, it did not mean every single soldier hailed from that nation was a bad guy. The pilot that died just now was an example of this, as he, along with many others, was just following orders, so he technically did nothing wrong and did not deserve such an end.

But at the end of the day, war is hell.

"Well, at least the guy went out painlessly.", Qrow sighed as he took a big gulp from his flask.

Satisfied with his handiwork, Blackburn quickly changed his focus to the next nearest Fokker. Just as he was about to open fire, the engine of the German plane suddenly exploded before it became a falling ball of flames. Apparently, the tail gunner of that Ca.5 did his job right and took down the Fokker, not that Blackburn was complaining.

He then switched his target to another red and white painted Fokker, which had already been damaged by the tail gunner of the bomber it was chasing after. Blackburn wasted no time firing his machine gun from the German left and, combined with the bomber's own stream of bullets, took down the aircraft in record time.

"For a gambler, he flies pretty good!", Yang commented with a grin. Her friends around her also signaled their agreement via nods, chuckles, and some laughter.

"Indeed he is, Ms. Xiao Long", Ozpin politely replied with a smile. "Had the Britain's Royal Flying Corps had more aviators like Mr. Blackburn, they would not have had such a hard time trying to compete against Germany's Air Force."

Beside the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, Glynda reluctantly nodded. Her face looked like she had just eaten a raw lime as she said what was on her mind. "Even though he is a criminal, I have to admit his flying skills alone have proven that he is a valuable asset for the war effort in the air."

"How are things back there?", Blackburn asked his gunner.

"We're almost done! Just stay focus and take down that last fighter!", Wilson yelled back in response as he burst-fired his Lewis machine gun at the enemy. A few bullets coming from another Fokker grazed the body of their Bristol, though thankfully it did not do any significant damage. The British gunner did not take kindly to that, however, as he angrily turned the Scarff ring that mounted his weapon towards the approaching fighter and pulled the trigger. "Oi! Piss off! Just piss off!"

"Damn. They really want them dead, huh.", Sun nervously said.

"No shit, Sherlock. I haven't realized that at all.", Eli sarcastically deadpanned, drawing chuckles and laughter from other people, except for one.

Ruby gasped at the bad word and immediately pulled out her swear jar. "ELI, SWEAR!", she loudly shrieked.

That definitely raised a lot of eyebrows. It seemed that their host was no longer immune to Ruby's little antics. In response, Eli groaned in exasperation. "Fine, fine... here you go..."

The man feinted his grief as he put some lien cards into the jar. After everyone had turned their backs to him and focused on the screen again, he silently muttered to himself with a grin. "Not like it's my pocket money or anything... Thanks a lot, banks of Remnant and your shitty cyber security~"

Seeing that they were being a relatively easy target for the pursuing fighters, Blackburn decided to do some evasive maneuvers to shake the bandits off. The action was a success as the Fokkers had quite a hard time trying to line up their shots, which in turn gave Wilson plenty of opportunities to shoot at them as well as for other British fighters to pick on the German crafts. When the German planes finally stopped chasing in order to evade the British Camels and Bristols, Blackburn immediately went full throttle towards the last Fokker that was harassing the bombers, lined up his shot, and opened fire, just in time for the remaining four Caproni Ca.5 bombers to drop their payloads onto the huge fortress below.

"Bingo! Bombs on target!", Wilson cheered as huge explosions erupted from the fort, the following shockwave caused the Bristol he was on to shake and wobble but still capable of flight.

From his seat, Blackburn looked down at the fort to assess the damage. After such a huge explosion, the gambler was expecting to see the total destruction of the target, so imagine his surprise when he noticed that somehow the fortress was still standing; smoking with lots of uncontrollable fires everywhere but still standing.

"We've hit them hard, but the fortress is still standing. We need to keep it up.", the pilot reported to his buddy, Wilson.

"That's one hell of a fortress.", Neo tapped into her Scroll and showed it to Torchwick, who chuckled in response.

"Such destruction and that monstrosity of a fortress still stands...", Glynda muttered in shock as she tried to hold her jaw from dropping. "Germany's level of engineering must have been world-class in order to build that monster."

Wilson then checked the damage himself and was also surprised to see that the fortress had not been fully destroyed. He then signaled the nearby bombers to send another attack wave once they reach friendly grounds before turning to Blackburn and gave the pilot new objective. "Stay on the fighters until the next wave rolls in!"

Just as Blackburn about to turn his Bristol and fly away from the smoking fort, a group of three Fokker triplanes swooped in with their guns blazing. Some of the enemy 7.92mm bullets hit the wings and body of the Bristol, though thankfully none of them hit the important components such as ailerons, elevators, rudder, and the fuel tank.

"Krauts just keep their fighters coming, don't they!", Blackburn yelled, annoyed that his "prize" aeroplane was now riddled with bullet holes.

The audience gasped in shock as the Bristol was peppered with holes from the German Fokkers, scared that the protagonists' aeroplane had been shot down. They soon calmed down as it seemed that the aircraft was not in any immediate danger and was still flying, though that did not help prevent a certain blonde from conveying her emotions with a beautiful choice of words.

"Woah! Holy fuuuuuuuuuuuuunky music beats!", Yang almost said one of the no-no words, but when the blonde brawler saw the glares of her mother and little sister as well as the godforsaken jar, she immediately changed her words mid-sentence. A bit further from Yang's seat, her uncle, Qrow, was wheezing and holding his sides after he heard the words that left the girl's mouth. "Nice... Haha... Nice save there, Firecracker!"

A quick look around showed that the people who knew about Ruby's anti-swears antics were also laughing, making Yang a bit embarrassed but she eventually also laughed along.

After a while, the laughter started to die down, and Nora used this opportunity to ask. "Though, what is a 'Kraut' that Blackburn said just now?"

Instead of Eli, Sage was the one to answer that question, which was also the first time that the green-haired boy said anything after a long while. "I believe it's the same as 'Fritz'. 'Kraut' here also means the Germans."

Most of the students turned their heads towards Eli to ask for his confirmation, and in return he just simply said. "What he said."

Blackburn turned his aircraft to chase after the Fokkers while Wilson was also busy shooting at any German aircraft that got behind them. The gunner then took a quick look around to find his next target after eliminating a triplane that was chasing them, but instead of finding more German fighters, he saw another formation full of anti-air trucks getting ready to fill the sky with flak rounds.

"We have anti-air taking positions below!", Wilson yelled his finding to Blackburn, who had just shot down one Fokker and was chasing the second and also the last fighter. "Those trucks will wreak havoc on our bombers!"

The gambler said nothing back in return aside from a simple nod. He expertly placed the fighter in front of him in his scope and fired his machine gun. The bullets riddled the Fokker with holes before its engine suddenly blew up, and with no power the plane entered an uncontrollable nose dive towards the ground below.

With the immediate threat gone, Blackburn changed his course and began flying towards cluster of enemy fighters and anti-air trucks. From afar, he saw that allied forces were keeping the Germans busy in the air, thus leaving the trucks unguarded. The man had already formulated a plan in his head, he just needed to check on his munitions in order to pull it off.

"Hey Wilson! How many rockets do we have left?"

Wilson was flabbergasted at how ignorant his pilot was. "You haven't fired a single one ever since we started shooting! Of course we still have all eight rockets!"

Wilson's retort was met with laughter from the audience. They were also stunned that Blackburn, who had control of both the front machine gun and rockets, was not aware that he still had all of his rockets stocked and ready to use. Such ignorance was just simply unheard of.

"That remark was great!", Neptune hollered as he and his friends were still laughing.

"What a moron that man is.", Weiss exasperatedly sighed and shook her head.

"Come on now, Snow Angel.", Yang teasingly said and jabbed her elbow at her white-haired friend. "Loosen up a bit, will ya? Enjoy yourself more."

The fiery brawler's half-sister was also on the same page as hers. "She's right! Plus, you gotta admit that was really funny!"

"While I don't think it's 'really funny' like Ruby said", Blake added with a very small smile on her face. "I have to admit, Wilson's remark was amusing."

Weiss just merely rolled her eyes and folded her arms. Little did her friends and teammates know, the huntress-in-training's lips actually curled up just slightly.

Nearby, another Schnee also found the act not funny. She reacted quite indignantly to what she deemed as a "blatant display of incompetence", and her target was none other than the American pilot named Clyde Blackburn.

Not surprising at all.

"I have never witnessed such incompetence in my life.", Winter scoffed. "Could not even keep track of his own ammunition. No wonder that 'Britain's Royal Flying Corps' did not issue the man a plane of his own."

The reaction was instant as everyone, except her own sister and Ironwood of course, secretly glared at the Specialist. What she just said was absolutely wrong and extremely biased. Just because the woman disliked him for being a "fake" pilot did not mean Blackburn was a bad pilot, yet she just willingly threw all of his achievements and combat performance out of the window and openly criticized him.

That was not fair at all and they were all eager to give her a piece of their mind.

Seeing that his subordinate's remark was extremely uncalled-for, Ironwood opened his mouth to reprimand her. But just before he could utter a single word, another loud voice and full of anger cut him off.

"Oum, just SHUT UP!", Torchwick yelled at the top of his lungs. His face had turned beet red in anger and his chest was heaving as he glared at the Atlesian Specialist.

Everyone immediately directed their attention towards the infamous criminal but nobody said a thing. They were all stunned at the man's outburst and uncharacteristic anger, even his partner Neo leaned away from him, her eyes widened in shock.

Winter was in shock too as she froze in her seat, her eyes widened in surprise. She had gotten yelled at before by her drill instructor during basic training, but the NCO's voice back then was not as loud and not carried as much heat as Torchwick's right now. The Atlesian officer quickly recovered from her shock, however, and a very angry expression showed itself on her face.

"How dare-", she growled only to be cut off.

"Shut up! Nobody asked!", Torchwick yelled again which caused whatever words that was about to leave Winter's mouth stopped in their track. "You think we asked specifically to hear your bitching?! You think I care so much to keep listening to you?!"

The criminal's rant was actually effective as Winter was silenced with her mouth hanging open. Much to the Atlesian's displeasure, Headmaster Ozpin of all people actually took Torchwick's side and added his piece. "Even though I do not agree with Mr. Torchwick's choice of language, I agree with his opinion, Specialist Schnee. You cannot let your own personal feelings about Mr. Blackburn clouds your judgement like that. It is a very selfish and unfair assessment of yours to disregard all of his achievements up until now and condemn him for, in my eyes, a very small mistake."

Everyone else nodded in agreement; Qrow was even smirking as he himself was also tired of Winter's... no, the Schnees' trademark stuck-up attitude.

Seeing that everyone was against her, the Specialist turned to her superior for help only to be slapped in the face by a disapproving look, as if Ironwood was saying 'They are right'. Accepting her inevitable defeat, Winter kept quiet and shrunk to her seat, everyone else also turned their attention to the screen.

Blackburn sheepishly laughed as he flew his aeroplane into position for another gun run against the stationary ground targets. The plan was simple: hit the trucks hard and fast then pull up to engage the fighters, only this time he would use his rockets to speed things up. Just like before, Blackburn lined the trucks in front of him into a straight line, dropped the Bristol's nose a bit, and then fired his payload, this time with rockets. Not even a minute had passed since the first rocket hit the target, all anti-air trucks had been destroyed.

The pilot then pulled up to engage the German fighters, just in time to see that another flight of allied bombers and fighters coming in.

"Next bomber wave coming in!", Wilson reported, to which Blackburn replied. "Then let's give them an escort!".

As he was gaining altitude, Blackburn saw that one of the enemy Fokkers did not notice his approach and was busy getting into position behind a bomber. The gambler did not let such opportunity slip as he immediately fired his gun at the plane which promptly exploded in mid-air; its pilot never had a chance to bail out.

"Confirm that kill, Wilson!"

"Yep, kill confirmed!"

"The two of them make such a good team.", Pyrrha said in awe.

"Yep. For a guy who 'won' the pilot title, Blackburn is such an amazing aviator.", Jaune added.

"At this rate, I think that guy is a... what's the word again?", Nora cheerily said but then slowly piped down as she struggled to remember the word that she saw somewhere before. Sensing his friend's issue, Ren butted in. "Ace?"

"Yep! That guy is an 'ace' pilot, that's for sure!", Nora finished before turning towards the boy and giving him a head pat. "Thanks, Renny!"

The boy in question just rolled his eyes in amusement while some others that witnessed the whole exchange between him and Nora snickered.

Blackburn decided to stick close to the bomber as he did not want to lose another one like last time. It also helped that the additional fighters that came with the Ca.5s were very competent as they quickly downed some of the Fokkers.

"Bloody hell!", Wilson complained as a Fokker flew by and opened fire on them, with some of the bullets nearly took the gunner's head off.

"Oh shit!", Sun yelped in shock and surprise at the near miss.

"That was way too close for comfort!", Neptune followed with the same facial expression.

The audience also shared the same feeling as the two students from Haven Academy. Just a little bit more and they would not see their favorite British character ever again.

In response, Wilson angrily turned Scarff ring towards the Fokker and fired his Lewis MG with expert precision. The Fokker did not stand a chance as its engine exploded and caught on fire, with oil spewing everywhere as it plunged towards the battlefield below. On his part, Blackburn accelerated and chased after a Fokker that was harassing one of the bombers. Said fighter disengaged and flew towards the fort for so that whatever anti-air weapon's left in it could deal with the Bristol.

As the two planes entered the airspace above the fortress, some tracer rounds flew towards the Bristol as some machine gun crews were still alive and operational. Blackburn ignored them, however, as he expertly avoided the bullets while still keeping up with the Fokker before him. After a minute of the two dancing around in a dance of Death, Blackburn finally nailed the bastard and he watched triumphantly as the Fokker fell out of the sky, just in time for the allied bombers to drop their payload.

"That fortress is finished now, that's for sure!", Summer excitedly commented.

"Haha! Couldn't have said it better myself, Summer!", Qrow said as he drank a gulp of alcohol in celebration. "Job well done, boys!"

"Yes, made it through!", Wilson cheered as he watched the flight of Ca.5s flew over the fortress with dozens of bombs dropping from underneath them.

Blackburn's eyes trailed the falling bombs only to widen in shock. He suddenly realized where he was flying towards as well as where the bombs were about to hit: the munitions storage.

The pilot banked the Bristol to the right and stepped on the rudder pedals only to find them unresponsive to his input. The gambler silently cursed under his breath and did the only thing he could do left.

Braced himself and prayed.

"Wait a second, where is he going?", Glynda worriedly asked.

"It seemed that the plane is malfunctioned and does not respond to his input.", Ironwood said as he observed the Bristol with keen eyes. "Perhaps all the damage from before have finally caught up and bitten him."

Everyone else either groaned in annoyance or gave worried looks towards the scene before them. Of all the time the aeroplane could fail it just had to choose a critical moment like right now to malfunction. But in the end, there was nothing they could do. The audience just hoped that their protagonists would get out of this one alive.

The bombs penetrated the concrete roof of the storage's bunker and exploded from within, causing an enormous ball of flame to erupt with tons of debris, big and small, flying everywhere. The huge explosion also caused a chain reaction to other nearby gun placements and munitions storages as the ball of flame just kept on expanding before eventually engulfing the whole place.

The Bristol from before emerged from the flame, still somewhat flyable but very heavily damage as Blackburn fought for control.

"Oh, shit! We're hit!", Wilson shouted as he sat tight on his seat and braced himself.

"I got this. Hang on!", Blackburn replied with uncertainty as he began to slowly lose control of the aircraft. The screen then suddenly turned to black and only the weak engine sound could be heard, before seconds later a dull thud reached everyone's ears.

The Bristol was crashed, and the fates of Blackburn and Wilson were unclear.

...

Did you catch the little Easter egg in this chapter? :)