Chp. 31: Battle of Vacuo Pt. 1
Shade Academy, Vacuo
Headmaster's Office
May 29, 2020
It had been two days since the attack on The Mirage. Cassandra, Lydia, and Professors Theodore and Rumpole were in the headmaster's office planning out their next move against The Crown.
"My troops have already located The Crown bunker," Lydia said. "Now we just need a plan of approach."
"I've already contacted Captain Gordon and he'll be arriving within an hour to help out with this," Cassandra said. "He also said he's got a big surprise to show."
"So what do you plan on doing now?" Rumpole asked.
"I'll prepare my troops to ready themselves until we can come up with an approach that can clear out The Crown and rescue the hostages that Gillian is using as aura batteries," Lydia said.
"Yes. We do have to tread carefully with that situation," Theodore said.
Suddenly, a buzz and ping sounds off in Lydia's pocket. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a Scroll and answers it.
"Oui? (Yes?)" she answered as she listened to her caller. "Êtes-vous sûr...? Bien. Poursuivez les préparatifs et attendez d'autres instructions. (Are you sure...? Alright. Continue with preparations and wait for further instructions.)"
Lydia hangs up and looks at Cassandra, Rumpole, and Theodore.
"What is it?" Theodore asked.
"Good news and bad news. Good news is that we can now storm the bunker with little resistance," Lydia said.
"What's the bad news?" Rumpole asked.
"The Crown is on their way here to invade this academy in thirty minutes," Lydia answered, pointing to the floor.
"What?!" Theodore and Rumpole asked in surprise.
"We better get ready then," Cassandra said. "I'll contact Captain Gordon and warn him about the oncoming attack."
"Xanthe, tell the students and Grimm Watch to prepare for battle," Theodore ordered.
"I'll have my men set up as many defenses as they can," Lydia said.
Outskirts
Twenty-eight minutes later, The FFL, Grimm Watch, and the Shade Academy staff and student body were just outside the city of Vacuo setting up defenses. Three AMX-56 Leclerc battle tanks positioned themselves in between the Huntsmen, students, and soldiers. Cassandra, Professors Theodore and Rumpole, Coco, Weiss, Nebula, and Bronze stood around a table with a map of Vacuo on it.
"Here is what we're gonna do," Cassandra began to explain. "Most of the FFL will be in the Wastelands to fend off the Grimm since the battle will spew up a lot of negativity here. Teams CFVY and NDGO and I will go to The Crown Bunker with a few of our troops to rescue the kidnapped people inside. The rest of use will stay and defend Vacuo until either Captain Gordon arrives with reinforcements or if somebody takes out Jax and thus the Crownsmen under his semblance will break free from his control and stop fighting."
"We can't just fatally harm all the Crownsmen since almost all of them are just innocent bystanders," Rumpole said.
"Yeah, but they're given large amounts of aura, thanks to Gillian," Coco said.
"The tanks will just be used to reduce their large quantities of aura," Cassandra said.
"It's likely for the best," a new voice called.
Everyone turned to see Lydia and a soldier carrying a flag. The flag featured three vertical bands colored blue on the hoist side, white in the middle, and red on the far side.
"Besides, nobody from Earth has never really fought an aurafied army before and it's been years since Remnant has been in a battle of this scale aside from fighting Grimm before," Lydia said.
"Look!" a Huntsman called out pointing out in the desert.
Everyone looked out to the desert and a mile away, they saw The Crown's army slowly marching from a large hilltop forming a wall of bodies. They all wore silver armbands which shined in the brutal sun. Behind the wall of Crownsmen was Jax, sitting on a palanquin being carried by Umber and Argento. Standing next to them was Rosa who was carrying a silver flag with a black three pointed crown in the center.
"They're here," Brawnz said.
"Then let's get busy," Cassandra said.
Cassandra, Coco, and Nebula turned and ran off for their mission as Weiss and Bronze ran off to their teams. Lydia grabs a radio and speaks her orders into it.
"Toutes les unités blindées doivent ouvrir le feu sur mon ordre. (All armored units are to open fire on my command.)"
Within The Crown's army, Jax looks on at the opposing army defending the city. He chuckled at the sight of them with a prideful smirk.
"Do they really think they could stand a chance against us? They're all really foolish," Jax said.
"What now?" Rosa asked.
"What else? Attack!," Jax yelled, pointing at the city.
The Crown's army began to charge towards the city of Vacuo. The FFL, Grimm Watch, and most of the Shade Academy staff and student body watched the approaching army coming towards them, some watch with a hint of fear. Lydia turns her head to see a helicopter with Teams CFVY and NDGO and Cassandra inside take off and flies off to The Crown Bunker. She then turned to see Teams WRRK and BRNZ and Neo watching The Crown's army approach with nervous looks and their weapons out. Lydia turns back to the opposing army, drew her sabre, and held up her radio.
"Tous les chars ouvrent le feu! (All tanks open fire!)" Lydia order in her radio.
The tanks fire their cannons upon The Crown's army, sending several Crownsmen flying into the air. The army still continued to charge straight towards the city. Lydia raised her sabre over her head and the French soldiers pointed their guns at the army of Crownsmen.
"Feu! (Fire!)" Lydia yelled as she pointed her sabre at The Crown's army.
The soldiers opened fire at the opposing army. Many of the Crownsmen were shot to the ground before getting back up to charge once more. The firing lasted for a few moments before Lydia lifted her hand up.
"Cessez de tirer! (Cease firing!)" she yelled.
All the FFL soldiers and tanks stopped shooting, then Professor Theodore stepped forward.
"Huntsmen!" he shouted as all the Huntsmen stepped forward with their readied weapons. "Charge!"
The Huntsmen in the FFL, Shade Academy, and Grimm Watch then began to charge towards The Crown's army. A few moments later, both armies finally clash. Both Huntsmen and Crownsmen were slashing, shooting, punching, kicking, and trying to knock each other down.
Weiss gives a mere gesture to form several more glyphs around three Crownsmen. She quickly bounces off each one, striking the Crownsmen with each attack. A Crownsmen swung his sword at Weiss which blocked the attack. She plants Myrtenaster to the ground, creating a wave of ice freezing the three Crownsmen in place. Another Crownsman carrying a spear charges at Weiss, but Ricky comes out of nowhere and slammed himself at the Crownsman knocking him to the ground. The Crownsman gets up and charges at Ricky with his spear. Ricky quickly grabbed the man's spear and swung Slasher down at it, splitting it in two. He then slashed at the Crownsman's chest and kicked him to the ground.
Ricky notices six Crownsmen charging towards Neo, Kelly, and Kendra as they were each fighting off a Crownsmen. The head half of the spear in Ricky's hand glow red and he throws it in front of the group of Crownsmen. A short moment after it the broken spear struck the ground and as the six Crownsmen approached, the broken spear explodes sending the group of Crownsmen flying in the air. A Crownsman swung his sword at Neo, only for Neo to shatter like glass upon impact. The Crownsman looked in stunned confusion until Neo came up behind him and whacked him over the head with her parasol, knocking him unconscious. Kelly blocked and held back a Crownsman's attack as he tried to overpower her. She notices a hawk flying in the sky.
"Help me out here!" Kelly called to the hawk.
The hawk quickly flew down at the Crownsman and claws at his back with its talons. The Crownsman reels back in pain as Kelly pushes him back and swung her double-bladed axe at his feet, making him fall to the ground. Kendra swung her poleaxe at a Crownsman as he jumped aside. The Crownsman rushes at Kendra, But she quickly swung her Mercy Bringer at his feet, tripping him and fell face first to the ground.
Wastelands
Meanwhile flying over the wastelands, Teams CFVY and NDGO and Cassandra along with five other French troops sat inside the helicopter waiting to arrive at their destination.
"Once we land, we are to evacuate the hostages inside the bunker. Gillian and Carmine will most likely be inside supercharged, so enter with extreme caution," Cassandra explained before turning to Fox. "Fox, you have a fix to their aura?"
"Yeah, we're about right on top of them," Fox answered.
The helicopter makes its landing, while blowing some sand away revealing the top of a CCT tower. Everyone inside the helicopter stepped out and looked upon the tower.
"Can anyone blow all this sand away?" Cassandra asked.
"Dew and I got this," Octavia replied.
Dew waves her weapon over the sand to create three small twisters that kick up the sand around the CCT. Octavia loads her kris with Gravity Dust and skates across the sand with her semblance towards the cyclones. Then with one swing, she creates a wave that pushes away the cyclones and clears away the sand, revealing the rest of the tower and a mining entrance which was bored into bedrock at its base.
"There you go," Dew said.
"Alright, let's go," Cassandra said.
Everyone entered inside the dark mine with Velvet and Fox leading with her nightvision and his semblance. Cassandra and the soldiers all put on night vision goggles. While Coco would feel scared due to her fear of dark and enclosed places, she tapped on the side of her glasses and the lenses glowed amber activating the night vision on her sunglasses that Velvet installed to which she called BunnyVision.
They all walked in a close pack along old broken cart tracks on a decline. Velvet then spotted four pathways in the cardinal directions. The south cave has collapsed, but there's still three choices, north, west, and east.
"I'm sensing a lot of aura East," Fox sent.
"Okay, everyone quiet. Approach with caution," Cassandra sent.
The group went into the east hall. Soon they saw a light a long ways off which grew brighter as they tiptoe further. Cassandra, Coco and the FFL soldiers deactivated their night vision devices as everyone else could make out everyone else better now.
"Shh. I hear someone up ahead," Velvet sent.
"It could be Gillian and Carmine," Yatsuhashi sent.
"Hang back. I'll take point," Cassandra sent.
Cassandra crept further into the large cavern until she could see and hear what was going on. She saw Gillian sitting on a stone-carved throne with Carmine standing before her.
"We better hurry and catch up with your brother," Carmine said.
"I know," Gill said.
"You still thinking about your encounter with that large guy two nights ago?" Carmine asked.
"I cannot help but feel like everything we'd achieved is all for nothing," Gill said. "But I trust my brother as much as I love him. He always knows what he is doing."
"Carmine!" a loud voice yelled.
"Sounds like Bertilak is awake again," Carmine sighed.
"Using his aura for the good of Vacuo is a fitting punishment for failing us," Gill said.
She got up from her throne and walked to the left as Carmine followed. Cassandra craned her neck to see where they were going and what she saw next made her cover a gasp. She saw rows of beds filled with sleeping people.
"Jesus Christ," she thought.
Coming up to Gill and Carmine was Bertilak with a furious expression on his face.
"You're gonna pay for stabbing me in the back!" Bertilak shouted.
"Alright, Bertilak. time for you to know your place again," Carmine said.
Bertilak got into a stance as Carmine drew her sais and Gillian drew a bow and readied an arrow. Bertilak charges at the two girls. Carmine lifts several rocks with her semblance and hurls them at Bertilak, pushing him back into a cave. Carmine continued to hurl rocks at Bertilak as Gillian fired a few arrows, while going into the cave they were pushing him in.
Cassandra motioned her hand to the group behind her to follow her as they entered the room.
"So what now?" Gwen asked.
"With Bertilak providing as a distraction, we'll get these people out of here," Cassandra answered.
"What if they come back?" Velvet asked.
"Alright. Then Velvet, Octavia, Yatsuhashi, and Nebula will go after Gillian and Carmine. The rest of us will get these people out of here," Cassandra replied.
"Got it," Nebula replied.
Velvet, Octavia, Nebula, and Yatsuhashi ran into the cave as everyone else was getting ready to evacuate the bedded people out of the bunker. In the cave, Bertilak was backed into a corner in a battle stance as Gill and Carmine were slowly approaching him. Suddenly, an arrow passed Gill nearly hitting her head. Gillian, Carmine, and Bertilak turned to see Nebula with her crossbow aimed at the girls as Octavia, Velvet, and Yatsuhashi caught up with their weapons ready.
"Great! They've found us!" Carmine said.
"You can either surrender now or we can-" before Octavia could finish Carmine and Gill Jumped back several feet away from everyone.
Carmine raised her hands at the ceiling as her semblance made the ceiling collapse. Velvet, Octavia, Yatsuhashi, and Nebula ran from the collapsing ceiling as Bertilak followed behind them. When the rocks and boulders stopped piling, they looked back at the buried caved.
"Dammit!" Bertilak shouted. "Those bitches got away."
"They're probably heading to the city now," Velvet said.
"We better tell Sergeant Rogers," Octavia said.
"What about him?" Nebula asked, pointing her thumb at Bertilak.
"Take him into custody," Coco answered as she pointed her minigun at the rogue Huntsman.
Cassandra and six soldiers walk up with their rifles pointed at Bertilak.
"What happened here?" Cassandra asked.
"Carmine blocked the exit and she and Gill on their way to the city," Velvet explained.
"That's gonna be a problem if she gets there," Cassandra said as a couple soldiers walked up to Bertilak. "I'll contact the others and let them know of their arrival."
City of Vacuo
Outskirts
Back outside the city of Vacuo, the battle between the FFL, Grimm Watch, and the Huntsmen and The Crown continues. Both sides had not shown any sign of backing down. A couple of Crownsmen charged at Professors Theodore and Rumpole. The Shade headmaster throws a punch at one of the Crownsmen as Rumpole throws her wheel at the other Crownsman's head. It bounces off his head knocking him to the ground and comes back to the history teacher as she catches it in her hand. Another Crownsman runs up to Theodore, but he grabs him by the collar and throws the Crownsman at two more Crownsmen charging towards Team BRNZ.
Brawnz was struggling to push back against a Crownsman. Nolan ran up to the Crownsman and jabs his side with his cattle prod, electrocuting him. Another Crownsman charged at the two boys, but May swung her stock end of her sniper rifle with a blade under it at the Crownsman's legs just as Roy hurled a pair of circular saws at his legs, tripping him.
Lydia stood by as she and the French defenses had their guns ready if The Crown's army got too close to the city. Her Scroll started to buzz and she pulled it out of her pocket and saw a message on it. The message read; 'GILLIAN AND CARMINE ARE ON THEIR WAY.' She puts her Scroll away and turns to the soldier next to her.
"Suivez les commandes actuelles que vous avez tous. Je me dirige sur le terrain. (Keep with the current orders you all have. I'm heading in the field.) Lydia said as the soldier nod in response.
Lydia ran straight towards the battle zone with her sabre ready and drawing out her blue revolver.
Team WRRK and Neo were running through the battlefield. They stopped for a moment and saw Jax sitting on his palanquin with Umber and Argento carrying it. Rosa stood next to them still holding The Crown flag as several Crownsmen circled around their leader and his teammates, protecting them from oncoming Huntsmen.
"So how do we get to Jax?" Ricky asked.
"You're not going near my brother!" a new voice called.
The five turned and saw Gillian and Carmine with their weapons ready.
"Great," Kendra said with an eye roll.
Gill shoots an arrow at Weiss as she smacks it away with her rapier. Ricky, Kelly, and Kendra began to open fire at Gill and Carmine as they ran around the group while avoiding the shots. Carmine hurled her sais at Neo and Weiss as Gillian fired three arrows at Ricky, Kelly, and Kendra. Neo shattered as soon as one of the sais struck her, while Weiss created an ice column freezing the second sai in place. Neo suddenly drops down from the air down at Carmine as she brings back her sais with her semblance. Neo swung her parasol at Carmine as she quickly blocked her attack. Neo jumps away as Carmine thrusts her sais at her.
Kendra duck beneath the first arrow, while Ricky and Kelly rolled away from the other two arrows. Kendra transformed her rifle into her poleaxe form and charged at Gill. She swung her poleaxe at Gill as she stepped away from the attack. Gill kicked Kendra in the stomach, then swept her leg at her opponent's feet making her fall on her back. As Kendra tries to get back up, Gillian whacks her in the slide of the head knocking her unconscious.
Before Gill could grab on to Kendra to siphon her aura, Ricky shots Gill in the shoulder getting her attention. Ricky transformed Slasher into machete mode and tried slashing at Gill as she backed away from his attacks. Kelly ran up to Kendra and knelt down to her.
Ricky swung his machete at Gillian as she leaned away from the attack. Gill pulls out an arrow at Ricky as he narrowly dodges the attack. Gilian whacks Ricky in the stomach with her bow, then kicks him in the face knocking him to the ground. Gillian was about to grab at Ricky, but suddenly a bullet hits her in the back.
She turns around and sees Lydia charging at her with her blue revolver in one hand and her sabre in the other. Lydia transformed her revolver into a dagger and tried slashing at Gill as she parried away the attacks. Their weapons clashed and tried to push each other back.
"Help the girls, boy!" Lydia ordered Ricky. "I'll hold her off!"
Ricky nods and runs towards Kelly and Kendra. He knelt down next to Kelly and looked down at Kendra.
"Kendra! Kendra!" Kelly said, lightly slapping her friend's cheek.
Kendra slowly sat up with a groan as her eyes were still closed as she began rubbing her head.
"Ugh... That's a headache co..." Kendra suddenly stopped.
"Kendra, what's wrong?" Ricky asked.
"I... see something," Kendra answered.
"But your eyes are-" Kelly gets cut off.
"I know that, but I'm seeing something!" Kendra said.
"What do you see?" Kelly asked.
"I see... Team RWBY... and JNPR... Jacob, Britney, Allen, and Rebecca are there too! They're all riding inside a helicopter," Kendra said. "But where's Robert...? Wait... Am I... seeing everything Robert sees?"
"What are you talking about?" Ricky asked.
Kendra opens her eyes and looks at Kelly. Suddenly, they heard the sound of whirling above them. They looked up at saw a Chinook helicopter flying above them. The helicopter lands onto the ground next to the two girls. The door opens and out came Teams RWBY and JNPR, along with Jacob, Britney, Rebecca, Allen, and Robert. They all raced up to to Kelly and Kendra.
"You girls okay?" Robert asked. "Kendra, what's wrong?"
"I think I discovered my semblance," Kendra answered.
