Disclaimer: I don't own "RWBY" nor any references used in the story. Everything belongs to their respective owners
Menagerie. Kuo-Kuana. Local Time 8:10 AM. Chieftain's home.
Menagerie. A "safe haven" for Faunus kind. Located at south of the continent Anima and is considered to be the smallest continent on Remnant.
It has been 80 long years since the end of the Great War. A war so great, it may be the greatest conflict Remnant has ever face in their history. And perhaps an undisputed war at that one.
In the aftermath of the war, the continent of Menagerie was given to the Faunus for their participation of the war, and with equal right given to them as a reward.
Some humans viewed it as a sign of goodwill to the Faunus, as they were given land and rights as a sole nation of sub-humans. A deal they thought the Faunus would agree wholeheartedly at face value.
In reality, it was a cruel slap to the face for the Faunus.
Two-thirds of the continent are unhabitable deserts, filled with dangerous wildlife living in said area, and only a third of the land given to them was suitable for habitation and settlement. Making it the most densely populated area in the entire continent.
This angered some of the Faunus as they thought their reward was nothing but a farce to relocate all of the unwanted "monsters" to Menagerie. And this is one of many factors that brought about the Faunus Rights Revolution and the creation of the White Fang, an independent organization with the goal of bringing true Faunus Rights to all Faunus kind in Remnant.
This is why Ghira Belladonna, former and previous High Leader of the White Fang, stood in front of the balcony of his home, overlooking the settlement, Kuo-Kuana, as he pondered if it was the right choice for him to leave the organization he once led five years ago to Sienna Khan.
For him, leaving the White Fang to a younger, potentially competent leader would bring better results in improving the lives of the Faunus throughout Remnant. Something he had wished to happen when he saw the potential Sienna Khan had in her eyes when he thought for the betterment of the White Fang as he thought of his retirement.
As a nation with virtually unreachable sea routes, due to Sea-type Grimm infesting the oceans of Remnant and only the bravest of sailors would only dare to come to the Faunus-exclusive land called Menagerie, it was a perfect isolated landmass that no humans dared enter there due to racial reasons and the myths and legends surrounding it about the God of Animals turning humans to Faunus as they step foot on the continent.
Although the legend was somewhat exaggerated and contradicted the history Remnant as a whole had known and lived about.
But somewhere out there, there were slight truths about the legend.
Ghira sighed, his large body began to loosened up as he wondered how the White Fang is currently doing.
Despite being out of reach for them to be within contact range of the CCT (Cross-Continental Tower), he, nonetheless, has enough information of the current events occurring in Remnant due to his contacts only he knows about. As a previous leader, he had the assets to make the information he had now possible. Needless to say, he knew every major event that occur on Remnant than anyone in Menagerie could hope to know.
He heard about the latest train heist Adam Taurus enacted a few days ago, there were interesting new information about the whereabouts of his daughter, Blake Belladonna, as she was last seen with Adam before defecting at the last second as she detached the train cart containing all of the Dust the White Fang in that area needed. Needless to say, he knew his daughter was a pseudo-terrorist despite knowing her refusing to call as such.
Ghira scoffed at the thought of using violence as a means of getting to closer to their goals. Although it worked to a certain degree but the humans only did that out of fear. He wondered that Vale, the city not the entire kingdom itself, had survived so long after all the negativity that made them a Beacon for the Grimm from the actions of the White Fang.
Heh. Nice one Ghira, a Beacon for the Grimm. Beacon Academy, Grimm. Nice one.
The large Faunus wryly grin at the self-made pun he made just so to amuse himself and cope with the fact that his contacts reported him of the number of guards and soldiers she killed during her time with the White Fang under Adam Taurus.
He needed to console her when she gets back to their home, here, in Menagerie, if possible. He knew that his daughter would be stressed about it the same way as a certain Faunus he knew all too well. The White Fang was an organization she was born into. The fact it had gone so far made it unrecognizable and incomprehensible for her to completely cope with the fact that it had changed, it was impossible to know whether or not she swallowed reality and leave the organization alone. Knowing her stubborn nature, he doubt that was the case.
"Ghira, dear, what are you doing? Staring off at the horizon again, are you?"
The familiar voice of a woman that the former High Leader of the White Fang, who knew the voice all too well, as he softened his expression as he turned and saw the love of his life, his wife Kali.
"Nothing, dear. Just like what you said, staring off at the horizon again, having to think about stuff as always."
He said, half excused and half truth. Knowing if his wife were to worry about anything, he knew she would be hard-pressed on that subject, clinging it like some sort of pillar sustaining her.
And that's how he knew what his daughter had inherited from her parents the most. Her mother.
The Panther Faunus looked at the horizon once more. His thoughts drifted on what his daughter was currently doing.
He knew today was Beacon Academy's initiation test, if he got the date and time right, then it's possible his daughter enrolled there with fake transcripts about her origins. The one thing he knew about the secret, elite operatives with Huntsmen-level skills, but dealing with humans rather than the Grimm, was proficient at doing.
Even if she wrote it with the whole truth in it, there is a likelihood of some parts of being fake.
Like hiding her identity as a Faunus.
"Tch."
Ghira quietly grunted, small enough as for his wife to not notice as she went back inside their home.
He feared his daughter went to the wrong path. The path that would lead to so many regrets. Ghira feared that it may be too late for him to console his daughter if she came here to Kuo-Kuana as a different person he once knew as his daughter.
The thought pained more than it should. As a father, he should've had the responsibility of doing what was necessarily right the moment he and Kali noticed she left their home all on her own for the past five years.
Before his thoughts could continue, he began to hear a whirling sound of a three-bladed propeller he once heard as a young Faunus, the distinctive noise he thought was long forgotten.
As just as he noticed it, the general populace of Kuo-Kuana had heard of it too, and Ghira saw they were standing there wondering what the sound was.
A sudden chill reached his spine. His instincts as a battle-hardened warrior and Chieftain to Menagerie's largest settlement, he instinctively knew what was going to happen.
Suddenly, the sound intensified, bearing not as a single vehicle, but the sound of more than a thousand whirling blades was soon heard throughout Kuo-Kuana as a aggressive bustling of a hornet hive.
He looked to the east, the direction of where the sun rose, as he saw aircraft numbering over the thousand. An overwhelming force that soon covered the horizon with seemingly to no end.
Among those propeller-driven aircraft was the largest he had seen in his entire life, dwarfing the entire force as giants amongst them. Numbering 325 in total, the number of those giant beastly aircraft was absolutely ridiculous, Ghira rubbed his eyes as if it was a nightmare.
His body froze. Realization creeping in as he knew the disparity of the situation.
Menagerie, despite being a continent and a sole landmass exclusive to the Faunus, they are not recognized as a country, no, a kingdom.
Worst of all, they have no active military.
It was funny, all of the four Kingdoms of Remnant had some sort of Armed Forces protecting their respective nations as a means of self-defense. And that was optimistically after the economy of Mistral, Vacuo, and even Vale nearly collapsed after facing two costly wars. The Great War, and the Faunus Revolution Rights.
As for Mantle, the Kingdom was dismantled after the Great War and became what is known today as Atlas.
Speaking of said Kingdom, Atlas, for example, is the most technologically advanced nation on the planet. Having the largest and strongest economy, thanks to the international-level corporation such as the SDC (Schnee Dust Company), they are able to built airships of heavy, Dust-powered, caliber guns capable of destroying multiple city blocks and has a large range of fire with Military variants of Bullheads used as CAP and Air Superiority roles. The Kingdom of Atlas is considered as Remnant's sole Superpower, able to extend their influence to even the Kingdoms that brought about the defeat of her predecessor, Mantle. They were at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution and they were practically first at everything.
Vale, in comparison, had its entire military disbanded after the King of Vale, the same man who ended the Great War, died. The only armed forces left in Vale's arsenal are its police force, and Ghira knew they aren't enough to actually hold off a possible Grimm Breach in some way or another. And he got a foreboding feeling of foreshadowing as if someone is planning on using that major flaw.
The reason for this incomprehensible action was the King of Vale viewed his Kingdom's army as a sign of conflict and war. And upon his last will before his death was to completely disband Vale's entire military immediately after he died. And thus, the Council of the King of Vale was created as judges and leaders of the Kingdom.
Back to the situation at hand, the Belladonna Patriarch knew the aircraft he saw as of now weren't of Atlas, and he wondered why vehicles of the early post-Great War was appearing as of now.
He wasn't ignorant to not know the fact that no Kingdom on Remnant should possess that many aircraft in the first place. With a statistical average of a million souls living in the name's city of their respective Kingdom, the likelihood of the number of those aircraft were a hundred or two at best.
And there were more than one and a half thousand of those coming in closer.
He wanted to issue an emergency evacuation order to all of the Faunus living in Kuo-Kuana. But he knew it would take time for them to properly evacuate without risking casualties. And he knew it is completely impossible in this situation.
All he could do is to run back inside, get Kali, and escape the impending destruction.
There was no time for him to rally the populace. There was no way he could stop it, let alone do anything about it. The most logical action for him, after he find his wife, and run.
And no one would blame him for that.
Same Time. March 1st 1949. Rodenius Central Calendar 10th Month, 1640. Menagerie sky.
Up above the above the sky, covering the continent of Menagerie, there were a bomber force consisting of 365 G10N2 "Fugaku" Bombers, and 976 B7A2 "Ryusei" Torpedo-Dive Bomber Carrier Aircraft each carrying 800 kg ordnance bombs flying at medium altitudes.
The G10N2 was an improved version of the G10N1 production model, capable of high altitude bombing while carrying a weight of ten thousand pounds, or five short tons, of explosive ordnance. It was developed on March 1946 when a proposal by the Chief of Staff of the Imperial ordered the construction of the improved G10N Bombers with an air-cooled radial engine capable of lifting to higher altitudes than the previous production model.
Escorting them were a combined force of 162 A7M3 "Reppu" Fighter Carrier Aircraft and 163 Ki-84-N "Hayate" Army Fighter Aircraft with an engine horsepower of 2,500 worth of energy.
These two aircraft of differing identity were the backbone of the IJNAS and the IJAAS respectively, after production of the A6M and the Ki-43 ceased as priority was set on the succeeding aircraft surpassing all in every possible performance. They are currently fitted with four 20 kg Air-to-Air/Air-to-Surface Rockets, known as the Type 6 High Velocity Aerial Rocket (HVAR), in each side of their wing.
The Type 6 HVAR was designed by Hideo Itokawa as a means to counter the ever increasing development of new aircraft such as the Jet Aircraft as technology continue to advance making several design experts and top ranking officers of both the Imperial Army and Navy concern over the fact that having Autocannons and Machine Gun may no longer be a viable means to combat in a straightforward aerial dogfight.
As such, it led to several proposals and independent projects that lead to the creation of the Type 6 HVAR in the first place.
The Type 6 HVAR was first seen in action during the 1947 Guangdong uprising that were led by an unknown Kuomintang officer that lead to a series of armed revolts in the South China region over an unexpected famine washing over said region.
During the conflict, thousands of Japanese-trained Chinese troops in the region mutinied before it was discovered that they were Kuomintang soldiers who successfully infiltrated the Imperial Army as fresh recruits.
Most of these men that mutinied were trained pilots. As such, they took the aircraft, both obsolete and modern, in combating Japanese reinforcements in suppressing the revolt. Escalating the conflict as locals of the region were called up to arms against the Imperial Army occupying the area. Leading to a rebellion that span the entire South China region.
The conflict lasted for nearly eight months before the uprising was finally bogged down and quelled immediately.
After the conflict, many were executed for possible suspicion over treason as the Army Intelligence Agency continued to search for the remaining Kuomintang and possibly Communist Chinese among their ranks.
And that was a month before Japan first made contact to Qua-Toyne after the Isolation Period ended in the wake of the uprising.
This overwhelming force, that covered the entire sky by sheer numbers of aircraft with varying roles and dimensions, held a different purpose in mind.
Ever since the Empire had been transported to another world for the second time, there had been a heated debate on where they should launch their invasion. The north or the south?
The Supreme War Council was divided by the Strike North and Strike South factions that sounded eerily similar to the faction names they had prior to their first transfer.
The Strike North Faction had the idea to strike north of the Home Islands and gain as much territory as possible while maintaining its logistical chain as reasonably possible as it can. Similar to the previous plans for the invasion of the Soviet Union.
The Strike South Faction proposed that they should conquer the continent in the south. With huge naval presence and an understanding that there might be valuable resources deep under the surface of the desert that covered two-thirds of the land. And the fact there was only a town-level settlement, and it was easy to see that they're trying to convince that the south was easier to take.
Naturally, the debate heated up the same way as their similarly previous invasion topics had been back on Earth nearly a decade ago. With neither side having the advantage over the other.
The decision ultimately came itself in the form of Emperor Showa as he had made himself clear to the Supreme War Council that they needed to test the response of the civilization on the south first before going up north.
As such, in order to test the southern civilization's response, they decided to build up their presence in the eastern region of the south continent. If the locals responded, and using the skirmish to gauge their technological level and style of warfare.
For three whole months there were no response from the southern civilization, and because of it, the total Army personnel in the eastern region of the south continent now numbered five divisions, with a total number of 115,000 men with a fair number of guns and AFVs sent there. And most of soldiers stationed there had gotten bored and did some live-fire exercise to prevent a mismanagement of their part.
Another three months had passed, and finally, they were given a green light that they should go for the offensive as Operation Nishi no Taiyo (West Sun) had begun.
Although the number of aircraft participated was ridiculous, there was a reason for it.
One, they do not know if the enemy they're attacking has an unknown, powerful AA capabilities.
Two, in order to test the first reason, they needed to sacrifice the number of aircraft that participated in the operation in order to gauge how many of the possible Air Defense Systems the southern civilization can shoot down the aircraft they sent.
Three, there might be an invisible barrier surrounding the settlement, as the notion of power magics of possibly implemented to protect whatever harm that could come to their settlement. As such, the G10N were sent to test that theory.
And four, to see how this world would react to one of their neighboring nations being attacked by a seemingly unknown entity.
With that, the Ryusei dived, A7Ms and Hayates soon followed, and the G10N dropped their payload.
And hell was soon released down below.
Kuo-Kuana.
Everyone ran.
Everyone was running for their lives.
Women carrying their children, the men leading the way, some panicked, some stood there with mouth wide agape unable to snap out of their stupor.
They were seeing the multiple Nevermore-sized creatures (note: Don't know if Menagerie had an official education system and them being cut off of Remnant is a stretch, I'll stick to it for the time being) dropping hundreds, if not thousands of what it seemed to be iron eggs to the ground.
And when they reached to one of the buildings they exploded.
Multiple explosions occurring in every direction. Killing possibly hundred of Faunus who weren't able to escape on time.
Many tried to run as far as possible but were caught up with the debris and shrapnel flying at them, killing more as the seconds passed by.
Then the sounds of whirling blades growing stronger at each second, dropping another of those eggs, now identified as bombs, and killing more with ruthless and merciless destruction.
Those that managed to reach a farther distanced was shot by missiles, further demoralizing and killing the Faunus that tried to reach a safe distance.
And if that wasn't enough, they were gunned as if they were deemed no worthy to live.
It happened within ten minutes. Ten whole minutes of senseless destruction and slaughter of life.
After all of that had passed, the birds, now confirmed as airplanes by Chieftain Belladonna, who managed to escape the carnage, had finished whatever needless destruction they inflicted on the Faunus.
It was a tragedy. Many died not knowing what happened, and those that survived, wept in painful sorrow as they lost their brothers, sisters, children, and parents. All within ten minutes.
Ten minutes was all it takes to have Kuo-Kuana, the largest settlement and capital of their nation, to be destroyed and nearly all life living there were killed.
And within those minutes, only fifteen of the two thousand souls in Kuo-Kuana survived.
And what was even more tragic, the four Kingdoms did not know what had happened.
No, to be more accurate, they aren't aware of it at all.
Such was the ignorance of the four Kingdoms.
And cut!
Well, that was scary and tragic... I think. Hope I pulled that off well... or maybe not.
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That is all, gabrielchiong11, out!