Chapter 25
Weiss lifted Myrtenaster and pointed the blade toward the open hatch. Her blade began to glow with a calm blue color before a glyph formed immediately over the opening. Within just a moment, a deadly ice mist began flying into the opening followed by a momentary sound of screams. Ruby looked down the hatch, after the glyph disappeared, to see a glimpse of the White Fang who had been frozen in place, two of which were attempting to climb up the hatch.
"I got this." Ruby said as she opened Crescent Rose into its' basic rifle form and aimed down the opening. She fired a single shot causing the frozen soldiers to shatter. Ruby nodded her head and jumped down the hole into the vessel, followed by her teammate.
"I doubt a normal vessel like this would have a dedicated area for holding prisoners. Blake will probably be locked in the sleeping quarters." Weiss said as they began running across the catwalk toward the closest door.
"Is it this way?" Ruby asked.
"No, but they locked the doors shut. So we're going to have to jump down in order to get anywhere." Weiss said as she looked over the rail to see a maze of pipes and vents mixed with various walkways below them. "It looks like there are three floors on this vessel." She added.
"Can't you just blow the door?" Ruby asked.
"Yes. It will take too long, however. Those doors are meant to hold back water in the event of a leak; we don't have the time for me to burn through the door." Weiss explained before jumping over the rail. She placed one foot on a pipe, on the side of the vessel, and used her right hand to hold onto the walkway that she was previously standing on. She then made her way down the wall pipes and vents lining the inside of the vessel with Ruby following close behind.
"Over there!" A White Fang member yelled as he, and four others, began to fire their weapons.
Weiss activated a glyph in front of Ruby which blocked a barrage of shots that were fired at her. The glyph then fired a series of ice shards at the soldiers, impaling them to the walls and killing most instantly. Ruby aimed Crescent Rose at the other side of the walkway at more of the White Fang running through the door. and fired, blowing their heads clean off. "Thanks, Weiss." Ruby said.
"We're friends, don't worry about it." Weiss said as she created a frozen wall covering the door that the White Fang just ran through. "We're on the second level so this way should take us to the dorms and mess hall." She finished.
Ruby and Weiss ran to hide at the sides of the door before they could be shot by the soldier waiting on the other side. "Our auras won't protect us from their energy weapons." Ruby said as she reloaded her rifle.
"Are you ready then?" Weiss asked with a smirk.
"Yeah!" Ruby said as she cocked her rifle and opened it to its full form. She embedded the blade into the walkway as she aimed down the sights. The soldiers were already firing at her, but Weiss was blocking every shot with a glyph she had placed in front of Ruby. Weiss activated another glyph in front of the end of Ruby's rifle which was glowing with a bright white outer rim and the inner design was a vibrant red. Ruby fired her first shot at the lieutenant, who was standing about half way to the next door.
The shot hit him in in the center of the chest which knocked him back to the group of fortified White Fang behind him. They paid no attention as his chest expanded by about three inches before exploding in a fiery explosion, killing all of the fortified White Fang. Ruby looked to the walls of the vessel and saw pipes that were leaking all forms of liquid as well as air vents which were no longer functioning from the explosion, but there were no leaks in the vessel itself.
"Nice throttle!" Ruby yelled as she picked up Crescent Rose and folded it back into its rifle form. The only noticeable difference was the subtle climbing temperature of the vessel interior since the air vents had been damaged and there was no longer any circulation. The carbon dioxide that they were breathing out was not being converted back into breathable oxygen, so it remained in the vessel, slowly collecting heat since it does not conduct heat as well as oxygen.
"Did you have any doubt? Now we have to hurry…we only have about another 20 minutes of air in our oxygen tanks and the vessel will probably be out of oxygen in a matter of minutes. If you feel light-headed, put your mask back on." Weiss said as they both continued on their journey to the rear of the ship. They both reached the door to the that lead to the mess hall and the rest of the vessel only to hear heard a loud banging on the inside of the room. "It sounds like people are banging their heads on the wall in there." She said.
"Oh. I bet its Yang! She's kicking some butt!" Ruby yelled as she ran up to the door.
Weiss hurled a strange low hissing noise from the other side of the door. "Ruby, wait!" Weiss yelled too late as Ruby turned the bolt on the door. It flung open as a violent surge of water came rushing through the door. Before she was unable, Weiss sent a glyph into the mess hall. The water sent Ruby flying back into the wall behind Weiss, smashing her against the vessel. Weiss was holding Myrtenaster in front of her, creating a force field to hold back the water.
She held out her hand, with her palm facing the glyph in the mess hall, and activated the glyph in the mess hall. All of the water in the mess hall froze, and the water outside of the room became a slurry of ice and water as it settled at about waist height due to the lack of force from the mess hall. "Ruby!" Weiss yelled as she trudged her way through the slurry of ice water to her teammate who was floating face down in the water.
Weiss quickly turned Ruby's head toward the air and created a glyph under their bodies in order to float them up above the water and to give Ruby's body a way to lay flat. Weiss quickly gave Ruby two deep breaths before beginning compressions. To Weiss' relief, Ruby had not breathed in much water and quickly coughed up most of the liquid in her lungs.
"What…happened?" Ruby asked in between coughs while sitting up to see the bodies floating in the water.
"There's a leak in the vessel coming from the mess hall." Weiss stated as she tried to look through the ice which she had formed around the door to the mess hall. "I think the door on the other side of the mess hall is closed as well. The leak has to be from that room." She finished.
"How did that happen?" Ruby asked.
"I don't know. But, we have to hurry and get passed the room before the ice melts. It's getting hotter from our previous attack and we don't have a lot of oxygen." Weiss stated.
"Then let's go." Ruby said as she stood on the glyph and took out her rifle, aiming it toward the ground beneath the water. "You said we're on the second level, right?" she asked.
"Yes? What are you–" Weiss was cut off by the sound of an explosive round being fired from Crescent Rose. It hit the metal floor they were standing on before exploding to create a large, jagged hole in the floor. The calm ice water quickly began to escape through the hole in the floor. Weiss lowered the glyph to the floor before she deactivated it all together. "Fell free to say something next time." Weiss said with a mocking annoyed attitude.
"You said we have to hurry!" Ruby stated with a sarcastic innocence.
Weiss quickly jumped through the hole in the floor with Ruby following behind her. They landed on the bottom level with the water spread out so much it was not even a centimeter high. "The vessel loops around once we get to the engine room. We'll have to go through there to get to the other side of the mess hall, head back up, and get to the dorms." Weiss said.
"What do you think caused that hole?" Ruby asked as they quickly made their way through the strangely empty halls.
"Since we're so close to the engine room, it could have been the explosion from when I attacked from the outside. Or perhaps the navy saw them rise from the water and decided to take a pot shot. There's a bunch of possibilities." Weiss said with labored breathing.
"Why is it so hard to breathe down here?" Ruby said as she realized that the very minimal effort they were putting into their jog was taking more effort than it should.
Weiss stopped and pulled out a pulse oximeter which had been latched to the inner side of the oxygen mask. She placed it on her finger and waited for a few moments for a vibration. "87%." she said as she took a few deep breaths.
"Is that bad?" Ruby asked as she took a few deep breaths.
"Yes. Put your mask on, now." Weiss said as she pulled hers off of the side and placed it on her face. She took a few deep breaths and watched the number rise on her finger. "99% now…that's better." She said as she took it off and placed it on Ruby's finger for a few seconds after she put her mask on. "100%" she finished.
"We're good?" Ruby asked as Weiss placed the pulse oximeter back onto the latch in her mask.
"Yes. At least for another twenty minutes...then we'll be out of air." Weiss said as she began to jog down the walkway once again.
"I thought the vessel had more air in it than that?" Ruby said.
"It does, but we went down a level and the ship had a leak in it which has caused the rear end to sink slightly. Carbon dioxide is heavier than oxygen so the slope of the slightly sunken vessel and the fact that we've gone down a level means that most of the carbon dioxide has pooled in the rear of the ship." Weiss explained as they both reached the engine room where the door was bolted shut.
"Is that the reason for this also?" Ruby asked after Weiss burned through the door with one of her flame glyphs.
"Probably, though I don't know who bolted the door closed." Weiss said as she saw many dead White Fang members in the engine room. Their faces were blue from suffocation and some looked as though they had committed suicide.
"I'd hate to say it, but we need to keep moving. I've only got twenty-four minutes of oxygen left." Ruby said.
"Yeah." Weiss said with a sigh. "Let's go." She finished as she summoned another glyph to burn through the door on the other side of the room.
"It looks like we did bust a hole in the ship when you attack the engine." Ruby said as she looked at where the functioning propellers used to be. "I don't know what that stuff is blocking the hole, though." She stated.
"It's a special type of cement. It is treated with gravity dust so that it doesn't move out of place." Weiss said as the door fell to the ground. "But, I'm not sure how they managed to get their hands on some since it is still a secret project between my father and the Atlas military." She said as they both began to run toward the front of the vessel now that they have looped around through the engine room.
"I see the dorm rooms!" Ruby said as she used her semblance to seemingly open all of the doors at once. Both of the girls noticed one room in particular that looked as though it had housed a wildfire.
"I wonder who did this…" Weiss said in a sarcastic tone as she saw the chains, attached to the bed, which had been melted.
"Where do you think they went?" Ruby asked.
"With the lack of information, they have, probably the front of the ship to take over the vessel. They probably don't even know that they are in Vale." Weiss explained.
"We have to hurry! Neither of them is in any shape to be fighting in the first place." Ruby said as she pulled her rifle out and ran to the door. Weiss concentrated for nearly a whole minute before summoning yet another flame glyph to burn through the door.
"Okay, we're going to move as fast as we can. Are you ready?" Weiss asked.
"How long will it take to get through the doors?" Ruby asked.
"I put a lot of energy into this one. We should be able to keep moving without slowing down…I hope." Weiss said as her labored breathing did not slow down.
Ruby nodded her head and get behind Weiss, placed her right hand on the heiress' right shoulder. She pulled her weapon under Weiss' left arm and aimed forward, ready to kill anything that got in their way. Myrtenaster was still holstered, and Weiss held out both of her arms with her hands placed behind one another focusing on the glyph. "You ready?" Ruby asked.
"Yes…" Weiss stated in between breaths. Ruby activated her semblance, both in herself and in Weiss' body, to increasing blood flow and adrenaline, among other things, to allow them to run at greater speeds. Since they are both so tired, and due to Weiss' lack of experience with Ruby's semblance, they were unable to increase their speed more than about fifty or sixty percent of their maximum.
As planned, the glyph burned through the door almost instantly allowing them to run across the walkways indefinitely. The first walkway had no resistance, but the second door they burned through gave way to White Fang soldiers who were all wearing oxygen masks. Immediately, they were firing at the two teammates, to which Ruby responded in kind. Those who did not meet their end through means of a high-velocity rifle met a much more grotesque end by means of having limbs burned away by Weiss' semblance.
"Are you okay?" Ruby asked after they passed through the first group of White Fang and into the next door.
"Yeah, just keep going!" Weiss yelled as they made it through the next door. Yet another group of White Fang soldiers were waiting, however, they were unsurprised when they began firing upon the girls. Again, Ruby began firing her weapon, killing as many as she could as they passed them by.
"How much farther? I don't know how long your body can handle this!" Ruby stated with worry.
"Don't worry about it. If we slow down, then the ones behind us, who are still alive, will be able to shoot us. We don't stop unless we find Yang or Blake." Weiss yelled before seeming to slam through the third door.
The third walkway went the same. And the forth. And the fifth. They continued to make their way up through the vessel until they came upon the sixth door. After burning through it, Weiss ran up to the White Fang as though she was going to go straight through them, literally. However, she stopped in her tracks, waved her right arm, which caused the glyph to fire off multiple projectiles at the White Fang, burning most of them alive. Ruby, who was confused, took no time eliminating the rest of the soldiers. As Ruby fired her rifle, Weiss turned around to see White Fang running up behind the girls from the walkways they passed by. She pulled Myrtenaster out, and embedded the blade into the floor causing the series of small icicles to form a path toward the door. Upon reaching the door, dozens of massive stalagmites rose from the floor, covering the entrance to the walkway.
"Weiss, what happened." Ruby asked after disposing of the final White Fang.
"Look at the fortifications set up." Weiss said while still facing away from her, toward the direction they came from. Ruby turned around to see the fortifications they were setting up. They were facing their cover in the direction that the girls were going and they had explosives ready.
"They were going to prevent anyone from leaving through the direction we came from?" Ruby wondered.
"Yeah. We passed the hatch to the outside a while ago. They don't want anyone from that side getting out. I think they're in there." Weiss said.
"C'mon, then! We have to go!" Ruby yelled.
"Go ahead, I'll stay here and make sure no one gets through." Weiss said as she pulled out her blade and readied herself for a fight.
"Okay. Yell out if too many come through." Ruby said to her teammate who was still facing the other way. Ruby walked up to the door, which the White Fang were in the process of bolting shut. She turned the mechanism on the door until she heard a latch open. The second the latch sounded, a loud rush of air could be heard throughout the ship with a faint buzzing noise.
Ruby quickly pushed the door open and rushed inside to see one of the half-burnt crew members, probably the captain, leaning on the console. She turned around with a bright purple color coming from her eyes, and yelled, "All hail the king!" Her eyes suddenly returned to a normal hazel color as she fell to the ground lifeless.
"Ruby?" a familiar voice said from behind the team leader.
"Blake?" Ruby yelled as she turned around to see her teammate mostly unharmed. She saw Yang in her arms; the blonde brawler had taken significantly more damage, but Blake began to yell. She seemed almost unconcerned with the girl in her arms...like she is merely a weight that she has to hold up.
"Ruby! Call Lionel and tell him to get everyone away from Beacon! Get everyone out of Vale!" Blake screamed.
"Why? Is it a Nuke? We have to get out of this ship, now!" Ruby said in return.
"It's not a nuke! Just tell him to get everyone away, now!" Blake yelled again.
Rub looked at her terrified teammate quizzically, "Blake, we have to go first or–"
"RUBY! CALL HIM NOW!" Blake yelled at the top of her lungs as tears began to roll down her cheeks. At this point, she seemed to remember that Yang was in her arms as she hugged her as though it brought her comfort.
"O-okay…" Ruby said as she dialed opened the chat, though with a worse-than-average connection.
"What's wrong, Ruby? Have you been able to find Blake and Yang? What did they just fire from the vessel?" Ozpin asked when he realized that Ruby had rejoined the chat.
"I found them, but Blake keeps saying that we need to evacuate Vale." Ruby said. "They launched…something…from the sub." She finished.
"Is it a nuke?" Lionel asked.
"No. Blake won't tell me what it is…she's terrified, though." Ruby said.
"We can't just evacuate on of the largest cities in the world without a good reason." Lionel stated.
"He's back…" Blake whispered. Ruby looked her way as she repeated the same words over and over, but never getting louder.
"What's wrong, Ruby?" Ozpin asked.
"Blake keeps saying 'He's back…' I don't know what it means, though." She said. "Blake, who is back?" the team leader asked.
"…our peace is fragile…our society is weak…we will fall." She said quietly as she held Yang in her arms.
Ruby suddenly remembered when she had fainted in Ozpin's office and she had dreamed some creature was talking to her. "He said the same thing to me…" Ruby whispered which caused Blake to dart her eyes up to her.
"Whatever they launched just landed in Forever Fall." Ozpin said.
Ruby ran over to the console where the White Fang Captain was standing and began to read the contents of what had just been launched. "Project: Deus Mortem." Ruby said.
"What? What is that?" Lionel asked.
"That's what they just launched from the ship." Ruby explained as best she could while still trying to make sense of what was happening.
Lionel quickly pulled up his scroll with the White Fang information on it to look up what the project was. He typed the words in, allowed it system to detect the file, and opened it as quick as he could. He only skimmed through the words before screaming in a berserk rage, his flame gauntlets lighting up and nearly melting all of the instruments and consoles within the central intelligence room.
"You okay?" Qrow asked after putting his hand down in a mocking attempt to protect his eyes from the light, though his aura prevented him from getting hurt.
"Ozpin, Ironwood. Evacuate the City." Lionel said as he sent the information to all of the known Knight-Hunters in Remnant. H then forwarded the information to each of the Kingdom's central governments.
Ironwood was completely confused. "Why did you send that information? Do you expect the Kingdoms to –"
"Under Article Four, Section One of the Knight-Remnant Act, I hereby conscript the Kingdoms of the world under the direct control of the Knights." Lionel stated with annoyed arrogance.
Ironwood was attempting to probe for more information, "Why? How? You can't –"
"I will explain when I get back. Right now, you have to evacuate Vale, immediately!" Lionel said as he pressed a few more buttons on his scroll which began to hack into the database of every known server in all of Remnant. TVs, computers, and government terminals began to glitch slightly before showing the symbol of the Knights. "I have taken control of all known databases in the world. I am officially invoking martial law." Lionel stated.
All mechanical law enforcement from the paladins to simple automated turrets began to activate and wander the streets of the four kingdoms. Their audio processors stated the same words over again, "Report to your home. Do not leave until given permission. Food, Water, and other necessities will be provided for you. Leaving the premises of your household will result in immediate persecution by the law."
"Very well. I will inform the military personnel of this new development." Ozpin said.
"What? Ozpin?" Ironwood asked in annoyance.
"I think it best to take him seriously. We may have out complaints with the Knight-General…but at the very least, he is always calm and cool headed. He would not do this without proper reasoning." Ozpin explained.
"Fine." Ironwood stated with clear anger. "Lionel, what is this?" he asked after sending the message to his troops.
"A Grimm War." Lionel stated.