As the sun began to set…
Yang made her way to the drop pod area of the Airship, the wind swirling around her in a cascade of icy water. She eventually made her way inside and into the battle station, she braced herself in the machine and waited as the ship took off. She realized that she would be waiting a long time before she was to see any action, but that was a good thing, she needed time to think, to plan, and mentally; to prepare.
In the communications tower however, things were not going quite so well.
"So your telling me, that Ozpin gathered the city into a frenzy in order to point the peoples fingers at the White Fang?" said Ironwood, a hand on his forehead and eyes flicking back and forth in an attempt to find an answer to this apparent turmoil.
"Yes sir, and I'm asking for you to bring this up with the Atlassian government and see if they could end this terrible event before it leaves the hands of reasonable people." Weiss answered, desperate for help her stress could be heard within the cracks in her voice.
"I'll do what I can, but I'm afraid I'll be a little late, moving an army across the ocean is no laughing matter. Tell your friends there that we'll be moving by Airship into the territory and to stay away from wooded areas, we can't guarantee that our weapons won't catch the woodlands on fire. But more importantly, be careful Miss Schnee, your are an invaluable person to have as an eyewitness to the events that have transpired here." Ironwood finished before signing out, his professional attitude only preceded by his confidence.
"Well, that's what we have, let's hope we made the right decision." Weiss said to the group hiding out with her, getting up afterwards to pace.
"I'm going to be evacuating the area of civilians, are you with me team?" Juane said to the rest of JNPR, his very stature more confident than normal.
"Hmm." said Ren as he nodded in agreement, his eyes tired from the long nights spent leading up to this day.
"Of course, that's a splendid idea." said Pyrrha as she grabbed her equipment and stood up to go, a small smile on her face from seeing Juane acting more confident.
"Yay! I'll be the bodyguard." Nora stated with mallet in hand and excitement in her heart.
The group then headed on their way with maps in hand to all help people evacuate from the city before the fight broke out.
Although in some, more domestic places, it already had.
"What do you mean? I thought our lines were perfect, the fights about to start, what are they doing!" Ozpin yelled across the office to Glynda.
"It appears that our civilian troops are simply leaving their posts, nowhere to be found. The police force is looking into it, but if we devote any more manpower to the act of searching for deserters than we'll have to close down an entire ring." Glynda informed Ozpin of the situation. "We should break down one of the rings any way to bolster the next, it seems we may not have enough people to really have an effect on the enemy's front line."
"I agree, but if we collapse the line then we will look weak, we must hold it for as long as possible as to intimidate the scoundrels." Ozpin said with venom.
"I don't think that's a good idea-"
"Don't question what is already in play, we hold a full house right now, we can't afford to fold." Ozpin then leaned closer and grabbed Glynda, kissing her and then looking into her eyes, "Defend our pact, stop this invasion and create for ourselves a better world."
Glynda's eyes went from suprised to a sharp, menacing look, "I shall."
On the other side of the city things were going more smoothly, things were in fact, taking flight.
"All ships ready!?" The lieutenant shouted.
"Aye aye sir!" shouted one of the bullhead pilots.
Ruby jumped on and set up her position in the bullhead, "Let's get this party started!" she shouted with her scythe in the air as the bullheads, as well as the troops, began to exit from their stations and march towards battle. The winds stirred and smashed against the bullhead's armor plating, rain turning into hail, and hail turning into chunks large enough to draw blood. The weather as they had risen through the heights was terrible, but it kept them hidden from sight, the airships being so massive as to be a beacon for the White Fang pilots to head towards.
As the vehicles drew towards each other the airships began to fire upon them, shot after shot fired from large deck mounted autocannons. The bullheads started to take damage but only one fell, aiming itself towards the closest airship and crash landing into the deck and shredding apart. From that bullhead exited Ruby and half her platoon.
"For freedom!" shouted the White Fang troops as they exited the vehicle and began mowing down the surprised underclassmen. The students began to panic, finding cover wherever they could, focusing on ranged weapons in the swirling vortex of hail and wind.
"They have cover sir, what should we do?" The White Fang members asked their lieutenant, of which she answered swiftly.
"Follow me and Ms. Rose." she said as she shrank into the fog to get the element of surprise. The students panicked as they realized that the barrage had stopped.
"Rex?" one student said before looking to his left and finding his buddy lying against the cover dead, a hole in his chest. Next he heard the gurgled screams of his fellows left and right, some their throats slit, some bashed off of their own guns, some just gone entirely. "Guys?... You there?" The student had a look of absolute fright as the sounds of death surrounded him, he stumbled back into someone as he searched for safety.
"Right here." Was heard behind him as a sword was put to his throat, "Good-bye." and his throat was slit and he was left gurgling as the White Fang troop trampled him to death, sprinting to their next objective.
The autocannon was a large machine, guarded by more legitimate soldiers whom now knew of the enemies arrival. Ruby started to sprint further ahead, drawing the fire before using her semblence to zigzag across the battlefield, dodging every shot, and speeding towards the soldiers.
"Get her!" was shouted from atop the guiding platforms of the turrets. The soldiers followed their orders and shot at the black and white blur that was Ruby sliding through the mist. Eventually the troops stopped to reload, and Ruby took her chance, jumping towards the platform and slicing the first man in half, then spinning the blade and chopping the body to pieces, kicking each piece into another soldier, using the scythe as balance. The few that stood still through the initial assault pulled the pins on their grenades and tossed them at the girl. Ruby took advantage of the airborne can openers and used her semblence to create a powerful vortex, spinning and jumping simultaneously towards the group, pulling their grenades with and blowing a hole in not only them, but also the armor of the autocannon.
The grin across Ruby's face grew larger, her adrenaline was running and she was enjoying the fight, she wanted to see more blood, and by no means was finished. She jumped inside the hunk of machinery, the soldiers seeing her squating on the edge of the whole and began to run. A couple seconds later, as the White Fang force made their way behind Ruby, blood started to shoot out of the hole made in the autocannon and for a moment everything went silent.
"Ha! My troops got your little girl after all!" said the sergeant before the floor behind him exploded and his look of shock turned to get a glimpse for only a fraction of a second before his head was lopped off in a single slice. Ruby sat atop the turret in a crouch, both of her arms hungover her scythe on her back and her one eye could be seen staring a hole into the sergeant's slowly dying, decapitated head. Swinging down on the control panel with Crescent Rose and destroying all that was left to destroy, Ruby made her way to her next location.
Yang heard the screams of fellow students and soldiers through the comm chatter and her eyes shot open, she tore off the buckles of her DST unit and ran for the exit. She activated her uniform as she ran, making her way through the halls as fast as possible. When she reached the deck, the sight was almost too much to bear. She saw the smoking turret, filled with holes and covered in gore, the students gutted and left to drain in the terrible weather, the smell of death imminent in the swirling air was sickening, worst of all, some of them were still alive. She grabbed one of the students fleeing past her and pulled him up to her face, "What happened up there!?"
"We don't know, it looks like some girl in black and white, she's carrying around a bright red scythe, she's a monster, a monster!" he then struggled free and kept running. Yang quickly reached the deck to see that the lack of an autocannon brought a series of bullheads onto the ship, all of them emptying the area and taking hold of positions around the ship.
Yang roared as she ran towards the platoon of White Fang, but as she threw her first punch, she was blocked by Ruby herself, "This ends here Yang, I can't stand in your shadow anymore, I know who the bad guys are, and I'm not one of them."
Yang's eyes went red and she growled at her younger sister, following up her blistering anger with a punch toward Ruby's bad eye with the other fist, throwing her off her footing and then dashing forward for a flurry into Ruby's stomach and an uppercut to the chin knocking her further back, finally Yang attempted to ground her with a foot sweep only for Ruby to jump over it and fire in mid air, launching her backwards before she stopped herself with her scythe.
The lieutenant and other troops began to take aim at Yang. Yang noticed this only barely, the area's visibility reduced, she could only see their silhouettes and changed up her strategy. She jumped into the air, the straps tightened as her strength was doubled on impact with the deck, shattering the steel exterior and launching everyone including Ruby into the air. Yang, letting the suit enhance her own strength, again jumped towards Ruby in a full body tackle, landing into one of the ships wings, leaving a crater before Ruby dropped to the ground.
Yang gathered herself from earlier and walked closer to Ruby, "Surrender Ruby, you can't beat me, I'm better than you."
Ruby stood up and took Yang's hand. She let herself be lifted up and gave an air of defeat, but at the last second, instead of simply letting go,
"No, you rely too much on outside help." Then betrayed Yang's trust, swinging Crescent Rose around to catch Yang and throw her into the same crater. Ruby then brought her scythe to it's sniper form and shot at each of the dust cartridges on Yang's suit, each one of them exploding on her persons, leaving scorch and frost marks alike. "I have to bring freedom to Vale, no matter the cost."
Yangs eyes grew a deeper red and her semblance began to activate, but Ruby had planned for this too, and crouched in order to stay out of the way.
"Fire!" She shouted, and before Yang could turn the tables, a barrage of gunfire berated down on her, leaving no room to dodge, react, or for that matter, fight back at all. Ruby then ran for the main section of the ship as Yang slunked to the ground crippled, the light fading out of her eyes. The lieutenant rushed to the slunken over body of Yang and started carrying her back to one of the bullheads and securing her as a prisoner.
Ruby started setting the course of the airship for Beacon, hoping to end the battle earlier than expected. The rest of the airships falling from the skies one by one as they were defeated. Each one of them sending a cascade of violent fireworks into the sky, tinting the town red.
Meanwhile in the city, the bridges had all collapsed and the White Fang had already worked their way to the 6th ring, within only the first hour they had proven themselves to have many more supporters than were originally imagined. They had left so many fires that even the rain couldn't put them all out, and as the lights went out and the sun was setting, the town was lift up by fires and muzzleflash. Roman on the other hand was enjoying the excitement, the feeling of victory over his oppressors. He was in midst of combat against a squad of high ranking hunters, the Paladin unite was his greatest weapon against them, a mass of metal and death, it smelt of hydraulic fluid and sounded as if two fine china were grinding together every time it moved, but it was all worth it for the power he commanded.
"Bart! Strike the rear!" "Velvet, occupy him!" "Cardin, watch out for the guns!" was shouted by Professor Port, Coco and Dove respectively, each of them attempting to strike Roman in his Paladin, all of them failing.
As Bartholomew dashed from behind, Roman backhanded him through a wall, he simply kicked Velvet, and shot Dove instead, demoralizing Cardin as he planted his fist into him, crushing him for good. As Coco rushed the machine, Roman attempted to block before having his arm taken off by the attack, of which Roman replied by taking said own arm and using as a sword for which to swat her into the ground with. Professor Port then jumped onto the mech and began hacking at it's back before Roman simply opened the hatch and shot him in between the eyes, a maniacal laugh following.
"Yeah! That's what I'm talkin about, right here in Vale city square. Ha! They had it comin to em'!" Roman said before jumping back into his monstrosity of a vehicle and plowing his way threw every obstacle in his path, cars, railways, soldier, all to reach the transit area to Beacon. But standing in Roman's way was Glynda Goodwitch.
"Oh? Did you actually make it this far Roman? It must have been quite the challenge, but here it ends." Glynda said as she walked toward the machine and started to form her spells.
"Why? Because otherwise your little love affair with Ozpin might come to a gruesome halt? Shove it up your ass Glynda, he's using you, he's had you wrapped around his finger for years and hardly respects you for anything but a diligent worker, at that point you might as well be his personal slave don't you think?" Roman retorted with the most sadistic enjoyment in his voice.
"That's not true Roman, Ozpin, he loves me!" Goodwitch started to tear up at what the thief was saying.
"You never knew what love was Glynda, and you still don't, day in and day out I see you at his side like a loyal puppy, waiting for a biscuit that never comes. You may be loyal, but so is a horse. I hope you like sloppy seconds when someone else takes your man because you're too blind to see how he thinks of you; a tool!" Roman started getting louder as his speech went on, Glynda all but breaking down, about to attack with a rage she had never known when.
Buzz-Krackle
The sickening sound of four tasers being trained on the woman put her quickly out of use and left the road to Beacon open for all to enjoy. "Let's go boys, there's nothing to see here."
Ozpin sat in his office, waiting for what he saw was the inevitable. The door bent and shifted, the soldiers could be heard chanting their litanies of victory and the celebrations to come. He leaned back in his chair, took his last drink of his mug and prepared to clap. "Three, Two, One-"
The door slammed open, and threw it came White Fang, Ruby and Roman, all on foot. "Well done you two, well done." and so, Ozpin clapped.
AN: Not finished with the story yet.