The first day of the second month, the final day before the peace ended, two flaming heads of red hair bobbed out of the bus, their owners standing at the base of a forested hill blanketed in fresh snow. Pyrrha and Scarlet adjusted their clothes and began their upward hike towards Pyrrha's house.
"Did you know," Scarlet begun, his accent still somewhat strange to Pyrrha's ears, "the gifts I got for everyone for St. David's Day are still wrapped up in a storage locker in Vale?" He gave a nervous laugh. "Same for my team."
"Same for me. I wonder if the others ever celebrated."
Of course, St. David's Day festivities never had the chance to start, the attack in Vale throwing the world into a frenzy, but Pyrrha could only wonder if her friends had the chance to open gifts after the fact.
"I could be your brother," remarked Scarlet. She shot him a lost look.
"What?" she asked flatly.
He grinned. "I mean, we're going to meet your father, I can only guess he's a redhead like you. You're his daughter. I have red hair. Some neighbor watching us might think we're siblings."
Her head dipped to the side with raised brows. "I guess so." He wasn't wrong. "Thanks for coming with me by the way."
"No problem. After saying hi then bye to my family yesterday, I found it was way easier on the ride back with company." The swashbuckler glanced to his friend, finding himself surprised. "Pyrrha? I haven't seen you this happy looking since we left Vale."
The ends of her mouth curled upwards, her cheeks full and eyes wide. As they were moving along the walkway past the tunnel of trees, the girl's head swiveled slowly, her eyes taking pictures of the once familiar nature, the house now in sight. "It's just... I feel like I'm seeing all of this for the first time is all, happy memories..."
Which was partially true. A part of Pyrrha that was watching the scene play for the first time also received with it the fond childhood memories the old Pyrrha was reliving with elation; one side of the coin was watching a happy movie the other side had lived. Before she knew it, her step felt lighter. In her brief experience, this meant that her fragments of soul agreed for lack of better words. Perhaps they were harmonizing with similar emotions she thought.
Boots clicked against the wood porch boards, both figures now standing before a door, the lights inside dark. Her arm appeared from her massive crimson shawl, and knuckles rapped loudly against the wooden door.
For a minute, silence.
"Out for groceries?" Scarlet offered while exchanging looks with Pyrrha.
"Maybe." She looked again through the windows, this time urgency rising in her voice, "wait, too many lights are off!" Taking one step back, she kicked the door, the frame splintering at the latch and the door bouncing off the inside wall. Pyrrha glided in, whipping out a shotgun hidden in the umbrella stand by the entrance, pumping it with a clear "shook shak."
Scarlet followed closely, rummaging his hand through the umbrella stand for a frantic second, finally pulling out a normal blue umbrella and brandishing it like a sword. Apparently there was only the one weapon and having a tool in hand was better than none.
"Stay here," she whispered, striding smoothly towards a hallway on the left, gun leveled.
Obeying, he remained still, listening to Pyrrha's echoing footsteps as he surveyed the room around him. It was homely, well decorated by that standard, with only a few rustic nature paintings on the walls and instead many family pictures and shelves littered with books, jars, and assorted trinkets and toys. An empty vase sat alone on the table next to the large window, blinds down. Misty blue colored the world.
Turning around, he pressed the door into its frame, though with a broken latch it wouldn't stay closed. Pyrrha re-entered the living room and went down the hallway to the right this time. Scarlet tip toed closer to one of the walls, finding his gaze inexplicably fixed on a photo of who he presumed was Pyrrha. She was young, surrounded with family, endless smiles, untouched innocence.
A minute passed, and Pyrrha returned to the living room, looking around herself still frantic. Scarlet spoke out loud, though he didn't mean to ask her directly, "do you think this little girl in this picture knew... do you think she knew who she was going to be one day?" He chewed his lip. Looking over finally, he stepped back from Pyrrha's maddened scowl. "Uh, uhm, never mind."
Pyrrha entered the adjacent kitchen, pulling open silverware drawers and cabinet doors. She tore the lid off the kitchen trash can and pulled out an opened and emptied envelope dirtied with a coffee stain or something similar. She read aloud, "Mistral department of military recruitment and drafting—" her hand slammed against the countertop and then, without pause, punched through one of the cabinet doors, dishware shattering violently inside.
He took a step back, genuinely afraid of this rage filled Pyrrha he had never seen.
"He was drafted! They drafted my dad!" she yelled, pacing withing the confines of the kitchen.
Scarlet turned his back and headed for the door, barely finding the courage to say, "I'll leave you alone."
The better part of an hour passed when Pyrrha eventually met Scarlet outside, the door still open. They both examined it one last time before Pyrrha stated, "I left a scroll message to one of the neighbors, they'll fix the door."
"What about... your dad?" he asked, sensitive to her mood.
Her sigh manifested as a long cone of mist, and she continued forward towards Scarlet with a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. "He left a note. He was proud to be selected to be of service to Mistral's cause. He was sorry to not have seen me before he left." Pyrrha passed the boy and started down the walkway back to the street, red robes hovering just across the top of the snow, her boots buried underneath. She never looked back as she said, "he said all the things a father should say to his daughter."
Scarlet shivered. "A father to his daughter...? You believe him, right?"
She never waited for him to catch up. "I guess."
The bus ride back was quiet.
The elevator doors to Yelette's office opened with misleading calm, Pyrrha marching in stern, furious rhythm, Neptune, Sage, and Scarlet coming in at a nervous delay. The headmaster raised a curious brow at the sudden entrance. "What can I do for you, young lady?"
"I accept your task." Pyrrha spoke as tersely as Yelette had on their first encounter, whilst Yelette chose vigilance, switching the roles.
"You accept my task?" she echoed. In the passing days, the headmaster had approached the four of them with a mission, one of critical importance, one of lucrative subterfuge, and one of immense difficulty. "Are you sure, although I can't trust anyone else to do this, it may be too much—"
"I will go and free Ozpin."
Pyrrha stood defiantly and without waver.
Neptune, behind her, rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. After a pregnant pause, submitted, "me too."
Sage and Scarlet looked to each other, each gritting their teeth. Sage rolled his neck and followed, "I as well."
"Son of a bitch," the last muttered under his breath, "yeah, me four."
Yelette grinned ear to ear. "It's good to see such confident gusto. I shall call Teires."
As the older woman reached for a scroll sitting atop a ornate stand upon her desk, Pyrrha interrupted her. "No. If we're doing this, I can't look after a child while we're doing this."
Scarlet staggered in place, then leaned towards his friends. "What kid, who's Teires?"
"It was the kid who met us when we first got here," answered Sage cooly.
"I insist Ms. Nikos, he may be a help to you," the lady retorted politely.
"No. It's too dangerous. Find someone else, we're breaking Ozpin out." The angle on Pyrrha's scowl deepened.
"Fine," Yelette yielded, hands up in surrender. "I'd rather you do this than not at all." She leaned forward, her green and yellow sleeves draping from her arms as she rested her chin upon her fists. Softly but quickly she continued. "You must leave tonight. A light passenger airship is landed on a cargo ship in the bay, the cargo ship is called The Tournamer, tell the captain I sent you, he'll be notified of your arrival. Everything you need is on that airship. Any questions?"
"Everything we need is on the airship?" Sage asked.
"Clothing, food, a map, directions, ammo, instructions, general info, prison blueprints, survival gear," she specified.
"Pilot?" Scarlet inquired, worried.
"One of you."
"What?" stammered Scarlet.
Unflinching, Pyrrha turned to stare at Neptune. Scarlet and Sage too looked to Neptune.
Neptune sighed and cursed under his breath. "I guess I've been volunteered."
"Anything else?"
"No, I'm done here." Pyrrha turned her back on the headmaster.
"Good. Good luck, and... come back home my boys." Yelette fell back into her chair, worry touching the creases in her face as she watched her former students salute disorderly and filed into the elevator. The doors began to close when she called out, "Pyrrha."
The redhead's hand caught the closing doors, a single eye peeking through like an eagle's eye.
"I don't know who I just talked to, but I hope you two can work it out."
The doors closed, and Neptune nudged the huntress, "what was that about?"
"Nothing."
Now long dark, the four liberators in intent followed Yelette's words and boarded the cargo ship where a feeble looking man directed them to a partially concealed craft.
"It's got wings?" Neptune noted, mostly to himself.
The craft, small, angular and tan, was not standard transport fare, and instead had engines mounted on the inside of rotating wings rather than jets on the far outside. A ramp in the back allowed access to a six passenger cargo hold, three seats on starboard and port walls each, and a small door to the illuminated cockpit. In four of the seats were crates and bags with what they discovered to be exactly what Yelette told them ahead of time.
"Neptune, get this thing started," commanded Pyrrha as she began digging into the supplies.
"I'm really not comfortable with the responsibility of flying with zero experience," he grumbled, voicing his opinion that was promptly ignored. Ducking under the doorway, he sat in the black seat, finding it surprisingly comfy, and took stock. Before him was a instrument cluster fitted with many gauges, many switches, many buttons and half as many sticky notes with perfect, female handwriting littering the small space. Two horizontal levers sat in front of the cluster, and a book rested on a personal shelf to his left.
Thumbing through the brown book, which was a manual to the craft, read like magic to Neptune, who grunted and relegated the book back to its shelf. Reading the sticky notes, he found one that read, 'this first', and flipping the red switch underneath it, lights turned on in the cargo hold, eliciting a "thank you" from Scarlet, who was helping the others look through their gear.
"Alright." He followed the sticky notes around the cluster, checking dials and flipping switches until he hit the ignition key. "Remove tarp before star... hey! Scarlet! Could you peel the tarp off?" he half shouted behind him.
The windshield turned from pitch black to starless night black with the removal of the cover. With shaky fingers, Neptune turned the key. Turbines winded up, and flipping a secondary switch, fire lit the chambers.
Pyrrha sat herself on an empty seat, opening her own bag. Lifting the corners of her long skirt, she buttoned the corner hem to the small of her back, turning what amounted to a dress into a short skirt in front and a long triangle of leg covering in back, then pulled the shawl covering her right arm up and pinned it to her collar, turning the top into a half poncho. Her black tights and black turtle neck were revealed underneath, along with her short sleeve, double breasted jacket and red short shorts. Pulling from her bag, she slid into new yet familiar bronze greaves, reaching all the way from her mid thigh down to her feet. Then the bronze gauntlets and arm covering, but unlike her old outfit, Yelette had armor made for both arms, unlike the shoulder guard that went with it. The bronze shoulder guard, slim and sharp, fit over her shawl on her left side, her shield side, also where the fabric always concealed her arm. A brown leather and bronze corset meets cuirass fitted over her padded jacket, even more so similar to her old one. A black bullet sleeve fit over her right arm, and then her belt wrapped around her waist of course. Left justified on her front sat a large fist sized disc with Pyrrha's wheat emblem, behind one magazine pouch for her old rifle, two more on the other side, more bullet sleeves for her new rifle, and a short dagger along her back, curtesy of Yelette. From another bag, a long one, she pulled out three pieces which quickly formed into her rifle, seven other pieces formed her long spear slash rifle, then finally her shield. Both rifles fit on her back, the shield covering them, magazines filled her pouches, and four tremendously sized bullets, glimmering gold and copper, fit on her arm sleeve, another five on her belt. She was dressed.
She sauntered into the cockpit, steps noticeably heavier, a map and booklet in hand. Neptune glanced over and jolted.
"Oh shit, I can't tell if you're cool or scary... maybe it's the scowl," he mused, tapping a flickering gauge.
Pyrrha plastered the map against a flat section of wall, which there was almost none of, and opened a tiny booklet. "We want to head east, bearing East by North East, 96 degrees. The book says not to worry about horizontal drift, we'll adjust once we fly over land."
"There's my compass, alright, are they both in?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, I'm closing the hatch!" Neptune shouted behind him.
Sage and Scarlet saluted the old captain who watched them work, the ramp lifting to separate them. The old captain saluted back before turning to leave.
"Okay, okay, okay, relax Neptune, you got this." His eyes darted between his instruments and a notepad to his left which contained lifting off instructions, flying, and landing. "First, uhm, I need to flip on the 'take off' switch." Pyrrha pointed to it, Neptune nodding in appreciation. It was a covered switch, requiring him to lift a orange guard to flip it. Having done so he read aloud, "now ease onto the throttle, right peddle, and flip back the switch at fifty feet." Much to his terror, the craft began to creak and lift as his foot eased the throttle downwards. Pyrrha braced herself against the chair and the map as the craft shuttered, while the other two strapped themselves in hastily. "Ha haha ha, oh shit, oh fuck, it's happening."
Pyrrha tapped the dial labeled 'elevation' stating, "we're above fifty," then lowered the orange guard which flipped off the switch. The weight in the craft shifted along with angle as the jets burned harder while the wings leveled out, turning the ships lateral thrust into forward thrust. "Alright, we need to turn right now, what does it say? To turn, press the lever—"
"I've played video games Pyrrha, I know how to turn— oh shit!" He pressed his right lever forward and pulled his left back, freaking him out as the craft rolled left and he slid into the shelf. Pyrrha remained braced. "Wrong way, wrong way, wrong way, sorry, sorry sorry." Rolling it the other way, he put the craft at a forty five and then pulled on both levers, steering the craft right and to the east.
"10, 30, 60, 90, level out, level out," Pyrrha calmly instructed, "we need 96, you need 2 more degrees, gentle. See? You got this Neptune," she said, patted his shoulder, "now you just need your seatbelt." She left Neptune, tense like a spring loaded trap and sucked into the back of his seat, alone, and greeted the other two in the cargo bay. "We're good."
The Bullpup shuttered, frigid air providing turbulence. Ruby shivered herself awake. Adjusting her sunglasses and sitting up, she examined her gloved hand. When she had first taken off the bandages from her head, the light of day blinded her maladjusted eyes, and sunglasses were immediately issued for her. Once her eyes could open without fear, it was all she could do to gawk at her hand, close one eyelid at a time, go cross eyed, and play with her depth perception in general. She would've been surprised if she hadn't teared up, though, for the first time, she noticed they only came from her original eye.
Looking around now however was a different vibe altogether, hope and joy mostly absent from the room.
Ruby had been assigned sharpshooter for Vale's First Division, Second Squad, Ruby as ninth position under the leadership of Sergeant Dusk Gaz. Currently, she flew with her squad over foreign seas on the brink of the new morning, a battle drawing near. Standing up, she grabbed one of the straps dangling from the ceiling, letting her keep her balance like every one else.
She repeated information in her head, a mantra of order she wasn't used to, for a impeding situation of chaos to ensue. Team, rank, callsign, task. Fire Team One, Sergeant Dusk, rifleman, Corporal Fang, sharpshooter, Lieutenant Two Face, medic, Corporal X, CQC specialist. Fire Team Two, Corporal Cry, rifleman, Corporal Cat, rifleman, Corporal Blank, Pyrotechnical specialist, Corporal Smiley, CQC specialist, and lastly, Non-Commissioned Soldier Thorn, sharpshooter. Dusk decided her callsign.
Each of the soldiers wore a full helmet like that of the Atlesian soldiers with a screen on the inside, except like their fatigues and body armor, the helmet was black and grey and had no open mouth. And on these black helmets, the soldier's namesake callsign was engraved in white markings upon the front. Again, each soldier, in order; a skull, fangs, a two-face, an X, tears, cat face, blank expression, a smile. Ruby pulled off her sunglasses, tucked them into a breast pocket, and lifted her helmet from the floor, mounting it upon her head. Vines of thorns wrapped the helmet's lower half like barb wire.
"Twelve o'clock friends" Dusk spoke casually, each helmet replicating his voice through its built in head set, as long as they were within 15 feet of each other. Pass that, the head set must be manually activated via button under the chin. "The grace period has ended, our war time actions are now recognized as legal in the world's eyes. They just won't like it." With the way he finished speaking, Ruby couldn't tell if he was expressing excitement or sorrow. Or both.
The mission was simple. Vale wanted a landing point on the Mistral continent, and Mistral was going to be more than aware of this. Platoons had been dispersed all along the western coastline, and it was Second and Third squad's job to airdrop and clear a landing zone for the incoming invading force. 18 people were in charge of clearing a fishing village, their advantage lying in that Mistral didn't know where Vale will land, thus their forces would be thin. 5 minutes to route the enemy before reinforcements arrive, clear a path for the other squads to clear the local area.
The Bullpup's side doors opened up and the ship slowed down so it could fly side ways, though the freezing air still raced past them plenty fast. The sky was black, the only lights in the world coming from what looked like a fishing village down below.
Dusk started shouting, even if it was unnecessary with the headsets, "commence operation Stolen Pillar, route the defending enemy forces, on my lead, go!" And with that, he took three steps backwards, falling backwards on the third step, arms spread and fall underway.
Loyal and obedient, each trooper followed suit, with the last one out being Ruby. She clenched tight to her military issued sniper rifle, Crescent Rose on her hip, and wobbled towards the edge. Her rapid, panicked breathing was deafening in her own helmet, and despite all her efforts, she couldn't fathom why she was reacting so. The last time she had any similar degree of reaction had to have been when she first fought Grimm, but that was so long ago. She only knew that she was afraid to go, to jump, and to fight.
A rogue torrent of wind roared past her.
Falling unceremoniously, she flipped head over feet time and time again, preemptively pulling her parachute cord ahead of schedule. Gunshots rang through the air, other soldiers flew past her, some nearly hitting Ruby on their descent. Large black circles blotted out the lights below her, meaning the squad was almost at the ground level in the Village.
The village was small. A muddy road ran parallel to the shore, and about a dozen buildings plus a bell tower sat on either side of it. Small white boats littered a single dock, starkly contrasting in their sophistication with the thatch and cobblestone construction of the town.
Fumbling with her hands, she barely managed to switched off the safety on her rifle, then drew back the bolt, loading in the first round. Flying projectiles whizzed past her, and then as if acting in balance, the wind started rushing past her faster than before. Looking up she could make out tears growing in her chute, and her fall accelerated.
The ground grew closer and closer, until finally, Ruby hit the ground, knees buckling and body crumpling.
Dusk's voice came through the radio. "Fang, overwatch on the south hill."
The regular chaos waged around her, but that didn't matter at the moment. Coughing, the wind knocked out of her, and clenching her shins, she mumbled to herself. "You've fallen farther, you've fallen harder," she spoke in third person, "what's wrong with you?" Rolling over she patted her chest, struggling to breathe smoothly. "What's wrong with you?!" she repeated.
X ran up to Ruby, shotgun in one hand and with the other dragged the fallen girl by the armpit across the muddy street towards the water. He just about ran Ruby over a waist high rock wall, then propped her in a corner where she was hidden from sight. Two Face who was firing into the fray ducked down right next to Ruby, wasting no time to look over the possibly injured girl.
More commands, "X and Smiley, vent that house."
Cat flew over the short wall and into a slide, taking Two Face's covering fire position, Smiley close behind. X patted smiley on the shoulder, "on me!" he shouted. Craning her neck, she watched them hop over the wall and kicked in the thatched door of a adjacent house, shotguns pumping rounds.
Two Face pulled up Ruby's pant legs and pulled down her tall socks, checking her legs for injury. "Leg's fine!" he stated. He abruptly started patting her chest and waist, then shifted her forward to look at her back too. Yanking her helmet off, he pried her jaw open and flashed a light into her mouth, Ruby still coughing and now gagging. Before she knew it, her helmet was shoved back on and Two Face grabbed his rifle. "The wind was knocked out of you, you're fine, you're not shot or bleeding!" He pressed the bottom of his helmet, "Sir she's fine."
Down the street from where Ruby landed, a black painted Atlesian Paladin with four parachutes stomped down, mud splattering all around him. He was Squad Three's ninth member. The bastards.
Marching forward and dragging the chutes behind it, the mech laid down a row of bullets, shredding the lane of houses opposite the shore along with the bell tower.
Fang spoke over the radio tower this time. "Tank! South of the tower!"
Ruby, Cat, and Two Face peeked over the wall to see the supposed tank, but only saw the Paladin turn and start down the road. Gunfire erupted from the building to the left of the tower, bouncing off the rocks and scaring the three back into hiding.
"Disengage Paladin," Dusk shouted, "disengage!"
"Where is it?" the pilot asked, confused.
An unfamiliar voice shouted over the headset, "fire!"
The haystack that sat in front of the stable blew up into a cloud of yellow specks, a wave of suddenly liquid water behind it, and the glass of the adjacent buildings shattered more then they already were. The upper shoulder of the paladin exploded like glass as the whole structure flew backwards, sliding past just a few steps from where Ruby and the others took cover.
"Shit!" exclaimed Two Face, reaching for the computer glove he wore on his left hand. "They're using the same radio frequency as us, time to change it."
"Two Face, tank's targe—" Fang started before his radio cut out.
Cat stood up and broke into a sprint, shouting "it's looking at us!"
Cursing, Two Face hastily finished pressing buttons on his wrist and grabbed Ruby by her own wrist, yanking her to her feet and following Cat south. Gunfire started again, prompting the medic to scream "Sir!"
"X, cover fire, Cry, take tank" commanded Dusk.
Ruby, still distraught and limping behind the medic, regardless of her past experience, found a simple admiration in the number of successful strategic actions taken in a brief moment. Within five seconds, all of the following happened.
X and Smiley opened fire on the building filled with Mistral soldiers, pushing them into cover. The tank turret rotated towards X and Smiley as it pulled forward. Bullets flied out from the building again, except this time, the Mistral soldiers were ejected from the holes in the walls and windows, Dusk and Squad Three charging through with axes, swords, and shovels, their weapons drawn on the downed but not dead hostiles. Cry popped out from down the street and sprinted at the tank, a man lifting the turret hatch to shoot the runner. Fang's rifle crackled, pegging the tank man in the shoulder and falling inside. Cry ran onto the tank and dropped a flash bang into the now still tank, jumping in after the blast. He then jumped out, giving a thumbs up.
Two Face stopped dragging Ruby and almost dropped her in the process. He ran over to his lower-rank-yet-still-commanding officer, informing him, "I had to change our frequency, they were listening by accident I think."
"That's unfortunate." The man touched his chin, "Cat and Thorn, I want you on the north hill. Cry, join Fang. Any visuals on hostiles?"
"I got a runner heading east" sounded off Blank.
"Alright, Squad Three, fan east." The men surrounding Dusk dispersed while he pulled a short revolver from his leg pocket and pointed upwards, launching a pink flare into the dark sky. "Why aren't you helping the Paladin Pilot?" he asked his medic, gesturing towards the flaming pile of twisted metal. The medic cursed and ran.
Off the shore, high in the sky, Dusk spotted dozens of little black dots grow bigger as they got closer. The Vale offensive line.
Looking to his right, Ruby limped past him, supported by Cat.
A sigh. "We're going to have a talk later, Ms. Rose," his voice heavy.
-End Chapter 5-