Chapter 14: Veni, Vidi, Vici
Roman sighed, waving off another stupid plan thrown at him by one of his goons.
"Uhhh, we could rob a jewelry store." Another one of the goons spoke up.
"A jewelry store?" Roman said in a low voice, chuckling slightly. "A jewelry store? What do you think we are, some kind of street mob made up of overconfident thieves and drugged up gangsters? We're a terrorist organization, we need to blow shit up. A jewelry store robbery is hardly of any concern to Remnant's most powerful protectors right now with a fucking dark god waiting for his next chance to strike."
"We could blow up Beacon!" Yet another goon chimed in with a little too much enthusiasm.
Roman put his face into his hands, groaning loudly. "Are you really that stupid? First off, the reason we're doing this is to make the preparations for a full fledged attack on Beacon go more smoothly. On top of that, we do not have the resources, manpower, or skillsets to even dream of sabotaging a school full of Hunters and Hunters in training."
"Why don't we blow up Vale's communication tower?" A tall woman in the back of the room spoke up. She had long, purplish-black hair and lavender eyes that almost seemed to glow in the dark room.
"Now that's just plain - wait, did you say blow up the communications tower?" Roman received a nod in return. "FINALLY! Someone actually came up with a good idea! The communications tower isn't too heavily guarded, it's in a fairly public and very high-traffic area meaning that both stealth value and collateral damage will be high, and to top it all off it's one of the most important buildings in the kingdom. Absolutely brilliant! What's your name, sweetheart?"
"Lila. Lila Lavende, gun for hire… well, bow for hire." The dark haired woman pulled a dark rod out from a holster at her lower back, the rod unfolding into a full sized compound bow. "I'm a master archer, expert at stealth and hand-to-hand combat, and I'm not half bad at hacking. Strong points are intelligence and assassination jobs."
"Good, very good. You'll be handling the operation, if all goes well you'll be getting a promotion as well." Roman paused in thought. "Anyone around here a demolitions expert?"
"Yo." A tall, stocky, dark skinned man with a bald head spoke up. "Name's Brick. Get me schematics and I'll turn that tower into a pile of rubble."
"Wonderful!" Roman exclaimed. "You two will handle the operation. We'll take on the intelligence side of things during the day. Get in, hack the systems, grab the schematics, and get out. We'll plant the charges in the appropriate spots that night and blow the joint the next day. Sound good?" Lila and Brick both nodded. "Good, you can take two, maybe three at most, men with you as backup, but we need to keep our footprint as small as possible. I'll call in an order for the hacking tool that we'll need to Zynetken, so go see him once we've wrapped up here."
Lila approached a large stone door engraved with a number of strange glowing runes. She went to knock on the door, but it swung open just as she was about to make contact. She advanced cautiously into the room, finding the large space lined with bookshelves containing strange tomes and desks stacked with unusual devices.
"Come, come in, girl. Roman told me you were coming." The crazy haired scientist said, waving Lila in.
"Roman said you'd have the hack I need?" Lila said cautiously.
"I'm going to have it, I just need to hook all this up." Zyn said, rushing over to one of the strange devices. "Can you connect the Astrological Receptor to the Divination Resonator?"
"Hook the what to the what?" Lila asked, confused.
"Hook the Astrological Receptor to the Divination Resonator!" Zyn exclaimed, everything making perfect sense in his warped mind. "The Oracle Generator can't do anything without either of those!"
"Come again?" The dark haired woman rubbed her temples, the confusion giving her a headache.
"It's simple!" Zynetken prepared a rant. "The Oracle Generator connects to the Astrological Receptor, which together forms the data in the Divination Resonator. This data gets stored in the Etheric Drive before being sent through the Rune Matrix for translation to alchemical data stored on the Alchemical Drive. This is sent to the Alchemical Regulator on the Summoning Panel, and POOF! Your item is complete!"
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Lila was even more confused now.
"I have Doctorates in Metallurgical Exorcism, Quantum Elementalism, Computational Illusionism, and Mathematical Runes, making a hack drive for these primitive computer systems is child's play!" Zyn ranted. "I'll do it myself!" Zynetken hooked two strange devices together before flipping some switches, pressing some buttons, and turning some dials. There was a bright flash and a small explosion on the other side of the room, resulting in what looked like a simple scroll lying on a panel. "There's your hack. Just plug it into one of the terminals and it will get you anything you need."
"Uhhh, okay." Lila took the scroll and left the room quickly, uncomfortable around the strange fusions of magic and tech.
"Not even a thank you, how rude."
Back in The Void…
"What is your will, My Lord?" A man in heavy black power armor spoke from one end of the hexagonal table, the throne across from him occupied by a volatile black shadow with glowing red eyes.
"The time to claim this world as ours draws near." The shadow spoke. "A gate needs to be prepared."
"I sincerely doubt the resistance there is so strong as to justify drawing so many resources from here." The pale, white haired woman stated.
"It is not a matter of resistance, it's a matter of breaking their will to resist." The shadow stated. "The natives of this world are strong willed, we need to subjugate them completely to gain a solid foothold. As for the redirection of resources, in order for this legion, my legion, to survive, we must expand beyond our home universe. My father fails to see that."
"That's all fine," the blonde haired woman started, "but my sources tell me that the forces of the Light are becoming suspicious of your absence. Word is that they're trying to track you down."
"We'll deal with them as they come. It could take them years to figure out what universe I'm in, longer if they have to guess." The shadow stated. "You all have your tasks, three days and we make our move."
Back in the Beacon Academy Dorms…
"We can't just go back into the forest alone." Blake stated simply, trying to find a way to quell a furious red Huntress.
"We're not alone, there's three of us!" Ruby shouted in argument,
"We hardly made it out with eight of us, sis." Yang stated, the worry showing in her voice.
"But… I… Argh!" Ruby threw her arms in the air and flopped onto Weiss' bunk, sighing in frustration. "I know, but we can't just sit around here and do nothing."
"Maybe we should contact the AIC, see if Drake and Ikari have come up with any leads." Blake said. "I heard they're adding a couple more members to their task force."
"Sounds like a good idea!" Yang shouted, grabbing Ruby's hand and dragging her out of Weiss' bed. "Let's go!"
The girls reached the communications tower in a matter of minutes, entering and quickly ordering an empty booth.
"Your booth has been reserved. Thank you for u-u-uuuuuuu-" The holographic greeter froze before disappearing and reappearing, ready to greet the next visitor.
"That was strange…" Blake said, looking back at the greeter. She bumped into a woman in dark clothes and scarf with dark lavender hair while she was distracted, causing the woman to drop her scroll. "Oh, sorry." Blake said, the other woman simply nodding before retrieving her scroll and leaving.
"She seemed strange." Ruby commented as the group sat down at the booth. The display skipped a bit before bringing up a prompt to choose who to call. "I'd like to contact the Atlesian Intelligence Committee, Nightfall Task Force."
The screen displayed a "connecting" message for a few seconds before Drake's face appeared on the screen, eyes mostly closed with obvious sleep deprivation.
"Drake Eminence, AIC Nightfall Task Force. How did you get this number?" Drake groaned out, clearly not having bothered to look at the caller ID before answering.
"It's us, sleepyhead." Yang stated. "Long night?"
"Oh, hi." Drake said, letting out a yawn and opening his eyes. "Been working around the clock, and we just got two new team members who don't know shit about what's going on yet. What do you need?"
"We were wondering if you guys have come up with any leads about Kelas." Blake stated. "Also, I was wondering if you finished that neural suppressor? The sleep meds I'm on are starting to stop working."
"The only lead we have is that he's operating out of the Emerald Forest, which you guys already know." Drake sighed. "We haven't been able to narrow down where he's based himself this time, nor do the random hot spots of dark energy follow any particular pattern. We'll keep looking, and if anything big comes up you'll be the first to know." He took a sip from a cup of coffee. "As for that Neural Suppressor, making a device that shuts down specifically the subconscious thought center is tough enough as it is, but you're asking me to make one that targets the part that controls nightmares specifically. It's going to take quite a while to design and build, even longer to get it working. I hate to say this, especially after what you've been through, but you're just going to have to suffer through the nightmares for the time being."
Blake frowned and nodded. "Thanks for the help, I appreciate that you're doing this for me."
"As do I!" Yang exclaimed, wrapping her arm around Blake's neck. "We'll make sure to get any data we collect back to you next time we get out in the field!"
"Thanks, Drake!" Ruby said before ending the call.
"Sooo, how was your day?" Roman said discreetly, staring out at the crowd surrounding the large tower from behind his sunglasses as a woman in a dark suit with dark lavender hair sat down next to him.
"I got what we needed, but I passed by some Huntresses along the way." Lila said, handing Roman the scroll. "I don't think they were suspicious of me at all, but I'd rather not stick around to find out."
"Excellent, let's get out of this dump then." Roman said, standing and reaching out his right hand towards Lila. "May I?"
Lila smiled and reluctantly took Roman's hand, mouthing the words 'I'm going to kill you' as they started walking away from the tower.
"Okay, so we've got the plan, the crew, the bombs, and the schematics. We ready to topple this tower?" Roman asked Brick, Lila, and the two generic goons sitting around the moderately sized room.
"Judging from these schematics, half a dozen mining charges placed in strategic locations should be able to topple the building." Brick said, pouring through the schematics and details of the Vale communications tower repeatedly.
"Placing the charges shouldn't be a problem either." Lila stated simply. "There's a lot of maintenance access areas to get to important parts of the structure."
"Awesome, everyone in the Bullhead!" Roman waved everyone towards the stealth prototype, still in their possession. "Neo, you ready to fly this damn thing?" Neo waved her hand just above her head, emphasising her height. "Right, I'll fly."
The Bullhead came to a stop, hovering outside the communications tower. Brick looked out at the building, glancing back at his copy of the schematics for reference.
"I can guide you to the places where the charges need to be planted." He said, looking at Lila.
"Got it." She said. "You two are covering the entrance, make sure nobody sneaks up on us." Lila jumped from the VTOL, followed by the two goons.
She moved quickly to the entrance of the tower, using a hacking tool to crack the keypad while the goons swept the area, before rushing in and moving to the first charge site following Brick's instructions. It took her about 10 minutes to plant the six bombs, all without incident, only to find that their extraction wouldn't be as smooth.
"Hey, you there!" A random patrol officer started walking towards her. "This area is off limits during nighttime hours."
One of the goons jumped out and pointed his gun at the already jumpy officer, the officer shooting him in the leg in reaction. Lila quickly nocked a tranquilizer arrow, firing it at the guard to knock him out, then proceeded to execute the wounded and shouting goon with an arrow to the head.
"We're ready for evac, get us out of here before any more patrols come by." Lila said into her headset, the Bullhead quickly swinging back from it's hiding place.
"What happened to him?" Brick asked, watching the living goon haul the corpse of his dead comrade aboard.
"He was injured and being loud about it." Lila stated simply. "He would've attracted unwanted attention, so I made sure he couldn't."
"I think I'm gonna like you." Roman said before piloting the Bullhead back towards the Emerald Forest.
The next day…
"WEISS!" Ruby practically tackled Weiss with a hug, nearly toppling the still weakened white-haired girl. "YOU'RE OKAY!"
"They told you I was going to be okay, you dolt." Weiss complained. "If you keep tackling me like that, the wound is going to open back up."
"Sorry." Ruby said, letting go of Weiss and rubbing the back of her head.
"It's good to see you on your feet again." Yang said. "Ready to do some investigating?"
"We're going to go ask Junior some questions, see if he knows anything about what Roman is up to." Blake stated.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Weiss said, walking towards the door. "Evil isn't going to defeat itself, after all."
"Weiss seems weirdly optimistic." Yang whispered to Blake, following their teammates towards a docked Bullhead.
"She's probably just happy to be out of the hospital and up on her feet again." Blake whispered back. "We've all spent too much time in the hospital lately."
"Guess you're right." Yang sighed, boarding the Bullhead.
The Bullhead pilot dropped the girls off outside Junior's club, Yang walking up to the guards at the door.
"Why don't you boys go tell your boss that I want to speak to him, and I'll think about not blasting down your doors this time." She said, staring one of the guards down.
The two guards looked at each other, before the one to Yang's right slipped into the club. Yang grinned widely at the other, the black clad man gulping out of fear. It wasn't long before the other guard came back, followed by Junior.
"What do you want, blondie?" He said, frowning at Yang and the three Huntresses behind her.
"Ohh, I just wanted to ask you some questions about Roman and his new associates." Yang said in a teasing tone.
"Look, all I know about that is what's been going around on the news." Junior said.
"Well, why don't we discuss that inside." Yang said, sounding as menacing as she possibly could.
Junior looked from Yang to her teammates, then back to Yang, before waving the group in.
"So, this tower allows Vale to communicate with the other kingdoms?" Kelas said, looking out over the forest towards Vale.
"Yep." Roman said casually.
"Meaning that, if we destroy it, they will no longer be able to contact anyone outside the kingdom of Vale?" Kelas asked.
"That's correct." Roman said. "And we are ready to bring it crashing to the ground."
"Excellent." Kelas said, cracking his knuckles. "Muulten, how is your Grimm-Human hybrid research coming?"
"It is going smoothly, my Lord." Muulten said. "The cadaver brought back from Roman's operation last night has helped greatly, but I will need living subjects to progress the research any further."
"Good, once the tower falls, start pressuring the kingdom with Grimm attacks. We'll follow suit for the other three afterward." Kelas said, looking over his shoulder.
"Yes, my Lord." The monochromatic being behind Kelas bowed, before disappearing into the forest.
Kelas looked back towards Vale, a grin spreading across his face. "Let's show these people the meaning of terror."
Roman withdrew a scroll from his jacket pocket, pressing a button on it. A minute later, alarms started sounding across Vale as a large plume of smoke began to rise out of the heart of the city.
"I'm telling you, I know nothing!" Junior continued to plead his case. "The only words that comes out of their group are job offers for hired muscle who don't ask questions. They're ghosts, even in the underground."
"There has to be something." Yang said, cracking her knuckles. "Maybe I could help jog your memory."
"Yang, I think he's telling the truth." Blake said, putting her hand on Yang's shoulder. "Everything they've done since they've been here has been-"
Everyone in the building heard a distant crack before the sound of the emergency sirens started echoing across the city.
"What the hell…?" Yang started moving towards the door before a muttered curse from Ruby stopped her.
"My scroll doesn't have any service." Ruby said, a look of concern spreading across her face. The rest of Team RWBY pulled out their scrolls only to face the same result.
"The communications tower has been hit!" Weiss shouted. "We've got to go now!"
"Got it!" Ruby said. "We'll need a ride. Junior, do you have a radio?"
"Yeah, I keep one in the back just in case." Junior said, not wanting to argue with the Huntresses during a crisis.
"Good, I'll call one now." Ruby said, running to the back of the establishment. She found a small radio setup on a desk in the back of the club and, silently thanking Oobleck for teaching a seminar on historic technologies, turned it on and tuned into the Beacon Academy Emergency Hunter Communication frequency. "This is Ruby Rose trying to contact Beacon Academy, come in."
A voice buzzed back on the radio, "Roger, Ruby Rose, this is Beacon Academy, standby." Ruby waited a second before the voice buzzed back over the radio. "The Cross Continental Transmit tower has been hit, we have dispatched a Bullhead to your team's last known location, can you confirm your current location? Over."
"Affirmative." Ruby replied. "We are currently at Junior's Club in downtown Vale, over."
"Copy, Ruby. Your orders are to assist with the emergency at the Cross Continental Transmit tower in any way possible. The Bullhead is one minute out, over."
"Wilco, Beacon. I will mobilize my team immediately, out." Ruby shut off the radio and ran back to her team. "There's a Bullhead on its way, let's go!"
"How the hell did they hit the tower without anyone noticing?" Yang shouted as they left the club, a Bullhead descending nearby to pick them up.
"I don't know, but we have to get there as soon as possible." Weiss said. "There's going to be a lot of people to help out there before we even start investigating this."
The Bullhead rocketed across the city of Vale at full speed, the sound of the wind rushing by made any more conversation impossible for the short duration to the fallen communications tower. The scene was one of pure terror and chaos, the massive structure having collapsed into the main courtyard in front of the building.
"Holy shit…" Weiss swore under her breath, covering her mouth with her hand.
"What are we waiting around up here for?" Yang growled. "We need to find anyone that might be trapped under there." With that, she lept from the Bullhead, being followed silently by Ruby and Blake. Weiss took a moment to clear her head before following.
Yang began flipping over pieces of rubble in search of any survivors that might be trapped, Weiss helping move some of the pieces with her glyphs, while Blake and Ruby swept the area listening for survivors with Blake's faunus hearing. Blake stopped, looking down and to her right, her cat ears catching on to a subtle noise.
"I think there's someone over here!" She shouted over to Yang and Weiss, who rushed over to help. The noise was coming from under a massive chunk of concrete, presumably a large support section. Yang got a grip under the piece of concrete and lifted, assisted by Weiss' glyphs, only to find the piece of concrete wouldn't budge at all.
"It's too heavy, we need to try something else!" Yang panted, having used all of her energy trying to move the rubble.
"How 'bout some help?" An energetic voice came from behind Team RWBY. The girls turned around to see Team JNPR approaching, Nora waving happily at them.
Blake spoke up to the approaching team, "There's someone trapped under this piece of rubble, we need to get them out."
"Shock me." Nora said, keeping a completely straight face.
"What?!" Ruby exclaimed, confused as to the reasoning behind Nora's request.
"My semblance, silly!" Nora chuckled, smiling at Ruby whose face was reflecting her recollection. "Now, shock me."
Blake snapped a vial of shock dust into her offhand blade and punched Nora in the gut using the handguard, the energy discharging into the redheaded girl. Once Nora was charged, Jaune spoke up to the group.
"Yang, Nora, and I will lift on the rubble. Pyrrha, Weiss, give us some help with your semblances." Jaune said, taking position next to the fallen piece of concrete. The group lifted against the massive piece of rubble, just barely able to lift it long enough for Blake to dart under and pull a black-haired teenager from the danger zone. Upon letting go, the piece of rubble crashed back to the ground and shattered, filling the small pocket of safety where the boy had been with hundreds of pounds of concrete.
"Are you okay?" Blake asked the young man.
"Yeah, just a bruised ankle." The black haired boy said, pushing Blake away from himself. "I thought Hunters and Huntresses were supposed to stop this shit from happening, not clean up after it."
Blake stared dumbfounded at the boy as he walked away, not sure how to respond. She didn't get the time to think of anything, however, as a new figure approached.
"Hey, kiddos, long time no see."
"UNCLE QROW!" Ruby shouted, immediately tackling the raven haired man with a hug.
"You never grow up, do you?" Qrow said, ruffling Ruby's hair. "Is Ms. Schnee taking good care of you?"
"As a matter of fact, I-" Weiss started, only to be cut off by Ruby.
"Weiss is as awesome as ever. Isn't that right, Weiss?" Ruby said, nudging her girlfriend in the shoulder.
Weiss let out a sigh, before speaking up again. "We should really focus on trying to fix this mess."
"The North side has been swept and all survivors have been evacuated to the nearest hospital." Qrow stated with confidence, giving a thumbs up.
"And what about those who didn't make it?" Ruby asked, a serious look taking over her face.
Qrow looked away and ran his hand through his hair. "Too many." He sighed and sat on a piece of concrete rubble. "This was a professional attack. They knew exactly where on the building to hit to cause the most damage, as well as what time this area is the busiest. Inspection crews check the building every week on a random schedule, so they would've had to have planted the charges last night. Probably stole the schematics from the data banks in broad daylight yesterday as well."
"There wasn't anything we could've done…" Blake started, pausing as Qrow stood up and chucked a piece of concrete into the rubble.
"That's the fucking problem." He growled. "Ever since this Kelas guy showed up we haven't been able to do a goddamned thing about him. His power is on an entirely different level and his tactics reflect lifetimes of military experience. He turned a single fucking lowlife thug into an elite fighter in no time at all! That shit just doesn't happen, at least not here! He took down Ozpin on his own while treating the entire fight like it was a fucking game! We could organize the entire martial strength of the Kingdoms of Remnant into a single fucking force and we still wouldn't stand a fucking chance! And now, now he's just crippled our communications with the rest of the Kingdoms! We have him hiding right under our noses with no way to call for backup if he decides he wants us wiped off the face of Remnant!"
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Yang asked, a repressed hint of sadness in her eyes.
"I don't fucking know." Qrow said, sitting back down and pulling out his flask. "Normally I would ask Oz, but that's out of the question. I've tried asking Glynda, but she's as frustrated as I am. Ironwood would just throw everything he's got at the problem until he doesn't have anything left, and that's not what we need to do right now." He took a sip from the flask.
"Well, we can't just give up." Weiss said. "We have to do something."
"That's exactly what your sister would say." Qrow chuckled "And I'm willing to bet you have just as many ideas as she would right now." Weiss raised a finger in protest, about to spit out an idea only to find she didn't have any. "My point exactly. I think the only thing we can do is start preparing our last stand."
The group's conversation was ended as alarm sirens sounded across Vale once again. A Bullhead flew up next to the group and landed a few feet away, a soldier stepping off and running up to the group. "There are massive amounts of Grimm trying to breach the walls, so Glynda's calling a mass evacuation of everyone to Beacon Hill. We need you all back to Beacon at once to help the evacuation effort."
Kelas strode into a massive spherical room, a walkway suspended halfway above the floor ending in a circular platform at the center of the chamber, and a throne standing at the close edge of a hexagonal table centered on the platform. Kelas sat in the throne, five other shadowy figures flickering into existence at the other sides.
"Phase One is nearing completion." Kelas stated simply, his voice resonating throughout the smooth walls of the chamber. "All of the details you need for Phase 2 are being transmitted to you now. We attack at Midnight the day after tomorrow, 30 hours from now. I want our conquest to be complete before dawn. Strike hard and fast, and those six hours should be plenty of time to complete your objectives. Is that understood?"
"Yes, my Lord." All five figures said simultaneously before vanishing as suddenly as they appeared.
"It's time for this world to bow before me." Kelas murmured to himself before rising from his seat and exiting the chamber, letting it fade into darkness.