Author Note: I am not very good with schedules and planning so the release times are most likely going to be erratic. I write when I have ideas and mope when I don't, which is not conducive to regular releases. So sorry in advance, I guess. Also Reviews and feedback is welcome.

Chapter One (continuation):

Dawn of the End

ANS Dreadnaught Deliverance

Stationary 10000ft above Vale

9:59 AM

5 Hours 54 Minutes Since

First Breach

Only Atlas could destroy the Grimm once and for all. Ironwood firmly believed that, down to his very core. The only way for humanity to survive, no, to thrive was to unite under one banner and as a single nation and not simply survive the darkness but to push back and ultimately vanquish it. Only Atlas had the strength, only Atlas had learned from the failures of the now defunct Kingdom of Mantle, only Atlas could rule. Vacuo was a land of hardy people but too few to lead the charge, Mistral was a wealthy land with its namesake trade route bringing vast wealth to its people, but its people were too corrupt, too concerned with mercantile endeavors to be trusted with humanity's struggle. That left the Kingdom of Vale. Ironwood paused to look down at the reeling city, fires burned uncontrolled as its defenders engaged in a valiant but ultimately futile struggle against the Grimm. Only with his forces could they hope drive the Grimm from the city and restore order, but it was not time yet. He felt a twinge of sadness as a third breach opened up in the wall along the commercial sector. In many ways he respected the people of Vale; their artisans, while not as technologically inclined as those of Atlas, were still supremely skilled. Beacon, despite the failings of its headmaster and teachers, still trained fine hunters and huntresses every year. Yet their failure at Mountain Glenn had shown him one thing, they to could not be trusted to lead. When the time came he would be fair to the people of Vale, but only Atlas could lead, Atlas had to lead.

"Sir?" absorbed in his own thoughts it took his a few seconds to realize that someone was trying to get his attention. Smartly he turned around an addressed the young officer, a young female faunas of the canine variety whose name was…

"Ensign Nelson correct? What do you need?" trying to remember the names of all officers in his entire fleet was next to impossible, but he could manage those on his flagship, though he doubted the number of faunas was greater than a hundred out of the thousands of crew members in the entirety of his fleet. He had nothing against the faunas as a species; they simply tended to show loyalty to their own species first and foremost, and only those whose undying loyalty belonged to Atlas served on his fleet.

She gave a jittery salute, clearly a product of her nerves, and began to recite her message. "This just from the communication room, ' Headmaster of Beacon Ozpin to General Ironwood: we request immediate support to battle the Grimm incursion and to aid the search for the saboteurs responsible for the breaches, barring that the Headmaster of Beacon requests an open communication line with General Ironwood so they may discuss the defensive situation at greater lengths'" she cleared her breath before asking her question "do we respond sir?"

Ironwood didn't even take a moment to think before he gave his answer "no", it was clear by Ensign Nelsons face that she did not agree with his response, truth be told he could practically feel the strained silence that engulfed the bridge of the Deliverance, but he was not angered by this. Even as high as they were they could hear the cacophony of sirens and gunfire, punctuated by the howls of Grimm. They could see the Grimm so thick as they travelled the narrow streets of Vale, like black bile spreading thru the city's veins as it sought to consume the entirety of Vale. It was an nauseating sight, but it was not time yet. He turned to address the rest of his officers on the bridge "it is not time yet my fellow soldiers, and while I find the conflict below to be troubling, I will not sacrifice my fellow Atlens in such an engagement before all facts are known" as he turned back towards Ensign Nelson he could feel a slight easing of the tensions that had been building. "Is that all ensign?" she to seemed a bit more at ease.

" No sir! Vice Captain Hallsing wanted me to tell you that your guest has arrived sir!"

" Is that so… very well you are dismissed Ensign" as Nelson turned and began walking away. Ironwood felt his mood beginning to turn sour, only one person was allowed onto his fleet under the guise of 'guest' and she was decidedly unpleasant to deal with.

Beacon Tower

10:02 AM

5 Hours 57 Minutes Since

First Breach

"No response from the General, just like last time Headmaster" the operator removed the earphones and mouthpiece, exhaustion evident on his face. Ozpin couldn't blame them they had been working non stop since four in the morning and every transmission reporting new breaches and mounting casualties seemed to drain them even further, VPD personnel practically ghosted along, mere shadows of themselves, their casualties were staggering.

" Thank you for trying" he paused to take a sip from his cup, it had been emptied by six in the morning and now simply drank from the empty by force of habit, it helped calm his nerves. "If you would connect me to Qrow and take a short break please" Ozpin chuckled at the look the young radio operator gave him "I assure you I know how this device works and I am by no means confiscating it from you"

"I-I-I didn't mean it like that sir I was-"

"Shoo-Shoo young man, your device will still be here when you get back"

He flashed Ozpin a smile, probably his first this morning, and hurried down the stairs towards the mess hall.

After the officer left he turned his attention back towards the radio " Qrow are you there? Can you read me?" a few seconds of static before he heard a garbled response. Barely heard over the sounds of combat.

"Th-s is Sgt. Wi-slo-, wh-t d- you –ee- C-ma-d?"

" I am sorry could you repeat that? I missed about every other letter" he thought he heard the man curse under his breath, something about the proper use for oversized toasters, before he tried again much clearer than the first time.

" I say again, this is Sgt. Winslow speaking what can I do for you command?"

" This is Headmaster Ozpin could you please put Qrow on?

" Right away headmaster", after a few seconds he heard Qrow's familiar gravely overtones with only the slightest slurring of words.

" So when is Jimmy going to get off his ass and send down some party favors? We are holding for now, but we are still stuck evacuating civies from the Ag district as well as people fleeing from the industrial centers" things were getting rough there, Qrow and his people had been fighting for nearly six hours plus and it sounded like the situation had somehow gotten worse, wonders abound.

" I'm not sure the general is going to be joining us today Qrow…"

Silence greeted that statement as the implications sunk in. "Well fuck" was all Qrow could muster for his initial response. "So what's the plan Ozpin?"

"How long to evacuate the rest of the civilians?"

"Two hours tops" was the immediate response " give me two hours and I will have them all huddling in the residential district"

" See that you do, because at two hours and ten minutes from now we are blowing the bridges to the Residential district and anyone on the wrong side will be going for a swim". The canals that bisected the city and separated the residential district from the rest of the city was crossed by several major traffic bridges and dozens of footbridges. While both Grimm and people could traverse the canals via swimming, it was much slower than rampaging down a major bridge… and they made for excellent targets. It wouldn't stop them, but it should buy the defenders some time.

Qrow was silent for a short while as he processed the information " that's going to be expensive to fix…"

"Unfortunately budgetary concerns are on the backburner for now, so for old times sake get your people across the bridges, I cant afford to lose any hunters. least of all you."

"Like you could get rid of me that easily ha! I plan on giving you plenty more paperwork and headaches before this is over Ozpin" and with that he terminated the signal leaving Ozpin alone with the radio and the weight of his command. How many of his children will spill their blood on this day? He did not know how this would end, but he knew one thing; Ironwood will pay for his apathy. Ozpin did not even try to check his growing rage this time as he quickly stalked out of the command center, lest he target some unfortunate officer, his knuckles turned white as his hands clutched his cane. He will pay in blood.

Commercial District

1 Block South East of 4th Breach

10:15 AM

6 Hours 10 Minutes Since

First Breach

As boring as guard duty was, and boy was it boring, at least he wasn't on the outer perimeter defenses. According to the lieutenant they were holding, barely, but getting a beating for their trouble. Close to two dozen confirmed dead with another three dozen missing in action. So Emerson was glad he was not out in the hottest part of the warzone, he just wished guarding this damn jammer wasn't so boring. Since it was one of those new atlas variants he didn't even need to do anything to help it operate, since Atlas folks seem to have a major fetish involving robots and automation. So Emerson's job boiled down to sitting on a roof trying to strike up a conversation with the other sentry Jared and avoid looking tasty to all the Grimm surging through the streets. Emerson let loose a sigh before he looked up from the streets and turned towards Jared, attempting to yet again start up a conversation, but his comment on the current situation died in his throat. Jared lay on the roof with his arteries spilling his blood into an already growing red pool, a single figure standing over his body with what appeared to be two long and bloodied green knives. Before Emerson could begin to shout a warning, a hand covered his mouth and he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down in surprise at the black blade that had mysteriously sprouted from his sternum, and collapsed to the floor.

Blake let the white fang sentry slid off Gambol Shroud before she began walking towards the suspected jammer. Surprisingly she and Ren had been able to sneak up towards the device and eliminate all the guards without alerting anyone to their presence. Though she doubted they would be able to remain concealed after wrecking the White Fang's expensive looking toy. Speaking of which…

"That is some serious looking tech"

Blake agreed; the spire was only around six feet tall and a foot wide at the base. But connected to the spire were around half a dozen communications disks some rotating, some whirring, but all of them looked decidedly sturdy and expensive. This was not going to be as easy as they had hoped.

"So you have any explosives tucked away somewhere?" he made a show of patting himself down, "because I appear to be fresh out".

" The missions original objective was to repair a hole, not make more, so unfortunately I stocked accordingly"

Ren reloaded Storm Flower and let out a dramatic sign " so we just shoot it until it dies, how elegant" he took aim and was about to unload on the jamming device before Blake stopped him.

"Perhaps not" she began searching the surface of the device for something before shouting, "found it!" at Ren's confused look she pointed towards her prize, "the control panel"

" Is there an off button?"

"Probably, but I have no way to know which one it is, in fact I am just as likely to cause it to explode as I am to turn it off"

"And…?" the causing it to explode part sounded pretty good to him.

"And I wouldn't be in control of that explosion, do you really want this expensive and heavy piece of tech blowing up in your face?"

" Fair enough" this didn't make much sense to him, but Blake seemed to be going somewhere with this. She seemed to be fiddling with a lock just below the console; it took her a good few minutes before the panel opened. "What are you looking for?"

She reached into the device and with a quick jerk yanked what appeared to be a mass of wires with a large circuit board attached. The jammer whirred for a few more seconds before it sputtered and died. "Found it" she held up the mass of circuit boards and wires "the off button".

Ren laughed for a few seconds before a sound interrupted him. The sound of metal on stone… rolling. A glance confirmed his suspicion; Blake was too preoccupied with examining the jammer components to notice. So Ren dove pushing Blake and partially shielding her. She didn't even have time to protest before the grenade went off, a few meters away.

Commercial District

9 Blocks South-Southwest of 4th Breach

10:22 AM

6 Hours 17 Minutes Since

First Breach

Goodwitch was not having a good day, not only was the breach not sealed, but it didn't appear like they were going to be sealed anytime soon. Combine that with fresh breaches appearing with startling regularity and the city wasn't going to hold till the end of the day. She reached for the communication piece in her ear and pressed the send button and got an earful of static. They were stuck here, while she certainly could take her forces and fall back to the safe zones and maybe get some god damn orders from command, she couldn't just leave her students. For all she knew pulling her forces from the area could doom every last one of her students to death. Just then her communicator burst to life and the words chilled her t the bone.

" Ren is bleeding badly, I repeat Ren is down."

Author Note: Whew! Juggling multiple characters is difficult, I may have to thin the ranks next chapter/continuation…