Hitchhiking With A Plan

A/N: If you have a hard time picturing what T or any of the others looks like, we'll have the drawings of each of the members of MSTT posted somewhere at some point.

Disclaimer: None of us here writing the story own RWBY or Rooster Teeth…we own some merch, but that's about it. All rights and legal stuff go to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum, bless his soul.

If there was one thing T despised more than anything in the world, it was slow consoles and computers. Right before the woman named Cinder Fall, it was the bane of his existence. But right now, that was beyond the point.

In this modern era, so many systems and electronic devices were linked to each other thanks to the networks Atlas established, that a good-enough hacker could take control of an entire office block by simply breaking in to one console in the building. This extended to military outposts, police stations, possibly even the Cross-Continental Transmit System if one was able to code a program that could outsmart the local intelligences in each of the towers.

The idea behind it was simple enough; create a digital worm that could imitate access codes and open up different programs, while remaining invisible to those who think they are in control of the network.

The only problem was that the viruses and worms that T created were very thoroughly programmed, and could take up to two minutes to upload onto a network.

This is how he ended up crouched behind a console in one of Atlas' long-range Relay Arrays, trying to avoid being shot by the remaining guards while waiting for his Scroll to finish tapping into the tower's mainframe.

Peeking over the edge of the console, he had to quickly duck down again as the three remaining guards fired several rounds at him. He knew it wouldn't be long until they got the sense to flank him, but by then it would already be too late.

He checked the Scroll in his right hand again and saw that the progress of the upload was at 67%, as displayed by a broken circle that would be complete once the upload was finished. Of course, there would be no way out of this without first dealing with the guards.

Covering his right eye while reloading his semi-automatic pistol, his vision went dark for a moment before the room before him was laid out in light-blue outlines and pitch-black forms. Even though he was still facing the solid metal frame of the console before him, he could clearly see the guards through it as blue outlines, detailing the communications network they were linked to as well as what type of armour and weapons they carried.

Slapping the new extended clip of bullets into his pistol, T stuck his left hand over the edge of the console – gun firmly locked in his grasp – and unloaded three bullets into one of the men, the other two scattering as the third bullet pierced the neck of their comrade.

The hacker watched as one of the Atlesian guards tried to flank the console he hid behind, only to be met with two crossbow bolts as soon as he rounded the corner, his fist clenched tightly to form the end of the crossbow while two limbs sprung up on either side as the sleeve of his overcoat fell back to give it room to transform. The bolts that were loaded from inside his wrist fired off in succession as T's arm – now in its crossbow form – rotated all the way around to fire the second bolt on the underside, which looked identical to its opposite side.

Spotting the remaining guard hiding behind another console, T decided to risk a physical confrontation and clambered over the top of the console. The guard must have heard the sound of his boots hitting the floor, for he quickly stood from his cover and emptied the clip of his pistol at T. Having broken into a sprint as soon as his feet touched the ground, T blocked each shot with his right arm as the crossbow limbs folded back into place, somehow leaving the cloth of his trench coat undamaged. He crossed the distance in a matter of seconds before smacking the gun out of the man's hand, knocking him to the floor in a single punch and finishing him off with two shots from his pistol.

Sure that the coast was clear for now, he sauntered around the console to resume what he had been doing before being interrupted by the guards, but not before finding the controls to shut the doors to the main control room.

The room was shaped much like the bridge of an Atlesian warship, with a Control Bridge with three command consoles on either side just so that the chief in charge – who was now lying dead at T's feet – didn't have to close the program he was working on to open a different program. The command consoles were used to access the various functions of the Array, as well as to control the turret defence system that was set up around the facility to protect it against trespassers and Grimm.

Below the Control Bridge, which was accessible by way of two staircases on either side of the room, were an assortment of smaller consoles that relayed any calls or messages that were being sent to it. Some called it an invasion of privacy, but Atlas had long justified this precaution to root out possible insurgency or acts that endangered the public.

A large window that encompassed the entire front wall allowed for a view of the dense forest that surrounded the Array. Staring out of it while typing away at the console, T watched as his Bullhead, Overwatch, carefully dodged the bursts and spray of lasers and explosive rounds from the facility's defence system. He had faith that the program controlling the unmanned airship could easily keep weaving in between the shots and bursts of fire that the stationary turrets sent, but he wasn't going to take that risk.

Checking his Scroll again, the virus had been successfully uploaded into the facilities mainframe, giving him access to everything connected to the Array's local network. Including the defence turrets.

Opening a program on his Scroll, he searched for the program that controlled the turret system before disabling it with the touch of a finger. The room became eerily quiet now that the constant thundering of the turrets had stopped.

With the crisis averted, T began the second phase of his plan as he walked up the staircase to the Control Bridge. While he did so, he also opened up a direct, secure link to the on-board program on Overwatch.

"Overwatch, did any distress signals leave the facility?" T asked into the Scroll in his monotonous voice.

A reply came immediately. "None, Captain Ástarsorg." Came the reply from the Overwatch, though T only heard the serene, female voice of the advanced program in his head because they transmitted directly to the implants in his brain. "Signal jammer is working at optimal performance and has successfully prevented seven outgoing signals from reaching their recipient."

"Good." T said as he placed his Scroll into the available slot on the mostly-holographic console. "Remain on sentry mode and alert me if any reinforcements arrive." He didn't wait for a response as he got to work.

Waving his right hand in front of the consoles before him, he pulled up several holographic pages, filled with endless lines of code and software that represented the vast array of knowledge that was the global network. The information before him was being processed and changing at a much faster pace than what any average person could hope to understand without needing to backtrack, but the brunette was managing just fine with what the consoles displayed.

With his cybernetic left eye, he was able to see the representations of programs and signals being sent back and forth across this intricate network of information and codes.

The experience of allowing a sudden rush of information to flood his mind used to be overwhelming for T, often causing him to black-out or give him a migraine, but after practicing for years, he could finally plug his mind into the global network without any issue.

It was all about focussing on what he wanted to know, and right now, he wanted the master controls to the facility.

They popped up on his right, but were protected by two layers of encryption. By Atlesian standards, this was very little, but it only made sense seeing as this was a small, outlying relay that wasn't being used to store anything sensitive or important.

Holding his hand out to the holograms, he started the decryption process and transferred master control directly to his Scroll in less than five seconds. The black Scroll changed from emitting a blue light to a teal-coloured one as it now had total access to everything in the facility that was wired to the local network, including the security cameras which told him that there were still two guards alive and were encroaching on the control room.

Working quickly he raised his right hand in an upwards motion, bringing up a display that contained the file for one of his greatest viruses. Next, T waved his hands at the console to his left to gain Administration-level access to the global network with the master controls. The hacker would have tried to go for Founder-level access, but since he was pressed for time and needed a more powerful array, he decided to postpone acquiring unlimited access for another day.

Gaining access to most of the data available on the global network and taking control of an Atlesian Relay Array wasn't enough, for the hacker wasn't going to stop until he controlled the entire global network. Until every digital door opened when he approached and firewalls crumbled when he touched them.

That was going to be the starting point of his scheme, as he grabbed the holographic display of the file containing the virus and dragged it onto the holographic page that displayed the different network links the relay was attached to.

Once the virus was primed and ready, it was halfway across the world and in dozens of different places with the tap of an icon, in mere seconds it was riding along the signals that the relay sent out every day. It infected every device connected to the global network, a deadly splinter agent waiting for the moment to strike.

The amount of information and facilities he had access to was overwhelming, but T had prepared for this. Training his mind on government secrets, he found that there were a few things the governments of the world were keeping from their people. Secrets including lost settlements, government cover-ups, the rediscovery of the Icarus, The Dawn…the Four Maidens.

Along with access to everything except for a dozen files locked behind founder-level access clearances, the hacker also gained control over the automated and android defence systems of every Kingdom, only needing a single thought for them to turn on their creators and masters. However, that wasn't his end goal, and he had a much nobler cause in mind for those instruments of war.

An alert went off in T's mind as he noticed that the two remaining guards had crossed his proximity detector, but were still lying in wait outside of the control room. Having tapped their communications frequency, he could hear the conversation they were having amongst themselves as they decided that they would wait for him to exit the room while constantly trying to call for help. Realising that his time was short, he immediately ordered the computers to begin searching for anything on the network that included certain key words.

Cinder Fall, White Fang, Four Maidens…Neopolitan.

While he let one console run the search, he quickly used one of the free ones to tap into the servers and computers under Cinder that he had bugged before going rogue. He began scrolling through the information he could pull at a rate of 50 megabytes per second as she didn't seem to have found out about the bugs yet. Everything and anything that involved offensive measures against any of the Kingdoms, locations of outposts or stockpiles of assets and anything that had to do with her colleague Neo were transferred to his Scroll for further inspection. However, he froze the holo-screen with his hand as it went over a list of allies and suppliers that worked under the woman.

This was where he was going to find possible allies; amongst people on the same level as him. I need to keep the numbers short…too many loose ends might have some of them ending back up in Cinder's hands. T thought to himself. Or much worse…

He needed to examine the profiles of the possible allies to see whether they would be of any real worth, but using a filter based off filtering the list by their profiles and the tasks they were given, the brunette was easily able to narrow the list of over fifty down to eight.

Going through the remaining contenders, T also noticed that the profiles also had a new detail added to them; GAMBIT PROTOCOL: ENABLED/DISABLED

Quickly opening up a new window, T quickly searched through Cinder's cluster of files until he came across one listed under 'Gambit Protocol'. Opening it up, he found that it was a new set of orders that had been distributed to those she considered her commanding officers and gave the order to execute certain assets that were marked by it, probably once they had outlived their usefulness.

Looks like she doesn't want anybody else going rogue… T thought as he focussed his attention back onto the list of possible allies. Looking through them quickly, the hacker found that several of the Gambit Protocol for some of the assets had already been activated. This made them T's primary concerns as it would make them more likely to join with him once they knew that Cinder had already ordered their execution…if he got to them in time.

Narrowing down the list even further, he found three assets that he would have to pay a visit to. Finding them would be easy enough, it was convincing them to help him without killing them which was the real problem.

Transferring the last of the data to his Scroll, he opened up communications with Overwatch once more. "Overwatch, prepare for extraction. We're done here."

The calm, accented voice replied. "Course plotted. Please remain where you are for immediate extraction."

"Cancel that immediate extraction." T said as he pulled his Scroll out of its port. As soon as he did however, several of the consoles below began overloading and the holo-screens in front of him began flickering and fading. Several of the power outlets even burst and sputtered out sparks of electricity at an alarming rate. Every now and then, the holo-screens would also change to quickly flicker the symbol of an eye with a black crosshair across the white iris, the same symbol that was weaved on T's cap and on the back of his overcoat in silver.

"Sir?" Overwatch asked him, a mix of confusion and worry in her voice.

"Meet me out front in three minutes." He said as he checked the clip in his gun. Twenty-three shots left…more than enough. "I'm walking out the front door." Slapping the clip back into place, he began descending down the staircase. There's still one last thing that needs to be done.

"I feel it is my duty as your personal Do-It-Yourself Genius to inform you that there is a significant number of Grimm approaching the facility. Should I deploy countermeasures to clear the extraction point?" asked the Ship-board Intelligence as T extended a breach charge from the palm of his hand, placing it on the door to the control room.

Taking a few steps back, he activated a holographic panel that curved around his arm before responding. "I've got it covered." The door flew outward with the force of the resounding explosion as T tapped the command to detonate the charge.

The hacker waited a moment for the smoke to clear before stepping through the open hatch, passing the two men that used to stand guard by the door. Further along the hallway, he passed numerous other corpses of the guards that had stood in his way before coming across one of the few living ones in the facility.

The guard rounded the corner – weapon drawn – with the intent to kill T, but the brunette had already drawn his weapon and fired four shots into the man, never stopping once. The shots weren't enough to kill the man, but they were enough to stagger him for T to unfold his right arm into its crossbow form and pin the man to the wall on the opposite end with a single bolt.

With his cybernetic eye, he could already see the second one hiding around the corner, his combat knife already drawn. Without folding the crossbow limbs back into place, he swung his arm around the corner as he neared it, expecting to catch the man by surprise.

However, the guard had anticipated the attack and parried it with ease. Stepping fully around the corner this time, T continued to parry and riposte the guard with his metal arm, neither side seeming to have an advantage as the guard grappled for the gun in T's left hand. Eventually, breaking away from another clash, the guard stabbed his knife into the exposed part of the hacker's right arm, lodging the blade firmly in the inner-workings of the mechanical appendage as it snapped in half.

This annoyed T to no end as he used his now-free right arm to break the guard's left arm with a solid punch to the elbow joint before backhanding him in the face with the force of a jackhammer. As the unconscious guard dropped to the floor, T began inspecting the damage done to his arm. On the outside, the only damage seemed to be that one of the limbs now stuck out at an odd angle, but when he ran a scan of the arm with his cybernetic eye, he found that the mechanisms had been more badly damaged than he anticipated.

He tried to twitch his fingers, but only his thumb and index finger responded properly to the motion. He needed to perform a recalibration, but first he needed to get the broken blade out of his arm. Grabbing the broken crossbow limb with his free hand, he yanked it out of his arm after several seconds of effort, feeling no pain. The broken blade dislodged along with it, but just as he was about to perform some recalibrations, he looked at the second – still functioning – limb and decided that it should go as well.

Second limb joining the first on the floor, T held his arm to his face as he watched the inner-mechanisms moving and sliding into place. The panels and joints on the surface of his arm also shifted to cover the space that used to house the limbs. Pulling out his Scroll for the final calibration process, he scrolled through the list of transformations he could perform in the crossbow's place, settling on a single-shot harpoon gun closely reminiscent of the crossbow.

Calibrating for a few seconds more, T eventually continued his stride as a waypoint line of light appeared in his vision, taking him to his next destination. Further repairs would be needed, but the arm worked well enough that the hacker could manage just fine without the repairs for the moment.

He arrived at the waypoint marker after a few seconds, having followed the line of light all the way to the cargo room of the Relay Array. The hacker needed to know if there was any high quality equipment or anything worth salvaging in the facility before he left. The armour and weaponry that the guards had were standard issue and could easily be found in any facility, despite being quite good in quality and functionality. However, T wasn't looking for 'quite good'; he was looking for the best.

The door opened as he approached it, and the lights inside the room flickered to life as soon as he took his first step inside it. Covering his right eye with his hand, he scanned contents of the various crates that were neatly organised on top of one another and against the walls with his left eye. With it, he could tell what was inside most of the crates as well as how it compared to his current equipment by way of several statistic charts.

Most of them were out-dated Atlesian Knight models, various heavy artillery weapons and spare airship parts that made Overwatch seem light-years ahead in development. All of which were useless to him.

Just as he was about to turn around and leave, he spotted a crate with an odd-shaped object within it. Curiosity getting the better of him, he approached the crate and activated the holographic display on it which told him the contents of the box.

It was an old Atlesian reconnaissance and attack drone, designed for long-distance manual scouting of enemy territory, praised for its sleek design and agility back during one of the wars. What differentiated it from the conventional drone was that it was based on ground movement and was built to resemble a dog, without any synthetic skin to cover its silver, metallic body.

Opening the crate, T peered into the shallow box, examining the obsolete piece of technology from the past. Neatly folded up in its retracted form to more closely resemble a warhead, T couldn't help but feel a hint of pity for the drone, left here to waste away in stasis, forgotten and useless in this modern age. For a lack of a better word; he felt that it looked lonely.

Pulling down the cloth over his mouth to let out a sigh, T came to a decision as he lifted the drone out of the box in his right hand. Carefully cradling it under his arm, he made his way to the exit of the facility, past more dead guards and scorch marks.

Upon exiting the Array station, the first thing T noticed was the increased number of Grimm along the perimeter of the facility. They immediately took note of the hacker as soon as he stepped through the front doors, the doors having made a loud hissing noise as they opened.

The Beowulves and Ursas let out loud roars and howls – likely to attract more members of their packs to assist in the kill – as they began closing in on him. Several Creeps even burrowed out of the ground at the cries of their fellow Grimm. However, the sight neither deterred nor excited T as he held the drone under his arm while holding up his Scroll in the other, maintaining his expressionless expression.

Continuing at his stroller's pace, he went through the various files and commands until he found the commands to reactivate the defence system around the Array. Quickly giving them command to only target the Grimm, he reactivated them as the first few Creeps began charging towards him.

As the turrets reactivated him, they recognised T as an Admin-level asset, and therefore focussed primarily on targetting the Grimm closest to him, while ignoring him altogether. The bi-pedal Grimm were gunned down one by one until the last one was shot in the legs, causing it to tumble to the floor.

T gave it the mercy of a parting shot to the head as he walked past it, heading to the waypoint marker that designated where he was supposed to be extracted. All around him, encroaching Grimm were blasted apart by lasers and heavy cannon fire that blew up large chunks of dirt.

In the distance, over the sound of the turrets and laser defence system going into overdrive, he could hear the roar of an engine and looked up to see his Bullhead fire a salvo of missiles at a group of Ursas in its dive, before it slowed to a hover directly above him. It slowly descended for him to step on as he gunned down a Beowulf in his peripheral vision with his pistol, doors already open before it descended.

Taking his time with getting on the airship and strapping the drone to prevent it from moving about with the safety harnesses, he hit the button to close the doors of the airship before moving into the empty pilot's seat.

"Activate manual controls." He said as he grabbed the flight-stick and pushed the throttle to full, soaring just past the large dish on top of the facility. Making sure he was far away enough and clear of Grimm, he handed the controls back over to Overwatch to take him back to their Operations Base before moving back into the passengers compartment to inspect his findings.

"We have attained safe-level altitude and it does not seem that many Nevermore Grimm have the interest of pursuing us." Overwatch reported. "Atlesian reinforcements are also several kilometres out from the facility, so it is unlikely that any of them were to have seen or tracked us."

"Good. Remain off the radar and maintain stealth, just to be sure." He replied back as he kneeled by the drone.

"So," he heard Overwatch's voice through the speaker system in the airship. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

The hacker shrugged. "Some of it. One thing's for sure though." He said as he tapped a button on the drone, bringing up its base programs. "I didn't expect to pick up an antique while I was down there."

"Is it still usable?" the voice asked, seeming genuinely curious.

Activating the drone for what must have been the first time in its life, the power-up sequence commenced as T replied. "When I'm done with him, he'll do things his designers wouldn't have ever thought of."