A week passed, and Blake was finally back up on her feet, no longer bound to a wheelchair. Ruby, too, had finally been coaxed to seeing Dr. Vahlen for treatment regarding her exposure to a sectoid's mindfray. But the doctor, instead of prescribing her medicines as Papa Bear had predicted, simply told her to spend more time with those that she cared about, stating that a positive mood was all that was actually needed to repair the damage caused by a mindfray. Which, naturally, led to one member or another being dragged down to the armoury for long, delightful chats about weapon systems on a daily basis.
Yang, as much as she loved her sister, would never willingly go with her, knowing that she would likely fall into a catatonic state simply listening to her natter on about guns for a whole day. So when Papa Bear invited her to some supplementary physical training sessions (with some hand-to-hand sparring), she naturally jumped at the chance.
Blake simply refused to go along, stating that she simply wanted to read. Specifically, reading the books that Maria had offered in Strike One's dorms. Which, it seemed, Strike One's resident medic was all too happy to allow her to read.
Which left Weiss as the sole candidate for listening to Ruby. Unable to make up any valid excuses, she resigned herself to accompany the hyperactive girl in whatever she had planned. Not that she particularly hated the idea of following her, of course; extra exercise did not particularly appeal to the heiress, and while she wished to research the link between Dust and elerium, Dr. Vahlen was far less approachable than Dr. Shen when it came to usage of their respective facilities. At least if she could direct Ruby into creating or modifying weapons, she could convince herself that they were being productive.
Things remained quiet, at least for a while. Satellites reported no UFO sightings anywhere in the world, which to most of XCOM was welcome news. But none of the command officers were as relaxed as the operatives. After all, one must maintain constant vigilance against an enemy of unknown capabilities and numbers, as to let one's guard down for even a brief moment was to invite disaster.
Which proved itself true not too long after, when all hell broke loose. Alarms blared in mission control when several alien ships were spotted all over the world, forcing officers to scramble interceptors from every single one of the XCOM airbases. One particularly large signal hovering over Asia caught Bradford's eye, however.
One hovering over the capital city of Japan.
"Shit," he cursed, reaching for the microphone on his collar.
"Strike One, Strike Six, report to the hangar immediately for deployment!" Bradford's voice shouted through the speakers in the barracks, "Code red. I repeat, Strike One, Strike Six, report to the hangar immediately for deployment!"
"You heard the man! Get a move on! Throw on that armour, now!" bellowed Papa Bear from outside Strike Six's room, banging loudly on their door, "Haul ass to the hangar, on the double!"
"What's going on?" Ruby asked nervously, sliding off her bed. Blake was already up and armoured, helping Yang put on her equipment. Weiss was ready as well, having just come back from target practice, both Wisteria and Myrtenaster on her belt.
"I don't know, but we'll find out when we get there. Come on, dolt, hurry up!" Weiss grumbled, opening up Ruby's footlocker and helping her throw on her armour.
With the urgency of the matter, their entire team was already in the hangar within two minutes. Papa Bear was already there, pacing in front of the other seven members of his team, who stood at attention with their weapons already in hand. Their armour was very, very different to what the others wore on the base. These were smooth and elegant, as though they had been contoured to fit the body shape of the user; with the exception of two MEC troopers, who were in their intimidating mechanised combat suits, carrying enormous railguns. All of them, however, shared the keen eyes of those that had seen much combat – and lived to tell the tale.
"There you are, you four! Get in the Skyranger, on the double!" he barked out, all trace of joviality gone, replaced by a look of cold fury in his eyes. "We've got a terror mission on our hands, and time is ticking!"
"Terror mission?" asked Ruby, her hand tightening around Crescent Rose's grip as they all boarded the Skyranger.
"Si, senorita. Terror mission," Maria said darkly, idly checking the numerous medical kits on her utility belt, "The cabrones are attacking a major city. They don't have the cojones to directly attack us, so they're attacking innocent civilians to try and beat a country to submission,"
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's give them a knuckle sandwich," Yang growled. Weiss, on the other hand, paled and clenched her teeth, her knuckles tightening on the grip of her rapier.
The Skyranger's ramp sealed and they felt the familiar lurch as the vehicle shot forward. Once they were in the air, Papa Bear stood up and activated the holoscreen at the front of the troop compartment.
"Alright, listen up! As you all know, we've got a terror mission on our hands. Normally, only Strike One would be sent to finish a job like this; but our satellites' thermal sensors are reporting a far larger than usual concentration of aliens. So for today, we've got four members of Strike Six joining us,"
Each of the other members of Strike One nodded in acknowledgement to the girls, who sat still, unsure of how to respond.
"Ground reports suggest that we've got a platoon strength alien force in the AO, and that local law enforcement and military forces are eliminated until reinforcements come. That means no matter what, we stick together. We work together to eliminate targets, one at a time. No heroics, no theatrics, no goofing off,"
The screen switched to show a city wreathed in smoke. Many of the buildings had been set ablaze by an enormous alien ship in low orbit, which was still raining down massive blasts of green plasma onto anything that moved. Occasionally, an apartment tower would come crashing down, scattering flaming debris onto the streets below. The girls, having never seen destruction on this scale, covered their mouths in horror; the veterans simply bowed their heads and whispered a quick prayer for those who had fallen.
"Our objective is to eliminate alien ground forces in the city of Tokyo. While I know that all of Strike One is familiar with the enemies we may face on the ground today, for the benefit of our newcomers, we will cover basic information on the enemy species that may pose significant threat to us,"
A four-legged insectoid creature appeared on screen. Thick plating covered its body from head to toe, while each of its legs resembled razor-sharp scythes made of bone. Two arms, also resembling even larger scythes, hung above the ground, dripping with green venom. A vicious array of jagged teeth filled its spiked mandibles, giving the creature a hellish appearance.
"This is a chryssalid. One of the nastiest, most vicious creatures ever known to mankind. Introduced, of course, by your one and only cowards in the sky," growled Papa Bear, barely concealed hatred in his eyes, "They don't have much of a brain. They don't hide, they don't run away. Their claws are sharp and hard enough to carve through steel, and covered in acid strong enough to vaporise armour plating. Their only purpose is to kill and reproduce on the battlefield,"
"Reproduce? What do you mean by...reproduce?" Weiss asked.
"Whatever you do, do not let them get close to you. Because the way chryssalids make more babies is by making out with a body,"
The screen cut out again to a surveillance feed of a chryssalid advancing on a cowering civilian. Strike Six let out a collective gasp when the creature impaled the woman through her chest with both claws, and then proceeded to clamp its jaws over her mouth. It then allowed the lifeless body to drop on the ground, skittering off to find another victim.
"Let's fast forward, shall we?" Papa Bear muttered. The corpse of the woman stood up again, hunched over with its arms dangling limply at its sides. It then shambled around aimlessly; within a few minutes, however, it burst open, revealing a pale chryssalid that had apparently been developing in its chest cavity.
"I think...I'm going to be sick," Weiss groaned, standing up and running for the bucket in the back of the skyranger. Blake and Yang's faces were rather green, while Ruby had buried her face in her hands, unwilling to watch.
"So, to make sure that doesn't happen to any of you; stick together, and whatever you do, do NOT attempt to engage a chryssalid at close range. While Strike One's armour is reinforced to withstand three or four swings of those things, yours isn't. If you find one, return to us and we'll take care of it. Got it?"
"Yes," responded the other three members of team RWBY, while Weiss was busy emptying her breakfast into a bucket.
"Good. You want to see some more of the things that are going to be thrown at us?" Papa Bear said. When each of the girls shook their heads, he chuckled. "I'll take that as a yes, then,"
"We're approaching the AO. Be advised that the LZ is hot," Big Sky called over the plane's intercom.
Ruby chewed on her lip as she watched the holoscreen. It was currently displaying a burning city; the alien battleship had departed, but the alien threat still remained in the form of whatever it had dropped on the city. Every so often, she could see the green streaks of alien plasma flying through the air, smashing into buildings and igniting new fires. A tightness gripped her insides as she watched a civilian smash through the glass window of a skyscraper and fall like a rag doll on to the concrete pavement far below.
"This is just...it's like a Grimm attack, just...much more destructive," she whispered to herself.
"It is what the aliens do on these terror missions. Sufficient panic in a nation is enough to force their leaders to capitulate. Public rioting and disorder is more powerful than any invasion force," answered one of the veteran MEC troopers; Lieutenant Carson, if Ruby remembered correctly. "They spread terror by inserting many of their troops in densely populated urban centres, with the sole objective of murdering as many civilians as they possibly can. Men, women, children; old and young, it matters little to them,"
"Well, then we've got to stop them, right?"
"That would be correct. I assume that you now understand the importance of this mission, and why we must not fail,"
"Alright. If the LZ is hot, then that means we gotta jump," Papa Bear said brusquely, "Get your guns up, people, we're moving in thirty seconds. Big Sky, fire on any hostile targets near the LZ. We'll get off, and you get back in the air. Don't come back down until you see blue smoke,"
"Copy that, colonel. High explosives out,"
A series of dull thumps came from outside the ship, followed by several muted explosions. "Enemies on the LZ cleared. Be careful of X-rays still hanging around the place. Watch your backs out there, people; I'm setting this taxi down for a minute,"
The Skyranger's engines whined as the vehicle descended. The back ramp slowly dropped, allowing the operatives the first sights of a burning city. All grimaced as the acrid smell of burning rubber and plastic assaulted their noses, courtesy of the numerous burned-out hulls of cars piled up on the roads below.
The drop light on the sides turned green. "Go! Go! Go!" Papa Bear roared, prompting the MEC troopers to rush out first, one bulky arm held in front of each one like a shield, with three members of Strike One following each one. Ruby followed suit, Crescent Rose unfolded into its rifle form and scanning the buildings for enemy targets; her other teammates likewise had their weapons up and ready to shoot anything that looked like it was hostile.
"Central, this is Strike One. We've touched down on the AO, initiating Operation Winter Soldier,"
"We read you five-by-five, Strike One. Satellites detect a lot of moving heat signatures in your area. Watch your backs,"
Ruby took a good look around them. It appeared as though they were in some kind of shopping district; there were skyscrapers on either side of the road that they were in, thoroughly decked out in advertising displays of an almost psychedelic riot of colour. The pavement was covered in white snow, though there were occasionally bodies lying face-down in the slush, staining it red. Several alien pods lay in craters on the road, a reminder that there were still hostile creatures in the area.
Creatures. That was all these aliens were. Just like Grimm; only capable of bringing death and destruction to innocents.
"Lieutenant Carson. Lieutenant Wilson. Move forward and check that cafe for hostiles," Papa Bear ordered, "Rose. You're on overwatch. Anything hostile that moves, I want a bullet in its head. Rest of you, with me. Keep your guns up as we move forward,"
"Aye aye, sir!" they all chorused, moving forward as one.
The cafe had numerous tables flipped over inside. The kitchen was ablaze, with a few employees lying on the counter with holes blasted through their chests. There had to be at least a dozen lifeless bodies inside.
Blake sniffed once, and her ears flattened. The stench of death was strong – and yet, there was something else here. Other than burning corpses and those that were bleeding out. "I smell something in here. We're not alone,"
Papa Bear nodded, and then turned to one of the veterans. "Williams, battle scanner. Throw it into the middle of the cafe,"
The soldier named Williams nodded and unlatched a spherical object from his belt, and threw it on top of a table in the middle of a room. A white pulse shot out from it, illuminating the entire room; and sure enough, there was the outline of three sectoids in another room behind the kitchen, illuminated by the device's holographic projector.
"Lieutenant Carson. It's all yours,"
"With pleasure," she droned, lowering her particle cannon. "Target cover is thin concrete. Target is unaware. Probability of evasion is zero percent. Firing,"
For a few moments, Ruby thought that nothing happened when the MEC trooper held down the trigger on her massive cannon. Then she saw the faint red beam tracing a dot on the wall from the muzzle of the weapon – and the white sparks gathering around the air about the beam. A blinding white flash shot through the room, vaporising the wall behind the kitchen – and the wall on the opposite side as well.
"Target neutralised," she commented flatly, as though nothing had happened at all when a scorched sectoid fell to the ground. Ruby, taking her cue when the flash subsided, lifted Crescent Rose to her shoulder. A high-calibre sniper round sent a second sectoid flying through the air with a fatal wound in its gut. The sniper-scythe barked once more, and the third sectoid fell to the ground without a head.
"Fine shooting, Rose, Carson. Belladonna, any civilians in this building?"
Blake sniffed the air again. There was definitely the stench of urine in the air, mixed with sweat. And...
"Yes. Yes, there definitely is," she groaned, pinching her nose as she ran to a soft drink vending machine near the kitchen. Sure enough, there were three children hiding behind it; one of them had a very conspicuous wet patch on his pants.
"Hey!" she said, getting their attention. They looked at her with a mix of fear and uncertainty. "You're safe now, get over there!" she said to them while pointing at Papa Bear. Slowly, they looked at each other, before the oldest one – a girl that could not have been older than twelve – nodded. "Arigato, onee-san!" she said, taking the hands of both of the boys beside her and running towards Papa Bear.
"Good work finding the civilians, Belladonna. If the Skyranger were still on the ground, we'd normally just send them there. But this is slightly different, so...Carson, Wilson. You're both on watch. Make sure these civilians stay safe. If we find any more, we'll send them here,"
"Affirmative. Initiating overwatch protocol," Carson responded, reloading her particle cannon and scanning the area. Wilson stomped out of the cafe and onto the middle of the road, also with his cannon primed and ready to shoot down anything that moves.
"Alright. Those two will be enough to make sure that this area remains secure. Belladonna, de Cervantes. Check the toilets for hostiles or civilians,"
"On it, sir. Well, let's go, kittycat!"
"...Don't say that in public. I'm not a pet," grumbled Blake, her ears twitching in annoyance. The two of them moved to the back of the cafe, where there were a pair of glass-fronted doors with gender symbols painted on each one.
"I'll go in first. I've got thicker armour than you do," Maria whispered to her, "If there's a 'lid or something inside, I can take a few hits,"
Nodding, Blake pushed the door open while Maria stepped in with her plasma stormgun at the ready. The room was pitch black; the only sign of lighting ever being there in the first place was a sparking, shattered tube in the ceiling, the glass cover having broken quite some time ago. Her nose was immediately assaulted by a sharp, strong wave of what seemed to be drain cleaner – mixed with the metallic scent of copious amounts of blood.
"There's a body here," she muttered, looking at the ground, "I can't smell anything else other than drain cleaner, and I doubt that you'd need my nose to smell that,"
Maria flicked on the flashlight under her weapon and grimaced. Indeed, there was a body of the janitor on the ground, along with a large amount of cleaning liquids spilled from the overturned cart beside him. Crouching down, she looked over the body quickly. Her face turned grim when she saw two ragged stab wounds through the man's chest.
"Blake. Your weapon...it's a sword, isn't it?" she whispered, "Cut off the head from this body,"
"What? Why?" Blake asked, confused. Maria responded by prodding the open wound on the body.
It was still warm. Very warm.
"Do it. Now!" she hissed, her eyes scanning the walls and shadows wildly. Blake, perturbed by the lieutenant's fear, drew Gambol Shroud from its sheath and cleaved the corpse's head off with a single stroke. A single mottled egg rolled out from its neck, its leathery shell partially cracked open by a pale, clawed limb. Without another word, Maria crushed the unborn creature under her boot, sighing in relief when it stopped its thrashing.
"Papa Bear, this is Temptress," Maria said quietly into her comlink, still scanning the room with her submachine gun out, "Confirmed chryssalid activity, one impregnated corpse neutralised. Requesting battle scanner on my position,"
"Shit. Copy that, Cervantes. Move back to our position,"
Blake swore that she could hear some scraping noises from somewhere further inside. Something hard grinding against ceramic tiles, along with a faint crunching noise. There was also a second source of noise, somewhat like a tin can being pierced and twisted open by a blunt knife.
"We're not alone in here," she muttered, readying her chain scythe in pistol form. The sound of metal being warped and twisted grew closer and closer. She pointed her weapon at the ceiling; whatever it was, it was coming from above.
As if on cue, one of the cubicles' doors burst open. A chryssalid dashed out, its maw still dripping with blood. At the same time, a ceiling panel shattered, revealing another chryssalid with its claws covered in shreds of metal ducting. Their heads turned to face Blake and Maria; on seeing the two, they let out an unearthly shriek and dashed forward with incredible speed.
"Contact!" yelled Maria, unloading a barrage of plasma on the chryssalid that fell from the ceiling. One of its legs were torn off by the green bolts, and the side of its head was badly burned; yet it continued to sprint forward, driven mad by bloodlust.
Blake fired as fast as she could, but the conventional rounds that Ruby had prepared seemed to only barely scratch the creatures' outer plating. Grimacing, she leapt at the chryssalid, vaulting over its claws to bury the blade of her chain-scythe into the back of its head, firing one more time to drive a bullet into its brain and eject her weapon from its body. The chryssalid crumpled with a feeble squeak, its body still twitching weakly.
"Kittycat, look out!"
Maria gasped in shock when the remaining chryssalid drove both of its claws through Blake, the tip of its claws bursting through her chest. Shock turned to confusion, however, when the cat faunus' body dematerialised, leaving only wisps of smoke behind. She didn't have much time to think, however, before a hand yanked her back, dragging her bodily back out of the washroom.
"Let the others deal with it," Blake said to the medic. Her breathing was ragged and heavy, and there was a sharp, burning pain behind her right shoulder blade where the chryssalid had managed to land a solid hit. She slid to the floor as soon as she bashed down the door with her shoulder, dragging Maria down with her. The chryssalid, not wanting to lose its prey, rushed out after them. Unfortunately for the insectoid alien, Ruby and two other Strike One members were already waiting for it, tearing it to pieces under a barrage of plasma and high-powered sniper rounds.
"X-ray down!" one of the veterans shouted, "Maria, patch up the girl!"
"What?" the medic said, whipping around to look at Blake. There was a trickle of blood coming down the back of her right arm. "Mierda. Turn around, gatita. Let's see how bad it is,"
Slowly, Blake turned around, dreading what Maria was going to do. Her fears proved unfounded when the medic simply clicked her tongue. "Well, gatita, it seems that you have a talent for cheating death. There's only a small gash here, which a spray-" she felt a fine mist cover her wound, which immediately stopped stinging, "-will fix in no time at all. Try not to move for a couple of minutes while the medicine gets to work. Dios mio, you scared me back there. What the hell was that?"
"My Semblance – my personal ability – lets me leave shadow clones of myself if I choose to," Blake muttered, sitting down behind an overturned table, "They're solid enough to fool enemies,"
"And friends, too. I thought you actually took that hit from the chryssalid!"
"I did. If you didn't warn me about it being there, I would've taken the full hit. So...thanks, I guess,"
"Alright, that's enough of a break. Shang, drop a battle scanner in the other washroom. Make sure there aren't any more surprises waiting for us. Belladonna, find some better cover and wait till you've recovered a bit,"
"On it," rasped an older operative, who proceeded to walk to the other washroom and throw in another one of the white spheres. "Looks clear of X-rays. There appear to be civilians in the floor above us,"
"That rules out any use of explosives. We don't want the floor above us collapsing," Papa Bear growled. Noting that there was only a single elevator leading up, he barked another order to one of the MEC troopers, "Carson! Make sure nothing gets inside this building!"
"Affirmative," responded the MEC trooper, moving to take her post in the middle of the ruined cafe.
"Strike One, please be advised that the JSDF has scrambled its ground and air forces. Finish up operations in your AO and RTB,"
"Copy that, Central. Li, Xiao Long. Check the next building. Rose, give your sister some cover. Schnee, be prepared to drop a barrier on them if anything hostile comes near,"
"On it!" all of them chorused, dashing out of the cafe and taking cover behind some flipped cars. Li, a large, bulky man with a reflex cannon, continued onwards, flanked by Yang. The two of them looked into the building to find a whole host of civilians, cowering behind mannequins and countertops in a fashion store.
Except that was not all that was in the building.
A dozen of what could only be described as floating, half-mechanical half-biological monstrosities were already inside, flying around and raining plasma on anything that moved. Those that attempted to surrender were executed where they stood, vaporised by the aliens' powerful weaponry. Six sectoids were assisting them with their gruesome task, scampering around and shooting any that were wounded but were still breathing.
Weiss flinched as she saw a familiar form emerge from behind a countertop – that of the hulking specimen in Vahlen's lab. Two of them, to be exact; one of which was in lighter green armour and holding what looked like an oversized plasma autocannon in his hands, while the other wore red and had heavy-looking metal gauntlets, thoroughly covered in spikes.
"Contact! Many hostiles inside the building, mixed with civilians!" shouted Li. He and Yang dived behind cover just before a barrage of plasma turned them into piles of ash, "It's getting hot here! Give us some cover!"
"Singh! Smoke them!"
"Copy that. Throwing some cover!"
"Thanks," Li said, when the smoke grenade began to spew out clouds of thick smoke. Looking at Papa Bear, he asked, "Sir, they're still executing civilians. Permission to storm the building?"
For a moment, there was no reply. "How many of them are there?" Papa Bear asked, after taking a deep breath.
Li lowered the goggles on top of his head and peeked carefully around the wall. "I count about twenty civilians, and about as many X-rays. Mostly floaters, a berserker and a muton grunt, and a few regular sectoids,"
Ruby shuddered at the mention of sectoids. The memories of the mindfray were still fresh in her mind. Nevertheless, she hoped that at least the normal ones weren't capable of doing that. The others, however, seemed far more threatening.
A loud, guttural roar came from the shop, followed by a terrified scream and a loud crack. The body of a woman sailed out, smashing through a window and coming to a rest barely three feet away from Ruby, her neck twisted unnaturally and her eyes glassy and unseeing. Other screams soon followed, punctuated by the hiss of superheated plasma streaking through the air.
"Strike One, we're losing civilians left and right. We need to get these people out of here, now!" Bradford hollered in all of their earpieces. Papa Bear grimaced and clicked it off, looking at his squad.
All of them had a grim determination in their eyes. All nodded as their eyes came into contact with his gaze. They knew what to do.
"Strike One, Strike Six, we're storming that building. Shang, Li, prepare flashbangs. Rose, Schnee, you're on overwatch," Papa Bear said, hefting his plasma cannon to shoulder level, "Williams, battle scanner out. On the count of three, you all throw it in. On five, we get in there and make sure all the X-rays go down,"
Both the asian operatives nodded and pulled out a thin and narrow grenade with a stripe of green paint running down its side, while the second engineer on the team held on to another scanner.
"One..."
"Two..."
"Three...!"
Three grenades smashed through what glass remained on the storefront. A blinding flash erupted inside the building, causing the humans to scream in terror and the aliens to howl in agony as they were blinded. The battle scanner then sent out a white pulse, illuminating the positions of every single enemy in the building.
"Five! Charge!"
Li was the first to dash inside, followed closely by Yang. Sliding to a halt behind the cashier's counter, Li fired a plasma bolt at the nearest blinded floater, incinerating its unprotected head. Holding the trigger down, he slammed back the charging pump, unloading another two shots at the next; that one fell too, missing both of its arms. Before he could fire at the third, however, a cloud of shrapnel tore the creature to shreds. Yang flashed him a quick grin before vaulting over a display case and punching two sectoids with enough force to send them crashing through the ceiling.
Maria and Williams came in next, ducking and weaving under a torrent of blind plasma fire from the disoriented aliens. The medic fired bursts at the floaters on the gallery above them, forcing them to flinch and roar in confusion. Williams, coming in after her, fired a quick burst from his rifle, dropping another of the floaters. When several of them returned fire, he dove behind a display case, narrowly evading the hail of green plasma.
"My turn!" Papa Bear said, grinning, his plasma cannon revved and spinning rapidly. Whatever the aliens might have thrown at his squad, he returned many times over; his weapon spat green fire so rapidly that it resembled a continuous green beam, tearing down aliens from left to right. There was no mercy to those that were hit; they simply ceased to exist, vaporised into a fine mist by the sheer volume of fire. Singh followed after him, tossing another smoke grenade onto the ground and covering them all with thick purple smoke.
"Delacroix! Finish them off!"
Behind them all, however, the last member of Strike One charged in. Or rather, waltzed in, given the way in which she gracefully weaved and vaulted over bits of cover as though it were as simple as walking casually through a garden path; a silvery-haired blur in the smoke, rapidly moving over all the debris without so much as stumbling or tripping on anything.
"With pleasure, mon cher. Let us see if zese aliens can dance," she purred sadistically, twirling a plasma pistol in each hand. She looked at her enemies, licking her lips, "I hope zat they can...satisfy me. Or perhaps I shall tear zeir faces off first, if I feel so kind,"
Without missing a beat, she lifted both pistols to eye level. Laughing maniacally, she fired shot after shot at every alien in the room, with such speed that even Ruby gawked at how fast the woman was aiming, shooting and correcting her aim whenever she missed. What was even more shocking was that she reacted to a thrown grenade from a muton by jumping – thirty feet into the air – and then landing safely on the balcony above, before firing one last parting shot through the muton's weapon arm, severing it at the elbow.
Four floaters dropped to the ground with holes burned through their chests. The remaining sectoid attempted to flee, but Ruby fired a shot into its retreating back, sending it crumpling to the ground with a gaping wound spurting blood. Shifting her aim to the wounded muton, she finished it off with a clean shot through the head.
"Yang! Watch out!"
The blonde was too busy watching the fight elsewhere that she did not notice the roaring, furious berserker looming over her. By the time she reacted, the berserker was already bringing up its fist for an uppercut against her jaw.
Only to collide against an impenetrable, ice-blue glyph, barely an inch from her skin. Again and again the berserker punched the glyph, bellowing in frustration. Weiss had Myrtenaster out and pointing at the glyph, her hand trembling and sweating profusely as she maintained the barrier. Eventually, the glyph failed to hold and Weiss fell to her knees, panting in exhaustion. By that time, however, Yang caught the berserker's fists with her hands. Its snarling maw was in her face, and she was growling just as loudly back, the two of them wrestling for dominance.
Ruby swung her rifle around to aim at the berserker, bringing the crosshairs of her scope over the creature's head, and pressed the trigger.
Click.
Click. Click.
She blanched in horror as she remembered that the conventional rounds that she had made for the Crescent Rose only allowed for very few rounds to be loaded into the magazine. And now when she needed it most, the gun was empty. Yang was doing an incredible job holding back the berserker in hand-to-hand combat, but even now she was being pushed back slowly by the armoured monstrosity.
The other teammates had no clear shot on the berserker. If they fired, there was a good chance that they'd hit Yang. But if they took the time to reposition properly, they would have been too late.
With no other option, Ruby extended her scythe and raised it for a killing blow. Using her Semblance, she sprinted forward and leapt into the air at high speed, swinging the blade as hard as she could at the berserker's neck. The blade connected with the creature's armoured metal collar, tearing it open with a horrible screeching noise. Metal carved through flesh and bone as the blade dug even deeper into its neck; but on hitting something extremely hard, Ruby yelped when the scythe slipped out of her hands with a sudden jerk.
Still flying through the air at high speed, her eyes widened when the wall zoomed ever closer towards her-
Crash.
"Ouch, you alright, sis?" Yang said with a grimace, pushing the limp berserker off her and walking towards the small crater on the wall. The creature was gurgling in its death throes, its neck barely held on by a strip of mangled sinew.
"Yep. I'm fine...just give me a minute," she groaned, pulling bits of broken concrete off herself and standing up.
"Well, that was unexpected," Papa Bear chuckled, "A non-MEC trooper engaging a berserker in melee combat and wrestling it to a standstill? Did someone spike my drink this morning with some whiskey?"
"Your drink was only water, Papa Bear," Maria replied, shaking her head, "And our sniper charging at a berserker, to sever its head? And to make a crater by running into a wall? Ay dios mio, I think I'm going mad,"
"That's one way to get your nickname, Crater Face," Yang laughed. The others joined in with her, much to Ruby's chagrin, "Are there any more of those things running around?"
"If there are any, we've got orders to clear out anyway. Central says that the JSDF are on the way with tanks and air support, which means our job here is done. Organised crime elements have rallied a defence and have eliminated most of the other aliens in other parts of the city, so these folks can take care of themselves. Good work out here, people. Meet me at the bar in the rec room behind the barracks tonight, we'll have a celebration for another mission accomplished by the numbers,"
Operation Winter Soldier: After Action Report
Col. Armand 'Papa Bear' Magnusson: Active
Col. Eleanor 'Dominatrix' Delacroix: Active
Cpt. Fei 'Thunderbolt' Li: Active
Cpt. Yu 'Genius' Shang: Active
Lt. Raj 'Mirage' Singh: Active
Lt. Maria 'Temptress' de Cervantes: Active
Lt. Elizabeth 'Hardcase' Carson: Active
Lt. George 'Atlas' Wilson: Active
Spc. Yang 'Tiger' Xiao Long: Active (Promoted)
Spc. Blake 'Shadowcat' Belladonna: Wounded (Promoted)
Spc. Weiss 'Ice Queen' Schnee: Active (Promoted)
Spc. Ruby 'Reaper' Rose: Lightly wounded (Promoted)
A/N:Krazyfan1:I'm not actually sure if it's possible in canon RWBY, since the glyphs appear to be static objects at the point of conjuration. But given the lack of overall control that Weiss has over her glyphs at this point, throwing them as buzzsaws might be a bit , I enjoyed writing this part. An oversized squad makes more sense on a terror mission than it does for other missions. After all, why would you send a single squad to try and stop an alien invasion that may be deploying platoon-strength forces or more?As usual, feel free to leave questions, comments and/or suggestions by PM or review, and I'll get back to them by the next up: Fighting for a cause.
A/N2: TheBSDude: Well spotted! The girls would have associated aliens = grimm, and therefore would not have seen cruelty on the part of the aliens as being unnatural or confusing. Horror, shock or fear might have been natural responses, but not confusion. Now corrected and updated. Take a cookie before Ruby steals it *holds up cookie*