Ch 29: When All Else Fails…
A person can go their entire life without finding a purpose or something to die for. But if you are to find it, you will go to any lengths to protect it, because in the end, why else would you exist? To let it collapse and rot away is the easy way out or is your destiny to strive for something more, something you were born to do?
"MAKO GET THE FUCK UP, OR WE WILL HAVE TO LEAVE YOU!" I come to conscious to see a screaming Ren in front of me. "The dropship is like a giant target out in the open, we have to get away from the crash site." Dropships just aren't my thing.
I quickly stand up and take note of my surroundings, noticing that 4 bodies lay motionless in the seats next to me. Simply limp yet relaxed, the poor bastards never even had the chance to fight back. Ren motions for me to exit the craft as the gunfire begins to settle into my ears, I took a glimpse outside of the craft to realize what we had gotten ourselves into: Madness, pure madness.
The dropship had crashed into the outer wall of Beacon and there were no other dropships or squads in sight. What if they left us? What if they are dead?
I began to go into shock until Ren shook some sense into me. "Get your shit together man, we still have 8 guys that need a leader." I take a deep breath and run outside of the ship to find the squad pinned behind a statue of a hunter slaying a Beowolf. The soldiers looked like they had already given up.
"Why do you all seem so fucking glum, you telling me you all want to die like a bitch hiding? Come on let's move!" I yell at them as I begin to wave my sword towards a wall of sandbags the WF was firing from. And in that instant the soldiers seemed to have a breath of life put back into them. Hope given back to them and the 10 of us sprinted into the hail of gunfire, not one of us taking a hit as we came in contact with the bags. Now it's time to get to work.
I vault over the sandbags, catching the WF by surprise, I don't blame them, who in their right mind dives head first into a volley of bullets?
Before the 2 closest WF soldiers can react I swing my blade in a horizontal arc, slicing through them by their waists. Their blood sprays into the air as Ren and the 8 GICD soldier join in and begin to engage the rest of the WF that were posted at the front gate to Beacon. Ren quickly sprint ahead of me, unloading a whole magazine into a single soldier whose body simply slumps over from all the damage done to it.
It doesn't take the 10 of us long to secure the front gate, it was surprisingly lightly guarded. "Mako, come over here, we have a live one." One of the GICD soldiers says and motions for me to come to him. I walk over to him to find a WF soldier, in this case a bull Faunus, gut shot, begging for mercy.
"Help me, please, I beg of you." The Faunus mutters, clenching his stomach.
"I will if you tell me something, can you do that?" I ask him, as I holster my sword.
"Sure anything to stop the pain... What do you need to know?" He responds to my question as he begins to spit up blood.
"Did you hear any reports of other attacks around Beacon?" I had to know if the others had made it.
"Yea, it all happened basically at the same time, why do you ask?" He says with a confused face.
"Can you describe to me anything unique you might have heard?" I ask him as I bend down eye level to him.
"Well, one checkpoint reported a cat Faunus with a Knight and some soldier in black armor leading an attack in the main courtyard, it's not that far from here. Now, can you do something for my pain? I told you what I know." His eyes begin to tear up as he is begging for aid, an answer to his pain.
"Sure, why the hell not?" I quick draw my revolver and force it into his mouth, "You dumb bastards should have never come to our schoo.l" CLICK. I pull the trigger as it sends a single round through his head out the back of his skull.
"Mako, what the fuck?" Ren screams at me.
"Ren, let's be realistic for a second, what else was I going to do, I'm not going to have any of y'all waste your medical supplies on a gut shot Faunus, he was going to die anyway, wounds like that lead to a slow death, something I prevented." I respond as I wipe the blood from the barrel of my revolver.
"I understand that part, it's how you did it, was it really necessary to shove it inside of his mouth?" Ren responds to my explanation.
"Ren don't tell me you haven't ever been cruel to someone in your entire life?" I draw my sword as I begin walking into the direction of the courtyard.
"But that wasn't like you back there Mako. It was like you were another person, a monster." He runs up beside me followed by the rest of our squad.
"Ren, haven't I told you that at least once in every person's life, we act like monsters?" I up my pace as we become nearer and nearer to the entrance to the courtyard. Yet Ren, the squad, and I hear no noise coming from the courtyard as we finally come to its entrance.
"Why is the courtyard empty?" Ren yells, realizing that the WF soldier had lied to us. Before I can respond to a pissed off Ren a shot rings out and one of the remaining GICD soldiers in our squad collapses.
"It's a trap!" yells another soldier as we all dive for cover behind various structures in the courtyard. They anticipated us, but how did that WF soldier know about Jaune, Blake, and Commander White?
This and countless other thoughts run through my mind as Ren and I hug the ground behind a fountain, while the rest of our squad sits tight and tries to engage the WF that had ambushed us.
"We are all gonna die here!" screams one of the GICD soldiers who is blind firing behind cover.
"Don't panic goddammit! Keep it together!" I yell at him, attempting to calm him down.
All of a sudden 3 of our soldiers just snap, from all the pressure and run straight into the line of fire. Their bodies being reduced to mere scraps of flesh and armor. This isn't working, I need to draw the WF's fire so my squad can get out of here.
"Ren! Tell the 5 remaining squad members to sit tight, I'm going to draw their fire." I say this as I point in the direction of the balcony where the WF was firing from into the courtyard. Ren nods and motions for the squad to hunker down.
I vault over the fountain, just how I surprised the last WF soldiers this time however I noticed someone in black clad armor was commanding them, a Warhammer in his grasp. Who the fuck is this?
The figure in the black armor realizes what I am trying to do and motions for the WF soldiers to fall back as he leaps down from the balcony, his armor making a thud when he hits the ground. "Come on guys let's take this big oaf." I motion to the squad and Ren as we all charge at the giant figure who swings his giant hammer in a horizontal strike. The strike catches 3 of our soldiers head level, crushing their helmets, killing them. The two remaining squad members begin to walk backwards, towards cover, still unloading into the armored figure, yet it didn't seem to be even denting its armor.
"Guys I got this." I ignite my sword and charge into the Warhammer wielding figure who braces himself for my volley of strikes from my fire hot sword. I swung as hard as I could, attempting to break his armor or at least his posture. Yet as I stopped striking him I realized that my strikes had done nothing to this figure.
All of a sudden, it drives an armored knee into my chest. Damn that hurts, come on Mako, get your shit together. Before I can even attempt to block another attack I feel the force of what feels like a freight train come in contact with my side, which sends me flying across the courtyard. I slouch my head in defeat as the figure begins to walk towards me. So this is how it fucking ends, getting your brains bashed in by a giant flipping hammer.
"Hey asshole, you forgot about us!" screams Ren as he charges headstrong towards the figure with the two squad mates at his side. The figure spends around with easeat the three of them, making contact with all of them besides Ren, who slides beneath the strike. Blood splatters into the air after the broad blow from the hammer, as Ren jumps on top of the giant figure, unloading his two guns point blank into the armor cladded giant's armor, sending sparks and streaks of light, pinging off his armor.
Ren, realizing that his attack had no effect on the target, braces for a swing from the hammer yet instead his neck is met by one of the figures huge hands which grasp tightly around his neck, slowly squeezing the life from him. Meanwhile I sit there and watch all of this, too broken and defeated to take action.
"Stop right there, I know who you are and what you have done." A familiar voice yells at the figure. "Who would have thought you would be with them, after all of this?" The voice turns out to be none other than Professor Ozpin who is now pointing his cane at the figure.
"Took you long enough!" Bellows a voice from inside the suit of armor, who then flings Ren across the courtyard as well.
"How about you look at me with your own eyes you traitor." Ozpin yells as he hits a button on his cane, which springs a katana-like blade from its end.
"Fine Ozpin, whatever will make your death be smoother." The figure drops his hammer and reaches for his helmet, slowly taking it off revealing the face of Commander White. What the fuck is going on?
"What made you turn White? Against your own fellow soldiers, basically your family?" Ozpin remarks as he slowly approaches White.
"Turns out these animals are pretty nice, not to mention they pay really well." He picks up his Warhammer with both hands as he and Ozpin begin to circle each other in the center of the courtyard.
"But you hated the Faunus, something I should have dealt with a long time ago, yet I had to work with you against my wishes to safe guard my students." Ozpin sprints towards the towering White ready to begin his duel with the traitorous commander.
"I never said I still didn't hate the damn animals." Mutters white as he blocks Ozpin's first strike.
"Now because of you countless students, men, and women will die because you told them we were coming." Ozpin parries a strike from White and counters with a jab towards his torso which simply pings off his armor.
"You are right, many will die tonight and you will be one of them." White yells maniacally as he swings his hammer around again at Ozpin who hurdles over the strike.
"Where are Miss Belladonna and Mr. Arc? They were with you." Questions Ozpin as he swings for White's head, this time scraping the edge of White's head, forming a thin cut across it.
"Last time I checked, they were being held by some of the most ruthless members of the WF. I would be worried if I were you for Miss Belladonna, Ozpin. You know how a bunch of Male Faunus can act around a single female Faunus..." He smiles. Blake! I can't let anything happen to her.
I begin to stand up as the two continue their duel. Siphoning my aura, I begin to heal the damage caused by White as I ready my weapon.
"Oh look who decided to get up." White mutters as Ozpin becomes distracted and turns around to see me.
"Mako! Get out of here!" Yells the Professor before his chest gets impacted by a blow from the hammer sending him into the side of a wall.
"Professor!" I yell in anger as I focus in on White. "I'm going to kill you!" I scream as I draw my revolver in my other free hand and begin to use my semblance in conjunction with the revolver's round, sending flaming hot bullets at White, which stagger him, each round forcing him farther and farther back towards a wall.
"A persistent little bastard aren't you!" Yells White as he swings at me with his hammer in one hand which I easily dodge; however, his free hand comes in contact with my stomach sending me into the same wall that Ozpin went through.