Project R
"Hmm, wonder what's he doing in there?" Ruby muttered as she passed by the Dreadnought garage's door leading to the basement, which the Engineer had locked himself in for the past few days. Every now and then when Ruby passed by, she would hear the sound of metal welding, screaming, as well as electrical sounds.
Aside from the aforementioned sounds, evil cackling can also be heard occasionally, sending chills down the spines of whoever standing nearby. Although the cackling scared Ruby a bit, she had this feeling that she really, really needed to see what the mercenary is doing down the basement.
'Not enter, enter, not enter, enter…'
After pondering for a mere three seconds, she slowly made her way towards the locked basement door, and placed her hand on the handle. When she was about to twist the handle and open the door, she remembered one crucial fact.
The door is locked
"Oh… heh heh…" She chuckled to herself weakly. After thinking of her options of opening the door for a while, she called upon her semblance and disappeared in a pile of beautifully crimson red rose petals. After 3 short seconds, the young huntress-in-training appeared on the other side of the school, in the locker room, where Yang is currently inspecting Ember Celica.
"AH! Jeez, Ruby, you scared the dust outta' me!" The brunette's sister complained. Ruby scratched the back of her head nervously and sweatdropped. "Uh, Y-Yang, could you do me a favor?"
"Yea?" That was the last word she said before disappearing a flash of rose petals, her weapon, Ember Celica, dangling in the air for a second comically before falling down to the ground, making a small clanging sound.
Another line of rose petals appeared, before stopping at the Dreadnought garage. At the end of the trail, an unfazed Ruby along with her sister Yang stood, or in the blonde's case, collapsed.
"I think… my internal… organs… just… almost… burst…" She said while lying on the ground, clutching her stomach and groaning. After waiting a full minute for Yang to recover, Ruby finally asked her question.
She pointed at the locked wooden door, "Could you unlock that door for me?" Her sister looked at her with a puzzled expression before her mouth twisted into an evil grin. "Oh, Rube wants to see the Engineer's secret sex dungeon eh?" She asked playfully. Ruby's face turned into a shade of red that is rivaling her own hood at Yang's dirty comment.
"EW! YANG! GROSS!" The flustered girl screamed. Her sister let out a laugh and continued to do so until well over a minute later. "Haha… Ok Rubes, whatever you say."
The Blonde moved over to the door and pulled out a couple of bobby pins, before bending them using her hands and inserting them into the keyhole. (Totally not a sex joke)
While Yang was trying to unlock the door, Ruby went outside the garage, taking a glance at the powered-off Dreadnoughts and gawking a bit. She's already seen them so many times in action, but they never ceased to amaze her. After reaching the front of the garage, she took a look at the area.
In the distance, the avenue leading up to the academy could be seen, with multiple Atlesian soldiers and Paladins patrolling the place. A few anti-air emplacements could be seen as well, scanning the skies for any threat, Grimm or machine.
"Booh!" The sudden noise made Ruby jump and turn around, only to discover Yang covering her mouth, suppressing a laugh. Ruby thanked her as soon as the blonde told her that the door's unlocked and disappeared into the garage, with Yang following closely behind.
Ruby stood in front of the wooden door, taking a deep breath. She placed her hand on the handle, and twisted. With a small creak, the door slowly opened, revealing a long stairway leading deep into the ground. A few lights illuminated the narrow passage, occasionally flickering on and off. Ruby slowly placed her leg on the first step, and after seeing there's no booby-traps, continued to walk down the long stairway.
After a short while, Ruby saw a set of doors at the end of the stairway. The door was metal and had a sign saying, 'NO ENTRY' hanging from it. Ruby slowly strode up to the door and pushed the handle down, which surprisingly is unlocked.
Taking a peek into the area, Ruby saw a table along with some blueprints on top of them, with multiple tools scattered around the large room. "Ok Yang, it's safe… I think." She slowly pushed the door open, and stepped inside.
Immediately, three red lasers pointed themselves towards the young huntress' chest, and the sound of guns cocking can be heard. After taking a step back in surprise, she looked up and saw three turrets with machine-guns attached to them hanging from the hatches in the ceiling which just opened. Standing under the three turrets, is the Engineer, holding a shotgun in one hand and a strange device with a square satellite dish in the other, pointing it towards the girls.
"Oh, it's you two." The Engineer said with a hint of surprise in his voice. He put away the device, and the turrets retracted back into their respective hatches. The two girls then looked at the Engineer in confusion.
"What are you doing down here? We haven't seen you for days!" The brunette exclaimed. "And what are those?" The brawler added while pointing towards the blueprints on top of the tables.
"Whoa, calm down ladies, before I show you anything, you have to swear, that nothing you see in here, is supposed to be revealed to outside sources. Geddit?" The two girls nodded, and the Engineer motioned towards the blueprints.
"Wait… isn't this… a nuclear weapon?!" Yang exclaimed once she saw the title at the top of the blueprint, surprised that the Engineer is supposedly building the most powerful weapon in his world, the words 'Bullet-type Nuke' labeled in bold. "Yes, and that's what I've been working on for the past few days now.
"W-What are you going to use them for?" The young Ruby asked. "For the plan we're going to use for destroying the robot forces." The Engineer responded after a short pause, before continuing to motion the duo to leave. The two girls slowly turned around and left the room. After making sure the metal doors were magnetically locked, the Engineer continued to work on another piece of the bomb.
Three Days Later
"GO! GO! GO!" A loud accented voice thundered throughout the docks, with sounds of footsteps and gunfire barely drowning it out.
A large battle was taking place at the docks, with Atlesian military personnel leading the charge against the robots and the White Fang forces. Near the frontlines, 8 giant robots, with one at a nearby vantage point, dubbed 'Dreadnoughts' by the 9 mercenaries piloting them, are fighting alongside dozens of Paladins. The Team RED's 9 men all piloted their respective Dreadnoughts, all doing what they do best. The Heavy led the charge, huge rotary cannon mowing down hordes of enemies with ease, while his Medic partner healed the Dreadnoughts of any damage.
"Incoming WF Paladin!" A lone soldier in the battlefield called out, before promptly being disintegrated by a blast of concentrated energy coming from behind a shipping container. A larger, more advanced version of the Atlesian Paladin appeared, with smoother armor and bright red 'eyes' and the logo of the White Fang, a wolf with three claw marks behind it, sprayed onto the machine. The machine crouched, before starting a sprint towards a small group of infantrymen. The seven men in that group didn't have time to dodge the charging robot and died with a sickly squish as the leg of the robot descended upon them.
The Heavy switched his target, training the minigun on the advanced Paladin. The large rounds staggered the robot a slight bit, but the robot once again began to charge towards the Dreadnought. But before the stolen piece of advanced weaponry could reach the Heavy's Dreadnought, a loud 'shing' sounded distantly and a bright green trail leading from a nearby building impacted the charging Paladin in the torso, ripping it clean in half. The upper body flew into a nearby shipping container and destroyed it, before exploding in a ball of fire.
The Sniper's Dreadnought loaded in a new round of tungsten, ready to be magnetically accelerated to high speeds and destroy someone or something's day. The Sniper picked up movement nearby, and turned the Dreadnought around. Apparently, a lone Paladin controlled by the White Fang attempted to flank the Atlesian soldiers, who were busy fighting the ground forces of the robots and the White Fang.
"You better hold on to yer head, mate." The Australian breathed as he took aim using the HUD on his screen. With a press of a button, the robot's four railguns fired, sending rounds of tungsten flying towards the flanking enemy. The four rounds impacted, sending the robot sprawling into a nearby building and exploded, no doubt killing the pilot of it.
As the Sniper took aim at another robot trying to attack the Heavy's Dreadnought, a large salvo of rockets descended from the sky and into said robot, sending multiple parts flying around, killing a few unlucky Faunus and causing a White Fang bullhead to explode mid air. A figure crashed down on a building near the Sniper, and it is shown to be the Soldier's Dreadnought. The machine's loudspeakers clicked on and an obnoxiously patriotic Soldier said,
"YOU ARE ALL NO MATCH FOR THE GREAT AMERICA! SCREAMIN' EAGLES!" He shouted as he once again shot multiple rockets at his feet, propelling himself into the night sky.
On the ground, a squad of White Fang managed to kill of an entire platoon of Atlesian personnel, leaving only one alive. "Shit, shit shit shit!" The surviving Sergeant muttered as he loaded another clip of dust rounds into his standard-issue automatic rifle and blind-firing a burst over his head behind cover. A bloodcurdling scream signified a hit and he peeked out of his cover, before ducking in behind as a round whizzed past his face, scratching the helmet. He cursed as the suppressive fire became more intense, rendering him not able to move from his cover lest he be shot full of holes.
After he heard several pained screams of death, he peeked his head out and saw 5 bodies lying on the ground, bathed in crimson red blood. In the middle of the bloodbath, a man stood there with a sharp and expensive-looking suit. He flicked open a case and pulled out a cigarette before lighting it with a lighter. His head turned around suddenly before pulling out a revolver and shooting at an unknown enemy.
The Spy ducked as a bullet whizzed past his head, narrowly avoiding turning his head into a fine red mist, as Sniper had put it. He took aim, and fired a shot, causing a White Fang militant to have her head turned into red mist instead. As the headless body collapsed, her partner looked at her body for a second before turning back towards the spy, but a second was plenty of time to take careful aim and fire, sending a piece of lead flying through the militant's head, sending his brains flying out.
Nearby, the Scout managed to jump on top of a giant robot and started rodeoing it. The robot reached up with its hands and tried to pry the annoying human off it's head, but to no avail as the Scout constantly jumped around, even straight up dancing on the head. Soon, the Scout crouched and did a backflip, pulling out his Scattergun and shooting the robot's head while doing so, and emptying his entire magazine into the torso of the robot and jumped away, leaving a gaping hole in the robot's body. As he jumped, he activated his thrusters on his mini-Dreadnought and flew upwards, and punching the robot as he flew back down, his strength augmented by the Dreadnought suit, sending the robot flying into a group of robots, crushing them.
As the Heavy laid down suppressive fire, a White Fang militant crawled over to a destroyed robot's body, took a still-functional rocket launcher and aimed it at the Dreadnought. With a pull of the trigger, the rocket in the tube propelled towards the robot, aimed straight for where the cockpit is. Just as the rocket was about to make contact with the hulking piece of metal and death, another Dreadnought jumped from behind the Heavy's robot and let out a blast of compressed air, redirecting the rocket and defying all known sense of logic. In his final moments, the White Fang militant dropped his rocket launcher, and thought the following words in his mind as he was disintegrated. 'What the hell did the White Fang get itself into?'
After saving the Heavy's Dreadnought from damage, the Pyro piloted his Dreadnought into a large group of enemies, who fired upon the approaching threat but to no avail as the bullets just bounced harmlessly off the armor of the Dreadnought. Once he was in range, the Pyro activated the four flamethrowers, and let hell descend upon the group of enemies. Soon, nothing remained of the group other than a few pieces of charred metal and burning corpses, with some pieces of scrap downright melted into liquid.
Suddenly, a loud and continuous clanking sound was heard coming from behind one of the shipping containers, and when the Atlesian soldiers and Dreadnoughts turned towards it, it revealed itself to be a tank, retrofitted to be a combat tank. The minigun on top of the turret started to turn, before revving up and firing at the soldiers, ripping through them and sending pieces of flesh flying off their bodies. The other soldiers rushed behind cover as the machine gun fire shredded through their ranks, thinning their numbers considerably. Multiple sharp screeching noises can be heard overhead as dozens of flashing grenades passed over the buildings and landing beside the tank. The grenades started to flash faster and faster until the flashing stopped, and each exploding in a flaming sphere. Once the smoke dissipated, the tank was seen barely surviving, it's tracks had fallen off and it's minigun had been completely destroyed, rendering it effectively dead. From behind the soldiers, a Dreadnought started to march towards the tank. As it marched, it pulled out a large sword and slammed it into the tank, slicing it in half as the sword slice created a shockwave. The Demoman Dreadnought brought its hand up, and fired multiple grenades toward a group of robots, decimating them in a blink of an eye.
Soon, the entire battlefield was completely devoid of any surviving White Fang militants and or Tsunami robot forces. Bodies littered the ground, be it Atlesian soldiers, White Fang or robot.
"Holy dust…"
"Who's piloting these things?"
Murmurs among the Atlesian soldiers were halted as a heavy and metallic footsteps were heard coming from a distance. Looking towards the source, everyone was stunned to silence as a robot, the largest they had ever seen, even larger than the Heavy Dreadnought walking towards them, with a hand with three rotary cannons attached to it, and a hand with a chainsaw easily larger than a bus. The robot stopped in the middle of the battlefield for a moment, and scanned the Atlesian forces. Without a warning, a tube popped up from behind it's back and fired a missile towards the soldiers, killing multiple men.
That was the cue for everyone to open fire. The Heavy revved its minigun and fired, but the bullets did nothing to destroy the giant beast. The Medic's Dreadnought raised it's hand and fired a burst of CC bolts, but they too did nothing to damage the robot. The enemy beast simply raised it's hand, and a salvo of rockets propelled towards the robot. The Pyro airblasted them back, but the beast simply used his chainsaw to saw through them, making them explode in mid air.
The Sniper's Dreadnought prepared it's railgun to fire, but before a rocket forced the Sniper to pilot it away from it, but another rocket hit it, shattering the left railguns. The Dreadnought started to stumble backwards from the shockwave, until a bright trail of crimson light impacted the robot, the resulting railgun shell's force completely destroying the torso. The Sniper yelled and groaned as he was tossed around inside the cockpit, which kept him safe from harm, except that he forgot to fasten his seatbelts.
"T-This is Sniper, Dreadnought's done for, you guys go on!" He shouted before shutting the radio, and climbing out of the destroyed Dreadnought.
"Yo Heavy!" The Demoman's radio cackled to life as he turned it on, relaying a message to the Heavy. "I've got a plan for ya, and Pyro too, just listen!"
After a few seconds of firing, the minigun of the Heavy gave a 'click' sound, signifying the ammo has run out. The Heavy dropped the minigun, and charged forward. The ground shook as it took a giant leap, dodging a rocket salvo and punching the head of the beast. The robot staggered for a moment before sending a punch towards the Heavy, which created a dent in the armor. As soon as its fist connected, the Heavy bot was flung backwards a few meters, hitting a shipping container and destroying it.
In the corner of the robot's peripheral vision, a large figure charged towards it. The robot turned, just as a large fist connected with the robot's torso, shattering the metal armor. The robot was now dangerously close to the edge of the sea, as it examined the damage received. It's chestplate had been completely destroyed, exposing the electrical components. As it looked up, it saw the Pyro's compression blaster, aimed towards its face at point blank range. With a loud shrill sound, a huge gust of air was let out from the blaster, pushing the robot flying through the air, and into the water. With a loud cackling sound, electricity coursed through the water, short circuiting the robot itself as it made a low humming sound, signifying critical system failure.
1 Day later
The Engineer walked quickly to the office of the Headmaster Ozpin. He did not even bother to notify him of his arrival, for the matter is of utmost importance. In his hands, he carried multiple blueprints. He got into the elevator, and rapidly pushed the elevator button to the office.
After an agonizing 30 seconds, the elevator finally stopped and opened. The Headmaster sat there, gazing out through the window. "Oh, I did not expect you to come, have a seat." He calmly said as he gestured towards a chair. The Engineer did not reply as he laid the blueprints on the table.
"This… is a weapon. What is the purpose of you coming to me?"
"I need your approval to launch the weapons." The answer almost made the Headmaster spit-take, but he held his drink. "And why is that? Where do you want to launch them? Also, what are these weapons?"
"These are weapons of mass destruction; they are capable of wiping out an entire city. I do not trust General Ironwood to bring this weapon to him, so I asked you. I plan to launch them to the island, Menagerie, where the robots are currently located. Since their defeat yesterday at the docks, they have retreated into the island through their robot carriers. "
Ozpin crossed his hands and hung his head in thought. He could order the so called 'nukes' to be launched, possibly ending the robot threat. After a few minutes of consideration, the old man pressed a button on his table and a hologram appeared a few seconds later. On the hologram, a picture of Ironwood is displayed. "What is it, Ozpin?" The picture revealed itself to be a live video feed. "I need to ask a favor of you, James."
The general sighed, before asking him to continue. "Later, if any of your forces see a large missile flying overhead, please, order your troops to not open fire upon it." The headmaster's colleague widened his eyes before asking a question, "How are my troops supposed to know that the missile is not one of our enemies?"
After taking a glance at the Engineer, the Texan mouthed 'yellow warhead' towards the man. Ozpin nodded as he told the general the information. "*Sigh*… You are going to be the death of me one day, Oz." Ironwood said before cutting the feed, letting the room once again descend into silence, the only sound being the gears slowly grinding against each other.
"Launch it."
10 Minutes Later
"Hey, you hear that?" Weiss said, prompting her teammates to look at her with a confused expression. "Hear what?" Her Faunus friend asked. Before long, a loud rumbling sound is heard, with the ground shaking a bit.
"Whoa?! What's happening?" The leader, Ruby asked. Blake seemed the most terrified, eyes darting around the room frantically. Yang was taking it the calmest, with a stoic expression.
"Wait, what's that?" She said as she held out a finger, pointing outside the window. Her teammates followed her gaze, and they saw the ground literally splitting apart. As the girls' jaw loosened, the ground near the avenue opened up into a circle, with a large yellow cone slowly sticking out of it.
"Is… is that…"
"A nuke?" Ruby answered her best friend, as the missile slowly revealed itself, stunning the nearby bystanders into silence. Ruby and Yang both shared a worried look between each other, as the missile stopped moving. A crowd had gathered around the area, but maintaining a fair distance between themselves and the missile. Suddenly, a warning sound blared out, quickly making the crowd disperse and run away from the missile. Soon, the warning stopped as the ground started to rumble once again, albeit much more violently. Team RWBY's bunk beds almost collapsed, and Weiss' painting fell down, much to the heiress' dismay.
Once the rumbling got to it's climax, the missile started moving into the air, slowly pushing itself upwards. After 10 seconds, the missile finally got to full speed, and flew off with astounding speed. Once high enough in the air, the missile adjusted it's trajectory, making it point towards the island, Menagerie.
Menagerie
Gray Mann paced around the room, frustrated over his robot's incompetence. His pacing was interrupted when an alarm blared, illuminating his room in red light. He quickly rushed to the control room, hoping to find out what the fuck is happening. Soon, he got into the control room, and with a button press, the screen on his computer changed to that of a radar map.
A dot appeared on the map, before disappearing again. Gray Mann noticed the guns on the base had started firing at something in the air, and following the guns aim, a giant missile headed towards his way. After evading the anti-air emplacements, the missile's warhead disconnected itself from the body, revealing five smaller warheads inside the tube. They all fired at once, propelling themselves towards the base.
"Well fuck me."
Beacon
"Holy dust…"
"Weapons of that caliber… it's impossible."
Ruby and her teammates were muttering something incomprehensible as they looked through telescopes, all looking at the giant mushroom cloud that loomed in the distance through their magnified lenses.
"Girls, remember when I told you about the nuclear weapons? What they were?" The four girls nodded at the Engineers question, not even bothering to look up. "Well that is the explosion of five of them." The response made the girls gasp in shock.
"Apparently, mixing dust into the nukes made them a hundred times more potent, through ways I can't comprehend."
"Woow…"
That day, Remnant was greeted with a giant mushroom cloud, irradiating the uninhabited land of Menagerie. It would be at least 50 years before the land would be habitable again, as the radiation dispersed.
"Well, let's get some chow." The Engineer chuckled as he beckoned the girls to follow him. "We need a reward."
-Story End-
BUT, the series is not. There will be a sequel, just look out for it. It would definitely be slightly less action packed, for the first arc has ended. Follow me to be notified when the sequel, The Five Mercenaries
Will be released. Goodnight, my readers.
Here's a hint on what will the sequel contain.
Roses