Chapter 22: Under Cover of Snow
It was one of Greene's lessons in security and stealth that there was no breach-proof system, only breach-resistant, and it was something that Blake knew and took to heart very early on in her life. Weiss' memories, along with the information Roman and Ironwood provided, painted a picture of a defense difficult to bypass. Difficult, not impossible.
What made for difficult defenses was layers, not their strength, the more layers of different defenses they had to go through the more time it'd take to breach, the more the likelihood of catastrophic failure increased. That last assessment was likely the small fragment of Weiss inside her speaking, always the pessimist.
Getting past the hard-light shield happened without much trouble. Hacking systems with Ironwood's old credentials? Easy. It was a passive defense, meant to keep the worst of the weather and unlikely intruders out.
The difficult part was striking one of the generators unseen, that almost cost them their lives, and they had to separate from Roman. To avoid the android patrol on the main streets she, Neo and Ironwood scurried along narrow back streets and alleyways, where garbage piled up, the paint peeled from cracked walls like scabs and balconies above them faced each other, almost close enough one could jump from a building to its front neighbor with nothing but decent athleticism.
Blake leaped up to one fire escape, Neo and Ironwood followed soon after.
Up near the rooftops, the air was just as stale as down in street level, not unlikely it was due to the shield bubble around the city, it wasn't possible to selectively block the weather after all. She looked through a pair of binoculars, her distant target in clear view, the Schnee estate. It was a walled-off patch of green, the only one in Atlas, the sprawling manor at its very center. According to Weiss and Ironwood, it was only recently built, and as her eyes told her, guarded by androids. A dangerous place if it was guarded by smuggled androids, reprogrammed by Jacques' shifty mercenaries.
A shadow covered the city, darkened the place enough to prompt the automatic street lights.
She looked to the opposite side, where the snowstorm gathered. No binoculars needed. Blake knew the odds, knew what Weiss predicted and Ruby built against, but her eyes told her a different story. It wasn't simply colossal, it reached up to altitudes where even she — in a city that flew thousands of meters above the ground level — had to look up just to see where the wall of snow peaked. It would strike Atlas full on.
Within the swirl of snow, still no sign of Mirage-One and Mirage-Two.
Neo followed her gaze, "You all better be right," she gestured. "Stations are saying that's the greatest snowstorm of the century."
"I believe them," Blake said.
Snow enveloped the city's shield, crackling energy where it met with the translucent hard-light. It still held.
Blake lifted her binoculars again, adjusted the lens to get a better picture of the estate. What followed surprised her, if only because of the boldness of enacting it in plain sight. Already android fought android, drones buzzed above them, filming the ordeal. The military was making its move, and wanted to capture its piece.
Was it… being broadcast?
Neo gestured for her attention, "If this harebrained scheme of yours goes sideways I'll be coming back from the grave to haunt the lot of you."
"If it goes sideways there won't be anyone for you to haunt," Blake answered, her retort almost absent-mended. A deep breath later, she readied her scroll, Ironwood followed.
"Is Roman there already?" Neo asked.
Blake checked, she shook her head, still no news from the smuggler.
"It's all static," Ironwood said.
"Do you still remember the frequencies Atlas Broadcast on?"
Ironwood nodded and followed the cue, adjusting the scroll. The image filled with white noise obstructing the full image, but with close inspection she could figure it was a fight between paladins at the very courtyard of the Schnee manor.
Shit, she thought. The military, they're making a spectacle of it all. If we lose here, if we can't end this here… Blake banished the thought. There was no time to go back on their plan, no time to let the dust settle. She sent the message and hoped the others would be able to adapt in time.
Then, a rumble added to the snowstorm's howling.
"Get ready!" Blake told Neo and Ironwood.
Looking up to the shield dome, Blake inspected once more to where the snowstorm came from, only to barely notice from within… a figurehead had struck the shield!
It was the Mirage-One, the carrier's figurehead was covered in ice and almost upside down due to angle it floated at. The statue of the Huntress, arms outstretched, axes at the ready, was the first part to pierce through the dome. No longer a solid piece, the dome tore itself apart like cloth, ripping where the mirage met it, followed by hundreds of other ripples and tears blossoming out.
It was a second later before there a rumble, and the ground beneath them rippled.
A cascade of snow followed, and the wind roared in her ears, loud enough to obfuscate all but her own thoughts. The snow and fog were thick enough to obscure the view only a couple of steps ahead, and the cold was biting through her Aura shield. Without the thermal protections present in building and dustsuits it would only last minutes. She thought of Yang, inside the Mirage-Two, her Aura shield likely already depleted. Oh, how she'd like to spend just a few more moments together.
It was as good a reason as any to give it her all. She nodded to Ironwood and Neo, and they followed as she leaped to the nearest building with the mission, the way towards the manor clear in her mind.
—❖—
It wasn't a test of raw strength. It was a test of stamina, of how long they could endure without breaking outright. Not a sprint, a marathon.
Lucky for her, Yang was stubborn. Almost tenacity incarnate. The Mirage two was manned mostly by herself, Penny, Winter, and the operators and mercenaries in dustsuits. The life support systems were down, the ship was flying by analog steering. Normally her Semblance would've died out within one or two minutes, well after any fight was concluded.
That would've been thirty minutes ago.
It took all of her concentration to keep herself a bonfire even as the cold entered from the open bay door and cut through her body and soul. Her Aura shield still held, barely on the brink of breaking. Snow surrounded the airship and flooded the recently-carved opening, to the point where threading inside meant walking in ankle deep snow, and yet it melted as it met Yang's body, the floor devoid of it around her.
Part of the reason she could bear it was her part of the mission. She kept it at the front of her mind, one place to go, one target to eliminate. The picture provided by Ironwood really helped there, she'd never even seen the man.
The one responsible for the android hybrids, for what happened to Winter.
Yang glanced over to Penny, who was ready to fly off. Frost was gathering all over her body, a reminder that it was made of steel, nuts and bolts, and Ruby would say. Her shield had broken a long time ago.
To the other side, Winter, her body protected by a piece of armor, identical to the one made of Grimmbone, but translucent with a soft blue glow. She'd lost her shield a little after Penny, but took the cold with nothing but summoned armor and stoicism. Yang wondered if it was an older sister kind of thing, or a Schnee thing.
Yang adjusted the pair of bracelet-gauntlets she hadn't used in a long time, Ember Celica. She hadn't needed the twins so far, but pulling punches at the eleventh hour was a surefire way to lose it all on arrogance alone.
There was a booming roar, the winds shifted for a moment.
Then, at the same moment they all received the signal on their earpieces:
"It's done! The shield is down!"
It was Weiss, at the Mirage-One, the very forefront of their attack.
None of them hesitated. Winter somersaulted out and into air, summoning glyphs in midair to slow her descent. Penny flew in a straight line, a sloped except that left only the green trail of her thrusters. Yang surged off the edge, engaged Ember Celica and shot it behind her, where it renewed her momentum just as her fall threatened to become too quick.
Careful not to slow herself too much, Yang let gravity carry her down the white void, Atlas was nothing but hulking silhouette below them, the buildings and towers made indistinct through the storm. She fired again, adjusting her fall, aiming herself to the Academy's courtyard, at the center of Atlas. The descent quickened, she could see the oppressive figures of Paladins and Deathknights through the fog, snow and wind, until finally…
Yang landed on a Paladin, met it full speed, fist to chassis. The crack of her punch loud enough to be mistaken for a gunshot. It completely wrecked the Paladin, and with it, the last of her Aura.
From the fog above, Penny shot a laser, the green beam pierced clean through two other androids, detonating them. Winter cut through lines of knights like a flash, never staying in one place long enough for Yang to fully process where she was at any given time.
Yang shifted Ember Celica back as she jumped out of the Paladin's remains. Knights and Paladins were trying to target them, but the fog and snow made them unable to find the Huntresses. She let her breath out, steam coming out of her mouth as it met with the cold, and began her stride. Slowly, she broke into a run, then a full Sprint directly to the main gates.
Blake had sent them the message only minutes ago, mentioning an event ongoing. As a response, they shifted their drop site from the old military command center to the old Academy. They were one and the same presently.
There were obstacles in the way. As she gathered enough momentum Yang had only split seconds to know what it was she faced. Knights and Paladins put themselves in her way, only for Yang to go through them shoulder-first, leaving them in pieces as she passed.
Behind she could hear the fighting, the beams and clash of sword against armor, but there was no time to slow down, or even try to help her allies. They were on their own.
A moment later she surged forward to the main gate, and let her semblance do the rest.
Metal bent around her, scorched at the edges as she blew the gates, the door behind them and the door behind those off their hinges. It hurt like nothing else, and Yang grit her teeth and let it power her Semblance more. Behind her the fighting continued, but her gaze was fixed forward.
A line of guard lay sprawled on the floor incapacitated. Were they behind the gate?
Men and women in luxurious clothes — Nobles, she realized — were gathering in the main hall, as she suspected. At the main halls was where events happened in Academies, mostly out of convenience and space, so considering the place she was in was an Academy once, it followed. The place was decorated in luxury, crystal chandeliers and ice statues of beautiful people by tables. A central banner hanging from the roof, and a set of four screens, each facing a cardinal direction.
The Nobles were paralyzed, caught as if time had stopped around them. In a moment, Yang's gaze met with that of the General of Atlas.
Yang pointed his way, "Give me Arthur Watts!" she roared. And if the other Nobles had a tenth the brains that Weiss had shown herself to have, they'd get out of her way.
Almost stumbling over each other they did. The way opened to Arthur Watts, the thin man with the mustache, but behind him was another, who put a hand on his shoulder and himself between Yang and the General. A large, muscular man with brown skin and a deep voice broke the silence:
"Run. I'll deal with it," he said calmly.
It was as if his command had spread to all others around them, as the Nobles and the General fled through emergency exits at the sides of the room. Yang kept her eyes on the man, perhaps the instinct was her Aura warning her, but she knew he had the same touch of Aura, and the gaze of a guard dog, unwilling to let his eyes off her.
A wall of a man, he had unflinching poise even as he grabbed a pair of Dust crystals, held them in his fists and raised both hands to a boxing guard. Both hands erupted, one set ablaze and the other a swirl of electricity.
On the other side of the hall, Yang was hurt, freezing to death in real time, and trying her hardest to keep her Semblance running. She kept her gaze fixed on the man, and engaged Ember Celica in a single out sweeping motion. Her muscles tensed as she raised her guard, ready for hand-to-hand combat.
Yang stepped forward carefully, every step measured so as to not break her stance, "So that's it? No chit-chat, no dirty tricks, just a straight up fight?"
The man mirrored her steps as they circled each other, still too far for the reach of fists. He stopped for a moment, "You're one of Ozpin's. Xiao Long, I suppose? The blonde hair, the fighting style…"
"And who wants to know?" Yang asked, trying to get into the stranger's head.
The man grinned, "Oh, how rude of me," he mocked, "Call me Hazel."
Yang's brow furrowed, "So what about it, Hazel? Gonna tell you're here just for a friendly bout?"
They maintained their slow pace, still circling outside each other's reach, none willing to take the first step.
"Oh I've heard of Taiyang," He grinned, "About how he fought Grimm with his fists, and the apple didn't fall far from the tree, did it?"
Yang feinted a step forward, Hazel took a quick step back. His defense was good, as good as hers. "So it's a bit more than a friendly bout then? Looking to avenge all those oh-so-poor killer monsters?"
Hazel feigned a step next, Yang stepped to the side, out of where he would've struck if he had dashed her way. "No… A chance to take down a Xiao Long, and one of Ozpin's students no less?"
He stopped moving, as did Yang.
Hazel chuckled, "Well that's a rare chance."
They finally charged against one another, fully committing to the fight.