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Beta(s) :

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"General."

"Roland." General Ironwood hummed as he turned away from the battle beyond his window and watched the AI's avatar materialize, standing over the holo-display of the battle raging outside and frowning. Quietly, he asked, "What do you need?"

"To bring you reports." The AI answered quietly, "From the Black Sun, and from Miss Rose, as well as a status update on matters down in Mantle."

"Mantle…?"

"I took the liberty of infiltrating Mantle's systems, to protect them from someone else doing the same with less… Charitable intentions."

"I see..." Ironwood disliked that intensely, but the logic was sound enough - Roland was an ally, and specialized in the field. Enough that Ironwood probably couldn't stop him even if he wanted to. More likely, Roland would say he'd withdraw and remain covertly.

It wasn't worth the headache.

"Go ahead then."

"Where should I start?"

"Wherever you wish."

"Alright, well…" He could practically hear the grimace in the AI's sigh, and that worried him. Still, though, he waited patiently and let the AI speak, "Mantle's taking casualties and its lines are withdrawing, but most of the civilians you left behind-"

"Could not save." Ironwood corrected him, "I needed the airships up here."

"Regardless," Roland sighed, "they're pulling in towards the crater. The Master Chief has ordered me to bring the Black Sun down for evacuation."

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Robyn Hill ducked to the side and spun on a heel, breathless as she put a bolt into the Sabyr's side, right where its heart was. It staggered to the side and fell as Robyn turned and put a bolt through another's throat and one through the eye of a flying Beringel as it came down. She heard a scream and turned, looking up the barricade as a Sabyr leapt over and bowled over a SWAT officer, mouth closed around her arm. As they landed and Robyn turned, the Sabyr ripped its head to the side.

The woman's arm came away in a bright arc of ruby red and a sobbing scream before Qrow's scythe tipe slammed into the Grimm's side and ripped it away and in two.

Another Sabyr leapt over the barricade and the man caved it's skull in with a fist. The third bore him down but he rolled expertly with it and produced a short knife from somewhere that he buried in its neck. As it fell, the man rose, his weapon in one had, and the man bellowed, "We have to fall back!"

"We can't!" She shouted back over the sound of Grimm snarling and rifles firing. She waved a hand at the barricade, already half-empty, and shouted, "This is the last open street before we get to the crater wall! We fall back anymore and the buildings will be short enough, and space tight enough, they'll be able to get onto the roofs and flank- Fuck!"

She stumbled away as Joanna, that mountain of a woman, yanked her back and caught a Creep by the throat. She lifted it up, crushed its neck whole, and hurled it into another of the little bastards as it tried to leap over their barricade. Robyn wasn't sure it was dead, but it was gone for now and that was enough.

And then it didn't matter anymore as the ground rumbled yet again. This time, though, it wasn't tremors…

The first Centinel that broke through the concrete surprised even Joanna, and leapt on her for that surprise. The woman grappled with it as it coiled around her, and Robyn put more than a few bolts into its side, but it ignored them both and coiled around the exhausted woman. Dragged her down, first to her knees, and then to her stomach. Robyn kept firing, until her bolt feeder was empty.

Then she leapt on Joanna's back as it dragged her down onto her stomach and she beat it with her bare hands. Joanna collapsed onto her side and Robyn met her eyes, peering out between bony legs. They were bright, and wide, and Robyn heard the woman gasp painfully, "Robyn-"

A Creep slammed headfirst into Robyn's side and knocked her away. She landed on her stomach and it landed on her back, jaw snapping closed around her neck and thrashing angrily as her Aura flared. A blast ripped into it and hurled it away, and Robyn rolled over to look up at Qrow as he offered her a hand, the other pressing against a bloody gash across his stomach.

Even with that, though, he managed to smile thinly, "Up you get."

Robyn shot to her feet and spun, looking for her friend…

She was nowhere to be seen, though. Instead, all Robyn could see was a gap in the concrete where the Centinel had retreated. Where it had dragged her down…

She grit her teeth and screamed, then turned and leapt onto the barricade, one hand dragging out a fresh cartridge of bolts. As it chambered, she bellowed, "Until the last fucking bullet, Hunters!"

Everyone, Human and Faunus, Hunter and mere cop, or fire-man, or Atlesian soldier gone AWOL, answered her call with a roar of bullets.

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"Has he now?" Ironwood growled once the AI had broken down the Spartan's plan for him. That menagerie had agreed to help was something, and warmed his heart, but... "Funnily, I don't remember him asking for permission to do that."

"With all due respect, General, your permission is irrelevant." His eyebrows rose at that and the Atlesian turned, eyes narrowing on the AI who only shrugged unflinchingly in response. "You're giving up on them because of resources. My calculations don't disagree with your call. But the Sun isn't yours to command."

"My airspace is."

"How many of your battleships do you wanna turn to literally fighting to get your own civilians eaten by the Grimm, exactly?"

"That isn't the point." Ironwood countered, blood boiling in his veins and fists curling painfully tightly, "You have no right to make these decisions without consulting me."

"Your Council, you mean."

"I meant what I-"

"You don't have sole authority over all of the Kingdom of Atlas, General." Roland cut him off, crossing his avatar's arms and shaking his head derisively. ."We're just trying to save the people you can't afford to, General, because we can. Oppose us if you really want to, but that will be public. And I will just contact the other Councilors and go over your head."

Ironwood had options to put that down if they tried, but…

Again, it wasn't worth the headache - or alienating powerful potential allies, for that matter.

"Do what you want, Roland, I won't stop you." He finally sighed, turning around and glaring out at the gargantuan whale, and the immortal within it. The source of all their problems, inside and out. Ironwood sighed, clasped his hands behind his waist, and grunted shortly, "Continue your report."

"I'm sorry, General. I really am." That worried him, and James turned around with gritted teeth and narrowed eyes. "Specialist Schnee is…"

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Jacques stared at the Scroll in his hands for a long, long time, unmoving on his office's seat. Finally, shakily, he picked up the bottle of bourbon and took a long, fortifying drought from it before he asked, quietly, "She's… Gone?"

"Yes, Father." Weiss' voice was weak and cracked with raw, wet emotion, and Jacques winced. "She was killed less than an hour ago."

"I see…"

"Father, you understand what is happening out here." The words weren't a question - she may not have loved him too dearly, but she knew he was no fool. "We need your help, Father."

"My help?" He scoffed, a more choking and wet sound than he'd meant it to be. Taking a long, deep breath and pinching his eyes shut against the bursting dam, he asked, "What can I possibly do? Cut the bloody Grimm a check?"

"You have a fleet of SDC supply vessels."

"Unarmed vessels…"

"That is less than true, and we both know it, but that isn't the damn point." Weiss snapped at him, "I'm assuming you still have that vile 'disaster work contract'?"

"It is the Disaster Hourly Reimbursement Pay contract, thank you, and…" He frowned, "Yes, I do."

"Draw every single person on SDC payroll up, put them on those ships, and get them down to the Mantle Crater." Weiss ordered stiffly, and while Jacques' mouth opened to argue, no words came forth. Instead, he merely listened as she spoke, "There will be a large ship there, evacuating Mantle's people. Take as many as you can, and head for Menagerie."

"Menagerie is hardly a place for my-"

"They have already agreed to take in Atlesian refugees, Father." Weiss cut him off, "And with how your contract lawyers work, you will have every man, woman and child on those ships when they come down in the crater."

"I can hardly carry every citizen of Atlas, let alone Mantle…"

"You won't be - their soldiers won't all be able to escape before the end." The way she said that, 'the end', put a lump of ice in Jacques' chest. Fear, clear and cold, and it made him listen all the more raptly. "And if you dump the Dust and droids, you will have plenty of space to pack the people in like sardines. Hardly ideal, but…"

"They will survive, long enough to reach Menagerie at the very least." It was crude, but much of Atlas' population were wealthy, small families like his own and equally small upper-middle-class families that worked in the office. Besides those who had sold their lives to the military, and would die defending their precious General. "But those droids are expensive. Not to mention the Dust-"

"Father, pelase." Weiss' voice broke, and when she spoke next it was through tears, "If not for me, if not for all those people, do it for Winny. She gave her life hoping to protect them. Honor that, Father."

"...Alright." He sighed, taking another long swig of his alcohol as he stood and turned for his desk. And then above it, to a picture of his oh-so-happy family painted when all were young and small. His eyes lingered on his scowling daughter and he smiled grimly, "I'll put the orders in right away. For… For my Winny."

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Weiss closed the Scroll with a grief-filled shudder of breath, set it aside, and turned to the short woman standing beside the door to the room Cinder lay in. Quietly, she asked, "You'll help us?"

"Until this fight is over." The words appeared in the air, written in fire by Neo's finger as it traversed. "I'll get the door open. You do your thing. We all go our separate ways after."

"Assuming you don't try and kill us…"

"I can literally fly and shoot lightning. Not that I need that, though." Neo wrote, smirking at the blonde and tapping a foot on the dead Cinder's thigh where she'd been dumped in a heap to make her point. "If I wanted you lot dead, you'd be dead. At least some of you. The boring one."

"Which is the fuckin'-"

"Yang." Ruby's words cut the blonde off and Weiss turned to her, too, focusing on her partner as she spoke, "You're right not to trust her, I certainly don't. But she'd escape before we could kill her and get the power, at best. And if she wanted us dead, why kill Cinder? Two of them could kill us easier than one."

"Fine then." Yang grunted and leaned against the wall beside Weiss. Their shoulders touched and Weiss leaned into the warmth - thankful for the quiet comfort the woman offered when she leaned back into it. Quietly, the blonde demanded, "What do you want then?"

"Easy." Neo wrote, "To survive. You have a plan for that, yeah?"

"We do." Ruby nodded, "All we need from you is for you to open a door. After that, we will let you leave. But I can't speak for Ironwood or anyone else."

"Fair." Neo's grin was toothy and predatory as she hopped off the bed and waved them forward, "Lead the way then. Remnant's sexiest key doesn't know where she's going. And she'll get shot at if soldiers see her."

"As if you're scared of soldiers…"

"I'm not." She wrote, smiling, "But I don't think you want me to kill everyone in our way. Or do you?"

"Just follow us…" Ruby sighed and turned, met Weiss' eyes and asked, "Are you ready to go?"

"No." Weiss sighed and stood, more than aware of the blood staining her dress, "Let's go anyway."

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"Schnee is… Dead…?" James' blood froze in his veins as his hands dropped unsurely to his sides. He took a step towards the AI, bumped into the end of his desk, and rested a hand on it to steady himself. "That's impossible."

"It's true, General." Roland assured him, smiling apologetically, "Team RWBY found her after Winter called on her sister for help in the secure section of the hospital."

"The secure section." Ironwood felt his stomach churn, took a deep breath, and focused… His Aura surged and he sighed as the familiar, cold touch of calm washed over him. Standing straighter, he demanded shortly, "What did they find in the secure section? Specialist Schnee had a very important objective assigned to her in that sector."

"...Cinder Fall killed her, before a woman named Neopolitan killed Cinder Fall." Ironwood's eyes narrowed at that. Torchwick's old supposed flame…? That didn't bode well, to say the least. "Weiss is inconsolable, and her partner is-"

"What happened to the Maiden's powers?"

"I… Neopolitan has them, and has shown the same fire-based abilities that Fall herself did, which were fed by the Fall Maiden." Roland reported, eyes narrowing and lips knitting down in a shallow frown. Ironwood knew why he was agitated, but didn't have the capacity - quite literally - to care, and so simply stared him down until the man went on, "No one is sure if Neo has both Maiden souls inside of her, even the woman herself. But Fall did kill the old woman before dying, so we can't be sure."

"Hmph." If all else failed, they could always simply force the woman into the Aura Transfer Machine and rip the power out of her, plural or not. In such a case, holding both in one soldier would be a boon. "We shall see."

"Yeah…"

"And the third matter?"

"Ozpin had a magical item of sorts that Oscar gave to the Arbiter some time ago, who, in turn, gave it to the Master Chief as a sort of…" Roland grimaced and paused, clearly looking for the right word, and then said, "Weapon of last resort."

"What manner of weapon?" And more importantly, why had it not been mentioned earlier? "Not your drive bomb, I hope. The damage from that would be intolerable."

"Not the drive-bomb." Roland assured him, "This is an even greater last resort. And only being employed by virtue of the fact she landed on Atlas."

"I see." Ironwood nodded and reiterated, "What kind of weapon is it then, exactly?

"The magical kind, that should slow Salem down for a day or so. Hopefully. Maybe." Roland shrugged, "We only know that Ozpin said it would slow her down., and that it took a long time to build up. The Spartans stand ready to deploy it…"

"But?"

"But we're unsure of what it will do as collateral." Roland admitted with a sigh, "Ideally, it kills Monstra too, but it could do more damage than that. We're treating this like Forerunner tech."

"Which means?"

"Assume a fifteen kilometer destructive yield, electro-magnetic pulse, and that armor and hardening won't protect against it." Roland counted off each on a hand, "There are other protocols, too, but those are the important ones. The applicable ones."

"And what if I refuse to let you use this?"

"Atlas and Mantle both get overrun by the Grimm, your army is slaughtered, you die, and Salem gains a total victory here." Roland answered simply and frankly, and Ironwood frowned deeply for it. But he couldn't argue, and Roland pressed him for it, "If you have another idea, then I'll pass it along. But the Spartans are standing by with this."

"I can't evacuate the city."

"We'll handle that." Roland assured him, "All we need is your permission, and for you to defend us while we do everything. With luck, this could drive Salem back. At least for the time being."

"Hmm…" Roland was right, about the risk and the reward both. As he watched the battle beyond the walls of his precious Kingdom, another trench was overrun by all manner of the black tide. There were only too left, and without artillery, his men would fare far worse.

It was only a matter of time before it became a war in the streets, for which the Grimm were more advantaged…

"Very well, I will trust you." Ironwood finally sighed, "Use your weapon."

"Thank you, General." Roland faded away with an echo of static, and Ironwood sighed.

"Anything to save my Kingdom…"

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"Ironwood has approved the operation."

"He has?" John asked, somewhat surprised - the damage to Atlas with the Leviathan on it as it was would not be negligible.

"I… Convinced him." John didn't like the way he said that, but his thoughts were tugged away by a small hand on his forearm.

He turned and looked down and Fiona said, her small voice crackling through the airman's helmet comm-link, "D-Did I set up the, uh, thing right?"

"You did." He nodded as the ramp at the front of the ship's bay slid open and the two women of his unit stepped in front of them. Gently, he tugged Fiona around in front of him and asked, "What is the plan?"

"What?"

"The plan." He said, "I want you to say it back to me."

"Um, t-they go first, in front of us, to keep Grimm out of the way." She murmured, but he simply blinked on her image in his squad-read on the top of his HUD - or rather, the image of the red-haired man the helmet had been registered to - and raised her volume himself while both their systems lowered the background noise from the opened ramp for them. "T-Then I jump out, and just, uh, stay behind them. You'll be behind me, to catch me when we get down there."

He didn't respond after that.

He simply flashed his team green twice.

The twoo women took off and Fiona, with a surprised squawk, followed them. They leapt cleanly, but she hesitated, and the Spartan grabbed her by the back of the suit and threw her - they didn't have the moment she needed to spare.

Roland, kindly, threw her volume back down below standard levels when she screamed.

Kelly and Linda fell fast, bodies pointed down towards the great whale on Atlas' end like arrows hurled from on high. As they fell, they drew their weapons and shouldered them. Linda fired first, her specialised sniper rifle picking off a pair of Nevermore circling lazily hundreds of feet below. They spiraled away leaking black smoke and inside a moment, four more Grimm were cut out of their path as the two women drifted lazily in a small circle in front of them, casually massacring Grimm as they descended.

At four hundred feet, the Chief rolled over and put a clean burst through an an oncoming Beringel's face as it came for him and then turned again to do the same to a pair coming in on a far flank, aiming for Fiona's slight form. She fumbled around with the M7 he had given her, slowing her descent as her arms and legs spread out, while she reached for the weapon on her thigh and unstrapped it. Stupid - he should have checked that she had it out before the jump.

He slowed his descent slightly to match and then tipped down again when she did, and signalled for Kelly and Linda to do the same.

At two hundred feet, he turned and emptied his magazine into a quintet of Beringels that tried to swarm him. Fiona was forced to fend off a pair herself, and did remarkably well beyond drifting to the side from the recoil. Again, he adjusted and notified his team, who adjusted with them both as they cut through oncoming Grimm. So thick was the cloud that Linda drifted back while Kelly used her thrusters to accelerate, allowing each to fight at moderately better ranges.

At one hundred, he signalled his team and then accelerated using his thrusters, slamming his shoulder into a Gryphon as it surged into his path. It fell away as he reached the Faunus.

"Give." He grunted, taking her M7 and attaching it to his off thigh. Then he looped a hand under her knees and the other behind her neck and grunted, "Cross your arms and reach up. Support your neck with me."

She didn't answer - she just did as he said and he oriented himself and fired his thrusters to slow their descent.

As they came down, they all received the signal from Roland. A heartbeat later, a lance of vibrant violet slammed down to their right. It vapories a hundred Grimm and slammed into Monstra's side, carving into it as the Black Sun surged past the four of them and down, turning as it passed Atlas and slipped under and into the crater.

They landed with a thud and he slid to a knee to spare Fiona absorbing any more of the momentum than she had to. As she staggered away and heaved for breath, and to calm her stomach, he stood and turned. The plasma battery hadn't killed the Grimm, as expected, but it had punched a breach into its hide thirty feet from their landing point. Kelly and Linda had already moved to it and were fending off the Grimm.

"Come." He grunted as he stepped up to Fiona's side. Wide, frightened eyes met his, but she nodded and stumbled ahead of him as he followed, wary of her falling.

Finally, the two of them leapt off the edge of the entrance Roland had made and fell a dozen feet or so into a wall of fleshy membrane. It held under he and the Faunus' weight, which was lucky for them, and he turned to the Faunus expectantly.

She raised a hand and, with a shimmer of golden light, the Slip-Space drive emerged.

For a ship the Sun's size, the Slip-space drive was smaller than many he'd seen. But it was still as long as he was tall, and as wide as Jorge was, with a dull blue glow. He helped it settle and then asked, "Roland, status?"

"Checking." The AI answered a second before he went on, "The drive is stable, and my modifications are holding. You can detonate it once you're clear."

As if prompted by the words, the Pelican appeared overhead and a pair of lines fell into the pit, each fitted with a handle. They grabbed it and the Chief gave the signal, the lines retracting and pulling them up as they went. As the two of them reached the top and stepped onto the ship's open ramp, the two women stepped back onto it as well and locked their boots onto the metal. The nose-gun barked and missiles flew as the Pelican angled to the side and down, and he held Fiona firm.

Quietly, he said, "Roland, send word to Branwen. Package is down."

"I tried, Sir." Roland reported quietly, "He… His Scroll signal is dead, Master Chief. Likely because the device has been destroyed."

John hesitated, sighed, and nodded, "Acknowledged."

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So.

All o' that happened.

Fun fact! Joanna only died due to a difference of one on her roll. I rolled the Huntresses present as well as Branwen, and she scored a two. May got a three, Robyn a twelve, and Qrow, funnily, scored the best at twenty.

Now, that's a funny thing that happened in the first, ON SCREEN, death roll. NOT the SECOND, off-screen rolls. Which were minimum difficulty rolls - everyone above eight lives.

Normally, I don't bother sharing rolls, but I found Qrow fucking Branwen getting a twenty fucking stupid.

Also - Roland lied to Irondaddy~

I implied it, but will state it clearly mainly for the dick canoes always in my DMs - Roland did that on his own, for semi-obvious reasons. Remember the things Irondaddy has said out loud, whether anyone was present or not. Also remember, Roland doesn't fuck around to find out.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed~!

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Dino Guy 2000 :

Oh, Irondaddy is not going to be best pleased at all.

Smokey Panda :

He tried, lol. Spartans will ever be the awkward ten year olds when they talk to normal people, though.

Sebine :

Oml, why? THat was never gonna happen! XD

Joe Cola :

She's Fall. Cinder could only contain more than one for Salem's machinations.

Nantono :

They're not gonna fight (at least yet) lol. Neo's entire thing was not doing that. XD

KPMH 2001 :

I interpret Kat's plan differently - I believe she took inspiration from the loss of the colony ship, but didn't recreate it.

Instead, I believe that she mounted the drive to that Pelican perfectly well - or the Engineers did, doesn't matter - and they simply over-clocked it and let it loose. Essentially, the 'bomb' was less a bomb and more just 'we opened a portal inside their ship'. Which, honestly, I bet a ship could have done that on its own. Though it likely would be destroyed as a result by debris. So perhaps taking the drive and using it separately is best.

The second thing to note is the size difference in ships - which you partially point out. What you didn't note, though, was the size of the Savannah the drive came from as opposed to the proto-type Prowler the Spartans have.

A Paris class ship, like Savannah, is 535 meters long, while, for example, a Winter class Prowler - or stealth corvette - which is one of the relatively longer Prowlers is only 85 meters or so. The Slipspace drive would be smaller as a result, meaning a smaller rift. This is why I specifically gave them a Prowler rather than any other ship back when I introduced the Spartans.

I got plans! Lol.

As always, your own take-aways from Kat's plan are your own. These are just the ones I am using here.

And yeah, the Hatedom is nasty. I block the worst and ignore the rest. Is what it is, and I don't worry about it.