This was easy.
Yang was family, her elder sister, meaning that they should be close. However, the deep, foreboding feeling swelling up from her gut refused to go away. It was the weekend, meaning that neither of them had school today. The blonde-haired brawler was just sitting on their couch, watching television lazily. All Ruby had to do was casually approach, and ask .
Simple, right? There was a very high chance Yang would accept, but what Ruby dreaded wasn't that, but what came after .
Clearing her throat from the kitchen, Ruby began her approach, keeping a steady speed throughout the minuscule journey from there to their living room couch. Valéan had indeed given her a long lecture, long enough that by the end of it, she hobbled back to Patch and blacked out on her bed. She made some promises to the old battleship that got her out of more lecturing, but unfortunately, that meant she had to follow up on them. Namely, actually doing things that regular people did, what it was specifically didn't matter, but the next time they met Ruby had to tell her what she did.
Lying to her was a no-go, since she was a bad liar and Valéan was experienced enough to see one a nautical mile away. So, that resulted in Ruby having to actually make an effort to do 'normal' things. Hovering just behind Yang, her lips slowly parted, and a voice in between reserved and strangled came out of them.
"H-Hey Yang…"
Her sister looked up from the TV, a confused expression plastered over her face.
"Yeah? What's up, Rubes?"
She was crossing the 'T' now, there was no going back. Taking a deep breath, she spoke, stuttering slightly as she did. "Do…do you want to h-hang out today? It's the weekend and-"
Faster than she could dodge, Yang had brought a hand directly touching Ruby's forehead, while her other free hand touched her own. "I don't feel a fever…are you feeling alright?!"
Ruby was speechless, which was then followed by a feeling of indignance. She wasn't that bad normally, right?
"I'm fine! Mein Gott, look, do you want to hang out today or not? We could go s-shopping or whatever."
Right after Ruby said that Yang's previously concerned face slowly started morphing, and by the end of it, she had the biggest shit-eating grin she had ever seen from her. The foreboding feeling from earlier intensified, and Ruby began feeling beads of sweat forming on her forehead. Patting Ruby's shoulder a few times, she let go and began walking up the stairs.
"Sure! Let me get dressed and I'll meet you outside, won't be long!" Despite Yang's sing-song tone, Ruby breathed a sigh of relief. The last few times Yang had tried to do something similar she had always blown her off. So the fact that this time was successful-
"DAD! QROW! RUBY WANTS TO HANG OUT WITH US, GET UP!"
"Wha-you serious?!"
"She's actually asking us?! I gotta see this, gimme five and I'll be ready!" The last one was Uncle Qrow, who had just returned from another mission last night. Ruby's original plan was to just hang out with Yang today, needless to say, that has since been torpedoed spectacularly. Standing completely still in the living room, save for her trembling hands balled into fists, the feeling that she may have gotten way more than she asked for lingered on.
Just a little.
High above in the skies over Vytal, Atlesian transport ship #58 was carrying an unusual collection of military personnel. Aside from the technicians and engineers that made up the majority of them, the one who led the entire odd collection was a specialist. Winter Schnee, of the Schnee family, leading them meant two things. One, the operation was important, and two, it was personally overseen by General Ironwood.
The odd thing about it was not the roles that each member had, but rather it was made up of people from entirely separate branches. Despite the rivalry that the Atlesian Navy had with the Army, General Ironwood had somehow managed to wrangle a few personnel from the Atlesian home fleet to 'join and support' Winter on this operation.
To say that not everyone in the group liked it was an understatement, as the naval personnel sat in their own corner of the transport, far away from the Army personnel, the feeling was mutual. Despite the potential headache that she expected from this odd makeup, Winter was determined to see her mission through. It was the first time she was given command of a group as large as this, and she would not fail.
"Excuse me, Specialist Schnee?"
Looking to her side, she saw an Ensign standing right next to her seat, the face of the young officer anxious as she stood at attention. Squinting her eyes, Winter looked at her uniform for any nametag, before finding that there was none. Unfortunately, with how fast the group was formed, she was not able to familiarize herself with everyone under her command.
"Ah, I'm sorry Ensign…?"
" Anikanov, I was sent from the Design Ministry?"
Anikanov, Winter remembered seeing that name on the list. Her last name was from Solitas's eastern regions, where shipbuilding was historically a large portion of its industry in lieu of mining operations. The Design Ministry was responsible for most of the Atlesian military equipment, usually deciding on which designs to move forward with after they were submitted by various arms companies. There were unscrupulous ways that arms companies often bypassed the Ministry entirely but that was beside the point. Winter was now in command, and as such, had to look and act the part.
"Right, Ensign Anikanov, is there something you wish to talk about?"
"Um, yeah-I mean yes. I wasn't really given a briefing before I got stuffed onto a flight to Atlas and everything…so may I know why I was suddenly assigned to this operation?"
Winter sighed internally, this operation was formed ad-hoc in just a few days, meaning that there were very short notices for most of the personnel with her right now. Still, the fact that the General managed to snag someone from the Design Ministry meant that their target for this operation must have been genuine enough for the Admirals there to acquiesce to his demands. Winter could still scarcely believe the 'target' for this operation, it felt like she and everyone there were chasing ghosts, quite literally.
"Sit, I am aware of the…short notice, but this should clear up why you are here, Ensign Anikanov."
Turning on her datapad, Winter opened the latest intelligence report obtained from the Valean coast guard, stopping specifically at a photo that was taken of their target. Winter remembered her eyes nearly bulging out when she was first given the report, in fact, she could still scarcely believe it. Still, she trusted in General Ironwood, and that alone was worth more to her than any rumour.
"Here, what do you make of this?"
Handing it over to Anikanov, the brunette took it in her hands gently and began looking at the report.
"What…? Is that…?"
"It is, believe me, I am just as surprised as you are."
Of all the targets Winter initially expected, a giant 'ghost' battleship was not on her list at all. Regardless, the goal of the operation was to ascertain and make contact with it, then the next steps were to be decided once those two initial goals were fulfilled. All in all, a very simple-sounding mission.
"That's a superstructure…archaic, but functional…are those main batteries?! Must be fourteen-fifteen-no, sixteen inches at least…"
Anikanov was engrossed with the picture, zooming in and out quickly at every part of it that showed the battleship. It was bigger than anything Atlas or even Remnant had made before in terms of sea-faring warships, so the fact that it was real and not some well-made hoax made Winter feel uneasy. If that thing was functional and operational, what else was hiding in Remnant's oceans?
"Ensign? Your initial thoughts?"
"Oh! Uh…" Anikanov handed the tablet back to Winter, her gloved hand scratched the back of her head as she replied. "Archaic, at least sixty, seventy years out of date. But, you won't find anything else on Remnant that shoots as many shells down range, even our airships probably can't match that thing."
While most of the Atlesian Navy had switched to airships, the drawback was that they had to split their gravity dust output on not only propulsion but also levitating in place to prevent it from falling. As a result, armament had to be kept as lightweight as possible, hence the use of laser batteries as opposed to traditional shell-based artillery. It had a similar level of firepower, but less range and reliability due to the nature of lasers and the technology used. You couldn't 'arc' lasers to hit a target beyond visual range after all.
"And what about finding it? Surely something that big is easy to find?" Winter did not understand how the Valean Coast Guard could lose a battleship, but apparently, that was what happened in the report.
"Um, I wouldn't be so sure about that…" Upon focusing her eyes on Anikanov, the Ensign made an 'eep' sound.
"Explain."
"Well…the ocean is pretty big, something as big as that can hide very well if it's well concealed…" Anikanov began talking, but the more Winter narrowed her eyes, the less confident she became.
"B-but! It's not like the thing can just disappear! So there has to be docks or a base that it uses, and if we find that…"
Then they could find the battleship. Winter hummed, it was as good a plan as any for now.
"May I ask a question? Ma'am?"
"Ask."
"What are we going to do once we contact it? It hasn't attacked anything, so maybe it's friendly?"
Winter huffed in response, assuming that something like that was 'friendly' could end in disaster. However, she was under strict orders by General Ironwood to make a 'good first impression' if they did find it, but she was also to ensure the 'safety of Vale's oceans' by any means necessary. The Atlesian Home Fleet was under a heightened state of readiness, and if anything did happen…
Winter turned back to Anikanov. "Get some rest, Ensign. We won't be in Vale for another few hours. Check that your gear is functional-"
"Oh, um, the only things I have are my uniform and personal items…they didn't let me go back to my house and pack…"
Pinching the bridge of her nose, she knew it was going to take a couple of days for them to be fully operational once they landed. "We'll authorise you a lien card, get everything you need once you land in Vale."
As Anikanov went back to her own seat in the Naval personnel corner, Winter looked outside of her window. Right below her was the island of Vytal, where some of the largest naval actions of the Great War took place. The island was still scarred by large craters of dust shells from the fighting, and yet, it was where the treaty that ended the war was signed. The peace that followed lasted for a long time, until the Faunus Wars. Aside from that, peace reigned, and humanity as a whole enjoyed the peace that came after.
Was it a false peace? One built upon flimsy promises and agreements, destined to plunge Remnant back into violent war? Time would tell, and Winter would do anything to prevent it from happening once more.
If this 'Hutten' was a threat to Remnant's safety, then there would be no hesitation from her end.
AN:
Hello, been a month since the last chapter, so hope you all enjoyed it as we see the Atlesians make their first move.
Anikanov is taken from Oleg Anikanov, a prominent Soviet Naval engineer.
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