All warfare was based on deception.
At least, that was what some old Mistralian book he read while drunk claimed, or was it a random poster he was hallucinating as a book? He didn't exactly remember the fuzzy details all too well, but it sounded wise, so there had to be a kernel of truth to it. If so, however, why the hell was Qrow snooping around the Vale dockyards, alone and quite a ways away from where his target was? A great question, if he also knew the answer. Well, he sort of knew.
You see, he had the brilliant idea of ditching Winter in the middle of the street to go off and investigate something on his own. That worked out perfectly, he got the location of who he assumed was Hutten, meeting with Torchwick for a Bullhead or something. Under normal circumstances, he would have pat himself on the back and treated himself to a high quality whisky for being such a fine field operative. Unfortunately however, Winter reported his 'betrayal' to Ironwood, and thus subsequently made Goodwitch come at him like some first-year Beacon student caught cheating in a test. She did compare the two of them like 'petulant children' and the face on Winter as she heard that was well worth any chewing out he had to endure from her.
It wasn't his fault that no one impressed on him the 'cooperative' nature of this assignment, nor was he particularly sorry about 'ditching his partner in the middle of a mission' according to Jimmy. What was he even going to do? Have him shot? If he worked under that asshole in the future, he would have shot himself.
Lazily walking through the empty and near-wrecked rows of shelves, he knew the area he was in had no activity, save for the rats and other small animals that have since made the area their home. No, while Winter got to 'monitor' the situation from above in her fancy 'stealth' airship, Qrow got the duty of checking out other areas in the docks for 'suspicious activity'. He'd bet his left nut that Winter was doing mental quotation marks when she told him about it. So much for being partners, huh?
Anyways, that didn't mean he couldn't keep tabs on the operation his own way. Taking another swig from his flask, he found a sturdy enough tower of sorts and made that his observation point. He couldn't clearly see his targets, either the twins or Hutten, but he was in Winter's comms network, hearing everything that she was saying from her end. Based on what he had heard over the past half an hour, however, Winter's efforts ran into some…bad luck.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE CAN'T GET A CLEAR IMAGE?! SHE'S WALKING OUT RIGHT IN THE OPEN!"
"Uh, ma'am, she's walking in pitch black darkness, the only reason we're able to even know she's there is because of our thermals-"
"Then why aren't you using it for a picture?! Don't we have night vision?!"
"T-There's some sort of i-interference I don't know what's going on but-we can't get a clear image on that either…"
"This is Atlas's top-of-the-line surveillance technology, are you telling me that we used all that money just to get results like this-"
Qrow poured one out for the poor technician who had to deal with Winter right now. Or rather, he poured it straight into his mouth, but it was the thought that counted, right?
In any case, Qrow was perfectly content letting Winter 'handle' this operation. He did steal her thunder and leave her alone the last time, so he could let her have this one. With that said however, based on what few images they did have of Hutten, all they knew was that she had short hair, black with red streaks and was roughly around his niece Ruby's height. Actually, based on what few descriptions they did manage to get, it sounded exactly like Ruby, but she was currently on Patch, having had dinner with Tai and Yang just a couple of hours ago based on their family group chat. How could she even get there, with her non-existent boat?
Chuckling to himself at their similarities, he put those thoughts away, funny as they were. Ruby, being a smuggler who was working with Torchwick? Even if Ozpin himself came to him saying those words, the first thing he'd do was call Glynda because then the old immortal had finally lost his marbles.
Though his vision started to get somewhat hazy from emptying half of his flask, he could still very clearly make out two figures out on the edge of a long pier. Using his gut instinct, he guessed that one of them was probably Hutten, and the other one…a White Fang lieutenant?
Wait, no, his eyes were not deceiving him, that was a White Fang lieutenant next to Hutten. Holy shit, was Hutten working with the White Fang-
"All units, this is Winter Schnee, White Fang presence verified, move in and apprehend."
Nearly fumbling his shitty Atlas-issued communicator out, Qrow immediately shouted a negative back into it, but despite hearing the click and red light indicating that he was getting through, the flurry of voices coming back on it drowned out his protests. Not even a few seconds later, he heard the veritable armada of police cruisers on standby begin whirring their sirens, already making a beeline towards their targetted dockyards.
Deciding that wasn't going to work, he took out his scroll and dialed Winter's number, how he got it was something he didn't like remembering, but having it was better than the wound to his pride Glynda inflicted on him. Pacing back and forth with agitation, his eyes trained on the docks the entire time, the other end eventually picked up to Winter's annoyed voice.
"What is it, Qrow? I'm about to drop in-"
"I should be asking you that fucking question! That is not what we agreed on!"
It was bad enough that she insisted on dragging out a good quarter of Vale PD for their 'stakeout', owing to the fact that she didn't actually have any troops she could call on. Her entire team essentially only had herself combat-capable, the rest were non-combatants like that poor technician she was wringing just now.
"The situation has changed, the White Fang are confirmed to be in conspiracy with Hutten, the General has given me explicit orders on what to do if such a thing came to reality." Winter replied coolly, meaning that that paranoid bastard Jimmy had such a thing thought up just in case. They didn't even suspect her to be involved with the Fang before, and now they couldn't even confirm the exact nature of their relationship because Winter had jumped the gun. Everyone knew that the White Fang worked with the underworld, it was an open secret to anyone remotely involved in the dark underbellies of the kingdoms. Everyone except the Atlesians apparently, who had banished their underworld into the ever more irrelevant Mantle.
Even if Winter knew, would she have cared however? The answer to that question, at least to Qrow, came back quickly as a resounding most likely not.
"You and what goddamn army?! Those police aren't going to be able to break through the White Fang, and you don't have your shiny chrome army here-"
Underworld goons like Junior's gang? Sure, they could handle them, trained insurgents however? Qrow didn't like their odds, but Winter cut him off before he could tell her to pull them back before they all got killed.
"Funny you should say that, but we do indeed have our Army here, part of it anyways. Look, there they go now, we were saving them for an occasion exactly like this."
What he assumed was Winter's fancy airship swooped down seemingly from nowhere, hovering just slightly above a pier with a floating Bullhead parked next to it. From his distance, he could make out small white figures dropping out of it and landing, Atlesian knights, the newest kinds that were just announced. Two dozen roughly fell out of the airship, all surrounding one specific area in the docks, completely ignoring the White Fang behind them for some reason.
"This is my call to arms, Qrow. Try not to miss too much of the action from where you are."
Winter hung up after that, he swore he could have heard her sneer all the way from his tower on the other side of the docks district. Bastard Schnee probably made her way out of the craft as well, meaning that…
"Not enough booze for this shit tonight…" Taking one last swig, he tucked his flask tightly into his shirt pocket, before leaping off, in its place replaced by a frantically speeding crow. Flapping its wings to the best of its ability, a crow was not as fast as a falcon, or as strong as an eagle, but against the backdrop of the night sky, they were virtually invisible. Still, managing to cover a fair distance, he could begin making out the ones that Winter had surrounded, with Hutten being the particular target of her ire. Planning to swoop down in between to 'diffuse' the situation, Qrow began descending rapidly, hoping to make it in time before Winter swung or-
BOOM
"KWAK?!" In what was definitely not his proudest moment, Qrow unconsciously brought one of his wings to cover his avian eyes from the bright flash, being much more sensitive than his own human ones. Unfortunately, it also meant that he was no longer flying downwards, so much as he was now falling rapidly from the air.
"KWAAAAK?!" Translating that from whatever bird language was would have made even the saltiest old tar nod in approval at its creativity. Loathe as he may have been to admit, maybe Winter was having a much better time than he was right now?
"YEARGH!"
Winter stumbled back heavily, her senses all overloaded and blaring inside her mind like a foghorn. She was blinded, deafened, and her nose smelled some chemical being burned off, overpowering everything else, not that she could have smelled anything else aside from the sea beforehand. Her three main senses, sight, sound and smell were blocked, so touch was the only thing she could feel right now. Aside from her grip on her sabre intensifying, she didn't know anything else, being just as blind as-
"Pathetic. If this is what Atlas's vaunted specialists are capable of, perhaps Mantle should never have agreed to build the floating city at all."
Though her ears still rang loudly, Winter could hear that cold, distant and unforgiving voice quite clearly. Despite Hutten sounding no older than her own little sister, it nonetheless made her flinch in response. Gritting her teeth, she attempted to get a clearer picture of her enemy, though all she got in return was a vague, black blob illuminated by a fiery orb between them.
"Y-You think this is enough to defeat me?!"
Training kicking in, she summoned a glyph behind her, right now she needed distance, and thus summoned a flock of pigeons to push her back. Winter did not know how long she kept that up, but it was long enough for her vision to gradually return, and what she saw-realized made her breath hitch.
Hutten simply walked towards her, ignoring her summons crashing into her as if they were harmless. She saw them go through a veteran Beowolf like they were artillery rounds, how were they pinging off of Hutten like they were peas?!
"You would need a lot more firepower to get through my armor." What armour?! She was wearing a black…coat of some kind! If anything, Winter was the one who had more 'armour' and was better dressed than her!
"Alas, thy futile efforts…end here."
Dashing in faster than she could react, Winter was literally held up in the air, one hand gripped tightly on her throat. As Hutten was literally quite a few heads shorter than herself, the sight was bizarre to see, but for Winter, she was currently struggling for her life right now to worry about such trivialities. After a brief moment of struggle and wyrming in her grip, she suddenly remembered that she had her shorter sword as well. Popping it out of her sabre, in one swift motion she caught it with her left hand, and plunged it into Hutten's exposed sides.
"Cute." Hutten's amused silver eyes were not at all the reaction she was expecting. Normally, when you were stabbed in your sides, the reaction should be one of excruciating pain, not amusement. Jerking her head to see her left hand, the slinking feeling she got was not of her parrying sword going into Hutten's vital organs, but rather, into her clothes. Pulling it out, her eyes snapped wide open as she started at the tip of her weapon, completely bent and out of shape, as if she had tried to stab a solid chunk of steel.
Gasping for air, she felt Hutten's grip on her throat begin to tighten, before lowering her slightly, so that they were staring at each other directly. Remembering one last thing she could use, she commanded her knights to open fire with her earpiece, only to be met with complete silence, an absence of the familiar cracks in gunfire from them.
"Good girl."
The black serpent monster that she read was Hutten's semblance slinked up next to its master. As Hutten ribbed what she assumed was its nose, the overgrown metal monstrosity held the head of a prototype 200-series knight in its ravenous jaws. Darting her eyes around her, though her vision was limited, she could very clearly make out the knights she brought with her all laid out on the ground. Some, mangled beyond recognition or even sliced into pieces, she looked back at the beast that was currently nudging its head towards Hutten like a puppy. Two dozen of Atlas's premier knights, all gone in that brief span of time, if Winter could whimper, she would have definitely done so.
Despite that however, either because of pride, ego or a simple desire to defy her enemy, she croaked out a simple insult. "D-Damn you…if you think you can get away…"
"Prideful, aren't you? You come here, flaunt your authority and hope that all would bend to your desires? Incompetent at best, foolish at worst. I wonder how an Offizier like you even made it past your academy, though that may be more indicative of its quality in the first place."
Now both of her hands were trying to pry Hutten's steel-like grip off of her throat, but to no avail. Despite pushing her Aura to the maximum towards her hands, Hutten's own did not move a single inch. A spotlight then shined seemingly out of nowhere, blinding Winter even more, looking up at its source, she found it to be her stealth dropship, newly developed and urgently sent to her by orders from the General. The whole ship arrived in Vale just this morning along with the knights, it was as much as a prototype test as it was for actual, practical concerns.
"Disable it."
Disable? Winter thought, though it didn't last long before another boom, this time smaller than the last one, but still coming from the metal serpent. A small, orange ball of light formed from the beast's mouth, similar to what some of her summons were capable of. Somehow using the knight head it held in its jaws, it launched the severed part into the air, causing a shockwave to ebb throughout the pier. Daring to open her eyes again, she caught it just as the head arced across the docks, before ultimately impacting the body of the airship with a loud bang.
"MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! We took a hit! It's messing with our systems, we're gonna have to set her down!" A voice that she recognized as the airship's pilot blared in her earpiece, and indeed, she watched as the airship began jerking in the air, before descending erratically.
Slowly, Winter turned back to look at Hutten, who had remained the same. Expressionless, unmoving. She could have been mistaken, but perhaps the illuminating fires behind her, coupled with the horns on her head made her seem demonic, as if she had come from the pits of hell, with her serpentine familiar to collect on all of her sins. Though it was probably her silver, glowing eyes, where instead of a regular human eye, there was a dark slit in their centre, boring a hole deep into her very being. Inhuman in nature, exactly like the White Fang fanatics she had faced in the past.
"What are you?!"
Hutten did not answer. The last thing Winter saw was her rearing back a fist, and her own Aura shattering.
Unceremoniously plopping Winter Schnee down onto the floor, Ruby was less than impressed at her showing. Both of Atlas's supposed technological prowess, and the strength of their advertised specialists. She read that some online called them Atlas's own answer to 'ineffective' huntsmen and huntresses, load of shite that turned out to be if that was the best she could do. Hell, even Goodwitch managed to get some good cuts into her, those bird things she summoned barely managed to even make a dent in her. A difference in semblance strength perhaps? Making sure that the airship she came in was no longer up in the air, she turned around to face her 'compatriots' (she wasn't sure what to call Torchwick at that moment).
"She's dealt with, we can leave-"
"WHAT?!" Militia's shout made Ruby wince. As it turned out, firing a star shell, even if they weren't from her main batteries still resulted in deafness. Though she should be glad that she fired it in the vicinity of those who had Aura, who knew what would have happened if they didn't? From simple deafness to ruptured eardrums probably.
"Okay, wait it's slowly coming back…Oum be damned Red! What the hell did you do?!" Torchwick was the next one to recover, and he was greeted by the absolute carnage Ruby and Schwarz had done in the short time frame between being surrounded, and being blinded.
"I took care of it?" Ruby asked/responded, it was more of a double answer really.
"Yeah, I'm just reading your lips right now, but holy hell, nice work! Worth every penny I'll be paying you later! Let's get outta here before more weirdos show up-"
Just as Roman strode forward, a stray shot came from nowhere, piercing the cockpit window of the floating bullhead. For a moment there, nothing seemed to happen and everything was fine. Ruby, who froze when the shot landed, took a tentative step towards the still bullhead, which then burst into flames.
"Oh, so it did hit the fire Dust…didn't get to unloading those yet, damn those civilian bullheads don't have good bulletproof windows, huh?" Ruby ignored Roman, for she was currently busy watching the very thing she came here for becoming a flaming wreck. Not even a dozen seconds later, a hole had burned through it, causing the whole thing to be submerged.
She didn't even get the chance to touch it, let alone see it up close…
No, she was not pouting, she was enraged, though if Yang had been here she may have offered an alternative opinion.
"Okay, never had that happen to me before…actually, never had the coppers come at me like today either, you sure you aren't spreading bad luck around?" Ruby rounded on him faster than he could blink, making Torchwick gulp at the sheer intensity of her glare. Though he didn't know it, saying that a particular Kansen was spreading bad luck was a huge taboo, no one wanted to have the reputation of Kamchatka from the Northern Parliament after all. Though how much of that was caused by her, and actually bad luck was debatable.
"Well, um, anyways we just have to take one of those White Fang bullheads instead then, come on! I'm sure we can just make room for the five of us-oh come on!" The roar of bullhead engines above them made Roman cry out in anguish, and they could all see a squadron of them take to the skies. They even had a special White Fang-inspired roundel painted on their engines, something she wasn't aware they even had until now.
"One…three…five…seven-okay that's all of them. Fuck. I can't believe it, those animals actually left us?! What have I ever done to them?!" Neo had a deadpan expression at him as he cursed them out loud, but otherwise did not raise a sign about it.
"Shit, we're gonna have to go through the VPD, aren't we?" Melanie said what they all thought out loud. Generally speaking, their goals were to avoid combat right now, not get dragged into a giant firefight with what seemed to be half of Vale's police force.
Torchwick checked the chamber inside his cane, loading in a dust round of sorts. "Well, unless you have any good ideas, we're gonna have to prepare for it. Neo could probably take us through the damn thing, but with that amount of gunfire, any stray round could shatter the illusion. Not to mention, all five of us, no offence."
Neapolitan's semblance was strong, and under the right circumstances a nightmare to deal with by her enemies. That much Ruby knew based on their scuffles with local gangs every so often. Unfortunately, however, it was less useful in a battlefield situation, where the odds of you catching a stray round tended to be as high as you peeking out. Besides, Neo could easily wrap an illusion around two people, but five were pushing it, and they didn't want any awkward encounters of them suddenly appearing in front of an army of police.
No, they needed another solution, and there was one she could bring to the table right now. Summoning her rigging, and then her actual ship self out for a getaway. But that was the absolute last thing she wanted to do, only for truly desperate situations. She didn't want to have anyone, most certainly not Torchwick of all people to find out about her 'true' nature by any means. But, the situation was fast spiralling out of control, any longer they waited was a higher risk of being discovered-
"No, we take the airship out." Ruby declared, causing Torchwick to rub his temples at her.
"Red, again, there are no more bullheads for us to take-"
"Not those, the one I shot down."
"The one you WHAT?! "
After a quick recanting of events, and Roman being surprised that Winter Schnee of all people had come to arrest them and failed, Ruby led the five of them discreetly through various shipping containers towards where she last spotted the Atlesian airship. The White Fang had some sort of guard that fell behind, allowing most of their compatriots to escape, but that seemed to be falling apart by the second. Not only was the area being swarmed by heavily armed police, but also by huntsmen who were called in as reinforcements.
"Where the hell is it?!" Occasionally those sounds of distant gunfire were interrupted by Roman's complaining.
"Quiet, it should be…there." Coming into full view, the Atlesian airship was not a model she recognized at all. Walking up the stairs to a bricked building's roof, she had a better look at the craft Schwarz had 'disabled'. Sleeker than a traditional bullhead or one of their dropships, it was similar to Siren aircraft from her memories. One built for sleek, and fast flying if she had to guess. She was pretty sure that automaton head that Schwarz bit off was stuck in one of its wings, she expected it to have punched clean through, so tougher than conventional airships as well.
Just as she guessed, there were a few Atlesian personnel all strewn around outside of the landed airship seemingly no worse for wear. They had no weapons, were wearing technician uniforms and were very lax even though they were essentially right next to an active firefight. Emerging from the shadows, Ruby didn't even have to say a word before they locked onto her with recognition, and more importantly, fear.
"It's her!"
"Oh fuck, she's the one who took out the specialist-"
"Run! Fuck the ship we gotta go!"
So much for Atlesian pride, seeing as how they abandoned their vehicle almost immediately. The rest of them weren't even acknowledged, and Roman should have been much more well known than she or the Malachite twins were.
"...What did you exactly do back there, Red?"
"What was needed." Ruby walked ahead before he could get out another word. Unsurprisingly, they had left the doors to their dropship wide open, and even the engines on standby. In comparison to her floatplanes, it was roughly one and a half times its base length, and with a wingspan almost twice the original. She wasn't even sure it could fit into her rigging well, but that wasn't the point now, they just had to leave the damn area like the White Fang had presumably done already.
Walking in, there were a bunch of papers, personal effects and even gadgets of some sort lying on the floor haphazardly. Taking a good look at it, she saw areas of the medium-sized dropship reserved for console use, probably what those technicians were working on before. Walking up to one of them, she noticed an open file on a console desk, a picture of her superstructure printed on it.
"Person of Interest…Hutten…"
Flipping through the rest of those pages revealed similar information, it was essentially a past record of all of her activities whether illegal or legal. From her earliest mentions and rumours all the way to the most recent encounters with the Valean coast guard. She came to the very obvious conclusion that Atlas was hunting her, and by that encounter she had just now, was their attempt at apprehending her. Perhaps that was why the Headmaster of Beacon was so keen to meet with her, to prevent a scenario like this from occurring.
"Hey, what's that?" Militia called out next to her, making Ruby close the file with a click. Taking a deep breath, she made sure that Torchwick and Neo were at the cockpit before turning to face Militia again.
"Were you followed here?"
That was a rude question, since asking it to a professional was akin to asking if their skills were subpar. Militia narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms before responding.
"No, we made sure of that. Why?"
Showing was better than telling, opening the file, she turned it to one of the later pages, stopping when it showed a picture of the Malachite twins leaving Junior's club.
"This morning?" Ruby asked the wide-eyed Militia, who simply nodded once.
"We were being followed, or rather, I was. They followed you, that led them to me, and then…" They led them to Torchwick's operation.
"Aren't you just a smuggler, Ruby? Why are they going after you like the White Fang?"
That was a great question to ask, and one that did not immediately get an answer from her. The closing of the dropship doors signalled that Roman finally had an idea of how to handle the damn thing, and indeed, they felt a jerk of thrust before the entire ship turned around and flew up into the air.
"Tell your sister, but don't tell Torchwick or Neo. I need to go through these files myself first." Militia could clearly tell that Ruby wasn't giving her the full story, but just as how personal business in the underworld was usually a private affair, she simply thinned her lips and gave an affirmative.
Settling into a corner of the dropship that was open, she opened the file and began pursuing it again while checking it for any details she may have missed. So far, they had not found who she really was, only sticking with the alias that she gave out that one time during a near-miss with a fishing boat. It was somewhat humorous actually, they assumed she was working with or for an organization that still operated archaic battleships. It wasn't a bad guess, considering that warships turned sentient and in 'human' form was an even more ridiculous proposition. What Atlas really knew was limited, and were even going down the wrong line of thought in certain areas.
Closing the file again, she tucked it away into her coat for later reading. By her own internal clock from her rigging, they had been in the air for roughly fifteen minutes since take-off, well beyond Vale's airspace by now. Stretching, she was about to inspect her clothing for any damage before realising that there was a latrine onboard the dropship. It wasn't unheard of for them to have one, beyond a certain size it was better for crews to have a dedicated latrine than use bags or other creative containment objects to relieve themselves.
Walking up to it, she saw that Torchwick and Neo were trying their best to work out the wall of switches and buttons that was their dashboard. They were still in the air right now, so they were doing something right with it, probably. Tugging on the handle, she saw that it was locked, did one of the Malachite twins get in before her? Looking behind her, that was not the case as the twins were messing around with some of the gadgets thrown onto the floor. The cockpit already had two pilots inside…thus leaving Ruby as the only one who could have potentially been using it.
Knocking twice on the latrine door, she heard nothing. Knocking again had the same result, it seemed that no one was inside it. Maybe the door locked itself when it took a hit or some other-
"Alright! I'm done, by Oum could you have at least told me when we were taking…off…" The door suddenly opened, revealing a somewhat familiar face, which was now staring face to face with Ruby. She met this person before somewhere…where did she…
"Y-You're the g-girl I met in t-the shopping district!" Oh right, something beginning with an A…
"Ensign Anikanov, good to see you again." Melanie and Militia by now had appeared right behind Ruby, their smiles showing fangs at the left-behind Ensign.
"Well, we have a stowaway on board!"
"Got left behind, huh? So much for military camaraderie, am I right?"
"Come out, slowly, take out any weapons you have and give them to me." Ruby instructed, with the frightened and wide-eyed officer nodding and following them moments later. She handed over a pen and her scroll to Ruby, and nothing else.
"No firearm?" She asked with an eyebrow raised.
"They, uh, didn't exactly trust me with it…" Placing a hand on her shoulder, Anikanov yelped as Ruby brought her to the cockpit, where the saw that they were currently flying over the forests of Sanus, somewhere above Forever Fall by the map indication.
"Caught a stowaway, huh Red?" Torchwick grinned as he inspected their guest. What was seldom discussed in military service was that there was a very big difference between soldiers who had frontline roles such as infrantry or armoured crew. However, those generally only constituted a small number of the actual army, with the rest working in backline duties that were equally as important if not greater such as logistics, administration and repair. Anikanov, who Ruby remembered being in the design ministry fell into the latter category, meaning that she was essentially a civilian who had a couple weeks of basic training at best, none of the frontline specific courses were ever given to someone like her.
"I'm a year from being discharged! I don't give a shit about all this crap, just don't throw me out of this ship!" Anikanov blurted out before anyone else could get a word in. Anyone could see that her knees were weak, and sweat dripped down from her head. Now she made Ruby feel bad, was she the one in wrong here?
"Red? Your call, you did get us out of there, so…"
Did he even need to ask? She shook her head at his suggestion before turning to look at the map. "We'll drop her off at a nearby settlement, there should be a few up ahead of Forever Fall. She can get a train back to Vale that way."
Neo stuck her tongue out at her, Ruby guessed she was saying something like 'bah, you're no fun' before going back to tapping away at some console she had found. Anikanov however, breathed a sigh of relief she never thought she had to make. Before Ruby could bring her out of the cockpit, however, she pointed at the console Neo was tapping away on.
"You did disable the IFF system, right?"
"IFF system?"
"Yeah, this is sort of like a stealth ship or whatever, it's an army thing they brought along. The IFF system is there so that friendly airships can identify it even when it's cloaked or something, j-just thought you might want to know."
No one said a word in the cockpit, the implications of that sinking in. Before Neo could tap on her console again however, the ship received a transmission blaring out of their onboard radio, one that was anything but friendly.
"This is Vice Admiral Gelè of the AFS Edelweiss, surrender your dropship or be blown out of the sky."
"Oh…they brought out our flagship…" Anikanov lamented, and indeed, the massive silhouette of an Atlesian aerial battleship broke cloud cover to show itself directly in front of them. Like an angry god that had come to take its offerings, Ruby could be forgiven for being a bit more dramatic in this scenario.
In an act that violated all known laws of aviation safety, Torchwick took out a cigar and lit it, as if he was taking his last puff.
"Red? Your ideas suck."
Ruby whacked him on the head, this whole thing was actually his fault, wasn't it?
Omake:
As Winter's pigeons continued to harmless ping off of Hutten, she could see an unimpressed look on her enemy's face.
"Really? Trying to citadel me when I have turtleback armour? What is this, Tier IV matchmaking?"
Winter let out a confused 'huh' at the random assortment of words Hutten threw at her. Turtleback? Tier V matchmaking? What the hell was she on about!?
"Uninstall, scrub."
KA-BOOM
(x1 Destroyed)
(x1 Hits to Citadel)
AN:
Wow, another long chapter and update?! Enjoy it, gonna be the last ones for a while-
Just to hammer in the point that Azur Lane Kansen are so much more than their counterparts in Kancolle for example, remember that scene in that anime where Sheffield faced off against Takao? She launched a ball of energy at her, call it lasers or whatnot. That didn't come from her riggings at all, presumably being from her Wisdom Cube to achieve that. Anyways, anything a Battleship can do, so can Ruby, and if we're being honest, so much more. Also in case it wasn't clear, Ruby's outfit is similar to Ulrich's own, with minor modifications, but it keeps the overall 'theme' similar to one another.
Hope you all got Ulrich during her rerun, I had to hit pity. Honestly, first time experiencing it in Azur Lane, left a damn sour taste in my mouth cause of it. At least I can get New Jersey/Shinano in the regular pool now.
Be civil in the comments below.
EDIT NOTICE 01/21/2024: Vice Admiral Julet changed to Vice Admiral Gelè