The Situation in Vale
"How many more must die before you give her what she wants?" -A message delivered to Beacon with the heads of multiple missing Huntsmen
"I remember that night. The night that damned message went out. The Fall of Beacon was nothing compared to what followed that message"-a unnamed CCT engineer
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It was the only way" -rumored echos heard from outside the White Queens chambers at night
"I failed you, children. I failed you all." - Professor Greene upon seeing the results of The Cull
"There was no victory within a simple soul" -source unknown
To explain Vale's current situation we must go back. Back before the Fall of Atlas, when the name "The Fall" only referred to a relatively small butchering in Vale and not the destruction of Atlas.
Still staggered from the White Fang/Grimm/Corrupted Paladin attack, The defenders of Vale attempted to reorganize and regroup. The Vale militia was activated and what few Huntsman could be mustered from secure settlements were called in to join the Huntsman (a Council sponsored entity which was an attempt to organize the spread out Huntsmen forces) in order to clear Vale of Grimm. Some came out of pride, others came for the money the Vale Council offered, and some even came to stealthily loot the city ruins. Regardless, the bloody work began, to clear street after street of Grimm. There was something different now, though, as opposed to being rushed by the "mindless" Grimm they were used to, these Grimm employed basic strategies to devastating effect. Lone Ursas were attacked by huntsmen and militia only for them to be ambushed by sub-terranean Grimm that popped up out of the ground and attack them. Nevermores and other airborne Grimm struck resupply points and medical centers.
As if that wasn't bad enough, Grimm from other continents seemed to be spread around Vale. The sewers were especially dangerous to clear, having been infested by Creeps who used their claws to hang on the ceiling and wait for unsuspecting huntsmen to fall into their traps and Lancers whose swarms were especially dangerous to those caught out of position or lost in the labyrinthian sewers.
Nevertheless, the forces of Vale pushed forward even through the myriad casualties. This was their home and it would not be defiled by these creatures any longer.
After the bloody and tedious work of clearing out the streets and the sewers inch by inch ensuring no Grimm were left inside to threaten the populace that would return, only Beacon and its CCT tower remained uncleared. Originally, away teams were sent there to re secure the area after Beacon was evacuated due to the nature of the surprise attack, but none of them returned, and once the main force arrived at Beacon the reason why became readily apparent.
During the street clearing, no one paid any mind to the missing Atlas robots. After all, the mechanism which controlled them had been mostly destroyed, what had they to fear? Maybe they had just been scavenged by some sick opportunist or the Atlesian cowards had just taken them before they left.
However, upon opening the doors of the Beacon academy it had become immediately clear that the Grimm had taken each and every Paladin and Knight they could find and had given them to Geists who used them to create bipedal mechanical monstrosities called Constructs and animated them with their terrible will.
Entire Militia and Huntsman squads were killed by their opening salvos alone; for almost none stand up to their combined firepower coming from their limbs made of the weapons of Atlas's Warmachines. Even worse was that these Constructs seemed to not be hindered by the primitive concept of ammunition and they used their telekinesis to incorporate the weapons and armor of fallen Constructs and Huntsmen alike to make themselves bigger. It was difficult to injure or harm these abominations as the Geists had made pockets for their heads within the armors thereby blocking their only vulnerable spot.
Some would call the Second Battle of Beacon "The Crucible", but those who were there called it the "72 Hours of Hell". The Geists had made entire battle plans. They would retreat and lure unsuspecting Huntsmen into kill zones, or collapse the ceiling of the room on top of those unfortunate enough to be in their sights. The Geists within the Constructs were fast despite their bulky frame, and could even fly to gain the high ground on their enemies. As if the scene couldn't get more hellish, Chills piloted those who fell during the Fall of Beacon and during the battle itself, animating the dead against their once allies.
Eventually, however, through the intervention of Huntsman like Glynda Goodwitch, who used her powers to tear apart entire Constructs, Dr. Oobleck, who used his speed and his flamethrower to melt through the Grimm's armor and burn the Geists inside, and Professor Port, who, according to witness testimony, ripped open multiple Constructs with his bare hands and beat the (notably almost incorporeal) Geists to death with his fists after his ax was caught in a Construct and he didn't have time to retrieve it.
What was once a slaughter had become a winnable battle. Not to be outshone, multiple Vale Milita squads used rocket launchers to destroy the outer frames of the Constructs allowing other forces to shoot at the exposed Geist underneath. Many sacrifices were made like militia killteam FYRE who bought time for many other militia squads to regroup and get into cover during the Constructs opening salvo, many professional huntsmen lost their lives trying to protect their comrades from the numerically superior Grimm. However, predictably, after 72 hours the last Construct, Chill, and Geist fell, and the ruins of Beacon were resecured.
Needless to say, almost every prospective Huntsman team who participated in either the reclamation of Beacon or Vale, and survived Vytal were given their Huntsman licenses. The Headmistress Glynda herself admitted, "If you can survive this and perform the duties of a Huntsman during this crucible, then you deserve to call yourself Huntsman." At this point the morale of Vale would reach its peak as everyone who heard the news celebrated for an entire night. However, even while the celebration was happening, dire news arose. The CCT was nearly destroyed and it would take months of repairs and back-breaking labor to finish it.
And so, the next day, the rebuilding process began, and some say it never really ended after that. Some Huntsmen left to protect their settlements, but others stayed to help with the rebuilding. Eventually, things got to the point where electricity ran semi-regularly and the Vale Council was reinstated. The first official action of the Vale Council was to recognize the actions of the brave Huntsman and Militia who had in effect saved all of their lives. Then the survivors were organized and sent to critical areas for rebuilding. The students cleared Emerald Forests permanently and used the lumber from those trees to aid the rebuilding effort. Months passed and things were looking up. The engineers had made remarkable progress towards rebuilding Beacon Tower and had actually managed to get it semi-functioning allowing it to sometimes connect with local areas even though global communications were still down. The industrial sector was recovering and basic consumer goods could be made. The Vale citizens were now returning to a sense of normalcy.
While recovery was happening, the Vale council reformed the Vale Police, filling it with patriots from any militia or Huntsman who would be loyal to them and them alone. Never again would a Breach or Fall ever happen because of corruption or laziness. The walls of Vale were rebuilt and expanded upon. Other Huntsman took on civilian jobs, returned to their villages, or got back to work running around the outer settlements killing Grimm.
The hearts of the people and Vale were strengthened as the Huntsmen and Militia who fought for their city worked in construction sites able to carry and lift large and heavy objects easier than most. Factory workers only needed to look down the assembly line to wonder what these heroes were doing for the community. Beacon became a hub of information collecting data and sending The Huntsmen Army to counteract Grimm attacks. Glynda became the new Headmaster and accepted any worthy candidates who passed the "tests" (Beowolf and Ursa eliminations, supply truck escorting through Grimm infested territories, and Settlement Patrol) under the appraisal and supervision of professional Huntsman. Each student had gone through the hardships caused by The Fall and some were even qualified militiamen who fought at the Second Battle of Beacon and tried out after the militia was deactivated.
The Future of Vale seemed bright. The forces of Vale had taken the hardest hit since the Great War all those years ago and came up standing. Vale seemed destined to rise like a phoenix from the ashes of the Vytal Festival.
Until one day when the engineers at Beacon tower were about to fix global communications and, in fact, they were already receiving a faint signal. This was their chance. Finally, global communication could be reestablished after being dark for so long. After some tinkering, they actually managed to patch it through. It was a message from Atlas.
A message that was supposed to only show up on the tiny screen in the experimental communication room.
A message that soon covered every screen in Beacon Tower.
A message that spread to every scroll, digital billboard, computer, and TV in Vale.
A message that spread to every settlement capable of CCT communication.
A message that overrode every safety protocol in place at the CCT.
Here is that message:
Message begins*
Unseen: "Okay, go ahead."
A young woman appears, later recognized as Ruby Rose of the Student Huntress Team RWBY who was last reported missing after leaving her father's home.
Ruby Rose: "Um, Uh. Hi. My name is Ruby Rose. I'm a Huntress. And if we've done everything right, then I'm talking to all of Remnant right now. Dr. Polendina can explain more later, but right now you all need to know that the Kingdom of Atlas is under attack. Things are dire and we need help. But please, try not to panic. This isn't some new enemy or invading kingdom. This is a force we've faced before. For centuries... Salem. The White Fang, Atlesian Drones, even the Grimm themselves have all been controlled and manipulated by her, in order to tear down the Huntsmen Academies. [Data Corrupted however witness testimony says it explained the concepts of Relics beneath Academies and the concept of magical beings called Maidens who are the only ones capable of opening the vaults to the Relics] I know the idea of the maidens and relics seems... well... crazy, but I promise Professor Goodwitch of Beacon and Headmaster Theodore of Shade can verify all of this. They might even be able to help organize a way to fight back, but, sadly, General Ironwood can no longer be trusted. [Data Corrupted] we didn't have time to prepare for Salem. But now you do! Just because she can't be destroyed doesn't mean she can't be beaten. If she really was unstoppable, she wouldn't have acted with such caution until now. She knows we're a threat! So even if we- even if Atlas fails, you can't give up! I hope Amity tower will help bring us all together. Because in the end. That's how we'll win.-"
The message ends.
If Ruby had been expecting a reaction from her worldwide audience, she got one from the people in Vale. However, it was not what she intended.
With the Fall of Beacon fresh in their minds, confused, scared civilians were informed of an unkillable, ancient, Grimm Queen and responded in the most obvious and predictable way possible; they panicked.
Riots spread like wildfire throughout the continent. Dust, food, water, and other essentials were hoarded and fought over. Neighbor turned against neighbor, and families fought over scraps, and the streets ran red with the blood of the weak, the insane, and the desperate. Even worse was the cutting off of communications within Vale and to other settlements immediately after the message.
Had the Beacon Tower been under normal strength, it would have been barely able to handle the stress of a message this widespread. As it was though, the overriding of every safety protocol ever put in the CCT employee manual and hardcoded into the Beacon Tower itself caused multiple programming, electrical, and hardware systems to fail simultaneously.
Every server had a problem, warning signals blared, and every system that could have possibly failed did leaving the country of Vale without local communications.
Engineers scrambled to fix the problems, but even if everyone had simultaneously appeared right there and then with the sole goal of fixing the Tower it would still take at least 2 weeks before communication to the city would be up again, let alone the rest of Vale. And that was assuming they all survived the standoff happening outside.
The situation in Vale was bleak.
Even worse was the reaction of the Vale Council. They hadn't trusted Ozpin or Glynda very much to begin with, but to discover a conspiracy of this magnitude? Where did it end? Was Salem behind Mountain Glenn? The Breach? The Fall? Was every tragedy in Vale caused by a force hidden from them for centuries by the Huntsman Academy Staff as this girl claimed?
Under the Council's orders, Vale Police locked down Beacon's Airstrip and refused to unlock it unless Glynda, the Staff of Beacon, and their co-conspirators went into police custody. Unfortunately, Beacon's former students and current students were not pleased with this line of thinking and were more concerned with getting the rioting under control. Tensions were high, Huntsman and the Vale Police reached for their weapons and it looked like blood would once again cover the walls of Beacon.
Then, Glynda Goodwitch, Professor Port, Doctor Oobleck, and many of the staff walked out of Beacon and onto the airstrip. Guns were aimed. Safeties were disengaged. Missiles from the weaponized Mantas and Bullheads locked onto targets. It was said that if anyone had moved a centimeter, spoke, or breathed in a slightly different way war would have descended onto Beacon. However, Glynda and her group surrendered and acknowledged that in desperate times cooperation was needed.
With the situation in Beacon dealt with, the Vale council declared martial law hoping that allowing the Huntsmen, and the police force to do whatever was necessary to reestablish order would expedite the process. When the Huntsman dropped into Vale they found the isolated Huntsman and militia forces being assisted by the elements of the criminal underworld, whose members had established a shelter for those who sought safety from their insane civilian counterparts and medical assistance at multiple areas around the city.
Using these as landing zones/bases of operations, the combined forces of the criminals, the Huntsman, and the Police were able to start to reestablish order. Huntsman used their semblances and reputation to calm down the people. "Why are you panicking? We're right here among you. There aren't any Grimm here. Don't you see you're playing into the hands of whoever did this?" And things to a similar effect were shouted at the people in the streets.
During this time, the debate in the council was endless. During the interrogation of Glynda Goodwitch, she confirmed everything Ruby had said and elaborated on the areas she had left out. The confirmation of everything in the message was grim, but where should they go from here? Where was this Relic of Choice? Did Salem know where it was? Did she have it? Glynda said the witch had agents, who else could be traitors? Obviously, they would have to get control of the situation in Vale and the other settlements, but what then? reinforce Atlas? Contact Vacuo and Mistral and try to unite against this threat? Did Salem have agents among their orders as well?
One thing every Council member agreed on was that they were alone. News that Mistral academy fell meant that the government was either corrupt or incompetent and couldn't be relied on. Atlas was/had already fallen and there was no use helping prop up a sinking ship. Vacuo had always been aloof and wouldn't help them even if they could. Vale would have to endure the coming storm alone.
Days later, the privately held trial of Glynda Goodwitch, Professor Port, and Doctor Oobleck commenced.
They stood behind their podiums, bound with aura canceling cuffs, accused of conspiracy, treason, the illegal withholding of information from the council, and generally covering up something that would have been really nice to know before they had sent multiple generations' worth of children into "that deathtrap of false promises and broken dreams." The councilmen were harsh in their criticism of the staff. How could they hide this? How many huntsmen had died not knowing that their efforts were in vain? How many more died knowing the truth, and had defected? Why was the Crown of Choice not used to end The Great War early? Why not reveal the danger of the Maidens before one of them went rogue and wreaked havoc? How were they supposed to defeat Salem?
However, the answers to most of these questions, if they even existed at all, had died with Ozpin.
The verdict was inevitable. While some argued to spare Glynda and the others as they might be the key to defeating Salem and had performed their duties with honor, the radical majority argued back that if they could've defeated Salem, they would have done it a long time ago. The defense was found guilty as charged and was sentenced to death.
However, this was not the fate of Glynda Goodwitch. No, compared to her fate, execution via chemical injection would have been kind and merciful.
The Council then attempted to re-secure their country with the largest deployment of Huntsmen in history. The strategy was theoretically sound: send a force of over 500 Huntsmen to secure the outer settlements, ferry the nearby villages to the secured settlements, fortify the settlements once they were secured, and then leave behind a detachment of huntsmen to keep fortifying and training the residents for when Salem appeared while the rest moved to secure inner the settlements. It was called The Wall Strategy, for the settlements retaken by the Huntsmen would serve as a wall to protect the city of Vale, now the only reliable source of industry they had access to. Under the leadership of Professor Peach, The largest Huntsman deployment bar the Battle of Atlas was sent out to "save the outer settlements".
They traveled for hours on Bullheads, sometimes stopping at nearby settlements and instructing them to fortify themselves while taking supplies for their trip. When they finally got to their destinations, a Huntsmen group made up of idealists, mercenaries, glory-seekers, and even some unscrupulous Beacon students jumped out of their vehicles already drunk on the promise of victory. They were sorely disappointed.
Some found themselves wandering abandoned settlements that had fallen years ago due to the unreliable maps that the Vale Council and their administration had haphazardly chosen. Others even found more recently emptied settlements and villages with a few bodies, Grimm infestations, and signs of a serious battle.
These forces regrouped with the others in villages that weren't abandoned and started fortifying. The one who had visited the decimated villages started speculating, though. What could have blown open Settlement's walls like that?
Even more worrying were the partially burned wooden structures left outside the walls in areas with little damage to the walls themselves. There were no reports of raiders this far out. Why would there be? there was nothing to take from poor subsistence farmers in the outskirts. Regardless, they would face the threat head-on. It was the Huntsmen way after all. That night in the "Wall" settlements the Huntsmen dug in and prepared for the fight of their lives.
The next morning they received it in spades.
The raiders of the other villages and settlements revealed themselves to devastating effect. The Grimm had indeed destroyed through villages recently, but it hadn't been just your average Beowolves and Ursas randomly attacking because of the message, though. No, such a threat would have been handled easily by the Huntsmen who had spread themselves across the settlements. Instead, the following night the Huntsmen who would become known as "The Culled" were each confronted with what would be known as a Centurion horde.
The Centurions were human-like Grimm creatures: bipedal, two-armed, and were capable of holding and using weapons fit to human specifications. The danger of the Centurions wasn't from their physiology, however, but from their intelligence and sheer numbers.
In over one hundred Centurion strong hordes, the Centurions had been crushing Settlements and Villages ever since the Fall, written off as not being able to communicate with Beacon's tower due to the distance. During this time, they learned to tame Ursas and Beowolves and use them as supplementary forces, mounts, and distractions. They appeared to even have a social structure and held great respect and honor to those Grimm of actual intelligence. Geists crafted crude weapons and armor out of whatever metal or wood they could find for them, Chills were escorted into destroyed villages and possessed the dead to bolster their forces, Goliaths were exclusively used as mounts as a reserved position for what appeared to be the oldest and most experienced Centurions, winged Grimm such as Nevermores were used to drop their forces behind the walls of settlements. (There were even rumors that a group of Centurions was seen conversing in some unknown language with a Nuckalvee. Make of that what you will). Some even wore the uniforms worn by the Militias of the towns they had slaughtered.
After seeing the horror that was these hordes, the bodies the Centurions hung above like grim banners of destruction as they marched towards their targets, the ones they didn't animate with Chills, the Beast-Grimm being nothing more than that to these new forms of Grimm and the eye-watering amount and types of Grimm in the horde, the Huntsman went through the Huntsmen disaster checklist which was vastly inadequate in this situation.
1. Evacuate Civilians.
2. Call for reinforcements.
3. Make a fighting retreat.
They made their best effort at the first allowing their Bullheads to be used as getaway vehicles for the panicking civilians (which would later prove to be a mistake as all that accomplished was spreading panic throughout even more of Vale). The rest would have to run as fast as they could in opposite directions while the Huntsmen bought time for them to escape.
The arrayed Huntsmen walked out of the Settlement walls and into open fields or forests where they could better use their flashy techniques, leaving the Walls and inner Settlements staffed by the militia who cheered on these Huntsmen as they faced defiant odds.
All the colors of the rainbow were on full display as they charged, being the epitome of the individuality that Vale had won so long ago. Their weapons were unparalleled masterpieces made by the finest Gunsmiths Vale could offer, their Semblances boosted the effectiveness of their unique fighting styles forged from their experience since birth, their outfits were each tailored to their personality showing off their true colors, the coldness and hostility of Remnant be damned. Huntsmen of every race, creed, sexuality, gender, and species screamed in defiance and met their Grimm foes in battle.
And it wasn't enough.
While their initial charge was extremely effective, tearing down many of the damned creatures in the first few minutes and even lasting the first few hours. However, the Centurions capitalized on the main weakness of Huntsmen at the time. Their fighting styles.
While unique in regard to weapons and Semblaces, the Huntsman of Vale almost universally relied on mobility to make up for their lackluster defensive capabilities. Indeed, battle armor was almost seen as archaic, a symbol rather than actual protection and only to be worn by Tournament fighters to prevent accidental injury or those who to pay respect to their honorable legacy. Even the few Huntsmen there who wore armor wore leather so that their movement wasn't hindered by it because most thought Aura reserves were enough. After all, most Grimm were either solitary or were weak even when they traveled in packs.
The Centurion hordes were another matter entirely. The horde surrounded these Huntsmen, limiting their movement, and struck. The Huntsmen were slashed, bitten, stabbed, and crushed repeatedly during the fight, and, eventually, even those with the largest Aura reserves were completely drained. They still fought on, though, even though it was hopeless. They would either survive this or die fighting, it was the Huntsmen way. At least, that was the propaganda spread by the Vale Council and their successor.
In truth, when the Huntsmen were surrounded and couldn't escape, each of them still denied that their deaths were possible, up until each a what could only be described as a moment.
For the group fighting in Riverside, the moment was when Myra, a goth faunas who had eagerly wanted to prove herself to her girlfriend, had her Aura broken, had her weapon knocked out of her hands, was dragged by the chains of her outfit in the horde kicking and screaming, and was heard screaming over the sounds of battle for several minutes. In Gemma, Gael, a veteran of the Crucible whose wife and child waited for him back in Vale, found that his Aura had run out and thus his wind manipulation semblance was no longer able to stem the tide of javelins that were aimed at him and died after being impaled through both his arms, his legs, and then, finally, his head. In Addisontown, Xaiver's leather armor was pierced with a spear and a Centurion used it to launch him into the air and into a pack of Ursas where he was mauled to death. Scenes like these repeated in each and every battlefield evaporating the morale of Huntsmen and militia forces alike and, upon being reminded of their mortality the Huntsmen tried to flee to safety. For a majority of them, there was none.
While some managed to make it into the Settlements, they quickly found that the partially wooden structures outside of those ransacked villages had been siege ladders and the Centurions and their mercifully few airborne Grimm made short work of the militia and chased these Huntsmen down, refusing to let them escape their deaths. There was one notable exception to this. Professor Peach and the survivors of her squad had actually managed to retreat by flying away on their Bullhead, taking who they could, and leaving the rest to die. They hadn't retreated without fighting, though. Most of her group had sacrificed their lives to buy time for them to escape as Centurions pinned them against the walls and brutally butchered each of them. On the Bullhead, Professor Peach was grievously wounded and going into shock.
She had been defending their Bullhead for a while when she was attacked by... something. The Centurions and other Grimm hadn't made it that far in yet. Her wounds weren't indicative of the brutal destruction airborne Grimm could cause. She just lay there as her 5 Huntsmen team members picked her up and dragged her into the Bullhead. Nobody saw the man on top of a nearby house, and his laughter was just barely audible over the screams of the dying and the afraid. Nobody had seen him as he had slaughtered countless other Huntsmen just as he had in the past. Just like nobody besides the doctors in Vale would notice the small puncture wound on the Professor's body.
In the fleeing Bullhead, there was only a single thought amongst the survivors; despite their years of experience, powerful weapons, and all the power their Auras and Semblances had provided them; they hadn't been ready for that battle.
History would not remember this as a battle, however, this event and what would follow as a result would be called The Cull. The "Culled" were not only those Huntsmen who joined in the Council's failed plan. Wandering, uninformed Huntsmen, who killed Grimm as they passed from isolated village to isolated village, were swarmed and cut down in a violent fashion. Even the Huntsmen who called themselves sheriffs of a single village were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of Grimm that a single Centurion horde could muster. They were too spread out, had too little supplies, or they just weren't strong enough in the small groups they formed to throw off even a single horde. At the end of the day, The Cull was just that. A cull of all the Huntsmen who could not and would not adapt to the times they found themselves in.
A few days after the Cull, a man wearing a suit walked into a building in Vale. Inside were many miserable people, drowning their sorrows in alcohol or the sight of the opposite (or the same) sex laid bare before them.
The man was here for neither, however, and went to the bar and told the barista that he had a meeting with the boss. The barista pointed to a private room on the second story. He made his way to the room and walked inside.
There, two of the most dangerous people in the history of Vale's underworld stood on either side of a desk where the most powerful man in Vale's underworld sat. He hadn't expected the man personally, let alone his personal bodyguards to be in attendance. The man bowed as a sign of respect to the man who could have his existence erased with ease.
"Speak", the man behind the desk demanded.
"News from the outer villages. It appears the Huntsmen have failed."
If this shocked the man behind the desk he didn't show it.
"The source?", information was spotty these days especially with the Beacon's tower undergoing repairs, but still provide cell service to the City of Vale providing semi-frequent coverage of most of the city.
"Headmaster Greene said so herself. Peach's team appear to be the only survivors of the operation with Peach herself being heavily injured."
The man behind the desk took a deep breath and muttered something unflattering about bureaucrats.
"What else is there?"
"We discussed the execution date for the Professors."
"And?"
"While Vale usually allows one month for the criminal to get their affairs in order, given the crimes committed, we decided to move up their execution to prevent a rebellion"
"We?" The man said, the anger in his voice palpable.
"I tried to stop it, I really did," the Councilman said, panicking. "But with the new seats added I don't have a majority. It doesn't help that some of our former allies got hit by the riots. Jones is still in the hospital and was deemed 'unable to fulfill the duties of his post' yesterday and-"
"Enough!" The man shouted. "When's the execution date?"
"In three days, they wanted to do it today, sir. I played every dirty trick in the book to buy us some time."
"I know, I know. It's just... right now those three are the best shot any of us have at well... winning and the Council have proven themselves incompetent."
"So what do we do?"
"For now. Keep your head low. Don't block any motion that I haven't told you is unacceptable. I want your group to be as forgettable as possible."
"What then? We only have so long." The councilman Johnathon asked.
"Be ready. When the day comes, keep your heads down and stay out of the council building. The clan thanks you for your cooperation in this difficult time." The man behind the desk walked over to the councilman, took the briefcase he was holding and exchanged it for few thousand lien, shook his hand, and watched him leave
"What the fuck?" Asked the teenager to the right of his desk.
"Why do we need those assholes anyway? We can just waltz in and kill everyone, take the bitch and her cronies, and get out."
"Not if we want lasting change. We need to play this smart otherwise we'll get thrown in with them when the police catch us. We need allies to sway public opinion otherwise we'll be back to square one except this time the police will know where to look and they won't be bribed."
"So what now?" the other teenager asked and everyone was silent for a few moments.
The man put the briefcase on the desk and opened it. Inside were official records on 'The Wall' project had failed and the Huntsmen who had participated and took another deep breath.
"For now we get as much information as we can on these people. Then we spread the word about the especially tragic ones. Get the populace angry and riled up. Get the Huntsmen on our side. Free the professors and take down the council."
"And after that?" The teenager asked.
"Then we either become heroes in the eyes of the people, or we all get shot. Either way, it's better than what this 'Salem' is going to give us." After a few more seconds the man walked over to his chair, pulled out his scroll, sat down, checked to see if there was coverage.
They needed to be smart about this. If the council was going to be overthrown it was going to have to be done right. Clearly, something had to be done and as the crime boss looked out of his office and into the streets of Vale, he started making phone calls.
Three days later, there were riots outside the prison as the executions went underway. Everyone had heard of the council's failed Wall project and as if things couldn't be any worse the only Huntsmen left in Vale were refusing the Council's orders to assist the security teams holding the line outside the prison. Not that it would matter. After today the Vale Council would be the only option left to them.
Inside, three ex-Beacon Professors prepared to die. Glynda reminisced about the past few days. Part of her thought the execution was almost completely unnecessary, her coworkers were effectively dead in all but name.
Bart had been inconsolable. Apparently, the coffee here was terrible and he refused to drink it on principle. While this had been initially entertaining, the withdrawal got to Dr. Oobleck quite quickly and soon he had headaches, and, boy, did he make sure they knew it. Today, he finally accepted a cup of his favorite coffee as his last meal, he drank it happily saying it was the best coffee he'd ever had. She heard the guards laugh about it being the same as the coffee in the break room, and the same they had offered the inmate every day.
Port, Brothers, poor Port. He had always talked about the glory of Huntsmenship, but, now, here he was denied the glorious death that would have made him into a legend.
Now the man whose voice had inspired (sleep in) every Beacon student was quiet as the shadow of the man wrote down his memoirs on a notebook he carried with him at all times. Glynda didn't have the heart to tell him it would never be published. He probably knew that himself, but even at night she could still hear the sound of a pencil running across paper.
And then there was her. If she hadn't had Aura canceling bracelets, an Atlas invention utilizing Hardlight Dust to drain Aura whenever it was detected, she probably would've killed the officers outside her cell several times over. Catcalling, laughs, insinuations about how she got her position by seducing the headmaster, jeers about how to get an "easy A" in her class, it only stopped at night when the guards were too tired to care or make jokes. Ugh.
She wished she had made Ozpin fight a little harder for those male and female segregated prisons; the limited land of Vale be damned. At least she gotta see her cowork... her friends.
At least she got to see her friends right before she died, even though they were echos of their former selves. She wondered what James was doing now. He wouldn't have submitted to Salem. He either won or he died. Those were about it. Who knows? Maybe she would even see him in the next life. He had to have died better than this.
Her "Guiding Angel" arrived signaling that the end was near. She was ready for this. Ready for it to be over. There was nothing that could stop Salem now.
A woman covered from head to toe in white opened her cell with a mask covering her face. She seemed oddly familiar to her, but it hardly mattered now, she thought.
A distorted voice came from the woman, reciting lines that had been used since before the Great War. Times when death was too brutal to be done in public because of the Grimm and so a Guiding Angel would take the condemned out of villages or away from towns in their sleep and execute them where panic wouldn't attract Grimm anywhere useful. She found it sort of ironic to die with tradition. Some say it was a Guiding Angel that became the First Huntsmen, having to slay Grimm after an especially panicky prisoner woke up and attracted a pack of Beowolves. Oh well.
In Vale, while the concept of a Guiding Angel was still used the executions took place in town, where people had the luxury of being safe enough from the Grimm to have such things. "Glynda Goodwitch, you have struggled for so long. Protecting those who needed to be protected. Fighting against the Grimm hordes. Teaching the students of your Academy. However, you have hidden a hideous truth from the world. Hidden it from those closest to you as you sent them to their deaths. Because of this, your struggle is over. May the Brothers have mercy on your soul."
And so the professors were escorted out as similar scenes played out with Port and Oobleck. However, their Guiding Angels seemed... inexperienced to say the least. It seemed like they didn't really care at all what they were saying. She could have even sworn she heard one swear at Port telling him "Follow me, you old sack of shit, and receive your destiny or whatever."
Damn. The Council was really sparing no expense on the whole humiliation thing, weren't they?
And so the professors walked with their Guiding Angels to the execution chamber. There was only one round of executions today. No separate ceremonies. No honors besides the ones written to code so long ago. No comment on their service to humanity. "Ozpin, you better win and make that bitch pay." She thought, "Otherwise,... I don't know, but it'll be bad." And so Glynda kept walking to her final test as a Huntsmen. Just her, a chair, and a needle. It was a test she didn't want to pass.
Outside the Vale Police department, every officer was armed to the teeth and it was clear why. They were executing 3 of the most high-class prisoners in Vale's history. and the Council took every precaution, most of the council members were present at the building themselves ensuring that the execution didn't go awry by spreading out their forces to protect individuals. The other members claimed to be ill and were not present at the time (conveniently all of these members survived and became prominent members of the order that came next). Guards were stationed outside the Beacon Airstrip making sure no Huntsmen students got any funny ideas. Only a few Huntsmen who had disappeared after the message Riots and the Cull were unaccounted for. The headmistress, Professor Greene, was offered a seat to watch the execution, but refused, saying she needed to be on-site to quell the student body if outrage came. Which was why what happened next was so shocking.
A van. A fucking van drove backward towards the barricades, ignoring warnings to turn around. After a minute or so of not stopping, Mantas and Bullheads opened fire with enough missiles and machine guns to kill a Goliath, but, horrifyingly, hard light dust shields appeared to them and the van still moved forward completely undamaged.
The back door opened revealing a well-built man aiming a missile launcher at the barricade. A moment later, the missile had destroyed most of the barricades in the van's path and the man shut the door. The van still continuing its path, moved past the destroyed barricades and rear-ended the police station front entrance. Every member of the Vale Police in the front office aimed their weapons at the doors of the van and as the door opened, they opened fire. And as figures ran about the front office killing or maiming all who stood in their path over the radio everyone could hear one of the officers shouting "Huntsmen, They have Huntsmen!"
Glynda and her comrades had been guided by their Guiding Angels and their security details as they walked to the execution chambers. They had heard the communications and the security detail got orders to execute plan B. Knowing what that meant each of the 6 officers pulled out their pistols and aimed at the Beacon Professors, and prepared to open fire. And that would have been the end for the professors had the Guiding Angels not leaped into action. Traditionally, each Guiding Angel was trained in combat and was an Aura user, a product of the fact that before the invention of Aura canceling bracelets, Huntsmen had not taken kindly to the idea of being executed without a fight. So if they had resisted too harshly before the ceremony, then they simply wouldn't receive a ceremony and would be executed in one last duel to the death, which due to the training and skill required to be a Guiding Angels they almost always lost.
Even so, the speed at which each Angel had taken out the guards was absurd, taking only a few seconds to disarm and knock out two each. After the display was done, Glynda's Guiding Angel took off her mask revealing herself to be none other than the ex-Stealth and Securities teacher and acting Headmistress of Beacon Ann Greene.
The other two would take off their masks and were revealed to be...people Glynda had never met. They took off their Guiding Angel getup and revealed a red and black and the other revealed a white and blue outfit. Glad to be out of their getup, they helped the professors remove their bracelets and started running towards the front entrance where they could regroup with "the boss".
Meanwhile, outside, multiple other huntsmen who had hidden out in the streets charged the police station and disarmed most of the police officers with ease and using them as shields to get close enough to the anti-air turrets to take out their operators. Other huntsmen who were athletic enough to jump onto Bullheads did so. Commandeering them and taking them out of the fight without damaging them. While the police still held some hard points outside, it became readily apparent that the "battle" was unattainable.
Inside, the Council cowered in fear as their "Elite Huntsmen Bodyguards" were knocked aside one by one by the invaders and got closer to the viewing area next to what would have been Glynda's execution room. As their bodyguards outside fell, a few took up positions to cover the door from what little cover was made available to them, all the rest had already run outside to either beg for the invaders' forgiveness or make one last desperate stand.
The door to the viewing room exploded open debris hitting councilmen and bodyguards alike as a cloud of dust fill the room. After the dust settled, more shots took out the few bodyguards still standing, and Hei Xiong walked out, flanked by Team CRDL (who went "missing" after the Message Riots) and a bunch of goons.
Hei told the Huntsmen squad that they could go help their professors now that the lobby was secure and all of the major threats were dealt with. No force remaining in this section of the Police station could hold up against the Aura-infused goons now.
After the huntsmen had left, Hei walked up to the now defenseless High Council, and while sources disagree on what he said to the council the most popular theory being asking them "Where is your old buddy, Roman Torchwick, to bail you out now?" or something to that effect given that the thief had replaced the syndicate back in the day).
Everyone present, however, universally agrees on what Hei's next statement was.
"FIRE!"
As it turned out, the Breach and the Fall had been as much as a crucible for the criminal underworld as much as the rest of Vale. In the chaos, the gangs were either devoured by Grimm or started turning on each other, as rival gangs struck when casualties would be noticed the least. Amongst the bodies of the Fall and the Breach, no one ever investigated the bullet-filled corpses found in the alleys of Vale finding that their assets were better spent elsewhere. Mistral clans fought Atlesian gangsters in the bases of their illegal operations as Vacouan drug dealers attempted to wipe out the native Vale Mafia with prejudiced force. All of this had forced Hei Xiong to step up as a leader of The Club and be more than the failure his father had seen him as. Although he never admitted it, he would secretly thank Yang for destroying his club all that time ago as it caused him to invest in "alternate" means of dealing with problematic Huntsman. This equipment came extremely in handy when the Vacouan hitmen with Aura walked in during the Breach and demanded that Hei Xiong surrender. These hitmen had thought they were walking into a relatively easy hit and found themselves staring down the barrel end of military-grade assault rifles and a Hei Xiong wielding an upgraded rocket launcher with Atlesian tech. The negotiations were short.
Using the Fall as his big chance, Hei Xiong wiped out all his other competition and incorporated most of the native gangs into his. And they came gladly, despite his father's diagnosis as a weak gang leader, Hei had become a pragmatist and a strategist. Why should he wipe out a Valean Gang when he could incorporate them into his own? Here, the feudalistic nature of the underworld was cemented. Each gang was given their territory to rule over, and so long as tithes were given to him and his gang he wouldn't wipe them out. Every once in a while, Militia and Melanie were sent out with their newly upgraded gear and some high-class goons to "give a gang an opportunity to explain themselves." After the Fall, many businesses had found themselves on the receiving ends of generous loans and partnerships with the many shell companies of The Club Gang. During the Message Riots, Hei Xiong was the one who had organized the criminal elements in such a way that they would seem random, but in actuality were set in place to drive attention away from other less than legal businesses which needed to use lethal force to keep themselves secret and protect their most profitable assets. The huntsmen didn't see this, however, instead what they saw was the criminal underworld lending a helping hand while the police forced them to turn over their fellow huntsman. Needless to say, when Hei's bribed council member told him of Glynda's fate as well as The Wall Project failure and he told huntsmen and ex-militia members who were less than fond of the council by this point the results were predictable.
And so, in one afternoon the government that the King of Vale crafted fell. The Vale Police were disbanded and the Councilmen who had voted to kill Glynda were themselves executed.
Glynda stood in the destroyed police station most of the Councilmen were dead and the alive ones stripped of authority and wondered for the first time what she would do now. She was about to walk out and tell the people that there was no plan now that the moment was over. There was no magic bullet to kill Salem. They were doomed. However, as she walked outside she heard the cheers from the Huntsmen and ex-militia forces who, by now, finished fighting the remnants of the police. These men and women had risked it all to give humanity hope once again. And so she would fight on. Even though it was pointless. Even though there was no way to beat Salem, they would try.
Later, a new government was founded which would bring Vale back to the old days when it was at its peak. When a monarch ruled all of the continents of Vale with an iron fist. But who to give this position of power? There was only one natural choice.
After the months of bloodshed, confusion, revolution, and hardship, that followed the Breach, the Fall, and the Message, Glynda Goodwitch was crowned the White Queen of Vale to the applause of its population. Now, the retaking efforts would be strategic as opposed to trying in vain to hold the outer reaches like the Council had tried. Multiple Huntsman squads in the Huntsmen Army (which now encompassed all of the City of Vale's remaining Huntsmen) were sent to scout and report back on the status of inner settlements. But there will be more time to talk about them later. For now, we must look at the transformation of Vale and all who lived within it.
But before even those scouting missions to settlements could even start there was still rebuilding to do. Factories needed to be rebuilt or repurposed to arm the re-formed Militia, now called the Vale Army, and Huntsman for what would be coming. Fortifications needed to be reinforced at all times. Huntsmen needed to be trained to fit a situation that Remnant had never seen before. Resources would have to be attained, held, and extracted as effectively and as quickly as possible. Supply lines would have to be made to ensure that this machine ran as efficiently as possible at all times. Anything that stood in the way of these objectives: whether it be art, civil rights, equality, religion, or anything else would have to be eliminated. Such was the plight that faced the White Queen. And she performed her duty with merciless pragmatism.
Churches were stripped down to build factories (not that anyone attended anymore. The fact Salem existed was proof enough for most that the Brothers didn't exist. The irony was lost on them). Statues were melted down into bullet casings. Books stopped being printed as the military seized these textile mills to produce maps and backup records should the CCTV fail them again. Countless museums were destroyed, some with their masterpieces still pinned to their walls, to be replaced with bunkers and hardpoints for civilians to fall back to. Artists were conscripted into labor camps or sent to factories, like the rest of Vale's population that wasn't serving a "necessary" role, where the only monuments to Vale's glory they would produce would be another brick laid down or another bullet to hold the line against the endless tide.
There were dissenters, of course, just as there would be in any time of crisis, but they were either turned upon by their neighbors, who themselves were paranoid of these "potential traitors", or were dragged away by men with red ties and black tuxedos never to be seen again. Hei Xiong was given the title of "City Magistrate" by the Queen who recognized his skills in organization and his opportunistic eye and with him in charge, there were rarely riots. Such was the intelligence of the man that he alone was entrusted to keep the delicate balance of the city from turning into madness. His forces were always there, emerging from the shadows whenever things seemed to hit a breaking point. Sometimes there would be concessions, some particularly loud and important whiners given all manner of pleasures to stuff their face with instead. For others or those who became persistent problems, workplace accidents happened. In a factory where all the spaces are assigned to a person, well... crates fell, rivets came loose and were launched where people were standing due to sudden and unexpected pressure. In a twist that Mistral would come to know very well, sometimes the best policemen are the criminals who know what to let go of and what to harshly punish.
Of course, Hei also attended to other projects to ease the tensions of the people. All manners of bars, clubs, and brothels were opened out of converted hotels or other such buildings to be enjoyed by those who could afford it. Out of all of his duties, though, his most important was finding Huntsmen candidates. Rumors of possible semblances and rouge aura users were always abundant in Vale, anyone and everyone wanted something interesting to break of the monotony of the grind and what better than a run in with a "mysterious stranger". Other times these were just people trying to pin their clumsiness or mistakes on an outside force. When these semblances were real, though, Hei usually deployed Melaine and Militia (who were outfitted with huntsmen level gear and were accompanied by the Magistrate's finest) would usually give them an offer they couldn't refuse. Depending on the Semblance (or the age of the person), they were promoted if it boosted the production of factory (Gora Kargatu had a semblance that allowed him to put his aura in Dust which prolonged its charge was allowed to spend his days charging Dust with semblance instead of in the production line), enlisted into the Army of Vale (the new name for the Militia) or Hei's gang (Beltza Andar could retrace her steps as far as 24 hours back. Useless, but she had Aura so into the Vale Army she went), or thrown into Beacon (usually these were powerful semblances like increased speed, flight, element manipulation, precognizance, etc.).
Beacon Academy, too, was transformed. Beacon was already rebuilt by the time of the Queen's ascension and it was only expanded upon during her rule. Here promising children were taught civilian sciences, scientists researched and experimented, Huntsmen candidates trained, and the White Queen's plans were put into motion. Of course, with Beacon now serving more purposes its fortifications were only added upon. Soon, Beacon awed all who looked at it not through its majesty as an art piece, but as an intimidating fortress. A change reflecting not only the change of the times but the change of what the Huntsmen career path would have to become.
The Huntsman career path was no longer a convenient excuse to travel, a way to gain popularity, or even the noble idea of protecting the people of Vale and the world. Being a Huntsman meant killing Grimm and Beacon's training reflected that change. By the dozens, children snatched from their homes who were as young as 6 were ushered into Beacon where they were trained day and night until the staff determined they were ready to face the horrors that awaited them. These children were forced to do PT and learn varying degrees of Grimm biology, combat training, battle tactics, resource management, survival or stealth skills depending on what the "system" demanded. They also were no longer allowed to design their own weapons instead and would choose from predetermined weapon designs (to keep factories from wasting efforts on "custom ammo). Each student, once developed to where the teachers could properly determine where they should be placed, were put into a variety of classes. Should someone fail to fit into a Huntsmen role, they were merely sent to the Vale Army which was always hungry for new members to throw into the proverbial grinder. Regardless, during their time in Beacon, each student was indoctrinated into the mindset needed to become what was needed in this new age. Not a hero of the people, but a monster of war sent to kill Grimm. Maybe they would fight in villages, or maybe even a Settlement, but their job was not to protect these places or their people. Their job was to kill the Grimm and prevent them from reaching Vale because if it fell Remnant would go with it. That was all there was.
Beacon also became a place of coldblooded science. the warriors of Vale, always wailing for better armor and weapons, looked to scientists and engineers for these things. These people were always pushed to their absolute limit as every day more and more died that could have been saved if only they had better medicine or prosthetics. Of course, there were rumors that other experiments go on in Beacon than purely those for weapons and other practical equipment. Those who visit Beacon after-hours say that at night you can hear the screaming from beneath Beacon coming from biological experiments. Some say they're from captured Grimm being kept alive and poisoned to see what's the most effective. Others say that the screams are from Fanus being forcefully cross-bred to find "ideal permutations" of their genome, humans being bred to create more powerful huntsmen, or even from the test subjects of possible combat drugs. For all the dismissal of these rumors by the Queen's administration, graduates of Beacon are ordered to sacrifice almost anything, including their lives, if it means getting an intact "Wolf Grimm" back to Beacon relatively intact.
Even now the once clear skies of Vale grow dark from the ashes of the factories spread throughout the city, each one providing something to help their struggling military hold the line. The streets that once were full of smiling happy people now bustle with people going to and from the factories that litter the city.
Outside Vale's walls, the Huntsmen Army and the Army of Vale battle the Centurion hordes and other Grimm forces that attempt to get closer to Vale with help from the inner Settlements that survived as casualties mount. Some died in the open trying to kill Grimm charging for the gates of villages, others died in ambushes by Nevermores and other such avian Grimm. Still, there are other reports that don't seem to match up with known Grimm. Unluckily lost or isolated soldiers will be hit with a piercing wound and slowly die over the course of several days. This strange poison appears to have no cure and no way to stop the symptoms. Disturbingly, Huntsmen will disappear for days only for their corpses to be displayed in a gory mess with words glorifying "the holiness of the Black God", "the purity of Her Grace'', and offers for peace against the Grimm if only the White Queen surrenders the Relic. These go unheeded and these incidents grow more and more common.
In the waters of the port, countless gun emplacements and walls were built to prevent marine Grimm from getting into Vale. In the early years of the White Queen's reign, some Leviathon Grimm even attacked the wall with many Huntsmen and Vale Army soldiers giving their lives to protect the city. Truly, Vale faces a war on every front. Even with all this war, the Kingdom endures, for what else was there to do? Die?
But in reality, Vale did die. It died a death more profound than perhaps even Atlas. A kingdom that went to war over individuality, stifling their citizen's individuality to feed the country's war machine. A country that hated Atlas for the way it treated its citizens, forced to do the same when the ones they mocked fell and no one was there to replace them. A land of art ground down into a place of unrelenting industry. A country of heroes who stood tall reduced to a kingdom of soldiers who fight, not to protect, but to cling onto life by inches. Such is the tragedy of modern Vale.
Author's Note: ….And that's all I wrote. Sorry if you were expecting some finality, but I did intend to write more chapters at the time.
I wasn't the best writer. I'm still not, but I thought it was interesting for a series that "borrowed" (stole) its writing style from Warhammer 50k: The Shape of the Nightmare to Come.
I don't plan on writing anymore. I have like, maybe(?) the beginning of the next chapter, but that's really it and that's a lot less than I'm comfortable with posting.
I have other projects I've moved on to, but to those of you who kept reading RWBY fanfiction, thank you. RWBY is with you now, it always was. Its vagaries allowed us to explore various aspects of the world and tweak it to make it more interesting to encompass the large amounts of fanfiction you see around you. Some of its good and some of its bad, and some of it beat the RWBY x Justice League crossover by 9 years, but through all of that I just want to thank you for sticking around.