Always build more than 1 silicon factories in a multiplayer server, that's a must-do whenever you fight three other factions in one map.
Aside form that, did you know that there are two things, one from Serpulo and another from Erekir that can absolutely wipe out all life on Remnant if accidentally released? Yeah, Spores and Neoplasia.
The former some of you already know, it outcompetes all life and produces toxic gas that can render the planet's atmosphere inhospitable. The latter however is a byproduct of a certain reactor, it's a bunch of cancer cells that spread on water meaning it can absolutely destroy Remnant's water supply and even the ocean if spilled on accident.
to think these two things exist, very terrifying to imagine the scale of destruction that they would bring if unleashed.
~~~~~ MINDUSTRIAL WAR ~~~~~
The city somehow became much more quieter compared to before, that's something only the members of the White Fang would notice.
No growling in the shadows, no feint stalking on concrete streets, and no Grimm packs prowling through what used to be Vale's attempt at expanding to Mountain Glenn.
And how did the White Fang find out why the Grimm had disappeared from this city entirely?
They were already looking at what looks like an Atlesian-styled base that had settled down within the forest in the outskirts of Glenn. Their faunus eyes glancing at each and every one of these giant turrets that looked like it can rip apart armies in an instant.
They were the source of loud sounds that one would mistake as coming from a war, and many White Fang volunteers even shuddered and feared that Vale had found out about their plan and decided to send the forces of the Atlesian army in to cleanse the mountains of any White Fang presence
But the idea that the base was related to Atlas was shut down, primarily because of the events in Solitas, most importantly about the unaffiliated base that nearly wiped out the Atlesian fleet sent there for "diplomacy" they say.
After all, Atlas doesn't even build bases that fast, nor do they have oversized turrets made for defensive purposes
So whatever they were, they were definitely the reason the Grimm are absolutely absent, and it'll probably remain like that for who knows how long..
"Eek!" A female White Fang scout would flinch when a turret.. A Salvo turned towards her in the face
"What? You scared of something like that?" Another said with suspicion
"Uh yeah!?" She glanced back to the turret and lets out a relieved sigh when it finally turned away from their position "Im glad it didn't fire, like just look at the size of that barrel!"
"Pfft, I bet I could-"
"Tough talking like that is gonna get you killed in no time" Another scolded, silencing the bold White Fang scout.
Without any further discussions, they all would turn their heads toward the Sharded base, each of their worried minds creatively thinking of what possible dangers that could bring to Roman's plan underground..
..
It's been days ever since the Sharded found out about the remnants of their old enemies' attempted settling in this world
And so far these troubling thoughts have kept the Sharded from launching a core, instead focusing on how and why the Crux was here.
As the Core Ship slowly built another Pyratite schematic for their Silicon Crucible factories, it's mind began to wander about the possibilities.
How did the Crux even get here? Perhaps through the same process that the Sharded AI went through after using the Planetary Launch Terminal?
It's possible, and that's the worst part about it. Just how many cores did the Crux launch at this planet in particular? And where have they all landed while the Sharded was busy cleaning up Serpulo of any Crux bases?
It hoped that at least all of them were destroyed by these black creatures..
The AI's attention would suddenly switch to the factory that it has just finished, sighing internally, it would eventually connect it to the Silicon Crucibles in the distance, boosting their Silicon Production for the time being and possibly even maxxing out their storages.
Oh right, forgot to mention during these three days or four, the AI had upgraded the core to it's third tier, the Serpuloan Core: Type Nucleus.
They kind of never had the chance to upgrade their previous cores in these other sectors to this tier until now, and even if it had enough thorium stored up in their core prior to launching through the Launch Terminal, it had the excuse of "saving them for later" sort of stuff less they suddenly run out of it and they don't really have a chance to build more Airblast Drills for more thorium mines..
Speaking of Airblast Drills..
New Content Unlocked!
Deep Laser Drill
- Upgraded form of the Laser Drill, allows even faster drilling deep underground through improved laser technology once provided with power.
Airburst Drill
- The ultimate drill for deep ore vein excavations, now requires both water for cooling and power
It took it's valuable time to brainstorm their improvements, the previous Airblast Drills did manage to drill deep enough for extracting ore veins underground but even then the ore output is nothing compared to speed of Airblast Drills that mined a surface ore vein on Serpulo.
It wanted to maximize the efficiency of these drills so it could mine up even more of these resources for the time being.
Now moving on from that, many factories were built. Alongside the new resource that it had gathered.
Beryllium
- Used in many types of construction and ammunition on Erekir
So the previous faction before the Sharded and Crux had also colonized Erekir too? No wonder it was already in their database, though many of its buildings seem to be unavailable for research for the time being, not that it could complain.
However it does feel nice to mine on the sides of these mountains. Not that it didn't have any use for Plasma Bores yet though..
Some buildings from Erekir it managed to research with the resources available. Mostly the Silicon Arc Furnace(which it had no idea why it used graphite), Cliff Crushers which it can freely use for crushing up rocks into sand from mountain CLIFFS which helped it even further in their base expansion. And the Breach turret, to which it was outclassed by superior Serpulo turrets like Salvos, though the piercing and it's armor might come into use..?
The Tank and Ship Factory however was very interesting. It checked it's database to see what it produced..
Stell and Elude. Interesting names for Erekir units, what could the Derelict use these for anyway?
Perhaps it had also fought another war on Erekir prior to their loss on Serpulo, which could explain the existence of the defensive structures and units.
The Derelict is sometimes an enigma during these thought processes..
Anyway
New Content Unlocked!
UNNAMED-ITEM25
It was blue in color, having the same crystalline shape as that of other elemental crystals.
Checking it's info, it doesn't really have any other properties such as radioactivity, charge and flammability. But it does seem to have a small percentage of it being explosive.
What's interesting is that it had the same heat capcity, temperature and viscosity of all things as Water which immediately meant that this crystal would probably be onr thst produces water upon being used.
It collected the stack of blue crystals and dumped it on a prebuilt Steam Generator loaded with Pyrium.
...
Of course that didn't work for some reason, maybe it just had to get said water out of these crystals?
Without hesitation, it dropped the crystal sack down, and the moment the load landed on the grass, it exploded in a magnificent display of water all around, splashing the area and making things at least a tad bit more wet than usual.
Hey, that gave it an idea..
Taking a spare blueprint of the Spore Presser from it's database, it began to modify it, pausing here and there to take breaks as they brainstormed again about how it would work
Extract water from said crystal? Can't do that for some reason, but it still exploded inside the spore presser template.
Perhaps they could safely use the minor explosion of these crystals to get water then?
...aaand Bingo! They managed to finally do so!
New Content Unlocked!
Water Harnesser
- Extracts water from UNNAMED-ITEM25 by triggering minor detonations.
The description looks ugly with the current crystal's name, whoops.
Renamed UNNAMED-ITEM25 to
Hydrocium
There, that should do, the AI nodded thoughtfully to itself.
they have yet to actually use that elemental crystal in their builds for the time being, not that they're running out of time..
Now moving back to the previous relevant topic at hand, now with the existence of the Crux being possible in this world, it would mean that contact with their old enemy again might be possible, and considering the fact that they've launched many cores before, it would mean that they're they're currently hiding somewhere far within the crevices and hidden corners. Waiting for that one chance to strike, even with their rather.. dumb AI, they just seem to know what they're doing.
Hopefully with these new buildings researched alongside beryllium buildings, their eventual conflict with them may become much easier compared to before.
...
The AI had apparently been staring at the mountain for hours already, nighttime had set in several hours ago and the sun of this star system was already starting to rise from the unfamiliar blue skies.
For these several hours, it had passed the time by making up scenarios on how the Crux would appear..
Either by an unexpected wave, a base establishing itself on the far side of the continent and even as a full blown core landing invasion near the sector.
It was stressing itself out, and the AI wasn't some standard machine that wouldn't mind all that, it had personality.
The type that would make one stress itself out to mental exhaustion. And that's what it was doing..
It's tired.
Last time the AI was worrying itself out that much was when they were dealing with the North Pole bases of Serpulo, and that's when it was trying to micromanage between their sectors that were dangerously close to Crux base sectors. And that meant trying to defend all of them simultaneously while counterattacking at the same time.
It shouldn't even worry itself out that much, it's not like the Crux was gonna attack anytime now right?
That's just ridiculous, it's dumb..
The AI mentally sighed, turning away from the mountains and into their dimly lit base, the darkness obscuring almost all of their hard work with the only thing lighting most of it up are factories, generators and power nodes in particular.
They haven't bothered building illuminators yet, and none of their Core Ships don't even have built in night visions.
It flew towards the beryllium mine in the distance, placing down Illuminators as they automatically connect to the power lines, lighting up many parts of the base.
For now, it'll have to take it's mind off these topics by building Stells and Eludes.. Just to pass the time.
Team RWBY had just been assigned to this mission, particularly because of that one rose that kept on throwing the entire team into problems never thought possible, but hey, they've been involved too deep into secret evil schemes with the White Fang to even back out so.
They've just been debriefed by both Ozpin, and Oobleck who was already onboard with the airship, apparently there were an extreme amount of Grimm had gathered around the ruined city of Mountain Glenn..
And then they didn't hear anything after that, as if the grimm there suddenly went silent. With only reports of what sounded like loud gunfire and explosions from nearby scouts.
It didn't help that they had suspicions of a possible White Fang there at Mountain Glenn.
And not to mention the "meteorite" that landed here, that and the base were one of their many objectives that they have to investigate.
Without further ado, they would land on a intersection on a road, grey skies blocking the afternoon sun above them.
They all continued onward along with Zwei.. Whom Ruby Rose brought the dog here much to the dismay of Blake and the delightment of Oobleck
"It is quiet here.." Dr. Oobleck commented, looking around cautiously "Too quiet"
"Can't say I've heard anything yet because I can barely hear anything besides crickets" Blake added with a concerned look, only wincing as Zwei barked.
"Indeed, normally there would be Grimm around the corner here and there" He would glance towards an abandoned building "But instead.. We're met with pitch silence..."
The moment of silence was broken when he turned his head towards Team RWBY with a determined look. "We should continue forward, see if there's anything of interest that we can find..!"
Team RWBY nodded
"And onwards!"
"Uhh, no sign of dark dangerous monsters here!" Yang shouted, glancing further inside the room while hanging onto the knobs of a door
"Interesting, I was hoping for a small nevermore or two" He mused to himself, turning away as Yang would yelp from the doorknob detaching itself off lose, letting her fall over in the process with screws clattering on the ground and a grunt from the brute of the team
"And you Ruby Rose! What's the status?" He called out
"I see none either!" She shouted, her hand grabbing ahold of the bars with a shaky grip, looking around with a hand over her eyes
"It's like as if someone had wiped out all the Grimm out before we came!"
"Aw seriously!?" Yang stepped out of the building, dusting herself off as if she didn't fall over from a mishap "Why can't we just have some actual action for once!?"
"We'll just have to press on forward" Oobleck shouted "There may be more to this mystery than we all thought!"
"Maybe.." Weiss muttered to herself, checking her rapier of any dirt before following her team from behind..
Why does her body feel heavy for some reason?
As if she's.. unsure?
...
Doctor Oobleck would interrogate the team of young girls as they traversed the landscape about the reason why they wished to become Huntresses from Yang, Weiss, and Blake, Ruby would be saved for last.
Eventually, they'd have to set up camp under a building that's under construction, way before it got abandoned from whatever events had transpired here.
Of course, Oobleck would choose Ruby and himself to scout out the perimeter, all the while they made sure that the area would be safe from Grimm that were somehow still around. Crawling in the dark.
The young leader followed her teacher from behind, looking around with Crescent Rose in hand, just what were they gonna encounter this time? The whole trip has just somehow gone eerily silent, boring, and scary at the same time. The whole time they've been searching with no stone left unturned in their trail, there hasn't been signs of any 'live' Grimm, and they populate almost all corners of Remnant.
And that's saying something, it's making her spine shiver from the ground up.
Oobleck then suddenly raised a hand in front of her, prompting Ruby to stop in her tracks
"Eh?" She voiced out her confusion
"Do you hear that?"
She raised an eyebrow "Hear.. What?"
"The sound of machinery, listen closely"
And Ruby would only narrow her eyes, trying her best to focus on her ears just like how Blake would hear anything from afar.
Wind howling..
Distant rocks tumbling..
Whirring.. And machinery..? Wait what?
"I.. Think I hear it..?"
"Excellent, now follow me from behind, this may be incredibly dangerous.." And so the two would slowly walk forward with legs crouched.
Ruby didn't get it at first as to why they had to be more cautious, but as they got closer to the source of the sounds, she could feel her muscles tense up further, unil they made their way around a building, with Oobleck leaning from the wall as if he's peeking at something
And so she did peek too, to which her eyes would widen at every second
"Whaaat theee heeeck...??"
It was like as if she's looking into a scene from a Sci-fi movie, conveyors on the ground moving weird objects around, big working mini factories that had the same conveyors deliver stuff into them, and rows and rows of turrets snd power lines all across the base..
She could've detailed it much more but her inner child was screaming in awesomeness, the aesthetic of these structures, the giant guns.. everything!
"So it would seem.."
She faced Oobleck with both eyebrows raised, what did he meant by that? But she remained silent as her teacher began to explain
"Before you four were assigned to this dangerous mission, Headmaster Ozpin had taken his time to debrief me of a particular case.." He would slowly turn to Ruby, his face turning serious "Have you ever heard of the news about an almost destroyed Atlesian army returning home?"
"Yeah..?" To be fair she didn't really look further into it, only Blake and Weiss seemed to have some interest in the topic but otherwise she had no idea how it happened
Then the dots connected "wait, you mean..!?"
"Yes that's exactly it young Ruby" He faced the base again
"Im no military expert but from what I've heard, this is the same unknown faction that Atlas tried investigating many weeks ago!"
"Yeah it would look like it!" She looked back at the base again "but why though? And how?"
She's not even a military expert either, and yet she's already confused as to how this one ended up waay beyond Solitas, let alone in the forests of Mountain Glenn of all places!
"That's a question that im asking too young Ruby, perhaps they want to expand their base of operations or this could be a result of Atlas' actions.. And as to how another base ended up here..! I got no clue either."
And then his voice lowered, his face suddenly turning dark all of the sudden "Whatever it is, I would rather not want that answered.."
Both humans would suddenly see themselves staring at a ship in the distance, flying towards the left side of the base before it stopped midair.
They kept on staring it down as said airship turned to face several directions in the span of a few seconds, and it even seemed like it turned to face at their general direction for a second.
Ruby shivered again, while Professor Oobleck remained composed.
Then it flew away, moving on to manage another part of their base.
"Ruby, from this point on, we must now proceed with caution, lest they find us, who knows what horrors they can bring"
"R-right!"
"After all, we have a hidden group to track down! Now we must inform your teammates about this discovery!"
And as Ruby went back with a concerned look, Oobleck would stop and turn his head towards the unknown faction's base, not before bringing up his scroll and contacting Ozpin on his findings
"Ozpin, I'll be very brief about this but.. We found another base of the same faction that you're monitoring, Team RWBY will focus their efforts on the White Fang, I'll leave it to you and the others"
"Appreciated Oobleck"
Ruby asked him about why he's a Huntsman instead once he caught up to her.
For hours the operations beneath the ruined city had been progressing far faster than normal, as White Fang soldiers hastily brought crates of ammo and guns to the trailers.
This time around, there were more Paladins surrounding the vicinity instead of being loaded on the train, each of them walking around as it patrolled, making sure that anything is in order.
The reason for this heightened security? The presence of the Sharded base above them.
What would you possibly do if one of your scouts found out that a base of unknown proportions had suddenly established itself right next to your proximity? Combined with the amount of giant guns surrounding the entire base and it's obvious technological superiority compared to even Atlas and it becomes painfully obvious as to why the White Fang is on high alert.
The scary possibilities of this unknown base possibly jumping into the caverns and throwing not a wrench but an entire napalm bomb into your plans.
And that's exactly what Roman was thinking right now when he heard about the news. He shrugged it off at first but once the commotion had died out and the noises of construction were heard even from here, the criminal had to admit that it was scary to hear.
And with all these reports coming in, he knew he had to ramp up the security here as the possibility of that base above them noticing them and sending their operatives here would be detrimental to whatever they were doing, it would result in them leaving quite early without any preparations which was why he ordered the White Fang to hurry up.
"This day keeps on getting more stressful.." He complained, sitting onba crate as he leaned into his legs with hands on his face. He was starting to have migraines from this.
His partner in crime, Neo was leaning into the wall of a dilapidated building with her arms folded, looking towards him with concern.
"It would've been way nicer had we not be threatened by a goddamn Atlesian ripoff.." He stood right back up before looking at one of the White Fang soldiers here "Hey you! You got any news from up there?"
"A-ah yes sir!" The White Fang member sputtered before he composed himself "The ship there is building something again, scouts have shown a warehouse-sized building with what looks like roadsized conveyors rolling out.. Geez that sounded weird when being described.."
"And what.. Are they doing up there?"
"Well we still have.." The White Fang member would be interrupted by the walkie talkie flaring back up on his pants "Excuse me" he brought it up to his ears.
"CHIEF, THEY GOT VEHICLES ROLLING OUT OF THAT THING!"
"They're what?"
"Big guns on tracks I tell you! That giant warehouse's an actual mech assembly! It's building these armored vehicles!"
"Hold on.. What were they saying!?" Roman stepped in with a flabbergasted expression, he heard the shouts from the walkie talkie the White Fang member was holding.
Another interruption was made in the form of rocks crumbling from.the ceiling in the distance alongside shouts that sounded like a teenage girl in distress.
The others turned towards the direction of the sound before the Walkie Talkie spoke up once more
"Holy crap that building's fast! There's already 3 of them on the road!"
Roman slammed the cane on a nearby crate with teeth gritting, scaring the White Fang member
"Everyone, make it quick! The longer we finish this up, the faster these bastards build their army! Now GET TO IT!"
The Sharded AI in it's free time had went in and mined the Beryllium from the mountains surrounding their base, and as a result numerous blueprints of content were shown on it's screen above their line of sight, waiting to be researched upon by the AI.
Turbine Condensers, which were supposed to be vent buildings that generated energy from the content spewed out from natural vents, which were obviously not present on this planet in particular.
Beam Nodes, another form of power transmitters similar to Power Nodes, with the exception that it instead connects automatically to power using buildings and generators on all four sides of the power transmitter, this seems to be meant for Erekir..
Plasma Bores which allowed for wall mining for some reason, and Cliff Crushers, which gave way for an easier alternative to getting sand aside from grinding down scrap into sand.
Ducts and Reinforced Conduit, the former being an incredibly fast conveyor meant for Erekir, which meant that if the sector had Beryllium, the AI would use ducts instead seeing how they were incredibly fast compared to even titanium conveyors.
And the latter? They were simply just Erekir-adapted conduits. Plated Conduits in a coat of green actually.
But there was one thing that the Sharded AI was interested in actually, and that was the Tank Fabricator alongside the unit that it produces: the Stell
This was the first time that the Sharded had seen a unit factory fixated to producing only one unit, and even the unit factories for Serpulo allowed for the AI to choose a unit to it's liking to build for specific situations!
Moving on, after building the Tank Fabricator and loading it with the necessary materials, it began to produce short tank units that rolled out of the payload conveyors and into the clearing.
Once there were already three Stells remaining stationary, the AI moved the core ship to inspect them
Compared to the Dagger, the Stell was noticeably more armored than normal, as expected of an Erekir unit really, it was designed specifically for conditions on a boiling planet like Erekir after all.
It had one barrel as opposed to the Dagger's two armguns, with a slow rate of fire when it was tested on the derelict structures around them. Which crumbled in just three shots of the bullets.. Were the buildings here that fragile or is it just the tank shells that are more powerful?
Though the Sharded AI did take note of sounds of skittering after the target crumbled down thanks to the Stells.
About two minutes in, the Tank Fabricators had already built at least 5 Stells. Any futher than that and the power node that connected towards the unit factory immediately disconnected on command by the AI
This sector, or rather the base now has a sizeable force that can take on a Medium Threat Level Crux Base. Well, probably capable enough of clearing out the weaker defenses such as the Duos, Hails and such, but you get the point.
There were no currently active AND hostile bases around for the Sharded AI to attack however, as the sector they're in is surrounded by mountainous regions. The only base that they ever found was a derelict Crux base just far from the Sharded base, and even then the dark beasts had already taken care of it for the AI.
Or so it deduced, the Crux was far dumber than the Sharded AI after all, it was evident on their base designs around mostly unimportant sectors. Combined with incompetent Core Ships that slowly repair bases and you get an enemy that struggles to set up bases.. But then another question would pop up, just how come they're able to establish that quickly on Serpulo? Is it because their only smart AI had already left it and in the wake, only the dumb hivemind AIs remained?
The Sharded AI immediately experienced a 'simulated headache' in it's programming.
Ouch.
Well, whatever, it's not important just now because they're about to take a midnight stroll around the derelict city, so as to familiarize itself with how the Stells work.
It selected every Stell on it's screen, shortly before it began to command them, marking places where the automated tangs began to move towards, almost like a cursor marking a point for their army to move towards.
In the moments where the AI had spare time to think, it noted several things about the Stells.
Firstly the speed, compared to the Daggers' hilariously slow walk speed, the Stells were arguably much superior in this department.
Secondly, the maneuverability of these tanks are limited. When turning around to move to a particular location, the Stell had to freeze in place and rotate it's entire base around before it can move. A side effect of being fast it supposed.
And third?
One of their Stells fell through a hole that opened up beneath them.
The others fell shortly after, their weight alongside the stability of the road gave way to a much larger hole.
What the crux?
Sector "Desolate Ruins" - Subsector 778-1
Threat: Extreme
Resources Detected: Scrap, Copper, Lead, Coal, Titanium, Thorium, Beryllium, Pyrium, Cryotite, Geolocite, Hydrocium
Yang opened her eyes, she couldn't sleep, really.
Ever since Ruby broke the news that there was a massive base right next to this city with Doctor Oobleck coming in to confirm it, the entire team's minds were stirring with uncertainty. An entire base set up under Vale and Atlas' noses with full-fledged defenses and factories? Even Yang was agreeing with Weiss on how far-fetched it was.
Though remembering the incident with Atlesian forces against the same base up north, they stopped protesting. Ensuring that they remain incredibly vigilant as their professor had suggested.
She first called out to Blake and Weiss, asking why Oobleck asked them about being a huntress, before it evolved into a heart-to-heart talk.
But now that's out of the way..
Yang inhaled..
"Okay,." She laid down on her bed again, arms sprawled out as she stared back into the ceiling "Well, there's also one thing that's been nagging me in my mind."
"The part where there's an ominous militarized base next to us?" Blake suggested before Yang confirmed it with a nod
"It still sounds ridiculous.." Weiss scoffed with a frustrated frown "That unknown organization with a full blown base that the media was buzzing around with conspiracies and theories, okay maybe that's concerning. But now there's another one? Right here all the way from Atlas? I would've doubted it if it weren't for the loud sounds that echoed not far from here aand the nonexistent presence of grimm.."
"It sounds too coincidental for my own liking" Blake would say "We're sent here to investigate a possible White Fang presence in Mountain Glenn right? So how come.. Or why would they be here too?"
"Ugh, this mission got way to complicated" Yang sighed, she was looking forward to go guns blazing at the Grimm here with their team and their professor. "But hopefully we could make it through the night without them getting alarmed, after all what could go wrong?" She smiled hopefully
"It's all going wrong.." Weiss said in horror, with Yang staring blankly at the commotion that's happening infront of them.
Basically, Ruby disappeared with Zwei alerting the others about her, with the only thing she left behind was her scythe. What made her disappear? Unstable roads apparently because according to Doctor Oobleck there was an entire underground complex just beneath the team.
And she fell into it.
So with that said, WBY, Zwei and Oobleck all jumped down with weapons ready.
But not long before they all stopped, staring with shock as they saw White Fang soldiers and Atlesian Paladins controlled by them duking it out against something that was out of their view.
"Okay, just what is GOING ON!?" Yang shouted, the team running towards one of the buildings and taking cover behind rubble and destroyed walls, Oobleck, Zwei and the others peeking out shortly after.
"Don't let these things get near!"
"Crap crap crap!"
"I can't take this! Im going on the train!"
"They seem to be busy" Oobleck thought to himself out loud as a Paladin would be struck by a shell, falling over and exploding in a matter of seconds
"You think?" Yang said, before they all turned their heads to the direction the White Fang were firing against.
What they found was something they didn't expect in a cave system out of all places.
Seven heavily armed vehicles rolled out, with a base, tracks and a barrel, some of them fired back against the agressors with large white rounds with high accuracy, bullets and dust rounds all bounced off from their black armor suggesting them to be incredibly hard to destroy with conventional weapons alone.
Three of them were noticeably unside down with rubble ontop.
"They fell down..!" Blake said, her head facing up and pointing at the hole that the tanks had made in the ceiling
"So that's why.." Oobleck's thoughts were interrupted when they heard shouts from a familiar voice
"Ruby!" Yang shouted back, standing right up as she waved at the running huntress. "Over here!"
"Yang!" She launched herself away, barreling towards Yang and knocking her over with a thud and a grunt "Yang- ah, Sorry..!"
"Its fine its fine!" Yang chuckled
Ruby pushed herself up and dusted herself quickly before turning to look at the Stells that fell through, alongside a Gamma ship that flew right in at the hole. "R-right, but listen! Torchwick's got all sorts of weapons and robots down there"
"Wait what?" She gave Ruby back her scythe, but not before wincing at the ear piercing squeal of the microphone, amplified by the speakers.
"Get to your places we are LEAVING NOW!"
Team RWBY, Zwei.. "Bark!" and Doctor Oobleck all stayed silent as Roman's voice continued
"But seriously we can't continue on defending the train like this! Get to your places as soon as possible before these things get to you! A-S-A-P!" The voice stayed silent now as White Fang members began to run back towards the train, the shells from the Stell Tanks firing as they rolled forward
"We need backup!" Ruby said, before she brought out her scroll and went to her contacts, tapping on Jaune's profile as she does so..
"Yikes! It's not getting through!"
"The train's already leaving!" Yang shouted as she pointed at the already moving train
"But we can't just rush in like that! The armored vehicles are gonna shoot us down!" Weiss shouted back as she looked towards the rapidly approaching Stells with a distraught look, the Gamma ship moving forward as if it was commanding them
One of them would fire a shell, right towards the train.
It struck at one of the cargo, hitting the bomb that was loaded in without the knowledge of the Sharded and Team RWBY..
They all gasped and covered their eyes as an explosion rocked out of the tunnels and into the caverns, the walls preventing the shockwave from travelling outwards. The Stells immediately stopped firing right after with Team RWBY(and Blake who uncovered their ears with a tear going down from her eye) and their professor looked out with an expectant gaze..
"What.. Just happened?" Weiss asked, but not before they all immediately backed off with the Stells pointing their barrels at them
And Yang immediately started sweating with widened eyes "Woah woah woah woah!" They all brought out their weapons, backing off into the building as the Stells began to surround them, followed by a Gamma ship descending down and meeting their gaze..
For a moment, all was silent.
"Wait a second.." Oobleck squinted his eyes and leaned forward "I can see through it's canopy, but there's no cockpit inside..!"
"Doctor, what are you saying!?" Yang shouted again
"Not now kids! They've already found us! Anymore actions and they could shoot us down! I can't just risk your life he-"
[Hello?]
They immediately went silent as a black textbox immediately appeared above the Gamma ship, white text in the common language conveying what the pilot was saying
"..."
"..."
"Bark! Bark!" Zwei angrily barked back, growling
"Uhh.. Hello?" Ruby waved back with a nervous smile
The ship responded back again with the holographic text [Was expecting you to shoot back along with these enemies, but it does look like you're]
From the perspective of Team RWBY and the others, it just seemed like the textbox cut off like that. But in actuality, the Sharded AI didn't finish what it was saying
[left behind?]
"No no no we're not with the others!" Ruby immediately babbled out, before her head was smacked by her partnee "Quiet you dolt! You're gonna make it worse-"
[oh, got it]
The Sharded AI immediately turned towards the tunnel, smoke still pouring out, but not before turning back towards the team immediately
[Get back, got more of these black fauna again]
"Black fauna?" Blake questioned as they all lowered their weapons, to which the Gamma ship would fly up and begin to..
They had no ides how to describe what it was doing, but to their view, it was projecting a cubical-shaped building and manifested it in a matter of seconds, before it does so again with a few more buildings.. And lines of cylindrical things, ducts as the Sharded AI had called them
Oobleck immediately realized it a few seconds in while the Sharded began to build "OOOH! I GET IT!" Team RWBY and Zwei all turned towards him "No wonder they set up a base so fast! That ship? It has impressive technology in it which allowed for instantaneous building, allowing the pilot to build outposts like that in a matter of seconds!" He pointed his weapon at the drills as he referred to said outposts "With that alone.."
The others soon caught on "You could set up entire bases with that.." Blake followed.. Eyes widened before they all heard the roars from the tunnels.
To their surprise, the ship had already finished building the drills, it outputted what looked like raw dust crystals into massive guns on rectangular base of the structure.. "
"I assume that what they meant with black fauna.." Her hand slowly raised with a finger pointed to the tunnel "I think they meant the Grimm.."
A Creep would leap out of the smoke with claws ready, but the shells from the tanks immediately hit the body, and soon it crumpled towards the ground, fading into black smoke. Other Grimms of various kinds from undergrouns soon began to crawl out.
The Stells that were near the tunnel were to keep on firing before the Gamma ship stopped building it's Salvos for a second, commanding the Stells to move back.
"Okay it looks like they're having a hard time with the Grimm, so how about we help them out!" Ruby suggested, her sniper rifle now ready, to which the others would look at her with various ranges of surprise
"Ruby, are you serious actually!? They're the same people that shot down a fleet-"
"It seems to be that they're agreeing with you young Ruby! Look above!" Oobleck would fold his arms as team RWBY would look towards the black box that displayee above the currently busy Gamma ship.
[Would appreciate that actually]
"Miscommunication or not, we still share the same common enemy that is the Grimm!" Doctor Oobleck then stepped out of the building they were in before pointing his gun at one of the Grimm that managed to get through even with the line of fire coming from the Stells.
He pulled the trigger, and the Creep would tumble towards the ground, limp. "Besides, this is the perfect way to mend wounds! We could clear up their possible misconceptions about the supposed failed diplomacy and then! There's peace.."
"Well you could say that again!" Yang stepped out before she began to punch the air, dust shells flying out of her gauntlets as they exploded a few more Grimm out, the entire team would join shortly after..
...
The AI glanced back as the beings began to join the Sharded in fighting back against what they called the 'Grimm' it would seem. It'll update their database about them for now because it can't really keep on calling these unknown things nicknames such as 'Black Beasts' or 'hostile fauna'
For now they were glad that they now had actual help. Not immediately marking them as enemies was probably a good choice.
For now they had to focus on building their defenses.
As the first Salvo was about to be finished, it witnessed Ruby rush in and take on a Ursa Minor.
The Ursa would stop running just to raise it's arm to swipe, but she was way nimbler than that, and thus ducked down before swiping her Crescent Rose at the Ursa, catching it offguard. She soon followed with several strikes at it's abdomen before she struck the ground with the end of the scythe, the barrel of the rifle aiming straiggt at the dazed Ursa before finishing it off with a bullet right through the head
'holy..' The AI thought to itself, but it's thoughts were cut short as the Salvo was finished building, the Pyrium crystals loading into it before it aimed immediately at the approaching grimm and fired upon them.
Seeing the turret active, Ruby would gasp and rush towards her teammates for safety, before skidding to a halt and seeing one of the defenses of the Sharded in action with a wide smile..!
"I can assume that by now, these people have gotten it covered" Oobleck deduced, seeing a second turret being built before looking around..
"Hey, but what about the train!? We haven't forgotten about it!" Weiss would stop aiding the Stells with her glyphs, lowering her Myrtenaster.
"I can assure you I haven't forgotten about it! But right now it's out of reach" He stared at the waves of grimm that kept on pouring out of the tunnel, right before a second shockwave echoed out.. "Oh.." He realized..
The explosions, the weapons and mechs that Ruby described.. They were..
"They're launching an attack on Vale through the tunnels, it's connected to an already sealed off part of Vale.. And these explosions.." Another wave of Grimm would pour out once again, with two new Salvos shooting down Creeps and Boarbatusks that resided in these parts. "They're creating openings for the Grimm to crawl through, and once they crash the train they're giving them a way to attack Beacon without crossing the natural barriers!"
Yang would shout "What!? But how are we going to stop thst train now!? It just left way earlier!"
Two small turrets were finished by the Sharded this time, Scorches. Now loaded with Pyrium it began to instantly burn down any Grimm that soon got too close to the team and/or their units.
"We can't, we can only hope that those on the other side can deal with both the White Fang and the Creatures of Grimm.." He responded back with a dark look, but not before turning towards the Gamma ship that was busy building up walls..
"Hey! We're going to make a call on the surface, we'll be leaving!
The AI turned it's ship toward them, like, as in making a call for their people?
It began to type once it was finished
[Sure, just get into my base once you manage to do so, I marked you as allies btw, let me finish up my defenses here first]
"Are you sure about that?" One immediately objected, clearly suspicious "You aren't gonna shoot us down once we step in right?" Weiss asked with raised eyebrow
It sighed internally
[If you don't attack anything there that is, I marked you as allies there so be calm please]
"Then so be it!" Doctor Oobleck would turn towards Team RWbay, and the canine in the group "Everyone!" Ruby would look back as she removed her Crescent Rose out from the ground, she had began to shoot Grimm that poured out from the tunnel when professor Oobleck began asking the Sharded AI..
"We're going back! With haste of course!"
"Bark!"
"We must be quick, perhaps we can make a call that's much quicker before they crash the train at the dead end! We can alarm Beacon that way!" He ran forward towards where the White Fang used a way up towards the surface, to which the team would follow from behind..
The Gamma ship was looking before Team RWBY and the others finally disappeared out of view
And soon realization came into their digital mind.
They talked to someone for the first time.
They had a way to talk sure, but when you're just alone in a world where there's nothing but you, your automated bases and units, and a bunch of hostile enemies, you tend to forget about the texting feature that was built into their interface. But now? It had a use.
And they used it to talk to what looks like the locals of this planet..
But before it could gush more about it, their senses immediately snapped back towards the tunnel, a loud scream echoing throughout the caverns alongside another shockwave, possibly from another explosion that was set off there by the same group that had control of this subsector here..
Guardian of Subsector 778-1 Detected
Estimated Arrival in 1 Wave
Now first? It had work to do..
...
Ozpin's scroll began to ring inside his office, normally no one would pick it up in the middle of the night, but he's not like the others, and no one doesn't call him way in the morning for no reason.
Letting out a yawn, he reached over and grabbed the scroll, accepting the video call.
"Good morning Headmaster Ozpin!"
"It's unusually early in the morning, what calls you here?" He answered back at the doctor, but then Ozpin leaned in and saw the unusual bright structures behind Oobleck "Hm?"
"Well, we ran into a bit of a trouble but nothing much! You see.. We finally got news of the White Fang using a unused train to ram into a blocked off section of Vale! They're about to make an attack there"
"Well then" He straightened himself up with a serious face and nodded "Thank you for the news Professor Oobleck, we will prepare accordingly"
"It's doctor thank you! And also we got another news for you!" Oobleck wotl turn his scroll around to show Ozpin where he is now.
The headmaster would immediately lean forward with widened eyes
"The base you warned me about took me in after it barged into the white fang hideout, we haven't made enemies with them yet, but as of now we're currently regarded as allies for the time being!"
Oobleck was showing him a well lit base, same architecture and style as that of the unknown base in Atlas. Some of RWBY was there too, looking around with wonder but with caution aswell..
"Im currently looking after the team so as to make sure they don't touch anything too sensitive"
He's gonna need more coffee after this call..
...
FINALLY! DONE!
Also if anyone's interested, I now have a discord server for updates about my works!!!
thank you all for waiting! this chapter literally has around 7k words as im writing this./invite/ZsB2e63UnG