Author's Note: Little bit longer chapter than normal, hope you all enjoy.
Pyrrha threw out her hand without hesitation, calling on the powers of the Fall Maiden as several large spikes of ice were summoned and sent flying towards the androids. The sudden change in their behavior was a surprise to be sure, but not something Pyrrha was unfamiliar with. She recognized the red glow from before her death, so she felt her response was obvious. The others weren't quite so well-informed however. They had listened when she told them about it, and they knew it was something that had happened in her last life, but they didn't know what to look for; as such, they were shocked when she seemingly without warning attacked their own androids.
Qrow was the first to voice his concern. "What the hel-"
"He turned them!" Pyrrha snapped back quickly, cutting him off before he could continue. Just so she did, their radios came to life with a chaos that only confirmed her fears; this wasn't limited to only a few units.
Winter held a hand to her ear piece before turning towards the General. "Sir, our perimeter is collapsing, all Knight units are compromised and I can't reach the fleet."
"Have our men pull back here." Ironwood turned towards the main entrance gesturing to several locations around the room. "Set up defenses along these walls and get an engineering team to cle-"
"All forces are pinned down sir." Winter shook her head. "Most of the Knights were stationed on the walls to secure the high ground, now..."
Ironwood paused for a long moment, silence filling their immediate area but only helping to make the chaos outside even more apparent. The sounds of battle could once more be heard, only this time without the distinct barrage of their fleet. The General's shoulders stiffened suddenly, his eyes turning back towards the sealed door that the White Fang had retreated into.
"In order to seal a door that size, you would need a powerful generator; one too large and too hot to keep within the bunker itself without building the fort around it. This base was built decades before that technology existed, so they couldn't have planned for it." The General spoke, though once again Pyrrha found herself put off by his voice. There was something off about the way he spoke, that odd toneless quality she had noticed before returning. "That generator would need to be cooled, likely via the ocean since it is readily accessible and easier to use than ice dust. Specialist Schnee, take Specialist Nikos and find where it is stored. Specialist Branwen, coordinate with the men outside and get them to pull back in here and set up a perimeter."
Qrow and Winter nodded, as did Pyrrha after a brief hesitation, before rushing back out into the battle. Fighting the White Fang had proven difficult. They had been well dug-in and far better trained than what she was used to, but at the end of the day they weren't trained soldiers, they still missed their shots and hesitated; the Knights didn't miss. Even in the few seconds she had to take in the scene of absolute carnage outside she had already identified at least a dozen downed men, and the Knights along the walls were continuing to fire into the cover of their former allies.
Most of Atlas' forces were pinned down, unable to return fire without serious risk of injury. Qrow ran to the nearest group, barking out a question that she couldn't hear over the sound of constant gunfire. Even during the start of the assault, when the White Fang had been at their best, there had been lapses in the fire; moments of odd silence that had her hoping the day might have been won already, only to be broken when the fire renewed. This was nothing like that, there were no pauses or calls to reload, or even any hesitation in gunning them down. The Knights alternated fire to create a seemingly never ending barrage that kept the Atlesians down.
Pyrrha followed Winter off to the side, avoiding the main firefight happening by the main entrance, and off towards the section of the fort closest to the water. In order to get there, they would need to go up onto the walls though; either that, or take the long way around. Considering the sounds of battle, they decided to take the most direct route. The Knights outnumbered them, had the better positions, and there was no way of telling how many of their own people had been caught unprepared.
Winter paused at the top of the stairs, looking out over the walls and the dozens of Androids that were attacking their men. "The Knights are still under development to some degree." She kept her voice quiet, pulling back so that they couldn't be seen. "Not all of their functionality has been fully implemented. They have night vision, but their thermal displays aren't ready yet. Can you create a fog wall?"
Pyrrha thought for a moment, trying to come up with a way to make it work. After a moment to think, she nodded. It wouldn't be easy, but she was sure she could manage it. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward and placed her hand at the base of the stairs. Nothing happened for a moment, at least not to the visible eye, but the temperature around them dropped rather suddenly as a layer of ice seemed to spread out from her hand. She didn't know how long to let it spread, settling for covering the entire walkway they planned to cross in ice before lifting her hand once more. Taking another deep breath she lashed out with the hottest fire she could manage; the effect was instant and the ice went from benign a solid, to a liquid, to a gas in the span of only a few seconds. Steam billowed out around them, over the walls, and down into the courtyard.
The Knight's fire slowed as they lost view of the men pinned there. It wouldn't last long, the steam dissipating quickly, but it would buy them time to regroup, and it would give Winter and her the window they needed to cross. True to Winter's words, the few droids they ran into while crossing seemed to be unaware of their presence there; making for an easy fight. The machines were marvels of technology, but they weren't anywhere near strong enough to stand up to Huntress; their strength always relied on numbers and sheer firepower. Something that had proven overwhelming to both the White Fang and the Atlesians below.
Pyrrha knocked aside the rifle of one before it could fire, holding her hand out to launch a small crystal of ice through its chest and into the one behind it. Two more flanked her, managing to fire off several shots that hit her aura before she switched Allos into its spear form and spun, taking out their legs with ease. That didn't stop them for long however, the one on her left crawling to try and grapple her while it waited for reinforcements. Allos' spearhead easily pierced the it's helmet, the red glow dissipating as its systems finally failed. No more immediately assaulted her, and sparing a glance towards Winter showed that she had managed to deal with hers with little issue and they continued on their way.
The eastern courtyard wasn't any better than the center, though the Atlesian Soldiers there had managed to set up a defensive position with their backs to the outermost wall at least. The majority of the Knights had been brought to the center walls to overlook the courtyards from there and allow them to move as needed, as a result, the outer walls were sparsely populated and had seemingly little in the way of resistance. The androids that had been firing down on them weren't watching their backs, allowing Pyrrha and Winter to take out several of them before they could register they were under attack.
Their arrival helped to rally the soldiers down below, and those androids that turned to try and deal with the sudden Specialists at their back were gunned down by the expert marksmanship of Atlas' armed forces. Once the immediate walls were cleared they moved down below, grouping up with the soldiers as they moved into one of the smaller buildings for cover.
The inside of the building was surprisingly lived in, with several beds and desks covered in papers and personal belongings. It looked like a barracks of sorts, though if she had to guess it was not the main one, if there even was one central location for people to sleep. It had only a few windows at the front, along the same wall as the door, and that made it easy for the soldiers to fortify it. She saw several setting up larger guns in the windows, but most had pulled back to the far wall to keep out of sight while they took a moment to catch their breath.
"Whose in charge here?" Winter asked.
"Our lieutenant went down with the opening attack, Ma'am." One of the soldiers said, and if Pyrrha recognized the rank correctly he was some kind of sergeant; though not one she recognized. "We dug in as best we could but they had us pinned from the start."
"Where are the technical specialists?" Winter asked. "The eastern assault was supposed to have men capable of blowing the walls if necessary, did they survive?"
"Ma'am," A woman in the back of the small room stood, moving over to them with a slight limp. "I'm all that's left of the advanced team."
"Would you be able to sabotage a generator?"
The woman looked a little confused but quickly nodded. "Explosives are explosives Ma'am, if you show me to it I can rig it to blow, but I don't know how to plan to get to it."
"You've already located the generator?"
The woman winced slightly. "In a manner of speaking."
It was Winter's turn to look confused. "Explain."
The woman limped over towards a nearby window, ducking back so that nothing from the walls could hit her. The Androids hadn't reclaimed them yet, though Pyrrha didn't expect that to last long; neither did the soldiers if the fact they kept their rifles aimed there was any clue.
The engineer pointed towards a building attached to the far wall of the courtyard. "That's a pump house that pulls water from the ocean and sends it underground someplace, we were trying to figure out where when the attack started."
"The General said they wouldn't have been able to fit it inside the bunker, how is it underground then?" Pyrrha asked.
The engineer shook her head. "It's not in the bunker, at least not the main one, it would be too dangerous in the event the coolant system failed and it's not a risk worth taking. Doesn't mean they couldn't still bury it someplace though."
"How do we access it?" Winter asked, stepping away from the window.
"Beats me, Ma'am." The engineer sighed. "If there even is an access tunnel it could be hidden anywhere in the fort. There's no way to know where."
"What if we cut off the water?" Winter asked. "Wouldn't that shut it down?"
"Eventually, yeah, but not immediately. A few hours if we're lucky."
They didn't have a few hours, or the soldiers in the rest of the base didn't. The fact their fleet still hadn't responded was concerning enough, but the not so distant sounds of battle could still be easily heard. They were cornered.
"Could we fit an explosive down the pipe?"
"It almost definitely bends at some point to prevent that from working." The engineer shook her head.
"Could someone fit inside?"
"Too small for that." She shook her head. "And there's no way of guaranteeing if it's safe enough to attempt."
Winter sighed in frustration, not that anyone could blame her, they all felt the same. It felt like an impossible situation. The pipe was too long to throw an explosive down, too for someone to go into, and there was no way for them to follow it once it went underground. Pyrrha clenched her fist around the hilt of Allos; people were dying and they couldn't think of what to do. Her free hand started to twitch as her anger fueled her powers. Taking a deep breath she managed to get it back under control. Her eyes widened as she thought of something.
"Can we cut off the water without harming the pipe?" Pyrrha asked.
"Almost certainly." The engineer replied. "There would be a switch in place for emergencies."
Turning towards Winter, Pyrrha allowed the flames of the Maiden powers to fill her eyes. "I can force fire down it and into the generator."
"Assuming you could, that would cause it to overload." The engineer answered. "But you'd need an incredible amount of force. There's no way of knowing how long those pipes are, or how far down the generator is."
Winter nodded her head. "It's our best plan. We'll go secure the-"
"Contact!" One of the soldiers at the window yelled as he opened fire.
Another joined in, yelling in between bursts of fire. "I count fifteen on the wall, more coming down the stairs!"
The attack had resumed and, as Pyrrha looked out over the walls she could see that most of the steam from earlier had either dissipated or been blown away by the wind.
"Take the engineer and go, I'll distract the Knights." Winter burst out of the bunker before Pyrrha could respond. She was under fire in an instant, but despite that she knelt on one knee and summoned a glyph a few feet in front of her.
Pyrrha had seen Weiss use her Semblance for many things, and she also knew that the Schnee family was unique in that their Semblance was hereditary, but she hadn't ever seen Weiss do something like this before. A flock of tiny nevermores appeared from thin air, then began moving to swarm the Knights; as they left the glyph, more formed and joined them. The Knights that had previously been advancing on them switched targets, attempting to fire at the new enemies.
They moved as soon as it was clear the Knights were occupied, the few that hadn't been swarmed by the nevermores being picked off by the soldiers from inside the bunker. The engineer kept close to her but let Pyrrha enter the building first. The Knights hadn't seemed to care about the building, but it was difficult to say with everything that had gone wrong. The pump house was distantly more humid than the area outside and the sweat on her brow intensified the instant she entered.
There was a dead soldier on the ground, along with two destroyed Knights beside him that the woman Pyrrha had brought with her was clearly trying to ignore.
"The shut off requires two people." She gestured towards a valve on the far end of a fairly large pipe. "Turn that when I tell you too. It'll resist, but force it if you have to."
Pyrrha nodded and moved over, watching the doorway with Allos' rifle form as she wanted. The engineer rushed around the room flipping a few levers and switches that Pyrrha couldn't make heads or tales of, before going back to her own valve and yelling for her to turn it.
True to the woman's words, the valve resisted her efforts to turn it, but slowly it began to turn and the process became easier. She heard the rushing of water slowly die down before ceasing entirely. The woman walked over and opened a hatch on the pipe itself, before gesturing for Pyrrha to have a look.
"Whatever you're gonna do, make it quick. If it works, this whole building will probably be caught in the back blast."
Pyrrha nodded before inspecting the pipe. The metal was a few inches thick and smelled distinctly of sea water. She couldn't see very far down before the darkness returned but it would have to work. Placing her hand inside the pipe, she tapped into the Fall Maiden powers once more. Her eyes glowed with familiar fire, but that light was quickly offset by the flames she was shooting down the pipe.
The engineer had said there was no way of knowing how far down the pipes went, one of the many factors that limited their options, and Pyrrha quickly realized how true that was. She felt the flames hit something only a few dozen feet below them, she also felt something giveaway as her fire was let loose in whatever room the generator was stored in; prompting her to take a deep breath and force even more of her power down below. The flames burned hot enough that the pipe itself began to glow a dangerous red forcing her to sit back lest she burn herself on the metal. Despite that, using her power to such an extent felt good, powerful. She almost didn't want it to end; then the pump house began to shake ominously.
"W-we should go!" The engineer's nervous words helped to snap her back to the present.
Pyrrha blinked and the flames went out, only for more fire to spit back out of the pipe; a fire she instinctively knew would burn her if it reached her. Ducking back, she narrowly managed to avoid them before following the soldier out of the building. She paused as they left to look back, only to realize that the engineer had kept running. It was only at that moment that she realized she had never asked how big the explosion was going to be.
A heavy explosion shook the base, one larger and far more noticeable than any other before it. The door in front of him didn't open, nor did it even seem to change in any noticeable way, but mimicking what Branwen had done earlier, he tossed a small metal casing at the door. It pinged off and fell to the ground, laying there unceremoniously for several long seconds.
General Ironwood gestured for the soldiers behind him to move and plant their explosives. There was no way of telling if there was a backup generator or not and, if so, how long they had to act. The explosives were set without issue and in relative silence. The intercoms never turned back on to mock him, nor did the lights on the cameras blink. The door wasn't the only thing hooked up to the generator, and with it down, Arthur Watts was vulnerable.
"Sir, the charges are set." One of his men approached, handing over a detonator before moving towards cover. The soldier lacked Aura, so he sought some way to shield himself from the potential shrapnel. The General did not suffer such a weakness however, and the moment the soldiers were out of range, he blew the door.
The faunus on the other side were stunned, clearly not having realized the door was vulnerable. The first one dropped quickly, a round from Due Process shattering his mask and passing straight through his skull. The second was equally unprepared and joined his dead comrade on the ground, but the third had the intelligence to activate his Aura; thus sparing his life for a few more moments at least. The shot still knocked him down, the force causing him to grasp his head in pain.
The General moved forward at a calm and controlled pace as the various faunus rushed for their weapons. His men were quick to follow suit, taking aim and demanding the surrender of those inside. Ironwood cut off their chance by firing at the first one to reach his weapon. He approached the one on the ground, still grasping his head in pain with one hand, while reaching for a weapon with the other.
Kicking the faunus over was easy, Aura or not, he was still laid out flat on the ground and unable to truly fight back. Ironwood placed his foot down on his throat, pinning him down and cutting off his ability to breath. The terrorist's eye bulged slightly as he realized the predicament he was in, and he desperately tired to move the General's leg aside. His efforts were of little concern however, and Ironwood continued to fire his weapon even as he struggled for his life.
The defenses inside the bunker weren't nearly as well-established, a crucial mistake that they were surely realizing now. They had assumed Atlas would be unable to break in, and that assumption was now their downfall.
Another round from Due Process pierced another's skull, his concentration having slipped as he watched the faunus beside him be gunned down and thus gave the perfect opening. Ironwood felt several shots ping off the metal of his right arm without causing damage. Adjusting his aim, he fired back, forcing his assailants to duck for cover. The Atlesian Soldiers with him pushed forward, apprehending those they could and eliminating those they refused to surrender.
Sparing a glance for the faunus under his foot, Ironwood finally stepped off; not that it made any difference. Had the terrorist known how to properly use his Aura, he would have been able to save his windpipe from being crushed. He hadn't known however, and so even if he survived he would likely carry that wound for the rest of his life.
Arthur Watts would be deeper in the bunker, hiding in the most securable location as he tried to think up a plan of escape. He had always been self-preserving and that instinct would hold true now, it made him predictable. Most people were, when you looked at the facts of the situation. Logic demanded that certain choices be made or else defeat was inevitable, once emotions were removed from the equation it was easy to see that and it was why Mettle was such a useful Semblance.
The bunker wasn't a glamorous thing, nowhere near up to the standard of Atlas' many bases and defenses as it had been built more than a century ago by an inferior Kingdom. Its layout was obvious, and it had clearly been designed as a command post rather than a location meant for fighting. The faunus they encountered on their pursuit were easily dispatched, not one having the training required to defeat them.
Arthur Watts didn't seem surprised when Ironwood finally found him, though despite his best attempts to appear otherwise he was nervous. There was a dead faunus at his feet, blood pooling beneath him. Ironwood dismissed his men before entering, so they could continue to search the bunker for any remaining survivors.
"I must say, I didn't expect you all here so soon. Had I known I would have left weeks ago, alas, it seems some of my informants among Atlas' elite have stopped answering my calls." Only some, Ironwood noted the wording and planned to look into it later. Arthur had always been arrogant, and even now he tried to appear as if he were in control, holding his head high as he attempted to look down his nose at them, but his arrogance often revealed information he would have otherwise wished kept hidden. "Why, these terrorist planned to-ugh!"
His words were cut off as Ironwood planted his cybernetic hand into his gut, forcing the wind from his lungs and allowing him to push the man back to the wall. Reaching up, Ironwood wrapped a hand around the man's throat.
"How did you hack into my androids?"
"Why would I-" Ironwood tightened his grip around the man's throat. "I-I cant… breathe-"
Ironwood loosened his hand just enough so that the man couldn't pass out, but the threat had been made. "Answer my question."
"Turning your toys against you wasn't easy, James." Arthur replied, his voice horse as he tried to breath through the constriction of his windpipe. "Especially without sneaking in a backdoor program as we had planned, but with Cinder's recent spectacular failure, it was necessary. Limited to the network of your communications systems, but just as potent."
It wasn't an answer, at least not completely, but it at least helped assuage him that he wouldn't be returning to Atlas to find the city in all out war. He was trying to distract him, or anger him, it was difficult to say as Ironwood felt neither.
"I don't know how your new pet knew to look for Cinder in Haven, but you'll never find her." Arthur grinned despite the hand on his throat, managing to look as if his face wasn't slowly changing colors. So they knew that Pyrrha had given them the lead, even if they didn't know the specifics. It was a dangerous thought, and again Ironwood noted that he would need to remove anyone at risk once he returned to Atlas. He had let too many through the net before, but not this time.
"We tracked her this far, we will find where she ran off-"
"You mean the scroll signal you tracked across the desert?" Arthur asked. "Or do you mean the guard who said he saw her leave the Vacuo? Perhaps you're referring to the travel tickets that Torchwick managed to find?" The choking man laughed, the sound coming out in sputters as he seemed genuinely amused by the concept. "You hadn't even suspected? I've been leading you around by the nose for months! It was a distraction, to buy her time to hide."
"Lies." Ironwood replied. "You wouldn't be here if this were simply a distraction. You're too important a piece for Salem to throw away."
"You acted quicker than planned, I will admit." Arthur glared at him for that, managing to seem like that was genuinely his fault for inconveniencing the man. "But that doesn't change the fact that she isn't here, nor that she never was."
The room was silent for a moment as Ironwood looked into the man's eyes. He wasn't lying, and that fact threatened to anger Ironwood even despite his Semblance being active.
"So what will it be now, James?" Arthur continued to flap his mouth, speaking as if he were in control of the situation. "Maximum security prison? Or maybe you'll keep me on your flagship so that you can watch me closely? I would so love to continue our discussion."
Ironwood hesitated; he could deactivate his Semblance and allow his usual self to make that decision, something he would normally have done in this situation, but he knew that if he did he would lack the conviction to do what was necessary. There was no telling if this computer virus was limited in its use or not, and it was fully possible that capture was exactly what their enemy wanted. That was a risk he wasn't willing to take, Arthur Watts was too dangerous.
He pressed Due Process into the man's stomach and pulled the trigger without hesitation. It was difficult to say who seemed more surprised, Arthur, or James.
Author's Note: I don't think that's quite how dear old Watts expected that to go. Though, to be fair, Mettle is a hell of a drug.
I'll willingly admit that I am not the biggest fan of General Ironwood's Semblance in canon; mostly due to the hand waving nature of it. I think it is an interesting idea and one that has some real potential, but they just didn't implement it well. As such, I have decided to go with a version heavily inspired by Coeur Al'Aran's story Null. Mine will be different, I don't think I could fully pull it off as well as he did, but it's going to actually play a factor in the story rather than being a thing that is mentioned once in the show and then never again.
And once again I am forced to acknowledge the fact I suck at writing big battles. Can't quite place it, but they always feel too… sporadic, by the time I'm done. Just one more thing I need to work on.
I hope you enjoyed it and as always don't forget to review and let me know what you think.
Sincerely, SE