I do not own RWBY or Warhammer 40,000, only my original characters.
Return of Faith
Chapter Fifteen: Beacon Assault, Part 1
When the broadcast had ended and the hidden cults rose up, Beacon Academy became a battleground. Twenty students, all followers of the illegal religion, attempted a coup against the headmaster and attacked their classmates and teachers. Most of their number were from Vale, but some hailed from Vacuo and Mistral as well.
Their plan had been both simple and obvious: storm Beacon Tower and take Headmaster Ozpin hostage. With the headmaster as their prisoner, the rebels likely believed they could force Beacon's faculty and the other students to lay down their weapons and surrender Beacon to their control.
But that was the extent of their plan. The rebels only knew what they wanted to do but had no clear leadership or overall organization to carry it out. This was because the plan had been a spontaneous one, concocted in the heat of the moment rather than long months of deliberation. The instant they moved to carry out their scheme, it began falling apart. The teenagers argued over which ways to go, stopped to tell other students to either join them or hide, or took different paths to reach the same location.
It slowed any momentum they had and made it all the easier for the school's faculty to pick them off. Experienced and highly trained, the Huntsmen teachers of Beacon made quick work of their inexperienced and over-confident former charges before containing them in the spare Grimm cages owned by the school's bombastic Grimm Studies professor.
In under twenty minutes of starting, the coup was thwarted, and the school remained firmly under Ozpin's control. Though for how much longer Cinder didn't care, she was far too angry at the moment.
The true Fall Maiden and her followers were dealing with the last group of rebel students, a team of first years whose names Cinder had never bothered to learn. She snarled as she performed an elegant swinging high kick that propelled her foot into the jaw of the team's leader, a muscle headed brute who had put too much focus on the strength of his blows rather than their speed. Cinder had already broken his Aura and felt some malicious satisfaction when she heard the snap of bone and saw teeth spray from his mouth as he fell to the ground.
She glared balefully at his prone form, fighting the urge to kill him then and there, to make him scream and suffer as she vented her frustrations and rage upon his pathetic body. To incinerate him. To rip him limb from limb. To tear out his very soul and-
Cinder closed her eyes and let out a deep breathe, quelling the murderous impulse she felt just as Salem had taught her.
Instead, she kicked him in the gut. The blow sent the teen skidding across the floor and slamming into the wall. He groaned then emptied the contents of his stomach onto the floor. Cinder sneered at him in disgust. She heard chuckling and spun her head around to glare at Mercury, quickly silencing the assassin's son with eyes that promised murder.
With Mercury cowed, Cinder turned to Emerald. The dark-skinned thief was holstering her weapons with a dramatic twirling flourish, her opponent lying unconscious behind her. Emerald looked to Cinder with those disgusting puppy-dog eyes she always regarded her with, as if expecting Cinder to praise her for defeating a damn child.
Normally, Cinder welcomed Emerald's unashamed adoration for her, – she was destined to become the queen of this pathetic world one day after all – but today, it just made Cinder want to tear the thief's eyes out.
Everything she had worked toward, all those months of planning, gathering allies, and stealing Dust, it had all been ruined by these damned, emperor-worshiping idiots!
She had known about the cults in Vale, everyone knew about them. They were like some open secret the Councilors pretended didn't exist. When she first came to Vale, Cinder had considered them as possible pawns in her plan. Religious fools like them would be easy to manipulate.
Roman Torchwick had dissuaded her however, saying there weren't enough of them and that they wouldn't put themselves at risk unless victory was certain for them. He also explained they wouldn't follow the orders of someone who didn't follow their creed, no matter what she might offer them.
So, Cinder wrote them off, decided to use the bloodthirsty animals of the White Fang as she originally intended, only to have them blown up by the Atlas military without warning and leaving Cinder without any pawns!
And now, those cults, the ones Roman had assured her didn't have the numbers or will to fight, were rising up all over Vale like rats and were taking over entire districts of the city. She'd even heard rumors that the emperor's so called 'angels' were at work, killing heretics and punishing the wicked.
The entire city had descended into chaos, and absolutely none of it had been caused by her hand!
Cinder was the one meant to bring Vale low, not these upstarts. She was the Fall Maiden! Salem's favored servant. She was destined for greatness and power, to be remembered as the cunning genius that brought an entire Kingdom to its knees through her own devious machinations.
She wasn't supposed to become great through chance… by something outside her control striking first and giving her a lucky chance… This was meant to be her moment, her glory. Achieved by her own hands alone.
Cinder's hands curled into fists, and it was only thanks to her Aura that her nails didn't draw blood.
When she got her hands on whoever was responsible for this, she-
"Cinder!"
The Maiden's seething musings halt as she whipped her head around back to Emerald. The mint-haired girl flinched, unprepared for the intensity of her mistress's gaze. Cinder took a breath and forced herself to adopt a more controlled expression before asking, "what is it?"
Emerald gulped, then said, "I-I'm sorry. You were staring off into space a-a-and I was trying to…" she almost began rambling, but Mercury thankfully snapped her out of it with an elbow to the side. The thief glared at the assassin's son, then turned back to Cinder, "something's coming this way. Something big. Goodwitch just sent out a message telling all students to evacuate the school immediately."
Mercury gave a snort, "Lady forgets who she's talking to," he said. "Like a bunch of wannabe Huntsmen and Huntresses are gonna run from a fight, especially now that their blood is up."
Emerald glared at him again, but Mercury was right. Though plenty of them would no doubt listen to the assistant headmistress's orders, most would feel obligated to help in the defense of their school, no matter how suicidal it might be.
But what sort of enemy would force Glynda Goodwitch, the infamous disciplinarian of Beacon Academy, to order her charges away? What terrible foe would scare a Huntress of her caliber like that?
Cinder could think of only two things but knew her Mistress would not directly involve herself in something she had trusted to one of her followers. This left only one possible answer, and it made Cinder's inner flame burn and the Grimm inside her writhe with agitation.
Without a word, Cinder turned and broke into a run. She heard Emerald call out to her as she and Mercury chased after their leader, but Cinder paid them little mind. She ran past automated defense checkpoints, evacuating students, faculty members. Cinder ignored them all.
Her only focus was reaching Goodwitch.
And learning the face of the one who had ruined her ingenious plan before she melted it into slag.
~o0o~
Word of the gunships' approach spread like wildfire through the academy, spreading confusion and dread. Few students truly understood what was going on in Vale, they simply thought it was some sort of terrorist attack or religious riot. Nor did they have any knowledge of the unknown army holding back the Creatures of Grimm, or the black giants butchering their way through the city's streets.
Many did not understand why they had to abandon the school either, especially after saving it from an impromptu coup. Besides, wasn't this the sort of thing they had been trained for? How could they call themselves Huntsmen and Huntresses if they ran away at the first sign of trouble?
So, ignorant to the true scale of the enemy they faced, and driven by misplaced confidence, many students disregarded the evacuation order and rushed to lend their aid to the defense of Beacon. They headed for the school's skydocks, where the teachers, and the few Atlas soldiers stationed at Beacon, hurriedly prepared to greet the invaders with all the firepower they could muster. Almost at once, the students began helping where they could, utilizing everything they had learned from their respective academies to turn the Beacon campus into a killzone.
With some guidance from the teachers, of course.
Students who favored ranged combat climbed and leapt onto the many high archways decorating Beacon's campus, preparing to lay down suppressing fire. Those skilled in fast, hit and run attacks hid themselves behind whatever cover they could find, waiting for the right moment to strike their foe from the shadows. Students trained in heavy melee fighting took up the frontline, trusting in their skills, Auras, and Semblances to see them through the fight. Those students with more rounded combat styles spread themselves out through the ranks of the defenders, placing themselves wherever they believed they could do the most good.
It was an inspiring sight, one that almost made Glynda forget how furious she was at them for ignoring her instructions to leave the school. Almost.
The deputy headmistress clenched her weapon in her fist, took a deep breathe, then turned back to watch the approaching gunships. She resisted the urge to turn her attention to the draconic Grimm being harassed by the invaders' air forces, instead focusing on the immediate threat.
Three gunships seemed like an inadequate force to send against a Huntsmen Academy to Glynda, possibly implying the invaders did not fully understand or appreciate the capabilities of the school's defenders. She doubted that, however. More likely, the gunships carried shock troops of some kind, maybe even the invaders' equivalent to Huntsmen.
If that was the case, Glynda feared for her students. Killing Grimm and monitored sparring matches were one thing, facing real, human enemies was something else entirely. If one of them hesitated, even for a millisecond, they would die. She would have failed to protect them.
"They shouldn't be here," Glynda muttered under her breathe, and not for the first time.
"Then you shouldn't have sent that message out," answered Harold Mulberry as he strode up to stand beside Glynda, carrying those two massive hammers of his like they weighed nothing. "All Huntsmen go toward the worst fighting, because that is where they know that is where they are most needed. Besides, they came here to become heroes, and heroes never run from a fight."
"There's a fine line between heroic and stupidity though," commented Ann Greene as she glided over to Glynda's other side, flanking her along with Mulberry. The stealth instructor narrowed her eyes at the three gunships and frowned, her eagle wings flexing in anticipation. "And with how heavily armed those gunships are, I'd say the students are leaning more toward the latter."
"What's their armament," Glynda asked, her tone calm but undercut by the urgency they all felt.
"Counting at least four heavy machine guns near the front, or what look like heavy machine guns," the eagle faunus said, squinting her eyes as she studied the approaching craft. "I'm also seeing six missiles under the wings, along with two additional wing guns, and a huge dorsal cannon. Thing looks like it could take down a goliath in one shot."
Heavily armed indeed, Glynda thought bitterly as she listened to Greene's analysis.
"They look like… bricks," Mulberry muttered. Glynda agreed, then realized that if he could make out their shape from here, then that meant-
"Do we have anything that could take them out before they get too close?" Glynda demanded quickly.
"They're outside turret range," Ann answered, pulling out her heavy pistols and flexing the mechanical talon on her boots. "Besides, the AA turrets were designed to track aerial Grimm, not gunships. By the time they lock on they'll have already dropped their cargo off."
"Same for your Semblance, Glynda," Mulberry added in, rolling his bare arms in preparation for the oncoming fight. "Even if you managed to summon up enough stone for a lance throw, it would fall short or be far enough for them to just move out of the way."
"There must be something," Glynda said through clenched teeth. All around her, the students, teachers, and soldiers tensed as the gunships came into view. The air became thick with anticipation as everyone waited for what was to come, made worse by the steadily building thrumming sound that came from behind-
Glynda blinked. Wait a moment. Thrumming sound?
Glynda, Greene, and Mulberry turned as one to see a student standing behind them, but she was not what grabbed their attention. It was the array of guns floating in front of her in a circle, quickly picking up speed and generating a massive ball of green energy that crackled and hissed with destructive potential. The girl punched both her fists forward and the ball became a concentrated beam that shot out towards the three gunships with a loud THWUMM sound.
Immediately, the gunships banked to avoid the unexpected attack, but one of them was not fast enough. A cheer rang out from the defenders as they watched the beam cut through the right-wing turbine of one of the gunships! A small explosion engulfed the right side of the aircraft as a result, and it began to lose altitude.
"HA! That's what I am talking about!" Mulberry cheered, slamming his hammers together in approval. "Nice shot, lass."
The girl, one Penny Polendina of Atlas, smile at the professor's praise. "Thank you, Professor," Penny said, her happy voice sounding out of place and strange. That tone changed to one of confused disappointment with her next statement, "However, it seems it did not deal as much damage as I expected it to."
Mulberry looked at her in confusion, but both Greene and Goodwitch saw what she meant. Despite having just lost an entire wing and engine turbine, the gunship was somehow still airborne and maintaining its current flightpath. Worse, it was now moving at double its previous speed, quickly outpacing the two other gunships and showing no signs of stopping.
It was almost like the pilot was planning to crash his ship into the skydocks.
No… Not almost, Glynda realized with shocked horror as studied the wounded craft's approach vector. This pilot was definitely planning to smash his blunt, brick styled aircraft directly into their defensive position in what would most certainly kill himself and every soldier he carried in the bowels of the ugly craft. It was insane.
Just what sort of enemy were they fighting?
Glynda turned sharply to Polendina, "Take it down!" She ordered; her voice far harsher than she intended and causing the girl to jump in surprise. "Now!"
"I am sorry, Professor Goodwitch," the ginger girl began, "but my array hasn't fully recharged. I cannot fire it until-"
"EVERYBODY MOVE!" Greene shouted, already running as she gestured wildly with her arms for everyone to get out of the way. "GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
Everyone wisely obeyed her orders, scrambling to get out of the black aircraft's way as it barreled toward them at terrifying speed. The students and teachers reacted the quickest, utilizing their Auras to increase their speed and deftly leap or sprint out of the gunship's way. Most of the Atlas soldiers, trained in minor Aura manipulation, also managed to dodge out of the way. Most of the soldiers.
Those that had been too slow to react to the warning were crushed to paste by the massive black gunship when it slammed into the earth not even three seconds after Greene's warning. Metal screamed and stone cracked and crumbled as the aircraft's momentum drove it further onto the campus grounds, creating a deep trench that cut into the carefully tended lawn, walkways, and gardens. It didn't stop until it was halfway across the main approach avenue, almost three hundred yards behind the Beacon forces.
For a moment, the defenders could only stare in stunned amazement at the wrecked gunship, as if having trouble processing what just happened. Its engines still glowed an angry yellow from the stress the pilot had put on them to reach the clifftop, for all the good it did him. He was dead now, as was everyone aboard that insult to the laws of aerodynamics. Nothing would be accomplished simply gawking at it.
They still had the other two gunships to deal with.
Glynda turned her back to the wreck, attention returning to the skies as she saw the other two ships resume their approach on Beacon. They were moving fast, not nearly as fast as their suicidal friend had been, but fast enough that they would reach the skydocks in a matter of seconds.
"Back in position!" Glynda yelled, giving her riding crop a good crack as she strode to face the oncoming invaders. "Ready yourselves! Remember your training. This is what it means to be a Huntsman!"
The gunship's crash landing had left tons of debris scattered all across the main avenue. Piles of dirt, bits of rock, chunks of flagstone and snapped branches. With a flick of her wrist, Glynda gathered it all into the air around her with her Semblance. A soft purple glow encased each stone, slab, and branch as Glynda glared at her targets. Around her, everyone was scrambling to get back into position, moving as fast as possible to get into cover before the gunships reached them.
Glynda remained where she was. She raised her riding crop toward the gunships. If she timed it just right, she could clog up their engines with the debris, forcing them to crash like their friend. Alternatively, she might break the glass windows of their cockpits, killing their pilots. The result would likely be the same, but in their panic, there was a chance the pilots would veer off, away from-
A long, torturous, rending sound filled the assistant headmistresses' ears. It was followed by a loud thud, and the crashing of metal against stone.
Glynda, and everyone present turned around.
From behind the wrecked gunship, a large, blocky shape trundled out. It moved on two stubby mechanical legs, each step sending spider web cracks across the flagstone avenue. Polluting black smoke bellowed forth from two exhaust ports on its back, tainting the air with foul industrial chemicals. A massive rotary chain gun took the place of an arm on its right side, while on its left it had a four-fingered hand analogue, its fat fingers clenching and unclenching in anticipation.
When it turned to face them, Glynda saw its broad body was decorated in gold, strips of parchment, and murals of stained glass. Each was framed by pillars sculpted into the machine's frame, and each showed something different. A noble knight in black armor kneeling before an altar. A great lion mauling a three-headed serpent. A faceless woman with majestic angel wings. The black knight, surrounded by evil looking serpents, fighting for his life even as they overwhelmed him.
Nestled between these murals was something Glynda could only recognize as a metal coffin. On its surface, a lion's head roared, wrought of black marble and decorated with strips of parchment and wax seals. Above the sculpture, a thin, gold trimmed eye slit sat, confirming that this ridiculous machine was a piloted mech after all.
Then it spoke. The voice boomed across the campus, amplified by some kind of speaker system.
"I have come to save the innocent from your tyranny,"it said, its words so deep Glynda could feel them in her bones. "In the Emperor's name, die!"
With those words, the chaingun started spinning up. Before Glynda could even open her mouth, a stream of high-caliber bullets fanned the Beacon defenders' position. Some managed to evade the attack at the last second. Many did not. The Atlas soldiers, lacking the reflexes and agility of trained Huntsmen, were cut down like wheat in a field, their bodies shredded into mangled red husks. Several students were also hit, but these were only glancing blows, turned away by the children's stronger Aura, for the most part at least. One student's head exploded in a shower of gore before her body toppled forward, another screamed in horrified pain as he clutched the bloody stump that had been his right arm.
And all in the spam of a single sweep of that terrible gun.
When the mech's fire reached her, Glynda instinctively moved the debris she had been planning to hurl at the other two gunships in front of herself, shielding the Huntress from the barrage. Other Huntsmen and Huntresses, teachers and students alike, leapt, flipped and rolled out of the way as fast as they could, keeping out of the mech's line of fire as much as possible.
Those not pinned or wounded began shooting back, laying into the mech with every ranged weapon they had. The mech was unfazed. Ammunition capable of shredding hardened Grimm carapace and weapons powerful enough to punch a hole through several inches of reinforced steel with a single shot only managed to scratch the black paint of the mech's hull. They weren't even denting it.
"What the hell is this thing made out of?" Cried Greene as she used her wings to push herself to the side and avoid the trail of fire.
"Aim for the joints!" Mulberry shouted, his twin hammers shifting into large, drum fed micro-grenade launchers that he wielded like a pair of light pistols. Their explosive shells detonated against the machine, obscuring its form in smoke and fire for a brief moment before another hail of fire spat forth from the cloud. "Fuck," shouted Mulberry again, as he was forced to duck under a low stone wall to avoid being shredded. "Damn thing's tougher than a damn deathstalker!"
One of the student teams shifted tactics and charged the mech in a pincer attack. Possibly blinded by the smoke and knowing their ranged attacks were next to useless against it, the students evidently believed that if they got into melee range, they could take the mech down. It was a sound train of thought. The walker's shape suggested it was not a very flexible or fast machine, and its main gun showed it was designed primarily for ranged combat. It wouldn't be able to keep up with the speed and supernatural reflexes of the training Huntsmen, allowing them to pick it apart with their weapon's melee forms.
They were almost upon it. The students ran in two groups, far away from each other and in crisscrossing patterns to better avoid the mech's gun getting a lock on them. Just as the students were about to perform a synchronized jump attack, the cloud of smoke obscuring the mech was blown away, revealing the mech along with the seven black armored giants now standing at its flanks, guns raised.
Glynda watched with horror and fury as the giants opened fire. Their weapons roared with the feral rage of a thunderstorm as their explosive rounds tore three of the four students apart, their Auras overwhelmed by both the sheer volume of shots and the destructive power of the ammunition itself.
One student managed to avoid the barrage that claimed his teammates, leaping into the air just in the nick of time. Unable to change his course, the young man raised his firesword over his head, intending to stab the weapon into the mech's cockpit and avenge the death of his friends.
With lightning speed that should have been impossible for a machine of its bulk, the mech's left arm shot toward the student, encasing him in its steel grip. The boy struggled to free himself, slashing at the armored arm with desperation and grief. Then, the mech tightened its grip, and a terrible snapping sound somehow managed to echo over the gunfire as the boy let out a bloodcurdling scream and then went limp.
The mech threw the student's corpse away with contempt and began to march forward. The giants advanced alongside it, firing their boxy weapons as they went. The mech had turned its focus on Glyna's telekinetic shield, blasting away chunks of floating debris with the intent of killing her.
Mulberry let out a bellow of rage and charged toward the enemy, his weapons once more in their hammer forms. Following his example, those teachers and students who favored close quarters fighting joined the large Huntsmen, including Penny Polendina. The rest stayed put, unwilling to run headlong into those terrible guns. Instead, they provided covering fire, laying into advancing enemy with all the firepower they could muster.
Like the mech, the giants' armor was too tough for most of their weapons to penetrate. Unlike the mech, they were having a visible affect. Several of the giants staggered and halted under the concentrated fire battering against their warplate, forcing them to angle their pauldrons to take the brunt of the barrage. The students still on the arches added their own fire to the mix, and Glynda felt a surge of relief as a heavy sniper round penetrated the head of one of the giants and he fell over dead.
The giants did not remain pinned for long, however. Maintaining its forward stride, the mech's torso swiveled completely to face the arch the killing shot had come from. It's chaingun screamed. Clouds of white dust plumed into the air as the barrage ate into the expensive stonework of the arch, and the students positioned atop it.
Glynda couldn't tell if it got them or not, but when its torso rotated forward once more, there was no fire coming from the archtop.
Their sacrifice was not in vain, however. Though it was only for a moment, the defender's covering fire had stalled the giants just enough to allow Mulberry and the others to close with them. They did not panic however and raised their boxy guns to get one more salvo off before holstering their weapons and pulling out long blades. The salvo killed three more students and wounded one, who's Aura absorbed much of the damage. The rest used their Aura-enhanced reflexes to bob and weave through the fire, dodging each round sent their way.
Mulberry slammed into the closest giant, hammers beating relentlessly against the winged skull decorating its chestplate. The giant stepped back, then swung an armored fist at Mulberry's head he barely managed to dodge before slamming his hammer into the giant's side, staggering him.
Before the other giants could aid their comrade, the students and other teachers entered the fray. They fell on the giants like wolves hunting an aurochs, surrounding their larger opponents and striking from multiple angles simultaneously before ducking away to avoid retaliation. Armed with only combat knives – knives the length of longswords, Glynda noted – and severely outnumbered, it seemed like the invaders would meet a slow end as the defenders of Beacon chipped away at them, strike by strike.
True, these invaders were resilient, and carried powerful weapons, but they were Huntsmen and Huntresses, the elite warriors of the Kingdoms. Their combat prowess was known the world over and their training was second to none. Indeed, few people had the strength, skill, or courage to face a Huntsman and emerge victorious, let alone sixteen. There was a reason they were hailed as the defenders of Humanity.
Even the boxy mech, that seemingly invincible machine of war, was unable to strike young Polendina as the girl ducked, dodged, and weaved around it, her floating swords constantly slashing and stabbing at joints, cables, and anything that looked important and vulnerable.
With the mech no longer focusing its fire on her, Glynda went on the offensive. She waved her riding crop like a wand, directing the debris in front of her to disperse and form into lances of rubble that hung threateningly above the Assistant Headmistress's head. With a flick of her wrist, she sent one of the lances flying at a black armored giant, striking the invader on the pauldron, nearly knocking him over and scouring the paint from his armor. The students fighting him tried to capitalize on the opportunity provided by their teacher, but the giant recovered too fast and evaded or blocked their attacks before responding with his own and cutting the head from one student with a swing of his knife.
Glynda grit her teeth and sent three more lances at the giant, each one thrown with more speed and force than the last. The armored giant could not brace against the Huntress's telekinetic strikes and defend against the attacks of the students at the same time. Eventually, there was an opening for a finishing blow, and Glynda watched as a young faunus drove her sword into the giant's neck, and the warrior fell to his knees.
It should have ended there, but it did not. As the girl made to pull her blade free, the giant's hand shot out and grabbed her neck. The sick crack of bone breaking was lost in the chaos of battle as the student's limp body was dropped to the floor and the giant pulled her weapon from his neck, as if it was only a flesh wound.
Driven by vengeance, her teammates fell upon the wounded giant, cutting and stabbing wherever they could pierce his thick armor. Already wounded, and lacking an Aura, the giant was finally killed with a furious decapitating strike.
That was two down.
Glynda forced herself not to think about how many had died just to kill two of these black armored invaders. Instead, she set her focus to clearing them from the skydocks as quickly as possible, before more lives were lost.
These invaders were powerful, she would admit, but they were not invincible. Already, Beacon's defenders were on the verge of completely overwhelming them. They could still make it through this, Glynda affirmed to herself, they could win!
Then the sound of screaming jet engines filled her ears.
And the two gunships that had been accompanying the one that crashed opened fire.
~o0o~
"Merciful Emperor," Kara hissed as the force of the Thunderhawk, Deliverance of Mercy's, unexpected maneuver threw her to the side. She would have slammed into Inquisitor Kress were it not for the oversized restraint harness she wore. Several of the Inquisitorial Stormtroopers with them muttered similar curses to Kara's own as the lurch pressed them hard against each other.
"Holy Lance is reporting heavy damage," the Mercy's pilot reported over the vox. "Starboard wing and engine turbine destroyed. They are losing altitude."
"Patch me into the vox," the calm voice of Chief Librarian Syrus ordered. A moment passed, and then, "Holy Lance, this is Chief Librarian Syrus. Maintain original heading and prepare for a martyr's landing. Let the Emperor carry you to the foe."
Kara didn't hear any response to the order, nor could she judge its nature from Syrus' expression. Though the Chief Librarian did not wear his helm, his face was as unreadable as a slab of marble. On reflex, Kara reached out with her mind, to gauge his emotional reaction to whatever was being said on the vox. She pulled away from him just as quickly however, chiding herself for her curiosity. They were about to enter into a warzone, now was not the time to get lost in someone else's thoughts.
"Make ready," Kress ordered suddenly. The Stormtroopers obeyed instantly, performing last minute equipment checks and reciting prayers of appeasement to their hellguns. Her master readied himself as well, activating his two custom-made hellpistols and adjusting their power output to the maximum setting. Normally, this would drastically reduce the number of shots Kress could make before having to reload. However, with both pistols hooked up to the large back mounted power pack of the Inquisitor's power armor, ammo wouldn't be an issue for him.
The armor was a weapon unto itself in a way, a set of the rare Warmonger pattern power armor, modified to the Inquisitor's specifications by Magos Orbeck. Unlike the armor of the Space Marines, this suit was designed for the use of unaugmented humans, requiring neither access ports nor years of specialized training to operate. This did result in the Warmonger being both slower and heavier, but the armor made up for it with its durability, strength, and built-in weapon systems.
Kara's eyes drifted to the collapsed missile pods resting atop the armor's power pack. The right one was loaded with krak missiles, while the left carried frag. At a word, Kress could activate one or both of the pods, and rain death down on anything stupid enough to stand in front of him. With any luck, he wouldn't need to use them.
The young psyker looked to her own armor and weaponry. A humble laspistol and a staff tipped with the Inquisitorial 'I' were her two most obvious weapons, while beneath her black robes she wore segmented carapace armor of dark crimson, built into which was the arcane device known as a psychic hood. Though not as pronounced and noticeable as the Chief Librarian's, it served its purpose dutifully. Kara checked the charge on the laspistol, then slid it back into its holster. She doubted she would need it.
"Ten seconds to target," announced the Black Lion pilot. He was accompanied by the muffled, rapid drumbeat sound of the gunship's prow mounted heavy bolters going off. "Make ready for combat drop."
At those words, every restraint harness in the troop bay disengaged as the twenty Inquisitorial Stormtroopers rose from their seats. Kara and Inquisitor Kress joined them, the Inquisitor's armor whirring loudly as he stood to stand beside the Chief Librarian. Even in his Warmonger suit, Kress appeared small next to the blue armored Space Marine.
Kara took up position behind her master, staff held in her right hand while her left reached out rest against power pack of her master's armor. There, she found a small handlebar and wrapped her fingers around it, gripping tight.
A moment later, the gunship lurched as it landed on the flagstones of the Schola's skyport and its prow embarkation ramp fell upon on well-oiled hydraulics. The savage cacophony of battle filled Kara's ears as the Chief Librarian and Inquisitor Kress strode out of the Thunderhawk and into the fray. The Stormtroopers filed out behind them, unleashing a heavy storm of lasfire into the defenders.
Not far from them, an assault Black Lions charged out from the third Thunderhawk, Nameless Hero, followed quickly by Battle Sisters of the Order of Our Shrouded Lady. The two squads fired as they ran, the Sisters providing suppressing fire as the assault marines closed the distance with their foe, working in tandem with each other in a way rarely seen between the two organizations.
The Black Lions slammed into the Huntsmen line, swinging their chainswords in great arcs, pushing to join up with their surviving brothers from the Holy Lance. The Huntsmen responded with shocking speed, dodging out of the marines' charge before launching back into the fray. Some turned their attention toward the Sisters and the Stormtroopers, the latter running for the cover provided by a low wall. Several troopers were felled by the Dust weaponry of the Huntsmen, but most managed to reach the wall and return fire.
The Sisters were far less hurried in their advance, trusting in their wargear, and their faith in the Emperor to protect them. One Shrouded Sister began to sing a hymn of faith, which was quickly taken up by the rest of her squad as they fired their weapons.
There were screams, shouts of pain, the smell of ozone, gunpowder and blood. The earth shook as a dreadnought fought against a smaller foe that dodged and weaved away from its heavy blows like a wasp evading a clumsy giant. A Battle Sister fell as an arrow lodged itself inside her neck. A Huntsman youth was torn in half by a sweeping chainsword.
It was a battle unlike any Kara had been a part of before, a scene ripped from the tormented dreams of traumatized guardsmen. Every firefight, brawl, and skirmish she had taken part in paled to the sheer violence and brutality taking place before her.
But standing behind her master and her sight obscured by his armored bulk, the young psyker barely even noticed it as she reached out with her mind toward the enemy forces. She skimmed their surface thoughts, felt their fear and rage, their confusion to what was happening, but did not linger for longer than a heartbeat.
Then, Kara sensed something. A mind, calmer than the rest yet still muddled with fury, as well as…
"…need to create an opening for the students to escape. They should not have come here. We cannot hold off for much longer. How are they this strong without Aura? It should be impossible! Ozpin needs to be warned. They're more than just well-armed soldiers! If they get their hands on Amber and the Relic-"
Kara felt a grin spread across her face. Time to earn her keep…
~o0o~
They were being slaughtered. Just when it seemed they were about to defeat the invaders, the other two gunships opened up with their brutal guns, butchering students and teachers alike before disgorging their deadlier cargo to reinforce the squad already on the ground. More black armored giants charged out, but they were not alone.
Thirty more soldiers joined them, distinct from the giants in both armor and heraldry. The first was a force of twenty, armored in red and black and carrying long rifles that spat beams of red light. Unlike the giants, unnatural in their movements, size, and power, these soldiers appeared to be normal humans, moving and reacting with the same crisp professionalism of an Atlas army trooper.
Besides them, striding in behind the charging giants, were ten women clad in white and gray armor. Glynda knew they were women, or at least assumed as much, as their armor possessed exaggerated feminine features that gave little doubt to the sex of the warriors beneath the plates. They bore the same booming guns that the giants did, firing into the Academy students without mercy. As they fought, they sang. The words were in a language that Glynda did not recognize, but the tone was peaceful and calm, almost lamenting even. It had no place in a bloody battlefield like this.
The deputy headmistress gritted her teeth as she hurled a piece of debris at one of these women, sending her sprawling to the floor. Glynda had no time to see if the woman got back up as she raised a shield of rubble to protect against the barrage of fire sent her way in retaliation.
Glynda cursed herself. She knew there had been three gunships, not one. She should have ordered Polendina to focus on keeping the other two aircraft from closing on them, not let her attack that damned walker!
'A King Taijitu has two heads, keep your focus on both of them or you'll end up feeding one of them'. It was among the first lessons she learned on her path to becoming a Huntress, and one she had taken to heart. But today, she had forgotten it. Her focus had been solely fixed on the giants and their walker; her mind completely transfixed by the sight of them. It had awoken some primal thing in her soul, beyond simple fear or dread.
Their very presence demanded acknowledgement, and when the fighting began, Glynda had been unable to recall anything outside of the here and now as she fought to defend her students as best she could.
But her best had not been good enough, and now they were surrounded. Their aggressive counterattack had turned into a desperate defense as students and teachers were pushed back by the invading force. With each passing second, it seemed another student was brutally murdered while the invaders seemed completely unfazed by their own casualties.
At this rate, they would be dead in mere minutes and the invaders free to ravage the rest of the school. They needed to break out, get to a more defensible position – no. The students had done more than enough. They needed to get out of here, escape to the shelter or into the forest, or their dorms. Anything but stay here.
But how to do that? Glynda pushed her shield of debris out, slamming it into the squad of armored women, staggering and knocking several of them down. In those few heartbeats, she looked around for an escape route. Her eyes fell on the line of human soldiers. It was dangerous, but if they could punch through their lines, it might give her students a way out.
Glynda needed to act fast though; the squad of armored women was already recovering. She raised her riding crop up, channeling as much power into her Semblance as she could, levitating every piece of rubble, debris and broken body on the battlefield. Sweat streamed down her face like bullets from the strain. She'd only get one shot at this. Glynda pulled her riding crop back-
A loud, piercing shriek shattered her concentration. The levitated objects fell to the ground as Glynda turned, eyes wide with horrified shock, as a pack of Grimm charged into the battle. Their bestial roars and growls filled her ears as they smashed into the fighting, swiping massive claws and snapping slathering teeth. Some attacked the invaders, but the majority were focused on her students.
Glynda watched as a beringel ripped a girl's head from her shoulders before throwing her decapitated body at one of the teachers. A pack of beowolves tore a boy to pieces as he screamed, still alive as they ate him. Another student slashed with her axe, killing a few before a flock of young nevermore overwhelmed her.
Help them…
Glynda's horror swiftly changed to anger. The deputy headmistress let out a furious scream as she swung her riding crop at the attacking Grimm. Three beowolves were lifted into the air, struggling helplessly against her telekinetic grip. Glynda ceased their struggling with a turn of her crop, crushing the three Grimm before throwing their yet-to-be-evaporated bodies into a group of enemy soldiers.
Her attack gave the other Grimm pause, something she should have found strange. Glynda did not notice it – could not notice it. Her mind was fuzzy and her focus narrow, set solely on the protection of her students and the utter annihilation of anything that sought to harm them.
Protect them…
Glynda took advantage of the Grimm's hesitation, wrenching a flagstone from the ground and hurling it at the beringel that had so brutally beheaded one of her students. The stone slammed into the ape-Grimm's head, striking with such force that it crushed the beast's skull and sent whatever passed for its brain matter flying out the back of its head.
The berignel's death snapped the other Grimm out of their shock. They roared in daemonic glee and charged Glynda, abandoning her students in favor of eliminating the greater threat she posed. Glynda welcomed it, eager to kill these monsters that had dared to attack her students.
The children are in danger…
When the first Grimm reached her, she backflipped out of its way, her heel clad foot smashing into the monster's chin as she did so, snapping its head back and knocking it off balance. Three more came in after their packmate, snapping at her with their fanged filled jaws. She cracked her riding crop against their snouts, sending them reeling. Then, she grabbed one with her Semblance and hurled it at an approaching Ursa. As the two Grimm became entangled with their own limbs, Glynda's head shot back to the surviving students.
"Run!" she shouted, before dodging the claws of a griffon as it swooped down in front of her. "You all need to run, now! Get as far away from here as you can! GO!"
She turned away from the students and came face to face with a beowolf. The Grimm bit into her arm, intent on ripping the limb off, but her Aura protected her. The deputy headmistress wrenched her arm from its maw before delivering a powerful punch to the side of its skeletal snout that sent the Grimm reeling.
The children are in danger. You must kill them all, to protect the children…
Glynda swung her riding crop in a wide arc, grabbing hold of several Grimm and hurling them away like dolls. As she did so, the griffon came in again, pouncing on the deputy headmistress and pushing her to the ground. Its front claws held her down, arms spread and apart as she struggled to free herself. It leaned in close, the tip of its skull-beak mere inches from her face. It opened its beak and shrieked at Glynda, trying to intimidate the Huntress.
It only serves to stoke her fury further.
Glynda screamed back at the Grimm, giving voice to her rage like she had never done before. It felt good to do it. She then raised her right leg and kicked the griffon in its stomach. The monster wailed in pain and its grip on her arms slackened a bit. It was all the Huntress needed as she rolled her wrist and pointed her riding crop at a nearby polearm laying discarded on the ground. A soft aura of purple light shimmered about the weapon, lifting it into the air and spinning it until its blade was aimed at the griffon.
With another flick, the polearm went soaring. The Grimm was thrown off Glynda as the polearm struck it, the long blade sinking deep into its blackened hide. It mewled pathetically, somehow still alive but unable to fight.
As it lay there, Glynda got back to her feet. She swayed, off balance, then steadied herself. Her heart was thumping in her ears, and she was desperately gulping down air. The adrenaline of combat was starting to leave her system, and she could feel her Aura struggling to maintain itself.
Not long now, she thought to herself, as the fury that had taken hold of her so suddenly retreated from her mind. She had never fought like that before, driven by her own anger and hatred like that. She had always been calm in battle, or at least aspired to be.
Her eyes fell on the battlefield around her. The corpses of invader, defender and Grimm littered the ground. Craters and debris were everywhere, the copper tang of blood filled her nostrils. The deafening silence…
Glynda's eyes widened.
Silence. The terrible cacophony of battle that had engulfed the Beacon campus had vanished, replaced with eerie silence. Only the distant echoes of battle down in Vale could be heard, far off and vague. Where was the bark of gunfire? Where was the revving of chainsaw-swords? Where was the crackle and boom of Dust use, or the singing of the armored women?
Glynda looked around herself, trying to find some source to the silence, but her gaze frozen on the group of students she had told to run. They were still there, staring at her with blank, dead expressions. The Huntress opened her mouth to yell at them again, to repeat her demand that they leave and save themselves.
The words died in her throat as, like a hallucination conjured by a Vacuo mirage, Glynda watched the students fizzle out of existence.
"Why…" the word was uttered wetly and just loud enough for Glynda to hear. It came from behind, where the dying griffon lay. Only when Glynda turned around, there was no griffon…
Instead, sprawled on her side with a polearm wedged in her gut, was Beacon's stealth instructor, Ann Greene. Her wings were clutched close around herself as blood continued to pool out around her. Greene was covered in feathers, torn loose during combat. She looked up at Glynda, expression one of confusion and pain. "Glynda… why…?" Her last word trailed off as the light left her eyes, and Ann Greene slumped to the ground, dead by Glynda's hand.
The deputy headmistress stared at the woman's corpse with complete horror. She stepped back, dazed, and tripped on something. It was a student, their jaw shattered, and their neck snapped back by a well-placed backflip kick.
"No… no…" Glynda muttered, voice quivering as her breathing quickened and realization kicked in. "They were… the Grimm… They attacked…" Glynda shot her head this way and that, and everywhere she looked, she saw not the dissolving corpses of the Creatures of Grimm, but the flesh and bone bodies of humans and faunus teens, dead by her hand.
"No… No…" Glynda moaned, falling to her knees as hot tears trailed down her face. "I was protecting them… I was…"
She trailed off, her tongue unable to form the words as grief, shame and horror filled her mind. Glynda Goodwitch had killed her students, brutally murdering them in cold blood. She had killed her students. They were dead, by her hand, all dead. She had killed the very children she had sworn to protect.
They were all dead.
"I killed them…" she choked out, ignorant in her sorrow of the invading soldiers advancing on Beacon Academy, passing by her crouched form as if she were just another corpse. Then a shadow fell over the deputy headmistress, and the buzz of motors filled her ears.
"All of this could have been prevented," said a voice, harsh, mechanical and labored, "had you not turned your backs on Him."
Glynda raised her head and met the muzzle of a hellfire pistol. For a fraction of a heartbeat, there was a flash of brilliant red light, so bright it completely filled her vision.
Then, there was only blackness.
~o0o~
Author's Note: Yup. Glynda be dead. Dead as hell. Psykers are fucking scary dudes, especially telepaths like Kara. That part was a blast to write, as was the rest of this chapter. I am glad I was able to get this in when I said I would, though I do apologize it doesn't go further than this for now. Was going to have way more stuff happen, but it just kept getting longer and longer, and before I knew it, what was going to just be the first half of a chapter turned into 8000 words! Still, I hope you all enjoyed it.
And to those of you who may not be aware, yes, Inquisitors can use power armor, it's just more clunky and slower than space marine armor. I took inspiration from Inquisitor martyr crusader class for the armor, if you couldn't guess. I did struggle with he weapons for Kress, as I didn't want something too specifically rare but still capable of packing a punch. Felt custom made hell pistols would work, thems guns be scary.
Hope you all enjoyed the chapter though! Thanks for reading.
As always, please Fav, Follow, and Review! Thank you!
DeadRich18 Out!