Chapter 20: Siege

-Shatterstar Exo Planet 4-8, 12 hours after capture-

Ruby awakened with a splitting headache, her vision blurry and her eyes in intense pain. She could barely see around her, struggling to make out her surroundings.

She was in a poorly lit room with one large white light beaming down from the ceiling. The air was still and warm, suggesting she was underground. She seemed to be strapped to some sort of surgical chair, her suit was inactive and her outfit was covered in her own blood. Most likely from the various gashes from the fight earlier. Her leg had gone completely numb, as she looked down to see it bandaged and anchored to the chair by metal clamps.

Her arms were also strapped down and her neck was clamped to the headrest. Seems they were doing everything in their power to restrict her movements. Was she that much of a threat?

Beyond the area illuminated by the light, outside of the dull grey and mossy stone floor, she could spot a surgical tray filled with tools, and beyond that a faintly illuminated outline of what appeared to be various staircases and scaffolding. This was no mere cave, this was a large complex… but for what?

"Finally awake?" Adam's voice echoed from the shadows, as she saw him come into view. Without his suit, he seemed like a much smaller man, though still about as tall as Silver. She couldn't help but pick up on the aesthetic contrasts.

Silver liked wearing black but he was more of a black and white style with a touch of softness. Like the kind of villain that teenage girls would fantasize over. Meanwhile, Adam was seething with edge, like he was trying way too hard to seem scary.

"Is it a dumb question to ask you to let me go?" Ruby asked sarcastically, struggling against her restraints only to realize her muscles had no energy. "What'd you do to me?"

"Simple sedatives didn't work so we had to use wyrm-horse tranquillizer," Adam said dryly, "Like four times the lethal dosage for a person of your size… seriously what are they feeding you?"

Ruby grinned, her teeth stained with blood as she said, "Cookies and milk."

Adam was not amused, "I was hoping you and I would have a conversation like civilized adults."

"How about I show you how civilized I can be? Just unshackle me and I'll give your face some diplomacy," she clenched her fists in rage.

He rolled his eyes behind the mask, "You sound just like Silver. Speaking of whom…" he stepped forward and drew his blade, tilting her face upward, "What's you're connection?"

Ruby shot him a dry look, "What? Like besides the obvious?"

"Yes, I know you're enemies and eternal rivals or whatever… but why did he save you? Why risk his own life by trying to hide you on his ship?" Adam lowered his blade.

"What's it matter to you?" Ruby snarled back.

"My reasons are my own. Well… doesn't matter," he went back to the shadows, turning his back to her, "You're still a dog of the UFSH and I have a few bones to pick with you… so until Silver shows up why don't I have my associate here have some fun?"

Ruby spotted someone coming down the staircase at the back, the sound of heels clanking against the stone, but she turned back to Adam, "What makes you so sure he'll come for me? He's probably fucked off to the next heist by now."

Adam chuckled, "You and I both know that's not true."

"Silver would never abandon someone he cares about, at least not willingly," a female voice echoed in the dark, as a slender and shapely figure dressed in a pastel purple jacket that only covered up to her upper abdomen and a crop top with jeans that exposed her midriff came out of the dark.

Her hair was light purple and her eyes radiated with deep blue. She had cat-like irises and a pair of fluffy ears on her head, a long striped tiger tail with purple fur flickered behind her as her hips swayed. She was alluring in a sort of fem-fatale way. On top of that, her chest was bigger… and she was taller than Ruby.

"And you know this because…?" Ruby eyed her suspiciously.

"Oh right, we've not been introduced, my name is Lylac Lilianna, Lyla for short," she moved to the surgical table and picked up a scalpel. "Silver and I have… history."

At the mention of history, Ruby's mind began to turn, "Ex-crewmate?"

"Something like that," she giggled, taking the scalpel and bringing it to Ruby's cheek, slicing it, "Now… why don't you start spilling UFSH secrets? Starting with the algorithms by which the UFSH identify cargo?"

"So you can start masking your ships and get through our borders? No way," Ruby snarled.

Lyla took the scalpel and began raking it along Ruby's fingertips of her left hand, cutting them open, "Oh… wrong answer."

"ARGH!" she screamed out as the pain seemed to be amplified tenfold, "I thought I was tranquillized? How come I feel so much pain?" She grit her teeth trying to fight through.

"Wow, you can complain? Talk about resilience," Lyla mused, "Special brew, you can't feel your limbs but your pain receptors are on overdrive."

"Still not going to talk, not even if you kill me." Ruby sneered.

Lyla rolled her eyes, "I know," she took the scalpel and sliced along Ruby's exposed skin on her thigh where Adam had ripped a chunk out of her leg.

"FUCK!" Ruby cried out trying desperately not to cry, the pain was immeasurable, "WHY?!"

"Because I hate you," Lyla snarled this time with genuine hatred.

Ruby's brain began to whirl with questions. Was it because she was UFSH? Or was it some other reason?

"Fine… if you're not going to spill UFSH secrets…" she swapped out the scalpel for a pair of pliers as she put Ruby's bleeding index finger into the vice, "What about Silver?"

Ruby grit her teeth and smiled through the fading pain, "Fuck off, if you're an ex-crewmate then you know about as much as I do."

Lyla wrenched Ruby's index finger clockwise, snapping it off the bone and leaving it hanging by a thread of skin as she gripped the other finger.

Ruby felt all of the wind leave her body as tears pricked at her eyes, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" she let out a blood-curdling scream. Her eyes started to flicker silver… only briefly.

"I know so much more than you," Lyla sneered, "I know Silver more intimately than anyone else."

Ruby, catching her breath, felt some inexplicable anger at her statement, "Hmph, Silver's far too good for you. Like he would ever…"

Lyla, sensing she triggered something, smirked, "Oh yes, he has~" she prodded Ruby with one of her claws, "In fact… he and I go way back. Long before you were ever in the picture. I bet you don't even know what he looks like behind the mask."

Ruby felt her throat start to dry up. The idea that Silver and Lyla were ever together made her blood boil with fury, "Is that why you're mad at me? I'm in the territory you once occupied? Having regrets?" she jeered.

Lyla wrenched and snapped off Ruby's middle finger and bared her teeth with a cat-like hiss, "I don't have many regrets… but back then," she softened momentarily, "I… made my choice. I can't change the past."

Ruby felt some sort of joy knowing that Lyla was still thinking about him. She didn't exactly know their history but quite frankly she didn't care. Knowing she had at least some edge in this made her feel better. "Well, I do know one thing, and that Silver cares more about me than he would ever care about you. After all, if he is on his way then, he's not coming for you now is he?"

Lyla didn't know how but this girl had managed to drive her crazy with rage. Grabbing the hacksaw off the table she positioned it over Ruby's left elbow, the very same arm she'd broken the fingers off before.

Ruby's eyes went wide but quickly held firm, she wouldn't be broken, not like this.

"Well…" Lyla's tone got dark, "When I'm done with you, he's not going to want to look in your direction ever again…"

Ruby spat in her face.

"Have it your way…" Lyla began to carve away at Ruby's arm, dragging the serrated teeth of the saw through her flesh, down to the bone.

"OH FUCK YOU! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Ruby's screams echoed into the darkness as Lyla severed her left arm from her body.

Once the limb was completely off, she took Ruby's cloak and ripped off a long strip, tying the bleeding stump until it only dripped slowly, not enough to completely cut off circulation.

"There… now you will slowly bleed to death… and once Silver finds you, seconds away from death… then…" Lyla was interrupted when the entire cavern trembled as explosions rang out overhead.

Alarms started to blare, "EXO-MECHS IN THE AIR! ALL TROOPS TO BATTLE STATIONS! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

Ruby smirked a toothy grin at Lyla as she began to pass out, "You're fucked now…" she spat blood at her before her consciousness faded out.

-Shatterstar Galaxy, Planet 4-8 Outer Atmosphere. Time 11.5 hours after kidnapping-

The Solar Flare burst out of hyperspace and was greeted with the most awe-inspiring sight. An entire solar system reduced to nothing but dust and rubble, a single planet sitting on the outer rim of a blue-black nebula dotted in specs of purple.

It looked like something straight out of a fantasy.

The remnants of the dead star, a small glowing gas orb in the centre, illuminated by white light, casting a ghostly hue over the mass of asteroids that encircled the rings of the last surviving planet.

"Welcome to Shatterstar," Silver said, as he leaned on his elbow in the command chair. His eyes were brimming with fury and his hands itching to fight.

He stood up, "Hex, Nitro… deploy my mech. Engage all weapons, and enter assault mode."

Hex nodded, from the control panel, "Yes captain, but… are you sure that's wise?"

Yang who was next to her and Blake frowned, "Being this far out… does that mean…?"

"Grimm territory," Blake said, on edge.

"Doesn't matter. If they come too then so be it. I am getting Ruby back at all costs…" Silver exited the room and headed to the top deck. Donning his Exo-Suit his cloak fluttered behind him.

The outdoor, upper deck of the Solar Flare was wide and expansive, as he stood atop it all, glaring down at the planet below. He crossed his arms over his chest and stood menacingly over it all, fire in his eyes. The Exo-Mech deployed out of the hangar as it stood dwarfed by the size of the dreadnought class starship.

As the ship entered the planet's atmosphere, or what was left of it, they were greeted by a dark landscape, only illuminated by the light of the stars in space. It wasn't enough light or heat to sustain life and as such the entire surface had been reduced to dull, black ash.

Silver still stood on the outer deck of the ship, his gaze glowering over the landscape, like the Warmaster of a fleet. The Solar Flare whirred to life, the mechanisms clanking heavily and locking into place, like a beast hungry for blood.

No doubt they had been detected. The Exo-Mech touched down on the ground as Silver jumped off the ship's head and landed on the mech from low orbit.

Hex was already scanning the surface of the planet for entrances to an underground space, and sure enough there was one right under them. A large outcropping of rocks that formed a shelter stood out as the Solar Flare lowered onto the planet.

All at once, several massive turrets popped out of the ashen earth, rocks shifting aside to reveal large rail guns as dozens of smaller mechs began to file out of the opening in the rock.

"So it has begun…" Silver muttered, "Hex… fire…"

"Engaging all ship weaponry… incoming hellfire," Hex said darkly over the coms.

Yang and Blake watched in awe as hundreds of starboard and portside cannons came to life, dozens more than they had seen previously. The bridge began to shift upward as the neck of the starship turned into a large rail gun, like the one on Onyx's ship.

"When the hell did you have time to get all of this?!" Blake exclaimed, genuinely surprised.

Yang grinned, "So that's what we were working on… I thought those blueprints looked familiar."

Hex patted the seats next to her as the other crew of the Solar Flare took to their stations, "Hop in girls, time for target practice."

Blake and Yang shared a wide grin before joining her in the railgun seat.

Down on the ground, Silver got into his mech as even the machine's arms were folded. Thousands of shells impacted the surface of the planet, ranging from photon, ion and ballistic, decimating the enemy.

"You have something that belongs to me," Silver said through the open comms, "I don't appreciate you harming my crew…"

The ashen ground shook as a large mech suit came out of the ground. It was black like the space above, with a samurai-like build and a pair of bull horns over its head. A mane of red flowed behind it and a blood-red katana sheathed at its side.

"Silver," Adam spoke through the mech, "I've finally managed to get your attention."

Silver summoned his own katana, Asura, as the thick sheath formed on the mech to mimic his real weapon. "Adam, where is Ruby?"

Adam got into a drawing stance, "Lyla is handling here right now, though, there won't be much more of her once she's done with her."

"If you've so much as harmed a single hair on her head… I will ensure that your next breath is your last."

Adam chuckled, "Come on now… I just wanted to talk, and this was the only way I knew how to reach you."

Silver frowned, "What could we possibly have to talk about?"

"Join the White Fang," Adam replied with a smirk, "It's that simple. I want you to join me."

Silver faltered, "Huh?! You kidnapped my… I mean Ruby and hurt Weiss just to get me to join you? That's a sick and twisted way to go about recruitment."

"Don't tell me you haven't considered it. You and I do the same thing on different spectrums. I liberate Faunus from the UFSH and the SDC, while you use every chance to take them down. We share a common enemy, it only makes sense we join forces." Adam opened his arms wide as the mech itself mimicked his motions.

"If by liberate you mean kill every human in the process then sure, you're 'liberating' them." Silver snarled. "I don't involve innocents in my actions."

"Innocent? Are those humans really innocent? Their kind are the ones oppressing our people. They wield their wealth and power like a vice grip, choking out our people into nothingness while they thrive!" Adam countered.

"Thrive? Haven't you seen the outer colonies? Those humans are starving and suffering just like the Faunus. The SDC doesn't discriminate when it comes to suffocation…" Silver's anger was boiling over.

"That may be… but think about what they did to our home planet! Remember what they took from us! FROM YOU!" Adam burst out.

The words sunk like a stone in Silver's chest, "You know NOTHING about me," he roared in anger.

"On the contrary," Adam said with a smile, "I know everything, Prince."

Adam didn't even have a chance to blink as Silver had already pulled the trigger on his sword, blinking forward at immense speeds, the katana slicing through the air toward Adam's mech in an instant.

The blood-red katana shot out of its sheath colliding with the orange one just in time as sparks danced across the darkened atmosphere. The two behemoth mechs clashed blades as the ground combatants tried to swarm them.

Several pods shot down from the Solar Flare as dozens of pirates began to emerge from the vessels, armed to the teeth. The two factions began to clash.

Hex, Nitro, Yang and Blake, who were still on the ship, were watching the interaction with awe, "Did… we hear that right?" Yang asked, "Did Adam just call Silver… a prince?"

Hex's expression was dark, "Pretend you didn't hear anything."

"We should go help," Nitro said, flexing his muscles.

Blake nodded in agreement, "But we don't have our mechs…"

Nitro grinned at them, "Did you think I was slacking off this whole time?"

"Huh…?" came the simultaneous call.

Silver was clashing with Adam, as he swung high, Adam blocked it, red energy coursing through the blade as he released it, the arcing red energy erupting the ground and leaving a crater in the surface while Silver dodged and countered, his blade roaring with fire that scorched the atmosphere above.

"So… you too have unlocked your Semblance," Adam chuckled, "Good… then this will be an even fight!" He kicked his sword into Silver as the blade shot forward like a projectile while the mech unleashed a barrage of photon blasts.

Silver raised his guard, deflecting the blade as his Aura Shield on the mech began to absorb the impact of the blasts.

As the smoke cleared, and his mech emerged unharmed, Adam was taken aback.

"I never said that the fire was my semblance," Silver said ominously.

Suddenly three more mechs slammed onto the surface. A midnight black mech with almost no armour, another bulkier medium class yellow and brown mech followed by a steel grey and red mech with little to no armour rose out of the craters.

"Backup has arrived, captain," Nitro clanked his fists together in the mech.

Adam's smile faltered, "Ilia! NOW!" he yelled as he dodged another slash from Silver.

The surface opened another hole as a large, slender and lightly plated green mech came out of the ground with a long curled tail like a chameleon, followed by three smaller, heavily plated mechs that bore the generic colours of the White Fang.

"Are those… pseudo-Exo-Mechs?" Hex tilted her head, "So that's what you were doing here…"

Silver gave them a grateful smile, "Thanks guys… leave Adam to me, you deal with the others."

"No problem captain," Blake saluted before engaging.

At the sound of her voice, Adam whipped around and so did Ilia, "Blake?!" Adam narrowed his gaze toward her.

"You're focusing on the wrong person," Silver said with a dark tremor as his blade snapped into its sheath before shooting out at lightning speeds.

Adam barely ducked in time as the blade carved off his mech's helmet accents. He lost focus for one second and almost lost his head. Blake could be dealt with after… for now the prince was his main goal.

Meanwhile, Blake and Ilia were engaged in a heated brawl with Nitro and Yang handling the smaller mechs.

Blake threw Gambol Shroud's cable across the skies, catching Ilia's tail mid-strike as they pulled each other together with the blade catching the metal edge of the sharp chameleon tail.

"Blake!" Ilia snarled, "You abandoned us! FOR THEM!"

The cat-Faunus grimaced. She knew she'd have to face them again one day, she just didn't expect it to be under these circumstances.

"I left because you strayed from the path!" she countered, kicking off the tail and jumping high into the air, aiming a pointed kick toward Ilia's chest, sending her crashing into the dirt.

"You ran away! To join the very people you hate!" she hissed, getting down on all fours, the Exo-Mech engaging thrusters as it started bounding forward at high speeds.

Blake countered by stopping the charge with her sword, her own mech engaging thrusters to counter the force, "I did some real good with the UFSH!"

"Yeah and for every good you made several more wrongs! Do you have any idea how many died because of your actions?!" Ilia cried back.

Blake faltered as the tail swing cracked her in the jaw, sending her flying across the ashen ground.

"I know…" Blake said in a low voice. At the same time, Ilia jumped high into the atmosphere, her tail pointed to a spear as she aimed the strike directly at Blake, changing her colour to mimic the surroundings so her attack was even harder to discern.

As soon as the tail came down, Blake was ready, "I made a mistake by joining the UFSH… I… made many mistakes… but I know now, what I need to do."

She felt something awaken in her as suddenly her entire mech shifted forward, leaving an exact copy of it behind like some sort of.. Shadow clone.

Ilia's strike went through the clone and it disappeared into a block of ice, freezing her tail solid. Blake wasn't exactly sure what just happened but she didn't have time to think about that right now.

"What the…?!" Ilia tried to wrench herself free but her Exo-Mech was fastened to the block.

"Out of all the bad decisions I've ever made, there's are few good ones… and one of them," Blake raised her blade above Ilia, "Is siding with Silver."

Ilia looked at her with fearful eyes, and Blake momentarily hesitated, she could somehow see through the mech's visor to the smaller pilot inside.

Lowering her weapon, Blake said, "Leave… while you still can."

Ilia, with her heart beating, powered up the mech and blasted off into space.

Adam watched Ilia fly away, "COWARD!" he roared.

"Losing focus again are we?" Silver taunted, this time as his sword sailed through the air and cut right into the mech's lower abdomen.

Adam briefly panicked, the odds were stacked against him, "Silver, if I can't have you then I'll at least escape with your precious pet."

He ejected out of the mech and sprinted toward the entrance to the underground chamber.

Silver briefly looked back, "Keep these posers occupied… I'm going after Ruby."