Chapter 35
Operation Sinder
After three weeks of non stop training Reese and team rwby were standing at the front of the ship and about a 1000 miles away they were looking at the dark purple land and sky that was before them.
"Well it's not that bad if it was a backdrop for a movie." Weiss says.
Reese of course wasn't listening he was remembering what happened the last time he was there with his team tragically lost their lives just to get Ruby out.
"Hey Reese you disappeared what's going on?" Patty says.
"Hummmm what?" Reese asks.
"We are wondering what is going through your mind Reese?" Ruby asks.
"Same thing seeing my team get downed and nothing I can do about it." Reese says back.
Yang noted on her helmet his heart rate went up.
"Hey I'm here nothing is going to happen." Yang says in a comforting tone.
"Well hopefully that's true. With what ever plan Winter is negotiating with the other nations, let's hope we can win." Reese says.
"I can see what you mean, but my sister can do it." Weiss says.
"Now the main question is how is Ruby doing?" Reese asks.
For ruby's training not only did she get the enhanced armor training she had to get mentally prepared for this battle.
"I'm fine." Ruby said but one could see her hands shaking a little.
Interestingly Winter had a modification done to Ruby's helmet where it had a AI that only had one job, to watch Rubys mental health and if needed to release a relaxation medication, and it had a system to differentiate from combat high and pure fear, to prevent an accidental dose.
"Reese standby for new orders." Winter says over the radio.
"Got it." Reese says back.
"What was that?" Blake asks.
"Winter says standby." Reese says.
Ten minutes later.
"Ok Reese bring the team." Winter says on comms.
Reese starts walking and everyone followed him, his walk lead the team to the briefing room where Winter is the only one present.
When they got seated Winter sighed a little.
"I'm going to be honest I'm glad I scheduled your brief last, yours is the shortest." Winter says.
"How long have you been doing this?" Weiss asks.
"With all the negotiations and the approvals then giving the top generals a plan to revise five times, about 20 hours." Winter says.
"No sleep or food?" Ruby asks.
"Well no sleep but we had food delivered, but we did take breaks just so no one got driven crazy." Winter says.
"So what's our plan?" Reese asks.
"Yours is simple get Salem." Winter says.
"As in capture?" Blake says.
"Yep force her to surrender." Winter says.
"Uh with all due respect, she won't be that easy and with what ozpin has told us she will fight." Reese says.
"Well I'm telling you what the other generals want, they want her captured because she has history that they want and of course to see how she controls grimm." Winter says.
"What do you say?" Yang asks.
Winter looks around hits a switch that probably deactivated the tape recorders or any other device.
"I say stop her." Winter says as she turns the devices back on in a short window.
For the next 20 minutes it was a simple game plan to sneak in while the main force did the heavy work.
After they were done everyone went their own separate ways but from what Reese noticed Weiss and Blake went to the hangar to meet up with Neptune and Sun who just arrived an hour ago and Ruby went back to the therapist for any last minute things or advice, leaving Reese alone with Yang.
"Well this seems to be an common occurrence for us." Reese says.
"Yeah to bad we are not back home it's peaceful there." Yang says.
"Preferably I would like to be back on that island, it was sunny compared to the facility where it's cold all the time." Reese said.
"I think you have said that several times now." Yang says.
"Because I still have bad memories about it." Reese says.
"Sounds like you need to talk with the counselor after Ruby is done, you need to focus." Yang says.
"I probably should, or talk to mom if she is available." Reese says as he starts walking.
"Don't you think she would be sleeping right now? Or getting a meal?" Yang says.
"Patty locate Winter." Reese says.
"Reese don't, your mom can't help you with your problems." Yang said with a hint of frustration.
"Do you remember what she said that day when we got the truth out of her?" Reese asks.
"Vaguely all I remember is seeing you with pure anger then sadness." Yang says back.
"Well she said that part of her mission was to watch me grow and the day when she met me on the outskirts of Beacon, she reaffirmed it by saying that if I have any unpleasant memories to go talk to her." Reese said.
"I can't find her Reese." Patty finally says.
"What you mean?" Reese asks.
"You know what I mean." Patty says.
"Are you saying in this big ship you can't find her?" Reese asks.
"Yeah exactly." Patty responds back.
Reese was taken back rarely has Patty been stumped.
"Sigh I'll guess I'll talk to the counselor." Reese says as he walks off with yang in tow.
Over the next several hours the team did more training to get ready for the next set of orders from Winter.
Some time later the team was walking down a hallway chatting away about their new times on the obstacle course that they did, (they had to disable their armor for a fair chance for the regulars), they then saw Winter walking towards them with a stack of folders.
"Uh oh I know what thoes are." Reese says with dread.
"What are they?" Weiss says as she looks at her sister's arms.
"Your files for the briefings." Winter says as she hands them over.
"I thought we did it already." Ruby says.
"This is the brief for us that contains more information for us." Reese says.
Back at the cabins team rwby was occupying they went through all the data that Winter gave them, the data was information from satellites to actual camera images from Reese's team when they were doing the rescue mission.
"How appropriate of a name for this mission "Sinder". Weiss says.
"Yeah it kinda reminds me of Cinder maybe it's just a play on the way it's said." Reese says.
Blake takes a second and nods in affirmative.
Two days later.
The whole team was now standing near the front of the flight deck but today would be different the ship they were on is not alone.
Several jets suddenly flew over team rwby.
"There is the Vale squadron." Reese says.
In the two days after the briefings all the nations all converged in one location, well approximately 95% of the forces were there, the other five percent were back at their respective locations keeping the peace.
"Team rwby are you ready?" Winter says over the private line.
Reese looked at the team and they all nodded.
"We are ready." Reese says.
"Good all nations are reporting green, so Reese you get the honor to kick off Operation Sinder.
Reese looks at his pda and it said "ready?"
"Firing salvo." Reese says.
Instead of a bang he heard a whosh the sound of a missle's being fired.
"Nukes in the air." Patty says.
Meanwhile other ships followed suit.
"Vale has fired, Vacuo has fired, Mistral has fired, time to target 25 minutes." Patty says.
"We are using nukes?" Ruby says.
"Yep we are wiping out the grimm population at best we will get 90% of them." Reese says.
"All ships assume formations and get ready for contact." Winter says on the radio.
"Patty how many are in the air?" Reese asks.
"About 90 nukes in the air." Patty says.
For the next 20 minutes they were waiting for impact but the radar lost contact with them when they went to space.
"3 minutes left general." Winters xo says.
"Darken the windows and prepare for impact." Winter says.
While the fleet is 200 miles away if it was one ok no precautions needed, but 90 high yeld nukes that's different and they will combine into several high speed winds.
On the deck Reese noticed the cargo and jets being tied down.
"Guys get ready." Reese says as he got his armor systems online and locked down.
"Why?" Weiss says.
"Just trust me." Reese says.
The team then got their armor locked down and ready, and not to soon.
Several flashes of fire then penetrated the darkness and it was silent but then.
BOOMMMMM WHOSHHHHHHH!
"Wind speed in excess of 120 miles per hour." Patty says.
"Great to know!" Yang shouted sarcastically.
"PATTY WHATS THE BDA!?" Reese shouted over the winds.
"Stand by the satellites are off line." Patty says.
After about five minutes the winds did stop and the team can now see the damage first hand, the fire in the clouds were still brightly burning and the mushroom clouds were steadily rising about to disperse.
"You don't see that everyday." Weiss says.
"Yes I was going to say that." Blake says.
"So what now?" Ruby says.
"Well we are going to have to wait, the radiation will be our biggest problem for normal troops for us it's different." Reese says.
As if she heard him.
"You won't have to wait long at best an hour." Winter says.
"Drones are reporting back that 89% of the grimm were vaporized from the blasts, and the rest are dropping from the radiation." Patty says.
"Something tells me there is some that survived the nukes." Ruby says.
While Reese is optimistic about the strike he agreed with Ruby.
At the 56 minute mark the radars picked something up.
"Hey Winter we are picking something up on the radar about 6 miles away." The xo said.
"Bearing?" Winter said.
"It's underneath the Griffin." Xo said.
"Griffin there is something underneath you." Winter said on the radio.
Just then a black looking projectile went through the Griffin at high speed, splitting the airship in half.
"Xo damage report anything?" Winter asks.
"Nothing all hands lost." Xo says back.
"Reese deploy and secure a zone." Winter says over the radio.
Reese didn't wait for a second; he then jumped off the ship.
At that moment team rwby followed Reese.
"What are we doing Reese?" Ruby asks.
"Secure a zone." Reese said.
Meanwhile the rest of the airships in the fleet engaged the air threats while moving around, so they can deploy their troops.
"Transports 1-3 are away winter moving to help Reese and his team." Xo says.
"Good but we need to secure the sky's so we can provide the proper support." Winter says.
"Roger but we should drop nukes in the water to get rid of the water threat." Xo says.
"Do it." Winter says.
Two atomic devices fell from the Kronos.
"Reese be advised we dropped two devices into the water to clear out the water threats." Winter says.
"Wilco we are 2 miles over land have yet to land." Reese says back.
"Got it stay safe." Winter says back.
"Patty what's going on up there?" Reese asks.
"Currently we lost one ship and there are several air threats preventing from our ships from taking off." Patty says.
"Not good so we are on our own till they clear the sky's." Reese says.
"Not exactly the airborne ships from Vale launched all of their jets and are now engaged. Patty says.
Reese now got back on track for the initial landing zone where just the five of them have to hold off any grim that came close.
About five minutes later they hit the ground and the first thing Reese saw was a few shell caseings from his last visit.
"Well team I have worst news and bad news, we are on track to finding a good zone for our forces to land." Reese says.
"And the worst news?" Blake says as she loads her weapons.
Team rwby before they left got a second weapon to supplement their weapons.
Ruby got a smg.
Weiss got a handgun.
Blake got a rifle.
Yang got a launcher.
"The worst news is we are on our own, no support." Reese says.
"Wonderful!" Weiss says while crossing her arms.
"So we what go invisible and hold the position?" Yang asks.
"Yep don't fire unless they get to close." Reese says.
Reese then dropped the beacon and started the wait game.
Meanwhile back in the sky's the presence of flying Grimm made it hard for all ships to launch their jets, so far Vale got theirs in the sky and that was 15% of the total force.
"Where is our automatic defense systems?" Winter asks.
"About ten percent is operational but the others are offline but manual controls are operational." The weapons officer said.
"Get the crews to stations." Winter commands.
The alert was sent out and any crew member who was close got to a defensive weapon and started firing at any grim that came close.
"Weapons are engaged with the grim." Weapons officer said.
"Good now can we get help to Reese?" Winter asks.
"Right now several transports are loaded and waiting for a window to launch." The xo says.
"Good let's get our aces in the sky and get the CAS ready for Reese he will probably need it." Winter says.
"Well from the looks of it they not in deep trouble." Said another crew member who was assigned to watch the team rwby's cameras.
"For the moment they are safe but the instant the transports land then that's when they are in deep." Winter says.
"Already happened the first three that launched only one made it and it has attracted the grim." Xo said.
Winter then keys the radio.
"Watch out Reese grim heading your way prepare to engage." Winter says.
"Roger we have cas? Hey yang take possession on that rock." Reese said.
"We are getting them ready, hold on." Winter says.
"Striker company has launched and they are engaged." Xo says.
"Good get the cas launched next." Winter says.
"Done, flight deck top priority CAS launch next." Xo says.
The deck commander gave a confirmation and got to work.
"GET THAT CAS IN THE AIR RIGHT NOW!" Deck commander commands.
While the jets were being prepared for launch winter was giving instructions to Reese.
"CAS will be in the air shortly but I'm going to get at jet to help out but they will be available for one pass." Winter says.
"Got it." Reese says.
Winter then changes the frequency.
"Falcon 2-3 need you for a gun run." Winter says.
"Falcon 2-3 inbound to hunter 2-1 position." Falcon says.
"Reese jet inbound to your position you get one pass from him." Winter says.
"Wilco." Reese says as he gets the tablet out and gets ready for the link up.
"This is Falcon 2-3 ready for linkup for gun run." Falcon says on the radio.
"Roger Falcon ready for run." Reese says and not to soon the grimm are charging at team rwby.
Just then the tablet activates and Reese can see the nose of the jet about to strafe the Grimm.
"Rifle (gun is yours) hunter." Falcon says.
Reese then lets the rounds fly, the burst lasts about 7 seconds but the effects are immediate, the rounds started to impact from 9 to 3 o'clock, the high explosive rounds started to make the Grimm effectively stop where they are, then came a sound that was glorious.
BUZZZZZZZZZZ! RWARRRRRRR!
"Whoa that was awesome!" Ruby says in a fit of happiness.
"Yeah where is the grimm?" Yang asks.
"Gone." Weiss says.
"Good effect on target thanks for the help Flacon." Reese says.
"Glad to be of assistance hunter go get them." Falcon says as he hits the afterburners to get back to the squad.
"Winter area is clear send whoever was on that transport." Reese says.
"They are inbound eta one mike." Winter says.
After a bit who came was the rest of the team JNR and some robots.
"You guys didn't leave any fun for us!" Nora says.
"You missed the jump point." Ruby says.
"And Reese I don't want to do that again." Weiss says.
"Come on the other option was to take a transport." Blake says.
"So what's the situation?" Jaune asks.
"Hold here and wait." Reese says.
THREAT DECTECTED
Reese then jumped out of the way just in time the cloaked figure made it's appearance.
"So good of you to bring Ruby here it makes things so much easier." It said.
Then all of Ruby's friends got in front of her.
"If you want her you'll have to get through us." Jaune says.
"I hope to do this peacefully Jaune but it looks like I'm not going to get it." It says.
The voice to jaune sounds familiar peaceful like someone he knows but it couldn't.
"Show yourself!" Jaune shouted.
The figure then with both arms one that was Grimm looking and the other human and it dropped it's hood.
Standing there was indeed Pyrrha in her combat attire but the similarities stopped there she had horns growing out of her head, on her right eye it was glowing orange and on the left it was red and black instead of her green ones, but on the right side of her body resembled a grimm all black with some white and her arm resembled a beowulf's arm.
Everyone especially for Jaune was in disbelief but he was the first to speak.
"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU PYRRHA!" Jaune shouted.
"You wouldnt understand Jaune." Pyrrha says after flinching.
END.