"Rhodes, are we ready?"
The soldier manning the console to Ironwood's right nodded. "Sir, yes sir."
Ironwood looked to his left. "Holm, is the tower holding up?"
Quickly checking her the instruments in front of her, the other soldier gave a quick nod. "Aye, sir. We're good to go."
Ironwood looked out the window in front of him, taking in the sight of Amity Colosseum. He took a deep breath, then leaned forward, taking the microphone in hand. "Everyone get secured. We're launching in two minutes." Sitting back in his seat, he secured himself. Once he was sure he wouldn't be violently thrown from his chair, he looked up at the screen least relevant to the raising of Amity. The election results were still important to everyone, but getting Amity high enough in the air to communicate with the entire planet came first. Now, however, he had nothing to do but wait.
He didn't like waiting around and doing nothing. He took out his scroll and checked for any messages. Jinn was keeping him up to date on the approaching Grimm and Salem. The unfortunate truth of the matter was that she couldn't detect a threat without knowing it was already there. Her brain was a normal human brain now, and while she still had access to her powers, which meant all of the information out there, to actually get it she had to go looking for it. This was simple and quick for her to do, but her delayed reactions and confusion at times had been due to her simply not knowing what information to look for. She knew Salem was on her way personally, because she had gone and looked to find out what Salem was actively doing. It hadn't occurred to her until later, however, to look into how Salem was travelling.
It was a whale. A giant Grimm whale, nearly the size of Atlas, that Salem was using as a mobile fortress. And now that Jinn wasn't looking for anymore of Salem's agents inside Atlas, she was able to focus on that whale. At its current speed, it would be here in three hours. The advanced Grimm force would arrive in just under two hours. That didn't give him a lot of time to prepare, but he would wait until the election was concluded before starting the evacuation. It was only a couple minutes, and he really needed Robyn to win. With Robyn helping, getting people to calmly evacuate to Atlas would be much easier and quicker. Jinn was far from perfect, but she was doing a great job considering what she had to deal with, and that had allowed them a much higher level of confidence going into this fight.
Looking up from his scroll, Ironwood could see the countdown getting close to zero. The election would be concluded at the same time Amity started to rise into the sky. He reached out and took the microphone in hand again. "Make sure you're secured. Ten seconds left to go."
He looked over to the soldiers nearby. Rhodes was holding his breath, and Holm was taking deep breaths. Kind of opposite reactions, which he thought was interesting in the moment. That the same thing could drive such similar people to completely opposite conclusions wasn't normally something he would spend time thinking about, but in this moment he found it oddly curious. He had to wonder how-
Amity began to rise, shaking violently as it started its ascent, removing any idle thoughts from the minds of anyone on the flying colosseum. The massive power output was felt by everyone in the vicinity.
Kali had to pull her hands away from the controls to avoid pressing the enter key and opening the containment doors, and Piper steadied herself against the door as the shaking threatened to knock her off her feet. Maria and Pietro were thankfully seated, and Vine was going to be impossible to dislodge, but Oscar had to resort to hugging the crate next to him. Clover shifted his stance to something more stable, but that was all he needed. He looked up to Vine, giving a nod. They both knew what was happening.
Winter stopped in the middle of checking the instruments monitoring Fria as everything started shaking. She put a hand on Fria's shoulder, steadying the old woman. Outside the door, Raven stood in the hallway, her eyes keenly focused down the hall to where she suspected Cinder would appear.
Elm had to wrap her arms around Watts and use her Semblance to plant herself on the floor so that he didn't get away from her. Marrow and Harriet crouched, keeping low to keep from losing their balance. They looked over to the cells in front of them, checking that everything was still functioning. The prison was working just fine, but the contents of the two cells looked confused and alarmed. It was actually nice to see Tyrian so bewildered and unsettled. He knew the timeline Salem was working on, and he knew she wasn't here yet, so it was up to him to decide what the shaking was. In the other cell, Neo had retreated from her bench to the floor, her eyes white as she looked around at the ceiling as though she expected it to collapse. Ruby and Blake, for their part, followed the example of their seniors and waited for the shaking to stop.
The vibrations were barely noticeable at first, but after a few moments the crowd began to look around in concern. Someone from outside on the street shouted into the venue, and then people started going outside. Robyn looked up at the screen, which showed she had just won with fifty-two percent of the vote. That was good enough for her, and right now there was something far more pressing happening. She rushed out a side door, with Fiona and Joanna on her tail. They ran out to the street, seeing May waiting for them and waving them over. They joined the amazed crowd in looking up to the sky where Amity Colosseum was slowly gaining altitude. It was going higher and higher.
Robyn jumped up on a dumpster and shouted over the crowd. "Everyone, listen! General Ironwood has built a communication tower on Amity! He is restoring communication with the other kingdoms!"
As her words sank in, amazement and confusion were replaced with cheers, as though people were realizing that a lot of their recent struggles and troubles had paid off. They weren't yet questioning what they would get out of the reestablishment of global communications, but a victory over the recent tragedies was a welcome thing regardless. The world was returning to normal, as far as most of them were concerned.
Then, after a time, Amity stopped. It was so small up there, hanging in the air.
In his seat, Ironwood let out the breath he only just realized he'd been holding. Feeling the shaking had stopped, he unbuckled his harness and stood up. It was time to address everyone. Not just Atlas and Mantle, but he was going to reach Vacuo, and Mistral, and Vale. He was going to reach Patch, and Menagerie, and every other place where people lived.
He turned on the camera, so that people could see him, then looked over to where Holm was checking the tower's status. She gave him a nod, confirming that it had remained intact. It was functional, and it was connecting around the world. The lights came on, indicating that it had secured its connection with Argus. Another display showed a large map of Remnant, and green dots were appearing everywhere the signal reached. Atlas and Mantle were lit up completely, and Argus was filling up green as well. Then Mistral lit up. A moment later, Patch and Vale lit up. He had been most worried about reaching anyone who was left in Vale, but his fears melted away when he saw just how strong the connection was there. Vacuo lit up next, just as much as he'd hoped. Finally, the Faunus continent of Menagerie started lighting up. There were other small pockets everywhere on the map where there were villages and towns, even a few smaller cities, and all of it was turning green. He had everyone's attention.
He turned to the camera and signaled Holm to turn it on. Now that he had access to everyone, it was time to tell them the truth. The entire truth.
"This message is going out to the entire world. Atlas and Mantle are receiving it, but so is Mistral, and Vale, and Vacuo, and even Menagerie and everywhere in between. We have restored global communications. This is just the beginning of turning the tide back against our enemy, but we are not stopping. Now that I can reach all of you, and you can once again reach friends and family you have all been cut off from since the fall of Beacon, there is first something I need to tell you, all of you."
He took a deep breath. This would be the moment, make or break, that would decide if Remnant could survive. If people panicked, the Grimm would attack everywhere. He needed to be the strong uniting voice right now.
"There is an ancient enemy bearing down on Atlas right now. Her name is Salem, and she is the master of the Grimm. She is very powerful, and her goal is nothing less than the destruction of all of us, Human and Faunus alike. But she can be beaten, if we stand together, otherwise she would not have spent centuries trying to divide us. One month ago, I might have had a different message, that perhaps we can't beat her, but it would be better to go down fighting. Today, however, I can't bring you that message. Because we have the means to not only drive her back, but to ensure that she will never threaten us again. Any of us."
Down in Mantle, people were rightfully afraid of such a being, but the firm reassurance in the general's voice told them that there was not only hope, but a lot of it.
"There will be time, later, for me to explain to all of you everything that you do not yet know about our enemy, and the things in this world that have been kept from you until now, but right now I don't have that time. Salem is rapidly approaching and will be at our gates in a matter of only a few hours. There is not time right now for anyone in the other kingdoms to reach us and help, and I understand that, but I am confident that we can hold the line here. Now that Amity Colosseum, and the new communications tower on it, are in the air, every resource at my disposal will go to the defense of Mantle from the coming Grimm attack. Every available ship will be used to evacuate the citizens of Mantle to Atlas."
Robyn put her hand on her forehead to keep her hair from blowing into her eyes as transports landed in front of her. She began ushering the crowds of civilians into them even as the general's voice continued to boom out around them. She glanced up, seeing the holographic screen displaying a few images alongside the general's.
"What is important that you all know right now is that we know who Salem's agents are among us. We have already apprehended Tyrian Callows, Arthur Watts, and Neopolitan, who are responsible for much of the recent unrest in our own kingdom. We know Cinder Fall is in Atlas as well, and she will be apprehended shortly. Salem's agents Roman Torchwick and Adam Taurus have been killed. Her remaining agents are Hazel Rainart, Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black, and Jacques Schnee. Jacques Schnee is being placed under arrest at this very moment."
For his part, hearing himself being referred to as an agent of this ancient evil before the entire world was not the highlight of Jacques' day. He backed up until he bumped into the wall. Weiss inched closer, her sword pointed at his throat. She smiled. "Cuff him." A soldier moved around her and grabbed Jacques, turning him around and pushing his face against the wall as his hands were forced behind his back, a pair of handcuffs clamping around his wrists.
"I know many of you may be afraid, hearing this, and with good reason. Salem is a terrifying enemy. But I do not fear her. That is because I know we have the means to defeat her for good. For now, I leave you all with this. Do not be afraid." He leaned in just a little closer to the camera. "Unless you are Salem."
Emerald looked up to Hazel as the broadcast ended. "He knows everything."
Hazel just grimaced. It did seem that way.
Nearby, Salem was just barely containing the rage that was boiling over inside her. "He used the Relic of Knowledge." She walked around in a half circle, meandering as her mind raced for an answer. Ultimately, it didn't matter what Ironwood knew, or what he thought he could do to stop her. "I will raze Atlas so that it will be as if it never existed."