AN:
A bit shorter than usual, but I've found that enormous dozen-plus man battles against entire armies, especially Huntsmen vs the terrans, can get grating and old. It's also a lot more difficult to set up the geography of the fight in situations like these... At least when working from a literary perspective.
And besides, I already had one chapter that was 10k+ words of an OP superman cutting through squishy terran soldiers, so I figured I'd do the next one a bit differently, and shorter.
With... Well, I'll let you see it for yourself:
Chapter 41
The terran advantage was in numbers and firepower. For every one of them, there were anywhere from five to even ten terrans ready to gun them down. They had copious amounts of explosives, bullets, heavy ordinance and rockets, all of which they were using and to great effect. But, the advantages were not all held by the invading army, as not a one of them had huntsmen. Whereas few, if any, of the White Fang attacking them had any use of their aura, they would soon find themselves receiving the help of those who held advantages of their own. At the top of the list was their mobility - any one of the assembled rookies was exponentially faster and more mobile than a terran; next was their strength in a melee - so long as they could get inside melee range, any of the terrans they would be fighting would find themselves unable to effectively use their weapons and would find their battles lost almost as quickly as they began. Used together, so long as the rookies kept on the move and closed ranks as fast as they possibly could, they stood a chance - but only just - of surviving, and winning, the battle ahead, and with eleven rookie huntsmen and huntresses ready to fight, and two more hidden somewhere inside the enemy line, the hope and the prayer of all of the assembled was that their numbers would be effective enough as a force multiplier that they could get the job done.
Soon after the decision was made to join the White Fang's assault, the rookies inside their brick impromptu base were geared up and charging for battle, with their de-facto ringleader, Ruby Rose, at the head of the pack, scythe extended face set in determination. She knew that she was going to do things in the next few minutes that may stay with her for a long time, but she held steadfast to her belief that what she was doing was right, and that she could live with these next few hours as a result.
But that was all the thought she was able to give to the prospect of killing a man, as it took no time at all for them to reach the terran defensive line, slamming into it like a cannon. A few terrans manning the defenses were all that were there to greet them - so many more were off elsewhere trying to fight the Fang - and as a result, they weren't prepared in the slightest for what was about to hit them. They, as did all of them, raised their weapons to begin their struggle, but found that those weapons were stolen right out of their hands by the magnetic powers of Pyrrha, whose body was enshrouded by a black glow, and barely a second later they were carved into by rapid-fire rounds from Coco's gigantic gattling gun, whose automatic spray carved the path the rest of them needed to breach the line.
Ruby leapt over a barrier of sandbags, spinning around with one full revolution, building up the momentum she'd need to swing her scythe fast and hard enough such that it would cleave through a trio of machine guns, and their gunners. She felt the physical recoil of the metal blade hitting each object, stalling for a moment as it split them all in twain. She felt the grinding sensation of her scythe cutting through the metal tripods, and then the tearing feeling of the blade cleaving through the flesh of each soldier. Her momentum carried her forward and past the sandbags, and for a moment after landing, there was stillness. This moment came and went in a flash - or, more appropriately, a spray, specifically of the soldiers' blood as the upper halves of their bodies fell to the ground and the blood in their bodies oozed out of their veins and sprayed out of their arteries.
Ruby might have spent a moment to react to what she'd done, to realize that the world seemed to be slowing down as she watched the blood fall from her scythe, but that only would have happened if her situation were any less chaotic than it was now. As it were, what forced her mind to not stutter and stall was a bullet, streaking through the air, so close to the bridge of her nose that she felt its heat radiate against her face, heard it whiz past her ear and felt the air waver in front of her. The split-second brush with her own mortality snapped her back to reality, calling to the forefront of her mind all of the lessons she had learned both in Beacon and back home in Patch, to set - or, if need be, shove - aside anything in the midst of battle that didn't have to do with the battle itself. So as horrific as she knew what she'd done was, her life was in danger, the lives of those White Fang were in danger, the lives of her friends and her sister were in danger, and the safety of her kingdom was at stake. She couldn't afford to think about any of this, she could only do what she'd trained for for fifteen years.
Well, okay - not fifteen years, there'd been a few before she'd actually gone to school but - not important!
In the time it took to blink she shook all thoughts from her head and threw herself back forward into battle. She surged forward, rolling into a concrete barrier and taking cover, waiting for a lull in the fire, until Ren leapt past her, gun spraying bullets wildly, suppressing more than they were hurting. Ruby realized what he was doing, and took advantage of the soldiers hiding from the gunfire, swinging her scythe in a wide, downward arc, burying the blade in the ground just past the concrete to steady it. Then, with each pull of the trigger, a thunderclap briefly overwhelmed all of the sounds of war and a huge anti-material round blasted through the air, soon accompanied by her racking the slide and chambering a new round. Before she broke off to reposition, a dozen gigantic slugs, each nearly the size of her thumb, hurtled through the air, slamming into people and walls alike, blasting everything they touched into smithereens.
She dashed away in a flurry of rose petals, leaving Ren to reach the soldiers he'd suppressed. He collided with the group of soldiers almost like a bowling ball into a group of pins. His green, bladed guns clenched tightly in each hand, he threw a rapid flurry of punches, each accompanied by the sound of a crack of thunder, and the sight of flesh tearing from both bullet and blade. Compared to other brawlers his punches were less jabs and uppercuts than they were hooks and slices, the blades on his guns more important than the guns themselves, the bullets not blasting through the men he cut, but the people off to their side, maximizing those he would injure with the absolute efficiency. It didn't take long at all for his green guns to become stained red.
But, as with all who chose to pursue such an extreme close-range fighting style, whenever there were more opponents than he could safely dealt with, their quantity would inevitably lead to an increase in their quality. Though he cut through the soldiers around him like they were wet tissue paper, racking up a body with each passing second, there were so many of them that while he was dealing with those in his immediate vicinity, those outside of that vicinity were taking aim, screaming and begging their friends to get out of the way so they could clear up a line of fire, while some weren't even trying - they were taking aim, damn the consequences.
Unfortunately for them, the only consequences they had considered were those of friendly fire, they hadn't at all thought of the orange fireball that came crashing into them before they could open fire. Her hammer slammed into the ground and detonated with a fiery explosion right at the densest area of soldiers, sending those closest to her flying and stumbling the rest. She picked up the hammer and with a wide grin, she charged forward, swinging it in a horizontal arc and caving in the chest of a soldier with a shotgun, sending him flying towards her lifelong friend, who heard the gurgling of the man's dying breaths and leaned out of the way, letting him collide with a soldier charging him with a bayonet and flooring the both of them. Both Ren and Nora retreated three paces, quickly coming back to back, as the former slid fresh magazines into his pistols and the latter collapsed the haft of her hammer, transforming it into a grenade launcher.
The soldiers surrounding them were either scrambling to their feet or not even bothering, simply shouldering their rifles from their prone and supine positions, thinking they had an advantage, now that their enemies were surrounded with their backs to eachother and no means of entering a melee. Just as they opened fire, however, huge, jagged chunks of metal fell out of the sky and slammed into the ground, planting themselves in between the bullets and the two fighters. Hardly a second later a third warrior came rampaging in, a shield securely fastened to one arm and a long spear spinning in the other. She threw the spear with a grunt, it literally exploding out of her hands and burying into the back of a soldier readying a grenade launcher of his own, and as he stumbled forward she landed on the ground. After rolling to her feet she tore the spear out of the man's back, spinning it lengthwise in her hand, transforming it from a spear to a rifle, which bucked and barked as she spun on her heel, and as she shot down man after man, bullets burying into the unarmored portions of their bodies. Her two teammates stormed past the barrier she'd made, one by leaping over it, pistols blasting so fast it was as though they were automatic weapons, one by slamming her hammer into one of the jagged hunks of metal and sending it flying through the air, now a deadly projectile moving so fast that it tore clean through the front and back walls of a building, which she promptly destroyed with a follow-up grenade.
The three quarters of team JNPR didn't remain in this position for long, each of them sporting a wound of some sort or another and knowing that staying in one place was tantamount to courting death, what with the numbers they were dealing with. They only stayed here long enough to cause their wanton destruction and then retreat further into the docks, throwing the defending terrans off their balance and keeping them that way. The Beacon rookies' rampage had the intended side effect of pulling a lot of heat off of the attacking White Fang, as now the terrans had to split their attention between a conventional force they were used to fighting, and a highly unconventional force they'd never fought before the previous week.
As a result of this, where once the terrans had been holding their ground, albeit precariously, now they were losing it. It was clear in how , slowly but surely, they were all retreating. Where once they had full control of the docks, all the way up to the exits and the roads leading out, now under the combined assault of four groups of huntsmen and huntresses and an army of faunus terrorists, they were falling back. One squad would hold the line and fire on any enemies they saw while another would sprint back, find a position, and secure it so the first could do the same. This game of leapfrog was repeated nearly everywhere, as three three-quarter teams and one full-strength team rampaged through them. The four huntsmen groups stayed close to eachother - with Ruby and Weiss and Ecru and Srebro having both paired up and then again stuck to the other team, since they each were down not only one member, but a second, hidden and operating somewhere in the maelstrom of chaos. NPR was able to operate with a limited amount of independence, but it was CFVY that was at its fullest strength, and was operating with the most autonomy.
Coco, with her massive gattling gun, was tearing through terran after terran, using its high-speed and high-caliber fire to chew up their hardened positions and suppress any brave terrans long enough for her to either eat through their cover, or for her teammates to come charging in. Fox and Yatsuhashi were the primary melee fighters, each executing perfect pincer attacks, hitting the terrans hard under the cover of Coco's machine gun fire, tearing up their cover from within their lines, and then dashing off. The uniquity was Velvet, whose arsenal found her performing any number of attacks - slicing apart any gunners who got too close to Coco with a hardlight copy of Myrtenmaster, blasting away enemies from long range with Crescent Rose, and often even assisting Coco directly with a copy of her handbag. She had tried for her worth to use her camera on the terran weapons and get a copy of them to use, considering the sheer number and variety she had to select from, but had found that her camera couldn't recognize, and thusly copy, any of them. Unfortunate, but she could work around with it - for range and melee combat, she had all of her bases covered, and could even provide heavy weapons support through Nora and Coco's weapons.
What none of them realized, however, was that their steady advance was a ploy by the terrans. The aliens from another world were doing two things: Shoring up their defenses around the hexagonal cages they had assembled around their vehicles, and retreating in specific, pre-defined paths designed to funnel in the attackers in directions more advantageous to the terrans. These paths were wide, wide enough that one wouldn't be able to see one end from the other. They had to be, due to the destructive power and maneuverability of their enemies - as well, they needed to be convinced that they were making progress, not being led. Led to where, though, was where the entire plan came into play.
Both the White Fang and the Beacon Students, slowly but surely, were being directed into a single location in the center of the costal docks. Several buildings, a crane, and a few docked Remnant ships all surrounded this area and, unbeknownst to the attackers, were all lined and packed to the bursting point with weapons, men, and equipment. The center of this zone was their killzone - when the enemy armies arrived, the terrans would close ranks and have them wholly surrounded and in a massive crossfire. Any reinforcements would be completely unable to reach them, and provided they entrapped enough, this decapitating strike would at least half the attackers' strength, resulting in an instantly disoriented and weakened assault, and thus the terran counterattack would begin, pushing back the Fang and the Huntsmen and killing them through sheer overwhelming firepower and numbers - the only two advantages the terrans always universally had.
No one on the field had the requisite large-scale operations experience to realize what was going on, to connect the dots and to see the ploy for what it was.
So the person who did would have to enter the field, to take charge and take command, to try and ruin the terran counter before it could happen. He had little time to begin with, and had even fewer men to operate, but he would have to make due and hope the remainder of his assault force would provide enough of an impact to throw the terrans off balance again.
This man, his overcoat billowing in the wind, looked out at the docks with a determined frown on his face, and a flutter to his heart that only came in the waning moments immediately preceding battle. He ran his gloved hand through his bloody red hair and then turned his masked face to the towering giant of a faunus next to him, and with one nod, the giant yanked at a wire connected to his enormous sword, it instantly revving to life with the sound of a chainsaw. The two of them and the remaining White Fang soldiers charged down the rubble-filled, dusty street leading to the coast, and let out loud battle cries as they did.
What few terrans were still manning these defenses turned to face them, but found them cut down rapidly by the two leading the charge - the few among the forces stationed in Vale, who could access their aura. A rapid slice from the red blade of the swordsmen, and a loud smash and a spray of gore from the chainsword-wielding lieutenent destroyed a machine gun, its gunner, and the sandbag barrier that was blocking their advance, and as they dealt with the others in the immediate vicinity, they opened up the floodgates for the remaining Fangs to charge, all howling like a wolf at the moon.
For their part, they did well - punching a hole deep into enemy lines, and even making contact with some straggling or pinned down Fang groups, rallying them, and penetrating further. But they found their efforts were in vain, turning out to be too little, too late, as just as they made it within eyesight of the killzone, said killzone was rapidly filling up with the Fang attackers and the Beacon students.
Now in a massive, singular crowd, the assembled attackers seemed to realize their mistake as terrans appeared to pop up from every possible crevice and hiding spot available, all with guns pointed right at them. The attackers rushed outwards, forming a huge ring, out from which they fired at the terrans surrounding them. The aura-less Fangs with guns, the haggard students with their special weapons, they all found cover and began blasting away - anyone even attempting to bring the fight back into a melee finding themselves torn apart mercilessly before they could close the distance.
Inside of twenty minutes, the fight had turned from the terrans off balance and reacting, losing ground at every available turn, to now the Remnant humans and faunus being thrown into the meatgrinder and losing every advantage they ever could have had. Confidence turned to despair as they all desperately fired out at the seemingly innumerable horde of terrans, and despair turned to anger and rage in the eyes and lungs of those few trying to punch a hole open for the killzone to escape out of.
Ruby was one of those feeling the ever-increasing amounts of despair, as she fired round after round out at the terrans, spent casings and empty magazines quickly piling up at her feet. Every bullet made a body, but for every terran who fell, two more took its place and doubled the firepower being poured down upon her. Quickly Ruby found herself taking cover more often than she was firing, but even that was fleeting, as the sheer amount of ordinance being thrown her way from every direction was chewing through it as quickly as Velvet had been, earlier. Nora's grenade launcher didn't help, Coco's machine gun wasn't enough, Velvet's hardlight arsenal was running dry, and the White Fang were beginning to lose hope around them, some screaming and shouting, some crying, others merely staring blankly at huge, gaping wounds in their bodies, as all around them the air shook and thundered and exploded.
Ruby dropped to her knees to reload, her right shoulder, left arm, and several of her ribs bleeding and in pain. She looked to her right and saw Weiss was doing little better - she was trying to use her glyphs as barriers, but the terran response to that was the response they had to everything: More gunfire. Focused gunfire, walls of it - oceans of it - quickly overwhelming the barriers she made and rapidly burning through the ailing heiress' stamina.
Ruby knew that, just maybe, she could reach the terrans if she used her semblance, but she was worried she might literally run into their gunfire if she did so, and that crossing that distance wouldn't only abandon her friends and allies, but would also prove to be little, if any, difference whatsoever, as all of the terrans who had previously run were now here, it seeming as though the entire invasion force were surrounding them. Her ears were ringing and the gunfire and explosions weren't letting up - a bullet slammed into the concrete right next to her ear and briefly deafened her to the world. The air was choked by smoke and dust, and the sky was darkening from a morose gray to a deep darkness, closer to night than day.
Fear gripping her soul, Ruby looked again at Weiss and their eyes met. Both of them seemed to realize that this could potentially be the end, that they might not make it out of this. Weiss held out her hand and Ruiby grabbed it, trying to show some amount of confidence even where there was increasingly little.
As the two let go and prepared to attack again, neither noticed the sudden and rapid drop in temperature in the air around them. Ruby leaned over her concrete barrier and poured more rounds down range, deciding that if her only possible chance to tip the balance was to run right at them, then she'd have to do it. But as she fired again and again and searched for any kind of weakness anywhere, she found that her next bullet was stopped wholesale.
Ruby blinked, and saw that where once there was open air between her and the terrans surrounding them, now there was a huge, thick wall of ice - it taking all manner of rounds fired at it and only cracking wide and far, but not falling. The ice wall quickly formed with a large cracking noise, surrounding the killzone until it encapsulated it all and chilled the air behind and beyond it. It took no time at all for the gunfire to halt, as even the snipers had no clear shots. The battle having briefly been brought to a halt, everyone involved looked around, trying to figure out what had happened and where to cause it.
Ruby turned to the only ice-wielder she knew, but Weiss looked just as lost as her, as she stood up and looked out at the massive circular wall keeping them safe. Ruby looked down at the other teams, but none of them seemed any more aware than she. Past the opaque wall she could see the terrans just as dumbfounded, so much so that, for the moment, no one was readying explosives. The entire battle had halted, the air growing still and silent, as everyone was trying to figure out what the fuck was going on.
"Weiss?" Ruby intoned, turning back to her. "What -" But as she turned, she saw up in the sky was a huge trail of smoke, darker and thicker than anything they could have made now, and it looked as though it were coming from out at sea. Following the smoke trail down, she saw, crossing over the horizon and bearing straight towards them, was something small and faint, but growing larger and closer with every second.
"Weiss - look!" Ruby pointed out to sea, and others, also making the connection, were doing the same.
Now with members of both armies looking out to sea, the object grew closer and closer, until Ruby realized it for what it was: A boat. Not like any she'd seen before - all big and gray and ugly. It had a huge gun on its deck and a giant mast with a radio antenna sticking out of its top. It was belching smoke out into the sky and was churning up the sea beneath it as it hurtled towards them. As it grew close enough for Ruby to almost make out some fine details, she realized something else.
She could hear music.
Closer the gun-boat grew, and louder the music grew with it. Starting soft, with only a guitar strumming out a few notes repeating, before suddenly its volume skyrocketed as more instruments joined in. The volume grew louder and louder as the boat grew close enough for Ruby to just barely hear it churning up the ocean beneath it, and as the music, blasting out of what had to be anything on that boat that could produce sound, began singing, Ruby noticed something else:
There was a person, standing right there at the boat's front.
"This is your time to play!" She heard thunder out from the sea. "This is your judgement day!" Ruby squinted her eyes, trying to figure out who it was at the head of the boat, but in her heart, she already knew - she didn't even need Srebro and Ecru's growing grins and picking up shouts to confirm it. "We made a sacrifice, and now we get to take your life!" The boat screamed, as Ruby noticed the man at its head shouldering a weapon nearly as big as he was, holding it out, stock pressed against his bicep. "We shoot without a gun, we'll take on anyone -" It continued, as the boat now came within a stone's throw of the docks, and Ruby realized it was angled such that it would - just barely - miss her and the White Fang, and instead slam right into the terrans. " - it's really nothing new -"
"Ruby, give me his shield!" She heard Pyrrha call out.
As Ruby scrambled to pull Ash's shield from the weapon mount on her back, the boat continued. "It's just a thing we like to do!" And as it made it to the docks and was moments away from slamming into them, the man on the deck took off running, shooting off like a bullet until he hit the edge of the boat and then leaping into the air.
Now so close, Ruby realized why Pyrrha had asked for the shield first, and not the sword: Ash looked terrible. His coat was shredded, billowing in the wind as he hurtled through it, he was leaking and covered in blood, to the point where he looked more red than he did tan, and his right arm was completely limp - the giant rifle held in his metal hand instead.
"You better get ready to die!" The boat screamed, as it slammed into the docks so hard that the earth beneath them began shaking. "You better get ready to kill!" The audio began dropping in quality, no doubt as everything electronic on that ship received a massive, unplanned for jolt. "You better get ready to run -" Ash flipped through the air, rifle properly shouldered and now bucking and barking, bullets as big as Crescent Rose's blasting through the air and sounding the clarion for the battle's resumption. "Cause here we come!" The ship declared, clipping the ice wall and causing it to collapse in its entirety, and signalling for the Remnant forces to spill forth, their collective roars overpowering the fading music.
Ruby tossed the shield to Pyrrha, who caught it deftly with one hand and, after one full spin, threw it into the sky as gunfire started filling it - so many terrans seeming to declare the wounded and dying eighteen year old boy the greater threat than the army, now unleashed, and storming towards it. Ash let off every bullet he had, and once the rifle was empty, he threw it like a spear and then caught the shield by its edge. He instantly ducked behind it as he began arcing towards the Earth. Now protected, the bullets could do naught but bounce off harmlessly, as the battle resumed, the earth finished shaking, and the terran boat cut straight through half of their killzone and opened up an instant avenue for the Remnant forces to charge.
The Beacon students made haste towards Ash, intending to be there where he landed - but they found their efforts needless, as hurtling through the air was a gun, spinning like a throwing star, with a ribbon attached to its end. It reached Ash and he instantly reached out and grabbed onto it with his free arm, his hand hanging limp and giving the limb the appearance of a puppet being pulled by its strings. The gun wrapped around the bloodsoaked flesh and the ribbon was pulled taut, sending him arcing to the ground. He planted his shield underneath his feet, slipping one foot inside the straps and pulling another, smaller, rifle from his back. He hit the ice wall and grinded across it, curving around the circular wall before letting go of the ribbon and letting it snap back to its owner, as he fired with his rifle, roaring out in defiance.
Ash hit the ground and kept sliding across it, practically skating towards the terrans and tearing through them with his acquired gun. When he reached them he hopped into the air, planting the broad side of his shield on the chest of the first terran he saw and then kicking off of him, reversing his momentum and sending him back to the charging White Fang. Srebro's sword quickly cut into the sky, snagging the edge of Ash's shield and with a pulse of her semblance, she then safely lowered him down to the ground, where he was enveloped in a brief, bone-crushing hug from his two teammates. He was the rallying point for the Beacon students, but they didn't get an opportunity for well-wishes or, in Ruby's case, desperate pleas for the location of her sister, because they were all quickly accosted by distant terran snipers.
In a scant second, they all dashed off, with no decision in their minds - until Ecru realized that Ash was sprinting towards the gun-boat, managing to sustain a surprising foot-speed, despite the limp he obtained during his absence. Noticing this injury also prompted Ecru to realize that when she'd released her team leader from their brief embrace, she and Srebro too had come away covered in a light smattering of blood, which grew cold in the open air. Ecru rallied the Beacon students' attention and pointed them towards Ash, and soon they were all charging towards the ship.
Indeed, the seaborne weapon of war appeared to be something of a rallying point and a clarion for everyone involved - the White Fang were using it as cover to escape from the killzone, and the terrans were blasting it and anyone taking cover around it apart with infantry-portable rockets, while their infantry advanced - trying desperately to curtail the Fang's escape from the killzone and trap them again. The result of this was what seemed like a universal mad-dash for the warship, and in mere minutes any semblance of defensive or offensive lines were thrown away - there was no clear cut terran or Vale side, only whoever was immediately in front of whoever else, and who was being shot at by whom and from where. The Beacon students, together, found little they couldn't tear through in mere seconds - be it their blade users carving people apart, the blunt-edge users snapping bones like twigs, or the gunners blasting apart anyone that could get a line of sight, their speed and power was unparalelled, and with the terrans now firmly unable to rally in time to curb their advance, the Beacon students were functionally unstoppable.
Until, of course, something did: A single bright blue flare arcing high into the sky, the very signal Myrtle and Blake had agreed upon as what they would launch if they found themselves in trouble. Ruby noticed the bloom of blue light from behind her before she noticed the flare itself, and she gasped as she realized that Blake and Myrtle must have revealed themselves when the former had helped launch Ash into battle, upon his arrival. Ruby called out, attracting the attention of the various leaders: The red-haired warrior, the stylish gunner, and now the red white and blue defender. Each of them spared her a glance as they continued carving their way to the beached ship, weaving into and out of combat, tearing apart terrans and rescuing or supporting White Fang. Coco and Pyrrha's eyes lit up as they saw the flare, hanging suspended in the distant sky, whereas Ash, while he quickly surmised the meaning, grew a deep frown on his face, something lighting up in his cybernetic eyes - something Ruby swore was fear.
Ash slowed down, just enough that they weren't in a dead-sprint for the warship and could yell out to one another. "We can't -" He slurred, suddenly seeming sapped of energy, as though he had been operating on sheer momentum and nothing else. "Need to -"
Ecru dashed forward and took him by the shoulders, steadying him, even as he continued trying to move, raising his shield to cover her back. "Ash - " She turned to Ruby, looking past her and to the flare, then back down to the crimson-haired rookie. "We have to split up!"
"Yang in the ship..." Ash slurred, still trying to drag himself. "Where are they?" Ruby noticed him biting his lip hard, both eyes closed tight, focusing - though on what, she couldn't tell.
"Ash, no! You can't -" Srebro breathed.
"Ash you're hurt! If Yang's in the ship, then we'll -" But her words were drowned out completely by first a bullet whizzing by and then an explosion going off close enough to throw everyone to the ground.
Ruby's vision swam, everything a formless mass of color. Her ears were ringing and her legs felt like jelly - it took her several seconds to realize that the pain in her head wasn't just from the impact of it against the ground, or the ringing in her ears, but rather a sharper lance of pain running along her temple - and a quick inspection showed blood coming away with her hand. That wasn't good, but any thoughts beyond that were thrown to the wayside when she felt a boot kick her shoulder and roll her over onto her back.
Vision still hazy, she could barely tell what was happening until the suddenly clear sight of the barrel of a rifle was right in front of her. She gasped, but a second went by without a final flash - just long enough for a long red blade to sprout out of his chest. The sound of flesh tearing over steel heralded the slow return of her hearing, and soon after the full restoration of her vision, as she saw the soldier slide off of the curved red blade, revealing a tall warrior with a billowing coat, not unlike Ash's. He flicked his blade to the side, blood flaying off of it, as similarly masked soldiers sprinted past him on both sides, firing in all directions at enemies she could not see. The swordsman looked down at her, a deep frown etched onto his face, before his look raised up, and Ruby felt someone step over her.
The only other person she knew to wear an overcoat passed into her slowly clearing vision, shield held in front of him. Ruby couldn't see Ash's expression, but from how still he grew, and from the unmoving expression from the swordsmen, it did briefly enter her mind that he could know this man. That thought was fleeting, however, as it dawned on her that though they were allies by circumstance, this man - clearly important - was a member of the White Fang. What little she personally knew wasn't good - and Ash, smart as he was, probably knew more. He didn't know this guy, he was making sure that the only ones dying by that blade were the terrans invading their kingdom.
The idea seemed to be understood by the swordsman, who pointed the blade downward at the ground, almost respectfully, before holding his hand forward. Ash grasped it and shook, and Ruby heard him speak.
"Has been opened."
Ruby blinked, how had Ash's voice come from below her, when he was standing above her?
She looked at the perforated terran body, at its strange, blocky uniform, and heard the same voice speak again. "I say again: This is USS Anchorage to all ground forces. The Red Folder has been opened. Hammer down in thirty seconds. Hammer down in thirty seconds."
Ruby frowned at the squawking radio, but paid it no mind, hauling herself slowly to her feet as the battle continued raging around her. The ringing in her ears slowly began to fully clear up, though it still felt as though her head were in a vice, throbbing in horrible pain. She picked up her scythe and looked around, blinking once, then twice, a smile gracing her lips.
"Ash!" She breathed, wiping some of the blood off of the side of her head, and attracting the attention of the lightly swaying fighter. "Ash, look - the terrans are falling back!" She pointed over Ash's shoulder, where, sure enough, the terrans were retreating wholesale, most turning tail and running, only a few brave souls staying to fight, to hold back the tide of the Fang. "If we hurry, we can get Yang and Blake, and Myrtle!" She could still just see the last vestiges of the flare hanging in the sky, wondering through her hazy mind if the fighting was still going on there. Maybe the VAF had come?
Ash, for a moment, had a thin smile on his face as he followed her gaze, watching as the terrans retreated in droves, and the noise of the battle dropped significantly, even his new not-enemy looked around, his face showing concern. Ruby felt a hand drop onto her shoulder and turned to see first Weiss, a sorrowful, exhausted smile playing her features, and then after her the rest of the students, having recovered and rearmed themselves.
She turned back to Ash who, though winded and slurring, still tried to take some kind of charge. "We've got... Friends, up there." He pointed out in the direction of the flare, "short one, crossbow... Taller one, gun, sword... Wears a bow."
The masked swordsman nodded at that, "I'll have my men look for them." He said, still frowning. "Any idea why they're pulling back?"
"Something about hammers?" Ruby spoke up, as Ecru and Srebro approached Ash, who took the chance to find someone to lean on and balance himself, breath coming out fast and heavy. "Maybe that's code for a retreat?" She looked around again, seeing multitudes of White Fang standing about and regrouping, as the fighters pushed the defending terrans further and further back. "Or maybe..." She trailed off, noticing a strange sight off in the distance, and closing in, even faster than Ash's approach.
It looked like a small fireball, above the clouds, lighting them up a bright gold in a tight circle around it as it soared through the sky and towards the mainland. Ruby found herself transfixed by it, the sight almost looking like a huge firefly lighting up the gray morning sky. Soon she noticed Weiss following her gaze, and after her, Pyrrha and her team, then Coco and hers, all watching the strange sight as it flew just above the clouds, the halo of golden light slowly growing smaller, almost as though the firefly were ascending higher into the sky.
The image was ruined by the single most gobsmacked, horrified gasp she'd ever heard, followed by Ash snapping everyone out of their reverie, screaming out, "GET DOWN!" So loud that his voice wavered and cracked. "CLOSE YOUR EYES, COVER YOUR EARS - DO IT NOW!"
No one questioned him, the swordsman even repeated him, and soon people were diving to the ground, none but a few able to properly comprehend what was about to drop on them. Ruby covered her head, pressing her arms tight against her ears. The last thing she would hear would be someone's muffled voice calling out to Ash, trying to question him on what was happening - but he silenced them by telling them to keep their mouths shut, to cover their eyes and ears and to duck and cover. With the tone he was using, Ruby for a moment wondered if he wasn't scared the wrath of the Brother Gods wasn't about to drop onto them.
Perhaps she wasn't wrong, as just a moment later, even through her tightly clenched eyes and ears, they both were graced with the brightest flash of pure white light, and the loudest boom of deafening sound, that she'd ever been exposed to in her life. The light of the flash managed to turn the dark night behind her shut eyes to a bright and sunny day, so bright and brilliant that even turning her head towards the ground didn't abate it at all. The sound of the blast was like someone had taken a million Crescent Roses and let them off right next to her ears, the sound loud and deep enough that she could feel it in her chest, like she were at one of Yang's rock concerts. She wished that would have been the end of it, but that had only been the start.
Even as high up as the holy hellfire was, the explosion was still so mighty that a shockwave made it down to the ground, and it crashed into Ruby like a hundred beowolves, washing over her like a tidal wave. The explosion was so powerful, even so far away, that she felt this shockwave press at her for several solid seconds, before finally abating.
What followed was what Ruby could only describe as dead silence. There wasn't a sound left in the air for miles, perhaps in the entire world. The light barely began to fade away, until her eyelids had her blind again by her own volition. It wasn't until several seconds had passed and she took in a long, raspy breath, that she realized she'd been holding it since the light had reached her eyes.
"No!" She heard, a million miles away, before sensing someone thunder over her. "No, Nora! Stay down! Let it die, don't look!" The utter, uncharacteristic seriousness in what sounded like Ash's distant voice was what prompted Ruby to squash down any and all curious instincts to peek open an eye and see what he was going on about, what Nora had been doing to get him to break his own rules and get up to run for her. She thought she heard something like someone being tackled to the ground, but tried to ignore it, for fear of that very curiosity getting the better of her.
Unfortunately, one thought dominated her mind, rattling around and bouncing about her skull, back and forth, side to side, everywhere, over and over until the urge became too great: Why launch a bomb - and it had to be a bomb, for what else could do this but one? - if it wasn't meant to kill them here on the docks? Had they missed? How could they have?
Finally giving in, Ruby slowly peeked one eye - just one - open a crack. She was staring at the ground, but at least whatever horrors were above hadn't struck her blind. So emboldened, she slowly turned her head to the side, the barely open eye slowly pointing upwards, and slowly opening wider, as she tried to ascertain what it was that was going on. What had happened? Where -
Whoa. She thought, breath catching in her chest, and heart slowing down, as her cracked eye beheld a sun, suspended in the sky, so close to her that she thought she could reach out and touch it. It bathed the sky in fire, at the outermost edges a deep and dark red, but growing brighter and brighter, turning orange, then yellow, then white as it reached the center, until finally she reached that center, and beheld this new sun's core: A gigantic, looming mushroom cloud of rolling white and orange fire. The cloud grew with every second, some of the white flames abating to orange and red as they cooled down, though only barely - it was still bright and burning fire, suspended right there in the sky above her.
How had the terrans shot them with a sun? Was - was the sun still there? Had they taken it out of the sky and moved it here?
"Ruby -" She heard distantly, before feeling a hand on her shoulder. "Don't look at it." The hand pressed against her head and forcibly lowered her head, "bomb that big - you don't want to look at it, even now after a minute."
"What is it?" Ruby breathed, turning to Ash, seeing his blood soaked visage now bathed in the orange and white light of the new, mushroom-shaped sun.
"I have no fucking clue, and I don't want to find out. Now -" He swallowed, "I can't make the jump, I need one of you to get onto the ship. Go to the bridge, Yang's there - she's fine, bandaged up, but -" He trailed off, looking past her and up, but not up towards the sun, but rather in the direction of Vale, of Beacon. "Holy shit." He breathed, as he fell back a step, his fleshy hand coming up to cover his mouth as, behind him, the others, now getting to their feet, either found themselves mesmerized by the new sun, or transfixed by the same lower, but still distant whatever-it-was that had stolen Ash's attention.
Ruby whirled around to face the same direction as Ash, and instantly found what it was he was looking at.
Every single ship in Vale's fleet was falling to the ground. All of them listing to one side or another, some even diving nose-first to the ground. All of them were reflecting the fires of the mushroom sun, none had lights of their own, and they all were falling, faster and faster, to the ground, until they disappeared over the horizon. Ruby gasped, and she heard someone let out a singular sob when the first sound of the ships slamming into the ground reached them.
Ruby was about to speak up, to ask someone - anyone - why the pilots had just let the engines die, but she was interrupted by a crack of thunder. That one crack was followed by a second. Then a third, then an eighth, then soon the air was filled with the sounds of explosions, and after a brief pause, those were replaced by something else, equally as terrifying:
The roar of an engine.
Of multiple engines. Entire legions of vehicles, roaring to life. Ruby turned to the sound of the closest engine, and saw for just a moment, one of the metal cages flying through the air, picked up by the growing winds and flying away. Then joining the sounds of these engines roaring to life was a chorus of men bellowing out their respective battle cries, and then after that the sounds of guns firing again. Ruby hefted her collapsed scythe into her arms, eyes wide as she now beheld dozens - no hundreds - of vehicles now rampaging across the docks. The small, boxy cars, the huge tanks, the rotor-wing aircraft, they all were coming to life.
She heard the swordsman call out into a radio in his hand, but saw him pull it away from his face, as it was as silent as the air had been not but a minute ago. He turned to the closest Fang he could see and pointed at him, barking out the orders, but the Fang found his own radio dead too, resulting in them having to dart away to physically carry their words to the closest fighters; but they would find these to be entirely too little, entirely too late, as now the terrans had nothing held back. They were mounted on their vehicles and now had the mobility advantages they had earlier lacked, and an even more overwhelming firepower advantage than they had had initially.
Almost as soon as the fighting had started again, it was over - as Fang after Fang fell to the mounted terrans and their mountains of weaponry - and that was to barely a percentage point of what was hurtling towards Vale.
"No!" Ruby screamed, spinning her scythe on one hand - but immediately stumbling out of balance as it refused to extend at all.
She abandoned style and manually hunted down and hit the button, but again it refused her. She looked up and saw that Coco and Nora, others were having similar problems - as well as Ash's metal arm remaining immobile. The only ones who had any use of their weapons were the ones with analogue weapons - Ecru's bat, Ren's pistols, Pyrrha's sword and her and Ash's shields. This momentary pause as they all experienced hardware issues turned out to be exactly what the terrans needed - as a cadre of six cars and even one of the tanks rolled up on them and surrounded them, with the tank mere meters away, its massive cannon pointed right in the midst of their group.
The terrans made their intentions clear as they spooled up their weapons and removed safeties: If anyone moved an inch, they'd be torn apart before they could take their mile.
"Lay down your arms and stand down!" She heard a deep, strangely accented voice bellow out.
"You maniacs!" Ash called out, attracting each and every single gun in the vicinity as he advanced on the speaking car. "You blew it up!"
"Stand down!" The speaker shouted.
"God damn -" But Ash got no further words out, them being drowned out by a cacophony of warning shots burying themselves into the ground at his feet.
"Final warning! Stand down or we will cut you down!"
Ruby could visibly see the conflict in the bleeding man's back, and it seemed to her as though all eyes were on him - even the swordsman appeared, at this moment, to be taking his cues from the man with the shield. If he attacked, so would they, and if he surrendered, so would they. Ash breathed heavily, staring the car down before allowing his shield to slide from his arm. It hit the ground with the bang of metal hitting concrete, its central star facing up to the flame-scarred sky, just barely reflecting the visage of the mushroom cloud, looming over them and the dying kingdom of Vale.