Plan of Attack
“You know,” Sunset said, “when General Ironwood told you to prepare a plan for him, I don’t think that he meant for you to get Twilight to do all the typing.”
“Twilight can type faster than I can,” Rainbow said defensively.
“So?” Sunset asked.
“I don’t mind, really,” Twilight said quickly. “If this is all that I can do to help right now, then that’s fine.”
“Hmm,” Sunset murmured. “If you insist, I suppose.”
They had gathered in the library upon their return from the Valiant and clustered slightly awkwardly around the terminal at which Twilight sat, poised to set down their deliberations in a manner suitable for General Ironwood’s consideration.
“You know,” Sunset observed, folding her arms. “Here at Beacon, we’re not required to submit preliminary mission plans because we’re trusted to be grown ups.”
Rainbow snorted. “In Atlas, we have to submit our plans because we’re expected to be professionals.”
“Says the team leader who needs a secretary.”
“Is this really the time for this?” Twilight demanded, glaring at Sunset over the top of her spectacles.
“I would suggest not,” Ciel added.
“Why not? We can’t be serious all the time,” Sunset responded. “Although I admit that now might be a good time.” She leaned upon the table, resting her head on her elbow. “Okay then, let’s do this.”
“Are we sure that this is the right place?” Pyrrha asked anxiously. “I mean, we are rather exposed.”
“It’s a legitimate mission; we weren’t told to keep our going to Mountain Glenn a secret,” Sunset countered. “So long as we don’t mention… that other stuff where anyone can hear us, then we’ll be fine.”
“I have a question,” Penny said, raising her hand. “What did Torchwick mean when he told Ruby and Sunset to look in the basement?”
“Mountain Glenn is – was – kind of two cities,” Ruby explained. “They built a regular city above ground, but at the same time, they built… almost a mirror city underneath the earth, connected to Vale via a subway. I guess that’s what Torchwick meant: that the White Fang are hiding in the underground city.”
“When you say 'underground city,'” Rainbow said. “You’re not talking about just a few subway stations.”
“No, I’m talking about…” Ruby hesitated. “I’ve never seen it myself, but I’ve heard it was a complete city, with homes and movie theatres and nightclubs and everything. Everything that a city needs. Except sunlight.”
“You really know your stuff when it comes to Mountain Glenn, don’t you?” Sunset asked.
Ruby’s cheeks flushed slightly. “Well, I… I guess, in a way, it… it kind of inspired me, almost as much as the stories that Yang used to tell me, almost as much as something like The Song of Olivia. Those stories showed what good huntsmen could do, but the story of Mountain Glenn is another side of that: it shows why we need huntsmen, because of what happens when there aren’t enough of us. Enough of them. You guys know what I mean, right?”
Could any number of additional huntsmen have saved Mountain Glenn, or would it have just been more bodies for the tally of the lost? Sunset couldn’t help but wonder.
“What an extraordinary idea,” Pyrrha murmured. “A whole city underground? It sounds almost too futuristic to be real.”
“I know they built the subway because it was a safer way to travel between Mountain Glenn and Vale than by road,” Ruby said. “Maybe, since they were doing that, they thought: why not dig out everything else?”
“We’ve had a flying city for a while,” Rainbow pointed out. “Why not an underground city?”
“At least in a flying city, you can still see the sun and the sky, right?” Jaune asked. “I’m not sure that I’d want to live in an underground city with only rock over my head. I’d feel like a mole or something.”
“It is quite possible that the underground areas were reserved for the poorer citizens,” Ciel suggested. “Those who could not afford to live aboveground. It is equally possible that, if Mountain Glenn had survived, the upper and lower parts of the city would have developed a rather acrimonious relationship, similar to that presently enjoyed by Atlas and Mantle.”
“That makes a depressing amount of sense,” Sunset muttered. “But to return to the topic, Ruby’s probably right: Torchwick’s last hint was that we should look in the under-city, not above ground. Twilight, can you bring up any maps of the lower city?”
“Now who’s making me do things?” Twilight asked sarcastically.
“You’re at the computer already,” Sunset pointed out. “I’ll take over if you want me to.”
“No, no, I can do it,” Twilight said, her fingers flying across the holographic keyboard. There was some shuffling around by the other students as they all sought to get a view of the screen as Twilight brought up a series of maps and schematics showing the layout of Mountain Glenn, particularly its underground regions.
“You weren’t kidding, Ruby,” Jaune murmured. “That really is a whole city.”
As far as Sunset could tell, the maps made Mountain Glenn out to be almost as big as Vale itself, or at least, they had planned for it to be almost as big. Possibly, it hadn’t filled up yet by the time it fell, but they’d certainly been digging outwards so that it could fill up when the need arose.
“Were there really that many people who wanted to live underground?” Penny asked.
“I think the city was designed so that, if they couldn’t hold the grimm off aboveground, everyone could retreat into the underground city, so it was made bigger than the surface city so that there was room for everyone,” Ruby said.
“Clearly, this plan failed,” Ciel observed.
Ruby nodded. “When they were tunnelling… they accidentally let underground grimm into the city.”
“So this isn’t just an underground city that doesn’t see any sunlight; it’s also a tomb,” Rainbow muttered. “This mission gets better and better.”
“I thought you’d have been used to lightless cities,” Sunset observed.
“Why do you think I never looked back?” Rainbow demanded. She sighed. “What about this subway? Can we use that to get into the underground?”
Ruby shook her head. “They sealed it off to contain the grimm.”
Rainbow winced. “So we’ll have to fly in, land on the outskirts of the city so that they don’t see us coming-”
“Cinder invited us,” Pyrrha reminded them all. “She already knows that we’re coming.”
“No, she wants us to come, but she doesn’t know when we’ll be there or even if,” Rainbow replied. “I don’t want her to know that we’ve walked into her trap until we’ve started wrecking that trap.”
“Do you want me to start taking this down?” Twilight asked.
“Not yet, let’s keep looking at the maps first,” Rainbow told her. “So, we fly in, land on the outskirts of the upper city, and then get underground…”
“Using the metro stations,” Sunset said. “After all, the whole under-city was built around a subway, right? So there must be stations leading down to it all over the place.”
“But if this is a trap, if Cinder wants us here, then surely, she’ll have the White Fang watching the subway stations,” Jaune pointed out. “I mean, it’s a great place for an ambush: they could catch us from both sides as we were going down.”
Sunset exhaled loudly. He had a point, but at the same time, how else were they supposed to get down into the underground? “Hey, Twilight, can you find out how many subway stations there are in Mountain Glenn?”
“Uh, just give me a second,” Twilight punched the keyboard, her fingers passing through the holograms to, in some cases, strike the table surface beneath. “Thirty five, including ones that hadn’t been opened yet but which were close to completion.”
“Can they really watch thirty five stations?” Sunset asked. “There has to be one that we can slip through undetected.”
“It looks like a very big place,” Penny observed. “How are we supposed to search such a large city by ourselves, just to find the right subway station? And then we’ll still have to find the White Fang after that.”
“If the White Fang are watching the subway stations, then they might help us out with that,” Jaune declared. “You’d expect the stations coming down closer to their main location to be more heavily guarded, right?”
“Not necessarily,” Blake replied. “The areas closer to base could also be more readily reinforced by central reserves in the case of attack, so it would make as much sense to deploy larger forces further out in locations which are more vulnerable and which would have to hold out alone for longer against assault.”
“That tactical model would disperse the White Fang’s total forces over a much larger area of ground,” Ciel pointed out. “It would take longer to concentrate their strength at the decisive point, since outlying units would have to be recalled first before the main body could move.”
“True, but the White Fang isn’t digging in to defend Mountain Glenn; they mean to use it as a staging ground for their attack on Vale,” Blake insisted. “Concentration times aren’t an issue for the attacker because they decide when they want to attack.”
“Except they haven’t done that; they’ve invited us to attack them,” Jaune reminded her.
Blake hesitated. “That’s a good point.”
“You all make good points,” Sunset said. “And if we had time to scout out every subway station and were sure that we were accurately observing their numbers, we might be able to plot it out, but I’m not sure we have time for that. If we can find an undefended way in, then we ought to take it.”
“Penny’s right,” Rainbow said. “It’s a lot of ground to cover. We’ll have to split up.”
“The White Fang may be jamming communications,” Blake warned.
“How?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“With a jammer, which they stole from you,” Blake replied casually. “It’ll be an older model, but it will do the job. Do you know what happens to obsolete equipment when its replacement gets rolled out?”
“All obsolete surplus is supposed to be destroyed,” Ciel declared.
“But some of it ends up on the black market,” Blake informed her. “Honestly, continued technological advances by Atlas are a big help to the White Fang in staying competitive.”
“Hmph,” Rainbow muttered.
“If they were jamming communications, then how could they talk to one another?” Ruby asked. “Wouldn’t they have to, like, send someone to run to every position with messages?”
“Unless they’re all in a tight space,” Jaune pointed out.
“I suppose there is an inherent contradiction,” Blake admitted. “But we won’t know until we get there.”
“Even if they’re not jammed, the signal quality outside of our scrolls’ independent range is likely to be garbage, seeing as how the Mountain Glenn relay will have either been destroyed by grimm or broken from twenty or so years' lack of maintenance,” Sunset pointed out.
“Could we get it working again?” Penny suggested.
“Even Twilight would struggle with that, after all these years,” Rainbow replied.
“And it will only get worse after we get underground,” Sunset pointed out.
“The question of whether or not we could talk to one another is bad enough,” Pyrrha said, “but if communications are jammed, or even if we’re simply at the mercy of terrible signal, then how are we supposed to get a message back to Vale if we find anything?”
Nobody had an obvious answer to that, and silence briefly descended upon the group as they pondered the question.
“I don’t suppose Atlas has come up with something like a portable relay we could borrow?” Ruby suggested hopefully.
“It’s being looked at, but so far there’s been no luck miniaturising the technology,” Twilight admitted. She frowned. “What if… what if… okay, so I might have an idea. What if I was in a second airship following on behind you at a distance? I could set down away from Mountain Glenn, but with the transmitter on the airship, I might still be able to get in touch with your scrolls. Then, if you find anything, I could fly back to Vale and make contact with HQ, while you stayed on station and continued to observe, without the worry that anything you reported would be obsolete by the time the main force arrived.”
“I’m not sure that an ordinary airship would be able to get through a deadzone created by jamming,” Blake murmured. “But if they aren’t jammed, then I think it could work.”
“Except for the fact that you’ll be sitting in the middle of wild countryside in a parked airship all by yourself,” Rainbow pointed out.
“I could have… backup with me,” Twilight said. “Like Team Tsunami. And that way, if you ran into any trouble, you’d have help close at hand.”
“I’m not sure Trixie will appreciate sitting around as our backup,” Rainbow said.
“She’ll do it if she’s ordered too,” Twilight replied. “It wouldn’t hurt to ask. Like Sunset said, this is a legitimate mission; we don’t have to tell them any of the… other stuff, and I could even operate my drones to assist in the search!”
Rainbow nodded. “Okay,” she said softly. “Okay, if we can get Team Tsunami on board, then we’ll do that. Add it to the plan.”
“Why Team Tsunami?” Ruby asked. “Why not the rest of Team Iron, if Blake’s going with us?”
“Because, no offence to your sister, but I trust Tsunami more,” Rainbow said. “Trixie may be a loudmouth, but Starlight’s got what it takes.”
“So does Yang!” Ruby insisted.
“No one doubts the competence of Yang, Ren, or Nora,” Pyrrha assured Ruby, placing a hand gently upon her shoulder. “But this will be an unusual task for a Beacon team to undertake, especially in mission week when all teams are expected to undertake their own field assignments, but for an Atlesian team, it is… more expected.” She smiled. “And, although there is no dishonour in being ready to assist comrades in jeopardy or in protecting… the vulnerable,” – she glanced apologetically at Twilight – “there is little glory in it either, especially considering what other assignments the rest of Iron may choose instead. We wouldn’t want to deprive Yang and the others of their chance to earn renown in the field, would we?”
“No,” Ruby murmured. “No, I wouldn’t want to do that. You’re right, I guess whoever does it will be pretty bored if everything goes according to plan.”
“That is our hope, indeed,” Pyrrha replied.
“Let’s assume then that we’ve managed to get underground,” Sunset said. “Blake, do you have any ideas where the White Fang would hide in the underground city?”
“I’m still amazed that the White Fang are hiding in an underground city,” Blake admitted. “They’re acting like animals, like the animals that we’re so often accused of being. This is so far outside of my usual experience that I’m not sure what to say.”
“Fair enough,” Rainbow muttered. “But it would have to be somewhere big enough to hold an army, plus there’s the stolen equipment to consider, and the dust too-”
“The railway yard at the end of the subway line on the map,” Sunset said, bending over Twilight to point it out. “There. It was built to store things, so they could keep the dust, there’s plenty of space for their Paladins, and you could probably camp troops there and in the surrounding area. I can’t see anywhere better suited.”
“Hmm,” Rainbow murmured, taking a look. She stared at the map for a moment. “Okay,” she said, “here’s what we’ll do-”
“Once we’ve entered the underground, Team Rosepetal and Team Sapphire will split up and approach the railway yard from east and west,” Rainbow announced. She stood in General Ironwood’s office, the mission plan that Twilight had typed up for her sitting on the General’s desk. She was at ease, her feet spread apart and her hands clasped behind her back. “That way, we can see more. Then we’ll meet back up at the Yardmaster’s House, share intel, and report back to Twilight with the backup team.”
General Ironwood had his hands clasped together, elbows resting on his desk; his hands partially obscured his face, but even the part that Rainbow could see wasn’t giving anything away in terms of how she was doing. The General didn’t like to give his feedback until you were done, and he didn’t like you to know how you were doing until you were done either. “I see,” he murmured. “What if you can’t get a signal from underground?”
“Then I’ll head back up top, leaving Sunset in charge,” Rainbow replied. “Either way, once we’ve made our report to Twilight, if there is anything to report, we’ll stay on station and continue observing until the main force arrives.”
General Ironwood was silent for a moment. “Is that all?” he asked.
Rainbow swallowed. That wasn’t a good sign. “Yes, sir.”
“What about your escape plan?” he prompted.
Rainbow licked her lips. “We… we hadn’t thought about it, sir.”
“I see,” General Ironwood repeated, with only a touch of disappointment entering his voice. “Then I suppose it’s a good thing that Professor Goodwitch has volunteered to accompany you on your mission. She feels, and Professor Ozpin agrees, that as capable as you are, this is one mission that could do with being supervised by a fully-trained and qualified huntress.”
“And you, sir?”
“And me, Dash,” General Ironwood confirmed. “There is a lot riding on this, as you well know. I was considering assigning Specialist Schnee, but with Professor Goodwitch riding along, that won’t be necessary. Gly- Professor Goodwitch is the better choice; she’s already in the know about everything related to this mission.”
“Permission to ask a question, sir?”
“Granted, although I don’t guarantee an answer.”
“Why doesn’t Specialist Schnee know about… all of this?” Rainbow asked. “Why us and not her?”
General Ironwood was silent for a moment. “I may answer that another time, Dash, but not right now.”
“Sorry, sir.”
“Don’t apologise; it’s a fair question,” General Ironwood told her. “And one that has an answer, just not one that you need to hear.”
“Yes, sir,” Rainbow said. “So… if Professor Goodwitch is in charge-”
“Professor Goodwitch will be supervising your efforts,” General Ironwood corrected him. “The time that you and your comrades spent on this plan wasn’t wasted. You’ll still lead your team, Miss Shimmer will still lead Team Sapphire, and you’ll be expected to work together to get the job done. However, if at any point Professor Goodwitch decides to scrub the mission, then that’s it: no arguments, no hesitation, you’re done.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I mean it, Dash,” General Ironwood warned her. “I expect you to obey her as you would obey me.”
Rainbow frowned slightly. “Can I trust her judgement as much as I’d trust yours, sir?”
“Yes,” General Ironwood told him. “Gl- Professor Goodwitch is one of the best damned huntresses I’ve ever met. She was the youngest woman to ever teach at one of the academies, and for good reason. You could all learn a lot from her.”
“I’m not sure she likes us very much, sir,” Rainbow pointed out.
General Ironwood smiled a little. “I have faith in your charms to win her over,” he told Dash. “Now, about your plan.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ll approve the use of Team Tsunami as backup and to protect Twilight; that was good thinking to use her as support and a messenger.”
“Thank you, sir, I’ll be sure to let Twilight know you were impressed.”
“In addition, I’ll assign Resolution and Gallant to approach the southeast quadrant in company; they’ll form the first wave of our response and your safety net if you get into serious trouble.”
“Understood, sir.”
“As for the rest of your plan, it’s a sound basis,” General Ironwood declared. “My only comment is that you’re splitting up too early. I understand you want to reconnoitre as much of the yard as possible – and I agree that your assumption that that’s where the White Fang are based is plausible – but what if your rendezvous point is occupied by the enemy? In a situation where communications are likely to be hampered – and where communicating might be dangerous – you want to ascertain facts like that before you split up.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Still, this is good work,” General Ironwood informed her. “You’ve done your homework on Mountain Glenn.”
“That’s Ruby’s doing, sir; she really knows what she’s talking about when it comes to that place.”
“I see,” General Ironwood murmured. “Did she tell you what happened after the city fell?”
“I know that her parents were in the thick of it, sir,” Rainbow replied.
“Indeed, that’s my understanding as well,” General Ironwood replied. He got up, walking to the window where he could look out over Vale, his hands clasped behind his back. “A remarkable woman, Summer Rose.”
“You knew her, sir?”
“Not as well as I would have liked,” General Ironwood said. “I first met her here at Beacon, when I came here for the Vytal Festival, just like you. I was in my final year, while Team Stark were only second-years, but… I got to know her better later, through our mutual membership of Professor Ozpin’s circle. She was… a leader. When she spoke, you could tell that she wasn’t a trained orator, but by the gods, she could put a fire in your belly and make you believe that anything was possible.”
“Why are you telling me this, sir?” Rainbow asked.
General Ironwood was quiet for a moment. “Because Summer Rose was one of the good ones, and she was taken too damn soon, and because the only legacy she left behind was one little girl. More than a few people would be much obliged to you if you’d make sure that Miss Rose comes out of Mountain Glenn alive. That family has suffered enough.”
“Permission to speak, sir?”
“Granted.”
“I mean to make sure that everyone comes back alive, sir,” Rainbow said. “Me and Sunset both do.”
“I’m sure you do, Dash,” General Ironwood said. “I’m sure you do.” He paused. “So, now that you’ve had some time to think it all over, what are your thoughts on everything?”
Rainbow was silent for a little bit, thinking, trying to think of how to put just what she thought. “It’s strange to think there’s someone out there we can’t beat, sir.”
“We can’t kill Salem,” General Ironwood corrected her. “We can defeat her armies, and her servants.”
“Yes, sir, and we will,” Rainbow vowed. “We’ve got too much to lose to… lose.”
General Ironwood nodded. “I know that the idea of some kind of ultimate victory is a tempting one. Once the idea gets into your head, you feel the desire to make all the losses, all the sacrifices, mean something-”
“And to make them stop, sir,” Rainbow said. “If Scootaloo wants to become a huntress in spite of her condition, then I’ll help, but not much would make me happier than if she didn’t have to.”
“And what about you, Dash?” General Ironwood asked. “If you didn’t have to, if we could defeat Salem and the grimm disappeared, what would you do?”
Rainbow blinked. “You’ve never asked me anything like that before, sir?”
“It’s never come up before,” General Ironwood replied.
Rainbow didn’t have to think about it. “Test pilot, sir. Always going higher and faster.”
General Ironwood smiled. “I can see it.”
“What about you, sir?” Rainbow asked.
General Ironwood didn’t reply for a moment, and Rainbow worried that she might have overstepped the bound, but then, the moment passed, and he said, “I think that I’d still like to teach. History, maybe.”
Rainbow smiled. “I can see that, too, sir.”
“I hope so, Dash, given that I am a teacher,” General Ironwood declared. “Gods know I get more fulfilment out of the headmaster part of my job than the general.”
“Really, sir?”
“You sound surprised,” General Ironwood observed. “In one role, I get to nurture kids like you, and Soleil and Glimmer and all the rest, give you the knowledge and the support you need to watch you grow into fine, outstanding young men and women. And then, in my other role, I send you out to die for Atlas. Which do you think I prefer?”
“Well, when you put it like that, sir,” Rainbow muttered. “But the truth is, even if all of that did happen, I guess someone would still be needed to protect the kingdom, right? I mean it’s not like the White Fang would just go away.”
“No,” General Ironwood admitted. “No, I don’t suppose they would.”
“Then I’d like Applejack to go back to the farm, and I’d stick around to take care of everything else,” Rainbow said. “It might be nice to dream about what might happen if… but since it ain’t gonna happen, I… I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m in this for the long haul, sir.”
“Just like that, Dash?”
Rainbow glanced away. “I’m not going to pretend that it didn’t knock me a little bit, but… what am I gonna do except get on with it? Quit because there isn’t an end in sight? That’s not my style, sir. Like I said, I’ve got too much to lose.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” General Ironwood said. “That’s the kind of attitude we need around here: someone who can accept this fight for what it is and fight it anyway, without losing their nerve thanks to the nature of it. We might not be able to bring her down, but if we hold her off for even one more day than it would have taken her otherwise… just one more day, that’s a victory. Now, I suggest you make the rest of your preparations, and then relax as best you can. Gods know you might not get another chance to relax for a while.”
“Yes, sir.”