The Breach (Rewritten)
The Breach
They scrambled up the steep slope of rubble and debris, the detritus of the explosion that Sunset had caused and Rainbow had allowed to take place. They scrambled up, out of the darkness and into the light. They scrambled up, their boots slipping upon the loose stone. Sometimes, Sunset seemed to be less running and more crawling on her hands and knees. Jaune was struggling to carry Ruby, so both Pyrrha and Applejack helped him up, taking him by the arms and assisting him to stay upright and keep moving.
Blake kept looking behind her. Rainbow didn’t blame her – she kept looking back as well – but there was a look in Blake’s eyes as though she was hoping to see something other than the grimm tearing down the tunnel after them, like she was hoping to see some survivors from the White Fang, someone who had survived being trapped between the train and the hard place at the end.
Rainbow thought that was probably a lost cause, but she didn’t know how to say so to Blake without offending or upsetting her. Those faunus of the White Fang… she wouldn’t say that they deserved to die, but at the same time… they’d been willing to do some pretty awful things.
But all the same… she might have thought differently if Gilda had been on that train as well as Applejack.
Blake had known these people, fought beside them, she probably knew the names of at least some of them, and if she didn’t, she at least recognised the impulses that had brought them into the White Fang, that had led them to take up weapons against the humans who… well, Rainbow only had to think about the brand on Adam’s face; how many similar scars were hidden behind their masks?
The White Fang were in the wrong, but she could no longer deny that they had their reasons – some of them, anyway; Chrysalis could still rot in a hole for all Rainbow Dash cared, and she didn’t care how much of a hypocrite that made her. More important even than their reasons was the fact that they didn’t feel that they had any other options, and that… that wasn’t on them. That was on Atlas, that was on all four kingdoms, that was on the way the system was set up to make them feel like they had no options.
To make them feel like the only way you could get ahead in life was to luck into meeting General Ironwood’s goddaughter.
They had tried to fight for a better world; the fact that, to make a better world, they had been prepared to kill people who didn’t deserve to die meant they had to be stopped, but all the same… if Blake wanted to be sad they were dead, then Rainbow would not, could not, begrudge her that.
Even if it maybe wasn’t the healthiest thing she could be feeling.
There were willing hands ready to help them at the top of the slope, many willing hands: Blake’s team, Flash and his team, Bon Bon and Lyra and their team – what was this, a class reunion? – Sun and Neptune, Pyrrha’s friend Arslan, Captain Schnee, they were all waiting for them up at the top, and as the group scrambled up the slope and into the light, they reached out to help them the last few steps of the way.
“Blake!” Yang cried. “Sunset, Pyrrha, what are you- and where’s RUBY!?” she ran to her little sister’s side as she caught sight of her in Jaune’s arms. “Ruby? Ruby!? What happened to her, is she okay?”
“We don’t know,” Sunset said.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Yang demanded, her eyes flashing red.
“I mean what I just said, ‘I don’t know.’”
“Why don’t you know?” snapped Yang. “You’re her team leader and her partner; you’re supposed to take care of her!”
“I have taken better care of Ruby than you know!” Sunset snarled. “Now if you shut up and listen for a second, you’ll hear a whole mass of grimm coming down that tunnel behind us, so you’ll forgive me, but we don’t have the time, and I don’t have the inclination to be lectured by you on leadership!”
“Grimm?” Captain Schnee said sharply. “Dash, is that true? Grimm, not White Fang?”
Rainbow stood to attention. “The White Fang are dead in the tunnel, ma’am,” she said. “But their negativity attracted the grimm, and I guess… I guess the panic from the explosion has drawn them the rest of the way.”
“Grimm?” Ren repeated. “Grimm coming here, into the middle of Vale? That’s… that’s not possible.”
“H-how many?” Lyra asked, her voice trembling. “We’re only talking about a few, right?”
“It sounds like more than a few,” Dove said ominously.
“Crap,” Cardin growled. “How could you let this happen?”
“Cardin, calm down,” Weiss said.
“Don’t tell me to calm down; this isn’t your home!”
“Have the grimm ever gotten into the middle of a city before?” asked Arslan.
“If they had, there wouldn’t be a city there any more,” muttered Ren darkly.
“Quiet, everyone!” Captain Schnee commanded. “We need to inform General Ironwood; this changes a great deal.”
As she got out her scroll, Rainbow Dash looked up. She could see five cruisers in the air above them, all arrayed in a circle with their own location – some sort of city square, a fancy-looking outdoor-dining sort of place, the kind of place where you paid through the nose to get a leaf and half a pork belly covered in vinegar, the kind of place Rarity aspired to be able to afford to eat at once she’d made it – in the centre, with the sharp noses of the warships all pointing in their direction. Smaller airships, the Skybolts and Skydarts, flitted around the larger vessels, flying in loops and circles as they maintained position nearby, waiting for something – anything – to happen that would put them to work.
She couldn’t see the ground troops, but she had no doubt that they were close by.
Despite the worry that the news had sewn in the other students… it was going to be okay. Twilight had obviously gotten back safely – and with luck, Penny and Ciel had also gotten back safe too – and warned the General of what was coming. He had been warned, he had worked out where they were likely to come up, and he had gotten a welcome reception ready.
It didn’t matter if it was grimm coming up that tunnel, not the White Fang; it didn’t matter how many grimm there were. The fleet was ready; just seeing those ships up there, massive, powerful, inviolate… they were the pride of Atlas, the embodiment of northern strength and greatness rendered in metal. Like the military itself, they might be a little cumbersome and ungainly, but they could take the hits, and they could dish them out again ten times harder. Just looking at them made her heart soar up to meet them in the sky.
Vale would not fall, not while these ships and all the power and all the brave men and women they could deploy defended it.
Vale would not fall, in spite of what Sunset had done.
In spite of what Rainbow had seen her do and helped her to conceal.
She maybe shouldn’t have done that. It wasn’t what a true white Atlesian hero would have done. Such a hero would have put Sunset under arrest for… okay, no, a true hero would have stopped Sunset from doing it in the first place.
But gods help her, she couldn’t blame Sunset for her actions. In her head, she knew that it was wrong; she knew that the right thing to do, the smart thing to do, would have been to break that stupid trigger and take their chances in the tunnels, and if they died, then they died knowing that Vale would live. That was… that was the huntsman thing to do, the Atlesian thing to do; that was the spirit of Appleoosa.
By our sacrifice shall the city prosper and our enemies fail.
She knew that in her head, she knew that from the lessons which she had too been paying attention to, no matter what Sunset or anyone else had to say about it; she knew that in her head because it had been taught into her head, but in her heart…
Applejack had been on the train.
That hadn’t been part of Rainbow’s plan, and maybe if Applejack hadn’t been so mule stubborn about it and had just gone back like Rainbow had wanted her to, then she, the last member of Team RSPT aboard the train, would have reacted differently.
Or maybe not, because Blake had been on the train as well and would have still been on the train even if Applejack wasn’t. And it wasn’t as though she wasn’t fond of Team SAPR either, and even more than any affection she felt for them was knowing what Penny felt for them and…
Friendship was a strength. Rainbow Dash believed that, with all her heart; it was what kept you fighting in the face of death, it was what stopped you running when you heard the beowolves howl: the fact that standing beside you was someone you cared about and they weren’t going to run, so you had to stand to and face it alongside them; the fact that behind you was somebody you cared about who was depending on you to protect them and so you had to face whatever was coming and you had to beat it for their sake.
Friendship was a strength, but at the same time, on that train, it had almost felt like a spider’s web, catching Rainbow in place and… no, no it was more like strings pulling at her. Or both, she was both being caught and being pulled at the same time.
Which was probably how Sunset had felt, Cinder or no Cinder – Cinder chatting away on the other end of the speakers in that oh-so-reasonable tone definitely hadn’t helped, but Rainbow thought that Sunset would have probably made the same decision if she’d gotten a text.
Because Rainbow might have made the same decision.
Rainbow Dash was willing to die; she was willing to go with her friends – some of them, the ones that could handle it – into desperate and dangerous situations, but this… to push a button, or not push a button, and say, yeah, there is a hundred percent chance that you will die, and I’m okay with that? That was something else. That was something they didn’t teach you in the first year at the academies; that was… that was a hard choice, and even if the head knew there was a right answer, if only because of how much was at stake, the heart…
Applejack’s parents were dead. She had a little sister she was half a mother to; she had a big brother who kept the family farm going while Applejack was away and who was currently practicing a never-before-seen form of wordless courtship with Sugar Belle, the girl who owned the bakery in town; and she had a grandma who had used to work in the cafeteria at the combat school but who was struggling to get around so much these days.
Applejack’s parents might be dead, but she had a family who loved her so much; Rainbow had gone on camping trips with her and Apple Bloom – Applejack and Apple Bloom, Rarity and Sweetie Belle, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo – she and the rest of their friends had helped the Apples out with the harvest and the cider press some times. She’d seen how much they loved her, how much Applejack meant to them. It was one thing for Applejack to decide that she was willing to risk her life, and in normal circumstances, she could handle herself, but for Rainbow or for Sunset to decide ‘no, you’re going to die, and someone is going to have to go up to that farm and tell your little sister and your big brother and your old granny that they’re never going to see you again’… she didn’t have that in her. She didn’t have the right. She didn’t have the right to put Applejack’s picture up on These Are My Jewels any more than she had the right to shoot Applejack in the back of the head with her own hand and her own gun.
And Blake… okay Blake didn’t have a little sister or a big brother or an old granny who could barely walk without a metal frame no more, but she had two parents who probably loved her – in Rainbow’s experience, your parents would forgive an awful lot of supposedly unforgivable crap; she’d packed her parents off to Menagerie just to get them out of her life, and it hadn’t stopped them writing her letters and asking for like, collectables from her life – and she had Sun, who was also willing to put up with a lot of crap without seeming to let it bother him, and she had Rainbow Dash herself because she was Rainbow’s hope, and Rainbow… Rainbow couldn’t just snuff that out.
And Penny… how Penny would have reacted, when she could properly react again, if Ruby and Pyrrha had never come back from Mountain Glenn? It didn’t bear thinking about. Rainbow hadn’t been a good friend to Penny, but in as much as she’d been a friend at all, she was a good enough one not to put her through that.
Rainbow didn’t have the heart for it, any more than Sunset did, and whether that said good or bad things about their hearts, she didn’t know; she just knew that she didn’t have the heart for it.
And maybe that meant she wasn’t a true white Atlesian hero. Maybe General Ironwood would think she should have followed her head, and be upset, to put it mildly, that she had ended up following her heart, or at least allowing Sunset to follow her heart.
But she could live with that, because she’d get to help out at the cider pressing again and hear Applejack’s voice like molasses poured slowly into applesauce telling a story round the campfire and see everyone back at Sugarcube corner, together.
She could live with it, to see everything that Blake would become.
Maybe it would have been different if there had been no warning of what was coming, if she’d known that Vale was going to be taken by surprise… but it wasn’t. Twilight had gotten back with a warning, and it was clear that the General had everything in hand, even if he was expecting the White Fang.
And that was what she’d tell herself so she could sleep at night.
Vale would not fall.
And that meant she could live with it.
Speaking of the General, while Rainbow had been ruminating thus, Winter had gotten through to him on her scroll. “General, I’m at ground zero; Dash has just emerged from the tunnel, along with Apple and Team Sapphire.”
Rainbow emerged from her thoughts and came to attention. “Reporting, sir!”
“Good to hear your voice, Dash,” General Ironwood said, which didn’t comfort Rainbow as much as it might have; she could live with the choice that Sunset had made, but not knowing if General Ironwood would feel the same way… it was like having a frog shoved the back of her shirt, wet and slimy and wriggling up and down her back trying to get free. “What’s the word?”
“The White Fang aren’t the problem anymore, sir,” Rainbow said. “But a mess of grimm followed them down the tunnel, and now, they’re following us the rest of the way here. I think it could be a horde, sir.”
General Ironwood was silent for a moment. “Damn. Are they close?”
“We can hear them, sir,” Winter said.
“What’s your status?”
“Ruby’s down, sir,” Rainbow said. “The rest of us… we’re okay. Applejack’s here too.”
“Howdy, General.”
“Good to hear your voice too, Apple, but Dash, what do you mean that Miss Rose is down? Is she injured?”
“I don’t know, sir,” Rainbow admitted. “We were fighting a grimm, and her eyes did something-”
“Thank you, Miss Dash,” the voice that emerged out of the scroll was that of Professor Ozpin; the General must have patched him through. “James, can you please have one of your airships pick Miss Rose up and have her taken to Beacon?”
“Of course, Oz,” General Ironwood said. “Schnee, we’re out of position for facing grimm, and the evacuation isn’t complete yet. I need you to hold that breach while I redeploy our forces and get permission from the Valish council to use heavy ordinance to collapse the tunnel.”
“Understood, sir,” Winter said. “Consider it held.”
“I’ll drop androids to support you,” General Ironwood said. “Dash, I don’t know exactly what you’ve been through down there, but in light of what happened to Penny, I have to ask: do you have another fight left in you?”
“Absolutely, sir,” Rainbow said. It was, no matter her reasons and justifications, the least that she could do.
“Good, because Schnee could use your help,” General Ironwood said. “Now you’ll have to excuse me; I have to redeploy our units. Good luck, both of you. All of you.”
He hung up. Captain Schnee swiftly folded and put away her scroll.
“I trust you all heard all of that?” she said, her voice rising to address all the young huntsmen and huntresses present. “Then you all heard that I have been ordered to hold this position, to buy time for the evacuation and the movement of other units. I would welcome any assistance in that endeavour; however, you are not Atlesian soldiers – or soldiers of any kind – and you are not under my command. Therefore, custom and justice alike dictate that I give you the opportunity to withdraw. Choose quickly; I don’t believe there is much time left.”
The howling of the grimm was indeed very close now. Rainbow thought that it wouldn’t be long before they could see their bony faces or their red eyes burning in the dark.
Nobody said anything; but, as Yang looked at Ren and Nora, Weiss looked at Flash and Cardin and… that other little guy, Sun looked at Neptune… nobody made any move to go anywhere, either.
“Arslan,” Pyrrha said. “You don’t have to-”
“Neither do you,” Arslan pointed out. “But here you are.”
Pyrrha was silent for a moment. “Yes,” she said softly. “Here I am.”
Sunset let out a sigh. “Jaune,” she began, “maybe you should-”
“Don’t, Sunset,” Jaune cut her off. “Just… don’t.”
Rainbow looked at Blake; the look in her eyes told her not to even bother.
“Applejack?” she asked.
“Hell no,” Applejack declared. “Ah’m stayin’ right here.”
Winter nodded. “Very well,” she said, without a trace of approval or disapproval in her voice. “Then I want everyone who has a gun to form a line directly in front of that tunnel mouth.” She drew her sabre and used it to gesture imperiously towards the gaping hole from which they had just emerged. “The grimm cannot come at us any way but through that bottleneck, so we will fill it with fire so intense they cannot get within ten feet of the exit; those of you who do not have firearms will form a second line immediately behind the first, ready to move forward and engage at close quarters upon my command.
“Ready yourselves; this battle will be one you remember for the rest of your lives. One way or another.”
The grimm. Damn it! He had planned and deployed so as to be ready for the White Fang. It was a completely different battle his men would be called upon to fight now, against a completely different enemy.
And they were running out of time.
He would have pinched his brow in frustration, but it would have sent a terrible signal to the rest of the CIC.
“Sir?”
Ironwood looked over his shoulder. It was Twilight who had spoken. She had come up to the bridge to brief him on her preliminary findings with regards to Penny and had been there when Dash made contact. Now she was standing at something close to attention, looking up at him with more determination than he had thought to see in her lavender eyes.
He did her the courtesy of turning to face her. “What is it, Twilight?”
“I’d like permission to fly the airship to pick up Ruby, sir,” Twilight said. “And after that… I’d like to provide what support I can from the air.”
Ironwood looked down at her, casting his shadow over her. There were many good arguments against that, not least of which that Twilight wasn’t a professional pilot, but also that there were others – who were professional pilots – who could fly the airship, while only she could…
Well, that was part of the problem, wasn’t it? A problem, if he was being honest with himself, that he probably should have done something about much sooner. It wasn’t as though the signs hadn’t been there.
It wasn’t the right time now, but… but there was a lot of determination in those eyes.
If he refused her, then… she might forgive him, but would she be able to forgive herself?
“Granted,” he said. “Take Miss Rose to Beacon and deliver her into the custody of Professor Ozpin. Then you can return to the hot zone and support the ground force as you feel best.” He hesitated. “Be careful out there.”
“Yes, sir,” Twilight said. “And thank you, sir; you won’t regret this.” She saluted, hastily and sloppily, and turned and ran from the CIC, almost hitting the door before it slid open, and then disappearing through it with her swift footsteps echoing upon the metal deck.
I hope not, Ironwood thought as the door slid shut behind her.
He turned around to catch a slight smirk upon the face of Major Fitzjames.
Ironwood glowered at him. “Something amusing, Major?”
“No, sir, not at all,” Fitzjames said quickly. He paused for a moment. “Sometimes, General, I think you love your men more than God loves them.”
“Let’s hope not, for all our sakes,” Ironwood muttered. He raised his voice. “Move the Valiant directly over the breach facing parallel to the tunnel and prepare to drop Sledgehammer mortars on my command.”
“Aye aye, sir, moving forward,” Fitzjames said, his fingers flying over the helm controls. “Lieutenant Gore, Sledgehammers at the ready, all tubes.”
“All tubes, aye aye, sir.”
“And send out our Skygraspers; I want Knights dropped on that square immediately!” Ironwood commanded. “Des Voeux, signal the Gallant and Resolution to return to Vale immediately at best speed. Then patch me through to all ships of the First Squadron and our ground forces.”
“Aye aye, sir, sending the recall to Gallant. Recall sent. Patching you through now, sir.”
Ironwood cleared his throat. His plan to defeat the White Fang had been to let them emerge out into the open – that was why he had sent Winter into the square, to clear the children out of the way before the White Fang arrived, although it had turned out to be an unexpected stroke of good fortune that she hadn’t succeeded by the time Dash and the others emerged into the sunlight – where he could hit them from the air. Using fire from his cruisers and their supporting airships, he had planned to take out their stolen Paladins as they emerged, while raining missiles and machine gun fire down on the rest as they tried to push forward. By the time that they encountered his infantry, so his model went, they would have already suffered heavy losses, they would be bleeding momentum and morale and would be in no state to shift a determined defence. Then, after his men had gunned down more of their opponents and broken the back of the assault, he would order a counterattack and sweep up the rest of them, possibly deploying Knights to seize the square behind the White Fang and cut off their escape route.
It was true that no plan survived contact with the enemy, but he had had reason to expect that this plan would succeed more or less as he expected it to. Or at least he would have done, if he had been fighting the White Fang instead of the grimm. The same tactics didn’t apply against the grimm, who had neither momentum nor morale nor any sort of cohesion in the way that a human military – or even the White Fang – would understand it. Yes, they were as vulnerable – more – to air attack as men were, but you didn’t want to let the grimm get out, you didn’t want to let them go anywhere; they were faster than men and more agile than all but huntsmen, so you didn’t want to give them the chance to escape; there was no telling what damage they might do if they did. You wanted to keep them contained in as tight a perimeter as possible.
Plus, while they would probably attempt to exit via the breach that had been made for them at first, it was possible that, having progressed under Vale, they might try to break up into Vale at other points, clawing their way through the concrete and up into the city.
They hadn’t done that yet in the years since Mountain Glenn fell, which might be taken to suggest that it could not be done… or it might mean that there had been no incentive strong enough for the grimm to try it since, nothing drawing them down the tunnel, or at least not in such numbers.
It was a horde that they were facing now, and there was no telling what a horde might do.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “I deployed your units and put your ships on standby in response to a possible attack by the White Fang; that threat has now dissipated. However, I’m afraid we can’t break out the champagne just yet, because we have a new threat to Vale to deal with: the grimm. First Battalion, I need all units to push forwards to the edges of Lost Valley Square and the buildings surrounding the plaza and hold there until the evacuations are complete. Hope and Thunder Child, you’re to remain in position for now and prepare to provide fire support against the grimm, but Endeavour and Glorious, I need you to position yourselves above the underground tunnel east of here and prepare to drop Sledgehammers; as soon as the Valish Council grants permission for deployment of heavy ordinance and as soon as all civilians are evacuated from the danger zone, we will collapse the tunnel via bombing. Is that understood?”
“First Battalion acknowledged, sir. Advancing now.”
“Glorious acknowledged.”
“Endeavour acknowledged.”
“Hope acknowledged.”
“Thunder Child acknowledged.”
“Good luck, everyone, and good hunting,” Ironwood said. “Ironwood out. Des Voeux, get me the Valish Council.”
“Yes, sir. Contacting now,” des Voeux said. He waited for a moment. “You’re through on audio, sir.”
“Councillors, this is General Ironwood,” Ironwood said. “I am afraid that the threat posed by the White Fang has been replaced by one posed by the creatures of grimm.”
There was silence on the other end of the line, persisting for so long that Ironwood started to wonder if he was, in fact, on the right line. Then he heard First Councillor Aris groan.
“Oh, God,” she said. “How many grimm?”
“Unknown, but probably substantial in number,” Ironwood admitted. “Councillors, I request permission to drop heavy ordinance over your city.”
“You want to bomb Vale?” Councillor Aspen Emerald demanded. “Are you mad?”
“I want to collapse the tunnel that the grimm are using to traverse under the city’s defences,” Ironwood replied.
“And destroy how many Valish homes in the process?!” Councillor Aspen yelled. “How many livelihoods ruined, how much property-?”
“Councillor, the number of homes destroyed and livelihoods ruined will be far less than if the grimm overrun Vale,” Ironwood interrupted him to point out.
“Then you can’t defeat them with conventional military force?” Councillor Leo Aquas asked.
“I’ll certainly try,” Ironwood said. “But depending on the numbers of the grimm, that may not be possible, and in any case, I would like to close off their invasion route against future incursions.”
“You ask a great deal of us, General,” Councillor Aris said. “I am afraid you must… give us time to discuss this matter.”
“I wouldn’t drop the bombs until the evacuation had been complete in any case, Madame Councillor,” Ironwood said.
“Then we will contact you once we have reached a decision,” Councillor Aris said.
“Thank you, Madame Councillor,” Ironwood said. “Ironwood out.”
He clasped his hands behind his back and looked out of the window as his ships began to redeploy at his order.
In some ways, the battle was about to pass out of his hands now. Yes, he could continue to issue orders in response to fresh information, he could direct his reserves of the Fourth Battalion, he issue corrections to the positions of his ships… but soon, those on the ground like Schnee and Dash would have far more power to affect the course of this action, and the fate of Vale itself, than he would.
He had to put his faith in them.
He did put his faith in them; they were as brave and resolute as he could hope for.
He hoped it would be enough.
“Twilight!”
Twilight stopped, one foot on the ramp leading up into The Bus, the other still placed upon the deck of the docking pad. She was clad in her armour now, not because she planned to go and fight on the ground – she wouldn’t have lied to General Ironwood like that, she knew her limitations and would remain safely in the air; that way, she might not give Rainbow a heart attack – but because it made her feel a little stronger, a little braver, a little bit more like she belonged in this situation otherwise.
She needed those feelings; she couldn’t afford to be constantly doubting and second-guessing herself if she was going to be useful to their friends.
She turned, the hydraulic joints of her armour whirring as her body shifted, to see Ciel running towards her, Distant Thunder slung across her back, her skirt flying around her legs as she dodged nimbly around the deck crew to reach Twilight.
She came to a sudden stop in front of Twilight, smoothing out her skirt with both hands and looking as though she was trying to get some of her lost decorum back. “You are flying down into the combat area?”
“Yes,” Twilight said. “Ruby…” She lowered her voice and leaned forwards conspiratorially. “It sounds like Ruby activated her silver eyes, but they… knocked her unconscious or something. General Ironwood has ordered her to be evacuated to Beacon. I’ve volunteered.”
Ciel nodded. “Then I shall come down with you and disembark there before you take Ruby away.”
Twilight frowned. “Are you sure? You-”
“Penny was the one damaged beyond the ability to carry on, Twilight, not me,” Ciel said with a slight edge of a sniff in her voice.
Twilight hesitated. “But you were hurt,” she pointed out.
“And you are neither pilot nor soldier, what of it?” Ciel demanded sharply. She paused, taking a deep breath, and when she spoke again, her voice was softer. “I apologise, that was uncalled for and most unbecoming, but just as you cannot sit idle while our team leader prepares to resume battle against the grimm, neither can I. It was bad enough to retire in the first place, but I understand that someone had to make sure that Penny reached the airship safely. But Penny is safely aboard, and I cannot help her now any more than you can. You can fly an airship; I can wield my gun in defence of Atlas.”
She paused. “Do not deny me this, I beg of you. Though it is not particularly Atlesian of me to say, I will be shamed if I am not there. Every man in the fleet will damn me, and rightly so, if I do not go down and support my team leader.”
Twilight wasn’t quite sure that that was true, but she would have been lying if she had said she didn’t understand the sentiment. She didn’t quite understand the melodrama, but she understood the sentiment. It was, as Ciel had pointed out, exactly what was driving her to fly The Bus. The desire, the need, to do something, to not sit by on the sidelines, to play a part, however small.
“Fine,” she said. “Of course. Get on board and-”
“Us too,” Starlight said.
Twilight nearly jumped, and maybe would have done if her armour hadn’t been weighing her down. “How did you four sneak up on me like that?” she demanded of the members of Team TTSS.
Starlight shrugged. “You were preoccupied with Ciel.”
“Did you see them?” Twilight asked Ciel.
“I was preoccupied with you,” Ciel admitted with some chagrin in her voice.
“You didn’t mean to leave the Grrrrreat and Powerrrrful Trrrrrixie just standing here, did you?” Trixie asked, aghast. “Why, to have a grrrrrreat battle for the fate of a kingdom without us would be unthinkable… don’t you think?”
“And we are your back-up team,” Starlight pointed out. “So we should probably… back up Rainbow Dash now that she needs it.”
Twilight chuckled. “Right. The more the merrier, I suppose. Everyone, get in.”
As the others, the actual huntsman students, climbed up the ramp, their steps hammering as they entered the airship and settled themselves within the spacious compartment, Twilight turned away from it and looked across the flight deck to one of the doors leading into the rest of the ship.
Fluttershy stood there, one hand upon the door frame, her hair moving a little with the wind coming in front the open hangar doors.
Her eyes met Twilight’s for a second.
She nodded.
Twilight nodded back and smiled at her. Then she turned away and followed Ciel and TTSS up into the airship.
She climbed into the cockpit. Midnight sat in the co-pilot’s seat. “Is everybody ready?” she asked.
“Yep,” Starlight replied.
Twilight looked behind her. “You all know it’s grimm down there, not White Fang, right?”
“Midnight would like to change her readiness status,” Midnight said. “And get off the airship.”
Laugher rang throughout The Bus, including from Twilight as she turned back to face the controls. She sealed the doors and retracted the ramp.
“Okay,” she said. “Taking off now.”
The Bus rose gently off the deck, ascending no more than a few inches before Twilight guided it forwards, out of the Valiant’s hanger and into the skies above Vale. The Valiant itself was continuing to move, but it was moving slowly, using its manoeuvring thrusters only in order to maintain greater precision in location and direction, which meant that Twilight and the others in the Skyray were able to get out and ahead of it before turning, putting the airship into a dive spiralling downwards, circling the square even as they descended on it.
Skygraspers, narrower and more angular than the rounded and bulbous Skyray, were criss-crossing the square as well, dropping white Knights from their rears to land on their feet upon the cobbled stone. They were filling up the square, more every moment, but as to avoid hitting any of the students down below, the Skygrasper pilots were concentrating on the other side of the plaza, behind the breach as it were, leaving the area close to and just behind Rainbow and the others free for Twilight to head down towards.
“Here we are,” she said, opening the side doors before she had quite completed her descent. “Midnight, take us the rest of the way down,” she added as she got out of the pilot’s seat and walked into the main compartment.
Ciel and Team TTSS dismounted before the landing was complete, leaping down the few feet separating the airship from the ground.
“Ciel Soleil, reporting for action,” Ciel declared.
“Ciel?” Rainbow asked. “Starlight?”
“The Grrrrrrreat and Powerrrrrrful Trrrrrixie is here!” Trixie proclaimed. “Now the battle can begin!”
“That is, if you can use another gun on the firing line,” Starlight said.
“If there’s anything that we can do, anything at all,” Sunburst murmured, “we’re ready to do it.”
“Excellent,” Captain Schnee said. “We can use everyone ready to do their duty. Form up with the others. Mister Arc, get Miss Rose onto the airship.”
“Hey, Jaune,” Twilight said, kneeling down in the doorway as Midnight lowered the airship as close to the ground as it would get. The ramp began to descend towards the cobbles of the square. Twilight held out her hands. “Let me.”
“Twilight?” Jaune asked, as though he didn’t quite believe it was her. Twilight couldn’t really blame him; she might not have believed it was her either, in his position. Nevertheless, he climbed up the ramp and handed Ruby over into Twilight’s arms. “Be careful.”
“I will,” Twilight assured him. “Don’t worry; I’ve got her.” She looked down. Ruby looked… so young. So young and so peaceful and… so small. Like Penny, Twilight was struck by a sense of almost revulsion at the idea that someone so young was being asked to fight humanity’s battles at the risk of her own life.
But if she didn’t, I suppose she’d feel even more useless than I do sometimes. “How is she?” she asked.
“I have no idea,” Jaune admitted. “You’re going to get her someplace safe, right?”
Twilight nodded. “To Beacon. I’m sure Professor Ozpin will know what to do.”
“I hope so,” Jaune agreed. He paused for a moment, seeming unsure as to what to say. “Um, I should let you get her out of here, shouldn’t I?” He turned to go.
“Jaune!” Rainbow called out. “Wait a second!” She ran up the ramp and into the airship. “You want a weapon, Jaune? One that doesn’t involve taking Sunset’s sword?”
“I’d like one, sure,” Jaune agreed. “But-”
“Twilight, or Midnight,” Rainbow said. “Open the other door.”
Midnight must have done it, because the door on the other side of the airship slid open without Twilight going anywhere.
Rainbow Dash grabbed the rotary autocannon mounted above that other door, on the right-hand side of the airship, and first lowered it so that it could be fired out of the door and then, detached it from its mounting before presenting it to Jaune.
“It’ll be kind of an awkward hold because the mounting is supposed to take the weight,” Rainbow said, “but you’re kind of strong, so I think you’ll be able to handle it. Wrap your hand around the back and try and brace it as best as you can, then hold this handle on the side here and squeeze the bar to fire. Now, again, the mount is supposed to absorb the recoil, so without it, it’s going to kick upwards if you hold the trigger down too long, so try and remember to fire in short bursts and keep adjusting your aim. Except don’t worry about actually aiming because once the grimm start coming up, you’ll be bound to hit something.”
“Dash!” Captain Schnee called. “Mister Arc!”
“Do you want it?” Rainbow asked.
“I’ll take it,” Jaune said, which was at least half an answer. He took the rotary autocannon from Rainbow’s outstretched hands, fumbling around with it as he tried to find the right way to hold it, even as he descended the airship with it.
Rainbow hesitated, looking at Twilight.
“You should probably go,” Twilight said gently.
“Right, sure,” Rainbow said, yet still, she hesitated for a second longer before running down out of The Bus and back into the square.
Twilight set Ruby down on one of the seats nearest to the cockpit, buckling her in before heading back into the cockpit and taking the pilot’s seat once more.
The doors closed, the ramp raised, and with their passenger safe and silent and motionless behind them, Twilight began to raise the airship back up into the air.
She turned away, pointing her craft towards Beacon and leaving.
Leaving them all behind.
The grimm surged up the tunnel with fangs bared, roaring out their anger and their hatred as they came.
The huntsmen met them arrayed in an old-fashioned line, shoulder to shoulder in a way that the warriors who fought in the Great War might have recognised, presenting their firearms to the tunnel and the grimm who filled it, cramming it with their black and oily bodies and their white bone masks.
Sunset’s Sol Invictus, Pyrrha’s Miló, Blake’s Gambol Shroud, Rainbow’s Unfailing Loyalty, Ciel’s Distant Thunder, the rotary autocannon that Rainbow had given Jaune, they all lined up alongside the weapons of Yang, Nora, Ren, Starlight, Neptune, Sun, Sky, Dove, and Russell which Sunset could not name. Weiss and Trixie, who didn’t have guns per se but who were not helpless until the enemy reached close quarters, stood on the flanks of their formation, wand and rapier drawn and brandished towards the onrushing enemy. Arslan, Bon Bon, Flash, Cardin, and Tempest, who had no ranged weapons of any kind, stood behind them, waiting for their turn if their turn should come. Well, most of them waited; Arslan prowled impatiently, blind to the glares that Winter Schnee was shooting in her direction.
Winter Schnee herself stood between the two lines, sabre drawn, tapping the blade against her boot.
Lyra and Sunburst stood furthest to the rear. Sunburst had a book in his hand, though Sunset had no idea what he meant to do with it, while Lyra was plucking the strings of her harp, and her voice raised in a song to match the melody that she was playing.
“Men of Va-le stop your dreaming,
Can’t you see their spearpoints gleaming,
See their warrior pennants streaming,
To this battlefield!”
The words ought to have meant little and less to Sunset, and indeed to everyone here who was not from Vale – which was most of them, including Lyra herself – but as Lyra played and as she sang, her whole body began to glow brighter than mere aura could explain. And as she played and as she sang, Sunset felt a fresh strength suffusing her limbs, felt a fresh courage filling her heart, so that as the grimm surged up the tunnel Sunset faced with steady arms and less fear than the numbers of these monsters might warrant.
After all, as the song proclaimed, they would not yield.
The grimm charged up the slope, up the same slope up which Team SAPR had scrambled just a little while before, but where the huntsmen had been met with many helpful hands, the grimm were met with fire and the promise of death. The muzzle flashes were almost blinding as every huntsman on the line opened up as one. Ren’s pistols blazed bright green, Nora’s grenades left pink trails in their wake as they flew into the grimm and exploded in bright showers that devoured handfuls of monsters at a time, Yang made punching motions with her fists as fire leapt form her gauntlets; Dove’s gunblade and the butt of Sky’s halberd both boomed and banged as they let fly; Sun’s gunchucks banged as he twirled them in his hands, exchanging one gun for the other on the chain; Gambol Shroud spat, alternating with the deeper boom of Unfailing Loyalty; bursts of blue energy leapt from the muzzles of Starlight and Neptune’s carbines; blasts of fire dust flew from Russel’s daggers; Sol Invictus and Miló both blazed forth.
The grimm died as they tried to pass through that wall of fire, they charged into oncoming death, the beowolves and the ursai and the creeps that tried to scale the slope were met with beams and bullets that blew off limbs and shattered their bone masks and turned their bodies to smoke and ashes. None of them reached the hole itself, none of them escaped into the square, none of them so much as set foot in Vale.
They kept on coming, and they kept on dying.
Sunset fired off her sixth round. “I need to reload,” she shouted.
Pyrrha fired again. “So do I,” she agreed.
“Now that you mention it,” Sun added, raising one hand.
Winter gestured with her rapier at the breach itself, and Weiss did likewise with her sabre, and as they gestured, a pair of black glyphs, slowly rotating in place, appeared over the breach, blocking it momentarily, forming a barrier against which the grimm could push the scrabble but could neither pass nor destroy.
Not for the moment, anyway. Sunset, Pyrrha, Sun – and she saw Blake and Rainbow taking the opportunity as well – scrambled to reload quickly, chambering fresh rounds, slamming in fresh magazines, then raising their weapons to their shoulders once again.
“Ready!” cried Pyrrha.
“Ready,” echoed Sunset.
“I’m ready,” Blake declared.
“Ready,” called out Rainbow.
“Me too,” added Sun.
Winter and Weiss lowered their blades, and the black glyphs that had restrained the grimm disappeared. With a triumphant howl, they leapt forward – and died at once as the withering fire of the huntsman resumed.
And then, suddenly, there were no more grimm left to shoot at. The tunnel was clear; there were no beowolves struggling to get up the slope, no ursai digging into the rubble with their claws; there was… nothing.
“Is… is that it?” Sky asked, lowering his reversed halberd. “Did we win?”
Sunset said nothing but reloaded Sol Invictus anyway, just in case. She would have liked nothing better than for it to be over; she would have liked nothing better than for them to have won the battle so quickly and so cheap; to have won, in fact, the battle without cost, and thus vindicated herself and her decision on the train – to her own satisfaction, at least.
“Nobody relax just yet,” Winter said. “The grimm are not without cunning; this may be a stratagem. Stay vigilant.”
They waited. There was no sign of any more grimm, and barely a sound arose from the underground. It was as though the grimm were trying to stay silent in the hopes that, if they were quiet, the huntsmen would forget they were there. They were not wholly successful, however: as they waited, they could hear the occasional growl or snarl or snuffle that told the huntsmen that there were yet creatures lurking in the dark, waiting.
But waiting for what?
Sunset’s equine ears pricked up. She could hear something else, not a roar but a… a clicking sound, or a snip, like scissors in the dark. Scissors slicing their way through the blackness, slicing closer and closer, snip, snip, snip.
It emerged into view: a deathstalker, almost too large to fit through the hole, its armoured carapace gleaming in the darkness, its tail and gleaming golden stinger pressed down almost flat against its shell, its pincers making that snipping, slicing sound as they opened and closed upon the empty air.
The deathstalker advanced up the slope of rubble, and other grimm followed after it, sheltering behind its armoured bulk as though it were a shield, keeping their voices low, restricting themselves to soft growls of restrained anticipation, as if silence would give them protection as much as the scorpion grimm itself.
Once more, the huntsmen met it with fire. Every weapon on the line blazed away, but this was no beowolf or ursa that now bore down upon them, this was not even an alpha of those breeds, this was a deathstalker, one of the most heavily-armoured grimm to walk the wilds of Remnant, and its carapace was proof against their firestorm. The bullets from Miló, Sol Invictus, and Gambol Shroud ricocheted off the heavy plates. The heavy rounds of Distant Thunder, whose spent cartridges landed with such thudding force beside Ciel, did not seem to even stagger the creature. Not even Nora’s grenades could stay it; it ploughed through the pink explosions, seeming fazed not at all, coming closer and closer to the mouth of the hole.
Winter Schnee gestured with her sword, and as she brandished her slender blade, a white glyph began to gleam beneath her feet, and a flock of miniature nevermores, spectral and white, appeared around her and flew like a storm of arrows towards the deathstalker, assailing it as though they sought to tear the grimm apart like carrion birds devouring a carcass.
Yet the deathstalker advanced nonetheless.
The spectral nevermores disappeared, and in their place, a beowolf of gleaming silver-white, a ghostly image, hurled itself towards the deathstalker, silently bearing its teeth. The deathstalker caught the beowolf in one claw and shattered it to nothing beneath its grip.
Trixie raised her wand, and fire leapt from the tip to engulf the deathstalker and lick at the grimm who followed in its wake; but though the beowolves and the ursai following behind let out howls of pain, the deathstalker moved through the fire as though it felt nothing at all.
It broke through the glyphs that Weiss and Winter placed to bar its path and charged out of the darkness and into the light, pincers slicing this way and that, driving the huntsmen back before it.
Two beams of bright red light leapt down from one of the remaining Atlesian cruisers, skewering the deathstalker upon its crimson lances, the laser beams effortlessly punching through the armour on one side and out the other and penetrating the ground on the other side. The deathstalker turned to ash before their eyes, but by then, the other grimm, those that had followed the deathstalker in its advance, had already gained the surface in their turn, pouring out of the tunnel with a great roar as though merely by rushing into the sunlight they had gained the victory.
Both Atlesian cruisers fired, their lasers striking from above like heavenly thunderbolts to consume grimm in their fire, but the grimm were pouring out of the darkness too quickly now, and in too great numbers to be so easily contained; worse, some of the laser fire, though it slaughtered grimm, also widened the mouth of the breach yet further and gave the grimm more room to escape the tunnel beneath. Sunset saw Trixie trying to seal the hole with ice dust from her wand, but by this point, the grimm were pressing forward in too dense a mass and too great numbers to be so easily withheld: they smashed through her ice barrier as swiftly as she could cast it.
The deathstalker had weakened the line of the huntsmen, pressing it back so that instead of a line, it had become more of a crescent; now, as more and more grimm emerged and spread out across the square, rushing in all directions, some of them focussing upon the young huntsmen and others upon the Atlesian Knights taking them under fire from the flanks and rear, the line disintegrated as the grimm fell upon them.
Sunset bayoneted a beowolf, thrusting her blade in and then firing the last two rounds she had in her rifle for good measure to be sure of killing the beast. She caught sight of another snarling face, a white bone mask filled with teeth, and reversed her rifle to club the grimm with the butt once, twice until she shattered the mask, then blew another beowolf’s head off with a burst of magic.
She stepped backwards, eyes darting around. “Pyrrha!” she yelled. “Jaune!” She couldn’t see either of them; she was having trouble making anyone out amidst this black tide spilling out of the underground. I have to find them. This was for them. “Pyrrha!”
An alpha beowolf lunged for her, claws drawn back for a swiping stroke, but Akoúo̱ flew through the air like a discus to slice its head off before it could reach her. Sunset followed the direction of the flight to see Pyrrha, Miló in spear mode held in both hands, skewering an ursa with the point before holding out her hand to grasp her shield once more as it flew back to her.
Jaune stood behind her, still holding the cannon that Rainbow had given him, squeezing off a burst here, a burst there; he certainly didn’t lack for targets right now.
An ursa major bore down on them. Pyrrha caught its blow upon her shield, turning its paw aside as Miló switched from spear to sword mode in her grasp in time for her to slash at its exposed foreleg. She did not sever it, but she did wound the creature, which drew back with an angry hiss.
Sunset advanced towards both her teammates and the grimm, striding forwards with her hand out, burst after burst of magic leaping from palm to slam into the ursa major, making it recoil, cower, try in vain to shield itself with its forelegs before Sunset grasped Soteria with her telekinesis and sent it flying through the air to slice off the ursa’s head.
“I know you didn’t need that,” Sunset said, as she joined Pyrrha and Jaune, “but I had to return the favour somehow.”
“What do we do now?” Jaune asked.
Winter slid forwards upon a line of glyphs, slicing through two beowolves before skewering a creep upon the end of her blade. “Fall back!” she cried, her voice raised like a trumpet above the din of battle. “Fall back to the edges of the square; we need to keep them from leaving this plaza! Fall back and cover the exits!”
They fell back, each team choosing their own direction and fighting their way out. Team WWSR went south, with Cardin hewing a path for the others, his mace rising and falling, his tall, broad-shouldered form rising head and shoulders above the beowolves around him as he bludgeoned them to death, while Flash shifted Caliburn fluidly from spear to sword and back again as the situation and the foe dictated; Weiss stood in the midst of her three teammates, casting glyphs to make them faster, to protect them against sudden onslaughts they had not seen coming, and to send them sliding across the ground more swiftly towards their goal.
Rainbow, Ciel, Applejack, and Team TTSS – plus Winona – went east, Rainbow outpacing all and leaving a rainbow trail behind her to plant herself squarely in the middle of the road in case any grimm should come that way. The others let the Atlesian Knights take some of the strain on their behalf, leaving them to fight the grimm within the square and only killing those that threatened them, the quicker to reach a point where they could stop the grimm from getting out into the wider city. Once there, Ciel climbed up onto the rooftop lounge of a luxurious hotel and, amongst the empty chairs and empty tables, began to pick off the grimm as they approached.
Sun, Neptune, and the newly reunited Team YRBN – plus Zwei – went north, with Nora killing grimm and destroying Atlesian Knights with equal wild abandon as she fired off her grenades in every direction. Eventually, the grimm pressed too close for grenades, and she started swinging her hammer, making teammates permanent and temporary alike duck sometimes beneath her mighty swings. Yang led the way, her hair ablaze with wrath, flames rising from her body, her eyes as red as any grimm as they slaughtered their way to the road out, and then, like lionesses protecting their cubs from the hunters, they turned at bay and prepared to deny all passage to any grimm who might follow.
Team SAPR went west, and with them went Arslan and Team BLBL, or three members of Team BLBL, at least. It wasn’t something that they noticed as they fell back, as they cut or shot their way through the grimm who tried to stop them; it wasn’t something they noticed as Bon Bon was hurling Sirius around to crush the skulls of beowolves or as Arslan was slaying ursai with series’ of punches so rapid you could barely follow her movements; it wasn’t something that they noticed as Pyrrha led the way, her scarlet sash bright amidst the sea of oily black, a banner unfurled for them to follow. It wasn’t something they noticed until they reached the street which was their new position to defend, but once they reached the street, they noticed that Sky wasn’t with them.
In the chaos, he had become separated from them, or…
“Sky?” Lyra asked, looking around the faces of the others with her as though she might have missed him in the crowd. “Sky? Have any of you seen Sky? Dove? Bon Bon?”
“I…” Dove hesitated. “He was beside me, and then… I turned… then… I don’t know.”
“I thought he was with us,” Bon Bon said. “I could have sworn he was with us.”
“Then where is he?” Lyra demanded. “Sky? Sky?!”
They all looked out, to where the grimm were battling with the sleek white androids for control of the plaza. There was no sign of Sky, nor any other huntsman; even Winter Schnee had fallen back and joined Team WWSR.
They couldn’t see him in the square, and from what they could see of the other teams at the other edges of the square, they couldn’t see him there either.
I caused this to save my team; now I may have cost someone else their teammate instead.
It had not been her intent, but it seemed it might have been her consequence.
“We have to go back and look for him,” Lyra demanded.
“You two stay here; I’ll go,” Dove said.
“Neither of you are going anywhere,” Bon Bon insisted.
Lyra began. “But Sky-”
“Is dead already, or he is safe,” Bon Bon snapped, and it seemed that there were tears in her eyes. “Either way, there… there’s nothing we can do for him now.”
The grimm now had an untrammelled approach out of the tunnel and into Vale; they would have been masters of the square itself but for the Atlesian Knights, white and bright, who had descended upon the plaza before the battle began and who stood their ground as the huntsmen fell back to more defensible positions. Their rifles cracked, their muzzles flashed as white as their bodies, and as the grimm poured out, they were assailed by fire which, though not perhaps as powerful as some of the weapons used by the huntsmen, were nevertheless able to bring down beowolves and ursai and creeps as they spilled out across the stones. The Knights fell too, of course, their slender, fragile bodies ripped apart, heads tossed aside, bodies broken, lights flickering and fading. Another wave of Knights was dropped, falling directly on top of the grimm from the airships above, and they fired at point blank range as though determined to sell themselves dearly and buy every second that they could.
As the Knights fell, even before the grimm had destroyed them all, some of the creatures were trying to escape, dashing north and south, east and west, fleeing for the exits, trying to make not only for the streets but also for the buildings that surrounded the square. They were taken under fire not only from the Knights within but also from the young huntsmen who had fallen back to surround the square. In all the confusion and with so much to keep track of and so many grimm to obscure the view, Sunset could not have said that none of them escaped, but she did not see any of them escape her, and she wished very fervently that none had escaped at all.
The grimm were masters of the plaza; in time, they would destroy all of the Knights who sought to hold it against them, but all that victory, growing clearer by the moment, had given them was… well, it had made them a target for the Atlesian airpower of which Rainbow Dash was so fond of boasting.
And Sunset could see why she boasted of it. The two Atlesian cruisers which had neither moved off nor parked themselves directly overhead keep firing with their main lasers, destroying groups of grimm who stood too close together, or taking out particularly large or powerful-looking grimm, like any deathstalkers who might emerge or that cyclops who showed his face only to have it blown off. Besides that, the smaller airships in all their numerous designs, both sleek and bizarre, were continuously darting too and fro, opening fire with rotary autocannons and machine guns. Sunset saw Rainbow’s distinctively garish airship circling the square, with Midnight’s android body standing in the open doorway firing the side-mounted gun that hadn’t been dismounted, blazing away, the barrels rotating furiously as she sprayed the square with bullets.
Nor were she and Twilight alone in that; a whole host of airships were doing just the same, and it almost seemed to Sunset as though the reason why so many grimm were able to keep pushing up from the underground was that the grimm who had already made it to the surface kept dying under Atlesian fire from the air and making room for them.
At one point, Sunset heard the shriek of nevermores approaching, the giant bird grimm who had not come through the tunnel but had been drawn to the fighting by the swirling emotions of the huntsmen and the panic of the city. With black wings spread out and shrieks flying from their throats, they descended towards the battlefield.
The three Atlesian cruisers erupted in fire, a multitude of point defence weapons filling the skies with tracer rounds, lasers from the warship hovering directly above the plaza turning nevermores to ashes in an instant with its lasers. And then a squadron of Atlesian fighters sliced through the remaining nevermores like knives, turning with perfect precision to slice through them again, breaking up into flights of four to wheel in and out of the mass of grimm, destroying them with cannons and missiles and lasers, pulling the mass apart as the nevermores tried to pursue them only to find the fighters rounding on them in a fury.
And that was the end of the nevermore incursion.
The Atlesians did not use missiles on the grimm in the square, only cannons and machine guns – and lasers, of course – but that hardly mattered, especially once their ground troops arrived to join the huntsmen and relieve them, forming a line across the road and occupying the buildings surrounding the square, pouring fire into the grimm from all sides, even as their airships hammered them from the air.
No grimm could get out now, and Sunset but hoped that none had gotten out before.
“Dispatch airships to pick up the students,” Ironwood ordered. “They’ve done enough for today.” Some of them had done more than enough for today; now that the First Battalion was in position, his soldiers could take it from there.
“Yes, sir,” des Voeux said.
“Have we had any further word from the Valish Council yet?” Ironwood asked.
“Not yet, sir.”
Ironwood let nothing show on his face. Perhaps, he thought, his request seemed unnecessary to the Council now, given that his forces appeared to be containing the grimm incursion within Lost Valley Square. Unfortunately, there was always the possibility that his troops would run out of bullets before the grimm ran out of bodies with which to absorb those bullets, and something would have to be done about this breach if they didn’t want a permanent invasion route for the grimm just sitting in the middle of downtown Vale.
Still, perhaps he shouldn't be too hard on them. It was a heavy thing that he was asking of them, to let him bomb Vale, even for a good cause.
He just hoped that the Council could see that it was for a good cause, even the councillors who didn’t like him very much.
Ironwood watched on the screens as footage from cameras mounted on the belly of the ship showed the grimm writhing under the torment inflicted on them by his air and ground units, perishing in the fire of Atlesian airships and Atlesian infantry. But they were always replaced, always more grimm kept coming up out of the ground. Was there no end to them? Were they going to keep coming until the guns became too hot to hold and the airships had to land for lack of dust to keep them airborne?
He feared they would; that was the grimm way, after all, to drown the defences of humanity under a dark tide. And this was no random horde of grimm gathered together by unhappy chance; this was Salem’s work, Salem’s plan. If she saw the chance to take down one of the four kingdoms, to snuff out one of the four lights of the world… was there any limit to the number of grimm she would throw at such an opportunity?
“Put me through to Captain Schnee,” he said.
“Aye aye, sir.”
“This is Schnee,” Winter said, her voice filling the CIC.
“I want you to pick four specialists to support you and make a sweep of the area around the plaza,” Ironwood said. “Look for any sign that any grimm escaped before the perimeter was completely locked down. If any grimm did get out into Vale, then you’re to hunt them down and eliminate them.”
“Understood, sir. Schnee out.”
“Sir,” des Voeux said. “It’s the Valish Council requesting to speak with you.”
“Put them on,” Ironwood said at once.
“General Ironwood,” First Councillor Aris said, her voice heavy, as though it were being weighted down with lead. “We have debated your request… extensively, and now that we have received word from the police that the evacuation is completed as best as can be determined… we have decided to authorise your use of heavy ordinance within Vale. Do what you must to end this.”
“Thank you, Madame Councillor,” Ironwood said. “Rest assured, I don’t do this lightly.”
“You’ll forgive me if that means very little, General,” Councillor Aris replied. “Vale will be safe after this, won’t it?”
For now. “It will, Madame Councillor,” Ironwood replied. “I guarantee it.”
“Then I hope the people will forgive us both,” Councillor Aris said before hanging up.
“Signal all airships,” Ironwood commanded. “Missiles are now authorised; all squadrons are to commence bombardment while the infantry withdraw. First Battalion is to pull out clear of the blast area. Cruisers: prepare to drop Sledgehammers on my mark.”
Airships had landed to extract them before the Atlesian troops began to pull out, so Sunset had a good view as the fireworks started.
They were all in the same airship, all seven of them: Sunset, Pyrrha, Jaune, Arslan, Bon Bon, Lyra, and Dove. Seven of them in a Skyray with the side doors open, allowing them to watch as the Atlesian airships finally started using their missiles.
It was like… it was like nothing. It was like nothing that Sunset had ever seen before, in Remnant or Equestria. She had no basis for comparison, it was not like anything, it simply… it simply was.
And what it was was terrifying and awe inspiring in equal measure. The air was filled with fire, fiery streaks from all those airships which had been restraining themselves to spitting bullets not long ago suddenly opened up their missile ports or simply remembered that they had rockets mounted beneath their wings and seemed determined to use them all. Fire streaked from underneath every wing, from every nose, it streaked out from every missile so that the sky itself seemed on fire, the fires of heaven falling down upon the grimm, the fire that had been in the sky engulfing the ground as the missiles exploded on impact, the fire consuming the grimm in its embrace.
From out of the door, as the wind brushed at her hair and licked her face, Sunset could see the Atlesian troops retreating. She guessed that was why the airships were suddenly using missiles, but why were they retreating? Why now? Were they suddenly losing the battle for reasons that Sunset could not understand?
And then she saw the bombs falling from the Atlesian cruiser, bombs falling like rain, falling with what seemed like such agonising slowness down towards the ground.
So many bombs.
They fell into the fire and, for a moment, seemed to mingle with the explosions of the missiles from the smaller airships.
And then the entire plaza exploded, the buildings all around shattering, stone and dust and debris rushing through the streets, wind buffeting their airship. Sunset could see soldiers knocked off their feet by the blast, others taking cover where they could.
Smoke rose from what had been the plaza, smoke so thick that nothing beneath its blanket could be seen.
And further east, running in a straight line, a line that followed the tunnel, Sunset and the others could see more explosions just as gigantic tearing Vale apart and covering it with smoke and ash.
“Is that it?” Arslan asked. “Is it over?”
“I think so,” Jaune murmured. “It’s finished.”
Yes, it’s finished, Sunset thought. But at what cost?
She looked at Jaune and Pyrrha, his hand resting gently on top of hers as she stared out at the devastation wrought by Atlesian technological and martial prowess. She thought of Ruby, safely at Beacon and, hopefully, recovering. She thought of Blake and Rainbow Dash.
She thought of Sky, who should have been the eighth person in this Skyray but wasn’t there. Who might be down there, in the smoke and the flame.
Whatever the cost, I’d do it again.
Dear Princess Celestia, am I a monster?
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well that is one crisis averted, now they must heal and rest, hopefully sunset can get her magic back.
Wow, intence. Great job.
Ozpin just can't help but to over-engineer plans until he nearly gets everybody involved killed. Sure, he gets his silver-eyed warrior a little sooner, but he might have caused Blake to lose a hand and Penny nearly died.
9567682
I can think of a few, but they don't follow canon EXACTLY apart from just sparing her, so I'm not certain they're what you're looking for.
To quote Miss Xiao Long:
That... was... AWESOME! Ruby went all Expecto Patronum on the Grimm!
9567751
They don't have to be exact (this isn't exact, after all). If you know of any good ones then I can take a look and see what I think for myself.
When the going gets tough, the tough call for close air support.
Good chapter... Poor Penny! Hopefully she can get fixed up.
9567818
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12289423/1/White-Sheep
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12326537/1/Jaune-Ryu-Long-the-Dragon-Contractor
sadly, at the moment those are the only ones I recall right now. haven't been reading new RWBY fics for a while; mainly been reading Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir fics.
9567859
White Sheep is awesome. It's written by one of the best RWBY fanfiction writers out there. It's premise SEEMS very, VERY weird at first, but the author really makes it work! AND White Sheep is one of the few RWBY fics that actually has a real happy ending. A true, "and they all lived happily ever after" sort of ending. That's RARE in RWBY... and for good reason. How DO our heroes end the threat of the grimm forever? Well, this story is the only good one I've read where they actually do find a way to save the world for real.
YOU GUYS WATCH RWBY ?!
YAAAAY GUESS I’M NOT THE ONLY ONEEE!
I KNEW IT! I GUESSED WHAT HAPPENED!
Zwei barked approvingly at this chapter.
Gotta say just casually revealing Oz's big reincarnation thing in conversation is a bit odd.
People who watch RWBY will definitely already know but anyone who is reading this without having seen the show would have just had that reveal be a little lackluster.
9567859
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10685038/1/X
Xsra is a good one it's an oc team but they help the main teams and can get a little wacky with the crossovers but it's a pretty story.
9568629
But that is what makes it a better wtf moment because of the double take.
Well, it may not be the Rainbow Laser Of Harmony, but it did the job just fine.
9567818
I'm partial to Four Years at Beacon but they completely do away with Salem in favor for an AU completely. That being said it's not a bad AU as it does a lot of character personality exploration
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11787682/1/4-Years-of-Beacon
Oh
She looses her hand instead...? Oh
To be honest, they aren't exactly wrong in 99% of the times.
Damn, it's sad they don't have sabaton, she would get so much power with it.
Well shit.
Sunset, you aren't a monster, you are a person.
What you did was morally wrong overall, but, you don't owe shit to Vale, you don't owe shit to Atlas, you don't owe shit to anyone beside Pyrrha, Ruby, Blake and maybe Jaune.
You aren't a knight in shining armour, you are a foolish child who had spate on her mother, and paid the consequences by living for years in this hellhole.
You are either too innocent, too cynical or too self-loathing.
You might have been born in Equestria and raised by a quasi-goddess, but you are the most human among your group of friends , you are loving, selfish, prideful, self-loathing, have a bit of innocence, and this is why you always struggle, because you aren't a Parangon like Heroic Pyrrha, a great warrior who stand on feet of clay, who define herself throught only one aspect of herself or Ruby, the suicidal judgemental foolish girl with a hero complex, nor you wish to be, but at the same time, you aren't rotten like Bon-Bon or Cinder, a coward who hide behind excuses to torment others and act like the lion , when she is nothing more than the rat, and Cinder, the deformed Witch you shared your soul with and want to turn you into a mere copy of her and to own all of you.
Also, it was a fake choice since Cinder would never allow you to sacrifice yourself and ruin her plan .
Honestly Scipio, this chapter was Huge and damn, i think Sunset need to talk to her mama ASAP.
Edit : okay, who put a dislike on my post ?
Seriously, i don't see what i said who deserve that.
11010574
...what, exactly, do you think Sunset actually signed up for when she chose to attend Beacon?
11010972
She only joined to gain power and fame though.
11011033
And?
That's what motivates her, sure, but what motivates someone to do something and what they sign up for by doing that something are not the same thing. There is, in fact, a difference.
By the reasoning you have presented, you are essentially arguing that someone who, say, becomes a firefighter because they want to become famous has no obligation to fight a fire if there is no publicity.
11011076
The point is, Sunset didn't joined because she wanted to defend them.
She is morally in the wrong, but she don't owe them shit, and i don't think she is a monster.
A flawed, foolish and selfish person who is in the wrong ? Yes.
A monster ? I don't think.
But if she owe anything to someone, it is only to her friends and outside of that, Principal Celestia and maybe, maybe Lady Nikos.
And ultimately, it was a false choice "given" by a psycho bitch playing mind games and trying to turn Sunset into a copy of her.
11011094
Are you actually going to address my point? By going to Beacon, she signed up for a career protecting civilians. Period. Full stop. That is, in fact, the job description of "huntress," the career she chose when she went to Beacon. She may not be motivated to defend them, but that is the choice she made when she chose to go to Beacon.
Beacon, where she is currently enjoying free room and board that she doesn't have to pay for, along with a stipend (as noted in "New Friends, Old Rivals"). Now, I don't know that Beacon is funded by Vale tax money, but I strong suspect it is. So since she is receiving -- if not tax money, still payment for her intended career of "protecting civilians" -- who do you suppose she does owe for that money if not, you know, the civilians who probably supplied that money that she is expected to protect and chose not to?
I'm not sure how I can make this more clear.
11011125
As far as i know, her only stipend is from Lady Nikos to protect Pyrrha (i could be wrong).
And it wasn't my initial point.
My initial comment's point was on how Sunset is a flawed person but not a monster IMO, you decided to focus on something i didn't thought that much about and which wasn't my main point.
You could have the decency not to put a dislike on my comments, i have a different opinion than yours, yet i didn't put a dislike on your comments.
And i assume than it's you since no one admitted.
Edit : i do not deny it is her job, what i say is simply than she don't owe them shit, there is a difference between owing something to someone or a group and having it their job to help.
And i never said she wasn't in the wrong for her actions, i simply said than i don't think she is a monster.
11011131
You are, in fact, wrong. I told you which chapter it was in. Here's the link and quote so you can see for yourself.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/418151/26/sapr/new-friends-old-rivals-rewritten
The problem with this claim is that the entirety of your argument in favor of your main point was that Sunset didn't owe the people of Vale anything. Without that argument, your main point fails because there is no longer anything supporting it.
Personally, I don't think Sunset is a monster. I just think you arguments in her defense are terribly flawed and hurts the position entirely because of how flawed they are. As I have just pointed out.
Do you know what happens when you assume? I generally don't use dislike functions -- I believe they produce nothing but negativity -- and I certainly have not done so here, so please, stop making an ass out of U and me.
EDIT:
...that's what happens when you have a job. Once you are being paid, you are obligated -- you owe it to your employer -- to do the job.
11011149
Uh.
To be fair i did admit i could be wrong.
Actually, it only was one of my arguments i based my point on, i might had not explained it well (english is a bitch of a language i still have issues with) but it was only like 30% of my argument, hence why you pissed me off when you focused on that specific point i didn't gave much of a shit about.
I assumed about you since due to the fact than peoples here are coward, only the person who actually talked is likely.
I shouldn't had assume that, i am sorry, i should have known than peoples putting dislikes without saying they did were too pathetic to actually post answers against the ones they disagreed with.
You annoyed me, but you aren't one of those rude cowards, so again, sorry.
My main point was on the part of Sunset being a foolish and confused girl.
Also to be honest, i had kind of a bias, Sunset is most of the time* my favorite character, and i don't like much the People of Vale, and i am annoyed by Ruby's speeches and mentality about the duty of a huntsman/huntress (her being so suicidal worry and annoy me so much than it really destroyed my sympathy for her ironclad conviction about that) so i had let my emotions talk.
I can be fairly partisan regarding some events of a story when i like a character.
*Except when with Cinder and acting like some jackass aristocrat with a "knightly honor".
You annoyed me, but eh, so since you were honest and weren't actually obnoxious i left a like (i dunno if i will take it back or not, so meh) .
While it might appear that Cinder's back up plan has failed, instead I believe it has succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. While this was certainly the correct action to take under the circumstances, innocent people have lost their homes and livelihoods due to Atlas and... well, the thing about thwarting end of the 'world' scenarios is that once its over people tend to start debating how likely the world ending actually was.
The kind of bitterness and resentment that a siren can take full advantage of.
11011175
At the end of the day, breaking her huntress vows may add a layer of treason or two, but it ultimately changes little. No matter what religious, political, moral views or what nation you hail from, whether it was her desire or not, Sunset knowingly and deliberately put Vale and its people in danger. Whatever Sunset thinks of Ruby's views or how much she 'owes the people of Vale' won't mean a damn thing to a judge throwing the charges of mass manslaughter at her, at the very least . I would have to review a lawbook to find the exact nature of what charges would apply here. But they would without a doubt be capital charges.
11011310
Again, i never said she wasn't in the wrong, my point was than she was relatively understandable.
11011339
I agree completely. That's the funny and tragic thing about this line of work: this was a situation with no right answers. Truly damned either way.
I understand that reference.
Hm. That felt… interesting. The Zulu song(link dead btw) set the mood, but the entire time, it was like I could hear it, absolute silence save fore the snarl of beasts and the delivery of ordnance. The moment the song ended, there was no more background noise, and it really hit. Just bullets, snarls, rockets, then bombs. Nothing more, nothing less. All the beautiful destruction and holding The Breach.
Chilling.
All things considering that could have gone way worse, but I’m sure for the people of Vale that isn’t good enough.