SAPR

by Scipio Smith

Great Minds (New)

Great Minds

"Colonel Harper," Ironwood said. "How's it going down there?"

It seemed, apart from anything else, to be going very loudly down there; Ironwood could hear explosions and gunfire, plenty of both, along with some quieter and harder to make out sounds that were probably coming from the grimm. It sounded as though the battle was in full swing.

"They're pressing us hard, sir," Harper replied. "And I have to admit that they've been smarter than I was expecting them to be, took out my minefields. All the same, I think I can hold them from the front. The problem is that the Valish have completely caved in on our right flank; they broke, sir, took to their heels. The grimm have overrun that sector of the Green Line."

Fitzjames cursed. Ironwood didn't do the same because he was the commanding officer and forced to maintain a certain level of composure even in the face of difficult situations. "Are the grimm trying to flank you?"

"A few tentative moves, nothing major yet," Harper said. "The Beacon huntsmen students have made a fighting retreat, and that's kept the grimm preoccupied, at least as far as my observers can make out. But it has to be only a matter of time before they realise what they could get from rounding on us."

Ironwood was inclined to agree with that assessment. Harper was the officer on the spot, and so her words should be considered very carefully in any event, but they also made logical sense; the grimm who had driven the Valish off the field might be preoccupied with the resistance they still faced for the moment, but at some point, either once they eliminated that resistance — that was a very cold way to think about Ozpin's students, but the circumstances made it impossible to ignore — or the resistance hardened up, they would start to consider other approaches, like a way around the Atlesian flank to support the other half of their assault that wasn't progressing so well. It would be naïve to pretend that it wasn't going to happen just because it hadn't happened yet.

"What about the Mistralians?" Ironwood asked.

"Haven't seen them, sir," Harper replied.

Ironwood fought very hard to maintain his composure. "Understood," he growled.

He thought. He could order a withdrawal now, but with the grimm still attacking to the front, that would be a difficult operation for the two battalions to execute; an evacuation by air, with the grimm snapping at their heels onto the Skyrays, might get the infantry and the students away, but it would mean abandoning the spiders and the Paladins, which wasn't desirable. A retreat across country towards the Red Line, again with the grimm snapping at their heels, might preserve the artillery and the Paladins, but it would forfeit the defensive positions the Atlesians had spent months preparing and trade them in for a fight on open country. That wasn't very desirable either.

"Continue to focus on the grimm in front of you," he ordered Harper. "I'll drop the Third Battalion in to secure your flank."

That had its risks, not least of which was the fact that the Third Battalion would not be occupying prepared positions but would have to face the fury of the grimm in the open field, but it was the best option for difficult circumstances.

"Understood, sir; I'll deploy some of the students to support them," Harper said.

"If you can spare them, Colonel," Ironwood replied. "Good luck down there, Ironwood out." He paused for a moment. "Des Voeux, try and get me Polemarch Yeoh on the line?"

"Aye aye, sir," des Voeux replied, bending over his controls. Seconds passed. Seconds climbed into double figures while des Voeux tried to get a response from the Mistralian commander. Eventually, the comms officer looked apologetically up at Ironwood. "No response, sir."

Ironwood drew in a sharp intake of breath. "Cunningham, what's the status of the Dingyuan?"

There was a momentary pause before Lieutenant Cunningham replied. "It's engaging the enemy, sir."

"On screen," Ironwood instructed.

There was another pause, before a viewscreen flashed up in front of the bridge crew, displaying the Mistralian battleship that remained in Mistralian hands poured fire down onto the ground.

"I want a drone out there to see what they're shooting at," Ironwood ordered.

"Aye aye, sir, dispatching drone now," Fitzjames said.

Ironwood kept his eyes on the viewscreen. As he watched, the fire of the battleship down to the ground began to lessen as increasing numbers of flying grimm came into view, forcing the Dingyuan to target them instead. Shells that had plunged down to the ground now burst into the air around the battleship as the armoured, bulky airship became hard to see for all the black feathers swirling around it.

Were they firing in support of someone? Did the Valish troops rally?

He would find out once the drone got into position, but until it did so, there was little to be gained from speculation. He needed to get Third Battalion into position. Third Squadron was one of the two he had brought with him from Atlas at the start of the last semester, but he had recently pulled them out of the line to form his reserve; their ships had already helped to protect the Amity Arena, and it was unfortunate that they were going to be a cruiser down, the Resolution being in no state to get into another fight with the grimm, but the rest of the Squadron was still in fighting shape.

They'd better be, considering the circumstances.

"Des Voeux," Ironwood said. "Inform Colonel Palmer that he's to execute Plan Quickstep immediately." Palmer, of the Third Squadron, had already been briefed on numerous plans based on possible contingencies for the battle to come. In this instance, they were all named after dances — Waltz, Quickstep, Foxtrot, Tango — because they had unique names that couldn't be misheard for something else. Quickstep was the plan which assumed a Valish collapse and the grimm overrunning that part of the Green Line before it could be occupied by someone else. Ironwood had chosen it because, of all the plans, it might require the Third to move quickest.

"Aye aye, sir."

"And get me Colonel Sky Beak at Valish headquarters," Ironwood added. Yes, the forces that had been holding the Green Line had broken, but there might still be some way that the Valish Defence Force could support them.

"Yes, sir."

"Sir," Fitzjames said. "The drone is in position now."

"Put it on," Ironwood ordered.

The image on the viewscreen of the Dingyuan was replaced by an aerial shot of the ground below, where a large number of students, recognisable as distinct from the soldiers by their unique and colourful outfits, were engaging an even larger number of grimm. Someone was firing on the grimm from the flanks, it seemed; the drone wasn't showing who was doing the shooting, but grimm were dying, and they weren't being visibly engaged by any of the students; and it was all happening too often to be the work of one student with a rare semblance.

The students included Ozpin's proteges, he was sure; even from the drone footage, Ironwood was sure that he could spot Miss Rose and Miss Nikos; they both had quite distinct appearances. He couldn't see Penny so easily, but if Miss Rose and Miss Nikos were there, then Penny would surely be there too.

They were heavily outnumbered; the grimm seemed to be focussing their attention upon the huntsmen and huntresses, choosing to endure the fire they were receiving from other quarters. Could the students hold out, especially now that their fire support from the battleship had been cut off?

Ozpin's students were taught to fight without that kind of assistance, but against those kinds of numbers? In the circumstances, they would be well advised to fall back. He was guessing that they didn't because they'd arranged to make a stand here where someone, their unseen assistance, possibly Polemarch Yeoh's Mistralians or maybe the Valish having feigned their flight from the Green Line, would give them supporting fire.

That was all very well, but to Ironwood's eyes, it didn't look as though the supporting fire was heavy enough to counterattack the grimm's numerical advantage. If things kept up, then, though the grimm would no doubt take heavy casualties, the students would be worn down, exhausted, their aura spent, until they succumbed to the grimm tide.

A Mistralian short sword, of a type called a tanto, clattered to the floor.

"Trust me, sir, you … you don't wanna see what they … you don't want to see that." Dash trembled where she stood. "I'm sorry, sir, I … I wasn't fast enough."

There was nothing he could do to help them. He needed all his forces to hold his current position; he had no aid to spare for them. He would have to hope that the Valish did.

"Colonel Sky Beak, sir," des Voeux said.

"Put him through," Ironwood ordered. "Colonel Sky Beak, are you aware of the situation at the Green Line?"

Sky Beak sighed. "I'd hoped that the reports of soldiers of the Patch Light Infantry and the Lifeguards turning up at the gates to the Red Line proclaiming that the Green Line was lost were exaggerated. Is this where you tell me it's all true, General?"

"I'm afraid your soldiers have abandoned their posts, and the grimm are beyond the Green Line," Ironwood said, with sincere regret in his voice. He didn't envy Colonel Sky Beak one bit; the man had well and truly been thrown in at the deep end on this one; he couldn't imagine a worse time to be suddenly thrust into command.

"Damn," Sky Beak growled. "My soldiers?" he said. "But not yours?"

"My forces are still holding their part of the Green Line," Ironwood replied, in a neutral tone.

"Far be it from me to tell you what to do, but shouldn't you pull them back before they get flanked?"

"I'm hopeful that we can secure our flank and maintain the position a little longer," Ironwood said. "Just as I'm hopeful that you have some additional forces that you can commit to the fighting beyond the Red Line?"

There was a pause. "You want me to try and retake the Green Line?"

"No," Ironwood said. "But there are Beacon and Haven students still fighting in the area between the Green and Red Lines, and I think that the Mistralians may be there too. They could use some support, Colonel."

"No doubt they could," Sky Beak said. "But that doesn't mean that I have the support to give them. General, the Valish Defence Force was ordered to treat you as the enemy earlier tonight; now, they've been told that all the orders they received from their commanding officer was the result of brain fever amongst the senior command staff, and every unit is reporting a sudden epidemic of mental health issues. Soldiers are filling the sickbays up, reporting dissociative episodes, fugue states, hearing voices. It seems like General Blackthorn and his staff weren't the only ones suffering from mass delirium. I'm having to scrape together ad-hoc battle groups out of whatever troops and officers can be found fit for duty because I don't have a single battalion or company that isn't being shredded by these issues. I understand that it's an emergency, but I can't give rifles to men and women who'd be dangers to themselves and their comrades, and I barely have enough troops to man the Red Line, let alone venture beyond it."

"You won't need to hold the Red Line, or even defend it, so long as we keep the fighting beyond it," Ironwood pointed out. "Colonel, those students are fighting hard out there, but without assistance, they will be overrun."

"Then you'll need to find that support, General; I don't have any to spare," Sky Beak said. "I'm sorry. If the Council were to authorise it, that would be one thing, but the Council cannot convene in the absence of the First Councillor, and, well … I don't have the authority to compromise the integrity of Vale's defences to succour some students. Unless you can help them, they'll have to take their chances."

"They're your students," Ironwood pointed out. "Not mine."

Sky Beak was silent for a moment. "I'm sorry," he said. "I really do recommend an immediate withdrawal, but if you think you can hold, then best of luck to you and your forces. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm getting constant updates on readiness from individual commanding officers. Sky Beak out."

Ironwood stood stock still, eyes pointed directly ahead without, for the moment, seeing anything.

So much for that.

The Mistralian blade clattered to the floor.

Holding the Atlesians' present positions was likely to be challenging enough without stretching the lines thin to accommodate a rescue effort for the Beacon and Haven students — and perhaps the Mistralian forces as well. He simply didn't have the numbers for it.

Unless … maybe there was something he could do to help them that didn't require a significant investment of force.

"Des Voeux," Ironwood said. "Get me Rainbow Dash."

---

"The Valish are breaking!"

Rainbow's head snapped around, temporarily torn away from the advancing goliath by the sound of Starlight's cry.

The Valish were breaking? The Valish were breaking already? But how could the Valish be breaking already, the battle had hardly even started yet? The grimm hadn't even … okay, maybe they were moving faster against the Valish than they were against the Atlesians, since the Atlesian preparations had slowed them down, but even so, it couldn't be that big of a difference, could it?

They were breaking already, seriously?

If you were going to run away so fast, why bother to show up at all?

And much more importantly, what was going to happen now that their flank was in the air? Yes, Colonel Harper had deployed the Military Huntsman company to hold the flank, but even so, they weren't holding a long line; the grimm could lap them now without anyone standing in their way, and if they did that, then the whole line would unravel.

A trumpeting roar from the goliath reminded Rainbow Dash that the line wouldn't need to unravel under attack from the flank if it was first battered down by the grimm already attacking it from the front.

"Eyes front!" Colonel Harper cried. "Your flank is secure, don't worry about that, worry about these bastards in front of you! Bring that goliath down, bring it down!"

The goliath was the focus of fire even before Colonel Harper's exhortation. Rifles crackled, machine guns and light support weapons blazed, tracer rounds seemed as bright as Penny's laser beams, rockets flew like shooting stars from the launchers to slam into the goliath's side.

None of it brought down the enormous elephant-looking grimm. It soaked up bullets, endured rockets bursting on its black hide, trampled down the barbed wire, and even stepped on the caltrops without slowing down.

"Ciel!" Rainbow called. "Hit that thing!"

Ciel shoved a new magazine, practically the size of one of Rainbow's machine pistols, into Distant Thunder. She worked the bolt, chambering a round.

Her expression was stiff and cold as she raised the rifle to her shoulder, turning the long barrel so that it was pointed at the goliath.

"Lady, guide my eye," Ciel murmured.

Distant Thunder roared, the barrel flashing. The shot struck the goliath in the side, in its soft unarmoured flesh.

The grimm shuddered but did not fall.

The sound of its steps were as loud as the report of Distant Thunder as it strode forwards.

Ciel worked the bolt again, discharging her spent cartridge with a thud upon the ground and chambering a new round.

She adjusted her aim, teeth visibly gritted as she bared them in a grimace.

She fired again, this time hitting the goliath on the head; the shot glanced off the bone skull.

"I've got an idea," Blake said. "But I need your help. With your semblance, I think we can wrap my ribbon around its legs and trip it up. And then … I'm not sure, but I hope it'll be easier to kill once it's on the ground."

Rainbow nodded. "That … I don't think anyone has a better idea, so okay, let's do it. Ciel, Starlight, can you give us some covering fire?"

"You got it, Dash," Starlight said.

Ciel nodded silently.

"Thanks," Rainbow said. To Blake, she said, "Right, how do you want to do this?"

Blake answered with action, not words, by leaping down off the earth rampart to the obstacle strewn ground below.

Rainbow followed, jumping down, firing with both pistols at the smaller grimm that had begun to cross the ditches in the wake of the larger ones. If the goliaths or the cyclopes breached the wall or rampart, then the little ones would all try and swarm through, but if Blake and Rainbow could bring the goliath down, then they would be nothing more than target practice for the soldiers above.

Provided that they could bring this goliath down.

Blake landed nimbly on the ground and immediately started to run for the goliath. She leapt over a patch of barbed wire, slashing with sword and cleaver alike at a beowolf that leapt for her, cutting it in half.

Blue bolts from Starlight's Equaliser flew past her, slamming into other nearby grimm.

As Blake charged, the goliath became aware of her. It bellowed angrily as it swung its trunk in her direction. Blake left a clone behind to take the hit as she ran on, diving beneath an ursa's swiping paw a moment before a shot from Distant Thunder blew the ursa's head off.

Blake used another clone to avoid another swipe of the goliath's trunk, Gambol Shroud transforming in her hand from sword to hook as she reached the goliath's thick trunk leg.

Blake buried her cleaver in the leg, cutting as deeply as she could, her pale hand almost buried in the black grimm, before she turned and threw the hook towards Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow shoved Brutal Honesty into its holster and caught the hook one handed.

Then she began to run, a rainbow trailing after her as she ran around the goliath, and as she ran, she pulled Blake's long black ribbon, the other half still held in her hand, after her.

She ran around the goliath in a rainbow burst, circling the grimm, pulling the ribbon around its legs, sliding under Blake’s outstretched hands as she tied the ribbon around her cleaver. Rainbow ran around and around until there was no more ribbon left to run, and she thrust the hook into another of the goliath's legs.

All of the goliath's legs were now wrapped in black ribbon. Blake had tied off the ribbon, but she had her hands on it, and Rainbow did too, both of them channelling their aura into it so the goliath couldn't just snap it with its immense strength.

That didn't stop it from trying. The goliath strained, it pulled, it tried to move its legs and keep on striding towards the Atlesisn rampart, but all it succeeded in doing was tripping over its own tied up legs, stumbling and toppling sideways, nearly landing on Blake who had to let go of the ribbon — Rainbow held onto it — and roll aside before the goliath landed on its side with an earth-shaking thud.

The goliath writhed and raged, trumpeting furiously, waving its trunk, shaking its head. Its red eyes burned with rage.

Ciel fired again, Distant Thunder roaring. This time, she hit it in the nape of the neck, just behind the armoured skull.

The goliath shuddered, its head dropping before it began to turn to ashes.

The Atlesian troops up on the rampart cheered.

"Bravo, bravo!" Rarity cried.

Grimm howled in anger, and Rainbow drew Brutal Honesty again to let them have it with both pistols as Blake recovered Gambol Shroud.

"You ready, Blake?" Rainbow called out.

Blake switched Gambol Shroud back into its sword mode. "Ready!"

Rainbow unfurled the Wings of Harmony, spreading out on either side of her as she sheathed her machine pistols. She kicked a stormvermin who got too close, then wrapped one arm around Blake's waist before she kicked off the ground, carrying them back up off the ground and onto the rampart.

The Atlesian troops were still cheering.

"Bravo, both of you!" Rarity declared. "That was magnificent!"

"I think," Colonel Harper said from behind them, "that it may be fairly said that the two of you have distinguished yourselves here."

Rainbow turned around. "Just doing our part, ma'am."

Colonel Harper nodded. "Keep up the good work," she said. She raised her voice to add, "But don't get cocky now; there are a lot more where that came from."

Indeed, scarcely sooner had Rainbow and Blake regained the rampart then they saw more goliaths bearing down upon the Atlesian defences, and these goliaths were not alone. These grimm were learning quickly; they weren't just advancing on the defences and letting the beowolves and the ursai dog their heels while they waited for a gap to open up in the defences, no. No, as the goliaths strode forwards, the beowolves leapt up at and onto them, claws digging into the black flesh of the larger grimm as though the two kinds had suddenly become enemies and the beowolves wanted to bring the goliaths down themselves and tear them to pieces, never mind waiting for the Atlesians to do it for them. But the goliaths didn't fight back, they didn't reach around with their trunks to pull the beowolves away, they didn't try and shake them off, they bore their attacks without response, because it soon became clear that they weren't even attacks at all. The beowolves were scaling the sides of the goliaths, mounting them, clambering up onto their backs where they secured themselves with the claws of their hind paws and clung on, waving their forelegs as the goliaths carried them towards the Atlesian line like black, monstrous subway trains.

Next stop on the Battle Line: Atlesian Rampart.

Some of the beowolves died on the way, shot down off the backs of the goliaths by the Atlesian troops; at least one goliath that Rainbow saw had all its beowolf passengers swept away, picked clean by the fire that raked across the creature's back; even Colonel Harper was firing, her pistol cracking with a sharp report. But though the beowolves might die, the goliaths, mostly, lived. The enormous grimm could even stand up to the shots from the main guns of a Paladin; it took a direct hit from the lasers of a spider droid — that had to be equipped with lasers in the first place, obviously — to penetrate a goliath's thick skull from the front and burn through its body; that, or a hit from above from one of their supporting cruisers. But the supporting fire from the air was starting to slacken off, just a little bit.

It wasn't gone, not by any means — the bombers were still out there, Sky Bolts strafing the grimm horde with their Tempest cannons, doing their best to thin the grimm ranks as they stormed up towards the front line — but the flying grimm were hurling themselves against the cruisers; when Rainbow looked up, it seemed like they were ignoring the fighters, not caring how many nevermores or griffons died in the process so long as they could swarm the cruisers. At times, the Atlesian warships were almost hidden from view from the ground because of all the black wings swirling around them; she could mostly tell where the cruisers were because of the fire from the point defence systems. The cruisers could hold their own, Rainbow was sure, but it just meant that laser fire lancing down to the ground to burn away the grimm, volleys of missiles, bombs, they were becoming a rarer sight than they had been when the battle had started, and the Atlesians were more reliant on their ground artillery, their spiders and their mortars, than they had been when the battle began.

The artillery was firing long, or at least they weren't dropping many shells or rockets beyond the ditches that Colonel Harper's troops had dug; Rainbow could understand why: even with robots and computers doing the aiming, there was always a risk, and nobody wanted to die because a spider droid had dropped a shell on the Atlesians' own position, but it meant that if the goliaths — or the cyclopes, who were also serving in the siege tower role with beowolves climbing up their legs and backs; the cyclopes were easier to shoot down than the goliaths, but while they lived, the grimm they carried were more protected from fire — could just get past the ditches and stride over the grimm who had filled them up, then there wasn't much more that could touch them on their way to the rampart.

And while the grimm they carried were not so invulnerable there were always more of them, more beowolves to scramble up the sides of the goliaths, more beowolves to be carried through the barbed wire and the obstacles towards the Atlesian line.

More beowolves to leap off the backs of the goliaths and onto the rampart, landing between startled Atlesian soldiers or landing on them, bearing them off the rampart and down to the ground below.

Rainbow ran to where the closest group of beowolves had landed, a rainbow streaking after her as she sprinted across the outer edge of the earth barrier, firing her machine pistols at the last couple of beowolves still waiting on the back of the goliath — she hit one; the other jumped — before holstering them both and pulling Undying Loyalty over her shoulder.

The closest beowolf was standing over an Atlesian soldier, teeth bared, claws drawn back. Rainbow hit it in a flying kick that went right through its chest before she landed in the middle of grimm and soldiers alike. She shot a beowolf, pumped another round into her shotgun and fired again before another beowolf lunged towards her. Rainbow reversed Undying Loyalty and hit the grimm on the jaw with the butt of the weapon; the beowolf recoiled, and Rainbow hit it again, and a third time before its bone mask broke and it began to dissolve.

A cry of alarm made Rainbow turn around to see a soldier have their chest raked by the claws of a beowolf, scoring their armour, though drawing no blood — yet. The soldier fell back, stumbling, landing on the edge of the rampart.

Rainbow reversed her shotgun again and shot the beowolf in the back. The grimm lurched forwards, falling over dead on the soldier it had been about to make its prey.

The Atlesian soldier made a moaning sound of fear and disgust as it tried to push the decaying — but not decaying fast enough — beowolf off of him.

Rainbow reached down with one hand and pulled the remains of the creature off, throwing it down off the rampart behind.

"Hey!"

Rainbow looked over the rampart to see Neon down there, trailing rainbows of her own as she despatched the beowolves who had jumped clean over the rampart to land behind it.

"Sorry," Rainbow called down to her.

She was about to offer a hand to help the soldier up when she felt something snag her from behind, something tightly wrapped around her waist: the trunk of the goliath. It picked her up and lifted her clean off the rampart, red eyes burning as it squeezed.

Rainbow winced at the tightening around her waist, her aura flaring as it absorbed the squeezing sensation and let Rainbow Dash know it. She fired Undying Loyalty downwards at the goliath, but it did nothing to the big grimm; it didn't even seem to annoy it enough to smash Rainbow into the ground or throw her somewhere, much less let her go. Those red eyes kept on glaring up at Rainbow as the goliath's black trunk squeezed her and squeezed her, crushing Rainbow's aura beneath its grip.

Blake stood on the edge of the earth rampart and slashed with Gambol Shroud at the empty air. Her aura burst from the blade in a purple shockwave that sliced horizontally through the air and into the goliath's trunk.

Rainbow didn't know exactly how much aura Blake had put into that attack, but it was enough to sever the trunk completely from the goliath's head. The goliath screamed in pain, staggering backwards a few earth-shaking steps. Rainbow fell downwards, the severed trunk dissolving around her; it was all ashes by the time she landed on her back with a thud.

Blake offered a hand to help her up.

Rainbow took it. "Thanks."

"No problem," Blake said. "How's—?"

She was interrupted by a bellow of rage from the injured goliath as it stormed forwards, not waiting for any more beowolves to climb up on top of it, just moving as fast as it could to slam its bony white tusks into the earth rampart. A soldier squawked in alarm as he was knocked off the parapet — thankfully, it wasn't a particularly high drop, but it would still hurt — while others were luckier but were still thrown off balance. Rainbow and Blake were both knocked sideways, shuddering and scrambling for footing as the earth moved beneath them.

The goliath didn't breach the rampart in a single hit, but it did jar the whole section of the barrier, shifting the earth backwards like a little U from the rest of the line. Dirt fell away to the front of the barrier in clods and clumps as the goliath retreated for another run-up.

One of Rarity's blue diamond barriers appeared between the goliath and the damaged section of the rampart.

"I'm not sure how long I can hold something of this size, darlings, so please feel free to kill that brute quickly," Rarity said, grimacing a little as she spoke.

The goliath rammed Rarity's diamond, and cracks began to spread all along the sapphire blue surface.

"Any time," Rarity said.

Rainbow was about to suggest to Blake that they trip this one up too, but Starlight was already ahead of them. She leapt off the rampart, Equaliser turning from gun to polearm in her hands as she flew through the air towards the goliath. She didn't quite make it, but she came close enough to ram Equaliser's blade into the goliath's flank, hanging from the metallic pole like a gymnast. The goliath seemed to like that less than it had the claws of the beowolves digging into its side; it trumpeted angrily, shaking itself, trying to reach with the trunk that it no longer had; beowolves started to climb up its legs to get at Starlight.

Starlight's expression was unfazed; she looked utterly focussed as she swung on the pole, swinging a full one-eighty until she was perched on the pole by her hands, then pushing herself up off of the pole — pulling it out of the goliath's flesh as she went — and spinning in the air to land sitting down on the goliath's back, legs spread apart on either side of its oily black form.

As the beowolves climbed up the massive grimm, Starlight slammed Equaliser into the vulnerable spot behind the goliath's skull.

The goliath's head jerked upwards as it let out one last scream of pain and anger before it began to fall sideways. Starlight suddenly found that sitting was not the best posture to get away from the dying grimm, but she managed to tumble off and onto one of Rarity's waiting diamonds, one of a trio of well-placed platforms which dissolved as soon as Starlight had leapt from one to the other and then back to the rampart.

The goliath fell to the ground, crushing beowolves beneath it. Its ashes started to drift lazily away.

Rainbow whooped as the Atlesian troops cheered for Starlight as they had cheered for Rainbow not long before.

Their cheers were cut off by the sound of an explosion above. Rainbow's head jerked upwards to see one of their cruisers exploding in a great ball of fire, fire that consumed the grimm around, fire that shot burning debris like shooting stars across the sky. Fighters and bombers twisted in the air to avoid the wreckage; the nearest other cruiser slid sideways away from the explosion; the Atlesian troops and huntsmen dropped to their knees or bellies as the remains of a once proud and mighty ship descended on them.

Debris landed on either side of the line of defence. A piece of metal sheared a goliath's head clean off as it sliced through grimm flesh as easily as it cut through air; another piece shaped like a jagged knife pierced the armour of a Paladin, driving into the mech's chest as the walker toppled over onto its back. Men cried out in fear or pain, just as grimm did.

"Medic!" came the cry from more than once voice, but all from behind the rampart; not a single piece of metal, not a single fragment of the ship had landed directly on the defences; either the grimm in front or the men and machines behind had borne the brunt of it.

"Stand up, soldiers!" cried Colonel Harper, who had not flinched as the debris began to fall, who had not even cringed as flaming fragments of metal landed all around her. "Someone check on the pilot of that machine."

As soldiers leapt to obey her command, Colonel Harper looked upwards, to where the ship had hung just a moment earlier. Rainbow wondered which ship it had been. There were four cruisers in the Fourth Squadron, four cruisers per squadron: Courageous, Vigilant, Resolution, and their old friend Gallant which had come with them to Vale near the very start of the year and provided them with invaluable fire support in their battle at the docks. Resolution had been damaged by the Valish and left to mind the shop around the Amity Arena. That meant that the ship that had just been lost had been one of Courageous, Vigilant, or Gallant. From below, it was impossible to tell which of the three it was.

But one of them was down, and down with all hands too, by the looks of things. There were no sign of any escape pods, just debris flung across the landscape.

Rainbow looked down, her magenta-eyed gaze returning to Colonel Harper, catching her in a moment where her eyes were closed and she seemed to shrink visibly, to look more tired as though, in an instant, she'd stayed up for a couple of nights straight without even unhealthy amounts of coffee to sustain her. And then she opened her eyes again, and almost grew before Rainbow's eyes once more, weariness banished once again, the Colonel of the Fourth Battalion returned, inviolate and unyielding.

"Don't let them die in vain!" she shouted. "Do not let that loss be for nothing! Hold the line! Fight for the Fourth! Fight for the Gallant!"

The Gallant. So they had lost the Gallant. The ship that had come to Vale first, that had ferried them across the sea to fetch Penny home all those months ago.

She had been a good ship.

"I need to report to General Ironwood," Colonel Harper announced as she began to descend from the rampart. "Hold the line, soldiers of the Fourth. Keep up your fire, and they won't break through. Hold fast!"

And they did hold fast. The grimm hurled themselves against the ramparts and the walls, but they did not break through. Goliaths and cyclopes carried beowolves up to the ramparts, and those that reached the line swept the ramparts with their trunks, swatting soldiers aside or picking them up and crushing them in vice-like grips; cyclopes reached out with meaty hands to grab soldiers too slow to get out of their way, or do as the goliaths did and sweep them across the top of the wall to catch anyone standing or lying there. Beowolves leapt down from the backs of the goliaths and the cyclopes, while ursai dug their claws into the dirt and concrete and tried to climb up.

But the line was held regardless. Cyclopes were brought down by rockets, or by the fire of Paladins who also raked the backs of the goliaths with volleys of missiles. Rifles and machine guns swept the goliaths’ backs to kill the beowolves, while huntsmen sallied out beyond the line to kill the goliaths before they got too close, those that weren't eviscerated by laser fire from the Paladins. Bullets rained down from the top of the rampart down on the ursai trying to climb up.

Flynt used his semblance to create three copies of himself, and four copies of his trumpet blasted out sonic waves that sent beowolves flying off a goliath's back. Sunburst did the same thing with gusts of wind dust from his staff. Maud ripped a goliath's tusk off — she was freakishly strong, considering that it wasn't even her semblance — when one came close enough, then stabbed it in the eye with its own tusk before it could dissolve. Trixie unleashed a wave of flame out of her wand that might not have killed the goliath itself but burned up everything and every grimm around it. Rarity lithely dodged a cyclops' fumbling hands and stabbed it in its one enormous eye, then Blake cut its head off while it was reeling. Rainbow and Neon dashed up and down the line, helping to repel any boarders who managed to leap from their living siege towers onto the rampart itself.

The grimm kept coming. They kept coming and coming like there was no end to them, like all the grimm that walked on the surface of Remnant had come to Vale and were running into the Atlesian fire as if they could overwhelm it with sheer numbers, bury them beneath a tide of black bodies. There were so many grimm, and they just kept coming, but the Atlesians, the soldiers of the Fourth, the huntsmen and huntresses of Atlas, held them back no matter how many there were, threw them back, turned their charges to ashes and smoke.

If the grimm hadn't decayed, if the grimm had stayed where they were dead, and each new grimm who came up, each new beowolf and new goliath had to walk across the dead of all their previous failed efforts, might they have stopped to think twice? Might it have given them pause, the way that every grimm that had come before them had ended up dead?

Probably not; grimm were smarter than they looked, but they weren't people; even so, Rainbow would have kinda liked them to have to climb over the bodies of their own dead; it would have meant they had a harder time reaching the Atlesian line.

"Rainbow Dash," Midnight said, "General Ironwood is calling."

Rainbow fired Undying Loyalty, blowing the head off an ursa before it could top the rampart, before stepping back from the edge. "Put him on."

"Dash," General Ironwood said, his voice emerging from behind Rainbow as though she'd missed him sneaking up on her during the fighting. "I've got a job for you."

"Sir," Rainbow said. "What's the assignment?"

"I take it you know the Valish have broken and the grimm have overrun half the Green Line," General Ironwood said.

"Hard to miss, sir," Rainbow replied. "But they don't seem to be rounding on us; they're still coming from the front."

"So Colonel Harper tells me, but how long will that last?" asked General Ironwood. "And in the meantime, they're pressing hard against the Beacon and Haven students who've been caught on open ground. The Mistralian forces are providing what support they can, but I'm worried about them."

Penny. The one good thing in what General Ironwood had said was that the Beacon students hadn't been overrun when the Valish line collapsed, by the sounds of it. Either they'd fallen back, or else they'd run with the Valish soldiers only to rally when they met up with the Haven students and the Mistralian troops. Honestly, while they would have been leaving the Atlesian flank hanging — not that they hadn't ended up doing that anyway; it wasn't as though the two forces had joined hands together — they might have been best served to have kept on falling back all the way to the Red Line, where they had a wall between them and the grimm pursuit. Instead … well, Rainbow wasn't there, so she couldn't say exactly what had happened — maybe they'd stood their ground; maybe they'd thought they could make it to the Green Line, only the grimm had overrun it first; maybe they'd been trying to fall back, but the grimm were faster than expected — but the bottom line was that the grimm horde had made contact in the open country, without any of the defences that the Atlesians were leveraging to hold them off.

It was kind of a testament to the skill of Penny, Pyrrha, Ruby, and all the rest that General Ironwood was only worried about them, rather than telling Rainbow that they'd been swallowed up by a black wave already.

But the General was absolutely right to be worried. He was making Rainbow a little worried too.

Pyrrha will look after Penny. They'll watch each other's backs.

That'll do them a lot of good when they're back to back and there's nothing but grimm as far as the eye can see.

"I'm sorry, sir, I wasn't fast enough."

"What are your orders, sir?" Rainbow asked, wondering why General Ironwood was telling her this. She wasn't sure what she could do on her own to help Penny now, unless General Ironwood wanted her to get Penny out, which … Penny probably wouldn't like, even if the offer did include Pyrrha and Jaune and Ruby too, and if it did, they probably wouldn't take it.

So what was she supposed to do, apart from worry?

"I want you to take Belladonna and Soleil, find the Apex Alpha leading the horde on the right flank, and kill it," General Ironwood announced. "Doing that won't stop the grimm, but it will disrupt their cohesion and should take some of the pressure off our allies and our own flank."

That was … okay, that was not what Rainbow had been expecting General Ironwood to ask of her. It was bold, to say the least, and more than a bit risky, too.

Worth it for the reward, though. And doing nothing…

Penny.

Without the Atlesian defences and advantages, without the airships and the spiders and the Paladins, facing the grimm in the open in a stand up fight, with the numbers being what they were…

"I'm sorry, sir, I wasn't fast enough."

Doing something about that was worth the risk.

Of course, there was the problem of not actually knowing where the Apex Alpha was, but General Ironwood had told her — them — to find it.

"Yes, sir, I'll get it done," Rainbow said. "But I'll need a Skyray." Searching from the air would be a bit of a risk, but it would certainly be a lot easier and a lot less risky than trying to move through the grimm hordes on the ground to find one of their leaders. "No pilot, I'll fly it myself and hand off to an android when necessary." She would hand it off to Midnight, at least; that ought to make the computer happy after a night of feeling like Rainbow's secretary.

"Understood, I'll have one dispatched at once; it'll meet you on the landing ground," General Ironwood said, not questioning her decision to fly the airship personally. "Get moving as soon as it arrives." He paused. "Good luck. Ironwood out."

"Sir," Rainbow said, unsure of whether the General had actually heard her or not. She supposed it didn't matter too much either way.

The job was what mattered now.

"Blake! Ciel!" Rainbow shouted. "Come with me! Rarity," — she stepped close towards her — "I need you to stay here, stick close to Team Tsunami; they'll look after you. Starlight, Trixie, you don't mind having Rarity around, do you?"

"Nope," Starlight said, firing a burst of shots from Equaliser. "The more the merrier."

"I can't come with you?" Rarity asked softly.

"No," Rainbow said. "I'm afraid not, not this time."

Rarity nodded, a kind of small nod, but it was there. "But you will come back," she said. "Won't you?"

"Of course," Rainbow said. "Right back, fast as we can." She patted her on the shoulder. "Take care of yourself."

She slung Undying Loyalty across her back as she descended the rampart.

Colonel Harper was nearby and coming in their direction. "Going somewhere?" she asked.

Rainbow saluted. "Ma'am, General Ironwood has just ordered us to carry out a new assignment."

Colonel Harper was silent for a moment. "I see," she murmured. "I suppose it must be something important."

"I hope so, ma'am," Rainbow replied.

"Then you'd best get to it," Colonel Harper said. "You'll be missed, but orders are orders. Good hunting, cadets."

"Ma'am," Rainbow said, saluting again before moving on, heading back the way that they'd all come at the start of the battle, past the triage tent, past the battalion headquarters where the androids still stood with the Colours, past the Knights still playing their martial music, following the path strewn with lights towards the landing area where their Skyray would soon arrive.

She kept her pace to a speed at which Blake and Ciel could keep pace with her, and they both drew level.

"An assignment?" Blake asked. "What could be more important than this?" She paused. "Is it Amber? Is it—?"

"No," Rainbow said. "No, it's not that. General Ironwood wants us to find and destroy the Apex Alpha leading the horde on the other side of the battlefield. They might try and turn our flank, and they are pressing the Beacon and Haven students hard, but if we can kill the boss of the horde, that will relieve some of the pressure on Penny and the others."

"Understood," Ciel said. "Although that is a tall order."

"But not impossible," Blake said. "Or an unsound concept. I've done it before."

"Right, that was the time when you lured away half the Apex Alpha's bodyguards all by yourself, wasn't it?" Rainbow asked. She remembered the story coming out that night they'd spent out in Vale with Lady Belladonna.

"Someone had to do something," Blake said. "It was necessary to even the odds for Weiss, Yang, and Sunset."

"Maybe it was, I wasn't there, but it was also a very you thing to do, and we'll try and stop that being necessary this time," Rainbow muttered. "I've got an airship coming; once it arrives, we're going to fly over the grimm, dodging any flying grimm obviously, towards the rear of the horde; that's where the Apex Alpha should be. Once we find it … well, how we kill it kind of depends on what kind of a grimm it is, doesn't it? Ideally, we'd hit it from the air, but it probably won't be that simple. Assuming it isn't, Ciel will provide covering fire from the Skyray while Blake and I drop down and engage the grimm on the ground. I'm sure we can figure out the details once we know what it is that we have to fight."

"It'll be well protected, whatever kind of grimm it is," Blake said. "The horde we faced, the four of us, was tiny compared to the number of grimm facing us tonight, but the Apex Alpha was still defended by a company of bodyguards, all of them alphas in their own right. This may not be easy."

"No," Rainbow agreed. "But however easy or hard it is, General Ironwood is counting on us, and so is Penny, even if she doesn't know it, so we'll find our way through, agreed?"

"Agreed," Ciel said at once.

"Agreed," Blake said, a little more softly but every bit as firmly.

They reached the landing zone, having gone past the mortars and the spider droids, where shells and missiles flew in waves. When they arrived, the landing zone was half empty, and the half that was full was occupied by Skyrays that were either waiting or else were transporting wounded up to the medical frigate for further treatment.

They were waiting, but not for long, before another Skyray flew into view, the lights on its wings illuminating the airship as it dropped vertically down to land in the centre of the landing zone.

The side doors opened. Rainbow climbed in, and in a couple of steps had reached the cockpit. There was no pilot, only a Knight in the co-pilot's seat.

"I think this is us," Rainbow called to the others. She sat down in the pilot's chair, strapping herself in. "Midnight," she said, "if I have to get out and fight, you'll be the one flying the airship."

"You mean I might finally get to do something other than handle your calls tonight?" Midnight asked.

"Yes, if you're lucky."

"Yes!" Midnight cried. "I can fly right now, if you like."

"Let's save that for later, okay?" Rainbow asked. "I'd like to keep my own hands on the controls for now. Is everyone in?"

"Affirmative," Ciel answered from behind her.

"Okay then," Rainbow said, closing the doors. "Let's hunt an Apex Alpha."

---

The guns of the Dingyuan blazed overhead, firing not down at the grimm on the ground but at the grimm that swarmed in the air above, around the Mistralian battleship. Nevermores, griffons, teryxes, they threw themselves against the great airship, talons and claws reaching out for it. The ship's guns blazed in all directions, and many grimm perished in the flames of the explosions as shells burst in the air, so many shells that the Dingyuan seemed at times to be surrounded by a shield of fire; but for all the fire, for all the shells, for all the blazing of so many guns, the grimm were getting through. Not many, perhaps, but some nonetheless, some grimm who clawed at the hull, who tore at the armour, who were starting to open up the ship like a tin of beans for breakfast. Could the crew defend the ship from the inside if the grimm started getting in? Could the grimm actually get inside? Not the teryxes, for sure — at least, Yang didn't think so; why would anyone build the corridors on a ship big enough for grimm that size to fit in? — and probably not the big nevermores either, but the griffons? Maybe they could, and then … could the crew defend the ship against them when they got inside? Would it matter, if the grimm didn't need to 'get inside' when they could just tear the ship apart from the outside?

Either way, Yang didn't think it was looking all that great for the ship; when the battle had started, when they'd first rounded on the grimm, then the fire of all those big guns had been a welcome assist, but now … now, it had been a while since they had any fire support from the ship, and while Yang wasn't an Atlesian to feel like she needed a big ship to cover her, the fact was that it had been welcome, especially since the Mistralian troops didn't seem to be packing anything big enough to hurt the really big grimm, and there were just a lot of grimm to worry about.

A lot of grimm, and a number of huntsmen and huntresses that hadn't been huge to begin with and was only getting smaller.

Yang kind of felt, as she looked down from the skies and punched out a couple of ursai until they were dead, like she was being ungrateful by complaining about the numbers. After all, there were a lot of students here; even if Yang couldn't have told you most of their names, there were still more of them than a huntress would expect to find herself fighting alongside most of the time. Considering that, as a rule, a team of four was as good as it got for the average mission, having a big group like this all fighting together — ship or no, troops or no — that was better than anyone had any right to expect.

But just because it was good didn't mean that it was enough.

It ought to be possible to win this fight. Professor Ozpin had won at Ozpin's Stand, right? He'd led the huntsmen and the huntresses — and some of the students too, like Mom and Dad and Uncle Qrow — out to defend Vale, and they'd met the grimm … Yang really wished that they'd gotten to this in Doctor Oobleck's class, but they hadn't, so she was left to wrack her brains for the memories of Uncle Qrow's stories and primer history books from the first year of combat school for the site of the battle. Nowhere that had a name already, or they wouldn't have called it Ozpin's Stand. Somewhere between Vale and Mountain Glenn. Anyway, the point was that he'd met the grimm there, they'd all met the grimm there, and they'd beaten them. They'd met the grimm on the open ground, and they hadn't had any airships or soldiers — Atlas had refused to help them out, Yang remembered that much, and the Council had concentrated all the Defence Forces tight around Vale, writing off everywhere else — just huntsmen and huntresses with a lot of guts. And yet, they'd won. They'd beaten the horde, with no tricks, no help, no defences, just a fight out in the open, grimm vs. huntsmen, and the huntsmen had won.

It ought to be possible for them to repeat the trick here, but on the evidence of how it was going so far, Yang had to admit that it wasn't looking likely.

Yang roared as she punched a beowolf's head clean off.

It wasn't as though they weren't trying their best; they were, they really were.

A deathstalker advanced, bearing down straight towards Yang, pincers snapping at the empty air.

Yang threw a couple of shadow punches at it, shots firing from Ember Celica; they glanced harmlessly off its armour, but that was fine by Yang; she just wanted to keep the grimm's attention on her. "That's it, come on, come and get me," she muttered, grinning like a fiend — or a loon — as she made a 'come hither' gesture with one hand. "Come on." She raised her voice. "Ruby, take the stinger! Nora, give her a boost."

"You got it!" Nora replied cheerfully, putting down her hammer for a second and picking up Ruby instead, throwing the taller but lighter girl through the air before she could do anything but squawk in alarm.

Ruby flew through the air, red cape flying out behind her, rose petals falling, dragging Crescent Rose after her as she zoomed past the deathstalker and sliced through its stinger in a single clean blow. The golden stinger dropped down onto the deathstalker's bleached armour plates, getting stuck in between them. The deathstalker started wriggling, like it was trying to dislodge the sting.

"Nora, hit it!" Yang commanded.

Nora cackled. Yang charged for the deathstalker, firing as she went, Ember Celica blazing as she punched the empty air in front of her repeatedly, keeping the deathstalker's eyes on her, only on her, and not at all on the redhead who had just picked her hammer back up off the ground.

The deathstalker lunged towards her, pincers snapping, but Nora had already leapt, hammer drawn back so far that Nora's body was contorted, back arched in what had to be at least a little painful, before she brought it down on the deathstalker's protruding sting, driving it down through the armour into the creature itself.

The deathstalker flopped down to the ground, its legs giving way beneath it.

Ruby slashed her way back to them, cutting through a few beowolves on the way. "I could have made that jump myself," she said.

"Maybe," Yang admitted. "But I wanted to be sure. So long as the grimm's dead, it doesn't matter how, right?"

Ruby took a breath. "Right," she said softly. "One down—"

"And a whole lot more to go!" Nora said, with a whole lot of enthusiasm considering what she'd just said.

A whole lot more grimm to go. So many more grimm to go that it didn't seem to matter how many they killed; there were always more of the things coming up to take their place. There had to be an end to them, right? There had to be a point at which the grimm just ran out?

It wasn't like every grimm in Remnant was here; even hordes had to have a limit, right?

So where was it? Why didn't it feel like they were reaching it at all?

The goliath alerted them to its coming with its trumpeting, with the huge sound it made as it stomped through the grimm, trampling down anything smaller than it — which was most grimm — on its way to get Team YRRN.

Ren fired at it, Stormflowers blazing, but the bullets just bounced off the goliath's skull like his guns were peashooters; the grimm didn't even seem to notice them.

It seemed more interested in Nora. Had it seen her taking out the deathstalker?

Nora prepared to meet the goliath, hammer raised.

Call it instinct, but Yang thought that was a bad idea.

"Nora, get back!" she shouted, even as she rushed to meet the goliath. She fired a couple of shots, but only a couple — she wanted to get its attention, but she didn't want to waste ammunition — as she charged, rushing past Nora, her blonde hair flying. She'd been kind of lucky so far in terms of taking hits, her semblance wasn't on very much, but maybe if she took a hit from this big boy, then it would charge her up enough that she could put a serious dent in it in turn.

The goliath kept on charging, head swaying a little back and forth. Its trunk swept at her.

Yang leapt over the black trunk as it came close — sure, she'd take a hit, but she'd rather not take one that sent her flying to the other side of the battlefield — and hit it as it passed underneath her. Hopefully, it hurt the goliath even though it didn't kill it.

As she landed on her feet, Yang reached out and grabbed the goliath's tusk. Both hands wrapped around the white bone. It was cold, really cold, icy cold, cold and slippery like something that had been in the freezer and now all the ice was starting to melt, and even with her black fingerless gloves on her hands, Yang had to fight to stop her hands from slipping.

The goliath trumpeted angrily, and Yang more than half-expected it to toss its head to try and toss her away.

It didn't.

Because Nora had hold of the other tusk.

The goliath's eyes blazed, redder than the markings on its skull as it tried to advance.

Yang braced herself, digging her heels into the grass on which she stood. She was forced back a little bit, the earth giving way beneath her, but not by much. She and Nora were where they were, and the goliath, that huge old grimm, could barely move them.

Put like that, it made them sound kind of awesome.

Which wasn't to say it was easy. Yang could feel the grimm's strength pressing down on her, trying to push her back, trying to throw her away. She had to hold on, hold on tight despite the slipperiness of the goliath's tusk. Her biceps bulged, and Nora's too, as they held on and pushed against the goliath.

The goliath tried to swing its trunk at Yang, but Ruby buried Crescent Rose into the trunk and down into the ground beneath, pinning it down. Ren dived between the goliath's legs, slashing at them with the blades on the ends of his Stormflowers, before turning his attention to the creeps who tried to come to the goliath's aid. He danced among the snapping, snarling grimm, shooting this one, stabbing that, kicking another hard enough to send it flying off into the night.

The goliath bellowed and roared; it kept pushing against Yang and Nora.

Yang and Nora pushed right back.

Yang heard the goliath's tusk crack.

A grin spread out across her face as she pushed even harder, muscles straining; she grunted and winced with the effort as she shoved against the goliath's tusk, putting her shoulder to it.

Nora's tusk broke first — it was ridiculous that someone so tiny could be stronger than Yang was — and the triumphant crowing as she pulled it away showed that Nora knew it too. Yang's came away a moment later, splintering and shattering, coming free with an enormous cracking sound.

Yang knew she didn't have long; the tusk would start to dissolve at any minute. She lunged forwards, Nora doing the same, the two of them diving underneath the goliath's bony head and driving the tusks like knives up into its throat.

Yang shoved the white tusk into the black flesh as far as it would go, pushing at it and pushing at it until there was barely any visible tusk left to push.

Then the goliath fell on her as it died.

Yang gasped as the mountain of blackness fell on her, but all that did was cause her mouth to fill with the stuff, choking her; she wanted to wretch, but she could not; she wanted to breathe even more, but she couldn't do that either. All she could do was fumble blindly, digging at the oily black substance with both hands, trying to shove it away, trying to burrow through it, hoping that it would dissolve already so that she could get out from underneath it.

A strong hand seized her, Nora's hand, pulling her out and free, then standing guard over her as Yang turned away, retreating a few paces from the battle and, under Nora's watch and protection, bending double and starting to cough and retch. She expelled the ash and decaying essence from her mouth, smoke passing from between her lips like she was some sort of dragon or something. Even after the smoke, even after she felt the ash leave, even after it saw it mingled with her saliva as it was expelled from her mouth, Yang could still feel something in there, clutching at her mouth, clogging up her throat. She gasped for breath, but through her wheezing throat and the strained sounds it made, she felt only a little air reach her lungs — a little air and so much else that no sooner had she clutched that breath then she was wracked with a cough that sent her whole body shuddering. Spittle, and worse than spittle, saliva and phlegm and nasty black stuff all bundled up together in a thick and cloying substance leapt out of her mouth in all directions, some landing on her knees and legs with a nasty sticky sensation. Yang's eyes were filled with water as she breathed in another wheezing, insufficient breath and coughed again, more spittle flying.

She felt someone slapping her back. It didn't really help, but she appreciated the effort.

Yang was bent double, gasping even as her throat felt a little clearer. A little clearer. There was still something in her mouth; she could see it dripping down out of her mouth onto the grass between her feet like she was a tap that couldn't be quite shut off properly.

Her mouth felt foul. She really wanted a drink of water, only she didn't have any.

A flask was proffered in her direction, held in a hand with a green sleeve.

"Here," Ren said. "Drink this."

Yang looked up into Ren's face, a kind smile on his face and no pity in his eyes. She took the flash. "You think of everything, don't you?" she asked.

"I try," Ren said softly, the smile on his face not growing by a millimetre.

Yang drank, swallowing the swig of water, and with it probably at least some of the awful stuff in her mouth. Her stomach might not like it, but it did make her mouth feel a little better.

"Thanks," she said, handing the flask back to him. "Remind me in future not to get underneath a grimm I'm about to kill."

Ren nodded.

Yang took another breath, a deeper breath than she'd managed recently.

One down, and a lot more to go.

They were killing grimm. The monsters were dying before them, all around them, it wasn't as though they weren't fighting hard because they were, they really were fighting hard. Arslan seemed to be seeking out the cyclopes on purpose, getting between their legs and hammering away at their shins until they went down. There was a Haven student with wall eyes — Yang knew she'd seen her before, in Professor Goodwitch's class, but she couldn't remember her name — who was able to dodge every blow the grimm aimed at her, even if it was only by the skin of her teeth, then hit back or kick back twice as hard, and she didn't have to hit very many of them twice. Sun's friend Neptune kept his two teammates covered with his gun, while their big green-haired teammate hacked away at ursai with his sword. Lucius Andronicus sprayed fire in all directions. Penny's laser might take a little longer to charge than was ideal, but once it was all charged up, it could take out a goliath in one shot, while her swords could slice through half a pack of beowolves in an instant. Coco laid about with her handbag, clobbering any grimm that came in reach. Pyrrha rushed from one side of the fighting to the other, her red sash and her red hair flying out behind her like she had her own special flag, fighting to shore up wherever things looked bad. Like right now, where she was tearing through a pack of boarbatusks, Miló switching from spear to sword then back again as she skewered one, gutted another, stabbed a third through the mouth as it roared at her, grabbed a fourth one by the tusks, and beat a fifth boarbatusk to death with its own fellow; you couldn't say she wasn't pulling her weight.

They were all pulling their weight. They were all doing the best they could, they were all killing grimm, but it wasn't enough.

It didn't feel like enough.

Not least because their numbers were going down. Velvet from Team CFVY, Lucius' other teammate whose name Yang still couldn't remember, others too, the injuries they were taking were starting to mount up, and there were people … Yang didn't know for sure they were dead, but there were people whom she couldn't see anymore, and they weren't amongst the wounded. And to make things worse, the wounded were still close by because there was no way to move them, and they couldn't send them back to Vale because they couldn't spare anyone to take them, and they couldn't fall back because that would expose the wounded, and so they were kind of stuck here, and nobody even really knew how the Mistralian troops were doing — was their fire getting less, or was Yang imagining that?

They should be able to win. But it didn't feel like they would, not now, not like—

An explosion, much louder than the ever-present shell bursts that had become commonplace, ripped through the air, tearing Yang's eyes back upwards towards the Mistralian battleship.

She looked up in time to see the fireball rip its way out of the ship from the inside, bursting the armour, throwing the plate and the guns off into the darkness. Sound aside, it didn't look like a huge explosion, especially not compared with the actual size of the ship, but the airship seemed to be kind of listing a little, leaning sideways, bow pointed downwards. It hung that way for a second, while the grimm still flew around it and tore more chunks of it, but then the ship began to drop.

It moved slowly at first, so that Yang wasn't sure right away that it was actually falling or it just looked as though it was, but then as it came closer, as it grew bigger in her eyes, as it picked up speed, there was no doubt at all that ship was about to hit the ground hard.

"Get out of the way!" Yang shouted, grabbing Ruby and carrying her as she ran away from the falling ship, away from where she thought it might — would — land.

She threw Ruby to the ground, then threw herself on top of her, covering her little sister with her body.

The Dingyuan hit the ground in the middle of the grimm; it started to explode as soon as its nose collided with the surface, explosions rippling up the giant airship like steps up a ladder, or like a ladder being folded up maybe, more and more of the battleship being folded up into the explosion as the metal crumpled until about halfway up or down the ship, there was an enormous explosion, so loud it deafened Yang for a second, so bright that the flash burned through her eyelids, so hot she felt the heat wash over her and singe her aura, while the shockwave picked up her hair and tried to rip it off her head; at least, that's what it felt like it was doing.

Yang looked up, scrambling off Ruby so that she could get up as Yang, too, got to her feet.

The Dingyuan was gone. In its place was a field of smouldering flames and burning debris, an open space turned into a labyrinth of bits of metal, twisted, jagged, some of them on fire, some of them still resembling a gun or a propeller shaft, some of them even managing to still look like a part of a compartment, one that was blackened and covered with ash. Though the fires lit up the night, Yang still couldn't see much because there was now so much debris in the way. But there was no sign of any grimm; those that were caught in the explosion must all be dead, but unless that explosion had turned out to be much, much bigger than it had felt or sounded, then there was no way that it had wiped out the whole horde. It was a lot down, but a lot more still to go, and the grimm would be back, Yang had no doubt. They'd be back, slinking through the wreckage, and the huntsmen would have to plunge into the maze of debris to fight them — and all the while with nevermores and griffons coming down on them from above.

But, for now, they had a little space to catch their breath. Even the flying grimm seemed to have retreated for a minute.

They had a little space to catch their breath, and to think.

There had to be a way. It had been done before, Professor Ozpin had done it, he'd stopped a horde—

And so did I. Come on, Yang! How did you miss that? You don't need to think about Professor Ozpin; you've stopped a horde yourself. Sure, it wasn't as big as this one, but the principle's the same!

"Nora! Ren!" Yang shouted. "Pyrrha, Jaune, Penny, get over here!"

"What's up?" Ruby asked, sounding a little wary. Maybe she didn't want any more to do with her old team than she had to; that was unfortunate, and Yang was sorry that things had worked out the way that they had, she wished they'd gone better, but what she had in mind probably wasn't going to be easy, and they could use all the help they could get.

"You'll find out soon, once everyone gets here," Yang assured her.

They all come, Ren and Nora first, then the other members of Team SAPR — and Penny. They all looked kind of shocked by what had happened, with wide eyes and open mouths. Yang just hoped they weren't too shocked to pay attention.

"Okay, we can't just keep fighting them like this," Yang said. "We'll run out of aura before they run out of grimm. But I've got an idea: we're going to sneak around the edge of the horde, to the rear, find the Apex Alpha, and kill it. That will mean … maybe they won't disperse right away, but they'll stop coming at us so … single-mindedly, I guess. I hope they will, anyway; there'll just be packs of grimm, and they'll cover the area, but they'll be a lot easier to fight off, tonight and in the future."

"Like the leadership exercise from the start of the year," Ruby said.

"Yes, exactly!" Yang cried. "Me, Sunset, Weiss, and Blake found our way around the horde, found the Apex Alpha, and took it out, and the rest of the horde dispersed; it worked then, it will work now."

"Sunset came to rue that decision," Pyrrha murmured. "She said you barely escaped with your lives, and only thanks to Professor Goodwitch's intervention."

"Sunset … wasn't wrong about that," Yang admitted, running one hand through her hair. "But how long do you think that we can just keep this up? Does anyone have a better idea?"

"Do you really think it'll work?" Nora asked softly. "I get that you want to do something, but doing something that won't work just because it seems like the only option—"

"It will work," Yang insisted. "It might work," she corrected herself. "I mean, I can't offer any guarantees, we are talking about the top grimm of the horde, it might be too strong for us, it might be too well guarded, but we're still just talking about one grimm and its bodyguards, not fighting off endless waves of grimm until they're all dead or we are. I'm not saying that it will be easy, I'm not even saying that the odds are fantastic — this will be tough, even finding the Apex Alpha will be a challenge — but this is something that has been proven to work, and it means that that their numbers, their big advantage over us, won't count for so much. It won't be easy, but it is our best shot all the same."

There was a moment of silence.

"How would we get around the grimm?" asked Jaune, softly.

"Ren's semblance lets him mask emotions, hide people from the grimm; they can't sense them," Yang explained. "Especially with your help, I think he can conceal all of us if he has to. Then it's just a matter of staying out of sight of the grimm as we work our way around their flank and behind them. That's the way we did it last time."

"Makes sense," Ruby said. "This might be our best chance to save Vale. Otherwise … we can stand here and fight until we get overrun and we all die, but Vale will be in just as much danger as it was before."

Nora's jaw tightened, before she said, "I'm in."

"We're in," Ren corrected her.

"And…" Penny began. "And us too. If we work together, that increases our chances of completing the mission. And getting out again."

Okay, Yang thought. They've gone for it, that was easy.

Easier than doing it, that's for sure.

She was not blind to Pyrrha's concern. Sunset had turned it to a bit of an old worrywart over the last year, the fire that had driven her to daring risks at the year's beginning all snuffed out — the Sunset who suggested that they should throw the dice on trying to take out the Apex Alpha rather than meeting the horde head on had died sometime … it had been the fight at the docks that had killed her. Adam's sword had killed that Sunset when it sliced into Ruby's side. Yang found that she could hardly blame her for that, for all that the old Sunset had been more fun — but she'd had a point about what happened to them last time. If Professor Goodwitch hadn't shown up when she did, then they would have been in real trouble. Ten out of ten for courage, five out of ten for good sense, as Professor Goodwitch had said at the time. But, in addition to the inarguable point about them not having any better options, there was no reason why they couldn't do better this time around, learn from their mistakes.

The big mistake being, of course, that none of the four of them had given any thought to how they would escape once they had killed the Apex Alpha.

Yang, on the other hand, had thought about it: they had Ren's semblance, which would stop the grimm from picking up on their scent, and they would have speed as well.

"To the southeast, I'm sure I spotted a car that was ditched by the Valish soldiers. Provided that it hasn't been destroyed in that explosion just now, we can use it to move quickly around the grimm and get behind them — and get out again when we're done."

"That won't be quiet," Jaune warned.

"No, but I'll take the risk," Yang replied. "Pyrrha's right; last time, we didn't have a plan to get out, and we nearly paid for it; well, this is my plan to get out: by putting pedal to the metal."

Jaune nodded. "That makes sense, I guess."

"Are we all agreed then?" Yang asked. "Because we shouldn't—"

"I think Pyrrha should stay here," Ruby interrupted. "If the Mistralians see her leaving, then they might think that she's running away, and they could lose heart. We don't want them to break and run the way the Valish soldiers did."

Pyrrha stiffened.

"It's nothing personal," Ruby went on quickly. "It just … makes sense."

Pyrrha breathed in and out, her chest rising and falling. "I hate the fact you may be right."

"I'm not thrilled about it myself," muttered Yang. She'd been kind of hoping to have Pyrrha's skills on their side for this, it would have certainly made things a little easier; she'd been a little bit counting on it, to be perfectly honest. They could manage without her, Yang was sure, but it would be harder, and Yang would have rather had Pyrrha on her side.

That said … Ruby made some sense. The high regard — the excessively high regard — in which Pyrrha was held by the Mistralians, meant that they might take it the wrong way if they saw her walking off into the night, and it wasn't like they had time to explain to everyone where they were going and what they were up to.

It made sense for her to stay.

But quite apart from the fact that it would make their lives more difficult, it was also a tough thing to ask of Pyrrha. So tough that even if Yang had thought about it, she probably wouldn't have been able to ask it. She didn't have … Yang wasn't sure what to call what Ruby had that let her be so blunt to Pyrrha like this.

"I could really use Penny and Jaune's help with this," Yang murmured.

Pyrrha nodded, the movement was stiff, like her golden gorget was constraining her neck. "Of course," she whispered. She locked eyes with Yang. "Take care of them."

"There is no world where I come back and they don't," Yang said. "You have my word on that."

"I don't want your death," Pyrrha whispered. "I want their lives."

"I know," Yang said. "But I'm offering you the most I can promise for sure."

Jaune gripped the red sash around his waist with one hand. With the other hand, he reached towards her. "Pyrrha—"

She turned away. "Indulge me in a touch of superstition," she said. "If we say no farewells, then we are sure to meet again. Besides, you are in haste, and I would not delay you with a long goodbye."

"Right," Jaune muttered, looking away for a second, looking down at the hilt of his sword and at the sash around his waist. He bent forward and kissed her gently on the back of the neck before he stepped away.

Penny wrapped her arms around Pyrrha's waist and held her for a second, maybe two. Pyrrha's hands, drifted up to brush against Penny's hands, Pyrrha's fingers upon her knuckles, before Penny let go.

"Okay then," Yang said. "Everyone follow me, before the grimm come back."

They did all follow her, all save Pyrrha, whom they left standing there. She wasn't watching them, or at least Yang thought that she wasn't, but when she looked over her shoulder, she found that, no, Pyrrha was watching; maybe she'd started watching as soon as their backs were turned. She kept on watching, Yang could feel her gaze on her all the way.

And she wasn't the only one watching them. They caught the eyes of other students, although no one challenged them as they headed away from the others, away from the Mistralian camp, out into the darkness in the direction — hopefully, it was hard to tell in the dark — where she'd seen the abandoned car.

There! There it was! She could see it now: an armoured car, painted green with a red fox painted on the front door. It was square, boxy, and sturdy-looking, as well it might, considering it was armoured. It looked big too, with room for all six of them inside. There was a machine gun on the roof, with a hole in said roof to access it.

It was also stuck in a ditch, which was presumably why it had been abandoned in the first place.

But what was stuck for ordinary people wasn't necessarily stuck for huntresses, and Yang called Nora to help her. The two ran up ahead of the others and put their hands upon the car's front.

"One," Yang said. "Two, three!"

They both heaved; the car resisted for a second, the weight pushing back on them. But this armoured car was nothing, nothing at all compared to a goliath, and a second later, it began to move, and in no time at all, the two of them had pushed it out of the ditch and onto the grass.

Yang climbed into the front seat. She wasn't sure if anyone else could drive, but since she knew she could drive — she didn't drive cars very often, but Dad had shown her how — there was no point asking anybody else.

Instead of a key, there was a push button.

Result!

The others got in. Penny took the other seat up front next to Yang, leaving Ruby, Ren, Nora, and Jaune in the back, with two seats still spare.

"Do you want anyone on the gun?" asked Nora.

"Not yet," Yang replied. "And Ren, save your semblance for when we need it, okay? No point in you and Jaune using up all your aura too soon."

"Understood," Ren said.

Yang pushed the ignition key. The car started smoothly, the engine giving off a muscular growl. It was a little louder than she would have liked, but it certainly sounded powerful, and that … that wasn't bad at all.

She wouldn't want to try and make their escape in some sputtering old wreck, after all.

"Let's do this," she muttered, pressing down on the accelerator and turning the steering wheel. The car turned at her command, and soon, they were heading away from their fellow students and into the countryside that had been overrun and belonged to the grimm now.

They drove off into the darkness and were lost to sight.

Comments

[AngelicTitan]

Great Minds think alike, huh?
It’s so cool to see an old plot point like the Team Leaders exercise coming back like this in the climax of Part 1! It was a wonderful chapter that showed how intelligent Sunset was, but also careless, and it seems like her old plan came back to help her comrades when they needed it most. I’m excited to see what the battle against the Alpha will be.
I also liked how different it felt the end of a Goliath between the two Lines; in Atlas, the killers were praised for it; in Vale/Mistral, they were coughing and having to fight on with no one taking notice of it. It shows how dire the situation is. I can’t really fault Sky for not being able to help the students considering that his troops just recovered from a Mind Control in mass. I’m excited to see what will happen next, and now I’m curious to see if the end of this mini-arc of the Horde will be similar from the OG, or if Scorpio has another idea for it, but I do hope we can have some similar plot beats from the OG story as those chapters were hype as hell.

[Stet709]

Huh, so two teams are headed to the hunt down the Apex Alpha. Should be no problem at all...

She was not blind to Pyrrha's concern. Sunset had turned it to a bit of an old worrywart over the last year, the fire that had driven her to daring risks at the year's beginning all snuffed out — the Sunset who suggested that they should throw the dice on trying to take out the Apex Alpha rather than meeting the horde head on had died sometime … it had been the fight at the docks that had killed her. Adam's sword had killed that Sunset when it sliced into Ruby's side. Yang found that she could hardly blame her for that, for all that the old Sunset had been more fun — but she'd had a point about what happened to them last time. If Professor Goodwitch hadn't shown up when she did, then they would have been in real trouble. Ten out of ten for courage, five out of ten for good sense, as Professor Goodwitch had said at the time. But, in addition to the inarguable point about them not having any better options, there was no reason why they couldn't do better this time around, learn from their mistakes.

To be fair, the old Sunset was far more arrogant, proud, reckless and careless. The events over the year, from the docks to the train ambush, from Mountain Glen to Arcadia Lake, have tempered her to be more cautious, thoughtful, and yes, paranoid. She may be less fun, but she is more reliable and will be sure to keep you alive.

[Snowdrifter]

I know Sunset did a blind drop into this whole mess, but the Atlesians aren't going to put their hospital ship close to even the Red Line, so she probably dropped somewhere in Vale.

I was originally thinking she'd also end up behind the horde at first, but that is unlikely given the above.

Maybe Sunset fired the shot Martinez heard?

[Luviere]

This chapter really make you think how in the fuck did Atlas got defeated in the show.
A horde of this size should have been obliterated in the fight was on Atlas ground. Ironwood took like 4 ships with him, and i'm sure this isn't even close to the whole fleet.
If a fight between the kingdoms would start, Atlas wouldn't even have to try that hard to win. They are powerful.
The show really didn't to a good job to portray Atlas as a military nation. They should have not fallen like they did. But this chapter portrays exactly just how OP they are. Honestly, if Vale gave the ok for Ironwood to attack the horde with air superiority when he asked them to, the horde wouldn't have stood a damn chance

[AdverseFlower95]

11897878
Unfortunately for all of us Sunset was taking care of the Councilor at the time. I suppose it would be possible, but so far the events have been happening relatively linearly so that doesn’t seem likely.

[AdverseFlower95]

11897989
Reflecting on the tactics the Grim and Sonata used, going on the offensive might have ended terribly. If a sizable number of Atlas’s forces leave to go on the offensive then the grim in the Emerald forest might have taken that moment to attack slightly earlier to take advantage.

[Stet709]

11897878
As much as I would love for Sunset to save another parent, I feel that was a while ago, while the VDF was under the Siren's spell, given I think it was the VDF that attacked the VPD.
But maybe I'm wrong, so who knows?