My experience with operating vehicles is limited, and that is still significantly more than almost anyone else in the Mojave, and even parts of the west coast, can say. The NCR had some functioning vehicles, outside of the Vertibirds, but you weren't likely to see most of them in the Mojave. The only groups that came to mind in the Mojave with that kind of Mobility were the Khans and, later, the Boomers with the Lady. Between them though, the Khans actually managed a small collection of ground vehicles, which they reserved solely for large movements. I can recall the first time I saw them all in motion: after the second battle for the Dam, when they moved en masse out of the Mojave, eastward. They had an array of vehicles that spanned everything from motorcycles and pick-up trucks to battle buses and highway patrol cars. None in what could be called 'mint' condition, but each maintained enough to practically fly across the desert flats and over hills of dust and dirt.
Watching them leave was a reminder of how much faster the Old World had moved. Something I only ever got a taste of when I eventually persuaded Raul into helping me repair a motorcycle.
As we tore down the streets of Vale, I was reminded how frightening, and addictive, that speed was.
Unfortunately, it wasn't an addiction that the others shared, as evidenced by some of the noises they made as I cut a hard left down a side street.
"Are you trying to get us killed!?" Weiss shrieked.
"I told you to strap onto something!" I shot back, hands white knuckled on the wheel. "I said this was my first-" I cut off as I pulled us into a tight swerve back onto a main road. "-time driving a car!"
The wheel rattled slightly in my hands as we hit a rough stretch of pavement, but momentum carried us through it. What it wouldn't have carried us through was the traffic surrounding us, if I had the bad luck to crash into any of it. We were still in the early parts of the evening, so commuters and night-owls were still out on the street. Trying to avoid them, while operating a vehicle both alien and much larger than any I was used to was a challenge all its own, and that's without having to account that I had the throttle bottomed out against the floor as often as possible.
It wasn't by choice either. Most vehicles the size I was driving weren't built to comfortably carry fifteen people. Nothing short of a bus probably was.
Unfortunately, we only had panel vans to work with.
With the sirens wailing through the night air, and more echoing in the distance, we had to put things in motion quickly. We ran back down to street level and dipped into the parking garage next door, where the White Fang had been stashing their vehicles. We'd sadly wasted time climbing to the upper level to find a van we'd thought would be able to handle all of us, not helped by the fact that there was ultimately only one vehicle that could, and no one else was up to driving. Or up to learning on the fly.
The van wasn't anything special, or even comfortable. It was a barebones utility vehicle, barely rideable. Barring the driver's and front passenger seat, the van was open cargo space. More so after we dumped everything not needed out of the back. Despite that, it didn't change that fitting eight people would've been a tight squeeze, much less fourteen, accounting for someone riding shotgun with me up front.
But we managed it as quickly, if uncomfortably, as we could make it happen. The result was cramped, uncomfortably close, and there might have been a few people piled atop one another. It was a workable result though.
Which had left us with the problem of who was driving.
Sadly, I was one of three people in the group who had any clue how to drive. But Yang wasn't in the mood to try and drive everyone across town, and Jaune… We all agreed driving a tractor didn't qualify.
So that left me. Which also came with the bonus that I was going to ignore every traffic law that might have slowed us down. Plus the negative that I'd never known any of them to begin with.
Though I was pretty sure I wasn't supposed to blow through a crosswalk with people in it.
I did anyway, but I at least made sure not to hit anyone
"Seriously kid?" Coco asked from the passenger's seat next to me, watching as we blew past a pair of bewildered pedestrians likely out on a date.
"Do you know how to drive?" I asked, stomping the brakes as we came to another intersection, this one with a turning lane, cutting into the crossroads with a squeal of tires and blaring horns. "Stow it, I'm doing my best, haven't exactly had time to practice."
"No kidding?" Coco asked, shooting me an annoyed look. "Couldn't have figured that out from how you didn't know what an automatic transmission was."
"Which are actually stupid convenient," I said, the engine sluggishly whining to build speed under all of our weight. "I'd hate to be trying to do this while grinding gears."
"I hate that we're doing this at all!" Weiss called from the back, right as I hit a pothole. "BE CAREFUL!"
"Trying!" I shot back, looking at all the pedestrians that were still out. The few I could lay eyes on for more than a moment or two looked confused and worried. Whether at us or the sirens, I had no idea. Outside that last intersection, traffic had been getting lighter too. Some people seemed to be getting the picture that being out on the streets tonight wasn't a good idea. Even if things weren't going to fall apart at Kohl's Gate, there was a real chance that the White Fang were about to be roving the streets. Them and whoever else the Kingdom's laws deemed a criminal. Which probably included us, oddly. "You'd think these people would be paying attention to a kingdom wide alert like this." I said, idly.
"There're a number of shelters around Vale in case of emergency," Velvet said. "On the off chance you can't get home you're supposed to calmly make your way to them. Emphasis on calm."
"Right, because Grimm are attracted to the smell of fear and stress," I grumbled. "Which you're totally not going to get when you hear sirens blaring in the middle of the night."
"Eh, it's more like early evening," Nora chirped.
"Seven-fifty-nine PM specifically," Penny added.
"Semantics," I said, applying the brake as we approached another crossroads, and a traffic light. Another block down I could see the elevated roads of a freeway system. The fast way to get through the city. "We hop on that, you think we'll get to Kohl's Gate faster?"
"Unless you want to keep cutting through backstreets, yeah," Coco said, before gesturing ahead of us. "There's an on-ramp up ahead on the right. Cut onto it, should take us close enough to the city limits."
"Still taking too much time," I said, impatiently eyeing the light in front of us.
As if to emphasize the point, a half dozen police cruisers ripped through the crossroads directly in front of us, going so fast they were practically a blur of lights and sound.
Three seconds later, the light changed and I slammed on the accelerator. The tires squealed as inertia forced into a slower launch, but we sped through the crossroads and up the block. The lane widened, the on-ramp rising sharply out of the ground, curving up to the freeway. I could hear the van whining as I cut hard into the turn. It didn't want to make the climb, but managed to handle the steep grade up onto the freeway. The elevated roadway was busier than the lower streets had been, but not enough to be any real challenge. Everything was smoother up there, better maintained and balanced. Important, when you're a couple hundred feet off the ground. Vegas had freeways like this that were still standing, even centuries later. I'd wondered, when I'd had my motorcycle, what it had been like to fly down them in their prime.
Now I was getting that question answered, but didn't have the time to enjoy any of it.
Off in the distance, I could see Kohl's Gate growing closer. I cut the van onto the main road and floored it.
"I'd say we're maybe a half hour out, minimum," I told everyone, eyeing the speedometer, then the mirrors as a semi-truck hauled-ass past us, horn blaring the whole way. "Any questions on how this is going to go down?"
"A lot, yeah," Jaune said from the back. "It doesn't seem like this is going to go like we hope it will."
"It rarely does," I told him, eyeing the road ahead.
"Get used to it kids, that's normal," Coco said. "Whatever we run into, we're going to have to blow through it."
"Shot in the dark, but does anybody know what the prison's layout is?" I asked. "It'd help to know our way around."
Predictably, and unfortunately, I was answered by a chorus of no's. Even from Penny, who I was certain probably did, but knew not to say anything. That girl had access to more knowledge than she probably should have.
"Figures," I said, checking the mirrors. "… We're going to need to get to the outer wall, to start. Which means we probably have to fight past any Fang that're assaulting from the outside. That shouldn't be a problem, as long as the police doesn't start shooting at us by mistake. Always a chance, firefights can be chaotic enough on their own."
"What do we do from there?" Sun asked.
"I think we'll need to split up," Ruby said, sounding like she was trying to squeeze, literally, into the conversation. "The White Fang's going to have a lot of stuff going on, we can't all be together if we want to stop it."
"Divide and conquer," I agreed. "We'll probably need a group that can help hold the line outside. It's once we're inside that's going to be a problem."
"They're going to be going after the arsenal, and releasing prisoners," Blake said l. "That's at least two things, not counting anything else they could be doing."
"Blocking communications, rioting, attempting to breach the prison's armory…" I offered. "And they'd definitely be looking to take control of whatever airfield might be attached. Without it, this whole thing will be a bust for them. No plan for escape makes this a suicide run."
"Kinda like what we're doing."," Yatsu noted.
"… Yeah," I nodded. "So don't nobody pull punches or anything while we're in there. If you need to take people down, do it. There's more at stake tonight than we should be gambling with."
"We'll be careful, you don't need to tell us that," Nora chirped.
"That's not what I'm trying to tell you," I said, letting off the gas slightly as we banked slightly into a turn. "I know you can all hold your own. This isn't about telling you to be careful."
"Then what is it?" Jaune asked.
I could see Coco eyeing me curiously from the passenger seat. I had no idea what kind of looks everyone else was giving me, if they were giving one at all. They'd all made it clear they weren't going to judge me for what I'd done in the wasteland, even not knowing most of it. I wasn't inclined to share the grisly details either, seeing as I didn't like lingering on them either.
But reality isn't so kind.
"… There's a real chance that you're all going to see things tonight, that you're not going to be ready for," I explained, looking ahead at the road flying past us. "A chance that you'll have to do things you're not prepared for… More than a chance." I paused again and I could feel the air in the van getting heavy. Not helped by the way we were all crammed in there. All those bodies in such a tight space made the already soupy night air feel like swimming in a tepid pool. It made me feel worse for having to have this conversation now. But it needed to be had, even if it accomplished nothing. "I'm saying… if it's a matter of life and death: don't hesitate. There's already too much at risk tonight."
"Dude…" Sun said.
"It's not going to be like that Six-" Ruby started to say.
"No, it is, Ruby. That's why I need you all to listen," I said, eyes locked ahead. "This? What we're about to do right now? All the training in the world can't prep you for it. We're not fighting things like the Grimm, or wild animals, things that can't be reasoned with. We're fighting people, and worse. Some of them can understand when it's time to stop fighting… But some won't. Some will keep going because they have already blown past the reasoning stage. They're dead set on what they're doing, and short of dropping dead, there's no changing their minds. Determination goes both ways, and in a contest of the two, the winner isn't always the one with more of it. Sometimes it's just the person who knew enough to remove what would slow them down first." I kept my eyes locked ahead, even as they briefly drifted towards Kohl's Gate, still glowing like some great distant fire. For a brief moment, I thought of the NCRCF, not far from Goodsprings. As much a prison camp as an actual prison. All the damage that had been caused by a host of people's carelessness.
It almost felt like watching history repeat, and it felt like a knife in my chest.
"…Kid's right," Coco said after a moment, easing back into her chair. "We all need to be careful in there… if people need to go… We'll help pack their bags."
"But that doesn't mean we need to kill people!" Ruby said from the back. It sounded like she was squirming to get closer. "Six, we're not going to judge you for doing what you needed to do to survive and get here. But… we can't just…"
Before I could say anything, Coco carried the conversation. It went in a way I hadn't expected.
"You know, they don't start prepping you for service until second year?" Coco asked, not expecting an answer. "You ever wonder why they don't send you out on actual field missions until you get here? Sure, they put you out on recon and scouting missions, but they don't send you to actually help people…" Coco blew out a steady breath and adjusted her sunglasses. An odd facet, seeing as she was wearing them despite it now being dark out. "You know why, tiny?"
Ruby didn't answer, no one did. Frankly, I wanted to hear this too. Supposedly we were going to start field missions as part of the curriculum soon, but it was a few weeks off yet. It seemed like background noise now, with everything that had been happening.
"It's because they want you to know what's at stake," Coco said. "Come second year, you have to start taking a psychology course with Professor Oobleck. It covers trying to help people in the middle of a crisis. What goes on inside their head, understanding what goes on inside of your head…" Coco took her sunglasses off, wistfully. "Part of that covers having to kill people. And what comes with that."
There was another silence as we continued down the highway, the sound of the tires howling against the asphalt as we carried on our way. A continuous drone that rang in my ears like a scream. It was the only thing I could hear, until Penny broke the silence.
"Atlas Academy Educational Doctrine states that in the event of war, military service is compulsory," Penny said. "All Huntsmen, whether in training or graduated, are to return to Atlas for proper enlistment."
"Vale is the same way," Velvet said. "I think all Kingdoms are. It's been like that ever since the Great War ended."
"So they prep you in case it happens," Coco continued. "… But it's not about being prepared for war anymore. Now they teach you about it so you can be prepared for when the trouble isn't something like the Grimm. When it's bandits, raiders, assassins, the dirty part of the job that comes with protecting humanity…" Coco cleaned her glasses with a sleeve. For how impassive and flippant Coco was most of the time, looking at her, that was the closest I'd ever seen her to something like introspective. "They make you take the classes so you know how to cope. Be ready to help, no matter what happens."
"… Have you guys ever had to?" I asked.
Coco shook her head and pulled her sunglasses back on. "No. There's always a chance it'll happen. But we've been lucky."
I nodded, eyes slipping back to the road.
"… Judging by how this conversation's gone kid, I guess you have?" Coco asked.
There was much I could say to that. So for a stretch, I didn't. What was I supposed to say? My teammates, my friends, they all knew about my origins by then. They understood where I came from, things weren't always about laws and public order. Sometimes it was just about trying to make it to the next sunrise. To somebody who didn't know that, I'd just sound like a psychopath…
But, they'd had to go through Oobleck's classes. Try to understand the harsh reality of this work.
It seemed like they understood it.
"… Before coming to Vale, I had to spend a long time making my own way," I said, cherry picking. "I couldn't be choosy about what I did. A guy's gotta eat, and work related to the words 'honest' and 'safe' doesn't always pay well… Even when it does, you can't account for everybody trying to be upstanding." My hand relaxed on the wheel, as I tried to thread it evenly through my grasp, keep the van going straight. "I worked a lot of different jobs. A lot of them dangerous. Mercenary. Security. Bodyguard."
"Courier," Yatsu intoned, and I swear I thought it was Ulysses in the back for a moment. It was enough for me to let it slide.
"Bounty hunter…" I felt a flare of pain in my hands. "I tried as often as I could to settle trouble peacefully. Convince people to politely go the other way, when they'd listen… Do what I had to when it failed. Because where reason fails, violence follows. Always." I let a moment pass again as I tried to find the words. "There's reasons I don't talk to you guys about the things I did before coming to Beacon. They're in large part why they have psychology courses for the second years. Because there really are times where you just don't have a choice."
"But it doesn't always have to end that way," Ruby said, almost defiantly, but neither cold nor unkind. "You said it yourself, There were times you didn't have to… y'know."
"And I won't argue that," I said. "Because I'm not saying this to try and get you all to think 'hey: Murder is great! Let's go paint the town red!'. Because I know that'd be a lie. Violence and death aren't always the answer. But that doesn't mean they aren't sometimes a necessary one. It's got nothing to do with morality and everything to do with a simple question: If someone is looking to do harm to you or someone else, and they refuse to stop, who dies first?" I let out a heavy breath. "The moment you take to decide that, it could already be too late."
More silence. But I could see Coco nodding solemnly.
"I don't want any of you to have to kill anyone," I said. "I don't want that to be something that weighs any of you down… But if you need to, to save someone else, to save yourselves? Take the shot. I care more about you people currently sitting back there in the peanut gallery than I do anyone locked up in that man-made mountain."
"Even me?" Sun asked quizzically.
"Yes, even you, Sun." I told. "You still owe me-"
"Yeah, yeah, dry cleaning," he said. "Heard you the first time."
"So take care of yourselves. All of you," I said. "If you don't, I'm gonna slap each of you upside the head."
"…Well, that was… almost touching," Weiss said snidely. "… But I guess I understand. As crazy as you all make me, I wouldn't want any of you getting hurt either."
"We like you too, snowflake." Nora chirped, and I swear I could hear a smile in her voice. "And don't you worry Six-y, we're all gonna be ok. We've all got each other."
"And me!" Penny chimed.
"And my sword," And Yatsu chuckled.
"And my spear," Pyrrha added.
"And my scythe!" Ruby cheered.
"…" My brow furrowed. "I get the feeling you're all making a joke I don't understand."
"Classic movie series, if you're a nerd," Coco said. "You should watch them sometime."
"They were books too," Weiss and Velvet muttered at the same time.
I just shook my head, and kept my eyes on the road ahead. Despite the easy way they were all trying to speak, I could tell something in the air had changed. The reality of what was about to happen was settling in on all of them. We were all about to do something dangerous in ways that they might not be prepared for. The consequences of it, real. Come what may, we were charging headlong towards it. I could only hope everyone was ready, or able to make themselves so. I'd made that mistake too many times. I didn't want to see anyone else go through it.
Around that point, I could tell my mood was beginning to sour. So I did the only thing I could think to do, and flipped the radio on. The van had one built into the console. It immediately tuned into whatever station had been on last.
(BGM: 'Too Gone Too Long', Randy Travis)
The music crackled to life through the speaker. It was a jaunty tune, upbeat. Seemed to be mostly of an acoustic guitar, and the singer's voice was smooth. Definitely a guy, bit of a croon to his voice that mixed with a twang I couldn't place, but felt strangely at home with. The song itself wasn't necessarily a positive one, but it wasn't bad either. At least, I thought it wasn't. Better than getting sucker punched by Johnny Guitar.
Coco on the other hand looked at the radio as the music began to play. Then slowly up to me like I'd picked a bunch of static and my crazy had mistaken it for a classic.
"…You're joking right?" Coco asked. "We're about to storm a castle, and you expect to pump us up with country music?"
'This is country music?'
I shrugged. "I just wanted to listen to something. Frankly, I like it."
"…"
Coco reached out and changed the station.
"Oi," I said.
"Co-pilot gets radio privileges," she shot back, fiddling with the dial until she settled onto a radio station.
(BGM: 'A Thousand Miles', Vanessa Carlton)
I looked at the radio in confusion, then Coco. The song wasn't immediately offensive but more alien than more usual tastes. Piano, accompanied by drums in a higher key. It was a female singer this time, a rather pleasant voice to her. I couldn't help but feel there was something ironic to the lyrics as the song began to play. It likely wouldn't have been a bad song, just not to my taste. But it was foreign enough to my usual fare that I couldn't help but feel an immediate disconnect. Coco just gave me a smug smile. "It works."
"…" I slapped the radio back to the country station.
Then Coco slapped it back to the trash station. Which necessitated I respond in kind. Then she did it again, and I slapped her hand, then she slapped mine and the fight for the radio began in earnest.
"Hey! I know a better station!" Ruby said.
There was a mechanical sound, and the butt of Ruby's scythe shot out towards the front of the cab. It flew just over our hands connecting with the radio.
Promptly spearing it with the spike butt cap, killing the radio in a crackle of static and fried electronics.
"… Oops," Ruby squeaked, a moment later.
Coco sighed. "Great… oh well, better silence than that."
"Hm," I hummed, returning my full attention to the road.
I then reached over to my Pip-Boy and turned on the radio, tuning it back to the country station. A smirk plastered on my face as Coco glared at me from the passenger's seat.
Small victories.
…
After almost rocketing off the freeway while looking for the exit ramp, our race across the city came to a close. We were at the outer limits of the city, facing towards the southeast. It straddled the line between the city proper and the agricultural district the kingdom kept at its furthest reach. As we came down off the freeway, I could see the land stretch for miles, falling off into forest and mountainous rises in the distance. If my knowledge from Oobleck's classes was right, the mountains helped form a part of Vale's security. A natural land barrier that the Grimm couldn't easily pass through. Disrupted whatever their migration paths might be.
But between the mountains, forests, plains, and even the tilled and farmed fields stood one more defense. It jutted from the ground on a hilltop, a highpoint for miles around. In a time of war, like when it would've been established, necessary for observation. Make it so, if anyone is coming past your borders, they have to go through you, one way or another.
Kohl's Gate was what had sprang out of that hilltop.
Even at a distance I could see the structure as it was, a castle. My experience with them was limited, the closest I could come to the old concept of them was the Old Mormon Fort in Freeside. Going by the technical definition, The Strip and the 38 would be a more contemporary definition of what I knew, even if they didn't fit the look of a proper castle. The same could be said of McCarran, or the Fort.
Kohl's Gate, however, was a castle. Built during a time when knights on horseback fought beside machine guns and artillery. As strange as that idea was to wrap my head around. Kohl's Gate had clearly been caught in that transition, and married the two. A massive structure, broken up and tiered into three sections, from the angle we could see. At its highest point, it must've been about five stories tall, mortared stone and parapets. Quickly cutting down to a wider section only three stories tall, each corner marked with sentry towers. Then, a wall, maybe two stories tall, that swept away from the castle. Flags and banners representing the Kingdom of Vale hung from the wall and whipped from flag poles, symbolized by a pair of crossed axes laid over a laurel wreath. But for every historical point, there was something modern nailed beside it. Spotlights beamed brightly against the dark stone of the towers. Lights blinked atop the higher structures. The wail of a raid siren echoed out from its walls, full of mourning and dread, punctuated by brief and quick cracks of thunder, gunfire. Some in quick and mechanical rhythm, automatic fire. Bursts of light from the towers along the wall said machinegun nests.
Between the edge of the city and the prison lay nothing but a flat, open field. I couldn't see what lay behind the prison, or how far the field swept past it, but between where the sidewalks ended and the castle walls began, there was maybe half a city-block, broken halfway by a waist-high stonewall and barbed wire. The only ways up to the castle from the city were roads leading to this wall, through checkpoints.
For a military base, it was an ideal setup.
Now it was under siege.
The White Fang had posted up at that outer line, spread out across it. Their vehicles clogged the roads leading to the checkpoints. The Fang themselves spread along the walls, probed past their borders before being forced to retreat by machine gun fire. Those who didn't, hung back and returned fire. Kept things stalemated as the fighting continued.
A brief burst of color appeared between the checkpoint and prison, as an explosion scattered earth and stone. Someone had started loosening the artillery.
We stood on one of the rooftops at the very edge of the city limits. I could feel the very last remnants of the shell's shockwave pass through me as we watched, observed. I scanned the skyline around and behind us. Bullheads off in the distance, more lights.
The city raged.
And here we were at the heart of the trouble.
After getting off the freeway, we'd cut along a path I'd had to pick out that would take us near to Kohl's Gate. It wasn't as direct as it should've been, but I hadn't exactly had time to pick a better spot when we left the Fang's hideout. I'd just grabbed a place close enough.
It'd also, by pure happenstance, required us to climb onto the rooftop. Which was ever so slightly more helpful than being stuck at ground level. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were all near the edge of the roof, with Sun lingering behind Blake. Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren with them. Coco, Fox, Velvet, and Yatsu were a few paces behind them but watching all the same. Penny and me found ourselves standing beside Yatsu. The distance didn't really matter, but staying away from the roof's edge was better for my long-term health.
"This seems a lot quieter than I thought it'd be," Nora mused, looking out at the fighting.
"Everything seems like that from far enough away," I said, eyeing the battle that raged. "You won't feel that way when there's bullets whizzing past your head."
"And we need to get past all of it," Ruby said, hefting her scythe, shifting it to peer through its scope. "… There's at least a dozen White Fang at the checkpoint up that road." Ruby lowered the rifle, motioned to the trail down the boulevard we'd taken to get here. "If we're going to get to the Castle, that'd be the fastest way."
"Assuming we don't get shot on the way," Ren said.
"Or blown up," Jaune added.
As he did, another shell struck the growing distance of No Man's Land. Swear that time I saw a body silhouette in the blast. Brought back memories of the first time I'd tried to get to the Boomers.
"If we're doing this, we gotta get past it anyway," Yatsu said, voice slow, contemplative.
"I'd still rather not be in the middle of a war-crime sandwich.l," I said. "I've got an idea or two, but we're going to need to work fast. We've got no idea what's going on inside the prison right now. The guys on sentry duty might not either."
Ruby stepped back from the ledge and tucked her weapon back behind her. She motioned to our teammates and JNPR to follow. "Ok, ideas?"
"We could use the van, at least to get to the checkpoint," Pyrrha offered. "That could at least get us halfway."
"Assuming they don't light us up on the way there.l," Coco countered. "No offense champ, but it was enough of a hassle to get everyone out five minutes ago, I'd rather we don't do it while getting shot at."
"I'm with Coco," I said. "One of those artillery shells hits us, we'd all be red mist. We're going to need to make our way on foot. Shouldn't be a problem for most of us. The trouble is going to be making sure we don't get shot at."
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Weiss asked. "It's not like we can just call them and ask them to not shoot at us until we get to the castle."
"One problem at a time," I said. "Right now, let's focus on just getting to the checkpoint. They'd have to have some kind of hardline back into the Kohl's Gate in case of emergencies. Even if they don't, just getting that far works for a starting point."
As I spoke, another shell went off, and there was a brief pause in the machine gun fire. During which, I could hear the White Fang begin to rally, forcing their way past the outer wall. They wouldn't get far through No Man's Land, but they were doing their job, keeping the sentries occupied.
If we couldn't break the line, it was a stalemate that would hold for the rest of the night.
But it was a line we would break.
Without a word, I turned and made my way towards a corner of the roof. Not sure why it was the corner specifically, but a little further back, and it would've landed in the alleyway. A good bit of happenstance.
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I'd called for my locker before we'd hit the road to Kohl's Gate. I knew it was going to take time for it to actually get onsite, so it would be able to make the trip in advance of us. We'd arrived only shortly before it, and actually got to watch it streak through the sky and land. By the time we'd climbed up to it, the thrusters were cooling, but the thing had clearly struggled the whole way to us. Not surprising considering half of what I had stored in there. I knew it was capable of at least sending a full-sized person somewhere, but having it haul my kit around was probably a tall order. Would need to look into modifying the internal mechanisms, see if I could make it more stable.
What mattered though, was that it had made the trip.
Meaning I had full access to my small armory.
I was going to need it.
As my hands landed on the door to my locker, I punched in the code and pulled it open. For a moment, I contemplated switching over That Gun for my .45 Auto, or the Sequoia. Only nixed the idea because neither offered a large enough advantage to matter. The .45 had a little less pop in exchange for more ammo, and the Sequoia had more pop but less control. Not counting that my ammo for it was far more limited. I liked both, but they wouldn't help here, and I needed to mind my weight.
Long guns were going to be the order of the moment. I had them big, and small. But what I needed was what could meet in the middle.
So I started by pulling a 25mm APW from the locker. If things were already exploding to begin with, I couldn't make things worse. It'd clear the way ahead of us until we made it to Kohl's Gate.
The APW wasn't a common model, the Gun Runners had started rolling them out just before the battle at the Dam. I picked up a model afterwards, paid for the premium kit. Longer barrel, drum mag, better mechanisms… I'd only found use for it a handful of times, but it'd clear a field just as fast as you could pull the trigger.
Damn shame I didn't trust explosives most of the time.
I took the APW out and made sure it was loaded, setting half a dozen drums down with it. Eight grenades per drum meant forty-eight chances to blow shit up. I could only hope I wouldn't need even half that, crafting grenades was outside my wheelhouse. More finicky than just reloading brass.
As I set the grenade launcher down, I couldn't help but notice Ruby eying me from across the roof. She had a quizzical, skeptical, curious look that stuck out her lower lip and raised her brows. "Mm- what's that?" she asked.
"Semi-automatic grenade launcher," I answered, turning back to my locker.
"A WHAT!?" Nora squawked.
Before I could actually respond to that, there was a rush of air, and suddenly both Nora and Ruby were buzzing around my locker like a pair of… not bloatflies. More like those small birds I'd seen flitting around my garden. Quick things, really interested in the flowers, beautiful shade of green to them.
Ruby and Nora were more like that. Looking down at the weapon in question, and only barely restraining themselves from touching it.
"You have a grenade launcher!?" Nora squawked, looking between me and the weapon. "Since when!? Do you have any idea how long I've wanted a bomb-buddy for!?"
"I brought it with me when I came here," I said, trying to focus on my locker.
"YOU'VE HAD THIS THE ENTIRE TIME!?" Ruby asked.
"That and more," I answered curtly. "Focus, we need to get to the prison-"
Nora promptly tried to shoulder past me and look into my locker. "What else you got?- Is that another suit of armor?- Why do you need-"
"For repairs," I lied, shunting her back to the side. "No peeking."
Nora blew me a raspberry, but backed off. Ruby on the other hand stared down at the APW, agog. The surprise would wear off quickly, I knew. She knew I had wilder and weirder than that. She just didn't like that I hadn't been sharing with her. She was quickly joined by a few others from the group, namely Penny and Velvet, the latter of whom I knew had some fascination with weapons herself. The former. I think. just liked to feel included with her friends.
"What's it fire?" Velvet asked, looking curiously at it.
"25mm grenades," I answered. "Not as much punch as a 40mm, but more convenient to lug around and work with in an automatic."
"The longer barrel probably gives it more range," Ruby said, cocking her head as she looked at the weapon. "How many rounds?"
"Eight," I said, turning to look back into my locker. "Normally six, but those drum-mags-"
Almost as soon as I said the words, there was a brief flash of light. Followed by the soft mechanical clicking and whirring of a camera's shutters. I turned halfway back around and saw Velvet in the midst of taking its picture. Nora and Ruby were looking at her, both surprised and confused, but not at all judging. As the light faded back out of my vision, Velvet looked around, slightly embarrassed.
"… Y'know it's not going anywhere, right?" I asked.
"… I like having reference images," Velvet said.
"For what?" Ruby asked.
Velvet didn't respond. She just looked around shiftily. More secrets, it would seem.
"If you've got a weapons fetish, don't worry, you're in good company," I said jokingly. "I sleep with a shotgun, and Ruby hides weapons magazines under her mattress."
"That's not something she needs to know!" Ruby suddenly barked, a little red in the face.
Velvet laughed, taking it for the joke it was.
Reaching back into my locker, I pulled out the bag I'd originally used to help carry all of my equipment to Remnant. As I pulled it out and tossed it to one side, more explosions erupted from No Man's Land. The more time we spent on this, the worse things were going to get.
My hand fell to my hip and drew-out That Gun. The weapon flipped about in my hand by the trigger guard with a flick of my wrist, and I set it into my locker. Normally I wouldn't leave it behind. I preferred to have some kind of side-arm for the speed they provided in close-quarters. But I'd already burned through the dust cartridges I'd made for it. Worse, if the odds of what we were up against that night were accurate, five shots to a clip wouldn't cut it. Not when there might be a dozen waiting to replace whatever one I took down. In its place, I tossed my shotgun into the bag, as a backup. The Dust shells I'd made had proven their worth, but I was going to need something a touch more aggressive than a lever-action. But I wouldn't nix it, seeing as it was the only weapon I had available that could actually use Dust. Besides it, there were a handful of weapons that were very tempting to take with me, but ones I knew would only be useful under different circumstances. I couldn't take much extra either. So I took the one other I knew would be most helpful and slipped it into the bag, along with as many magazines as I could comfortably cram in with it. I then zipped the bag shut and slung it over my shoulder for easier carrying. Freed more space for the things I'd need in the short term.
I reached back into my locker and grabbed out what extras I knew I'd get some use out of, the least of which were my four remaining Frag Grenades. The APW would be good until we were indoors, then it would start being detrimental. The frags would compensate. But there was another tool I'd get even more use out of.
It sat leaning against the back corner of my locker, next to a silvery blade that connected back into a metal tank. I grabbed the weapon and drew it out by its black handle. Synthetic fiber and a swelled, rubberized grip melded comfortably into my hand. I could feel the heft of it settle back into my arms naturally, nostalgically. Its polished head gleamed cold steel in the moonlight, the adze at the back of the head spurred back and fanned widely into a sharp blade.
I spun Knock-Knock in my hands, a test swing. Of all the steps I knew I'd lost since my bounty-hunting days, swinging an axe wasn't one of them. With a flourish, it passed over my shoulder and settled nicely beside the duffle bag. I felt comforted by the weight.
With that, I shut my locker and sent it back to Beacon. It left slowly, like a rocket taking off, but it went.
I turned and collected my APW off the ground, arranging the drums where I could easily get to them.
"You've really just been saving all this stuff?" Ruby asked, looking both impressed and confused.
"Yeah," I answered. "Considering how I normally prefer to handle things, most of it stays locked away. It's been a while since I've had to show force like this, barring last night."
"A grenade launcher may have resulted in unexpected casualties last night," Penny said. "While directing the projectile is easy, the resulting explosion would affect anyone caught in it."
"Hence why I don't normally use explosives in general," I replied. "Less control in most contexts. Unlike Nora here, I don't think I'd survive dropping a building on top of myself."
"Do it once and they never let you forget it," Nora muttered.
I hadn't known that'd apparently happened, nor was surprised that it had.
We walked back across the roof to the rest of our group. Weiss and Blake were staring out at the prison with the rest of JNPR. Sun was chatting with the rest of Velvet's team, particularly with Fox and Yatsu. Coco seemed to be listening in, but seemed more focused on whatever it was we were doing. She seemed quietly impressed by something, nodding slightly.
Then there was Yang, who was just standing off to the side, quietly.
Something, I noted, she'd been doing for most of the day.
As we pulled back in, I caught the tail end of Sun's conversation with Fox and Yatsu.
"- and that's how I got to Mistral from Vacuo," Sun finished. "Decided to avoid flying SDC after that. It was faster than taking a boat, but they would've thrown me in the mines if they caught me. I enjoy my freedom a bit too much for that."
"Surprised you chose Haven instead of Shade," Yatsu said. "From what I remember, most of Mistral isn't very welcoming to Faunus."
"No less than anywhere else," Sun shrugged. "But Professor Lionheart was willing to give me a chance. It's been pretty awesome since. The guys are probably going to be annoyed I didn't tell them where I was going, but they know me, I don't like to wait."
Fox made some basic conversational gestures, but otherwise said nothing.
"Wha-?... Oh, yeah, I told them what was going on after I got back to the apartment," Sun said. "Figured they were probably wondering what was up. Said I'd tell them more when I got back."
"I guess discretion is something you still need to work on," I said, as we rejoined them. "Part of doing something covertly means not letting outsiders know what's going on."
Sun turned to look at me, and was about to say something before also seeing the weapons currently arrayed about my person. "Duh… overkill?"
"For what we're about to be doing, I'm hoping it'll be considered appropriate," I replied dryly.
"Semi-automatic grenade launcher, hand grenades-" Coco said looking me over. "-knife, probably another gun in that bag on your back…" She craned her head to look over my shoulder "… and an axe."
"A Pulaski, technically," I told her. "It's as much a multi-tool as it is an axe. Plus two guns in the bag."
"Never heard the name before," Coco shrugged. "But if you accessorized and dressed about half as well as you apparently hoard weapons, you'd probably be a decent date."
"There's a time and place for that sort of thing, and this isn't it," I said, motioning for everyone to group back up. As we pulled back together, I noted the machine gun fire in the distance. It was growing in amount. Things inside the prison were only starting to get worse.
"Ok, you've got guns," Weiss said, eyeing me. "What now? They're not going to magically get us inside, much less through the field."
"No, but they'll get us halfway," I said, motioning down to the street below. "Here's what I'm thinking: we need to clear the checkpoint. There's a good chance they've got a line into the prison, and we'll need it to keep them from taking potshots at us with the artillery. We've got no idea what's going on inside, so best case scenario we'll have a better idea of the situation before we get into the heart of fighting."
"What if the line's cut, or doesn't exist?" Blake asked.
"Then we need to get there anyway if we're going to have any chance of getting inside," I answered. "Part 2 of the plan will be straight forward: actually making it to the walls and getting inside."
"And then we need to worry about part 3," Ruby said. "Actually getting inside and trying to help."
"We'll cross that bridge and burn it when we get there," Coco answered.
"If getting inside is the first problem we need to deal with, then the rest won't matter anyway, right?" Jaune asked. "If we can't even make it inside, we can't do anything about it."
I nodded. "Most I can say is we'll probably have to divide ourselves. Once we figure out what's happening and where, we can break off and run damage control where we're needed most... I'm getting a sense of Deja vu here."
"Ok, so we're going to go through the checkpoint," Weiss said, furrowing her brow. "That still doesn't explain why you want us to run there."
"Outside of the whole 'blowing us all up at once' thing?" I asked half-sarcastically. "They've got the checkpoint blockaded with their vehicles. They're going to have cover to work with and better angles to work off."
"That doesn't change if we're walking on foot," Weiss said testily.
"No, it doesn't," I agreed. "But it does give us a several thousand-pound battering ram to work with."
It took everyone a moment to see what I was angling at, but they picked up on it a moment before I put things into motion.
"Ruby, Penny, with me," I said, moving back towards the fire escape we'd taken up to the rooftop. "We're going ahead. Everyone else, get ready, as soon as we hit the road to the checkpoint you need to be on our heels."
After a moment's hesitation, both Penny and Ruby fell in step behind me. The others began to fall into motion as I scrambled back down the levels of the fire escape. The whole way down the prison siren wailed. I couldn't shake the feeling of dread, just couldn't. That was part of the point of sirens like that. Get people's attention so they knew to either take cover or get ready to fight. But I knew it wasn't helping here. Help wasn't coming besides us. Despite the big game we were talking, I had no illusion we weren't enough. We were Camp Forlorn Hope, staring down the barrel of the gun Nelson pointed at us. An impossible task with not enough time, resources, or men to accomplish it. My Luck wasn't going to allow for a good outcome either.
But, maybe, with all of us pulling together, we could pull something good from this mess. I could only hope.
I landed in the alley, with Ruby and Penny already waiting for me. They hadn't needed to take the same way down that I did. Not missing a beat, I dashed over to the van, engine still ticking as it cooled from the mad race there.
"So we're going to crash the van into the checkpoint?" Ruby asked. "Cool, how're we going to not die?"
"That's what I need you and Penny for," I said. "Or, you- at least, Ruby. Penny I need for something else." I went around to the back of the van and the two of them followed me. The back of the vehicle had a pair of double doors to it, the only way to access the bed and storage section. I opened both of them, wide enough I could see the hinges and wiring feeding into them.
"Ok, what do you need me for?" Ruby asked.
"I'm going to get the van up to speed and angled at the checkpoint," I explained. "Once it is, I'm going to lock the throttle and steering wheel, and we're going to bail out. The problem with that, is that we'll be going, presumably, over fifty miles an hour between there and here." I motioned up and down the road as I examined the hinges and wiring, looking for an easy disconnect. If there was one, my brain wasn't seeing it through the haze of adrenaline. No sense in being neat about it either, we were going to wreck the van in a moment. One more piece of twisted metal wouldn't matter.
"And you want me to pull us out?" Ruby asked, confused l. "Uh… Six, that's not how that works."
"Your Semblance seems to say otherwise," I told her. "You figured out you can move more than just yourself while using it. If you grab me, you can launch out the back. Hopefully fast enough to help negate some of the forward momentum."
"But I've never tried something like that!" Ruby protested. "And the door will be in the way!"
"Well you're about to," I said. "And they're not about to be."
I levered Knock-Knock off my back and flourished it around in a swift motion. I swung down, aiming for the thinner metal of the hinges. Back in the Mojave this wouldn't have worked cleanly, if at all. I'd have had better luck using the poll of a standard fire-axe than Knock-Knock. But on Remnant, I had a few extra things that helped shift the balance enough to make it plausible. Like boosted strength, and a forcefield that kept me from instantly ruining Knock-Knock's edge.
The stiff, but thin, metal sheared halfway through on the first swing. Could've gone through fully if I hadn't pulled back at the last moment out of caution. A second swing cut the rest of the way through, and a more confident third swing sheared straight through the second hinge and wiring. With it's only mountings destroyed, the door hit the ground with a mighty crash. Not missing a beat, I turned and took the other door off the hinges. Another crash, and both doors lay on the ground. I continued to shear them with Knock-Knock.
"… Ok, no doors, cool," Ruby said. "But I don't think my Semblance works that way."
"Just like you didn't think you could use it on more than one person," I grunted, shearing out a spike of metal. "Lo and behold, you tried it and it worked."
"By accident!" Ruby said.
"There is a precedent for your Semblance working like that actually," Penny said. "While I haven't fully analyzed your Semblance yet, it does seem to exhibit properties that might allow us to safely leave the vehicle while it's in motion."
"I trust Penny's computer brain on this one," I said, breaking the handle and latch out of the door. It'd work well enough to hold the steering wheel in place. "This is what I tried to get through to you guys when we sparred last time. You need to experiment with what you can do, or you'll never know what you're truly capable of. You didn't think your Semblance would let you carry people, but it did. Now you've got a viable career in transportation if Hunting doesn't pan out."
"Oh yeah, suuure," Ruby said with an uncharacteristic amount of sarcasm. "I could call it Six Roses Courier Service or something."
I was tempted to say something to that. Except I found myself stunned by her choice of name. There wasn't anything wrong with it, it was a good name. Was the first time I'd heard it.
What were the odds I'd hear it again?
Didn't bother trying to say anything else as we prepped the van. I made sure everything I had was arranged so I could set it up while we were careening down the road. If I screwed it up, we'd hurtle off the road, and I still remembered the last time I did. I had no desire to do it again.
As I was getting set up, Ruby and Penny piled into the back, waiting while I got myself together. For most of the time I was working on it, they didn't say anything. The only sounds came from the battlefield in front of us. After a minute or two though, Ruby broke the silence.
"Hey, Six?" She asked.
"Yeah, Tiny?" I answered.
"Are we… really going to have to kill people tonight?" Ruby asked, tripping over the words.
"It's a real possibility," I told her. "It is anytime you get into a fight. Whether you realize that or not."
"But Aura doesn't make it that easy," Ruby pressed. "Part of why we train like we do is we don't have to kill, so we know when enough is enough."
"There's the trick," I said, prepping the steering wheel. "Some people don't know when to quit." I paused in what I was doing, gave the conversation the attention it needed. "Most people want to live, it's basic instinct. Self-preservation isn't something that can be shrugged off because, surprise, dying sucks. We want to live, ergo, we make choices based on what is most likely to keep us alive. Fight, flight, or surrender, nature's holy trinity… But that doesn't mean that it can't be overcome. People devote themselves all the time to something, even if self-destructive, that they deem more important than their own lives. When they're like that, getting them to stop becomes even harder. And, try as we might, it's not always as simple as just punching someone hard enough to knock them out. Sometimes the answer needs to be more impactful. Whether we like it or not."
I thought back to the news reel that'd played earlier that morning. It'd showed me taking down the White Fang that'd been at the Gala the night before. It'd censored most of the gore, and it didn't say if people had passed. But I wouldn't put it past anyone to suppress information like that either. The Grimm are attracted to negative emotion, what would seeing something like that cause?
I hadn't been trying to off anyone last night, but I'd gone in knowing I couldn't hit softly either. They'd made their bed, and I'd help them get tucked in if they felt like kicking off. But I knew at least some of those wounds likely weren't fatal either. At least, not immediately. People with better Aura control than me could likely deal with the wounds. Know how to close them better, control their bleeding. It wasn't my problem in the end, I'd spent enough time worrying about it. I tried hard to do things better, but I accepted that it wasn't always so easy. Even when I failed, it still made me a better man than many I'd had the displeasure to have run afoul. Ruby would need to learn that.
Then she threw me a curveball.
"… I think I killed someone last night," she said, softly.
Ruby said that right as I was about to start the van. On the one hand, I was annoyed by further delays to the situation we were in. On the other, I put the priority of my friends and teammates over outside Brahmin crap. So I waited. If Ruby thought she'd killed someone I wanted to understand why. "…How?" I asked.
"… When everyone was escaping, there'd been this one White Fang that had been about to start attacking them," Ruby explained. "I'd fought a bunch of them before that, waiting for you to get there… But that one I know I hit harder. I… I used the bullet you gave me."
I didn't say anything, just listened.
"In all the fighting, and worrying about everyone, I didn't think about what was going on, I-I've never had to worry about it before…" Ruby shifted in the back of the van. "But now that I'm thinking about it, I'm worried that… That I might've…" She didn't finish the sentence, instead, she started another one a moment later. "… Do you think I could have? You use those kinds of bullets more than I do. I don't… I don't know."
"… I wasn't pulling my punches last night either, Ruby," I told her, after a moment. "If we did leave any bodies behind us, they wouldn't have been all yours."
Ruby didn't answer, but I knew my response hadn't done much to console her. It was hard to console her because I didn't know how. Ruby was a teenager. Even if this were the wasteland, a teenager shouldn't have to be thinking about having killed someone. She should've been concerned with a microcosm of different issues, wholly unrelated to trouble like this.
I tried a different angle. I knew my Pip-Boy could keep track of how many people, or at least enemies, I'd killed. I hadn't kept track of the number in a long time, so I wouldn't be able to tell the difference by looking. But there'd been somebody else with us who had been.
"Penny, you said we'd kept casualties to a minimum last night," I said, reaching for the ignition. "What'd you mean when you said that? Was that purely civilian casualties or did you include combatants as well?"
"Both," Penny answered brightly, after a moment. "My sensors were built to allow me to accurately gauge the Aura levels of third parties while in combat. Papa said it was so I could know when people needed my help, or when they could safely evacuate on their own."
"So as far as you can tell, from the information you had last night, no one died?"
"…" Penny remained silent for a moment, mulling over the question. "…From what I recorded?... Not during the fight. I calculate a seventy percent chance of survival for most parties involved, assuming they received medical attention."
"So there's still a chance I did," Ruby said, glumly.
"A bigger chance I did," I corrected. "Don't put that evil on yourself." I started the van and put it in drive. I began rolling us down the street towards the road leading to the checkpoint.
"But still..." Ruby said, letting her word hang in the air.
As we rolled down the street, towards the access road, I let the words hang in the air as I tried to think of something to say. Some way to ease her fears. Even knowing we were charging head long to a place that could wind up fueling them if something went wrong. Knowing what I did, I didn't believe they would, even with my bad luck. My teammates, my friends, they knew better about how to fight in this world. Knew better how not to kill people. They spent their whole lives trying to train themselves to do better. I was the one who'd only recently begun forcing himself to do better. There was still a long way to go. When I tripped, it wasn't purely out of spite and hate. Sometimes, I just couldn't find a better way.
There wasn't time to debate it, time to keep this conversation going. I didn't want her to do something she didn't want to, thinking she had to. Not when she did have a choice.
I began to line us up with the access road. "… Did you hate them?"
"Who?" Ruby asked.
"The White Fang," I said. "When you fought them, did you hate them?"
"… I-" Ruby faltered. "I don't…"
"You were angry, I know that," I said, recalling how our conversation had ended. "You were furious they would do what they were doing, righteous indignation is the phrase I think… But did you hate them, like they seem to hate everyone else?"
Ruby didn't answer.
"… Did you want to keep them safe?" I asked. "The hostages, Ironwood, the people who were in danger? Was that more important to you, right then?"
Ruby still remained silent, for another of those eternal moments. But it was answered in a small, resolute "… Yes."
"Then you're doing it for the right reasons," I said, gunning the engine, hearing it whine. "Killing because you hate something, someone, it's a fool's game. Hatred is petty, needful, and all around worthless. It takes and doesn't give... You don't fight for hatred. You fight because there's something you love, something you care about…" I closed my eyes, thought back to all the times I'd made that mistake. How different might it all be, if I couldn't have just figured that out sooner. "…The fire in you is not one of hate, for your enemies, the monsters that harrow you. The fire is your love. The love for your friends. Your family. That righteous fury that someone might hurt them, hurt anyone, and think they can get away with it..." I looked up into the vanity mirror, back into the storage area of the van. Ruby was looking at me, sad, worried, and lost. But following every word I said, like some breadcrumb trail back to the main road. "You don't fight because you want people to die. You fight because you want them to live. We can't always control how things go. I don't want any of you to get hurt tonight, I made that clear. Penny says we kept casualties as small as we could hope to. We can't do more than that, not if we actually want to stop them. I hope…" I gripped the wheel and focused on the road ahead of us. "I hope you girls never have to know what it's like, to have to live the kind of life I've had to. Not in a world like this."
I braced myself against the steering wheel and began to ease my foot onto the gas pedal. Ahead of us, artillery rained and gunfire thundered, lighting the terrain in a flash of multicolored light, as the various grades of Dust unleashed their fury on the surrounding world.
It wasn't lost on me how hypocritical what I'd told Ruby was. The anger and hatred I'd had for the Legion, the Fiends, for so many of the Bounties I'd chased. But I knew how far away it could lead you if you let it. The stupid decisions you'd make.
A hand landed on my shoulder, and I turned to look.
Ruby gripped me. She looked at me from the space between the seats and back of the van. The worry was still on her face. But I knew she was still resolved in this.
"…Ok," she said, nodding. "Let's do this."
I nodded, grunting. "Good answer."
My foot slammed the gas pedal and we shot forward. The engine guttered and whined as we tore down the road to the checkpoint. At most it was a half mile away, flat terrain, only the barest upward grade. The road was straight, the pavement still appearing freshly laid. The van's engine quickly grew from a whine to a roar as we built speed, the pistons fighting for air and fuel. I could feel the power and momentum gathering through the steering wheel. The inertia slowly pulled back against me as we rocketed forward.
Halfway down the road, we were doing sixty miles an hour and only climbing.
"I calculate twenty seconds to impact." Penny said, she shifted in the rearview, clasping a hand onto Ruby.
I could see the checkpoint ahead of us. Using my foot, I pushed the wedge into the gas pedal, keeping the engine gunned. My hands worked in tandem to keep the steering wheel straight as I barred it in place.
No turning back now.
The checkpoint was barred by a pair of vehicles. A truck and a sedan of some kind. They'd both pulled horizontal across the road, forming an improvised wall against anyone who would try to come at it from the ground. I could see the White Fang huddled around the vehicles, darting around the checkpoint. The checkpoint itself was a simple structure, a roofed structure with a pair of guard houses, large enough to fit maybe two people a piece. One had an arm that raised and lowered on its own to bar road access. Simple, little cover, open.
One of the White Fang that had darted behind the cars for cover noticed the beams of our headlights and turned. A moment passed as he processed what was happening.
I wasn't sure but it looked vaguely like he mouthed the words 'Oh fuck!' before promptly running back around the vehicles, drawing his cohorts' attention.
"Ten seconds!" Penny said.
"Six," Ruby urged, her grip on me tightening.
Just a little closer.
The White Fang all began to turn and look as we barreled down on them. Some of them froze in the headlights. More threw themselves aside.
"Five! Four!" Penny chimed.
I let go of the wheel.
"Now!" I shouted, feeling like my bowels were about to drop out of me.
For a half second longer than I would've liked, I was afraid Ruby wasn't going to be able to pull it off. That her Semblance would kick in, but she'd take off and leave me in the driver's seat. It wouldn't be the first time my luck would do something like that.
But then the world fell away in a swirl of flower petals and light. I watched as the world whirled past me as gravity and space lost their hold over me. Weightlessly, I launched backwards, flying through the back of the van and out through the mangled rear hatch. I could feel Ruby's grip on my shoulder, saw Penny's feet dangling just outside my vision as we moved away from the vehicle.
Just as quickly, reality came roaring back. In another flurry of petals, gravity caught up to us, and we tumbled against the ground.
What followed was a scream of rending metal and the roar of the engine as it completed its suicidal charge. As I recovered, the van plowed straight into the two parked vehicles, shunting and flipping them as it carried forward, slowly veering off course. Then it plowed into the arm barring the road, sheared through it, and carried a short distance further into No Man's Land, where it was promptly hit with artillery and destroyed.
So, no, we wouldn't have been able to just barrel our way to the gate first.
But the turn of events had taken all of the White Fang's attention off of us. I wouldn't waste it, as I picked myself up, quickly followed by Ruby and Penny.
"Hey assholes!" I shouted.
A couple of the What Fang recovered enough to notice us.
"That was a warning shot!"
I shouldered my APW and slapped out a pair of grenades. 25mms don't have the same blast radius as their 40mm older brother. Makes sense, smaller bomb, smaller boom. But a 25mm could still clear a room, and could be fired faster than their older brother. I didn't have much regular use for either, but they served a purpose from time to time.
For instance, if I wanted to cut a dozen combatants down to about a third that number, it might take a minute. I'd need a couple magazines, the element of surprise, a plan, and a host of other things.
Or I needed two or three grenades, plus a baggie for cleanup.
The APW recoiled lightly into my shoulder when I fired. It didn't make the same ear splitting bang when fired either, like a bullet might. More of a hollow thump. Grenades like that operated differently from bullets, even if functionally I could handle them like one.
The effect they had though was tremendous.
One grenade struck the first vehicle, the truck, and it went up in a ball of fire, sending out a shockwave of air. The wave blew everyone close enough to it back off their feet, about half the Fang in total. Then the second grenade went off in the open and knocked down the rest of them. Seeing the level of destruction it caused, I knew I'd made the right call in keeping the ammunition standard. High Explosive would've been too much to control. I'd probably have brought the whole checkpoint down. It'd take even longer to dig through the rubble than we had. As it was, I could see the checkpoint beginning to sag towards a rear corner, the south-west facing.
Ruby tensed beside me, and I knew she was readying herself to jump in. My arm thrust out and stopped her. She looked at me, confused.
"… One more," I decided.
I launched a third grenade, aiming for the supports near the south west corner. The definition of controlled demolitions. Through the rumble of the explosion, I heard the steel supports give out, metal plating twisting and crumpling as the structure twisted and caved. The east facing supports bent, but only bowed, managed to hold their weight, leaving the structure half caved in. More than enough to bury about seven of the White Fang in the Rubble.
"… How is that not trying to kill anyone?" Ruby muttered.
"I gave them a warning van, and I told them before I opened fire," I said, chuckling as I reloaded the APW. "I mean, what else did you expect?"
As emphasis to that, people began to move from the structure. The White Fang who hadn't been caught under the roof when it collapsed staggered out from the more opening half of the building. Maybe about five of them in total.
"See, I even left you some," I said.
Ruby grimaced, not deigning to respond to my cavalier remark. Instead, she launched herself forward towards the checkpoint, pulling up her scarf and hood. Me and Penny followed quickly after her, but knew it was going to be little more than a thoughtful gesture. Quick on our feet as we both were, by the time we actually got close enough to properly engage anyone, they were already down by three. I watched as Ruby took out the third, spinning her scythe in a reverse grip, cracking the Fang in the head. Only for her to spin, knock their legs out from under them as her scythe danced over her shoulders. It hooked under the Fang, and she levered them over head in an arc, slamming them down at the end.
The two remaining Fang, harried by the explosions and little girl from hell, promptly tried to flee, only to make it about ten feet from the checkpoint and meet Penny and me.
I flicked the Cow Puncher out and punched my Fang in the diaphragm. The spikes of my knuckle sank in deep as my fist connected, full voltage coursing into them. Guy hadn't even been paying attention to where he was going. He doubled over on himself with a garbled howl as he doubled over on himself. I drew my fist back and cracked him on the back of the head with the APW's stock. The guy who'd run into Penny got it worse. She drew out her blades and swung them out on him in fluid fashion. All eight blades slapped him in the head at full force by the flats of the blade. She made sure it was all eight of them too. He would've fallen with the first hit, but each following blade redirected course as it was their turn, making sure they each got a chance to hit him. The effect was Penny bouncing his head against the ground like a ball.
It did the trick, but damn.
That officially ended the brief fight at the checkpoint, doing so in as textbook a fashion as I could hope. We approached the ruins of the checkpoint as Ruby scanned the area.
"Any casualties so far?" I asked Penny.
Penny scanned the ruins for a moment, her eyes glowing. "… None that I can detect," she answered.
I nodded, motioning to Ruby. "See? All good so far."
"They're all buried under the building!" Ruby squeaked.
"And perfectly fine according to Penny," I replied. "Don't worry about them, the authorities should be here in time to help them. It's on them for playing this game."
Ruby didn't say anything. I knew it was still a sore subject. With the amount of scar tissue I had, it was hard not to be curt with it. At least I hadn't used the High Explosive rounds, or the plasma ones. Though I did note the way she briefly eyed my APW.
"… Wanna hold it?" I asked.
Ruby didn't say anything, but she did nod.
Her eyes glittered as I passed the weapon off to her. I then stepped past her into the ruins. "Reach out to the others and tell them to move up. Penny, with me, this is where I'm going to need your help."
Penny followed me as we left Ruby to wait outside. Frankly, I wasn't sure if I was even going to need Penny's help, but better safe than sorry.
"What can I do to help?" Penny asked as we moved under the collapsed structure of the checkpoint.
"Not sure, but we're going to find out," I said. "Unless we want to try and dodge artillery and machine gun fire on an open field, we need to try and contact the guys on the walls. My working theory is there'd be a back-up line built into the checkpoint here."
"And you think you might need me to help connect to it?" Penny asked.
"Maybe?" I offered. "I'm not sure what kind of security it might have, or what we might need to try and force into working."
Penny nodded in understanding as we ducked into the checkpoint. The fallen structure was a mix of concrete and steel. Felt not too dissimilar to a man-made cave. Reminded me of the tunnels and crypts of the Divide. Fitting, since they were made in a similar fashion. Though the subtle shifting in the stone and steel made an eerily organic moaning noise that seemed to wheeze through the checkpoint. That was certainly what it was.
The one guard station that'd held the arm barring the road had managed to remain mostly intact. Sure, one of the support beams had crashed through the roof, but the station was still standing, and there was even power, evidenced by a small emergency light. We didn't have to worry about getting through a door, there wasn't one, so we slipped inside the station. There wasn't much in the little building. Mostly the controls for raising and lowering the beam running across the road. Though I figured it wouldn't work quite right with all the extra debris weighing it down. Aside from that, there was a small machine built into the wall adjacent to the controls. Looked to be some kind of projector, so I had to assume it was more of that holographic Dust-tech. Despite the power though, it was deactivated.
"I believe that's a late model T-Hx 1138," Penny said, tilting her head slightly. "It doesn't show any signs of external damage. I should be able to reboot it-"
My hand rested against the projector and instinctively grasped at the white paneling that covered it. Common of seemingly all machines that used Dust for electronic purposes. Images rolled through my mind as my hands worked, guiding me. I pried the unfamiliar covering off the projector with ease, and found myself staring down at the guts of the machine. Circuitry smaller and finer than any I was familiar with. No vacuum tubes, no heat sinks, and if there were any transistors, I couldn't see them. They likely just didn't resemble what little I'd have known of them. I might as well have been looking at a disemboweled alien, which I was for most intents.
But I still understood enough to know what the power supply looked like. And what overheated wiring looked like. There was a chance the thing would still run, but I was going to need to check the wires for breaks. At the very least I could tell the machine had lost power, but it could also be a small breaker inside that had been tripped. There was a chance my explosion had knocked it out of place. Couldn't tell just by looking.
I took Blood-Nap out of its sheath and began stripping the wires carefully, feeling for breaks.
Penny leaned in curiously as I worked. "How did you know to do that?"
"Keep a secret?" I asked. "I have no idea. I've been getting these weird flashes recently, it seems at almost random times."
"Flashes?" Penny asked.
"Like… I don't know how to describe it. It's like I can see myself doing something, and get a rough idea of how it's supposed to be done. It's not like I'm suddenly able to understand what I'm doing, I'm just… doing it," I tried to explain. "There are times I'm doing it unconsciously even… I don't know."
"Could it be your Semblance?" Penny asked. "Do you know what yours is?"
"No, not yet," I answered, examining the wires carefully. "I only just recently unlocked my Aura, my Semblance wouldn't follow that quickly… would it?"
Penny shrugged. "Everyone develops their own in time. Some sooner, some later."
"…What about you?" I asked. "Do you have one?"
Penny shook her head. "While my body is capable of maintaining and generating an Aura, it's not a perfect recreation. My soul isn't capable of generating its own Semblance from the small piece it's made from."
"Small piece?" I asked.
Penny didn't answer, and I chose to let the question lie. Whether this was my Semblance or not at work, I couldn't deny these brief flashes of insight were extremely useful.
Such as showing me that, yes, there was a break in one of the wires.
I peeled the coating back far enough to find the spot where it'd snapped. It was a clean break.
"Alright, found the culprit," I said. "Now all we need-"
There was a hollow thump from behind us, outside the checkpoint. It was followed by the sound of a grenade going off about three hundred yards east.
"… Ruby?" I called.
"I didn't do it!" Ruby shouted back, voice muffled and very clearly lying.
"… Safety's over the trigger guard!" I shouted.
"… Thank you!" She answered.
I turned my attention back to the machine in front of me. "I think the wires are just pliable enough that I can make them touch, But they're shot otherwise. No time for good repairs, and I don't have a soldering iron."
"The wires just need to be reconnected?" Penny asked. "… I think I can help with that. Move them back together, just barely touching should be enough."
Curious, I did as Penny directed and gently urged the wires back together. As I made them connect, Penny summoned two of her blades and positioned them over the break in the wire. I could hear the current the two blades began to pull, the low hum passing between them. A dull green glow emanated between them. As it appeared, she angled the blades, drew the tips closer together. It made the glow brighter, the hum grew louder. The points of the swords hovered over the broken wire for a moment. Half a second later, there was a small crackle of electricity, and she withdrew the blades. As she did, I found the two wires had been spot welded together at the break.
"Impressive," I said.
"Not really," Penny denied. "The weld won't hold for long, I don't know how much it'll accomplish."
"It's more than I'd have done on my own, thank you," I said, reaching for the breaker. "Here's hoping it works. I don't like the alternative."
I flipped the breaker and the projector began to hum, electronics slowly spooling to life. A display came up in front of me, sparking and blinking, barely stable. It flashed quickly through a start-up sequence, before landing on a boot menu. Even as it hovered there, I could tell the system was straining to remain active.
>Please input identification information.
"Pay dirt," I said, nodding. "We need to get through before it craps out on us. I should be able to access the command prom-"
Penny ran her hand over the display, a motion that lasted maybe three seconds. The entire time a series of screens flashed through the display. Bits of code flew past like a gecko tearing through a fresh kill. Even if it was brief, when she drew her hand away, the screen had changed.
Clearance Granted: Contacting Garrison Unit…
My head bobbed in a quick nod. Perhaps kidnapping Penny had been worth it after all.
The projector shuddered and the display flashed as it tried to process the request. A few moments later, the display changed once more. A face appeared on the stuttering holographic display, huddled in some stone walled room with next to no lighting. It was that of a faunus woman, dog ears on her head and golden haired. She snarled down at the screen.
"For the last time, give up!" the woman barked "You're not…"
Whatever she was going to say died away as she looked back at us through the image.
"Gonna assume this thing's two-way," I said. "Hi, Crazy Steve. Me and the Wild Bunch would like you to not blow us up."