Out of the Dark, Chapter 2: Fucking Hunters.
Herun was not in a good mood. First, the Grimm alarm goes off right in the middle of his quality time with his girlfriend, then his Paladin got the Inquisitor upgrades taken off due to expense, then he had to deal with a drop without a puke bag, and then he had to go into a tunnel that a bunch of stupid first-years from Beacon were freaking out about with half the amount of Knights that his mech could handle backing him up. Fucking Hunters, couldn't they do this themselves? Sure, there were a lot of tunnels, but Beacon had loads of people in it, why couldn't they have them go in? Everyone knew that Hunters were rare, sure, but if they were taking those annoying first-years and that nutter with the coffee seriously, surely they could spare 10 or so to go deal with their damn jobs?
The bear Faunus sighed as he looked through the eyes of the fifty Knights that were patrolling down here. Of course, it was probably that these used to be sewers, and the stuck-up pricks didn't want their fancy clothes ruined. Assholes, strutting around like they owned the place just because they had a shitload of Aura, unlike the poor bloody grunts that had to actually go in and deal with the shit the assholes left behind. Mech pilots held the line across the 4 Kingdoms, and the Hunters just strutted around like each and every one was personally responsible for saving the world despite pilots dying by the dozens every day to hold the line, while Hunters got "Held in reserve to deal with extreme dangers" so they could laze around. Sure, when they got off their lazy asses, they were useful, but you never saw them actually helping, just stories and rumors that were impossible. Like the ones about the 4 first years taking out a prototype Paladin by themselves. Of course, it was a prototype and therefore nowhere near as good as the finished product, but still, it was a ridiculous pile of shit that nobody with a brain actually believed. Then Knight 14 popped up a warning on sensors, and he brought it up.
"Ok, the fuck?"
There was no way this was right. If the Knight wasn't malfunctioning, there was a guy that was a good 5 feet taller then his Paladin walking around with a pack of the Fang, while wearing armor to scale. There was no way humans or Faunus got that big, and nobody would be stupid enough to try and deal with Grimm, especially giving them armor and a fucking enormous sword. It would be like trying to lure Grimm, nobody was that fucking nuts without enough drugs to kill a Goliath being pumped into them. So what the hell was this big guy?
"Deep scan, move up 18, 22, 43, and 9 to observe. Stay in cover."
The 5 Knight mechs obeyed with mechanical precision, their sensors focusing on this impossible giant being. Herun's brow furrowed further as the results came in. No Aura? The bone structure was humanoid, as far as he could tell, but the metals in it's gear were fucking over his sensors something fierce. There was no way for something to fluctuate its mass that fast, or that much. And that wasn't even getting into the hardness! Even after he ran a diagnostic to confirm that something wasn't broken or jammed, the results still were just as physics-breaking. He hit the comms key on his control board and linked up the sensor feed to command.
"General Ironwood, I've got something. But it's impossible."
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Ironwood was not having a good day either. He hadn't had lunch outside of a MRE eaten while moving on-site to the reported Grimm assault, and now he had to deal with running a pack of Paladins through the old sewers while trying to keep track of what troops should go where to deal with problems. This was not a easy task, even with the command console built into his arm. Then a call pinged off from Paladin 14, and he hit the glowing icon representing it on the holographic overlay.
"What do you have, Paladin 14? I'm a bit busy here."
"Sir, look at the data feed coming in. Something weird is going on, and that doesn't say good things to me at all."
He pulled up the data stream, and his eyes narrowed as he saw the massive humanoid with a pack of the White Fang around it's feet. What were the White Fang doing here? The Huntresses that had rang the alarm said that they had been blowing holes in the tunnel to let in Grimm, but the tunnel was empty, although there were holes. He would normally have given them a blistering lecture about not panicking in a fight, and sent them to Ozpin for discipline, but their escort, Oobleck, had agreed with them, and that was alarming, because either a veteran Huntsman had panicked badly enough to ring the alarm, or something was keeping the Grimm out. Neither of those spoke of good things for Vale or his men, and he didn't like that all. The data kept streaming in, and then the density measures finished loading.
"I see what you mean by weird, Paladin 14. Human or Faunus, nothing is that dense except Grimm, and that's no Grimm that I've ever heard of. Group up your Knights and yourself near it. I'd send in the others, but that would take at least a hour, and at the current rate that group of the Fang are moving at, they'll hit the unmapped regions in 40 minutes. You're the only one close enough to grab them. Aim for nonlethal areas, but don't hesitate to kill if you're in danger. You matter a lot more then a hostage. And watch out for that big one, I'm uploading it's weak points from my Semblance right now."
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Herun nodded as his orders came in.
"Yessir, General Ironwood. I'll try for a capture. Weak points loaded into my Knights, and have been set up on my overlay."
"Good man. Keep the data-links running. I want to see what this new being is, and how it fights. If the White Fang made whatever that being is, they just jumped to my number one priority. And don't forget to record."
"Yessir. Moving out."
His fingers expertly maneuvered the keys and buttons running the machine he was piloting, and it turned on the new path as the rest of his 50 Knights converged on a intercept course with the White Fang group and the giant. He had a job, and he knew exactly what to do.
30 minutes later...
Artorias was getting tired. Normally, half a hour of walking with 10 minutes rest beforehand would be easy, but he hadn't slept for however long the Abyss had taken him, and that was taking its toll. The group of allies he had defended from the beasts had volunteered to take him somewhere safe where he could rest and eat. That would be nice. Especially if he could get a shield. He was good with a blade, but 2-handing wasn't his specialty. He was good at it, though, but not as good as he was with sword and shield. It was annoying to have to compensate for how rusty he was, literally and metaphorically. His voice croaked out a few syllables of amusement at the thought, the effort resulting in blood running down his throat from sheer lack of use. His allies heads snapped towards him like they were on one of Sen's gears, as he hadn't spoke since they met. One of them, with a ring of fur around her neck, spoke up.
"You can talk?"
This earned another bloody chuckle of amusement from the ancient knight.
"Y...e..s. N..o...t......W..e...l...l.....T....h..i...r...s..t..y."
The fur-necked woman grabbed a flask from her belt, and offered it to him.
"It's not much water, but it might help. Should I remove the cap? Your hands are a bit big for it."
The Abysswalker smiled, and his lips cracked and bled with the unfamiliar movement.
"N...o.....C...a...p....P...l...e...a....s...e."
The woman dutifully unscrewed the cap, and he delicately took it with two of his fingers, and lifted his helm up to drink from the comparatively tiny flask.
The lion Faunus stared at the giant knights face as it drank from her flask. It looked like it only had a few scars, all in the oddest places, until you looked closer and saw what looked like scars were the only places without any scar tissue at all. It wasn't a particularly ugly or handsome face, the green eyes weren't anything special, and the white hair was a mop, but the beings face had some odd feeling around it, like it was some sort of legendary orator. You wanted to look more, to examine it, to follow them and obey his orders like it was a general. It was strange, and it didn't make any sense, like its soul was somehow bigger then his body despite their lack of Aura, and it was pushing at her. She shook herself, and accepted the now-empty flask back from the being.
"T..h.a..n.k...Y.o..u."
"You're welcome, sir?"
The last word in a questioning tone, querying if sir was indeed it's gender, or if her mind was using the wrong pronoun. The massive knights mouth curled into a smile, and it's, no, his, head nodded. She kept walking towards the base, where hopefully they could rest for a bit. Walking this far after being thoroughly thumped by some Huntresses was tiring indeed.
The Wolf Knight felt much better after the drink. It wasn't much, true, but the gesture was nice, and it helped a bit. Still, he had to get to somewhere to rest soon, or he was going to collapse. Still, he could manage a few mo-What was that clanking noise?
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Herun grinned as he saw clear shock run through the huge frame of the unknown being. His tactic of going ahead of them had not been expected, as the Fang were in the front and between their guard and him. It had taken some careful maneuvering and a collapsed wall or two to get here, but the results were well worth it. A surprised enemy was halfway defeated already, and he turned on the external speakers on his Knights and Paladin, before pulling down the microphone that connected to them.
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Artorias stared at the golem. It clearly wasn't Sen's work, he would have had anyone who had made anything with joints that exposed and with no weaponry aside from a pair of long tubes thrown into a pit of Titanite Demons. Its lesser companions looked like a dregling could tear them in half, for Gwyn's sake! Still, his allies were between it and him, but it wasn't attacking yet, so-
"Everyone, on the ground! Now! This is the Vale Military! You are to be taken into custody and interrogated on suspicion of terrorist acts! Drop your weapons, or I will be forced to use force!"
Artorias shook himself. He didn't know what the golem was talking about, but he knew what interrogation was. Not something someone let happen to their allies. He knew, in the scraps and remnants of his mind, that people with masks were his allies. Therefore, he would not let the people with masks be interrogated. It was simple, and so he hefted his blade, gauged the distance, and leaped over his allies at the golem, intending to carve through it's escorts before cutting it in half.
"By the unholy 9-balled nutsack of Armok, how does anything that big MOVE THAT FAST?"
Herun was not pleased with the situation. The Fang were damn close to surrendering, then the giant lunatic actually JUMPED over them like they were some kind of speedbump! You didn't do that without a Aura, but he quite clearly had none, as his Knights bullets sinking into the giants flesh without a single spark proved. He targeted the hand holding the massive blade with his plasma cannons even as his brain tried to think of a explanation for how something that big moved like that. The flashes of star-heart slammed into the monster's hand, and he saw the titanic blade fall out of its hands. But all the reaction that it got was a short shake, like it had just put its hand on a hot stove. The limb wasn't even visibly burned! Whatever this was, it needed to die, because the Fang were dangerous enough without something like this on their side. Half his Knights were gone already from their work, 3 from the lion Faunus with the hammer-crossbow. He triggered the missiles mounted on his Paladin's back, aiming them at the giants head, before stepping off the ground and launching his mech forward with as much force as it could muster, as it wasn't STOPPING despite the bullets sinking into it. He had to hit it with something big, and a Paladin had some very big fists.
Artorias's head shook as the anti-tank charges detonated on his skull, his vision rattling like he had just gotten clubbed on the back of the neck by Bishop Havel. And before his vision cleared, a fist slammed into his gut, driving his breath out even while the lesser golems around him pricked his skin like a swarm of mosquitoes. His instincts took over, and he dropped to the ground, letting the massive lump of metal fall on top of him while his hands groped for something to hit it with. Even as the machine fell, his hand found one of the lesser golems, and he slammed it into the machines back, denting the hunk of metal even as it tried to slam it's fists into his skull.
That wasn't good enough.
He needed to hit it harder. His sword was out of his reach, but the joints on the golem weren't too strong looking, and so he jammed his hand in and pulled, the whole limb coming off with the deific strength of the Wolf Knight.
Not good enough.
His other hand gripped the other limb even as the severed one was thrown into the crowd of lesser golems surrounding him, smashing them to bits with its force. And he threw, the massive machine flying through the air as he slammed it with the strength that had shattered the Everlasting Dragons. As it struck the ground, it came apart, some strange Sorcery protecting the inhabitant from harm as the golem he had apparently been controlling fell to pieces around him. He turned around, and felt his body finally give up the ghost, hundreds of years of exhaustion finally catching up to him as his body slammed into the ground, crushing a unfortunate Knight underneath his bulk.
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Ironwood stared at the data-feed from Paladin 14. The monster of a fighter, despite a lack of Aura, had just ignored 50 Knights and a Paladin hitting it with full force, taken a plasma cannon to the hand and acting only mildly perturbed in response, then somehow ripping off one of the Paladin's limbs and throwing it over 200 feet. What sort of creature did that? It was clearly clever, given that it hadn't just started whacking the Paladin with the torn-off limb after seeing the result of hitting it with a Knight. And judging by the state of its equipment, the creature wasn't even in top condition. No healthy fighter would ever let their gear degrade to the point where it was a few scraps of chain and cloth like that. He'd seen more cloth on strippers, for Dust's sake! Whatever it was, he needed his men out of there, now. That thing clearly needed a lot more firepower to take down, and he couldn't get anything near it in time that wouldn't just be ripped apart like Paladin 14.
"All units, exit the tunnels! Unknown adversary has just destroyed Paladin 14 and its escorting Knights! If the unknown being is encountered, do NOT ENGAGE. Knights didn't do more then scratch it, and a plasma cannon just annoyed it. Pictures and data on it are transmitting now. I repeat, all units, exit the tunnels!"
Next time it showed up, he would be ready. If it could ignore Knights, and Paladins only annoyed it, then he would hit it with enough artillery to make a Goliath into paste. That should work, and if not, he would have Hunters standing by to finish it off. If it could survive that, then all he could do is hope it didn't attack anywhere populated, because that would mean it's not stoppable without strategic weaponry. He didn't want to use strategic weaponry. The side effects were unpleasant, and he never wanted to see them again. Never again.
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Ash shook off her hammer and mane, coated in oil from the Knights she had crushed. The remaining Fang members hadn't taken any losses, though that was only because the Knights had been single-mindedly focused on her new ally. Even as he had somehow managed to throw a Paladin well over her head, she had been putting bolts through the CPU of the Knights around him, hoping that reducing the sheer volume of rounds would help him not die instantly. It hadn't been necessary, as he had charged right through with nothing more then minor scrapes, like those a child would have from falling off a bike.
Then she saw him fall, the titan that had just chucked a state-of-the-art piece of military machinery hundreds of feet collapsing like a ragdoll. Orders started snapping out of her mouth, "Get the sword! Pick him up! Get moving!" but she couldn't get her men to do the impossible.
Carrying the blade alone took 6 of them, and the rest could barely even drag him along, yet alone lift him. She would have to leave him behind, unless a miracle happened.
And so one did, as a familiar mask pattern started glowing in the dark ahead.
Adam nodded towards her. "Good job getting your subordinates out of that mess, miss. Your name?" She jumped in shock, Adam was here! He was practically the reason the Fang still existed after that bitch had betrayed them.
"Uh, Ash Williams, sir!" Adam nodded.
"Right. Now, who's this new fellow? An ally?" He gestured to the collapsed titan recumbent on the floor.
"Uh, yessir! He took out the Grimm that were being lured by the train, and this Paladin right here! We even managed to grab the pilot, a bear Faunus."
"Good job, Williams. This job is FUBAR already, and I'm quite glad that you've managed to salvage something from this trainwreck. Now, I've brought some Paladins in case of heavy gear showing up, so let them pick this new guy up, and while we walk, you can tell me all about exactly what happened. In detail."
