Fragnostic
Cheshire
- Location
- Neko City
Winning with Science and Firepower (RWBY SI)
- Thread starter Pastah_Farian
- Start date
- Location
- Barquisimeto
I never saw a movie's scene so perfect on my life, what is the name of this gem that is so beautiful?
Fragnostic
Cheshire
- Location
- Neko City
It's Spaceballs by Mel Brooks.
Beware Pizza the Hutt!
Last edited:
Chapter 32
- Location
- Cebu City, Philippines
+++
With a flick of my finger, the Mr. Gutsys opened fire.
Bullets arced forward and landed but the Red Fang leader had gotten to his feet and had ran out the room, the Deus Ex Machina dagger in his hands. The hovering robots did not need any more orders from me to pursue them and had followed suit, firing into the hallways and eliciting screams. Said hallway must have been full of Red Fang, caught unawares as they rallied back from whatever defensive positions they tacked together.
I dearly wanted to make him bleed right now, but at the end of things getting his head was just a secondary objective.
I turned my attention towards Weiss, her face was still turning away from me. Did she think that just because she got scarred, my opinion of her would change?
"Weiss?" I called out to her.
"Don't look at me." she mumbled. I rolled my eyes as I moved to cut her binds.
"As much as I would like to chat about how terrible life is, I need to get you out of here." With a quick slash from Joyeuse, she was free. "Now let's get yo-"
"No." she interrupted. I blinked at her.
"What?"
She turned to face me, her eyes burning with fury. "I want his name and I want his head." she growled.
I frowned at that.
"You do realize that there are hundreds of terrorists standing outside this room, armed to the teeth and highly motivated to kill people. You don't have a weapon right now, you are sporting an injury and your mother is worried sick about you. I am not about to let you have a go at someone after you were just abducted." I pointed out. Her eyes glanced down at Joyeuse then back to me.
"Then give me a weapon. I'm willing to fight and I'll even pay you back, I need it now and there's nobody better for it. Isn't that your whole raison d'etre?" she said coldly.
As I moved to argue, I paused to think.
Between the two of us, Weiss was really the superior combatant. While I can say that I could hold my own in a fight, I can't really dominate one. I still had yet to discover my semblance and to cover my shortcomings, supplemented myself with extra armaments like my dust gloves and grenade-pens.
Weiss was fully capable of bringing that Red Fang bastard down and I knew it. Still, I could not accept that she go out and get payback. Not after what had happened hours ago.
"Sorry Weiss but I can't let you go out there. I-We nearly lost you to those bastards. We don't want to lose you again." Weiss paused as she scanned me up and down with those ice-blue eyes of hers. She sighed in exhaustion.
"I cannot just stand by in the side-lines while everyone else is doing their part. That is not me, Alex. I can never accept that." she whispered, her eyes looking at me. I winced as I saw the scar on her left eye.
"Give me a weapon, please." she pleaded, her eyes shining in the light.
Honor and pride demanded Weiss to take action and to my horror, my gut was telling me to let her do it. And holy shit, I was really going to let her do it.
"Weiss Schnee. You are extremely lucky that I hold you in high regard." I grumbled as I held out Joyeuse towards her. She blinked then smirked as she took my weapon from my hands.
"Hmph. It would seem that my devious plan to separate you from your weapon seems to have worked after all. I expected more resistance from you, Alex." I smiled cheekily.
"Oh Weiss. I could never resist you."
She turned red as a tomato, muttering dork or some such nonsense under her breath.
As we moved to leave, I realized something.
Did she just use puppy-eyes on me?
+++
"Shoot! Don't give up now! For the Revo-urk!"
The Red Fang terrorist crumpled down towards the ground before he could finish his sentence. Winter turned to stare at his men and saw the fear in their eyes. A sneer came upon her face as she lifted her saber and moved to attack.
The warehouse was her stage and she was its dancer. The Red Fang fools that stood before her with their weapons were going to be her unfortunate targets. She moved fast before they could react, quickly dispatching the nearby terrorists with her saber. Her senses alerted her to a terrorist charging at her from behind with a hammer and she turned to deflect his attack. Summoning a black glyph, she halted his attack before it even touched her. As she moved to end his life, he was pulled back by a silver-steel whip that had coiled around his legs. He screamed in terror as he was pulled back by a Artemesia unit who then dispatched him with a blade that was built-into its arms.
Wordlessly, the Artemesia unit turned to another target just as she was about to compliment it for a job well done.
Winter couldn't help but smile at the thought that she was just about to compliment a robot of all things. Putting her thoughts aside, she once more charged into the fray.
There was a reason why she had been given the unofficial title of Ice Queen, her appearance and demeanor aside. When she planned her operations, they were fast, efficient, methodical, and brutal. She crafted them to be as shock inducing as possible and to give the operators the aura of coldness and indifference. That meant no frills, no spontaneous actions and no lolly-gagging. The time wasted on pointless conversation could be better used on dispatching the enemy.
The Artemesia units that the company was producing were the perfect units for her line of work. Their appearance was human enough as to not scare people off yet it was also menacing enough to strike fear into the hearts of the enemy. Their white masques certainly added to their look.
"It's the Ice Queen! Shoot her!" shrieked a voice.
"What about the robots?" asked another, fearfully.
"Just fucking shoot!" the voice once again yelled. Winter rolled her eyes. There was a reason why she wanted her team to know plans beforehand as to not alert their enemies on what they were going to do. If they were just going to announce their plans like that then there was no point in secrecy.
She summoned a glyph that propelled her forward and in one clean slice, cut off the man's head. Disgust filled her as the metallic smell of blood filled her nostrils. Even she was exposed to it more than once during her operations, she could never get used to the smell of blood.
As she turned to finish off the remaining terrorists in the nearby, her instincts screamed at her to...
She turned and cast a black glyph and nearly buckled at the force sent her way.
She glanced down to see a white and black dagger being held back by her glyph. She looked up and saw the man that held it. From behind, she could see the Mr.Gutsy machines Alex had brought following after him, their weapons at the ready. She momentarily considered in pulling back as the hovering robots looked ready to fire their weapons but the machines held back and instead hovered to better positions.
Winter then pushed the Red Fang cell leader away from her and readied herself for an attack.
"Damn you all!" he growled as he tightened his grip on his dagger, his face red with rage. Winter said nothing, her face a cool mask. She took a quick glance around to see the Artemesias tidying up whatever remained of the cell. In the distance, she could hear the screams of police sirens heading their way. With the amount of noise they were making, it was only natural that someone would have dialed the police department.
She tightened her grip on her weapon and glared at the man. "You are under arrest, filth. Surrender now."
"I'll die before I'll give up to you, Schnee!" he roared.
"That can be arranged." a familiar and feminine voice declared. The two paused to stare at the source of the voice.
On the catwalks stood her sister, Weiss Schnee, Joyeuse in her hands and a sneer present on her scarred face. Weiss turned to look at her and smiled.
"Dear sister. Would you perhaps join me in apprehending this worm? He has laid his hands on me and insulted our family."
Winter smirked.
"Of course sister. I'll even let you have the first honors."
At that, the two Schnee siblings lunged at him.
+++
A/N: Looks like Alex won't be the one to someone's legs though. Oh well, at least Weiss gets some payback.
Edited once more with Krasnogvardiech. He's a good lad.
With a flick of my finger, the Mr. Gutsys opened fire.
Bullets arced forward and landed but the Red Fang leader had gotten to his feet and had ran out the room, the Deus Ex Machina dagger in his hands. The hovering robots did not need any more orders from me to pursue them and had followed suit, firing into the hallways and eliciting screams. Said hallway must have been full of Red Fang, caught unawares as they rallied back from whatever defensive positions they tacked together.
I dearly wanted to make him bleed right now, but at the end of things getting his head was just a secondary objective.
I turned my attention towards Weiss, her face was still turning away from me. Did she think that just because she got scarred, my opinion of her would change?
"Weiss?" I called out to her.
"Don't look at me." she mumbled. I rolled my eyes as I moved to cut her binds.
"As much as I would like to chat about how terrible life is, I need to get you out of here." With a quick slash from Joyeuse, she was free. "Now let's get yo-"
"No." she interrupted. I blinked at her.
"What?"
She turned to face me, her eyes burning with fury. "I want his name and I want his head." she growled.
I frowned at that.
"You do realize that there are hundreds of terrorists standing outside this room, armed to the teeth and highly motivated to kill people. You don't have a weapon right now, you are sporting an injury and your mother is worried sick about you. I am not about to let you have a go at someone after you were just abducted." I pointed out. Her eyes glanced down at Joyeuse then back to me.
"Then give me a weapon. I'm willing to fight and I'll even pay you back, I need it now and there's nobody better for it. Isn't that your whole raison d'etre?" she said coldly.
As I moved to argue, I paused to think.
Between the two of us, Weiss was really the superior combatant. While I can say that I could hold my own in a fight, I can't really dominate one. I still had yet to discover my semblance and to cover my shortcomings, supplemented myself with extra armaments like my dust gloves and grenade-pens.
Weiss was fully capable of bringing that Red Fang bastard down and I knew it. Still, I could not accept that she go out and get payback. Not after what had happened hours ago.
"Sorry Weiss but I can't let you go out there. I-We nearly lost you to those bastards. We don't want to lose you again." Weiss paused as she scanned me up and down with those ice-blue eyes of hers. She sighed in exhaustion.
"I cannot just stand by in the side-lines while everyone else is doing their part. That is not me, Alex. I can never accept that." she whispered, her eyes looking at me. I winced as I saw the scar on her left eye.
"Give me a weapon, please." she pleaded, her eyes shining in the light.
Honor and pride demanded Weiss to take action and to my horror, my gut was telling me to let her do it. And holy shit, I was really going to let her do it.
"Weiss Schnee. You are extremely lucky that I hold you in high regard." I grumbled as I held out Joyeuse towards her. She blinked then smirked as she took my weapon from my hands.
"Hmph. It would seem that my devious plan to separate you from your weapon seems to have worked after all. I expected more resistance from you, Alex." I smiled cheekily.
"Oh Weiss. I could never resist you."
She turned red as a tomato, muttering dork or some such nonsense under her breath.
As we moved to leave, I realized something.
Did she just use puppy-eyes on me?
+++
"Shoot! Don't give up now! For the Revo-urk!"
The Red Fang terrorist crumpled down towards the ground before he could finish his sentence. Winter turned to stare at his men and saw the fear in their eyes. A sneer came upon her face as she lifted her saber and moved to attack.
The warehouse was her stage and she was its dancer. The Red Fang fools that stood before her with their weapons were going to be her unfortunate targets. She moved fast before they could react, quickly dispatching the nearby terrorists with her saber. Her senses alerted her to a terrorist charging at her from behind with a hammer and she turned to deflect his attack. Summoning a black glyph, she halted his attack before it even touched her. As she moved to end his life, he was pulled back by a silver-steel whip that had coiled around his legs. He screamed in terror as he was pulled back by a Artemesia unit who then dispatched him with a blade that was built-into its arms.
Wordlessly, the Artemesia unit turned to another target just as she was about to compliment it for a job well done.
Winter couldn't help but smile at the thought that she was just about to compliment a robot of all things. Putting her thoughts aside, she once more charged into the fray.
There was a reason why she had been given the unofficial title of Ice Queen, her appearance and demeanor aside. When she planned her operations, they were fast, efficient, methodical, and brutal. She crafted them to be as shock inducing as possible and to give the operators the aura of coldness and indifference. That meant no frills, no spontaneous actions and no lolly-gagging. The time wasted on pointless conversation could be better used on dispatching the enemy.
The Artemesia units that the company was producing were the perfect units for her line of work. Their appearance was human enough as to not scare people off yet it was also menacing enough to strike fear into the hearts of the enemy. Their white masques certainly added to their look.
"It's the Ice Queen! Shoot her!" shrieked a voice.
"What about the robots?" asked another, fearfully.
"Just fucking shoot!" the voice once again yelled. Winter rolled her eyes. There was a reason why she wanted her team to know plans beforehand as to not alert their enemies on what they were going to do. If they were just going to announce their plans like that then there was no point in secrecy.
She summoned a glyph that propelled her forward and in one clean slice, cut off the man's head. Disgust filled her as the metallic smell of blood filled her nostrils. Even she was exposed to it more than once during her operations, she could never get used to the smell of blood.
As she turned to finish off the remaining terrorists in the nearby, her instincts screamed at her to...
She turned and cast a black glyph and nearly buckled at the force sent her way.
She glanced down to see a white and black dagger being held back by her glyph. She looked up and saw the man that held it. From behind, she could see the Mr.Gutsy machines Alex had brought following after him, their weapons at the ready. She momentarily considered in pulling back as the hovering robots looked ready to fire their weapons but the machines held back and instead hovered to better positions.
Winter then pushed the Red Fang cell leader away from her and readied herself for an attack.
"Damn you all!" he growled as he tightened his grip on his dagger, his face red with rage. Winter said nothing, her face a cool mask. She took a quick glance around to see the Artemesias tidying up whatever remained of the cell. In the distance, she could hear the screams of police sirens heading their way. With the amount of noise they were making, it was only natural that someone would have dialed the police department.
She tightened her grip on her weapon and glared at the man. "You are under arrest, filth. Surrender now."
"I'll die before I'll give up to you, Schnee!" he roared.
"That can be arranged." a familiar and feminine voice declared. The two paused to stare at the source of the voice.
On the catwalks stood her sister, Weiss Schnee, Joyeuse in her hands and a sneer present on her scarred face. Weiss turned to look at her and smiled.
"Dear sister. Would you perhaps join me in apprehending this worm? He has laid his hands on me and insulted our family."
Winter smirked.
"Of course sister. I'll even let you have the first honors."
At that, the two Schnee siblings lunged at him.
+++
A/N: Looks like Alex won't be the one to someone's legs though. Oh well, at least Weiss gets some payback.
Edited once more with Krasnogvardiech. He's a good lad.
- Location
- East of Sun, West of Moon
Leg, face, either way he dared touch our Edelweiss and for that, the punishment is death.
Fragnostic
Cheshire
- Location
- Neko City
Weiss is secretly a dog Faunus. A husky.
And Blake probably uses kitten-eyes on you.
Last edited:
- Location
- Somewhere and Nowhere in a state of super-position
To be fair to Alex, Weiss used it on him in his moment of weakness.
SUCH A LUST FOR REVENGE!!
WHHOOOOOOOOO!?
Chapter 33
- Location
- Cebu City, Philippines
+++
The fight was finished as fast at it happened.
Weiss summoned a glyph that propelled her forward and delivered a kick to the man's back that sent him flying towards Winter who caught him with a Black Glyph. Once caught, she pointed him towards the sky and sent him flying. Afterwards, the two went on their merry way of thrashing him about as much as they pleased. As much as I wanted to join in the fun, I had other things to worry about. Namely, the remaining terrorists that were about to outflank the Gutsies. And of course, the McGuffin dagger that was the bastard gods' oh-so-kind gift.
The sisters made a joke out of the unfortunate son of a bitch who comprised what the Red Fang managed to muster in place of leadership, and I strolled over to retrieve the dagger that fell out of his hands after Weiss dropkicked him.
I had nearly forgotten about that bit and of me being the 'champion' of the gods and all. The reemergence of that dagger reminded me that I had a duty to do.
While I agree wholeheartedly that the messy divorce of Ozma and Salem needed to be dealt with permanently, I was going to do it my way and not in the way the bastard gods of Remnant intended for me.
I'm sure as hell not a main character, here. I know it to my bones; I can't be the one to do it. The name of the show was RWBY for goodness sakes and not Alex or some other nonsense. That meant the main character was going to be the one to deliver the final blow against the main antagonist which was Salem. I mean, Ruby has her silver-eyes and crap so it would also be reasonable that she would be the one to wield the McGuffin dagger for maximum main character abuse.
I was not going to risk life and limb to try and give Sallie and Ozzie the Julius Caesar treatment.
The question now was how to give her the dagger. Ruby's too smart, as far as I know, to take and trust a magical dagger out of nowhere. Despite my profession, I am not the Santa Claus of weapons.
Perhaps I could melt the damn thing and coat Crescent Rose's blade with it, angle it as an upgrade to make her abomination of a weapon extra powerful or something. The God of Light did say that the metal was specifically made by them to get past Ozma and Salem's whole immortality shtick like a cheap Deus Ex Machina.
Well, that settles it. Next time I see Rubes, I'm offering her an upgrade. I'll say I'm aiming to push the bounds of what weapons can do by making them as killy as possible.
That route meant that I was mostly likely going to Beacon or staying around Beacon which also meant being in close proximity around Ozzie himself.
To hell with it, If I could deal with the God of Light, I sure as hell could deal with a coffee addicted headmaster.
I suppose there could be plenty of logical reasons for me to be there. First off, ensuring Ruby gets her premium metal upgrade. Secondly, being on the front lines greatly helps in staving off Cinder's Kinder egg surprise during the Vytal Festival, and Thirdly, I could angle it as a public relations campaign. Atlas wanted to deepen its ties with Vale (mostly for their food) and Vale wanted to deepen its ties with Atlas (mostly for our army). What better way to deepen ties than letting the heir of a rich Atlesian conglomerate study at a Valean institute for Hunters?
A loud crash brought me out of thoughts. I glanced at its source and found a Red Fang terrorist being thrown against a wall by an Artemesia. As the man tried to scramble to his feet, the android took out its wrist-mounted blade and unceremoniously shoved through the man's throat. He threw himself aside at the last second and the blade just nicked his coronary artery as opposed to going through his spinal chord.
Seeing this, the Artemesia adjusted its grip and raised, eliciting pained and choked screams. He tried to free himself, his hands desperately clawing at the Artemesia but the android did not budge. There was a good two minutes until the man finally expired, gurgling on his blood.
With him dead, the android walked off to hunt for more Red Fang.
I blinked at the needlessly cruel display and at the broken corpse of what was once a living human being, his eyes forever locked in terror.
That was rather unnecessary. And worse, it wasted time - anyone coming in with a swipe from its back would have been able to floor the thing. I knew that Winter wanted to be seen as a cold killer by her enemies but surely there were better ways to shock and awe people. I mean, damn!
I shuddered to think on how those androids would be used if someone like Cinder, or worse, got their hands on them.
What did Weiss say about their programming again?
"The androids are programmed with an advanced combat matrix recorded from numerous huntsmen we had hired. While it does make them proficient...killers, they can't be expected to do such things as we have also programmed them with an ethics matrix meaning they cannot retaliate unless they see an illegal act per to the Kingdom's laws." she boasted during a private dinner we shared days ago. She also told me that their Artemesia models were much more advanced androids that the SDC was fielding in their mines. Seeing that the anroids they were using for mining was a excellent model, why not develop one for combat maid duties?
I should also not forget to mention that the dinner was paid for by dear Aunt Willow with an accompanying band paid for by my parents.
While I was not one to assume, I was pretty sure she wanted something to happen out of that. Well, unless my parents tell me about it happening, I was not going to come to wild conclusions.
I wasn't a dense idiot. A union of our families would be supremely beneficial and I was keenly aware that Weiss wasn't giving me the doe eyes for giggles... these days.
Hell, if I asked for it, my parents would allow me to go to Beacon for the sole purpose of being extra close to Weiss and was banking on our new found freedoms to develop something.
Not only that, Winter seemed to be giving me the same set of eyes as well. I caught her looking at me multiple times when she thought I was distracted and her eyes weren't exactly subtle in what they wanted.
If that route happened, I would not only get a link to the Schnee family but also tighten my families links to the Atlesian military. Winter was a damn legend in the military and getting her with me would cement me as One Of Us in the eyes of the guys that use my product.
Thinking about it, no matter who I chose, someone in the end was going to get disappointed. I better check Remnant's marriage laws and see if polygamy was a thing. But if I'm setting a limit, it would be at two and I would ensure effective and strict family planning. I was not going to court disaster by doing a harem. History shows that having one is a terrible, terrible idea. A great example of this would be the Qing who were fucked over because of the Dowager Empress Ci Xi, a concubine who rose to prominence.
My thoughts were put aside as I was once again interrupted by a loud crash that kicked up a fog of dust. Once the fog had settled, I could see the two sisters huffing and puffing over the heavily battered and bruised body of the Red Fang leader. Upon closer scrutiny, the man was still breathing though most likely knocked out cold.
Tsk. Aura was bloody magic and a cheat code. Why can't people just be squishy again and make this fighting business easier?
Leaving my post, I strode towards the breathless women.
+++
"Exce...Excellent work sister. I see you have improved massively." heaved Winter as she cast a glance at Weiss who smiled at her compliment.
"Th...Thank you, sister. I shall...strive to better myself more." puffed Weiss as she strode towards the man and laid her right boot on his chest.
Winter and Weiss were deathly tired. They had poured their rage, frustrations and anger at the man. While it had done wonders for their stress, it left them rather exhausted. Not mentioning that the moon was at its highest and the call to sleep was at its loudest.
"Excellent work you two." said aloud a male voice. Paired eyes of powdered snow turned and caught a rising star of arms heading towards them pleased and proud.
"What a gentleman. Letting the women do the work while he sits in the corner and watches." sniped Winter. Weiss nodded.
"A true gentleman indeed." Alexander had a cross look about him.
"In my defense, Weiss took my only weapon. What was I supposed to do? Throw my boots at him?" The women snorted as they turned to regard the now unconscious form that lay battered on the ground.
"What should we with him, sister?" Weiss asked. Winter returned her saber to its sheath, her eyes scanning the Red Fang leader.
"He'll... he will face a trial, in a court of law, in adherence to due process. If he cannot afford legal representation, it will be provided to him." Winter said, voice clearing and regaining strength as she strode towards Weiss, a smile slowly dotting her face.
"I am glad that you are safe, Weiss." The girl glanced down at the ground.
"I am sorry, Winter." the girl mumbled under her breath. Winter blinked then stared at her in amusement. "What is this about?"
Weiss sighed as she met her sisters gaze. "I am sorry for calling you that...word many years ago. I was...angry and...confused. I didn't know what I was thinking and in that state, I called you something you weren't. Please, forgive me."
Winter's expression softened and the smile on her face faltered for a brief moment. "If anyone should apologize Weiss, it should be me. I shouldn't have belittled your feelings like that. It was immature of me as your eldest sister. I would beg for your forgiveness as well, if you would permit me."
Weiss smiled. "I forgive you, sister." Winter smiled once more.
"And I forgive you, Weiss."
At that, the two siblings laid down their grudge and gave each other a fierce, sisterly hug. Alexander watched at the sidelines and smiled at the spectacle. He was later joined by Blake who eyed the two siblings curiously.
"What is going on, Alex?" asked the catgirl. Alexander smiled.
"Something magical." replied Alexander, his eyes darting to her. "And how are things on your end?"
"All necessary information has been accounted for. They weren't exactly subtle in hiding their information. I've already cataloged the necessary intel and have sent it to your computer." Alex nodded as he glanced at a nearby Red Fang flag that stood on a pole.
"And the stragglers?" Blake blinked.
"Bound and awaiting arrest. Vale's Police Department have the facilities to handle them."
She blushed as Alex gave the girl a headpat.
"Good job Blake. I don't know what I'd do without you." complimented Alexander with a smile. Blake did her best not to beam at his praise and headpat. She was a proud ninja damn it! But the warmth of his touch and the smooth leather gloves he wore was too much for her and thus, she melted into his headpat.
To her disappointment, Alexander pulled back from his patting and had walked over towards the Schnee siblings, his hands folded behind his back.
"Now that this sad event is over, could we perhaps go home now and sleep? I'm deathly tired from all this cloak-and-dagger fiasco." he loudly complained.
At the mention of sleep, it fully dawned onto Weiss on how tired she was. Perhaps sleep was a good idea...
Weiss fainted on the spot but Alexander had wrapped his arm around the girl before she could fall. He turned towards Winter, a pleading look on his face.
"Winter? A little help?" he begged.
Winter took a few steps towards him, smiled at him, and promptly fainted as well. Alexander yelped as he used his other free hand to catch Winter before she could fall. With the two fast asleep in his arms, one slightly heavier than the other, Alexander glanced at the moon and sighed.
"Blake. Please call a transport. We need a a ride. A big one for these luggerheads."
"Yes, Alex-dono. Your will be done."
Alexander shook his head.
"Jesus, Lord in Heaven, give me strength." he muttered.
+++
A/N: Edited again with Krasnogvardiech. He is doing this fic a service.
Anyway, there ends the Vytal Business summit. After this one, some cute, gay, and heartwarming fluffy shit will happen, possibly an introduction of new weapons or two then finally, the main event.
Fasten yer seatbelts boys and girls. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
The fight was finished as fast at it happened.
Weiss summoned a glyph that propelled her forward and delivered a kick to the man's back that sent him flying towards Winter who caught him with a Black Glyph. Once caught, she pointed him towards the sky and sent him flying. Afterwards, the two went on their merry way of thrashing him about as much as they pleased. As much as I wanted to join in the fun, I had other things to worry about. Namely, the remaining terrorists that were about to outflank the Gutsies. And of course, the McGuffin dagger that was the bastard gods' oh-so-kind gift.
The sisters made a joke out of the unfortunate son of a bitch who comprised what the Red Fang managed to muster in place of leadership, and I strolled over to retrieve the dagger that fell out of his hands after Weiss dropkicked him.
I had nearly forgotten about that bit and of me being the 'champion' of the gods and all. The reemergence of that dagger reminded me that I had a duty to do.
While I agree wholeheartedly that the messy divorce of Ozma and Salem needed to be dealt with permanently, I was going to do it my way and not in the way the bastard gods of Remnant intended for me.
I'm sure as hell not a main character, here. I know it to my bones; I can't be the one to do it. The name of the show was RWBY for goodness sakes and not Alex or some other nonsense. That meant the main character was going to be the one to deliver the final blow against the main antagonist which was Salem. I mean, Ruby has her silver-eyes and crap so it would also be reasonable that she would be the one to wield the McGuffin dagger for maximum main character abuse.
I was not going to risk life and limb to try and give Sallie and Ozzie the Julius Caesar treatment.
The question now was how to give her the dagger. Ruby's too smart, as far as I know, to take and trust a magical dagger out of nowhere. Despite my profession, I am not the Santa Claus of weapons.
Perhaps I could melt the damn thing and coat Crescent Rose's blade with it, angle it as an upgrade to make her abomination of a weapon extra powerful or something. The God of Light did say that the metal was specifically made by them to get past Ozma and Salem's whole immortality shtick like a cheap Deus Ex Machina.
Well, that settles it. Next time I see Rubes, I'm offering her an upgrade. I'll say I'm aiming to push the bounds of what weapons can do by making them as killy as possible.
That route meant that I was mostly likely going to Beacon or staying around Beacon which also meant being in close proximity around Ozzie himself.
To hell with it, If I could deal with the God of Light, I sure as hell could deal with a coffee addicted headmaster.
I suppose there could be plenty of logical reasons for me to be there. First off, ensuring Ruby gets her premium metal upgrade. Secondly, being on the front lines greatly helps in staving off Cinder's Kinder egg surprise during the Vytal Festival, and Thirdly, I could angle it as a public relations campaign. Atlas wanted to deepen its ties with Vale (mostly for their food) and Vale wanted to deepen its ties with Atlas (mostly for our army). What better way to deepen ties than letting the heir of a rich Atlesian conglomerate study at a Valean institute for Hunters?
A loud crash brought me out of thoughts. I glanced at its source and found a Red Fang terrorist being thrown against a wall by an Artemesia. As the man tried to scramble to his feet, the android took out its wrist-mounted blade and unceremoniously shoved through the man's throat. He threw himself aside at the last second and the blade just nicked his coronary artery as opposed to going through his spinal chord.
Seeing this, the Artemesia adjusted its grip and raised, eliciting pained and choked screams. He tried to free himself, his hands desperately clawing at the Artemesia but the android did not budge. There was a good two minutes until the man finally expired, gurgling on his blood.
With him dead, the android walked off to hunt for more Red Fang.
I blinked at the needlessly cruel display and at the broken corpse of what was once a living human being, his eyes forever locked in terror.
That was rather unnecessary. And worse, it wasted time - anyone coming in with a swipe from its back would have been able to floor the thing. I knew that Winter wanted to be seen as a cold killer by her enemies but surely there were better ways to shock and awe people. I mean, damn!
I shuddered to think on how those androids would be used if someone like Cinder, or worse, got their hands on them.
What did Weiss say about their programming again?
"The androids are programmed with an advanced combat matrix recorded from numerous huntsmen we had hired. While it does make them proficient...killers, they can't be expected to do such things as we have also programmed them with an ethics matrix meaning they cannot retaliate unless they see an illegal act per to the Kingdom's laws." she boasted during a private dinner we shared days ago. She also told me that their Artemesia models were much more advanced androids that the SDC was fielding in their mines. Seeing that the anroids they were using for mining was a excellent model, why not develop one for combat maid duties?
I should also not forget to mention that the dinner was paid for by dear Aunt Willow with an accompanying band paid for by my parents.
While I was not one to assume, I was pretty sure she wanted something to happen out of that. Well, unless my parents tell me about it happening, I was not going to come to wild conclusions.
I wasn't a dense idiot. A union of our families would be supremely beneficial and I was keenly aware that Weiss wasn't giving me the doe eyes for giggles... these days.
Hell, if I asked for it, my parents would allow me to go to Beacon for the sole purpose of being extra close to Weiss and was banking on our new found freedoms to develop something.
Not only that, Winter seemed to be giving me the same set of eyes as well. I caught her looking at me multiple times when she thought I was distracted and her eyes weren't exactly subtle in what they wanted.
If that route happened, I would not only get a link to the Schnee family but also tighten my families links to the Atlesian military. Winter was a damn legend in the military and getting her with me would cement me as One Of Us in the eyes of the guys that use my product.
Thinking about it, no matter who I chose, someone in the end was going to get disappointed. I better check Remnant's marriage laws and see if polygamy was a thing. But if I'm setting a limit, it would be at two and I would ensure effective and strict family planning. I was not going to court disaster by doing a harem. History shows that having one is a terrible, terrible idea. A great example of this would be the Qing who were fucked over because of the Dowager Empress Ci Xi, a concubine who rose to prominence.
My thoughts were put aside as I was once again interrupted by a loud crash that kicked up a fog of dust. Once the fog had settled, I could see the two sisters huffing and puffing over the heavily battered and bruised body of the Red Fang leader. Upon closer scrutiny, the man was still breathing though most likely knocked out cold.
Tsk. Aura was bloody magic and a cheat code. Why can't people just be squishy again and make this fighting business easier?
Leaving my post, I strode towards the breathless women.
+++
"Exce...Excellent work sister. I see you have improved massively." heaved Winter as she cast a glance at Weiss who smiled at her compliment.
"Th...Thank you, sister. I shall...strive to better myself more." puffed Weiss as she strode towards the man and laid her right boot on his chest.
Winter and Weiss were deathly tired. They had poured their rage, frustrations and anger at the man. While it had done wonders for their stress, it left them rather exhausted. Not mentioning that the moon was at its highest and the call to sleep was at its loudest.
"Excellent work you two." said aloud a male voice. Paired eyes of powdered snow turned and caught a rising star of arms heading towards them pleased and proud.
"What a gentleman. Letting the women do the work while he sits in the corner and watches." sniped Winter. Weiss nodded.
"A true gentleman indeed." Alexander had a cross look about him.
"In my defense, Weiss took my only weapon. What was I supposed to do? Throw my boots at him?" The women snorted as they turned to regard the now unconscious form that lay battered on the ground.
"What should we with him, sister?" Weiss asked. Winter returned her saber to its sheath, her eyes scanning the Red Fang leader.
"He'll... he will face a trial, in a court of law, in adherence to due process. If he cannot afford legal representation, it will be provided to him." Winter said, voice clearing and regaining strength as she strode towards Weiss, a smile slowly dotting her face.
"I am glad that you are safe, Weiss." The girl glanced down at the ground.
"I am sorry, Winter." the girl mumbled under her breath. Winter blinked then stared at her in amusement. "What is this about?"
Weiss sighed as she met her sisters gaze. "I am sorry for calling you that...word many years ago. I was...angry and...confused. I didn't know what I was thinking and in that state, I called you something you weren't. Please, forgive me."
Winter's expression softened and the smile on her face faltered for a brief moment. "If anyone should apologize Weiss, it should be me. I shouldn't have belittled your feelings like that. It was immature of me as your eldest sister. I would beg for your forgiveness as well, if you would permit me."
Weiss smiled. "I forgive you, sister." Winter smiled once more.
"And I forgive you, Weiss."
At that, the two siblings laid down their grudge and gave each other a fierce, sisterly hug. Alexander watched at the sidelines and smiled at the spectacle. He was later joined by Blake who eyed the two siblings curiously.
"What is going on, Alex?" asked the catgirl. Alexander smiled.
"Something magical." replied Alexander, his eyes darting to her. "And how are things on your end?"
"All necessary information has been accounted for. They weren't exactly subtle in hiding their information. I've already cataloged the necessary intel and have sent it to your computer." Alex nodded as he glanced at a nearby Red Fang flag that stood on a pole.
"And the stragglers?" Blake blinked.
"Bound and awaiting arrest. Vale's Police Department have the facilities to handle them."
She blushed as Alex gave the girl a headpat.
"Good job Blake. I don't know what I'd do without you." complimented Alexander with a smile. Blake did her best not to beam at his praise and headpat. She was a proud ninja damn it! But the warmth of his touch and the smooth leather gloves he wore was too much for her and thus, she melted into his headpat.
To her disappointment, Alexander pulled back from his patting and had walked over towards the Schnee siblings, his hands folded behind his back.
"Now that this sad event is over, could we perhaps go home now and sleep? I'm deathly tired from all this cloak-and-dagger fiasco." he loudly complained.
At the mention of sleep, it fully dawned onto Weiss on how tired she was. Perhaps sleep was a good idea...
Weiss fainted on the spot but Alexander had wrapped his arm around the girl before she could fall. He turned towards Winter, a pleading look on his face.
"Winter? A little help?" he begged.
Winter took a few steps towards him, smiled at him, and promptly fainted as well. Alexander yelped as he used his other free hand to catch Winter before she could fall. With the two fast asleep in his arms, one slightly heavier than the other, Alexander glanced at the moon and sighed.
"Blake. Please call a transport. We need a a ride. A big one for these luggerheads."
"Yes, Alex-dono. Your will be done."
Alexander shook his head.
"Jesus, Lord in Heaven, give me strength." he muttered.
+++
A/N: Edited again with Krasnogvardiech. He is doing this fic a service.
Anyway, there ends the Vytal Business summit. After this one, some cute, gay, and heartwarming fluffy shit will happen, possibly an introduction of new weapons or two then finally, the main event.
Fasten yer seatbelts boys and girls. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
- Location
- Wherever the Beautiful Game takes me
I really want to head this off now @Pasteh_Farian in no way is Ci Xi responsible for the fall of the Qing Empire. She did marvellous work with her fellow Empress in keeping that Empire going on their husbands death and the regency of her son, she helped modernise China immensely. Her getting fucked over was in an impossible situation, belligerent powers on every corner and she navigated it well. She kept the Empire alive and nearly turned its trajectory around far past its use by date.
- Location
- Cebu City, Philippines
We must have different sources then. The books I have read pinned Ci Xi as a ruthless politician rather than an administrator.
- Location
- Wherever the Beautiful Game takes me
Well consider who won after her death and what reason they'd have to paint her in a positive light and then take a look at what she had to govern through, your statement was "A great example of this would be the Qing who were fucked over because of the Dowager Empress Ci Xi, a concubine who rose to prominence." She very much didn't do so.
- Location
- Brazil
Tbh, I didn't expect this sort of bs from Alex.
This line and its accompanying paragraph marr what's otherwise a great chapter.
Fragnostic
Cheshire
- Location
- Neko City
The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.
Gear
Set Moon to Ramming Speed!
Alex "Two. I'm limiting myself to no more than two wives, no way, no how, will I have more. That's just asking for trouble"
Remnant 'Challenge Accepted'
Oh Alex, you better start making cannons, because you're going to need bribes for the army of bitches the world is going to bury you in if you ever want even a moment of breath again.
Remnant 'Challenge Accepted'
Oh Alex, you better start making cannons, because you're going to need bribes for the army of bitches the world is going to bury you in if you ever want even a moment of breath again.
- Location
- Somewhere and Nowhere in a state of super-position
God Of Light: "Is my super-op dagger not enough for you my little mortal?"
Chapter 34
- Location
- Cebu City, Philippines
+++
The following day, rumors and hearsay began to spread despite Vale PD's best efforts to keep things hush-hush.
Between the hotel's plume of smoke turning the clear evening to haze, the fire trucks flanked by police cruisers and ambulances rushing through the streets, and the noise of a pitched engagement at the warehouse, this was just too big to conceal from the public eye. With public interest growing, it was imperative that an official story be drafted and done quickly.
And so, it was decided to reveal that an attempted kidnapping was done on a HVI but the matter was quickly dealt with by the police. While the statement from law enforcement soothed the general populace, probably helped along by the speed and scale of the civilian agencies' response, a few people still dug deeper to try to find out the real details. Mostly journalists and truthseekers.
Mom and Dad were on that problem, though, and not in the kind of way I could do much to help. With how much they brought to bear here I'd just get underfoot.
But returning briefly to last night's fiasco, the Red Fang who surrendered were turned over to Vale PD who arrived at the crime scene. Aunt Willow was beaming with joy and relief when Weiss was returned to her and fawned over her like a mother hen, much to Weiss's embarrassment.
My parents were less than pleased with me though as I had left the apartment without telling anyone. They were amazed I didn't break down and lose my cool in a truly hostile engagement, and it was my first at that. They were happy I was safe and proud I succeeded in retrieving Weiss, despite that, they were still angry. They grounded me and revoked certain privileges of mine, to be returned when they seemed fit.
But I did not care.
Weiss was safe now and that was all that mattered.
I sighed in bliss as I brought a cup of tsokolate to my lips. tsokolate was a traditional Filipino hot chocolate drink, known for its thickness and ability to both warm you up and energize you. The drink was prepared by dissolving pure ground roasted cocoa beans in water and milk, to be briskly mixed by a wooden spoon called a molinillo.
Winter, Weiss, Blake, and I were deathly tired from our nightly excursion and we would have wanted nothing more than to sleep for so long it would measured in dog years but unfortunately, there was still the last day of the Business Summit to attend to. Weiss had an excuse to stay as she was rather shaken at being kidnapped and thus, stayed nice, warm, and tucked on a bed in my family's apartment. I had spent two extra hours awake preparing cakes for her as a gift.
There was no way in hell I was going to let her stay cooped up in her room unfed. My grandmama back home on Earth did not raise a scoundrel.
Luckily for me, there was not much to do on the last day on the Summit. What knickknacks needed to be done were met on the previous days and the corporations were finalizing out their talks.
And so, I kept myself to the splendor and glory of my concessionarium which stood next to other smaller, inferior concessionaires. I stayed there mostly to sit around in our cafe tables and enjoy the last day in peace and quiet.
Our food booth's specialization was sweets, namely Filipino Ice cream, cookies, cakes, pastries, and anything else I could remember from the world I left behind. My manager had complained to me about a little girl wearing gothic clothing that had nearly eaten the booth out of its stock of cookies. I told him not to worry about it as that particular customer had paid good lien for it.
I wonder who that customer might be...
Anyway, I was busying myself to a plate of yema cake with a cup of tsokolate. Winter on the other hand was busying herself to a bowl of crushed ice, evaporated milk and a mixture of sweetened beans, coconut milk, sweetened gelatin, fruit slices, flan, and a scoop of ice cream topped with a honeywafer.
As a job well done, I had treated Winter to a bowl of halo-halo, a dessert from my homeland. It was a veritable taste from the Orient and some fine comfort food. A worthy treat for a woman of her caliber.
I was also going to give Blake the same treatment but the catgirl had vanished when we arrived at the stadium. More than likely 'scouting' the stadium for potential terrorists.
I returned my cup to the table and leaned back into my chair. I turned my head to Winter and smiled at how she meticulously ate her ice treat with a long silver spoon. There was an etiquette in eating halo-halo; one must not eat it ingredient by ingredient. To do so was improper and borderline heresy.
The proper way to do eat it was to take your utensil, crush the ingredients and mix them around. One properly mixed, you could now dig in.
The honeywafer was gone and the bowl was losing its contents at a steady pace. A few minutes later, the bowl was empty and Winter leaned back on her chair, satisfaction on her face.
"How was it?" I asked, curiosity etched in my voice.
"Satisfactory." she replied as she brought a napkin to her lips. I rolled my eyes at her assessment. Ever since childhood, I knew that the Schnee siblings had a veritable sweet-tooth. Little Whitley liked flan and cookies while the two sisters enjoyed cakes, pastries and ice cream.
And halo-halo, once properly mixed, was nothing but sweet.
I hummed as I turned my attention first towards the patrons that busied themselves to the 'exotic' treats my food concessionaire served to the crowds that passed us by. My mind wandered as I watched on.
The Red Fang were proving to be highly troublesome and annoying. I had taken a quick glance at the intel that Blake had photographed and sure enough, the order to get at Weiss came none other than Adam Taurus himself. But what was strange was that the order directed the assassination of Weiss as soon as they had a bead on her, not kidnap for ransom. Further prowling revealed that the Red Fang leader's had recorded his impressions of Adam and from his recordings, it was clear to see that he hated Adam., calling him a psycho and other colorful titles.
That was a rather interesting fact to discover, once again highlighting the movement's biggest weakness. Surely, gathering the damaged and the lost of Remnant together is going to be mixing one spectacular powderkeg. And when that powderkeg explodes, there will be chaos.
The raid had also yielded interesting results such as locations, future plans, and most importantly, names. Once this information was going to be passed, the group was going to find itself on the back-foot afterwards.
One matter still remained though...
"The spiel you gave Weiss last night. Was it true? Is the cell leader going to be given to Vale?" I questioned as I turned my attention towards Winter. She stiffened at my question but relaxed after she took a deep breath.
"I had reported this incident to General Ironwood yesterday. He says that he will do what he can to extradite the prisoner to Atlas for interrogation." I frowned.
"Do you think Vale is going to give him up? This incident did happen on their soil and they would want nothing more than to throw that bastard in one of their prisons" I pointed out. Winter lifted one leg over another as she shifted on her seat, her eyes set on me.
"I would like to think that he would be extradited to us. We are quite possibly the only ones here on Remnant with the will and capability to go after his friends. I do not think it would be in Vale's best interests to allow their huntsmen to go after terrorists, they need them close at home more than ever. There has been an abnormal rise in Grimm attacks on outposts and villages ever since the Red Fang fired the first shots." answered Winter, her arms crossing below her chest. I nodded at her reply.
"Speaking about villages, I've heard about Mistrali villages being taken over by the Fang. Is there any truth to this statement?" I absentmindedly asked. Winter's pale visage was then marred by a frown, followed by a scowl. I blinked and quickly scanned the woman seated across of me.
"It would be in our best interests if we steer this conversation towards something else, Alexander." suggested Winter, not too subtly. I nodded, putting my thoughts and fears aside.
For now.
"Did General Ironwood say anything else?" I asked. Winter nodded.
"He did. After this summit is over, I am to report back to him. I believe that the general has surprise party to plan." I blinked at her strange usage of terms. Was Ironwood planning a surprise party for staff or something? Looking back at Winter and the expecting look she wore, I quickly understood what she meant.
"Ah. That is a shame. I was under the impression that you were going to be assigned to me for quite some time. Are you sure you can handle delivering the general's presents?" I asked, the silent question being 'Can you handle being deployed again?'.
Winter quickly caught on to my insinuation and sighed.
"When duty calls, we must answer." she said softly, a smile beginning to dot her face. "I will be fine, Alex. There is no need to worry."
"Weiss too was looking forward in making up for lost time. She will be very disappointed." I said slowly. Winter sighed once more.
"I know she will be disappointed but Weiss is a smart girl. She will understand." I leaned forward to take a quick sip of my drink but the cup came up empty. I gave a tsk in annoyance and placed it back on the table. I looked back up at Winter who was eyeing me in amusement, perhaps she was amused at the annoyed grimace I was wearing.
"Well, you know where Weiss and I are. If you are on leave, don't hesitate to visit us." I grunted. The white-haired woman nodded. "Of course." A contemplative look came upon her face, that look I caught.
"Something on your mind, Winter?" She smiled at me.
"I have one request to ask of you, if you don't mind." Curiosity filled me as I watched the woman shift in front of me.
"Well, as long as it is reasonable I suppose. What do you need?" Winter motioned me to lean closer and I did, curious on what she had in mind.
"Please take care of Weiss. Watch over her and protect her to the best of your ability. Would you do that for me Alex?" I stared at her in confusion. Where was this coming from?
"I won't make any promises but I'll do what I can to keep her safe." I said earnestly. Winter nodded, satisfied at my answer. That only made me suspicious. Was there something you aren't telling me Winter?
"What is it that you aren't telling me?" I crowed. Winter pulled back, her face glancing up towards a flag-pole. I followed her gaze and it led me to look at the Black and Blue banner of Mistral.
"I cannot tell you everything Alex. But I can tell you this." she whispered as she tore her gaze away from the banner, her eyes turning to me. The next words that came out of her mouth and the guarded look she wore sent a chill that ran through my spine.
"Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst."
+++
A/N: Edited again with Krasnogvardiech.
Sometimes I wonder if this is a RWBY fic or an advertisement for Filipino cuisine.
Oh well. It was nice to have Winter tagging along even for a short while. Now, what could she mean by that?
The following day, rumors and hearsay began to spread despite Vale PD's best efforts to keep things hush-hush.
Between the hotel's plume of smoke turning the clear evening to haze, the fire trucks flanked by police cruisers and ambulances rushing through the streets, and the noise of a pitched engagement at the warehouse, this was just too big to conceal from the public eye. With public interest growing, it was imperative that an official story be drafted and done quickly.
And so, it was decided to reveal that an attempted kidnapping was done on a HVI but the matter was quickly dealt with by the police. While the statement from law enforcement soothed the general populace, probably helped along by the speed and scale of the civilian agencies' response, a few people still dug deeper to try to find out the real details. Mostly journalists and truthseekers.
Mom and Dad were on that problem, though, and not in the kind of way I could do much to help. With how much they brought to bear here I'd just get underfoot.
But returning briefly to last night's fiasco, the Red Fang who surrendered were turned over to Vale PD who arrived at the crime scene. Aunt Willow was beaming with joy and relief when Weiss was returned to her and fawned over her like a mother hen, much to Weiss's embarrassment.
My parents were less than pleased with me though as I had left the apartment without telling anyone. They were amazed I didn't break down and lose my cool in a truly hostile engagement, and it was my first at that. They were happy I was safe and proud I succeeded in retrieving Weiss, despite that, they were still angry. They grounded me and revoked certain privileges of mine, to be returned when they seemed fit.
But I did not care.
Weiss was safe now and that was all that mattered.
I sighed in bliss as I brought a cup of tsokolate to my lips. tsokolate was a traditional Filipino hot chocolate drink, known for its thickness and ability to both warm you up and energize you. The drink was prepared by dissolving pure ground roasted cocoa beans in water and milk, to be briskly mixed by a wooden spoon called a molinillo.
Winter, Weiss, Blake, and I were deathly tired from our nightly excursion and we would have wanted nothing more than to sleep for so long it would measured in dog years but unfortunately, there was still the last day of the Business Summit to attend to. Weiss had an excuse to stay as she was rather shaken at being kidnapped and thus, stayed nice, warm, and tucked on a bed in my family's apartment. I had spent two extra hours awake preparing cakes for her as a gift.
There was no way in hell I was going to let her stay cooped up in her room unfed. My grandmama back home on Earth did not raise a scoundrel.
Luckily for me, there was not much to do on the last day on the Summit. What knickknacks needed to be done were met on the previous days and the corporations were finalizing out their talks.
And so, I kept myself to the splendor and glory of my concessionarium which stood next to other smaller, inferior concessionaires. I stayed there mostly to sit around in our cafe tables and enjoy the last day in peace and quiet.
Our food booth's specialization was sweets, namely Filipino Ice cream, cookies, cakes, pastries, and anything else I could remember from the world I left behind. My manager had complained to me about a little girl wearing gothic clothing that had nearly eaten the booth out of its stock of cookies. I told him not to worry about it as that particular customer had paid good lien for it.
I wonder who that customer might be...
Anyway, I was busying myself to a plate of yema cake with a cup of tsokolate. Winter on the other hand was busying herself to a bowl of crushed ice, evaporated milk and a mixture of sweetened beans, coconut milk, sweetened gelatin, fruit slices, flan, and a scoop of ice cream topped with a honeywafer.
As a job well done, I had treated Winter to a bowl of halo-halo, a dessert from my homeland. It was a veritable taste from the Orient and some fine comfort food. A worthy treat for a woman of her caliber.
I was also going to give Blake the same treatment but the catgirl had vanished when we arrived at the stadium. More than likely 'scouting' the stadium for potential terrorists.
I returned my cup to the table and leaned back into my chair. I turned my head to Winter and smiled at how she meticulously ate her ice treat with a long silver spoon. There was an etiquette in eating halo-halo; one must not eat it ingredient by ingredient. To do so was improper and borderline heresy.
The proper way to do eat it was to take your utensil, crush the ingredients and mix them around. One properly mixed, you could now dig in.
The honeywafer was gone and the bowl was losing its contents at a steady pace. A few minutes later, the bowl was empty and Winter leaned back on her chair, satisfaction on her face.
"How was it?" I asked, curiosity etched in my voice.
"Satisfactory." she replied as she brought a napkin to her lips. I rolled my eyes at her assessment. Ever since childhood, I knew that the Schnee siblings had a veritable sweet-tooth. Little Whitley liked flan and cookies while the two sisters enjoyed cakes, pastries and ice cream.
And halo-halo, once properly mixed, was nothing but sweet.
I hummed as I turned my attention first towards the patrons that busied themselves to the 'exotic' treats my food concessionaire served to the crowds that passed us by. My mind wandered as I watched on.
The Red Fang were proving to be highly troublesome and annoying. I had taken a quick glance at the intel that Blake had photographed and sure enough, the order to get at Weiss came none other than Adam Taurus himself. But what was strange was that the order directed the assassination of Weiss as soon as they had a bead on her, not kidnap for ransom. Further prowling revealed that the Red Fang leader's had recorded his impressions of Adam and from his recordings, it was clear to see that he hated Adam., calling him a psycho and other colorful titles.
That was a rather interesting fact to discover, once again highlighting the movement's biggest weakness. Surely, gathering the damaged and the lost of Remnant together is going to be mixing one spectacular powderkeg. And when that powderkeg explodes, there will be chaos.
The raid had also yielded interesting results such as locations, future plans, and most importantly, names. Once this information was going to be passed, the group was going to find itself on the back-foot afterwards.
One matter still remained though...
"The spiel you gave Weiss last night. Was it true? Is the cell leader going to be given to Vale?" I questioned as I turned my attention towards Winter. She stiffened at my question but relaxed after she took a deep breath.
"I had reported this incident to General Ironwood yesterday. He says that he will do what he can to extradite the prisoner to Atlas for interrogation." I frowned.
"Do you think Vale is going to give him up? This incident did happen on their soil and they would want nothing more than to throw that bastard in one of their prisons" I pointed out. Winter lifted one leg over another as she shifted on her seat, her eyes set on me.
"I would like to think that he would be extradited to us. We are quite possibly the only ones here on Remnant with the will and capability to go after his friends. I do not think it would be in Vale's best interests to allow their huntsmen to go after terrorists, they need them close at home more than ever. There has been an abnormal rise in Grimm attacks on outposts and villages ever since the Red Fang fired the first shots." answered Winter, her arms crossing below her chest. I nodded at her reply.
"Speaking about villages, I've heard about Mistrali villages being taken over by the Fang. Is there any truth to this statement?" I absentmindedly asked. Winter's pale visage was then marred by a frown, followed by a scowl. I blinked and quickly scanned the woman seated across of me.
"It would be in our best interests if we steer this conversation towards something else, Alexander." suggested Winter, not too subtly. I nodded, putting my thoughts and fears aside.
For now.
"Did General Ironwood say anything else?" I asked. Winter nodded.
"He did. After this summit is over, I am to report back to him. I believe that the general has surprise party to plan." I blinked at her strange usage of terms. Was Ironwood planning a surprise party for staff or something? Looking back at Winter and the expecting look she wore, I quickly understood what she meant.
"Ah. That is a shame. I was under the impression that you were going to be assigned to me for quite some time. Are you sure you can handle delivering the general's presents?" I asked, the silent question being 'Can you handle being deployed again?'.
Winter quickly caught on to my insinuation and sighed.
"When duty calls, we must answer." she said softly, a smile beginning to dot her face. "I will be fine, Alex. There is no need to worry."
"Weiss too was looking forward in making up for lost time. She will be very disappointed." I said slowly. Winter sighed once more.
"I know she will be disappointed but Weiss is a smart girl. She will understand." I leaned forward to take a quick sip of my drink but the cup came up empty. I gave a tsk in annoyance and placed it back on the table. I looked back up at Winter who was eyeing me in amusement, perhaps she was amused at the annoyed grimace I was wearing.
"Well, you know where Weiss and I are. If you are on leave, don't hesitate to visit us." I grunted. The white-haired woman nodded. "Of course." A contemplative look came upon her face, that look I caught.
"Something on your mind, Winter?" She smiled at me.
"I have one request to ask of you, if you don't mind." Curiosity filled me as I watched the woman shift in front of me.
"Well, as long as it is reasonable I suppose. What do you need?" Winter motioned me to lean closer and I did, curious on what she had in mind.
"Please take care of Weiss. Watch over her and protect her to the best of your ability. Would you do that for me Alex?" I stared at her in confusion. Where was this coming from?
"I won't make any promises but I'll do what I can to keep her safe." I said earnestly. Winter nodded, satisfied at my answer. That only made me suspicious. Was there something you aren't telling me Winter?
"What is it that you aren't telling me?" I crowed. Winter pulled back, her face glancing up towards a flag-pole. I followed her gaze and it led me to look at the Black and Blue banner of Mistral.
"I cannot tell you everything Alex. But I can tell you this." she whispered as she tore her gaze away from the banner, her eyes turning to me. The next words that came out of her mouth and the guarded look she wore sent a chill that ran through my spine.
"Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst."
+++
A/N: Edited again with Krasnogvardiech.
Sometimes I wonder if this is a RWBY fic or an advertisement for Filipino cuisine.
Oh well. It was nice to have Winter tagging along even for a short while. Now, what could she mean by that?
- Location
- Washington State
Well at least she didn't go slack faced and say "prepare for unforeseen consequences."
Very fun. Real ‼FUN‼ should start soon then.
Very fun. Real ‼FUN‼ should start soon then.
Chapter 35
- Location
- Cebu City, Philippines
+++
There was a dull thump as a body was thrown flat on the hardwood floor.
"I yield." I said flatly, my eyes boring into the ceiling above me. My vision was then blocked as a figure loomed over me. I blinked as a hand reached out towards me. I held my own out and accepted it. I was pulled up in an instant.
"You are improving, Alex." complimented mother, a smile at tugging her lips. I rolled my eyes as I dusted myself off.
"There is no need to sugar-coat it, mother. I can handle criticism." I grumbled. Mother scoffed.
Normal mothers and their sons would bond by shopping or doing other mundane things. My mother and I bonded in the dueling room in our house and as usually, she would wipe the floor with me.
Gone was her usual corporate garb. For dueling purposes, she was clad in her old huntsman armor which was full-plate armor with a green cloth over it, the Twin Axes of Vale proudly emblazoned and a green headband on her head. For her weapons, she held a ranseur spear which could mechashift to a rifle if she so wished and a tower shield to protect her.
It gave her a rather knightly look. Funnily enough, daddy dearest had told me that in her younger days, she was a veritable Knight of Vale down from personality to outlook. Strict, stiff, and deathly loyal to her chosen liege-lord. While time and father had mellowed her out, some things just couldn't be taken out of her.
"Your problem, Alex, is that you are too cautious." she informed me, her shield and spear momentarily set aside for her to explain. "While it is a boon to be cautious with your enemies, don't hold back too long or your foe will take advantage of you. I have never won my fights by being defensive all the time."
I frowned at her assessment. "My problem mother is that you are too heavily armored for me take down and you have a ridiculous stores of aura. I can fight well enough, you are just too difficult of an opponent to fight." Mother scoffed again, her gauntleted hands reaching for her shield and spear.
"Then fight smarter, not harder. Do not try and keep up against opponents who are stronger than you. They will outlast you and you will risk defeat or death. Now, en garde!" she roared as she charged. I yelped as rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding her spear. I jumped back and adopted a combat stance.
Our duels were not just moments where the two of us could talk good. It was also her way of testing me to see how much I had learned from my tutors. It wasn't my thing to disappoint my parents and I had learned well enough to hold my own in fights and even win a few on my own. But against higher tier enemies, I'd definitely be in serious trouble.
"What is your plan for the future, Alex?" she said aloud as she thrust her spear towards me. I rolled to the side, taking the opportunity to slash at her exposed rear.
"I was under the impression that my dear parents had something prepared for me. I would like to hear it first before I gave my own!" I loudly replied as I held aloft Joyeuse and fired a Fire Dust round at mother. The woman raised her shield and was engulfed in flame and smoke.
Others would have celebrated at this point, thinking that explosion would knock her out cold. But I had fought her long enough to know that a simple fire dust round wasn't enough to bring her down. Surely enough, the smoke settled down and revealed mother, her shield aloft and unscathed.
She relaxed for a moment, slamming the spear pole on the floor.
"You are correct. We do have a plan for you." confirmed mother, nodding slightly. I relaxed as well, returning Joyeuse to its sheath and waited for her to talk.
Mother wasted no time.
"You are to take charge of our Vale branch. The current branch manager is getting on his years and is due to retire within a few months. While your father has a prospective list of replacements, I had convinced him to allow you to take charge instead, provided you accept." mother said rather curtly.
"What are my duties? Can I still pursue my projects?" I asked. Mother hummed as she pondered my question.
"You are to ensure the continued purchases of our weapons and deepen our ties with the Kingdom of Vale. As for your projects, you may still continue them and even produce versions of them in Vale. You are also given a degree of autonomy but important decisions must be referred to your father. Do you accept?"
Well. That changes things. By holding a position like that, I would be in a much more better place to prepare for Cinder's Wild Ride as I could hold the manpower and resources of an entire branch. My future plans wouldn't be given a suspicious glance as it could easily be hand-waved as weapons development. The other benefits would include being close to Ozzy but far enough that he couldn't get his grubby fingers on me...
A smile formed on my face as I regarded my mother.
"Very well, mother. I'll take the job."
A pleased look appeared on mothers face. "Excellent. But before we go further in that, I would like to ask what was your plan? We could discuss that with your father."
I shook my head. "There is no need. It was a wild, silly and foolish plan."
"Alright then. En garde."
I blinked. Then panicked as mother accelerated forward, her spear aimed towards me.
+++
"And so, I'm going to Vale within a couple months. Neat isn't it?" I said excitedly, basically retelling what my mother had told me hours ago.
"I see." replied a cool voice. I blinked at the tone Weiss was using on me. Was it me or did she sound...relieved?
"Is something wrong, Weiss?" I asked, adjusting my scroll so that I could better hear what she was going to say.
"Oh nothing." replied Weiss. "I was under the impression that you were going to stay here in Atlas. It seems I was wrong."
I raised my eye brow at that.
"Weiss, in your language, when you say nothing is wrong, there is something terribly wrong happening. Tell me what is bothering you and I'll try to help you as much as I can." I said neutrally as I reclined on my chair.
"When did you start to be so observant?" questioned the girl, her tone flippant and amused.
"Ever since you came into my life, Princess Weiss." I said teasingly. There was a brief pause in the line and I briefly worried that she had cut off the connection but my fears were unfounded as she gave a weary sigh.
"You really are a dolt, Alexander Friedlich."
I smiled, imagining her pale blushing visage in the other line. I etched my scroll closer to my mouth and whispered softly. "But I'm your dolt, Princess Weiss."
Weiss gave out a long embarrassed groan. I laughed jovially, visualizing her embarrassed face.
"You are insufferable." she complained.
"It is your fault that you make it so easy." I shot back. There was some grumbling in the other line that was too unintelligible for me to catch but it was most probably just another of Weiss's episodes of speaking her own language. I waited until she finished grumbling then said my piece.
"So, you were going to say something to me?"
There was brief pause in the line then she spoke up.
"I still intend to become a huntress first, an heiress second. Mother and Winter wished for me to go to Atlas Academy but I have chosen Beacon instead. I mean not to insult our own Academy and General Ironwood but Beacon is the premier Hunstman Academy on Remnant and I must attend nothing but the best." she droned.
I tapped my foot impatiently. "And?"
"Well, you never mentioned about wanting to become a huntsman and I just thought that...well...you were going to stay in Atlas and..."
Everything clicked. And once I realized it, it made me flutter in all the right places.
"Are you worried perhaps that we might not see each other?" I said teasingly.
"...yes." she said faintly.
I hummed a tune "Well. There's no need to worry, Weiss. I'll be in my company's office and you'll be in Beacon. Hell, I could even go and visit you. You can also see me whenever you want and I will always, always, make time for you. Do you understand me?"
"I understand perfectly well, Mr Friedlich." replied Weiss, returning to her old arrogant tone. "And I expect nothing else from you. I demand cakes and sweets to be prepared at all times, do you understand me?"
"Would you perhaps like a hug, a pat to the head, and a kiss as well?" I teased. There was a loud yell of frustration and of the phone line being cut. I glanced at my scroll and smiled.
Oh you little snowflake. You are such a magnet for teasing.
I laid my scroll aside and glanced down at the blueprints on my table. I traced a gloved finger over one and hummed.
Winter's crptic words had inspired in me a degree of paranoia and had urged me to return to the drawing table as soon as we returned to Atlas. As of the moment, it was only a matter of getting the newest designs to the factory floor.
No matter what comes our way be it Grimm, anarcho-communists, or something else, I shall not fear for I shall prepare a house-sized mass of fuck you.
+++
A/N: Next destination: Giving Cindy and her minions a can of kick-ass.
There was a dull thump as a body was thrown flat on the hardwood floor.
"I yield." I said flatly, my eyes boring into the ceiling above me. My vision was then blocked as a figure loomed over me. I blinked as a hand reached out towards me. I held my own out and accepted it. I was pulled up in an instant.
"You are improving, Alex." complimented mother, a smile at tugging her lips. I rolled my eyes as I dusted myself off.
"There is no need to sugar-coat it, mother. I can handle criticism." I grumbled. Mother scoffed.
Normal mothers and their sons would bond by shopping or doing other mundane things. My mother and I bonded in the dueling room in our house and as usually, she would wipe the floor with me.
Gone was her usual corporate garb. For dueling purposes, she was clad in her old huntsman armor which was full-plate armor with a green cloth over it, the Twin Axes of Vale proudly emblazoned and a green headband on her head. For her weapons, she held a ranseur spear which could mechashift to a rifle if she so wished and a tower shield to protect her.
It gave her a rather knightly look. Funnily enough, daddy dearest had told me that in her younger days, she was a veritable Knight of Vale down from personality to outlook. Strict, stiff, and deathly loyal to her chosen liege-lord. While time and father had mellowed her out, some things just couldn't be taken out of her.
"Your problem, Alex, is that you are too cautious." she informed me, her shield and spear momentarily set aside for her to explain. "While it is a boon to be cautious with your enemies, don't hold back too long or your foe will take advantage of you. I have never won my fights by being defensive all the time."
I frowned at her assessment. "My problem mother is that you are too heavily armored for me take down and you have a ridiculous stores of aura. I can fight well enough, you are just too difficult of an opponent to fight." Mother scoffed again, her gauntleted hands reaching for her shield and spear.
"Then fight smarter, not harder. Do not try and keep up against opponents who are stronger than you. They will outlast you and you will risk defeat or death. Now, en garde!" she roared as she charged. I yelped as rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding her spear. I jumped back and adopted a combat stance.
Our duels were not just moments where the two of us could talk good. It was also her way of testing me to see how much I had learned from my tutors. It wasn't my thing to disappoint my parents and I had learned well enough to hold my own in fights and even win a few on my own. But against higher tier enemies, I'd definitely be in serious trouble.
"What is your plan for the future, Alex?" she said aloud as she thrust her spear towards me. I rolled to the side, taking the opportunity to slash at her exposed rear.
"I was under the impression that my dear parents had something prepared for me. I would like to hear it first before I gave my own!" I loudly replied as I held aloft Joyeuse and fired a Fire Dust round at mother. The woman raised her shield and was engulfed in flame and smoke.
Others would have celebrated at this point, thinking that explosion would knock her out cold. But I had fought her long enough to know that a simple fire dust round wasn't enough to bring her down. Surely enough, the smoke settled down and revealed mother, her shield aloft and unscathed.
She relaxed for a moment, slamming the spear pole on the floor.
"You are correct. We do have a plan for you." confirmed mother, nodding slightly. I relaxed as well, returning Joyeuse to its sheath and waited for her to talk.
Mother wasted no time.
"You are to take charge of our Vale branch. The current branch manager is getting on his years and is due to retire within a few months. While your father has a prospective list of replacements, I had convinced him to allow you to take charge instead, provided you accept." mother said rather curtly.
"What are my duties? Can I still pursue my projects?" I asked. Mother hummed as she pondered my question.
"You are to ensure the continued purchases of our weapons and deepen our ties with the Kingdom of Vale. As for your projects, you may still continue them and even produce versions of them in Vale. You are also given a degree of autonomy but important decisions must be referred to your father. Do you accept?"
Well. That changes things. By holding a position like that, I would be in a much more better place to prepare for Cinder's Wild Ride as I could hold the manpower and resources of an entire branch. My future plans wouldn't be given a suspicious glance as it could easily be hand-waved as weapons development. The other benefits would include being close to Ozzy but far enough that he couldn't get his grubby fingers on me...
A smile formed on my face as I regarded my mother.
"Very well, mother. I'll take the job."
A pleased look appeared on mothers face. "Excellent. But before we go further in that, I would like to ask what was your plan? We could discuss that with your father."
I shook my head. "There is no need. It was a wild, silly and foolish plan."
"Alright then. En garde."
I blinked. Then panicked as mother accelerated forward, her spear aimed towards me.
+++
"And so, I'm going to Vale within a couple months. Neat isn't it?" I said excitedly, basically retelling what my mother had told me hours ago.
"I see." replied a cool voice. I blinked at the tone Weiss was using on me. Was it me or did she sound...relieved?
"Is something wrong, Weiss?" I asked, adjusting my scroll so that I could better hear what she was going to say.
"Oh nothing." replied Weiss. "I was under the impression that you were going to stay here in Atlas. It seems I was wrong."
I raised my eye brow at that.
"Weiss, in your language, when you say nothing is wrong, there is something terribly wrong happening. Tell me what is bothering you and I'll try to help you as much as I can." I said neutrally as I reclined on my chair.
"When did you start to be so observant?" questioned the girl, her tone flippant and amused.
"Ever since you came into my life, Princess Weiss." I said teasingly. There was a brief pause in the line and I briefly worried that she had cut off the connection but my fears were unfounded as she gave a weary sigh.
"You really are a dolt, Alexander Friedlich."
I smiled, imagining her pale blushing visage in the other line. I etched my scroll closer to my mouth and whispered softly. "But I'm your dolt, Princess Weiss."
Weiss gave out a long embarrassed groan. I laughed jovially, visualizing her embarrassed face.
"You are insufferable." she complained.
"It is your fault that you make it so easy." I shot back. There was some grumbling in the other line that was too unintelligible for me to catch but it was most probably just another of Weiss's episodes of speaking her own language. I waited until she finished grumbling then said my piece.
"So, you were going to say something to me?"
There was brief pause in the line then she spoke up.
"I still intend to become a huntress first, an heiress second. Mother and Winter wished for me to go to Atlas Academy but I have chosen Beacon instead. I mean not to insult our own Academy and General Ironwood but Beacon is the premier Hunstman Academy on Remnant and I must attend nothing but the best." she droned.
I tapped my foot impatiently. "And?"
"Well, you never mentioned about wanting to become a huntsman and I just thought that...well...you were going to stay in Atlas and..."
Everything clicked. And once I realized it, it made me flutter in all the right places.
"Are you worried perhaps that we might not see each other?" I said teasingly.
"...yes." she said faintly.
I hummed a tune "Well. There's no need to worry, Weiss. I'll be in my company's office and you'll be in Beacon. Hell, I could even go and visit you. You can also see me whenever you want and I will always, always, make time for you. Do you understand me?"
"I understand perfectly well, Mr Friedlich." replied Weiss, returning to her old arrogant tone. "And I expect nothing else from you. I demand cakes and sweets to be prepared at all times, do you understand me?"
"Would you perhaps like a hug, a pat to the head, and a kiss as well?" I teased. There was a loud yell of frustration and of the phone line being cut. I glanced at my scroll and smiled.
Oh you little snowflake. You are such a magnet for teasing.
I laid my scroll aside and glanced down at the blueprints on my table. I traced a gloved finger over one and hummed.
Winter's crptic words had inspired in me a degree of paranoia and had urged me to return to the drawing table as soon as we returned to Atlas. As of the moment, it was only a matter of getting the newest designs to the factory floor.
No matter what comes our way be it Grimm, anarcho-communists, or something else, I shall not fear for I shall prepare a house-sized mass of fuck you.
+++
A/N: Next destination: Giving Cindy and her minions a can of kick-ass.
slenderman1942
Jungle Tyrant
- Location
- Home
It could be because of a C&C 3 fic I've read that had a similar line, but this line has me thinking mammoth tanks are inbound, and I am excited the prospect.
Last edited:
- Location
- Somewhere and Nowhere in a state of super-position
Chapter 36
- Location
- Cebu City, Philippines
Theme for this chapter. Listen for maximum immersion:
+++
For the last two months that I couldn't think of as much other than calm before the storm, I prepared and prepared and prepared some more for the events I hazily remembered the show's timeline portrayed through screen-time. Frankly speaking, the damage could be summed up as hell in a blander, wrapped in Fucked Up Beyond All Hope-rope and diluted with Go Gently Into Good Night tonic. I could only hope by the time the main events would be rolling, Cindy and her crew would find me and by extension locked, loaded and ready for a fight.
The first issue I addressed were the Bullheads that Remnant seemed to salivate on. While they were excellent in their roles as transport aircraft, it was insufficient and under-powered for my future plans not to mention its rather creative...design.
And so, I drafted up plans for the manufacture of a new transport VTOL. I envisioned a heavy-transport craft that could ferry troops and support vehicles to the battlefield in a jiffy. It would also have to be heavily armed so that it could function as a gunship and support the troops it landed. Luckily for me, I had the perfect bird in mind.
Retiring out the Bullhead - considered by Remnant aviators to be a tried, tested platform filling the role of an air support-capable dropship, and the best possible compromise between construction complexity and performance - was essentially ripping teeth out of a cross-Kingdom operation. People knew Bullheads, experimental ones are quite common because its performance characteristics and tolerances were nearly always handily explained before any article about modifications. Even non-engineers could pretty easily pick up what the Bullhead frame was capable of, because apparently every journalist was loaded with an 'Allow me to explain how you are wrong' attitude. Peer reviews by professionals weren't nearly as mentally special as tabloid writers.
Putting that issue aide, though, I'd barely glanced over schematics of the Bullheads that we were producing, one sunny day. That mess was frankly enough for me to get my calculator and get to work.
Simply put, the Bullhead didn't perform well enough outside its role as a light air transport. I foresee that with the MICA suit's advent, those fast troopers in order to be dropped exactly where they needed to be would need a craft with a lot longer legs, also quite a lot faster. That automatically made up-armoring a requirement - in my old world you could never armour a light aircraft enough that it mattered, but here with Dust in the mix there were quite a lot of options available to the guys working my refineries and smeltries.
The engines needed a complete redesign. I'm quite sure Father's got people who do nothing but argue over engine details, I'll show them this project and give design requirements in a bit. I finished laying out the most basic of a flying triangle of a guns-and-cabin section ahead, maneuverability thrusters to the sides and behind, a crew compartment behind them that could drop either bombs or MICA operators from a downward door... this doesn't fit the bill still, I'll need to go back to this later.
The D77-TC Pelican from Halo fit the bill to my criteria. Not only was it a effective transport sans gunship, it was a survivable aircraft and came from a setting where nearly everything was militarized. The Pelican didn't need further altering as it was a good enough design. The only changes that I had drilled into it was its dust-powered core, making it faster than its Halo counterpart.
While a gunship transport was good, a dedicated gunship was even better. And so, I had also drawn up two types of gunships, one light and the other, heavy.
The light gunship I envisioned to be operated around urban areas and its duty was to serve as quick fire support whenever needed. As for the heavy gunship, it was to be the support soldiers or hunstmen would call whenever they need nasties within 3 km blasted all the way to Kingdom Come.
For the lighter side of things, the GDI Orca fighter was best suited for light support missions. From my memories of Command and Conquer, it was a light, fast, and maneuverable CAS plane. My head was still hazy as to what it could exactly do but with a little tinkering, the RWBYfied Orca might do its namesake proud. The Orca I had redesigned featured a 40 mm chin-mounted auto-cannon, its controls linked to the pilots helmet. On the stub-wing pylons, there were two missile pods for unguided action and AGM anti-Grimm missiles.
The aircraft was also fitted with a special engine to make it buzz into hotspots as fast as possible. The ones who are calling for support might be putting their survival on support to arrive as fast as possible.
A satisfactory aircraft that could help huntsmen or soldiers stuck in the mud.
As for the heavier side of things, the HMP Droid Gunship from Star Wars came to mind. It was a slow and a less maneuverable craft, but what it lacked for in speed, it made up in sheer support value. For my RWBYfied HMP Gunship, it featured twin chain-guns, one 80 mm auto-cannon, and 18 missile pods for unguided fun. It could also carry a compliment of Atlesian Knights for additional infantry support and featured thicker armor plate and a energy shield.
The energy shield was rather unnecessary as the armor on the gunship was thick enough to resist blast damage but hey, I wanted it to ruin the day of those it was targeting and damn it, I want it to be hard to kill. This choice I will never regret.
I also kept it as a UAV. I found no reason to give it a pilot and programmed it with an advanced combat matrix linked directly to the Friedlich AG satellite network. No way in hell was I going to link my robots to the virus-trap that was the CCTNet.
As for why I chose the Orca and the HMP, I had chosen the Orca because I needed an aircraft that could support huntsmen, law enforcement or military in urban areas. Not only that, the support also needed to pack a decent enough punch as to properly kill whatever it was sent to shoot at. For the HMP, it was chosen as it was a heavily-armored Katyusha that could fly. Anyone dumb enough to stand in its way was going to have a real bad time and considering that we were going to fight off hordes of Grimm, a Katyusha seemed a good choice to saturate a parcel of land to smithereens.
As I had now satisfactory gunships and gunship-transports, I moved on to air superiority vehicles.
For that role, the FA38 from Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 would be suitable. It was capable of going supersonic and was also a VTOL, a satisfactory craft to be sure. I then designed it to carry two 30mm rotary cannons and hold missiles for aerial targets.
With the air sufficiently addressed, I had moved on to the groundpounders.
This was not Remnant's first attempt at making tanks with legs, but by our Father who art in Heaven, I mean to make a good go of it. To begin with, the armoured ground transport was just about obsolete with the MICA letting the average guy zip around the battlefield on microjets. All that's left is the guy with nothing but cloth and plate in the way of the Grimm - the man of the line.
I had always disliked seeing the common grunt being made to sit in the sidelines eating glue while the hunstmen stole all the glory and always wondered what they would be like if they were upgraded a bit. As the heir to the world's largest gunmaking compnay, I had that chance.
To make the common grunt stronger in the face of things like Grimm, anarcho-communists, and hunstmen, they had to given the right tools and I resolved to give them those tools.
I then designed an exoskeleton for the grunt's use. Taking inspiration from the exoskeletons from Call of Duty, the Type-21 Exoskeleton was born. Once worn, it would significantly increase the users strength, agility, and speed. The exoskleton would also allow for increased carry weight and lessen the strain on soldiers.
Now this thing wasn't just a wearable forklift, its multi-angle input design for its connector segments let its hydraulics combine large forces from multiple directions thanks to the bullshit Dust could do to metal, and my lab guys were quick to chuckle and throw in small pressure-blowout valves. To me, though, that meant infinitely variable torque was a possibility in the near future for vehicle transmissions.
All in all, the average guy could now leap from building to building, lift things way beyond what a normal human could carry, and be fast enough to keep up hunters.
To increase their lifespans, I had also designed an armor system for the grunts. Taking inspiration from Half-Life, I took the armor worn by the Atlesian soldeir and gave it a much needed power-boost. The Type-16 Powered Combat Vest was designed to make the normal grunt a more durable and effective soldier. It could withstand bullets from low-caliber weapons and resist high-caliber shots. It was capable of protecting the soldier from low-level to mid-level Grimm.
The headgear was also connected to the PCV and I took advantage of that fact. Instead of a helmet that covered the face save the mouth, the soldier would wear a facemask similar to what Starlord wore from the Guardians of the Galaxy. It would also function similarly as well, capable of being deployed at a moments notice. The only change there was that the eyes glowed blue instead of red and the facemask featured a HUD, night and thermal vision, a voice synthesizer and protection from chemical or biological attacks.
Overall, they looked rather intimidating and aggressive but considering I was planning to attack Sallie rather than sit behind walls, that was a small price to pay.
For armaments, I had to look to Halo once more. The MA5C ICWS and the BR55 Heavy Barrel Service Rifle would be excellent Grimm killers. These guns were designed to pierce the Covenant energy shields, their armour, their hides, all of the same exiting the other side... with conventional nitrocellulose-derivative ballistics gunpowder! Look out space barbarians, anarcho-communists, and immortal Sorceress ladies, these hunter-gatherers' stone slings fire at 2000 rounds a minute!
Satisfied with the infantry, I moved on to the vehicles that would transport and support them. This part was a conflicting one for me as I had way too many choices to attend to. And so, I momentarily halted choosing any singular 'good enough' design and made the decision to focus on the one thing I had known would turn the army of man into not something lightly trodden on.
I knew I was holding something amazing in my hands when holding it up to the sun made tears of pride tickle my cheekbones. This massive tank would stand at a 100 tons fully loaded, with half of that being its triple-hulled impact-absorbing pressure cable matrix. There were simply no peer level opponents that could or even would field vehicles to compete with whatever I built for the job, so I took dad's Defender tank and made it even better.
It was actually a little weird, that they had a different idea of what a Tank should do - instead of an armoured gun-carriage that adhered to Jules Verne's predictions of 'land-cruisers' that could cross infantry trenches and crack fortresses, they thought it should be... well, just like a motor, a carriage and guns coming second! The caterpillar tread propulsion system, that Earth best summed up as a train that laid down its own tracks, was actually how it faced its inception here on Remnant! Some guy didn't like that trains had to go only where their tracks led them, and so he built trains that needed no tracks, could ford rivers, climb mountains and ignore forests!
Kind of explains why there's not much opposition to giant tanks; nobody on my team or my dad's staff saw an oversize gun-carriage, they saw a very tiny, very slow one-carriage train built around hauling an artillery platform around.
Back on target - for anti-air duty it had strategically placed gaps in its top armour for the installation of internal-loading hatch-launched missile pods. There was a little bit of pity, as commanders would be limited to the diameter of the gaps in the hull, but that's why I made the rear of the turret have a modularly-reconfigurable panel!
If the operator wished for that spot to be armoured, that was an option, but it would all but restrict them to be using any given configuration of missiles. Armour plate was not quickly baked, not even on Remnant. I mean, the alternative is for guys to climb outside to manually reload external missile cells, and I wasn't going to yield that substandard an option unto my armies and customers.
The armour plates were a ceramic-metalloid compound matrix putting the Earth's Chobham armour to shame - a beastly gravity-compressed and Dust-fused plate comprising of varying amounts of titanium, tungsten, uranium and vanadium forming the biggest chunk of its protections where I didn't slap a silicone-carbon composite plate for shrapnel protection and puncture resistance. 750 millimetre thick at all points meant that the cable matrix had plenty sturdy stuff to work with.
I honestly hadn't known what more to do after slapping a pair of chainguns to cover its four turret-and-hull-mounted exit ports. I was in the middle of determining how far between the engine and the turret ring-motors I should affix an energy shield generator - I had gone for high-grade, high-power and high intensity models in my calculations, because if this tank's systems could shrug off those then it surely would be able to laugh aside something made for practical function! - when I decided that was enough.
I rolled up my blueprints and sighed happily.
I had to thank the Command and Conquer universe for such wonderful designs. They provided ideas for excellent support vehicles.
I put aside my blueprints and sighed once more. I had a couple more months until my transfer to Vale. While I had done my best to prepare for Cindy, I was still unsure if my preparations were enough. After all, no plan of operations reaches with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main force.
What if it were insufficient? What if I screw up? What if I fail and allow Cindy access to my weapons? What if I-
A polite knock at the door interrupted me from falling into a pit of anxiety. Momentarily calming myself down, I glanced at the door and spoke.
"What is it?"
"Miss Schnee has arrived sir. Are you ready for your trip?" came the voice of a servant. I glanced at the bags that were neatly packed at the other side of my room then back to the door.
"I am ready. Tell Weiss I'll be coming down shortly." I said with a wave.
"Very well sir." replied the butler, his footsteps echoing down the hall.
All my worrying about the future has done me no good. Maybe some time in the mountains with the Schnees will do wonders for my mental health.
+++
A/N: Blessing be upon Krasnogvardiech for helping me with this chapter.
After this, some cutesy gay fluffy stuff then Vale time.
+++
For the last two months that I couldn't think of as much other than calm before the storm, I prepared and prepared and prepared some more for the events I hazily remembered the show's timeline portrayed through screen-time. Frankly speaking, the damage could be summed up as hell in a blander, wrapped in Fucked Up Beyond All Hope-rope and diluted with Go Gently Into Good Night tonic. I could only hope by the time the main events would be rolling, Cindy and her crew would find me and by extension locked, loaded and ready for a fight.
The first issue I addressed were the Bullheads that Remnant seemed to salivate on. While they were excellent in their roles as transport aircraft, it was insufficient and under-powered for my future plans not to mention its rather creative...design.
And so, I drafted up plans for the manufacture of a new transport VTOL. I envisioned a heavy-transport craft that could ferry troops and support vehicles to the battlefield in a jiffy. It would also have to be heavily armed so that it could function as a gunship and support the troops it landed. Luckily for me, I had the perfect bird in mind.
Retiring out the Bullhead - considered by Remnant aviators to be a tried, tested platform filling the role of an air support-capable dropship, and the best possible compromise between construction complexity and performance - was essentially ripping teeth out of a cross-Kingdom operation. People knew Bullheads, experimental ones are quite common because its performance characteristics and tolerances were nearly always handily explained before any article about modifications. Even non-engineers could pretty easily pick up what the Bullhead frame was capable of, because apparently every journalist was loaded with an 'Allow me to explain how you are wrong' attitude. Peer reviews by professionals weren't nearly as mentally special as tabloid writers.
Putting that issue aide, though, I'd barely glanced over schematics of the Bullheads that we were producing, one sunny day. That mess was frankly enough for me to get my calculator and get to work.
Simply put, the Bullhead didn't perform well enough outside its role as a light air transport. I foresee that with the MICA suit's advent, those fast troopers in order to be dropped exactly where they needed to be would need a craft with a lot longer legs, also quite a lot faster. That automatically made up-armoring a requirement - in my old world you could never armour a light aircraft enough that it mattered, but here with Dust in the mix there were quite a lot of options available to the guys working my refineries and smeltries.
The engines needed a complete redesign. I'm quite sure Father's got people who do nothing but argue over engine details, I'll show them this project and give design requirements in a bit. I finished laying out the most basic of a flying triangle of a guns-and-cabin section ahead, maneuverability thrusters to the sides and behind, a crew compartment behind them that could drop either bombs or MICA operators from a downward door... this doesn't fit the bill still, I'll need to go back to this later.
The D77-TC Pelican from Halo fit the bill to my criteria. Not only was it a effective transport sans gunship, it was a survivable aircraft and came from a setting where nearly everything was militarized. The Pelican didn't need further altering as it was a good enough design. The only changes that I had drilled into it was its dust-powered core, making it faster than its Halo counterpart.
While a gunship transport was good, a dedicated gunship was even better. And so, I had also drawn up two types of gunships, one light and the other, heavy.
The light gunship I envisioned to be operated around urban areas and its duty was to serve as quick fire support whenever needed. As for the heavy gunship, it was to be the support soldiers or hunstmen would call whenever they need nasties within 3 km blasted all the way to Kingdom Come.
For the lighter side of things, the GDI Orca fighter was best suited for light support missions. From my memories of Command and Conquer, it was a light, fast, and maneuverable CAS plane. My head was still hazy as to what it could exactly do but with a little tinkering, the RWBYfied Orca might do its namesake proud. The Orca I had redesigned featured a 40 mm chin-mounted auto-cannon, its controls linked to the pilots helmet. On the stub-wing pylons, there were two missile pods for unguided action and AGM anti-Grimm missiles.
The aircraft was also fitted with a special engine to make it buzz into hotspots as fast as possible. The ones who are calling for support might be putting their survival on support to arrive as fast as possible.
A satisfactory aircraft that could help huntsmen or soldiers stuck in the mud.
As for the heavier side of things, the HMP Droid Gunship from Star Wars came to mind. It was a slow and a less maneuverable craft, but what it lacked for in speed, it made up in sheer support value. For my RWBYfied HMP Gunship, it featured twin chain-guns, one 80 mm auto-cannon, and 18 missile pods for unguided fun. It could also carry a compliment of Atlesian Knights for additional infantry support and featured thicker armor plate and a energy shield.
The energy shield was rather unnecessary as the armor on the gunship was thick enough to resist blast damage but hey, I wanted it to ruin the day of those it was targeting and damn it, I want it to be hard to kill. This choice I will never regret.
I also kept it as a UAV. I found no reason to give it a pilot and programmed it with an advanced combat matrix linked directly to the Friedlich AG satellite network. No way in hell was I going to link my robots to the virus-trap that was the CCTNet.
As for why I chose the Orca and the HMP, I had chosen the Orca because I needed an aircraft that could support huntsmen, law enforcement or military in urban areas. Not only that, the support also needed to pack a decent enough punch as to properly kill whatever it was sent to shoot at. For the HMP, it was chosen as it was a heavily-armored Katyusha that could fly. Anyone dumb enough to stand in its way was going to have a real bad time and considering that we were going to fight off hordes of Grimm, a Katyusha seemed a good choice to saturate a parcel of land to smithereens.
As I had now satisfactory gunships and gunship-transports, I moved on to air superiority vehicles.
For that role, the FA38 from Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 would be suitable. It was capable of going supersonic and was also a VTOL, a satisfactory craft to be sure. I then designed it to carry two 30mm rotary cannons and hold missiles for aerial targets.
With the air sufficiently addressed, I had moved on to the groundpounders.
This was not Remnant's first attempt at making tanks with legs, but by our Father who art in Heaven, I mean to make a good go of it. To begin with, the armoured ground transport was just about obsolete with the MICA letting the average guy zip around the battlefield on microjets. All that's left is the guy with nothing but cloth and plate in the way of the Grimm - the man of the line.
I had always disliked seeing the common grunt being made to sit in the sidelines eating glue while the hunstmen stole all the glory and always wondered what they would be like if they were upgraded a bit. As the heir to the world's largest gunmaking compnay, I had that chance.
To make the common grunt stronger in the face of things like Grimm, anarcho-communists, and hunstmen, they had to given the right tools and I resolved to give them those tools.
I then designed an exoskeleton for the grunt's use. Taking inspiration from the exoskeletons from Call of Duty, the Type-21 Exoskeleton was born. Once worn, it would significantly increase the users strength, agility, and speed. The exoskleton would also allow for increased carry weight and lessen the strain on soldiers.
Now this thing wasn't just a wearable forklift, its multi-angle input design for its connector segments let its hydraulics combine large forces from multiple directions thanks to the bullshit Dust could do to metal, and my lab guys were quick to chuckle and throw in small pressure-blowout valves. To me, though, that meant infinitely variable torque was a possibility in the near future for vehicle transmissions.
All in all, the average guy could now leap from building to building, lift things way beyond what a normal human could carry, and be fast enough to keep up hunters.
To increase their lifespans, I had also designed an armor system for the grunts. Taking inspiration from Half-Life, I took the armor worn by the Atlesian soldeir and gave it a much needed power-boost. The Type-16 Powered Combat Vest was designed to make the normal grunt a more durable and effective soldier. It could withstand bullets from low-caliber weapons and resist high-caliber shots. It was capable of protecting the soldier from low-level to mid-level Grimm.
The headgear was also connected to the PCV and I took advantage of that fact. Instead of a helmet that covered the face save the mouth, the soldier would wear a facemask similar to what Starlord wore from the Guardians of the Galaxy. It would also function similarly as well, capable of being deployed at a moments notice. The only change there was that the eyes glowed blue instead of red and the facemask featured a HUD, night and thermal vision, a voice synthesizer and protection from chemical or biological attacks.
Overall, they looked rather intimidating and aggressive but considering I was planning to attack Sallie rather than sit behind walls, that was a small price to pay.
For armaments, I had to look to Halo once more. The MA5C ICWS and the BR55 Heavy Barrel Service Rifle would be excellent Grimm killers. These guns were designed to pierce the Covenant energy shields, their armour, their hides, all of the same exiting the other side... with conventional nitrocellulose-derivative ballistics gunpowder! Look out space barbarians, anarcho-communists, and immortal Sorceress ladies, these hunter-gatherers' stone slings fire at 2000 rounds a minute!
Satisfied with the infantry, I moved on to the vehicles that would transport and support them. This part was a conflicting one for me as I had way too many choices to attend to. And so, I momentarily halted choosing any singular 'good enough' design and made the decision to focus on the one thing I had known would turn the army of man into not something lightly trodden on.
I knew I was holding something amazing in my hands when holding it up to the sun made tears of pride tickle my cheekbones. This massive tank would stand at a 100 tons fully loaded, with half of that being its triple-hulled impact-absorbing pressure cable matrix. There were simply no peer level opponents that could or even would field vehicles to compete with whatever I built for the job, so I took dad's Defender tank and made it even better.
It was actually a little weird, that they had a different idea of what a Tank should do - instead of an armoured gun-carriage that adhered to Jules Verne's predictions of 'land-cruisers' that could cross infantry trenches and crack fortresses, they thought it should be... well, just like a motor, a carriage and guns coming second! The caterpillar tread propulsion system, that Earth best summed up as a train that laid down its own tracks, was actually how it faced its inception here on Remnant! Some guy didn't like that trains had to go only where their tracks led them, and so he built trains that needed no tracks, could ford rivers, climb mountains and ignore forests!
Kind of explains why there's not much opposition to giant tanks; nobody on my team or my dad's staff saw an oversize gun-carriage, they saw a very tiny, very slow one-carriage train built around hauling an artillery platform around.
Back on target - for anti-air duty it had strategically placed gaps in its top armour for the installation of internal-loading hatch-launched missile pods. There was a little bit of pity, as commanders would be limited to the diameter of the gaps in the hull, but that's why I made the rear of the turret have a modularly-reconfigurable panel!
If the operator wished for that spot to be armoured, that was an option, but it would all but restrict them to be using any given configuration of missiles. Armour plate was not quickly baked, not even on Remnant. I mean, the alternative is for guys to climb outside to manually reload external missile cells, and I wasn't going to yield that substandard an option unto my armies and customers.
The armour plates were a ceramic-metalloid compound matrix putting the Earth's Chobham armour to shame - a beastly gravity-compressed and Dust-fused plate comprising of varying amounts of titanium, tungsten, uranium and vanadium forming the biggest chunk of its protections where I didn't slap a silicone-carbon composite plate for shrapnel protection and puncture resistance. 750 millimetre thick at all points meant that the cable matrix had plenty sturdy stuff to work with.
I honestly hadn't known what more to do after slapping a pair of chainguns to cover its four turret-and-hull-mounted exit ports. I was in the middle of determining how far between the engine and the turret ring-motors I should affix an energy shield generator - I had gone for high-grade, high-power and high intensity models in my calculations, because if this tank's systems could shrug off those then it surely would be able to laugh aside something made for practical function! - when I decided that was enough.
I rolled up my blueprints and sighed happily.
I had to thank the Command and Conquer universe for such wonderful designs. They provided ideas for excellent support vehicles.
I put aside my blueprints and sighed once more. I had a couple more months until my transfer to Vale. While I had done my best to prepare for Cindy, I was still unsure if my preparations were enough. After all, no plan of operations reaches with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main force.
What if it were insufficient? What if I screw up? What if I fail and allow Cindy access to my weapons? What if I-
A polite knock at the door interrupted me from falling into a pit of anxiety. Momentarily calming myself down, I glanced at the door and spoke.
"What is it?"
"Miss Schnee has arrived sir. Are you ready for your trip?" came the voice of a servant. I glanced at the bags that were neatly packed at the other side of my room then back to the door.
"I am ready. Tell Weiss I'll be coming down shortly." I said with a wave.
"Very well sir." replied the butler, his footsteps echoing down the hall.
All my worrying about the future has done me no good. Maybe some time in the mountains with the Schnees will do wonders for my mental health.
+++
A/N: Blessing be upon Krasnogvardiech for helping me with this chapter.
After this, some cutesy gay fluffy stuff then Vale time.
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- Location
- Somewhere with a Thousand Watchful Eyes
- Pronouns
- They/Them
How gay is this fluff?
- Location
- Cebu City, Philippines
When I said gay, I meant the kind of stuff that makes you all nice and happy in the inside. It just makes you recall your childhood, sitting by the fire during Winter with a hot cup of chocolate in your hands while your mother stays by your side, puts a blanket over you and tells you that you are a good lad.
That kind of gay.
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