Episode: Atlesian Revolution: Chapter 3: Priorities

Chapter 3 of the story of the Atlesian Revolution.

            Everybody started getting their weapons ready preparing for the operation.  Dust cartridges being loaded, swords being sharpened, and armor being prepared.  As soon as people were finished, they left the locker rooms and made their way towards their designated dropship.  Miles was alone in his section of lockers as he stared at a small box that he had stashed away in his duffel bag.  He looked at it, sighed, put it back in the duffel bag, zipped it up and put the bag in his locker.  He smacked his face to psych himself up and prepared to join his friends on the dropship.  As he was walking towards the loading area, he saw Weiss sitting in front of the locker that had been assigned to her staring at a small photo, a few tears rolling down her face.  Miles placed his hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up in surprise.

            “I didn’t realize you were still here” she said wiping her eyes.

            “Same to you” Miles said sitting down next to her.  “How are you holding up?”

            “Badly honestly” Weiss said looking back at the picture.  She ran her finger across herself, her sister Winter, and Whitley.  “After our mom died, we only really had each other.  But after Winter left to join the military and I left to go to Beacon, Whitley was forced to deal with our father alone.  And he probably saw nothing but the worst of him.  He had a front row seat to all his horrible actions.  I had hoped that after Winter had instilled the fear of the gods in father, he would have gotten better and that would have rubbed off on Whitley.  And for a while, things were looking good.  Better working conditions, Faunus getting equal pay across the world, reducing the amount of control the Schnee Company had in world governments, so many good steps.  Father was even planning on having a family dinner with all of us together a few days from now.  He said he was wanting to talk about how he wanted to approach the future of his place in the company.  Maybe even his own retirement.  Winter and I were hopeful, but Whitley somehow had gotten worse after the Uprising.  And now…..”

            “I wish I could help.  I’m probably the last person to talk about family related stuff….”

            “All we can do is our best” a new voice said from the side.  Miles and Weiss looked over to see Natalie standing there with a weak smile on her face.  “I don’t even want to imagine what you are going through with a family member doing what they are doing now Weiss, but he’s still your brother.  And if anybody could break through his shell, I believe it is you.  We can do this.  Together.”  Natalie extended her hand to help Weiss stand up, which she accepted.  They shared a quick hug, then made their way towards the dropship.  Miles smiled as the two of them left, and started running to catch up with them.

 

Once everybody was on board, the airships took off and began their attack on Atlas Academy.  Miles was on a ship with Natalie, Evan, Nathan, Blake and Ruby.  Jacob, Christy, Ty, Brooklyn, Yang and Weiss were on another ship.  Derrick, Sage, Jaune and Pyrrha were on another one, and the rest were just normal Atlesian troops as well as any other Hutnsman and Huntresses who were able and willing to answer the call to arms.  After observing everything that the machines were doing, it was decided that the majority would strike the machines attacking the Atlas Academy barrier.  They would then try to get inside and find all the students and help get them out.  The Academy was stuck behind a shield, and as a result, unable to get help inside unless they wanted to open the floodgates to the enemy.  And trying to fly airships in to help evacuate was met with heavy fire from the mechs.  So it was decided that it would be best if a large army met the machines head-on on the onset by blocking their access to the barrier and establishing a force between the machines and Atlas Academy.  Giving people the time they needed in order to get inside to help those trapped inside and get evacuation ships down in order to get injured out and bring ammunition to those inside.  After a few quick moments, the airships began their approach towards the front lines of Atlas Academy.  The mechs diverted their attention from trying to destroy the barrier to taking aim at the incoming force.  Some airships got hit and went down in flames, others pressed on.  But instead of landing right in front of the mechs, they flew low and close to the front lines, allowing the Huntsmen and Huntresses to leap out of the airships and land right in front of the mechs blocking their path to the Academy and begin attacking.  Evan created a large mural barrier to try and mask the handful of airships that would drop down behind them to unload normal troops so that the mechs would not realize they were there.  Weiss had surmised the day before that most infra-red tech for detecting soldiers would be either in hibernation or overall deactivated since Whitley was so focused on simply acting out of rage.  A fast-bombing run from some Atlesian pilots created an opening in front of the barrier that the warriors could use, resulting in them getting the green light.  When the first warriors dropped down, mech parts went flying everywhere, and the humans made a significant dent in the front lines of the mech force.  As soon as enough debris was available to them, Pyrrha took a majority of the debris and erected crude barriers for people to hide behind.  Derrick also used the debris to his advantage and created several puppets, turning the machines own guns against them.  As the soldiers took root and began holding their ground against the machines, others ran up to the barrier and fired a signal flare to let those inside the academy know that they were there.  As soon as the flare was fired, the barrier began to dissipate, and several people ran inside to help people, as well as a few airships began to drop down to help evacuate injured and those who did not wish to stay.  And with the attack in the front of the Academy distracting the enemy, everything went off without a hitch. 

            

A full day of fighting back and forth resulted in most of if not all the students and staff being evacuated from the Academy, and all that remained was a stalemate at the front gates.  It took extra time because the Academy was in the middle of the school year, so the entire student body was on campus, and most of them needed to be evacuated, not that many didn’t volunteer to stay behind and fight.  So while the soldiers numbers were bolstered, they didn’t mean all that much against a horde that never tired.

            “Well, that does it for the easy part” Christy said with a sigh as she fired several rounds into the horde of machines.

            “Perhaps,” Jacob said with a smile, “but we now have the chance to ensure these machines won’t keep getting reinforcements.”

            “Keep them off our backs until we finish down there” Natalie said as she fired another round into the horde of machines as she and the rest of her teammates made their way to the service tubes in the academy.

            “Will do” Ty said firing a rocket blowing several more machines into scrap metal.

 

 

 

The Schnee Weapons Development Factory

Mantle

 

 

 

            Several machines patrolled the inside of the factory, watching as the equipment hummed along taking what material was available and reforging it to make even more machines and weapons.  Nearby was a central system of tubes that all ran upwards to the Kingdom of Atlas.  Most of them were active, sending machines up towards some of the buildings nearest the Academy to try and bolster the forces of the machines up top.  One of the drones was watching and inspecting the tubes, noting that the Atlas Academy tube was still inactive, unable to be accessed.  Most likely closed off by the Academy itself when it went into lockdown.  But then, a light flashed and the tube became activated.  The drone hesitated, and slowly approached the now active tube.  But before it could do anything else, a figure appeared at the bottom of the tube.  The drone realized that the figure was living, and opened fire.  But the moment that one of the bullets even grazed his body, Sage’s Semblance activated, and he began running towards the drone and sliced it into many tiny pieces.  He quickly looked around to ensure there weren’t any other drones in the immediate vicinity of the other tubes, then deactivated his Semblance.  He then took the head of the drone and sent it back up the tube he just rode down in.  And then a few moments later, all the members of Team NEMN, Derrick, Ruby, and Blake traveled through the tubes and reached the bottom.  As soon as they were all together, Blake and Derrick started going through the different control terminals while everybody else stayed near the main doors to ensure no other machines tried to sneak in.

            “Shouldn’t be too long,” Derrick said as he started typing several commands.  “We should be able to program the tubes in Atlas Academy to go from there to the surrounding buildings up in Atlas instead of down here.”

            “Kind of surprised that Whitley didn’t think of that himself to get his machines inside of Atlas Academy” Yang said with a confused look.

            “Some security protocols are in place to prioritize the command of Atlas over the Schnee Dust Company” Derrick said as he made sure his rifle was loaded.  “Ironwood is admittedly a bit paranoid, but it allows him to make decisions that could potentially save lives.  Like in this instance, a manual override of the tube controls to close off Atlas Academy in case this exact scenario plays out.”

            “And yet he still uses Atlesian drones despite the Order hacking into them and using them without hinderance years ago….” Nathan said with a groan.

            “A manual switch on a single piece of tech is one thing.  Trying to stay ahead of hackers in a war of programs and espionage is another.” Derrick said with a sigh.  “Not the greatest idea in the world, but admittedly I am intrigued about trying to tackle the challenge of this AI security software.”

            “That didn’t really disprove my point….” Nathan said tilting his head in confusion.

            “How much longer Blake?” Natalie asked as she stared through the crack in the door with her rifle sight.

            “Got it” she said with a decisive button press.  “Our friends should now be able to send themselves through the tubes in Atlas only without having to relay down to this central location here in Mantle.”

            “Excellent” Miles said with a sigh.  “Time to blow this place sky…..” but before Miles could finish that sentence, a shot rang out.  The bullet hit Blake square in the chest.  Her Aura managed to catch most of it, but since it was unexpected, the bullet still did some damage, and her Aura was all but depleted.  The gunshot surprised everybody, and as they looked out the door again, they didn’t see any of the machines doing anything differently.  But then, they saw something.  Something that looked like a glitch in the wall.  Then moments later, the wall behind the central tubes fell to the ground and revealed several machines where the wall used to be opening fire on the room.  Everybody closest to the door got out of the way as quickly as possible, trying to find cover in the main factory, despite now the factory drones were also attacking them.  Everyone managed to activate their Aura in time to get out of the way and find cover, while Blake quickly dodged out of the hail of bullets, but not before taking a round in the side.  Ruby quickly turned into petal form and sped through into the middle of the machines and quickly did a spin attack to try and create a gap for people to fight through.  This worked and everyone made their way towards the center of the adjourning room.  Natalie pressed a button on her Scroll to send a message back to the top telling them to send the bomb down and prepare to blow the facility before leaping out as well and cutting through several machines.  Miles and Sage charged forward, firing a few rounds from their pistol-form weapons before morphing the weapons back into sword forms and began cutting through several enemies.  Derrick immediately used the remnants of the drone Sage destroyed to create a puppet that started tearing into the new machine, and he continued to try and add to his puppets numbers with each machine defeated, but it was not easy, they were too easy to destroy.  Nathan and Evan also joined the fray with Blake, who while still visibly injured, joined in the fray.  The machines were as easy as all the other machines they had fought back up at the Academy.  But while up there they had the backing of the entire Atlesian army and all their friends, down here it was just the seven of them against the entire force of machines stationed in Mantle.  Everything was chaos.  Despite their efforts to remain together, some found themselves separated from the others, forced to fend for themselves until either retreating back to friends or destroying their attackers.  Blake was off in a corner away from the center trying to keep a low profile as her aura was struggling to recover, while everyone else was scattered across the rest of the factory room. 

            “We could use some good news right about now!” Evan yelled as he morphed his spear to rifle form to shoot at several approaching machines trying to enter the factory.  As they continued to fight, they heard the sound of the arrival alarm from the tube room signaling something had arrived.

            “I think we just got it” Natalie said separating her primary weapon into two scythes and cut through another horde of machines.  “We should have two minutes from now before it goes off.”

            “Then what are we waiting for?” Ruby said as she dug her own scythe into the ground and began cutting into the concrete like she was carving a piece of cheese out of a wheel to create a large stone slab that Miles could control with his Semblance.  Ruby created the circle with her scythe, but then used her Semblance to sneak into the cracks and create the break between the circle and the ground so that it wasn’t rooted to the ground.

            “Let’s go people!” Natalie yelled as she leapt into the center of the slab.  From there, everybody started to form up on the slab.  Blake was trying to swing her way over, but when she tried to throw her ribbon onto a high pipe near the ceiling, one of the machines fired a stray bullet that cut the ribbon, causing Blake to fall into a horde of machines.  She had enough Aura left to cushion her fall, but the moment she landed, all the machines turned their guns on her.  Blake knew she couldn’t escape, so she tried to use the sheath of Gambol Shroud to defend her vital organs as the machines opened fire.  She felt the bullets rip through her body, as well as a few machines landing melee attacks with the butts of their guns, knocking her to the ground.  Miles saw this, and in an instant, he felt nothing.   He simply charged towards where she was being pinned down, cutting through machines even easier than previously seemed possible.  But even that didn’t feel fast enough.  Everybody tried to rush over to help, Ruby tried to break through and get to her with her Semblance, and while she got close, the machines seemed to be realizing how to counter Ruby’s Semblance, resulting in her getting close but not close enough.  One of the machines aimed their pistol at Blake’s head, as she was now struggling to stay conscious, her body covered in blood.  But before the machine could fire, Miles plunged his sword into the machine’s head, causing it to malfunction.   With that opening, Ruby was able to swoop in, grab her teammate and bring her back to the slab.

            “Miles!” Ruby yelled at the top of her lungs.  Miles nodded, knowing full well that his friends needed his help to get the slab moving in order for them to get out of the factory.  He activated his own Semblance, changing the pull of gravity on himself to cause himself to fall towards the slab until he reached it, then poured all of his aura into the slab, causing it to rise, and begin to fly towards the wall of the factory.  Natalie fired several Dust cartridges at the factory wall, breaking it open with explosions allowing the slab to fly into the cold of Mantle and out into the even worse temperatures of the Tundra beyond the city limits.  As soon as they were clear of the city, Miles relinquished his Semblance, causing the slab to crash into the ground.  Everybody crashed into the snow, Ruby making an effort to cushion Blake’s fall as she was still unconscious and bleeding heavily.  Miles crawled over to her, his body bleeding after exerting himself so much using his Semblance again and doing so while emotionally charged.  As he reached for her, an Atlesian dropship appeared and several soldiers arrived to pick them up and take them back to the command ship.

 

 

 

Atlas Academy

Service Tubes

The Moment Natalie Messaged the Forces

 

 

 

            Jacob’s Scroll buzzed with a message from Natalie.  They were under fire, and needed the bomb ASAP.  Jacob waved his arms to signal Ty to send the bomb down into the tubes.  Ty obliged and sent the bomb down through the tube down into Mantle.  And as soon as that was complete, everybody jumped into the tubes and started using them to go into other Atlas buildings that were surrounding the Academy.  Buildings like the ministry of finance skyscraper or one of the many energy plants surrounding the grounds.  Soldiers went through the tubes in order to surround and flank the many Atlesian machines, causing panic and confusion amongst the enemy.  What was once their primary source of reinforcements was now the source of an ambush.  With that, the machines surrounding the Academy were being destroyed at a rapid pace.  And because of this, the forces defending the Academy charged forward, choking the Atlesian machines and helping take back several key portions of the city.  Most of the machines tried to fight back, but when it became clear that the area was lost, they began retreating back towards the Schnee manor, leaving the city to be completely retaken by the human forces.  As it became clear that the city was theirs, cheers went up throughout the streets.  Jacob smiled and sighed in relief as a dropship came down to take people back to the command ship.  As he got on board, he expected to see smiling faces, but he and all of his friends were shocked and horrified when they saw Blake hooked up to several IVs and everybody from the Mantle team clearly shaken and disturbed.  Christy ran over and began pouring as much healing energy into Blake as she could, everybody else strapped in and hoped for the best as they made their way towards the command ship.

 

 

 

Two Hours Later

Medical Ward

 

 

            Blake was suspended in healing liquid, one of many that Atlas had developed for treating intensive wounds.  Miles watched as the several screens blinked showing her vitals and status in regards to her healing process.  General Ironwood walked up and let out a huge sigh.

            “She got lucky.  The machines will have her mostly healed up in about an hour from now.  But she will need to rest.  She shouldn’t do anything extensive for at least a week.”

            “Will she be all right enough for transport?” Miles asked looking at General Ironwood.

            “Yes, but she will mostly likely still be asleep when we take her out of the tank.  But that is normal.  She will need her rest.”

            “All right” Miles said with a sigh.  “I’ll go with her back to Menagerie.”

            “Are you sure?  We are this close to winning the war.  We could use all hands on deck.”

            “Blake’s hands are not going to be able to help, and I’m just one person.  And right now, I need to be with her more than anywhere else.  I don’t care what you think but….”

            “I understand” Ironwood said.  “Your talents will be missed, but it is understandable that you feel the need to be with her.  I’ll get a ship prepared for transport for both of you back to Menagerie.”

            “Thank you general.”

            “Repay me by doing some work for me after this is all over.”

            “Fine.”  Miles said with another tired sigh.  With that, Ironwood stepped away to begin making preparations for the transport to Menagerie.  Weiss was standing outside the door and heard everything.

            “You’re really leaving?” she asked as she entered the room.

            “All that’s left is your brother and his machines surrounding your house” Miles said placing his hand on Blake’s healing tank.  “You can deal with that.  But Blake will need me when she wakes up.”

            “I still need you” Weiss said grabbing her arm.  “Yes, it’s just Whitley left, but he’s still my brother.  And I have this feeling I am going to need everybody with me to help with this.  Whitley is my world and….”

            “Blake is my world too” Miles said as a few tears rolled down his face.  “And I can’t ignore that world for your sake Weiss.  I’m sorry.”

            “What about your friends?  Your teammates?  They aren’t your world as well?”

            “They are, but they aren’t my world the same way Blake is Weiss.  I’m sorry.”  Weiss was about to retort, but decided she was not going to win this battle.  With that, she stepped out of the healing ward, leaving Miles alone with Blake yet again.  Moments later, Natalie walked in, Nathan stood just outside the main doors.  She placed her hand on Miles’ shoulder.

            “I get it” she said with a weak smile.  “Go take care of her.”

            “I expect to hear good news by the time she wakes up” Miles said wiping the tears from his eyes.

            “Promise” Natalie said as she turned to leave.  Nathan looked over at Miles, and Miles looked back at Nathan.

            “I’d say stop waiting” Nathan said with a wry smile.  “If she really is that important to you after all.”

            “You may have a point” Miles said with a light chuckle.

            “Of course I do.  Besides, everybody knew since our freshman year.  I’m kind of surprised you didn’t take me and Yang up on our offer of a double wedding.”

            “Well, we clearly don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things.  Besides, if anything you and Yang were way more obvious than me and Blake.”

            “So you admit it!”

            “Oh grow up…..” Miles said with a groan.  The two of them laughed a little bit before Nathan turned to leave.

            “Do you think Weiss was being a bit harsh back there?” Nathan asked without turning back around.

            “She’s having to fight her own flesh and blood” Miles said lowering his head.  “What do you do when you love someone who has become a monster?  I can’t even begin to imagine how much this hurts her.”  Nathan nodded his head in agreement, and walked away.

            “I hope nobody else will ever have to know.”

Author's Note

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