Vale, Vale

11:41 hours

Ruby takes deep breaths and stares at the shaking floor of the MH-47D Chinook helicopter. The chaotic sounds of bullets and rockets pinging and whizzing past the helicopter, the Chinook and its fleet of identical craft's roaring engines, the crew chief firing on the streets below with an M240 on the ramp, and the constant panicked radio chatter in her ear is testing her steel; and the battle hasn't even begun for them. She turns around and looks out one of the windows.

"But it has for them," she thinks dreadfully.

What was once the capital of the grand and eloquent kingdom of Vale has turned into ground zero of the apocalypse; the docks are filled with the wreckage of civilian and military ships alike, their loose pieces forming a floating pile of rubble. The only vessels that remain are cargo ships that are still unloading Zubr-class Air-Cushioned Landing Craft (LCAC) and amphibious LVTP-7s onto the scorched beaches, and over a dozen cruise missile submarines launching their ordinance deep into the city. Their streaks of white cover the battered and broken skyline like chalk, colliding with structures seemingly at random, sending them ablaze and throwing countless tons of debris into the streets below.

And the streets: even from this height, Ruby can still see the tracer rounds and moving vehicles through the thick, black haze of fire. The easily identifiable black and grey Federation Beowolfs and Ursa war machines drive straight over the civilian vehicles, which have all long been covered by a thick layer of dust, and fire into store fronts and the remnants of police barricades. Dozens of infantry follow behind them into combat, while hundreds more remain behind, securing their taken ground.

From what Ruby's heard, the police forces made a valiant effort to hold the Feds back from the civilian population, but it's obvious that they're running out of resources. They are shoving abandoned vehicles, including their now useless and unarmored squad cars, into the middle of the streets, in hopes that they will delay the giant tanks and APCs approaching them. VPD and Little Bird helicopters, the latter of which had descended from the Templar that Ruby and the rest of Fort Beacon rode to the city, are attempting to evacuate stranded humans on rooftops, one of the only somewhat safe havens left on the front lines, but the Faunus have already deployed SA-13 "Gopher" and SA-19 "Grison" SAM systems, and fallen helicopters litter the streets, some even lodged in the sides of buildings. Deeper inside the city, the VAF have already begun offloading hundreds of infantrymen in preparation for a proper defensive, along with a few battalions of Paladins and Warlords.

That's where RWBY Squad is headed.

"So, is this your first mission?" the Hunter with the black aviators and beret, Coco, asks Ruby. Coco's team, CFVY Squad, was assigned to the same chopper. Coco is wearing black and brown demolition AURA, with an M134 Minigun and its attached Ironman ammunition backpack resting at her feet. The copper-haired soldier, Fox, is wearing dark orange sniper AURA and holds a HK PSG1 rifle. The giant, Yatsuhashi, or Yat for short, wears green assault AURA and holds a USAS 12 automatic shotgun and an MBT LAW rocket launcher. Velvet, the Faunus, wears light brown AURA with gold trimming, and holds an old, yet well kept, AKMS assault rifle, an old First War Fed classic.

"Second," Weiss replies. There's an explosion outside, and Ruby looks out the window just in time to see a Chinook with a smoking propeller rapidly descend to the streets. "Infiltrated a Fed base to capture an officer. Didn't go very well, but we did liberate the base."

"Well, at least it's something," Coco says. "We were one of the first Hunter squads, so of course we got the luxury of immediately being dropped into front line combat. I'm talking a few hundred feet into no man's land kind of shit. She taps her giant gun with her foot. "Fortunately, Faunus ain't genetically resistant to three thousand rounds per minute." There's another explosion that rocks the chopper, and the crew chief nearly falls out the back. He takes a moment to compose himself before going back to lighting up Feds.

"Too bad we don't have that kind of hardware," Ruby says nervously. Coco smirks.

"Don't worry, you guys will be fine," she says. "Just focus on the task at hand and you'll get to your third mission no problem."

"You really calling this a normal mission?" Yang asks. Ruby notes that she's been more quiet than usual, especially considering the scale of the whole operation. "You do realize that we're in the capital of the fucking kingdom, right? There's a whole army of Feds down there, and we did nothing about it. And how widespread is the attack? Are there anymore landings on the kingdom's coastline?" Another explosion rocks the chopper.

"Alright!" the co-pilot shouts to the Hunters. "This is as far as we can go! Prepare to rappel." The soldiers stand up and ready their equipment.

"Save the city today," Coco says to Yang as she slings on her massive backpack and picks up the even larger gun. "And you can worry about saving the kingdom tomorrow." There's an ear shattering clanging sound from below their feet and everyone is knocked to their feet.

"That was a direct RPG hit!" the crew chief shouts, looking around the outside of the ramp. "Get the hell out now!" Blake and Velvet attach the ropes to a beam above the ramp and toss them over the side.

"Fox, take point," Coco says as they stand up.

"Copy," Fox replies, then leaps straight out of the chopper, powered leggings poised to break his fall. Suddenly, staying in the helicopter doesn't sound like a very good idea to Ruby anymore.

"See ya," she says, then jumps off the ramp, catching the words, "The hell?" from Weiss.

Ruby lands next to a dirt crater formed by Fox, who has his rifle aimed down the street towards most of the gunfire, while also creating one of her own.

"Word of advice don't stop moving," Fox tells Ruby calmly before running for the street. A mound of dirt explodes about a dozen feet from her, and it feels like the world is shaking itself apart. She looks up from her feet, suddenly not entirely sure of her decision.

The helicopters are hovering directly over a small park, which has lost most of its grass to Fed artillery. The cobblestone paths have either been turned into dust or scattered in the surrounding streets, and the streets are worse than any rush hour in the history of the city. All the civilian vehicles, many with suitcases and luggage stacked on the roofs, have been abandoned, and many are damaged from the large military and police vehicles moving towards the front lines, and move they do; Paladins and Warlords escort transport trucks and dozens upon dozens of infantrymen, their weapons' stocks planted firmly against their shoulders. Many soldiers, most likely separated from their units, run alongside the vehicles, although a few squads of paratroopers use the IFVs and tanks as mobile cover. More VAF troops are unloading from nearby Little Birds, Chinooks, and Blackhawk helicopters directly into the street and into the fight. The red lights of tracer rounds and their accompanying banging can be soon a few hundred feet down the street.

"Ruby, focus," Blake orders as she descends the rope. More artillery goes off. Ruby suddenly notices that everyone in the vicinity is running urgently. They must be zeroed in. "Find us an AO."

"Uh, right," Ruby says, right before the zip of incoming fire is heard from her left. She takes a deep breath, picks up the PLR-16 slung over her shoulder, and looks around with a goal in mind.

"Find CO. Find CO. Find CO," she tells herself. She hears a clinging sound and looks over to see sparks flying off the chassis of a Paladin, which delivers a volley of shells into a store front. She notices an officer pointing down the street.

"On me!" Ruby shouts, and takes off towards the officer.

She hasn't heard chaos like this since Signal; an orchestra of boots on concrete, fierce orders being thrown about, hundreds of bullets being fired every second, cannons and artillery from heavy machinery, and, worst of all, the cries of agony from the wounded as combat medics take on the painstaking task of playing doctor in no man's land. Ruby does her best to block out the last part.

"Sitrep!" Ruby shouts to the officer, who has since crouched behind a Warlord with a radio pressed against his face and a map of the city resting on his knee.

"FUBAR, there's your sitrep," the officer says without looking up. The tank fires its main cannon, and Ruby is momentarily deaf, with only tinnitus in her ears. She drops her pistol and cups the ear defenders on either side of her head.

"Hey. Hey!" the officer shouts when she notices Ruby. Ruby slowly removes her hands and picks up her pistol. "Are you?"

"Say again?" Ruby shouts.

"A Hunter."

"Oh, yeah, RWBY Squad." The officer shakes his head.

"About damn time we got some Hunters on the ground!" he shouts, then shows her the map. There are markings either circling or crossing out buildings and streets. "The Feds didn't waste any time, they took the first few blocks fifteen minutes after their first wave of landing craft arrived! Police tried to contain them, but they already had artillery and air support coming in from their boats!"

A missile slams into the building directly above them, sending a chunk of stone and metal the size of a motorcycle to the ground mere meters from them. The officer wipes dust from the map.

"Now we're in basically the same situation!" he continues. "Our main landing sites are here, here, here, and two more in this section, but I'm not sure if they made it yet! We want to try and retake a few streets and split the Feds into smaller units, possibly route them for some danger close missions by the Templar you guys brought!"

"So what do you want us to do?" Ruby asks. She looks up and sees that the rest of her and CFVY Squad has joined her. The officer points down the street.

"Clear this street!" he says. "By the time you get to the T-intersection at the end, and if we're all still alive, brass should have an official strategy by then! Keep your radios on, and good luck you crazy bastards!"

"Copy that!" Ruby says, standing up. She looks at her squad.

"I am their leader," she silently tells herself. "What the fuck, I was a PFC three months ago."

"Let's go!" Coco says, waving her squad forward. Her three comrades charge down the street while Coco jumps on top of a tank and opens fire down the street, ripping windows and store fronts wide open. A Fed truck that was parked at the T-intersection ahead suddenly backs up.

"That's our suppressive fire!" Ruby shouts, and starts running down the street, her squad close behind.

Ruby fires a few bullets down the street, then takes cover behind a wrecked humvee. She unfolds Crescent Rose and peers down the scope. Most of the grey uniforms are littered along the sidewalk, possibly abandoned from a failed advancement, and most remain behind whatever cover they can find, occasionally peeking out to keep Coalition troops from advancing themselves. A disabled Beowolf, with half its wheels and back armor missing, lays in the middle of the street, only its LMG operational. At least a dozen Feds are behind it.

"That needs to go!" Ruby shouts to her squad, and quickly thinks of a plan. "I'll watch the flanks from here. Blake, cloak and take the left flank. Take out the infantry. Freezerburn 3D on the right flank. Try and disable that mounted gun. Move!"

Blake cloaks and runs down the left side of the street, Weiss switches her Myrtenaster to armor piercing, and she and Yang run down the right side of the street.

Hello! This is mainly for all my old readers, so you new readers can skip over this part if you want. First of all, I would like to apologize for my absence. In case you haven't noticed, this is the first chapter in months, since early March. That would be because I was originally going to have this chapter end after a climactic battle, but one day, I stopped writing at the line above and, between school, my new job, and some stuff happening in my social life, I was too burned out to finish (in case you haven't written one before, action scenes can be a pain in the ass to write as well as you'd want it written. Quite stressful). I would also like to specifically apologize to Henta1Rampag3, who agreed to be my beta reader for future chapters shortly before I stopped writing, and basically left him in the dark (Sorry, dude :( The job's still yours if you want). So instead, I decided to post what I had to give you guys something while also give you this update. But don't worry, I already have a plan on how to write that battle scene into the next chapter.

Alright, now that I've explained my whereabouts let's talk about the future of Fort Beacon. School ended about two weeks ago, and I'm settling into my new work schedule, and now that my life is a bit less chaotic now, I want to start writing like I was again. It may take a while, but I'm gonna force myself into a writing routine so I write at least a little bit every day, and not relapse into no-writing-mode again. While I don't frequent the RWBY subreddit much anymore, I'm still passionate about the show and especially this story, and I don't want to let it stop like this.

And what can you guys do to help me and Fort Beacon? Keep doing what you're doing! Read, follow, favorite, comment, critique, etc. And especially those last two. Hearing what people thing of my stories, both good and bad, is half the reason I keep writing. You're all awesome!

Ok, it's midnight, I'm still burnt out from six and a half hours of work, and I have tomorrow off, which means lots of writing for me! I'll be cleaning up a few plot holes I found while reviewing my older chapters, but I hope to start Chapter 17 before the end of tomorrow! Once again, thank you for still keeping up to date with Fort Beacon, even after such a long hiatus. Looking forward to hearing from you!