Vale, Vale

15:32 hours

Five Bullheads with red crosses painted on their underbellies zoom over RWBY Squad's position, a burnt out city bus sitting in the middle of the street, as AA fire chases them back to the Coalition's retreating lines.

"Fuckers don't even leave the wounded alone," Weiss grunts, watching the smoking engine of one of the . All the soldiers are sitting on the charred floor of the bus, weapons either lying by their side or in their laps. Sweat and grime cover their faces, and their bones ache from constant movement and little rest, even with the assistance of the powered AURA. Their ears are primed to catch any sound of advancing Feds; Blake secretly makes extra use of her nose as well. The only scent she can pick up is the fainting ones of a recently killed squad.

"They want to send a message with this invasion," Blake says, rubbing her finger over the tally marks on Gambol Shroud's barrel. "They won't hold anything back now that they're on human territory."

"Burn in hell here, burn in hell in the border countries, burn in hell in Fed territory," Yang mutters. She is the only one looking down the street at the moment, the barrel of Celica resting on a shattered window of the bus. "Makes no difference to me, as long as they burn."

Blake starts to speak up, but Ruby, sitting next to her, grabs her shoulder and shakes her head. A few hours ago, they got word that the Coalition's fleet got scattered by the Federation's, and many islands, including Patch, were under siege.

"I'm sure they're fine, Yang," Ruby says. Yang just sighs and adjusts her grip on the LMG.

They sit for the next few minutes, when they feel the broken frame of the bus begin to shake and hear a rumbling noise.

"Ready up," Ruby orders. Everyone sits up and readies their weapons, and Ruby flips the safety off the remote detonator. Seconds later, the rumbling grows louder and turns into a growling noise. At the end of the street, an Ursa tank rolls into the intersection and turns in their direction. A platoon of infantry follows behind it.

"Get that rocket ready, Yang," Ruby orders.

"Copy," Yang replies. She sets Celica down and unshoulders her M72 LAW, extends the metal tube to its full length, flips up the sights, and stays in a crouched position, ready to spring if the C4 inside one of the wrecked cars between them and the advancing enemy isn't enough.

The tank rolls over a burnt out truck or, more appropriately, completely removed the truck from its path, with nearly no effort. Two more cars until the C4 laden one.

"Blake, take the left flank and clean up the infantry," Ruby says.

The tank rolls straight over a flatbed pickup carrying pallets of supplies, and only has to turn slightly to the right to get over it. It's engine vibrates RWBY's ears.

"Use the bus stop as cover."

Blake nods, cloaks, jumps out of the bus, and makes her way to a bus stop that has miraculously survived hours of Federation and Kingdom artillery fire. She isn't worried about her scent being picked up; the gas guzzling MBT's expelled odor is too strong compared to the Faunus scent.

The tank destroys a taxi, and rolls towards the ambush, only ten feet away. It's a few dozen meters from the bus, but the Ursa will most likely have to go around them.

"Please don't turn yet, please don't turn yet," Ruby silently pleads. The tank rolls until it's five feet from the car…

It turns to the left and continues forward, driving right by the car.

"Blow it! Blow it!" Weiss shouts. Without another thought, Ruby slams her hand down on the detonator. The small car turns into a flaming inferno, sending flames in all directions and a concussion wave that makes the humans lose their balance and the Faunus to completely fall over. The side armor plating of the Ursa, which charred and partially broken, remains intact, and the war machine fully functional.

"Oh shit, light it up!" Ruby shouts, switching to her PLR-16 and firing on the fallen infantry. Yang sits up, quickly aims, and fires the LAW, knocking a few chunks of reactive armor off the front, then picks up her LMG and starts suppressing the ground troops. Weiss stands up just as the tank fires its main cannon, the shell colliding with the GLYPH munitions about a dozen meters from the bus, the shockwave making everyone lose their balance again.

"Blake, help!" Ruby shouts. From the flank, a cloaked Blake runs out of cover and chucks a grenade into the ground of infantry, which have already sustained half a dozen casualties. The grenade goes off and doubles that number. The rest run for cover behind the slowly advancing tank, and Blake has no trouble taking down three more with her MP7. One of the four remaining Faunus points in her direction.

"It's a super soldier!" he shouts, and he and his comrades open fire on her. Blake quickly dives behind a wrecked motorcycle, bullets clipping her armored arms and legs.

"I'm pinned!" she shouts. The tank fires again, this time being detonated only three meters from the bus. The shock wave throws the three Hunters to the back wall of the bus. Their armor absorbs most of the shock from slamming into the hard metal surface, but Ruby's stomach is in knots.

"We gotta fall back," Yang says, staggering to her feet. "Ruby, Weiss?"

"I'm good," Ruby says, reloading her pistol. She and Yang freeze when they notice that Weiss is still sitting, motionless. "W-Weiss?"

"I can't see," she moans.

"Fuck, concussion," Yang says. She kneels down next to Weiss and lifts her head. Her sky blue eyes are wide open. "Weiss? Can you hear me?"

"Wha…" Weiss replies quietly.

"Blake, buy us some time!" Ruby says into her radio. Without hesitation, Blake stands up and throws two more grenades in rapid succession, her AURA absorbing bullets like a sponge. The remaining infantry are killed, and the tank turret starts to rotate, as if the crew is trying to decide whether Blake is more of a threat than the rest of the squad, but quickly swivels back to the bus.

"Help me stand her up for the GLYPH," Yang says, throwing Weiss' arm around her neck.

"No use if we get concussions too," Ruby says. "Get her out the-"

Suddenly, there's another explosion, much too loud to be another grenade.

"The fuck!?" Blake says.

"That wasn't you?" Ruby asks, turning around. Another explosion on the right side of the tank goes off.

"Negative, it's from the other side of the street." Two more explosions as the tank turret turns to face the new threat.

"Get outta here," Ruby tells Yang. Yang nods and guides a conscious but severely disoriented Weiss out of the bus. Ruby unholsters and unfolds Crescent Rose and scans the street. The Ursa fires at one of the buildings, and bricks and concrete spill onto the sidewalk. A soldier jumps out of the hole.

"Hunter!" Ruby immediately identifies. The Hunter, a woman with fiery red hair, wears pink and white demolition AURA, a white patrol cap and pink ear defenders, and wields an M4 carbine with an underslung M203 grenade launcher and an M32 Multiple Grenade Launcher (MGL) spray painted the same color scheme of her AURA.

She fires another grenade into the side of the tank, drops the grenade launcher, and charges. The tank hatch opens and one of the crew starts to climb out, but the Hunter raises her rifle and puts a single bullet into the Faunus' chest, who slumps back down into the interior. The Hunter jumps onto the top of the turret, shoves the body down with her foot, drops a grenade into the tank, slams the hatch shut, and jumps down. Seconds later, the hatch is blown open again and releases a plume of smoke and debris. The Hunter runs over to her grenade launcher, picks it up, and reloads it. As she does so, she spots Ruby, Yang, Weiss, who has regained most of her senses, and Blake, who has regroups with them, and smiles and waves cheerily at them.

"Hi!" she shouts. The other Hunters simply stand speechless, except for Ruby, who slowly raises her hand in reply. The Hunter then runs back into the blown out building.

"Ok, what the fuck was that?" Weiss asks.

"I didn't even know we were near any other Hunter positions," Ruby says.

"We're getting so scattered we're running into each other by accident," Yang says. Suddenly, Ruby's radio crackles to life.

"...Respond ASAP!" it says. Ruby presses her hand to her headset.

"This is RWBY Actual, say again?" Ruby says into her radio.

"This is Port!" comes the response. "About damn time I found your frequency! Sitrep! Are you still holding?"

"Just barely, Sir. I've got wounded, and we ran into another Hunter."

"I'm good," Weiss says, brushing away Yang's assistance.

"You sure?" Yang asks.

"It's nothing," Weiss insists. She takes off her helmet and rubs the back of her head. "It stings like a bitch, but I can still fight."

"Like an ice bitch?" Blake says with a sliver of a smile. Weiss says nothing and puts on her helmet.

"What's your exact location?" Port asks.

"Sixth Street, right where the tanks pulled out," Ruby replies.

"Sixth? Shit, you guys are practically cut off from the rest of us. No matter, we're pulling out." Ruby does a double take.

"Uh, say...say again?" Ruby says. Her squad looks at her questionably.

"The brass just got word from the water. Our entire coastal defense fleet is either sunk, cut off, or running. Nothing's keeping the Feds from rolling their aircraft carriers into port now."

"We can't get support from the rest of the Coalition? Atlas?"

"Trust me, if it were up to me, I wouldn't let any human leave Vale until the Faunus do."

"Same here, Colonel."

"Well unfortunately, we have orders. Get to the nearest rooftop, light a flare, and a chopper will pick you up. You have about an hour until we completely pull out, so don't be picky. Out." Ruby's hand drops from her headset.

"What's up?" Blake asks.

"That was Port. VAF is pulling out of Vale. We have to get to a rooftop and signal-"

"Wait, wait, wait," Yang interrupts. "When you say we're pulling out, you mean we're just gonna give some room to breath so Coalition reinforcements can catch up, right? We're staying?"

"The fleet's in ruins, and I guess we can't organize a counterattack."

"Of course we can! We have to! If we don't hold here, then the Feds have a foothold on human territory, our territory!"

"I hate to interrupt your little rant," Weiss says. "But if the fleet really is gone, then that means we have basically no way to disrupt troops landing on the shore. That means they can get dug in almost instantly. It's a meat grinder."

"No one gives a shit about your rank anymore, bitch!"

"It has nothing to do with me being an officer! Well, yes it does, because it means I know better! We. Can't. Hold!"

"There's more coming!" Blake says, pointing down the street. Two Beowolfs and three Ural-5323 transport trucks roll into the street, slowly weaving around the wreckage.

"We have to get to a rooftop and use a flare to signal a chopper to pick us up," Ruby says.

"But we-" Yang begins to protest.

"I'm the leader, Yang," Ruby says. "Let's head down the road, get away from these Feds." And with that, Ruby turns around and begins running down the street. Blake is first to follow her.

"Huh, guess she can be a leader," Weiss remarks, then runs after them. Yang takes one last look behind her at the advancing convoy, groans, then joins her squad.

30 minutes later

"This good?" Ruby asks, looking up at a tall office building in front of them. Distant gunfire can still be heard in all directions, mainly from Federation Steyr and Tavor bullpups. The soldiers try not to think about what will happen to the civilians still in the city when those guns turn on them.

"It'll have to do, we don't have time to go further," Weiss says. Ruby shrugs, walks up to the entrance, and kicks in the two metal doors right off the hinges. The squad quickly enters, weapons raised.

The building was far enough inside the city that it still hasn't faced any direct Federation contact besides artillery and missile fire. The building itself remains largely untouched, but it's apparent that the occupants left in a hurry; papers, briefcases, overcoats, and other personal belongings scatter wildly on the floor. Chairs and tables in the reception area are overturned. A scroll with a badly cracked screen on the floor, most likely stepped on several times, still broadcasts a busted image of a local news station, probably reporting updates in real time.

"Think the elevator works?" Weiss asks. The elevator doors are right next to the stairs entrance.

"Don't have time for stairs," Ruby says, and signals everyone forward. When she presses the elevator button, the doors swing open immediately with the sound of a bell.

"OH GOD DON'T SHOOT!"

The soldiers aim their weapons into the elevator, then quickly lower them when they realize it's a civilian cowering in the corner, arms over his face.

"Fuck, dude," Yang says. "You almost got us a war crime there." The man slowly lowers his arms. He looks unscathed, minus ruffled hair and both lenses of his glasses cracked. His eyes dart to each of the soldiers.

"Y-you...you aren't faunus," he says.

"Sir, are you injured?" Weiss asks. The man shakes his head. "Can you stand?" He stands.

"Where...what time is it?" he asks.

"Close to three," Ruby says. The man sighs and rubs his eyes.

"Goddamn, that felt like an eternity in there," he says.

"Well, unfortunately we don't have an eternity to wait for evac, so…" Weiss says, and walks into the elevator. The rest of the squad follows while the civilian presses himself against the wall to avoid touching the gargantuan AURA that fills up the small compartment.

"Sir, how do we access the roof?" Ruby asks, eyeing the buttons on the panel.

"I...uh...what?" the man says, rubbing his head. "Man, I think I took a nap during." He pauses when Blake turns to him.

"Sir, we have less than an hour before every Coalition chopper leaves Vale airspace and the city is captured by the Federation. Roof access. Now." The man gulps.

"Top floor, twenty seven. There's stairs to the roof on the other side of the room," he answers.

"Copy," Ruby says, and presses the button for floor 27. The doors slide closed, and the elevator begins its journey up.

"Thank you," Blake says bluntly, and turns back around. The man starts to breath again.

"So, uh, Sir?" Ruby says after a brief silence. "What exactly were you doing in here? The city has been empty for the last several blocks."

"Oh yeah, heh," the man says, adjusting his useless glasses. "Well, me and everyone else started evacuating right when the bombs started dropping, like, right before lunch break or something, and everyone was taking the stairs, so me and a bunch of other people were like, 'Hey, let's take the elevator and not get crushed to death.' But people kept shoving in front of me, and they were being used by other floors, and by the time it was my turn, I was the last one in the room, and apparently the building as well. And the building was shaking like crazy the whole time, and it was loud, so I didn't really want to, uh, go outside. So I just pressed the lobby button, kept the doors closed, and hid. Thought the building was gonna cave in it was so loud."

"Well, lucky for you, we're probably gonna be one of the last units evaced out of the city. Coalition is pulling out."

"Seriously?! Fuck, I knew I should've called in sick today. I always seem to feel real queasy in my stomach the day of an earthquake, and I guess bombs and airstrikes are close enough-"

"Yeah, you can tell us about that when we're in the air," Weiss says.

"Right, yeah, sorry. Hey, what are those uniforms anyway?" the man asks, pointing at Yang's AURA. "I watched the news on my phone before the battery died, and I don't think any of the soldiers looked like that."

"Uh, special forces," Ruby says, then leans over to Weiss and whispers, "I know I probably shouldn't be asking, but exactly how classified is the Hunter Program?"

"You should know, you're squad leader!" Weiss whispers back. Blake rolls her eyes.

"No one told me how to deal with civilians. I figured you-"

"Hey, I don't want to be squad leader enough to do your job for you."

"Gee, thanks."

"I'm not in trouble, am I?" the man asks. "Wait, you're not gonna brainwash me or give me amnesia so I don't remember you guys, are you? Because I really don't care about whatever black ops tactics team or whatever you guys are on, I just wanna get out of here."

"Understood," Blake says. There's the dinging sound again, and the doors open. "Stay close." The man nods, and they exit the elevator.

The workers here apparently didn't evacuate calmly; cubicle walls toppled over, computers and scrolls smashed and in pieces, a sea of papers and files covering the floor, at least two spilled pots of coffee, and a few of the windows are shattered, presumably from near artillery barrages.

"Alright, Sir, lead the way," Yang says. The man timidly steps forward, looking over the wreckage.

"It's been awhile since I've been to the top floor, but...ah! There," he says, pointing to the right corner of the room, across from them. There's a door with the words "ROOF ACCESS" stenciled on.

"Perfect, let's move," Ruby says. They start walking towards the door, weaving between the cubicles. "Who has the flare?"

"Right here," Yang says, holding up a long red tube with a white cap.

"Do you think we still have time before the humans leave?" the man asks.

"They won't leave us," Weiss says.

"Oh, right, special forces and all. Guess it's a good thing I was found by you guys, right?"

"That's not what I-"

BANG!

A shotgun slug pierces the thin material of the cubical and goes straight through the man's upper chest, sending blood everywhere and his body to the ground. RWBY Squad quickly reacts, diving to the nearest cover, weapons at the ready.

"What the fuck!" Yang shouts.

"What happened!?" Weiss screams. Ruby quickly recalls the countersign issued right before they were deployed.

"Angel!" she shouts. There's silence.

"Just say white, asshole. Please say white."

"Angel, or else you're declared hostile!" she shouts again. There's a burst of machinegun fire, ripping through more of the cubicle walls.

"Well, this evac just got interesting," Yang says, holding Ember over her head and firing two rounds into the office. Ruby takes a deep breath and takes out Crescent Rose.

"Bumblebee left flank on my mark," she orders. Blake and Yang get in a crouched position, ready to spring. "Weiss, we'll suppress. Ready...mark." Ruby and Weiss stand up as Blake and Yang quickly crawl to the left. To their surprise, instead of looking at a seemingly empty office, a female soldier wearing big, bulky armor painted black and grey and a black bandana, concealing her face with the exception of her amber eyes and black hair. She holds a black crossbow.

"Ok, this is unexpected…" Ruby thinks. She, Weiss, and the Fed stay in that position for several seconds. The Fed's eyes narrow, her mask concealing what has to be a cheeky grin.

"Shoot," Weiss murmurs. Ruby snaps out of her trance and pulls the trigger. The large caliber bullet strikes the Fed right over her heart, who staggers back and grimaces for a second, before the smile slowly returns.

"Uh...," Ruby says. The bullet only left a large dent in the armor, which slowly reforms back into its original shape.

"The fuck?" Yang says. Ruby looks over and sees that she and Blake saw it as well from the left flank.

"Does she have-" Weiss starts, but before she can finish, the Fed raises her crossbow and fires, the bolt striking a pillar directly behind the pair. They turn to look, and a small cylinder on the tip blinks red.

"Oh FUCK MOVE!" Ruby shouts, and springs with her leggings into Weiss, launching them both through a cubicle as the explosive tip activates, taking out the pillar and the neighboring cubicles. They land close to the middle of the room.

"Suppressive fire!" Blake shouts before cloaking and running farther down the room. Yang holds up Celica and unloads into the room, swaying the gun back and forth, making debris and confetti fly into the air. The Fed ducks back down and disappears.

"Make your way to the roof," Ruby says into the radio. Another shotgun slug flies through the cubicle she and Weiss are in and hits her in the arm. "Flank him," Ruby tells Weiss, and fires a round in the shotgun wielders general direction. Weiss moves around the remnants of the cubicles, trying to pinpoint the enemy's exact location.

Meanwhile, Blake is at the far right wall of the room, observing the battle taking place. Between Yang's bursts, she can hear, and smell, others in the room, both Faunus and human. Suddenly, one of the human scents crawls up right next to her.

It's a man in red and white AURA, black H3 helmet, and is carrying a SPAS-12 in his hands. He slowly gets and and stays crouched behind an overturned desk, a few meters from Blake, who remains stone still. Weiss jumps out from behind a cubicle and runs around the shotgun wielder. The man fires two rounds at her before disappearing behind another cubicle, Weiss absorbing them like nothing.

"Fucking dumbass cheaters," he murmurs, loading two more rounds into his gun. "Gotta hate it when they don't die when you shoot them, don't you?" Blake does a double take, wondering how he activated his radio. The man slowly turns to Blake, grinning wildly.

That wasn't for his radio.

Blake rapidly activates and drops a flash grenade and bolts down the room. The man lands five shots into her back before the grenade goes off. Blake takes cover behind a pillar and decloaks.

"Oh, I love it when they play hard to get!" the man shouts after her. Blake pops her head out and sees that the man is running after her, shotgun raised. She prepares to run, but the crossbow Fed fires a bolt into her pillar. Blake runs and slides underneath a nearby table and kicks one end, tipping it over just as the pillar explodes.

Weiss ignores the explosion as she tracks the shotgunner, following the sounds of his blasts as he exchanges blows with Ruby. He must also have AURA to still be firing so steadily; Ruby certainly isn't missing.

Finally, she finds him behind an overturned office desk: A large, bulky Faunus, with white AURA, tattoos on his arms, and a Pancor Jackhammer. Weiss knows he's a Faunus because of the customized White Fang mask covering his face.

Weiss quietly aims her rifle at his head, hoping for a quick kill, when he suddenly rears backward. She fires, misses, and the Faunus swings his massive shotgun around and lets off a burst of automatic fire, catching Weiss in the hips. She tries moving behind his cubicle, but his slugs go straight through the material and into her armor, which she can feel is having trouble keeping up with repairs. She takes out Myrtenaster, switches to armor piercing ammo, and fires three rounds through the cubicle. When she hears the Faunus grunt from the impacts, she runs around the cubicle, aims at him, who his grasping his chest on the floor, and fires two more shots aimed at his head, but he blocks them with his arm and starts to get up with a roar of rage. She quickly switches to electric rounds just as he pounces on her and drags her to the floor. He starts to reach for a bowie knife on his shoulder, but Weiss fires two electric rounds into his chest. The harsh electric waves react chaotically with the Faunus' AURA, shorting out its battery and locking down the exoskeleton. Sparks fly out of his suit like a hotwire.

Weiss uses this to her advantage, and pistol whips the Faunus across the cheek, kicks him off of her, and switches back to normal rounds. Weiss quickly stands up as the Faunus tries to crawl to his shotgun, which he dropped when he charged her, shoots him in the leg to throw off his balance, runs up to him, and stomps down on his leg. She holds the barrel to his head.

"Tell your friends to stand down," she commands. The Faunus sniffs loudly, then laughs in pleasure.

"Finally, I get to kill a Schnee," he growls. Before Weiss can even react to the message, the Faunus jerks his head back violently, moving the barrel upward. Weiss immediately squeezes the trigger, and the bullet whizzes just above his short hair. The Faunus quickly turns his body to the left and puts all of his energy into swinging his right arm, he lands a bunch on Weiss' left kneecap, and even with the AURA, it bends violently, causing intense pain and bringing Weiss to the ground. The Faunus stands up, turns around, and kicks Weiss in the back.

"Weiss!" Ruby, having watched the fight between her teammate and the Faunus unfold, shouts. She didn't want to fire before in fear of hitting and possibly distracting Weiss, but with that out of the scenario, she fires two shots in quick succession at the Faunus, who quickly ducks down. "Yang, see if you can assist-" she starts to say into her radio.

"Watch the crossbow!" Blake interrupts. Ruby turns back to the Fed with the crossbow, which is now strapped across her back. She's now holding a Mk11 Mod 0 SR-25 rifle. Ruby takes aim at her, but the Fed aims faster, and fires a shot straight in Ruby's H3 helmet. Ruby's head jerks back from the energy, and she nearly falls over. She shakes herself out of a daze, and takes aim again, only to find the Fed gone. Perplexed, she scans the room; Weiss and the shotgunner are still fighting hand to hand combat; Blake is attempting to route the other soldier, who isn't falling for any of her attempts at cloaking; Yang is on the move, firing LMG bursts into random cubicles, trying to sniff out any other combatants; but no Feds with crossbows.

Suddenly, a ceiling tile directly over Ruby shatters, and the Fed drops down and opens fire with an uzi. Ruby pushes backwards with her feet, the leggings shooting her back through a cubicle just as the Fed lands, taking only a few of the low caliber bullets in the process.

"No way she thought that would work," Ruby thinks. "She's...is she toying with me?"

The Fed drops the gun, takes out a carbon black kukri, and charges Ruby. Ruby quickly folds and puts away Crescent Rose, takes out her pistol, and opens fire on the charging Fed. She tries to aim for her head, which is even more exposed that her own, but the Fed has unbelievable reflexes, moving her head to one side or another, every bullet missing her by just enough.

Before Ruby knows it, the Fed is on top of her, and takes a swing at her. Ruby raises her left arm, letting the blade sink a centimeter or two into the armor. The Fed uses her free hand to grab the PLR-16 and pull it forward, dragging Ruby's head along by the sling. The Fed then expertly lowers, turns her body around and throws Ruby over her back. She prys the kukri from Ruby's arm and attempts to swing, but Ruby slams her foot down on the floor, the leggings propelling her leg into the air and strikes the Fed's forehead with her knee, knocking her backward.

Ruby scrambles to her feet as fast as she can, but when she does and aims her pistol again, she realizes that the Fed barely reacted to her attack, and merely stood still and watched as Ruby picked herself off. She's even smiling.

"Yep, definitely toying with me."

She opens fire again, but the Fed is already on the attack, slashing wildly at Ruby's leggings. Ruby attempts an uppercut, but the Fed grabs her arm, pulls it out to the side, and positions the kukri at her throat. The smile never left her face.

"You need to work on your CQC, Private Rose," the Fed whispers. Ruby's eyes widen.

"Get off, bitch!" Yang shouts, and fires a slug from Ember into the Fed's upper back, just below her neck.

"Gah!" the Fed shouts, and Ruby shoves her off.

"Got you covered, Ruby," Yang says as her squadmate and the Fed square off, but before she can get another shot off, a hand from her right grabs the barrel of the shotgun and juts it upward, smacking Yang in the nose. The hand then slams the shotgun's stock into Yang twice, the second time making her lose her grip on the gun altogether. She turns to face her new threat.

It's another soldier in AURA armor, this one painted black and white with a bit of pink, but she's very small probably too small to be old enough for military enlistment anywhere in the Kingdoms, possibly even the Federation. She also has a very young, babyish face that never stops smiling. Her hair is half brown, half pink, same as her eyes. She is holding Yang's shotgun by the barrel, but then carelessly drops it and takes out a stun baton. After a few seconds of waiting for the girl to make the first move, who instead stands there, still smiling like a maniac, Yang quickly moves forward and takes a swing at her. The girl quickly and smoothly grabs Yang's wrist with her free hand, moves it to the side, and lets Yang's momentum carry her forward. She gives a quick jab to Yang's waist, sending a quick electrical current through her AURA and body. Yang angrily whips around to face her opponent, who has calmly composed herself in her previous position.

"So that's how we're doing it?" Yang asks. The girl cocks her head to one side, smile unchanging. "Ok then." Yang walks up to the girl and swings. The girl sidesteps. Yang attempts a kick, and the girl sidesteps again. The routine is kept up for several minutes; Yang throwing punch after punch and the girl effortlessly dodging them.

Eventually, the girl assumably loses her patience, and when Yang swings again, she grabs her forearm, twists it, and knees Yang in the stomach. She then extends her leg, shoving Yang's right leg outward, and brings her to one knee. She strikes her head with the baton, turns it on, and stabs it into her neck, under the armor. Yang cries out in pain as the electricity surges through her body. All the energy is sucked out of her body, and the last thing she sees before her eyelids fall closed is the girl's neverending smile.

Eventually, after several excruciating seconds, the girl takes out the baton and lets Yang's body fall. She's conscious, but only barely, as her own body feels far away. The girl unholsters a MP-412 REX revolver spray painted pale pink and aims it at Yang's head.

Blake throws the man through a cubicle, and he lands right next to Yang and the girl.

"Oh, hey Neo," he says with a smile, saluting mockingly. Neo turns her aim to Blake, who tosses a flashbang at her and Faunus jumps straight through the ceiling tile. She carefully moves a few meters forward, picks a tile, and stomps it out. She peers down; the two enemies abandoned Yang, who is starting to move more. Blake jumps down next to Yang.

"Guys, we need to move," Blake says into her radio. She spots Neo and the man in cover behind a table, weapons aimed. She picks Yang up and moves her behind a pillar. Yang pushes her away and gives her a thumbs up.

"You good?" Blake asks.

"Everyone good?" Ruby asks. Yang opens her eyelids, red pupils as hot as fire. She stands up as if perfectly unscathed.

"Give me the flare, I'll buy us some time," she says. Blake nods, hands her the flare, and Yang takes off running, ignoring any obstacles in her path and charging straight through them.

"Ok, get to the roof!" Ruby replies, then goes back to blocking another kukri swing. Her armor is holding up fine, but Ruby is running out of moves against this obviously more experienced opponent. After some contemplation, she reaches and pulls out Crescent Rose, hoping to catch the Fed off guard. The Fed grabs the barrel, and Ruby pulls the trigger, even though the rifle is aimed at nothing but the wall. Even through the intense heat and energy coming from the barrel, the Fed holds on, and twists the barrel to the side, trying to throw Ruby off, who grabs the bolt and slams it open, ejecting the casing. The Fed stabs at Ruby's chest, and Ruby grabs the Fed's hand. They engage in something like a tug of war match, both women with one hand on Crescent Rose and the other on the kukri, trying to maneuver the blade towards the other. Ruby is focused on the rifle and where it's pointed, and when it's aimed at the Fed, who is too concerned about the blade to notice, Ruby lets go of the Fed's hand, dodges the incoming blade, slams the bolt shut to chamber a new round, and fires again. This time, the force of the bullet is enough to make the Fed let go, and Ruby makes no time in retreating towards the roof access.

Weiss, who is losing against the stronger and more durable Faunus, finds herself backed into a desk in a fury of incoming punches when she hears Ruby's message over her radio. Unfortunately, the thought of escape from this chaotic world distracts her enough to allow the Faunus to land a punch squarely in her throat. The Faunus then grabs her by said throat, holds her up, and rips off her helmet. He walks her over to the wall and hits her head against it again. And again. And again. The first few times, Weiss was able to use her arms to protect her head, but the Faunus started throwing her against the wall faster, not giving her time to recover and leave her skull wide open to damage. Hit after hit, the tinnitus in Weiss' ears and the numbness spreading through her head dangerously grows.

"Let's see that Schnee blood flow," the Faunus says in between hits. Just as Weiss is on the verge of blacking out, the Faunus suddenly stops, sniffing the air. He smells another Faunus, definitely not a Fed, and rapidly approaching.

"Your squad has-" he starts, but stops when he feels Gambol Shroud against his neck. Blake uncloaks, and pulls the trigger. The Faunus falls like a tree, blood leaking from his mouth. Blake holsters the pistol and stops Weiss from joining the Faunus on the floor.

"Let's go, ice bitch," she says, wrapping her squadmate's arm around her neck.

"My...head, is not...having a, good day," Weiss mumbles as Blake leads her towards the exit, MP7 in her free hand, aimed forward.

"No kidding," Blake says, then catches Neo attempting to stand up out of cover. Blake lets off a hail of bullets, and she sits back down. "Guess it's actually a good thing you have a thick skull."

"Fuck you," Weiss murmurs. Blake cracks a smile. Neo stands up again, and Blake returns fire. It's evident that her small weapon isn't making much usefulness at this longer range, the bullets hitting everything but the small girl. Weiss unholsters Myrtenaster, switches to incendiary rounds, and holds it out. Blake takes it, aims, and fires two shots, releasing two streams of fire and sparks. Both shots burn holes straight through the desk, setting the wood on fire for a few seconds. Neo falls back, batting at the flames on her armor.

"Come on, come on!" Ruby shouts, crouched in front of the roof exit door. She scans the room, looking for the enemy, while keeping an eye on Blake and Weiss make their way towards her. The crossbow Fed jumps up on a desk and unloads her sniper rifle magazine on Ruby, who stands her ground, taking a round in the arm and her knee while lining up her shot. She slowly lets out a breath as a bullet misses her face by a few inches, and fires. It hits her target, hitting the front of the Fed's boot, and going straight through. The Fed falls off the desk and doesn't get back up.

Yang runs down the short staircase leading to the roof and opens the door.

"The chopper is here, but we have to move now," she tells Ruby. Blake and Weiss are only a dozen meters from them.

"Hey, Hunters!" the man shouts from behind cover across the room. Ruby fires a shot in his general direction. Yang raises her LMG, ready to fire. Just as Blake and Weiss join them near the door, the man pops up on the opposite side of the room where he shouted from.

He has an RPG-7 pointed at them.

"Thanks for the city, I think I'll stay awhile!" he shouts, and fires. Blake is protecting Weiss with her own body, so the GLYPH isn't aimed at the rocket, and even Yang's heavy armor might not completely take a direct rocket strike.

"ShitIreallyhopeIsightedthisthingcorrectly," is the only thought Ruby can think as she looks through Crescent Rose's scope, lines up the crosshair with the fast approaching object, and pulls the trigger.

The rocket suddenly changes course, and detonates in the ceiling, raining down large chunks of ceiling tiles and ventilation shaft pieces. RWBY Squad stands speechless, especially Ruby.

"...Did you just…" Yang say, pointing limply at the retreating man.

"Apparently," Ruby says. She then remembers what they were supposed to be doing. "Uh, we should probably go."

"Copy that," Blake says, and leads Weiss through the door and up the stairs. Ruby and Yang are close behind.

On the roof, the squad can get a good look at what is now the end of the Battle for Vale; black smoke has now become common in all the high rises of the city. The sky is now mostly empty; the Federation has no reason to continue launching missiles now that so many of their foot soldiers are deep inside the city, and most of the Coalition birds have completed their evacuations, except of course for the Little Bird waiting for them on the roof. Next to the pilot sits Port, FN FAL in hand.

"About damn time, Ruby!" he shouts as they climb into the chopper. "I was ready to leave your ass to the Feds before we completely lose control of the airspace!"

"Speaking of Feds, there's a few on the other side of that door, so we should probably-"

"More Feds? Perfect!" Port turns to the pilot. "Take off slowly, give them time to chase us." The soldiers in the back can sense the pilot rolling his eyes as he pulls back on the throttle, raising the compact helicopter into the air. Port keeps his gun trained on the door on the roof even as they fly over it. "Oh well, maybe next time. By the way, sitrep."

"We...ran into a slight problem," Ruby says, looking at her team: next to her, Yang has multiple bruises on her face and a large burn mark on her neck. Her armor is heavily bloated from absorbing so much damage, especially back in the office. On the opposite side of the chopper, a battered and weary looking Blake with a half dead battery back is treating a bloodied Weiss, who definitely drew the short straw in terms of physical damage; multiple cuts and large bruises cover her face. Her forehead is especially bad, covered in a thick layer of purple and red, thanks to the now throatless Faunus' beatings. Ruby touches her own face; she had a lot of close calls with the kukri, and has plenty of cuts and gashes of her own. She looks down at her AURA; multiple stab and slash dents that didn't repair correctly, and her leggings are torn to the point where pieces hang off.

"Yeah, looks like it," Port says. "You guys run into heavy resistance?"

"Do...does anyone outside of the Kingdoms have AURA?" Ruby asks. Port turns around and looks straight at her, his eyes showing signs of anger and, strangely enough, fear.

"Not another word about this until you talk to Ozpin. That's an order," he says sternly, and turns back around.

"Yes, Sir," Ruby says. She looks to Yang next to her, who shrugs.

Two Nevermore fighter aircraft zoom passed their aircraft, expelling flares as they are pursued by three VAF F-22 Titans, Raptors modified with heavier armor to better combat their Faunus counterparts. They seem to be catching up on the Nevermore, until they suddenly veer towards the city, at which the Titans break their pursuit and start flying in the same direction as the chopper.

"Vale is a safe haven for the Feds now," Blake remarks.

"Not for long," Yang says, staring grimly towards the receding buildings.