The situation was slowly but surely spinning out of control. That became obvious back when Egrer had to explain to the bloodthirsty madmen that demolishing the Headmaster's tower was going a bit too far. But what happened next knocked him completely out of his element.
He still hadn't figured out at what exact moment he ended up at an actual, fucking military revolutionary council, but he was trying hard to piece the chain of events into a single picture.
He wasn't doing a very good job; rapidly changing images flashed before his eyes, confusing his mind even more. Here he is calming down the crowd eager to show the Headmaster where he was wrong. Here he is calming them down again, since the Atlas flagship had landed on the ground, and these crazy revanchists wanted to pull off a second take of the boarding action. Here he is calming them down for a third time, when they decided to start a massacre for absolutely no reason.
If it weren't for Weiss, he would have lost his mind, because she was the only one capable of managing this madhouse. Losing her even for a couple of minutes could prove fatal for such a chaotic and shapeless structure as Enversion, which practically every Beacon student had joined. At least for the duration of the "Atlas-Beacon Conflict," as Professor Oobleck dubbed it, who, despite not explicitly stating his position, seemed to sympathize with the uprising.
And then the Headmaster stepped out of the tower with a speech.
"Dear students," he began, tapping his cane on the ground. "The Beacon administration does not ignore the desires of its students. Word has reached me that many of you are concerned about the current state of the former Emerald Forest, burned during Initiation. In this regard, it will be renamed the Ash Forest, to better reflect reality. As soon as it regains its emerald hue, it will get its old name back. Thank you for your attention."
After which he simply walked back inside, leaving the dumbfounded and angered students behind. Immediately, eggs and rotten vegetables flew at the tower. It was as if the Headmaster was intentionally provoking their aggression.
Thoroughly exhausted and having more or less taken the situation under control, Egrer suddenly found himself being dragged somewhere by the collar by Weiss. That "somewhere" turned out to be a spacious tent, the entrance to which was guarded by two upperclassmen with halberds. They saluted and pulled the flap aside...
"Eg," Weiss's voice sounded in the distance.
...right about at that moment Egrer stopped understanding what the hell was going on here. Too many events per minute; his tired brain could barely keep up.
"Eg!" the voice became more insistent. "Are you even listening to me?"
Egrer blinked and lifted his head in surprise. He was about to ask what a melon with holes on the side, the back, and seemingly the bottom, was doing on the table, but the information that should have arrived ten minutes ago finally reached him - this melon was the Atlas flagship.
Egrer froze. This information was clearly perceived somewhat incorrectly by his exhausted mind. Suddenly, someone's hand patted him on the shoulder, making him jump in surprise.
"You okay?"
"Sun? What are you doing here?"
"I've been here the whole time, actually."
"Ah... got it." All his attention was once again occupied by the Atlas flagship, which most definitely should have looked different. A yellow oval with three holes, with a little puddle of juice already collected in the plate underneath it... for some reason, this object was perceived as not what it was supposed to be. He saw a melon, but in reality, it was the Atlas flagship. Unknown why, but it was so.
"Negotiations and relatively peaceful protests yielded no results," Weiss continued her thought. "Which means we are left with nothing but violence."
Sun awkwardly raised his hand.
"Aren't you afraid that our noble struggle will ultimately turn into a war of extermination with terrorist attacks, murders, and war crimes?"
"Why would it?" Weiss didn't understand. However, she wasn't even going to dwell on it. "Doesn't matter. Recon says there are three entrances to the grounded flagship: the main entrance, guarded almost better than the city council building during an international summit; the hole in the bottom made by the Bullhead that crashed into the vessel; and the hole in the back of the hull left by the explosion."
She pointed a bitten leek at all three holes in the melon.
"The first and third options are tantamount to surrendering voluntarily, and for the second one we'll have to dig, and for a very long time..."
"Right!" Egrer exclaimed. "That's why the melon is the flagship! It's a visual aid!"
"You finally woke up."
"But why a melon?!"
"Because I haven't had even a minute to eat since this morning," Weiss replied calmly, taking a bite out of her improvised pointer. "We don't have it now either, so I had to combine the meeting with dinner. So, does anyone have ideas on how to sneak inside unnoticed?"
The discussion hit a dead end, and no way out was foreseen anytime soon. But Egrer, whose brain was currently unburdened by thoughts, was struck by an idea simple in its brilliance.
"Let's just climb into their main gun and pop out where they load the shells."
A silence even more all-encompassing than before descended upon the tent. In everyone's head was just one question, which Sun voiced for all of them:
"Wait, can you actually do that?"
"First off, it ain't a gun," Yort noted importantly, pulling a face. "It's a SDE - Stationary Dust Emitter 'Thunderer M-3', and second, it shoots a beam of active particles, not shells. Nah, there's a mechanic's hatch, but to get into the barrel, you gotta get past the shutter first, which they only open when firing. It ain't tough, just to keep birds from shitting inside, but breaking it is gonna set off an alarm right where we don't want it."
"It never ceases to amaze me how you know the schematics of the Atlas flagship," Weiss said. "That must certainly be classified military data."
"Heh, I know everything about Atlesian birds. It's a hobby."
Egrer blinked. With another delay, it dawned on him that there were more of them in the tent now.
"Yort, how did you get here?"
"I'm like, in this Prosperity of yours too. Btw, I'm gonna wreck you for that penal battalion shit, got it? If it weren't for your heifer, I would've been tossed in there."
Weiss froze in culture shock, not knowing how to react to just being called a cow. She was experiencing this for the first time.
"Yort Alnen, I see you still very much want to go back to the penal battalion?"
"No, ma'am."
"In that case, tie your tongue into a sailor's knot and do not open your mouth until spoken to."
The resident oracle zipped his lips with his fingers. Weiss had already developed a reputation as a strict commander, so even Yort was afraid to cross her unnecessarily.
Suddenly, there was some rustling at the tent entrance; someone was trying to push past the guards. Weiss rolled her eyes and shouted behind her back:
"If it's Ruby, let her in."
It really was Ruby. She walked inside but didn't dare get too close, cautiously shifting from foot to foot near the entrance. Yang followed her in, walking right up to Weiss without any awkwardness and folding her arms disgruntledly under her chest.
"Rubes," she gave the command.
"Um... hi." An embarrassed Ruby waved her hand awkwardly. Only Sun waved back. "I wanted to ask something. What happened to Blake... is it somehow connected to the terrorists who infiltrated Beacon?"
"Holy shit," Yort marveled, choking on a piece of apple. "We got terrorists here?"
Weiss and Egrer slowly frowned, making Ruby gulp and take a tiny step back. After which they both shifted their gazes to Sun, who immediately started waving his hands.
"I didn't tell her anything! Seriously, this isn't funny anymore. Why am I always the fall guy the second there's a leak? I only screwed up once!"
"How do you know that?" Weiss demanded, taking a threatening step toward Ruby. She shrank back a bit again, but this time Yang stood up for her.
"Hey, don't pressure her, you should've told her yourself. You or Blake. So don't interrupt her." Yang nodded at Ruby, signaling her to continue.
"Well... I followed you guys after that conversation we had with the Headmaster." The beginning already didn't bode well. Especially if you paid attention to Weiss's clenched teeth. "Then I started noticing that the four of you almost always hang out together. And... yeah."
"And what did you hear?"
"Nothing, until you started yelling at Eg that terrorists in the school was a bad thing."
Sun let out something between a triumphant roar and a smug snort, after which he announced at the top of his lungs:
"That's your leak, not mine! Bite me!"
"Silence," Weiss replied simultaneously with Yang. "This doesn't concern you."
Egrer buried his nose in the table and covered his ears. He had no desire to participate in this mess.
"And you!" Weiss turned her head back to a panicking Ruby. "You're a fool! You knew perfectly well there were terrorists in Beacon, but you did nothing! Astounding negligence and disregard for the safety of those around you."
Ruby had prepared for accusations a long time ago and had excuses ready in advance, except these accusations were supposed to be about something else. So she was very surprised and didn't know what to say.
"Look who's talking!" Yang stood up for her sister. "You knew and did nothing!"
"What is that supposed to mean?! We have, by the way, an actual secret society dedicated to fighting these terrorists!"
"Fuck," Yort commented, choking on his apple again. "We a secret society? We fighting terrorism?"
It was a little strange hearing something like that from their resident oracle, but considering he was never really explained anything, his surprise becomes understandable. Besides, he wasn't exactly eager to find anything out himself, keeping a respectful distance from any problems.
Egrer pulled his jacket over his head, as there was too much noise. Clearing the air in Team RWBY was never a quiet affair. Over time, their voices began to drift away, becoming quieter and more unintelligible. Egrer belatedly realized that he had simply fallen asleep.
***
Feeling much more refreshed, Egrer peeked out from behind a large rock with binoculars in hand. Through the charred night forest, small flashes of yellow light could be seen - mechanics repairing the flagship's main engine. Their shouting at each other in an unknown language - a strange mix of technical terms and profanity - even reached all the way here. Yort would have fit right into their crew perfectly.
However, Egrer was interested in something else. As recon had reported, the vessel was guarded by impressive forces - about a hundred humanoid robots, a couple dozen soldiers, and three firing positions with heavy weaponry. All this splendor guarded a massive hole in the rear of the flagship's hull, giving neither Grimm nor Beacon students even a chance to get inside.
'Robots...' Egrer shivered. His robophobia unexpectedly reared its head and fervently demanded he sound the retreat. The mere thought of approaching something metallic, humanoid, and moving caused an irrational fear mixed with disgust. However, he kept himself together, because he wasn't here alone.
Next to him puffed Ruby, who was vainly trying to make out at least something in the darkness. She squinted and looked at the grounded flagship from different angles, twisting her binoculars this way and that.
Ever since the preparation phase, she couldn't seem to find a place for herself, as if she feared an Atlesian raid at any second. She clearly wasn't particularly fond of doing something illegal, even if justice was technically on her side. Egrer, on the other hand, was more accustomed to such scams; under Roman's wing, he had pulled off much worse.
"Must be cool being a Faunus," Ruby began, as the silence pressed on her harder and harder. "You can see in the dark, and if you have ears, that's a total combo - you hear everything around you too."
"Don't forget about the downsides then," Egrer replied, continuing to observe the soldiers by the flagship.
"What downsides?"
He even pulled away from the binoculars to look at this embodiment of naivety. Ruby also turned to him and looked uncomprehendingly into his faintly glowing eyes.
"Ah..." she quickly realized. "Racism... right."
"What, instantly changed your mind about becoming a Faunus?" Egrer asked with a chuckle, returning to his observation.
"Well, it's not like I actually thought about it... just grumbling."
"Too bad, you'd look good with the traits of..." he pondered, "a mouse."
"Hey, why a mouse?! Why not a fox or a dog?"
"I dunno. I just look at you, and my imagination just draws giant mouse ears on you by itself." Ruby pouted indignantly and crossed her arms over her chest.
Their dialogue was interrupted by the crackle of the radio sticking out of Egrer's breast pocket.
"Alpha-Beowolf, this is HQ," Weiss's slightly crackling voice came through. "Are you in position? Over."
"This is Alpha-Beowolf," he replied, continuing to hold the binoculars with one hand and pressing the radio button with the other. "We are in position. Over."
"Copy. Commence. Out."
Egrer was about to stand up, but another voice from the radio stopped him.
"Yo, hol' up a sec," Yort, also sitting in HQ, sounded thoughtful. "My Semblance is buggin' out."
"As always when it comes to the Puppeteer," Egrer said, rolling his eyes.
He wasn't afraid to say something like that around Ruby, since Weiss had told her and Yang about the whole situation Blake was in, without going into details. You could say Prosperity had gained a couple of privates who didn't really understand what the hell was going on. And the rest of the operation's participants wouldn't hear anything over the radio, since they didn't have access to this, so to speak, officer channel.
Practically all of Beacon was ready to help them in the difficult task of freeing Blake, so there was no shortage of volunteers. And Joker, who had landed in the penal battalion, supplied the operatives with all sorts of spy gadgets, like secure radios, free of charge in exchange for a pardon. No, he resisted at first, but Egrer reminded him that he actually owed him a favor.
Not only that, Weiss managed to do the impossible - bring order to this madhouse known as Beacon, forming an army with a shaky, but still present, discipline.
"HQ, I'm initiating operation 'Beowolf Invasion'." Egrer raised his head and took such a deep breath that his lungs ached. After which he howled with all his might.
Wolves don't live in the Emerald Forest, which means only Beowolves can howl. Atlas would have to transfer part of its forces here to repel a potential Grimm attack. And if more soldiers arrive here, it means there will be fewer somewhere else. Egrer was somewhat proud that he would be the one to kick off this operation.
Weiss had come up with a brilliant plan. To the logical question of where she got such combat experience, she simply waved it off and said, "Oh, my sister just told me a couple of stories." Egrer tried not to think about the fact that Weiss, as a last resort, planned to stage an armed rebellion against her father, and that was exactly why she thoroughly studied military craft. Or, she was thinking about following in her older sister's footsteps and running away to the army.
"So natural," Ruby marveled, when the howl stopped echoing over the forest.
"You bet! I can growl too, no one would tell me apart from a wolf. Or, a Beowolf... Alright, let's keep moving."
Ruby took him by the sleeve, and they both turned into a cloud of mixed rose petals - one half was red, and the other cream. Egrer had a hard time getting used to this method of travel; the first time he was scared to death that he simply wouldn't return to his previous state and would forever remain a pile of petals.
But what he definitely would never get used to was the sensation of his own body in such an... unstable state. It was strange not feeling like a single entity, but something crumbly and very light. And it was doubly strange to feel mixed up with someone else.
Technically, it meant he had been inside Ruby. As she had been inside him...
A weird situation that Yang was better off not knowing about.
Arriving at the next position, Egrer checked the area and howled again. After doing this operation a couple more times, he noticed that there were more soldiers by the engine, and drones started flying high in the air above them. It was a success, but a short-lived one; soon the Atlesians would realize there was no threat here.
"HQ, this is Alpha-Beowolf. The guard at the rear of the flagship has reinforced: approximately plus fifty men and as many robots. Over."
"Copy. Proceed to Dragon's position. Dragon, are you ready? Over."
"Almost," Yang rasped. "Why is it that in games, if you start suffocating someone with chloroform, they pass out instantly? Not cool at all."
"Maintain chain of command and radio etiquette. Over."
"Ugh..." she sighed. Yang might have liked all this "militarism," but talking like a soldier - clearly and to the point - she didn't want to. "HQ, this is Dragon. Requesting permission to use the ageless classic in the form of a fist to the snout. Over." Suddenly, sounds of a struggle were heard from her side. "Hey, quit squirming or I'll really clock you! Just breathe deeper and you won't have any problems!"
"Denied - too much noise," Weiss replied. "Alpha-Beowolf, why are you still at the old position?"
"Moving out now!"
Ruby grabbed his sleeve without hesitation, and they turned into a pile of petals again.
So far, everything was going according to plan. And this was very strange, because for Egrer, things usually always went wrong due to simple bad luck. Yes, the authorship of this operation belonged to Weiss, but he had also lent a hand with a couple of ideas. Moreover, the bulk of the work lay on his shoulders, and he was afraid that he was about to mess something up. Maybe he'd make noise, maybe he'd screw up the hacking, maybe he'd get caught on camera. There were too many options to guess, but one thing was for sure - something would go wrong, and it would be Egrer's fault. Such was his fate.
Unfortunately, Weiss didn't heed his warnings, noting with slight condescension that generational curses didn't exist. Beating her logic with real-life examples failed, and quite the opposite, she was so convincing in her judgments that Egrer himself began to doubt he was right. Maybe he really was just working himself up.
But the simple fact is that Egrer's plans always fail. Thought-out, un-thought-out - they fail, simply because he takes part in them.
A cloud of flying red-cream petals made a large detour around the Atlas flagship and hid in a small trench near its front. Up close, it was visible that the vessel had landed unevenly - its nose was noticeably tilted towards the sky, resembling a giant lying on its stomach, lifting its head. Although more like a cyclops, since it had only one eye - a huge panoramic window. If you looked closely, you could even make out human figures looking down. And these very figures were the main obstacle on the way to the flagship's main caliber.
Slipping through unnoticed was difficult, but not impossible. There were plenty of trees around, and if you dashed from one to another correctly, they most likely wouldn't be noticed. Since Yang and a small squad of saboteurs had done it, he and Ruby could handle it too.
"Dragon, this is Alpha-Beowolf," Egrer said into the radio. "We're coming in. Over."
"We just finished. And your chloroform is defective! Joker is gonna answer to me for this."
"Clear the channel," Weiss said strictly.
When their bickering subsided, Ruby awkwardly peeked out from cover.
"Are you sure they won't spot us?"
"They shouldn't, if we do everything exactly as Weiss said." Egrer tried to give her some confidence, but his own palms were shaking. He was very anxious, certain that it was at this exact moment everything would go to hell. Just in case, he even sent a request to the resident oracle, receiving a reassuring seventy-seven percent chance of success. "On three?"
"One," began Ruby, who was also getting the jitters.
"Two." He took her hand.
"Three."
They turned into a cloud of petals and rushed as fast as Ruby's Semblance allowed. It took them literally a second, if not less, to reach the main caliber.
Yang and her squad were already there, having neutralized a small outpost. The Atlesians weren't fools and perfectly understood that disgruntled Beacon students might attempt another assault, which is why they had built many such small points consisting of a couple of tents and one watchtower.
Egrer squeezed his eyes shut, expecting the wail of sirens at any second, but nothing of the sort happened. A good reason to relax a bit, but not for him, because this only meant he was going to screw up on the inside. And if something happened in there, simply escaping the enemy's lair would be highly unlikely.
Ruby looked at her Scroll and sighed sadly.
"I burned through almost half my Aura on these dashes."
"There you are!" they were personally met by the captain of the "Dragon" sabotage squad, Yang Xiao Long. "My hands are itching to burst in there and bust some heads for Blakey."
Everyone's gaze was immediately drawn to the long barrel sticking out of the ground. The flagship was so heavy that upon landing, it had dented the soil quite a bit, so the base of the main caliber was hidden somewhere below, and its muzzle rose about a meter above the ground.
"Alrighty." Commanding notes appeared in Yang's voice. She turned to her squad. "Head back and... and do whatever comes next in the plan." The militia saluted and withdrew. Now she took out her radio. "HQ, this is Dragon. We have Alpha-Beowolf, we are ready to move to the main phase of operation 'Freedom to the Kitties'. Over."
"Dragon, that is not what the operation is called," Weiss noted wearily. "However, it doesn't matter, the main thing is to get the job done."
"Show me the hatch," said Yort, who was not only the resident oracle but also the technical expert.
Egrer strapped on something like a bicycle helmet to his head, with a small camera attached to the top, after which he stood right in front of the barrel. Up close, it wasn't that big, but crawling through it on all fours was entirely possible. The only obstacle was the hatch - two closed steel doors.
"Aight, got the visual. Well, whaddya want me to say, stick a crowbar in it. Just be gentle - you break the mechanism and you're toast."
Yang handed him an already prepared tool bag. To Egrer's great surprise, everything went smoothly and without a hitch; he just had to put his back into it, and the hatch doors slid apart. He only had to hold them open with his hand to let the others crawl through.
Ruby climbed into the barrel first, followed by Yang, and Egrer brought up the rear. As soon as the hatch closed behind them, the starlight and moonlight disappeared, and the three of them were enveloped in pitch darkness. Even with Faunus night vision, Egrer felt uncomfortable. He might as well have closed his eyes entirely.
"Egrer Peleni," Weiss's cold voice came through the radio, "I see where you're looking. Head ninety degrees to the side. Over."
"Ahem." He kind of forgot that no one had taken the camera off his head, and the whole time he'd been broadcasting a close-up of Yang's ass to HQ. Egrer sighed. "Copy, head ninety degrees to the side."
Yang giggled. It clearly wasn't her first time feeling such gazes and being the center of attention.
"You whipped son of a bitch, over!" Yort's demanding voice rang out. "Cancel that order! Head back the way it was, ASAP. That's the finest ass I've ever seen."
"Hey, hey, meathead," Yang protested, turning on her own radio. "I ain't forbidding you to look, but no comments. Over."
"And I forbid it," Weiss replied.
"Guys," Ruby said awkwardly, "let's not argue. There's some hatch on the side here."
As Yort had said, there was a mechanic's entrance inside the barrel. Naturally, it was locked, but Weiss had thought of everything here too - for this exact case, they had Yang.
"No one'll hear you," Yort said confidently.
Several loud bangs, and the semicircular door flew off into the wall, letting them into a dimly lit maintenance tunnel. The slightly dirty and stuffy corridor didn't fit the snow-white image of the Atlas flagship at all, but there was simply no one to impress with blinding white color here - this place wasn't meant to be seen.
The next phase of the plan was to hack some console and find a map of the flagship, so they wouldn't get lost and would know exactly where the prisoners were held. This was exactly what Egrer was needed for, since he was the only candidate with the necessary skills.
You could reach the low ceiling of the tunnel just by standing on your tiptoes, and it wasn't particularly wide either. But its length defied even a rough estimate; the end of the corridor stretched endlessly into the distance, just like the flagship's main caliber, which they had crawled through for several minutes before they got onto the vessel. The tip, which they had crawled through for several minutes before getting onto the vessel. A tip, as long as a park alley or a small street. Only one-tenth of its true size.
Egrer paled slightly, realizing these were simply absurd proportions. The Atlesians really were war-obsessed psychos. Was something like this really necessary to protect the Vytal Festival from... what? Thugs? Robbers, thieves, or card sharps? This gun was surely capable of atomizing a dorm or a cafeteria, or maybe it was even more powerful. Not even Yort knew the exact answer.
In any case, dwelling on such questions wasn't worth it right now. There was simply no time for unnecessary thoughts.
"Here's a terminal," Egrer said, as they reached a small widening in the tunnel. Here there was something like an electrical panel, a forgotten toolbox, and about a hundred wires hanging from the ceiling, perfectly sorted and plugged into special sockets in the barrel.
Yort whistled.
"Gods bless their sysadmin. I ain't never seen such order."
"Eg." Yang looked at the terminal screen with interest. "Do you really know all this hacking stuff? Are you sure you can handle Atlas? They're supposed to be good at all this electronics stuff."
"In electronics - yes, in cybersecurity - not so much. They advance so fast that every six months they have to make new security systems, and even if they patch old holes, they ultimately just make more new ones. Atlas and cybersecurity are basically antonyms. Seriously, even a self-taught rookie could hack them." He wasn't lying, because once upon a time, he had been that self-taught rookie. "But in our situation, even I'm not really needed."
Egrer approached the terminal, pulling a highly fascinating device from his backpack on the go. He was very curious where Joker got such an unusual assortment of goods, that there was even a place for professional hacking equipment.
"What's that?" Ruby asked nervously, feeling in her gut how their prison sentence was increasing.
"This?" Egrer twirled any thief's dream in his hands. Just a small gray card connected by three wires to a similarly colorless little box. "This, my dears, is a cryptographic sequen... sequenc... the Crypta in common parlance. Works as crudely as possible, but on the flip side, it's foolproof and works on everything. Watch."
He shoved the Crypta into the ID card slot as carefully as possible and took a couple of steps back, freezing in reverent awe. A couple of seconds later, the monitor turned completely blue, and the lightbulb above them flared and dimmed due to a voltage drop. Static appeared on the screen, and then it returned to normal with just one exception - it no longer demanded access. Egrer looked at this with childlike delight.
"Done, it's completely ours. You're my little sunshine..." he pulled out the Crypta and kissed it with a loud smack, after which he stopped exhibiting affection for inanimate objects and began digging through the terminal's files.
"As I can see," Yang began with a sly smile, turning on her radio, "Eg reeeeally loves everything flat. Once is okay, but twice makes you wonder."
Yort laughed wildly into the radio, but Weiss cut the connection almost immediately. Egrer himself just sighed in resignation.
"How do you handle this?" Ruby asked in a whisper.
"There's nothing you can't get used to," he replied vaguely. "Humility is a highly useful quality. And I dare hope that I possess it."
"No, I mean something else. Like... sneaking in, hacking, beating up guards... We're definitely doing highly illegal things, and you're so calm the whole time. It's like it doesn't even bother you."
Egrer scratched the back of his head. He had absolutely no idea how to explain to her that he was actually a seasoned criminal. Naturally, he felt excitement and fear, but it wasn't his first time experiencing such emotions on the job, so they didn't really reflect on his behavior.
"It's just... I believe in Weiss's plan and Yort's abilities. I advise you to believe in them too."
Soon he found the map. From a small circular pad on the terminal, a large hologram of the flagship popped up, and out of curiosity, Egrer poked at different parts of it. The interface was very responsive; with simple gestures, he zoomed in and detailed the parts of the vessel that interested him. All that was left was to download the map to his Scroll and they could move on.
But the connected Scroll suddenly beeped. It wasn't the beep when a message arrives; it was an alarm beep. Such sounds were made by a not-so-legal program that protected the Scroll from wiretapping and particularly tricky malware.
"Maybe they aren't so hopeless after all." Egrer opened the logs on the terminal and read them carefully. "Something is trying to get into my Scroll. There's some sketchy program here. Looks like it jumps to all devices it comes in contact with."
"Some kind of virus?" Yang asked.
"Seems like it, but a pretty chunky one. It wouldn't have gotten in here that easily." Egrer tried to download the flagship map again, but instead, the Scroll alarm beeped again. It was blocking the malicious file. "Looks like I'll have to deal with it first."
"Is this gonna take long?" Ruby asked, nervously looking around.
"A very long time. I'll basically be doing an antivirus's job now. Atlas should actually pay me for this." Egrer spent a few minutes hacking his way from this terminal into the digital space of the control room, after which he started searching there for suspicious files.
Ruby and Yang peered over his shoulders at the monitor. Surely in their minds, a hacker's work meant a bunch of rapidly changing lines of obscure code and nimble typing on a keyboard, but reality was much more boring. So they soon got tired of the monotony of the process and went to stand guard, concurrently explaining the situation to HQ.
However, Egrer's search was short. With extraordinary surprise, he realized he had found the virus's root folder. The root folder of the virus... He didn't even know how to react to this; he wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. And when he started figuring out how it worked, he realized it was a terrible half-assed job. A half-assed job made intentionally and with the full realization that it was supposed to be a half-assed job. As if the creator of this virus wanted it to be found.
It's amazing Atlas didn't detect it themselves. Although, there was actually nothing amazing about that. Maybe its creator just didn't want to exert themselves unnecessarily?
Egrer's finger hovered hesitantly over the "Delete" key. He didn't believe he could just go ahead and delete the virus this easily; that would be too much. It just couldn't be this easy; it was surely a trap for fools. Some kind of tricky defense system for Atlesian military vessels.
However, he pressed it anyway. A prompt immediately popped up demanding administrator access, to which Egrer simply used the Crypta one more time. The suspicious folder vanished, and the flagship map obediently migrated to his Scroll. Egrer froze in shock, unable to believe it was all over so quickly.
"We're getting too lucky," he suddenly realized. "It can't be like this. Everything's going like clockwork..."
***
Magenta believed in the triumph of justice. Evil must be punished, and good rewarded, and no other way. Fleeing from evil equals pandering to evil, pandering to evil equals aiding evil, and aiding evil is evil.
She adjusted the cap bearing the union's crest - a hammer and sickle against the backdrop of a red star. Before her were deserters and cowards, who traded the ideas of freedom just so they wouldn't be punished even more severely. By jumping off the Atlas flagship and leaving Blake to the mercy of tyrants, they betrayed their noble cause. For which they paid the price.
Fleeing - aiding - evil. This logical chain easily found a place in Magenta's multi-colored little head. Before her were villains who needed to be punished. And since evil must be punished, the best punishment would be fighting another evil. It was practical, at the very least.
Magenta Toti, also known as the Chief Commissar of the first penal battalion, gripped her flamethrower more comfortably. It wasn't her first time being a leader and giving out orders or scoldings, so she felt confident in her own abilities. True, at first those around her were bewildered when the Secretary to the Secretary of the General Secretary, Weiss Schnee, appointed her to this position, but now everyone understood that there simply was no better candidate.
The harmless and flighty butterfly-Faunus can sometimes be very responsible and even somewhat fanatical. Only chance dictates which side of her personality will take the forefront, and right now the penal troops were beholding her serious side. Most likely even Weiss didn't expect such efficiency; she just appointed the first person she saw to this post.
"You have a rare chance to redeem your sins before the motherland!" Magenta began her speech. "Redeem with blood! For your betrayal, for your cowardice! Very soon you will set off to storm the Atlas flagship to buy the saboteurs inside some time. You will die, but you will clear your names! However, there is no need to fear this, for the fallen in battle know no disgrace!"
"Madge," Illmond whispered quietly, whom she still hadn't let go anywhere away from her, "don't hype it up so much, no one's gonna die. Just look, someone's already starting to sob."
"Are you... feeling sorry for them?" Her associative chain "Fleeing - aiding - evil" had just been supplemented with a small offshoot, and this was clearly reflected in her squinted gaze. Illmond immediately paled and took a step back.
"N-no! Serves them right, crush 'em."
Magenta nodded with satisfaction and continued her pep talk before the demoralized penal battalion. She felt responsible for the upcoming stage of the plan, and therefore decided to give it her all.
"Remember that only by the grace of General Secretary Egrer Peleni are you not currently dangling from lampposts like the captive Atlesians. In his wisdom, he decided that you are not yet lost and that you should be given a chance for redemption. Glory to Enversion! Glory to the leader! Glory to Peleni!"
The crowd reluctantly, but still, repeated this cheer.
"And now - Nora Valkyrie! Step forward!"
Nora was a traitor to their noble cause, but she was also her friend. For a long time, Magenta couldn't figure out which hypostasis was more important to her, and what should be done in this situation. Ironically, it was Magenta who helped those around her sort themselves out, but right now there was no one nearby who could provide the same service.
Of course, she could make an exception and pull Nora out of the penal battalion, just like Weiss did with Yort and that guy with piercings all over his face... but they had abilities or resources that could help the rest. Nora didn't have anything like that; Magenta could only cut her some slack because they were friends. But would that be fair? After all, it meant the others were guilty simply because they failed to befriend her in time.
Therefore, Magenta came to the best choice possible - she would give the traitor a chance to become a friend again.
"Nora Valkyrie!" the Commissar repeated. "Step forward, I said!"
Nora belatedly did as she was told. She was completely crushed by the realization that she would spend all four years at Beacon doing detentions, so she had completely lost her sense of presence in this world. For four years she would spend several hours of her life every day on community service - mopping floors, helping in the kitchen, painting walls, sorting books in the library. And under the guidance of an old senile-misogynist-racist-Nazi-monarchist, no less.
It was too much like a marriage not to be horrified...
Thoughts obsessively crept into her head that it was all meaningless, that life itself was now meaningless. Because of the sharp tentacles of despair that entangled her soul, even her bright orange hair seemed to have darkened. But like a ray of summer sun, Magenta burst into this gloom.
"Nora, you know, you were the last person I expected to flee. I'm not mad," she quickly added, "we all make mistakes sometimes. I believe that if given a chance, you will fix absolutely every mistake! Every sunset is the beginning of a great and very, very bright dawn."
"They'll punish me even more." Nora slumped her shoulders. "Maybe even expel me. I don't wanna go on the assault..."
"The Nora I know would never be afraid of some punishments. You know what? They're afraid of you. Ozpin, Ironwood, and even Goodwitch! That's why they're trying to break you psychologically. They're afraid that your participation will turn everything upside down, that you'll defeat them!"
Everyone who heard this nonsense exchanged incredulous looks. Nora, on the contrary, perked up, which surprised everyone even more.
"They're afraid of me!" she exclaimed, as if struck by lightning. "They definitely are!"
"You will march in the front ranks!" Magenta handed her the banner of the first penal battalion, depicting a skull in a white circle on a red background. "Show them that their fears are justified!"
Nora accepted this gift like the greatest holy relic. With every second, more and more life returned to her eyes.
"Thanks for believing in me."
"We're besties, after all." Magenta smiled, checking her watch. "And now it's time to go on the attack. Do your best, guys!"
"M-ma'am?" Jaune raised his hand. "Will we be issued weapons? Because, well... they were left on the flagship."
"Cannon fodder doesn't need weapons," the Chief Commissar of the first penal battalion replied with a smile. She pointed her flamethrower at him. "I said fix bayonets or I'll execute you all with the flamethrower!"
Jaune was left with no other choice but to charge into a bayonet attack without a bayonet. However, everyone charged; no one had any other choice. Only Nora merrily whooped and inspired the others with her reckless example.
Chief Commissar Magenta Toti and her involuntary deputy Illmond Kitse rushed after them, ready to shoot anyone who took even a single step back.
"Madge." Illmond gulped when Magenta regained her usual charming appearance. "Are you... feeling okay?"
"Yeah, why?"
"It's just... you're not yourself."
"Oh, come on, I'm the same as always." She waved it off with a laugh. "You're imagining things."
"Usually you don't call our classmates cannon fodder and don't send them barehanded against a whole army."
"But I saw that in movies! Weiss told me to be a good commissar, so I'm trying my best."
It suddenly dawned on Illmond.
"Wait, are you taking your cues from those commissars who led the Atlas troops during the World War?!"
"I don't know any other commissars." The Atlesians likely never suspected that their cultural heritage would be used so brutally against them. And while Illmond was realizing that no one would return alive, Magenta set about fulfilling her duties - inspiring her subordinates to fight with quotes from Atlesian commissars from movies and video games. "Forward, dogs! To victory! Anyone who refuses to fight will be executed! Glory awaits the fallen! Attack! Their days are numbered! They cannot withstand our might! For Atl... I mean, for the Leader!"
The penal troops ran even faster. Some particularly cunning scoundrels tried to slip away, taking advantage of the fact that Magenta was alone and there were many of them. Especially those running on the edges. The Commissar had to herd the scattering sheep back like a sheepdog.
"Get back in formation!" She unleashed a stream of icy fire and blocked the path of a trio of cowards who had no desire to redeem their sins.
A gray-haired guy, while still running, started knocking the cold flames off the sleeve of his shirt and irritatedly hissing at his neighbor:
"Em, you pain in the ass, you said she was under your Semblance!"
"She should be!" the dark-skinned girl with mint-green hair replied just as quietly. She turned around again and fixed her red eyes on Magenta, but the latter didn't break eye contact and even shook her flamethrower slightly, as if threatening them. "For some reason, she can see us. I don't get it at all. Does she have some kind of Semblance? Cinder is going to kill us..."
No one was particularly bothered by the fact that they hadn't even been seen during that failed assault. More precisely, everyone knew that the long-haired blond, the redhead, and the shortie had been on the ship, but their real appearance was clean. But since they jumped off the ship - it meant they fled, and whether they were seen or not, that would be sorted out in the next life.
They didn't even have time to take on their borrowed appearances again after the fall, as they were immediately tackled and dragged to a military tribunal. Only Neo managed to get her disguise back, using her Semblance at the exact second her old appearance shattered into a hundred pieces.
This was the only instance in Mercury Black's memory when something went off Cinder's "Plan." And so far off plan that he wanted to grab his hair and mess it up even more than it already was. Apparently, they had made such a terrible mistake that even their reserve of luck couldn't fix it. Basically, this was the unluckiest day of their lives.
"Jumping along with the rest was a bad idea," Emerald noted sarcastically. "Though I'm not surprised, all your ideas are shit!"
"How the hell was I supposed to know those psychos were already waiting for us there! And also that we'd be accused of... what were we accused of?"
"Cowardice, desertion, revisionism, opportunism, collaborationism, and counter-revolutionism," Emerald reminded him with a look that suggested only a complete idiot wouldn't remember that list of smart-sounding words, which even the accusers themselves were using for the first time in their lives. "Dumbass."
"Crazy, that's all us? My summer to-do list is almost done, and it's not even spring."
"Now is not the time for jokes, Merc! We have to get out of here. We can't let Cinder down, we've come so far for this!"
"We haven't come far at all," Mercury grumbled. "This is all pure improvisation. If we had just waited until the finale according to the first plan, everything would have been super. But no, we just had to take advantage of the commotion."
"Are you daring to criticize Cinder? You couldn't even come close to coming up with something that smart yourself! Tell me, what would you have done in her place?"
"I wouldn't be in her place. And I'm not criticizing her, I still want to live, you fool."
Listening to their argument, Neo couldn't hold back a playful smile. She wasn't the least bit worried or anxious; on the contrary, she rejoiced at this turn of events. Accident or thought-out plan, but Egrer almost managed to corner them, which made Neo proud. And the fact that she had invisibly helped from time to time... well, you have to keep your finger on the pulse when your life depends on the outcome of this adventure.
However, when she turned around and the Headmaster's tower caught her eye, her smile vanished. Whatever Cinder wanted to steal from there today, it definitely wouldn't end well.