Work Text:
“Schnee, on your six!”
“I’m aware!”
“Transport five is under attack!”
Weiss made a quick glance over at her left flank through her cockpit’s visual screen, just in time to see several Lancer Grimm firing their bone-like harpoons into the civilian transport ship’s hull, threatening to tear it apart. The small green and yellow planet of Vytal loomed in the background and took up most of the backdrop of Weiss’ cockpit screens. She then pulled hard on the control stick, shoving it into her gut to pull her fighter into a sharp turn, the bottom thrusters pushing her fighter’s nose up and rotating her craft into a 180 degree spin. Her flight suit constricted on her, fighting to keep her from blacking out from such a sudden maneuver. Within seconds, her holographic crosshairs covered the Lancer that was previously on her tail and in an instant, a burst from the twin 14.5mm automatic machine guns mounted on her fighter’s sides ripped the Grimm to shreds.
“Nice shot, Schnee!”
Weiss scoffed. “Shut it and focus on the battle, Coco!”
Coco Adel, Weiss’ Squadron leader only responded with a cocky sounding chuckle before flying off somewhere else in the battlefield. Not really focusing on the idle conversation, Weiss’ attention was fully on the battle around her, eyes darting to every direction as she scanned the black void that was filled with massive ships and Grimm alike. One Grimm, a massive Nevermore with two sets of wings and a dozen tendrils going every which way to strike at the human vessels, slowly made its way to one of their battleships. Weiss couldn’t do anything to help with her small fighter, so she resumed searching for her ever so eager wingmate. Luckily, she didn’t have to search for long.
Another fighter passes right over her cockpit, It’s arrowhead-like shape nearly a blur as it soared through the void, along with two lancers hot on its tail. Her fighter’s cockpit screens displayed the other fighter’s IFF signal next to it: Rose 1031
“Ruby, you got two Lancers on you!” Weiss warned as she pushed her throttle to the max, chasing after Ruby and the two lancers.
“I know, I was kind of hoping you’d take care of ‘em for me.” Ruby pulled a sharp turn, causing the lancer’s to give Weiss a perfect target to fire at as they followed Ruby into her turn.
Weiss pulled the trigger without hesitation, sending a burst of tracers that ripped the lead Lancer’s armor and tearing it apart into a black and red gory mess. The second Lancer passed it’s fallen wingmate, it’s multiple organic thrusters that protrude from it’s Insect like body increased their thrust to chase down Ruby. Weiss fought to get her holographic sight onto the Lancer, but it had learned from it’s fallen comrade and kept changing positions randomly as it stayed on Ruby’s tail.
“I can’t get it, it’s moving too much!” Weiss growled.
“Stupid little-Fuck!” Ruby yelled as the Lancer fired it’s harpoon into the right side of her fighter, piercing it’s hull through the top at a shallow angle. The Grimm began reeling itself in, causing it to move in a straight line. Weiss fired a quick burst, killing the Lancer but leaving its remains to be dragged behind Ruby’s fighter.
“Ruby, are you okay?!”
“Fine, pierced my right gun’s ammo belt.” A brief pause and Ruby continued, this time sounding a little worried. “A-Along with my fuel tank.”
“We should return to Signal, I’m getting low on ammo and you need repairs ASAP.”
“Fine...you lead the way, partner!” Ruby chriped and Weiss let a small smile form. No matter how bad things got, even when there were thousands of people dying around them in defenseless transport vessels and starships and fighters, Ruby always seemed to find the strength to smile and remain calm.
As Weiss escorted Ruby through the battlefield, avoiding most of the Grimm that shot across the void in every which way, she noticed another transport ship get torn apart by a deathstalker that nearly dwarfed the transport vessel. It’s claws crushed the hull of the defenseless ship as its tail-like appendage and ebony tendrils pierced it, invading and corrupting it’s metal prey. It was a horrible sight to behold, but one Weiss was used to.
"Oh my god, Weiss, look!" Ruby's sudden panic brought Weiss' focus back to her front, only for dread to take hold of her by what she saw. Just ahead of the two pilots was Signal, the large capital ship of their fleet, along with the Nevermore from earlier slowly approaching it. The Nevermore's four wings easily made the capital ship look puny in comparison to the monster as it's black tendrils began extending from its rear, reaching for the ship's hull.
"Weiss, we need to stop it! If we don't, then we can't rearm, let alone retreat!"
Weiss gritted her teeth, there was no way a fighter like theirs could go head to head with a Nevermore. "Ruby, we don't stand a chance against a Grimm like that, we'll have go to the-"
"We need to help them!" Ruby's fighter instantly zoomed away and towards the Nevermore, leaving Weiss in the dust.
Weiss cursed to herself as she pushed the throttle to max, chasing after Ruby. Every instinct in her body was screaming at her to run, to just leave Ruby with her impossible mission, but Weiss' emotions forced her to act, to chase and support Ruby wherever she went. "You are crazy, you know that?! You only have one functional gun and you're low on fuel!"
"Don't worry, we're just gonna get it's attention away from Signal. Also, I still have a few missiles left."
As they flew full speed towards the Nevermore, Ruby's fighter launched a barrage of small missiles that did nothing more than anger the massive Grimm. Weiss flew in after Ruby, making a quick gun run on one of the Nevermore's eyes, causing it to reel back a bit and it's tendrils to halt their advance on Signal. It's maw of a beak opened wide as if howling in pain, but not a sound was heard in the vacuum of space. Quickly, it turned its head and zeroed in on Weiss' fighter, sending a few tendrils to strike at her.
Weiss pulled hard to the left, narrowly avoiding the Nevermore's attack. In the corner of her vision, she saw that Ruby was being chased by another Lancer. "Ruby, on your six!"
"I know, I know!" Ruby swayed left and right, keeping herself a moving target. "This one's really stubborn!"
"Hang on, I'm coming to-woah!" Weiss pulled hard to the right just in time to avoid another attack from the Nevermore. "Damn it!"
"Aaahh! Fuck!"
Weiss whipped her head around back towards Ruby, only to see the Lancer had managed to hit Ruby with it's harpoon, right in the center rear of her fighter and directly behind the cockpit. "Ruby!"
"I-I'm fine!" Ruby caughed, her voice strained. "Just...n-nothing major was hit."
Weiss pulled hard to get behind the Lancer tailing Ruby, instantly ripping it apart with a burst of her guns. Weiss then pulled up to the right of Ruby, assessing the damage of her fighter. "How's your fuel?"
"Urhg…really low and still leaking…"
Weiss looked to her right, towards Signal, seeing that the Nevermore's focus returned to the capital ship. Large Grimm like the Nevermore are known to focus on large ships, much like a greedy glutton would focus on the largest steak at a family dinner. It's tendrils began digging into the front hull of Signal, threatening to tear it apart.
"Ruby, we need to dock at Argus, it has a small hangar but it should have some room for both of us." Nothing but silence from Ruby. "Ruby, did you hear me? We need to-"
Another sudden cough from Ruby cut her off, this time much more strained through the comms "S-Sorry Weiss...that last Lancer got me real good…"
Weiss' gut churned at the sound of Ruby's weak voice. "Ruby, are you okay?"
Ruby's shallow breathing filled Weiss' comms. "It's stinger...went straight through…I-I don't think I'm gonna make it..."
"Don't say that! Ruby, you're going to be fine, I'll escort you to Argus where you'll get help!" Tears spilled freely in an instant as Weiss gripped the stick between her legs, her heart pounding violently against her ribcage.
"Signal...without it, a lot of pilots will be stranded when we retreat…" Ruby's slow shallow breathing mixed with the occasional pained whimpers simply fueled Weiss' dread even more, making her entire body shake.
“Ruby, we can’t fight it! You’re injured and we must-”
“I’m sorry.”
---------------------------------------
“Lieutenant Ruby Rose, XM-21 fighter pilot stationed aboard the URS Signal, KIA, fifteen years old at time of death.”
Weiss stared at the portrait of Ruby on the concrete wall, looking into her silver eyes, her big bright smile contrasting Weiss' frown. Weiss pressed the button below Ruby’s portrait one last time, a woman’s voice repeating Ruby’s name, job, age, and status. She had listened to the computerized voice five times already, once for each year Ruby was dead. A form of punishment on herself, reminding her of her failure.
In her right hand was an Osiria Rose, a rare flower that only grows in a single garden on the colony of New Atlas. She bent down, placing the red and white rose in one of the many bottles in front of the Vytal Memorial Wall, right underneath Ruby's portrait. With a sigh, she forced herself to turn away from the memorial and headed straight for the entrance, not daring to look at the other people who had come for the same dreadful reason she had.