Remnant - XIII

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Requested By : Gib

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"Sir." Ironwood turned from the wide, reinforced window of his new office and nodded for the officer to report. They returned it and said, "Megoliaths have been detected by long range sensor systems. Three point four kilometers out. Twenty three, on approach to a mining venture nearby. Aerial Grimm are supporting."

"I see." Well, it had been a quiet week, he supposed. He turned back to the window and spoke simply, "Deploy the fleet. Escorts to intercept, primary fleet on perimeter between the contact zone and Mantle."

"Yes, General."

A few moments passed, before a shadow passed across his window and he turned, watching the Atlas Air Fleet drift into view.

As of now, it consisted of only ten ships.

Two of them were capital ships, with long, narrow hulls flanked by massive, boxy bays attached to their long, sloped wings. Each wing was capped by a Gravity-dust infused engine that worked in support with the four blocky primary engines at the rear of the ship. Its bottom hull was sleek and grey-painted, pockmarked by long viewing decks and sheltered gun bays for point defence and light ground bombardment. The fore of each ship curved to a narrow, circular port flanked on all sides by long antennae. These antennae were regulation antennae, and worked with the tall one nestled behind the tower-bridge at the center of the craft's top and an armored fin that protruded from the rear like a fish's tail end.

He watched a dark violet energy sparked to life at the tip of each of the forward antennae and then sort of flowed backward, like water sprayed from a nozzle. It flowed back until it reached the engines and then tugged in, lured in by a system built into the fin-like end, until it linked up with the tip, stabilised, and began to clear to allow better viewing through it.

They formed a defensive line a kilometer away from Atlas and Mantle, and allowed their escorts to drift by.

Where the capital ships were mostly self-defence and carrier oriented, between the light anti-air bombardment cannons and the shields, the escorts were more intrinsically meant for the fight. Each was long and rectangular, and sloped to an end at the front. He could see several decks worth of viewing windows glinting from here, where the command bridge sat. Each had four engines like its siblings at its end, and were dotted by a dozen little balls. Turrets, a few of which were the same point-defence and light bombardment system as their larger charges.

However, at the top and bottom were two heavy, twin barrel cannons linked by several brackets. They sat in the center of the ship, barrels ending just above and below the command deck, and could rotate in a limited arc like their naval inspirations. This ship lacked the finned tail of the capital ship, though. Instead it had four smaller antennas that stuck out just behind the command deck and in front of the engines, as well as another set just behind the turrets.

These eight accelerated away from the fleet until, presumably, they reached their targets. He could see the puffs of black shrapnel-clouds from their point defence cannons first. But, as expected, it only took a moment for them to acquire targets and open their shields.

Long lines of arcing, liquid plasma-fire carved out of the escorts and swept across the tundra. Using its Gravity-dust systems the ships could hover for some time, and used this to point their forward decks down at an almost forty degree angle, allowing both turrets to turn and swivel, bathing the tundra in molten death.

"A year's work." He smiled, "But only a year's. Atlas' military might will once more be without question…"

"General…?" He didn't turn but did raise his hand to gesture for the man to speak. "Report from the shipyards, Sir. The next cluster of Mantle class escorts have finished pre-production. Deck sections are being connected to the frame as we speak."

"And the Solitas?"

"Two more are nearing operational stages, Sir." He answered, then paused and, after a moment, added, "But, ah, the shipyards are expecting… Delays."

"Delays?" He turned, eyes hard, and asked, "For what reason?"

"The workers, Sir." The soldier reported simply, "They're protesting their work conditions. Requesting a return to standard nine hour shifts, and better equipment."

"Atlas is at war." Ironwood grunted hotly before he could catch himself. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he thought for a moment and then said. "Identify the strike leaders and terminate them all. Blacklist them from further work in Atlas in all fields legally possible. Make this information public, to encourage obedience."

"Yes, General."

"Dismissed." He grunted, turning back to the final part of the distant display. Quietly, he sighed, "Atlas will be strong with or without them."

And safe, too.

Once all knew Atlas' might…

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A year of quiet work passed by without interruption, after the wedding. Sienna's forces came and went, delivering him shipments of metal salvaged from Mantle's fleets along with more quality shipments of crated ingots caught on trading vessels headed to Atlas from Vale and Mistral alike. The amount of metals recovered from trading ships captured by the Faunus had risen quickly over the last year, but according to Sienna, this was merely due to Atlas rebuilding its fleet in preparation for another attack on Menagerie.

He would welcome their folly - if only for the abundance in readily accessible supplies it would bring him.

Shockwave had plenty to keep him busy even without that extra chore, though. Sienna brought him plenty of revolutionarily reclaimed rifles to retrofit, and he needed to supply them with parts and ammunition on occasion as well. The rest of his time he spent on his great wall, which now stood vigil over Menagerie.

A toothless vigil, but the silver wall glinted in the sunlight and, according to Ghira, leant the people an air of comfort.

Even if it wasn't armed, few Grimm could get over it as it was.

At Ghira's request, the barrier rolled gently with the shifting elevations of the mountains around Menagerie, rising to each peak and dipping into each cleft. The wall was as thick as Shockwave himself was abreast, and twice as tall on all fronts. Numerous cylinders lined the walls, both man-sized and Cybertronian sized, and these contained lifts that rose up to the flat top of the wall. Up there men and women could walk safely, guarded by crenellated defences and sheltered by a simple steel roof held up by thick metal columns.

All of it was cyber-formed metal, as durable as it was pristine and gleaming.

At least where the locals had not begun painting trees and the sky onto it…

The towers were twice as tall as the walls, and hollow, with multiple floors reachable by the same sorts of ramps as he had in his tower. Here, though, he added stairways to the center of each ramp, for ease of use by the native population. He had left the floors empty and, as time passed, the ranger stations had been dismantled. Now, those people world out of the towers, using his drones to construct offices and barracks as they needed.

He left them to it on every floor but the top and the open-air apex. The former was taken up by power generators connected to far larger wind turbines that faced into Menagerie, providing electricity across the wall. The turbine sails were the only non-meta part of the whole thing - Ghira's people had made thick, wooden-backed cloth sails for him, which saved metal and performed just as well. And it pleased them as well.

Which was… A bonus.

The defensive batteries were as simplistic as the wall and power were. Each was a long-barreled emplacement set on a thick metal platform. Each had an enclosed compartment attached to either side. Inside that was a simple control and targeting system which could rotate the cannon three hundred and sixty degrees and target items up to eight kilometers away. The barrels ended in tight capacitor end-points that would concentrate and direct the particles excited by the internal firing array and nfire a broad-beam bombardment.

The result…

He watched the lance of violet energy annihilate the pile of scrap-metal he had erected as a target four kilometers away. As the light faded, his optics focused, but he found nothing left and nodded.

"Acceptable."

"I'll say." Ghira chuckled as he disembarked from the control cabin, dropping down onto the metal roof with a grunt and turning to look up at him. "Firing that weapon… It's astounding, Shockwave."

"It is rudimentary." He grumbled, corssing his carms over his chest and sighing. "Primitive approximations of my weaponry."

"I think you're being too hard on yourself." Ghira argued quietly, "What you've done here… Do you even understand what this means to all of us?"

"Safety." He nodded, "Confidence in your livelihoods. In your survival."

"It's more than that." He turned slightly to regard Ghira and the man began to explain, "All of Remnant looks down on us. Even now, they call Menagerie a 'tiny settlement'. Not the Faunus Kingdom their propaganda said it would be."

"Propaganda rarely speaks true, Ghira."

"You can say that again…"

"Propaganda rarely speaks true, Ghira."

"If you weren't building sized, I swear…" Ghira chuckled and then, after a moment, asked, "So, what's next for you?"

"I have a few projects in mind." He rumbled unsurely, "But, for now, a brief break. Perhaps to catalogue the local flora and fauna in more depth. I wonder how many medicinal applications can be found here which are, as yet, undiscovered."

"You think there'll be a lot?"

"Tropical environments and jungle environments are the most biologically diverse in existence." He informed the large man directly, "It is, in brief, the single best place to look for medicinal uses. If we are lucky, you could corner the planetary market for pharmaceuticals."

"I suppose we could…"

"You disapprove?"

"The idea of holding people's health over their heads just feels… I don't know." He shrugged and leaned against the control pod."It feels like the kind of cruel money-grubbing that would come out of Vale."

"You will offer fairer prices than they would ever do." He knew little about Vale's capitalist bent, but if Ghira said they were particularly bad about it, then he would believe him. He had no reason to doubt him, after all. But, curious, he asked, "Is Atlas better than Vale for such things?"

"I'm… Going to say… No…" Ghira ventured slowly, "Atlas has better price controls, especially for medicine and construction goods for personal usages, but, uh, worse… Worse everything else, really. Just, everything."

"I… See."

"It's complicated." Ghira sighed, "But… See what kind of medicine you can find. We'll price gouge that bridge when we come to it. And, hell, maybe we'll help some people out."

"I suppose." Shockwave nodded, then opted to turn to another topic. "My cannons can currently fire longer distances than sight and its basic sensor suites can facilitate."

"It can?"

"It is capable." He would need to modify the power output, brace it more adequately against recoil, and modify the barrel, but all these were simple enough tasks. "I will need to construct detection way-stations beyond Menagerie to facilitate targeting."

"What do you mean by 'way-stations'?"

"Waypoints, detecting motion and relaying information between each other and back to commande suites here, in the city." He explained simply, "These will need to be manned, but with them properly positioned, you would not need to stop at simply holding this city."

"We could take the entire continent…."

"In time." He confirmed, "But before that, we must make preparations."

"Such as?"

"On my own, it will take several years to gather supplies, refine them, and move them to construct sites to then build on my own." Shockwave explained, straightening and pacing to the edge of the platform to look out onto the badlands beyond the new wall. "First, I believe we ought to begin the formalization of Menagerie's military might."

"You've been talking to Sienna…"

"I have, and she is right, Ghira." He said, turning to look down on the somewhat displeased looking Faunus. "A proper, standing, professional military is required in a time of war."

"Resistance, not war." Ghira argued, "And that may be true. But do you think the warhawks that will flock to a true military will be happy to see it dismantled when the war is done?"

"I do not." He admitted, "But I do not think it should be dismantled, Ghira."

"You have been spending too much time with her…"

"This is my own opinion, and I would thank you to respect me enough to hold it."

"I…" The man paused, gave him a look, then sighed and nodded, gesturing for him to go on. "You're right, Shockwave, I'm sorry. That was unfair of me."

"Acknowledged." And it was a bigger man that was willing to admit to it, too. A sad fact that intimate knowledge of Megatron had taught him well enough. And his admittedly less-intimate knowledge of Ghira told him that it had genuinely been a mistake on his part.

So, he let it go.

"Once all is done, Menagerie will still face Grimm." He finally said, "And I am certain the other Kingdoms will not be happy to have lost this war."

"That is definitely true…"

"A navy would be able to patrol the waters, as well as protect trade and tourism related convoy routes." He pressed, sensing the opportunity now that it was present. While true he could go around and over Ghira if he wished, he would much prefer to have the man's assent. And preferably Kali's as well. "An air force would alloy additional defensive coverage against Grimm, as well, and more advanced craft would be capable of coordinating with the defensive towers."

"Perhaps we should discuss this with the others-" The man was cut off by the distant tolling of emergency sirens, all along the wall. It started at the far end of the wall, where it curved in along the mountains and cameto its abrupt stop at the beach.

Shockwave turned and scanned the badlands, optics tuned for even the slightest movement. Finally, he murmured, "I see nothing…"

"Shockwave," Ghira called up to him, "the cannons are turning out towards the sea."

He turned and followed the wall, watching the heavy emplacements he had built orient themselves towards the sea. For a moment he suspected some larger, aquatic Grimm. But his optics couldn't detect motion of any real mass in the water, either, beyond the ships fleeing towards the coastline. Finally, he looked up, tracking half a dozen airborne targets that pinged back as metal rather than meat, descending from a higher altitude and coated in a strange electromagnetic haze.

At a wireless command, his emplacement turned to join the others, tracking the incoming threats and drawing power from the generators scattered along the wall…

Then, he registered a dozen errors and watched, perplexed, as the artillery piece lost its power. Turning, he watched well over half of the emplacements along the defensive barrier power down and fall still and silent.

"What's happening…"

"The cannons have lost power."

"I thought they had plenty."

"They do…" He rumbled, raising his own, personal cannon and lining up with one of the larger vessels coming down and turning to present its larger turrets. He targeted it and fired… Violet particle energy lanced out from his arm, arcing out towards the ship on a direct course. It struck it along its port side, and lit the world in vibrant hues of purple, red, and…

Green?

As he watched, confused, the particle fire bloomed around it, exploding out and away in long, trailing lines of projected heat that arced away and curved down onto Menagerie itself. Wherever they touched it lit fires and collapsed buildings. What few cannons still functioned across the wall fired as well, but their shots came only to the same effect, scattering their payloads across Menagerie in a bright, destructive display of incidental immolation.

Then, the smaller warships turrets opened fire, sweeping long lances of almost-liquid, green fire across Menagerie's docks and warehouses. The larger ships held back, its large hangar bays opening to allow smaller, bulbous and blocky craft to break free and angle down, towards the city and the wall. They dropped bombs as they went, devastating the city, and fired missiles that trailed smoke into the walls and into his artillery emplacements.

And all in such a coordinated way…

"It cannot be." He rumbled, "It is illogical."

Several turned towards him and he turned to face them, arm snapping around. One vanished in a bright flash of violet light, but the others pulled away before he could lock onto them. Missiles trailed from their bellies towards him and he turned and knelt, pulling Ghira in against his chest and shielding him with his back. The munitions slammed into him and detonated with little effect, but sheared away layers of thin, outer armor.

As he stood and turned, Atlas' fleet turned away and began to withdraw, leaving Menagerie to its self-inflicted fires and devastated workshops.

"Shockwave…" He looked down and Ghira smiled thinly, "Are you alright?"

"No." He growled, fist curling into a ball, "I am not."

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"I thought those cannons were meant to defend Menagerie!" Sienna Khan snarled, pacing along the beach in front of the assembled Faunus while Shockwave watched. Her eyes glinted in the dim light, boring into his optic accusatorily. "Instead, they burned half of it down! And that's the ones that worked!"

"I could not have expected Atlas to have barrier technology." He defended, kneeling in the ocean and more than aware of the eyes on him. Soot-faced, burned, and in many cases, bandaged, the Faunus had lost many and much. "Had I known, I would have devised kinetic weapons. For all the good it would have done."

"What does that-"

"I do not know that my kinetics would pierce their shields."

"Then what good is any of this?" Sienna demanded, voice hot and heavy, and loaded with all the emotion of it. "What have you really given us? Rifles? A wall? Because your artillery didn't-"

"Tell me, Siena Khan. How did they know where my emplacements were to already have wings dedicated to their destruction?"

"I-"

"And why did half of my power generation deactivate just as they arrived?" Sienna finally went truly quiet, staring up at him, and he stood. "Someone informed them of my static defensive emplacements, and that someone also disabled much of the power to those cannons."

"Meaning-"

"We have a spy." He confirmed, turning and moving around the crowd, towards the mountains, "Find them, Khan. They will no doubt have known before the attack that we would suspect as such."

"Wait!" She called to his back. He paused and turned, and she asked, "Where are you going?"

"Atlas will be back." He said simply, "I will be, too. And I will be ready to make them regret daring to do any of this."

They had made a fool of him…

And he would make sure they knew how poor a decision that had been.

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