Remnant - XXVII

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Requested By : Gib

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"Is it ready?" Sienna asked him, standing on his shoulder and using one of his spines to keep her balance while they looked at the fully assembled Scorponok-drone.

Fully assembled, the five massive Scorponok-drones were six-legged Insecticon profile drones. Each leg was segmented, like the scorpion from which its design came, with four pronged claws that struck out in every direction for better purchase. Its front claws were blocky, open, and somewhat hollow, with a red hot drill-system and a dozen small micro-pulse lasers surrounding the fronts to melt away chunks of rock and stone, which would then be ground down and ejected to the side of the machine. Each of their tails, as long as their own bodies, ended in a cylindrical weapon pod which would open to reveal hundreds of small barrels which were attached to a mass accelerator system, which could condense rocks, stones and concrete into lethal rounds projected at just below the speed of sound. Their heads were relatively small, sunken into the center of their narrow fronts between a pair of particle cannons that would further assist in the tunneling efforts to come, and it was based, rather than on a scorpion, on a dragonfly. Hundreds of tiny eyes looked out from small, sequester optic foundings. Which would provide the drone with all the optical data it needed to maneuver.

He sent a data burst to each of the drones, and the machines shuddered as they stood, each one of them standing nearly a hundred feet taller than Sienna would be. Their drills spun, their pulse lasers flush with power, and their tails flicked, extending behind them in preparation for the digging and then curling up over them in combat format.

"They are ready." He nodded as their upper hatches opened. Raising his voice, he commanded, "Board."

Precisely one hundred Insecticons clambered or flew up the sides of the goliath machines, slipping inside quickly and efficiently before the upper hatches sealed. While their heavier, beetle kin rode inside the Scorponoks, another hundred Hornet Insecticons transformed and lifted up and away from the manufactory which had created them and their extra kin for this operation. They surged up, into the sky, like a swarm of hornets whose hive had been kicked.

"By the gods…" Sienna murmured, awe and a tremor of terror filtering into her voice.

"No gods." He murmured, kneeling and raising his palm for her to step into it. Stepping back, he transformed into his assault cruiser alt-mode. Opening the hatch he spoke, "Get in. We will go to your people and prepare them for boarding."

"Alright…" She murmured, clambering up his side and muttering under her breath, "Kind of weird to get inside you, but…"

"It is not strange for a Cybertronian." He offered congenially, "On Cybertron, there were even 'bots who were larger, and served to facilitate transport for their smaller breathren."

"Shockwave, your species is weird…"

"Perhaps." He rumbled, amused as he lifted up, "Sit down and brace yourself. I move quite quickly."

"How quicklyyyyyy-eeeee!"

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Inside, the Scorponoks were… Spacious, and more comfortable than she'd expected them to be. The smaller compartments for her forces were warmly lit, sound-proofed to protect sensitive Faunus ears against the intense grinding outside, with their middles filled by rows of comfortable seats. Racks surrounded them, all along the walls, lined by more than enough of the semi-automatic 'cyber-form rifles' he had been providing her men and women for the last couple years, along with a handful of heavier machine guns, retrofitted in the same way as the rifle with heat-based rounds.

But that wasn't all.

Footlockers under the racks had been filled with light armor and fitted black body-suits that her soldiers had pulled on when they'd boarded. Cyber-formed steel plates covered their torsos, forearms and thighs, layered like plate armor and sewn into thick, protective leather. With their unique features to contend with, Shockwave hadn't provided headwear or face protection, but her Faunus had more than happily filled in the gap themselves.

To the last, they wore smooth, chromed face-masks with indented, luminescent red visors to see through.

"Sienna." Shockwave's voice crackled through her wire-framed headset's ear-unit, laced by more static than she was used to from his equipment. "Can you confirm reception?"

"Yeah." She answered, covering the microphone beside her mouth with a hand to help her voice carry over the chatter around her. "A lot of static, though."

"You are underground, and at a great distance." He explained, "My signal is being relayed through fourteen of your bases via the transmitter relays scattered along Mistral's coast. The static is due to this."

"Ah."

"You will be arriving at the deserts over the mountain from Mistral in five minutes." Shockwave informed her, which made Sienna's brows spike into her hairline.

"That's fast…"

"Indeed." Shockwave answered, sounding… Amused, almost. "We have already arrived at the southern wall of Mistral. When you are ready, we will breach."

"You have plans for the civilians, right?" She asked, worried for a moment, "And the Grimm?"

"A rear-guard will deal with Grimm lured in." Shockwave answered, "And my Insecticons have been ordered to avoid civilian casualties and direct them away from combat. I am unable to deal with what enemy combatants will do, however."

"Yeah…" Suddenly, the quiet tremors that had been present the entire two hour trip went silent and Sienna unclipped her straps. "We've stopped."

"You've arrived." He said, "On your word, the two Scorponoks will emerge. In tandem, mine will."

"Alright…" She took a breath and let it out, steadying herself before she said. "Goodbye, and good luck, Shockwave."

"The same to you, Sienna Khan." Shockwave answered, but didn't cut the line. After a moment, he spoke again, quietly adding an almost reverent, "Til all are one."

It was the second time she'd heard him say that, but she didn't know what it meant. And he cut the line before she could ask. Shaking her head she switched her headpiece to carry through the Scorponoks the way Shockwave had showed her and turned, raising her voice and calling out, "Quiet!"

As she'd expected, the chatter died down as her voice echoed all throughout her Scorponok.

"For five years, we have fought and bled for our people. Against Vale, against Atlas, and against Mistral. For two, we've had help." She raised her hand, gesturing at the machine around them, and went on, "Shockwave and his technology, his Insecticons. They safeguarded Menagerie, turned it from a prison into a home. And now, they ride with us to ensure its protection. Today, we're doing that. We're ending this war!"

Her men cheered for that, and she could hear the Insecticons in the adjoining, larger sections chitter excitedly.

"Prepare to disembark." She ordered simply, raising her voice as her men and women checked their armor and stood, pacing over to pull rifles from their docks on the walls, "Scorponoks! Emerge!"

The machine didn't respond directly. Instead, she felt her center of gravity shift as the machine turned up and bored through the rock and soil, back to the surface, and pulled itself out. With a hiss of pressurization, the walls began to rise, leaving behind the racks and lockers. Light spilled in from a pair of doors on the outer wall and Sienna grinned as she pointed at it.

"Go!" She bellowed, "Take your future!"

Her soldiers bellowed and stormed out the door and Sienna yanked her headpiece off, rushing to join them as her whip unfurled.

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Kneeling in the belly of his Scorponok, he raised his cannon and felt energy flush through it, warming capacitors and checking systems he had rarely used since coming here. Turning, he watched the Insecticons beside him check over their blocky Path Blasters mechanically. Then he checked his sensor-connections to the Faunus segments, to ensure they were ready and equipped for the battle to come. Satisfied, and aware of Sienna's own speech, he opened internal comm-lines and spoke.

"Today, we end this war." He spoke simply, "But not as the monsters they describe you as. Check your targets, stay behind my Insecticons, move slowly and carefully. Decimate local combat forces and spread out, then maneuver towards Haven Academy and the Council chambers. My Insetcicons will secure the walls. With those, we will take Mistral and using this victory, sue for permanent peace."

Finally, he said, "Scorponok - breach."

He felt the machine tilt, angling up alongside its brethren. Above them was a moderately old highway that curved along Mistral's coast and up to the southern main gate, and the Scorponok shattered it as it went. The machine continued on, smashing through the wall and gate both as it breached into the city. He could hear small arms peppering along its sides, front and top from the garrison and police that naturally congregated around the wall and ordered his Scorponoks to engage.

And to open.

As the hatches hissed open, he rose, gripping the edge and pulling himself over with one hand. He landed in a crouch on the Scorponok's back and surveyed the city.

Close buildings, brick and wood, with thin walls. Civilians panicking and fleeing. Small arms bouncing harmlessly off his armor, and his Insecticons as they clambered out behind him and leapt off, either to climb the wall and attack the people there or to land around the Scroponok and begin taking ground.

And, distantly, a large wood and aluminium airship turning toward them, held aloft by a sheltered balloon system and propelled along by a spinning turbine.

He raised his cannon and unleashed a blast at ten percent capacity, which ripped through it in a flash of violet and fire. As it fell, he turned and ended three more dotted along the wall. Bringing his aim down, he annihilated raised battlements scattered along the wall, fortresses to bulwark in as defenses. They detonated in showers of wood, metal and stone which scattered throughout the city.

Satisfied, he lowered his arm and muttered lowly, "End this, Insecticons."

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Sever ducked into an alleyway between two large buildings to dodge the heavy shot of the tank sitting up the road. The magnetically propelled molten round struck one of his kin, Bleed, and ripped off a chunk of his chest-plating. Alive but mildly injured, the Insecticon snarled and brought his Path Blaster around, firing off a pair of molten metal shots that melted the tank easily. Stepping out of cover, he watched the tank burn, and the soldiers that had been with it run.

"Up!" He ordered his two kinsmen, ignoring the damaged armor of the one. "To the roofs! Spot their rally point!"

Nodding, Bleed and Crusher opened their wings and lifted up into the air, angling towards the roofs of the tall housing complexes along either side of the road. Both landed in a crouch, heads turning as they sought out their next prey- Their next target.

"I see airships!" Crusher called out, "Prey for flying sisters!"

"Wait, that's- Agh!" Bleed was hurled back as a blast of green particle fire slammed into it, hurling him back onto the next building and collapsing it under the force.

His arm landed in the street, melted away by the projected particle blast, and Sever hissed, "Crusher, down!"

The other Insecticon turned and leapt, slamming into the pavement below with enough force to shatter it. Turning, he raised his own Path Blaster and opened fire on a blocky gunship as it came down. The first shot missed, but the second globule of condensed molten metal caught it on the glass-plated cockpit and it jerked to the side, billowing smoke as it began to fall.

Then, three… Things fell from its belly, slamming into the ground at the apex of the hill as their mothership came down amidst housing buildings and detonated in a flash of red and green.

"Mistral, hear me!" A voice emanated from the Atlesian warships looming high over the city, their three carriers holding up high while its escorts drifted along beneath it, between the city and the larger ships. "Fall back, away from the Faunus invaders! Atlas has come to render aid! Fall back! Our Paladin units cannot guarantee your safety!"

A lance of Master's violet fury slammed into the front of one of the ships, scattering along its shields as before, and the voice cut off. As they loomed lower, green fire lanced out and down, no doubt aiming for clusters of his Insecticon brethren elsewhere.

Then the clouds broke, and their flying sisters emerged, coming down on the upper hulls of the more vulnerable Atlesian carriers. As their formation panicked, and his Master took to the air to board them himself, Sever turned back to the hill.

Three machines were moving down from it at speed, and Sever snarled, "Crusher, charge! Vengeance for Bleed!"

"Vengeance!"

Together, they charged up the street, heads low and an arm raised to shield their heads. Light fire bounced off their armor as they ran, and a cluster of mortar rounds rained down on the street where they'd been standing, annihilating the buildings, the road, and whatever had been left of Bleed.

"C'mon, you big metal fuck!" One of the machines snarled as it closed with him and turned, slamming its shoulder into him. Surprised one of the Atlesian machines would do that, Sever stumbled back and the machine bounced off him, bringing a sheathed missile pod around. A long missile lanced out and caught him in his shoulder, carving through his armor and into his internals and carrying him up and back a few feet before he fell and it detonated.

"Aaaagh!" He screamed as his arm was blown apart and the side of his head melted.

He abandoned his weapon and scrambled away, left optic blinking in and out of use as he watched Crushed leap onto one of the machines. The pilot of it screamed as his Path Blaster came around and melted it's cockpit away, but Crusher joined it a second later when the machine that had crippled Sever turned and launched two more of the long missiles into the back of his leg and between his shoulder blades. Both detonated a second later and ripped him into pieces which scattered along the street as Sever staggered up, a few yards away from the two surviving enemies.

Snarling, he opened his wings and shot forward as the offender turned back to him. The other tried to stop him, peppering flak rounds along his chest and shredding his wings, but even without them his momentum brought him slamming into the side of the mechanized unit as it came around. It toppled and he staggered up, bringing his claws around and burying them in the cockpit. Hissing at the feeling of oil and blood flowing around his claws, and the feeling of meat and bone crushed around them, he turned and hurled the machine into its last fellow.

It topped under the weight of its kin and Sever stood and leapt onto it, bringing his claw up and thrusting down into the side of it. He ripped away its legs but it turned its snub nosed cannon on him as he raised his claw to finish it. He saw a flash of green, and then nothing else as he staggered back, tripped, and collapsed into a building whose rubble buried him.

Damaged, he clawed at the rubble and finally went still, arm clattering aside as blackness took him.

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"Move up!" Corporal Azure called out to her two lances of Paladin-2s as a Mantle class ship careened down into the city to crash, billowing smoke and spraying particle-plasma. Ahead of their unit, a street over and past a long line of office buildings, one of the massive metal Deathstalkers was moving through the city, small arms fire spraying from the Faunus on its back.

The six of them reach a square approximate three hundred meters away from the machine and in its flank, and she called out, "Javelins and mortars! Mortars on the top of it, suppress the Faunus! Javelins, twin-tandem fire, aim for its rear leg!"

"Ma'am, PPCs?"

"Aim for its middle legs, if targeting systems confirm hits!" She snapped, raising her Javelin system and PPC both. When both confirmed lock, she barked, "Green fire!"

"Green!"

"Ready!"

"Locked!"

"Green fire!"

"Open up!" Three of her machines had Javelin launchers, so six of the long missiles arced up and away, towards the machine. All of them had PPCs, though, so a full six rounds of projected particles lanced across the space between her lance and the Deathstalker.

All the Javelins struck first, long, armor piercing points punching into the enemy armor all along the middle leg segment. As they detonated, the PPCs splashed along the other - one missed, melting away a section of its side-armor, but the others struck. The Javelins annihilate the segment they struck, and while the PPCs didn't do the same, they did compromise it. The machine staggered, took a step, then shuddered as its weight settled on its damaged leg and mortars splashed along its surface.

But, it didn't fall…

"Shit!" She barked, "Javelins on the second leg, twin-tandem-"

"Ma'am!" The warning from her co-pilot came too late. As she looked up, a sleek machine came down, claws ripping into her cockpit. She felt the cold fire of one carving into her sternum, and stared at the claw that had bisected her.

Then, distantly, she felt her machine lift up and heard her co-pilot's panicked screaming as it was hurled away.

It landed on its side and she watched the feminine machine pounce on another Paladin and rip its arm off before a PPC shot splash across her waist and sever her leg. Another caught her on the shoulder, melting away her wing and crippling an arm. She fell and a Paladin rounded on her and put another blast into her face while the others, those equipped with Javelins, raised their weapons.

The last thing she saw was the Jalenins launching, and she could only hope they brought the Deathstalker down.

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Alexandria watched the machines land in her courtyard and kneel, dropping off a handful of Faunus that had ridden them there. Beyond them, she could see smoke curling up from a hundred spots throughout the city. So the asinine war had come to call on Mistral itself… A tragic eventuality, she supposed. Stepping out of the door and into the courtyard, she flexed the long, thin claws fitted onto the ends of each of her fingers and called out.

"I don't believe you are students of mine!" The Faunus rounded on her and she leapt through the air, carving through the closest man's throat and slipping forward to flick her claws along the inside of the arms of the next, severing arteries and leaving her to bleed out. "But I'll teach you a combat course anyway!"

The third leapt, bright brown wings spreading to carry her up, but Alexandria followed. She buried her claws in the woman's shoulder for leverage and drew a scream from her. A scream that turned shrill as her other claws flicked out, carving through a wing and bringing them both down. Turning, she leapt for the last-

Before a metal hand batted her aside.

She rolled across the ground where she landed and looked up as one of the machines reached for her. Leaping onto its arm, she ran along it and leapt, burying a claw in its eye and bellowing as electricity arced out of the wound and coursed through her, searing away her Aura.

Then another machine caught her and lifted her in its fist. Snarling, it bellowed, "Foolish meatbag!"

Then it hurled her down with the force of a titan, shattering her Aura. She rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself up, before a shadow passed over her and she tossed a look over her shoulder at the metal foot coming down to crush her. Exhausted and spent, she sighed.

"If only you'd caught me in my prime…"

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"You called?"

"Yessir, I did." The fisher woman answered, standing on the old docks beside a younger man who leaned against the wall beside her with his arms crossed. Gesturing at himn, she said, "This'n says I can't bloody dock here no more!"

"He does?"

"Yes, he does." The man sighed, "Because her ship is too small for the warehouse. She needs to use the other ones, further down, towards the transit terminal."

"I was just in the warehouse, son." She snapped, turning and pointing at him, "Don't you tell me what I can and can't do when I seen't it meself."

"Now, now, I'm sure we can-" Ghira was cut off by the trilling sound of the wall-alarm chiming, five times, and swallowed anxiously. Atlas… But why now? And how? Shaking it off, he raised his gaze and watched dozens of air-ships break through the clouds on the horizon. "You two, leave it for now and head inland. It's another raid!"

"What?" They both barked as lances of energy carved out from the wall defenses.

Based on Shockwave's new training directives, they coordinated their fire to overload the shields of the ships out at sea, where the scattering energy wouldn't impact Menagerie. As three of the thinner Mantle class ships tumbled toward the ocean, trailing smoke and fire and scattering particles, the cannons fired again. The newer missile launchers joined them, spraying clusters of shrapnel filled canister rockets that exploded in front of the ships and scattered shrapnel that bypassed the shields all along the fleet, crippling engines, weapons, and sending more ships tumbling away, crippled, to crash into the ocean.

Still more defenses came online, as the lithe, airborne Insecticons left behind soared away from their garrisons on the wall and came in to board the ships and a heavy railgun built atop Shockwave's tower fired. Its round, a rod of titanium as long as Ghira was tall and twice as thick, sheared through one of the carriers with a flash of violet light. It broke apart and came down, crushing one of its escorts as it went.

Inside a minute, a dozen ships had already fallen, and he could see more smoking and lagging behind the formation as Insecticons inside did their work.

More importantly, he turned to the two others standing with him and watching and snapped, "Don't gawk, get inland!"

"Shit!" The man pushed off the wall and grabbed the old fisher's hand, dragging her along and barking, "C'mon, you old bat, we have to-"

Ghira heard the familiar old whistle reach his sensitive ears just long enough to blink and flick a look down, where the dull gray blocks on the horizon that spoke of ships were floating. Heart racing, he turned his head to shout, "Get into the water, there's a naval round inc-"

He was cut off by the sound of naval artillery shredding the beach behind him, and then was blinded as a flash of heat swallowed him whole.

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