So... funny meeting you here. I'm really sorry for the wait. As you all know, school is back in session, and my classes are wasting not just time. They're wasting mine. Anyway, I will be updating less frequently due to this. I'll try to keep up but can make no guarantees. 

     The sound of explosions was music to your ears as yet another White Fang bullhead crashed into the ground, becoming a mushroom cloud for a second before the flames dispersed. The terrorist incursion was still ongoing, though now Atlas was pushing back. They had gotten other air-to-air vehicles up thanks to you. After you left the paladins to the soldiers, you went to the roof and 'borrowed' an Atlas attack drop ship. Any Fang unfortunate enough to be in the air within five hundred feet of you didn't last long. Now, yourself, along with the other surviving Atlas pilots, were keeping any and all enemy air support away. 

     The White Fang had brought a reasonable number, sure, but they didn't have an army, which was what they needed. You shoved the throttle forward, boosting the speed as you moved in between three bullheads as your machine guns grinded and tattered the hulls of the craft, sending them to the ground, the ones inside through it all the way to hell. 

     Radio chatter over the Atlas comms had confirmed that the White Fang was beginning to lose their momentum. "This is blue-two; enemy forces are starting a retreat. I repeat, they are starting to pull out!" A voice said over the radio.

"What a shame! I wanted them to finish inside!" Another voice said. A series of laughs were his response. You even cracked a smile, missing the military banter you were so used to hearing. Suddenly, another drop ship flew up beside you. "This is Major Tom to ground control! They aren't pulling out-"

"Whoohoo!"

"They're doing something else. I can't tell yet." You looked down to indeed see the White Fang's forces were not making tactical retreat, but were in fact redirecting their forces. You recognized it as a desperation strategy. 

"This is Pilot (L/N). They're redirecting their soldiers. Most likely in a plan to concentrate all man power on one specific choke point." You said into the radio. 

"Uh... guys? The paladin docking bay doors are still open..." You looked towards said location to see the men you had saved were cornered, trying to protect against the oncoming faunus hoards.

"All units, converge on the main docking bay! They're taking all they have to that one spot, and we need to keep them out." Following your orders, you began to see Atlas troops moving in the same direction as the Fang. Your 'wing men' followed suit.

     You flew at high speeds towards the docking bay. Suddenly, a paladin caught your eye. It looked like any other paladin, only this one was standing with the White Fang. You looked around and saw they actually had control over several of the large mechs. Dammit! Something needs to change! Once the paladin was in gun range, you opened with a rocket salvo. The pilot didn't react fast enough and all ten dust powered rockets slammed into the machine, detonating and destroying it. Just then, an alarm blared in the cockpit. It was the target warning. You glanced out the cockpit windshield to see several orange balls of light shooting towards you. "Shit!"

     You boosted forward in an attempt to dodge the missiles. You slowed the drop ship to near a stop and turned in the direction of the missiles before you shot the throttle forward and pushed forward on the joy stick, just barely managing to go under the barrage. You smirked at the silent victory until you noticed that the alarm hadn't shut off yet. "Oh god dammit." Your aircraft shook as a missile impacted the back. Drawing a smart pistol, you blew half the magazine into the window before you punched it as hard as you could. The cockpit window shattered in a small section, just large enough to be used. You jumped out of the small hole right as the remaining missiles made contact with the ship. The explosion it created was a fair size, and it threw you from a coordinated fall to a stomach churning spiral. 

     When you hit the ground, any air that had been in your lungs was gone. Black splotches filled your vision for a moment before you managed to stand. "Ugh- that's the second time today." Checking your surroundings, you saw you landed in some bushes some 500 feet from the docking bay entrance. By the looks of it, things were really heating up. The White Fang were pushing for entrance, and Atlas was doing its best to defend. "Ironwood, can you here me?" You asked into the radio. A moment passed before he responded. 

"Loud and clear. What's going on? Did you manage to-"

"No. Not yet. There's too damn many of them! They already have paladins too. Things aren't looking good, so unless you can get my titan here, or have some advanced air strike system, then I may not get very far." 

"I'm sorry, I have neither of those. The closest thing we have to an air strike system is a signal booster controlled by the main console in the control room." 

"Ok... I'll think of something." You cut the feed and started a run back to the battle. At this point, there weren't any paladins left to steal, as Atlas's soldiers occupied them all. They may not need much else. We may have less manpower but we've got air support. It was then you heard several explosions. When you got to back to the battle field, you saw the remains of paladins on Atlas's side of the field. "Sir!" You turned and looked as a group of soldiers ran up to you.

"What's the situation here?"

"We're outnumbered sir! It won't be long before we get overrun!"

"Our boys are doin' what they can, but we don't stand a chance." Another said. You though for a moment, before you spoke. 

"You all live here, what can we do? Any last resorts? Failsafe maybe?" You asked. They looked down timidly, until one in the back spoke. 

"There is one, sir." A few of the men made way as he walked up to the front. "In the control room, the tech team designed a last resort for if the paladins were ever hacked or stolen. Because they're new, they still have a lot of functionality with transmitted frequencies. Well, the ones higher up demanded we have a means to stop them in an event like this." You raised a brow. "So, they designed a lethal frequency... a self destruct if you will, that can be transmitted to every paladin on base. Only issue is that in order to send it, you have to be at the control console." You thought for a moment. It's our only option; alright then. 

"Can you hold them long enough for me to get in and shut them down?"

"That's the thing, sir. Base's on lock down, and no one has the entry codes or the means to get into the console." 

"I'll manage. Can you hold them, or not?" They waited for a few moments. 

"We'll give you as much time as we can, sir." You nodded to him. He was a short, scrawny little soldier with a light southern accent, and he looked like shit. But now, he may as well be your best friend. 

"Okay. Keep an ear out for me. You won't want anyone friendly in those mechs when I send the signal." You said, running at the base. A White Fang paladin stepped in front of you. Knowing you had no time, you took it the short way. The soldiers watched in aw as you jumped up onto the chassis and planted your grappling hook before pulling out the rack of machinery on the side, gunning it down, and putting a satchel charge in its place before pushing the rack back inside. The paladin fell over and deactivated not a moment later.   

"Holy shit..."

"What a badass..." They said as you grappled away. The scrawny soldier looked down at his gun before he raised it in a war cry. 

"Ahh! You think he's so strong?! Come on! Lets go and I'll show you how many Fang fucks I can kill!" He ran off into the battlefield, leaving his fellow riflemen to look at each other before smirking. 

"Yeah!"

"Lets go kick some ass!"

"LEEEEERRROOYYYYYY JENKINNNNNSSSS!!!!" They followed him into the fire, the same fire burning in their very hearts as they charged the oncoming enemy forces. 

     You arrived in through a third story window. The battle was still raging outside, but now was not the time to think about that. Now was the time to act. A flight of stairs rose in front of you, which you boost jumped up, wasting no time. A team of four White Fang was in front of you. Four gunshots could be heard, followed by the sound of bodies dropping. You held your smart pistol at the ready, eight rounds still loaded. "No time to waste. No time to waste." You said to yourself, as you sprinted through the facility. 

     A few minuets and several teams of dead terrorists later, you came up to an elevator. "Of course it would be on the top floor. Jesus, how cliche." You muttered, walking into the small box. You pressed the number nine on the top of the elevator console and the doors started to close. "I swear to god if there's shitty elevator mu-" As you said this, elevator music started up. Fuck. 

     You were still moving up the shaft, watching the floor number rise on the top of the wall. 5...6...7. Suddenly, you heard a grinding noise and the elevator came to screeching halt. The hell? You were currently in between floors seven and eight. As there was no door to go through, you decided to go up. The panel on the roof of the box wasn't that sturdy and with a simple yank it flew out of place. Climbing out on top, you saw the next to door above. "Hmm. Maybe not so hard." There were several bars and concrete ledges in the shaft. Deciding to use them to your advantage, you started climbing them, grabbing and throwing yourself up and the like. When you got to the door, you put your hands in between the halves and started pulling. Your attempted pry was met with nothing. The doors didn't budge. "Must be welded shut. Well, unfortunately for you, you White Fang fucks, I have ordinance."

     Holding yourself with one hand, you took out your last two satchel charges one at a time and started planting them on the door. When you had, you grappled and hung above the door before taking out your detonator and squeezing the handle twice in quick succession. The doors blew, and sitting there was now a hole large enough for you to fit through. You jumped into the hole and hit the ground with a roll, being silent as you did so. 

     The room ahead was dark, the lights out. Better safe than sorry. You drew a pulse blade and chucked it across said room into a wall. The gentle orange light pulsed to reveal eight hostiles. Then you remembered something. Something said in Port's class. "Many faunus are known to have near perfect sight in the dark." Well shit. That class actually helped me. You hate to waste ammunition, but time was of the essence, so it was on the smart pistols once again. Or... maybe it wasn't. Hehe.... hehe.... crowd control. Holstering your smart pistol, you took your SMR off your back. After checking to make sure everything was good, you obliviously walked into the room. When you got to the middle, the lights turned on and the eight White Fang surrounded you. 

     "Well, well, well. Look-ey what we have here." One on the right spoke. "I thought we would have trouble fighting you, but here you are delivering yourself to us. How nice of you." The group chuckled. "Alright scrub, drop your weapons and maybe we'll let you li-" He was interrupted when the entire middle half of his body exploded. With near unseeable speed, you had pointed the SMR at the cocky bastard and pulled the trigger. The faunus next to him was also turned into a bloody mist before any of the others reacted. You started firing at the other two who dove behind cover. Not giving them time to rest, you charged. The third White Fang on the right side of the room was tackled before he could fully get to cover. The knife was already in your hand, so he didn't really have much time to escape. Or breathe. You were then up on the fourth one as soon as he popped out from cover to shoot. You boost jumped at him, full force punching him in the head as you came down. A crack was heard as his body hit the floor. You weren't sure if it was his neck or his skull that just broke, as much as you'd like to check. 

     Now turning to the left side of the room, you reloaded the SMR. Just then, two of the faunus revealed their upper bodies to start shooting. The one on the far right was not expecting what happened next, however. You aimed your weapon at him faster then he could react, this caused his head to literally explode when you shot him. "Hmm... he'll have one hell of a hangover in the morning." The second shooter was a little smarter and ducked back into cover. There were three remaining. The now right most Fang stuck out from cover to see you sprinting towards him. What he didn't expect however, was you breaking through the cubicle wall that he hid behind and using the momentum to knee him. Out of the window behind him. He was dead before he even reached the glass. From there, you immediately hit the fucking deck and spun to the left as the last two faunus started shooting. Pointing the SMR, you sprayed the rockets at the remaining targets, turning them into Bob Ross's monthly supply of red paint. 

     Running down the hall, you made your way to the control room. It was close, but so was time. When you arrived, two guards raised their rifles, but were quickly put down. The door, surprisingly, was unlocked. The large double doors slid open to reveal a room of control consoles. And, perhaps unfortunately, a large, muscular man dressed in the White Fang uniform at one of them. To his right stood a girl. She too had the White Fang uniform, but looked more Ruby's age. The two turned to see you as you walked in. A moment of silence, broken, by the tank of a man. "It seems we have a guest. I assume the men outside are-"

"Dead. And you will be too if you don't step away." The Built faunus had military trimmed widow's peak black hair. His uniform was vest style. Not surprising. 

"Such pride. Tell me, what did you feel as you killed them? Did you feel satisfied? Are you regretting what you have done?"

"I didn't feel anything. And regret? I'm past that stage."

"So that is who you truly are. Someone who feels nothing as he slaughters his way to his goals, degrading those in his way to less than people."

"You've got it wrong there, actually."

"Then please, enlighten me." You could see no visible weapon on him, though his intimidating body matched his deep voice. You spoke again.

"It's because I recognize them as real people, who knowingly made the decision to be here, that I can kill them without feeling the guilt."

"You'd kill them simply because they're here, and different from you?" He asked. 

"I killed them because they got in my way, and if I didn't get here in time, then innocent people would lose their lives. I killed them because if I hadn't, then many more would have died instead." There was a pause, as the faunus before you thought. 

"It's a very interesting point of view you have. I would've liked to sit down and have a long conversation with you. It's such a shame that I have to kill you now." As he finished speaking, you got into a combat stance. You drew a smart pistol and aimed it. Well, tried to anyway. At speeds faster than you could comprehend, he was in front of you. The gun was knocked away; more like flew away. It slammed into the wall and stayed. Next thing you knew, a large fist connected with your stomach and you were sent flying through the doorway and into the hall. You struggled to get up, just as you saw a blur shooting towards you. With just barely enough time to dodge, you moved as fast as you could. A fist broke through the wall, the arm elbow deep where your head used to be. Shit! You drew your wingman but again could not react fast enough as you were sent flying back into the room and to the other side of it. It was harder to stand up, but you still managed. The faunus walked into the room menacingly, his fists at his sides. You grit your teeth and drew your knives. 

Fine then, asshole. You wanna play like that? Then lets fucking go.  

Sorry for the shitty sentence structure...