Atlas Academy

'So, Atlas Academy… seems I was right guessing two places where Ironwood would be in during the unrest.'

Hanns was being carried and towed by a Bullhead. It was hard for the Ace-Ops to secure him on the platform with anti-gravity to lift cargo but they eventually figured it out.

They placed him down on the floor while using military vehicles to drag him across the ground. His tracks were being held up by a platform to make things easier while they traveled.

"Such a nice Academy. Shame it's governed by the same man willing to use the military to keep the people down. For someone like him to be part of the identity of the institution is a shame, no?"

Harriet had enough. She whirls around and tries yelling at a tank."Will you shut your trap?! I've been hearing you talk down on the General for far too long!"

Hanns of course ignores it. He didn't feel in any danger at all. It could seem arrogant but Hanns knew he was going to be okay. After all, he wasn't alone.

Vine, the calmer and more pacifist of the group, tries to calm her down. "Harriet, nothing good is going to come out of responding."

"Vine is right. Whatever words you're hearing are nothing more than a way to get to your head. Conversing with him will just lead to a bad outcome."

"Sorry leader but I can't just take it when that thing keeps talking about how bad the General is when he was the cause of all this!"

Hanns laughed. "If only you knew. The first event is my fault, I know that. A couple of pilots dead and a few thousand droids and aircraft were sent for repairs or recycled. What came after was just a series of blunders that sad excuse for a General did."

Harriet activates the exosuit arms on her back. It reacts and covers her fist and threatens to strike. "Keep your mouth shut or I will-"

"Will what? Try punching through solid steel with something like that? I'm no rocket scientist but when your solution to a problem is punching through it, I wonder how Ironwood picked you when you graduated. Maybe… oh! He took the weakest of the bunch so he can manipulate them better!"

She releases an exosuit-powered punch to Hanns. It was a pathetic sight when it couldn't even break through the hard light shield Hanns had turned on the whole time.

"You're the worst one here. Purposefully endangering the lives of Atlas - and for what, Dust? Don't tell me you're the one in the right." Harriet asked him.

Hanns thought about it. He reflected on what he was before being sucked into Remnant and the wider world. 'That's… kind of true.' He was the first to tell himself he won't treat everyone like an NPC.

'…'

Then again, it's not like Hanns ever treated anyone here like an NPC. 'No, the lives of everyone here are just a few eggs broken. It's not like I killed anyone innocent, they are soldiers, what more can I do for them other than make them fulfill their wishes? To die for Atlas would surely make them happy.'

Hanns had changed, once he was a gamer - he still kind of is but behind every Warthunder player was a psychopath. Especially one that wasted away thousands of hours grinding in a tank game.

He may have not realized it but a game is an escape. We play because we enjoy what we couldn't do in real life. It's escapism that let us fulfill our fantasies, at least this is what Hanns thinks.

Dedication is another word for obsession, Hanns was one of those after being exposed to the grueling reality of grinding - but he still enjoyed every moment of it.

Numbers going up, vehicles being unlocked, the leaderboards with his name on them. Every single day was his mind playing to his true desires. He wasn't just a gamer. He was a Warthunder player.

The moment the game got taken away, his life was changed for better or for worse. He didn't treat Remnant and its people like a game - the game was just a replacement, this is what he really is after weeks of continuous suffering.

It could be just from the influence of LARPing but immersion was always his pastime. Grinding was his life, life became a grind and so he did everything in his abilities to be efficient.

He had humanity up until he realized being human just made grinding harder. Why care for a few dead when there could be SL and RP to gain? Hanns finally realized what he was after a small question.

"Right or wrong… such a simple question for a complex situation if you ask me. Atlas was the one abusing workers and exercising their authority just because you have a military. When Ironwood was born into a life of comfort up in Atlas did he ever think to remember that the military he developed was from the backs of the less fortunate in Mantle?"

Harriet widens her eyes. Hanns had a point, so ignorant were those from the top that they ignore the whims of those lower than them. A class war to be precise. If Hanns was evil in her eyes, what about her peers or even Ironwood himself?

She shook her head, she was still loyal but she had her mind open up to possibilities. There is a reason why only so few Faunus could reach such high standing. Ironwood was part of a system he is benefiting from.

"There are no good and bad, right or wrong, righteous or villainous. There are only actions. Not a description to tell the world and justify anything, we are the judge of our own and others' actions. There is no universal right. Tell me, do you even ask yourselves why I am doing this?"

Clover stepped in to answer instead of a shaken Harriet. "We do not know. It will stay that way until we reach General Ironwood."

"What a surprise! You do not know! Why is that the case? Maybe because Ironwood is keeping more things from you than you thought. He told the people many times over more excuses than ever."

Hanns pauses before unleashing a final nail in the coffin. "I wonder what those soldiers who tried to capture me feel when their deaths were covered up because of his decision."

They all remembered the faces of everyone who joined them on their task to capture Hanns the first time when he was just minding his business killing Grimm - not being a threat at all.

Ironwood knew Hanns was an evolving creature that only had the goal of killing Grimm. He had done so with complete obsession, yet it wasn't even a point to consider when deciding to capture and test a conscious being.

"They were your comrades, yet he let them die - and for what? I was the one killing Grimm, the same threat humanity has been fighting for most of their existence, yet you chose to ignore that fact along with the General. Face it, everything began because of him. I'm just returning the favor, you reap what you sow."

Everyone went silent as they flanked Hanns, they walked with a monotonous rhythm as they approach the outskirts of Atlas Academy. Marrow was losing Aura from continuously using his semblance before his ears pick up something.

"Guys, I think I hear something approaching us."

Clover snaps out of the dilemma and focuses on the noise. "Tell the drivers to stop moving." Soon, Hanns was stopped as well as the entire Ace-Ops.

They hear something faint but Marrow was a Faunus and could tell more accurately what he was trying to describe. "It's like a droning noise, like pumps of air continuously ringing out."

Hanns chimes in. "Hey. I kind of hear it too, I remember this noise. It's something very familiar. Argh! It's on the tip of my tongue. Hmmm…" he feints not remembering the noise.

"Spit it out!" Harriet demands.

"It kind of sounds like…"

Marrow hears the noise approaching from the sky. "It's getting closer!"

"-Fortunate Son."

Glass shatters from the side as the 30 mm cannon stares down from the afternoon sun in Atlas. The sheen glistens before the barrel takes aim at the transports and group.

For everyone present, the rotors felt like it was slowed in time. The dance of the metal parts constantly readjusting and the Reichscopter hovering in the air made everyone panic.

"Get down!" Clover yells out.

*THAG!* *THAG!* *THAG!* *THAG!* *THAG!* *THAG!* *THAG!*

A shower of dust-empowered shots rained on the group. The military vehicles in the front get destroyed as the people inside scramble away from the wreckage.

The Ace-Ops take cover, and Hanns gets freed from Marrow's semblance which gave him ample time to not just escape but also capture the ones who captured him.

It was an opportunity he thought of, no one knew of their new technology. Especially the ability of Neo, who was an assassin and was kept from the public eye. Usually, she was disguised and no one knew for sure what she looked like.

Now, they knew the Ace-Ops would remember how this would change.

Aura shatters multiple times, the surprise attack from the VAF-121's cannon mounted on the chin. The Ace-Ops were completely fooled. "An enemy is at his weakness when they think they have won. Classic bamboozle fellas." Hanns joked.

'Overclock!'

Hanns had his acceleration double, he races out of Marrow's sight before suppressing everyone left with multiple machine gun fires.

Clover had his semblance still activated, luck was a strong semblance but even that had its limitations when there was not going to be a way to escape. "Clover!" Hanns yelled.

"Surrender. Your team is at my mercy, you know very well what ideas I have about people who follow Ironwood. Don't make the same mistake as him by foolishly choosing to fight me - it will be your last."

The large Reichscopter was behind him and Hanns' tank was in front of him. He didn't have a choice, he could still follow Ironwood's orders to the letter by trying everything he can to capture or fight him.

But he knew what that would lead to. He breathed out a single time before dropping his weapon and raising his arms. "I... surrender."

Blake lands behind Clover while pointing her weapon at his back. Clover felt the cool steel touching his head before his hands get gripped and turned to his back.

The VAF-121 lands on the ground and pushes the snow and creates a large draft as it rests. The teams gets out and started to carry the unconscious bodies of the Ace-Ops inside.

They secured them in place before taking in Clover and held on by Torchwick and Yang. Blake sighs before running to Hanns who ended his Overclock a while ago.

"I can't believe that worked. I'm surprised they couldn't hear us following you while they transported you."

Hanns did have that risk accounted for but he had a reasonable explanation. "It's far away and the sounds of battle would mask the droning noise. It's hard to discern anything like the Reichscopter. Remember, it's the first of this kind to be used militarily. I don't think anyone has a sound profile on it yet aside from Bullheads and any other Atlesian technology."

"Still, I'm glad that didn't go bad. I was worried when you said to us not to intervene. Torchwick figured it out first when we followed you." Blake started readjusting her cap from the discomfort.

"Is the uniform not good enough? I mean, despite it not having the armor plates. Your aura should be fine, is the cap too small?" Hanns asked.

Blake nods. "I think we need to update our outfits, I don't think the cap is necessary for me." she points to her Faunus trait, a pair of cat ears.

"I'll have Torchwick think about it. We need to head for the office, Yang might know their way around since I sent them here the first time to go from the Academy down to the Command Center through vents. I might know where the location of the Academy is but I don't know anything inside."

"I admit, Yang might not be the best option, Torchwick would be better to ask. Don't tell her that I prefer Torchwick's memory to hers." Blake whispered to Hanns.

"We'll figure it out along the way there. Ironwood is in his office, I assume. Maybe even down to the Command Center since it's just below the Academy. Though, Winter should be there instead of him." Hanns theorized.

Blake turned to head for the Reichscopter. "Let's get you hooked up again, Neo might not be able to handle much more than a minute. She had practiced but making an illusion cover us is just taking out more out of her."

"Then what about this? Just don't disguise us at all."

Blake turned around and narrowed her eyes. "Seriously?"

"Yes."

"You're going to announce to the school that we're going to kick out Ironwood right?"

"Maybe."

"Haaaa.... Why did I have to stop reading my treasures for this."

"Treasures?"

"Nothing!"