The REDS of war

Volume Five Chapter Two

An Atlesian cargo airship flies over an enormous lake.

"So, how much farther?" Weiss asks.

"We're in the home stretch now." Pilot boy says confidently. In the pilot's box of the ship, Weiss stands in the back, leaning against a wall with her arms crossed.

"No more stops from here to Mistral. Sorry for the long trip. Keeping us off the radar's been harder than I thought. Lots of air traffic around northern Anima."

"It's fine. I... just hope I haven't been a burden." Weiss frowns.

Pilot big chuckles. "You and Mr. Kai's money are more than welcome on this ship, kid." The ship's radio suddenly picks up a transmission. "What the...?" He reaches over and adjusts a slider, evening out the wavelengths on the screen.

"Is everything okay?" Weiss asks.

"I don't know. We're still over Lake Matsu. Shouldn't be picking up broadcasts this far from Mistral. Someone must be close."

A female Mistral pilot begins speaking over the radio in a panic. Hearing this, Weiss stands up straight and listens closely. "Mayday, mayday! We are a small passenger flight, and our Huntress is down! We aren't equipped to deal with this!"

"Oh man." Pilot boy mutters.

"The Grimm hit us 400 klicks north of the southern shoreline!"

Weiss' eyes widen as the sound of an explosion and the Mistral Pilot gasping can be heard. "Get them off us! If anyone can hear this-- Ah!"

Weiss' expression grows even more concerned as the Mistral Pilot cries out and the transmission abruptly ends. The Atlas pilot turns off his radio and turns the ship. Weiss walks over to him and grabs onto a handle in the ceiling.

"We're going to help them, right?" Weiss asks.

"What? No. I'm trying to avoid them."

"But... they'll die." Weiss says eyes wide.

Pilot boys sighs. "Look, if we picked up their transmission, I'm sure someone else did, too. Besides, this is a cargo ship. She's not much good in a fight. I just wanna finish this job and get home. Sorry, kid. My ship, my rules."

Weiss closes her eyes for a moment, then gazes out the windshield as the ship turns to the right and continues flying over the lake. As the cargo ship flies over Lake Matsu, Weiss Schnee, still somber over being unable to help the Mistralian cargo pilots, suddenly notices to her right a series of landmasses floating in the bright blue, partly cloudy sky, with what appears to be black crystals jutting out from the bottom of the rock formations. Puzzled, she then decides to head into the pilot's cabin. The doors open.

"Where are we?"

"Nowhere good. Passing by some of Lake Matsu's floating islands. The gravity Dust that forms in these things is giving us a little turbulence. Nothing I can't handle, but the islands sometimes hide some nasty Grimm." Pilot boy tells her. Weiss walks toward the pilot, outside, an airship is seen quickly heading towards them, on fire, and leaving a giant trail of smoke behind it. "I'm just betting on our friends in distress keeping them preoccupied."

Weiss notices to her right the approach of the heavily damaged airships. "Look out!" She shouts.

The airship comes barreling from their right, narrowly hitting their cargo ship and forcing the pilot to pull upward to avoid it. The doomed craft, bearing a white symbol for Mistral on its sail, proceeds to collide into one of the floating islands.

"You've got to be kidding me!" He shouts. Pilot boy then decides to switch back to the radio, listening in for nearby transmissions.

"By the gods, we've lost Percy! Help!" Another Mistralian airship, pursued by a swarm of wasp-like Grimm, is suddenly hooked from multiple directions by their extendable stingers, which leaves them trapped and unable to move. "We're hooked! We're hooked!"