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-=The next morning=-

It was rare for Guardians to sleep, but even more rare to dream. She heard voices, and a name. A name that she wasn't familiar with. The dream stopped and she jolted awake covered in snow. She wiped it off of her and looked at the sunrise.

"Huh... weird dream..." She told herself quietly.

Her double jump ability aloud her to fall great distances and stop herself mid air, landing safely in the temple courtyard. She walked up a couple staircases and into the chamber team RWBY slept in. They were still asleep and she waited for them to wake up.

An hour passed by and they woke up and stretched. Blake's ears twitched a bit and Ashla found that cute.

"Morning Ashla..." Yang was groggy and they all needed time to fully wake up.

It took them about 20 minutes for them to be fully awake and Lord Saladin and Shiro came in. They were ready to explain what to do in the Cosmodrome next.

They gathered around the fire pit and Saladin's ghost teleported out and showed a hologram of the area.

"There's an area beyond the Cosmodrome we named the Plaguelands. That is where the very first SIVA outbreak occurred." Saladin told them.

"You'll be dropped off in the same area when you encountered the Splicers the first time. You'll head through this small dock area, and into more tunnels the Fallen have cut through. Then you'll be in the Plaguelands. Problem is, we don't have up to date intel on that place, which means you'll be going in blind into the Fallen's defenses." Shiro was pointing out multiple areas on the map.

"What's our goal here?" Ruby asked.

"The Fallen set up some anti-air cannons there. We can't send in Guardians in there to keep the Splicers under control. Unless you take out those cannons, you're on your own." Shiro said. He was a veteran in the Vanguard and he knew what he was doing.

"Get ready, the Devil Splicers won't wait." Saladin said.

They get their weapons and head out and they get on Ashla's ship and head to the Cosmodrome. They got there and they head into the room where the sensor grid was.

"There's gonna be a hole in the wall to your left, that will be your ticket into Dock 113." Shiro told them over the radio.

The Fallen cut their way through the structure's framing, they were still hot and glowing orange. It made a tunnel that went into the area between The Cosmodrome and the Plaguelands. The Fallen had the area locked down and they were the first attack the girls. Ashla pulled Thorn from her side and shot three of the Splicers in the head. The rest were easily handled by the team of young girls.

"You girls are terrifyingly deadly when you work together." Ashla pointed out.

"We know." This was Yang's way of boosting their egos, they couldn't afford to be cocky out here.

They finally made it into the Plaguelands and they saw the cannons fire from the distance.

"Shiro it's not Fallen anti-air cannons, it's old Golden Age artillery cannons!" Ghost told him.

"Those guns were offline during the Collapse! How did the Fallen-?" Shiro was cut off in the middle of his sentence.

"It's not the Fallen." Saladin said.

"Shit! Saladin, the UNSC finally had time to come out and play! They sent a squadron of bombers to hit the center of the Fallen's operations! They won't make it past those guns!" Shiro couldn't stand the fact of soldiers dying for their cause.

"Shiro, patch me into their comms!" Ashla said.

"Got it, they're designated Grey Squadron." Shiro replied.

"Grey Squadron, this is Ashla Bloodfire of the Vanguard, abort your bombing run immediately, the Fallen have the old Golden Age cannons online and firing!" She was basically yelling into their radios.

"With all due respect ma'am, you're not in charge. Grey 2, Grey 3, get your bombs ready." He said.

"Grey leader, the Guardian is right, those guns are firing in our direction!" Grey 2 told him.

"Crap! Grey Squadron fall back!" Their leader told them.

It was too late. One of the fighters got hit trying to fall back and the fighter lost control and hit one of the cannons, destroying it.

"Grey 3 do you copy?! Grey 3!" He sighed, "Fall back to base, Grey 3 is gone..."

"Grey leader, this is Lord Saladin. When you get back to base, tell your superiors I want to speak with them." He tried controlling his anger.

"Of course sir..." He replied and got off the radio.

"Ladies, get to those guns, we can't lose anymore lives to the Splicers and SIVA." Saladin said.

"We don't have any transportation, they don't know how to drive Sparrows so we'll have to walk which means we'll just be wasting time." Ghost pointed out.

"Not exactly. I took a trip to meet one of my contacts in the U.S. They were kind enough to offer some transportation, for a pretty hefty amount of money." Shiro said.

"And who is this contact?" Saladin asked.

"Uhhh... he's... an arms smuggler that deals in military grade weapons and vehicles..." He was nervous to tell the truth.

"We'll take what we can get, can you transmat it to our location?" Ashla asked.

"Way ahead of you." He teleported a heavily armored and armed truck to them, "Introducing the Insurgent, this beauty has bulletproof tires, heavy armor plating, an engine that can help it drive up mountains, and to top it off, a 50 caliber machine gun that can tear through the Splicers like a hot knife through butter."

"Perfect, I'll man the gun. Can any of you drive?" Ashla asked.

"I can." Yang raised her hand.

"Everyone get in." Ashla got in the gun. Yang got in the driver seat and Ruby sat up front with her. Weiss and Blake sat in the back.

Yang started it and drove to the facility where the guns were held. That place was heavily protected by the Fallen and with that Ashla mowed them down with ease as the machine gun tore through them wave after wave. They got out and made their way inside while Shiro teleported it out of there so the Fallen couldn't seize it.

Then an unexpected voice came on the radio. It was a female voice.

"This is Grey 3, can anyone hear me? I'm wounded and I'm surrounded by Fallen! They're trying to get inside my fighter!" She sounded like she was crying because her voice was shaky.

"Hang in there we're coming!" Ashla and the girls sprinted to get to her.

They exited the building and saw the Fallen trying to get in. Ruby sniped one in the head and Ashla sniped the other. The rest dealt with the lower ranked Fallen.

"Yang, get the pilot out, Ruby and I will disable the gun on the right, Weiss and Blake, take the left." Ashla and Ruby went inside and took out the Captain guarding the power source. They came back out and Weiss and Blake did the same.

"Shiro, your zombie guns are offline." Ghost said.

"Good, the Hawks are their way." Shiro said.

The Fallen got there first, they dropped off one of their SIVA enhanced walkers.

"We may not have a few minutes..." Ghost said.

(One thing that annoyed me about Rise of Iron is when you played that story mission, the reinforcements that Shiro speaks of never show up and you have to fight a massive six legged tank on your own. But for the sake of the story, I'm having them show up)

Small arms fire wouldn't budge this things armor. Even the legs, the weak spots on them, had heavier armor thanks to SIVA. Yang saw a crate full of Fallen weaponry.

"Stay here." She set the pilot down and ran to it. She grabbed one of the weapons and fired at the walker.

"Yang, that thing can build up energy with each shot it fires causing more damage! Charge it up all the way until it blows!" Ashla said.

She fired and charged the shot on the leg, crippling it and exposing its power core. The Hawks showed up in time and fired everything that had at the walker's weak spot blowing it up in the process.

"Good work everyone. Come back to the Iron Temple, we have much to discuss." Saladin said.

The Fallen were crippled for now. The Guardians can be sent in to patrol and control the Splicer activity.