"All pilots report to launch positions, all pilots report to launch positions," the automated voice repeated over the intercom again, orange warning lights flashing as the four girls stood staring at what they had thought was nothing but a virtual fantasy now standing before them, brought to life in cold steel.

"All pilots report to-" Yang snapped, yelling at the ceiling. "We get it, we get it! Do you seriously think we're going to be dumb enough to climb into those things? We haven't had any training or-Ruby, what the hell are you doing?!"

Yang's sister had walked down the catwalk to what where one of the panzers stood with its chest open and the pilot's seat extended She ran her hands over the seat, looking at the controls. "I'm just having a look, Yang. Wow, this looks just like the Centurion's cockpit in the game." Ruby stepped back, taking in the panzer's angular head. "I think it's a type B or maybe C Centurion. There really wasn't much difference between the two. Urban camo and what looks to be a general-purpose loadout."

"That makes sense." Weiss stepped forward, looking up at the Centurion's head. "And I'm not certain, but I think it's a type C. The sensor cluster in the head is different, and they added secondary sensors on the shoulders."

"Good choice, if you're hiding panzers down here for emergencies." Blake was leaning back, arms resting on the railing behind her. "The Centurion series is a solid, general-purpose panzer, just the right size for urban combat. There's no way to know what sort of enemy you'd be facing."

"Might be specialist panzers in other-wait, wait, why are we even having this conversation? Come on, everyone!" Yang spread her arms wide, taking in the hanger, the panzers, other angular shapes they could barely make out in the darkness. "This can't be real! Panzers aren't real, and there's no way you could get them down here without anyone noticing. I got it, I know what happened. We all fell asleep playing Sparta and stumbled into some crazy monster invasion scenario. We're dreaming while we're playing, that's all."

Weiss tilted her head in consideration. "Well, I know one way to test that idea." She stepped over and grabbed Yang's nose, giving it a hard twist and eliciting a yelp of pain from the blonde. "There goes that idea. Nothing that happens to you in a neural interface game can cause actual pain, and I don't think you can feel pain in a dream either."

"Well, yeah, okay, maybe they are real, but we're still not going to climb into those things, are we? I mean, using military stuff without permission or, you know, actually being in the military has got to be some sort of crime right? There's probably real pilots on their way, right now, waiting to climb into these things and kick some monster ass. Let's just sit tight down here and wait. We might get in trouble with the military or whoever, but I think they'll let us off easy if we just tell them it was open, right? Right?" Yang was getting worried; Ruby was giving the panzers a look the blonde didn't like, and so were Weiss and Blake.

Finally, Ruby shook her head, silver eyes full of sadness. "It doesn't matter, Yang. People are up there, getting chased and killed by those monsters. If I can do something about that, I have to, I just have to." Ruby turned and ran back over to the panzer she'd been looking into, climbing into the cockpit.

"Ruby, get real! We're just kids! We don't have any training, we're not prepared for this! Please, Ruby, don't do this!" Yang was pleading with her sister now; why couldn't Ruby see reason?

Ruby stopped in the middle of adjusting her harness and shook her head, not daring to look up at her sister, afraid Yang would see the tears she could feel starting to trickle down her face. "That's where you're wrong, Yang. Don't you get it? Sparta was just a training program for panzer pilots, dressed up as a video game. Didn't you ever wonder why the game rewarded you for playing in full sim mode, doing the startup sequence, things like that? This is what it was designed for, so that when they needed panzer pilots, we'd be ready. And the reason we're the ones that got the message? Because somehow, they knew, they knew, Yang, they knew that when people needed us, if they gave us these panzers, we'd use them. And they were right, damn them. People are hurt, people are dying out there Yang, and if me climbing into this cockpit saves lives, then I'm going to do it. I can't not do it, not and be who I am."

Yang could see determination on Ruby's face as the chair retracted into the cockpit. "Ruby!" she yelled one more time as the armored hatch hissed shut with a clang.

Ruby's heart was pounding in her chest, hands shaking as she worked her way through the litany of starting up a panzer. Her brave talk to her sister had been nothing but the truth, that was just the way Ruby was wired, but that didn't stop her from being terrified all the same. No use worrying about it. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for I am the biggest, baddest thing in the valley." She'd seen that on a t-shirt once and it seemed really appropriate now. Ruby couldn't think of anywhere safer to be than sitting at the controls of a giant robot, wrapped in several tons of armor and carrying enough firepower to level a skyscraper. Or something like that. "Main computer on, turbine start, system self-checks all green, switch power from aux to main." A nervous grin crept across Ruby's face at the new-yet-familiar sound of the panzer's engine roaring to life, then throttling back down to idle. She took a deep breath and cleared her throat before opening the default local comm channel. "Crescent Rose, ready to deploy."

There was a pregnant pause, then, "Myrtenaster ready to deploy."

"Gambol Shroud, ready to deploy."

Ruby waited a few more seconds, then sighed. "Just the three of us, then?"

"Yeah." She could almost hear Blake shaking her head. "She still was yelling at us as we climbed in, calling us all crazy."

"I could never live with myself if I let the two of you do this alone, now could I?" Weiss's voice was sharp. "Besides, I owe Officer Mundy. Now, how do we launch these things?"

"Uh, I hadn't gotten that far," Ruby admitted, drawing chuckles from the other two. "Wait one, there's an extra menu in the overlay labeled 'Hangar Services.'" Ruby flipped through the menu, a grin spreading on her face. "Looks like we've each got our own elevator, plus some other elevators for extra weapons and ammo. Ooh, they've got Reapers in their inventory."

"What, they actually made those ridiculous things? Only you would be glad to see the worst weapon in the entire game become a reality, Ruby," Weiss snapped.

"And who is it that never goes out without whip-swords if they can avoid it, hmm?" Ruby said, forcing a laugh. "Okay, let's get these things to the surface and then help ourselves to the weapons racks, load up for Armageddon."

As Ruby's panzer reached the surface, something fell off the top of the elevator cage. Looking down, she could see it was a wrecked car, one she remembered them taking cover behind as they bolted for the entrance to the Vendo-Mart. Ruby gulped and toggled the clamps, loosing her panzer from the gantry. It swayed a moment, then steadied. Time for the moment of truth. Ruby reached for that sense of otherness that always came when playing a neural interface game. There it was. Her panzer took a step forward, crushing the wrecked car under her foot. "Oops," Ruby said, a giggle escaping her lips. She took a few more steps forward, raising her panzer's right hand and flexing the fingers.

"Just like the game," Blake said, and Ruby turned to see a panzer standing next to hers, throwing a few experimental punches, Blake's callsign displaying over its head in her heads-up display.

The elevators that had carried their panzers to the surface had come up on the sides of the Vendo-Mart's parking lot, with the extra weapon racks at the back of the lot. Weiss had stepped to the back of the lot and was looking them over, comparing their contents to what the hanger computer said was there. "Everything matches, I guess we can-Ruby, look out!"

Something hammered into the back of Ruby's panzer, making it stumble. She straightened and turned to find the gorilla-thing or its twin standing there, roaring and beating its fists on its chest like a real gorilla would. Instinct and practice took over, and in one fluid motion, Ruby pulled the rifle from its mounting point on her panzer's back, firing a burst into the monster's chest, staggering it for a moment before it charged her with a roar.

She grunted as it slammed into her, bracing herself to avoid being knocked to the ground. Even as the monster wrapped its arms around her panzer to lift it off the ground, Ruby jammed the rifle into the beast's stomach, firing at point-blank range. The gorilla-thing roared in pain or rage, squeezing the panzer tighter.

Blake was the first to act, grabbing a panzer-sized sword from the weapon rack nearest her and attacking the monster with it. "Let her go!" she yelled, bringing the blade down on the monster's arm, half-severing it, black smoke streaming from the wound.

Their white-haired teammate took a different approach. She pulled her own rifle and put a burst into the beast's head. Half of its bone mask shattered and the beast roared again, swinging one of its fists at Weiss, who danced around the blow and kept firing, putting round after round into the monster. Ruby took advantage of the beast's distraction to slip out of its grasp, stepping backwards and firing her own rifle at the monster.

A third rifle joined Ruby and Weiss's, and the beast lunged at fist one of them, then another as they poured fire into it, confused as to which of them to attack. Finally, the monster fell to the ground, its body already starting to evaporate into thick black smoke, "Geez, sis, can't I leave you alone for five minutes?"

"Yang! You came!" If Ruby hadn't been so keyed up on adrenaline, she could have passed out in relief.

"Pfft, what sort of big sister would I be if I let you go charging off by yourself and get killed? Besides, if I didn't back you up I'd never hear the end of it from either of our moms."

"Right. Okay, load up, take all the ammo we can carry, including a spare rifle and all the flechette ammo they have. Don't forget to grab your melee weapon of choice; these things like to get up close and personal," Ruby ordered, matching words to action.

"Flechette ammo?" Blake asked, puzzled.

Before Ruby could answer, her phone rang. "Ruby, thank god! I'm sorry I didn't call earlier, we got hit by a huge wave of casualties, there's monsters overrunning the city, the police have turned the hospital into a fortress, I can't reach Raven, have you heard from her, is your sister with you? Are you safe?" Summer's words spilled out in a panicked rush, and Ruby felt guilty that she hadn't thought to call her mother sooner.

"Yang's with me, mom, and we're both okay. Safe, even." Well, for certain very elastic values of 'safe.'

"Okay, okay. Where are you? Can you get to the hospital?"

"Um, we're at the Vendo-Mart near Weiss's house. I don't know if we can reach the hospital or not."

"Right, if you're safe, stay there. You even have my permission to eat all the sugary snacks you want."

Ruby shook her head. "No can do, mom. Right now we've got a chance to do some good in this mess, save some lives."

"What in the world are you talking about, Ruby? I want you to stay safe."

"Remember how you once said that to do the right thing, sometimes you have to not do the smart thing? Well, the four of us are about to do something really stupid."

"Ruby Rose, you explain-" Ruby hung up, turning her phone off for good measure.

"Sorry, my mom called. I told her we were safe, but about to do something dumb. And the flechette ammo is for swarms of the little monsters," Rube said, turning her radio back on.

"Ouch, sounds like I can expect a similar panicked call. Did she mention my mom?" Yang asked, hefting a belt-fed rotary auto-cannon.

"Sorry, she said she couldn't reach her."

"At least my mother and brother are out of town tonight," Weiss added with a sigh.

The three of them sank into a gloomy silence, thinking about their families. Finally, Blake cleared her throat. "Well, let's be about it."

The four panzers moved out in a diamond formation, Ruby on point, Weiss and Yang behind her, Blake taking up the rear. Yang had discovered that the panzers had smart paint, so Ruby relented to putting their team crest on their right shoulders and their number on the left, assigning One to herself, Two to Yang, and Three to Blake. When Weiss asked, "And I assume I'm Four?" Yang had laughed, answering, "No, you're a ten, princess!" making the white-haired girl blush while Blake and Ruby laughed.

Their first encounter with monsters after leaving the Vendo-Mart came in the form of a pack of hulking wolf-human hybrids. The creatures were swarming around a heavily-built brick building that looked to have been converted from its original purpose into an art gallery. Over the creatures' howls and snarling Ruby could barely hear panicked screaming from within, and that was all she needed. Her rifle came up, and she took a deep breath as she centered her rifle on the biggest one of the werewolves, firing a burst into it.

Her target faltered but didn't go down, and it turned toward them with a snarl, raising its head to howl in rage. The rest of its pack did the same, rushing to attack them, trying to swarm them and take them down with sheer numbers.

Not today. The girls laid down heavy rifle fire, Yang firing short brrrt-brrrt bursts with her rotary gun, all of them careful to angle their shots so they didn't hit the gallery. As the last of the werewolves dissolved into smoke, a heavy door slid open and they could see a thin man dressed in black standing in the opening. "Thank you! Those, those things have had us trapped in here. Is more help coming?"

"As far as I know, we're it right now," Ruby answered over her loudspeaker. "But if I was the army, I'd be headed this way with everything I had. Stay here, shut the door, and stay safe."

"But you have to stay here, protect us!" the man shrieked, only to have an elderly woman in the crowd behind him slap him on the back of his head. "You idiot! Those monsters are all over the city, and those robots of theirs seem to be highly effective in handling them. Regardless of whether or not there are more robots around, these four should look out for others as well, not just your skinny ass!"

"They're not robots grandma, they're panzers! Just like in Sparta," a boy that looked to be all of ten piped up.

"Yup, just like the game," Ruby answered, giving him a thumbs up. "Do you play?"

The boy nodded. "Grandma doesn't like it though. Says it's too violent and there's no point to it."

"Well, I play, and here I am piloting a panzer for real, so keep it up!" Yang chimed in, striking a muscle pose.

The boy looked dubious. "No way, what's your callsign?"

"Crescent Rose," Ruby said.

"The Crescent Rose? Awesome! Grandma, she's tops on the Vale leaderboards, she's badass! Guess that's because she does it for reals, which is kinda cheating."

Yang laughed. "This is our first day driving these things for real. Lots and lots of training beforehand, though, so don't worry, we're gonna totally shred some monster ass. "

"What?" Yang added as they moved on. "You said it yourself, Ruby, Sparta was nothing but a panzer pilot training program in disguise. And we've all clocked a ton of hours, haven't we?"

Block by block, they fought their way through Weiss's neighborhood, always striking due west, toward the hospital where Ruby's mom was a nurse. If nothing else, it gave them a clear destination.

They came to a Vendo-Mart that had been another panzer cache, the elevators left open on the surface. A Grendel panzer was sprawled in a road nearby, its armor torn to shreds, the pilot's compartment open and mercifully empty. "Holy crap, we're not the only ones," Yang breathed.

"Yeah. Okay, ammo up, guys. See if they left anything we can use, and I do mean anything." Ruby started flipping through channels, trying to raise anyone. "This is Crescent Rose, transmitting in the blind, trying to reach other panzer units. I repeat, this is Crescent Rose, transmitting in the blind, trying to reach other panzer units."

"Ruby?" Jaune's voice came over the radio, sounding surprised. "I mean, Crescent Rose, this is Crocea Mors, reading you loud and clear. What's your status and location, over?"

"Status is all four Vixens are alive and well, but low on ammo. We're in Centurions, general-purpose loadout. Uh, we found a wrecked Grendel, was that one of yours?"

"Yeah. My sister Saphron was piloting it. She's hurt, but stable, we think. We're trying to get her somewhere safe. What's your plan?"

"Kick ass, take names, save lives, and hook up with the police or army when we can. Make our way to Vale General hospital; my mom's a nurse there. Yang's mom is who knows where."

"That's a plan I can get behind."

Ruby was about to respond when she saw a light flashing on her HUD. Blake had pinged her. "Good news, gang, I've made contact with Crocea Mors and his team. This was where they mounted up."

"Who was in the downed panzer?" Yang's voice was quiet as she rifled the weapons racks.

"Jaune's sister. She's hurt. Let's hook up with them; safety in numbers."

It didn't take them long to meet up with Jaune's team; the Grendels that Jaune's team was using were more melee-focused than the Centurion, and it showed in their load-outs. Nora had grabbed a rocket-assisted hammer, Ren had armored forearm guards with retractile blades, and Jaune had a sword that could extend to a greatsword at need. All three of them sported twin shoulder-mounted rapid-firing cannons. "Looks like you had the same thoughts we did," Jaune said as they came into view. "But, Ruby, a Reaper? They're useless!"

"Only because nobody takes the time to learn to really use one!" she retorted. "And if you think I'm being silly, Weiss has whip-swords!"

"They are an elegant and effective weapon if one takes the time to master them," the white-haired girl retorted.

Jaune laughed. "Eh, sword's easier to learn and works just as well. I'll stick with it. Listen, I'm carrying Saphron in my rear seat, so I can't move too much. But don't sacrifice yourselves for us, okay?"

"Got it." Ruby could hear the pain in Jaune's voice. She knew he had like seven sisters or something like that, but he'd give anything for each and every one of them. "Let's move out."

Adel cussed a blue streak as she ducked back down behind the barricade to reload her shotgun. She would really like five minutes alone with whatever genius decided that gathering civilians in a shopping mall would be safer for them than just fucking evacuating them. People were panicking, and ammunition was becoming a real issue. You could shoot the little monsters with a pistol or shotgun, hell club them down with the stock if you had to, but what the hell were they supposed to do about the really big ones? Some of the damn things were a couple of stories tall, and Coco was all out of rocket launchers. "Where's the army when we need them?" she muttered, sparing a glance for her partner. At least they'd go down together.

"Probably headed this way with everything they have. There's just a whole lot of city for them to get through and a whole lot of people to save and a fuckton of monsters to save them from," Scarlatina answered with a weary smile, reloading her weapon. The rabbit-eared woman paused, a shotgun shell in her hand. "Coco?"

"Yeah, Velv?" Coco answered absentmindedly, racking a shell into place and starting to stand up.

"After we get done with this, want to go out to dinner?"

Coco froze, pulling her sunglasses down to stare at Velvet. Three years riding together, and she'd never realized. "Are you, are you asking me out on a date?"

Velvet blushed. "Yeah, yeah I am."

"Hell of a time for it. But yeah, I'm game. No need for somewhere fancy, though; I hear the food court here is to die for." With that, the pair pointed their weapons over the barricade again, neither one of them really expecting to go on that date. But what the hell, right?

Then the monsters paused, the tide of inky-skinned horrors stopping in place as suddenly as if someone had thrown a switch. A few more scattered shots rang out, then they stopped as well, and a confused silence spread around the mall. Velvet looked at Coco, a puzzled look on her face, but Coco only shrugged, just as confused as Velvet. Before either one of them could say a word, the monsters turned and all started running in the same direction.

Then Velvet heard it. Cannon fire, lots of it and coming closer. Someone was laying down some serious firepower on the monsters. "The army's here!" she yelled, grabbing Coco by the waist and pulling her close to give her a peck on the cheek.

"Easy there, Juliet," Coco laughed. "Buy a girl a drink first, at least? But we still gotta hold out until they get here."

"R-Right," Velvet stammered as she picked up her shotgun again, a furious heat rising on her face.

Whatever help Coco was expecting, what came around the corner Was Not It. Half a dozen or so giant freaking robots loaded down with more whoop-ass than she could imagine strode into view, shooting and smashing one monster after another. Coco winced as one of them, howling some warbling war-cry over its speakers, jumped into the air, bringing down a hammer that she would have swore had a damn rocket engine on it down hard on a fucking scorpion-monster that looked big enough to crush cars with its claws. Another one with blades on its arms whirled and danced between its foes, never quite where they seemed to expect it to be, darting in to drive its blades home when it could.

One of them strode toward the mall with determination, taking its foes down with a titanic sword that she would have swore kept changing size. Coco saw Velvet standing next to her with her mouth open. "Holy fuck," Velvet whispered, "the army actually built them."

"Okay, two things." Coco turned to look at Velvet. "One, I didn't think you actually knew swear words, and two, what are you talking about?"

Velv blushed. "Yeah, I cuss, just not often, and not at work, okay? My mom was really big on that, growing up. But, um, these things look like panzers, the giant robots from that video game, Sparta. I play, sometimes, okay?"

"Think I might take it up too," Coco said quietly as the robot, no, Velvet had said the word was panzer, hadn't she, well, the one with the big damn sword anyway, strode up to their barricade. Its chest opened up as it knelt down, and they could see what looked like a teenage boy in the front seat and a bandaged teenage girl in the back, slumped over unconscious.

"Hey," the boy yelled. "I could use some help over here. My sister's hurt, and I'd like to get her out of this thing. Being jostled, I, I don't think it's good for her."

"Yeah, sure," Adel muttered. "We'll just, um, whistle up a medivac for her." Velvet jabbed her with an elbow, and she reached for her radio with a sigh, calling for a stretcher team.

Not that the rest of the robots were standing idle. Four more that looked to be of a different model or whatever were moving together as a team, laying in with ranged weapons, three of them with something like an oversized rifle and the fourth with some sort of rotary gun, like a Gatling or something. They moved and fought together with the ease of long practice, the rifle ones taking half a step back to swap magazines, letting the empties drop to the ground with a clang before stepping back up to the firing line. Before the line of advancing monsters reached them the three with rifles racked their weapons, one drawing a sword, a second deploying some sort of whip things from its forearms, and the third pulling out some sort of collapsing polearm from its back. The panzer with the rotary cannon just let it fall to the ground, its ammo pack joining it a moment later. Velvet just giggled. "A Reaper and whip-swords? Okay, either the army's copying from Sparta or somebody's got access to classified info."

Before Coco could ask what she meant, the blade on the end of the polearm whirred to life and the three of them charged. Okay, chainsaw-polearm, then. The panzer worked it like a majorette works a baton, striking out to stab with the whirring blade before pulling it back and swinging it around, smashing down with the butt end before slashing at another one of those goddamn huge gorilla-things.

The one with the whips was a dancer too, wrapping one of its whips around the upper arm of a huge werewolf-thing before pulling back on it, the whip flashing despite the rising smoke from the growing number of inky black dead monsters piling up around them. The werewolf's arm fell off, and Velvet whispered in Coco's ear, "Whip-swords. Kind of like a cross between a whip and a chainsaw chain. Hard to get, a real pain in the butt to use, but really cool and deadly if you master them."

"I am so starting up this game. So, um, what's your, um, callsign or login or whatever?"

"HellBunny," Velvet answered as the stretcher team ran up, taking the girl away. Without a word, the blonde kid sealed his robot back up and went back into the fight.

The other two were dealing their share of devastation as well, despite the more conventional nature of their weapons. Sword-bot was moving with all the grace of a kendo master, severing limbs, heads, torsos, switching between a one-handed and two-handed grip, and even trading hands entirely. Cannon-boi was just plain wading I, smashing down monsters left and right with its heavy gauntlets and boots.

Finally, one of the biggest monsters Adel had seen yet, if not the biggest, some sort of demon-bird-thing swooped down at them, its beak wide, claws at the ready to rend armor or carry them away, if it thought it could. The others stepped back, pulling their rifles again, but the one with the polearm just aimed it at the bird, like it was sighting in or something. What was it going to do, throw its weapon?

Boom.

Okay, make that cannon-chainsaw-polearm. "Reaper?" Coco asked

Velvet nodded as the bird-thing fell to the ground, obviously badly hurt but still in the fight. "Yep. And again,-"

"Hard to get, pain in the ass to use, really cool and deadly if you master them." Coco shook her head. "Fuck. The army's got giant robots, and it's like some anime nerd armed them. What's wrong with normal guns and stuff?"

Velvet punched her in the arm. "Hey, I happen to be an anime nerd, thank you very much! Just for that, you're watching the entire run of Shining Storm Warriors. Including the movies and OAVs."

Coco started to laugh, then choked on the smoke from the dissipating monsters. "Gah, this shit reeks. Wonder what it's doing to our lungs?"

Velvet shook her head as the one with the polearm jumped on the bird-monster's head, jamming its blade deep into the bird's skull before triggering the cannon again, shattering its head. "Die today from being torn apart, or die later from whatever it'd doing to our lungs, take your pick."

"Tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow. Next year, if I can manage it."

Finally, the smoke cleared, and Coco couldn't help but let out a low whistle as she stared out over the parking lot. It looked like the surface of the moon, with craters from missed shots or shots that had gone straight through their target everywhere. Hell, the buildings she could see weren't looking much better. She wouldn't have bet there was an unbroken window within three blocks. Even the panzers looked haggard and worn, their armor scratched and scored.

Finally, the one with the polearm trudged over to them, one arm mostly missing its armor, a leg not quite working right, the weapon being used as a crutch or staff to help it walk. Its chest opened up, and the pilot's chair slid out, revealing a young girl who looked like she was maybe old enough to be a high school freshman. Hell, she was still wearing what looked like a school uniform, and while Coco would be willing to bet she'd normally be described as 'upbeat' or even 'chipper,' right now she looked haggard and worn.

It was the girl who spoke first. "Hey, um, do you know where we could find the army? I think we kinda borrowed some of their stuff."