Chapter 5: Destination: Vale
15 minutes ago…
Hanns had been traveling for nearly half an hour, when he first saw the signs of red trees he had been surprised. He was at or near Forever Fall, the red leaves were a damning sign of that.
The Forever Fall forest was huge though, it covered the entire northern part of Vale and you could get lost if you didn't have any landmarks to base your directions on. Hanns decided it would be best to roam around the edges of the forest until he hit something like a river to follow. It would be his best course of action because going deeper into the forest without a direction to go on would easily get him lost.
Undeterred by the revelation, he followed the edges of the Forever Fall forest, he let himself in cruising speed in order not to attract the attention of grimm.
'Ursa had a large presence in this forest, especially the one in the show. There was an Ursa Major that roamed Forever Fall so I could try and see if I could take it down. Although it had much more armor plates covering itself than alpha beowolves so it's going to be a harder fight.'
'The trees made it harder to navigate and see the beasts roaming about and If I do meet an Ursa Major I'd rather lead it to a clearing. But since I don't know the geography here I am not going to risk it for now.'
He traveled along the rough terrain and spotted train tracks going deeper into the forest. Not sure where the tracks lead, he followed it close by. Reasoning that there must be civilization or at least a landmark he can come by.
He made sure to follow the tracks a good distance away to avoid the general populace from seeing his presence, just in case a train came by and it was full of passengers.
A blaring horn in the distance alerted him of a train's presence. He drove towards some thick foliage to cover his presence. As the cars of the train passed by he closely observed each car before noticing a snowflake plastered across the sides of many cars.
'Are those… SDC symbols?'
The SDC was the largest provider of dust in Remnant, the world where RWBY took place in. So this freight train should be moving this stuff around settlements and cities. It didn't take long for Hanns to decide to follow it.
'The tracks itself could lead to an isolated warehouse or something, so I should follow the train itself in case the tracks had splits in it.'
'Where there's dust, there's civilization.'
Ramping up his engines to drive to its fastest he races to follow the freight train moving along the train tracks.
Nearing a cliff, the train swerved and turned along the tracks as Hanns followed it close by. The train was up towards the air so he couldn't get ground level to it but he could follow where it was going. He could keep up and even sometimes outspeed it at curves, thankfully the tank he was in was light so it didn't have any trouble tagging along under the train.
'The forest is getting a bit tight here so I need to focus on driving around these trees.'
Looking up from where he was he could see the train descending towards flatter ground, deciding to move closer towards the train itself he could discern gunshots from inside one of the cars. He felt elated at finally coming across an event to know exactly at what point of the canon he was.
'So this is when Adam and Blake separated.'
This was important for Hanns since it told him where in the canon he was, but there was a problem. How much of the canon should he change? If he wanted to he could help both Blake and Adam but there would be consequences for that. The butterfly effect could spiral out with his involvement. Although, he was curious. Curious as to what happens after the trailers, especially as to how Blake even got into Beacon in the first place after ditching Adam on the train.
Hanns saw the open car and recognizing it from his memories he urged his engine to move faster. Passing by the open car he tried to speed off to try and avoid getting caught by the security in place on the train. Before he could reach the next car, dozens of droids exited the car ahead of the open car. Fearing the droid might attack he pointed his autocannon to the front of the group. To his surprise, the droids outright ignore his presence.
'Hmm, that's useful to know.'
His tracks were leaving marks but due to the speed of the train and the light weight of his tank, it could be harder to look for when moving. The red leaves scattered around here would also cover where Hanns' location could be.
Not letting up he drives past the train and arrives where the head of the train should be. A loud blast echoes from behind him as he lets himself cruise right next to the train.
'Must be at the spider droid fight.'
'Alright after the fight I have no idea what happens after. I still think Blake would go to Beacon. Hopefully, my mere presence isn't enough for the canon to change until I could involve myself directly.'
'Should I convince Blake to let me tag along to Vale? Or should I just tail her along with the train? This thing should be headed for Vale. I assume that's how she got to Vale, but just in case I'll try to follow along with Blake to see.'
After a few minutes of following the head train, he turns his turret around to see parts of the train being separated and slowing down.
'Alright, this is where the trailer ends.'
He hums contently at himself as he awaits the end of where the train should lead. His tank treads were noticeable being less and less ahead of the train itself. Another sound from the horn of the train was let out, getting his attention. He looked towards the ground only to see that the train was outpacing him.
'Uh oh. Did I slow down?!'
'Crap, the train itself became faster!'
The weight of the cars that had been separated by Blake meant that the head car was now faster than his top speed. He was getting left behind more and more as more cars were now passing him threatening to make him present himself.
'Should I just hide in the trees?'
'No, it's unavoidable and even if I did, Blake would definitely notice a tank crashing into a tree. Besides, moving at this speed would certainly wreck me if I suddenly veer off.'
Wishing himself good luck, he let fate handle how their first interaction would go. As the train went faster and faster than him, he readied himself to meet one of the main characters in the show.
As the train chugged along, Hanns finally went towards the open car that Blake was standing on during the last moments in the trailer "Black". When he did he could spot the cat Faunus sitting along one of the many boxes looking through her scroll right in front of him.
'Here goes nothing.'
Noticing the change in her peripheral vision she closed her scroll and looked up, just in time to see the barrel of an autocannon wagging in a circle. This ritual was often done in war thunder as a sign of peace to the players since it didn't look like a threat. Blake however just stared at it before backflipping off the crate she was at and hiding behind it.
'Shit, she got spooked.'
Blake peeked her head over the crate as she prepared Gambol Shroud, the vehicle was lagging behind the train and was now swaying its turret from left to right. Thinking it was scanning for a threat she acted and started firing upon the tank. Only for her shots to bounce off and do nothing at the vehicle. She drew up her shadow clones and leaped in the air only for a hail of bullets to hit where she was going.
'Argh! How could it track me!'
Hanns meanwhile was still trying to signify his peaceful ways by now shooting his machine gun in the air. Blake coincidentally dashed to where he was shooting as Blake leaped up to it. The bullets accidentally just hit Blake by chance.
'Can't you see I'm purposefully missing! Uh oh that looked like it hurt.'
As the exchange was going on the train was going faster and Hanns had to act fast.
'Crap I'm going too far!'
Noticing the train's coupling he decided to open his hud and activate his tow cable. The moment he did so he was whipped into the tracks as the cable shot out from his tank and attached itself on the coupling.
The tracks he had were getting damaged since it was rubbing on the tracks. Metal on metal created sparks but it didn't matter to Hanns as he was still trying to convince Blake he meant no harm.
Blake meanwhile hid behind more crates as the mysterious vehicle now set itself upon the tracks. Taking one look at the cable attached on the train she planned on slicing it off, she leapt into action and dashed towards the coupling.
*THAG*
Hanns saw this and fired off a single shot towards Blake to ward her off the coupling. He underestimated his shells and it hit somewhere behind Blake where she staggered from the impact and was sent flying towards Hanns.
*Thunk!*
Blake took a lot of hits on her aura from the fight with the spider droid, getting hit in the back by the shell and her hitting the tank at full force just broke her aura and knocked her out.
'... Oops.'
'I guess mission accomplished?'
Blake was wedged in between the front and the turret of Hanns while Hanns himself was being pulled along by the train. He sighed to himself in his mind and just accepted the results.
'Honestly it could've been worse.'
As they trudged on the tracks, he awaited his destination towards Vale while trying to keep Blake steady on the front. He was gonna have to do something to let her calm down after waking up.
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