[RWBY] RWBY Shorts

[AndrewJTalon]

Ruby Rose sat on the bus, blindfolded, her arms crossed over her chest. She had been pouting through it from the moment Jaune had asked her to go with him and put it on.

"Are we there yet?" Ruby asked.

"Almost," Jaune said reassuringly, squeezing her hand. Ruby sighed heavily.

"I mean, I'm glad you're taking me out somewhere. Especially given your fiances," Ruby grumbled.

"Fake fiances," Jaune sighed. Ruby scowled.

"Don't seem so fake to me," she grumbled. Jaune sighed. The bus finally came to a stop, and Jaune took her hand.

"I know, I know, "Jaune said, "It's a big mess. I don't know why everyone's gone crazy."

"UGH!" Ruby huffed, stomping her foot even as they went down the steps, "You're so unfair, you know?"

"Unfair?" Jaune asked, confused. Ruby huffed as they stood on a street, the sounds of traffic and pedestrian traffic filling her ears.

"Yeah! You-You stupid super Aura badass family line harem having jerk! I'm your best friend and you just keep doing all this stupid junk! Even Granny paid more attention to Yang over me cause you're engaged! So whatever you're doing to win me back had better be super, super good-!"

Jaune pulled her blindfold off. Ruby stared at the large sign before her.

FORT CELLIWIG: VALEAN DEFENSE FORCE BASE

Underneath this was:

WELCOMES THE ARMAMENT EXPOSITION OF REMNANT

Ruby looked over: The gates to the base were open, the guards checking a wave of people of all shapes and sizes walking in. Kids laughing happily with their parents, soldiers, teenagers… And beyond the gates, the base. Full of military aircraft, vehicles, and stands full of weapons.

Ruby slowly turned back to Jaune. He smiled and handed over a ticket badge. He held up his own.

"Full weekend passes," Jaune said with a grin. Ruby gaped, slowly taking the badge into her trembling hands. "Just us together. What do you say, Crater Face?"

Ruby sucked in a deep breath… And then squealed.

"HEEEEE! JAUNE!" She hugged him tightly, her arms tight around his neck. "I LOVE YOU!"

"URK! Heh… I love you too, Ruby," Jaune said, hugging her back happily. "Let's go!"

And that's the preview. There will be another Arc family member too. But the sisters are the main focus.

 

[trashtaker]

Another one bites the dust

 

[Dragon Bob]

Hey now, that's his family he's surrounded by.

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Fun fact, Nicola Tesla tried to marry a pigeon. The man went insane later in life. Scammed the government into paying him to build a death ready.

Also, Crows are smart. Like really smart, to the point they teach their kids about potential threats, if a man bothers Crows enough for a while then leaves for 30 years before coming back, the Crows will attack that man.
So now I have the image of Qrow somehow joining a murder, and whole generations of Crows knowing about their weird uncle who talks funny but can get the best food.
The real secret to his success, an army of birds who help their uncle. Once he brings up his human nieces both Yang and Ruby are always followed by at least one Crow. The crows also bully Tai.

 

[SharkCultist]

So now I have the image of Qrow somehow joining a murder, and whole generations of Crows knowing about their weird uncle who talks funny but can get the best food.
The real secret to his success, an army of birds who help their uncle. Once he brings up his human nieces both Yang and Ruby are always followed by at least one Crow. The crows also bully Tai.

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Qrow: hey Tai did you know magic is passed down as a dominant trait through male users bloodline?

Tai: I don't like where this is going.

Qrow: gonnagohuntaevilchristmascakehavefunbabysittingbye.

*A bird lands on top of Tais head and turns into a girl. Many more follow*

Birb girls: uncle! Uncle!

Tai: shit.

Birb girls: shit! Shit!

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Anyway, the Remnant Arms Exposition, or RemArmExpo, or REMARM, happens yearly in Vale and has smaller offshoots across Remnant. It shows off the latest arms technology, and usually has the support of the local military to show off some of their latest weapons and technologies.

Including aircraft. I did try to make some specs for strike fighters in Remnant back in the pages. I could have done a lot better, so here's my thinking regarding combat aircraft and a few other vehicles, at least for my own fan canon which is often referred to as the Itano-verse after my Discord Server:

-Bullheads, Tigertails and the like of airships fulfill the role of helicopters: They're subsonic but VTOL capable thanks to Gravity Dust Drives-The Gravity Dust Drives though are heavy and thus it's hard to make a supersonic aircraft that uses them and can be mass produced. And subsonic attack aircraft can be built in greater numbers than supersonic.

-Combat aircraft doctrine is an odd mix: Situational awareness, sensor, and computer technology is akin to the present day if not more advanced (holograms and such) but the doctrine is closer to the 1970s-1980s: You have more of a mixture of types of aircraft with different roles but the main strike fighters are still expected to be multirole, and speed, firepower, and reliability are far more important than stealth. Which makes sense: You're mainly dealing with Grimm who don't care about stealth. Hardlight Dust and other Dust derived technologies are in heavy use.

-Guns are still a primary aircraft weapon: I'm thinking Revolver Cannons are very popular, like the ADEN, Mauser BK-27, and M39 cannon. While the firing rate for revolver cannons is lower than a rotary (Gatling) gun, revolver cannons are smaller, lighter, and more reliable. As a result most strike fighters carry at least two cannons and more ammo than our fighters do. For anti-Grimm operations they carry a lot of rockets and cluster munitions: More advanced guided weapons are reserved for more dangerous Grimm or enemy aircraft.

Needless to say Ruby is gonna be in gun girl heaven.

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Again, air combat in Remnant wouldn't be totally alien from our world. Being able to go supersonic is still a massive tactical advantage. And armor does have a hard limit on how much you can apply to a small aircraft and let it fly and stay cheap to mass produce. So you do get strike fighters, big and powerful ones that are very fast and manueverable. You could also have smaller, cheaper strike fighters that, while not able to do energy fighting or carry as much ammo, can be made in larger numbers, are easier and cheaper to maintain, can generate more sorties per day, and most likely can be operated from smaller, rougher runways. And of course, dedicated subsonic strike craft that, while not able to break the speed of sound, are still fast enough to outrun Grimm. Heavy Bombers would still exist but in fewer numbers as heavy airships would fulfill their role better. So you have bomber/gunship hybrid airships in that role.

Given they're fighting Grimm most of the time, cannons, rockets-Lots of dumb, cheap weapons with lots of ammo would be carried. Guided bombs and stand off weapons are still things, of course, but reserved for either human/Faunus targets or for specific Grimm targets. Or for when you're engaging targets in built up urban areas.

Now at some point when you advance your tech and industry enough you can mass produce advanced guided weapons in large numbers, which does have a lot of advantages. But most Grimm fighting is ideally done in the wilds or in sparsely populated areas so you don't have to worry as much about collateral damage.

So, a few aircraft from the real world that could work as inspirations for strikecraft in Remnant:

-Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II aka Warthog: Built around a 30mm cannon, dead simple to build, arm, maintain and operate, very tough.

-McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle: Powerful engines and sensors, incredible speed and agility, able to carry a big bomb load while also able to engage enemy fighters as needed. Might have been, like in our world, an overreaction to a new Atlas or Mistralian superfighter by Vale.

-McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II: Again, big, powerful twin-engined strike fighter that's built tough and fast. And very adaptable and versatile. The most produced twin-engined American jet fighter ever.

-Sukhoi Su-25 "Frogfoot": Simple, rugged and tough ground attack aircraft, same idea as the Warthog with a high sortie rate.

-Saab JAS 39 Gripen: A very elegant, lightweight fighter that can take off from a country road and is very reliable, versatile and fairly cheap.

-MiG-29 "Fulcrum": One of the most produced twin engined jet fighters in history, the Fulcrum has good manueverability, excellent range and speed, and is pretty adaptable given all the variants produced.

-Dassault Mirage 2000: Very maneuverable, sleek, adaptable and fast. You gotta give it to Dassault, they make great little strike fighters that can function in almost any environment and give great performance.

-Vought F-8 Crusader: The so-called "Last of the Gunfighters", it was very fast, manueverable, and armed with four cannons. It was very difficult to pilot but very deadly in the right hands.

What are your thoughts?

 

[GoldDoesGames]

What are your thoughts?

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I think it's insane how underdeveloped anything militaristic is. Like, it's like they threw all their eggs in one basket, specifically the Huntsman / Aura User Basket. I mean, if Aura Users can't take out Maidens, why not develop technology that can, it's not like they're immune to damage, a big enough explosive should do the trick? I know Maidens aren't a priority, but the same thought applies to Grimm, especially massive ones / ones that not even a team of Veteran Huntsmen can take down.

 

[Frakir's brother]

What are your thoughts?

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You need a mass chaff clearer, weaponized bird strikes only get more effective the faster the planes. The beehive round from Vietnam would do great for that

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Several different schools of thought would emerge, just like in our world. For a while the US Air Force and Navy thought that you wouldn't need guns for your fighters anymore because missiles would be the future of air combat-Obviously this was a bad idea because if you run out of missiles you now have no more options. And while not every Grimm Horde would be unfathomably huge, having just missiles is probably a bad idea for the same reason.

Sortie Rate essentially means how fast you can refuel, rearm and relaunch an aircraft back into the fight. Higher numbers are always better but there are always tradeoffs. Small, cheap, simple strike fighters can have a high sortie rate but do less damage. Bigger, more powerful and more heavily armed strike fighters take longer to turn around but can do more damage. And Sortie Rate also depends on other factors: How easy is it for the aircraft to get back to base? How long does it take? How good are the ground crews? How well supplied is the base? And so on.

I can see a school of thought thinking that strike fighters would focus entirely on airborne Grimm and dedicated ground aircraft would take out those on the ground, so there wasn't as big a need for strike fighters to carry a heavy bomb armament. Or a school of thought that felt that if a fighter had a high enough sortie rate, it could rely mainly on missiles to hit Grimm or other targets at range and then fly back. Lots of experimentation would be done under real life conditions, which would prove that while you do need to have specialized aircraft for some roles, when it comes to general combat and Grimm flexibility is usually better.

 

[Rakos]

I actually think the inverse would happen

"Missiles are a waste of advanced sensors,computers and ordnance that could've been used to make guns or their munitions"

The thinking would be that Hunter Teams would be the ones taking care of the Grimm that's actually hard to crack while the Airforce would serve as mop-up and "anti-infantry"

 

[Abramus5250]

Since there's no Geneva Conventions against Grimm, I could easily see flak artillery in the past being used on group of Grimm on the ground and in the sky as well. If not one bullet, throw so many bullets they can't dodge or turn the area into clouds of shrapnel.

Part of the problem with slow-firing weapons is you need the accuracy to back up their effectiveness. A wall of bullets is much more likely to hit than a single Hunter or Huntress with a high powered rifle equivalent.

I'm also assuming Grimm haven't greatly changed over the years, like there has always been beringels or beowolves or ursa or other creatures? You'd think by NOW they'd have dedicated strategies for non-Aura users depending on the general type of Grimm and the tech/weapons to reliably take them down.

Probably just another universe where the closer you look, the less things make sense/work as explained.

 

[Killerofa23]

What are your thoughts?

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Hard disagree. I think given the extensive amount of Grimm I think that highspeed fighters would be in danger of ending up with Grimm filling the sky with their bodies and taking down stuff that way. We only see small fast transports in the show all other aircraft in the show are slow and heavily armed.

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Hard disagree. I think given the extensive amount of Grimm I think that highspeed fighters would be in danger of ending up with Grimm filling the sky with their bodies and taking down stuff that way. We only see small fast transports in the show all other aircraft in the show are slow and heavily armed.

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Yeah but counterpoint: The show sucks and the canon has so many holes in it you may as well write your own head canon to make it make sense.

 

[dragon_cloud16]

Hard disagree. I think given the extensive amount of Grimm I think that highspeed fighters would be in danger of ending up with Grimm filling the sky with their bodies and taking down stuff that way. We only see small fast transports in the show all other aircraft in the show are slow and heavily armed.

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I think it depends on just WHY they would be in the area. Most of the larger airships are meant to be used to transport large numbers of people, act as a base, and so on. They are the equivalant of a command deck like a Star Destroyer in Star Wars. Not the fastest but heavily armored and armed due to the amount of bodies needed to keep safe and being crucial for mission control.

The smaller, swifter vessels being used to transport people and Hunters into and away from an area makes sense strategically. But the fact that we the viewers are being focused on the actions of Team RWBY and other key characters mean that we are missing other possible uses. A highly mobile, armed airship would make sense for scouting and thinning out Grimm. Especially specially designed ones to take out highly armored, highly durable Grimm just like why the Warthog is meant for dealing with tanks with one of the things General Electric made for the military.

As for using a force to take on a large number of aerial Grimm through smaller, lighter aircrafts? I do agree with you on that not being as likely when something like a Anti-Air defence force using the more heavily armored, larger airships might work better. Even if only to act like a shield for the people.

Yeah but counterpoint: The show sucks and the canon has so many holes in it you may as well write your own head canon to make it make sense.

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This is true. And another factor is how fast, maneuverable, and resistant to damage some Grimm can be. Insect like ones probably aren't that durable and I doubt a Nevermore would be able to survive a missile strike to the face.

 

[AndrewJTalon]

I think it depends on just WHY they would be in the area. Most of the larger airships are meant to be used to transport large numbers of people, act as a base, and so on. They are the equivalant of a command deck like a Star Destroyer in Star Wars. Not the fastest but heavily armored and armed due to the amount of bodies needed to keep safe and being crucial for mission control.

The smaller, swifter vessels being used to transport people and Hunters into and away from an area makes sense strategically. But the fact that we the viewers are being focused on the actions of Team RWBY and other key characters mean that we are missing other possible uses. A highly mobile, armed airship would make sense for scouting and thinning out Grimm. Especially specially designed ones to take out highly armored, highly durable Grimm just like why the Warthog is meant for dealing with tanks with one of the things General Electric made for the military.

As for using a force to take on a large number of aerial Grimm through smaller, lighter aircrafts? I do agree with you on that not being as likely when something like a Anti-Air defence force using the more heavily armored, larger airships might work better. Even if only to act like a shield for the people.

This is true. And another factor is how fast, maneuverable, and resistant to damage some Grimm can be. Insect like ones probably aren't that durable and I doubt a Nevermore would be able to survive a missile strike to the face.

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The thing is, a lot of people seem to approach things like "It's not perfect so they'd never build it." when it comes to adding things like strike fighters to Remnant. Which is ridiculous.

Yes, strike fighters would get shot down and destroyed by Grimm. Just like airships get shot down, or soldiers and Hunters get killed. But if they kill more Grimm than are lost, and can achieve tactical and strategic objectives (Like, a city not falling and loads of people not dying)? They are a worthwhile investment.

Also, power projection. Being able to project your power has been vital to every human nation state since the beginning of civilization. For most of our history that power was projected by armies on foot, horseback, or by the sea. Air Power allows you to project your power further, faster, and more effectively than ground and sea forces can do alone. And you would want a variety of aircraft to do all sorts of things to support your troops, sea forces, and other air forces.

If an aircraft has to carry a lot of people, then it will carry fewer weapons-Unless you make it bigger and more powerful, which requires more fuel and resources. So there is a place for aircraft alongside Bullheads and such that are fast (so they can react very quickly to trouble), are heavily armed so they can do a lot of damage to enemy forces, and only have one or two crew so you don't sacrifice as many people if they're shot down. But you also do everything you can do in order to ensure that they come back, gain experience, and can thus teach other pilots so your pilots become better.

 

[Dragon Bob]

Will make this longer later, but something to consider. Would remnant even get planes?. Think about it, early planes were crap. They were used because air superiority is just that good that even a crap air craft is an advantage.
But on remnant the early planes would be so much weaker than Grimm or airships that they might never develop properly.
I'll go into more details in a bit but that's my thesis.

 

[dragon_cloud16]

The thing is, a lot of people seem to approach things like "It's not perfect so they'd never build it." when it comes to adding things like strike fighters to Remnant. Which is ridiculous.

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You are 100% correct about that.

We have, as a species, come up with some of the strangest things and variants of things just because we had the chance to do it. Flight has been a dream for hundreds of years alone, if not longer. You can bet that people have tried all kinds of things until the Wright Brothers successfully managed to fly for a few seconds. And then things lifted up from there.

Will make this longer later, but something to consider. Would remnant even get planes?. Think about it, early planes were crap. They were used because air superiority is just that good that even a crap air craft is an advantage.
But on remnant the early planes would be so much weaker than Grimm or airships that they might never develop properly.
I'll go into more details in a bit but that's my thesis.

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The thing I would like to point out is this. How did they develop the airships in the first place along with bullheads? Because if anything, those would be the more advanced successors to planes. All it would take to change a bullhead into a fighter is a few tweaks to the design and payload after all.

 

[Dragon Bob]

Will make this longer later, but something to consider. Would remnant even get planes?. Think about it, early planes were crap. They were used because air superiority is just that good that even a crap air craft is an advantage.
But on remnant the early planes would be so much weaker than Grimm or airships that they might never develop properly.
I'll go into more details in a bit but that's my thesis.

Click to shrink...

Okay so here's the full thing. First things first, I do think Remnant would develop flight and probably some kind of engine powered glider ( aka a traditional aircraft) this is just an alt history look at how the conditions of Remnant could change the development of flight.
The first and biggest thing is gravity dust. A naturally occuring material that defies gravity. Enough of it can let even a city float, as seen with how Atlas was able to claim to use it to float and no one called BS. This means flight in remnant likely came about extremely early on, basically as soon as humans figured out how to build things. It also means that most of the flight is going to be based on literal sky ships, ships that fly using a combination of gravity dust and sails.
And that's where we reach the first problem, technology develops to solve a problem. Flight via aircraft developed the way it did because powered gliders are the simplest and easy to imagine form of heavier than air flight. It's basically making a copy of a bird and then finding a way to push it in the sky. They competed against blimps, which were slow, had extremely strict weight limits, and were massive targets. And early planes barely beat them out. It took decades for planes to become objectively better, then start to massively accelerate into being a hundred times better.
Here gravity dust negates all those issues. Instead of blimps where you have a cabin the size of a submarine attached to a balloon the size of a battleship you can have a literal flying battleship. At the early stages planes are going to have no advantage over airships. Meaning any research is going to go into making better Airships. That will still generate tech that could lead into better planes but it will be mostly something worked on by a small number of 'nutjobs' like the Wright Brothers instead of full industrial science.
Planes have two major advantages over airships however, efficiency and not needing gravity dust. The first makes them cheaper, easier to run a large number. The second means you aren't dependent on the main sources of dust.
On the other hand they have one massive disadvantage. They can't hover. A plane always needs to be going forward. That is a massive determent when the majority of your combat is against wave assaults by unending hordes of monsters without any sense of self preservation. Both in the sky and on the ground.
An airships can stay in one place with heavy guns and fire at the horde until it collapses. Or even retreat while still attacking.
Planes are basically more expensive to build, cheaper to run, and able to run on more types of dust than airships. They probably saw a lot of research during the great war on the part of Vale, but afterwards were mostly forgotten. Atlas would almost certainly not use any planes, having basically unlimited gravity dust meaning anything that reduces that use actually harms their economy.