The cough inducing smoke belched from the exhausts, coating the windscreen in a veneer of grunge. The airframe leapt in anticipation as the engine growled and howled, the banging and explosions erupting from the pistons.

The brake was slowly let off and the airframe began to move, the growling and howling becoming louder and more prominent.

Ruby calmed her nerves as she grasped the flight stick with both hands, blinking away the adrenaline in her veins. She had done this plenty of times before, but it never failed to send her heart into overdrive.

She increased the throttle, and the airframe began to shudder forward as the propeller increased in revolutions per minute. Another bang and it was if the engine was free as it roared its loudest.

The airframe began to pick up speed and Ruby slowly felt the tail end lift up a bit, the speedometer reaching 150km/h.

'It's either now or never.' Ruby thought as she increased the throttle to full and rocketed down the runway and felt the airframe shudder. Another shudder and she slowly felt the wheels bounce off the dirt.

With a small heave she brought the stick back and the airframe left the ground completely and began to pull away from the earth. She flipped the switch to stow the wheels, the whining calming her.

With elation, she let out a massive scream of excitement as her fighter began to climb higher and higher in the sky, levelling with the horizon and barely skimming the treetops.

Weiss' fighter was cold and cramped, it never offered any comfort for she would be distracted from her job if it did.

A simple bombing run, that was all this mission was. Fly from Atlas and drop bombs on Vale, disrupt their supplies and the sort. Textbook warfare.

At least, that's what it was supposed to be.

Weiss couldn't help but scowl as one of her squad mates flew too far out of formation before correcting themselves., 'They are nothing but novices and fools, they will never see the end of this war.'

But she will, for she is Weiss Schnee. The best Ace that Atlas had to offer. She had to be the best, she had to succeed, she had to kill.

She had to survive.

Her thoughts were forced back as the novice voiced their concern over the microphone, "I am so sorry Lieutenant Schnee, please forgive me!"

"Ensure that it does not happen again or I will personally take your wings from you!" The airways stayed silent as the other squad mates tightened their formation while still keeping in line. Weiss scowled as she remembered her take off.

Earlier

The engine howled like a banshee as it turned over and kicked in, the exhausted spewing out gaseous smoke into the assistant's face. They hurried away and took out the wheel blocks as Weiss expertly increased the throttle and let off the brake.

The airframe nearly seized into a stall but she brought it back with practiced movements. The speedometer's needle made a steady movement to the right as she gathered speed down the runway.

'It's either now or never.' The thought raced through her mind as she smoothly pulled back on the flight stick and felt the wheels leave the ground, immediately flipping the switch to stow them.

Now… She was in her element. She owned the skies. Every Valean pilot she came across went down in flames.

She gained altitude faster as the watery sun glinted off the snowflakes that were painted meticulously on her wings and fuselage.

Current time

The sun was in her eyes. It was always in her eyes. No matter how much they tint the windscreen and how dark their flying goggles were, the sun always bored into their retinas.

Weiss hated that, it gave the Valean's the homefield advantage of a surprise attack. Right now, she wouldn't know if there was a squadron of fighters about to bear down on her due to the sun being at their backs.

"Keep a loose but close formation, and do not forget to check your sixes and above, these Valean's are tricky if you let them." Weiss let out a pent up breath and looked at her hand that was shaking. With a grunt she clenched her fist and stopped the shaking before taking hold of the stick with both hands again.

But over the din of her own engine and the airframe shaking, she could hear a very faint growl. With a gasp she looked over her shoulder to see a red and black fighter with a rose emblazoned on its wings and fuselage. And as she made eye contact with the pilot, those muzzles began to flash.

Ruby kept glancing far and wide. Originally HQ sent her and her wingman up here to investigate the reports of four bomb packed fighters heading towards a discreet but by no means insignificant factory and supply line.

She was puzzled as to why such a small force but she reasoned that they were most likely using the advantage of smaller numbers to increase their stealth possibilities.

She cracked her neck softly and cooed as she felt the amazing release of tension, "Nothing over here Buddy, what do you have?"

"I am see nothing but the expanse of the ocean, is Intel right on this?" The wingman queried.

"Well that remains to be seen but it does give us the opportunity to take in the sights, we rarely do get to be so high up it truly is a shame." She brought the stick down and levelled off as she continued to gaze around the area.

'Wait… What was that? A glint?' She peered through her scope and could see the slight flash of sunlight glancing off a snowflake? She was perplexed as she rubbed her eye and peered again and sure enough, there was their quarry.

"Found them, just below us to our left. Let them pass and then we'll hook in behind them."

"Rogie."

She breathed in deeply as she realised that the time was nearly upon her. The time to show that she was truly meant to be a pilot, meant to be an Ace.

She hadn't gotten the privilege of having her gold wings yet, still being stuck on silver. But she knew that the time will come.

As her quarry flew underneath her she smoothly pulled the plane into a steep dive and into an intercepting trajectory. Now she could see her opponents more clearly.

Standard diamond formation of four fighters with the leader being the tip of the diamond. 'Why does she have her symbol on the wings and the fuselage? Then again, I can't complain." She thought ruefully as the rose on her plane hadn't been forgotten.

As she got closer, she began to grace the trigger with her finger. That trigger lead to six individual .50 calibre machine guns mounted in the wings. Six ways to tear apart her enemy.

She had no misconceptions, she knew she was killing these people… But it was either her or them, and she didn't have any plans to die so soon.

Their targets came closer and closer. Their Atlesian symbols gleamed off the sunlight. As she lined up upon the leader and her wingman with her gunsight.

Ruby's wingman had split off and went after the other two fighters.

She breathed in deeply and looked into the eyes of the leader, squeezing the trigger and immediately felt the guns firing.

Dakadakadakadakadakadaka

That sound would haunt her for weeks to come as she immediately dove off to the right. Her wingman wasn't as lucky as his plane was buzz sawed in half by the force of the machine guns.

Weiss could hear the gunfire erupt from her left and saw another of her escort go down in flames, "Break away, drop now and break away!" She heaved on her stick and dropped her payload and felt her plane respond enthusiastically as the weight was gone.

She used her glyphs to increase the severity of the curve and to boost her plane as she began to climb towards that little red devil that took out her wingman.

She lined up the gun sights onto that swaying red and black target and squeezed the trigger.

Her 15mm machine guns mounted in the wings erupted in a hail of gunfire and blazed a path down to her target. But the target dodged away and pulled up and straightened out, shooting past her.

She growled in frustration as she yanked on her stick and used her glyphs to aid in her manoeuvre before seeing the sight of her final escort member being torn to shreds by the coordinated attack by the two Valean pilots.

Her blood began to boil as she flicked a switch on her stick and lined up the sights on the Red Pilot's wingman and shot a volley from her 30mm cannon and could only smirk as she saw the canopy turn red before the plane was reduced to a flaming wreck and began a steep dive into the ocean below.

'Man where do they get these pilots from!?' She thought in awe as she witnessed how easily her wingman was dispatched. But her heart beat raised in tempo and adrenaline surging through her body.

She gripped the flight stick hard and yanked it, turning her upside down but facing the only Atlesian pilot left. She smirked grimly as she caressed the trigger before sending a one second burst of lead at her target.

'That's what you get for daring to go up against Weiss Schnee.' She gloated in her mind as she rocketed past the plunging wreckage. But her attention was drawn to the red pilot from before. She growled in challenge before firing a volley from her cannon and diving away from the hail of lead.

'Gotta end this soon or never.' She cursed as she saw that her fuel was dropping slowly. Clearly some of those rounds hit her fuel tank. She thanked the stars that she wasn't a fireball.

With a final decision she used her glyphs one more time before switching back to her machine guns and made a heavy pass against her opponent.

'She's persistent I'll give her that!' Ruby commented as she dodged the hail but couldn't help the feeling that her plane was hit. She checked her fluids and saw that she was leaking oil, which was not good at all.

'I'm sorry my baby! But I gotta do this!' She heaved on the stick again, the airframe shuddering from the abuse. Ruby righted herself against her opponent and used her Semblance, blasted her way to incredible speeds and opened up on that girl in the enemy plane.

Both planes made passes at each other, both spitting out white hot lead.

And both found their mark.

"Infernal Machine!" Weiss yelled as she saw the warning lights and noises erupt from her dash. She scowled and glowered back at her opponent as she did a U turn and headed back to Atlas.

"Bloody hell!" Ruby exclaimed as her cockpit erupted with noise and lights. There was no way she could continue this fight, she could only hope that her opponent was in similar straits. She heaved on her stick and started to head back to Vale.

The two pilots flew past each other, glaring at each other as a silent vendetta began to set between them.

The next time they would meet, it would be to the death. Each knew for sure.

Ruby shuddered as she felt her plane scream in pain as she descended down onto the runway, it was going to be rough for sure.

She let the throttle down and slowly descended onto the ground, bouncing a bit off the hard dirt as she came to a hard halt, being thrown back from the sudden stop.

"Ruby! Are you okay?!" She heard her mechanic and sister Yang hurry to her as the engine died.

"Yeah, I'm fine Yang, just a bit shaken." She huffed and opened the canopy before climbing out, collapsing onto her elder sister and buried her face into her neck.

"Where's your wingman?" Yang asked fearfully.

"Taken by the sea sis." She whimpered and held her sister tightly. Yang nodded and escorted Ruby back to HQ's tent for a debrief as a team of mechanics swarmed her plane.

Weiss could only glower at her dash as she automatically landed her plane as best she could before it finally gave out.

"Lieutenant Schnee, didn't expect you to be back so early, and alone." Her mechanic, Blake smirked cattily but with concern.

"Nothing to be expected of novices and fools Blake. Do not cry for them." She commented crisply as she dismounted her destroyed plane.

"You certainly don't slack off on the work I have to do. Finally met your match did you?"

She scoffed, "No, just a lucky upstart who doesn't know her place in the world. She will be in my sights soon enough."

Blake started writing on her clipboard before looking back up, "I'm glad to see that you came back alive Weiss, I was awfully worried when it was only you coming back so early."

Weiss' gaze soften before embracing Blake in a small hug, "I appreciate the concern Blake, don't worry. It takes more than a redhead to bring me down."

She released the Faunus before nodding politely and making her way to her superior for a debrief.