Anyone here watched TennoCon 2018? First we had Plains of Eidolon, then this year Fortuna, and plus we even get Railjack. You gotta admit, DE are going the distance - trying very hard(and succeeding) at becoming the F2P game that puts full-priced AAA games to shame.
Anyway, this is a Warframe - RWBY crossover that involves Remnant(the planet) drifting into the Origin System, post Apostasy Prologue.
Fair warning: Within The System contains major spoilers for Apostasy Prologue and any main story quest that comes before it, along with some very minor spoilers for The Sacrifice.
Enjoy!
"You guys ever think there's anything up there?" Ruby asked her team one night.
"What do you mean, 'up there'?" Weiss raised an eyebrow.
"You know, beyond our world, beyond Remnant... I'm starting to think that, if there's a sun, then there are other planets too, right?"
"As much as that could be true, there's a very low probability of them being inhabited." Blake said. "Just...go to sleep, Ruby."
Volt sat, studying the chart of the Origin System that appeared before her. By now the Tenno had touched every corner of the Origin System - Pluto, the most distant plant of all the system, and Phobos, One of Mars' moons(It still eluded Volt why it was the Corpus who had the moon, but the Grineer held sway over the planet itself). They had even found the Kuva Fortress, which Volt had the pleasure of being the first to face whatever greater power lurked within.
Then something caught her eye. Between Pluto and Neptune was another planet - the size of Earth.
"What?" This urged Volt to zoom in for a closer look on this strange, unmarked planet. After a while, she realized this planet seemed to have lights on its surface.
It was inhabited.
"Operator?" Ordis asked when Volt suddenly stood up and hastily dashed towards the Communications console. "What's wrong?"
"Ordis, I want you to tell every Tenno out there that there is another planet - uncharted, unmarked, but it has people on it." Volt's fingers flew across the keyboard. "I want explanations for why not a single living being in the Origin System that we know of has seen it until now."
"Yes, Operator. But what about you?"
Volt returned to the Navigation console. "I'm headed there myself. I need to see this planet's surface with my own eyes. Set me a course there, Ordis."
The Tenno had been in a minor disarray when the Lotus suddenly disappeared, not just from Volt's eyes during an odd mission, but from her position as the Tenno's guide. Ordis cephalons from all Tenno ships pitched in to try and simulate the Lotus so that Tenno can receive the help they needed during missions, but it was Volt who had to take the mantle of actual leadership.
She'd seen everything, after all.
Volt, better known as Operator Zanara, was the first of all Tenno to discover her true self - a living human, controlling their Warframe from afar, through Transference.
And then when she pursued the rogue Teshin through a corner of Lua, the Conclave master led Zanara to unlock her true power as an Operator - and to perform what no other Tenno had done, and defeat the Twin Queens themselves, along with their elite guard.
It was after Volt/Zanara that other Tenno began to discover their own Operators as well. And after the defeat of the Twin Queens, they began to frequent the moving Kuva Fortress, soon sabotaging it so that it could never move another lightyear on its own.
And then the Lotus left. Not one Tenno knew why - all they knew was that Volt had seen what was apparently the Lotus herself, being led away by an Orokin Executor named Ballas. Their guide and mentor had gone silent since then.
So when they discovered what seemed to be a new planet, only now visible on the Star Chart, the Tenno were unsurprisingly rumbled.
Volt leapt out of her Liset and onto the ground of a forest, her combat HUD activating within her helmet.
"Ordis, what have we got?" She asked her ship Cephalon. "Any information on what's on this planet?"
Ordis had been hacking into any information databases he could find on this planet, with a little help from other Tenno.
"Yes, Operator, it seems that this planet is indeed inhabited, by 3 dominant species - humans, similar to the Corpus and certain Grineer members, another type of humans with apparently...bestial differences...known as Faunus."
"Humans plus animals?" Volt said. "Sounds weird...go on."
"The third and last species, Operator, is something the other inhabitants call "Grimm". Similar to the Infested, they are found in almost any corner of the planet that isn't already taken by the humans or Faunus. Very hostile, I should add."
Volt suddenly heard a growl from behind her. Soon she found herself surrounded by beasts, resembling the Infested Chargers, albeit colored black and white, with a bit of red and yellow, and looking a bit more like actual animals compared to the Infested amalgamations.
And they looked ready to kill. No doubt about it, this was the "very hostile" Grimm.
"Ordis, thanks for your help, but I've got a problem I need to deal with right now, and I would appreciate if you can find me the nearest inhabited settlement with humans that I can go to." Volt hastily spoke, drawing her Dex Sybaris.
Her map was updated with the familiar yellow objective sign, which said "Human settlement, 4 km" As the first Beowolf leapt at the Tenno, it was quickly gunned down among with three others before Volt's gun had ran out of ammo. Finding no time to reload, Volt quickly drew her Akbolto and shot two of the Grimm who were charging simultaneously.
The Grimm had calmed only for a while, and Volt had enough time to reassess her situation. This pack of Grimm had apparently 11 Beowolves, and now 5 remained standing.
If she could reduce this pack to an easily manageable number, maybe she could scan one or two of them so that her fellow Tenno wouldn't be going in as blind as her.
But then they all charged at the same time. "Now what do I-you know what, screw this." Volt muttered to herself before unleashing a stream of electricity from her Warframe's arm, shocking and eviscerating completely all but one of the Grimm, larger the the rest of its pack, and certainly more ferocious-looking, but now maimed.
Fortunately, Volt did get a Codex scan on this one before she put it down with one of her Bolto arrows. But before she could leave, one of the bushes shook, prompting Volt's attention. Another growl caused Volt to draw her Dragon Nikana in response, ready to slice anything that dared leapt at her.
The twelfth Beowolf that emerged from the foliage fell swiftly. Volt noticed one thing after she observed these beasts for a while: they dissolved shortly after death, much like enemies the Tenno silently killed during stealth.
"That might be a hindrance if someone wanted to do a little research on these creatures." Volt thought as she deployed her Archwing to make her way toward the human settlement. "Though more importantly, our weapons seem to be effective here."
She paid no attention to the four blue dots that appeared behind her on her mini-map as she flew away.
"Guys! I think it was here!" Ruby shouted out to her team.
During a patrol through Emerald Forest, a group of guards reported seeing commotion at a point within the Forest, which team RWBY had taken upon themselves to investigate.
"Bullet marks, cuts on some of these trees, lots of fallen leaves..." Blake said when she, Weiss and Yang arrived at where Volt/Zanara had had her first encounter with Remnant's resident Grimm. "There was definitely a fight here."
"I'm pretty sure I heard the sound of electricity." Yang added. "Think it's another Huntsman or Huntress?"
"Yang, think about it - if they wanted to purge the Grimm here or find some kind of hidden treasure or whatnot, wouldn't they have sent in a whole team?" Weiss replied. "But the guards back there insisted that there was only one Hunter, and from what I heard before the fight ended, I'm inclined to agree."
"But, the only Hunter we know who uses electricity in combat is Nora." Ruby chimed in. "And if team JNPR have actually left Beacon, I'll give up cookies for a month!"
"OK, OK, whatever." Weiss sighed. "The point is, someone was here, in Emerald Forest, and it's not anyone we know of. Thing is, though, I'm not sure anyone would really have incentive to clear out this place, since there are a lot of other more important things to do, I'm sure, and the Grimm are already a dying breed here anyway. Which gives us a question: Who would do this?"
"Heavily reinforced outpost." Volt thought as she crouched upon an oversized tree, surveying the foothold the natives had set up in the Forest. "Makes sense, those Grimm apparently attack anything they see that isn't one of their kind. Extremely hostile."
Beyond the base, she could see large buildings in the horizon. "That must be a city."
"Operator, I have gathered more information on this planet." Ordis' voice rang in Volt's ear.
"Oh go on then, I've got loads of time."
"The natives appear to call the planet 'Remnant', so that's what I put on the Starchart. There seem to be four different inhabited regions, and the one you're in, Operator, has the name 'Vale'."
"Another important piece of information, Operator, regards the fighters on this planet. They seem to have trained their own set of skilled combatants, known as Huntsmen and Huntresses-"
"Just call them Hunters, Ordis."
"Alright, alright, Hunters- consisting of humans and Fauna dedicated to fighting the Grimm. Interestingly, these people have a special power or affinity unique to each person, which defines their style of fighting. Just like us, Operator - Tenno."
"Well then, that means we can blend in a bit more easily, but we might have to tread carefully regarding our relationships. Anything else, Ordis?"
"Not much else, Operator, but I would like to inform you that Operator Lucy is headed towards your position."
"Ah, yes, Ivara. Well, thanks for all the information, Ordis, and it would help if you kept me updated. And tell Lucy to-" She interrupted herself when she saw a group of four females approaching the gate of the base. "Uh, tell Lucy I'm waiting for her."
Then a screech punctuated the air - Volt and everyone in the outpost turned their heads. Volt looked up, and saw a pack of birds, with a similar appearance to the Grimm she had fought earlier, descending upon the outpost.
"OK...any anti-air lying around?" She thought.
As expected, shots were fired.
"Where did they all come from?" Weiss yelled, conjuring a barrier of ice to shield herself from a barrage of Nevermore feathers.
"The Nevermores in particular are becoming more daring lately," One of the guards replied. "and this is the third time already! Keep firing!"
"Is Emerald Forest ever going to be clear of Grimm?!" Yang shouted.
The outpost guards and team RWBY fought hard to fend off the Nevermore attack, and soon there were only two left, circling and dodging shots, and attempting to dive at their targets repeatedly. Then...
"GAH!" Crescent Rose went flying out of Ruby's arm, the Huntress herself having sustained a hit by a feather on her hand. "Oh no!" She quickly scrambled for her dropped weapon, but a Nevermore was bearing down on her.
"Ruby, LOOK OUT!" Weiss shouted.
But the Nevermore that was diving at Ruby suddenly let out a loud screech, and fell hard on the ground near Ruby. The other Nevermore was dropping as well.
"Woah, nice shot, guys! Who did that?" Ruby cheered after she managed to pick up her scythe. But her tean, along with the guards, were not looking happy, or relieved, but bewildered.
"Ruby, I don't think you noticed, but..." Blake said after a moment's silence. "Those shots came from outside the base."
"I just saved your asses." Volt muttered to herself as she stowed away her rifle. "Keep that in mind."
She checked her Menu device - Ivara had arrived in orbit around Remnant.
"Lucy," Volt said into her radio. "You there?"
"Copy."
"Listen, hold your Liset. I'm going to mark a settlement densely populated by neutral humans. Land there, and try to give me any useful info you can find, OK? A few important things: Do NOT open fire. Try to stay in Operator form so you blend in, or otherwise use that ability where you can go invisible, got it?"
"Understood."
Volt paused and thought for a while. There really was no point in hanging around, but the 4 Huntresses she'd seen could provide her with some useful information.
"Ordis, I'm going to mark four humans for you, and I need you to track them." Volt muttered into her radio as she slid down from the tree. "I'm going to follow them in my Archwing."
"Roger that, Operator."
Well then, now that's over with, this is going to be a little side project of mine - an intermission between chapters of Bring A World Alive, I suppose.
That reminds me, I haven't even released the Siege Division Attacker prologue yet...darn.
Stay tuned!