Chapter 1: Well, Murphy's Law Does State...
-Shield World: Requiem-
The War Games. I love them with all my soul, truly. The only thing better than seeing who can kill the most enemies is shooting, beating, and blowing up your own guys. No real death involved, no limit on lives. That's the beauty of the full immersion training. The best part is that there isn't a need for expensive equipment because we are the expensive equipment. Some coders and scientists figured out that if you plug a bunch of Spartans into a simulated world and give them an objective, you could watch how well we all performed. And how stupid some are. Those were the moments I played for. Another beautiful thing about the War Game servers, we call these plug in stations, is that you can stop a game and deploy when needed. One painful flaw I see in it, however, is that when you are plugged in, you can feel the bullets hitting you. Fucking neural implants, am I right?
I was actually in the middle of a game of two on two snipers only when we were unplugged and sent to go fight some ugly Covies and Prometheans. Damn, these buggers were persistent and bloody annoying. I slid out of the War Games plug chair and ran down the halls of the UNSC Infinity. Thankfully, participation in War Games required that participants wear at least their helmets, but most Spartans, like me, lived in their armor. That made deployments easy. I ran into the hanger and boarded a Pelican that had my squad plus six marines. Titan squad is my squad, and we have a reputation. A reputation of being crazy. First, on my squad of five are the twins. Kirill and Cyril Kozlov both wear Defender variant armor, one set blue and the other red. They both usually utilize flamethrowers or turrets with deployable tripods. They sometimes scare me, but not as much as Ren Matsumoto. He runs into groups of enemies with nothing but two SMGs, two magnums, and a katana. His armor, a rare Hayabusa variant of red and brown, was awarded to him when he went into the field for two weeks, alone might I add, and came back with a severed Sangheili Field Marshall head. I am just glad he is on humanity's side. The next Titan squad member is Nita Song, better know as Silent Song in the squad. She earns that name by being the silent. There is no exaggeration when I say that. She makes no sounds and doesn't speak. Her silver Perfect variant armor defies reality as it makes no sound when she walks. Nita likes to use the Type-51 Carbine and the Binary Rifle. The last member of the squad, Elisa Hawthorne (a.k.a. me), wears an EOD variant helmet, ODST variant chest and back pieces, a Ricochet variant left shoulder pad and Security variant for the right shoulder, ODST variant forearm plates, and Perfect variant legs. My black and pink armor and Operator variant visor color make me look rather intimidating, that is if I am wielding a SAW or DMR. Matsumoto whistled to get my attention and tossed me a SAW and a DMR. I slid the SAW onto the mag-plate on my back and held the DMR in my right hand. I used my left hand to grab onto a hand hold so I didn't have to sit down.
"Where are we going now?" I asked. My team was either sitting or standing, and they all, even the Marines, looked at me.
"What?" I asked.
Then one of the Marines spoke up, "We are on our way to secure a Forerunner base." I groaned a little bit. This would make the third Forerunner base attack this week. I zoned out, thinking about what might happen when we land and charge the base. Could they be expecting us? Would they run and hide? Who will die? After I asked myself that question, I looked at my squad. I am not sure why, but I felt like one of us wouldn't be going home today. I was still mulling over that thought when the pilot shouted that we were in the hot zone. The cargo door lowered, giving me a great view of the raging battle below. As usual,the ODSTs were the first ones there. I mean, they did literally drop into battle after all.
I shouldered my DMR, taking aim at the mix of Promethean and Covenant forces below and started firing shot after shot into the unsuspecting victims. Honestly, who really expects to be shot from above when there is an immediate enemy in front of you? Now I will because I just thought of that. Once the Pelican touched down, I swapped to my SAW and charged into the fray. Unggoy were what made up the bulk of the front enemy line. They fell left and right when they challenged my gun. I swapped back to my DMR and started popping heads where I could. Unggoy, Kig-Yar, Crawlers, and Watchers dropped quickly as they had no shields and often leave their heads wide open to marksmen. Eventually, A Knight had noticed his minions were dying rather quickly even though they were near him and the Knight looked dead at me. This shall be fun. The Knight made a threatening roar at me and teleported. I was too far for the damned thing to get behind me, but it still reappeared too close for comfort. It had a Boltshot and a Suppressor. Neither of its guns bothered me, but its blade arm still did. I quickly swapped to my SAW, but the Knight, a normie at that, didn't feeling like getting sprayed down just yet. It opened fire with its Suppressor. Luckily, the weapon was obviously not designed to fight anything other than the Flood and ended up only depleting half my energy shield. I fired the SAW until the clip was empty, and the Knight howled in pain as it disintegrated. Shit… no more SAW bullets. I tossed the weapon down as another Knight, a Battlewagon at that, teleported up to me. I cursed aloud as it charged me with its blade arm. I grabbed the not bladed part of the arm and pushed it into the Battlewagon's other arm. The gun arm was severed and dropped a valuable Incineration Cannon. I'll make sure that the egg-heads get their hands on that. The BW howled and shoved me back with its shoulder. I stumbled back, but quickly regained my balance and readied myself for the next attack. I wasn't expecting the knight to ready a grenade. Shit.
"Titan squad! I need my hammer!" I screamed into my comms as I tackled the knight and tried to keep it from launching the Pulse Grenade. Matsumoto tossed my prized Gravity Hammer to me as he ran by laying down some cover fire. I reached out to catch the hammer, but the knight wriggled its intact arm free and launched that grenade into my chest. The impact hindered my shields, but didn't do much, then it went off. The distinguishable orange orb engulfed me and the knight.
"You crafty bastard!" I shouted at the knight. I wasn't entirely sure if I should feel impressed that he eat me or pissed that he beat me. Finally, a second later, the grenade exploded, presumably killing me and the knight.
-Unknown World, Unknown Location-
I groaned loudly as I regained consciousness. Wait, consciousness? Wasn't I dead? I opened my eyes, then snapped them shut when sunlight hit my eyes. Why didn't my visor tone down the light? I rolled onto my hands and knees and reopened my eyes. My visor was spiderwebbed. I could still see my ammo reserves, shielding, and mini map when they briefly stopped flickering from the damage. I looked past the fractured glass and at my hands. My gauntlets were badly burned and damaged. I checked over the rest of my armor and say that all of it was burned and damaged to an extreme degree.
"Well, shit." I muttered to myself. I stood up and looked around. A forest? I was definitely not fighting the Battlewagon in a forest. I also know that there was a detachment of UNSC forces. Finally, my eyes rested upon my hammer and I still felt my DMR attached to my back. I stretched my body out and the only injuries that I could tell that I had were a massive headache and some sore limbs. I picked up the hammer and slid it onto my back with the DMR and picked a random direction and walked.
I opened up all of my comm channels and spoke to anyone listening, "This is Spartan, Rank 101, Beta-007 Hawthorne, does anybody read me?" I waited five minutes. No answer. If I was still on a planet with a UNSC presence there should've been a lot of comms chatter and a quick response. Is this even an inhabited planet? I kept walking north, I think. Hard to tell with the whole damaged visor thing. Then, I caught something moving fast on my minimap about 10 meters away. Then the minimap bugged out. I looked toward where I last saw the red dot and froze. I waited for an Elite or something to pop out of the thicket, but none came. I resumed walking at a slower pace. The bushes rustled. I froze and slowly reached for either of my weapons. That's when this big, black bear thing popped out of the bushes. It had what appeared to be external bone structures on its face and sides and spikes on its back that looked like a form of armor. I know that the DMR utilizes armor piercing rounds, but I think the hammer would be better for this situation. I pulled the Grav Hammer off my back and took up a defensive stance. The bear roared and made a slow, clumsy swing at me. I ducked the massive paw and brought the hammer down on its arm. The hammer fired and shattered the beast's arm, which now hung limp. The bear howl loudly. That is never a good sign. While the bear was still in shock over its arm, I swung the hammer again, this time at the bear's face. It hammer discharged and deformed the bear's head. Damn… that's one hell of a headache. The bear fell over, lifeless.
I slid my hammer back onto my back and began to walk north again. I paused a moment when I saw the bear dissolving and blowing away in the wind. What the hell? I should get going before the thing's back up showed up. I began trekking north again at a jog. Whatever that thing was, it could probably do some damage in groups. Reminds me of Unggoy: weak on their own, but deadly in packs.
Eventually, I came to some ancient ruins that looked like they had been destroyed recently. Any Joe Shmoe could tell by the unnatural cracking patterns that the rubble had as well as the clear difference in the condition of the layers of the stone. But, hey, ruins means civilization… right? Beyond the ruins was a massive cliff. What I wouldn't give to have a jet-pack right now. To get to the cliff I would use the bridge, if it was still intact. I groaned and sat on the edge where the the bridge used to connect to my side of the ravine. I sat there thinking about how I would get across the chasm when a huge bird the size of a Pelican landed near by. Imagine a light-bulb appearing above my head. I slowly stood and rounded to the back side of the bird. I tried activating my Active Camouflage armor ability. The damaged armor struggled to comply, but it did. I flickered as my armor vanished. I slowly made my way to up behind the bird, my armor ability running out faster than usual. Just as it ran out, I leaped on to the back of the giant bird. It screeched painfully loudly. I wish my armor hadn't been in such a bad condition. Damn that teleport cube, also known as a Pulse Grenade. The bird started panicking and leaped into the air. Once it was in the air, it rolled, trying to shake me off, but I held on to its feathers tightly. In its franticness to get me off, it started flying south. I yanked the birds feathers and steered it back to the cliff. The bird seemed to stop resisting as much and obeyed my steering. Typical beast. If you show that you are superior, most animals submit. I imagine that bear wouldn't have.
On the topic of animal natures, flying like this was fun. This was like flying on the top of a Pelican. From the high altitude I was at, I could see a massive, castlesque building towering over a large city. Fascinating. There was sentient life on this planet after all.
Once the bird brought me over the cliff, I spoke to it, "Thank you and farewell, friend." I don't know why I said that, it just felt right. I then jumped off of it and landed on the plain that hosted the cliff next to the massive forest. I glanced back and saw that the forest seemed to go on forever. I thought Requiem was beautiful, but compared to this place… I was stunned. I turned to the forest and just looked out over it. I hope my helmet feed was recording, because I don't want to forget this image. I sat down on a rock near the edge of the cliff and pulled my helmet off. A gentle breeze ran through my buzz-cut hair. I kept my hair short so my helmet would seal correctly. I took a deep breath. The air here was cleaner than the air from the shield world. I was getting lost in my thoughts now. What happened to my team? I hope they all got out ok. Bah, who am I kidding? I know they got out fine. But, now I am assumed KIA, but I am not, and I have no way of telling them. God, my life just got harder.
"I see I am not the only one who enjoys this view." I smooth, seasoned voice said behind me. I jumped up and spun around, expecting a non-human. I was fairly surprised to see a middle-aged man with silver hair dressed in a black suit with a green turtleneck under it. His suit actually looked comfy. The brown eyes behind his glasses seemed to dig deep into my soul. My face was expressing my surprise in meeting this man here, and he seemed to make note of that.
"Now, I know you are not one of my students. Are you from Atas, perhaps?" The man asked, his voice smooth. I snapped into a salute.
"N-no sir. I do not know of a place called Atlas. In fact, I don't know where I am right now." I spoke as if addressing a superior. The man leaned a bit on his cane and chuckled.
"Now, now, soldier, you may relax. Why don't you come with me and tell me who you are?" The man was so passive, yet persuasive. I dropped from attention and picked up my helmet and clipped it to my waist.
"I will accompany you. I don't really have a place here, yet anyway." I said, avoiding the other half of the question. The man tilted his head a it.
"I see you avoid opening up to me. I assure you I can be trusted." He said. This guy is very good at reading people. I cursed myself silently for what I was about to do.
"I am Spartan, Rank 101, Beta-007 Elisa Hawthorne, sir." I said as I offered my hand for a shake. The man shook my hand with a good grip, for a regular human. There are things you can immediately know about people by their handshake. In this instance, I know that this man is respectful because he looks looks into my eye while shaking, I know that he is confident from the grip he has on my hand, and I can also know that he isn't intimidated by me because of his stance: solid and unmoved. He let go of my hand after a few seconds.
"That is a title I am not familiar with." He said, his voice calm. I shrugged.
"I am fairly certain that you have never heard of the UNSC, so I understand. Speaking of which, what planet is this?" I asked. The man looked genuinely surprised.
"Did you hit your head? Maybe got hit in the head?" He asked. I pointed to my helmet and rolled my eyes.
"Too much protection for that, sir. My home world was Reach, back before it was destroyed and glassed." I said. The man raised an eyebrow at my statement.
"I see… Well, I am Professor Ozpin and this planet is Remnant." Ozpin spoke, doing a wide sweep with his hand to indicate the planet. I nodded slowly.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, sir." I said, my teachings that were ingrained in me coming out. Ozpin nodded silently, observing my armor. Then, he turned and started walking back towards the massive castle building. I walked with him, trying not to go full Spartan stride.
"I don't suppose you have heard of aura?" Ozpin asked, seemingly randomly. "I do know what an aura is, but I feel like we are speaking of two different things, sir." I replied.
He stopped walking, and I stopped with him. Was something wrong? Ozpin grabbed my shoulder, and before I could ask he started reciting what sounded like a poem, "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." Ozpin seemed to suddenly be drained of energy, but I felt great. Like… I felt a supernatural energy surge through me. I held my hands up and looked at them. I was shocked to see that I was enveloped in a soft pink glow which was repairing my armor and my body.
"What… is this?" I said, stunned at this unreal power that I now wielded. Ozpin started walking again, and so did I.
"That is your aura. It is the manifestation of your soul. It can protect you when you are in need. It can also supplement your attacks." Ozpin in formed me. Like a Spartan needs that kind of thing. It still sounds cool. My pink glow finally faded and my armor was in perfect condition.
"Sir, would you happen to know a place I could stay for the time being?" I asked him. He thought about it a moment, but seemed to come to a quick decision.
"You seem to have luck on your side. Entrance into my school is still open, and I think you'd make an excellent huntress." He said. That was the last thing said until we go to the castle, which turns out to be his school.
And that's that. I stopped working on GtR so I could get this concept up on my page. I need feedback on it. I really do. I made a mistake and started reading a Halo x RWBY story, and... this happened. Well... that's all for now. Follow and Favorite and I will continue.