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Over the course of a few days the Onager Dunecrawler was transported from atlas to vale, unfortunately it need to be partially disassembled before being put back together once it arrived. Corius blessed and oiled the machine as it was reassembled, a heavy scent of incense filling the Manufactorum and the sound of Binary cants being broadcast throughout it. After a full 24 hours the Dunecrawler was brought back online and its Slave bonded crew installed, and while young corius could feel the machine spirits eagerness to serve the Omnissiah in battle. Being aware of General Ironwoods attempt at surveying the Manufactorum, corius has had to resort to keeping most of the servitors and even the dunecrawler itself now within the confines of the main structure, at least until he is able to figure out what to do about the general weather that be an alliance with the man and joining ozpins little group or just outright ignoring them and taking everything under his own power.
Ozpin and Ironwood had continued to scheme and plan for the eventual recruitment of Corius gage into their 'brotherhood' for lack of a better term, with ozpin begrudgingly agreeing to Ironwoods surveillance of the factory, despite the numerous times that ozpin warned of Corius' many detection abilities. Despite all this the school year appeared to be going well, with his students even stopping a major dust theft last semester, Ozpin sighed however when he looked over Blake Belladonna's current grades. It appeared she was suffering in class, and it pained him to not interfere, but part of training to be a hunter meant relying on your team so he would wait and see what the rest of team RWBY would do about the situation. Besides that little development ozpin was happy with his first year's progress, but it would all come to fruition when they embarked on their first mission, which would occur a week from now after the School dance.
Corius Gage was an enigma to ozpin, an unknown, and while ozpin did not know everything, he knew enough about every major player in remnant to be able to predict future events. Corius spat in the face of those predictions, he routinely behaved erratically even during their first conversation, one minute he is talking casually about his daughter and then the next he is speaking about a vast interstellar empire fighting aliens with numbers that not even the Grimm could match. It made ozpin scared, and very few things could make the veteran huntsman scared these days, it was all the more reason he wanted to get the man onto his side in what corius would have called a minor skirmish. The fact that he had killed one vale citizen and taken another upset ozpin, he understood that both men where criminals, the dead man having quite the criminal record, it was still unnerving to have someone willing to do it out in the public eye in the kingdom. It was now that ozpin decide that if Corius decided to refuse even basic teamwork together f not a full alliance he would have to move against him as well as the queen and hope that corius did not join her.
It was a few days later nearing midnight that Glynda contacted ozpin in his office, apparently they had been an incident on the highway involving a large robot and Team RWBY, which seemed to be becoming a bad habit, the fact it was a robot lead him to where ozpin was now standing at the gate to the Mechanicus factory. The Gate soon rumbled open and one of those 'skitarii' as corius called them lead ozpin into the facility, leading him into the main building, which ozpin noted smelled faintly of oil and some kind of incense, down a long wide industrial corridor before it opened into a wide space, where he was met by the still imposing figure of Corius and what looked like a large mechanical crab. "Now headmaster, I do believe it is well past the cordial time for social visits, which leads be to conclude that you suspect me being involved in tonight's incident" Corius stated not turning to look at ozpin, the headmaster stepped up beside the tall cyborg, "well, the mere mention of robot nowadays has become synonymous with you I'm afraid" ozpin answered marvelling at the machine in front of him. Corius noticed ozpins held back awe, "it's known as a Dunecrawler, the first of its kind here on remnant, and though young it is eager" corius stated placing a clawed hand upon its armoured hull. "Young?" ozpin questioned, "surely you mean new?", this time corius did turn to regard the man, "no, meant what I said, its spirit is young but eager" Now ozpin was really becoming confused, Spirits in machines was this part of corius religion he spoke of, "what do you mean spirit?" ozpin asked his neutral face back in place, "exactly that headmaster, a spirit, a manifestation of the machines will and drive, in my world all of the oldest machines have equally old spirits and it is my job as a Techpriest to ensure they are placated to function to their full capacity. I don't expect you to understand, but think back to every time you have spoken at a piece of technology and you might start to understand" corius finished turning back to the dunecrawler in front of him.
Corius studied what limited footage was captured of the event that brought the headmaster of beacon to his Manufactorum, he recognised the prototype design of atlas' attempt at building their own version of an Imperial Knight chassis, while nowhere near tall enough, or armoured or armed the only thing it had going for it was its mobility, but considering a team of first year huntresses tore it apart corius was not worried that atlas would become a credible threat. The Presence of Roman torchwick presented no threat to corius as it appeared that he was only targeting the Schnee Dust Company and not just going on a crime spree, what he was concerned with was the White Fang symbol that was painted on the front of the Prototype, it confirmed the strong presence that the White Fang had moved into Vale. What irritated corius is that they had learned to keep everything on physical paper, and not use the CCTS to transmit their orders, meaning he would have to turn to either just rooting them out himself or garnering information out of ozpin. He would need to speak with him when he took Lilly to attend this School Ball that Ozpin had organised, he knew what he was trying to do, by appealing to his love of Lilly, he didn't care about that, but it would be a good opportunity for Lilly and now him to talk to their fellows.
The Ball was still four days away, and the growth vats had just been finished, corius had just completed his last construction rite and blessing, now the raw genetic material was put in place and the accelerated growth of skitarii soldiers could begin, and the same was happening at his Forge back in atlas on a much larger scale. Corius was pleased with his armies growth, he had several dunecrawlers on the way and now he had more skitarii being grown as well, however he would need more now if the 'threat' of the White Fang was to be eliminated from Vale. That is why he was now flying the Olympus to the Faunus district of Vale, because the abhumans were also seen as second class citizens even here on remnant no one would investigate if several of them went missing, especially the homeless. In the dead of night around the industrial section of the Faunus district the Olympus touched down, and Corius with five of his Skitarii disembarked and spread out, "For Now grab only those living on the Streets, do not be seen and be quick" corius transmitted as his skitarii moved off to carry out the orders. And half an hour later and all five were back at the Olympus carrying two unconscious Faunus each. A pair of golden eyes watched the Olympus take off and disappear into the city, the figure stepped out of the shadows to reveal the mask of the White Fang before the figure took off in the direction the White Fang hideout.
"He's done what!" screamed the Fang Lieutenant at the Grunt that had delivered the message, "he has taken about ten homeless Faunus back to his factory sir" answered the grunt warily. The Lieutenant stewed in rage at the audacity of this Corius Gage, to take Faunus from the street in clear view, his rage found him slamming his chainsaw into the wall next to him freighting the Mouse Faunus before him. "go back and watch his factory, I want to know every bit of movement he does, if he leaves send word and we shall track him" he ordered the grunt, "and send word to Adam about this he'll need to know" wit that the mouse Faunus retreated to carry out the commands. "You are too arrogant for your own good, the fang will take you down alongside every other human, and then your tech will be ours." The Lieutenant smiled sadistically while watching the recording of Lilly they had obtained.
Corius watched with mechanical satisfaction as the Abhumans were converted into a new skitarii squad, complete with their own Alpha and secundus. The abduction had been completed successfully and without incident, none of the Faunus had known what was occurring until they woke up within the confines of the Manufactorum where they were mind wiped of their personal memories, useless things like family and friends were not needed for the service to the Omnissiah and then began the process of turning them into Skitarii. The last member was finished, now completely bent to the will of the Omnissiah and corius, "Reporting for orders" the Alpha droned out. Corius regarded it for a moment before sending orders to both Squads, "Unit Alpha will remain with the Manufactorum, Beta will accompany myself and Lilly when we attend he Ball occurring tomorrow, it seems the White Fang are attempting to move against us" the Units moved to carry out their orders, with Beta moving to arm themselves and prepare for potential combat.
Lilly was excited, today she would be going to her first Dance, although it was a school full of older students she didn't care, she would get to hang out with her new heroes. Lilly was currently sitting in a hairdresser's chair with the lovely lady tending to her, when she had arrived with three Skitarii in tow the woman had nearly fainted and when she asked one of them what to do with Lilly she only got a blank unblinking stare back. Lilly saved the woman however by answering herself, "dad said I had to look good for the Ball tonight, he gave me this for you" and Lilly handed the woman a large pile of Lien. "Oh my" she said upon seeing what looked like a thousand lien in the little girls hand, "we'll defiantly make sure you look absolutely stunning sweetie." And that was how Lilly ended up have not only her hair done but her nails and some light makeup as well. Next she went off to by a dress that was 'suitable for a noble' ball as her father said. Again the Little girl with her skitarii guards scared the woman serving in the shop Lilly had wandered into, again a large amount of lien was placed in the woman's hand and Lilly walked out with a new dress and shoes. She returned to the Manufactorum without incident this time, which was unsurprising as word had reached the criminal elements of vale about what happened last time someone tried to kidnap the little girl.
The Night of the Dance arrived, and with it the Olympus Flew low over the roof tops of Vale, engines roaring as it circled round the Plaza in front of the building hosting the dance and then with retro thrusters firing touched down gently facing the main doors. All the students still outside stared in awe as the large red craft landed in the court yard, and then the ramp under the cockpit opened revealing ten red robed 'robots' they thought and behind was another larger robot, that some like Yang who was handling entre recognised as Corius Gage, and to almost everyone's surprise a cute little Girl in a wonderful purple dress. The squad of skitarii fanned out to surround the building and faced out, ready to defend from any potential attack, while Corius guided Lilly up to the main entrance, which no one tried to stop. Coming up to Yang, Lilly ran up and hugged the young woman "hi yang, you look pretty" Yang smiled brightly, "so do you cutie, though I didn't think you would be here" yang said as corius reached them, "yes, well I have business to attend with Ozpin and Ironwood and Lilly expressed great interest in attending" corius answered as he moved past yang and into the Building, "well he's cheerful" yang commented when corius disappeared inside, "that's just dad when he gets focused on a task, don't worry about it" Lilly said casually. "Ok, well why don't you go inside and find Weiss, I'm sure she'll be happy to see you" and with that said Lilly was gone, rushing inside to find her favourite huntress.
Ozpin and Ironwood watched Corius' arrival from one of the high windows, "he does love an entrance" Ozpin said quietly, "yes, and seems to have become paranoid if those soldiers are any indicator" Ironwood commented. "I suppose he believes the White Fang are after him, he does have reason to believe that as well" Ozpin answered as Corius entered the building. Corius mad e his way over to the two headmasters, which was made easy by the fact that the students moved quickly out of his path, "headmasters" corius greeted coming up to stand in front of them, "I understand that you both wished to speak with me" Ozpin shared a look with Ironwood, "yes Corius but not out here in the open, let us retreat to a private room" Ozpin said as he walked off followed by Ironwood and corius trailing behind. Walking into a small room, what appeared to corius to be used for meetings of some kind, Ozpin sat in one of the many office chairs while Ironwood lent against one of the far walls, "so Headmasters, you wish to make an alliance" corius stated, startling both headmasters, Ozpin quickly recovered "yes, as well as introduce you to our little group of protectors" receiving no reaction Ozpin continued "while our world is beset by the creatures of Grimm, and the White Fang there is another group led by a figure known as the Queen that seeks to destroy Humanity on this world, we" Ozpin gestured to himself and Ironwood "are what stand in her way, we would ask that you help us in this endeavour, whether that be your support through supply or even direct action when it is called upon, obviously we would give you something in return, something I believe you would know more about than any other person on remnant" when ozpin said this Ironwood shifted slightly. Corius stood, processing this information, "how powerful is this 'Queen'?" he asked, "very" was ozpins short reply, "and what is this information you speak of?" at this question, ironwood stood up straight "you said you were from space, well the reason that Atlas has always been more technologically advanced that the other Kingdoms is because we found something, something old and buried" corius was surprised, if he was correct then these humans had found a cache of Archeotech that had been lost on remnant sometime ago. "What did you find" Corius pressed, instead of answering Ironwood placed a small object on the table that came to life and projected and image, and image that Corius recognised instantly.
"You Found an Imperial Ship" corius said awed for the first time either headmasters had seen, "yes we found it about 20 years ago, and since then we've been reverse engineering its technology, adap" Corius turned angrily to ironwood, "you defiled the Ship, you will hand over its coordinates to me now, and withdraw all of you scientist at once" corius ordered, "what, you can't expect us to hand over our only source of research we have" Ironwood argued, "I can and I will, I am the ranking Official of the Imperium on this planet and the ship is imperial property, you will surrender it or I will take it" Corius threatened, several mechadendrites unfolding. "Gentlemen please, calm down I'm sure we can come to an arrangement" Ozpin tried to placate both men before they came to blows, because he knew that Corius would come off best if that were to occur. "I will have that ship Ozpin, that is non-negotiable, it belongs to the Imperium and these" Corius gestured to Ironwood "primitive scientist have defiled it, its Machine spirit must be in immense agony at being torn apart without proper rites and prayers" Ironwood was confused by this, "you talk as though its alive" corius glared at the man, "of course it is, a ship of that age would have spirit that would know its crew and them it, it would protect them from harm, and perform for them only, and you decide to just rip pieces out of it like some animal, so I say again, surrender the vessel." Ozpin sighed he knew this would not be easy but he had underestimated Corius' fervour to his religion, "Archmagos" corius turned at the use of his formal title, "would it not be possible for cooperation on this issue, perhaps if you were in control of the operation, with support being supplied by Ironwood and his army." Ozpin supplied hoping for a mutually beneficial outcome to the meeting. "I will have final say on all technology given to atlas and all of the proper rites and prayers will be followed by all who participate." Corius said, already plotting when and how to full take back the ship. Ozpin turned to Ironwood "is this acceptable?" Ironwood looked uncomfortable with the idea, but realised that they would finally be able to actually understand the writing held in the ship, "yes, I have no other choice do I."
The night ended well for Corius, despite not gaining full control of the rediscovered ship he would now have access to it and would eventually take it completely from atlas, and he could ensure no highly advanced technology got into the hands of General Ironwood, he was lucky that most of the information they had gathered had come from recreating the hardware used within the ship and not the software. He Needed to Prepare for the journey, it appeared that the ship had landed in a valley on near the coast of atlas some time ago and had been buried in subsequent landslides, he would leave the Dunecrawler and one squad of skitarii to guard and protect the Manufactorum, while the other would accompany him to the Ship to become its guard to prevent any atlas scientist removing forbidden technology. His issue became what to do with Lilly, he needed to get to the ship but did not wish to leave Lilly here, while the skitarii could protect her, she would need more sophisticated supervision. It was then that he came to the conclusion that he would need to trust to trust her with someone like Ozpin. The Conversation that followed was quick and to the point, Ozpin agreed to take care of Lilly for a few days at time to allow Corius to work on ship while a pair of Skitarii would be deployed to the school to act as Lilly's guardians. So it was with a great flurry of activity that the Olympus landed at Beacon, dropped off a little girl with a pink backpack and her two Skitarii guardians, and lifted off and took off in the direction of Atlas at full power, breaking the sound barrier over the city of vale.
A/N: Again i dont own 40k or RWBY, and credit to Deeed22 for helpo with story elements in this chapter. read and enjoy