I am sorry for the delay. I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed, and who has added this story to their favorites and/ or followed this story. It tells me that people enjoy what I write and /or believe it has potential, and that inspires me further to continue writing.

Please enjoy what I write.

Disclaimer: I do not own fallout 4 or RWBY they belong to Bethesda and rooster teeth respectively.

Change: a fallout 4/RWBY crossover

Chapter 4: Understanding

(Huntsman's POV)

He was tired; he had been trying to protect the children with him for a while now, and having fought a deathstalker earlier on, might not have been a good idea. But that had been his mission, and he had been the only huntsman willing to come this far out in the wilderness. It didn't help things that it was his hometown that was been attacked, so he felt that he absolutely had to go. His team hadn't exactly been close, they got along fine, but they didn't interact much otherwise, unlike other teams who forged lifelong bonds, and who were also a rarity in the profession.

Because of the aforementioned reasons, and because, he hadn't been able to ask his team or another huntsmen team to help him, he was fighting a losing battle and he knew it. But he would be dammed if he would go down without a fight, and if he would let them have their quarry, those kids had been the sole survivors of a convoy, and they had been so young, only 5 and 7 years old, a boy and a girl respectively. He decided then and there, he would attack the pack of ursas and beowolves in order to focus their attention on him, and allow the children to escape, even if it cost him his life.

And with a shout, he charged the surrounding Grimm, killing two ursai and a beowolf in the initial charge, and attracting the attention of the rest, and for a while, the plan was working like a charm, with him weaving between attacks, while slicing limbs off, but taking light damage. But then the universe decided that it was fun while it lasted, but it had to come to an end, and then to his horror, he realized that a group of beowolves had gone after the kids. 'This how it ends then, huh' 'Oh well, at least I tried my best, I am sorry kiddies, I am sorry I couldn't protect you, but I will be joining you soon'. And with the last of his strength, he managed to kill another beowolf, only to close his eyes, as he heard the cry of a child, as he prepared for death.

Instead of the sound of his flesh being torn, he heard the sound of short bursts in the distance, and howls of pain coming from the direction he had seen the children go, and the group of beowolves that had gone after them. For a while all was silent.

And then the head of the ursa that was going to kill him, exploded in a red mist, as did the heads of two beowolves next to it, with three more beowolves following the same fate. While still in awe, he noticed that the Grimm had noticed his savior and were moving to engage them. It was at this point that he noticed the appearance of his savior, they were wearing what appeared to look like a modified version of the atlesian mech's armor, modified to fit a human, it was also painted green, but was blackened, to the point that its original paint had almost faded. He also noted that his savior appeared to be carrying an assault rifle, which was switched for a sword when the Grimm had gotten in melee range.

It appeared that this new combatant had training in combat, as each move was fluid yet calculated, there was no hesitation, in his movements, and each shot and swing was precise, but while he was thinning the pack, he got overwhelmed, and to his surprise , a man wearing what had to be combat armor , jumped out and continued fighting, at least until two ursa majors, the last members of the pack arrived, those would prove to be a much bigger challenge, as the spikes on their backs proved to be too thick to be pierced by his sword, a lesson the new combatant learned the hard way, as he got hit by a swing, after trying to hit one of the two ursai. To his surprise and, slight horror, the guy spit blood, and backpedalled, to gain some distance. After ensuring he had some distance, he pulled a new weapon, an SMG this time it seems, and fired. A short burst afterwards and the ursa closest to him was turned to mush as the rounds exploded on contact.

The remaining ursa, on the other hand, became slightly more cautious, but its hesitation cost it, as it got set on fire and then had an entire clip of what must have been explosive rounds unloaded straight to its head. After it fell, he saw him approach him.

The guy took off his helmet, holstered his SMG, and gave him his hand in order to lift him up. Immediately his characteristics became apparent, and it became evident that the guy had indeed been in some scraps. His face was scarred with one scar crossing almost the entirety of the left side of his face, while one of his eyes was covered by scar tissue and was crimson red, even inside the iris. He had a slight tan, brown hair, a beard, and his other eye was brown. He was also very tall, by his estimates at least 1, 70, and he also seemed to be surveying the entire clearing in which they were. Also it appears that his armor had taken some damage, in addition to the damage taken during the fight, as it was blackened and at least in the case of the greaves (or at least what he assumed were greaves) it looked like it would fall apart, while the chest piece seemed to have taken a hit from the fight with the ursa majors. As he was analyzing the new arrival, they were interrupted by the voices of the children.

(Nate's POV)

'Mr. Evergreen, are you ok?' I heard two young voices call out, the kids I had helped shouted, towards the man in front me, who seemed battered, bruised and exhausted. Immediately after they called out to him they both ran over to him and begun checking on him. 'I am okay kiddies; I was more worried about you. Are you guys okay?'

'Yea this man in armor killed all the Grimm, you should have seen it Mr Evergreen. They didn't even see him, it was awesome!'. I chuckled but I also noticed, that while the young boy was having a blast describing how I took down the ''Grimm'' as he called them, the older sister was keeping her distance from me, looking at me with a scared look. I could not blame her, seeing my face; especially after Nuka world, had that effect on people. As I was scanning the clearing for any further '' Grimm'', I noticed the appearance of the man in front of me. Heavy and sturdy build, slightly shorter than me, scarred but not to the same extent as me, he had blue eyes, and with the same skin tone as the Chinese troopers, I had faced back in Alaska. For a moment I was prepared to shoot him, but I stopped myself. This was not Alaska, nor was the person in front me trying to kill me, but I will remain cautious, this is not the first time, people have tried to trick me, in order to kill me, or sell me, after all.

'Thank you for saving the kids, I had given up hope, they are the only survivors, from a convoy headed to my village, and thank you for saving my life as well' I heard him say as I helped him get up. 'Think nothing of it, I was just trying to find the nearest settlement when I heard the commotion and I decided to help.' After introductions were completed, me, evergreen, whose full name was Lu evergreen, and the two kids whose names were silver and Porphyra Greenwich, as I found out, traveled to the nearest settlement, the village of 满月, or full moon, evergreen's home town. As we traveled I was asked if I was a huntsman, and from which academy I had graduated, to which I replied that I was not, and I hadn't, much to everyone's surprise. Instead, I told them I was a former soldier who took to wandering by himself after my tour was done. I then asked them to tell me more about the huntsmen and huntresses and their academies, in exchange for my own story.

The more I heard about the profession and the academies, as well as the relations between the academies and the kingdoms in which they were established, the more parallelisms I drew with both the commonwealth I knew and the European commonwealth, that existed before the great war and collapsed after its beginning; a fate that I believe would befall the kingdoms, should the current tensions continue to rise, something that seemed to be the case. Another interesting tidbit I learned was about the Faunus: people who had some animal traits, usually a tail or ears, and their treatment by the people of remnant. Apparently, Faunus were treated almost as bad as ghouls back home, except the getting shot on sight, at least in most settlements. I am glad the brotherhood wasn't here, or these people would be getting shot before they could even blink, because they would be considered filthy mutants by the brotherhood, at least by the more extreme members.

In fact the more I thought about what I learned, the more I was troubled by the organization of the huntsmen, as while an independent force assigned specifically to hunt the Grimm was a good idea, that same independence could be abused, or manipulated for someone else's gain in many ways, or even by their own government, a fact I was personally very familiar with, as I had found out that project safehouse had been undermined by the very company assigned to it, under orders from our own government. Another issue I had was the lack of a central command from whom huntsmen would get their mission, because while huntsmen were independent, from governments, and were given operational freedom in finding ways to deal with the Grimm, each huntsman or huntress, even the ones in teams, ended acting in ways they saw fit, where they saw fit, something that had catastrophic side effects, as while reinforcements arrived in one place, the Grimm overwhelmed multiple other ones, resulting in,at best, the halting of the Grimm attacks, while multiple towns and villages were lost , or at massive loses.

Attempts at creating a centralized command had controversial results as , in three of the four kingdoms, the academies from which huntsmen graduated, where also who they answered to, while the fourth incorporated its huntsmen to its military, thus creating further tension between the kingdoms, who are understandably, concerned about the rapid militarization of said kingdom. As former military, I could understand what they were going for, and it was a good idea but if handled incorrectly, which it was, it would be seen as an attempt at expansionism, and consolidating the nation's own power, at the expense of others. Also the incorporation of the huntsmen to the military and their subsequent use as specialist units went against the concept of huntsmen as an independent force specifically created for combating the Grimm, as being incorporated in the military meant specialization in dealing with human opponents, in the role of spec ops units.

The most concerning problem I found with the concept, was the complacency it created, because, from what I had heard villages, or cities outside the kingdom had to rely mostly on the huntsmen for help in case of a Grimm attack, help that many times would either be late, or worse, would never arrive, either because there weren't any huntsmen willing (something that I found utterly outrageous) or because there weren't any available due to the number of attacks, which resulted in settlements being lost, or establishing themselves and then being snuffed out.

In exchange, I told them my story, even though I excluded the facts about what happened in Nuka world, and my findings about the modus operandi of the creatures that occupied it. When I was asked about how I gained my scars, I answered that I got them fighting slavers, and other assorted creatures like them, during my travels. I also found out, about a very fascinating and unique trait: Aura and semblances, a manifestation of the soul of the individual, and ability unique to the individual which resulted from unlocking the aura of said individual. Apparently, aura also had the side effect of creating a force field, of sorts, around the individual which absorbed damage until it broke. That was a trait I would like to have as it would be extremely handy, and it could have saved me a lot of trouble, especially during the events of Nuka world. I also told them about the minutemen, and how they came to be, as well as how they had gone from a small group of people trying to expand, and survive, to one of the most respected groups where I came from, without telling them that I was their commanding officer. Much to my surprise, evergreen or Lu as he insisted I call him, seemed very interested in the minutemen, and kept asking me questions about them, even asking me if I could arrange a meeting between him and their leader (the irony is not lost on me) in hopes of establishing an agreement to help his hometown and he surrounding villages. It was at that moment that an idea came to me: I would create something similar to the minutemen here, to at least provide some assistance against the Grimm, or even help repel them until reinforcements arrived.

Before I could tell my idea to Lu, I stopped and gasped,as we had arrived at our destination, and the sight in front of me brought back memories; bad memories.

An: I would like to make a shout-out to courier 13 and his story Conviction and Loftiest Milko and his story when earth meets dust, that inspired my own story, and some of the ideas that I am using in this story. If you haven't read their stories, I would suggest you go read them as they are amazing.