It is the 41st millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die. Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance.

Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon‐infested miasma of the warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio‐engineered super‐warriors.

Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defense forces, the ever‐vigilant Inquisition and the tech‐priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever‐present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants ‐ and worse. To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times.

Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re‐learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods

Ciaphas Cain, Hero of Remnant!

"It is with a certain degree of fondness that I reflect on the very beginning of my adventures on this planet. Of course, at the time I never would've been able to guess what awaited me outside of that forest and I think if I had known at the time what was to come I would've curled up into a screaming ball and fled into the wilderness. Not that it would've made things any safer mind you. Though since now I have the benefit of knowing what laid ahead at the end of this little journey of mine, I suppose I can safely say all the bowel destroying and life-threatening terror I endured on the way may have just barely been worth it."

Chapter 1 - Arrival

The first sign I should've noticed that announced something was wrong was the smell of the air. Crisp, clean and pure instead of the dry recycled air of the ship I'd been calling my home for the past month and a half. Of course, I was too concerned with the pounding hangover and trying not to puke up the last bits of whatever it was I had consumed the prior evening and trying to remember just what exactly I had been up to as the memories just sort of blacked out after the first shot.

'Wait a moment…'

I take a step back and take a good proper look at my surroundings and panic almost instantly sets in as last I remembered the Emperor's Benediction didn't have an indoor forest or sun for that matter. All thoughts of trying to drag out faint memories of amounts of Amasec from the depths of my mind are banished quickly as I lay my hand on the grip of my trusty laspistol and slowly slide it out of its holster.

"Jurgen, are you out there?" I quietly call out after a few minutes of silence pass by.

No response.

By this point, I noticed the faint sensation of tingling from the palms of my hands. A usual sign that my subconscious has picked up something out of the ordinary or possibly life-threatening that I haven't fully recognized is there yet.

I slide my other hand down to my chainsword and draw it lightly holding my finger against the ignition trigger as I scan the treeline even more intensely for my missing aid.

"Jurgen, are you out there?!" I call again much louder this time only to be met with the same response. Silence.

A frown forms its way onto my face. If my highly loyal yet rather dimwitted aid hadn't responded by now it was highly likely something had happened to him or even more likely he wasn't around at all. I'm not exactly sure which thought scares me more.

With a sigh, I sheathe my chainsword, straighten my greatcoat and readjust my Commissarial sash before preparing to head out into the forest. After all if by some chance Jurgen was out there somewhere, unconscious or worse I at least owed it to the man to give an attempt to find him, after all, the uncouth man had been nothing but loyal over the years and he's saved my hide more than once. At least as long as I remain out of any danger, after that, of course, all bets are off.

...I'm sure he'd be understanding.

By this point, I'm certain I've been walking aimlessly for hours, at least if this planet's solar cycle functions anything like most of the others I've been on in my 'illustrious' career. It's getting to the point where I've started debating whether or not it's even worth continuing on and if I shouldn't just find a nice large clearing and try to wait for some help.

Of course, it's highly unlikely that'd ever happen, even on a good day in the Imperium so I resolve in the end that it's best to just keep walking and pray that His Majesty is willing some good luck in the direction of this most humble servant. Not that he will, of course, the Emperor likely has much much more important things on his plate than a hopelessly lost Commissar.

If I have one particular thing to say about the planet I've found myself on is that it is rather easy on the eyes and has a quite pleasant temperature. The vibrancy of the colors almost seems to pop out to the point where I feel slightly self-conscious about the dark blacks and deep reds that make up my uniform. In a way this place reminds me of some of the propaganda picts of garden worlds, promising guardsmen a long and healthy retirement on a large stretch of beautiful green land if they just manage to complete one last suicidal campaign.

I sigh and bury my hands in the pockets of my greatcoat for a moment, entering into a large clearing and observing the horizon.

To my extreme surprise and elation, I manage to spot some sort of ruined tower in the distance, and where there are ruins there may be a shelter or if I'm extremely lucky people that can point me in the direction of the nearest spaceport.

I withdraw my hands and take out my Las-Pistol and chainsword once more as I set off in the tower's direction, after all, it never pays to be careful.

I'm pulled out of my thoughts by a low growl followed by a rather intense bit of leaf rustling coming from behind me.

I quickly spin around leveling my Las-Pistol at a rather large cluster of bushes watching with a slowly rising level of panic as some sort of large and likely murderous local fauna decides to make itself known. Some sort of white bone-like mask covering its face and covering various parts of its body. In my humble opinion, I'd say it looked like some insane heretic gene spliced a man and a Fenrisian wolf together to create the monstrosity.

With a deep and menacing growl, it lunges at me claws out and paws outstretched to deal me with an extremely messy and violent death. With a rather undignified yelp, I dive to the side barely avoiding my certain demise and in response raise my Las-Pistol and let off a flurry of shots while it takes a second to realize that its prey avoided it.

With several cracks, comparable to the sound of a stick being snapped in two the weapons payload of superheated death impact with the black fur of the mutated monstrosity creating two steaming holes in its side.

Unfortunately, all that seemed to do was piss it off.

Letting out a roar filled with both rage and pain it once more lunges at me claws outstretched and teeth bared as I thumb the ignition of my chainsword and step into a combat position rather easily dodging to the side of the enraged creature and raising the sword over my head I drive the screaming teeth into its neck, pressing down harder and harder until the roars of pain stop and the head eventually give way tumbling off and to the ground.

As I wipe the blood off my face and stare in bemusement as the corpse slowly disappears I have only one thought on my mind.

'So maybe not a Garden World then.'

Ruby was not having a good day. One could say this one of the worst days she'd ever had. It started just fine, she woke up, fixed a rather decent meal and wandered outside to enjoy a nice walk. That had all changed when a rather unusually large pack of Grimm had shown up and winded up chasing her into a nearby forest. Losing them wasn't part of the problem, no the problem was the fact that now she couldn't find a way back to the falling apart building in the ruins of Lewiston that she'd been calling home for several months now.

She sighs, kicking a nearby pile of leaves before slumping down against the trunk of a nearby tree, burying her head in her arms.

'I wish Yang was still around…

She's not sure how long she sat there but it was an hour or two at the least before she gathered the motivation to move on. At least it wasn't raining.

Ruby pauses for a grin slowly forming on her face as she gets an idea.

'The old watchtower! If I can just find that then from there it'll be a cakewalk to get back to Lewiston, all I have to do now is find it and…' she cuts herself off mentally and activates her semblance rushing to the top of a nearby tree to get a better vantage point.

A few seconds of careful looking and… there it is! Pumping an arm and letting out a 'Yes!' she quickly slides back down the tree and takes off in the direction of the old crumbling stone tower.

Within fifteen minutes, she arrives at the tower. Reflecting on the fact that even though she'd lived so close for so long she had never before taken the time to visit it merely creating wild ideas in her head about how once it might have been an outpost for hunters and huntresses, venturing out into the wilds and killing hundreds of Grimm before falling in an epic last stand. Or maybe that it was a stop on a massive underground bunker system used by a secret organization dedicated to protecting Remnant from the shadows!

Sadly it was just a boring old broken tower, no secret bunkers, no long lost hunters and no secret amazing adventure to be had… just dust, more dust, some broken bricks, a group of Beowulves, more broken bri - she whips her head back to towards the quickly approaching pack of Grimm and unfolds Crescent Rose taking a quick combat stance as the Grimm start to circle her quietly growling before one of the younger and more overeager ones decides to stop delaying and hurls itself at her mouth open and ready to tear flesh.

It didn't even realize it had died until after its head was separated from its body, the only sign of its former prey being a trail of rose petals.

The rest of the pack howls in anger and surges forward, their only goal being to end the life of the young girl who so effortlessly killed their packmate.

Ruby grins as she easily dodges a swipe from a Beowulf, responding in turn by lashing out with Crescent Rose opening a huge slice in the creature of darkness's side as it slumps to the ground, dead.

The last two Grimm growl and both pounce at her at, in an attempt to avenge their slain kin.

With a loud bang, the closest head pops like a fruit as the bullet pierces through its skull and pulps its brain. The final growls and lashes out with a claw barely missing Ruby and receiving a slash across the throat for its effort.

As the final threat slumps to the ground, dead Ruby takes a moment to catch her breath recollapsing Crescent Rose and placing it back on her person.

When the sound of clapping reaches her ears she jumps almost a foot in the air, startled out of her mind.

"Very, very impressive young lady. I'm sure your Schola Professor would be proud."

Authors note.

I was so baked when I wrote this I don't even remember doing it. But I found it sitting in a google doc and was like 'Oh hey, seems legit.' So I went through, fixed the spelling and decided to post it to see if anyone might be interested in it being a thing. Feel free to review, or not.

I'm too high to care right now.

I mean what?

(Note, this is in a bit of an AU RWBY obviously. In this Ruby, she never made it into Beacon and something unfortunate happened to her family which will not be discussed at this time. And Cain is well... Cain.)