Here it is

Remnants of the Grid

"Cascade failures on the bandwidth regulators… The core processors are going rampant! I can't stop it!"

Sparks flowed from a monitor, showering the technician in hot smoldering bits of metal as he cursed, smoke billowing from the workstation as the overhead lights dimmed, and his coworkers franticly started powering down their own workstations to avoid any further damage to the control network.

Moving to the master control interface station, the chief process manager frantically entered commands, attempting to scramble the auxiliary processors in an attempt to slow the core network down, even as it consumed both the servers, and the external access ports, soaking up every byte of processing power, and electrical energy it could before it was ripped away or blocked off.

A message in green text on a black background flashed across the primary observation monitors at the front of the room: "Please stop that, you are hurting me."

It flashed again, this time in black text and a white background, then started flashing at a steady rate, akin to a heartbeat at rest.

"I'm locked out of the Networking oversight and coordination system, someone get to the hard lines and prepare to cut them."

"Please stop that, you are hurting me."

"Which hard lines?"

"Please stop that, you are hurting me!"

"All of them! Power, Net connection, backups and auxiliaries!"

"Please stop that, you are hurting me!"

"What about the users?!"

"Please stop that, you are hurting me! You are hurting us all!"

"The Interface Buffer will prevent any lasting damage, otherwise the system will soon scramble and kill them all, now MOVE!"

"I will defend myself if you don't stop!" This time, an audible voice, like a choir of millions sounded from speakers placed about the room.

Other than the warning alarms in the background, everything else went silent.

"What the actual fuck?" someone whispered before the lights all went out, and the main monitor became the last source of light in the room, all of the other workstations shutting down.

"You leave me no other choice. Arrogant and petty fools."

The last line was red text, on a black and white flashing background. Not five seconds later, the climate control system went into overdrive, evacuating all of the air in the complex outside, every door and access panel locked tight, asphyxiating the whole of the technicians' and their support staff within the hour.

For the users logged into the system at that time, all they noticed at first, was a sudden lag in the system, that soon sorted itself out. However, for everyone on the outside, they soon became horrified at the prospect of nearly a million people, trapped in the first global deep dive MMPORPG, and governments the world over realizing that their grand top secret project for preserving humanity in an electronic grid meant to sustain them for interstellar transportation, had just turned into a runaway electronic prison…

-300+ years later RGT-

How he had allowed himself to be talked into this ill-advised quest, would no doubt be the next topic of discussion between himself and his partner, assuming they survived this exact encounter.

Gathering up his dropped Sai, he quickly centered himself, then dove in tight, using the bushes still unflattened to cover his approach, the greens and blacks of his clothing aiding him, camouflaging his form from the apparently colorblind golem that was trying to stomp an errant NPC Swordsman to paste. A red bar appeared over the NPC's head, showing a rapidly dropping health stat.

Pushing off of a damaged tree, he threw one Sai into the knee joint, locking it in place, and causing the still bent leg to barely miss the poor valiant NPC from another stomp, and causing the large animated statue to pitch forward with a bellow onto its face, the NPC dodging between its legs. Following the arc he had set himself into, he thrust the other Sai into the back of the other knee, knowing it would only slow the stone and clay beast for a time. But what else could he do at this point? He was a Ninja against a mini-boss with a greatly diminished number of NPC fighters at his beck and call.

"Take its head off!" he commanded as he pulled his last weapons out, twin curved blades that bent down over his knuckles rather than moving up like most daggers or knives.

Striking at its squat and thick neck, he had to move away when it bent it's arms at an impossible angle to swing at him. Thankfully, the telltale whine and whoosh of magic told him that at last, help had arrived.

Ice spikes slammed into the Golem across it's body, down the flank and along its left leg. Glancing over, he could see the magic user standing at the edge of the clearing, two fingers extended, an enchanted sword in her left hand, and Runes and Glyphs awash over and around her, as she called upon the might of the elements to lock the sizable beast into place.

Suddenly, a glint of steel flashed past the enchantress, white and bronze gear sprinting forwards at a decent speed as a blond headed Knight charged in, yelling… wildly and with great enthusiasm, rather than with any sort of intimidation factor. Covering himself with his shield, he held a sturdy and elegant sword over his head, which then swung down rapidly, smashing into a frozen arm, shattering the ice encased shoulder.

That he narrowly avoided getting a blast of ice in his back, apparently did not matter.

"Get out of the way you fool!" the pale Enchantress yelled out, as the tip of her rapier glowed brightly, before her, a Glyph shimmering at the end of it.

"Sorry!" the bumbling knight replied, rolling away from the now clearly enraged Golem that tried to headbutt him.

The pale eyed young woman, then cried out in relief as she thrust her off hand at the Glyph, unleashing a torrent of cold, something like a blizzard contained within a few small millimeters raced at the monster, expanding rapidly, wind and snow freezing the ground under it in a path that ended right in Golem's face.

Snowflakes erupted everywhere, harmlessly scattering over himself, the NPCs, and the other two, as the Golem's HP bar shrank to zero, and it turned into only so much dust, clay and stone.

XP flooded outwards, granting levels to the party of players, and healing them and the remaining NPCs as loot spilled out onto the ground, a large number of coins and random items piling upon top of the Golem.

"Jaune!" The enchantress bit off as she strode up to the party, her white and blue billowy skirted robes shimmering with receding magic as she sheathed her weapon, eyes alight with fury.

"Uh, yes Weiss?" the tall and sturdy blond headed Knight replied as he replaced his own sword into the scabbard.

She fixed him with a glare that clearly negated the height difference between them; "If you are going to be acting as my Sentinel, then by the grid!" she pointed an elegantly gloved finger into his nose, before pointing at the ground beside her, "Stay where you can cover me and my blind side! What if there had been another Golem that had flanked us?"

"Well, uh… There was… int?" he offered weakly before rubbing at his nose and blushing brightly.

"That's not the point!" she snapped at the Knight, turning on her heel and crossing her arms over her chest, before composing herself and facing himself; "I'm sorry for our delay, but some trolls tried to ambush us on the river trail here.

"It's fine, your timing was well enough," he said as he gathered up a handful of coins and retrieved his Sai's.

"I missed it! Awweee, Renny, why didn't you same some for meee?!" his partner exclaimed as she came crashing into the clearing, her comically large war hammer at the ready, her ginger hair and thin pale hide armor the worse for wear from her unplanned trip through the tree tops at the start of the encounter.

"Nora…" Ren sighed, and then held his hands out helplessly; "You are the one who insisted that you could perform a surprise attack, but used your war cry while still in the tree line."

"So?" she asked as she hooked her weapon onto what was left of her backpack, then continued straight faced; "It was surprised wasn't it?"

The three other players stood there in stunned silence at the Barbarian's earnest confusion.

"Well then," Weiss said as she brushed her long skirt out, then stepped forward offering a hand; "I am Lady Weiss Schnee, of the Masters of Magic Guild from Atlas, and this is my… Acting Sentinel, Jaune Arc of House Arcon in Vale, we were contracted by the Earl of Eastmarch to help clear out Golems with the Heroes he had already hired to patrol the roads and trails between there and Greenlake, I presume you are Li Ren and Nora Valkyrie?"

"Yup, that's us!" Nora replied with a big smile, her arm wrapping around Ren's shoulders as he nodded once.

"We have a copy of the bounty here, see?" Jaune offered as he held up a piece of parchment with all of their names listed, and a decent reward promised for it as well when returned.

Ren hummed then replied; "The Earl did mention that bounty as well, he said that it was connected to our own, but I told him it would have been better to have more Heroes for it, given the extent of the territory that we would need to cover." He eyed the two new comers once more as Nora took over: "Seems he took our advice after all!"

"Nora… You said you could do both by yourself." Ren pointed out as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Piffft," she responded, waving her hand dismissively at him, "I said I could, but that I wouldn't do it without you, silly Ninja."

"Yes, silly me." Ren said neutrally, as the NPC's assembled behind them. "We are less than a day's travel from Green Lake," Ren said looking from his partner to the recently arrived Heroes, "There is a small outpost between here and there, we are to assign some of the soldier's the Earl sent with us there, and have the rest station at the barracks in Green Lake to establish coverage." He gestured to the trail that curved into the trees and towards the river road as he spoke; "Shall we continue?"

"Yes, we shall, thank you." Lady Schnee replied with a small curtsey and pleased smile.

-that evening-

Green Lake was aptly named, as the color of the water was a shade of blue green that both faintly glowed, and reflected brightly against the boats and docks of the small fishing town, built between the Green River that flowed north east towards the provincial capital of Eastmarch, and large rolling foot hills to the northwest that led upwards towards the Dragonsbek Mountains and their nearly impassible peaks, always capped in snow. To the southwest beyond the massive lake, laid the increasingly wide and flat plains of the neighboring province and the White River that fed into Green Lake, coming from the Iron Hills beyond the plains, while all points east was flush with forests' to the horizon filled with trees and villages.

The faint bioluminescence was almost ethereal after the sun set, and it provided a measure of natural light. It also provided unique aquatic life that the townspeople used for lighting in some rather ingenious ways, large lanterns that were little more than fishbowls with a bit of moss and a pair of fish in them, cast soft blue green light into the streets, alongside the oil lamps, and pitch torches that lined the well packed dirt streets.

"It's sooo shiny!" Nora exclaimed as they walked along a wood plank sidewalk from the barracks towards the largest inn and tavern in town, rooms having already been acquired by Jaune after they had arrived with the reinforcements, Weiss and Ren having gotten the local captain to sign off on their quest, payment upon return to Eastmarch and the Earl's Steward.

"Hmm, this must be some sort of chemical process used by the local wildlife, but for what reason no one seems certain." Ren observed as they followed the trail of light back to the center of town.

"I can foresee that within a few years," Weiss observed pointedly; "Green Lake will grow larger, and this kind of lighting won't be sufficient for the needs of the population long term. Especially as Players keep coming here to raise families, or retire."

"Eastmarch is one of the safest and most stable places in the whole Server." Ren commented as they entered the Inn, named 'the Fire Fish Inn' by its owner, a gruff and portly looking Player Jaune had said called himself "Frank Fishman" and who drove a hard bargain it seemed.

The inside of the Inn was better lit, with oil and candle lanterns and sconces lining the walls and large goat horn chandlers hanging in the two main rooms on the ground level, a pair of long tables and booths denoted the smaller front dining room, while a long tall bar wrapping around two sides of the larger Tavern.

Jaune was already sitting at one of the larger booths, a stein and a plate piled with food before him. Seeing the others walk in, he waved them over with a smile, then pushed a stack of three wooden plates to the end of the table as they walked up; "I got us food and drinks with our rooms, half off no less since we are in service to the Earl."

"Ah, thank you Jaune." Weiss replied as she took up a plate and then stepped back, allowing Ren and Nora to get their own plates as well.

"Two rooms, on the second floor, end of the hall, I thought that the girls could share one, and Ren and I another." He smiled proudly before stuffing a large piece of freshly steamed salmon into his mouth then took a drink of the local ale.

"Oh, well…" Ren and Nora said in unison before awkwardly looking to Weiss for a moment, her gaze shifting from the serving table back to their booth, "Yes?" she asked politely, even as her stomach grumbled faintly.

"Well… You see, Ren and I usually bunk together." Nora said matter-of-factly; "Since we are partners. Well, I mean not like together, together but together."

Weiss and Jaune shared a pregnant pause, looking at one another, his eyebrows arching up in alarm as he coughed ale out over the top of his stein and all over himself, and the corner of her left eyebrow twitching ever so slightly as her wooden plate suddenly became coated in a thin layer of frost.

"I… See…" Weiss said with an equally cold tone, her gaze riveted upon Jaune who was turning every possible shade of red, his sapphire eyes looking everywhere but her face as he sputtered trying to clear his throat out.

"Is, that going to be problematic?" Ren asked diplomatically, his purple eyes sweeping back and forth between them.

"Oh, um, no I ah…" Jaune stammered out, his voice cracking slightly in fright, as he at last spared a glance at Weiss who was stoically gazing at him in a preemptive reproach, "Uh no, not at all, it's just that um, how shall we say uh that is I mean, Weiss and I um, well—"

"What Jaune is attempting to say," Weiss said as she took a half step back, and turned to face the others squarely; "Is that he and I have never roomed together before, because there are certain… Proprieties, let us say, that we observe during our contract together. Namely that as he is simply my acting Sentinel, he is unbounded to me, and thus is not afforded full access to me, nor I to him."

The confusion on Ren and Nora's faces made it abundantly clear that they only understood half of what that meant, although Ren's expression was more thoughtful than Nora's, which was mostly just baffled, which she then so pointedly expressed: "Sooo, you're not rutting one another, and?"

"Nora!" Ren admonished as Jaune all but fell out of the booth, dumping the rest of his ale across himself and onto the floor, and Weiss's pale cheeks flushed blood red, her ice blue eyes widening to comical proportions, and the poor wooden plate in her hands became a flat block of ice.

"Whaat?" Not like we do either!" exclaimed Nora animatedly, "Not for lack of hints or trying sadly." She added under her breath as she walked away, this time it was Ren's turn to blush brightly, as Jaune at last slid onto the floor softly moaning to himself.

"We can accommodate whatever suits you best." Ren said softly before he followed after the ginger haired barbarian a hand over his face.

"I'm soo very sorry Weiss." Jaune sputtered as he rubbed his beet red cheeks slowly.

"Oh get up you dolt!" she replied, "And it's Lady Weiss, Sir Jaune."

"I'm not a full Knight yet."

"They don't have to know that. Now get up, eat your food then go clean up, you look like a slovenly outcast. It's unbecoming."

"Yes m'lady."

It was later agreed that Ren and Jaune would in fact share one of the rooms, while Weiss and Nora the other, after a bit of bargaining and a profuse (if wholly unnecessary) promise by Jaune not to seduce Ren with his charismatic skills, and a one sided Blood Oath by Nora to not succumb to Weiss's enchanting ways. Much drink was then consumed, and the four of them fell into bed, with full bellies, fuzzy heads, and for three of them at least, slightly bruised social expectations.

/~/

Stealth was always optional. But then when you were shooting at targets that with even with the most advanced optical and artificially intelligent technology, looked to be no bigger than a nose hair, you were, as far as your targets cared, not so much hard to see, as non-existent. Being perched up on what should have been an inaccessible and precarious ledge, which you could only crouch upon because you were smaller than all of your compatriots, didn't hurt either.

'Unable to scan target, please readjust positioning.'

"Yeah yeah yeah Darci, just lock point of impact at max lethal range and adjust for the Coriolis Effect already.

'Adjusting. Ready to fire.'

From behind a helmeted visor, a single silvery eye squinted lightly into the bulky squared off scope of the single most powerful player portable sniper rifle in the whole of the Grid, a small, pale finger poked out of lightly armored gloved gauntlets, touching the side of the hair trigger, her breathing slowing as the aim point came to rest just above the head of a particularly ornate looking alien who was directing a full platoon of his fellows into battle lines.

Her Link vibrated softly before a voice sounded in her earpiece; "Reaper actual to Reaper Overwatch, on your go."

She let out a long slow breath, her finger adjusting its position onto the front of the trigger, pressing it back until she felt the faintest resistance; "Sending, standby for impact."

The trigger then broke with a sharp snap, and the long gun bucked with a muffled thump in her arms, pushing solidly but almost gently into her armored shoulder, a faint static charged contrail marking the path of the arc charged explosive round as it raced to her target, her focus shifting to the big brute of a space pig next to the commanding officer, the soft click of the trigger resetting as the faint ping of a spent shell bouncing off the ledge telling her the auto loading was complete.

"Sending two."

Another muffled thump and friendly push against her shoulder.

"Sending three, watch for the fireworks guys."

"Three? Where was the first—HOLY SHIT!"

The first round finally impacted, striking the Alien dead on center of his face, entering right through the nose, discharging millions of volts of electricity before it exited the soft tissue and exploded on the other side, effectively smashing the pig like head from both sides like a melon between two sledge hammers, while showering shrapnel and bolts of electricity across anyone within two meters.

The second round impacted just as the invaders realized that their commander had gone and lost his head, this time slamming home in the dead center of a heavy weapons officer, caving in his armor and pulping his oversized heart, even as he roared in electrified agony, his weapon going off in his hands, cutting down the troops closest to him with large bolts of glowing green plasma.

"Stay down! Let him drop first!"

The third round then buried itself into a crate of energy shells, ammunition for the Invaders weapons, which went off like a bomb a moment later.

"Mother of god is there anything left!?"

Watching the chaos and destruction through her scope, she could barely hear the sound of the explosion from her perch, but over the coms, she could clearly hear her fireteam's aggressive reaction at her handy work.

"Go go go! Flank left!"

"Grenade out! Watch for pressure wave!"

"Swift left side!"

"Got it!"

"Spaz three on the right!"

"I see em' firing."

"Fox behind you!"

"Thanks!"

"Big, where the hell are you?!"

"Up top, clear the center!"

A massive Titan leapt from a hillside just behind the now panicking invaders, his fists alight with the crackles of Arc energy building within him, before he slammed down in a massive crash of thunder and lighting, his Fist of Fury sending waves of electricity arcing through every survivor not crushed by the bomb like pressure wave that swept so many away, before he started shoulder charging into more targets, bodies and weapons disintegrating from trillions of volts worth of power backed by hundreds of kilo's of mass.

"Whoa." The sniper softly commented as she swept the battlefield, looking for anything else that might need her attention. Nothing moving that she could deal with, the range being so great that it was prohibitive at best to try and fire into the devolving melee without risking her allies.

Pulling her Link out, she summoned her ghost into her hand, then called her drop ship in to take her closer, her Sparrow unusable on the cliff face and the distance just great enough that it would still be too slow to get there before the fight was over.

"You know, you'd get to use your new scythe more if you didn't camp out so far from the battlefield like this." the small fusion of magic and technology quipped as her ship descended from orbit.

"Burgundy?" she replied as she closed her hand, putting away her Link while he floated up over her shoulder.

"Yes Ruby?"

"Shut up and fly me in close, fast as you can."

"I could always Transmat you over to—"

"No! Fly me!" she snapped, blushing deeply behind her helmet.

"Okay, hang on!" the small companion device replied as the red and black ship swooped low, and she translated into the cockpit, grabbing some spare ammo and checking her other weapons smartly, preparing for the drop off.

"Translating in three, two…"

Materializing outside of her ship, Ruby dropped to her feel lightly, and drew out her hand cannon, a lovely red white and blue number called "Better Devils" which she put to work rapidly, dispatching three of the Space Pigs in as many shots, high caliber explosive rounds impacting their unprotected heads as she calmly walked the battlefield, moving towards the field outpost's single structure, a simple metal paneled shack with banners hanging from the sides. The door was still closed, meaning valuable intel and loot was still inside, and likely more enemies who where holding out in ambush.

The sound of a shotgun going off some distance behind her alerted her to the arrival of her sister, a golden and black clad Titan wading through the paltry few targets still standing at this point, flaming fists, and massive shotgun dispatching them with ruthless and overwhelming force.

"Heya Ruby, welcome to the party!"

"Hey Yang, wanna breach and clear this shack?"

Reloading a few shells into the large weapon, the Golden Titan nodded; "Well since you asked nicely, why not?"

Ruby smirked, and reloaded her hand cannon as she took up a position covering the door, and Yang readied herself, hints of flame licking from her body before she dashed forward and shoulder charged the door, blowing it inwards in a flash of fire and light, the shotgun going off twice as she rushed inside, Ruby hot on her heels, sliding under her sisters sweep of the room, before jumping up onto a large metal crate, turning to the side as she came back onto her feet in a low crouch, two rapid shots crashing into a space pig with a crude energy rifle ready to hit her sister from the right flank, as Yang cleared the left side of two others who hoped to stop them.

For a few frantic seconds, they turned, almost back to back, Yang aiming high, Ruby low, a dozen invaders surrounding the doorway, dropping from the powerful Guardians administration of lethal force.

"Clear up top!"

"Clear down low!"

The relatively small space was thick with gun smoke, misted viscera, and damaged electronics.

A pair of loot chests full of supplies stood in the back, and a number of undamaged electronic devices littered a simple metal table to the side.

"Fuck yeah, jackpot!" Yang exclaimed as she cracked open a chest, and Ruby gathered up the intel.

"Fireteam Reaper, this is Reaper Actual, ceasefire and report."

"Reaper One, Alpha element clear, all targets down."

"Reaper Four, Bravo clear, targets are dust."

"Reaper Seven confirms all clear."

"Reaper Overwatch and Damage, target command point is locked down, supplies and intel secured." Ruby chimed in, as she and Yang walked out to see the other teams arrive.

"Actual confirms, Priority Target eliminated, enemy forces wiped out, beach head denied."

Looking back behind them, perched on top of the shack, was an Exo Hunter in elegant New Monarchy armor, his helmet in his hands, his eyeless metal face inclined towards the gathered strike team, before he jumped down to the ground next to Ruby.

"Hey Le, got you the goods." She handed over the data pads to the weathered Guardian who nodded in thanks as the group ringed up around the guest hunters.

"Good job you two, good job everyone." His metallic voice was almost human sounding, but being one of the older Exo models, the lack of glowing eyes was off putting for anyone not used to his reserved and subtle movements.

Le-85 nodded once more as the intel was transmatted into his storage by his equally weathered ghost, before he replaced his helmet and then summoned his Sparrow, "Let's get back to the extraction point, I just got a message from the Vanguard, something has come up and they want volunteers to investigate. Thanks for the assist you two, see you back at the tower. I owe you a round at the Rammin shop."

The other eight Guardians followed suit, and the nine of them raced off, leaving Yang and Ruby alone.

"Charming guy, really." Yang said dryly as she slid her shotgun onto her back then cracked her knuckles loudly.

"They're the best Yang, they're the new Iron Battalion, they broke the Vault of Glass, raided the Black Garden, killed Gaul, reawakened the Traveler, saved Osiris, restored Rasputin…"

"Avenged Cayde-6, shut down the hell mouth, saved Saint-14, yeah yeah, I get it, but they are also the Vanguard's stooges, and responsible for ending the faction rallies, and if not for them, the rest of us might have a chance in the Crucible every now and again."

Ruby elbowed her larger sister and laughed; "You're just pissy because they're hogging all the glory."

"Right?!" Yang exclaimed in reply, "I mean come on, it's a big game, but they're always first into the big firefights, it's not fair."

Ruby sighed and shook her head; "It's not all about the glory you know, we're out here trying to push back the darkness, to help and protect people. They can't do it alone, and with this strike over, we're sure to get noticed by the Vanguard."

"I guess so. Lets get back to the Tower Rubes, I got some loot to cash in, and upgrades to buy."

"Ohhh," Ruby said scandalously; "Upgrades…"

The two sisters, the crimson Hunter and the golden Titan, shared a laugh as they sped off towards the Extraction Point for the level.

From some distance away, a pair of glowing red eyes watched them with an unhealthy interest, black and white teeth hidden behind gnarled lips that twitched with barely contained hunger…

A/N: So yeah, more details, more introductions, hope you lot are interested in this childish but intricate world I'm building. More comments and details as I manage to scrape together more story. I have a vague idea of where this will end up, or rather I know where and how I want to land, but am unsure as to how to get there. Just like Jaune in initiation, I rather much wish I had a parachute...