A Long Time Ago
"You empowered the humans with our gifts. That alone is a terrible crime, but that is not the extent of your ill deeds.
"Yes, it seems you saw fit to not only bequeath them power, but to reveal yourselves to them so they could attend to you; you allowed them to worship you rather than stay to the parameters of your experiment. Can you explain?"
There was a silence between them for a time. The two brothers whispered and conspired, designing their defense.
The elder brother replied: "These humans had forgotten what their predecessors taught. They would not join those wandering the stars, even with the talents we gave them."
"You think we object because we are threatened?"
At once the voice silenced the two. They returned to quietly taking the scolding they had earned. "You are unworthy of bearing the Mantle of Responsibility if you remain so petulant in this matter. The first step to attaining that understanding is the capacity to admit fault. Are either of you able to do so?"
"There is no reason to bother," the younger brother replied. "The experiment is a failure; the subjects are dead."
"All of them?"
Not all of them.
There was still… one human left on the remnant left behind…
"No," the younger brother admitted. "Not all of them."
"Then your work is not done. Not while even one still lives…"
One that would always live, because she was as stubborn as they were. The brothers exchanged glances as they contemplated the effect of this judgment.
"We will learn," the elder brother assured. "We will return to see what becomes of the planet without our guiding hand."
"There are many more to attend. Do so quickly."
99,998 Years Ago
The Precursors were gone. The humans were reduced to gatherers, isolated on their own planet. The Forerunners ruled the galaxy… for a time.
Until the parasite attacked. And soon, their reign grew isolated as they were beaten back again and again, their empire swallowed by the endless hunger of a foe they could not overcome.
There was no other choice. They had exhausted every other strategic option.
The Flood would not stop. They would continue to feed… unless they no longer had something to feed on.
So the Forerunners activated the rings. They, and every other sentient life form within three radii of galactic center died, as planned.
Every other sentient life form… but one.
The Flood knew it, but could not manage to infest it. And one single life form was not worth committing resources to… until it became the only source of food left in the galaxy.
They raced towards it. Towards her.
But they could not hope to feed their horde and sustain themselves. Even this undying woman would not be enough biomass for them all.
Their leader entered hibernation in the Forerunners' ring. Many of their spores did the same. A brave few pilots pursued this sole hope of food to the last.
They crashed on the barren world, buried deep in the scars left behind. When they could not find the survivor, they buried deeper into the core to find a warm place to rest and gestate.
To wait for life to return.
And return it did. Sangheili, Jiralhanae, San'Shyuum…
Humanity.
The Forerunners' assistants -machines and AI all built to serve a single purpose- re-seeded the galaxy with the life the Forerunners' weapons had destroyed in an instant. It would not be instantaneous for them to return, but the machines would be diligent in attending to their tasks.
Scouring the galaxy, they detected a second world where traces of human's genetic code remained. Though it conflicted with the information the Forerunners had given them, the machines simply corrected their records and bestowed life to a second planet for the species…
It was a simple task. There were many more to attend.
They marked the planet as an anomaly. A place where a human survived the firing of the weapon?
It would merit study, once their primary task was completed.
Earth, 2552
ONI Research Station Nassau
Nicole-458 wasn't used to hearing alarms. Living on the station had made her soft, it seemed.
She rushed to the window, glancing out into the atmosphere over Earth…
Covenant.
Covenant attacking the Earth.
It was a small fleet, already being matched by the planetary defense forces, but the significance was not lost on her: the Covenant had discovered Earth, their only remaining safe haven after the Fall of Reach.
She armed herself. She prepared herself for an orbital drop to join the fighting. The mission ONI had assigned her had once been top priority, but she assumed that had changed with the sudden arrival of the Covenant. She considered her orders important, of course, but an undeniable, fundamental quality of men -and women- that when faced with extinction, every alternative was preferable.
Nicole loaded her sidearms. She strapped her primary to her back and checked her equipment. The Mark VI armor was showroom-new… she hadn't had a chance to test it.
It seemed she'd get her chance.
But fate would not see Nicole aid in the defense of humanity's last stronghold. On the surface, a slipspace rupture led to an unexpected anomaly, sending a cloaked UNSC vessel Apocalypso right into her station…
She could only brace herself when the two impacted, and her station was sent tumbling through the stream…
In another life, this moment might've sent her through time. In this life, it flung her through space…
To the Apocalypto's goal: the other remaining planet with human life, albeit human life unspoiled by the war with the Covenant and without the resources to defend itself against such an overwhelming foe.
A world called 'Remnant.'
Space Above An Uncharted World
Sesa'Refumee had hoped the words of an Oracle would be enough to sway his brothers; that the Covenant had been misguided; even lied to. But in case the Oracle wasn't enough, he dispatched a small contingent of his men to a planet the Oracle -or 343 Guilty Spark, as it called itself- spoke of; to an anomaly recorded long ago by the technology of the Forerunners.
Humanity. Pre-dating the Covenant.
Such words -the mere thought- was heresy. But as these Sangheili had been branded as 'Heretics' themselves… suddenly the label didn't mean what it once had.
So they headed for the coordinates the Oracle had provided, to investigate. They found no defenses orbiting the planet, no military vessels patrolling the surrounding system… but they didfind humans, as the Oracle promised. Very few, with only four major settlements left on the planet…
Many of Sesa'Refumee's men had fought against humans before rallying to his cause. They were not all entirely opposed to glassing the undefended planet once they acquired the data they would need to prove the Oracle's anomaly real.
But cooler heads prevailed. Before they burnt the planet to ash, they would observe it more closely, sending a single ship down to make landfall on the strange, primitive world, in what appeared to be uninhabited forest and tundra…
Northern Anima, southwest of Argus
"Lady, I don't know who you think you are, but-" Yang snarled.
"No buts!" Maria interjected, but quickly composed herself. "I understand that you're upset. Honestly, I'm still coming to terms with the fact this is humanity's second time around… but if we don't move, we die. And I'll be damned if I've lived this long just to die out here in the cold."
Ruby glanced around the group, quickly bowing to the logic of the old woman's argument. "She's right. Come on."
The others started gathering their belongings. Oscar -still riled by Ozpin's actions and reeling from the punch Qrow gave him- tentatively approached Ruby to reacquire his cane.
"I'm just going to be another one of his lives, aren't I?" Oscar mused.
"Of course not," Ruby assured him.
"Don't lie to him, Ruby," Qrow grunted, already halfway through his flask. "We're better than that."
Ruby wished she could counteract his point and offer Oscar further reassurance. But words failed her. She could do little more than meekly lower her head and move to rejoin her friends…
Only to pause as something illuminated the sky above them, interspersing a strange, baneful orange amidst the stark white of falling snow… a fire screeching overhead.
An Atlesian ship shot down? An unusually large meteor?
The others noticed it too. It sailed past them, several miles ahead… crashing hard in the snow. So hard it sent a terrible rumble right back at them, and a shockwave that blasted ice from the ground.
"What now?" Weiss groaned.
"Trouble," Qrow replied. "But what else could we have expected today…?"
"Should we check it out?" Yang asked.
Ruby considered. "You guys keep looking for shelter. Uncle Qrow, you and I can get there and back."
"In and out; I like," Qrow agreed. "Come on, squirt. Let's have a look."
Running towards an exploding hunk of debris in the middle of a frozen wasteland… was there any doubt Ruby Rose would do so?
The impact surprised the landing party. Their survey indicated the presence of some technological advancement -including unrecognizable weaponry- but what landed near them was distinctly notthe technology they'd seen of this planet.
Their Phantom scanned the vessel. The data it relayed back flagged it as UNSC: the remains of a human orbital platform or research station.
But it had crash landed on the planet rather than been destroyed or descended. Had it been lost; orbiting this world before and on the opposite side of the planet, or cloaked and hidden from their sensors?
It wasn't a part of their mission to recover, but if the UNSC was aware of the planet too, then that would only strengthen the case alongside the Oracle's words. And if it had been cloaked and hidden from them, it could be valuable technology to study and possess regardless of how useful it was in their theological debate.
The Sangheili Heretics redirected their course to the crash site, saving the survey for after the more immediate concern had been addressed…
The Mark VI took the impact well enough. The shield recharged as it was meant to after absorbing the effects of the crash.
Nicole tried frantically to hail for any other UNSC ships. She tried to contact the other members of her squad aboard the station.
Silence. Dead silence. Was she all that remained?
She gathered her weapons and staggered to her feet amidst the smoldering wreckage of her station. She quickly checked for any signs of functioning equipment.
Her weapons were intact. That'd help, at least.
But the station was looking like a total loss. Even auxiliary power was out. She'd crashed but she had no idea where.
Harsh winds were slamming the hull of the station. Wherever she'd ended up was probably frigid cold… not the city of New Mombasa the Covenant had been focusing their fire on when she looked out over the planet before. At best Nicole was thousands of miles away from the fight and not in a position to help or be evaced, with her only shelter without power.
Without navigational data to get her position, Nicole opted to try the next best thing: step outside and have a look.
Ruby didn't care for the snow: she really wasn't dressed for the weather. At least Weiss had the forethought to buy a scarf before they got on the train to Argus…
But she'd also been expecting to take a nice train ride to a port city, not wander a snowy forest in search of a crashed ship after learning her former teacher had once been romantically involved with humanity's archenemy thousands of years before she was born… but she'd had a pretty poor track record of getting what she wanted.
The ship wasn't like anything she'd ever seen… was Atlas capable of such incredible technology? It was larger than one of their airships, but didn't seem to use Gravity Dust to keep itself aloft… instead it had massive engines strapped to its hull, and numerous smaller thrusters dotted about. It seemed like something so big couldn't possibly fly, but with those big engines attached…
She signaled to Qrow to wait while she walked closer. She had no idea what to do, exactly, save get a little closer, maybe poke it to see if the crashed ship was real…
Ruby heard a banging sound. She turned her eye to a section of the hull, as what appeared to be a hatch bent and warped as something inside the hull struck it. Ruby instantly reached for Crescent Rose and prepared herself…
...the hatch was flung from its hinge by another impact. Something emerged from the dark remains of the vessel, something towering over Ruby, in green and black armor and a crisp golden visor…
A soldier after a lot of performance enhancement? An Atlesian knight… after a few protein shakes?
The green giant was armed. Ruby saw a rifle of some sort in its hands, leveled right at her: the sole point of red in the stark white of the snow.
Ruby was focused on the weapon. It wasn't the most elegant design she'd ever seen, but it was an interesting rifle… where was the magazine even stored? And were those submachine guns on the green giant's hips?
No, she told herself, she had to focus. She had to show this...person -machine?- she wasn't a threat. Ruby relaxed her grip on Crescent Rose and collapsed her scythe to storage mode, placing it once more on her hip.
Instead Ruby reached towards the imposing figure, offering the hand of friendship instead. She focused on the obvious as an attempt to break the ice. "Are you all right? That was a nasty crash."
The green giant slowly lowered its rifle, gently inclining its head to the hand offered. The movements were slow and robotic, but Ruby was starting to think it wasn't a robot: robots didn't hesitate to fire the last time she encountered them.
"My name's Ruby," she offered, still extending her hand. "What's yours'?"
It took time for Nicole's universal translator to adjust. But the offering of a hand… that was a gesture she knew. That was an action she could appreciate… and reciprocate.
She crouched slightly to bring herself to eye level with the short girl. Even without the Mjolnir armor, Nicole would've towered over her… this scrawny redhead was barely 5'3". But she was a human, speaking a language with familiar syntax, and she hadn't opened fire with the strange weapon she was carrying. It made for a good starting point.
Qrow watched from the sky, tense at the sight of his unarmed niece offering her hand to this… thing that emerged from a ship that crashed from the sky. He wasn't sure what to expect, but would probably lecture Ruby at length for going in with her weapon holstered.
Nicole reached to the girl's hand, slowly removing her own from the grip of her rifle…
...until she used that same arm to harshly push the girl into the snow, quickly placing both hands on the weapon. Qrow descended to intervene before those bullets could find their way to his niece.
That was, until he saw all manner of other projectiles fired at the green giant, strange green blobs and sharp pangs of blue in the harsh white snow…
The Heretics had tired of war. Some of their number suggested humanity be absorbed into the Covenant in recognition of their valor in battle, only for the Prophets to harshly rebuke such suggestion. They did not uniformly hate humans, even though they'd been at war for decades.
But one such enemy still struck fear and terror into them; one specific sort of human still inspired enmity and rage…
A demon.
They may have been able to coexist with humanity. But they did not welcome demons into their house. Demons they cast out.
No one gave the order to fire. And no one issued an order to cease.
Nicole had been caught unaware, distracted by the civilian girl. Elites got the drop on her -at least six of them- firing at will. The Mark VI was taking the impacts well enough, but her internal readings also told her she couldn't absorb the hits much longer.
She unloaded with her assault rifle, but the Elites had shields too; they absorbed the bullets with ease. Nicole darted through the snow, but there wasn't much cover to hide behind, and the slick ground was undesirable for any sort of strategic movement.
Still, she was a Spartan. They didn't die.
Nicole killed the first Elite in her path with concentrated fire. She reloaded and struck a second before burning through the ammo on her primary. One more bash with the butt of her rifle to the Elite's skull and she changed tactics.
Nicole unstrapped the SMGs from her hips and moved closer. She killed two more Elites with close range fire, only to hear her internal systems ring with a painful alarm as her armor's shielding gave out.
This was her first sortie in the new digs. It wouldn't do to be killed by the Covenant so early on…
Spartans didn't die, she reminded herself.
But before she could reload the two weapons in her hand, one of the Elites raised an Energy Sword. Nicole watched as the blade sliced one of her smgs in two.
She rolled back to avoid a second cut. She leveled the weapon and fired, unloading the new clip, watching the Elite's energy shield flicker but hold out, resilient under her sustained fire…
She watched the sword move close, knowing how easily it sliced through tougher armor than hers'...
Nicole heard a shot ring out. A heavy caliber round struck the Elite in its chest, ripping right through its shield and knocking it back into the snow.
Nicole quickly recovered herself, glancing back. The short girl she'd pushed aside… that strange, collapsing weapon she'd been holding… it was also a gun?
She couldn't afford to stop and question her good fortune. Nicole ambled back to her feet and reloaded her SMG with her remaining clip. The last Elite -also brandishing a sword- was moving right towards her.
Another individual -an older man in a gray shirt and black pants- moved to join the fight on Nicole's flank. He clashed a heavy sword of his own against the Elite's, and to Nicole's astonishment, the metal blade held, keeping her foe distracted.
They hadn't taught her to spurn opportunity. Nicole fired with her SMG until she ruptured the Elite's shield before slamming her fist into the alien's unprotected face, driving it down into the snow and splattering its skull in ice and dirt.
"Hostile down," Nicole murmured under her breath.
She glanced at the remaining ammo in her SMG before turning her attention to the two humans who'd helped her fight. The sniper rifle the girl used and the sword the older man used… she'd never seen weapons like them.
"Are you… right?" the girl seemed to ask. The translator was getting there, but Nicole was still left with a few gaps.
"Yeah," she confirmed. "That… when did the Covenant get here?"
"Covenant?" the girl repeated. "What's a Covenant?"
"Probably whatever the hell these things were…" her older companion observed, prodding the corpse of an Elite with his blade.
She didn't know? Were there any humans left in the galaxy who hadn't heard…
Nicole focused. "The Covenant are on Earth. Is there a way to contact the UNSC?"
The translator was getting better. Nicole could make out more of the short redhead's words. "Contact the who?"
"The UNSC," Nicole repeated. "They need to know the Covenant are on Earth?"
"Earth?" the girl repeated.
"Earth," Nicole reaffirmed. The girl just looked… confused.
"Did you just… burp?" the girl asked.
Did she just… well, she supposed 'Earth' sounded like…
This girl didn't know what "Earth" was?
"Where am I?" Nicole asked. "What planet is this?"
"Planet?" the girl repeated. "We call it… we call it Remnant. It's… uh, well, there's this funny story about that I just learned recently..." The girl stopped talking when the older man shot a glare her way
Remnant…
She'd never heard of the planet. It had a human colony that had never heard of Earth? They must've been isolated for such a long time…
Her armored helm betrayed no concern. But the girl seemed to pick up on it just the same, reaching her small hand to grasp the arm of the Mark VI, prompting Nicole to look her way.
"Hey, hey, it's okay, we'll help you get your bearings," the girl assured. "I'm Ruby, and this is my Uncle Qrow. What's your name?"
The translator was getting her message now, but Nicole didn't doubt the girl was sincere in her offer of help. She hadn't need a translator to see the girl lower her weapon and offer her hand to a stranger who fell from the sky.
"I'm Spartan-458, Petty Officer Second Class," she replied.
"Ruby" -as she'd called herself- just stared at her. "Uh…"
The Spartan thought she should try again. "Nicole."
"Nicole," Ruby repeated. "Right. Well… we have some friends nearby looking for shelter. Think we could get out of this cold and compare notes?"
Nicole was slow to respond. It was still a lot to process.
She wasn't sure how many 'friends' Ruby had, and she privately thought they'd have no business up in her station… but they had helped her fend off the Covenant and hadn'tpounced on her while she was vulnerable...
"Yeah," she agreed. "Let's… let's talk."
It was a strange thing for a Spartan to do; talk when her gun was handy.
Maybe that was the trick to surviving this strange new world…
The expeditionary force had disappeared. But the Heretics would not abandon their brothers to die on some uncharted planet. When they were declared overdue and no request for help had been sent, a second ship moved to the planet to investigate.
In the solar system it found evidence of a slipspace rupture, and the ion trail of a UNSC vessel…
And the Heretics themselves had yet to realize the Prophet of Truth had learned the location of their base, and had sent the Arbiter -the vanguard of the Great Journey- to retrieve their Oracle and butcher them to the last.
If the Prophet of Truth were to later learn of the anomaly the Heretics investigated… of a world of humans unguarded by the might of the UNSC...
Beacon
The Grimm had been instructed to dig, to excavate deep under the surface in pursuit of the Relic of Choice. They had long dug past Ozpin's vault, and were pursuing into denser rock and warmer crust… towards the mantle of the planet.
They did not know what hibernated there, between two layers of Remnant; what had burrowed underground long ago after abandoning the hunt.
A storm emerged from rock and metal and time. A swarm of enemies latched onto the black flesh of the Grimm.
A massive swarm of ancient parasites found new hosts...
Evernight
Salem observed her Grimm through the Seer in her chambers. She watched her crafted minions consumed by the swarm.
An ancient enemy reawoken… returned from it slumber in pursuit of the sole immortal life that could endlessly sustain it.
The queen clenched her fist. She could not be killed, but these parasites could still turn her into their instrument, if they reached her in her keep.
And they had so many more to infest and turn into new minions…
"The Flood," Salem cursed.
Time had been her ally. But now it seemed to have abandoned her.
She now faced an enemy who could best her. That would require altogether different allies to counteract...
A/N: My thanks to Shandromand, who allowed me to run wild in Writing Prompt Wednesday for three years. If it weren't for him reading my very first RWBY fanfic, I wouldn't be here today to have crafted these stories. Thank you for reading, and I hope this repository has been worth your time to peruse.