The pieces are falling into place. Soon, we can get the REAL plot started.

"All right, all right, I'm leaving," said Peter s. Nachbar as he walked out of the bunker, Shatter soldiers marching him at gunpoint.

I'll have to find a new base of operations. But first, they won't get away with this.

Peter looked around the outside of the bunker until he found it: the contingency he had set up in case an enemy force captured his base. A small black wire leading into the basement, with an endpoint a hundred yards away. Hiding behind a boulder, he picked up the end of the wire and connected it to a battery he kept in his pocket.

The electric current traveled through the wire and into the ammunition and ordnance stockpile in the bunker. There was a bright flash, and the bunker disappeared in a shockwave and an upheaval of debris. Shatter was no more.

"They left me no choice," Peter muttered. "I can't have armies that unprovokedly aggressive around if I want to fix this mess."

His radio spoke up. "Peter, it's Jannis. Are you okay? We heard an explosion at your location."

"I myself am fine," Peter responded. "But Shatter forced me out of our base and stole everything we had prepared. They were planning on using it to destroy the other factions. I had to use the self-destruct. Shatter is gone, but so is the base."

"Damn," said Armory's voice through the radio. "You really are a dangerous maniac- OW!"

Jannis cut in. "Sorry about him, he always says the wrong thing. What other locations could we use? Are there any more of Dimension Defender's old bunkers?"

"Not on this planet," Peter responded. "The Mod forces destroyed the others, the one I had to blow up was the last one on r/RWBY."

"That's unfortunate. What about the Fanfic Library? It's underground, it probably survived the blast. It would make an excellent base for our project."

"Excellent, let's meet there. Over and out."

Now they just had to cross miles of battlefield to get there, but it was nothing Peter and Jannis hadn't done before. Armory was inexperienced, but he made up for it with his skills and attitude. Well, parts of his attitude.

Now, back with Link. We haven't forgotten about him.

Link had been on the run for the past three days. Tragic Solitude and the forces of her meme ship, Mechanical Might, were blaming him for the Catastrophe and the death of Melanie Antiqua, among many others. Including his own former colleague, Zissman, back on r/WhiteRose.

The days were miserable. Not just sleeping in trenches, barns, or other less than stellar accommodations, not just the constant fear of death, whether from Tragic's forces, stray fire, or stepping on a land mine, or the other terrors and discomforts of war. No, the worst thing Link had to deal with was the guilt.

"It's all my fault," he said for the thousandth time as he continued wandering. He stopped walking just as he was about to run into a fence. Looking up, he took in his surroundings. He followed the fence for a while until he found the gate, then entered the Cemetery of the Deleted.

Link stood for a moment and looked around. There were thousands of tombstones. Many had the inscriptions worn off, their names forgotten. others were larger, with the largest being mausoleums for former Mods.

One had a statue of the god Jaune Arc holding aloft a golden potato, the tomb of Part Football. Atop a hill was the tomb of Jillian For Days. In front of the entrance stood the Auto Moderator bot, the large humanoid robot she had created to protect the Subreddit in her absence. Since the anomaly fields emanating from the ruins of the ACPM disabled or changed post-WWI tech, it had frozen into a statue. It held a sword across the entrance. It must have sensed the disruption before it fully shut down, and rushed to protect its master's tomb.

Link looked around at many prominent headstones. Patmaster. Jay Triqs. Also a Gun. RWYned5ever. DB. Customstone. Wait a minute…

Though that last one seemed suspicious, it wasn't enough to stop Link from tearing up.

How many more people would be added to this cemetery because of him? Melanie Antiqua, Sam Shazam, Lord Penguino, and Mr Zissman he knew for sure. Those names alone were crushing, but he knew that there were many, many, more. Possibly more than the countless thousands already buried or named in the cemetery.

Many thousands dead, all because of his reckless impatience. He never meant it do go this way! But what did that matter? It had, and he was powerless to fix it.

"I'm the worst person in the Subreddit," Link said to himself, before breaking down crying.

A couple minutes later, he heard a gravelly voice behind him.

"What's the matter, young man?" asked Peter s. Nachbar. "You don't seem to be by any particular grave."

Link startled at the voice. His guilt intensified as he turned around and faced the host of Ship Survivor, but he didn't dare reveal who he was or what he had done.

"It's just, it's just that… I feel so terrible in my life right now," Link said. "There was so much I wanted to do, and it's all ruined. These past few days have shown me that I can't do anything right. I'm a total failure. The world's gone to hell and I'm so powerless to fix anything, though I feel responsible to help. I don't know what to do. I wish Jillian or Football were here instead."

At least he didn't actually lie, though it wasn't the full truth. He started crying again.

"As long as you're here, you CAN make a difference," said Peter. "Even if it's minuscule, it's better than doing nothing. You have a major advantage over Jillian, Football, and all these other Deleted. YOU'RE still around. YOU can still do something. So don't waste your chance."

"You're right," said Link, wiping the tears off his face. "I'm I couldn't hold it together."

"It's all right. I'm heading over to the Fanfic Library to call a meeting, would you like to come with me?"

I can't, Tragic might be there. Or someone else who knows or will figure out what I did.

"Sorry, but I'm best working on my own for the time being. It was nice meeting you though, Dr. Nachbar."

"Actually, you seem familiar," said Peter. "Have we met before?"

Link did not like where this was going. He had to get out, and fast. "Uh, maybe during Ship Wars 4, Ship Wars IF, or the Psiah Incident, but not recently. I have to get going. Good talk!"

With that, Link took off into a sprint. Other than not getting caught, he had a purpose again. He needed to make the Subreddit a better place, and what better way than by attacking Incest ships?

But at the Library, the great Peter s. Nachbar and company might not like what they find.

Peter, Jannis, and Armory arrived at the stairwell leading to the Fanfic Library simultaneously.

"That was lucky," said Jannis.

"More like a contrived coincidence," said Armory. "What were the odds?"

Peter just rolled his eyes. "Is no one going to talk about that?" he asked, pointing to the massive artillery piece sprouting up from the ground. The barrel was easily over a hundred feet long, with a muzzle a meter wide. It sat on a colossal turntable.

"Well yes, we were getting there," said Jannis.

"I thought it was so obvious that discussing it would be redundant," said Armory. "But since you insist, I'll start. Ahem: THERE'S A GIANT FUCKING CANNON ON TOP OF THE LIBRARY!"

"Well put," Jannis replied.

"You could hit a target a hundred miles away with that thing," said Peter. "I wonder how it's surviving the field preventing post-WWI tech?"

"Because it isn't post-WWI tech," said Armory. "They had that in WWI, they called it the Paris Gun. It was more for intimidation than anything, the shells were proportionately small and it wasn't very accurate. It had a range of 82 miles."

"Huh, so you do have a brain," said Jannis. Armory just elbowed him in response.

"Well, let's go down and see who's behind this," said Peter, walking down the stairwell.

Through the heavy double doors was the most enormous library in the RWBY Sector of the Reddit Galaxy. The main room was three stories high and so long that one could barely see the other side. Enormous, gold-plated pillars held up the roof, mostly around the edges of the floors but with the largest standing along in the center of the room. There was a gap through the middle of the floors, so one could see all three levels at once. But they didn't see any people there.

"It will certainly be big enough to house our meeting," said Jannis.

"If whoever's operating that cannon will let us," Peter replied.

"If not, we can always boot them in the head," said Armory.

"No, that would be against the values of what we're trying to do," Peter said.

"WELCOME!" shouted a voice, echoing through the formerly silent library.

"Who's there?" Peter called back.

"It is I! The Librarian, Exspiro Vindictam Cremantam! Welcome, to the halls of Objectivity!"

"Where are you?" asked Peter.

"Go up the staircase on the central pillar, you can't miss it."

They found their way to the central pillar and climbed the narrow, spiraling staircase around it. The room above contained just another bookshelf, filled with stories about the Subreddit itself.

"I remember these," said Peter, looking fondly at the titles.

"The Collected Accounts of Team ANGQ, by Austin Rufus, Nitesco Gaming, Gwydion Forto and Quixotic Quail"

"Old Thrones"

And the serial pamphlets containing individual chapters of New Gods and Rising War.

Before they could pick up any of them, the bookshelf slid aside to reveal a room full of mechanisms and artillery shells. A strange man greeted them. He had unkempt hair with a bald spot, a wild beard, constantly shifting eyes, and a lined face. He wore a loose black robe.

"Greetings. I am Exspiro, the leader, citizenship, and army of Objectivity, Apathy X Jinn. How may I help you?"

"We were wondering if we could call a ceasefire in order to hold a meeting of the Subreddit," said Peter. "This seems like a good neutral location."

"Ah yes, I do like neutrality," Exspiro replied. "That's why I chose Objectivity after all. No biases or passions to cloud judgement. Nothing but the pure facts, the only things that are really real. With this mad world, and let's face it, my mad mind, we could all use a little Objectivity in our lives."

"Dude, you're freaking me out," said Armory. "Are you under the effects of HIATUS?"

Jannis elbowed him. "Armory, be nice. We don't want to blow this."

"Blow what?" Exspiro asked. (Armory snickered) "What are you planning with this meeting?"

"We would like to create an alliance of Rubyland ships to restore unity and order," said Peter. "I feel responsible for this mess and must fix it."

"Oh no," said Exspiro, his expression shifting. "That wouldn't be very objective, would it. In fact, it sounds totally biased. You'll have to go somewhere else. Unless you want to help me load the cannon for today's random target."

"RANDOM TARGET?!" Armory shouted. "You're firing that cannon at random targets? What's the point?! You're not objective, you're a total nutcase! How many Crack Fics have you been reading in this dusty asylum of yours?!"

Exspiro's expression changed again, to something even more wild. He jumped into a fighting stance and drew a sword from his robes.

"Face me then heathens! In the name of Objectivity! May the fates decide the winner!" He closed his eyes and started waving his sword around in erratic swings.

"Time to go," said Peter. "We'll have to find another spot."

"No, we can take him," said Armory. "There's three of us and only one of him."

"We don't know what else he has up his sleeves," said Jannis. "Could be a gun, a bomb, or something worse. Best not to test it."

"And we would have a hard time strategizing against someone so insane," said Peter. "And besides, I do have a good backup. The Cemetery of the Deleted, right next door. No one would dare attack that sacred space."

Well, ALMOST no one.

Generic was back in the ruins of HIATUS Labs, trying to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The attack on Stairway to Haven was successful, but that was a minor concern. More important was figuring out what happened in the APCM explosion, AKA "The Catastrophe."

"It's not an Anomaly Portal or even an Anomaly Surge," he said to himself while pouring over documents. "We all remember our lives in the futuristic setting, we're not living alternate ones like in Yukon's world. The only thing that's changed is the technology level, and it's only on this one planet. The Arkosians and the Ash Ships are still fighting space battles in their system. What could it be? Perhaps a sub-surge? Did the explosion create a new type of Bragg variant? Most of the core must remain in some form, if it had all fissed the whole planet would be gone.."

He continued rambling to himself, not noticing the portal opening up behind him.

Hello, Generic. I meet my counterpart at last.

Generic turned around to see an alternate version of himself, wearing sinister looking clothes and with glowing red eyes. He dropped the papers in shock, then reached for something in his pocket.

"Who are you?! How did you get here?! Who am I?!"

You can call me Generix. I'm here to take your place. Goodbye, weakling.

Generix pulled out a gun and shot his counterpart in the head.