Unknown region, Unknown Planet
March 17th, 2205 CE
David sighed as he took a sip from his water bottle. He had learned several things from his short stay on this planet and they weren't great.
He was currently on a Planet called Remnant, the black monsters that attacked him earlier were called Grimm, he apparently fought a Faunus supremacy group called the White Fang, and the Humans with animal traits were called Faunus.
In other news, he had unknowingly initiated first contact with a new species and pre-space flight civilization.
Why couldn't life be simple? Oh wait, he was Shepard. No such thing as a simple life.
Anyways, David denied being a hunter and said he was a simple mercenary but denied any rewards and the village of Horizon. Vortex also interacted with the main communications relay here, connected to something called CCT towers.
"So Vortex, what did you find out?" David asked.
"It appears we are not on any known planet in the galaxy." Vortex stated.
"That's obvious." David rolled his eyes.
"The inhabitants of this world call this planet Remnant. The beasts we were fighting are called Grimm." Vortex reported.
"Know that already. Anything else?"
"We are currently on the land mass of Sanus, in the Kingdom of Vale. Remnant is split into five nations, Vale, Atlas, Mistral, Vacuo, and Menagerie. 80 years ago, this world fought a conflict called the great war before peace was established and most of the nations demilitarised."
"Doesn't seem smart," David notes.
"However, this planet does appear to have what appears to be government-sponsored private contractors called huntsmen capable of taking down hordes of these Grimm." a video appears on David's omni tool and it showed a huntress taking on several beowolves and a beringal.
"Woah. What is that…..glowy thing? Biotics?" David asked, impressed.
"Negative. The organic shielding shown appears something called Aura, supposedly the power of one soul. According to what we can find on this Continental Communication Transit System, Aura allowed for an organic shield capable of negating damage, along with enhancing one's reflexes, physical strength, and speed. Aura seems easier to master compared to biotics, but others have a lesser variety of abilities." Vortex explains.
"Soul power? Our eggheads are going to want to know about this. So…..what now?" David asked.
"Thanks to the updated Commonwealth survival kit, we have the ability to construct a rudimentary quantum communications device. I would recommend constructing one when we have the resources. However since we lack the resource, this unit recommends acquiring what we can from the locals. I have also activated your suit's distress beacon so if any ship comes within this planet's orbit, it will be picked up." Vortex responded. "In the meantime, it is advised we avoid contact with any locals until it is safe. That being said, the faction known as the White Fang is an ideal target and a good opportunity to acquire additional resources."
"Right them. Time to run off and attack a terrorist group to steal money and guns from. Hopefully, no one is looking for us." David nodded.
Meanwhile at Horizon, the next day.
"And you're saying that this mercenary just….left after killing the White Fang?" Summer asked the mayor.
She had just arrived in the village of Horizon in her search for this unknown energy surge when she learned that the White Fang had launched an attack before being brutally massacred by this merc with a weird semblance.
"Yeah. He just shot all the White Fang, killed most of them, and just went on his way. Said no to any awards." the mayor shrugged. Not that I am complaining." the mayor shrugged.
"He?" Summer asked.
"Sounded like he. I also never seen a semblance like that as well. Weird purple glowy stuff" the mayor shrugged. "But he saved a child from being executed so that's a plus."
"Alright, thank you." Summer said and turned to walk away.
That was an odd coincidence. The same day that energy signature appears was the same day this White Fang attack occurred.
Was it some sort of divine intervention? A sort of punishment for their terrible-
Summer shook her head. Finish the mission. No problems whatsoever.
Right?
Somewhere off in a White Fang outpost.
"So, what can you tell me about these crystals?" David asked as he looked over a crate full of vials of a crystalline substance.
He had just 'liberated' an entire White Fang outpost (by killing everyone in it) when he came across a massive stash of resources. He was busy melting down most of the materials and weapons into omni gel for later use, though he kept a few thousand line cards as it was.
Clearing the outpost was honestly easy. There were only a dozen and a half of these White Fang members located here. A grenade here, a singularity there to catch half of them, and a few dozen shots to finish them all off. They were terrorists so no one would miss them.
"According to the locals, this substance is called dust. It's a surprisingly versatile material. It can be used as both an energy source, a propellant, and a weapon." Vortex reported. A video appears on David's screen, showing an SDC promotional video showcasing dust.
"Whoa! That's impressive. How many kinds are there?" David asked.
"Currently there are 12 different dust types on Remnant. However, I wouldn't recommend melting this Dust into omni gel. It is a highly volatile material that would ignite." Vortex responded.
"Right, uh what can I use to carry this stuff for research?" David looks around and found a suitcase and began transferring several vials into said suitcase.
"So Vortex, anything you can tell me about this White Fang?" David asked as busied himself with somework.
"The White Fang are disturbingly similar to the organisation known as Cerberus." David scowled slightly. "More than a decade ago and after a conflict known as the Faunus Revolution, a multi-racial organisation known as the White Fang emerged to champion equality and free rights. It's similar to the United State's equality groups during the 1960s. However, the old rulers, Ghira Belladonna, retired and a Faunus named Sienna Khan took over. The White Fang were radicalized and started launching attacks on organizations such as the Schnee Dust Company, Remnant's main supplier of Dust."
"So, Cerberus but with demi-Humans instead?" David asked.
"Yes, though what the White Fang lacks in technology and funding from wealthy peoples, they make up in terms of more willing volunteers and easier places to hide. Another major factor in why the White Fang is able to go unopposed is the fact that ¾ of the Kingdoms of this planet lack a proper military." Vortex responded.
David finished loading up the suitcase full of Dust and before fabricating a timed thermite charge and hucking it at the remaining crates of Dust and walked out of the tent.
"Right then, let's get out of here." David said.
2 minutes later, the entire base camp exploded as David watched the flames race into the sky and form a mushroom cloud.
"That's going to get someone's attention," David muttered.
Three hours later
"By the brother gods, what happened here?" Summer whispered as she slowly advanced into the former White Fang outpost.
Dead White Fang bodies were strewn across the former outpost and there was a massive crater.
And to all this, the White Fang members suffered the same wounds as the ones in Horizon.
Summer quickly dialed Ozpin via here scroll. "Oz? Summer here. We have a situation."
"Does that situation relate to the White Fang attack on Horizon?" Ozpin asked, having been informed of the situation at the village.
"Yes, I learned of a massive explosion not far out of Vale itself. When I got here, I found what remains of a White Fang outpost, all the White Fang are dead." Summer reported.
"That's not unusual. There have been huntsmen who go out on strikes against the White Fang." Ozpin noted.
"That's not the unusual part. They were killed the same way the White Fang were in Horizon: Death by hypersonic projectiles, small ones." Summer responded.
"Hm, interesting. What else did you find?" Ozpin asked.
"Footprints leading to Vale. That's it. Otherwise, no sign of that energy spike a day ago." Summer reported.
"I see. Very well, follow those footprints and see where they end up."
"Got it." Summer turned off her scroll.
Who was this person and what was his vendetta against the White Fang?
10 kilometers away from the White Fang outpost
"So give me the short version. What do we need to build a Quantum Beacon?" David asked Vortex as he sat down under a big leafy looking over everything he was carrying. He had the full stock of food, rations, spare parts, metal blocks for his weapons, etc.
"We have all the basic materials needed to construct one but we will need a few weeks to fully construct one. " Vortex stated.
"Great. How long do you expect for the Alliance or Commonwealth to find us?" David asked.
"While you were resting last time, I attempted to locate our location via astronavigation and identifying star types using your suits camera. While I could not get a specific location, I did identify that we are somewhere within the Attican Traverse."
"Ah, ok." David nodded. That made sense. Despite decades of exploration by first the Citadel Council and later the Systems Alliance and the Rannochian Coalition, the Attician traverse still had hundreds of star systems that went unsurveyed. And that wasn't counting stars that were far from the relay network.
Luckily for David if he was within one of the stars far from the relay network, reserve engineered Reaper tech meant that ships could hold onto their electoral discharges forever (though it was still a common practice to discharge in gas giants) which meant that a ship could now use conventional FTL to go on forever assuming life support and food held out. And that was not to say that new versions of FTL were being developed. He heard that the Alliance managed to get a stable wormhole generator working while the Geth were looking into warp drives.
"Taking into account the time needed to receive the Quantum message, ship travel time, and assuming the beacon is constructed on time, I estimate that it would take between 4 weeks from now to a full Terran year." Vortex reported.
Ok, not great but not terrible. Being hundreds or maybe thousands of lightyears away from mass relays meant long travel times but considering he was on a Human planet with food he could eat, David was not complaining. "Ok, it could be worse. Could be stuck in Andromeda."
God bless those idiots for travelling to a new galaxy. And also, the Andromeda initiative were idiots for going in without warships.
"Ok then. We need somewhere to hunker down. So….Vale?" David looked in the direction of the city as he finished packing up.
"Affirmative. We- Lieutenant, Watch your sensors." David's eyes looked at his helmet's sensor hud, seeing a fast approaching object approaching his location. Quickly activating his cloak, David took cover behind a
It was at that moment that a flurry of white rose petals appeared not far from and a woman appeared from said flurry.
"...ok. That's also new." David mutters as he watched the women walk around, with some sort of mechashifting sword-sniper rifle.
"Come out, come out wherever you are, mister savior of Horizon." the woman said in a somewhat calming but oddly nerve wracking voice.
"Huh, never mind." the woman, who looked to be in her mid-thirties, had a white cloak, and sliver eyes, disappeared once more into a flurry of rose petals as she raced off in another direction.
"So that's a semblance," David notes as he deactivated his cloak. So he needed to be more careful when moving to new locations.
At that moment, David turned to see the woman behind him. "Hi!" she cheerfully said.
David promptly yelped and punched her in the face.
15 seconds later
"Ok, that had not gone to plan." Summer muttered as used her semblance to duck behind a tree. One of the figure's shots grazed her. "OW! He's good."
Dear goodness, what hell was this man shooting her with? Pure energy? That took a quarter of her aura off. Note to self, maybe sneaking up on a very hostile target isn't a good idea.
"Buzz off!" Summer yelled as she snapped Iron Thorne, her weapon, into a sniper rifle and loosed a few shots down at the figure. To her horror, he 50 caliber sniper rounds slam harmlessly into a barrier covering his body.
Summer ducks back behind a tree before whipping out her scroll and speed dialling Ozpin. "OZ! I found the guy from Horizon but he's shooting at me! I need some help!"
Summer didn't get a chance to hear Ozpin's response as a single cylindrical object landed in front of her, bouncing just a metre away.
"Oh curd." and then the object detonated and suddenly Summer lost all sense of hearing and sight. Everything is replaced with pure white and ringing.
Summer collapsed, screaming in shock and pain as the stun grenade did its job: Stun. She struggled to get up and used her semblance to dash away.
Only for summer to suddenly lose her centre of gravity as something caused to lose her footing on the ground and when her eyesight returned, Summer finds herself being suspended in the air by some purple field?
Summer looked to her right to see a very ominous looking black/purple ball of death floating next to her (it's a singularity) and the cause of all her problems right now.
"OH DEAR GODS! WHAT IS THIS THING!" Summer yelled in panic as she helplessly floated in the air as the figure approached. Weapon drawn. Summer could only hopelessly watch as she saw her impending doom.
Only for the armoured figure to turn and fire into the woods and the familiar shotgun rounds from a familiar weapon echoed through the woods.
"Qrow?" Summer's eyes widen. And out the blue the familiar huntsmen leapt out from a three with Harbinger in it's sword form.
"Hey ugly!" Qrow called out to the figure. The armoured figure fired his rifle at the huntsmen but the veteran was able to use the threes to his advantage. After a few seconds, Qrow leapt at the figure.
Only for the figure to raise his left arm and out of nowhere, an orange blade appeared suspended over his arm and blocked Qrows attack. The two suddenly engage in a ferocious battle, blade and blade of light clashing.
Qrow pulls back and leaps onto the figure. "Got you!"
Only to be picked up by some purple field and flung backwards into a tree.
It was that moment the singularity thingy disappeared and Summer dropped back onto the ground. With Iron Thorn a bit out of reach, Summer desperately searched for something she could use to help Qrow until she pulled out a special….creation she kept on for if things got desperate.
Said creation was an electrical stun grenade that used electrical and gravity dust to knock someone out. "Hey You!" Summer yelled before throwing said grenade at the figure. The grenade went off and covered the entire area with a massive electrical discharge which caused the figure to drop his weapon and collapse to the ground, spasming uncontrollably.
Eventually, the spasming stops and Qrow cautiously approaches the figure before giving the legs a kick. The figure didn't respond, indicating he was unconscious.
"Summer, who the heck is this guy?" Qrow asked.
"No idea. Someone I may have accidentally scared." Summer sheepishly replied. "He was at Horizon the same day the White Fang attack happened and the weird energy signature. And I've never seen these kinds of weapons before."
"Yeah. Doesn't look like Atlas tech either. Come on, we should bring him back to Beacon." Qrow nodded.
The two collect his weapons and picked the figure up before behind him with some rope.
A mission succeeded. But one that would change the course of Remnant forever.
Codex…Omni tools.
Omnitools are wrist-mounted devices that serve so many different functions within the galactic community. A basic omni-tool is a multi-function tool that consists of a computer microframe, a fabricator module, sensor analysis package, and holographic displays. Omni Tools are used by everyone, by lowly accountants to special forces soldiers.
The fabrication module can rapidly assemble small three-dimensional objects from common, reusable industrial plastics, ceramics, and light alloys, usually with omni gel. This allows for field repairs and modifications to most standard items, as well as the reuse of salvaged equipment. The fabrication module can also be used to break down smaller objects like weapons and raw materials. The newest generation of Omni-tools used by Commonwealth military forces allows for the use of omni-blades, a disposable silicon-carbide weapon flash-forged by the tool's mini-fabricator that can be used to engage enemies in melee combat.
While the species of the galaxy are moving away from Eezo-based technologies, it is universally said that the Omni-tool is too much of an important tool to be thrown away and it will continue seeing use past the Reaper war and the reconstruction era.