X One year before Noah appeared on Remnant X
(Coach by Jincheng Zhang)
It was a success. It was a success before the Campaign even started. One of the many Star Gates opened the metaphorical door to a promising world, where the land was already in such disorder before the Third Reich set their sights on planet named by the inhabitants 'Remnant'. Thankfully, their overconfidence made sneaking into the world's shadows way too easy. Just like the supposedly best country on the planet calling itself Atlas that was blinded by its own pride. With many people gorging themselves in the first class life style, it left Mantle into becoming a slum fit for a ghetto.
This division had inadvertently created a perfect fox hole for one of their many scouting parties who were laying low for a period of several months and may continue doing so until it was time.
In the frigid streets, a figure trenched in a heavy coat glanced all around him, studying everything that was moving, from the fellow pedestrians, to those strange beastial subhumans hiding the alleys, and that drone that looked more like a flying camera. The balaclava didn't seem to draw attention. Honestly, who would if the city was akin to living in the arctic?
Making sure there was no patrol or a camera in the area, the man ventured deeper in the more poor areas of Mantle, taking multiple turns until he reached a dull decaying remain of a small hotel that might as well be a stronghold with a small chunk of its roof missing and boarded up windows. And that was just on the outside.
He trekked through the miniature parking lot towards the garage's front door. Once in place, he swiftly knocked on metallic entryway with the rhythm of the first ten verses of the German National Anthem. After doing so, the garage opened, revealing a Quantum Agent operating the door's controls.
"[Welcome back, Scharführer Hans.]" The Agent gave him the standard Nazi salute.
"[Thank you, Andreas.]" The man named Hans spoke back, returning the gesture.
With the garage doors closing, Scharführer made his way by the crates of ration and ammo supplies and the three war machines tucked under thick tarps as he went towards the staircase that led to another room, passing by the two sleeping off-shirt Soldiers on the makeshift bunk beds with a Kampfhund joining them, a Supersoldier that vacantly stared at the wall, and another room with three Technicians repairing a Laserhund.
Reaching the hideout's 'living room', he greeted more of the party members as he made his way further upstairs, including that one Klan VIP that willingly joined German's armies in the expedition cooking in the small kitchen while eight other various Nazis were doing their own thing with the billiard table and dart board with the Son of Terror Billy's face on it. Another Agent was reading a German novel on the sofa.
Yet again going upstairs, Hans made it through an improvised gym that was in use by five rather formidable soldiers and found the hallway that had a doorway on each side, he went to the main one straight ahead of him and entered, greeted by what would be a cartographer's wet dream. Maps of various regions on Remnant were tacked to the rotten walls, computers were powered by various generators, and some radios were monitored by the four Technicians. A singular armored general was watching it all before he turned to Hans.
"[Scharführer Hans, you made it.]" The general acknowledged. "[Have you recovered more data again?"]
The sergeant gave the salute. "[Yes, Oberst-Gruppenführer Brandt. This isn't much, but it's the least I could gather.]" He reached into his pockets to bring out a flash drive.
"[Every little bit helps. You've been doing well.]" The higher ranking Nazi took the flash drive, nodding in gratitude. With it, he and a pair of Technicians began their work on the data, studying it.
"[Any particular stuff you've come by so far?]"
"[Just the usual. Myths and legends about... deities, women who somehow affect the weather, and such.]"
Hans scoffed. "[What crackhead came up with those ideas?]"
That got a few chuckles from the techs and the general.
"[That aside, did we get any word from the Oberkommando as of late?]"
Brandt nodded. "[Yes. Just several more months and it'll be time.]"
Scharführer Hans arched a brow in curiosity.
"[We will no longer need to do some scouting or go after small fry. Soon, we'll be hitting the big leagues. Mistral, Vacuo, Atlas...]"
"[And Vale?]"
The general simply nodded with a grin. "[In next fall.]"
Hans whistled. "[That's a pretty tall order. We're going to need some serious firepower to take them down.]"
Alarms suddenly blared outside and many lights outside turned into a bright red, followed by screams in the distance. The commotion was enough to awake the resting soldiers downstairs who now complained over the ruckus.
"[Ugh! Damn grim things!]" One of the Technicians groaned, already frustrated with the city's alert systems.
"[Tell everyone to dim down the lights. Those jingoists will flood the streets soon.]" The general immediately ordered one of the Technicians who saluted him and went to complete the task.
"[It's like we're some fucking buffet for those monsters.]" Another Technician muttered, shaking his head at the commotion.
Oh, how the late Deathshead would've enjoyed the pleasures of studying the beings the subhumans called Grimm. It was everything a biologist would dream of researching; unknown to science, defies all known laws of it, breaking the rules of evolution itself, among other kinds of unnatural phenomena. Unfortunately, it could never happen thanks to Terror Billy and his 'spawn'. The best they could muster is to carry on the ultimate dream of the Project's founding father and not let the flames of inspiration die out.
"[We should take advantage of this while we still can, maybe grab a few of the animal men to study.]" Hans suggested.
"[No. Atlas is watching all around this ghetto like hawks. If we stepped out of here with our machines, their forces will be onto us before we even know it. The trick will be to blend in.]" The general reasoned. "[If we ever do step outside, we'll need an insider or two.]"
"[Where do you propose we can find someone who can help us?]"
Brandt didn't say anything. Instead, he was starring at the main subjects from a recently arrived data from another spy elsewhere in Mantle, specifically about four individuals joined by the information ranging from their biological background to analysis on their semblances, the unnatural abilities these subhumans possessed. Over them all was a green check mark.
The general couldn't help but smile in delight.
"[They're in.]"
Hans was confused over the short response before he gazed at the screen and widened his eyes too.
"[No way!]"
"[They're. In.]"
"[Bullshit! How did Unterscharführer Fleischer get the Happy Huntresses on our side?!]" Hans asked in amazement.
"[They were finally convinced that we're here to help make change for the 'betterment of the people'. Took him and his friends long enough to get the job done, but those bleeding hearts were so distrustful.]"
The Happy Huntresses was a group composed of four women who aim to get their team leader, Robyn Hill, into a seat into the Atlesian government, where she'll put an end to the 'oppression'. However, they were currently a small party in the middle of gaining subtle amounts of recognition and support, at the bottom of the political ladder. So far, no major group or company, like the Schnee Dust Company, was providing enough resources to get their campaign started.
They were the idle puppets.
To Brandt's dismay, the downside was that one of them had the supernatural ability to distinguish truth and lies from whatever people say upon physical contact. That disappointment didn't last for long when the second scouting party suggested making a representative of their 'company' through the power of an experimental brainwashing process on an animal person, disguise it as an official, and have it do the talking to bypass the damned lie detector.
And now thanks to that, the Happy Huntresses were wrapped around his finger.
"[Will it be just them?]"
"[No, another party got a spider fan club from Mistral and another is already working with a scientist back in Vale. The others are still getting a few local gangs over in Vacuo.]"
All that's remaining is to slip inside the high ranking circles before making their first move.
AN: ... I took far too long than I should have this time...
Over two years... OVER TWO YEARS, of demanding college semesters, the COVID pandemic, multiple moving days, unexpected power outages, rather serious family issues that were so horrible I can't even talk about it here, and much more ran rampant that needed my attention...
I was meaning to release the chapter 'Open Up' in the early spring a couple of years ago, but of course, all of that drama had to get in my way.
This particular chunk was meant to be a part of the mentioned chapter, but after more and more delays, I eventually said 'f**k it' and published this to give some bits of content and to at least give a sign that I'm alive and I hadn't forgotten about Somewhere Beyond the Sky.
I cannot begin to describe how I'm sincerely sorry that my terrible luck kept slowing me down and getting you guys impatient out there and, inadvertently, believe this was genuinely forgotten. I'm also sorry about how short this particular chapter was, but my next two chapters will be longer with some lore revelations, that I can promise...
Next Chapter(s): Open Up, Meanwhile...