It was the year 1879 and many world events occurred. One of these events was called the Anglo-Zulu War. This conflict lasted nearly six months from January 11th to July 4th. While history books say that there were two invasion groups of British troops, there was meant to be a third, but this invasion group mysteriously vanished enroute to the kingdom of Zululand. What happened to them you ask? Well, this is the story of those men who would risk their lives to defend remnant
[Rorke's Drift by Sabaton plays]
Clay342 presents:
RWBY: Remnant's finest
[Rorke's Drift by Sabaton ends]
1879
Enroute to South Africa
Several ships carrying roughly thirty thousand British troops steamed towards the warzone known as Zululand. Each one had heard stories of the Zulu warriors and were nervous. One of these were corporal William "will" Harris.
He knew some friends that had gone to the frontlines before him and had learned that a few died during the battle of Rorke's drift. It may have been a war, but he heard that the Zulus had saluted and deemed the British who defended were very brave and fought like true warriors (A/N this comes from ending of the 1964 movie ZULU when the Zulus began to depart after their final failed assault).
"hey will, you excited to get off this boat?" a fellow redcoat asked. "Yeah Charlie, but I have a feeling that we won't be landing in Africa." Will said closing his journal. "You and your gut feelings." Lieutenant Charles "Charlie" Bates said scoffing. "I'm bloody serious Charlie." Will said before the ship rocked suddenly. "What the devil?" Charlie said as the boat rocked again before everything went dark.
The first thing Will heard as he came to was the chirping of birds. "Bloody hell." He muttered seeing many fellow soldiers get up while grasping their Martini henry rifles. "Get up corporal." A gruff voice said as Will was lifted off the ground by his commanding officer, colonel Jared Wilkins. "Sorry sir, I just came to." Will said. Wilkins frowned
"Regardless, we should proceed with caution." He said before giving an order. "Form a column four men wide." The soldiers complied. "Forward march.
5 hours later.
Will took in the scenery until he saw something in the distance. "Colonel, is that smoke in the distance?" he asked. Wilkins looked through his binoculars. "My god." The colonel said seeing the smoke rise from a village not too far from their location. "Double time men." Wilkins said as he and the soldiers broke into a jog.
The British soldiers looked around at the burnt and destroyed buildings. "Search for survivors." Wilkins ordered as Charlie and Will came up. "Who could have done this?" the lieutenant asked. "Definitely not the Zulus." Will then spoke up. "Bandits perhaps?" he suggested. "I have to agree on that." Wilkins said.
"Sir, we have one, but he's wearing armor and heavily wounded." A private yelled. "Armor?" Will pondered as the trio approached the wounded man.
"What happened here sir?" Wilkins asked as the man looked up. "Bandits." He said coughing up blood. "There were too many. And in the confusion Grimm showed up with all the panic going on." Charlie frowned. "Grimm?" he questioned.
"Creatures born of darkness and attracted to negative emotions such as anger, and sadness." The colonel looked at the corporal and the lieutenant. They had confused looks on their faces. Wilkins turned back to face the wounded man only to see that the man had expired. The colonel then kindly closed the deceased man's eyes saying a quiet prayer for him.
"What now?" Charlie asked. "We hurry to the next town and hope the bandits that did this haven't attacked yet." Wilkins said. "And when we do?" Will asked. "We bloody defend it."
2 weeks later
"Sir, I have eyes on a village that also seems to have walls around it and a small garrison of what appears to be military police." A sergeant said before blinking and looking again. "the military police appear to have additional features akin to animals." Wilkins gave the soldier a look.
"Beg your pardon sergeant?" the colonel asked before the soldier handed him the binoculars and pointed. "Bloody hell. You aren't joking." The colonel said. Will then noticed a large group of men approaching the village. "Colonel." He said tapping Wilkins' arm. "What corporal?" he asked as Will pointed.
Wilkins looked and saw that the group had various weapons ranging from the new bolt action rifles to revolvers. "They haven't spotted us yet sir. Might be the bandits." Charlie said seeing as the group had wagons, but didn't have any goods to sell in the nearby village.
"Firing line men. And fix bayonets." Wilkins ordered. "it's high time for these bandits to feel the might of the British army."
The bandits approached the village capitol of menagerie. "This is going to be good." One said. "those animals won't know what hit them." Another said. That all changed when the sound of three dozen rifles firing was heard killing several bandits.
Terri Samuels, a fox faunas, was on guard duty when gunshots were heard. "Bandits!" she yelled as the military police prepared to raise their flintlock muskets. However, before they could fire at the visible intruders. They spotted more humans dressed in red tunics and tall white helmets charge forward with bayonets fixed on their rifles.
To the faunas' shock, the red clad humans entered melee combat with the bandits. "What in Oum's name?" Terri thought as she and the rest of the present guardsmen watched the battle, shocked that humans were actually defending their village.
"They're breaking sir!" Charlie yelled as the bandits retreated. "Get lost you bloody wankers and never attack this village again." Will yelled. Wilkins walked forward watching the bandits disappear into the forest they had come from. "Good riddance." He said
Ghira Belladonna was enjoying lunch with his wife when he heard frantic knocking at his door. He sighed getting up. "What is… it?" he asked as he laid eyes on a panic stricken MP. "What's wrong?" he asked "Bandits." The guard said. Ghira growled before the guard continued.
"but that's not what I'm scared for chief Belladonna." Ghira raised an eyebrow. "Then what scares you." His wife, Kali Belladonna, asked. The guard then grew deathly pale. "an unknown group of humans attacked the bandits and some of that group is approaching the village." This made the two's eyes widen.
A/N: there you have it. A brand new displaced military fanfic this time in the world of RWBY. This story takes soldiers from the late 19th century instead of early to mid-20th century or modern day as those are quite numerous. Please tell me what you think of this idea. Constructive criticism is appreciated. That being said. peace