Chapter 3

Where we last left off, the Reds of Team Fortress 2 have taken a ship towards the planet where a strange event that happened that caused all the black boxes in the solar system to glow. They have to navigate through the debris fields to make sure they make it to their destination alive or end-up like all the other unfortunate ships that are forever stuck in space or get pulled in by the gravity of the moons and planets that rain down on the surfaces. Engineer is doing his best to navigate through the mess to the best of his abilities. Spy is paying attention to the scanners to make sure they won't bump into anything. Everyone else is in anticipation of getting to the planet to do what they do best. However, Demoman is still asleep from his hangover.

Sniper is busy loading up his rifle before cleaning the scope. Pyro checks the gauges of his flamethrower to make sure he has a full tank. Heavy is cleaning his gun to make sure it is nice and ready. Medic cleans his glasses before sharpening his bonesaw. Scout is just sitting down and relaxing while Soldier is rocking back and forth with his shotgun out, smiling like a crazed, war hungry man itching for a fight.

Scout gives a gentle nudge from his right knuckle to Soldier, "Relax, will ya? I know you are eager but you need to chill. Ain't a good soldier supposed to chill before the storm?"

Soldier stops smiling as he looks at Scout. He takes a deep breath, "You're right. But it has been so long since we actually have a challenge."

"Dah." Heavy feels the same. "But aren't we supposed to investigate on behalf of the Isekai Council? I mean, I would love to shoot things with Sasha, but they could be stranded like the rest of us."

Medic gives a confuse look at Heavy, "That is rare of you Heavy to be the voice of reason."

"Can you please be quiet?!" Engineer shouts from his seat. "It is hard to navigate without all that noise."

"Sorry!" everyone apologizes.

Engineer says to Spy, "Anything on the scanners?"

"Nothing yet." Spy responds while not taking his eyes off the holo-screens. "Yet I am detecting a large ship hull being blown in by solar winds close to us. There are also some radioactive material located behind us."

Demoman woke-up, "Where am I?"

"Demoman's awake!" Scout announces.

Demoman tries to stay awake by slapping his cheeks and rub his eyes along with stretching. He looks around and notices he is on the Windfall. "Why am I on the ship?"

Soldier hands Demoman his gun, "Rise and shine, soldier! We got work to do!"

"What are we doing?" Demoman is confuse on what the hell is going on. "Weren't we celebrating Thanksgiving over an hour ago?"

"That was last night." Medic says. "We supposed to investigate the bright light that has effected the black boxes, remember?"

"Yeah." Demoman remembers, "And we are doing it today."

"We're here!" Engineer says.

The Windfall is steered towards the planet and is close to the Rooster Teeth settlement. However, Engineer is piloting it a little further away from Rooster Teeth to avoid detection. The Windfall hovers above the trees in a nearby forest before landing in a small clearing.

"Alright." Engineer says as he gets off his seat and cracks his knuckles, "Time to head out."

Demoman has his mine launcher out, "Let's do thiiis!" He is all excited and cock his gun.

Everyone else has their weapons out and ready to let loose the hounds of war. The door lowers and they all head out.

"So, who is leading today?" Spy asks before lighting a cigarette.

"Today's Friday so it is Scout's turn." Medic pointed out.

Scout has his bat out as he says, "Alright then! Spy, Sniper and I are gonna scout ahead! Sniper takes point for long range while I search ahead. If we come across the settlement, Spy can disguise himself as some of the people and sneak in with cloaking. Engineer. Demoman. You guys get to set up the defenses. Heavy, Soldier and Pyro stay here with Medic as Engineer and Demoman set things up. Okay? Break!"

Scout, Spy and Sniper head out as Demoman set up a few mines with Engineer setting up and upgrading his turrets. Scout ran off ahead of the other two since he is the fastest. He ran fast until he comes across the many defenses and walls that prevent him from going any further. Yet he is only 40 feet away so he's fine. However, he headed back into the woods to stay out of sight. Sniper is up in the trees and trying to check on the defenses.

"Crikey." Sniper sees all the defenses from his position. "These people aren't screwing around. Those are some top-notch defenses. Minefields, robots, turrets, strong walls. This so-called town is a bloody fortress."

Spy is next to him on the branch, "See anyone that I can disguise myself as?"

"Not really." Sniper replies as he continues to scope out Rooster Teeth. "Nothing but a lot of robots on some of the walls. Either these wankers paranoid or just extremely cautious. Wait, I think I... No, just another robot."

Both of them climbed down the tree to meet up with Scout.

"Any lock?" Scout asks.

"No good." Sniper says, "Impossible to get in."

"We should check the gate." Spy suggest, "Even if there is a large amount of defenses, the gate should have the least amount in order for commerce, travelers and other such people to get in and out."

"Or we could just ask about getting in." says a teenage female voice.

"Not sure about that but- Hang on." Scout notices the sound of another person. He looks up at the trees, "Is that you, Councilwoman Shinobu Sarutobi?"

Hanging upside down with her head poking out of the leaves. She seems to have short pink hair, rounded face and violet eyes while wearing some sort of Japanese high school uniform. "Min-min!" she winks. This is Shinobu Sarutobi from an isekai anime, CHOYOYU, aka Even High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World. Not only that, she also has a black box. She jumps down and join the others.

"What are you doing here?" Scout asks.

Shinobu smiles, "Just to make sure you guys don't cause any trouble." She then looks at the defenses of Rooster Teeth, "But this is gonna be hard to just sneak in. So the only way to get in is by asking the locals." She looks back at the three, "Anyone got a flare gun?"

"We don't." Sniper says.

"But Pyro does." Spy says.

"Then I'll be right back." Shinobu throws a smoke bomb and disappears.

"Is it me, or does everyone think that she does a better job then us?" Scout asks both of them.

"Like all the times we go out on a mission, she shows up and did most of the job for us." Spy states the abilities Shinobu has.

"I wouldn't go that far." Shinobu reappears behind them and scares the living hell out of the three. She holds the flare gun she got from Pyro pretty fast, "Got it! Now let's head over to the gate! Min-min!"

Sniper realizes, "Wait, why didn't you spawn a flare gun with that black box of yours?"

Shinobu just responds, "No fun at all."

The four headed over to the behemoth gate where they can even see a neon sign that says 'Rooster Teeth' on it.

"Rooster Teeth?" Sniper reads the sign. "What weirdo came up with that?"

"We're gonna have to find out." Scout replies.

Shinobu aims the flare gun in the air and fires.

Inside the walls, Team RWBY is next to be on patrol as they walk down the street towards the gate. Yet before they reach it, they see a flare up in the sky. The four of them are confuse on who could be firing a flare round.

Ruby look at her teammates, "Do we know someone who is out today?"

"Everyone should be here." Weiss says, "No one should be outside of our settlement at all and we are the only ones on this planet, or moon, whatever."

"Think someone crashed landed and broke free from stasis kinda like the new guys from Strangerhood?" Yang asks.

"Only one way to find out." Blake heads over to see what is going on with the rest of the team following.

The four made it up and noticed all the robots are lined up and waiting to fire. Ruby uses her Crescent Rose to see what is going on or who fired the flare. She uses the scope and sees Shinobu and three members of the TF2 Red Team.

Ruby speaks what she sees, "It looks like some pink haired girl and a bunch of weird looking guys in red. One looks short and stocky with gloves and a hard hat. Another one has a sniper with a cowboy hat and another has a cap with headphones. The guy with the sniper sees me, tells the others, and they are all waving high at us."

"Wait, what?" Yang went.

Ruby moves her head away from her scope and speaks to Yang, "Take a look."

Yang takes a look with the scope and sees the four waving at them. "Is this a trap?" she asks cautiously.

"One has a sniper." Weiss stated, "He could've shot us right here and now."

"Wait!" Yang says urgently, "The girl is holding a sign up. It says... 'Hello! Can you let us in? We just want to talk.' Seems legit to me."

"Do you think we should tell them that the sun is about to go out in five years?" Blake is a little worried that not only the people of Rooster Teeth are gonna get roasted, but everyone else in the system.

"We should." Weiss states her opinion. "If we tell them what is gonna happen, they might help us find those ark ships. Not to mention that we've been only on this moon for a month and we haven't ventured outward. For all we know, there could be a lot more people out there and we should tell them." Weiss makes a good point there. If they exchange what they know, the sooner they will get the hell out of dodge before the lights go out.

"Agree." everyone agrees.

Ruby speaks to one of the robots, "Open the gate!" She pulls out her radio, "Everyone, head to the gate. We got some visitors."

The behemoth gate opens up.

"Looks like we're in." Shinobu states. "Let's go!"

The four enter the gate and met with members of the Rooster Teeth Council and all the citizens who are curious about the outsiders.

"Hello." Ozma greets them. "My name is Ozma Magicka, one of the council members of this town, Rooster Teeth."

"Hello there!" Shinobu speaks, "My name is Shinobu Sarutobi, a member of the Isekai Council of the moon, Isekai." The hand she raises to wave shows her black box. Then introduces the others, "This is Scout, Spy and Sniper."

"Hey." Ruby points at Shonobu's left arm before showing hers, "You got one of those black boxes too."

"Oh!" Shinobu isn't surprise, "So you got one, too. I've met a lot of people in the system that has those. Except for this one planet that we couldn't get close though, too many zombies. Yet we did rescue the people there. Oh, and we got more people at our spaceship."

"You got a spaceship?!" Robyn is surprise to hear that.

Shinobu is a little confuse about that, "Yeah. Sometimes we use spaceships to travel for those that don't have black boxes. Sometimes we build our own from scratch or other times we find a few. Min-min."

Sarge looks at the TF2 Reds and says, "Glad to see some more Reds out there somewhere. Better than Blue." Then both the Blood Gulch Crew and three of the TF2 Reds have a conversation.

"I have a question." Salem steps forward, "Why can't you create temporary black boxes with your troops? Would flying be easier than using a spaceship?"

Shinobu look at Salem, "Sorry, but no one can do that. If we did, we would be here a lot faster. We also try, but no luck."

"But Ruby can do that." Yang points her finger at her sister.

Shinobu look at Ruby, "She can?"

"Can we talk inside?" Ironwood asks. "And bring in your troops and let them know that they are welcome in."

Shinobu does a salute, "Min-min!" and disappears with a smoke bomb.

All the council members have a meeting with Shinobu to learn more about other places in the solar system and the people. Ruby even explain, or tries to, about what happened with her black box which everyone has some concerns. Yet Shinobu continues to talk about what is out there.

"I can't believe that there is so much out there." Kimball says in disbelief.

"Well, we have been trying to stay alive on this world." Doyle says to Kimball. "Exploring the other worlds isn't our top priority."

"By the way." Shinobu looks at Ruby, "You said your name is Ruby Rose, right?"

"Yeah." Ruby tilted her head a little.

"Because some petite girl with pink hair, red eyes and a black cat that look like cat ears talked about you and your people a lot along with many others we saved on that zombie moon. What was her name again?"

"Yuki Takeya?" Ruby answers after remembering her, "She's alive?"

"Yeah! She and her friends talked about you and your group a lot such as semblances, the weapons you guys use and some of the stuff you guys do."

Ruby felt a weight being lifted from her chest after hearing that the people she and the others saved are safe right now. She sheds a few tears in joy.

"You okay?" Shinobu asks.

Ruby sniffled and wipe her eyes while saying, "Yeah. Glad to know that some people from the planet we were on are safe."

"But we need to talk about the real problem at hand." Raven says in a more serious attitude.

"I agree." Ironwood agrees with Raven.

"About time you two agree on something." Ozpin speaks his mind.

"Yes." Lionheart nod his head in agreement, "It was really annoying."

Ghira clears his throat before addressing the situation, "We have a bit of a problem. It's about the sun."

Kimball speaks, "The sun is about to go nova in five years time. It may appear long, but we will all be wiped out if we don't leave."

Lionheart speaks, "We discover three ark ships of alien origin in this system that have been buried for thousands of years. With everyone's help, we can use them to escape before the sun goes out."

"Not to mention that they have strong energy shields that can break through everything." Doyle adds.

Ozma speaks, "According to an intact flight recorder, those three ships are located on three of the moons. One of them is located on an overgrown world known as, Akua. Another is located on some weird cube planet called, Biome. The last is located on some hostile terran world called, New Pandora."

"I know those worlds." Shinobu knows about these worlds. "Akua is home to some people that are from three planets yet many of them are related. The scientist, Washu, has been researching some ruins for sometime. Biome is a colony run by the Minecraftians, yet there are only Minecraftian-style ruins. I do know a lot of people on New Pandora and that place has more ruins there. However, there are a lot of bandits, raiders, cannibals, and hideous creatures crawling all over the place which make it hard. Not to mention that finding ancient ruins among the more modern ruins is like finding a needle in a haystack."

Salem stands up, "Do you think we can negotiate with the other leaders in the system?"

"You can, but there are a lot of communities across the system so it will be hard." Shinobu says.

Ironwood stands up, "Then we should meet these people and warn them of the danger coming soon. Do we all agree?"

Everyone in the council say, "Agree."

"Then the motion pass. Next is to form a strategy on who is going where. I would volunteer to head towards Isekai and speak with the Isekai Council. Shinobu, tell us where these communities are so we can-"

Before they can go any further, the entire ground quakes that feels like a 7/10 magnitude. For over two minutes, the ground continues to quake until it stopped.

"That must've been one enormous ship!" Ruby says after coming out from underneath the table. "Not to mention close."

Raven says, "We need to check on the situation outside!"

Everyone heads out to assess the situation. Once outside, they see the gate and some of the walls have been destroyed and the buildings close to it are set on fire. They hear gunshots and all sorts of firing.

Ruby pulls out her radio, "Yang! Weiss! Blake! What the heck is going on?!"

Yang shouts over the radio, "We got some asshole bursting in and destroying everything! Even worse, his body is covered in black boxes! Ruby, we need your help!"

Over at the gate, Spy has his magnum out and shoots with Heavy providing back-up along with Medic using uber-charge. Demoman fires some grenades with Pyro trying to use his shotgun rather than his flamethrower. Soldier fires his rocket alongside Engineer with his upgraded turret. Sniper tries to shoot from a rooftop. Yang fires some long range bullets at the target with Weiss using her semblance as a range attack while Blake uses her weapon in its range form. Some of the robots come in and try to take the bastard out. Scout comes charging in with his metal bat at the person responsible for the damage screaming. The person responsible looks like his skin is charred while having a few black boxes on his body. He has fiery veins that connect those black boxes yet also has spiky, obsidian hair. His eyes have a fiery scalera with black irises and burning red pupils that gives off an intense heat. The fiery figure grabbed Scout's bat without looking at him as the metal bat melted before he shoot out jets of flames from his other hand, reducing him to ashes. Even Scout's bones are reduced to ashes.

"SCOUT!" Soldier shouts in horror. Then he is full of rage as he fires another rocket at him.

Yet the rocket has no effect. As a matter of fact, any form of ammunition has no effect on the guy. Then he proceeded to shoot flames at both Soldier and Spy that reduced them to ashes. Then the man proceeds to smack Pyro's flamethrower pack that causes him to be rocketed to the sky and hit sniper, which they explode into gory pieces. Demoman charges at the fiery man with an empty liquor bottle. It smashes yet has no effect. Then the man cause Demo's face to combust. He throws Demo's corpse at Engineer and his turret and his corpse explodes along with Engineer and the turret. The Reds of the Blood Gulch along with Agent Carolina and Washington try to shoot the guy with everything they got at the mysterious, burnt man. Marrow is there along with Clover, Vine and Qrow.

"WHO IS THIS GUY!?" Yang shouts and keeps firing with every thrust of her fists.

"NOTHING'S WORKING!" Weiss shouts in frustration.

"WE NEED TO HEAD BACK!" Blake shouts. "FALL BACK!"

"THAT'S SOMETHING I CAN GET BEHIND!" Donut agrees in horror.

Grif says, "AS MUCH AS I HATE TO AGREE WITH DONUT'S INNUENDOES BUT I GOT NO CHOICE!"

Sarge orders, "EVERYONE, FALL BACK!"

Wade runs around, "Oh dude! Where are marshmallows when you need them!"

The three take cover behind a wall of a building as they wait for reinforcements along with Carolina and Washington. Everyone else just scatters.

Despite being uber-charged, the man covered in black boxes shoved his hand in and yank out Heavy's heart. Heavy drops dead as the uber-charge disappear.

"Nien." Medic backs away in horror as the man approaches. "Nien. Nien! NIEN! NIEN!" Then he dies from having his face grabbed and melted.

Ruby shows up with Harriet and Shinobu, "Sorry we're late!"

"What's the situation?!" Harriet asks.

Blake responds, "Those Red guys are down! Everyone else is trying to get the fires under control! None of our attacks are working!"

Yang sums it up, "In other words, we're FUCKED!"

Ruby looked over and sees the man covered in black boxes. Shinobu peeks to see what's up

The man looks at Ruby and Shinobu. "About time you showed up." the man speaks in a low-tone, demonic voice. "Prepare to have your power removed and added to my collection."

AN: Hey everyone! Hope you enjoy the latest chapter of Survival in a Strange Galaxy. Looks like things are heating up. I know, bad puns. Now for some fan Q&A!

Guest: Thanks! Although I do apologize that the Red Team Mercs get killed off before anything happens. As for the council, Ruby isn't exactly the leader. Ruby is there because of the black box that makes her invincible, spawn things, fly and create whatever. She tends to be the voice of reason from time to time and everyone could use a youngster's perspective on situations. As for the whole NPC and robot argument, think back at Fallout 4 about whether or not a synth should have the same rights as humans...the ones that do look humans. In video games, NPC's are kinda like robots. Program to do what they are supposed to do, not having a will of its own, and given false memories because of what they were programmed to do to progress the story. Not to mention that their emotions are programmable. So NPC's are basically organic robots in this universe.

Guest01: Hindsight, I guess dinosaurs are sorta like monsters in a way. They were big reptiles with some able to devour a cow whole.

By the way, can you guys help me with something? I've been trying to remember a game I saw on YouTube. I can't remember the name, but I do remember some of the stuff in it. It starts out as you entering some sort of chamber where you get to meet this armored skeletal dude, but is really chill and says that you and him are the same while explaining that your memories form building blocks. It started out with you entering a nice and peaceful forest where you meet a nice woman, a pillow fort until later it gets darker with some Noir-style stuff but gets to become horrible with an electric chair at the end of that one after going up a spiraling staircase and then you come across a battlefield that has these statues comprised of armed men, demons and tanks. You have a choice of ending reincarnation or be reincarnated. If you decide to reincarnate, you fall down into some sort of funnel until you see a bright light and lose your memories. If you decide not to, you become the skeletal guy, clap your hands and everything goes dark. It is a bit like a walking simulator but I'm not sure if it is also part platformer or puzzle solver. That's the best I can remember. Does anyone know the name of that game?

Until next time.