Servants of Remnant
Chaldea is gone, but the memories remain. A world, filled with fairy tales, monsters and men. A history unlike any other. Sometimes… a hero is needed. From another world, from another time. Not all of them are great, not all of them are 'good'. But when the world needs a hero, these Servants answer the call. Perhaps only one, perhaps many do. These are the tales of many timelines. The 'Servants of Chaldea' who come to Remnant.
Odysseus
Keep on moving forward, that was all he could do. He had to make sure he could get to his destination, to return to the side of his allies and his Master. Raising an arm to cover his eyes, Odysseus walked forward through the sandstorm… What he wouldn't give for his helmet right now.
But, he couldn't afford to spend his valuable mana on something so trivial. Every drop counted in this desert, even if it was not devoid of magic, there was not enough for him to drive any of his Noble Phantasms or do anything but run that bare minimum of the Aegis' functions. None of the weapons systems would function, nevermind the barrier. He would have to rely on his wits and will to survive in this desert.
Nothing he hadn't done before, so he would just do it once more. He had a goal, return to his Master and to whatever Servants were still alive, or find them at least. But it had to be broken down into steps first. Starting off with attempting to find shelter so he could take full stock of the situation.
As he walked, the sandstorm started to finally die down, he noticed something in the distance… Camels… black camels? Odd, but he would deal with that when it came to it. So he walked forward… and as he was, he noticed the creatures turn towards him, having apparently noticed his presence… and already were starting to come closer.
Narrowing his eyes, Odysseus did much the same, he kept walking, but he lowers his arms to his sides, weighing his options and how much energy he had… Maybe enough for a few punches, but none of the lasers or rockets. About a hundred meters out from each other, he stopped finally getting the nice good look at the beasts. Black fur and white masks, intersected with red lines and yellow eyes. These were some form of Demonic Beast then.
That raised considerable problems, Demonic Beasts were creatures of instinct alone, made them much harder to trick than a sentient being. Four of them and one of him, so the odds were obviously in their favor, and their behavior clearly aggressive… actually if he charged up all his power… yes, that could work, but he'd need just the right angle, and the right movements.
Sixty meters out, the Demonic Beasts charged, braying wildly and rearing back their heads. He narrowed his eyes, and prepared to move. He wouldn't back up, he would charge forward if their attacks arced like that of an arrow, or to the side if it was all a line. Fifty meters and they launched their attacks, not all at once, but all towards him in an arc. Purple globs of spit, likely poisonous. With that, he charged forward, allowing the poison to fly over his head as the beasts continued their own charge, likely intending to either bite or trample him.
He turned left, and their heads followed, the beasts turning as well to specifically follow him, without concern for their own safety… good, they thought him easy prey. That would be their undoing here. They were slow to turn so if he could just circle around them.
He ducked again to avoid another volley to spit, this time more in tune with each other… huh, they learned fast it seemed. So he would have to act fast. Their weakest point seemed to be their long necks, so if he could just get them all to line up.
He skid to a stop when he was on the creature's side, and they had stopped their charge, turning to try and get him back in the way of their stampede, they reared back again, this time three out of four were in sync, with the one in the center slightly behind the others, one more volley should do it.
He jumped backwards this time, before starting to run again to try and circle again. Their spit missed once more, but they'd clearly had enough of his gaves and let up an unnatural groan before charging towards him again even as he was circling. He held up two fingers on his right hand, energy gathering at the tips as he watched his foes. They reared back once more… this time all in sync and…
He stopped on a dime, "Pierce!" he shouted, pointing his fingers directly at the necks of his foes. The angle was good, the power hopefully sufficient, and all of them were in sync. The golden beam of energy shot through their necks, fading away a second later as Odysseus held his fingers out, still outstretched just in case.
He left out a sigh of relief as the creature's necks separated from their bodies, a few moments apart from one another before hitting the sand. Black dust started to come off the corpses as he approached slowly… but by the time he was halfway there, the corpses were mostly gone, just black dust on the wind that faded away moments later, something like ash.
"What strange creatures…" he muttered to himself, placing a hand to his chin. He'd contemplate their nature later, but right now he needed to know if such creatures were common here. He'd drain most of the energy he had left with that one attack… he needed a weapon other than the Aegis' systems, and soon.
But nothing he could do right now, he had to keep moving forward. Sand as far as the eye could see, but there had to be something… somewhere. Beasts had to hunt, and Demonic Beasts favored two things. Humans and animals, so he expected there would be humans somewhere. So for now, he would endure and move on.
The next hour of walking passed without incident, but as he trudged his way up yet another sand dune, he finally saw something on the horizon. Leaning forward, he decided to finally summon his helmet, covering his face, and the interface booting to life within… and flickers. He just needed the zoom for a moment before the drain became to much.
Zooming in, he spotted what was going on. People, humans in white, ordering around what appeared to be more humans at a first glance… but there were oddities that revealed they weren't completely human. Small features, animals features. The ears of a cat, the tail of a horse, the scales of a snake. A race being dominated by the humans here it seemed, as none of the humans were working hard, while the animal people were stuck moving all sorts of heavy equipment… He couldn't pass judgement yet, but he understood that in modern times, slavery was quite frowned upon, and it could be quite inhumane.
Dismissing his helmet, Odysseus began walking once more towards the compound in the distance. He'd probably be there within the hour if he hurried, but that would burn too much energy. He had to pace himself.
As he walked, his mind was drawn towards Atalante, the huntress of Jason's Argonauts, and her animal features. The ears and tail of a lioness. Then horse known as Red Hare, Cheiron, and others among Chaldea's roster who hadn't been with them at the time of the explosion. Were people with the features of animals common in this place? Had the gods cursed them to be as such or was it a natural occurrence? So many questions abound.
As he crossed over one final sand dune, after nearly two hours of nonstop walking, the human guards raised their weapons towards him, a box-like weapons that seemed to be guns if his memory served correctly.
"Halt… state your name and your business," the female guard started, her weapon pointed over his shoulder, likely to try and simulate that she was aiming at his head. Well, being rude would get him nowhere.
"Pardon my intrusion. I am-" he paused for just a second to wonder if he should give his real name or not… actually, he needed to test this anyway, so a pair of humans would make the perfect subjects… "Odysseus, and I've been lost in the desert for several days now, this was the first sign of civilization I had seen."
"Strange name…" the other guard muttered under his breath, but he caught the utterance, and filed it away for later. No familiarity, but it was seen as strange…
"Really? You a Hunter? Where's your weapon? And your licence?" she was already making assumptions, but for the moment, assumptions gave him details, and from those, came a carefully crafted lie.
"I am a Hunter, and I'm afraid my weapon was destroyed on the way here… and just as well I've lost most of my belongings save the armor I wear," he spread out his arms, showing he was telling at least some truth about 'not being armed.' Here's hoping they bought it.
"Fancy armor… you from Atlas?" the male guard asked, the female slowly lowering her weapon like the male already had, and Odysseus lowered his arms before deciding to just nod.
"I am, my ship was destroyed while out at sea, and when I awoke I was in the middle of the desert and surrounded by debris and monsters. While my armor does have defensive properties, its nearly out of energy from just escaping my previous situation.
The woman seemed to wince at his story, and the male lowered his gun to the point of only holding it with one hand. "Sheesh, you've had it rough haven't you, you're lucky you didn't meet the fate of the rest of the crew then?"
"I suppose I am somewhat fortunate," he muttered. He hoped the others were still alive of course, but he was certain that Master still was, else he would have started fading a while ago.
The two guards just shared a look with each other, before the female one pulled out a radio from her belt and held down the button. "Sir, we have a visitor," she started, and he listened for the response.
"Explain," rough and grizzled, likely the security head of this compound.
"A Hunter who's lost most of his equipment and has been wandering the desert for days. He's from Atlas," she continued, and Odysseus just held his hands behind his back and stood at attention. From his best guess, this Atlas place seemed to be both technologically inclined, and a military culture, so he would have to do his best to mimic that behavior if he was to pass off his story.
"Did he give you a name?" here was the moment of truth.
"Odysseus," she muttered into the radio. For several moments there was silence, before the voice spoke up again.
"Put him on the line," she pulled the radio away from her ear, before handing it over to him. He took it carefully, before holding it up with one hand like a phone.
"Do you wish to speak with me?" he asked, trying to sound like he hadn't heard the short conversation, as little of it there was.
"Explain what you're doing here, I haven't heard of a Hunter named Odysseus before, is that your actual name or a title." he stated. Well, time to concoct a lie as best as he could.
"I was on a ship following the coast, the ship was attacked from below by an unknown assailant, and there was an explosion on the ship. When I came to, I was in the middle of the desert surrounded by debris and monsters, and had to spend most of the power in my suit to survive the battle. I lost my weapon, and most of my equipment when the ship was being attacked," he explained with a straight a face as he could, which given neither guard even gave him a look of suspicion, he succeeded in.
"...That suit of yours special?" the voice asked, and now he just hoped this would work.
"Classified, not something non-military need to know," he lied, hoping that, if Atlas was a military culture, then it would have secrets, a special division or something that was common knowledge of existing, but not common knowledge about what it did.
"Of course it is… you're one of those… fine, hand the radio back to Violet," he did so, and Violet held it up to her ear, "Let him in," and she nodded, before looking at her fellow guard, who nodded as well and turned towards the door, pulling out a small card and sliding it into the slot beside the door. A green light appeared above it, and the door opened, both guards saluting as Odysseus looked at the insignia on their uniforms… some sort of snowflake. Interesting…
Walking past the guards and into the compound, the door slid shut behind him, and he took a moment to look around with a critical eye. Those animal people were everywhere, as were human guards. A large pit was being dug into the earth, carts containing many crystals being brought up by tracks leading down into the pit. He listened, letting the words come to him, information that he could use.
Fanus, he'd heard it at least twice already, followed or preceded by a derogatory term, likely it was the name of the species of animal people. Schnee, he wasn't sure exactly that was, but it was likely an important name. He saw the snowflake again, painted to the side of a large building with the letters SDC underneath. He looked towards the containers with the crystals and dust again with only a small glance as he walked. Marked with the same symbol of a snowflake, and seemingly preparing for transport. And then there were the words people said of him. The utterances of 'Hunter' or 'Special ops' from a few guards. The faunus were quick to move away from his path, or outright avoid his eyes like he was some sort of monster.
He was in the belly of a beast right now. This SDC was something he couldn't ignore… He had an inkling what it stood for. The name Schnee was common, and the letters matched, and clearly this was some sort of company. For the time, until he leaded what it actually was, 'Schnee Company' would have to suffice… hopefully it wouldn't get him exposed.
He was to be Odysseus, a Hunter from Atlas who had been on a classified mission from the general, Special Ops. He'd lost his license, his weapon and the ship due to an unidentified attacker, or as he would likely admit, a monster from below, and a storm surge and explosion had occurred. He'd been wandering the desert for several days and was just now finding the first signs of civilization. He'd have to act a bit more like he was thirsty and starving, given that was something humans obviously required, but nothing a bit of stoicism couldn't hide.
As he walked towards the largest building, the double doors slid open, and a man in a white uniform walked out, and on the breast pocket of his suit was yet another snowflake, and a nametag below that, reading J. Snows.
"Mister Snows?" Odysseus asked, holding out his hand, and the brown haired man raised an eyebrow, and Odysseus just nodded to his nametag. The man nodded before putting his gloved hand against Odysseus' armored one, and the pair shook on it.
"A pleasure to meet you Odysseus, I'd ask how your trip was, but it seems it was more than a little harrowing," he said, putting on the pleasantries, good.
"Tired, hungry and thirsty, but alive, and that's what matters," Odysseus said, his tone more tired than before, mostly in relief as Snows just nodded.
"Come on, I think you've been out in the sun far longer than you should have," Snows said, turning back towards the door and leading him inside. The two spent a moment in silence before Snows spoke up again. "So, you were on a normal ship?"
"Cargo ship actually. Our… assailant came from below," he admitted, already taking to his story as best he could. Snows just nodded, before looking back at him. "SDC I presume?"
"No, it was a more low profile shipping company, and I expect it to continue to stay that way mister Snows," Odysseus returned, and Snows just turned his head away before nodding.
"Should have expected… break room's in here, help yourself to a drink or two, and there's a few snacks on the table. I'll be back shortly," Snows admitted, before excusing himself. Odysseus opened the door, and indeed, there was a small room, nice table, comfy chairs, and almost painfully white if he was being honest. But there was a a few water bottles and bags of pretzels laying on the table.
He sat down, picking up a water bottle and undoing the cap. Servants didn't need to eat and drink, but it was still somewhat helpful. Aided in mana conservation, and of course it was still food. He took a long, hard drink from the bottle, draining it in under ten seconds before setting it on the table again and screwing the cap back on, staring at the label, another snowflake. This SDC was quite the large and diverse company it seemed.
For the next few minutes, he took the time to indulge himself a little, both for his own sake, and for the sake of his story. Snack bags were emptied, the water was drank, and all of it neatly thrown away in the bin in the corner of the room containing its fair share of trash. Settling into the seat he scanned the room. On the wall was a large picture of a man wearing white, white hair and white moustache, and under that was a name. Jacques Schnee. Someone important in the company it seemed.
There were a few snack machines on the wall, intended to be used by employees for if they wanted something to eat during a break… devious. And finally, he saw it on a folder laying on the table. He looked around the room, trying to spot if there were any cameras… seeing none nor the feeling he was being watched, he reached for the folder and dragged it over to him, opening it wide and speed reading as fast as he could.
Dust shipments, the Schnee dust company, monetary figures, employee pay, bits and pieces of important information that really shouldn't have just been laying around… it took him a minute to good through and commit what looked important to memory before he shut the folder and slid it back into place, as if it had been completely untouched. He'd even blown the sand off from his gauntlets to make absolutely sure.
So there he sat in silence, twiddling his thumbs for five more minutes before the door opened behind him, and Snows walked back in. No guards, and no one down the hallway. Seems he hadn't tried to confirm his story… good.
"My apologies for leaving you like that Odysseus. You must be a busy man," Snows started, and Odysseus just shrugged.
"Spent the past few weeks on a boat, not much to do beside make sure it doesn't sink," he said, and Snows just chuckled at that.
"Well, not everything can be prepared for. Do you mind me asking… about what you were intended to do here?" Snows asked, holding up a mug before taking a sip from it himself.
"Like I said, classified, make whatever guesses you wish," he offered, a bit of subtle manipulation, if he gave him a few ideas, he could twist them just a bit to better cover his own story.
"Vacuo isn't exactly a place someone comes on a simple business trip, nevermind carrying and wearing such… new equipment like that suit. If you're a Hunter, you're either doing two things…" Snows raises his fist, before raising one finger. "Hunting Grimm like every old hunter," so that was what they were called, and then Snows raised a second finger. "Or you're here to deal with the White Fang in the area, or were."
The second one would have to do. Odysseus sat up a bit, resting his hands on the table. "And… if I was?" he asked, an eyebrow raised, he needed more.
"Well I would hope so, they'd been impeding our operations for quite some time, and we've been wondering if they'd ever get dealt with… but it seems you aren't exactly in a condition to do so," Snows said, and Odysseus sighed.
"I'm not exactly in fighting condition at the moment no. This desert would wear on even the best of us," he lied. The desert itself hadn't been… particularly trying, but it would easily be a harsh obstacle to a normal human.
"I suppose that's the rough of it then… will you be heading to Vacuo to begin returning to Atlas since this… incident has happened?" Snows asked.
"Nothing else to do but report back," he lied. A mission that couldn't be completed wasn't a mission at all… what he needed was energy, and a weapon… and probably money sooner rather than later.
"A shame. I can give you transport at least, aboard one of the bullheads with the next shipment. Least I could do," to earn a favor more than likely, either for himself or someone else. Nothing else for it.
"That would be appreciated Mister Sn-"
As soon as he was about to finish the name, an explosion rocked the compound, both Snows and Odysseus standing up almost instantly and looking towards the door.
"Of all the times!" Snows was quick to complain, and Odysseus turned towards him.
"I need power, if you can get me some I'll deal with this," he offered, and Snows just nodded, before running past Odysseus and through the door, the pair running down the hallways together and past a few robots that were getting into defensive positions, as well as several guards.
"What sort of dust does that thing take?" Snows asked they rounded a corner and into an intersection.
"It'll take nearly anything, I just need a source," he lied, but from what he read, Dust was quite the energy source… in fact it was nearly magical, and if it was close enough, it would serve well enough.
"Right," and then he went running towards down the hallway on their left, Odysseus following as another explosion rocked the building. Snows brought them to a large door, Odysseus turning around and raising his arm on instinct, even if he didn't have to power to fire, he needed to be ready. Behind him the door opened, and he turned, Snows rushing in, and he followed.
Inside was crates upon crates stacked on top of each other. Snows was quick to bend down and type something into a keypad on one, the crate popping open, and Odysseus looked inside at the large quantity of yellow Dust… Lightning Dust. "This is perfect,"
"It better work," Snows warned as Odysseus pulled out four tubes of dust, before popping them open, Snows standing back as he set the four tubes on the ground before standing in front of them.
Snows watched as the back of Odysseus' suit popped out, several 'arms' raising up and lightning starting to spark. The dust containers started to shake as Odysseus raised his head, allowing the Helmet to form over his head slowly rather than instantly as the lightning sparking between his suit and the dust grew, the containers rapidly emptying before he looked at his power. Only about half a tank, but more than enough for this.
"Quite the suit…" Snows muttered, and Odysseus turned his head towards him as the arms retracted into it.
"I've got half power, but it'll work for this. Now stay here until the explosions stop," he warned, before walking out the door and running off down the hallway.
As he was rushing, another explosion rocked the building, and he picked up the pace, rushing towards the sounds of gunfire, rounding one more corner to the sight of three people, all faunus, fighting the security drones. One of the women easily dismantling several drones in seconds as he stood at the end of the hallway. He raised his hands.
"Stand down, and no one gets hurt," he ordered, his voice amplified by the Aegis' helmet. The lead Fanus woman turned to him, and her two subordinates, one with horns in his hair, and a girl wearing a much larger mask than the man already turning away as she spun her three headed, chain whip... Hard way it was then.
Engulfing his hands in golden energy, he rocketed forward, the woman flipping away before slashing at him with her whip. Despite missing his strike, he brought up his arms, the Aegis shield deploying and easily deflecting the three heads of the whip before he lowered it and charged again as the woman landed on her feet.
She tried to avoid his punch, but ended up catching one in the gut before dodging the second one attempting to go for her head, she flipped onto the wall before bouncing off it and down to where he'd come from, flicking her whip and sending a dart from the end of it. Dodging the dart, he rocketed forward as it exploded into ice behind him as he tried to kick the woman in the stomach. She dodged again, and flipped over his follow up punch before kneeing him in the chest, only succeeding in dinging her knee on his armor before flipping over him, dragging his chain whip over his helmet and failing to damage it.
"I was trying to avoid doing this…" he muttered, spinning around and extending the arms of his suit again, the woman's eyes doing wide as he commanded, "Fire!"
The arms of his suit all opened up with a barrage of lasers, the woman attempting to dodge out of the way, and managing to escape some of them, but some sort of forcefield over her skin kept the two that managed to hit her from doing any real damage… but clearly it stung given her expression of pain.
He capitalized on it, bringing his emitters back in before rocketing forward and kneeing the woman in the gut. She spit up a bit before he threw an extra punch into her stomach, enhanced by the energy enveloping it and sending her flying down the hallway.
She at least stuck the landing, the field flickering a bit as she stood up and stared him down. "...Impressive suit tin man, you got a name?" she asked.
"I am Odysseus… may I request yours?" he responded, raising a hand and preparing to fire if it came to it.
"Sienna, now if you don't mind?" she raised her whip again, and Odysseus put up his fist again. "Mind if I see the face of the man who's about to lose?"
"I'm afraid not milady, we'll deal with that when the situation is less hostile," he said, before blue flames erupted from his boots, and he rocketed forward. Sienna threw out her whip as he extended his arm to punch. It wrapped around his arm with two heads, before one of the dust crystals inside shattered, ice covering his arm, but he just powered through it, smashing his fist into the wall and breaking the ice as she flipped down the hallway, her whip uncoiling from his arm. She started running, and he ran in pursuit, the other two faunus still fighting further down the hallway alongside two more men in masks. A door at the end of the hallway seemingly their goal as he raised his arms.
"I'm going to ask all of you to stand down before I start using lethal measures," he warned, both fists raised as Sienna stood between him and the other Faunus… wait where did the-
A dart stuck to the side of his suit, and an electrical jolt ran through it… Slowly he turned his head towards the masked girl, who's gun's cord was still stuck to his arm, and slowly looked at his energy tank… yep she'd added a two percent charge with that. But such was the case with those who encountered that which they didn't understand.
"We need to get out of here," Sienna ordered, still staring Odysseus down as he slowly raised his emitters again, the beams in them charing to fire as the bull horned man looked towards him, and growled.
"I'll give you all one final chance to surrender," Odysseus warned, before Sienna looked at the horned Faunus, who just groaned before pulling something out of his coat… a bomb.
"Sorry, but we're not done yet Odysseus," she started, preparing to jump… they'd gotten the warning so he fired.
The bull horned Faunus threw the device away and drew his sword as soon as the lasers started firing, and the two other faunus failed to dodge, but Sienna and the other girl did. The final one standing just… struck each beam with his sword, hair starting to glow red as he rushed forward.
The energy around him was high, but he already had an idea, and a hope. "Aegis!" he threw up the full might of his shields, pouring a good twenty percent of power into them for safe measure as the man swung his sword.
Everything went dark for a moment as his sword slashed across the Aegis shield, the power rapidly dropping… before stopping at half the power he'd poured into it. The wall however, was completely wrecked… as was the surrounding area as the energy practically blew the bull horned man back, hard. He skid across the ground as Seinna and the other faunus ran out the hole they'd managed to get blown in the wall. The horned faunus on the other hand, grit his teeth and charged at him again, swinging his sword for Odysseus' neck.
For his part, he put up his hand, grabbing the blade of the sword, much to the masked man's apparent shock… before squeezing, the red blade shattering in his grip, the man stumbling back and staring in shock at his broken weapon, before Odysseus just punched him in the face, sending him flying down the hallway.
"Adam!" Sienna shouted, an explosion going off against his back, he turned his head, Sienna standing in the threshold as Adam slowly stood up, pulling his sheath off his belt and firing at Odysseus, the rounds from his sheath, which also seemed to be some sort of rifle, just bouncing of Odysseus' still active shield.
"What is the White Fang?" he turned his head towards Sienna, but raised a hand towards Adam, energy gathering at his fingers… and Sienna just looked at him confused.
"...How do you not know?" she muttered under her breath, just as Adam got up and charged at Odysseus, grabbing at his midriff and trying to grapple him… and failing as Odysseus grabbed the back of his coat.
"Discover that, Sienna… perhaps one day we'll both find our answers," he said quietly, before dragging Adam off him and throwing him at Sienna, who dodged her subordinate's body, before helping him to his feet, and taking one last look at the armored Odysseus, who's suit was now sparking… he had one more feint up his sleeves.
Sienna just… nodded, but running, Adam close behind her as Odysseus walked up towards the threshold and gripped it with one hand, watching as the pair ran out of the compound, through the hole they'd left in the wall alongside many other Faunus… the sparks still coming off his suit as he sighed, and started walking back towards the storeroom he'd left Snows in.
He had both some explaining, and more than a bit of lying to do. Such was the tale of Odysseus, in search of what was right and what was wrong… and who he could trust.
AN: I am aware that the White Fang comes later in the timeline. Not all the Heroes appeared at the same time. Odysseus is just a bit more late than some of the others.