In a room, deep beneath the earth, a group of people had gathered together around a table. They were forced to listen to a report that many had hoped they wouldn't be alive to hear.

"We have made contact with their scouts at our furthest outpost. They were defeated swiftly, but scans detected a signal going out before the last vessel was destroyed." The voice came from a small speaker at the centre of the table. "We don't what they might have sent, but we believe that the Grimm now knows of our existence."

Many of them already knew that the meeting would contain nothing good once they heard everyone had been called. There was a great silence as they processed the news. The most powerful men and women on Remnant were gathered together in this room, but none of them dared to say the first word.

Eventually, the Atlesian prime minister spoke up. She was known for her bravery in the face overwhelming odds, but everyone could hear the fear in her voice.

"We should raise the fleets, if we gather our strength we should be able to beat back their first wave."

Her suggestion broke the dam that had held back everyone's voice and it soon became impossible to know who spoke.

"The message has to be false, they ca-"

"We have to prepare the home defences if they make it-"

"We were supposed to have more time and no-"

And so the conversations went. Ideas and arguments were spat out, each one shot down as everyone started to panic. Plans had been made in preparation for this, but every single one needed more time to get ready. Not a single plan had any hope to stand against the threat the Grimm was.

Except for one.

"Silence, are you kids or leaders of nations?" The great voice of Vacuoan State Councillor yelled over the noise. "Everyone here knows that all our plans will no longer work. It's time to activate project Exodus."

Project Exodus, intended to only be activated in case all other plans failed. They would evacuate their best and brightest to start anew on a planet far away from here. It also meant that they would leave billions to die by the Grimm since they would never be able to evacuate everyone in time.

The room had quietened down once again as everyone knew in their hearts that there was no other choice. They had multiple projects in the works, but project Exodus was the only one that was even close to completion.

Most of the people in the room knew that they didn't have a seat on the ships and would be left behind.

The people chosen for the ships were people that would give humanity the best chance to survive. The ones in the room were talented to have become leaders of their nation. An unfortunate fact was that they only had so much space and most of that was reserved for what they needed most.

A politician might be useful to keep the people together and morale up, but if the ship broke down because of a lack of engineer then everyone would die. Several politicians had been chosen for those, rising stars and some would only admit privately were far more talented than them.

"I propose the activation of project Exodus and the relocation of available resources to the project." The same Vacuoan who had quieted the room spoke. "And that we move to stage two immediately. Key-personnel will be transferred to the ships and they will start loading up cargo. Those in favour?"

Every hand in the room was raised.

"And those against?"

There were none.

"Then we will start preparations immediately. Stage two might rouse the public's attention, we'll need to prepare our agents to make sure that the project stays a rumour for as long as possible."

Everyone went to action immediately. They informed their respective government and a message was sent to a location in the middle of the Vacuo desert.

In a location beneath the sand dunes of the desert, a silver-haired man took his eye away from a mountain of reports to focus on a message on his scroll. A frown came as he read the message that morphed into resignation as he read it. He pressed a button to call in his assistant, someone needed to finish these reports.

It didn't take long before his assistant walked in and stopped once she saw his grim face.

"Director Ozpin?"

"It would seem, Glynda, that we have less time than we hoped for."