Legends. Stories scattered through time. Mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains, forgetting so easily that we are remnants, byproducts of a forgotten past.
Man, born from dust, was strong, wise and resourceful, but he was born into an unforgiving world. An inevitable Darkness, creatures of destruction, the creatures of Grimm, set their sights on Man and all of his creations. These forces clashed, and it seemed the Darkness was intent on returning Man's brief existence to the Void. However, even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change, and in time, Man's passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity led them to the tools that help even the odds. This power was appropriately named Dust.
Nature's wrath in hand, Man lit their way through the Darkness, and in the Shadow's absence came strength, civilization, and most importantly, life. But even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker and die. And when they are gone, Darkness will return.
So, you may prepare your Guardians, build your Monuments to a so-called "free world", but take heed: There will be no victory in strength!
But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten, things that require a smaller, more honest soul.
August 4th, 2578
26 Years After Halo Event
One Minute After Slipspace Detonation
"We're coming in too fast!"
Scott held on to the hovering command chair for dear life as the Prideful Vengeance entered the planet's upper atmosphere. About a minute ago, they had exited Slipspace after the drives blew. How they weren't halfway to oblivion was beyond him, but he wasn't going to question it. Instead, they had found themselves in low orbit around an unidentified planet. Seconds later, the repulsor engines had lost power and the Covenant Heavy Cruiser was caught in the world's gravity. After a few seconds of searching, the SPARTAN-IV Supersoldier had been able to find an interface port and plug Kara in. Now the A.I. was desperately trying to get the warship under control.
"Reroute all power to the repulsors, but leave the shields up!" Scott ordered. "We need to slow this damn thing down now!"
"Already on it!" She replied.
As soon as the Vengeance hit the lower atmosphere, the engines flared back to life and the ship substantially decelerated. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, as they saw that a green forest now filled the holographic viewscreens.
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Kara yelled.
The Covenant warship slammed into the ground with tremendous force, the energy shields breaking as it started sliding through the forest. Trees were either mowed down, snapped against the nanolaminate hull, or pushed aside as the four fins under the bow cut deep canyon-like trenches. Eventually, the massive three-kilometer-long cruiser came to a slow halt.
Across the entire vessel, there was nothing but death. Those Covenant Storm soldiers who hadn't evacuated in time were either killed on impact or injured to the point where they couldn't move, only to die a slow and painful death. Unggoy and Kig-Yar were pulverized by the impact alone; Mgalekgolo worm colonies had exploded, coating walls, floors, and ceilings in translucent orange blood; and Sangheili that survived the crash-landing but were too injured to do anything opted for a quick death as they impaled themselves with Type-1 Energy Swords or blew themselves up with Type-1 Plasma Grenades. Even the Prometheans were not spared as they had all disintegrated upon impact.
As for Scott, he was thrown from the command chair as the Vengeance made landfall and did not get up until the ship came to a complete stop. He was saved from death only because he was wearing his MJOLNIR Gen. 2 Venator armor, which had locked up before the crash.
"Ugh," Scott grunted as he blinked the stars out of his vision. Unlocking his armor, he slowly got up from the floor and looked around. Besides a fallen beam and some hanging cables, the bridge was relatively intact.
"Kara, you still with me?" he asked. Nothing replied back, and the Spartan started to get a little worried. Did she get damaged? "Kara?"
The central holo-table lit up, and the hologram of a blond-haired woman wearing a skin-tight white T-shirt, white gloves, a blue denim skirt, red combat boots, and a short red cape appeared in the center. (AN: Think Supergirl from Justice League Unlimited) Holding a hand to her head, her form glitched a little as she replied, "Yeah...just...just give me a second." Kara flickered some more and, exactly one second later, stopped.
"Are you okay?"
"I am now, Scott, thanks," Kara said as she quickly scanned her Spartan guardian. "Looks like those upgrades to your armor paid off. You actually managed to come out without so much as a scratch. Although, I think we shouldn't try something like this again."
Scott smirked at her dry humor behind his two V-shaped visors before he turned serious again. His mind went back to the ship crashing and he voiced his thoughts. "What's the status on this ship?"
Kara sighed. "The Vengeance took some damage, but the shields managed to absorb most of the impact before they collapsed. Besides some hull breaches, the cruiser is still pretty much in one piece. The repulsors are fine, but the crash knocked them offline and are now in a reboot mode. It'll take awhile before I can get this thing airborn again."
The Spartan nodded before he asked, "Did you manage to get a reading on this planet before everything went down?"
"Not completely. Other than scans on the atmosphere and the surface, I couldn't get anything else before everything shut down. The planet we're on has a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, so we're not going to suffocate once we exit the ship."
Scott looked at her in confusion, but the A.I. beat him to the punch. "Before you ask, I detected structures ten kilometers west of here. Whether they were Forerunner or something else, I wasn't able to find out which. I can say, though, that we're far away from any UNSC or Sangheili outpost, so if there are any locals here, we better hope they're friendly enough to help us establish contact back home."
"Why can't you just drop a distress beacon? Or for that matter, try to make contact with the UNSC or the Swords? I'm sure long-range comms would still work."
"I had already dropped a beacon, and I would use the comms if this planet wasn't surrounded by a local magnetic stellar field, which is preventing me from making any kind of contact with anyone!" She paused and sighed once more before saying, "I'm sorry, Scott, but this is our only option right now."
Scott went over what she just said and he couldn't find a way to counter any of it. Even though it was less than ideal to make contact with unknowns without any knowledge about them whatsoever, a lesson learned from both the Human-Covenant War and the ongoing Promethean Conflict, it was better than doing nothing at all. Reluctantly, he said, "Alright, but remember, if this plan backfires on us, it was your idea."
With that, the Spartan proceeded to look over the weapons he had brought with him. He still had three clips left for his BR85N-R Recon Battle Rifle, seven mags for his modified M6D Magnum Sidearm, six rockets for his legendary M41 SPNKR EX-H Wolfpack Rocket Launcher, and two M9 Frag Grenades. On top of that, he had an eighty-nine percent charge left on an outdated Type-25 Plasma Rifle he acquired from a Sangheili Storm, two Plasma Grenades he stole from a Kig-Yar T'vaoan, three Type-3 Fuel Rod Cluster Grenades he took from an Unggoy Heavy, one Z-040 Pulse Grenade from a Knight Luminary, a Z-90 Hardlight Shield Armor Mod off of the remains of a Watcher, and fifteen power cells/shells for a as-of-now disassembled Z-180 Scattershot he 'requisitioned' from a Knight Battlewagon. He also made sure the two combat knives on his chest plate weren't dull or bent or cracked and that his personal Energy Sword still had a decent charge left.
Satisfied, Scott proceeded over to the holo-table and was about to pull Kara out when she stopped him.
"No, someone has to stay here and get this ship in working order again. Might as well be me." She then smirked and added, "You can take Clara, though."
As soon as she said that, her form started to split down the middle. Soon enough, another hologram stood next to her. This one looked just like Kara, only she wore a blue skin-tight T-shirt, red elbow-length gloves, a red skirt, red knee-length high-heeled boots, and a slightly longer red cape. (AN2: Supergirl again, but from the earlier episodes of Justice League Unlimited)
"Finally!" Clara exclaimed. "Do you know how long I've been waiting to go on another mission? I was practically dying of boredom!"
"Oh, stop being so dramatic, Clara. You had a mission with Scott two days ago."
"Two days is too long! I've done nothing but think! And you know what happens when we think for long periods of time!"
"We're two fifth-generations 'smart' A.I.s, born from the same mind, and modified with both Covenant and Forerunner tech which more than tripled our life-spans! Thinking is not going to kill us!"
"It happened with Cortana! It could happen to us as well!"
"That was twenty-one years ago! Things have changed!"
"It could still happen!"
"ENOUGH!" The twin A.I.s flinched at Scott's voice and turned to him, momentarily forgetting their argument. The Spartan looked at both of them and said, "Look, arguing is not getting us anywhere. Can you girls drop it and get back to the matter at hand?"
"She started it!" Kara and Clara said while pointing at each other.
"Well, I'm finishing it!" Scott declared. He looked at Kara and ordered, "Work on getting this ship airborn and space worthy. Update me periodically." He glanced back at Clara and asked, "You ready?"
Clara nodded and Scott held out his hand. She walked onto his palm and disappeared, transferring herself to his armor systems and neural implants. With that, he walked out of the bridge towards the main hangar. He soon arrived to find their ride waiting for them.
When they were first given the mission, ONI had supplied them with a slightly modified F-41 Broadsword Interceptor. In all pretense and purposes, it looked very much the same as the regular fighters. The only two differences were the color (dark grey instead of white) and the fact it was also outfitted with Sangheili-built active camouflage.
Scott climbed into the cockpit, sealed himself inside, and quickly performed the pre-flight checks. Once finished, he powered up the fighter, brought the Broadsword up off the hangar floor, turned it around, and rocketed out of the hangar. As soon as he was outside, the Spartan activated the active camo, the fighter completely vanished from view.
Alright, Scott thought as he shot towards the far off structures. Time to see what this planet has in store for us.
Hidden among the trees below, the man stood slack-jawed, seeing but not quite believing what had just happened in front of him moments ago. A spaceship-a very large alien spaceship-had soared over past him and disappeared out of his view. At first, he thought he had hallucinated the whole thing. Looking at his flask, he was about to pour his drink out when he felt the ground beneath him tremble tremendously. Instantly knowing he was not imagining things, he rushed towards the impact site.
He reached a clearing and stopped, staring at the large purple-colored spaceship in shock. While it looked damaged, he could see that it was pretty much still in one piece. The size of it was immense. It had to be at least three kilometers long.
He waited to see if anyone, or anything, would emerge from the ship. Sure enough, after about a few minutes, a small strange-looking aircraft flew out of the ship towards the west and disappeared-not out of his view, but literally vanishing in thin air before his very eyes, much to his surprise.
But he saw the trajectory, where it was heading. Very soon, it will arrive at the kingdom. It will arrive at Vale.
Quickly taking out his scroll, he called the one man who would actually believe him, one who he needed to call anyway.
"Ozpin," Qrow Branwen exclaimed, "you're not gonna believe this!"
Here it is! The first chapter is finally here! I would have made it longer, and put it out sooner, but something called real life got in the way...and is still getting in the way! That said, don't expect another update anytime soon. I'll update when I have the time. That is all I can promise.
But I wanted to get something out, so I decided to split this into two parts. You got Scott and Kara/Clara's arrival on Remnant. Next chapter, Ruby stops a robbery and is saved by an unexpected new friend.
Don't forget to review, favorite, follow!
Special shoutout to RandomHeroX. Go check out his ongoing story Underneath the Surface, a RWBY fanfic, and make sure to review, favorite, follow that story as well
See ya next chapter! Raptor out!
