AN: Short chapter. Sorry!
Hans and I, along with the others approached the JDS Yamato, it's 46cm cannons shining proudly in the sunlight. A red carpet was rolled out, and sailors cheered as the reincarnation of their ship came home. Yamato walked down in wonder as the sailors threw their caps in the air, and waved as she walked onboard. A giant banner unfurled, the words 'welcome home' written in japanese waving in the wind. Her fingers slid across the cannon, as she looked in amazement.
I stepped foward, and began warmly.
"Welcome home, Yamato. It's been quite a few years since you have come back." The honor guard fired off a salute, the crack of rifles careening across the harbor. I dismissed the sailors, and they rushed to make the ship pristine, as morale skyrocketed from having the Pride of Japan return to their vessel. Hans, along with Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, seemed to be in awe of the ship. It wasn't surprising; the Yamato had been the pinnacle of naval battleships during World War II. I stepped up onto the deck, and noticed what seemed to be four young teenagers, along with what appeared to be two men talking to Ozpin. I inspected one of the men; he seemed to be wearing a uniform of some sort, along with the obvious insigna of a major painted on his helmet. What seemed to be some sort of rifle was slung on his arm, and he was wearing what seemed to be dark, heavily plated armor. I walked over, and the major saw my rank and saluted.
"Admiral, sir!" I gave him back a salute.
"Major... Who?" His reply came quickly, with a sense of professionalism and pride.
"Major Heinreich of the Imperium of Alaria, sir!" I took a quick check; It matched none of the nations of Remnant or Earth.
"And where did you come from, son?" I asked, as Hans came over to see what was going on. Heinreich pointed up at the sky.
"Space. We hail from a planet known as Terra, and achieved space travel. We colonised many different star systems and came to Remnant to help our Fallen Angel." I glanced at where his unit patches would be and saw a giant white number one, along with the words 'Soldiers of Summer' on his patch, along with what appeared to be a white hooded woman, wielding what appeared to be a massive pure white scythe. I nodded at Hans, who began talking.
"Alright, Kind. Tell me the tale behind that woman on your patch." He was about to speak, until I noticed what appeared to be a dropship come flying over. I didn't recognize it's make; the dropship, however, sported a rather impressive arsenal; two miniguns, along with rocket pods and what appeared to be shielding. The dropship landed, and the bay doors opened, depositing soldiers along with a armored officer onto the docks, the soldiers wearing the same uniformed armor as Heinreich, but their armor was a lighter shade of gray. Heinreich turned and quickly gave a salute.
"General Graham, Sir!" The man waved him down, and offered a gauntleted hand.
"I am General Graham, of the Imperium of Alaria. I've been informed by high command to support your operation, and hopefully help you find your way home in the future, if you wish to return." He turned and nodded a Heinreich, who nodded again, saluted, and led the soldiers back onto the dropship.
"RUBY! GET BACK HERE!" I looked in surprise, as General Graham and I turned to see what appeared to be one of the teenagers running on the boardwalk, looking in curiosity at one of the 46cm naval guns as the other man ran after her. One of the guards stopped her, and she whined, as she was dragged away by the man. General Graham chuckled, and began to talk.
"She's just like her mother... curious about everything. But she has a good heart. That's good." I turned, and asked.
"You know her mother?" He nodded, and then gave a nod back to the dropship, where Heinreich was located.
"You saw his patch, right? 'Soldiers of Summer'. Summer Rose was one of the greatest people I ever had the honor to fight alongside with." He looked on at Ruby fondly, as if remembering something.
"I first served in 1920, during the First Great War of Terra. We were fighting against the Helvetian Empire, who had attacked our ally, Francia. I met Summer in the trenches of Bordeaux, after she has somehow came to my planet, and right in front of me. Her appearance shocked both sides, long enough for us to stop shooting. She was wearing a pure white cloak, trimmed with Gold. She had a holy light around her; as if God himself had sent his archangel to help save us." His helmeted head glanced up at the sun.
"And the rest, as they say, is history." He nodded off to the teenagers, and began talking.
"I have no doubt that Ruby will want you to come along; Team JNPR will most likely tag along with them as well, and Major Heinreich will come along with you, as per my orders. If you need any orbital support, tell Major Heinreich; he will report to me, and I will deploy whatever assets available to provide fire support and reinforcements." His faceplate unpolarized, revealing his scarred, grinning and very human face.
"After all, Summer gave us our chance to survival. We will ensure the survival of the people she love, and destroy all those who oppose us." General Graham polarized his helmet and walked back onto the dropship, as Major Heinreich, along with a group of what appeared to be fifty heavily armored men followed behind him, in column formation. Hans gave a low whistle as they marched by; and it was obvious to see why. Each single soldier carried a rifle and a sidearm, and it seemed that they also carried what appeared to be a compact rocket launcher. I glanced as they marched by; Grey metallic armor, crafted with such precision that it looked as if it was fresh off the factory. What appeared to be sockets were mounted below their rifles; Before I could question what they were, the Major boomed out an order;
"1st Legionnaires! Fix Bayonets!" The column stopped, and suddenly, what appeared to be hardlight projections of a bayonet materialized, and Heinreich nodded.
"Good. Deactivate and board the ship." the bayonets dissipated, and they marched onboard the JDS Yamato, parting around Yamato who was still frozen in shock. I watched as what I assumed to be Rommel's students walked up the catwalk, Rommel following behind. I straightened my cap and brushed off my uniform, and walked up to my ship, ready for whatever it was that would come from the near future.
Offizer Hans Rommel POV:
The ship was clean. That was for sure. Now, if only Bismarck, Prinz Eugen, and Saratoga could be a little bit more considerate like Warspite and stay quiet, everything would be great. I groaned as they giggled with laughter, and got to my feet.
"I'm going to go check on everyone else. Later." Warspite waved me off, everyone else obviously busy. I walked up to the bridge, passing the two Alarian guardsmen. I entered and was greeted by Yamato, while Kenji and Heinreich seemed to be in a deep conversation. Heinreich had deployed some sort of hologram, and it displayed a live feed map of Remnant. The map had zoomed in on the continent of Menagerie; and zoomed in on what appeared to be the place itself. Heinreich looked up and waved me over.
"Hans, come here. You are part of command, after all." I walked up to the table, and looked at the hologram closely. Heinreich cleared his throat and continued.
"This is their base. In case things get ugly, I'll provide fire support. Hans, I trust you can speak thier russian?" I nodded.
"Good enough to hold a conversation. What now?" Heinreich looked out of the window of the bridge.
"Orbital scans indicate that there is a large presence of aquatic Grimm. around six hours ago, we registered what must be the largest aquatic Grimm we've ever seen. The hologram regenerated, showing the silhouette of something rather big, as I read the dimensions. Over fifty miles long and thirty miles wide. Whatever this was, it was a obvious threat.
"If we encounter this, then I'll call support. There is no way 46cm naval guns are capable of destroying a monstrosity like this." Heinreich changed the hologram again, now showing everything around our immediate vicinity, in a three hundred sixty degree view. I watched in fascination as holographic projections of aquatic life passed under the ship, and as the sea floor passed by.
"I've never seen technology like this..." Heinreich chuckled.
"Well, when humanity puts it's minds all together in the pursuit of science, you'll be able to achieve great things, and weaponry far superior than a nuclear missile." Heinreich left the hologram on the table, and Kenji started.
"Don't you need this?" Heinreich chuckled and shook his head.
"Think of it as a gift from the Imperium. If we had wanted, we could have burned this planet to the ground." He walked out of the bridge, most likely to view his men. Kenji turned to me.
"Alright, Mr. Rommel. Lets see if we can make contact using our radios." He turned to the radioman, and gestured for him to do his job. Heinreich came back in, carrying what appeared to be a platter of cookies. My heart stopped.
"Heinreich, Where did you find that platter?" Heinreich had taken off his helmet, and was munching on a cookie.
"Stole it from Ruby. And judging from the amount of years I've spent with Tai's family, she along with her team should be here in-" the hatch burst open, Ruby and crew spilling out and tripping over each other.
"Now." Weiss was the first to get to her feet, and I looked at her, unamused.
"Frau Schnee, What is your buisness here?" I questioned, and Heinreich tapped my shoulder and shook his head. I stepped back and he cleared his throat.
"Soldatin! Was ist die bedeutung davon?" He thundered, and Weiss stood straight up. I glanced around only to notice that I had stood straight as well, years of training still ingrained in my mind.
"Nichts, Herr!" Heinreich's eye twitched; andd it looked like he was about to snap, until Ruby pounced and stole the platter.
"My cookies!" She shouted, causing Kenji to grab his ears.
"Kuso! that was loud!" Heinreich stepped away and motioned for me to follow him, patting Ruby on the head as he went. We made our way outside, and he stopped at the railing and looked out to sea.
"So. Was there anything you wanted to discuss?" Heinreich glanced at me, and continued looking back at the ocean.
"Hans. Did you have any friends or family you left behind coming here?" I winced; and Heinreich noticed, because he shook his head.
"It's fine if you don't want to talk about it. Let me tell you about me, then." Heinreich began.
"When I came to Remnant, the first mission I was assigned was to destroy a White Fang base. A rather massive one, on the continent we are heading to." He paused; and I motioned for him to continue.
"I met a woman before. Her name's Hanna Scarlatina. She's my wife now, but back then, she was just a woman, terrified for her daughter." He spoke softly, and started again.
"Her daughter is Velvet Scarlatina; she's at Beacon Academy, learning to become a huntress. You've probably met her somewhere; her bunny ears aren't hard to miss." I dug through my mind, but came up blank.
"She was taken hostage by the White Fang; no doubt for 'recruits' for their cause. And so, I crushed their operation." I glanced at him.
"What's the point of this story?" Heinreich turned around, and glared.
"Shut up and listen. I'm still older than you by a few good years." He turned around again and continued.
"I saved her daughter; but in my rage, I ordered the execution of all prisoners of that siege." I blanched at that.
"How many-" Heinreich cut me off.
"Fifty thousand. I executed fifty thousand people that were rebels. I made many families lose a piece of them that day..." Heinreich looked across the ocean at something I couldn't see, and I realized what it was; the thousand yard stare.
"You may talk about your nuclear war, your survival in the aftermath; but that pales to when you have been fighting endless wars, and killed thousands of men and women, and destroyed millions of families and orphaned children." He stood up, and glanced back at me.
"There is a reason why my armor is black, Hans. While everyone else has gray armor, I have pure black. Do you know why?" I looked away.
"I've been nicknamed by the White Fang as a demon; a merciless general. A apostle of Death." He glanced at his arm, and I noticed the only white was the patch on his arm.
"While Summer Rose was a angel of heaven, I am a reaper of souls. From my countless actions, I have become death itself." He looked back at me, his visor now depolarized, and revealing stormy grey eyes.
"And that's why I must achieve redemption; and repent for my actions, while protecting those I care about." He turned around, opening the hatch.
"Take care of my daughter at Beacon for me, will you? And tell her her father says hello." He slammed the hatch shut, and I stood in shocked silence, as the waves gently bumped against the ship.