The assembled sergeants and captains of the second and third companies were huddled around the holographic dais within the battery's central command chamber. On display around them in a corona of blue light stood the tactical analyses of the unfolding battle. In the void holo, images of the legion's vessels continued to battle the Xenos invasion fleet with pinpricks of light erupting from the ships in the display along with the occasional flash of las fire from the Void Wolf which stood at the edges of the engagement sniping the enemy with their long range las batteries outside the Ork's effective range.

"The battle holds by a knife's edge." Sergeant Alcaeus remarked noting a line of projectile fire emanating from the planet into the void battle.

"Any word from captain Dagon or the fifth?" The sergeant continued asking to his captain.

"They are still burning out the Xenos from the third emplacement, it seems we must press on without those pyromaniacs." Bolvar answered before looking toward Tech Marine Jorgan who ministered over the battery's systems.

"Any chance we could turn these batteries on the Orks warships? Might turn the void battle into a mop up."

"Unfortunately, Captain the targeting systems were heavily damaged and in poor repair. What the Orks haven't taken as salvage is nearly inoperable; it's a miracle they were even able to fire this thing. As it stands, I am barely able to gain power for minor systems." Stated Jorgan a tech marine of the legion which even now worked diligently in repairing the cannon's systems.

"So, you're saying the battery needs batteries?" The room groaned as even by legion standards that was bad. So much so that the holo projection began to flicker and static when Jorgan attempted change the display.

"Spirit of the machine cease thy malfunction!" The tech marine stated in frustration before slamming his fist into the side of the console.

+++Rite of Override accepted+++

The display shifted back into focus showing the locations of the three batteries along with markers detailing green skin movements which became as numerous as a swarm of flies on a corpse the more northward you looked.

"It seems the damned Luna Wolves still hold the shelter, the Orks are practically throwing themselves at it." Captain Damarchus noted in a deep voice that bordered on the snarl. He stood next to Bolvar and was a giant by space marines standards with eyes set in a permanent crimson while his face was marred marked with dozens of scares gained from centuries of close quarters fighting with the foulest Xenos the Imperium had encountered and left him in a monstrous wreck.

"Then you had better hurry with setting the rearguard as I'll be marching up to them as soon as your company has set up our rearguard. Last thing we need is more of the horde at our backs."

"We're finalizing the defense, still I wish I was in your place; Throne knows I'd rather crush a greenskin's skull in my hands then let you have all the fun." Damarchus exclaimed clenching his power fists in a quick gesture for emphasis.

"Oh, come now, if I brought you along, you'll scare the Orks away with that pretty face of yours. Besides, I'd bet my left hand you'll be knee deep in Ork guts once they start coming up from the south."

"I suppose that's something to look forward to. Will the first company be joining you?" Bolvar gestured to the display and pointing to the entrance to the mountains north of their current position.

"Not right away. The second will head northward through the pass that led into the mountains. They are too steep for drop assault, so we'll deploy beacons for a teleport strike when we engage the Orks on the field. With any luck the fifth will clear the third battery and march to join us and our ships can enter orbit to deploy armored support. Once we secure the Shelter, we can redirect our efforts southward to the rest of the planet.

"Those passes would make good fallback positions. Let me know when you have cleared them, and I'll send some men to fortify the entrance in case they overrun us here and make sure no Greenskin leaves that valley alive." Damarchus pointed out.

"Careful now you're starting to sound like one of Dorn's sons. It is not your usual approach to defense." Bolvar joked.

"I'll admit I much prefer to be up close and cracking heads but considering our numbers a change in tactics isn't uncalled for." Damarchus remarked.

"Alright I'm just teasing; we will be on our way as soon as the Second company is mobilized. I'll leave you to your defense while I… speak of the devil." Bolvar paused noticing Acheron enter the room and keeping to the back… looks like he could not put it off any longer. Damarchus looked behind him and noted the sergeant presence before frowning.

"I'll... be off then." The captain murmured before leaving the two Fire touched legionaries and noticeably avoiding the sergeant.

"Captain Bolvar, the second is mobilized as you asked; I think now would be the best time to."

"I know, I know, by the throne… lead the way." Acheron nodded before gesturing to a deserted balcony outside the battery command center. Where they oversaw the bustle of the second company preparing to march out.

"So, Acheron what can you tell me if the curse?" Bolvar asked cutting to the heart of the thing that haunted him. It would not be an easy conversation.

"Well, it began during the Rangdan Xenocides and it has been bleeding us ever since." Acheron began.

Training Grounds Ruin.

Ruby hugged the wall of the ruined keep like it was her own mother, keeping her breathing low and mechanically going through the process of replacing Cresent Rose's magazine clip; regular ammo would not cut it. The Nevermore Alpha threw itself at the keep walls in a fury that was near suicidal causing the ancient structure's bones to shake as stone and masonry fell onto the main hall enlarging the gaps in the room as something massive flew over the growing cracks in the roof causing her and NPR to point their weapons up in caution. She held her breath to calm her nerves and steadied her aim in practiced routine as she waited for the massive creature to make its move. She heard a grown and spared a second glance at her wounded partner who sat next to her; blood ruining her combat skirt and creating a small pool on the floor before her Aura could still the bleeding.

"Can your aura handle the wound?" Ruby asked the bloody Heiress.

"I'm fine. Just need a moment for it to heal." the Schnee replied as she focused her aura on the region of her wounds. Ruby looked back toward the ceiling trying to track the creature from the sound of its wings; expecting to crash through the roof any minute; but it never came? Did it give up? No... that cannot be right that thing would be trying to feast on her bones they were dead as... Her thoughts died as she looked to Ren eyes closed in meditative concentration as Ruby took a moment to feel the tranquility of his aura envelop the room smothering the inferno of dread that cemented the room mere moments ago. She waited a few moments, then a minute for something to go wrong but nothing came, no banshee screech or head on collision with the ruin. She allowed herself a sigh of relief as she let down her weapon and then all hell broke out as a section of wall gave out with the Nevermore's bloodied beak moving to snatch the young Reaper but was just out of reach. She did not waste a moment and fired her magazine as explosive detonations smashed into its red and white shelled head further increasing the level of cracks and bloodied wounds it sported from its near suicidal ramming. The sheer shock of its arrival broke Ren's concentration and smashing away his mask of indifference for a moment as he fired into the beast with Pyrrha and followed by a massive blast as Weiss sent a bolt of lightning dust into the creature's face as Nora maddeningly charged slamming her Hammer into its armored beak with the cheer of a child on a homicidal super-high forcing its bonelike shell to crack down the middle and leaving it's left eye charred black as it retreated. The group stayed silent taking a watchful moment to breath as they heard it screech outside.

"I've never covered a large area before; I could try again if stick close." Ren suggested maintaining a controlled demeanor despite the situation

"No, I don't think it will fall for that again, this Alpha's smart if we stay here, it might send this place down on our heads. We might have better luck splitting up at the Keep ramparts, divide its attention and shoot it down." Ruby recommended.

"The Nevermore has taken everything we have shot at it. We need something stronger to knock out it out the air." Pyrrha added as the keep shook again.

"We'll kind of limited on ammunition so do you have any ideas?" Ruby asked.

"Could that work?" Jaune asked pointing to one of the cracks in the roof to one of the keep's massive Towers which held an ancient ballista at its top.

"If the wood isn't rotted to hell, it might be good for one shot. Bolts are probably rusted with age though." Ruby theorized.

"It won't matter if I can enhance it with my glyphs." Weiss countered

"Not a bad idea, but we need to keep it away from the tower, I think we should stick to partners. Have one group distract and the rest get the ballista ready." Jaune suggested to which Ruby shook he head.

"No, you all help with the Ballista, I'll distract, my semblance will keep me a few steps out of its reach."

"You can't keep it distracted forever on your own." Jaune stated

"I don't need to; I just need to keep it occupied long enough for us to kill it." Ruby coldly replied.

Northern Forest

The forest was alive with the growls and stomps of a stampede that only grew louder every moment Yang ran northwards with Ember Celica firing into the oncoming horde behind them. Yang knew it wasn't likely they could sneak past the horde entirely, especially not with wounded but the fact so many Grimm gave chase to their small band to catch their sent was ether piss poor timing, bad luck, or God's twisted sense of humor and she doubted any of those options were mutually exclusive.

"Shit, shit, shit." She heard Dove mutter in a fearful panic as he and sky ran following Blake while carrying Garnet's prone form while Yang and Graff fired at the Grimm snapping at their heels growling and screeching as they tried to run their pray down.

"We've got to lose them." Graf growled out sending his cleaver out in a broad backward swing that sliced open the mouth of an approaching Beowulf.

"We need to keep them away from the wounded, Graf, Blake on my mark get ready to fight."

"Are you crazy we'll be overrun!" Graf exclaimed

"Either we fight now or die tired when they catch up to us!" Yang responded as she came to a sudden stop before turning and launching her fist forward into the face of a lunging Beowulf cracking open and shattering it's horned skull through sheer force in an explosion of shattering bone and ichor before ducking from the swipe of an Ursa and gave it a brutal right hook with a parting shot from Ember Cilicia that sent it crashing into one of its kin and sending both Ursa tumbling to the ground as Blake descended on them from above, sending Gambol Shroud in a wide decapitating arc that took both out of the battle permanently. Graff was worse off fighting off three Beowulves in a savage attempt to survive as he cleaved open the head of one of the Grimm before the Alpha kept at him with a deadly swipe that tore deep into the muscle and bone of his arm forcing him to one hand the blade until his Aura healed the limb to functionality. But it mattered little as the second surviving wolf lunged at him from behind and Graff didn't have to time to raise his weapon in a half hazard attempt to defend himself before… before the Grimm's face became a pulped mess as Lizzie's interceded on Graff's behalf sending two bursts of dust rounds into the monster's head and torso knocking it off course and allowing Graff to step out of the way and using his offhand to swing down biting halfway through the Beowulf's neck as a Loud crash hit the air followed by a pained screech and sending the Alpha racing toward the fresh source of negative emotion.

"Cowards!" Yang shouted as she saw the now fleeing forms of Sky and Dove flee into the northern forest leaving the now prone Garnet at the mercy of the Alpha charging his way. She blasted away the Beowulf she was tangling with and ran faster then she had ever run across the field feeling a parting scratch break the skin of her back but pressed on regardless and tackled the charging alpha and sending both of them skidding to the ground as it scratched wildly at the blond who wasted no time in pummeling the damn thing with wild abandon with her face becoming the visage of a red eyed goddess of Fury and War. It was a barrage of red tunnel vision that she could not stop or satiate, only unleash and she did without any reservation as her punches sent waves of searing heat down onto the Grimm below and set the surrounding area aflame through sheer proximity as she let out every ounce of frustration and anger she gathered since she arrived at Beacon. It was so ferocious and brutal that the surrounding lesser Grimm stopped their quarreling with the hunters and edged back away from the huntress that beast the now dead alpha into a bloody pulp and it wasn't hard to imagine why.

She stood up slowly as the new fatal threat the Grimm sensed sent them back. Her body was covered in black ichor that practically caked her arms and gauntlets and burned her flesh and irritated the scabs and scratches she had received from the brutalized alpha and her eyes were a deep dark red that offered only oblivion. They ran, forgetting the pray in their grasp and when the remaining alpha tried to rally its pack mates Yang didn't even give it time to realize she charged tore its head off from its body with her bare hands. By the time they left she was still stewing, fizzling in fury, and only seemed to clear when she heard someone approach behind her.

"Is everyone alive?" She asked monotone and calm, yet the mask could not completely hide the fury she had just unsealed.

"Graff is hurt but he will live. Garnet though… he's not looking good." Blake responded her own instincts preventing her from approaching too close out of fear and the fact that the ground around her was becoming charred.

"Next time I see those two; their dead." She stated. As she let out a deep breath and closed her eyes feeling the rage dull and the red fade to lilac. She heard shouts and squeals from the southern forest; more Grimm, they did not have time. She turned around and sprinted to the rest of the group huddling around the prone aspirant.

"Graff, grab the other side we need to."

"No." Garnet countermanded before breaking out into a wheezing, bloody cough.

"If we stay much longer the horde will catch up."

"I'll slow you down… I won't last long like this anyway." He grumbled spitting out another mouthful of blood to keep his speech clear. Yang looked to Lizzie and her down rested face and flattened ears told her everything she needed to know.

"Thanks for trying." He went and weakly grabbed at the pistol in his belt and laying it against his chest. Growls came now and shapes emerged from the forest. Not Ursa or Beowulves this time but something far worse. They were rarely seen save in the most Grimm infested territories or in the massive hordes that wondered the wild lands outside the kingdoms. They were bipedal and Jackal faced with massive hook like arms and each one could face off against a fully trained huntsman. Yang knew she could survive this, she could fight them she knew it in her bones, but the others may not be there with her by the time the dust settled, and she would not be at her best if Ozpin tried something.

"You should go now… I'll keep the carrion busy."

"You know it won't be quick." Yang confirmed and Garnet gestured to the pistol.

"Old man always said to save one." Garnet weakly joked before trying to take aim.

"Go on, save yourselves. I'll buy you some time." And to Yang's eternal shame she and the rest of her survivors ran northward with only the sound of gunshots behind them.

Keep of the White Witch.

Ruby fired a shot from Cresent rose before running again through the massive ramparts of the keep as a storm of barbed feathers pierced the northern masonry. She had to keep moving, keep running if she didn't, she would be skewered and made into the world's most macabre pincushion; Yang did mention she could be pretty thorny

"Sis where are you?" She muttered to no one before biting down the worry, now was not the time to be distracted. Just a little longer and the tables would be turned. The Nevermore circled around the keep trying it's damnedest to kill Ruby through any means possible which was the point. As long as it was chasing her it wasn't going after the others, they needed to time to get things ready.

"Cmon, you bird brained monster! I'm right here!" She shouted letting out two more explosive blasts at its underside that ripped out chunks of flesh as the creature gave a roar of pain before diving at her again. Ruby halted as she waited for the thing to get close and then jumped using her semblance to reach another section of the Rampart as the Nevermore slammed headfirst into the keep wall and sent it tumbling in a violet crash! She looked as she landed refocusing on the Nevermore as It withdrew from the creator sluggishly with bloody ichor running down its face in rivers. It couldn't take much more but the keep needed to stay standing so she didn't want to send it into another of the keep's walls. Thankfully she didn't have to as a blast from Nora's grenade burst into the air from the other side of the keep; it was finally time and Ruby shot the creature again to draw its attention and began running. It followed with a bloody screech and the flapping of its winds sent powerful gusts if winds that sent dust and debris wildly into the air.

The chase continued with Ruby managing to stay just out of range using her semblance but stayed close enough that it wouldn't go searching for another less annoying quarry. She kept firing at it for good measure. It sent another barrage of feathers that only nipped her cape and nicked her shoulder, that was too close. It was picking up speed and gaining and she pushed her semblance to its limit and felt fed leg muscles begin to rip themselves apart. It was defending trying with one final effort to snatch her with its ruined beak with animalistic focus; and that's where it made a mistake as it failed to notice the ruined keep tower ahead and the armed ballista JNPR had been trying to get working. It fired with an audible click as the bolt was let loose and the mechanisms finally succumbed to age. The Rusted bolt flew over Ruby with sickening speed as a massive white glyph erupted in its path and bathed it in ice as it slammed into the Nevermore and sending it crashing towards the courtyard below as Sharp formations if ice tipped into its body and left its underside a frozen husk that shattered on Impact. Ruby looked down at the Nevermore noticing the twitching groaning monstrosity was somehow still alive despite its fatal wounds. Weiss and JNPR were not far behind her.

"Oh, come on! How is it not dead!" Jaune exclaimed

"We should finish it off and break its legs!

"Nora, I think we broke its legs already from that shot." Weiss deadpanned

"Ah c'mon Weiss we can always break um more!" Nora pouted.

"…We can always break them more." Weiss corrected.

"Okay Grammar Grimm."

"We should finish it off before it attracts more Grimm." Ruby stated and they aimed their weapons to finish it off, but Ruby thought better of it.

"I got this. Can you get me down there Weiss?" Ruby asked her partner.

"That's unnecessarily dangerous! We can finish it here without putting yourself at risk, why would you want to go down there."

"I saw this thing tear apart my Bullhead and eat an initiate alive, I'm not going to sleep until I Rip off its head with my scythe." Ruby answered silently and not expecting such a brutal answer Weiss nodded before replying.

"Find but I will not have you die so close to finishing initiation and having me fail, I'm going down with you." Making several glyphs that Ruby jumped across heading down toward the wreck of the courtyard. Weiss used her semblance again to guide herself down.

The Nevermore tried to bring itself up as it felt the prepay approach, but the sheer amount of blood loss and broken bones made it impossible, it could only stare defiant and vengeful at Ruby as she approached with Weiss in tow. Not so dangerous anymore. Honestly looking at it now Ruby thought it was pathetic and as helpless as the initiates it was feasting in mere hours ago. She barely said a word as she brought out Crescent Rose and like a true Grimm Reaper ended its life in a single strike to the remnants of its ruined neck. It was only then she allowed herself to breath a deep sigh of relief as the sky turned golden with the setting sun.

"Is it over?" Jaune asked as the rest of the group caught up with them.

"I think so." Ruby nodded but didn't truly believe it herself. To make sure she went out toward the outer gate, the fields were clear, serene. She saw figured emerge from the tree line at first, she thought it was Grimm but then she noticed a familiar mane of Blond Hair.

"YANG!" She couldn't stop herself from running full sprint with her semblance to the point she almost knocked her sister off her feet, but she returned the favor with a spine crushing hug that would make Vulkan proud. And then Ruby noticed the sheer amount of ichor and blood covering her body.

"RUBY! You have no idea how happy I am to see you!"

"Gah… Yang choking… too tight…" Yang immediately released her younger sister who was now just as covered in Grimm guts.

"By the Mother Moon Yang what happened to you?" Ruby inspected her sister with a mixture of awe and horror looking past the caked blood and viscera to the scrapes, scabs and wounds her aura was still healing. But by far the worst of it was in her eyes which band become pools of lilac bleeding vines of red.

"We'll Uh let you too catch up… we'll see you at the keep." Blake interjected with a cough and Lizzie and Graff followed close behind her to give the sister a semblance of privacy.

"Oh, Hehe sorry guys didn't see you there. I kind of got tunnel vision when I saw Yang and."

"Hey we get it. Trust me if my brothers were stuck in this hellhole with me, I'd be worried sick! Besides I got to get Graff here patched up before his arm gets infected." Lizzie stated

"Uh right, yeah we'll leave you two alone." Graff agreed as they both moved on.

"I'm going too, no offense but you two reek and if I stay any longer, I may lose my lunch." Blake bluntly stated before taking an experimental sniff and immediately contorting her face in a mix of pain and disgust before leaving. When they were alone, they sat down beside each other as they watched the tree line.

"This trial was fucked up. Fucked up to hell. At first, we were fine, hiding out in an abandoned cave but the flares came and… if we didn't move northward when we did, we would be trapped with a horde of Grimm surrounding us, we would still be fighting for our lives in the forest if it wasn't for Garnet… What's wrong?"

"The flares… that was me, did I almost."

"NO! Don't you ever think that okay! I'm fine you did the right call to lure the Grimm to the south away from the relics. With any luck more initiates will make it this way, you made the best of a fucked-up situation. You understand?" Yang shouted course correcting the train for thought to the nearest sun before Ruby could think too critically of it.

"I do, thanks. Did you… lose anyone on the way here?" Yang looked down before nodding.

"Garnet, he didn't deserve an end like that. You?"

"When my transport crashed there was another survivor but a Nevermore got him. Didn't even kill him just played with him like a demented child… I um had to put him out of his misery."

"Fuck… we probably shouldn't be talking about this here, last thing we need is more Grimm. Are the relics still inside?"

"Yeah, your right and yes the relics are there we didn't touch them though the Nevermore crashing into the keep walls might have moved them around a bit."

"You killed a Nevermore? How'd you pull that off?"

"We'll I had help. But look we should really get moving It's been a looong few hours. We can catch up once we have the relics, right now I really want to get out of this forest." Ruby responded. And Yang gave a laugh.

"I can't argue with that, let's get these relics and get out of here." Yang agreed and the two walked back toward the keep

White Witch Kepp inner Sanctum.

The ancient wooden doors to the inner chamber opened with an audible creak and the two surviving groups of Initiates. Within there was no throne or any furniture to designate its purpose save for a series of twenty-two pedestals each of which held…. Chess pieces?

Ruby was puzzled by the revelation. Of all the things to count as relics…. This was a major letdown! They had spent the last few hours going through literal hell.

"Was someone high when they came up with this?" Graff yelled.

"No, I think the headmaster is just a sadistic asshole!" Yang replied.

"Can't argue with that. I guess we just grab a random one and head out in the morning once the Grimm settle down. With any luck we might have a few more survivors here by then." Jaune offered.

"It's not a bad idea hopefully Sky and Dove make it here, we could use them as bait worst case." Blake suggested.

"You'll have to get in line." Yang remarked and Ruby looked at her puzzled when her eyes became pools of red for a mere moment.

"I think there is more to this." Ruby called out finally gaining everyone's attention.

"Look at the prices, two white pawns, two white knights, two black bishops. Their all-in pairs." She pointed out.

"She is right, we even have pairs for king and queen pieces. There is a double meaning here." Weiss concluded asking close to inspect a white Queen piece.

"Why would you need two identical pieces when each team is supposed to take… ooh oooh! That's actually pretty clever of the Old Monster…" Yang remarked the compliment tasting like poison to her senses.

"What are you talking about?" Jaune asked.

"Okay I'm going to count too three pick a piece and tell me a reason why."

"What?"

"One, two, three."

"Rook. Um it's a tower, stalwart, defensive, protecting." Jaune replied haphazardly before Ruby moved in and did the same with Nora."

"Tower cause I'm the Queen of the castle!"

"Close enough. It's how Hunter teams are selected." Ruby revealed.

"Hunters train in teams of four, we are in teams of two so now we pick one." Ruby explained as she took up a white Knight piece.

"And we blindly choose the other two members of our team for the next four years." Yang finished grabbing the other and the two smiled.

"I think we just cheated the system." Yang remarked as she kept her piece close like her life depended on it. She wasn't going to risk her sister being in a separate team. Suddenly a loud whine of a speaker came from outside the door.

"Attention all initiates!" The group ran out of the chamber taking their selected pieces with them to the outside where they noticed large looms of smoke rising from the south with the sounds of Artillery fire. Meanwhile several bullheads patrolled the forest's northern areas.

"Attention all Initiates! Due to a massive assault on the forest border initiation in this region is cancelled. Head to the White Witch's citadel as previously designated and we will initiate evac once the Grimm are quelled. Do not under any circumstances attempt to leave the keep." The announcer drowned in, but Ruby wasn't listening instead watching the rising smoke and sound in half remembered fascination as she remembered her dreams.

"Looks like your flares got Ozpin off his ass. Not a bad first day." Yang remarked giving Ruby a playful poke of her elbow.

"Yeah, I guess it isn't." She replied.

Within hours of the Warrior's Guard's deployment the massive horde advancing into the Southern Emerald Forest was crushed brutally and without mercy and the surviving trainees were evacuated. Of the three hundred initiates who entered the forest one hundred and twenty survived and the bodies of the dead were recovered; at least those that could be. As for the one hundred and twenty tormented souls within thirty had dropped out deciding to take ether safer carriers or were mentally broken by the experience. it was decided that those who had claimed their artifacts would advance as normal and the rest would also be passed and sorted into teams due to the sheer feet of surviving so long against such a massive horde, including those not so deserving.

AN: Hey everyone here is the next chapter of the story, I had an omake panned as well but decided to save it for next chapter as I want to talk about a few things in this note regarding my writing schedule, what's going on, and common questions I've been getting regarding the story. So, to start off I'm sad to say updates will not be frequent as of right now due to how my current work and school schedule works. To be frank I won't have much time to write as between work and school I am given one or two days off in the weak to which I'm ether exhausted or working on assignments between classes. Hopefully this will change as I plan on shifting my hours at work as between the two, I've been burning myself out, but we will see how that goes. This does not mean the story is on hiatus or abandoned just that it's slow updates for now. Honestly to be frank the only reason I got this chapter out was because I had eleven hours to kill on a plane ride as I'm on vacation and actually had some time to write.

Onto the story itself I am quite with this chapter despite it being kind of rushed out, I did have to rewrite some scenes a few times for the chapter including Bolvar's conversation with Acheron explaining the Curse of fire maybe five or six times. I was never happy with how it came out as it seemed to kill the mystery of it because it revealed too much too quickly. There is enough detail to guess at what the curse is in earlier chapters, but the exposition would have made it blatantly obvious. So, I decided you know what let's not have the exposition and just show it off over the course of act one and reveal it gradually through Bolvar's experiences with it as I initially planned. As you can probably tell from my writing style, I don't like explaining everything at once, I think doing that kills allot of enjoyment you can get from reading a story and makes things boring at best. After all, why bread if you know how it ends right?

the next few chapters will not have much action on the side of Yang and Ruby but will focus more on Worldbuilding which I am excited for, but you will see some action with Bolvar and the rest of the Eleventh legion and we will also see some other players in this game be introduced on the Remnant side of things. Now finally before I let you all go; I have been asked questions via review some of which were answered in story, and I just want to clarify, and others are things I can't answer and just want to explain why I can't.

1. Why are Yang and Ruby's legion's male and not female? Okay so there is a reason that they are not female I don't have any issue explaining this one as it doesn't really reveal too much of the future story or why Yang and Ruby are female as it is applied no matter the cause.

So firstly, I'm just going to say this will go into head cannon territory as we have no official reason for why the emperor did not have both genders be compatible for Implantation. The Imperium is made for humans not Transhumans. Malcador said to Horus when he confronted him about destroying the statues of the lost Prmarchs, Space Marines and by Exstenson the Primarchs were always meant to be tools, to give Humanity the galaxy but not inherit it themselves. If baselines were meant to rule the Imperium when the crusade was done and the Emperor stepped down. Now what was meant to happen with the legion's after is debatable and there are many theories of what was going to happen. Personally, I think the legions like the Thunder Warriors before them were meant to be wiped out when everything was done. Now how does this go into no female space marines? If there were female space marines in any legion no matter if the Emperor made them infertile or not it unlocks a door I don't think he wanted open. The possibly of space marines reproducing naturally which is a problem as if they could reproduce, they would not need baseline to replenish their numbers. With that in mind how long before we have Astartes supplanting normal people? Depending on the legion it wouldn't take long, and I think every legion is susceptible to this possibility in some fashion. For example, look at the Ultramarines who were gifted bureaucrats and administrators, after the heresy and Guiliman was put in stasis how long would it take for Ultramar to be ruled by Astartes dynasties. Astartes are prideful creatures no matter the Primarch and most at best are indifferent to baseline humans and others see them as far less. I can give you another example in Captain Erwin from the Angels Excelsis in Devastation of Baal who saw baseline humans as beneath him my point is I believe the Emperor made marines only male as a safety measure and considering we have people like Fabius Bile, and Cawl it was not unjustified.

2. Why are Yang and Ruby female.

Could have been the Reality Tumors, EMPs taking Malcador's advice we honestly won't know until ether Big E or Malcador show up and explain which will not be for a while. Again, I'm not a fan of explaining everything at once I at least try to hold some things back.

3. The Growth rate and size of Ruby and Yang.

as of chapter three Ruby and Yang are 6.5 and 6.8 respectively as to why they are so short for a Primarch there is no set growth rate and because I didn't want to deal with resizing all the doors in remnant to accommodate them being 10 feet tall I decided to shorten the rate to make things easier. As hinted in Chapter 3 hey will continue to grow as the story progresses. Plus some Primarchs like Magnus can control how large they are and I believe Dorn can as well but I'm not too sure about that one to be honest.

I believe that was all the questions i got on review, If I missed one or you have others DM me and I will answer when I can. Again I hope you all enjoy this chapter and have a great day.