This is still the RWBY: Hammond Menace rewrite, but I've edited the plot.
Kingdomless Island, 400 miles west of Atlas
The top of the cliff was rather peaceful. The grass on it waved in the small breeze going over the cliff. The sky above the cliff was blue, with some clouds rolling by.
Suddenly, a soldier in Hammond grunt armor army-crawled to the edge of the cliff. The grunt pulled out a pair of binoculars. "Let's have a little look here…" He looked down at the sight before him.
Down on the field below the cliff, multiple trench lines had been dug into the ground. Hammond soldiers were in the trenches, their wide assortment of weapons pointed out in front of them. The weapons, ranging from the R-carbines to the Kraber rifles, were locked and loaded. Paladin tanks, loaded with high explosive and armor piercing shells, aimed down at the enemy in front of them. Way behind the lines, was a multitude amount of titans, ranging from the simple Stryder to the heavy Ogre, armed with all sorts of weapons. Behind the titans, was the main Hammond base.
Airbase Alfa was the first established airbase on Remnant. While the layout of the base was the same as the other airbases from Hammond planets, this base was surrounded by Hammond's second generation artillery cannons, the Klinkhammer model, and the first generation long range artillery, the Duke model.
The soldiers in the trenches were waiting, their fingers on the triggers. The tankers had their eyes on the area in front of them. Everyone in the field below was waiting.
The soldier on the cliff nodded, these soldiers knew what they were doing. He turned to the area on the opposite side of the Hammond lines. There was only open field, behind it was a forest. Inside the forest, was what everyone was waiting for. There was a loud roar from inside the forest, and the soldiers all tensed. The one on the cliff turned his binoculars to thermal vision, and scanned the forest. The targets were immediately highlighted.
Hundreds of Grimm were in the forest, of all types and sizes. Every Grimm on the island was waiting to charge. Beowulves, Ursas, Gryphons, and Nevermores were waiting for something, an order.
Suddenly, they parted for one type of Grimm. It was riding on some type of equestrian Grimm, the figure on top of it was limp, like a dead body.
"Attention all personnel, class-A Grimm type has been spotted. The Nuckelavee is here." The cliff soldier reported into his comm device. "Grimm count is reaching the thousands. All artillery cannons, coordinates are being sent to you right now."
Inside the Duke cannons, and outside the Klinkhammers, the operators received their coordinates. They received group coordinates, some received one area, others received different ones. They set their cannons up, lining up their shots.
"On my mark…" The soldier said. "Salvo one, mark!"
The cannons thundered. They were a few miles from the soldier, but it still was loud. The shells soared through the air, and the mix of explosive and quantum displacement shells landed on the forest. Explosions ripped through the Grimm lines.
"Confirm hits. Salvo two, switch to secondary designations, and prepare to fire on my mark." The soldier reported. "Salvo two-"
The Nuckelavee roared, and the Grimm who were left charged.
"Mark!" The soldier shouted. And the cannons thundered a response to the roar. Shells rained down on the charging lines, disintegrating Grimm and throwing dirt and limbs into the air. The Grimm still charged, and the trench lines opened fire.
Trench Line 1, first line
"Open fire!" The commander shouted. The guns let loose all they could. Bullets ripped through Grimm, and tank shells exploded and ripped them apart. Alpha Beowulves were able to take more hits, but still fell. Ursa Majors were promptly shredded by gunfire. The scene itself was ripped straight out of a WW1 battle scene.
A soldier aimed his Flatline at a charging Beowulf when he heard a loud roar. His commanding officer looked up, and her eyes widened.
"We got flyers! Have the SAMs open up!" The commander shouted. She continued to fire her pistol forward into the Grimm mass.
The soldier reported what his commander had said. The other end of the line reported they confirmed, and relayed the info. Not even half a minute later, missiles flew through the air and struck down the Grimm. They disintegrated in mid-air, and the Grimm air support was no more.
The Grimm lines on the ground started to thin out, and the bullet casings were starting to pile up in the trenches. Bullets flew through the air, many hitting their mark, some flew through the entire Grimm charge and landed harmlessly near the Nuckelavee. The Grimm made a low growling noise, and started walking forward.
As the final Grimm fell, the trench commander ordered the soldiers to hold their fire. The gunfire stopped, and they all stared down at the Nuckelavee. The Grimm was still walking forward, and many of the soldiers were starting to get scared. One soldier passed out from his fear.
The Nuckelavee stopped, almost 300 yards away from the first trenchline. The Grimm was about to roar, when the soldier on the cliff pressed a button on his wrist device.
Every cannon as the base locked onto the Nuckaleeve, and fired. Almost over 200 shells, from 105mm to the 870mm shells ranging from HE to Quantum shells, rained down on the Nuckelavee. And before anyone could even mutter "Overkill." The shelling stopped.
The smoke cleared, and all that was left of the Nuckelavee was a crater and a pillar of smoke.
Beacon Dorms
Ruby Rose burst into her dorm room, which she shared with her team. "Guys! You're gonna wanna see this!" She shook her scroll, which had a video on it.
Yang looked up from her bed. "What is it, sis?"
"Just look! The Atlesian Military released a video!"
Weiss and Blake turned to see as well. Weiss spoke first. "Atlas rarely releases videos. It's usually military successes or military parades."
"I have to agree with Weiss here." Blake agreed. "They're very propagandistic."
Ruby shrugged. "Oh well. Do you want to watch it or not?"
WBY crowded around Ruby regardless. Ruby put the Scroll into tablet mode, and played the video. It opened with the standard Atlesian symbol, and a statement telling not to pirate the video. The video then went dark, and lit back up with a map of Remnant. It zoomed in on the Kingdomless Island, and again on a plain in the island. There, the forest lit up with red squares, identified as Grimm. On the other side, was a line of trenches.
"That doesn't look like standard Atlesian tactics." Weiss pointed out. "Those look like Mantle's tactics from the Great War. Right Blake?"
Blake nodded.
The video then zoomed out a little, and the group watched as yellow dots streaked over the trenches and landed in the forest. What followed was a mass of explosions and distortions that messed up pixels on the camera. The forrest was left a burning mess, and RWBY watched as Grimm ran out of it.
Yang whistled. "I hate Grimm, but this is a bit much-"
Then, the Nuckelavee walked out.
"I stand corrected. What the hell is that?"
Weiss looked at the Grimm, scrutinizing over the details. "It looks like a Nuckelavee, a Class-A Grimm type. Very strong, it's screeches can attract more Grimm."
The others paled. The video kept playing, and they watched as the Grimm reached the trench lines. The trenches lit up with bullet fire, and the Grimm were swiftly cut down.
"Woah…" Ruby mumbled, watching the carnage. "Brutal."
The others watched silently, all the way till the Nuckelavee was destroyed.
The video ended without another word, and RWBY only added to the silence.
Ozpin's Office
Ozpin and Glynda stared at the screen, in slight shock from what they just watched. To the two instructors, war was never easy to watch. But what they had just witnessed wasn't war, it was a massacre. Grimm were killed easily, and the soldiers holding the weapons did so almost systematically.
No, massacre wasn't the right term. This 'battle' was a small peek into the holocaust of Grimm on that Island.
"Ozpin...what on Remnant is over there?"
"Something that threatens both sides of our war."
Hammond HeadQuarters, Remnant Command (REMCOM)
General March watched the video play, he and the other officers taking notes of what stood out to them. The Grimm were noted, from what the Field Marshal told him, to get smarter as they got older. Their intelligence could be unmatched if left alone too long.
If this was the case, then the Nuckelavee must've been a newborn.
"General March, it seems someone was watching the fight." A colonel stated, pointing to a small drone above the battlefield. March's face portrayed no emotion, and everyone wrote it off as nothing.
March then turned to the colonel who had pointed the drone out. "It's no worry to me, Colonel. If these humans wish to see their demise early, then so be it. Perhaps they'll fight harder if they know what they must defeat."
March turned back to the screen, leaving the colonel and the rest of the room with their thoughts on the matter.
High Council, Arora
Red and Grey were deep in conversation. They were discussing in the High Council room, while junior officers worked on other things.
"Red, this operation is going great for the HEF. The Grimm on the island have been decimated, and only very low casualties!"
"Grey, you haven't even fought any humans yet. Mindless Grimm are very different from unpredictable humans. And you can't forget the huntsmen and huntresses."
Grey scoffed. "So what? The Jaegers can deal with them. They were built to kill them with ease. My soldiers can deal with the human fodder as well."
Red didn't answer. He only turned to the door, which opened to reveal Blue and White.
"Red, you look displeased." Blue said. "Did you lose another battle with the rebels on Sigmantium? Heaven knows that front will be the death of you and your career."
White elbowed Blue, shaking her head in disapproval. "Regardless of Sigmantium, we need to focus on a more pressing topic. The Remnant War is about to go global, correct?"
Grey nodded. "Correct, the forces are preparing for landings on the main continent. We will first start with…" He paused, pulling up a map of Remnant. "...bombing these locations." Grey pointed to numerous locations on the northern edge of the largest human continent of Remnant. "We will slaughter Grimm and Human forces with ease. The surface navy is currently being built in the dockyards on the southern edge of our island."
Dockyards, Kingdomless Island
"Get those battleships ready! The General needs all fifty-four of them ready for the beach landings!" A Commander shouted, while machine and human workers labored to finish their ships. Engineer bots worked to assist with the humans and Titan mechs building the main Hammond battleship class.
The Everest Summit class Battleship. It came as heavily armed as the battleships of the Aero-Navy. The ship came with six main turrets, three on the front and three on the back. The four outer turrets were 508mm double cannon turrets, while the remaining two turrets closer to the superstructure were quantum cannons firing four 'shells' per turret. A full salvo would launch eight 508mm shells and eight quantum shots. The ships took after the infamous H44 battleship, which was never built, but the length was elongated to accommodate the weapon build out. The rest of the weapons of the ship were an array of anti-missile lasers, anti-aircraft missiles, and flak cannons. The ships were to be replaced sometime in the past, but their service life was elongated due to lack of a successor and the addition of a shield generator.
In smaller docks, engineers worked to build destroyers and cruisers, the Beeline and Horn classes respectfully.
The Beeline class destroyer was a simple destroyer, built similar to the Z-class destroyers of old, but armed with smaller quantum cannons and anti-missile lasers. The Horn class Cruisers were built in the fashion of the O-class cruisers, and were armed with railguns and missiles, as well as counters to missiles and aircraft in the form of a laser gatling gun.
"Can you believe we have to build a whole landing fleet from scratch? Fifty-four battleships and seventy cruisers, not to mention a hundred destroyers. What the hell are we fighting?" A worker asked, putting some final touches on a cannon's barrel.
An overseer walked by, hearing the question. "What we are fighting, gentlemen, is an enemy who has fought for almost the entirety of his life, with no rest. They are bred for war as much as we are, the only thing they lack is number. If we were even in number, the HEF and the HMF would have to be called to deal with this threat."
The worker nodded, and returned to work.
High Council Room, Arora
"After maybe a good three or four days of bombardment, we will send the troops ashore. It is our hope they encounter little resistance, but we will prepare for a large enemy force being around still." Grey continued.
Red raised his hand. "Does the enemy know we're coming?"
Grey started to speak, then closed his mouth. Blue arched an eyebrow, while White chuckled. "It appears you forgot something in your master plan, Grey. The part where we declare war on Remnant."
Blue and Red burst out laughing. Grey hung his head. "I'll get on that."
"Till then, keep preparing. Perhaps a quick display of force is at hand?" White suggested. "You could always have the aero-naval fleet engage in skirmishes with the...Atlesian, was it? Yes, them."
Red stopped laughing. "Why them?"
Grey picked his head up. "My scouts report that Atlas is seen as the prime military power. So if we make them seem powerless…"
Blue stopped laughing. "They'll give up immediately, perhaps? Maybe submit to our rule?"
Grey nodded. "Either they do or they don't. If they do, good for us. If they don't...well, it wouldn't be easy, but we could take them on in a war."
Red chuckled. "If you need help-"
"The HMF should be focusing on destroying those rebels." Grey stated, nonchalantly. "But if we need help, I'll give you a ring first." Red nodded at this, satisfied.
An officer at a terminal stood up. "Council, we have word from the 3rd HEF Military Group! The navy is, report, ready to engage!"
Grey nodded. "Good, tell them to hold for now. The next part of the plan falls to me."
"Relaying message!"
The council all smiled. Just as the Emperor Commander had planned. Nothing could stop them now.
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Edit: Changed Grey's line at the end.
