Author's Notes:
First and foremost, this is an update saying that the schedule is not back up and running fully. I need a bit more time and will likely continue uploading around March. Stick around after the chapter for an update on the schedule and for story updates.
Second, this is the fifth anniversary of this story (belated by 1 day). I had to give you guys something so I decided what better than a new chapter? A sneak peek at what's to come if you will.
"Text"
"Speech"
Disclaimer: I do not own Fallout, RWBY, or any associated characters.
Remnants of a Courier
Arc 4: Chaos Theory
Chapter 54: Bullets With Rose Petal Wings
Six sat in the grand library of Beacon. Its pristine walls, fancy velvet carpeting, tall shelves, and numerous books must have been what the Old World libraries had been like before the end. At least, Six assumed so.
He had been coming to the library more and more often in his free time. As the Vytal Festival approached, the forces that ran Vale were monitoring his moves, so Six had little opportunity to directly approach tasks anymore. Instead, he kept it subtle and mostly just managed things now instead of personally solving them.
But that also meant a limited capacity to influence things, and a limited number of tasks for Six to check up on, which also equated to more free time. At least, before his "Teacher's Assistant" duties started in a couple days.
Reading and learning about this new world also happened to be Six's favorite pastime, other than creating new gadgets and toys to test. Something his mother had taught him a very long time ago. Well, that and eating new foods, and Remnant had an abundance of food variety.
And reading was why the Courier was currently seated in a corner of the library, one leg crossed over the other, and a small cup of water. He was using his newfound free time with nothing to do to research the world now, to lay low. He'd normally be trying another drink from Dusty's Dust, but Six wouldn't bring soda near books with a chance to ruin them.
He was currently reading "Ancient Fairytales of Remnant, Volume II." The number of fairytales in their fictional storytelling was astounding. To the point that the "fairytale" genre dwarfed all others. Six sought to read some of the first stories and understand why Remnant's cultures seemed almost founded on them.
The Two Brothers, The Indecisive King, The Sunless Whisper, and more. All these stories had similar trends and tropes. That great evils existed, that they must be fought, and a slight theme of tragedy infected most stories. That oftentimes, despite doing their absolute best, the protagonists can't solve the problem, at least, not completely.
Normally, Six wouldn't bother with even considering these tales somewhat true. But with what the Grimm said, with this new world, perhaps Physics had changed too? Maybe his perception of reality and understanding of it was inherently wrong? Perhaps there really was something just out of his perception, altering events and watching him. Could he fight against such a thing? A thing that could be considered a god by some? Would he have to?
Perhaps that Grimm had cast more doubt in the Courier's mind than he originally thought.
And he couldn't have doubt, not when Six was close to the finish line. Three more weeks and all of his planning and preparation would pay off. Sure, a few lives would be lost in the process, but if he didn't intervene, many more would be.
Of course, he could circumvent all of the deaths in the short term and side with Ozpin. Give the old and strange man all the information he has. But there were three problems with that idea.
First, Six didn't want the Spring family to be targeted by Cinder and her associates. It wouldn't be too difficult to move and hide the father and daughter away, but that would completely uproot their lives.
Second, Cinder and her lackeys would catch wind and go underground. They would hide and plan to strike at a different date. This would only serve to push back the date of the tragedy, not prevent it.
And finally, Six didn't want to stop it, he wanted to alter it. When "Cinder's" plan came to fruition, it would be him coming out on top. Not Ozpin, not her, not this Salem. Courier Six would be in control.
For that to happen, he still needed a few last things to fall into place.
Six had finally cracked Queen's Gambit. It took quite a bit of his Pip-Boy's processing power and a lot of his own time, but with the recent "downtime" Beacon had given him, it was enough to understand the breadth of the program.
The program was meant to quietly sit on a device, say the CCTV tower, and upon activation give backdoor access to the entire thing. This still wouldn't deal with Ironwood's forces in the air come the festival. Which is why Six wanted Roman to inform him of how Cinder planned on taking care of that. It also had something to do with Queen's Gambit, but the remote connection from the CCTV tower of Vale wouldn't give access to Atlas' systems.
Roman would either turn to Six's side or be dealt with, either way the conman would give the Courier the information he wanted on Cinder's plan. More specifically, how Cinder planned on getting her malware to the rest of the fleet. That would be the last of the information Six would need to undermine the terrorist's plan.
If everything went smoothly, Six would upload his own version of the malware, reverse-engineered and using a programming language from his own world. He still had to reverse engineer Queen's Gambit but he had more free time now to do it.
Next, the Voidwalkers would also need to fall in line. Six had already scheduled a mission and a follow-up debriefing to finally get that ball rolling. Soon, his PMCs would know exactly who they were working for.
Speaking of the Voidwalkers, they were finally prepared for the Festival. The last of the equipment, recruits, and vehicles had been acquired and they were up to his standards now. With shiny new gadgets and two new bullheads, his Voidwalkers had all the equipment and training needed to succeed.
More importantly, their numbers were now 112 and most of them were familiar with each other. Six just had to win over their loyalties in the coming weeks.
And-
Why was Ruby staring at him?
Six felt his thinking halt as he gazed at a pair of silver eyes poking out from behind a bookshelf. The girl was watching him like a hawk and Six imagined that…
Taking a second look around the library, the Courier did indeed have four little spies hovering around and watching his every move now.
Letting out a weary sigh, Six addressed the nearest to him while picking up his drink. "Something I can help you with Ruby?"
A small "eep" escaped the teenager as she darted back around the corner. A silence descended in her place as Six imagined she was debating on what to do. After a few moments, Ruby emerged, looking rather sheepish.
"Hi Instructor House," she greeted with a small wave while walking towards Six. "I was just wondering about a few things actually."
Oh, a different tactic this time? Maybe Ruby figured she could talk to him and get information through idle conversation? Or she was panicking, either was likely.
"And what could I help you with?" Six responded before lifting his helmet and taking a sip of his drink.
This earned an odd look from Ruby but she quickly shook off whatever she was thinking to say, "Well I was actually wondering about Maria."
Maria, Benny's gun? Or his gun now. Six couldn't help but tap the arm of his chair out of curiosity.
"What did you want to know?"
"Everything!" The girl shouted while getting far too close too fast. "What caliber it is, where it came from, manufacturer, magazine size-"
The Courier cut her off. "It's a nine millimeter," Six began as he drew the gun from its holster.
"I got it from someone that tried to kill me." That remark earned a worried and curious look from Ruby.
"It's from a manufacturer you've never heard of." That got a look of indignation before he followed it up with. "M&A Guns Manufacturer." Earning a truly confused and bewildered look as Ruby likely thought she knew every manufacturer out there.
"Its magazine capacity is thirteen rounds and the woman depicted on its side is Our Lady of Guadalupe. And no, I won't go into who she is, it would take too long to explain."
Six had not only cut her off but answered her flurry of questions, causing the girl to adorn an absolutely ecstatic look on her face. And knowing she would have more questions, he continued.
"It has a pearl grip, you can see it's damascened, with a polished nickel finish."
He let his descriptions hang in the air, waiting for Ruby's response.
"That's… Really cool." Ruby did her best to still be enthused but Six could see that between his dismissive tone and talking about someone trying to kill him, it was diminishing her fun.
Six rolled his eyes before responding, "it was in self-defense and not even in Vale."
This seemed to make the girl relax, at least just a bit. It was also partially a lie. Benny may have attacked him but Six was the one who tracked him halfway through the Mojave, freed him, and killed Caesar. Only to later hunt the man down and finish him.
"I-I guess, why does your gun hit with more kinetic energy?"
Her next question made Six pause because it was a good one. The Courier didn't always use real gunpowder rounds as they were limited and he was having trouble making more. But the right gunpowder bullet could punch through thin metal sheets easily while Dust bullets couldn't.
Of course, he'd prefer to be using smokeless powder but that was hard to find even in the Wasteland. Maybe if he got gunpowder bullets going he'd develop smokeless powder later to decrease the wear and tear on his guns.
If Six recalled the basics of Newton's Second Law and Physics, the simple reason why his bullets 'hit harder' was because of the equation that Force equals Mass times Acceleration. Usually measured in meters per second.
The mass of the actual bullet between Dust and gunpowder was nearly identical, which meant that the acceleration had to be different. And indeed it was.
Dust wasn't just 'slower,' than gunpowder. It quite literally has a less volatile and less 'explosive' reaction when ignited compared to gunpowder. This meant that the initial primer going off for gunpowder caused a far more violent deflageration, creating far more acceleration.
And since Force is equal to Mass and Acceleration, well it was easy to do the math. Not really, the math was a lot more complicated and there were a lot of variables to take into account. The round size, weight, how the barrel was made, barrel length, wind speed, uphill, and so much more. The equations alone could take the average person hours to figure out for an average shot, Six was not average.
Essentially, while Dust rounds had the same mass, they had roughly half the acceleration behind them. This could be changed with special kinds of Dust but otherwise gunpowder simply had more acceleration and thus more kinetic energy behind it most of the time.
And because Dust bullets were made out of some kind of fragile metal, they tended to shatter easier, making them have less penetration. Six hadn't yet fully dug into it, but the casing was made of a strange metal he wasn't familiar with, something that shattered against hard objects but would explode inside a soft target. Perfect for Grimm, bad for robots and armor.
"Because I use a special kind of Dust that causes a greater muzzle velocity for the gun." Six answered coolly as he folded his arms over his chest. "And no," Six continued, seeing Ruby get excited and open her mouth. "It's a trade secret, I won't give you any."
The girl deflated and hung her head low. Children were not his strong suit.
"Say, Ruby," Six began, realizing he could maybe kill two problems by simply asking. "You wouldn't happen to know of an element that could lower the reaction initiation temperature for Dust in a Dust round do you?"
"There are some Dust types that can lower the initial temperature of other Dust types but there's nothing non-Dust that I can think of, why?"
Six sighed, he just knew Ruby was going to tell him that. Six was having a hard time making gunpowder because as far as Six was aware, Sulfur–an important ingredient for gunpowder–did not exist on Remnant. Or at the very least had not been discovered because of Dust.
Sulfur lowered the initial temperature at which gunpowder was set off, making it so that it was easy to create the reaction that sends the bullet flying forward. In theory, one could make a functioning but less effective form of gunpowder with other substances. But he needed either sulfur or something almost identical to it.
And to make smokeless powder which was what the modern U.S. military used before the bombs, one would use nitrocellulose. What was one of the key ingredients of nitrocellulose? Sulfuric acid, though some other types of acids could be used for less efficiency. And sulfuric acid requires sulfur.
Wait.
"What was that about Dust types?"
"Well, Acid is pretty good at that I think? I'm not sure, Dust has always had a low initial temperature." Ruby answered with a confused look.
Of course, Acid Dust for a replacement. Its chemical composition was likely similar enough to act as a replacement for sulfuric acid. Sure, Dust had less of a reaction than gunpowder but Sulfur didn't give gunpowder its force either. Sulfur merely lowered the initial temperature needed to set off the gunpowder. If Six used just a smidge of Acid Dust in place of sulfur, then he could create his own bullets again. Maybe for all his Voidwalkers too.
"That could work…" Six mumbled as he pulled up his Pip-Boy and wrote down a note on his to-do list.
"What?" Ruby asked, and Six realized he had been ignoring her.
"Thanks Ruby, your infatuation with guns rivals my own," Six praised as he abruptly stood from his seat and grabbed his book and drink. "That gave me an idea for a test. I have to go."
"W-What?" Ruby asked again, now even more confused.
"Tell your friends not to follow me," Six commanded as he marched his way towards the library's doors. He had a new test to run. Something that shouldn't matter if Ozpin and Ironwood knew.
Just as Six pressed a hand on the door to leave, he noticed a small note taped to it with a message on it.
"I saw you were busy so I left a message for you. Meet me in two days, in your room, 11PM sharp. I won't be seen.
See you soon, Neo ;)"
This was either really good news from Roman, or Neo was going to try and kill him soon. Either way, the mystery of Roman's loyalty would be solved soon.
"Problems for later, bullets for now," Six muttered to himself as he marched off to the Hall of Science section of Beacon.
Author's Notes:
Update 1: Schedule
Unfortunately, I didn't hit my goals completely in the months I took for writing. I am on course to have my main chapters complete for the next year in December and was planning to upload bi-weekly for that time period.
However, there was a side story that I wanted to release alongside this story eventually and it's simply not finished. Once this side story is finished and ready, I will begin updating this story and eventually release the side story along with it.
In this regard, I'm pushing back the return from December to March. I should have the side story and main story ready by then.
Once March rolls around, I should have enough material to upload bi-weekly for a year and a half while also uploading the side story. For any curious, that means I have my upload schedule plan made for the next two years made.
Update 2: Side Stories
There are two other matters of import as well.
I plan on writing 4 prequels for Remnants of a Courier. Two featuring the Courier and his history before the Mojave. One featuring more information on his time running the Strip. And one featuring a side character from Remnants of a Courier. I won't go into great detail but I do want to address the Courier's backstory.
After feedback, and with a little reluctance on my part, I do believe I will go forward with the Courier's backstory. He was a man before he went to the Mojave and I've already hinted at it several times in the story. I know some will see this as deviating from New Vegas canon but I don't believe in a 'canon' interpretation for the character. The Courier is a multi-choice character based on the player's decisions. I simply try to ground the character in the setting for this story.
That being said, I also believe in giving the reader control over how they digest and interpret what they read. And as this will be a side story, if you read it and want to ignore that it ever existed, that is totally within your prerogative to do so. In fact, reading these side stories will never be required to understand the main story. They are simply extra material for readers to enjoy if they want to.
Update 3: Revisions?
I've done Remnants of a Courier up till now in the format of one long story and split it into 'arcs.' In reality, and looking back on it, these arcs are really just books. Would people be in favor of me revamping the story for new readers at the end of this arc? I would essentially take chapters from this story and put them into 4 different fanfiction net stories as their own individual 'books' so they're easier to follow. How would people feel about this?
Update 4: Canon or Not Canon?
Several pieces of peripheral material are considered canon according to RWBY lore. As this is fanfiction (and as I've stated before) I will be using some of the material in these stories while throwing out others. The below are all canon material (unless contradicted by the show) as far as I'm aware.
Games:
Grimm Eclipse: Story is entirely canon
Amity Arena: Character descriptions are canon within reason (jokes are jokes)
Books:
RWBY Volume 1 (manga): Canon unless contradicted by the show
After the Fall/Before the Dawn: canon
One bit of info from the anthology manga: Scarlet David is gay (which was already hinted at in V3)
DC comics: canon unless it contradicts the show
Companion book (lore book)
Roman Holiday
Shows:
RWBY Fairy Tales
I will be using some material from these stories. I can also confirm that I will not be using the games or the DC comics. I've seen them and I'm personally not a huge fan of them.
This all being said, I wanted to ask you, the readers, what would you like to see from extra sources included in the story? If it's good, and I like it, I may just include it.
Fifth Anniversary:
In celebration (a very delayed celebration) of the fifth anniversary, I am going to read through any questions or comments you have for me about the story (that are relevant and respectful). This can be about characters, events, future events, and more. When I post the next chapter, I will leave a section with answers to these questions at the end.
Thank you for your continued patience and enthusiasm for this story.
