Glad to see y'all enjoyed last chapter and the chance for Santus and the Teams to get to know each other.
Also, Guest back at it again being a Guest lol, but in regards to your point about The Emperor/Primarchs and bringing the world into compliance, there is a severe lack of actual trust between him and Ozpin yet. Santus is open to the students because he can see them for what they are, young and idealistic young warriors looking to do the same as he. Ozpin, however, has influence by his position, and our Lamenter has no idea if these strange psykers will be hostile or not. This will change in time but you'll have to wait and see just what happens.
As a side note, a lot of V2 is going to be skipped over. Simply put, Santus has little reason to get involved in things like the White Fang raid or Beacon's Dance, and since he is unknown he can't exactly go out and just watch Pyrrha and Mercury fight, and he is by no means a friend or even knowledgable in Remnant's political issues to talk to Blake regarding the White Fang. While there will be some changes and aspects, things will move rather quicker towards the end of V2/V3.
Then we get the fun stuff.
Also, ngl, I am actually quite amused no one has commented on the tags yet. Not going to say what or why but that will be something when it happens.
Anyway, here we go...
It was bound to happen.
After all, it wasn't exactly inconspicuous that Forge 9 had now been off-limits for a four days now, or the fact it had some new door art that was certainly quite the hot piece of gossip around the Beacon Rumormill. Yang had heard a lot of curious ideas, she had to admit. From ideas like Beacon was sponsoring some weapon savant, to simple renovations to Ozpin secretly being locked up in there and he'd been replaced by a lizard robot clone alien.
Well, technically it was an alien, the blonde had to admit as she slowly walked her way down the halls of Beacon, Weiss at her side while Ruby and Blake were gaming with JNPR and being obsessed with the White Fang, respectively.
Yang sighed as she thought about her partner. Girl was pushing herself way too hard over the White Fang and seriously needed some sleep.
Maybe Ruby would convince her to get some now, if Yang's unfortunately socially awkward sister happened to notice.
The Techmarine, as he liked to call himself, definately hadn't kidnapped the headmaster however. Yang would know having been forced to listen to her sister gush and rave about how the yellow dude let her do some work on her scythe in his new...home? Was it a home if it was a forge?
Strange alien man and his alien man ways it seemed.
Truth be told, Yang wasn't really comfortable hearing Ruby talk on and on about how cool it had been to do some basic maintainence. Sure, he was a space dude and sure, he was badass enough to ruin Grimm faster then her, but that didn't mean he wasn't secretly some genocidal maniac hellbent on replacing man with machines. Sure it seemed really science fiction, but considering he claimed to be from an EMPIRE, she'd happily risk some embarrassment for assuming sci-fi was going to be real life then not.
Weiss, Yang thought with a quick glance to the white-haired heiress, probably wasn't concerned about Ruby becoming obsessed with Techmarine. In fact, she had been curiously quiet since they had first spoken with the yellow giant and refused to comment about him outright except when they were in their room.
To be fair, it was pretty obvious she wanted a chance to speak to Techmarine without Ruby overhearing. It was why they just found themselves standing before the curious symbols that now were proudly on display for everyone to see and theorise about. Yang and Weiss shared an uncertain glance, before knocking on the door. It opened a second later and the two girls quickly walked inside before anyone came by and noticed them enter.
Unlike the last time the two had visited, the yellow clad giant was in fact standing in the middle of the room. Strangely, he had a Scroll computer in his hands, a rather expensive thing to have and all the more strange considering Yang was confident he didn't have it before. And he clearly didn't as his unhelmeted gaze narrowed in confusion with the device as he ran his finger across the screen with seemingly great care.
He looked up as the two entered, and greeted them with a polite, if confused smile.
"Greetings, Yang Xiao Long and Weiss Schnee." Techmarine said in a polite voice that seemed the kind of thing a male Weiss would speak like. Very formal.
"Sup, where did you get the Scroll from?" Yang asked with a casual wave of her hand. He paused at her words for a moment before turning to face her.
"You know what this device is?" He asked in a voice that betrayed his frustration at the Scroll. Yang had to try really hard not to smirk at the sight of the space mechanic not knowing how to use a Scroll.
She could have sworn she hid it, but Techmarine did look up at her with an unimpressed look that had even her blush. Weiss, thankfully, came to her rescue.
"It's a Scrollpad, a larger verison of a more regular Scroll like we have." Weiss quickly explained, pulling out her own Scroll. "They have a wide range of uses from calls, texting, aura readings and all kinds of applications for various uses." The Techmarine's freaky robot eyes narrowed on Weiss' Scroll as she showed the giant some of the basic features. It was both amusing and just weird to see Weiss, an already short girl, having some giant nine foot dude in a tank's worth of armour next to her.
It took Weiss a few moments to explain how the scroll needed to be charged and had different settings, when a finger on the Techmarine's left hand suddenly started to whirl and change shape. With both disgusted yet intrigued eyes, Yang watched as the cybernetic finger proceeded to form what appeared to be a rough cable for a scroll to connect to. The man put his hand to the port on the scroll as his finger began to change again, until mere moments later, the finger inserted into the Scroll.
Yang and Weiss both watched with shocked and amazed stares as the Scroll's screen suddenly went dark, as if it was out of battery, before the odd half-skull symbol appeared on it's screen. A moment later, the screen was filled with numbers and letters that neither huntress could make heads or tails of, before the screen faded to black once more, then returned to the default lock screen, this time red in colour like his helmet and shoulder pad and a faint outline of the half-skulls in the background.
Yang was an honest girl, especially to herself. She gaped at the man in open shock while Weiss did the same. If the heiress ever denied it later, it would only be fair for Yang to back the normally easy to tease girl. It wasn't every day you saw a man seemingly rewrite a scroll in seconds by putting a finger in it.
The man on the other hand was merely smiling down in satisfaction now, before turning to look at Weiss with a grateful smile.
"Many thanks, Weiss Schnee. The one called Goodwitch came by just now to give this machine to me, though she was forced to leave before she could instruct me in it's use." Techmarine said as he put the scrollpad down and faced the two of them. "Now, what brings the two of you here this day?"
Yang looked at Weiss.
She had her own reason she wanted to talk to the stranger, but she had no idea why Weiss did. The heiress looked back at Yang, an uncharacteristically uncertain look in her eyes. She nodded supportively, whatever she wanted to ask wasn't really that important yet.
Weiss looked up at Techmarine for a moment, looking directly at the man's eyes even if he didn't even flinch a little.
"I...I wanted to ask..." Weiss rubbed her hands awkwardly again, as if she couldn't decide what words to use. "Your eyes...how did you lose them?"
The Techmarine looked at her a moment, before his own eyes flicked towards the scar across Weiss' eye.
"You wish to know if I lost my eyes in combat?" He guessed, Weiss nodded as she averted her eyes away from the man. She must have been worried he might be offended. Hell, Yang would be.
Instead, the Techmarine merely gave her a perplexed stare, before his eyes seemed to widen slightly as a chuckle escaped the man.
"Ah, I forgot, this is not an Imperial World." He announced with a shoke of his head. "I am sure you worry how one such as myself could lose his sight. In truth it's not uncommon." He freely admitted, sending a shiver down the girl's spines as he continued, "There are many dangers in the galaxy, and beyond it." He whispered that last part with a dark frown that set Yang on edge. Dangers from beyond the Galaxy? Just what did he mean by that exactly? "But in truth, I willingly gave up my eyes to better serve the Omnissiah."
His answer did not seem to reassure Weiss. Or Yang for that matter.
"You...willingly gave up your eyes? For an 'Omnissiah'?" The heiress asked in a tone that could not hide the disgust and shock in her voice. Thankfully, Techmarine didn't seem offended, as if he was used to this response, as he simply nodded.
"That is correct. While I will not go into great detail for it is not for the uninitated to be versed in, I am a follower of the Machine God, the Omnissiah. In accordance to the Cult Mechancius, I have willingly given up parts of myself in order to become closer to the Omnissiah as well as assist in my duties." Techmarine explained as he gestured up to his eyes. "I assure you, such a procedure was entirely willing and safe, and it would be both wrong spiritually and morally to forcibly graft augments to another outside emergencies."
That managed to reassure the two a little, but Yang was not comfortable to hear her sister was getting so close to the religious nutjob that liked to cut his own body parts off. Alien engineer or not.
"I-I see." Weiss stuttered before she coughed as if she was clearing her throat. "I am sorry for asking such a personal question."
Techmarine just smiled at her. It was kinda creepy in all honesty.
"There is no need, even from my own homeland many are apprehensive when around those of the Martian Priesthood." He replied.
At this point, Yang decided she had a rather pointed question to ask.
"So, you said you worship someone call the Omnissiah?" She asked randomly, the yellow man nodding. "And he is like, the god of machines or technology right?" He nodded once again. "So what does that make you exactly? Like, obviously your a fighter, but do your fellow priests not like you also fight? Or do they make new stuff?"
At her questions, Techmarine's face took on an almost educational edge.
"In truth, there are many interpretations. Some believe it is our sacred duty to not only preserve and understand technology, but also create and design. Others believe that all forms of unrecognised technology are heretical and must be destroyed." Techmarine explained in his almost lecture-like tone, "However, like all people, there are many lengths and exceptions belonging to different individuals, and it gets even more complicated when Xenos tech is involved." Yang nodded, even if it seemed like they were a bunch of nuts to her. "Of course, different tech-priests meet different callings. There are those that go out and fight on the front lines such as the Magos Dominus, as much as there is those that simply repair harvesters on Agri-worlds."
"Agri-worlds? You have entire worlds dedicated to agriculture?" Weiss asked in a curious tone.
"That is correct, though it would be more accurate to claim the Imperium classifies a planet based on.." Techmarine's words started to wash over Yang as she went back into her thoughts.
A cult all about machines and removing their own body parts was something else, even if he was a space man. That he had claimed to have had his own eyes ripped out with that smile on his face was just...wrong. Yet the man didn't seem to be lying, and even if was he could have only had another seven or eight years of age on her, no way he could be that experienced a lier, surely.
Yet something about his lack of concern when talking about replacing his eyes could only make Yang worry for her sister around this guy...
She could lie, but Blake was honestly starting to get tired to hearing about the Techmarine from her team leader and JNPR.
Blake sighed in frustration as she rubbed her eyes idily as she continued to read through her scroll for news reports while Ruby, Jaune, Nora and Pyrrha were playing a board game on the table opposite of her. Next to her, Ren was quietly studying while the rest of their teams were seemingly more interested in whispering about the stranger in their school then actually playing their game.
Didn't they realise there was bigger things to worry about then some guy in advance armour telling a tall tale? Did they just think Roman Torchwick was working with her former allies for a bit of fun?
"He didn't know about Dust?" Ruby asked the three people around her, Jaune nodding. "Weird...I ended up helping him do some modifications to the forge and he seemed to know what he was doing." The young girl paused before adding, "Though, now that I think about it, the forge unit was still off when I visited him the other day."
She couldn't help but roll her eyes.
As if someone could confidently dismantle a Dust Forge while not knowing how Dust worked.
A dark chill ran down Blake's spine as she suddenly remember the terror the giant had eminated when she had scoffed at him. It was like she was already dead and was just watching her demise from a specator's seat. The feeling was indescribably terrifying for the young Faunus.
The former terrorist shook her head.
Maybe the others hadn't been as phased because he had been speaking to her, but something about the yellow armoured giant's tone had, at least in the moment, nearly convince her that this man was otherworldly, the man had somehow lost that aura of fear around him and had been rather polite afterwards to her. Maybe he thought he could cow her into submission, and he just might have succeeded, but she knew whoever this man was, he was not who he claimed to be.
Beside her, she felt Ren's eyes glance towards her.
"You don't approve of him?" Ren asked in a voice of curiousity. Blake nodded.
"We have no idea where he is really from, and his story about being some space engineer but with the skill of a veteran huntsmen?" She said rhetorically before shaking her head. "I'd think he might be some elite Atlas soldier in a top secret weapon project before he just happened to fall from space to Remnant of all places."
Ren quietly hummed speculatively. "I suppose it would be possible. I myself am undecided on if he is telling the truth."
She nodded, she had seen his skeptical look before Miss Goodwitch had informed them where the Techmarine was staying.
"However, if he was Atlas, why would a younger man be picked to pilot that armour? Why not an older, more trusted soldier?" Ren questioned, playing Devil's Advocate.
"Maybe it has something to do with his semblence?" Blake offered, before another thought hit her, "Maybe...maybe his cybernetics are needed to pilot the armour and use it, and they needed someone younger to implant them?"
The normally silent young man beside he nodded thoughtfully, but with a inquisitive frown.
"Maybe..." Ren muttered to himself before looking back at her. "Although when we visited, he told us a story about how some of his 'brothers' had encounted a different sect of his kind." Black scoffed as Ren shrugged. "He certainly didn't seem like he was lying about the story, but who knows? He could be some kind of special forces and trained to."
That was curious, but also somewhat meaningless in Blake's eyes. It was standard procedure to make a cover story up back during her time in the White Fang when they needed to sneak around areas they weren't meant to be.
"What about your team? Mine seem obsessed with him, but for different reasons." And wasn't that the truth Blake thought to herself. Ruby was enamoured by the idea of a engineer that was also a badass fighter while Yang seemed to think her sister's obsession could end badly or the soldier might abuse Ruby somehow. Weiss on the other hand had refused to speak about the man, but she could tell the Schnee Heiress was at least uncertain on her feelings about the giant.
Ren gave her a small smile as he looked over at his team.
"Well, Jaune and Nora are thoroughly captivated by him." He stated in a humorous tone, one Blake did not personally share regarding the situation. "While Pyrrha is somewhat middle, she is more open-minded to the idea after she asked him something personal."
"And I'm sure that Jaune's obsession with him will make Pyrrha agree." She added with a sarcastic smile. Ren smirked but did not refute her claim.
Ren looked over at her for a moment however.
"Speaking of obsessions, have you been sleeping or investigating the White Fang late at night? Even we've started to notice." He asked, his voice one of mild curiousity and polite concern.
Blake just rolled her eyes again, this time with a hint of anger.
"Maybe they have been distracted by 'Techmarine' recently but my team keeps asking the same. I'm fine. This is far more important then some guy locked up in the Forges." She replied with a focused frown as she turned to face her scroll, ending the conversation.
Beside her, Ren just shrugged before looking back at his book.
"It's not my place to say how you should live your life. Just remember to keep your friend's feelings in mind." Ren said simply as he returned to studying.
Unfortunately, Blake knew what the White Fang was capable of and to leave them to roam freely was just begging for disaster.
As her mood got darker, Blake stood up and stalked off to her dorm. She needed some peace and quiet for research and being around the two teams was not helping that.
It was late, Santus knew this. And yet, someone was knocking on his domain's door.
In truth, most mortals would be asleep by the time of 2319 hours local, yet as he asked the Machine Spirit of the doors to permit entry, he was greeted by the sight of Head Proctor Ozpin, Proctor Goodwitch, and another, tall man.
The man was tall and built like Cadian, yet unlike the fortress-world's prized population, he had blue eyes and greying black hair. His face was tight and professional, a true soldier of mankind and curiously he had some kind of implants on his forehead. He was dressed in a spotless white dress uniform with a grey surcoat where the Astartes could see the hidden bulk of some kind of sidearm bulge slightly from under his coat.
The man's eyes narrowed at Santus, though he maintain a respectable composure that reminded him of Imperial officer meeting an Astartes for the first time in their life.
It was surprisingly familiar to the lost Lamenter.
Ozpin, was the first to speak.
"Techmarine. I am terrible sorry if I woke you, but I have a guest and close friend that might be able to offer you some assistance." Ozpin claimed, gesturing his hand to the officer next to him. "This is General James Ironwood, of the Kingdom of Atlas. He is both the commander of Atlas Military as well as Headmaster of Atlas Academy, their school for training Hunters."
A close ally of the Proctor? And both a military head as well as the master of initates for his people? What research he had done on the strange 'scroll' device had told him Atlas was the northern landmass he had seen aboard the Mournful Passage and apparently prided itself on both it's technological advancement as well as being the only nation with a full time standing army.
Wise, at least to Santus.
"Well meet, General Ironwood." Santus greeted the General with an inclined head, his face a polite smile. The General stilled for a moment, before walking up and proferring him a hand.
"It's good to meet you as well, Techmarine. Ozpin has informed me regarding your circumstances." General Ironwood replied as Santus reached out to shake the man's hand with a massive gauntlet. No sense in offending his host at the moment. As he did so, he felt a sudden reply of a Machine Spirit as their hands met.
"You have an augment." Santus stated openly as both headmasters gave him surprised looks as General Ironwood withdrew his hand, before taking his glove from his hand and revealing metal fingers. The quality of design was acceptable though the materials seemed substandard to Mechanicus expectations.
The General seemed impressed as he spoke, "My arm and part of the right side of my chest." He explained before tapping the stud against his forehead. "Though I think you are familar with such injuries."
Santus nodded in confirmation. For few other Lamenters knew how to properly create and graft Astartes grade augments then the few of his mechancius following brothers and himself.
"I am. Perhaps you would tell me of what manner of foe managed to wound you?" Santus inquired, curious to learn how this world, his research claimed the people of this planet referred to it as Remnant, thought of cybernetic replacements.
However, the General shrugged.
"Perhaps another time." Ironwood offered as Ozpin stepped forwards.
"In case you are unaware, Atlas is the most technologically advance society on Remnant. As both a Councilor on the Atlas Council and leader of their military, James has access to a great many pieces of technology that may be able to assist you in locating your allies." Ozpin explained to Santus, who hummed uncommittedly.
"Though when Ozpin told me he found a stranded giant of a man from space with weaponry and armour he had never seen before, I'll admit, I was skeptical." General Ironwood admitted honestly, to which Santus could appreciate and understand. "However, seeing you now and...all this..." The man gestured around Santus' forge. "Certainly tells me either there is secret cabal of engineers out there making gear better then the entire Kingdom of Atlas, or you aren't from this planet."
Santus smirked darkly.
"While I certainly have never stepped foot on this world before, I assure you however, such cabals are more likely then you might realise even here." He said cryptically. Heretics, Hereteks and Xenos alike were known for finding out of the way worlds to experiment on.
However, most concerningly, both men seemed unsurprised by his warning.
"I am quite aware of the dangers of the unknown. We constantly have to deal with terrorist attacks from the White Fang back home, caution is second nature to me." Ironwood claimed, though Santus could sense the mortal was not entirely being honest with the far older Astartes.
Santus nodded before gesturing to table he had been standing at, offering the men to step forward. As they did, Santus carefully tapped the scroll a few times, before bringing up the schematics as well as a current image of the Mournful Passage. While normally tech-heresy, Santus knew these men would not be capable of aiding him with technical support.
"This was a Astartes Strike Crusier in service of the Lamenters, my brothers and Chapter, called the Mournful Passage, a Mark II Vanguard class. Though I do appreciate your offer of assistance, as you can see, the ship is heavily damaged and several key components are so ruined it would require the orbital docks of a Forge World to fully restore." Santus explained while showing the two men the damage reports.
General Ironwood seemed to momentarily shocked as he realised the images taken were not only in space, but also of a massive abandoned cruiser now orbited his world, but quickly regained his composure.
"I see...just how large is that ship? And what managed to bring it down to such a state?" The General asked, the Techmarine could see within the man's mind as he no doubt wondered the logisitics of such a might avatar of the Omnissiah.
"Astartes cruisers vary in length, though the Mournful Passage is considered the standard size for such a vessel." Santus explained before pausing. How did he explain that the denizens of the Warp had ruined his ship? "As for how it ended up in such a state, simply said, we were ambushed mid-transit by foul creatures that prey on travelling ships."
Hopefully that would help keep it from getting it into their heads to investigate the Warp, if they knew of it.
Both the man gave his expressions that seemed to wish to know what could pose such a threat to him, but seemed to realise he would not say until he had no other choice as they nodded in understanding.
"Well, it seems we'll have to think of something else..." Ozpin muttered quietly to himself, not making an attempt to hide his words. General Ironwood inclined his head in agreement.
"Perhaps. Techmarine," The officer turned to face the Astartes, "Ozpin mentioned you crashed here aboard some kind of airship?"
Santus nodded once again.
"That is correct, a Thunderhawk capable of both gunship support as well as rapid deployment, it has been heavily damaged. Though I am confident I could repair it with passable replacements, I am worried as to how I can fuel the craft." He admitted to the two. As shameful as it was to admit, he did not think to load additional promethium, and whatever was left in the tanks, so long as they hadn't been damaged and drained on impact, was all he had left.
At this, however, Ironwood seemed to nod a few times.
"I assume you've learned about Dust by now?" Santus inclined his head towards the man in confirmation. "Perhaps we could improvise a makeshift power source out of Dust? You wouldn't be able to leave the planet with it, but you could travel." Ironwood declared confusingly.
"What do you mean I would unable to leave?" Santus asked, his tone carrying both intrigue and warning that they would not be able stop him. The two men seemed to narrow their eyes at him for a moment, before it passed as Ironwood answered.
"For some unknown reason, Dust loses it's effects once it has left the atmosphere." Ironwood explained, much to Santus' continued confoundment. How did these crystals lose their strange qualities after leaving atmosphere?
A worrying and concerning problem.
"I see, then per-" Santus was cut off as a musical tone started playing. Gripping his fists together, Santus quickly looked around to identify the noise but could not see anything. Warpcraft?
Proctor Goodwitch's face turned red as she pulled her scroll out of her pocket and turned away to answer it. A moment later, she turned back around, her face equally red but in a fierce scowl.
"Ozpin...we have students that need to be collected. Again." The woman seethed to her nominal superior, who merely raised an eyebrow in question before Goodwitch nodded and the man sighed.
"It would appear Team RWBY has been performing some...extracurricular activities again." Ozpin explained to Santus, while Ironwood gave the man a sympathetic smile much to the Marine's surprise.
It seemed to the Lamenter, the team of young women that visited him were quite unusual indeed...
And RWBY out here fighting mechas in the streets while Santus meets someone quite interesting.
Well, that's the chapter, bit shorter today but mostly because pacing. I need certain conversations and things to happen and really the RWBY plot of V2 has not much to do with it yet. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll probably get onto the next chapter in a day or two if I don't have work.
Also thanks to Bastiendemorgiou13 for the heads up about the last chapter. Turns out you right and chapter was borked.
As always, reviews and criticism is always appreciated, A.D