Halo of Remnant

by Akyy-Wolf

UNSC Spirit of Fire finds itself above a new planet alone, or maybe not, to fight a new war against a common threat. The Support vessel and its allies will have a hard battle as a common foe discovers them.

3. Chapter 3

Within the Forward Unto Dawn, Master Chief Petty Officer Sierra-117, Otherwise known as John, finally awoke from his slumber within the Cryopod. His eyes opened instantly after the cold faded, he looked around and saw Cortana's Figure on an AI Stand, "Chief, I know your gonna be confused-"

"What's wrong Cortana?" Chief blinked slightly, his voice was far younger, it was as if was 15 when he gained his augmentations.

"For once, nothing, in fact this is a good situation. You have been deaged by whatever teleported the entire Forward Unto Dawn, you seem to be the only one affected like this, most likely because everyone on the ship was dead and you and I were alive."

"Was?" He got off his Cryopod and pulled Cortana from the AI Stand, he pushed her chip into his neural interface system.

"Miranda Keyes, Sergeant Johnson, even the entirety of the Pillar of Autumn is here. We have a new mission John, protect this new world we are above." John grabbed his Assault rifle and attached it to his magnetic holster, "The newly appointed General James Cutter of the Spirit of Fire has requested you to join him on his live recording to the people on the planet below us."

"What happened to the last General?" John grunted out.

"Simple really, we are in a separate dimension with no way back to UNSC Space. The Ships in the system have decided to change their allegiance, as this planet needs our help more than the UNSC. We are now Remnant Space Defense. Don't worry John, no one wants to leave the UNSC, but we have no territory, only the Remnant System. We have to be friends with the people below us or else we will be enemies with nowhere to escape to."

John grunted, "Doesn't mean I like it."

The Forward Unto Dawn docked alongside the Spirit of Fire John entered the large vessel and walked to the Bridge where General Cutter stood. "All units be advised we have large swaths of Grim activity closing in on your location, Vulture Blue, Assist Vulture green to the north. Condor Yellow, assist the Base defense a few Grim got through. Wolverines open fire freely, watch for Condor Yellow. Marines get into highly defended positions and open fire." Cutter's eyes darted around the War map with all his teams. He turned and looked over to Master Chief, "Slip in Cortana." Obeying his orders Chief slipped Cortana's AI Chip into the ship Cortana appeared.

Cortana seemed to flicker for a second before all the squads began to act seemingly automatically, "The grim are pushing our forces back slightly, what should we do, no casualties as of yet, luckily.

James rubbed his chin, "Serina, MAC Hot, Fire twelve rounds each horde of Grim."

"Understood sir, the Cannons will be unable to fire for quite some time from overheating."

"Initiate Barrage procedures." Suddenly the Spirit of Fire shuddered as a volley of MAC rounds exited the three barrels, The Ship continued to shake as the MAC cannon unleashed hell on the Grim below them. Soon the shaking stopped as the barrels began to cool.

"Grim numbers have lowered, Ground forces are able to deal with them again."

"Thank you Cortana, Good job Serina." James looked to Chief, "We have endured near constant hordes of Grim, normally in the hundred's strong, but this one was in the thousands. This Salem woman is in control of these Grim, she must think that taking out our base will cause us to falter." He smirked, "However, I have a plan to make her falter."

John raised an eyebrow behind his helmet, "What would that be Captain?"

"Show RSD's strongest warrior's face, and the same woman who told us about Salem. Seeing Summer, Salem will know that the RSD knows who she is and where she is, showing your face and some footage of your last battle at the end of the war will show her we are not someone to mess with."

John shifted slightly, "I prefer to have my helmet on."

"Let it go, John, it's for the sake of Humanity." That caused John to mentally agree.

"Lady? How is the situation going with the SDC?"

Joshua Red grunted from his Comm system, "My forces are focused on two locations, we have dropped around 120 Faunus from the mines all in severe condition, Advise all ships to prepare long term surgery operations."

"Understood, Medical Crew Infinity, gather the Faunus and take them aboard, keep them safe but under watch."

Lasky's voice exits the Comm system "Understood General."

James looked at the System map and noticed the Pillar of Autumn, he gave a small smile, "All right Serina, is the Communication room ready for the transmission?"

"Yes, General."

Ozpin was sipping his coffee when suddenly a message came from Ironwood, 'Look at the news.' He blinked and pulled out his scroll, he checked the news broadcast. He was greeted by a Military suited 50 year old white haired male with bright blue eyes. By his side was a familiar face he assumed to have died by the hands of Salem, Summer Rose. And on the otherside was a heavily armored brown haired man with blue eyes. "Hello Remnant, I am General James Cutter of the Remnant Space Defense, me and my small fleet are here to protect this planet from hostiles even if we only have around 6 ships." Pictures of the ships in live video came on screen, each ship was massive, powerful and beautiful. Most of the ships looked similar in design structure while only one ship stood out, a red vessel with the name New Glory sketched on the hull.

"We are here to supply aid against the Grim forces and any terrorist organizations that wish to harm the people of this planet." James sighed and looked to Summer, "Specialist Summer Rose, please go ahead."

Summer nods, "Remnant, my home, we the Remnant Space Defense have come to not only protect but help those on the ground." She smiled, she looked at James, he nodded. She turned back to the camera, "I am like many of you, a Huntress, a warrior against the Grim, fighting for everyone , for my family. I was defeated in a large battle against a horde of grim but in my time of need the Remnant Space Defense saved me and kept me in a medically induced coma until I could be healed. However I am back and ready to continue my battle against the grim for the sake of all of us." Summer stepped back and stood next to James leaving John-117 to be the only one standing ahead.

"I am Master Chief Petty Officer John Sierra-117, I am a Super Soldier that fought for the Remnant Space Defense for many years, fighting threats against humanity, but now we turn our heads back to the people of the planet ready to fight for its survival personally." Recordings of his past battles against the Brutes, and Prophets shown on the screen trying to avoid scenes with the Sangheili.

John stepped back as the scene changed showing Ras' 'Vadum along with a few of his honor guards, "I am Ras' 'Vadum of the Sangheili race, an ally of humanity, we are here to provide physical aid to all of Humanity and its allies, we serve Humanity, for it is the only path to true redemption for our species that sinned so much in the past." The Transmission cut out and for the first time in Ozpin's life he felt faint.

"Is… is this for real…"

Ruby and Yang looked at the news feed with surprise and elation, Nicholas walked into their room as he was part of Team RWBY and JNPR. He looked at the news feed, he face palmed, "General why did you do this, you just exposed us to the world."

All the girls looked at him with wide eyes, he blinked before groaning, "Sorry, That was supposed to be a secret, whatever. I am Sergeant Major of Remnant Space Defense, more like acting Sergeant Major as I am far too young to be in the military, but I was chosen because of my records as a… Classified." he forgot not to mention what he was supposed to be, the girl all deflated.

"What can you tell me about Mom?" Ruby asked, clearly excited

"Summer Rose?" Ruby nods, "Not much, never met her, I was in Cryo-sleep for maybe 10-12 years, in other words I was frozen for that long."

"How old are you?"

He blinked, "Biologically I am 16, but I would be around 26 if I was awake during the years I slept." He shrugged, "Honestly it's whatever, I was made to protect others, and I will always protect my allies." 'No matter the species' He shrugged.

Blake looked at him, eyes narrowed, "Why does your group need such large ships if you just need to protect the Planet?"

"Simple, hostile species exist and none of them have small ships." He sighed, "Plus each ship is a mobile siege platform, each for long term engagements on hostile planets."

Blake frowned, "Why would they show themselves now of all times."

"Simple really, there is a terrorist group that is giving a species a bad name." He looked over to Wiess who frowned, "Caused by a Dust company that physically enslaves their workers for profit."

Weiss exploded, "Now listen here-" she was instantly silenced by a Data Pad with multiple pictures, videos, and worse of all personal accounts by Faunus of the mistreatment of Faunus by the Schnee Dust company.

"If you don't grow up Schnee, I won't be to blame if you suddenly go missing." He glared into her twin stunned eyes, "I don't hate you, I hate your family name, but if you keep acting like your father half the punishments he faces will be passed onto you." He snarled, "An, I really wanna show someone how much I hate slavery! Because unlike you, miss princess, not everyone had a happy family that could actually feed you. Some of us had to do disgusting things just to eat the next day, and some of us had to serve others for no pay, just food."

Weiss took a step back, she instantly realized that what the SDC did opened old scars, "I… I am sorry."

Nick blinked for a second before he sighed, "I am sorry also, I let my emotions get the better of me." He sighed.

Salem was actually in fear, something she assumed she had lost, the Remnant Space Defense, was the reason for her fear. They had Summer Rose, which meant they knew where she was, and how powerful she was. Now this would normally make her happy, but Salem knew they could bombard her castle from space at the very least 12 times, and as confident in her immorality she is, she is concerned that being atomized like her grim will finally destroy her before she could finish her plans. So for the first time wanted to hide, but she refused, she needed to beat Ozpin! But how could she, the Remnant Space Defense had the firepower needed to decimate her army of grim even on their worst day, and if it got too bad. Boom! Orbital Bombardment, or worse one of those ships drop from orbit and absolutely destroy everything in their path.

She knew she was outgunned, outmanned, she would never win a war against this new enemy.

"Uh… sir, this is a weird reading we have just received?"

Captain Thomas Lasky looked to the Infinity's AI Roland, "What's up Roland?" Lasky casually asked.

"It seems massive, and I mean Massive Slips Space Anomaly, appeared."

Now that caused Lasky to narrow his eyes, "How big?"

"Uh, 90k miles diameter, it's near the edge of the System."

"Get me into contact with General James."

"Already done."

"General, we wish to investigate the anomaly."

James spoke over the comms, "Understood, do you need an escort?"

"Negative General, the RSD Infinity has a small contingent of Strident-Frigates and Anlace-Frigates to escort her."

"Understood Captain, Good hunting."

Captain Lasky nods and closes the radio. "All right, All Frigates, escort the RSD Infinity to this new Anomaly."

He gained multiple confirmations, as the Infinity began to heat up the Slipspace drive, "All Frigates ready to jump?" Again he gained agreements and soon all the 10 different class vessels entered slipspace and vanished.

It didn't take long for them to exit Slipspace and see what caused the Anomaly, "Holy shit…" Captain Thomas Lasky was not the one who said that, Lasky turned and looked at Roland. "That is Installation 00, otherwise known simply as, the Ark." It was true it was the Ark, the 80 mile super station made to take in the inhabitants of over trillions of people.

Suddenly their eyes eyes widened as an eye larger Slipspace portal opened unleashing a beast of a Installation, "No… fucking… way." Thomas' jaw dropped, he was sure anyone who was looking had his exact same reaction.

It was an Ark, but it was at least 3 times larger than the normal Ark, however it seemed heavily damaged.

"Why are these things appearing now?" That was Roland's question but even Thomas wanted to know. "Captain?"

Lasky was knocked from his reverie, "What's going on Roland?"

"Besides having two stations capable of producing untolds amounts of goods, I have no idea Captain."

Lasky frowned, "What else is…." He balked, suddenly multiple slipspace formed opened releasing a large fleet of Forerunner ships, "Oh my fucking, why does this continue to happen?!" Lasky gave up on the appearance of acting like he knew what was going on.

"Captain, the Forerunner fleet is hailing us via comms."

"Answer…"

A Holographic Armored Forerunner female formed, "Humans, we are the Forerunner Defense Fleet of the Greater Ark, where are we?"

Lasky sighed, "Unknown space, far from the Milky Way Galaxy, me and my fleet have been separated from our higher ups and decided to change our mission, protecting the Humans on a nearby planet."

The Forerunner lady was silent as she just blinked, "We are on our own, but as you are all reclaimers we will stand by your side as allies. I am Admiral Smoke and Mirrors, we will need to repair our vessels and collect all the ground forces on each Ark, then we will join you."

Lasky nods, "That is alright."

"Captain, Admiral, all sensors pick up even more Slipspace anomalies, hundreds, no… it keeps going up."

Thomas Lasky began to lose his mind, "What the fuck is going on?!"

Smoke and Mirrors sighed, "It must be God's plan to create a large fleet to defend this planet from a possibly hostile species. On a different note, hundreds of other Forerunner vessels have appeared in the system along with unknown vessels."

James Cutter spat out his coffee as the Spirit of Fire's sensors screamed out, "Serina, status?!"

"Hundreds, no thousands of Slipspace portals have opened multiple ships and fleets with Covenant Identification systems have signaled us as allies, we assume they are the swords of Sanghelios however their numbers are expansive! High-Charity has appeared near the moon with a large contingent of Covenant Supercarriers along with a huge fleet! UNSC Ships a dime a dozen, we have thousands of ships signaling us as allies, even the Covenant!" Serina looked dumbfounded and panicked, "What is happening?!"

James looked at all the readings and he just couldn't understand, "Why would need around Seven thousand and five hundred ships, this is a much larger fleet than we could ever expect to have, most are just escort vessels, but at least two thousand are Capital class ships. Not to mention the around 900 Space stations and MAC Defense systems, are we expecting a large invasion force ..." General Cutter could only sputter as it finally dawned on him, "We were not put here to save the people from Salem…" He turned and looked to the amazed Summer Rose, "We were placed here to stop an invasion, why else would we gain so many ships, so many soldiers, and revive so many dead allies…" He looked to the Master Chief, "We are here to protect the planet from space threats while also supplying aid to the ground."

A look of determination formed on General Cutter's face, "Serina, Cortana, get into contact with all allies in the system, send them all the data on the planet along with my own theory. I want the Planet remnant to be under heavy guard until the idea of a threat passes." He looked over the Space map of the system, "Over 7.5k vessels in the system, almost all combat ships while the rest seem to be anything from a Mining station or ONI Spartan Facility. We have been prepared for long term combat against an unknown force."

James looked to Summer and frowned, "The Spirit of Fire will focus on ground offenses, Cortana, go to the Pillar of Autumn with Chief, I want all Ground Support Ships to assist the Spirit of Fire while also focusing on a long term space battle."

"Captain an Anlance-class Light Frigate has requested to dock, apparently Doctor Halsey is aboard."

"Get her aboard."

"Sir she is requesting to drop the Smart AIs that were going to be transported to Earth."

"How many?"

Serina frowned, "To damn many, it was supposed to be enough AI Cores to supply the Earth Navy, she was going to be dropped off at earth for her punishments for creating the Spartan Program."

"Spread the AI cores among all our vessels, including our allies, we will need all the help we can get if what I think Is correct."

"Won't be enough sir, we only have around a few hundred AI Cores, we will focus on Capital cruisers."

"Understood."

James frowned, "Everyone, what is the situation with all the ships?"

"The Covenant vessels seem like they are blaming us for killing over half of their people, where we caused the Genocidal war. Apparently in their world, they were the victims of the war and not us." James blinked, "It could be a lie, but that makes no sense, all the recordings they seem are easy to spot the genuineness of their statements. The Forerunner, vowed their servitude to Humanity and its allies. The Swords of Sanghelios have gathered and are actively en route to join the Defense Fleet of Remnants. Multiple of our own ships refused to join the RSD but none refused to join our fleet."

"I understand, what else do we have at our disposal?"

"120 Orbital Defense Stations along with 100 Orbital Shield Arrays made by the Forerunners. Speaking of the Forerunners all retreated to the Arks on the outer rim of the Remnant System, they are regrouping and preparing for combat along with preparing to move the Arks close to the Star in the System."

"What else?"

"The Covenant factions have also retreated, their ships were quite damaged so it made sense and they lost a lot of people, but I believe they will happily join the RSD when they regain their strength. Other Than that we have a powerful fleet of ships ready to fight off whatever we encounter."

James sighed, "I am quite nervous, if we need such a large fleet, what are we up against?"

"I am unsure, but I suspect we will be getting constant reinforcements from Slipspace."

Nicholas Young balked. He looked at the video feed from the Spirit of Fire, "Holy shit, this situation just keeps getting worse and worse."

Ruby looked at the Video and her jaw dropped, "So many ships, I wanna see them in person!" She giggled, "I also wanna see mom, I don't really remember her very well." She suddenly frowned, "I wish I knew her better."

Nick looked to Ruby before rubbing his chin, "Okay," That caused Team RWBY to look at him, "Who wants to go to the Spirit of Fire." The girls all smiled, "It should be fine, and you never know, your group may join the Remnant Space Defense."

Ruby blinked, "Join? Like mom?"

"If you want, none of us will force you to join our Military force, and since you are all an Aura Specialist you will get some degree of freedom. Sadly, Ruby you are under the age of recruitment, but like they did for me, a special accommodation could be made so you can join."

Ruby looked at the rest who softly shook their heads, "We will think about it." The Girls frowned but decided to drop it, "How will we get to your ship?"

That caused Nick to smirk, "I was left a single spacecraft capable of reaching the Spirit of Fire." The group walked away from the school and towards the Emerald forest, it was the weekend so no one would complain about them not being there.

Nick pulled out his Datapad as they stepped into a large clearing, he tapped a button and with a shimmer of light the Stealth fielded Mako Corvette appeared in all its glory, it was a modified Mako with a small Mini-MAC System along its spine. Twin 70mm Rotary cannons protruded from the nose of the craft. The 2 Rampart Defense turrets, 2 Coilguns, and 2 Archer missile pods made the Blazing Sky even more dangerous, even if it was just a small ship. The Mako was 550 feet long, a little longer than the average Mako, but it also contained spacious living quarters and a large kitchen.

"Here she is, the ship I was personally gifted for long term missions on Remnant."

Weiss looked at it, "It seems small."

"It is a corvette, it's not supposed to be big and impressive, It's supposed to be small, fast, and agile. Like Ruby."

Ruby puffed up her cheeks, "Hey!" She glared at him, only to receive a playful smirk. "Hmph."

Nick boarded the Blazing Sky with the girls, they walked in and balked. The inside was like a luxury liner, it didn't have the same feel as a normal UNSC Ship. Nick got into the pilot seat and connected his AI Morning Glory into the Ship. "You all can sit where you want, this ship can be piloted by a single person. Morning Glory Activate engines and shields."

While Nick started the ship Ruby and Yang went to explore the vessel while Blake and Weiss watched Nick operate.

"So Sergeant Nicholas, why did you join the RSD?"

"Because, I wanted to help people not endure the same things I did, sadly I was a failure."

"Failure?"

Nick sighed, "We have a program, turning kids into Super Soldiers, it was a real ethical shitshow. It used medical augmentations to turn normal people into very powerful warriors, it had a 85% percent chance of success, I was one of the few that had a failure."

Weiss flinched slightly, "What happened?"

"Simply put I am fertile, unlike the successes, and I did not gain the 'Spartan-time' that all Successful Spartans gained." He sighed, "While I did gain the physical modifications perfectly, my mind was unable to adapt fully, while I have high-human reaction time and high-human visual prowess it's nothing special." He shrugged, "Anyway I got something good out of the experiments, joined the RSD afterwards to pay for the Modifications." He suddenly perked up as the Blazing Sky lit up and started to hover off the ground. Grabbing the control column Nick pointed the nose up and put the ship into high speed exiting the Planet's atmosphere in under a minute.

The Girls all gathered to the bridge window and spotted the hundreds of ships above the planet, hell even Nick was surprised. "What the hell, why are there so many?! I knew we gained new arrivals but this is a Super Fleet worth of ships!" 'I only saw 12 ships appear in the Spirit of Fire's video.'

Soon Space Traffic Control contacted the Blazing Sky, "This is the Spirit of Fire Space control, Blazing Sky you are here unannounced, should we prepare for docking?"

Stiffening Nick nods, "This is Blazing Sky Actual to Spirit of Fire Space Control, we are here to land and restock weaponry, please be advised, RSD Civilians are onboard, prepare a warm welcome."

There was silence for a minute, "Understood, Come in to land."

Nick guided the Blazing Sky into a hangar that was used to normally hold ground bases, but was cleared after the Spirit of Fire dropped all its bases ground side. The Blazing Sky landed with a soft thud, "Alright, we are here." The exit hatch opened and lowered the stairs to the ground, Nick exited the ship with team RWBY Behind him. RWBY Looked on in awe at the inside of the Ship, it was metal and bare but it still made everything made on Remnant look small in comparison. Standing before the Blazing Sky's door was a small detachment of Marines, with General James Cutter standing with Summer Rose by his side.

"Sergeant Young, you returned early, and brought some guests."

"General, they wished to see-" He was cut off as Ruby and Yang blurred past him, slamming into Summer's stomach with tight hugs. Summer collapsed to the ground and started to giggle. "Well it seems, they are happy, how is the Fleet General?"

James seemed to frown, "We keep gaining more and more ships to add to our fleet, it's as if something is trying to prepare us for a big invasion fleet." He turned and looked to the civilians aboard his ship, he simply shrugged, "But as of this moment, nothing, all ships in the system are allies." He sighed, "We have a Forerunner structure in the outer rim of the system, two to be exact, the Forerunners are trying to create a Installation to create a System wide shield that prevents invaders from entering or using FTL Travel unless allowed. It will take some time, Meanwhile the Covenant is hiding in their station trying to recover." James sighed, "It's a real shitshow, I didn't expect all of this when we arrived here."

Nick sighed, "Sorry General."

"By the way Sergeant, you may be getting a promotion soon, your ship, Total Victory, is in need of a crew and Captain." He gave the girls a brief look, "You already have some impressive allies, we could use them if we have to fight an army."

"Can we even spare a crew?"

"Oh, easily."

"Hm?"

"We have gained around a billion shipless marines and sailors, we could easily fit your ship with a crew."

Suddenly the ship's alarms began to blare, and James cursed, "What is it now?!"

Serina's voice exited the nearby speaker, "General, all ships in the system have detected an unknown fleet of 12 ships, they are not hailing our attempts to communicate."

Now that caused James to get deadly serious, "Summer Rose, you are in charge of the children, we have just detected a possible hostile fleet. Nick, you stay with them." Nick nods, and looks to the girls, he pulls out his double batons, "All right girls we have a situation, Summer, what do you think?"

Summer shrugged, "I dunno, I was supposed to be teaching ODST how to use their Aura, but I think I can change plans."

Doctor Halsey had left the UNSC and joined RSD, with all of them in a different universe far away from their original one, she had no reason to stay loyal to a Government that cannot even supply her the means to help others. Besides that she had dropped ground to assist Allen Anders with her study on Remnant.

"Grim." She looked to the Beowolf in a containment field, "Creatures made of concentrated darkness, what can you tell me Anders?"

Allen Anders frowned, "Not much I'm afraid, we do know that they can be controlled, at least by Salem."

"Yes the Immortal Witch, something I have already created around 200 contingencies for, all involving some sort of agonizing pain on her part."

A Marine ran up to the two, he looked heavily panicked, "Doctors! We have an issue, twelve unknown ships have appeared in the system! None are responding to any hails from any ship!"

The two doctors have a nervous pit in their stomachs.

UNSC Infinity appeared back at the defense fleet just as the small invasion fleet arrived, "Warning Twelve unknown vessels have appeared in the system, system escalating to yellow status!"

Captain Lasky looked to Roland who looked just as nervous, "Pull all frigates back, Spearhead the Fleet alongside the Divine Retribution!" A Sword of Sanghelios CSO Supercarrier.

"Yes Captain!"

The Infinity slowly turned as it arrived at its position, its MAC Cannon pointed off into the distance towards the unknown fleet.

Ras' 'Vadum was flanking the Spirit of Fire along with some Paris and Charon Frigates while the Forward Unto Dawn held position above Remnant behind the Shield arrays and Mac Cannons. Said cannons were also pointing towards the unknown fleet.

Ras' frowned, "All warriors to their battle stations."

General James Cutter stood with his AI Serina, "Any updates?"

"Negatively, they only seem to be enclosing our position, not targeting the planet yet."

"Location?"

"2.6 million miles from the star, closing in quickly."

"Damn, alright, try and get into contact-"

"Sir, they are charging weapons." Serina's voice actually sounded panicked. "If they fire on us, we have a hostile species."

James frowned, "All right, hack into their systems. Jacob Keyes, You have the Fleet command."

He received a green sign from the Autumn.

Lasky glared off into the distance towards the unknown fleet, "Roland, prediction?"

"Hostile encounters will happen and we will destroy them without a single loss."

"Good, have you hacked into systems?"

Roland snorted, "Yeah and like 300 others, none of us gained anything, which is strange."

Lasky could only agree, an AI unable to gain anything from their hack was impossible.

Lasky rubbed his chin, "Did you find anything at all?" Lasky hopefully ask

Sadly Roland shakes his head, "Negative sir, nothing at all, the ship seemed to not be mechanical. Which is impossible." He was silent before scowling, "Bad news, they have already opened fire and still no answers." As he finished speaking the Infinity screeched as the Shields took the hits, "Entire fleet has opened fire."

"Fire the MAC Cannons, target the largest vessel."

"Understood, targeting Dreadnought!" The MAC Cannons released their payload in a defeating boom, which was quickly followed by a sound of the Divine Retribution firing their plasma lances towards the enemy. To finish it all off the seemingly continuous boom of all the MAC cannons in the area opening fire.

All the point defense weapons on the Infinity opened fire along with the 10 Ongar Mobile MAC Cannons that defended the ship. The Infinity shuddered as it was struck by a second round, "Shields?"

"Two hits, we are at 90%."

"Whatever they are using is incredibly weak-" Roland's response was cut off as a nearby Paris-class frigate exploded sending debris into the Infinity's shields, "I take that back they have heavy weapons!" As if his words were a trigger the Infinity cried out in pain as a shell tore through the ships shields and tore the hull apart. "Hull integrity in the affected area is at 4%!" Lasky shivered, a single hit did that much damage?!

"Keep us the fuck away from that thing's main guns!"

"Can't sir, the hit damaged our engines, we are floating until we can repair them!"

"We will get destroyed if we can't fucking move!"

"The Fleet is pulling us back into a defensive position, 75% of the fleet has been destroyed.

Lasky's jaw dropped, "75% of our fleet?!"

"No, the hostile fleet, Allyis heavily damaged but able to continue. We took the brunt of the damage, along with our Sangheili allies."

Lasky pursed his lips, he closed his eyes, "Launch all Havok Nukes." The ship shuddered as the Nuclear missiles carried their payloads towards the enemy fleet. There was a bright flash of light as the Nukes vaporized the enemy fleet in a split second.

"Situation Green." Roland's calm voice caused the crew to relax

The Spirit of Fire had taken a hit by the enemy fleet and lost a large portion of their systems, Serina looked to James, "Lights down across the ship, hull integrity is at 50%, Shield integrity is at 0%. MAC cannon heavily damaged and unable to be fired until repaired, engines down, we are crippled."

James frowned, "How is the fleet?"

"We only lost three ships, and almost all hands have been saved including the AIs, multiple ships are in fact crippled until repaired including us."

"Well, at least we didn't lose more, what about Infinity?"

"Crippled but combat ready."

Serina's eyes lit up, "The Forerunner alliance is offering us access to rebuild and modify our vessels with the Arks."

James' raises an eyebrow, "They are giving us the ability to use the Ark Forges to mass produce our ships? Is that how they made their own vehicles?"

"Yes and No, they have ship foundries across the Ark, normally never used to create a Ship."

"I see, they only use the ark to create Rings, but they have the ability to make ships."

"Along with weapons, bases, cities, droids, vehicles, and two facilities to create Forerunner AI."

"Hm, I see, what else-"

"Slipspace portals opening Two dozen! 1.5 miles long to 3.5 miles long! UNSC and Covenant IFF Tags!" James scowled, "I'm sorry General."

"It's not your fault, I am just getting annoyed with this shit!"

Instantly twenty four unarmed colony ships appeared above Remnant, half were Covenant in origin while the other was normal UNSC ships, these ships were obviously nothing special, no weapons only heavy shielding.

"Holy shit…" The Slipspace ensign's jaw dropped, "A massive slipspace signature appeared, it is a mix of UNSC and Covenant IFF tags."

James frowned, "How big?"

"Four times the size of Infinity and Divine Retribution combined…"

That caused all the crew in the Spirit of Fire to freeze, "Say again?" James frowned, "Can we get an exact number of that?"

"350 miles long, and around 50 miles wide, 70 miles tall." The Ensign squeaked out, "It's colossal."

As he finished the massive ship that could easily hold billions of citizens appeared behind the small colony fleet.

"What… the… fuck…" James looked back and saw the amazed expressions of Team RWBY, Sergeant Young, and Summer rose. Nicholas stares at the Super Massive Ship, "It… overshadows all the ships in our arsenal, but it's unarmed."

"Correct, the ship is lacking anything to fight with."

Aboard Colony 1, the President of the Colony expedition to the Andromeda Galaxy devised by the United Species Alliance, or USA, had just woken from Cryosleep. President Robert Forge opened his eyes and looked around, "Status?"

The team of 24 smart AI appeared from a Holographic hard light generator, "President, we have exited from slipspace, in an unknown galaxy above an inhabited planet, multiple old UNSC and Covenant IFF Tags that should be destroyed or decommissioned."

"Like?"

"UNSC Infinity, turned into a museum on earth 120 years ago, UNSC Spirit of Fire, confirmed destroyed after the Destruction of the Installation 024, UNSC Pillar of Autumn, destroyed on a Halo Ring. Are you seeing a pattern?"

Robert frowned, "I do, but, they are ally ships, yes?"

"Unconfirmed."

"I see, what can you tell me?"

"They are defending the planet from orbit, and a High Charity-class station is orbiting the planet's moon along with a Sangheili model ship."

"We have no manners to fight if the situation goes south, we can only escape."

"Communication discovered, patching it through."

"This is General James Cutter of the newly formed Remnant Space Defense, identify yourself." Robert blinked 'Remnant Space Defense, with that many ships defending a single planet. 7.5k vessels?'

"I am President Robert Forge of the Unified Species Alliance, we are a colony vessel sent to the Andromeda galaxy until a Anomaly changed the course of our jump, now we are here."

"Similar story to those in our fleet along with our own. How many do you have aboard your vessel?"

"The Remembrance has a crew of only 5, two hundred Huragok, and finally 5.42 Billion Colony civilians. Each of our other ships contain around 3.5k colony members and 100 crew."

He heard a whistle from the comms, "Well, the planet below us is not a place for Colonization as it is already populated, but somehow the Lesser and Greater Arks are on the outer rim of the system."

Robert's eyes widened, "What?! How?!"

"Unknown, there is even a large fleet of Forerunner vessels over the Ark for its defense, they will allow you to colonize both structures if you need."

Robert blinked at the surprising news, "All right, our fleet will be set up at the Ark, sadly it will take a year before we can support your fleet."

"It is fine, we have multiple facilities and vessels that provide us with enough supplies, and the UNSC Spirit of Fire is capable of lasting three years of constant fighting as long as we have raw materials."

"I see." The communication cut out and President Forge guided his colony fleet towards the location of the Arks

Nicholas Young frowned, "We are in an odd position, we keep getting more and more forces." He turned and looked at Team RWBY, "I honestly don't think a single person has an idea why we keep getting these forces, or why we need such a large fleet." He rubbed his chin in thought, "General, what if like our galaxy there is a hostile alien alliance that only wishes for destruction?"

"Possibly, but it still does not explain why we are here."

Nick frowned, suddenly an idea hit him, "It's possible that there may also be a threat here we faced in the past, something our vessel in particular survived against."

James stared at him for a second before his mind connected the pieces, "No…" James paled significantly.

"It's the best I can come up with."

Summer looked at the two, then her kids, "What could it be?" Her answer was something spine chilling that made even the four mostly innocent teens freeze up in fear. It was only two words but even to those who did not know them, it caused an aura of fear that would attract more Grim than most could fathom.

"The Flood."

Those who were new to the RSD could only widen their eyes, they had no idea what it was, but the way the two veteran soldiers said it made them shiver in fright. Because if a fleet filled with billions,if not trillions, of soldiers to be fearful, they should be also.

Aboard the Shadow of Intent Thel 'Vadum, otherwise known as the Arbiter, already knew this. "The Parasite lives." He looks over to Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum, "The Humans will not believe so, but we all know what we heard in the voices of our Gods, genuine fear."

"Sir, will we deal with the parasite as the humans protect the planet below us?"

"The Humans are powerful, they can easily destroy any Flood infections that attempt to harm them until we return, They also have a CSO Supercarrier Divine Retribution."

"Understood, where should we jump?"

"The nearest star system I will have our fleet spread out to different systems to explore, we have our Slipspace COMs ready for use, how is our fleet?"

"The ones that joined us, we have 1.9k vessels."

"Remember the Parasite lives so all ships must use the Anti-Parasite plans, the lives of our crew is far more important than anything else."

"Understood Arbiter, all ships are ready to jump."

Captain Thomas Lasky balked, and he wasn't the only one, the entire fleet of ships above Remnant could only stare. The Swords of Sanghelios left through their Slipspace drives, none of them remained, "What?" Lasky turned and looked at his crew, "Why?"

Roland blinked, "We do have the number advantage, and they seem to have spread out, different systems near our own. It is possible that they chose to investigate this hostile fleet, or even the Galaxy we are in to get the upper hand."

"Still why didn't they say anything to us, we are allies after all."

"The Divine Retribution is still here." Lasky looked to Roland, "What, it is a CSO class Supercarrier, it is around 5 times the length of the Infinity, and to make it more interesting the Divine retribution was acting as a shield earlier, it didn't really fire upon the enemy only using suppressing fire."

"In other words, we don't need the fleet, even with our 2.4k vessels in the RSD force."

"Exactly, we should be more than enough."

James Cutter sat in his seat and looked toJoshua Red of the Lady, "Status?"

"Green, all SDC mines have had their slaves removed and we even managed to extract a large portion of the Faunus civilians in Atlas and moved them to a Menagerie. The SDC is convinced these attacks have been caused by the White Fang, and so they along with most of the governing bodies are actively cracking down on their operations. This would be the perfect time to dismantle the Atlas air force, this will in turn cause backlash against the Atlas military." Joshua stood firm, "My AI Lucky will hack into the Atlas net and disable all their vessels, then make subtle and obvious signs of the White Fang using Roman Torchwick and the one above them Cinder Fall, as puppets to fight against Atlas. You give my thanks to the Ferrets, they know how to operate in the shadows and gather a large amount of information."

"I will, and you have my permission, but also gather the schematics for everything Atlas Military. Atlas is an issue we need to solve."

Weiss heard the message and frowned, "Why are they an issue?"

James sighed, he really didn't want to explain this, "Slavery is forbidden as you know, but Atlas allowed the SDC to employ slavery, in RSD law that would mean the officials of that country would be publicly executed for their corruption." He frowned, "We are not taking that path, no one will be hurt and only a swarm of evidence against the Atlas Council will be sent. This however will cause a Grim attack, which is why we will be sending our aircraft to engage ground and air targets like a swarm."

Weiss frowned, she understood why they were doing it, but still, it was her home. "I… I see."

James sighed again, "If corruption is left to fester only pain and suffering will come from it, those in charge must be punished for their actions, but we cannot be the ones to do so. Those of Atlas must, the Atlas Air force is not an issue, it is what will happen when the people find out and riot. Civilians taking over the ships and using them against civilians or even military targets, or even suicide bombers that targets the ships. Truth be told the Spirit of Fire will drop from orbit along with a small contingent of escort vessels and support the ground and air."

Ruby's eyes darkened slightly, "Why?"

James looked at her, "If you wanna know why we need to disable the Atlas military it is quite simple, while the points I made are true, what I am about to say is completely true. Atlas shouldn't have existed to begin with." The girl blinked, "They should have focused on their Hunters and Huntresses not their military, no other force on Remnant has a military, so why do they?"

"Simple really, they are preparing for war, a war against what you may be asking." The Girls all nod, "The World at large, is one answer, but a different answer is the Grim." James shook his head, "This world cannot handle a war, not a second one, the population is barely at 200 million and it's constantly dropping. These people don't understand how futile the war with Grim will end, because in the end, the Grim will keep spawning until sooner or later, the war will end as everyone fighting it has died." James looked at the girls, "Summer Rose and Nicholas Young have both spoken for you, you are worthy of this Classified info, as it pertains to your world."

The Team perks up, James continued, "Salem, the Queen of the Grim, Oblivion, traitor of humanity, so many pathetic titles, what matters is everything the Grim has done you can blame her for."

"Why don't we just kill her then?"

"Because it's not that simple, she cannot be killed, at least from Summer account. She decapitated her, sliced her in half, did everything under the moon to try and kill her, nothing made her stay dead." James groaned, "We do have a plan however."

The girls looked at him with concern.

"Orbital Bombardment with MAC, Havok Nukes, and Plasma Excavation beam." James didn't look happy with his own words, "We don't wanna use this method, however we really don't have many options. The Grim presence there is so thick nothing short of a MAC Bombardment will lower their numbers, and if that is the case, we should just bombard the area and be done with it."

He looked to the girls, "The Good news is that the area she lives in is far enough away that no one will be hurt besides her and her allies. We will prepare bombardment in a few hours, before we take down the Atlas Military,

Salem was actively frowning, all her plans have been ruined, all thanks to those bastards she couldn't reach. And to make it even worse they had a space battle that she could see from her continent, she knew how capable they were now, to them she was nothing but a fly. "My Queen." Tyrian looked worse than normal, he was missing an arm and his stinger was gone, something she had done to him in her time of rage. She didn't feel anything about it, why would she?

"Yes, Tyrian?"

"The Spacecraft are all pointing their weapons directly at our castle…"

Salem's blood froze, her pupils dilated, and her body violently shook, "W-what."

"Come look for yourself!"

So she did, and she collapsed to her knees, she gave up at that very moment. Everysingle ship in orbit all had their guns pointed to her exact location, she could look down the barrel of those massive guns, while they were unseeable by human eyes, she could see them. And as she looked directly up into the sky, a large fleet of sleek purple ships charged the cannons on the belly of the craft.

"We are already dead…" Salem's words startled Tyrian and her other Cabal members, "They knew we were here, and yet they waited. I suppose now, is when they were ready to fight us."

The Sky began to heat up and electrify, plasma floated off the castle they stood in, then all their eyes went white as they all ceased to exist from the overwhelming firepower.

For miles in all directions the sonic boom spread out, which was quickly followed by a barrage of nuclear flashes, and a beam of pure plasma slammed into the castle. The Bombardment seemed to continue for hours but in reality only lasted a few minutes, in the end nothing but a crater was left.

The Grim pools were vaporized by the intense and divine heat, none of the Grim in the area for at least 200 miles survived.

Salem and her Cabal were defeated by the collective power of the RSD fleet, and now the Grim had no leader; they became uncoordinated.

General James Cutter stared at the destruction down on the surface, "It seems, Operation:Reclaimer, is complete. No life signs, lack of Grim Coordination, and finally the castle is nothing but vapor in the air."

He looked to the excited Summer, "Thank you for the Information Specialist, now onto a way to defeat the Grim at large…"

Suddenly Allen Anders and Dr. Halsey appeared on the Holographic table, "We may have a way to deter Grim from attacking, we cannot destroy them en masse but we have a way to deter them and override their natural instincts." Dr. Halsey smiled confidently, something she usually never showed. "We can deploy four inside a city like Vale easily, and a single one for small towns."

James smiled, "Can we have them be dropped from orbit?" That caused all the crew in the room to balk, "Think of it, if we could load all our ships with droppable Anti-Grim Defenses we could basically assist anyone at any time without threat of Grim Invasion. Wait, maybe we could attach some to a few of our vessels that would be used for Atmospheric conflict, nullifying the fear our vessels instinctively bring out in humans."

's eyes widened, "We would have to replace a few ODST Drop pods, if we were to drop them."

James frowned, "Yeah nevermind, just attach them to the hull and load each ship with hundreds of those."

Aboard the High Charity the Hierarchs, otherwise known simply as Prophets, looked to the planet that the Human/Covenant Fleet defended. "Truth, what do you think?"

The Prophet of Truth looked to the Mercy, "I think we should support the humans with all our might like the Oracle spoke."

"But humanity attacked us unproved after we sent multiple envoys."

"True, but these humans faced a world where we attacked them unprovoked, they do not share the same sins as the other humanity."

"While we also do not hold the sins of their covenant…" Mercy finally realized as Truth nodded, "I see, how are our rebuilding efforts?"

Regret spoke up, "It is good, hull integrity is at 98% and our fleet is 26% Rebuilt."

"That is enough to actually support our Human allies."

Regret nods, "Exactly, over 600 ships, plus the Swords of Sangeheilos and Sangheili Allied fleet if we could convince them to trust us."

"Which will be difficult, but possible."

"So, what should we do?"

"We will have to join Humanity and vow our loyalty to their forces."

"Are you sure Truth, while our people know the importance of Humanity, we will make it seem we are weaker than what we are."

"We are currently one of the weakest factions by military in the system, with only the Human Supporters amongst the Sangehili being weaker, however they do have greater firepower." Truth remembered the Divine Retribution, it was one of three ships that totally supported humanity above their own species, with the New Glory and the CAS Humans Hand as its fleet.

"I see,but how many do we have?"

"100 billion, we are at this moment the most populated faction in the Human Alliance, mostly due to us evacuating planets to save them from the danger of humanity." Truth narrowed his eyes, "We should try and branch out to different planets, with the swords of Sanghelios leaving the system, we need to set up barriers between human and hostile space, the… Gods are creating rings made for Shielding of an entire system and inhabitation of billions. Our station is already quite cramped, and the new Charity-class Stations as the humans call it will take a few years to complete. We need to spread out our population more crime will spread if we do not."

"Why not ask the Gods to settle on the damaged Ark of great size?"

Truth blinked, "The Gods do not mind us settling on their Ark as proven by the humans, as long as we ask and do not bother them at the core. Yes we will do so, we will also deploy the Eternal Gate, Unyielding Hierophant, and finally the Infinite Creator."

Regret suddenly frowned, "Let us do it now."

"Yes."

Smoke and Mirrors, otherwise known as Sword, the Forerunner Admiral of the Greater Ark Defense Fleet had been mass producing defense rings.

The Forerunner fleet was led by around 120 Fortress-class ships, a single Super Fortress-class ship, 400 dreadnoughts, and 800 cruisers and many different types of vessels including the 100k Automated weapon ships.

Sword was now the Forerunner General, for obvious reasons, the previous Generals were stripped of their power and most were executed. Sword grinned, "So, Warrior." The Warrior Servant known simply as Ashes-of-Long-Dead perked up. "How come the new rings?"

"Promising, all so very promising!" He looked excited, "I have managed to create a fully working prototype, and should be able to generate a constant shield around any planet for centuries!"

"Good, what about Guardian Production?"

"Oh, those have already been finished, the Ark Forges have their schematics already, they just need to collect the supplies, we have around a 100 Guardians ready to deploy to defend Humanity and all its allies."

"A super powered fleet of near indestructive police forces, great." Sword frowned at Ashes, "Ashes, spread the fleet out and keep one above Planet of Remains, and 3 above our Arks. The rest must be spread across the galaxy as exploration and offensive units. Remember Ashes, we serve humanity now, we have learned, the Precursors were right to give humans the mantle of Responsibility."

Ashes nods, "I understand our Queen."

Aboard the Divine Retribution High Fleet Master Lo' Keshu' a Jiralhane, otherwise known as a Brute sat on his seat with the Sangehili doing their jobs of keeping the vessel working. "So, the humans wish to protect this planet from hostiles?"

"Yes Oh High one." The Sangheili commander nods, "The Humans are seeking for a way to bypass the annoyance of fear the Demons are attracted to. What should we do, High one?"

Lo' Keshu snarled, "Let the humans have their fun, their planet, their rules. We are only here to give assistance if assistance is asked, or for the planet at large."

"High One, the New Prophets are headed towards the Holy Arks, the Holy ones have allowed them to set up stations on the left side of the station, we are also allowed to if we wish, same for the humans."

"I see, we must not allow the Prophets to taint the Holy Ones land, but we must not act unless they attempt to continue the Great Journey." Lo' Keshu spat out the name with venom